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The attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines have accelerated the commenting, so here’s a new Open Thread for the Karlin Community. Here’s an appropriate meme for the Western coverage of the incident:

Also, to minimize the load on this thread, please restrict your Tweets or place them under a MORE tag to avoid overloading the thread.

— Ron Unz

 
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  1. The new thread is appreciated.

    Interestingly. Two of the last three OT refreshes have been requested by non posting anon’s:

    https://www.unz.com/announcement/bugs-suggestions-2/?showcomments#comment-5541325

    anonymous[360] • Disclaimer says:
    September 12, 2022 at 12:51 pm GMT • 20.0 days ago ↑
    New Karlin open thread needed.

    https://www.unz.com/announcement/bugs-suggestions-2/?showcomments#comment-5578560

    anonymous[377] • Disclaimer says:
    October 2, 2022 at 8:32 am GMT • 5.0 hours ago • 100 Words ↑
    New Russian Reaction thread please.

    Clearly we are providing value outside of our own group.

    PEACE 😇

  2. Yeah, the US mass media coverage of that incident is quite revealing. PBS NewsHour, News Nation and David Muir hosted ABC News being among the stand outs.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Mikhail

    First you make money building it up, then by destroying it. In October with end of the fiscal year and bonuses calculated the inevitable destruction starts. October is like that for a reason.

    With $100+ trillions in un-payable debts the West cannot save itself by issuing more debt. It mathematically cannot go on. Debt is a claim on real assets by two parties. When the cashing-out starts nothing can stop it: it is a choice between inflation and impoverishment. Or you get both.

    They are choosing inflation so far, but there are limits - you can't raise prices by 20-30% for 5 years. Having a war looked like a better option, but they should pick a weaker opponent. You never fix problems by losing a war - it was clear from the beginning that Russia can't be defeated: they are at home and have nukes.

    Blowing up the pipes was like taking a sh..t in a drawer when losing an apartment lease. Of course, you would deny it. This is getting good.

    Replies: @Greasy William

  3. Why does Islam openly celebrate homosexuality? (1)

    Atlanta’s ‘Queer Muslim’ City Council Member Flaunts Her ‘Nonmonogamous’ Lifestyle

    She’s in a “nonmonogamous” relationship with two other women. Bakhtiari had been dating Kris Brown, a dancer-turned-political operative, for a decade when they decided to add a third woman, Sarah Al-Khayyal, to the mix.

    “In the fall of 2020, Bakhtiari met Al-Khayyal through a virtual nonmonogamy support group,” NBC News informs readers in a glowing feature. “Al-Khayyal is a policy manager at a nonprofit and is on the Atlanta mayor’s LGBTQ advisory board.”

    NBC News reports, “’But we’re openly showing it and proud of it,’ Bakhtiari, 34, said during a video interview, as Brown and Al-Khayyal sat on either side. ‘It should be destigmatized. It’s a very valid familial structure that people should embrace.’”

    Brown said that she was “cool with” adding a third person to the relationship.

    Is this embrace of deviancy a way to aim towards the top slot of SJW victimhood and entitlement?

    The unification of SJW Islam as a gay religion is incredibly obvious in Europe and America. This incontrovertible fact is openly flaunted for all to see.

     

     

    Putting it on an ‘authoritarian liberal’ face diaper makes it even more symbolic as a way to support the anti-Christian establishment.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://pjmedia.com/columns/chris-queen/2022/10/01/atlantas-queer-muslim-city-council-member-flaunts-her-nonmonogamous-lifestyle-n1633788

  4. @Mikhail
    Yeah, the US mass media coverage of that incident is quite revealing. PBS NewsHour, News Nation and David Muir hosted ABC News being among the stand outs.

    Replies: @Beckow

    First you make money building it up, then by destroying it. In October with end of the fiscal year and bonuses calculated the inevitable destruction starts. October is like that for a reason.

    With $100+ trillions in un-payable debts the West cannot save itself by issuing more debt. It mathematically cannot go on. Debt is a claim on real assets by two parties. When the cashing-out starts nothing can stop it: it is a choice between inflation and impoverishment. Or you get both.

    They are choosing inflation so far, but there are limits – you can’t raise prices by 20-30% for 5 years. Having a war looked like a better option, but they should pick a weaker opponent. You never fix problems by losing a war – it was clear from the beginning that Russia can’t be defeated: they are at home and have nukes.

    Blowing up the pipes was like taking a sh..t in a drawer when losing an apartment lease. Of course, you would deny it. This is getting good.

    • Replies: @Greasy William
    @Beckow


    With $100+ trillions in un-payable debts the West cannot save itself by issuing more debt. It mathematically cannot go on.
     
    It mathematically cannot go on forever but it can go on for much longer than you'd think possible. Even if this really is the end, it's an end that was brought forward by at least a decade thanks to the Covid lockdowns/spending.

    I hope that this is it, but I was sure that 2008 was the endgame and they managed to keep the ship floating for 11 years until Covid hit. I'm not certain that they can't do it again.

    you can’t raise prices by 20-30% for 5 years
     
    Yes you can. Doing just that is how historically every country has resolved unsustainable debt levels. The US will get there eventually, but not yet

    it was clear from the beginning that Russia can’t be defeated: they are at home and have nukes
     
    Putin could be overthrown and replaced with a leader more accommodating with the West, or Russia could break up into multiple countries. I think both of those things are extremely unlikely, but they are possible


    I do feel pretty optimistic about the military situation. I think the Russians will launch a winter offensive in December and I think they'll have some success. While the US economy might, might, be able to hang on indefinitely, the EU economies are going down this winter. The new Republican Congress won't be able to end funding for the war, but they might be able to reduce it. Once this war is over, then China can move on Taiwan and the end of US unipolarity will be official.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Beckow

  5. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:

    If the war were to start now, given the current set of circumstances, victory for Russia would look like holding onto the parts of Ukraine they are occupying, regardless of whether Ukraine the sovereign state joined NATO and remained hyper-militarised or not.

    “Not too bad” for Russia would be holding onto what they had at the beginning of February, and Ukraine joining NATO.

    Neutral would be Russia holding onto Crimea.

    And a Russian loss would be having to return Crimea to Ukraine.

    Meanwhile, Russian catastrophe would be losing some part of actual Russia, perhaps to the Chechens, Dagestanis, the Ukrainians, or just fed up Russians.

    I think it is certainly possible that Russia achieves a “neutral” result.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Neutral would be Russia holding onto Crimea.
     
    Neutral would be going back to the lines on Feb 24. If Russia keeps Mariupol, north-Lugansk, Kherson, Berdyansk, they would win. Not a big win, but still a win.

    If the war were to start now
     
    As far as Russia is concerned it is not a war, only 'special military operation'. Next week the four regions become officially part of Russia, they could declare a war. Or give Kiev 30 days to vacate what they consider Russian territory. The four regions are not in Russia until Duma approval - for some reason Russia is going through slow legal steps. US did something similar before attacking Iraq, a law by Congress, formal signing, etc...

    So the moment of truth is coming: once Russia completes the legal steps they either go for the full control of the territory they claim, or not and look like losers. They are facing around 700k Ukie soldiers and are risk-averse trying to avoid casualties. To me that suggests massive remote bombing with collateral damage. They can do it. The question is what would be Nato's response.

    Replies: @Joe Paluka, @Triteleia Laxa

  6. AP says:

    Genetically, Ukrainians, Poles and central/Southern Russians are nearly identical, while northern Russians are quite different. Do you think that Poles, Ukrainians and non-Northern Russians are one ethnicity?

    Poles are definitely of a different ethnicity.

    The Polish language belongs to a different language group, Poles are of a different religious denomination and they use a different alphabet. The genesis of their language points out that historically they are of a different ethnicity.

    On top of that there is alienation between theirs and that of the East Slavic peoples religious affiliation. These influences are sufficient for formation of a separate ethnic group. And Poles are different enough genetically as well.

    East Slavs – Russians from central-southern regions, Belarusians and Ukrainians – form a cluster on their own, though these populations do not overlap entirely with each other.

    Russians from the northern region of the European part of Russia are differentiated from the rest of the East Slavs, and on genetic plots lie in the vicinity of their Finnic-speaking geographic neighbors.

    Poles either overlap or lie close to East Slavs.

    Genetic Heritage of the Balto-Slavic Speaking Populations
    https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0135820

    Therefore Ukrainians and Russians are one ethnicity. The exceptions are the northern Russians and the western Ukrainians – the former for being genetically more distant from the rest due to a close relationship with Finnic peoples, and the latter for being culturally different due to a close relationship with Poles.

    However the northern Russians are not as much different from the rest since they speak the same language and belong entirely to the same culture.

    The western Ukrainians are different from the rest because they speak a different language. We can say that these are a different ethnic group. The rest of the Ukrainians are not.

    [MORE]

    • Replies: @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    The Polish language belongs to a different language group, Poles are of a different religious denomination and they use a different alphabet. The genesis of their language points out that historically they are of a different ethnicity.
     
    Correct. On the other hand, the flood of Polish words into the Ukrainian language is such that for a naive Ukrainian speaker (one who has learned neither Russian nor Ukrainian) the Polish language is about as easy/difficult to understand as is Russian. Russian is closer in grammar and pronunciation, Polish closer in vocabulary.

    And Poles are different enough genetically as well.
     
    On the chart you posted there is not much genetic overlap between Ukrainians and non-northern Russians, and Ukrainians are as close to Russians as they are to Poles. Belarussians overlap both Ukrainians and Russians. Slovenes are very close to Ukrainians, closer than Russians are (genetically, not culturally):

    https://i.postimg.cc/BQXgpBTz/Genetic-structure-of-the-Balto-Slavic-populations.png

    All of three groups are close together of course.

    On top of that there is alienation between theirs and that of the East Slavic peoples religious affiliation.
     
    I've heard Poles complain that one of the greatest sins of the Varangians/Rus is that they imposed the Eastern Christian Church upon their East Slavic subjects/slaves. This separated them from their Polish brothers.

    And religious rite is not the only factor. Orthodoxy in Ukraine was heavily influenced by Catholicism even though it was anti-Catholic.

    The western Ukrainians are different from the rest because they speak a different language. We can say that these are a different ethnic group. The rest of the Ukrainians are not.
     
    By "western Ukrainians" this would apply not only to Galicians but also to people from the Right Bank and in Poltava on the other side of the Dnipro- areas where the majority are Ukrainian speaking.

    And then you have a place like the city of Kiev. Mostly Russian-speaking by first or preferred language of use, but nearly everyone fluent in Ukrainian also. And many if not most of the Russian-speakers in places like Kiev have Ukrainian-speaking cousins in some village , or Ukrainian-speaking grandparents, or friends with whom they socialize in the Ukrainian language. In other words, although Ukrainian is not their primary language it is not a foreign language for them either. And this makes such Russian-speaking Ukrainians very different from a Russian-speaking Russian from Moscow, or Samara, or Sevastopol.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Here Be Dragon

  7. @Triteleia Laxa
    If the war were to start now, given the current set of circumstances, victory for Russia would look like holding onto the parts of Ukraine they are occupying, regardless of whether Ukraine the sovereign state joined NATO and remained hyper-militarised or not.

    "Not too bad" for Russia would be holding onto what they had at the beginning of February, and Ukraine joining NATO.

    Neutral would be Russia holding onto Crimea.

    And a Russian loss would be having to return Crimea to Ukraine.

    Meanwhile, Russian catastrophe would be losing some part of actual Russia, perhaps to the Chechens, Dagestanis, the Ukrainians, or just fed up Russians.

    I think it is certainly possible that Russia achieves a "neutral" result.

    Replies: @Beckow

    Neutral would be Russia holding onto Crimea.

    Neutral would be going back to the lines on Feb 24. If Russia keeps Mariupol, north-Lugansk, Kherson, Berdyansk, they would win. Not a big win, but still a win.

    If the war were to start now

    As far as Russia is concerned it is not a war, only ‘special military operation’. Next week the four regions become officially part of Russia, they could declare a war. Or give Kiev 30 days to vacate what they consider Russian territory. The four regions are not in Russia until Duma approval – for some reason Russia is going through slow legal steps. US did something similar before attacking Iraq, a law by Congress, formal signing, etc…

    So the moment of truth is coming: once Russia completes the legal steps they either go for the full control of the territory they claim, or not and look like losers. They are facing around 700k Ukie soldiers and are risk-averse trying to avoid casualties. To me that suggests massive remote bombing with collateral damage. They can do it. The question is what would be Nato’s response.

    • Replies: @Joe Paluka
    @Beckow

    " They are facing around 700k Ukie soldiers "

    I don't know where you're getting your figures from but the Ukrainian army has been reduced by 200,000 since the beginning of the war due to deaths or injuries. They have nowhere near 700,000 in their military any more, if they ever did.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Here Be Dragon

    , @Triteleia Laxa
    @Beckow


    To me that suggests massive remote bombing with collateral damage. They can do it. The question is what would be Nato’s response.
     
    They can't, and I've informed you as to why you should be able to know that yourself.

    If you can't even successfully bomb enemy advances, you most certainly don't have much in the way of resources, or capability, to substantially affect the enemy well-behind their lines and within their air defence umbrella.

    Honestly, you should just take my point on board. Anyone who disagrees with it was never a professional and has little idea of how these things work. It is a very basic observation.
  8. Yet another ongoing cunning RF trap for UA, now in north Kherson;)

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @sudden death


    Yet another ongoing cunning RF trap for UA, now in north Kherson;)
     
    That's not a cunning trap. How many times does Saker have to explain that it's called mobile defense, as anyone minimally familiar with military science should know? Those poor advancing Ukrainians are doomed :-)

    Replies: @Not Raul

    , @Lurker
    @sudden death

    It seems like months ago I was first hearing that umpteen thousand Russians were trapped in Kherson and were retreating or would be captured. Someone seems to have forgotten to tell the Russians this.

    And the Russians, like me, have probably lost track of how many times those bridges have been destroyed trapping them in Kherson.

    , @LatW
    @sudden death


    Yet another ongoing cunning RF trap for UA, now in north Kherson;)
     
    Arestovych was saying yesterday that there is another "present" coming soon, this time in Kherson, but that he is not ready to announce it before the military announce it.

    Here's a fresh comment from Ivan Yakovina:

    - The pro-Russian Telegram channels are buzzing about "an approaching catastrophe in Kherson", the Ukrainian army has broken through and racing towards Dnipro, the front is breaking in half;

    - Russians do not have enough reserves, communications, weather too bad for the planes, panic among Russian troops in the Northern Kherson;

    - Kadyrov publicly blaming the Russian general Lapin, initiating an open quarrel between different siloviks;

    - Girkin saying that the Russian troops have been pushed down to Dudchany;

    - It looks like the Russians can only retreat southwards, their supply lines from Kachovka are compromised, Ukrainians are pushing downwards along the bank of the river;

    - The collapse of the Russian frontlines could lead to power struggles in Kremlin (that have already began in the last couple of days);

    - Simonyan has sensed that the war may be lost, seeking hastily to re-position herself, distance herself from Putin; Solovyov, too, criticizing the Kremlin, looking for a way out.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aub_POhsMe4

    Слава ЗСУ!

  9. Meh, keep the faith, there’s no harm in it. Krazny Liman? You’ve heard the same song before in other places in earlier times that the media forgot about since. Z!

  10. I don’t recall the Russians being defeated on multiple fronts on the same day before.

  11. Blinken has called the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines a “tremendous opportunity” to move away from energy dependence on Russia:

    [MORE]

    The charitable interpretation is that the man is a tactless idiot. Maybe not the most likely explanation though.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @German_reader

    However, the very idea that highly technological German industry can exist or is in such position that it can exist only because of having the sole and eternal discount supply from abroad should be deeply insulting to the national patriots in principle, therefore opportunity is to getaway from from such cucked energetic position.

    And it should not necessarily mean only replacing imports from RF to US LNG - atomophobia should be abolished, overall natgas consumption reduced by installing German made replacement and/or efficiency increasing technologies and so on.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Wokechoke

    , @A123
    @German_reader


    Blinken has called the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines a “tremendous opportunity” to move away from energy dependence on Russia

    The charitable interpretation is that the man is a tactless idiot. Maybe not the most likely explanation though.
     
    Why would you expect anything else from Leftoids and the illegitimate White House occupation? They hate America. Not-The-President Biden is an enemy of the U.S.

    The fake administration refused to work with Gov. DeSantis while Hurricane Ian was approaching Florida: (1)

    President Joe Biden appeared reluctant to speak directlyFlorida governor Ron DeSantis (R) as the federal government prepares for Hurricane Ian.

    Biden revealed Tuesday afternoon that he spoke with the mayors of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater in preparation for the storm.

    “I told each one of them, whatever they need contact me directly,” he said at the White House but made no mention of DeSantis.

    UPDATE -- The White House revealed Tuesday evening that Biden ultimately called DeSantis, several hours after reporters questioned the president’s reluctance to do so.
     
    They are also trying to blame the storm on climate change mythology: (2)

    The grotesque politicization of Hurricane Ian has come in two primary forms.

    The first is a concentrated effort to exploit the natural disaster to push a Green-New-Deal-esque climate change agenda. The most prominent example of this blatant politicization is a now-viral interview in which CNN host Don Lemon repeatedly attempts to get an expert to blame Hurricane Ian on climate change.

    When the expert calmly explains that no single disaster can be directly blamed on climate change, Lemon doesn’t accept this answer and asks again. (Now, another guest will apparently be going on to provide a more politically satisfying version of the “science.”)
     
    At this point the U.S. cannot do anything to anyone. The internal strife is so dramatic, there is no such thing as American foreign policy.

    You need to set vastly lower expectations for the next two years of White House failure. Not-The-President Harris will likely be elevated early next year. As bad is it is now.... Much worse is coming.

    PEACE 😇
    __________


    (1) https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/27/joe-biden-ignoring-phone-call-ron-desantis-ahead-hurricane-ian/

    (2) https://instapundit.com/545695/

    Replies: @keypusher

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @German_reader

    He definitely is an idiot. There is an intentional message though: Washington is the master and Germany is the servant. Did you ever see this old Pepe Escobar from 2017?

    He was saying then that the crime syndicate in Washington was going to have cut Germany a new one.

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/05/washington-and-berlin-on-a-collision-course/

    If/when the German population figures this out it's going to get wild. If I was them I would be thinking about pulling out of NATO and closing the American bases. With friends like this you all don't even need any enemies.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Wokechoke, @216

    , @AP
    @German_reader

    This does suggest that the USA didn’t do it, and that it’s clear to German officials that USA didn’t do it.

  12. @sudden death
    Yet another ongoing cunning RF trap for UA, now in north Kherson;)

    https://i.redd.it/fcgt6m648fr91.png

    Replies: @Mikel, @Lurker, @LatW

    Yet another ongoing cunning RF trap for UA, now in north Kherson;)

    That’s not a cunning trap. How many times does Saker have to explain that it’s called mobile defense, as anyone minimally familiar with military science should know? Those poor advancing Ukrainians are doomed 🙂

    • Agree: sudden death, Bashibuzuk
    • LOL: LatW
    • Replies: @Not Raul
    @Mikel

    What is the Saker’s batting average?

    Replies: @Barbarossa

  13. @German_reader
    Blinken has called the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines a "tremendous opportunity" to move away from energy dependence on Russia:

    https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1576326018893492225

    The charitable interpretation is that the man is a tactless idiot. Maybe not the most likely explanation though.

    Replies: @sudden death, @A123, @Emil Nikola Richard, @AP

    However, the very idea that highly technological German industry can exist or is in such position that it can exist only because of having the sole and eternal discount supply from abroad should be deeply insulting to the national patriots in principle, therefore opportunity is to getaway from from such cucked energetic position.

    And it should not necessarily mean only replacing imports from RF to US LNG – atomophobia should be abolished, overall natgas consumption reduced by installing German made replacement and/or efficiency increasing technologies and so on.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sudden death

    That's all nice and good, and in principle I even agree with much of it (pro-nuclear power, reducing dependence on a single supplier), but still, those pipelines didn't blow themselves up, and every scenario for "Russia did it" isn't exactly plausible. I've thought about it, and my gut feeling is that Ukraine did it, possibly with American support. PiS Poland are dicks, but in the end they're still daft Catholic conservatives who might have certain scruples. On the other hand, Ukraine's intelligence services have assassinated pro-Russian collaborators in the occupied territories. They probably also killed Dugin's daughter. From my pov there is no reason to think they also wouldn't be ruthless and capable enough to blow up Nordstream. And the implications of that would be enormous. At the very least there needs to be a serious investigation, not this bs where the matter is treated as if it is of no importance anyway.

    Replies: @LatW, @The Big Red Scary

    , @Wokechoke
    @sudden death

    A German Russian alliance would make a lot of historical sense. Guderian learned his craft in Kazan after all.

  14. German_reader says:
    @sudden death
    @German_reader

    However, the very idea that highly technological German industry can exist or is in such position that it can exist only because of having the sole and eternal discount supply from abroad should be deeply insulting to the national patriots in principle, therefore opportunity is to getaway from from such cucked energetic position.

    And it should not necessarily mean only replacing imports from RF to US LNG - atomophobia should be abolished, overall natgas consumption reduced by installing German made replacement and/or efficiency increasing technologies and so on.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Wokechoke

    That’s all nice and good, and in principle I even agree with much of it (pro-nuclear power, reducing dependence on a single supplier), but still, those pipelines didn’t blow themselves up, and every scenario for “Russia did it” isn’t exactly plausible. I’ve thought about it, and my gut feeling is that Ukraine did it, possibly with American support. PiS Poland are dicks, but in the end they’re still daft Catholic conservatives who might have certain scruples. On the other hand, Ukraine’s intelligence services have assassinated pro-Russian collaborators in the occupied territories. They probably also killed Dugin’s daughter. From my pov there is no reason to think they also wouldn’t be ruthless and capable enough to blow up Nordstream. And the implications of that would be enormous. At the very least there needs to be a serious investigation, not this bs where the matter is treated as if it is of no importance anyway.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @German_reader


    On the other hand, Ukraine’s intelligence services have assassinated pro-Russian collaborators in the occupied territories.
     
    Ukraine's intelligence services are quite capable (they have a capable and a very hawkish man in charge, Budanov), but those removals of the collaborators are essentially taking place on their home ground (that's a much more routine type of special operations category than a risky foreign operation) the Dugin assassination is relatively "close to home", so to speak (it is not solved but I spoke to someone who's relative is very high up at RT and they were scared and thought they too could've have been assassinated so some Russians definitely do believe that one was the Ukrainians but who knows).

    For Ukrainians to go so far into the North, in completely foreign waters and do this would be very bold even if they had access to the technology to do it. It wouldn't make sense politically, as it would alienate too many in Europe. Such a move would be way too scandalous on the eve of Euro integration and requests for weapon's deliveries.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    , @The Big Red Scary
    @German_reader


    On the other hand, Ukraine’s intelligence services have assassinated pro-Russian collaborators in the occupied territories.
     
    Also in the territories retaken by Ukraine, though that dirty work is often done by the natsbats. In particular, the Diocese of Izyum-Kupansk was regularly posting photos of feast days and episcopal visits to local parishes, until they suddenly stopped doing so three weeks ago. Ukrainian nationalists and schismatics are very angry that Metropolitan Elisey and the priests and parishioners of his diocese blessed the new civil administration. Probably the metropolitan and many of the priests are dead or imprisoned.

    https://risu.ua/mitropolit-upc-mp-z-izyumu-blagoslovlyaye-kolaborantiv-a-svyashchenik-v-hersoni-propoviduye-yednist-z-zagarbnikami_n131275

    None of this is unusual by historical standards (brutal repression of civilian populations was carried out by all sides in World War II), but ultimately, it's an unconscionable failure on the part of Moscow to tell the people of Izyum region that they were there to stay, only to evacuate without a fight.

    Go big or go home.

    Replies: @German_reader

  15. @German_reader
    Blinken has called the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines a "tremendous opportunity" to move away from energy dependence on Russia:

    https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1576326018893492225

    The charitable interpretation is that the man is a tactless idiot. Maybe not the most likely explanation though.

    Replies: @sudden death, @A123, @Emil Nikola Richard, @AP

    Blinken has called the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines a “tremendous opportunity” to move away from energy dependence on Russia

    The charitable interpretation is that the man is a tactless idiot. Maybe not the most likely explanation though.

    Why would you expect anything else from Leftoids and the illegitimate White House occupation? They hate America. Not-The-President Biden is an enemy of the U.S.

    The fake administration refused to work with Gov. DeSantis while Hurricane Ian was approaching Florida: (1)

    President Joe Biden appeared reluctant to speak directlyFlorida governor Ron DeSantis (R) as the federal government prepares for Hurricane Ian.

    Biden revealed Tuesday afternoon that he spoke with the mayors of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater in preparation for the storm.

    “I told each one of them, whatever they need contact me directly,” he said at the White House but made no mention of DeSantis.

    UPDATE — The White House revealed Tuesday evening that Biden ultimately called DeSantis, several hours after reporters questioned the president’s reluctance to do so.

    They are also trying to blame the storm on climate change mythology: (2)

    The grotesque politicization of Hurricane Ian has come in two primary forms.

    The first is a concentrated effort to exploit the natural disaster to push a Green-New-Deal-esque climate change agenda. The most prominent example of this blatant politicization is a now-viral interview in which CNN host Don Lemon repeatedly attempts to get an expert to blame Hurricane Ian on climate change.

    When the expert calmly explains that no single disaster can be directly blamed on climate change, Lemon doesn’t accept this answer and asks again. (Now, another guest will apparently be going on to provide a more politically satisfying version of the “science.”)

    At this point the U.S. cannot do anything to anyone. The internal strife is so dramatic, there is no such thing as American foreign policy.

    You need to set vastly lower expectations for the next two years of White House failure. Not-The-President Harris will likely be elevated early next year. As bad is it is now…. Much worse is coming.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/27/joe-biden-ignoring-phone-call-ron-desantis-ahead-hurricane-ian/

    (2) https://instapundit.com/545695/

    • Replies: @keypusher
    @A123


    The fake administration refused to work with Gov. DeSantis while Hurricane Ian was approaching Florida
     
    Going by your source, Biden was reluctant to participate in a meaningless telephonic equivalent of a photo-op, although he was evidently shamed into doing it. When it comes to genuine assistance, well, DeSantis asked for Federal money and got it immediately.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/desantis-s-pleas-for-hurricane-aid-raise-hackles-amid-vast-partisan-divide/ar-AA12tkiR?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=dd9e9164367a430b80ea95b4caec9c0f

    https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20220929/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-major-disaster-declaration-florida

    The Biden and DeSantis administrations appear to be cooperating normally to deal with the hurricane and its aftermath.

    Also, Biden beat Trump by seven million votes. It was not a particularly close election.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @A123

  16. Philip Owen says:

    The language is irrelevant. I speak English. I am most definitely not English.

    As I told you before you do not understand what an identity is and how it works. I am a Ukrainian-born, Russian-speaking half-Romanian, and half-Jew.

    Define my ethnic belonging.

    Exactly the same happened in my country as happened in Ukraine. A flood of immigrant speakers of the imperial language settled during a coal mining boom and swamped the local language.

    You got it all backwards.

    Ukraine had not been a separate state when Poland conquered it, nor had there been a separate Ukrainian language at the time. Poland conquered a part of Russia – some territories of a part of what is now Ukraine.

    The population of those territories were the same Russian people, who spoke the Russian language in other parts of Russia. The eastern and southern part of what is now Ukraine were then a part of the Crimean Khanate, where Turkic peoples lived.

    It was due to segregation from the rest of Russia and the influence of Polonization the Ukrainian language appeared, as a result of assimilation of those Russians who had spent a few hundred years under the Polish rule.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonization

    The eastern and southern parts of Ukraine were conquered and populated with immigrants from other parts of Russia. As a result of that, now we have a country in which one half of the population is affiliated with Poland, and the other with Russia.

    And the Ukrainian language was not replaced with Russian – it has been prevalent in those parts of Ukraine that were re-conquered from Poland, and even in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine there were schools where instructions were given in Ukrainian.

    Most of schools in the rural areas were Ukrainian, as that was the native language of rural population. Those Ukrainian-speaking people were as much the immigrants in those southern and eastern territories, as were the Russian-speaking urban populations.

    To put it plain and simple, the people in the western part of Ukraine are Polonized Russians.

    My loss of my own language accentuates the challenge to my identity, it doesn’t reduce it.

    Of course it does.

    Language influences relationships, relationships turn into relatedness over time, and given it enough time a new ethnic group can form, due to a language alone.

    Language influences self-perception, and at the same time the perception of a person by other people. I do not speak Romanian, so I feel being less of a Romanian I would be, if I did. At the same time, for the Romanians I am as much a Romanian, as the surname I bear makes them feel whether I am one of them or not.

    You know how the Jews define who is a Jew?

    A Jew is someone who considers himself a Jew, if other Jews consider him a Jew as well.

    • Replies: @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    Ukraine had not been a separate state when Poland conquered it, nor had there been a separate Ukrainian language at the time. Poland conquered a part of Russia – some territories of a part of what is now Ukraine.

    The population of those territories were the same Russian people, who spoke the Russian language in other parts of Russia. The eastern and southern part of what is now Ukraine were then a part of the Crimean Khanate, where Turkic peoples lived.

    It was due to segregation from the rest of Russia and the influence of Polonization the Ukrainian language appeared, as a result of assimilation of those Russians who had spent a few hundred years under the Polish rule.
     
    This is misleading. Russia is Great Russia, rebranded Muscovy, same as the northeastern parts of Rus, the principality of Suzdal. It has developed its own language and customs.

    Ukraine was never a part of Russia in this sense until Russia started grabbing parts of it from the 17th century. Just as Italy, Spain, or France were never part of Romania.

    There were various East Slavic tribes who were conquered and subjugated by the Rus, and took their name. They had been apart for a few centuries by the time the Rus took over, so even then by the 9th century they probably had certain cultural and linguistic differences, as Americans do from the English. Rus split into warring principalities by 1150, and Mongols swept in around 1240.

    Those Rus people living in the northeast would be be ruled by Tatars for a couple of centuries, would have some influence from them, when their language would eventually be standardized it would include a lot of Church Slavonic words (South Slavic). These would be the Russians. They called themselves Russky.

    The Rus in the central and western parts would be ruled by Poland and would get a flood of Polish cultural and linguistic influence. They would call themselves Rusyns or Rusnaks. They would call Russians - Muscovites, and consider them to be a foreign people. In the 19th century they would rename themselves Ukrainians.

    The Ukrainians were once Rus but they had never been Russians (that is, having the Muscovite culture and speaking the Great Russian/Russian language with its Church Slavonic and Asian words).

    The ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs was not a process of some Russians becoming Ukrainians, but rather it was some Rus becoming Ukrainians and other Rus becoming Russians. As some Romans became Italians, others became Romanians, others Spaniards, etc.

    I am a Ukrainian-born, Russian-speaking half-Romanian, and half-Jew.
     
    You are ignoring the fact that 2 of your 4 grandparents were Russians, because you think that ancestry is limited to patrilineal and matrilineal lines; that you are not 50% descended from your Russian maternal grandfather and Russian paternal grandmother.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

  17. @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Neutral would be Russia holding onto Crimea.
     
    Neutral would be going back to the lines on Feb 24. If Russia keeps Mariupol, north-Lugansk, Kherson, Berdyansk, they would win. Not a big win, but still a win.

    If the war were to start now
     
    As far as Russia is concerned it is not a war, only 'special military operation'. Next week the four regions become officially part of Russia, they could declare a war. Or give Kiev 30 days to vacate what they consider Russian territory. The four regions are not in Russia until Duma approval - for some reason Russia is going through slow legal steps. US did something similar before attacking Iraq, a law by Congress, formal signing, etc...

    So the moment of truth is coming: once Russia completes the legal steps they either go for the full control of the territory they claim, or not and look like losers. They are facing around 700k Ukie soldiers and are risk-averse trying to avoid casualties. To me that suggests massive remote bombing with collateral damage. They can do it. The question is what would be Nato's response.

    Replies: @Joe Paluka, @Triteleia Laxa

    ” They are facing around 700k Ukie soldiers ”

    I don’t know where you’re getting your figures from but the Ukrainian army has been reduced by 200,000 since the beginning of the war due to deaths or injuries. They have nowhere near 700,000 in their military any more, if they ever did.

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @Joe Paluka


    They have nowhere near 700,000 in their military any more, if they ever did.
     
    That would not stop enterprising Ukie generals getting salaries of 700,000 troops. Ukiestan is not the most corrupt country on Earth for nothing.
    , @Here Be Dragon
    @Joe Paluka


    They [the Ukrainian army] have nowhere near 700,000 in their military any more, if they ever did.
     
    Ukraine aims to amass 'million-strong army' to fight Russia, says defence minister
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62118953

    "We have approximately 700,000 in the armed forces and when you add the national guard, police, border guard, we are around a million-strong."
  18. @A123
    @German_reader


    Blinken has called the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines a “tremendous opportunity” to move away from energy dependence on Russia

    The charitable interpretation is that the man is a tactless idiot. Maybe not the most likely explanation though.
     
    Why would you expect anything else from Leftoids and the illegitimate White House occupation? They hate America. Not-The-President Biden is an enemy of the U.S.

    The fake administration refused to work with Gov. DeSantis while Hurricane Ian was approaching Florida: (1)

    President Joe Biden appeared reluctant to speak directlyFlorida governor Ron DeSantis (R) as the federal government prepares for Hurricane Ian.

    Biden revealed Tuesday afternoon that he spoke with the mayors of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater in preparation for the storm.

    “I told each one of them, whatever they need contact me directly,” he said at the White House but made no mention of DeSantis.

    UPDATE -- The White House revealed Tuesday evening that Biden ultimately called DeSantis, several hours after reporters questioned the president’s reluctance to do so.
     
    They are also trying to blame the storm on climate change mythology: (2)

    The grotesque politicization of Hurricane Ian has come in two primary forms.

    The first is a concentrated effort to exploit the natural disaster to push a Green-New-Deal-esque climate change agenda. The most prominent example of this blatant politicization is a now-viral interview in which CNN host Don Lemon repeatedly attempts to get an expert to blame Hurricane Ian on climate change.

    When the expert calmly explains that no single disaster can be directly blamed on climate change, Lemon doesn’t accept this answer and asks again. (Now, another guest will apparently be going on to provide a more politically satisfying version of the “science.”)
     
    At this point the U.S. cannot do anything to anyone. The internal strife is so dramatic, there is no such thing as American foreign policy.

    You need to set vastly lower expectations for the next two years of White House failure. Not-The-President Harris will likely be elevated early next year. As bad is it is now.... Much worse is coming.

    PEACE 😇
    __________


    (1) https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/27/joe-biden-ignoring-phone-call-ron-desantis-ahead-hurricane-ian/

    (2) https://instapundit.com/545695/

    Replies: @keypusher

    The fake administration refused to work with Gov. DeSantis while Hurricane Ian was approaching Florida

    Going by your source, Biden was reluctant to participate in a meaningless telephonic equivalent of a photo-op, although he was evidently shamed into doing it. When it comes to genuine assistance, well, DeSantis asked for Federal money and got it immediately.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/desantis-s-pleas-for-hurricane-aid-raise-hackles-amid-vast-partisan-divide/ar-AA12tkiR?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=dd9e9164367a430b80ea95b4caec9c0f

    https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20220929/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-major-disaster-declaration-florida

    The Biden and DeSantis administrations appear to be cooperating normally to deal with the hurricane and its aftermath.

    Also, Biden beat Trump by seven million votes. It was not a particularly close election.

    • LOL: A123
    • Troll: YetAnotherAnon
    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @keypusher


    Also, Biden beat Trump by seven million votes.
     
    Sure, Mugabe in Zimbabwe was also winning numerous elections. What’s more, always by a wide margin. Dementia never hurt anyone’s electoral prospects.
    , @A123
    @keypusher

    -- ROTFLMAO --

    Where are you from?

    You are clearly not an American.

    Under the U.S. Constitution only the Electoral College matters. Everyone serious knows that the popular count totals have 0% relevance to anything. Quoting such gibberish numbers is equivalent to shooting up massive doses of concentrated #NeverTrump COPIUM.

    Are you trying to humiliate yourself? If so, you are succeeding.

    The 2020 election was stolen by Fultoning (∆) in 5 key states. Due to vote fraud the election loser, Not-The-President Biden, occupies the White House.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (∆) Fultoning - Verb - Election fraud openly committed in Fulton County, Georgia, circa 2020. Including, but not necessarily limited to -- Ballot fabrication, tampering with predict equipment, and exclusion of legally required observers.

    Replies: @keypusher

  19. Copium overdoses are being reported across the pro-Russia blogosphere and YouTube community. They are claiming the defeat in Lyman doesn’t matter because it is not strategically important. A part of Russia – according to the Russian state – being conquered by another state the day after it was formally annexed is no big deal, just a typical day in the world of geopolitics.

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @Matra


    A part of Russia – according to the Russian state – being conquered by another state the day after it was formally annexed is no big deal, just a typical day in the world of geopolitics.
     
    Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. It's not over until it's over.

    Replies: @A123, @Matra

  20. Monitor of Halls says:

    I’ve seen this boilerplate for months, years even. Is it copy and pasted? Did you know you are full NPC on this issue?

    No I did not, and I have never seen someone who thought as I do. Most people either talk about taking Donbas and the south of Ukraine, or the whole of it.

    I think it should be the entire left bank and regarding the south it should depend on whether the rest of Ukraine becomes a neutral puppet state of Russia, or a part of Poland – if the latter is the case, Odessa should be taken as well.

    Anyway, let me rephrase my question: how would you react if Russia exploded a nuclear weapon in Ukraine?

    If there was a nuclear explosion in Ukraine I would think it was a false flag operation, because Russia has no need and no reason whatsoever to make such a stupid and irrational move. You trolls are pushing that narrative for some people to be able to assess the potential reaction of the general public, but it does not make sense.

    A nuclear explosion would be benefitial for Ukraine because that might result in a direct NATO interference. Such an event might lead to a potential expulsion of Russia from the UN Security Counsil – and therefore, it would be benefitial for the United States.

    But in no plausible scenario would it be benefitial for the Russians.

    Do not forget that while you and other trolls here are spinning out that “Yahoo! Ukraine attacks! The Russians are running!” – cow crap, what the Russians are in fact doing is shortening the frontline around the areas where the Ukrainians have amassed an immence amount of personnel, and are pushing forward re-taking a piece of wasteland having 8:1 advantage in manpower. That “Northern Victory” of yours is meaningless.

    And in the meantime while you are here posting all that stupid bunch of nonsense on all the fences all over the place, the Russians are mobilizing 300 thousand people and are preparing the infrustructure for their arrival.

    Better start thinking what you will be writing here when they start a real offensive later this winter.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Here Be Dragon

    The Russian military are not much use more than 90 miles from a railhead. That's at least one of the reasons that it was preposterous that they could have completely overrun Ukraine. The other alamist thing was saying there was a total invasion with only 150,000 soldiers.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

  21. @Joe Paluka
    @Beckow

    " They are facing around 700k Ukie soldiers "

    I don't know where you're getting your figures from but the Ukrainian army has been reduced by 200,000 since the beginning of the war due to deaths or injuries. They have nowhere near 700,000 in their military any more, if they ever did.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Here Be Dragon

    They have nowhere near 700,000 in their military any more, if they ever did.

    That would not stop enterprising Ukie generals getting salaries of 700,000 troops. Ukiestan is not the most corrupt country on Earth for nothing.

    • Agree: Mikhail
  22. @keypusher
    @A123


    The fake administration refused to work with Gov. DeSantis while Hurricane Ian was approaching Florida
     
    Going by your source, Biden was reluctant to participate in a meaningless telephonic equivalent of a photo-op, although he was evidently shamed into doing it. When it comes to genuine assistance, well, DeSantis asked for Federal money and got it immediately.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/desantis-s-pleas-for-hurricane-aid-raise-hackles-amid-vast-partisan-divide/ar-AA12tkiR?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=dd9e9164367a430b80ea95b4caec9c0f

    https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20220929/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-major-disaster-declaration-florida

    The Biden and DeSantis administrations appear to be cooperating normally to deal with the hurricane and its aftermath.

    Also, Biden beat Trump by seven million votes. It was not a particularly close election.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @A123

    Also, Biden beat Trump by seven million votes.

    Sure, Mugabe in Zimbabwe was also winning numerous elections. What’s more, always by a wide margin. Dementia never hurt anyone’s electoral prospects.

  23. @sudden death
    Yet another ongoing cunning RF trap for UA, now in north Kherson;)

    https://i.redd.it/fcgt6m648fr91.png

    Replies: @Mikel, @Lurker, @LatW

    It seems like months ago I was first hearing that umpteen thousand Russians were trapped in Kherson and were retreating or would be captured. Someone seems to have forgotten to tell the Russians this.

    And the Russians, like me, have probably lost track of how many times those bridges have been destroyed trapping them in Kherson.

  24. @Matra
    Copium overdoses are being reported across the pro-Russia blogosphere and YouTube community. They are claiming the defeat in Lyman doesn't matter because it is not strategically important. A part of Russia - according to the Russian state - being conquered by another state the day after it was formally annexed is no big deal, just a typical day in the world of geopolitics.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    A part of Russia – according to the Russian state – being conquered by another state the day after it was formally annexed is no big deal, just a typical day in the world of geopolitics.

    Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. It’s not over until it’s over.

    • Replies: @A123
    @AnonfromTN


    Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. It’s not over until it’s over.
     
    😁 Can we count chickens that are being dragged? 😂

    PEACE 😇

     
    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit_1Ms0-ScA-a-P2P4FEKxex-zLrbLjzTtDOtFupJ4TG0NQaA0fddRBault7ic9iLR0yyfmLUGSB5cj8sR1f6NlTGIdZpd_e5oXK4-JS5m3Gjoxy8Ehswmu2yEIA1Mwz3Kfs_aW3iXMjtV3vdqXj4DQPbMLAVgGI8L7YN4USC9gqZ8A_CFiAJ3Q7aD/s376/daily_gifdump_4168_25.gif

    , @Matra
    @AnonfromTN

    I know but I'm quite fascinated by people who insist on optimism no matter what the facts are. It reminds me of American conservatives. For as long as I can remember they've constantly insisted that they are winning when it is obvious that they are not. Their refusal to acknowledge reality detracts from their ability to improve their situation, after all if you're always winning you don't need to change anything.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

  25. @keypusher
    @A123


    The fake administration refused to work with Gov. DeSantis while Hurricane Ian was approaching Florida
     
    Going by your source, Biden was reluctant to participate in a meaningless telephonic equivalent of a photo-op, although he was evidently shamed into doing it. When it comes to genuine assistance, well, DeSantis asked for Federal money and got it immediately.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/desantis-s-pleas-for-hurricane-aid-raise-hackles-amid-vast-partisan-divide/ar-AA12tkiR?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=dd9e9164367a430b80ea95b4caec9c0f

    https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20220929/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-major-disaster-declaration-florida

    The Biden and DeSantis administrations appear to be cooperating normally to deal with the hurricane and its aftermath.

    Also, Biden beat Trump by seven million votes. It was not a particularly close election.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @A123

    — ROTFLMAO —

    Where are you from?

    You are clearly not an American.

    Under the U.S. Constitution only the Electoral College matters. Everyone serious knows that the popular count totals have 0% relevance to anything. Quoting such gibberish numbers is equivalent to shooting up massive doses of concentrated #NeverTrump COPIUM.

    Are you trying to humiliate yourself? If so, you are succeeding.

    The 2020 election was stolen by Fultoning (∆) in 5 key states. Due to vote fraud the election loser, Not-The-President Biden, occupies the White House.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (∆) Fultoning – Verb – Election fraud openly committed in Fulton County, Georgia, circa 2020. Including, but not necessarily limited to — Ballot fabrication, tampering with predict equipment, and exclusion of legally required observers.

    • Replies: @keypusher
    @A123


    The 2020 election was stolen by Fultoning (∆) in 5 key states. Due to vote fraud the election loser, Not-The-President Biden, occupies the White House.
     
    As far as I can tell, the trumpists wildly exaggerated one story coming out of one county and hoped people would extrapolate from there. Evidently it worked with you.

    Every time they got into court (and no, they didn't always lose because they lacked standing, contrary to another trumpist lie) it was obvious they had nothing.

    Replies: @A123

  26. @Joe Paluka
    @Beckow

    " They are facing around 700k Ukie soldiers "

    I don't know where you're getting your figures from but the Ukrainian army has been reduced by 200,000 since the beginning of the war due to deaths or injuries. They have nowhere near 700,000 in their military any more, if they ever did.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Here Be Dragon

    They [the Ukrainian army] have nowhere near 700,000 in their military any more, if they ever did.

    Ukraine aims to amass ‘million-strong army’ to fight Russia, says defence minister
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62118953

    “We have approximately 700,000 in the armed forces and when you add the national guard, police, border guard, we are around a million-strong.”

  27. @AnonfromTN
    @Matra


    A part of Russia – according to the Russian state – being conquered by another state the day after it was formally annexed is no big deal, just a typical day in the world of geopolitics.
     
    Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. It's not over until it's over.

    Replies: @A123, @Matra

    Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. It’s not over until it’s over.

    😁 Can we count chickens that are being dragged? 😂

    PEACE 😇

     

  28. @A123
    @keypusher

    -- ROTFLMAO --

    Where are you from?

    You are clearly not an American.

    Under the U.S. Constitution only the Electoral College matters. Everyone serious knows that the popular count totals have 0% relevance to anything. Quoting such gibberish numbers is equivalent to shooting up massive doses of concentrated #NeverTrump COPIUM.

    Are you trying to humiliate yourself? If so, you are succeeding.

    The 2020 election was stolen by Fultoning (∆) in 5 key states. Due to vote fraud the election loser, Not-The-President Biden, occupies the White House.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (∆) Fultoning - Verb - Election fraud openly committed in Fulton County, Georgia, circa 2020. Including, but not necessarily limited to -- Ballot fabrication, tampering with predict equipment, and exclusion of legally required observers.

    Replies: @keypusher

    The 2020 election was stolen by Fultoning (∆) in 5 key states. Due to vote fraud the election loser, Not-The-President Biden, occupies the White House.

    As far as I can tell, the trumpists wildly exaggerated one story coming out of one county and hoped people would extrapolate from there. Evidently it worked with you.

    Every time they got into court (and no, they didn’t always lose because they lacked standing, contrary to another trumpist lie) it was obvious they had nothing.

    • Replies: @A123
    @keypusher

    — ROTFLMAO —

    Why do you lie so much?

    Are you campaigning to be named, King Lying Liar of Liardom?

    There is no such thing as "Trumpist". Only unhinged, mouth frothing #Bidenista mental dribblers try to use such bizzaro-land terminology.

     
    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6f/18/2f/6f182fc98111b38a02aae55ce5d39e93.jpg
     

    Are you troll, paid by MSNBC & Rachel Maddow?

    Please continue to provide comic relief. You are obviously a mentally damaged failure. I would call you a retard, but I do not want to be unkind to a much smarter grade of mentally challenged individuals.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  29. @German_reader
    Blinken has called the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines a "tremendous opportunity" to move away from energy dependence on Russia:

    https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1576326018893492225

    The charitable interpretation is that the man is a tactless idiot. Maybe not the most likely explanation though.

    Replies: @sudden death, @A123, @Emil Nikola Richard, @AP

    He definitely is an idiot. There is an intentional message though: Washington is the master and Germany is the servant. Did you ever see this old Pepe Escobar from 2017?

    He was saying then that the crime syndicate in Washington was going to have cut Germany a new one.

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/05/washington-and-berlin-on-a-collision-course/

    If/when the German population figures this out it’s going to get wild. If I was them I would be thinking about pulling out of NATO and closing the American bases. With friends like this you all don’t even need any enemies.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    If/when the German population figures this out it’s going to get wild.
     
    They won't. Events since 2014/15 have proved beyond doubt that this lemming people of bugmen and pensioners will take everything.
    Still, the official reaction to the Nordstream sabotage is quite bizarre, even funny in a way...the minister of justice tweeted that possibly (!) a crime may have been committed in blowing up the pipes (below MORE). You don't say...

    https://twitter.com/MarcoBuschmann/status/1576484566084161536
    , @Wokechoke
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    The US simply moved to Poland though.

    , @216
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    If I was them I would be thinking about pulling out of NATO and closing the American bases.
     
    Germany refused to stop the mass invasion of migrants, and now explicitly discriminates against ethnic Germans for government jobs.

    It's a nation of cucks.

    Replies: @Wanderghost

  30. Bashibuzuk says:

    Today Ukrainian troops have moved 30km closer towards Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson region.

    Meanwhile in RusFed:

    [MORE]

    The State Duma announced the disappearance of 1.5 million sets of military uniforms

    The State Duma was outraged by the provision of the Russian army. According to Andrei Gurulev, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee, one and a half million sets of uniforms were to be stored at the points of reception of personnel.

    “Where did the one and a half million kits that were stored at the points of reception of personnel go? What are these problems with the uniforms? Nobody is able to explain this in any way!” Gurulev said in his Telegram channel.

    The deputy also criticized the decision to transfer to another job, who was responsible for providing troops, Deputy Minister of the Army General Dmitry Bulgakov. “There is no need to send General Bulgakov to another job, you need to specifically ask where, where and why it happened that our mobilized do not receive uniforms,” the deputy said.

    Moscow Times

    В Госдуме заявили об исчезновении 1,5 миллионов комплектов военной формы

    В Госдуме возмутились обеспечением российской армии. По словам члена комитета Госдумы по обороне Андрея Гурулева, на пунктах приема личного состава должно было храниться полтора миллиона комплектов формы.

    «Куда делись полтора миллиона комплектов, которые хранились на пунктах приема личного состава. Откуда проблемы с формой? Это никто никак не собирается объяснить!», — заявил Гурулев в своем телеграм-канале.

    Депутат также раскритиковал решение перевести на другую работу, отвечавшего за обеспечение войск, замминистра генерала армии Дмитрия Булгакова. «Не надо отправлять генерала Булгакова на другую работу, надо конкретно спрашивать, куда, где и почему так случилось, что у нас мобилизованные не получают форму», — сказал депутат.

    Moscow Times

    Let’s keep in mind that during a review of the spending on the RusFed Pacific Fleet, it has been found that 68% of the funds supposedly spent on the modernization of the fleet have been embezzled.

    People in RusFed start asking embarrassing questions, Kadyrov is complaining about incompetent generals, Prigozhyn (of ChVK Wagner fame) agrees with Kadyrov. Some start asking for firing of Shoigu.

    All this is happening before the mobilization would have brought hundreds of thousands of ill equipped troops on a winter frontline. It might become worse in the next few months.

    My opinion is that the situation in RusFed looks somewhat similar to 1905 in Russian Empire or 1990 in USSR, both the war situation and the revolution potential are moving in a very unfavorable direction.

    Not good for RusFed, not good at all…

    Спасибо Путину за это!

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Prigozhyn (of ChVK Wagner fame)
     
    Maybe Prigozhin wants to replace Putin? That would be scary, afaik, he has a criminal record, didn't he murder somebody? The question is what kind of resources Prigozhin and Kadyrov could assemble under them.

    All this is happening before the mobilization would have brought hundreds of thousands of ill equipped troops on a winter frontline. It might become worse in the next few months.
     
    These poor men are being driven into a sure death. They will soon be freezing. They need to come to the UA side as soon as they get there. They will survive and will be treated ok. Otherwise, the coffins will start going back home in huge numbers and very soon... or more likely, simply missing in action and will remain on Ukrainian soil. Then there will be social turmoil.

    My opinion is that the situation in RusFed looks somewhat similar to 1905 in Russian Empire or 1990 in USSR, both the war situation and the revolution potential are moving in a very unfavorable direction.
     
    Agree. Everyone will fight against everyone now in the Russian establishment. Do the Russian people have the stamina to go through what is coming...

    Perun, give us strength!

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    , @showmethereal
    @Bashibuzuk

    Ummmm.... Isn't "Moscow Times" run by westerners??? You think they are credible?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Triteleia Laxa, @keypusher

  31. @keypusher
    @A123


    The 2020 election was stolen by Fultoning (∆) in 5 key states. Due to vote fraud the election loser, Not-The-President Biden, occupies the White House.
     
    As far as I can tell, the trumpists wildly exaggerated one story coming out of one county and hoped people would extrapolate from there. Evidently it worked with you.

    Every time they got into court (and no, they didn't always lose because they lacked standing, contrary to another trumpist lie) it was obvious they had nothing.

    Replies: @A123

    — ROTFLMAO —

    Why do you lie so much?

    Are you campaigning to be named, King Lying Liar of Liardom?

    There is no such thing as “Trumpist”. Only unhinged, mouth frothing #Bidenista mental dribblers try to use such bizzaro-land terminology.

      

    Are you troll, paid by MSNBC & Rachel Maddow?

    Please continue to provide comic relief. You are obviously a mentally damaged failure. I would call you a retard, but I do not want to be unkind to a much smarter grade of mentally challenged individuals.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  32. @AnonfromTN
    @Matra


    A part of Russia – according to the Russian state – being conquered by another state the day after it was formally annexed is no big deal, just a typical day in the world of geopolitics.
     
    Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. It's not over until it's over.

    Replies: @A123, @Matra

    I know but I’m quite fascinated by people who insist on optimism no matter what the facts are. It reminds me of American conservatives. For as long as I can remember they’ve constantly insisted that they are winning when it is obvious that they are not. Their refusal to acknowledge reality detracts from their ability to improve their situation, after all if you’re always winning you don’t need to change anything.

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @Matra


    Their refusal to acknowledge reality detracts from their ability to improve their situation,
     
    Absolutely. Russian military should realize that they are fighting NATO and act accordingly. Only the cannon fodder is mostly supplied by Ukiestan, the intelligence is all NATO and the weapons are increasingly NATO. Fighting NATO war machine is not the same as fighting third-rate force of corrupt to the core country. Success is impossible without clear understanding what the reality is and changing accordingly. The same applies to the US conservatives.

    Replies: @A123, @LatW

  33. German_reader says:
    @Emil Nikola Richard
    @German_reader

    He definitely is an idiot. There is an intentional message though: Washington is the master and Germany is the servant. Did you ever see this old Pepe Escobar from 2017?

    He was saying then that the crime syndicate in Washington was going to have cut Germany a new one.

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/05/washington-and-berlin-on-a-collision-course/

    If/when the German population figures this out it's going to get wild. If I was them I would be thinking about pulling out of NATO and closing the American bases. With friends like this you all don't even need any enemies.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Wokechoke, @216

    If/when the German population figures this out it’s going to get wild.

    They won’t. Events since 2014/15 have proved beyond doubt that this lemming people of bugmen and pensioners will take everything.
    Still, the official reaction to the Nordstream sabotage is quite bizarre, even funny in a way…the minister of justice tweeted that possibly (!) a crime may have been committed in blowing up the pipes (below MORE). You don’t say…

    [MORE]

  34. https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3643585-how-the-ukraine-war-vindicates-realism/

    [S]states, in an “anarchic” world in which there is no supranational government to adjudicate disputes or protect the weak, must take steps to ensure their own survival. With all states under pressure to act in this way, realists argue, the international realm is thus always and necessarily a field of conflict and competition. It is a realm where, as Thucydides put it long ago, “the strong do what they will; the weak suffer what they must.”

    These being the basic assumptions of realism, what does the theory predict?

    To start, it assumes that all states will seek to maximize first their security and then their power. Assuming that states are at least minimally rational actors, they will do whatever they can to avoid extinction. Second, in such a competitive and anarchic world, vulnerable small powers will seek the protection of strong allies. Third, even powerful states, fearful that they might fall prey to other “great powers,” will take steps to maximize their security, often by asserting a sphere of influence, which involves either excluding those other great powers from encroaching on their borders or preventing their weaker neighbors from drifting into the spheres of hostile great powers.

    Fourth, realism predicts that if one great power feels that a country within its sphere is drifting into the orbit of another great power, it will use whatever resources are at its disposal, ultimately including military force, to prevent that from happening. Fifth, realism predicts that, in this scenario, if the invaded country does not immediately succumb to the invader, other great powers – which necessarily have a vested interest in seeing any potential competitor weakened so that it can’t threaten them – will support it to bleed the invading power and degrade its power over the long run.

    And finally, realism predicts that such wars will continue until one of the combatants prevails (satisfies its minimal security needs) or both sides are exhausted and find themselves in a “mutually hurting stalemate.” […]

    Realism is not a theory of morality

    Russia is not a bear, it has agency?; yes. and so does Ukraine. Russia started it? You betcha!

  35. You are obviously a mentally damaged failure. I would call you a retard, but I do not want to be unkind to a much smarter grade of mentally challenged individuals.

    Well, I’m arguing with someone who thinks “fultoning” is a meaningful concept which helps explain the 2020 presidential election. I agree that doesn’t speak well of my mental capacity. But I won’t repeat the error.

    • Thanks: A123
    • Replies: @A123
    @keypusher

    Your apology is accepted.


    I’m arguing with someone who thinks “fultoning” is a meaningful concept which helps explain the 2020 presidential election.
     
    Your admission that Fultoning is important is in understanding the 2020 election is appreciated.

    I agree that doesn’t speak well of my mental capacity.
     
    Your denial of 2020 vote fraud was troubling but it is good that you now admit the truth.

    But I won’t repeat the error.
     
    Excellent. You willingness to stop absurd #NeverTrump fiction is a huge step toward for your mental development.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇
  36. @Matra
    @AnonfromTN

    I know but I'm quite fascinated by people who insist on optimism no matter what the facts are. It reminds me of American conservatives. For as long as I can remember they've constantly insisted that they are winning when it is obvious that they are not. Their refusal to acknowledge reality detracts from their ability to improve their situation, after all if you're always winning you don't need to change anything.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    Their refusal to acknowledge reality detracts from their ability to improve their situation,

    Absolutely. Russian military should realize that they are fighting NATO and act accordingly. Only the cannon fodder is mostly supplied by Ukiestan, the intelligence is all NATO and the weapons are increasingly NATO. Fighting NATO war machine is not the same as fighting third-rate force of corrupt to the core country. Success is impossible without clear understanding what the reality is and changing accordingly. The same applies to the US conservatives.

    • Replies: @A123
    @AnonfromTN


    Success is impossible without clear understanding what the reality is and changing accordingly. The same applies to the US conservatives.
     
    Certainly, Leftoids are sending huge amounts of money to fund Kiev regime aggression.

    After the midterms, incoming MAGA Republicans will be Christian Populist (not establishment conservative). This will reduce, though not eliminate, U.S. funds transfers supporting Zelensky's violence against Russian Orthodox Christians. Change takes time. In a single, two-year step, modestly improving the situation is the best that can be achieved.

    Hopefully this will be a signal to Ukie Maximalists that their dreams of conquest are about to collapse. What is most needed is an armistice that stops the shooting ASAP.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

    , @LatW
    @AnonfromTN

    Putin is at war with reality.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Wanderghost

  37. @German_reader
    @sudden death

    That's all nice and good, and in principle I even agree with much of it (pro-nuclear power, reducing dependence on a single supplier), but still, those pipelines didn't blow themselves up, and every scenario for "Russia did it" isn't exactly plausible. I've thought about it, and my gut feeling is that Ukraine did it, possibly with American support. PiS Poland are dicks, but in the end they're still daft Catholic conservatives who might have certain scruples. On the other hand, Ukraine's intelligence services have assassinated pro-Russian collaborators in the occupied territories. They probably also killed Dugin's daughter. From my pov there is no reason to think they also wouldn't be ruthless and capable enough to blow up Nordstream. And the implications of that would be enormous. At the very least there needs to be a serious investigation, not this bs where the matter is treated as if it is of no importance anyway.

    Replies: @LatW, @The Big Red Scary

    On the other hand, Ukraine’s intelligence services have assassinated pro-Russian collaborators in the occupied territories.

    Ukraine’s intelligence services are quite capable (they have a capable and a very hawkish man in charge, Budanov), but those removals of the collaborators are essentially taking place on their home ground (that’s a much more routine type of special operations category than a risky foreign operation) the Dugin assassination is relatively “close to home”, so to speak (it is not solved but I spoke to someone who’s relative is very high up at RT and they were scared and thought they too could’ve have been assassinated so some Russians definitely do believe that one was the Ukrainians but who knows).

    For Ukrainians to go so far into the North, in completely foreign waters and do this would be very bold even if they had access to the technology to do it. It wouldn’t make sense politically, as it would alienate too many in Europe. Such a move would be way too scandalous on the eve of Euro integration and requests for weapon’s deliveries.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @LatW

    I doubt they’d dare. Much more likely it was a time bomb set by Americans years ago.

  38. @AnonfromTN
    @Matra


    Their refusal to acknowledge reality detracts from their ability to improve their situation,
     
    Absolutely. Russian military should realize that they are fighting NATO and act accordingly. Only the cannon fodder is mostly supplied by Ukiestan, the intelligence is all NATO and the weapons are increasingly NATO. Fighting NATO war machine is not the same as fighting third-rate force of corrupt to the core country. Success is impossible without clear understanding what the reality is and changing accordingly. The same applies to the US conservatives.

    Replies: @A123, @LatW

    Success is impossible without clear understanding what the reality is and changing accordingly. The same applies to the US conservatives.

    Certainly, Leftoids are sending huge amounts of money to fund Kiev regime aggression.

    After the midterms, incoming MAGA Republicans will be Christian Populist (not establishment conservative). This will reduce, though not eliminate, U.S. funds transfers supporting Zelensky’s violence against Russian Orthodox Christians. Change takes time. In a single, two-year step, modestly improving the situation is the best that can be achieved.

    Hopefully this will be a signal to Ukie Maximalists that their dreams of conquest are about to collapse. What is most needed is an armistice that stops the shooting ASAP.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @A123

    The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 is now in force, so transfers of materiel to the Ukraine no longer require Congressional approval. This law is in force through the end of FY2023, and the odds of the incoming Congress passing a new law to repeal or restrain its over President Biden's veto are approximately zero.

    There is unlikely to even be any attempt to restrain aid to the Ukraine. Only ten Republicans voted no on the law in the House, and passage in the Senate was unanimous. None of the House Republicans who voted no are in line for leadership positions: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2022141

    American public opinion broadly supports aiding the Ukraine: https://news.gallup.com/poll/401168/americans-back-ukrainian-goal-reclaiming-territory.aspx

    Even among Republicans, by 56 to 43 more Republicans support maintaining current levels of assistance (26%) or increasing it (26%) over reducing it.

    With no Congressional leaders in favor of scaling back aid to the Ukraine and no political profit in doing so, it's hard to see why a GOP Congress would do anything. At most they'll investigate irregularities in its provision.

    Russia will only find assistance from the friends Tsar Alexander II noted (since the Russian Air Force would appear to not be much of a friend).

    Replies: @Keypusher

  39. @sudden death
    Yet another ongoing cunning RF trap for UA, now in north Kherson;)

    https://i.redd.it/fcgt6m648fr91.png

    Replies: @Mikel, @Lurker, @LatW

    Yet another ongoing cunning RF trap for UA, now in north Kherson;)

    Arestovych was saying yesterday that there is another “present” coming soon, this time in Kherson, but that he is not ready to announce it before the military announce it.

    Here’s a fresh comment from Ivan Yakovina:

    – The pro-Russian Telegram channels are buzzing about “an approaching catastrophe in Kherson”, the Ukrainian army has broken through and racing towards Dnipro, the front is breaking in half;

    – Russians do not have enough reserves, communications, weather too bad for the planes, panic among Russian troops in the Northern Kherson;

    – Kadyrov publicly blaming the Russian general Lapin, initiating an open quarrel between different siloviks;

    – Girkin saying that the Russian troops have been pushed down to Dudchany;

    – It looks like the Russians can only retreat southwards, their supply lines from Kachovka are compromised, Ukrainians are pushing downwards along the bank of the river;

    – The collapse of the Russian frontlines could lead to power struggles in Kremlin (that have already began in the last couple of days);

    – Simonyan has sensed that the war may be lost, seeking hastily to re-position herself, distance herself from Putin; Solovyov, too, criticizing the Kremlin, looking for a way out.

    [MORE]

    Слава ЗСУ!

    • Thanks: sudden death
    • LOL: Mikhail
    • Troll: Here Be Dragon
  40. @Bashibuzuk
    Today Ukrainian troops have moved 30km closer towards Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson region.

    Meanwhile in RusFed:



    The State Duma announced the disappearance of 1.5 million sets of military uniforms

    The State Duma was outraged by the provision of the Russian army. According to Andrei Gurulev, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee, one and a half million sets of uniforms were to be stored at the points of reception of personnel.

    “Where did the one and a half million kits that were stored at the points of reception of personnel go? What are these problems with the uniforms? Nobody is able to explain this in any way!” Gurulev said in his Telegram channel.

    The deputy also criticized the decision to transfer to another job, who was responsible for providing troops, Deputy Minister of the Army General Dmitry Bulgakov. “There is no need to send General Bulgakov to another job, you need to specifically ask where, where and why it happened that our mobilized do not receive uniforms,” the deputy said.

    Moscow Times

     



    В Госдуме заявили об исчезновении 1,5 миллионов комплектов военной формы

    В Госдуме возмутились обеспечением российской армии. По словам члена комитета Госдумы по обороне Андрея Гурулева, на пунктах приема личного состава должно было храниться полтора миллиона комплектов формы.

    «Куда делись полтора миллиона комплектов, которые хранились на пунктах приема личного состава. Откуда проблемы с формой? Это никто никак не собирается объяснить!», — заявил Гурулев в своем телеграм-канале.

    Депутат также раскритиковал решение перевести на другую работу, отвечавшего за обеспечение войск, замминистра генерала армии Дмитрия Булгакова. «Не надо отправлять генерала Булгакова на другую работу, надо конкретно спрашивать, куда, где и почему так случилось, что у нас мобилизованные не получают форму», — сказал депутат.

    Moscow Times

     

    Let's keep in mind that during a review of the spending on the RusFed Pacific Fleet, it has been found that 68% of the funds supposedly spent on the modernization of the fleet have been embezzled.

    People in RusFed start asking embarrassing questions, Kadyrov is complaining about incompetent generals, Prigozhyn (of ChVK Wagner fame) agrees with Kadyrov. Some start asking for firing of Shoigu.

    All this is happening before the mobilization would have brought hundreds of thousands of ill equipped troops on a winter frontline. It might become worse in the next few months.

    My opinion is that the situation in RusFed looks somewhat similar to 1905 in Russian Empire or 1990 in USSR, both the war situation and the revolution potential are moving in a very unfavorable direction.

    Not good for RusFed, not good at all...

    Спасибо Путину за это!

    Replies: @LatW, @showmethereal

    Prigozhyn (of ChVK Wagner fame)

    Maybe Prigozhin wants to replace Putin? That would be scary, afaik, he has a criminal record, didn’t he murder somebody? The question is what kind of resources Prigozhin and Kadyrov could assemble under them.

    All this is happening before the mobilization would have brought hundreds of thousands of ill equipped troops on a winter frontline. It might become worse in the next few months.

    These poor men are being driven into a sure death. They will soon be freezing. They need to come to the UA side as soon as they get there. They will survive and will be treated ok. Otherwise, the coffins will start going back home in huge numbers and very soon… or more likely, simply missing in action and will remain on Ukrainian soil. Then there will be social turmoil.

    My opinion is that the situation in RusFed looks somewhat similar to 1905 in Russian Empire or 1990 in USSR, both the war situation and the revolution potential are moving in a very unfavorable direction.

    Agree. Everyone will fight against everyone now in the Russian establishment. Do the Russian people have the stamina to go through what is coming…

    Perun, give us strength!

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW



    The question is what kind of resources Prigozhin and Kadyrov could assemble under them.
     
    Both are strong men who know that they will pay the price if RusFed is replaced with a social construct even more servile to the Globalized West. Both also know that much can be gained in the Times of Troubles by courageous and violent landlords. Both command respect from their fighters in the way the feudal landlords sometimes did. Both prepare for what is coming next, when VVP hits the exit (one way or another).



    These poor men are being driven into a sure death. They will soon be freezing. They need to come to the UA side as soon as they get there. They will survive and will be treated ok.

     

    Russians are used to die on the frontline. For most Russian men this type of death is entirely normal and acceptable as long as the goals of war are seen as clearly defined and ethically sound. The problem of the current war in Ukraine is that the goals are far from being either entirely clear or morally acceptable.

    Around 2015, the late commander of the Prizrak Battalion of the LNR - Mozgovoy - once spoke with the officers on the Ukrainian side via a live television link. Interestingly enough, both sides soon arrived to the conclusion that this war is not fought in the interest of the populations on both sides of the frontline. It is fought by the corrupt elites for the interests of their clans whom are more often than not linked with some foreign avoirs and interests. Then Mozgovoy got killed, some say that he was liquidated by the FSB, some by the SBU, perhaps it was a joint operation because both special services equally loathed his populism.

    There was a time when this type of discussion and honest debate could lead to a more humane approach towards POWs on both sides, but today there's too much hatred. Milchakov - the Russian ultra-nationalist and self-awoved national socialist who is commanding the Rusich special operations squadron, has recently publicly called for not talking prisoners alive, but for torturing Ukrainian POWs to extract information and then executing them. Similar practices have been occurring also on the Ukrainian side. If I was a Russian soldier on the frontline, I would think twice before surrendering.


    Everyone will fight against everyone now in the Russian establishment. Do the Russian people have the stamina to go through what is coming…
     
    I am unfortunately not sure at all that Russia has what it takes to get through this ordeal. I feel pessimistic about the prospects of the Russian state. But I also know that Russian people have survived even worse situations.

    I sure hope that once the RusFed is done with, some kind of healing process might begin. But perhaps I am just an idealist and the atoms would have decayed too much to yield the needed energy (to use a metaphor inspired by the poem of Georgyi Ivanov) and Russian history can no longer continue as a unified cultural space. After all, Ukraine has already come undound, why not other parts ?

    In this case, I hope that some region of the former Russian Realm might perhaps become a core for completing the Russian nation-building. But here again, hope is scarce because Globalization is probably too strong to allow for that to happen.

    Perun, give us strength!
     
    https://2ch.hk/b/arch/2017-06-22/thumb/155660961/14981224393400s.jpg

    May the spirits of our ancestors give us some wisdom to face these cruel moments. All of us are in dire need of clear understanding of what much be done and what has to be avoided.

    Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

  41. It’s not looking good for Russia atm, Girkin’s criticism that they should have gone for Donbass in 2014 looks more and more prescient.

    I can’t see Russia being defeated long-term, especially as China will know that a Russian defeat just puts them top of the list, but the State Department strategy of using one set of Slavs to weaken and bleed another set of Slavs has been masterful, if highly evil.

    Putin managed to face down and tame his own oligarchs, who were and are a pretty nasty bunch. But now he’s fighting the world champion nasty oligarchs.

    To think I found it amusing when Ayatollah Khomeini called the US “the Great Satan”. He was right.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk, GomezAdddams
    • Replies: @Sean
    @YetAnotherAnon


    I can’t see Russia being defeated long-term
     
    What makes you think so? Russia's long term trajectory was not a threat to anyone before this war and won't be after it even if it won.


    "If Ukraine defeats Russia, the United States must carefully reflect on its own history. Otherwise, its hubris could prove dangerous, FP’s @stephenWalt writes. '

    Russia needs to disengage, but it can't because Ukraine won't let go.

    Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @YetAnotherAnon


    Putin managed to face down and tame his own oligarchs, who were and are a pretty nasty bunch. But now he’s fighting the world champion nasty oligarchs.
     
    He and his friends simply became the biggest oligarchs.

    He did not free RusFed from corruption.

    And now it might well result in a crushing defeat.

    Replies: @Dmitry

  42. @keypusher

    You are obviously a mentally damaged failure. I would call you a retard, but I do not want to be unkind to a much smarter grade of mentally challenged individuals.
     
    Well, I'm arguing with someone who thinks "fultoning" is a meaningful concept which helps explain the 2020 presidential election. I agree that doesn't speak well of my mental capacity. But I won't repeat the error.

    Replies: @A123

    Your apology is accepted.

    I’m arguing with someone who thinks “fultoning” is a meaningful concept which helps explain the 2020 presidential election.

    Your admission that Fultoning is important is in understanding the 2020 election is appreciated.

    I agree that doesn’t speak well of my mental capacity.

    Your denial of 2020 vote fraud was troubling but it is good that you now admit the truth.

    But I won’t repeat the error.

    Excellent. You willingness to stop absurd #NeverTrump fiction is a huge step toward for your mental development.

    #LetsGoBrandon 😇

  43. @AnonfromTN
    @Matra


    Their refusal to acknowledge reality detracts from their ability to improve their situation,
     
    Absolutely. Russian military should realize that they are fighting NATO and act accordingly. Only the cannon fodder is mostly supplied by Ukiestan, the intelligence is all NATO and the weapons are increasingly NATO. Fighting NATO war machine is not the same as fighting third-rate force of corrupt to the core country. Success is impossible without clear understanding what the reality is and changing accordingly. The same applies to the US conservatives.

    Replies: @A123, @LatW

    Putin is at war with reality.

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @LatW


    Putin is at war with reality.
     
    Save everything you and other “true believers” from equally irrelevant vaudeville states write today. Than read it a few weeks from now. Then read it again a few months from now. And read it for the third time in 2024. I don’t expect you to be ashamed, that would be giving you too much credit. But maybe even you can learn something. Hope springs eternal.

    PS. Did your ancestors feel the same when Nazis were near Stalingrad? Just asking.

    , @Wanderghost
    @LatW


    Putin is at war with reality.
     
    Given the reality of unlimited monkeypox piss orgies, lumbering pedo beast girlbosses everywhere, Hunter Biden, borders looking like they're having a sale at the brothel, jewish admiral strutting around in women's clothes, etc etc etc, it is a war worth fighting.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  44. @LatW
    @German_reader


    On the other hand, Ukraine’s intelligence services have assassinated pro-Russian collaborators in the occupied territories.
     
    Ukraine's intelligence services are quite capable (they have a capable and a very hawkish man in charge, Budanov), but those removals of the collaborators are essentially taking place on their home ground (that's a much more routine type of special operations category than a risky foreign operation) the Dugin assassination is relatively "close to home", so to speak (it is not solved but I spoke to someone who's relative is very high up at RT and they were scared and thought they too could've have been assassinated so some Russians definitely do believe that one was the Ukrainians but who knows).

    For Ukrainians to go so far into the North, in completely foreign waters and do this would be very bold even if they had access to the technology to do it. It wouldn't make sense politically, as it would alienate too many in Europe. Such a move would be way too scandalous on the eve of Euro integration and requests for weapon's deliveries.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    I doubt they’d dare. Much more likely it was a time bomb set by Americans years ago.

  45. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @German_reader

    He definitely is an idiot. There is an intentional message though: Washington is the master and Germany is the servant. Did you ever see this old Pepe Escobar from 2017?

    He was saying then that the crime syndicate in Washington was going to have cut Germany a new one.

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/05/washington-and-berlin-on-a-collision-course/

    If/when the German population figures this out it's going to get wild. If I was them I would be thinking about pulling out of NATO and closing the American bases. With friends like this you all don't even need any enemies.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Wokechoke, @216

    The US simply moved to Poland though.

  46. @sudden death
    @German_reader

    However, the very idea that highly technological German industry can exist or is in such position that it can exist only because of having the sole and eternal discount supply from abroad should be deeply insulting to the national patriots in principle, therefore opportunity is to getaway from from such cucked energetic position.

    And it should not necessarily mean only replacing imports from RF to US LNG - atomophobia should be abolished, overall natgas consumption reduced by installing German made replacement and/or efficiency increasing technologies and so on.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Wokechoke

    A German Russian alliance would make a lot of historical sense. Guderian learned his craft in Kazan after all.

  47. @LatW
    @AnonfromTN

    Putin is at war with reality.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Wanderghost

    Putin is at war with reality.

    Save everything you and other “true believers” from equally irrelevant vaudeville states write today. Than read it a few weeks from now. Then read it again a few months from now. And read it for the third time in 2024. I don’t expect you to be ashamed, that would be giving you too much credit. But maybe even you can learn something. Hope springs eternal.

    PS. Did your ancestors feel the same when Nazis were near Stalingrad? Just asking.

    • Agree: Here Be Dragon
  48. @Beckow
    @Mikhail

    First you make money building it up, then by destroying it. In October with end of the fiscal year and bonuses calculated the inevitable destruction starts. October is like that for a reason.

    With $100+ trillions in un-payable debts the West cannot save itself by issuing more debt. It mathematically cannot go on. Debt is a claim on real assets by two parties. When the cashing-out starts nothing can stop it: it is a choice between inflation and impoverishment. Or you get both.

    They are choosing inflation so far, but there are limits - you can't raise prices by 20-30% for 5 years. Having a war looked like a better option, but they should pick a weaker opponent. You never fix problems by losing a war - it was clear from the beginning that Russia can't be defeated: they are at home and have nukes.

    Blowing up the pipes was like taking a sh..t in a drawer when losing an apartment lease. Of course, you would deny it. This is getting good.

    Replies: @Greasy William

    With $100+ trillions in un-payable debts the West cannot save itself by issuing more debt. It mathematically cannot go on.

    It mathematically cannot go on forever but it can go on for much longer than you’d think possible. Even if this really is the end, it’s an end that was brought forward by at least a decade thanks to the Covid lockdowns/spending.

    I hope that this is it, but I was sure that 2008 was the endgame and they managed to keep the ship floating for 11 years until Covid hit. I’m not certain that they can’t do it again.

    you can’t raise prices by 20-30% for 5 years

    Yes you can. Doing just that is how historically every country has resolved unsustainable debt levels. The US will get there eventually, but not yet

    it was clear from the beginning that Russia can’t be defeated: they are at home and have nukes

    Putin could be overthrown and replaced with a leader more accommodating with the West, or Russia could break up into multiple countries. I think both of those things are extremely unlikely, but they are possible

    I do feel pretty optimistic about the military situation. I think the Russians will launch a winter offensive in December and I think they’ll have some success. While the US economy might, might, be able to hang on indefinitely, the EU economies are going down this winter. The new Republican Congress won’t be able to end funding for the war, but they might be able to reduce it. Once this war is over, then China can move on Taiwan and the end of US unipolarity will be official.

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @Greasy William

    I think your view is more realistic. The end won’t be a short-term catastrophic event, the crash will come in slow motion. Preceded by high inflation on the imperial patch for many years.

    I don’t think China wants to conquer Taiwan militarily, they would prefer to buy it up, step by step. There will be no war there, unless the empire succeeds in provoking it. If it does, that would accelerate its downfall.

    , @Beckow
    @Greasy William

    I agree that none of this will happen overnight. But there is a huge difference between a stable or growing West and slowly declining one. We have had a "peak West" - now the same steps taken on the way up will be retraced on the way down. That is a lot less fun.


    you can’t raise prices by 20-30% for 5 years

    Yes you can.
     

    You can try, but it will be very volatile. I am talking about Europe not US that has huge resources. We don't have an 'inflation' right now - inflation is a rise in prices and incomes. We only have prices rising and real assets going up, the incomes are not keeping up. Mathematically with 20-30% rise in prices for a few years the real incomes could be a third lower than today, or more. Most Europeans can't do that.

    Holland had 17% inflation (annual) in September. And Holland is a solid well managed economy. The last 2 or 3 generations of very good life made Europeans not ready for a drop in living standards - the toys are being taken away, the energy is too expensive, by next year it could be food. The housing costs were too high even before 2020 and they have continued going up. If incomes stay frozen it will lead to a dramatic crisis - unlike US, Europe has a very riot-friendly big-city architecture.

    After 2008 the system was saved by a one-time coordinated move to lower interest rates to effectively zero. It stabilized the system, made the debts less onerous, and we muddled along for 10 years. Then the crazy self-inflicted Corona contraction happened. There was no orderly way back to normal economy after Corona. This war was wanted - maybe not in a smart way, but in a way one wants to get out of a situation, just to get out. The problem is that it took us to a lot worse place.

  49. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Prigozhyn (of ChVK Wagner fame)
     
    Maybe Prigozhin wants to replace Putin? That would be scary, afaik, he has a criminal record, didn't he murder somebody? The question is what kind of resources Prigozhin and Kadyrov could assemble under them.

    All this is happening before the mobilization would have brought hundreds of thousands of ill equipped troops on a winter frontline. It might become worse in the next few months.
     
    These poor men are being driven into a sure death. They will soon be freezing. They need to come to the UA side as soon as they get there. They will survive and will be treated ok. Otherwise, the coffins will start going back home in huge numbers and very soon... or more likely, simply missing in action and will remain on Ukrainian soil. Then there will be social turmoil.

    My opinion is that the situation in RusFed looks somewhat similar to 1905 in Russian Empire or 1990 in USSR, both the war situation and the revolution potential are moving in a very unfavorable direction.
     
    Agree. Everyone will fight against everyone now in the Russian establishment. Do the Russian people have the stamina to go through what is coming...

    Perun, give us strength!

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    The question is what kind of resources Prigozhin and Kadyrov could assemble under them.

    Both are strong men who know that they will pay the price if RusFed is replaced with a social construct even more servile to the Globalized West. Both also know that much can be gained in the Times of Troubles by courageous and violent landlords. Both command respect from their fighters in the way the feudal landlords sometimes did. Both prepare for what is coming next, when VVP hits the exit (one way or another).

    [MORE]

    These poor men are being driven into a sure death. They will soon be freezing. They need to come to the UA side as soon as they get there. They will survive and will be treated ok.

    Russians are used to die on the frontline. For most Russian men this type of death is entirely normal and acceptable as long as the goals of war are seen as clearly defined and ethically sound. The problem of the current war in Ukraine is that the goals are far from being either entirely clear or morally acceptable.

    Around 2015, the late commander of the Prizrak Battalion of the LNR – Mozgovoy – once spoke with the officers on the Ukrainian side via a live television link. Interestingly enough, both sides soon arrived to the conclusion that this war is not fought in the interest of the populations on both sides of the frontline. It is fought by the corrupt elites for the interests of their clans whom are more often than not linked with some foreign avoirs and interests. Then Mozgovoy got killed, some say that he was liquidated by the FSB, some by the SBU, perhaps it was a joint operation because both special services equally loathed his populism.

    There was a time when this type of discussion and honest debate could lead to a more humane approach towards POWs on both sides, but today there’s too much hatred. Milchakov – the Russian ultra-nationalist and self-awoved national socialist who is commanding the Rusich special operations squadron, has recently publicly called for not talking prisoners alive, but for torturing Ukrainian POWs to extract information and then executing them. Similar practices have been occurring also on the Ukrainian side. If I was a Russian soldier on the frontline, I would think twice before surrendering.

    Everyone will fight against everyone now in the Russian establishment. Do the Russian people have the stamina to go through what is coming…

    I am unfortunately not sure at all that Russia has what it takes to get through this ordeal. I feel pessimistic about the prospects of the Russian state. But I also know that Russian people have survived even worse situations.

    I sure hope that once the RusFed is done with, some kind of healing process might begin. But perhaps I am just an idealist and the atoms would have decayed too much to yield the needed energy (to use a metaphor inspired by the poem of Georgyi Ivanov) and Russian history can no longer continue as a unified cultural space. After all, Ukraine has already come undound, why not other parts ?

    In this case, I hope that some region of the former Russian Realm might perhaps become a core for completing the Russian nation-building. But here again, hope is scarce because Globalization is probably too strong to allow for that to happen.

    Perun, give us strength!

    May the spirits of our ancestors give us some wisdom to face these cruel moments. All of us are in dire need of clear understanding of what much be done and what has to be avoided.

    • Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms
    @Bashibuzuk


    China, through the one child policy also has been prevented from reaching its full demographic potential.
     
    WWII and Chinese Civil War barely dented China's population. Mao despite being massively unscrupulous managed to triple PRC's population. The Han race for better or worse lacks no fecundity.

    Russian Empire was supposed to have a population of around 400 million by the end of 1940ies, but wars, terror and famine prevented this.
     
    200 million Slavic women would have been very charming. But you really don't want 1.4 billion Slavs, or 1.4 billions Swedes. They wouldn't Slavs or Swedes anymore, but rather ant-like like the Han.

    Russians With Attitude said "we're not gonna survive the fourth genocide in 120 years". 50-80% depopulation was a cyclical thing in Chinese history. It's definitely possible to survive, if risk losing some of your soul.
  50. @YetAnotherAnon
    It's not looking good for Russia atm, Girkin's criticism that they should have gone for Donbass in 2014 looks more and more prescient.

    I can't see Russia being defeated long-term, especially as China will know that a Russian defeat just puts them top of the list, but the State Department strategy of using one set of Slavs to weaken and bleed another set of Slavs has been masterful, if highly evil.

    Putin managed to face down and tame his own oligarchs, who were and are a pretty nasty bunch. But now he's fighting the world champion nasty oligarchs.

    To think I found it amusing when Ayatollah Khomeini called the US "the Great Satan". He was right.

    Replies: @Sean, @Bashibuzuk

    I can’t see Russia being defeated long-term

    What makes you think so? Russia’s long term trajectory was not a threat to anyone before this war and won’t be after it even if it won.

    “If Ukraine defeats Russia, the United States must carefully reflect on its own history. Otherwise, its hubris could prove dangerous, FP’s @stephenWalt writes. ‘

    Russia needs to disengage, but it can’t because Ukraine won’t let go.

    • Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms
    @Sean

    Fermi's Paradox

    One doesn't even need to look to AGI as explanation. But rather cannibalism, something that happens on a large scale on a cyclical basis in Chinese history, and not practiced even in the animal kingdom.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Sean

  51. Bashibuzuk says:
    @YetAnotherAnon
    It's not looking good for Russia atm, Girkin's criticism that they should have gone for Donbass in 2014 looks more and more prescient.

    I can't see Russia being defeated long-term, especially as China will know that a Russian defeat just puts them top of the list, but the State Department strategy of using one set of Slavs to weaken and bleed another set of Slavs has been masterful, if highly evil.

    Putin managed to face down and tame his own oligarchs, who were and are a pretty nasty bunch. But now he's fighting the world champion nasty oligarchs.

    To think I found it amusing when Ayatollah Khomeini called the US "the Great Satan". He was right.

    Replies: @Sean, @Bashibuzuk

    Putin managed to face down and tame his own oligarchs, who were and are a pretty nasty bunch. But now he’s fighting the world champion nasty oligarchs.

    He and his friends simply became the biggest oligarchs.

    He did not free RusFed from corruption.

    And now it might well result in a crushing defeat.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Bashibuzuk

    It's a boring topic without so much complexity. But I'll write a final post about it. Westerners are often writing in this forum about Putin having the war with oligarchs, like these "oligarch people" are the opposing or hijacking class that contrasts with the state power in the postsoviet countries (this is what you can read from the users like AP, Karlin, Sailer, Reinor Tor), while forgetting the source of the money this class are provisionally holding.

    I think these netizens have the model from the American capitalism. They think oligarch is a kind of businessman who has generated money because of inventing a business as Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos.

    Elon Musk could use the money from the entrepreneur's invention (e.g. Paypal and Tesla) to change the public opinion in the elections (buy Twitter). Americans have the fears about Muskian wealth like in "Citizen Kane", where the interests of a businessman is degrading the democracy and the transparency of information access.

    Westerners are worried the public will be tricked by these private businessmen who will influence to elect politicians that support their interests.

    An inverse implication is they believe the possibility of patriotic politicians who can fight against the private businessmen.

    Such kind of patriotic politicians will defend the legal branch of the government against financial interests. A strong politician should fight for the position of the ordinary citizen, so each individual citizen has equal political influence, in contrast to only the "big money" interest that often corrupts American politics. There was some of the unlikely narratives that Q Anon has attached for Donald Trump, like he would fight against the "big money".

    But that is America. In many countries wealth is not something outside government, but the source of the big money is primarily - government. A situation with oligarchs in postsoviet countries will be easy to understand for people from Iran or Saudi Arabia, or even most countries in the world.

    A lot more simple in such countries. If you were talking to Saudis, they would understand where the wealth of the oligarchs is in origin, although you might need to add some new vocabulary like "Prince".

    In the postsoviet space not just the laws are from the state, but the main industries are properties of state to recent years. The owning of the former state property are nowadays informally attached to the royal court. Some oligarchs have to work managing parts of court, including in the finances. It's like if you see all the money in the bank and without understanding the bank is holding not only its own money.

    Westerners ask why some of the courts' cashiers are falling from the power and hiring private militaries for their exile security, believing because the politicians might be opposed to businessmen as a general class, not as simply individuals, not remembering dangers for individual traitors have been the same in Soviet times, or for disobedient individual people like Khashoggi in countries like Saudi Arabia. (There are people like Khashoggi who fall into trouble with the Saudi authorities, as individuals, not as a class.)

    They don't seem to think about whose permission they have to hold this money or who allows to have this money. Whose money they are also holding informally in postsoviet countries? Who allows you to hold the money that was so central to the state, only recently not formally the state, and still informally not so distant from it?



    But he is basically of Polish-Galician ethnic stock and he is deeply attached to his roots.

    He is and always will be partial.
     
    Lol I don't think we can blame Poles and their nationalism based in the self-determination of peoples against the oppression of the empires, too much for the views of AP, from his colonial house in somewhere like New England.

    Peoples like Poles believe nationalism based in the 19th century concept, but in America it's more like immigrants are supporting their favorite sports team, sometimes with a lot of wealth for this "hobby".

    To cultural context AP, I feel it is assimilation of the culture of post-Ellis Island immigrants in the North Eastern states in the US. They support their ethnic origin like a baseball team, as also their religious group. Irish are funding the independence partisans in Ireland, Jews were supporting development in "New Yishuv" in Palestine.

    But from what I understand of my years writing with him, AP is also living in elite area in North East US, where it is normal to boast of your personal prestige. It is a place where there is the strong pressure to climb the social ladder. Maybe he wasn't in an "Ivy", but from his writing it is like he needs ways to match such kind of prestigious neighbors.

    I assume he has become a "real white person", although his family are immigrants from the undeveloped parts of the world and he has political views more of Cuban immigrants in Miami, not so many prestigious virtue signaling of the normal WASPs in Dartmouth or Yale.

    As for AP's way of thinking. America has been a successful country as a colony, so I would not says this cultural context was more maladaptive than our own context. Probably my writing smells bad for him like he is talking to someone who is in the ashheap of history and that I have an unhealthy addiction to rolling on the trash.

    The same goes for Mr Hack, who is a nice person of Ukrainian background and who is rooting for the country of his ancestors
     
    I'm receiving some kind of relaxing atmosphere of sitting next to a cactus tree in Arizona from Mr Hack.

    Perhaps it is due to the very nature of our native language, which is so precise and complex and yet so open to lexical innovation and search for novel meaning?
     
    It's a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml

    Нам внятно всё — и острый галльский смысл,
    И сумрачный германский гений…

    А если нет — нам нечего терять,
    И нам доступно вероломство!
    Века, века вас будет проклинать
    Больное позднее потомство!

     

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Barbarossa, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Bashibuzuk, @Mr. Hack

  52. @Greasy William
    @Beckow


    With $100+ trillions in un-payable debts the West cannot save itself by issuing more debt. It mathematically cannot go on.
     
    It mathematically cannot go on forever but it can go on for much longer than you'd think possible. Even if this really is the end, it's an end that was brought forward by at least a decade thanks to the Covid lockdowns/spending.

    I hope that this is it, but I was sure that 2008 was the endgame and they managed to keep the ship floating for 11 years until Covid hit. I'm not certain that they can't do it again.

    you can’t raise prices by 20-30% for 5 years
     
    Yes you can. Doing just that is how historically every country has resolved unsustainable debt levels. The US will get there eventually, but not yet

    it was clear from the beginning that Russia can’t be defeated: they are at home and have nukes
     
    Putin could be overthrown and replaced with a leader more accommodating with the West, or Russia could break up into multiple countries. I think both of those things are extremely unlikely, but they are possible


    I do feel pretty optimistic about the military situation. I think the Russians will launch a winter offensive in December and I think they'll have some success. While the US economy might, might, be able to hang on indefinitely, the EU economies are going down this winter. The new Republican Congress won't be able to end funding for the war, but they might be able to reduce it. Once this war is over, then China can move on Taiwan and the end of US unipolarity will be official.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Beckow

    I think your view is more realistic. The end won’t be a short-term catastrophic event, the crash will come in slow motion. Preceded by high inflation on the imperial patch for many years.

    I don’t think China wants to conquer Taiwan militarily, they would prefer to buy it up, step by step. There will be no war there, unless the empire succeeds in provoking it. If it does, that would accelerate its downfall.

  53. 15 Fullbacks have been shot down in this war. That’s over 10% of those produced, and an unsustainable loss ratio. Ground attack aircraft cannot survive even legacy air defense systems, let alone large number of MANPADS. MIM-104 and THAAD have not been deployed

    Iraq in 1991 achieved the loss of only two comparable F-15E, which the true equivalent is the long retired F-111.

    There is no Russian copy of the American JDAM, a cheap guided bomb. Apparently the Chinese did reverse engineer JDAM, but the Russians are not using it. The losses are the likely result of low altitude attacks using non-guided bombs.

    • Replies: @Greasy William
    @216


    Ground attack aircraft cannot survive even legacy air defense systems
     
    I think they could with the right countermeasures. It's just that Russian ECM are total garbage.


    You aren't even supposed to use ground attack aircraft until SEAD is complete, so I have no idea what the Russians are even doing.

    Replies: @216, @Thorfinnsson

    , @Here Be Dragon
    @216

    Our trolls have got reinforcement. Whose opinion are these children intend to influence here?

    A bunch of liars.


    There is no Russian copy of the American JDAM, a cheap guided bomb. Apparently the Chinese did reverse engineer JDAM, but the Russians are not using it.
     
    It is the second post 216 troll has made tonight in which he lies. That must be because such are the instructions from Arestovich.

    Tell him that I like talking about guns so it is not going to work on this page.

    "The KAB-500S-E is a guided bomb designed for the Russian Air Force. It uses the GLONASS satellite navigation and is the Russian equivalent of the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) weapons."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAB-500S-E

    And of course as all things made in the U.S. JDAM is not cheap but is rather overpriced ($25,000).

    The Russian air forces have 3 models of guided bombs.

    "The KAB-500L is a laser-guided bomb developed by the Soviet Air Force, entering service in 1975. The KAB-500L is a standard FAB-500 general-purpose bomb, fitted with a semi-active laser seeker and guidance fins, turning it into an unpowered guided bomb."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAB-500L

    "The KAB-500Kr is an electro-optical TV-guided fire and forget bomb developed by the Soviet Air Force in the 1980s. It remains in service with the CIS and various export customers. The KAB-500Kr is analogous to the American GBU-15 weapon."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAB-500KR

    Your supervisors could not even find an appropriate topic to spin out.
  54. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @German_reader

    He definitely is an idiot. There is an intentional message though: Washington is the master and Germany is the servant. Did you ever see this old Pepe Escobar from 2017?

    He was saying then that the crime syndicate in Washington was going to have cut Germany a new one.

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/05/washington-and-berlin-on-a-collision-course/

    If/when the German population figures this out it's going to get wild. If I was them I would be thinking about pulling out of NATO and closing the American bases. With friends like this you all don't even need any enemies.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Wokechoke, @216

    If I was them I would be thinking about pulling out of NATO and closing the American bases.

    Germany refused to stop the mass invasion of migrants, and now explicitly discriminates against ethnic Germans for government jobs.

    It’s a nation of cucks.

    • Replies: @Wanderghost
    @216

    Just like Master.

  55. @German_reader
    Blinken has called the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines a "tremendous opportunity" to move away from energy dependence on Russia:

    https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1576326018893492225

    The charitable interpretation is that the man is a tactless idiot. Maybe not the most likely explanation though.

    Replies: @sudden death, @A123, @Emil Nikola Richard, @AP

    This does suggest that the USA didn’t do it, and that it’s clear to German officials that USA didn’t do it.

  56. • Replies: @S
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    There had been poor harvests before in Ireland, and what had been done in response was the common sense approach to limit food exports those years to tide people over.

    What was different about the Irish Famine (1845-50) was the application of what might be called Scientific Capitalism (as opposed to Scientific Communism), ie let the market take it's course, aka laissez-faire Capitalism.

    People with no money didn't have much clout in the market, so either left the country, begged, or, in many instances died from starvation. There was some private charity and in time some limited government intervention, ie food distribution in the form of low grade Indian corn and make work projects, but it wasn't enough. It was a disaster.

    It of course would of been better to have kept with the earlier policy of limiting exports during the lean years. [Far better still, no British occupation.]

    Replies: @YetAnotherAnon

    , @Barbarossa
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    I always knew it...I'm People of Color too! I'm a black man trapped in a white man's body!

    Of course, the funny thing about resentment politics is that since history is just one long litany of peoples shitting on other peoples we all get to be #Oppressed in some way. It can only be limited by the political usefulness of highlighting that oppression.

  57. @216
    15 Fullbacks have been shot down in this war. That's over 10% of those produced, and an unsustainable loss ratio. Ground attack aircraft cannot survive even legacy air defense systems, let alone large number of MANPADS. MIM-104 and THAAD have not been deployed

    Iraq in 1991 achieved the loss of only two comparable F-15E, which the true equivalent is the long retired F-111.

    There is no Russian copy of the American JDAM, a cheap guided bomb. Apparently the Chinese did reverse engineer JDAM, but the Russians are not using it. The losses are the likely result of low altitude attacks using non-guided bombs.

    Replies: @Greasy William, @Here Be Dragon

    Ground attack aircraft cannot survive even legacy air defense systems

    I think they could with the right countermeasures. It’s just that Russian ECM are total garbage.

    You aren’t even supposed to use ground attack aircraft until SEAD is complete, so I have no idea what the Russians are even doing.

    • Replies: @216
    @Greasy William

    The F-111 was modified into the EF-111 with jamming capabilities. RF has failed to copy that with the Fullback, which is probably a better platform than the Super Hornet.

    There has been only sporadic use (supposedly) of the single squadron's worth of Felons, which are the only assured way that the remaining Ukrainian fast air can be destroyed given its tremendous AWACS aid from NATO planes over the border.

    Replies: @Not Raul

    , @Thorfinnsson
    @Greasy William

    The RuAF basically does not have a SEAD capability. It has no dedicated electronic attack aircraft and no "Wild Weasel" squadrons dedicated to hunting enemy air defense systems.

    Ten electronic warfare variants of the Su-24, the Su-24MP, were built in 1980. None are any longer in service: https://web.archive.org/web/20141219023949/http://www.sukhoi.org/eng/planes/military/su24mk/history/

    The only electronic warfare Flanker variant is Chinese: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42511/chinas-j-16d-electronic-attack-jet-seen-sporting-jamming-pods-for-the-first-time

    A limited number of jamming pods such as Khibiny-U exist for deployment on the Su-30. These may have been used successfully on the airborne assault on Hostomel.

    Anti-radiation missiles do exist, but in Russian service are intended mainly to attack and destroy airborne early warning radar (AEWR) aircraft.

    The Russian Air Force suffers from trying to field a full spectrum air force on a shoestring, and to the extent it specializes it specializes in denying a numerically superior adversary air superiority over the territory on the Russian Federation. A NATO air campaign against Russia would suffer from some similar challenges to the Russian air campaign over the Ukraine.

    To the extent the Russian Air Force is conducting attack sorties (and it is), it suffers from a shortage of PGMs and inferior, low resolution targeting pods. This was not a problem in Syria due to permissive environment, but in the Ukraine it's untenable. The standard of Russian pilot training is also poor.

    A good source for this is Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute.

    Replies: @Sean, @showmethereal

  58. @Bashibuzuk
    Today Ukrainian troops have moved 30km closer towards Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson region.

    Meanwhile in RusFed:



    The State Duma announced the disappearance of 1.5 million sets of military uniforms

    The State Duma was outraged by the provision of the Russian army. According to Andrei Gurulev, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee, one and a half million sets of uniforms were to be stored at the points of reception of personnel.

    “Where did the one and a half million kits that were stored at the points of reception of personnel go? What are these problems with the uniforms? Nobody is able to explain this in any way!” Gurulev said in his Telegram channel.

    The deputy also criticized the decision to transfer to another job, who was responsible for providing troops, Deputy Minister of the Army General Dmitry Bulgakov. “There is no need to send General Bulgakov to another job, you need to specifically ask where, where and why it happened that our mobilized do not receive uniforms,” the deputy said.

    Moscow Times

     



    В Госдуме заявили об исчезновении 1,5 миллионов комплектов военной формы

    В Госдуме возмутились обеспечением российской армии. По словам члена комитета Госдумы по обороне Андрея Гурулева, на пунктах приема личного состава должно было храниться полтора миллиона комплектов формы.

    «Куда делись полтора миллиона комплектов, которые хранились на пунктах приема личного состава. Откуда проблемы с формой? Это никто никак не собирается объяснить!», — заявил Гурулев в своем телеграм-канале.

    Депутат также раскритиковал решение перевести на другую работу, отвечавшего за обеспечение войск, замминистра генерала армии Дмитрия Булгакова. «Не надо отправлять генерала Булгакова на другую работу, надо конкретно спрашивать, куда, где и почему так случилось, что у нас мобилизованные не получают форму», — сказал депутат.

    Moscow Times

     

    Let's keep in mind that during a review of the spending on the RusFed Pacific Fleet, it has been found that 68% of the funds supposedly spent on the modernization of the fleet have been embezzled.

    People in RusFed start asking embarrassing questions, Kadyrov is complaining about incompetent generals, Prigozhyn (of ChVK Wagner fame) agrees with Kadyrov. Some start asking for firing of Shoigu.

    All this is happening before the mobilization would have brought hundreds of thousands of ill equipped troops on a winter frontline. It might become worse in the next few months.

    My opinion is that the situation in RusFed looks somewhat similar to 1905 in Russian Empire or 1990 in USSR, both the war situation and the revolution potential are moving in a very unfavorable direction.

    Not good for RusFed, not good at all...

    Спасибо Путину за это!

    Replies: @LatW, @showmethereal

    Ummmm…. Isn’t “Moscow Times” run by westerners??? You think they are credible?

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @showmethereal

    Neither West, nor RusFed are credible. Their propaganda mouthpieces should be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism. And we have also to confront their pov against each other and try to find a balance between their biased narratives.

    Replies: @showmethereal

    , @Triteleia Laxa
    @showmethereal

    Where is the huge and strong Russian military then?

    Replies: @showmethereal

    , @keypusher
    @showmethereal

    They're quoting a named member of the State Duma talking about a particular general...sounds like a straightforward factual account. Even a biased media source typically won't just make up something like that.

    Anyone read any native Russian media about this?

    Replies: @showmethereal

  59. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Neutral would be Russia holding onto Crimea.
     
    Neutral would be going back to the lines on Feb 24. If Russia keeps Mariupol, north-Lugansk, Kherson, Berdyansk, they would win. Not a big win, but still a win.

    If the war were to start now
     
    As far as Russia is concerned it is not a war, only 'special military operation'. Next week the four regions become officially part of Russia, they could declare a war. Or give Kiev 30 days to vacate what they consider Russian territory. The four regions are not in Russia until Duma approval - for some reason Russia is going through slow legal steps. US did something similar before attacking Iraq, a law by Congress, formal signing, etc...

    So the moment of truth is coming: once Russia completes the legal steps they either go for the full control of the territory they claim, or not and look like losers. They are facing around 700k Ukie soldiers and are risk-averse trying to avoid casualties. To me that suggests massive remote bombing with collateral damage. They can do it. The question is what would be Nato's response.

    Replies: @Joe Paluka, @Triteleia Laxa

    To me that suggests massive remote bombing with collateral damage. They can do it. The question is what would be Nato’s response.

    They can’t, and I’ve informed you as to why you should be able to know that yourself.

    If you can’t even successfully bomb enemy advances, you most certainly don’t have much in the way of resources, or capability, to substantially affect the enemy well-behind their lines and within their air defence umbrella.

    Honestly, you should just take my point on board. Anyone who disagrees with it was never a professional and has little idea of how these things work. It is a very basic observation.

    • Agree: Not Raul
  60. @showmethereal
    @Bashibuzuk

    Ummmm.... Isn't "Moscow Times" run by westerners??? You think they are credible?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Triteleia Laxa, @keypusher

    Neither West, nor RusFed are credible. Their propaganda mouthpieces should be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism. And we have also to confront their pov against each other and try to find a balance between their biased narratives.

    • Agree: S
    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @Bashibuzuk

    Oh ok. I was just making sure you weren’t saying “Moscow Times” is like some official Russian source.

  61. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @showmethereal
    @Bashibuzuk

    Ummmm.... Isn't "Moscow Times" run by westerners??? You think they are credible?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Triteleia Laxa, @keypusher

    Where is the huge and strong Russian military then?

    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Ummm as far as I know - Moscow never mobilized there military but has been using the bare minimum. Maybe you missed that’s why they just called for a partial mobilization…. I don’t need declassified documents to understand that. I do know they have had huge military drills in the Far East with about a dozen other nations while this was going on. Now if you ask WHY they did not fully mobilize and treated this lore like a police action - then I have no answer…

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Another Polish Perspective

  62. @Greasy William
    @Beckow


    With $100+ trillions in un-payable debts the West cannot save itself by issuing more debt. It mathematically cannot go on.
     
    It mathematically cannot go on forever but it can go on for much longer than you'd think possible. Even if this really is the end, it's an end that was brought forward by at least a decade thanks to the Covid lockdowns/spending.

    I hope that this is it, but I was sure that 2008 was the endgame and they managed to keep the ship floating for 11 years until Covid hit. I'm not certain that they can't do it again.

    you can’t raise prices by 20-30% for 5 years
     
    Yes you can. Doing just that is how historically every country has resolved unsustainable debt levels. The US will get there eventually, but not yet

    it was clear from the beginning that Russia can’t be defeated: they are at home and have nukes
     
    Putin could be overthrown and replaced with a leader more accommodating with the West, or Russia could break up into multiple countries. I think both of those things are extremely unlikely, but they are possible


    I do feel pretty optimistic about the military situation. I think the Russians will launch a winter offensive in December and I think they'll have some success. While the US economy might, might, be able to hang on indefinitely, the EU economies are going down this winter. The new Republican Congress won't be able to end funding for the war, but they might be able to reduce it. Once this war is over, then China can move on Taiwan and the end of US unipolarity will be official.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Beckow

    I agree that none of this will happen overnight. But there is a huge difference between a stable or growing West and slowly declining one. We have had a “peak West” – now the same steps taken on the way up will be retraced on the way down. That is a lot less fun.

    you can’t raise prices by 20-30% for 5 years

    Yes you can.

    You can try, but it will be very volatile. I am talking about Europe not US that has huge resources. We don’t have an ‘inflation‘ right now – inflation is a rise in prices and incomes. We only have prices rising and real assets going up, the incomes are not keeping up. Mathematically with 20-30% rise in prices for a few years the real incomes could be a third lower than today, or more. Most Europeans can’t do that.

    Holland had 17% inflation (annual) in September. And Holland is a solid well managed economy. The last 2 or 3 generations of very good life made Europeans not ready for a drop in living standards – the toys are being taken away, the energy is too expensive, by next year it could be food. The housing costs were too high even before 2020 and they have continued going up. If incomes stay frozen it will lead to a dramatic crisis – unlike US, Europe has a very riot-friendly big-city architecture.

    After 2008 the system was saved by a one-time coordinated move to lower interest rates to effectively zero. It stabilized the system, made the debts less onerous, and we muddled along for 10 years. Then the crazy self-inflicted Corona contraction happened. There was no orderly way back to normal economy after Corona. This war was wanted – maybe not in a smart way, but in a way one wants to get out of a situation, just to get out. The problem is that it took us to a lot worse place.

  63. @Here Be Dragon
    AP says:

    Genetically, Ukrainians, Poles and central/Southern Russians are nearly identical, while northern Russians are quite different. Do you think that Poles, Ukrainians and non-Northern Russians are one ethnicity?
     
    Poles are definitely of a different ethnicity.

    The Polish language belongs to a different language group, Poles are of a different religious denomination and they use a different alphabet. The genesis of their language points out that historically they are of a different ethnicity.

    https://i.postimg.cc/Jnf309gC/Languages.png

    On top of that there is alienation between theirs and that of the East Slavic peoples religious affiliation. These influences are sufficient for formation of a separate ethnic group. And Poles are different enough genetically as well.

    East Slavs – Russians from central-southern regions, Belarusians and Ukrainians – form a cluster on their own, though these populations do not overlap entirely with each other.

    Russians from the northern region of the European part of Russia are differentiated from the rest of the East Slavs, and on genetic plots lie in the vicinity of their Finnic-speaking geographic neighbors.

    Poles either overlap or lie close to East Slavs.

    Genetic Heritage of the Balto-Slavic Speaking Populations
    https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0135820
     
    Therefore Ukrainians and Russians are one ethnicity. The exceptions are the northern Russians and the western Ukrainians – the former for being genetically more distant from the rest due to a close relationship with Finnic peoples, and the latter for being culturally different due to a close relationship with Poles.

    However the northern Russians are not as much different from the rest since they speak the same language and belong entirely to the same culture.

    The western Ukrainians are different from the rest because they speak a different language. We can say that these are a different ethnic group. The rest of the Ukrainians are not.

    https://i.postimg.cc/BQXgpBTz/Genetic-structure-of-the-Balto-Slavic-populations.png

    Replies: @AP

    The Polish language belongs to a different language group, Poles are of a different religious denomination and they use a different alphabet. The genesis of their language points out that historically they are of a different ethnicity.

    Correct. On the other hand, the flood of Polish words into the Ukrainian language is such that for a naive Ukrainian speaker (one who has learned neither Russian nor Ukrainian) the Polish language is about as easy/difficult to understand as is Russian. Russian is closer in grammar and pronunciation, Polish closer in vocabulary.

    And Poles are different enough genetically as well.

    On the chart you posted there is not much genetic overlap between Ukrainians and non-northern Russians, and Ukrainians are as close to Russians as they are to Poles. Belarussians overlap both Ukrainians and Russians. Slovenes are very close to Ukrainians, closer than Russians are (genetically, not culturally):

    All of three groups are close together of course.

    On top of that there is alienation between theirs and that of the East Slavic peoples religious affiliation.

    I’ve heard Poles complain that one of the greatest sins of the Varangians/Rus is that they imposed the Eastern Christian Church upon their East Slavic subjects/slaves. This separated them from their Polish brothers.

    And religious rite is not the only factor. Orthodoxy in Ukraine was heavily influenced by Catholicism even though it was anti-Catholic.

    The western Ukrainians are different from the rest because they speak a different language. We can say that these are a different ethnic group. The rest of the Ukrainians are not.

    By “western Ukrainians” this would apply not only to Galicians but also to people from the Right Bank and in Poltava on the other side of the Dnipro- areas where the majority are Ukrainian speaking.

    And then you have a place like the city of Kiev. Mostly Russian-speaking by first or preferred language of use, but nearly everyone fluent in Ukrainian also. And many if not most of the Russian-speakers in places like Kiev have Ukrainian-speaking cousins in some village , or Ukrainian-speaking grandparents, or friends with whom they socialize in the Ukrainian language. In other words, although Ukrainian is not their primary language it is not a foreign language for them either. And this makes such Russian-speaking Ukrainians very different from a Russian-speaking Russian from Moscow, or Samara, or Sevastopol.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @AP


    I’ve heard Poles complain that one of the greatest sins of the Varangians/Rus is that they imposed the Eastern Christian Church upon their East Slavic subjects/slaves.
     
    The divide between Eastern Orthodox and Latin Catholic churches was not that radical at the time. Rus princes and princesses married with Catholic monarchs without their Orthodox faith being seen as something problematic.

    Also at the time it was way more profitable to be economically tied to Byzantium than to the Frankish West, which was not yet completely recovered from the dire consequences of the fall of Rome.

    Finally, Eastern Orthodox Church accepts the liturgy being conducted in the language of the parishioners, while the Latin Catholic Church forbade that at the time. We should also remember that the Orthodox made the effort of helping with the development of the Glagolithic and Cyrillic alphabets much better suited for Slavic languages transcription than Latin alphabet.

    This being said, both the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches have during hundreds of years pitched their flocks against each other in the Slavic lands. Perhaps Slavs should have kept to their roots and honored the Gods of their forefathers instead of fighting and quarreling due to the influence of conflicting sects of an exotic cult vying for a dominant role in that geographic area.

    Replies: @216, @AP

    , @Here Be Dragon
    @AP


    On the chart you posted there is not much genetic overlap between Ukrainians and non-northern Russians, and Ukrainians are as close to Russians as they are to Poles.
     
    There is one subgroup of Russians that is close to a subgroup of Poles. That subgroup of Russians is closer to Poles and to Slovaks than to other Russians or Ukrainians.

    Most Ukrainians are closer to Slovenians and Slovaks, and a half of Ukrainians overlap with Belarusians, whereas a half of Belarusians overlap with southern and central Russians.

    Northern Russians are closer to Baltic and Finnic peoples than to other Russians. However northern Russians are a minor group that is located north of Moscow.

    Ukrainians are closer to Belarusians and Slovenians than to Poles. Belarusians overlap with most Russians, and Ukrainians with most Belarusians, therefore these three are closer to each other than to other groups.

    There is a greater distance between other Slavic subgroups within each of the other groups than there is between Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. Neither of the three overlap with Poles.

    Belarussians overlap both Ukrainians and Russians. Slovenes are very close to Ukrainians, closer than Russians are.
     
    Belarusians therefore are a sort of genetic bridge between Ukrainians and Russians.

    The three colors of the flag of Russia represent these three parts of one people. Ukrainians were placed in the middle – that is wrong.

    White color should be in the middle, red above it and blue below. But such is the flag of the Netherlands, and it had been before. The flag of Croatia is the same but features a coat of arms.

    And the flag of Ukraine is in fact the flag of Dalmatia – now a region of Croatia that used to be the independent Kingdom of Dalmatia.

    I’ve heard Poles complain that one of the greatest sins of the Varangians/Rus is that they imposed the Eastern Christian Church upon their East Slavic slaves.
     
    Tell them that Varangians were never called the Rus'. The notion of that was proposed to Peter the Great and the idea appealed to him because he hated Russian people and admired Europeans, so due to a German historian at his court we now have to argue about that – Rus' is a Slavic word.

    The Rus' were never slaves of Varangians. All efforts to find a group of Varangians called the Rus' failed and there is no such a word in the Scandinavian languages. The Varangians were a small clan that was chosen to rule for being a neutral force between other tribes.

    This separated them from their Polish brothers.
     
    Tell them that Russians were baptized first and Poles second as well. Poles rebelled against the Church and most Poles were not in fact Christians until 1030-40.

    By “western Ukrainians” this would apply not only to Galicians but also to people from the Right Bank and in Poltava on the other side of the Dnipro.
     
    Yes as a matter of fact that should be applied at large to all those whose mother tongue – which is spoken at home – is Ukrainian. But as we know it was brought to the south and east of what is now Ukraine from the west, the same as Russian was brought there from the north and the east.

    Hence there is a simple rule: the Russian-speaking Ukrainians are for the most part ethnic Russians.

    Many if not most of the Russian-speakers in places like Kiev have Ukrainian-speaking cousins in some village, or Ukrainian-speaking grandparents, or friends with whom they socialize in Ukrainian.
     
    Most rather do not, but some for sure do have. How large is their share we cannot estimate, but the larger it is the closer are the two peoples. We can guess that a lot less Ukrainians have cousins or grandparents in Poland.

    And this makes such Russian-speaking Ukrainians very different from a Russian-speaking Russians from Moscow, or Samara, or Sevastopol.
     
    A bit different, if we put them under a microscope.
  64. @showmethereal
    @Bashibuzuk

    Ummmm.... Isn't "Moscow Times" run by westerners??? You think they are credible?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Triteleia Laxa, @keypusher

    They’re quoting a named member of the State Duma talking about a particular general…sounds like a straightforward factual account. Even a biased media source typically won’t just make up something like that.

    Anyone read any native Russian media about this?

    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @keypusher

    Well for one thing I don’t speak the language so I don’t know if it is correct. But one thing I definitely know is context is key. I know nothing about the general nor the actual situation. I personally know of instances where things have been directly quoted but taken hugely out of context or a quote has been used by a disgruntled person to try to prove a narrative when it was never a consensus nor fact. Is that the case here? I admittedly do not know. But I DO know that “Moscow Times” is an anti Putin and pro western publication. It is basically a western publication based in Russia (many go work for the AP or CNN before or after) - so can’t be trusted to be objective.
    Personally I know little about the region. I started reading blogs like this to get educated on the matter. I only started paying attention after the 2014 coup - because I knew that meant the US was attempting a major disruption in the area.
    Now I know a handful of Russians and they are apolitical (and live in the west). So for instance when I came across videos of Mariupol where the people were GLAD to see the Russians and were talking about the treatment they received at the hands of the Ukrainian right wing nationalists - I asked them to tell me if the translations were true. They said it was correct. One literally broke down crying. The issue has been known for years and they were genuinely heartbroken at the gate Russians received (again they live in the west). When I asked what the real mood in Russia they say yes some are against military action - but the majority support Putin and if anything blame him for being too soft in dealing with the matter…. You can’t think I’m making it up - but I’m not. And I trust those people more than I do the media.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @keypusher

  65. After 2008 the system was saved by a one-time coordinated move to lower interest rates to effectively zero. It stabilized the system, made the debts less onerous, and muddled along for 10 years.

    Also, part of the deal was that the US would get at least weak economic growth for that 11 year period while literally every other industrialized country besides New Zealand, Australia and Israel would stagnate. Hopefully the rest of the world decides not to go along with that this time, should such a thing even still remain possible.

  66. Both are strong men who know that they will pay the price if RusFed is replaced with a social construct even more servile to the Globalized West. Both also know that much can be gained in the Times of Troubles by courageous and violent landlords. Both command respect from their fighters in the way the feudal landlords sometimes did. Both prepare for what is coming next, when VVP hits the exit (one way or another).

    Agree wholeheartedly with this. My only question is do large masses of the Russian people want to be ruled by them. I mean, nobody will be asking them, of course, but will they submit? Hey, they might even prefer these guys at this point, right? It’s just that they’re both really bad criminals. Then again, some of the ancient warlords probably fit that definition as well… and so did the Leningrad gang.

    [MORE]

    Russians are used to die on the frontline. For most Russian men this type of death is entirely normal

    I am aware of this, yes (and I secretly admire that). But it’s mostly the salt of the earth type of men who are that way. And how much the Russian women can take (but again, nobody will ask them).

    The problem of the current war in Ukraine is that the goals are far from being either entirely clear or morally acceptable.

    That’s the crux of the matter. Because it is not the Matushka herself who is attacked, but just the idea of the historical Russia (which normally could inspire the men, but not all of them). This is also very late in the war to mobilize (as you noted and as was in fact visible already in February, the second echelon had not even been prepared then).

    Around 2015, the late commander of the Prizrak Battalion of the LNR – Mozgovoy – once spoke with the officers on the Ukrainian side via a live television link. Interestingly enough, both sides soon arrived to the conclusion that this war is not fought in the interest of the populations on both sides of the frontline.

    I don’t know much about Mozgovoy but what little I saw of him, he seemed like a “no nonsense” type and socially conservative. His resources must’ve always been limited. I think these more salt of the earth type of guys were removed because they were inconvenient. It sometimes happens in peace time militaries, too.

    some say that he was liquidated by the FSB, some by the SBU, perhaps it was a joint operation because both special services equally loathed his populism.

    That’s a very interesting thought about the potential communication between the two. It seems that they do talk, during the Kyiv operation, the FSB gave some data to the SBU about Kadyrov’s troops because apparently they hate them. They might drop some data in these current battlefields, too.

    Well, FSB / Kremlin may not like these more populist guys (and of course they would be more independent and more difficult to control), but they don’t seem to have been able to set up more competent administrations. Which works in Ukraine’s favor. You know that the likes of Babchenko and other pro-UA bloggers often say things such as “Thank God for the corruption in Russia”. Because that makes Russia weaker and allows the UA to win.

    There was a time when this type of discussion and honest debate could lead to a more humane approach towards POWs on both sides, but today there’s too much hatred.

    I completely understand the rage on both sides (it’s probably even worse than what I imagine). For those who are ideological ones on the Russian side and the Ukrainians who are fighting for their homeland – let them fight it out.

    I am unfortunately not sure at all that Russia has what it takes to get through this ordeal. I feel pessimistic about the prospects of the Russian state. But I also know that Russian people have survived even worse situations.

    The problem is that due to years of Putinism the nation is partially hollowed out.

    In this case, I hope that some region of the former Russian Realm might perhaps become a core for completing the Russian nation-building. But here again, hope is scarce because Globalization is probably too strong to allow for that to happen.

    I hope for this, too, and that it can be built based on amicability with us. We will need you for leverage in the future and as a shoulder to lean on, if needed. And I know it is our job to prove that we are worth it for you.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    The problem is that due to years of Putinism the nation is partially hollowed out.
     
    It's not just Putin and his clique, not even the post-Soviet RusFed or the Soviets that hollowed out the Russian spirit. It started much earlier and took centuries to get to this situation that we are witnessing today. Although Tsarist Empire was named "Russian" for the most important part of its history, it treated most ethnic Russians and other Slavs in its lands as second class citizens to the cosmopolitan Imperial elites. The Slavs and other native ethnic groups were mostly enserfed, while the elites were nearly 50 percent ethnically not-Slav (Turkic/Tatar, German, but also Lithuanian and Polish ancestry was very common among the Imperial aristocracy).

    The economy was as extractive as it is today: make the muzhik toil the land and harvest its produce or extract its riches, then sell everything to the "Western Partners" and buy the advanced technology from them. And while the plebs go broke and hungry, the imperial elites could enjoy a high standard of living traveling far and wide and spending time in the West.

    In fact, Putin and his clique wanted to reproduce the lifestyle of the Imperial elites. They wanted to become the new Russian aristocracy. But of course they failed because they are parvenu nouveau riche who should have read the fable about the frog and the bull and not trying to fit and walk into their imperial predecessors' shoes that are way too large for them.
  67. @Greasy William
    @216


    Ground attack aircraft cannot survive even legacy air defense systems
     
    I think they could with the right countermeasures. It's just that Russian ECM are total garbage.


    You aren't even supposed to use ground attack aircraft until SEAD is complete, so I have no idea what the Russians are even doing.

    Replies: @216, @Thorfinnsson

    The F-111 was modified into the EF-111 with jamming capabilities. RF has failed to copy that with the Fullback, which is probably a better platform than the Super Hornet.

    There has been only sporadic use (supposedly) of the single squadron’s worth of Felons, which are the only assured way that the remaining Ukrainian fast air can be destroyed given its tremendous AWACS aid from NATO planes over the border.

    • Replies: @Not Raul
    @216

    Why don’t the Russians copy cheap 1980s and 1990s tech?

    Haven’t they had time to get info on the EF-111, JDAM, ect.?

    It would save them a lot of trouble.

  68. Bashibuzuk says:
    @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    The Polish language belongs to a different language group, Poles are of a different religious denomination and they use a different alphabet. The genesis of their language points out that historically they are of a different ethnicity.
     
    Correct. On the other hand, the flood of Polish words into the Ukrainian language is such that for a naive Ukrainian speaker (one who has learned neither Russian nor Ukrainian) the Polish language is about as easy/difficult to understand as is Russian. Russian is closer in grammar and pronunciation, Polish closer in vocabulary.

    And Poles are different enough genetically as well.
     
    On the chart you posted there is not much genetic overlap between Ukrainians and non-northern Russians, and Ukrainians are as close to Russians as they are to Poles. Belarussians overlap both Ukrainians and Russians. Slovenes are very close to Ukrainians, closer than Russians are (genetically, not culturally):

    https://i.postimg.cc/BQXgpBTz/Genetic-structure-of-the-Balto-Slavic-populations.png

    All of three groups are close together of course.

    On top of that there is alienation between theirs and that of the East Slavic peoples religious affiliation.
     
    I've heard Poles complain that one of the greatest sins of the Varangians/Rus is that they imposed the Eastern Christian Church upon their East Slavic subjects/slaves. This separated them from their Polish brothers.

    And religious rite is not the only factor. Orthodoxy in Ukraine was heavily influenced by Catholicism even though it was anti-Catholic.

    The western Ukrainians are different from the rest because they speak a different language. We can say that these are a different ethnic group. The rest of the Ukrainians are not.
     
    By "western Ukrainians" this would apply not only to Galicians but also to people from the Right Bank and in Poltava on the other side of the Dnipro- areas where the majority are Ukrainian speaking.

    And then you have a place like the city of Kiev. Mostly Russian-speaking by first or preferred language of use, but nearly everyone fluent in Ukrainian also. And many if not most of the Russian-speakers in places like Kiev have Ukrainian-speaking cousins in some village , or Ukrainian-speaking grandparents, or friends with whom they socialize in the Ukrainian language. In other words, although Ukrainian is not their primary language it is not a foreign language for them either. And this makes such Russian-speaking Ukrainians very different from a Russian-speaking Russian from Moscow, or Samara, or Sevastopol.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Here Be Dragon

    I’ve heard Poles complain that one of the greatest sins of the Varangians/Rus is that they imposed the Eastern Christian Church upon their East Slavic subjects/slaves.

    The divide between Eastern Orthodox and Latin Catholic churches was not that radical at the time. Rus princes and princesses married with Catholic monarchs without their Orthodox faith being seen as something problematic.

    Also at the time it was way more profitable to be economically tied to Byzantium than to the Frankish West, which was not yet completely recovered from the dire consequences of the fall of Rome.

    Finally, Eastern Orthodox Church accepts the liturgy being conducted in the language of the parishioners, while the Latin Catholic Church forbade that at the time. We should also remember that the Orthodox made the effort of helping with the development of the Glagolithic and Cyrillic alphabets much better suited for Slavic languages transcription than Latin alphabet.

    This being said, both the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches have during hundreds of years pitched their flocks against each other in the Slavic lands. Perhaps Slavs should have kept to their roots and honored the Gods of their forefathers instead of fighting and quarreling due to the influence of conflicting sects of an exotic cult vying for a dominant role in that geographic area.

    • Replies: @216
    @Bashibuzuk


    Perhaps Slavs should have kept to their roots and honored the Gods of their forefathers instead of fighting and quarreling due to the influence of conflicting sects of an exotic cult vying for a dominant role in that geographic area.
     
    Europe is the Faith, and the Faith is Europe.

    You are not permitted to disagree with this statement.

    Before the light of Christ, the people were nothing but filthy barbarians. After, they became great conquerors. Deprived of Christ, they became nothing but filth degenerates all over again.

    Replies: @Sher Singh, @Bashibuzuk, @showmethereal

    , @AP
    @Bashibuzuk

    Generally agree with first three paragraphs. However, the Catholic faith of the western Slavs did not impede their development, despite the fact that the Latin script is more cumbersome than the Cyrillic for the Slavic languages. Indeed, the Catholic Slavic countries have generally been more advanced and pleasant places for their peoples. I say this as someone personally attached to the Eastern Rite, who cannot pray as effectively in a Roman church.

    For the reasons you outlined, it was logical for the Rus to have forced eastern Christianity rather than Islam or western Christianity upon their East Slavic servants. But doing so created a strong divisive factor between peoples who were probably still very similar to one another in the 10th century - and a barrier to later harmony.

    Paganism was a dead end (we discussed it before). It only survived in the Indian subcontinent, with its massive population, higher level of civilization, and location at the end of the world (and even there, it wasn't an easy survival). In the middle of Eurasia, among a less populous and more primitive people - it didn't stand a chance. If Slavs hadn't converted from their native heathenism to Christianity, they would have either become victims and subjects of western Crusading conquistadors or would have eventually become Muslims. The result might have been Germanized western Slavs ruled by their German conquistadors, and to their east - heavily-Tatar or Turkish influenced Muslims. Maybe even Turkic speaking, like the lost Tocharians. A very sad prospect.

  69. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    Yet another ongoing cunning RF trap for UA, now in north Kherson;)
     
    That's not a cunning trap. How many times does Saker have to explain that it's called mobile defense, as anyone minimally familiar with military science should know? Those poor advancing Ukrainians are doomed :-)

    Replies: @Not Raul

    What is the Saker’s batting average?

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @Not Raul

    You are mistaking the snark. I almost misunderstood myself on a casual skim.

  70. @216
    @Greasy William

    The F-111 was modified into the EF-111 with jamming capabilities. RF has failed to copy that with the Fullback, which is probably a better platform than the Super Hornet.

    There has been only sporadic use (supposedly) of the single squadron's worth of Felons, which are the only assured way that the remaining Ukrainian fast air can be destroyed given its tremendous AWACS aid from NATO planes over the border.

    Replies: @Not Raul

    Why don’t the Russians copy cheap 1980s and 1990s tech?

    Haven’t they had time to get info on the EF-111, JDAM, ect.?

    It would save them a lot of trouble.

  71. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LatW

    Both are strong men who know that they will pay the price if RusFed is replaced with a social construct even more servile to the Globalized West. Both also know that much can be gained in the Times of Troubles by courageous and violent landlords. Both command respect from their fighters in the way the feudal landlords sometimes did. Both prepare for what is coming next, when VVP hits the exit (one way or another).
     
    Agree wholeheartedly with this. My only question is do large masses of the Russian people want to be ruled by them. I mean, nobody will be asking them, of course, but will they submit? Hey, they might even prefer these guys at this point, right? It's just that they're both really bad criminals. Then again, some of the ancient warlords probably fit that definition as well... and so did the Leningrad gang.


    Russians are used to die on the frontline. For most Russian men this type of death is entirely normal
     
    I am aware of this, yes (and I secretly admire that). But it's mostly the salt of the earth type of men who are that way. And how much the Russian women can take (but again, nobody will ask them).

    The problem of the current war in Ukraine is that the goals are far from being either entirely clear or morally acceptable.
     
    That's the crux of the matter. Because it is not the Matushka herself who is attacked, but just the idea of the historical Russia (which normally could inspire the men, but not all of them). This is also very late in the war to mobilize (as you noted and as was in fact visible already in February, the second echelon had not even been prepared then).

    Around 2015, the late commander of the Prizrak Battalion of the LNR – Mozgovoy – once spoke with the officers on the Ukrainian side via a live television link. Interestingly enough, both sides soon arrived to the conclusion that this war is not fought in the interest of the populations on both sides of the frontline.
     
    I don't know much about Mozgovoy but what little I saw of him, he seemed like a "no nonsense" type and socially conservative. His resources must've always been limited. I think these more salt of the earth type of guys were removed because they were inconvenient. It sometimes happens in peace time militaries, too.

    some say that he was liquidated by the FSB, some by the SBU, perhaps it was a joint operation because both special services equally loathed his populism.
     
    That's a very interesting thought about the potential communication between the two. It seems that they do talk, during the Kyiv operation, the FSB gave some data to the SBU about Kadyrov's troops because apparently they hate them. They might drop some data in these current battlefields, too.

    Well, FSB / Kremlin may not like these more populist guys (and of course they would be more independent and more difficult to control), but they don't seem to have been able to set up more competent administrations. Which works in Ukraine's favor. You know that the likes of Babchenko and other pro-UA bloggers often say things such as "Thank God for the corruption in Russia". Because that makes Russia weaker and allows the UA to win.

    There was a time when this type of discussion and honest debate could lead to a more humane approach towards POWs on both sides, but today there’s too much hatred.
     
    I completely understand the rage on both sides (it's probably even worse than what I imagine). For those who are ideological ones on the Russian side and the Ukrainians who are fighting for their homeland - let them fight it out.

    I am unfortunately not sure at all that Russia has what it takes to get through this ordeal. I feel pessimistic about the prospects of the Russian state. But I also know that Russian people have survived even worse situations.
     
    The problem is that due to years of Putinism the nation is partially hollowed out.

    In this case, I hope that some region of the former Russian Realm might perhaps become a core for completing the Russian nation-building. But here again, hope is scarce because Globalization is probably too strong to allow for that to happen.
     
    I hope for this, too, and that it can be built based on amicability with us. We will need you for leverage in the future and as a shoulder to lean on, if needed. And I know it is our job to prove that we are worth it for you.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    The problem is that due to years of Putinism the nation is partially hollowed out.

    It’s not just Putin and his clique, not even the post-Soviet RusFed or the Soviets that hollowed out the Russian spirit. It started much earlier and took centuries to get to this situation that we are witnessing today. Although Tsarist Empire was named “Russian” for the most important part of its history, it treated most ethnic Russians and other Slavs in its lands as second class citizens to the cosmopolitan Imperial elites. The Slavs and other native ethnic groups were mostly enserfed, while the elites were nearly 50 percent ethnically not-Slav (Turkic/Tatar, German, but also Lithuanian and Polish ancestry was very common among the Imperial aristocracy).

    The economy was as extractive as it is today: make the muzhik toil the land and harvest its produce or extract its riches, then sell everything to the “Western Partners” and buy the advanced technology from them. And while the plebs go broke and hungry, the imperial elites could enjoy a high standard of living traveling far and wide and spending time in the West.

    In fact, Putin and his clique wanted to reproduce the lifestyle of the Imperial elites. They wanted to become the new Russian aristocracy. But of course they failed because they are parvenu nouveau riche who should have read the fable about the frog and the bull and not trying to fit and walk into their imperial predecessors’ shoes that are way too large for them.

  72. @Here Be Dragon
    Monitor of Halls says:

    I’ve seen this boilerplate for months, years even. Is it copy and pasted? Did you know you are full NPC on this issue?
     
    No I did not, and I have never seen someone who thought as I do. Most people either talk about taking Donbas and the south of Ukraine, or the whole of it.

    I think it should be the entire left bank and regarding the south it should depend on whether the rest of Ukraine becomes a neutral puppet state of Russia, or a part of Poland – if the latter is the case, Odessa should be taken as well.


    Anyway, let me rephrase my question: how would you react if Russia exploded a nuclear weapon in Ukraine?
     
    If there was a nuclear explosion in Ukraine I would think it was a false flag operation, because Russia has no need and no reason whatsoever to make such a stupid and irrational move. You trolls are pushing that narrative for some people to be able to assess the potential reaction of the general public, but it does not make sense.

    A nuclear explosion would be benefitial for Ukraine because that might result in a direct NATO interference. Such an event might lead to a potential expulsion of Russia from the UN Security Counsil – and therefore, it would be benefitial for the United States.

    But in no plausible scenario would it be benefitial for the Russians.

    Do not forget that while you and other trolls here are spinning out that "Yahoo! Ukraine attacks! The Russians are running!" – cow crap, what the Russians are in fact doing is shortening the frontline around the areas where the Ukrainians have amassed an immence amount of personnel, and are pushing forward re-taking a piece of wasteland having 8:1 advantage in manpower. That "Northern Victory" of yours is meaningless.

    And in the meantime while you are here posting all that stupid bunch of nonsense on all the fences all over the place, the Russians are mobilizing 300 thousand people and are preparing the infrustructure for their arrival.

    Better start thinking what you will be writing here when they start a real offensive later this winter.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    The Russian military are not much use more than 90 miles from a railhead. That’s at least one of the reasons that it was preposterous that they could have completely overrun Ukraine. The other alamist thing was saying there was a total invasion with only 150,000 soldiers.

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @Wokechoke


    The Russian military are not much use more than 90 miles from a railhead.
     
    If you mean infantry or artillery then it does not matter which military or what country, they all depend on logistics and therefore on proximity of railroads or airfields, or at least some regular roads.

    Other than that I cannot think of anything that might indicate that their military is of no use.

    Here is a page that you should take a look at.
    https://warsawinstitute.org/comparing-western-supplies-ukrainian-losses-war-russia/

    "The Warsaw Institute is a Polish-based geopolitical think tank."

    The numbers of losses I assume to be understated, considering where the data comes from, and it is the data for the first four months so it should be perhaps doubled. The data does not include the demolished ammunition depots.

    And it still looks like the Russians are doing effective work.

    That’s at least one of the reasons that it was preposterous that they could have completely overrun Ukraine.
     
    Ukraine is a big country. It would require at least a million or perhaps even two million people to overrun it. You cannot move in with such an amount of people into a wasteland – where would they sleep? What would they eat?

    They will need to get ammunition supplied, and hospitals to be set up, and food and shelter to be prepared first of all. It would have been a disaster had they indeed decided to try a blitzkrieg.

    The Russians planned it from the beginning to establish a front line first and then prepare the needed infrustructure before mobilization.

    The other alarmist thing was saying there was a total invasion with only 150,000 soldiers.
     
    It was a propaganda gossip. As if they tried but failed. Failures, failures all the time – look at our trolls here. Hard-working people.

    Let us wait a couple of months. The winter is not going to be boring.

    https://i.postimg.cc/8k38grps/Western-supplies-and-Ukrainian-losses-in-the-war-against-Russia-1.jpg

    https://i.postimg.cc/rmmHvq7S/Western-supplies-and-Ukrainian-losses-in-the-war-against-Russia-2.jpg

    https://i.postimg.cc/qB9kXFCm/Western-supplies-and-Ukrainian-losses-in-the-war-against-Russia-3.jpg

    https://i.postimg.cc/dQdMvVLB/Western-supplies-and-Ukrainian-losses-in-the-war-against-Russia-4.jpg

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

  73. 216 says: • Website

    JDAM is cheap, but the GPS constellation is not. Presumably the limited Russian budget led to concerns that NATO would shoot all the GLONASS satellites down during a war, making a JDAM copy useless.

    Instead they chose the hypersonic missile, which US doesn’t have yet, but when it does, it will be better. The kinzhal appears designed for use against naval targets, and secondarily as a way to preserve the Foxhound rice bowl.

    The name “Fullback”, to those not familiar with American football, is used as a blocking position so that the “Halfback” can run the football down the field. From a Western perspective, the plane is aptly named, but Russia isn’t using the plane properly.

    An EF-111 copy has little interest to export customers, save China, which hasn’t bought the plane. The Fullback has only one named customer, Algeria, which is little more than a petrodictatorship which wants trophies that won’t actually be used.

    The AK-12 is this in small form. Captured rifles haven’t been issued with rail mounted optics, which is the only real advantage it has over the AK-74. Western reviews of the AK-12 have been negative, while reviews of the more expensive A-545 have been rather positive.

    Russian optics haven’t been embargoed for export to the West, by either RF or the US. Nor has there been any major order of Holosun optics from China which would make those AK-12s useful.

    But meanwhile in the US, our new XM5 rifle has the most powerful round ever issued to an infantry rifle, which can destroy any type of body armor in existence. But with only a slight increase in weight, its combination suppressor/muzzle break means that it does not recoil much harder than the M4 (which by virtue of weight/barrel does recoil harder than the M16).

    And that’s before we mention the classified superscope, which will turn every infantryman into a sniper, and possibly have anti-drone capabilities as the technology develops.

    It’s horribly expensive, and will irritate NATO partners having to buy a proprietary gun and ammo all over again.

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @216

    I wonder where do these trolls get all this drivel from?


    The limited Russian budget led to concerns that NATO would shoot all the GLONASS satellites down.
     
    No one can shoot them down – these satellites are on the high orbit (500-700 km).

    They chose the hypersonic missile, which US doesn’t have yet, but when it does, it will be better.
     
    Of course – much better! Meanwhile the Russians have two models of these and are working on another one.

    From a Western perspective, the plane is aptly named [Fullback], but Russia isn’t using the plane properly.
     
    Fullback is the NATO reporting name for the Sukhoi Su-34. It is a 4th generation plane analogous to the American F-15E. What is the point of discussing it?

    Captured [AK-12] rifles haven’t been issued with rail mounted optics, which is the only real advantage it has over the AK-74.
     
    If it was captured without optics that means the optics were in fact stolen. These AK are issued with a collimator sight.

    Apart from the rail it is better than the AK-74 in that it has a free-floated barrel and improved ergonomics, a better rear iron sight and as a result longer effective range.

    Western reviews of the AK-12 have been negative, while reviews of the more expensive A-545 have been rather positive.
     
    These reviews are not based on experience. Both of these rifles are not available in the West.

    However the A-545 (now called the KORD 6P67 or 6P68) is a better rifle indeed. It features the balanced recoil design (BARS) which is unique. These rifles have no recoil whatsoever!

    https://i.postimg.cc/FFfb5rBC/KORD-6-P67.jpg

    And besides these look good.

    Meanwhile in the US, our new XM5 rifle has the most powerful round ever issued to an infantry rifle, which can destroy any type of body armor in existence.
     
    The round – 6.8x51 mm SIG (or .277 SIG Fury) – is the same as 7.62×51 mm NATO (or .308 Winchester). The rifle is nothing special if we disregard its ugliness. It is for sure the ugliest rifle ever made.

    As for the round it has been done before and is being done now – in particular the Belgian FAL and more recent SCAR-H rifles are chambered in 7.62×51 mm.

    Due to higher pressure the barrels wear out faster, due to stronger recoil automatic fire is hard to handle. And of course it does not destroy any type of body armor.

    Its combination suppressor/muzzle break means that it does not recoil much harder than the M4.
     
    It does recoil much harder than the AK-12 or the AK-15, and for sure a lot harder than KORD which does not recoil at all.

    https://i.postimg.cc/d30xvzgm/XM5-rifle.jpg

    The device pictured here is not a combination of suppressor/muzzle break but a regular sound suppressor. That means we can add another $1000 to the cost of the rifle if it is planned to be issued as that.

    And that’s before we mention the classified superscope, which will turn every infantryman into a sniper, and possibly have anti-drone capabilities.
     
    The most moronic comment of the week. You have won.

    It’s horribly expensive, and will irritate NATO partners having to buy a proprietary gun and ammo all over again.
     
    The NATO partners are not going to purchase it and in fact the U.S. is planning to get some 100 thousand of these for their close combat forces.

    Now please stop posting such nonsense.

    Replies: @216

  74. 216 says: • Website
    @Bashibuzuk
    @AP


    I’ve heard Poles complain that one of the greatest sins of the Varangians/Rus is that they imposed the Eastern Christian Church upon their East Slavic subjects/slaves.
     
    The divide between Eastern Orthodox and Latin Catholic churches was not that radical at the time. Rus princes and princesses married with Catholic monarchs without their Orthodox faith being seen as something problematic.

    Also at the time it was way more profitable to be economically tied to Byzantium than to the Frankish West, which was not yet completely recovered from the dire consequences of the fall of Rome.

    Finally, Eastern Orthodox Church accepts the liturgy being conducted in the language of the parishioners, while the Latin Catholic Church forbade that at the time. We should also remember that the Orthodox made the effort of helping with the development of the Glagolithic and Cyrillic alphabets much better suited for Slavic languages transcription than Latin alphabet.

    This being said, both the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches have during hundreds of years pitched their flocks against each other in the Slavic lands. Perhaps Slavs should have kept to their roots and honored the Gods of their forefathers instead of fighting and quarreling due to the influence of conflicting sects of an exotic cult vying for a dominant role in that geographic area.

    Replies: @216, @AP

    Perhaps Slavs should have kept to their roots and honored the Gods of their forefathers instead of fighting and quarreling due to the influence of conflicting sects of an exotic cult vying for a dominant role in that geographic area.

    Europe is the Faith, and the Faith is Europe.

    You are not permitted to disagree with this statement.

    Before the light of Christ, the people were nothing but filthy barbarians. After, they became great conquerors. Deprived of Christ, they became nothing but filth degenerates all over again.

    • Replies: @Sher Singh
    @216

    https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/777363024196796426/1020101624116559892/unknown.png

    https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/777363024196796426/1011208658069246032/unknown.png

    https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/777363024196796426/991617372605665361/abram-and-sarai.jpg

    https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/777363024196796426/991564929620525076/unknown.png

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @216

    I see where you're coming from.

    Pray explain, how is it then that European populations mainly speak Indo-European languages and have had a common mythological and spiritual matrix thousands of years before the Christianity came to dominate there ?

    How is it that those Aryan people who had not met and/or accepted Abrahamic religions managed to have outstanding religious thought (Vedas, Avesta, Buddhadharma) and build mighty Empires (Persian, various Indian dynasties including the Scythian ones) ?

    Was it Logos working through their hands, speaking in their tongues and fighting through their swords ?

    🙂

    Replies: @Coconuts

    , @showmethereal
    @216

    Greeks and Romans went to conquer others and were not Christians. And being a conquerer is against the words of Christ. So how does that make sense? That’s a false religion papered over a Greco Roman base. No conquering until He returns as a lion and if you read - he won’t be returning to Rome or anywhere in Europe. It says what mountain

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

  75. In fact, Putin and his clique wanted to reproduce the lifestyle of the Imperial elites. They wanted to become the new Russian aristocracy. But of course they failed because they are parvenu nouveau riche who should have read the fable about the frog and the bull and not trying to fit and walk into their imperial predecessors’ shoes that are way too large for them.

    Well put. Another aspect is that it seems they want to be like Stalin and Berezovsky in one. Meant figuratively, of course. And that doesn’t work. Meaning, they want to capture what was strong about the former SU leaders / ideology, but at the same time park their assets, move their progeny and live the high life in the West.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  76. @Not Raul
    @Mikel

    What is the Saker’s batting average?

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    You are mistaking the snark. I almost misunderstood myself on a casual skim.

    • Thanks: Not Raul
  77. @Bashibuzuk
    @AP


    I’ve heard Poles complain that one of the greatest sins of the Varangians/Rus is that they imposed the Eastern Christian Church upon their East Slavic subjects/slaves.
     
    The divide between Eastern Orthodox and Latin Catholic churches was not that radical at the time. Rus princes and princesses married with Catholic monarchs without their Orthodox faith being seen as something problematic.

    Also at the time it was way more profitable to be economically tied to Byzantium than to the Frankish West, which was not yet completely recovered from the dire consequences of the fall of Rome.

    Finally, Eastern Orthodox Church accepts the liturgy being conducted in the language of the parishioners, while the Latin Catholic Church forbade that at the time. We should also remember that the Orthodox made the effort of helping with the development of the Glagolithic and Cyrillic alphabets much better suited for Slavic languages transcription than Latin alphabet.

    This being said, both the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches have during hundreds of years pitched their flocks against each other in the Slavic lands. Perhaps Slavs should have kept to their roots and honored the Gods of their forefathers instead of fighting and quarreling due to the influence of conflicting sects of an exotic cult vying for a dominant role in that geographic area.

    Replies: @216, @AP

    Generally agree with first three paragraphs. However, the Catholic faith of the western Slavs did not impede their development, despite the fact that the Latin script is more cumbersome than the Cyrillic for the Slavic languages. Indeed, the Catholic Slavic countries have generally been more advanced and pleasant places for their peoples. I say this as someone personally attached to the Eastern Rite, who cannot pray as effectively in a Roman church.

    For the reasons you outlined, it was logical for the Rus to have forced eastern Christianity rather than Islam or western Christianity upon their East Slavic servants. But doing so created a strong divisive factor between peoples who were probably still very similar to one another in the 10th century – and a barrier to later harmony.

    Paganism was a dead end (we discussed it before). It only survived in the Indian subcontinent, with its massive population, higher level of civilization, and location at the end of the world (and even there, it wasn’t an easy survival). In the middle of Eurasia, among a less populous and more primitive people – it didn’t stand a chance. If Slavs hadn’t converted from their native heathenism to Christianity, they would have either become victims and subjects of western Crusading conquistadors or would have eventually become Muslims. The result might have been Germanized western Slavs ruled by their German conquistadors, and to their east – heavily-Tatar or Turkish influenced Muslims. Maybe even Turkic speaking, like the lost Tocharians. A very sad prospect.

    • Thanks: Sher Singh
  78. @Bashibuzuk
    @YetAnotherAnon


    Putin managed to face down and tame his own oligarchs, who were and are a pretty nasty bunch. But now he’s fighting the world champion nasty oligarchs.
     
    He and his friends simply became the biggest oligarchs.

    He did not free RusFed from corruption.

    And now it might well result in a crushing defeat.

    Replies: @Dmitry

    It’s a boring topic without so much complexity. But I’ll write a final post about it. Westerners are often writing in this forum about Putin having the war with oligarchs, like these “oligarch people” are the opposing or hijacking class that contrasts with the state power in the postsoviet countries (this is what you can read from the users like AP, Karlin, Sailer, Reinor Tor), while forgetting the source of the money this class are provisionally holding.

    I think these netizens have the model from the American capitalism. They think oligarch is a kind of businessman who has generated money because of inventing a business as Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos.

    Elon Musk could use the money from the entrepreneur’s invention (e.g. Paypal and Tesla) to change the public opinion in the elections (buy Twitter). Americans have the fears about Muskian wealth like in “Citizen Kane”, where the interests of a businessman is degrading the democracy and the transparency of information access.

    Westerners are worried the public will be tricked by these private businessmen who will influence to elect politicians that support their interests.

    An inverse implication is they believe the possibility of patriotic politicians who can fight against the private businessmen.

    Such kind of patriotic politicians will defend the legal branch of the government against financial interests. A strong politician should fight for the position of the ordinary citizen, so each individual citizen has equal political influence, in contrast to only the “big money” interest that often corrupts American politics. There was some of the unlikely narratives that Q Anon has attached for Donald Trump, like he would fight against the “big money”.

    But that is America. In many countries wealth is not something outside government, but the source of the big money is primarily – government. A situation with oligarchs in postsoviet countries will be easy to understand for people from Iran or Saudi Arabia, or even most countries in the world.

    A lot more simple in such countries. If you were talking to Saudis, they would understand where the wealth of the oligarchs is in origin, although you might need to add some new vocabulary like “Prince”.

    In the postsoviet space not just the laws are from the state, but the main industries are properties of state to recent years. The owning of the former state property are nowadays informally attached to the royal court. Some oligarchs have to work managing parts of court, including in the finances. It’s like if you see all the money in the bank and without understanding the bank is holding not only its own money.

    Westerners ask why some of the courts’ cashiers are falling from the power and hiring private militaries for their exile security, believing because the politicians might be opposed to businessmen as a general class, not as simply individuals, not remembering dangers for individual traitors have been the same in Soviet times, or for disobedient individual people like Khashoggi in countries like Saudi Arabia. (There are people like Khashoggi who fall into trouble with the Saudi authorities, as individuals, not as a class.)

    They don’t seem to think about whose permission they have to hold this money or who allows to have this money. Whose money they are also holding informally in postsoviet countries? Who allows you to hold the money that was so central to the state, only recently not formally the state, and still informally not so distant from it?

    But he is basically of Polish-Galician ethnic stock and he is deeply attached to his roots.

    He is and always will be partial.

    Lol I don’t think we can blame Poles and their nationalism based in the self-determination of peoples against the oppression of the empires, too much for the views of AP, from his colonial house in somewhere like New England.

    Peoples like Poles believe nationalism based in the 19th century concept, but in America it’s more like immigrants are supporting their favorite sports team, sometimes with a lot of wealth for this “hobby”.

    To cultural context AP, I feel it is assimilation of the culture of post-Ellis Island immigrants in the North Eastern states in the US. They support their ethnic origin like a baseball team, as also their religious group. Irish are funding the independence partisans in Ireland, Jews were supporting development in “New Yishuv” in Palestine.

    But from what I understand of my years writing with him, AP is also living in elite area in North East US, where it is normal to boast of your personal prestige. It is a place where there is the strong pressure to climb the social ladder. Maybe he wasn’t in an “Ivy”, but from his writing it is like he needs ways to match such kind of prestigious neighbors.

    I assume he has become a “real white person”, although his family are immigrants from the undeveloped parts of the world and he has political views more of Cuban immigrants in Miami, not so many prestigious virtue signaling of the normal WASPs in Dartmouth or Yale.

    As for AP’s way of thinking. America has been a successful country as a colony, so I would not says this cultural context was more maladaptive than our own context. Probably my writing smells bad for him like he is talking to someone who is in the ashheap of history and that I have an unhealthy addiction to rolling on the trash.

    The same goes for Mr Hack, who is a nice person of Ukrainian background and who is rooting for the country of his ancestors

    I’m receiving some kind of relaxing atmosphere of sitting next to a cactus tree in Arizona from Mr Hack.

    Perhaps it is due to the very nature of our native language, which is so precise and complex and yet so open to lexical innovation and search for novel meaning?

    It’s a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml

    Нам внятно всё — и острый галльский смысл,
    И сумрачный германский гений…

    А если нет — нам нечего терять,
    И нам доступно вероломство!
    Века, века вас будет проклинать
    Больное позднее потомство!

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Dmitry


    Lol I don’t think we can blame Poles and their nationalism based in the self-determination of peoples against the oppression of the empires...
     
    From what I remember the Poles also have a fairly strong 'patrician nationalist' tradition going back to the Commonwealth, where the nobility is considered the spine or organising force of the nation. (Pilsudski was part of this tendency?) This would be more similar to monarchical nationalism in France, where the ideal would be kingdoms existing within a revived Christendom, rather than self-determination of peoples in the democratic and Germanic romantic sense.

    In France there was a certain amount of tension between different strands of nationalism, I got the impression it was true in Poland as well.
    , @Barbarossa
    @Dmitry

    I was thinking to myself that a succinct explanation is that Putin channeled the oligarchy, constraining it to his approved circle. The 90's were an unrestrained pillage and the Putin era represents a more constrained and directed pillage of national resources.

    This explains why the narrative of Putin vs. Oligarchs has traction. It's true, but only to a limited extent. A better framing would be Putin vs. Some Oligarchs.

    Really this is not so different than the dynamic in the West since one is only allowed to loot the State if one has the proper connections. If one has these, the pork barrel is open!

    Replies: @Dmitry

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Dmitry


    In many countries wealth is not something outside government, but the source of the big money is primarily – government.
     
    Silicon Valley is a wonderfully disguised military industry plantation. Musk, Bezos, Gates et al are on 1st name basis with the biggest criminals in Washington D.C.

    For all practical purposes they are the same as the biggest criminals in Washington D.C. or these guys from Russia that have you tearing your hair out. You don't have a country?

    Join the club buddy. None of us does.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @Dmitry


    It’s a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml
     
    Well, he was named "the mirror of the Russian revolution" for a reason.

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ.

     

    I agree that we should do it more and focus less on the unfortunate events unfolding in Ukraine. For many among us it is turning into an obsession for obvious reasons. There is more to life than this.

    Speaking of which:

    https://youtu.be/cIMKJ43TFLs

    🙂

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Yahya

    , @Mr. Hack
    @Dmitry

    You're correct in noting that I've taken a more laid back view of commenting here than usual, but I'm not laying underneath a saguaro tree trying to find some shade, it's that I've come down with what we used to call a "cold". A terrible frog has found a home in my throat, and I'm dousing it every few hours with a quarter vile of oregano/olive oil (wonderful stuff that I wholeheartedly recommend for this sort of thing). It's nice to be noticed by somebody of your stature here at this blog. Perhaps, you more than anybody else, has actively pursued keeping this blog a viable concern.


    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum

     

    Indeed. You and I went on and on once about the bus and rail systems of several cities in the world (photos and all). Well, the Phoenix Light rail system has continued to grow, you'll be happy to know.

    And there was our discussions comparing a Mozart vs a Beethoven piano concertos. I thought that I held up pretty well to your obviously more sophisticated approach to the subject.

    https://media.kjzz.org/s3fs-public/styles/special_story_images_aspect_switcher/public/metrocenter-light-rail-transit-center-rendering-20191007.jpg?itok=ypHnKTZB

    Replies: @Barbarossa

  79. @Here Be Dragon
    Philip Owen says:

    The language is irrelevant. I speak English. I am most definitely not English.
     
    As I told you before you do not understand what an identity is and how it works. I am a Ukrainian-born, Russian-speaking half-Romanian, and half-Jew.

    Define my ethnic belonging.

    Exactly the same happened in my country as happened in Ukraine. A flood of immigrant speakers of the imperial language settled during a coal mining boom and swamped the local language.
     
    You got it all backwards.

    Ukraine had not been a separate state when Poland conquered it, nor had there been a separate Ukrainian language at the time. Poland conquered a part of Russia – some territories of a part of what is now Ukraine.

    The population of those territories were the same Russian people, who spoke the Russian language in other parts of Russia. The eastern and southern part of what is now Ukraine were then a part of the Crimean Khanate, where Turkic peoples lived.

    It was due to segregation from the rest of Russia and the influence of Polonization the Ukrainian language appeared, as a result of assimilation of those Russians who had spent a few hundred years under the Polish rule.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonization

    The eastern and southern parts of Ukraine were conquered and populated with immigrants from other parts of Russia. As a result of that, now we have a country in which one half of the population is affiliated with Poland, and the other with Russia.

    And the Ukrainian language was not replaced with Russian – it has been prevalent in those parts of Ukraine that were re-conquered from Poland, and even in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine there were schools where instructions were given in Ukrainian.

    Most of schools in the rural areas were Ukrainian, as that was the native language of rural population. Those Ukrainian-speaking people were as much the immigrants in those southern and eastern territories, as were the Russian-speaking urban populations.

    To put it plain and simple, the people in the western part of Ukraine are Polonized Russians.

    My loss of my own language accentuates the challenge to my identity, it doesn’t reduce it.
     
    Of course it does.

    Language influences relationships, relationships turn into relatedness over time, and given it enough time a new ethnic group can form, due to a language alone.

    Language influences self-perception, and at the same time the perception of a person by other people. I do not speak Romanian, so I feel being less of a Romanian I would be, if I did. At the same time, for the Romanians I am as much a Romanian, as the surname I bear makes them feel whether I am one of them or not.

    You know how the Jews define who is a Jew?

    A Jew is someone who considers himself a Jew, if other Jews consider him a Jew as well.

    Replies: @AP

    Ukraine had not been a separate state when Poland conquered it, nor had there been a separate Ukrainian language at the time. Poland conquered a part of Russia – some territories of a part of what is now Ukraine.

    The population of those territories were the same Russian people, who spoke the Russian language in other parts of Russia. The eastern and southern part of what is now Ukraine were then a part of the Crimean Khanate, where Turkic peoples lived.

    It was due to segregation from the rest of Russia and the influence of Polonization the Ukrainian language appeared, as a result of assimilation of those Russians who had spent a few hundred years under the Polish rule.

    This is misleading. Russia is Great Russia, rebranded Muscovy, same as the northeastern parts of Rus, the principality of Suzdal. It has developed its own language and customs.

    Ukraine was never a part of Russia in this sense until Russia started grabbing parts of it from the 17th century. Just as Italy, Spain, or France were never part of Romania.

    There were various East Slavic tribes who were conquered and subjugated by the Rus, and took their name. They had been apart for a few centuries by the time the Rus took over, so even then by the 9th century they probably had certain cultural and linguistic differences, as Americans do from the English. Rus split into warring principalities by 1150, and Mongols swept in around 1240.

    Those Rus people living in the northeast would be be ruled by Tatars for a couple of centuries, would have some influence from them, when their language would eventually be standardized it would include a lot of Church Slavonic words (South Slavic). These would be the Russians. They called themselves Russky.

    The Rus in the central and western parts would be ruled by Poland and would get a flood of Polish cultural and linguistic influence. They would call themselves Rusyns or Rusnaks. They would call Russians – Muscovites, and consider them to be a foreign people. In the 19th century they would rename themselves Ukrainians.

    The Ukrainians were once Rus but they had never been Russians (that is, having the Muscovite culture and speaking the Great Russian/Russian language with its Church Slavonic and Asian words).

    The ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs was not a process of some Russians becoming Ukrainians, but rather it was some Rus becoming Ukrainians and other Rus becoming Russians. As some Romans became Italians, others became Romanians, others Spaniards, etc.

    I am a Ukrainian-born, Russian-speaking half-Romanian, and half-Jew.

    You are ignoring the fact that 2 of your 4 grandparents were Russians, because you think that ancestry is limited to patrilineal and matrilineal lines; that you are not 50% descended from your Russian maternal grandfather and Russian paternal grandmother.

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @AP


    This is misleading. Russia is Great Russia, rebranded Muscovy, same as the northeastern parts of Rus, the principality of Suzdal. It has developed its own language and customs.
     
    You are wrong and you know it.

    The names Great Russia, White Russia and Little Russia were created to designate the three parts of one land and one state called the land Rus' during the times when these three parts were separated. The Church created these names.

    The Russian Orthodox Church needed these names remaining the metropolitanate of most churches in the three parts of Rus' in order to address each part in particular if need be. The principality of Suzdal was in fact the center of the White Russia.

    The name Muscovy was never used in Russia itself other than to refer to the principality of Moscow. There were a lot of principalities in Russia. Even if or when these principalities were politically independent their populations remained one people.

    Ukraine was never a part of Russia in this sense until Russia started grabbing parts of it from the 17th century. Just as Italy, Spain, or France were never part of Romania.
     
    Russia did not start grabbing her own parts but started returning them back. When the Poles indeed grabbed a part of Rus' it was called not Ukraine at the time, nor was it even called Little Russia but it was the same Rus' as the part that remained Rus' after that.

    And in contradistinction to the false analogies with Spain and France the populations of both parts of Rus' were one people who spoke the same one language and belonged to the same one religious denomination and the same culture.

    Those Rus people living in the northeast would be be ruled by Tatars for a couple of centuries, would have some influence from them. These would be the Russians. They called themselves Russky.
     
    Before that all the population of Rus' called themselves Rusich.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich

    As a part of Rus' had been separated the Russian language in that part started to change, due to the influence of the Polish language. It is a normal process.

    The Rus in the central and western parts would be ruled by Poland and would get a flood of Polish cultural and linguistic influence. They would call themselves Rusyns or Rusnaks.
     
    The fact that these populations called themselves a bit different does not make them different peoples. It is an influence of the neighboring foreign languages – dirrerent suffixes correlate with traditional suffixes of the particular language the influence of which was experienced.

    For example Rusnakŷ or Rusnacy correlates with Slováci or Slovák and Polacy or Polak. Rusynŷ correlates with Români (Â is pronounced as Y).

    You seem to ignore that some of these names are non-native i.e. exonyms whereas what matters are endonyms, as well as that it is not a suffix which matters but the root, and the root of all these names is Rus'.

    Compare the Russian name for the Romanians – румыны, with the native name of the Rusyns – русыны.

    They would call Russians – Muscovites, and consider them to be a foreign people. In the 19th century they would rename themselves Ukrainians.
     
    These would refer to the population of the other part of Rus' as Muscovites in order to avoid confusion, the same as these so-called Muscovites referred to them as the Little Russians. A light difference in the names does not make two parts of one people foreign.

    The Ukrainians were once Rus but they had never been Russians (that is, having the Muscovite culture and speaking the Great Russian/Russian language with its Church Slavonic and Asian words).
     
    You are wrong again.

    The language these people called now the Ukrainians were speaking at the time of the reintegration of that part of Russia back into one state with the rest of it was not so different from the language of that other and larger part of Rus' back then as it is now.

    Those Ukrainians themselves were then calling their language руський and руська мова – i.e. the Russian language. The Russians were calling their language Russian as well. The differences between the two were considered to be dialects.

    The Ukrainian as we know it now was formed later in Poland and then spread across the central part of what is now Ukraine but not in full. There are dialects within the modern Ukrainian language, for that reason. There are three main dialects in it.

    And there are dialects in Russian as well, however there was no significant influence on it from the Asian languages but was an influence of the Finno-Ugric languages.

    Church Slavonic was the liturgical language of both the Russian Orthodox and the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church so I guess it had influence on both Russian and Ukrainian languages.

    The interaction of the Russians with the Tatars during the Yoke was minimal.

    Therefore there was not so much difference between the Great Russians and the Little Russians as some tend to imagine. There was not some particular Muscovite culture either. The Pechersk Lavra in Kiev is an example of the classic Russian architecture.

    The ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs was not a process of some Russians becoming Ukrainians, but rather it was some Rus becoming Ukrainians and other Rus becoming Russians.
     
    Russia is the Greek name for Rus' and, the same as the Latin name for it – Ruthenia, it is not her native name. The Russians adopted that name due to the influence of the Orthodox Church whereas the Ukrainians adopted the name Ruthenia, for the same reason – due to the Catholic Church.

    However the Ukrainians as a people were calling themselves Little Russians.

    So whether we speak about the Great, or the White, or the Little Russians, we speak about the Russians. The notion of the Ukrainians as a separate people was a much later and in fact political fabrication and not much else.

    As some Romans became Italians, others became Romanians, others Spaniards, etc.
     
    It is a false comparison.

    The full official title of the Russian monarch was The emperor or empress of all the Russias – всея Великия и Малыя и Белыя России.

    The historical, genetic and cultural distance between these peoples is far greater than between the Russians and the Ukrainians. Their languages are not interintelligible. Such a comparison would be appropriate if we were speaking about the Russians and the Croatians, or the Czech or the Slovenians.

    But for a comparison between the Russians and the Ukrainians a closer parallel would be the Spanish and the Catalans: there are some differences, but not so deep as to consider them indeed a different people.

    You are ignoring the fact that 2 of your 4 grandparents were Russians, because you think that ancestry is limited to patrilineal and matrilineal lines; that you are not 50% descended from your Russian maternal grandfather and Russian paternal grandmother.
     
    As I said before the autosomal genes are mutable to such a degree that we do net get the same genes our paternal grandmothers and maternal grandfathers pass – from them we get mutated and unrecognizable genes. The autosomal genes are generic and can point at a particular ethnic group but not a particular person.

    Because of that parenthood can be established through either Y-DNA or mtDNA. These chromosomes do not mutate and it is through these we inherit particular traits of the people who passed them to us.

    For that reason the ethnic origin of a person is derived either from his paternal or maternal lineage, i.e. the father of his father or the mother of his mother.

    Replies: @AP

  80. S says:
    @Emil Nikola Richard
    https://i0.wp.com/tlio.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/1024-map.gif

    Replies: @S, @Barbarossa

    There had been poor harvests before in Ireland, and what had been done in response was the common sense approach to limit food exports those years to tide people over.

    What was different about the Irish Famine (1845-50) was the application of what might be called Scientific Capitalism (as opposed to Scientific Communism), ie let the market take it’s course, aka laissez-faire Capitalism.

    People with no money didn’t have much clout in the market, so either left the country, begged, or, in many instances died from starvation. There was some private charity and in time some limited government intervention, ie food distribution in the form of low grade Indian corn and make work projects, but it wasn’t enough. It was a disaster.

    It of course would of been better to have kept with the earlier policy of limiting exports during the lean years. [Far better still, no British occupation.]

    • Agree: Barbarossa
    • Replies: @YetAnotherAnon
    @S


    [Far better still, no British occupation.]
     
    Just suppose the Norman conquerors of England and Wales had for some reason ignored the large and fertile island to the west, and just continued selling Anglo-Saxon slaves to the Viking kingdom of Dublin.

    https://www.buildinghistory.org/bristol/saxonslaves.shtml


    How long would it have been before some other power ruled, Norway, Spain or France perhaps? I suppose there would be a chance that a native Irish ruler might unite the island and expel or assimilate the Vikings.

    But Ireland's misfortune was to be be next door to a powerful Norman/Angevin king in Henry II. He owned a big chunk of France and conquered more, he never spoke English, only Latin and French - so when Diarmaid mac Murchadha, deposed by High King Rory O'Connor, appealed to him for military aid the die was cast which would in time end Irish self-determination for 500 years.

    Just so did the kingdoms of the Britons fall 600 years before that, when Vortigern invited Angles and Saxons into Britain to help him fight the Picts and Scots.

    Replies: @YetAnotherAnon

  81. @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW



    The question is what kind of resources Prigozhin and Kadyrov could assemble under them.
     
    Both are strong men who know that they will pay the price if RusFed is replaced with a social construct even more servile to the Globalized West. Both also know that much can be gained in the Times of Troubles by courageous and violent landlords. Both command respect from their fighters in the way the feudal landlords sometimes did. Both prepare for what is coming next, when VVP hits the exit (one way or another).



    These poor men are being driven into a sure death. They will soon be freezing. They need to come to the UA side as soon as they get there. They will survive and will be treated ok.

     

    Russians are used to die on the frontline. For most Russian men this type of death is entirely normal and acceptable as long as the goals of war are seen as clearly defined and ethically sound. The problem of the current war in Ukraine is that the goals are far from being either entirely clear or morally acceptable.

    Around 2015, the late commander of the Prizrak Battalion of the LNR - Mozgovoy - once spoke with the officers on the Ukrainian side via a live television link. Interestingly enough, both sides soon arrived to the conclusion that this war is not fought in the interest of the populations on both sides of the frontline. It is fought by the corrupt elites for the interests of their clans whom are more often than not linked with some foreign avoirs and interests. Then Mozgovoy got killed, some say that he was liquidated by the FSB, some by the SBU, perhaps it was a joint operation because both special services equally loathed his populism.

    There was a time when this type of discussion and honest debate could lead to a more humane approach towards POWs on both sides, but today there's too much hatred. Milchakov - the Russian ultra-nationalist and self-awoved national socialist who is commanding the Rusich special operations squadron, has recently publicly called for not talking prisoners alive, but for torturing Ukrainian POWs to extract information and then executing them. Similar practices have been occurring also on the Ukrainian side. If I was a Russian soldier on the frontline, I would think twice before surrendering.


    Everyone will fight against everyone now in the Russian establishment. Do the Russian people have the stamina to go through what is coming…
     
    I am unfortunately not sure at all that Russia has what it takes to get through this ordeal. I feel pessimistic about the prospects of the Russian state. But I also know that Russian people have survived even worse situations.

    I sure hope that once the RusFed is done with, some kind of healing process might begin. But perhaps I am just an idealist and the atoms would have decayed too much to yield the needed energy (to use a metaphor inspired by the poem of Georgyi Ivanov) and Russian history can no longer continue as a unified cultural space. After all, Ukraine has already come undound, why not other parts ?

    In this case, I hope that some region of the former Russian Realm might perhaps become a core for completing the Russian nation-building. But here again, hope is scarce because Globalization is probably too strong to allow for that to happen.

    Perun, give us strength!
     
    https://2ch.hk/b/arch/2017-06-22/thumb/155660961/14981224393400s.jpg

    May the spirits of our ancestors give us some wisdom to face these cruel moments. All of us are in dire need of clear understanding of what much be done and what has to be avoided.

    Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    China, through the one child policy also has been prevented from reaching its full demographic potential.

    WWII and Chinese Civil War barely dented China’s population. Mao despite being massively unscrupulous managed to triple PRC’s population. The Han race for better or worse lacks no fecundity.

    Russian Empire was supposed to have a population of around 400 million by the end of 1940ies, but wars, terror and famine prevented this.

    200 million Slavic women would have been very charming. But you really don’t want 1.4 billion Slavs, or 1.4 billions Swedes. They wouldn’t Slavs or Swedes anymore, but rather ant-like like the Han.

    Russians With Attitude said “we’re not gonna survive the fourth genocide in 120 years”. 50-80% depopulation was a cyclical thing in Chinese history. It’s definitely possible to survive, if risk losing some of your soul.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  82. @Sean
    @YetAnotherAnon


    I can’t see Russia being defeated long-term
     
    What makes you think so? Russia's long term trajectory was not a threat to anyone before this war and won't be after it even if it won.


    "If Ukraine defeats Russia, the United States must carefully reflect on its own history. Otherwise, its hubris could prove dangerous, FP’s @stephenWalt writes. '

    Russia needs to disengage, but it can't because Ukraine won't let go.

    Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    Fermi’s Paradox

    One doesn’t even need to look to AGI as explanation. But rather cannibalism, something that happens on a large scale on a cyclical basis in Chinese history, and not practiced even in the animal kingdom.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    Yes, I think along the same lines. Instead of going to the stars, we might well end just killing each other and perhaps eating each other on this planet. It is not technological advances that will kill us, we would probably use these advances to kill human civilization. In fact, some of these advances shouldn't have been made by people of unsound ethical standards. Ethics matter in the end.

    Replies: @Mikel

    , @Sean
    @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    Ordinary AI could maybe deactivate Russia's strategic thermonuclear weapons. That is what former CIA Russia expert George Beabe's The Russia Trap: How Our Shadow War with Russia Could Spiral into Nuclear Catastrophe is about.

    Beabe is interesting about the Ukraine war , he thinks further escalation is to be expected because both the US/Ukraine and Russia will think the other side will be brought to their senses by one more turn of the spiral.

    https://www.gingrich360.com/2022/10/02/newts-world-episode-466-russia-ukraine-war%EF%BF%BC/

    Beebe predicts the next Russian move will be heaviest possible bombardment of Ukrainian cities. I think it is clear that Ukraine will be given the 190 mile range ATACMS missile, (McMaster thinks the US was not confrontational enought with Putin over Ukraine and could have dissuaded him. He and and the other retired generals calling for that aforenoted next escalation that might make Putin balk, also seem surprisingly sanguine about the possibility that Putin would go tactical thermonuclear. Is that because they think the US could hack the Russian launch codes and stop the missiles being launched?

    Replies: @orchardist

  83. What do we do next? What happens after the Ukrainian victory?

    Arestovych spoke very candidly about this the other day. The idea is to establish a Kyiv centric order out of which the former Russian Realm will be organized, administered, led.

    Russia’s atrocities in places such as Bucha and the attempt to threaten the Ukrainian statehood have forced the Ukrainian side to think in new, more pro-active terms and start working on potentially projecting force into neighboring areas in the former post-Soviet space, including what is currently known as the Russian Federation. To implement a gigantic program of reformatting.

    The idea of de-nuclearization of the Russian Federation is floated. In the future, the de-nuclearization should be tied to the promise of removal of sanctions. Whether this can happen, is a big question, but it looks like they’re going to put it on the table.

    One could treat this as humor or some strange political fiction, if it wasn’t for the fact that Arestovych, who has made correct predictions in the past, is quite close to the presidential administration.

    Tremendous work and resources will be required. This is a chance for the EE nationalists to put their foot in the door and fight for their ideas to be heard and ideally implemented at least on some scale.

    I know this past week was intense and I’m not posting this to add fuel to the fire, but to demonstrate what incredible, almost fantastical conversations are now taking place in Ukraine.

    “We are the biggest donor of security in the post-Russian space,” Arestovych. “We will be writing the rules.”

    [MORE]

    In Russian, starts at 1:14:00

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @LatW

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXNacOkiSbM

    "The national idea of Ukraine is to lie as much as possible" – Arestovich.

    Replies: @LatW

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW

    Well, that would follow the late Brzezinsky's thought of "Rebuilding the West to balance the East". It would also follow into the past Papacy exhortations to Ruthenians in the seventeenth century to "carry the Light east". Ukraine as an anti-Russia, being used as a focal point of assembly of ancient Rus lands in a manner that would be more aligned with the Globalized West.

    Arestovitch being a smart man probably understands this and he understands more than anyone what the Ukrainian projet is all about: a younger and more energetic mafia clan replacing the elders who have grown complacent and too hedonistic. He is part and parcel of these "young hounds" who have chased the "old boars" from power in Kiev. Now he wants to be among those who replace them in Moscow too. That is why he has already spoken in favor of keeping the Russian language and culture alive in Ukraine. To ease the integration of the Moscovites into the new Globalist Emporium managed by the Kiev Khazaro-Varangians (pun intended).

    That might work or that might end up in a nuclear war. I can see his gamble, but for me it is a too dangerous one.

    (And they really ought to rename themselves Kievan Rus, that would sweeten the pill a little... 😁)

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @LatW

    , @German_reader
    @LatW


    The idea is to establish a Kyiv centric order out of which the former Russian Realm will be organized
     
    These ideas are delusional. If Ukraine ever tries to implement something of the sort, all Western aid must be ended immediately. The deal was help preserve Ukraine its independence, not some megalomaniac project about "reformating" the "Russian Realm" (sounds a lot like "Russian World" actually).

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @LatW

  84. Stating the obvious –

    https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/563918-west-panicking-energy-prices/

    Russians don’t bluff, they act. With the accession of four former Ukrainian territories to Russia, it should be clear to all that Moscow is determined to achieve all the goals it set out at the start of the conflict. In the meantime, the West is in panic. Their panic is irrational and dangerous.

    CrossTalking with George Szamuely and Martin Jay.

    • Agree: GomezAdddams
    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Mikhail

    After 7 months of Putin shill talking heads talking tough, don't you ever get bored of them? Aren't you yet repulsed by their hubris and delusion? Their faux certainty, even as their last set of predictions of guaranteed outcomes unravelled probably even the next night?

    When feminists, who like everyone, always has a good point somewhere buried under their inflexible narrative, talk of "toxic masculinity", and are at their most precise and reasonable, this is exactly what they mean. Aren't you exhausted by the bullsh*t?

    Replies: @Mikhail

  85. @LatW
    What do we do next? What happens after the Ukrainian victory?

    Arestovych spoke very candidly about this the other day. The idea is to establish a Kyiv centric order out of which the former Russian Realm will be organized, administered, led.

    Russia's atrocities in places such as Bucha and the attempt to threaten the Ukrainian statehood have forced the Ukrainian side to think in new, more pro-active terms and start working on potentially projecting force into neighboring areas in the former post-Soviet space, including what is currently known as the Russian Federation. To implement a gigantic program of reformatting.

    The idea of de-nuclearization of the Russian Federation is floated. In the future, the de-nuclearization should be tied to the promise of removal of sanctions. Whether this can happen, is a big question, but it looks like they're going to put it on the table.

    One could treat this as humor or some strange political fiction, if it wasn't for the fact that Arestovych, who has made correct predictions in the past, is quite close to the presidential administration.

    Tremendous work and resources will be required. This is a chance for the EE nationalists to put their foot in the door and fight for their ideas to be heard and ideally implemented at least on some scale.

    I know this past week was intense and I'm not posting this to add fuel to the fire, but to demonstrate what incredible, almost fantastical conversations are now taking place in Ukraine.

    "We are the biggest donor of security in the post-Russian space," Arestovych. "We will be writing the rules."

    In Russian, starts at 1:14:00

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQVOxpT4vag

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon, @Bashibuzuk, @German_reader

    “The national idea of Ukraine is to lie as much as possible” – Arestovich.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Here Be Dragon

    He is into experimental psychology so he says those kinds of provocative things a lot. It doesn't reflect on his geopolitical thoughts directly.

  86. @216
    @Bashibuzuk


    Perhaps Slavs should have kept to their roots and honored the Gods of their forefathers instead of fighting and quarreling due to the influence of conflicting sects of an exotic cult vying for a dominant role in that geographic area.
     
    Europe is the Faith, and the Faith is Europe.

    You are not permitted to disagree with this statement.

    Before the light of Christ, the people were nothing but filthy barbarians. After, they became great conquerors. Deprived of Christ, they became nothing but filth degenerates all over again.

    Replies: @Sher Singh, @Bashibuzuk, @showmethereal

  87. @Here Be Dragon
    @LatW

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXNacOkiSbM

    "The national idea of Ukraine is to lie as much as possible" – Arestovich.

    Replies: @LatW

    He is into experimental psychology so he says those kinds of provocative things a lot. It doesn’t reflect on his geopolitical thoughts directly.

    • Disagree: Here Be Dragon
  88. Bashibuzuk says:
    @216
    @Bashibuzuk


    Perhaps Slavs should have kept to their roots and honored the Gods of their forefathers instead of fighting and quarreling due to the influence of conflicting sects of an exotic cult vying for a dominant role in that geographic area.
     
    Europe is the Faith, and the Faith is Europe.

    You are not permitted to disagree with this statement.

    Before the light of Christ, the people were nothing but filthy barbarians. After, they became great conquerors. Deprived of Christ, they became nothing but filth degenerates all over again.

    Replies: @Sher Singh, @Bashibuzuk, @showmethereal

    I see where you’re coming from.

    Pray explain, how is it then that European populations mainly speak Indo-European languages and have had a common mythological and spiritual matrix thousands of years before the Christianity came to dominate there ?

    How is it that those Aryan people who had not met and/or accepted Abrahamic religions managed to have outstanding religious thought (Vedas, Avesta, Buddhadharma) and build mighty Empires (Persian, various Indian dynasties including the Scythian ones) ?

    Was it Logos working through their hands, speaking in their tongues and fighting through their swords ?

    🙂

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Bashibuzuk

    I was listening to a lecture about British paganism the other night by one of the better British historians and it is pretty confusing. There was the pre-Indo-European religious tradition, which was pretty developed, then the Iron Age one which the Romans maimed by killing all of the druids, then the Roman Imperial one. The Romans brought their gods, plus the gods and cults of the various subject peoples they brought into the British Isles. Christianity was one of those. Then the Saxons brought their pantheon, finally the Vikings brought theirs last.

    Lately Hindus have brought their gods into Britain again, so that is another new pantheon. Possibly there is something similar with other Western European countries which were occupied by the Romans then experienced 'the Barbarian migrations'. Maybe to a somewhat lesser extent than Britain, OTOH they were more connected with the broader Mediterranean/Middle Eastern traditions.

    Compared to peoples with a more pure or coherent pagan tradition, this history doesn't seem as promising from the point of view of developing a sense of contact with your ancestors. I like the Roman tradition and the Roman remains you can still see around my area, and it's interesting to hear about what is known about pre-Christian religion, or say, Irish myths, but Christianity is much more developed as a mature living religion with a long hereditary tradition by now, so it has this practical advantage.

  89. Bashibuzuk says:
    @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms
    @Sean

    Fermi's Paradox

    One doesn't even need to look to AGI as explanation. But rather cannibalism, something that happens on a large scale on a cyclical basis in Chinese history, and not practiced even in the animal kingdom.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Sean

    Yes, I think along the same lines. Instead of going to the stars, we might well end just killing each other and perhaps eating each other on this planet. It is not technological advances that will kill us, we would probably use these advances to kill human civilization. In fact, some of these advances shouldn’t have been made by people of unsound ethical standards. Ethics matter in the end.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Bashibuzuk


    In fact, some of these advances shouldn’t have been made by people of unsound ethical standards.
     
    I used to have a big dislike of American anti-Iranian hawks but after seeing the possibility of nuclear war closer than at any other time in my life, I'm not sure anymore. The world is objectively a better place when the minimum amount of ideological and religious nutters control that kind of weapons. Perhaps preventing nuclear proliferation would be one of the few instances where military interventionism is justified.

    Replies: @German_reader, @AnonfromTN

  90. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LatW
    What do we do next? What happens after the Ukrainian victory?

    Arestovych spoke very candidly about this the other day. The idea is to establish a Kyiv centric order out of which the former Russian Realm will be organized, administered, led.

    Russia's atrocities in places such as Bucha and the attempt to threaten the Ukrainian statehood have forced the Ukrainian side to think in new, more pro-active terms and start working on potentially projecting force into neighboring areas in the former post-Soviet space, including what is currently known as the Russian Federation. To implement a gigantic program of reformatting.

    The idea of de-nuclearization of the Russian Federation is floated. In the future, the de-nuclearization should be tied to the promise of removal of sanctions. Whether this can happen, is a big question, but it looks like they're going to put it on the table.

    One could treat this as humor or some strange political fiction, if it wasn't for the fact that Arestovych, who has made correct predictions in the past, is quite close to the presidential administration.

    Tremendous work and resources will be required. This is a chance for the EE nationalists to put their foot in the door and fight for their ideas to be heard and ideally implemented at least on some scale.

    I know this past week was intense and I'm not posting this to add fuel to the fire, but to demonstrate what incredible, almost fantastical conversations are now taking place in Ukraine.

    "We are the biggest donor of security in the post-Russian space," Arestovych. "We will be writing the rules."

    In Russian, starts at 1:14:00

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQVOxpT4vag

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon, @Bashibuzuk, @German_reader

    Well, that would follow the late Brzezinsky’s thought of “Rebuilding the West to balance the East”. It would also follow into the past Papacy exhortations to Ruthenians in the seventeenth century to “carry the Light east”. Ukraine as an anti-Russia, being used as a focal point of assembly of ancient Rus lands in a manner that would be more aligned with the Globalized West.

    Arestovitch being a smart man probably understands this and he understands more than anyone what the Ukrainian projet is all about: a younger and more energetic mafia clan replacing the elders who have grown complacent and too hedonistic. He is part and parcel of these “young hounds” who have chased the “old boars” from power in Kiev. Now he wants to be among those who replace them in Moscow too. That is why he has already spoken in favor of keeping the Russian language and culture alive in Ukraine. To ease the integration of the Moscovites into the new Globalist Emporium managed by the Kiev Khazaro-Varangians (pun intended).

    That might work or that might end up in a nuclear war. I can see his gamble, but for me it is a too dangerous one.

    (And they really ought to rename themselves Kievan Rus, that would sweeten the pill a little… 😁)

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk


    a younger and more energetic mafia clan replacing the elders who have grown complacent and too hedonistic.
     
    The group of Eastern Slavs forged in the fires of this war will not be some "mafia clan," even if they started as one. They've built a military capable of genuine combined arms warfare while under invasion, with mostly spare parts from the West, in a way that RusFed could not, in 20 years, with all of the natural resource wealth one could hope for.

    That's not just more "energetic." That's genuine national possession, and I mean it in a good way. Those Ukrainian artworks of giant angel-like apparitions, directing their missiles and troops, are true.

    Or, at least, that's the way it literally appears to me, and has throughout.



    https://twitter.com/Remmar24176350/status/1497903029017714690?s=20&t=D0SZ_Cwh7EAciURtHxfJKg

    https://twitter.com/AngelRo29058693/status/1576346430175944704?s=20&t=D0SZ_Cwh7EAciURtHxfJKg

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    , @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Ukraine as an anti-Russia
     
    Well, Russia, too, chose to not be amicable and not work with her problems. 30 years was very long, we are tired. We want to live.

    He is part and parcel of these “young hounds” who have chased the “old boars” from power in Kiev.
     
    You know, at least he's younger and brings in some fresh ideas and a more modern demeanor. It's about time.


    Now he wants to be among those who replace them in Moscow too. That is why he has already spoken in favor of keeping the Russian language and culture alive in Ukraine.
     
    I sense he did have this on his mind for a while, but only started speaking about it openly now (after Lyman, etc). But I had no idea he wants to go that far. The only question for me is if he can. This is all still very hypothetical.

    Him being in favor of retaining the Russian language initially was because he believes Ukraine should integrate Russianness since it would make Ukraine stronger (according to his logic). In the light of what he said yesterday, the Russian language will now be instrumental (this is the language that the friends of Ukraine to the East use). The Ukrainians will learn English, too, gradually.

    To ease the integration of the Moscovites into the new Globalist Emporium managed by the Kiev Khazaro-Varangians (pun intended).
     
    I know this is how it looks to you as you are attached to these ideas. And I appreciate that. But from Ukraine's point of view, given what happened that there was a barbaric attempt to erase Ukraine (which is still ongoing), Ukraine has to do what it takes for her own security (and security of others). As I said, when you initiate such big events, when you feel entitled to spin the wheel of Destiny, as Putin did, things will go out of your control and now everything that was kept inside for 30 years is coming out and falling into place. The Thundercross is spinning fast now.

    That might work or that might end up in a nuclear war. I can see his gamble, but for me it is a too dangerous one.
     
    I'm just putting it out here for you because this is new, such bold ideas were not floated yet before. I wouldn't consider it noteworthy if he weren't as close to the administration and so popular. He literally said "administer the realm" (speaking of parts of Russia from what I assumed, maybe he didn't mean literally, physically being there, and just dealing with whatever comes out of the current Russia in the next few years or maybe just dealing with places like Georgia and Moldova, remember that Georgia is now 10% Russian due to the recent influx and he wants to help Georgia handle it). Not sure it's possible to pull off, the human resources and work required for this is vast.

    And they really ought to rename themselves Kievan Rus, that would sweeten the pill a little… 😁
     
    Arestovych was going around a while back trying to rename Ukraine "Rus-Ukraina". This has been on his mind (even if may not gain traction). It's not like they don't know what this is. And it's not like they don't know who they are.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

  91. @German_reader
    @sudden death

    That's all nice and good, and in principle I even agree with much of it (pro-nuclear power, reducing dependence on a single supplier), but still, those pipelines didn't blow themselves up, and every scenario for "Russia did it" isn't exactly plausible. I've thought about it, and my gut feeling is that Ukraine did it, possibly with American support. PiS Poland are dicks, but in the end they're still daft Catholic conservatives who might have certain scruples. On the other hand, Ukraine's intelligence services have assassinated pro-Russian collaborators in the occupied territories. They probably also killed Dugin's daughter. From my pov there is no reason to think they also wouldn't be ruthless and capable enough to blow up Nordstream. And the implications of that would be enormous. At the very least there needs to be a serious investigation, not this bs where the matter is treated as if it is of no importance anyway.

    Replies: @LatW, @The Big Red Scary

    On the other hand, Ukraine’s intelligence services have assassinated pro-Russian collaborators in the occupied territories.

    Also in the territories retaken by Ukraine, though that dirty work is often done by the natsbats. In particular, the Diocese of Izyum-Kupansk was regularly posting photos of feast days and episcopal visits to local parishes, until they suddenly stopped doing so three weeks ago. Ukrainian nationalists and schismatics are very angry that Metropolitan Elisey and the priests and parishioners of his diocese blessed the new civil administration. Probably the metropolitan and many of the priests are dead or imprisoned.

    https://risu.ua/mitropolit-upc-mp-z-izyumu-blagoslovlyaye-kolaborantiv-a-svyashchenik-v-hersoni-propoviduye-yednist-z-zagarbnikami_n131275

    None of this is unusual by historical standards (brutal repression of civilian populations was carried out by all sides in World War II), but ultimately, it’s an unconscionable failure on the part of Moscow to tell the people of Izyum region that they were there to stay, only to evacuate without a fight.

    Go big or go home.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @The Big Red Scary


    None of this is unusual by historical standards (brutal repression of civilian populations was carried out by all sides in World War II), but ultimately, it’s an unconscionable failure on the part of Moscow to tell the people of Izyum region that they were there to stay, only to evacuate without a fight.
     
    Russia's performance in this war has been utterly embarassing. Putin shouldn't have taken this gamble, there's now a real risk that Russia will be permanently reduced and cease to have any credible claims to great power status. The alternatives are eking out some kind of win through massive bloodshed or all of us getting vaporized in a nuclear war.
    I can't comment on your claims about repression in the areas re-taken by Ukraine. But possibly there's at least some truth to them. One more reason why I resent the foolish Westerners with their retarded dog avatars on Twitter and their Slava Ukraini nonsense. It's never a good idea to identify yourself completely with a foreign cause on which you have only limited influence at best.

    Replies: @The Big Red Scary

  92. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW

    Well, that would follow the late Brzezinsky's thought of "Rebuilding the West to balance the East". It would also follow into the past Papacy exhortations to Ruthenians in the seventeenth century to "carry the Light east". Ukraine as an anti-Russia, being used as a focal point of assembly of ancient Rus lands in a manner that would be more aligned with the Globalized West.

    Arestovitch being a smart man probably understands this and he understands more than anyone what the Ukrainian projet is all about: a younger and more energetic mafia clan replacing the elders who have grown complacent and too hedonistic. He is part and parcel of these "young hounds" who have chased the "old boars" from power in Kiev. Now he wants to be among those who replace them in Moscow too. That is why he has already spoken in favor of keeping the Russian language and culture alive in Ukraine. To ease the integration of the Moscovites into the new Globalist Emporium managed by the Kiev Khazaro-Varangians (pun intended).

    That might work or that might end up in a nuclear war. I can see his gamble, but for me it is a too dangerous one.

    (And they really ought to rename themselves Kievan Rus, that would sweeten the pill a little... 😁)

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @LatW

    a younger and more energetic mafia clan replacing the elders who have grown complacent and too hedonistic.

    The group of Eastern Slavs forged in the fires of this war will not be some “mafia clan,” even if they started as one. They’ve built a military capable of genuine combined arms warfare while under invasion, with mostly spare parts from the West, in a way that RusFed could not, in 20 years, with all of the natural resource wealth one could hope for.

    That’s not just more “energetic.” That’s genuine national possession, and I mean it in a good way. Those Ukrainian artworks of giant angel-like apparitions, directing their missiles and troops, are true.

    Or, at least, that’s the way it literally appears to me, and has throughout.

    [MORE]

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa


    That’s not just more “energetic.” That’s genuine national possession, and I mean it in a good way.
     


    All possessions are not created equal. One has to "test the spirits" before one accepts them in his heart. One has to understand the symbols right...

    https://www.ljplus.ru/img4/s/e/sergius_caesar1/Idol_Z2.jpg

    https://cs14.pikabu.ru/post_img/big/2022/09/05/3/1662345742190920880.jpg
  93. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Mikhail
    Stating the obvious -

    https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/563918-west-panicking-energy-prices/

    Russians don’t bluff, they act. With the accession of four former Ukrainian territories to Russia, it should be clear to all that Moscow is determined to achieve all the goals it set out at the start of the conflict. In the meantime, the West is in panic. Their panic is irrational and dangerous.

    CrossTalking with George Szamuely and Martin Jay.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    After 7 months of Putin shill talking heads talking tough, don’t you ever get bored of them? Aren’t you yet repulsed by their hubris and delusion? Their faux certainty, even as their last set of predictions of guaranteed outcomes unravelled probably even the next night?

    When feminists, who like everyone, always has a good point somewhere buried under their inflexible narrative, talk of “toxic masculinity”, and are at their most precise and reasonable, this is exactly what they mean. Aren’t you exhausted by the bullsh*t?

    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Kook alert:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/retired-general-david-petraeus-predicts-the-us-would-destroy-russia-s-military-in-ukraine-and-sink-its-naval-fleet-if-it-used-nuclear-weapons/ar-AA12wU49?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=80fa4ba4889a4364b71a251d9958d2aa

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  94. @Bashibuzuk
    @216

    I see where you're coming from.

    Pray explain, how is it then that European populations mainly speak Indo-European languages and have had a common mythological and spiritual matrix thousands of years before the Christianity came to dominate there ?

    How is it that those Aryan people who had not met and/or accepted Abrahamic religions managed to have outstanding religious thought (Vedas, Avesta, Buddhadharma) and build mighty Empires (Persian, various Indian dynasties including the Scythian ones) ?

    Was it Logos working through their hands, speaking in their tongues and fighting through their swords ?

    🙂

    Replies: @Coconuts

    I was listening to a lecture about British paganism the other night by one of the better British historians and it is pretty confusing. There was the pre-Indo-European religious tradition, which was pretty developed, then the Iron Age one which the Romans maimed by killing all of the druids, then the Roman Imperial one. The Romans brought their gods, plus the gods and cults of the various subject peoples they brought into the British Isles. Christianity was one of those. Then the Saxons brought their pantheon, finally the Vikings brought theirs last.

    Lately Hindus have brought their gods into Britain again, so that is another new pantheon. Possibly there is something similar with other Western European countries which were occupied by the Romans then experienced ‘the Barbarian migrations’. Maybe to a somewhat lesser extent than Britain, OTOH they were more connected with the broader Mediterranean/Middle Eastern traditions.

    Compared to peoples with a more pure or coherent pagan tradition, this history doesn’t seem as promising from the point of view of developing a sense of contact with your ancestors. I like the Roman tradition and the Roman remains you can still see around my area, and it’s interesting to hear about what is known about pre-Christian religion, or say, Irish myths, but Christianity is much more developed as a mature living religion with a long hereditary tradition by now, so it has this practical advantage.

  95. @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms
    @Sean

    Fermi's Paradox

    One doesn't even need to look to AGI as explanation. But rather cannibalism, something that happens on a large scale on a cyclical basis in Chinese history, and not practiced even in the animal kingdom.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Sean

    Ordinary AI could maybe deactivate Russia’s strategic thermonuclear weapons. That is what former CIA Russia expert George Beabe’s The Russia Trap: How Our Shadow War with Russia Could Spiral into Nuclear Catastrophe is about.

    Beabe is interesting about the Ukraine war , he thinks further escalation is to be expected because both the US/Ukraine and Russia will think the other side will be brought to their senses by one more turn of the spiral.

    https://www.gingrich360.com/2022/10/02/newts-world-episode-466-russia-ukraine-war%EF%BF%BC/

    Beebe predicts the next Russian move will be heaviest possible bombardment of Ukrainian cities. I think it is clear that Ukraine will be given the 190 mile range ATACMS missile, (McMaster thinks the US was not confrontational enought with Putin over Ukraine and could have dissuaded him. He and and the other retired generals calling for that aforenoted next escalation that might make Putin balk, also seem surprisingly sanguine about the possibility that Putin would go tactical thermonuclear. Is that because they think the US could hack the Russian launch codes and stop the missiles being launched?

    • Replies: @orchardist
    @Sean


    they think the US could hack the Russian launch codes and stop the missiles being launched?
     
    This is the thesis of Project Azorian.

    Replies: @Sean

  96. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk


    a younger and more energetic mafia clan replacing the elders who have grown complacent and too hedonistic.
     
    The group of Eastern Slavs forged in the fires of this war will not be some "mafia clan," even if they started as one. They've built a military capable of genuine combined arms warfare while under invasion, with mostly spare parts from the West, in a way that RusFed could not, in 20 years, with all of the natural resource wealth one could hope for.

    That's not just more "energetic." That's genuine national possession, and I mean it in a good way. Those Ukrainian artworks of giant angel-like apparitions, directing their missiles and troops, are true.

    Or, at least, that's the way it literally appears to me, and has throughout.



    https://twitter.com/Remmar24176350/status/1497903029017714690?s=20&t=D0SZ_Cwh7EAciURtHxfJKg

    https://twitter.com/AngelRo29058693/status/1576346430175944704?s=20&t=D0SZ_Cwh7EAciURtHxfJKg

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    That’s not just more “energetic.” That’s genuine national possession, and I mean it in a good way.

    [MORE]

    All possessions are not created equal. One has to “test the spirits” before one accepts them in his heart. One has to understand the symbols right…

  97. @A123
    @AnonfromTN


    Success is impossible without clear understanding what the reality is and changing accordingly. The same applies to the US conservatives.
     
    Certainly, Leftoids are sending huge amounts of money to fund Kiev regime aggression.

    After the midterms, incoming MAGA Republicans will be Christian Populist (not establishment conservative). This will reduce, though not eliminate, U.S. funds transfers supporting Zelensky's violence against Russian Orthodox Christians. Change takes time. In a single, two-year step, modestly improving the situation is the best that can be achieved.

    Hopefully this will be a signal to Ukie Maximalists that their dreams of conquest are about to collapse. What is most needed is an armistice that stops the shooting ASAP.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

    The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 is now in force, so transfers of materiel to the Ukraine no longer require Congressional approval. This law is in force through the end of FY2023, and the odds of the incoming Congress passing a new law to repeal or restrain its over President Biden’s veto are approximately zero.

    There is unlikely to even be any attempt to restrain aid to the Ukraine. Only ten Republicans voted no on the law in the House, and passage in the Senate was unanimous. None of the House Republicans who voted no are in line for leadership positions: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2022141

    American public opinion broadly supports aiding the Ukraine: https://news.gallup.com/poll/401168/americans-back-ukrainian-goal-reclaiming-territory.aspx

    Even among Republicans, by 56 to 43 more Republicans support maintaining current levels of assistance (26%) or increasing it (26%) over reducing it.

    With no Congressional leaders in favor of scaling back aid to the Ukraine and no political profit in doing so, it’s hard to see why a GOP Congress would do anything. At most they’ll investigate irregularities in its provision.

    Russia will only find assistance from the friends Tsar Alexander II noted (since the Russian Air Force would appear to not be much of a friend).

    • Thanks: sudden death, Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Keypusher
    @Thorfinnsson

    Am I right to think that the aid would only cover Biden’s designations of military equipment to be sent to Ukraine? Other types of aid would require new appropriations?

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

  98. @Dmitry
    @Bashibuzuk

    It's a boring topic without so much complexity. But I'll write a final post about it. Westerners are often writing in this forum about Putin having the war with oligarchs, like these "oligarch people" are the opposing or hijacking class that contrasts with the state power in the postsoviet countries (this is what you can read from the users like AP, Karlin, Sailer, Reinor Tor), while forgetting the source of the money this class are provisionally holding.

    I think these netizens have the model from the American capitalism. They think oligarch is a kind of businessman who has generated money because of inventing a business as Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos.

    Elon Musk could use the money from the entrepreneur's invention (e.g. Paypal and Tesla) to change the public opinion in the elections (buy Twitter). Americans have the fears about Muskian wealth like in "Citizen Kane", where the interests of a businessman is degrading the democracy and the transparency of information access.

    Westerners are worried the public will be tricked by these private businessmen who will influence to elect politicians that support their interests.

    An inverse implication is they believe the possibility of patriotic politicians who can fight against the private businessmen.

    Such kind of patriotic politicians will defend the legal branch of the government against financial interests. A strong politician should fight for the position of the ordinary citizen, so each individual citizen has equal political influence, in contrast to only the "big money" interest that often corrupts American politics. There was some of the unlikely narratives that Q Anon has attached for Donald Trump, like he would fight against the "big money".

    But that is America. In many countries wealth is not something outside government, but the source of the big money is primarily - government. A situation with oligarchs in postsoviet countries will be easy to understand for people from Iran or Saudi Arabia, or even most countries in the world.

    A lot more simple in such countries. If you were talking to Saudis, they would understand where the wealth of the oligarchs is in origin, although you might need to add some new vocabulary like "Prince".

    In the postsoviet space not just the laws are from the state, but the main industries are properties of state to recent years. The owning of the former state property are nowadays informally attached to the royal court. Some oligarchs have to work managing parts of court, including in the finances. It's like if you see all the money in the bank and without understanding the bank is holding not only its own money.

    Westerners ask why some of the courts' cashiers are falling from the power and hiring private militaries for their exile security, believing because the politicians might be opposed to businessmen as a general class, not as simply individuals, not remembering dangers for individual traitors have been the same in Soviet times, or for disobedient individual people like Khashoggi in countries like Saudi Arabia. (There are people like Khashoggi who fall into trouble with the Saudi authorities, as individuals, not as a class.)

    They don't seem to think about whose permission they have to hold this money or who allows to have this money. Whose money they are also holding informally in postsoviet countries? Who allows you to hold the money that was so central to the state, only recently not formally the state, and still informally not so distant from it?



    But he is basically of Polish-Galician ethnic stock and he is deeply attached to his roots.

    He is and always will be partial.
     
    Lol I don't think we can blame Poles and their nationalism based in the self-determination of peoples against the oppression of the empires, too much for the views of AP, from his colonial house in somewhere like New England.

    Peoples like Poles believe nationalism based in the 19th century concept, but in America it's more like immigrants are supporting their favorite sports team, sometimes with a lot of wealth for this "hobby".

    To cultural context AP, I feel it is assimilation of the culture of post-Ellis Island immigrants in the North Eastern states in the US. They support their ethnic origin like a baseball team, as also their religious group. Irish are funding the independence partisans in Ireland, Jews were supporting development in "New Yishuv" in Palestine.

    But from what I understand of my years writing with him, AP is also living in elite area in North East US, where it is normal to boast of your personal prestige. It is a place where there is the strong pressure to climb the social ladder. Maybe he wasn't in an "Ivy", but from his writing it is like he needs ways to match such kind of prestigious neighbors.

    I assume he has become a "real white person", although his family are immigrants from the undeveloped parts of the world and he has political views more of Cuban immigrants in Miami, not so many prestigious virtue signaling of the normal WASPs in Dartmouth or Yale.

    As for AP's way of thinking. America has been a successful country as a colony, so I would not says this cultural context was more maladaptive than our own context. Probably my writing smells bad for him like he is talking to someone who is in the ashheap of history and that I have an unhealthy addiction to rolling on the trash.

    The same goes for Mr Hack, who is a nice person of Ukrainian background and who is rooting for the country of his ancestors
     
    I'm receiving some kind of relaxing atmosphere of sitting next to a cactus tree in Arizona from Mr Hack.

    Perhaps it is due to the very nature of our native language, which is so precise and complex and yet so open to lexical innovation and search for novel meaning?
     
    It's a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml

    Нам внятно всё — и острый галльский смысл,
    И сумрачный германский гений…

    А если нет — нам нечего терять,
    И нам доступно вероломство!
    Века, века вас будет проклинать
    Больное позднее потомство!

     

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Barbarossa, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Bashibuzuk, @Mr. Hack

    Lol I don’t think we can blame Poles and their nationalism based in the self-determination of peoples against the oppression of the empires…

    From what I remember the Poles also have a fairly strong ‘patrician nationalist’ tradition going back to the Commonwealth, where the nobility is considered the spine or organising force of the nation. (Pilsudski was part of this tendency?) This would be more similar to monarchical nationalism in France, where the ideal would be kingdoms existing within a revived Christendom, rather than self-determination of peoples in the democratic and Germanic romantic sense.

    In France there was a certain amount of tension between different strands of nationalism, I got the impression it was true in Poland as well.

  99. @LatW
    @AnonfromTN

    Putin is at war with reality.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Wanderghost

    Putin is at war with reality.

    Given the reality of unlimited monkeypox piss orgies, lumbering pedo beast girlbosses everywhere, Hunter Biden, borders looking like they’re having a sale at the brothel, jewish admiral strutting around in women’s clothes, etc etc etc, it is a war worth fighting.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wanderghost

    What Putin murdering Ukrainians has to do with all of that, I have no idea. I suppose you have some 12 dimensional chess fantasy in your head?

    Anyway, the fact is that, despite what you describe so histrionically, the balance of white migration is heavily favoured towards the US.

    So just as we know it is actually a pretty good place for Africans because they keep moving there, so too do we know that for whites. And whites are choosing to move from countries far nicer than any in Africa.

    There are a lot of things to improve, but your black and white thinking is broken.

    Replies: @Wanderghost

  100. @216
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    If I was them I would be thinking about pulling out of NATO and closing the American bases.
     
    Germany refused to stop the mass invasion of migrants, and now explicitly discriminates against ethnic Germans for government jobs.

    It's a nation of cucks.

    Replies: @Wanderghost

    Just like Master.

  101. @Greasy William
    @216


    Ground attack aircraft cannot survive even legacy air defense systems
     
    I think they could with the right countermeasures. It's just that Russian ECM are total garbage.


    You aren't even supposed to use ground attack aircraft until SEAD is complete, so I have no idea what the Russians are even doing.

    Replies: @216, @Thorfinnsson

    The RuAF basically does not have a SEAD capability. It has no dedicated electronic attack aircraft and no “Wild Weasel” squadrons dedicated to hunting enemy air defense systems.

    Ten electronic warfare variants of the Su-24, the Su-24MP, were built in 1980. None are any longer in service: https://web.archive.org/web/20141219023949/http://www.sukhoi.org/eng/planes/military/su24mk/history/

    The only electronic warfare Flanker variant is Chinese: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42511/chinas-j-16d-electronic-attack-jet-seen-sporting-jamming-pods-for-the-first-time

    A limited number of jamming pods such as Khibiny-U exist for deployment on the Su-30. These may have been used successfully on the airborne assault on Hostomel.

    Anti-radiation missiles do exist, but in Russian service are intended mainly to attack and destroy airborne early warning radar (AEWR) aircraft.

    The Russian Air Force suffers from trying to field a full spectrum air force on a shoestring, and to the extent it specializes it specializes in denying a numerically superior adversary air superiority over the territory on the Russian Federation. A NATO air campaign against Russia would suffer from some similar challenges to the Russian air campaign over the Ukraine.

    To the extent the Russian Air Force is conducting attack sorties (and it is), it suffers from a shortage of PGMs and inferior, low resolution targeting pods. This was not a problem in Syria due to permissive environment, but in the Ukraine it’s untenable. The standard of Russian pilot training is also poor.

    A good source for this is Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute.

    • Replies: @Sean
    @Thorfinnsson


    The Russian Air Force suffers from trying to field a full spectrum air force on a shoestring,
     
    The Russian army assumes in a major offensive war its enemy will have air superiority.

    To the extent the Russian Air Force is conducting attack sorties (and it is), it suffers from a shortage of PGMs and inferior, low resolution targeting pods.

     

    Most of all it suffers from omnipresent American surveillance and intel. Without that the Ukrainians would have had to spread themselves very thin indeed.

    A limited number of jamming pods such as Khibiny-U exist for deployment on the Su-30. These may have been used successfully on the airborne assault on Hostomel.
     
    It is pretty well established that the Ukrainians were told well beforehand about the plan to take Hostomel, and as a result Ukrainian artillery held their fire until there were concentrated there.
    Like the Soviets, the Russia army lacks all sorts of capabilities the West assumed they had; this is one reason for the extreme secretiveness of the Russian military about their equipment. It is worth mentioning that in the van of the invasion force were National Guard with riot control equipment.
    To beak the will of the Ukrainian population, highly sophisticated aircraft are not going to be usefully anyway. Unguided missiles with large warheads will be used, and the Russians have a lot.
    , @showmethereal
    @Thorfinnsson

    From my understanding- Russia went very heavy into air defense systems because it knew it couldn’t take on NATO’s Air Forces after Soviet collapse. So why is anyone surprised by that? I’m not general - but it is understandable that Russia’s military is not set up to be an offensive one like the US. The differences in mindset are readily apparent. Why are people expecting Russians to fight a war American style? Especially when with all of America’s tech prowess when boots have to go on the ground - the tale becomes very different…

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

  102. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Wanderghost
    @LatW


    Putin is at war with reality.
     
    Given the reality of unlimited monkeypox piss orgies, lumbering pedo beast girlbosses everywhere, Hunter Biden, borders looking like they're having a sale at the brothel, jewish admiral strutting around in women's clothes, etc etc etc, it is a war worth fighting.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    What Putin murdering Ukrainians has to do with all of that, I have no idea. I suppose you have some 12 dimensional chess fantasy in your head?

    Anyway, the fact is that, despite what you describe so histrionically, the balance of white migration is heavily favoured towards the US.

    So just as we know it is actually a pretty good place for Africans because they keep moving there, so too do we know that for whites. And whites are choosing to move from countries far nicer than any in Africa.

    There are a lot of things to improve, but your black and white thinking is broken.

    • Replies: @Wanderghost
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Oh Shilleus, do bite me.

  103. Uh oh…

    Whether it’s just an offensive desirable plan or reality we’ll know soon for sure;

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @sudden death

    Latest autotranslated Strelkov with my own minor corrections:


    The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to “wind up” our front along the Oskol reservoir towards Svatovo. Information was received that the enemy today occupied the urban settlement of Borovaya and the village of Shiykovka. Our troops are withdrawing without a fight, which is caused by the impossibility of successfully defending this vast wooded area with the available forces.

    I remind you that in July and August I wrote "let's wait for October" and I was asked (including on this page): "what do you mean?" So, that's exactly what I meant. And what will happen in October next. Wasted months not possible to return. A few more weeks will pass, during which we will only be able to defend ourselves and "squeeze" back in controlled territories while the reserves being collected now (as part of the mobilization) will not be ready for use. And let God to do so that the enemy could fail to fully realize the significant advantage that he has now.
     
    https://vk.com/igoristrelkov?w=wall347260249_665199

    Replies: @sudden death

  104. @Emil Nikola Richard
    https://i0.wp.com/tlio.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/1024-map.gif

    Replies: @S, @Barbarossa

    I always knew it…I’m People of Color too! I’m a black man trapped in a white man’s body!

    Of course, the funny thing about resentment politics is that since history is just one long litany of peoples shitting on other peoples we all get to be #Oppressed in some way. It can only be limited by the political usefulness of highlighting that oppression.

  105. @sudden death
    Uh oh...

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeFyqtGXwAcXhrj.jpg

    Whether it's just an offensive desirable plan or reality we'll know soon for sure;

    Replies: @sudden death

    Latest autotranslated Strelkov with my own minor corrections:

    The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to “wind up” our front along the Oskol reservoir towards Svatovo. Information was received that the enemy today occupied the urban settlement of Borovaya and the village of Shiykovka. Our troops are withdrawing without a fight, which is caused by the impossibility of successfully defending this vast wooded area with the available forces.

    I remind you that in July and August I wrote “let’s wait for October” and I was asked (including on this page): “what do you mean?” So, that’s exactly what I meant. And what will happen in October next. Wasted months not possible to return. A few more weeks will pass, during which we will only be able to defend ourselves and “squeeze” back in controlled territories while the reserves being collected now (as part of the mobilization) will not be ready for use. And let God to do so that the enemy could fail to fully realize the significant advantage that he has now.

    https://vk.com/igoristrelkov?w=wall347260249_665199

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @sudden death

    Developing UA north advance in graphic form:

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeJlx0TWYAQqDtc.jpg

  106. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Mikhail

    After 7 months of Putin shill talking heads talking tough, don't you ever get bored of them? Aren't you yet repulsed by their hubris and delusion? Their faux certainty, even as their last set of predictions of guaranteed outcomes unravelled probably even the next night?

    When feminists, who like everyone, always has a good point somewhere buried under their inflexible narrative, talk of "toxic masculinity", and are at their most precise and reasonable, this is exactly what they mean. Aren't you exhausted by the bullsh*t?

    Replies: @Mikhail

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Mikhail

    It is embarrassing that it is an American, rather than a European, who needs to say this, but the idea that Russia can invade a European country, lose, but then nuke European land, lived in by Eruopean peoples, out of spite, is not something Europe, as a whole, should tolerate.

    Yes to conventionally obliterating Russian forces, if Putin should commit such a horror.

  107. @Thorfinnsson
    @A123

    The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 is now in force, so transfers of materiel to the Ukraine no longer require Congressional approval. This law is in force through the end of FY2023, and the odds of the incoming Congress passing a new law to repeal or restrain its over President Biden's veto are approximately zero.

    There is unlikely to even be any attempt to restrain aid to the Ukraine. Only ten Republicans voted no on the law in the House, and passage in the Senate was unanimous. None of the House Republicans who voted no are in line for leadership positions: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2022141

    American public opinion broadly supports aiding the Ukraine: https://news.gallup.com/poll/401168/americans-back-ukrainian-goal-reclaiming-territory.aspx

    Even among Republicans, by 56 to 43 more Republicans support maintaining current levels of assistance (26%) or increasing it (26%) over reducing it.

    With no Congressional leaders in favor of scaling back aid to the Ukraine and no political profit in doing so, it's hard to see why a GOP Congress would do anything. At most they'll investigate irregularities in its provision.

    Russia will only find assistance from the friends Tsar Alexander II noted (since the Russian Air Force would appear to not be much of a friend).

    Replies: @Keypusher

    Am I right to think that the aid would only cover Biden’s designations of military equipment to be sent to Ukraine? Other types of aid would require new appropriations?

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @Keypusher

    Yes, you are right, and major US financial assistance to the Ukraine has come from Congressional appropriations.

    That said the executive branch has some means to provide financial assistance without Congress. In August billions of funds from the World Bank were sent to the Ukraine, for instance. The Federal Reserve and various executive agencies like the Export-Import Bank can also provide assistance without Congressional appropriations.

    What will happen going forward is that military assistance from the Ukraine will take less the form of transferring existing stocks of weapon and more that the Ukraine will order weapons directly from Western (mainly US) arms manufacturers. While the incoming Republican Congress may not authorize large financial appropriations to the Ukraine (I won't hold my breath), the executive branch has some other ways to finance Ukrainian arms purchases and of course there are all the other Western backers of the Ukraine.

    How this will look in practice is that the Ukrainian MoD will order GMLRS rockets for their HIMARS, the Biden administration will approve the sale and the export credit (on very generous terms), and Europeans will provide the cash to pay Lockheed Martin.

  108. @Dmitry
    @Bashibuzuk

    It's a boring topic without so much complexity. But I'll write a final post about it. Westerners are often writing in this forum about Putin having the war with oligarchs, like these "oligarch people" are the opposing or hijacking class that contrasts with the state power in the postsoviet countries (this is what you can read from the users like AP, Karlin, Sailer, Reinor Tor), while forgetting the source of the money this class are provisionally holding.

    I think these netizens have the model from the American capitalism. They think oligarch is a kind of businessman who has generated money because of inventing a business as Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos.

    Elon Musk could use the money from the entrepreneur's invention (e.g. Paypal and Tesla) to change the public opinion in the elections (buy Twitter). Americans have the fears about Muskian wealth like in "Citizen Kane", where the interests of a businessman is degrading the democracy and the transparency of information access.

    Westerners are worried the public will be tricked by these private businessmen who will influence to elect politicians that support their interests.

    An inverse implication is they believe the possibility of patriotic politicians who can fight against the private businessmen.

    Such kind of patriotic politicians will defend the legal branch of the government against financial interests. A strong politician should fight for the position of the ordinary citizen, so each individual citizen has equal political influence, in contrast to only the "big money" interest that often corrupts American politics. There was some of the unlikely narratives that Q Anon has attached for Donald Trump, like he would fight against the "big money".

    But that is America. In many countries wealth is not something outside government, but the source of the big money is primarily - government. A situation with oligarchs in postsoviet countries will be easy to understand for people from Iran or Saudi Arabia, or even most countries in the world.

    A lot more simple in such countries. If you were talking to Saudis, they would understand where the wealth of the oligarchs is in origin, although you might need to add some new vocabulary like "Prince".

    In the postsoviet space not just the laws are from the state, but the main industries are properties of state to recent years. The owning of the former state property are nowadays informally attached to the royal court. Some oligarchs have to work managing parts of court, including in the finances. It's like if you see all the money in the bank and without understanding the bank is holding not only its own money.

    Westerners ask why some of the courts' cashiers are falling from the power and hiring private militaries for their exile security, believing because the politicians might be opposed to businessmen as a general class, not as simply individuals, not remembering dangers for individual traitors have been the same in Soviet times, or for disobedient individual people like Khashoggi in countries like Saudi Arabia. (There are people like Khashoggi who fall into trouble with the Saudi authorities, as individuals, not as a class.)

    They don't seem to think about whose permission they have to hold this money or who allows to have this money. Whose money they are also holding informally in postsoviet countries? Who allows you to hold the money that was so central to the state, only recently not formally the state, and still informally not so distant from it?



    But he is basically of Polish-Galician ethnic stock and he is deeply attached to his roots.

    He is and always will be partial.
     
    Lol I don't think we can blame Poles and their nationalism based in the self-determination of peoples against the oppression of the empires, too much for the views of AP, from his colonial house in somewhere like New England.

    Peoples like Poles believe nationalism based in the 19th century concept, but in America it's more like immigrants are supporting their favorite sports team, sometimes with a lot of wealth for this "hobby".

    To cultural context AP, I feel it is assimilation of the culture of post-Ellis Island immigrants in the North Eastern states in the US. They support their ethnic origin like a baseball team, as also their religious group. Irish are funding the independence partisans in Ireland, Jews were supporting development in "New Yishuv" in Palestine.

    But from what I understand of my years writing with him, AP is also living in elite area in North East US, where it is normal to boast of your personal prestige. It is a place where there is the strong pressure to climb the social ladder. Maybe he wasn't in an "Ivy", but from his writing it is like he needs ways to match such kind of prestigious neighbors.

    I assume he has become a "real white person", although his family are immigrants from the undeveloped parts of the world and he has political views more of Cuban immigrants in Miami, not so many prestigious virtue signaling of the normal WASPs in Dartmouth or Yale.

    As for AP's way of thinking. America has been a successful country as a colony, so I would not says this cultural context was more maladaptive than our own context. Probably my writing smells bad for him like he is talking to someone who is in the ashheap of history and that I have an unhealthy addiction to rolling on the trash.

    The same goes for Mr Hack, who is a nice person of Ukrainian background and who is rooting for the country of his ancestors
     
    I'm receiving some kind of relaxing atmosphere of sitting next to a cactus tree in Arizona from Mr Hack.

    Perhaps it is due to the very nature of our native language, which is so precise and complex and yet so open to lexical innovation and search for novel meaning?
     
    It's a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml

    Нам внятно всё — и острый галльский смысл,
    И сумрачный германский гений…

    А если нет — нам нечего терять,
    И нам доступно вероломство!
    Века, века вас будет проклинать
    Больное позднее потомство!

     

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Barbarossa, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Bashibuzuk, @Mr. Hack

    I was thinking to myself that a succinct explanation is that Putin channeled the oligarchy, constraining it to his approved circle. The 90’s were an unrestrained pillage and the Putin era represents a more constrained and directed pillage of national resources.

    This explains why the narrative of Putin vs. Oligarchs has traction. It’s true, but only to a limited extent. A better framing would be Putin vs. Some Oligarchs.

    Really this is not so different than the dynamic in the West since one is only allowed to loot the State if one has the proper connections. If one has these, the pork barrel is open!

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Barbarossa

    In the 1990s, there was conflict for former state's resources in Saint-Petersburg, with the mediation and state capture involving often local government, including the Mayor's (Sobchak) office.

    Probably most infamously is the relation of the Mayor's office with conflicts between Tambov gang and Malyshev's gang for assets like logistical hubs into Russia. This can seem like old history, but the same people are still all mixed together as friends in the 2020s. Officials' family are often mixed with family of the representatives of such kinds of groups.

    In 1996 the Sobchak's team move to manage in Moscow to work for Yeltsin's office. This relatively younger team from Saint-Petersburg was talented with the PR and managing of new media and this has continued after Yeltsin. Although the criticism is that they too prioritize managing of the image and here is one of the aspects of the government in the early 21st century.


    This explains why the narrative of Putin vs. Oligarchs has traction. It’s true, but only to a limited extent. A better framing would be Putin vs. Some Oligarchs.

     

    There are different clans, which have alliances between each other, often friends from many decades ago. Some of these clans sometimes lose protection so then are expropriated by colleagues, through the mechanism of the state, which is the "official face" of those other clans.

    It's probably similar in many countries (especially somewhere like Brazil), but in Russia and Ukraine it's especially "not independent wealth" because this is recent state property that they are being allowed to sit on. It is the recent property of the Soviet people. And the officials' children are sitting with them. In such ways, it could be similar in Iran, perhaps in China. The property is becoming less provisional when it is circled around and washed which is why they are cycling the money around the world.

  109. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Mikhail
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Kook alert:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/retired-general-david-petraeus-predicts-the-us-would-destroy-russia-s-military-in-ukraine-and-sink-its-naval-fleet-if-it-used-nuclear-weapons/ar-AA12wU49?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=80fa4ba4889a4364b71a251d9958d2aa

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    It is embarrassing that it is an American, rather than a European, who needs to say this, but the idea that Russia can invade a European country, lose, but then nuke European land, lived in by Eruopean peoples, out of spite, is not something Europe, as a whole, should tolerate.

    Yes to conventionally obliterating Russian forces, if Putin should commit such a horror.

    • LOL: Mikhail
  110. @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    Ukraine had not been a separate state when Poland conquered it, nor had there been a separate Ukrainian language at the time. Poland conquered a part of Russia – some territories of a part of what is now Ukraine.

    The population of those territories were the same Russian people, who spoke the Russian language in other parts of Russia. The eastern and southern part of what is now Ukraine were then a part of the Crimean Khanate, where Turkic peoples lived.

    It was due to segregation from the rest of Russia and the influence of Polonization the Ukrainian language appeared, as a result of assimilation of those Russians who had spent a few hundred years under the Polish rule.
     
    This is misleading. Russia is Great Russia, rebranded Muscovy, same as the northeastern parts of Rus, the principality of Suzdal. It has developed its own language and customs.

    Ukraine was never a part of Russia in this sense until Russia started grabbing parts of it from the 17th century. Just as Italy, Spain, or France were never part of Romania.

    There were various East Slavic tribes who were conquered and subjugated by the Rus, and took their name. They had been apart for a few centuries by the time the Rus took over, so even then by the 9th century they probably had certain cultural and linguistic differences, as Americans do from the English. Rus split into warring principalities by 1150, and Mongols swept in around 1240.

    Those Rus people living in the northeast would be be ruled by Tatars for a couple of centuries, would have some influence from them, when their language would eventually be standardized it would include a lot of Church Slavonic words (South Slavic). These would be the Russians. They called themselves Russky.

    The Rus in the central and western parts would be ruled by Poland and would get a flood of Polish cultural and linguistic influence. They would call themselves Rusyns or Rusnaks. They would call Russians - Muscovites, and consider them to be a foreign people. In the 19th century they would rename themselves Ukrainians.

    The Ukrainians were once Rus but they had never been Russians (that is, having the Muscovite culture and speaking the Great Russian/Russian language with its Church Slavonic and Asian words).

    The ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs was not a process of some Russians becoming Ukrainians, but rather it was some Rus becoming Ukrainians and other Rus becoming Russians. As some Romans became Italians, others became Romanians, others Spaniards, etc.

    I am a Ukrainian-born, Russian-speaking half-Romanian, and half-Jew.
     
    You are ignoring the fact that 2 of your 4 grandparents were Russians, because you think that ancestry is limited to patrilineal and matrilineal lines; that you are not 50% descended from your Russian maternal grandfather and Russian paternal grandmother.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    This is misleading. Russia is Great Russia, rebranded Muscovy, same as the northeastern parts of Rus, the principality of Suzdal. It has developed its own language and customs.

    You are wrong and you know it.

    The names Great Russia, White Russia and Little Russia were created to designate the three parts of one land and one state called the land Rus’ during the times when these three parts were separated. The Church created these names.

    The Russian Orthodox Church needed these names remaining the metropolitanate of most churches in the three parts of Rus’ in order to address each part in particular if need be. The principality of Suzdal was in fact the center of the White Russia.

    The name Muscovy was never used in Russia itself other than to refer to the principality of Moscow. There were a lot of principalities in Russia. Even if or when these principalities were politically independent their populations remained one people.

    Ukraine was never a part of Russia in this sense until Russia started grabbing parts of it from the 17th century. Just as Italy, Spain, or France were never part of Romania.

    Russia did not start grabbing her own parts but started returning them back. When the Poles indeed grabbed a part of Rus’ it was called not Ukraine at the time, nor was it even called Little Russia but it was the same Rus’ as the part that remained Rus’ after that.

    And in contradistinction to the false analogies with Spain and France the populations of both parts of Rus’ were one people who spoke the same one language and belonged to the same one religious denomination and the same culture.

    Those Rus people living in the northeast would be be ruled by Tatars for a couple of centuries, would have some influence from them. These would be the Russians. They called themselves Russky.

    Before that all the population of Rus’ called themselves Rusich.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich

    As a part of Rus’ had been separated the Russian language in that part started to change, due to the influence of the Polish language. It is a normal process.

    The Rus in the central and western parts would be ruled by Poland and would get a flood of Polish cultural and linguistic influence. They would call themselves Rusyns or Rusnaks.

    The fact that these populations called themselves a bit different does not make them different peoples. It is an influence of the neighboring foreign languages – dirrerent suffixes correlate with traditional suffixes of the particular language the influence of which was experienced.

    For example Rusnakŷ or Rusnacy correlates with Slováci or Slovák and Polacy or Polak. Rusynŷ correlates with Români (Â is pronounced as Y).

    You seem to ignore that some of these names are non-native i.e. exonyms whereas what matters are endonyms, as well as that it is not a suffix which matters but the root, and the root of all these names is Rus’.

    Compare the Russian name for the Romanians – румыны, with the native name of the Rusyns – русыны.

    They would call Russians – Muscovites, and consider them to be a foreign people. In the 19th century they would rename themselves Ukrainians.

    These would refer to the population of the other part of Rus’ as Muscovites in order to avoid confusion, the same as these so-called Muscovites referred to them as the Little Russians. A light difference in the names does not make two parts of one people foreign.

    The Ukrainians were once Rus but they had never been Russians (that is, having the Muscovite culture and speaking the Great Russian/Russian language with its Church Slavonic and Asian words).

    You are wrong again.

    The language these people called now the Ukrainians were speaking at the time of the reintegration of that part of Russia back into one state with the rest of it was not so different from the language of that other and larger part of Rus’ back then as it is now.

    Those Ukrainians themselves were then calling their language руський and руська мова – i.e. the Russian language. The Russians were calling their language Russian as well. The differences between the two were considered to be dialects.

    The Ukrainian as we know it now was formed later in Poland and then spread across the central part of what is now Ukraine but not in full. There are dialects within the modern Ukrainian language, for that reason. There are three main dialects in it.

    And there are dialects in Russian as well, however there was no significant influence on it from the Asian languages but was an influence of the Finno-Ugric languages.

    Church Slavonic was the liturgical language of both the Russian Orthodox and the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church so I guess it had influence on both Russian and Ukrainian languages.

    The interaction of the Russians with the Tatars during the Yoke was minimal.

    Therefore there was not so much difference between the Great Russians and the Little Russians as some tend to imagine. There was not some particular Muscovite culture either. The Pechersk Lavra in Kiev is an example of the classic Russian architecture.

    The ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs was not a process of some Russians becoming Ukrainians, but rather it was some Rus becoming Ukrainians and other Rus becoming Russians.

    Russia is the Greek name for Rus’ and, the same as the Latin name for it – Ruthenia, it is not her native name. The Russians adopted that name due to the influence of the Orthodox Church whereas the Ukrainians adopted the name Ruthenia, for the same reason – due to the Catholic Church.

    However the Ukrainians as a people were calling themselves Little Russians.

    So whether we speak about the Great, or the White, or the Little Russians, we speak about the Russians. The notion of the Ukrainians as a separate people was a much later and in fact political fabrication and not much else.

    As some Romans became Italians, others became Romanians, others Spaniards, etc.

    It is a false comparison.

    The full official title of the Russian monarch was The emperor or empress of all the Russias – всея Великия и Малыя и Белыя России.

    The historical, genetic and cultural distance between these peoples is far greater than between the Russians and the Ukrainians. Their languages are not interintelligible. Such a comparison would be appropriate if we were speaking about the Russians and the Croatians, or the Czech or the Slovenians.

    But for a comparison between the Russians and the Ukrainians a closer parallel would be the Spanish and the Catalans: there are some differences, but not so deep as to consider them indeed a different people.

    [MORE]

    You are ignoring the fact that 2 of your 4 grandparents were Russians, because you think that ancestry is limited to patrilineal and matrilineal lines; that you are not 50% descended from your Russian maternal grandfather and Russian paternal grandmother.

    As I said before the autosomal genes are mutable to such a degree that we do net get the same genes our paternal grandmothers and maternal grandfathers pass – from them we get mutated and unrecognizable genes. The autosomal genes are generic and can point at a particular ethnic group but not a particular person.

    Because of that parenthood can be established through either Y-DNA or mtDNA. These chromosomes do not mutate and it is through these we inherit particular traits of the people who passed them to us.

    For that reason the ethnic origin of a person is derived either from his paternal or maternal lineage, i.e. the father of his father or the mother of his mother.

    • Thanks: for-the-record
    • Replies: @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    The names Great Russia, White Russia and Little Russia were created to designate the three parts of one land and one state called the land Rus’ during the times when these three parts were separated. The Church created these names.
     
    False. Little Rus was first documented as having been used by the Galician king in 1335 and was later used by the Poles.

    "The first recorded usage of the term is attributed to Boleslaus George II of Halych.[8] In a 1335 letter to Dietrich von Altenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, he styled himself «dux totius Rusiæ Minoris».[8] The name was used by Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople in 1361 when he created two metropolitan sees: Great Rus' in Vladimir and Kyiv and Little Rus' with its centers in Galich (Halych) and Novgorodok (Navahrudak).[8] King Casimir III of Poland was called "the king of Lechia and Little Rus'."

    "Ukraine was never a part of Russia in this sense until Russia started grabbing parts of it from the 17th century. Just as Italy, Spain, or France were never part of Romania."

    Russia did not start grabbing her own parts but started returning them back
     
    Ukraine had never been part of Suzdal/Muscovy and had never been ruled from Moscow until Russia started grabbing these lands - other than during a brief period in the 12th century when a Suzdalian prince sacked Kiev and placed his man on the local throne. The locals in Kiev hated this easterner and drove him out in an uprising.

    Before that all the population of Rus’ called themselves Rusich.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich
     
    False. They called themselves Rusyns. Rusych only appeared in the 12th century and only in one work. It was a rarely used word back then.:

    https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B8

    В древнерусских памятниках слово встречается только 4 раза (2 раза в форме русичи и 2 в цокающей форме русици) и только в «Слове о полку Игореве».

    Rusyn on the other hand appeared earlier and was evident much more often. It was not a foreign version caused by Romanian influence.

    https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8B_(%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%8D%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC)

    Эндоэтноним «русин» как наименование жителя Древней Руси[3] встречается в «Повести временных лет» наряду с прилагательным «русьскыи»[4]. Здесь слово «русин» упомянуто в описании договора Олега с греками (911 год) (7 раз) и договора Игоря с греками (944 года) (6 раз). Используется это слово и в ранних редакциях Русской Правды (Краткой и Пространной)[5]

    Russians called themselves Russky but also used Rusyn until the 17th century. In contrast, Rusyn continued to be widely used in Ukraine until the 19th century and is still used by some Lemkos and Transcarpathians.

    "They would call Russians – Muscovites, and consider them to be a foreign people. In the 19th century they would rename themselves Ukrainians."

    These would refer to the population of the other part of Rus’ as Muscovites in order to avoid confusion
     
    The Volhynian Chronicle classified Muscovites alongside Moldovans as Orthodox but foreign.

    Those Ukrainians themselves were then calling their language руський and руська мова – i.e. the Russian language
     
    It was not Russian language, but Rus language. They weren't using the Suzdalian/Muscovite/Russian language and didn't consider their language to be the same as that of the Muscovites.

    The differences between the two were considered to be dialects.
     
    They were different enough that the 17th century Pereyaslav negotiations required the use off a translator, using Latin.

    The notion of the Ukrainians as a separate people was a much later and in fact political fabrication and not much else.
     
    You are writing the opposite of the reality. The notion of the Ukrainians as the same people was a later fabrication. I think it appeared in the early 16th century. Ironically pushed by Little Russians/Ukrainians themselves in the service of the Russian state, who were justifying their positions before resentful native Russians. It was used as proof by them that they had the right to obtain high administrative positions, because they were Russians too.

    Church Slavonic was the liturgical language of both the Russian Orthodox and the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church so I guess it had influence on both Russian and Ukrainian languages.
     
    No. When the Russian language was standardized, the literary form was packed with Church Slavonic; the Ukrainian literary language in contrast was much closer to the regular vernacular, so it did not have such influence. Standardized Rusyn (used in Slovakia and eastern Poland), unlike Ukrainian, incorporated some Church Slavonic so in some ways it resembles Russian (but in other ways, it is closer to Polish than standard Ukrainian).

    The historical, genetic and cultural distance between these peoples is far greater than between the Russians and the Ukrainians.
     
    Ukrainian is about as close to Russian as Italian is to Spanish.

    A Ukrainian who has never heard Russian will not be able to understand a conversation, in Russian and vice versa. We had an ethnic Russian nanny from Central Asia, who had heard hardly any Ukrainian before - she couldn't understand or follow a conversation. And I could not understand Russian (other than a word here or there, an occasional phrase) before I lived in Russia.


    As I said before the autosomal genes are mutable to such a degree that we do net get the same genes our paternal grandmothers and maternal grandfathers pass – from them we get mutated and unrecognizable genes.
     
    False. If autosomal genes were unrecognizable, than DNA tests wouldn't be able to accurately identify relatives through one's non patrilinear or non matrilinear grandparents. Or paternity tests wouldn't work with female children.

    Autosomal genes do not become unrecognizable through mutation; rather they get mixed between grandparents. For this reason it is not possible to determine which specific gene came from which grandparent, but one still has about 25% of the genes from each grandparent. About half of your father's genes come from his mother, and about half of your mother's genes come from her father. But they are mixed up with each other in the autosomes.

    So DNA testing using autosomal genes can show the approximate strength of the relationship between people, but cannot determine through which specific grandparent people they might be related. The sex chromosomes, OTOH, do not get mixed so they can be used to trace specific patrilinear descent (for males) and matrilinear (for both males and females).

    Most of one's genes, of course, do not come from the two sex chromosomes. The Y chromosome in particular only has about 200 genes. Traits such as intelligence are linked to genes from various chromosomes (particularly chromosome 10, which is not a sex chromosome):

    https://www.nature.com/articles/mp2017121

    Depending on the combination, one can resemble and have the character of any one of one's grandparents. I look like my father and my paternal grandfather, but my aunt's sons resemble her, who looks just like her father. So they look like their maternal grandfather.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon, @Here Be Dragon

  111. It is embarrassing that it is an American, rather than a European, who needs to say this, but the idea that Russia can invade a European country, lose, but then nuke European land, lived in by Eruopean peoples, out of spite, is not something Europe, as a whole, should tolerate.

    Yes to conventionally obliterating Russian forces, if Putin should commit such a horror.

    Rhetorically asked, what’s the official US rationale for having used the A bomb twice? Moreover, you don’t think that Russia would feel obligated to respond by doing any number of things that could include hitting US forces in Germany?

    Don’t need Mercouris to remind me of some of the twisted thinking among some US elites.

    BTW, Russia isn’t losing and will not lose, contrary to neocon wet dreams.

  112. @Thorfinnsson
    @Greasy William

    The RuAF basically does not have a SEAD capability. It has no dedicated electronic attack aircraft and no "Wild Weasel" squadrons dedicated to hunting enemy air defense systems.

    Ten electronic warfare variants of the Su-24, the Su-24MP, were built in 1980. None are any longer in service: https://web.archive.org/web/20141219023949/http://www.sukhoi.org/eng/planes/military/su24mk/history/

    The only electronic warfare Flanker variant is Chinese: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42511/chinas-j-16d-electronic-attack-jet-seen-sporting-jamming-pods-for-the-first-time

    A limited number of jamming pods such as Khibiny-U exist for deployment on the Su-30. These may have been used successfully on the airborne assault on Hostomel.

    Anti-radiation missiles do exist, but in Russian service are intended mainly to attack and destroy airborne early warning radar (AEWR) aircraft.

    The Russian Air Force suffers from trying to field a full spectrum air force on a shoestring, and to the extent it specializes it specializes in denying a numerically superior adversary air superiority over the territory on the Russian Federation. A NATO air campaign against Russia would suffer from some similar challenges to the Russian air campaign over the Ukraine.

    To the extent the Russian Air Force is conducting attack sorties (and it is), it suffers from a shortage of PGMs and inferior, low resolution targeting pods. This was not a problem in Syria due to permissive environment, but in the Ukraine it's untenable. The standard of Russian pilot training is also poor.

    A good source for this is Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute.

    Replies: @Sean, @showmethereal

    The Russian Air Force suffers from trying to field a full spectrum air force on a shoestring,

    The Russian army assumes in a major offensive war its enemy will have air superiority.

    To the extent the Russian Air Force is conducting attack sorties (and it is), it suffers from a shortage of PGMs and inferior, low resolution targeting pods.

    Most of all it suffers from omnipresent American surveillance and intel. Without that the Ukrainians would have had to spread themselves very thin indeed.

    A limited number of jamming pods such as Khibiny-U exist for deployment on the Su-30. These may have been used successfully on the airborne assault on Hostomel.

    It is pretty well established that the Ukrainians were told well beforehand about the plan to take Hostomel, and as a result Ukrainian artillery held their fire until there were concentrated there.
    Like the Soviets, the Russia army lacks all sorts of capabilities the West assumed they had; this is one reason for the extreme secretiveness of the Russian military about their equipment. It is worth mentioning that in the van of the invasion force were National Guard with riot control equipment.
    To beak the will of the Ukrainian population, highly sophisticated aircraft are not going to be usefully anyway. Unguided missiles with large warheads will be used, and the Russians have a lot.

  113. @Dmitry
    @Bashibuzuk

    It's a boring topic without so much complexity. But I'll write a final post about it. Westerners are often writing in this forum about Putin having the war with oligarchs, like these "oligarch people" are the opposing or hijacking class that contrasts with the state power in the postsoviet countries (this is what you can read from the users like AP, Karlin, Sailer, Reinor Tor), while forgetting the source of the money this class are provisionally holding.

    I think these netizens have the model from the American capitalism. They think oligarch is a kind of businessman who has generated money because of inventing a business as Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos.

    Elon Musk could use the money from the entrepreneur's invention (e.g. Paypal and Tesla) to change the public opinion in the elections (buy Twitter). Americans have the fears about Muskian wealth like in "Citizen Kane", where the interests of a businessman is degrading the democracy and the transparency of information access.

    Westerners are worried the public will be tricked by these private businessmen who will influence to elect politicians that support their interests.

    An inverse implication is they believe the possibility of patriotic politicians who can fight against the private businessmen.

    Such kind of patriotic politicians will defend the legal branch of the government against financial interests. A strong politician should fight for the position of the ordinary citizen, so each individual citizen has equal political influence, in contrast to only the "big money" interest that often corrupts American politics. There was some of the unlikely narratives that Q Anon has attached for Donald Trump, like he would fight against the "big money".

    But that is America. In many countries wealth is not something outside government, but the source of the big money is primarily - government. A situation with oligarchs in postsoviet countries will be easy to understand for people from Iran or Saudi Arabia, or even most countries in the world.

    A lot more simple in such countries. If you were talking to Saudis, they would understand where the wealth of the oligarchs is in origin, although you might need to add some new vocabulary like "Prince".

    In the postsoviet space not just the laws are from the state, but the main industries are properties of state to recent years. The owning of the former state property are nowadays informally attached to the royal court. Some oligarchs have to work managing parts of court, including in the finances. It's like if you see all the money in the bank and without understanding the bank is holding not only its own money.

    Westerners ask why some of the courts' cashiers are falling from the power and hiring private militaries for their exile security, believing because the politicians might be opposed to businessmen as a general class, not as simply individuals, not remembering dangers for individual traitors have been the same in Soviet times, or for disobedient individual people like Khashoggi in countries like Saudi Arabia. (There are people like Khashoggi who fall into trouble with the Saudi authorities, as individuals, not as a class.)

    They don't seem to think about whose permission they have to hold this money or who allows to have this money. Whose money they are also holding informally in postsoviet countries? Who allows you to hold the money that was so central to the state, only recently not formally the state, and still informally not so distant from it?



    But he is basically of Polish-Galician ethnic stock and he is deeply attached to his roots.

    He is and always will be partial.
     
    Lol I don't think we can blame Poles and their nationalism based in the self-determination of peoples against the oppression of the empires, too much for the views of AP, from his colonial house in somewhere like New England.

    Peoples like Poles believe nationalism based in the 19th century concept, but in America it's more like immigrants are supporting their favorite sports team, sometimes with a lot of wealth for this "hobby".

    To cultural context AP, I feel it is assimilation of the culture of post-Ellis Island immigrants in the North Eastern states in the US. They support their ethnic origin like a baseball team, as also their religious group. Irish are funding the independence partisans in Ireland, Jews were supporting development in "New Yishuv" in Palestine.

    But from what I understand of my years writing with him, AP is also living in elite area in North East US, where it is normal to boast of your personal prestige. It is a place where there is the strong pressure to climb the social ladder. Maybe he wasn't in an "Ivy", but from his writing it is like he needs ways to match such kind of prestigious neighbors.

    I assume he has become a "real white person", although his family are immigrants from the undeveloped parts of the world and he has political views more of Cuban immigrants in Miami, not so many prestigious virtue signaling of the normal WASPs in Dartmouth or Yale.

    As for AP's way of thinking. America has been a successful country as a colony, so I would not says this cultural context was more maladaptive than our own context. Probably my writing smells bad for him like he is talking to someone who is in the ashheap of history and that I have an unhealthy addiction to rolling on the trash.

    The same goes for Mr Hack, who is a nice person of Ukrainian background and who is rooting for the country of his ancestors
     
    I'm receiving some kind of relaxing atmosphere of sitting next to a cactus tree in Arizona from Mr Hack.

    Perhaps it is due to the very nature of our native language, which is so precise and complex and yet so open to lexical innovation and search for novel meaning?
     
    It's a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml

    Нам внятно всё — и острый галльский смысл,
    И сумрачный германский гений…

    А если нет — нам нечего терять,
    И нам доступно вероломство!
    Века, века вас будет проклинать
    Больное позднее потомство!

     

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Barbarossa, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Bashibuzuk, @Mr. Hack

    In many countries wealth is not something outside government, but the source of the big money is primarily – government.

    Silicon Valley is a wonderfully disguised military industry plantation. Musk, Bezos, Gates et al are on 1st name basis with the biggest criminals in Washington D.C.

    For all practical purposes they are the same as the biggest criminals in Washington D.C. or these guys from Russia that have you tearing your hair out. You don’t have a country?

    Join the club buddy. None of us does.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk, Barbarossa
    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    You don’t have a country?

    Join the club buddy. None of us does.
     
    👏👏👏

    Sir, I applaud you so succinctly describing the crux of the matter we are all dealing with in our peculiar and idiosyncratic ways.

    Being myself a disgruntled ethnic nationalist, I see perfectly what you are pointing to.

    It is indeed tragically amusing to see Slav ethnic nationalists killing each other to open a wide boulevard for the Globalist to race on towards their "shining tomorrows".

    (It reminds me of the brave Wendat and Mohawk warriors scalping each other, while the Pale Faced settlers take their most fertile lands and inseminate the cutest of their squaws.)
  114. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Dmitry


    In many countries wealth is not something outside government, but the source of the big money is primarily – government.
     
    Silicon Valley is a wonderfully disguised military industry plantation. Musk, Bezos, Gates et al are on 1st name basis with the biggest criminals in Washington D.C.

    For all practical purposes they are the same as the biggest criminals in Washington D.C. or these guys from Russia that have you tearing your hair out. You don't have a country?

    Join the club buddy. None of us does.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    You don’t have a country?

    Join the club buddy. None of us does.

    👏👏👏

    Sir, I applaud you so succinctly describing the crux of the matter we are all dealing with in our peculiar and idiosyncratic ways.

    Being myself a disgruntled ethnic nationalist, I see perfectly what you are pointing to.

    It is indeed tragically amusing to see Slav ethnic nationalists killing each other to open a wide boulevard for the Globalist to race on towards their “shining tomorrows”.

    (It reminds me of the brave Wendat and Mohawk warriors scalping each other, while the Pale Faced settlers take their most fertile lands and inseminate the cutest of their squaws.)

  115. @Triteleia Laxa
    @showmethereal

    Where is the huge and strong Russian military then?

    Replies: @showmethereal

    Ummm as far as I know – Moscow never mobilized there military but has been using the bare minimum. Maybe you missed that’s why they just called for a partial mobilization…. I don’t need declassified documents to understand that. I do know they have had huge military drills in the Far East with about a dozen other nations while this was going on. Now if you ask WHY they did not fully mobilize and treated this lore like a police action – then I have no answer…

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @showmethereal

    Russia managed to get what they say is 50,000 troops into non-tactical formations, and parade a little bit, but it is also unable to live up to its CSTO commitments, garrison Transniestria or Kaliningrad properly, avoid mobilisation and not lose to Ukraine repeatedly.

    Hypothesis 1: the huge, expensively assembled Russian war machine is currently conquering the Arctic, Mars or the Moon.

    Hypothesis 2: Putin and his cronies stole all of your money and delivered a fake and gay armed force.

    Replies: @showmethereal

    , @Another Polish Perspective
    @showmethereal

    They treated this conflict as a police action because we are still in Messianic Age, and the Messiah is the king of peace. And remember, Putin very well may be Chabad Messiah. Interestingly, the previous Russian war - the Chechen war - had ended before Putin took over Kremlin, at least in the sense of its "war phase". And Syria has not been a war where Russia was a side of conflict; it couldn't make peace or anything.

    Plus, Jewish Messiah is much less than Christian Messiah: it is just a king from Davidic line who rules over the peaceful world, but his judgement, like God's judgement (!), weighs less than judgement of any rabbi. The moment this "special operation" will officially turn into "war", this nominalism of Kabbalah will evaporate together with Putin, who already doesn't seem to be too well.

  116. @Bashibuzuk
    @showmethereal

    Neither West, nor RusFed are credible. Their propaganda mouthpieces should be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism. And we have also to confront their pov against each other and try to find a balance between their biased narratives.

    Replies: @showmethereal

    Oh ok. I was just making sure you weren’t saying “Moscow Times” is like some official Russian source.

  117. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Dmitry
    @Bashibuzuk

    It's a boring topic without so much complexity. But I'll write a final post about it. Westerners are often writing in this forum about Putin having the war with oligarchs, like these "oligarch people" are the opposing or hijacking class that contrasts with the state power in the postsoviet countries (this is what you can read from the users like AP, Karlin, Sailer, Reinor Tor), while forgetting the source of the money this class are provisionally holding.

    I think these netizens have the model from the American capitalism. They think oligarch is a kind of businessman who has generated money because of inventing a business as Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos.

    Elon Musk could use the money from the entrepreneur's invention (e.g. Paypal and Tesla) to change the public opinion in the elections (buy Twitter). Americans have the fears about Muskian wealth like in "Citizen Kane", where the interests of a businessman is degrading the democracy and the transparency of information access.

    Westerners are worried the public will be tricked by these private businessmen who will influence to elect politicians that support their interests.

    An inverse implication is they believe the possibility of patriotic politicians who can fight against the private businessmen.

    Such kind of patriotic politicians will defend the legal branch of the government against financial interests. A strong politician should fight for the position of the ordinary citizen, so each individual citizen has equal political influence, in contrast to only the "big money" interest that often corrupts American politics. There was some of the unlikely narratives that Q Anon has attached for Donald Trump, like he would fight against the "big money".

    But that is America. In many countries wealth is not something outside government, but the source of the big money is primarily - government. A situation with oligarchs in postsoviet countries will be easy to understand for people from Iran or Saudi Arabia, or even most countries in the world.

    A lot more simple in such countries. If you were talking to Saudis, they would understand where the wealth of the oligarchs is in origin, although you might need to add some new vocabulary like "Prince".

    In the postsoviet space not just the laws are from the state, but the main industries are properties of state to recent years. The owning of the former state property are nowadays informally attached to the royal court. Some oligarchs have to work managing parts of court, including in the finances. It's like if you see all the money in the bank and without understanding the bank is holding not only its own money.

    Westerners ask why some of the courts' cashiers are falling from the power and hiring private militaries for their exile security, believing because the politicians might be opposed to businessmen as a general class, not as simply individuals, not remembering dangers for individual traitors have been the same in Soviet times, or for disobedient individual people like Khashoggi in countries like Saudi Arabia. (There are people like Khashoggi who fall into trouble with the Saudi authorities, as individuals, not as a class.)

    They don't seem to think about whose permission they have to hold this money or who allows to have this money. Whose money they are also holding informally in postsoviet countries? Who allows you to hold the money that was so central to the state, only recently not formally the state, and still informally not so distant from it?



    But he is basically of Polish-Galician ethnic stock and he is deeply attached to his roots.

    He is and always will be partial.
     
    Lol I don't think we can blame Poles and their nationalism based in the self-determination of peoples against the oppression of the empires, too much for the views of AP, from his colonial house in somewhere like New England.

    Peoples like Poles believe nationalism based in the 19th century concept, but in America it's more like immigrants are supporting their favorite sports team, sometimes with a lot of wealth for this "hobby".

    To cultural context AP, I feel it is assimilation of the culture of post-Ellis Island immigrants in the North Eastern states in the US. They support their ethnic origin like a baseball team, as also their religious group. Irish are funding the independence partisans in Ireland, Jews were supporting development in "New Yishuv" in Palestine.

    But from what I understand of my years writing with him, AP is also living in elite area in North East US, where it is normal to boast of your personal prestige. It is a place where there is the strong pressure to climb the social ladder. Maybe he wasn't in an "Ivy", but from his writing it is like he needs ways to match such kind of prestigious neighbors.

    I assume he has become a "real white person", although his family are immigrants from the undeveloped parts of the world and he has political views more of Cuban immigrants in Miami, not so many prestigious virtue signaling of the normal WASPs in Dartmouth or Yale.

    As for AP's way of thinking. America has been a successful country as a colony, so I would not says this cultural context was more maladaptive than our own context. Probably my writing smells bad for him like he is talking to someone who is in the ashheap of history and that I have an unhealthy addiction to rolling on the trash.

    The same goes for Mr Hack, who is a nice person of Ukrainian background and who is rooting for the country of his ancestors
     
    I'm receiving some kind of relaxing atmosphere of sitting next to a cactus tree in Arizona from Mr Hack.

    Perhaps it is due to the very nature of our native language, which is so precise and complex and yet so open to lexical innovation and search for novel meaning?
     
    It's a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml

    Нам внятно всё — и острый галльский смысл,
    И сумрачный германский гений…

    А если нет — нам нечего терять,
    И нам доступно вероломство!
    Века, века вас будет проклинать
    Больное позднее потомство!

     

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Barbarossa, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Bashibuzuk, @Mr. Hack

    It’s a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml

    Well, he was named “the mirror of the Russian revolution” for a reason.

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ.

    I agree that we should do it more and focus less on the unfortunate events unfolding in Ukraine. For many among us it is turning into an obsession for obvious reasons. There is more to life than this.

    Speaking of which:

    🙂

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Bashibuzuk



    It’s a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml
     
    Well, he was named “the mirror of the Russian revolution” for a reason.

     

    Unfortunately, what was written in 1896, became more relevant today. Even with Poles and Armenians.

    I wonder what would be the penal sentence for the 1904 text if published today? http://tolstoy-lit.ru/tolstoy/publicistika/odumajtes.htm

    brave Wendat and Mohawk warriors scalping each other, while the Pale Faced settlers take their most fertile lands and inseminate the cutest of their squaws.)
     
    Well you know after the last 30 years a lot of the places in the postsoviet countries are not too different than the "Indian reservation", with the lack of investment, loss of habitable jobs. There was no need for anyone to invade and scalp.

    But what is fatal for Native Americans, is in the loss of the traditional community and lifestyle. This is happening to everyone in the world, because of negative consequence of technological development and overpopulation. Although there are some cultures like Italians, Japanese, Spanish, which seem like they are more maintaining more continuity of their historical culture into the modern world compared to other nationalities.
    , @Yahya
    @Bashibuzuk


    Speaking of which:
     
    Are you familiar with Turkish Classical Music?

    It's one of my favorite musical genres. Like many other foreign genres, it took me a bit of time to familiarize my ear to Turkish music, which is fairly peculiar given its resemblance to Arabic music. On the other hand, there are some distinct differences between the two despite their similarity on a world scale.

    Both Turkish and Arabic music are based on the maqam/makam system, which can roughly be translated as modes in the Western system. Each maqam is built on a scale, and carries a tradition that defines its habitual phrases, important notes, melodic development and modulation. The Maqam system is distinct however from Western modes in that it only defines the pitches and patterns of a piece of music without outlining the rhythmic component. This allows for the rhythmic improvisation typical of Middle Eastern music.

    Turkish music is different in that they utilize a wider range of maqams (100+) than Arabic music (9-10), and split tones into 9 comas rather than 4, allowing for microtones smaller than quarter tones. Turkish music primarily utilizes the scales derived from the Husseini maqam, whereas Arabic music derives its scales from the Kurdi, Ajam, Nahawand, and Hijaz maqams. In terms of instruments both Turkish and Arabic music make use of the qanun, oud and ney (far more so than Greeks and Iranians), but Turks have the tambur, kemençe and saz which are not typically used by Arabs.

    This is my favorite song Kalamis by Münir Nurettin Selçuk:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxwmsicrT2M&ab_channel=Selim

    It's fairly peculiar in its lack of texture and instrumental minimalism. But it works well since it allows Selçuk's voice to stand out and enhances the connection between the musician and listener. Contrast this with choral music from the Western system, like Palestrina's works for example, whose polyphony is intellectually interesting, but loses the personal touch of monophonic music. Of course this style of music depends greatly on the quality of the singer's voice to carry the melody on his/her own without much aid from the instruments. The female background accompaniment also provides a nice contrast to the male singers low-pitched voice.

    I believe most of the eminent singers of Turkish classical music were male in the 20th century, which is disappointing for me as I prefer the female voice. Fortunately, most of the 21st century performers carrying on the legacy of Turkish classical music are females, and they mostly sing cover versions of older songs, with better orchestration and sound engineering. My favorites being Elif Güreşçi, Mine Gellici, Yaprak Sayar, and Selva Erdener. Though I suppose in the 20th century there was at least a couple of great female singers like Melahet Pars and Saime Sinan.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE4To4K7EkQ&ab_channel=RECEPGAYRETL%C4%B0

    Sadly younger Turks don't seem much interested in this type of music anymore. The performers I mentioned above barely get 100,000 views on Youtube if they are lucky. Yaprak Sayar has tried to gain a wider audience by combining Turkish classical songs with background jazz instrumentals, but i'm not sure if it can retain its essence and character with Western style instrumentals. But this is the chief predicament Turks have been dealing with since the downfall of the Ottoman Empire.

    Ataturk tried to encourage Turks to take up Western classical music by establishing musical conservatories and sending Turks to study abroad, with some fruits given the "Turkish Five" developed out of these initiatives. But as usual, the vast majority of Turks outside of the secular urban centers did not and still do not want to listen to that stuff. Shortly after Ataturk's government banned traditional Turkish music from being aired on the Turkish airwaves, there were records of Turks calling into radio stations in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East requesting Arabic renditions of Turkish songs they were used to listening to. Eventually in the 1970s a sub-genre called Arabesque developed directly as a consequence of this event because Turks had acquired a taste for Arabic-style melodies.

    Incidentally, I like some of the stuff produced by the "Turkish Five". This is a variation on a famous Istanbul folk song by Cemal Reşit Rey, which should familiar to fans of Rimsky-Korsakov:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8hdxZ4h_e8&list=PLk4jQWJwkElTO7fwOk8m_Ibn-gQ_leGiZ&index=67&t=110s&ab_channel=fahrettinarda

    But still Western classical music composed by Turks doesn't seem to interest anyone either inside or outside of Turkey. Turkish classical music seems to be heading in that direction also, as I mentioned above. I think only Turkish folk music is listened to nowadays, alongside of course the mechanical, localized version of global pop music which can be found anywhere in the world today.

    Arabic classical music has survived better in that regard, people still listen to Umm Kulthum and Sabah Fakhry, though they too will diminish in due time. There were several Arab composers of Western classical music in the 20th century actually, such as Dia Succari, Gamal Abdel-Rehim, Aziz El-Shewan, Youssef Khasho and Solhi Al-Wadi; but likewise very few in the Arab world seem to care much for Western classical music. In Iran the two great classical singers Marzieh and Gholam-Hossein Banan have fallen into neglect, but I suppose are being replaced by instrumentalists such as Hossein Alizadeh and Kayhan Kalhoor.

    The best contemporary practitioner of Arabic-Turkish classical music is a Lebanese lady operating from Montreal, Canada called Lamia Yared. Here you can see her on the oud, playing alongside the talented Turkish qanunist Didem Basar:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94kor58K5k4&ab_channel=Centredesmusiciensdumonde

    Doesn't seem to get much views unfortunately.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

  118. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @showmethereal
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Ummm as far as I know - Moscow never mobilized there military but has been using the bare minimum. Maybe you missed that’s why they just called for a partial mobilization…. I don’t need declassified documents to understand that. I do know they have had huge military drills in the Far East with about a dozen other nations while this was going on. Now if you ask WHY they did not fully mobilize and treated this lore like a police action - then I have no answer…

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Another Polish Perspective

    Russia managed to get what they say is 50,000 troops into non-tactical formations, and parade a little bit, but it is also unable to live up to its CSTO commitments, garrison Transniestria or Kaliningrad properly, avoid mobilisation and not lose to Ukraine repeatedly.

    Hypothesis 1: the huge, expensively assembled Russian war machine is currently conquering the Arctic, Mars or the Moon.

    Hypothesis 2: Putin and his cronies stole all of your money and delivered a fake and gay armed force.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Huh? Didn’t they go into Kazhasktan and quell the uprising their? Did Armenia ask for CSTO assistance?? And how do you know the condition in Kaliningrad???? Or are you just pulling that from Mars or the Moon???? I personally don’t know and I seriously doubt you do either.
    As to the second hypothesis- I think you watch too many cowboys or Rambo movies. War isn’t like that.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  119. @keypusher
    @showmethereal

    They're quoting a named member of the State Duma talking about a particular general...sounds like a straightforward factual account. Even a biased media source typically won't just make up something like that.

    Anyone read any native Russian media about this?

    Replies: @showmethereal

    Well for one thing I don’t speak the language so I don’t know if it is correct. But one thing I definitely know is context is key. I know nothing about the general nor the actual situation. I personally know of instances where things have been directly quoted but taken hugely out of context or a quote has been used by a disgruntled person to try to prove a narrative when it was never a consensus nor fact. Is that the case here? I admittedly do not know. But I DO know that “Moscow Times” is an anti Putin and pro western publication. It is basically a western publication based in Russia (many go work for the AP or CNN before or after) – so can’t be trusted to be objective.
    Personally I know little about the region. I started reading blogs like this to get educated on the matter. I only started paying attention after the 2014 coup – because I knew that meant the US was attempting a major disruption in the area.
    Now I know a handful of Russians and they are apolitical (and live in the west). So for instance when I came across videos of Mariupol where the people were GLAD to see the Russians and were talking about the treatment they received at the hands of the Ukrainian right wing nationalists – I asked them to tell me if the translations were true. They said it was correct. One literally broke down crying. The issue has been known for years and they were genuinely heartbroken at the gate Russians received (again they live in the west). When I asked what the real mood in Russia they say yes some are against military action – but the majority support Putin and if anything blame him for being too soft in dealing with the matter…. You can’t think I’m making it up – but I’m not. And I trust those people more than I do the media.

    • Agree: Mikhail, AnonfromTN
    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @showmethereal


    the majority support Putin and if anything blame him for being too soft in dealing with the matter
     
    Absolutely. But they don't understand that Putin and his circle have contributed immensely to this conflict. Russians being what they have always been (a little naive really), think that "the Czar is good, but the Boyars are bad".

    No, they're wrong, this time the Czar and the Boyars are both scum. Russians don't understand that for the last 30 years they have been led to the catastrophe that is currently unfolding.

    It is not incompetence, it is treason. This is something most Russians will never understand and/or accept. That they have been had once again, like some village simpleton would have been led by the tip of his nose by big city crooks.

    Лохи не мамонты - они не вымрут...

    (That’s a Russian mafia saying describing the situation perfectly. Ask your Russian friends for a translation).

    Replies: @showmethereal

    , @keypusher
    @showmethereal


    When I asked what the real mood in Russia they say yes some are against military action – but the majority support Putin and if anything blame him for being too soft in dealing with the matter…. You can’t think I’m making it up – but I’m not.
     
    Oh, I believe you. Up until the point that it became clear that the U.S.'s own leadership had decided that the Vietnam war could not be won, there were more Americans saying "we need to nuke Hanoi" than "we need to get out." When the people of a proud nation find themselves losing a war against an enemy they thought was no match for them, the normal reaction is "we're not being ruthless enough." Even if, in reality, the problem is not Russia's/the USA's alleged gentleness, but rather incompetence, lack of motivation, and corruption.

    Replies: @showmethereal

  120. German_reader says:
    @The Big Red Scary
    @German_reader


    On the other hand, Ukraine’s intelligence services have assassinated pro-Russian collaborators in the occupied territories.
     
    Also in the territories retaken by Ukraine, though that dirty work is often done by the natsbats. In particular, the Diocese of Izyum-Kupansk was regularly posting photos of feast days and episcopal visits to local parishes, until they suddenly stopped doing so three weeks ago. Ukrainian nationalists and schismatics are very angry that Metropolitan Elisey and the priests and parishioners of his diocese blessed the new civil administration. Probably the metropolitan and many of the priests are dead or imprisoned.

    https://risu.ua/mitropolit-upc-mp-z-izyumu-blagoslovlyaye-kolaborantiv-a-svyashchenik-v-hersoni-propoviduye-yednist-z-zagarbnikami_n131275

    None of this is unusual by historical standards (brutal repression of civilian populations was carried out by all sides in World War II), but ultimately, it's an unconscionable failure on the part of Moscow to tell the people of Izyum region that they were there to stay, only to evacuate without a fight.

    Go big or go home.

    Replies: @German_reader

    None of this is unusual by historical standards (brutal repression of civilian populations was carried out by all sides in World War II), but ultimately, it’s an unconscionable failure on the part of Moscow to tell the people of Izyum region that they were there to stay, only to evacuate without a fight.

    Russia’s performance in this war has been utterly embarassing. Putin shouldn’t have taken this gamble, there’s now a real risk that Russia will be permanently reduced and cease to have any credible claims to great power status. The alternatives are eking out some kind of win through massive bloodshed or all of us getting vaporized in a nuclear war.
    I can’t comment on your claims about repression in the areas re-taken by Ukraine. But possibly there’s at least some truth to them. One more reason why I resent the foolish Westerners with their retarded dog avatars on Twitter and their Slava Ukraini nonsense. It’s never a good idea to identify yourself completely with a foreign cause on which you have only limited influence at best.

    • Disagree: Mikhail
    • Replies: @The Big Red Scary
    @German_reader

    Concerning performance in the war, it's mostly a question of manpower. Kill ratios seem to have highly favor Russia, based on confirmed numbers of casualties from either side and relative artillery tonnage. However, artillery superiority only buys you so much. At the end of the day, you need men who can stand their ground, which was sorely lacking in Kharkovskaya oblast.

    There are various hypotheses about why Putlet has been so reluctant to mobilize, or even to just send in the men he already had, ranging from "he fears an animated patriotic populace more than losing the war" to "he's a total retard". From what I can tell, the muzhiki are ready to rumble, so it's now a question of political will.

  121. Bashibuzuk says:
    @showmethereal
    @keypusher

    Well for one thing I don’t speak the language so I don’t know if it is correct. But one thing I definitely know is context is key. I know nothing about the general nor the actual situation. I personally know of instances where things have been directly quoted but taken hugely out of context or a quote has been used by a disgruntled person to try to prove a narrative when it was never a consensus nor fact. Is that the case here? I admittedly do not know. But I DO know that “Moscow Times” is an anti Putin and pro western publication. It is basically a western publication based in Russia (many go work for the AP or CNN before or after) - so can’t be trusted to be objective.
    Personally I know little about the region. I started reading blogs like this to get educated on the matter. I only started paying attention after the 2014 coup - because I knew that meant the US was attempting a major disruption in the area.
    Now I know a handful of Russians and they are apolitical (and live in the west). So for instance when I came across videos of Mariupol where the people were GLAD to see the Russians and were talking about the treatment they received at the hands of the Ukrainian right wing nationalists - I asked them to tell me if the translations were true. They said it was correct. One literally broke down crying. The issue has been known for years and they were genuinely heartbroken at the gate Russians received (again they live in the west). When I asked what the real mood in Russia they say yes some are against military action - but the majority support Putin and if anything blame him for being too soft in dealing with the matter…. You can’t think I’m making it up - but I’m not. And I trust those people more than I do the media.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @keypusher

    the majority support Putin and if anything blame him for being too soft in dealing with the matter

    Absolutely. But they don’t understand that Putin and his circle have contributed immensely to this conflict. Russians being what they have always been (a little naive really), think that “the Czar is good, but the Boyars are bad”.

    No, they’re wrong, this time the Czar and the Boyars are both scum. Russians don’t understand that for the last 30 years they have been led to the catastrophe that is currently unfolding.

    It is not incompetence, it is treason. This is something most Russians will never understand and/or accept. That they have been had once again, like some village simpleton would have been led by the tip of his nose by big city crooks.

    Лохи не мамонты – они не вымрут…

    (That’s a Russian mafia saying describing the situation perfectly. Ask your Russian friends for a translation).

    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @Bashibuzuk

    Explain to me what you mean? It was Putin who caused the coup in 2014? It was Putin who gave ultra nationalists and banned Russian language and culture in Donbass? It was Putin who kept expanding NATO closer and closer?
    If you are referring to internal Russian issues then I have no comment because I have very little knowledge. You might be correct if that’s what you mean. But I certainly understand geopolitical issues and know the west hates Putin because he is the opposite of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. NATO will seek to crush anyone who does not bow to their agenda. So unless you are saying Putin should have bowed - then I do not understand what you mean.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  122. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    What do we do next? What happens after the Ukrainian victory?

    Arestovych spoke very candidly about this the other day. The idea is to establish a Kyiv centric order out of which the former Russian Realm will be organized, administered, led.

    Russia's atrocities in places such as Bucha and the attempt to threaten the Ukrainian statehood have forced the Ukrainian side to think in new, more pro-active terms and start working on potentially projecting force into neighboring areas in the former post-Soviet space, including what is currently known as the Russian Federation. To implement a gigantic program of reformatting.

    The idea of de-nuclearization of the Russian Federation is floated. In the future, the de-nuclearization should be tied to the promise of removal of sanctions. Whether this can happen, is a big question, but it looks like they're going to put it on the table.

    One could treat this as humor or some strange political fiction, if it wasn't for the fact that Arestovych, who has made correct predictions in the past, is quite close to the presidential administration.

    Tremendous work and resources will be required. This is a chance for the EE nationalists to put their foot in the door and fight for their ideas to be heard and ideally implemented at least on some scale.

    I know this past week was intense and I'm not posting this to add fuel to the fire, but to demonstrate what incredible, almost fantastical conversations are now taking place in Ukraine.

    "We are the biggest donor of security in the post-Russian space," Arestovych. "We will be writing the rules."

    In Russian, starts at 1:14:00

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQVOxpT4vag

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon, @Bashibuzuk, @German_reader

    The idea is to establish a Kyiv centric order out of which the former Russian Realm will be organized

    These ideas are delusional. If Ukraine ever tries to implement something of the sort, all Western aid must be ended immediately. The deal was help preserve Ukraine its independence, not some megalomaniac project about “reformating” the “Russian Realm” (sounds a lot like “Russian World” actually).

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @German_reader

    You are correct in your assessment. I suggest you have a look at the following article to see where this "megalomaniac project" comes from.

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/balancing-east-upgrading-west

    The late Big Zbig actually even floated the idea of making Kiev the capital of the new and upgraded Eurasia under US patronage. I mean Kiev is strictly geographically speaking close to the center of Europe (yeah, I know it doesn't seem that way) and is also close to his beloved Poland, on top on being anti-Moscovite to the bone.

    What's not to like?

    (If you have found it a little bit annoying being dictated from Brussels and Strasbourg, imagine being dictated from Warsaw and Kiev instead. Perhaps a nuclear holocaust is a better option after all...)

    🙂

    , @LatW
    @German_reader


    some megalomaniac project about “reformating” the “Russian Realm” (sounds a lot like “Russian World” actually).
     
    I borrowed that from Bashibuzuk - he introduced "Russian Realm", it sounds more magical and appealing.
    Now it should be renamed the Rus Realm, actually. Or maybe something entirely new.

    The old Russian world is slowly receding. Something has to fill out the space and it will be Ukraine and friends. Mind you, that this is not even a fully accurate term, because Arestovych talks about working with countries such as Georgia and Moldova which are not even "Russian". The so called post-Soviet world doesn't exist anymore.


    The deal was help preserve Ukraine its independence
     
    Right, but wars of aggression like this one that Russia chose, can often get out of control. The Laws of Nature come into play.
  123. @Keypusher
    @Thorfinnsson

    Am I right to think that the aid would only cover Biden’s designations of military equipment to be sent to Ukraine? Other types of aid would require new appropriations?

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

    Yes, you are right, and major US financial assistance to the Ukraine has come from Congressional appropriations.

    That said the executive branch has some means to provide financial assistance without Congress. In August billions of funds from the World Bank were sent to the Ukraine, for instance. The Federal Reserve and various executive agencies like the Export-Import Bank can also provide assistance without Congressional appropriations.

    What will happen going forward is that military assistance from the Ukraine will take less the form of transferring existing stocks of weapon and more that the Ukraine will order weapons directly from Western (mainly US) arms manufacturers. While the incoming Republican Congress may not authorize large financial appropriations to the Ukraine (I won’t hold my breath), the executive branch has some other ways to finance Ukrainian arms purchases and of course there are all the other Western backers of the Ukraine.

    How this will look in practice is that the Ukrainian MoD will order GMLRS rockets for their HIMARS, the Biden administration will approve the sale and the export credit (on very generous terms), and Europeans will provide the cash to pay Lockheed Martin.

    • Thanks: keypusher
  124. @Dmitry
    @Bashibuzuk

    It's a boring topic without so much complexity. But I'll write a final post about it. Westerners are often writing in this forum about Putin having the war with oligarchs, like these "oligarch people" are the opposing or hijacking class that contrasts with the state power in the postsoviet countries (this is what you can read from the users like AP, Karlin, Sailer, Reinor Tor), while forgetting the source of the money this class are provisionally holding.

    I think these netizens have the model from the American capitalism. They think oligarch is a kind of businessman who has generated money because of inventing a business as Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos.

    Elon Musk could use the money from the entrepreneur's invention (e.g. Paypal and Tesla) to change the public opinion in the elections (buy Twitter). Americans have the fears about Muskian wealth like in "Citizen Kane", where the interests of a businessman is degrading the democracy and the transparency of information access.

    Westerners are worried the public will be tricked by these private businessmen who will influence to elect politicians that support their interests.

    An inverse implication is they believe the possibility of patriotic politicians who can fight against the private businessmen.

    Such kind of patriotic politicians will defend the legal branch of the government against financial interests. A strong politician should fight for the position of the ordinary citizen, so each individual citizen has equal political influence, in contrast to only the "big money" interest that often corrupts American politics. There was some of the unlikely narratives that Q Anon has attached for Donald Trump, like he would fight against the "big money".

    But that is America. In many countries wealth is not something outside government, but the source of the big money is primarily - government. A situation with oligarchs in postsoviet countries will be easy to understand for people from Iran or Saudi Arabia, or even most countries in the world.

    A lot more simple in such countries. If you were talking to Saudis, they would understand where the wealth of the oligarchs is in origin, although you might need to add some new vocabulary like "Prince".

    In the postsoviet space not just the laws are from the state, but the main industries are properties of state to recent years. The owning of the former state property are nowadays informally attached to the royal court. Some oligarchs have to work managing parts of court, including in the finances. It's like if you see all the money in the bank and without understanding the bank is holding not only its own money.

    Westerners ask why some of the courts' cashiers are falling from the power and hiring private militaries for their exile security, believing because the politicians might be opposed to businessmen as a general class, not as simply individuals, not remembering dangers for individual traitors have been the same in Soviet times, or for disobedient individual people like Khashoggi in countries like Saudi Arabia. (There are people like Khashoggi who fall into trouble with the Saudi authorities, as individuals, not as a class.)

    They don't seem to think about whose permission they have to hold this money or who allows to have this money. Whose money they are also holding informally in postsoviet countries? Who allows you to hold the money that was so central to the state, only recently not formally the state, and still informally not so distant from it?



    But he is basically of Polish-Galician ethnic stock and he is deeply attached to his roots.

    He is and always will be partial.
     
    Lol I don't think we can blame Poles and their nationalism based in the self-determination of peoples against the oppression of the empires, too much for the views of AP, from his colonial house in somewhere like New England.

    Peoples like Poles believe nationalism based in the 19th century concept, but in America it's more like immigrants are supporting their favorite sports team, sometimes with a lot of wealth for this "hobby".

    To cultural context AP, I feel it is assimilation of the culture of post-Ellis Island immigrants in the North Eastern states in the US. They support their ethnic origin like a baseball team, as also their religious group. Irish are funding the independence partisans in Ireland, Jews were supporting development in "New Yishuv" in Palestine.

    But from what I understand of my years writing with him, AP is also living in elite area in North East US, where it is normal to boast of your personal prestige. It is a place where there is the strong pressure to climb the social ladder. Maybe he wasn't in an "Ivy", but from his writing it is like he needs ways to match such kind of prestigious neighbors.

    I assume he has become a "real white person", although his family are immigrants from the undeveloped parts of the world and he has political views more of Cuban immigrants in Miami, not so many prestigious virtue signaling of the normal WASPs in Dartmouth or Yale.

    As for AP's way of thinking. America has been a successful country as a colony, so I would not says this cultural context was more maladaptive than our own context. Probably my writing smells bad for him like he is talking to someone who is in the ashheap of history and that I have an unhealthy addiction to rolling on the trash.

    The same goes for Mr Hack, who is a nice person of Ukrainian background and who is rooting for the country of his ancestors
     
    I'm receiving some kind of relaxing atmosphere of sitting next to a cactus tree in Arizona from Mr Hack.

    Perhaps it is due to the very nature of our native language, which is so precise and complex and yet so open to lexical innovation and search for novel meaning?
     
    It's a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml

    Нам внятно всё — и острый галльский смысл,
    И сумрачный германский гений…

    А если нет — нам нечего терять,
    И нам доступно вероломство!
    Века, века вас будет проклинать
    Больное позднее потомство!

     

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ.

    Replies: @Coconuts, @Barbarossa, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Bashibuzuk, @Mr. Hack

    You’re correct in noting that I’ve taken a more laid back view of commenting here than usual, but I’m not laying underneath a saguaro tree trying to find some shade, it’s that I’ve come down with what we used to call a “cold”. A terrible frog has found a home in my throat, and I’m dousing it every few hours with a quarter vile of oregano/olive oil (wonderful stuff that I wholeheartedly recommend for this sort of thing). It’s nice to be noticed by somebody of your stature here at this blog. Perhaps, you more than anybody else, has actively pursued keeping this blog a viable concern.

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum

    Indeed. You and I went on and on once about the bus and rail systems of several cities in the world (photos and all). Well, the Phoenix Light rail system has continued to grow, you’ll be happy to know.

    And there was our discussions comparing a Mozart vs a Beethoven piano concertos. I thought that I held up pretty well to your obviously more sophisticated approach to the subject.

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @Mr. Hack

    My personal remedy for colds is a big pile of freshly grated ginger (1+ cup maybe?) along with a couple black tea bags in a quart or so of water.
    The resulting tea will be too strong to drink straight and will need to sweetened generously with honey. It'll put the piss and vinegar back in a man!

    It's the best remedy I have found though I haven't tried the olive oil and oregano.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  125. @216
    JDAM is cheap, but the GPS constellation is not. Presumably the limited Russian budget led to concerns that NATO would shoot all the GLONASS satellites down during a war, making a JDAM copy useless.

    Instead they chose the hypersonic missile, which US doesn't have yet, but when it does, it will be better. The kinzhal appears designed for use against naval targets, and secondarily as a way to preserve the Foxhound rice bowl.

    The name "Fullback", to those not familiar with American football, is used as a blocking position so that the "Halfback" can run the football down the field. From a Western perspective, the plane is aptly named, but Russia isn't using the plane properly.

    An EF-111 copy has little interest to export customers, save China, which hasn't bought the plane. The Fullback has only one named customer, Algeria, which is little more than a petrodictatorship which wants trophies that won't actually be used.

    ---

    The AK-12 is this in small form. Captured rifles haven't been issued with rail mounted optics, which is the only real advantage it has over the AK-74. Western reviews of the AK-12 have been negative, while reviews of the more expensive A-545 have been rather positive.

    Russian optics haven't been embargoed for export to the West, by either RF or the US. Nor has there been any major order of Holosun optics from China which would make those AK-12s useful.

    But meanwhile in the US, our new XM5 rifle has the most powerful round ever issued to an infantry rifle, which can destroy any type of body armor in existence. But with only a slight increase in weight, its combination suppressor/muzzle break means that it does not recoil much harder than the M4 (which by virtue of weight/barrel does recoil harder than the M16).

    And that's before we mention the classified superscope, which will turn every infantryman into a sniper, and possibly have anti-drone capabilities as the technology develops.

    It's horribly expensive, and will irritate NATO partners having to buy a proprietary gun and ammo all over again.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    I wonder where do these trolls get all this drivel from?

    The limited Russian budget led to concerns that NATO would shoot all the GLONASS satellites down.

    No one can shoot them down – these satellites are on the high orbit (500-700 km).

    They chose the hypersonic missile, which US doesn’t have yet, but when it does, it will be better.

    Of course – much better! Meanwhile the Russians have two models of these and are working on another one.

    From a Western perspective, the plane is aptly named [Fullback], but Russia isn’t using the plane properly.

    Fullback is the NATO reporting name for the Sukhoi Su-34. It is a 4th generation plane analogous to the American F-15E. What is the point of discussing it?

    Captured [AK-12] rifles haven’t been issued with rail mounted optics, which is the only real advantage it has over the AK-74.

    If it was captured without optics that means the optics were in fact stolen. These AK are issued with a collimator sight.

    Apart from the rail it is better than the AK-74 in that it has a free-floated barrel and improved ergonomics, a better rear iron sight and as a result longer effective range.

    Western reviews of the AK-12 have been negative, while reviews of the more expensive A-545 have been rather positive.

    These reviews are not based on experience. Both of these rifles are not available in the West.

    However the A-545 (now called the KORD 6P67 or 6P68) is a better rifle indeed. It features the balanced recoil design (BARS) which is unique. These rifles have no recoil whatsoever!

    And besides these look good.

    Meanwhile in the US, our new XM5 rifle has the most powerful round ever issued to an infantry rifle, which can destroy any type of body armor in existence.

    The round – 6.8×51 mm SIG (or .277 SIG Fury) – is the same as 7.62×51 mm NATO (or .308 Winchester). The rifle is nothing special if we disregard its ugliness. It is for sure the ugliest rifle ever made.

    As for the round it has been done before and is being done now – in particular the Belgian FAL and more recent SCAR-H rifles are chambered in 7.62×51 mm.

    Due to higher pressure the barrels wear out faster, due to stronger recoil automatic fire is hard to handle. And of course it does not destroy any type of body armor.

    Its combination suppressor/muzzle break means that it does not recoil much harder than the M4.

    It does recoil much harder than the AK-12 or the AK-15, and for sure a lot harder than KORD which does not recoil at all.

    The device pictured here is not a combination of suppressor/muzzle break but a regular sound suppressor. That means we can add another $1000 to the cost of the rifle if it is planned to be issued as that.

    And that’s before we mention the classified superscope, which will turn every infantryman into a sniper, and possibly have anti-drone capabilities.

    The most moronic comment of the week. You have won.

    It’s horribly expensive, and will irritate NATO partners having to buy a proprietary gun and ammo all over again.

    The NATO partners are not going to purchase it and in fact the U.S. is planning to get some 100 thousand of these for their close combat forces.

    Now please stop posting such nonsense.

    • Replies: @216
    @Here Be Dragon


    No one can shoot them down – these satellites are on the high orbit (500-700 km).

     

    Just watch me

    If it was captured without optics that means the optics were in fact stolen. These AK are issued with a collimator sight.

     

    It is possible that rifles were rushed from the factory to the front without optics being mounted. It is also possible that the optics were embezzled, or that they were poached by Ukrainians.

    The device pictured here is not a combination of suppressor/muzzle break but a regular sound suppressor. That means we can add another $1000 to the cost of the rifle if it is planned to be issued as that.

     

    That suppressor uses cutting-edge 3d printing technology to significantly reduce the gas flowing back on the shooter's face, which also provides recoil reduction. It is unlike any other suppressor used.

    The superscope is very much real, and the minute it sees combat it will be a revelation akin to the conical bullet in the 19th century.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

  126. @showmethereal
    @keypusher

    Well for one thing I don’t speak the language so I don’t know if it is correct. But one thing I definitely know is context is key. I know nothing about the general nor the actual situation. I personally know of instances where things have been directly quoted but taken hugely out of context or a quote has been used by a disgruntled person to try to prove a narrative when it was never a consensus nor fact. Is that the case here? I admittedly do not know. But I DO know that “Moscow Times” is an anti Putin and pro western publication. It is basically a western publication based in Russia (many go work for the AP or CNN before or after) - so can’t be trusted to be objective.
    Personally I know little about the region. I started reading blogs like this to get educated on the matter. I only started paying attention after the 2014 coup - because I knew that meant the US was attempting a major disruption in the area.
    Now I know a handful of Russians and they are apolitical (and live in the west). So for instance when I came across videos of Mariupol where the people were GLAD to see the Russians and were talking about the treatment they received at the hands of the Ukrainian right wing nationalists - I asked them to tell me if the translations were true. They said it was correct. One literally broke down crying. The issue has been known for years and they were genuinely heartbroken at the gate Russians received (again they live in the west). When I asked what the real mood in Russia they say yes some are against military action - but the majority support Putin and if anything blame him for being too soft in dealing with the matter…. You can’t think I’m making it up - but I’m not. And I trust those people more than I do the media.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @keypusher

    When I asked what the real mood in Russia they say yes some are against military action – but the majority support Putin and if anything blame him for being too soft in dealing with the matter…. You can’t think I’m making it up – but I’m not.

    Oh, I believe you. Up until the point that it became clear that the U.S.’s own leadership had decided that the Vietnam war could not be won, there were more Americans saying “we need to nuke Hanoi” than “we need to get out.” When the people of a proud nation find themselves losing a war against an enemy they thought was no match for them, the normal reaction is “we’re not being ruthless enough.” Even if, in reality, the problem is not Russia’s/the USA’s alleged gentleness, but rather incompetence, lack of motivation, and corruption.

    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @keypusher

    Comparisons to the Vietnam war are nonsense. Russia is fighting at its front door with a basically token force up to this point. Why they never declared all out war I don’t know. Maybe it’s because they really never wanted to take over the whole Ukraine (in 3 days nonetheless) that the western media says. I recall Putins speech on the first day. Removing Nazis from Donbass and making Donbass safe for the ethnic Russians there is well on its way. The other objective he said was to remove the war making capability of Ukraine. He actually did that — except NATO is arming Ukraine - which maybe they didn’t anticipate. If come next February Russia is pushed out of Donbass- then what you are saying makes sense. But as of now - they have done what THEY said as opposed to what WESTERN MEDIA AND NATO said. This is not even Afghanistan when the INVITED Soviet Army eventually got pushed out by the same tribalists who just pushed out the “almighty USA” a year ago. The people of Donbass WANT to be part of Russia. I Can recall clearly when Crimea was glad to go back to Russia that Dobass requested the same thing and Putin said no. I recall clearly Russia offering passports and citizenship to any who wanted to leave to move to Russia. I recall many did but many others said they didn’t want to leave where their families had been for generations. I recall they then declared their independence- which Russia did NOT recognize. I recall Minsk and know that was a game and Ukraine would not be allowed by the west to keep the agreement. I recall Donbass people asking for years for Russian assistance militarily. To compare Donbass to Vietnam is complete nonsense. Russia has never said it wanted regime change or any other nonsense in Ukraine and they are not a half a world away or fighting religious tribalists who don’t want them there. Go watch independent videos of Mariupol… the same place the west claimed was a humanitarian disaster is almost back to normal now.

  127. Bashibuzuk says:
    @German_reader
    @LatW


    The idea is to establish a Kyiv centric order out of which the former Russian Realm will be organized
     
    These ideas are delusional. If Ukraine ever tries to implement something of the sort, all Western aid must be ended immediately. The deal was help preserve Ukraine its independence, not some megalomaniac project about "reformating" the "Russian Realm" (sounds a lot like "Russian World" actually).

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @LatW

    You are correct in your assessment. I suggest you have a look at the following article to see where this “megalomaniac project” comes from.

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/balancing-east-upgrading-west

    The late Big Zbig actually even floated the idea of making Kiev the capital of the new and upgraded Eurasia under US patronage. I mean Kiev is strictly geographically speaking close to the center of Europe (yeah, I know it doesn’t seem that way) and is also close to his beloved Poland, on top on being anti-Moscovite to the bone.

    What’s not to like?

    (If you have found it a little bit annoying being dictated from Brussels and Strasbourg, imagine being dictated from Warsaw and Kiev instead. Perhaps a nuclear holocaust is a better option after all…)

    🙂

  128. Francis Fukuyama already thinking about Crimea:

    [MORE]

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @German_reader

    tbh, very bad sign for implementing IRL the UA final official goal of taking back Crimea;)

    Replies: @German_reader

  129. @German_reader
    Francis Fukuyama already thinking about Crimea:

    https://twitter.com/FukuyamaFrancis/status/1576814943197724675?cxt=HHwWhoCg3cS1_OErAAAA

    Replies: @sudden death

    tbh, very bad sign for implementing IRL the UA final official goal of taking back Crimea;)

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sudden death

    It's still a disastrous idea to encourage Ukrainian designs on Crimea. If they have no chance of succeeding, it will just end in a pointless, failed offensive with many casualties, if they do succeed, Russia won't just watch while Russians flee or are expelled from what is seen as historic Russian land by probably the vast majority of Russians. It's probably the scenario where use of nuclear weapons becomes most likely.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Thorfinnsson

  130. @German_reader
    @LatW


    The idea is to establish a Kyiv centric order out of which the former Russian Realm will be organized
     
    These ideas are delusional. If Ukraine ever tries to implement something of the sort, all Western aid must be ended immediately. The deal was help preserve Ukraine its independence, not some megalomaniac project about "reformating" the "Russian Realm" (sounds a lot like "Russian World" actually).

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @LatW

    some megalomaniac project about “reformating” the “Russian Realm” (sounds a lot like “Russian World” actually).

    I borrowed that from Bashibuzuk – he introduced “Russian Realm”, it sounds more magical and appealing.
    Now it should be renamed the Rus Realm, actually. Or maybe something entirely new.

    The old Russian world is slowly receding. Something has to fill out the space and it will be Ukraine and friends. Mind you, that this is not even a fully accurate term, because Arestovych talks about working with countries such as Georgia and Moldova which are not even “Russian”. The so called post-Soviet world doesn’t exist anymore.

    The deal was help preserve Ukraine its independence

    Right, but wars of aggression like this one that Russia chose, can often get out of control. The Laws of Nature come into play.

  131. German_reader says:
    @sudden death
    @German_reader

    tbh, very bad sign for implementing IRL the UA final official goal of taking back Crimea;)

    Replies: @German_reader

    It’s still a disastrous idea to encourage Ukrainian designs on Crimea. If they have no chance of succeeding, it will just end in a pointless, failed offensive with many casualties, if they do succeed, Russia won’t just watch while Russians flee or are expelled from what is seen as historic Russian land by probably the vast majority of Russians. It’s probably the scenario where use of nuclear weapons becomes most likely.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @German_reader

    imho, we are quite far from this point on a military perspective to worry about it atm, UA will have its combat hands more than tired from lifting the current adventures back into Kherson or Lugansk oblasts, even in case of finishing it succesfully.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @Thorfinnsson
    @German_reader

    The Ukrainians have agency on their own, and in any case few countries recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea. Maybe the US can say it will refuse to transfer arms to the Ukraine if it invades the peninsula, but this strikes me as unlikely. An apparently victorious, advancing Ukrainian Army will acquire more support, and the Biden regime would be unlikely to refuse military assistance on these grounds lest it be denounced for weakness and stabbing the Ukraine in the back.

    From the Ukrainian point of view, this may be a moment akin to the 1918 Spring Offensive by the German Army on the Western Front. They now have superiority at the front, but the superiority will start to vanish next month as Russia mobilizes its superior resources. Thus it makes quite a lot of sense to throw everything into the battle right now in order to try and achieve a decision in the field.

    Indeed, it appears that this is exactly what they're doing. Ukrainian forces are advancing as far as they can, and according to the Kiev Independent the country has stop-lossed its whole army while delaying the intake of the next class of conscripts.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mr. Hack

  132. @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW

    Well, that would follow the late Brzezinsky's thought of "Rebuilding the West to balance the East". It would also follow into the past Papacy exhortations to Ruthenians in the seventeenth century to "carry the Light east". Ukraine as an anti-Russia, being used as a focal point of assembly of ancient Rus lands in a manner that would be more aligned with the Globalized West.

    Arestovitch being a smart man probably understands this and he understands more than anyone what the Ukrainian projet is all about: a younger and more energetic mafia clan replacing the elders who have grown complacent and too hedonistic. He is part and parcel of these "young hounds" who have chased the "old boars" from power in Kiev. Now he wants to be among those who replace them in Moscow too. That is why he has already spoken in favor of keeping the Russian language and culture alive in Ukraine. To ease the integration of the Moscovites into the new Globalist Emporium managed by the Kiev Khazaro-Varangians (pun intended).

    That might work or that might end up in a nuclear war. I can see his gamble, but for me it is a too dangerous one.

    (And they really ought to rename themselves Kievan Rus, that would sweeten the pill a little... 😁)

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @LatW

    Ukraine as an anti-Russia

    Well, Russia, too, chose to not be amicable and not work with her problems. 30 years was very long, we are tired. We want to live.

    He is part and parcel of these “young hounds” who have chased the “old boars” from power in Kiev.

    You know, at least he’s younger and brings in some fresh ideas and a more modern demeanor. It’s about time.

    [MORE]

    Now he wants to be among those who replace them in Moscow too. That is why he has already spoken in favor of keeping the Russian language and culture alive in Ukraine.

    I sense he did have this on his mind for a while, but only started speaking about it openly now (after Lyman, etc). But I had no idea he wants to go that far. The only question for me is if he can. This is all still very hypothetical.

    Him being in favor of retaining the Russian language initially was because he believes Ukraine should integrate Russianness since it would make Ukraine stronger (according to his logic). In the light of what he said yesterday, the Russian language will now be instrumental (this is the language that the friends of Ukraine to the East use). The Ukrainians will learn English, too, gradually.

    To ease the integration of the Moscovites into the new Globalist Emporium managed by the Kiev Khazaro-Varangians (pun intended).

    I know this is how it looks to you as you are attached to these ideas. And I appreciate that. But from Ukraine’s point of view, given what happened that there was a barbaric attempt to erase Ukraine (which is still ongoing), Ukraine has to do what it takes for her own security (and security of others). As I said, when you initiate such big events, when you feel entitled to spin the wheel of Destiny, as Putin did, things will go out of your control and now everything that was kept inside for 30 years is coming out and falling into place. The Thundercross is spinning fast now.

    That might work or that might end up in a nuclear war. I can see his gamble, but for me it is a too dangerous one.

    I’m just putting it out here for you because this is new, such bold ideas were not floated yet before. I wouldn’t consider it noteworthy if he weren’t as close to the administration and so popular. He literally said “administer the realm” (speaking of parts of Russia from what I assumed, maybe he didn’t mean literally, physically being there, and just dealing with whatever comes out of the current Russia in the next few years or maybe just dealing with places like Georgia and Moldova, remember that Georgia is now 10% Russian due to the recent influx and he wants to help Georgia handle it). Not sure it’s possible to pull off, the human resources and work required for this is vast.

    And they really ought to rename themselves Kievan Rus, that would sweeten the pill a little… 😁

    Arestovych was going around a while back trying to rename Ukraine “Rus-Ukraina”. This has been on his mind (even if may not gain traction). It’s not like they don’t know what this is. And it’s not like they don’t know who they are.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW

    LatW, you know that I am no fan of Putin, but to be honest, the "project" that Arestovitch describes today is quite old and Putin is actually reacting against it in a knee-jerk fashion.

    It was talked about already by some Ukrainian Ultra-nationalists during the late 1920ies. And it goes all the way back to the fight between Muscovy and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, when the Commonwealth nearly ended up conquering Muscovy. The only reason they failed in their conquest, was their religious bigotry, they did not want to give equal status to the Orthodox.

    The Catholic/Uniate Ruthenian/Ukrainian elites have since often seen Muscovy as inherently backward and in deep need of reform and (ahem) administration (colonization really). The Papacy encouraged them in that view even publishing official proclamation to that effect.

    And more recently, the US and NATO has used this ideological superiority/victimhood complex of the Ukrainian elites to prepare them to fight against "Mordor" and its "orcs". Among the Western pundits who have worked in this sense was the late Brzezinski. He wrote on the subject and he knew the case quite well given his Polish ancestry and his early years in Kharkov and Moscow (IIRC his dad was among the Polish diplomatic personnel in these lands).

    His article written in 2011 and published in early 2012 (well before the Maidan) suggests reorganizing the Eurasian landmass under US patronage to stand against the Chinese rise up. And he floats the idea that Kiev might one day become the capital city of this federated Eurasia.

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/balancing-east-upgrading-west

    So there is nothing new or revolutionary about Arestovitch's ideas.

    Same old, same old.

    They really think that they can reorganize to their benefit the Rus Realm (I think we have got here to a nice description for these lands in our collaborative effort both you and I). But they should ask how it worked for the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, because that is how it will most probably look like in former RusFed territories once it crumbles. It will be as crazy as in 1918-1922, except that this time there would be more sophisticated weapons (including nuclear) around and lots of dirty industries ready to poison everything around for decades.

    That would be quite entertaining to observe from afar...

    🙂

    Replies: @LatW, @AP

  133. @216
    @Bashibuzuk


    Perhaps Slavs should have kept to their roots and honored the Gods of their forefathers instead of fighting and quarreling due to the influence of conflicting sects of an exotic cult vying for a dominant role in that geographic area.
     
    Europe is the Faith, and the Faith is Europe.

    You are not permitted to disagree with this statement.

    Before the light of Christ, the people were nothing but filthy barbarians. After, they became great conquerors. Deprived of Christ, they became nothing but filth degenerates all over again.

    Replies: @Sher Singh, @Bashibuzuk, @showmethereal

    Greeks and Romans went to conquer others and were not Christians. And being a conquerer is against the words of Christ. So how does that make sense? That’s a false religion papered over a Greco Roman base. No conquering until He returns as a lion and if you read – he won’t be returning to Rome or anywhere in Europe. It says what mountain

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @showmethereal

    Maybe he has been reading Evola and he thinks the Holy Roman Empire was like Shangri La + El Dorado.

    There is a great book on the Germanizing of Christianity on the bottom of one of my book stacks where they describe heathen martial values overwhelming the docile monk society after Charlemagne conquered Saxony.

    The British soldiers who dug all those mass graves in my cartoon map up-thread were good Christians. : (

  134. @German_reader
    @sudden death

    It's still a disastrous idea to encourage Ukrainian designs on Crimea. If they have no chance of succeeding, it will just end in a pointless, failed offensive with many casualties, if they do succeed, Russia won't just watch while Russians flee or are expelled from what is seen as historic Russian land by probably the vast majority of Russians. It's probably the scenario where use of nuclear weapons becomes most likely.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Thorfinnsson

    imho, we are quite far from this point on a military perspective to worry about it atm, UA will have its combat hands more than tired from lifting the current adventures back into Kherson or Lugansk oblasts, even in case of finishing it succesfully.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sudden death

    That's probably true enough. If things go badly and Russia manages to effectively use its mobilized troops there might even be major reverses for Ukraine this winter/next year again (though I really hope Russia won't still somehow manage to take Odessa or Kharkiv, as some Russian chauvinists or they sympathizers still seem to hope for).
    But I can't say I have a positive view of all this maximalist talk about re-taking Crimea (or even "demilitarizing" and possibly dismantling Russia herself). It's at best silly, but could be dangerous if it becomes the basis for policy.

    Replies: @Greasy William

  135. @German_reader
    @sudden death

    It's still a disastrous idea to encourage Ukrainian designs on Crimea. If they have no chance of succeeding, it will just end in a pointless, failed offensive with many casualties, if they do succeed, Russia won't just watch while Russians flee or are expelled from what is seen as historic Russian land by probably the vast majority of Russians. It's probably the scenario where use of nuclear weapons becomes most likely.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Thorfinnsson

    The Ukrainians have agency on their own, and in any case few countries recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea. Maybe the US can say it will refuse to transfer arms to the Ukraine if it invades the peninsula, but this strikes me as unlikely. An apparently victorious, advancing Ukrainian Army will acquire more support, and the Biden regime would be unlikely to refuse military assistance on these grounds lest it be denounced for weakness and stabbing the Ukraine in the back.

    From the Ukrainian point of view, this may be a moment akin to the 1918 Spring Offensive by the German Army on the Western Front. They now have superiority at the front, but the superiority will start to vanish next month as Russia mobilizes its superior resources. Thus it makes quite a lot of sense to throw everything into the battle right now in order to try and achieve a decision in the field.

    Indeed, it appears that this is exactly what they’re doing. Ukrainian forces are advancing as far as they can, and according to the Kiev Independent the country has stop-lossed its whole army while delaying the intake of the next class of conscripts.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Thorfinnsson


    Maybe the US can say it will refuse to transfer arms to the Ukraine if it invades the peninsula, but this strikes me as unlikely.
     
    That's what they'd have to do if such a scenario ever becomes likely. Client states can't be given unconditional support if their maximalist aims endanger vital interests of their sponsors (though there are of course plenty of people in the US foreign policy establishment who think that trying to expel Russia from Crimea is in US interests).
    But yes, the problem is that much of the public in Western countries, at least the human garbage that populates social media, has become completely retarded in their Manichaean war hysteria, egged on by Ukraine's skilful propaganda campaign, and this will influence policy-makers.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @keypusher

    , @Mr. Hack
    @Thorfinnsson


    They now have superiority at the front, but the superiority will start to vanish next month as Russia mobilizes its superior resources.
     
    This is a song that you've been singing since last February 24, and it's starting to sound a bit hollow?...Ukrainian troops have met quality crack Russian troops since the beginning of the war, and even have been able to defeat them before the West really got interested in providing them with top quality weapons. Remember the complete shut down of the Russian 331st Guards Parachute Regiment during the fighting for Kyiv? IMHO, history will judge this battle as being among the most important losses for the Russian invaders. With close to 100,000 troops sent to the Kyiv area, you couldn't really attribute the huge loss as one that occurred due to lack of troops, weapons, or lack of morale. I'd be interested in hearing your conclusions regarding this battle.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Russian_bombardment_of_Kyiv_TV_Tower.jpg/800px-Russian_bombardment_of_Kyiv_TV_Tower.jpg

    So what makes you think that sending another 300,000 Russian ill supplied and trained "soldiers" (civilians) into this war, conscripted most likely without their desire to serve, into the battle is going to help turn the tide into a miraculous victory for Russia?

    Having said this, I'm glad to see that you've returned, once again! Somebody with as much military knowledge as you have, blogging here, is a always a plus.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Wokechoke

  136. German_reader says:
    @sudden death
    @German_reader

    imho, we are quite far from this point on a military perspective to worry about it atm, UA will have its combat hands more than tired from lifting the current adventures back into Kherson or Lugansk oblasts, even in case of finishing it succesfully.

    Replies: @German_reader

    That’s probably true enough. If things go badly and Russia manages to effectively use its mobilized troops there might even be major reverses for Ukraine this winter/next year again (though I really hope Russia won’t still somehow manage to take Odessa or Kharkiv, as some Russian chauvinists or they sympathizers still seem to hope for).
    But I can’t say I have a positive view of all this maximalist talk about re-taking Crimea (or even “demilitarizing” and possibly dismantling Russia herself). It’s at best silly, but could be dangerous if it becomes the basis for policy.

    • Replies: @Greasy William
    @German_reader


    though I really hope Russia won’t still somehow manage to take Odessa or Kharkiv, as some Russian chauvinists or they sympathizers still seem to hope for
     
    You don't want Biden and his Euro vassals to eat a catastrophic defeat?
  137. German_reader says:
    @Thorfinnsson
    @German_reader

    The Ukrainians have agency on their own, and in any case few countries recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea. Maybe the US can say it will refuse to transfer arms to the Ukraine if it invades the peninsula, but this strikes me as unlikely. An apparently victorious, advancing Ukrainian Army will acquire more support, and the Biden regime would be unlikely to refuse military assistance on these grounds lest it be denounced for weakness and stabbing the Ukraine in the back.

    From the Ukrainian point of view, this may be a moment akin to the 1918 Spring Offensive by the German Army on the Western Front. They now have superiority at the front, but the superiority will start to vanish next month as Russia mobilizes its superior resources. Thus it makes quite a lot of sense to throw everything into the battle right now in order to try and achieve a decision in the field.

    Indeed, it appears that this is exactly what they're doing. Ukrainian forces are advancing as far as they can, and according to the Kiev Independent the country has stop-lossed its whole army while delaying the intake of the next class of conscripts.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mr. Hack

    Maybe the US can say it will refuse to transfer arms to the Ukraine if it invades the peninsula, but this strikes me as unlikely.

    That’s what they’d have to do if such a scenario ever becomes likely. Client states can’t be given unconditional support if their maximalist aims endanger vital interests of their sponsors (though there are of course plenty of people in the US foreign policy establishment who think that trying to expel Russia from Crimea is in US interests).
    But yes, the problem is that much of the public in Western countries, at least the human garbage that populates social media, has become completely retarded in their Manichaean war hysteria, egged on by Ukraine’s skilful propaganda campaign, and this will influence policy-makers.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @German_reader

    What the US ostensibly has to do is not the same as what it will do. Most of the political incentives are in favor of further escalation, and the midterm elections are nearing.

    There's also something else amusing about the current situation. For a long time the "realist" community (along with isolationists, appeasers, etc.) denounced Washington's reckless, anti-Russian foreign policy as likely to lead to disaster and conflict. It was further suggested by some that logically Washington should be trying to make an ally out of Moscow in order to enhance the containment and confrontation of China, which unlike Russia is in a position to challenge the USA on a global basis.

    The disaster and conflict came about just as the realists warned it would, but the situation now is that due to Russia's incompetent bumbling that it looks like a military victory and in turn a replacement of the Putin regime is at least a non-trivial possibility. Russia could then become an American vassal state aligned against China.

    So in other words the lunatics we've been railing against and warning about for 25 years will have been proven "right" (aside from all the dead and/or fled people in the Ukraine, but nobody cares about them), and we'll be Neville Chamberlain (ignoring the fact that Chamberlain was a major architect of British rearmament, which few know or care about).

    Note: not a prediction about future events, just a thought experiment.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @keypusher
    @German_reader


    But yes, the problem is that much of the public in Western countries, at least the human garbage that populates social media, has become completely retarded in their Manichaean war hysteria, egged on by Ukraine’s skilful propaganda campaign, and this will influence policy-makers.
     
    It's actually quite normal to root for the side that is resisting brutal, thuggish aggression, as the Ukrainians are, and to rejoice when they begin defeating their attackers. You don't have to be "the human garbage that populates social media" to do so. Just consider the reaction to the USSR's invasion of Finland, long before social media was ever though of. The differences are, the USSR was able to win the Winter War after three-odd months, and Russia now has nuclear weapons. It will be up to Western leaders to negotiate those complications, but in the meantime it's a bit absurd to expect ordinary people not to enjoy the spectacle of the Ukrainians humiliating the Russians.

    Replies: @German_reader

  138. @Thorfinnsson
    @Greasy William

    The RuAF basically does not have a SEAD capability. It has no dedicated electronic attack aircraft and no "Wild Weasel" squadrons dedicated to hunting enemy air defense systems.

    Ten electronic warfare variants of the Su-24, the Su-24MP, were built in 1980. None are any longer in service: https://web.archive.org/web/20141219023949/http://www.sukhoi.org/eng/planes/military/su24mk/history/

    The only electronic warfare Flanker variant is Chinese: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42511/chinas-j-16d-electronic-attack-jet-seen-sporting-jamming-pods-for-the-first-time

    A limited number of jamming pods such as Khibiny-U exist for deployment on the Su-30. These may have been used successfully on the airborne assault on Hostomel.

    Anti-radiation missiles do exist, but in Russian service are intended mainly to attack and destroy airborne early warning radar (AEWR) aircraft.

    The Russian Air Force suffers from trying to field a full spectrum air force on a shoestring, and to the extent it specializes it specializes in denying a numerically superior adversary air superiority over the territory on the Russian Federation. A NATO air campaign against Russia would suffer from some similar challenges to the Russian air campaign over the Ukraine.

    To the extent the Russian Air Force is conducting attack sorties (and it is), it suffers from a shortage of PGMs and inferior, low resolution targeting pods. This was not a problem in Syria due to permissive environment, but in the Ukraine it's untenable. The standard of Russian pilot training is also poor.

    A good source for this is Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute.

    Replies: @Sean, @showmethereal

    From my understanding- Russia went very heavy into air defense systems because it knew it couldn’t take on NATO’s Air Forces after Soviet collapse. So why is anyone surprised by that? I’m not general – but it is understandable that Russia’s military is not set up to be an offensive one like the US. The differences in mindset are readily apparent. Why are people expecting Russians to fight a war American style? Especially when with all of America’s tech prowess when boots have to go on the ground – the tale becomes very different…

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @showmethereal

    Your understanding is not wrong, but ostensibly one of the objectives of Russian defense policy in the past decade was to be able to rapidly fight and win local wars in its "Near Abroad". Clearly the inability of the Russian Air Force to provide effective air defense suppression and close air support are inhibiting Russia's ability to fight and win this war.

    It should also been pointed out that Russia has had eight years to prepare for this war, but didn't. Then launched it anyway.

    Not very smart.

    Replies: @showmethereal

  139. @German_reader
    @Thorfinnsson


    Maybe the US can say it will refuse to transfer arms to the Ukraine if it invades the peninsula, but this strikes me as unlikely.
     
    That's what they'd have to do if such a scenario ever becomes likely. Client states can't be given unconditional support if their maximalist aims endanger vital interests of their sponsors (though there are of course plenty of people in the US foreign policy establishment who think that trying to expel Russia from Crimea is in US interests).
    But yes, the problem is that much of the public in Western countries, at least the human garbage that populates social media, has become completely retarded in their Manichaean war hysteria, egged on by Ukraine's skilful propaganda campaign, and this will influence policy-makers.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @keypusher

    What the US ostensibly has to do is not the same as what it will do. Most of the political incentives are in favor of further escalation, and the midterm elections are nearing.

    There’s also something else amusing about the current situation. For a long time the “realist” community (along with isolationists, appeasers, etc.) denounced Washington’s reckless, anti-Russian foreign policy as likely to lead to disaster and conflict. It was further suggested by some that logically Washington should be trying to make an ally out of Moscow in order to enhance the containment and confrontation of China, which unlike Russia is in a position to challenge the USA on a global basis.

    The disaster and conflict came about just as the realists warned it would, but the situation now is that due to Russia’s incompetent bumbling that it looks like a military victory and in turn a replacement of the Putin regime is at least a non-trivial possibility. Russia could then become an American vassal state aligned against China.

    So in other words the lunatics we’ve been railing against and warning about for 25 years will have been proven “right” (aside from all the dead and/or fled people in the Ukraine, but nobody cares about them), and we’ll be Neville Chamberlain (ignoring the fact that Chamberlain was a major architect of British rearmament, which few know or care about).

    Note: not a prediction about future events, just a thought experiment.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Thorfinnsson


    Russia could then become an American vassal state aligned against China.
     
    I have difficulty imagining that, but who knows. I certainly didn't expect the course the war has taken so far.
    Anyway, nice to read something from you again.
  140. @German_reader
    @Thorfinnsson


    Maybe the US can say it will refuse to transfer arms to the Ukraine if it invades the peninsula, but this strikes me as unlikely.
     
    That's what they'd have to do if such a scenario ever becomes likely. Client states can't be given unconditional support if their maximalist aims endanger vital interests of their sponsors (though there are of course plenty of people in the US foreign policy establishment who think that trying to expel Russia from Crimea is in US interests).
    But yes, the problem is that much of the public in Western countries, at least the human garbage that populates social media, has become completely retarded in their Manichaean war hysteria, egged on by Ukraine's skilful propaganda campaign, and this will influence policy-makers.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @keypusher

    But yes, the problem is that much of the public in Western countries, at least the human garbage that populates social media, has become completely retarded in their Manichaean war hysteria, egged on by Ukraine’s skilful propaganda campaign, and this will influence policy-makers.

    It’s actually quite normal to root for the side that is resisting brutal, thuggish aggression, as the Ukrainians are, and to rejoice when they begin defeating their attackers. You don’t have to be “the human garbage that populates social media” to do so. Just consider the reaction to the USSR’s invasion of Finland, long before social media was ever though of. The differences are, the USSR was able to win the Winter War after three-odd months, and Russia now has nuclear weapons. It will be up to Western leaders to negotiate those complications, but in the meantime it’s a bit absurd to expect ordinary people not to enjoy the spectacle of the Ukrainians humiliating the Russians.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @keypusher

    There's a lot of injustice and suffering in the world that the average Western normie couldn't give a fuck about, doesn't even know about (and for the record, I don't care much myself, I certainly wouldn't be willing to make any personal sacrifices for Yemenis or West Saharans). The outrage and enthusiasm for Ukraine among Westerners is manufactured, most people don't understand anything at all about the conflict, they just repeat the media narratives they're fed with, for purposes of virtue-signaling or a semi-hidden chauvinism, thinly veiled with liberal sentimentality. This was bad enough when it came to bombing a weak state like Serbia, but it's disastrous when it comes to dealing with a nuclear-armed power, closely linked to another nuclear-armed power which could intervene if there's a chance of Russia being permanently reduced.
    When one looks at pro-Ukrainian Twitter one encounters some pretty remarkable things...I've noticed at least some Westerners (no doubt thinking themselves to be good liberals) have now taken to calling not just looting and raping Russian soldiers "Orcs", but Russians collectively (like "It's good the Baltic states don't want to let in any orcs who are trying to dodge the mobilization"). Maybe it takes a racist like me to notice the racial overtones in that, most normies seem to be quite hilariously lacking in understanding what they're actually implying.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Bashibuzuk, @Coconuts

  141. @showmethereal
    @Thorfinnsson

    From my understanding- Russia went very heavy into air defense systems because it knew it couldn’t take on NATO’s Air Forces after Soviet collapse. So why is anyone surprised by that? I’m not general - but it is understandable that Russia’s military is not set up to be an offensive one like the US. The differences in mindset are readily apparent. Why are people expecting Russians to fight a war American style? Especially when with all of America’s tech prowess when boots have to go on the ground - the tale becomes very different…

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

    Your understanding is not wrong, but ostensibly one of the objectives of Russian defense policy in the past decade was to be able to rapidly fight and win local wars in its “Near Abroad”. Clearly the inability of the Russian Air Force to provide effective air defense suppression and close air support are inhibiting Russia’s ability to fight and win this war.

    It should also been pointed out that Russia has had eight years to prepare for this war, but didn’t. Then launched it anyway.

    Not very smart.

    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @Thorfinnsson

    I can’t speak to preparedness… But I do know again they aren’t using all their assets. I don’t understand why - but they aren’t. Frankly - I don’t trust western analysts to figure out why not. Russia could have easily been destroying things like railways and power sources en masse - but chose not to. Baffles me - but it’s not my country. I do know from hearing from Russians that I know that a place like Odessa would never be bombed to oblivion like NATO style fighting because it holds sentimental value to Russians. I can only speculate that may be the reason for other restraints- but I don’t want to make assumptions.

  142. @German_reader
    @The Big Red Scary


    None of this is unusual by historical standards (brutal repression of civilian populations was carried out by all sides in World War II), but ultimately, it’s an unconscionable failure on the part of Moscow to tell the people of Izyum region that they were there to stay, only to evacuate without a fight.
     
    Russia's performance in this war has been utterly embarassing. Putin shouldn't have taken this gamble, there's now a real risk that Russia will be permanently reduced and cease to have any credible claims to great power status. The alternatives are eking out some kind of win through massive bloodshed or all of us getting vaporized in a nuclear war.
    I can't comment on your claims about repression in the areas re-taken by Ukraine. But possibly there's at least some truth to them. One more reason why I resent the foolish Westerners with their retarded dog avatars on Twitter and their Slava Ukraini nonsense. It's never a good idea to identify yourself completely with a foreign cause on which you have only limited influence at best.

    Replies: @The Big Red Scary

    Concerning performance in the war, it’s mostly a question of manpower. Kill ratios seem to have highly favor Russia, based on confirmed numbers of casualties from either side and relative artillery tonnage. However, artillery superiority only buys you so much. At the end of the day, you need men who can stand their ground, which was sorely lacking in Kharkovskaya oblast.

    There are various hypotheses about why Putlet has been so reluctant to mobilize, or even to just send in the men he already had, ranging from “he fears an animated patriotic populace more than losing the war” to “he’s a total retard”. From what I can tell, the muzhiki are ready to rumble, so it’s now a question of political will.

  143. @Triteleia Laxa
    @showmethereal

    Russia managed to get what they say is 50,000 troops into non-tactical formations, and parade a little bit, but it is also unable to live up to its CSTO commitments, garrison Transniestria or Kaliningrad properly, avoid mobilisation and not lose to Ukraine repeatedly.

    Hypothesis 1: the huge, expensively assembled Russian war machine is currently conquering the Arctic, Mars or the Moon.

    Hypothesis 2: Putin and his cronies stole all of your money and delivered a fake and gay armed force.

    Replies: @showmethereal

    Huh? Didn’t they go into Kazhasktan and quell the uprising their? Did Armenia ask for CSTO assistance?? And how do you know the condition in Kaliningrad???? Or are you just pulling that from Mars or the Moon???? I personally don’t know and I seriously doubt you do either.
    As to the second hypothesis- I think you watch too many cowboys or Rambo movies. War isn’t like that.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @showmethereal


    Did Armenia ask for CSTO assistance??
     
    Yes, and Russia did nothing. Instead, RT had an article from a leading "thinker" arguing how alliances are modern and for Westerners and not for true Russians.

    And how do you know the condition in Kaliningrad?
     
    Russian reports! And you can bet Western intelligence knows too.

    As to the second hypothesis- I think you watch too many cowboys or Rambo movies. War isn’t like that.
     
    I know exactly what war is like. And conducting it successfully, in a modern way, requires years of consistent training, logistics and institutional building. This is all expensive and requires a high degree of internal transparency to be effective.

    Ukraine seems to have been able to perform a miracle and do this in 7 months, if admittedly at a smaller scale.

    But it is clear that Russia has failed at it for 20 years, and isn't going to suddenly learn now.

    You, someone who has no clue, are talking to someone with the experience to know. You can choose to try to understand or not, but please notice the difference in our replies. I mention things you probably never even thought about, despite them being very basic to any professional. You talk about cowboys and Indians.

    Replies: @showmethereal

  144. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wanderghost

    What Putin murdering Ukrainians has to do with all of that, I have no idea. I suppose you have some 12 dimensional chess fantasy in your head?

    Anyway, the fact is that, despite what you describe so histrionically, the balance of white migration is heavily favoured towards the US.

    So just as we know it is actually a pretty good place for Africans because they keep moving there, so too do we know that for whites. And whites are choosing to move from countries far nicer than any in Africa.

    There are a lot of things to improve, but your black and white thinking is broken.

    Replies: @Wanderghost

    Oh Shilleus, do bite me.

  145. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Ukraine as an anti-Russia
     
    Well, Russia, too, chose to not be amicable and not work with her problems. 30 years was very long, we are tired. We want to live.

    He is part and parcel of these “young hounds” who have chased the “old boars” from power in Kiev.
     
    You know, at least he's younger and brings in some fresh ideas and a more modern demeanor. It's about time.


    Now he wants to be among those who replace them in Moscow too. That is why he has already spoken in favor of keeping the Russian language and culture alive in Ukraine.
     
    I sense he did have this on his mind for a while, but only started speaking about it openly now (after Lyman, etc). But I had no idea he wants to go that far. The only question for me is if he can. This is all still very hypothetical.

    Him being in favor of retaining the Russian language initially was because he believes Ukraine should integrate Russianness since it would make Ukraine stronger (according to his logic). In the light of what he said yesterday, the Russian language will now be instrumental (this is the language that the friends of Ukraine to the East use). The Ukrainians will learn English, too, gradually.

    To ease the integration of the Moscovites into the new Globalist Emporium managed by the Kiev Khazaro-Varangians (pun intended).
     
    I know this is how it looks to you as you are attached to these ideas. And I appreciate that. But from Ukraine's point of view, given what happened that there was a barbaric attempt to erase Ukraine (which is still ongoing), Ukraine has to do what it takes for her own security (and security of others). As I said, when you initiate such big events, when you feel entitled to spin the wheel of Destiny, as Putin did, things will go out of your control and now everything that was kept inside for 30 years is coming out and falling into place. The Thundercross is spinning fast now.

    That might work or that might end up in a nuclear war. I can see his gamble, but for me it is a too dangerous one.
     
    I'm just putting it out here for you because this is new, such bold ideas were not floated yet before. I wouldn't consider it noteworthy if he weren't as close to the administration and so popular. He literally said "administer the realm" (speaking of parts of Russia from what I assumed, maybe he didn't mean literally, physically being there, and just dealing with whatever comes out of the current Russia in the next few years or maybe just dealing with places like Georgia and Moldova, remember that Georgia is now 10% Russian due to the recent influx and he wants to help Georgia handle it). Not sure it's possible to pull off, the human resources and work required for this is vast.

    And they really ought to rename themselves Kievan Rus, that would sweeten the pill a little… 😁
     
    Arestovych was going around a while back trying to rename Ukraine "Rus-Ukraina". This has been on his mind (even if may not gain traction). It's not like they don't know what this is. And it's not like they don't know who they are.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    LatW, you know that I am no fan of Putin, but to be honest, the “project” that Arestovitch describes today is quite old and Putin is actually reacting against it in a knee-jerk fashion.

    It was talked about already by some Ukrainian Ultra-nationalists during the late 1920ies. And it goes all the way back to the fight between Muscovy and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, when the Commonwealth nearly ended up conquering Muscovy. The only reason they failed in their conquest, was their religious bigotry, they did not want to give equal status to the Orthodox.

    The Catholic/Uniate Ruthenian/Ukrainian elites have since often seen Muscovy as inherently backward and in deep need of reform and (ahem) administration (colonization really). The Papacy encouraged them in that view even publishing official proclamation to that effect.

    And more recently, the US and NATO has used this ideological superiority/victimhood complex of the Ukrainian elites to prepare them to fight against “Mordor” and its “orcs”. Among the Western pundits who have worked in this sense was the late Brzezinski. He wrote on the subject and he knew the case quite well given his Polish ancestry and his early years in Kharkov and Moscow (IIRC his dad was among the Polish diplomatic personnel in these lands).

    His article written in 2011 and published in early 2012 (well before the Maidan) suggests reorganizing the Eurasian landmass under US patronage to stand against the Chinese rise up. And he floats the idea that Kiev might one day become the capital city of this federated Eurasia.

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/balancing-east-upgrading-west

    So there is nothing new or revolutionary about Arestovitch’s ideas.

    Same old, same old.

    They really think that they can reorganize to their benefit the Rus Realm (I think we have got here to a nice description for these lands in our collaborative effort both you and I). But they should ask how it worked for the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, because that is how it will most probably look like in former RusFed territories once it crumbles. It will be as crazy as in 1918-1922, except that this time there would be more sophisticated weapons (including nuclear) around and lots of dirty industries ready to poison everything around for decades.

    That would be quite entertaining to observe from afar…

    🙂

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    the “project” that Arestovitch describes today is quite old and Putin is actually reacting against it in a knee-jerk fashion.
     
    Of course, the "project" is old, what I meant is that he is only now speaking about it fully openly. I sense though that there could be some newer or "upgraded" version of it. The key would be to not "upgrade" it in the globohomo fashion.



    The only reason they failed in their conquest, was their religious bigotry, they did not want to give equal status to the Orthodox.
     
    That mistake will be corrected.

    https://vimeo.com/507710569

    Plus, large masses of people are now secular so some other uniting ideology will need to be sought. Of course, you know that I support the revival of our old Faith as well.

    For those with open hearts, everything should be provided to the best ability. Above all - благо.

    Благо should be created and spread, and always come first, on top of all ideologies and as the goal of all efforts.


    He wrote on the subject and he knew the case quite well given his Polish ancestry
     
    Yea, I read pretty much everything he wrote / said years ago, but again, right now it just seems old fashioned. Come on, some old dudes from the Atlantic Council or some woke women from Georgetown are not going to push the Kyevans around. To some extent, maybe, but, as I said, these will not be the obedient and docile Estonians. And this is what I love about them. 😆

    The finance sector is really the most difficult part of this. And demographics. LOL. Yea, just those tiny little details.


    They really think that they can reorganize to their benefit the Rus Realm (I think we have got here to a nice description for these lands in our collaborative effort both you and I).
     
    Yes, thanks for that. See, we're already thinking in the same direction. It could also be called "The Realm of the Rus" (might be grammatically more correct).

    it worked for the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, because that is how it will most probably look like in former RusFed territories once it crumbles. It will be as crazy as in 1918-1922, except that this time there would be more sophisticated weapons (including nuclear) around and lots of dirty industries ready to poison everything around for decades.
     
    This is definitely one of the scenarios (even the weapons unleashed now are scary, frankly, shouldn't be used in urban spaces). I know that the Russians will fight. The question is only how much.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    , @AP
    @Bashibuzuk


    the “project” that Arestovitch describes today is quite old and Putin is actually reacting against it in a knee-jerk fashion.

    It was talked about already by some Ukrainian Ultra-nationalists during the late 1920ies. And it goes all the way back to the fight between Muscovy and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, when the Commonwealth nearly ended up conquering Muscovy.
     
    Arestovich’s father is a Polish nobleman from Belarus, herb Rola. Arestovich is a son of the old Commonwealth.

    Arestovich is married and has three children.

    The only reason they failed in their conquest, was their religious bigotry, they did not want to give equal status to the Orthodox.
     
    Or maybe the blame for the failed unification of almost all the world’s Slavs and Balts in a republican confederation rests upon the Orthodox Muscovites in their blind zealotry? Although I’ve heard that they may have been encouraged or manipulated by Anglo merchants. Such a lost opportunity.

    BTW the attempted unification was the initiative not of Poles but of Rus magnates, Sapieha and Vyshnevetsky.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

  146. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @showmethereal
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Huh? Didn’t they go into Kazhasktan and quell the uprising their? Did Armenia ask for CSTO assistance?? And how do you know the condition in Kaliningrad???? Or are you just pulling that from Mars or the Moon???? I personally don’t know and I seriously doubt you do either.
    As to the second hypothesis- I think you watch too many cowboys or Rambo movies. War isn’t like that.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    Did Armenia ask for CSTO assistance??

    Yes, and Russia did nothing. Instead, RT had an article from a leading “thinker” arguing how alliances are modern and for Westerners and not for true Russians.

    And how do you know the condition in Kaliningrad?

    Russian reports! And you can bet Western intelligence knows too.

    As to the second hypothesis- I think you watch too many cowboys or Rambo movies. War isn’t like that.

    I know exactly what war is like. And conducting it successfully, in a modern way, requires years of consistent training, logistics and institutional building. This is all expensive and requires a high degree of internal transparency to be effective.

    Ukraine seems to have been able to perform a miracle and do this in 7 months, if admittedly at a smaller scale.

    But it is clear that Russia has failed at it for 20 years, and isn’t going to suddenly learn now.

    You, someone who has no clue, are talking to someone with the experience to know. You can choose to try to understand or not, but please notice the difference in our replies. I mention things you probably never even thought about, despite them being very basic to any professional. You talk about cowboys and Indians.

    • LOL: Mikhail
    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Where is the official request of Armenia for CSTO assistance like Kazhaks made and received? Show me the OFFICIAL request and not political punditry.

    Where are the official Russian reports stating Kaliningrad is in the state you claim. I remember only a few years ago the US rehearsing cruise missile strikes on the region - under fear of the S-400 being active there. So please show us these supposed intelligence reports. Are they the same analysts that said it would take at least a year for the Taliban to take back Afghanistan of the US withdrew??

    And tell me what war you successfully prosecuted…. This ought to be interesting. Don’t tell me Iraq because I can introduce you to some veterans of that supposed overwhelming US victory who suffer from PTSD to this day when they had to dig their boots in the ground and there were no more flashy “shock and awe” videos to show the public and after Bush declare victory on that aircraft carrier.

    You are absolutely correct that I do NOT know the minutiae of military doctrine and tactics. But my IQ is enough to know that there is no miracle performed by Ukraine when the whole reason for the war - Donbass (not to mention Kherson) - is almost entirely under Russian control with a much smaller force than the Ukrainians have. I have seen real miracles in life. That is not a miracle. Unless you really believe western propaganda that Russia was trying to take the whole of Ukraine. The most fervent Russians I have never even heard make that claim. The only thing I ever heard them say is that Russia would keep going along the same line from Kherson to Odessa and then Transnistria. Whether that happens or not - or are even in the official plans I do not know. But claiming Ukraine who has been training with NATO for many years now and lost 20% of its territory to a much smaller force is not a miracle in any way shape or form. Cowboy and Rambo movies make more sense than that.

  147. German_reader says:
    @keypusher
    @German_reader


    But yes, the problem is that much of the public in Western countries, at least the human garbage that populates social media, has become completely retarded in their Manichaean war hysteria, egged on by Ukraine’s skilful propaganda campaign, and this will influence policy-makers.
     
    It's actually quite normal to root for the side that is resisting brutal, thuggish aggression, as the Ukrainians are, and to rejoice when they begin defeating their attackers. You don't have to be "the human garbage that populates social media" to do so. Just consider the reaction to the USSR's invasion of Finland, long before social media was ever though of. The differences are, the USSR was able to win the Winter War after three-odd months, and Russia now has nuclear weapons. It will be up to Western leaders to negotiate those complications, but in the meantime it's a bit absurd to expect ordinary people not to enjoy the spectacle of the Ukrainians humiliating the Russians.

    Replies: @German_reader

    There’s a lot of injustice and suffering in the world that the average Western normie couldn’t give a fuck about, doesn’t even know about (and for the record, I don’t care much myself, I certainly wouldn’t be willing to make any personal sacrifices for Yemenis or West Saharans). The outrage and enthusiasm for Ukraine among Westerners is manufactured, most people don’t understand anything at all about the conflict, they just repeat the media narratives they’re fed with, for purposes of virtue-signaling or a semi-hidden chauvinism, thinly veiled with liberal sentimentality. This was bad enough when it came to bombing a weak state like Serbia, but it’s disastrous when it comes to dealing with a nuclear-armed power, closely linked to another nuclear-armed power which could intervene if there’s a chance of Russia being permanently reduced.
    When one looks at pro-Ukrainian Twitter one encounters some pretty remarkable things…I’ve noticed at least some Westerners (no doubt thinking themselves to be good liberals) have now taken to calling not just looting and raping Russian soldiers “Orcs”, but Russians collectively (like “It’s good the Baltic states don’t want to let in any orcs who are trying to dodge the mobilization”). Maybe it takes a racist like me to notice the racial overtones in that, most normies seem to be quite hilariously lacking in understanding what they’re actually implying.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk, showmethereal
    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @German_reader

    Would you say that tremendous global interest in the death of the Queen, with it being a common and 99% respectful obsession, from Brazil to Thailand, was manufactured?

    Replies: @German_reader, @Matra

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @German_reader


    calling not just looting and raping Russian soldiers “Orcs”, but Russians collectively (like “It’s good the Baltic states don’t want to let in any orcs who are trying to dodge the mobilization”). Maybe it takes a racist like me to notice the racial overtones in that, most normies seem to be quite hilariously lacking in understanding what they’re actually implying
     
    Well, LOTR was a thinly hidden message of Western superiority. In the book everything Southern or Eastern is bad, the more Western it gets - the better.



    Many years ago, shortly after the fall of the USSR a few Russian Sci Fi / Fantasy writers had some fun rewriting the LOTR narrative from the Mordor/Orc-ish pov. In that inverted narrative, the Elves and Westerners/Numenorians were cunning, perfidious and obsessed with pushing an agenda of colonisation, depopulation and environmentally-friendly de-industrialization upon the poor peaceful orcs, trolls and other non-Western ethnicities of the Middle Earth. The Hobbits were useful idiot normies. Morgoth was a Prometheus-like figure and Sauron the title of a Great Imperial dynasty that reigned upon the highly civilized, industrious and multinational Mordor.

    I should re-read these books, they now look somewhat prescient.

    Bottom line: Orcs did nothing wrong, I have no problems being called an Orc by rainbow flag waiving Elves (but I would refuse eating their flesh, even if well cooked - these creatures are full of germs, monkey pox and all...)

    🙂

    Replies: @Coconuts

    , @Coconuts
    @German_reader


    I’ve noticed at least some Westerners (no doubt thinking themselves to be good liberals) have now taken to calling not just looting and raping Russian soldiers “Orcs”, but Russians collectively (like “It’s good the Baltic states don’t want to let in any orcs who are trying to dodge the mobilization”).
     
    Well, if the soldiers have white phenotype I suppose they are being good liberals. Don't they believe that Putin is the leader of a global Fascist cabal and these soldiers are WN Fascists or something? I heard some senior academics at Yale explaining this in a talk at one point.
  148. @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    The Polish language belongs to a different language group, Poles are of a different religious denomination and they use a different alphabet. The genesis of their language points out that historically they are of a different ethnicity.
     
    Correct. On the other hand, the flood of Polish words into the Ukrainian language is such that for a naive Ukrainian speaker (one who has learned neither Russian nor Ukrainian) the Polish language is about as easy/difficult to understand as is Russian. Russian is closer in grammar and pronunciation, Polish closer in vocabulary.

    And Poles are different enough genetically as well.
     
    On the chart you posted there is not much genetic overlap between Ukrainians and non-northern Russians, and Ukrainians are as close to Russians as they are to Poles. Belarussians overlap both Ukrainians and Russians. Slovenes are very close to Ukrainians, closer than Russians are (genetically, not culturally):

    https://i.postimg.cc/BQXgpBTz/Genetic-structure-of-the-Balto-Slavic-populations.png

    All of three groups are close together of course.

    On top of that there is alienation between theirs and that of the East Slavic peoples religious affiliation.
     
    I've heard Poles complain that one of the greatest sins of the Varangians/Rus is that they imposed the Eastern Christian Church upon their East Slavic subjects/slaves. This separated them from their Polish brothers.

    And religious rite is not the only factor. Orthodoxy in Ukraine was heavily influenced by Catholicism even though it was anti-Catholic.

    The western Ukrainians are different from the rest because they speak a different language. We can say that these are a different ethnic group. The rest of the Ukrainians are not.
     
    By "western Ukrainians" this would apply not only to Galicians but also to people from the Right Bank and in Poltava on the other side of the Dnipro- areas where the majority are Ukrainian speaking.

    And then you have a place like the city of Kiev. Mostly Russian-speaking by first or preferred language of use, but nearly everyone fluent in Ukrainian also. And many if not most of the Russian-speakers in places like Kiev have Ukrainian-speaking cousins in some village , or Ukrainian-speaking grandparents, or friends with whom they socialize in the Ukrainian language. In other words, although Ukrainian is not their primary language it is not a foreign language for them either. And this makes such Russian-speaking Ukrainians very different from a Russian-speaking Russian from Moscow, or Samara, or Sevastopol.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Here Be Dragon

    On the chart you posted there is not much genetic overlap between Ukrainians and non-northern Russians, and Ukrainians are as close to Russians as they are to Poles.

    There is one subgroup of Russians that is close to a subgroup of Poles. That subgroup of Russians is closer to Poles and to Slovaks than to other Russians or Ukrainians.

    Most Ukrainians are closer to Slovenians and Slovaks, and a half of Ukrainians overlap with Belarusians, whereas a half of Belarusians overlap with southern and central Russians.

    Northern Russians are closer to Baltic and Finnic peoples than to other Russians. However northern Russians are a minor group that is located north of Moscow.

    Ukrainians are closer to Belarusians and Slovenians than to Poles. Belarusians overlap with most Russians, and Ukrainians with most Belarusians, therefore these three are closer to each other than to other groups.

    There is a greater distance between other Slavic subgroups within each of the other groups than there is between Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. Neither of the three overlap with Poles.

    Belarussians overlap both Ukrainians and Russians. Slovenes are very close to Ukrainians, closer than Russians are.

    Belarusians therefore are a sort of genetic bridge between Ukrainians and Russians.

    The three colors of the flag of Russia represent these three parts of one people. Ukrainians were placed in the middle – that is wrong.

    White color should be in the middle, red above it and blue below. But such is the flag of the Netherlands, and it had been before. The flag of Croatia is the same but features a coat of arms.

    And the flag of Ukraine is in fact the flag of Dalmatia – now a region of Croatia that used to be the independent Kingdom of Dalmatia.

    I’ve heard Poles complain that one of the greatest sins of the Varangians/Rus is that they imposed the Eastern Christian Church upon their East Slavic slaves.

    Tell them that Varangians were never called the Rus’. The notion of that was proposed to Peter the Great and the idea appealed to him because he hated Russian people and admired Europeans, so due to a German historian at his court we now have to argue about that – Rus’ is a Slavic word.

    The Rus’ were never slaves of Varangians. All efforts to find a group of Varangians called the Rus’ failed and there is no such a word in the Scandinavian languages. The Varangians were a small clan that was chosen to rule for being a neutral force between other tribes.

    This separated them from their Polish brothers.

    Tell them that Russians were baptized first and Poles second as well. Poles rebelled against the Church and most Poles were not in fact Christians until 1030-40.

    By “western Ukrainians” this would apply not only to Galicians but also to people from the Right Bank and in Poltava on the other side of the Dnipro.

    Yes as a matter of fact that should be applied at large to all those whose mother tongue – which is spoken at home – is Ukrainian. But as we know it was brought to the south and east of what is now Ukraine from the west, the same as Russian was brought there from the north and the east.

    Hence there is a simple rule: the Russian-speaking Ukrainians are for the most part ethnic Russians.

    Many if not most of the Russian-speakers in places like Kiev have Ukrainian-speaking cousins in some village, or Ukrainian-speaking grandparents, or friends with whom they socialize in Ukrainian.

    Most rather do not, but some for sure do have. How large is their share we cannot estimate, but the larger it is the closer are the two peoples. We can guess that a lot less Ukrainians have cousins or grandparents in Poland.

    And this makes such Russian-speaking Ukrainians very different from a Russian-speaking Russians from Moscow, or Samara, or Sevastopol.

    A bit different, if we put them under a microscope.

  149. @Thorfinnsson
    @German_reader

    What the US ostensibly has to do is not the same as what it will do. Most of the political incentives are in favor of further escalation, and the midterm elections are nearing.

    There's also something else amusing about the current situation. For a long time the "realist" community (along with isolationists, appeasers, etc.) denounced Washington's reckless, anti-Russian foreign policy as likely to lead to disaster and conflict. It was further suggested by some that logically Washington should be trying to make an ally out of Moscow in order to enhance the containment and confrontation of China, which unlike Russia is in a position to challenge the USA on a global basis.

    The disaster and conflict came about just as the realists warned it would, but the situation now is that due to Russia's incompetent bumbling that it looks like a military victory and in turn a replacement of the Putin regime is at least a non-trivial possibility. Russia could then become an American vassal state aligned against China.

    So in other words the lunatics we've been railing against and warning about for 25 years will have been proven "right" (aside from all the dead and/or fled people in the Ukraine, but nobody cares about them), and we'll be Neville Chamberlain (ignoring the fact that Chamberlain was a major architect of British rearmament, which few know or care about).

    Note: not a prediction about future events, just a thought experiment.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Russia could then become an American vassal state aligned against China.

    I have difficulty imagining that, but who knows. I certainly didn’t expect the course the war has taken so far.
    Anyway, nice to read something from you again.

  150. @Bashibuzuk
    @showmethereal


    the majority support Putin and if anything blame him for being too soft in dealing with the matter
     
    Absolutely. But they don't understand that Putin and his circle have contributed immensely to this conflict. Russians being what they have always been (a little naive really), think that "the Czar is good, but the Boyars are bad".

    No, they're wrong, this time the Czar and the Boyars are both scum. Russians don't understand that for the last 30 years they have been led to the catastrophe that is currently unfolding.

    It is not incompetence, it is treason. This is something most Russians will never understand and/or accept. That they have been had once again, like some village simpleton would have been led by the tip of his nose by big city crooks.

    Лохи не мамонты - они не вымрут...

    (That’s a Russian mafia saying describing the situation perfectly. Ask your Russian friends for a translation).

    Replies: @showmethereal

    Explain to me what you mean? It was Putin who caused the coup in 2014? It was Putin who gave ultra nationalists and banned Russian language and culture in Donbass? It was Putin who kept expanding NATO closer and closer?
    If you are referring to internal Russian issues then I have no comment because I have very little knowledge. You might be correct if that’s what you mean. But I certainly understand geopolitical issues and know the west hates Putin because he is the opposite of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. NATO will seek to crush anyone who does not bow to their agenda. So unless you are saying Putin should have bowed – then I do not understand what you mean.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @showmethereal


    It was Putin who caused the coup in 2014?
     
    Putin's guy was Yanukovych. Yanukovych, by being awful, was more responsible for him getting kicked out than anyone.

    It was Putin who gave ultra nationalists and banned Russian language and culture in Donbass?
     
    It is clear that Russia invaded in 2014. And invading a country predictably turns its people against you and things they associate with you, and can push them to extremes in that regard.

    It was Putin who kept expanding NATO closer and closer?
     
    Those countries chose, under popular demand, to join NATO. They did this because they were rightfully scared that otherwise Putin or Russia might invade them.

    NATO will seek to crush anyone who does not bow to their agenda.
     
    False. Russia was under no threat of military invasion. Or being "crushed."

    Also, please understand that events are multi-factorial and that obviously there were others things influencing how all this turned out, but it is a ridiculous delusion to contend that Putin dindu nuffin.

    Replies: @showmethereal

  151. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @German_reader
    @keypusher

    There's a lot of injustice and suffering in the world that the average Western normie couldn't give a fuck about, doesn't even know about (and for the record, I don't care much myself, I certainly wouldn't be willing to make any personal sacrifices for Yemenis or West Saharans). The outrage and enthusiasm for Ukraine among Westerners is manufactured, most people don't understand anything at all about the conflict, they just repeat the media narratives they're fed with, for purposes of virtue-signaling or a semi-hidden chauvinism, thinly veiled with liberal sentimentality. This was bad enough when it came to bombing a weak state like Serbia, but it's disastrous when it comes to dealing with a nuclear-armed power, closely linked to another nuclear-armed power which could intervene if there's a chance of Russia being permanently reduced.
    When one looks at pro-Ukrainian Twitter one encounters some pretty remarkable things...I've noticed at least some Westerners (no doubt thinking themselves to be good liberals) have now taken to calling not just looting and raping Russian soldiers "Orcs", but Russians collectively (like "It's good the Baltic states don't want to let in any orcs who are trying to dodge the mobilization"). Maybe it takes a racist like me to notice the racial overtones in that, most normies seem to be quite hilariously lacking in understanding what they're actually implying.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Bashibuzuk, @Coconuts

    Would you say that tremendous global interest in the death of the Queen, with it being a common and 99% respectful obsession, from Brazil to Thailand, was manufactured?

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Not everybody likes the Royal Family:
    https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/sep/13/preston-ban-football-fan-for-life-for-derogatory-tweet-about-the-royal-family


    Preston North End have issued a lifetime stadium ban to a supporter for a derogatory tweet about the royal family.
    A source with knowledge of the situation told the Guardian that the tweet, since deleted, said that the optimal way for the week to end would be for the royal family to all die on their way to the Queen’s funeral.
    In a separate tweet the fan asked whether he would be ejected from the stadium for booing during a minute’s silence, and joked that he would make a Nazi salute in Queen Elizabeth II’s honour. The club were tagged in all the messages.
     
    Personally I liked Prince Philip, great sense of humour.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    , @Matra
    @Triteleia Laxa

    The Queen has been known to virtually every person on earth for generations so naturally there was interest in her death. Most Westerners with Ukraine flags in their bios etc know piss all about Ukraine beyond what the MSM & social media tells them.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

  152. @216
    15 Fullbacks have been shot down in this war. That's over 10% of those produced, and an unsustainable loss ratio. Ground attack aircraft cannot survive even legacy air defense systems, let alone large number of MANPADS. MIM-104 and THAAD have not been deployed

    Iraq in 1991 achieved the loss of only two comparable F-15E, which the true equivalent is the long retired F-111.

    There is no Russian copy of the American JDAM, a cheap guided bomb. Apparently the Chinese did reverse engineer JDAM, but the Russians are not using it. The losses are the likely result of low altitude attacks using non-guided bombs.

    Replies: @Greasy William, @Here Be Dragon

    Our trolls have got reinforcement. Whose opinion are these children intend to influence here?

    A bunch of liars.

    There is no Russian copy of the American JDAM, a cheap guided bomb. Apparently the Chinese did reverse engineer JDAM, but the Russians are not using it.

    It is the second post 216 troll has made tonight in which he lies. That must be because such are the instructions from Arestovich.

    Tell him that I like talking about guns so it is not going to work on this page.

    “The KAB-500S-E is a guided bomb designed for the Russian Air Force. It uses the GLONASS satellite navigation and is the Russian equivalent of the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) weapons.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAB-500S-E

    And of course as all things made in the U.S. JDAM is not cheap but is rather overpriced ($25,000).

    The Russian air forces have 3 models of guided bombs.

    “The KAB-500L is a laser-guided bomb developed by the Soviet Air Force, entering service in 1975. The KAB-500L is a standard FAB-500 general-purpose bomb, fitted with a semi-active laser seeker and guidance fins, turning it into an unpowered guided bomb.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAB-500L

    “The KAB-500Kr is an electro-optical TV-guided fire and forget bomb developed by the Soviet Air Force in the 1980s. It remains in service with the CIS and various export customers. The KAB-500Kr is analogous to the American GBU-15 weapon.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAB-500KR

    Your supervisors could not even find an appropriate topic to spin out.

  153. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @showmethereal
    @Bashibuzuk

    Explain to me what you mean? It was Putin who caused the coup in 2014? It was Putin who gave ultra nationalists and banned Russian language and culture in Donbass? It was Putin who kept expanding NATO closer and closer?
    If you are referring to internal Russian issues then I have no comment because I have very little knowledge. You might be correct if that’s what you mean. But I certainly understand geopolitical issues and know the west hates Putin because he is the opposite of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. NATO will seek to crush anyone who does not bow to their agenda. So unless you are saying Putin should have bowed - then I do not understand what you mean.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    It was Putin who caused the coup in 2014?

    Putin’s guy was Yanukovych. Yanukovych, by being awful, was more responsible for him getting kicked out than anyone.

    It was Putin who gave ultra nationalists and banned Russian language and culture in Donbass?

    It is clear that Russia invaded in 2014. And invading a country predictably turns its people against you and things they associate with you, and can push them to extremes in that regard.

    It was Putin who kept expanding NATO closer and closer?

    Those countries chose, under popular demand, to join NATO. They did this because they were rightfully scared that otherwise Putin or Russia might invade them.

    NATO will seek to crush anyone who does not bow to their agenda.

    False. Russia was under no threat of military invasion. Or being “crushed.”

    Also, please understand that events are multi-factorial and that obviously there were others things influencing how all this turned out, but it is a ridiculous delusion to contend that Putin dindu nuffin.

    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Are you posting under aliases? Or you can read the other posters mind?

    Ahh yes so you believe Russia was going to invade all the former Soviet countries but NATO is a saint. Serbia and Libya and Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan would disagree (which doesn’t include other U.S. adventures). And it is an absolute reality that Russia was in the process of being economically dismantled when western companies went in their to raid. The only thing that saved Russia from military intervention is its nuclear Arsenal. If not for that it would have been carved up years ago when it was weakened

    Replies: @Wokechoke

  154. @Barbarossa
    @Dmitry

    I was thinking to myself that a succinct explanation is that Putin channeled the oligarchy, constraining it to his approved circle. The 90's were an unrestrained pillage and the Putin era represents a more constrained and directed pillage of national resources.

    This explains why the narrative of Putin vs. Oligarchs has traction. It's true, but only to a limited extent. A better framing would be Putin vs. Some Oligarchs.

    Really this is not so different than the dynamic in the West since one is only allowed to loot the State if one has the proper connections. If one has these, the pork barrel is open!

    Replies: @Dmitry

    In the 1990s, there was conflict for former state’s resources in Saint-Petersburg, with the mediation and state capture involving often local government, including the Mayor’s (Sobchak) office.

    Probably most infamously is the relation of the Mayor’s office with conflicts between Tambov gang and Malyshev’s gang for assets like logistical hubs into Russia. This can seem like old history, but the same people are still all mixed together as friends in the 2020s. Officials’ family are often mixed with family of the representatives of such kinds of groups.

    In 1996 the Sobchak’s team move to manage in Moscow to work for Yeltsin’s office. This relatively younger team from Saint-Petersburg was talented with the PR and managing of new media and this has continued after Yeltsin. Although the criticism is that they too prioritize managing of the image and here is one of the aspects of the government in the early 21st century.

    This explains why the narrative of Putin vs. Oligarchs has traction. It’s true, but only to a limited extent. A better framing would be Putin vs. Some Oligarchs.

    There are different clans, which have alliances between each other, often friends from many decades ago. Some of these clans sometimes lose protection so then are expropriated by colleagues, through the mechanism of the state, which is the “official face” of those other clans.

    It’s probably similar in many countries (especially somewhere like Brazil), but in Russia and Ukraine it’s especially “not independent wealth” because this is recent state property that they are being allowed to sit on. It is the recent property of the Soviet people. And the officials’ children are sitting with them. In such ways, it could be similar in Iran, perhaps in China. The property is becoming less provisional when it is circled around and washed which is why they are cycling the money around the world.

  155. @showmethereal
    @216

    Greeks and Romans went to conquer others and were not Christians. And being a conquerer is against the words of Christ. So how does that make sense? That’s a false religion papered over a Greco Roman base. No conquering until He returns as a lion and if you read - he won’t be returning to Rome or anywhere in Europe. It says what mountain

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    Maybe he has been reading Evola and he thinks the Holy Roman Empire was like Shangri La + El Dorado.

    There is a great book on the Germanizing of Christianity on the bottom of one of my book stacks where they describe heathen martial values overwhelming the docile monk society after Charlemagne conquered Saxony.

    The British soldiers who dug all those mass graves in my cartoon map up-thread were good Christians. : (

    • Thanks: showmethereal
  156. German_reader says:
    @Triteleia Laxa
    @German_reader

    Would you say that tremendous global interest in the death of the Queen, with it being a common and 99% respectful obsession, from Brazil to Thailand, was manufactured?

    Replies: @German_reader, @Matra

    Not everybody likes the Royal Family:
    https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/sep/13/preston-ban-football-fan-for-life-for-derogatory-tweet-about-the-royal-family

    Preston North End have issued a lifetime stadium ban to a supporter for a derogatory tweet about the royal family.
    A source with knowledge of the situation told the Guardian that the tweet, since deleted, said that the optimal way for the week to end would be for the royal family to all die on their way to the Queen’s funeral.
    In a separate tweet the fan asked whether he would be ejected from the stadium for booing during a minute’s silence, and joked that he would make a Nazi salute in Queen Elizabeth II’s honour. The club were tagged in all the messages.

    Personally I liked Prince Philip, great sense of humour.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @German_reader

    I liked him too. Both funny and a decent man. Weird how his son Charles is so humourless, if also actually a decent man.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

  157. @keypusher
    @showmethereal


    When I asked what the real mood in Russia they say yes some are against military action – but the majority support Putin and if anything blame him for being too soft in dealing with the matter…. You can’t think I’m making it up – but I’m not.
     
    Oh, I believe you. Up until the point that it became clear that the U.S.'s own leadership had decided that the Vietnam war could not be won, there were more Americans saying "we need to nuke Hanoi" than "we need to get out." When the people of a proud nation find themselves losing a war against an enemy they thought was no match for them, the normal reaction is "we're not being ruthless enough." Even if, in reality, the problem is not Russia's/the USA's alleged gentleness, but rather incompetence, lack of motivation, and corruption.

    Replies: @showmethereal

    Comparisons to the Vietnam war are nonsense. Russia is fighting at its front door with a basically token force up to this point. Why they never declared all out war I don’t know. Maybe it’s because they really never wanted to take over the whole Ukraine (in 3 days nonetheless) that the western media says. I recall Putins speech on the first day. Removing Nazis from Donbass and making Donbass safe for the ethnic Russians there is well on its way. The other objective he said was to remove the war making capability of Ukraine. He actually did that — except NATO is arming Ukraine – which maybe they didn’t anticipate. If come next February Russia is pushed out of Donbass- then what you are saying makes sense. But as of now – they have done what THEY said as opposed to what WESTERN MEDIA AND NATO said. This is not even Afghanistan when the INVITED Soviet Army eventually got pushed out by the same tribalists who just pushed out the “almighty USA” a year ago. The people of Donbass WANT to be part of Russia. I Can recall clearly when Crimea was glad to go back to Russia that Dobass requested the same thing and Putin said no. I recall clearly Russia offering passports and citizenship to any who wanted to leave to move to Russia. I recall many did but many others said they didn’t want to leave where their families had been for generations. I recall they then declared their independence- which Russia did NOT recognize. I recall Minsk and know that was a game and Ukraine would not be allowed by the west to keep the agreement. I recall Donbass people asking for years for Russian assistance militarily. To compare Donbass to Vietnam is complete nonsense. Russia has never said it wanted regime change or any other nonsense in Ukraine and they are not a half a world away or fighting religious tribalists who don’t want them there. Go watch independent videos of Mariupol… the same place the west claimed was a humanitarian disaster is almost back to normal now.

  158. About NS1 and NS2 sabotage. A very good pic on Ron’s article “American Pravda: Of Pipelines and Plagues”. Tells us all we need to know.

    • Replies: @A123
    @AnonfromTN


    About NS1 and NS2 sabotage. A very good pic on Ron’s article “American Pravda: Of Pipelines and Plagues”. Tells us all we need to know.
     
    Mr. Unz, is a fictionalist who personally fears me. I posted a good piece about how this could be an operational screwup not a conspiracy. His socks went yellow, he turned coward, and hid the on-topic truth be low the [MORE] tag.

    Judge for yourself:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/#comment-5580207

    Why did he personally FEAR me and my post so much that a cover-up was required?
    ___

    One has to like him for running the site, but Mr. Damp Socks personal analytical skills are negligible to retrograde.

    His shilling for the CCP to cover-up WIV as source of the WUHAN-19 virus has been equally devoid of substance and integrity.

    PEACE 😇
  159. Bashibuzuk says:
    @German_reader
    @keypusher

    There's a lot of injustice and suffering in the world that the average Western normie couldn't give a fuck about, doesn't even know about (and for the record, I don't care much myself, I certainly wouldn't be willing to make any personal sacrifices for Yemenis or West Saharans). The outrage and enthusiasm for Ukraine among Westerners is manufactured, most people don't understand anything at all about the conflict, they just repeat the media narratives they're fed with, for purposes of virtue-signaling or a semi-hidden chauvinism, thinly veiled with liberal sentimentality. This was bad enough when it came to bombing a weak state like Serbia, but it's disastrous when it comes to dealing with a nuclear-armed power, closely linked to another nuclear-armed power which could intervene if there's a chance of Russia being permanently reduced.
    When one looks at pro-Ukrainian Twitter one encounters some pretty remarkable things...I've noticed at least some Westerners (no doubt thinking themselves to be good liberals) have now taken to calling not just looting and raping Russian soldiers "Orcs", but Russians collectively (like "It's good the Baltic states don't want to let in any orcs who are trying to dodge the mobilization"). Maybe it takes a racist like me to notice the racial overtones in that, most normies seem to be quite hilariously lacking in understanding what they're actually implying.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Bashibuzuk, @Coconuts

    calling not just looting and raping Russian soldiers “Orcs”, but Russians collectively (like “It’s good the Baltic states don’t want to let in any orcs who are trying to dodge the mobilization”). Maybe it takes a racist like me to notice the racial overtones in that, most normies seem to be quite hilariously lacking in understanding what they’re actually implying

    Well, LOTR was a thinly hidden message of Western superiority. In the book everything Southern or Eastern is bad, the more Western it gets – the better.

    [MORE]

    Many years ago, shortly after the fall of the USSR a few Russian Sci Fi / Fantasy writers had some fun rewriting the LOTR narrative from the Mordor/Orc-ish pov. In that inverted narrative, the Elves and Westerners/Numenorians were cunning, perfidious and obsessed with pushing an agenda of colonisation, depopulation and environmentally-friendly de-industrialization upon the poor peaceful orcs, trolls and other non-Western ethnicities of the Middle Earth. The Hobbits were useful idiot normies. Morgoth was a Prometheus-like figure and Sauron the title of a Great Imperial dynasty that reigned upon the highly civilized, industrious and multinational Mordor.

    I should re-read these books, they now look somewhat prescient.

    Bottom line: Orcs did nothing wrong, I have no problems being called an Orc by rainbow flag waiving Elves (but I would refuse eating their flesh, even if well cooked – these creatures are full of germs, monkey pox and all…)

    🙂

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Bashibuzuk


    Well, LOTR was a thinly hidden message of Western superiority. In the book everything Southern or Eastern is bad, the more Western it gets – the better.
     
    I thought the Shire was derivative of rural Southern England, like the countryside in Oxfordshire , and the mines of Mordor are based on industrial Northern England/Scotland and Wales, where the miners were kind of Orky looking when they came out of the pits in blackface.

    I didn't realise Tolkien was sub-consciously writing about blacks or Russians.

    Replies: @German_reader, @keypusher

  160. @Thorfinnsson
    @German_reader

    The Ukrainians have agency on their own, and in any case few countries recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea. Maybe the US can say it will refuse to transfer arms to the Ukraine if it invades the peninsula, but this strikes me as unlikely. An apparently victorious, advancing Ukrainian Army will acquire more support, and the Biden regime would be unlikely to refuse military assistance on these grounds lest it be denounced for weakness and stabbing the Ukraine in the back.

    From the Ukrainian point of view, this may be a moment akin to the 1918 Spring Offensive by the German Army on the Western Front. They now have superiority at the front, but the superiority will start to vanish next month as Russia mobilizes its superior resources. Thus it makes quite a lot of sense to throw everything into the battle right now in order to try and achieve a decision in the field.

    Indeed, it appears that this is exactly what they're doing. Ukrainian forces are advancing as far as they can, and according to the Kiev Independent the country has stop-lossed its whole army while delaying the intake of the next class of conscripts.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mr. Hack

    They now have superiority at the front, but the superiority will start to vanish next month as Russia mobilizes its superior resources.

    This is a song that you’ve been singing since last February 24, and it’s starting to sound a bit hollow?…Ukrainian troops have met quality crack Russian troops since the beginning of the war, and even have been able to defeat them before the West really got interested in providing them with top quality weapons. Remember the complete shut down of the Russian 331st Guards Parachute Regiment during the fighting for Kyiv? IMHO, history will judge this battle as being among the most important losses for the Russian invaders. With close to 100,000 troops sent to the Kyiv area, you couldn’t really attribute the huge loss as one that occurred due to lack of troops, weapons, or lack of morale. I’d be interested in hearing your conclusions regarding this battle.

    So what makes you think that sending another 300,000 Russian ill supplied and trained “soldiers” (civilians) into this war, conscripted most likely without their desire to serve, into the battle is going to help turn the tide into a miraculous victory for Russia?

    Having said this, I’m glad to see that you’ve returned, once again! Somebody with as much military knowledge as you have, blogging here, is a always a plus.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @Mr. Hack

    Good to hear from you again, Mr. Hack.

    I have the good fortune to not have commented about this war here since the end of March. It looks like my last comment about it can be seen here:

    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-182-russia-ukraine/#comment-5251047

    It looks like I described Russia's progress as "slow" and noted the risks of escalation by the West. I did not anticipate the Ukrainian victory at Kiev.

    As for my take on the Battle of Kiev itself, my take is that Russian planning and logistics were a complete fiasco and that Ukrainian irregular forces were highly effective in amplifying these problems which allowed AFU to inflict sufficient damage and delay to Russian forces to cause overall operational failure.

    I don't think calling up 300,000 men will turn the tide of war, but I do think that it will stabilize the front. Since the war began the Ukraine has induced maybe 320,000 men into AFU whereas Russia has recruited around 80,000 volunteers. No one can seriously believe that Russia is enjoying a 4:1 casualty exchange ratio with the Ukraine, so the partial mobilization will just get Russia back to the roughly the manpower ratio which prevailed at the start of the war--when it invaded the Ukraine with 200,000 too few men.

    Russia will need to call up many more men in order to win the war. If the mobilization stays "partial", then I expect stalemate or an outright Russian defeat. The Ukraine has only mobilized around 10% of its military aged manpower, and while its state capacity is not high its top leadership has consistently been more determined and ruthless than Moscow.

    Igor Strelkov says Russia needs to call up another 300,000 still after this wave in order to ensure victory, and if Putin doesn't want to die in a Dutch prison cell he should consider exceeding that figure as well.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    , @Wokechoke
    @Mr. Hack

    I don’t think the Russians squeezed 100,000 troops into the immediate attack on Kiev. There wasn’t the physical space.

  161. @sudden death
    @sudden death

    Latest autotranslated Strelkov with my own minor corrections:


    The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to “wind up” our front along the Oskol reservoir towards Svatovo. Information was received that the enemy today occupied the urban settlement of Borovaya and the village of Shiykovka. Our troops are withdrawing without a fight, which is caused by the impossibility of successfully defending this vast wooded area with the available forces.

    I remind you that in July and August I wrote "let's wait for October" and I was asked (including on this page): "what do you mean?" So, that's exactly what I meant. And what will happen in October next. Wasted months not possible to return. A few more weeks will pass, during which we will only be able to defend ourselves and "squeeze" back in controlled territories while the reserves being collected now (as part of the mobilization) will not be ready for use. And let God to do so that the enemy could fail to fully realize the significant advantage that he has now.
     
    https://vk.com/igoristrelkov?w=wall347260249_665199

    Replies: @sudden death

    Developing UA north advance in graphic form:

  162. @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW

    LatW, you know that I am no fan of Putin, but to be honest, the "project" that Arestovitch describes today is quite old and Putin is actually reacting against it in a knee-jerk fashion.

    It was talked about already by some Ukrainian Ultra-nationalists during the late 1920ies. And it goes all the way back to the fight between Muscovy and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, when the Commonwealth nearly ended up conquering Muscovy. The only reason they failed in their conquest, was their religious bigotry, they did not want to give equal status to the Orthodox.

    The Catholic/Uniate Ruthenian/Ukrainian elites have since often seen Muscovy as inherently backward and in deep need of reform and (ahem) administration (colonization really). The Papacy encouraged them in that view even publishing official proclamation to that effect.

    And more recently, the US and NATO has used this ideological superiority/victimhood complex of the Ukrainian elites to prepare them to fight against "Mordor" and its "orcs". Among the Western pundits who have worked in this sense was the late Brzezinski. He wrote on the subject and he knew the case quite well given his Polish ancestry and his early years in Kharkov and Moscow (IIRC his dad was among the Polish diplomatic personnel in these lands).

    His article written in 2011 and published in early 2012 (well before the Maidan) suggests reorganizing the Eurasian landmass under US patronage to stand against the Chinese rise up. And he floats the idea that Kiev might one day become the capital city of this federated Eurasia.

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/balancing-east-upgrading-west

    So there is nothing new or revolutionary about Arestovitch's ideas.

    Same old, same old.

    They really think that they can reorganize to their benefit the Rus Realm (I think we have got here to a nice description for these lands in our collaborative effort both you and I). But they should ask how it worked for the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, because that is how it will most probably look like in former RusFed territories once it crumbles. It will be as crazy as in 1918-1922, except that this time there would be more sophisticated weapons (including nuclear) around and lots of dirty industries ready to poison everything around for decades.

    That would be quite entertaining to observe from afar...

    🙂

    Replies: @LatW, @AP

    the “project” that Arestovitch describes today is quite old and Putin is actually reacting against it in a knee-jerk fashion.

    Of course, the “project” is old, what I meant is that he is only now speaking about it fully openly. I sense though that there could be some newer or “upgraded” version of it. The key would be to not “upgrade” it in the globohomo fashion.

    [MORE]

    The only reason they failed in their conquest, was their religious bigotry, they did not want to give equal status to the Orthodox.

    That mistake will be corrected.

    Plus, large masses of people are now secular so some other uniting ideology will need to be sought. Of course, you know that I support the revival of our old Faith as well.

    For those with open hearts, everything should be provided to the best ability. Above all – благо.

    Благо should be created and spread, and always come first, on top of all ideologies and as the goal of all efforts.

    He wrote on the subject and he knew the case quite well given his Polish ancestry

    Yea, I read pretty much everything he wrote / said years ago, but again, right now it just seems old fashioned. Come on, some old dudes from the Atlantic Council or some woke women from Georgetown are not going to push the Kyevans around. To some extent, maybe, but, as I said, these will not be the obedient and docile Estonians. And this is what I love about them. 😆

    The finance sector is really the most difficult part of this. And demographics. LOL. Yea, just those tiny little details.

    They really think that they can reorganize to their benefit the Rus Realm (I think we have got here to a nice description for these lands in our collaborative effort both you and I).

    Yes, thanks for that. See, we’re already thinking in the same direction. It could also be called “The Realm of the Rus” (might be grammatically more correct).

    it worked for the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, because that is how it will most probably look like in former RusFed territories once it crumbles. It will be as crazy as in 1918-1922, except that this time there would be more sophisticated weapons (including nuclear) around and lots of dirty industries ready to poison everything around for decades.

    This is definitely one of the scenarios (even the weapons unleashed now are scary, frankly, shouldn’t be used in urban spaces). I know that the Russians will fight. The question is only how much.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    The key would be to not “upgrade” it in the globohomo fashion.
     
    Well, it would be difficult, especially that Arestovitch himself is a pure globohomo material (although who am I to judge other people's sexual inclinations - love is love etc.)


    Plus, large masses of people are now secular so some other uniting ideology will need to be sought. Of course, you know that I support the revival of our old Faith as well.
     
    I have come to believe that no project could succeed without something that is perceived as "valid metaphysics". Perception is very important and people need meaning in their lives (even Dmitry does 😋).

    Благо should be created and spread, and always come first, on top of all ideologies and as the goal of all efforts.
     
    Amen to that brother, amen to that! Buddhists often talk about accumuting and transferring merit. This is really what our world needs, to use an Avestan slogan of old: "Good thoughts, Good words, Good deeds". This and healthy respect for our ancestors and lots of careful attention to the education of our offspring, the Old Faith plus some Theillard de Chardin Omega Point future metaphysical projections would probably be a good place to start. That way we could bridge the divide between Christianity and the Old Faith through Russian Cosmism. "From the roots, through the thorns, and to the stars. From the Old Sacred Groves to the Cosmic Theosis."

    Come on, some old dudes from the Atlantic Council or some woke women from Georgetown are not going to push the Kyevans around. To some extent, maybe, but, as I said, these will not be the obedient and docile Estonians. And this is what I love about them.
     
    It's true that Ukrainians are often even more passionaryi (to use Gumilyov's terminology, BTW it was his 110 birthday a couple of days ago). If someone finds Russians crazy, then this person will absolutely love Ukrainian character. I also like this part of their psychocultural identity although it sometimes leads to some truly gruesome violence.

    The finance sector is really the most difficult part of this. And demographics. LOL. Yea, just those tiny little details.
     
    Let's use MMT and White Shariah! (Just kidding 🙂) Perhaps we should ask Kadyrov how he gets by both financially and sexually. With Allah's help this guy has built a real dynasty in his little well financed Sultanate, although I doubt they will survive the coming years unscathed.

    I know that the Russians will fight. The question is only how much.

     

    I think the answer would be: a lot. And the saddest part is that they will fight mostly against each other. The Realm of Rus might well become the Realm of Death if not enough is done to rapidly stabilize the situation. I hope that this will not happen. I hope that some stability is rapidly achieved. BTW the Chinese won't be sitting quietly and waiting for it to finish. The Far East might well see some interesting moves.

    Replies: @LatW

  163. @Mr. Hack
    @Thorfinnsson


    They now have superiority at the front, but the superiority will start to vanish next month as Russia mobilizes its superior resources.
     
    This is a song that you've been singing since last February 24, and it's starting to sound a bit hollow?...Ukrainian troops have met quality crack Russian troops since the beginning of the war, and even have been able to defeat them before the West really got interested in providing them with top quality weapons. Remember the complete shut down of the Russian 331st Guards Parachute Regiment during the fighting for Kyiv? IMHO, history will judge this battle as being among the most important losses for the Russian invaders. With close to 100,000 troops sent to the Kyiv area, you couldn't really attribute the huge loss as one that occurred due to lack of troops, weapons, or lack of morale. I'd be interested in hearing your conclusions regarding this battle.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Russian_bombardment_of_Kyiv_TV_Tower.jpg/800px-Russian_bombardment_of_Kyiv_TV_Tower.jpg

    So what makes you think that sending another 300,000 Russian ill supplied and trained "soldiers" (civilians) into this war, conscripted most likely without their desire to serve, into the battle is going to help turn the tide into a miraculous victory for Russia?

    Having said this, I'm glad to see that you've returned, once again! Somebody with as much military knowledge as you have, blogging here, is a always a plus.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Wokechoke

    Good to hear from you again, Mr. Hack.

    I have the good fortune to not have commented about this war here since the end of March. It looks like my last comment about it can be seen here:

    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-182-russia-ukraine/#comment-5251047

    It looks like I described Russia’s progress as “slow” and noted the risks of escalation by the West. I did not anticipate the Ukrainian victory at Kiev.

    As for my take on the Battle of Kiev itself, my take is that Russian planning and logistics were a complete fiasco and that Ukrainian irregular forces were highly effective in amplifying these problems which allowed AFU to inflict sufficient damage and delay to Russian forces to cause overall operational failure.

    I don’t think calling up 300,000 men will turn the tide of war, but I do think that it will stabilize the front. Since the war began the Ukraine has induced maybe 320,000 men into AFU whereas Russia has recruited around 80,000 volunteers. No one can seriously believe that Russia is enjoying a 4:1 casualty exchange ratio with the Ukraine, so the partial mobilization will just get Russia back to the roughly the manpower ratio which prevailed at the start of the war–when it invaded the Ukraine with 200,000 too few men.

    Russia will need to call up many more men in order to win the war. If the mobilization stays “partial”, then I expect stalemate or an outright Russian defeat. The Ukraine has only mobilized around 10% of its military aged manpower, and while its state capacity is not high its top leadership has consistently been more determined and ruthless than Moscow.

    Igor Strelkov says Russia needs to call up another 300,000 still after this wave in order to ensure victory, and if Putin doesn’t want to die in a Dutch prison cell he should consider exceeding that figure as well.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Thorfinnsson

    Don't forget that in July the Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced that it was working towards amassing a million man army. I don't think that this figure was etched in stone, but on the other hand, I don't think that it was just bluster either. We know for certain that new conscripts are often taken to places like Great Britain or Poland to be trained for a reasonable amount of time, to be able to go into the battlefield fully cognizant of their responsibilities and able to handle the western type of weaponry that they're more often using.

    Replies: @LondonBob

  164. @Bashibuzuk
    @Dmitry


    It’s a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml
     
    Well, he was named "the mirror of the Russian revolution" for a reason.

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ.

     

    I agree that we should do it more and focus less on the unfortunate events unfolding in Ukraine. For many among us it is turning into an obsession for obvious reasons. There is more to life than this.

    Speaking of which:

    https://youtu.be/cIMKJ43TFLs

    🙂

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Yahya

    It’s a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml

    Well, he was named “the mirror of the Russian revolution” for a reason.

    Unfortunately, what was written in 1896, became more relevant today. Even with Poles and Armenians.

    I wonder what would be the penal sentence for the 1904 text if published today? http://tolstoy-lit.ru/tolstoy/publicistika/odumajtes.htm

    brave Wendat and Mohawk warriors scalping each other, while the Pale Faced settlers take their most fertile lands and inseminate the cutest of their squaws.)

    Well you know after the last 30 years a lot of the places in the postsoviet countries are not too different than the “Indian reservation”, with the lack of investment, loss of habitable jobs. There was no need for anyone to invade and scalp.

    But what is fatal for Native Americans, is in the loss of the traditional community and lifestyle. This is happening to everyone in the world, because of negative consequence of technological development and overpopulation. Although there are some cultures like Italians, Japanese, Spanish, which seem like they are more maintaining more continuity of their historical culture into the modern world compared to other nationalities.

  165. @Bashibuzuk
    @German_reader


    calling not just looting and raping Russian soldiers “Orcs”, but Russians collectively (like “It’s good the Baltic states don’t want to let in any orcs who are trying to dodge the mobilization”). Maybe it takes a racist like me to notice the racial overtones in that, most normies seem to be quite hilariously lacking in understanding what they’re actually implying
     
    Well, LOTR was a thinly hidden message of Western superiority. In the book everything Southern or Eastern is bad, the more Western it gets - the better.



    Many years ago, shortly after the fall of the USSR a few Russian Sci Fi / Fantasy writers had some fun rewriting the LOTR narrative from the Mordor/Orc-ish pov. In that inverted narrative, the Elves and Westerners/Numenorians were cunning, perfidious and obsessed with pushing an agenda of colonisation, depopulation and environmentally-friendly de-industrialization upon the poor peaceful orcs, trolls and other non-Western ethnicities of the Middle Earth. The Hobbits were useful idiot normies. Morgoth was a Prometheus-like figure and Sauron the title of a Great Imperial dynasty that reigned upon the highly civilized, industrious and multinational Mordor.

    I should re-read these books, they now look somewhat prescient.

    Bottom line: Orcs did nothing wrong, I have no problems being called an Orc by rainbow flag waiving Elves (but I would refuse eating their flesh, even if well cooked - these creatures are full of germs, monkey pox and all...)

    🙂

    Replies: @Coconuts

    Well, LOTR was a thinly hidden message of Western superiority. In the book everything Southern or Eastern is bad, the more Western it gets – the better.

    I thought the Shire was derivative of rural Southern England, like the countryside in Oxfordshire , and the mines of Mordor are based on industrial Northern England/Scotland and Wales, where the miners were kind of Orky looking when they came out of the pits in blackface.

    I didn’t realise Tolkien was sub-consciously writing about blacks or Russians.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    I didn’t realise Tolkien was sub-consciously writing about blacks or Russians.
     
    Haradrim and Easterlings. LOTR has long been accused of having a racist subtext. Which makes it all the more ironic that Westerners who imagine themselves to be in a battle against "fascism" (against people who themselves claim to be fighting "Nazis") now are referring to "Orcs". Pretty confusing.

    Replies: @Coconuts

    , @keypusher
    @Coconuts


    I didn’t realise Tolkien was sub-consciously writing about blacks or Russians.

     

    I like Tolkien, so I'm probably being overly defensive, but by his men of Harad, etc. I think Tolkien had in mind Ottoman Turks and Arabs from the days of Lepanto, not Russians. He had a very reactionary cast of mind. I agree with you about the orcs and miners/factory workers. The orcs have a sort of horrible debased English working-class speech in LOTR.

    Tolkien specifically denied that he was writing an allegory of the Cold War, which isn't necessarily probative I recognize.

    Anyone who is curious enough to spend a lot more time on this can listen to Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook's two-part "The Rest is History" podcast on Tolkien.

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/225-j-r-r-tolkien/id1537788786?i=1000577613968

    Since the war began the Ukraine has induced maybe 320,000 men into AFU whereas Russia has recruited around 80,000 volunteers.
     
    @Thorfinnsson -- I feel like I have some handle on how many have fought on the Russian/Allied source, but I have heard wildly differing figures for the Ukrainians, going up to a million. How many did they start with? What is a good source for tracking what they have had over the course of the war?
  166. German_reader says:
    @Coconuts
    @Bashibuzuk


    Well, LOTR was a thinly hidden message of Western superiority. In the book everything Southern or Eastern is bad, the more Western it gets – the better.
     
    I thought the Shire was derivative of rural Southern England, like the countryside in Oxfordshire , and the mines of Mordor are based on industrial Northern England/Scotland and Wales, where the miners were kind of Orky looking when they came out of the pits in blackface.

    I didn't realise Tolkien was sub-consciously writing about blacks or Russians.

    Replies: @German_reader, @keypusher

    I didn’t realise Tolkien was sub-consciously writing about blacks or Russians.

    Haradrim and Easterlings. LOTR has long been accused of having a racist subtext. Which makes it all the more ironic that Westerners who imagine themselves to be in a battle against “fascism” (against people who themselves claim to be fighting “Nazis”) now are referring to “Orcs”. Pretty confusing.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Thanks: Coconuts
    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism. Possibly it's like in 2020 when ideas about white supremacy and white privilege first became more prominent, and there were questions about poor whites or white homeless drug addicts & c., whether they had white privilege and were upholding white supremacy.

    The conclusion was that they do, they enjoyed all the advantages of white privilege and white supremacy but squandered them and were now seeking to draw attention to themselves at the expense of blacks. Or other white people wanted to look at them rather than blacks, amounting to the same thing.

    Progressives in the US may see Russia in somewhat similar terms. Given that Russians are mainly white (or if they are East Asian looking they are white-adjacent), the assumption would be that they must have squandered the advantages of being part of whiteness, now they are drawing attention to themselves and away from blacks by standing in the way of progress and the GAE's efforts to centre and uplift blackness worldwide. This is also why they are regressive Fascists and must be Trump allies.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @keypusher, @A123, @German_reader

  167. @Wokechoke
    @Here Be Dragon

    The Russian military are not much use more than 90 miles from a railhead. That's at least one of the reasons that it was preposterous that they could have completely overrun Ukraine. The other alamist thing was saying there was a total invasion with only 150,000 soldiers.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    The Russian military are not much use more than 90 miles from a railhead.

    If you mean infantry or artillery then it does not matter which military or what country, they all depend on logistics and therefore on proximity of railroads or airfields, or at least some regular roads.

    Other than that I cannot think of anything that might indicate that their military is of no use.

    Here is a page that you should take a look at.
    https://warsawinstitute.org/comparing-western-supplies-ukrainian-losses-war-russia/

    “The Warsaw Institute is a Polish-based geopolitical think tank.”

    The numbers of losses I assume to be understated, considering where the data comes from, and it is the data for the first four months so it should be perhaps doubled. The data does not include the demolished ammunition depots.

    And it still looks like the Russians are doing effective work.

    That’s at least one of the reasons that it was preposterous that they could have completely overrun Ukraine.

    Ukraine is a big country. It would require at least a million or perhaps even two million people to overrun it. You cannot move in with such an amount of people into a wasteland – where would they sleep? What would they eat?

    They will need to get ammunition supplied, and hospitals to be set up, and food and shelter to be prepared first of all. It would have been a disaster had they indeed decided to try a blitzkrieg.

    The Russians planned it from the beginning to establish a front line first and then prepare the needed infrustructure before mobilization.

    The other alarmist thing was saying there was a total invasion with only 150,000 soldiers.

    It was a propaganda gossip. As if they tried but failed. Failures, failures all the time – look at our trolls here. Hard-working people.

    Let us wait a couple of months. The winter is not going to be boring.

    [MORE]

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @Here Be Dragon



    Ukraine is a big country. It would require at least a million or perhaps even two million people to overrun it. You cannot move in with such an amount of people into a wasteland – where would they sleep? What would they eat?

    They will need to get ammunition supplied, and hospitals to be set up, and food and shelter to be prepared first of all. It would have been a disaster had they indeed decided to try a blitzkrieg.

    The Russians planned it from the beginning to establish a front line first and then prepare the needed infrustructure before mobilization.
     
    https://d2gg9evh47fn9z.cloudfront.net/800px_COLOURBOX2581045.jpg

    Trust the plan
  168. @German_reader
    @keypusher

    There's a lot of injustice and suffering in the world that the average Western normie couldn't give a fuck about, doesn't even know about (and for the record, I don't care much myself, I certainly wouldn't be willing to make any personal sacrifices for Yemenis or West Saharans). The outrage and enthusiasm for Ukraine among Westerners is manufactured, most people don't understand anything at all about the conflict, they just repeat the media narratives they're fed with, for purposes of virtue-signaling or a semi-hidden chauvinism, thinly veiled with liberal sentimentality. This was bad enough when it came to bombing a weak state like Serbia, but it's disastrous when it comes to dealing with a nuclear-armed power, closely linked to another nuclear-armed power which could intervene if there's a chance of Russia being permanently reduced.
    When one looks at pro-Ukrainian Twitter one encounters some pretty remarkable things...I've noticed at least some Westerners (no doubt thinking themselves to be good liberals) have now taken to calling not just looting and raping Russian soldiers "Orcs", but Russians collectively (like "It's good the Baltic states don't want to let in any orcs who are trying to dodge the mobilization"). Maybe it takes a racist like me to notice the racial overtones in that, most normies seem to be quite hilariously lacking in understanding what they're actually implying.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Bashibuzuk, @Coconuts

    I’ve noticed at least some Westerners (no doubt thinking themselves to be good liberals) have now taken to calling not just looting and raping Russian soldiers “Orcs”, but Russians collectively (like “It’s good the Baltic states don’t want to let in any orcs who are trying to dodge the mobilization”).

    Well, if the soldiers have white phenotype I suppose they are being good liberals. Don’t they believe that Putin is the leader of a global Fascist cabal and these soldiers are WN Fascists or something? I heard some senior academics at Yale explaining this in a talk at one point.

  169. @Mr. Hack
    @Dmitry

    You're correct in noting that I've taken a more laid back view of commenting here than usual, but I'm not laying underneath a saguaro tree trying to find some shade, it's that I've come down with what we used to call a "cold". A terrible frog has found a home in my throat, and I'm dousing it every few hours with a quarter vile of oregano/olive oil (wonderful stuff that I wholeheartedly recommend for this sort of thing). It's nice to be noticed by somebody of your stature here at this blog. Perhaps, you more than anybody else, has actively pursued keeping this blog a viable concern.


    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum

     

    Indeed. You and I went on and on once about the bus and rail systems of several cities in the world (photos and all). Well, the Phoenix Light rail system has continued to grow, you'll be happy to know.

    And there was our discussions comparing a Mozart vs a Beethoven piano concertos. I thought that I held up pretty well to your obviously more sophisticated approach to the subject.

    https://media.kjzz.org/s3fs-public/styles/special_story_images_aspect_switcher/public/metrocenter-light-rail-transit-center-rendering-20191007.jpg?itok=ypHnKTZB

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    My personal remedy for colds is a big pile of freshly grated ginger (1+ cup maybe?) along with a couple black tea bags in a quart or so of water.
    The resulting tea will be too strong to drink straight and will need to sweetened generously with honey. It’ll put the piss and vinegar back in a man!

    It’s the best remedy I have found though I haven’t tried the olive oil and oregano.

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Barbarossa

    Unfortunately, I got away from my juicing regimen during a recent trip back home for a month, and just haven't yet got back into it. I use generous amounts of ginger and a pinch of red jalapeno pepper too (fresh, about half of a pepper). I think that this would be a suitable substitute for the black tea and ginger concoction that you recommend (although I may try that too, since I just got my hands on a bunch of fresh ginger). By all means, look into the olive oil and oregano remedy. There's plenty of information about the effectiveness of oregano oil to be obtained from internet sources and studies. The reason that its cut with olive oil is that it's just too powerful to be taken on its own. Sometimes I purchase it already mixed, other times I mix my own with some pure oregano oil that I've obtained. I fill a dropper with about 6-7 drops and put it within my throat and let it go...IT's REALLY POWERUL MEDICINE!!!

    Replies: @Barbarossa

  170. @Coconuts
    @Bashibuzuk


    Well, LOTR was a thinly hidden message of Western superiority. In the book everything Southern or Eastern is bad, the more Western it gets – the better.
     
    I thought the Shire was derivative of rural Southern England, like the countryside in Oxfordshire , and the mines of Mordor are based on industrial Northern England/Scotland and Wales, where the miners were kind of Orky looking when they came out of the pits in blackface.

    I didn't realise Tolkien was sub-consciously writing about blacks or Russians.

    Replies: @German_reader, @keypusher

    I didn’t realise Tolkien was sub-consciously writing about blacks or Russians.

    I like Tolkien, so I’m probably being overly defensive, but by his men of Harad, etc. I think Tolkien had in mind Ottoman Turks and Arabs from the days of Lepanto, not Russians. He had a very reactionary cast of mind. I agree with you about the orcs and miners/factory workers. The orcs have a sort of horrible debased English working-class speech in LOTR.

    Tolkien specifically denied that he was writing an allegory of the Cold War, which isn’t necessarily probative I recognize.

    Anyone who is curious enough to spend a lot more time on this can listen to Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook’s two-part “The Rest is History” podcast on Tolkien.

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/225-j-r-r-tolkien/id1537788786?i=1000577613968

    Since the war began the Ukraine has induced maybe 320,000 men into AFU whereas Russia has recruited around 80,000 volunteers.

    — I feel like I have some handle on how many have fought on the Russian/Allied source, but I have heard wildly differing figures for the Ukrainians, going up to a million. How many did they start with? What is a good source for tracking what they have had over the course of the war?

    • Thanks: Coconuts
  171. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    the “project” that Arestovitch describes today is quite old and Putin is actually reacting against it in a knee-jerk fashion.
     
    Of course, the "project" is old, what I meant is that he is only now speaking about it fully openly. I sense though that there could be some newer or "upgraded" version of it. The key would be to not "upgrade" it in the globohomo fashion.



    The only reason they failed in their conquest, was their religious bigotry, they did not want to give equal status to the Orthodox.
     
    That mistake will be corrected.

    https://vimeo.com/507710569

    Plus, large masses of people are now secular so some other uniting ideology will need to be sought. Of course, you know that I support the revival of our old Faith as well.

    For those with open hearts, everything should be provided to the best ability. Above all - благо.

    Благо should be created and spread, and always come first, on top of all ideologies and as the goal of all efforts.


    He wrote on the subject and he knew the case quite well given his Polish ancestry
     
    Yea, I read pretty much everything he wrote / said years ago, but again, right now it just seems old fashioned. Come on, some old dudes from the Atlantic Council or some woke women from Georgetown are not going to push the Kyevans around. To some extent, maybe, but, as I said, these will not be the obedient and docile Estonians. And this is what I love about them. 😆

    The finance sector is really the most difficult part of this. And demographics. LOL. Yea, just those tiny little details.


    They really think that they can reorganize to their benefit the Rus Realm (I think we have got here to a nice description for these lands in our collaborative effort both you and I).
     
    Yes, thanks for that. See, we're already thinking in the same direction. It could also be called "The Realm of the Rus" (might be grammatically more correct).

    it worked for the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, because that is how it will most probably look like in former RusFed territories once it crumbles. It will be as crazy as in 1918-1922, except that this time there would be more sophisticated weapons (including nuclear) around and lots of dirty industries ready to poison everything around for decades.
     
    This is definitely one of the scenarios (even the weapons unleashed now are scary, frankly, shouldn't be used in urban spaces). I know that the Russians will fight. The question is only how much.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    The key would be to not “upgrade” it in the globohomo fashion.

    Well, it would be difficult, especially that Arestovitch himself is a pure globohomo material (although who am I to judge other people’s sexual inclinations – love is love etc.)

    [MORE]

    Plus, large masses of people are now secular so some other uniting ideology will need to be sought. Of course, you know that I support the revival of our old Faith as well.

    I have come to believe that no project could succeed without something that is perceived as “valid metaphysics”. Perception is very important and people need meaning in their lives (even Dmitry does 😋).

    Благо should be created and spread, and always come first, on top of all ideologies and as the goal of all efforts.

    Amen to that brother, amen to that! Buddhists often talk about accumuting and transferring merit. This is really what our world needs, to use an Avestan slogan of old: “Good thoughts, Good words, Good deeds”. This and healthy respect for our ancestors and lots of careful attention to the education of our offspring, the Old Faith plus some Theillard de Chardin Omega Point future metaphysical projections would probably be a good place to start. That way we could bridge the divide between Christianity and the Old Faith through Russian Cosmism. “From the roots, through the thorns, and to the stars. From the Old Sacred Groves to the Cosmic Theosis.”

    Come on, some old dudes from the Atlantic Council or some woke women from Georgetown are not going to push the Kyevans around. To some extent, maybe, but, as I said, these will not be the obedient and docile Estonians. And this is what I love about them.

    It’s true that Ukrainians are often even more passionaryi (to use Gumilyov’s terminology, BTW it was his 110 birthday a couple of days ago). If someone finds Russians crazy, then this person will absolutely love Ukrainian character. I also like this part of their psychocultural identity although it sometimes leads to some truly gruesome violence.

    The finance sector is really the most difficult part of this. And demographics. LOL. Yea, just those tiny little details.

    Let’s use MMT and White Shariah! (Just kidding 🙂) Perhaps we should ask Kadyrov how he gets by both financially and sexually. With Allah’s help this guy has built a real dynasty in his little well financed Sultanate, although I doubt they will survive the coming years unscathed.

    I know that the Russians will fight. The question is only how much.

    I think the answer would be: a lot. And the saddest part is that they will fight mostly against each other. The Realm of Rus might well become the Realm of Death if not enough is done to rapidly stabilize the situation. I hope that this will not happen. I hope that some stability is rapidly achieved. BTW the Chinese won’t be sitting quietly and waiting for it to finish. The Far East might well see some interesting moves.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    especially that Arestovitch himself is a pure globohomo material (although who am I to judge other people’s sexual inclinations – love is love etc.)
     
    Lol.... Well, I don't know what you're implying here, but I'm pretty sure he's straight.


    Yea, he dressed up as a chick once, but he tried to have an acting career and he's just that type who's a bit more delicate.

    From the Old Sacred Groves to the Cosmic Theosis.
     
    Very cool. We need everything - chthonic, celestial and metaphysical.

    If someone finds Russians crazy, then this person will absolutely love Ukrainian character. I also like this part of their psychocultural identity although it sometimes leads to some truly gruesome violence.
     
    I didn't mean to throw stereotypes around, especially since they're not always true - some of the UA leadership are very rational and are able to calculate coldly. And then combined with the passionariy it creates some real badassery. It needs to be well managed though.

    Let’s use MMT
     
    Modern Monetary Theory?

    White Shariah! (Just kidding 🙂)
     
    Sure, definitely worth exploring. But might be a bit hard knowing how our people sometimes are... it could be a good set up for those who want it. Also, special reproductive spaces could be created.

    Kadyrov how he gets by both financially and sexually. With Allah’s help this guy has built a real dynasty in his little well financed Sultanate, although I doubt they will survive the coming years unscathed.
     
    That's right, the money is from Allah. 🙂 Well, his case is a bit of an apex fallacy (it's commendable but it's not for everyone - besides we have our own customs although this set up was occasionally present with ancient Baltic families, albeit rarely). And the money definitely isn't his. It's the Russian or Chechen people's money. Besides what he seems to be practicing is not the traditional Chechen culture. Anyway... yea, he will go down together with Putin, both the FSB / Russian siloviks and the local Nohchi nationalists hate him. He's only safe with his little private army. Which is a cool thing to have, I'll give him that.

    And the saddest part is that they will fight mostly against each other. The Realm of Rus might well become the Realm of Death if not enough is done to rapidly stabilize the situation. I hope that this will not happen. I hope that some stability is rapidly achieved
     
    Doubt this is possible right now, not rapidly at least. Many will be passing into the land of Veles. Scary what the numbers could be. It feels like it's close to the culmination. Although Kirillo Budanov said the other day that there will be a lull in the winter and then the war will be completed next spring. But who knows.

    BTW the Chinese won’t be sitting quietly and waiting for it to finish. The Far East might well see some interesting moves.
     
    Yea, the Far East is interesting and kind of cool. Of course, they will take advantage. Btw, Mongolia is accepting some mogilization refugees from Buryatia. China could take on some protection of Mongolia and these Buryats in Mongolia.
  172. @Here Be Dragon
    @Wokechoke


    The Russian military are not much use more than 90 miles from a railhead.
     
    If you mean infantry or artillery then it does not matter which military or what country, they all depend on logistics and therefore on proximity of railroads or airfields, or at least some regular roads.

    Other than that I cannot think of anything that might indicate that their military is of no use.

    Here is a page that you should take a look at.
    https://warsawinstitute.org/comparing-western-supplies-ukrainian-losses-war-russia/

    "The Warsaw Institute is a Polish-based geopolitical think tank."

    The numbers of losses I assume to be understated, considering where the data comes from, and it is the data for the first four months so it should be perhaps doubled. The data does not include the demolished ammunition depots.

    And it still looks like the Russians are doing effective work.

    That’s at least one of the reasons that it was preposterous that they could have completely overrun Ukraine.
     
    Ukraine is a big country. It would require at least a million or perhaps even two million people to overrun it. You cannot move in with such an amount of people into a wasteland – where would they sleep? What would they eat?

    They will need to get ammunition supplied, and hospitals to be set up, and food and shelter to be prepared first of all. It would have been a disaster had they indeed decided to try a blitzkrieg.

    The Russians planned it from the beginning to establish a front line first and then prepare the needed infrustructure before mobilization.

    The other alarmist thing was saying there was a total invasion with only 150,000 soldiers.
     
    It was a propaganda gossip. As if they tried but failed. Failures, failures all the time – look at our trolls here. Hard-working people.

    Let us wait a couple of months. The winter is not going to be boring.

    https://i.postimg.cc/8k38grps/Western-supplies-and-Ukrainian-losses-in-the-war-against-Russia-1.jpg

    https://i.postimg.cc/rmmHvq7S/Western-supplies-and-Ukrainian-losses-in-the-war-against-Russia-2.jpg

    https://i.postimg.cc/qB9kXFCm/Western-supplies-and-Ukrainian-losses-in-the-war-against-Russia-3.jpg

    https://i.postimg.cc/dQdMvVLB/Western-supplies-and-Ukrainian-losses-in-the-war-against-Russia-4.jpg

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

    Ukraine is a big country. It would require at least a million or perhaps even two million people to overrun it. You cannot move in with such an amount of people into a wasteland – where would they sleep? What would they eat?

    They will need to get ammunition supplied, and hospitals to be set up, and food and shelter to be prepared first of all. It would have been a disaster had they indeed decided to try a blitzkrieg.

    The Russians planned it from the beginning to establish a front line first and then prepare the needed infrustructure before mobilization.

    Trust the plan

    • LOL: sudden death
  173. @Thorfinnsson
    @showmethereal

    Your understanding is not wrong, but ostensibly one of the objectives of Russian defense policy in the past decade was to be able to rapidly fight and win local wars in its "Near Abroad". Clearly the inability of the Russian Air Force to provide effective air defense suppression and close air support are inhibiting Russia's ability to fight and win this war.

    It should also been pointed out that Russia has had eight years to prepare for this war, but didn't. Then launched it anyway.

    Not very smart.

    Replies: @showmethereal

    I can’t speak to preparedness… But I do know again they aren’t using all their assets. I don’t understand why – but they aren’t. Frankly – I don’t trust western analysts to figure out why not. Russia could have easily been destroying things like railways and power sources en masse – but chose not to. Baffles me – but it’s not my country. I do know from hearing from Russians that I know that a place like Odessa would never be bombed to oblivion like NATO style fighting because it holds sentimental value to Russians. I can only speculate that may be the reason for other restraints- but I don’t want to make assumptions.

  174. @AnonfromTN
    About NS1 and NS2 sabotage. A very good pic on Ron’s article “American Pravda: Of Pipelines and Plagues”. Tells us all we need to know.

    Replies: @A123

    About NS1 and NS2 sabotage. A very good pic on Ron’s article “American Pravda: Of Pipelines and Plagues”. Tells us all we need to know.

    Mr. Unz, is a fictionalist who personally fears me. I posted a good piece about how this could be an operational screwup not a conspiracy. His socks went yellow, he turned coward, and hid the on-topic truth be low the [MORE] tag.

    Judge for yourself:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/#comment-5580207

    Why did he personally FEAR me and my post so much that a cover-up was required?
    ___

    One has to like him for running the site, but Mr. Damp Socks personal analytical skills are negligible to retrograde.

    His shilling for the CCP to cover-up WIV as source of the WUHAN-19 virus has been equally devoid of substance and integrity.

    PEACE 😇

  175. @Triteleia Laxa
    @showmethereal


    Did Armenia ask for CSTO assistance??
     
    Yes, and Russia did nothing. Instead, RT had an article from a leading "thinker" arguing how alliances are modern and for Westerners and not for true Russians.

    And how do you know the condition in Kaliningrad?
     
    Russian reports! And you can bet Western intelligence knows too.

    As to the second hypothesis- I think you watch too many cowboys or Rambo movies. War isn’t like that.
     
    I know exactly what war is like. And conducting it successfully, in a modern way, requires years of consistent training, logistics and institutional building. This is all expensive and requires a high degree of internal transparency to be effective.

    Ukraine seems to have been able to perform a miracle and do this in 7 months, if admittedly at a smaller scale.

    But it is clear that Russia has failed at it for 20 years, and isn't going to suddenly learn now.

    You, someone who has no clue, are talking to someone with the experience to know. You can choose to try to understand or not, but please notice the difference in our replies. I mention things you probably never even thought about, despite them being very basic to any professional. You talk about cowboys and Indians.

    Replies: @showmethereal

    Where is the official request of Armenia for CSTO assistance like Kazhaks made and received? Show me the OFFICIAL request and not political punditry.

    Where are the official Russian reports stating Kaliningrad is in the state you claim. I remember only a few years ago the US rehearsing cruise missile strikes on the region – under fear of the S-400 being active there. So please show us these supposed intelligence reports. Are they the same analysts that said it would take at least a year for the Taliban to take back Afghanistan of the US withdrew??

    And tell me what war you successfully prosecuted…. This ought to be interesting. Don’t tell me Iraq because I can introduce you to some veterans of that supposed overwhelming US victory who suffer from PTSD to this day when they had to dig their boots in the ground and there were no more flashy “shock and awe” videos to show the public and after Bush declare victory on that aircraft carrier.

    You are absolutely correct that I do NOT know the minutiae of military doctrine and tactics. But my IQ is enough to know that there is no miracle performed by Ukraine when the whole reason for the war – Donbass (not to mention Kherson) – is almost entirely under Russian control with a much smaller force than the Ukrainians have. I have seen real miracles in life. That is not a miracle. Unless you really believe western propaganda that Russia was trying to take the whole of Ukraine. The most fervent Russians I have never even heard make that claim. The only thing I ever heard them say is that Russia would keep going along the same line from Kherson to Odessa and then Transnistria. Whether that happens or not – or are even in the official plans I do not know. But claiming Ukraine who has been training with NATO for many years now and lost 20% of its territory to a much smaller force is not a miracle in any way shape or form. Cowboy and Rambo movies make more sense than that.

  176. @Bashibuzuk
    @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    Yes, I think along the same lines. Instead of going to the stars, we might well end just killing each other and perhaps eating each other on this planet. It is not technological advances that will kill us, we would probably use these advances to kill human civilization. In fact, some of these advances shouldn't have been made by people of unsound ethical standards. Ethics matter in the end.

    Replies: @Mikel

    In fact, some of these advances shouldn’t have been made by people of unsound ethical standards.

    I used to have a big dislike of American anti-Iranian hawks but after seeing the possibility of nuclear war closer than at any other time in my life, I’m not sure anymore. The world is objectively a better place when the minimum amount of ideological and religious nutters control that kind of weapons. Perhaps preventing nuclear proliferation would be one of the few instances where military interventionism is justified.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Mikel


    I used to have a big dislike of American anti-Iranian hawks but after seeing the possibility of nuclear war closer than at any other time in my life
     
    If it had been merely about preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, those hawks wouldn't have done everything in their power to destroy the nuclear agreement. If anything, they've made it more likely that Iran will soon have its own nuclear weapons, there isn't much incentive not to do so, because Iran will be under extreme sanctions anyway. Russia also doesn't have much reason anymore to restrain Iran in this regard now that the break with the West is probably irreversible.
    , @AnonfromTN
    @Mikel


    The world is objectively a better place when the minimum amount of ideological and religious nutters control that kind of weapons.
     
    To the best of my knowledge so far only one country used nukes against humans. It was (and is) controlled by nutters, but not ideological and religious ones. Just greedy scum.
  177. “Ambassador” Melnyk tells Elon Musk to fuck off:

    [MORE]

    • LOL: Bashibuzuk, LatW
    • Replies: @sudden death
    @German_reader

    That's what happens when you offer "peace" in the heat of ongoing advance, lol

    And in the other news - RF just got out of Dudchany in Kherson north, means UA is moving further there.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mikel

  178. @Barbarossa
    @Mr. Hack

    My personal remedy for colds is a big pile of freshly grated ginger (1+ cup maybe?) along with a couple black tea bags in a quart or so of water.
    The resulting tea will be too strong to drink straight and will need to sweetened generously with honey. It'll put the piss and vinegar back in a man!

    It's the best remedy I have found though I haven't tried the olive oil and oregano.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Unfortunately, I got away from my juicing regimen during a recent trip back home for a month, and just haven’t yet got back into it. I use generous amounts of ginger and a pinch of red jalapeno pepper too (fresh, about half of a pepper). I think that this would be a suitable substitute for the black tea and ginger concoction that you recommend (although I may try that too, since I just got my hands on a bunch of fresh ginger). By all means, look into the olive oil and oregano remedy. There’s plenty of information about the effectiveness of oregano oil to be obtained from internet sources and studies. The reason that its cut with olive oil is that it’s just too powerful to be taken on its own. Sometimes I purchase it already mixed, other times I mix my own with some pure oregano oil that I’ve obtained. I fill a dropper with about 6-7 drops and put it within my throat and let it go...IT’s REALLY POWERUL MEDICINE!!!

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @Mr. Hack

    I've heard about the anti-bacterial properties of Oregano and just read up on it a bit more. It does sound like some potent stuff! Thanks for the tip on that, I'll definitely look up some locally and give it a try.

    I find the ginger quite energizing; it picks up a fatigued system quite well, as well as having it's own notable anti-viral and antibiotic properties. If you try it I find it's essential to drink it hot for maximum benefit. I think the oils in the ginger are more potent and aromatic or something.

  179. @Triteleia Laxa
    @showmethereal


    It was Putin who caused the coup in 2014?
     
    Putin's guy was Yanukovych. Yanukovych, by being awful, was more responsible for him getting kicked out than anyone.

    It was Putin who gave ultra nationalists and banned Russian language and culture in Donbass?
     
    It is clear that Russia invaded in 2014. And invading a country predictably turns its people against you and things they associate with you, and can push them to extremes in that regard.

    It was Putin who kept expanding NATO closer and closer?
     
    Those countries chose, under popular demand, to join NATO. They did this because they were rightfully scared that otherwise Putin or Russia might invade them.

    NATO will seek to crush anyone who does not bow to their agenda.
     
    False. Russia was under no threat of military invasion. Or being "crushed."

    Also, please understand that events are multi-factorial and that obviously there were others things influencing how all this turned out, but it is a ridiculous delusion to contend that Putin dindu nuffin.

    Replies: @showmethereal

    Are you posting under aliases? Or you can read the other posters mind?

    Ahh yes so you believe Russia was going to invade all the former Soviet countries but NATO is a saint. Serbia and Libya and Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan would disagree (which doesn’t include other U.S. adventures). And it is an absolute reality that Russia was in the process of being economically dismantled when western companies went in their to raid. The only thing that saved Russia from military intervention is its nuclear Arsenal. If not for that it would have been carved up years ago when it was weakened

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @showmethereal

    Head Girl, Monitor of Halls and keeper of the Jolly Hockeysticks at St Elizabeth’s of Truss, she’s probably steaming open the exam answers while dobbing on the kids who go into town.

    It’s pretty fucking obvious that Russia is being dismantled.

  180. German_reader says:
    @Mikel
    @Bashibuzuk


    In fact, some of these advances shouldn’t have been made by people of unsound ethical standards.
     
    I used to have a big dislike of American anti-Iranian hawks but after seeing the possibility of nuclear war closer than at any other time in my life, I'm not sure anymore. The world is objectively a better place when the minimum amount of ideological and religious nutters control that kind of weapons. Perhaps preventing nuclear proliferation would be one of the few instances where military interventionism is justified.

    Replies: @German_reader, @AnonfromTN

    I used to have a big dislike of American anti-Iranian hawks but after seeing the possibility of nuclear war closer than at any other time in my life

    If it had been merely about preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, those hawks wouldn’t have done everything in their power to destroy the nuclear agreement. If anything, they’ve made it more likely that Iran will soon have its own nuclear weapons, there isn’t much incentive not to do so, because Iran will be under extreme sanctions anyway. Russia also doesn’t have much reason anymore to restrain Iran in this regard now that the break with the West is probably irreversible.

  181. @Thorfinnsson
    @Mr. Hack

    Good to hear from you again, Mr. Hack.

    I have the good fortune to not have commented about this war here since the end of March. It looks like my last comment about it can be seen here:

    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-182-russia-ukraine/#comment-5251047

    It looks like I described Russia's progress as "slow" and noted the risks of escalation by the West. I did not anticipate the Ukrainian victory at Kiev.

    As for my take on the Battle of Kiev itself, my take is that Russian planning and logistics were a complete fiasco and that Ukrainian irregular forces were highly effective in amplifying these problems which allowed AFU to inflict sufficient damage and delay to Russian forces to cause overall operational failure.

    I don't think calling up 300,000 men will turn the tide of war, but I do think that it will stabilize the front. Since the war began the Ukraine has induced maybe 320,000 men into AFU whereas Russia has recruited around 80,000 volunteers. No one can seriously believe that Russia is enjoying a 4:1 casualty exchange ratio with the Ukraine, so the partial mobilization will just get Russia back to the roughly the manpower ratio which prevailed at the start of the war--when it invaded the Ukraine with 200,000 too few men.

    Russia will need to call up many more men in order to win the war. If the mobilization stays "partial", then I expect stalemate or an outright Russian defeat. The Ukraine has only mobilized around 10% of its military aged manpower, and while its state capacity is not high its top leadership has consistently been more determined and ruthless than Moscow.

    Igor Strelkov says Russia needs to call up another 300,000 still after this wave in order to ensure victory, and if Putin doesn't want to die in a Dutch prison cell he should consider exceeding that figure as well.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Don’t forget that in July the Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced that it was working towards amassing a million man army. I don’t think that this figure was etched in stone, but on the other hand, I don’t think that it was just bluster either. We know for certain that new conscripts are often taken to places like Great Britain or Poland to be trained for a reasonable amount of time, to be able to go into the battlefield fully cognizant of their responsibilities and able to handle the western type of weaponry that they’re more often using.

    • Agree: Thorfinnsson
    • Replies: @LondonBob
    @Mr. Hack

    To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?

    Time is running out, throwing everything at the Russians and sustaining disproportionate casualties is just hastening that. A few towns here and there won't change that.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Mr. Hack, @keypusher

  182. @German_reader
    "Ambassador" Melnyk tells Elon Musk to fuck off:

    https://twitter.com/MelnykAndrij/status/1576977000178208768?cxt=HHwWgMCqqb-OxuIrAAAA

    Replies: @sudden death

    That’s what happens when you offer “peace” in the heat of ongoing advance, lol

    And in the other news – RF just got out of Dudchany in Kherson north, means UA is moving further there.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sudden death


    That’s what happens when you offer “peace” in the heat of ongoing advance, lol
     
    Melnyk was always like this, he won't change even if Ukraine's advance gets stuck or is beaten back. He's an ideologue who thinks nothing but total victory could ever be acceptable. He's entitled to that view, but the way he's trying to restrict debate in Western countries is unacceptable. It's time someone told him to fuck off, permanently.
    , @Mikel
    @sudden death


    And in the other news – RF just got out of Dudchany in Kherson north, means UA is moving further there.
     
    The speed at which the Ukrainians advance once they break the front is remarkable, especially compared to the snail pace of the Russians when they were still able to advance in Donbas. It's actually becoming a sh!tshow. They are retreating on two fronts simultaneously (one of them in Donbass no less) while they keep trying and failing to storm... Bakhmut. There doesn't seem to be any coherent plan at the top echelons. If the Ukrainians succeed in breaking a new front in Zaporizhia, the rout could have epic proportions. I hope they have a plan in Washington on what to do if the Ukrainians are too successful and the Kremlin is left only with extreme choices.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @LondonBob

  183. @Mikel
    @Bashibuzuk


    In fact, some of these advances shouldn’t have been made by people of unsound ethical standards.
     
    I used to have a big dislike of American anti-Iranian hawks but after seeing the possibility of nuclear war closer than at any other time in my life, I'm not sure anymore. The world is objectively a better place when the minimum amount of ideological and religious nutters control that kind of weapons. Perhaps preventing nuclear proliferation would be one of the few instances where military interventionism is justified.

    Replies: @German_reader, @AnonfromTN

    The world is objectively a better place when the minimum amount of ideological and religious nutters control that kind of weapons.

    To the best of my knowledge so far only one country used nukes against humans. It was (and is) controlled by nutters, but not ideological and religious ones. Just greedy scum.

  184. German_reader says:
    @sudden death
    @German_reader

    That's what happens when you offer "peace" in the heat of ongoing advance, lol

    And in the other news - RF just got out of Dudchany in Kherson north, means UA is moving further there.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mikel

    That’s what happens when you offer “peace” in the heat of ongoing advance, lol

    Melnyk was always like this, he won’t change even if Ukraine’s advance gets stuck or is beaten back. He’s an ideologue who thinks nothing but total victory could ever be acceptable. He’s entitled to that view, but the way he’s trying to restrict debate in Western countries is unacceptable. It’s time someone told him to fuck off, permanently.

  185. @Bashibuzuk
    @Dmitry


    It’s a romantic explanation and maybe in these unhappy days we must read such a representative http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0750-1.shtml
     
    Well, he was named "the mirror of the Russian revolution" for a reason.

    Can you remember there are many themes we oldtimers used to discuss in the forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ.

     

    I agree that we should do it more and focus less on the unfortunate events unfolding in Ukraine. For many among us it is turning into an obsession for obvious reasons. There is more to life than this.

    Speaking of which:

    https://youtu.be/cIMKJ43TFLs

    🙂

    Replies: @Dmitry, @Yahya

    Speaking of which:

    Are you familiar with Turkish Classical Music?

    [MORE]

    It’s one of my favorite musical genres. Like many other foreign genres, it took me a bit of time to familiarize my ear to Turkish music, which is fairly peculiar given its resemblance to Arabic music. On the other hand, there are some distinct differences between the two despite their similarity on a world scale.

    Both Turkish and Arabic music are based on the maqam/makam system, which can roughly be translated as modes in the Western system. Each maqam is built on a scale, and carries a tradition that defines its habitual phrases, important notes, melodic development and modulation. The Maqam system is distinct however from Western modes in that it only defines the pitches and patterns of a piece of music without outlining the rhythmic component. This allows for the rhythmic improvisation typical of Middle Eastern music.

    Turkish music is different in that they utilize a wider range of maqams (100+) than Arabic music (9-10), and split tones into 9 comas rather than 4, allowing for microtones smaller than quarter tones. Turkish music primarily utilizes the scales derived from the Husseini maqam, whereas Arabic music derives its scales from the Kurdi, Ajam, Nahawand, and Hijaz maqams. In terms of instruments both Turkish and Arabic music make use of the qanun, oud and ney (far more so than Greeks and Iranians), but Turks have the tambur, kemençe and saz which are not typically used by Arabs.

    This is my favorite song Kalamis by Münir Nurettin Selçuk:

    It’s fairly peculiar in its lack of texture and instrumental minimalism. But it works well since it allows Selçuk’s voice to stand out and enhances the connection between the musician and listener. Contrast this with choral music from the Western system, like Palestrina’s works for example, whose polyphony is intellectually interesting, but loses the personal touch of monophonic music. Of course this style of music depends greatly on the quality of the singer’s voice to carry the melody on his/her own without much aid from the instruments. The female background accompaniment also provides a nice contrast to the male singers low-pitched voice.

    I believe most of the eminent singers of Turkish classical music were male in the 20th century, which is disappointing for me as I prefer the female voice. Fortunately, most of the 21st century performers carrying on the legacy of Turkish classical music are females, and they mostly sing cover versions of older songs, with better orchestration and sound engineering. My favorites being Elif Güreşçi, Mine Gellici, Yaprak Sayar, and Selva Erdener. Though I suppose in the 20th century there was at least a couple of great female singers like Melahet Pars and Saime Sinan.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE4To4K7EkQ&ab_channel=RECEPGAYRETL%C4%B0

    Sadly younger Turks don’t seem much interested in this type of music anymore. The performers I mentioned above barely get 100,000 views on Youtube if they are lucky. Yaprak Sayar has tried to gain a wider audience by combining Turkish classical songs with background jazz instrumentals, but i’m not sure if it can retain its essence and character with Western style instrumentals. But this is the chief predicament Turks have been dealing with since the downfall of the Ottoman Empire.

    Ataturk tried to encourage Turks to take up Western classical music by establishing musical conservatories and sending Turks to study abroad, with some fruits given the “Turkish Five” developed out of these initiatives. But as usual, the vast majority of Turks outside of the secular urban centers did not and still do not want to listen to that stuff. Shortly after Ataturk’s government banned traditional Turkish music from being aired on the Turkish airwaves, there were records of Turks calling into radio stations in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East requesting Arabic renditions of Turkish songs they were used to listening to. Eventually in the 1970s a sub-genre called Arabesque developed directly as a consequence of this event because Turks had acquired a taste for Arabic-style melodies.

    Incidentally, I like some of the stuff produced by the “Turkish Five”. This is a variation on a famous Istanbul folk song by Cemal Reşit Rey, which should familiar to fans of Rimsky-Korsakov:

    But still Western classical music composed by Turks doesn’t seem to interest anyone either inside or outside of Turkey. Turkish classical music seems to be heading in that direction also, as I mentioned above. I think only Turkish folk music is listened to nowadays, alongside of course the mechanical, localized version of global pop music which can be found anywhere in the world today.

    Arabic classical music has survived better in that regard, people still listen to Umm Kulthum and Sabah Fakhry, though they too will diminish in due time. There were several Arab composers of Western classical music in the 20th century actually, such as Dia Succari, Gamal Abdel-Rehim, Aziz El-Shewan, Youssef Khasho and Solhi Al-Wadi; but likewise very few in the Arab world seem to care much for Western classical music. In Iran the two great classical singers Marzieh and Gholam-Hossein Banan have fallen into neglect, but I suppose are being replaced by instrumentalists such as Hossein Alizadeh and Kayhan Kalhoor.

    The best contemporary practitioner of Arabic-Turkish classical music is a Lebanese lady operating from Montreal, Canada called Lamia Yared. Here you can see her on the oud, playing alongside the talented Turkish qanunist Didem Basar:

    Doesn’t seem to get much views unfortunately.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Yahya

    Thank you so much for this introduction to the Turkish classical music. I was completely unaware of how exquisite it was. I especially enjoyed the last video. Lovely!

    I really don't know much about Turkish music, and my knowledge of MENA music is also limited to some well known Maghrebi songs, although I remember my parents listening to Feiruz when I was young. They had a lot of "exotic" music at home at a time when in USSR just having access to Western Jazz or Rock music was an uneasy task (my dad was a great fan of Otis Redding and other Soul singers).

    I have found the Ozgur Baba song by pure chance, while listening to some traditional Uyghur music on YouTube. Probably the algorithm had them connected through the "traditional Turkic music" keywords.

    Have you ever listened to Uyghur music?

    It is a world in itself on the crossroads of Central Asia, well worth exploring.



    The ballad below is very powerful (notice the use of Turkic runes in the subtitles).

    https://youtu.be/YWyW_o17RMg

    This song is very ancient, it is the story of Turkic ancestoral Gray Wolves in the Ergenikon valleys of the Altai mountains.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergenekon

    Regarding the young people not being interested in their ancestors' music, it is true everywhere. For example, many Russian youth would gladly listen to some US Gangsta Rap or to Russian Hip hop wannabees, but won't be interested in the traditional Russian songs or heroic Rus ballads (byliny).

    Youths mainly seek fashion and thrill, mature people seek wisdom and beauty.

    C'est la vie...

    Replies: @Yahya

  186. @Triteleia Laxa
    @German_reader

    Would you say that tremendous global interest in the death of the Queen, with it being a common and 99% respectful obsession, from Brazil to Thailand, was manufactured?

    Replies: @German_reader, @Matra

    The Queen has been known to virtually every person on earth for generations so naturally there was interest in her death. Most Westerners with Ukraine flags in their bios etc know piss all about Ukraine beyond what the MSM & social media tells them.

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @Matra


    Most Westerners with Ukraine flags in their bios etc know piss all about Ukraine
     
    Count that as a blessing. Knowing more about present-day Ukraine would make you puke.
  187. @Matra
    @Triteleia Laxa

    The Queen has been known to virtually every person on earth for generations so naturally there was interest in her death. Most Westerners with Ukraine flags in their bios etc know piss all about Ukraine beyond what the MSM & social media tells them.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    Most Westerners with Ukraine flags in their bios etc know piss all about Ukraine

    Count that as a blessing. Knowing more about present-day Ukraine would make you puke.

  188. @Mr. Hack
    @Thorfinnsson

    Don't forget that in July the Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced that it was working towards amassing a million man army. I don't think that this figure was etched in stone, but on the other hand, I don't think that it was just bluster either. We know for certain that new conscripts are often taken to places like Great Britain or Poland to be trained for a reasonable amount of time, to be able to go into the battlefield fully cognizant of their responsibilities and able to handle the western type of weaponry that they're more often using.

    Replies: @LondonBob

    To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?

    Time is running out, throwing everything at the Russians and sustaining disproportionate casualties is just hastening that. A few towns here and there won’t change that.

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @LondonBob


    A few towns here and there won’t change that.
     
    Learning from the overlords: when you are defeated, declare victory and leave.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    , @Mr. Hack
    @LondonBob

    What rock have you been sleeping under? The US just approved another 1.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, on top of the 3 billion in aid already approved in August. It looks like it's a pay as you go plan, the better you do, the more in funds and weapons you get.

    , @keypusher
    @LondonBob

    "To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?"

    Courtesy of Thorfinnsson, hope I did the link correctly:


    The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 is now in force, so transfers of materiel to the Ukraine no longer require Congressional approval. This law is in force through the end of FY2023, and the odds of the incoming Congress passing a new law to repeal or restrain its over President Biden’s veto are approximately zero.

     

    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-198/#comment-5580342

    Replies: @A123, @LondonBob

  189. @LondonBob
    @Mr. Hack

    To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?

    Time is running out, throwing everything at the Russians and sustaining disproportionate casualties is just hastening that. A few towns here and there won't change that.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Mr. Hack, @keypusher

    A few towns here and there won’t change that.

    Learning from the overlords: when you are defeated, declare victory and leave.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @AnonfromTN


    Learning from the overlords: when you are defeated, declare victory and leave.
     
    A typical Russian response to all of the retreating that they are doing today. :-)

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

  190. @LondonBob
    @Mr. Hack

    To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?

    Time is running out, throwing everything at the Russians and sustaining disproportionate casualties is just hastening that. A few towns here and there won't change that.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Mr. Hack, @keypusher

    What rock have you been sleeping under? The US just approved another 1.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, on top of the 3 billion in aid already approved in August. It looks like it’s a pay as you go plan, the better you do, the more in funds and weapons you get.

  191. @AnonfromTN
    @LondonBob


    A few towns here and there won’t change that.
     
    Learning from the overlords: when you are defeated, declare victory and leave.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Learning from the overlords: when you are defeated, declare victory and leave.

    A typical Russian response to all of the retreating that they are doing today. 🙂

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @Mr. Hack


    Russian response to all of the retreating that they are doing today
     
    What planet are you on? Just curious.

    Replies: @216, @Mr. Hack

  192. @LondonBob
    @Mr. Hack

    To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?

    Time is running out, throwing everything at the Russians and sustaining disproportionate casualties is just hastening that. A few towns here and there won't change that.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN, @Mr. Hack, @keypusher

    “To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?”

    Courtesy of Thorfinnsson, hope I did the link correctly:

    The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 is now in force, so transfers of materiel to the Ukraine no longer require Congressional approval. This law is in force through the end of FY2023, and the odds of the incoming Congress passing a new law to repeal or restrain its over President Biden’s veto are approximately zero.

    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-198/#comment-5580342

    • Replies: @A123
    @keypusher


    “To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?”

    Courtesy of Thorfinnsson, hope I did the link correctly:


    The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 is now in force, so transfers of materiel to the Ukraine no longer require Congressional approval. This law is in force through the end of FY2023, and the odds of the incoming Congress passing a new law to repeal or restrain its over President Biden’s veto are approximately zero.
     
    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-198/#comment-5580342
     
    WW II Lend-Lease was a huge flow to Europe because Congress turned on the taps to build Liberty Ships, and the goods to go in them.

    The 2023 situation will be radically different:

    • Can Not-The-President Biden "Lend" things that do not exist?
    • Can the White House occupant "Lease" weapons off of empty shelves?

    Ultimately, Congress has to Appropriate funds to buy. Again, funding for Kiev aggression will not go to $0.00. However, every bill will have MAGA 'must-spend' line items that SJW Globalists like Ilhan Omar and Rashid Tlaib will abhor. For, example:

    -- $30B U.S. Border security
    -- $  3B Lend Lease Ukie munitions

    MAGA needs money for domestic priorities. And, the long history of U.S. budgeting (as actually practiced) shows that the easiest line items to raid are funds dedicated to foreign efforts. The idea that the proverbial blank check will continue to be available is absurd, bordering on delusional.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @keypusher

    , @LondonBob
    @keypusher

    Not enough, the US is in very bad shape economically and the cost to prop up the Ukraine is only increasing.

    Things are going to look very bad militarily once the Russian forces stop fighting at a significant disadvantage in manpower.

    Replies: @showmethereal

  193. @Mr. Hack
    @AnonfromTN


    Learning from the overlords: when you are defeated, declare victory and leave.
     
    A typical Russian response to all of the retreating that they are doing today. :-)

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    Russian response to all of the retreating that they are doing today

    What planet are you on? Just curious.

    • Replies: @216
    @AnonfromTN

    This is what honor cultures do, they don't admit guilt, they deny it to avoid the shame, confident that their "face" has not been besmirched.

    State-run media doesn't have a monopoly here. Here you can't cover up the Molotov-Rippentrop Pact, the Katyn massacre, the mass rapes committed by the Red Army, the failure of the N-1 rocket, rampant oligarchical corruption and the front line collapsing as we speak.

    That is not the Western way, we show our guilt, often too excessively. We learn from our mistakes, we mourn the loss of Apollo 1, the Challenger and the Columbia. When the US military commits war crimes, it becomes a major scandal, even if the perpetrators are sometimes not punished enough.

    The Western way is superior, and American exceptionalism is very real. Even in its degenerated state, GAYTO is wiping the floor with the Krokodil brigades.

    Replies: @LondonBob, @Bashibuzuk

    , @Mr. Hack
    @AnonfromTN

    Russian troops continue to retreat again today (10/03). Check your sources, Professor.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

  194. Guess UA might get some too for the real battlefield testing;)

    OCTOBER 3, 2022
    Northrop Grumman has completed the production and delivery of 100,000 precision guidance kits (PGK) to the US Army.

    The PGKs transform conventional 155-millimeter artillery projectiles into GPS-guided weapons, increasing their accuracy.

    According to the company, the kits have a safety feature that prevents detonation if the PGK predicts that the projectile will exceed the selected miss distance.

    They will soon be equipped with a GPS M-Code to protect the PGKs from jamming.

    Once deployed, the 100,000 PGKs are expected to provide the army with superior firing accuracy on the battlefield.

    https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/10/03/northrop-precision-kits-us-army/

  195. The US Right is fed up with RF military incompetence, Putin’s Third Worldism, and Karlin’s threat to destroy our satellites.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @216


    and Karlin’s threat to destroy our satellites.
     
    Bwahahaha !

    I wonder how Tolik is gonna do that, perhaps he will be hitchhiking on some Norc ballistic missile purchased by Pynya and then use a slingshot...

    (Sorry, couldn't help myself...)

    BTW, someone should ask AK whether he's still in RusFed. Maybe if he's still stuck there, he could volunteer to the frontline. They probably need fully bilingual English speaking Russian citizens there, although NATO probably uses encrypted communications, unlike the heroic Russian army which doesn't give a damn about the enemy eavesdropping on its communications...

    Just to make it clear, if it was true Russia fighting - and not Pynya's RusFed - I would go back home and try to make myself useful. But then again, if not for Pynya and his RusFedian system - there would be today no war in Ukraine. Anyway, Tolik always wrote that RusFed is great and Pynya is okay. So he would normally find no moral qualms in fighting for the system and its leader.

    Replies: @Barbarossa, @German_reader

  196. @AnonfromTN
    @Mr. Hack


    Russian response to all of the retreating that they are doing today
     
    What planet are you on? Just curious.

    Replies: @216, @Mr. Hack

    This is what honor cultures do, they don’t admit guilt, they deny it to avoid the shame, confident that their “face” has not been besmirched.

    State-run media doesn’t have a monopoly here. Here you can’t cover up the Molotov-Rippentrop Pact, the Katyn massacre, the mass rapes committed by the Red Army, the failure of the N-1 rocket, rampant oligarchical corruption and the front line collapsing as we speak.

    That is not the Western way, we show our guilt, often too excessively. We learn from our mistakes, we mourn the loss of Apollo 1, the Challenger and the Columbia. When the US military commits war crimes, it becomes a major scandal, even if the perpetrators are sometimes not punished enough.

    The Western way is superior, and American exceptionalism is very real. Even in its degenerated state, GAYTO is wiping the floor with the Krokodil brigades.

    • Replies: @LondonBob
    @216

    It really isn't the Western way, not really sure what your background is to make such a weird claim, part of the culture of critique, as Kevin MacDonald called it.

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @216


    That is not the Western way, we show our guilt, often too excessively.
     
    This is hilariously self-centered.

    Are you real or is this some joke ?

    🙂

  197. @AnonfromTN
    @Mr. Hack


    Russian response to all of the retreating that they are doing today
     
    What planet are you on? Just curious.

    Replies: @216, @Mr. Hack

    Russian troops continue to retreat again today (10/03). Check your sources, Professor.

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @Mr. Hack

    Do simple math (it used to be 2nd grade in Soviet school, it is 2-3rd grade in schools in Nigeria, so maybe high school in the US). On the assumption that situation develops linearly calculate how long it’s going to take Ukies to get back the territory they lost since February. I am not even talking about the territories Ukraine lost in 2014.

    You won’t need higher math, which takes into account that real situations never develop linearly and that Russia is in the middle of mobilizing ~1% of those it can, whereas Ukraine has already mobilized everyone who did not manage to run away or bribe some officials, including quite a few 60-year olds and cripples.

    If you are thinking about American financial aid, it is useful to remember that more than half gets stolen by the US thieves, while a big chunk of the part that reaches Ukraine is stolen by Ukrainian thieves (in terms of corruption Ukraine is unbeatable).

    Replies: @AP, @showmethereal, @Mr. Hack

  198. @Here Be Dragon
    @216

    I wonder where do these trolls get all this drivel from?


    The limited Russian budget led to concerns that NATO would shoot all the GLONASS satellites down.
     
    No one can shoot them down – these satellites are on the high orbit (500-700 km).

    They chose the hypersonic missile, which US doesn’t have yet, but when it does, it will be better.
     
    Of course – much better! Meanwhile the Russians have two models of these and are working on another one.

    From a Western perspective, the plane is aptly named [Fullback], but Russia isn’t using the plane properly.
     
    Fullback is the NATO reporting name for the Sukhoi Su-34. It is a 4th generation plane analogous to the American F-15E. What is the point of discussing it?

    Captured [AK-12] rifles haven’t been issued with rail mounted optics, which is the only real advantage it has over the AK-74.
     
    If it was captured without optics that means the optics were in fact stolen. These AK are issued with a collimator sight.

    Apart from the rail it is better than the AK-74 in that it has a free-floated barrel and improved ergonomics, a better rear iron sight and as a result longer effective range.

    Western reviews of the AK-12 have been negative, while reviews of the more expensive A-545 have been rather positive.
     
    These reviews are not based on experience. Both of these rifles are not available in the West.

    However the A-545 (now called the KORD 6P67 or 6P68) is a better rifle indeed. It features the balanced recoil design (BARS) which is unique. These rifles have no recoil whatsoever!

    https://i.postimg.cc/FFfb5rBC/KORD-6-P67.jpg

    And besides these look good.

    Meanwhile in the US, our new XM5 rifle has the most powerful round ever issued to an infantry rifle, which can destroy any type of body armor in existence.
     
    The round – 6.8x51 mm SIG (or .277 SIG Fury) – is the same as 7.62×51 mm NATO (or .308 Winchester). The rifle is nothing special if we disregard its ugliness. It is for sure the ugliest rifle ever made.

    As for the round it has been done before and is being done now – in particular the Belgian FAL and more recent SCAR-H rifles are chambered in 7.62×51 mm.

    Due to higher pressure the barrels wear out faster, due to stronger recoil automatic fire is hard to handle. And of course it does not destroy any type of body armor.

    Its combination suppressor/muzzle break means that it does not recoil much harder than the M4.
     
    It does recoil much harder than the AK-12 or the AK-15, and for sure a lot harder than KORD which does not recoil at all.

    https://i.postimg.cc/d30xvzgm/XM5-rifle.jpg

    The device pictured here is not a combination of suppressor/muzzle break but a regular sound suppressor. That means we can add another $1000 to the cost of the rifle if it is planned to be issued as that.

    And that’s before we mention the classified superscope, which will turn every infantryman into a sniper, and possibly have anti-drone capabilities.
     
    The most moronic comment of the week. You have won.

    It’s horribly expensive, and will irritate NATO partners having to buy a proprietary gun and ammo all over again.
     
    The NATO partners are not going to purchase it and in fact the U.S. is planning to get some 100 thousand of these for their close combat forces.

    Now please stop posting such nonsense.

    Replies: @216

    No one can shoot them down – these satellites are on the high orbit (500-700 km).

    Just watch me

    If it was captured without optics that means the optics were in fact stolen. These AK are issued with a collimator sight.

    It is possible that rifles were rushed from the factory to the front without optics being mounted. It is also possible that the optics were embezzled, or that they were poached by Ukrainians.

    The device pictured here is not a combination of suppressor/muzzle break but a regular sound suppressor. That means we can add another $1000 to the cost of the rifle if it is planned to be issued as that.

    That suppressor uses cutting-edge 3d printing technology to significantly reduce the gas flowing back on the shooter’s face, which also provides recoil reduction. It is unlike any other suppressor used.

    The superscope is very much real, and the minute it sees combat it will be a revelation akin to the conical bullet in the 19th century.

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @216


    Just watch me [shoot down satellites on the high orbit].
     
    Are you really that stupid? What are you going to shoot them with – the Space X Falcon rockets?

    These are on the high orbit. You need a space rocket to reach that altitude.

    It is possible that [AK-12] rifles were rushed from the factory to the front without optics being mounted.
     
    No it is not possible.

    The rifles are shipped without optics. The optics are not a part of the rifle, these are issued separately and are installed by the user.

    By the way not everybody likes it. Some people prefer good old iron sights.

    It is also possible that the optics were embezzled, or that they were poached by Ukrainians.
     
    That is what I said.

    Most likely it had some kind of a red dot sight mounted which was stolen by the Ukrainians. And most likely all these many photographs are of different people taking pictures with the same one captured rifle.

    That suppressor [of the XM5 rifle] uses cutting-edge 3d printing technology to significantly reduce the gas flowing back on the shooter’s face, which also provides recoil reduction. It is unlike any other suppressor used.
     
    You are completely clueless in this topic. Why are you arguing about things you know nothing about?

    You do not need to use any cutting-edge 3d printing technology to make a muzzle brake/flash hider device – it is a very simple thing and it has been made for at least 10 years now. Russians have their own version of it.

    Neither with a standard sound suppressor nor with a muzzle break or flash hider or a combo device there is no gas flowing back on the shooter’s face.

    You read but misunderstood what it is about the new model of a muzzle break/flash hider combo called "Smuzzle". There is nothing special about it. A device of that king was a standard feature of the Vietnam War era CAR-15 carbine that was back then issued to officers.

    https://i.postimg.cc/W4z4dw4Q/CAR-15.jpg

    It is not a suppressor though it reduces the sound of a shot by about 20%. However it does not compete with a real sound suppressor neither in reduction of sound nor in reducing recoil or a muzzle flash. It is cheap though and has a longer life span.

    But there is nothing unique about it.

    The superscope is very much real, and the minute it sees combat it will be a revelation akin to the conical bullet in the 19th century.
     
    There is no such thing as a superscope.

    There are a lot of various good scopes though. Americans make the best thermal scopes but bear in mind the cost of it is like $15 thousand for a piece.

    Replies: @John Johnson

  199. @Mr. Hack
    @Thorfinnsson


    They now have superiority at the front, but the superiority will start to vanish next month as Russia mobilizes its superior resources.
     
    This is a song that you've been singing since last February 24, and it's starting to sound a bit hollow?...Ukrainian troops have met quality crack Russian troops since the beginning of the war, and even have been able to defeat them before the West really got interested in providing them with top quality weapons. Remember the complete shut down of the Russian 331st Guards Parachute Regiment during the fighting for Kyiv? IMHO, history will judge this battle as being among the most important losses for the Russian invaders. With close to 100,000 troops sent to the Kyiv area, you couldn't really attribute the huge loss as one that occurred due to lack of troops, weapons, or lack of morale. I'd be interested in hearing your conclusions regarding this battle.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Russian_bombardment_of_Kyiv_TV_Tower.jpg/800px-Russian_bombardment_of_Kyiv_TV_Tower.jpg

    So what makes you think that sending another 300,000 Russian ill supplied and trained "soldiers" (civilians) into this war, conscripted most likely without their desire to serve, into the battle is going to help turn the tide into a miraculous victory for Russia?

    Having said this, I'm glad to see that you've returned, once again! Somebody with as much military knowledge as you have, blogging here, is a always a plus.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Wokechoke

    I don’t think the Russians squeezed 100,000 troops into the immediate attack on Kiev. There wasn’t the physical space.

    • Agree: showmethereal
  200. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @German_reader
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Not everybody likes the Royal Family:
    https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/sep/13/preston-ban-football-fan-for-life-for-derogatory-tweet-about-the-royal-family


    Preston North End have issued a lifetime stadium ban to a supporter for a derogatory tweet about the royal family.
    A source with knowledge of the situation told the Guardian that the tweet, since deleted, said that the optimal way for the week to end would be for the royal family to all die on their way to the Queen’s funeral.
    In a separate tweet the fan asked whether he would be ejected from the stadium for booing during a minute’s silence, and joked that he would make a Nazi salute in Queen Elizabeth II’s honour. The club were tagged in all the messages.
     
    Personally I liked Prince Philip, great sense of humour.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    I liked him too. Both funny and a decent man. Weird how his son Charles is so humourless, if also actually a decent man.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Prince Philip supposedly once said that he would wish to be reborn a virus able to wipe out the mankind.

    https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/prince-philip-quote-about-reincarnating-as-a-deadly-virus-to-solve-overpopulation-resurfaces/articleshow/81992882.cms

    There was a Russian joke about it a couple of years ago:

    "Something's wrong...
    What ?
    Prince Philip ain't dead yeat, but the Covid is already here."

    Decent humor is decent...

    🙂

  201. @sudden death
    @German_reader

    That's what happens when you offer "peace" in the heat of ongoing advance, lol

    And in the other news - RF just got out of Dudchany in Kherson north, means UA is moving further there.

    Replies: @German_reader, @Mikel

    And in the other news – RF just got out of Dudchany in Kherson north, means UA is moving further there.

    The speed at which the Ukrainians advance once they break the front is remarkable, especially compared to the snail pace of the Russians when they were still able to advance in Donbas. It’s actually becoming a sh!tshow. They are retreating on two fronts simultaneously (one of them in Donbass no less) while they keep trying and failing to storm… Bakhmut. There doesn’t seem to be any coherent plan at the top echelons. If the Ukrainians succeed in breaking a new front in Zaporizhia, the rout could have epic proportions. I hope they have a plan in Washington on what to do if the Ukrainians are too successful and the Kremlin is left only with extreme choices.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Mikel

    No one quite anticipated Russia folding like a cheap suit.

    One thing I have to wonder about Muscovites and St Petersburg denizens...do you think you can keep a rich lifestyle and not dominate the Black Sea? Not dictate terms in Crimea?

    Great slaughter will occur when the Tartars and Mongols start hacking y’all to bits under CIA and MI6 tutilage. There is no exit here but to fucking well fight.

    , @LondonBob
    @Mikel

    Advancing in insignificant areas where it is preferable for the Russians to give up ground whilst inflicting significantly higher casualties. The Hitler tactic of defending every inch and continually counter attacking destroys your army, the Russians are going to be in a very good position to counter attack when the time is right.

    I see Musk, with his deep state connections, is proposing a peace deal along the lines of what was proposed before and in Istanbul, perhaps should have done that deal then before thousands of lives were lost and the Western economy completely wrecked. The timeframe for a peace deal that isn't completely lopsided is closing for NATO.

    Replies: @Mikel

  202. @showmethereal
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Are you posting under aliases? Or you can read the other posters mind?

    Ahh yes so you believe Russia was going to invade all the former Soviet countries but NATO is a saint. Serbia and Libya and Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan would disagree (which doesn’t include other U.S. adventures). And it is an absolute reality that Russia was in the process of being economically dismantled when western companies went in their to raid. The only thing that saved Russia from military intervention is its nuclear Arsenal. If not for that it would have been carved up years ago when it was weakened

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    Head Girl, Monitor of Halls and keeper of the Jolly Hockeysticks at St Elizabeth’s of Truss, she’s probably steaming open the exam answers while dobbing on the kids who go into town.

    It’s pretty fucking obvious that Russia is being dismantled.

  203. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    And in the other news – RF just got out of Dudchany in Kherson north, means UA is moving further there.
     
    The speed at which the Ukrainians advance once they break the front is remarkable, especially compared to the snail pace of the Russians when they were still able to advance in Donbas. It's actually becoming a sh!tshow. They are retreating on two fronts simultaneously (one of them in Donbass no less) while they keep trying and failing to storm... Bakhmut. There doesn't seem to be any coherent plan at the top echelons. If the Ukrainians succeed in breaking a new front in Zaporizhia, the rout could have epic proportions. I hope they have a plan in Washington on what to do if the Ukrainians are too successful and the Kremlin is left only with extreme choices.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @LondonBob

    No one quite anticipated Russia folding like a cheap suit.

    One thing I have to wonder about Muscovites and St Petersburg denizens…do you think you can keep a rich lifestyle and not dominate the Black Sea? Not dictate terms in Crimea?

    Great slaughter will occur when the Tartars and Mongols start hacking y’all to bits under CIA and MI6 tutilage. There is no exit here but to fucking well fight.

  204. @Mr. Hack
    @Barbarossa

    Unfortunately, I got away from my juicing regimen during a recent trip back home for a month, and just haven't yet got back into it. I use generous amounts of ginger and a pinch of red jalapeno pepper too (fresh, about half of a pepper). I think that this would be a suitable substitute for the black tea and ginger concoction that you recommend (although I may try that too, since I just got my hands on a bunch of fresh ginger). By all means, look into the olive oil and oregano remedy. There's plenty of information about the effectiveness of oregano oil to be obtained from internet sources and studies. The reason that its cut with olive oil is that it's just too powerful to be taken on its own. Sometimes I purchase it already mixed, other times I mix my own with some pure oregano oil that I've obtained. I fill a dropper with about 6-7 drops and put it within my throat and let it go...IT's REALLY POWERUL MEDICINE!!!

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    I’ve heard about the anti-bacterial properties of Oregano and just read up on it a bit more. It does sound like some potent stuff! Thanks for the tip on that, I’ll definitely look up some locally and give it a try.

    I find the ginger quite energizing; it picks up a fatigued system quite well, as well as having it’s own notable anti-viral and antibiotic properties. If you try it I find it’s essential to drink it hot for maximum benefit. I think the oils in the ginger are more potent and aromatic or something.

    • Agree: Mr. Hack
  205. Bashibuzuk says:
    @216
    The US Right is fed up with RF military incompetence, Putin's Third Worldism, and Karlin's threat to destroy our satellites.

    https://twitter.com/ScottMGreer/status/1577013811189809152?cxt=HHwWgIDU3Zbt1uIrAAAA

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    and Karlin’s threat to destroy our satellites.

    Bwahahaha !

    I wonder how Tolik is gonna do that, perhaps he will be hitchhiking on some Norc ballistic missile purchased by Pynya and then use a slingshot…

    (Sorry, couldn’t help myself…)

    BTW, someone should ask AK whether he’s still in RusFed. Maybe if he’s still stuck there, he could volunteer to the frontline. They probably need fully bilingual English speaking Russian citizens there, although NATO probably uses encrypted communications, unlike the heroic Russian army which doesn’t give a damn about the enemy eavesdropping on its communications…

    Just to make it clear, if it was true Russia fighting – and not Pynya’s RusFed – I would go back home and try to make myself useful. But then again, if not for Pynya and his RusFedian system – there would be today no war in Ukraine. Anyway, Tolik always wrote that RusFed is great and Pynya is okay. So he would normally find no moral qualms in fighting for the system and its leader.

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @Bashibuzuk

    Anatoly is doubtless doing the Lord's work by posting snarky tweets in his tropical shirt while on a beach in the Maldives. The main reason for dubious Russian military performance is that he stopped posting "Shock and Disbelief are Inevitable" on these Open Threads.

    Rus Fed be stronk with those mystic words, but Karlin must have given up the true path of keyboard warrior. Without his inspiration Rus Fed is no longer stronk.

    As a final redemptive gesture of self immolation he must personally destroy Globohomo's satellite network, as 216 has foreseen. Then Putin will commission a great icon in the Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces dedicated to St. Anatoly the Stronk, savior of all the Rus Feds.

    Replies: @Thulean Friend

    , @German_reader
    @Bashibuzuk


    Maybe if he’s still stuck there, he could volunteer to the frontline.
     
    But he doesn't have military training, lol, and it would be totally unreasonable to expect him to volunteer to get military training, so he's going to leave it to the "well-paid professionals" (hahaha).
    Same with that "Russians with attitudes" guy on Twitter. These people don't just regard the war as a regrettable necessity (which I could understand at least to some extent), they are enthusiastically in favour of it, yet somehow they don't seem keen at all on grasping this once-in-a-lifetime chance to fight for Russia's imperial glory. Very strange.
  206. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Triteleia Laxa
    @German_reader

    I liked him too. Both funny and a decent man. Weird how his son Charles is so humourless, if also actually a decent man.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    Prince Philip supposedly once said that he would wish to be reborn a virus able to wipe out the mankind.

    https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/prince-philip-quote-about-reincarnating-as-a-deadly-virus-to-solve-overpopulation-resurfaces/articleshow/81992882.cms

    There was a Russian joke about it a couple of years ago:

    “Something’s wrong…
    What ?
    Prince Philip ain’t dead yeat, but the Covid is already here.”

    Decent humor is decent…

    🙂

  207. @Mr. Hack
    @AnonfromTN

    Russian troops continue to retreat again today (10/03). Check your sources, Professor.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    Do simple math (it used to be 2nd grade in Soviet school, it is 2-3rd grade in schools in Nigeria, so maybe high school in the US). On the assumption that situation develops linearly calculate how long it’s going to take Ukies to get back the territory they lost since February. I am not even talking about the territories Ukraine lost in 2014.

    You won’t need higher math, which takes into account that real situations never develop linearly and that Russia is in the middle of mobilizing ~1% of those it can, whereas Ukraine has already mobilized everyone who did not manage to run away or bribe some officials, including quite a few 60-year olds and cripples.

    If you are thinking about American financial aid, it is useful to remember that more than half gets stolen by the US thieves, while a big chunk of the part that reaches Ukraine is stolen by Ukrainian thieves (in terms of corruption Ukraine is unbeatable).

    • Thanks: showmethereal
    • Replies: @AP
    @AnonfromTN

    You insisted that Russia had used only a fraction of its army in Ukraine (which is being defeated).

    If that was true, why does Russia need to mobilize and why does it need to send its newly mobilized to the front, where they get killed so easily? If it only used a fraction of its army it could just send the rest in, without mobilization.

    Replies: @Sean

    , @showmethereal
    @AnonfromTN

    It appears a lot of the people on here are ideologues who watch movies or played a lot of video games. Things rarely go according to plan. Nor do they have any clue why certain things are being done. They are trying to live out their video game fantasies. Blame the internet and 24 hour news for so many supposed experts

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    , @Mr. Hack
    @AnonfromTN

    Have you been reading the conversation between Mikel and Wokechoke? They must be doing some kind of "new math", where the end results can be achieved much sooner than under the old math:

    Mikel:


    The speed at which the Ukrainians advance once they break the front is remarkable, especially compared to the snail pace of the Russians when they were still able to advance in Donbas. It’s actually becoming a sh!tshow. They are retreating on two fronts simultaneously (one of them in Donbass no less) while they keep trying and failing to storm… Bakhmut. There doesn’t seem to be any coherent plan at the top echelons. If the Ukrainians succeed in breaking a new front in Zaporizhia, the rout could have epic proportions. I hope they have a plan in Washington on what to do if the Ukrainians are too successful and the Kremlin is left only with extreme choices.

     

    Wokechoke:

    No one quite anticipated Russia folding like a cheap suit.

    One thing I have to wonder about Muscovites and St Petersburg denizens…do you think you can keep a rich lifestyle and not dominate the Black Sea? Not dictate terms in Crimea?

    Great slaughter will occur when the Tartars and Mongols start hacking y’all to bits under CIA and MI6 tutelage. There is no exit here but to fucking well fight.
     

    And these two guys are not your typical wild eyed Banderite types, as you probably know. Things are not looking good for your side. Sending in 300,000 ill trained and supplied, hesitant or doubtful civilians, dare I say, doesn't appear to be the trick that will save the day?

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

  208. Bashibuzuk says:

    The UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, Melissa Fleming, recently admitted in a discussion with the World Economic Forum that the globalist institution has partnered with Big Tech platforms like Google in order to control search results on subjects like climate change, making the establishment narrative the predominant narrative while suppressing information and data that runs contrary to the UN’s climate agenda.

    Fleming went on to state that the UN is in control of the science: “We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/we-own-science-un-official-admits-they-partner-google-control-search-results

    I thought that they only owned history, philosophy, economics, psychology and parts of biology perhaps (especially sexology and reproductive biology). But now I see that they own physics as well. I mean, if they own the science, and physics is science, then they should also own physics. And other sciences as well…

    (Seriously though, what kind of pillow do these people use at night for their swollen heads ? 🙄)

    • Agree: Barbarossa, A123
  209. @Bashibuzuk
    @216


    and Karlin’s threat to destroy our satellites.
     
    Bwahahaha !

    I wonder how Tolik is gonna do that, perhaps he will be hitchhiking on some Norc ballistic missile purchased by Pynya and then use a slingshot...

    (Sorry, couldn't help myself...)

    BTW, someone should ask AK whether he's still in RusFed. Maybe if he's still stuck there, he could volunteer to the frontline. They probably need fully bilingual English speaking Russian citizens there, although NATO probably uses encrypted communications, unlike the heroic Russian army which doesn't give a damn about the enemy eavesdropping on its communications...

    Just to make it clear, if it was true Russia fighting - and not Pynya's RusFed - I would go back home and try to make myself useful. But then again, if not for Pynya and his RusFedian system - there would be today no war in Ukraine. Anyway, Tolik always wrote that RusFed is great and Pynya is okay. So he would normally find no moral qualms in fighting for the system and its leader.

    Replies: @Barbarossa, @German_reader

    Anatoly is doubtless doing the Lord’s work by posting snarky tweets in his tropical shirt while on a beach in the Maldives. The main reason for dubious Russian military performance is that he stopped posting “Shock and Disbelief are Inevitable” on these Open Threads.

    Rus Fed be stronk with those mystic words, but Karlin must have given up the true path of keyboard warrior. Without his inspiration Rus Fed is no longer stronk.

    As a final redemptive gesture of self immolation he must personally destroy Globohomo’s satellite network, as 216 has foreseen. Then Putin will commission a great icon in the Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces dedicated to St. Anatoly the Stronk, savior of all the Rus Feds.

    • LOL: Thulean Friend, Bashibuzuk, Yahya
    • Replies: @Thulean Friend
    @Barbarossa

    I recall GR and AK having a pretty nasty exchange a few weeks ago where GR correctly noted that Karlin's been one of the most unhinged supporters of this war and noted his reluctance to volunteer for the war effort that he has been so gung-ho about. Karlin as usual had no defence except for a bunch of schoolyard insults and half-assed excuses.

    Now that the Russians need all the manpower they can get, it is the perfect opportunity for Karlin to prove his worth. Yet I have a sneaking suspicion he will do all he can to avoid going to the frontlines.


    Chickenhawks, is what the Americans call these people.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Emil Nikola Richard, @AP

  210. AP says:
    @Here Be Dragon
    @AP


    This is misleading. Russia is Great Russia, rebranded Muscovy, same as the northeastern parts of Rus, the principality of Suzdal. It has developed its own language and customs.
     
    You are wrong and you know it.

    The names Great Russia, White Russia and Little Russia were created to designate the three parts of one land and one state called the land Rus' during the times when these three parts were separated. The Church created these names.

    The Russian Orthodox Church needed these names remaining the metropolitanate of most churches in the three parts of Rus' in order to address each part in particular if need be. The principality of Suzdal was in fact the center of the White Russia.

    The name Muscovy was never used in Russia itself other than to refer to the principality of Moscow. There were a lot of principalities in Russia. Even if or when these principalities were politically independent their populations remained one people.

    Ukraine was never a part of Russia in this sense until Russia started grabbing parts of it from the 17th century. Just as Italy, Spain, or France were never part of Romania.
     
    Russia did not start grabbing her own parts but started returning them back. When the Poles indeed grabbed a part of Rus' it was called not Ukraine at the time, nor was it even called Little Russia but it was the same Rus' as the part that remained Rus' after that.

    And in contradistinction to the false analogies with Spain and France the populations of both parts of Rus' were one people who spoke the same one language and belonged to the same one religious denomination and the same culture.

    Those Rus people living in the northeast would be be ruled by Tatars for a couple of centuries, would have some influence from them. These would be the Russians. They called themselves Russky.
     
    Before that all the population of Rus' called themselves Rusich.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich

    As a part of Rus' had been separated the Russian language in that part started to change, due to the influence of the Polish language. It is a normal process.

    The Rus in the central and western parts would be ruled by Poland and would get a flood of Polish cultural and linguistic influence. They would call themselves Rusyns or Rusnaks.
     
    The fact that these populations called themselves a bit different does not make them different peoples. It is an influence of the neighboring foreign languages – dirrerent suffixes correlate with traditional suffixes of the particular language the influence of which was experienced.

    For example Rusnakŷ or Rusnacy correlates with Slováci or Slovák and Polacy or Polak. Rusynŷ correlates with Români (Â is pronounced as Y).

    You seem to ignore that some of these names are non-native i.e. exonyms whereas what matters are endonyms, as well as that it is not a suffix which matters but the root, and the root of all these names is Rus'.

    Compare the Russian name for the Romanians – румыны, with the native name of the Rusyns – русыны.

    They would call Russians – Muscovites, and consider them to be a foreign people. In the 19th century they would rename themselves Ukrainians.
     
    These would refer to the population of the other part of Rus' as Muscovites in order to avoid confusion, the same as these so-called Muscovites referred to them as the Little Russians. A light difference in the names does not make two parts of one people foreign.

    The Ukrainians were once Rus but they had never been Russians (that is, having the Muscovite culture and speaking the Great Russian/Russian language with its Church Slavonic and Asian words).
     
    You are wrong again.

    The language these people called now the Ukrainians were speaking at the time of the reintegration of that part of Russia back into one state with the rest of it was not so different from the language of that other and larger part of Rus' back then as it is now.

    Those Ukrainians themselves were then calling their language руський and руська мова – i.e. the Russian language. The Russians were calling their language Russian as well. The differences between the two were considered to be dialects.

    The Ukrainian as we know it now was formed later in Poland and then spread across the central part of what is now Ukraine but not in full. There are dialects within the modern Ukrainian language, for that reason. There are three main dialects in it.

    And there are dialects in Russian as well, however there was no significant influence on it from the Asian languages but was an influence of the Finno-Ugric languages.

    Church Slavonic was the liturgical language of both the Russian Orthodox and the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church so I guess it had influence on both Russian and Ukrainian languages.

    The interaction of the Russians with the Tatars during the Yoke was minimal.

    Therefore there was not so much difference between the Great Russians and the Little Russians as some tend to imagine. There was not some particular Muscovite culture either. The Pechersk Lavra in Kiev is an example of the classic Russian architecture.

    The ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs was not a process of some Russians becoming Ukrainians, but rather it was some Rus becoming Ukrainians and other Rus becoming Russians.
     
    Russia is the Greek name for Rus' and, the same as the Latin name for it – Ruthenia, it is not her native name. The Russians adopted that name due to the influence of the Orthodox Church whereas the Ukrainians adopted the name Ruthenia, for the same reason – due to the Catholic Church.

    However the Ukrainians as a people were calling themselves Little Russians.

    So whether we speak about the Great, or the White, or the Little Russians, we speak about the Russians. The notion of the Ukrainians as a separate people was a much later and in fact political fabrication and not much else.

    As some Romans became Italians, others became Romanians, others Spaniards, etc.
     
    It is a false comparison.

    The full official title of the Russian monarch was The emperor or empress of all the Russias – всея Великия и Малыя и Белыя России.

    The historical, genetic and cultural distance between these peoples is far greater than between the Russians and the Ukrainians. Their languages are not interintelligible. Such a comparison would be appropriate if we were speaking about the Russians and the Croatians, or the Czech or the Slovenians.

    But for a comparison between the Russians and the Ukrainians a closer parallel would be the Spanish and the Catalans: there are some differences, but not so deep as to consider them indeed a different people.

    You are ignoring the fact that 2 of your 4 grandparents were Russians, because you think that ancestry is limited to patrilineal and matrilineal lines; that you are not 50% descended from your Russian maternal grandfather and Russian paternal grandmother.
     
    As I said before the autosomal genes are mutable to such a degree that we do net get the same genes our paternal grandmothers and maternal grandfathers pass – from them we get mutated and unrecognizable genes. The autosomal genes are generic and can point at a particular ethnic group but not a particular person.

    Because of that parenthood can be established through either Y-DNA or mtDNA. These chromosomes do not mutate and it is through these we inherit particular traits of the people who passed them to us.

    For that reason the ethnic origin of a person is derived either from his paternal or maternal lineage, i.e. the father of his father or the mother of his mother.

    Replies: @AP

    The names Great Russia, White Russia and Little Russia were created to designate the three parts of one land and one state called the land Rus’ during the times when these three parts were separated. The Church created these names.

    False. Little Rus was first documented as having been used by the Galician king in 1335 and was later used by the Poles.

    “The first recorded usage of the term is attributed to Boleslaus George II of Halych.[8] In a 1335 letter to Dietrich von Altenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, he styled himself «dux totius Rusiæ Minoris».[8] The name was used by Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople in 1361 when he created two metropolitan sees: Great Rus’ in Vladimir and Kyiv and Little Rus’ with its centers in Galich (Halych) and Novgorodok (Navahrudak).[8] King Casimir III of Poland was called “the king of Lechia and Little Rus’.”

    “Ukraine was never a part of Russia in this sense until Russia started grabbing parts of it from the 17th century. Just as Italy, Spain, or France were never part of Romania.”

    Russia did not start grabbing her own parts but started returning them back

    Ukraine had never been part of Suzdal/Muscovy and had never been ruled from Moscow until Russia started grabbing these lands – other than during a brief period in the 12th century when a Suzdalian prince sacked Kiev and placed his man on the local throne. The locals in Kiev hated this easterner and drove him out in an uprising.

    Before that all the population of Rus’ called themselves Rusich.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich

    False. They called themselves Rusyns. Rusych only appeared in the 12th century and only in one work. It was a rarely used word back then.:

    https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B8

    В древнерусских памятниках слово встречается только 4 раза (2 раза в форме русичи и 2 в цокающей форме русици) и только в «Слове о полку Игореве».

    Rusyn on the other hand appeared earlier and was evident much more often. It was not a foreign version caused by Romanian influence.

    https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8B_(%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%8D%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC)

    Эндоэтноним «русин» как наименование жителя Древней Руси[3] встречается в «Повести временных лет» наряду с прилагательным «русьскыи»[4]. Здесь слово «русин» упомянуто в описании договора Олега с греками (911 год) (7 раз) и договора Игоря с греками (944 года) (6 раз). Используется это слово и в ранних редакциях Русской Правды (Краткой и Пространной)[5]

    Russians called themselves Russky but also used Rusyn until the 17th century. In contrast, Rusyn continued to be widely used in Ukraine until the 19th century and is still used by some Lemkos and Transcarpathians.

    “They would call Russians – Muscovites, and consider them to be a foreign people. In the 19th century they would rename themselves Ukrainians.”

    These would refer to the population of the other part of Rus’ as Muscovites in order to avoid confusion

    The Volhynian Chronicle classified Muscovites alongside Moldovans as Orthodox but foreign.

    Those Ukrainians themselves were then calling their language руський and руська мова – i.e. the Russian language

    It was not Russian language, but Rus language. They weren’t using the Suzdalian/Muscovite/Russian language and didn’t consider their language to be the same as that of the Muscovites.

    The differences between the two were considered to be dialects.

    They were different enough that the 17th century Pereyaslav negotiations required the use off a translator, using Latin.

    The notion of the Ukrainians as a separate people was a much later and in fact political fabrication and not much else.

    You are writing the opposite of the reality. The notion of the Ukrainians as the same people was a later fabrication. I think it appeared in the early 16th century. Ironically pushed by Little Russians/Ukrainians themselves in the service of the Russian state, who were justifying their positions before resentful native Russians. It was used as proof by them that they had the right to obtain high administrative positions, because they were Russians too.

    Church Slavonic was the liturgical language of both the Russian Orthodox and the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church so I guess it had influence on both Russian and Ukrainian languages.

    No. When the Russian language was standardized, the literary form was packed with Church Slavonic; the Ukrainian literary language in contrast was much closer to the regular vernacular, so it did not have such influence. Standardized Rusyn (used in Slovakia and eastern Poland), unlike Ukrainian, incorporated some Church Slavonic so in some ways it resembles Russian (but in other ways, it is closer to Polish than standard Ukrainian).

    The historical, genetic and cultural distance between these peoples is far greater than between the Russians and the Ukrainians.

    Ukrainian is about as close to Russian as Italian is to Spanish.

    A Ukrainian who has never heard Russian will not be able to understand a conversation, in Russian and vice versa. We had an ethnic Russian nanny from Central Asia, who had heard hardly any Ukrainian before – she couldn’t understand or follow a conversation. And I could not understand Russian (other than a word here or there, an occasional phrase) before I lived in Russia.

    [MORE]

    As I said before the autosomal genes are mutable to such a degree that we do net get the same genes our paternal grandmothers and maternal grandfathers pass – from them we get mutated and unrecognizable genes.

    False. If autosomal genes were unrecognizable, than DNA tests wouldn’t be able to accurately identify relatives through one’s non patrilinear or non matrilinear grandparents. Or paternity tests wouldn’t work with female children.

    Autosomal genes do not become unrecognizable through mutation; rather they get mixed between grandparents. For this reason it is not possible to determine which specific gene came from which grandparent, but one still has about 25% of the genes from each grandparent. About half of your father’s genes come from his mother, and about half of your mother’s genes come from her father. But they are mixed up with each other in the autosomes.

    So DNA testing using autosomal genes can show the approximate strength of the relationship between people, but cannot determine through which specific grandparent people they might be related. The sex chromosomes, OTOH, do not get mixed so they can be used to trace specific patrilinear descent (for males) and matrilinear (for both males and females).

    Most of one’s genes, of course, do not come from the two sex chromosomes. The Y chromosome in particular only has about 200 genes. Traits such as intelligence are linked to genes from various chromosomes (particularly chromosome 10, which is not a sex chromosome):

    https://www.nature.com/articles/mp2017121

    Depending on the combination, one can resemble and have the character of any one of one’s grandparents. I look like my father and my paternal grandfather, but my aunt’s sons resemble her, who looks just like her father. So they look like their maternal grandfather.

    • Agree: Philip Owen
    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @AP


    If autosomal genes were unrecognizable, than DNA tests wouldn’t be able to accurately identify relatives through one’s non-patrilinear or non-matrilinear grandparents.
     
    There are no such grandparents :)

    One's grandparents are either patrilineal, or matrilineal. Or we have a virgin birth here? That can happen — the Pope said!

    However the Buddha was even cooler. He was born in a lotus flower.

    Or paternity tests wouldn’t work with female children.
     
    But that test indeed does not work with females.

    A woman who is not sure whether a particular man is her father or not cannot prove it if she does not have a twin brother or something.

    It is strange that a doctor does not know this.

    Autosomal genes do not become unrecognizable through mutation; rather they get mixed between grandparents.
     
    That is right, I guess I used a wrong term. The right word should have been recombination. But at the same time autosomes are more mutable than sex chromosomes.

    About half of your father’s genes come from his mother, and about half of your mother’s genes come from her father. But they are mixed up with each other in the autosomes.
     
    These are mutable genes and through the course of four generations they change a lot. Your great-grandfather's autosomes are different from yours.

    We do not get the same entire chromosomes from our grandparents, but a mix of them (as our parents have got them mixed) so that genetic content of each pair of chromosomes is changed and different from what our grandparents passed to our parents — except for the sex chromosomes.

    And during this process of recombination it is not the same mathematical share of the genes that all grandchildren of a particular person inherit from him. There are variations.

    "Two grandchildren are fortunate to have three grandparents and one great-grandparent available for matching. For comparison purposes, let’s take a look at how many matches each grandchild has in common with their grandparents and great-grandparent."

    "It’s interesting that the matches in 3 generations to the great-grandmother vary by 55%. The second tester has almost twice as many matches in common with her great-grandmother as does the first tester."

    DNA Inherited from Grandparents and Great-Grandparents
    https://dna-explained.com/2020/01/14/dna-inherited-from-grandparents-and-great-grandparents/

    So in fact we do not know how much of autosomes we inherit from our great-grandparents. We do know that these are recombined, mixed and matched and messed up and come in different shares to different great-grandchildren, and often mutate on top of that.

    The sex chromosomes however do not change as much and come from the mother of our mother and the father of our father unaltered, the same as passed to them by the fathers of their fathers, and the mothers of their mothers.

    The rest of our genes are more generic and less significant.

    Traits such as intelligence are linked to genes from various chromosomes (particularly chromosome 10, which is not a sex chromosome).
     
    That research did not prove it and is not important.

    A number of other unrelated researches have been conducted in China and in Britain, and the results obtained in both countries determined that most of all intelligence is dependent on the genes contained in the X-chromosome.

    "16% of the IQ-related genes are located on X chromosome. It is reported that only 3.4% of all human genes belong to X chromosome. The obvious contrast may indicate that the IQ-related genes are over-represented on X chromosome."

    "The further enrichment analysis identified 10 genomic regions with significantly larger amount of IQ-related genes. Among 10 regions, 4 belong to X chromosome."

    A biology approach to identify intelligence genomic regions
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3933868/

    This is the more recent Chinese research. And the other ones earlier in Europe led to similar conclusions.

    "The autosomes and the sex chromosomes differ in their evolutionary origins, a fact that may have implications for the distinct contribution made by the X-chromosome to mental functioning."

    "Natural selection has favoured the development of X-linked genes that are associated with higher cognitive abilities."

    "Genes on the X-chromosome not only influence general intelligence, but also have relatively specific effects on social–cognition and emotional regulation."

    X-linked genes and mental functioning
    https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article/14/suppl_1/R27/560887

    For that reason Jews determine Jewishness through the female line. And as a matter of fact Jews figured it out centuries ago.

    How?

    Because Jews are smart!

    Depending on the combination, one can resemble and have the character of any one of one’s grandparents. I look like my father and my paternal grandfather.
     
    That is normal. Or perhaps rather half normal.

    I look like the maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather of mine. I did not inherit the traits of the maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother of mine at all.

    And I have a cousin to whom the maternal grandfather of mine is his paternal grandfather. Guess what he looks like.

    He cousin inherited the features of his paternal grandfather and his maternal grandmother, the same as I did from those of mine. He did not inherit the features of his paternal grandmother – I did.

    It is notable because each of them had some notable traits. And it is seen and often comes out in our character. Me and him are incompatible and different people.

    My aunt’s sons resemble her, who looks just like her father. So they look like their maternal grandfather.
     
    That must have happened due to genetic anomalies common among these so-called nobles having children with their cousins and nephews. It is a common problem among the rich – inbreeding in order to keep the wealth in the clan.

    Here is a noble Arab princess (for an example).

    https://i.postimg.cc/zX69kty8/Harem-2.jpg

    Replies: @AP

    , @Here Be Dragon
    @AP


    False. Little Rus was first documented as having been used by the Galician king in 1335 and was later used by the Poles.
     
    You continue to argue for the sake of arguing. That same article you quote to prove me wrong proves me right.

    "The toponym translates as Little or Lesser Rus’ and is adapted from the Greek term, used in medieval times by Patriarchs of Constantinople since the 14th century (it first appeared in church documents in 1335)."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Russia#Etymology_and_name_variations

    So the Church had introduced it first and then people followed. Agree that it is illogical to assume that a Galician prince influenced the Church and the rest of Rus'.

    Ukraine had never been part of Suzdal/Muscovy and had never been ruled from Moscow until Russia started grabbing these lands.
     
    You mean a part of Rus' (which was renamed Ukraine centuries later) had not been ruled from Moscow, until another part of Rus' reconquered it from Poles.

    And what does it refute then?

    First Rus' was ruled from Novgorod and then from Kiev. That does not mean that Kiev was a foreign capital for Novgorod. Then after Kiev a part of Rus' was ruled from Poland – which had never been a part of Rus' and was indeed a foreign nation.

    And after Poland it was ruled from Moscow – which had never been a foreign nation and had been a part of Rus' since the inception. You twist it all inside out to make it fit the Polish narrative.

    After Moscow the capital was transferred to Saint Petersburg and later back to Moscow. A state is defined not as the land of its capital, but a capital is defined as the main town of a state and it can be changed.

    Poland had been ruled from Kraków before Warsaw was made the capital.

    False. They called themselves Rusyns. Rusych only appeared in the 12th century and only in one work. It was a rarely used word back then.
     
    Back when?

    Suffixes can change over time. Suffixes can change due to foreign influence. Suffixes can be different in different dialects of the same language – it does not matter.

    The same article that you quote gives examples of a number of names used in that same book to refer to that same one people: "и русь и нѣмци" – when Rus' is a plural form of the people, and "варяг на русинѣ" – when Rusyn is a singular form of Rus'.

    What difference does it make?

    Poles, Romanians and Czechs have had different names for themselves during different historical periods, and the same as Russians were made up of a number of tribes at some time in the past.

    So what?

    The Volhynian Chronicle classified Muscovites alongside Moldovans as Orthodox but foreign.
     
    You have not read that chronicle.

    Muscovite Rus' was created as a principality less than 3 decades before the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle ends and at the time it was small and insignificant. It is not mentioned in the chronicle whatsoever.

    All other Russian cities and principalities are mentioned, but not Moscow. Back then it was a small settlement that had no power.

    Novgorod, Suzdal and other cities of the northern and eastern Rus' are mentioned as often as the western and southern cities, and at all times as parts of one nation, which was ruled by a number of princes and was composed of a number of principalities; in modern terms we would call it a federation.

    All those princes and principalities were in an alliance and were defending their lands together against Hungarians, Lithuanians, Poles and Tatars.

    The central theme of the chronicle is that all the Rus' regions are one nation. One of the phrases that is repeated often is that during the Yoke all of the princes were under the rule of Tatars.

    Here it is from the Ukrainian translation:
    http://litopys.org.ua/links/galvol.htm

    "Коли ото йшов хан Телебуга і хан Алгуй із ним великою силою, то з ними йшли руські князі, — бо тоді були всі князі руські у волі татарській, покорені гнівом божим."

    The notion that in that chronicle some alien eastern Muscovites were presented as a foreign people might sound plausible to a foreigner who has no real knowledge of neither the Rus' past nor her culture.

    The chronicle was written in the Russian language!
    http://litopys.org.ua/oldukr/galvxleb.htm

    You once again have demonstrated that Ukraine is nothing but a manufactured idea, false and artificial — a political fabrication created for an emotionally unstable, arrogant and ignorant generation.

    You are living in the alternative world of imagination.

    It was not Russian language, but Rus language. They weren’t using the Suzdalian/Muscovite/Russian language and didn’t consider their language to be the same as that of the Muscovites.
     
    The language that chronicle was written in is the same as was spoken then in all other parts of Rus' and other chronicles of that time were written in.

    Rus' and Russian is the same word but from different historical periods. Like Thou and You — Rus' is an archaic word for Russian, and Russian is a modern form of Rus'.

    Unlike Ukrainian which appeared out of nowhere, because it was made up, "Russian" is a natural development of the name following historical development of the language, along with all its other words.

    They were different enough that the 17th century Pereyaslav negotiations required the use of a translator, using Latin.
     
    Another nonsense proving that you are alien to the Rus' culture. Perhaps you are somewhat a Pole, but you are not a Ukrainian — at least not a real one.

    Otherwise you would have known that Ukrainian and Rusian are mutually intelligible even today, and back then were even closer than today. Negotiations required no translators (but there might have been one documenting it for foreign ambassadors).

    The Pereiaslav Agreement was recorded both in Russian and Ukrainian (then called Little Russian). See "Березневі статті".

    The letter of Bohdan Khmelnytsky to the Russian Tsar was written in Little Russian without any translation.

    The notion of the Ukrainians as the same people was a later fabrication. Pushed by Little Russians/Ukrainians themselves in the service of the Russian state. It was used as proof by them that they had the right to obtain high administrative positions, because they were Russians too.
     
    Little Russians were still Russians.

    You do not understand what a people is. You often make references to who ruled what cities and what political alliance this or that group might have been in at that time or another, whereas a people is not a state.

    A people is an ethnic group defined and united with a common language, culture, folklore, cuisine and other traditions resulting from them having a common origin. Your understanding of a people is that of an American — because Americans are not a people but a political nation, aftificial and unnatural.

    When the Russian language was standardized, the literary form was packed with Church Slavonic; the Ukrainian literary language in contrast was much closer to the regular vernacular, so it did not have such influence.
     
    It is because Ukrainian did not have a literary form. It was a vernacular southern Russian dialect with a number of borrowed Polish words and rather peculiar and surrogate grammar.

    There has never been a sophisticated literary work written in Ukrainian, because it has never developed as a language above a vernacular dialect of a minor group of uneducated peasants.

    A Ukrainian who has never heard Russian will not be able to understand a conversation, in Russian and vice versa.
     
    Such a Ukrainian can be found in diaspora alone. All Ukrainians can if not speak then at least understand some Russian. And Russians from the Rostov region speak a southern dialect that sounds closer to Ukrainian than to standard Russian.

    So what?

    Germans from Hamburg cannot understand those from Munich. The High German dialect is as much if not more different from the Low German as Ukrainian is from Russian.

    Yet Germans do not consider it a reason substantial enough to see the two parts of the nation as two different peoples.

    And besides Germans had been for a long time divided before Germany was united — but have been at those times one people nevertheless.

    We had an ethnic Russian nanny from Central Asia, who had heard hardly any Ukrainian before – she couldn’t understand or follow a conversation.
     
    Must have been because you speak that émigré western dialect. Most Ukrainians might have some troubles understanding it either.

    And I could not understand Russian (other than a word here or there, an occasional phrase) before I lived in Russia.
     
    You had not been used to the Russian pronunciation, but I guess once you got used you started understanding Russian without learning it. Am I wrong?

    These are different things: one person can write and read in English but will not understand much watching news in English on TV, and another person can understand oral speech well but not written language.

    I can understand oral Hebrew to a degree, but can neither read it nor write in it.

    To sum it up this aspiration to see Ukrainians as part of Poland is a Polish thing made to fool those who are ignorant and to return those who were Polonized.

    But Poles do not want Ukraininans — Poles want to return Ukraine.

    Replies: @AP

  211. @AnonfromTN
    @Mr. Hack

    Do simple math (it used to be 2nd grade in Soviet school, it is 2-3rd grade in schools in Nigeria, so maybe high school in the US). On the assumption that situation develops linearly calculate how long it’s going to take Ukies to get back the territory they lost since February. I am not even talking about the territories Ukraine lost in 2014.

    You won’t need higher math, which takes into account that real situations never develop linearly and that Russia is in the middle of mobilizing ~1% of those it can, whereas Ukraine has already mobilized everyone who did not manage to run away or bribe some officials, including quite a few 60-year olds and cripples.

    If you are thinking about American financial aid, it is useful to remember that more than half gets stolen by the US thieves, while a big chunk of the part that reaches Ukraine is stolen by Ukrainian thieves (in terms of corruption Ukraine is unbeatable).

    Replies: @AP, @showmethereal, @Mr. Hack

    You insisted that Russia had used only a fraction of its army in Ukraine (which is being defeated).

    If that was true, why does Russia need to mobilize and why does it need to send its newly mobilized to the front, where they get killed so easily? If it only used a fraction of its army it could just send the rest in, without mobilization.

    • Replies: @Sean
    @AP

    The stated objective of the US as given by Lloyd Austin is to weaken the Russian armed forces so they are not longer a factor in Europe. Russia wants to win in Ukraine and preserve its army's capabilities.

  212. @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    The key would be to not “upgrade” it in the globohomo fashion.
     
    Well, it would be difficult, especially that Arestovitch himself is a pure globohomo material (although who am I to judge other people's sexual inclinations - love is love etc.)


    Plus, large masses of people are now secular so some other uniting ideology will need to be sought. Of course, you know that I support the revival of our old Faith as well.
     
    I have come to believe that no project could succeed without something that is perceived as "valid metaphysics". Perception is very important and people need meaning in their lives (even Dmitry does 😋).

    Благо should be created and spread, and always come first, on top of all ideologies and as the goal of all efforts.
     
    Amen to that brother, amen to that! Buddhists often talk about accumuting and transferring merit. This is really what our world needs, to use an Avestan slogan of old: "Good thoughts, Good words, Good deeds". This and healthy respect for our ancestors and lots of careful attention to the education of our offspring, the Old Faith plus some Theillard de Chardin Omega Point future metaphysical projections would probably be a good place to start. That way we could bridge the divide between Christianity and the Old Faith through Russian Cosmism. "From the roots, through the thorns, and to the stars. From the Old Sacred Groves to the Cosmic Theosis."

    Come on, some old dudes from the Atlantic Council or some woke women from Georgetown are not going to push the Kyevans around. To some extent, maybe, but, as I said, these will not be the obedient and docile Estonians. And this is what I love about them.
     
    It's true that Ukrainians are often even more passionaryi (to use Gumilyov's terminology, BTW it was his 110 birthday a couple of days ago). If someone finds Russians crazy, then this person will absolutely love Ukrainian character. I also like this part of their psychocultural identity although it sometimes leads to some truly gruesome violence.

    The finance sector is really the most difficult part of this. And demographics. LOL. Yea, just those tiny little details.
     
    Let's use MMT and White Shariah! (Just kidding 🙂) Perhaps we should ask Kadyrov how he gets by both financially and sexually. With Allah's help this guy has built a real dynasty in his little well financed Sultanate, although I doubt they will survive the coming years unscathed.

    I know that the Russians will fight. The question is only how much.

     

    I think the answer would be: a lot. And the saddest part is that they will fight mostly against each other. The Realm of Rus might well become the Realm of Death if not enough is done to rapidly stabilize the situation. I hope that this will not happen. I hope that some stability is rapidly achieved. BTW the Chinese won't be sitting quietly and waiting for it to finish. The Far East might well see some interesting moves.

    Replies: @LatW

    especially that Arestovitch himself is a pure globohomo material (although who am I to judge other people’s sexual inclinations – love is love etc.)

    Lol…. Well, I don’t know what you’re implying here, but I’m pretty sure he’s straight.

    [MORE]

    Yea, he dressed up as a chick once, but he tried to have an acting career and he’s just that type who’s a bit more delicate.

    From the Old Sacred Groves to the Cosmic Theosis.

    Very cool. We need everything – chthonic, celestial and metaphysical.

    If someone finds Russians crazy, then this person will absolutely love Ukrainian character. I also like this part of their psychocultural identity although it sometimes leads to some truly gruesome violence.

    I didn’t mean to throw stereotypes around, especially since they’re not always true – some of the UA leadership are very rational and are able to calculate coldly. And then combined with the passionariy it creates some real badassery. It needs to be well managed though.

    Let’s use MMT

    Modern Monetary Theory?

    White Shariah! (Just kidding 🙂)

    Sure, definitely worth exploring. But might be a bit hard knowing how our people sometimes are… it could be a good set up for those who want it. Also, special reproductive spaces could be created.

    Kadyrov how he gets by both financially and sexually. With Allah’s help this guy has built a real dynasty in his little well financed Sultanate, although I doubt they will survive the coming years unscathed.

    That’s right, the money is from Allah. 🙂 Well, his case is a bit of an apex fallacy (it’s commendable but it’s not for everyone – besides we have our own customs although this set up was occasionally present with ancient Baltic families, albeit rarely). And the money definitely isn’t his. It’s the Russian or Chechen people’s money. Besides what he seems to be practicing is not the traditional Chechen culture. Anyway… yea, he will go down together with Putin, both the FSB / Russian siloviks and the local Nohchi nationalists hate him. He’s only safe with his little private army. Which is a cool thing to have, I’ll give him that.

    And the saddest part is that they will fight mostly against each other. The Realm of Rus might well become the Realm of Death if not enough is done to rapidly stabilize the situation. I hope that this will not happen. I hope that some stability is rapidly achieved

    Doubt this is possible right now, not rapidly at least. Many will be passing into the land of Veles. Scary what the numbers could be. It feels like it’s close to the culmination. Although Kirillo Budanov said the other day that there will be a lull in the winter and then the war will be completed next spring. But who knows.

    BTW the Chinese won’t be sitting quietly and waiting for it to finish. The Far East might well see some interesting moves.

    Yea, the Far East is interesting and kind of cool. Of course, they will take advantage. Btw, Mongolia is accepting some mogilization refugees from Buryatia. China could take on some protection of Mongolia and these Buryats in Mongolia.

  213. @Barbarossa
    @Bashibuzuk

    Anatoly is doubtless doing the Lord's work by posting snarky tweets in his tropical shirt while on a beach in the Maldives. The main reason for dubious Russian military performance is that he stopped posting "Shock and Disbelief are Inevitable" on these Open Threads.

    Rus Fed be stronk with those mystic words, but Karlin must have given up the true path of keyboard warrior. Without his inspiration Rus Fed is no longer stronk.

    As a final redemptive gesture of self immolation he must personally destroy Globohomo's satellite network, as 216 has foreseen. Then Putin will commission a great icon in the Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces dedicated to St. Anatoly the Stronk, savior of all the Rus Feds.

    Replies: @Thulean Friend

    I recall GR and AK having a pretty nasty exchange a few weeks ago where GR correctly noted that Karlin’s been one of the most unhinged supporters of this war and noted his reluctance to volunteer for the war effort that he has been so gung-ho about. Karlin as usual had no defence except for a bunch of schoolyard insults and half-assed excuses.

    Now that the Russians need all the manpower they can get, it is the perfect opportunity for Karlin to prove his worth. Yet I have a sneaking suspicion he will do all he can to avoid going to the frontlines.

    Chickenhawks, is what the Americans call these people.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Thulean Friend

    I recall him having so much fun deriding the MAGA folks when Baiden was brought to power. He posted meme upon meme about how "MAGTards are gonna kneel" and how Baiden's "day of the rope" is coming to the Alt Right instead of the other way around.

    Now, it is sadly the Russian speakers in Ukraine that "will kneel" because they are caught between the Ukrainian nationalist "rock" and RusFed Pynya's betrayal "hard place". Is he going to post some "dank memes" about this situation too ?



    People who are facing unjust and unwarranted suffering are all in the same category - victims - of this world's imperfections and their absurd and painful consequences. None should mock those who are brought down while they try to stand their ground as decent people.

    It has nothing to do with race, gender, religion and ethnic or geopolitical affiliation. It has to do with the inherent value of human life, rooted in our ability to be conscious. We suffer (all of us suffer, some more than others) because we are alive and conscious.

    Nobody should rejoice, make fun of or take pride in the suffering of others. Sooner or later, those who make other people suffer and/or rejoice in their suffering are also experiencing painful circumstances. Only benevolence can soothe and somewhat assuage this universal law of inevitable suffering.

    An American MAGTard and a Russian Vatnik or Ukrainian Banderist Ragul' are all of them human, just like the unwashed Taliban goat herder up in his Nooristani mountain valleys, the Orthodox Rabbi in his Israeli Haredim ghetto, a Negro drug dealer in his ruined Detroit hood, or a Feminist bisexual chick somewhere in Sweden (I have specifically used stereotypes here). We are different, but our suffering makes up similar and death makes us somewhat equal in the end.

    That is why we shouldn't have fun at the suffering of others. Even Karlin's suffering. Although it might seem very tempting to point our fingers at his errors, we all err sometimes. Perhaps living through these days will make us all wiser, that is all one could reasonably hope for.

    Sorry for the long and somewhat emotional rant...

    Replies: @Thulean Friend

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Thulean Friend

    Have you ever heard the saying


    he who laughs last laughs best
     
    ??

    I am not a linguist but it would not surprise me if this is one of those sayings that is represented in 90 different languages including 3 or 4 in the Amazon or New Guinea that do not have an alphabet or a first grade primer.

    But it's really great you have moved past the shock and disbelief thing. : )
    , @AP
    @Thulean Friend


    Karlin as usual had no defence except for a bunch of schoolyard insults and half-assed excuses.
     
    His defence for not personally going to war is logical: he is militarily useless (no background, no training in military matters) and unlike many other conscripts he can do much more for the war effort through propagandising and financing it. It would thus be a waste of a resource to send him into combat.

    Of course the Russian state is stupid and wastes resources so it may actually call him up.

    Replies: @Mikel

  214. @AP
    @AnonfromTN

    You insisted that Russia had used only a fraction of its army in Ukraine (which is being defeated).

    If that was true, why does Russia need to mobilize and why does it need to send its newly mobilized to the front, where they get killed so easily? If it only used a fraction of its army it could just send the rest in, without mobilization.

    Replies: @Sean

    The stated objective of the US as given by Lloyd Austin is to weaken the Russian armed forces so they are not longer a factor in Europe. Russia wants to win in Ukraine and preserve its army’s capabilities.

  215. Germany is 100% committed to EU Unity!

    Or….. perhaps not: (1)

    What a difference a decade makes.

    Ten years ago, when Europe was in the throes of the eurozone crisis, Germany led the drive for austerity. Now the rest of Europe is fuming about Germany’s heavy spending on energy subsidies that they fear could exacerbate the Continent’s politically explosive rich-poor divide. It hardly helps these growing tensions that it was Berlin’s misguided dependence on Russian gas that helped trigger the bloc’s energy crisis in the first place.

    Dissent is growing in the EU — particularly in heavyweights such as Italy and France — about Germany’s massive €200 billion package announced last week to cushion consumers and businesses from the full effects of the energy crisis. These grievances now look likely to flare at Friday’s EU summit in Prague, when leaders will tackle the issue of rising energy costs and their economic ramifications.

    It should be obvious to everyone that German Elites never really cared about ‘austerity’ or Europe. It was all a out transferring wealth and power to Germany’s ‘ECB’ in Frankfurt. Business and Banking Elites benefited. Everyone else suffered, including German Christians.

    Why are are servitors to the Elite, like Merkel and Scholz, voluntarily chosen by 75%+ of German voters?

    It makes no sense. Yet, it has gone on for decades.

    PEACE 😇
    ____________

    (1) https://www.politico.eu/article/tensions-flare-over-the-eus-new-irresponsible-big-spender-germany/

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @A123


    Germany is 100% committed to EU Unity!
    Or….. perhaps not: (1)
     
    NS1 and NS2 were blown by everyone knows who to make it committed. My condolences to Germans. I know many personally, most aren’t bad people at all.
  216. @keypusher
    @LondonBob

    "To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?"

    Courtesy of Thorfinnsson, hope I did the link correctly:


    The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 is now in force, so transfers of materiel to the Ukraine no longer require Congressional approval. This law is in force through the end of FY2023, and the odds of the incoming Congress passing a new law to repeal or restrain its over President Biden’s veto are approximately zero.

     

    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-198/#comment-5580342

    Replies: @A123, @LondonBob

    “To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?”

    Courtesy of Thorfinnsson, hope I did the link correctly:

    The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 is now in force, so transfers of materiel to the Ukraine no longer require Congressional approval. This law is in force through the end of FY2023, and the odds of the incoming Congress passing a new law to repeal or restrain its over President Biden’s veto are approximately zero.

    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-198/#comment-5580342

    WW II Lend-Lease was a huge flow to Europe because Congress turned on the taps to build Liberty Ships, and the goods to go in them.

    The 2023 situation will be radically different:

    • Can Not-The-President Biden “Lend” things that do not exist?
    • Can the White House occupant “Lease” weapons off of empty shelves?

    Ultimately, Congress has to Appropriate funds to buy. Again, funding for Kiev aggression will not go to $0.00. However, every bill will have MAGA ‘must-spend’ line items that SJW Globalists like Ilhan Omar and Rashid Tlaib will abhor. For, example:

    — $30B U.S. Border security
    — $  3B Lend Lease Ukie munitions

    MAGA needs money for domestic priorities. And, the long history of U.S. budgeting (as actually practiced) shows that the easiest line items to raid are funds dedicated to foreign efforts. The idea that the proverbial blank check will continue to be available is absurd, bordering on delusional.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @keypusher
    @A123

    When you began explaining how the next Congress was going to clamp down on money for Ukraine, you had no idea that the Lend-Lease Act existed.

    Now that you know the Act exists, you're trying to explain how it works in such a way that will support the narrative you were already pushing. But you haven't bothered to look up the Act or learn anything about it.

    As a result, your posts on this subject are worthless.

    Replies: @A123

  217. @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    I didn’t realise Tolkien was sub-consciously writing about blacks or Russians.
     
    Haradrim and Easterlings. LOTR has long been accused of having a racist subtext. Which makes it all the more ironic that Westerners who imagine themselves to be in a battle against "fascism" (against people who themselves claim to be fighting "Nazis") now are referring to "Orcs". Pretty confusing.

    Replies: @Coconuts

    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism. Possibly it’s like in 2020 when ideas about white supremacy and white privilege first became more prominent, and there were questions about poor whites or white homeless drug addicts & c., whether they had white privilege and were upholding white supremacy.

    The conclusion was that they do, they enjoyed all the advantages of white privilege and white supremacy but squandered them and were now seeking to draw attention to themselves at the expense of blacks. Or other white people wanted to look at them rather than blacks, amounting to the same thing.

    Progressives in the US may see Russia in somewhat similar terms. Given that Russians are mainly white (or if they are East Asian looking they are white-adjacent), the assumption would be that they must have squandered the advantages of being part of whiteness, now they are drawing attention to themselves and away from blacks by standing in the way of progress and the GAE’s efforts to centre and uplift blackness worldwide. This is also why they are regressive Fascists and must be Trump allies.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Coconuts

    ⁸I think that there's a misunderstanding and an historical mistrust between Eastern European and Western European speakers of Indo-European languages.

    It might be due to the early divergence of these languages from a common core coupled to a different ethnic makeup of the populations that ended up speaking the divergent and mutually unintelligible languages

    Slav ethnonym is derived from Slava (glory) which is derived from Slovo (word). Slovene - those who are people of the (same) word(s) - became Slavyane - those who share and are related to glory. On the other hand, German languages speakers were called Nemtsy (the mute ones) by their Slav neighbors, because there was no way to understand what they were saying, and this was often extended to all Westerners.

    Now, due to these two populations being mainly of two distinct Y haplogroups R1a (for Slavic populations) and R1b (for Western European ones) we know that at some moment in time (probably at least 10 000 - 20 000 years ago) these two populations got separated and divided into two patrilinear clans descendants of the ancestral Y haplogroup R1. Since that very time, even when living side by side, both populations had separate cultures and probably in the long run developped somewhat distinct mentalities.

    I think that is the most important part: we look broadly speaking similar: white European (Americans would say Caucasian) and are mainly Christian. And yet, anyone who has lived with both Westerners and Slavs knows that the mentality is somewhat different. The psyche is different. Which might create the feeling of malaise: how can someone who looks so similar feel somewhat weird, act think somewhat strange and act sometimes in so unexpected ways ? How can we trust "these people" ?

    And it goes back millenia.

    Probably Tolkien was aware of that, while modern Western liberals feel it unconsciously and act accordingly.

    Replies: @Coconuts

    , @keypusher
    @Coconuts


    The conclusion was that they do, they enjoyed all the advantages of white privilege and white supremacy but squandered them and were now seeking to draw attention to themselves at the expense of blacks.
     
    Yes, this attitude exists and shows up in the strangest places. Spielberg's dreary West Side Story features a policeman lecturing the Jets for squandering, basically, their white privilege. Meanwhile the Sharks have a hard time scheduling a rumble because, as one of them haughtily explains to a Jet, "we have jobs."

    Progressives in the US may see Russia in somewhat similar terms. Given that Russians are mainly white (or if they are East Asian looking they are white-adjacent), the assumption would be that they must have squandered the advantages of being part of whiteness, now they are drawing attention to themselves and away from blacks by standing in the way of progress and the GAE’s efforts to centre and uplift blackness worldwide. This is also why they are regressive Fascists and must be Trump allies.
     
    Not even (most) US progressives see absolutely everything through a racial lens; for those who do, some resent the amount of attention given to a war between two sets of whites (Nikole Hannah-Jones). Also, I don't think many people whose racial sensibilities are really exquisite are calling the Russians "orcs."

    The Russians invaded another country and raped and murdered civilians. That made them unpopular. There's no need to overthink it.
    , @A123
    @Coconuts


    Progressives in the US may see Russia in somewhat similar terms. Given that Russians are mainly white (or if they are East Asian looking they are white-adjacent), the assumption would be that they must have squandered the advantages of being part of whiteness, now they are drawing attention to themselves and away from blacks by standing in the way of progress and the GAE’s efforts to centre and uplift blackness worldwide.
     
    One of the reason why Progressives fail so much is they have a new dream:

    One day to live in a nation where everyone will not be judged by the content of their character, but by the color of their skin.

    This 180° reversal of intent is a profound change from the 1960's. Of course, given the reality of Northern white flight, one has to question Progressives' sincerity even back then.

    This is also why [Russians] are regressive Fascists and must be Trump allies.
     
    Progressives cannot perceive that Christian Protestant Americans and Christian Orthodox Russians could find an alliance through the Light of the Lord.

    They are recoiling in fear at the return of Christianity to the Public Square. A football coach praying. Christians having religious freedom not to serve LBGTQXYXZ deviance. To Progressive dogma, such things are anathema

    PEACE 😇
    , @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism.
     
    I think it's just because WW2 is the foundation myth of our modern world, both in "the West" and the former Soviet Union. Seems like the Soviet version is in the process of losing out to the American version though, the Soviet role in the war is increasingly airbrushed out in Western countries (except maybe when it comes to Ukrainians, who now also demand credit for their role in Germany's defeat), it's all about Omaha Beach nowadays. A striking example of this was when Obama insinuated that US troops had liberated Auschwitz and Treblinka (which of course wasn't liberated by anybody, but dismantled by the SS after the uprising there):
    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/05/obama_and_auschwitz_part_ii.html
    WW2 will live on as the foundation myth and justification of America's global empire, with most "national" versions of it being sidelined and replaced (I think this has already happened to a great extent in Britain, something like the Battle of Britain already seems to have much lost of its former status as part of the national myth).
    The upside for Germans is probably that at least we'll live on as mythological monsters in GAE lore, long after we've otherwise faded into oblivion, lol.

    Replies: @S

  218. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Thulean Friend
    @Barbarossa

    I recall GR and AK having a pretty nasty exchange a few weeks ago where GR correctly noted that Karlin's been one of the most unhinged supporters of this war and noted his reluctance to volunteer for the war effort that he has been so gung-ho about. Karlin as usual had no defence except for a bunch of schoolyard insults and half-assed excuses.

    Now that the Russians need all the manpower they can get, it is the perfect opportunity for Karlin to prove his worth. Yet I have a sneaking suspicion he will do all he can to avoid going to the frontlines.


    Chickenhawks, is what the Americans call these people.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Emil Nikola Richard, @AP

    I recall him having so much fun deriding the MAGA folks when Baiden was brought to power. He posted meme upon meme about how “MAGTards are gonna kneel” and how Baiden’s “day of the rope” is coming to the Alt Right instead of the other way around.

    Now, it is sadly the Russian speakers in Ukraine that “will kneel” because they are caught between the Ukrainian nationalist “rock” and RusFed Pynya’s betrayal “hard place”. Is he going to post some “dank memes” about this situation too ?

    [MORE]

    People who are facing unjust and unwarranted suffering are all in the same category – victims – of this world’s imperfections and their absurd and painful consequences. None should mock those who are brought down while they try to stand their ground as decent people.

    It has nothing to do with race, gender, religion and ethnic or geopolitical affiliation. It has to do with the inherent value of human life, rooted in our ability to be conscious. We suffer (all of us suffer, some more than others) because we are alive and conscious.

    Nobody should rejoice, make fun of or take pride in the suffering of others. Sooner or later, those who make other people suffer and/or rejoice in their suffering are also experiencing painful circumstances. Only benevolence can soothe and somewhat assuage this universal law of inevitable suffering.

    An American MAGTard and a Russian Vatnik or Ukrainian Banderist Ragul’ are all of them human, just like the unwashed Taliban goat herder up in his Nooristani mountain valleys, the Orthodox Rabbi in his Israeli Haredim ghetto, a Negro drug dealer in his ruined Detroit hood, or a Feminist bisexual chick somewhere in Sweden (I have specifically used stereotypes here). We are different, but our suffering makes up similar and death makes us somewhat equal in the end.

    That is why we shouldn’t have fun at the suffering of others. Even Karlin’s suffering. Although it might seem very tempting to point our fingers at his errors, we all err sometimes. Perhaps living through these days will make us all wiser, that is all one could reasonably hope for.

    Sorry for the long and somewhat emotional rant…

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Thulean Friend
    @Bashibuzuk


    Nobody should rejoice, make fun of or take pride in the suffering of others
     
    You're probably a better human being than I am, for I greatly enjoy seeing some people suffering. But only if they deserve it. I don't subscribe to "might makes right" nor do I believe that the weak should be preyed upon.

    That being said, my humanism doesn't stretch as far as yours - are you sure you're even an ethnonationalist? - since I view a section of the population as irredeemable.

    Indeed, I've long called for genetically engineering the human race and even capping the male population at no more than perhaps 30%. Given all the environmental destruction, wars and rampant sexism, it is very hard to make a strong case for why homo sapiens shouldn't be improved. We will very soon have the tools to do so.


    Sorry for the long and somewhat emotional rant…
     
    No worries, I greatly enjoy your comments and I re-iterate my gratitude for you having graced us with your presence once again. I just miss AaronB, who also had a strong spiritual/humanist element within him just like you do.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Barbarossa, @Barbarossa

  219. @keypusher
    @LondonBob

    "To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?"

    Courtesy of Thorfinnsson, hope I did the link correctly:


    The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 is now in force, so transfers of materiel to the Ukraine no longer require Congressional approval. This law is in force through the end of FY2023, and the odds of the incoming Congress passing a new law to repeal or restrain its over President Biden’s veto are approximately zero.

     

    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-198/#comment-5580342

    Replies: @A123, @LondonBob

    Not enough, the US is in very bad shape economically and the cost to prop up the Ukraine is only increasing.

    Things are going to look very bad militarily once the Russian forces stop fighting at a significant disadvantage in manpower.

    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @LondonBob

    Yeah these ideologues don’t get it. The US literally operates on billions in borrowed money every year. Printing money out of thin air also. I see some (not on this thread) boasting about weakness of other currencies to the dollar since the U.S. raised interest rates. But all those factors are connected and all that does is 1) weaken their own purchasing power at home and 2) make American made goods even LESS affordable/desirable to international markets. 3) make mon vassal states (which control large portion of global commodities) find ways around using the dollar. They don’t seem to know there are heavy consequences to wanting to control the globe. It works for a little while and then the structure weakens under its own weight. But “let’s go GI Joe” is all they seem to know.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  220. @216
    @AnonfromTN

    This is what honor cultures do, they don't admit guilt, they deny it to avoid the shame, confident that their "face" has not been besmirched.

    State-run media doesn't have a monopoly here. Here you can't cover up the Molotov-Rippentrop Pact, the Katyn massacre, the mass rapes committed by the Red Army, the failure of the N-1 rocket, rampant oligarchical corruption and the front line collapsing as we speak.

    That is not the Western way, we show our guilt, often too excessively. We learn from our mistakes, we mourn the loss of Apollo 1, the Challenger and the Columbia. When the US military commits war crimes, it becomes a major scandal, even if the perpetrators are sometimes not punished enough.

    The Western way is superior, and American exceptionalism is very real. Even in its degenerated state, GAYTO is wiping the floor with the Krokodil brigades.

    Replies: @LondonBob, @Bashibuzuk

    It really isn’t the Western way, not really sure what your background is to make such a weird claim, part of the culture of critique, as Kevin MacDonald called it.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  221. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    And in the other news – RF just got out of Dudchany in Kherson north, means UA is moving further there.
     
    The speed at which the Ukrainians advance once they break the front is remarkable, especially compared to the snail pace of the Russians when they were still able to advance in Donbas. It's actually becoming a sh!tshow. They are retreating on two fronts simultaneously (one of them in Donbass no less) while they keep trying and failing to storm... Bakhmut. There doesn't seem to be any coherent plan at the top echelons. If the Ukrainians succeed in breaking a new front in Zaporizhia, the rout could have epic proportions. I hope they have a plan in Washington on what to do if the Ukrainians are too successful and the Kremlin is left only with extreme choices.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @LondonBob

    Advancing in insignificant areas where it is preferable for the Russians to give up ground whilst inflicting significantly higher casualties. The Hitler tactic of defending every inch and continually counter attacking destroys your army, the Russians are going to be in a very good position to counter attack when the time is right.

    I see Musk, with his deep state connections, is proposing a peace deal along the lines of what was proposed before and in Istanbul, perhaps should have done that deal then before thousands of lives were lost and the Western economy completely wrecked. The timeframe for a peace deal that isn’t completely lopsided is closing for NATO.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @LondonBob


    Advancing in insignificant areas where it is preferable for the Russians to give up ground
     
    Yes, you have a point. Kharkiv Oblast, half the recently annexed Kherson and the Severodonetsk basin are quite insignificant areas for the Russian goals and morale.

    In fact, in the grand scheme of things, what value does dilapidated Donbas have for Russia? Or even Crimea, a peninsula unable to sustain itself without water from the mainland? Heck, what do Russians even want Moscow for, a city that, as Dmitry keeps explaining, is nothing but a drag for the rest of the country?

    Replies: @S

  222. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism. Possibly it's like in 2020 when ideas about white supremacy and white privilege first became more prominent, and there were questions about poor whites or white homeless drug addicts & c., whether they had white privilege and were upholding white supremacy.

    The conclusion was that they do, they enjoyed all the advantages of white privilege and white supremacy but squandered them and were now seeking to draw attention to themselves at the expense of blacks. Or other white people wanted to look at them rather than blacks, amounting to the same thing.

    Progressives in the US may see Russia in somewhat similar terms. Given that Russians are mainly white (or if they are East Asian looking they are white-adjacent), the assumption would be that they must have squandered the advantages of being part of whiteness, now they are drawing attention to themselves and away from blacks by standing in the way of progress and the GAE's efforts to centre and uplift blackness worldwide. This is also why they are regressive Fascists and must be Trump allies.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @keypusher, @A123, @German_reader

    ⁸I think that there’s a misunderstanding and an historical mistrust between Eastern European and Western European speakers of Indo-European languages.

    It might be due to the early divergence of these languages from a common core coupled to a different ethnic makeup of the populations that ended up speaking the divergent and mutually unintelligible languages

    [MORE]

    Slav ethnonym is derived from Slava (glory) which is derived from Slovo (word). Slovene – those who are people of the (same) word(s) – became Slavyane – those who share and are related to glory. On the other hand, German languages speakers were called Nemtsy (the mute ones) by their Slav neighbors, because there was no way to understand what they were saying, and this was often extended to all Westerners.

    Now, due to these two populations being mainly of two distinct Y haplogroups R1a (for Slavic populations) and R1b (for Western European ones) we know that at some moment in time (probably at least 10 000 – 20 000 years ago) these two populations got separated and divided into two patrilinear clans descendants of the ancestral Y haplogroup R1. Since that very time, even when living side by side, both populations had separate cultures and probably in the long run developped somewhat distinct mentalities.

    I think that is the most important part: we look broadly speaking similar: white European (Americans would say Caucasian) and are mainly Christian. And yet, anyone who has lived with both Westerners and Slavs knows that the mentality is somewhat different. The psyche is different. Which might create the feeling of malaise: how can someone who looks so similar feel somewhat weird, act think somewhat strange and act sometimes in so unexpected ways ? How can we trust “these people” ?

    And it goes back millenia.

    Probably Tolkien was aware of that, while modern Western liberals feel it unconsciously and act accordingly.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Bashibuzuk


    Probably Tolkien was aware of that, while modern Western liberals feel it unconsciously and act accordingly.
     
    I am unsure about the racial identification of orcs with Slavs in Tolkien, as opposed to seeing them as being inspired by proletarians and workers in heavy industry.

    Iirc not too long ago there were also various claims linking the orcs with blacks. Identity politics does include various concepts of the primordial threatening 'other', woman, the Black, the homosexual etc. and it has eclipsed class politics by far in terms of status and influence, so in some ways these sorts of claims are not that surprising.


    I think that is the most important part: we look broadly speaking similar: white European (Americans would say Caucasian) and are mainly Christian. And yet, anyone who has lived with both Westerners and Slavs knows that the mentality is somewhat different.
     
    It's an interesting idea that the inherent opposition stretches back this far. My main reservation with this idea is that the existence of a genetically determined, fairly homogenous cultural and linguistic group called 'Westerners', with a history stretching back 10,000 years doesn't seem that evident. This sort of idea seems to call for an inherent enduring closeness existing between, says Swedes and Portuguese, that isn't there between Swedes and Latvians, or Germans and Irish speakers that doesn't exist between Germans and Czechs or Croats. Again, it doesn't seem obvious.

    Replies: @Sean, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @German_reader

  223. @216
    @AnonfromTN

    This is what honor cultures do, they don't admit guilt, they deny it to avoid the shame, confident that their "face" has not been besmirched.

    State-run media doesn't have a monopoly here. Here you can't cover up the Molotov-Rippentrop Pact, the Katyn massacre, the mass rapes committed by the Red Army, the failure of the N-1 rocket, rampant oligarchical corruption and the front line collapsing as we speak.

    That is not the Western way, we show our guilt, often too excessively. We learn from our mistakes, we mourn the loss of Apollo 1, the Challenger and the Columbia. When the US military commits war crimes, it becomes a major scandal, even if the perpetrators are sometimes not punished enough.

    The Western way is superior, and American exceptionalism is very real. Even in its degenerated state, GAYTO is wiping the floor with the Krokodil brigades.

    Replies: @LondonBob, @Bashibuzuk

    That is not the Western way, we show our guilt, often too excessively.

    This is hilariously self-centered.

    Are you real or is this some joke ?

    🙂

  224. @AnonfromTN
    @Mr. Hack

    Do simple math (it used to be 2nd grade in Soviet school, it is 2-3rd grade in schools in Nigeria, so maybe high school in the US). On the assumption that situation develops linearly calculate how long it’s going to take Ukies to get back the territory they lost since February. I am not even talking about the territories Ukraine lost in 2014.

    You won’t need higher math, which takes into account that real situations never develop linearly and that Russia is in the middle of mobilizing ~1% of those it can, whereas Ukraine has already mobilized everyone who did not manage to run away or bribe some officials, including quite a few 60-year olds and cripples.

    If you are thinking about American financial aid, it is useful to remember that more than half gets stolen by the US thieves, while a big chunk of the part that reaches Ukraine is stolen by Ukrainian thieves (in terms of corruption Ukraine is unbeatable).

    Replies: @AP, @showmethereal, @Mr. Hack

    It appears a lot of the people on here are ideologues who watch movies or played a lot of video games. Things rarely go according to plan. Nor do they have any clue why certain things are being done. They are trying to live out their video game fantasies. Blame the internet and 24 hour news for so many supposed experts

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @showmethereal


    Blame the internet and 24 hour news for so many supposed experts
     
    Yep. Until February 2022 every Tom, Dick, and Harry was a virologist. Now, when Putin cured the whole world of covid, the same personages are military experts.

    The less you know, the harder it is to understand how little you know.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  225. @LondonBob
    @keypusher

    Not enough, the US is in very bad shape economically and the cost to prop up the Ukraine is only increasing.

    Things are going to look very bad militarily once the Russian forces stop fighting at a significant disadvantage in manpower.

    Replies: @showmethereal

    Yeah these ideologues don’t get it. The US literally operates on billions in borrowed money every year. Printing money out of thin air also. I see some (not on this thread) boasting about weakness of other currencies to the dollar since the U.S. raised interest rates. But all those factors are connected and all that does is 1) weaken their own purchasing power at home and 2) make American made goods even LESS affordable/desirable to international markets. 3) make mon vassal states (which control large portion of global commodities) find ways around using the dollar. They don’t seem to know there are heavy consequences to wanting to control the globe. It works for a little while and then the structure weakens under its own weight. But “let’s go GI Joe” is all they seem to know.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @showmethereal

    The realist is the person who looks at the world and notice facts, like the high value of the Dollar. The ideologue is the person who looks at the world and only sees their own ideology, like you.

    Replies: @showmethereal

  226. @A123
    @keypusher


    “To be equipped with what weapons and financed by whom?”

    Courtesy of Thorfinnsson, hope I did the link correctly:


    The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 is now in force, so transfers of materiel to the Ukraine no longer require Congressional approval. This law is in force through the end of FY2023, and the odds of the incoming Congress passing a new law to repeal or restrain its over President Biden’s veto are approximately zero.
     
    https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-198/#comment-5580342
     
    WW II Lend-Lease was a huge flow to Europe because Congress turned on the taps to build Liberty Ships, and the goods to go in them.

    The 2023 situation will be radically different:

    • Can Not-The-President Biden "Lend" things that do not exist?
    • Can the White House occupant "Lease" weapons off of empty shelves?

    Ultimately, Congress has to Appropriate funds to buy. Again, funding for Kiev aggression will not go to $0.00. However, every bill will have MAGA 'must-spend' line items that SJW Globalists like Ilhan Omar and Rashid Tlaib will abhor. For, example:

    -- $30B U.S. Border security
    -- $  3B Lend Lease Ukie munitions

    MAGA needs money for domestic priorities. And, the long history of U.S. budgeting (as actually practiced) shows that the easiest line items to raid are funds dedicated to foreign efforts. The idea that the proverbial blank check will continue to be available is absurd, bordering on delusional.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @keypusher

    When you began explaining how the next Congress was going to clamp down on money for Ukraine, you had no idea that the Lend-Lease Act existed.

    Now that you know the Act exists, you’re trying to explain how it works in such a way that will support the narrative you were already pushing. But you haven’t bothered to look up the Act or learn anything about it.

    As a result, your posts on this subject are worthless.

    • Replies: @A123
    @keypusher

    -- ROTFLMAO --

    http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/David-Tennant-Laughing.gif


    When you began explaining how the next Congress was going to clamp down on money for Ukraine, you had no idea that the Lend-Lease Act existed.
     
    Are you telepathic?

    How do you have information about what I knew, or did not know?


    Now that you know the Act exists, you’re trying to explain how it works in such a way that will support the narrative you were already pushing. But you haven’t bothered to look up the Act or learn anything about it.

     

    I knew about Act when it passed.

    I did not grasp that anyone was so mind bogglingly stupid that they though it was meaningful. Then I looked into the gaping abyss of your missing mental content. I now realize that an explanation of the incredibly obvious is, once again, required in your case.


    As a result, your posts on this subject are worthless.
     
    I am trying to educate you.

    As you are clearly not an American, it is my patriotic duty to help foreigners understand the functioning of the U.S. system. The reality is rather more complex than the straightforward Constitution implies.

    You did not know about Fultoning. Now you have admitted that Fultoning is real and impacted the 2020 elections. Your apology was appreciated.

    I am now teaching you about the reality of Lend-Lease. I look forward to your future admission of ignorance & subsequent capitulation.

    PEACE 😇

    P.S. To help reach your non-American sensibilities, I used a GIF of an overseas actor.

    You never admitted to your actual country, so I cannot be more culturally specific.

  227. @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism. Possibly it's like in 2020 when ideas about white supremacy and white privilege first became more prominent, and there were questions about poor whites or white homeless drug addicts & c., whether they had white privilege and were upholding white supremacy.

    The conclusion was that they do, they enjoyed all the advantages of white privilege and white supremacy but squandered them and were now seeking to draw attention to themselves at the expense of blacks. Or other white people wanted to look at them rather than blacks, amounting to the same thing.

    Progressives in the US may see Russia in somewhat similar terms. Given that Russians are mainly white (or if they are East Asian looking they are white-adjacent), the assumption would be that they must have squandered the advantages of being part of whiteness, now they are drawing attention to themselves and away from blacks by standing in the way of progress and the GAE's efforts to centre and uplift blackness worldwide. This is also why they are regressive Fascists and must be Trump allies.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @keypusher, @A123, @German_reader

    The conclusion was that they do, they enjoyed all the advantages of white privilege and white supremacy but squandered them and were now seeking to draw attention to themselves at the expense of blacks.

    Yes, this attitude exists and shows up in the strangest places. Spielberg’s dreary West Side Story features a policeman lecturing the Jets for squandering, basically, their white privilege. Meanwhile the Sharks have a hard time scheduling a rumble because, as one of them haughtily explains to a Jet, “we have jobs.”

    Progressives in the US may see Russia in somewhat similar terms. Given that Russians are mainly white (or if they are East Asian looking they are white-adjacent), the assumption would be that they must have squandered the advantages of being part of whiteness, now they are drawing attention to themselves and away from blacks by standing in the way of progress and the GAE’s efforts to centre and uplift blackness worldwide. This is also why they are regressive Fascists and must be Trump allies.

    Not even (most) US progressives see absolutely everything through a racial lens; for those who do, some resent the amount of attention given to a war between two sets of whites (Nikole Hannah-Jones). Also, I don’t think many people whose racial sensibilities are really exquisite are calling the Russians “orcs.”

    The Russians invaded another country and raped and murdered civilians. That made them unpopular. There’s no need to overthink it.

    • Agree: Mr. Hack
  228. @AnonfromTN
    @Mr. Hack

    Do simple math (it used to be 2nd grade in Soviet school, it is 2-3rd grade in schools in Nigeria, so maybe high school in the US). On the assumption that situation develops linearly calculate how long it’s going to take Ukies to get back the territory they lost since February. I am not even talking about the territories Ukraine lost in 2014.

    You won’t need higher math, which takes into account that real situations never develop linearly and that Russia is in the middle of mobilizing ~1% of those it can, whereas Ukraine has already mobilized everyone who did not manage to run away or bribe some officials, including quite a few 60-year olds and cripples.

    If you are thinking about American financial aid, it is useful to remember that more than half gets stolen by the US thieves, while a big chunk of the part that reaches Ukraine is stolen by Ukrainian thieves (in terms of corruption Ukraine is unbeatable).

    Replies: @AP, @showmethereal, @Mr. Hack

    Have you been reading the conversation between Mikel and Wokechoke? They must be doing some kind of “new math”, where the end results can be achieved much sooner than under the old math:

    Mikel:

    The speed at which the Ukrainians advance once they break the front is remarkable, especially compared to the snail pace of the Russians when they were still able to advance in Donbas. It’s actually becoming a sh!tshow. They are retreating on two fronts simultaneously (one of them in Donbass no less) while they keep trying and failing to storm… Bakhmut. There doesn’t seem to be any coherent plan at the top echelons. If the Ukrainians succeed in breaking a new front in Zaporizhia, the rout could have epic proportions. I hope they have a plan in Washington on what to do if the Ukrainians are too successful and the Kremlin is left only with extreme choices.

    Wokechoke:

    No one quite anticipated Russia folding like a cheap suit.

    One thing I have to wonder about Muscovites and St Petersburg denizens…do you think you can keep a rich lifestyle and not dominate the Black Sea? Not dictate terms in Crimea?

    Great slaughter will occur when the Tartars and Mongols start hacking y’all to bits under CIA and MI6 tutelage. There is no exit here but to fucking well fight.

    And these two guys are not your typical wild eyed Banderite types, as you probably know. Things are not looking good for your side. Sending in 300,000 ill trained and supplied, hesitant or doubtful civilians, dare I say, doesn’t appear to be the trick that will save the day?

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @Mr. Hack

    Quoting #233: Have you ever heard the saying “he who laughs last laughs best”?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  229. @keypusher
    @A123

    When you began explaining how the next Congress was going to clamp down on money for Ukraine, you had no idea that the Lend-Lease Act existed.

    Now that you know the Act exists, you're trying to explain how it works in such a way that will support the narrative you were already pushing. But you haven't bothered to look up the Act or learn anything about it.

    As a result, your posts on this subject are worthless.

    Replies: @A123

    — ROTFLMAO —

    When you began explaining how the next Congress was going to clamp down on money for Ukraine, you had no idea that the Lend-Lease Act existed.

    Are you telepathic?

    How do you have information about what I knew, or did not know?

    Now that you know the Act exists, you’re trying to explain how it works in such a way that will support the narrative you were already pushing. But you haven’t bothered to look up the Act or learn anything about it.

    I knew about Act when it passed.

    I did not grasp that anyone was so mind bogglingly stupid that they though it was meaningful. Then I looked into the gaping abyss of your missing mental content. I now realize that an explanation of the incredibly obvious is, once again, required in your case.

    As a result, your posts on this subject are worthless.

    I am trying to educate you.

    As you are clearly not an American, it is my patriotic duty to help foreigners understand the functioning of the U.S. system. The reality is rather more complex than the straightforward Constitution implies.

    You did not know about Fultoning. Now you have admitted that Fultoning is real and impacted the 2020 elections. Your apology was appreciated.

    I am now teaching you about the reality of Lend-Lease. I look forward to your future admission of ignorance & subsequent capitulation.

    PEACE 😇

    [MORE]

    P.S. To help reach your non-American sensibilities, I used a GIF of an overseas actor.

    You never admitted to your actual country, so I cannot be more culturally specific.

  230. @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism. Possibly it's like in 2020 when ideas about white supremacy and white privilege first became more prominent, and there were questions about poor whites or white homeless drug addicts & c., whether they had white privilege and were upholding white supremacy.

    The conclusion was that they do, they enjoyed all the advantages of white privilege and white supremacy but squandered them and were now seeking to draw attention to themselves at the expense of blacks. Or other white people wanted to look at them rather than blacks, amounting to the same thing.

    Progressives in the US may see Russia in somewhat similar terms. Given that Russians are mainly white (or if they are East Asian looking they are white-adjacent), the assumption would be that they must have squandered the advantages of being part of whiteness, now they are drawing attention to themselves and away from blacks by standing in the way of progress and the GAE's efforts to centre and uplift blackness worldwide. This is also why they are regressive Fascists and must be Trump allies.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @keypusher, @A123, @German_reader

    Progressives in the US may see Russia in somewhat similar terms. Given that Russians are mainly white (or if they are East Asian looking they are white-adjacent), the assumption would be that they must have squandered the advantages of being part of whiteness, now they are drawing attention to themselves and away from blacks by standing in the way of progress and the GAE’s efforts to centre and uplift blackness worldwide.

    One of the reason why Progressives fail so much is they have a new dream:

    One day to live in a nation where everyone will not be judged by the content of their character, but by the color of their skin.

    This 180° reversal of intent is a profound change from the 1960’s. Of course, given the reality of Northern white flight, one has to question Progressives’ sincerity even back then.

    This is also why [Russians] are regressive Fascists and must be Trump allies.

    Progressives cannot perceive that Christian Protestant Americans and Christian Orthodox Russians could find an alliance through the Light of the Lord.

    They are recoiling in fear at the return of Christianity to the Public Square. A football coach praying. Christians having religious freedom not to serve LBGTQXYXZ deviance. To Progressive dogma, such things are anathema

    PEACE 😇

  231. @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW

    LatW, you know that I am no fan of Putin, but to be honest, the "project" that Arestovitch describes today is quite old and Putin is actually reacting against it in a knee-jerk fashion.

    It was talked about already by some Ukrainian Ultra-nationalists during the late 1920ies. And it goes all the way back to the fight between Muscovy and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, when the Commonwealth nearly ended up conquering Muscovy. The only reason they failed in their conquest, was their religious bigotry, they did not want to give equal status to the Orthodox.

    The Catholic/Uniate Ruthenian/Ukrainian elites have since often seen Muscovy as inherently backward and in deep need of reform and (ahem) administration (colonization really). The Papacy encouraged them in that view even publishing official proclamation to that effect.

    And more recently, the US and NATO has used this ideological superiority/victimhood complex of the Ukrainian elites to prepare them to fight against "Mordor" and its "orcs". Among the Western pundits who have worked in this sense was the late Brzezinski. He wrote on the subject and he knew the case quite well given his Polish ancestry and his early years in Kharkov and Moscow (IIRC his dad was among the Polish diplomatic personnel in these lands).

    His article written in 2011 and published in early 2012 (well before the Maidan) suggests reorganizing the Eurasian landmass under US patronage to stand against the Chinese rise up. And he floats the idea that Kiev might one day become the capital city of this federated Eurasia.

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/balancing-east-upgrading-west

    So there is nothing new or revolutionary about Arestovitch's ideas.

    Same old, same old.

    They really think that they can reorganize to their benefit the Rus Realm (I think we have got here to a nice description for these lands in our collaborative effort both you and I). But they should ask how it worked for the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, because that is how it will most probably look like in former RusFed territories once it crumbles. It will be as crazy as in 1918-1922, except that this time there would be more sophisticated weapons (including nuclear) around and lots of dirty industries ready to poison everything around for decades.

    That would be quite entertaining to observe from afar...

    🙂

    Replies: @LatW, @AP

    the “project” that Arestovitch describes today is quite old and Putin is actually reacting against it in a knee-jerk fashion.

    It was talked about already by some Ukrainian Ultra-nationalists during the late 1920ies. And it goes all the way back to the fight between Muscovy and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, when the Commonwealth nearly ended up conquering Muscovy.

    Arestovich’s father is a Polish nobleman from Belarus, herb Rola. Arestovich is a son of the old Commonwealth.

    Arestovich is married and has three children.

    The only reason they failed in their conquest, was their religious bigotry, they did not want to give equal status to the Orthodox.

    Or maybe the blame for the failed unification of almost all the world’s Slavs and Balts in a republican confederation rests upon the Orthodox Muscovites in their blind zealotry? Although I’ve heard that they may have been encouraged or manipulated by Anglo merchants. Such a lost opportunity.

    BTW the attempted unification was the initiative not of Poles but of Rus magnates, Sapieha and Vyshnevetsky.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @AP



    Orthodox Muscovites in their blind zealotry? Although I’ve heard that they may have been encouraged or manipulated by Anglo merchants. Such a lost opportunity.

     

    Well, that's why they're called Orthodoxe in the first place.

    I agree that the Muscovy Company and the "Green Empire" concept by John Dee probably didn't help.

    All this Protestant vs Catholic bloody shtick didn't help either. It was a very troubled and volatile period in the whole of Europe (or even Eurasia possibly ?).

    And I agree that it was a lost opportunity that might have yielded excellent results for the Balto-Slav populations as a whole (or maybe not given how the Commonwealth ended).

    What is really strange, is how history is going circles, like a spiral. But the ancestry of some historical personalities probably helps explain it, like in Arestovitch's case.

    Also, a lot of bisexual men are married and have kids, especially in patriarchal cultures.

    https://humankind.livejournal.com/366782.html

    Doesn't change anything for the intelligence of the man though, he's smart.
  232. @Thulean Friend
    @Barbarossa

    I recall GR and AK having a pretty nasty exchange a few weeks ago where GR correctly noted that Karlin's been one of the most unhinged supporters of this war and noted his reluctance to volunteer for the war effort that he has been so gung-ho about. Karlin as usual had no defence except for a bunch of schoolyard insults and half-assed excuses.

    Now that the Russians need all the manpower they can get, it is the perfect opportunity for Karlin to prove his worth. Yet I have a sneaking suspicion he will do all he can to avoid going to the frontlines.


    Chickenhawks, is what the Americans call these people.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Emil Nikola Richard, @AP

    Have you ever heard the saying

    he who laughs last laughs best

    ??

    I am not a linguist but it would not surprise me if this is one of those sayings that is represented in 90 different languages including 3 or 4 in the Amazon or New Guinea that do not have an alphabet or a first grade primer.

    But it’s really great you have moved past the shock and disbelief thing. : )

  233. @Thulean Friend
    @Barbarossa

    I recall GR and AK having a pretty nasty exchange a few weeks ago where GR correctly noted that Karlin's been one of the most unhinged supporters of this war and noted his reluctance to volunteer for the war effort that he has been so gung-ho about. Karlin as usual had no defence except for a bunch of schoolyard insults and half-assed excuses.

    Now that the Russians need all the manpower they can get, it is the perfect opportunity for Karlin to prove his worth. Yet I have a sneaking suspicion he will do all he can to avoid going to the frontlines.


    Chickenhawks, is what the Americans call these people.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Emil Nikola Richard, @AP

    Karlin as usual had no defence except for a bunch of schoolyard insults and half-assed excuses.

    His defence for not personally going to war is logical: he is militarily useless (no background, no training in military matters) and unlike many other conscripts he can do much more for the war effort through propagandising and financing it. It would thus be a waste of a resource to send him into combat.

    Of course the Russian state is stupid and wastes resources so it may actually call him up.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @AP


    His defence for not personally going to war is logical: he is militarily useless (no background, no training in military matters)
     
    That logic didn't work for men of military age in Donbas. They were all forcibly sent to the fronts as soon as Putin decided that it was time to "liberate" them. I don't recall AK objecting to that forced mobilization. And by multiple accounts they are doing a better job than the professional Russian soldiers, that are apparently starting to give up fighting in large numbers. Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Thulean Friend, @showmethereal

  234. Bashibuzuk says:
    @AP
    @Bashibuzuk


    the “project” that Arestovitch describes today is quite old and Putin is actually reacting against it in a knee-jerk fashion.

    It was talked about already by some Ukrainian Ultra-nationalists during the late 1920ies. And it goes all the way back to the fight between Muscovy and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, when the Commonwealth nearly ended up conquering Muscovy.
     
    Arestovich’s father is a Polish nobleman from Belarus, herb Rola. Arestovich is a son of the old Commonwealth.

    Arestovich is married and has three children.

    The only reason they failed in their conquest, was their religious bigotry, they did not want to give equal status to the Orthodox.
     
    Or maybe the blame for the failed unification of almost all the world’s Slavs and Balts in a republican confederation rests upon the Orthodox Muscovites in their blind zealotry? Although I’ve heard that they may have been encouraged or manipulated by Anglo merchants. Such a lost opportunity.

    BTW the attempted unification was the initiative not of Poles but of Rus magnates, Sapieha and Vyshnevetsky.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    Orthodox Muscovites in their blind zealotry? Although I’ve heard that they may have been encouraged or manipulated by Anglo merchants. Such a lost opportunity.

    Well, that’s why they’re called Orthodoxe in the first place.

    I agree that the Muscovy Company and the “Green Empire” concept by John Dee probably didn’t help.

    All this Protestant vs Catholic bloody shtick didn’t help either. It was a very troubled and volatile period in the whole of Europe (or even Eurasia possibly ?).

    And I agree that it was a lost opportunity that might have yielded excellent results for the Balto-Slav populations as a whole (or maybe not given how the Commonwealth ended).

    What is really strange, is how history is going circles, like a spiral. But the ancestry of some historical personalities probably helps explain it, like in Arestovitch’s case.

    Also, a lot of bisexual men are married and have kids, especially in patriarchal cultures.

    https://humankind.livejournal.com/366782.html

    Doesn’t change anything for the intelligence of the man though, he’s smart.

  235. German_reader says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @216


    and Karlin’s threat to destroy our satellites.
     
    Bwahahaha !

    I wonder how Tolik is gonna do that, perhaps he will be hitchhiking on some Norc ballistic missile purchased by Pynya and then use a slingshot...

    (Sorry, couldn't help myself...)

    BTW, someone should ask AK whether he's still in RusFed. Maybe if he's still stuck there, he could volunteer to the frontline. They probably need fully bilingual English speaking Russian citizens there, although NATO probably uses encrypted communications, unlike the heroic Russian army which doesn't give a damn about the enemy eavesdropping on its communications...

    Just to make it clear, if it was true Russia fighting - and not Pynya's RusFed - I would go back home and try to make myself useful. But then again, if not for Pynya and his RusFedian system - there would be today no war in Ukraine. Anyway, Tolik always wrote that RusFed is great and Pynya is okay. So he would normally find no moral qualms in fighting for the system and its leader.

    Replies: @Barbarossa, @German_reader

    Maybe if he’s still stuck there, he could volunteer to the frontline.

    But he doesn’t have military training, lol, and it would be totally unreasonable to expect him to volunteer to get military training, so he’s going to leave it to the “well-paid professionals” (hahaha).
    Same with that “Russians with attitudes” guy on Twitter. These people don’t just regard the war as a regrettable necessity (which I could understand at least to some extent), they are enthusiastically in favour of it, yet somehow they don’t seem keen at all on grasping this once-in-a-lifetime chance to fight for Russia’s imperial glory. Very strange.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  236. One is tempted to see that as rationalization. Perhaps his reasoning is all true, and I have no reason to doubt it. However, for such a rhetorical fire breather to show such a disinterest in personal risk is unseemly. For all the talk he talked, he should at least be trying to walk some walk.

    Karlin has said that if Russia loses this war then it doesn’t deserve to exist. So I get the feeling that even if it got to the point of street fighting in Moscow, Karlin wouldn’t join the defense. I doubt very much that he has any real loyalty to Russia, it’s just his brand, a means to an end.

    I’ve lost a lot of respect for Karlin over this war. He was and is a smart an interesting guy, but there is seemingly little beyond that. He is seemingly lacking in honor. But, extreme events usually cause facades to fall and for true natures to be revealed. I guess we’ll see lots of that in coming decades.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Barbarossa


    But, extreme events usually cause facades to fall and for true natures to be revealed. I guess we’ll see lots of that in coming decades.
     
    This is true and it is already happening. And I hope that it will make us wiser and better persons overall. That's my goal in life nowadays, just be a better person, a better version of who I am. This is achieved partly through information which is turned into knowledge and then distilled into wisdom.



    I have learned a lot from AK's posts and this community, I have had a great time reading many articles posted on Unz Review, I believe it might have had a good influence on me as a person. And for this I am grateful to many authors and commenters here, including Anatoly.

    Thank you all for reading my rants and posting some incredible stuff.

    🙂

    Replies: @AP, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Barbarossa

  237. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Barbarossa
    One is tempted to see that as rationalization. Perhaps his reasoning is all true, and I have no reason to doubt it. However, for such a rhetorical fire breather to show such a disinterest in personal risk is unseemly. For all the talk he talked, he should at least be trying to walk some walk.

    Karlin has said that if Russia loses this war then it doesn't deserve to exist. So I get the feeling that even if it got to the point of street fighting in Moscow, Karlin wouldn't join the defense. I doubt very much that he has any real loyalty to Russia, it's just his brand, a means to an end.

    I've lost a lot of respect for Karlin over this war. He was and is a smart an interesting guy, but there is seemingly little beyond that. He is seemingly lacking in honor. But, extreme events usually cause facades to fall and for true natures to be revealed. I guess we'll see lots of that in coming decades.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    But, extreme events usually cause facades to fall and for true natures to be revealed. I guess we’ll see lots of that in coming decades.

    This is true and it is already happening. And I hope that it will make us wiser and better persons overall. That’s my goal in life nowadays, just be a better person, a better version of who I am. This is achieved partly through information which is turned into knowledge and then distilled into wisdom.

    [MORE]

    I have learned a lot from AK’s posts and this community, I have had a great time reading many articles posted on Unz Review, I believe it might have had a good influence on me as a person. And for this I am grateful to many authors and commenters here, including Anatoly.

    Thank you all for reading my rants and posting some incredible stuff.

    🙂

    • Replies: @AP
    @Bashibuzuk

    Likewise!

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Bashibuzuk

    Karlin is flawed like everybody else. I miss his personality even though he thinks I am a stupid floomer NPC. Right now I would be interested in his take on 20 000 $ transitioning from the Bitcoin floor to the Bitcoin ceiling. I'm still a bull in embryo stage if it goes to 6K.

    , @Barbarossa
    @Bashibuzuk

    I fully agree. I've learned a lot as well all around as well. Honestly, even just the book, music, and film recommendations are worth their weight in gold. This group is a really wonderfully idiosyncratic collection, which hopefully continues for a long time!



    My apologies too for unnecessary criticism of Karlin, since it's in poor taste, considering that I owe him a debt of gratitude for bringing us all together and much stimulating discussion. I just have little patience for those who glorify violence, especially without having any stomach for it themselves.

  238. German_reader says:
    @Coconuts
    @German_reader

    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism. Possibly it's like in 2020 when ideas about white supremacy and white privilege first became more prominent, and there were questions about poor whites or white homeless drug addicts & c., whether they had white privilege and were upholding white supremacy.

    The conclusion was that they do, they enjoyed all the advantages of white privilege and white supremacy but squandered them and were now seeking to draw attention to themselves at the expense of blacks. Or other white people wanted to look at them rather than blacks, amounting to the same thing.

    Progressives in the US may see Russia in somewhat similar terms. Given that Russians are mainly white (or if they are East Asian looking they are white-adjacent), the assumption would be that they must have squandered the advantages of being part of whiteness, now they are drawing attention to themselves and away from blacks by standing in the way of progress and the GAE's efforts to centre and uplift blackness worldwide. This is also why they are regressive Fascists and must be Trump allies.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @keypusher, @A123, @German_reader

    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism.

    I think it’s just because WW2 is the foundation myth of our modern world, both in “the West” and the former Soviet Union. Seems like the Soviet version is in the process of losing out to the American version though, the Soviet role in the war is increasingly airbrushed out in Western countries (except maybe when it comes to Ukrainians, who now also demand credit for their role in Germany’s defeat), it’s all about Omaha Beach nowadays. A striking example of this was when Obama insinuated that US troops had liberated Auschwitz and Treblinka (which of course wasn’t liberated by anybody, but dismantled by the SS after the uprising there):
    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/05/obama_and_auschwitz_part_ii.html
    WW2 will live on as the foundation myth and justification of America’s global empire, with most “national” versions of it being sidelined and replaced (I think this has already happened to a great extent in Britain, something like the Battle of Britain already seems to have much lost of its former status as part of the national myth).
    The upside for Germans is probably that at least we’ll live on as mythological monsters in GAE lore, long after we’ve otherwise faded into oblivion, lol.

    • Thanks: showmethereal
    • Replies: @S
    @German_reader



    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism.
     
    I think it’s just because WW2 is the foundation myth of our modern world, both in “the West” and the former Soviet Union....WW2 will live on as the foundation myth and justification of America’s global empire, with most “national” versions of it being sidelined and replaced...The upside for Germans is probably that at least we’ll live on as mythological monsters in GAE lore, long after we’ve otherwise faded into oblivion, lol.
     
    National Socialist Germany and it's past leader is the designated evil poster boy to represent any and all substantive manifestations of an organic, physical, and, or, cultural identity, a people might have, irrespective if the said people have a democracy, republic, or parliament, etc, as their form of government. [This is so even if this said identity is expressed in a form which is in reality by and large empty symbolism, which is much the case nowadays.]

    'Fascism' and 'Nazism' having become somewhat passé terminology, 'Autocracy' is the new in vogue term used by those in the know for such deemed out of line from the progressive world view. However, never fear prog traditionalists, for to the powers that be, they are all 'Nazis'!TM in the end.

    https://rs.n1info.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/30/1664542085-Screenshot-2022-09-30-134516.png

    Orwell got a lot right in 1984, but being human, did (as of yet) make something of an error.

    Rather than someone with the name Goldstein being at the center of the daily 'Two Minutes Hate', it would seem it is instead to be someone with the initials A.H. [Though in a pinch, images of Trump or Putin, same difference, can do for now. :-) )

    Come the United States of the World we may well actually live to see, and be forced to endure, 'spontaneous' demonstrations and scenes much like the below.

    https://youtu.be/XvGmOZ5T6_Y

    Replies: @Beckow

  239. Cunning military trapping of clueless UA by RF intensifying:

    • Replies: @Sean
    @sudden death

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5m8m9RNxjw

    See also Horror Express and Death Train

    , @sudden death
    @sudden death

    Latest autotranslated Strelkov confirming UA pov maps:


    Avoiding the emerging encirclement, the RF Armed Forces withdrew along the entire front of the Ingulets River to the east of the previously captured enemy bridgehead on the indicated river.

    The key town of Davydov Brod (for which fierce battles were fought for two months) and a number of large villages in its vicinity were left behind as the withdrawal continues. Apparently, the goal of the command of our group is to reduce the front line, at least to the state of creating a continuous (and not focal) front line covering Berislav and the Novo-Kakhovskaya dam.
     

    https://vk.com/igoristrelkov?w=wall347260249_665296
    , @Mikel
    @sudden death


    Cunning military trapping
     
    There you go again. Straightening of the fronts, it's called straightening of the fronts. Basic military tactic that all successful invading armies have applied though history.

    Replies: @sudden death

  240. @Bashibuzuk
    @Barbarossa


    But, extreme events usually cause facades to fall and for true natures to be revealed. I guess we’ll see lots of that in coming decades.
     
    This is true and it is already happening. And I hope that it will make us wiser and better persons overall. That's my goal in life nowadays, just be a better person, a better version of who I am. This is achieved partly through information which is turned into knowledge and then distilled into wisdom.



    I have learned a lot from AK's posts and this community, I have had a great time reading many articles posted on Unz Review, I believe it might have had a good influence on me as a person. And for this I am grateful to many authors and commenters here, including Anatoly.

    Thank you all for reading my rants and posting some incredible stuff.

    🙂

    Replies: @AP, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Barbarossa

    Likewise!

  241. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @showmethereal
    @LondonBob

    Yeah these ideologues don’t get it. The US literally operates on billions in borrowed money every year. Printing money out of thin air also. I see some (not on this thread) boasting about weakness of other currencies to the dollar since the U.S. raised interest rates. But all those factors are connected and all that does is 1) weaken their own purchasing power at home and 2) make American made goods even LESS affordable/desirable to international markets. 3) make mon vassal states (which control large portion of global commodities) find ways around using the dollar. They don’t seem to know there are heavy consequences to wanting to control the globe. It works for a little while and then the structure weakens under its own weight. But “let’s go GI Joe” is all they seem to know.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    The realist is the person who looks at the world and notice facts, like the high value of the Dollar. The ideologue is the person who looks at the world and only sees their own ideology, like you.

    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @Triteleia Laxa

    In other words… you have zero clue why the US has such a trade deficit (yet you probably thought tariff’s were going to help). Zero clue why the Us has so much debt and has to finance new debt every year to keep the government running. Zero clue why the Saudis (and by extension UAE and Qatar) laugh and mock at you because they can get away with what they want because they are the only thing keeping the US dollar hegemony that you boast about from collapsing. But sure keep giving Ukraine weapons for free (if you believe Ukraine can pay it back there is little hope for you). Boast away.

  242. @Bashibuzuk
    @Coconuts

    ⁸I think that there's a misunderstanding and an historical mistrust between Eastern European and Western European speakers of Indo-European languages.

    It might be due to the early divergence of these languages from a common core coupled to a different ethnic makeup of the populations that ended up speaking the divergent and mutually unintelligible languages

    Slav ethnonym is derived from Slava (glory) which is derived from Slovo (word). Slovene - those who are people of the (same) word(s) - became Slavyane - those who share and are related to glory. On the other hand, German languages speakers were called Nemtsy (the mute ones) by their Slav neighbors, because there was no way to understand what they were saying, and this was often extended to all Westerners.

    Now, due to these two populations being mainly of two distinct Y haplogroups R1a (for Slavic populations) and R1b (for Western European ones) we know that at some moment in time (probably at least 10 000 - 20 000 years ago) these two populations got separated and divided into two patrilinear clans descendants of the ancestral Y haplogroup R1. Since that very time, even when living side by side, both populations had separate cultures and probably in the long run developped somewhat distinct mentalities.

    I think that is the most important part: we look broadly speaking similar: white European (Americans would say Caucasian) and are mainly Christian. And yet, anyone who has lived with both Westerners and Slavs knows that the mentality is somewhat different. The psyche is different. Which might create the feeling of malaise: how can someone who looks so similar feel somewhat weird, act think somewhat strange and act sometimes in so unexpected ways ? How can we trust "these people" ?

    And it goes back millenia.

    Probably Tolkien was aware of that, while modern Western liberals feel it unconsciously and act accordingly.

    Replies: @Coconuts

    Probably Tolkien was aware of that, while modern Western liberals feel it unconsciously and act accordingly.

    I am unsure about the racial identification of orcs with Slavs in Tolkien, as opposed to seeing them as being inspired by proletarians and workers in heavy industry.

    Iirc not too long ago there were also various claims linking the orcs with blacks. Identity politics does include various concepts of the primordial threatening ‘other’, woman, the Black, the homosexual etc. and it has eclipsed class politics by far in terms of status and influence, so in some ways these sorts of claims are not that surprising.

    I think that is the most important part: we look broadly speaking similar: white European (Americans would say Caucasian) and are mainly Christian. And yet, anyone who has lived with both Westerners and Slavs knows that the mentality is somewhat different.

    It’s an interesting idea that the inherent opposition stretches back this far. My main reservation with this idea is that the existence of a genetically determined, fairly homogenous cultural and linguistic group called ‘Westerners’, with a history stretching back 10,000 years doesn’t seem that evident. This sort of idea seems to call for an inherent enduring closeness existing between, says Swedes and Portuguese, that isn’t there between Swedes and Latvians, or Germans and Irish speakers that doesn’t exist between Germans and Czechs or Croats. Again, it doesn’t seem obvious.

    • Replies: @Sean
    @Coconuts

    Hajnal line,

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_European_marriage_pattern#/media/File:Hajnal_line.JPG


    Engels said the Slavs were “aborigines in the heart of Europe” and along with their "small pigheaded nations" would be wiped out in a general war. Not even the names of those countries would be remembered.

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @Coconuts


    I am unsure about the racial identification of orcs with Slavs in Tolkien, as opposed to seeing them as being inspired by proletarians and workers in heavy industry.
     
    Oh Tolkien did not identify Orcs with Slavs, he identified them Turks and modeled their language on Turkic or broadly speaking Altaic languages. The Slavs in the Tolkien's epos are closer to the Easterlings/Wainraiders.

    https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Easterlings


    It’s an interesting idea that the inherent opposition stretches back this far. My main reservation with this idea is that the existence of a genetically determined, fairly homogenous cultural and linguistic group called ‘Westerners’, with a history stretching back 10,000 years doesn’t seem that evident.
     
    Perhaps I went too far. Westerners as a group are certainly quite diverse. But the dominant parlinear lineage in the West is R1b, while in the East it is R1a (even among those Turks who have and Indo-Iranian/Scythian ancestry). It is very clear-cut. No possible doubt about it. And both lineages are clearly going back to distinct and probably competing cultures: Yamnaya and Bell Beaker for the R1b and Corded Ware for the R1a. Most Westerners today are descendants of the Bell Beaker people, while most Slavs are descendants of the Corded Ware. There were sometimes conflicts between these two groups edging on genocide. I personally have no doubt about who killed those R1b warriors and their haplogroup I auxiliaries at the Tollense battle field in Bronze Age Corded Ware territory.

    So yeah, we're similar, even close perhaps, but we have been and still are different. There is a Russian saying: "What is a good for a Russian, is death to a German (Nemets)". It doesn't mean that Russians considered killing Germans a good and valuable thing to do, but that things good/pleasurable for Russians/Slavs are often bad/displeasing for Westerners.

    Replies: @S

    , @A123
    @Coconuts



    Probably Tolkien was aware of that, while modern Western liberals feel it unconsciously and act accordingly.
     
    I am unsure about the racial identification of orcs with Slavs in Tolkien, as opposed to seeing them as being inspired by proletarians and workers in heavy industry.
     
    Tolkien was personally connected with WW I.

    https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/mj-cb-mt-tolkiens-war.html

    The straightforward parallels are:

    • Orcs were that era's Germans
    • Hobbits were the British

    For some strange reason, people try to overanalyze simple things.

    PEACE 😇
    , @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    Iirc not too long ago there were also various claims linking the orcs with blacks.
     
    I don't think Tolkien intended the Orcs to be based on any real human group. iirc in their origin they're corrupted elves (?) after all, and there is even an eugenics element in Saruman's breeding programme...hard to think of any possible real world analogue for that. The identification with blacks presumably comes from online racists, in the wake of the LotR movies.
    However there is arguably a certain Nordicism, or maybe rather Anglo-Saxonism, in the books, since the southern and eastern human peoples are fighting on the side of Mordor.
    Regarding the present use of "Orcs" for Russians the obvious analogue for me is the use of "Huns" for Germans during WW1, the dynamics seem very similar to me (outrage over war crimes leading to collective denigration, not least by highly moralistic liberals).

    Replies: @AP

  243. @sudden death
    Cunning military trapping of clueless UA by RF intensifying:

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeOgHRFWYAEu5xB.jpg

    Replies: @Sean, @sudden death, @Mikel

    See also Horror Express and Death Train

  244. @sudden death
    Cunning military trapping of clueless UA by RF intensifying:

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeOgHRFWYAEu5xB.jpg

    Replies: @Sean, @sudden death, @Mikel

    Latest autotranslated Strelkov confirming UA pov maps:

    Avoiding the emerging encirclement, the RF Armed Forces withdrew along the entire front of the Ingulets River to the east of the previously captured enemy bridgehead on the indicated river.

    The key town of Davydov Brod (for which fierce battles were fought for two months) and a number of large villages in its vicinity were left behind as the withdrawal continues. Apparently, the goal of the command of our group is to reduce the front line, at least to the state of creating a continuous (and not focal) front line covering Berislav and the Novo-Kakhovskaya dam.

    https://vk.com/igoristrelkov?w=wall347260249_665296

  245. @Coconuts
    @Bashibuzuk


    Probably Tolkien was aware of that, while modern Western liberals feel it unconsciously and act accordingly.
     
    I am unsure about the racial identification of orcs with Slavs in Tolkien, as opposed to seeing them as being inspired by proletarians and workers in heavy industry.

    Iirc not too long ago there were also various claims linking the orcs with blacks. Identity politics does include various concepts of the primordial threatening 'other', woman, the Black, the homosexual etc. and it has eclipsed class politics by far in terms of status and influence, so in some ways these sorts of claims are not that surprising.


    I think that is the most important part: we look broadly speaking similar: white European (Americans would say Caucasian) and are mainly Christian. And yet, anyone who has lived with both Westerners and Slavs knows that the mentality is somewhat different.
     
    It's an interesting idea that the inherent opposition stretches back this far. My main reservation with this idea is that the existence of a genetically determined, fairly homogenous cultural and linguistic group called 'Westerners', with a history stretching back 10,000 years doesn't seem that evident. This sort of idea seems to call for an inherent enduring closeness existing between, says Swedes and Portuguese, that isn't there between Swedes and Latvians, or Germans and Irish speakers that doesn't exist between Germans and Czechs or Croats. Again, it doesn't seem obvious.

    Replies: @Sean, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @German_reader

    Hajnal line,

    Engels said the Slavs were “aborigines in the heart of Europe” and along with their “small pigheaded nations” would be wiped out in a general war. Not even the names of those countries would be remembered.

  246. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:

    Volunteers for Europe. The best of Europe. We need more of this and fast. Across the continent.

    [MORE]

    • LOL: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa

    What do they know of Europe, who only Europe know... ?

    https://youtu.be/A_CFD3ewleU

    Answer, not that much really. They haven't even noticed how their Europe has been taken from them, right in front of their distracted eyes. How the sacrifices of their ancestors has been betrayed. Of course, it is quite similar in RusFed, just done in a more primitive fashion.

    But instead of fighting those who betrayed us, we are called to fight each other. Another European War for the interests of the Anglo-Saxon elite. How predictable...

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @S

  247. S says:

    That is not the Western way, we show our guilt, often too excessively.

    This is hilariously self-centered.

    Are you real or is this some joke ?

    I’ve wondered about that, too.

    To the extent that the sentiments are real, the bulk of the responsibility for the sentiments certainly, and, of course, lies with their proponents.

    However, I place a certain amount of the responsibility for such on this manufactured (crimethink, I know) Capitalist vs Communist, Right vs Left, Conservative vs Liberal, etc, dialectic the world has been living under since the late 18th century, which has been unilaterally gifted to us by the self proclaimed ‘enlightened’/’progressive’ folks.

    Everything under this artificial, unnatural, and broadly controlled dialectic tends towards the extreme. If you don’t follow the officially designated ‘progressive’ line in some way you’ll be accused, of being either a ‘Communist’, ‘Capitalist’, or a ‘Fascists.’

    As both the dialectic’s Capitalist and Communist closely paralleling wings mercilessly war against a traditional organic identity, in preparation for the planned United States of the World, the effect is to greatly warp how identity manifest itself, 216’s sentiments, with all due respect, perhaps being an example.

    Under this anti-life and anti-people ‘system’, what could be a live and let live, give and take, healthy ethnic identity, is instead often enough turned into a gross caricature.

    Humorously illustrating the extremism this system needlessly creates, the person below has been falsely accused of being both a Communist and a Fascist, simultaneously, and is thus being investigated by two different agencies of the US government because of it. 😀

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @S

    In 1993, those who defended the Constitution of Russia and its democratically elected Parliament were branded "Red-Browns" by the Westernized RusFed Noviop elites and massacred to much "democratic" Western applause.

    The "Red - Brown" tag is of cause the synthesis of these Communist - Fascist false dialectics that you have so correctly described.

    The "masters of the game" are of course above these dialectics, just as they're above a lot of other things: nationality, true Religious affiliation, clearly defined gender roles. They are above (or perhaps below) all this and this gives them room for maneuver.

    They "define what's Real"...

    Replies: @S

  248. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Coconuts
    @Bashibuzuk


    Probably Tolkien was aware of that, while modern Western liberals feel it unconsciously and act accordingly.
     
    I am unsure about the racial identification of orcs with Slavs in Tolkien, as opposed to seeing them as being inspired by proletarians and workers in heavy industry.

    Iirc not too long ago there were also various claims linking the orcs with blacks. Identity politics does include various concepts of the primordial threatening 'other', woman, the Black, the homosexual etc. and it has eclipsed class politics by far in terms of status and influence, so in some ways these sorts of claims are not that surprising.


    I think that is the most important part: we look broadly speaking similar: white European (Americans would say Caucasian) and are mainly Christian. And yet, anyone who has lived with both Westerners and Slavs knows that the mentality is somewhat different.
     
    It's an interesting idea that the inherent opposition stretches back this far. My main reservation with this idea is that the existence of a genetically determined, fairly homogenous cultural and linguistic group called 'Westerners', with a history stretching back 10,000 years doesn't seem that evident. This sort of idea seems to call for an inherent enduring closeness existing between, says Swedes and Portuguese, that isn't there between Swedes and Latvians, or Germans and Irish speakers that doesn't exist between Germans and Czechs or Croats. Again, it doesn't seem obvious.

    Replies: @Sean, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @German_reader

    I am unsure about the racial identification of orcs with Slavs in Tolkien, as opposed to seeing them as being inspired by proletarians and workers in heavy industry.

    Oh Tolkien did not identify Orcs with Slavs, he identified them Turks and modeled their language on Turkic or broadly speaking Altaic languages. The Slavs in the Tolkien’s epos are closer to the Easterlings/Wainraiders.

    https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Easterlings

    [MORE]

    It’s an interesting idea that the inherent opposition stretches back this far. My main reservation with this idea is that the existence of a genetically determined, fairly homogenous cultural and linguistic group called ‘Westerners’, with a history stretching back 10,000 years doesn’t seem that evident.

    Perhaps I went too far. Westerners as a group are certainly quite diverse. But the dominant parlinear lineage in the West is R1b, while in the East it is R1a (even among those Turks who have and Indo-Iranian/Scythian ancestry). It is very clear-cut. No possible doubt about it. And both lineages are clearly going back to distinct and probably competing cultures: Yamnaya and Bell Beaker for the R1b and Corded Ware for the R1a. Most Westerners today are descendants of the Bell Beaker people, while most Slavs are descendants of the Corded Ware. There were sometimes conflicts between these two groups edging on genocide. I personally have no doubt about who killed those R1b warriors and their haplogroup I auxiliaries at the Tollense battle field in Bronze Age Corded Ware territory.

    So yeah, we’re similar, even close perhaps, but we have been and still are different. There is a Russian saying: “What is a good for a Russian, is death to a German (Nemets)”. It doesn’t mean that Russians considered killing Germans a good and valuable thing to do, but that things good/pleasurable for Russians/Slavs are often bad/displeasing for Westerners.

    • Replies: @S
    @Bashibuzuk

    Excellent post and overview. And, of course, within all of this and complicating matters, is the Roman Empire.

    Greece, whose language and many of it's cultural ways would become the basis of the Eastern Roman Empire, was forcibly conquered by Rome and made against it's will part of the Empire.

    Later, Rome (the city) and the Western Empire would collapse, becoming something of a backwater for a time, while the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium with it's capital city, Constantinople) would live on in one form or another for another thousand years.

    No doubt, that history by itself would cause many resentments, jealousys, and bitterness, in both the East and West.

    Since the Fall of Rome in the West and East, there have been respective and ongoing attempts to reclaim it's mantle, the New Rome (ie US/UK) in the West, and the Third Rome in Russia, amongst others.

    Without question, Rome left a powerful impression upon the European mind which endures to this day.

  249. @Coconuts
    @Bashibuzuk


    Probably Tolkien was aware of that, while modern Western liberals feel it unconsciously and act accordingly.
     
    I am unsure about the racial identification of orcs with Slavs in Tolkien, as opposed to seeing them as being inspired by proletarians and workers in heavy industry.

    Iirc not too long ago there were also various claims linking the orcs with blacks. Identity politics does include various concepts of the primordial threatening 'other', woman, the Black, the homosexual etc. and it has eclipsed class politics by far in terms of status and influence, so in some ways these sorts of claims are not that surprising.


    I think that is the most important part: we look broadly speaking similar: white European (Americans would say Caucasian) and are mainly Christian. And yet, anyone who has lived with both Westerners and Slavs knows that the mentality is somewhat different.
     
    It's an interesting idea that the inherent opposition stretches back this far. My main reservation with this idea is that the existence of a genetically determined, fairly homogenous cultural and linguistic group called 'Westerners', with a history stretching back 10,000 years doesn't seem that evident. This sort of idea seems to call for an inherent enduring closeness existing between, says Swedes and Portuguese, that isn't there between Swedes and Latvians, or Germans and Irish speakers that doesn't exist between Germans and Czechs or Croats. Again, it doesn't seem obvious.

    Replies: @Sean, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @German_reader

    Probably Tolkien was aware of that, while modern Western liberals feel it unconsciously and act accordingly.

    I am unsure about the racial identification of orcs with Slavs in Tolkien, as opposed to seeing them as being inspired by proletarians and workers in heavy industry.

    Tolkien was personally connected with WW I.

    https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/mj-cb-mt-tolkiens-war.html

    The straightforward parallels are:

    • Orcs were that era’s Germans
    • Hobbits were the British

    For some strange reason, people try to overanalyze simple things.

    PEACE 😇

  250. German_reader says:
    @Coconuts
    @Bashibuzuk


    Probably Tolkien was aware of that, while modern Western liberals feel it unconsciously and act accordingly.
     
    I am unsure about the racial identification of orcs with Slavs in Tolkien, as opposed to seeing them as being inspired by proletarians and workers in heavy industry.

    Iirc not too long ago there were also various claims linking the orcs with blacks. Identity politics does include various concepts of the primordial threatening 'other', woman, the Black, the homosexual etc. and it has eclipsed class politics by far in terms of status and influence, so in some ways these sorts of claims are not that surprising.


    I think that is the most important part: we look broadly speaking similar: white European (Americans would say Caucasian) and are mainly Christian. And yet, anyone who has lived with both Westerners and Slavs knows that the mentality is somewhat different.
     
    It's an interesting idea that the inherent opposition stretches back this far. My main reservation with this idea is that the existence of a genetically determined, fairly homogenous cultural and linguistic group called 'Westerners', with a history stretching back 10,000 years doesn't seem that evident. This sort of idea seems to call for an inherent enduring closeness existing between, says Swedes and Portuguese, that isn't there between Swedes and Latvians, or Germans and Irish speakers that doesn't exist between Germans and Czechs or Croats. Again, it doesn't seem obvious.

    Replies: @Sean, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @German_reader

    Iirc not too long ago there were also various claims linking the orcs with blacks.

    I don’t think Tolkien intended the Orcs to be based on any real human group. iirc in their origin they’re corrupted elves (?) after all, and there is even an eugenics element in Saruman’s breeding programme…hard to think of any possible real world analogue for that. The identification with blacks presumably comes from online racists, in the wake of the LotR movies.
    However there is arguably a certain Nordicism, or maybe rather Anglo-Saxonism, in the books, since the southern and eastern human peoples are fighting on the side of Mordor.
    Regarding the present use of “Orcs” for Russians the obvious analogue for me is the use of “Huns” for Germans during WW1, the dynamics seem very similar to me (outrage over war crimes leading to collective denigration, not least by highly moralistic liberals).

    • Thanks: Coconuts
    • Replies: @AP
    @German_reader

    My take on Tolkien, some of which he explicitly denied but probably influenced him unconsciously because he was a man of the first half of the 20th century:

    - Elves were the old European nobility fading away

    - Hobbits were English villagers

    - Protagonists were traditional European westerners

    - Orcs are corrupted Europeans

    - Mordor was Moscow and Sauron was Bolshevism, elevation of greed, ugly materialism and power, with an army of corrupted once-human and once-elven new “people,” (Homo Sovieticus?) marshalling the 3rd world Easterlings against the West

    - Saruman was Germany, a would-be leader of the West whose struggle with and study of the East made him mad and corrupted him thoroughly (Schopenhauer, Nietzsche). His new Orcs (corrupted former humans) were superior to classic ones but were still disgusting and corrupt. Like Nazis vs. Bolsheviks. A fallen and tragic figure.

    - Rohirrim (sic? haven’t read LOTR in decades), stuck between Saruman and Mordor with their charging cavalry, were Poles.

    - The human city from the Hobbit may have been Novgorod

    Replies: @German_reader

  251. Seems about accurate:

    [MORE]

    • Thanks: German_reader
  252. @Mr. Hack
    @AnonfromTN

    Have you been reading the conversation between Mikel and Wokechoke? They must be doing some kind of "new math", where the end results can be achieved much sooner than under the old math:

    Mikel:


    The speed at which the Ukrainians advance once they break the front is remarkable, especially compared to the snail pace of the Russians when they were still able to advance in Donbas. It’s actually becoming a sh!tshow. They are retreating on two fronts simultaneously (one of them in Donbass no less) while they keep trying and failing to storm… Bakhmut. There doesn’t seem to be any coherent plan at the top echelons. If the Ukrainians succeed in breaking a new front in Zaporizhia, the rout could have epic proportions. I hope they have a plan in Washington on what to do if the Ukrainians are too successful and the Kremlin is left only with extreme choices.

     

    Wokechoke:

    No one quite anticipated Russia folding like a cheap suit.

    One thing I have to wonder about Muscovites and St Petersburg denizens…do you think you can keep a rich lifestyle and not dominate the Black Sea? Not dictate terms in Crimea?

    Great slaughter will occur when the Tartars and Mongols start hacking y’all to bits under CIA and MI6 tutelage. There is no exit here but to fucking well fight.
     

    And these two guys are not your typical wild eyed Banderite types, as you probably know. Things are not looking good for your side. Sending in 300,000 ill trained and supplied, hesitant or doubtful civilians, dare I say, doesn't appear to be the trick that will save the day?

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    Quoting #233: Have you ever heard the saying “he who laughs last laughs best”?

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @AnonfromTN

    It's time for Russians to start shedding a few tears, like Ukrainians have been doing since Putler's hoards invaded Ukraine on February 24. Since you enjoy old adages, try this one on for size:


    What goes around comes around.
     
    https://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/cartoons-s3/styles/product_detail_image/s3/cartoons/2018/11/sad_putin__marian_kamensky.jpg?itok=DBagAJ8u

    Replies: @Hunsdon

  253. @showmethereal
    @AnonfromTN

    It appears a lot of the people on here are ideologues who watch movies or played a lot of video games. Things rarely go according to plan. Nor do they have any clue why certain things are being done. They are trying to live out their video game fantasies. Blame the internet and 24 hour news for so many supposed experts

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    Blame the internet and 24 hour news for so many supposed experts

    Yep. Until February 2022 every Tom, Dick, and Harry was a virologist. Now, when Putin cured the whole world of covid, the same personages are military experts.

    The less you know, the harder it is to understand how little you know.

    • LOL: showmethereal
    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @AnonfromTN

    Whaddaya know! Nordstream 2 wasn't blown up. Only Nordstream 1. The one America didn't like is fine, but the one Russia refused to deliver on "for technical reasons" is not.

    It was Russia. Case closed.

    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gazprom-nord-stream-leaks-stop-gas-supply-could-resume-single-line-2022-10-03/

    Replies: @German_reader, @AnonfromTN, @Beckow, @A123

  254. @A123
    Germany is 100% committed to EU Unity!

    Or..... perhaps not: (1)

    What a difference a decade makes.

    Ten years ago, when Europe was in the throes of the eurozone crisis, Germany led the drive for austerity. Now the rest of Europe is fuming about Germany’s heavy spending on energy subsidies that they fear could exacerbate the Continent's politically explosive rich-poor divide. It hardly helps these growing tensions that it was Berlin's misguided dependence on Russian gas that helped trigger the bloc's energy crisis in the first place.

    Dissent is growing in the EU — particularly in heavyweights such as Italy and France — about Germany’s massive €200 billion package announced last week to cushion consumers and businesses from the full effects of the energy crisis. These grievances now look likely to flare at Friday’s EU summit in Prague, when leaders will tackle the issue of rising energy costs and their economic ramifications.
     
    It should be obvious to everyone that German Elites never really cared about 'austerity' or Europe. It was all a out transferring wealth and power to Germany's 'ECB' in Frankfurt. Business and Banking Elites benefited. Everyone else suffered, including German Christians.

    Why are are servitors to the Elite, like Merkel and Scholz, voluntarily chosen by 75%+ of German voters?

    It makes no sense. Yet, it has gone on for decades.

    PEACE 😇
    ____________

    (1) https://www.politico.eu/article/tensions-flare-over-the-eus-new-irresponsible-big-spender-germany/

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    Germany is 100% committed to EU Unity!
    Or….. perhaps not: (1)

    NS1 and NS2 were blown by everyone knows who to make it committed. My condolences to Germans. I know many personally, most aren’t bad people at all.

  255. @sudden death
    Cunning military trapping of clueless UA by RF intensifying:

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeOgHRFWYAEu5xB.jpg

    Replies: @Sean, @sudden death, @Mikel

    Cunning military trapping

    There you go again. Straightening of the fronts, it’s called straightening of the fronts. Basic military tactic that all successful invading armies have applied though history.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @Mikel

    Jokes aside there are just two public excuses left which now are being paraded around during all this ongoing fun:

    1. We haven't thrown enough meat yet
    2. We haven't thrown tactical nuke yet

    Not a single line being written or word spoken how exactly heaps of new meat will really help make that much difference if RF ammo dumps will keep being blown by Himars and RF air force keeps being blown out of the sky constantly as soon as it tries to suppport the meat more close/actively...

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Beckow, @Mikel

  256. @Bashibuzuk
    @Barbarossa


    But, extreme events usually cause facades to fall and for true natures to be revealed. I guess we’ll see lots of that in coming decades.
     
    This is true and it is already happening. And I hope that it will make us wiser and better persons overall. That's my goal in life nowadays, just be a better person, a better version of who I am. This is achieved partly through information which is turned into knowledge and then distilled into wisdom.



    I have learned a lot from AK's posts and this community, I have had a great time reading many articles posted on Unz Review, I believe it might have had a good influence on me as a person. And for this I am grateful to many authors and commenters here, including Anatoly.

    Thank you all for reading my rants and posting some incredible stuff.

    🙂

    Replies: @AP, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Barbarossa

    Karlin is flawed like everybody else. I miss his personality even though he thinks I am a stupid floomer NPC. Right now I would be interested in his take on 20 000 $ transitioning from the Bitcoin floor to the Bitcoin ceiling. I’m still a bull in embryo stage if it goes to 6K.

  257. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @AnonfromTN
    @showmethereal


    Blame the internet and 24 hour news for so many supposed experts
     
    Yep. Until February 2022 every Tom, Dick, and Harry was a virologist. Now, when Putin cured the whole world of covid, the same personages are military experts.

    The less you know, the harder it is to understand how little you know.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    Whaddaya know! Nordstream 2 wasn’t blown up. Only Nordstream 1. The one America didn’t like is fine, but the one Russia refused to deliver on “for technical reasons” is not.

    It was Russia. Case closed.

    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gazprom-nord-stream-leaks-stop-gas-supply-could-resume-single-line-2022-10-03/

    • Agree: Brás Cubas
    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Nordstream 2 wasn’t blown up.
     
    Work on your reading comprehension, half of it has been rendered inoperational. Nothing to indicate that there's some clever hidden Russian agenda, probably the saboteurs just weren't completely successful.
    The most likely suspects are still the US, Ukraine and Poland.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    , @AnonfromTN
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Nordstream 2 wasn’t blown up. Only Nordstream 1.
     
    That’s sensational, even though it’s a lie. Tabloids might be willing to pay big bucks for it, a lot more than you are making for your work here. Don’t miss your chance!

    For those who successfully avoided physics in high school or flunked the test. Every meter of depth adds 1 atmosphere of pressure. The pressure at 70 meters below the surface is 70 atmospheres.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    , @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa


    ...Case closed.
     
    You really shouldn't try so hard. "We won the war! Russian weapons don't work! Russia is now blowing up its own assets. It is over, blabla..."

    Are you a fanatic? Check out the map and the overall situation - the future is built into it. It looks very different from your breathless cheerleading. (You will have to change your name again if you go like this.)

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    , @A123
    @Triteleia Laxa

    If Russia and Poland step down their antagonism, gas flows on the Yamal line could resume. As an above ground service it will need some maintenance before any restart, but that is vastly easier than an undersea repair job.

    The incoming Italian center right coalition wants to buy Russian gas. Their actual support for Ukie aggression seems far short of the verbiage. (2)


    Italy is hurting itself if it renounces natural gas from Russia because of the war in Ukraine, according to Giorgia Meloni, chairman of the right-wing Italian Brothers (FdI) opposition party, who stressed on Wednesday that there is a lack of Western solidarity with countries dependent on Russian gas. Giorgia Meloni stated that if Rome “cuts off gas supplies, industrial production stops within two or three months, and that is not self-sacrifice but suicide.”
     
    Between this and actual pro Russian coalition partners — She may speak kindly of Ukraine, but everyone expects little action (e.g. military assistance).
    ___

    The European WEF's fight in Ukraine needs to end. Alas, the Brussels/Davos/Berlin axis wants it to keep going, and Zelensky is on the European Elite payroll (just like Not-The-President Biden).

    When will Ukraine get rid of Zelensky, to empower a negotiation capable president.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (2) https://floridagoodfriday.com/giorgia-meloni-says-suicide-is-a-renunciation-of-russian-gas/
  258. @LondonBob
    @Mikel

    Advancing in insignificant areas where it is preferable for the Russians to give up ground whilst inflicting significantly higher casualties. The Hitler tactic of defending every inch and continually counter attacking destroys your army, the Russians are going to be in a very good position to counter attack when the time is right.

    I see Musk, with his deep state connections, is proposing a peace deal along the lines of what was proposed before and in Istanbul, perhaps should have done that deal then before thousands of lives were lost and the Western economy completely wrecked. The timeframe for a peace deal that isn't completely lopsided is closing for NATO.

    Replies: @Mikel

    Advancing in insignificant areas where it is preferable for the Russians to give up ground

    Yes, you have a point. Kharkiv Oblast, half the recently annexed Kherson and the Severodonetsk basin are quite insignificant areas for the Russian goals and morale.

    In fact, in the grand scheme of things, what value does dilapidated Donbas have for Russia? Or even Crimea, a peninsula unable to sustain itself without water from the mainland? Heck, what do Russians even want Moscow for, a city that, as Dmitry keeps explaining, is nothing but a drag for the rest of the country?

    • Replies: @S
    @Mikel

    You're merciless, Mikel! :-)

  259. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Triteleia Laxa
    Volunteers for Europe. The best of Europe. We need more of this and fast. Across the continent.



    https://twitter.com/Seveerity/status/1577202540743380992?s=20&t=fLwEv3ai14jZJx3VHVtkcQ

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    What do they know of Europe, who only Europe know… ?

    Answer, not that much really. They haven’t even noticed how their Europe has been taken from them, right in front of their distracted eyes. How the sacrifices of their ancestors has been betrayed. Of course, it is quite similar in RusFed, just done in a more primitive fashion.

    But instead of fighting those who betrayed us, we are called to fight each other. Another European War for the interests of the Anglo-Saxon elite. How predictable…

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk

    I disagree with your idea that Europe has been taken away from them. The truth is that European peoples have consented, often enthusiastically, and known what was happening. That doesn't mean that I think it was smart, but sometimes people need to do things that are not obviously smart in order to learn and experience.

    Of course, they also have a "right", by which I merely mean ability, to change their minds.

    All eyes on a successful nationalism, of white European people, standing against the odds, and thriving, is an inspiration.

    Putin has made Azov into widely-loved heroes, and, for that I am grateful. Even the worst events have a silver lining.



    Kyiv shouldn't just be the capital of Rus, but possibly all of Europe. Zelenskyy can be President, as it'll keep the libs happy, but his advisory team can do the rest.

    Am I joking? I'm not sure!

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Coconuts

    , @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    They haven’t even noticed how their Europe has been taken from them, right in front of their distracted eyes. How the sacrifices of their ancestors has been betrayed.
     
    A few months ago I read an account of a young Scotsman killed in Ukraine. He was a veteran and seemed to be a fine young man.

    My first thought was why was he fighting there when his own Scottish people within the United Kingdom are under great duress themselves? At best it's akin to fighting a neighbor's house fire, when your own house is burning down.

    It's the same with a great many of the 'volunteers' in Ukraine and their own homeland. The system they are wanting to give to Ukraine is the same system which has brought destruction upon their own peoples'.

    There is some very powerful brainwashing at work here.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Bashibuzuk

  260. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:

    Every single week the Ukrainian military gets more sophisticated, while the Russian military is degraded.

    This is the result of factors that Russia cannot address and Ukraine is not going to go back on.

    This war is swiftly going from grinding Russian failure, to Russian defeat, to complete Russian rout.

    Historical analogies don’t work either. In WW2, any military might compete with enough manpower and resources, but Ukraine is learning like a 21st Century force. We are starting to see them function like the French, British or US might. With a genuinely flexible and manouevrist approach, where they are constantly inside of Russia’s OODA loop.

    I detailed how the French would absolutely annihilate the Russians at the beginning of this war by explaining this concept, but I never thought the Ukrainians would be able to approach this level of sophistication this quickly.

    They’re not even close to there yet, but they will get there at this rate, and have already far surpassed the closed-thinking Russian forces.

    The Russian command must have little idea of what is going to hit them and where, and, by the time they’ve adjusted, Ukraine is already onto plan 2, 3, 4 and 5 etc.

    This is seriously impressive. Everyone should admire it. It is excellence in institutional learning applied to warfighting during war. Astonishing!

  261. @Bashibuzuk
    @Barbarossa


    But, extreme events usually cause facades to fall and for true natures to be revealed. I guess we’ll see lots of that in coming decades.
     
    This is true and it is already happening. And I hope that it will make us wiser and better persons overall. That's my goal in life nowadays, just be a better person, a better version of who I am. This is achieved partly through information which is turned into knowledge and then distilled into wisdom.



    I have learned a lot from AK's posts and this community, I have had a great time reading many articles posted on Unz Review, I believe it might have had a good influence on me as a person. And for this I am grateful to many authors and commenters here, including Anatoly.

    Thank you all for reading my rants and posting some incredible stuff.

    🙂

    Replies: @AP, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Barbarossa

    I fully agree. I’ve learned a lot as well all around as well. Honestly, even just the book, music, and film recommendations are worth their weight in gold. This group is a really wonderfully idiosyncratic collection, which hopefully continues for a long time!

    [MORE]

    My apologies too for unnecessary criticism of Karlin, since it’s in poor taste, considering that I owe him a debt of gratitude for bringing us all together and much stimulating discussion. I just have little patience for those who glorify violence, especially without having any stomach for it themselves.

  262. @AP
    @Thulean Friend


    Karlin as usual had no defence except for a bunch of schoolyard insults and half-assed excuses.
     
    His defence for not personally going to war is logical: he is militarily useless (no background, no training in military matters) and unlike many other conscripts he can do much more for the war effort through propagandising and financing it. It would thus be a waste of a resource to send him into combat.

    Of course the Russian state is stupid and wastes resources so it may actually call him up.

    Replies: @Mikel

    His defence for not personally going to war is logical: he is militarily useless (no background, no training in military matters)

    That logic didn’t work for men of military age in Donbas. They were all forcibly sent to the fronts as soon as Putin decided that it was time to “liberate” them. I don’t recall AK objecting to that forced mobilization. And by multiple accounts they are doing a better job than the professional Russian soldiers, that are apparently starting to give up fighting in large numbers. Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikel


    Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.
     
    Their time will come if and when the RusFed crumbles into a Civil War.

    Perhaps I will go there then to join some like-minded folks, that is if it happens in the coming few years.

    After that I would probably be a bit old, although I'm not in a bad shape.

    BTW, we had a bet with Karlin about Putin leaving power before 2024, I still believe that he will vacate the Kremlin. Possibly in the next few months. Perhaps against his own will...

    Replies: @Mikel, @LatW

    , @Thulean Friend
    @Mikel


    That logic didn’t work for men of military age in Donbas. They were all forcibly sent to the fronts as soon as Putin decided that it was time to “liberate” them. I don’t recall AK objecting to that forced mobilization. And by multiple accounts they are doing a better job than the professional Russian soldiers, that are apparently starting to give up fighting in large numbers. Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.
     
    That's all true, but there's also the question of principle.

    People should face the consequences of the policies they advocate. I feel the same way re: US neocons always pushing for new wars. They and their families never face the consequences of the disasters they promoted (Iraq invasion, Libya etc), which is why they continually beat the drums of war. It's disgusting.

    Karlin certainly has no excuses given that he's a fit male in his 30s and highly motivated by the mission. As you noted, volunteers without prior military experience have done well. It's pure cowardice on his part.

    In the end, he's just a chickenhawk.

    Replies: @Mikel

    , @showmethereal
    @Mikel

    Military men of fighting age (and even older) had been fighting in Donbass since 2014. What planet are you people on??? They formed militias and were fighting all along while Ukraine was shelling the region. You people seriously seem to have no clue of what’s been going on. The declared independence after the Nuland inspired coup and took up arms. Stop with the revisionist history.

    Replies: @Philip Owen

  263. Bashibuzuk says:
    @S


    That is not the Western way, we show our guilt, often too excessively.
     
    This is hilariously self-centered.

    Are you real or is this some joke ?
     
    I've wondered about that, too.

    To the extent that the sentiments are real, the bulk of the responsibility for the sentiments certainly, and, of course, lies with their proponents.

    However, I place a certain amount of the responsibility for such on this manufactured (crimethink, I know) Capitalist vs Communist, Right vs Left, Conservative vs Liberal, etc, dialectic the world has been living under since the late 18th century, which has been unilaterally gifted to us by the self proclaimed 'enlightened'/'progressive' folks.

    Everything under this artificial, unnatural, and broadly controlled dialectic tends towards the extreme. If you don't follow the officially designated 'progressive' line in some way you'll be accused, of being either a 'Communist', 'Capitalist', or a 'Fascists.'

    As both the dialectic's Capitalist and Communist closely paralleling wings mercilessly war against a traditional organic identity, in preparation for the planned United States of the World, the effect is to greatly warp how identity manifest itself, 216's sentiments, with all due respect, perhaps being an example.

    Under this anti-life and anti-people 'system', what could be a live and let live, give and take, healthy ethnic identity, is instead often enough turned into a gross caricature.

    Humorously illustrating the extremism this system needlessly creates, the person below has been falsely accused of being both a Communist and a Fascist, simultaneously, and is thus being investigated by two different agencies of the US government because of it. :-D


    https://youtu.be/jIk33iz1CiU

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    In 1993, those who defended the Constitution of Russia and its democratically elected Parliament were branded “Red-Browns” by the Westernized RusFed Noviop elites and massacred to much “democratic” Western applause.

    The “Red – Brown” tag is of cause the synthesis of these Communist – Fascist false dialectics that you have so correctly described.

    The “masters of the game” are of course above these dialectics, just as they’re above a lot of other things: nationality, true Religious affiliation, clearly defined gender roles. They are above (or perhaps below) all this and this gives them room for maneuver.

    They “define what’s Real”…

    • Replies: @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    The “masters of the game” are of course above these dialectics, just as they’re above a lot of other things: nationality, true Religious affiliation, clearly defined gender roles. They are above (or perhaps below) all this and this gives them room for maneuver.

    They “define what’s Real”…

     

    I am reminded of a quote attributed to a high adviser of a relatively recent US president. It's one of those things that, despite some question of its actual provenance, fits so well with the mentality displayed by powerful elements amongst US political elites ('Right' or 'Left') and their hangers on, that it is worth noting.

    'We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'


    They “define what’s Real”…
     
    From 1984...


    https://youtu.be/g1WI8BUe9Eg


    'Reality is inside the skull.'


    'Power is power over human beings. Over the body but, above all, over the mind. Power over matter -- external reality, as you would call it -- is not important. Already our control over matter is absolute.'...'We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull. You will learn by degrees, Winston.'

    'There is nothing that we could not do. Invisibility, levitation -- anything. I could float off this floor like a soap bubble if I wish to. I do not wish to, because the Party does not wish it. You must get rid of those nineteenth-century ideas about the laws of Nature. We make the laws of Nature.' 1984 -Part 3, Chapter 3
     


    The "masters of the game"...are above (or perhaps below) all this and this gives them room for maneuver.
     
    Regarding the Masonic aspects of these things, and the not necessarily so innocent and naive higher level membership, (unlike the first three degrees generally), I've always thought the 'higher' they go up in levels has been misinterpreted, that it is in reality them traveling downwards, ie 33rd degree is hitting the absolute rock-bottom, can't get any lower than that.

    That's downright sub-terranean even. :-D

    https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/846190-we-re-an-empire-now-and-when-we-act-we-create

    http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/19.html

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @A123

  264. @Triteleia Laxa
    @AnonfromTN

    Whaddaya know! Nordstream 2 wasn't blown up. Only Nordstream 1. The one America didn't like is fine, but the one Russia refused to deliver on "for technical reasons" is not.

    It was Russia. Case closed.

    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gazprom-nord-stream-leaks-stop-gas-supply-could-resume-single-line-2022-10-03/

    Replies: @German_reader, @AnonfromTN, @Beckow, @A123

    Nordstream 2 wasn’t blown up.

    Work on your reading comprehension, half of it has been rendered inoperational. Nothing to indicate that there’s some clever hidden Russian agenda, probably the saboteurs just weren’t completely successful.
    The most likely suspects are still the US, Ukraine and Poland.

    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @German_reader


    The most likely suspects are still the US, Ukraine and Poland.
     
    It’s like contractual murder. Ukies or Poles might have been murderers under contract, but the party that ordered this hit is we know who.
  265. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    Cunning military trapping
     
    There you go again. Straightening of the fronts, it's called straightening of the fronts. Basic military tactic that all successful invading armies have applied though history.

    Replies: @sudden death

    Jokes aside there are just two public excuses left which now are being paraded around during all this ongoing fun:

    1. We haven’t thrown enough meat yet
    2. We haven’t thrown tactical nuke yet

    Not a single line being written or word spoken how exactly heaps of new meat will really help make that much difference if RF ammo dumps will keep being blown by Himars and RF air force keeps being blown out of the sky constantly as soon as it tries to suppport the meat more close/actively…

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @sudden death

    Russian ammunition dumps have been substantially dispersed since the arrival of HIMARS and other effective long range indirect fires, just as Ukrainian ammunition dumps were earlier in the war. The RuAF is not necessarily required to make progress anymore than the UkrAF is.

    Heaps of meat will make a difference for the simple reason that the Ukrainian Army now enjoys numerical superiority. Unless combat effectiveness differs by an order of magnitude, numbers are the most decisive element in warfare.

    Replies: @sudden death

    , @Beckow
    @sudden death


    1. We haven’t thrown enough meat yet
    2. We haven’t thrown tactical nuke yet
     
    Seems like a projection. Focus on the actual situation:

    Russia controls 15-20% of Ukraine and has almost unlimited resources to keep fighting. Unless their will-power gives up they will grind Ukies over time. Your bet (and Kiev's) is that they can break the Russian morale. Based on numbers and history that has never happened. If Russia changes its approach it is likely to be a lot harsher - how is that good for the remaining rump Ukraine? The idea that Putin will be overthrown and some liberal will rush to make a deal is unrealistic. By the way, Putin seems to be the moderate in Moscow, removing him would make the war worse.

    Not a single large city has been retaken by Kiev in this offensive and not for lack of trying. They lost by all accounts tens of thousands of soldiers. Kiev has a few million men available (if they show up), so that can be fixed, but eventually there will be a backlash, too many sacrifices, for what?

    Kiev should use this lull to make a deal - they are doing the exact opposite. Their masters tell them to go all the way, that each village and each kilometer will put them in better position for a deal. It doesn't: in January they could have had Donbas with autonomy, in April only an independent Donbas, in September they were already losing Donbas+2 regions, if it goes on it is not Lugansk that will be at stake but Kharkov and Nikolayev. Smart people know when to make a deal.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    , @Mikel
    @sudden death


    Not a single line being written or word spoken how exactly heaps of new meat will really help make that much difference
     
    I think I was making that point here not long ago. I don't see how 300k conscripts are going to make any significant difference on this enterprise where the bulk of the professional Russian Armed Forces have failed quite miserably.

    Strelkov is asking if Konachenkov's daily briefings are for the public or rather for the Kremlin. I ask myself the same question. The stupor in the Kremlin is astonishing. Don't they have accurate information of what's happening in Ukraine (like they didn't when they decided to launch this operation)? Is the command structure broken? Both?

    The same strategists that devised this fiasco sending more men to fight against a determined enemy that is receiving unprecedented amounts of weapons and intelligence from all around the West looks futile.

    Increasing the number of troops may be a necessary condition to avoid defeat for the reasons that Thorfinson explains but by no means sufficient, imho.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Wokechoke

  266. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa

    What do they know of Europe, who only Europe know... ?

    https://youtu.be/A_CFD3ewleU

    Answer, not that much really. They haven't even noticed how their Europe has been taken from them, right in front of their distracted eyes. How the sacrifices of their ancestors has been betrayed. Of course, it is quite similar in RusFed, just done in a more primitive fashion.

    But instead of fighting those who betrayed us, we are called to fight each other. Another European War for the interests of the Anglo-Saxon elite. How predictable...

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @S

    I disagree with your idea that Europe has been taken away from them. The truth is that European peoples have consented, often enthusiastically, and known what was happening. That doesn’t mean that I think it was smart, but sometimes people need to do things that are not obviously smart in order to learn and experience.

    Of course, they also have a “right”, by which I merely mean ability, to change their minds.

    All eyes on a successful nationalism, of white European people, standing against the odds, and thriving, is an inspiration.

    Putin has made Azov into widely-loved heroes, and, for that I am grateful. Even the worst events have a silver lining.

    [MORE]

    Kyiv shouldn’t just be the capital of Rus, but possibly all of Europe. Zelenskyy can be President, as it’ll keep the libs happy, but his advisory team can do the rest.

    Am I joking? I’m not sure!

    • LOL: German_reader
    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Kyiv shouldn’t just be the capital of Rus, but possibly all of Europe.
     
    The capital of the whole Eurasia, from Dublin to Vladivostok...

    Read the article written by the Big Zbig in 2011, the one about "Balancing... upgrading...". You'll get the picture...



    Now about the native European people agreeing on the Great Replacement (Kalergi Plan), I don't know how someone can swriously think along that lines.

    The native European peoples have been pitched against each other thrice in a more or less 100 years period (1914 - 2022). And it is always the same "usual suspects" who push for war in Europe to keep it divided and weakened.

    Then, someone had to replace the human ressources lost during the wars, and immigration gates were opened. Capitalists applauded, internationalists opined, but nationalists have always been clear on the dangers of this inflow of foreign and hard to assimilate populations. Nowhere - except in UK, and never - except in the few recent decades have we seen any European government openly announcing a full-fledged multiculturalism.

    Why ? Because British elites still see themselves as the head of a multicultural global empire. The fact that the empire is now more financial than military doesn't change a thing. They don't care whom they rule upon, as long as the job is done and taxes paid. They are exactly like these "Nouveaux Russes" that have aped the UK and US immigration policies by importing some 15 million Central Asian gastarbeiters to RusFed. In the same vein, the Anglo-saxon elites and their Atlanticist auxiliaries do not care for European natives and are ready to replace them all, as long as they and their offspring stay on the top of the food chain.

    Who has blown North Stream ? Those who resent German economic might and Russian/German economic cooperation. The same people who despised Germany and loathed Russia in 1914 and 1941. The Anglo-saxon, probably the British. It's the same modus operandi: provocation, propaganda, war. Nothing changes.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    , @Coconuts
    @Triteleia Laxa


    I disagree with your idea that Europe has been taken away from them. The truth is that European peoples have consented, often enthusiastically, and known what was happening. That doesn’t mean that I think it was smart, but sometimes people need to do things that are not obviously smart in order to learn and experience.
     
    I doubt they 100% understood in that people may have been fine with 10-15% population diversity, not sure that how many realised that this would lead to population changes of a kind probably not seen since the Indo-European migrations. Though you are right that many were and are strong supporters of the ideologies and beliefs that led to this.

    In Britain it's possible to imagine many not considering anything beyond the economic impact and increasing GDP, because there is no strong conception of culture or nationality as anything serious apart from this. I heard the present government is thinking of making a free-movement deal with India for example and it is generally committed to increasing yearly migration beyond the 5- or 600,000 level for the economic gains.

  267. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Mikel
    @AP


    His defence for not personally going to war is logical: he is militarily useless (no background, no training in military matters)
     
    That logic didn't work for men of military age in Donbas. They were all forcibly sent to the fronts as soon as Putin decided that it was time to "liberate" them. I don't recall AK objecting to that forced mobilization. And by multiple accounts they are doing a better job than the professional Russian soldiers, that are apparently starting to give up fighting in large numbers. Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Thulean Friend, @showmethereal

    Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.

    Their time will come if and when the RusFed crumbles into a Civil War.

    Perhaps I will go there then to join some like-minded folks, that is if it happens in the coming few years.

    After that I would probably be a bit old, although I’m not in a bad shape.

    BTW, we had a bet with Karlin about Putin leaving power before 2024, I still believe that he will vacate the Kremlin. Possibly in the next few months. Perhaps against his own will…

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Bashibuzuk


    Perhaps I will go there then to join some like-minded folks
     
    I hope you don't feel the need to do that.

    Personally, I have no problem admitting that I wouldn't give my life for any cause other than defending my family from a tangible threat (I have run some risks climbing mountains but that is a totally different thing, more related to one's search for meaning combined with a certain vanity).

    I don't know what would be the best course for Russia. Having lived in Latin America, I do know that liberal democracy is not necessarily the best arrangement for all types of societies. The other thing that I know is that, if not for Russia itself, for the rest of the world a Russia that retreats to itself, abandons dreams of superpower status and concentrates on economic development would be the best scenario. As far as I'm concerned, if it takes a Navalny to get there, so be it.
    , @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Perhaps I will go there then to join some like-minded folks, that is if it happens in the coming few years.
     
    There are probably enough Russians now in exile with competence and skills who could eventually go back and rebuild things or build them anew in a better way.

    If you went back, you could be the Vozhd'.

    Btw, I apologize for posting things where it looks like we're already dividing up the bearskin (before the Bear is even killed). I'm aware it is not tactful, but it is interesting. Your great patience and tolerance of this is greatly appreciated.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

  268. @Triteleia Laxa
    @AnonfromTN

    Whaddaya know! Nordstream 2 wasn't blown up. Only Nordstream 1. The one America didn't like is fine, but the one Russia refused to deliver on "for technical reasons" is not.

    It was Russia. Case closed.

    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gazprom-nord-stream-leaks-stop-gas-supply-could-resume-single-line-2022-10-03/

    Replies: @German_reader, @AnonfromTN, @Beckow, @A123

    Nordstream 2 wasn’t blown up. Only Nordstream 1.

    That’s sensational, even though it’s a lie. Tabloids might be willing to pay big bucks for it, a lot more than you are making for your work here. Don’t miss your chance!

    For those who successfully avoided physics in high school or flunked the test. Every meter of depth adds 1 atmosphere of pressure. The pressure at 70 meters below the surface is 70 atmospheres.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @AnonfromTN

    You should use Google before you prove how stupid you are.

    The world's deepest scuba dive was 332.35 metres.

    Furthermore, there's a tribe that gets down to 70 metres without scuba gear, just by free diving!

    https://divemagazine.com/scuba-diving-news/scuba-diving-world-records#:~:text=The%20deepest%20dive,lasted%2013%20hours%2035%20minutes.

    Replies: @QCIC

  269. @German_reader
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Nordstream 2 wasn’t blown up.
     
    Work on your reading comprehension, half of it has been rendered inoperational. Nothing to indicate that there's some clever hidden Russian agenda, probably the saboteurs just weren't completely successful.
    The most likely suspects are still the US, Ukraine and Poland.

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    The most likely suspects are still the US, Ukraine and Poland.

    It’s like contractual murder. Ukies or Poles might have been murderers under contract, but the party that ordered this hit is we know who.

  270. @Triteleia Laxa
    @AnonfromTN

    Whaddaya know! Nordstream 2 wasn't blown up. Only Nordstream 1. The one America didn't like is fine, but the one Russia refused to deliver on "for technical reasons" is not.

    It was Russia. Case closed.

    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gazprom-nord-stream-leaks-stop-gas-supply-could-resume-single-line-2022-10-03/

    Replies: @German_reader, @AnonfromTN, @Beckow, @A123

    …Case closed.

    You really shouldn’t try so hard. “We won the war! Russian weapons don’t work! Russia is now blowing up its own assets. It is over, blabla…”

    Are you a fanatic? Check out the map and the overall situation – the future is built into it. It looks very different from your breathless cheerleading. (You will have to change your name again if you go like this.)

    • LOL: showmethereal
    • Replies: @AnonfromTN
    @Beckow


    Are you a fanatic?
     
    He/she/it is not a fanatic, just paid employee. Naturally, he who pays the musicians calls the tune. There is nothing new in it, this was true for thousands of years, ever since paid musicians appeared in human societies.
  271. @Triteleia Laxa
    @AnonfromTN

    Whaddaya know! Nordstream 2 wasn't blown up. Only Nordstream 1. The one America didn't like is fine, but the one Russia refused to deliver on "for technical reasons" is not.

    It was Russia. Case closed.

    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gazprom-nord-stream-leaks-stop-gas-supply-could-resume-single-line-2022-10-03/

    Replies: @German_reader, @AnonfromTN, @Beckow, @A123

    If Russia and Poland step down their antagonism, gas flows on the Yamal line could resume. As an above ground service it will need some maintenance before any restart, but that is vastly easier than an undersea repair job.

    The incoming Italian center right coalition wants to buy Russian gas. Their actual support for Ukie aggression seems far short of the verbiage. (2)

    Italy is hurting itself if it renounces natural gas from Russia because of the war in Ukraine, according to Giorgia Meloni, chairman of the right-wing Italian Brothers (FdI) opposition party, who stressed on Wednesday that there is a lack of Western solidarity with countries dependent on Russian gas. Giorgia Meloni stated that if Rome “cuts off gas supplies, industrial production stops within two or three months, and that is not self-sacrifice but suicide.”

    Between this and actual pro Russian coalition partners — She may speak kindly of Ukraine, but everyone expects little action (e.g. military assistance).
    ___

    The European WEF’s fight in Ukraine needs to end. Alas, the Brussels/Davos/Berlin axis wants it to keep going, and Zelensky is on the European Elite payroll (just like Not-The-President Biden).

    When will Ukraine get rid of Zelensky, to empower a negotiation capable president.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (2) https://floridagoodfriday.com/giorgia-meloni-says-suicide-is-a-renunciation-of-russian-gas/

  272. @sudden death
    @Mikel

    Jokes aside there are just two public excuses left which now are being paraded around during all this ongoing fun:

    1. We haven't thrown enough meat yet
    2. We haven't thrown tactical nuke yet

    Not a single line being written or word spoken how exactly heaps of new meat will really help make that much difference if RF ammo dumps will keep being blown by Himars and RF air force keeps being blown out of the sky constantly as soon as it tries to suppport the meat more close/actively...

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Beckow, @Mikel

    Russian ammunition dumps have been substantially dispersed since the arrival of HIMARS and other effective long range indirect fires, just as Ukrainian ammunition dumps were earlier in the war. The RuAF is not necessarily required to make progress anymore than the UkrAF is.

    Heaps of meat will make a difference for the simple reason that the Ukrainian Army now enjoys numerical superiority. Unless combat effectiveness differs by an order of magnitude, numbers are the most decisive element in warfare.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @Thorfinnsson


    Russian ammunition dumps have been substantially dispersed since the arrival of HIMARS and other effective long range indirect fires, just as Ukrainian ammunition dumps were earlier in the war.
     
    However since all those old big ammo dump sites were blown around the middle of summer when Himarses appeared, it perhaps would not be much exaggeration to say that all RF advances in Donbas stalled too and the only notable exception has been small suburb of Peski near Donetsk where RF managed to do massive sustained succesfull artillery assault which forced UA to retreat.

    Recently there were also many public RF infantry complaints from Liman when they were requesting arty support but couldn't get it, also rumours are floating that there are big troubles with supply of shells in Kherson now, so it seems RF warfare with dispersed dumps so far cannot be done so effectively as it was before big centralized dumps were blown up.

  273. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @AnonfromTN
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Nordstream 2 wasn’t blown up. Only Nordstream 1.
     
    That’s sensational, even though it’s a lie. Tabloids might be willing to pay big bucks for it, a lot more than you are making for your work here. Don’t miss your chance!

    For those who successfully avoided physics in high school or flunked the test. Every meter of depth adds 1 atmosphere of pressure. The pressure at 70 meters below the surface is 70 atmospheres.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    You should use Google before you prove how stupid you are.

    The world’s deepest scuba dive was 332.35 metres.

    Furthermore, there’s a tribe that gets down to 70 metres without scuba gear, just by free diving!

    https://divemagazine.com/scuba-diving-news/scuba-diving-world-records#:~:text=The%20deepest%20dive,lasted%2013%20hours%2035%20minutes.

    • Replies: @QCIC
    @Triteleia Laxa

    An extra factor of 10 cropped up, 1 atm pressure ~ 10 meters of water.

    I'm not clear on the point. All of these pipes can be readily repaired with $. Not trivial, but lots of more challenging deepwater oil/gas work goes on every day. So a few sections of pipe out of 700 miles are blown up. Of course it can be repaired.

    If the US doesn't want to get blamed for the damage, they shouldn't have made the threats.

    Replies: @A123

  274. @Mikel
    @AP


    His defence for not personally going to war is logical: he is militarily useless (no background, no training in military matters)
     
    That logic didn't work for men of military age in Donbas. They were all forcibly sent to the fronts as soon as Putin decided that it was time to "liberate" them. I don't recall AK objecting to that forced mobilization. And by multiple accounts they are doing a better job than the professional Russian soldiers, that are apparently starting to give up fighting in large numbers. Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Thulean Friend, @showmethereal

    That logic didn’t work for men of military age in Donbas. They were all forcibly sent to the fronts as soon as Putin decided that it was time to “liberate” them. I don’t recall AK objecting to that forced mobilization. And by multiple accounts they are doing a better job than the professional Russian soldiers, that are apparently starting to give up fighting in large numbers. Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.

    That’s all true, but there’s also the question of principle.

    People should face the consequences of the policies they advocate. I feel the same way re: US neocons always pushing for new wars. They and their families never face the consequences of the disasters they promoted (Iraq invasion, Libya etc), which is why they continually beat the drums of war. It’s disgusting.

    Karlin certainly has no excuses given that he’s a fit male in his 30s and highly motivated by the mission. As you noted, volunteers without prior military experience have done well. It’s pure cowardice on his part.

    In the end, he’s just a chickenhawk.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Thulean Friend


    As you noted, volunteers without prior military experience have done well.
     
    They're not even volunteers. Just forced conscripts. But they've seen thousands of civilians die around them in Donbas and also they have a reputation to maintain when they return home to the places where many people did volunteer and die. That matters much more than military training. What training had the bulk of the Ukrainian troops that are now making the Russians flee?

    The Russian military right now needs many more enthusiastic Karlins going to the fronts than half-motivated reservists rounded up in a belated and chaotic mobilization push.

    Replies: @Sean

  275. S says:
    @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism.
     
    I think it's just because WW2 is the foundation myth of our modern world, both in "the West" and the former Soviet Union. Seems like the Soviet version is in the process of losing out to the American version though, the Soviet role in the war is increasingly airbrushed out in Western countries (except maybe when it comes to Ukrainians, who now also demand credit for their role in Germany's defeat), it's all about Omaha Beach nowadays. A striking example of this was when Obama insinuated that US troops had liberated Auschwitz and Treblinka (which of course wasn't liberated by anybody, but dismantled by the SS after the uprising there):
    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/05/obama_and_auschwitz_part_ii.html
    WW2 will live on as the foundation myth and justification of America's global empire, with most "national" versions of it being sidelined and replaced (I think this has already happened to a great extent in Britain, something like the Battle of Britain already seems to have much lost of its former status as part of the national myth).
    The upside for Germans is probably that at least we'll live on as mythological monsters in GAE lore, long after we've otherwise faded into oblivion, lol.

    Replies: @S

    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism.

    I think it’s just because WW2 is the foundation myth of our modern world, both in “the West” and the former Soviet Union….WW2 will live on as the foundation myth and justification of America’s global empire, with most “national” versions of it being sidelined and replaced…The upside for Germans is probably that at least we’ll live on as mythological monsters in GAE lore, long after we’ve otherwise faded into oblivion, lol.

    National Socialist Germany and it’s past leader is the designated evil poster boy to represent any and all substantive manifestations of an organic, physical, and, or, cultural identity, a people might have, irrespective if the said people have a democracy, republic, or parliament, etc, as their form of government. [This is so even if this said identity is expressed in a form which is in reality by and large empty symbolism, which is much the case nowadays.]

    ‘Fascism’ and ‘Nazism’ having become somewhat passé terminology, ‘Autocracy’ is the new in vogue term used by those in the know for such deemed out of line from the progressive world view. However, never fear prog traditionalists, for to the powers that be, they are all ‘Nazis’!TM in the end.

    Orwell got a lot right in 1984, but being human, did (as of yet) make something of an error.

    Rather than someone with the name Goldstein being at the center of the daily ‘Two Minutes Hate’, it would seem it is instead to be someone with the initials A.H. [Though in a pinch, images of Trump or Putin, same difference, can do for now. 🙂 )

    Come the United States of the World we may well actually live to see, and be forced to endure, ‘spontaneous’ demonstrations and scenes much like the below.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @S


    ...Come the United States of the World we may well actually live to see
     
    The world is too variable for that. We have had the US of the World in a mild form for the last 20-25 years, but the project has peaked.

    The idea that it can double-down and force its way is not realistic. The internal pathologies - gender confusion, debt-driven economy, weak geriatric leadership, culture that no longer entertains, generational asset pyramid schemes, migrants rushing in to live off its prosperity, embarrassing Corona mental collapse - it is not a basis that would allow for an escalation.

    The enemies have accumulated: Third World seething with resentment, China, India, Brazil, Mexico... are 'neutral' effectively anti-West - they are not even quiet about it. The critical error was pushing Russia away - with Russia in the anti-West camp the West can no longer win. You can only buy so many leaders or stage so many color revolutions, and only so much money can be issued to keep the system stable.

    The blase Western acceptance that it could end in a nuclear war is a sign that they know they can't win. The alternative is to take their toys home, save exposed vassals, shut up for a few years, play good, and try again in a few years. Figuring out who is a man and who a woman would be a good start on the road to recovery. It is not that hard.

    Replies: @Mikel, @S

  276. @sudden death
    @Mikel

    Jokes aside there are just two public excuses left which now are being paraded around during all this ongoing fun:

    1. We haven't thrown enough meat yet
    2. We haven't thrown tactical nuke yet

    Not a single line being written or word spoken how exactly heaps of new meat will really help make that much difference if RF ammo dumps will keep being blown by Himars and RF air force keeps being blown out of the sky constantly as soon as it tries to suppport the meat more close/actively...

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Beckow, @Mikel

    1. We haven’t thrown enough meat yet
    2. We haven’t thrown tactical nuke yet

    Seems like a projection. Focus on the actual situation:

    Russia controls 15-20% of Ukraine and has almost unlimited resources to keep fighting. Unless their will-power gives up they will grind Ukies over time. Your bet (and Kiev’s) is that they can break the Russian morale. Based on numbers and history that has never happened. If Russia changes its approach it is likely to be a lot harsher – how is that good for the remaining rump Ukraine? The idea that Putin will be overthrown and some liberal will rush to make a deal is unrealistic. By the way, Putin seems to be the moderate in Moscow, removing him would make the war worse.

    Not a single large city has been retaken by Kiev in this offensive and not for lack of trying. They lost by all accounts tens of thousands of soldiers. Kiev has a few million men available (if they show up), so that can be fixed, but eventually there will be a backlash, too many sacrifices, for what?

    Kiev should use this lull to make a deal – they are doing the exact opposite. Their masters tell them to go all the way, that each village and each kilometer will put them in better position for a deal. It doesn’t: in January they could have had Donbas with autonomy, in April only an independent Donbas, in September they were already losing Donbas+2 regions, if it goes on it is not Lugansk that will be at stake but Kharkov and Nikolayev. Smart people know when to make a deal.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Beckow

    RusFed military are incompetent. Everyone is slowly realizing this, pro-Putin "Russian patriots" included. But it is not just the military, it is the government as a whole. They will not change and without changing they cannot win this war.

  277. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk

    I disagree with your idea that Europe has been taken away from them. The truth is that European peoples have consented, often enthusiastically, and known what was happening. That doesn't mean that I think it was smart, but sometimes people need to do things that are not obviously smart in order to learn and experience.

    Of course, they also have a "right", by which I merely mean ability, to change their minds.

    All eyes on a successful nationalism, of white European people, standing against the odds, and thriving, is an inspiration.

    Putin has made Azov into widely-loved heroes, and, for that I am grateful. Even the worst events have a silver lining.



    Kyiv shouldn't just be the capital of Rus, but possibly all of Europe. Zelenskyy can be President, as it'll keep the libs happy, but his advisory team can do the rest.

    Am I joking? I'm not sure!

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Coconuts

    Kyiv shouldn’t just be the capital of Rus, but possibly all of Europe.

    The capital of the whole Eurasia, from Dublin to Vladivostok…

    Read the article written by the Big Zbig in 2011, the one about “Balancing… upgrading…”. You’ll get the picture…

    [MORE]

    Now about the native European people agreeing on the Great Replacement (Kalergi Plan), I don’t know how someone can swriously think along that lines.

    The native European peoples have been pitched against each other thrice in a more or less 100 years period (1914 – 2022). And it is always the same “usual suspects” who push for war in Europe to keep it divided and weakened.

    Then, someone had to replace the human ressources lost during the wars, and immigration gates were opened. Capitalists applauded, internationalists opined, but nationalists have always been clear on the dangers of this inflow of foreign and hard to assimilate populations. Nowhere – except in UK, and never – except in the few recent decades have we seen any European government openly announcing a full-fledged multiculturalism.

    Why ? Because British elites still see themselves as the head of a multicultural global empire. The fact that the empire is now more financial than military doesn’t change a thing. They don’t care whom they rule upon, as long as the job is done and taxes paid. They are exactly like these “Nouveaux Russes” that have aped the UK and US immigration policies by importing some 15 million Central Asian gastarbeiters to RusFed. In the same vein, the Anglo-saxon elites and their Atlanticist auxiliaries do not care for European natives and are ready to replace them all, as long as they and their offspring stay on the top of the food chain.

    Who has blown North Stream ? Those who resent German economic might and Russian/German economic cooperation. The same people who despised Germany and loathed Russia in 1914 and 1941. The Anglo-saxon, probably the British. It’s the same modus operandi: provocation, propaganda, war. Nothing changes.

    • Thanks: S
    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk


    The capital of the whole Eurasia, from Dublin to Vladivostok
     
    Deal, but no Kadyrov, and that Eurasia stops at the borders of Mongolia. Or, if not, as Mongolia is small, most definitely China.

    Sorry to the Chinese people. You're great, but not the point of this particular party.

    Read the article written by the Big Zbig in 2011, the one about “Balancing… upgrading…”. You’ll get the picture…
     
    There are endless think pieces advocating in every direction.

    Now about the native European people agreeing on the Great Replacement (Kalergi Plan),
     
    Kalergi was an interesting man, but plans like that are not how human society works.

    Or at least how I observe humans, and human society working.

    Most people don't even seem to have free will on the topics that are most important to them.

    Yes, everything is a result of their choices in a way, but, since they have no conscious clue as to why they made those choices, it is hard for them to even begin to construct, and follow through, with grand plans as you describe.

    Just pick a part of someone that they can't recognise, bring it to the surface, and watch them go deranged, either positively or negatively.

    It isn't the Anglo-Saxon elite that is driving this, although a few of your observations are reasonable, such as them being emotionally and institutionally set-up for Empire, at least until fairly recently, but the beautiful melody and rhythm of the universe.

    Just because you manage to hear the occasional note, and it seems to clang, doesn't mean the full ensemble isn't lovely.

    But it doesn't matter at this point, because this is a gap which I don't think I can bridge. You're too close to seeing things directly that my descriptions will never be more accurate. Which is a great thing, so no worries.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @LatW

  278. @Bashibuzuk
    @Thulean Friend

    I recall him having so much fun deriding the MAGA folks when Baiden was brought to power. He posted meme upon meme about how "MAGTards are gonna kneel" and how Baiden's "day of the rope" is coming to the Alt Right instead of the other way around.

    Now, it is sadly the Russian speakers in Ukraine that "will kneel" because they are caught between the Ukrainian nationalist "rock" and RusFed Pynya's betrayal "hard place". Is he going to post some "dank memes" about this situation too ?



    People who are facing unjust and unwarranted suffering are all in the same category - victims - of this world's imperfections and their absurd and painful consequences. None should mock those who are brought down while they try to stand their ground as decent people.

    It has nothing to do with race, gender, religion and ethnic or geopolitical affiliation. It has to do with the inherent value of human life, rooted in our ability to be conscious. We suffer (all of us suffer, some more than others) because we are alive and conscious.

    Nobody should rejoice, make fun of or take pride in the suffering of others. Sooner or later, those who make other people suffer and/or rejoice in their suffering are also experiencing painful circumstances. Only benevolence can soothe and somewhat assuage this universal law of inevitable suffering.

    An American MAGTard and a Russian Vatnik or Ukrainian Banderist Ragul' are all of them human, just like the unwashed Taliban goat herder up in his Nooristani mountain valleys, the Orthodox Rabbi in his Israeli Haredim ghetto, a Negro drug dealer in his ruined Detroit hood, or a Feminist bisexual chick somewhere in Sweden (I have specifically used stereotypes here). We are different, but our suffering makes up similar and death makes us somewhat equal in the end.

    That is why we shouldn't have fun at the suffering of others. Even Karlin's suffering. Although it might seem very tempting to point our fingers at his errors, we all err sometimes. Perhaps living through these days will make us all wiser, that is all one could reasonably hope for.

    Sorry for the long and somewhat emotional rant...

    Replies: @Thulean Friend

    Nobody should rejoice, make fun of or take pride in the suffering of others

    You’re probably a better human being than I am, for I greatly enjoy seeing some people suffering. But only if they deserve it. I don’t subscribe to “might makes right” nor do I believe that the weak should be preyed upon.

    That being said, my humanism doesn’t stretch as far as yours – are you sure you’re even an ethnonationalist? – since I view a section of the population as irredeemable.

    Indeed, I’ve long called for genetically engineering the human race and even capping the male population at no more than perhaps 30%. Given all the environmental destruction, wars and rampant sexism, it is very hard to make a strong case for why homo sapiens shouldn’t be improved. We will very soon have the tools to do so.

    Sorry for the long and somewhat emotional rant…

    No worries, I greatly enjoy your comments and I re-iterate my gratitude for you having graced us with your presence once again. I just miss AaronB, who also had a strong spiritual/humanist element within him just like you do.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Thulean Friend


    I greatly enjoy seeing some people suffering. But only if they deserve it.
     
    Your moral judgement (they deserve it) separates you from part of yourself and means that you see people in suffering, suffer yourself, but don't even know it. Your "enjoyment" is the thinnest of feelings. Like having a tub of ice cream, it will never bring you home, satisfied.

    That being said, my humanism doesn’t stretch as far as yours – are you sure you’re even an ethnonationalist?
     
    You can love everyone, and yet prioritise your own born family. Nevermind create structures that are more resilient and flexible because they recognise this healthy fact.

    Indeed, I’ve long called for genetically engineering the human race and even capping the male population at no more than perhaps 30%. Given all the environmental destruction, wars and rampant sexism, it is very hard to make a strong case for why homo sapiens shouldn’t be improved. We will very soon have the tools to do so.
     
    Might work. But it is a fantasy, even with some sexual elements. The issue is that the decision point on whether or not to do that is after a bunch of other things have been achieved. And once those are achieved things might look different.
    , @Barbarossa
    @Thulean Friend


    why homo sapiens shouldn’t be improved. We will very soon have the tools to do so
     
    Humanity hasn't had the greatest track record in dealing with their ability to transcend most natural limits. This includes the same environmental destruction that you cite. I don't have much hope that such genetic engineering technologies will be a force for good, especially since the modern age is completely devoid of a guiding ethic or morality.

    The modern ethic of the technocrat is to worship innovation for it's own sake and throw crap at the wall to see if anything sticks!
    , @Barbarossa
    @Thulean Friend

    I agree on AaronB. I keep hoping he'll pop back at some point. Perhaps if we all thick collectively we can issue forth a call summoning him from across the astral plane.

    With Bashibuzuk back, the spiritual energy of this thread should be sufficient to counteract the godless materialists like yourself and Dmitry in effecting such a call!

    Replies: @Barbarossa, @Yevardian

  279. @Beckow
    @sudden death


    1. We haven’t thrown enough meat yet
    2. We haven’t thrown tactical nuke yet
     
    Seems like a projection. Focus on the actual situation:

    Russia controls 15-20% of Ukraine and has almost unlimited resources to keep fighting. Unless their will-power gives up they will grind Ukies over time. Your bet (and Kiev's) is that they can break the Russian morale. Based on numbers and history that has never happened. If Russia changes its approach it is likely to be a lot harsher - how is that good for the remaining rump Ukraine? The idea that Putin will be overthrown and some liberal will rush to make a deal is unrealistic. By the way, Putin seems to be the moderate in Moscow, removing him would make the war worse.

    Not a single large city has been retaken by Kiev in this offensive and not for lack of trying. They lost by all accounts tens of thousands of soldiers. Kiev has a few million men available (if they show up), so that can be fixed, but eventually there will be a backlash, too many sacrifices, for what?

    Kiev should use this lull to make a deal - they are doing the exact opposite. Their masters tell them to go all the way, that each village and each kilometer will put them in better position for a deal. It doesn't: in January they could have had Donbas with autonomy, in April only an independent Donbas, in September they were already losing Donbas+2 regions, if it goes on it is not Lugansk that will be at stake but Kharkov and Nikolayev. Smart people know when to make a deal.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    RusFed military are incompetent. Everyone is slowly realizing this, pro-Putin “Russian patriots” included. But it is not just the military, it is the government as a whole. They will not change and without changing they cannot win this war.

  280. @S
    @German_reader



    There is probably some round about explanation as to why progressives are doing this in the name of anti-fascism and anti-racism.
     
    I think it’s just because WW2 is the foundation myth of our modern world, both in “the West” and the former Soviet Union....WW2 will live on as the foundation myth and justification of America’s global empire, with most “national” versions of it being sidelined and replaced...The upside for Germans is probably that at least we’ll live on as mythological monsters in GAE lore, long after we’ve otherwise faded into oblivion, lol.
     
    National Socialist Germany and it's past leader is the designated evil poster boy to represent any and all substantive manifestations of an organic, physical, and, or, cultural identity, a people might have, irrespective if the said people have a democracy, republic, or parliament, etc, as their form of government. [This is so even if this said identity is expressed in a form which is in reality by and large empty symbolism, which is much the case nowadays.]

    'Fascism' and 'Nazism' having become somewhat passé terminology, 'Autocracy' is the new in vogue term used by those in the know for such deemed out of line from the progressive world view. However, never fear prog traditionalists, for to the powers that be, they are all 'Nazis'!TM in the end.

    https://rs.n1info.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/30/1664542085-Screenshot-2022-09-30-134516.png

    Orwell got a lot right in 1984, but being human, did (as of yet) make something of an error.

    Rather than someone with the name Goldstein being at the center of the daily 'Two Minutes Hate', it would seem it is instead to be someone with the initials A.H. [Though in a pinch, images of Trump or Putin, same difference, can do for now. :-) )

    Come the United States of the World we may well actually live to see, and be forced to endure, 'spontaneous' demonstrations and scenes much like the below.

    https://youtu.be/XvGmOZ5T6_Y

    Replies: @Beckow

    …Come the United States of the World we may well actually live to see

    The world is too variable for that. We have had the US of the World in a mild form for the last 20-25 years, but the project has peaked.

    The idea that it can double-down and force its way is not realistic. The internal pathologies – gender confusion, debt-driven economy, weak geriatric leadership, culture that no longer entertains, generational asset pyramid schemes, migrants rushing in to live off its prosperity, embarrassing Corona mental collapse – it is not a basis that would allow for an escalation.

    The enemies have accumulated: Third World seething with resentment, China, India, Brazil, Mexico… are ‘neutral’ effectively anti-West – they are not even quiet about it. The critical error was pushing Russia away – with Russia in the anti-West camp the West can no longer win. You can only buy so many leaders or stage so many color revolutions, and only so much money can be issued to keep the system stable.

    The blase Western acceptance that it could end in a nuclear war is a sign that they know they can’t win. The alternative is to take their toys home, save exposed vassals, shut up for a few years, play good, and try again in a few years. Figuring out who is a man and who a woman would be a good start on the road to recovery. It is not that hard.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Beckow


    Figuring out who is a man and who a woman would be a good start on the road to recovery. It is not that hard.
     
    We're past that point. Increasingly, when I go out I see people who are neither. You can tell what they were originally, if you look attentively enough, but that's not always possible without risking an uncomfortable situation so you're left with the doubt and carry on with your business.
    , @S
    @Beckow


    The world is too variable for that. We have had the US of the World in a mild form for the last 20-25 years, but the project has peaked.
     
    I have to disagree with you a bit here, though I would much rather be wrong, in that I think you are under estimating the United States.

    Probably will just have to agree to disagree on this.

    Replies: @Beckow

  281. @German_reader
    @Coconuts


    Iirc not too long ago there were also various claims linking the orcs with blacks.
     
    I don't think Tolkien intended the Orcs to be based on any real human group. iirc in their origin they're corrupted elves (?) after all, and there is even an eugenics element in Saruman's breeding programme...hard to think of any possible real world analogue for that. The identification with blacks presumably comes from online racists, in the wake of the LotR movies.
    However there is arguably a certain Nordicism, or maybe rather Anglo-Saxonism, in the books, since the southern and eastern human peoples are fighting on the side of Mordor.
    Regarding the present use of "Orcs" for Russians the obvious analogue for me is the use of "Huns" for Germans during WW1, the dynamics seem very similar to me (outrage over war crimes leading to collective denigration, not least by highly moralistic liberals).

    Replies: @AP

    My take on Tolkien, some of which he explicitly denied but probably influenced him unconsciously because he was a man of the first half of the 20th century:

    – Elves were the old European nobility fading away

    – Hobbits were English villagers

    – Protagonists were traditional European westerners

    – Orcs are corrupted Europeans

    – Mordor was Moscow and Sauron was Bolshevism, elevation of greed, ugly materialism and power, with an army of corrupted once-human and once-elven new “people,” (Homo Sovieticus?) marshalling the 3rd world Easterlings against the West

    – Saruman was Germany, a would-be leader of the West whose struggle with and study of the East made him mad and corrupted him thoroughly (Schopenhauer, Nietzsche). His new Orcs (corrupted former humans) were superior to classic ones but were still disgusting and corrupt. Like Nazis vs. Bolsheviks. A fallen and tragic figure.

    – Rohirrim (sic? haven’t read LOTR in decades), stuck between Saruman and Mordor with their charging cavalry, were Poles.

    – The human city from the Hobbit may have been Novgorod

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AP


    Rohirrim
     
    Their names are literally Old English. It's true that they can't be regarded as exact representatives of the Anglo-Saxons, since those fought mostly on foot, they're more of an amalgam of various Germanic peoples of the age of migrations (e. g. Goths who had cavalry, iirc Tolkien was interested in Gothic - known mainly through Wulfila's Bible - and regarded the catastrophic end of the Ostrogoths as deeply tragic). Maybe this is even reflected in their relationship to Gondor, an older empire/civilization on whose former lands they have settled, this could be somewhat analogous to the Roman empire or even Byzantium and its relations with the barbarian successor kingdoms (I don't know though if Tolkien ever made that analogy). imo there's nothing about them that could be connected to Poland in any way. Tolkien was very interested in Finland's national epic, but I don't recall him having had a deep interest in Slavic languages and mythology.
    Regarding the larger point, I'm not convinced by attempts to read his work as allegory for 20th century history...I know there are many such interpretations (have even seen claims that the ring wraiths, the Naz-Gul derive their name from Nazis+Gulag), but as you write yourself he explicitly denied them. The modern influences he admitted were much more general, e. g. his WW1 experience (iirc he said Sam Gamgee was modelled on some of the - presumably lower-class - British soldiers he knew then), and his general dislike of industrial civilization, which is represented by Isengard with its machinery and environmental pollution.
    imo it's best to take him at his word and regard LotR as just his attempt at creating the sort of mythology he felt England lacked (The Hobbit is simply a very good children's book). But of course every reader may to some extent seek to read his own meaning into the text.

    Replies: @AP

  282. @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa


    ...Case closed.
     
    You really shouldn't try so hard. "We won the war! Russian weapons don't work! Russia is now blowing up its own assets. It is over, blabla..."

    Are you a fanatic? Check out the map and the overall situation - the future is built into it. It looks very different from your breathless cheerleading. (You will have to change your name again if you go like this.)

    Replies: @AnonfromTN

    Are you a fanatic?

    He/she/it is not a fanatic, just paid employee. Naturally, he who pays the musicians calls the tune. There is nothing new in it, this was true for thousands of years, ever since paid musicians appeared in human societies.

  283. S says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @Coconuts


    I am unsure about the racial identification of orcs with Slavs in Tolkien, as opposed to seeing them as being inspired by proletarians and workers in heavy industry.
     
    Oh Tolkien did not identify Orcs with Slavs, he identified them Turks and modeled their language on Turkic or broadly speaking Altaic languages. The Slavs in the Tolkien's epos are closer to the Easterlings/Wainraiders.

    https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Easterlings


    It’s an interesting idea that the inherent opposition stretches back this far. My main reservation with this idea is that the existence of a genetically determined, fairly homogenous cultural and linguistic group called ‘Westerners’, with a history stretching back 10,000 years doesn’t seem that evident.
     
    Perhaps I went too far. Westerners as a group are certainly quite diverse. But the dominant parlinear lineage in the West is R1b, while in the East it is R1a (even among those Turks who have and Indo-Iranian/Scythian ancestry). It is very clear-cut. No possible doubt about it. And both lineages are clearly going back to distinct and probably competing cultures: Yamnaya and Bell Beaker for the R1b and Corded Ware for the R1a. Most Westerners today are descendants of the Bell Beaker people, while most Slavs are descendants of the Corded Ware. There were sometimes conflicts between these two groups edging on genocide. I personally have no doubt about who killed those R1b warriors and their haplogroup I auxiliaries at the Tollense battle field in Bronze Age Corded Ware territory.

    So yeah, we're similar, even close perhaps, but we have been and still are different. There is a Russian saying: "What is a good for a Russian, is death to a German (Nemets)". It doesn't mean that Russians considered killing Germans a good and valuable thing to do, but that things good/pleasurable for Russians/Slavs are often bad/displeasing for Westerners.

    Replies: @S

    Excellent post and overview. And, of course, within all of this and complicating matters, is the Roman Empire.

    Greece, whose language and many of it’s cultural ways would become the basis of the Eastern Roman Empire, was forcibly conquered by Rome and made against it’s will part of the Empire.

    Later, Rome (the city) and the Western Empire would collapse, becoming something of a backwater for a time, while the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium with it’s capital city, Constantinople) would live on in one form or another for another thousand years.

    No doubt, that history by itself would cause many resentments, jealousys, and bitterness, in both the East and West.

    Since the Fall of Rome in the West and East, there have been respective and ongoing attempts to reclaim it’s mantle, the New Rome (ie US/UK) in the West, and the Third Rome in Russia, amongst others.

    Without question, Rome left a powerful impression upon the European mind which endures to this day.

  284. @AnonfromTN
    @Mr. Hack

    Quoting #233: Have you ever heard the saying “he who laughs last laughs best”?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    It’s time for Russians to start shedding a few tears, like Ukrainians have been doing since Putler’s hoards invaded Ukraine on February 24. Since you enjoy old adages, try this one on for size:

    What goes around comes around.

    • Replies: @Hunsdon
    @Mr. Hack

    Once more, MH: Hordes of people. Hoards of gold.

  285. @Triteleia Laxa
    @showmethereal

    The realist is the person who looks at the world and notice facts, like the high value of the Dollar. The ideologue is the person who looks at the world and only sees their own ideology, like you.

    Replies: @showmethereal

    In other words… you have zero clue why the US has such a trade deficit (yet you probably thought tariff’s were going to help). Zero clue why the Us has so much debt and has to finance new debt every year to keep the government running. Zero clue why the Saudis (and by extension UAE and Qatar) laugh and mock at you because they can get away with what they want because they are the only thing keeping the US dollar hegemony that you boast about from collapsing. But sure keep giving Ukraine weapons for free (if you believe Ukraine can pay it back there is little hope for you). Boast away.

  286. German_reader says:
    @AP
    @German_reader

    My take on Tolkien, some of which he explicitly denied but probably influenced him unconsciously because he was a man of the first half of the 20th century:

    - Elves were the old European nobility fading away

    - Hobbits were English villagers

    - Protagonists were traditional European westerners

    - Orcs are corrupted Europeans

    - Mordor was Moscow and Sauron was Bolshevism, elevation of greed, ugly materialism and power, with an army of corrupted once-human and once-elven new “people,” (Homo Sovieticus?) marshalling the 3rd world Easterlings against the West

    - Saruman was Germany, a would-be leader of the West whose struggle with and study of the East made him mad and corrupted him thoroughly (Schopenhauer, Nietzsche). His new Orcs (corrupted former humans) were superior to classic ones but were still disgusting and corrupt. Like Nazis vs. Bolsheviks. A fallen and tragic figure.

    - Rohirrim (sic? haven’t read LOTR in decades), stuck between Saruman and Mordor with their charging cavalry, were Poles.

    - The human city from the Hobbit may have been Novgorod

    Replies: @German_reader

    Rohirrim

    Their names are literally Old English. It’s true that they can’t be regarded as exact representatives of the Anglo-Saxons, since those fought mostly on foot, they’re more of an amalgam of various Germanic peoples of the age of migrations (e. g. Goths who had cavalry, iirc Tolkien was interested in Gothic – known mainly through Wulfila’s Bible – and regarded the catastrophic end of the Ostrogoths as deeply tragic). Maybe this is even reflected in their relationship to Gondor, an older empire/civilization on whose former lands they have settled, this could be somewhat analogous to the Roman empire or even Byzantium and its relations with the barbarian successor kingdoms (I don’t know though if Tolkien ever made that analogy). imo there’s nothing about them that could be connected to Poland in any way. Tolkien was very interested in Finland’s national epic, but I don’t recall him having had a deep interest in Slavic languages and mythology.
    Regarding the larger point, I’m not convinced by attempts to read his work as allegory for 20th century history…I know there are many such interpretations (have even seen claims that the ring wraiths, the Naz-Gul derive their name from Nazis+Gulag), but as you write yourself he explicitly denied them. The modern influences he admitted were much more general, e. g. his WW1 experience (iirc he said Sam Gamgee was modelled on some of the – presumably lower-class – British soldiers he knew then), and his general dislike of industrial civilization, which is represented by Isengard with its machinery and environmental pollution.
    imo it’s best to take him at his word and regard LotR as just his attempt at creating the sort of mythology he felt England lacked (The Hobbit is simply a very good children’s book). But of course every reader may to some extent seek to read his own meaning into the text.

    • Agree: keypusher
    • Replies: @AP
    @German_reader

    Yes, the form his of his mythology was thoroughly Northern European but the themes seem to have reflected contemporary events. The Poles for example saved Europe from the first Bolshevik horde’s onslaught in a war that featured the last true cavalry battle.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Komar%C3%B3w

    As I mentioned, Tolkien explicitly denied that his work was any sort of allegory for actual historical events and I take him at his word, I do think that those events found their way into his works nonetheless.

    Replies: @Keypusher, @LondonBob

  287. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Kyiv shouldn’t just be the capital of Rus, but possibly all of Europe.
     
    The capital of the whole Eurasia, from Dublin to Vladivostok...

    Read the article written by the Big Zbig in 2011, the one about "Balancing... upgrading...". You'll get the picture...



    Now about the native European people agreeing on the Great Replacement (Kalergi Plan), I don't know how someone can swriously think along that lines.

    The native European peoples have been pitched against each other thrice in a more or less 100 years period (1914 - 2022). And it is always the same "usual suspects" who push for war in Europe to keep it divided and weakened.

    Then, someone had to replace the human ressources lost during the wars, and immigration gates were opened. Capitalists applauded, internationalists opined, but nationalists have always been clear on the dangers of this inflow of foreign and hard to assimilate populations. Nowhere - except in UK, and never - except in the few recent decades have we seen any European government openly announcing a full-fledged multiculturalism.

    Why ? Because British elites still see themselves as the head of a multicultural global empire. The fact that the empire is now more financial than military doesn't change a thing. They don't care whom they rule upon, as long as the job is done and taxes paid. They are exactly like these "Nouveaux Russes" that have aped the UK and US immigration policies by importing some 15 million Central Asian gastarbeiters to RusFed. In the same vein, the Anglo-saxon elites and their Atlanticist auxiliaries do not care for European natives and are ready to replace them all, as long as they and their offspring stay on the top of the food chain.

    Who has blown North Stream ? Those who resent German economic might and Russian/German economic cooperation. The same people who despised Germany and loathed Russia in 1914 and 1941. The Anglo-saxon, probably the British. It's the same modus operandi: provocation, propaganda, war. Nothing changes.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    The capital of the whole Eurasia, from Dublin to Vladivostok

    Deal, but no Kadyrov, and that Eurasia stops at the borders of Mongolia. Or, if not, as Mongolia is small, most definitely China.

    Sorry to the Chinese people. You’re great, but not the point of this particular party.

    Read the article written by the Big Zbig in 2011, the one about “Balancing… upgrading…”. You’ll get the picture…

    There are endless think pieces advocating in every direction.

    Now about the native European people agreeing on the Great Replacement (Kalergi Plan),

    Kalergi was an interesting man, but plans like that are not how human society works.

    Or at least how I observe humans, and human society working.

    Most people don’t even seem to have free will on the topics that are most important to them.

    Yes, everything is a result of their choices in a way, but, since they have no conscious clue as to why they made those choices, it is hard for them to even begin to construct, and follow through, with grand plans as you describe.

    Just pick a part of someone that they can’t recognise, bring it to the surface, and watch them go deranged, either positively or negatively.

    It isn’t the Anglo-Saxon elite that is driving this, although a few of your observations are reasonable, such as them being emotionally and institutionally set-up for Empire, at least until fairly recently, but the beautiful melody and rhythm of the universe.

    Just because you manage to hear the occasional note, and it seems to clang, doesn’t mean the full ensemble isn’t lovely.

    But it doesn’t matter at this point, because this is a gap which I don’t think I can bridge. You’re too close to seeing things directly that my descriptions will never be more accurate. Which is a great thing, so no worries.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Laxa, is that you ?

    You've changed your moniker to post more often ?

    🙂

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    , @LatW
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Deal, but no Kadyrov
     
    That's not how it works. You can't just push this or that actor out of the union. Everyone will try to get close to the elite and everyone will need to be represented in the elite because you have constituent republics behind them. Otherwise - separatism. So Kadyrov (or another Caucasian, who may be more or less dreadful) comes with the package. He will mostly likely not be the Leader (the Leader most likely would be a Slav), but he will be somewhere in the high ups (such as for example Beria, another son of Caucasus, was).

    This is why I support a Realm of the Rus that is a confederation of white ethnostates. And the resources from the other Eurasian entities (the non-European ones that actual hold most of the resources) need to be acquired through skillful trading.

  288. @Mikel
    @AP


    His defence for not personally going to war is logical: he is militarily useless (no background, no training in military matters)
     
    That logic didn't work for men of military age in Donbas. They were all forcibly sent to the fronts as soon as Putin decided that it was time to "liberate" them. I don't recall AK objecting to that forced mobilization. And by multiple accounts they are doing a better job than the professional Russian soldiers, that are apparently starting to give up fighting in large numbers. Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Thulean Friend, @showmethereal

    Military men of fighting age (and even older) had been fighting in Donbass since 2014. What planet are you people on??? They formed militias and were fighting all along while Ukraine was shelling the region. You people seriously seem to have no clue of what’s been going on. The declared independence after the Nuland inspired coup and took up arms. Stop with the revisionist history.

    • Agree: AnonfromTN
    • Replies: @Philip Owen
    @showmethereal

    Russian proxies paid initally by Malofeev and organized by elements of the ROC started and maintained the war. The actual elected locals wanted a referendum on more powers locally. Borodai threw them into a locked room.

    Replies: @showmethereal

  289. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Thulean Friend
    @Bashibuzuk


    Nobody should rejoice, make fun of or take pride in the suffering of others
     
    You're probably a better human being than I am, for I greatly enjoy seeing some people suffering. But only if they deserve it. I don't subscribe to "might makes right" nor do I believe that the weak should be preyed upon.

    That being said, my humanism doesn't stretch as far as yours - are you sure you're even an ethnonationalist? - since I view a section of the population as irredeemable.

    Indeed, I've long called for genetically engineering the human race and even capping the male population at no more than perhaps 30%. Given all the environmental destruction, wars and rampant sexism, it is very hard to make a strong case for why homo sapiens shouldn't be improved. We will very soon have the tools to do so.


    Sorry for the long and somewhat emotional rant…
     
    No worries, I greatly enjoy your comments and I re-iterate my gratitude for you having graced us with your presence once again. I just miss AaronB, who also had a strong spiritual/humanist element within him just like you do.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Barbarossa, @Barbarossa

    I greatly enjoy seeing some people suffering. But only if they deserve it.

    Your moral judgement (they deserve it) separates you from part of yourself and means that you see people in suffering, suffer yourself, but don’t even know it. Your “enjoyment” is the thinnest of feelings. Like having a tub of ice cream, it will never bring you home, satisfied.

    That being said, my humanism doesn’t stretch as far as yours – are you sure you’re even an ethnonationalist?

    You can love everyone, and yet prioritise your own born family. Nevermind create structures that are more resilient and flexible because they recognise this healthy fact.

    Indeed, I’ve long called for genetically engineering the human race and even capping the male population at no more than perhaps 30%. Given all the environmental destruction, wars and rampant sexism, it is very hard to make a strong case for why homo sapiens shouldn’t be improved. We will very soon have the tools to do so.

    Might work. But it is a fantasy, even with some sexual elements. The issue is that the decision point on whether or not to do that is after a bunch of other things have been achieved. And once those are achieved things might look different.

  290. @Thulean Friend
    @Bashibuzuk


    Nobody should rejoice, make fun of or take pride in the suffering of others
     
    You're probably a better human being than I am, for I greatly enjoy seeing some people suffering. But only if they deserve it. I don't subscribe to "might makes right" nor do I believe that the weak should be preyed upon.

    That being said, my humanism doesn't stretch as far as yours - are you sure you're even an ethnonationalist? - since I view a section of the population as irredeemable.

    Indeed, I've long called for genetically engineering the human race and even capping the male population at no more than perhaps 30%. Given all the environmental destruction, wars and rampant sexism, it is very hard to make a strong case for why homo sapiens shouldn't be improved. We will very soon have the tools to do so.


    Sorry for the long and somewhat emotional rant…
     
    No worries, I greatly enjoy your comments and I re-iterate my gratitude for you having graced us with your presence once again. I just miss AaronB, who also had a strong spiritual/humanist element within him just like you do.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Barbarossa, @Barbarossa

    why homo sapiens shouldn’t be improved. We will very soon have the tools to do so

    Humanity hasn’t had the greatest track record in dealing with their ability to transcend most natural limits. This includes the same environmental destruction that you cite. I don’t have much hope that such genetic engineering technologies will be a force for good, especially since the modern age is completely devoid of a guiding ethic or morality.

    The modern ethic of the technocrat is to worship innovation for it’s own sake and throw crap at the wall to see if anything sticks!

  291. @Thulean Friend
    @Bashibuzuk


    Nobody should rejoice, make fun of or take pride in the suffering of others
     
    You're probably a better human being than I am, for I greatly enjoy seeing some people suffering. But only if they deserve it. I don't subscribe to "might makes right" nor do I believe that the weak should be preyed upon.

    That being said, my humanism doesn't stretch as far as yours - are you sure you're even an ethnonationalist? - since I view a section of the population as irredeemable.

    Indeed, I've long called for genetically engineering the human race and even capping the male population at no more than perhaps 30%. Given all the environmental destruction, wars and rampant sexism, it is very hard to make a strong case for why homo sapiens shouldn't be improved. We will very soon have the tools to do so.


    Sorry for the long and somewhat emotional rant…
     
    No worries, I greatly enjoy your comments and I re-iterate my gratitude for you having graced us with your presence once again. I just miss AaronB, who also had a strong spiritual/humanist element within him just like you do.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Barbarossa, @Barbarossa

    I agree on AaronB. I keep hoping he’ll pop back at some point. Perhaps if we all thick collectively we can issue forth a call summoning him from across the astral plane.

    With Bashibuzuk back, the spiritual energy of this thread should be sufficient to counteract the godless materialists like yourself and Dmitry in effecting such a call!

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @Barbarossa


    godless materialists like yourself and Dmitry
     
    That was meant in all good humor, by the way. I value both of your comments immensely...even if you are godless materialists. ; )
    , @Yevardian
    @Barbarossa

    utu needs to return for requisite spice and to call posters out on BS. Unfortunately I don't think he'll come back.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

  292. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk


    The capital of the whole Eurasia, from Dublin to Vladivostok
     
    Deal, but no Kadyrov, and that Eurasia stops at the borders of Mongolia. Or, if not, as Mongolia is small, most definitely China.

    Sorry to the Chinese people. You're great, but not the point of this particular party.

    Read the article written by the Big Zbig in 2011, the one about “Balancing… upgrading…”. You’ll get the picture…
     
    There are endless think pieces advocating in every direction.

    Now about the native European people agreeing on the Great Replacement (Kalergi Plan),
     
    Kalergi was an interesting man, but plans like that are not how human society works.

    Or at least how I observe humans, and human society working.

    Most people don't even seem to have free will on the topics that are most important to them.

    Yes, everything is a result of their choices in a way, but, since they have no conscious clue as to why they made those choices, it is hard for them to even begin to construct, and follow through, with grand plans as you describe.

    Just pick a part of someone that they can't recognise, bring it to the surface, and watch them go deranged, either positively or negatively.

    It isn't the Anglo-Saxon elite that is driving this, although a few of your observations are reasonable, such as them being emotionally and institutionally set-up for Empire, at least until fairly recently, but the beautiful melody and rhythm of the universe.

    Just because you manage to hear the occasional note, and it seems to clang, doesn't mean the full ensemble isn't lovely.

    But it doesn't matter at this point, because this is a gap which I don't think I can bridge. You're too close to seeing things directly that my descriptions will never be more accurate. Which is a great thing, so no worries.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @LatW

    Laxa, is that you ?

    You’ve changed your moniker to post more often ?

    🙂

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @Bashibuzuk

    Yeah. I've been thinking though that Laxa is letting her Spec Ops alter ego post for a while. Style is different enough while the gist is parallel.

  293. @Mikel
    @LondonBob


    Advancing in insignificant areas where it is preferable for the Russians to give up ground
     
    Yes, you have a point. Kharkiv Oblast, half the recently annexed Kherson and the Severodonetsk basin are quite insignificant areas for the Russian goals and morale.

    In fact, in the grand scheme of things, what value does dilapidated Donbas have for Russia? Or even Crimea, a peninsula unable to sustain itself without water from the mainland? Heck, what do Russians even want Moscow for, a city that, as Dmitry keeps explaining, is nothing but a drag for the rest of the country?

    Replies: @S

    You’re merciless, Mikel! 🙂

  294. @Thulean Friend
    @Mikel


    That logic didn’t work for men of military age in Donbas. They were all forcibly sent to the fronts as soon as Putin decided that it was time to “liberate” them. I don’t recall AK objecting to that forced mobilization. And by multiple accounts they are doing a better job than the professional Russian soldiers, that are apparently starting to give up fighting in large numbers. Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.
     
    That's all true, but there's also the question of principle.

    People should face the consequences of the policies they advocate. I feel the same way re: US neocons always pushing for new wars. They and their families never face the consequences of the disasters they promoted (Iraq invasion, Libya etc), which is why they continually beat the drums of war. It's disgusting.

    Karlin certainly has no excuses given that he's a fit male in his 30s and highly motivated by the mission. As you noted, volunteers without prior military experience have done well. It's pure cowardice on his part.

    In the end, he's just a chickenhawk.

    Replies: @Mikel

    As you noted, volunteers without prior military experience have done well.

    They’re not even volunteers. Just forced conscripts. But they’ve seen thousands of civilians die around them in Donbas and also they have a reputation to maintain when they return home to the places where many people did volunteer and die. That matters much more than military training. What training had the bulk of the Ukrainian troops that are now making the Russians flee?

    The Russian military right now needs many more enthusiastic Karlins going to the fronts than half-motivated reservists rounded up in a belated and chaotic mobilization push.

    • Replies: @Sean
    @Mikel

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UQgzn054yM


    Putin is about to more than double his force, and because it is part of Russia now he can use conscripts in the occupied territory and the parts of Donbass and Kherson that have never been occupied, maybe triple it, That was the real reason behind the annexing.

    Let us put how the war is actually going for Russia to one side. Now, assuming a hypothetical looming defeat for Russia, what might oblige Putin to accept that he leads a third rate country through not daring to clearly threaten to use and then if ignored actually use some of the smallest types in Russia's enormously expensive collection of various nuclear weapons?

    A scenario of a American conventional attack on Russian forces in Ukraine in retaliation for Putin's battlefield thermonuclear weapon use, Russia would have already crossed the Rubicon of theatre thermonuclear weapons in anger when conventionally bested. We are being led to believe that powerful deterrents exist to dissuade Putin from using more tac nukes (on the Americans while the US is directly attacking the Russian army and killing tens of thousands of its soldiers) . Well, why would they work?

  295. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk


    The capital of the whole Eurasia, from Dublin to Vladivostok
     
    Deal, but no Kadyrov, and that Eurasia stops at the borders of Mongolia. Or, if not, as Mongolia is small, most definitely China.

    Sorry to the Chinese people. You're great, but not the point of this particular party.

    Read the article written by the Big Zbig in 2011, the one about “Balancing… upgrading…”. You’ll get the picture…
     
    There are endless think pieces advocating in every direction.

    Now about the native European people agreeing on the Great Replacement (Kalergi Plan),
     
    Kalergi was an interesting man, but plans like that are not how human society works.

    Or at least how I observe humans, and human society working.

    Most people don't even seem to have free will on the topics that are most important to them.

    Yes, everything is a result of their choices in a way, but, since they have no conscious clue as to why they made those choices, it is hard for them to even begin to construct, and follow through, with grand plans as you describe.

    Just pick a part of someone that they can't recognise, bring it to the surface, and watch them go deranged, either positively or negatively.

    It isn't the Anglo-Saxon elite that is driving this, although a few of your observations are reasonable, such as them being emotionally and institutionally set-up for Empire, at least until fairly recently, but the beautiful melody and rhythm of the universe.

    Just because you manage to hear the occasional note, and it seems to clang, doesn't mean the full ensemble isn't lovely.

    But it doesn't matter at this point, because this is a gap which I don't think I can bridge. You're too close to seeing things directly that my descriptions will never be more accurate. Which is a great thing, so no worries.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @LatW

    Deal, but no Kadyrov

    That’s not how it works. You can’t just push this or that actor out of the union. Everyone will try to get close to the elite and everyone will need to be represented in the elite because you have constituent republics behind them. Otherwise – separatism. So Kadyrov (or another Caucasian, who may be more or less dreadful) comes with the package. He will mostly likely not be the Leader (the Leader most likely would be a Slav), but he will be somewhere in the high ups (such as for example Beria, another son of Caucasus, was).

    This is why I support a Realm of the Rus that is a confederation of white ethnostates. And the resources from the other Eurasian entities (the non-European ones that actual hold most of the resources) need to be acquired through skillful trading.

  296. @sudden death
    @Mikel

    Jokes aside there are just two public excuses left which now are being paraded around during all this ongoing fun:

    1. We haven't thrown enough meat yet
    2. We haven't thrown tactical nuke yet

    Not a single line being written or word spoken how exactly heaps of new meat will really help make that much difference if RF ammo dumps will keep being blown by Himars and RF air force keeps being blown out of the sky constantly as soon as it tries to suppport the meat more close/actively...

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Beckow, @Mikel

    Not a single line being written or word spoken how exactly heaps of new meat will really help make that much difference

    I think I was making that point here not long ago. I don’t see how 300k conscripts are going to make any significant difference on this enterprise where the bulk of the professional Russian Armed Forces have failed quite miserably.

    Strelkov is asking if Konachenkov’s daily briefings are for the public or rather for the Kremlin. I ask myself the same question. The stupor in the Kremlin is astonishing. Don’t they have accurate information of what’s happening in Ukraine (like they didn’t when they decided to launch this operation)? Is the command structure broken? Both?

    The same strategists that devised this fiasco sending more men to fight against a determined enemy that is receiving unprecedented amounts of weapons and intelligence from all around the West looks futile.

    Increasing the number of troops may be a necessary condition to avoid defeat for the reasons that Thorfinson explains but by no means sufficient, imho.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @Mikel

    Russia was expecting a repeat of Czechoslovakia 1968, and in the worst case perhaps a repeat of Poland 1939. In fairness to the Russians that is also what most non-Russian observers expected, including yours truly.

    They therefore launched their invasion with 200,000 too few men over too many axes of advance along with the incorporation of police units.

    These men also received very little planning or preparation, and it seems that in this particular case that incompetence was not the reason. The release of intelligence by Washington and London accurately claiming that Russia was going to invade may have convinced the Kremlin that its military was penetrated by Western intelligence, and therefore to maintain surprise it was essential to avoid informing the men.

    The command structure is indeed broken. There is no overall commander of the war, Wagner reports directly to Kremlin, and the LDNR forces operate under their own command structures. Due to Russian law, Russian formations deployed to the Ukraine left all of their conscripted elements behind. Decision-making is bureaucratic and slow, hence the demented ramblings of that femoid about the amazing OODA loop of the French Army.

    The fact that the Russians involved in the war up until now have primarily been "professionals" is true but irrelevant, except to the extent that it explains why there is not enough manpower at the front. Modern professional enlisted soldiers aren't like Roman legionnaires who dedicate their lives to the army but rather short-term adventurers. The idea that they're inherently better soldiers than conscripts is American copium intended to cover up the fact that the USA was forced to end conscription for reasons of domestic politics. In yet another triumph of American soft power the Russians themselves came to believe this abject nonsense.

    That said, we should obviously expect the first new men rushed to the front to be poorly prepared.

    I'll close in noting that while it was foolish for Russia to launch this war, there is now no way out but through it. The Ukraine just passed a law making it illegal to negotiate with Putin, the Western powers are not providing an offramp to Russia, and when recently Elon Musk suggested UN-supervised referenda to end the conflict he was hysterically denounced. If Russia doesn't win the war Putin may die in a Dutch prison cell.

    Replies: @Sean, @Philip Owen, @Mikel, @LondonBob

    , @Wokechoke
    @Mikel

    The Russians may have to put out various ethnic fires internally.

  297. @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikel


    Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.
     
    Their time will come if and when the RusFed crumbles into a Civil War.

    Perhaps I will go there then to join some like-minded folks, that is if it happens in the coming few years.

    After that I would probably be a bit old, although I'm not in a bad shape.

    BTW, we had a bet with Karlin about Putin leaving power before 2024, I still believe that he will vacate the Kremlin. Possibly in the next few months. Perhaps against his own will...

    Replies: @Mikel, @LatW

    Perhaps I will go there then to join some like-minded folks

    I hope you don’t feel the need to do that.

    Personally, I have no problem admitting that I wouldn’t give my life for any cause other than defending my family from a tangible threat (I have run some risks climbing mountains but that is a totally different thing, more related to one’s search for meaning combined with a certain vanity).

    I don’t know what would be the best course for Russia. Having lived in Latin America, I do know that liberal democracy is not necessarily the best arrangement for all types of societies. The other thing that I know is that, if not for Russia itself, for the rest of the world a Russia that retreats to itself, abandons dreams of superpower status and concentrates on economic development would be the best scenario. As far as I’m concerned, if it takes a Navalny to get there, so be it.

  298. @German_reader
    @AP


    Rohirrim
     
    Their names are literally Old English. It's true that they can't be regarded as exact representatives of the Anglo-Saxons, since those fought mostly on foot, they're more of an amalgam of various Germanic peoples of the age of migrations (e. g. Goths who had cavalry, iirc Tolkien was interested in Gothic - known mainly through Wulfila's Bible - and regarded the catastrophic end of the Ostrogoths as deeply tragic). Maybe this is even reflected in their relationship to Gondor, an older empire/civilization on whose former lands they have settled, this could be somewhat analogous to the Roman empire or even Byzantium and its relations with the barbarian successor kingdoms (I don't know though if Tolkien ever made that analogy). imo there's nothing about them that could be connected to Poland in any way. Tolkien was very interested in Finland's national epic, but I don't recall him having had a deep interest in Slavic languages and mythology.
    Regarding the larger point, I'm not convinced by attempts to read his work as allegory for 20th century history...I know there are many such interpretations (have even seen claims that the ring wraiths, the Naz-Gul derive their name from Nazis+Gulag), but as you write yourself he explicitly denied them. The modern influences he admitted were much more general, e. g. his WW1 experience (iirc he said Sam Gamgee was modelled on some of the - presumably lower-class - British soldiers he knew then), and his general dislike of industrial civilization, which is represented by Isengard with its machinery and environmental pollution.
    imo it's best to take him at his word and regard LotR as just his attempt at creating the sort of mythology he felt England lacked (The Hobbit is simply a very good children's book). But of course every reader may to some extent seek to read his own meaning into the text.

    Replies: @AP

    Yes, the form his of his mythology was thoroughly Northern European but the themes seem to have reflected contemporary events. The Poles for example saved Europe from the first Bolshevik horde’s onslaught in a war that featured the last true cavalry battle.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Komar%C3%B3w

    As I mentioned, Tolkien explicitly denied that his work was any sort of allegory for actual historical events and I take him at his word, I do think that those events found their way into his works nonetheless.

    • Replies: @Keypusher
    @AP

    I would guess if he had any Polish antecedent in mind it would have been Sobieski at Vienna in 1683.

    , @LondonBob
    @AP

    Didn't the Poles do a deal with the Bolsheviks in October 1919 annexing Belorussia and Lithuania, allowing the Bolsheviks to redeploy forty thousand troops to stop the White Army under Yudenich that was approaching Petrograd along the Baltic?

    No Tolkein had no interest in Eastern Europe, a very wise path to take and a position that should have been sustained.

    Replies: @Mikhail

  299. @Sean
    @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    Ordinary AI could maybe deactivate Russia's strategic thermonuclear weapons. That is what former CIA Russia expert George Beabe's The Russia Trap: How Our Shadow War with Russia Could Spiral into Nuclear Catastrophe is about.

    Beabe is interesting about the Ukraine war , he thinks further escalation is to be expected because both the US/Ukraine and Russia will think the other side will be brought to their senses by one more turn of the spiral.

    https://www.gingrich360.com/2022/10/02/newts-world-episode-466-russia-ukraine-war%EF%BF%BC/

    Beebe predicts the next Russian move will be heaviest possible bombardment of Ukrainian cities. I think it is clear that Ukraine will be given the 190 mile range ATACMS missile, (McMaster thinks the US was not confrontational enought with Putin over Ukraine and could have dissuaded him. He and and the other retired generals calling for that aforenoted next escalation that might make Putin balk, also seem surprisingly sanguine about the possibility that Putin would go tactical thermonuclear. Is that because they think the US could hack the Russian launch codes and stop the missiles being launched?

    Replies: @orchardist

    they think the US could hack the Russian launch codes and stop the missiles being launched?

    This is the thesis of Project Azorian.

    • Replies: @Sean
    @orchardist

    Allegedly there was a 1982 operation to sabotage Soviet industry by duping Moscow into using logic bomb software that triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian gas pipeline.

    The 2016 novel War With Russia by retired British General Sir Richard Shirreff in which Ukraine is invaded by Russia, ends with Nato hackers causing a Russian thermonuclear missile to detonate itself on the launch pad in Kalinigrad

    Replies: @orchardist

  300. Here is a prediction that Oleksiy Arestovych made in March 2019. There was another one from March 2014 (!!) where he predicted the ambush of Kyiv.

    “We can’t pull off neutrality. Neutrality costs 10 times more than an alliance. No country in our position, with a thousands of kms long border, could have neutrality.

    The likelihood of a large war with Russia is 99%. They need to ruin our livelihood to make us less attractive for NATO. They need to do this before we join NATO so that NATO no longer finds us interesting as a ruined territory.

    [..]

    Our price for the NATO accession is a big war with Russia. And if we don’t join NATO, we will be consumed by Russia within 10-12 years.

    Reporter: Which one would be a better choice?

    Of course, a big war with Russia and our [subsequent] accession into NATO through our victory in this war.

    Reporter: What does a large war with Russia entail?

    Air operations, the invasion of Ukraine by the 4 [Russian] armies they’ve created on our borders, ambush of Kyiv, an attempt to surround our troops in the East, a push from Crimea and an attack from Belarus. Creation of new republics, hits on critical infrastructure. The likelihood of this happening is 99%.

    Reporter: When?

    2021 or 2022. The period from 2020 to 2022 is the most critical. Then the next critical period could be 2024-26, and then another one in 2028-30. There could be 3 wars with Russia.

    The Russian saboteurs will come in before the tanks and announce the Republics of Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv. Odessa, Kherson. Zaporizhia.

    Reporter: How can Ukraine receive a road map to join NATO without a big war with Russia?

    There is no way. Only if Russia is pressured very heavily. Embargoes or letting them know that there will be a strong “boom boom” if they attempt to wage war. If the West brings in their troops. Or by changing power in Russia by putting liberals in charge again. If there is a group within the Russian elite that can overcome the revanchist one, then this could work.


    Reporter: What about a peaceful resolution?

    Never.

    Reporter: Why not? It seems the West is considering such options.

    The West is offering these options, offering Russia to stop and think about it. Why would Russia do that? If liberals come to power or if Russia is threatened harshly, but what can you threaten a nuclear country with? You can’t put serious pressure on people who possess such weapons. A serious pressure is a threat of force. The economic sanctions… for a country like Russia… Iran has been under sanctions for a long time. And Iran is still a player. And Russia’s even bigger and more influential.

    Ukraine has no chance of holding neutrality, we will float in either direction, one way or another. The Customs Union or NATO. I had a chance to be inside the Customs Union, and don’t want it anymore, NATO I haven’t been in, let’s give it a try. The most important historic task is to join NATO whatever it takes economically and socially.

    The price for joining NATO is a large conflict with Russia but in this conflict we will be actively supported by the West. With weapons, equipment, help, new sanctions on Russia, a possible entry of NATO contingent and a no fly zone. We will not lose this war and that’s good enough.”

    [MORE]

    In Russian, starts at 7:10

    • Thanks: Sean, Keypusher
    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LatW

    I know you think this makes him a far-sighted statesman, but it's actually pretty damning. He fully understood that Ukraine's attempt to join NATO would lead to a big war, but still thought it wise to persist on that course. As a result not only have tens of thousands of Ukrainians been killed, Europe's economy is going to be wrecked and we're probably at the highest risk of nuclear war in 60 years.
    If the old pre-1990 European members of NATO had any good sense they would leave this organization as quickly as possible and create their own security structures. NATO made sense for Western Europeans when there was a risk of the Soviets reaching the English channel, it doesn't make any sense today when it's merely a vehicle for US global domination and the subaltern fantasy projects of Eastern Europeans.

    Replies: @LatW, @keypusher

    , @sudden death
    @LatW


    There was another one from March 2014 (!!) where he predicted the ambush of Kyiv.
     
    There was also eerily prescient talk from him in 2013 Dcember IIRC where he had quite detailed explanation how Yanukovich power structures are slowly crumbling from within and predicted it will end soon in collapse as the spirit of Maidan society is getting more stronger and stronger everyday despite the ongoing mass persecution of the activists by security forces.

    Replies: @LatW

    , @S
    @LatW


    The price for joining NATO is a large conflict with Russia but in this conflict we will be actively supported by the West. With weapons, equipment, help, new sanctions on Russia, a possible entry of NATO contingent and a no fly zone. We will not lose this war and that’s good enough.
     
    That is interesting.

    That makes three 'prophecies' involving the United States and Russia. The one alluded to here by Oleksiy Arestovych in 2019, The New Rome (linked to below) by Theodore Poesche in 1853, and The Third Empire (also linked below) by Mikhail Yuriev in 2006.

    Each people receiving their particular prophecy are promised grand things if they achieve victory.

    In Poesche's mid-19th century New Rome, if the United States can just defeat Russia it will be rewarded with a glorious new global empire.

    Similarly in Yuriev's Third Empire, but inverted, if Russia can just defeat the United States, it, too, will have a glorious new global empire.

    For the Ukrainians, if they can just enjoin the United States (via Nato) and Russia into 'a big war' with each other they get a glorious secure new statehood for themselves.

    All lucky educated 'guesses,' perhaps? Evidence of an 'occult' angle, possibly? A 'suggestion' being placed in people's minds for the future, maybe?

    Or, taking into account those powerful elements amongst the elites and their hangers on who loudly have long wished that the world only have a population of five hundred million, what if these promises all turn out to be false prophecies, and the United States, Russia, and Ukraine, not only do not receive what the prophecies promised, but, instead, ultimately end up largely being destroyed as a result of this 'big war'?

    I certainly do not hope for such a result.

    Arestovych's extensive intelligence agency background is intriguing, and makes one wonder just how much of a fine line there might be, on the one hand, between a detailed 'prophecy' such as the one he has made, and, an insider's knowledge of long range planning, on the other.


    A NEW ROMAN EMPIRE

    By Webster G Tarpley

    'It is 1850. Lord Palmerston is engaged in a campaign to make London the undisputed center of a new, worldwide Roman Empire. He is attempting to conquer the world in the way that the British have already conquered India, reducing every other nation to the role of a puppet, client, and fall-guy for British imperial policy. Lord Palmerston’s campaign is not a secret.'

    'He has declared it here in the Houses of Parliament, saying that wherever in the world a British subject goes, he can flaunt the laws, secure that the British fleet will support him. “Civis Romanus sum, every Briton is a citizen of this new Rome,” thundered Lord Palmerston, and with that, the universal empire was proclaimed.'
     

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-utopian-russian-novel-that-predicted-putin-s-war-plan/ar-AAVwgV1

    https://archive.org/details/newrome00poes/page/n15/mode/2up

    http://tarpley.net/online-books/against-oligarchy/lord-palmerstons-multicultural-human-zoo/

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @LatW

  301. @Mikel
    @Thulean Friend


    As you noted, volunteers without prior military experience have done well.
     
    They're not even volunteers. Just forced conscripts. But they've seen thousands of civilians die around them in Donbas and also they have a reputation to maintain when they return home to the places where many people did volunteer and die. That matters much more than military training. What training had the bulk of the Ukrainian troops that are now making the Russians flee?

    The Russian military right now needs many more enthusiastic Karlins going to the fronts than half-motivated reservists rounded up in a belated and chaotic mobilization push.

    Replies: @Sean

    Putin is about to more than double his force, and because it is part of Russia now he can use conscripts in the occupied territory and the parts of Donbass and Kherson that have never been occupied, maybe triple it, That was the real reason behind the annexing.

    Let us put how the war is actually going for Russia to one side. Now, assuming a hypothetical looming defeat for Russia, what might oblige Putin to accept that he leads a third rate country through not daring to clearly threaten to use and then if ignored actually use some of the smallest types in Russia’s enormously expensive collection of various nuclear weapons?

    A scenario of a American conventional attack on Russian forces in Ukraine in retaliation for Putin’s battlefield thermonuclear weapon use, Russia would have already crossed the Rubicon of theatre thermonuclear weapons in anger when conventionally bested. We are being led to believe that powerful deterrents exist to dissuade Putin from using more tac nukes (on the Americans while the US is directly attacking the Russian army and killing tens of thousands of its soldiers) . Well, why would they work?

  302. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    Not a single line being written or word spoken how exactly heaps of new meat will really help make that much difference
     
    I think I was making that point here not long ago. I don't see how 300k conscripts are going to make any significant difference on this enterprise where the bulk of the professional Russian Armed Forces have failed quite miserably.

    Strelkov is asking if Konachenkov's daily briefings are for the public or rather for the Kremlin. I ask myself the same question. The stupor in the Kremlin is astonishing. Don't they have accurate information of what's happening in Ukraine (like they didn't when they decided to launch this operation)? Is the command structure broken? Both?

    The same strategists that devised this fiasco sending more men to fight against a determined enemy that is receiving unprecedented amounts of weapons and intelligence from all around the West looks futile.

    Increasing the number of troops may be a necessary condition to avoid defeat for the reasons that Thorfinson explains but by no means sufficient, imho.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Wokechoke

    Russia was expecting a repeat of Czechoslovakia 1968, and in the worst case perhaps a repeat of Poland 1939. In fairness to the Russians that is also what most non-Russian observers expected, including yours truly.

    They therefore launched their invasion with 200,000 too few men over too many axes of advance along with the incorporation of police units.

    These men also received very little planning or preparation, and it seems that in this particular case that incompetence was not the reason. The release of intelligence by Washington and London accurately claiming that Russia was going to invade may have convinced the Kremlin that its military was penetrated by Western intelligence, and therefore to maintain surprise it was essential to avoid informing the men.

    The command structure is indeed broken. There is no overall commander of the war, Wagner reports directly to Kremlin, and the LDNR forces operate under their own command structures. Due to Russian law, Russian formations deployed to the Ukraine left all of their conscripted elements behind. Decision-making is bureaucratic and slow, hence the demented ramblings of that femoid about the amazing OODA loop of the French Army.

    The fact that the Russians involved in the war up until now have primarily been “professionals” is true but irrelevant, except to the extent that it explains why there is not enough manpower at the front. Modern professional enlisted soldiers aren’t like Roman legionnaires who dedicate their lives to the army but rather short-term adventurers. The idea that they’re inherently better soldiers than conscripts is American copium intended to cover up the fact that the USA was forced to end conscription for reasons of domestic politics. In yet another triumph of American soft power the Russians themselves came to believe this abject nonsense.

    That said, we should obviously expect the first new men rushed to the front to be poorly prepared.

    I’ll close in noting that while it was foolish for Russia to launch this war, there is now no way out but through it. The Ukraine just passed a law making it illegal to negotiate with Putin, the Western powers are not providing an offramp to Russia, and when recently Elon Musk suggested UN-supervised referenda to end the conflict he was hysterically denounced. If Russia doesn’t win the war Putin may die in a Dutch prison cell.

    • Thanks: Barbarossa
    • Replies: @Sean
    @Thorfinnsson


    Russia was expecting a repeat of Czechoslovakia 1968, and in the worst case perhaps a repeat of Poland 1939. In fairness to the Russians that is also what most non-Russian observers expected, including yours truly.
     
    Putin may or may not have believed that. I have Stuermer's book on Putin, which benefited from many long interviews with him, and in it he says that the Kremlin were aware the impression of Russian military power was largely fanfaronade. Maybe it was cognitive dissonance, a subliminal awareness that although Russia had to fight and fight soon, popular and maybe even army objections would be raised to a realistic plan calling for mobilisation and a huge invasion force. Anyway Russia is in it now, and they know they will have to pack a lunch.

    They therefore launched their invasion with 200,000 too few men over too many axes of advance along with the incorporation of police units.
     
    The conscripts could not be used outside Russia.

    I’ll close in noting that while it was foolish for Russia to launch this war
     
    In 2019 Oleksiy Arestovych thought it was the only thing for Putin to do and he would do it. Arestovych even predicted the year correctly. That was right after Zelensky did a U turn on the modified Minsk agreement. Deep down the Ukrainians wanted this war, it is like Raymond Poincaré's revanchist designs to be backed by very powerful allies in a fight with Germany, whereby France's provinces would be recovered.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

    , @Philip Owen
    @Thorfinnsson

    Russia has had the same plan since the 2004 coup.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/putin-kremlin-foreign-policy-strategy/629388/

    https://rassvetbooks.com/en/products/mikhail-yuryev/third-empire

    , @Mikel
    @Thorfinnsson


    If Russia doesn’t win the war Putin may die in a Dutch prison cell.
     
    But he doesn't look like he is in a rush to win it. The Russians' need to increase troop numbers was obvious, and pointed out by many Russian and foreign observers, in the early stages of the war. He delayed the decision until the point where it is not clear how much this increase is going to help.

    Likewise, it looks stupid from the outside to annex regions that you not only don't control fully but are actually at the risk of losing, like we're seeing in Kherson now. Once again, loyal civilians (de jure Russian citizens now) have been left behind with no warning that the Russian troops were retreating.

    His behavior is consistent with someone who is not being fed very accurate information. Perhaps the same hubris that led him to launch this insane operation is leading him to lose the war.

    Or perhaps he has already decided that he'll have to push the red button.

    Replies: @Mikhail

    , @LondonBob
    @Thorfinnsson

    War is not for the amateurs, I can understand the desire to rewrite the course of the war, but it doesn't change that with a substantially smaller force the Russians completely outmanoeuvred NATO.

    https://imetatronink.substack.com/p/a-former-us-marine-corps-officershtml

    We are now moving on to the next stage, let us see what comes of it.

  303. @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikel


    Motivated civilians (like AK) can be more useful than demoralized professionals.
     
    Their time will come if and when the RusFed crumbles into a Civil War.

    Perhaps I will go there then to join some like-minded folks, that is if it happens in the coming few years.

    After that I would probably be a bit old, although I'm not in a bad shape.

    BTW, we had a bet with Karlin about Putin leaving power before 2024, I still believe that he will vacate the Kremlin. Possibly in the next few months. Perhaps against his own will...

    Replies: @Mikel, @LatW

    Perhaps I will go there then to join some like-minded folks, that is if it happens in the coming few years.

    There are probably enough Russians now in exile with competence and skills who could eventually go back and rebuild things or build them anew in a better way.

    If you went back, you could be the Vozhd’.

    Btw, I apologize for posting things where it looks like we’re already dividing up the bearskin (before the Bear is even killed). I’m aware it is not tactful, but it is interesting. Your great patience and tolerance of this is greatly appreciated.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    If you went back, you could be the Vozhd’.
     
    No I can't. I am not at all this type of person.

    But I can help in my professional field or just help people go through and survive the hardships.

    It would be good to feel being useful in one's own motherland.

    We'll see...

    Поживём увидим...

    Replies: @LatW

  304. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    Here is a prediction that Oleksiy Arestovych made in March 2019. There was another one from March 2014 (!!) where he predicted the ambush of Kyiv.

    "We can't pull off neutrality. Neutrality costs 10 times more than an alliance. No country in our position, with a thousands of kms long border, could have neutrality.

    The likelihood of a large war with Russia is 99%. They need to ruin our livelihood to make us less attractive for NATO. They need to do this before we join NATO so that NATO no longer finds us interesting as a ruined territory.

    [..]

    Our price for the NATO accession is a big war with Russia. And if we don't join NATO, we will be consumed by Russia within 10-12 years.

    Reporter: Which one would be a better choice?

    Of course, a big war with Russia and our [subsequent] accession into NATO through our victory in this war.

    Reporter: What does a large war with Russia entail?

    Air operations, the invasion of Ukraine by the 4 [Russian] armies they've created on our borders, ambush of Kyiv, an attempt to surround our troops in the East, a push from Crimea and an attack from Belarus. Creation of new republics, hits on critical infrastructure. The likelihood of this happening is 99%.

    Reporter: When?

    2021 or 2022. The period from 2020 to 2022 is the most critical. Then the next critical period could be 2024-26, and then another one in 2028-30. There could be 3 wars with Russia.

    The Russian saboteurs will come in before the tanks and announce the Republics of Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv. Odessa, Kherson. Zaporizhia.

    Reporter: How can Ukraine receive a road map to join NATO without a big war with Russia?

    There is no way. Only if Russia is pressured very heavily. Embargoes or letting them know that there will be a strong "boom boom" if they attempt to wage war. If the West brings in their troops. Or by changing power in Russia by putting liberals in charge again. If there is a group within the Russian elite that can overcome the revanchist one, then this could work.


    Reporter: What about a peaceful resolution?


    Never.

    Reporter: Why not? It seems the West is considering such options.

    The West is offering these options, offering Russia to stop and think about it. Why would Russia do that? If liberals come to power or if Russia is threatened harshly, but what can you threaten a nuclear country with? You can't put serious pressure on people who possess such weapons. A serious pressure is a threat of force. The economic sanctions... for a country like Russia... Iran has been under sanctions for a long time. And Iran is still a player. And Russia's even bigger and more influential.

    Ukraine has no chance of holding neutrality, we will float in either direction, one way or another. The Customs Union or NATO. I had a chance to be inside the Customs Union, and don't want it anymore, NATO I haven't been in, let's give it a try. The most important historic task is to join NATO whatever it takes economically and socially.

    The price for joining NATO is a large conflict with Russia but in this conflict we will be actively supported by the West. With weapons, equipment, help, new sanctions on Russia, a possible entry of NATO contingent and a no fly zone. We will not lose this war and that's good enough."


    In Russian, starts at 7:10

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H50ho9Dlrms

    Replies: @German_reader, @sudden death, @S

    I know you think this makes him a far-sighted statesman, but it’s actually pretty damning. He fully understood that Ukraine’s attempt to join NATO would lead to a big war, but still thought it wise to persist on that course. As a result not only have tens of thousands of Ukrainians been killed, Europe’s economy is going to be wrecked and we’re probably at the highest risk of nuclear war in 60 years.
    If the old pre-1990 European members of NATO had any good sense they would leave this organization as quickly as possible and create their own security structures. NATO made sense for Western Europeans when there was a risk of the Soviets reaching the English channel, it doesn’t make any sense today when it’s merely a vehicle for US global domination and the subaltern fantasy projects of Eastern Europeans.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @German_reader


    I know you think this
     
    Very confident of you to think you know what I think.

    ...makes him a far-sighted statesman, but it’s actually pretty damning. He fully understood that Ukraine’s attempt to join NATO would lead to a big war, but still thought it wise to persist on that course.
     
    Whether the Ukrainian leadership could've taken other steps, has been debated over and over on this forum. My point wasn't to show that his stance is ethically sound or that he has a 100% right approach, or insinuate that he should be in office (right now he's just an "advisor" although he wants to be president in the future and, btw, he is among the top 5 individuals that Russia wants to assassinate so it appears he's got what it takes to be dangerous), but to demonstrate that because his analysis has been so crisp in the past, it might mean that those things he said the other day about creating a more Kyiv centric Eastern Europe or the opinions about Ukraine taking on some patronage over the smaller countries to the East and potentially creating some kind of a working relationship with the new Russia, might have some merit.

    Again, his insights about the future may or may not be correct, certainly, I'm partially skeptical, too, mainly because of the lack of resources currently (although resources could be gained). But because he made these previous predictions, it makes me more likely to consider his words somewhat seriously.

    And this is not even to be taken seriously, it's just makes for interesting conversation.

    If the old pre-1990 European members of NATO had any good sense they would leave this organization as quickly as possible and create their own security structures.
     
    Oh, I totally agree that it's extremely messy to deal with the East. There is definitely logic in what you say.

    it doesn’t make any sense today when it’s merely a vehicle for US global domination
     
    Well, NATO / EU does open some commercial avenues for Western Europe and a possibility to project some power. Trade could exist without the EU, but there would be protection measures. And the West couldn't preach wokeness (or some other "ideology of the superiors") as easily (and that's a psychological need some Westerners can't live without). So obviously there are those out there who are interested in this (even if you may not be one of them).
    , @keypusher
    @German_reader


    I know you think this makes him a far-sighted statesman, but it’s actually pretty damning. He fully understood that Ukraine’s attempt to join NATO would lead to a big war, but still thought it wise to persist on that course.

     

    I don't think that is a fair characterization. He was near-certain that Russia would attack Ukraine either way. The question, for him, was whether Ukraine would survive or not.

    The likelihood of a large war with Russia is 99%. They need to ruin our livelihood to make us less attractive for NATO. They need to do this before we join NATO so that NATO no longer finds us interesting as a ruined territory.

     

    [..]

    Our price for the NATO accession is a big war with Russia. And if we don’t join NATO, we will be consumed by Russia within 10-12 years.
     
  305. @LatW
    Here is a prediction that Oleksiy Arestovych made in March 2019. There was another one from March 2014 (!!) where he predicted the ambush of Kyiv.

    "We can't pull off neutrality. Neutrality costs 10 times more than an alliance. No country in our position, with a thousands of kms long border, could have neutrality.

    The likelihood of a large war with Russia is 99%. They need to ruin our livelihood to make us less attractive for NATO. They need to do this before we join NATO so that NATO no longer finds us interesting as a ruined territory.

    [..]

    Our price for the NATO accession is a big war with Russia. And if we don't join NATO, we will be consumed by Russia within 10-12 years.

    Reporter: Which one would be a better choice?

    Of course, a big war with Russia and our [subsequent] accession into NATO through our victory in this war.

    Reporter: What does a large war with Russia entail?

    Air operations, the invasion of Ukraine by the 4 [Russian] armies they've created on our borders, ambush of Kyiv, an attempt to surround our troops in the East, a push from Crimea and an attack from Belarus. Creation of new republics, hits on critical infrastructure. The likelihood of this happening is 99%.

    Reporter: When?

    2021 or 2022. The period from 2020 to 2022 is the most critical. Then the next critical period could be 2024-26, and then another one in 2028-30. There could be 3 wars with Russia.

    The Russian saboteurs will come in before the tanks and announce the Republics of Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv. Odessa, Kherson. Zaporizhia.

    Reporter: How can Ukraine receive a road map to join NATO without a big war with Russia?

    There is no way. Only if Russia is pressured very heavily. Embargoes or letting them know that there will be a strong "boom boom" if they attempt to wage war. If the West brings in their troops. Or by changing power in Russia by putting liberals in charge again. If there is a group within the Russian elite that can overcome the revanchist one, then this could work.


    Reporter: What about a peaceful resolution?


    Never.

    Reporter: Why not? It seems the West is considering such options.

    The West is offering these options, offering Russia to stop and think about it. Why would Russia do that? If liberals come to power or if Russia is threatened harshly, but what can you threaten a nuclear country with? You can't put serious pressure on people who possess such weapons. A serious pressure is a threat of force. The economic sanctions... for a country like Russia... Iran has been under sanctions for a long time. And Iran is still a player. And Russia's even bigger and more influential.

    Ukraine has no chance of holding neutrality, we will float in either direction, one way or another. The Customs Union or NATO. I had a chance to be inside the Customs Union, and don't want it anymore, NATO I haven't been in, let's give it a try. The most important historic task is to join NATO whatever it takes economically and socially.

    The price for joining NATO is a large conflict with Russia but in this conflict we will be actively supported by the West. With weapons, equipment, help, new sanctions on Russia, a possible entry of NATO contingent and a no fly zone. We will not lose this war and that's good enough."


    In Russian, starts at 7:10

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H50ho9Dlrms

    Replies: @German_reader, @sudden death, @S

    There was another one from March 2014 (!!) where he predicted the ambush of Kyiv.

    There was also eerily prescient talk from him in 2013 Dcember IIRC where he had quite detailed explanation how Yanukovich power structures are slowly crumbling from within and predicted it will end soon in collapse as the spirit of Maidan society is getting more stronger and stronger everyday despite the ongoing mass persecution of the activists by security forces.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @sudden death

    Very interesting... btw, he knows Russia pretty well, too.

    We should hire him as an advisor to our governments (he visited recently to express gratitude). I think one place where we could help them is by explaining how these EU/NATO structures work, so that they know what they're getting into. They clearly have the analytical skills, just not enough knowledge probably about all the cumbersome processes and that there are serious obligations (and limited English skills). Although Arestovych did speak about anti-corruption too in his recent rants.

    Replies: @sudden death

  306. @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Laxa, is that you ?

    You've changed your moniker to post more often ?

    🙂

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    Yeah. I’ve been thinking though that Laxa is letting her Spec Ops alter ego post for a while. Style is different enough while the gist is parallel.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  307. @AP
    @German_reader

    Yes, the form his of his mythology was thoroughly Northern European but the themes seem to have reflected contemporary events. The Poles for example saved Europe from the first Bolshevik horde’s onslaught in a war that featured the last true cavalry battle.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Komar%C3%B3w

    As I mentioned, Tolkien explicitly denied that his work was any sort of allegory for actual historical events and I take him at his word, I do think that those events found their way into his works nonetheless.

    Replies: @Keypusher, @LondonBob

    I would guess if he had any Polish antecedent in mind it would have been Sobieski at Vienna in 1683.

    • Agree: AP
  308. @Thorfinnsson
    @Mikel

    Russia was expecting a repeat of Czechoslovakia 1968, and in the worst case perhaps a repeat of Poland 1939. In fairness to the Russians that is also what most non-Russian observers expected, including yours truly.

    They therefore launched their invasion with 200,000 too few men over too many axes of advance along with the incorporation of police units.

    These men also received very little planning or preparation, and it seems that in this particular case that incompetence was not the reason. The release of intelligence by Washington and London accurately claiming that Russia was going to invade may have convinced the Kremlin that its military was penetrated by Western intelligence, and therefore to maintain surprise it was essential to avoid informing the men.

    The command structure is indeed broken. There is no overall commander of the war, Wagner reports directly to Kremlin, and the LDNR forces operate under their own command structures. Due to Russian law, Russian formations deployed to the Ukraine left all of their conscripted elements behind. Decision-making is bureaucratic and slow, hence the demented ramblings of that femoid about the amazing OODA loop of the French Army.

    The fact that the Russians involved in the war up until now have primarily been "professionals" is true but irrelevant, except to the extent that it explains why there is not enough manpower at the front. Modern professional enlisted soldiers aren't like Roman legionnaires who dedicate their lives to the army but rather short-term adventurers. The idea that they're inherently better soldiers than conscripts is American copium intended to cover up the fact that the USA was forced to end conscription for reasons of domestic politics. In yet another triumph of American soft power the Russians themselves came to believe this abject nonsense.

    That said, we should obviously expect the first new men rushed to the front to be poorly prepared.

    I'll close in noting that while it was foolish for Russia to launch this war, there is now no way out but through it. The Ukraine just passed a law making it illegal to negotiate with Putin, the Western powers are not providing an offramp to Russia, and when recently Elon Musk suggested UN-supervised referenda to end the conflict he was hysterically denounced. If Russia doesn't win the war Putin may die in a Dutch prison cell.

    Replies: @Sean, @Philip Owen, @Mikel, @LondonBob

    Russia was expecting a repeat of Czechoslovakia 1968, and in the worst case perhaps a repeat of Poland 1939. In fairness to the Russians that is also what most non-Russian observers expected, including yours truly.

    Putin may or may not have believed that. I have Stuermer’s book on Putin, which benefited from many long interviews with him, and in it he says that the Kremlin were aware the impression of Russian military power was largely fanfaronade. Maybe it was cognitive dissonance, a subliminal awareness that although Russia had to fight and fight soon, popular and maybe even army objections would be raised to a realistic plan calling for mobilisation and a huge invasion force. Anyway Russia is in it now, and they know they will have to pack a lunch.

    They therefore launched their invasion with 200,000 too few men over too many axes of advance along with the incorporation of police units.

    The conscripts could not be used outside Russia.

    I’ll close in noting that while it was foolish for Russia to launch this war

    In 2019 Oleksiy Arestovych thought it was the only thing for Putin to do and he would do it. Arestovych even predicted the year correctly. That was right after Zelensky did a U turn on the modified Minsk agreement. Deep down the Ukrainians wanted this war, it is like Raymond Poincaré’s revanchist designs to be backed by very powerful allies in a fight with Germany, whereby France’s provinces would be recovered.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @Sean



    Putin may or may not have believed that. I have Stuermer’s book on Putin, which benefited from many long interviews with him, and in it he says that the Kremlin were aware the impression of Russian military power was largely fanfaronade.
     
    I have not read the book, but to some extent the composition of Russia's armed forces may have been deliberate fanfaronade. After all, the Russia STRONK image was at least believed by some and was thus a foreign policy asset.

    Of course a Potemkin village loses its value once it is put to the test.


    The conscripts could not be used outside Russia.
     
    Indeed, but Putin has been in power for over 20 years and the Maidan was eight years ago. There has been more than enough time to revise this law. There has also been more than enough time to create a proper reserve system, which Russia only moved to do last year.


    In 2019 Oleksiy Arestovych thought it was the only thing for Putin to do and he would do it. Arestovych even predicted the year correctly. That was right after Zelensky did a U turn on the modified Minsk agreement. Deep down the Ukrainians wanted this war, it is like Raymond Poincaré’s revanchist designs to be backed by very powerful allies in a fight with Germany, whereby France’s provinces would be recovered.
     
    While it's true that elements of the Ukraine did want this war and worked to bring it about, it was Russia that consciously chose not to prepare for this war.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Dmitry

  309. @German_reader
    @LatW

    I know you think this makes him a far-sighted statesman, but it's actually pretty damning. He fully understood that Ukraine's attempt to join NATO would lead to a big war, but still thought it wise to persist on that course. As a result not only have tens of thousands of Ukrainians been killed, Europe's economy is going to be wrecked and we're probably at the highest risk of nuclear war in 60 years.
    If the old pre-1990 European members of NATO had any good sense they would leave this organization as quickly as possible and create their own security structures. NATO made sense for Western Europeans when there was a risk of the Soviets reaching the English channel, it doesn't make any sense today when it's merely a vehicle for US global domination and the subaltern fantasy projects of Eastern Europeans.

    Replies: @LatW, @keypusher

    I know you think this

    Very confident of you to think you know what I think.

    …makes him a far-sighted statesman, but it’s actually pretty damning. He fully understood that Ukraine’s attempt to join NATO would lead to a big war, but still thought it wise to persist on that course.

    Whether the Ukrainian leadership could’ve taken other steps, has been debated over and over on this forum. My point wasn’t to show that his stance is ethically sound or that he has a 100% right approach, or insinuate that he should be in office (right now he’s just an “advisor” although he wants to be president in the future and, btw, he is among the top 5 individuals that Russia wants to assassinate so it appears he’s got what it takes to be dangerous), but to demonstrate that because his analysis has been so crisp in the past, it might mean that those things he said the other day about creating a more Kyiv centric Eastern Europe or the opinions about Ukraine taking on some patronage over the smaller countries to the East and potentially creating some kind of a working relationship with the new Russia, might have some merit.

    Again, his insights about the future may or may not be correct, certainly, I’m partially skeptical, too, mainly because of the lack of resources currently (although resources could be gained). But because he made these previous predictions, it makes me more likely to consider his words somewhat seriously.

    And this is not even to be taken seriously, it’s just makes for interesting conversation.

    If the old pre-1990 European members of NATO had any good sense they would leave this organization as quickly as possible and create their own security structures.

    Oh, I totally agree that it’s extremely messy to deal with the East. There is definitely logic in what you say.

    it doesn’t make any sense today when it’s merely a vehicle for US global domination

    Well, NATO / EU does open some commercial avenues for Western Europe and a possibility to project some power. Trade could exist without the EU, but there would be protection measures. And the West couldn’t preach wokeness (or some other “ideology of the superiors”) as easily (and that’s a psychological need some Westerners can’t live without). So obviously there are those out there who are interested in this (even if you may not be one of them).

  310. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Perhaps I will go there then to join some like-minded folks, that is if it happens in the coming few years.
     
    There are probably enough Russians now in exile with competence and skills who could eventually go back and rebuild things or build them anew in a better way.

    If you went back, you could be the Vozhd'.

    Btw, I apologize for posting things where it looks like we're already dividing up the bearskin (before the Bear is even killed). I'm aware it is not tactful, but it is interesting. Your great patience and tolerance of this is greatly appreciated.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    If you went back, you could be the Vozhd’.

    No I can’t. I am not at all this type of person.

    But I can help in my professional field or just help people go through and survive the hardships.

    It would be good to feel being useful in one’s own motherland.

    We’ll see…

    Поживём увидим…

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    No I can’t. I am not at all this type of person.
     
    Yea, I know, you're not as "militant" or without scruples. You could be the Brains of the whole thing.

    It would be good to feel being useful in one’s own motherland.
     
    For all of us, it's time to give back.. it's a good time that way.
  311. S says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @S

    In 1993, those who defended the Constitution of Russia and its democratically elected Parliament were branded "Red-Browns" by the Westernized RusFed Noviop elites and massacred to much "democratic" Western applause.

    The "Red - Brown" tag is of cause the synthesis of these Communist - Fascist false dialectics that you have so correctly described.

    The "masters of the game" are of course above these dialectics, just as they're above a lot of other things: nationality, true Religious affiliation, clearly defined gender roles. They are above (or perhaps below) all this and this gives them room for maneuver.

    They "define what's Real"...

    Replies: @S

    The “masters of the game” are of course above these dialectics, just as they’re above a lot of other things: nationality, true Religious affiliation, clearly defined gender roles. They are above (or perhaps below) all this and this gives them room for maneuver.

    They “define what’s Real”…

    I am reminded of a quote attributed to a high adviser of a relatively recent US president. It’s one of those things that, despite some question of its actual provenance, fits so well with the mentality displayed by powerful elements amongst US political elites (‘Right’ or ‘Left’) and their hangers on, that it is worth noting.

    ‘We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.’

    [MORE]

    They “define what’s Real”…

    From 1984…

    ‘Reality is inside the skull.’

    ‘Power is power over human beings. Over the body but, above all, over the mind. Power over matter — external reality, as you would call it — is not important. Already our control over matter is absolute.’…’We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull. You will learn by degrees, Winston.’

    ‘There is nothing that we could not do. Invisibility, levitation — anything. I could float off this floor like a soap bubble if I wish to. I do not wish to, because the Party does not wish it. You must get rid of those nineteenth-century ideas about the laws of Nature. We make the laws of Nature.’ 1984 -Part 3, Chapter 3

    The “masters of the game”…are above (or perhaps below) all this and this gives them room for maneuver.

    Regarding the Masonic aspects of these things, and the not necessarily so innocent and naive higher level membership, (unlike the first three degrees generally), I’ve always thought the ‘higher’ they go up in levels has been misinterpreted, that it is in reality them traveling downwards, ie 33rd degree is hitting the absolute rock-bottom, can’t get any lower than that.

    That’s downright sub-terranean even. 😀

    https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/846190-we-re-an-empire-now-and-when-we-act-we-create

    http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/19.html

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @S

    That's a fine relativistic deconstructionist post modern program. Also known as nihilism. If truth is relative then there isn't any truth at all.

    Rubbish. If you have had any education at all you can see through it. If your education is so bad you can't see through it then get some! All the books are available for free on the internet so there is no excuse. : )

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    , @A123
    @S

    Babylon 5 had a good episode on how the state shapes reality.

    PEACE 😇
    ________

    https://a1bert.kapsi.fi/Quotes/NoRobots/B5/084.html


    "It does prove though how everything is a matter of perspective. You see what you think is daylight, and you assume it's morning. Take it away, you think it's night. Offer you a sandwich, if it's convenient, you'll think it's mid-day. The truth is fluid, the truth is subjective."

    "The truth is sometimes what you believe it to be, and other times what you decide it to be. My task is to make you decide to believe differently."

    -- Interrogator to Sheridan in Babylon 5:"Intersections in Real Time"
     


    "You will co-operate with the state, for the good of the state and your own survival. You will confess to the crimes of which you have been accused. You will be released and returned to the society a productive citizen if you co-operate. Resistance will be punished, co-operation will be rewarded."

    -- Recording to Sheridan in Babylon 5:"Intersections in Real Time"

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwtncUWXxoQ

    Replies: @A123

  312. @sudden death
    @LatW


    There was another one from March 2014 (!!) where he predicted the ambush of Kyiv.
     
    There was also eerily prescient talk from him in 2013 Dcember IIRC where he had quite detailed explanation how Yanukovich power structures are slowly crumbling from within and predicted it will end soon in collapse as the spirit of Maidan society is getting more stronger and stronger everyday despite the ongoing mass persecution of the activists by security forces.

    Replies: @LatW

    Very interesting… btw, he knows Russia pretty well, too.

    We should hire him as an advisor to our governments (he visited recently to express gratitude). I think one place where we could help them is by explaining how these EU/NATO structures work, so that they know what they’re getting into. They clearly have the analytical skills, just not enough knowledge probably about all the cumbersome processes and that there are serious obligations (and limited English skills). Although Arestovych did speak about anti-corruption too in his recent rants.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @LatW

    Was trying to find that mentioned 2013 December video with him, but so far found another from 2014 January when clashes were escalating to the point of no return to pre-Maidan status quo, where Arestovich was speaking more specifically in detail about activist persecution by security apparatus with "advisers" from RF and needed organised practical countermeasures:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFsoIyIZrmA

    Replies: @LatW

  313. @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    If you went back, you could be the Vozhd’.
     
    No I can't. I am not at all this type of person.

    But I can help in my professional field or just help people go through and survive the hardships.

    It would be good to feel being useful in one's own motherland.

    We'll see...

    Поживём увидим...

    Replies: @LatW

    No I can’t. I am not at all this type of person.

    Yea, I know, you’re not as “militant” or without scruples. You could be the Brains of the whole thing.

    It would be good to feel being useful in one’s own motherland.

    For all of us, it’s time to give back.. it’s a good time that way.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  314. @Sean
    @Thorfinnsson


    Russia was expecting a repeat of Czechoslovakia 1968, and in the worst case perhaps a repeat of Poland 1939. In fairness to the Russians that is also what most non-Russian observers expected, including yours truly.
     
    Putin may or may not have believed that. I have Stuermer's book on Putin, which benefited from many long interviews with him, and in it he says that the Kremlin were aware the impression of Russian military power was largely fanfaronade. Maybe it was cognitive dissonance, a subliminal awareness that although Russia had to fight and fight soon, popular and maybe even army objections would be raised to a realistic plan calling for mobilisation and a huge invasion force. Anyway Russia is in it now, and they know they will have to pack a lunch.

    They therefore launched their invasion with 200,000 too few men over too many axes of advance along with the incorporation of police units.
     
    The conscripts could not be used outside Russia.

    I’ll close in noting that while it was foolish for Russia to launch this war
     
    In 2019 Oleksiy Arestovych thought it was the only thing for Putin to do and he would do it. Arestovych even predicted the year correctly. That was right after Zelensky did a U turn on the modified Minsk agreement. Deep down the Ukrainians wanted this war, it is like Raymond Poincaré's revanchist designs to be backed by very powerful allies in a fight with Germany, whereby France's provinces would be recovered.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

    Putin may or may not have believed that. I have Stuermer’s book on Putin, which benefited from many long interviews with him, and in it he says that the Kremlin were aware the impression of Russian military power was largely fanfaronade.

    I have not read the book, but to some extent the composition of Russia’s armed forces may have been deliberate fanfaronade. After all, the Russia STRONK image was at least believed by some and was thus a foreign policy asset.

    Of course a Potemkin village loses its value once it is put to the test.

    The conscripts could not be used outside Russia.

    Indeed, but Putin has been in power for over 20 years and the Maidan was eight years ago. There has been more than enough time to revise this law. There has also been more than enough time to create a proper reserve system, which Russia only moved to do last year.

    In 2019 Oleksiy Arestovych thought it was the only thing for Putin to do and he would do it. Arestovych even predicted the year correctly. That was right after Zelensky did a U turn on the modified Minsk agreement. Deep down the Ukrainians wanted this war, it is like Raymond Poincaré’s revanchist designs to be backed by very powerful allies in a fight with Germany, whereby France’s provinces would be recovered.

    While it’s true that elements of the Ukraine did want this war and worked to bring it about, it was Russia that consciously chose not to prepare for this war.

    • Replies: @QCIC
    @Thorfinnsson

    What is your explanation for the very limited Russian attacks on militarily relevant civilian infrastructure?

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Philip Owen

    , @Dmitry
    @Thorfinnsson


    a Potemkin village loses its value
     
    Potemkin village is successful if the people believe it. The problem is the question "which people?" Is it useful when the people who build the village, believe the village is real?

    After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has become the more complicated Potemkin game of mirrors, less than traditional Potemkin village.

    In the Soviet times, the government has avoid giving real data to the public, but they have usually accurate internal data, if you can exclude examples like a 1939 census.

    In postsoviet times, the governments in Russia/Belarus/Ukraine are giving more data to the public than anyone needs, but a lot of this government data is significantly fake and often can be only understood by forensic accountants, only statisticians report these numbers are not naturally plausible. They even seem to spend a lot of budget for the website designers to present this significantly fake data for the public "in a transparent, modern and accessible websites". There is such a modernization where the government is producing increasingly expensive modern websites to showcase such a display of "transparency".

    It is not the situation that governments have accurate internal data, but it will be impossible not to be confused by this process. For example, in Russia, the census, is miscounting the population by millions of people and a lot more inaccurate than any Soviet census except 1939 if you read the statisticians. So, the government such basic things like how many citizens there are, you can see how this could create problems for many other data. In Ukraine, there has been no attempt for census for 21 years. You can only guess what is the pre-war population in Ukraine.

    Probably if there was just a Potemkin village as in the Soviet times, the government can be more effective, as they have the distinction between the public and internal data. Although under Stalin, there were sometimes people were scared to give him the real information, the government employees overall would have more data.

    But with the postsoviet game of mirrors and fake data, for sure, many of the higher politicians, they are becoming confused or victims of lack of knowledge of the real situation. It is possible that local politicians, local employees have more knowledge than people more near the top.

  315. @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    The “masters of the game” are of course above these dialectics, just as they’re above a lot of other things: nationality, true Religious affiliation, clearly defined gender roles. They are above (or perhaps below) all this and this gives them room for maneuver.

    They “define what’s Real”…

     

    I am reminded of a quote attributed to a high adviser of a relatively recent US president. It's one of those things that, despite some question of its actual provenance, fits so well with the mentality displayed by powerful elements amongst US political elites ('Right' or 'Left') and their hangers on, that it is worth noting.

    'We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'


    They “define what’s Real”…
     
    From 1984...


    https://youtu.be/g1WI8BUe9Eg


    'Reality is inside the skull.'


    'Power is power over human beings. Over the body but, above all, over the mind. Power over matter -- external reality, as you would call it -- is not important. Already our control over matter is absolute.'...'We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull. You will learn by degrees, Winston.'

    'There is nothing that we could not do. Invisibility, levitation -- anything. I could float off this floor like a soap bubble if I wish to. I do not wish to, because the Party does not wish it. You must get rid of those nineteenth-century ideas about the laws of Nature. We make the laws of Nature.' 1984 -Part 3, Chapter 3
     


    The "masters of the game"...are above (or perhaps below) all this and this gives them room for maneuver.
     
    Regarding the Masonic aspects of these things, and the not necessarily so innocent and naive higher level membership, (unlike the first three degrees generally), I've always thought the 'higher' they go up in levels has been misinterpreted, that it is in reality them traveling downwards, ie 33rd degree is hitting the absolute rock-bottom, can't get any lower than that.

    That's downright sub-terranean even. :-D

    https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/846190-we-re-an-empire-now-and-when-we-act-we-create

    http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/19.html

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @A123

    That’s a fine relativistic deconstructionist post modern program. Also known as nihilism. If truth is relative then there isn’t any truth at all.

    Rubbish. If you have had any education at all you can see through it. If your education is so bad you can’t see through it then get some! All the books are available for free on the internet so there is no excuse. : )

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • LOL: S
    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    The State can and does shape perception, but of course, but not reality. (Although they think they do.)


    If you have had any education at all you can see through it.
     
    That is the problem with having such a wretched education system; a lot of people don't even know that where is something to seek out, much less how to go about it.

    I know a fair few teachers and it seems like the issues with student competency have been getting exponentially worse in the last 10 years. It's going to be going from bad to worse in society very quickly, I think.
  316. @German_reader
    @LatW

    I know you think this makes him a far-sighted statesman, but it's actually pretty damning. He fully understood that Ukraine's attempt to join NATO would lead to a big war, but still thought it wise to persist on that course. As a result not only have tens of thousands of Ukrainians been killed, Europe's economy is going to be wrecked and we're probably at the highest risk of nuclear war in 60 years.
    If the old pre-1990 European members of NATO had any good sense they would leave this organization as quickly as possible and create their own security structures. NATO made sense for Western Europeans when there was a risk of the Soviets reaching the English channel, it doesn't make any sense today when it's merely a vehicle for US global domination and the subaltern fantasy projects of Eastern Europeans.

    Replies: @LatW, @keypusher

    I know you think this makes him a far-sighted statesman, but it’s actually pretty damning. He fully understood that Ukraine’s attempt to join NATO would lead to a big war, but still thought it wise to persist on that course.

    I don’t think that is a fair characterization. He was near-certain that Russia would attack Ukraine either way. The question, for him, was whether Ukraine would survive or not.

    The likelihood of a large war with Russia is 99%. They need to ruin our livelihood to make us less attractive for NATO. They need to do this before we join NATO so that NATO no longer finds us interesting as a ruined territory.

    [..]

    Our price for the NATO accession is a big war with Russia. And if we don’t join NATO, we will be consumed by Russia within 10-12 years.

    • Agree: sudden death
  317. @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    The “masters of the game” are of course above these dialectics, just as they’re above a lot of other things: nationality, true Religious affiliation, clearly defined gender roles. They are above (or perhaps below) all this and this gives them room for maneuver.

    They “define what’s Real”…

     

    I am reminded of a quote attributed to a high adviser of a relatively recent US president. It's one of those things that, despite some question of its actual provenance, fits so well with the mentality displayed by powerful elements amongst US political elites ('Right' or 'Left') and their hangers on, that it is worth noting.

    'We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'


    They “define what’s Real”…
     
    From 1984...


    https://youtu.be/g1WI8BUe9Eg


    'Reality is inside the skull.'


    'Power is power over human beings. Over the body but, above all, over the mind. Power over matter -- external reality, as you would call it -- is not important. Already our control over matter is absolute.'...'We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull. You will learn by degrees, Winston.'

    'There is nothing that we could not do. Invisibility, levitation -- anything. I could float off this floor like a soap bubble if I wish to. I do not wish to, because the Party does not wish it. You must get rid of those nineteenth-century ideas about the laws of Nature. We make the laws of Nature.' 1984 -Part 3, Chapter 3
     


    The "masters of the game"...are above (or perhaps below) all this and this gives them room for maneuver.
     
    Regarding the Masonic aspects of these things, and the not necessarily so innocent and naive higher level membership, (unlike the first three degrees generally), I've always thought the 'higher' they go up in levels has been misinterpreted, that it is in reality them traveling downwards, ie 33rd degree is hitting the absolute rock-bottom, can't get any lower than that.

    That's downright sub-terranean even. :-D

    https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/846190-we-re-an-empire-now-and-when-we-act-we-create

    http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/19.html

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @A123

    Babylon 5 had a good episode on how the state shapes reality.

    PEACE 😇
    ________

    https://a1bert.kapsi.fi/Quotes/NoRobots/B5/084.html

    “It does prove though how everything is a matter of perspective. You see what you think is daylight, and you assume it’s morning. Take it away, you think it’s night. Offer you a sandwich, if it’s convenient, you’ll think it’s mid-day. The truth is fluid, the truth is subjective.”

    “The truth is sometimes what you believe it to be, and other times what you decide it to be. My task is to make you decide to believe differently.”

    — Interrogator to Sheridan in Babylon 5:”Intersections in Real Time”

    “You will co-operate with the state, for the good of the state and your own survival. You will confess to the crimes of which you have been accused. You will be released and returned to the society a productive citizen if you co-operate. Resistance will be punished, co-operation will be rewarded.”

    — Recording to Sheridan in Babylon 5:”Intersections in Real Time”

    • Replies: @A123
    @A123

    ADDENDUM

    More on how SJW Islamic Globalism tries to shape perception away from Judeo-Christian reality.

    PEACE 😇

     
    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikfwkI_O1V6JOOyo-pY4OTCXjljLHgrTvKoRUd-Ao6dh3i3cfYcjwmxWH53FME-kNCi6oH3mo_Pb-nCeTXBpz3M2rdj9DjlEYQkM6i4csoSI4sO0Mm3ez87G-jNo4vVOOxv-RCCVl5MlV-hERKJXM14EloVt8UstDtOIqQjteBmTUTSa6nS9WewG6Mpw/s554/90mimb_c631c6d04bbe389dd2a78c76a0232043_ec231b6b_500.jpg

  318. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @S

    That's a fine relativistic deconstructionist post modern program. Also known as nihilism. If truth is relative then there isn't any truth at all.

    Rubbish. If you have had any education at all you can see through it. If your education is so bad you can't see through it then get some! All the books are available for free on the internet so there is no excuse. : )

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    The State can and does shape perception, but of course, but not reality. (Although they think they do.)

    If you have had any education at all you can see through it.

    That is the problem with having such a wretched education system; a lot of people don’t even know that where is something to seek out, much less how to go about it.

    I know a fair few teachers and it seems like the issues with student competency have been getting exponentially worse in the last 10 years. It’s going to be going from bad to worse in society very quickly, I think.

  319. @Barbarossa
    @Thulean Friend

    I agree on AaronB. I keep hoping he'll pop back at some point. Perhaps if we all thick collectively we can issue forth a call summoning him from across the astral plane.

    With Bashibuzuk back, the spiritual energy of this thread should be sufficient to counteract the godless materialists like yourself and Dmitry in effecting such a call!

    Replies: @Barbarossa, @Yevardian

    godless materialists like yourself and Dmitry

    That was meant in all good humor, by the way. I value both of your comments immensely…even if you are godless materialists. ; )

  320. @Thorfinnsson
    @Sean



    Putin may or may not have believed that. I have Stuermer’s book on Putin, which benefited from many long interviews with him, and in it he says that the Kremlin were aware the impression of Russian military power was largely fanfaronade.
     
    I have not read the book, but to some extent the composition of Russia's armed forces may have been deliberate fanfaronade. After all, the Russia STRONK image was at least believed by some and was thus a foreign policy asset.

    Of course a Potemkin village loses its value once it is put to the test.


    The conscripts could not be used outside Russia.
     
    Indeed, but Putin has been in power for over 20 years and the Maidan was eight years ago. There has been more than enough time to revise this law. There has also been more than enough time to create a proper reserve system, which Russia only moved to do last year.


    In 2019 Oleksiy Arestovych thought it was the only thing for Putin to do and he would do it. Arestovych even predicted the year correctly. That was right after Zelensky did a U turn on the modified Minsk agreement. Deep down the Ukrainians wanted this war, it is like Raymond Poincaré’s revanchist designs to be backed by very powerful allies in a fight with Germany, whereby France’s provinces would be recovered.
     
    While it's true that elements of the Ukraine did want this war and worked to bring it about, it was Russia that consciously chose not to prepare for this war.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Dmitry

    What is your explanation for the very limited Russian attacks on militarily relevant civilian infrastructure?

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @QCIC

    The simplest explanation.

    For both moral and political reasons, Russian leadership has wanted to limit destruction to Ukrainians who are after all fellow East Slavs.

    And now Russia may lack the capability due to piecemeal expenditures of missile stocks on non-decisive operations.

    Replies: @QCIC

    , @Philip Owen
    @QCIC

    A limited and finite supply of Kaliber missiles.

    Replies: @QCIC

  321. S says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa

    What do they know of Europe, who only Europe know... ?

    https://youtu.be/A_CFD3ewleU

    Answer, not that much really. They haven't even noticed how their Europe has been taken from them, right in front of their distracted eyes. How the sacrifices of their ancestors has been betrayed. Of course, it is quite similar in RusFed, just done in a more primitive fashion.

    But instead of fighting those who betrayed us, we are called to fight each other. Another European War for the interests of the Anglo-Saxon elite. How predictable...

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @S

    They haven’t even noticed how their Europe has been taken from them, right in front of their distracted eyes. How the sacrifices of their ancestors has been betrayed.

    A few months ago I read an account of a young Scotsman killed in Ukraine. He was a veteran and seemed to be a fine young man.

    My first thought was why was he fighting there when his own Scottish people within the United Kingdom are under great duress themselves? At best it’s akin to fighting a neighbor’s house fire, when your own house is burning down.

    It’s the same with a great many of the ‘volunteers’ in Ukraine and their own homeland. The system they are wanting to give to Ukraine is the same system which has brought destruction upon their own peoples’.

    There is some very powerful brainwashing at work here.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @S

    The Scots are generally recipients of subsidy from London.

    The Scot lost his mind serving the British Army. They train the squaddies to hate Russia. The indoctrination is pretty fucking strong.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @S

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @S

    At least one of the US volunteers, when asked about his reasons for joining the fight in Ukraine, answered that he hoped to bring the fight all the way to Moscow itself and once the war won and Russia defeated he hoped to see the first Gay Parade marching on the Red Square. He was a Trump-hater, I have no idea whether he was himself gay or just considered the Gay Parades as an integral part of the Human Rights package. IIRC the guy got killed a couple of months ago but perhaps I am being mistaken, there are scores of these volunteers being killed there.

    Replies: @S

  322. @Triteleia Laxa
    @AnonfromTN

    You should use Google before you prove how stupid you are.

    The world's deepest scuba dive was 332.35 metres.

    Furthermore, there's a tribe that gets down to 70 metres without scuba gear, just by free diving!

    https://divemagazine.com/scuba-diving-news/scuba-diving-world-records#:~:text=The%20deepest%20dive,lasted%2013%20hours%2035%20minutes.

    Replies: @QCIC

    An extra factor of 10 cropped up, 1 atm pressure ~ 10 meters of water.

    I’m not clear on the point. All of these pipes can be readily repaired with $. Not trivial, but lots of more challenging deepwater oil/gas work goes on every day. So a few sections of pipe out of 700 miles are blown up. Of course it can be repaired.

    If the US doesn’t want to get blamed for the damage, they shouldn’t have made the threats.

    • Replies: @A123
    @QCIC


    So a few sections of pipe out of 700 miles are blown up. Of course it can be repaired
     
    I am trained as an engineer, though not an undersea pipeline engineer. That being said, I have a few concerns. Much of the pipeline filled with sea water. Not simply the damaged section.

    -1- Is the sea water acting on the steel? If so, what is the corrosion timeline?
    -2- How do you get the water out?
    -3- How do you get salt deposits out?

    All of these seem manageable, if a fix is expeditious. This is the bad one.

    -4- How do the operators inspect the *entire* pipeline for cracks & other shock damage?

    The 'event' put vibrations throughout the entire system. It is plausible that unfortunate harmonics stacked somewhere well away the the point source.

    The steel tube is encased in concrete. Examining new pieces as they go in is one thing. How does one recertify the existing components that have experienced a non-design stress event?

    I suspect that restarting one of the NS lines will be quite time consuming.
    __

    If European WEF caves, the EU can stop harassing Christian Russia. Restarting the undamaged Yamal line through Poland would be straightforward.

    Can the people of Europe throw out the European (non-American) SJW Islamophile Elites of Davos?

    Not only does this Christian Populism help the energy problem. It also helps the MENA origin Rape-ugee problem. The two are now inextricably linked.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @songbird, @Philip Owen

  323. @QCIC
    @Thorfinnsson

    What is your explanation for the very limited Russian attacks on militarily relevant civilian infrastructure?

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Philip Owen

    The simplest explanation.

    For both moral and political reasons, Russian leadership has wanted to limit destruction to Ukrainians who are after all fellow East Slavs.

    And now Russia may lack the capability due to piecemeal expenditures of missile stocks on non-decisive operations.

    • Replies: @QCIC
    @Thorfinnsson

    Maybe we'll find out.

    I think the lack of these strikes fits the theory of a Russian soft touch approach of gradually killing NeoNazis until the sensible Ukrainians capitulate while minimizing civilian deaths.

    I think the loss of so many Sukhoi's and helicopters fits this as well. The pilots are willing to fly inordinately dangerous minor tactical strike missions to reduce civilian casualties.

    Most of these small missiles are probably difficult to develop but not so hard to build.

  324. @Thorfinnsson
    @sudden death

    Russian ammunition dumps have been substantially dispersed since the arrival of HIMARS and other effective long range indirect fires, just as Ukrainian ammunition dumps were earlier in the war. The RuAF is not necessarily required to make progress anymore than the UkrAF is.

    Heaps of meat will make a difference for the simple reason that the Ukrainian Army now enjoys numerical superiority. Unless combat effectiveness differs by an order of magnitude, numbers are the most decisive element in warfare.

    Replies: @sudden death

    Russian ammunition dumps have been substantially dispersed since the arrival of HIMARS and other effective long range indirect fires, just as Ukrainian ammunition dumps were earlier in the war.

    However since all those old big ammo dump sites were blown around the middle of summer when Himarses appeared, it perhaps would not be much exaggeration to say that all RF advances in Donbas stalled too and the only notable exception has been small suburb of Peski near Donetsk where RF managed to do massive sustained succesfull artillery assault which forced UA to retreat.

    Recently there were also many public RF infantry complaints from Liman when they were requesting arty support but couldn’t get it, also rumours are floating that there are big troubles with supply of shells in Kherson now, so it seems RF warfare with dispersed dumps so far cannot be done so effectively as it was before big centralized dumps were blown up.

  325. @Barbarossa
    @Thulean Friend

    I agree on AaronB. I keep hoping he'll pop back at some point. Perhaps if we all thick collectively we can issue forth a call summoning him from across the astral plane.

    With Bashibuzuk back, the spiritual energy of this thread should be sufficient to counteract the godless materialists like yourself and Dmitry in effecting such a call!

    Replies: @Barbarossa, @Yevardian

    utu needs to return for requisite spice and to call posters out on BS. Unfortunately I don’t think he’ll come back.

    • Replies: @Barbarossa
    @Yevardian


    utu needs to return for requisite spice
     
    But not hot sauce. Don't mention the hot sauce!

    But yes, it seems that utu is sadly gone for good.

    He succumbed to the general war derangement around here, but I have hopes that that too shall pass.
  326. @QCIC
    @Triteleia Laxa

    An extra factor of 10 cropped up, 1 atm pressure ~ 10 meters of water.

    I'm not clear on the point. All of these pipes can be readily repaired with $. Not trivial, but lots of more challenging deepwater oil/gas work goes on every day. So a few sections of pipe out of 700 miles are blown up. Of course it can be repaired.

    If the US doesn't want to get blamed for the damage, they shouldn't have made the threats.

    Replies: @A123

    So a few sections of pipe out of 700 miles are blown up. Of course it can be repaired

    I am trained as an engineer, though not an undersea pipeline engineer. That being said, I have a few concerns. Much of the pipeline filled with sea water. Not simply the damaged section.

    -1- Is the sea water acting on the steel? If so, what is the corrosion timeline?
    -2- How do you get the water out?
    -3- How do you get salt deposits out?

    All of these seem manageable, if a fix is expeditious. This is the bad one.

    -4- How do the operators inspect the *entire* pipeline for cracks & other shock damage?

    The ‘event’ put vibrations throughout the entire system. It is plausible that unfortunate harmonics stacked somewhere well away the the point source.

    The steel tube is encased in concrete. Examining new pieces as they go in is one thing. How does one recertify the existing components that have experienced a non-design stress event?

    I suspect that restarting one of the NS lines will be quite time consuming.
    __

    If European WEF caves, the EU can stop harassing Christian Russia. Restarting the undamaged Yamal line through Poland would be straightforward.

    Can the people of Europe throw out the European (non-American) SJW Islamophile Elites of Davos?

    Not only does this Christian Populism help the energy problem. It also helps the MENA origin Rape-ugee problem. The two are now inextricably linked.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @songbird
    @A123

    It is definitely more complicated than a simple patch-job.

    But the real difficulty is, how do you guard 1200 km of underwater pipeline, when once it has been demonstrated that there is a party willing to violate international norms? Seems like a basically impossible task, and that is likely the view any potential investors will take.

    Replies: @A123, @QCIC

    , @Philip Owen
    @A123

    Not a pipeline engineer eithr but I have dabbled.

    1 Corrosion is a problem under the best of cirmcumstances. One of my clients made corrosion monitoring equipment for gas pipelines. This allowed the use of electric currents proportional to the corrosion risk to divert the corrosion to sacrificial anodes. These however have to be replaced at intervals. I have no idea how it is done underwater.

    2 No idea. One can speculate (Dad was a plumber) but I have no knowledge.

    3 The salt will stay. See 1 for managing the consequences.

    The damn thing will need its own DC power station to deal with the corrosion. My brother needed one and a transmission network for the Libyan Great Underground River project. (Longest N-S pipeline ever, big Telluric currents).

  327. @QCIC
    @Thorfinnsson

    What is your explanation for the very limited Russian attacks on militarily relevant civilian infrastructure?

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Philip Owen

    A limited and finite supply of Kaliber missiles.

    • Replies: @QCIC
    @Philip Owen

    If they have such a limited supply of missiles it seems they would have hit higher value targets and accepted the increased civilian casualties as unavoidable collateral damage.

  328. @Thorfinnsson
    @Mikel

    Russia was expecting a repeat of Czechoslovakia 1968, and in the worst case perhaps a repeat of Poland 1939. In fairness to the Russians that is also what most non-Russian observers expected, including yours truly.

    They therefore launched their invasion with 200,000 too few men over too many axes of advance along with the incorporation of police units.

    These men also received very little planning or preparation, and it seems that in this particular case that incompetence was not the reason. The release of intelligence by Washington and London accurately claiming that Russia was going to invade may have convinced the Kremlin that its military was penetrated by Western intelligence, and therefore to maintain surprise it was essential to avoid informing the men.

    The command structure is indeed broken. There is no overall commander of the war, Wagner reports directly to Kremlin, and the LDNR forces operate under their own command structures. Due to Russian law, Russian formations deployed to the Ukraine left all of their conscripted elements behind. Decision-making is bureaucratic and slow, hence the demented ramblings of that femoid about the amazing OODA loop of the French Army.

    The fact that the Russians involved in the war up until now have primarily been "professionals" is true but irrelevant, except to the extent that it explains why there is not enough manpower at the front. Modern professional enlisted soldiers aren't like Roman legionnaires who dedicate their lives to the army but rather short-term adventurers. The idea that they're inherently better soldiers than conscripts is American copium intended to cover up the fact that the USA was forced to end conscription for reasons of domestic politics. In yet another triumph of American soft power the Russians themselves came to believe this abject nonsense.

    That said, we should obviously expect the first new men rushed to the front to be poorly prepared.

    I'll close in noting that while it was foolish for Russia to launch this war, there is now no way out but through it. The Ukraine just passed a law making it illegal to negotiate with Putin, the Western powers are not providing an offramp to Russia, and when recently Elon Musk suggested UN-supervised referenda to end the conflict he was hysterically denounced. If Russia doesn't win the war Putin may die in a Dutch prison cell.

    Replies: @Sean, @Philip Owen, @Mikel, @LondonBob

  329. @Thorfinnsson
    @QCIC

    The simplest explanation.

    For both moral and political reasons, Russian leadership has wanted to limit destruction to Ukrainians who are after all fellow East Slavs.

    And now Russia may lack the capability due to piecemeal expenditures of missile stocks on non-decisive operations.

    Replies: @QCIC

    Maybe we’ll find out.

    I think the lack of these strikes fits the theory of a Russian soft touch approach of gradually killing NeoNazis until the sensible Ukrainians capitulate while minimizing civilian deaths.

    I think the loss of so many Sukhoi’s and helicopters fits this as well. The pilots are willing to fly inordinately dangerous minor tactical strike missions to reduce civilian casualties.

    Most of these small missiles are probably difficult to develop but not so hard to build.

  330. @showmethereal
    @Mikel

    Military men of fighting age (and even older) had been fighting in Donbass since 2014. What planet are you people on??? They formed militias and were fighting all along while Ukraine was shelling the region. You people seriously seem to have no clue of what’s been going on. The declared independence after the Nuland inspired coup and took up arms. Stop with the revisionist history.

    Replies: @Philip Owen

    Russian proxies paid initally by Malofeev and organized by elements of the ROC started and maintained the war. The actual elected locals wanted a referendum on more powers locally. Borodai threw them into a locked room.

    • Replies: @showmethereal
    @Philip Owen

    Sure -- they were Russian proxies... In the same way Kyiv has been a US proxy since the coup in 2014.

  331. @Philip Owen
    @QCIC

    A limited and finite supply of Kaliber missiles.

    Replies: @QCIC

    If they have such a limited supply of missiles it seems they would have hit higher value targets and accepted the increased civilian casualties as unavoidable collateral damage.

  332. @A123
    @QCIC


    So a few sections of pipe out of 700 miles are blown up. Of course it can be repaired
     
    I am trained as an engineer, though not an undersea pipeline engineer. That being said, I have a few concerns. Much of the pipeline filled with sea water. Not simply the damaged section.

    -1- Is the sea water acting on the steel? If so, what is the corrosion timeline?
    -2- How do you get the water out?
    -3- How do you get salt deposits out?

    All of these seem manageable, if a fix is expeditious. This is the bad one.

    -4- How do the operators inspect the *entire* pipeline for cracks & other shock damage?

    The 'event' put vibrations throughout the entire system. It is plausible that unfortunate harmonics stacked somewhere well away the the point source.

    The steel tube is encased in concrete. Examining new pieces as they go in is one thing. How does one recertify the existing components that have experienced a non-design stress event?

    I suspect that restarting one of the NS lines will be quite time consuming.
    __

    If European WEF caves, the EU can stop harassing Christian Russia. Restarting the undamaged Yamal line through Poland would be straightforward.

    Can the people of Europe throw out the European (non-American) SJW Islamophile Elites of Davos?

    Not only does this Christian Populism help the energy problem. It also helps the MENA origin Rape-ugee problem. The two are now inextricably linked.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @songbird, @Philip Owen

    It is definitely more complicated than a simple patch-job.

    But the real difficulty is, how do you guard 1200 km of underwater pipeline, when once it has been demonstrated that there is a party willing to violate international norms? Seems like a basically impossible task, and that is likely the view any potential investors will take.

    • Replies: @A123
    @songbird


    But the real difficulty is, how do you guard 1200 km of underwater pipeline, when once it has been demonstrated that there is a party willing to violate international norms? Seems like a basically impossible task, and that is likely the view any potential investors will take.
     
    We still do not know is was deliberate. Russian corporate executives could have been reverse flowing saleable material out of the "undersea" tank that was never going to reach EU markets.

    However, you do make a good point. Above ground systems are easier to protect. Why not have Yamal 2 instead of repairing one of the NS lines?

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @sudden death

    , @QCIC
    @songbird

    I agree that security is the biggest question for a repair. That has to be worked out before repairs begin. For something like this the answer to more attacks is draconian response against the perps; I mean the ones planting the explosives and launching the underwater drones, not the bosses.

    Germany has the most to gain so they have to own the security problem.

    I think when freezing to death, WW3 and clamoring over nuclear war are part of the equation the bar to be cleared for accepting a substandard section of pipe is very low. For NS there is no serious hazard such as posed by a land pipeline near inhabited areas.

    I'm not a pipeline engineer but I believe these pipes are surveyed for corrosion and damage with unmanned pigs on a regular basis. I assume they use different pigs to seal off the ends of the damaged pipe.

    I didn't imply it was a simple patch job. But it might be limited to welding in three new sections into each pipe, four welds. What if it is twenty sections? Doesn't matter, cost is almost the same.

    If it isn't repaired within six months it is not for technical or cost reasons.

    I'm just guessing, but I'm pretty good at it.

  333. @orchardist
    @Sean


    they think the US could hack the Russian launch codes and stop the missiles being launched?
     
    This is the thesis of Project Azorian.

    Replies: @Sean

    Allegedly there was a 1982 operation to sabotage Soviet industry by duping Moscow into using logic bomb software that triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian gas pipeline.

    The 2016 novel War With Russia by retired British General Sir Richard Shirreff in which Ukraine is invaded by Russia, ends with Nato hackers causing a Russian thermonuclear missile to detonate itself on the launch pad in Kalinigrad

    • Replies: @orchardist
    @Sean


    Nato hackers causing a Russian thermonuclear missile to detonate itself on the launch pad in Kalinigrad
     
    My understanding of the fruits of Project Azorian suggest that is highly plausible.
  334. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk

    I disagree with your idea that Europe has been taken away from them. The truth is that European peoples have consented, often enthusiastically, and known what was happening. That doesn't mean that I think it was smart, but sometimes people need to do things that are not obviously smart in order to learn and experience.

    Of course, they also have a "right", by which I merely mean ability, to change their minds.

    All eyes on a successful nationalism, of white European people, standing against the odds, and thriving, is an inspiration.

    Putin has made Azov into widely-loved heroes, and, for that I am grateful. Even the worst events have a silver lining.



    Kyiv shouldn't just be the capital of Rus, but possibly all of Europe. Zelenskyy can be President, as it'll keep the libs happy, but his advisory team can do the rest.

    Am I joking? I'm not sure!

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Coconuts

    I disagree with your idea that Europe has been taken away from them. The truth is that European peoples have consented, often enthusiastically, and known what was happening. That doesn’t mean that I think it was smart, but sometimes people need to do things that are not obviously smart in order to learn and experience.

    I doubt they 100% understood in that people may have been fine with 10-15% population diversity, not sure that how many realised that this would lead to population changes of a kind probably not seen since the Indo-European migrations. Though you are right that many were and are strong supporters of the ideologies and beliefs that led to this.

    In Britain it’s possible to imagine many not considering anything beyond the economic impact and increasing GDP, because there is no strong conception of culture or nationality as anything serious apart from this. I heard the present government is thinking of making a free-movement deal with India for example and it is generally committed to increasing yearly migration beyond the 5- or 600,000 level for the economic gains.

  335. @songbird
    @A123

    It is definitely more complicated than a simple patch-job.

    But the real difficulty is, how do you guard 1200 km of underwater pipeline, when once it has been demonstrated that there is a party willing to violate international norms? Seems like a basically impossible task, and that is likely the view any potential investors will take.

    Replies: @A123, @QCIC

    But the real difficulty is, how do you guard 1200 km of underwater pipeline, when once it has been demonstrated that there is a party willing to violate international norms? Seems like a basically impossible task, and that is likely the view any potential investors will take.

    We still do not know is was deliberate. Russian corporate executives could have been reverse flowing saleable material out of the “undersea” tank that was never going to reach EU markets.

    However, you do make a good point. Above ground systems are easier to protect. Why not have Yamal 2 instead of repairing one of the NS lines?

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @A123


    However, you do make a good point. Above ground systems are easier to protect. Why not have Yamal 2 instead of repairing one of the NS lines?
     
    Already existing land natgas pipelines from RF (through Belarus and UA) are absolutely sufficient in order to supply EU without any trouble, so what's the point of building yet another on land? Sea lines at least had formal excuse of not having to deal with land transit fees.

    Replies: @songbird

  336. @songbird
    @A123

    It is definitely more complicated than a simple patch-job.

    But the real difficulty is, how do you guard 1200 km of underwater pipeline, when once it has been demonstrated that there is a party willing to violate international norms? Seems like a basically impossible task, and that is likely the view any potential investors will take.

    Replies: @A123, @QCIC

    I agree that security is the biggest question for a repair. That has to be worked out before repairs begin. For something like this the answer to more attacks is draconian response against the perps; I mean the ones planting the explosives and launching the underwater drones, not the bosses.

    Germany has the most to gain so they have to own the security problem.

    I think when freezing to death, WW3 and clamoring over nuclear war are part of the equation the bar to be cleared for accepting a substandard section of pipe is very low. For NS there is no serious hazard such as posed by a land pipeline near inhabited areas.

    I’m not a pipeline engineer but I believe these pipes are surveyed for corrosion and damage with unmanned pigs on a regular basis. I assume they use different pigs to seal off the ends of the damaged pipe.

    I didn’t imply it was a simple patch job. But it might be limited to welding in three new sections into each pipe, four welds. What if it is twenty sections? Doesn’t matter, cost is almost the same.

    If it isn’t repaired within six months it is not for technical or cost reasons.

    I’m just guessing, but I’m pretty good at it.

  337. @A123
    @songbird


    But the real difficulty is, how do you guard 1200 km of underwater pipeline, when once it has been demonstrated that there is a party willing to violate international norms? Seems like a basically impossible task, and that is likely the view any potential investors will take.
     
    We still do not know is was deliberate. Russian corporate executives could have been reverse flowing saleable material out of the "undersea" tank that was never going to reach EU markets.

    However, you do make a good point. Above ground systems are easier to protect. Why not have Yamal 2 instead of repairing one of the NS lines?

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @sudden death

    However, you do make a good point. Above ground systems are easier to protect. Why not have Yamal 2 instead of repairing one of the NS lines?

    Already existing land natgas pipelines from RF (through Belarus and UA) are absolutely sufficient in order to supply EU without any trouble, so what’s the point of building yet another on land? Sea lines at least had formal excuse of not having to deal with land transit fees.

    • Replies: @songbird
    @sudden death

    IMO, there is a real possibility those pipelines will be destroyed in the future.

    We are entering into weird territory here, especially as the casualties mount. Has there ever been another case of the successful transit of billions of dollars worth of commodities between countries at war?

    Just because they haven't been destroyed yet is no guarantee.

    From a security standpoint, the safest bet would be to assume they will be destroyed.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

  338. @A123
    @QCIC


    So a few sections of pipe out of 700 miles are blown up. Of course it can be repaired
     
    I am trained as an engineer, though not an undersea pipeline engineer. That being said, I have a few concerns. Much of the pipeline filled with sea water. Not simply the damaged section.

    -1- Is the sea water acting on the steel? If so, what is the corrosion timeline?
    -2- How do you get the water out?
    -3- How do you get salt deposits out?

    All of these seem manageable, if a fix is expeditious. This is the bad one.

    -4- How do the operators inspect the *entire* pipeline for cracks & other shock damage?

    The 'event' put vibrations throughout the entire system. It is plausible that unfortunate harmonics stacked somewhere well away the the point source.

    The steel tube is encased in concrete. Examining new pieces as they go in is one thing. How does one recertify the existing components that have experienced a non-design stress event?

    I suspect that restarting one of the NS lines will be quite time consuming.
    __

    If European WEF caves, the EU can stop harassing Christian Russia. Restarting the undamaged Yamal line through Poland would be straightforward.

    Can the people of Europe throw out the European (non-American) SJW Islamophile Elites of Davos?

    Not only does this Christian Populism help the energy problem. It also helps the MENA origin Rape-ugee problem. The two are now inextricably linked.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @songbird, @Philip Owen

    Not a pipeline engineer eithr but I have dabbled.

    1 Corrosion is a problem under the best of cirmcumstances. One of my clients made corrosion monitoring equipment for gas pipelines. This allowed the use of electric currents proportional to the corrosion risk to divert the corrosion to sacrificial anodes. These however have to be replaced at intervals. I have no idea how it is done underwater.

    2 No idea. One can speculate (Dad was a plumber) but I have no knowledge.

    3 The salt will stay. See 1 for managing the consequences.

    The damn thing will need its own DC power station to deal with the corrosion. My brother needed one and a transmission network for the Libyan Great Underground River project. (Longest N-S pipeline ever, big Telluric currents).

  339. Families I know have had to shop here for Putin’s glory. No further comment.

  340. @LatW
    @sudden death

    Very interesting... btw, he knows Russia pretty well, too.

    We should hire him as an advisor to our governments (he visited recently to express gratitude). I think one place where we could help them is by explaining how these EU/NATO structures work, so that they know what they're getting into. They clearly have the analytical skills, just not enough knowledge probably about all the cumbersome processes and that there are serious obligations (and limited English skills). Although Arestovych did speak about anti-corruption too in his recent rants.

    Replies: @sudden death

    Was trying to find that mentioned 2013 December video with him, but so far found another from 2014 January when clashes were escalating to the point of no return to pre-Maidan status quo, where Arestovich was speaking more specifically in detail about activist persecution by security apparatus with “advisers” from RF and needed organised practical countermeasures:

    • Replies: @LatW
    @sudden death


    Arestovich was speaking more specifically in detail about activist persecution by security apparatus with “advisers” from RF and needed organised practical countermeasures
     
    It's quite fascinating how they organized those self-defense units. And that the FSB inside of the Berkut had a playbook from their anti-insurgency "clean up" operations in the Caucasus. Sad that the Ukrainian people have had to go through all of this. And it's amazing how much Ukraine and things in general have changed since that time.


    You know, the other day he spun this impromptu version about what might be going on in Russia (and I'm really curious now whether it will come to pass, lol, I guess we gotta wait and see):

    "The war has been lost, so they have to find the one who will be held responsible for it. That's the Russian model. Clearly, the political leadership cannot be blamed, with one exception - if the military carry out a coup and blame the politicians for everything. If that doesn't happen, the politicians will organize the "Night of the Long Knives" for the military, very simple. This is very simple, it's about who gets who first. But now... where is the FSB in all this? Who do they serve? It's the third party in this story. There was an insinuation that appeared in the Russian political military space yesterday that Ukraine is a grandiose trap into which the West led the innocent Russia. And there's a need to find the guilty one who allowed the leader of the nation to make such a mistake, who drove the Russian leadership and the military into this trap. If this point of view prevails, then the party responsible for this is the FSB. So they will be throwing this at each other and in the end one of them will win. Look, the war in Donbas was started by Strelkov. That is, the FSB. So according to this version, he screwed Putin, who was planning to "boil" the Ukraine conflict gradually. [..] But they had to rush into the war. As a result, the FSB got rid of the liberal tower in the Kremlin. And now they want to get rid of the military wing. Then they will get rid of Putin (grohnut - meaning, assassinate). And live happily after that in their chekist regime. Such a version I find as rather likely."

    Wow... that's, like.. not such a great scenario. The FSBshniks get to rule as always.

    What is happening on the Russian propaganda channels is insane. Panic. They are all admitting the losses now. Solovyov was trashing the military. Wow.

    This is insane. This will reverberate on us too, we need to be strong.

    Replies: @sudden death

  341. @Yevardian
    @Barbarossa

    utu needs to return for requisite spice and to call posters out on BS. Unfortunately I don't think he'll come back.

    Replies: @Barbarossa

    utu needs to return for requisite spice

    But not hot sauce. Don’t mention the hot sauce!

    But yes, it seems that utu is sadly gone for good.

    He succumbed to the general war derangement around here, but I have hopes that that too shall pass.

  342. @German_reader
    @sudden death

    That's probably true enough. If things go badly and Russia manages to effectively use its mobilized troops there might even be major reverses for Ukraine this winter/next year again (though I really hope Russia won't still somehow manage to take Odessa or Kharkiv, as some Russian chauvinists or they sympathizers still seem to hope for).
    But I can't say I have a positive view of all this maximalist talk about re-taking Crimea (or even "demilitarizing" and possibly dismantling Russia herself). It's at best silly, but could be dangerous if it becomes the basis for policy.

    Replies: @Greasy William

    though I really hope Russia won’t still somehow manage to take Odessa or Kharkiv, as some Russian chauvinists or they sympathizers still seem to hope for

    You don’t want Biden and his Euro vassals to eat a catastrophic defeat?

    • Agree: LondonBob
  343. @Thorfinnsson
    @Mikel

    Russia was expecting a repeat of Czechoslovakia 1968, and in the worst case perhaps a repeat of Poland 1939. In fairness to the Russians that is also what most non-Russian observers expected, including yours truly.

    They therefore launched their invasion with 200,000 too few men over too many axes of advance along with the incorporation of police units.

    These men also received very little planning or preparation, and it seems that in this particular case that incompetence was not the reason. The release of intelligence by Washington and London accurately claiming that Russia was going to invade may have convinced the Kremlin that its military was penetrated by Western intelligence, and therefore to maintain surprise it was essential to avoid informing the men.

    The command structure is indeed broken. There is no overall commander of the war, Wagner reports directly to Kremlin, and the LDNR forces operate under their own command structures. Due to Russian law, Russian formations deployed to the Ukraine left all of their conscripted elements behind. Decision-making is bureaucratic and slow, hence the demented ramblings of that femoid about the amazing OODA loop of the French Army.

    The fact that the Russians involved in the war up until now have primarily been "professionals" is true but irrelevant, except to the extent that it explains why there is not enough manpower at the front. Modern professional enlisted soldiers aren't like Roman legionnaires who dedicate their lives to the army but rather short-term adventurers. The idea that they're inherently better soldiers than conscripts is American copium intended to cover up the fact that the USA was forced to end conscription for reasons of domestic politics. In yet another triumph of American soft power the Russians themselves came to believe this abject nonsense.

    That said, we should obviously expect the first new men rushed to the front to be poorly prepared.

    I'll close in noting that while it was foolish for Russia to launch this war, there is now no way out but through it. The Ukraine just passed a law making it illegal to negotiate with Putin, the Western powers are not providing an offramp to Russia, and when recently Elon Musk suggested UN-supervised referenda to end the conflict he was hysterically denounced. If Russia doesn't win the war Putin may die in a Dutch prison cell.

    Replies: @Sean, @Philip Owen, @Mikel, @LondonBob

    If Russia doesn’t win the war Putin may die in a Dutch prison cell.

    But he doesn’t look like he is in a rush to win it. The Russians’ need to increase troop numbers was obvious, and pointed out by many Russian and foreign observers, in the early stages of the war. He delayed the decision until the point where it is not clear how much this increase is going to help.

    Likewise, it looks stupid from the outside to annex regions that you not only don’t control fully but are actually at the risk of losing, like we’re seeing in Kherson now. Once again, loyal civilians (de jure Russian citizens now) have been left behind with no warning that the Russian troops were retreating.

    His behavior is consistent with someone who is not being fed very accurate information. Perhaps the same hubris that led him to launch this insane operation is leading him to lose the war.

    Or perhaps he has already decided that he’ll have to push the red button.

    • Disagree: Mikhail
    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @Mikel


    His behavior is consistent with someone who is not being fed very accurate information. Perhaps the same hubris that led him to launch this insane operation is leading him to lose the war.

    Or perhaps he has already decided that he’ll have to push the red button.
     
    Another way of looking at it is that now that territory must be defended because it's part of Russia. No need yet for him to push the red button. Don't get so jumpy -

    https://imetatronink.substack.com/p/maneuver-warfare

    A bonus -

    https://twitter.com/Gritty20202/status/1577285648922292224

    Replies: @Mikel

  344. @Beckow
    @S


    ...Come the United States of the World we may well actually live to see
     
    The world is too variable for that. We have had the US of the World in a mild form for the last 20-25 years, but the project has peaked.

    The idea that it can double-down and force its way is not realistic. The internal pathologies - gender confusion, debt-driven economy, weak geriatric leadership, culture that no longer entertains, generational asset pyramid schemes, migrants rushing in to live off its prosperity, embarrassing Corona mental collapse - it is not a basis that would allow for an escalation.

    The enemies have accumulated: Third World seething with resentment, China, India, Brazil, Mexico... are 'neutral' effectively anti-West - they are not even quiet about it. The critical error was pushing Russia away - with Russia in the anti-West camp the West can no longer win. You can only buy so many leaders or stage so many color revolutions, and only so much money can be issued to keep the system stable.

    The blase Western acceptance that it could end in a nuclear war is a sign that they know they can't win. The alternative is to take their toys home, save exposed vassals, shut up for a few years, play good, and try again in a few years. Figuring out who is a man and who a woman would be a good start on the road to recovery. It is not that hard.

    Replies: @Mikel, @S

    Figuring out who is a man and who a woman would be a good start on the road to recovery. It is not that hard.

    We’re past that point. Increasingly, when I go out I see people who are neither. You can tell what they were originally, if you look attentively enough, but that’s not always possible without risking an uncomfortable situation so you’re left with the doubt and carry on with your business.

  345. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:

    Question: how would the following world be, compared to how it is now:

    • LOL: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Yes if Lukashenko rules all the parts in light blue.

  346. @Sean
    @orchardist

    Allegedly there was a 1982 operation to sabotage Soviet industry by duping Moscow into using logic bomb software that triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian gas pipeline.

    The 2016 novel War With Russia by retired British General Sir Richard Shirreff in which Ukraine is invaded by Russia, ends with Nato hackers causing a Russian thermonuclear missile to detonate itself on the launch pad in Kalinigrad

    Replies: @orchardist

    Nato hackers causing a Russian thermonuclear missile to detonate itself on the launch pad in Kalinigrad

    My understanding of the fruits of Project Azorian suggest that is highly plausible.

  347. @sudden death
    @A123


    However, you do make a good point. Above ground systems are easier to protect. Why not have Yamal 2 instead of repairing one of the NS lines?
     
    Already existing land natgas pipelines from RF (through Belarus and UA) are absolutely sufficient in order to supply EU without any trouble, so what's the point of building yet another on land? Sea lines at least had formal excuse of not having to deal with land transit fees.

    Replies: @songbird

    IMO, there is a real possibility those pipelines will be destroyed in the future.

    We are entering into weird territory here, especially as the casualties mount. Has there ever been another case of the successful transit of billions of dollars worth of commodities between countries at war?

    Just because they haven’t been destroyed yet is no guarantee.

    From a security standpoint, the safest bet would be to assume they will be destroyed.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @songbird


    Has there ever been another case of the successful transit of billions of dollars worth of commodities between countries at war?
     
    Supposedly the Bank of International Settlements was transferring funds back and forth Germany to Britain and U.S. well into WWII. There were some prominent Americans who got a wrist slap by Roosevelt's agents for dealing with the enemy. Prescott Bush was a director of a bank that was seized in 1942. See the Union Banking Corporation paragraph on his wikipedia bio.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush

    One of the financial architects of the post-war German miracle was Hjalmar Schacht big Nazi banker who came out smelling like a rose. The commies didn't like it at all but he had partners in New York and London.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hjalmar_Schacht

    I'm sure there are many other examples. International business often has taken precedence over military conflict.

    This is a great story: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ford-and-fuhrer/

    On the other hand I agree prospects for those pipelines right now are dubious.
  348. @songbird
    @sudden death

    IMO, there is a real possibility those pipelines will be destroyed in the future.

    We are entering into weird territory here, especially as the casualties mount. Has there ever been another case of the successful transit of billions of dollars worth of commodities between countries at war?

    Just because they haven't been destroyed yet is no guarantee.

    From a security standpoint, the safest bet would be to assume they will be destroyed.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    Has there ever been another case of the successful transit of billions of dollars worth of commodities between countries at war?

    Supposedly the Bank of International Settlements was transferring funds back and forth Germany to Britain and U.S. well into WWII. There were some prominent Americans who got a wrist slap by Roosevelt’s agents for dealing with the enemy. Prescott Bush was a director of a bank that was seized in 1942. See the Union Banking Corporation paragraph on his wikipedia bio.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush

    One of the financial architects of the post-war German miracle was Hjalmar Schacht big Nazi banker who came out smelling like a rose. The commies didn’t like it at all but he had partners in New York and London.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hjalmar_Schacht

    I’m sure there are many other examples. International business often has taken precedence over military conflict.

    This is a great story: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ford-and-fuhrer/

    On the other hand I agree prospects for those pipelines right now are dubious.

    • Thanks: songbird
  349. It looks like most of the discussion on this Open Thread has focused on the front-line fighting, and the Ukrainians have recently been getting the better of it.

    But I think NATO is facing a looming strategic defeat of gigantic magnitude, vastly more significant than those minor military skirmishes.

    As I discussed in my recent article, it seems almost certain that America was behind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, and the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Tucker Carlson has had a couple of good segments on America’s obvious involvement:

    Prof. Jeffrey Sachs was just interviewed yesterday on Bloomberg TV, and he confirmed that everyone is sure that America was behind the pipeline attacks. A short clip of his remarks was Tweeted out and viewed over 4 million times, with millions of additional views on other Tweets:

    More than half of all German companies have said that they may be forced to close down and the growing popular demonstrations demanding that the sanctions be lifted and the pipelines be reopened obviously prompted the American decision to eliminate that possibility.

    The apparent American strike on pipelines so vital to Germany may have been the largest peacetime military attack on civilian infrastructure in the history of the world and obviously an act of war against Germany not to be taken lightly. But with the pipelines now destroyed, Germany would have no other options. Except that the pipeline attackers were a little careless in their operation as Jeff Davis, a commenter on this website, pointed out earlier today:

    Jump on this scoop:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/gazprom-ready-to-ship-gas-via-shelved-nord-stream-2-pipeline

    The vaunted US Navy screwed up. In the murky depths of the Baltic Sea they planted their explosives to blow up the ***FOUR*** pipes of the NS 1 & NS2 gas pipelines. (You didn’t know there were four pipes, did you? Neither did I.) But they appear to have screwed up and placed two of the explosive packages on one of the NS2 pipes — line A — leaving the other pipe — line B — with no explosive charge, and subsequently ***NO DAMAGE***. Line B is therefore ***READY TO GO*** with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year … which for comparison is 50% of total capacity of Nordstream 1, which as you may recall was recently reduced to 20% capacity before being shut down completely. (2.75 times the capacity of the newly-opened Norway-to-Poland gas pipeline).

    Gazprom has lowered the pressure in the line, will conduct an inspection, after which Germany can just give the go ahead, flip the switch, be back to 50% of the previous gas supply rate.

    The US thought they would f*ck Germany, but they screwed the pooch.

    https://www.unz.com/pescobar/pipeline-terror-is-the-9-11-of-the-raging-twenties/?showcomments#comment-5583668

    So the Germans need only declare an end to Russian sanctions and open the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and their desperate energy crunch will be over.

    Given the extremely strong likelihood that America tried to destroy the pipelines and devastate the German economy, I think we may see the end of NATO much sooner than anyone expected.

    And if the Germans throw out America and realign with Russia, I think both Poland and Ukraine may face a difficult strategic position.

    • Agree: Greasy William
    • LOL: A123
    • Replies: @Yevardian
    @Ron Unz


    Given the extremely strong likelihood that America tried to destroy the pipelines and devastate the German economy, I think we may see the end of NATO much sooner than anyone expected.

    And if the Germans throw out America and realign with Russia, I think both Poland and Ukraine may face a difficult strategic position.
     

    Neither the German people or their government has the slightest spine for independent action, I'm not seeing it. Besides, anyone who doubts Russia blew up their own pipelines is soon going get the same treatment The 9/11 'Truthers' did if they aren't already. I just can't contemplate Germany doing anything, their mindset just seems too permanently broken. Even if it did come out the US State Department blew it up for 'Europe's own good', do you really think that could result in the election of Victor Orban style politicians all over Europe?

    The most "positive" outcome that I can foresee for Russia is they manage to hold onto the immediate Black Sea coast littoral at very heavy human cost, whilst the Ukrainian army eventually bleeds to exhaustion, and it subsides to the level of a 'frozen' conflict of intermittent shelling, with the ocassional assassination, border-skirmish or sabotage bombing across the whole newly annexed zone.
    Germany goes into economic meltdown, the Assad curse is broken, Russian and Ukraine sink into further impoverishment and stagnation. As a sweetener, it is unanimously decided that the Eurovision Song Contest should be permanently held in Kiev. The Baltics and Poland celebrate the triumph of European values.

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @Ron Unz

    Germany is an Atlanticist colony. Even if it was proven beyond any reasonable doubt that US (and/or the British) did blow the pipelines, Germany would most probably not leave NATO or lift sanctions against RusFed.

    German elites have tried for a few decades to have a more assertive and more self-serving policy in the EU and Eastern Europe, but they are now being shown their place. Their higher technological abilities, their excellent engineering and their export oriented economy are no longer required by the masters of the global economy. The economic model and social system of the Globalized West are being reset. Germany needs being reset as much or even more than any other part of the Globalized West.

    Besides, Putin is led from goalpost to goalpost towards using tactical nukes on the frontline. Or perhaps it is more appropriate to write that the RusFed under Putin is led to use nukes and become de facto a pariah state. It is already a pariah state for all the Globalized West, but if it uses nukes it will become the embodiment of evil for everyone else.

    Putin will most probably use the tactical nukes because he has no other option left except a war of attrition that would take years and would most likely be lost by RusFed anyway. RusFed has wasted most of the critical high tech industries it inherited from the Soviets. This loss would probably not be compensated by Chinese technological exports because the Chinese need these industries to prepare themselves for war with the Globalized West and possibly because they have already started seeing RusFed position as a losing one.

    The export oriented RusFed economic model is no longer required or at least is not required for now, but perhaps would be reactivated after the global economy is reset. RusFed will be gradually deprived both of its export revenue and capacity of acquiring most critical components needed for its war effort.

    It might still survive if it had the stamina of Stalinist USSR, but Putin is no Stalin and RusFed is not USSR. It is a demographic black hole, a deindustrialized, corrupt, weakened and destructured society. They cannot stand a long fight against NATO even if it is a proxy war. They need a radical change in the situation on the front, they need negotiations from a strong position and an end to this war. And once it is evident that their "partial" mobilization doesn't help enough, they will have no other choice but to go nuclear.

    Once Putin uses the nukes, nobody will care who blew the pipelines. He will become the number one enemy of the whole mankind to be defeated by any means. Just like after 9/11, Osama Bin Laden has been declared terrorist number 1, enemy of mankind (that is Globalized West) and nobody cared anymore whether GW Bush stole the election with the help of his brother in Florida or whether Israel was a "settlers' state" in the Middle East. Osama and Islamic terrorism needed being defeated by any means necessary and the whole MENA needed reform even if through direct US invasion and/or an Arab Spring, even though it would most probably lead to Islamists taking control and/or civil war. The approach will be similar in dealing with Putin's RusFed.

    Finally, if Putin is wise enough not to allow using tactical nukes on the frontline, there is always a possibility that the same people who have blown NS pipelines would detonate a tactucal nuclear warhead somewhere on the frontline or in Kaliningrad area and blame it on Putin. There would be no way to convince anyone that RusFed didn't do it.

    Replies: @A123

    , @A123
    @Ron Unz


    the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:
     
    And, the energy loss is the locked in by unanimous EU sanctions. Germany's aggressive foreign policy has now backfired. Poland can met its gas needs via Baltic Pipe, thus giving them the unilateral whip hand:

    What will Germany give Poland to end the unanimous EU sanctions?

    At a minimum Poland will make some very reasonable requests:

    • Yamal to be used at maximum capacity
    • NS2 will only carry overage above the Yamal limit
    • The 100% excess capacity of NS1 Will be permanently abandoned
    • Poland will have veto rights over future projects that might allow Germany to bypass Poland as key transit supplier.
    • The end of EU finds restrictions based on Poland democracy and rule of law.

    The other options for elite German leadership are:

    ♦ Letting Germany freeze
    ♦ Permanently ending the concept of EU foreign policy by unilaterally repudiating un as humour EU sanctions.

    Start at 0:33 if the auto time sync fails

    https://youtu.be/R4kpQelo29Q?t=33

    If Poland is not obeyed. The Gas will not flow.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @A123, @Triteleia Laxa, @Wokechoke

    , @sudden death
    @Ron Unz


    So the Germans need only declare an end to Russian sanctions and open the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and their desperate energy crunch will be over.
     
    There were no any sanctions on NS1 and if it is not fuctional now likely there would be no much fuss on Western side to make a deal letting use one NS2 pipe temporarily while two pipes of NS1 cannot be operated, just like a deal was achieved to give back repaired turbine back to RF, which then refused to take it back because...sanctions and legally would lose litigation for not delivering for BS reasons, not even to mention that all the needed natgas can also be physically delivered through existing land pipelines.

    More than likely we will see another comedy again, when in case of real harsh winter physical shortage there will be given a temporary emergency limited exemption for using one NS2 line in winter while NS1 cannot be operated and then RF will refuse to flow the gas cause...sanctions, lol

    So if there was any screwup in blowing then it might as well been another screwup of diving petrovs&boshirovs or screwup like blowup of hydrate plug inside the pipes due to some technological messing or incompetence.

    And for whatever reason gas tap now is turned off for Italy too, which has very little to do with any nordstreaming nonsense.

    , @Brás Cubas
    @Ron Unz

    Ah, now I see. So, the contrarian hypothesis being mocked ("Putin bombed his own infrastructure, thus losing his leverage over Europe") must be restated, and turned into something which is not as preposterous: Putin destroyed roughly half of his gas flow capacity, and none of his leverage over Europe. Hmmm...
    Anyway, as a side note, I must finally admit that Jeffrey Sachs has indeed gone rogue, and must have been in a desperate position. I should have seen this earlier, as the signs were there for all to see: positions in China, contracts with United Arab Emirates, apparently he couldn't refuse an offer lately.
    Jeffrey Sachs Took Millions From UAE to Research “Well-Being”
    https://theintercept.com/2021/12/29/jeffrey-sachs-uae-happiness/

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    , @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    All these big pipelines are paired. What I found astonishing was the lack of valves (discussed in other threads).

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia's stability despite Ukraine's instability. The Chinese were not so foolish. They did not do a pipeline deal with Russia until they had a working pipeline to Turkmenistan. The Germans had the option to develop a pipeline from Azerbaijan and now of course, Israel. The French have always had the option of more gas from North Africa but their nukes have until recently made that a secondary issue. Needing to replace or upgrade all their nukes at the same time was an unfortunate planning error.

    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon. It may be equivalent to the UK having to suffer from North Sea oil. In that case, the high pound removed low added value manufacturing. Germany may need fewer immigrants for 5 years.

    An EU defence pact makes a lot more sense than NATO from a European perspective. NATO is a salesman for US arms and wars of choice. It drains technology development out of Europe. Yugoslavia and Libya would have been handled differently if the land of Sandy Hook was not involved. Even Ukraine. Something more like Minsk 2 would have been implemented. Not every situation needs guns for solutions.

    A US strategy might be to split an EU defence pact by building up an Intermarium. The Baltics, a democratic Belarus, Poland and Ukraine might be more interested in an alliance with more of an active anti Russia role than NATO. Kazakhstan seems to be moving that way. It is now supplying Ukraine with ex Soviet weapons.

    And as I have written this, Petronas has declared Force Majure due to a leak at its LNG train in Malaysia. This means a physical shortage in Japan. There is also a real problem for the UK.

    The UK is a major buyer of Malaysian LNG whichis imported through the Petronas Dragon Terminal at Milford Haven. UK retail gas prices are high but currently there is no supply shortage. Wholesale prices are low. Now a physical shortage is threatened. Truss is already on the ropes due to gas prices.

    Replies: @Beckow, @Sean, @Ron Unz

    , @Triteleia Laxa
    @Ron Unz

    Normally, in areas of geopolitical interest, especially on contended topics, reality is never indisputably revealed.

    Yet with Covid, and this war, it has been revealed. Marking probably the only two times in your webzine's history that it has.

    And yet both times, stark reality has been exactly opposite to how your stable of writers, Steve Sailer excepted, have been narrating it.

    In other words, they have been revealed as peddling not just geopolitical fan fiction, but extremely low quality geopolitical fan fiction. As even something like "Twilight" has characters portrayed semi-realistically.

    I mean, can you read your writers, still churning out "Russia rulez, US collapse," with a straight face? Anyone who listened to them would be among the worst informed people on the planet.

    And doesn't it make you question everything else? After all, these are the only two areas of intense interest where indisputable reality has been revealed. All the other arguments, and conspiracy theories, on this site, other than Sailer, are like arguing about what the Talmud says, funny unprovable narrative fantasies, but here God has actually spoken and said "you guys are totally wrong."

    Replies: @Another Polish Perspective, @A123

    , @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.

    Replies: @Ron Unz

  350. @Ron Unz
    It looks like most of the discussion on this Open Thread has focused on the front-line fighting, and the Ukrainians have recently been getting the better of it.

    But I think NATO is facing a looming strategic defeat of gigantic magnitude, vastly more significant than those minor military skirmishes.

    As I discussed in my recent article, it seems almost certain that America was behind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, and the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Tucker Carlson has had a couple of good segments on America's obvious involvement:

    https://youtu.be/jLb0QeCQF_I

    Prof. Jeffrey Sachs was just interviewed yesterday on Bloomberg TV, and he confirmed that everyone is sure that America was behind the pipeline attacks. A short clip of his remarks was Tweeted out and viewed over 4 million times, with millions of additional views on other Tweets:

    https://twitter.com/0ddette/status/1576916509766451200

    More than half of all German companies have said that they may be forced to close down and the growing popular demonstrations demanding that the sanctions be lifted and the pipelines be reopened obviously prompted the American decision to eliminate that possibility.

    The apparent American strike on pipelines so vital to Germany may have been the largest peacetime military attack on civilian infrastructure in the history of the world and obviously an act of war against Germany not to be taken lightly. But with the pipelines now destroyed, Germany would have no other options. Except that the pipeline attackers were a little careless in their operation as Jeff Davis, a commenter on this website, pointed out earlier today:

    Jump on this scoop:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/gazprom-ready-to-ship-gas-via-shelved-nord-stream-2-pipeline

    The vaunted US Navy screwed up. In the murky depths of the Baltic Sea they planted their explosives to blow up the ***FOUR*** pipes of the NS 1 & NS2 gas pipelines. (You didn’t know there were four pipes, did you? Neither did I.) But they appear to have screwed up and placed two of the explosive packages on one of the NS2 pipes — line A — leaving the other pipe — line B — with no explosive charge, and subsequently ***NO DAMAGE***. Line B is therefore ***READY TO GO*** with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year … which for comparison is 50% of total capacity of Nordstream 1, which as you may recall was recently reduced to 20% capacity before being shut down completely. (2.75 times the capacity of the newly-opened Norway-to-Poland gas pipeline).

    Gazprom has lowered the pressure in the line, will conduct an inspection, after which Germany can just give the go ahead, flip the switch, be back to 50% of the previous gas supply rate.

    The US thought they would f*ck Germany, but they screwed the pooch.
     
    https://www.unz.com/pescobar/pipeline-terror-is-the-9-11-of-the-raging-twenties/?showcomments#comment-5583668

    So the Germans need only declare an end to Russian sanctions and open the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and their desperate energy crunch will be over.

    Given the extremely strong likelihood that America tried to destroy the pipelines and devastate the German economy, I think we may see the end of NATO much sooner than anyone expected.

    And if the Germans throw out America and realign with Russia, I think both Poland and Ukraine may face a difficult strategic position.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @sudden death, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Triteleia Laxa, @Philip Owen

    Given the extremely strong likelihood that America tried to destroy the pipelines and devastate the German economy, I think we may see the end of NATO much sooner than anyone expected.

    And if the Germans throw out America and realign with Russia, I think both Poland and Ukraine may face a difficult strategic position.

    Neither the German people or their government has the slightest spine for independent action, I’m not seeing it. Besides, anyone who doubts Russia blew up their own pipelines is soon going get the same treatment The 9/11 ‘Truthers’ did if they aren’t already. I just can’t contemplate Germany doing anything, their mindset just seems too permanently broken. Even if it did come out the US State Department blew it up for ‘Europe’s own good’, do you really think that could result in the election of Victor Orban style politicians all over Europe?

    The most “positive” outcome that I can foresee for Russia is they manage to hold onto the immediate Black Sea coast littoral at very heavy human cost, whilst the Ukrainian army eventually bleeds to exhaustion, and it subsides to the level of a ‘frozen’ conflict of intermittent shelling, with the ocassional assassination, border-skirmish or sabotage bombing across the whole newly annexed zone.
    Germany goes into economic meltdown, the Assad curse is broken, Russian and Ukraine sink into further impoverishment and stagnation. As a sweetener, it is unanimously decided that the Eurovision Song Contest should be permanently held in Kiev. The Baltics and Poland celebrate the triumph of European values.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  351. @Mikel
    @Thorfinnsson


    If Russia doesn’t win the war Putin may die in a Dutch prison cell.
     
    But he doesn't look like he is in a rush to win it. The Russians' need to increase troop numbers was obvious, and pointed out by many Russian and foreign observers, in the early stages of the war. He delayed the decision until the point where it is not clear how much this increase is going to help.

    Likewise, it looks stupid from the outside to annex regions that you not only don't control fully but are actually at the risk of losing, like we're seeing in Kherson now. Once again, loyal civilians (de jure Russian citizens now) have been left behind with no warning that the Russian troops were retreating.

    His behavior is consistent with someone who is not being fed very accurate information. Perhaps the same hubris that led him to launch this insane operation is leading him to lose the war.

    Or perhaps he has already decided that he'll have to push the red button.

    Replies: @Mikhail

    His behavior is consistent with someone who is not being fed very accurate information. Perhaps the same hubris that led him to launch this insane operation is leading him to lose the war.

    Or perhaps he has already decided that he’ll have to push the red button.

    Another way of looking at it is that now that territory must be defended because it’s part of Russia. No need yet for him to push the red button. Don’t get so jumpy –

    https://imetatronink.substack.com/p/maneuver-warfare

    A bonus –

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Mikhail


    Another way of looking at it is that now that territory must be defended because it’s part of Russia.
     
    That's the way I am looking at it. However, Russia is retreating from a good chunk of Kherson, Donetsk and Lugansk right after declaring them Russian territories. The Kremlin is looking real bad.

    Btw, I can understand your rooting for Russia in this war, I guess I would feel the same if I was a Russian. But I don't understand why people like you or AnonfromTN refuse to see the obvious blunder that Putin's SMO has been and feel the need to support the Kremlin's actions. If you resented Ukraine for their treatment of innocent civilians in Donbas, Putin has caused much more damage to civilians, mostly in Donbas and other Russophone areas, than Ukraine ever did. And he's causing irreparable damage to Russia's military prestige and Russia's general image. You may defend him as much as you want but Putin hasn't done any favors to Russians living abroad with this bloody and incompetent war.

    Replies: @sudden death

  352. @AP
    @German_reader

    Yes, the form his of his mythology was thoroughly Northern European but the themes seem to have reflected contemporary events. The Poles for example saved Europe from the first Bolshevik horde’s onslaught in a war that featured the last true cavalry battle.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Komar%C3%B3w

    As I mentioned, Tolkien explicitly denied that his work was any sort of allegory for actual historical events and I take him at his word, I do think that those events found their way into his works nonetheless.

    Replies: @Keypusher, @LondonBob

    Didn’t the Poles do a deal with the Bolsheviks in October 1919 annexing Belorussia and Lithuania, allowing the Bolsheviks to redeploy forty thousand troops to stop the White Army under Yudenich that was approaching Petrograd along the Baltic?

    No Tolkein had no interest in Eastern Europe, a very wise path to take and a position that should have been sustained.

    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @LondonBob

    https://www.eurasiareview.com/08042016-fuzzy-history-how-poland-saved-the-world-from-russia-analysis/

  353. @LondonBob
    @AP

    Didn't the Poles do a deal with the Bolsheviks in October 1919 annexing Belorussia and Lithuania, allowing the Bolsheviks to redeploy forty thousand troops to stop the White Army under Yudenich that was approaching Petrograd along the Baltic?

    No Tolkein had no interest in Eastern Europe, a very wise path to take and a position that should have been sustained.

    Replies: @Mikhail

    • Thanks: LondonBob
  354. @Thorfinnsson
    @Mikel

    Russia was expecting a repeat of Czechoslovakia 1968, and in the worst case perhaps a repeat of Poland 1939. In fairness to the Russians that is also what most non-Russian observers expected, including yours truly.

    They therefore launched their invasion with 200,000 too few men over too many axes of advance along with the incorporation of police units.

    These men also received very little planning or preparation, and it seems that in this particular case that incompetence was not the reason. The release of intelligence by Washington and London accurately claiming that Russia was going to invade may have convinced the Kremlin that its military was penetrated by Western intelligence, and therefore to maintain surprise it was essential to avoid informing the men.

    The command structure is indeed broken. There is no overall commander of the war, Wagner reports directly to Kremlin, and the LDNR forces operate under their own command structures. Due to Russian law, Russian formations deployed to the Ukraine left all of their conscripted elements behind. Decision-making is bureaucratic and slow, hence the demented ramblings of that femoid about the amazing OODA loop of the French Army.

    The fact that the Russians involved in the war up until now have primarily been "professionals" is true but irrelevant, except to the extent that it explains why there is not enough manpower at the front. Modern professional enlisted soldiers aren't like Roman legionnaires who dedicate their lives to the army but rather short-term adventurers. The idea that they're inherently better soldiers than conscripts is American copium intended to cover up the fact that the USA was forced to end conscription for reasons of domestic politics. In yet another triumph of American soft power the Russians themselves came to believe this abject nonsense.

    That said, we should obviously expect the first new men rushed to the front to be poorly prepared.

    I'll close in noting that while it was foolish for Russia to launch this war, there is now no way out but through it. The Ukraine just passed a law making it illegal to negotiate with Putin, the Western powers are not providing an offramp to Russia, and when recently Elon Musk suggested UN-supervised referenda to end the conflict he was hysterically denounced. If Russia doesn't win the war Putin may die in a Dutch prison cell.

    Replies: @Sean, @Philip Owen, @Mikel, @LondonBob

    War is not for the amateurs, I can understand the desire to rewrite the course of the war, but it doesn’t change that with a substantially smaller force the Russians completely outmanoeuvred NATO.

    https://imetatronink.substack.com/p/a-former-us-marine-corps-officershtml

    We are now moving on to the next stage, let us see what comes of it.

    • LOL: Yevardian
  355. Funny to watch Russia and Saudi Arabia negate Biden’s use of the SPR by proposing a huge cut in oil production, get those gas prices up for election day. They will have a hard time refilling the SPR, especially once China ends covid restrictions and their economy accelerates.

  356. @Triteleia Laxa
    Question: how would the following world be, compared to how it is now:



    https://twitter.com/Europeandream46/status/1577417136011902977?s=20&t=VaYTAwvXlKkN4hinKWnB1w

    Replies: @Coconuts

    Yes if Lukashenko rules all the parts in light blue.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  357. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Ron Unz
    It looks like most of the discussion on this Open Thread has focused on the front-line fighting, and the Ukrainians have recently been getting the better of it.

    But I think NATO is facing a looming strategic defeat of gigantic magnitude, vastly more significant than those minor military skirmishes.

    As I discussed in my recent article, it seems almost certain that America was behind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, and the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Tucker Carlson has had a couple of good segments on America's obvious involvement:

    https://youtu.be/jLb0QeCQF_I

    Prof. Jeffrey Sachs was just interviewed yesterday on Bloomberg TV, and he confirmed that everyone is sure that America was behind the pipeline attacks. A short clip of his remarks was Tweeted out and viewed over 4 million times, with millions of additional views on other Tweets:

    https://twitter.com/0ddette/status/1576916509766451200

    More than half of all German companies have said that they may be forced to close down and the growing popular demonstrations demanding that the sanctions be lifted and the pipelines be reopened obviously prompted the American decision to eliminate that possibility.

    The apparent American strike on pipelines so vital to Germany may have been the largest peacetime military attack on civilian infrastructure in the history of the world and obviously an act of war against Germany not to be taken lightly. But with the pipelines now destroyed, Germany would have no other options. Except that the pipeline attackers were a little careless in their operation as Jeff Davis, a commenter on this website, pointed out earlier today:

    Jump on this scoop:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/gazprom-ready-to-ship-gas-via-shelved-nord-stream-2-pipeline

    The vaunted US Navy screwed up. In the murky depths of the Baltic Sea they planted their explosives to blow up the ***FOUR*** pipes of the NS 1 & NS2 gas pipelines. (You didn’t know there were four pipes, did you? Neither did I.) But they appear to have screwed up and placed two of the explosive packages on one of the NS2 pipes — line A — leaving the other pipe — line B — with no explosive charge, and subsequently ***NO DAMAGE***. Line B is therefore ***READY TO GO*** with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year … which for comparison is 50% of total capacity of Nordstream 1, which as you may recall was recently reduced to 20% capacity before being shut down completely. (2.75 times the capacity of the newly-opened Norway-to-Poland gas pipeline).

    Gazprom has lowered the pressure in the line, will conduct an inspection, after which Germany can just give the go ahead, flip the switch, be back to 50% of the previous gas supply rate.

    The US thought they would f*ck Germany, but they screwed the pooch.
     
    https://www.unz.com/pescobar/pipeline-terror-is-the-9-11-of-the-raging-twenties/?showcomments#comment-5583668

    So the Germans need only declare an end to Russian sanctions and open the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and their desperate energy crunch will be over.

    Given the extremely strong likelihood that America tried to destroy the pipelines and devastate the German economy, I think we may see the end of NATO much sooner than anyone expected.

    And if the Germans throw out America and realign with Russia, I think both Poland and Ukraine may face a difficult strategic position.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @sudden death, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Triteleia Laxa, @Philip Owen

    Germany is an Atlanticist colony. Even if it was proven beyond any reasonable doubt that US (and/or the British) did blow the pipelines, Germany would most probably not leave NATO or lift sanctions against RusFed.

    German elites have tried for a few decades to have a more assertive and more self-serving policy in the EU and Eastern Europe, but they are now being shown their place. Their higher technological abilities, their excellent engineering and their export oriented economy are no longer required by the masters of the global economy. The economic model and social system of the Globalized West are being reset. Germany needs being reset as much or even more than any other part of the Globalized West.

    [MORE]

    Besides, Putin is led from goalpost to goalpost towards using tactical nukes on the frontline. Or perhaps it is more appropriate to write that the RusFed under Putin is led to use nukes and become de facto a pariah state. It is already a pariah state for all the Globalized West, but if it uses nukes it will become the embodiment of evil for everyone else.

    Putin will most probably use the tactical nukes because he has no other option left except a war of attrition that would take years and would most likely be lost by RusFed anyway. RusFed has wasted most of the critical high tech industries it inherited from the Soviets. This loss would probably not be compensated by Chinese technological exports because the Chinese need these industries to prepare themselves for war with the Globalized West and possibly because they have already started seeing RusFed position as a losing one.

    The export oriented RusFed economic model is no longer required or at least is not required for now, but perhaps would be reactivated after the global economy is reset. RusFed will be gradually deprived both of its export revenue and capacity of acquiring most critical components needed for its war effort.

    It might still survive if it had the stamina of Stalinist USSR, but Putin is no Stalin and RusFed is not USSR. It is a demographic black hole, a deindustrialized, corrupt, weakened and destructured society. They cannot stand a long fight against NATO even if it is a proxy war. They need a radical change in the situation on the front, they need negotiations from a strong position and an end to this war. And once it is evident that their “partial” mobilization doesn’t help enough, they will have no other choice but to go nuclear.

    Once Putin uses the nukes, nobody will care who blew the pipelines. He will become the number one enemy of the whole mankind to be defeated by any means. Just like after 9/11, Osama Bin Laden has been declared terrorist number 1, enemy of mankind (that is Globalized West) and nobody cared anymore whether GW Bush stole the election with the help of his brother in Florida or whether Israel was a “settlers’ state” in the Middle East. Osama and Islamic terrorism needed being defeated by any means necessary and the whole MENA needed reform even if through direct US invasion and/or an Arab Spring, even though it would most probably lead to Islamists taking control and/or civil war. The approach will be similar in dealing with Putin’s RusFed.

    Finally, if Putin is wise enough not to allow using tactical nukes on the frontline, there is always a possibility that the same people who have blown NS pipelines would detonate a tactucal nuclear warhead somewhere on the frontline or in Kaliningrad area and blame it on Putin. There would be no way to convince anyone that RusFed didn’t do it.

    • Thanks: LatW
    • Replies: @A123
    @Bashibuzuk


    Besides, Putin is led from goalpost to goalpost towards using tactical nukes on the frontline. Or perhaps it is more appropriate to write that the RusFed under Putin is led to use nukes and become de facto a pariah state. It is already a pariah state for all the Globalized West, but if it uses nukes it will become the embodiment of evil for everyone else.

    Putin will most probably use the tactical nukes because he has no other option left except a war of attrition that would take years
     

    There is no difference between tactical and strategic in terms of geopolitical response. So it is more realistic that Russia will "go big".

    » Lviv and Kiev are uncapturable and thus 100% expendable. Several strategic nukes in each.
    » The rest of the MIRV payload will be dumped on rail connections.
    » Possibly Odessa will also be incinerated. Would the fallout reach Kherson? If not, this would be an ideal choice to break Black Sea logistics.

    Kiev regime aggression would be cut off from resupply. Nothing by land or sea.
    ____

    Key to understanding the situation is that the European WEF *wants* Ukraine to lose badly. This has never been about the U.S. or NATO. It has always been about MENA origin migration.

    The Ukraine turmoil allows migrants to entire the EU unchecked. Over 1/3 of Ukrainian refugees are actually MENA origin Muslim Great Replacers travelling on forged documents. It is the legacy of Angela “Welcome Rape-ugees” Merkel given Muslim form & substance via the European WEF puppeteers managing the White House Occupant.

    Islam wins if the Kiev regime fails after maximizing the number of migrants. Nuclear fallout after Lviv is smoked will prevent the EU from sending “home” Jihadist Invaders travelling on forged Ukrainian identity documents.

    The European WEF wants European Judeo-Christians to suffer and die. Ukrainian Christians and Russian Christians dying are a bonus to the Islamists of Davos.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @sudden death

  358. @Ron Unz
    It looks like most of the discussion on this Open Thread has focused on the front-line fighting, and the Ukrainians have recently been getting the better of it.

    But I think NATO is facing a looming strategic defeat of gigantic magnitude, vastly more significant than those minor military skirmishes.

    As I discussed in my recent article, it seems almost certain that America was behind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, and the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Tucker Carlson has had a couple of good segments on America's obvious involvement:

    https://youtu.be/jLb0QeCQF_I

    Prof. Jeffrey Sachs was just interviewed yesterday on Bloomberg TV, and he confirmed that everyone is sure that America was behind the pipeline attacks. A short clip of his remarks was Tweeted out and viewed over 4 million times, with millions of additional views on other Tweets:

    https://twitter.com/0ddette/status/1576916509766451200

    More than half of all German companies have said that they may be forced to close down and the growing popular demonstrations demanding that the sanctions be lifted and the pipelines be reopened obviously prompted the American decision to eliminate that possibility.

    The apparent American strike on pipelines so vital to Germany may have been the largest peacetime military attack on civilian infrastructure in the history of the world and obviously an act of war against Germany not to be taken lightly. But with the pipelines now destroyed, Germany would have no other options. Except that the pipeline attackers were a little careless in their operation as Jeff Davis, a commenter on this website, pointed out earlier today:

    Jump on this scoop:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/gazprom-ready-to-ship-gas-via-shelved-nord-stream-2-pipeline

    The vaunted US Navy screwed up. In the murky depths of the Baltic Sea they planted their explosives to blow up the ***FOUR*** pipes of the NS 1 & NS2 gas pipelines. (You didn’t know there were four pipes, did you? Neither did I.) But they appear to have screwed up and placed two of the explosive packages on one of the NS2 pipes — line A — leaving the other pipe — line B — with no explosive charge, and subsequently ***NO DAMAGE***. Line B is therefore ***READY TO GO*** with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year … which for comparison is 50% of total capacity of Nordstream 1, which as you may recall was recently reduced to 20% capacity before being shut down completely. (2.75 times the capacity of the newly-opened Norway-to-Poland gas pipeline).

    Gazprom has lowered the pressure in the line, will conduct an inspection, after which Germany can just give the go ahead, flip the switch, be back to 50% of the previous gas supply rate.

    The US thought they would f*ck Germany, but they screwed the pooch.
     
    https://www.unz.com/pescobar/pipeline-terror-is-the-9-11-of-the-raging-twenties/?showcomments#comment-5583668

    So the Germans need only declare an end to Russian sanctions and open the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and their desperate energy crunch will be over.

    Given the extremely strong likelihood that America tried to destroy the pipelines and devastate the German economy, I think we may see the end of NATO much sooner than anyone expected.

    And if the Germans throw out America and realign with Russia, I think both Poland and Ukraine may face a difficult strategic position.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @sudden death, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Triteleia Laxa, @Philip Owen

    the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:

    And, the energy loss is the locked in by unanimous EU sanctions. Germany’s aggressive foreign policy has now backfired. Poland can met its gas needs via Baltic Pipe, thus giving them the unilateral whip hand:

    What will Germany give Poland to end the unanimous EU sanctions?

    At a minimum Poland will make some very reasonable requests:

    • Yamal to be used at maximum capacity
    • NS2 will only carry overage above the Yamal limit
    • The 100% excess capacity of NS1 Will be permanently abandoned
    • Poland will have veto rights over future projects that might allow Germany to bypass Poland as key transit supplier.
    • The end of EU finds restrictions based on Poland democracy and rule of law.

    The other options for elite German leadership are:

    ♦ Letting Germany freeze
    ♦ Permanently ending the concept of EU foreign policy by unilaterally repudiating un as humour EU sanctions.

    Start at 0:33 if the auto time sync fails

    If Poland is not obeyed. The Gas will not flow.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @A123
    @A123

    Sorry for the multiple typos in the above. The WRONG ADMIN POST TYPE site error eliminated the five minute edit window.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    , @Triteleia Laxa
    @A123

    Russia: "you must buy our gas via Nordstream 2."

    Germany: "why not nordstream 1, you're contractually obliged to."

    Russia: "well it is war and you can't make us pay compensation."

    Germany: "we will sue for your ForEx reserves."

    Russia: "sorry, did we say 'war', we meant we are having technical problems."

    Some time later:

    Germany: "your technical problems should be resolved by now, any court would recognise this."

    Russia: ...

    Germany "Russia?"

    Russia: ...

    !Gas pipe explodes!

    Russia: "sorry, we can't deliver your gas Germany, it seems the US blew up nordstream 1 & 2, now you must be friends with us, you have been betrayed."

    Germany: "ffs."

    US: "wtf!"

    Russian shills: "the US were constantly threatening Nordstream 2, it must have been them."

    Russia: "Hey Germany, Nordstream 2 is fine, only Nordstream 1 got blown up, you must buy our gas from Nordstream 2."

    Germany: "hey Poland, Russia is going to use Nordstream 2 to blackmail us, as they've been trying forever do. Can we set up a scenario whereby it looks like you're also blackmailing us?

    Poland: "what do you mean?"

    Germany: "well Russia will demand all of this stuff, and we will just say the crazy Poles won't let us, thereby making our position unassailable."

    Poland: "makes sense."

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Sean

    , @Wokechoke
    @A123

    LOL Poland as a "transit supplier". If Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country what does that make Poland? A nigger faking it as the gas station clerk... as the owner is under the counter gagged and hogtied... while a nice family is trying to figure out why a gun is being pointed at them as they are trying to pay for gasoline on their credit card.

  359. @A123
    @Ron Unz


    the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:
     
    And, the energy loss is the locked in by unanimous EU sanctions. Germany's aggressive foreign policy has now backfired. Poland can met its gas needs via Baltic Pipe, thus giving them the unilateral whip hand:

    What will Germany give Poland to end the unanimous EU sanctions?

    At a minimum Poland will make some very reasonable requests:

    • Yamal to be used at maximum capacity
    • NS2 will only carry overage above the Yamal limit
    • The 100% excess capacity of NS1 Will be permanently abandoned
    • Poland will have veto rights over future projects that might allow Germany to bypass Poland as key transit supplier.
    • The end of EU finds restrictions based on Poland democracy and rule of law.

    The other options for elite German leadership are:

    ♦ Letting Germany freeze
    ♦ Permanently ending the concept of EU foreign policy by unilaterally repudiating un as humour EU sanctions.

    Start at 0:33 if the auto time sync fails

    https://youtu.be/R4kpQelo29Q?t=33

    If Poland is not obeyed. The Gas will not flow.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @A123, @Triteleia Laxa, @Wokechoke

    Sorry for the multiple typos in the above. The WRONG ADMIN POST TYPE site error eliminated the five minute edit window.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @A123

    Crap is still crap, no matter how gussied up or how many filters it goes through...

  360. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @A123
    @Ron Unz


    the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:
     
    And, the energy loss is the locked in by unanimous EU sanctions. Germany's aggressive foreign policy has now backfired. Poland can met its gas needs via Baltic Pipe, thus giving them the unilateral whip hand:

    What will Germany give Poland to end the unanimous EU sanctions?

    At a minimum Poland will make some very reasonable requests:

    • Yamal to be used at maximum capacity
    • NS2 will only carry overage above the Yamal limit
    • The 100% excess capacity of NS1 Will be permanently abandoned
    • Poland will have veto rights over future projects that might allow Germany to bypass Poland as key transit supplier.
    • The end of EU finds restrictions based on Poland democracy and rule of law.

    The other options for elite German leadership are:

    ♦ Letting Germany freeze
    ♦ Permanently ending the concept of EU foreign policy by unilaterally repudiating un as humour EU sanctions.

    Start at 0:33 if the auto time sync fails

    https://youtu.be/R4kpQelo29Q?t=33

    If Poland is not obeyed. The Gas will not flow.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @A123, @Triteleia Laxa, @Wokechoke

    Russia: “you must buy our gas via Nordstream 2.”

    Germany: “why not nordstream 1, you’re contractually obliged to.”

    Russia: “well it is war and you can’t make us pay compensation.”

    Germany: “we will sue for your ForEx reserves.”

    Russia: “sorry, did we say ‘war’, we meant we are having technical problems.”

    Some time later:

    Germany: “your technical problems should be resolved by now, any court would recognise this.”

    Russia: …

    Germany “Russia?”

    Russia: …

    !Gas pipe explodes!

    Russia: “sorry, we can’t deliver your gas Germany, it seems the US blew up nordstream 1 & 2, now you must be friends with us, you have been betrayed.”

    Germany: “ffs.”

    US: “wtf!”

    Russian shills: “the US were constantly threatening Nordstream 2, it must have been them.”

    Russia: “Hey Germany, Nordstream 2 is fine, only Nordstream 1 got blown up, you must buy our gas from Nordstream 2.”

    Germany: “hey Poland, Russia is going to use Nordstream 2 to blackmail us, as they’ve been trying forever do. Can we set up a scenario whereby it looks like you’re also blackmailing us?

    Poland: “what do you mean?”

    Germany: “well Russia will demand all of this stuff, and we will just say the crazy Poles won’t let us, thereby making our position unassailable.”

    Poland: “makes sense.”

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Lesson: Putin always lies, as the Slavs have been telling us for decades.

    Here's an explanation in useful for going for a walk audio format.

    https://theeasternborder.lv/podcast/an-open-letter-to-elon-musk-and-other-dealmaking-experts/

    Replies: @LatW

    , @Sean
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Cunning of Russia to blow up the pipeline the day before Poland's pipeline from Norway came on stream.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  361. @Ron Unz
    It looks like most of the discussion on this Open Thread has focused on the front-line fighting, and the Ukrainians have recently been getting the better of it.

    But I think NATO is facing a looming strategic defeat of gigantic magnitude, vastly more significant than those minor military skirmishes.

    As I discussed in my recent article, it seems almost certain that America was behind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, and the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Tucker Carlson has had a couple of good segments on America's obvious involvement:

    https://youtu.be/jLb0QeCQF_I

    Prof. Jeffrey Sachs was just interviewed yesterday on Bloomberg TV, and he confirmed that everyone is sure that America was behind the pipeline attacks. A short clip of his remarks was Tweeted out and viewed over 4 million times, with millions of additional views on other Tweets:

    https://twitter.com/0ddette/status/1576916509766451200

    More than half of all German companies have said that they may be forced to close down and the growing popular demonstrations demanding that the sanctions be lifted and the pipelines be reopened obviously prompted the American decision to eliminate that possibility.

    The apparent American strike on pipelines so vital to Germany may have been the largest peacetime military attack on civilian infrastructure in the history of the world and obviously an act of war against Germany not to be taken lightly. But with the pipelines now destroyed, Germany would have no other options. Except that the pipeline attackers were a little careless in their operation as Jeff Davis, a commenter on this website, pointed out earlier today:

    Jump on this scoop:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/gazprom-ready-to-ship-gas-via-shelved-nord-stream-2-pipeline

    The vaunted US Navy screwed up. In the murky depths of the Baltic Sea they planted their explosives to blow up the ***FOUR*** pipes of the NS 1 & NS2 gas pipelines. (You didn’t know there were four pipes, did you? Neither did I.) But they appear to have screwed up and placed two of the explosive packages on one of the NS2 pipes — line A — leaving the other pipe — line B — with no explosive charge, and subsequently ***NO DAMAGE***. Line B is therefore ***READY TO GO*** with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year … which for comparison is 50% of total capacity of Nordstream 1, which as you may recall was recently reduced to 20% capacity before being shut down completely. (2.75 times the capacity of the newly-opened Norway-to-Poland gas pipeline).

    Gazprom has lowered the pressure in the line, will conduct an inspection, after which Germany can just give the go ahead, flip the switch, be back to 50% of the previous gas supply rate.

    The US thought they would f*ck Germany, but they screwed the pooch.
     
    https://www.unz.com/pescobar/pipeline-terror-is-the-9-11-of-the-raging-twenties/?showcomments#comment-5583668

    So the Germans need only declare an end to Russian sanctions and open the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and their desperate energy crunch will be over.

    Given the extremely strong likelihood that America tried to destroy the pipelines and devastate the German economy, I think we may see the end of NATO much sooner than anyone expected.

    And if the Germans throw out America and realign with Russia, I think both Poland and Ukraine may face a difficult strategic position.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @sudden death, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Triteleia Laxa, @Philip Owen

    So the Germans need only declare an end to Russian sanctions and open the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and their desperate energy crunch will be over.

    There were no any sanctions on NS1 and if it is not fuctional now likely there would be no much fuss on Western side to make a deal letting use one NS2 pipe temporarily while two pipes of NS1 cannot be operated, just like a deal was achieved to give back repaired turbine back to RF, which then refused to take it back because…sanctions and legally would lose litigation for not delivering for BS reasons, not even to mention that all the needed natgas can also be physically delivered through existing land pipelines.

    More than likely we will see another comedy again, when in case of real harsh winter physical shortage there will be given a temporary emergency limited exemption for using one NS2 line in winter while NS1 cannot be operated and then RF will refuse to flow the gas cause…sanctions, lol

    So if there was any screwup in blowing then it might as well been another screwup of diving petrovs&boshirovs or screwup like blowup of hydrate plug inside the pipes due to some technological messing or incompetence.

    And for whatever reason gas tap now is turned off for Italy too, which has very little to do with any nordstreaming nonsense.

  362. @Ron Unz
    It looks like most of the discussion on this Open Thread has focused on the front-line fighting, and the Ukrainians have recently been getting the better of it.

    But I think NATO is facing a looming strategic defeat of gigantic magnitude, vastly more significant than those minor military skirmishes.

    As I discussed in my recent article, it seems almost certain that America was behind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, and the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Tucker Carlson has had a couple of good segments on America's obvious involvement:

    https://youtu.be/jLb0QeCQF_I

    Prof. Jeffrey Sachs was just interviewed yesterday on Bloomberg TV, and he confirmed that everyone is sure that America was behind the pipeline attacks. A short clip of his remarks was Tweeted out and viewed over 4 million times, with millions of additional views on other Tweets:

    https://twitter.com/0ddette/status/1576916509766451200

    More than half of all German companies have said that they may be forced to close down and the growing popular demonstrations demanding that the sanctions be lifted and the pipelines be reopened obviously prompted the American decision to eliminate that possibility.

    The apparent American strike on pipelines so vital to Germany may have been the largest peacetime military attack on civilian infrastructure in the history of the world and obviously an act of war against Germany not to be taken lightly. But with the pipelines now destroyed, Germany would have no other options. Except that the pipeline attackers were a little careless in their operation as Jeff Davis, a commenter on this website, pointed out earlier today:

    Jump on this scoop:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/gazprom-ready-to-ship-gas-via-shelved-nord-stream-2-pipeline

    The vaunted US Navy screwed up. In the murky depths of the Baltic Sea they planted their explosives to blow up the ***FOUR*** pipes of the NS 1 & NS2 gas pipelines. (You didn’t know there were four pipes, did you? Neither did I.) But they appear to have screwed up and placed two of the explosive packages on one of the NS2 pipes — line A — leaving the other pipe — line B — with no explosive charge, and subsequently ***NO DAMAGE***. Line B is therefore ***READY TO GO*** with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year … which for comparison is 50% of total capacity of Nordstream 1, which as you may recall was recently reduced to 20% capacity before being shut down completely. (2.75 times the capacity of the newly-opened Norway-to-Poland gas pipeline).

    Gazprom has lowered the pressure in the line, will conduct an inspection, after which Germany can just give the go ahead, flip the switch, be back to 50% of the previous gas supply rate.

    The US thought they would f*ck Germany, but they screwed the pooch.
     
    https://www.unz.com/pescobar/pipeline-terror-is-the-9-11-of-the-raging-twenties/?showcomments#comment-5583668

    So the Germans need only declare an end to Russian sanctions and open the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and their desperate energy crunch will be over.

    Given the extremely strong likelihood that America tried to destroy the pipelines and devastate the German economy, I think we may see the end of NATO much sooner than anyone expected.

    And if the Germans throw out America and realign with Russia, I think both Poland and Ukraine may face a difficult strategic position.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @sudden death, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Triteleia Laxa, @Philip Owen

    Ah, now I see. So, the contrarian hypothesis being mocked (“Putin bombed his own infrastructure, thus losing his leverage over Europe”) must be restated, and turned into something which is not as preposterous: Putin destroyed roughly half of his gas flow capacity, and none of his leverage over Europe. Hmmm…
    Anyway, as a side note, I must finally admit that Jeffrey Sachs has indeed gone rogue, and must have been in a desperate position. I should have seen this earlier, as the signs were there for all to see: positions in China, contracts with United Arab Emirates, apparently he couldn’t refuse an offer lately.
    Jeffrey Sachs Took Millions From UAE to Research “Well-Being”
    https://theintercept.com/2021/12/29/jeffrey-sachs-uae-happiness/

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Brás Cubas

    One sign of a great power shift would be these US based Jews backing China over the US.

    The Sheep are all pretty much interchangeable.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  363. @Bashibuzuk
    @Ron Unz

    Germany is an Atlanticist colony. Even if it was proven beyond any reasonable doubt that US (and/or the British) did blow the pipelines, Germany would most probably not leave NATO or lift sanctions against RusFed.

    German elites have tried for a few decades to have a more assertive and more self-serving policy in the EU and Eastern Europe, but they are now being shown their place. Their higher technological abilities, their excellent engineering and their export oriented economy are no longer required by the masters of the global economy. The economic model and social system of the Globalized West are being reset. Germany needs being reset as much or even more than any other part of the Globalized West.

    Besides, Putin is led from goalpost to goalpost towards using tactical nukes on the frontline. Or perhaps it is more appropriate to write that the RusFed under Putin is led to use nukes and become de facto a pariah state. It is already a pariah state for all the Globalized West, but if it uses nukes it will become the embodiment of evil for everyone else.

    Putin will most probably use the tactical nukes because he has no other option left except a war of attrition that would take years and would most likely be lost by RusFed anyway. RusFed has wasted most of the critical high tech industries it inherited from the Soviets. This loss would probably not be compensated by Chinese technological exports because the Chinese need these industries to prepare themselves for war with the Globalized West and possibly because they have already started seeing RusFed position as a losing one.

    The export oriented RusFed economic model is no longer required or at least is not required for now, but perhaps would be reactivated after the global economy is reset. RusFed will be gradually deprived both of its export revenue and capacity of acquiring most critical components needed for its war effort.

    It might still survive if it had the stamina of Stalinist USSR, but Putin is no Stalin and RusFed is not USSR. It is a demographic black hole, a deindustrialized, corrupt, weakened and destructured society. They cannot stand a long fight against NATO even if it is a proxy war. They need a radical change in the situation on the front, they need negotiations from a strong position and an end to this war. And once it is evident that their "partial" mobilization doesn't help enough, they will have no other choice but to go nuclear.

    Once Putin uses the nukes, nobody will care who blew the pipelines. He will become the number one enemy of the whole mankind to be defeated by any means. Just like after 9/11, Osama Bin Laden has been declared terrorist number 1, enemy of mankind (that is Globalized West) and nobody cared anymore whether GW Bush stole the election with the help of his brother in Florida or whether Israel was a "settlers' state" in the Middle East. Osama and Islamic terrorism needed being defeated by any means necessary and the whole MENA needed reform even if through direct US invasion and/or an Arab Spring, even though it would most probably lead to Islamists taking control and/or civil war. The approach will be similar in dealing with Putin's RusFed.

    Finally, if Putin is wise enough not to allow using tactical nukes on the frontline, there is always a possibility that the same people who have blown NS pipelines would detonate a tactucal nuclear warhead somewhere on the frontline or in Kaliningrad area and blame it on Putin. There would be no way to convince anyone that RusFed didn't do it.

    Replies: @A123

    Besides, Putin is led from goalpost to goalpost towards using tactical nukes on the frontline. Or perhaps it is more appropriate to write that the RusFed under Putin is led to use nukes and become de facto a pariah state. It is already a pariah state for all the Globalized West, but if it uses nukes it will become the embodiment of evil for everyone else.

    Putin will most probably use the tactical nukes because he has no other option left except a war of attrition that would take years

    There is no difference between tactical and strategic in terms of geopolitical response. So it is more realistic that Russia will “go big”.

    » Lviv and Kiev are uncapturable and thus 100% expendable. Several strategic nukes in each.
    » The rest of the MIRV payload will be dumped on rail connections.
    » Possibly Odessa will also be incinerated. Would the fallout reach Kherson? If not, this would be an ideal choice to break Black Sea logistics.

    Kiev regime aggression would be cut off from resupply. Nothing by land or sea.
    ____

    Key to understanding the situation is that the European WEF *wants* Ukraine to lose badly. This has never been about the U.S. or NATO. It has always been about MENA origin migration.

    The Ukraine turmoil allows migrants to entire the EU unchecked. Over 1/3 of Ukrainian refugees are actually MENA origin Muslim Great Replacers travelling on forged documents. It is the legacy of Angela “Welcome Rape-ugees” Merkel given Muslim form & substance via the European WEF puppeteers managing the White House Occupant.

    Islam wins if the Kiev regime fails after maximizing the number of migrants. Nuclear fallout after Lviv is smoked will prevent the EU from sending “home” Jihadist Invaders travelling on forged Ukrainian identity documents.

    The European WEF wants European Judeo-Christians to suffer and die. Ukrainian Christians and Russian Christians dying are a bonus to the Islamists of Davos.

    PEACE 😇

    • Troll: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @sudden death
    @A123


    Nuclear fallout after Lviv is smoked will prevent the EU from sending “home” Jihadist Invaders travelling on forged Ukrainian identity documents.
     
    So that is exactly the goal of IslamoPutin too who will drop the bomb! Putler is a Muslim WEF puppet!

    Very glad you're acknowledging and confirming this;)

    http://static.kremlin.ru/media/events/photos/big/v9jgW5WlDPlf1AAuaAcwfBrMsA2oklrd.jpeg

    Replies: @sudden death, @A123

  364. @A123
    @Bashibuzuk


    Besides, Putin is led from goalpost to goalpost towards using tactical nukes on the frontline. Or perhaps it is more appropriate to write that the RusFed under Putin is led to use nukes and become de facto a pariah state. It is already a pariah state for all the Globalized West, but if it uses nukes it will become the embodiment of evil for everyone else.

    Putin will most probably use the tactical nukes because he has no other option left except a war of attrition that would take years
     

    There is no difference between tactical and strategic in terms of geopolitical response. So it is more realistic that Russia will "go big".

    » Lviv and Kiev are uncapturable and thus 100% expendable. Several strategic nukes in each.
    » The rest of the MIRV payload will be dumped on rail connections.
    » Possibly Odessa will also be incinerated. Would the fallout reach Kherson? If not, this would be an ideal choice to break Black Sea logistics.

    Kiev regime aggression would be cut off from resupply. Nothing by land or sea.
    ____

    Key to understanding the situation is that the European WEF *wants* Ukraine to lose badly. This has never been about the U.S. or NATO. It has always been about MENA origin migration.

    The Ukraine turmoil allows migrants to entire the EU unchecked. Over 1/3 of Ukrainian refugees are actually MENA origin Muslim Great Replacers travelling on forged documents. It is the legacy of Angela “Welcome Rape-ugees” Merkel given Muslim form & substance via the European WEF puppeteers managing the White House Occupant.

    Islam wins if the Kiev regime fails after maximizing the number of migrants. Nuclear fallout after Lviv is smoked will prevent the EU from sending “home” Jihadist Invaders travelling on forged Ukrainian identity documents.

    The European WEF wants European Judeo-Christians to suffer and die. Ukrainian Christians and Russian Christians dying are a bonus to the Islamists of Davos.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @sudden death

    Nuclear fallout after Lviv is smoked will prevent the EU from sending “home” Jihadist Invaders travelling on forged Ukrainian identity documents.

    So that is exactly the goal of IslamoPutin too who will drop the bomb! Putler is a Muslim WEF puppet!

    Very glad you’re acknowledging and confirming this;)

    • Agree: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @sudden death
    @sudden death

    WEF puppet IslamoPutin happily and personally getting all the orders for the future straight from Klaus Schwab at the moment when Covid is starting to spread in China:


    November 27, 2019

    President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Schwab, please accept my sincere greetings. I am happy to see you again.

    We all know the current state of the world economy. There are many problems and the number of unpredictable variables is continually on the rise.

    Global GDP rates are dropping. According to the WTO, trade will probably grow by about 1.2 percent instead of the predicted 4 percent.

    This is why your international venue, the Global Economic Forum, is in such demand and is of great use. It supports people striving to work openly and in line with current international law and promotes contacts between business and government officials.

    This is why we have always supported and will continue to support our relations with the forum you founded. Naturally, Russian representatives have always attended and will attend your events.
     

    http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/62145

    http://static.kremlin.ru/media/events/photos/big/4GvVqBFqHAdz0DulKKZgXVMQQtLUD4nq.jpg

    , @A123
    @sudden death



    the legacy of Angela “Welcome Rape-ugees” Merkel given Muslim form & substance via the European WEF puppeteers managing the White House Occupant.
     
    So that is exactly the goal of IslamoPutin too who will drop the bomb! Putler is a Muslim WEF puppet!
     
    ROTFL...

    I clearly stated European WEF puppeteers managing the White House Occupant. The WEF is using Not-The-President Biden to provoke Russia.

    Your apology is accepted ... ;)


    Putler is a Muslim WEF puppet!
     
    Why are you so fascinated by Butlers? Which one(s) are you pairing up via Putin-Butler (Putler)? Some options:

    • Mr. Belvedere
    • Benson
    • Jeeves

    How about:
    • Ernest Penfold

    https://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100826212733/danmacgregor/images/0/0a/Penfold.jpg

    Which Butlers capture your focus? I suppose it could be considered a compliment if to you move up to the competence level of Alfred Pennyworth.

    PEACE 😇

  365. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    Not a single line being written or word spoken how exactly heaps of new meat will really help make that much difference
     
    I think I was making that point here not long ago. I don't see how 300k conscripts are going to make any significant difference on this enterprise where the bulk of the professional Russian Armed Forces have failed quite miserably.

    Strelkov is asking if Konachenkov's daily briefings are for the public or rather for the Kremlin. I ask myself the same question. The stupor in the Kremlin is astonishing. Don't they have accurate information of what's happening in Ukraine (like they didn't when they decided to launch this operation)? Is the command structure broken? Both?

    The same strategists that devised this fiasco sending more men to fight against a determined enemy that is receiving unprecedented amounts of weapons and intelligence from all around the West looks futile.

    Increasing the number of troops may be a necessary condition to avoid defeat for the reasons that Thorfinson explains but by no means sufficient, imho.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Wokechoke

    The Russians may have to put out various ethnic fires internally.

  366. @Brás Cubas
    @Ron Unz

    Ah, now I see. So, the contrarian hypothesis being mocked ("Putin bombed his own infrastructure, thus losing his leverage over Europe") must be restated, and turned into something which is not as preposterous: Putin destroyed roughly half of his gas flow capacity, and none of his leverage over Europe. Hmmm...
    Anyway, as a side note, I must finally admit that Jeffrey Sachs has indeed gone rogue, and must have been in a desperate position. I should have seen this earlier, as the signs were there for all to see: positions in China, contracts with United Arab Emirates, apparently he couldn't refuse an offer lately.
    Jeffrey Sachs Took Millions From UAE to Research “Well-Being”
    https://theintercept.com/2021/12/29/jeffrey-sachs-uae-happiness/

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    One sign of a great power shift would be these US based Jews backing China over the US.

    The Sheep are all pretty much interchangeable.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wokechoke

    All things being equal, time and time again, events really do show that Jews have a moderate, but substantially greater, tendency towards treachery.

    Not as much as transgenders, it seems, look at the first US transgender army officer, but still significant.

    It also doesn't signify a power shift. They did it with the USSR, right up until it collapsed. And let's be honest, some would have done it with Nazi Germany, even in 1944, had Nazi Germany let them. In fact, the world's foremost Nazi is currently Jewish, and writes long articles trying to prove that Jews and Nazis were actually best of friends.

    All that ancestral time spent arguing pointless Talmudic questions, taking whichever side they were allocated, has made them both intelligent, but also prone to moronic contrarianism.

  367. Bashibuzuk says:

    Poland’s foreign minister issued a diplomatic note to Germany officially on Monday formally demanding $1.3 trillion in war reparations for damages suffered by Poland during the Second World War. That means the issue is now officially on the table regarding Polish-German relations.

    The issue of reparations may have already been discussed between Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her visit to Warsaw on Tuesday, although any such discussion has not yet been confirmed.

    The Polish diplomatic note calls for urgent action aiming at a complex and final material settlement for the consequences of Germany’s invasion and occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1945, according to Polish news outlet TVP.

    According to Rau, the matter must now be discussed, and a final settlement should include ensuring that the Polish victims of the war are remembered and honored. It also calls on Germany to take measures to raise awareness among its own population about the damage done by Germany to Poland during the war.

    https://rmx.news/poland/poland-formally-demands-1-3-trillion-in-reparations-from-germany-for-wwii-damages/

    This on top of everything else that Poland has done lately demonstrates that Poland wants to be the new center of power in Europe.

    I am pretty sure that if RusFed is defeated, the Poles will also ask for reparations for the decades of Soviet rule.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk

    It is just noise.


    "Reparations payments to Poland were immediately rejected in Berlin. The German government invokes the Two-plus-Four Treaty of 1990 on the foreign policy consequences of German unity. Moreover, the Polish People’s Republic had renounced reparations in 1953 and confirmed this several times. According to international law, such new demands for money would therefore have to be clearly rejected, according to the German position.

    Moreover, Germany had previously made payments to Poland, especially to Polish forced labourers. In addition to the Foreign Ministry, government spokesperson Steffen Hebenstreit also rejected the proposal: “There is no reason for the German government to doubt the effectiveness of the 1953 waiver of reparations under international law. Of course, the Soviet Union had exerted massive pressure on Poland at the time.”

    As early as 2004, Kaczynski had demanded reparations from Germany. A joint expert opinion was then drawn up, which concluded that neither the former German inhabitants of the eastern territories ceded to Poland were entitled to restitution or compensation for lost property, nor was Poland entitled to reparations. "

    Replies: @Beckow, @Bashibuzuk

  368. @sudden death
    @A123


    Nuclear fallout after Lviv is smoked will prevent the EU from sending “home” Jihadist Invaders travelling on forged Ukrainian identity documents.
     
    So that is exactly the goal of IslamoPutin too who will drop the bomb! Putler is a Muslim WEF puppet!

    Very glad you're acknowledging and confirming this;)

    http://static.kremlin.ru/media/events/photos/big/v9jgW5WlDPlf1AAuaAcwfBrMsA2oklrd.jpeg

    Replies: @sudden death, @A123

    WEF puppet IslamoPutin happily and personally getting all the orders for the future straight from Klaus Schwab at the moment when Covid is starting to spread in China:

    November 27, 2019

    President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Schwab, please accept my sincere greetings. I am happy to see you again.

    We all know the current state of the world economy. There are many problems and the number of unpredictable variables is continually on the rise.

    Global GDP rates are dropping. According to the WTO, trade will probably grow by about 1.2 percent instead of the predicted 4 percent.

    This is why your international venue, the Global Economic Forum, is in such demand and is of great use. It supports people striving to work openly and in line with current international law and promotes contacts between business and government officials.

    This is why we have always supported and will continue to support our relations with the forum you founded. Naturally, Russian representatives have always attended and will attend your events.

    http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/62145

  369. @A123
    @Ron Unz


    the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:
     
    And, the energy loss is the locked in by unanimous EU sanctions. Germany's aggressive foreign policy has now backfired. Poland can met its gas needs via Baltic Pipe, thus giving them the unilateral whip hand:

    What will Germany give Poland to end the unanimous EU sanctions?

    At a minimum Poland will make some very reasonable requests:

    • Yamal to be used at maximum capacity
    • NS2 will only carry overage above the Yamal limit
    • The 100% excess capacity of NS1 Will be permanently abandoned
    • Poland will have veto rights over future projects that might allow Germany to bypass Poland as key transit supplier.
    • The end of EU finds restrictions based on Poland democracy and rule of law.

    The other options for elite German leadership are:

    ♦ Letting Germany freeze
    ♦ Permanently ending the concept of EU foreign policy by unilaterally repudiating un as humour EU sanctions.

    Start at 0:33 if the auto time sync fails

    https://youtu.be/R4kpQelo29Q?t=33

    If Poland is not obeyed. The Gas will not flow.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @A123, @Triteleia Laxa, @Wokechoke

    LOL Poland as a “transit supplier”. If Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country what does that make Poland? A nigger faking it as the gas station clerk… as the owner is under the counter gagged and hogtied… while a nice family is trying to figure out why a gun is being pointed at them as they are trying to pay for gasoline on their credit card.

  370. @A123
    @A123

    Sorry for the multiple typos in the above. The WRONG ADMIN POST TYPE site error eliminated the five minute edit window.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Crap is still crap, no matter how gussied up or how many filters it goes through…

  371. @sudden death
    @A123


    Nuclear fallout after Lviv is smoked will prevent the EU from sending “home” Jihadist Invaders travelling on forged Ukrainian identity documents.
     
    So that is exactly the goal of IslamoPutin too who will drop the bomb! Putler is a Muslim WEF puppet!

    Very glad you're acknowledging and confirming this;)

    http://static.kremlin.ru/media/events/photos/big/v9jgW5WlDPlf1AAuaAcwfBrMsA2oklrd.jpeg

    Replies: @sudden death, @A123

    the legacy of Angela “Welcome Rape-ugees” Merkel given Muslim form & substance via the European WEF puppeteers managing the White House Occupant.

    So that is exactly the goal of IslamoPutin too who will drop the bomb! Putler is a Muslim WEF puppet!

    ROTFL…

    I clearly stated European WEF puppeteers managing the White House Occupant. The WEF is using Not-The-President Biden to provoke Russia.

    Your apology is accepted … 😉

    Putler is a Muslim WEF puppet!

    Why are you so fascinated by Butlers? Which one(s) are you pairing up via Putin-Butler (Putler)? Some options:

    • Mr. Belvedere
    • Benson
    • Jeeves

    How about:
    • Ernest Penfold

    Which Butlers capture your focus? I suppose it could be considered a compliment if to you move up to the competence level of Alfred Pennyworth.

    PEACE 😇

  372. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Wokechoke
    @Brás Cubas

    One sign of a great power shift would be these US based Jews backing China over the US.

    The Sheep are all pretty much interchangeable.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    All things being equal, time and time again, events really do show that Jews have a moderate, but substantially greater, tendency towards treachery.

    Not as much as transgenders, it seems, look at the first US transgender army officer, but still significant.

    It also doesn’t signify a power shift. They did it with the USSR, right up until it collapsed. And let’s be honest, some would have done it with Nazi Germany, even in 1944, had Nazi Germany let them. In fact, the world’s foremost Nazi is currently Jewish, and writes long articles trying to prove that Jews and Nazis were actually best of friends.

    All that ancestral time spent arguing pointless Talmudic questions, taking whichever side they were allocated, has made them both intelligent, but also prone to moronic contrarianism.

  373. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Bashibuzuk

    Poland’s foreign minister issued a diplomatic note to Germany officially on Monday formally demanding $1.3 trillion in war reparations for damages suffered by Poland during the Second World War. That means the issue is now officially on the table regarding Polish-German relations.

    The issue of reparations may have already been discussed between Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her visit to Warsaw on Tuesday, although any such discussion has not yet been confirmed.

    The Polish diplomatic note calls for urgent action aiming at a complex and final material settlement for the consequences of Germany’s invasion and occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1945, according to Polish news outlet TVP.

    According to Rau, the matter must now be discussed, and a final settlement should include ensuring that the Polish victims of the war are remembered and honored. It also calls on Germany to take measures to raise awareness among its own population about the damage done by Germany to Poland during the war.
     
    https://rmx.news/poland/poland-formally-demands-1-3-trillion-in-reparations-from-germany-for-wwii-damages/

    This on top of everything else that Poland has done lately demonstrates that Poland wants to be the new center of power in Europe.

    I am pretty sure that if RusFed is defeated, the Poles will also ask for reparations for the decades of Soviet rule.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    It is just noise.

    “Reparations payments to Poland were immediately rejected in Berlin. The German government invokes the Two-plus-Four Treaty of 1990 on the foreign policy consequences of German unity. Moreover, the Polish People’s Republic had renounced reparations in 1953 and confirmed this several times. According to international law, such new demands for money would therefore have to be clearly rejected, according to the German position.

    Moreover, Germany had previously made payments to Poland, especially to Polish forced labourers. In addition to the Foreign Ministry, government spokesperson Steffen Hebenstreit also rejected the proposal: “There is no reason for the German government to doubt the effectiveness of the 1953 waiver of reparations under international law. Of course, the Soviet Union had exerted massive pressure on Poland at the time.”

    As early as 2004, Kaczynski had demanded reparations from Germany. A joint expert opinion was then drawn up, which concluded that neither the former German inhabitants of the eastern territories ceded to Poland were entitled to restitution or compensation for lost property, nor was Poland entitled to reparations. ”

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Of course, nobody will be paying anything. But the salient point is the growing attempt at internal plunder inside the West: NS blow-up, endless EU fines, forced T-bills purchases, UK financial meltdown...

    The opportunity for external plunder is reduced and the players turn on themselves. The weaker players are attacked and asked "to pay". Germany is an obvious target: a prosperous but weak country. US being the unquestionable top dog will come out on top.

    Russia's rebellion against the Western order is encouraging others to resist. That is the real catastrophe for the West. OPEC just told them to go and take a hike, Latin America is run by leftist nationalists, China, India, even Turkey, are ignoring the West. With Russia's change of sides there are no levers to apply successfully. This is a strategic catastrophe - the emperor has some old clothes left, but the peons around the world don't have to care anymore - it is now voluntary.

    The Western prosperity is a combination of internal acumen and grit with access to cheap resources around the world. The domestic ability to do hard work has declined, now the external hit of not having access to cheap resources is added. It is going to realign no matter what the West does. It will be known as the biggest own goal in history - Nato stupidly reaching for Ukraine and losing the Western hegemony in the process while destroying Ukraine. How stupid are these people?

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Unintended Consequence

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Poland is open to hosting nuclear weapons and has discussed the idea with the United States, President Andrzej Duda has revealed. The head of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jarosław Kaczyński, says he “fully supports” the idea.
     
    https://notesfrompoland.com/2022/10/05/poland-has-discussed-hosting-nuclear-weapons-with-us-says-president/
  374. @Ron Unz
    It looks like most of the discussion on this Open Thread has focused on the front-line fighting, and the Ukrainians have recently been getting the better of it.

    But I think NATO is facing a looming strategic defeat of gigantic magnitude, vastly more significant than those minor military skirmishes.

    As I discussed in my recent article, it seems almost certain that America was behind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, and the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Tucker Carlson has had a couple of good segments on America's obvious involvement:

    https://youtu.be/jLb0QeCQF_I

    Prof. Jeffrey Sachs was just interviewed yesterday on Bloomberg TV, and he confirmed that everyone is sure that America was behind the pipeline attacks. A short clip of his remarks was Tweeted out and viewed over 4 million times, with millions of additional views on other Tweets:

    https://twitter.com/0ddette/status/1576916509766451200

    More than half of all German companies have said that they may be forced to close down and the growing popular demonstrations demanding that the sanctions be lifted and the pipelines be reopened obviously prompted the American decision to eliminate that possibility.

    The apparent American strike on pipelines so vital to Germany may have been the largest peacetime military attack on civilian infrastructure in the history of the world and obviously an act of war against Germany not to be taken lightly. But with the pipelines now destroyed, Germany would have no other options. Except that the pipeline attackers were a little careless in their operation as Jeff Davis, a commenter on this website, pointed out earlier today:

    Jump on this scoop:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/gazprom-ready-to-ship-gas-via-shelved-nord-stream-2-pipeline

    The vaunted US Navy screwed up. In the murky depths of the Baltic Sea they planted their explosives to blow up the ***FOUR*** pipes of the NS 1 & NS2 gas pipelines. (You didn’t know there were four pipes, did you? Neither did I.) But they appear to have screwed up and placed two of the explosive packages on one of the NS2 pipes — line A — leaving the other pipe — line B — with no explosive charge, and subsequently ***NO DAMAGE***. Line B is therefore ***READY TO GO*** with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year … which for comparison is 50% of total capacity of Nordstream 1, which as you may recall was recently reduced to 20% capacity before being shut down completely. (2.75 times the capacity of the newly-opened Norway-to-Poland gas pipeline).

    Gazprom has lowered the pressure in the line, will conduct an inspection, after which Germany can just give the go ahead, flip the switch, be back to 50% of the previous gas supply rate.

    The US thought they would f*ck Germany, but they screwed the pooch.
     
    https://www.unz.com/pescobar/pipeline-terror-is-the-9-11-of-the-raging-twenties/?showcomments#comment-5583668

    So the Germans need only declare an end to Russian sanctions and open the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and their desperate energy crunch will be over.

    Given the extremely strong likelihood that America tried to destroy the pipelines and devastate the German economy, I think we may see the end of NATO much sooner than anyone expected.

    And if the Germans throw out America and realign with Russia, I think both Poland and Ukraine may face a difficult strategic position.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @sudden death, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Triteleia Laxa, @Philip Owen

    All these big pipelines are paired. What I found astonishing was the lack of valves (discussed in other threads).

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia’s stability despite Ukraine’s instability. The Chinese were not so foolish. They did not do a pipeline deal with Russia until they had a working pipeline to Turkmenistan. The Germans had the option to develop a pipeline from Azerbaijan and now of course, Israel. The French have always had the option of more gas from North Africa but their nukes have until recently made that a secondary issue. Needing to replace or upgrade all their nukes at the same time was an unfortunate planning error.

    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon. It may be equivalent to the UK having to suffer from North Sea oil. In that case, the high pound removed low added value manufacturing. Germany may need fewer immigrants for 5 years.

    An EU defence pact makes a lot more sense than NATO from a European perspective. NATO is a salesman for US arms and wars of choice. It drains technology development out of Europe. Yugoslavia and Libya would have been handled differently if the land of Sandy Hook was not involved. Even Ukraine. Something more like Minsk 2 would have been implemented. Not every situation needs guns for solutions.

    A US strategy might be to split an EU defence pact by building up an Intermarium. The Baltics, a democratic Belarus, Poland and Ukraine might be more interested in an alliance with more of an active anti Russia role than NATO. Kazakhstan seems to be moving that way. It is now supplying Ukraine with ex Soviet weapons.

    And as I have written this, Petronas has declared Force Majure due to a leak at its LNG train in Malaysia. This means a physical shortage in Japan. There is also a real problem for the UK.

    The UK is a major buyer of Malaysian LNG whichis imported through the Petronas Dragon Terminal at Milford Haven. UK retail gas prices are high but currently there is no supply shortage. Wholesale prices are low. Now a physical shortage is threatened. Truss is already on the ropes due to gas prices.

    • Thanks: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Philip Owen


    ...Germany was foolish to rely on Russia’s stability despite Ukraine’s instability.
     
    The point of NS1-2 was to bypass Ukraine. Maybe Germany is less foolish than weak.

    What matters are the aggregate numbers of supply and demand. Russia has reduced supply and there is a mismatch. Some of it will get fixed with higher prices. But the real solution is an economic crisis - nothing reduces demand more. So off to a deep recession we go, it helps with the war. The war is more important to the ones calling the shots in the West.


    NATO is a salesman for US arms and wars of choice...Yugoslavia and Libya would have been handled differently
     
    But they were not - plus Iraq, Syria, etc... that matters. Europe can't walk away from responsibility for aggressive wars by shrugging shoulders and with half-ass apologies. They broke their own rules, to insist on applying them to Russia is not possible.

    In 2010 the Western court in Hague issued a ruling about Kosovo: 'there is no international law against part of a country separating for self-determination'. We had South Sudan and now south-east Ukraine. In both Kosovo and S Sudan force was used. A precedent is a precedent.


    Truss is already on the ropes due to gas prices.
     
    Truss lacks self-control in public and eludes permanent low-level hysteria: she combines the worst in Thatcher, Blair and Johnson. Flooding UK with endless Third Worlders has lowered the quality of people at the top: it is no longer possible for normal level-headed smart people to rise. For that a society requires certain slack and allowances in youth - with ambitious unscrupulous women, Indians and homos the normal English men have no chance. The results are Truss, Sunak, Starmer, etc...
    , @Sean
    @Philip Owen


    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell
     
    Without the single currency German goods would be too expensive.

    Truss is already on the ropes due to gas prices.
     
    Although it is often forgotten now, Thatcher was cautious in her first term, and she won two general elections before she started with the radical policies. Truss is no sooner in office (without any vote by the population of the country) than she is going to extremes by cutting high earners' tax and welfare benefits, plus removing the cap on bankers' pay. Fracking, and her driver crossed the river twice on the televised inaugural drive to no 10. Uber?
    , @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon.
     
    Well, a big article in the WSJ a few days ago said that more than half of all small- and mid-sized German businesses think that the energy crisis might force them to shut down permanently. That sounds pretty serious to me:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-crisis-pushes-german-industry-to-the-brink-11664443801

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia’s stability despite Ukraine’s instability.
     
    They probably never considered America would destroy their pipeline. But with that setting a precedent, why wouldn't the Russians be able to try to destroy those other pipelines? Pipelines are obviously vulnerable, as are transatlantic fiber-optic cables.

    Suppose the Russians destroyed the communications lines between the US and Europe. Would you say West had been foolish to rely upon those means of communication?

    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he's about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @sudden death, @Philip Owen, @QCIC, @AnonfromTN, @Here Be Dragon

  375. If you look bit up north of Svatovo a potential new literal Poltava battle is awaiting;)

    • Replies: @LondonBob
    @sudden death

    Given a marked superiority in numbers, as well as the support of NATO, you would think Ukraine might achieve more than a twitter victory in the short time frame they have left until winter and partial mobilisation weigh in. More sensible would be a peace deal.

    https://www.thepostil.com/kharkov-and-mobilization/

    US now paying for weapons from South Korea to deliver to the Ukraine going via the Czech Republic. Maybe the US wrecking their economy with ever higher interest rates is to help fund all this.

  376. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Triteleia Laxa
    @A123

    Russia: "you must buy our gas via Nordstream 2."

    Germany: "why not nordstream 1, you're contractually obliged to."

    Russia: "well it is war and you can't make us pay compensation."

    Germany: "we will sue for your ForEx reserves."

    Russia: "sorry, did we say 'war', we meant we are having technical problems."

    Some time later:

    Germany: "your technical problems should be resolved by now, any court would recognise this."

    Russia: ...

    Germany "Russia?"

    Russia: ...

    !Gas pipe explodes!

    Russia: "sorry, we can't deliver your gas Germany, it seems the US blew up nordstream 1 & 2, now you must be friends with us, you have been betrayed."

    Germany: "ffs."

    US: "wtf!"

    Russian shills: "the US were constantly threatening Nordstream 2, it must have been them."

    Russia: "Hey Germany, Nordstream 2 is fine, only Nordstream 1 got blown up, you must buy our gas from Nordstream 2."

    Germany: "hey Poland, Russia is going to use Nordstream 2 to blackmail us, as they've been trying forever do. Can we set up a scenario whereby it looks like you're also blackmailing us?

    Poland: "what do you mean?"

    Germany: "well Russia will demand all of this stuff, and we will just say the crazy Poles won't let us, thereby making our position unassailable."

    Poland: "makes sense."

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Sean

    Lesson: Putin always lies, as the Slavs have been telling us for decades.

    Here’s an explanation in useful for going for a walk audio format.

    https://theeasternborder.lv/podcast/an-open-letter-to-elon-musk-and-other-dealmaking-experts/

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Triteleia Laxa

    He's correct. The Baltic men have had to deal with gopniks all their lives.

    The only problem, that on the street, a real gopnik may eventually back down when he sees some strength. But Putin just doesn't know how to lose. Plus it would mean death for him.

  377. @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    All these big pipelines are paired. What I found astonishing was the lack of valves (discussed in other threads).

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia's stability despite Ukraine's instability. The Chinese were not so foolish. They did not do a pipeline deal with Russia until they had a working pipeline to Turkmenistan. The Germans had the option to develop a pipeline from Azerbaijan and now of course, Israel. The French have always had the option of more gas from North Africa but their nukes have until recently made that a secondary issue. Needing to replace or upgrade all their nukes at the same time was an unfortunate planning error.

    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon. It may be equivalent to the UK having to suffer from North Sea oil. In that case, the high pound removed low added value manufacturing. Germany may need fewer immigrants for 5 years.

    An EU defence pact makes a lot more sense than NATO from a European perspective. NATO is a salesman for US arms and wars of choice. It drains technology development out of Europe. Yugoslavia and Libya would have been handled differently if the land of Sandy Hook was not involved. Even Ukraine. Something more like Minsk 2 would have been implemented. Not every situation needs guns for solutions.

    A US strategy might be to split an EU defence pact by building up an Intermarium. The Baltics, a democratic Belarus, Poland and Ukraine might be more interested in an alliance with more of an active anti Russia role than NATO. Kazakhstan seems to be moving that way. It is now supplying Ukraine with ex Soviet weapons.

    And as I have written this, Petronas has declared Force Majure due to a leak at its LNG train in Malaysia. This means a physical shortage in Japan. There is also a real problem for the UK.

    The UK is a major buyer of Malaysian LNG whichis imported through the Petronas Dragon Terminal at Milford Haven. UK retail gas prices are high but currently there is no supply shortage. Wholesale prices are low. Now a physical shortage is threatened. Truss is already on the ropes due to gas prices.

    Replies: @Beckow, @Sean, @Ron Unz

    …Germany was foolish to rely on Russia’s stability despite Ukraine’s instability.

    The point of NS1-2 was to bypass Ukraine. Maybe Germany is less foolish than weak.

    What matters are the aggregate numbers of supply and demand. Russia has reduced supply and there is a mismatch. Some of it will get fixed with higher prices. But the real solution is an economic crisis – nothing reduces demand more. So off to a deep recession we go, it helps with the war. The war is more important to the ones calling the shots in the West.

    NATO is a salesman for US arms and wars of choice…Yugoslavia and Libya would have been handled differently

    But they were not – plus Iraq, Syria, etc… that matters. Europe can’t walk away from responsibility for aggressive wars by shrugging shoulders and with half-ass apologies. They broke their own rules, to insist on applying them to Russia is not possible.

    In 2010 the Western court in Hague issued a ruling about Kosovo: ‘there is no international law against part of a country separating for self-determination‘. We had South Sudan and now south-east Ukraine. In both Kosovo and S Sudan force was used. A precedent is a precedent.

    Truss is already on the ropes due to gas prices.

    Truss lacks self-control in public and eludes permanent low-level hysteria: she combines the worst in Thatcher, Blair and Johnson. Flooding UK with endless Third Worlders has lowered the quality of people at the top: it is no longer possible for normal level-headed smart people to rise. For that a society requires certain slack and allowances in youth – with ambitious unscrupulous women, Indians and homos the normal English men have no chance. The results are Truss, Sunak, Starmer, etc…

  378. @Triteleia Laxa
    @A123

    Russia: "you must buy our gas via Nordstream 2."

    Germany: "why not nordstream 1, you're contractually obliged to."

    Russia: "well it is war and you can't make us pay compensation."

    Germany: "we will sue for your ForEx reserves."

    Russia: "sorry, did we say 'war', we meant we are having technical problems."

    Some time later:

    Germany: "your technical problems should be resolved by now, any court would recognise this."

    Russia: ...

    Germany "Russia?"

    Russia: ...

    !Gas pipe explodes!

    Russia: "sorry, we can't deliver your gas Germany, it seems the US blew up nordstream 1 & 2, now you must be friends with us, you have been betrayed."

    Germany: "ffs."

    US: "wtf!"

    Russian shills: "the US were constantly threatening Nordstream 2, it must have been them."

    Russia: "Hey Germany, Nordstream 2 is fine, only Nordstream 1 got blown up, you must buy our gas from Nordstream 2."

    Germany: "hey Poland, Russia is going to use Nordstream 2 to blackmail us, as they've been trying forever do. Can we set up a scenario whereby it looks like you're also blackmailing us?

    Poland: "what do you mean?"

    Germany: "well Russia will demand all of this stuff, and we will just say the crazy Poles won't let us, thereby making our position unassailable."

    Poland: "makes sense."

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Sean

    Cunning of Russia to blow up the pipeline the day before Poland’s pipeline from Norway came on stream.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Sean

    They only blew up the pipeline they refused to deliver on. They did not blow up the pipeline they wanted to deliver on. Annd Norway's pipeline to Poland is unimportant to them. Poland will never surrender to Russian demands. It doesn't matter what Russia threatens. Poles know Putin and have had enough of him.

    Replies: @Sean, @Sean

  379. Bashibuzuk says:

    From the blog of Pavel Pryannikov, a Russian center-left economist, publicist and political scientist of Old Believer and Jewish descent (on his mother’s side). An extremely competent and intelligent observer of the RusFed present and Russia’s past, although with a left leaning bias. For those interested in the evolution of Christian denominations in ancient Rus and during the Nikonian Schizm in the early Romanov Russian Tsardom :

    [MORE]

    I went to the bookshop of the Intercession Cathedral of the Old Believer Orthodox Church in Novokuznetskaya. I bought several historical books by Old Believer authors. They, of course, have a completely different view of the history of Russia.

    For example, the general point of view is that the Slavs began to accept Christianity in the 9th century – and not from the Greeks, but from the Bulgarians, Moravians and even the Alans (ancestors of the Ossetians). The last to accept Christianity were the Varangian troops of Rus-princes.

    Kyiv was a very cosmopolitan city and very religiously tolerant. Bulgars-Muslims, Khazars-Jews, Orthodox, Armenians, Italics, representatives of various Middle Eastern churches calmly lived and traded there. The fluidity of faith in general was enormous on the East European plain until the end of the seventeenth century.

    The book “Apology of the Old Believers” describes the life path of one of the main “reformers” (reformer of church books) Arseny the Greek, hired by Nikon for church reform in the middle of the 17th century:

    “Arseny was from Turkish Greeks, from a wealthy family. He studied at the gymnasium in Venice, and then in Rome, at the Uniate College of St. Athanasius. After five years of the Roman collegium, Arseny passed the University of Padua in philosophy and medicine. Returning to his homeland, he again became Orthodox and began to move towards the bishopric. But the Turkish authorities considered him a Venetian spy. Arseny was put in jail. To get out of it, he converted to Islam and was circumcised. Then he left for Wallachia, from it to Poland, and from there to Kyiv, looking for professorships at the Mohyla Collegium there. From Islam, he again converted to Orthodoxy. In 1649, Patriarch Paisios of Jerusalem passed through Kyiv to Moscow. Arseniy the Greek asked to join him. And he took him to Moscow as a brilliant didascal.”

    (Google Translate with a few minor changes).

    Why is it important?

    Because it shows that Russian official and even alternative historical narratives often miss important details. Sometimes willingly so. Of course this is nothing new for the readers of Unz Review. It is the same thing everywhere. History is not a science, but a thinly disguised ideology. That doesn’t prevent millions from being murdered for reasons of “historical importance”.

    We need to keep this in mind when observing the present situation in Ukraine and elsewhere.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Bashibuzuk

    And no history has ever been written that emcompasses all of the supporting/critical details in a perfectly objective manner, to everybody's satisfaction. Moravian traders were no doubt also already trading underneath the great Kyivan gates too, and had no small influence over the development of nascent Christianity in southern and western Rus too.

    Replies: @Beckow

  380. History is not a science, but a thinly disguised ideology.

    Regarding ancient history it is more than often just thinly disguised mythology;)

    Imagine if all the written sources were lost somehow and we are reconstructing history just from archeology or genomes, then somebody probably would do serious disertations about negro dominated viking naval invasion from Africa conquering and exterminating native redskin Haitians…

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  381. @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    All these big pipelines are paired. What I found astonishing was the lack of valves (discussed in other threads).

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia's stability despite Ukraine's instability. The Chinese were not so foolish. They did not do a pipeline deal with Russia until they had a working pipeline to Turkmenistan. The Germans had the option to develop a pipeline from Azerbaijan and now of course, Israel. The French have always had the option of more gas from North Africa but their nukes have until recently made that a secondary issue. Needing to replace or upgrade all their nukes at the same time was an unfortunate planning error.

    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon. It may be equivalent to the UK having to suffer from North Sea oil. In that case, the high pound removed low added value manufacturing. Germany may need fewer immigrants for 5 years.

    An EU defence pact makes a lot more sense than NATO from a European perspective. NATO is a salesman for US arms and wars of choice. It drains technology development out of Europe. Yugoslavia and Libya would have been handled differently if the land of Sandy Hook was not involved. Even Ukraine. Something more like Minsk 2 would have been implemented. Not every situation needs guns for solutions.

    A US strategy might be to split an EU defence pact by building up an Intermarium. The Baltics, a democratic Belarus, Poland and Ukraine might be more interested in an alliance with more of an active anti Russia role than NATO. Kazakhstan seems to be moving that way. It is now supplying Ukraine with ex Soviet weapons.

    And as I have written this, Petronas has declared Force Majure due to a leak at its LNG train in Malaysia. This means a physical shortage in Japan. There is also a real problem for the UK.

    The UK is a major buyer of Malaysian LNG whichis imported through the Petronas Dragon Terminal at Milford Haven. UK retail gas prices are high but currently there is no supply shortage. Wholesale prices are low. Now a physical shortage is threatened. Truss is already on the ropes due to gas prices.

    Replies: @Beckow, @Sean, @Ron Unz

    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell

    Without the single currency German goods would be too expensive.

    Truss is already on the ropes due to gas prices.

    Although it is often forgotten now, Thatcher was cautious in her first term, and she won two general elections before she started with the radical policies. Truss is no sooner in office (without any vote by the population of the country) than she is going to extremes by cutting high earners’ tax and welfare benefits, plus removing the cap on bankers’ pay. Fracking, and her driver crossed the river twice on the televised inaugural drive to no 10. Uber?

  382. @Bashibuzuk
    From the blog of Pavel Pryannikov, a Russian center-left economist, publicist and political scientist of Old Believer and Jewish descent (on his mother's side). An extremely competent and intelligent observer of the RusFed present and Russia's past, although with a left leaning bias. For those interested in the evolution of Christian denominations in ancient Rus and during the Nikonian Schizm in the early Romanov Russian Tsardom :


    I went to the bookshop of the Intercession Cathedral of the Old Believer Orthodox Church in Novokuznetskaya. I bought several historical books by Old Believer authors. They, of course, have a completely different view of the history of Russia.

    For example, the general point of view is that the Slavs began to accept Christianity in the 9th century - and not from the Greeks, but from the Bulgarians, Moravians and even the Alans (ancestors of the Ossetians). The last to accept Christianity were the Varangian troops of Rus-princes.

    Kyiv was a very cosmopolitan city and very religiously tolerant. Bulgars-Muslims, Khazars-Jews, Orthodox, Armenians, Italics, representatives of various Middle Eastern churches calmly lived and traded there. The fluidity of faith in general was enormous on the East European plain until the end of the seventeenth century.

    The book "Apology of the Old Believers" describes the life path of one of the main "reformers" (reformer of church books) Arseny the Greek, hired by Nikon for church reform in the middle of the 17th century:

    “Arseny was from Turkish Greeks, from a wealthy family. He studied at the gymnasium in Venice, and then in Rome, at the Uniate College of St. Athanasius. After five years of the Roman collegium, Arseny passed the University of Padua in philosophy and medicine. Returning to his homeland, he again became Orthodox and began to move towards the bishopric. But the Turkish authorities considered him a Venetian spy. Arseny was put in jail. To get out of it, he converted to Islam and was circumcised. Then he left for Wallachia, from it to Poland, and from there to Kyiv, looking for professorships at the Mohyla Collegium there. From Islam, he again converted to Orthodoxy. In 1649, Patriarch Paisios of Jerusalem passed through Kyiv to Moscow. Arseniy the Greek asked to join him. And he took him to Moscow as a brilliant didascal."
     

    (Google Translate with a few minor changes).

    Why is it important?

    Because it shows that Russian official and even alternative historical narratives often miss important details. Sometimes willingly so. Of course this is nothing new for the readers of Unz Review. It is the same thing everywhere. History is not a science, but a thinly disguised ideology. That doesn't prevent millions from being murdered for reasons of "historical importance".

    We need to keep this in mind when observing the present situation in Ukraine and elsewhere.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    And no history has ever been written that emcompasses all of the supporting/critical details in a perfectly objective manner, to everybody’s satisfaction. Moravian traders were no doubt also already trading underneath the great Kyivan gates too, and had no small influence over the development of nascent Christianity in southern and western Rus too.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Mr. Hack

    Moravians were initially Orthodox with their own language and liturgy. It was before the split, so it was not explicit. The shift of the center of country westward (to the Prague basin) helped to consolidate the pro-Rome orientation.

    Later layers of Catholicism were added in a lukewarm way and contested: Jan Huss early protestantism, Moravian brothers, eventually an early form of a society-wide atheism. The tepid nature of Czech Christianity is not well understood by the pious Poles or the obedient Germans. It is not always good, like a society whose mental development was arrested early and it allowed for weirdness and detachment to proliferate. It makes the day-to-day life more fun, but never trust a Czech, they have no core.

  383. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Sean
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Cunning of Russia to blow up the pipeline the day before Poland's pipeline from Norway came on stream.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    They only blew up the pipeline they refused to deliver on. They did not blow up the pipeline they wanted to deliver on. Annd Norway’s pipeline to Poland is unimportant to them. Poland will never surrender to Russian demands. It doesn’t matter what Russia threatens. Poles know Putin and have had enough of him.

    • Replies: @Sean
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Poland will never surrender to Russian demands.
     
    While in the Warsaw Pact, Poland demanded super cheap energy, but the Soviets preferred to sell on to the Germans. After being the greatest recipient of EU largess, they have switched to become the 51st state of the USA so they will get cheap gas from America, they hope.


    Anyway, Poland is a member of NATO, whIn 2007 Poland agreed to host a missile base. The United States government said the missile defense system was for protection against future missiles from Iran. Poles have made their choice, and they are going to have the most powerful army in Europe soon.


    The Ukrainians want everything Poland has got, but it obtained prosperity though massive sustained EU funds plus reforms designed by Jeffery Sachs, who is now suggesting negotiations and de-escalation. An important if unspoken reason the West is not scared of Putin may well be he is not a drinker.

    , @Sean
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Russia believed it could get Norsstream 2 (announced by the German government to be definitively closed for ever after) reinstated by blowing up Nordsteam1? Hmm.

  384. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk

    It is just noise.


    "Reparations payments to Poland were immediately rejected in Berlin. The German government invokes the Two-plus-Four Treaty of 1990 on the foreign policy consequences of German unity. Moreover, the Polish People’s Republic had renounced reparations in 1953 and confirmed this several times. According to international law, such new demands for money would therefore have to be clearly rejected, according to the German position.

    Moreover, Germany had previously made payments to Poland, especially to Polish forced labourers. In addition to the Foreign Ministry, government spokesperson Steffen Hebenstreit also rejected the proposal: “There is no reason for the German government to doubt the effectiveness of the 1953 waiver of reparations under international law. Of course, the Soviet Union had exerted massive pressure on Poland at the time.”

    As early as 2004, Kaczynski had demanded reparations from Germany. A joint expert opinion was then drawn up, which concluded that neither the former German inhabitants of the eastern territories ceded to Poland were entitled to restitution or compensation for lost property, nor was Poland entitled to reparations. "

    Replies: @Beckow, @Bashibuzuk

    Of course, nobody will be paying anything. But the salient point is the growing attempt at internal plunder inside the West: NS blow-up, endless EU fines, forced T-bills purchases, UK financial meltdown…

    The opportunity for external plunder is reduced and the players turn on themselves. The weaker players are attacked and asked “to pay“. Germany is an obvious target: a prosperous but weak country. US being the unquestionable top dog will come out on top.

    Russia’s rebellion against the Western order is encouraging others to resist. That is the real catastrophe for the West. OPEC just told them to go and take a hike, Latin America is run by leftist nationalists, China, India, even Turkey, are ignoring the West. With Russia’s change of sides there are no levers to apply successfully. This is a strategic catastrophe – the emperor has some old clothes left, but the peons around the world don’t have to care anymore – it is now voluntary.

    The Western prosperity is a combination of internal acumen and grit with access to cheap resources around the world. The domestic ability to do hard work has declined, now the external hit of not having access to cheap resources is added. It is going to realign no matter what the West does. It will be known as the biggest own goal in history – Nato stupidly reaching for Ukraine and losing the Western hegemony in the process while destroying Ukraine. How stupid are these people?

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Beckow

    This is a very desperate Russian narrative. Just one of almost infinite failed attempts to sow discord. Not worth replying to.

    Replies: @Beckow

    , @Unintended Consequence
    @Beckow

    "Nato stupidly reaching for Ukraine and losing the Western hegemony in the process while destroying Ukraine. How stupid are these people?"

    I don't think the US has recognized that the BRIC nations have expanded in number and declared political as well as economic independence from the West. The focus is exclusively on military dominance which is frightening since this mindset seems to precede world wars. I think it's time to get an antiwar movement under way in the US in hope of planting some doubts about eschewing diplomacy for military interventions. There is not a good enough reason to keep intensifying the conflict in the Ukraine where the US shouldn't have involved itself militarily or politically. Unfortunately, some influential people in the West seem intent on starting WW3. Maybe it will make them rich.

    Replies: @Beckow

  385. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Of course, nobody will be paying anything. But the salient point is the growing attempt at internal plunder inside the West: NS blow-up, endless EU fines, forced T-bills purchases, UK financial meltdown...

    The opportunity for external plunder is reduced and the players turn on themselves. The weaker players are attacked and asked "to pay". Germany is an obvious target: a prosperous but weak country. US being the unquestionable top dog will come out on top.

    Russia's rebellion against the Western order is encouraging others to resist. That is the real catastrophe for the West. OPEC just told them to go and take a hike, Latin America is run by leftist nationalists, China, India, even Turkey, are ignoring the West. With Russia's change of sides there are no levers to apply successfully. This is a strategic catastrophe - the emperor has some old clothes left, but the peons around the world don't have to care anymore - it is now voluntary.

    The Western prosperity is a combination of internal acumen and grit with access to cheap resources around the world. The domestic ability to do hard work has declined, now the external hit of not having access to cheap resources is added. It is going to realign no matter what the West does. It will be known as the biggest own goal in history - Nato stupidly reaching for Ukraine and losing the Western hegemony in the process while destroying Ukraine. How stupid are these people?

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Unintended Consequence

    This is a very desperate Russian narrative. Just one of almost infinite failed attempts to sow discord. Not worth replying to.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa

    As alway when you lose, you don't reply. Discussion is by definition 'discord'. Me wonders who is really desperate here :)...

  386. @Mr. Hack
    @Bashibuzuk

    And no history has ever been written that emcompasses all of the supporting/critical details in a perfectly objective manner, to everybody's satisfaction. Moravian traders were no doubt also already trading underneath the great Kyivan gates too, and had no small influence over the development of nascent Christianity in southern and western Rus too.

    Replies: @Beckow

    Moravians were initially Orthodox with their own language and liturgy. It was before the split, so it was not explicit. The shift of the center of country westward (to the Prague basin) helped to consolidate the pro-Rome orientation.

    Later layers of Catholicism were added in a lukewarm way and contested: Jan Huss early protestantism, Moravian brothers, eventually an early form of a society-wide atheism. The tepid nature of Czech Christianity is not well understood by the pious Poles or the obedient Germans. It is not always good, like a society whose mental development was arrested early and it allowed for weirdness and detachment to proliferate. It makes the day-to-day life more fun, but never trust a Czech, they have no core.

  387. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Beckow

    This is a very desperate Russian narrative. Just one of almost infinite failed attempts to sow discord. Not worth replying to.

    Replies: @Beckow

    As alway when you lose, you don’t reply. Discussion is by definition ‘discord’. Me wonders who is really desperate here :)…

  388. @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Of course, nobody will be paying anything. But the salient point is the growing attempt at internal plunder inside the West: NS blow-up, endless EU fines, forced T-bills purchases, UK financial meltdown...

    The opportunity for external plunder is reduced and the players turn on themselves. The weaker players are attacked and asked "to pay". Germany is an obvious target: a prosperous but weak country. US being the unquestionable top dog will come out on top.

    Russia's rebellion against the Western order is encouraging others to resist. That is the real catastrophe for the West. OPEC just told them to go and take a hike, Latin America is run by leftist nationalists, China, India, even Turkey, are ignoring the West. With Russia's change of sides there are no levers to apply successfully. This is a strategic catastrophe - the emperor has some old clothes left, but the peons around the world don't have to care anymore - it is now voluntary.

    The Western prosperity is a combination of internal acumen and grit with access to cheap resources around the world. The domestic ability to do hard work has declined, now the external hit of not having access to cheap resources is added. It is going to realign no matter what the West does. It will be known as the biggest own goal in history - Nato stupidly reaching for Ukraine and losing the Western hegemony in the process while destroying Ukraine. How stupid are these people?

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Unintended Consequence

    “Nato stupidly reaching for Ukraine and losing the Western hegemony in the process while destroying Ukraine. How stupid are these people?”

    I don’t think the US has recognized that the BRIC nations have expanded in number and declared political as well as economic independence from the West. The focus is exclusively on military dominance which is frightening since this mindset seems to precede world wars. I think it’s time to get an antiwar movement under way in the US in hope of planting some doubts about eschewing diplomacy for military interventions. There is not a good enough reason to keep intensifying the conflict in the Ukraine where the US shouldn’t have involved itself militarily or politically. Unfortunately, some influential people in the West seem intent on starting WW3. Maybe it will make them rich.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Unintended Consequence


    There is not a good enough reason to keep intensifying the conflict in the Ukraine
     
    The reason is to cover up the loss. As we see even here there are many fools (or people paid to be fools) who will do almost anything to avoid facing the loss by Kiev. Another village liberated! Kherson or Mariupol, any day now!

    Once Russia called Nato's bluff and started the war, the main goal for the West has been to make Russia pay as high a price as possible and to save face in front of the Western public. It was the only strategy left, unfortunately it means sacrificing Ukie lives in huge numbers and ending up with a deal much worse than what they could have had in February.
  389. @Mr. Hack
    @AnonfromTN

    It's time for Russians to start shedding a few tears, like Ukrainians have been doing since Putler's hoards invaded Ukraine on February 24. Since you enjoy old adages, try this one on for size:


    What goes around comes around.
     
    https://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/cartoons-s3/styles/product_detail_image/s3/cartoons/2018/11/sad_putin__marian_kamensky.jpg?itok=DBagAJ8u

    Replies: @Hunsdon

    Once more, MH: Hordes of people. Hoards of gold.

  390. @sudden death
    If you look bit up north of Svatovo a potential new literal Poltava battle is awaiting;)


    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeTrhhyXEAU-OTB.jpg

    Replies: @LondonBob

    Given a marked superiority in numbers, as well as the support of NATO, you would think Ukraine might achieve more than a twitter victory in the short time frame they have left until winter and partial mobilisation weigh in. More sensible would be a peace deal.

    https://www.thepostil.com/kharkov-and-mobilization/

    US now paying for weapons from South Korea to deliver to the Ukraine going via the Czech Republic. Maybe the US wrecking their economy with ever higher interest rates is to help fund all this.

  391. @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    All these big pipelines are paired. What I found astonishing was the lack of valves (discussed in other threads).

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia's stability despite Ukraine's instability. The Chinese were not so foolish. They did not do a pipeline deal with Russia until they had a working pipeline to Turkmenistan. The Germans had the option to develop a pipeline from Azerbaijan and now of course, Israel. The French have always had the option of more gas from North Africa but their nukes have until recently made that a secondary issue. Needing to replace or upgrade all their nukes at the same time was an unfortunate planning error.

    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon. It may be equivalent to the UK having to suffer from North Sea oil. In that case, the high pound removed low added value manufacturing. Germany may need fewer immigrants for 5 years.

    An EU defence pact makes a lot more sense than NATO from a European perspective. NATO is a salesman for US arms and wars of choice. It drains technology development out of Europe. Yugoslavia and Libya would have been handled differently if the land of Sandy Hook was not involved. Even Ukraine. Something more like Minsk 2 would have been implemented. Not every situation needs guns for solutions.

    A US strategy might be to split an EU defence pact by building up an Intermarium. The Baltics, a democratic Belarus, Poland and Ukraine might be more interested in an alliance with more of an active anti Russia role than NATO. Kazakhstan seems to be moving that way. It is now supplying Ukraine with ex Soviet weapons.

    And as I have written this, Petronas has declared Force Majure due to a leak at its LNG train in Malaysia. This means a physical shortage in Japan. There is also a real problem for the UK.

    The UK is a major buyer of Malaysian LNG whichis imported through the Petronas Dragon Terminal at Milford Haven. UK retail gas prices are high but currently there is no supply shortage. Wholesale prices are low. Now a physical shortage is threatened. Truss is already on the ropes due to gas prices.

    Replies: @Beckow, @Sean, @Ron Unz

    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon.

    Well, a big article in the WSJ a few days ago said that more than half of all small- and mid-sized German businesses think that the energy crisis might force them to shut down permanently. That sounds pretty serious to me:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-crisis-pushes-german-industry-to-the-brink-11664443801

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia’s stability despite Ukraine’s instability.

    They probably never considered America would destroy their pipeline. But with that setting a precedent, why wouldn’t the Russians be able to try to destroy those other pipelines? Pipelines are obviously vulnerable, as are transatlantic fiber-optic cables.

    Suppose the Russians destroyed the communications lines between the US and Europe. Would you say West had been foolish to rely upon those means of communication?

    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Ron Unz


    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.
     
    I am not anti-Russian, quite the opposite. It is just that I know RusFed from the inside and I know the difference between this corrupt system and Russia.

    And yes, the majority of Russian commentors on Russian blogs in Telegram agree that using tactical nukes is seriously contemplated in higher circles of RusFed power. A few days ago Ramzan Kadyrov recommended using "a small sized nuclear weapon" against the Ukrainian army, he was promoted to colonel-general since.

    https://tass.com/politics/1518239

    If everything keeps going the way it does on the frontline, the use of tactical nukes is very probable. It is either this or a war of attrition for several years to come. Probably Putin and his circle have seen the recent reviews of the RusFed industrial capacity, including the MIC, and have concluded that they will have a hard time fighting a war of attrition against the Globalized West. They are not desperate yet, but if the trend continues the way it is, they will be in a few months.
    , @sudden death
    @Ron Unz


    ...overwhelmingly filled with overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.
     
    It seems those pesky anti-Russians are spilling even into RF ruling parliament party atm:

    https://twitter.com/DietmarPichler1/status/1577638220682170371?s=20&t=LruIbqItZCxlpP6_mc0Ezw
    , @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    My comment about reliability wasn't particularly about the sabotage, although see below, it was about single sourcing. Germany was taking a huge proportion of its gas from one provider. As the US has continually stressed that could lead to the present standoff. In many ways, the whole of the rich world has done this by shifting so much production to China or Vietnam or Bangladesh depending on the industry's cost structure but essentially a single source. The old US competition rule of three providers in an industry (thus Lockheed was kept limping on in civil aerospace for years) seems a start. (There is another debate to be had about how many competitors are needed in a market).

    I agree with your point about sabotage. The world takes a lot on trust. A world of fewer and fewer providers becomes fragile.

    There is an analogy with ecosystems. Diverse (countries, currencies, companies, technologies) ecosystems full of small niches are stable. Simple ecosystems boom and crash. Globalism has simplified the economic ecosystems in multile ways. We need to bring in the 60% of the world's population that is broadly still outside the system in as new entities. For example, they should not be overly reliant on dollars or euro. Sorry Volodya but that doesn't mean the rouble by default.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @S

    , @QCIC
    @Ron Unz

    I am pro-civilization which makes me pro-Russian in this case, despite their shortcomings. Come on, pro-Ukrainians, the whole idea of this Western usurpation in Ukraine is to place bases and weapons there to cause an even bigger war more directly with Russia. Russia knows it and you know it, just deal with it.

    IMO the military bar to using tactical nukes is probably lower than we would like to believe. The good news is, there are not so many great targets for nuclear weapons unless you want to kill everyone and be done with it. It has been obvious for many months that is not the Russian plan. Nukes probably kill more civilians than soldiers which is clearly the opposite of their plan.

    If Russia is in such dire straights as to use nukes, why don't they up their conventional game first? They could take out all the major bridges on the Dniepr along with 20 major electrical substations and a few other odds and ends with conventional weapons. The Ukrainian military efforts in the East would grind to a halt in a few weeks. They could do this tomorrow. They don't want to do it.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    , @AnonfromTN
    @Ron Unz


    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.
     
    It’s just boring to read the same dross over and over. Similar personages made similar predictions when Nazis were near Stalingrad. Must have been sorely disappointed a couple of years later.

    There is a type of people who never learn. Arguing with them is pointless.
    , @Here Be Dragon
    @Ron Unz


    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.
     
    It should not be surprising.

    Of the 20-30 people here at least a half are paid trolls. Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    Of all the commenters only Beckow and AnonfromTN seem to be genuinely pro-Russian. There is a number of genuinely pro-Ukrainian participants, with which constructive conversations are sometimes possible. But a squad of paid trolls can easily take over a small forum and flood it with content no one wants to read.

    That is what is happening.

    A thread like this one has to be moderated. Otherwise it will soon be turned into a Ukrainan propaganda thread.

    Replies: @Mikel, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Yevardian, @John Johnson

  392. On a seasonal basis, US diesel/heating oil inventories have not been this low early in the autumn since mid-September 1996.

  393. S says:
    @LatW
    Here is a prediction that Oleksiy Arestovych made in March 2019. There was another one from March 2014 (!!) where he predicted the ambush of Kyiv.

    "We can't pull off neutrality. Neutrality costs 10 times more than an alliance. No country in our position, with a thousands of kms long border, could have neutrality.

    The likelihood of a large war with Russia is 99%. They need to ruin our livelihood to make us less attractive for NATO. They need to do this before we join NATO so that NATO no longer finds us interesting as a ruined territory.

    [..]

    Our price for the NATO accession is a big war with Russia. And if we don't join NATO, we will be consumed by Russia within 10-12 years.

    Reporter: Which one would be a better choice?

    Of course, a big war with Russia and our [subsequent] accession into NATO through our victory in this war.

    Reporter: What does a large war with Russia entail?

    Air operations, the invasion of Ukraine by the 4 [Russian] armies they've created on our borders, ambush of Kyiv, an attempt to surround our troops in the East, a push from Crimea and an attack from Belarus. Creation of new republics, hits on critical infrastructure. The likelihood of this happening is 99%.

    Reporter: When?

    2021 or 2022. The period from 2020 to 2022 is the most critical. Then the next critical period could be 2024-26, and then another one in 2028-30. There could be 3 wars with Russia.

    The Russian saboteurs will come in before the tanks and announce the Republics of Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv. Odessa, Kherson. Zaporizhia.

    Reporter: How can Ukraine receive a road map to join NATO without a big war with Russia?

    There is no way. Only if Russia is pressured very heavily. Embargoes or letting them know that there will be a strong "boom boom" if they attempt to wage war. If the West brings in their troops. Or by changing power in Russia by putting liberals in charge again. If there is a group within the Russian elite that can overcome the revanchist one, then this could work.


    Reporter: What about a peaceful resolution?


    Never.

    Reporter: Why not? It seems the West is considering such options.

    The West is offering these options, offering Russia to stop and think about it. Why would Russia do that? If liberals come to power or if Russia is threatened harshly, but what can you threaten a nuclear country with? You can't put serious pressure on people who possess such weapons. A serious pressure is a threat of force. The economic sanctions... for a country like Russia... Iran has been under sanctions for a long time. And Iran is still a player. And Russia's even bigger and more influential.

    Ukraine has no chance of holding neutrality, we will float in either direction, one way or another. The Customs Union or NATO. I had a chance to be inside the Customs Union, and don't want it anymore, NATO I haven't been in, let's give it a try. The most important historic task is to join NATO whatever it takes economically and socially.

    The price for joining NATO is a large conflict with Russia but in this conflict we will be actively supported by the West. With weapons, equipment, help, new sanctions on Russia, a possible entry of NATO contingent and a no fly zone. We will not lose this war and that's good enough."


    In Russian, starts at 7:10

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H50ho9Dlrms

    Replies: @German_reader, @sudden death, @S

    The price for joining NATO is a large conflict with Russia but in this conflict we will be actively supported by the West. With weapons, equipment, help, new sanctions on Russia, a possible entry of NATO contingent and a no fly zone. We will not lose this war and that’s good enough.

    That is interesting.

    That makes three ‘prophecies’ involving the United States and Russia. The one alluded to here by Oleksiy Arestovych in 2019, The New Rome (linked to below) by Theodore Poesche in 1853, and The Third Empire (also linked below) by Mikhail Yuriev in 2006.

    Each people receiving their particular prophecy are promised grand things if they achieve victory.

    In Poesche’s mid-19th century New Rome, if the United States can just defeat Russia it will be rewarded with a glorious new global empire.

    Similarly in Yuriev’s Third Empire, but inverted, if Russia can just defeat the United States, it, too, will have a glorious new global empire.

    For the Ukrainians, if they can just enjoin the United States (via Nato) and Russia into ‘a big war’ with each other they get a glorious secure new statehood for themselves.

    All lucky educated ‘guesses,’ perhaps? Evidence of an ‘occult’ angle, possibly? A ‘suggestion’ being placed in people’s minds for the future, maybe?

    Or, taking into account those powerful elements amongst the elites and their hangers on who loudly have long wished that the world only have a population of five hundred million, what if these promises all turn out to be false prophecies, and the United States, Russia, and Ukraine, not only do not receive what the prophecies promised, but, instead, ultimately end up largely being destroyed as a result of this ‘big war’?

    I certainly do not hope for such a result.

    Arestovych’s extensive intelligence agency background is intriguing, and makes one wonder just how much of a fine line there might be, on the one hand, between a detailed ‘prophecy’ such as the one he has made, and, an insider’s knowledge of long range planning, on the other.

    A NEW ROMAN EMPIRE

    By Webster G Tarpley

    ‘It is 1850. Lord Palmerston is engaged in a campaign to make London the undisputed center of a new, worldwide Roman Empire. He is attempting to conquer the world in the way that the British have already conquered India, reducing every other nation to the role of a puppet, client, and fall-guy for British imperial policy. Lord Palmerston’s campaign is not a secret.’

    ‘He has declared it here in the Houses of Parliament, saying that wherever in the world a British subject goes, he can flaunt the laws, secure that the British fleet will support him. “Civis Romanus sum, every Briton is a citizen of this new Rome,” thundered Lord Palmerston, and with that, the universal empire was proclaimed.’

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-utopian-russian-novel-that-predicted-putin-s-war-plan/ar-AAVwgV1

    https://archive.org/details/newrome00poes/page/n15/mode/2up

    http://tarpley.net/online-books/against-oligarchy/lord-palmerstons-multicultural-human-zoo/

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @S

    I would add to your list the recent book published by Konstantin Malofeev, the man who financed the Russian Spring in 2014 and sent Strelkov to Crimea and then Slovyansk.

    Malofeev is a kind of Orthodox Christian Imperialist, who finances maximalist Orthodox, Russian Neo-Eurasianist and Revisionist YouTube channels and Blogs (including Dugin's).

    In his recent (and very biased) review of the history of world Empires, Malofeev comes to the (not surprising) conclusion that Russia has to fulfill an historical role of building the Empire of the End of Times. The enemy to crush is the Globalized Capitalism and its "Anglo-Saxons Overlords" who are actively preparing the coming of the Antichrist (Malofeev is unequivocal about it: Globalists are in fact Satanists and Occultists).

    https://www.litres.ru/konstantin-malofeev/imperiya-kniga-1/chitat-onlayn/

    Don't think it will be translated into English any time soon.

    Replies: @S

    , @LatW
    @S


    That makes three ‘prophecies’ involving the United States and Russia. The one alluded to here by Oleksiy Arestovych in 2019, The New Rome (linked to below) by Theodore Poesche in 1853, and The Third Empire (also linked below) by Mikhail Yuriev in 2006.
     
    I doubt he's alluding to those books but the role of the British is not new. They acted instrumentally in the region during WW1. For Arestovych, he values all allies, because they need all the help they can get (the other day, he said that "the British are good, but they lack resources", which baffled me a bit, I could only conclude that what he meant was that the British have fewer resources than the US).

    As to these prophecies, he is analyzing in purely geopolitical terms, these are the power structures today that Ukraine has to work with.


    For the Ukrainians, if they can just enjoin the United States (via Nato) and Russia into ‘a big war’ with each other they get a glorious secure new statehood for themselves.
     
    Look, the Ukrainians are just doing what they can to save themselves. This is a struggle of hundreds of years. The men are doing insane things on the front, with immense efforts and sacrifices. If there is a new type of statehood that comes out of this, then at that point, it will just be history happening. The way I tend to look at this, is not that there was a deliberate 'conspiracy' behind this (although certainly there is some validity in what these conspiracies say and I'd love to delve into those books you mentioned, essentially it is just one reading of the current power structures), but more as a chain of consequences. The whole process started a long time ago but this particular war is a piece of it that Putin started and he started something that he lost control over very quickly. It's tempting to grasp for the 'conspiracy' to cover your own sheer incompetence and rigidness in thinking, the lack of connection with your own people and your neighboring peoples.

    Of course, there is a ton of destruction (not just for Ukraine but the Realm of the Rus in general) but because of the chain of consequences, there is opportunity arising for the victor or at least the one who has shown courage. This is how it works in Nature. It is simple Wille zur Macht. Russia failed to dominate (where it could have dominated with its sheer might even without war), so when Ukraine is able to dominate through great effort and through help, Ukraine gets the benefits and opportunities that this new position presents. But again, one has to take advantage and shape this opportunity (not sure Ukraine can).

    In Arestovych's mind, it is an opportunity to continue these impulses of the Wille zur Macht by assuming a higher status in the region (or even beyond). He spoke of Ukraine's military that has been hardened through the war and equipped by the West and Ukraine's newly gained moral standing as assets that could be employed to secure this status.

    A thriving organism wants to expand. It goes from self-preservation to expansion. It's healthy.

    The only issue I have with this theory is that, on the ground, Ukraine is losing people, but Arestovych is talking about international status. Ukraine needs to recover the population, then we can start talking about the position in the region. An ideology needs to be created that centers around goodness & wellbeing to the possible maximum of people and the environment (благо). That's more important than the prophecies.

    Arestovych’s extensive intelligence agency background is intriguing
     
    His background is one thing that actually gives me a bit of doubt, it seems a bit too scattered to be taken fully seriously. However, it might also be an asset in his case since it makes for an interesting skillset - some military & intelligence experience and his own psychology studies.

    With some cultivation, he could be a successful politician. The brain is the most important thing though. He's just insightful.

    Back in the day, around the early 2000s, he fraternized with Russian right wingers for a while (before Putin clamped down on them), this may have provided him some insights.

    and makes one wonder just how much of a fine line there might be, on the one hand, between a detailed ‘prophecy’ such as the one he has made, and, an insider’s knowledge of long range planning, on the other.
     
    I think it is both (although not even that much insider info is shared with him, Kirillo Budanov definitely has more), but I think the intuition is the prevailing one.

    But some Russian vloggers do talk about the Kremlin's connections to secret societies and various religious practices.

    There is one vlogger, Valery Solovey, who just keeps going on and on about it. He says that Putin is consulting several elders (in the Orthodox tradition they have what they called startsi, wisemen) and that he regularly visits a shaman. Again, there is no way to prove if this is the case (and in any event, there is nothing wrong with getting some of that insight, especially given some of the more irrational Russian traditions, but the question is how much does it influence you, especially as a statesman).

    Apparently, one of the startses told Putin that he had the following vision: If Putin wants to leave a legacy and become a great ruler, he needs to take Kyiv. This chimes well with Putin's position because he already has a ton of money and several children, so leaving a legacy is really the ultimate wish.

    If you look at it in a more esoteric way, there really does appear to be a lot of energy circling around Kyiv.

    The problem though with all these things is that the innocent suffer.

    One thing that gives me pause in all this is the sheer destruction of the Realm of the Rus. I'm puzzled as to why Putin doesn't care about the Russian speakers. He is erasing a big part of them from existence. That's not the Russia I know or thought I knew. Maybe Russia has changed to a point where I can no longer recognize it... it's a strange feeling. It sometimes aches.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @S

  394. I bought my Audi on price, odd argument, very few goods are inelastic, natural gas is one though.

    Claims of a big Ukrainian offensive on Kherson, lets see if they can achieve a real victory, or just pile up even more casualties.

  395. S says:
    @Beckow
    @S


    ...Come the United States of the World we may well actually live to see
     
    The world is too variable for that. We have had the US of the World in a mild form for the last 20-25 years, but the project has peaked.

    The idea that it can double-down and force its way is not realistic. The internal pathologies - gender confusion, debt-driven economy, weak geriatric leadership, culture that no longer entertains, generational asset pyramid schemes, migrants rushing in to live off its prosperity, embarrassing Corona mental collapse - it is not a basis that would allow for an escalation.

    The enemies have accumulated: Third World seething with resentment, China, India, Brazil, Mexico... are 'neutral' effectively anti-West - they are not even quiet about it. The critical error was pushing Russia away - with Russia in the anti-West camp the West can no longer win. You can only buy so many leaders or stage so many color revolutions, and only so much money can be issued to keep the system stable.

    The blase Western acceptance that it could end in a nuclear war is a sign that they know they can't win. The alternative is to take their toys home, save exposed vassals, shut up for a few years, play good, and try again in a few years. Figuring out who is a man and who a woman would be a good start on the road to recovery. It is not that hard.

    Replies: @Mikel, @S

    The world is too variable for that. We have had the US of the World in a mild form for the last 20-25 years, but the project has peaked.

    I have to disagree with you a bit here, though I would much rather be wrong, in that I think you are under estimating the United States.

    Probably will just have to agree to disagree on this.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @S

    The Peak is not the same as the end. It simply means that the West has a hit a plateau and is losing ground. If they pull off a miracle and win the war against Russia they could revive and have another 20-30 year run. Not winning for the top guy is a loss - so a stalemate would be a loss.

    But we can disagree.

  396. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon.
     
    Well, a big article in the WSJ a few days ago said that more than half of all small- and mid-sized German businesses think that the energy crisis might force them to shut down permanently. That sounds pretty serious to me:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-crisis-pushes-german-industry-to-the-brink-11664443801

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia’s stability despite Ukraine’s instability.
     
    They probably never considered America would destroy their pipeline. But with that setting a precedent, why wouldn't the Russians be able to try to destroy those other pipelines? Pipelines are obviously vulnerable, as are transatlantic fiber-optic cables.

    Suppose the Russians destroyed the communications lines between the US and Europe. Would you say West had been foolish to rely upon those means of communication?

    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he's about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @sudden death, @Philip Owen, @QCIC, @AnonfromTN, @Here Be Dragon

    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    I am not anti-Russian, quite the opposite. It is just that I know RusFed from the inside and I know the difference between this corrupt system and Russia.

    And yes, the majority of Russian commentors on Russian blogs in Telegram agree that using tactical nukes is seriously contemplated in higher circles of RusFed power. A few days ago Ramzan Kadyrov recommended using “a small sized nuclear weapon” against the Ukrainian army, he was promoted to colonel-general since.

    https://tass.com/politics/1518239

    If everything keeps going the way it does on the frontline, the use of tactical nukes is very probable. It is either this or a war of attrition for several years to come. Probably Putin and his circle have seen the recent reviews of the RusFed industrial capacity, including the MIC, and have concluded that they will have a hard time fighting a war of attrition against the Globalized West. They are not desperate yet, but if the trend continues the way it is, they will be in a few months.

  397. Bashibuzuk says:
    @S
    @LatW


    The price for joining NATO is a large conflict with Russia but in this conflict we will be actively supported by the West. With weapons, equipment, help, new sanctions on Russia, a possible entry of NATO contingent and a no fly zone. We will not lose this war and that’s good enough.
     
    That is interesting.

    That makes three 'prophecies' involving the United States and Russia. The one alluded to here by Oleksiy Arestovych in 2019, The New Rome (linked to below) by Theodore Poesche in 1853, and The Third Empire (also linked below) by Mikhail Yuriev in 2006.

    Each people receiving their particular prophecy are promised grand things if they achieve victory.

    In Poesche's mid-19th century New Rome, if the United States can just defeat Russia it will be rewarded with a glorious new global empire.

    Similarly in Yuriev's Third Empire, but inverted, if Russia can just defeat the United States, it, too, will have a glorious new global empire.

    For the Ukrainians, if they can just enjoin the United States (via Nato) and Russia into 'a big war' with each other they get a glorious secure new statehood for themselves.

    All lucky educated 'guesses,' perhaps? Evidence of an 'occult' angle, possibly? A 'suggestion' being placed in people's minds for the future, maybe?

    Or, taking into account those powerful elements amongst the elites and their hangers on who loudly have long wished that the world only have a population of five hundred million, what if these promises all turn out to be false prophecies, and the United States, Russia, and Ukraine, not only do not receive what the prophecies promised, but, instead, ultimately end up largely being destroyed as a result of this 'big war'?

    I certainly do not hope for such a result.

    Arestovych's extensive intelligence agency background is intriguing, and makes one wonder just how much of a fine line there might be, on the one hand, between a detailed 'prophecy' such as the one he has made, and, an insider's knowledge of long range planning, on the other.


    A NEW ROMAN EMPIRE

    By Webster G Tarpley

    'It is 1850. Lord Palmerston is engaged in a campaign to make London the undisputed center of a new, worldwide Roman Empire. He is attempting to conquer the world in the way that the British have already conquered India, reducing every other nation to the role of a puppet, client, and fall-guy for British imperial policy. Lord Palmerston’s campaign is not a secret.'

    'He has declared it here in the Houses of Parliament, saying that wherever in the world a British subject goes, he can flaunt the laws, secure that the British fleet will support him. “Civis Romanus sum, every Briton is a citizen of this new Rome,” thundered Lord Palmerston, and with that, the universal empire was proclaimed.'
     

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-utopian-russian-novel-that-predicted-putin-s-war-plan/ar-AAVwgV1

    https://archive.org/details/newrome00poes/page/n15/mode/2up

    http://tarpley.net/online-books/against-oligarchy/lord-palmerstons-multicultural-human-zoo/

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @LatW

    I would add to your list the recent book published by Konstantin Malofeev, the man who financed the Russian Spring in 2014 and sent Strelkov to Crimea and then Slovyansk.

    Malofeev is a kind of Orthodox Christian Imperialist, who finances maximalist Orthodox, Russian Neo-Eurasianist and Revisionist YouTube channels and Blogs (including Dugin’s).

    In his recent (and very biased) review of the history of world Empires, Malofeev comes to the (not surprising) conclusion that Russia has to fulfill an historical role of building the Empire of the End of Times. The enemy to crush is the Globalized Capitalism and its “Anglo-Saxons Overlords” who are actively preparing the coming of the Antichrist (Malofeev is unequivocal about it: Globalists are in fact Satanists and Occultists).

    https://www.litres.ru/konstantin-malofeev/imperiya-kniga-1/chitat-onlayn/

    Don’t think it will be translated into English any time soon.

    • Replies: @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    I would add to your list the recent book published by Konstantin Malofeev, the man who financed the Russian Spring in 2014 and sent Strelkov to Crimea and then Slovyansk.
     
    Thanks. I'd never heard of him. He seems to be a person of some import in regards to the Rusfed and the events in the Donbas.

    Malofeev is a kind of Orthodox Christian Imperialist, who finances maximalist Orthodox, Russian Neo-Eurasianist and Revisionist YouTube channels and Blogs (including Dugin’s).
     
    Mr Malofeev has an intriguing resume. :-)


    The enemy to crush is the Globalized Capitalism and its “Anglo-Saxons Overlords” who are actively preparing the coming of the Antichrist (Malofeev is unequivocal about it: Globalists are in fact Satanists and Occultists).
     
    Hehe! Why, where exactly did he ever get those ideas from! :-D [Am only half laughing/joking with my response.]

    More, seriously, it's interesting the connections between Malofeev and the intel people. And, too, the connections between some of the intel people and the occult.

    There's some of that with Anglosphere intel people too, more than there should be. Back in the 19th century there was something sometimes referred to as the 'occult revolution' that took place within the Anglosphere countrys, some of which bled over into Europe, and perhaps Russia too.

    People who believed in such believed they were 'making contact' with unseen 'entities' and 'beings' at seances and through 'spiritualism'. I don't get into the occult as I don't think it's healthy, though I accept at least some of those who believe in it are sincere. [Purely as a hypothesis, and without being too esoteric, if 'bad spirits' do exist, as opposed to 'good spirits' wouldn't the bad ones perhaps have wanted in the 19th century to 'make contact' in a big way with that portion of the global population that, via the 'special relationship' circa 1900, was about to achieve an overwhelming hegemony for itself, ie the Anglosphere's US/UK?]

    Blogs (including Dugin’s).
     
    When I first heard of Dugin's Eurasianism theory about land being superior to water, I just about bowled over. It was literally almost word for word what can be found excerpted below in the 1853 New Rome book, except Dugin had inverted it. The wording is so close, I half wonder if he may have read (the very obscure) New Rome book himself, when (purportedly) he had access to a KGB library.

    'Freedom is now limited to the oceanic world, to England and America; Russia, with its continental dependencies, is despotic; it has no ships, and therefore no freedom; no freedom, and therefore no navy; having no navy, it can never do great injury to the seafaring world. But its despotism gives it an army, and its army will protect its despotism.'

    'The seafaring nations, on the other hand, have their navy to protect their freedom, but they will never have a large standing army to extend their system. To suppose this, would be to deny every leading characteristic of Americanism.' The New Rome; or, the United States of theWorld (1853) - pg 156
     
    People are being manipulated.

    The purpose of persons such as Malofeev and Dugin being promoted is so that the most radical, extreme, and militaristic, expression of Russian identity that is possible, can ultimately someday achieve power, irrespective of the actual nature (good, bad, whatever) of the identity a people might have.

    Not that I wish it, certainly, but the idea is that when they move to smash Russia in this world war that (should they succeed) the crushing of Russia and the Russian people will then be as thorough and complete as possible.

    It's about the destruction of identity, which the powers that be see as an evil thing, simply for existing, irrespective of the actual nature (good, bad, whatever) of the identity a people might have. [That is a big reason why, amongst other things, that National Socialist and Hitler were promoted for Germany by powerful US/UK financial interests in the 1920's and 30's, as documented by Anthony Sutton.]

    https://archive.org/details/newrome00poes/page/156/mode/2up
  398. Considering the source, guess only German reader here can verify if this was really said or the words were translated correctly;)

    Moscow’s efforts to force the Germans to put the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline into operation have been mocked as a “nice try” in Berlin.

    The representative of the German Federal Government, Christine Hoffmann, gave such an assessment of the proposal voiced by the Russian side on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

    “Russia has offered this multiple times. In this case, I could only say: ‘nice try,’” Hoffmann said, repeating the phrase in Russian, with a smile (the spokeswoman had long worked as a journalist in Moscow).

    She recalled that Russian gas has not been supplied to Germany for a long time not because Nord Stream 1 was damaged, but because Russia simply did not want to supply it, finding various reasons for this, including political ones. Currently, Germany and other countries assume that Russia is not a reliable supplier, and this does not depend on which pipes they are talking about.

    Regarding the causes of the accident on the “Nord Stream” pipes, Berlin’s opinion remains unchanged. It was “a deliberate act of sabotage”, although the Federal Republic of Germany refrains from naming the culprits. “We assume that this is deliberate sabotage, and everything points to it,” Hoffmann said.

    https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-economy/3586559-german-official-ridicules-russias-attempt-to-revisit-nord-stream-2-issue.html

  399. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk

    It is just noise.


    "Reparations payments to Poland were immediately rejected in Berlin. The German government invokes the Two-plus-Four Treaty of 1990 on the foreign policy consequences of German unity. Moreover, the Polish People’s Republic had renounced reparations in 1953 and confirmed this several times. According to international law, such new demands for money would therefore have to be clearly rejected, according to the German position.

    Moreover, Germany had previously made payments to Poland, especially to Polish forced labourers. In addition to the Foreign Ministry, government spokesperson Steffen Hebenstreit also rejected the proposal: “There is no reason for the German government to doubt the effectiveness of the 1953 waiver of reparations under international law. Of course, the Soviet Union had exerted massive pressure on Poland at the time.”

    As early as 2004, Kaczynski had demanded reparations from Germany. A joint expert opinion was then drawn up, which concluded that neither the former German inhabitants of the eastern territories ceded to Poland were entitled to restitution or compensation for lost property, nor was Poland entitled to reparations. "

    Replies: @Beckow, @Bashibuzuk

    Poland is open to hosting nuclear weapons and has discussed the idea with the United States, President Andrzej Duda has revealed. The head of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jarosław Kaczyński, says he “fully supports” the idea.

    https://notesfrompoland.com/2022/10/05/poland-has-discussed-hosting-nuclear-weapons-with-us-says-president/

  400. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon.
     
    Well, a big article in the WSJ a few days ago said that more than half of all small- and mid-sized German businesses think that the energy crisis might force them to shut down permanently. That sounds pretty serious to me:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-crisis-pushes-german-industry-to-the-brink-11664443801

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia’s stability despite Ukraine’s instability.
     
    They probably never considered America would destroy their pipeline. But with that setting a precedent, why wouldn't the Russians be able to try to destroy those other pipelines? Pipelines are obviously vulnerable, as are transatlantic fiber-optic cables.

    Suppose the Russians destroyed the communications lines between the US and Europe. Would you say West had been foolish to rely upon those means of communication?

    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he's about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @sudden death, @Philip Owen, @QCIC, @AnonfromTN, @Here Be Dragon

    …overwhelmingly filled with overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    It seems those pesky anti-Russians are spilling even into RF ruling parliament party atm:

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  401. @S
    @Beckow


    The world is too variable for that. We have had the US of the World in a mild form for the last 20-25 years, but the project has peaked.
     
    I have to disagree with you a bit here, though I would much rather be wrong, in that I think you are under estimating the United States.

    Probably will just have to agree to disagree on this.

    Replies: @Beckow

    The Peak is not the same as the end. It simply means that the West has a hit a plateau and is losing ground. If they pull off a miracle and win the war against Russia they could revive and have another 20-30 year run. Not winning for the top guy is a loss – so a stalemate would be a loss.

    But we can disagree.

  402. @Unintended Consequence
    @Beckow

    "Nato stupidly reaching for Ukraine and losing the Western hegemony in the process while destroying Ukraine. How stupid are these people?"

    I don't think the US has recognized that the BRIC nations have expanded in number and declared political as well as economic independence from the West. The focus is exclusively on military dominance which is frightening since this mindset seems to precede world wars. I think it's time to get an antiwar movement under way in the US in hope of planting some doubts about eschewing diplomacy for military interventions. There is not a good enough reason to keep intensifying the conflict in the Ukraine where the US shouldn't have involved itself militarily or politically. Unfortunately, some influential people in the West seem intent on starting WW3. Maybe it will make them rich.

    Replies: @Beckow

    There is not a good enough reason to keep intensifying the conflict in the Ukraine

    The reason is to cover up the loss. As we see even here there are many fools (or people paid to be fools) who will do almost anything to avoid facing the loss by Kiev. Another village liberated! Kherson or Mariupol, any day now!

    Once Russia called Nato’s bluff and started the war, the main goal for the West has been to make Russia pay as high a price as possible and to save face in front of the Western public. It was the only strategy left, unfortunately it means sacrificing Ukie lives in huge numbers and ending up with a deal much worse than what they could have had in February.

  403. LatW says:
    @S
    @LatW


    The price for joining NATO is a large conflict with Russia but in this conflict we will be actively supported by the West. With weapons, equipment, help, new sanctions on Russia, a possible entry of NATO contingent and a no fly zone. We will not lose this war and that’s good enough.
     
    That is interesting.

    That makes three 'prophecies' involving the United States and Russia. The one alluded to here by Oleksiy Arestovych in 2019, The New Rome (linked to below) by Theodore Poesche in 1853, and The Third Empire (also linked below) by Mikhail Yuriev in 2006.

    Each people receiving their particular prophecy are promised grand things if they achieve victory.

    In Poesche's mid-19th century New Rome, if the United States can just defeat Russia it will be rewarded with a glorious new global empire.

    Similarly in Yuriev's Third Empire, but inverted, if Russia can just defeat the United States, it, too, will have a glorious new global empire.

    For the Ukrainians, if they can just enjoin the United States (via Nato) and Russia into 'a big war' with each other they get a glorious secure new statehood for themselves.

    All lucky educated 'guesses,' perhaps? Evidence of an 'occult' angle, possibly? A 'suggestion' being placed in people's minds for the future, maybe?

    Or, taking into account those powerful elements amongst the elites and their hangers on who loudly have long wished that the world only have a population of five hundred million, what if these promises all turn out to be false prophecies, and the United States, Russia, and Ukraine, not only do not receive what the prophecies promised, but, instead, ultimately end up largely being destroyed as a result of this 'big war'?

    I certainly do not hope for such a result.

    Arestovych's extensive intelligence agency background is intriguing, and makes one wonder just how much of a fine line there might be, on the one hand, between a detailed 'prophecy' such as the one he has made, and, an insider's knowledge of long range planning, on the other.


    A NEW ROMAN EMPIRE

    By Webster G Tarpley

    'It is 1850. Lord Palmerston is engaged in a campaign to make London the undisputed center of a new, worldwide Roman Empire. He is attempting to conquer the world in the way that the British have already conquered India, reducing every other nation to the role of a puppet, client, and fall-guy for British imperial policy. Lord Palmerston’s campaign is not a secret.'

    'He has declared it here in the Houses of Parliament, saying that wherever in the world a British subject goes, he can flaunt the laws, secure that the British fleet will support him. “Civis Romanus sum, every Briton is a citizen of this new Rome,” thundered Lord Palmerston, and with that, the universal empire was proclaimed.'
     

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-utopian-russian-novel-that-predicted-putin-s-war-plan/ar-AAVwgV1

    https://archive.org/details/newrome00poes/page/n15/mode/2up

    http://tarpley.net/online-books/against-oligarchy/lord-palmerstons-multicultural-human-zoo/

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @LatW

    That makes three ‘prophecies’ involving the United States and Russia. The one alluded to here by Oleksiy Arestovych in 2019, The New Rome (linked to below) by Theodore Poesche in 1853, and The Third Empire (also linked below) by Mikhail Yuriev in 2006.

    I doubt he’s alluding to those books but the role of the British is not new. They acted instrumentally in the region during WW1. For Arestovych, he values all allies, because they need all the help they can get (the other day, he said that “the British are good, but they lack resources”, which baffled me a bit, I could only conclude that what he meant was that the British have fewer resources than the US).

    As to these prophecies, he is analyzing in purely geopolitical terms, these are the power structures today that Ukraine has to work with.

    [MORE]

    For the Ukrainians, if they can just enjoin the United States (via Nato) and Russia into ‘a big war’ with each other they get a glorious secure new statehood for themselves.

    Look, the Ukrainians are just doing what they can to save themselves. This is a struggle of hundreds of years. The men are doing insane things on the front, with immense efforts and sacrifices. If there is a new type of statehood that comes out of this, then at that point, it will just be history happening. The way I tend to look at this, is not that there was a deliberate ‘conspiracy’ behind this (although certainly there is some validity in what these conspiracies say and I’d love to delve into those books you mentioned, essentially it is just one reading of the current power structures), but more as a chain of consequences. The whole process started a long time ago but this particular war is a piece of it that Putin started and he started something that he lost control over very quickly. It’s tempting to grasp for the ‘conspiracy’ to cover your own sheer incompetence and rigidness in thinking, the lack of connection with your own people and your neighboring peoples.

    Of course, there is a ton of destruction (not just for Ukraine but the Realm of the Rus in general) but because of the chain of consequences, there is opportunity arising for the victor or at least the one who has shown courage. This is how it works in Nature. It is simple Wille zur Macht. Russia failed to dominate (where it could have dominated with its sheer might even without war), so when Ukraine is able to dominate through great effort and through help, Ukraine gets the benefits and opportunities that this new position presents. But again, one has to take advantage and shape this opportunity (not sure Ukraine can).

    In Arestovych’s mind, it is an opportunity to continue these impulses of the Wille zur Macht by assuming a higher status in the region (or even beyond). He spoke of Ukraine’s military that has been hardened through the war and equipped by the West and Ukraine’s newly gained moral standing as assets that could be employed to secure this status.

    A thriving organism wants to expand. It goes from self-preservation to expansion. It’s healthy.

    The only issue I have with this theory is that, on the ground, Ukraine is losing people, but Arestovych is talking about international status. Ukraine needs to recover the population, then we can start talking about the position in the region. An ideology needs to be created that centers around goodness & wellbeing to the possible maximum of people and the environment (благо). That’s more important than the prophecies.

    Arestovych’s extensive intelligence agency background is intriguing

    His background is one thing that actually gives me a bit of doubt, it seems a bit too scattered to be taken fully seriously. However, it might also be an asset in his case since it makes for an interesting skillset – some military & intelligence experience and his own psychology studies.

    With some cultivation, he could be a successful politician. The brain is the most important thing though. He’s just insightful.

    Back in the day, around the early 2000s, he fraternized with Russian right wingers for a while (before Putin clamped down on them), this may have provided him some insights.

    and makes one wonder just how much of a fine line there might be, on the one hand, between a detailed ‘prophecy’ such as the one he has made, and, an insider’s knowledge of long range planning, on the other.

    I think it is both (although not even that much insider info is shared with him, Kirillo Budanov definitely has more), but I think the intuition is the prevailing one.

    But some Russian vloggers do talk about the Kremlin’s connections to secret societies and various religious practices.

    There is one vlogger, Valery Solovey, who just keeps going on and on about it. He says that Putin is consulting several elders (in the Orthodox tradition they have what they called startsi, wisemen) and that he regularly visits a shaman. Again, there is no way to prove if this is the case (and in any event, there is nothing wrong with getting some of that insight, especially given some of the more irrational Russian traditions, but the question is how much does it influence you, especially as a statesman).

    Apparently, one of the startses told Putin that he had the following vision: If Putin wants to leave a legacy and become a great ruler, he needs to take Kyiv. This chimes well with Putin’s position because he already has a ton of money and several children, so leaving a legacy is really the ultimate wish.

    If you look at it in a more esoteric way, there really does appear to be a lot of energy circling around Kyiv.

    The problem though with all these things is that the innocent suffer.

    One thing that gives me pause in all this is the sheer destruction of the Realm of the Rus. I’m puzzled as to why Putin doesn’t care about the Russian speakers. He is erasing a big part of them from existence. That’s not the Russia I know or thought I knew. Maybe Russia has changed to a point where I can no longer recognize it… it’s a strange feeling. It sometimes aches.

    • Thanks: S
    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    That’s not the Russia I know or thought I knew.
     
    Sure, it's not Russia. It's RusFed.

    Think of it as a cancer or some other disease having infected what was Russia. It was only able to infect because Russia has been already sick and wounded with the Soviet virus. A kind of immunosuppression really.

    BTW, without the Soviet infection there would be no losing of limbs and organs in the body of Russia. Hence no Ukraine and no war in Ukraine.

    Sovok has nearly killed Russian spirit and RusFed is striving to finish it up.

    BTW, speaking of prophesies, St Seraphim of Sarov had an interesting prophesy about revolution, war, a near destruction of Russia and the coming of a new Czar.

    Perhaps Malofeev and his circle believe in that prophesy. They ought to, given that they are Christian Orthodox.

    Replies: @LatW

    , @S
    @LatW


    Look, the Ukrainians are just doing what they can to save themselves. This is a struggle of hundreds of years. The men are doing insane things on the front, with immense efforts and sacrifices.
     
    Hope springs eternal.

    There is, as you know, something known as 'choosing one's battles'.

    With all due respect to the Ukrainian people and their great sacrifices, the battle the Ukrainian people have chosen to fight is the same one Poland chose to fight (and lost) in 1939.

    Poland was then used by the global hegemon (the US/UK) as 'live bait' to get WWII started, and to bring ruin upon Germany and Russia. [If you've ever seen the videos of the Chinese zoos where they unceremoniously toss a live goat into the tiger pen, Poland was the goat, Germany and the USSR were the roaming tigers, and the US/UK was the kindly zookeeper doing the tossing.]

    Germany was wrecked, and Russia barely survived. Poland was left an ash heap and was devoured by the USSR.

    The US/UK has come back to finish the job with Russia. They need new live bait to kick-start WWIII. Enter Poland's next door neighbor Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

    The US/UK established themselves as the overwhelming global hegemon circa 1900 with their formation of the special relationship. [See the first chapter of WT Stead's 1902 book The Americanization of the World] From that vantage, the three world wars (including this one) since that time have been 'mopping up' operations.

    That each of three world wars' flashpoints (which could have been anywhere on Earth) 'happened' to start first in Sarajevo (1914), then Danzig (1939), and now Kiev (2022), in each instance moving ever closer to Moscow, should not be seen as coincidental.

    The reduction and ultimate destruction of Russia and the Russian people has been a primary objective of each of the world wars.

    Replies: @Unintended Consequence, @Coconuts

  404. @sudden death
    @LatW

    Was trying to find that mentioned 2013 December video with him, but so far found another from 2014 January when clashes were escalating to the point of no return to pre-Maidan status quo, where Arestovich was speaking more specifically in detail about activist persecution by security apparatus with "advisers" from RF and needed organised practical countermeasures:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFsoIyIZrmA

    Replies: @LatW

    Arestovich was speaking more specifically in detail about activist persecution by security apparatus with “advisers” from RF and needed organised practical countermeasures

    It’s quite fascinating how they organized those self-defense units. And that the FSB inside of the Berkut had a playbook from their anti-insurgency “clean up” operations in the Caucasus. Sad that the Ukrainian people have had to go through all of this. And it’s amazing how much Ukraine and things in general have changed since that time.

    [MORE]

    You know, the other day he spun this impromptu version about what might be going on in Russia (and I’m really curious now whether it will come to pass, lol, I guess we gotta wait and see):

    “The war has been lost, so they have to find the one who will be held responsible for it. That’s the Russian model. Clearly, the political leadership cannot be blamed, with one exception – if the military carry out a coup and blame the politicians for everything. If that doesn’t happen, the politicians will organize the “Night of the Long Knives” for the military, very simple. This is very simple, it’s about who gets who first. But now… where is the FSB in all this? Who do they serve? It’s the third party in this story. There was an insinuation that appeared in the Russian political military space yesterday that Ukraine is a grandiose trap into which the West led the innocent Russia. And there’s a need to find the guilty one who allowed the leader of the nation to make such a mistake, who drove the Russian leadership and the military into this trap. If this point of view prevails, then the party responsible for this is the FSB. So they will be throwing this at each other and in the end one of them will win. Look, the war in Donbas was started by Strelkov. That is, the FSB. So according to this version, he screwed Putin, who was planning to “boil” the Ukraine conflict gradually. [..] But they had to rush into the war. As a result, the FSB got rid of the liberal tower in the Kremlin. And now they want to get rid of the military wing. Then they will get rid of Putin (grohnut – meaning, assassinate). And live happily after that in their chekist regime. Such a version I find as rather likely.”

    Wow… that’s, like.. not such a great scenario. The FSBshniks get to rule as always.

    What is happening on the Russian propaganda channels is insane. Panic. They are all admitting the losses now. Solovyov was trashing the military. Wow.

    This is insane. This will reverberate on us too, we need to be strong.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @LatW


    What is happening on the Russian propaganda channels is insane. Panic. They are all admitting the losses now. Solovyov was trashing the military. Wow.
     
    They are themselves realising in real time that panicked mobilization itself is just increasing chaos in the system instead of stabilizing it, like the same Arestovich said - it is like the man who barely is lifting 50kg, then starts requiring to give him 100kg weight immediately, lol

    The only caveat - we don't know very well atm how representive those scenes with mobiks are, there might be just 5 chaotic crowds and 95 more or less, but organized, equipped and fed out of 100, but if this is general trend, then it cannot end well in battlefield no matter how much new meat will be thrown:

    https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1577752565839806472

    Replies: @LatW, @Sean, @Another Polish Perspective

  405. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Sean

    They only blew up the pipeline they refused to deliver on. They did not blow up the pipeline they wanted to deliver on. Annd Norway's pipeline to Poland is unimportant to them. Poland will never surrender to Russian demands. It doesn't matter what Russia threatens. Poles know Putin and have had enough of him.

    Replies: @Sean, @Sean

    Poland will never surrender to Russian demands.

    While in the Warsaw Pact, Poland demanded super cheap energy, but the Soviets preferred to sell on to the Germans. After being the greatest recipient of EU largess, they have switched to become the 51st state of the USA so they will get cheap gas from America, they hope.

    Anyway, Poland is a member of NATO, whIn 2007 Poland agreed to host a missile base. The United States government said the missile defense system was for protection against future missiles from Iran. Poles have made their choice, and they are going to have the most powerful army in Europe soon.

    The Ukrainians want everything Poland has got, but it obtained prosperity though massive sustained EU funds plus reforms designed by Jeffery Sachs, who is now suggesting negotiations and de-escalation. An important if unspoken reason the West is not scared of Putin may well be he is not a drinker.

  406. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon.
     
    Well, a big article in the WSJ a few days ago said that more than half of all small- and mid-sized German businesses think that the energy crisis might force them to shut down permanently. That sounds pretty serious to me:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-crisis-pushes-german-industry-to-the-brink-11664443801

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia’s stability despite Ukraine’s instability.
     
    They probably never considered America would destroy their pipeline. But with that setting a precedent, why wouldn't the Russians be able to try to destroy those other pipelines? Pipelines are obviously vulnerable, as are transatlantic fiber-optic cables.

    Suppose the Russians destroyed the communications lines between the US and Europe. Would you say West had been foolish to rely upon those means of communication?

    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he's about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @sudden death, @Philip Owen, @QCIC, @AnonfromTN, @Here Be Dragon

    My comment about reliability wasn’t particularly about the sabotage, although see below, it was about single sourcing. Germany was taking a huge proportion of its gas from one provider. As the US has continually stressed that could lead to the present standoff. In many ways, the whole of the rich world has done this by shifting so much production to China or Vietnam or Bangladesh depending on the industry’s cost structure but essentially a single source. The old US competition rule of three providers in an industry (thus Lockheed was kept limping on in civil aerospace for years) seems a start. (There is another debate to be had about how many competitors are needed in a market).

    I agree with your point about sabotage. The world takes a lot on trust. A world of fewer and fewer providers becomes fragile.

    There is an analogy with ecosystems. Diverse (countries, currencies, companies, technologies) ecosystems full of small niches are stable. Simple ecosystems boom and crash. Globalism has simplified the economic ecosystems in multile ways. We need to bring in the 60% of the world’s population that is broadly still outside the system in as new entities. For example, they should not be overly reliant on dollars or euro. Sorry Volodya but that doesn’t mean the rouble by default.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Philip Owen

    Noooo the Poles and the Ukies siphon off cash for nothing from these overland pipes. You know that well enough.

    The Intermarium is just another Central European customs checkpoint shakedown locates between two productive economic areas.

    , @S
    @Philip Owen


    Diverse (countries, currencies, companies, technologies) ecosystems full of small niches are stable. Simple ecosystems boom and crash.
     
    It would seem to me that sometimes you might want unity, and other times you might want diversity. It doesn't have to be just one rote way all the time.

    Well, anyhow.

    Though, I'm not sure if Orwell would entirely approve of the change, I suppose it will do for now. :-)

    ‘War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Diversity is Strength’
  407. @showmethereal
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Ummm as far as I know - Moscow never mobilized there military but has been using the bare minimum. Maybe you missed that’s why they just called for a partial mobilization…. I don’t need declassified documents to understand that. I do know they have had huge military drills in the Far East with about a dozen other nations while this was going on. Now if you ask WHY they did not fully mobilize and treated this lore like a police action - then I have no answer…

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Another Polish Perspective

    They treated this conflict as a police action because we are still in Messianic Age, and the Messiah is the king of peace. And remember, Putin very well may be Chabad Messiah. Interestingly, the previous Russian war – the Chechen war – had ended before Putin took over Kremlin, at least in the sense of its “war phase”. And Syria has not been a war where Russia was a side of conflict; it couldn’t make peace or anything.

    Plus, Jewish Messiah is much less than Christian Messiah: it is just a king from Davidic line who rules over the peaceful world, but his judgement, like God’s judgement (!), weighs less than judgement of any rabbi. The moment this “special operation” will officially turn into “war”, this nominalism of Kabbalah will evaporate together with Putin, who already doesn’t seem to be too well.

  408. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Lesson: Putin always lies, as the Slavs have been telling us for decades.

    Here's an explanation in useful for going for a walk audio format.

    https://theeasternborder.lv/podcast/an-open-letter-to-elon-musk-and-other-dealmaking-experts/

    Replies: @LatW

    He’s correct. The Baltic men have had to deal with gopniks all their lives.

    The only problem, that on the street, a real gopnik may eventually back down when he sees some strength. But Putin just doesn’t know how to lose. Plus it would mean death for him.

  409. @Mikhail
    @Mikel


    His behavior is consistent with someone who is not being fed very accurate information. Perhaps the same hubris that led him to launch this insane operation is leading him to lose the war.

    Or perhaps he has already decided that he’ll have to push the red button.
     
    Another way of looking at it is that now that territory must be defended because it's part of Russia. No need yet for him to push the red button. Don't get so jumpy -

    https://imetatronink.substack.com/p/maneuver-warfare

    A bonus -

    https://twitter.com/Gritty20202/status/1577285648922292224

    Replies: @Mikel

    Another way of looking at it is that now that territory must be defended because it’s part of Russia.

    That’s the way I am looking at it. However, Russia is retreating from a good chunk of Kherson, Donetsk and Lugansk right after declaring them Russian territories. The Kremlin is looking real bad.

    Btw, I can understand your rooting for Russia in this war, I guess I would feel the same if I was a Russian. But I don’t understand why people like you or AnonfromTN refuse to see the obvious blunder that Putin’s SMO has been and feel the need to support the Kremlin’s actions. If you resented Ukraine for their treatment of innocent civilians in Donbas, Putin has caused much more damage to civilians, mostly in Donbas and other Russophone areas, than Ukraine ever did. And he’s causing irreparable damage to Russia’s military prestige and Russia’s general image. You may defend him as much as you want but Putin hasn’t done any favors to Russians living abroad with this bloody and incompetent war.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @Mikel


    However, Russia is retreating from a good chunk of Kherson, Donetsk and Lugansk right after declaring them Russian territories. The Kremlin is looking real bad.
     
    Putin should have just annexed whole Ukraine by his decree, then UA army would not be violating any lines of RF territorial integrity anymore;)

    Just like recently RF army announced they have already sent mobiks in Kherson oblast, because... they set up a new fresh training camp there, lol

  410. @LatW
    @sudden death


    Arestovich was speaking more specifically in detail about activist persecution by security apparatus with “advisers” from RF and needed organised practical countermeasures
     
    It's quite fascinating how they organized those self-defense units. And that the FSB inside of the Berkut had a playbook from their anti-insurgency "clean up" operations in the Caucasus. Sad that the Ukrainian people have had to go through all of this. And it's amazing how much Ukraine and things in general have changed since that time.


    You know, the other day he spun this impromptu version about what might be going on in Russia (and I'm really curious now whether it will come to pass, lol, I guess we gotta wait and see):

    "The war has been lost, so they have to find the one who will be held responsible for it. That's the Russian model. Clearly, the political leadership cannot be blamed, with one exception - if the military carry out a coup and blame the politicians for everything. If that doesn't happen, the politicians will organize the "Night of the Long Knives" for the military, very simple. This is very simple, it's about who gets who first. But now... where is the FSB in all this? Who do they serve? It's the third party in this story. There was an insinuation that appeared in the Russian political military space yesterday that Ukraine is a grandiose trap into which the West led the innocent Russia. And there's a need to find the guilty one who allowed the leader of the nation to make such a mistake, who drove the Russian leadership and the military into this trap. If this point of view prevails, then the party responsible for this is the FSB. So they will be throwing this at each other and in the end one of them will win. Look, the war in Donbas was started by Strelkov. That is, the FSB. So according to this version, he screwed Putin, who was planning to "boil" the Ukraine conflict gradually. [..] But they had to rush into the war. As a result, the FSB got rid of the liberal tower in the Kremlin. And now they want to get rid of the military wing. Then they will get rid of Putin (grohnut - meaning, assassinate). And live happily after that in their chekist regime. Such a version I find as rather likely."

    Wow... that's, like.. not such a great scenario. The FSBshniks get to rule as always.

    What is happening on the Russian propaganda channels is insane. Panic. They are all admitting the losses now. Solovyov was trashing the military. Wow.

    This is insane. This will reverberate on us too, we need to be strong.

    Replies: @sudden death

    What is happening on the Russian propaganda channels is insane. Panic. They are all admitting the losses now. Solovyov was trashing the military. Wow.

    They are themselves realising in real time that panicked mobilization itself is just increasing chaos in the system instead of stabilizing it, like the same Arestovich said – it is like the man who barely is lifting 50kg, then starts requiring to give him 100kg weight immediately, lol

    The only caveat – we don’t know very well atm how representive those scenes with mobiks are, there might be just 5 chaotic crowds and 95 more or less, but organized, equipped and fed out of 100, but if this is general trend, then it cannot end well in battlefield no matter how much new meat will be thrown:

    • Replies: @LatW
    @sudden death


    The only caveat – we don’t know very well atm how representive those scenes with mobiks are, there might be just 5 chaotic crowds and 95 more or less, but organized, equipped and fed out of 100, but if this is general trend, then it cannot end well in battlefield no matter how much new meat will be thrown
     
    God damn, these poor muzhiks are more likely to start an army rebellion than go fight. These are normal muzhiks pulled out of their homes, without training. I saw there was one case where they had already started fighting over what they had bought at the voentorg. I mean, it's a life and death question if you have a vest or not. Ukraine has been dealing with this shit for 8 years, they had the same issues in the beginning, 8 years ago, and the population, the volunteers, families had to eat soil and pull themselves up by the bootstraps to equip and feed the boys. But the Russians are only starting in now.

    I do have exactly this same question as you - if this is it, then the UA will grind them up slowly and patiently and there will be an insane level of casualties. Tens of thousands of killed and wounded, multiply that with their families that will have to go through hell, it will be immense suffering.

    But if not and if these are just separate cases (I am always careful about not straight up believing video shorts, but only using them as anecdotal evidence), then it will just prolong things but maybe can plug the holes with a ton of bodies in their usual ruthless way. With the same result of immense suffering.


    Oleh Zhdanov knows this stuff well, he mentions the morale will collapse because there is not enough strength at the sergeant level (because no one prepared them!!!):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q8n5cHzGVc

    Imagine what will begin when the first casualties start happening. These modern weapons are much worse than in the previous wars. These men are not prepared for that. There is a book about the Civil War in America called "The Red Badge of Courage" which describes what happens with naive guys who encounter the first casualties. This will be the same or worse.

    If I were a Russian nationalist, I'd be raging right now. But I guess for us (and for Ukraine) this is advantageous (we're not ready to meet these fine guests, yet, or ever). Zaluzhniy said: "We won over the professional Russian army, we will win over the amateur one, too".

    The Ukrainians have suffered for 8 years while they observed from the sidelines. I still have mixed feelings about this as this is just too much. It didn't have to be this way. What a fucking waste.

    P.s. Did you see the ones who were fleeing? Those were more middle class with some funds. These are all working class ones.

    Replies: @Philip Owen

    , @Sean
    @sudden death

    Arestovich said ' mobilization itself is just increasing chaos in the system'. Bolshie Russians!They are not volunteers and as Douglas McGregor (not that one) said "Force Breeds Counterforce!" However, I doubt the Russian generals are going to form whole units of those called up. Much more likely is they will be used as replacements to bring cadre units up to their full strength.

    Simply by advancing Ukraine compresses the opposing force, which also has its line straighter. So even without the reservists and use of conscripts in 'Russia' permitted by the annexation, the going will get tougher and tougher. Now with the doubling of the Russian force, Ukraine is not going to have numerical superiority at the front lines and it's questionable whether they can degrade the Russian army's wherewithal faster than Putin can send it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vesk55GF73E

    Theoretically Ukraine could destroy the logisstis for all the ammunition the artilleries would use , because the US could give the 190 mile range HIMARS missiles to Ukraine, but I don't think they are confident Russia would stand for it. Russia is and maybe always was a thermonuclear superpower only.


    Arestovich is a fascinating insight into Ukrainian thinking:-


    “We can’t pull off neutrality. Neutrality costs 10 times more than an alliance. No country in our position, with a thousands of kms long border, could have neutrality.
     
    Mearsheimer explained a way to them almost three decades ago, they had the technology in nuclear reactors and missiles (indeed the North Koreans are said to have learnt how to build ICBMs with thermonuclear warheads from Ukrainian engineers. Ukrainian politicians were paid off by America to renounce thermonuclear weapons, but Ukraine wanted more than to be secure they wanted to have Webern money thrown at them like Poland, and to join the EU and get that structural convergence gold carrot they would have to join Nato. While that was a good plan after the invasion of Georgia it was unfeasible, yet Ukraine continued Zombie-like as if nothing had happened.
    , @Another Polish Perspective
    @sudden death

    What surprises me is that they are apparently ready to go fighting/preparing to fight in this situation. It is really not a task of a soldier to equip himself like a mercenary would do. They would be fully justified in dropping everything and going home: the Leviathan contract with its citizens was broken. They still can - they are not on the frontline.

    Replies: @sudden death

  411. @sudden death
    @LatW


    What is happening on the Russian propaganda channels is insane. Panic. They are all admitting the losses now. Solovyov was trashing the military. Wow.
     
    They are themselves realising in real time that panicked mobilization itself is just increasing chaos in the system instead of stabilizing it, like the same Arestovich said - it is like the man who barely is lifting 50kg, then starts requiring to give him 100kg weight immediately, lol

    The only caveat - we don't know very well atm how representive those scenes with mobiks are, there might be just 5 chaotic crowds and 95 more or less, but organized, equipped and fed out of 100, but if this is general trend, then it cannot end well in battlefield no matter how much new meat will be thrown:

    https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1577752565839806472

    Replies: @LatW, @Sean, @Another Polish Perspective

    The only caveat – we don’t know very well atm how representive those scenes with mobiks are, there might be just 5 chaotic crowds and 95 more or less, but organized, equipped and fed out of 100, but if this is general trend, then it cannot end well in battlefield no matter how much new meat will be thrown

    God damn, these poor muzhiks are more likely to start an army rebellion than go fight. These are normal muzhiks pulled out of their homes, without training. I saw there was one case where they had already started fighting over what they had bought at the voentorg. I mean, it’s a life and death question if you have a vest or not. Ukraine has been dealing with this shit for 8 years, they had the same issues in the beginning, 8 years ago, and the population, the volunteers, families had to eat soil and pull themselves up by the bootstraps to equip and feed the boys. But the Russians are only starting in now.

    I do have exactly this same question as you – if this is it, then the UA will grind them up slowly and patiently and there will be an insane level of casualties. Tens of thousands of killed and wounded, multiply that with their families that will have to go through hell, it will be immense suffering.

    But if not and if these are just separate cases (I am always careful about not straight up believing video shorts, but only using them as anecdotal evidence), then it will just prolong things but maybe can plug the holes with a ton of bodies in their usual ruthless way. With the same result of immense suffering.

    [MORE]

    Oleh Zhdanov knows this stuff well, he mentions the morale will collapse because there is not enough strength at the sergeant level (because no one prepared them!!!):

    Imagine what will begin when the first casualties start happening. These modern weapons are much worse than in the previous wars. These men are not prepared for that. There is a book about the Civil War in America called “The Red Badge of Courage” which describes what happens with naive guys who encounter the first casualties. This will be the same or worse.

    If I were a Russian nationalist, I’d be raging right now. But I guess for us (and for Ukraine) this is advantageous (we’re not ready to meet these fine guests, yet, or ever). Zaluzhniy said: “We won over the professional Russian army, we will win over the amateur one, too”.

    The Ukrainians have suffered for 8 years while they observed from the sidelines. I still have mixed feelings about this as this is just too much. It didn’t have to be this way. What a fucking waste.

    P.s. Did you see the ones who were fleeing? Those were more middle class with some funds. These are all working class ones.

    • Replies: @Philip Owen
    @LatW

    Recruitment in Saratov seems orderly(ish). The recruits are being directed to sports halls and some other large indoor spaces. "dry toilets" have been provided where not available. Showers are under considerable pressure of use. Families are asked to provide matresses but lightweight uniforms and boots are being supplied. Moisin rifles.

    Replies: @LatW

  412. @A123
    @S

    Babylon 5 had a good episode on how the state shapes reality.

    PEACE 😇
    ________

    https://a1bert.kapsi.fi/Quotes/NoRobots/B5/084.html


    "It does prove though how everything is a matter of perspective. You see what you think is daylight, and you assume it's morning. Take it away, you think it's night. Offer you a sandwich, if it's convenient, you'll think it's mid-day. The truth is fluid, the truth is subjective."

    "The truth is sometimes what you believe it to be, and other times what you decide it to be. My task is to make you decide to believe differently."

    -- Interrogator to Sheridan in Babylon 5:"Intersections in Real Time"
     


    "You will co-operate with the state, for the good of the state and your own survival. You will confess to the crimes of which you have been accused. You will be released and returned to the society a productive citizen if you co-operate. Resistance will be punished, co-operation will be rewarded."

    -- Recording to Sheridan in Babylon 5:"Intersections in Real Time"

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwtncUWXxoQ

    Replies: @A123

    ADDENDUM

    More on how SJW Islamic Globalism tries to shape perception away from Judeo-Christian reality.

    PEACE 😇

     

  413. @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    They haven’t even noticed how their Europe has been taken from them, right in front of their distracted eyes. How the sacrifices of their ancestors has been betrayed.
     
    A few months ago I read an account of a young Scotsman killed in Ukraine. He was a veteran and seemed to be a fine young man.

    My first thought was why was he fighting there when his own Scottish people within the United Kingdom are under great duress themselves? At best it's akin to fighting a neighbor's house fire, when your own house is burning down.

    It's the same with a great many of the 'volunteers' in Ukraine and their own homeland. The system they are wanting to give to Ukraine is the same system which has brought destruction upon their own peoples'.

    There is some very powerful brainwashing at work here.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Bashibuzuk

    The Scots are generally recipients of subsidy from London.

    The Scot lost his mind serving the British Army. They train the squaddies to hate Russia. The indoctrination is pretty fucking strong.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wokechoke


    The Scot lost his mind serving the British Army. They train the squaddies to hate Russia. The indoctrination is pretty fucking strong.
     
    No, they don't. They do teach some of the Russian equipment, but the Russians are spoken of respectfully, at least before February.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    , @S
    @Wokechoke


    The Scot lost his mind serving the British Army. They train the squaddies to hate Russia. The indoctrination is pretty fucking strong.
     
    This is the person I was talking about, Jordan Gatley, 24 years old. Rest in peace.


    https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/C357/production/_125370005_694cb2a1-5e10-494e-8c64-7672e21e482d.jpg.webp


    Ukraine war: Former British soldier Jordan Gatley killed in fighting

    A former British soldier has been killed fighting for the Ukrainian armed forces, his family has said.

    Jordan Gatley, who left the British army in March and travelled to Ukraine, was described as "a hero" by his father Dean in a tribute on social media.

    He died in the battle for the eastern city of Severodonetsk, which has seen intense fighting in recent days.

    The Foreign Office has said it is "supporting the family of a British man who has died in Ukraine".

    Mr Gatley's father wrote in a Facebook post that his son had been helping train local forces. He added that Jordan was fatally shot on the front line while defending the city and they were informed of his death on Friday.

    He had gone to Ukraine to help "after careful consideration", he said.
     

    https://youtu.be/QOZDKlpybZE

    Five Thousand Strong British Legions in South America (1817)

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Legions


    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61777224

    https://inews.co.uk/news/jordan-gatley-british-fighter-died-save-russians-ukraine-commander-1683695

  414. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LatW
    @S


    That makes three ‘prophecies’ involving the United States and Russia. The one alluded to here by Oleksiy Arestovych in 2019, The New Rome (linked to below) by Theodore Poesche in 1853, and The Third Empire (also linked below) by Mikhail Yuriev in 2006.
     
    I doubt he's alluding to those books but the role of the British is not new. They acted instrumentally in the region during WW1. For Arestovych, he values all allies, because they need all the help they can get (the other day, he said that "the British are good, but they lack resources", which baffled me a bit, I could only conclude that what he meant was that the British have fewer resources than the US).

    As to these prophecies, he is analyzing in purely geopolitical terms, these are the power structures today that Ukraine has to work with.


    For the Ukrainians, if they can just enjoin the United States (via Nato) and Russia into ‘a big war’ with each other they get a glorious secure new statehood for themselves.
     
    Look, the Ukrainians are just doing what they can to save themselves. This is a struggle of hundreds of years. The men are doing insane things on the front, with immense efforts and sacrifices. If there is a new type of statehood that comes out of this, then at that point, it will just be history happening. The way I tend to look at this, is not that there was a deliberate 'conspiracy' behind this (although certainly there is some validity in what these conspiracies say and I'd love to delve into those books you mentioned, essentially it is just one reading of the current power structures), but more as a chain of consequences. The whole process started a long time ago but this particular war is a piece of it that Putin started and he started something that he lost control over very quickly. It's tempting to grasp for the 'conspiracy' to cover your own sheer incompetence and rigidness in thinking, the lack of connection with your own people and your neighboring peoples.

    Of course, there is a ton of destruction (not just for Ukraine but the Realm of the Rus in general) but because of the chain of consequences, there is opportunity arising for the victor or at least the one who has shown courage. This is how it works in Nature. It is simple Wille zur Macht. Russia failed to dominate (where it could have dominated with its sheer might even without war), so when Ukraine is able to dominate through great effort and through help, Ukraine gets the benefits and opportunities that this new position presents. But again, one has to take advantage and shape this opportunity (not sure Ukraine can).

    In Arestovych's mind, it is an opportunity to continue these impulses of the Wille zur Macht by assuming a higher status in the region (or even beyond). He spoke of Ukraine's military that has been hardened through the war and equipped by the West and Ukraine's newly gained moral standing as assets that could be employed to secure this status.

    A thriving organism wants to expand. It goes from self-preservation to expansion. It's healthy.

    The only issue I have with this theory is that, on the ground, Ukraine is losing people, but Arestovych is talking about international status. Ukraine needs to recover the population, then we can start talking about the position in the region. An ideology needs to be created that centers around goodness & wellbeing to the possible maximum of people and the environment (благо). That's more important than the prophecies.

    Arestovych’s extensive intelligence agency background is intriguing
     
    His background is one thing that actually gives me a bit of doubt, it seems a bit too scattered to be taken fully seriously. However, it might also be an asset in his case since it makes for an interesting skillset - some military & intelligence experience and his own psychology studies.

    With some cultivation, he could be a successful politician. The brain is the most important thing though. He's just insightful.

    Back in the day, around the early 2000s, he fraternized with Russian right wingers for a while (before Putin clamped down on them), this may have provided him some insights.

    and makes one wonder just how much of a fine line there might be, on the one hand, between a detailed ‘prophecy’ such as the one he has made, and, an insider’s knowledge of long range planning, on the other.
     
    I think it is both (although not even that much insider info is shared with him, Kirillo Budanov definitely has more), but I think the intuition is the prevailing one.

    But some Russian vloggers do talk about the Kremlin's connections to secret societies and various religious practices.

    There is one vlogger, Valery Solovey, who just keeps going on and on about it. He says that Putin is consulting several elders (in the Orthodox tradition they have what they called startsi, wisemen) and that he regularly visits a shaman. Again, there is no way to prove if this is the case (and in any event, there is nothing wrong with getting some of that insight, especially given some of the more irrational Russian traditions, but the question is how much does it influence you, especially as a statesman).

    Apparently, one of the startses told Putin that he had the following vision: If Putin wants to leave a legacy and become a great ruler, he needs to take Kyiv. This chimes well with Putin's position because he already has a ton of money and several children, so leaving a legacy is really the ultimate wish.

    If you look at it in a more esoteric way, there really does appear to be a lot of energy circling around Kyiv.

    The problem though with all these things is that the innocent suffer.

    One thing that gives me pause in all this is the sheer destruction of the Realm of the Rus. I'm puzzled as to why Putin doesn't care about the Russian speakers. He is erasing a big part of them from existence. That's not the Russia I know or thought I knew. Maybe Russia has changed to a point where I can no longer recognize it... it's a strange feeling. It sometimes aches.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @S

    That’s not the Russia I know or thought I knew.

    Sure, it’s not Russia. It’s RusFed.

    Think of it as a cancer or some other disease having infected what was Russia. It was only able to infect because Russia has been already sick and wounded with the Soviet virus. A kind of immunosuppression really.

    BTW, without the Soviet infection there would be no losing of limbs and organs in the body of Russia. Hence no Ukraine and no war in Ukraine.

    Sovok has nearly killed Russian spirit and RusFed is striving to finish it up.

    BTW, speaking of prophesies, St Seraphim of Sarov had an interesting prophesy about revolution, war, a near destruction of Russia and the coming of a new Czar.

    Perhaps Malofeev and his circle believe in that prophesy. They ought to, given that they are Christian Orthodox.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Think of it as a cancer or some other disease having infected what was Russia. It was only able to infect because Russia has been already sick and wounded with the Soviet virus. A kind of immunosuppression really.
     
    Of course, I know that. I have felt it all my life because our people feel it through your people, your people's energy spreads out, with both good and bad results (it's just in a lesser and less harsh form for us, your people probably feel everything more acutely).

    BTW, without the Soviet infection there would be no losing of limbs and organs in the body of Russia. Hence no Ukraine and no war in Ukraine.
     
    I'm not sure if it's just about the Soviet.. the ancien regime had flaws... the Finns, Balts & not to mention Poles would have opposed the Russification either way. Most were decent citizens btw (not crazies like it was propagandized against us on this site). A lot was already decided by the end of the 19th century. We don't really know how it would have developed (even if there were no Soviets).


    I know that if your Russia was alive there would be no Ukraine (or Latvia) so there would be no problem for you. That's not an answer I can live with. Forgive us for everything, elder brother. For all the rude words and disrespect, neglectful and superficial attitudes. We just want to live, we had limited choices. I hope that my Russia will live in the ideas and strivings of the Russian ethnonationalists. Who I know are few. So might be just dreams...


    BTW, speaking of prophesies, St Seraphim of Sarov had an interesting prophesy about revolution, war, a near destruction of Russia and the coming of a new Czar.
     
    I'd have to look that up as I know little about these things.

    Perhaps Malofeev and his circle believe in that prophesy. They ought to, given that they are Christian Orthodox.
     
    I hope it's at least a better version of the Russian imperialism. My issue with the whole thing is that things that Malofeev writes sound interesting, but there is a direct line between those things and the innocent child victims in Mariupol. I know that we can argue forever about whose fault it is (Malofeev or the evil "AngloSaxons"). But the Malofeev version is just straight up death for us, while the slow death with the "Globalist" version we can still fight against.

    Слава Руси!

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Bashibuzuk

  415. @LatW
    @sudden death


    The only caveat – we don’t know very well atm how representive those scenes with mobiks are, there might be just 5 chaotic crowds and 95 more or less, but organized, equipped and fed out of 100, but if this is general trend, then it cannot end well in battlefield no matter how much new meat will be thrown
     
    God damn, these poor muzhiks are more likely to start an army rebellion than go fight. These are normal muzhiks pulled out of their homes, without training. I saw there was one case where they had already started fighting over what they had bought at the voentorg. I mean, it's a life and death question if you have a vest or not. Ukraine has been dealing with this shit for 8 years, they had the same issues in the beginning, 8 years ago, and the population, the volunteers, families had to eat soil and pull themselves up by the bootstraps to equip and feed the boys. But the Russians are only starting in now.

    I do have exactly this same question as you - if this is it, then the UA will grind them up slowly and patiently and there will be an insane level of casualties. Tens of thousands of killed and wounded, multiply that with their families that will have to go through hell, it will be immense suffering.

    But if not and if these are just separate cases (I am always careful about not straight up believing video shorts, but only using them as anecdotal evidence), then it will just prolong things but maybe can plug the holes with a ton of bodies in their usual ruthless way. With the same result of immense suffering.


    Oleh Zhdanov knows this stuff well, he mentions the morale will collapse because there is not enough strength at the sergeant level (because no one prepared them!!!):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q8n5cHzGVc

    Imagine what will begin when the first casualties start happening. These modern weapons are much worse than in the previous wars. These men are not prepared for that. There is a book about the Civil War in America called "The Red Badge of Courage" which describes what happens with naive guys who encounter the first casualties. This will be the same or worse.

    If I were a Russian nationalist, I'd be raging right now. But I guess for us (and for Ukraine) this is advantageous (we're not ready to meet these fine guests, yet, or ever). Zaluzhniy said: "We won over the professional Russian army, we will win over the amateur one, too".

    The Ukrainians have suffered for 8 years while they observed from the sidelines. I still have mixed feelings about this as this is just too much. It didn't have to be this way. What a fucking waste.

    P.s. Did you see the ones who were fleeing? Those were more middle class with some funds. These are all working class ones.

    Replies: @Philip Owen

    Recruitment in Saratov seems orderly(ish). The recruits are being directed to sports halls and some other large indoor spaces. “dry toilets” have been provided where not available. Showers are under considerable pressure of use. Families are asked to provide matresses but lightweight uniforms and boots are being supplied. Moisin rifles.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Philip Owen

    Yes, there will be a lot of them - there are now apparently recruitment points at the railway stations in Moscow. A more relevant question here might be who is in charge of this thing.

  416. @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    My comment about reliability wasn't particularly about the sabotage, although see below, it was about single sourcing. Germany was taking a huge proportion of its gas from one provider. As the US has continually stressed that could lead to the present standoff. In many ways, the whole of the rich world has done this by shifting so much production to China or Vietnam or Bangladesh depending on the industry's cost structure but essentially a single source. The old US competition rule of three providers in an industry (thus Lockheed was kept limping on in civil aerospace for years) seems a start. (There is another debate to be had about how many competitors are needed in a market).

    I agree with your point about sabotage. The world takes a lot on trust. A world of fewer and fewer providers becomes fragile.

    There is an analogy with ecosystems. Diverse (countries, currencies, companies, technologies) ecosystems full of small niches are stable. Simple ecosystems boom and crash. Globalism has simplified the economic ecosystems in multile ways. We need to bring in the 60% of the world's population that is broadly still outside the system in as new entities. For example, they should not be overly reliant on dollars or euro. Sorry Volodya but that doesn't mean the rouble by default.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @S

    Noooo the Poles and the Ukies siphon off cash for nothing from these overland pipes. You know that well enough.

    The Intermarium is just another Central European customs checkpoint shakedown locates between two productive economic areas.

  417. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon.
     
    Well, a big article in the WSJ a few days ago said that more than half of all small- and mid-sized German businesses think that the energy crisis might force them to shut down permanently. That sounds pretty serious to me:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-crisis-pushes-german-industry-to-the-brink-11664443801

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia’s stability despite Ukraine’s instability.
     
    They probably never considered America would destroy their pipeline. But with that setting a precedent, why wouldn't the Russians be able to try to destroy those other pipelines? Pipelines are obviously vulnerable, as are transatlantic fiber-optic cables.

    Suppose the Russians destroyed the communications lines between the US and Europe. Would you say West had been foolish to rely upon those means of communication?

    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he's about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @sudden death, @Philip Owen, @QCIC, @AnonfromTN, @Here Be Dragon

    I am pro-civilization which makes me pro-Russian in this case, despite their shortcomings. Come on, pro-Ukrainians, the whole idea of this Western usurpation in Ukraine is to place bases and weapons there to cause an even bigger war more directly with Russia. Russia knows it and you know it, just deal with it.

    IMO the military bar to using tactical nukes is probably lower than we would like to believe. The good news is, there are not so many great targets for nuclear weapons unless you want to kill everyone and be done with it. It has been obvious for many months that is not the Russian plan. Nukes probably kill more civilians than soldiers which is clearly the opposite of their plan.

    If Russia is in such dire straights as to use nukes, why don’t they up their conventional game first? They could take out all the major bridges on the Dniepr along with 20 major electrical substations and a few other odds and ends with conventional weapons. The Ukrainian military efforts in the East would grind to a halt in a few weeks. They could do this tomorrow. They don’t want to do it.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @QCIC


    Come on, pro-Ukrainians, the whole idea of this Western usurpation in Ukraine is to place bases and weapons there to cause an even bigger war more directly with Russia. Russia knows it and you know it, just deal with it.
     
    If the West wanted a direct military confrontation with Russia, it could have bombed all of Russia's columns and won comprehensively in the first week.

    why don’t they up their conventional game first? They could take out all the major bridges on the Dniepr along with 20 major electrical substations and a few other odds and ends with conventional weapons
     
    No, they couldn't. If you can't successfully destroy enemy advances on your front lines, you can only have a nuisance effect behind far enemy lines. Russia could strike some of those targets, but they'd run out of missiles, and those targets would get repaired. Meanwhile, the Russian defence would become even more shoddy and retreat yet faster.

    Russia has mostly been engaging in sensible target prioritisation with limited resources and trying not to have to much air or missiles intercepted and render ineffective.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Mikel

  418. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon.
     
    Well, a big article in the WSJ a few days ago said that more than half of all small- and mid-sized German businesses think that the energy crisis might force them to shut down permanently. That sounds pretty serious to me:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-crisis-pushes-german-industry-to-the-brink-11664443801

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia’s stability despite Ukraine’s instability.
     
    They probably never considered America would destroy their pipeline. But with that setting a precedent, why wouldn't the Russians be able to try to destroy those other pipelines? Pipelines are obviously vulnerable, as are transatlantic fiber-optic cables.

    Suppose the Russians destroyed the communications lines between the US and Europe. Would you say West had been foolish to rely upon those means of communication?

    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he's about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @sudden death, @Philip Owen, @QCIC, @AnonfromTN, @Here Be Dragon

    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    It’s just boring to read the same dross over and over. Similar personages made similar predictions when Nazis were near Stalingrad. Must have been sorely disappointed a couple of years later.

    There is a type of people who never learn. Arguing with them is pointless.

    • Agree: Mikhail
    • LOL: Mr. Hack
  419. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Wokechoke
    @S

    The Scots are generally recipients of subsidy from London.

    The Scot lost his mind serving the British Army. They train the squaddies to hate Russia. The indoctrination is pretty fucking strong.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @S

    The Scot lost his mind serving the British Army. They train the squaddies to hate Russia. The indoctrination is pretty fucking strong.

    No, they don’t. They do teach some of the Russian equipment, but the Russians are spoken of respectfully, at least before February.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    No so fast Head Girl!

    August 2021, Soldier magazine British forces had “been training with their Ukrainian counterparts as part of a multinational package that also involved Canadian, U.S. and Swedish personnel.” The 400 person battle group mainly consisted of personnel from 4 Scots [did this dead Scot hail from the 4 orf Fourth?] who deployed to Ukraine “with the aim of developing mutual relations, joint planning and battalion and tactical operations.” The report notes how personnel practiced live-fire drills with Ukraine’s 54th Mechanized Brigade,

    which has completed multiple tours in the volatile Donbas region: “Exercise Cossack Mace, Lt. Col. Alasdair Hempenstall of 4 Scots said of his men:

    “They have learnt how the Ukrainians operate from a military perspective, as well as experiencing a taste of their culture and heritage.”

    The Paras sing some pretty based German tunes I wonder what that Culture was the Scots tasted so strong they decided to stay on and fight Russkies freelance?

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @S

  420. Bashibuzuk says:
    @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    They haven’t even noticed how their Europe has been taken from them, right in front of their distracted eyes. How the sacrifices of their ancestors has been betrayed.
     
    A few months ago I read an account of a young Scotsman killed in Ukraine. He was a veteran and seemed to be a fine young man.

    My first thought was why was he fighting there when his own Scottish people within the United Kingdom are under great duress themselves? At best it's akin to fighting a neighbor's house fire, when your own house is burning down.

    It's the same with a great many of the 'volunteers' in Ukraine and their own homeland. The system they are wanting to give to Ukraine is the same system which has brought destruction upon their own peoples'.

    There is some very powerful brainwashing at work here.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Bashibuzuk

    At least one of the US volunteers, when asked about his reasons for joining the fight in Ukraine, answered that he hoped to bring the fight all the way to Moscow itself and once the war won and Russia defeated he hoped to see the first Gay Parade marching on the Red Square. He was a Trump-hater, I have no idea whether he was himself gay or just considered the Gay Parades as an integral part of the Human Rights package. IIRC the guy got killed a couple of months ago but perhaps I am being mistaken, there are scores of these volunteers being killed there.

    • Replies: @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    At least one of the US volunteers, when asked about his reasons for joining the fight in Ukraine, answered that he hoped to bring the fight all the way to Moscow itself and once the war won and Russia defeated he hoped to see the first Gay Parade marching on the Red Square.
     
    Provided the person was real, he might be (or was) a true believer in the modern woke progressive United States.

    Most of the few 'volunteers' I've seen (or read) being interviewed, though, it's more they are simply heavily propagandized.

    Regarding their own people, the volunteers don't grasp they are being ruined by the Anglosphere's wage slavery (ie so called 'cheap labor'/'mass immigration') system. This is the same ruinous progressive Multi-Cultural system which is intended ultimately (by way of the volunteers fighting there) to be 'gifted' unilaterally to Ukraine, which will in turn then ruin them.

    Regarding Ukraine, in many instances the volunteers seem purely emotion driven, ie as the media is presenting it, a figurative young damsel (Ukraine) is in distress crying out for help, so they come to her rescue. No understanding to speak of about larger context in regards to the US/UK, except being (and in particular the UK it seems) that Putin is the 'New Hitler', as told by the media.

    I feel badly for Ukraine in that they (like the Poles in '39) are being shamelessly used by the US/UK, which is on it's own quest to obtain total power and empire, besides having it's own severe moral issues it should be dealing with first, before anything else.

    One can say these things without being pro Putin (or pro Hitler), but instead simply being pro-truth.
  421. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @QCIC
    @Ron Unz

    I am pro-civilization which makes me pro-Russian in this case, despite their shortcomings. Come on, pro-Ukrainians, the whole idea of this Western usurpation in Ukraine is to place bases and weapons there to cause an even bigger war more directly with Russia. Russia knows it and you know it, just deal with it.

    IMO the military bar to using tactical nukes is probably lower than we would like to believe. The good news is, there are not so many great targets for nuclear weapons unless you want to kill everyone and be done with it. It has been obvious for many months that is not the Russian plan. Nukes probably kill more civilians than soldiers which is clearly the opposite of their plan.

    If Russia is in such dire straights as to use nukes, why don't they up their conventional game first? They could take out all the major bridges on the Dniepr along with 20 major electrical substations and a few other odds and ends with conventional weapons. The Ukrainian military efforts in the East would grind to a halt in a few weeks. They could do this tomorrow. They don't want to do it.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    Come on, pro-Ukrainians, the whole idea of this Western usurpation in Ukraine is to place bases and weapons there to cause an even bigger war more directly with Russia. Russia knows it and you know it, just deal with it.

    If the West wanted a direct military confrontation with Russia, it could have bombed all of Russia’s columns and won comprehensively in the first week.

    why don’t they up their conventional game first? They could take out all the major bridges on the Dniepr along with 20 major electrical substations and a few other odds and ends with conventional weapons

    No, they couldn’t. If you can’t successfully destroy enemy advances on your front lines, you can only have a nuisance effect behind far enemy lines. Russia could strike some of those targets, but they’d run out of missiles, and those targets would get repaired. Meanwhile, the Russian defence would become even more shoddy and retreat yet faster.

    Russia has mostly been engaging in sensible target prioritisation with limited resources and trying not to have to much air or missiles intercepted and render ineffective.

    • Replies: @QCIC
    @Triteleia Laxa

    I'm new at this. I have to remind myself not to take the bait.

    , @Mikel
    @Triteleia Laxa


    If the West wanted a direct military confrontation with Russia, it could have bombed all of Russia’s columns and won comprehensively in the first week.
     
    Would you care to elaborate on this?

    I'm no military expert by any means but, leaving aside the unprecedented (read nuclear) response that Putin threatened with at the start of the war if the West interfered, I don't see an obvious way for NATO to destroy those columns in a week. I think that one thing this war has proven is that the Soviet and post-Soviet anti-air systems are truly effective. The Ukrainian one was undoubtedly inferior to what the Russians have but still the Russians failed to dismantle it and have never been able to use their air force over Ukraine without running high risks. NATO would have to destroy the superior Russian AA infrastructure in order to use their air forces to bomb those columns. Can they really do that? In less than a week? Stand-off weapons are not designed to destroy columns, as far as I know, and would also need to avoid the Russian air defenses.

    As for the sabotage of the pipelines, I don't have your total conviction but yes, most likely it was the Russians. The idea that the Russians could simply stop pumping gas instead of destroying the pipelines and losing their leverage is very unconvincing to me. We should all have learned by now that that is just not the way people in the Kremlin think and operate. For starters, the Kremlin way is to always lie about their actions and intentions (green men, MH17, Skripal,...). And the other characteristic of the Kremlin modus operandi, since Soviet times, is to always do the unpredictable, even if it doesn't make sense. In the long run this may actually provide benefits because their opponents can never guess what their actions and reactions are going to be. There's probably a strategy there.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Triteleia Laxa, @Dmitry

  422. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wokechoke


    The Scot lost his mind serving the British Army. They train the squaddies to hate Russia. The indoctrination is pretty fucking strong.
     
    No, they don't. They do teach some of the Russian equipment, but the Russians are spoken of respectfully, at least before February.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    No so fast Head Girl!

    August 2021, Soldier magazine British forces had “been training with their Ukrainian counterparts as part of a multinational package that also involved Canadian, U.S. and Swedish personnel.” The 400 person battle group mainly consisted of personnel from 4 Scots [did this dead Scot hail from the 4 orf Fourth?] who deployed to Ukraine “with the aim of developing mutual relations, joint planning and battalion and tactical operations.” The report notes how personnel practiced live-fire drills with Ukraine’s 54th Mechanized Brigade,

    which has completed multiple tours in the volatile Donbas region: “Exercise Cossack Mace, Lt. Col. Alasdair Hempenstall of 4 Scots said of his men:

    “They have learnt how the Ukrainians operate from a military perspective, as well as experiencing a taste of their culture and heritage.”

    The Paras sing some pretty based German tunes I wonder what that Culture was the Scots tasted so strong they decided to stay on and fight Russkies freelance?

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wokechoke

    Ukrainians tend to be decent people and soldiers often get along well regardless of nationality. What does your post have to do with mine? He went to help his mates.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    , @S
    @Wokechoke


    The 400 person battle group mainly consisted of personnel from 4 Scots [did this dead Scot hail from the 4 orf Fourth?] who deployed to Ukraine...
     
    No. The late Jordan Gatley had been with the Edinburgh based Third Battalion of The Rifles. He had left the organization in March of this year.

    The BBC understands Mr Gatley served in the British army as a rifleman with the Edinburgh-based third battalion of The Rifles and was discharged from the forces in March before travelling to Ukraine.
     
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61777224
  423. @sudden death
    @LatW


    What is happening on the Russian propaganda channels is insane. Panic. They are all admitting the losses now. Solovyov was trashing the military. Wow.
     
    They are themselves realising in real time that panicked mobilization itself is just increasing chaos in the system instead of stabilizing it, like the same Arestovich said - it is like the man who barely is lifting 50kg, then starts requiring to give him 100kg weight immediately, lol

    The only caveat - we don't know very well atm how representive those scenes with mobiks are, there might be just 5 chaotic crowds and 95 more or less, but organized, equipped and fed out of 100, but if this is general trend, then it cannot end well in battlefield no matter how much new meat will be thrown:

    https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1577752565839806472

    Replies: @LatW, @Sean, @Another Polish Perspective

    Arestovich said ‘ mobilization itself is just increasing chaos in the system’. Bolshie Russians!They are not volunteers and as Douglas McGregor (not that one) said “Force Breeds Counterforce!” However, I doubt the Russian generals are going to form whole units of those called up. Much more likely is they will be used as replacements to bring cadre units up to their full strength.

    Simply by advancing Ukraine compresses the opposing force, which also has its line straighter. So even without the reservists and use of conscripts in ‘Russia’ permitted by the annexation, the going will get tougher and tougher. Now with the doubling of the Russian force, Ukraine is not going to have numerical superiority at the front lines and it’s questionable whether they can degrade the Russian army’s wherewithal faster than Putin can send it.

    Theoretically Ukraine could destroy the logisstis for all the ammunition the artilleries would use , because the US could give the 190 mile range HIMARS missiles to Ukraine, but I don’t think they are confident Russia would stand for it. Russia is and maybe always was a thermonuclear superpower only.

    Arestovich is a fascinating insight into Ukrainian thinking:-

    “We can’t pull off neutrality. Neutrality costs 10 times more than an alliance. No country in our position, with a thousands of kms long border, could have neutrality.

    Mearsheimer explained a way to them almost three decades ago, they had the technology in nuclear reactors and missiles (indeed the North Koreans are said to have learnt how to build ICBMs with thermonuclear warheads from Ukrainian engineers. Ukrainian politicians were paid off by America to renounce thermonuclear weapons, but Ukraine wanted more than to be secure they wanted to have Webern money thrown at them like Poland, and to join the EU and get that structural convergence gold carrot they would have to join Nato. While that was a good plan after the invasion of Georgia it was unfeasible, yet Ukraine continued Zombie-like as if nothing had happened.

  424. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    No so fast Head Girl!

    August 2021, Soldier magazine British forces had “been training with their Ukrainian counterparts as part of a multinational package that also involved Canadian, U.S. and Swedish personnel.” The 400 person battle group mainly consisted of personnel from 4 Scots [did this dead Scot hail from the 4 orf Fourth?] who deployed to Ukraine “with the aim of developing mutual relations, joint planning and battalion and tactical operations.” The report notes how personnel practiced live-fire drills with Ukraine’s 54th Mechanized Brigade,

    which has completed multiple tours in the volatile Donbas region: “Exercise Cossack Mace, Lt. Col. Alasdair Hempenstall of 4 Scots said of his men:

    “They have learnt how the Ukrainians operate from a military perspective, as well as experiencing a taste of their culture and heritage.”

    The Paras sing some pretty based German tunes I wonder what that Culture was the Scots tasted so strong they decided to stay on and fight Russkies freelance?

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @S

    Ukrainians tend to be decent people and soldiers often get along well regardless of nationality. What does your post have to do with mine? He went to help his mates.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    How many Brits know that British troops were present in Ukraine in such high numbers planning for a war with Russia? What were these British troops rehearsing?

    I had thought, before the Russian lunge on Kiev, that the British were going to exploit the legal ambiguity of Crimea by more actively squeezing Crimea. The shore raid, on Sevastapol was designed to get as close to a fight with the Russians as possible and have a legal case if the Russian troops fired on the ship. This is doctrinal military hostility toward Russia.

    https://news.usni.org/2021/06/21/positions-of-two-nato-ships-were-falsified-near-russian-black-sea-naval-base


    The hacked falsification ought to be investigated.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57583363

    The order for this gunboat diplomacy ought to be looked at with the same scrutiny.

    Eveyone knows that the troops are indoctrinated to fight Russia. Mind you it's a not a crude 2 minutes of hate but the indoctrination is pervasive.

  425. @Triteleia Laxa
    @QCIC


    Come on, pro-Ukrainians, the whole idea of this Western usurpation in Ukraine is to place bases and weapons there to cause an even bigger war more directly with Russia. Russia knows it and you know it, just deal with it.
     
    If the West wanted a direct military confrontation with Russia, it could have bombed all of Russia's columns and won comprehensively in the first week.

    why don’t they up their conventional game first? They could take out all the major bridges on the Dniepr along with 20 major electrical substations and a few other odds and ends with conventional weapons
     
    No, they couldn't. If you can't successfully destroy enemy advances on your front lines, you can only have a nuisance effect behind far enemy lines. Russia could strike some of those targets, but they'd run out of missiles, and those targets would get repaired. Meanwhile, the Russian defence would become even more shoddy and retreat yet faster.

    Russia has mostly been engaging in sensible target prioritisation with limited resources and trying not to have to much air or missiles intercepted and render ineffective.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Mikel

    I’m new at this. I have to remind myself not to take the bait.

  426. @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    That’s not the Russia I know or thought I knew.
     
    Sure, it's not Russia. It's RusFed.

    Think of it as a cancer or some other disease having infected what was Russia. It was only able to infect because Russia has been already sick and wounded with the Soviet virus. A kind of immunosuppression really.

    BTW, without the Soviet infection there would be no losing of limbs and organs in the body of Russia. Hence no Ukraine and no war in Ukraine.

    Sovok has nearly killed Russian spirit and RusFed is striving to finish it up.

    BTW, speaking of prophesies, St Seraphim of Sarov had an interesting prophesy about revolution, war, a near destruction of Russia and the coming of a new Czar.

    Perhaps Malofeev and his circle believe in that prophesy. They ought to, given that they are Christian Orthodox.

    Replies: @LatW

    Think of it as a cancer or some other disease having infected what was Russia. It was only able to infect because Russia has been already sick and wounded with the Soviet virus. A kind of immunosuppression really.

    Of course, I know that. I have felt it all my life because our people feel it through your people, your people’s energy spreads out, with both good and bad results (it’s just in a lesser and less harsh form for us, your people probably feel everything more acutely).

    BTW, without the Soviet infection there would be no losing of limbs and organs in the body of Russia. Hence no Ukraine and no war in Ukraine.

    I’m not sure if it’s just about the Soviet.. the ancien regime had flaws… the Finns, Balts & not to mention Poles would have opposed the Russification either way. Most were decent citizens btw (not crazies like it was propagandized against us on this site). A lot was already decided by the end of the 19th century. We don’t really know how it would have developed (even if there were no Soviets).

    [MORE]

    I know that if your Russia was alive there would be no Ukraine (or Latvia) so there would be no problem for you. That’s not an answer I can live with. Forgive us for everything, elder brother. For all the rude words and disrespect, neglectful and superficial attitudes. We just want to live, we had limited choices. I hope that my Russia will live in the ideas and strivings of the Russian ethnonationalists. Who I know are few. So might be just dreams…

    BTW, speaking of prophesies, St Seraphim of Sarov had an interesting prophesy about revolution, war, a near destruction of Russia and the coming of a new Czar.

    I’d have to look that up as I know little about these things.

    Perhaps Malofeev and his circle believe in that prophesy. They ought to, given that they are Christian Orthodox.

    I hope it’s at least a better version of the Russian imperialism. My issue with the whole thing is that things that Malofeev writes sound interesting, but there is a direct line between those things and the innocent child victims in Mariupol. I know that we can argue forever about whose fault it is (Malofeev or the evil “AngloSaxons”). But the Malofeev version is just straight up death for us, while the slow death with the “Globalist” version we can still fight against.

    Слава Руси!

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    I’m not sure if it’s just about the Soviet.. the ancien regime had flaws…
     
    Absolutely, the rot started with the Raskol and the Peterine reforms. Think about it, have you ever had any problems at all with the Old Believers in Latvia? Anything at all ?

    Probably not.

    That's the truest form of Russian character left today. They're the closest to the original spirit of Rus: sober, calm, hard working people with a strong family focus and at the same time self-reliance and community spirit.

    The Westernization has spoiled the Russians, the Empire was a byproduct of Westernized elites, and both Communism and RusFed have also been a byproduct of this spoilage.

    Rus people should have staunchly kept to their roots. They were better people before they swallowed all kinds of foreign spiritual dogmas, ideologies and societal norms. At least they should have kept to their earliest form of Slav Orthodox Christianity, without going Nikonian or Uniate. That was the beginning of the end.

    Replies: @LatW

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    I know that we can argue forever about whose fault it is (Malofeev or the evil “AngloSaxons”). But the Malofeev version is just straight up death for us, while the slow death with the “Globalist” version we can still fight against.
     
    After reading Malofeev's book about the "universal history of the Empire" (he sees the Imperial tradition as an evolution of an archetype sort of came "from above") I am now absolutely aware of how biased his outlook is.

    This guy is basically the equivalent of an Orthodox Salafi Islamist. He has no respect for ethnic diversity, for blood and soil. His Empire is universal, absolute and idealistic (I know, coming from someone like me the accusation of excessive idealism sounds a bit strange). And he is a bigot, only Orthodox Church has the perfect truth in itself. No other path to salvation!

    I hope that neither him nor his circle will ever get to the power in Russia. This guy is probably more dangerous than Prigozhin or Kadyrov. He's an ideologue and a fanatic, unlike them.

    See for yourself if you have time for that:

    http://loveread.ec/view_global.php?id=101442

    (And yeah, I see Balts as more of the elder brothers of the Slavs than the opposite, and I also have a healthy dose of respect for Finno-Ugric/Uralic peoples too. I mean once you ever see Seima-Turbino artifacts, how can you downplay the amazing talent of these folks? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seima-Turbino_phenomenon )

    Replies: @LatW

  427. @Philip Owen
    @LatW

    Recruitment in Saratov seems orderly(ish). The recruits are being directed to sports halls and some other large indoor spaces. "dry toilets" have been provided where not available. Showers are under considerable pressure of use. Families are asked to provide matresses but lightweight uniforms and boots are being supplied. Moisin rifles.

    Replies: @LatW

    Yes, there will be a lot of them – there are now apparently recruitment points at the railway stations in Moscow. A more relevant question here might be who is in charge of this thing.

  428. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Sean

    They only blew up the pipeline they refused to deliver on. They did not blow up the pipeline they wanted to deliver on. Annd Norway's pipeline to Poland is unimportant to them. Poland will never surrender to Russian demands. It doesn't matter what Russia threatens. Poles know Putin and have had enough of him.

    Replies: @Sean, @Sean

    Russia believed it could get Norsstream 2 (announced by the German government to be definitively closed for ever after) reinstated by blowing up Nordsteam1? Hmm.

  429. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Yahya
    @Bashibuzuk


    Speaking of which:
     
    Are you familiar with Turkish Classical Music?

    It's one of my favorite musical genres. Like many other foreign genres, it took me a bit of time to familiarize my ear to Turkish music, which is fairly peculiar given its resemblance to Arabic music. On the other hand, there are some distinct differences between the two despite their similarity on a world scale.

    Both Turkish and Arabic music are based on the maqam/makam system, which can roughly be translated as modes in the Western system. Each maqam is built on a scale, and carries a tradition that defines its habitual phrases, important notes, melodic development and modulation. The Maqam system is distinct however from Western modes in that it only defines the pitches and patterns of a piece of music without outlining the rhythmic component. This allows for the rhythmic improvisation typical of Middle Eastern music.

    Turkish music is different in that they utilize a wider range of maqams (100+) than Arabic music (9-10), and split tones into 9 comas rather than 4, allowing for microtones smaller than quarter tones. Turkish music primarily utilizes the scales derived from the Husseini maqam, whereas Arabic music derives its scales from the Kurdi, Ajam, Nahawand, and Hijaz maqams. In terms of instruments both Turkish and Arabic music make use of the qanun, oud and ney (far more so than Greeks and Iranians), but Turks have the tambur, kemençe and saz which are not typically used by Arabs.

    This is my favorite song Kalamis by Münir Nurettin Selçuk:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxwmsicrT2M&ab_channel=Selim

    It's fairly peculiar in its lack of texture and instrumental minimalism. But it works well since it allows Selçuk's voice to stand out and enhances the connection between the musician and listener. Contrast this with choral music from the Western system, like Palestrina's works for example, whose polyphony is intellectually interesting, but loses the personal touch of monophonic music. Of course this style of music depends greatly on the quality of the singer's voice to carry the melody on his/her own without much aid from the instruments. The female background accompaniment also provides a nice contrast to the male singers low-pitched voice.

    I believe most of the eminent singers of Turkish classical music were male in the 20th century, which is disappointing for me as I prefer the female voice. Fortunately, most of the 21st century performers carrying on the legacy of Turkish classical music are females, and they mostly sing cover versions of older songs, with better orchestration and sound engineering. My favorites being Elif Güreşçi, Mine Gellici, Yaprak Sayar, and Selva Erdener. Though I suppose in the 20th century there was at least a couple of great female singers like Melahet Pars and Saime Sinan.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE4To4K7EkQ&ab_channel=RECEPGAYRETL%C4%B0

    Sadly younger Turks don't seem much interested in this type of music anymore. The performers I mentioned above barely get 100,000 views on Youtube if they are lucky. Yaprak Sayar has tried to gain a wider audience by combining Turkish classical songs with background jazz instrumentals, but i'm not sure if it can retain its essence and character with Western style instrumentals. But this is the chief predicament Turks have been dealing with since the downfall of the Ottoman Empire.

    Ataturk tried to encourage Turks to take up Western classical music by establishing musical conservatories and sending Turks to study abroad, with some fruits given the "Turkish Five" developed out of these initiatives. But as usual, the vast majority of Turks outside of the secular urban centers did not and still do not want to listen to that stuff. Shortly after Ataturk's government banned traditional Turkish music from being aired on the Turkish airwaves, there were records of Turks calling into radio stations in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East requesting Arabic renditions of Turkish songs they were used to listening to. Eventually in the 1970s a sub-genre called Arabesque developed directly as a consequence of this event because Turks had acquired a taste for Arabic-style melodies.

    Incidentally, I like some of the stuff produced by the "Turkish Five". This is a variation on a famous Istanbul folk song by Cemal Reşit Rey, which should familiar to fans of Rimsky-Korsakov:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8hdxZ4h_e8&list=PLk4jQWJwkElTO7fwOk8m_Ibn-gQ_leGiZ&index=67&t=110s&ab_channel=fahrettinarda

    But still Western classical music composed by Turks doesn't seem to interest anyone either inside or outside of Turkey. Turkish classical music seems to be heading in that direction also, as I mentioned above. I think only Turkish folk music is listened to nowadays, alongside of course the mechanical, localized version of global pop music which can be found anywhere in the world today.

    Arabic classical music has survived better in that regard, people still listen to Umm Kulthum and Sabah Fakhry, though they too will diminish in due time. There were several Arab composers of Western classical music in the 20th century actually, such as Dia Succari, Gamal Abdel-Rehim, Aziz El-Shewan, Youssef Khasho and Solhi Al-Wadi; but likewise very few in the Arab world seem to care much for Western classical music. In Iran the two great classical singers Marzieh and Gholam-Hossein Banan have fallen into neglect, but I suppose are being replaced by instrumentalists such as Hossein Alizadeh and Kayhan Kalhoor.

    The best contemporary practitioner of Arabic-Turkish classical music is a Lebanese lady operating from Montreal, Canada called Lamia Yared. Here you can see her on the oud, playing alongside the talented Turkish qanunist Didem Basar:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94kor58K5k4&ab_channel=Centredesmusiciensdumonde

    Doesn't seem to get much views unfortunately.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    Thank you so much for this introduction to the Turkish classical music. I was completely unaware of how exquisite it was. I especially enjoyed the last video. Lovely!

    I really don’t know much about Turkish music, and my knowledge of MENA music is also limited to some well known Maghrebi songs, although I remember my parents listening to Feiruz when I was young. They had a lot of “exotic” music at home at a time when in USSR just having access to Western Jazz or Rock music was an uneasy task (my dad was a great fan of Otis Redding and other Soul singers).

    I have found the Ozgur Baba song by pure chance, while listening to some traditional Uyghur music on YouTube. Probably the algorithm had them connected through the “traditional Turkic music” keywords.

    Have you ever listened to Uyghur music?

    It is a world in itself on the crossroads of Central Asia, well worth exploring.

    [MORE]

    The ballad below is very powerful (notice the use of Turkic runes in the subtitles).

    This song is very ancient, it is the story of Turkic ancestoral Gray Wolves in the Ergenikon valleys of the Altai mountains.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergenekon

    Regarding the young people not being interested in their ancestors’ music, it is true everywhere. For example, many Russian youth would gladly listen to some US Gangsta Rap or to Russian Hip hop wannabees, but won’t be interested in the traditional Russian songs or heroic Rus ballads (byliny).

    Youths mainly seek fashion and thrill, mature people seek wisdom and beauty.

    C’est la vie…

    • Replies: @Yahya
    @Bashibuzuk


    Have you ever listened to Uyghur music?
     
    From Central Asia, I've only listened to Afghan music, though I'm not sure if Afghanistan counts as Central Asian. I've always thought of the "Heart of Asia" as a tri-cultural blend between South, Central and West Asia. Though i've only listened to Afghan folk music sung in Dari (a surprisingly euphonious tongue), so I suppose it does qualify as Central Asian.

    This is my favorite Dari folk song "Beshnaw az Nay" or "Cry of the Reed", arranged by Khaled Arman and performed by his talented wife Mashal Arman. It's a famous song in Afghanistan and there are countless renditions of it on YouTube, some good ones being by Kayhan Kalhor, Henri Tournier, Ensemble Kaboul and Ayeda Husain Naqvi. But this is the most refined version:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tUWeiGQ_GU&ab_channel=GenevaCamerata

    The lyrics are taken from Mawlānā Rumi's Masnavi.


    Listen to the reed and the tale it tells,
    how it sings of separation:

    Ever since they cut me from the reed bed,
    my wail has caused men and women to weep.

    I want a heart torn open with longing
    to share the pain of this love.

    Whoever has been parted from his source
    longs to return to that state of union.

    At every gathering I play my lament.
    I’m a friend to both happy and sad.

    Each befriended me for his own reasons,
    yet none searched out the secrets I contain.

    My secret is not different than my lament,
    yet this is not for the senses to perceive.

    The body is not hidden from the soul,
    nor is the soul hidden from the body,
    and yet the soul is not for everyone to see.

    This flute is played with fire, not with wind,
    and without this fire you would not exist.
     

    One description interprets this poem as follows:

    "In the opening poem of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi's Mathnawi, Beshno az Ney, or the Cry of the Reed, we hear the lament of the reed flute as it tells us about the pain of separation. Just as the reed is cut from its bed; burned, hollowed, and drilled with holes, so must man in his unnatural state of separation from the Divine go through the trials of life, and learn to be likewise empty before he can turn his suffering into joy, or in this case, beautiful music. It is the pain of separation that will eventually bring him Home."


    It is a world in itself on the crossroads of Central Asia, well worth exploring.
     
    I've always regarded Central Asia as a unique, exotic, almost magical place. It's quite peculiar to me in that its Islamic character is fairly recognizable, but the people and culture seems somewhat alien to me. I've never encountered a Central Asian nor have I visited the region. In that regard I think a Russian would find it less foreign owing to their proximity and the legacy of the USSR. Probably even a modern-day Russian would have met a few Central Asian migrant workers.

    With regards to Uyghurs; I regret to say I don't know much about them except the persecution they are facing. I watched this Vice News segment on the Uyghur situation a while back; and while one must always be wary of the bias inherent in documentaries and the like, I think this one is fairly accurate. I wouldn't put it beyond the Chinese Communist Party to practice this sort of brutal totalitarianism. There's a particularly poignant segment in 18:10 where an Uyghur mother shows Isobel Yeung footage of her daughter in an education camp, where she alongside other Uyghur children were taken from their families and forced to learn Chinese customs under government supervision. It's simply disgusting.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7AYyUqrMuQ&ab_channel=VICENews


    Regarding the young people not being interested in their ancestors’ music, it is true everywhere. For example, many Russian youth would gladly listen to some US Gangsta Rap or to Russian Hip hop wannabees, but won’t be interested in the traditional Russian songs or heroic Rus ballads (byliny).

     

    Yes this is quite true, the pervasiveness of the Rap & Hip-Hop Epidemic is one of the 21st century's biggest tragedies. Even in the Arab world we are not immune to this, Arab shabab be liken that sheet. The appeal of this music to non-blacks mystifies me. Even the world's elites are swept up by it. My school friends, and many former college classmates, some of whom are more intelligent than I am in an IQ sense, listen to the most mindless, mechanical music. They mostly don't care for the highest forms of expression in their own native traditions.

    I can't really complain much though about people listening to music outside their traditions. I probably listen to more foreign music than Arabic music at this point. But if only people would listen to the best other countries have to offer, musicians like Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Hadjidakis, Hossein-Banan, Selçuk, Miyake, Shankar etc. instead of Eminem and Jay-Z, then perhaps it would be more acceptable to abandon ones native tradition.


    limited to some well known Maghrebi songs
     
    I like some Maghrebi pop tunes, but most of it is crap like everywhere else in the globe. Algerian Chaabi music is much better. I made a few recommendations a couple of months ago if you're interested: https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-193/#comment-5475692

    Algerian music is quite distinct from Middle Eastern music; mainly in that the latter is morbidly melancholic, which can get a bit tiresome (95% of Arabic, Turkish, and Persian music harp on the same topic). Algerian music by contrast is more upbeat and gregarious; without being frivolous. The top composers of Algerian classical music I call the 3 M's: Mustapha Skandrani, Mohamed Iguerbouchen, Mohammed Weld El Kourd.

    The Algerian Jewish composer Maurice El-Medioni (wonderful man) would make a fourth M, though he's developed his own unique style which is slightly different from the above-mentioned composers, perhaps owing to his Judaic background.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tv3HAoYOT8&list=PLk4jQWJwkElQjvAO1k5yjUeOxVHCizPD9&index=3&ab_channel=Dialnamusic

    The rest of the Maghreb seems to be more influenced by the Middle East (primarily Egyptian music), at least in their art music. As such they are more singer-centric than Algeria, the best vocalists being the Tunisians Dorsaf Hamdani and Sonia M'Barek, and in Morocco there is Nidal Ibourk. Though the Maghreb outside Algeria also has some top-quality composers like Anouar Brahem, Adnane Matrone and Nabil Ben Abdel-Jalil.

    Replies: @Another Polish Perspective, @Philip Owen

  430. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Think of it as a cancer or some other disease having infected what was Russia. It was only able to infect because Russia has been already sick and wounded with the Soviet virus. A kind of immunosuppression really.
     
    Of course, I know that. I have felt it all my life because our people feel it through your people, your people's energy spreads out, with both good and bad results (it's just in a lesser and less harsh form for us, your people probably feel everything more acutely).

    BTW, without the Soviet infection there would be no losing of limbs and organs in the body of Russia. Hence no Ukraine and no war in Ukraine.
     
    I'm not sure if it's just about the Soviet.. the ancien regime had flaws... the Finns, Balts & not to mention Poles would have opposed the Russification either way. Most were decent citizens btw (not crazies like it was propagandized against us on this site). A lot was already decided by the end of the 19th century. We don't really know how it would have developed (even if there were no Soviets).


    I know that if your Russia was alive there would be no Ukraine (or Latvia) so there would be no problem for you. That's not an answer I can live with. Forgive us for everything, elder brother. For all the rude words and disrespect, neglectful and superficial attitudes. We just want to live, we had limited choices. I hope that my Russia will live in the ideas and strivings of the Russian ethnonationalists. Who I know are few. So might be just dreams...


    BTW, speaking of prophesies, St Seraphim of Sarov had an interesting prophesy about revolution, war, a near destruction of Russia and the coming of a new Czar.
     
    I'd have to look that up as I know little about these things.

    Perhaps Malofeev and his circle believe in that prophesy. They ought to, given that they are Christian Orthodox.
     
    I hope it's at least a better version of the Russian imperialism. My issue with the whole thing is that things that Malofeev writes sound interesting, but there is a direct line between those things and the innocent child victims in Mariupol. I know that we can argue forever about whose fault it is (Malofeev or the evil "AngloSaxons"). But the Malofeev version is just straight up death for us, while the slow death with the "Globalist" version we can still fight against.

    Слава Руси!

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Bashibuzuk

    I’m not sure if it’s just about the Soviet.. the ancien regime had flaws…

    Absolutely, the rot started with the Raskol and the Peterine reforms. Think about it, have you ever had any problems at all with the Old Believers in Latvia? Anything at all ?

    Probably not.

    That’s the truest form of Russian character left today. They’re the closest to the original spirit of Rus: sober, calm, hard working people with a strong family focus and at the same time self-reliance and community spirit.

    The Westernization has spoiled the Russians, the Empire was a byproduct of Westernized elites, and both Communism and RusFed have also been a byproduct of this spoilage.

    Rus people should have staunchly kept to their roots. They were better people before they swallowed all kinds of foreign spiritual dogmas, ideologies and societal norms. At least they should have kept to their earliest form of Slav Orthodox Christianity, without going Nikonian or Uniate. That was the beginning of the end.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Think about it, have you ever had any problems at all with the Old Believers in Latvia?
     
    Are you kidding? The Old Believers are real sweethearts and they are respected and even sheltered. They were represented in the parliament in the 1930s and they have been our citizens for a very long time and are very good people.

    It's actually interesting because they, even when they start speaking Latvian, retain their Russianness. It emanates out of them. There is a certain coziness about them. You know that when they speak Russian you can hear just a little bit of the old accent (they pronounce the letter "o" differently, with an elongated "o"). The Soviet migrants speak modern Russian obviously where the "o" is pronounced as "uh".

    But they are few and for them outmarriage is a problem. But they are still there and they're a totally separate group from the Soviet arrivals. Most of the Soviet arrivals are normal people, but they are being constantly stressed out by the media.


    Rus people should have staunchly kept to their roots. They were better people before they swallowed all kinds of foreign spiritual dogmas, ideologies and societal norms. At least they should have kept to their earliest form of Slav Orthodox Christianity, without going Nikonian or Uniate. That was the beginning of the end.
     
    Well, would there have been an Empire in that case?

    You know, when I was little, I had a big book of classic Russian art that I used to browse through sometimes, and the iconic painting of Boyarinya Morozova always made me very curious because it was so dramatic. I had no idea what it was all about as a kid, but I remember being strangely drawn to it and looking at it over and over.
  431. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Think of it as a cancer or some other disease having infected what was Russia. It was only able to infect because Russia has been already sick and wounded with the Soviet virus. A kind of immunosuppression really.
     
    Of course, I know that. I have felt it all my life because our people feel it through your people, your people's energy spreads out, with both good and bad results (it's just in a lesser and less harsh form for us, your people probably feel everything more acutely).

    BTW, without the Soviet infection there would be no losing of limbs and organs in the body of Russia. Hence no Ukraine and no war in Ukraine.
     
    I'm not sure if it's just about the Soviet.. the ancien regime had flaws... the Finns, Balts & not to mention Poles would have opposed the Russification either way. Most were decent citizens btw (not crazies like it was propagandized against us on this site). A lot was already decided by the end of the 19th century. We don't really know how it would have developed (even if there were no Soviets).


    I know that if your Russia was alive there would be no Ukraine (or Latvia) so there would be no problem for you. That's not an answer I can live with. Forgive us for everything, elder brother. For all the rude words and disrespect, neglectful and superficial attitudes. We just want to live, we had limited choices. I hope that my Russia will live in the ideas and strivings of the Russian ethnonationalists. Who I know are few. So might be just dreams...


    BTW, speaking of prophesies, St Seraphim of Sarov had an interesting prophesy about revolution, war, a near destruction of Russia and the coming of a new Czar.
     
    I'd have to look that up as I know little about these things.

    Perhaps Malofeev and his circle believe in that prophesy. They ought to, given that they are Christian Orthodox.
     
    I hope it's at least a better version of the Russian imperialism. My issue with the whole thing is that things that Malofeev writes sound interesting, but there is a direct line between those things and the innocent child victims in Mariupol. I know that we can argue forever about whose fault it is (Malofeev or the evil "AngloSaxons"). But the Malofeev version is just straight up death for us, while the slow death with the "Globalist" version we can still fight against.

    Слава Руси!

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Bashibuzuk

    I know that we can argue forever about whose fault it is (Malofeev or the evil “AngloSaxons”). But the Malofeev version is just straight up death for us, while the slow death with the “Globalist” version we can still fight against.

    After reading Malofeev’s book about the “universal history of the Empire” (he sees the Imperial tradition as an evolution of an archetype sort of came “from above”) I am now absolutely aware of how biased his outlook is.

    This guy is basically the equivalent of an Orthodox Salafi Islamist. He has no respect for ethnic diversity, for blood and soil. His Empire is universal, absolute and idealistic (I know, coming from someone like me the accusation of excessive idealism sounds a bit strange). And he is a bigot, only Orthodox Church has the perfect truth in itself. No other path to salvation!

    I hope that neither him nor his circle will ever get to the power in Russia. This guy is probably more dangerous than Prigozhin or Kadyrov. He’s an ideologue and a fanatic, unlike them.

    See for yourself if you have time for that:

    http://loveread.ec/view_global.php?id=101442

    (And yeah, I see Balts as more of the elder brothers of the Slavs than the opposite, and I also have a healthy dose of respect for Finno-Ugric/Uralic peoples too. I mean once you ever see Seima-Turbino artifacts, how can you downplay the amazing talent of these folks? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seima-Turbino_phenomenon )

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    I hope that neither him [Malofeev] nor his circle will ever get to the power in Russia. This guy is probably more dangerous than Prigozhin or Kadyrov. He’s an ideologue and a fanatic, unlike them.
     
    I haven't read this book, but I know what it's about. This man is very dangerous, and I agree wholeheartedly that he should never be in power (he already has enough money and status). This kind of stuff is a direct threat to very many people and it will be fought against. It's very scary but it needs to be faced.

    Prigozhin and Kadyrov are primitive chads (with criminal tendencies), but this guy is a fanatical ideologue. When the war ends (or continues in a different form, e.g., when the imperialistic war transforms into a civil war), I'm very concerned that some really crazy and sinister chuvaks could rise to the top and fight it out amongst each other. Both Prigozhin and Kadyrov have their own troops, I'm not sure about who this Malofeev could align with, maybe Zolotov from Rosgvardia? In that case, Ukraine & Baltic States are truly screwed and we will have to arm ourselves to the teeth (probably with the help of Western troops). Unless a serious smuta takes place and then these guys will be busy with themselves. (Obviously I don't wish any of this on the Russian people).


    he sees the Imperial tradition as an evolution of an archetype sort of came “from above”
     
    That sounds very absolutist and a bit constructed. He wants to impose it with terrible bloodshed and pain to others. We know that. They would tread over the Russian people, too.

    This guy is basically the equivalent of an Orthodox Salafi Islamist. He has no respect for ethnic diversity, for blood and soil.
     
    Of course, not, including the Russian one.


    His Empire is universal, absolute and idealistic (I know, coming from someone like me the accusation of excessive idealism sounds a bit strange).
     
    No, it doesn't, because your idealism is truthful and natural, unlike this constructed nuttiness.

    and I also have a healthy dose of respect for Finno-Ugric/Uralic peoples too
     
    Me too, I really like their quiet and rugged personalities, their robust spirit (decent phenotype too in many cases).

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Philip Owen

  432. Battle of the Nations
    Serbia Croatia

    [MORE]

    Celic played really great. He was in the Tel Aviv final and blasted through four guys before he ran into Djokovic. At least he made Djokovic break into a sweat.

  433. @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    I’m not sure if it’s just about the Soviet.. the ancien regime had flaws…
     
    Absolutely, the rot started with the Raskol and the Peterine reforms. Think about it, have you ever had any problems at all with the Old Believers in Latvia? Anything at all ?

    Probably not.

    That's the truest form of Russian character left today. They're the closest to the original spirit of Rus: sober, calm, hard working people with a strong family focus and at the same time self-reliance and community spirit.

    The Westernization has spoiled the Russians, the Empire was a byproduct of Westernized elites, and both Communism and RusFed have also been a byproduct of this spoilage.

    Rus people should have staunchly kept to their roots. They were better people before they swallowed all kinds of foreign spiritual dogmas, ideologies and societal norms. At least they should have kept to their earliest form of Slav Orthodox Christianity, without going Nikonian or Uniate. That was the beginning of the end.

    Replies: @LatW

    Think about it, have you ever had any problems at all with the Old Believers in Latvia?

    Are you kidding? The Old Believers are real sweethearts and they are respected and even sheltered. They were represented in the parliament in the 1930s and they have been our citizens for a very long time and are very good people.

    It’s actually interesting because they, even when they start speaking Latvian, retain their Russianness. It emanates out of them. There is a certain coziness about them. You know that when they speak Russian you can hear just a little bit of the old accent (they pronounce the letter “o” differently, with an elongated “o”). The Soviet migrants speak modern Russian obviously where the “o” is pronounced as “uh”.

    But they are few and for them outmarriage is a problem. But they are still there and they’re a totally separate group from the Soviet arrivals. Most of the Soviet arrivals are normal people, but they are being constantly stressed out by the media.

    [MORE]

    Rus people should have staunchly kept to their roots. They were better people before they swallowed all kinds of foreign spiritual dogmas, ideologies and societal norms. At least they should have kept to their earliest form of Slav Orthodox Christianity, without going Nikonian or Uniate. That was the beginning of the end.

    Well, would there have been an Empire in that case?

    You know, when I was little, I had a big book of classic Russian art that I used to browse through sometimes, and the iconic painting of Boyarinya Morozova always made me very curious because it was so dramatic. I had no idea what it was all about as a kid, but I remember being strangely drawn to it and looking at it over and over.

  434. Wall Street Journal
    U.S. Believes Ukraine Was Behind Assassination of Putin …
    The Kyiv government is responsible for killing Daria Dugina, American spy agencies concluded … WASHINGTON—U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Ukraine…
    .35 mins ago

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @A123
    @Sean


    Wall Street Journal
    U.S. Believes Ukraine Was Behind Assassination of Putin
     
    Ummm....

    Ukraine Was Behind Assassination of Putin

    Did the lead have to be cut up exactly that way? That first line is a bit eyebrow raising.

    Of course it is from a Murdoch source, like News of the World.

    PEACE 😇
  435. Bashibuzuk says:

    they pronounce the letter “o” differently, with an elongated “o”

    That’s the remnants of the North-Western dialect, the one that was spoken in Novgorod and is now still extant in Vologda.

    Well, would there have been an Empire in that case?

    Of course not. But what good did that Empire bring to the immense majority of the Russian people ? Enserfed, exploited, sent to endless wars of conquest, what did they gain ? Nothing. They did not need Empire to get to Alaskan shore, they did not need the Empire to overcome Golden Horde or to stand against the Teutonic Knights.

    Empire benefited the elites, and not even the old Boyars (such as Boyarinya Morozova) but the parvenu rabble most often than not chosen because they had no qualms oppressing the Russian muzhik. In the end, the Romanovs had 98% German ancestry, the imperial bureaucracy and aristocracy was nearly 50% of foreign descent, while 78% of population were Russian peasants who have been enserfed for some 300 years and exploited in the same vein as peones in Latin America or coolies in South East Asia.

    The Empire first colonized Russian peasants, and only then everyone else. It imported and imposed foreign mores. We both know how that ended.

  436. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wokechoke

    Ukrainians tend to be decent people and soldiers often get along well regardless of nationality. What does your post have to do with mine? He went to help his mates.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    How many Brits know that British troops were present in Ukraine in such high numbers planning for a war with Russia? What were these British troops rehearsing?

    I had thought, before the Russian lunge on Kiev, that the British were going to exploit the legal ambiguity of Crimea by more actively squeezing Crimea. The shore raid, on Sevastapol was designed to get as close to a fight with the Russians as possible and have a legal case if the Russian troops fired on the ship. This is doctrinal military hostility toward Russia.

    https://news.usni.org/2021/06/21/positions-of-two-nato-ships-were-falsified-near-russian-black-sea-naval-base

    The hacked falsification ought to be investigated.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57583363

    The order for this gunboat diplomacy ought to be looked at with the same scrutiny.

    Eveyone knows that the troops are indoctrinated to fight Russia. Mind you it’s a not a crude 2 minutes of hate but the indoctrination is pervasive.

  437. @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    I know that we can argue forever about whose fault it is (Malofeev or the evil “AngloSaxons”). But the Malofeev version is just straight up death for us, while the slow death with the “Globalist” version we can still fight against.
     
    After reading Malofeev's book about the "universal history of the Empire" (he sees the Imperial tradition as an evolution of an archetype sort of came "from above") I am now absolutely aware of how biased his outlook is.

    This guy is basically the equivalent of an Orthodox Salafi Islamist. He has no respect for ethnic diversity, for blood and soil. His Empire is universal, absolute and idealistic (I know, coming from someone like me the accusation of excessive idealism sounds a bit strange). And he is a bigot, only Orthodox Church has the perfect truth in itself. No other path to salvation!

    I hope that neither him nor his circle will ever get to the power in Russia. This guy is probably more dangerous than Prigozhin or Kadyrov. He's an ideologue and a fanatic, unlike them.

    See for yourself if you have time for that:

    http://loveread.ec/view_global.php?id=101442

    (And yeah, I see Balts as more of the elder brothers of the Slavs than the opposite, and I also have a healthy dose of respect for Finno-Ugric/Uralic peoples too. I mean once you ever see Seima-Turbino artifacts, how can you downplay the amazing talent of these folks? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seima-Turbino_phenomenon )

    Replies: @LatW

    I hope that neither him [Malofeev] nor his circle will ever get to the power in Russia. This guy is probably more dangerous than Prigozhin or Kadyrov. He’s an ideologue and a fanatic, unlike them.

    I haven’t read this book, but I know what it’s about. This man is very dangerous, and I agree wholeheartedly that he should never be in power (he already has enough money and status). This kind of stuff is a direct threat to very many people and it will be fought against. It’s very scary but it needs to be faced.

    Prigozhin and Kadyrov are primitive chads (with criminal tendencies), but this guy is a fanatical ideologue. When the war ends (or continues in a different form, e.g., when the imperialistic war transforms into a civil war), I’m very concerned that some really crazy and sinister chuvaks could rise to the top and fight it out amongst each other. Both Prigozhin and Kadyrov have their own troops, I’m not sure about who this Malofeev could align with, maybe Zolotov from Rosgvardia? In that case, Ukraine & Baltic States are truly screwed and we will have to arm ourselves to the teeth (probably with the help of Western troops). Unless a serious smuta takes place and then these guys will be busy with themselves. (Obviously I don’t wish any of this on the Russian people).

    he sees the Imperial tradition as an evolution of an archetype sort of came “from above”

    That sounds very absolutist and a bit constructed. He wants to impose it with terrible bloodshed and pain to others. We know that. They would tread over the Russian people, too.

    This guy is basically the equivalent of an Orthodox Salafi Islamist. He has no respect for ethnic diversity, for blood and soil.

    Of course, not, including the Russian one.

    His Empire is universal, absolute and idealistic (I know, coming from someone like me the accusation of excessive idealism sounds a bit strange).

    No, it doesn’t, because your idealism is truthful and natural, unlike this constructed nuttiness.

    and I also have a healthy dose of respect for Finno-Ugric/Uralic peoples too

    Me too, I really like their quiet and rugged personalities, their robust spirit (decent phenotype too in many cases).

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    I’m not sure about who this Malofeev could align with
     
    He was the boss of Strelkov. So probably Strelkov and the like. BTW, the fact that Strelkov is still alive ans free, despite his virulent diatribes against the RusFed government, proves that he is somewhat useful to someone. Probably Malofeev. Malofeev also has established a great contact with Dugin and his Neo-Eurasianist movement. That would probably make for a great basis to build an ultra-Orthodox Hizb'Allah or Taleban.

    Replies: @LatW

    , @Philip Owen
    @LatW

    Malofeev seems to be on good terms with Patrushev. So he may be relying on the FSB/GRU for muscle. I agree that Zolotov might be on the radar too. Also, actual Cossacks. 2000 of them were in the Donbas with Girkin within a couple of weeks. I think the late Vsevolod Chaplin, a priest, organized that. None of these links are strong.

    Thanks for thelink to the book.

    Replies: @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

  438. @Triteleia Laxa
    @QCIC


    Come on, pro-Ukrainians, the whole idea of this Western usurpation in Ukraine is to place bases and weapons there to cause an even bigger war more directly with Russia. Russia knows it and you know it, just deal with it.
     
    If the West wanted a direct military confrontation with Russia, it could have bombed all of Russia's columns and won comprehensively in the first week.

    why don’t they up their conventional game first? They could take out all the major bridges on the Dniepr along with 20 major electrical substations and a few other odds and ends with conventional weapons
     
    No, they couldn't. If you can't successfully destroy enemy advances on your front lines, you can only have a nuisance effect behind far enemy lines. Russia could strike some of those targets, but they'd run out of missiles, and those targets would get repaired. Meanwhile, the Russian defence would become even more shoddy and retreat yet faster.

    Russia has mostly been engaging in sensible target prioritisation with limited resources and trying not to have to much air or missiles intercepted and render ineffective.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Mikel

    If the West wanted a direct military confrontation with Russia, it could have bombed all of Russia’s columns and won comprehensively in the first week.

    Would you care to elaborate on this?

    I’m no military expert by any means but, leaving aside the unprecedented (read nuclear) response that Putin threatened with at the start of the war if the West interfered, I don’t see an obvious way for NATO to destroy those columns in a week. I think that one thing this war has proven is that the Soviet and post-Soviet anti-air systems are truly effective. The Ukrainian one was undoubtedly inferior to what the Russians have but still the Russians failed to dismantle it and have never been able to use their air force over Ukraine without running high risks. NATO would have to destroy the superior Russian AA infrastructure in order to use their air forces to bomb those columns. Can they really do that? In less than a week? Stand-off weapons are not designed to destroy columns, as far as I know, and would also need to avoid the Russian air defenses.

    As for the sabotage of the pipelines, I don’t have your total conviction but yes, most likely it was the Russians. The idea that the Russians could simply stop pumping gas instead of destroying the pipelines and losing their leverage is very unconvincing to me. We should all have learned by now that that is just not the way people in the Kremlin think and operate. For starters, the Kremlin way is to always lie about their actions and intentions (green men, MH17, Skripal,…). And the other characteristic of the Kremlin modus operandi, since Soviet times, is to always do the unpredictable, even if it doesn’t make sense. In the long run this may actually provide benefits because their opponents can never guess what their actions and reactions are going to be. There’s probably a strategy there.

    • Agree: sudden death
    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Mikel

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57583363

    the British did try to concoct a war.

    sailing this ship so close to Sevastopol a port in a sea subject to Montreux Convention

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Straits


    Was pretty damned bellicose and provocative of the Royal Navy. Boris wanted a war in 2001.

    , @Triteleia Laxa
    @Mikel


    I’m no military expert by any means but, leaving aside the unprecedented (read nuclear) response that Putin threatened with at the start of the war if the West interfered, I don’t see an obvious way for NATO to destroy those columns in a week.
     
    In the first weeks of the war, the Russian forces were incredibly vulnerable, even the basically non-existent, rust bucket Ukrainian air force was having some effect.

    The Russians were not prepared for an attack from the air. Their (hugely overhyped*) air defence bubble wasn't even properly deployed and their troops would have been obliterated. They had no umbrella, and half of them were static, on roads, completely out in the open.

    Meanwhile, the second biggest, second most technologically sophisticated Air Force in the world is the US Marine Corp. I assume you can guess the biggest.


    I think that one thing this war has proven is that the Soviet and post-Soviet anti-air systems are truly effective.
     
    The Ukrainians have jerry-rigged American HARMS (anti-radar) missiles to their Soviet planes and have thereby achieved local air superiority by making it too dangerous for Russian air defence to operate. The US is about 50 years more technologically advanced than that.

    Furthermore, things like training matter and practice. Probably only the US, UK and France can do counter air-defence flying. It is a difficult thing to learn and implement at an institutional level, but it does work.

    Picture the Luftwaffe, with Wermacht air defence, coming up against General Norman Schwarzkopf's forces. We all forget that the Russians exaggerated Russian effectiveness to hide their corruption, but also that Americans massively exaggerate Russian effectiveness to justify their own spending.

    * We know their air defence systems are hugely overhyped because Ukraine was flying helicopters into occupied Mariupol, and elsewhere, even Belgorod, continues to conduct aggressive air sorties and fires HIMARS where it wants. (How was toy store stuff like Bayrekhtar destroying Russian assets otherwise?)

    And to think, that even during this war, some pro-Russian shills have been writing self-humiluating nonsense "explaining" that Russia would defeat NATO because it could stop all NATO missiles with its air defence etc! No, it literally can't even stop basic b*tch HIMARS systems loaded with old software and at a scale about 1:1000 of how NATO would use them.

    Obviously, the fact that Russia has nukes makes this all void. But that also makes the idea that NATO would ever invade Russia all void.

    Replies: @Mikel, @Bashibuzuk

    , @Dmitry
    @Mikel

    Since beginning of March, I explained here already a few times, but you seem to be not interested in reading the comments.

    Russian aviation doesn't have targeting pods until this year (maybe a few examples of Su-34M were claimed to arrive in this year), while Ukraine has very little air force.

    This, means Russian air force planes cannot find or destroy moving targets for the ground support from distance using guided weapons, unlike air forces with targeting pods.

    Ground support depends more from Su-25, Ka-50 and Mi-24, or other planes used close to target, which, after the Afghanistan war, have been vulnerable to MANPADS. After the beginning of the invasion in February, thousands of MANPADS have been given to Ukraine and these have been mostly responsible for the losses of Russian ground support aviation planes.

    I have posted multiple YouTube documentaries about the Afghanistan War here since March which has the historical context.

    Replies: @Mikel

  439. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    I hope that neither him [Malofeev] nor his circle will ever get to the power in Russia. This guy is probably more dangerous than Prigozhin or Kadyrov. He’s an ideologue and a fanatic, unlike them.
     
    I haven't read this book, but I know what it's about. This man is very dangerous, and I agree wholeheartedly that he should never be in power (he already has enough money and status). This kind of stuff is a direct threat to very many people and it will be fought against. It's very scary but it needs to be faced.

    Prigozhin and Kadyrov are primitive chads (with criminal tendencies), but this guy is a fanatical ideologue. When the war ends (or continues in a different form, e.g., when the imperialistic war transforms into a civil war), I'm very concerned that some really crazy and sinister chuvaks could rise to the top and fight it out amongst each other. Both Prigozhin and Kadyrov have their own troops, I'm not sure about who this Malofeev could align with, maybe Zolotov from Rosgvardia? In that case, Ukraine & Baltic States are truly screwed and we will have to arm ourselves to the teeth (probably with the help of Western troops). Unless a serious smuta takes place and then these guys will be busy with themselves. (Obviously I don't wish any of this on the Russian people).


    he sees the Imperial tradition as an evolution of an archetype sort of came “from above”
     
    That sounds very absolutist and a bit constructed. He wants to impose it with terrible bloodshed and pain to others. We know that. They would tread over the Russian people, too.

    This guy is basically the equivalent of an Orthodox Salafi Islamist. He has no respect for ethnic diversity, for blood and soil.
     
    Of course, not, including the Russian one.


    His Empire is universal, absolute and idealistic (I know, coming from someone like me the accusation of excessive idealism sounds a bit strange).
     
    No, it doesn't, because your idealism is truthful and natural, unlike this constructed nuttiness.

    and I also have a healthy dose of respect for Finno-Ugric/Uralic peoples too
     
    Me too, I really like their quiet and rugged personalities, their robust spirit (decent phenotype too in many cases).

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Philip Owen

    I’m not sure about who this Malofeev could align with

    He was the boss of Strelkov. So probably Strelkov and the like. BTW, the fact that Strelkov is still alive ans free, despite his virulent diatribes against the RusFed government, proves that he is somewhat useful to someone. Probably Malofeev. Malofeev also has established a great contact with Dugin and his Neo-Eurasianist movement. That would probably make for a great basis to build an ultra-Orthodox Hizb’Allah or Taleban.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    BTW, the fact that Strelkov is still alive and free, despite his virulent diatribes against the RusFed government, proves that he is somewhat useful to someone. Probably Malofeev.
     
    I thought he was an FSB asset. But, of course, he and Malofeev are ideologically aligned.

    That would probably make for a great basis to build an ultra-Orthodox Hizb’Allah or Taleban.
     
    Yes, they can easily be that type of an ideological sect, but, if they want power and hold it permanently, they would need to secure support from someone in the military or Rosgvardia.

    There are also questions as to whether the Russian people would accept that, many would, no doubt, but how many would seriously oppose. If they're still in Russia.

  440. @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW


    I’m not sure about who this Malofeev could align with
     
    He was the boss of Strelkov. So probably Strelkov and the like. BTW, the fact that Strelkov is still alive ans free, despite his virulent diatribes against the RusFed government, proves that he is somewhat useful to someone. Probably Malofeev. Malofeev also has established a great contact with Dugin and his Neo-Eurasianist movement. That would probably make for a great basis to build an ultra-Orthodox Hizb'Allah or Taleban.

    Replies: @LatW

    BTW, the fact that Strelkov is still alive and free, despite his virulent diatribes against the RusFed government, proves that he is somewhat useful to someone. Probably Malofeev.

    I thought he was an FSB asset. But, of course, he and Malofeev are ideologically aligned.

    That would probably make for a great basis to build an ultra-Orthodox Hizb’Allah or Taleban.

    Yes, they can easily be that type of an ideological sect, but, if they want power and hold it permanently, they would need to secure support from someone in the military or Rosgvardia.

    There are also questions as to whether the Russian people would accept that, many would, no doubt, but how many would seriously oppose. If they’re still in Russia.

  441. @Philip Owen
    @showmethereal

    Russian proxies paid initally by Malofeev and organized by elements of the ROC started and maintained the war. The actual elected locals wanted a referendum on more powers locally. Borodai threw them into a locked room.

    Replies: @showmethereal

    Sure — they were Russian proxies… In the same way Kyiv has been a US proxy since the coup in 2014.

  442. S says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @S

    At least one of the US volunteers, when asked about his reasons for joining the fight in Ukraine, answered that he hoped to bring the fight all the way to Moscow itself and once the war won and Russia defeated he hoped to see the first Gay Parade marching on the Red Square. He was a Trump-hater, I have no idea whether he was himself gay or just considered the Gay Parades as an integral part of the Human Rights package. IIRC the guy got killed a couple of months ago but perhaps I am being mistaken, there are scores of these volunteers being killed there.

    Replies: @S

    At least one of the US volunteers, when asked about his reasons for joining the fight in Ukraine, answered that he hoped to bring the fight all the way to Moscow itself and once the war won and Russia defeated he hoped to see the first Gay Parade marching on the Red Square.

    Provided the person was real, he might be (or was) a true believer in the modern woke progressive United States.

    Most of the few ‘volunteers’ I’ve seen (or read) being interviewed, though, it’s more they are simply heavily propagandized.

    Regarding their own people, the volunteers don’t grasp they are being ruined by the Anglosphere’s wage slavery (ie so called ‘cheap labor’/’mass immigration’) system. This is the same ruinous progressive Multi-Cultural system which is intended ultimately (by way of the volunteers fighting there) to be ‘gifted’ unilaterally to Ukraine, which will in turn then ruin them.

    Regarding Ukraine, in many instances the volunteers seem purely emotion driven, ie as the media is presenting it, a figurative young damsel (Ukraine) is in distress crying out for help, so they come to her rescue. No understanding to speak of about larger context in regards to the US/UK, except being (and in particular the UK it seems) that Putin is the ‘New Hitler’, as told by the media.

    I feel badly for Ukraine in that they (like the Poles in ’39) are being shamelessly used by the US/UK, which is on it’s own quest to obtain total power and empire, besides having it’s own severe moral issues it should be dealing with first, before anything else.

    One can say these things without being pro Putin (or pro Hitler), but instead simply being pro-truth.

    • Agree: YetAnotherAnon
  443. @Bashibuzuk
    @Yahya

    Thank you so much for this introduction to the Turkish classical music. I was completely unaware of how exquisite it was. I especially enjoyed the last video. Lovely!

    I really don't know much about Turkish music, and my knowledge of MENA music is also limited to some well known Maghrebi songs, although I remember my parents listening to Feiruz when I was young. They had a lot of "exotic" music at home at a time when in USSR just having access to Western Jazz or Rock music was an uneasy task (my dad was a great fan of Otis Redding and other Soul singers).

    I have found the Ozgur Baba song by pure chance, while listening to some traditional Uyghur music on YouTube. Probably the algorithm had them connected through the "traditional Turkic music" keywords.

    Have you ever listened to Uyghur music?

    It is a world in itself on the crossroads of Central Asia, well worth exploring.



    The ballad below is very powerful (notice the use of Turkic runes in the subtitles).

    https://youtu.be/YWyW_o17RMg

    This song is very ancient, it is the story of Turkic ancestoral Gray Wolves in the Ergenikon valleys of the Altai mountains.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergenekon

    Regarding the young people not being interested in their ancestors' music, it is true everywhere. For example, many Russian youth would gladly listen to some US Gangsta Rap or to Russian Hip hop wannabees, but won't be interested in the traditional Russian songs or heroic Rus ballads (byliny).

    Youths mainly seek fashion and thrill, mature people seek wisdom and beauty.

    C'est la vie...

    Replies: @Yahya

    Have you ever listened to Uyghur music?

    From Central Asia, I’ve only listened to Afghan music, though I’m not sure if Afghanistan counts as Central Asian. I’ve always thought of the “Heart of Asia” as a tri-cultural blend between South, Central and West Asia. Though i’ve only listened to Afghan folk music sung in Dari (a surprisingly euphonious tongue), so I suppose it does qualify as Central Asian.

    This is my favorite Dari folk song “Beshnaw az Nay” or “Cry of the Reed”, arranged by Khaled Arman and performed by his talented wife Mashal Arman. It’s a famous song in Afghanistan and there are countless renditions of it on YouTube, some good ones being by Kayhan Kalhor, Henri Tournier, Ensemble Kaboul and Ayeda Husain Naqvi. But this is the most refined version:

    [MORE]

    The lyrics are taken from Mawlānā Rumi’s Masnavi.

    Listen to the reed and the tale it tells,
    how it sings of separation:

    Ever since they cut me from the reed bed,
    my wail has caused men and women to weep.

    I want a heart torn open with longing
    to share the pain of this love.

    Whoever has been parted from his source
    longs to return to that state of union.

    At every gathering I play my lament.
    I’m a friend to both happy and sad.

    Each befriended me for his own reasons,
    yet none searched out the secrets I contain.

    My secret is not different than my lament,
    yet this is not for the senses to perceive.

    The body is not hidden from the soul,
    nor is the soul hidden from the body,
    and yet the soul is not for everyone to see.

    This flute is played with fire, not with wind,
    and without this fire you would not exist.

    One description interprets this poem as follows:

    “In the opening poem of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi’s Mathnawi, Beshno az Ney, or the Cry of the Reed, we hear the lament of the reed flute as it tells us about the pain of separation. Just as the reed is cut from its bed; burned, hollowed, and drilled with holes, so must man in his unnatural state of separation from the Divine go through the trials of life, and learn to be likewise empty before he can turn his suffering into joy, or in this case, beautiful music. It is the pain of separation that will eventually bring him Home.”

    It is a world in itself on the crossroads of Central Asia, well worth exploring.

    I’ve always regarded Central Asia as a unique, exotic, almost magical place. It’s quite peculiar to me in that its Islamic character is fairly recognizable, but the people and culture seems somewhat alien to me. I’ve never encountered a Central Asian nor have I visited the region. In that regard I think a Russian would find it less foreign owing to their proximity and the legacy of the USSR. Probably even a modern-day Russian would have met a few Central Asian migrant workers.

    With regards to Uyghurs; I regret to say I don’t know much about them except the persecution they are facing. I watched this Vice News segment on the Uyghur situation a while back; and while one must always be wary of the bias inherent in documentaries and the like, I think this one is fairly accurate. I wouldn’t put it beyond the Chinese Communist Party to practice this sort of brutal totalitarianism. There’s a particularly poignant segment in 18:10 where an Uyghur mother shows Isobel Yeung footage of her daughter in an education camp, where she alongside other Uyghur children were taken from their families and forced to learn Chinese customs under government supervision. It’s simply disgusting.

    Regarding the young people not being interested in their ancestors’ music, it is true everywhere. For example, many Russian youth would gladly listen to some US Gangsta Rap or to Russian Hip hop wannabees, but won’t be interested in the traditional Russian songs or heroic Rus ballads (byliny).

    Yes this is quite true, the pervasiveness of the Rap & Hip-Hop Epidemic is one of the 21st century’s biggest tragedies. Even in the Arab world we are not immune to this, Arab shabab be liken that sheet. The appeal of this music to non-blacks mystifies me. Even the world’s elites are swept up by it. My school friends, and many former college classmates, some of whom are more intelligent than I am in an IQ sense, listen to the most mindless, mechanical music. They mostly don’t care for the highest forms of expression in their own native traditions.

    I can’t really complain much though about people listening to music outside their traditions. I probably listen to more foreign music than Arabic music at this point. But if only people would listen to the best other countries have to offer, musicians like Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Hadjidakis, Hossein-Banan, Selçuk, Miyake, Shankar etc. instead of Eminem and Jay-Z, then perhaps it would be more acceptable to abandon ones native tradition.

    limited to some well known Maghrebi songs

    I like some Maghrebi pop tunes, but most of it is crap like everywhere else in the globe. Algerian Chaabi music is much better. I made a few recommendations a couple of months ago if you’re interested: https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-193/#comment-5475692

    Algerian music is quite distinct from Middle Eastern music; mainly in that the latter is morbidly melancholic, which can get a bit tiresome (95% of Arabic, Turkish, and Persian music harp on the same topic). Algerian music by contrast is more upbeat and gregarious; without being frivolous. The top composers of Algerian classical music I call the 3 M’s: Mustapha Skandrani, Mohamed Iguerbouchen, Mohammed Weld El Kourd.

    The Algerian Jewish composer Maurice El-Medioni (wonderful man) would make a fourth M, though he’s developed his own unique style which is slightly different from the above-mentioned composers, perhaps owing to his Judaic background.

    The rest of the Maghreb seems to be more influenced by the Middle East (primarily Egyptian music), at least in their art music. As such they are more singer-centric than Algeria, the best vocalists being the Tunisians Dorsaf Hamdani and Sonia M’Barek, and in Morocco there is Nidal Ibourk. Though the Maghreb outside Algeria also has some top-quality composers like Anouar Brahem, Adnane Matrone and Nabil Ben Abdel-Jalil.

    • Replies: @Another Polish Perspective
    @Yahya

    Where does this obsession with love and separation in the music of Levant come from? It is rather strange noting how rigid otherwise mores are there. Where are the songs about national heroes, battles etc?

    I know it is forbidden to sing Quran verses, so it may result in the lack of religious music. Yet Islamic mysticism harps and harps on man being parted from Divine, a similar idea being expressed by gnosis in Christianity and Kabbalah in Judaism. Nevertheless, the idea is often considered heretical, being descendant of the doctrine of fallen angels, whose progeny inherited their divine essence notwithstanding that it was the result of the sin; so the idea of love with the Divine is perhaps an upbeat idea of the fall of the angels.

    So, in Islamic culture, are these love-partition songs taken more as secular or more as covertly religious?

    Replies: @Yahya

    , @Philip Owen
    @Yahya

    My tastes in ethnic folk music from the Russian Empire are not as sophisiticared as yours. I listen to very poppy types such as Sogdiana (Uzbek), Otkyen (described as Siberian Native Jazz - Jazz it ain't but they use a saxophone. Might be Sakha), Grai or worse.

    Replies: @Yahya

  444. @Mikel
    @Triteleia Laxa


    If the West wanted a direct military confrontation with Russia, it could have bombed all of Russia’s columns and won comprehensively in the first week.
     
    Would you care to elaborate on this?

    I'm no military expert by any means but, leaving aside the unprecedented (read nuclear) response that Putin threatened with at the start of the war if the West interfered, I don't see an obvious way for NATO to destroy those columns in a week. I think that one thing this war has proven is that the Soviet and post-Soviet anti-air systems are truly effective. The Ukrainian one was undoubtedly inferior to what the Russians have but still the Russians failed to dismantle it and have never been able to use their air force over Ukraine without running high risks. NATO would have to destroy the superior Russian AA infrastructure in order to use their air forces to bomb those columns. Can they really do that? In less than a week? Stand-off weapons are not designed to destroy columns, as far as I know, and would also need to avoid the Russian air defenses.

    As for the sabotage of the pipelines, I don't have your total conviction but yes, most likely it was the Russians. The idea that the Russians could simply stop pumping gas instead of destroying the pipelines and losing their leverage is very unconvincing to me. We should all have learned by now that that is just not the way people in the Kremlin think and operate. For starters, the Kremlin way is to always lie about their actions and intentions (green men, MH17, Skripal,...). And the other characteristic of the Kremlin modus operandi, since Soviet times, is to always do the unpredictable, even if it doesn't make sense. In the long run this may actually provide benefits because their opponents can never guess what their actions and reactions are going to be. There's probably a strategy there.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Triteleia Laxa, @Dmitry

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57583363

    the British did try to concoct a war.

    sailing this ship so close to Sevastopol a port in a sea subject to Montreux Convention

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Straits

    Was pretty damned bellicose and provocative of the Royal Navy. Boris wanted a war in 2001.

  445. @Yahya
    @Bashibuzuk


    Have you ever listened to Uyghur music?
     
    From Central Asia, I've only listened to Afghan music, though I'm not sure if Afghanistan counts as Central Asian. I've always thought of the "Heart of Asia" as a tri-cultural blend between South, Central and West Asia. Though i've only listened to Afghan folk music sung in Dari (a surprisingly euphonious tongue), so I suppose it does qualify as Central Asian.

    This is my favorite Dari folk song "Beshnaw az Nay" or "Cry of the Reed", arranged by Khaled Arman and performed by his talented wife Mashal Arman. It's a famous song in Afghanistan and there are countless renditions of it on YouTube, some good ones being by Kayhan Kalhor, Henri Tournier, Ensemble Kaboul and Ayeda Husain Naqvi. But this is the most refined version:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tUWeiGQ_GU&ab_channel=GenevaCamerata

    The lyrics are taken from Mawlānā Rumi's Masnavi.


    Listen to the reed and the tale it tells,
    how it sings of separation:

    Ever since they cut me from the reed bed,
    my wail has caused men and women to weep.

    I want a heart torn open with longing
    to share the pain of this love.

    Whoever has been parted from his source
    longs to return to that state of union.

    At every gathering I play my lament.
    I’m a friend to both happy and sad.

    Each befriended me for his own reasons,
    yet none searched out the secrets I contain.

    My secret is not different than my lament,
    yet this is not for the senses to perceive.

    The body is not hidden from the soul,
    nor is the soul hidden from the body,
    and yet the soul is not for everyone to see.

    This flute is played with fire, not with wind,
    and without this fire you would not exist.
     

    One description interprets this poem as follows:

    "In the opening poem of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi's Mathnawi, Beshno az Ney, or the Cry of the Reed, we hear the lament of the reed flute as it tells us about the pain of separation. Just as the reed is cut from its bed; burned, hollowed, and drilled with holes, so must man in his unnatural state of separation from the Divine go through the trials of life, and learn to be likewise empty before he can turn his suffering into joy, or in this case, beautiful music. It is the pain of separation that will eventually bring him Home."


    It is a world in itself on the crossroads of Central Asia, well worth exploring.
     
    I've always regarded Central Asia as a unique, exotic, almost magical place. It's quite peculiar to me in that its Islamic character is fairly recognizable, but the people and culture seems somewhat alien to me. I've never encountered a Central Asian nor have I visited the region. In that regard I think a Russian would find it less foreign owing to their proximity and the legacy of the USSR. Probably even a modern-day Russian would have met a few Central Asian migrant workers.

    With regards to Uyghurs; I regret to say I don't know much about them except the persecution they are facing. I watched this Vice News segment on the Uyghur situation a while back; and while one must always be wary of the bias inherent in documentaries and the like, I think this one is fairly accurate. I wouldn't put it beyond the Chinese Communist Party to practice this sort of brutal totalitarianism. There's a particularly poignant segment in 18:10 where an Uyghur mother shows Isobel Yeung footage of her daughter in an education camp, where she alongside other Uyghur children were taken from their families and forced to learn Chinese customs under government supervision. It's simply disgusting.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7AYyUqrMuQ&ab_channel=VICENews


    Regarding the young people not being interested in their ancestors’ music, it is true everywhere. For example, many Russian youth would gladly listen to some US Gangsta Rap or to Russian Hip hop wannabees, but won’t be interested in the traditional Russian songs or heroic Rus ballads (byliny).

     

    Yes this is quite true, the pervasiveness of the Rap & Hip-Hop Epidemic is one of the 21st century's biggest tragedies. Even in the Arab world we are not immune to this, Arab shabab be liken that sheet. The appeal of this music to non-blacks mystifies me. Even the world's elites are swept up by it. My school friends, and many former college classmates, some of whom are more intelligent than I am in an IQ sense, listen to the most mindless, mechanical music. They mostly don't care for the highest forms of expression in their own native traditions.

    I can't really complain much though about people listening to music outside their traditions. I probably listen to more foreign music than Arabic music at this point. But if only people would listen to the best other countries have to offer, musicians like Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Hadjidakis, Hossein-Banan, Selçuk, Miyake, Shankar etc. instead of Eminem and Jay-Z, then perhaps it would be more acceptable to abandon ones native tradition.


    limited to some well known Maghrebi songs
     
    I like some Maghrebi pop tunes, but most of it is crap like everywhere else in the globe. Algerian Chaabi music is much better. I made a few recommendations a couple of months ago if you're interested: https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-193/#comment-5475692

    Algerian music is quite distinct from Middle Eastern music; mainly in that the latter is morbidly melancholic, which can get a bit tiresome (95% of Arabic, Turkish, and Persian music harp on the same topic). Algerian music by contrast is more upbeat and gregarious; without being frivolous. The top composers of Algerian classical music I call the 3 M's: Mustapha Skandrani, Mohamed Iguerbouchen, Mohammed Weld El Kourd.

    The Algerian Jewish composer Maurice El-Medioni (wonderful man) would make a fourth M, though he's developed his own unique style which is slightly different from the above-mentioned composers, perhaps owing to his Judaic background.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tv3HAoYOT8&list=PLk4jQWJwkElQjvAO1k5yjUeOxVHCizPD9&index=3&ab_channel=Dialnamusic

    The rest of the Maghreb seems to be more influenced by the Middle East (primarily Egyptian music), at least in their art music. As such they are more singer-centric than Algeria, the best vocalists being the Tunisians Dorsaf Hamdani and Sonia M'Barek, and in Morocco there is Nidal Ibourk. Though the Maghreb outside Algeria also has some top-quality composers like Anouar Brahem, Adnane Matrone and Nabil Ben Abdel-Jalil.

    Replies: @Another Polish Perspective, @Philip Owen

    Where does this obsession with love and separation in the music of Levant come from? It is rather strange noting how rigid otherwise mores are there. Where are the songs about national heroes, battles etc?

    I know it is forbidden to sing Quran verses, so it may result in the lack of religious music. Yet Islamic mysticism harps and harps on man being parted from Divine, a similar idea being expressed by gnosis in Christianity and Kabbalah in Judaism. Nevertheless, the idea is often considered heretical, being descendant of the doctrine of fallen angels, whose progeny inherited their divine essence notwithstanding that it was the result of the sin; so the idea of love with the Divine is perhaps an upbeat idea of the fall of the angels.

    So, in Islamic culture, are these love-partition songs taken more as secular or more as covertly religious?

    • Replies: @Yahya
    @Another Polish Perspective


    So, in Islamic culture, are these love-partition songs taken more as secular or more as covertly religious?
     
    Here I wish my departed internet friend Talha could be here to answer your questions regarding Islamic tenets more comprehensively. He was a very dedicated and pious Sufi and an expert in such matters whereas I am a lapsed Muslim and haven't the faintest clue about theology. But perhaps our resident orientalist and theologian Bashibuzuk will give a better answer.

    My impression is that only Sufism (which as you probably know, is the mystical sect of Islam) is concerned with matters of love and separation from the Divine. Talha has told me previously that Sufism is primarily concerned with connecting with Allah. As such, the poetry and music of the Persianite world, where Sufism is most established, reflects such sentiments, as demonstrated by the poetry of Rumi and the Tasnifs of Mohammad-Reza Shajarian.

    I'm not the biggest fan of Islamic music, but what little of it there is, mostly seems to be performed by Sufi ensembles and musicians. I gave a few examples in a previous post: https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-194/#comment-5506770. In Saudi Arabia and other such parts, Islamic "music" isn't really music, but a simple recitation of Quranic verses without background instrumentals. In fact some Salafi strains of Islam view all music, whether secular or religious, as forbidden and blasphemous.

    As for the "music of the Levant" you mentioned, well this is a topic I possess some expertise in, so I will comment further on it. First, as I mentioned above, most Middle Eastern music, at least its classical form, is morbidly melancholic and harps on the same topic, which is the broken heart. You can see this tendency in its extreme manifestation in the music of Umm Kulthum. "El Atlal" ("The Ruins" in English) is considered by some to be the height of Arabic music, and it centers on this topic as well, which is the same as 97% of her other songs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z8LvG5tfOE&t=1333s&ab_channel=UmmKulthum-%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%83%D9%84%D8%AB%D9%88%D9%85

    Some of it is quite good, but gets repetitive very quickly. Even when the topic isn't about sob stories, the tone of Middle Eastern music always seems to be gloomy. This is an Iranian song by my favorite singer, the Persian patrician Gholam-Hossein Banan, called Bahar-e-Delneshin, ostensibly about the pleasantness of spring. But even there the song veers into melancholy over the lonely heart and such etc. All very tiresome.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql8rseuMVj4&ab_channel=GholamhosseinBanan-Topic

    I'm temperamentally inclined to prefer the minor over the major scale, but this is over doing it.

    Thank goodness in the Arab world we have the jovial Maghrebis to counterbalance the doom and gloom of the Middle East. Persians and Turks are on their own!

    In the Maghreb my two favorite songs are actually Islamic in nature. I linked to them in my previous post, but will repost them here. The first song is by the Cheikh Sadek El Bejaoui Youth Orchestra, entitled "قصة إبراهيم الخليل" or "The Story Of Abraham" in English:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYKiH57oppk&list=PLk4jQWJwkElTqueDk8NabEv5P6ckFgUSb&index=139&ab_channel=OrchestreF%C3%A9mininAhbabCheikhSadekElB%C3%A9jaoui

    The lyrics are a fairly straightforward retelling of the familiar story of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael. But in the Islamic version, Abraham informs Ishmael of God's wish before carrying it out, and Ishmael himself obediently abides by God's orders. God ultimately spares Ishmael by diverting the blade or covering him with copper, content that Abraham and Ishmael were loyal to Him. The song is fairly long so I won't post the lyrics here but you can read it on this link: https://www.facebook.com/tyuyuuyuitgyrtyuyituytyu/posts/2103277816600408/. It's a well-composed and executed song, one of the best to come out of the Maghreb in recent years.

    Another Islamic song is a Chaabi tune by the great Boudjemaa El-Ankis called "صلاة على محمد" or "Prayers for Muhammad". It's topic centers around the Prophet Muhammad as inferred by the title, so I've given you one piece on the first Prophet and one on the Last, at least according to the Islamic tradition. Here El-Ankis is merely praising Muhammad for his many admirable qualities, and urges listeners to "increase the prayers to Muhammad".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CtBHcH5_rk&list=PLk4jQWJwkElTqueDk8NabEv5P6ckFgUSb&index=80&t=230s&ab_channel=Boudjema%C3%A2ElAnkis-Topic


    Where are the songs about national heroes, battles etc?
     
    If you are talking specifically about the Levant, the patriotic songs come mostly from the Christian minority. As usual, they are at the forefront of nationalism, whether pan-Arab in nature or otherwise. The most prominent nationalistic artist I can think of is the elegant and intelligent Lebanese-Palestinian-Armenian Christian singer Julia Boutros. She has performed many songs dedicated to the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Resistance. I posted one before called "Entasr Lebnan":

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXGXll8aZpQ&list=PLk4jQWJwkElTO7fwOk8m_Ibn-gQ_leGiZ&index=196&ab_channel=Levi_AMPlaylist

    The lyrics are embedded in the subtitles so you can interpret it for yourself. There's another song she released called "Where Are The Millions", where she urges the "Arab nation" to stand up to Israel and lambasts them for failing to do much for Palestine.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeJHO9pRhKk&ab_channel=AlAlKhatib-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D8%B7%D9%8A%D8%A8

    Speaking of Palestine, their folk music is also one of the best around the globe. This is a compilation of several Palestinian folk tunes, including one Iraqi tune thrown in the middle, by Henna Haj Hassan:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2SyLcbNl1M&list=PLk4jQWJwkElTO7fwOk8m_Ibn-gQ_leGiZ&index=236&ab_channel=%D8%AD%D9%86%D8%A9%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%86

    Like most of Palestinian folklore, much of it centers around their exodus and expresses their desire to return to the land of their forefathers. The atmosphere of the music is often biblical owing to the topics being addressed, and of course Palestine being home to many events in the Bible. This is especially true of Palestine's Christian folkloric music, such as this piece here by Palestinian Christian Rola Azar:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTOyUmGOOzY&ab_channel=RolaAzar-Topic

    What's interesting to me is how steadfast Palestinians are on returning to their land. Here you have a largely powerless people, ruled by corrupt and largely ineffectual leaders, abandoned by their former Arab allies, up against a nuclear-armed state led by the smartest ethnicity in the world, and who were defeated multiple times over the past 100 years - and yet they are adamant that they will return. A resolute, stubborn people as this I have never before seen.

    This is why I think, despite their present bleak situation, Palestinians have a chance at emerging victorious eventually. As long as their spirits aren't broken, they retain a chance of regaining what was once theirs. Israelis have plenty of advantages to their favor, but their society seems more vulnerable to fissures and loss of cohesion over the long run than Palestinians. I think Palestinians will take a few more drubbings and experience continued ethnic cleansing in the meanwhile, but what will the situation look like 200-300 years from now?

    We shall see.

  446. @sudden death
    @LatW


    What is happening on the Russian propaganda channels is insane. Panic. They are all admitting the losses now. Solovyov was trashing the military. Wow.
     
    They are themselves realising in real time that panicked mobilization itself is just increasing chaos in the system instead of stabilizing it, like the same Arestovich said - it is like the man who barely is lifting 50kg, then starts requiring to give him 100kg weight immediately, lol

    The only caveat - we don't know very well atm how representive those scenes with mobiks are, there might be just 5 chaotic crowds and 95 more or less, but organized, equipped and fed out of 100, but if this is general trend, then it cannot end well in battlefield no matter how much new meat will be thrown:

    https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1577752565839806472

    Replies: @LatW, @Sean, @Another Polish Perspective

    What surprises me is that they are apparently ready to go fighting/preparing to fight in this situation. It is really not a task of a soldier to equip himself like a mercenary would do. They would be fully justified in dropping everything and going home: the Leviathan contract with its citizens was broken. They still can – they are not on the frontline.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @Another Polish Perspective

    No, majority of those were pumped with full blown total war propaganda for 7 months, differently from those who went at the start of the year, so they are riled enough yet. That's why systematic equipment and supply issues now are more important questions than motivation - you can be motivated as hell, but no much use of it when being sick, hungry, frostbited just with rusty Kalashnikov in foxhole but without propper arty and air support.

    Replies: @Another Polish Perspective

  447. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Mikel
    @Triteleia Laxa


    If the West wanted a direct military confrontation with Russia, it could have bombed all of Russia’s columns and won comprehensively in the first week.
     
    Would you care to elaborate on this?

    I'm no military expert by any means but, leaving aside the unprecedented (read nuclear) response that Putin threatened with at the start of the war if the West interfered, I don't see an obvious way for NATO to destroy those columns in a week. I think that one thing this war has proven is that the Soviet and post-Soviet anti-air systems are truly effective. The Ukrainian one was undoubtedly inferior to what the Russians have but still the Russians failed to dismantle it and have never been able to use their air force over Ukraine without running high risks. NATO would have to destroy the superior Russian AA infrastructure in order to use their air forces to bomb those columns. Can they really do that? In less than a week? Stand-off weapons are not designed to destroy columns, as far as I know, and would also need to avoid the Russian air defenses.

    As for the sabotage of the pipelines, I don't have your total conviction but yes, most likely it was the Russians. The idea that the Russians could simply stop pumping gas instead of destroying the pipelines and losing their leverage is very unconvincing to me. We should all have learned by now that that is just not the way people in the Kremlin think and operate. For starters, the Kremlin way is to always lie about their actions and intentions (green men, MH17, Skripal,...). And the other characteristic of the Kremlin modus operandi, since Soviet times, is to always do the unpredictable, even if it doesn't make sense. In the long run this may actually provide benefits because their opponents can never guess what their actions and reactions are going to be. There's probably a strategy there.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Triteleia Laxa, @Dmitry

    I’m no military expert by any means but, leaving aside the unprecedented (read nuclear) response that Putin threatened with at the start of the war if the West interfered, I don’t see an obvious way for NATO to destroy those columns in a week.

    In the first weeks of the war, the Russian forces were incredibly vulnerable, even the basically non-existent, rust bucket Ukrainian air force was having some effect.

    The Russians were not prepared for an attack from the air. Their (hugely overhyped*) air defence bubble wasn’t even properly deployed and their troops would have been obliterated. They had no umbrella, and half of them were static, on roads, completely out in the open.

    Meanwhile, the second biggest, second most technologically sophisticated Air Force in the world is the US Marine Corp. I assume you can guess the biggest.

    I think that one thing this war has proven is that the Soviet and post-Soviet anti-air systems are truly effective.

    The Ukrainians have jerry-rigged American HARMS (anti-radar) missiles to their Soviet planes and have thereby achieved local air superiority by making it too dangerous for Russian air defence to operate. The US is about 50 years more technologically advanced than that.

    Furthermore, things like training matter and practice. Probably only the US, UK and France can do counter air-defence flying. It is a difficult thing to learn and implement at an institutional level, but it does work.

    Picture the Luftwaffe, with Wermacht air defence, coming up against General Norman Schwarzkopf’s forces. We all forget that the Russians exaggerated Russian effectiveness to hide their corruption, but also that Americans massively exaggerate Russian effectiveness to justify their own spending.

    * We know their air defence systems are hugely overhyped because Ukraine was flying helicopters into occupied Mariupol, and elsewhere, even Belgorod, continues to conduct aggressive air sorties and fires HIMARS where it wants. (How was toy store stuff like Bayrekhtar destroying Russian assets otherwise?)

    And to think, that even during this war, some pro-Russian shills have been writing self-humiluating nonsense “explaining” that Russia would defeat NATO because it could stop all NATO missiles with its air defence etc! No, it literally can’t even stop basic b*tch HIMARS systems loaded with old software and at a scale about 1:1000 of how NATO would use them.

    Obviously, the fact that Russia has nukes makes this all void. But that also makes the idea that NATO would ever invade Russia all void.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Triteleia Laxa


    We know their air defence systems are hugely overhyped because Ukraine was flying helicopters into occupied Mariupol, and elsewhere, even Belgorod,
     
    Flying low to avoid radar and losing some of the aircraft to MANPADs, like the Russians themselves.

    How was toy store stuff like Bayrekhtar destroying Russian assets otherwise?
     
    The Bayraktars have played an insignificant role in this war, unlike in Artsakh.

    Some people, particularly on this website, have indeed overhyped Russian air defense systems while Israel was bombing Syria at will, sometimes flying missiles over the head of the Russians in their bases. But even the Israelis are careful to launch their missiles from outside the Syrian airspace. I continue believing that the Russians and Soviet-legacy anti air weapons can cause a lot of trouble to NATO but I don't really know how protected from air attacks those columns were at the beginning of the war. Russia did declare the Ukrainian airspace closed at the time.

    I also think that NATO itself would have had big problems occupying a large country like Ukraine defended by its current armed forces, that obviously have nothing to do with the ones they had in 2015. NATO would have planed the operation better but let's not forget that not long ago we were all discussing the blunders of the Western armies in faraway lands and their inability to defeat sandal-wearing guerrillas on the ground.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Obviously, the fact that Russia has nukes makes this all void. But that also makes the idea that NATO would ever invade Russia all void.
     
    A question begs asking: can we really be sure that RusFed still has nukes in high numbers ?

    Nuclear weapons are quite sophisticated and a high maintenance asset.

    We see that RusFed is thoroughly corrupt and deindustrialized (even more so than a highly critical person like myself would have thought).

    Therefore, it is only logical to wonder whether they have maintained this high level military capacity, while they clearly have lost or at least did not develop much lower ones.

    I mean, conscripts being handed Mosin rifles, while any goat-herder almost anywhere in Dar al Islam can find an AK47 in a matter of few days at most...

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  448. @Another Polish Perspective
    @sudden death

    What surprises me is that they are apparently ready to go fighting/preparing to fight in this situation. It is really not a task of a soldier to equip himself like a mercenary would do. They would be fully justified in dropping everything and going home: the Leviathan contract with its citizens was broken. They still can - they are not on the frontline.

    Replies: @sudden death

    No, majority of those were pumped with full blown total war propaganda for 7 months, differently from those who went at the start of the year, so they are riled enough yet. That’s why systematic equipment and supply issues now are more important questions than motivation – you can be motivated as hell, but no much use of it when being sick, hungry, frostbited just with rusty Kalashnikov in foxhole but without propper arty and air support.

    • Replies: @Another Polish Perspective
    @sudden death

    Well, if they really are so pumped with really motivating propaganda, there is always the (infamous) Iranian human waves tactics.

    I wouldn't be completely surprised if that happened again. I do hope it won't. Religion is the best propaganda, but such propaganda seems rather scarce on Russian side.

  449. @sudden death
    @Another Polish Perspective

    No, majority of those were pumped with full blown total war propaganda for 7 months, differently from those who went at the start of the year, so they are riled enough yet. That's why systematic equipment and supply issues now are more important questions than motivation - you can be motivated as hell, but no much use of it when being sick, hungry, frostbited just with rusty Kalashnikov in foxhole but without propper arty and air support.

    Replies: @Another Polish Perspective

    Well, if they really are so pumped with really motivating propaganda, there is always the (infamous) Iranian human waves tactics.

    I wouldn’t be completely surprised if that happened again. I do hope it won’t. Religion is the best propaganda, but such propaganda seems rather scarce on Russian side.

  450. S says:
    @Wokechoke
    @S

    The Scots are generally recipients of subsidy from London.

    The Scot lost his mind serving the British Army. They train the squaddies to hate Russia. The indoctrination is pretty fucking strong.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @S

    The Scot lost his mind serving the British Army. They train the squaddies to hate Russia. The indoctrination is pretty fucking strong.

    This is the person I was talking about, Jordan Gatley, 24 years old. Rest in peace.

    Ukraine war: Former British soldier Jordan Gatley killed in fighting

    A former British soldier has been killed fighting for the Ukrainian armed forces, his family has said.

    Jordan Gatley, who left the British army in March and travelled to Ukraine, was described as “a hero” by his father Dean in a tribute on social media.

    He died in the battle for the eastern city of Severodonetsk, which has seen intense fighting in recent days.

    The Foreign Office has said it is “supporting the family of a British man who has died in Ukraine”.

    Mr Gatley’s father wrote in a Facebook post that his son had been helping train local forces. He added that Jordan was fatally shot on the front line while defending the city and they were informed of his death on Friday.

    He had gone to Ukraine to help “after careful consideration”, he said.

    Five Thousand Strong British Legions in South America (1817)

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Legions

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61777224

    https://inews.co.uk/news/jordan-gatley-british-fighter-died-save-russians-ukraine-commander-1683695

  451. @Sean

    Wall Street Journal
    U.S. Believes Ukraine Was Behind Assassination of Putin ...
    The Kyiv government is responsible for killing Daria Dugina, American spy agencies concluded ... WASHINGTON—U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Ukraine...
    .35 mins ago
     

    Replies: @A123

    Wall Street Journal
    U.S. Believes Ukraine Was Behind Assassination of Putin

    Ummm….

    Ukraine Was Behind Assassination of Putin

    Did the lead have to be cut up exactly that way? That first line is a bit eyebrow raising.

    Of course it is from a Murdoch source, like News of the World.

    PEACE 😇

    • Agree: Barbarossa
  452. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Ron Unz
    It looks like most of the discussion on this Open Thread has focused on the front-line fighting, and the Ukrainians have recently been getting the better of it.

    But I think NATO is facing a looming strategic defeat of gigantic magnitude, vastly more significant than those minor military skirmishes.

    As I discussed in my recent article, it seems almost certain that America was behind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, and the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Tucker Carlson has had a couple of good segments on America's obvious involvement:

    https://youtu.be/jLb0QeCQF_I

    Prof. Jeffrey Sachs was just interviewed yesterday on Bloomberg TV, and he confirmed that everyone is sure that America was behind the pipeline attacks. A short clip of his remarks was Tweeted out and viewed over 4 million times, with millions of additional views on other Tweets:

    https://twitter.com/0ddette/status/1576916509766451200

    More than half of all German companies have said that they may be forced to close down and the growing popular demonstrations demanding that the sanctions be lifted and the pipelines be reopened obviously prompted the American decision to eliminate that possibility.

    The apparent American strike on pipelines so vital to Germany may have been the largest peacetime military attack on civilian infrastructure in the history of the world and obviously an act of war against Germany not to be taken lightly. But with the pipelines now destroyed, Germany would have no other options. Except that the pipeline attackers were a little careless in their operation as Jeff Davis, a commenter on this website, pointed out earlier today:

    Jump on this scoop:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/gazprom-ready-to-ship-gas-via-shelved-nord-stream-2-pipeline

    The vaunted US Navy screwed up. In the murky depths of the Baltic Sea they planted their explosives to blow up the ***FOUR*** pipes of the NS 1 & NS2 gas pipelines. (You didn’t know there were four pipes, did you? Neither did I.) But they appear to have screwed up and placed two of the explosive packages on one of the NS2 pipes — line A — leaving the other pipe — line B — with no explosive charge, and subsequently ***NO DAMAGE***. Line B is therefore ***READY TO GO*** with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year … which for comparison is 50% of total capacity of Nordstream 1, which as you may recall was recently reduced to 20% capacity before being shut down completely. (2.75 times the capacity of the newly-opened Norway-to-Poland gas pipeline).

    Gazprom has lowered the pressure in the line, will conduct an inspection, after which Germany can just give the go ahead, flip the switch, be back to 50% of the previous gas supply rate.

    The US thought they would f*ck Germany, but they screwed the pooch.
     
    https://www.unz.com/pescobar/pipeline-terror-is-the-9-11-of-the-raging-twenties/?showcomments#comment-5583668

    So the Germans need only declare an end to Russian sanctions and open the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and their desperate energy crunch will be over.

    Given the extremely strong likelihood that America tried to destroy the pipelines and devastate the German economy, I think we may see the end of NATO much sooner than anyone expected.

    And if the Germans throw out America and realign with Russia, I think both Poland and Ukraine may face a difficult strategic position.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @sudden death, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Triteleia Laxa, @Philip Owen

    Normally, in areas of geopolitical interest, especially on contended topics, reality is never indisputably revealed.

    Yet with Covid, and this war, it has been revealed. Marking probably the only two times in your webzine’s history that it has.

    And yet both times, stark reality has been exactly opposite to how your stable of writers, Steve Sailer excepted, have been narrating it.

    In other words, they have been revealed as peddling not just geopolitical fan fiction, but extremely low quality geopolitical fan fiction. As even something like “Twilight” has characters portrayed semi-realistically.

    I mean, can you read your writers, still churning out “Russia rulez, US collapse,” with a straight face? Anyone who listened to them would be among the worst informed people on the planet.

    And doesn’t it make you question everything else? After all, these are the only two areas of intense interest where indisputable reality has been revealed. All the other arguments, and conspiracy theories, on this site, other than Sailer, are like arguing about what the Talmud says, funny unprovable narrative fantasies, but here God has actually spoken and said “you guys are totally wrong.”

    • Replies: @Another Polish Perspective
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Talmud says that God's words spoken after Torah had been already granted are irrelevant.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oven_of_Akhnai

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    , @A123
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Normally, in areas of geopolitical interest, especially on contended topics, reality is never indisputably revealed.

    Yet with Covid, and this war, it has been revealed. Marking probably the only two times in your webzine’s history that it has.
     

    It has been conclusively proven on this blog that the WUHAN-19 virus exited from a lab in or near Wuhan, China. Smart, honest people accept that the most likely Origin is WIV.

    Sadly, Mr. Unz is far behind the commentators at UR. He is still pushing a fully debunked Fort Detrick theory that virtually no one, including Jeffery Sachs, accepts. Sachs explicitly stated that the release is a "Blunder". That is Sachs exact word.

    It is quite obvious to everyone that Sachs needs to be cagey for personal reasons. As a Columbia University professor he wants to minimize blow back on Elite Left academia tied to WIV.
    ___________________________________________________________________

    As far as Ukraine/Russia goes. The winner is decided when one side capitulates. Neither is even vaguely close to that point.

    Individual victories such as Lyman are good for Ukie morale. And, morale is undeniably important.

    On the other side, despite alarmist rumor mongering, Putin remains very popular at home: (1)

     
    https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/28383.jpeg
     

    And, how much of the down tick are ultra nationalists who believe Putin is too timid?
    ___

    Crazies here talk about lend/lease of non-existent munitions and believe that Not-The-President Biden can continue to pour unlimited finds into Ukie Maximalist aggression. The reality is that funding will diminish after the U.S. midterms.

    Putin and the, soon returning, Israeli PM Netanyahu are known to be quite friendly.

    Meloni has openly expressed interest in Russian natural gas as part of sound energy policy: (2)


    Italy is hurting itself if it renounces natural gas from Russia because of the war in Ukraine, according to Giorgia Meloni, chairman of the right-wing Italian Brothers (FdI) opposition party, who stressed on Wednesday that there is a lack of Western solidarity with countries dependent on Russian gas. Giorgia Meloni stated that if Rome “cuts off gas supplies, industrial production stops within two or three months, and that is not self-sacrifice but suicide.”
     
    Between this and actual pro Russian coalition partners — She may speak kindly of Ukraine, but everyone expects little action (e.g. military assistance).

    There will be significant energy shortages across Europe this winter. Despite European WEF (Davos, Brussels, Berlin, etc.) Elite desire to support the Kiev regime, European citizens will soon feel differently. Ordinary people want energy for heat, light, and jobs. Tossing Ukie Maximalist aggression under the proverbial bus is a pretty easy choice.
    ___

    Is time on Putin's side? Signs point that way.

    However, it will be at least another 6-12 months before a clear answer is available.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-approval-dips-first-time-after-ukraine-invasion

    (2) https://floridagoodfriday.com/giorgia-meloni-says-suicide-is-a-renunciation-of-russian-gas/

    Note: The linked source for #2 was mostly likely on a server in Hurricane Ian's path. You may need to use search engines or archive sites to find the full article.

  453. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Ron Unz

    Normally, in areas of geopolitical interest, especially on contended topics, reality is never indisputably revealed.

    Yet with Covid, and this war, it has been revealed. Marking probably the only two times in your webzine's history that it has.

    And yet both times, stark reality has been exactly opposite to how your stable of writers, Steve Sailer excepted, have been narrating it.

    In other words, they have been revealed as peddling not just geopolitical fan fiction, but extremely low quality geopolitical fan fiction. As even something like "Twilight" has characters portrayed semi-realistically.

    I mean, can you read your writers, still churning out "Russia rulez, US collapse," with a straight face? Anyone who listened to them would be among the worst informed people on the planet.

    And doesn't it make you question everything else? After all, these are the only two areas of intense interest where indisputable reality has been revealed. All the other arguments, and conspiracy theories, on this site, other than Sailer, are like arguing about what the Talmud says, funny unprovable narrative fantasies, but here God has actually spoken and said "you guys are totally wrong."

    Replies: @Another Polish Perspective, @A123

    Talmud says that God’s words spoken after Torah had been already granted are irrelevant.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oven_of_Akhnai

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Another Polish Perspective

    I can well imagine that is true, for their god.

  454. @LatW
    @S


    That makes three ‘prophecies’ involving the United States and Russia. The one alluded to here by Oleksiy Arestovych in 2019, The New Rome (linked to below) by Theodore Poesche in 1853, and The Third Empire (also linked below) by Mikhail Yuriev in 2006.
     
    I doubt he's alluding to those books but the role of the British is not new. They acted instrumentally in the region during WW1. For Arestovych, he values all allies, because they need all the help they can get (the other day, he said that "the British are good, but they lack resources", which baffled me a bit, I could only conclude that what he meant was that the British have fewer resources than the US).

    As to these prophecies, he is analyzing in purely geopolitical terms, these are the power structures today that Ukraine has to work with.


    For the Ukrainians, if they can just enjoin the United States (via Nato) and Russia into ‘a big war’ with each other they get a glorious secure new statehood for themselves.
     
    Look, the Ukrainians are just doing what they can to save themselves. This is a struggle of hundreds of years. The men are doing insane things on the front, with immense efforts and sacrifices. If there is a new type of statehood that comes out of this, then at that point, it will just be history happening. The way I tend to look at this, is not that there was a deliberate 'conspiracy' behind this (although certainly there is some validity in what these conspiracies say and I'd love to delve into those books you mentioned, essentially it is just one reading of the current power structures), but more as a chain of consequences. The whole process started a long time ago but this particular war is a piece of it that Putin started and he started something that he lost control over very quickly. It's tempting to grasp for the 'conspiracy' to cover your own sheer incompetence and rigidness in thinking, the lack of connection with your own people and your neighboring peoples.

    Of course, there is a ton of destruction (not just for Ukraine but the Realm of the Rus in general) but because of the chain of consequences, there is opportunity arising for the victor or at least the one who has shown courage. This is how it works in Nature. It is simple Wille zur Macht. Russia failed to dominate (where it could have dominated with its sheer might even without war), so when Ukraine is able to dominate through great effort and through help, Ukraine gets the benefits and opportunities that this new position presents. But again, one has to take advantage and shape this opportunity (not sure Ukraine can).

    In Arestovych's mind, it is an opportunity to continue these impulses of the Wille zur Macht by assuming a higher status in the region (or even beyond). He spoke of Ukraine's military that has been hardened through the war and equipped by the West and Ukraine's newly gained moral standing as assets that could be employed to secure this status.

    A thriving organism wants to expand. It goes from self-preservation to expansion. It's healthy.

    The only issue I have with this theory is that, on the ground, Ukraine is losing people, but Arestovych is talking about international status. Ukraine needs to recover the population, then we can start talking about the position in the region. An ideology needs to be created that centers around goodness & wellbeing to the possible maximum of people and the environment (благо). That's more important than the prophecies.

    Arestovych’s extensive intelligence agency background is intriguing
     
    His background is one thing that actually gives me a bit of doubt, it seems a bit too scattered to be taken fully seriously. However, it might also be an asset in his case since it makes for an interesting skillset - some military & intelligence experience and his own psychology studies.

    With some cultivation, he could be a successful politician. The brain is the most important thing though. He's just insightful.

    Back in the day, around the early 2000s, he fraternized with Russian right wingers for a while (before Putin clamped down on them), this may have provided him some insights.

    and makes one wonder just how much of a fine line there might be, on the one hand, between a detailed ‘prophecy’ such as the one he has made, and, an insider’s knowledge of long range planning, on the other.
     
    I think it is both (although not even that much insider info is shared with him, Kirillo Budanov definitely has more), but I think the intuition is the prevailing one.

    But some Russian vloggers do talk about the Kremlin's connections to secret societies and various religious practices.

    There is one vlogger, Valery Solovey, who just keeps going on and on about it. He says that Putin is consulting several elders (in the Orthodox tradition they have what they called startsi, wisemen) and that he regularly visits a shaman. Again, there is no way to prove if this is the case (and in any event, there is nothing wrong with getting some of that insight, especially given some of the more irrational Russian traditions, but the question is how much does it influence you, especially as a statesman).

    Apparently, one of the startses told Putin that he had the following vision: If Putin wants to leave a legacy and become a great ruler, he needs to take Kyiv. This chimes well with Putin's position because he already has a ton of money and several children, so leaving a legacy is really the ultimate wish.

    If you look at it in a more esoteric way, there really does appear to be a lot of energy circling around Kyiv.

    The problem though with all these things is that the innocent suffer.

    One thing that gives me pause in all this is the sheer destruction of the Realm of the Rus. I'm puzzled as to why Putin doesn't care about the Russian speakers. He is erasing a big part of them from existence. That's not the Russia I know or thought I knew. Maybe Russia has changed to a point where I can no longer recognize it... it's a strange feeling. It sometimes aches.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @S

    Look, the Ukrainians are just doing what they can to save themselves. This is a struggle of hundreds of years. The men are doing insane things on the front, with immense efforts and sacrifices.

    Hope springs eternal.

    There is, as you know, something known as ‘choosing one’s battles’.

    With all due respect to the Ukrainian people and their great sacrifices, the battle the Ukrainian people have chosen to fight is the same one Poland chose to fight (and lost) in 1939.

    Poland was then used by the global hegemon (the US/UK) as ‘live bait’ to get WWII started, and to bring ruin upon Germany and Russia. [If you’ve ever seen the videos of the Chinese zoos where they unceremoniously toss a live goat into the tiger pen, Poland was the goat, Germany and the USSR were the roaming tigers, and the US/UK was the kindly zookeeper doing the tossing.]

    Germany was wrecked, and Russia barely survived. Poland was left an ash heap and was devoured by the USSR.

    The US/UK has come back to finish the job with Russia. They need new live bait to kick-start WWIII. Enter Poland’s next door neighbor Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

    The US/UK established themselves as the overwhelming global hegemon circa 1900 with their formation of the special relationship. [See the first chapter of WT Stead’s 1902 book The Americanization of the World] From that vantage, the three world wars (including this one) since that time have been ‘mopping up’ operations.

    That each of three world wars’ flashpoints (which could have been anywhere on Earth) ‘happened’ to start first in Sarajevo (1914), then Danzig (1939), and now Kiev (2022), in each instance moving ever closer to Moscow, should not be seen as coincidental.

    The reduction and ultimate destruction of Russia and the Russian people has been a primary objective of each of the world wars.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Unintended Consequence
    @S

    "The reduction and ultimate destruction of Russia and the Russian people has been a primary objective of each of the world wars."

    That is a horrible and wrong statement. Are you quite yourself today? No, the US does NOT now or ever want to destroy Russia or the Russian people! We are being led by incompetents who are oblivious to the danger of escalating against a nuclear power. The US and its people would be destroyed as well. Our leaders used to be smart enough to understand this reality. What an awful thing you have said. I don't understand you. Why would you make such an utterance?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    , @Coconuts
    @S


    Poland was then used by the global hegemon (the US/UK) as ‘live bait’ to get WWII started, and to bring ruin upon Germany and Russia.
     
    There seems to be some sort of tendency to always ignore the existence of the French Army and that on paper the alliance Poland/France/Britain was expected to be able to comfortably defeat the newly recreated German forces in 1939, even 1940.

    If some sort of attritional warfare had developed on the Western Front in 1940, as was expected, that would have been a good time for a move by Stalin in the East.

    Few apart from Hitler seem to have expected that France/Britain/Belgium/Netherlands plus Poland could all be defeated by Germany within a year.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @S

  455. Normally, in areas of geopolitical interest, especially on contended topics, reality is never indisputably revealed.

    Yet with Covid, and this war, it has been revealed. Marking probably the only two times in your webzine’s history that it has.

    It has been conclusively proven on this blog that the WUHAN-19 virus exited from a lab in or near Wuhan, China. Smart, honest people accept that the most likely Origin is WIV.

    Sadly, Mr. Unz is far behind the commentators at UR. He is still pushing a fully debunked Fort Detrick theory that virtually no one, including Jeffery Sachs, accepts. Sachs explicitly stated that the release is a “Blunder”. That is Sachs exact word.

    It is quite obvious to everyone that Sachs needs to be cagey. As a Columbia University professor he wants to minimize blow back on Elite Left academia tied to WIV.
    ___________________________________________________________________

    As far as Ukraine/Russia goes. The winner is decided when one side capitulates. Neither is even vaguely close to that point.

    Individual victories such as Lyman are good for Ukie morale. And, morale is undeniably important.

    On the other side, despite alarmist rumor mongering, Putin remains very popular at home: (1)

      

    And, how much of the down tick are ultra nationalists who believe Putin is too timid?
    ___

    Crazies here talk about lend/lease of non-existent munitions and believe that Not-The-President Biden can continue to pour unlimited finds into Ukie Maximalist aggression. The reality is that funding will diminish after the U.S. midterms.

    Putin and the, soon returning, Israeli PM Netanyahu are known to be quite friendly.

    Meloni has openly expressed interest in Russian natural gas as part of sound energy policy: (2)

    Italy is hurting itself if it renounces natural gas from Russia because of the war in Ukraine, according to Giorgia Meloni, chairman of the right-wing Italian Brothers (FdI) opposition party, who stressed on Wednesday that there is a lack of Western solidarity with countries dependent on Russian gas. Giorgia Meloni stated that if Rome “cuts off gas supplies, industrial production stops within two or three months, and that is not self-sacrifice but suicide.”

    Between this and actual pro Russian coalition partners — She may speak kindly of Ukraine, but everyone expects little action (e.g. military assistance).

    There will be significant energy shortages across Europe this winter. Despite European WEF (Davos, Brussels, Berlin, etc.) Elite desire to support the Kiev regime, European citizens will soon feel differently. Ordinary people want energy for heat, light, and jobs. Tossing Ukie Maximalist aggression under the proverbial bus is a pretty easy choice.
    ___

    Is time on Putin’s side? Signs point that way.

    However, it will be at least another 6-12 months before a clear answer is available.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-approval-dips-first-time-after-ukraine-invasion

    (2) https://floridagoodfriday.com/giorgia-meloni-says-suicide-is-a-renunciation-of-russian-gas/

    Note: The linked source for #2 was mostly likely on a server in Hurricane Ian’s path. You may need to use search engines or archive sites to find the full article.

    • Replies: @A123
    @A123

    Dang it. I removed/deleted this comment, as it did not thread properly. Yet, it showed up anyway.

    My apologies for the dupe. Minor technical site glitch.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  456. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Ron Unz

    Normally, in areas of geopolitical interest, especially on contended topics, reality is never indisputably revealed.

    Yet with Covid, and this war, it has been revealed. Marking probably the only two times in your webzine's history that it has.

    And yet both times, stark reality has been exactly opposite to how your stable of writers, Steve Sailer excepted, have been narrating it.

    In other words, they have been revealed as peddling not just geopolitical fan fiction, but extremely low quality geopolitical fan fiction. As even something like "Twilight" has characters portrayed semi-realistically.

    I mean, can you read your writers, still churning out "Russia rulez, US collapse," with a straight face? Anyone who listened to them would be among the worst informed people on the planet.

    And doesn't it make you question everything else? After all, these are the only two areas of intense interest where indisputable reality has been revealed. All the other arguments, and conspiracy theories, on this site, other than Sailer, are like arguing about what the Talmud says, funny unprovable narrative fantasies, but here God has actually spoken and said "you guys are totally wrong."

    Replies: @Another Polish Perspective, @A123

    Normally, in areas of geopolitical interest, especially on contended topics, reality is never indisputably revealed.

    Yet with Covid, and this war, it has been revealed. Marking probably the only two times in your webzine’s history that it has.

    It has been conclusively proven on this blog that the WUHAN-19 virus exited from a lab in or near Wuhan, China. Smart, honest people accept that the most likely Origin is WIV.

    Sadly, Mr. Unz is far behind the commentators at UR. He is still pushing a fully debunked Fort Detrick theory that virtually no one, including Jeffery Sachs, accepts. Sachs explicitly stated that the release is a “Blunder”. That is Sachs exact word.

    It is quite obvious to everyone that Sachs needs to be cagey for personal reasons. As a Columbia University professor he wants to minimize blow back on Elite Left academia tied to WIV.
    ___________________________________________________________________

    As far as Ukraine/Russia goes. The winner is decided when one side capitulates. Neither is even vaguely close to that point.

    Individual victories such as Lyman are good for Ukie morale. And, morale is undeniably important.

    On the other side, despite alarmist rumor mongering, Putin remains very popular at home: (1)

      

    And, how much of the down tick are ultra nationalists who believe Putin is too timid?
    ___

    Crazies here talk about lend/lease of non-existent munitions and believe that Not-The-President Biden can continue to pour unlimited finds into Ukie Maximalist aggression. The reality is that funding will diminish after the U.S. midterms.

    Putin and the, soon returning, Israeli PM Netanyahu are known to be quite friendly.

    Meloni has openly expressed interest in Russian natural gas as part of sound energy policy: (2)

    Italy is hurting itself if it renounces natural gas from Russia because of the war in Ukraine, according to Giorgia Meloni, chairman of the right-wing Italian Brothers (FdI) opposition party, who stressed on Wednesday that there is a lack of Western solidarity with countries dependent on Russian gas. Giorgia Meloni stated that if Rome “cuts off gas supplies, industrial production stops within two or three months, and that is not self-sacrifice but suicide.”

    Between this and actual pro Russian coalition partners — She may speak kindly of Ukraine, but everyone expects little action (e.g. military assistance).

    There will be significant energy shortages across Europe this winter. Despite European WEF (Davos, Brussels, Berlin, etc.) Elite desire to support the Kiev regime, European citizens will soon feel differently. Ordinary people want energy for heat, light, and jobs. Tossing Ukie Maximalist aggression under the proverbial bus is a pretty easy choice.
    ___

    Is time on Putin’s side? Signs point that way.

    However, it will be at least another 6-12 months before a clear answer is available.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-approval-dips-first-time-after-ukraine-invasion

    (2) https://floridagoodfriday.com/giorgia-meloni-says-suicide-is-a-renunciation-of-russian-gas/

    Note: The linked source for #2 was mostly likely on a server in Hurricane Ian’s path. You may need to use search engines or archive sites to find the full article.

  457. @A123

    Normally, in areas of geopolitical interest, especially on contended topics, reality is never indisputably revealed.

    Yet with Covid, and this war, it has been revealed. Marking probably the only two times in your webzine’s history that it has.
     

    It has been conclusively proven on this blog that the WUHAN-19 virus exited from a lab in or near Wuhan, China. Smart, honest people accept that the most likely Origin is WIV.

    Sadly, Mr. Unz is far behind the commentators at UR. He is still pushing a fully debunked Fort Detrick theory that virtually no one, including Jeffery Sachs, accepts. Sachs explicitly stated that the release is a "Blunder". That is Sachs exact word.

    It is quite obvious to everyone that Sachs needs to be cagey. As a Columbia University professor he wants to minimize blow back on Elite Left academia tied to WIV.
    ___________________________________________________________________

    As far as Ukraine/Russia goes. The winner is decided when one side capitulates. Neither is even vaguely close to that point.

    Individual victories such as Lyman are good for Ukie morale. And, morale is undeniably important.

    On the other side, despite alarmist rumor mongering, Putin remains very popular at home: (1)

     
    https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/28383.jpeg
     

    And, how much of the down tick are ultra nationalists who believe Putin is too timid?
    ___

    Crazies here talk about lend/lease of non-existent munitions and believe that Not-The-President Biden can continue to pour unlimited finds into Ukie Maximalist aggression. The reality is that funding will diminish after the U.S. midterms.

    Putin and the, soon returning, Israeli PM Netanyahu are known to be quite friendly.

    Meloni has openly expressed interest in Russian natural gas as part of sound energy policy: (2)


    Italy is hurting itself if it renounces natural gas from Russia because of the war in Ukraine, according to Giorgia Meloni, chairman of the right-wing Italian Brothers (FdI) opposition party, who stressed on Wednesday that there is a lack of Western solidarity with countries dependent on Russian gas. Giorgia Meloni stated that if Rome “cuts off gas supplies, industrial production stops within two or three months, and that is not self-sacrifice but suicide.”
     
    Between this and actual pro Russian coalition partners — She may speak kindly of Ukraine, but everyone expects little action (e.g. military assistance).

    There will be significant energy shortages across Europe this winter. Despite European WEF (Davos, Brussels, Berlin, etc.) Elite desire to support the Kiev regime, European citizens will soon feel differently. Ordinary people want energy for heat, light, and jobs. Tossing Ukie Maximalist aggression under the proverbial bus is a pretty easy choice.
    ___

    Is time on Putin's side? Signs point that way.

    However, it will be at least another 6-12 months before a clear answer is available.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-approval-dips-first-time-after-ukraine-invasion

    (2) https://floridagoodfriday.com/giorgia-meloni-says-suicide-is-a-renunciation-of-russian-gas/

    Note: The linked source for #2 was mostly likely on a server in Hurricane Ian's path. You may need to use search engines or archive sites to find the full article.

    Replies: @A123

    Dang it. I removed/deleted this comment, as it did not thread properly. Yet, it showed up anyway.

    My apologies for the dupe. Minor technical site glitch.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @A123

    Technical complications two days in a row now? Perhaps a rereading of the technical manual is in order? Better yet, don't even worry about it, most readers here find your 'Islamo-Soros" conspiracy theories as being way over the top, and skip your comments anyway. Let me help you out, doesn't this cartoon include 99% of your political views (sorry, I couldn't locate even one cartoon depicting an "Islamo-Soros" type of character?):

    https://identityhunters.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/norbert-4.png?w=436&h=344

  458. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Another Polish Perspective
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Talmud says that God's words spoken after Torah had been already granted are irrelevant.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oven_of_Akhnai

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    I can well imagine that is true, for their god.

  459. @S
    @LatW


    Look, the Ukrainians are just doing what they can to save themselves. This is a struggle of hundreds of years. The men are doing insane things on the front, with immense efforts and sacrifices.
     
    Hope springs eternal.

    There is, as you know, something known as 'choosing one's battles'.

    With all due respect to the Ukrainian people and their great sacrifices, the battle the Ukrainian people have chosen to fight is the same one Poland chose to fight (and lost) in 1939.

    Poland was then used by the global hegemon (the US/UK) as 'live bait' to get WWII started, and to bring ruin upon Germany and Russia. [If you've ever seen the videos of the Chinese zoos where they unceremoniously toss a live goat into the tiger pen, Poland was the goat, Germany and the USSR were the roaming tigers, and the US/UK was the kindly zookeeper doing the tossing.]

    Germany was wrecked, and Russia barely survived. Poland was left an ash heap and was devoured by the USSR.

    The US/UK has come back to finish the job with Russia. They need new live bait to kick-start WWIII. Enter Poland's next door neighbor Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

    The US/UK established themselves as the overwhelming global hegemon circa 1900 with their formation of the special relationship. [See the first chapter of WT Stead's 1902 book The Americanization of the World] From that vantage, the three world wars (including this one) since that time have been 'mopping up' operations.

    That each of three world wars' flashpoints (which could have been anywhere on Earth) 'happened' to start first in Sarajevo (1914), then Danzig (1939), and now Kiev (2022), in each instance moving ever closer to Moscow, should not be seen as coincidental.

    The reduction and ultimate destruction of Russia and the Russian people has been a primary objective of each of the world wars.

    Replies: @Unintended Consequence, @Coconuts

    “The reduction and ultimate destruction of Russia and the Russian people has been a primary objective of each of the world wars.”

    That is a horrible and wrong statement. Are you quite yourself today? No, the US does NOT now or ever want to destroy Russia or the Russian people! We are being led by incompetents who are oblivious to the danger of escalating against a nuclear power. The US and its people would be destroyed as well. Our leaders used to be smart enough to understand this reality. What an awful thing you have said. I don’t understand you. Why would you make such an utterance?

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Unintended Consequence

    The US is the central part of the Anglosphere. It now depends on the Anglosphere as much as the Anglosphere depends on the US.

    You are not independent anymore. The American people (WASPs really) are in the same position the Russian people were in the USSR. The interests of the "Union" of the Anglo-Saxon capitalist elites prevail upon your national interests as a people.

    And yeah, sooner or later it would end for your people exactly it did end for mine. Those used to build Empires, end up exhausted and swamped with their former Imperial subject populations taking over the former Empire's core.

    You are no longer "the Land of the Free". Get used to it. And you will soon (2-3 generations) no longer be the "Home of the Brave ".

    (I actually find it sad.)

  460. @S
    @LatW


    Look, the Ukrainians are just doing what they can to save themselves. This is a struggle of hundreds of years. The men are doing insane things on the front, with immense efforts and sacrifices.
     
    Hope springs eternal.

    There is, as you know, something known as 'choosing one's battles'.

    With all due respect to the Ukrainian people and their great sacrifices, the battle the Ukrainian people have chosen to fight is the same one Poland chose to fight (and lost) in 1939.

    Poland was then used by the global hegemon (the US/UK) as 'live bait' to get WWII started, and to bring ruin upon Germany and Russia. [If you've ever seen the videos of the Chinese zoos where they unceremoniously toss a live goat into the tiger pen, Poland was the goat, Germany and the USSR were the roaming tigers, and the US/UK was the kindly zookeeper doing the tossing.]

    Germany was wrecked, and Russia barely survived. Poland was left an ash heap and was devoured by the USSR.

    The US/UK has come back to finish the job with Russia. They need new live bait to kick-start WWIII. Enter Poland's next door neighbor Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

    The US/UK established themselves as the overwhelming global hegemon circa 1900 with their formation of the special relationship. [See the first chapter of WT Stead's 1902 book The Americanization of the World] From that vantage, the three world wars (including this one) since that time have been 'mopping up' operations.

    That each of three world wars' flashpoints (which could have been anywhere on Earth) 'happened' to start first in Sarajevo (1914), then Danzig (1939), and now Kiev (2022), in each instance moving ever closer to Moscow, should not be seen as coincidental.

    The reduction and ultimate destruction of Russia and the Russian people has been a primary objective of each of the world wars.

    Replies: @Unintended Consequence, @Coconuts

    Poland was then used by the global hegemon (the US/UK) as ‘live bait’ to get WWII started, and to bring ruin upon Germany and Russia.

    There seems to be some sort of tendency to always ignore the existence of the French Army and that on paper the alliance Poland/France/Britain was expected to be able to comfortably defeat the newly recreated German forces in 1939, even 1940.

    If some sort of attritional warfare had developed on the Western Front in 1940, as was expected, that would have been a good time for a move by Stalin in the East.

    Few apart from Hitler seem to have expected that France/Britain/Belgium/Netherlands plus Poland could all be defeated by Germany within a year.

    • Agree: sudden death, keypusher
    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Coconuts

    Lenin has promised quite often that Western imperialist states would destroy each other before they would attack Russia. This is why Lenin was saying after around 1919 the Soviet Union needs to allow the Western states to fight each other and focus on internal development including to justify giving away territory.

    Stalin has literalist belief in a lot of the views of Lenin of this time and this can be one reason he was seemingly becoming more stubborn against the disconfirming indicators as there had partial confirmation of Lenin's prophecy in 1939-1940.

    , @S
    @Coconuts



    Poland was then used by the global hegemon (the US/UK) as ‘live bait’ to get WWII started, and to bring ruin upon Germany and Russia.
     
    There seems to be some sort of tendency to always ignore the existence of the French Army and that on paper the alliance Poland/France/Britain was expected to be able to comfortably defeat the newly recreated German forces in 1939, even 1940.
     
    I agree with you.

    However, Poland's quick defeat, after having been given unrealistic security guarantees, gave Germany and Russia a long lengthy border. And, with Germany's known Lebenstraum dreams towards the East, it was only a matter of time before war erupted between Russia and Germany.

    And, though I hadn't mentioned it in illustrating my point, I think both Stalin and the US/UK were playing the same game simultaneously to a certain degree, ie each was hoping to use National Socialist Germany as a deadly pawn with which to bludgeon the other with, even building up Germany to varying degrees for the purpose.

    Things seemed to be going Stalins way at first in the West as you describe, till the unexpected quick defeats, then Hitler turned East. [Having said that, I think Stalins effort at this 'game' were, in some ways, a weak echo in comparison to the US/UK's efforts. The US/UK had the City of London. It also had far greater resources overall than Russia]

    Replies: @keypusher

  461. If this doesn’t work, Putler threatens to use nukes in Ukraine:

    Has anybody given any thought as to where exactly would Putler’s bomb be detonated within Ukraine. The Donbas, other parts of Eastern or southern Ukraine? Doesn’t sound likely, as in Putler’s demented way of seeing things, these parts are already a part of Russia. First time a “liberator” would destroy his own “country”? Central Ukraine, Kyiv, what a political faux paus that would be? How many Ukrainians still live in these areas? Close to Belarus too, and really not that far from the original Russian border. Western Ukraine? Close to Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, all fortunately NATO countries. Think about it, and the awful Armageddon type responses this madman is contemplating?…

    • Troll: YetAnotherAnon
    • Replies: @LatW
    @Mr. Hack


    Think about it, and the awful Armageddon type responses this madman is contemplating?
     
    Well, not only that (although there might not be an Armageddon, since hypothetically all of this can still be contained in Ukraine which is horrific enough), but there is another important question - is Russia ready to wage nuclear war? You don't just drop the bomb(s), you have to have your troops ready to operate in the battlefield, with the right equipment and plans (afaik, back during the Soviet Union days they had quite rigorous plans in case the bombs are dropped on Eastern Europe, Warsaw pact troops, move towards the West, does Russia have any of such plans, not to mention appropriate equipment for the troops?)

    Especially in a scenario where the West responds (probably conventionally by destroying the Russian troops in Eastern Ukraine). I mean, what... he's going to just retreat into the bunker with Kabaeva and the children, nuke Ukraine and then leave everyone else there?? The Russian troops, the Donbas civilians, etc. The newly occupied territories, etc. That's just insane.


    This Russian channel seems to be run by an insider from the Russian Foreign Intelligence service - not sure this is not a fake, but this guy, General SVR, talks about the potential evacuation of the Russian leadership into the bunkers. And that there are those who are fatalistic yet on the other hand those in the military who want to live and may block Putin's decision to use nukes. (Btw, there's also interesting insight into the friction between the Prigozhin's Military company and the FSB and the generals).

    With English subtitles (again, take it with a grain of salt, not sure it's real but it does seem to match reality to great a extent):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuRr1OmLhlE

    And, btw, poor Ukrainians, what they're being put through, even contemplating these scenarios and being constantly threatened with such horror.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Mr. Hack

    , @Unintended Consequence
    @Mr. Hack

    Are the Ukrainians paying you to generate ridiculous anti-Putin propaganda? I think you should consider the Russian perspective in all this. If Russia was your homeland, would you want a weirdo who uses his naughty bits to play piano making deals with your former Cold War enemy to establish a military base on your border? Wouldn't you be more than a little impatient to secure as much territory as possible to protect your people from corrupt incompetents as well as foreign invasion? Be honest.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @A123

    , @Mikhail
    @Mr. Hack

    https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/hrono61/14012115/3953676/3953676_original.jpg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  462. @A123
    @A123

    Dang it. I removed/deleted this comment, as it did not thread properly. Yet, it showed up anyway.

    My apologies for the dupe. Minor technical site glitch.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Technical complications two days in a row now? Perhaps a rereading of the technical manual is in order? Better yet, don’t even worry about it, most readers here find your ‘Islamo-Soros” conspiracy theories as being way over the top, and skip your comments anyway. Let me help you out, doesn’t this cartoon include 99% of your political views (sorry, I couldn’t locate even one cartoon depicting an “Islamo-Soros” type of character?):

  463. @Mikel
    @Triteleia Laxa


    If the West wanted a direct military confrontation with Russia, it could have bombed all of Russia’s columns and won comprehensively in the first week.
     
    Would you care to elaborate on this?

    I'm no military expert by any means but, leaving aside the unprecedented (read nuclear) response that Putin threatened with at the start of the war if the West interfered, I don't see an obvious way for NATO to destroy those columns in a week. I think that one thing this war has proven is that the Soviet and post-Soviet anti-air systems are truly effective. The Ukrainian one was undoubtedly inferior to what the Russians have but still the Russians failed to dismantle it and have never been able to use their air force over Ukraine without running high risks. NATO would have to destroy the superior Russian AA infrastructure in order to use their air forces to bomb those columns. Can they really do that? In less than a week? Stand-off weapons are not designed to destroy columns, as far as I know, and would also need to avoid the Russian air defenses.

    As for the sabotage of the pipelines, I don't have your total conviction but yes, most likely it was the Russians. The idea that the Russians could simply stop pumping gas instead of destroying the pipelines and losing their leverage is very unconvincing to me. We should all have learned by now that that is just not the way people in the Kremlin think and operate. For starters, the Kremlin way is to always lie about their actions and intentions (green men, MH17, Skripal,...). And the other characteristic of the Kremlin modus operandi, since Soviet times, is to always do the unpredictable, even if it doesn't make sense. In the long run this may actually provide benefits because their opponents can never guess what their actions and reactions are going to be. There's probably a strategy there.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Triteleia Laxa, @Dmitry

    Since beginning of March, I explained here already a few times, but you seem to be not interested in reading the comments.

    Russian aviation doesn’t have targeting pods until this year (maybe a few examples of Su-34M were claimed to arrive in this year), while Ukraine has very little air force.

    This, means Russian air force planes cannot find or destroy moving targets for the ground support from distance using guided weapons, unlike air forces with targeting pods.

    Ground support depends more from Su-25, Ka-50 and Mi-24, or other planes used close to target, which, after the Afghanistan war, have been vulnerable to MANPADS. After the beginning of the invasion in February, thousands of MANPADS have been given to Ukraine and these have been mostly responsible for the losses of Russian ground support aviation planes.

    I have posted multiple YouTube documentaries about the Afghanistan War here since March which has the historical context.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Dmitry


    Since beginning of March, I explained here already a few times, but you seem to be not interested in reading the comments.
     
    It's you who's lost the plot here. I did actually read your multiple comments on the targeting pods of the Russian planes but it has nothing to do with the discussion on NATO having been able to destroy all the Russian columns in Ukraine in 1 week.

    I hope nobody's taking my criticism of Putin's actions as an attack against Russians in general. We are living through a historic event that affects all of us and it is not possible for any minimally informed person to avoid forming judgements about what is going on.

    A few months ago my youngest son came back from school asking if the "Russians are evil", as he had heard some kids say. I explained that no, there is good and bad people everywhere. That's all I want him to know for now. But it showed me how consequential these events are going to be no matter how it all ends. I've been fearing something like this since the moment I saw Poroshenko launch air attacks and kill civilians in Donbass. I'll never understand why our politicians didn't see what even I was able to grasp and didn't do much more to prevent this war.
  464. @Thorfinnsson
    @Sean



    Putin may or may not have believed that. I have Stuermer’s book on Putin, which benefited from many long interviews with him, and in it he says that the Kremlin were aware the impression of Russian military power was largely fanfaronade.
     
    I have not read the book, but to some extent the composition of Russia's armed forces may have been deliberate fanfaronade. After all, the Russia STRONK image was at least believed by some and was thus a foreign policy asset.

    Of course a Potemkin village loses its value once it is put to the test.


    The conscripts could not be used outside Russia.
     
    Indeed, but Putin has been in power for over 20 years and the Maidan was eight years ago. There has been more than enough time to revise this law. There has also been more than enough time to create a proper reserve system, which Russia only moved to do last year.


    In 2019 Oleksiy Arestovych thought it was the only thing for Putin to do and he would do it. Arestovych even predicted the year correctly. That was right after Zelensky did a U turn on the modified Minsk agreement. Deep down the Ukrainians wanted this war, it is like Raymond Poincaré’s revanchist designs to be backed by very powerful allies in a fight with Germany, whereby France’s provinces would be recovered.
     
    While it's true that elements of the Ukraine did want this war and worked to bring it about, it was Russia that consciously chose not to prepare for this war.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Dmitry

    a Potemkin village loses its value

    Potemkin village is successful if the people believe it. The problem is the question “which people?” Is it useful when the people who build the village, believe the village is real?

    After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has become the more complicated Potemkin game of mirrors, less than traditional Potemkin village.

    In the Soviet times, the government has avoid giving real data to the public, but they have usually accurate internal data, if you can exclude examples like a 1939 census.

    In postsoviet times, the governments in Russia/Belarus/Ukraine are giving more data to the public than anyone needs, but a lot of this government data is significantly fake and often can be only understood by forensic accountants, only statisticians report these numbers are not naturally plausible. They even seem to spend a lot of budget for the website designers to present this significantly fake data for the public “in a transparent, modern and accessible websites”. There is such a modernization where the government is producing increasingly expensive modern websites to showcase such a display of “transparency”.

    It is not the situation that governments have accurate internal data, but it will be impossible not to be confused by this process. For example, in Russia, the census, is miscounting the population by millions of people and a lot more inaccurate than any Soviet census except 1939 if you read the statisticians. So, the government such basic things like how many citizens there are, you can see how this could create problems for many other data. In Ukraine, there has been no attempt for census for 21 years. You can only guess what is the pre-war population in Ukraine.

    Probably if there was just a Potemkin village as in the Soviet times, the government can be more effective, as they have the distinction between the public and internal data. Although under Stalin, there were sometimes people were scared to give him the real information, the government employees overall would have more data.

    But with the postsoviet game of mirrors and fake data, for sure, many of the higher politicians, they are becoming confused or victims of lack of knowledge of the real situation. It is possible that local politicians, local employees have more knowledge than people more near the top.

  465. @Coconuts
    @S


    Poland was then used by the global hegemon (the US/UK) as ‘live bait’ to get WWII started, and to bring ruin upon Germany and Russia.
     
    There seems to be some sort of tendency to always ignore the existence of the French Army and that on paper the alliance Poland/France/Britain was expected to be able to comfortably defeat the newly recreated German forces in 1939, even 1940.

    If some sort of attritional warfare had developed on the Western Front in 1940, as was expected, that would have been a good time for a move by Stalin in the East.

    Few apart from Hitler seem to have expected that France/Britain/Belgium/Netherlands plus Poland could all be defeated by Germany within a year.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @S

    Lenin has promised quite often that Western imperialist states would destroy each other before they would attack Russia. This is why Lenin was saying after around 1919 the Soviet Union needs to allow the Western states to fight each other and focus on internal development including to justify giving away territory.

    Stalin has literalist belief in a lot of the views of Lenin of this time and this can be one reason he was seemingly becoming more stubborn against the disconfirming indicators as there had partial confirmation of Lenin’s prophecy in 1939-1940.

    • Thanks: Coconuts
  466. Polish newspapers today claim that Putin’s successor is already waiting and that is this guy:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksey_Dyumin

    Not sure how all that is reliable.
    I must say I have first heard about this guy today. Yet he is Shoigu deputy. On his wikipedia entry photo he looks like some eurocrat.

  467. S says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @S

    I would add to your list the recent book published by Konstantin Malofeev, the man who financed the Russian Spring in 2014 and sent Strelkov to Crimea and then Slovyansk.

    Malofeev is a kind of Orthodox Christian Imperialist, who finances maximalist Orthodox, Russian Neo-Eurasianist and Revisionist YouTube channels and Blogs (including Dugin's).

    In his recent (and very biased) review of the history of world Empires, Malofeev comes to the (not surprising) conclusion that Russia has to fulfill an historical role of building the Empire of the End of Times. The enemy to crush is the Globalized Capitalism and its "Anglo-Saxons Overlords" who are actively preparing the coming of the Antichrist (Malofeev is unequivocal about it: Globalists are in fact Satanists and Occultists).

    https://www.litres.ru/konstantin-malofeev/imperiya-kniga-1/chitat-onlayn/

    Don't think it will be translated into English any time soon.

    Replies: @S

    I would add to your list the recent book published by Konstantin Malofeev, the man who financed the Russian Spring in 2014 and sent Strelkov to Crimea and then Slovyansk.

    Thanks. I’d never heard of him. He seems to be a person of some import in regards to the Rusfed and the events in the Donbas.

    Malofeev is a kind of Orthodox Christian Imperialist, who finances maximalist Orthodox, Russian Neo-Eurasianist and Revisionist YouTube channels and Blogs (including Dugin’s).

    Mr Malofeev has an intriguing resume. 🙂

    [MORE]

    The enemy to crush is the Globalized Capitalism and its “Anglo-Saxons Overlords” who are actively preparing the coming of the Antichrist (Malofeev is unequivocal about it: Globalists are in fact Satanists and Occultists).

    Hehe! Why, where exactly did he ever get those ideas from! 😀 [Am only half laughing/joking with my response.]

    More, seriously, it’s interesting the connections between Malofeev and the intel people. And, too, the connections between some of the intel people and the occult.

    There’s some of that with Anglosphere intel people too, more than there should be. Back in the 19th century there was something sometimes referred to as the ‘occult revolution’ that took place within the Anglosphere countrys, some of which bled over into Europe, and perhaps Russia too.

    People who believed in such believed they were ‘making contact’ with unseen ‘entities’ and ‘beings’ at seances and through ‘spiritualism’. I don’t get into the occult as I don’t think it’s healthy, though I accept at least some of those who believe in it are sincere. [Purely as a hypothesis, and without being too esoteric, if ‘bad spirits’ do exist, as opposed to ‘good spirits’ wouldn’t the bad ones perhaps have wanted in the 19th century to ‘make contact’ in a big way with that portion of the global population that, via the ‘special relationship’ circa 1900, was about to achieve an overwhelming hegemony for itself, ie the Anglosphere’s US/UK?]

    Blogs (including Dugin’s).

    When I first heard of Dugin’s Eurasianism theory about land being superior to water, I just about bowled over. It was literally almost word for word what can be found excerpted below in the 1853 New Rome book, except Dugin had inverted it. The wording is so close, I half wonder if he may have read (the very obscure) New Rome book himself, when (purportedly) he had access to a KGB library.

    ‘Freedom is now limited to the oceanic world, to England and America; Russia, with its continental dependencies, is despotic; it has no ships, and therefore no freedom; no freedom, and therefore no navy; having no navy, it can never do great injury to the seafaring world. But its despotism gives it an army, and its army will protect its despotism.’

    ‘The seafaring nations, on the other hand, have their navy to protect their freedom, but they will never have a large standing army to extend their system. To suppose this, would be to deny every leading characteristic of Americanism.’ The New Rome; or, the United States of theWorld (1853) – pg 156

    People are being manipulated.

    The purpose of persons such as Malofeev and Dugin being promoted is so that the most radical, extreme, and militaristic, expression of Russian identity that is possible, can ultimately someday achieve power, irrespective of the actual nature (good, bad, whatever) of the identity a people might have.

    Not that I wish it, certainly, but the idea is that when they move to smash Russia in this world war that (should they succeed) the crushing of Russia and the Russian people will then be as thorough and complete as possible.

    It’s about the destruction of identity, which the powers that be see as an evil thing, simply for existing, irrespective of the actual nature (good, bad, whatever) of the identity a people might have. [That is a big reason why, amongst other things, that National Socialist and Hitler were promoted for Germany by powerful US/UK financial interests in the 1920’s and 30’s, as documented by Anthony Sutton.]

    https://archive.org/details/newrome00poes/page/156/mode/2up

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Thanks: YetAnotherAnon
  468. S says:
    @Coconuts
    @S


    Poland was then used by the global hegemon (the US/UK) as ‘live bait’ to get WWII started, and to bring ruin upon Germany and Russia.
     
    There seems to be some sort of tendency to always ignore the existence of the French Army and that on paper the alliance Poland/France/Britain was expected to be able to comfortably defeat the newly recreated German forces in 1939, even 1940.

    If some sort of attritional warfare had developed on the Western Front in 1940, as was expected, that would have been a good time for a move by Stalin in the East.

    Few apart from Hitler seem to have expected that France/Britain/Belgium/Netherlands plus Poland could all be defeated by Germany within a year.

    Replies: @Dmitry, @S

    Poland was then used by the global hegemon (the US/UK) as ‘live bait’ to get WWII started, and to bring ruin upon Germany and Russia.

    There seems to be some sort of tendency to always ignore the existence of the French Army and that on paper the alliance Poland/France/Britain was expected to be able to comfortably defeat the newly recreated German forces in 1939, even 1940.

    I agree with you.

    However, Poland’s quick defeat, after having been given unrealistic security guarantees, gave Germany and Russia a long lengthy border. And, with Germany’s known Lebenstraum dreams towards the East, it was only a matter of time before war erupted between Russia and Germany.

    And, though I hadn’t mentioned it in illustrating my point, I think both Stalin and the US/UK were playing the same game simultaneously to a certain degree, ie each was hoping to use National Socialist Germany as a deadly pawn with which to bludgeon the other with, even building up Germany to varying degrees for the purpose.

    Things seemed to be going Stalins way at first in the West as you describe, till the unexpected quick defeats, then Hitler turned East. [Having said that, I think Stalins effort at this ‘game’ were, in some ways, a weak echo in comparison to the US/UK’s efforts. The US/UK had the City of London. It also had far greater resources overall than Russia]

    • Replies: @keypusher
    @S

    I think this overstates how intelligent and farsighted anyone was in the West (or in Germany or in the East, but that is another story).

    First of all, the United States was still an NPC in 1939 and 1940. It had a strong navy, but no army to speak of. Isolationism was still strong. Conscription was enacted by a single vote in December 1940 -- after France had been conquered, in other words. Lend-Lease wasn't passed until March 1941. Hitler saved Roosevelt a great deal of trouble by declaring war on the USA a few days after Pearl Harbor. I don't know if there ever was a UK/US hegemon -- Anthony Eden would take strong exception to the term -- but there certainly wasn't one in 1939-40.


    However, Poland’s quick defeat, after having been given unrealistic security guarantees, gave Germany and Russia a long lengthy border.
     
    France and Britain, not the US, gave those guarantees, which merely were that they would go to war with Germany if it invaded Poland. They honored those guarantees, though very reluctantly in France's case. They thought that it would take the Germans 4-6 months to conquer Poland and they would be able to accomplish something in the meantime. As it was, Gamelin, the French generalissimo, undertook a pathetic mini-offensive in the Saar ini mid-September which he abandoned when it became clear the Poles were collapsing. Political leaders in Britain and France didn't know what would happen in the event of war (just like they, and the US administration, didn't know what would happen if Russia invaded Ukraine. It's fair to say that everyone has been surprised by what has happened so far in 2022, just as they were surprised by what happened in 1939.).

    I think it was evident to everyone in the West that the USSR and Hitler's Germany would go to war at some point, and plenty were happy to see that happen. But they were in no position to bring it about, and as far as I know they didn't try. It's not like Chamberlain and Daladier had a plan that involved Germany conquering Poland and creating a long land border between Nazi Germany and the USSR in the hopes that it would lead to war. It's just that, having given up on appeasement after Hitler occupied Czechoslovkia in March 1939, the Western powers had nowhere else to draw a line other than Poland. I'm sure they sincerely wanted to avoid war and hoped that Hitler would be dissuaded by their guarantee.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Emil Nikola Richard

  469. @S
    @Coconuts



    Poland was then used by the global hegemon (the US/UK) as ‘live bait’ to get WWII started, and to bring ruin upon Germany and Russia.
     
    There seems to be some sort of tendency to always ignore the existence of the French Army and that on paper the alliance Poland/France/Britain was expected to be able to comfortably defeat the newly recreated German forces in 1939, even 1940.
     
    I agree with you.

    However, Poland's quick defeat, after having been given unrealistic security guarantees, gave Germany and Russia a long lengthy border. And, with Germany's known Lebenstraum dreams towards the East, it was only a matter of time before war erupted between Russia and Germany.

    And, though I hadn't mentioned it in illustrating my point, I think both Stalin and the US/UK were playing the same game simultaneously to a certain degree, ie each was hoping to use National Socialist Germany as a deadly pawn with which to bludgeon the other with, even building up Germany to varying degrees for the purpose.

    Things seemed to be going Stalins way at first in the West as you describe, till the unexpected quick defeats, then Hitler turned East. [Having said that, I think Stalins effort at this 'game' were, in some ways, a weak echo in comparison to the US/UK's efforts. The US/UK had the City of London. It also had far greater resources overall than Russia]

    Replies: @keypusher

    I think this overstates how intelligent and farsighted anyone was in the West (or in Germany or in the East, but that is another story).

    First of all, the United States was still an NPC in 1939 and 1940. It had a strong navy, but no army to speak of. Isolationism was still strong. Conscription was enacted by a single vote in December 1940 — after France had been conquered, in other words. Lend-Lease wasn’t passed until March 1941. Hitler saved Roosevelt a great deal of trouble by declaring war on the USA a few days after Pearl Harbor. I don’t know if there ever was a UK/US hegemon — Anthony Eden would take strong exception to the term — but there certainly wasn’t one in 1939-40.

    However, Poland’s quick defeat, after having been given unrealistic security guarantees, gave Germany and Russia a long lengthy border.

    France and Britain, not the US, gave those guarantees, which merely were that they would go to war with Germany if it invaded Poland. They honored those guarantees, though very reluctantly in France’s case. They thought that it would take the Germans 4-6 months to conquer Poland and they would be able to accomplish something in the meantime. As it was, Gamelin, the French generalissimo, undertook a pathetic mini-offensive in the Saar ini mid-September which he abandoned when it became clear the Poles were collapsing. Political leaders in Britain and France didn’t know what would happen in the event of war (just like they, and the US administration, didn’t know what would happen if Russia invaded Ukraine. It’s fair to say that everyone has been surprised by what has happened so far in 2022, just as they were surprised by what happened in 1939.).

    I think it was evident to everyone in the West that the USSR and Hitler’s Germany would go to war at some point, and plenty were happy to see that happen. But they were in no position to bring it about, and as far as I know they didn’t try. It’s not like Chamberlain and Daladier had a plan that involved Germany conquering Poland and creating a long land border between Nazi Germany and the USSR in the hopes that it would lead to war. It’s just that, having given up on appeasement after Hitler occupied Czechoslovkia in March 1939, the Western powers had nowhere else to draw a line other than Poland. I’m sure they sincerely wanted to avoid war and hoped that Hitler would be dissuaded by their guarantee.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @keypusher

    But if someone somewhere might have wanted something to happen then how can you argue that they were not responsible, instead of the people who actually did the thing?!!?!?!

    Geopolitical stereotype threat?!?!?!?!

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @keypusher


    I’m sure they sincerely wanted to avoid war and hoped that Hitler would be dissuaded by their guarantee.
     
    This is the sort of reflection that might maybe probably be true but there almost is no way a bunch of powerful people didn't anticipate the coming war was going to be just swell. If I'm in an optimistic mood I'll go 90-10 you are right but some days it looks to me a lot closer to 50-50.

    Alex Krainer (the naked hedgie dot com) has an interesting take.

    https://thenakedhedgie.com/2021/12/17/appeasement-the-shocking-truth-about-the-1938-munich-agreement-part-1-of-3/

    Replies: @keypusher

  470. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Mikel


    I’m no military expert by any means but, leaving aside the unprecedented (read nuclear) response that Putin threatened with at the start of the war if the West interfered, I don’t see an obvious way for NATO to destroy those columns in a week.
     
    In the first weeks of the war, the Russian forces were incredibly vulnerable, even the basically non-existent, rust bucket Ukrainian air force was having some effect.

    The Russians were not prepared for an attack from the air. Their (hugely overhyped*) air defence bubble wasn't even properly deployed and their troops would have been obliterated. They had no umbrella, and half of them were static, on roads, completely out in the open.

    Meanwhile, the second biggest, second most technologically sophisticated Air Force in the world is the US Marine Corp. I assume you can guess the biggest.


    I think that one thing this war has proven is that the Soviet and post-Soviet anti-air systems are truly effective.
     
    The Ukrainians have jerry-rigged American HARMS (anti-radar) missiles to their Soviet planes and have thereby achieved local air superiority by making it too dangerous for Russian air defence to operate. The US is about 50 years more technologically advanced than that.

    Furthermore, things like training matter and practice. Probably only the US, UK and France can do counter air-defence flying. It is a difficult thing to learn and implement at an institutional level, but it does work.

    Picture the Luftwaffe, with Wermacht air defence, coming up against General Norman Schwarzkopf's forces. We all forget that the Russians exaggerated Russian effectiveness to hide their corruption, but also that Americans massively exaggerate Russian effectiveness to justify their own spending.

    * We know their air defence systems are hugely overhyped because Ukraine was flying helicopters into occupied Mariupol, and elsewhere, even Belgorod, continues to conduct aggressive air sorties and fires HIMARS where it wants. (How was toy store stuff like Bayrekhtar destroying Russian assets otherwise?)

    And to think, that even during this war, some pro-Russian shills have been writing self-humiluating nonsense "explaining" that Russia would defeat NATO because it could stop all NATO missiles with its air defence etc! No, it literally can't even stop basic b*tch HIMARS systems loaded with old software and at a scale about 1:1000 of how NATO would use them.

    Obviously, the fact that Russia has nukes makes this all void. But that also makes the idea that NATO would ever invade Russia all void.

    Replies: @Mikel, @Bashibuzuk

    We know their air defence systems are hugely overhyped because Ukraine was flying helicopters into occupied Mariupol, and elsewhere, even Belgorod,

    Flying low to avoid radar and losing some of the aircraft to MANPADs, like the Russians themselves.

    How was toy store stuff like Bayrekhtar destroying Russian assets otherwise?

    The Bayraktars have played an insignificant role in this war, unlike in Artsakh.

    Some people, particularly on this website, have indeed overhyped Russian air defense systems while Israel was bombing Syria at will, sometimes flying missiles over the head of the Russians in their bases. But even the Israelis are careful to launch their missiles from outside the Syrian airspace. I continue believing that the Russians and Soviet-legacy anti air weapons can cause a lot of trouble to NATO but I don’t really know how protected from air attacks those columns were at the beginning of the war. Russia did declare the Ukrainian airspace closed at the time.

    I also think that NATO itself would have had big problems occupying a large country like Ukraine defended by its current armed forces, that obviously have nothing to do with the ones they had in 2015. NATO would have planed the operation better but let’s not forget that not long ago we were all discussing the blunders of the Western armies in faraway lands and their inability to defeat sandal-wearing guerrillas on the ground.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Mikel


    I also think that NATO itself would have had big problems occupying a large country like Ukraine defended by its current armed forces, that obviously have nothing to do with the ones they had in 2015. NATO would have planed the operation better but let’s not forget that not long ago we were all discussing the blunders of the Western armies in faraway lands and their inability to defeat sandal-wearing guerrillas on the ground.
     
    There's no comparison. Western forces won every engagement. RusFed forces have now lost the majority of theirs.

    Indeed, Western forces only "failed" because the mission was impossible. Afghans weren't going to be turned into Swiss.

    Having said that, from here, it looks like America won the War on Terror absolutely decisively. Political Islam is a spent force, and Islamic terrorism is irrelevant to the West.

    All this means that NATO would easily sweep aside Ukrainian conventional forces, but their success, after that, perhaps in occupation, would depend on what they intended to achieve.

    It is hard to go into every single detail, but honestly, it is looking like analogising between Russia as WW2 forces, and NATO as Gulf War 1 forces is too kind to Russia.

    Have you ever walked in a huge line with other people, keeping equal distance? What happens is that you get a concertina effect. It is almost inevitable. And very annoying. The journey takes many times longer than it should, with constant waiting, to hurry up, to wait. And a modern military is liked the longest spear in the world, with the one man pulling the trigger, at any time, located at the very top. This makes for one hell of a concertina effect.

    Well differences in tactics, techniques, procedures, technology, command structures, philosophy etc. will make a military-wide concertina almost vanish, so, if implemented well, and they will make your one force move and operate like a hundred.

    Meanwhile, the Russians are unable to implement even the most basic force multipliers... probably not because the Russians are awful, but because these things are hard.

    An example of an obscure thing that matters will be how big the crates are for ammunition. Like smartphone packaging, these will be tiny, if well-designed. Thereby doubling, just one of many multipliers, the amount of ammunition that ends up getting fired at the enemy. Russians haven't done this though. It was easier for their logistics generals to steal money.

    Something easier to understand is shooting accuracy. I wouldn't be surprised is US troops are twice as accurate as UK troops, nor UK troops many times more accurate with their firearms than Russians troops. This is because shooting live ammunition costs money and the so UK troops can do it a lot less than US troops, and accuracy is basically just practice. Firing a rifle is about doing the same motion again and again as perfectly repetitively as possible, especially under stress. Meanwhile, Russia troops, from what I've heard, barely ever get down the range.

    So, just these two factors, of thousands, already show, how this works. Frontline troops get twice as much ammo and hit their target twice as much, making them 4 times more effective.

    Ad infinitum.
  471. @S
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    There had been poor harvests before in Ireland, and what had been done in response was the common sense approach to limit food exports those years to tide people over.

    What was different about the Irish Famine (1845-50) was the application of what might be called Scientific Capitalism (as opposed to Scientific Communism), ie let the market take it's course, aka laissez-faire Capitalism.

    People with no money didn't have much clout in the market, so either left the country, begged, or, in many instances died from starvation. There was some private charity and in time some limited government intervention, ie food distribution in the form of low grade Indian corn and make work projects, but it wasn't enough. It was a disaster.

    It of course would of been better to have kept with the earlier policy of limiting exports during the lean years. [Far better still, no British occupation.]

    Replies: @YetAnotherAnon

    [Far better still, no British occupation.]

    Just suppose the Norman conquerors of England and Wales had for some reason ignored the large and fertile island to the west, and just continued selling Anglo-Saxon slaves to the Viking kingdom of Dublin.

    https://www.buildinghistory.org/bristol/saxonslaves.shtml

    How long would it have been before some other power ruled, Norway, Spain or France perhaps? I suppose there would be a chance that a native Irish ruler might unite the island and expel or assimilate the Vikings.

    But Ireland’s misfortune was to be be next door to a powerful Norman/Angevin king in Henry II. He owned a big chunk of France and conquered more, he never spoke English, only Latin and French – so when Diarmaid mac Murchadha, deposed by High King Rory O’Connor, appealed to him for military aid the die was cast which would in time end Irish self-determination for 500 years.

    Just so did the kingdoms of the Britons fall 600 years before that, when Vortigern invited Angles and Saxons into Britain to help him fight the Picts and Scots.

    • Agree: Philip Owen
    • Thanks: S
    • Replies: @YetAnotherAnon
    @YetAnotherAnon

    I guess the lesson for Ukraine and other countries is - if you can't fight your own battles, whoever helps you ends up owning you eventually. I think the last time Britain was truly independent was the 1960s, when Harold Wilson refused to send troops to Vietnam.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  472. @Dmitry
    @Mikel

    Since beginning of March, I explained here already a few times, but you seem to be not interested in reading the comments.

    Russian aviation doesn't have targeting pods until this year (maybe a few examples of Su-34M were claimed to arrive in this year), while Ukraine has very little air force.

    This, means Russian air force planes cannot find or destroy moving targets for the ground support from distance using guided weapons, unlike air forces with targeting pods.

    Ground support depends more from Su-25, Ka-50 and Mi-24, or other planes used close to target, which, after the Afghanistan war, have been vulnerable to MANPADS. After the beginning of the invasion in February, thousands of MANPADS have been given to Ukraine and these have been mostly responsible for the losses of Russian ground support aviation planes.

    I have posted multiple YouTube documentaries about the Afghanistan War here since March which has the historical context.

    Replies: @Mikel

    Since beginning of March, I explained here already a few times, but you seem to be not interested in reading the comments.

    It’s you who’s lost the plot here. I did actually read your multiple comments on the targeting pods of the Russian planes but it has nothing to do with the discussion on NATO having been able to destroy all the Russian columns in Ukraine in 1 week.

    I hope nobody’s taking my criticism of Putin’s actions as an attack against Russians in general. We are living through a historic event that affects all of us and it is not possible for any minimally informed person to avoid forming judgements about what is going on.

    A few months ago my youngest son came back from school asking if the “Russians are evil”, as he had heard some kids say. I explained that no, there is good and bad people everywhere. That’s all I want him to know for now. But it showed me how consequential these events are going to be no matter how it all ends. I’ve been fearing something like this since the moment I saw Poroshenko launch air attacks and kill civilians in Donbass. I’ll never understand why our politicians didn’t see what even I was able to grasp and didn’t do much more to prevent this war.

  473. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Mikel
    @Triteleia Laxa


    We know their air defence systems are hugely overhyped because Ukraine was flying helicopters into occupied Mariupol, and elsewhere, even Belgorod,
     
    Flying low to avoid radar and losing some of the aircraft to MANPADs, like the Russians themselves.

    How was toy store stuff like Bayrekhtar destroying Russian assets otherwise?
     
    The Bayraktars have played an insignificant role in this war, unlike in Artsakh.

    Some people, particularly on this website, have indeed overhyped Russian air defense systems while Israel was bombing Syria at will, sometimes flying missiles over the head of the Russians in their bases. But even the Israelis are careful to launch their missiles from outside the Syrian airspace. I continue believing that the Russians and Soviet-legacy anti air weapons can cause a lot of trouble to NATO but I don't really know how protected from air attacks those columns were at the beginning of the war. Russia did declare the Ukrainian airspace closed at the time.

    I also think that NATO itself would have had big problems occupying a large country like Ukraine defended by its current armed forces, that obviously have nothing to do with the ones they had in 2015. NATO would have planed the operation better but let's not forget that not long ago we were all discussing the blunders of the Western armies in faraway lands and their inability to defeat sandal-wearing guerrillas on the ground.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    I also think that NATO itself would have had big problems occupying a large country like Ukraine defended by its current armed forces, that obviously have nothing to do with the ones they had in 2015. NATO would have planed the operation better but let’s not forget that not long ago we were all discussing the blunders of the Western armies in faraway lands and their inability to defeat sandal-wearing guerrillas on the ground.

    There’s no comparison. Western forces won every engagement. RusFed forces have now lost the majority of theirs.

    Indeed, Western forces only “failed” because the mission was impossible. Afghans weren’t going to be turned into Swiss.

    Having said that, from here, it looks like America won the War on Terror absolutely decisively. Political Islam is a spent force, and Islamic terrorism is irrelevant to the West.

    All this means that NATO would easily sweep aside Ukrainian conventional forces, but their success, after that, perhaps in occupation, would depend on what they intended to achieve.

    It is hard to go into every single detail, but honestly, it is looking like analogising between Russia as WW2 forces, and NATO as Gulf War 1 forces is too kind to Russia.

    Have you ever walked in a huge line with other people, keeping equal distance? What happens is that you get a concertina effect. It is almost inevitable. And very annoying. The journey takes many times longer than it should, with constant waiting, to hurry up, to wait. And a modern military is liked the longest spear in the world, with the one man pulling the trigger, at any time, located at the very top. This makes for one hell of a concertina effect.

    Well differences in tactics, techniques, procedures, technology, command structures, philosophy etc. will make a military-wide concertina almost vanish, so, if implemented well, and they will make your one force move and operate like a hundred.

    Meanwhile, the Russians are unable to implement even the most basic force multipliers… probably not because the Russians are awful, but because these things are hard.

    An example of an obscure thing that matters will be how big the crates are for ammunition. Like smartphone packaging, these will be tiny, if well-designed. Thereby doubling, just one of many multipliers, the amount of ammunition that ends up getting fired at the enemy. Russians haven’t done this though. It was easier for their logistics generals to steal money.

    Something easier to understand is shooting accuracy. I wouldn’t be surprised is US troops are twice as accurate as UK troops, nor UK troops many times more accurate with their firearms than Russians troops. This is because shooting live ammunition costs money and the so UK troops can do it a lot less than US troops, and accuracy is basically just practice. Firing a rifle is about doing the same motion again and again as perfectly repetitively as possible, especially under stress. Meanwhile, Russia troops, from what I’ve heard, barely ever get down the range.

    So, just these two factors, of thousands, already show, how this works. Frontline troops get twice as much ammo and hit their target twice as much, making them 4 times more effective.

    Ad infinitum.

  474. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @keypusher
    @S

    I think this overstates how intelligent and farsighted anyone was in the West (or in Germany or in the East, but that is another story).

    First of all, the United States was still an NPC in 1939 and 1940. It had a strong navy, but no army to speak of. Isolationism was still strong. Conscription was enacted by a single vote in December 1940 -- after France had been conquered, in other words. Lend-Lease wasn't passed until March 1941. Hitler saved Roosevelt a great deal of trouble by declaring war on the USA a few days after Pearl Harbor. I don't know if there ever was a UK/US hegemon -- Anthony Eden would take strong exception to the term -- but there certainly wasn't one in 1939-40.


    However, Poland’s quick defeat, after having been given unrealistic security guarantees, gave Germany and Russia a long lengthy border.
     
    France and Britain, not the US, gave those guarantees, which merely were that they would go to war with Germany if it invaded Poland. They honored those guarantees, though very reluctantly in France's case. They thought that it would take the Germans 4-6 months to conquer Poland and they would be able to accomplish something in the meantime. As it was, Gamelin, the French generalissimo, undertook a pathetic mini-offensive in the Saar ini mid-September which he abandoned when it became clear the Poles were collapsing. Political leaders in Britain and France didn't know what would happen in the event of war (just like they, and the US administration, didn't know what would happen if Russia invaded Ukraine. It's fair to say that everyone has been surprised by what has happened so far in 2022, just as they were surprised by what happened in 1939.).

    I think it was evident to everyone in the West that the USSR and Hitler's Germany would go to war at some point, and plenty were happy to see that happen. But they were in no position to bring it about, and as far as I know they didn't try. It's not like Chamberlain and Daladier had a plan that involved Germany conquering Poland and creating a long land border between Nazi Germany and the USSR in the hopes that it would lead to war. It's just that, having given up on appeasement after Hitler occupied Czechoslovkia in March 1939, the Western powers had nowhere else to draw a line other than Poland. I'm sure they sincerely wanted to avoid war and hoped that Hitler would be dissuaded by their guarantee.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Emil Nikola Richard

    But if someone somewhere might have wanted something to happen then how can you argue that they were not responsible, instead of the people who actually did the thing?!!?!?!

    Geopolitical stereotype threat?!?!?!?!

  475. S says:
    @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    My comment about reliability wasn't particularly about the sabotage, although see below, it was about single sourcing. Germany was taking a huge proportion of its gas from one provider. As the US has continually stressed that could lead to the present standoff. In many ways, the whole of the rich world has done this by shifting so much production to China or Vietnam or Bangladesh depending on the industry's cost structure but essentially a single source. The old US competition rule of three providers in an industry (thus Lockheed was kept limping on in civil aerospace for years) seems a start. (There is another debate to be had about how many competitors are needed in a market).

    I agree with your point about sabotage. The world takes a lot on trust. A world of fewer and fewer providers becomes fragile.

    There is an analogy with ecosystems. Diverse (countries, currencies, companies, technologies) ecosystems full of small niches are stable. Simple ecosystems boom and crash. Globalism has simplified the economic ecosystems in multile ways. We need to bring in the 60% of the world's population that is broadly still outside the system in as new entities. For example, they should not be overly reliant on dollars or euro. Sorry Volodya but that doesn't mean the rouble by default.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @S

    Diverse (countries, currencies, companies, technologies) ecosystems full of small niches are stable. Simple ecosystems boom and crash.

    It would seem to me that sometimes you might want unity, and other times you might want diversity. It doesn’t have to be just one rote way all the time.

    Well, anyhow.

    Though, I’m not sure if Orwell would entirely approve of the change, I suppose it will do for now. 🙂

    ‘War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Diversity is Strength’

  476. @Mikel
    @Mikhail


    Another way of looking at it is that now that territory must be defended because it’s part of Russia.
     
    That's the way I am looking at it. However, Russia is retreating from a good chunk of Kherson, Donetsk and Lugansk right after declaring them Russian territories. The Kremlin is looking real bad.

    Btw, I can understand your rooting for Russia in this war, I guess I would feel the same if I was a Russian. But I don't understand why people like you or AnonfromTN refuse to see the obvious blunder that Putin's SMO has been and feel the need to support the Kremlin's actions. If you resented Ukraine for their treatment of innocent civilians in Donbas, Putin has caused much more damage to civilians, mostly in Donbas and other Russophone areas, than Ukraine ever did. And he's causing irreparable damage to Russia's military prestige and Russia's general image. You may defend him as much as you want but Putin hasn't done any favors to Russians living abroad with this bloody and incompetent war.

    Replies: @sudden death

    However, Russia is retreating from a good chunk of Kherson, Donetsk and Lugansk right after declaring them Russian territories. The Kremlin is looking real bad.

    Putin should have just annexed whole Ukraine by his decree, then UA army would not be violating any lines of RF territorial integrity anymore;)

    Just like recently RF army announced they have already sent mobiks in Kherson oblast, because… they set up a new fresh training camp there, lol

  477. @Mr. Hack
    https://i.redd.it/8v8q11cfe5r91.png
    If this doesn't work, Putler threatens to use nukes in Ukraine:

    https://cgs-bd.com/cms/media/images/1b043fad-31fe-4076-9660-ba4b7ebad8a9.jpg

    Has anybody given any thought as to where exactly would Putler's bomb be detonated within Ukraine. The Donbas, other parts of Eastern or southern Ukraine? Doesn't sound likely, as in Putler's demented way of seeing things, these parts are already a part of Russia. First time a "liberator" would destroy his own "country"? Central Ukraine, Kyiv, what a political faux paus that would be? How many Ukrainians still live in these areas? Close to Belarus too, and really not that far from the original Russian border. Western Ukraine? Close to Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, all fortunately NATO countries. Think about it, and the awful Armageddon type responses this madman is contemplating?...

    Replies: @LatW, @Unintended Consequence, @Mikhail

    Think about it, and the awful Armageddon type responses this madman is contemplating?

    Well, not only that (although there might not be an Armageddon, since hypothetically all of this can still be contained in Ukraine which is horrific enough), but there is another important question – is Russia ready to wage nuclear war? You don’t just drop the bomb(s), you have to have your troops ready to operate in the battlefield, with the right equipment and plans (afaik, back during the Soviet Union days they had quite rigorous plans in case the bombs are dropped on Eastern Europe, Warsaw pact troops, move towards the West, does Russia have any of such plans, not to mention appropriate equipment for the troops?)

    Especially in a scenario where the West responds (probably conventionally by destroying the Russian troops in Eastern Ukraine). I mean, what… he’s going to just retreat into the bunker with Kabaeva and the children, nuke Ukraine and then leave everyone else there?? The Russian troops, the Donbas civilians, etc. The newly occupied territories, etc. That’s just insane.

    [MORE]

    This Russian channel seems to be run by an insider from the Russian Foreign Intelligence service – not sure this is not a fake, but this guy, General SVR, talks about the potential evacuation of the Russian leadership into the bunkers. And that there are those who are fatalistic yet on the other hand those in the military who want to live and may block Putin’s decision to use nukes. (Btw, there’s also interesting insight into the friction between the Prigozhin’s Military company and the FSB and the generals).

    With English subtitles (again, take it with a grain of salt, not sure it’s real but it does seem to match reality to great a extent):

    And, btw, poor Ukrainians, what they’re being put through, even contemplating these scenarios and being constantly threatened with such horror.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @LatW

    On a sidenote, Strelkov who is superhawk from FSB/Malofeev camp, still always was against using using any nukes on UA soil and in latest stream even managed to say it wouldn't be that much of a catastrophe if RF had to leave Kherson, Melitopol or even parts of Crimea temporarily because of military reasons;

    Replies: @LatW, @Yevardian

    , @Mr. Hack
    @LatW


    I mean, what… he’s going to just retreat into the bunker with Kabaeva and the children, nuke Ukraine and then leave everyone else there?? The Russian troops, the Donbas civilians, etc. The newly occupied territories, etc. That’s just insane.
     
    Well, that's what I'm saying too. It's all so crazy, all that can be hoped for is that those around him have the courage to oust him and take matters into their own, hopefully saner hands. As for Putin being some kind of a champion knight trying to save Russian civilization for a purer vision of Christianity in the guise of Orthodoxy, a "holy war" as he calls it, what's a genuine Christian doing seeking solace and advice from Siberian shamans? Maybe kremlinstoogeA123 could answer that for us, an individual who likes to propagate this sort of nonsense at this blogsite?
  478. @keypusher
    @S

    I think this overstates how intelligent and farsighted anyone was in the West (or in Germany or in the East, but that is another story).

    First of all, the United States was still an NPC in 1939 and 1940. It had a strong navy, but no army to speak of. Isolationism was still strong. Conscription was enacted by a single vote in December 1940 -- after France had been conquered, in other words. Lend-Lease wasn't passed until March 1941. Hitler saved Roosevelt a great deal of trouble by declaring war on the USA a few days after Pearl Harbor. I don't know if there ever was a UK/US hegemon -- Anthony Eden would take strong exception to the term -- but there certainly wasn't one in 1939-40.


    However, Poland’s quick defeat, after having been given unrealistic security guarantees, gave Germany and Russia a long lengthy border.
     
    France and Britain, not the US, gave those guarantees, which merely were that they would go to war with Germany if it invaded Poland. They honored those guarantees, though very reluctantly in France's case. They thought that it would take the Germans 4-6 months to conquer Poland and they would be able to accomplish something in the meantime. As it was, Gamelin, the French generalissimo, undertook a pathetic mini-offensive in the Saar ini mid-September which he abandoned when it became clear the Poles were collapsing. Political leaders in Britain and France didn't know what would happen in the event of war (just like they, and the US administration, didn't know what would happen if Russia invaded Ukraine. It's fair to say that everyone has been surprised by what has happened so far in 2022, just as they were surprised by what happened in 1939.).

    I think it was evident to everyone in the West that the USSR and Hitler's Germany would go to war at some point, and plenty were happy to see that happen. But they were in no position to bring it about, and as far as I know they didn't try. It's not like Chamberlain and Daladier had a plan that involved Germany conquering Poland and creating a long land border between Nazi Germany and the USSR in the hopes that it would lead to war. It's just that, having given up on appeasement after Hitler occupied Czechoslovkia in March 1939, the Western powers had nowhere else to draw a line other than Poland. I'm sure they sincerely wanted to avoid war and hoped that Hitler would be dissuaded by their guarantee.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Emil Nikola Richard

    I’m sure they sincerely wanted to avoid war and hoped that Hitler would be dissuaded by their guarantee.

    This is the sort of reflection that might maybe probably be true but there almost is no way a bunch of powerful people didn’t anticipate the coming war was going to be just swell. If I’m in an optimistic mood I’ll go 90-10 you are right but some days it looks to me a lot closer to 50-50.

    Alex Krainer (the naked hedgie dot com) has an interesting take.

    https://thenakedhedgie.com/2021/12/17/appeasement-the-shocking-truth-about-the-1938-munich-agreement-part-1-of-3/

    • Replies: @keypusher
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    It's possible that Alex Krainer is ignorant (I've never read him before) but I'm pretty confident he's being deliberately dishonest, and is in fact a third-rate propagandist and P.O.S.

    After falsely stating that Hitler destroyed Czechoslovakia in 1938 (he got only the Sudetenland as a result of the Munich conference, and gave his word that he would respect Czechoslovakia's sovereignty) Krainer writes:


    A few months later, on 21 March 1939, Hitler reiterated his demands [on Poland], this time more forcefully. When the news of this reached London, UK’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain suddenly and unilaterally issued a strangely worded security guarantee for Poland
     
    Do you know what else happened in March 1939? Hitler occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. Thus demonstrating that his word was worthless, and incidentally turning British and French public opinion decisively against appeasement. Krainer leaves that out so as to make Chamberlain's guarantee a sort of motiveless provocation, instead of a direct response to German aggression.

    The world (and the internet) are full of deluded cranks; when I see people go beyond that and deliberately lie and mislead, I am disgusted.

    Based on this, I would say that you shouldn't waste a minute on Alex Krainer.

  479. @LatW
    @Mr. Hack


    Think about it, and the awful Armageddon type responses this madman is contemplating?
     
    Well, not only that (although there might not be an Armageddon, since hypothetically all of this can still be contained in Ukraine which is horrific enough), but there is another important question - is Russia ready to wage nuclear war? You don't just drop the bomb(s), you have to have your troops ready to operate in the battlefield, with the right equipment and plans (afaik, back during the Soviet Union days they had quite rigorous plans in case the bombs are dropped on Eastern Europe, Warsaw pact troops, move towards the West, does Russia have any of such plans, not to mention appropriate equipment for the troops?)

    Especially in a scenario where the West responds (probably conventionally by destroying the Russian troops in Eastern Ukraine). I mean, what... he's going to just retreat into the bunker with Kabaeva and the children, nuke Ukraine and then leave everyone else there?? The Russian troops, the Donbas civilians, etc. The newly occupied territories, etc. That's just insane.


    This Russian channel seems to be run by an insider from the Russian Foreign Intelligence service - not sure this is not a fake, but this guy, General SVR, talks about the potential evacuation of the Russian leadership into the bunkers. And that there are those who are fatalistic yet on the other hand those in the military who want to live and may block Putin's decision to use nukes. (Btw, there's also interesting insight into the friction between the Prigozhin's Military company and the FSB and the generals).

    With English subtitles (again, take it with a grain of salt, not sure it's real but it does seem to match reality to great a extent):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuRr1OmLhlE

    And, btw, poor Ukrainians, what they're being put through, even contemplating these scenarios and being constantly threatened with such horror.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Mr. Hack

    On a sidenote, Strelkov who is superhawk from FSB/Malofeev camp, still always was against using using any nukes on UA soil and in latest stream even managed to say it wouldn’t be that much of a catastrophe if RF had to leave Kherson, Melitopol or even parts of Crimea temporarily because of military reasons;

    • Replies: @LatW
    @sudden death


    Strelkov who is superhawk from FSB/Malofeev camp, still always was against using using any nukes on UA soil and in latest stream even managed to say it wouldn’t be that much of a catastrophe if RF had to leave Kherson, Melitopol or even parts of Crimea temporarily because of military reasons;
     
    Actually, that's not dumb at all. Because that way the Russians quickly admit the failure, retreat and spend several years preparing and then come back again, stronger. And then another war starts with more Ukrainian suffering and more threats to the neighbors (remember that timeframe that Arestovch mentioned as critical - there were hypothetically three, so if this one doesn't end with Russia getting crushed, a few years down the line there will be a second "episode").

    This makes a lot of sense, especially in a scenario where the FSB takes full control. The only question then - how to do it practically (many will be against) and what social consequences this kind of a retreat could have in Russia itself.

    Replies: @LatW, @Philip Owen

    , @Yevardian
    @sudden death

    I think utu's position still holds, short of Russia losing Crimea, but with mobilisation (however shambolic it's initial implementation has been) that's very unlikely, short of a similarly massive escalation of US support.


    But it is still possible that Russia will go all the way and will capture whole Ukraine but this will only prolong the agony of Russia and may increase the risk of WWIII. But personally I do not believe that anybody would use nuclear weapons with the exception of Karlin like figure in Kremlin.
     
    I noticed Karlin recently proposed deliberate triggering of a major Kessler Accident, by blowing up enough low-orbit satellites in order to begin a cascading series of collisions which would create enough space-junk to make launching further low-orbit satellites almost impossible... powerful stuff.
    What your opinions of him, Karlin never fails to provide cheap entertainment.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  480. @sudden death
    @LatW

    On a sidenote, Strelkov who is superhawk from FSB/Malofeev camp, still always was against using using any nukes on UA soil and in latest stream even managed to say it wouldn't be that much of a catastrophe if RF had to leave Kherson, Melitopol or even parts of Crimea temporarily because of military reasons;

    Replies: @LatW, @Yevardian

    Strelkov who is superhawk from FSB/Malofeev camp, still always was against using using any nukes on UA soil and in latest stream even managed to say it wouldn’t be that much of a catastrophe if RF had to leave Kherson, Melitopol or even parts of Crimea temporarily because of military reasons;

    Actually, that’s not dumb at all. Because that way the Russians quickly admit the failure, retreat and spend several years preparing and then come back again, stronger. And then another war starts with more Ukrainian suffering and more threats to the neighbors (remember that timeframe that Arestovch mentioned as critical – there were hypothetically three, so if this one doesn’t end with Russia getting crushed, a few years down the line there will be a second “episode”).

    This makes a lot of sense, especially in a scenario where the FSB takes full control. The only question then – how to do it practically (many will be against) and what social consequences this kind of a retreat could have in Russia itself.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @LatW

    On a second thought, what if he's thinking more about Russia than Ukraine right now, seeing what is starting in Russia. If it is really so that the spiders are already fighting each other in the jar, it might be in the interests of Strelkov and his allies to focus on that situation instead, as in "уже не до Украины". Not sure we're at that point yet though.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    , @Philip Owen
    @LatW

    It will take a lot more than several years for Russia to rebuild. We are presently seeing the result of a 14 year refit. 71.8% renewal to quote Shoigu. Even so the Armata was postponed to 2032 because Russia didn't have the technology to make it. To do better, Russia will need to renew its industrial capacity and build new industry such as chip making, optics, boot making and gun barrel manufacture. (Others too, these are just concrete examples).Without EU machines tools and components that will take much longer. 30 years? Even capability Russia once had like night vision (made at Sergey Posad/Zelenograd) seems to have disappeared.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

  481. @LatW
    @sudden death


    Strelkov who is superhawk from FSB/Malofeev camp, still always was against using using any nukes on UA soil and in latest stream even managed to say it wouldn’t be that much of a catastrophe if RF had to leave Kherson, Melitopol or even parts of Crimea temporarily because of military reasons;
     
    Actually, that's not dumb at all. Because that way the Russians quickly admit the failure, retreat and spend several years preparing and then come back again, stronger. And then another war starts with more Ukrainian suffering and more threats to the neighbors (remember that timeframe that Arestovch mentioned as critical - there were hypothetically three, so if this one doesn't end with Russia getting crushed, a few years down the line there will be a second "episode").

    This makes a lot of sense, especially in a scenario where the FSB takes full control. The only question then - how to do it practically (many will be against) and what social consequences this kind of a retreat could have in Russia itself.

    Replies: @LatW, @Philip Owen

    On a second thought, what if he’s thinking more about Russia than Ukraine right now, seeing what is starting in Russia. If it is really so that the spiders are already fighting each other in the jar, it might be in the interests of Strelkov and his allies to focus on that situation instead, as in “уже не до Украины“. Not sure we’re at that point yet though.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @LatW

    The real prize, for Russian political factions that seek power, is Russia. Not Bakhmut. Hopefully some can see past their own ridiculous propaganda, that occupying Bakhmut is "existential" for Russia, and remember that it is actually close to meaningless for Russia.

    That propaganda was only supposed to be there as an argument for why they had so much "will." Similar to a little child saying "I'm going to die if you don't get me that PlayBox for Christmas!"

    I mean, imagine how completely stupid Russians will feel as regards his war in 10 years' time. "We mobilised, destroyed our military, destroyed the CSTO, impoverished ourselves, threatened nukes, lost one or two hundred thousand young Russian lads, all to try and slice off some of Ukraine! Even though we have the most landmass in the world!"

    And not just stupid, but evil.

    And how about Putin's cheerleaders, writing a new rant every week, or so, about how NATO is going to collapse tomorrow, which, if it made any difference to Russian security, would likely only make it worse.

    Go home Russians. Sort out that huge and bountiful land. Putin has been exposed. He's done. Disinfected by the light, now he just needs to be scraped away.

    And as for Girkin. He went native in the Donbas, which is going Ukrainian. He can no longer deal with this "people lower on the hierarchy just shut-up" attitude. He's Sam Worthington from Avatar. His soul yearns to be free in the Hetman's egalitarian band, not Putin's imperial pomp and circumstance, that sycophants like Oliver Stone get so worked up about.

    It is like Russians are stuck in loop, with their political leadership continually trying to imitate Louis XIV. And therefore continually setting themselves up to swiftly emulate the reign of Louis XVI.

    Here's a hint: Louis XIV looked great, as "the Sun King", but was an atrocious ruler. Over his extended rule, he took the superpower of Europe, with the best Army, and slowly ground it down into a loser. Though had he died a quarter way, or half way, through his time instead, he would have looked incredible.

    Just as if Putin had died in 2008, or 2012, he would have been remembered as a good ruler too.

    Replies: @LatW, @John Johnson

  482. @sudden death
    @LatW

    On a sidenote, Strelkov who is superhawk from FSB/Malofeev camp, still always was against using using any nukes on UA soil and in latest stream even managed to say it wouldn't be that much of a catastrophe if RF had to leave Kherson, Melitopol or even parts of Crimea temporarily because of military reasons;

    Replies: @LatW, @Yevardian

    I think utu’s position still holds, short of Russia losing Crimea, but with mobilisation (however shambolic it’s initial implementation has been) that’s very unlikely, short of a similarly massive escalation of US support.

    But it is still possible that Russia will go all the way and will capture whole Ukraine but this will only prolong the agony of Russia and may increase the risk of WWIII. But personally I do not believe that anybody would use nuclear weapons with the exception of Karlin like figure in Kremlin.

    I noticed Karlin recently proposed deliberate triggering of a major Kessler Accident, by blowing up enough low-orbit satellites in order to begin a cascading series of collisions which would create enough space-junk to make launching further low-orbit satellites almost impossible… powerful stuff.
    What your opinions of him, Karlin never fails to provide cheap entertainment.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Yevardian

    America has been giving Ukraine as much equipment as they need and can handle.

    The "as much as they need" part is easy and cheap for the US. As I said at the beginning of this war, look what the US chucked at Iraq and Afghanistan and barely flinched over. It dwarfs anything Ukraine can handle even over many years.

    The "handle" part is the difficult part. Teaching someone to drive a tank is easy. Teaching a crew to operate it tactically is much harder. Teaching it to fight as part of a large formation is a problem whose complexity scales with...scale. and then there's maintenance and supply, which is probably worse. It normally takes years for new pieces of equipment to cascade through already functioning institutions and, even then, the first few tries usually look a bit like failures.

    But Ukrainians are doing this well, and all the serious forces of the West have now been training them for months. Already, Britian is running a junior leaders' course in Britain. The initial pay-offs were Kharkhiv, no Northern Donetsk and into Luhansk and Kherson, but the training that started months ago, will be paying off tomorrow, and it has only been scaled up. Like a pyramid starting at the top, with the first trainees trained, and the first trainers trained too, this can cascade remarkably fast. They've found an iteration that works, and each iteration will only improve.

    This is why Russia's mobilisation is far too little and far too late. Ukraine will be bringing new, professionalised formations online, at an increasing pace, already far faster than Russia can imagine. And it is all locked in.

    Amateurs and, even soldiers who previously served as privates and the like, just know too little about how combat effectiveness is created to fully grasp the above. 95% of what goes into it are unknown unknowns to you all, and most of the commentors. Even some disaffected former junior Officers like Scott Ritter may find their vanity obstructs their understanding. Find some actual Generals! They're the people who understood the most, and performed the best. Lieutenant Colonel might sound great, but, if you're a commissioned officer, and stick around long enough, you will make it to half Colonel, unless you're a complete incompetent.

    Imagine if every article talked about Science, as if research were done like in Newton's day. Rather than how it is actually done, in huge teams, with collaborative processes, and endless complexity. Well that's how 99% of people who talk about modern militaries sound.

    Without transparency and accountability, a military will never be great any more. Interestingly, the Hetman's band, where everyone understands everyone else, is a great model. The Tsar's court, or the court of Versailles, where everyone lies, saves face and plays court games, is not.

    There's no saving Russian forces in this war, except by going home. Find a General from a competent military. Listen to him. He'll know. They tend to speak in a way that sounds pessimistic, so adjust for that. It is just part of how mature professionals make sure that they address problems with adequate seriousness.

    Replies: @Yevardian

  483. @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    I hope that neither him [Malofeev] nor his circle will ever get to the power in Russia. This guy is probably more dangerous than Prigozhin or Kadyrov. He’s an ideologue and a fanatic, unlike them.
     
    I haven't read this book, but I know what it's about. This man is very dangerous, and I agree wholeheartedly that he should never be in power (he already has enough money and status). This kind of stuff is a direct threat to very many people and it will be fought against. It's very scary but it needs to be faced.

    Prigozhin and Kadyrov are primitive chads (with criminal tendencies), but this guy is a fanatical ideologue. When the war ends (or continues in a different form, e.g., when the imperialistic war transforms into a civil war), I'm very concerned that some really crazy and sinister chuvaks could rise to the top and fight it out amongst each other. Both Prigozhin and Kadyrov have their own troops, I'm not sure about who this Malofeev could align with, maybe Zolotov from Rosgvardia? In that case, Ukraine & Baltic States are truly screwed and we will have to arm ourselves to the teeth (probably with the help of Western troops). Unless a serious smuta takes place and then these guys will be busy with themselves. (Obviously I don't wish any of this on the Russian people).


    he sees the Imperial tradition as an evolution of an archetype sort of came “from above”
     
    That sounds very absolutist and a bit constructed. He wants to impose it with terrible bloodshed and pain to others. We know that. They would tread over the Russian people, too.

    This guy is basically the equivalent of an Orthodox Salafi Islamist. He has no respect for ethnic diversity, for blood and soil.
     
    Of course, not, including the Russian one.


    His Empire is universal, absolute and idealistic (I know, coming from someone like me the accusation of excessive idealism sounds a bit strange).
     
    No, it doesn't, because your idealism is truthful and natural, unlike this constructed nuttiness.

    and I also have a healthy dose of respect for Finno-Ugric/Uralic peoples too
     
    Me too, I really like their quiet and rugged personalities, their robust spirit (decent phenotype too in many cases).

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Philip Owen

    Malofeev seems to be on good terms with Patrushev. So he may be relying on the FSB/GRU for muscle. I agree that Zolotov might be on the radar too. Also, actual Cossacks. 2000 of them were in the Donbas with Girkin within a couple of weeks. I think the late Vsevolod Chaplin, a priest, organized that. None of these links are strong.

    Thanks for thelink to the book.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Philip Owen


    Also, actual Cossacks. 2000 of them were in the Donbas with Girkin within a couple of weeks.
     
    Sorry, but these Cossaks cannot be taken seriously. Only real troops such as Rosgvardia or Kadyrov's troops matter (but Kadyrov needs those for himself).
    , @Bashibuzuk
    @Philip Owen

    Given Malofeev's ressources, he might easily become a focal point for the assembly of the Ultra-Orthodox imperialist sympathizers in the next Смута which might rapidly follow the already started Поруха . I mean, what were Lenin's connections in the military circles before 1917 or Mao's before 1927 ?

  484. They should play this video for the new conscripts:

    And that’s why you are being asked to scrounge for tampons.

    Gonna need a lot of tampons. Definitely get full absorbency if you can.

    • LOL: LatW
  485. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @LatW
    @LatW

    On a second thought, what if he's thinking more about Russia than Ukraine right now, seeing what is starting in Russia. If it is really so that the spiders are already fighting each other in the jar, it might be in the interests of Strelkov and his allies to focus on that situation instead, as in "уже не до Украины". Not sure we're at that point yet though.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    The real prize, for Russian political factions that seek power, is Russia. Not Bakhmut. Hopefully some can see past their own ridiculous propaganda, that occupying Bakhmut is “existential” for Russia, and remember that it is actually close to meaningless for Russia.

    That propaganda was only supposed to be there as an argument for why they had so much “will.” Similar to a little child saying “I’m going to die if you don’t get me that PlayBox for Christmas!”

    I mean, imagine how completely stupid Russians will feel as regards his war in 10 years’ time. “We mobilised, destroyed our military, destroyed the CSTO, impoverished ourselves, threatened nukes, lost one or two hundred thousand young Russian lads, all to try and slice off some of Ukraine! Even though we have the most landmass in the world!”

    And not just stupid, but evil.

    And how about Putin’s cheerleaders, writing a new rant every week, or so, about how NATO is going to collapse tomorrow, which, if it made any difference to Russian security, would likely only make it worse.

    Go home Russians. Sort out that huge and bountiful land. Putin has been exposed. He’s done. Disinfected by the light, now he just needs to be scraped away.

    And as for Girkin. He went native in the Donbas, which is going Ukrainian. He can no longer deal with this “people lower on the hierarchy just shut-up” attitude. He’s Sam Worthington from Avatar. His soul yearns to be free in the Hetman’s egalitarian band, not Putin’s imperial pomp and circumstance, that sycophants like Oliver Stone get so worked up about.

    It is like Russians are stuck in loop, with their political leadership continually trying to imitate Louis XIV. And therefore continually setting themselves up to swiftly emulate the reign of Louis XVI.

    Here’s a hint: Louis XIV looked great, as “the Sun King”, but was an atrocious ruler. Over his extended rule, he took the superpower of Europe, with the best Army, and slowly ground it down into a loser. Though had he died a quarter way, or half way, through his time instead, he would have looked incredible.

    Just as if Putin had died in 2008, or 2012, he would have been remembered as a good ruler too.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Triteleia Laxa


    The real prize, for Russian political factions that seek power, is Russia. Not Bakhmut. Hopefully some can see past their own ridiculous propaganda, that occupying Bakhmut is “existential” for Russia, and remember that it is actually close to meaningless for Russia.
     
    But they identify it as "theirs" so to them it is "existential". Before Maidan, they probably had a sense that those regions are already "mentally", culturally theirs and, even inside of the borders of Ukraine, they are still mentally together. But then Ukraine decided to depart and take those regions with them. I think mentally they can't get over it (I couldn't probably and I must admit that culturally speaking there is some validity in their stance, although Ukraine's sovereignty should take priority, imo, ideally, without violence against the Russian population) plus there is now the actual violence that's being dished out since 2014 and the Russian side feels it's unjust. We can say whatever we want but that's how they feel.

    They also need some pride to be left over for their country, come on, not being able to even take Donbas....? That's weak. That's why the mistake they made of trying to take the whole of Ukraine is so bad, because if they had just annexed DNR/LNR in February, they would still be ok now.

    Well, and another aspect here is that, hypothetically, if there was some success in a place like Bakhmut, and, let's say, a group like Wagner showed some good fighting there, then this gives points to Prigozhin that he can later use in Russia. It gives him visibility, status. That's why I think those Kadyrov's troops were making all those TikTok videos, to sell them to the Russian audience showing that Kadyrov is so badass.

    Remember that Girkin gained a lot of cache through his Slovyansk adventures - even if he had to leave eventually, he became a cult figure in certain circles. You know, British and American men gain credit through building things, but some Slavic men are still very much into this bold military leader cult. It's badass, it's just that there is too much destruction left over when they leave - all the ruined livelihoods of innocents. It's all at their expense.


    Interestingly, the Hetman’s band, where everyone understands everyone else, is a great model. The Tsar’s court, or the court of Versailles, where everyone lies, saves face and plays court games, is not.
     
    This is a very good point. It appears that the spirit of the Sich still lives inside of the Ukrainian warrior. And society as a whole - they are able to mobilize themselves from the ground up.

    Whereas the Russian "court" is just very far removed from the things happening on the ground. I have respect for the likes of Rosgvardia but they were just not deployed in the proper way.


    But Ukrainians are doing this well, and all the serious forces of the West have now been training them for months.
     
    Right, also remember that a lot of them have spent 8 years in an actual war which gave them a lot of experience. Not to mention morale - they are now angry like disturbed wasps after all the atrocities on their homeland. The new conscripts are walking into a sea of very angry wasps.

    The October water in Dnipro must be damn cold..

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @John Johnson

    , @John Johnson
    @Triteleia Laxa

    Just as if Putin had died in 2008, or 2012, he would have been remembered as a good ruler too.

    That is correct. He may have been a dictator but would have been viewed by the people as working for Russia's interests. Similar to Franco but not as moral.

    As it stands the world hates him and views him as a loser.

    Everyone in Russia will have known someone that either died in combat or as a Ukrainian civilian. Most Russians have a relative in Ukraine.

    He will be viewed as a loser Tsar like Nicholas II.

    The only way he can restore his image is to apologize and withdrawal all forces. But he isn't the type of man that can admit a mistake. He is the bitter kid that would cheat just to "one up" everyone. His ego is too fragile to admit mistakes.

    If it was Japan or Korea they would expect him to kill himself so he doesn't shame his offspring. I honesty admire Jap/Korean culture in that regard. They don't believe that terrible leaders should get to just walk away into a wealthy retirement. Asian CEOs will still on occasion kill themselves if they destroy the company.

  486. @Philip Owen
    @LatW

    Malofeev seems to be on good terms with Patrushev. So he may be relying on the FSB/GRU for muscle. I agree that Zolotov might be on the radar too. Also, actual Cossacks. 2000 of them were in the Donbas with Girkin within a couple of weeks. I think the late Vsevolod Chaplin, a priest, organized that. None of these links are strong.

    Thanks for thelink to the book.

    Replies: @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

    Also, actual Cossacks. 2000 of them were in the Donbas with Girkin within a couple of weeks.

    Sorry, but these Cossaks cannot be taken seriously. Only real troops such as Rosgvardia or Kadyrov’s troops matter (but Kadyrov needs those for himself).

  487. @Ron Unz
    It looks like most of the discussion on this Open Thread has focused on the front-line fighting, and the Ukrainians have recently been getting the better of it.

    But I think NATO is facing a looming strategic defeat of gigantic magnitude, vastly more significant than those minor military skirmishes.

    As I discussed in my recent article, it seems almost certain that America was behind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, and the loss of cheap Russian natural gas is set to absolutely devastate the German economy:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Tucker Carlson has had a couple of good segments on America's obvious involvement:

    https://youtu.be/jLb0QeCQF_I

    Prof. Jeffrey Sachs was just interviewed yesterday on Bloomberg TV, and he confirmed that everyone is sure that America was behind the pipeline attacks. A short clip of his remarks was Tweeted out and viewed over 4 million times, with millions of additional views on other Tweets:

    https://twitter.com/0ddette/status/1576916509766451200

    More than half of all German companies have said that they may be forced to close down and the growing popular demonstrations demanding that the sanctions be lifted and the pipelines be reopened obviously prompted the American decision to eliminate that possibility.

    The apparent American strike on pipelines so vital to Germany may have been the largest peacetime military attack on civilian infrastructure in the history of the world and obviously an act of war against Germany not to be taken lightly. But with the pipelines now destroyed, Germany would have no other options. Except that the pipeline attackers were a little careless in their operation as Jeff Davis, a commenter on this website, pointed out earlier today:

    Jump on this scoop:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/gazprom-ready-to-ship-gas-via-shelved-nord-stream-2-pipeline

    The vaunted US Navy screwed up. In the murky depths of the Baltic Sea they planted their explosives to blow up the ***FOUR*** pipes of the NS 1 & NS2 gas pipelines. (You didn’t know there were four pipes, did you? Neither did I.) But they appear to have screwed up and placed two of the explosive packages on one of the NS2 pipes — line A — leaving the other pipe — line B — with no explosive charge, and subsequently ***NO DAMAGE***. Line B is therefore ***READY TO GO*** with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year … which for comparison is 50% of total capacity of Nordstream 1, which as you may recall was recently reduced to 20% capacity before being shut down completely. (2.75 times the capacity of the newly-opened Norway-to-Poland gas pipeline).

    Gazprom has lowered the pressure in the line, will conduct an inspection, after which Germany can just give the go ahead, flip the switch, be back to 50% of the previous gas supply rate.

    The US thought they would f*ck Germany, but they screwed the pooch.
     
    https://www.unz.com/pescobar/pipeline-terror-is-the-9-11-of-the-raging-twenties/?showcomments#comment-5583668

    So the Germans need only declare an end to Russian sanctions and open the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and their desperate energy crunch will be over.

    Given the extremely strong likelihood that America tried to destroy the pipelines and devastate the German economy, I think we may see the end of NATO much sooner than anyone expected.

    And if the Germans throw out America and realign with Russia, I think both Poland and Ukraine may face a difficult strategic position.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @A123, @sudden death, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Triteleia Laxa, @Philip Owen

    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.

    • Replies: @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.
     
    I'll admit I find it difficult to imagine that any half-rational person could have ever believed that the Russians destroyed their own pipelines, given the facts I'd presented in my recent article:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday Col. Douglas Macgregor argued that the Western MSM coverage of the current Ukraine war was just total nonsense and that the Ukrainians had suffered massive losses and the Russians were doing fine:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwnQfO6Y4

    I'm not a military expert on this conflict and I haven't been following it closely, but Macgregor seems a very credible expert and these days I tend to discount anything provided by the MSM of "the Empire of Lies."

    Replies: @A123, @Wokechoke, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen

  488. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Yevardian
    @sudden death

    I think utu's position still holds, short of Russia losing Crimea, but with mobilisation (however shambolic it's initial implementation has been) that's very unlikely, short of a similarly massive escalation of US support.


    But it is still possible that Russia will go all the way and will capture whole Ukraine but this will only prolong the agony of Russia and may increase the risk of WWIII. But personally I do not believe that anybody would use nuclear weapons with the exception of Karlin like figure in Kremlin.
     
    I noticed Karlin recently proposed deliberate triggering of a major Kessler Accident, by blowing up enough low-orbit satellites in order to begin a cascading series of collisions which would create enough space-junk to make launching further low-orbit satellites almost impossible... powerful stuff.
    What your opinions of him, Karlin never fails to provide cheap entertainment.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    America has been giving Ukraine as much equipment as they need and can handle.

    The “as much as they need” part is easy and cheap for the US. As I said at the beginning of this war, look what the US chucked at Iraq and Afghanistan and barely flinched over. It dwarfs anything Ukraine can handle even over many years.

    The “handle” part is the difficult part. Teaching someone to drive a tank is easy. Teaching a crew to operate it tactically is much harder. Teaching it to fight as part of a large formation is a problem whose complexity scales with…scale. and then there’s maintenance and supply, which is probably worse. It normally takes years for new pieces of equipment to cascade through already functioning institutions and, even then, the first few tries usually look a bit like failures.

    But Ukrainians are doing this well, and all the serious forces of the West have now been training them for months. Already, Britian is running a junior leaders’ course in Britain. The initial pay-offs were Kharkhiv, no Northern Donetsk and into Luhansk and Kherson, but the training that started months ago, will be paying off tomorrow, and it has only been scaled up. Like a pyramid starting at the top, with the first trainees trained, and the first trainers trained too, this can cascade remarkably fast. They’ve found an iteration that works, and each iteration will only improve.

    This is why Russia’s mobilisation is far too little and far too late. Ukraine will be bringing new, professionalised formations online, at an increasing pace, already far faster than Russia can imagine. And it is all locked in.

    Amateurs and, even soldiers who previously served as privates and the like, just know too little about how combat effectiveness is created to fully grasp the above. 95% of what goes into it are unknown unknowns to you all, and most of the commentors. Even some disaffected former junior Officers like Scott Ritter may find their vanity obstructs their understanding. Find some actual Generals! They’re the people who understood the most, and performed the best. Lieutenant Colonel might sound great, but, if you’re a commissioned officer, and stick around long enough, you will make it to half Colonel, unless you’re a complete incompetent.

    Imagine if every article talked about Science, as if research were done like in Newton’s day. Rather than how it is actually done, in huge teams, with collaborative processes, and endless complexity. Well that’s how 99% of people who talk about modern militaries sound.

    Without transparency and accountability, a military will never be great any more. Interestingly, the Hetman’s band, where everyone understands everyone else, is a great model. The Tsar’s court, or the court of Versailles, where everyone lies, saves face and plays court games, is not.

    There’s no saving Russian forces in this war, except by going home. Find a General from a competent military. Listen to him. He’ll know. They tend to speak in a way that sounds pessimistic, so adjust for that. It is just part of how mature professionals make sure that they address problems with adequate seriousness.

    • Replies: @Yevardian
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Amateurs and, even soldiers who previously served as privates and the like, just know too little about how combat effectiveness is created to fully grasp the above. 95% of what goes into it are unknown unknowns to you all, and most of the commentors.
     
    Yet somehow that doesn't stop you constantly making bold predictions, or insane suggestions like Ukraine should attack Belarus (LOL). Fact remains Russia has over x3 the available manpower Ukraine does. Probably more actually, nobody has known Ukraine's actual population for decades.
    Moreoever the destruction is taking place entirely on Ukraine (or Russia's annexed regions). If the US pulled out of its extremely dangerous proxy war the main fighting would be over in a few weeks, and far few Russians and Ukrainians would be killed.

    The “as much as they need” part is easy and cheap for the US. As I said at the beginning of this war, look what the US chucked at Iraq and Afghanistan and barely flinched over. It dwarfs anything Ukraine can handle even over many years.
     
    Sure, all the US has to do is keep pouring more money, and more Russians and Ukrainians keep getting killed, Germany keeps buying LNG at exorbitant prices. With mobilisation the mutual slaughter of Slavs and implosion of the German economy could even go on for years. It's a massive win-win for the US no matter how the war turns out. A small price to pay for another glorious American century.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Wokechoke

  489. @Yahya
    @Bashibuzuk


    Have you ever listened to Uyghur music?
     
    From Central Asia, I've only listened to Afghan music, though I'm not sure if Afghanistan counts as Central Asian. I've always thought of the "Heart of Asia" as a tri-cultural blend between South, Central and West Asia. Though i've only listened to Afghan folk music sung in Dari (a surprisingly euphonious tongue), so I suppose it does qualify as Central Asian.

    This is my favorite Dari folk song "Beshnaw az Nay" or "Cry of the Reed", arranged by Khaled Arman and performed by his talented wife Mashal Arman. It's a famous song in Afghanistan and there are countless renditions of it on YouTube, some good ones being by Kayhan Kalhor, Henri Tournier, Ensemble Kaboul and Ayeda Husain Naqvi. But this is the most refined version:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tUWeiGQ_GU&ab_channel=GenevaCamerata

    The lyrics are taken from Mawlānā Rumi's Masnavi.


    Listen to the reed and the tale it tells,
    how it sings of separation:

    Ever since they cut me from the reed bed,
    my wail has caused men and women to weep.

    I want a heart torn open with longing
    to share the pain of this love.

    Whoever has been parted from his source
    longs to return to that state of union.

    At every gathering I play my lament.
    I’m a friend to both happy and sad.

    Each befriended me for his own reasons,
    yet none searched out the secrets I contain.

    My secret is not different than my lament,
    yet this is not for the senses to perceive.

    The body is not hidden from the soul,
    nor is the soul hidden from the body,
    and yet the soul is not for everyone to see.

    This flute is played with fire, not with wind,
    and without this fire you would not exist.
     

    One description interprets this poem as follows:

    "In the opening poem of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi's Mathnawi, Beshno az Ney, or the Cry of the Reed, we hear the lament of the reed flute as it tells us about the pain of separation. Just as the reed is cut from its bed; burned, hollowed, and drilled with holes, so must man in his unnatural state of separation from the Divine go through the trials of life, and learn to be likewise empty before he can turn his suffering into joy, or in this case, beautiful music. It is the pain of separation that will eventually bring him Home."


    It is a world in itself on the crossroads of Central Asia, well worth exploring.
     
    I've always regarded Central Asia as a unique, exotic, almost magical place. It's quite peculiar to me in that its Islamic character is fairly recognizable, but the people and culture seems somewhat alien to me. I've never encountered a Central Asian nor have I visited the region. In that regard I think a Russian would find it less foreign owing to their proximity and the legacy of the USSR. Probably even a modern-day Russian would have met a few Central Asian migrant workers.

    With regards to Uyghurs; I regret to say I don't know much about them except the persecution they are facing. I watched this Vice News segment on the Uyghur situation a while back; and while one must always be wary of the bias inherent in documentaries and the like, I think this one is fairly accurate. I wouldn't put it beyond the Chinese Communist Party to practice this sort of brutal totalitarianism. There's a particularly poignant segment in 18:10 where an Uyghur mother shows Isobel Yeung footage of her daughter in an education camp, where she alongside other Uyghur children were taken from their families and forced to learn Chinese customs under government supervision. It's simply disgusting.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7AYyUqrMuQ&ab_channel=VICENews


    Regarding the young people not being interested in their ancestors’ music, it is true everywhere. For example, many Russian youth would gladly listen to some US Gangsta Rap or to Russian Hip hop wannabees, but won’t be interested in the traditional Russian songs or heroic Rus ballads (byliny).

     

    Yes this is quite true, the pervasiveness of the Rap & Hip-Hop Epidemic is one of the 21st century's biggest tragedies. Even in the Arab world we are not immune to this, Arab shabab be liken that sheet. The appeal of this music to non-blacks mystifies me. Even the world's elites are swept up by it. My school friends, and many former college classmates, some of whom are more intelligent than I am in an IQ sense, listen to the most mindless, mechanical music. They mostly don't care for the highest forms of expression in their own native traditions.

    I can't really complain much though about people listening to music outside their traditions. I probably listen to more foreign music than Arabic music at this point. But if only people would listen to the best other countries have to offer, musicians like Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Hadjidakis, Hossein-Banan, Selçuk, Miyake, Shankar etc. instead of Eminem and Jay-Z, then perhaps it would be more acceptable to abandon ones native tradition.


    limited to some well known Maghrebi songs
     
    I like some Maghrebi pop tunes, but most of it is crap like everywhere else in the globe. Algerian Chaabi music is much better. I made a few recommendations a couple of months ago if you're interested: https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-193/#comment-5475692

    Algerian music is quite distinct from Middle Eastern music; mainly in that the latter is morbidly melancholic, which can get a bit tiresome (95% of Arabic, Turkish, and Persian music harp on the same topic). Algerian music by contrast is more upbeat and gregarious; without being frivolous. The top composers of Algerian classical music I call the 3 M's: Mustapha Skandrani, Mohamed Iguerbouchen, Mohammed Weld El Kourd.

    The Algerian Jewish composer Maurice El-Medioni (wonderful man) would make a fourth M, though he's developed his own unique style which is slightly different from the above-mentioned composers, perhaps owing to his Judaic background.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tv3HAoYOT8&list=PLk4jQWJwkElQjvAO1k5yjUeOxVHCizPD9&index=3&ab_channel=Dialnamusic

    The rest of the Maghreb seems to be more influenced by the Middle East (primarily Egyptian music), at least in their art music. As such they are more singer-centric than Algeria, the best vocalists being the Tunisians Dorsaf Hamdani and Sonia M'Barek, and in Morocco there is Nidal Ibourk. Though the Maghreb outside Algeria also has some top-quality composers like Anouar Brahem, Adnane Matrone and Nabil Ben Abdel-Jalil.

    Replies: @Another Polish Perspective, @Philip Owen

    My tastes in ethnic folk music from the Russian Empire are not as sophisiticared as yours. I listen to very poppy types such as Sogdiana (Uzbek), Otkyen (described as Siberian Native Jazz – Jazz it ain’t but they use a saxophone. Might be Sakha), Grai or worse.

    • Replies: @Yahya
    @Philip Owen


    My tastes in ethnic folk music from the Russian Empire are not as sophisiticared as yours.
     
    Don't get me wrong, I enjoy listening to trashy ethnic music as much as the next person. Just my interest in such music is only limited to my own ethnicity.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JuumKGh1s8&list=PLk4jQWJwkElSlpdfp4q2SW89QAuo6mrlO&index=77&ab_channel=MohamadAlrawi

    In fact, I find that no category of music touches the soul more than trashy ethnic music. The trashier it is, the further it reaches the depth of the human soul.

    But for other ethnicities i'm more interested in the highest forms of music they have to offer. In Russia that would be the likes of Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin etc. Never really got into Shostakovich or Prokofiev tbh though, beyond their famous oeuvre. In the broader empire perhaps a bit of Khachaturian, Amirov, and Lysenko. I've also listened to a fair share of Ukrainian and Russian folk music, which I regard as one of the best in the world.

    On the pop side I occasionally like listening to Balqees (Yemeni) and Rahma Riad (Iraqi); but again I have no interest in foreign pop artists, unless they provide something unique and original. Sogdina seems to be the stereotypical mechanical pop artist; but the other two are actually fairly interesting. I'm particularly impressed by Otyken; they have come up with something unique and compelling; the colorful yet tasteful costumes, scenic Siberian backgrounds, traditional instruments and throat-singing. Grai are cool too, but metal is not to my taste unfortunately.

  490. @Mr. Hack
    https://i.redd.it/8v8q11cfe5r91.png
    If this doesn't work, Putler threatens to use nukes in Ukraine:

    https://cgs-bd.com/cms/media/images/1b043fad-31fe-4076-9660-ba4b7ebad8a9.jpg

    Has anybody given any thought as to where exactly would Putler's bomb be detonated within Ukraine. The Donbas, other parts of Eastern or southern Ukraine? Doesn't sound likely, as in Putler's demented way of seeing things, these parts are already a part of Russia. First time a "liberator" would destroy his own "country"? Central Ukraine, Kyiv, what a political faux paus that would be? How many Ukrainians still live in these areas? Close to Belarus too, and really not that far from the original Russian border. Western Ukraine? Close to Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, all fortunately NATO countries. Think about it, and the awful Armageddon type responses this madman is contemplating?...

    Replies: @LatW, @Unintended Consequence, @Mikhail

    Are the Ukrainians paying you to generate ridiculous anti-Putin propaganda? I think you should consider the Russian perspective in all this. If Russia was your homeland, would you want a weirdo who uses his naughty bits to play piano making deals with your former Cold War enemy to establish a military base on your border? Wouldn’t you be more than a little impatient to secure as much territory as possible to protect your people from corrupt incompetents as well as foreign invasion? Be honest.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Unintended Consequence

    1. NATO hasn't even built bases in Poland.

    2. Why are you scared of a liberal Russophone comedian?

    3. That "former Cold War enemy" has never attacked Russia, not even when its troops were completely vulnerable in Ukraine at the beginning of this war.

    4. The one thing Russia does not need to "secure" is "more territory."

    5. Why are you talking about Putin as if he were playing a Paradox computer game?

    6. It is obvious who the "corrupt incompetents" are, and their leader is Vladimir Putin.

    7. Do you have a brain? "Be honest."

    Replies: @Unintended Consequence

    , @A123
    @Unintended Consequence


    @Mr. Hack

    Are the Ukrainians paying you to generate ridiculous anti-Putin propaganda
     
    Sadly, Mr. Hack is mentally ill and in desperate need of psychiatric assistance.

    When all of this started, I was relatively neutral Ukraine vs. Russia. However, prolonged exposure to genocidal Ukie Maximalists has shaped my views. And, given me some understanding of how Russians view the matter.

    Ukie Maximalist kill-frenzy is so degenerate and obscene, there is no 'quit' option available to Russian Orthodox Christians. Their two alternatives are victory or extinction.

    Does anyone think Russian Christians will volunteer for elimination?

    Putin is playing for time at this point. There are many good reasons to believe that Ukie aggression will soon have less support. However, if that does not happen. Putin will do what God requires of Christians.

    I have no claims to deep ecclesiastical mysteries. But, some of the tales of Revelations have potential parallels to nuclear Armageddon. Only the enemies of God (e.g. Ukie Maximalists) would intentionally push Putin towards the end of humanity.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  491. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Unintended Consequence
    @Mr. Hack

    Are the Ukrainians paying you to generate ridiculous anti-Putin propaganda? I think you should consider the Russian perspective in all this. If Russia was your homeland, would you want a weirdo who uses his naughty bits to play piano making deals with your former Cold War enemy to establish a military base on your border? Wouldn't you be more than a little impatient to secure as much territory as possible to protect your people from corrupt incompetents as well as foreign invasion? Be honest.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @A123

    1. NATO hasn’t even built bases in Poland.

    2. Why are you scared of a liberal Russophone comedian?

    3. That “former Cold War enemy” has never attacked Russia, not even when its troops were completely vulnerable in Ukraine at the beginning of this war.

    4. The one thing Russia does not need to “secure” is “more territory.”

    5. Why are you talking about Putin as if he were playing a Paradox computer game?

    6. It is obvious who the “corrupt incompetents” are, and their leader is Vladimir Putin.

    7. Do you have a brain? “Be honest.”

    • Replies: @Unintended Consequence
    @Triteleia Laxa

    While you're bogged down in the minutiae of the supposed great and glorious Ukraine, has it occurred to you that more is at stake? This is not simply about Russian imperialism; It's about NATO moving ever closer to Russia as if trying to contain it as if still dealing with the USSR. I'm sorry but I don't think the Donbas or Kherson or Zaporizhzhia remaining part of the Ukraine is more important than the US having a good relationship with Russia. It's not even our business to intervene and we certainly shouldn't be funding the Ukrainian military or giving them weapons. That makes this a proxy war. But why would we be treating Russia like an enemy? Even worse, why would we risk a permanent rift between the US and the RF not to mention igniting WW3.

    You are either not an American or you are ethnically Ukrainian, obviously. It has been a long-standing policy of the US to sacrifice the little country's concerns in order to keep the peace. Imo, this is one of those instances. The Ukraine needs to make some concessions. The US and NATO need to stop assisting the military buildup. This is not about the Ukraine nor was it ever. Don't be so completely selfish and obtuse.

    Replies: @keypusher

  492. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:

    Russians With Attitude called Wagner “unironically, the best troops in the world.”

    What was true is that they’re probably the best troops in Russia.

    But this is what actually happened when they fought the Americans directly.

    https://www.coffeeordie.com/wagner-group-syria-khasham

    TLDR, if the Russians fought the US in a conventional war, without retreating to their cities to use insurgent-style tactics, the war would be over before barely anyone knew it had begun. I’ve explained why elsewhere as best I can without writing a book! This has all been obvious too, ever since the first week of the invasion.

    It also points to what will slowly start to happen as Ukraine continues to upskill, even while the professionalism and equipment of the Russian force degenerates.

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Russians With Attitude called Wagner "unironically, the best troops in the world." What was true is that they’re probably the best troops in Russia.

    But this is what actually happened when they fought the Americans directly.

    "With the expert direction of Air Force combat controllers waves of F-22 fighters, F-15E strike fighters, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, AC-130 gunships, B-52 bombers, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and heavy Marine artillery relentlessly punished the enemy force."
     
    You dumbass paid troll licking Uncle Sam's arse. Such an air force would demolish any ground force not having air support or air defence no matter what country.

    The Wagner group is specialized on urban warfare.

    And by the way they do not only fight well but have started making excellent movies. Only a few days ago The Best in Hell has been premiered.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSgpq77eqSU

    It is a great movie for anybody who is interested in modern warfare. There is no drama and very few dialogues, but a lot of shooting, depiction and description of tactics. The film is based on one of the recent operation in Donbas.

    The production and cinematography is top-class. Everything looks very realistic, shot in semi-documentary style. Try watching it and maybe you will get a clue about what the Wagner group does.

    Note that in the movie Ukrainians are shown with respect.
  493. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @keypusher


    I’m sure they sincerely wanted to avoid war and hoped that Hitler would be dissuaded by their guarantee.
     
    This is the sort of reflection that might maybe probably be true but there almost is no way a bunch of powerful people didn't anticipate the coming war was going to be just swell. If I'm in an optimistic mood I'll go 90-10 you are right but some days it looks to me a lot closer to 50-50.

    Alex Krainer (the naked hedgie dot com) has an interesting take.

    https://thenakedhedgie.com/2021/12/17/appeasement-the-shocking-truth-about-the-1938-munich-agreement-part-1-of-3/

    Replies: @keypusher

    It’s possible that Alex Krainer is ignorant (I’ve never read him before) but I’m pretty confident he’s being deliberately dishonest, and is in fact a third-rate propagandist and P.O.S.

    After falsely stating that Hitler destroyed Czechoslovakia in 1938 (he got only the Sudetenland as a result of the Munich conference, and gave his word that he would respect Czechoslovakia’s sovereignty) Krainer writes:

    A few months later, on 21 March 1939, Hitler reiterated his demands [on Poland], this time more forcefully. When the news of this reached London, UK’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain suddenly and unilaterally issued a strangely worded security guarantee for Poland

    Do you know what else happened in March 1939? Hitler occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. Thus demonstrating that his word was worthless, and incidentally turning British and French public opinion decisively against appeasement. Krainer leaves that out so as to make Chamberlain’s guarantee a sort of motiveless provocation, instead of a direct response to German aggression.

    The world (and the internet) are full of deluded cranks; when I see people go beyond that and deliberately lie and mislead, I am disgusted.

    Based on this, I would say that you shouldn’t waste a minute on Alex Krainer.

    • Agree: LondonBob
  494. @LatW
    @Mr. Hack


    Think about it, and the awful Armageddon type responses this madman is contemplating?
     
    Well, not only that (although there might not be an Armageddon, since hypothetically all of this can still be contained in Ukraine which is horrific enough), but there is another important question - is Russia ready to wage nuclear war? You don't just drop the bomb(s), you have to have your troops ready to operate in the battlefield, with the right equipment and plans (afaik, back during the Soviet Union days they had quite rigorous plans in case the bombs are dropped on Eastern Europe, Warsaw pact troops, move towards the West, does Russia have any of such plans, not to mention appropriate equipment for the troops?)

    Especially in a scenario where the West responds (probably conventionally by destroying the Russian troops in Eastern Ukraine). I mean, what... he's going to just retreat into the bunker with Kabaeva and the children, nuke Ukraine and then leave everyone else there?? The Russian troops, the Donbas civilians, etc. The newly occupied territories, etc. That's just insane.


    This Russian channel seems to be run by an insider from the Russian Foreign Intelligence service - not sure this is not a fake, but this guy, General SVR, talks about the potential evacuation of the Russian leadership into the bunkers. And that there are those who are fatalistic yet on the other hand those in the military who want to live and may block Putin's decision to use nukes. (Btw, there's also interesting insight into the friction between the Prigozhin's Military company and the FSB and the generals).

    With English subtitles (again, take it with a grain of salt, not sure it's real but it does seem to match reality to great a extent):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuRr1OmLhlE

    And, btw, poor Ukrainians, what they're being put through, even contemplating these scenarios and being constantly threatened with such horror.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Mr. Hack

    I mean, what… he’s going to just retreat into the bunker with Kabaeva and the children, nuke Ukraine and then leave everyone else there?? The Russian troops, the Donbas civilians, etc. The newly occupied territories, etc. That’s just insane.

    Well, that’s what I’m saying too. It’s all so crazy, all that can be hoped for is that those around him have the courage to oust him and take matters into their own, hopefully saner hands. As for Putin being some kind of a champion knight trying to save Russian civilization for a purer vision of Christianity in the guise of Orthodoxy, a “holy war” as he calls it, what’s a genuine Christian doing seeking solace and advice from Siberian shamans? Maybe kremlinstoogeA123 could answer that for us, an individual who likes to propagate this sort of nonsense at this blogsite?

  495. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Unintended Consequence

    1. NATO hasn't even built bases in Poland.

    2. Why are you scared of a liberal Russophone comedian?

    3. That "former Cold War enemy" has never attacked Russia, not even when its troops were completely vulnerable in Ukraine at the beginning of this war.

    4. The one thing Russia does not need to "secure" is "more territory."

    5. Why are you talking about Putin as if he were playing a Paradox computer game?

    6. It is obvious who the "corrupt incompetents" are, and their leader is Vladimir Putin.

    7. Do you have a brain? "Be honest."

    Replies: @Unintended Consequence

    While you’re bogged down in the minutiae of the supposed great and glorious Ukraine, has it occurred to you that more is at stake? This is not simply about Russian imperialism; It’s about NATO moving ever closer to Russia as if trying to contain it as if still dealing with the USSR. I’m sorry but I don’t think the Donbas or Kherson or Zaporizhzhia remaining part of the Ukraine is more important than the US having a good relationship with Russia. It’s not even our business to intervene and we certainly shouldn’t be funding the Ukrainian military or giving them weapons. That makes this a proxy war. But why would we be treating Russia like an enemy? Even worse, why would we risk a permanent rift between the US and the RF not to mention igniting WW3.

    You are either not an American or you are ethnically Ukrainian, obviously. It has been a long-standing policy of the US to sacrifice the little country’s concerns in order to keep the peace. Imo, this is one of those instances. The Ukraine needs to make some concessions. The US and NATO need to stop assisting the military buildup. This is not about the Ukraine nor was it ever. Don’t be so completely selfish and obtuse.

    • Replies: @keypusher
    @Unintended Consequence


    It’s not even our business to intervene and we certainly shouldn’t be funding the Ukrainian military or giving them weapons. That makes this a proxy war.
     
    What makes a proxy war?

    In Korea, the Chinese sent in large numbers of ground troops and the Soviets provided 50,000-70,000 soldiers/advisors and pilots, who engaged the Americans directly (supposedly the Americans knew this, but did not publicize it because they feared escalating the war). Seems like that is a proxy war if anything is. But it was still caused by the North invading the South, as far as I know not on orders from anyone.

    In Vietnam, the USSR supplied jet fighters and tanks, steps the Americans have not taken in Ukraine, though quite possibly because they think they aid they are supplying is more useful than tanks and jet fighters would be. Was Vietnam a proxy war from the Soviet side? I don't think anyone thinks so.

    In Afghanistan in the 1980s, the US provided assistance to the mujahideen. Was that a proxy war?

    Presumably providing weapons is not sufficient, else the Iraq wars would have been proxy wars waged by the Russians and French against the Americans.

    I don't think Ukraine is a proxy war -- obviously others disagree. But I'm more curious to know what defines a proxy war.

    Replies: @YetAnotherAnon, @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

  496. @Unintended Consequence
    @Mr. Hack

    Are the Ukrainians paying you to generate ridiculous anti-Putin propaganda? I think you should consider the Russian perspective in all this. If Russia was your homeland, would you want a weirdo who uses his naughty bits to play piano making deals with your former Cold War enemy to establish a military base on your border? Wouldn't you be more than a little impatient to secure as much territory as possible to protect your people from corrupt incompetents as well as foreign invasion? Be honest.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @A123

    Are the Ukrainians paying you to generate ridiculous anti-Putin propaganda

    Sadly, Mr. Hack is mentally ill and in desperate need of psychiatric assistance.

    When all of this started, I was relatively neutral Ukraine vs. Russia. However, prolonged exposure to genocidal Ukie Maximalists has shaped my views. And, given me some understanding of how Russians view the matter.

    Ukie Maximalist kill-frenzy is so degenerate and obscene, there is no ‘quit’ option available to Russian Orthodox Christians. Their two alternatives are victory or extinction.

    Does anyone think Russian Christians will volunteer for elimination?

    Putin is playing for time at this point. There are many good reasons to believe that Ukie aggression will soon have less support. However, if that does not happen. Putin will do what God requires of Christians.

    I have no claims to deep ecclesiastical mysteries. But, some of the tales of Revelations have potential parallels to nuclear Armageddon. Only the enemies of God (e.g. Ukie Maximalists) would intentionally push Putin towards the end of humanity.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @A123


    Only the enemies of God (e.g. Ukie Maximalists) would intentionally push Putin towards the end of humanity.
     
    Only a genuine kremlin stooge could come up with this ass backwards type of "logic". I wonder what exactly kremlinstoogeA123 has in mind when he mentions "pushing Putin to the end of humanity"? Defending ones homeland from a devastating invasion that has ripped apart the lives of so many defenseless civilians must be seen as "pushing Putin" in the mind of this babbling psychopath. :-(

    In the Bizarro world that kremlnstoogeA123 inhabits, "Ukie maximalists" are the "enemies of God", whereas the plunderers, rapists and murderers from Russia are doing the work of God? He's 100% certifiably a nutcase. Go back to fighting your wars against "Islamo-Soros", you may yet find more traction there.

    Replies: @Unintended Consequence

  497. @Triteleia Laxa
    @LatW

    The real prize, for Russian political factions that seek power, is Russia. Not Bakhmut. Hopefully some can see past their own ridiculous propaganda, that occupying Bakhmut is "existential" for Russia, and remember that it is actually close to meaningless for Russia.

    That propaganda was only supposed to be there as an argument for why they had so much "will." Similar to a little child saying "I'm going to die if you don't get me that PlayBox for Christmas!"

    I mean, imagine how completely stupid Russians will feel as regards his war in 10 years' time. "We mobilised, destroyed our military, destroyed the CSTO, impoverished ourselves, threatened nukes, lost one or two hundred thousand young Russian lads, all to try and slice off some of Ukraine! Even though we have the most landmass in the world!"

    And not just stupid, but evil.

    And how about Putin's cheerleaders, writing a new rant every week, or so, about how NATO is going to collapse tomorrow, which, if it made any difference to Russian security, would likely only make it worse.

    Go home Russians. Sort out that huge and bountiful land. Putin has been exposed. He's done. Disinfected by the light, now he just needs to be scraped away.

    And as for Girkin. He went native in the Donbas, which is going Ukrainian. He can no longer deal with this "people lower on the hierarchy just shut-up" attitude. He's Sam Worthington from Avatar. His soul yearns to be free in the Hetman's egalitarian band, not Putin's imperial pomp and circumstance, that sycophants like Oliver Stone get so worked up about.

    It is like Russians are stuck in loop, with their political leadership continually trying to imitate Louis XIV. And therefore continually setting themselves up to swiftly emulate the reign of Louis XVI.

    Here's a hint: Louis XIV looked great, as "the Sun King", but was an atrocious ruler. Over his extended rule, he took the superpower of Europe, with the best Army, and slowly ground it down into a loser. Though had he died a quarter way, or half way, through his time instead, he would have looked incredible.

    Just as if Putin had died in 2008, or 2012, he would have been remembered as a good ruler too.

    Replies: @LatW, @John Johnson

    The real prize, for Russian political factions that seek power, is Russia. Not Bakhmut. Hopefully some can see past their own ridiculous propaganda, that occupying Bakhmut is “existential” for Russia, and remember that it is actually close to meaningless for Russia.

    But they identify it as “theirs” so to them it is “existential”. Before Maidan, they probably had a sense that those regions are already “mentally”, culturally theirs and, even inside of the borders of Ukraine, they are still mentally together. But then Ukraine decided to depart and take those regions with them. I think mentally they can’t get over it (I couldn’t probably and I must admit that culturally speaking there is some validity in their stance, although Ukraine’s sovereignty should take priority, imo, ideally, without violence against the Russian population) plus there is now the actual violence that’s being dished out since 2014 and the Russian side feels it’s unjust. We can say whatever we want but that’s how they feel.

    They also need some pride to be left over for their country, come on, not being able to even take Donbas….? That’s weak. That’s why the mistake they made of trying to take the whole of Ukraine is so bad, because if they had just annexed DNR/LNR in February, they would still be ok now.

    Well, and another aspect here is that, hypothetically, if there was some success in a place like Bakhmut, and, let’s say, a group like Wagner showed some good fighting there, then this gives points to Prigozhin that he can later use in Russia. It gives him visibility, status. That’s why I think those Kadyrov’s troops were making all those TikTok videos, to sell them to the Russian audience showing that Kadyrov is so badass.

    Remember that Girkin gained a lot of cache through his Slovyansk adventures – even if he had to leave eventually, he became a cult figure in certain circles. You know, British and American men gain credit through building things, but some Slavic men are still very much into this bold military leader cult. It’s badass, it’s just that there is too much destruction left over when they leave – all the ruined livelihoods of innocents. It’s all at their expense.

    [MORE]

    Interestingly, the Hetman’s band, where everyone understands everyone else, is a great model. The Tsar’s court, or the court of Versailles, where everyone lies, saves face and plays court games, is not.

    This is a very good point. It appears that the spirit of the Sich still lives inside of the Ukrainian warrior. And society as a whole – they are able to mobilize themselves from the ground up.

    Whereas the Russian “court” is just very far removed from the things happening on the ground. I have respect for the likes of Rosgvardia but they were just not deployed in the proper way.

    But Ukrainians are doing this well, and all the serious forces of the West have now been training them for months.

    Right, also remember that a lot of them have spent 8 years in an actual war which gave them a lot of experience. Not to mention morale – they are now angry like disturbed wasps after all the atrocities on their homeland. The new conscripts are walking into a sea of very angry wasps.

    The October water in Dnipro must be damn cold..

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @LatW


    But they identify it as “theirs” so to them it is “existential”.
     
    Marx was right. Identities that aren't rooted in the material realities of your life are ephemeral.

    At the time, for the proletariat, class dictated their existence, and still means much. As does nation. Who wants to be born in Afghanistan versus America?

    So too does race and genetics, though more subtly.

    But Bakhmut has no bearing on the material realities of Russians' lives, so its place in their identity, and that of Ukraine, will be sacrificed as soon as something more important comes along for those who can affect decisions.

    That's why Russia didn't mobilise until far too late. This just isn't that important for them, despite their sincere bluster. And now they only mobilise out of momentum, and political leaders fearing the punishment that goes with failure. Putin would never have started this war if he knew he'd be at this point now.

    Its like transmania. If "changing gender" gave you the other social role, it would have a purpose, and would probably stick around in the long-term, but it will return to being just an odd fetish, or dramatic self-harm, as we no longer structure social roles by sex.

    Well, and another aspect here is that, hypothetically, if there was some success in a place like Bakhmut, and, let’s say, a group like Wagner showed some good fighting there, then this gives points to Prigozhin that he can later use in Russia. It gives him visibility, status. That’s why I think those Kadyrov’s troops were making all those TikTok videos, to sell them to the Russian audience showing that Kadyrov is so badass.
     
    Yes, it appears that the Russian effort is now becoming dominated by attempts by Russian factions to generate clout for the real battle back home. But failed wars discredit militarism, not empower it, so these people are doing themselves harm. Unless the non-militaristic people who take over Russia fail for 15 years, in which case they might return.

    But Russia, with sanctions fully dropped, will boom like never before. That's one of the most advantageous things of sanctions. They don't tend to dislodge the regime, but being able to drop them for a new friendly regime, can provide a tremendous initial boost. Its Machiavellian in the true meaning, but, imagine what the economic growth will be like that Iran will experience when the Mullahs are finally kicked out! The new, Western-friendly guys, will have a huge, almost instant, boost to their legitimacy. This didn't work for the end of the USSR, because nobody understood how hard that transition would be, but it worked fine for East Germany, Poland etc. Or China under Deng as it could be slower.

    Replies: @Coconuts

    , @John Johnson
    @LatW

    That’s why the mistake they made of trying to take the whole of Ukraine is so bad, because if they had just annexed DNR/LNR in February, they would still be ok now.

    Well Putin first claimed the war was about NATO and I can dig up his original speech if any of his remaining defenders would like.

    If it was really about Donbas then that could have been achieved with an ultimatum.

    There was never an ultimatum and in fact Putin severed diplomatic lines.

    Only after failing to take Kiev (and all of Ukraine) did Putin change to the explanation of defending Donbas. It needs to be noted however that Putin claimed he was defending independent Republics and then took DNR/LNR as Russian territory along with two oblasts that separatists never claimed. The Republics no longer exist. Their flags have been taken down.

    Putin is just completely full of s--t and I have been saying this from the beginning. He is just playing Putin Khan and didn't have a backup plan. His special mobilization back to the East is out of desperation.

    Instead of admitting it was a mistake like a real man he plans on sending Stalingrad type human waves of 45-55 year old conscripts. He doesn't understand modern warfare as seen by the fact that he launched his invasion with one long support column. What about all the javelins in Ukrainian hands? Were they supposed to just disappear? There is a video on youtube where a captured Russian tank commander talks about how they were told that they weren't on the front line and to not worry about javelins. They didn't get very far and the tank in front of him blows up from a javelin.

    Replies: @LatW

  498. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Yevardian

    America has been giving Ukraine as much equipment as they need and can handle.

    The "as much as they need" part is easy and cheap for the US. As I said at the beginning of this war, look what the US chucked at Iraq and Afghanistan and barely flinched over. It dwarfs anything Ukraine can handle even over many years.

    The "handle" part is the difficult part. Teaching someone to drive a tank is easy. Teaching a crew to operate it tactically is much harder. Teaching it to fight as part of a large formation is a problem whose complexity scales with...scale. and then there's maintenance and supply, which is probably worse. It normally takes years for new pieces of equipment to cascade through already functioning institutions and, even then, the first few tries usually look a bit like failures.

    But Ukrainians are doing this well, and all the serious forces of the West have now been training them for months. Already, Britian is running a junior leaders' course in Britain. The initial pay-offs were Kharkhiv, no Northern Donetsk and into Luhansk and Kherson, but the training that started months ago, will be paying off tomorrow, and it has only been scaled up. Like a pyramid starting at the top, with the first trainees trained, and the first trainers trained too, this can cascade remarkably fast. They've found an iteration that works, and each iteration will only improve.

    This is why Russia's mobilisation is far too little and far too late. Ukraine will be bringing new, professionalised formations online, at an increasing pace, already far faster than Russia can imagine. And it is all locked in.

    Amateurs and, even soldiers who previously served as privates and the like, just know too little about how combat effectiveness is created to fully grasp the above. 95% of what goes into it are unknown unknowns to you all, and most of the commentors. Even some disaffected former junior Officers like Scott Ritter may find their vanity obstructs their understanding. Find some actual Generals! They're the people who understood the most, and performed the best. Lieutenant Colonel might sound great, but, if you're a commissioned officer, and stick around long enough, you will make it to half Colonel, unless you're a complete incompetent.

    Imagine if every article talked about Science, as if research were done like in Newton's day. Rather than how it is actually done, in huge teams, with collaborative processes, and endless complexity. Well that's how 99% of people who talk about modern militaries sound.

    Without transparency and accountability, a military will never be great any more. Interestingly, the Hetman's band, where everyone understands everyone else, is a great model. The Tsar's court, or the court of Versailles, where everyone lies, saves face and plays court games, is not.

    There's no saving Russian forces in this war, except by going home. Find a General from a competent military. Listen to him. He'll know. They tend to speak in a way that sounds pessimistic, so adjust for that. It is just part of how mature professionals make sure that they address problems with adequate seriousness.

    Replies: @Yevardian

    Amateurs and, even soldiers who previously served as privates and the like, just know too little about how combat effectiveness is created to fully grasp the above. 95% of what goes into it are unknown unknowns to you all, and most of the commentors.

    Yet somehow that doesn’t stop you constantly making bold predictions, or insane suggestions like Ukraine should attack Belarus (LOL). Fact remains Russia has over x3 the available manpower Ukraine does. Probably more actually, nobody has known Ukraine’s actual population for decades.
    Moreoever the destruction is taking place entirely on Ukraine (or Russia’s annexed regions). If the US pulled out of its extremely dangerous proxy war the main fighting would be over in a few weeks, and far few Russians and Ukrainians would be killed.

    The “as much as they need” part is easy and cheap for the US. As I said at the beginning of this war, look what the US chucked at Iraq and Afghanistan and barely flinched over. It dwarfs anything Ukraine can handle even over many years.

    Sure, all the US has to do is keep pouring more money, and more Russians and Ukrainians keep getting killed, Germany keeps buying LNG at exorbitant prices. With mobilisation the mutual slaughter of Slavs and implosion of the German economy could even go on for years. It’s a massive win-win for the US no matter how the war turns out. A small price to pay for another glorious American century.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Yevardian


    Yet somehow that doesn’t stop you constantly making bold predictions
     
    Predictions which turned out correct. Because I'm not an amateur.

    or insane suggestions like Ukraine should attack Belarus
     
    It was a leftfield onetime suggestion. And one of many potential courses of action to consider, to allow Ukraine to fight by their own plan and not Russia's. It would have extended the front massively, playing to Ukraine's strength, and diminished Russia's, at the time, of extremely concentrated artillery. Obviously there were a lot of downsides, but considering all courses of action is what a good Ops Officer will do.

    Fact remains Russia has over x3 the available manpower Ukraine does.

     

    Barely relevant. For reasons I described. And you plainly lack the expertise to even recognise those reasons as things you need to consider.

    If the US pulled out of its extremely dangerous proxy war the main fighting would be over in a few weeks, and far few Russians and Ukrainians would be killed.
     
    I don't think Russia has the ability to take major cities, though they clearly wanted to. And if they did, they would face a multi-generational insurgency that would result in far more blood and misery, and danger, than this war. Russia should go home. That's the only way the conflict ends. Ukrainians are not going to submit to Russian domination. That's that.
    , @Wokechoke
    @Yevardian

    Ukraine will almost certainly do some crazy shit after they were converted into Brandenburg on the Dneiper. These lunatics have enormous imperial ambitions of their own.

    Replies: @AP

  499. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @LatW
    @Triteleia Laxa


    The real prize, for Russian political factions that seek power, is Russia. Not Bakhmut. Hopefully some can see past their own ridiculous propaganda, that occupying Bakhmut is “existential” for Russia, and remember that it is actually close to meaningless for Russia.
     
    But they identify it as "theirs" so to them it is "existential". Before Maidan, they probably had a sense that those regions are already "mentally", culturally theirs and, even inside of the borders of Ukraine, they are still mentally together. But then Ukraine decided to depart and take those regions with them. I think mentally they can't get over it (I couldn't probably and I must admit that culturally speaking there is some validity in their stance, although Ukraine's sovereignty should take priority, imo, ideally, without violence against the Russian population) plus there is now the actual violence that's being dished out since 2014 and the Russian side feels it's unjust. We can say whatever we want but that's how they feel.

    They also need some pride to be left over for their country, come on, not being able to even take Donbas....? That's weak. That's why the mistake they made of trying to take the whole of Ukraine is so bad, because if they had just annexed DNR/LNR in February, they would still be ok now.

    Well, and another aspect here is that, hypothetically, if there was some success in a place like Bakhmut, and, let's say, a group like Wagner showed some good fighting there, then this gives points to Prigozhin that he can later use in Russia. It gives him visibility, status. That's why I think those Kadyrov's troops were making all those TikTok videos, to sell them to the Russian audience showing that Kadyrov is so badass.

    Remember that Girkin gained a lot of cache through his Slovyansk adventures - even if he had to leave eventually, he became a cult figure in certain circles. You know, British and American men gain credit through building things, but some Slavic men are still very much into this bold military leader cult. It's badass, it's just that there is too much destruction left over when they leave - all the ruined livelihoods of innocents. It's all at their expense.


    Interestingly, the Hetman’s band, where everyone understands everyone else, is a great model. The Tsar’s court, or the court of Versailles, where everyone lies, saves face and plays court games, is not.
     
    This is a very good point. It appears that the spirit of the Sich still lives inside of the Ukrainian warrior. And society as a whole - they are able to mobilize themselves from the ground up.

    Whereas the Russian "court" is just very far removed from the things happening on the ground. I have respect for the likes of Rosgvardia but they were just not deployed in the proper way.


    But Ukrainians are doing this well, and all the serious forces of the West have now been training them for months.
     
    Right, also remember that a lot of them have spent 8 years in an actual war which gave them a lot of experience. Not to mention morale - they are now angry like disturbed wasps after all the atrocities on their homeland. The new conscripts are walking into a sea of very angry wasps.

    The October water in Dnipro must be damn cold..

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @John Johnson

    But they identify it as “theirs” so to them it is “existential”.

    Marx was right. Identities that aren’t rooted in the material realities of your life are ephemeral.

    At the time, for the proletariat, class dictated their existence, and still means much. As does nation. Who wants to be born in Afghanistan versus America?

    So too does race and genetics, though more subtly.

    But Bakhmut has no bearing on the material realities of Russians’ lives, so its place in their identity, and that of Ukraine, will be sacrificed as soon as something more important comes along for those who can affect decisions.

    That’s why Russia didn’t mobilise until far too late. This just isn’t that important for them, despite their sincere bluster. And now they only mobilise out of momentum, and political leaders fearing the punishment that goes with failure. Putin would never have started this war if he knew he’d be at this point now.

    Its like transmania. If “changing gender” gave you the other social role, it would have a purpose, and would probably stick around in the long-term, but it will return to being just an odd fetish, or dramatic self-harm, as we no longer structure social roles by sex.

    Well, and another aspect here is that, hypothetically, if there was some success in a place like Bakhmut, and, let’s say, a group like Wagner showed some good fighting there, then this gives points to Prigozhin that he can later use in Russia. It gives him visibility, status. That’s why I think those Kadyrov’s troops were making all those TikTok videos, to sell them to the Russian audience showing that Kadyrov is so badass.

    Yes, it appears that the Russian effort is now becoming dominated by attempts by Russian factions to generate clout for the real battle back home. But failed wars discredit militarism, not empower it, so these people are doing themselves harm. Unless the non-militaristic people who take over Russia fail for 15 years, in which case they might return.

    But Russia, with sanctions fully dropped, will boom like never before. That’s one of the most advantageous things of sanctions. They don’t tend to dislodge the regime, but being able to drop them for a new friendly regime, can provide a tremendous initial boost. Its Machiavellian in the true meaning, but, imagine what the economic growth will be like that Iran will experience when the Mullahs are finally kicked out! The new, Western-friendly guys, will have a huge, almost instant, boost to their legitimacy. This didn’t work for the end of the USSR, because nobody understood how hard that transition would be, but it worked fine for East Germany, Poland etc. Or China under Deng as it could be slower.

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Marx was right. Identities that aren’t rooted in the material realities of your life are ephemeral.

    At the time, for the proletariat, class dictated their existence, and still means much. As does nation. Who wants to be born in Afghanistan versus America?
     

    Iirc Marx thought that class was the predominant and determining identity, and nations were first and foremost a reflection of minority class interests. If nation is an independent material reality, Marx wouldn't be right. If Marx was wrong, you could maybe then think about what sort of material reality the nation is.

    There is at least a suggestion of an answer here, in that no one chooses which nation they are born into.


    Its like transmania. If “changing gender” gave you the other social role, it would have a purpose, and would probably stick around in the long-term, but it will return to being just an odd fetish, or dramatic self-harm, as we no longer structure social roles by sex.
     
    This is true. If a lot of people are already almost functionally trans, the whole transmania thing apparently seems more bizarre and unnecessary. (There may be some underlying reason for it beyond the existence of the minority of natural transexuals though).

    But failed wars discredit militarism, not empower it, so these people are doing themselves harm.
     

    That didn't happen in Germany after 1918, Spain after 1898, France after 1870, so it might not be an inevitability. Imo it's also a question where there might be a point of connection with the trans issue and the concept of the nation as a material reality, perhaps depending on how transmania and a culture based on functional transexualism affects the destiny of nations.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  500. @LatW
    @sudden death


    Strelkov who is superhawk from FSB/Malofeev camp, still always was against using using any nukes on UA soil and in latest stream even managed to say it wouldn’t be that much of a catastrophe if RF had to leave Kherson, Melitopol or even parts of Crimea temporarily because of military reasons;
     
    Actually, that's not dumb at all. Because that way the Russians quickly admit the failure, retreat and spend several years preparing and then come back again, stronger. And then another war starts with more Ukrainian suffering and more threats to the neighbors (remember that timeframe that Arestovch mentioned as critical - there were hypothetically three, so if this one doesn't end with Russia getting crushed, a few years down the line there will be a second "episode").

    This makes a lot of sense, especially in a scenario where the FSB takes full control. The only question then - how to do it practically (many will be against) and what social consequences this kind of a retreat could have in Russia itself.

    Replies: @LatW, @Philip Owen

    It will take a lot more than several years for Russia to rebuild. We are presently seeing the result of a 14 year refit. 71.8% renewal to quote Shoigu. Even so the Armata was postponed to 2032 because Russia didn’t have the technology to make it. To do better, Russia will need to renew its industrial capacity and build new industry such as chip making, optics, boot making and gun barrel manufacture. (Others too, these are just concrete examples).Without EU machines tools and components that will take much longer. 30 years? Even capability Russia once had like night vision (made at Sergey Posad/Zelenograd) seems to have disappeared.

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @Philip Owen

    Please be aware that Philip Owen is a Ukrainian troll pretending to be British. He is posting and reposting Ukrainian lies and propaganda from Twitter.


    Even so the Armata was postponed to 2032 because Russia didn’t have the technology to make it.
     
    Lie.

    Russia will need to renew its industrial capacity and build new industry such as chip making, optics, boot making and gun barrel manufacture.
     
    Russia does need to build chip making factories and is working on it. However optics, boot making (!) and gun barrels manufacture has never been a problem in Russia.

    Even capability Russia once had like night vision seems to have disappeared.
     
    Lie.

    Excellent choice of Russian-made night vision optics is available on the civilian market.

    https://opticstrade.com/pricely_nochnogo_videniya

    Plilip Owen is a liar pretending to be an expert on various technical topics, but in truth he is a clueless internet troll posting photoshopped pictures of what is claimed to be a Russian-made disproportional and bent gun barrel.

    Russian barrels have been respected as some of the best in the world for decades Philip. And next time check at least with Wikipedia first – the T-14 Armata uses a smooth-bore barrel without rifling.

    Moron.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Philip Owen

  501. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Yevardian
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Amateurs and, even soldiers who previously served as privates and the like, just know too little about how combat effectiveness is created to fully grasp the above. 95% of what goes into it are unknown unknowns to you all, and most of the commentors.
     
    Yet somehow that doesn't stop you constantly making bold predictions, or insane suggestions like Ukraine should attack Belarus (LOL). Fact remains Russia has over x3 the available manpower Ukraine does. Probably more actually, nobody has known Ukraine's actual population for decades.
    Moreoever the destruction is taking place entirely on Ukraine (or Russia's annexed regions). If the US pulled out of its extremely dangerous proxy war the main fighting would be over in a few weeks, and far few Russians and Ukrainians would be killed.

    The “as much as they need” part is easy and cheap for the US. As I said at the beginning of this war, look what the US chucked at Iraq and Afghanistan and barely flinched over. It dwarfs anything Ukraine can handle even over many years.
     
    Sure, all the US has to do is keep pouring more money, and more Russians and Ukrainians keep getting killed, Germany keeps buying LNG at exorbitant prices. With mobilisation the mutual slaughter of Slavs and implosion of the German economy could even go on for years. It's a massive win-win for the US no matter how the war turns out. A small price to pay for another glorious American century.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Wokechoke

    Yet somehow that doesn’t stop you constantly making bold predictions

    Predictions which turned out correct. Because I’m not an amateur.

    or insane suggestions like Ukraine should attack Belarus

    It was a leftfield onetime suggestion. And one of many potential courses of action to consider, to allow Ukraine to fight by their own plan and not Russia’s. It would have extended the front massively, playing to Ukraine’s strength, and diminished Russia’s, at the time, of extremely concentrated artillery. Obviously there were a lot of downsides, but considering all courses of action is what a good Ops Officer will do.

    Fact remains Russia has over x3 the available manpower Ukraine does.

    Barely relevant. For reasons I described. And you plainly lack the expertise to even recognise those reasons as things you need to consider.

    If the US pulled out of its extremely dangerous proxy war the main fighting would be over in a few weeks, and far few Russians and Ukrainians would be killed.

    I don’t think Russia has the ability to take major cities, though they clearly wanted to. And if they did, they would face a multi-generational insurgency that would result in far more blood and misery, and danger, than this war. Russia should go home. That’s the only way the conflict ends. Ukrainians are not going to submit to Russian domination. That’s that.

  502. @Yevardian
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Amateurs and, even soldiers who previously served as privates and the like, just know too little about how combat effectiveness is created to fully grasp the above. 95% of what goes into it are unknown unknowns to you all, and most of the commentors.
     
    Yet somehow that doesn't stop you constantly making bold predictions, or insane suggestions like Ukraine should attack Belarus (LOL). Fact remains Russia has over x3 the available manpower Ukraine does. Probably more actually, nobody has known Ukraine's actual population for decades.
    Moreoever the destruction is taking place entirely on Ukraine (or Russia's annexed regions). If the US pulled out of its extremely dangerous proxy war the main fighting would be over in a few weeks, and far few Russians and Ukrainians would be killed.

    The “as much as they need” part is easy and cheap for the US. As I said at the beginning of this war, look what the US chucked at Iraq and Afghanistan and barely flinched over. It dwarfs anything Ukraine can handle even over many years.
     
    Sure, all the US has to do is keep pouring more money, and more Russians and Ukrainians keep getting killed, Germany keeps buying LNG at exorbitant prices. With mobilisation the mutual slaughter of Slavs and implosion of the German economy could even go on for years. It's a massive win-win for the US no matter how the war turns out. A small price to pay for another glorious American century.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @Wokechoke

    Ukraine will almost certainly do some crazy shit after they were converted into Brandenburg on the Dneiper. These lunatics have enormous imperial ambitions of their own.

    • Replies: @AP
    @Wokechoke

    Nonsense. They just want to be left alone by Russia.

    If Russia does use nukes, good chance that it will present it as a “false flag” by Ukrainians.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

  503. @Philip Owen
    @Yahya

    My tastes in ethnic folk music from the Russian Empire are not as sophisiticared as yours. I listen to very poppy types such as Sogdiana (Uzbek), Otkyen (described as Siberian Native Jazz - Jazz it ain't but they use a saxophone. Might be Sakha), Grai or worse.

    Replies: @Yahya

    My tastes in ethnic folk music from the Russian Empire are not as sophisiticared as yours.

    Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy listening to trashy ethnic music as much as the next person. Just my interest in such music is only limited to my own ethnicity.

    In fact, I find that no category of music touches the soul more than trashy ethnic music. The trashier it is, the further it reaches the depth of the human soul.

    But for other ethnicities i’m more interested in the highest forms of music they have to offer. In Russia that would be the likes of Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin etc. Never really got into Shostakovich or Prokofiev tbh though, beyond their famous oeuvre. In the broader empire perhaps a bit of Khachaturian, Amirov, and Lysenko. I’ve also listened to a fair share of Ukrainian and Russian folk music, which I regard as one of the best in the world.

    On the pop side I occasionally like listening to Balqees (Yemeni) and Rahma Riad (Iraqi); but again I have no interest in foreign pop artists, unless they provide something unique and original. Sogdina seems to be the stereotypical mechanical pop artist; but the other two are actually fairly interesting. I’m particularly impressed by Otyken; they have come up with something unique and compelling; the colorful yet tasteful costumes, scenic Siberian backgrounds, traditional instruments and throat-singing. Grai are cool too, but metal is not to my taste unfortunately.

  504. @Wokechoke
    @Yevardian

    Ukraine will almost certainly do some crazy shit after they were converted into Brandenburg on the Dneiper. These lunatics have enormous imperial ambitions of their own.

    Replies: @AP

    Nonsense. They just want to be left alone by Russia.

    If Russia does use nukes, good chance that it will present it as a “false flag” by Ukrainians.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @AP

    sure thing. lol.

  505. @A123
    @Unintended Consequence


    @Mr. Hack

    Are the Ukrainians paying you to generate ridiculous anti-Putin propaganda
     
    Sadly, Mr. Hack is mentally ill and in desperate need of psychiatric assistance.

    When all of this started, I was relatively neutral Ukraine vs. Russia. However, prolonged exposure to genocidal Ukie Maximalists has shaped my views. And, given me some understanding of how Russians view the matter.

    Ukie Maximalist kill-frenzy is so degenerate and obscene, there is no 'quit' option available to Russian Orthodox Christians. Their two alternatives are victory or extinction.

    Does anyone think Russian Christians will volunteer for elimination?

    Putin is playing for time at this point. There are many good reasons to believe that Ukie aggression will soon have less support. However, if that does not happen. Putin will do what God requires of Christians.

    I have no claims to deep ecclesiastical mysteries. But, some of the tales of Revelations have potential parallels to nuclear Armageddon. Only the enemies of God (e.g. Ukie Maximalists) would intentionally push Putin towards the end of humanity.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    Only the enemies of God (e.g. Ukie Maximalists) would intentionally push Putin towards the end of humanity.

    Only a genuine kremlin stooge could come up with this ass backwards type of “logic”. I wonder what exactly kremlinstoogeA123 has in mind when he mentions “pushing Putin to the end of humanity”? Defending ones homeland from a devastating invasion that has ripped apart the lives of so many defenseless civilians must be seen as “pushing Putin” in the mind of this babbling psychopath. 🙁

    In the Bizarro world that kremlnstoogeA123 inhabits, “Ukie maximalists” are the “enemies of God”, whereas the plunderers, rapists and murderers from Russia are doing the work of God? He’s 100% certifiably a nutcase. Go back to fighting your wars against “Islamo-Soros”, you may yet find more traction there.

    • Replies: @Unintended Consequence
    @Mr. Hack

    "I wonder what exactly kremlinstoogeA123 has in mind when he mentions “pushing Putin to the end of humanity”?"

    I don't believe A123 is anyone's stooge. It would be nice though if you were a Kremlinologist. Putin and his underlings have said so many things this year but much of it is perhaps not to be taken literally. The rest may be designed to bring about a desired response from the US and NATO. A sort of negotiation seems to be ongoing even while military action is underway. What does it all mean? Surely Putin is not insane. I don't believe he's all that religious either: so what's all the messianic chatter about? Are Russian's attempting to relate to US fundamentalists by using religious language? These are things I'd like to know. What about you?

    Replies: @A123

  506. @Mr. Hack
    @A123


    Only the enemies of God (e.g. Ukie Maximalists) would intentionally push Putin towards the end of humanity.
     
    Only a genuine kremlin stooge could come up with this ass backwards type of "logic". I wonder what exactly kremlinstoogeA123 has in mind when he mentions "pushing Putin to the end of humanity"? Defending ones homeland from a devastating invasion that has ripped apart the lives of so many defenseless civilians must be seen as "pushing Putin" in the mind of this babbling psychopath. :-(

    In the Bizarro world that kremlnstoogeA123 inhabits, "Ukie maximalists" are the "enemies of God", whereas the plunderers, rapists and murderers from Russia are doing the work of God? He's 100% certifiably a nutcase. Go back to fighting your wars against "Islamo-Soros", you may yet find more traction there.

    Replies: @Unintended Consequence

    “I wonder what exactly kremlinstoogeA123 has in mind when he mentions “pushing Putin to the end of humanity”?”

    I don’t believe A123 is anyone’s stooge. It would be nice though if you were a Kremlinologist. Putin and his underlings have said so many things this year but much of it is perhaps not to be taken literally. The rest may be designed to bring about a desired response from the US and NATO. A sort of negotiation seems to be ongoing even while military action is underway. What does it all mean? Surely Putin is not insane. I don’t believe he’s all that religious either: so what’s all the messianic chatter about? Are Russian’s attempting to relate to US fundamentalists by using religious language? These are things I’d like to know. What about you?

    • Replies: @A123
    @Unintended Consequence


    Surely Putin is not insane. I don’t believe he’s all that religious either: so what’s all the messianic chatter about? Are Russian’s attempting to relate to US fundamentalists by using religious language?
     
    Putin represents himself as a Defender of the Faith. Has this former KGB operative actually found God? I admit, I am also somewhat dubious on that point. However, the rhetoric is effective. And, his actions largely match the rhetoric. Putin is significantly more Christian than Pope Muhammad Francis of Open Borders.

    Putin has avoided the huge pitfalls of defining himself as a theocratic leader. The stance is that of a secular authority that believes in God.

    Does this make Putin more appealing to U.S. Christians?

    It certainly does not hurt. Plus, he is willing to drill for hydrocarbons. Providing energy for workers and industry is a key leadership attribute.

    I would gladly put Putin in the White House for the next two years to displaced Not-The-President Biden. Of course, I would also deem a house plant, singing potato, or chia pet as better presidential material So, not a high bar to clear.

     
    http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0443/3402/2812/products/JoeBidenBoxandunitwithchia_1200x1200.jpg
     

    With the "Russia, Russia, Russia" myth dead there is a real chance for the next MAGA President to achieve U.S.-Russia Rapprochement. Christians, Russian and American, working together in common cause. Or, at least the first steps towards that sort of constructive relationship.

    Putin and his underlings have said so many things this year but much of it is perhaps not to be taken literally.
     
    Politicians will often say things for domestic consumption. Look at the recent reparations claims by Poland (1). Does anyone think Germany will actual hand over €1,300,000,000? It is all about say my local things to native voters. A similar artificial 3-way kerfuffle among Poland, Israel, and the U.S. happened last year.

    Politicians say thing to shape thought. Words lock in ideas. Once an idea is solidified as fact, how can it be changed?

    The Russian people and Putin accept as fact the idea that Crimea is part of Russia. The Kiev regime committed War Crimes against the Russian citizens of Crimea, such as shutting off the fresh water supply with the Punishment Dam. Paper wavers and blow hards will bloviate otherwise, but that is too late. The idea is locked in.

    Will Putin use nukes to stop the Ukie Maximlist invasion of Russian soil?

    Does anyone rational believe he will not do so? The Russian people and Russian leadership are of one mind in terms of national defense. The idea is real and locked in.
    ____

    The peril is that Ukie Maximalists have a different idea. They genuinely believe Russia will gracefully cede Crimea to them. They have no reason to stop, because they do not grasp that nukes will be used against them.

    They are like Mr. Hack. They firmly believe suicidal dogma. It is a pathology cannot be changed with blog posts. I placed Hack on my blocked commenters lists as an act of medical compassion. Sparring with him cannot lead to improvement, and it may make his psychiatric condition worse.
    ___

    There are only two high probably outcomes:

    -1- The midterms successfully reduce funding for Kiev regime aggression. The Ukrainian people replace Ukie Maximalists with sane leadership. This leads to an armistice, negotiations, and a deal that neither side likes but both can live with.

    -2- Not-The-President Biden ignores the Constitution and keeps the blood money flowing. Russia takes nuclear WMD action to protect Russian citizens. Fallout travels West--»East. Using tactical nukes would contaminate their own troops. Strategic nukes, one missile with ~12 MIRV warheads, well away from the front lines (e.g. Kiev, Lviv) would result in wide spread contamination of land that Russia does not need to capture.

    There are some highly unlikely possibilities:

    -- If Putin dies, would his replacement be more congenial? Unlikely. However, substantial distraction resulting from a domestic power struggle might demphasize Ukraine.
    -- The same thing could happen in Ukraine. If Zelensky suddenly passes or there is sufficient scandal, that might paralyze the Kiev regimes ability to keep troops in the field.

    Neither of these are permanent solutions. The conflict will return once the domestic necessities are resolved.
    ___

    At this point, the only option is to wait and watch.

    The events that will truly shape the final outcome are months away.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/poland/poland-plans-new-push-for-e1-3-trillion-in-reparations-from-germany-says-polands-ruling-party-leader/

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Mr. Hack

  507. @Another Polish Perspective
    @Yahya

    Where does this obsession with love and separation in the music of Levant come from? It is rather strange noting how rigid otherwise mores are there. Where are the songs about national heroes, battles etc?

    I know it is forbidden to sing Quran verses, so it may result in the lack of religious music. Yet Islamic mysticism harps and harps on man being parted from Divine, a similar idea being expressed by gnosis in Christianity and Kabbalah in Judaism. Nevertheless, the idea is often considered heretical, being descendant of the doctrine of fallen angels, whose progeny inherited their divine essence notwithstanding that it was the result of the sin; so the idea of love with the Divine is perhaps an upbeat idea of the fall of the angels.

    So, in Islamic culture, are these love-partition songs taken more as secular or more as covertly religious?

    Replies: @Yahya

    So, in Islamic culture, are these love-partition songs taken more as secular or more as covertly religious?

    Here I wish my departed internet friend Talha could be here to answer your questions regarding Islamic tenets more comprehensively. He was a very dedicated and pious Sufi and an expert in such matters whereas I am a lapsed Muslim and haven’t the faintest clue about theology. But perhaps our resident orientalist and theologian Bashibuzuk will give a better answer.

    My impression is that only Sufism (which as you probably know, is the mystical sect of Islam) is concerned with matters of love and separation from the Divine. Talha has told me previously that Sufism is primarily concerned with connecting with Allah. As such, the poetry and music of the Persianite world, where Sufism is most established, reflects such sentiments, as demonstrated by the poetry of Rumi and the Tasnifs of Mohammad-Reza Shajarian.

    I’m not the biggest fan of Islamic music, but what little of it there is, mostly seems to be performed by Sufi ensembles and musicians. I gave a few examples in a previous post: https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-194/#comment-5506770. In Saudi Arabia and other such parts, Islamic “music” isn’t really music, but a simple recitation of Quranic verses without background instrumentals. In fact some Salafi strains of Islam view all music, whether secular or religious, as forbidden and blasphemous.

    [MORE]

    As for the “music of the Levant” you mentioned, well this is a topic I possess some expertise in, so I will comment further on it. First, as I mentioned above, most Middle Eastern music, at least its classical form, is morbidly melancholic and harps on the same topic, which is the broken heart. You can see this tendency in its extreme manifestation in the music of Umm Kulthum. “El Atlal” (“The Ruins” in English) is considered by some to be the height of Arabic music, and it centers on this topic as well, which is the same as 97% of her other songs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z8LvG5tfOE&t=1333s&ab_channel=UmmKulthum-%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%83%D9%84%D8%AB%D9%88%D9%85

    Some of it is quite good, but gets repetitive very quickly. Even when the topic isn’t about sob stories, the tone of Middle Eastern music always seems to be gloomy. This is an Iranian song by my favorite singer, the Persian patrician Gholam-Hossein Banan, called Bahar-e-Delneshin, ostensibly about the pleasantness of spring. But even there the song veers into melancholy over the lonely heart and such etc. All very tiresome.

    I’m temperamentally inclined to prefer the minor over the major scale, but this is over doing it.

    Thank goodness in the Arab world we have the jovial Maghrebis to counterbalance the doom and gloom of the Middle East. Persians and Turks are on their own!

    In the Maghreb my two favorite songs are actually Islamic in nature. I linked to them in my previous post, but will repost them here. The first song is by the Cheikh Sadek El Bejaoui Youth Orchestra, entitled “قصة إبراهيم الخليل” or “The Story Of Abraham” in English:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYKiH57oppk&list=PLk4jQWJwkElTqueDk8NabEv5P6ckFgUSb&index=139&ab_channel=OrchestreF%C3%A9mininAhbabCheikhSadekElB%C3%A9jaoui

    The lyrics are a fairly straightforward retelling of the familiar story of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael. But in the Islamic version, Abraham informs Ishmael of God’s wish before carrying it out, and Ishmael himself obediently abides by God’s orders. God ultimately spares Ishmael by diverting the blade or covering him with copper, content that Abraham and Ishmael were loyal to Him. The song is fairly long so I won’t post the lyrics here but you can read it on this link: https://www.facebook.com/tyuyuuyuitgyrtyuyituytyu/posts/2103277816600408/. It’s a well-composed and executed song, one of the best to come out of the Maghreb in recent years.

    Another Islamic song is a Chaabi tune by the great Boudjemaa El-Ankis called “صلاة على محمد” or “Prayers for Muhammad”. It’s topic centers around the Prophet Muhammad as inferred by the title, so I’ve given you one piece on the first Prophet and one on the Last, at least according to the Islamic tradition. Here El-Ankis is merely praising Muhammad for his many admirable qualities, and urges listeners to “increase the prayers to Muhammad”.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CtBHcH5_rk&list=PLk4jQWJwkElTqueDk8NabEv5P6ckFgUSb&index=80&t=230s&ab_channel=Boudjema%C3%A2ElAnkis-Topic

    Where are the songs about national heroes, battles etc?

    If you are talking specifically about the Levant, the patriotic songs come mostly from the Christian minority. As usual, they are at the forefront of nationalism, whether pan-Arab in nature or otherwise. The most prominent nationalistic artist I can think of is the elegant and intelligent Lebanese-Palestinian-Armenian Christian singer Julia Boutros. She has performed many songs dedicated to the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Resistance. I posted one before called “Entasr Lebnan”:

    The lyrics are embedded in the subtitles so you can interpret it for yourself. There’s another song she released called “Where Are The Millions”, where she urges the “Arab nation” to stand up to Israel and lambasts them for failing to do much for Palestine.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeJHO9pRhKk&ab_channel=AlAlKhatib-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D8%B7%D9%8A%D8%A8

    Speaking of Palestine, their folk music is also one of the best around the globe. This is a compilation of several Palestinian folk tunes, including one Iraqi tune thrown in the middle, by Henna Haj Hassan:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2SyLcbNl1M&list=PLk4jQWJwkElTO7fwOk8m_Ibn-gQ_leGiZ&index=236&ab_channel=%D8%AD%D9%86%D8%A9%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%86

    Like most of Palestinian folklore, much of it centers around their exodus and expresses their desire to return to the land of their forefathers. The atmosphere of the music is often biblical owing to the topics being addressed, and of course Palestine being home to many events in the Bible. This is especially true of Palestine’s Christian folkloric music, such as this piece here by Palestinian Christian Rola Azar:

    What’s interesting to me is how steadfast Palestinians are on returning to their land. Here you have a largely powerless people, ruled by corrupt and largely ineffectual leaders, abandoned by their former Arab allies, up against a nuclear-armed state led by the smartest ethnicity in the world, and who were defeated multiple times over the past 100 years – and yet they are adamant that they will return. A resolute, stubborn people as this I have never before seen.

    This is why I think, despite their present bleak situation, Palestinians have a chance at emerging victorious eventually. As long as their spirits aren’t broken, they retain a chance of regaining what was once theirs. Israelis have plenty of advantages to their favor, but their society seems more vulnerable to fissures and loss of cohesion over the long run than Palestinians. I think Palestinians will take a few more drubbings and experience continued ethnic cleansing in the meanwhile, but what will the situation look like 200-300 years from now?

    We shall see.

  508. S says:
    @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    No so fast Head Girl!

    August 2021, Soldier magazine British forces had “been training with their Ukrainian counterparts as part of a multinational package that also involved Canadian, U.S. and Swedish personnel.” The 400 person battle group mainly consisted of personnel from 4 Scots [did this dead Scot hail from the 4 orf Fourth?] who deployed to Ukraine “with the aim of developing mutual relations, joint planning and battalion and tactical operations.” The report notes how personnel practiced live-fire drills with Ukraine’s 54th Mechanized Brigade,

    which has completed multiple tours in the volatile Donbas region: “Exercise Cossack Mace, Lt. Col. Alasdair Hempenstall of 4 Scots said of his men:

    “They have learnt how the Ukrainians operate from a military perspective, as well as experiencing a taste of their culture and heritage.”

    The Paras sing some pretty based German tunes I wonder what that Culture was the Scots tasted so strong they decided to stay on and fight Russkies freelance?

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @S

    The 400 person battle group mainly consisted of personnel from 4 Scots [did this dead Scot hail from the 4 orf Fourth?] who deployed to Ukraine…

    No. The late Jordan Gatley had been with the Edinburgh based Third Battalion of The Rifles. He had left the organization in March of this year.

    The BBC understands Mr Gatley served in the British army as a rifleman with the Edinburgh-based third battalion of The Rifles and was discharged from the forces in March before travelling to Ukraine.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61777224

  509. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Triteleia Laxa
    @Mikel


    I’m no military expert by any means but, leaving aside the unprecedented (read nuclear) response that Putin threatened with at the start of the war if the West interfered, I don’t see an obvious way for NATO to destroy those columns in a week.
     
    In the first weeks of the war, the Russian forces were incredibly vulnerable, even the basically non-existent, rust bucket Ukrainian air force was having some effect.

    The Russians were not prepared for an attack from the air. Their (hugely overhyped*) air defence bubble wasn't even properly deployed and their troops would have been obliterated. They had no umbrella, and half of them were static, on roads, completely out in the open.

    Meanwhile, the second biggest, second most technologically sophisticated Air Force in the world is the US Marine Corp. I assume you can guess the biggest.


    I think that one thing this war has proven is that the Soviet and post-Soviet anti-air systems are truly effective.
     
    The Ukrainians have jerry-rigged American HARMS (anti-radar) missiles to their Soviet planes and have thereby achieved local air superiority by making it too dangerous for Russian air defence to operate. The US is about 50 years more technologically advanced than that.

    Furthermore, things like training matter and practice. Probably only the US, UK and France can do counter air-defence flying. It is a difficult thing to learn and implement at an institutional level, but it does work.

    Picture the Luftwaffe, with Wermacht air defence, coming up against General Norman Schwarzkopf's forces. We all forget that the Russians exaggerated Russian effectiveness to hide their corruption, but also that Americans massively exaggerate Russian effectiveness to justify their own spending.

    * We know their air defence systems are hugely overhyped because Ukraine was flying helicopters into occupied Mariupol, and elsewhere, even Belgorod, continues to conduct aggressive air sorties and fires HIMARS where it wants. (How was toy store stuff like Bayrekhtar destroying Russian assets otherwise?)

    And to think, that even during this war, some pro-Russian shills have been writing self-humiluating nonsense "explaining" that Russia would defeat NATO because it could stop all NATO missiles with its air defence etc! No, it literally can't even stop basic b*tch HIMARS systems loaded with old software and at a scale about 1:1000 of how NATO would use them.

    Obviously, the fact that Russia has nukes makes this all void. But that also makes the idea that NATO would ever invade Russia all void.

    Replies: @Mikel, @Bashibuzuk

    Obviously, the fact that Russia has nukes makes this all void. But that also makes the idea that NATO would ever invade Russia all void.

    A question begs asking: can we really be sure that RusFed still has nukes in high numbers ?

    Nuclear weapons are quite sophisticated and a high maintenance asset.

    We see that RusFed is thoroughly corrupt and deindustrialized (even more so than a highly critical person like myself would have thought).

    Therefore, it is only logical to wonder whether they have maintained this high level military capacity, while they clearly have lost or at least did not develop much lower ones.

    I mean, conscripts being handed Mosin rifles, while any goat-herder almost anywhere in Dar al Islam can find an AK47 in a matter of few days at most…

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk

    Weirdly, nukes are like Macdonald's. There is a system of international quality control. I believe that US and Russia were engaging in mutual inspections until just last year, and are in talks to do so again.

    Nukes may not be good for the planet's health, but the facilities are always clean and well-looked after.

    Also like airports!

  510. @Triteleia Laxa
    @LatW


    But they identify it as “theirs” so to them it is “existential”.
     
    Marx was right. Identities that aren't rooted in the material realities of your life are ephemeral.

    At the time, for the proletariat, class dictated their existence, and still means much. As does nation. Who wants to be born in Afghanistan versus America?

    So too does race and genetics, though more subtly.

    But Bakhmut has no bearing on the material realities of Russians' lives, so its place in their identity, and that of Ukraine, will be sacrificed as soon as something more important comes along for those who can affect decisions.

    That's why Russia didn't mobilise until far too late. This just isn't that important for them, despite their sincere bluster. And now they only mobilise out of momentum, and political leaders fearing the punishment that goes with failure. Putin would never have started this war if he knew he'd be at this point now.

    Its like transmania. If "changing gender" gave you the other social role, it would have a purpose, and would probably stick around in the long-term, but it will return to being just an odd fetish, or dramatic self-harm, as we no longer structure social roles by sex.

    Well, and another aspect here is that, hypothetically, if there was some success in a place like Bakhmut, and, let’s say, a group like Wagner showed some good fighting there, then this gives points to Prigozhin that he can later use in Russia. It gives him visibility, status. That’s why I think those Kadyrov’s troops were making all those TikTok videos, to sell them to the Russian audience showing that Kadyrov is so badass.
     
    Yes, it appears that the Russian effort is now becoming dominated by attempts by Russian factions to generate clout for the real battle back home. But failed wars discredit militarism, not empower it, so these people are doing themselves harm. Unless the non-militaristic people who take over Russia fail for 15 years, in which case they might return.

    But Russia, with sanctions fully dropped, will boom like never before. That's one of the most advantageous things of sanctions. They don't tend to dislodge the regime, but being able to drop them for a new friendly regime, can provide a tremendous initial boost. Its Machiavellian in the true meaning, but, imagine what the economic growth will be like that Iran will experience when the Mullahs are finally kicked out! The new, Western-friendly guys, will have a huge, almost instant, boost to their legitimacy. This didn't work for the end of the USSR, because nobody understood how hard that transition would be, but it worked fine for East Germany, Poland etc. Or China under Deng as it could be slower.

    Replies: @Coconuts

    Marx was right. Identities that aren’t rooted in the material realities of your life are ephemeral.

    At the time, for the proletariat, class dictated their existence, and still means much. As does nation. Who wants to be born in Afghanistan versus America?

    Iirc Marx thought that class was the predominant and determining identity, and nations were first and foremost a reflection of minority class interests. If nation is an independent material reality, Marx wouldn’t be right. If Marx was wrong, you could maybe then think about what sort of material reality the nation is.

    There is at least a suggestion of an answer here, in that no one chooses which nation they are born into.

    Its like transmania. If “changing gender” gave you the other social role, it would have a purpose, and would probably stick around in the long-term, but it will return to being just an odd fetish, or dramatic self-harm, as we no longer structure social roles by sex.

    This is true. If a lot of people are already almost functionally trans, the whole transmania thing apparently seems more bizarre and unnecessary. (There may be some underlying reason for it beyond the existence of the minority of natural transexuals though).

    But failed wars discredit militarism, not empower it, so these people are doing themselves harm.

    That didn’t happen in Germany after 1918, Spain after 1898, France after 1870, so it might not be an inevitability. Imo it’s also a question where there might be a point of connection with the trans issue and the concept of the nation as a material reality, perhaps depending on how transmania and a culture based on functional transexualism affects the destiny of nations.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Coconuts

    Sorry, bad writing. I meant that Marx was right that material realities tend to determine people's identities over longer periods of time. He was however wrong about the future primacy of "class". Rather immiserating the proletariat, capitalism gave them the same fungible goods to consume as the plutocrats. And into the vacuum which the receding of class has left, other identities have rushed, but, if you want to bet on which ones will still be tugging heart strings in a decade or two, you should bet on the ones that come from, or dictate, material realities.


    That didn’t happen in Germany after 1918, Spain after 1898, France after 1870,
     
    Militarism was massively discredited in Germany after 1918. The Kaiser was kicked out, they almost had a communist revolution and somehow the millions of veterans were unable to seize power until massive repeated recessions and general exhaustion of Weimar.

    Don't know about the others, but didn't it take a long time for France and Spain to get involved in other big foreign wars after their decisive defeat? And weren't their governments different?

    so it might not be an inevitability. Imo it’s also a question where there might be a point of connection with the trans issue and the concept of the nation as a material reality, perhaps depending on how transmania and a culture based on functional transexualism affects the destiny of nations.

     

    Sexual roles were based on the material reality that women got pregnant all of the time. Or might easily do so whenever they had sex. And this would completely change their lives for the next few years, at least.

    Contraception has made this no longer a material reality, so those sexual roles are inevitably on their way out. Honestly, get over it. The reason for those social identities no longer exists, those social identities will fade, in fits and starts, away.

    This is further reinforced by the fact that men's small, but significant, advantage in physical strength is of less and less important for the realities of life. I say "small" because women are physically strong enough to do everything important that men can do, and commonly need to do in today's age. Literally, opening jars is the most frequent last vestige of this being important.

    The strength differential now only matters for a tiny substrate of jobs in developed economies, and also for who ends up being most vulnerable to serious crimes in intimate settings.

    "Trads" advocating a politics of sexual roles and expecting influence would be like starting an agragraian party. You'll forever be marginal because farming has gone from 99% of jobs, to 1%, and it is never going back to 99%, as technology has progressed. A complete waste of time for alienated people on the internet.

    Now, for your personal life, where creating your own meaning, subjectively, can be true, who knows? But there'll be no long-term mass consciousness on this issue ever again.

    And if you find that you need society to supply validation to your personal myths and narrative, then that is because deep down, you are wanting to change and adapt your personal myths and their place in your ego is looking shaky.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Coconuts, @LatW

  511. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Unintended Consequence
    @S

    "The reduction and ultimate destruction of Russia and the Russian people has been a primary objective of each of the world wars."

    That is a horrible and wrong statement. Are you quite yourself today? No, the US does NOT now or ever want to destroy Russia or the Russian people! We are being led by incompetents who are oblivious to the danger of escalating against a nuclear power. The US and its people would be destroyed as well. Our leaders used to be smart enough to understand this reality. What an awful thing you have said. I don't understand you. Why would you make such an utterance?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    The US is the central part of the Anglosphere. It now depends on the Anglosphere as much as the Anglosphere depends on the US.

    You are not independent anymore. The American people (WASPs really) are in the same position the Russian people were in the USSR. The interests of the “Union” of the Anglo-Saxon capitalist elites prevail upon your national interests as a people.

    And yeah, sooner or later it would end for your people exactly it did end for mine. Those used to build Empires, end up exhausted and swamped with their former Imperial subject populations taking over the former Empire’s core.

    You are no longer “the Land of the Free”. Get used to it. And you will soon (2-3 generations) no longer be the “Home of the Brave “.

    (I actually find it sad.)

  512. @Philip Owen
    @LatW

    Malofeev seems to be on good terms with Patrushev. So he may be relying on the FSB/GRU for muscle. I agree that Zolotov might be on the radar too. Also, actual Cossacks. 2000 of them were in the Donbas with Girkin within a couple of weeks. I think the late Vsevolod Chaplin, a priest, organized that. None of these links are strong.

    Thanks for thelink to the book.

    Replies: @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

    Given Malofeev’s ressources, he might easily become a focal point for the assembly of the Ultra-Orthodox imperialist sympathizers in the next Смута which might rapidly follow the already started Поруха . I mean, what were Lenin’s connections in the military circles before 1917 or Mao’s before 1927 ?

  513. @YetAnotherAnon
    @S


    [Far better still, no British occupation.]
     
    Just suppose the Norman conquerors of England and Wales had for some reason ignored the large and fertile island to the west, and just continued selling Anglo-Saxon slaves to the Viking kingdom of Dublin.

    https://www.buildinghistory.org/bristol/saxonslaves.shtml


    How long would it have been before some other power ruled, Norway, Spain or France perhaps? I suppose there would be a chance that a native Irish ruler might unite the island and expel or assimilate the Vikings.

    But Ireland's misfortune was to be be next door to a powerful Norman/Angevin king in Henry II. He owned a big chunk of France and conquered more, he never spoke English, only Latin and French - so when Diarmaid mac Murchadha, deposed by High King Rory O'Connor, appealed to him for military aid the die was cast which would in time end Irish self-determination for 500 years.

    Just so did the kingdoms of the Britons fall 600 years before that, when Vortigern invited Angles and Saxons into Britain to help him fight the Picts and Scots.

    Replies: @YetAnotherAnon

    I guess the lesson for Ukraine and other countries is – if you can’t fight your own battles, whoever helps you ends up owning you eventually. I think the last time Britain was truly independent was the 1960s, when Harold Wilson refused to send troops to Vietnam.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @YetAnotherAnon

    Ukraine is fighting its own battle. Just as, despite Lend Lease, the Soviet Union did in WW2.

    Does anyone doubt that Ukraine will have a military insanely more effective, at the end of this war, than the one they began with?

    Replies: @Wokechoke

  514. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Coconuts
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Marx was right. Identities that aren’t rooted in the material realities of your life are ephemeral.

    At the time, for the proletariat, class dictated their existence, and still means much. As does nation. Who wants to be born in Afghanistan versus America?
     

    Iirc Marx thought that class was the predominant and determining identity, and nations were first and foremost a reflection of minority class interests. If nation is an independent material reality, Marx wouldn't be right. If Marx was wrong, you could maybe then think about what sort of material reality the nation is.

    There is at least a suggestion of an answer here, in that no one chooses which nation they are born into.


    Its like transmania. If “changing gender” gave you the other social role, it would have a purpose, and would probably stick around in the long-term, but it will return to being just an odd fetish, or dramatic self-harm, as we no longer structure social roles by sex.
     
    This is true. If a lot of people are already almost functionally trans, the whole transmania thing apparently seems more bizarre and unnecessary. (There may be some underlying reason for it beyond the existence of the minority of natural transexuals though).

    But failed wars discredit militarism, not empower it, so these people are doing themselves harm.
     

    That didn't happen in Germany after 1918, Spain after 1898, France after 1870, so it might not be an inevitability. Imo it's also a question where there might be a point of connection with the trans issue and the concept of the nation as a material reality, perhaps depending on how transmania and a culture based on functional transexualism affects the destiny of nations.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    Sorry, bad writing. I meant that Marx was right that material realities tend to determine people’s identities over longer periods of time. He was however wrong about the future primacy of “class”. Rather immiserating the proletariat, capitalism gave them the same fungible goods to consume as the plutocrats. And into the vacuum which the receding of class has left, other identities have rushed, but, if you want to bet on which ones will still be tugging heart strings in a decade or two, you should bet on the ones that come from, or dictate, material realities.

    That didn’t happen in Germany after 1918, Spain after 1898, France after 1870,

    Militarism was massively discredited in Germany after 1918. The Kaiser was kicked out, they almost had a communist revolution and somehow the millions of veterans were unable to seize power until massive repeated recessions and general exhaustion of Weimar.

    Don’t know about the others, but didn’t it take a long time for France and Spain to get involved in other big foreign wars after their decisive defeat? And weren’t their governments different?

    so it might not be an inevitability. Imo it’s also a question where there might be a point of connection with the trans issue and the concept of the nation as a material reality, perhaps depending on how transmania and a culture based on functional transexualism affects the destiny of nations.

    Sexual roles were based on the material reality that women got pregnant all of the time. Or might easily do so whenever they had sex. And this would completely change their lives for the next few years, at least.

    Contraception has made this no longer a material reality, so those sexual roles are inevitably on their way out. Honestly, get over it. The reason for those social identities no longer exists, those social identities will fade, in fits and starts, away.

    This is further reinforced by the fact that men’s small, but significant, advantage in physical strength is of less and less important for the realities of life. I say “small” because women are physically strong enough to do everything important that men can do, and commonly need to do in today’s age. Literally, opening jars is the most frequent last vestige of this being important.

    The strength differential now only matters for a tiny substrate of jobs in developed economies, and also for who ends up being most vulnerable to serious crimes in intimate settings.

    “Trads” advocating a politics of sexual roles and expecting influence would be like starting an agragraian party. You’ll forever be marginal because farming has gone from 99% of jobs, to 1%, and it is never going back to 99%, as technology has progressed. A complete waste of time for alienated people on the internet.

    Now, for your personal life, where creating your own meaning, subjectively, can be true, who knows? But there’ll be no long-term mass consciousness on this issue ever again.

    And if you find that you need society to supply validation to your personal myths and narrative, then that is because deep down, you are wanting to change and adapt your personal myths and their place in your ego is looking shaky.

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @Triteleia Laxa

    In antiquity the most developed civilizations had stronger gender roles than barbarians, as can be seen in the writings of Tacitus.

    Today, it is the wealthiest and most sex-egalitarian countries which demonstrate the strongest sex differences in personality: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30206941/

    Regardless of the fact that women can earn reasonable wages today, the system is failing at its most basic level:

    https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.lkg7kunu3qVFWz4VKqUhyAHaFv%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=694289f6a41156f60e0e9887a2c17e3ee41d88c92faba7c3c2db82f1e285a8c8&ipo=images

    In addition to low birth rates, this has produced a deterioration in family quality and parental investment:

    https://abagond.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/single-parent.png

    Meanwhile let's see how the real trads are doing:

    https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/amish-growth-rate.png

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    , @Coconuts
    @Triteleia Laxa


    He was however wrong about the future primacy of “class”. Rather immiserating the proletariat, capitalism gave them the same fungible goods to consume as the plutocrats.
     
    I agree with what you say here about the mushrooming of the middle class. I am not 100% sure about Marx being wholly wrong long-term, the way some trends are developing.

    Militarism was massively discredited in Germany after 1918. The Kaiser was kicked out, they almost had a communist revolution and somehow the millions of veterans were unable to seize power until massive repeated recessions and general exhaustion of Weimar.
     
    They came back within 20 years and created one of the craziest militaristic regimes that had existed in Europe for 100s of years. In Spain the post-1898 generation produced Franco and his comrades who created a kind of absolute monarchy based on the army after a bloody civil war. After 1870 the French led Europe in producing modern right-wing nationalism and precipitated themselves into their biggest ever war with Germany by 1914. Here it's not obvious that failure in war discredits militarism, only that it may take some years to manifest itself again.

    Sexual roles were based on the material reality that women got pregnant all of the time.
     
    I was writing about the relationship between functional transexualism and the future of the nation as a political and social entity. This was assuming the nation is some material reality of its own other than a collection of individuals or a creation of class interests. You didn't seem to write anything about that.

    Nations arose and have had most of their existence in the period when contraception was not available, similar to some other human collective entities (like families with two heterosexual parents). Will they continue to exist in the future?

    Agrarian parties usually just merged into the broader right or far-right.


    And if you find that you need society to supply validation to your personal myths and narrative, then that is because deep down, you are wanting to change and adapt your personal myths and their place in your ego is looking shaky.
     
    What is this? If the topic is about observable political and biological trends, isn't this more like trying to poison the well or something?
    , @LatW
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Literally, opening jars is the most frequent last vestige of this being important.
     
    Well, speak for yourself. Most women prefer masculine men, you want to take away women's happiness?

    It's a very slippery slope, too, the way it's been going in the recent decades. Responsibilities keep piling up for women, but natural privileges shrinking. In the meanwhile, women can't really give up their feminine duties. Millennial women make more than their male counterparts, this is risky for them.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @John Johnson

  515. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Obviously, the fact that Russia has nukes makes this all void. But that also makes the idea that NATO would ever invade Russia all void.
     
    A question begs asking: can we really be sure that RusFed still has nukes in high numbers ?

    Nuclear weapons are quite sophisticated and a high maintenance asset.

    We see that RusFed is thoroughly corrupt and deindustrialized (even more so than a highly critical person like myself would have thought).

    Therefore, it is only logical to wonder whether they have maintained this high level military capacity, while they clearly have lost or at least did not develop much lower ones.

    I mean, conscripts being handed Mosin rifles, while any goat-herder almost anywhere in Dar al Islam can find an AK47 in a matter of few days at most...

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    Weirdly, nukes are like Macdonald’s. There is a system of international quality control. I believe that US and Russia were engaging in mutual inspections until just last year, and are in talks to do so again.

    Nukes may not be good for the planet’s health, but the facilities are always clean and well-looked after.

    Also like airports!

    • Thanks: Bashibuzuk
  516. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @YetAnotherAnon
    @YetAnotherAnon

    I guess the lesson for Ukraine and other countries is - if you can't fight your own battles, whoever helps you ends up owning you eventually. I think the last time Britain was truly independent was the 1960s, when Harold Wilson refused to send troops to Vietnam.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    Ukraine is fighting its own battle. Just as, despite Lend Lease, the Soviet Union did in WW2.

    Does anyone doubt that Ukraine will have a military insanely more effective, at the end of this war, than the one they began with?

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    I strongly suspect that the West has indulgently built up a state with its own imperial ambitions that could stretch in to Kursk, Rostov and Belgorod.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  517. “Does anyone doubt that Ukraine will have a military insanely more effective, at the end of this war, than the one they began with?”

    It’s possible they might not have a military at all.

    • Agree: LondonBob
  518. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Coconuts

    Sorry, bad writing. I meant that Marx was right that material realities tend to determine people's identities over longer periods of time. He was however wrong about the future primacy of "class". Rather immiserating the proletariat, capitalism gave them the same fungible goods to consume as the plutocrats. And into the vacuum which the receding of class has left, other identities have rushed, but, if you want to bet on which ones will still be tugging heart strings in a decade or two, you should bet on the ones that come from, or dictate, material realities.


    That didn’t happen in Germany after 1918, Spain after 1898, France after 1870,
     
    Militarism was massively discredited in Germany after 1918. The Kaiser was kicked out, they almost had a communist revolution and somehow the millions of veterans were unable to seize power until massive repeated recessions and general exhaustion of Weimar.

    Don't know about the others, but didn't it take a long time for France and Spain to get involved in other big foreign wars after their decisive defeat? And weren't their governments different?

    so it might not be an inevitability. Imo it’s also a question where there might be a point of connection with the trans issue and the concept of the nation as a material reality, perhaps depending on how transmania and a culture based on functional transexualism affects the destiny of nations.

     

    Sexual roles were based on the material reality that women got pregnant all of the time. Or might easily do so whenever they had sex. And this would completely change their lives for the next few years, at least.

    Contraception has made this no longer a material reality, so those sexual roles are inevitably on their way out. Honestly, get over it. The reason for those social identities no longer exists, those social identities will fade, in fits and starts, away.

    This is further reinforced by the fact that men's small, but significant, advantage in physical strength is of less and less important for the realities of life. I say "small" because women are physically strong enough to do everything important that men can do, and commonly need to do in today's age. Literally, opening jars is the most frequent last vestige of this being important.

    The strength differential now only matters for a tiny substrate of jobs in developed economies, and also for who ends up being most vulnerable to serious crimes in intimate settings.

    "Trads" advocating a politics of sexual roles and expecting influence would be like starting an agragraian party. You'll forever be marginal because farming has gone from 99% of jobs, to 1%, and it is never going back to 99%, as technology has progressed. A complete waste of time for alienated people on the internet.

    Now, for your personal life, where creating your own meaning, subjectively, can be true, who knows? But there'll be no long-term mass consciousness on this issue ever again.

    And if you find that you need society to supply validation to your personal myths and narrative, then that is because deep down, you are wanting to change and adapt your personal myths and their place in your ego is looking shaky.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Coconuts, @LatW

    In antiquity the most developed civilizations had stronger gender roles than barbarians, as can be seen in the writings of Tacitus.

    Today, it is the wealthiest and most sex-egalitarian countries which demonstrate the strongest sex differences in personality: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30206941/

    Regardless of the fact that women can earn reasonable wages today, the system is failing at its most basic level:

    https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.lkg7kunu3qVFWz4VKqUhyAHaFv%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=694289f6a41156f60e0e9887a2c17e3ee41d88c92faba7c3c2db82f1e285a8c8&ipo=images

    In addition to low birth rates, this has produced a deterioration in family quality and parental investment:

    Meanwhile let’s see how the real trads are doing:

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Thorfinnsson


    In antiquity the most developed civilizations had stronger gender roles than barbarians, as can be seen in the writings of Tacitus.
     
    "In antiquity"...great!

    (Good observation, though we know so little about antiquity it is very hard to see things as they actually were.)

    Now try observing the relevant time period, which is the present. And stick to the subject, which is socially mandated sexual roles.

    Today, it is the wealthiest and most sex-egalitarian countries which demonstrate the strongest sex differences in personality:
     
    No relevance to the discussion. People are welcome to pursue any subjective LARP they want, but there'll be no long-term mass movement based around it. I bet you!

    In addition to low birth rates, this has produced a deterioration in family quality and parental investment:
     
    Doubt it. Fathers were more absent previously, they just more often lived in the same house.

    Meanwhile let’s see how the real trads are doing:
     
    Again with focussing in on one stat, to ignore the bigger picture. "Trads," as a percentage of the world's population, shrink every year, with access to contraception, and people being lifted out of extreme poverty. Despite the differential birth rates.

    See how my point, that absent the material conditions which created them, 99% of identities become ephemeral, is only reinforced by your arguments?

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

  519. Dobkin who is in the field fighting for Ukraine reflects the typically formerly pro-Russian Kharkivite. Putin the accidental Ukrainian nation-builder:

    [MORE]

    • Agree: sudden death
    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @AP

    Lenin, Stalin and Putin are the Unholy Trinity of Ukrainian nation-building. These three have done more for Ukrainian nationhood than any Ukrainian nationalist.

    Replies: @AP

  520. @Unintended Consequence
    @Triteleia Laxa

    While you're bogged down in the minutiae of the supposed great and glorious Ukraine, has it occurred to you that more is at stake? This is not simply about Russian imperialism; It's about NATO moving ever closer to Russia as if trying to contain it as if still dealing with the USSR. I'm sorry but I don't think the Donbas or Kherson or Zaporizhzhia remaining part of the Ukraine is more important than the US having a good relationship with Russia. It's not even our business to intervene and we certainly shouldn't be funding the Ukrainian military or giving them weapons. That makes this a proxy war. But why would we be treating Russia like an enemy? Even worse, why would we risk a permanent rift between the US and the RF not to mention igniting WW3.

    You are either not an American or you are ethnically Ukrainian, obviously. It has been a long-standing policy of the US to sacrifice the little country's concerns in order to keep the peace. Imo, this is one of those instances. The Ukraine needs to make some concessions. The US and NATO need to stop assisting the military buildup. This is not about the Ukraine nor was it ever. Don't be so completely selfish and obtuse.

    Replies: @keypusher

    It’s not even our business to intervene and we certainly shouldn’t be funding the Ukrainian military or giving them weapons. That makes this a proxy war.

    What makes a proxy war?

    In Korea, the Chinese sent in large numbers of ground troops and the Soviets provided 50,000-70,000 soldiers/advisors and pilots, who engaged the Americans directly (supposedly the Americans knew this, but did not publicize it because they feared escalating the war). Seems like that is a proxy war if anything is. But it was still caused by the North invading the South, as far as I know not on orders from anyone.

    In Vietnam, the USSR supplied jet fighters and tanks, steps the Americans have not taken in Ukraine, though quite possibly because they think they aid they are supplying is more useful than tanks and jet fighters would be. Was Vietnam a proxy war from the Soviet side? I don’t think anyone thinks so.

    In Afghanistan in the 1980s, the US provided assistance to the mujahideen. Was that a proxy war?

    Presumably providing weapons is not sufficient, else the Iraq wars would have been proxy wars waged by the Russians and French against the Americans.

    I don’t think Ukraine is a proxy war — obviously others disagree. But I’m more curious to know what defines a proxy war.

    • Replies: @YetAnotherAnon
    @keypusher

    "I’m more curious to know what defines a proxy war"

    Can't define it, but I can tell one when I see it.

    In Vietnam and Korea, the idea of American troops and weapons wasn't to economically destroy China or the Soviets. In Afghanistan it was, to make occupation unbearable in lives and gold. That was IMHO a proxy war.

    This is also a proxy war. Yes, plenty of noble rhetoric about self-determination (just not for Donbass!), but the idea is to weaken Russia, and maybe destroy her, as plenty of talking heads are pointing out.

    Big Serge

    https://bigserge.substack.com/p/politics-by-other-means


    What has happened in the months since February 24 is rather remarkable. The existential war for the Russian nation has been incarnated and made real for Russian citizens. Sanctions and anti-Russian propaganda - demonizing the entire nation as “orcs” - has rallied even initially skeptical Russians behind the war, and Putin’s approval rating has soared. A core western assumption, that Russians would turn on the government, has reversed. Videos showing the torture of Russian POWs by frothing Ukrainians, of Ukrainian soldiers calling Russian mothers to mockingly tell them their sons are dead, of Russian children killed by shelling in Donetsk, have served to validate Putin’s implicit claim that Ukraine is a demon possessed state that must be exorcised with high explosives.

    Amidst all of this - helpfully, from the perspective of Alexander Dugin and his neophytes - American pseudo-intellectual “Blue Checks” have publicly drooled over the prospect of “decolonizing and demilitarizing” Russia, which plainly entails the dismemberment of the Russian state and the partitioning of its territory. The government of Ukraine (in now deleted tweets) publicly claimed that Russians are prone to barbarism because they are a mongrel race with Asiatic blood mixing.
     

    Even now the comment sections of the Guardian and Mail are full of people hoping that Putin will be overthrown by internal forces.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @keypusher

    , @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms
    @keypusher

    North invading the South, as far as I know not on orders from anyone

    Stalin gave Kim the go-ahead and kept Mao out of the loop who would had to delay action on Taiwan.

    Proxy wars can be when both sides are proxies:

    - Chinese Civil War: KMT (US), CCP (Soviets)

    - Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge (Soviets, PRC), Kingdom of Cambodia (US)

    Or when one side side is a proxy:

    - Korea: NK was Soviet proxy, US and PRC entered directly

    - Vietnam: Vietnam was Soviet and PRC proxy, US entered directly

    - Sino-Vietnamese War: Vietnam was Soviet proxy, PRC entered directly

    - Soviet-Afghan War: Afghan was US and PRC proxy, Soviets entered directly

    A complicate case was Second Sino-Japanese War, the KMT-CCP alliance was a Soviet proxy of from 1937 to 1941, then a US proxy from 1941-1945.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Volunteer_Group

    Japan also briefly regarded KMT to be a German proxy from 1937-1938; and publicized captured German weapons as Soviet-made.

  521. @keypusher
    @Unintended Consequence


    It’s not even our business to intervene and we certainly shouldn’t be funding the Ukrainian military or giving them weapons. That makes this a proxy war.
     
    What makes a proxy war?

    In Korea, the Chinese sent in large numbers of ground troops and the Soviets provided 50,000-70,000 soldiers/advisors and pilots, who engaged the Americans directly (supposedly the Americans knew this, but did not publicize it because they feared escalating the war). Seems like that is a proxy war if anything is. But it was still caused by the North invading the South, as far as I know not on orders from anyone.

    In Vietnam, the USSR supplied jet fighters and tanks, steps the Americans have not taken in Ukraine, though quite possibly because they think they aid they are supplying is more useful than tanks and jet fighters would be. Was Vietnam a proxy war from the Soviet side? I don't think anyone thinks so.

    In Afghanistan in the 1980s, the US provided assistance to the mujahideen. Was that a proxy war?

    Presumably providing weapons is not sufficient, else the Iraq wars would have been proxy wars waged by the Russians and French against the Americans.

    I don't think Ukraine is a proxy war -- obviously others disagree. But I'm more curious to know what defines a proxy war.

    Replies: @YetAnotherAnon, @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    “I’m more curious to know what defines a proxy war”

    Can’t define it, but I can tell one when I see it.

    In Vietnam and Korea, the idea of American troops and weapons wasn’t to economically destroy China or the Soviets. In Afghanistan it was, to make occupation unbearable in lives and gold. That was IMHO a proxy war.

    This is also a proxy war. Yes, plenty of noble rhetoric about self-determination (just not for Donbass!), but the idea is to weaken Russia, and maybe destroy her, as plenty of talking heads are pointing out.

    Big Serge

    https://bigserge.substack.com/p/politics-by-other-means

    What has happened in the months since February 24 is rather remarkable. The existential war for the Russian nation has been incarnated and made real for Russian citizens. Sanctions and anti-Russian propaganda – demonizing the entire nation as “orcs” – has rallied even initially skeptical Russians behind the war, and Putin’s approval rating has soared. A core western assumption, that Russians would turn on the government, has reversed. Videos showing the torture of Russian POWs by frothing Ukrainians, of Ukrainian soldiers calling Russian mothers to mockingly tell them their sons are dead, of Russian children killed by shelling in Donetsk, have served to validate Putin’s implicit claim that Ukraine is a demon possessed state that must be exorcised with high explosives.

    Amidst all of this – helpfully, from the perspective of Alexander Dugin and his neophytes – American pseudo-intellectual “Blue Checks” have publicly drooled over the prospect of “decolonizing and demilitarizing” Russia, which plainly entails the dismemberment of the Russian state and the partitioning of its territory. The government of Ukraine (in now deleted tweets) publicly claimed that Russians are prone to barbarism because they are a mongrel race with Asiatic blood mixing.

    Even now the comment sections of the Guardian and Mail are full of people hoping that Putin will be overthrown by internal forces.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @YetAnotherAnon


    Even now the comment sections of the Guardian and Mail are full of people hoping that Putin will be overthrown by internal forces.
     
    Sub-Juju level thinking. Their 'bad thoughts" and "bad vibes or energy" are irrelevant to a conversation as regards concrete specificities.

    Big Serge
     
    Every single thing he has written that events could prove wrong, has been proven wrong.

    Russia is only in 'an existential fight' in the untethered heads of those lost in extreme hysteria. To everyone else not stuck in histrionic political personality, Russia can end the war just by going home. Done.

    Yes, for the pain to stop, Russia need only drive the odd 30kms back East that they travelled in the last week of February. That easy. And here's some idiot babbling on about "existential threat." Go home Vlad, you're drunk. And humiliating yourself.

    Replies: @YetAnotherAnon

    , @keypusher
    @YetAnotherAnon

    You can't define them, but you know proxy wars when you see them, huh? How convenient.


    In Vietnam and Korea, the idea of American troops and weapons wasn’t to economically destroy China or the Soviets. In Afghanistan it was, to make occupation unbearable in lives and gold. That was IMHO a proxy war.

     

    Vietnam and Korea obviously not proxy wars from the American perspective, because the Americans were direct combatants, as Russia is in Ukraine. The question is whether those were proxy wars from the Soviet/Chinese perspective. And if not, how do you distinguish them from the Ukraine war from the American perspective, which you have said is a proxy war.

    Amidst all of this – helpfully, from the perspective of Alexander Dugin and his neophytes – American pseudo-intellectual “Blue Checks” have publicly drooled over the prospect of “decolonizing and demilitarizing” Russia, which plainly entails the dismemberment of the Russian state and the partitioning of its territory.

     

    Other American blue checks have said that Russia should be assured of its territorial integrity. Do they count?

    Important for western leaders to try to communicate to the Russian public, Russian elites, and the growing population of Russian emigres that Kremlin propaganda is wrong and there’s no secret plan to destroy Russia — it really is as simple as them not doing invasions.

     

    https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1576906100879683584?s=20&t=xhI6OwePwNNht4CGRq0SXQ


    In recent days Biden has warned of nuclear Armageddon and has said that Putin must have an off-ramp, which presumably does not include putting Putin on trial for war crimes and dismembering his country. Does Biden count?

    Replies: @YetAnotherAnon

  522. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Thorfinnsson
    @Triteleia Laxa

    In antiquity the most developed civilizations had stronger gender roles than barbarians, as can be seen in the writings of Tacitus.

    Today, it is the wealthiest and most sex-egalitarian countries which demonstrate the strongest sex differences in personality: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30206941/

    Regardless of the fact that women can earn reasonable wages today, the system is failing at its most basic level:

    https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.lkg7kunu3qVFWz4VKqUhyAHaFv%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=694289f6a41156f60e0e9887a2c17e3ee41d88c92faba7c3c2db82f1e285a8c8&ipo=images

    In addition to low birth rates, this has produced a deterioration in family quality and parental investment:

    https://abagond.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/single-parent.png

    Meanwhile let's see how the real trads are doing:

    https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/amish-growth-rate.png

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    In antiquity the most developed civilizations had stronger gender roles than barbarians, as can be seen in the writings of Tacitus.

    “In antiquity”…great!

    (Good observation, though we know so little about antiquity it is very hard to see things as they actually were.)

    Now try observing the relevant time period, which is the present. And stick to the subject, which is socially mandated sexual roles.

    Today, it is the wealthiest and most sex-egalitarian countries which demonstrate the strongest sex differences in personality:

    No relevance to the discussion. People are welcome to pursue any subjective LARP they want, but there’ll be no long-term mass movement based around it. I bet you!

    In addition to low birth rates, this has produced a deterioration in family quality and parental investment:

    Doubt it. Fathers were more absent previously, they just more often lived in the same house.

    Meanwhile let’s see how the real trads are doing:

    Again with focussing in on one stat, to ignore the bigger picture. “Trads,” as a percentage of the world’s population, shrink every year, with access to contraception, and people being lifted out of extreme poverty. Despite the differential birth rates.

    See how my point, that absent the material conditions which created them, 99% of identities become ephemeral, is only reinforced by your arguments?

    • Replies: @Thorfinnsson
    @Triteleia Laxa

    “In antiquity”…great!

    (Good observation, though we know so little about antiquity it is very hard to see things as they actually were.)

    Now try observing the relevant time period, which is the present. And stick to the subject, which is socially mandated sexual roles.
     

    Prior to the Battle of Watling Street, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus exhorted his men by saying, "Ignore the racket made by these savages. There are more women than men in their ranks. They are not soldiers—they're not even properly equipped. We've beaten them before and when they see our weapons and feel our spirit, they'll crack. Stick together. Throw the javelins, then push forward: knock them down with your shields and finish them off with your swords. Forget about plunder. Just win and you'll have everything."

    The battle was a decisive Roman victory which ended the revolt of the Iceni.

    This has relevance for our present time period in which ideological efforts to integrate women into armed forces not produced good results.

    No relevance to the discussion. People are welcome to pursue any subjective LARP they want, but there’ll be no long-term mass movement based around it. I bet you!
     

    I disagree. A tiger does not change its stripes, and pound a square peg into a round hole will not meet with success.

    https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/c1LLKueVtpjfBX4kHlB6HSdrHTg=/0x0:2405x1514/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2405x1514):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19369925/Panel_5.png

    It's likely that modern gender egalitarian ideology is not the sole reason for this decline, but at the very least it certainly is not doing anything to improve things.

    Doubt it. Fathers were more absent previously, they just more often lived in the same house.
     

    I'm not sure how a father who is entirely absent from the household is supposed to spend more time with his children than one who lives in the same home as his children.

    Again with focussing in on one stat, to ignore the bigger picture. “Trads,” as a percentage of the world’s population, shrink every year, with access to contraception, and people being lifted out of extreme poverty. Despite the differential birth rates.

    See how my point, that absent the material conditions which created them, 99% of identities become ephemeral, is only reinforced by your arguments?
     

    I have no dispute with the fact that the extensive mechanization of high-energy civilization enables adult women to enter the capitalist workforce in a way which was unthinkable in earlier times.

    My point is that the current model is a failure because people have stopped reproducing themselves. A contrast was drawn with the Amish, who are increasing as a share of both American and global population, for effect.

    But I do not agree with the essentially Marxist argument that one's identity is solely determined by material factors. In modern India, the likelihood of an urban woman staying at home rises with income and education because being in the workforce is considered a sign of low social status. The husband's higher earning power enables him to afford the positional good of a stay-at-home wife.

    In Bill W's The Big Book, written in the 1930s, the author laments that his alcoholism meant that he often had to force his wife to go to work because he was unable to properly support her, "as she deserved." In the context of the time, her social status was reduced due to this. In the same time period Britain had far fewer women in the workforce than Germany for the simple reason that it was a richer country, and prior to the triumph of gender egalitarian ideology social status was enhanced by women devoting themselves to home-making.

    Contemporary gender egalitarianism is of course made possible by mechanization, but it came to triumph due to the social conquest of civilization by the ideas of second-wave feminism.

    You are more on the money when you focus on contraception, but prior to the conquest of second-wave feminism it is not true that rising prosperity enhanced gender egalitarianism. During the 1950s, a booming American economy saw the average marriage age fall and the total fertility rate rise--facts bitterly lamented by the ugly authoress Betty Friedan (who graduated from a college notorious for lesbianism) in The Feminine Mystique. Even the proportion of women attending college fell. All of this in the world's most prosperous and mechanized civilization, which was then wealthier than India and the Ukraine are today.

  523. @AP
    @Wokechoke

    Nonsense. They just want to be left alone by Russia.

    If Russia does use nukes, good chance that it will present it as a “false flag” by Ukrainians.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    sure thing. lol.

  524. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @YetAnotherAnon
    @keypusher

    "I’m more curious to know what defines a proxy war"

    Can't define it, but I can tell one when I see it.

    In Vietnam and Korea, the idea of American troops and weapons wasn't to economically destroy China or the Soviets. In Afghanistan it was, to make occupation unbearable in lives and gold. That was IMHO a proxy war.

    This is also a proxy war. Yes, plenty of noble rhetoric about self-determination (just not for Donbass!), but the idea is to weaken Russia, and maybe destroy her, as plenty of talking heads are pointing out.

    Big Serge

    https://bigserge.substack.com/p/politics-by-other-means


    What has happened in the months since February 24 is rather remarkable. The existential war for the Russian nation has been incarnated and made real for Russian citizens. Sanctions and anti-Russian propaganda - demonizing the entire nation as “orcs” - has rallied even initially skeptical Russians behind the war, and Putin’s approval rating has soared. A core western assumption, that Russians would turn on the government, has reversed. Videos showing the torture of Russian POWs by frothing Ukrainians, of Ukrainian soldiers calling Russian mothers to mockingly tell them their sons are dead, of Russian children killed by shelling in Donetsk, have served to validate Putin’s implicit claim that Ukraine is a demon possessed state that must be exorcised with high explosives.

    Amidst all of this - helpfully, from the perspective of Alexander Dugin and his neophytes - American pseudo-intellectual “Blue Checks” have publicly drooled over the prospect of “decolonizing and demilitarizing” Russia, which plainly entails the dismemberment of the Russian state and the partitioning of its territory. The government of Ukraine (in now deleted tweets) publicly claimed that Russians are prone to barbarism because they are a mongrel race with Asiatic blood mixing.
     

    Even now the comment sections of the Guardian and Mail are full of people hoping that Putin will be overthrown by internal forces.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @keypusher

    Even now the comment sections of the Guardian and Mail are full of people hoping that Putin will be overthrown by internal forces.

    Sub-Juju level thinking. Their ‘bad thoughts” and “bad vibes or energy” are irrelevant to a conversation as regards concrete specificities.

    Big Serge

    Every single thing he has written that events could prove wrong, has been proven wrong.

    Russia is only in ‘an existential fight’ in the untethered heads of those lost in extreme hysteria. To everyone else not stuck in histrionic political personality, Russia can end the war just by going home. Done.

    Yes, for the pain to stop, Russia need only drive the odd 30kms back East that they travelled in the last week of February. That easy. And here’s some idiot babbling on about “existential threat.” Go home Vlad, you’re drunk. And humiliating yourself.

    • Replies: @YetAnotherAnon
    @Triteleia Laxa

    "Russia is only in ‘an existential fight’ in the untethered heads of those lost in extreme hysteria. To everyone else not stuck in histrionic political personality, Russia can end the war just by going home. Done."

    LOL. That would be the signal to really up the pressure. I do believe you're a bigger troll than HA.

    Russia has reacted precisely the way the US will react in 2050, when Canada explores a mutual defence pact with China, and the US faces the prospect of hypersonic missiles with fifty-second flight times to Seattle and NY.

    Oh, Happy Birthday, Vlad !

    Replies: @AP

  525. @Triteleia Laxa
    @YetAnotherAnon

    Ukraine is fighting its own battle. Just as, despite Lend Lease, the Soviet Union did in WW2.

    Does anyone doubt that Ukraine will have a military insanely more effective, at the end of this war, than the one they began with?

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    I strongly suspect that the West has indulgently built up a state with its own imperial ambitions that could stretch in to Kursk, Rostov and Belgorod.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wokechoke

    Some irrelevant paranoid madman, who has been wrong about everything, has "suspicions." Stop the presses and continue sending Russian lads to the meat grinder! That makes total sense...

    Ffs

    Replies: @Wokechoke

  526. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    I strongly suspect that the West has indulgently built up a state with its own imperial ambitions that could stretch in to Kursk, Rostov and Belgorod.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    Some irrelevant paranoid madman, who has been wrong about everything, has “suspicions.” Stop the presses and continue sending Russian lads to the meat grinder! That makes total sense…

    Ffs

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    There’s a greater Ukraine being talked about in Kiev by players like Arestovich and academics and fellows at RUSI etc.

    butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth would it?

  527. @Triteleia Laxa
    @YetAnotherAnon


    Even now the comment sections of the Guardian and Mail are full of people hoping that Putin will be overthrown by internal forces.
     
    Sub-Juju level thinking. Their 'bad thoughts" and "bad vibes or energy" are irrelevant to a conversation as regards concrete specificities.

    Big Serge
     
    Every single thing he has written that events could prove wrong, has been proven wrong.

    Russia is only in 'an existential fight' in the untethered heads of those lost in extreme hysteria. To everyone else not stuck in histrionic political personality, Russia can end the war just by going home. Done.

    Yes, for the pain to stop, Russia need only drive the odd 30kms back East that they travelled in the last week of February. That easy. And here's some idiot babbling on about "existential threat." Go home Vlad, you're drunk. And humiliating yourself.

    Replies: @YetAnotherAnon

    “Russia is only in ‘an existential fight’ in the untethered heads of those lost in extreme hysteria. To everyone else not stuck in histrionic political personality, Russia can end the war just by going home. Done.”

    LOL. That would be the signal to really up the pressure. I do believe you’re a bigger troll than HA.

    Russia has reacted precisely the way the US will react in 2050, when Canada explores a mutual defence pact with China, and the US faces the prospect of hypersonic missiles with fifty-second flight times to Seattle and NY.

    Oh, Happy Birthday, Vlad !

    • Replies: @AP
    @YetAnotherAnon


    Russia has reacted precisely the way the US will react in 2050, when Canada explores a mutual defence pact with China
     
    Canada would only do such a thing if America had previously invaded and annexed Canadian territory.

    China, and the US faces the prospect of hypersonic missiles with fifty-second flight times to Seattle and NY
     
    Estonia already in NATO and Russia did nothing when Finland opted to join so this is an insincere complaint by Russia, an excuse rather than the real reason.

    The real reason for the Russian invasion is that it finally became clear by around 2020 that without an invasion Ukraine would never eventually join Russia.

    Prior to 2014, Russia had hoped that a Yanukovich would arrange such a Union. But he was thrown out and with the annexation of Crimea there was no longer a chance of someone like that getting elected into office.

    With that option gone, Russia had hoped that economic collapse without Russia would make it happen. It hoped people would get so desperate they would turn to Russia. But then Ukraine’s economy recovered from Maidan, achieving its per capita post-Soviet best.

    The last option was the Minsk deal in which Donbas would have served as a pro -Russian anchor keeping Ukraine linked to Russia. But Zelensky either wanted to reinterpret Minsk in a way that would have eliminated that effect or walk away from it. Minsk was done.

    So by 2020 or 2021 it was clear that the only way to keep Ukraine from the EU and to bind it to Russia was by force. And so Russia invaded.

    NATO membership (Ukraine has been rebuffed year after year), protecting Donbas civilians (by 2021 civilian deaths from armed actions were down to 8 - the invasion has already killed over 10,000 mostly Russian-speaking civilians) were false excuses. It was all done so that Russia could capture Ukraine which was about to be lost forever. But the invasion was so pointless and stupid that it’s effect was just to strengthen anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine, even in places that had previously been friendly to Russia.
  528. @Unintended Consequence
    @Mr. Hack

    "I wonder what exactly kremlinstoogeA123 has in mind when he mentions “pushing Putin to the end of humanity”?"

    I don't believe A123 is anyone's stooge. It would be nice though if you were a Kremlinologist. Putin and his underlings have said so many things this year but much of it is perhaps not to be taken literally. The rest may be designed to bring about a desired response from the US and NATO. A sort of negotiation seems to be ongoing even while military action is underway. What does it all mean? Surely Putin is not insane. I don't believe he's all that religious either: so what's all the messianic chatter about? Are Russian's attempting to relate to US fundamentalists by using religious language? These are things I'd like to know. What about you?

    Replies: @A123

    Surely Putin is not insane. I don’t believe he’s all that religious either: so what’s all the messianic chatter about? Are Russian’s attempting to relate to US fundamentalists by using religious language?

    Putin represents himself as a Defender of the Faith. Has this former KGB operative actually found God? I admit, I am also somewhat dubious on that point. However, the rhetoric is effective. And, his actions largely match the rhetoric. Putin is significantly more Christian than Pope Muhammad Francis of Open Borders.

    Putin has avoided the huge pitfalls of defining himself as a theocratic leader. The stance is that of a secular authority that believes in God.

    Does this make Putin more appealing to U.S. Christians?

    It certainly does not hurt. Plus, he is willing to drill for hydrocarbons. Providing energy for workers and industry is a key leadership attribute.

    I would gladly put Putin in the White House for the next two years to displaced Not-The-President Biden. Of course, I would also deem a house plant, singing potato, or chia pet as better presidential material So, not a high bar to clear.

     

     

    With the “Russia, Russia, Russia” myth dead there is a real chance for the next MAGA President to achieve U.S.-Russia Rapprochement. Christians, Russian and American, working together in common cause. Or, at least the first steps towards that sort of constructive relationship.

    Putin and his underlings have said so many things this year but much of it is perhaps not to be taken literally.

    Politicians will often say things for domestic consumption. Look at the recent reparations claims by Poland (1). Does anyone think Germany will actual hand over €1,300,000,000? It is all about say my local things to native voters. A similar artificial 3-way kerfuffle among Poland, Israel, and the U.S. happened last year.

    Politicians say thing to shape thought. Words lock in ideas. Once an idea is solidified as fact, how can it be changed?

    The Russian people and Putin accept as fact the idea that Crimea is part of Russia. The Kiev regime committed War Crimes against the Russian citizens of Crimea, such as shutting off the fresh water supply with the Punishment Dam. Paper wavers and blow hards will bloviate otherwise, but that is too late. The idea is locked in.

    Will Putin use nukes to stop the Ukie Maximlist invasion of Russian soil?

    Does anyone rational believe he will not do so? The Russian people and Russian leadership are of one mind in terms of national defense. The idea is real and locked in.
    ____

    The peril is that Ukie Maximalists have a different idea. They genuinely believe Russia will gracefully cede Crimea to them. They have no reason to stop, because they do not grasp that nukes will be used against them.

    They are like Mr. Hack. They firmly believe suicidal dogma. It is a pathology cannot be changed with blog posts. I placed Hack on my blocked commenters lists as an act of medical compassion. Sparring with him cannot lead to improvement, and it may make his psychiatric condition worse.
    ___

    There are only two high probably outcomes:

    -1- The midterms successfully reduce funding for Kiev regime aggression. The Ukrainian people replace Ukie Maximalists with sane leadership. This leads to an armistice, negotiations, and a deal that neither side likes but both can live with.

    -2- Not-The-President Biden ignores the Constitution and keeps the blood money flowing. Russia takes nuclear WMD action to protect Russian citizens. Fallout travels West–»East. Using tactical nukes would contaminate their own troops. Strategic nukes, one missile with ~12 MIRV warheads, well away from the front lines (e.g. Kiev, Lviv) would result in wide spread contamination of land that Russia does not need to capture.

    There are some highly unlikely possibilities:

    — If Putin dies, would his replacement be more congenial? Unlikely. However, substantial distraction resulting from a domestic power struggle might demphasize Ukraine.
    — The same thing could happen in Ukraine. If Zelensky suddenly passes or there is sufficient scandal, that might paralyze the Kiev regimes ability to keep troops in the field.

    Neither of these are permanent solutions. The conflict will return once the domestic necessities are resolved.
    ___

    At this point, the only option is to wait and watch.

    The events that will truly shape the final outcome are months away.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/poland/poland-plans-new-push-for-e1-3-trillion-in-reparations-from-germany-says-polands-ruling-party-leader/

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @A123

    Fash The Nation did a very good explication of the infamous Satanists speech.

    , @Mr. Hack
    @A123


    The Russian people and Putin accept as fact the idea that Crimea is part of Russia. The Kiev regime committed War Crimes against the Russian citizens of Crimea, such as shutting off the fresh water supply with the Punishment Dam. Paper wavers and blow hards will bloviate otherwise, but that is too late. The idea is locked in.
     
    A lot of dumb ideas have been floated around since the dawn of time, and yet that doesn't make them good ideas. KremlinstoogeA123 and I have already spent much time debating the merits of one of his favorite topics, the supposed criminal nature of the water issues surrounding the Dnieper river flows of water into the Crimea. I pointed out to him that these disputes have been thoroughly reviewed in proceedings in European courts, and have been adjudicated in favor of Ukraine. In other words, there's no merit to kremlinstoogeA123's continuous badgering of this tenuous and unsupportable cause. He knows this to be true and resents that his cause has been thoroughly debunked here by myself, and has decided (very child like) to try and nullify my presence at this blog by naming me "psychiatrically sick" etc. when in fact its he who is too cowardly to continue any normal conversation regarding his kremlin stooge views. KremlinstoogeA123 is an egotistical debater who resents losing an argument, takes it seriously when he does, and responds the only way that he knows how, by ducking his opponent.

    Russia took control of Crimea in February 2014. According to Ukrainian officials, the facilities of the Canal in Crimea were seized by the new de facto authorities in March 2014, who drove away the Ukrainian personnel. In the absence of maintenance on the Russian-controlled side, water could not reach the consumers. According to the Ukrainian Water Resource Agency, the Russian de facto authorities refused to pay for water delivery, accumulating a huge debt. Under such conditions, Ukraine blocked off the canal.
     
    https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-proceedings-flow-while-water-does-not-russias-claims-concerning-the-north-crimean-canal-in-strasbourg/

    Hey kremlinstoogeA123, if you don't pay your monthly water bill, the City will eventually cut-off your water supply? You have figured this out? At least that's the way it works in the good old USA! :-)

    Replies: @Beckow

  529. @AP
    Dobkin who is in the field fighting for Ukraine reflects the typically formerly pro-Russian Kharkivite. Putin the accidental Ukrainian nation-builder:

    https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1578269709216403457?s=46&t=vVAYpCw0swLPrERXza3m4A

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    Lenin, Stalin and Putin are the Unholy Trinity of Ukrainian nation-building. These three have done more for Ukrainian nationhood than any Ukrainian nationalist.

    • Replies: @AP
    @Bashibuzuk

    Lenin and early Stalin were reactive to pre-Bolshevik events, not proactive (by the early 30’s Stalin had enough personal power to reverse such policies), so they don’t deserve any credit. You are right about Putin.

    Actually a lot of credit also goes to the 19th century Russian administrators in Ukraine who chose to crack down on the loyal pro-Rus Little Russian activists and cultural figures, for whom Little Russia was a part of Rus equal to Great Russia. Persecuting them and trying to destroy their life work in the failed attempt to assimilate Little Russians into Great Russians transformed those Little Russian activists into anti-Russian Ukrainian nationalists.

  530. @A123
    @Unintended Consequence


    Surely Putin is not insane. I don’t believe he’s all that religious either: so what’s all the messianic chatter about? Are Russian’s attempting to relate to US fundamentalists by using religious language?
     
    Putin represents himself as a Defender of the Faith. Has this former KGB operative actually found God? I admit, I am also somewhat dubious on that point. However, the rhetoric is effective. And, his actions largely match the rhetoric. Putin is significantly more Christian than Pope Muhammad Francis of Open Borders.

    Putin has avoided the huge pitfalls of defining himself as a theocratic leader. The stance is that of a secular authority that believes in God.

    Does this make Putin more appealing to U.S. Christians?

    It certainly does not hurt. Plus, he is willing to drill for hydrocarbons. Providing energy for workers and industry is a key leadership attribute.

    I would gladly put Putin in the White House for the next two years to displaced Not-The-President Biden. Of course, I would also deem a house plant, singing potato, or chia pet as better presidential material So, not a high bar to clear.

     
    http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0443/3402/2812/products/JoeBidenBoxandunitwithchia_1200x1200.jpg
     

    With the "Russia, Russia, Russia" myth dead there is a real chance for the next MAGA President to achieve U.S.-Russia Rapprochement. Christians, Russian and American, working together in common cause. Or, at least the first steps towards that sort of constructive relationship.

    Putin and his underlings have said so many things this year but much of it is perhaps not to be taken literally.
     
    Politicians will often say things for domestic consumption. Look at the recent reparations claims by Poland (1). Does anyone think Germany will actual hand over €1,300,000,000? It is all about say my local things to native voters. A similar artificial 3-way kerfuffle among Poland, Israel, and the U.S. happened last year.

    Politicians say thing to shape thought. Words lock in ideas. Once an idea is solidified as fact, how can it be changed?

    The Russian people and Putin accept as fact the idea that Crimea is part of Russia. The Kiev regime committed War Crimes against the Russian citizens of Crimea, such as shutting off the fresh water supply with the Punishment Dam. Paper wavers and blow hards will bloviate otherwise, but that is too late. The idea is locked in.

    Will Putin use nukes to stop the Ukie Maximlist invasion of Russian soil?

    Does anyone rational believe he will not do so? The Russian people and Russian leadership are of one mind in terms of national defense. The idea is real and locked in.
    ____

    The peril is that Ukie Maximalists have a different idea. They genuinely believe Russia will gracefully cede Crimea to them. They have no reason to stop, because they do not grasp that nukes will be used against them.

    They are like Mr. Hack. They firmly believe suicidal dogma. It is a pathology cannot be changed with blog posts. I placed Hack on my blocked commenters lists as an act of medical compassion. Sparring with him cannot lead to improvement, and it may make his psychiatric condition worse.
    ___

    There are only two high probably outcomes:

    -1- The midterms successfully reduce funding for Kiev regime aggression. The Ukrainian people replace Ukie Maximalists with sane leadership. This leads to an armistice, negotiations, and a deal that neither side likes but both can live with.

    -2- Not-The-President Biden ignores the Constitution and keeps the blood money flowing. Russia takes nuclear WMD action to protect Russian citizens. Fallout travels West--»East. Using tactical nukes would contaminate their own troops. Strategic nukes, one missile with ~12 MIRV warheads, well away from the front lines (e.g. Kiev, Lviv) would result in wide spread contamination of land that Russia does not need to capture.

    There are some highly unlikely possibilities:

    -- If Putin dies, would his replacement be more congenial? Unlikely. However, substantial distraction resulting from a domestic power struggle might demphasize Ukraine.
    -- The same thing could happen in Ukraine. If Zelensky suddenly passes or there is sufficient scandal, that might paralyze the Kiev regimes ability to keep troops in the field.

    Neither of these are permanent solutions. The conflict will return once the domestic necessities are resolved.
    ___

    At this point, the only option is to wait and watch.

    The events that will truly shape the final outcome are months away.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/poland/poland-plans-new-push-for-e1-3-trillion-in-reparations-from-germany-says-polands-ruling-party-leader/

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Mr. Hack

    Fash The Nation did a very good explication of the infamous Satanists speech.

  531. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wokechoke

    Some irrelevant paranoid madman, who has been wrong about everything, has "suspicions." Stop the presses and continue sending Russian lads to the meat grinder! That makes total sense...

    Ffs

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    There’s a greater Ukraine being talked about in Kiev by players like Arestovich and academics and fellows at RUSI etc.

    butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth would it?

  532. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:

    Cuba hosted a huge Soviet base during the Cold War, and America doesn’t even invade now, despite the fact that isolating the place would be easy for them.

    Furthermore, it is irrelevant what the US would do. Literally doesn’t matter. For one, the US’s sphere of influence is real, while Russia’s was a pretense that is now in the bin. Revealed by Putin becoming so deluded that he called his own bluff!

    As for “really upping the pressure.” You sound like a black person fantasising about white supremacy. No concrete specifities, just paranoia and an excuse for Russia to be stupid.

    And the thing about an excuse to be stupid, is that, even if it does convince anyone, the only prize you win, is getting to be a self-harming moron.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    The US has a base in Cuba already.

    Also, there are several million blacks in Cuba. Annexation was rejected in 1900 for that exact reason. It would have radically tilted electoral politics in the US and still would.

    If the US lost defacto control over Panama 2050 for some reason or other I wouldn’t attempt to stand in the way of them getting it back I they could muster their strength still. . Even though it’s clearly not US territory.

    Replies: @Beckow

  533. @Bashibuzuk
    @AP

    Lenin, Stalin and Putin are the Unholy Trinity of Ukrainian nation-building. These three have done more for Ukrainian nationhood than any Ukrainian nationalist.

    Replies: @AP

    Lenin and early Stalin were reactive to pre-Bolshevik events, not proactive (by the early 30’s Stalin had enough personal power to reverse such policies), so they don’t deserve any credit. You are right about Putin.

    Actually a lot of credit also goes to the 19th century Russian administrators in Ukraine who chose to crack down on the loyal pro-Rus Little Russian activists and cultural figures, for whom Little Russia was a part of Rus equal to Great Russia. Persecuting them and trying to destroy their life work in the failed attempt to assimilate Little Russians into Great Russians transformed those Little Russian activists into anti-Russian Ukrainian nationalists.

  534. @YetAnotherAnon
    @Triteleia Laxa

    "Russia is only in ‘an existential fight’ in the untethered heads of those lost in extreme hysteria. To everyone else not stuck in histrionic political personality, Russia can end the war just by going home. Done."

    LOL. That would be the signal to really up the pressure. I do believe you're a bigger troll than HA.

    Russia has reacted precisely the way the US will react in 2050, when Canada explores a mutual defence pact with China, and the US faces the prospect of hypersonic missiles with fifty-second flight times to Seattle and NY.

    Oh, Happy Birthday, Vlad !

    Replies: @AP

    Russia has reacted precisely the way the US will react in 2050, when Canada explores a mutual defence pact with China

    Canada would only do such a thing if America had previously invaded and annexed Canadian territory.

    China, and the US faces the prospect of hypersonic missiles with fifty-second flight times to Seattle and NY

    Estonia already in NATO and Russia did nothing when Finland opted to join so this is an insincere complaint by Russia, an excuse rather than the real reason.

    The real reason for the Russian invasion is that it finally became clear by around 2020 that without an invasion Ukraine would never eventually join Russia.

    Prior to 2014, Russia had hoped that a Yanukovich would arrange such a Union. But he was thrown out and with the annexation of Crimea there was no longer a chance of someone like that getting elected into office.

    With that option gone, Russia had hoped that economic collapse without Russia would make it happen. It hoped people would get so desperate they would turn to Russia. But then Ukraine’s economy recovered from Maidan, achieving its per capita post-Soviet best.

    The last option was the Minsk deal in which Donbas would have served as a pro -Russian anchor keeping Ukraine linked to Russia. But Zelensky either wanted to reinterpret Minsk in a way that would have eliminated that effect or walk away from it. Minsk was done.

    So by 2020 or 2021 it was clear that the only way to keep Ukraine from the EU and to bind it to Russia was by force. And so Russia invaded.

    NATO membership (Ukraine has been rebuffed year after year), protecting Donbas civilians (by 2021 civilian deaths from armed actions were down to 8 – the invasion has already killed over 10,000 mostly Russian-speaking civilians) were false excuses. It was all done so that Russia could capture Ukraine which was about to be lost forever. But the invasion was so pointless and stupid that it’s effect was just to strengthen anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine, even in places that had previously been friendly to Russia.

    • Disagree: YetAnotherAnon
  535. @Triteleia Laxa
    Cuba hosted a huge Soviet base during the Cold War, and America doesn't even invade now, despite the fact that isolating the place would be easy for them.

    Furthermore, it is irrelevant what the US would do. Literally doesn't matter. For one, the US's sphere of influence is real, while Russia's was a pretense that is now in the bin. Revealed by Putin becoming so deluded that he called his own bluff!

    As for "really upping the pressure." You sound like a black person fantasising about white supremacy. No concrete specifities, just paranoia and an excuse for Russia to be stupid.

    And the thing about an excuse to be stupid, is that, even if it does convince anyone, the only prize you win, is getting to be a self-harming moron.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    The US has a base in Cuba already.

    Also, there are several million blacks in Cuba. Annexation was rejected in 1900 for that exact reason. It would have radically tilted electoral politics in the US and still would.

    If the US lost defacto control over Panama 2050 for some reason or other I wouldn’t attempt to stand in the way of them getting it back I they could muster their strength still. . Even though it’s clearly not US territory.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Wokechoke

    Kiev is facing an existential threat, as are Russia, Poland, UK, US... We all face an existential threat. Until it happens it is a non-event. And if it does, I doubt we will go back and discuss Kherson or the price of gas in Rotterdam.

    Russia was in 2021 staring at Nato with military bases on its very long border with Ukraine. And an unhinged Kiev banning the Russian language and performing a ritual 'we hate Russia' dance for its clueless Western admirers. The moron-end of the Western spectrum dreamt about the world with many small Russias, or no Russia at all.

    It wasn't going to stay that way and time was not on Russia's side, so they acted. In 8 months they decisively pushed Nato out of Ukraine and created a deep buffer in the south-east - it is not '30 km', that is a silly happy-talk. They annexed 15% of Ukraine and raised the prices of energy to unaffordable levels.

    The cost has been to bring the Western hatred of Russia into the open, no 'shopping in Milano' or owning Chelsea. Plus 10k or so lost soldiers. Kiev is throwing bodies at it hoping to claw back a few dozen kms. But if it freezes now Russia would win.

    The biggest strategic change is that Nato cannot openly put its bases or missiles in Ukraine - Russia has established that they will blow them up (or try which is about the same). That was not the case before February. The dream of Nato in Ukraine is gone - sending weapons or 'volunteers' is not the same thing.

    Nato has been blocked, Russia is stronger (and slightly bigger), the rump-Ukraine is much weaker. How would that be scored in the past? I mean before the bizarre weasel 'a win is not a win' mindset took over in the West.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @AP

  536. @A123
    @Unintended Consequence


    Surely Putin is not insane. I don’t believe he’s all that religious either: so what’s all the messianic chatter about? Are Russian’s attempting to relate to US fundamentalists by using religious language?
     
    Putin represents himself as a Defender of the Faith. Has this former KGB operative actually found God? I admit, I am also somewhat dubious on that point. However, the rhetoric is effective. And, his actions largely match the rhetoric. Putin is significantly more Christian than Pope Muhammad Francis of Open Borders.

    Putin has avoided the huge pitfalls of defining himself as a theocratic leader. The stance is that of a secular authority that believes in God.

    Does this make Putin more appealing to U.S. Christians?

    It certainly does not hurt. Plus, he is willing to drill for hydrocarbons. Providing energy for workers and industry is a key leadership attribute.

    I would gladly put Putin in the White House for the next two years to displaced Not-The-President Biden. Of course, I would also deem a house plant, singing potato, or chia pet as better presidential material So, not a high bar to clear.

     
    http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0443/3402/2812/products/JoeBidenBoxandunitwithchia_1200x1200.jpg
     

    With the "Russia, Russia, Russia" myth dead there is a real chance for the next MAGA President to achieve U.S.-Russia Rapprochement. Christians, Russian and American, working together in common cause. Or, at least the first steps towards that sort of constructive relationship.

    Putin and his underlings have said so many things this year but much of it is perhaps not to be taken literally.
     
    Politicians will often say things for domestic consumption. Look at the recent reparations claims by Poland (1). Does anyone think Germany will actual hand over €1,300,000,000? It is all about say my local things to native voters. A similar artificial 3-way kerfuffle among Poland, Israel, and the U.S. happened last year.

    Politicians say thing to shape thought. Words lock in ideas. Once an idea is solidified as fact, how can it be changed?

    The Russian people and Putin accept as fact the idea that Crimea is part of Russia. The Kiev regime committed War Crimes against the Russian citizens of Crimea, such as shutting off the fresh water supply with the Punishment Dam. Paper wavers and blow hards will bloviate otherwise, but that is too late. The idea is locked in.

    Will Putin use nukes to stop the Ukie Maximlist invasion of Russian soil?

    Does anyone rational believe he will not do so? The Russian people and Russian leadership are of one mind in terms of national defense. The idea is real and locked in.
    ____

    The peril is that Ukie Maximalists have a different idea. They genuinely believe Russia will gracefully cede Crimea to them. They have no reason to stop, because they do not grasp that nukes will be used against them.

    They are like Mr. Hack. They firmly believe suicidal dogma. It is a pathology cannot be changed with blog posts. I placed Hack on my blocked commenters lists as an act of medical compassion. Sparring with him cannot lead to improvement, and it may make his psychiatric condition worse.
    ___

    There are only two high probably outcomes:

    -1- The midterms successfully reduce funding for Kiev regime aggression. The Ukrainian people replace Ukie Maximalists with sane leadership. This leads to an armistice, negotiations, and a deal that neither side likes but both can live with.

    -2- Not-The-President Biden ignores the Constitution and keeps the blood money flowing. Russia takes nuclear WMD action to protect Russian citizens. Fallout travels West--»East. Using tactical nukes would contaminate their own troops. Strategic nukes, one missile with ~12 MIRV warheads, well away from the front lines (e.g. Kiev, Lviv) would result in wide spread contamination of land that Russia does not need to capture.

    There are some highly unlikely possibilities:

    -- If Putin dies, would his replacement be more congenial? Unlikely. However, substantial distraction resulting from a domestic power struggle might demphasize Ukraine.
    -- The same thing could happen in Ukraine. If Zelensky suddenly passes or there is sufficient scandal, that might paralyze the Kiev regimes ability to keep troops in the field.

    Neither of these are permanent solutions. The conflict will return once the domestic necessities are resolved.
    ___

    At this point, the only option is to wait and watch.

    The events that will truly shape the final outcome are months away.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://rmx.news/poland/poland-plans-new-push-for-e1-3-trillion-in-reparations-from-germany-says-polands-ruling-party-leader/

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Mr. Hack

    The Russian people and Putin accept as fact the idea that Crimea is part of Russia. The Kiev regime committed War Crimes against the Russian citizens of Crimea, such as shutting off the fresh water supply with the Punishment Dam. Paper wavers and blow hards will bloviate otherwise, but that is too late. The idea is locked in.

    A lot of dumb ideas have been floated around since the dawn of time, and yet that doesn’t make them good ideas. KremlinstoogeA123 and I have already spent much time debating the merits of one of his favorite topics, the supposed criminal nature of the water issues surrounding the Dnieper river flows of water into the Crimea. I pointed out to him that these disputes have been thoroughly reviewed in proceedings in European courts, and have been adjudicated in favor of Ukraine. In other words, there’s no merit to kremlinstoogeA123’s continuous badgering of this tenuous and unsupportable cause. He knows this to be true and resents that his cause has been thoroughly debunked here by myself, and has decided (very child like) to try and nullify my presence at this blog by naming me “psychiatrically sick” etc. when in fact its he who is too cowardly to continue any normal conversation regarding his kremlin stooge views. KremlinstoogeA123 is an egotistical debater who resents losing an argument, takes it seriously when he does, and responds the only way that he knows how, by ducking his opponent.

    Russia took control of Crimea in February 2014. According to Ukrainian officials, the facilities of the Canal in Crimea were seized by the new de facto authorities in March 2014, who drove away the Ukrainian personnel. In the absence of maintenance on the Russian-controlled side, water could not reach the consumers. According to the Ukrainian Water Resource Agency, the Russian de facto authorities refused to pay for water delivery, accumulating a huge debt. Under such conditions, Ukraine blocked off the canal.

    https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-proceedings-flow-while-water-does-not-russias-claims-concerning-the-north-crimean-canal-in-strasbourg/

    Hey kremlinstoogeA123, if you don’t pay your monthly water bill, the City will eventually cut-off your water supply? You have figured this out? At least that’s the way it works in the good old USA! 🙂

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Mr. Hack


    if you don’t pay your monthly water bill, the City will eventually cut-off your water supply
     
    Ok, so if Russia raises the price of energy (or grain, aluminum, fertilizer, nuclear fuel...) 10-fold and the customers in Europe don't pay, it is ok with you? It must be - pay the price or don't get the stuff, markets don't have two sides, same rules.

    You should stop referring to 'Courts' - Court is an unbiased setting for resolving disputes accepted by both sides. Even you must by now understand that there is no such thing when it comes to Russia in the West. What they have are simply Western offices issuing papers as required by their bosses. That's not a court by any stretch of imagination. At least live in reality.

    Replies: @A123, @Mr. Hack

  537. @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    The US has a base in Cuba already.

    Also, there are several million blacks in Cuba. Annexation was rejected in 1900 for that exact reason. It would have radically tilted electoral politics in the US and still would.

    If the US lost defacto control over Panama 2050 for some reason or other I wouldn’t attempt to stand in the way of them getting it back I they could muster their strength still. . Even though it’s clearly not US territory.

    Replies: @Beckow

    Kiev is facing an existential threat, as are Russia, Poland, UK, US… We all face an existential threat. Until it happens it is a non-event. And if it does, I doubt we will go back and discuss Kherson or the price of gas in Rotterdam.

    Russia was in 2021 staring at Nato with military bases on its very long border with Ukraine. And an unhinged Kiev banning the Russian language and performing a ritual ‘we hate Russia‘ dance for its clueless Western admirers. The moron-end of the Western spectrum dreamt about the world with many small Russias, or no Russia at all.

    It wasn’t going to stay that way and time was not on Russia’s side, so they acted. In 8 months they decisively pushed Nato out of Ukraine and created a deep buffer in the south-east – it is not ’30 km’, that is a silly happy-talk. They annexed 15% of Ukraine and raised the prices of energy to unaffordable levels.

    The cost has been to bring the Western hatred of Russia into the open, no ‘shopping in Milano’ or owning Chelsea. Plus 10k or so lost soldiers. Kiev is throwing bodies at it hoping to claw back a few dozen kms. But if it freezes now Russia would win.

    The biggest strategic change is that Nato cannot openly put its bases or missiles in Ukraine – Russia has established that they will blow them up (or try which is about the same). That was not the case before February. The dream of Nato in Ukraine is gone – sending weapons or ‘volunteers’ is not the same thing.

    Nato has been blocked, Russia is stronger (and slightly bigger), the rump-Ukraine is much weaker. How would that be scored in the past? I mean before the bizarre weasel ‘a win is not a win‘ mindset took over in the West.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Beckow


    Russia was in 2021 staring at Nato with military bases on its very long border with Ukraine.
     
    False.

    1. Ukraine could not join NATO without giving up the lands in the Donbas and Crimea which Russia occupied.

    2. NATO hasn't even built bases in Poland.


    With increasingly unhinged Kiev banning the Russian language and performing a ritual ‘we hate Russia‘ dance for its clueless Western admirers
     
    False.

    1. Russian wasn't banned. Zelenskyy speaks it as his first language.

    2. Ukrainians disliked Russia, because Russia had invaded Ukraine in 2014 and de facto annexed parts of the country.


    The moron end of the Western spectrum openly dreams about the world with many small Russias or even no Russia.
     
    Ridiculous.

    That people you consider stupid have ideas you don't like is meaningless. You sound like someone who is rude to waiters, because you feel "the waiter just hates me."


    In 8 months they decisively pushed Nato out of Ukraine and created a deep buffer in the south-east – it is not ’30 km’, that is a silly happy-talk.
     
    False.

    1. NATO has never been more involved in Ukraine. Nor the Ukrainian military more powerful. Nor Ukrainians more aggrieved against Russia.

    2. Ukrainian troops, armed with NATO weapons, are on Russia's borders because of this war.


    They annexed 15% of Ukraine and raised the prices of energy to unaffordable levels.
     
    They currently occupy a bit more than they did before the war. But their hold on all of it is much more tenuous.

    And if they wanted to raise energy prices, they could have just cut supplies, as they have done. That way they would have avoided sanctions, kept their foreign exchange, nor suffered 60,000 casualties and be looking at the total defeat of their military.

    Russia has never been so militarily weak. Nor Ukraine so strong, nor so aligned against them. Nor has NATO been so big, nor as close to Russia's major cities, nor so united. And it is is all because Putin chose to invade. Literally every single thing he said he wanted to achieve, he has now achieved the opposite of. He is even at risk of losing Crimea, which was, in practical terms, undisputed before the war.

    The war could not be more of a huge L for Russia, if Putin had sat down and planned it, with losing as his intention. And it is only going to get worse. Remember when I told you that, and you were like "no, Ukraine will be completely cut off from the Black See in a week?" Haha, you never learn.

    Replies: @Beckow, @Wokechoke

    , @AP
    @Beckow


    They annexed 15% of Ukraine
     
    A month ago it was 20%. In another month it may be 10%.

    The cost has been to bring the Western hatred of Russia into the open, no ‘shopping in Milano’ or owning Chelsea. Plus 10k or so lost soldiers

     

    Even our former hosts admitted about 20k Russian side KIAa few weeks ago; it would be higher now.

    Russia is stronger (and slightly bigger), the rump-Ukraine is much weaker
     
    Russia has lost a lot of men and equipment that will take time to rebuild so it is much weaker (and it’s original weaknesses have been exposed). Compared to February, Ukraine’s military is much larger, far more lavishly equipped, and better trained. And Ukraine overall is much more unified and anti-Russian. If the war ended now, the retention of the Azov Sea coast would be a Pyrrhic victory at best.

    Replies: @Beckow

  538. Happy Birthday to Vlad the Impaler!

    Famous negro Libras:

    https://www.essence.com/celebrity/celebrity-libras/

    Kim Kardashian is a Libra but she is not on this list. : )

    • LOL: Bashibuzuk
  539. @Mr. Hack
    @A123


    The Russian people and Putin accept as fact the idea that Crimea is part of Russia. The Kiev regime committed War Crimes against the Russian citizens of Crimea, such as shutting off the fresh water supply with the Punishment Dam. Paper wavers and blow hards will bloviate otherwise, but that is too late. The idea is locked in.
     
    A lot of dumb ideas have been floated around since the dawn of time, and yet that doesn't make them good ideas. KremlinstoogeA123 and I have already spent much time debating the merits of one of his favorite topics, the supposed criminal nature of the water issues surrounding the Dnieper river flows of water into the Crimea. I pointed out to him that these disputes have been thoroughly reviewed in proceedings in European courts, and have been adjudicated in favor of Ukraine. In other words, there's no merit to kremlinstoogeA123's continuous badgering of this tenuous and unsupportable cause. He knows this to be true and resents that his cause has been thoroughly debunked here by myself, and has decided (very child like) to try and nullify my presence at this blog by naming me "psychiatrically sick" etc. when in fact its he who is too cowardly to continue any normal conversation regarding his kremlin stooge views. KremlinstoogeA123 is an egotistical debater who resents losing an argument, takes it seriously when he does, and responds the only way that he knows how, by ducking his opponent.

    Russia took control of Crimea in February 2014. According to Ukrainian officials, the facilities of the Canal in Crimea were seized by the new de facto authorities in March 2014, who drove away the Ukrainian personnel. In the absence of maintenance on the Russian-controlled side, water could not reach the consumers. According to the Ukrainian Water Resource Agency, the Russian de facto authorities refused to pay for water delivery, accumulating a huge debt. Under such conditions, Ukraine blocked off the canal.
     
    https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-proceedings-flow-while-water-does-not-russias-claims-concerning-the-north-crimean-canal-in-strasbourg/

    Hey kremlinstoogeA123, if you don't pay your monthly water bill, the City will eventually cut-off your water supply? You have figured this out? At least that's the way it works in the good old USA! :-)

    Replies: @Beckow

    if you don’t pay your monthly water bill, the City will eventually cut-off your water supply

    Ok, so if Russia raises the price of energy (or grain, aluminum, fertilizer, nuclear fuel…) 10-fold and the customers in Europe don’t pay, it is ok with you? It must be – pay the price or don’t get the stuff, markets don’t have two sides, same rules.

    You should stop referring to ‘Courts’ – Court is an unbiased setting for resolving disputes accepted by both sides. Even you must by now understand that there is no such thing when it comes to Russia in the West. What they have are simply Western offices issuing papers as required by their bosses. That’s not a court by any stretch of imagination. At least live in reality.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Beckow


    You should stop referring to ‘Courts’ – Court is an unbiased setting for resolving disputes accepted by both sides.
     
    I concur.

    • The WTO court has been hijacked by the CCP and is wielded against America.
    • The UN and ICC are laughable bodies that are wielded against Christianity and Judaism across the planet.

    EVERYONE is victimized by Globalist Courts. They are run by Elites, not "The West". Western (and Eastern) Christians are primary targets.

    No country should accept or obey these absurd, failed constructs. When the ICC makes a "ruling" the correct responses are -- pointing, derision, and laughter.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    , @Mr. Hack
    @Beckow

    You haven't established that the price for water that Ukraine was charging Russia was exorbitantly high?

    Russia was subject to the decisions of this court, because it decided to be one of the parties to the dispute. Russia was fully represented and provided for any required paperwork. The fact that Russia couldn't make its case and lost is its own fault. You can't just disavow the court's decision because you don't like the verdict - that's not the way it's done in the grown-up world.

    https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20140321/eca86bd9ddb414961d4c37.jpg
    "You can't have your cake and eat it too!" :-)

    Replies: @Beckow

  540. @Mr. Hack
    https://i.redd.it/8v8q11cfe5r91.png
    If this doesn't work, Putler threatens to use nukes in Ukraine:

    https://cgs-bd.com/cms/media/images/1b043fad-31fe-4076-9660-ba4b7ebad8a9.jpg

    Has anybody given any thought as to where exactly would Putler's bomb be detonated within Ukraine. The Donbas, other parts of Eastern or southern Ukraine? Doesn't sound likely, as in Putler's demented way of seeing things, these parts are already a part of Russia. First time a "liberator" would destroy his own "country"? Central Ukraine, Kyiv, what a political faux paus that would be? How many Ukrainians still live in these areas? Close to Belarus too, and really not that far from the original Russian border. Western Ukraine? Close to Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, all fortunately NATO countries. Think about it, and the awful Armageddon type responses this madman is contemplating?...

    Replies: @LatW, @Unintended Consequence, @Mikhail

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mikhail

    That's a good one, Mickey, but it still depicts Zelensky as a better captain of his ship, than old Putler:

    https://claytoonz.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/cjonesrgb04212022.jpg

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2022/04/16/DAVEY17042022_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqz8PrEBUoq2NOeDT9dFlgS4SliqoIrHepFqLBaEFVJNs.jpg?imwidth=1280

  541. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Beckow
    @Wokechoke

    Kiev is facing an existential threat, as are Russia, Poland, UK, US... We all face an existential threat. Until it happens it is a non-event. And if it does, I doubt we will go back and discuss Kherson or the price of gas in Rotterdam.

    Russia was in 2021 staring at Nato with military bases on its very long border with Ukraine. And an unhinged Kiev banning the Russian language and performing a ritual 'we hate Russia' dance for its clueless Western admirers. The moron-end of the Western spectrum dreamt about the world with many small Russias, or no Russia at all.

    It wasn't going to stay that way and time was not on Russia's side, so they acted. In 8 months they decisively pushed Nato out of Ukraine and created a deep buffer in the south-east - it is not '30 km', that is a silly happy-talk. They annexed 15% of Ukraine and raised the prices of energy to unaffordable levels.

    The cost has been to bring the Western hatred of Russia into the open, no 'shopping in Milano' or owning Chelsea. Plus 10k or so lost soldiers. Kiev is throwing bodies at it hoping to claw back a few dozen kms. But if it freezes now Russia would win.

    The biggest strategic change is that Nato cannot openly put its bases or missiles in Ukraine - Russia has established that they will blow them up (or try which is about the same). That was not the case before February. The dream of Nato in Ukraine is gone - sending weapons or 'volunteers' is not the same thing.

    Nato has been blocked, Russia is stronger (and slightly bigger), the rump-Ukraine is much weaker. How would that be scored in the past? I mean before the bizarre weasel 'a win is not a win' mindset took over in the West.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @AP

    Russia was in 2021 staring at Nato with military bases on its very long border with Ukraine.

    False.

    1. Ukraine could not join NATO without giving up the lands in the Donbas and Crimea which Russia occupied.

    2. NATO hasn’t even built bases in Poland.

    With increasingly unhinged Kiev banning the Russian language and performing a ritual ‘we hate Russia‘ dance for its clueless Western admirers

    False.

    1. Russian wasn’t banned. Zelenskyy speaks it as his first language.

    2. Ukrainians disliked Russia, because Russia had invaded Ukraine in 2014 and de facto annexed parts of the country.

    The moron end of the Western spectrum openly dreams about the world with many small Russias or even no Russia.

    Ridiculous.

    That people you consider stupid have ideas you don’t like is meaningless. You sound like someone who is rude to waiters, because you feel “the waiter just hates me.”

    In 8 months they decisively pushed Nato out of Ukraine and created a deep buffer in the south-east – it is not ’30 km’, that is a silly happy-talk.

    False.

    1. NATO has never been more involved in Ukraine. Nor the Ukrainian military more powerful. Nor Ukrainians more aggrieved against Russia.

    2. Ukrainian troops, armed with NATO weapons, are on Russia’s borders because of this war.

    They annexed 15% of Ukraine and raised the prices of energy to unaffordable levels.

    They currently occupy a bit more than they did before the war. But their hold on all of it is much more tenuous.

    And if they wanted to raise energy prices, they could have just cut supplies, as they have done. That way they would have avoided sanctions, kept their foreign exchange, nor suffered 60,000 casualties and be looking at the total defeat of their military.

    Russia has never been so militarily weak. Nor Ukraine so strong, nor so aligned against them. Nor has NATO been so big, nor as close to Russia’s major cities, nor so united. And it is is all because Putin chose to invade. Literally every single thing he said he wanted to achieve, he has now achieved the opposite of. He is even at risk of losing Crimea, which was, in practical terms, undisputed before the war.

    The war could not be more of a huge L for Russia, if Putin had sat down and planned it, with losing as his intention. And it is only going to get worse. Remember when I told you that, and you were like “no, Ukraine will be completely cut off from the Black See in a week?” Haha, you never learn.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa

    I addressed your desperate prevarication about Nato in my reply to AP. Why do you try to hide what is so obvious? The plan was Nato in Ukraine - as the plan 10-15 years ago was to put 'defensive missiles' in Poland-Romania after US unilaterally dropped the ABM treaty. Then Nato lied that it was 'against Iran'.

    Nato also lied about Ukraine, but actually not so much - most talking heads were way too enthusiastic to even bother to hide it. To think that Russia would not assume that the plan was for Ukraine to join Nato is an extreme form of narcissism.


    Russian wasn’t banned. Zelenskyy speaks it as his first language.
     
    Russian language was banned in schools and offices. It happened about 2 weeks after Maidan. The fact that people speak to each other Russian, Hungarian or Swahili makes no difference. The language used by close to half of the population was banned - imagine if Ottawa would ban French in Quebec, or Brussels would ban Flemish, etc...That was madness - and a huge mistake - you know that it is indefensible so you try to suppress it by lying and making totally fake points like 'well, Zelko speaks Russian (or he used to)'.

    Try to be serious and drop the happy talk. We have a catastrophic war because of lying like what you had produced above. As Elon Musk tweeted this is not that complicated or worth dying over: close to half of Ukraine is not what you claim it is. Musk offered a (belated) way out. Your constant denying of the obvious and hoping for a mythical 'victory' delays the inevitable: there will not be Nato in Ukraine and the Russian language will be back in offices and schools. Then we can have peace.

    And you can claim that since you never wanted those two things you didn't lose. I am fine with it if you want to save face. But we both know you are not telling the truth.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    , @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    There’s been a US armored brigade rotating into Poland for several years.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  542. @Beckow
    @Wokechoke

    Kiev is facing an existential threat, as are Russia, Poland, UK, US... We all face an existential threat. Until it happens it is a non-event. And if it does, I doubt we will go back and discuss Kherson or the price of gas in Rotterdam.

    Russia was in 2021 staring at Nato with military bases on its very long border with Ukraine. And an unhinged Kiev banning the Russian language and performing a ritual 'we hate Russia' dance for its clueless Western admirers. The moron-end of the Western spectrum dreamt about the world with many small Russias, or no Russia at all.

    It wasn't going to stay that way and time was not on Russia's side, so they acted. In 8 months they decisively pushed Nato out of Ukraine and created a deep buffer in the south-east - it is not '30 km', that is a silly happy-talk. They annexed 15% of Ukraine and raised the prices of energy to unaffordable levels.

    The cost has been to bring the Western hatred of Russia into the open, no 'shopping in Milano' or owning Chelsea. Plus 10k or so lost soldiers. Kiev is throwing bodies at it hoping to claw back a few dozen kms. But if it freezes now Russia would win.

    The biggest strategic change is that Nato cannot openly put its bases or missiles in Ukraine - Russia has established that they will blow them up (or try which is about the same). That was not the case before February. The dream of Nato in Ukraine is gone - sending weapons or 'volunteers' is not the same thing.

    Nato has been blocked, Russia is stronger (and slightly bigger), the rump-Ukraine is much weaker. How would that be scored in the past? I mean before the bizarre weasel 'a win is not a win' mindset took over in the West.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @AP

    They annexed 15% of Ukraine

    A month ago it was 20%. In another month it may be 10%.

    The cost has been to bring the Western hatred of Russia into the open, no ‘shopping in Milano’ or owning Chelsea. Plus 10k or so lost soldiers

    Even our former hosts admitted about 20k Russian side KIAa few weeks ago; it would be higher now.

    Russia is stronger (and slightly bigger), the rump-Ukraine is much weaker

    Russia has lost a lot of men and equipment that will take time to rebuild so it is much weaker (and it’s original weaknesses have been exposed). Compared to February, Ukraine’s military is much larger, far more lavishly equipped, and better trained. And Ukraine overall is much more unified and anti-Russian. If the war ended now, the retention of the Azov Sea coast would be a Pyrrhic victory at best.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @AP

    You are the 'Hall Monitor' should join the Titanic orchestra, they might still be hiring. The language betrays you:

    ...a bit more (really, only a bit?), tenuous hold, lavishly equipped, he speaks Russian himself! etc...flowery language to hide the loss.


    If the war ended now, the retention of the Azov Sea coast would be a Pyrrhic victory at best.
     
    Conquest is hardly a retention and Pyrrhic victory is defined as 'winning, but losing so much material and people that you can't fight any more. That's obviously not the case with Russia, they have nukes. The Pyrrha analogy better applies to Kiev if there was any 'win' to base it on. You don't understand what Pyrrhic means.

    Back to Nato: the strategic reality before February was that Nato moved to absorb Ukraine: it was openly (and proudly) stated each year, the Norwegian moron couldn't stop talking about it, Kiev had it in its Constitution, UK was building two joint bases (Berdyansk, Ochakov), arms were flowing, soldiers were being trained, and the attitude was 'Russia can't do a thing about it'.

    Then Russia struck and in one week destroyed the plan. Any Nato bases, missiles, parades, etc... would now be immediately attacked - that simply wasn't the case before February. You hide behind empty speeches, delivery of arms (that existed also pre-February), etc... But Ukraine in Nato dream is gone, Russia established that they would use force to stop it.

    That is the result of the war so far. If that is not a massive strategic turn-around I don't know what would be. The plan was Ukraine in Nato -and it cannot be now. To deny that was the plan is very infantile.

    Replies: @AP

  543. @YetAnotherAnon
    @keypusher

    "I’m more curious to know what defines a proxy war"

    Can't define it, but I can tell one when I see it.

    In Vietnam and Korea, the idea of American troops and weapons wasn't to economically destroy China or the Soviets. In Afghanistan it was, to make occupation unbearable in lives and gold. That was IMHO a proxy war.

    This is also a proxy war. Yes, plenty of noble rhetoric about self-determination (just not for Donbass!), but the idea is to weaken Russia, and maybe destroy her, as plenty of talking heads are pointing out.

    Big Serge

    https://bigserge.substack.com/p/politics-by-other-means


    What has happened in the months since February 24 is rather remarkable. The existential war for the Russian nation has been incarnated and made real for Russian citizens. Sanctions and anti-Russian propaganda - demonizing the entire nation as “orcs” - has rallied even initially skeptical Russians behind the war, and Putin’s approval rating has soared. A core western assumption, that Russians would turn on the government, has reversed. Videos showing the torture of Russian POWs by frothing Ukrainians, of Ukrainian soldiers calling Russian mothers to mockingly tell them their sons are dead, of Russian children killed by shelling in Donetsk, have served to validate Putin’s implicit claim that Ukraine is a demon possessed state that must be exorcised with high explosives.

    Amidst all of this - helpfully, from the perspective of Alexander Dugin and his neophytes - American pseudo-intellectual “Blue Checks” have publicly drooled over the prospect of “decolonizing and demilitarizing” Russia, which plainly entails the dismemberment of the Russian state and the partitioning of its territory. The government of Ukraine (in now deleted tweets) publicly claimed that Russians are prone to barbarism because they are a mongrel race with Asiatic blood mixing.
     

    Even now the comment sections of the Guardian and Mail are full of people hoping that Putin will be overthrown by internal forces.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @keypusher

    You can’t define them, but you know proxy wars when you see them, huh? How convenient.

    In Vietnam and Korea, the idea of American troops and weapons wasn’t to economically destroy China or the Soviets. In Afghanistan it was, to make occupation unbearable in lives and gold. That was IMHO a proxy war.

    Vietnam and Korea obviously not proxy wars from the American perspective, because the Americans were direct combatants, as Russia is in Ukraine. The question is whether those were proxy wars from the Soviet/Chinese perspective. And if not, how do you distinguish them from the Ukraine war from the American perspective, which you have said is a proxy war.

    Amidst all of this – helpfully, from the perspective of Alexander Dugin and his neophytes – American pseudo-intellectual “Blue Checks” have publicly drooled over the prospect of “decolonizing and demilitarizing” Russia, which plainly entails the dismemberment of the Russian state and the partitioning of its territory.

    Other American blue checks have said that Russia should be assured of its territorial integrity. Do they count?

    Important for western leaders to try to communicate to the Russian public, Russian elites, and the growing population of Russian emigres that Kremlin propaganda is wrong and there’s no secret plan to destroy Russia — it really is as simple as them not doing invasions.

    In recent days Biden has warned of nuclear Armageddon and has said that Putin must have an off-ramp, which presumably does not include putting Putin on trial for war crimes and dismembering his country. Does Biden count?

    • Replies: @YetAnotherAnon
    @keypusher

    "Does Biden count?"

    Not really. Who wrote that for him?

  544. @Beckow
    @Mr. Hack


    if you don’t pay your monthly water bill, the City will eventually cut-off your water supply
     
    Ok, so if Russia raises the price of energy (or grain, aluminum, fertilizer, nuclear fuel...) 10-fold and the customers in Europe don't pay, it is ok with you? It must be - pay the price or don't get the stuff, markets don't have two sides, same rules.

    You should stop referring to 'Courts' - Court is an unbiased setting for resolving disputes accepted by both sides. Even you must by now understand that there is no such thing when it comes to Russia in the West. What they have are simply Western offices issuing papers as required by their bosses. That's not a court by any stretch of imagination. At least live in reality.

    Replies: @A123, @Mr. Hack

    You should stop referring to ‘Courts’ – Court is an unbiased setting for resolving disputes accepted by both sides.

    I concur.

    • The WTO court has been hijacked by the CCP and is wielded against America.
    • The UN and ICC are laughable bodies that are wielded against Christianity and Judaism across the planet.

    EVERYONE is victimized by Globalist Courts. They are run by Elites, not “The West”. Western (and Eastern) Christians are primary targets.

    No country should accept or obey these absurd, failed constructs. When the ICC makes a “ruling” the correct responses are — pointing, derision, and laughter.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @A123

    So, instead of accepting your blanket groundless theories about the courts, please show me where exactly the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) showed any anti-Christian or Jewish bias when adjudicating the Russian/Ukrainian water rights issues in Ukraine and Crimea? There wasn't any, and so you'll just duck the issue once again. Responses like this clearly show that you think and live within a groundless and fantastical world view that you've concocted only for yourself that doesn't stand for anything. You are an unmitigated charlatan of fantasy.

    The imaginarium of Dr. kremlinstoogeA123: Buyer beware of his strange and unsubstantiated conspiracy theories:

    https://www.vallettafilmfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Doctor-Parnassius-2-800x450.jpg

  545. @AP
    @Beckow


    They annexed 15% of Ukraine
     
    A month ago it was 20%. In another month it may be 10%.

    The cost has been to bring the Western hatred of Russia into the open, no ‘shopping in Milano’ or owning Chelsea. Plus 10k or so lost soldiers

     

    Even our former hosts admitted about 20k Russian side KIAa few weeks ago; it would be higher now.

    Russia is stronger (and slightly bigger), the rump-Ukraine is much weaker
     
    Russia has lost a lot of men and equipment that will take time to rebuild so it is much weaker (and it’s original weaknesses have been exposed). Compared to February, Ukraine’s military is much larger, far more lavishly equipped, and better trained. And Ukraine overall is much more unified and anti-Russian. If the war ended now, the retention of the Azov Sea coast would be a Pyrrhic victory at best.

    Replies: @Beckow

    You are the ‘Hall Monitor’ should join the Titanic orchestra, they might still be hiring. The language betrays you:

    …a bit more (really, only a bit?), tenuous hold, lavishly equipped, he speaks Russian himself! etc…flowery language to hide the loss.

    If the war ended now, the retention of the Azov Sea coast would be a Pyrrhic victory at best.

    Conquest is hardly a retention and Pyrrhic victory is defined as ‘winning, but losing so much material and people that you can’t fight any more. That’s obviously not the case with Russia, they have nukes. The Pyrrha analogy better applies to Kiev if there was any ‘win’ to base it on. You don’t understand what Pyrrhic means.

    Back to Nato: the strategic reality before February was that Nato moved to absorb Ukraine: it was openly (and proudly) stated each year, the Norwegian moron couldn’t stop talking about it, Kiev had it in its Constitution, UK was building two joint bases (Berdyansk, Ochakov), arms were flowing, soldiers were being trained, and the attitude was ‘Russia can’t do a thing about it’.

    Then Russia struck and in one week destroyed the plan. Any Nato bases, missiles, parades, etc… would now be immediately attacked – that simply wasn’t the case before February. You hide behind empty speeches, delivery of arms (that existed also pre-February), etc… But Ukraine in Nato dream is gone, Russia established that they would use force to stop it.

    That is the result of the war so far. If that is not a massive strategic turn-around I don’t know what would be. The plan was Ukraine in Nato -and it cannot be now. To deny that was the plan is very infantile.

    • Replies: @AP
    @Beckow


    a bit more (really, only a bit?), tenuous hold, lavishly equipped, he speaks Russian himself! etc…flowery language to hide the loss.
     
    Well, before the invasion Ukraine got a few hundred javelins and about 20 Bayraktars. Since then it’s gotten 7,000 javelins, countless stingers and NLAWs, dozens of artillery systems that Russia can’t match, etc etc.

    Russia has lost the Moskva and some other ships, large numbers of planes and missiles, and has “donated” to Ukraine hundreds of tanks (including a few of the most modern in use T-90s), APCs and artillery pieces.

    You made the specific claims that Ukraine became weaker and Russia stronger; those were lies, as usual.

    Conquest is hardly a retention
     
    If it’s kept after the Ukrainian counteroffensives stop, then it’s a retention.

    Pyrrhic victory is defined as ‘winning, but losing so much material and people that you can’t fight any more

     

    Another thing our pet liar invented as usual?

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pyrrhic

    “costly to the point of negating or outweighing expected benefits”

    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/pyrrhic-victory

    “ a victory that is not worth winning because the winner has lost so much in winning it”

    If war ends now, Russia wins the Azov coast which it had total control of anyways due to grabbing both sides of the Kerch Strait in 2014, the nuclear plant in Zaporizhia, and water for Crimea’s farms.

    The cost: 10,000s of men; major attrition of weapons and equipment such as dozens of expensive planes and a naval cruiser; a Ukrainian military that has become an order of magnitude stronger; a Ukraine that is far more unified and more hostile with a clearer path to the EU and NATO; new American bases in Poland with possible nukes stored there; massive NATO rearmament, demonstration of Russian weakness resulting in retreat from Central Asia and Caucuses; economic loss and decline; de facto vassal status to China.

    Yes, this would be a Pyrrhic victory.

    And of course Ukraine isn’t finished taking back territory yet.

    At the moment it is clear that Russia has lost/won Pyrrhically. The question is whether Ukraine is a co-loser or if it turns out better. Loss of the Azov coast would be worth it if as a result Ukraine is fast-tracked towards Western integration.

    Back to Nato: the strategic reality before February was that Nato moved to absorb Ukraine: it was openly (and proudly) stated each year

     

    Membership was deferred/denied each year, and no reason to assume that this would have changed. But now Ukraine has become almost a de facto NATO member (flooded with NATO weapons, NATO special operations forces fighting alongside Ukrainians, massive scale NATO training), and de jure it’s application has become far more advanced with approval already from numerous members. Meanwhile Finland and Sweden are about to become members.

    Rather odd for you to claim a NATO “win” for Russia as a result of this war.

    Replies: @Beckow

  546. @Beckow
    @Mr. Hack


    if you don’t pay your monthly water bill, the City will eventually cut-off your water supply
     
    Ok, so if Russia raises the price of energy (or grain, aluminum, fertilizer, nuclear fuel...) 10-fold and the customers in Europe don't pay, it is ok with you? It must be - pay the price or don't get the stuff, markets don't have two sides, same rules.

    You should stop referring to 'Courts' - Court is an unbiased setting for resolving disputes accepted by both sides. Even you must by now understand that there is no such thing when it comes to Russia in the West. What they have are simply Western offices issuing papers as required by their bosses. That's not a court by any stretch of imagination. At least live in reality.

    Replies: @A123, @Mr. Hack

    You haven’t established that the price for water that Ukraine was charging Russia was exorbitantly high?

    Russia was subject to the decisions of this court, because it decided to be one of the parties to the dispute. Russia was fully represented and provided for any required paperwork. The fact that Russia couldn’t make its case and lost is its own fault. You can’t just disavow the court’s decision because you don’t like the verdict – that’s not the way it’s done in the grown-up world.
    “You can’t have your cake and eat it too!” 🙂

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Mr. Hack

    Read what you linked. You simply quoted the Ukie defense. The Ukie defense point to a charge brought against them is not a decision. There was no decision - at least not in what you linked.

    You either have a reading comprehension problem or you don't understand the difference between defense points and a court decision. Or you lie to us.

    In any case, my understanding is that Russia left the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Court (not sure effective when). They also have in Constitution that Russian law supersedes any foreign rulings - as does US. So the point is legally moot.

    Replies: @A123, @Mr. Hack

  547. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Beckow


    Russia was in 2021 staring at Nato with military bases on its very long border with Ukraine.
     
    False.

    1. Ukraine could not join NATO without giving up the lands in the Donbas and Crimea which Russia occupied.

    2. NATO hasn't even built bases in Poland.


    With increasingly unhinged Kiev banning the Russian language and performing a ritual ‘we hate Russia‘ dance for its clueless Western admirers
     
    False.

    1. Russian wasn't banned. Zelenskyy speaks it as his first language.

    2. Ukrainians disliked Russia, because Russia had invaded Ukraine in 2014 and de facto annexed parts of the country.


    The moron end of the Western spectrum openly dreams about the world with many small Russias or even no Russia.
     
    Ridiculous.

    That people you consider stupid have ideas you don't like is meaningless. You sound like someone who is rude to waiters, because you feel "the waiter just hates me."


    In 8 months they decisively pushed Nato out of Ukraine and created a deep buffer in the south-east – it is not ’30 km’, that is a silly happy-talk.
     
    False.

    1. NATO has never been more involved in Ukraine. Nor the Ukrainian military more powerful. Nor Ukrainians more aggrieved against Russia.

    2. Ukrainian troops, armed with NATO weapons, are on Russia's borders because of this war.


    They annexed 15% of Ukraine and raised the prices of energy to unaffordable levels.
     
    They currently occupy a bit more than they did before the war. But their hold on all of it is much more tenuous.

    And if they wanted to raise energy prices, they could have just cut supplies, as they have done. That way they would have avoided sanctions, kept their foreign exchange, nor suffered 60,000 casualties and be looking at the total defeat of their military.

    Russia has never been so militarily weak. Nor Ukraine so strong, nor so aligned against them. Nor has NATO been so big, nor as close to Russia's major cities, nor so united. And it is is all because Putin chose to invade. Literally every single thing he said he wanted to achieve, he has now achieved the opposite of. He is even at risk of losing Crimea, which was, in practical terms, undisputed before the war.

    The war could not be more of a huge L for Russia, if Putin had sat down and planned it, with losing as his intention. And it is only going to get worse. Remember when I told you that, and you were like "no, Ukraine will be completely cut off from the Black See in a week?" Haha, you never learn.

    Replies: @Beckow, @Wokechoke

    I addressed your desperate prevarication about Nato in my reply to AP. Why do you try to hide what is so obvious? The plan was Nato in Ukraine – as the plan 10-15 years ago was to put ‘defensive missiles‘ in Poland-Romania after US unilaterally dropped the ABM treaty. Then Nato lied that it was ‘against Iran‘.

    Nato also lied about Ukraine, but actually not so much – most talking heads were way too enthusiastic to even bother to hide it. To think that Russia would not assume that the plan was for Ukraine to join Nato is an extreme form of narcissism.

    Russian wasn’t banned. Zelenskyy speaks it as his first language.

    Russian language was banned in schools and offices. It happened about 2 weeks after Maidan. The fact that people speak to each other Russian, Hungarian or Swahili makes no difference. The language used by close to half of the population was banned – imagine if Ottawa would ban French in Quebec, or Brussels would ban Flemish, etc…That was madness – and a huge mistake – you know that it is indefensible so you try to suppress it by lying and making totally fake points like ‘well, Zelko speaks Russian (or he used to)’.

    Try to be serious and drop the happy talk. We have a catastrophic war because of lying like what you had produced above. As Elon Musk tweeted this is not that complicated or worth dying over: close to half of Ukraine is not what you claim it is. Musk offered a (belated) way out. Your constant denying of the obvious and hoping for a mythical ‘victory’ delays the inevitable: there will not be Nato in Ukraine and the Russian language will be back in offices and schools. Then we can have peace.

    And you can claim that since you never wanted those two things you didn’t lose. I am fine with it if you want to save face. But we both know you are not telling the truth.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Beckow

    A lot of these things happen because well educated technically literate guys like Musk don’t feel any duty to sort things out amicably. He liked his Funny Games but then read up on the conflicts over the Crimea and realized he’d backed a somewhat evil course of action. Nothing that can’t be fixed but he didn’t do his homework. Then he didn’t and got hammered by the Kikes of Kiev for swatting up.

  548. @A123
    @Beckow


    You should stop referring to ‘Courts’ – Court is an unbiased setting for resolving disputes accepted by both sides.
     
    I concur.

    • The WTO court has been hijacked by the CCP and is wielded against America.
    • The UN and ICC are laughable bodies that are wielded against Christianity and Judaism across the planet.

    EVERYONE is victimized by Globalist Courts. They are run by Elites, not "The West". Western (and Eastern) Christians are primary targets.

    No country should accept or obey these absurd, failed constructs. When the ICC makes a "ruling" the correct responses are -- pointing, derision, and laughter.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    So, instead of accepting your blanket groundless theories about the courts, please show me where exactly the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) showed any anti-Christian or Jewish bias when adjudicating the Russian/Ukrainian water rights issues in Ukraine and Crimea? There wasn’t any, and so you’ll just duck the issue once again. Responses like this clearly show that you think and live within a groundless and fantastical world view that you’ve concocted only for yourself that doesn’t stand for anything. You are an unmitigated charlatan of fantasy.

    The imaginarium of Dr. kremlinstoogeA123: Buyer beware of his strange and unsubstantiated conspiracy theories:

  549. @Mr. Hack
    @Beckow

    You haven't established that the price for water that Ukraine was charging Russia was exorbitantly high?

    Russia was subject to the decisions of this court, because it decided to be one of the parties to the dispute. Russia was fully represented and provided for any required paperwork. The fact that Russia couldn't make its case and lost is its own fault. You can't just disavow the court's decision because you don't like the verdict - that's not the way it's done in the grown-up world.

    https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20140321/eca86bd9ddb414961d4c37.jpg
    "You can't have your cake and eat it too!" :-)

    Replies: @Beckow

    Read what you linked. You simply quoted the Ukie defense. The Ukie defense point to a charge brought against them is not a decision. There was no decision – at least not in what you linked.

    You either have a reading comprehension problem or you don’t understand the difference between defense points and a court decision. Or you lie to us.

    In any case, my understanding is that Russia left the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Court (not sure effective when). They also have in Constitution that Russian law supersedes any foreign rulings – as does US. So the point is legally moot.

    • Replies: @A123
    @Beckow


    @Mr. Hack

    Read what you linked.


     

    You are wasting your time. Mr. Hack is mentally damaged. He cannot be swayed by logic or reason. All he has is deranged, irrational, xebophobic hatred of Russian Orthodox Christians. It is very sad but there is nothing you or I can do to help him.

    Engaging with the madness seems to make it worse. That is why I have Mr. Hack blocked on medical grounds.


    In any case, my understanding is that Russia left the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Court (not sure effective when). They also have in Constitution that Russian law supersedes any foreign rulings – as does US. So the point is legally moot
     
    You are correct.

    Germany, Hungary, and I believe Poland have also placed sovereignty above EU and international courts. The impending showdown between Italy and Brussels will be important as it will be about migration, not finances.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    , @Mr. Hack
    @Beckow


    In any case, my understanding is that Russia left the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Court (not sure effective when). They also have in Constitution that Russian law supersedes any foreign rulings – as does US. So the point is legally moot.
     
    I'll concede that you're technically correct here, that I should have been more accurate by describing an "opinion" and not a "decision". But the fact remains, that the sentiments of this review of the facts indicated that the the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Court favored Ukraine's standing in the issues involved.
  550. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Beckow


    Russia was in 2021 staring at Nato with military bases on its very long border with Ukraine.
     
    False.

    1. Ukraine could not join NATO without giving up the lands in the Donbas and Crimea which Russia occupied.

    2. NATO hasn't even built bases in Poland.


    With increasingly unhinged Kiev banning the Russian language and performing a ritual ‘we hate Russia‘ dance for its clueless Western admirers
     
    False.

    1. Russian wasn't banned. Zelenskyy speaks it as his first language.

    2. Ukrainians disliked Russia, because Russia had invaded Ukraine in 2014 and de facto annexed parts of the country.


    The moron end of the Western spectrum openly dreams about the world with many small Russias or even no Russia.
     
    Ridiculous.

    That people you consider stupid have ideas you don't like is meaningless. You sound like someone who is rude to waiters, because you feel "the waiter just hates me."


    In 8 months they decisively pushed Nato out of Ukraine and created a deep buffer in the south-east – it is not ’30 km’, that is a silly happy-talk.
     
    False.

    1. NATO has never been more involved in Ukraine. Nor the Ukrainian military more powerful. Nor Ukrainians more aggrieved against Russia.

    2. Ukrainian troops, armed with NATO weapons, are on Russia's borders because of this war.


    They annexed 15% of Ukraine and raised the prices of energy to unaffordable levels.
     
    They currently occupy a bit more than they did before the war. But their hold on all of it is much more tenuous.

    And if they wanted to raise energy prices, they could have just cut supplies, as they have done. That way they would have avoided sanctions, kept their foreign exchange, nor suffered 60,000 casualties and be looking at the total defeat of their military.

    Russia has never been so militarily weak. Nor Ukraine so strong, nor so aligned against them. Nor has NATO been so big, nor as close to Russia's major cities, nor so united. And it is is all because Putin chose to invade. Literally every single thing he said he wanted to achieve, he has now achieved the opposite of. He is even at risk of losing Crimea, which was, in practical terms, undisputed before the war.

    The war could not be more of a huge L for Russia, if Putin had sat down and planned it, with losing as his intention. And it is only going to get worse. Remember when I told you that, and you were like "no, Ukraine will be completely cut off from the Black See in a week?" Haha, you never learn.

    Replies: @Beckow, @Wokechoke

    There’s been a US armored brigade rotating into Poland for several years.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wokechoke

    3,000 troops, deployed in reaction to Russia invading Ukraine, and annexing parts thereof, in 2014. Not a base.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Beckow

  551. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    There’s been a US armored brigade rotating into Poland for several years.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    3,000 troops, deployed in reaction to Russia invading Ukraine, and annexing parts thereof, in 2014. Not a base.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Triteleia Laxa

    It is a pretty significant force as you know.

    , @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa


    ....3,000 troops, deployed...
     
    Right. But not a 'base', I suppose there were no permanent curtains installed in the barracks. So it is not a 'base'. You know only little children with their heads in the sand would argue like that.

    You are not a serious person and you also don't answer other peoples' points.

    If you are not interested in a serious discussion and find other viewpoints divisive, why are you on Unz? There are plenty of forums where one-sided cheer-leading and silly shallow lying are the norm.

  552. @Beckow
    @Triteleia Laxa

    I addressed your desperate prevarication about Nato in my reply to AP. Why do you try to hide what is so obvious? The plan was Nato in Ukraine - as the plan 10-15 years ago was to put 'defensive missiles' in Poland-Romania after US unilaterally dropped the ABM treaty. Then Nato lied that it was 'against Iran'.

    Nato also lied about Ukraine, but actually not so much - most talking heads were way too enthusiastic to even bother to hide it. To think that Russia would not assume that the plan was for Ukraine to join Nato is an extreme form of narcissism.


    Russian wasn’t banned. Zelenskyy speaks it as his first language.
     
    Russian language was banned in schools and offices. It happened about 2 weeks after Maidan. The fact that people speak to each other Russian, Hungarian or Swahili makes no difference. The language used by close to half of the population was banned - imagine if Ottawa would ban French in Quebec, or Brussels would ban Flemish, etc...That was madness - and a huge mistake - you know that it is indefensible so you try to suppress it by lying and making totally fake points like 'well, Zelko speaks Russian (or he used to)'.

    Try to be serious and drop the happy talk. We have a catastrophic war because of lying like what you had produced above. As Elon Musk tweeted this is not that complicated or worth dying over: close to half of Ukraine is not what you claim it is. Musk offered a (belated) way out. Your constant denying of the obvious and hoping for a mythical 'victory' delays the inevitable: there will not be Nato in Ukraine and the Russian language will be back in offices and schools. Then we can have peace.

    And you can claim that since you never wanted those two things you didn't lose. I am fine with it if you want to save face. But we both know you are not telling the truth.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    A lot of these things happen because well educated technically literate guys like Musk don’t feel any duty to sort things out amicably. He liked his Funny Games but then read up on the conflicts over the Crimea and realized he’d backed a somewhat evil course of action. Nothing that can’t be fixed but he didn’t do his homework. Then he didn’t and got hammered by the Kikes of Kiev for swatting up.

  553. Well, Zelensky just called for preemptive “preventative” nuclear strike against Russia in a speech to Australia. Putin is no saint either, but fuck this faggot. Just unbelievably irresponsible.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @Yevardian

    UA official reaction:

    https://twitter.com/Podolyak_M/status/1578095254346924032

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @Mikel
    @Yevardian


    Well, Zelensky just called for preemptive “preventative” nuclear strike against Russia in a speech to Australia.
     
    Even so, I would have preferred him to win the Nobel Peace Prize rather than the trio they gave it to. You could at least interpret it as a recognition to a country that has just been invaded by a much bigger neighbor, or a comedian that has risen to the occasion of confronting an invasion or some such.

    Instead, they have chosen these recipients: A Belarussian activist against human rights abuses committed by Belarus (so far so good), a Russian organization against human rights abuses committed by Russia (so far so good) and a Ukrainian organization against human right abuses committed by.... Russia. As if there were no well-known abuses committed by the Ukrainians as well. This is basically a spit on the graves of thousands of civilians killed by Kiev and many others tortured and arbitrarily incarcerated, as documented by the UN OHCHR.

    Far from promoting peace, they are actively promoting resentment on the population of one of the parties. This kind of stuff makes you be as anti-Ukraine as anti-Russia as it piles on day after day.


    Putin is no saint either, but fuck this faggot.
     
    Fuck them both and everyone around them. As GR says, it's pathetic to even have to contemplate the possibility of nuclear war because of a dispute between these two sides.

    Replies: @Yevardian

  554. @Beckow
    @Mr. Hack

    Read what you linked. You simply quoted the Ukie defense. The Ukie defense point to a charge brought against them is not a decision. There was no decision - at least not in what you linked.

    You either have a reading comprehension problem or you don't understand the difference between defense points and a court decision. Or you lie to us.

    In any case, my understanding is that Russia left the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Court (not sure effective when). They also have in Constitution that Russian law supersedes any foreign rulings - as does US. So the point is legally moot.

    Replies: @A123, @Mr. Hack

    Read what you linked.

    You are wasting your time. Mr. Hack is mentally damaged. He cannot be swayed by logic or reason. All he has is deranged, irrational, xebophobic hatred of Russian Orthodox Christians. It is very sad but there is nothing you or I can do to help him.

    Engaging with the madness seems to make it worse. That is why I have Mr. Hack blocked on medical grounds.

    In any case, my understanding is that Russia left the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Court (not sure effective when). They also have in Constitution that Russian law supersedes any foreign rulings – as does US. So the point is legally moot

    You are correct.

    Germany, Hungary, and I believe Poland have also placed sovereignty above EU and international courts. The impending showdown between Italy and Brussels will be important as it will be about migration, not finances.

    PEACE 😇

    • Troll: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @A123


    All he has is deranged, irrational, xebophobic hatred of Russian Orthodox Christians. It is very sad but there is nothing you or I can do to help him.
     
    And you've come to this conclusion by what means? That I don't crawl on all fours before Czar Putler in obeisance and accept his "logic" and musings concerning his validations for attacking and savagely destroying Ukrainian civilians? You're a really sick cookie, Mr. kremlinstoogeA123!
  555. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Coconuts

    Sorry, bad writing. I meant that Marx was right that material realities tend to determine people's identities over longer periods of time. He was however wrong about the future primacy of "class". Rather immiserating the proletariat, capitalism gave them the same fungible goods to consume as the plutocrats. And into the vacuum which the receding of class has left, other identities have rushed, but, if you want to bet on which ones will still be tugging heart strings in a decade or two, you should bet on the ones that come from, or dictate, material realities.


    That didn’t happen in Germany after 1918, Spain after 1898, France after 1870,
     
    Militarism was massively discredited in Germany after 1918. The Kaiser was kicked out, they almost had a communist revolution and somehow the millions of veterans were unable to seize power until massive repeated recessions and general exhaustion of Weimar.

    Don't know about the others, but didn't it take a long time for France and Spain to get involved in other big foreign wars after their decisive defeat? And weren't their governments different?

    so it might not be an inevitability. Imo it’s also a question where there might be a point of connection with the trans issue and the concept of the nation as a material reality, perhaps depending on how transmania and a culture based on functional transexualism affects the destiny of nations.

     

    Sexual roles were based on the material reality that women got pregnant all of the time. Or might easily do so whenever they had sex. And this would completely change their lives for the next few years, at least.

    Contraception has made this no longer a material reality, so those sexual roles are inevitably on their way out. Honestly, get over it. The reason for those social identities no longer exists, those social identities will fade, in fits and starts, away.

    This is further reinforced by the fact that men's small, but significant, advantage in physical strength is of less and less important for the realities of life. I say "small" because women are physically strong enough to do everything important that men can do, and commonly need to do in today's age. Literally, opening jars is the most frequent last vestige of this being important.

    The strength differential now only matters for a tiny substrate of jobs in developed economies, and also for who ends up being most vulnerable to serious crimes in intimate settings.

    "Trads" advocating a politics of sexual roles and expecting influence would be like starting an agragraian party. You'll forever be marginal because farming has gone from 99% of jobs, to 1%, and it is never going back to 99%, as technology has progressed. A complete waste of time for alienated people on the internet.

    Now, for your personal life, where creating your own meaning, subjectively, can be true, who knows? But there'll be no long-term mass consciousness on this issue ever again.

    And if you find that you need society to supply validation to your personal myths and narrative, then that is because deep down, you are wanting to change and adapt your personal myths and their place in your ego is looking shaky.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Coconuts, @LatW

    He was however wrong about the future primacy of “class”. Rather immiserating the proletariat, capitalism gave them the same fungible goods to consume as the plutocrats.

    I agree with what you say here about the mushrooming of the middle class. I am not 100% sure about Marx being wholly wrong long-term, the way some trends are developing.

    Militarism was massively discredited in Germany after 1918. The Kaiser was kicked out, they almost had a communist revolution and somehow the millions of veterans were unable to seize power until massive repeated recessions and general exhaustion of Weimar.

    They came back within 20 years and created one of the craziest militaristic regimes that had existed in Europe for 100s of years. In Spain the post-1898 generation produced Franco and his comrades who created a kind of absolute monarchy based on the army after a bloody civil war. After 1870 the French led Europe in producing modern right-wing nationalism and precipitated themselves into their biggest ever war with Germany by 1914. Here it’s not obvious that failure in war discredits militarism, only that it may take some years to manifest itself again.

    Sexual roles were based on the material reality that women got pregnant all of the time.

    I was writing about the relationship between functional transexualism and the future of the nation as a political and social entity. This was assuming the nation is some material reality of its own other than a collection of individuals or a creation of class interests. You didn’t seem to write anything about that.

    Nations arose and have had most of their existence in the period when contraception was not available, similar to some other human collective entities (like families with two heterosexual parents). Will they continue to exist in the future?

    Agrarian parties usually just merged into the broader right or far-right.

    And if you find that you need society to supply validation to your personal myths and narrative, then that is because deep down, you are wanting to change and adapt your personal myths and their place in your ego is looking shaky.

    What is this? If the topic is about observable political and biological trends, isn’t this more like trying to poison the well or something?

  556. @Beckow
    @Mr. Hack

    Read what you linked. You simply quoted the Ukie defense. The Ukie defense point to a charge brought against them is not a decision. There was no decision - at least not in what you linked.

    You either have a reading comprehension problem or you don't understand the difference between defense points and a court decision. Or you lie to us.

    In any case, my understanding is that Russia left the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Court (not sure effective when). They also have in Constitution that Russian law supersedes any foreign rulings - as does US. So the point is legally moot.

    Replies: @A123, @Mr. Hack

    In any case, my understanding is that Russia left the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Court (not sure effective when). They also have in Constitution that Russian law supersedes any foreign rulings – as does US. So the point is legally moot.

    I’ll concede that you’re technically correct here, that I should have been more accurate by describing an “opinion” and not a “decision”. But the fact remains, that the sentiments of this review of the facts indicated that the the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Court favored Ukraine’s standing in the issues involved.

  557. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wokechoke

    3,000 troops, deployed in reaction to Russia invading Ukraine, and annexing parts thereof, in 2014. Not a base.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Beckow

    It is a pretty significant force as you know.

  558. @Yevardian
    Well, Zelensky just called for preemptive "preventative" nuclear strike against Russia in a speech to Australia. Putin is no saint either, but fuck this faggot. Just unbelievably irresponsible.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Mikel

    UA official reaction:

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @sudden death

    Does it make any sense to claim that it was merely about "economic sanctions"? What kind of sanctions actually are there left to enact against Russia, and why should one expect them to have any deterrent effect?
    The most plausible interpretation for Zelensky's comments is that they were meant as a call for conventional military strikes by NATO against Russia, either as preemptive strikes before a possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia, or after (the scenario recently sketched out by Patraeus, "If Russia uses nukes, we're going to destroy their Black Sea fleet and their entire army in Ukraine"). This is completely in line with earlier attempts to make NATO a direct combatant in the war like the calls for a no-fly-zone in the early months. Of course such a move would be almost certain to lead to a strategic nuclear exchange destroying most of the northern hemisphere.

    Replies: @AP, @Triteleia Laxa

  559. @Beckow
    @AP

    You are the 'Hall Monitor' should join the Titanic orchestra, they might still be hiring. The language betrays you:

    ...a bit more (really, only a bit?), tenuous hold, lavishly equipped, he speaks Russian himself! etc...flowery language to hide the loss.


    If the war ended now, the retention of the Azov Sea coast would be a Pyrrhic victory at best.
     
    Conquest is hardly a retention and Pyrrhic victory is defined as 'winning, but losing so much material and people that you can't fight any more. That's obviously not the case with Russia, they have nukes. The Pyrrha analogy better applies to Kiev if there was any 'win' to base it on. You don't understand what Pyrrhic means.

    Back to Nato: the strategic reality before February was that Nato moved to absorb Ukraine: it was openly (and proudly) stated each year, the Norwegian moron couldn't stop talking about it, Kiev had it in its Constitution, UK was building two joint bases (Berdyansk, Ochakov), arms were flowing, soldiers were being trained, and the attitude was 'Russia can't do a thing about it'.

    Then Russia struck and in one week destroyed the plan. Any Nato bases, missiles, parades, etc... would now be immediately attacked - that simply wasn't the case before February. You hide behind empty speeches, delivery of arms (that existed also pre-February), etc... But Ukraine in Nato dream is gone, Russia established that they would use force to stop it.

    That is the result of the war so far. If that is not a massive strategic turn-around I don't know what would be. The plan was Ukraine in Nato -and it cannot be now. To deny that was the plan is very infantile.

    Replies: @AP

    a bit more (really, only a bit?), tenuous hold, lavishly equipped, he speaks Russian himself! etc…flowery language to hide the loss.

    Well, before the invasion Ukraine got a few hundred javelins and about 20 Bayraktars. Since then it’s gotten 7,000 javelins, countless stingers and NLAWs, dozens of artillery systems that Russia can’t match, etc etc.

    Russia has lost the Moskva and some other ships, large numbers of planes and missiles, and has “donated” to Ukraine hundreds of tanks (including a few of the most modern in use T-90s), APCs and artillery pieces.

    You made the specific claims that Ukraine became weaker and Russia stronger; those were lies, as usual.

    Conquest is hardly a retention

    If it’s kept after the Ukrainian counteroffensives stop, then it’s a retention.

    Pyrrhic victory is defined as ‘winning, but losing so much material and people that you can’t fight any more

    Another thing our pet liar invented as usual?

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pyrrhic

    “costly to the point of negating or outweighing expected benefits”

    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/pyrrhic-victory

    “ a victory that is not worth winning because the winner has lost so much in winning it”

    If war ends now, Russia wins the Azov coast which it had total control of anyways due to grabbing both sides of the Kerch Strait in 2014, the nuclear plant in Zaporizhia, and water for Crimea’s farms.

    The cost: 10,000s of men; major attrition of weapons and equipment such as dozens of expensive planes and a naval cruiser; a Ukrainian military that has become an order of magnitude stronger; a Ukraine that is far more unified and more hostile with a clearer path to the EU and NATO; new American bases in Poland with possible nukes stored there; massive NATO rearmament, demonstration of Russian weakness resulting in retreat from Central Asia and Caucuses; economic loss and decline; de facto vassal status to China.

    Yes, this would be a Pyrrhic victory.

    And of course Ukraine isn’t finished taking back territory yet.

    At the moment it is clear that Russia has lost/won Pyrrhically. The question is whether Ukraine is a co-loser or if it turns out better. Loss of the Azov coast would be worth it if as a result Ukraine is fast-tracked towards Western integration.

    Back to Nato: the strategic reality before February was that Nato moved to absorb Ukraine: it was openly (and proudly) stated each year

    Membership was deferred/denied each year, and no reason to assume that this would have changed. But now Ukraine has become almost a de facto NATO member (flooded with NATO weapons, NATO special operations forces fighting alongside Ukrainians, massive scale NATO training), and de jure it’s application has become far more advanced with approval already from numerous members. Meanwhile Finland and Sweden are about to become members.

    Rather odd for you to claim a NATO “win” for Russia as a result of this war.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @AP

    Lots of colorful words and meaningless distinctions. Nato is not - and at this point cannot be in Ukraine. If you talk around it endlessly you sound like a sore loser.

    The 'we were never planning to be in Ukraine' is an obvious lie that no rational person with 3-digit IQ would repeat. It is as much a lie as were the 'defensive missiles against Iran' placed in Poland.

    Regarding Pyrrha, the precise statement by him was: "one more victory like this and I won't have an army". The concepts of costs and benefits are our concepts not his. Your devotion to humdrum Western texts is shallow and ahistorical. But it is touching how you parade your poor education that avoided original sources and skipped critical thinking in favor of silly narratives.

    Controlling the Azov coast, estuary of Dnieper, Crimean hinterlands, plus half of Lugansk and Mariupol, are very substantial gains. Your listed costs are mostly future projections - we don't know how this will play out.

    Today Russia is substantially better off strategically than it was in January. They have established that any Nato missiles in Ukraine can and will be destroyed - that is a dramatic change from before the war.

    Replies: @AP

  560. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:

    I agree with what you say here about the mushrooming of the middle class. I am not 100% sure about Marx being wholly wrong long term the way some trends are developing.

    Extreme poverty is down from 92% of the world’s population in Marx’s time, to 8%. This, more than anything else, is why Marxism is increasingly a fringe interest.

    Furthermore, having watched billionaire President of hegemon America drink the same Diet Coke as an African beggar, I can see that class has been thoroughly diminished in importance.

    Of course, it still is important, but so much less than it was.

    Here it’s not obvious that failure in war discredits militarism, only that it may take some years to manifest itself again.

    So, it does discredit it. But it can be re-credited if other tendencies do nothing useful with the peace. Dropping all sanctions will help to avoid that happening.

    Agrarian parties usually just merged into the broader right or far-right.

    Because the agrarian tendency is now only existing at the extreme margins, because of real changes in material factors, so it can no longer hope to act independently.

    I was writing about the relationship between functional transexualism and the future of the nation as a political and social entity.

    You think socially mandated gender roles are essential to the functioning of a nation state. Good for you! But I see no mechanism for that to be true, nor any evidence of it being true. The most functional states in the world currently have the least in the way of socially mandated gender roles.

    Your argument appears to be something like: all nations states used to exist in the absence of cars, therefore cars being invented will destroy the nation state.

    But that’s so empty!

    People need to be honest that they like and dislike some things, rather than pretending it isn’t about their likes and dislikes, and is instead about avoiding some fantasy apocalypse.

    If they could do this, then they would communicate more effectively, understand themselves better and suffer less. All of this would be great for them as individuals.

    What is this? If the topic is about observable political and biological trends, isn’t this more like trying to poison the well or something?

    Just because you think what motivates you are external factors, it does not mean that actually external factors are what what motivates you.

    When you’r logic breaks down and you can’t even notice that it has, I will inform you why.

    You do not have to believe me, nor reply to me on those comments, but I’d think about it, because why not? And shining a light on something isn’t poison. It is the same thing as love.

  561. @keypusher
    @YetAnotherAnon

    You can't define them, but you know proxy wars when you see them, huh? How convenient.


    In Vietnam and Korea, the idea of American troops and weapons wasn’t to economically destroy China or the Soviets. In Afghanistan it was, to make occupation unbearable in lives and gold. That was IMHO a proxy war.

     

    Vietnam and Korea obviously not proxy wars from the American perspective, because the Americans were direct combatants, as Russia is in Ukraine. The question is whether those were proxy wars from the Soviet/Chinese perspective. And if not, how do you distinguish them from the Ukraine war from the American perspective, which you have said is a proxy war.

    Amidst all of this – helpfully, from the perspective of Alexander Dugin and his neophytes – American pseudo-intellectual “Blue Checks” have publicly drooled over the prospect of “decolonizing and demilitarizing” Russia, which plainly entails the dismemberment of the Russian state and the partitioning of its territory.

     

    Other American blue checks have said that Russia should be assured of its territorial integrity. Do they count?

    Important for western leaders to try to communicate to the Russian public, Russian elites, and the growing population of Russian emigres that Kremlin propaganda is wrong and there’s no secret plan to destroy Russia — it really is as simple as them not doing invasions.

     

    https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1576906100879683584?s=20&t=xhI6OwePwNNht4CGRq0SXQ


    In recent days Biden has warned of nuclear Armageddon and has said that Putin must have an off-ramp, which presumably does not include putting Putin on trial for war crimes and dismembering his country. Does Biden count?

    Replies: @YetAnotherAnon

    “Does Biden count?”

    Not really. Who wrote that for him?

  562. And now for something completely different. The final IMSA road race for the season took place this weekend.

    The 10 Hours of Road Atlanta — Petit Le Mans

    This is the final event for the DPi Prototypes. Next year will introduce the slower GTP HyperCar specification at Daytona (January 26-29).

    PEACE 😇

  563. German_reader says:
    @sudden death
    @Yevardian

    UA official reaction:

    https://twitter.com/Podolyak_M/status/1578095254346924032

    Replies: @German_reader

    Does it make any sense to claim that it was merely about “economic sanctions”? What kind of sanctions actually are there left to enact against Russia, and why should one expect them to have any deterrent effect?
    The most plausible interpretation for Zelensky’s comments is that they were meant as a call for conventional military strikes by NATO against Russia, either as preemptive strikes before a possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia, or after (the scenario recently sketched out by Patraeus, “If Russia uses nukes, we’re going to destroy their Black Sea fleet and their entire army in Ukraine”). This is completely in line with earlier attempts to make NATO a direct combatant in the war like the calls for a no-fly-zone in the early months. Of course such a move would be almost certain to lead to a strategic nuclear exchange destroying most of the northern hemisphere.

    • Replies: @AP
    @German_reader


    “ If Russia uses nukes, we’re going to destroy their Black Sea fleet and their entire army in Ukraine”….Of course such a move would be almost certain to lead to a strategic nuclear exchange destroying most of the northern hemisphere.
     
    Russia would not commit suicide and erase itself even if the Black Sea fleet were wiped out.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @Triteleia Laxa
    @German_reader

    This seems to be the speech. Anyone got an alternative one? It seems innocuous to me.

    https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/svit-povinen-pokazati-silu-shob-postaviti-krapku-u-spromozhn-78325


    This is completely in line with earlier attempts to make NATO a direct combatant in the war like the calls for a no-fly-zone in the early months. Of course such a move would be almost certain to lead to a strategic nuclear exchange destroying most of the northern hemisphere.
     
    What a way you "think" on this subject!

    "Asking" is "trying to make" and the implied guilt of "asking" is responsibility for pushing for nuclear armageddon!

    "But there's a logical chain of argument there."

    Only if you look at it through spectacles of complete hysteria.

    The President of a country that is being invaded will ask for support from any country he possibly can. What's wrong with that?

    If a friend calls you up and asks for some advice or help, and you're driving, do you immediately unload on him, accusing him of trying to make you crash, die and run over a newborn baby in the process?

    Hahahaha!

    I laugh, but I bet you think like that...

    Or like, someone calls your name, so you look up, happen to bang your head, and feel desperate to blame them for the event?

    Replies: @German_reader

  564. @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.

    Replies: @Ron Unz

    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.

    I’ll admit I find it difficult to imagine that any half-rational person could have ever believed that the Russians destroyed their own pipelines, given the facts I’d presented in my recent article:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday Col. Douglas Macgregor argued that the Western MSM coverage of the current Ukraine war was just total nonsense and that the Ukrainians had suffered massive losses and the Russians were doing fine:

    I’m not a military expert on this conflict and I haven’t been following it closely, but Macgregor seems a very credible expert and these days I tend to discount anything provided by the MSM of “the Empire of Lies.”

    • Agree: Mikhail
    • Replies: @A123
    @Ron Unz


    Macgregor seems a very credible expert and these days
     
    Ritter has been useless for some time now. Macgregor is much better. He makes a very good point that territory is not inherently strategic. "What can be done with it?", is the important question.

    To Russia the critical bits are in the South, especially the Dniper line. Losing Lyman further north is inconvenient, but not a game changer.

    Despite the RF call-up, it seems unlikely that either side will be particularly bold during winter. And, nothing will be decided before the cold sets in.

    PEACE 😇

    , @Wokechoke
    @Ron Unz

    On certain levels the Russians might welcome the fact that the Ukies have come out of their cities to Sallie-forth. Makes for a battle of encounter at least!

    , @Brás Cubas
    @Ron Unz

    Here's a transcript of an excerpt of what MacGregor said (my bold):


    ...and the territory that the Russians now occupy is territory where Russians live; these are Russians living in Ukraine, who've been treated as third class citizens for years, who've been told to either become Ukrainians in Ukrainian eyes or seek a different place to live, where they can speak their language, go to their churches, behave as normal human beings...
     
    From which one infers that Ron Unz would not approve of a"Ukrainian for the Children" initiative by a hypothetical Ukrainian homologue of him.
    , @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    On the war, my favourite American general is Ben Hodges, former Commander US Army Europe. He can be found on Twitter. He does think that the Russian army is corrupt and incompetent. He doesn't go so far as to say they've lost.

    I tend to think that Russia has suffered much larger losses than Ukraine, especially in the first attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv. Ukraine intelligence is so much better. Russia only has 4 observation satellites. Russia has been making frontal attacks on towns not Ukraine. This doesn't mean they've lost. They link below shows the reservists from Saratov leaving for the front after two weeks refresher course. They are wearing decent boots and most of them have a warm jacket. (That said, Turkey has refused an order to supply 200,000 winter uniforms - China already refused. The Uzbeks or Bangladesh might oblige). Most of this batch appear to have been Tatars. In another clip the priest seeing them off is a Mufti not a Christian. Russia is not winning but can take huge losses especially of ethnic minorities, before losing is a possibility. The 20-30 year olds are the smallest demographic in post WW2 Russian history. (WW2 aftereffects+the 90s) but the same applies to Ukraine.

    https://www.vzsar.ru/news/2022/10/10/saratovskih-mobilizovannyh-provodili-s-vokzala-na-front-fotoreportaj.html

    , @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    On the war, my favourite American general is Ben Hodges, former Commander US Army Europe. He can be found on Twitter. He does think that the Russian army is corrupt and incompetent. He doesn't go so far as to say they've lost.

    I tend to think that Russia has suffered much larger losses than Ukraine, especially in the first attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv. Ukraine intelligence is so much better. Russia only has 4 observation satellites. Russia has been making frontal attacks on towns not Ukraine. This doesn't mean they've lost.

    The link below shows the reservists from Saratov leaving for the front after two weeks refresher course. They are wearing decent boots and most of them have a warm jacket. (That said, Turkey has refused an order to supply 200,000 winter uniforms - China already refused. The Uzbeks or Bangladesh might oblige). Most of this batch appear to have been Tatars. In another clip the priest seeing them off is a Mufti not a Christian. Russia is not winning but can take huge losses especially of ethnic minorities, before losing is a possibility. The 20-30 year olds are the smallest demographic in post WW2 Russian history. (WW2 aftereffects+the 90s) but the same applies to Ukraine. The Saratov provincial government is negotiating with Uzbekistan for immigrants to replace the lost workforce.

    https://youtu.be/4dwP9RhfMQo

    , @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    On the war, my favourite American general is Ben Hodges, former Commander US Army Europe. He can be found on Twitter. He does think that the Russian army is corrupt and incompetent. He doesn't go so far as to say they've lost.

    I tend to think that Russia has suffered much larger losses than Ukraine, especially in the first attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv. Ukraine intelligence is so much better. Russia only has 4 observation satellites. Ukraine can avoid being surprised. Also Russia has been making frontal attacks on towns not Ukraine which has been encircling strong[points. Such losses don't mean Russia has been defeated.

    The link below shows the reservists from Saratov leaving for the front after two weeks refresher course. They are wearing decent boots and most of them have a warm jacket. (That said, Turkey has refused an order to supply 200,000 winter uniforms - China already refused. The Uzbeks or Bangladesh might oblige). Most of this batch appear to have been Tatars. In another clip the priest seeing them off is a Mufti not a Christian. Russia is not winning but can take huge losses especially of ethnic minorities, before losing is a possibility. The 20-30 year olds are the smallest demographic in post WW2 Russian history. (WW2 aftereffects+the 90s) but the same applies to Ukraine. The Saratov provincial government is negotiating with Uzbekistan for immigrants to replace the lost workforce.

    https://youtu.be/4dwP9RhfMQo

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Mr. Hack

    , @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    Ron,

    There was a technical problem (error message now forgotten) which seemed to result in rejection sof my post. Please delete the first two if convenient.

  565. @Triteleia Laxa
    @LatW

    The real prize, for Russian political factions that seek power, is Russia. Not Bakhmut. Hopefully some can see past their own ridiculous propaganda, that occupying Bakhmut is "existential" for Russia, and remember that it is actually close to meaningless for Russia.

    That propaganda was only supposed to be there as an argument for why they had so much "will." Similar to a little child saying "I'm going to die if you don't get me that PlayBox for Christmas!"

    I mean, imagine how completely stupid Russians will feel as regards his war in 10 years' time. "We mobilised, destroyed our military, destroyed the CSTO, impoverished ourselves, threatened nukes, lost one or two hundred thousand young Russian lads, all to try and slice off some of Ukraine! Even though we have the most landmass in the world!"

    And not just stupid, but evil.

    And how about Putin's cheerleaders, writing a new rant every week, or so, about how NATO is going to collapse tomorrow, which, if it made any difference to Russian security, would likely only make it worse.

    Go home Russians. Sort out that huge and bountiful land. Putin has been exposed. He's done. Disinfected by the light, now he just needs to be scraped away.

    And as for Girkin. He went native in the Donbas, which is going Ukrainian. He can no longer deal with this "people lower on the hierarchy just shut-up" attitude. He's Sam Worthington from Avatar. His soul yearns to be free in the Hetman's egalitarian band, not Putin's imperial pomp and circumstance, that sycophants like Oliver Stone get so worked up about.

    It is like Russians are stuck in loop, with their political leadership continually trying to imitate Louis XIV. And therefore continually setting themselves up to swiftly emulate the reign of Louis XVI.

    Here's a hint: Louis XIV looked great, as "the Sun King", but was an atrocious ruler. Over his extended rule, he took the superpower of Europe, with the best Army, and slowly ground it down into a loser. Though had he died a quarter way, or half way, through his time instead, he would have looked incredible.

    Just as if Putin had died in 2008, or 2012, he would have been remembered as a good ruler too.

    Replies: @LatW, @John Johnson

    Just as if Putin had died in 2008, or 2012, he would have been remembered as a good ruler too.

    That is correct. He may have been a dictator but would have been viewed by the people as working for Russia’s interests. Similar to Franco but not as moral.

    As it stands the world hates him and views him as a loser.

    Everyone in Russia will have known someone that either died in combat or as a Ukrainian civilian. Most Russians have a relative in Ukraine.

    He will be viewed as a loser Tsar like Nicholas II.

    The only way he can restore his image is to apologize and withdrawal all forces. But he isn’t the type of man that can admit a mistake. He is the bitter kid that would cheat just to “one up” everyone. His ego is too fragile to admit mistakes.

    If it was Japan or Korea they would expect him to kill himself so he doesn’t shame his offspring. I honesty admire Jap/Korean culture in that regard. They don’t believe that terrible leaders should get to just walk away into a wealthy retirement. Asian CEOs will still on occasion kill themselves if they destroy the company.

    • Troll: Mikhail
  566. @LatW
    @Triteleia Laxa


    The real prize, for Russian political factions that seek power, is Russia. Not Bakhmut. Hopefully some can see past their own ridiculous propaganda, that occupying Bakhmut is “existential” for Russia, and remember that it is actually close to meaningless for Russia.
     
    But they identify it as "theirs" so to them it is "existential". Before Maidan, they probably had a sense that those regions are already "mentally", culturally theirs and, even inside of the borders of Ukraine, they are still mentally together. But then Ukraine decided to depart and take those regions with them. I think mentally they can't get over it (I couldn't probably and I must admit that culturally speaking there is some validity in their stance, although Ukraine's sovereignty should take priority, imo, ideally, without violence against the Russian population) plus there is now the actual violence that's being dished out since 2014 and the Russian side feels it's unjust. We can say whatever we want but that's how they feel.

    They also need some pride to be left over for their country, come on, not being able to even take Donbas....? That's weak. That's why the mistake they made of trying to take the whole of Ukraine is so bad, because if they had just annexed DNR/LNR in February, they would still be ok now.

    Well, and another aspect here is that, hypothetically, if there was some success in a place like Bakhmut, and, let's say, a group like Wagner showed some good fighting there, then this gives points to Prigozhin that he can later use in Russia. It gives him visibility, status. That's why I think those Kadyrov's troops were making all those TikTok videos, to sell them to the Russian audience showing that Kadyrov is so badass.

    Remember that Girkin gained a lot of cache through his Slovyansk adventures - even if he had to leave eventually, he became a cult figure in certain circles. You know, British and American men gain credit through building things, but some Slavic men are still very much into this bold military leader cult. It's badass, it's just that there is too much destruction left over when they leave - all the ruined livelihoods of innocents. It's all at their expense.


    Interestingly, the Hetman’s band, where everyone understands everyone else, is a great model. The Tsar’s court, or the court of Versailles, where everyone lies, saves face and plays court games, is not.
     
    This is a very good point. It appears that the spirit of the Sich still lives inside of the Ukrainian warrior. And society as a whole - they are able to mobilize themselves from the ground up.

    Whereas the Russian "court" is just very far removed from the things happening on the ground. I have respect for the likes of Rosgvardia but they were just not deployed in the proper way.


    But Ukrainians are doing this well, and all the serious forces of the West have now been training them for months.
     
    Right, also remember that a lot of them have spent 8 years in an actual war which gave them a lot of experience. Not to mention morale - they are now angry like disturbed wasps after all the atrocities on their homeland. The new conscripts are walking into a sea of very angry wasps.

    The October water in Dnipro must be damn cold..

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @John Johnson

    That’s why the mistake they made of trying to take the whole of Ukraine is so bad, because if they had just annexed DNR/LNR in February, they would still be ok now.

    Well Putin first claimed the war was about NATO and I can dig up his original speech if any of his remaining defenders would like.

    If it was really about Donbas then that could have been achieved with an ultimatum.

    There was never an ultimatum and in fact Putin severed diplomatic lines.

    Only after failing to take Kiev (and all of Ukraine) did Putin change to the explanation of defending Donbas. It needs to be noted however that Putin claimed he was defending independent Republics and then took DNR/LNR as Russian territory along with two oblasts that separatists never claimed. The Republics no longer exist. Their flags have been taken down.

    Putin is just completely full of s–t and I have been saying this from the beginning. He is just playing Putin Khan and didn’t have a backup plan. His special mobilization back to the East is out of desperation.

    Instead of admitting it was a mistake like a real man he plans on sending Stalingrad type human waves of 45-55 year old conscripts. He doesn’t understand modern warfare as seen by the fact that he launched his invasion with one long support column. What about all the javelins in Ukrainian hands? Were they supposed to just disappear? There is a video on youtube where a captured Russian tank commander talks about how they were told that they weren’t on the front line and to not worry about javelins. They didn’t get very far and the tank in front of him blows up from a javelin.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @John Johnson


    There was never an ultimatum and in fact Putin severed diplomatic lines.
     
    Well, there was an ultimatum against NATO in December. Basically, NATO retreat back to the borders of 1997, disarm the neighbors or else. But he was not at all prepared to fight NATO. Why give an ultimatum if you can't follow through? Well, now he has a chance to fight NATO like he wanted to. And this is only a small fraction of it.

    Of course, Ukraine in NATO (or de facto in a Western alliance) was unacceptable for Russia. Russia's animosity is understandable from their point of view. But they have enough missiles and could cover a large area in EE (from Crimea to Kaliningrad).


    There is a video on youtube where a captured Russian tank commander talks about how they were told that they weren’t on the front line and to not worry about javelins. They didn’t get very far and the tank in front of him blows up from a javelin.
     
    There are some very disturbing videos out there now with Russian soldiers who are not properly taken care of. Of course, there are going to be cases like that in a large war and I assume most of them are ok, they are obediently following the orders, but I shudder thinking about what's to come... this is a crime against the Russian people.
  567. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.
     
    I'll admit I find it difficult to imagine that any half-rational person could have ever believed that the Russians destroyed their own pipelines, given the facts I'd presented in my recent article:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday Col. Douglas Macgregor argued that the Western MSM coverage of the current Ukraine war was just total nonsense and that the Ukrainians had suffered massive losses and the Russians were doing fine:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwnQfO6Y4

    I'm not a military expert on this conflict and I haven't been following it closely, but Macgregor seems a very credible expert and these days I tend to discount anything provided by the MSM of "the Empire of Lies."

    Replies: @A123, @Wokechoke, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen

    Macgregor seems a very credible expert and these days

    Ritter has been useless for some time now. Macgregor is much better. He makes a very good point that territory is not inherently strategic. “What can be done with it?”, is the important question.

    To Russia the critical bits are in the South, especially the Dniper line. Losing Lyman further north is inconvenient, but not a game changer.

    Despite the RF call-up, it seems unlikely that either side will be particularly bold during winter. And, nothing will be decided before the cold sets in.

    PEACE 😇

  568. @AP
    @Beckow


    a bit more (really, only a bit?), tenuous hold, lavishly equipped, he speaks Russian himself! etc…flowery language to hide the loss.
     
    Well, before the invasion Ukraine got a few hundred javelins and about 20 Bayraktars. Since then it’s gotten 7,000 javelins, countless stingers and NLAWs, dozens of artillery systems that Russia can’t match, etc etc.

    Russia has lost the Moskva and some other ships, large numbers of planes and missiles, and has “donated” to Ukraine hundreds of tanks (including a few of the most modern in use T-90s), APCs and artillery pieces.

    You made the specific claims that Ukraine became weaker and Russia stronger; those were lies, as usual.

    Conquest is hardly a retention
     
    If it’s kept after the Ukrainian counteroffensives stop, then it’s a retention.

    Pyrrhic victory is defined as ‘winning, but losing so much material and people that you can’t fight any more

     

    Another thing our pet liar invented as usual?

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pyrrhic

    “costly to the point of negating or outweighing expected benefits”

    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/pyrrhic-victory

    “ a victory that is not worth winning because the winner has lost so much in winning it”

    If war ends now, Russia wins the Azov coast which it had total control of anyways due to grabbing both sides of the Kerch Strait in 2014, the nuclear plant in Zaporizhia, and water for Crimea’s farms.

    The cost: 10,000s of men; major attrition of weapons and equipment such as dozens of expensive planes and a naval cruiser; a Ukrainian military that has become an order of magnitude stronger; a Ukraine that is far more unified and more hostile with a clearer path to the EU and NATO; new American bases in Poland with possible nukes stored there; massive NATO rearmament, demonstration of Russian weakness resulting in retreat from Central Asia and Caucuses; economic loss and decline; de facto vassal status to China.

    Yes, this would be a Pyrrhic victory.

    And of course Ukraine isn’t finished taking back territory yet.

    At the moment it is clear that Russia has lost/won Pyrrhically. The question is whether Ukraine is a co-loser or if it turns out better. Loss of the Azov coast would be worth it if as a result Ukraine is fast-tracked towards Western integration.

    Back to Nato: the strategic reality before February was that Nato moved to absorb Ukraine: it was openly (and proudly) stated each year

     

    Membership was deferred/denied each year, and no reason to assume that this would have changed. But now Ukraine has become almost a de facto NATO member (flooded with NATO weapons, NATO special operations forces fighting alongside Ukrainians, massive scale NATO training), and de jure it’s application has become far more advanced with approval already from numerous members. Meanwhile Finland and Sweden are about to become members.

    Rather odd for you to claim a NATO “win” for Russia as a result of this war.

    Replies: @Beckow

    Lots of colorful words and meaningless distinctions. Nato is not – and at this point cannot be in Ukraine. If you talk around it endlessly you sound like a sore loser.

    The ‘we were never planning to be in Ukraine‘ is an obvious lie that no rational person with 3-digit IQ would repeat. It is as much a lie as were the ‘defensive missiles against Iran‘ placed in Poland.

    Regarding Pyrrha, the precise statement by him was: “one more victory like this and I won’t have an army“. The concepts of costs and benefits are our concepts not his. Your devotion to humdrum Western texts is shallow and ahistorical. But it is touching how you parade your poor education that avoided original sources and skipped critical thinking in favor of silly narratives.

    Controlling the Azov coast, estuary of Dnieper, Crimean hinterlands, plus half of Lugansk and Mariupol, are very substantial gains. Your listed costs are mostly future projections – we don’t know how this will play out.

    Today Russia is substantially better off strategically than it was in January. They have established that any Nato missiles in Ukraine can and will be destroyed – that is a dramatic change from before the war.

    • Replies: @AP
    @Beckow

    You were caught lying as usual and so you chose to avoid addressing the specific points.


    The ‘we were never planning to be in Ukraine‘ is an obvious lie

     

    The actions speak for themselves. Year after year, movement forward was deferred.

    But now several NATO countries have officially approved Ukraine’s membership. So legally Ukraine is closer to NATO than it was before.

    At the same time, Ukraine is flooded with NATO weapons, it’s army well trained by NATO instructors up to NATO standards. So operationally Ukraine is much closer to NATO than it had ever been.

    Therefore your claim that Russia has somehow done better regarding NATO-Ukraine from the perspective of its interests is another of your many lies.

    Regarding Pyrrha, the precise statement by him was: “one more victory like this and I won’t have an army
     
    You were caught lying about the meaning of Pyrrhic victory, I provided correct definitions in both American and British English.

    Now in your desperation you try to deflect by invoking Pyrrha himself. Would be useful if we were discussing ancient history.

    If Russia keeps what it has now, it will be a Pyrrhic victory, which in English means one in which the costs outweigh the gains.



    https://twitter.com/powerfultakes/status/1570074508001775617?s=46&t=wEVfBAH2VGfTdUXHIvoi5A

    Replies: @John Johnson

  569. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Wokechoke

    3,000 troops, deployed in reaction to Russia invading Ukraine, and annexing parts thereof, in 2014. Not a base.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Beckow

    ….3,000 troops, deployed…

    Right. But not a ‘base‘, I suppose there were no permanent curtains installed in the barracks. So it is not a ‘base’. You know only little children with their heads in the sand would argue like that.

    You are not a serious person and you also don’t answer other peoples’ points.

    If you are not interested in a serious discussion and find other viewpoints divisive, why are you on Unz? There are plenty of forums where one-sided cheer-leading and silly shallow lying are the norm.

    • Agree: A123
  570. @A123
    @Beckow


    @Mr. Hack

    Read what you linked.


     

    You are wasting your time. Mr. Hack is mentally damaged. He cannot be swayed by logic or reason. All he has is deranged, irrational, xebophobic hatred of Russian Orthodox Christians. It is very sad but there is nothing you or I can do to help him.

    Engaging with the madness seems to make it worse. That is why I have Mr. Hack blocked on medical grounds.


    In any case, my understanding is that Russia left the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Court (not sure effective when). They also have in Constitution that Russian law supersedes any foreign rulings – as does US. So the point is legally moot
     
    You are correct.

    Germany, Hungary, and I believe Poland have also placed sovereignty above EU and international courts. The impending showdown between Italy and Brussels will be important as it will be about migration, not finances.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    All he has is deranged, irrational, xebophobic hatred of Russian Orthodox Christians. It is very sad but there is nothing you or I can do to help him.

    And you’ve come to this conclusion by what means? That I don’t crawl on all fours before Czar Putler in obeisance and accept his “logic” and musings concerning his validations for attacking and savagely destroying Ukrainian civilians? You’re a really sick cookie, Mr. kremlinstoogeA123!

  571. @German_reader
    @sudden death

    Does it make any sense to claim that it was merely about "economic sanctions"? What kind of sanctions actually are there left to enact against Russia, and why should one expect them to have any deterrent effect?
    The most plausible interpretation for Zelensky's comments is that they were meant as a call for conventional military strikes by NATO against Russia, either as preemptive strikes before a possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia, or after (the scenario recently sketched out by Patraeus, "If Russia uses nukes, we're going to destroy their Black Sea fleet and their entire army in Ukraine"). This is completely in line with earlier attempts to make NATO a direct combatant in the war like the calls for a no-fly-zone in the early months. Of course such a move would be almost certain to lead to a strategic nuclear exchange destroying most of the northern hemisphere.

    Replies: @AP, @Triteleia Laxa

    “ If Russia uses nukes, we’re going to destroy their Black Sea fleet and their entire army in Ukraine”….Of course such a move would be almost certain to lead to a strategic nuclear exchange destroying most of the northern hemisphere.

    Russia would not commit suicide and erase itself even if the Black Sea fleet were wiped out.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AP


    Russia would not commit suicide and erase itself even if the Black Sea fleet were wiped out.
     
    I'm sorry, but this is really getting stupid, of course they'd use their nuclear weapons in such a scenario. Maybe not by immediately nuking cities in the US, presumably they'd first nuke NATO bases in Europe in an attempt to show "This ends here, stop your attacks on our troops immediately". But it's almost certain that this would be countered by US nuclear strikes and shortly escalate to a general nuclear war.
    I don't think Putin will order use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, unless maybe there's a chance of losing even Crimea, so hopefully this will all remain merely a thought experiment. But the "no big deal" attitude taken by a lot of people on the risk of nuclear war is just grotesque.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @AP

  572. @Beckow
    @AP

    Lots of colorful words and meaningless distinctions. Nato is not - and at this point cannot be in Ukraine. If you talk around it endlessly you sound like a sore loser.

    The 'we were never planning to be in Ukraine' is an obvious lie that no rational person with 3-digit IQ would repeat. It is as much a lie as were the 'defensive missiles against Iran' placed in Poland.

    Regarding Pyrrha, the precise statement by him was: "one more victory like this and I won't have an army". The concepts of costs and benefits are our concepts not his. Your devotion to humdrum Western texts is shallow and ahistorical. But it is touching how you parade your poor education that avoided original sources and skipped critical thinking in favor of silly narratives.

    Controlling the Azov coast, estuary of Dnieper, Crimean hinterlands, plus half of Lugansk and Mariupol, are very substantial gains. Your listed costs are mostly future projections - we don't know how this will play out.

    Today Russia is substantially better off strategically than it was in January. They have established that any Nato missiles in Ukraine can and will be destroyed - that is a dramatic change from before the war.

    Replies: @AP

    You were caught lying as usual and so you chose to avoid addressing the specific points.

    The ‘we were never planning to be in Ukraine‘ is an obvious lie

    The actions speak for themselves. Year after year, movement forward was deferred.

    But now several NATO countries have officially approved Ukraine’s membership. So legally Ukraine is closer to NATO than it was before.

    At the same time, Ukraine is flooded with NATO weapons, it’s army well trained by NATO instructors up to NATO standards. So operationally Ukraine is much closer to NATO than it had ever been.

    Therefore your claim that Russia has somehow done better regarding NATO-Ukraine from the perspective of its interests is another of your many lies.

    Regarding Pyrrha, the precise statement by him was: “one more victory like this and I won’t have an army

    You were caught lying about the meaning of Pyrrhic victory, I provided correct definitions in both American and British English.

    Now in your desperation you try to deflect by invoking Pyrrha himself. Would be useful if we were discussing ancient history.

    If Russia keeps what it has now, it will be a Pyrrhic victory, which in English means one in which the costs outweigh the gains.

    [MORE]

    • Replies: @John Johnson
    @AP

    But now several NATO countries have officially approved Ukraine’s membership.

    How exactly would there be an official approval when the vote has to be unanimous and that is after Ukraine goes through a qualification process? What you mean is that there are NATO countries that would vote for Ukraine. Well that was true before the war.

    Ukraine currently doesn't qualify for a variety of reasons, the main being that they have unstable borders. You can't apply if you are in a war or if your borders are contested.

    Of course Putin didn't mention that with his bullshit NATO excuse just as he didn't mention that France and Germany did NOT want Ukraine in NATO as if January of this year.
    https://www.the-sun.com/news/4768886/ukraine-nato-explained/

    Putin in fact turned down a deal that would have kept Ukraine out of NATO:
    https://nypost.com/2022/09/14/putin-rejected-ukraine-peace-deal-struck-by-aide-as-war-began/

    Putin has moved away from claiming the war had anything to do with NATO so I'm not sure why you guys are even talking about it.

    He now claims it is all about Donbas. This isn't Russian State TV where no one can call him on his total bullshit.

    In fact by taking Donbas as Russian territory he has brought Ukraine closer to qualifying for NATO. Good job half-pint.

    Replies: @Beckow

  573. German_reader says:
    @AP
    @German_reader


    “ If Russia uses nukes, we’re going to destroy their Black Sea fleet and their entire army in Ukraine”….Of course such a move would be almost certain to lead to a strategic nuclear exchange destroying most of the northern hemisphere.
     
    Russia would not commit suicide and erase itself even if the Black Sea fleet were wiped out.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Russia would not commit suicide and erase itself even if the Black Sea fleet were wiped out.

    I’m sorry, but this is really getting stupid, of course they’d use their nuclear weapons in such a scenario. Maybe not by immediately nuking cities in the US, presumably they’d first nuke NATO bases in Europe in an attempt to show “This ends here, stop your attacks on our troops immediately”. But it’s almost certain that this would be countered by US nuclear strikes and shortly escalate to a general nuclear war.
    I don’t think Putin will order use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, unless maybe there’s a chance of losing even Crimea, so hopefully this will all remain merely a thought experiment. But the “no big deal” attitude taken by a lot of people on the risk of nuclear war is just grotesque.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @German_reader

    https://nuclearwarsimulator.com/

    Once you get started it's hard to stop.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUKVTLWa_fM

    , @AP
    @German_reader


    I’m sorry, but this is really getting stupid, of course they’d use their nuclear weapons in such a scenario. Maybe not by immediately nuking cities in the US
     
    Of course not. Nor would he nuke bases in Europe because that would lead to massive civilian casualties, resulting in escalation leading to the death of him, all of his relatives and associates, and the rest of his people.

    I don’t think Putin will order use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine
     
    In which case, America is not going to wipe out the Black Sea Fleet or give Ukraine conventional missiles with which it can strike Moscow or whatever else might be possible extreme reactions to Putin using tactical nukes in Ukraine.

    But the bottom line is that such reactions would not be sufficient in scope to warrant Putin doing something that would erase his country from the Earth. Avenging the loss of the Black Sea fleet is r worth the erasure of Russia.

    Your previous comment:

    The most plausible interpretation for Zelensky’s comments is that they were meant as a call for conventional military strikes by NATO against Russia, either as preemptive strikes before a possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia, or after (the scenario recently sketched out by Patraeus, “If Russia uses nukes, we’re going to destroy their Black Sea fleet and their entire army in Ukraine”).

     

    So Zelensky did not call for preemptive nuclear strikes as was widely reported.

    If NATO has solid intelligence (such as seeing it happen via satellite) that Russia is in the process of launching a tactical nuke upon Ukraine it does not seem unreasonable for Ukraine’s president to ask for a preemptive (conventional) strike in order to prevent that launch.

    Replies: @German_reader

  574. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @German_reader
    @sudden death

    Does it make any sense to claim that it was merely about "economic sanctions"? What kind of sanctions actually are there left to enact against Russia, and why should one expect them to have any deterrent effect?
    The most plausible interpretation for Zelensky's comments is that they were meant as a call for conventional military strikes by NATO against Russia, either as preemptive strikes before a possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia, or after (the scenario recently sketched out by Patraeus, "If Russia uses nukes, we're going to destroy their Black Sea fleet and their entire army in Ukraine"). This is completely in line with earlier attempts to make NATO a direct combatant in the war like the calls for a no-fly-zone in the early months. Of course such a move would be almost certain to lead to a strategic nuclear exchange destroying most of the northern hemisphere.

    Replies: @AP, @Triteleia Laxa

    This seems to be the speech. Anyone got an alternative one? It seems innocuous to me.

    https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/svit-povinen-pokazati-silu-shob-postaviti-krapku-u-spromozhn-78325

    This is completely in line with earlier attempts to make NATO a direct combatant in the war like the calls for a no-fly-zone in the early months. Of course such a move would be almost certain to lead to a strategic nuclear exchange destroying most of the northern hemisphere.

    What a way you “think” on this subject!

    “Asking” is “trying to make” and the implied guilt of “asking” is responsibility for pushing for nuclear armageddon!

    “But there’s a logical chain of argument there.”

    Only if you look at it through spectacles of complete hysteria.

    The President of a country that is being invaded will ask for support from any country he possibly can. What’s wrong with that?

    If a friend calls you up and asks for some advice or help, and you’re driving, do you immediately unload on him, accusing him of trying to make you crash, die and run over a newborn baby in the process?

    Hahahaha!

    I laugh, but I bet you think like that…

    Or like, someone calls your name, so you look up, happen to bang your head, and feel desperate to blame them for the event?

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Triteleia Laxa


    If a friend calls you up and asks for some advice or help, and you’re driving, do you immediately unload on him, accusing him of trying to make you crash, die and run over a newborn baby in the process?
     
    Analogies of that kind are commonly used when it comes to discussing Ukraine (also "Would you walk away when you see a woman being raped in an alley"), but they're completely besides the point. Private morality has no place in inter-state relations where there are no "friends" (I certainly can't think of anything Ukraine has ever altruistically done for anybody else btw) and where the highest goal for any responsible statesman has to be to ensure the survival of his own state. If we all get blown up because some Bandera-worshipping fuckheads don't know when to stop and try to conquer Crimea, egged on by people like you, that would be the dumbest end to civilization imaginable.
    Anyway, you're either spectacularly stupid or simply not arguing in good faith, so go fuck yourself.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  575. German_reader says:
    @Triteleia Laxa
    @German_reader

    This seems to be the speech. Anyone got an alternative one? It seems innocuous to me.

    https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/svit-povinen-pokazati-silu-shob-postaviti-krapku-u-spromozhn-78325


    This is completely in line with earlier attempts to make NATO a direct combatant in the war like the calls for a no-fly-zone in the early months. Of course such a move would be almost certain to lead to a strategic nuclear exchange destroying most of the northern hemisphere.
     
    What a way you "think" on this subject!

    "Asking" is "trying to make" and the implied guilt of "asking" is responsibility for pushing for nuclear armageddon!

    "But there's a logical chain of argument there."

    Only if you look at it through spectacles of complete hysteria.

    The President of a country that is being invaded will ask for support from any country he possibly can. What's wrong with that?

    If a friend calls you up and asks for some advice or help, and you're driving, do you immediately unload on him, accusing him of trying to make you crash, die and run over a newborn baby in the process?

    Hahahaha!

    I laugh, but I bet you think like that...

    Or like, someone calls your name, so you look up, happen to bang your head, and feel desperate to blame them for the event?

    Replies: @German_reader

    If a friend calls you up and asks for some advice or help, and you’re driving, do you immediately unload on him, accusing him of trying to make you crash, die and run over a newborn baby in the process?

    Analogies of that kind are commonly used when it comes to discussing Ukraine (also “Would you walk away when you see a woman being raped in an alley”), but they’re completely besides the point. Private morality has no place in inter-state relations where there are no “friends” (I certainly can’t think of anything Ukraine has ever altruistically done for anybody else btw) and where the highest goal for any responsible statesman has to be to ensure the survival of his own state. If we all get blown up because some Bandera-worshipping fuckheads don’t know when to stop and try to conquer Crimea, egged on by people like you, that would be the dumbest end to civilization imaginable.
    Anyway, you’re either spectacularly stupid or simply not arguing in good faith, so go fuck yourself.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @German_reader


    Private morality has no place
     
    Never made a "moral" argument. Just described how you think. I see morality as a distortion of reality and therefore as strictly false.

    The off-topic rant you attached to your irrelevant objection is embarrassing. Not only because it is unhinged, but because it so obviously confirms my point. As that is exactly how someone seeing these events through spectacles of hysteria would react to having it illuminated for them.

    Replies: @German_reader

  576. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @German_reader
    @Triteleia Laxa


    If a friend calls you up and asks for some advice or help, and you’re driving, do you immediately unload on him, accusing him of trying to make you crash, die and run over a newborn baby in the process?
     
    Analogies of that kind are commonly used when it comes to discussing Ukraine (also "Would you walk away when you see a woman being raped in an alley"), but they're completely besides the point. Private morality has no place in inter-state relations where there are no "friends" (I certainly can't think of anything Ukraine has ever altruistically done for anybody else btw) and where the highest goal for any responsible statesman has to be to ensure the survival of his own state. If we all get blown up because some Bandera-worshipping fuckheads don't know when to stop and try to conquer Crimea, egged on by people like you, that would be the dumbest end to civilization imaginable.
    Anyway, you're either spectacularly stupid or simply not arguing in good faith, so go fuck yourself.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    Private morality has no place

    Never made a “moral” argument. Just described how you think. I see morality as a distortion of reality and therefore as strictly false.

    The off-topic rant you attached to your irrelevant objection is embarrassing. Not only because it is unhinged, but because it so obviously confirms my point. As that is exactly how someone seeing these events through spectacles of hysteria would react to having it illuminated for them.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Never made a “moral” argument.
     
    Probably because you're not really making any argument at all that would go beyond the moralistic midwit nonsense that is flooding all airwaves. Anyway, I don't have time for this, go pester someone else.
  577. @AP
    @Beckow

    You were caught lying as usual and so you chose to avoid addressing the specific points.


    The ‘we were never planning to be in Ukraine‘ is an obvious lie

     

    The actions speak for themselves. Year after year, movement forward was deferred.

    But now several NATO countries have officially approved Ukraine’s membership. So legally Ukraine is closer to NATO than it was before.

    At the same time, Ukraine is flooded with NATO weapons, it’s army well trained by NATO instructors up to NATO standards. So operationally Ukraine is much closer to NATO than it had ever been.

    Therefore your claim that Russia has somehow done better regarding NATO-Ukraine from the perspective of its interests is another of your many lies.

    Regarding Pyrrha, the precise statement by him was: “one more victory like this and I won’t have an army
     
    You were caught lying about the meaning of Pyrrhic victory, I provided correct definitions in both American and British English.

    Now in your desperation you try to deflect by invoking Pyrrha himself. Would be useful if we were discussing ancient history.

    If Russia keeps what it has now, it will be a Pyrrhic victory, which in English means one in which the costs outweigh the gains.



    https://twitter.com/powerfultakes/status/1570074508001775617?s=46&t=wEVfBAH2VGfTdUXHIvoi5A

    Replies: @John Johnson

    But now several NATO countries have officially approved Ukraine’s membership.

    How exactly would there be an official approval when the vote has to be unanimous and that is after Ukraine goes through a qualification process? What you mean is that there are NATO countries that would vote for Ukraine. Well that was true before the war.

    Ukraine currently doesn’t qualify for a variety of reasons, the main being that they have unstable borders. You can’t apply if you are in a war or if your borders are contested.

    Of course Putin didn’t mention that with his bullshit NATO excuse just as he didn’t mention that France and Germany did NOT want Ukraine in NATO as if January of this year.
    https://www.the-sun.com/news/4768886/ukraine-nato-explained/

    Putin in fact turned down a deal that would have kept Ukraine out of NATO:
    https://nypost.com/2022/09/14/putin-rejected-ukraine-peace-deal-struck-by-aide-as-war-began/

    Putin has moved away from claiming the war had anything to do with NATO so I’m not sure why you guys are even talking about it.

    He now claims it is all about Donbas. This isn’t Russian State TV where no one can call him on his total bullshit.

    In fact by taking Donbas as Russian territory he has brought Ukraine closer to qualifying for NATO. Good job half-pint.

    • Replies: @Beckow
    @John Johnson

    The only thing you got right is that nothing has changed regarding Nato approval for Ukraine, the same push by some and resistance by others is still there.

    NY Post vague throw-away article about a supposed 'deal' rejected by Russia doesn't show what you claim. What was the 'deal'? In the article Russia actually officially says that no deal that addressed Russia's minimum demands was offered by Nato. Rejecting it would be like rejecting something that doesn't exist. All else in the NY Post article is noise with no substance, the usual personnel minutia of no consequence.

    The point I made initially - and that AP is unable to grasp - is not about negotiation. The point is that once Russia used heavy weapons in Ukraine any Nato bases would be too vulnerable - once there is a precedent for directly destroying Nato infrastructure (even if in Kiev's hands) there will not be Nato in Ukraine unless Russia loses the war.

    AP is too much of a mid-wit to understand the simple point, maybe you will.

    The fact that Kiev will not recognize the loss of Donbas or Crimea means that by Nato's own rules it cannot be accepted. But that is a cherry on the cake, it was Russia's use of brutal power that changed the situation.


    Putin has moved away from claiming the war had anything to do with NATO ...He now claims it is all about Donbas.
     
    Motivations are not binary, Russia can have both. Given that the first one has been accomplished, they focus on the second one. "All about..." is your interpretation, a cheap trick to use when cornered.

    Replies: @John Johnson

  578. @Triteleia Laxa
    @German_reader


    Private morality has no place
     
    Never made a "moral" argument. Just described how you think. I see morality as a distortion of reality and therefore as strictly false.

    The off-topic rant you attached to your irrelevant objection is embarrassing. Not only because it is unhinged, but because it so obviously confirms my point. As that is exactly how someone seeing these events through spectacles of hysteria would react to having it illuminated for them.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Never made a “moral” argument.

    Probably because you’re not really making any argument at all that would go beyond the moralistic midwit nonsense that is flooding all airwaves. Anyway, I don’t have time for this, go pester someone else.

  579. @German_reader
    @AP


    Russia would not commit suicide and erase itself even if the Black Sea fleet were wiped out.
     
    I'm sorry, but this is really getting stupid, of course they'd use their nuclear weapons in such a scenario. Maybe not by immediately nuking cities in the US, presumably they'd first nuke NATO bases in Europe in an attempt to show "This ends here, stop your attacks on our troops immediately". But it's almost certain that this would be countered by US nuclear strikes and shortly escalate to a general nuclear war.
    I don't think Putin will order use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, unless maybe there's a chance of losing even Crimea, so hopefully this will all remain merely a thought experiment. But the "no big deal" attitude taken by a lot of people on the risk of nuclear war is just grotesque.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @AP

    https://nuclearwarsimulator.com/

    Once you get started it’s hard to stop.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  580. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Coconuts

    Sorry, bad writing. I meant that Marx was right that material realities tend to determine people's identities over longer periods of time. He was however wrong about the future primacy of "class". Rather immiserating the proletariat, capitalism gave them the same fungible goods to consume as the plutocrats. And into the vacuum which the receding of class has left, other identities have rushed, but, if you want to bet on which ones will still be tugging heart strings in a decade or two, you should bet on the ones that come from, or dictate, material realities.


    That didn’t happen in Germany after 1918, Spain after 1898, France after 1870,
     
    Militarism was massively discredited in Germany after 1918. The Kaiser was kicked out, they almost had a communist revolution and somehow the millions of veterans were unable to seize power until massive repeated recessions and general exhaustion of Weimar.

    Don't know about the others, but didn't it take a long time for France and Spain to get involved in other big foreign wars after their decisive defeat? And weren't their governments different?

    so it might not be an inevitability. Imo it’s also a question where there might be a point of connection with the trans issue and the concept of the nation as a material reality, perhaps depending on how transmania and a culture based on functional transexualism affects the destiny of nations.

     

    Sexual roles were based on the material reality that women got pregnant all of the time. Or might easily do so whenever they had sex. And this would completely change their lives for the next few years, at least.

    Contraception has made this no longer a material reality, so those sexual roles are inevitably on their way out. Honestly, get over it. The reason for those social identities no longer exists, those social identities will fade, in fits and starts, away.

    This is further reinforced by the fact that men's small, but significant, advantage in physical strength is of less and less important for the realities of life. I say "small" because women are physically strong enough to do everything important that men can do, and commonly need to do in today's age. Literally, opening jars is the most frequent last vestige of this being important.

    The strength differential now only matters for a tiny substrate of jobs in developed economies, and also for who ends up being most vulnerable to serious crimes in intimate settings.

    "Trads" advocating a politics of sexual roles and expecting influence would be like starting an agragraian party. You'll forever be marginal because farming has gone from 99% of jobs, to 1%, and it is never going back to 99%, as technology has progressed. A complete waste of time for alienated people on the internet.

    Now, for your personal life, where creating your own meaning, subjectively, can be true, who knows? But there'll be no long-term mass consciousness on this issue ever again.

    And if you find that you need society to supply validation to your personal myths and narrative, then that is because deep down, you are wanting to change and adapt your personal myths and their place in your ego is looking shaky.

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson, @Coconuts, @LatW

    Literally, opening jars is the most frequent last vestige of this being important.

    Well, speak for yourself. Most women prefer masculine men, you want to take away women’s happiness?

    It’s a very slippery slope, too, the way it’s been going in the recent decades. Responsibilities keep piling up for women, but natural privileges shrinking. In the meanwhile, women can’t really give up their feminine duties. Millennial women make more than their male counterparts, this is risky for them.

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @LatW


    Most women prefer masculine men
     
    No woman wants a man who does not have plenty of what are traditionally considered "feminine" qualities either.

    Responsibilities keep piling up for women, but natural privileges shrinking.
     
    Since we live in a society with only the vestiges of socially-mandated gender roles, both privileges and responsibilities deriving from your sex are fast becoming irrelevant. Instead, you choose which responsibilities to take on, and which "privileges" you can expect, in conversation with those directly involved with you.

    And the default is swiftly becoming where a heterosexual relationship shares everything equally, but couples are free to balance as they decide.

    Of course, it may end up that couples have a balance more often close to traditional roles than the other way around, but that would actually be the result of 'natural" choices rather than it being socially-mandated.

    However this is besides the point. There's never going to be a mass retvrn to traditional roles movement that exists as more than fast fashion.

    Those gender roles were based on big substantial facts that dictated people's lives, like sex getting a woman pregnant, and pregnancy being extremely dangerous, and most jobs relying on physical strength.

    But that things are no longer part of reality, and so the thing that fixed gender roles in place, has disappeared.

    Transmania and Tradmania are twin reactions to this change. Essentially born of nostalgia, parental issues and other difficulties, but both only involve a fringe of people, usually in demographics most pushed around by trends, and both will shrink away from public attention soon enough, no different than any other fashion, or counter-fashion.


    Millennial women make more than their male counterparts, this is risky for them.
     
    The risk in making more money is less than the risk in making less money.

    Replies: @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

    , @John Johnson
    @LatW

    Well, speak for yourself. Most women prefer masculine men, you want to take away women’s happiness?

    This is correct and a liberal taboo which is why it will never be studied or admitted in public.

    Liberals idealize not just female sexuality but sexuality in general. They want to believe it isn't connected to thousands of years of evolution.

    Liberal White men get duped into believing that women are attracted to progressive feminist men that prostrate themselves. Sure those liberal women would like to be attracted to liberal men but they just aren't. They can't just erase nature.

    I saw this first hand when I lived in a liberal burb and it was shocking. I could have cleaned up if I wasn't engaged at the time. Liberal women try to suppress their desires and it just turns a-holes like myself into forbidden fruit. I'm not even that much of an ahole. But I have a spine and say what I feel like which made me uber-masculine relative to the neutered men in the area. The neutered liberal men that try to please them are treated like unwanted pets. Didn't matter how much money they made or which roles they followed. I could have painted nails for a living and it wouldn't have mattered. They were attracted to me because of nature and not for some artificial egalitarian sexuality.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @LatW

  581. @keypusher
    @Unintended Consequence


    It’s not even our business to intervene and we certainly shouldn’t be funding the Ukrainian military or giving them weapons. That makes this a proxy war.
     
    What makes a proxy war?

    In Korea, the Chinese sent in large numbers of ground troops and the Soviets provided 50,000-70,000 soldiers/advisors and pilots, who engaged the Americans directly (supposedly the Americans knew this, but did not publicize it because they feared escalating the war). Seems like that is a proxy war if anything is. But it was still caused by the North invading the South, as far as I know not on orders from anyone.

    In Vietnam, the USSR supplied jet fighters and tanks, steps the Americans have not taken in Ukraine, though quite possibly because they think they aid they are supplying is more useful than tanks and jet fighters would be. Was Vietnam a proxy war from the Soviet side? I don't think anyone thinks so.

    In Afghanistan in the 1980s, the US provided assistance to the mujahideen. Was that a proxy war?

    Presumably providing weapons is not sufficient, else the Iraq wars would have been proxy wars waged by the Russians and French against the Americans.

    I don't think Ukraine is a proxy war -- obviously others disagree. But I'm more curious to know what defines a proxy war.

    Replies: @YetAnotherAnon, @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    North invading the South, as far as I know not on orders from anyone

    Stalin gave Kim the go-ahead and kept Mao out of the loop who would had to delay action on Taiwan.

    Proxy wars can be when both sides are proxies:

    – Chinese Civil War: KMT (US), CCP (Soviets)

    – Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge (Soviets, PRC), Kingdom of Cambodia (US)

    Or when one side side is a proxy:

    – Korea: NK was Soviet proxy, US and PRC entered directly

    – Vietnam: Vietnam was Soviet and PRC proxy, US entered directly

    – Sino-Vietnamese War: Vietnam was Soviet proxy, PRC entered directly

    – Soviet-Afghan War: Afghan was US and PRC proxy, Soviets entered directly

    A complicate case was Second Sino-Japanese War, the KMT-CCP alliance was a Soviet proxy of from 1937 to 1941, then a US proxy from 1941-1945.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Volunteer_Group

    Japan also briefly regarded KMT to be a German proxy from 1937-1938; and publicized captured German weapons as Soviet-made.

  582. How to expand NATO:

    1. Tell everyone that NATO isn’t needed and that it is a relic of the cold war.

    2. Build up a massive military force on your border and claim it is a training exercise.

    3. Invade your neighbor with a 1930s style massive conventional force and claim that an expansion of NATO made you do it even though your neighbor doesn’t qualify for NATO and didn’t have the votes of France or Germany. Talk up “silos on the border” even if it is total bullshit. Your State TV won’t ask any questions.

    4. Threaten nearby countries with force if they suggest looking into joining NATO because there obviously isn’t a reason to join, other than protection from the exact aggression that NATO exists to protect against.

    5. Retreat to Donbas and claim you are the victim of NATO aggression. Point at the expansion of NATO as proof that you were right the whole time.

    So glad we stopped Hitler from breaking up this clown country. The Russians give so much to the world. First the misery of the Soviet Union and now a 70 year old dictator going on 10 and playing games with a modern military.

    • Agree: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @John Johnson

    With small edits that could be a pithy bullet point description of Stalin’s strategy while he was Waiting For Hitler to arrive on the scene, subsequently crush his armies then overrun the remnant of Europe.

  583. @German_reader
    @AP


    Russia would not commit suicide and erase itself even if the Black Sea fleet were wiped out.
     
    I'm sorry, but this is really getting stupid, of course they'd use their nuclear weapons in such a scenario. Maybe not by immediately nuking cities in the US, presumably they'd first nuke NATO bases in Europe in an attempt to show "This ends here, stop your attacks on our troops immediately". But it's almost certain that this would be countered by US nuclear strikes and shortly escalate to a general nuclear war.
    I don't think Putin will order use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, unless maybe there's a chance of losing even Crimea, so hopefully this will all remain merely a thought experiment. But the "no big deal" attitude taken by a lot of people on the risk of nuclear war is just grotesque.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @AP

    I’m sorry, but this is really getting stupid, of course they’d use their nuclear weapons in such a scenario. Maybe not by immediately nuking cities in the US

    Of course not. Nor would he nuke bases in Europe because that would lead to massive civilian casualties, resulting in escalation leading to the death of him, all of his relatives and associates, and the rest of his people.

    I don’t think Putin will order use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine

    In which case, America is not going to wipe out the Black Sea Fleet or give Ukraine conventional missiles with which it can strike Moscow or whatever else might be possible extreme reactions to Putin using tactical nukes in Ukraine.

    But the bottom line is that such reactions would not be sufficient in scope to warrant Putin doing something that would erase his country from the Earth. Avenging the loss of the Black Sea fleet is r worth the erasure of Russia.

    Your previous comment:

    The most plausible interpretation for Zelensky’s comments is that they were meant as a call for conventional military strikes by NATO against Russia, either as preemptive strikes before a possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia, or after (the scenario recently sketched out by Patraeus, “If Russia uses nukes, we’re going to destroy their Black Sea fleet and their entire army in Ukraine”).

    So Zelensky did not call for preemptive nuclear strikes as was widely reported.

    If NATO has solid intelligence (such as seeing it happen via satellite) that Russia is in the process of launching a tactical nuke upon Ukraine it does not seem unreasonable for Ukraine’s president to ask for a preemptive (conventional) strike in order to prevent that launch.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AP


    If NATO has solid intelligence (such as seeing it happen via satellite) that Russia is in the process of launching a tactical nuke upon Ukraine it does not seem unreasonable for Ukraine’s president to ask for a preemptive (conventional) strike in order to prevent that launch.
     
    It would almost certainly lead to a nuclear war destroying Europe and probably also the US, so yes, it would be suicidally unreasonable.
    I don't think Putin will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, unless Russia is really on the verge of a catastrophic defeat and comes close to even losing Crimea...otherwise the risks inherent in such an extreme action would presumably deter him. But the point is, Zelensky's irresponsible comments calling for even more direct NATO involvement (not for the first time), if they were listened to by Western policy-makers, would be the one thing making Russian use of nuclear weapons likely.

    Replies: @Matra, @AP

  584. @John Johnson
    @LatW

    That’s why the mistake they made of trying to take the whole of Ukraine is so bad, because if they had just annexed DNR/LNR in February, they would still be ok now.

    Well Putin first claimed the war was about NATO and I can dig up his original speech if any of his remaining defenders would like.

    If it was really about Donbas then that could have been achieved with an ultimatum.

    There was never an ultimatum and in fact Putin severed diplomatic lines.

    Only after failing to take Kiev (and all of Ukraine) did Putin change to the explanation of defending Donbas. It needs to be noted however that Putin claimed he was defending independent Republics and then took DNR/LNR as Russian territory along with two oblasts that separatists never claimed. The Republics no longer exist. Their flags have been taken down.

    Putin is just completely full of s--t and I have been saying this from the beginning. He is just playing Putin Khan and didn't have a backup plan. His special mobilization back to the East is out of desperation.

    Instead of admitting it was a mistake like a real man he plans on sending Stalingrad type human waves of 45-55 year old conscripts. He doesn't understand modern warfare as seen by the fact that he launched his invasion with one long support column. What about all the javelins in Ukrainian hands? Were they supposed to just disappear? There is a video on youtube where a captured Russian tank commander talks about how they were told that they weren't on the front line and to not worry about javelins. They didn't get very far and the tank in front of him blows up from a javelin.

    Replies: @LatW

    There was never an ultimatum and in fact Putin severed diplomatic lines.

    Well, there was an ultimatum against NATO in December. Basically, NATO retreat back to the borders of 1997, disarm the neighbors or else. But he was not at all prepared to fight NATO. Why give an ultimatum if you can’t follow through? Well, now he has a chance to fight NATO like he wanted to. And this is only a small fraction of it.

    Of course, Ukraine in NATO (or de facto in a Western alliance) was unacceptable for Russia. Russia’s animosity is understandable from their point of view. But they have enough missiles and could cover a large area in EE (from Crimea to Kaliningrad).

    [MORE]

    There is a video on youtube where a captured Russian tank commander talks about how they were told that they weren’t on the front line and to not worry about javelins. They didn’t get very far and the tank in front of him blows up from a javelin.

    There are some very disturbing videos out there now with Russian soldiers who are not properly taken care of. Of course, there are going to be cases like that in a large war and I assume most of them are ok, they are obediently following the orders, but I shudder thinking about what’s to come… this is a crime against the Russian people.

  585. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @LatW
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Literally, opening jars is the most frequent last vestige of this being important.
     
    Well, speak for yourself. Most women prefer masculine men, you want to take away women's happiness?

    It's a very slippery slope, too, the way it's been going in the recent decades. Responsibilities keep piling up for women, but natural privileges shrinking. In the meanwhile, women can't really give up their feminine duties. Millennial women make more than their male counterparts, this is risky for them.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @John Johnson

    Most women prefer masculine men

    No woman wants a man who does not have plenty of what are traditionally considered “feminine” qualities either.

    Responsibilities keep piling up for women, but natural privileges shrinking.

    Since we live in a society with only the vestiges of socially-mandated gender roles, both privileges and responsibilities deriving from your sex are fast becoming irrelevant. Instead, you choose which responsibilities to take on, and which “privileges” you can expect, in conversation with those directly involved with you.

    And the default is swiftly becoming where a heterosexual relationship shares everything equally, but couples are free to balance as they decide.

    Of course, it may end up that couples have a balance more often close to traditional roles than the other way around, but that would actually be the result of ‘natural” choices rather than it being socially-mandated.

    However this is besides the point. There’s never going to be a mass retvrn to traditional roles movement that exists as more than fast fashion.

    Those gender roles were based on big substantial facts that dictated people’s lives, like sex getting a woman pregnant, and pregnancy being extremely dangerous, and most jobs relying on physical strength.

    But that things are no longer part of reality, and so the thing that fixed gender roles in place, has disappeared.

    Transmania and Tradmania are twin reactions to this change. Essentially born of nostalgia, parental issues and other difficulties, but both only involve a fringe of people, usually in demographics most pushed around by trends, and both will shrink away from public attention soon enough, no different than any other fashion, or counter-fashion.

    Millennial women make more than their male counterparts, this is risky for them.

    The risk in making more money is less than the risk in making less money.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Since we live in a society with only the vestiges of socially-mandated gender roles, both privileges and responsibilities deriving from your sex are fast becoming irrelevant.
     
    Not if you want kids. Even that 1.6 child (in the West) needs to be brought into the world and cared for. No matter how hard men try to "help" they can't substitute for a loving mother.

    The risk in making more money is less than the risk in making less money.
     

    Highly debatable these days. There are more underwater rocks than you realize. But ok, I won't belabor the point (I'm not here to discuss this particular topic).

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa


    No woman wants a man who does not have plenty of what are traditionally considered “feminine” qualities either.
     
    Would you also write that "No man wants a woman that etc..." ?

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

  586. German_reader says:
    @AP
    @German_reader


    I’m sorry, but this is really getting stupid, of course they’d use their nuclear weapons in such a scenario. Maybe not by immediately nuking cities in the US
     
    Of course not. Nor would he nuke bases in Europe because that would lead to massive civilian casualties, resulting in escalation leading to the death of him, all of his relatives and associates, and the rest of his people.

    I don’t think Putin will order use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine
     
    In which case, America is not going to wipe out the Black Sea Fleet or give Ukraine conventional missiles with which it can strike Moscow or whatever else might be possible extreme reactions to Putin using tactical nukes in Ukraine.

    But the bottom line is that such reactions would not be sufficient in scope to warrant Putin doing something that would erase his country from the Earth. Avenging the loss of the Black Sea fleet is r worth the erasure of Russia.

    Your previous comment:

    The most plausible interpretation for Zelensky’s comments is that they were meant as a call for conventional military strikes by NATO against Russia, either as preemptive strikes before a possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia, or after (the scenario recently sketched out by Patraeus, “If Russia uses nukes, we’re going to destroy their Black Sea fleet and their entire army in Ukraine”).

     

    So Zelensky did not call for preemptive nuclear strikes as was widely reported.

    If NATO has solid intelligence (such as seeing it happen via satellite) that Russia is in the process of launching a tactical nuke upon Ukraine it does not seem unreasonable for Ukraine’s president to ask for a preemptive (conventional) strike in order to prevent that launch.

    Replies: @German_reader

    If NATO has solid intelligence (such as seeing it happen via satellite) that Russia is in the process of launching a tactical nuke upon Ukraine it does not seem unreasonable for Ukraine’s president to ask for a preemptive (conventional) strike in order to prevent that launch.

    It would almost certainly lead to a nuclear war destroying Europe and probably also the US, so yes, it would be suicidally unreasonable.
    I don’t think Putin will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, unless Russia is really on the verge of a catastrophic defeat and comes close to even losing Crimea…otherwise the risks inherent in such an extreme action would presumably deter him. But the point is, Zelensky’s irresponsible comments calling for even more direct NATO involvement (not for the first time), if they were listened to by Western policy-makers, would be the one thing making Russian use of nuclear weapons likely.

    • Replies: @Matra
    @German_reader

    Today Ukrainians are bitching about Musk's Starlink, yesterday they were calling for an alliance they are not a part of to go to war with another country, the day before that I think it was Roger Waters - apparently the West should not allow anyone who disagrees with Ukraine to have a public voice - before that it was Germany again. Every day this beggar nation has a new set of demands and complaints. Wait till you see, five minutes after the war ends they'll be stabbing in the back every country that helped them - other than the US, who they'll continue to take orders from.

    Meanwhile Poland is calling for the "seized" (ie. stolen) Russian FOREX assets to be redistributed to EU countries. I have this funny feeling the Poles, never too shy about asking for a handout, also believe that their country should be the biggest recipient. I'm starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans, the rest being gimme dat nations.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Triteleia Laxa, @AP, @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

    , @AP
    @German_reader


    It would almost certainly lead to a nuclear war destroying Europe and probably also the US, so yes, it would be suicidally unreasonable.
     
    Russia is not going to collectively commit suicide because NATO took out a tactical nuke launcher prior to launch (this is hypothetical , because I really doubt Russia would get to the point of trying to use nukes).

    Zelensky was saying, rather than wait until Ukraine gets nuked and then take out the Black Sea fleet or whatever it is NATO would do in retaliation, take out the nuclear launchers prior to launch. Nothing unreasonable about him saying that.
  587. Normally I discourage tweets without the [MORE] tag. However, this is so good it deserves headline placement.

    PEACE 😇

  588. @LatW
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Literally, opening jars is the most frequent last vestige of this being important.
     
    Well, speak for yourself. Most women prefer masculine men, you want to take away women's happiness?

    It's a very slippery slope, too, the way it's been going in the recent decades. Responsibilities keep piling up for women, but natural privileges shrinking. In the meanwhile, women can't really give up their feminine duties. Millennial women make more than their male counterparts, this is risky for them.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @John Johnson

    Well, speak for yourself. Most women prefer masculine men, you want to take away women’s happiness?

    This is correct and a liberal taboo which is why it will never be studied or admitted in public.

    Liberals idealize not just female sexuality but sexuality in general. They want to believe it isn’t connected to thousands of years of evolution.

    Liberal White men get duped into believing that women are attracted to progressive feminist men that prostrate themselves. Sure those liberal women would like to be attracted to liberal men but they just aren’t. They can’t just erase nature.

    I saw this first hand when I lived in a liberal burb and it was shocking. I could have cleaned up if I wasn’t engaged at the time. Liberal women try to suppress their desires and it just turns a-holes like myself into forbidden fruit. I’m not even that much of an ahole. But I have a spine and say what I feel like which made me uber-masculine relative to the neutered men in the area. The neutered liberal men that try to please them are treated like unwanted pets. Didn’t matter how much money they made or which roles they followed. I could have painted nails for a living and it wouldn’t have mattered. They were attracted to me because of nature and not for some artificial egalitarian sexuality.

    • LOL: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @John Johnson

    What is natural is what happens. It doesn't need law enforcing it.

    But I can well believe your story, even if there may be some selection bias. You could have found that a minority of women were strongly responsive to you, because they have their preferences, quite likely taken from their image of their Dad, but the men in their area all presented in such a homogenous way that none fit it.

    , @LatW
    @John Johnson


    Liberal women try to suppress their desires and it just turns a-holes like myself into forbidden fruit.
     
    Being masculine doesn't always entail being an a-hole. The problem in the West is that they take it to extremes (in either direction).

    My point was more along the lines of unknown consequences that this might have (not just on women's happiness, but even the wellbeing of children).

  589. @German_reader
    @AP


    If NATO has solid intelligence (such as seeing it happen via satellite) that Russia is in the process of launching a tactical nuke upon Ukraine it does not seem unreasonable for Ukraine’s president to ask for a preemptive (conventional) strike in order to prevent that launch.
     
    It would almost certainly lead to a nuclear war destroying Europe and probably also the US, so yes, it would be suicidally unreasonable.
    I don't think Putin will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, unless Russia is really on the verge of a catastrophic defeat and comes close to even losing Crimea...otherwise the risks inherent in such an extreme action would presumably deter him. But the point is, Zelensky's irresponsible comments calling for even more direct NATO involvement (not for the first time), if they were listened to by Western policy-makers, would be the one thing making Russian use of nuclear weapons likely.

    Replies: @Matra, @AP

    Today Ukrainians are bitching about Musk’s Starlink, yesterday they were calling for an alliance they are not a part of to go to war with another country, the day before that I think it was Roger Waters – apparently the West should not allow anyone who disagrees with Ukraine to have a public voice – before that it was Germany again. Every day this beggar nation has a new set of demands and complaints. Wait till you see, five minutes after the war ends they’ll be stabbing in the back every country that helped them – other than the US, who they’ll continue to take orders from.

    Meanwhile Poland is calling for the “seized” (ie. stolen) Russian FOREX assets to be redistributed to EU countries. I have this funny feeling the Poles, never too shy about asking for a handout, also believe that their country should be the biggest recipient. I’m starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans, the rest being gimme dat nations.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Matra

    They clearly have imperial ambitions.

    , @Triteleia Laxa
    @Matra


    Wait till you see, five minutes after the war ends they’ll be stabbing in the back every country that helped them
     
    I prefer the Ukrainian "stabbing in the back", which seems to consist of mean words on Twitter for a 48 hour news cycle, rather than Putin "stabbing in the back" which means bombing your cities, building torture chambers and trying to carve pieces of your country off.

    Meanwhile Poland is calling for the “seized” (ie. stolen) Russian FOREX assets to be redistributed to EU countries. I have this funny feeling the Poles, never too shy about asking for a handout, also believe that their country should be the biggest recipient. I’m starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans, the rest being gimme dat nations.
     
    People love free stuff, but it is a bit rich for a Putin shill to call it "stolen." Give back Crimea, the Donbas and the other parts of Ukraine that Russia still just about manages to hold onto, and then we discuss "stolen" money.

    Replies: @LatW

    , @AP
    @Matra

    You seem to be bitter and offended that Eastern Europeans, unlike your own people (unfortunately), defend their own interests and attack those who oppose their interests.


    I’m starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans
     
    They haven't invited enough non-Europeans into their lands do be classified as Europeans in the modern sense.

    Czechs didn't resist the Nazis much and therefore weren't hurt by them too much, so they have little to ask for (if anything the reverse would be true, they had no reason no be so cruel to the Sudetenlanders, they didn't get treated like Poles were treated).

    Replies: @Dmitry

    , @LatW
    @Matra


    Today Ukrainians are bitching about Musk’s Starlink
     
    That's not even true. They are very grateful to Musk and admire him. They were just ticked off about his tweet. One of the reactions was that he is a tech genius who may not be fully understanding international politics. They know that this was a Trumpian move since they are aware of the isolationist faction in the US. But they are grateful for the Starlink.

    Replies: @German_reader

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @Matra


    Slavs who really are Europeans
     
    We are Eurasian given that we live both in Europe and Asia.

    Genetically speaking too, our ancestors wandered far and wide, from modern China to modern Netherlands and everywhere in between.

    So there is that being European is too restrictive for our untamed minds.

    BTW, Polish elites are of Saramatian descent and Sarmatians came from Asia.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarmatism
  590. @Triteleia Laxa
    @LatW


    Most women prefer masculine men
     
    No woman wants a man who does not have plenty of what are traditionally considered "feminine" qualities either.

    Responsibilities keep piling up for women, but natural privileges shrinking.
     
    Since we live in a society with only the vestiges of socially-mandated gender roles, both privileges and responsibilities deriving from your sex are fast becoming irrelevant. Instead, you choose which responsibilities to take on, and which "privileges" you can expect, in conversation with those directly involved with you.

    And the default is swiftly becoming where a heterosexual relationship shares everything equally, but couples are free to balance as they decide.

    Of course, it may end up that couples have a balance more often close to traditional roles than the other way around, but that would actually be the result of 'natural" choices rather than it being socially-mandated.

    However this is besides the point. There's never going to be a mass retvrn to traditional roles movement that exists as more than fast fashion.

    Those gender roles were based on big substantial facts that dictated people's lives, like sex getting a woman pregnant, and pregnancy being extremely dangerous, and most jobs relying on physical strength.

    But that things are no longer part of reality, and so the thing that fixed gender roles in place, has disappeared.

    Transmania and Tradmania are twin reactions to this change. Essentially born of nostalgia, parental issues and other difficulties, but both only involve a fringe of people, usually in demographics most pushed around by trends, and both will shrink away from public attention soon enough, no different than any other fashion, or counter-fashion.


    Millennial women make more than their male counterparts, this is risky for them.
     
    The risk in making more money is less than the risk in making less money.

    Replies: @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

    Since we live in a society with only the vestiges of socially-mandated gender roles, both privileges and responsibilities deriving from your sex are fast becoming irrelevant.

    Not if you want kids. Even that 1.6 child (in the West) needs to be brought into the world and cared for. No matter how hard men try to “help” they can’t substitute for a loving mother.

    The risk in making more money is less than the risk in making less money.

    Highly debatable these days. There are more underwater rocks than you realize. But ok, I won’t belabor the point (I’m not here to discuss this particular topic).

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @LatW


    Not if you want kids. Even that 1.6 child (in the West) needs to be brought into the world and cared for. No matter how hard men try to “help” they can’t substitute for a loving mother.
     
    I don't know what level of "care" you think most kids got historically, but it wasn't great.

    As for whether a father can substitute for a mother, it really depends on the man and the woman.

    I wouldn't be surprised if there were averaged differences, but they are obviously not rules.

    Highly debatable these days. There are more underwater rocks than you realize. But ok, I won’t belabor the point (I’m not here to discuss this particular topic).
     
    Fair enough. The truth is that humans depend on adversity and therefore will find some to "overcome." This means that every human seems to live in a series of adverse circumstances and, hopefully, eventually transcends each one, to get to the next. The key for happiness is to work out what your current needed adversity is, and address it in a pragmatic manner. But honestly, even if you straight out tell people, they act as if they would rather know absolutely anything else. So annoying.
  591. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @John Johnson
    @LatW

    Well, speak for yourself. Most women prefer masculine men, you want to take away women’s happiness?

    This is correct and a liberal taboo which is why it will never be studied or admitted in public.

    Liberals idealize not just female sexuality but sexuality in general. They want to believe it isn't connected to thousands of years of evolution.

    Liberal White men get duped into believing that women are attracted to progressive feminist men that prostrate themselves. Sure those liberal women would like to be attracted to liberal men but they just aren't. They can't just erase nature.

    I saw this first hand when I lived in a liberal burb and it was shocking. I could have cleaned up if I wasn't engaged at the time. Liberal women try to suppress their desires and it just turns a-holes like myself into forbidden fruit. I'm not even that much of an ahole. But I have a spine and say what I feel like which made me uber-masculine relative to the neutered men in the area. The neutered liberal men that try to please them are treated like unwanted pets. Didn't matter how much money they made or which roles they followed. I could have painted nails for a living and it wouldn't have mattered. They were attracted to me because of nature and not for some artificial egalitarian sexuality.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @LatW

    What is natural is what happens. It doesn’t need law enforcing it.

    But I can well believe your story, even if there may be some selection bias. You could have found that a minority of women were strongly responsive to you, because they have their preferences, quite likely taken from their image of their Dad, but the men in their area all presented in such a homogenous way that none fit it.

  592. @John Johnson
    @LatW

    Well, speak for yourself. Most women prefer masculine men, you want to take away women’s happiness?

    This is correct and a liberal taboo which is why it will never be studied or admitted in public.

    Liberals idealize not just female sexuality but sexuality in general. They want to believe it isn't connected to thousands of years of evolution.

    Liberal White men get duped into believing that women are attracted to progressive feminist men that prostrate themselves. Sure those liberal women would like to be attracted to liberal men but they just aren't. They can't just erase nature.

    I saw this first hand when I lived in a liberal burb and it was shocking. I could have cleaned up if I wasn't engaged at the time. Liberal women try to suppress their desires and it just turns a-holes like myself into forbidden fruit. I'm not even that much of an ahole. But I have a spine and say what I feel like which made me uber-masculine relative to the neutered men in the area. The neutered liberal men that try to please them are treated like unwanted pets. Didn't matter how much money they made or which roles they followed. I could have painted nails for a living and it wouldn't have mattered. They were attracted to me because of nature and not for some artificial egalitarian sexuality.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @LatW

    Liberal women try to suppress their desires and it just turns a-holes like myself into forbidden fruit.

    Being masculine doesn’t always entail being an a-hole. The problem in the West is that they take it to extremes (in either direction).

    My point was more along the lines of unknown consequences that this might have (not just on women’s happiness, but even the wellbeing of children).

  593. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.
     
    I'll admit I find it difficult to imagine that any half-rational person could have ever believed that the Russians destroyed their own pipelines, given the facts I'd presented in my recent article:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday Col. Douglas Macgregor argued that the Western MSM coverage of the current Ukraine war was just total nonsense and that the Ukrainians had suffered massive losses and the Russians were doing fine:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwnQfO6Y4

    I'm not a military expert on this conflict and I haven't been following it closely, but Macgregor seems a very credible expert and these days I tend to discount anything provided by the MSM of "the Empire of Lies."

    Replies: @A123, @Wokechoke, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen

    On certain levels the Russians might welcome the fact that the Ukies have come out of their cities to Sallie-forth. Makes for a battle of encounter at least!

  594. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @LatW
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Since we live in a society with only the vestiges of socially-mandated gender roles, both privileges and responsibilities deriving from your sex are fast becoming irrelevant.
     
    Not if you want kids. Even that 1.6 child (in the West) needs to be brought into the world and cared for. No matter how hard men try to "help" they can't substitute for a loving mother.

    The risk in making more money is less than the risk in making less money.
     

    Highly debatable these days. There are more underwater rocks than you realize. But ok, I won't belabor the point (I'm not here to discuss this particular topic).

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    Not if you want kids. Even that 1.6 child (in the West) needs to be brought into the world and cared for. No matter how hard men try to “help” they can’t substitute for a loving mother.

    I don’t know what level of “care” you think most kids got historically, but it wasn’t great.

    As for whether a father can substitute for a mother, it really depends on the man and the woman.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if there were averaged differences, but they are obviously not rules.

    Highly debatable these days. There are more underwater rocks than you realize. But ok, I won’t belabor the point (I’m not here to discuss this particular topic).

    Fair enough. The truth is that humans depend on adversity and therefore will find some to “overcome.” This means that every human seems to live in a series of adverse circumstances and, hopefully, eventually transcends each one, to get to the next. The key for happiness is to work out what your current needed adversity is, and address it in a pragmatic manner. But honestly, even if you straight out tell people, they act as if they would rather know absolutely anything else. So annoying.

  595. @Matra
    @German_reader

    Today Ukrainians are bitching about Musk's Starlink, yesterday they were calling for an alliance they are not a part of to go to war with another country, the day before that I think it was Roger Waters - apparently the West should not allow anyone who disagrees with Ukraine to have a public voice - before that it was Germany again. Every day this beggar nation has a new set of demands and complaints. Wait till you see, five minutes after the war ends they'll be stabbing in the back every country that helped them - other than the US, who they'll continue to take orders from.

    Meanwhile Poland is calling for the "seized" (ie. stolen) Russian FOREX assets to be redistributed to EU countries. I have this funny feeling the Poles, never too shy about asking for a handout, also believe that their country should be the biggest recipient. I'm starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans, the rest being gimme dat nations.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Triteleia Laxa, @AP, @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

    They clearly have imperial ambitions.

  596. @John Johnson
    How to expand NATO:

    1. Tell everyone that NATO isn't needed and that it is a relic of the cold war.

    2. Build up a massive military force on your border and claim it is a training exercise.

    3. Invade your neighbor with a 1930s style massive conventional force and claim that an expansion of NATO made you do it even though your neighbor doesn't qualify for NATO and didn't have the votes of France or Germany. Talk up "silos on the border" even if it is total bullshit. Your State TV won't ask any questions.

    4. Threaten nearby countries with force if they suggest looking into joining NATO because there obviously isn't a reason to join, other than protection from the exact aggression that NATO exists to protect against.

    5. Retreat to Donbas and claim you are the victim of NATO aggression. Point at the expansion of NATO as proof that you were right the whole time.

    So glad we stopped Hitler from breaking up this clown country. The Russians give so much to the world. First the misery of the Soviet Union and now a 70 year old dictator going on 10 and playing games with a modern military.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    With small edits that could be a pithy bullet point description of Stalin’s strategy while he was Waiting For Hitler to arrive on the scene, subsequently crush his armies then overrun the remnant of Europe.

  597. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Matra
    @German_reader

    Today Ukrainians are bitching about Musk's Starlink, yesterday they were calling for an alliance they are not a part of to go to war with another country, the day before that I think it was Roger Waters - apparently the West should not allow anyone who disagrees with Ukraine to have a public voice - before that it was Germany again. Every day this beggar nation has a new set of demands and complaints. Wait till you see, five minutes after the war ends they'll be stabbing in the back every country that helped them - other than the US, who they'll continue to take orders from.

    Meanwhile Poland is calling for the "seized" (ie. stolen) Russian FOREX assets to be redistributed to EU countries. I have this funny feeling the Poles, never too shy about asking for a handout, also believe that their country should be the biggest recipient. I'm starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans, the rest being gimme dat nations.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Triteleia Laxa, @AP, @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

    Wait till you see, five minutes after the war ends they’ll be stabbing in the back every country that helped them

    I prefer the Ukrainian “stabbing in the back”, which seems to consist of mean words on Twitter for a 48 hour news cycle, rather than Putin “stabbing in the back” which means bombing your cities, building torture chambers and trying to carve pieces of your country off.

    Meanwhile Poland is calling for the “seized” (ie. stolen) Russian FOREX assets to be redistributed to EU countries. I have this funny feeling the Poles, never too shy about asking for a handout, also believe that their country should be the biggest recipient. I’m starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans, the rest being gimme dat nations.

    People love free stuff, but it is a bit rich for a Putin shill to call it “stolen.” Give back Crimea, the Donbas and the other parts of Ukraine that Russia still just about manages to hold onto, and then we discuss “stolen” money.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Triteleia Laxa


    I prefer the Ukrainian “stabbing in the back”
     
    Don't worry, they won't be "stabbing" the US/UK in the back, might just be a little difficult here and there (Poland has been, too). They will mostly be amicable. Just not pushovers. Which you don't need anyway in the bigger scheme of things. You don't need them to be "trannie lovers" but the Eastern flank of NATO or bastion of the West.

    Give back Crimea, the Donbas and the other parts of Ukraine that Russia still just about manages to hold onto, and then we discuss “stolen” money.
     
    And the washing machines that were hauled away and the cash from the cabinet from some Ukrainian family that fled (or worse). Oh, and all the rest of the ruination and the stolen children, plus moral damage. I apologize for stepping too much into the future.
  598. @John Johnson
    @AP

    But now several NATO countries have officially approved Ukraine’s membership.

    How exactly would there be an official approval when the vote has to be unanimous and that is after Ukraine goes through a qualification process? What you mean is that there are NATO countries that would vote for Ukraine. Well that was true before the war.

    Ukraine currently doesn't qualify for a variety of reasons, the main being that they have unstable borders. You can't apply if you are in a war or if your borders are contested.

    Of course Putin didn't mention that with his bullshit NATO excuse just as he didn't mention that France and Germany did NOT want Ukraine in NATO as if January of this year.
    https://www.the-sun.com/news/4768886/ukraine-nato-explained/

    Putin in fact turned down a deal that would have kept Ukraine out of NATO:
    https://nypost.com/2022/09/14/putin-rejected-ukraine-peace-deal-struck-by-aide-as-war-began/

    Putin has moved away from claiming the war had anything to do with NATO so I'm not sure why you guys are even talking about it.

    He now claims it is all about Donbas. This isn't Russian State TV where no one can call him on his total bullshit.

    In fact by taking Donbas as Russian territory he has brought Ukraine closer to qualifying for NATO. Good job half-pint.

    Replies: @Beckow

    The only thing you got right is that nothing has changed regarding Nato approval for Ukraine, the same push by some and resistance by others is still there.

    NY Post vague throw-away article about a supposed ‘deal’ rejected by Russia doesn’t show what you claim. What was the ‘deal’? In the article Russia actually officially says that no deal that addressed Russia’s minimum demands was offered by Nato. Rejecting it would be like rejecting something that doesn’t exist. All else in the NY Post article is noise with no substance, the usual personnel minutia of no consequence.

    The point I made initially – and that AP is unable to grasp – is not about negotiation. The point is that once Russia used heavy weapons in Ukraine any Nato bases would be too vulnerable – once there is a precedent for directly destroying Nato infrastructure (even if in Kiev’s hands) there will not be Nato in Ukraine unless Russia loses the war.

    AP is too much of a mid-wit to understand the simple point, maybe you will.

    The fact that Kiev will not recognize the loss of Donbas or Crimea means that by Nato’s own rules it cannot be accepted. But that is a cherry on the cake, it was Russia’s use of brutal power that changed the situation.

    Putin has moved away from claiming the war had anything to do with NATO …He now claims it is all about Donbas.

    Motivations are not binary, Russia can have both. Given that the first one has been accomplished, they focus on the second one. “All about…” is your interpretation, a cheap trick to use when cornered.

    • Replies: @John Johnson
    @Beckow

    The only thing you got right is that nothing has changed regarding Nato approval for Ukraine, the same push by some and resistance by others is still there.

    I didn't claim that.

    Ukraine didn't have the support of France or Germany in January and Turkey was on the fence. Now support has increased but we don't know to what degree. Ukraine would still have to apply. Turkey or France may still decide to keep them out. The vote has to be unanimous.

    I can provide sources if you want or you can go back to your Putin/Anglin/Roberts falsifiable narrative where NATO was just about to put nukes on the border and Putin had no choice to invade.

    Not only is it total bullshit but it never made any sense. NATO missiles move at Mach 5. There is no strategic gain in moving them closer. The whole world blows up regardless. Even in that scenario Ukraine will still have to qualify first, then apply, then somehow win over France and Germany.

    Putin is just plain full of shit and his main supporters like Anglin know it. That shouldn't be a surprise since Anglin has proven himself to be completely amoral. He had to leave the US for harassing some apolitical small town Jew over a real estate deal and he recently claimed that most White women f-ck dogs. In fact he has talked numerous times about how he hates White women while calling himself a White nationalist. I guess him and other ex-pat White nationalists can go ahead and create White children in labs.


    NY Post vague throw-away article about a supposed ‘deal’ rejected by Russia doesn’t show what you claim. What was the ‘deal’?

    Am I your personal Google assistant? I provided the article and you can read about it from other sources.

    If you believe the deal was never offered then that is fine. It isn't as if Putin would admit to it. But if it was truly about NATO then why not issue an ultimatum first? Especially when Ukraine didn't qualify for NATO and didn't have the votes of France and Germany? It doesn't make any sense to launch a full scale invasion as your first move. This is why the likely explanation is that Putin is just playing wargames and wanted to take Ukraine just as the Mongols once took Kievan Rus. He wanted play empire games and turn Ukraine into Russian territory before Parkinson's kills him.

    From 2021: Germany opposed Ukraine's entry into NATO
    https://thenewsglory.com/germany-opposed-ukraines-entry-into-nato/

    Of course you will not see that article mentioned in a pro-Putin blog or on Russian State TV. Putin has since moved away from his bullshit NATO excuse and now claims it was always about Donbas. Do I need to provide contradictory quotes from him? I certainly can.

    Replies: @LatW, @Beckow

  599. @216
    @Here Be Dragon


    No one can shoot them down – these satellites are on the high orbit (500-700 km).

     

    Just watch me

    If it was captured without optics that means the optics were in fact stolen. These AK are issued with a collimator sight.

     

    It is possible that rifles were rushed from the factory to the front without optics being mounted. It is also possible that the optics were embezzled, or that they were poached by Ukrainians.

    The device pictured here is not a combination of suppressor/muzzle break but a regular sound suppressor. That means we can add another $1000 to the cost of the rifle if it is planned to be issued as that.

     

    That suppressor uses cutting-edge 3d printing technology to significantly reduce the gas flowing back on the shooter's face, which also provides recoil reduction. It is unlike any other suppressor used.

    The superscope is very much real, and the minute it sees combat it will be a revelation akin to the conical bullet in the 19th century.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    Just watch me [shoot down satellites on the high orbit].

    Are you really that stupid? What are you going to shoot them with – the Space X Falcon rockets?

    These are on the high orbit. You need a space rocket to reach that altitude.

    It is possible that [AK-12] rifles were rushed from the factory to the front without optics being mounted.

    No it is not possible.

    The rifles are shipped without optics. The optics are not a part of the rifle, these are issued separately and are installed by the user.

    By the way not everybody likes it. Some people prefer good old iron sights.

    It is also possible that the optics were embezzled, or that they were poached by Ukrainians.

    That is what I said.

    Most likely it had some kind of a red dot sight mounted which was stolen by the Ukrainians. And most likely all these many photographs are of different people taking pictures with the same one captured rifle.

    That suppressor [of the XM5 rifle] uses cutting-edge 3d printing technology to significantly reduce the gas flowing back on the shooter’s face, which also provides recoil reduction. It is unlike any other suppressor used.

    You are completely clueless in this topic. Why are you arguing about things you know nothing about?

    You do not need to use any cutting-edge 3d printing technology to make a muzzle brake/flash hider device – it is a very simple thing and it has been made for at least 10 years now. Russians have their own version of it.

    Neither with a standard sound suppressor nor with a muzzle break or flash hider or a combo device there is no gas flowing back on the shooter’s face.

    You read but misunderstood what it is about the new model of a muzzle break/flash hider combo called “Smuzzle”. There is nothing special about it. A device of that king was a standard feature of the Vietnam War era CAR-15 carbine that was back then issued to officers.

    It is not a suppressor though it reduces the sound of a shot by about 20%. However it does not compete with a real sound suppressor neither in reduction of sound nor in reducing recoil or a muzzle flash. It is cheap though and has a longer life span.

    But there is nothing unique about it.

    The superscope is very much real, and the minute it sees combat it will be a revelation akin to the conical bullet in the 19th century.

    There is no such thing as a superscope.

    There are a lot of various good scopes though. Americans make the best thermal scopes but bear in mind the cost of it is like $15 thousand for a piece.

    • Replies: @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon

    By the way not everybody likes it. Some people prefer good old iron sights.

    Until they shoot them at night.

    Red dot cannot be beat in 100-200 yard engagements.

    I've seen a lot of Ukrainian squads with red dots and suppressors.

    The current great people's conscription army appears to be training with AK-47s and not even AK-74s.

    Even without suppressors the Ukrainians will have a strong advantage in urban combat. The red dots are also better for half assed shots where you are holding the gun wonky or trying to peak around a corner because you don't have to line anything up.

    We could even see a massive urban battle where Ukrainians have night vision and red dots while the conscripts are using vanilla AKs and shooting at shadows.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

  600. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Matra


    Wait till you see, five minutes after the war ends they’ll be stabbing in the back every country that helped them
     
    I prefer the Ukrainian "stabbing in the back", which seems to consist of mean words on Twitter for a 48 hour news cycle, rather than Putin "stabbing in the back" which means bombing your cities, building torture chambers and trying to carve pieces of your country off.

    Meanwhile Poland is calling for the “seized” (ie. stolen) Russian FOREX assets to be redistributed to EU countries. I have this funny feeling the Poles, never too shy about asking for a handout, also believe that their country should be the biggest recipient. I’m starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans, the rest being gimme dat nations.
     
    People love free stuff, but it is a bit rich for a Putin shill to call it "stolen." Give back Crimea, the Donbas and the other parts of Ukraine that Russia still just about manages to hold onto, and then we discuss "stolen" money.

    Replies: @LatW

    I prefer the Ukrainian “stabbing in the back”

    Don’t worry, they won’t be “stabbing” the US/UK in the back, might just be a little difficult here and there (Poland has been, too). They will mostly be amicable. Just not pushovers. Which you don’t need anyway in the bigger scheme of things. You don’t need them to be “trannie lovers” but the Eastern flank of NATO or bastion of the West.

    Give back Crimea, the Donbas and the other parts of Ukraine that Russia still just about manages to hold onto, and then we discuss “stolen” money.

    And the washing machines that were hauled away and the cash from the cabinet from some Ukrainian family that fled (or worse). Oh, and all the rest of the ruination and the stolen children, plus moral damage. I apologize for stepping too much into the future.

  601. @German_reader
    @AP


    If NATO has solid intelligence (such as seeing it happen via satellite) that Russia is in the process of launching a tactical nuke upon Ukraine it does not seem unreasonable for Ukraine’s president to ask for a preemptive (conventional) strike in order to prevent that launch.
     
    It would almost certainly lead to a nuclear war destroying Europe and probably also the US, so yes, it would be suicidally unreasonable.
    I don't think Putin will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, unless Russia is really on the verge of a catastrophic defeat and comes close to even losing Crimea...otherwise the risks inherent in such an extreme action would presumably deter him. But the point is, Zelensky's irresponsible comments calling for even more direct NATO involvement (not for the first time), if they were listened to by Western policy-makers, would be the one thing making Russian use of nuclear weapons likely.

    Replies: @Matra, @AP

    It would almost certainly lead to a nuclear war destroying Europe and probably also the US, so yes, it would be suicidally unreasonable.

    Russia is not going to collectively commit suicide because NATO took out a tactical nuke launcher prior to launch (this is hypothetical , because I really doubt Russia would get to the point of trying to use nukes).

    Zelensky was saying, rather than wait until Ukraine gets nuked and then take out the Black Sea fleet or whatever it is NATO would do in retaliation, take out the nuclear launchers prior to launch. Nothing unreasonable about him saying that.

  602. @Matra
    @German_reader

    Today Ukrainians are bitching about Musk's Starlink, yesterday they were calling for an alliance they are not a part of to go to war with another country, the day before that I think it was Roger Waters - apparently the West should not allow anyone who disagrees with Ukraine to have a public voice - before that it was Germany again. Every day this beggar nation has a new set of demands and complaints. Wait till you see, five minutes after the war ends they'll be stabbing in the back every country that helped them - other than the US, who they'll continue to take orders from.

    Meanwhile Poland is calling for the "seized" (ie. stolen) Russian FOREX assets to be redistributed to EU countries. I have this funny feeling the Poles, never too shy about asking for a handout, also believe that their country should be the biggest recipient. I'm starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans, the rest being gimme dat nations.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Triteleia Laxa, @AP, @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

    You seem to be bitter and offended that Eastern Europeans, unlike your own people (unfortunately), defend their own interests and attack those who oppose their interests.

    I’m starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans

    They haven’t invited enough non-Europeans into their lands do be classified as Europeans in the modern sense.

    Czechs didn’t resist the Nazis much and therefore weren’t hurt by them too much, so they have little to ask for (if anything the reverse would be true, they had no reason no be so cruel to the Sudetenlanders, they didn’t get treated like Poles were treated).

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @AP

    I think, he is saying Czech Republic and Slovakia are the only slavic countries which seem to have politically normal governments. It seems like a true idea. Maybe there are a few other slavic countries which you can think have normal governments, but definitely not the majority and there are also some of the world's most politically dysfunctional countries in this space.

    Although it's not something slavic specifically, because all the slavic world is part of the postcommunist space and in "Aryan" Romania or Moldova are not so much better examples of the postcommunist civilization.


    defend their own interests and attack those who oppose their interests.
     
    This is 2022. It's not some civilized time like the 1980s. We are cooking each other's heads nowadays.

    In 2022, people in Israel-Palestine, Ethiopia-Eritrea and Yemen-Saudi, in both sides, can be saying "we may have our primitive tribal conflict, but we at least aren't head cooking primitives like in Eastern Europe.


    haven’t invited enough non-Europeans into their lands do be classified as Europeans in the modern sense
     
    Ukrainians are the main refugees in Europe this year and Russians are main refugees in Central Asia and Caucasia. And with the current year's events, not so much of a situation where it can be said "we are from a more peaceful and civilized region than Syrians". The postsoviet space is not less volcanic than the Middle East.
  603. @Matra
    @German_reader

    Today Ukrainians are bitching about Musk's Starlink, yesterday they were calling for an alliance they are not a part of to go to war with another country, the day before that I think it was Roger Waters - apparently the West should not allow anyone who disagrees with Ukraine to have a public voice - before that it was Germany again. Every day this beggar nation has a new set of demands and complaints. Wait till you see, five minutes after the war ends they'll be stabbing in the back every country that helped them - other than the US, who they'll continue to take orders from.

    Meanwhile Poland is calling for the "seized" (ie. stolen) Russian FOREX assets to be redistributed to EU countries. I have this funny feeling the Poles, never too shy about asking for a handout, also believe that their country should be the biggest recipient. I'm starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans, the rest being gimme dat nations.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Triteleia Laxa, @AP, @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

    Today Ukrainians are bitching about Musk’s Starlink

    That’s not even true. They are very grateful to Musk and admire him. They were just ticked off about his tweet. One of the reactions was that he is a tech genius who may not be fully understanding international politics. They know that this was a Trumpian move since they are aware of the isolationist faction in the US. But they are grateful for the Starlink.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LatW


    They are very grateful to Musk and admire him.
     
    Your hero Arestovych tweeted this about Musk:

    https://twitter.com/arestovych/status/1577026215013019648?cxt=HHwWgMCjtZa_3OIrAAAA

    Strange way of expressing gratitude.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @LatW

  604. @Philip Owen
    @LatW

    It will take a lot more than several years for Russia to rebuild. We are presently seeing the result of a 14 year refit. 71.8% renewal to quote Shoigu. Even so the Armata was postponed to 2032 because Russia didn't have the technology to make it. To do better, Russia will need to renew its industrial capacity and build new industry such as chip making, optics, boot making and gun barrel manufacture. (Others too, these are just concrete examples).Without EU machines tools and components that will take much longer. 30 years? Even capability Russia once had like night vision (made at Sergey Posad/Zelenograd) seems to have disappeared.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    Please be aware that Philip Owen is a Ukrainian troll pretending to be British. He is posting and reposting Ukrainian lies and propaganda from Twitter.

    Even so the Armata was postponed to 2032 because Russia didn’t have the technology to make it.

    Lie.

    Russia will need to renew its industrial capacity and build new industry such as chip making, optics, boot making and gun barrel manufacture.

    Russia does need to build chip making factories and is working on it. However optics, boot making (!) and gun barrels manufacture has never been a problem in Russia.

    Even capability Russia once had like night vision seems to have disappeared.

    Lie.

    Excellent choice of Russian-made night vision optics is available on the civilian market.

    https://opticstrade.com/pricely_nochnogo_videniya

    Plilip Owen is a liar pretending to be an expert on various technical topics, but in truth he is a clueless internet troll posting photoshopped pictures of what is claimed to be a Russian-made disproportional and bent gun barrel.

    Russian barrels have been respected as some of the best in the world for decades Philip. And next time check at least with Wikipedia first – the T-14 Armata uses a smooth-bore barrel without rifling.

    Moron.

    • LOL: Yevardian
    • Replies: @Yevardian
    @Here Be Dragon

    It's nice that both you and the Laxa entity are here to cancel each other out.

    Replies: @Yahya

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Here Be Dragon

    You left out the boots. An army isn't going to get far without boots!

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    , @Philip Owen
    @Here Be Dragon

    I have actually worked with with Russian military factories helping them to export particularly with opto-electronics such as semiconductor lasers, especially SLDs and night vision systems. Expertise they may have had in 1990 has gone away in 2022. Some of it is in Ukraine or Georgia or Kazakhstan. Much of it was simply lost to bankruptcy and site redevelopment (many nodels of missile fiberoptic gyros for example).

    I also monitor iwth the assistance of an AI, about 500 Russian language news stories a day about 10 of which prove to be of interesting for my purposes. The general complaining about Russia no longer making gun barrels featured in January this year. Not bookmarked because not useful to me.

    Your experience in such matters is?

  605. @Here Be Dragon
    @Philip Owen

    Please be aware that Philip Owen is a Ukrainian troll pretending to be British. He is posting and reposting Ukrainian lies and propaganda from Twitter.


    Even so the Armata was postponed to 2032 because Russia didn’t have the technology to make it.
     
    Lie.

    Russia will need to renew its industrial capacity and build new industry such as chip making, optics, boot making and gun barrel manufacture.
     
    Russia does need to build chip making factories and is working on it. However optics, boot making (!) and gun barrels manufacture has never been a problem in Russia.

    Even capability Russia once had like night vision seems to have disappeared.
     
    Lie.

    Excellent choice of Russian-made night vision optics is available on the civilian market.

    https://opticstrade.com/pricely_nochnogo_videniya

    Plilip Owen is a liar pretending to be an expert on various technical topics, but in truth he is a clueless internet troll posting photoshopped pictures of what is claimed to be a Russian-made disproportional and bent gun barrel.

    Russian barrels have been respected as some of the best in the world for decades Philip. And next time check at least with Wikipedia first – the T-14 Armata uses a smooth-bore barrel without rifling.

    Moron.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Philip Owen

    It’s nice that both you and the Laxa entity are here to cancel each other out.

    • LOL: A123
    • Replies: @Yahya
    @Yevardian


    It’s nice that both you and the Laxa entity are here to cancel each other out.

     

    When the Dragon Man first started posting here, I thought he was another one of Laxa's aliases.

    What sort of movies are you watching (and anyone else here)? I've been on a movie-watching spree the past few days. I tend to watch movies sporadically, haven't binged on movies like this since high school. Some mini-reviews:

    1) The Grand Budapest Hotel - Loved the tempo and tone of the movie. Brisk-paced story, gets to the point quick, without fluff or boring moments. The tone is comedic without being frivolous or overly ironic. The plot is nothing new, a mysterious murder occurs, and the main character is framed. But the narration and filming style is unique and original. The visuals are breath-taking. Wes Anderson creates a sense of place that makes you feel right at home. Also there are some wonderfully choreographed scenes, which I won't mention here for fear of spoiling the plot. Only thing I disliked was that the movie seemed to indicate that Mr. Gustav is a model of virtuosity amidst a sea of evil. He certainly has his virtues, but i'm not all that sure if he's a moral exemplar of a human being. He sleeps with old ladies who patronize the hotel, steals a valuable painting, and callously laughs off someone dying during the prison break scene. But overall a solid, entertaining movie. 9/10.

    2) Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - I watched the first movie in the series some years ago, watched this one after seeing the Tolkein discussion on this forum. Hard not to like LOTR. Don't have much to say other than it's a load of fun, a well-made adventure movie. Only thing I disliked was the two-dimensional, Manichean characters. Everyone in the film is either entirely good or entirely bad, there is no in-between. But overall great visuals and epic adventure. 8/10.

    3) Pharaoh - This is a somewhat obscure Polish movie released in 1966. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967, and is considered by some to be among the best Polish films ever made. It's based on a novel of the same name written by Bolesław Prus, which incidentally was one of Stalin's favorite books. The movie as the book is high-brow, which is quite rare for an Ancient Egyptian themed movie. It centers around a young but strong-willed Ramses XIII who clashes with the powerful clergy over affairs of state, most notably over their relations with Assyria, Israel and Phoenicia. There's lots of Machiavellan intrigue between the various political players; I can see why a leader like Stalin would have liked it. This film is more austere than the usual Hollywood film set in Ancient Egypt, it lacks the usual grand spectacles, perhaps owing to its lower budget, but is nonetheless refreshing and realistic. I think people overestimate Egypt's grandeur at the time, because all they see are the majestic monuments. But Ancient Egypt was probably a giant shithole for most of its inhabitants, even if it was more developed than other places (not very difficult considering most of the world was still in pre-history at the time). I felt the plot was a bit slow-paced at times, which made it hard to stay engaged, but that's typical of most high-brow movies. I felt they could've added more events in the plot, or at least compensated with more philosophical dialogue as in Tarkovsky's movies. Also the main character was unlikeable and everyone in the film seemed grave and unsmiling. I wish someone could make a movie about Ancient Egypt which isn't centered around the highest level of society; but perhaps on a Prophets sojourn among ordinary villagers and the like (I'm thinking of Thomas Mann's novels based on the lives of Jacob and Joseph). I'm not going to complain much though because this is still the best Ancient Egyptian film. 8/10.

    4) About Elly - From an objective standpoint, probably the best movie I've ever seen, though not necessarily my favorite. It's a masterpiece of realism. Everything about the movie feels real, anyone who's ever been on a holiday trip with a group of friends would recognize this in an instant. The dialogue and script is sophisticated yet subtle, nothing is overdramatic or forced. I also liked the fact that the movie was easy to watch and not overly morbid or slow like many high-brow drama films. The beginning 35 minutes is uneventful but still enjoyable to watch as you get to know the characters, also introduced to the social dynamics of a group of middle-class Iranians. I can imagine this is exactly how middle class Iranians would interact with each other on a daily basis. To a Middle Easterner like me many of these dynamics (i.e. male-female interactions etc.) were very familiar, but I've read reviews by Westerners who found it novel and peculiar. In which case, this would be a bonus for those interested in learning more about Middle Eastern mores. The plot takes off at the 35 minute mark and never looks back. I won't write much about it here for fear of spoiling, just watch the movie and you'll see. The basic message of the movie, expressed very delicately without being overly didactic, is to warn against the half-truths so easily made by nearly everyone for the sake of expediency. 10/10.

    5) Reservoir Dogs - I first watched this movie when I was a teenager, so already I'm predisposed to think of it warmly upon rewatching just for the sake of nostalgia. The movie is still as entertaining as when I first watched it, and it remains one of my top 10 favorites. The plot, dialogue and characters are just fantastic. About the only negative I can think of is the excessive blood and gore, but that's to be expected from Tarantino, and really this one is relatively mild compared to his other movies. I would've written more but these reviews have already taken too much time from me, and I'm not getting paid for any of this, so will stop here. 10/10.

    Edit: I'm currently watching Elia Suleiman's The Time That Remains, a movie by a Palestinian Christian director. It's really good so far, the beauty of the Holy Land is astonishing. I'll write more about it later if I have time.

    You can watch About Elly on YouTube free:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csfRfEI2uhk&t=1441s&ab_channel=ZiNoMovies

    Replies: @sudden death, @Yevardian, @A123

  606. @LatW
    @Matra


    Today Ukrainians are bitching about Musk’s Starlink
     
    That's not even true. They are very grateful to Musk and admire him. They were just ticked off about his tweet. One of the reactions was that he is a tech genius who may not be fully understanding international politics. They know that this was a Trumpian move since they are aware of the isolationist faction in the US. But they are grateful for the Starlink.

    Replies: @German_reader

    They are very grateful to Musk and admire him.

    Your hero Arestovych tweeted this about Musk:

    [MORE]

    Strange way of expressing gratitude.

    • LOL: LatW
    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @German_reader

    It is funny. Lighten up old dear.

    , @LatW
    @German_reader


    Your hero Arestovych
     
    He's not my hero, just someone who has interesting thoughts. My hero is General Zaluzhniy. And people like Roman Kostenko, who is a former "kyborg", then MP and now back on the battlefield.

    Strange way of expressing gratitude.
     
    Well, Musk's wish for people's lives to be spared is understandable, we all share it, but he is not in a position to dole out Ukrainian land.

    Replies: @German_reader

  607. Instead of spending 1.3 billion on gaudy a mansion I guess Vlad should have made sure his troops had armor and night vision:

    Hope they brought their tampons.

    • Replies: @Philip Owen
    @John Johnson

    They also light open fires. Very visible at night with thermal imaging. My former client makes flammable blocks for cooking with low lateral heat signatures. Ukraine special forces at least will have them. Sitting around campfire with abottle of vodka is not a good idea in this war.

  608. @Triteleia Laxa
    Russians With Attitude called Wagner "unironically, the best troops in the world."

    What was true is that they're probably the best troops in Russia.

    But this is what actually happened when they fought the Americans directly.

    https://www.coffeeordie.com/wagner-group-syria-khasham

    TLDR, if the Russians fought the US in a conventional war, without retreating to their cities to use insurgent-style tactics, the war would be over before barely anyone knew it had begun. I've explained why elsewhere as best I can without writing a book! This has all been obvious too, ever since the first week of the invasion.

    It also points to what will slowly start to happen as Ukraine continues to upskill, even while the professionalism and equipment of the Russian force degenerates.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    Russians With Attitude called Wagner “unironically, the best troops in the world.” What was true is that they’re probably the best troops in Russia.

    But this is what actually happened when they fought the Americans directly.

    “With the expert direction of Air Force combat controllers waves of F-22 fighters, F-15E strike fighters, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, AC-130 gunships, B-52 bombers, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and heavy Marine artillery relentlessly punished the enemy force.”

    You dumbass paid troll licking Uncle Sam’s arse. Such an air force would demolish any ground force not having air support or air defence no matter what country.

    The Wagner group is specialized on urban warfare.

    And by the way they do not only fight well but have started making excellent movies. Only a few days ago The Best in Hell has been premiered.

    It is a great movie for anybody who is interested in modern warfare. There is no drama and very few dialogues, but a lot of shooting, depiction and description of tactics. The film is based on one of the recent operation in Donbas.

    The production and cinematography is top-class. Everything looks very realistic, shot in semi-documentary style. Try watching it and maybe you will get a clue about what the Wagner group does.

    Note that in the movie Ukrainians are shown with respect.

  609. @Yevardian
    Well, Zelensky just called for preemptive "preventative" nuclear strike against Russia in a speech to Australia. Putin is no saint either, but fuck this faggot. Just unbelievably irresponsible.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Mikel

    Well, Zelensky just called for preemptive “preventative” nuclear strike against Russia in a speech to Australia.

    Even so, I would have preferred him to win the Nobel Peace Prize rather than the trio they gave it to. You could at least interpret it as a recognition to a country that has just been invaded by a much bigger neighbor, or a comedian that has risen to the occasion of confronting an invasion or some such.

    Instead, they have chosen these recipients: A Belarussian activist against human rights abuses committed by Belarus (so far so good), a Russian organization against human rights abuses committed by Russia (so far so good) and a Ukrainian organization against human right abuses committed by…. Russia. As if there were no well-known abuses committed by the Ukrainians as well. This is basically a spit on the graves of thousands of civilians killed by Kiev and many others tortured and arbitrarily incarcerated, as documented by the UN OHCHR.

    Far from promoting peace, they are actively promoting resentment on the population of one of the parties. This kind of stuff makes you be as anti-Ukraine as anti-Russia as it piles on day after day.

    Putin is no saint either, but fuck this faggot.

    Fuck them both and everyone around them. As GR says, it’s pathetic to even have to contemplate the possibility of nuclear war because of a dispute between these two sides.

    • Replies: @Yevardian
    @Mikel

    I got a bit intemperate, but I really was just stunned, even discussing the possibility of "preventative" strikes is pushing into extremely dangerous territory. Nobody can really say where any line begins for "preventative" action and when I think of the historical precedents for usage of this rhetoric, the signs aren't encouraging... Saddam Hussein's 'preventative' attack against Iran, Israel's 'preventative' war of conquest against 3 neighboring states, Germany's 'preventative' war on the USSR, etc.

    I suppose its senseless to blame Zelensky himself for whoever's script he's following, his entire political career must be one of the most long-running and intensely curated ones of modern times, starting at least from that television series where he played the president, only to run for president in real life, what a happy coincidence.
    I'd actually feel much more comfortable if Poroshenko was still leader of Ukraine, he at least had enough independent political experience and business connections in the country and abroad to not be completely mouldable clay in the hands of people with zero real attachment to the country. There's just something extremely ertzaz about Zelensky's whole image, invariably appearing a green muscle-shirt. I vaguely recall there was some sort of government deadlock in Ukraine before the war, which reminds me of another thing - hardly anything whatsoever has been heard in international media from previous Ukrainian leaders or major politicians prior to this year's war, Timoshenko, Yuschenko, Poroshenko, Kozhara, Yatsenyuk... it's this sudden personality cult around Zelensky, Zelensky, Zelensky.
    From the media coverage an uninformed observer would think Ukraine had only just declared independence from Russia and that the previous 30 years never happened.

    I suppose this must be a conscious PR strategy from on high, best not to remind people Ukraine's political discourse has a far more in common with the Balkans or Russia than even a relatively western-orientated east-euro country like Poland.

    Replies: @Mikel

  610. @Here Be Dragon
    @216


    Just watch me [shoot down satellites on the high orbit].
     
    Are you really that stupid? What are you going to shoot them with – the Space X Falcon rockets?

    These are on the high orbit. You need a space rocket to reach that altitude.

    It is possible that [AK-12] rifles were rushed from the factory to the front without optics being mounted.
     
    No it is not possible.

    The rifles are shipped without optics. The optics are not a part of the rifle, these are issued separately and are installed by the user.

    By the way not everybody likes it. Some people prefer good old iron sights.

    It is also possible that the optics were embezzled, or that they were poached by Ukrainians.
     
    That is what I said.

    Most likely it had some kind of a red dot sight mounted which was stolen by the Ukrainians. And most likely all these many photographs are of different people taking pictures with the same one captured rifle.

    That suppressor [of the XM5 rifle] uses cutting-edge 3d printing technology to significantly reduce the gas flowing back on the shooter’s face, which also provides recoil reduction. It is unlike any other suppressor used.
     
    You are completely clueless in this topic. Why are you arguing about things you know nothing about?

    You do not need to use any cutting-edge 3d printing technology to make a muzzle brake/flash hider device – it is a very simple thing and it has been made for at least 10 years now. Russians have their own version of it.

    Neither with a standard sound suppressor nor with a muzzle break or flash hider or a combo device there is no gas flowing back on the shooter’s face.

    You read but misunderstood what it is about the new model of a muzzle break/flash hider combo called "Smuzzle". There is nothing special about it. A device of that king was a standard feature of the Vietnam War era CAR-15 carbine that was back then issued to officers.

    https://i.postimg.cc/W4z4dw4Q/CAR-15.jpg

    It is not a suppressor though it reduces the sound of a shot by about 20%. However it does not compete with a real sound suppressor neither in reduction of sound nor in reducing recoil or a muzzle flash. It is cheap though and has a longer life span.

    But there is nothing unique about it.

    The superscope is very much real, and the minute it sees combat it will be a revelation akin to the conical bullet in the 19th century.
     
    There is no such thing as a superscope.

    There are a lot of various good scopes though. Americans make the best thermal scopes but bear in mind the cost of it is like $15 thousand for a piece.

    Replies: @John Johnson

    By the way not everybody likes it. Some people prefer good old iron sights.

    Until they shoot them at night.

    Red dot cannot be beat in 100-200 yard engagements.

    I’ve seen a lot of Ukrainian squads with red dots and suppressors.

    The current great people’s conscription army appears to be training with AK-47s and not even AK-74s.

    Even without suppressors the Ukrainians will have a strong advantage in urban combat. The red dots are also better for half assed shots where you are holding the gun wonky or trying to peak around a corner because you don’t have to line anything up.

    We could even see a massive urban battle where Ukrainians have night vision and red dots while the conscripts are using vanilla AKs and shooting at shadows.

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @John Johnson


    [Some people prefer good old iron sights] Until they shoot them at night.
     
    The red dot is reflected on the glass because the glass is tinted. Since the glass of the sight is tinted it passes less light. Therefore it is not helpful at night and that is one of the reasons some people prefer the regular iron sights.

    Some iron sights – for example on the Yugoslavian-made AK rifles – have tritium dots illuminating in the dark. Such an iron sight is more practical at night than a red dot.

    Red dot cannot be beat in 100-200 yard engagements.
     
    Even in 100-300, but it can be uncomfortable at less than 100 m. And in close quarter combat for a trained shooter target acquisition can be easier with a regular sight. Looking through the tube is not a good thing when one has to be quick.

    I’ve seen a lot of Ukrainian squads with red dots and suppressors.
     
    Special forces often use them. Russians do too.

    The current great people’s conscription army appears to be training with AK-47s and not even AK-74s.
     
    Nonsense.

    AK-47 is a rarity. They are collectible.

    Russians do have a lot of AKM though and they are very popular among Spetsnaz – for the ergonomics and portability of the folding stock model and the power of the 7.62 round.

    But AK-74 are much more common and there are millions of them in stock. All the regular troops are going to be issued 74s whether they like it or not. I would rather take an AKM.

    Even without suppressors the Ukrainians will have a strong advantage in urban combat.
     
    Ukrainians have mobilized half a million of civilians. What advantage are you talking about? Suppressors are useless without sub-sonic ammo, are used for special operations with such ammo due to short range of it, and are used for photoshots for Facebook and propaganda.

    A strong advantage comes from training and experience.

    The red dots are also better for half assed shots where you are holding the gun wonky or trying to peak around a corner because you don’t have to line anything up.
     
    Depending on conditions it can be or can be not.

    We could even see a massive urban battle where Ukrainians have night vision and red dots while the conscripts are using vanilla AKs and shooting at shadows.
     
    A red dot requires more training to be used because a habit has to be formed to get used to it. Regular troops do not use neither red dot nor night vision even in the U.S. army.

    As for the sights themselves Russians make a number models of both types and I guess have no shortage of these.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @John Johnson

  611. @Here Be Dragon
    @Philip Owen

    Please be aware that Philip Owen is a Ukrainian troll pretending to be British. He is posting and reposting Ukrainian lies and propaganda from Twitter.


    Even so the Armata was postponed to 2032 because Russia didn’t have the technology to make it.
     
    Lie.

    Russia will need to renew its industrial capacity and build new industry such as chip making, optics, boot making and gun barrel manufacture.
     
    Russia does need to build chip making factories and is working on it. However optics, boot making (!) and gun barrels manufacture has never been a problem in Russia.

    Even capability Russia once had like night vision seems to have disappeared.
     
    Lie.

    Excellent choice of Russian-made night vision optics is available on the civilian market.

    https://opticstrade.com/pricely_nochnogo_videniya

    Plilip Owen is a liar pretending to be an expert on various technical topics, but in truth he is a clueless internet troll posting photoshopped pictures of what is claimed to be a Russian-made disproportional and bent gun barrel.

    Russian barrels have been respected as some of the best in the world for decades Philip. And next time check at least with Wikipedia first – the T-14 Armata uses a smooth-bore barrel without rifling.

    Moron.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Philip Owen

    You left out the boots. An army isn’t going to get far without boots!

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    You left out the boots. An army isn’t going to get far without boots!
     
    I designated it with an exclamation mark meaning that it was too stupid a claim to refute it.

    Of course Russia is producing boots. Here is a store where you can order a pair of the Russian army boots for yourself.

    https://ratniksafe.ru/spets-obuv/bertsy
    Only $48 for the standard issue model.
  612. @Triteleia Laxa
    @LatW


    Most women prefer masculine men
     
    No woman wants a man who does not have plenty of what are traditionally considered "feminine" qualities either.

    Responsibilities keep piling up for women, but natural privileges shrinking.
     
    Since we live in a society with only the vestiges of socially-mandated gender roles, both privileges and responsibilities deriving from your sex are fast becoming irrelevant. Instead, you choose which responsibilities to take on, and which "privileges" you can expect, in conversation with those directly involved with you.

    And the default is swiftly becoming where a heterosexual relationship shares everything equally, but couples are free to balance as they decide.

    Of course, it may end up that couples have a balance more often close to traditional roles than the other way around, but that would actually be the result of 'natural" choices rather than it being socially-mandated.

    However this is besides the point. There's never going to be a mass retvrn to traditional roles movement that exists as more than fast fashion.

    Those gender roles were based on big substantial facts that dictated people's lives, like sex getting a woman pregnant, and pregnancy being extremely dangerous, and most jobs relying on physical strength.

    But that things are no longer part of reality, and so the thing that fixed gender roles in place, has disappeared.

    Transmania and Tradmania are twin reactions to this change. Essentially born of nostalgia, parental issues and other difficulties, but both only involve a fringe of people, usually in demographics most pushed around by trends, and both will shrink away from public attention soon enough, no different than any other fashion, or counter-fashion.


    Millennial women make more than their male counterparts, this is risky for them.
     
    The risk in making more money is less than the risk in making less money.

    Replies: @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

    No woman wants a man who does not have plenty of what are traditionally considered “feminine” qualities either.

    Would you also write that “No man wants a woman that etc…” ?

    • Replies: @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk

    Yes, no man wants a woman that lacks all of what are traditionally seen as masculine qualities.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @A123

  613. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa


    No woman wants a man who does not have plenty of what are traditionally considered “feminine” qualities either.
     
    Would you also write that "No man wants a woman that etc..." ?

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa

    Yes, no man wants a woman that lacks all of what are traditionally seen as masculine qualities.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Yes, no man wants a woman that lacks all of what are traditionally seen as masculine qualities.

     

    Laxa honey, you date the wrong men. They should treat you like a lady for a change...

    (No offense meant to your veteran boyfriend that posts on military topics. I enjoy reading his posts)

    🙂

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    , @A123
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Yes, no man wants a woman that lacks all of what are traditionally seen as masculine qualities.

     

    Being accidentally shot by a girlfriend would suck. Especially in this caliber.

     
    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg76FIQ6nnIiA_avl4aOADEht8uXtK4m-ICUHP6flQYeNHwN4edfbjvrb62EJS51tr9NVdFnKsJPWUJuEFbffJ82sdPhRyY8WUwZv6yN6t1js-9T93bnAUtn9scyWWZBf_9gw8_BxCBQtKSx5NdbhwtREgbF6JJ2f8-m76u3FFE5SkwwY8IXrJAlOwvsw/s675/90mimb_6e98b05a65ce4a7d059a101cf6475b89_9d61a4d9_540.jpg
     

    http://ninetymilesfromtyranny.blogspot.com/2013/01/rule-5-girls-with-guns.html

    PEACE 😇
  614. Triteleia Laxa [AKA "Monitor of Halls"] says:
    @German_reader
    @LatW


    They are very grateful to Musk and admire him.
     
    Your hero Arestovych tweeted this about Musk:

    https://twitter.com/arestovych/status/1577026215013019648?cxt=HHwWgMCjtZa_3OIrAAAA

    Strange way of expressing gratitude.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @LatW

    It is funny. Lighten up old dear.

  615. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Matra
    @German_reader

    Today Ukrainians are bitching about Musk's Starlink, yesterday they were calling for an alliance they are not a part of to go to war with another country, the day before that I think it was Roger Waters - apparently the West should not allow anyone who disagrees with Ukraine to have a public voice - before that it was Germany again. Every day this beggar nation has a new set of demands and complaints. Wait till you see, five minutes after the war ends they'll be stabbing in the back every country that helped them - other than the US, who they'll continue to take orders from.

    Meanwhile Poland is calling for the "seized" (ie. stolen) Russian FOREX assets to be redistributed to EU countries. I have this funny feeling the Poles, never too shy about asking for a handout, also believe that their country should be the biggest recipient. I'm starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans, the rest being gimme dat nations.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Triteleia Laxa, @AP, @LatW, @Bashibuzuk

    Slavs who really are Europeans

    We are Eurasian given that we live both in Europe and Asia.

    Genetically speaking too, our ancestors wandered far and wide, from modern China to modern Netherlands and everywhere in between.

    So there is that being European is too restrictive for our untamed minds.

    BTW, Polish elites are of Saramatian descent and Sarmatians came from Asia.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarmatism

  616. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk

    Yes, no man wants a woman that lacks all of what are traditionally seen as masculine qualities.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @A123

    Yes, no man wants a woman that lacks all of what are traditionally seen as masculine qualities.

    Laxa honey, you date the wrong men. They should treat you like a lady for a change…

    (No offense meant to your veteran boyfriend that posts on military topics. I enjoy reading his posts)

    🙂

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Bashibuzuk

    Dating Ari Nussbacher type stuff

  617. @Beckow
    @John Johnson

    The only thing you got right is that nothing has changed regarding Nato approval for Ukraine, the same push by some and resistance by others is still there.

    NY Post vague throw-away article about a supposed 'deal' rejected by Russia doesn't show what you claim. What was the 'deal'? In the article Russia actually officially says that no deal that addressed Russia's minimum demands was offered by Nato. Rejecting it would be like rejecting something that doesn't exist. All else in the NY Post article is noise with no substance, the usual personnel minutia of no consequence.

    The point I made initially - and that AP is unable to grasp - is not about negotiation. The point is that once Russia used heavy weapons in Ukraine any Nato bases would be too vulnerable - once there is a precedent for directly destroying Nato infrastructure (even if in Kiev's hands) there will not be Nato in Ukraine unless Russia loses the war.

    AP is too much of a mid-wit to understand the simple point, maybe you will.

    The fact that Kiev will not recognize the loss of Donbas or Crimea means that by Nato's own rules it cannot be accepted. But that is a cherry on the cake, it was Russia's use of brutal power that changed the situation.


    Putin has moved away from claiming the war had anything to do with NATO ...He now claims it is all about Donbas.
     
    Motivations are not binary, Russia can have both. Given that the first one has been accomplished, they focus on the second one. "All about..." is your interpretation, a cheap trick to use when cornered.

    Replies: @John Johnson

    The only thing you got right is that nothing has changed regarding Nato approval for Ukraine, the same push by some and resistance by others is still there.

    I didn’t claim that.

    Ukraine didn’t have the support of France or Germany in January and Turkey was on the fence. Now support has increased but we don’t know to what degree. Ukraine would still have to apply. Turkey or France may still decide to keep them out. The vote has to be unanimous.

    I can provide sources if you want or you can go back to your Putin/Anglin/Roberts falsifiable narrative where NATO was just about to put nukes on the border and Putin had no choice to invade.

    Not only is it total bullshit but it never made any sense. NATO missiles move at Mach 5. There is no strategic gain in moving them closer. The whole world blows up regardless. Even in that scenario Ukraine will still have to qualify first, then apply, then somehow win over France and Germany.

    Putin is just plain full of shit and his main supporters like Anglin know it. That shouldn’t be a surprise since Anglin has proven himself to be completely amoral. He had to leave the US for harassing some apolitical small town Jew over a real estate deal and he recently claimed that most White women f-ck dogs. In fact he has talked numerous times about how he hates White women while calling himself a White nationalist. I guess him and other ex-pat White nationalists can go ahead and create White children in labs.

    NY Post vague throw-away article about a supposed ‘deal’ rejected by Russia doesn’t show what you claim. What was the ‘deal’?

    Am I your personal Google assistant? I provided the article and you can read about it from other sources.

    If you believe the deal was never offered then that is fine. It isn’t as if Putin would admit to it. But if it was truly about NATO then why not issue an ultimatum first? Especially when Ukraine didn’t qualify for NATO and didn’t have the votes of France and Germany? It doesn’t make any sense to launch a full scale invasion as your first move. This is why the likely explanation is that Putin is just playing wargames and wanted to take Ukraine just as the Mongols once took Kievan Rus. He wanted play empire games and turn Ukraine into Russian territory before Parkinson’s kills him.

    From 2021: Germany opposed Ukraine’s entry into NATO
    https://thenewsglory.com/germany-opposed-ukraines-entry-into-nato/

    Of course you will not see that article mentioned in a pro-Putin blog or on Russian State TV. Putin has since moved away from his bullshit NATO excuse and now claims it was always about Donbas. Do I need to provide contradictory quotes from him? I certainly can.

    • Replies: @LatW
    @John Johnson


    This is why the likely explanation is that Putin is just playing wargames and wanted to take Ukraine just as the Mongols once took Kievan Rus.
     
    It's even crazier than that. I have heard some talk that people in Tuva believe that Sergey Shoigu is a reincarnation of Subutai, a successful Mongol general who fought under Batu-Khan. The one who conquered and burned down the Kievan Rus. It's possible that Shoigu really likes this comparison as it must have fed his ego.
    , @Beckow
    @John Johnson

    You try too hard to deny the obvious. Way too hard, and it doesn't work.

    There was a plan to get Ukraine into Nato. This plan was hatched in Washington-London and they put people in place in Kiev who would do it. The reluctant second-tier partners like Germany or France have no power, they delay at best.

    No deal was ever offered to Russia to address it. You know this and you basically lie because that reality is the 800-pound elephant in the room: it made the war inevitable. As would Quebec or Mexico joining Chinese or Russian military alliance. This is not that complicated, the situation itself says it all.

    At least accept the obvious: Nato wants Ukraine and the rulers in Kiev want to be in Nato. Period. That means war. If Kiev-Nato can win the war, they will get what they want. If the lose, there will be no Nato in Ukraine. So you have to pretend that Kiev is winning to keep the dream alive.

    If Russia announces directly tomorrow that Nato in Ukraine means a nuclear war, you will say that they are bluffing or that their nukes don't work. Or that nuclear war is not that bad. Whatever it takes to keep this going. Obsessions are like that.

  618. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    Most German goods do not depend on price to sell. Machine tools and even Audis are not bought primarily on price. The added value is high as are process efficiences. There will be an impact but no economic Armageddon.
     
    Well, a big article in the WSJ a few days ago said that more than half of all small- and mid-sized German businesses think that the energy crisis might force them to shut down permanently. That sounds pretty serious to me:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-crisis-pushes-german-industry-to-the-brink-11664443801

    Germany was foolish to rely on Russia’s stability despite Ukraine’s instability.
     
    They probably never considered America would destroy their pipeline. But with that setting a precedent, why wouldn't the Russians be able to try to destroy those other pipelines? Pipelines are obviously vulnerable, as are transatlantic fiber-optic cables.

    Suppose the Russians destroyed the communications lines between the US and Europe. Would you say West had been foolish to rely upon those means of communication?

    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he's about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @sudden death, @Philip Owen, @QCIC, @AnonfromTN, @Here Be Dragon

    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.

    It should not be surprising.

    Of the 20-30 people here at least a half are paid trolls. Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    Of all the commenters only Beckow and AnonfromTN seem to be genuinely pro-Russian. There is a number of genuinely pro-Ukrainian participants, with which constructive conversations are sometimes possible. But a squad of paid trolls can easily take over a small forum and flood it with content no one wants to read.

    That is what is happening.

    A thread like this one has to be moderated. Otherwise it will soon be turned into a Ukrainan propaganda thread.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Here Be Dragon


    A thread like this one has to be moderated.
     
    Says the recent arrival who likes posting pictures of murdered children and boiling heads.
    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Here Be Dragon


    A thread like this one has to be moderated. Otherwise it will soon be turned into a Ukrainan propaganda thread.
     
    No.

    You are reading the thread poorly. The author of the comment and the addressee are at the top of the comment. If you do not like either of these poster's contributions scroll down. Moderating on your own is trivial.

    When in doubt whether somebody is worth reading it is almost never necessary to perform the work of entering a discussion with them. You can almost always get your answer with one pertinent question.

    Method of Parsifal.
    , @Yevardian
    @Here Be Dragon


    Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.
     
    Have to agree on this point, also Laxa/Hall Monitor/Aether constantly changing handles whilst giving nonsensical 'explanations' of its gender, very bad form. Wasn't there a Ukrainian who was actually from Ukraine (I think the only one that was on this forum, I don't remember any Russians in Russia either) 'SvidomyAtHeart' who said he going to make a very long post, then disappeared?

    Since the very beginning of the war there's been a total media blackout of any internal political/military developments or opinion within Ukraine itself... almost like Russia, Zelensky the great leader and his advisors are virtually the only narrative foreigners have. It'd be greatly appreciated to hear if you're lurking.

    Replies: @Ron Unz

    , @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon

    Of the 20-30 people here at least a half are paid trolls. Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    I didn't post in this thread until comment #487.

    Yes you and a few dozen people here want to believe that the pro-Ukrainian posters MUST be paid. It couldn't be possible that some of us actually oppose this needless war.

    Here are 200k Russians that don't support the war:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcMvA4kSB5A

    That's 200k Rusisan men fleeing into Kazakhstan alone.

    MUST ALL BE PAID JEWS AT THE BORDER DERP. COULDN'T BE THAT PUTIN FUCKED UP BEYOND BELIEF.

    I have a friend over there who may be dead so this is personal to me. Maybe someday I'll talk about the sad excuses for this war by his grave. I'll see what he thinks.

    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don't like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @Here Be Dragon

  619. @German_reader
    @LatW


    They are very grateful to Musk and admire him.
     
    Your hero Arestovych tweeted this about Musk:

    https://twitter.com/arestovych/status/1577026215013019648?cxt=HHwWgMCjtZa_3OIrAAAA

    Strange way of expressing gratitude.

    Replies: @Triteleia Laxa, @LatW

    Your hero Arestovych

    He’s not my hero, just someone who has interesting thoughts. My hero is General Zaluzhniy. And people like Roman Kostenko, who is a former “kyborg”, then MP and now back on the battlefield.

    Strange way of expressing gratitude.

    Well, Musk’s wish for people’s lives to be spared is understandable, we all share it, but he is not in a position to dole out Ukrainian land.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LatW


    but he is not in a position to dole out Ukrainian land.
     
    He's in a position though to block Ukrainian access to Starlink. Which he may already be doing, and he could hardly be blamed for it.
    His proposals were about UN-supervised referendums in the occupied territories, and recognition of Crimea as Russian. It's unlikely that Russia would ever agree to any genuine referenda, so in a sense this is purely hypothetical anyway...but if something like this could be implemented and let's say certain districts in Donbass voted to become part of Russia, your objection would be what exactly?

    Replies: @songbird

  620. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Bashibuzuk

    Yes, no man wants a woman that lacks all of what are traditionally seen as masculine qualities.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @A123

    Yes, no man wants a woman that lacks all of what are traditionally seen as masculine qualities.

    Being accidentally shot by a girlfriend would suck. Especially in this caliber.

     

     

    http://ninetymilesfromtyranny.blogspot.com/2013/01/rule-5-girls-with-guns.html

    PEACE 😇

  621. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Here Be Dragon

    You left out the boots. An army isn't going to get far without boots!

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    You left out the boots. An army isn’t going to get far without boots!

    I designated it with an exclamation mark meaning that it was too stupid a claim to refute it.

    Of course Russia is producing boots. Here is a store where you can order a pair of the Russian army boots for yourself.

    https://ratniksafe.ru/spets-obuv/bertsy
    Only $48 for the standard issue model.

  622. If the City of London, with it’s manufactured and broadly controlled (crimethink, I know) Capitalist vs Communist/Global Multi-Cultural synthesis dialectic, is to ever be defeated, it will require thinking outside of the box by people of good will everywhere.

    Michael Collins was a great man taken from this Earth far too soon.

    ‘What happens next time?…We won’t play by their rules, Harry. We’ll invent our own.’

    [MORE]

    Both sides are becoming identical.’

  623. @John Johnson
    @Beckow

    The only thing you got right is that nothing has changed regarding Nato approval for Ukraine, the same push by some and resistance by others is still there.

    I didn't claim that.

    Ukraine didn't have the support of France or Germany in January and Turkey was on the fence. Now support has increased but we don't know to what degree. Ukraine would still have to apply. Turkey or France may still decide to keep them out. The vote has to be unanimous.

    I can provide sources if you want or you can go back to your Putin/Anglin/Roberts falsifiable narrative where NATO was just about to put nukes on the border and Putin had no choice to invade.

    Not only is it total bullshit but it never made any sense. NATO missiles move at Mach 5. There is no strategic gain in moving them closer. The whole world blows up regardless. Even in that scenario Ukraine will still have to qualify first, then apply, then somehow win over France and Germany.

    Putin is just plain full of shit and his main supporters like Anglin know it. That shouldn't be a surprise since Anglin has proven himself to be completely amoral. He had to leave the US for harassing some apolitical small town Jew over a real estate deal and he recently claimed that most White women f-ck dogs. In fact he has talked numerous times about how he hates White women while calling himself a White nationalist. I guess him and other ex-pat White nationalists can go ahead and create White children in labs.


    NY Post vague throw-away article about a supposed ‘deal’ rejected by Russia doesn’t show what you claim. What was the ‘deal’?

    Am I your personal Google assistant? I provided the article and you can read about it from other sources.

    If you believe the deal was never offered then that is fine. It isn't as if Putin would admit to it. But if it was truly about NATO then why not issue an ultimatum first? Especially when Ukraine didn't qualify for NATO and didn't have the votes of France and Germany? It doesn't make any sense to launch a full scale invasion as your first move. This is why the likely explanation is that Putin is just playing wargames and wanted to take Ukraine just as the Mongols once took Kievan Rus. He wanted play empire games and turn Ukraine into Russian territory before Parkinson's kills him.

    From 2021: Germany opposed Ukraine's entry into NATO
    https://thenewsglory.com/germany-opposed-ukraines-entry-into-nato/

    Of course you will not see that article mentioned in a pro-Putin blog or on Russian State TV. Putin has since moved away from his bullshit NATO excuse and now claims it was always about Donbas. Do I need to provide contradictory quotes from him? I certainly can.

    Replies: @LatW, @Beckow

    This is why the likely explanation is that Putin is just playing wargames and wanted to take Ukraine just as the Mongols once took Kievan Rus.

    It’s even crazier than that. I have heard some talk that people in Tuva believe that Sergey Shoigu is a reincarnation of Subutai, a successful Mongol general who fought under Batu-Khan. The one who conquered and burned down the Kievan Rus. It’s possible that Shoigu really likes this comparison as it must have fed his ego.

  624. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    @German_reader


    Your hero Arestovych
     
    He's not my hero, just someone who has interesting thoughts. My hero is General Zaluzhniy. And people like Roman Kostenko, who is a former "kyborg", then MP and now back on the battlefield.

    Strange way of expressing gratitude.
     
    Well, Musk's wish for people's lives to be spared is understandable, we all share it, but he is not in a position to dole out Ukrainian land.

    Replies: @German_reader

    but he is not in a position to dole out Ukrainian land.

    He’s in a position though to block Ukrainian access to Starlink. Which he may already be doing, and he could hardly be blamed for it.
    His proposals were about UN-supervised referendums in the occupied territories, and recognition of Crimea as Russian. It’s unlikely that Russia would ever agree to any genuine referenda, so in a sense this is purely hypothetical anyway…but if something like this could be implemented and let’s say certain districts in Donbass voted to become part of Russia, your objection would be what exactly?

    • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader

    The space industry is basically part of the MIC.

    IMO, Musk was given marching orders to make Starlink available in Ukraine. Honestly, I felt that what he said about it being used by refugees or family members to get in touch with each other was some rather obnoxious spin.

  625. @Bashibuzuk
    @Triteleia Laxa


    Yes, no man wants a woman that lacks all of what are traditionally seen as masculine qualities.

     

    Laxa honey, you date the wrong men. They should treat you like a lady for a change...

    (No offense meant to your veteran boyfriend that posts on military topics. I enjoy reading his posts)

    🙂

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    Dating Ari Nussbacher type stuff

  626. To German_reader:

    His proposals were about UN-supervised referendums in the occupied territories, and recognition of Crimea as Russian. It’s unlikely that Russia would ever agree to any genuine referenda, so in a sense this is purely hypothetical anyway…but if something like this could be implemented and let’s say certain districts in Donbass voted to become part of Russia, your objection would be what exactly?

    First of all, it doesn’t make sense for Ukraine to negotiate anything right now because Ukraine has grasped the initiative (you don’t negotiate a compromise when you’re winning or at least advancing, the momentum is there to take back as much as you can) AND the Russians continue murdering Ukrainian civilians – there was just a nasty attack on civilian infrastructure in Zaporizhia with civilians killed again.

    As to what my objection would be to what you describe… you know, before February, I was kind of vacillating in my opinion as to whether Ukraine needs or doesn’t need Donbas back. It would’ve almost made sense to let them go (although that is absolutely NOT for me to say – only for the Ukrainians). Now, however, after all the insolent attacks by Russia and the massive destruction and sorrow that Russia has caused, it is important to fight back. Please, forgive me if I sound primitive and a bit crude, I know you are very cultivated, but it’s like basic, primitive fighting – if someone keeps coming at you and tries to harass you and take more from you over and over, the only way out of the situation is to hit them so hard that they fall on the ground and cannot recover for a while. That way they will leave you alone. Again, I’m not encouraging that this should be done, I am just trying to explain to you the logic that’s at play now.

    There is a wolf (Russia) and a lot of scared sheep. The sheep can not defend themselves against the wolf, only something that is of the same kind as a wolf but is more aggressive, more capable and stronger than a wolf can do this – a wolfhound. The Ukrainian military must now be the wolfhound.

    • Disagree: Mikhail
    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @LatW

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)

    The Soviets chased out the Wolfhound from Vladivostok. Bad example bro.

    “During the Russian Civil War, the 27th Infantry served in the American Expeditionary Force sent to Siberia in 1918. The troops embarked on the Army transports Crook, Merritt and Warren departing Manila on 7 August 1918 and arriving Vladivostok on 15 and 16 August. This campaign has become an integral part of the regiment's history. The tenacious pursuit tactics of the regiment won the respect of the Bolsheviks, who gave them the name "Wolfhounds." This emblem continues to serve as the symbol of the 27th Infantry Regiment. During their time in Siberia, the unit was part of the Evgenevka incident, a face-off between the Wolfhounds and the Japanese Military”

    Replies: @LatW

    , @German_reader
    @LatW


    the only way out of the situation is to hit them so hard that they fall on the ground and cannot recover for a while.
     
    I'm not even saying Ukraine should stop now. If they can re-take additional territory, it might even lead to a negotiated stop to the hostilities...if there is willingness to at least talk about a ceasefire freezing the conflict. The problem for me is that Zelensky's "We can't negotiate with Putin" bs and all that talk about re-taking Crimea make even such an imperfect solution more unlikely. Presenting a maximalist goal of inflicting a crushing defeat on Russia as the only acceptable outcome is simply irresponsible, the risks in such a course are incalculable. A territorial conflict over some depopulated post-Soviet industrial ruins in Eastern Ukraine isn't worth risking the nuclear annihilation of all of Europe and North America.

    The Ukrainian military must now be the wolfhound.
     
    Yes, I've gotten it by now, the security guarantees you get from NATO, especially its European members, are essentially worthless, you can only rely on the virtuous Ukrainian Übermenschen, who somehow are also fighting for you and will rid you of the looming Russian threat by totally destroying Russia as a military power. Very cool and totally rational.
  627. @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon

    By the way not everybody likes it. Some people prefer good old iron sights.

    Until they shoot them at night.

    Red dot cannot be beat in 100-200 yard engagements.

    I've seen a lot of Ukrainian squads with red dots and suppressors.

    The current great people's conscription army appears to be training with AK-47s and not even AK-74s.

    Even without suppressors the Ukrainians will have a strong advantage in urban combat. The red dots are also better for half assed shots where you are holding the gun wonky or trying to peak around a corner because you don't have to line anything up.

    We could even see a massive urban battle where Ukrainians have night vision and red dots while the conscripts are using vanilla AKs and shooting at shadows.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    [Some people prefer good old iron sights] Until they shoot them at night.

    The red dot is reflected on the glass because the glass is tinted. Since the glass of the sight is tinted it passes less light. Therefore it is not helpful at night and that is one of the reasons some people prefer the regular iron sights.

    Some iron sights – for example on the Yugoslavian-made AK rifles – have tritium dots illuminating in the dark. Such an iron sight is more practical at night than a red dot.

    Red dot cannot be beat in 100-200 yard engagements.

    Even in 100-300, but it can be uncomfortable at less than 100 m. And in close quarter combat for a trained shooter target acquisition can be easier with a regular sight. Looking through the tube is not a good thing when one has to be quick.

    I’ve seen a lot of Ukrainian squads with red dots and suppressors.

    Special forces often use them. Russians do too.

    The current great people’s conscription army appears to be training with AK-47s and not even AK-74s.

    Nonsense.

    AK-47 is a rarity. They are collectible.

    Russians do have a lot of AKM though and they are very popular among Spetsnaz – for the ergonomics and portability of the folding stock model and the power of the 7.62 round.

    But AK-74 are much more common and there are millions of them in stock. All the regular troops are going to be issued 74s whether they like it or not. I would rather take an AKM.

    Even without suppressors the Ukrainians will have a strong advantage in urban combat.

    Ukrainians have mobilized half a million of civilians. What advantage are you talking about? Suppressors are useless without sub-sonic ammo, are used for special operations with such ammo due to short range of it, and are used for photoshots for Facebook and propaganda.

    A strong advantage comes from training and experience.

    The red dots are also better for half assed shots where you are holding the gun wonky or trying to peak around a corner because you don’t have to line anything up.

    Depending on conditions it can be or can be not.

    We could even see a massive urban battle where Ukrainians have night vision and red dots while the conscripts are using vanilla AKs and shooting at shadows.

    A red dot requires more training to be used because a habit has to be formed to get used to it. Regular troops do not use neither red dot nor night vision even in the U.S. army.

    As for the sights themselves Russians make a number models of both types and I guess have no shortage of these.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Here Be Dragon

    The Russians use quite heavily equipped Chechens and Wagner mercenaries to clear urban areas. They look a bit like German Pioneer force structures from the Eastern front in ww2. Or even Canadian units from ww1.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFA_UWhCkV4

    Replies: @John Johnson

    , @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon


    The current great people’s conscription army appears to be training with AK-47s and not even AK-74s.
     
    Nonsense.

    AK-47 is a rarity. They are collectible.

    Yes well I'm sure people said that it would nonsense to use a T-62 in an invasion.

    And here we are.

    They are obviously dipping into old stocks.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19912509/inside-russias-shambolic-mobilisation-rusty-weapons-soviet-tanks/


    Even without suppressors the Ukrainians will have a strong advantage in urban combat.

     

    Ukrainians have mobilized half a million of civilians. What advantage are you talking about? Suppressors are useless without sub-sonic ammo, are used for special operations with such ammo due to short range of it, and are used for photoshots for Facebook and propaganda.

    A strong advantage comes from training and experience.

    Suppressors are used with supersonic ammo to hide the flash and change the sound profile because they are hearing the sonic boom and not the initial explosion. Basically makes it harder to tell where the sound is coming from. That is why special forces will use them with supersonic 223.

    So no it isn't a facebook thing or dumb trend. Next time trying asking without being so presumptuous.

    A red dot requires more training to be used because a habit has to be formed to get used to it. Regular troops do not use neither red dot nor night vision even in the U.S. army.

    I've had people shoot my red dot at 100 yards within minutes. So I think professional soldiers will handle them just fine.

    Go shoot an AK in low light with iron sights if you think this isn't a mismatch.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

  628. @German_reader
    @LatW


    but he is not in a position to dole out Ukrainian land.
     
    He's in a position though to block Ukrainian access to Starlink. Which he may already be doing, and he could hardly be blamed for it.
    His proposals were about UN-supervised referendums in the occupied territories, and recognition of Crimea as Russian. It's unlikely that Russia would ever agree to any genuine referenda, so in a sense this is purely hypothetical anyway...but if something like this could be implemented and let's say certain districts in Donbass voted to become part of Russia, your objection would be what exactly?

    Replies: @songbird

    The space industry is basically part of the MIC.

    IMO, Musk was given marching orders to make Starlink available in Ukraine. Honestly, I felt that what he said about it being used by refugees or family members to get in touch with each other was some rather obnoxious spin.

  629. @Mikel
    @Yevardian


    Well, Zelensky just called for preemptive “preventative” nuclear strike against Russia in a speech to Australia.
     
    Even so, I would have preferred him to win the Nobel Peace Prize rather than the trio they gave it to. You could at least interpret it as a recognition to a country that has just been invaded by a much bigger neighbor, or a comedian that has risen to the occasion of confronting an invasion or some such.

    Instead, they have chosen these recipients: A Belarussian activist against human rights abuses committed by Belarus (so far so good), a Russian organization against human rights abuses committed by Russia (so far so good) and a Ukrainian organization against human right abuses committed by.... Russia. As if there were no well-known abuses committed by the Ukrainians as well. This is basically a spit on the graves of thousands of civilians killed by Kiev and many others tortured and arbitrarily incarcerated, as documented by the UN OHCHR.

    Far from promoting peace, they are actively promoting resentment on the population of one of the parties. This kind of stuff makes you be as anti-Ukraine as anti-Russia as it piles on day after day.


    Putin is no saint either, but fuck this faggot.
     
    Fuck them both and everyone around them. As GR says, it's pathetic to even have to contemplate the possibility of nuclear war because of a dispute between these two sides.

    Replies: @Yevardian

    I got a bit intemperate, but I really was just stunned, even discussing the possibility of “preventative” strikes is pushing into extremely dangerous territory. Nobody can really say where any line begins for “preventative” action and when I think of the historical precedents for usage of this rhetoric, the signs aren’t encouraging… Saddam Hussein’s ‘preventative’ attack against Iran, Israel’s ‘preventative’ war of conquest against 3 neighboring states, Germany’s ‘preventative’ war on the USSR, etc.

    I suppose its senseless to blame Zelensky himself for whoever’s script he’s following, his entire political career must be one of the most long-running and intensely curated ones of modern times, starting at least from that television series where he played the president, only to run for president in real life, what a happy coincidence.
    I’d actually feel much more comfortable if Poroshenko was still leader of Ukraine, he at least had enough independent political experience and business connections in the country and abroad to not be completely mouldable clay in the hands of people with zero real attachment to the country. There’s just something extremely ertzaz about Zelensky’s whole image, invariably appearing a green muscle-shirt. I vaguely recall there was some sort of government deadlock in Ukraine before the war, which reminds me of another thing – hardly anything whatsoever has been heard in international media from previous Ukrainian leaders or major politicians prior to this year’s war, Timoshenko, Yuschenko, Poroshenko, Kozhara, Yatsenyuk… it’s this sudden personality cult around Zelensky, Zelensky, Zelensky.
    From the media coverage an uninformed observer would think Ukraine had only just declared independence from Russia and that the previous 30 years never happened.

    I suppose this must be a conscious PR strategy from on high, best not to remind people Ukraine’s political discourse has a far more in common with the Balkans or Russia than even a relatively western-orientated east-euro country like Poland.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Yevardian


    Ukraine’s political discourse has a far more in common with the Balkans or Russia than even a relatively western-orientated east-euro country like Poland.
     
    Suffice to say that Poroshenko ran his campaign accusing Zelensky of being "Putin's candidate". While he himself was being charged for "treason" by Zelensky's prosecutors shortly before the war.
  630. @LatW
    To German_reader:

    His proposals were about UN-supervised referendums in the occupied territories, and recognition of Crimea as Russian. It’s unlikely that Russia would ever agree to any genuine referenda, so in a sense this is purely hypothetical anyway…but if something like this could be implemented and let’s say certain districts in Donbass voted to become part of Russia, your objection would be what exactly?
     
    First of all, it doesn't make sense for Ukraine to negotiate anything right now because Ukraine has grasped the initiative (you don't negotiate a compromise when you're winning or at least advancing, the momentum is there to take back as much as you can) AND the Russians continue murdering Ukrainian civilians - there was just a nasty attack on civilian infrastructure in Zaporizhia with civilians killed again.

    As to what my objection would be to what you describe... you know, before February, I was kind of vacillating in my opinion as to whether Ukraine needs or doesn't need Donbas back. It would've almost made sense to let them go (although that is absolutely NOT for me to say - only for the Ukrainians). Now, however, after all the insolent attacks by Russia and the massive destruction and sorrow that Russia has caused, it is important to fight back. Please, forgive me if I sound primitive and a bit crude, I know you are very cultivated, but it's like basic, primitive fighting - if someone keeps coming at you and tries to harass you and take more from you over and over, the only way out of the situation is to hit them so hard that they fall on the ground and cannot recover for a while. That way they will leave you alone. Again, I'm not encouraging that this should be done, I am just trying to explain to you the logic that's at play now.

    There is a wolf (Russia) and a lot of scared sheep. The sheep can not defend themselves against the wolf, only something that is of the same kind as a wolf but is more aggressive, more capable and stronger than a wolf can do this - a wolfhound. The Ukrainian military must now be the wolfhound.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @German_reader

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)

    The Soviets chased out the Wolfhound from Vladivostok. Bad example bro.

    “During the Russian Civil War, the 27th Infantry served in the American Expeditionary Force sent to Siberia in 1918. The troops embarked on the Army transports Crook, Merritt and Warren departing Manila on 7 August 1918 and arriving Vladivostok on 15 and 16 August. This campaign has become an integral part of the regiment’s history. The tenacious pursuit tactics of the regiment won the respect of the Bolsheviks, who gave them the name “Wolfhounds.” This emblem continues to serve as the symbol of the 27th Infantry Regiment. During their time in Siberia, the unit was part of the Evgenevka incident, a face-off between the Wolfhounds and the Japanese Military”

    • Replies: @LatW
    @Wokechoke

    Incorrect comparison. The Ukrainians are fighting on their own soil.

  631. @Here Be Dragon
    @John Johnson


    [Some people prefer good old iron sights] Until they shoot them at night.
     
    The red dot is reflected on the glass because the glass is tinted. Since the glass of the sight is tinted it passes less light. Therefore it is not helpful at night and that is one of the reasons some people prefer the regular iron sights.

    Some iron sights – for example on the Yugoslavian-made AK rifles – have tritium dots illuminating in the dark. Such an iron sight is more practical at night than a red dot.

    Red dot cannot be beat in 100-200 yard engagements.
     
    Even in 100-300, but it can be uncomfortable at less than 100 m. And in close quarter combat for a trained shooter target acquisition can be easier with a regular sight. Looking through the tube is not a good thing when one has to be quick.

    I’ve seen a lot of Ukrainian squads with red dots and suppressors.
     
    Special forces often use them. Russians do too.

    The current great people’s conscription army appears to be training with AK-47s and not even AK-74s.
     
    Nonsense.

    AK-47 is a rarity. They are collectible.

    Russians do have a lot of AKM though and they are very popular among Spetsnaz – for the ergonomics and portability of the folding stock model and the power of the 7.62 round.

    But AK-74 are much more common and there are millions of them in stock. All the regular troops are going to be issued 74s whether they like it or not. I would rather take an AKM.

    Even without suppressors the Ukrainians will have a strong advantage in urban combat.
     
    Ukrainians have mobilized half a million of civilians. What advantage are you talking about? Suppressors are useless without sub-sonic ammo, are used for special operations with such ammo due to short range of it, and are used for photoshots for Facebook and propaganda.

    A strong advantage comes from training and experience.

    The red dots are also better for half assed shots where you are holding the gun wonky or trying to peak around a corner because you don’t have to line anything up.
     
    Depending on conditions it can be or can be not.

    We could even see a massive urban battle where Ukrainians have night vision and red dots while the conscripts are using vanilla AKs and shooting at shadows.
     
    A red dot requires more training to be used because a habit has to be formed to get used to it. Regular troops do not use neither red dot nor night vision even in the U.S. army.

    As for the sights themselves Russians make a number models of both types and I guess have no shortage of these.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @John Johnson

    The Russians use quite heavily equipped Chechens and Wagner mercenaries to clear urban areas. They look a bit like German Pioneer force structures from the Eastern front in ww2. Or even Canadian units from ww1.

    • Replies: @John Johnson
    @Wokechoke

    The Russians use quite heavily equipped Chechens and Wagner mercenaries to clear urban areas.

    I'm sure they did but how many are remaining? Chechnya is exempt from the draft because they have given enough soldiers.

    Putin will most likely send out waves of men with Ak-47s once the Ukrainians approach urban areas.

    This whole war is exposing the problem of government corruption. The newest rifles were probably sent off to other countries in backhand deals.

    Early in the war the Ukrainians actually found Russian conscripts with mosin nagants.

    Yes that means the Russians actually sent men to the front with bolt action rifles.

  632. @Wokechoke
    @LatW

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)

    The Soviets chased out the Wolfhound from Vladivostok. Bad example bro.

    “During the Russian Civil War, the 27th Infantry served in the American Expeditionary Force sent to Siberia in 1918. The troops embarked on the Army transports Crook, Merritt and Warren departing Manila on 7 August 1918 and arriving Vladivostok on 15 and 16 August. This campaign has become an integral part of the regiment's history. The tenacious pursuit tactics of the regiment won the respect of the Bolsheviks, who gave them the name "Wolfhounds." This emblem continues to serve as the symbol of the 27th Infantry Regiment. During their time in Siberia, the unit was part of the Evgenevka incident, a face-off between the Wolfhounds and the Japanese Military”

    Replies: @LatW

    Incorrect comparison. The Ukrainians are fighting on their own soil.

  633. @Yevardian
    @Mikel

    I got a bit intemperate, but I really was just stunned, even discussing the possibility of "preventative" strikes is pushing into extremely dangerous territory. Nobody can really say where any line begins for "preventative" action and when I think of the historical precedents for usage of this rhetoric, the signs aren't encouraging... Saddam Hussein's 'preventative' attack against Iran, Israel's 'preventative' war of conquest against 3 neighboring states, Germany's 'preventative' war on the USSR, etc.

    I suppose its senseless to blame Zelensky himself for whoever's script he's following, his entire political career must be one of the most long-running and intensely curated ones of modern times, starting at least from that television series where he played the president, only to run for president in real life, what a happy coincidence.
    I'd actually feel much more comfortable if Poroshenko was still leader of Ukraine, he at least had enough independent political experience and business connections in the country and abroad to not be completely mouldable clay in the hands of people with zero real attachment to the country. There's just something extremely ertzaz about Zelensky's whole image, invariably appearing a green muscle-shirt. I vaguely recall there was some sort of government deadlock in Ukraine before the war, which reminds me of another thing - hardly anything whatsoever has been heard in international media from previous Ukrainian leaders or major politicians prior to this year's war, Timoshenko, Yuschenko, Poroshenko, Kozhara, Yatsenyuk... it's this sudden personality cult around Zelensky, Zelensky, Zelensky.
    From the media coverage an uninformed observer would think Ukraine had only just declared independence from Russia and that the previous 30 years never happened.

    I suppose this must be a conscious PR strategy from on high, best not to remind people Ukraine's political discourse has a far more in common with the Balkans or Russia than even a relatively western-orientated east-euro country like Poland.

    Replies: @Mikel

    Ukraine’s political discourse has a far more in common with the Balkans or Russia than even a relatively western-orientated east-euro country like Poland.

    Suffice to say that Poroshenko ran his campaign accusing Zelensky of being “Putin’s candidate”. While he himself was being charged for “treason” by Zelensky’s prosecutors shortly before the war.

  634. @Here Be Dragon
    @Ron Unz


    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.
     
    It should not be surprising.

    Of the 20-30 people here at least a half are paid trolls. Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    Of all the commenters only Beckow and AnonfromTN seem to be genuinely pro-Russian. There is a number of genuinely pro-Ukrainian participants, with which constructive conversations are sometimes possible. But a squad of paid trolls can easily take over a small forum and flood it with content no one wants to read.

    That is what is happening.

    A thread like this one has to be moderated. Otherwise it will soon be turned into a Ukrainan propaganda thread.

    Replies: @Mikel, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Yevardian, @John Johnson

    A thread like this one has to be moderated.

    Says the recent arrival who likes posting pictures of murdered children and boiling heads.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • LOL: sudden death
  635. German_reader says:
    @LatW
    To German_reader:

    His proposals were about UN-supervised referendums in the occupied territories, and recognition of Crimea as Russian. It’s unlikely that Russia would ever agree to any genuine referenda, so in a sense this is purely hypothetical anyway…but if something like this could be implemented and let’s say certain districts in Donbass voted to become part of Russia, your objection would be what exactly?
     
    First of all, it doesn't make sense for Ukraine to negotiate anything right now because Ukraine has grasped the initiative (you don't negotiate a compromise when you're winning or at least advancing, the momentum is there to take back as much as you can) AND the Russians continue murdering Ukrainian civilians - there was just a nasty attack on civilian infrastructure in Zaporizhia with civilians killed again.

    As to what my objection would be to what you describe... you know, before February, I was kind of vacillating in my opinion as to whether Ukraine needs or doesn't need Donbas back. It would've almost made sense to let them go (although that is absolutely NOT for me to say - only for the Ukrainians). Now, however, after all the insolent attacks by Russia and the massive destruction and sorrow that Russia has caused, it is important to fight back. Please, forgive me if I sound primitive and a bit crude, I know you are very cultivated, but it's like basic, primitive fighting - if someone keeps coming at you and tries to harass you and take more from you over and over, the only way out of the situation is to hit them so hard that they fall on the ground and cannot recover for a while. That way they will leave you alone. Again, I'm not encouraging that this should be done, I am just trying to explain to you the logic that's at play now.

    There is a wolf (Russia) and a lot of scared sheep. The sheep can not defend themselves against the wolf, only something that is of the same kind as a wolf but is more aggressive, more capable and stronger than a wolf can do this - a wolfhound. The Ukrainian military must now be the wolfhound.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @German_reader

    the only way out of the situation is to hit them so hard that they fall on the ground and cannot recover for a while.

    I’m not even saying Ukraine should stop now. If they can re-take additional territory, it might even lead to a negotiated stop to the hostilities…if there is willingness to at least talk about a ceasefire freezing the conflict. The problem for me is that Zelensky’s “We can’t negotiate with Putin” bs and all that talk about re-taking Crimea make even such an imperfect solution more unlikely. Presenting a maximalist goal of inflicting a crushing defeat on Russia as the only acceptable outcome is simply irresponsible, the risks in such a course are incalculable. A territorial conflict over some depopulated post-Soviet industrial ruins in Eastern Ukraine isn’t worth risking the nuclear annihilation of all of Europe and North America.

    The Ukrainian military must now be the wolfhound.

    Yes, I’ve gotten it by now, the security guarantees you get from NATO, especially its European members, are essentially worthless, you can only rely on the virtuous Ukrainian Übermenschen, who somehow are also fighting for you and will rid you of the looming Russian threat by totally destroying Russia as a military power. Very cool and totally rational.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  636. @Here Be Dragon
    @Ron Unz


    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.
     
    It should not be surprising.

    Of the 20-30 people here at least a half are paid trolls. Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    Of all the commenters only Beckow and AnonfromTN seem to be genuinely pro-Russian. There is a number of genuinely pro-Ukrainian participants, with which constructive conversations are sometimes possible. But a squad of paid trolls can easily take over a small forum and flood it with content no one wants to read.

    That is what is happening.

    A thread like this one has to be moderated. Otherwise it will soon be turned into a Ukrainan propaganda thread.

    Replies: @Mikel, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Yevardian, @John Johnson

    A thread like this one has to be moderated. Otherwise it will soon be turned into a Ukrainan propaganda thread.

    No.

    You are reading the thread poorly. The author of the comment and the addressee are at the top of the comment. If you do not like either of these poster’s contributions scroll down. Moderating on your own is trivial.

    When in doubt whether somebody is worth reading it is almost never necessary to perform the work of entering a discussion with them. You can almost always get your answer with one pertinent question.

    Method of Parsifal.

    • Disagree: Here Be Dragon
  637. @Here Be Dragon
    @Ron Unz


    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.
     
    It should not be surprising.

    Of the 20-30 people here at least a half are paid trolls. Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    Of all the commenters only Beckow and AnonfromTN seem to be genuinely pro-Russian. There is a number of genuinely pro-Ukrainian participants, with which constructive conversations are sometimes possible. But a squad of paid trolls can easily take over a small forum and flood it with content no one wants to read.

    That is what is happening.

    A thread like this one has to be moderated. Otherwise it will soon be turned into a Ukrainan propaganda thread.

    Replies: @Mikel, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Yevardian, @John Johnson

    Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    Have to agree on this point, also Laxa/Hall Monitor/Aether constantly changing handles whilst giving nonsensical ‘explanations’ of its gender, very bad form. Wasn’t there a Ukrainian who was actually from Ukraine (I think the only one that was on this forum, I don’t remember any Russians in Russia either) ‘SvidomyAtHeart’ who said he going to make a very long post, then disappeared?

    Since the very beginning of the war there’s been a total media blackout of any internal political/military developments or opinion within Ukraine itself… almost like Russia, Zelensky the great leader and his advisors are virtually the only narrative foreigners have. It’d be greatly appreciated to hear if you’re lurking.

    • Replies: @Ron Unz
    @Yevardian


    Have to agree on this point, also Laxa/Hall Monitor/Aether constantly changing handles whilst giving nonsensical ‘explanations’ of its gender, very bad form.
     
    Anatoly left the website and I really haven't been paying any recent attention to these threads, so I wasn't aware of these problems. But I checked, and sure enough "Monitor" is indeed that "Laxa" character operating under a different handle. This is the second time Laxa did that and sock-puppetry is strictly prohibited, so I've now merged them all together under "Laxa" and also banned "Laxa" from these threads.

    In addition, once the changes take effect, all "her" thousands of past comments will be hidden and only become visible upon individual request. In effect, all her voluminous nonsensical efforts will have been nullified, and the existing threads will become much less cluttered with junk as a consequence.

    Don't seriously misbehave unless you want all your own comments to suffer similar oblivion.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  638. Wish there were a book that attempted to catalogue the strange effects America has had on the world and what might be their future implications.

    For example, the spread of Pentecostalism.

  639. @Here Be Dragon
    @John Johnson


    [Some people prefer good old iron sights] Until they shoot them at night.
     
    The red dot is reflected on the glass because the glass is tinted. Since the glass of the sight is tinted it passes less light. Therefore it is not helpful at night and that is one of the reasons some people prefer the regular iron sights.

    Some iron sights – for example on the Yugoslavian-made AK rifles – have tritium dots illuminating in the dark. Such an iron sight is more practical at night than a red dot.

    Red dot cannot be beat in 100-200 yard engagements.
     
    Even in 100-300, but it can be uncomfortable at less than 100 m. And in close quarter combat for a trained shooter target acquisition can be easier with a regular sight. Looking through the tube is not a good thing when one has to be quick.

    I’ve seen a lot of Ukrainian squads with red dots and suppressors.
     
    Special forces often use them. Russians do too.

    The current great people’s conscription army appears to be training with AK-47s and not even AK-74s.
     
    Nonsense.

    AK-47 is a rarity. They are collectible.

    Russians do have a lot of AKM though and they are very popular among Spetsnaz – for the ergonomics and portability of the folding stock model and the power of the 7.62 round.

    But AK-74 are much more common and there are millions of them in stock. All the regular troops are going to be issued 74s whether they like it or not. I would rather take an AKM.

    Even without suppressors the Ukrainians will have a strong advantage in urban combat.
     
    Ukrainians have mobilized half a million of civilians. What advantage are you talking about? Suppressors are useless without sub-sonic ammo, are used for special operations with such ammo due to short range of it, and are used for photoshots for Facebook and propaganda.

    A strong advantage comes from training and experience.

    The red dots are also better for half assed shots where you are holding the gun wonky or trying to peak around a corner because you don’t have to line anything up.
     
    Depending on conditions it can be or can be not.

    We could even see a massive urban battle where Ukrainians have night vision and red dots while the conscripts are using vanilla AKs and shooting at shadows.
     
    A red dot requires more training to be used because a habit has to be formed to get used to it. Regular troops do not use neither red dot nor night vision even in the U.S. army.

    As for the sights themselves Russians make a number models of both types and I guess have no shortage of these.

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @John Johnson

    The current great people’s conscription army appears to be training with AK-47s and not even AK-74s.

    Nonsense.

    AK-47 is a rarity. They are collectible.

    Yes well I’m sure people said that it would nonsense to use a T-62 in an invasion.

    And here we are.

    They are obviously dipping into old stocks.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19912509/inside-russias-shambolic-mobilisation-rusty-weapons-soviet-tanks/

    Even without suppressors the Ukrainians will have a strong advantage in urban combat.

    Ukrainians have mobilized half a million of civilians. What advantage are you talking about? Suppressors are useless without sub-sonic ammo, are used for special operations with such ammo due to short range of it, and are used for photoshots for Facebook and propaganda.

    A strong advantage comes from training and experience.

    Suppressors are used with supersonic ammo to hide the flash and change the sound profile because they are hearing the sonic boom and not the initial explosion. Basically makes it harder to tell where the sound is coming from. That is why special forces will use them with supersonic 223.

    So no it isn’t a facebook thing or dumb trend. Next time trying asking without being so presumptuous.

    A red dot requires more training to be used because a habit has to be formed to get used to it. Regular troops do not use neither red dot nor night vision even in the U.S. army.

    I’ve had people shoot my red dot at 100 yards within minutes. So I think professional soldiers will handle them just fine.

    Go shoot an AK in low light with iron sights if you think this isn’t a mismatch.

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @John Johnson


    I’m sure people said that it would nonsense to use a T-62 in an invasion. And here we are.

    They are obviously dipping into old stocks.
     
    The article in the British tabloid you reference features photos of some rusted AKM rifles with mismatched stocks and handguards. The source of these images is said to be Visegrad24 web site.

    The web site belongs to the Visegrád Group which is a political alliance of Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Each of these countries has piles of AK rifles that went out of use there a long time ago.

    How naive a man can be?

    It is obvious that these photos were taken for a propaganda article and have nothing to do with Russia, and a person who does not know the difference between AK-47 and AKM should never talk or write about weapons, let alone argue with a guns fan like me.

    As for the T-62 tanks those had been given as a gift to the Donbas republics before the war. It is normal when outdated but reliable equipment is used during a war.

    You think NATO does not send outdated gear to their proxies?

    The AKM rifles Russians keep in their stock are well maintained. A part of these are sold on the civilian market being in excellent condition.

    Suppressors are used with supersonic ammo to hide the flash and change the sound profile. Makes it harder to tell where the sound is coming from. That is why special forces will use them with supersonic 223.
     
    AK rifles are of a different design and construction and due to that a suppressor does not reduce their sound blast enough to be useful with regular ammo. More so it is even dangerous to use a suppressor on an AK other than with subsonic rounds because of the increased pressure coming through the barrel into the piston. The gases come out of the vent holes and make a loud snap right before the face of the shooter.

    And it puts a lot of weight on the end of the barrel and makes the rifle uncomfortable to handle. Apart from the special operations when the subsonic rounds are used a suppressor on an AK is useless and meaningless.

    The higher pressure due to a suppressor slowing down the gas flow results in increasing the rate of automatic fire which can overload the internal mechanics of the rifle and cause it to fail during a firefight. It is the same for other rifles of the gas piston design as well. For this reason with a suppressor either the subsonic ammo is used or the rifle is used in a semi-automatic mode.

    Americans prefer and are trained to shoot in semi-auto in either case but Russians prefer full-auto, and with subsonic ammo the barrel pressure does not change.

    But for the American standard AR-15 rifles the opposite is true – these will not work with subsonic ammo because the pressure in insufficient for the rifle's mechanics. Some American special forces used to use subsonic 5.56 rounds with modified short barrel carbins with a regulable gas block but it was unreliable so in the end the German and Belgian gas piston rifles were bought for them.

    With a short 10-inch barrel the sound blast is too close to one's ears so it makes sense for them to use a suppressor with regular ammo to not damage their hearing but it does not mask where the shot comes from whatsoever – it is still loud due to the supersonic clap that occurs about 10-15 meters in front of the shooter.

    The AK-74 as well as AKM has a 16-inch barrel so it does not need a suppressor for protecting the hearing.

    So no it isn’t a facebook thing or dumb trend. Next time trying asking without being so presumptuous.
     
    Yes it is a propaganda thing. Some photoshoots for the internet.

    Suppressors are more expensive than either AK or AR-15 rifles and do not last long. These are issued to some special forces operators and are not used often in real life.

    You are clueless, son.

    I’ve had people shoot my red dot at 100 yards within minutes. So I think professional soldiers will handle them just fine.
     
    Ukraine does not have professional soldiers except those mercenaries from various paid battalions. For a regular conscript a red dot sight is not going to be useful until he gains some experience.

    Your friends shot on the range at a target that does not move and does not shoot back.

    Go shoot an AK in low light with iron sights if you think this isn’t a mismatch.
     
    Define the low light.

    At night a non-illuminated target will be harder to see through the dimmed glass of the red dot sight. It does not make much sense to see the dot if the target is not seen behind it, does it?

    The Ukrainians actually found Russian conscripts with mosin nagants. Yes that means the Russians actually sent men to the front with bolt action rifles.
     
    You are a dumb paid troll, stop degrading this thread with this stupid crap.

    Russians have not sent conscripts to the front so far and those who were seen with the Mosin rifles were the Donbas militias. Yes a bolt action rifle is more accurate and simple to use, and a sniper Mosin with a scope is good up to 800 meters.

    There is nothing wrong with using those rifles.

    Replies: @John Johnson

  640. @Yevardian
    @Here Be Dragon


    Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.
     
    Have to agree on this point, also Laxa/Hall Monitor/Aether constantly changing handles whilst giving nonsensical 'explanations' of its gender, very bad form. Wasn't there a Ukrainian who was actually from Ukraine (I think the only one that was on this forum, I don't remember any Russians in Russia either) 'SvidomyAtHeart' who said he going to make a very long post, then disappeared?

    Since the very beginning of the war there's been a total media blackout of any internal political/military developments or opinion within Ukraine itself... almost like Russia, Zelensky the great leader and his advisors are virtually the only narrative foreigners have. It'd be greatly appreciated to hear if you're lurking.

    Replies: @Ron Unz

    Have to agree on this point, also Laxa/Hall Monitor/Aether constantly changing handles whilst giving nonsensical ‘explanations’ of its gender, very bad form.

    Anatoly left the website and I really haven’t been paying any recent attention to these threads, so I wasn’t aware of these problems. But I checked, and sure enough “Monitor” is indeed that “Laxa” character operating under a different handle. This is the second time Laxa did that and sock-puppetry is strictly prohibited, so I’ve now merged them all together under “Laxa” and also banned “Laxa” from these threads.

    In addition, once the changes take effect, all “her” thousands of past comments will be hidden and only become visible upon individual request. In effect, all her voluminous nonsensical efforts will have been nullified, and the existing threads will become much less cluttered with junk as a consequence.

    Don’t seriously misbehave unless you want all your own comments to suffer similar oblivion.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Ron Unz

    "The rules are the rules", however, I found a lot of Laxa's commentary to be good quality stuff, and she certainly provided some of the "esoterical, psycho babble" stuff that this specific blogsite has always been known for (and is sadly lacking as of late). I don't understand her predilection for sock puppeting, everybody could soon see through her various disguises anyway. Others have been banned from this website, for a while, and then allowed to participate again. I hope that this is the case with Laxa, and hope that Ron will soon bring her back into his good graces..

    Replies: @Wokechoke

  641. @Yevardian
    @Here Be Dragon

    It's nice that both you and the Laxa entity are here to cancel each other out.

    Replies: @Yahya

    It’s nice that both you and the Laxa entity are here to cancel each other out.

    When the Dragon Man first started posting here, I thought he was another one of Laxa’s aliases.

    What sort of movies are you watching (and anyone else here)? I’ve been on a movie-watching spree the past few days. I tend to watch movies sporadically, haven’t binged on movies like this since high school. Some mini-reviews:

    1) The Grand Budapest Hotel – Loved the tempo and tone of the movie. Brisk-paced story, gets to the point quick, without fluff or boring moments. The tone is comedic without being frivolous or overly ironic. The plot is nothing new, a mysterious murder occurs, and the main character is framed. But the narration and filming style is unique and original. The visuals are breath-taking. Wes Anderson creates a sense of place that makes you feel right at home. Also there are some wonderfully choreographed scenes, which I won’t mention here for fear of spoiling the plot. Only thing I disliked was that the movie seemed to indicate that Mr. Gustav is a model of virtuosity amidst a sea of evil. He certainly has his virtues, but i’m not all that sure if he’s a moral exemplar of a human being. He sleeps with old ladies who patronize the hotel, steals a valuable painting, and callously laughs off someone dying during the prison break scene. But overall a solid, entertaining movie. 9/10.

    2) Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers – I watched the first movie in the series some years ago, watched this one after seeing the Tolkein discussion on this forum. Hard not to like LOTR. Don’t have much to say other than it’s a load of fun, a well-made adventure movie. Only thing I disliked was the two-dimensional, Manichean characters. Everyone in the film is either entirely good or entirely bad, there is no in-between. But overall great visuals and epic adventure. 8/10.

    3) Pharaoh – This is a somewhat obscure Polish movie released in 1966. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967, and is considered by some to be among the best Polish films ever made. It’s based on a novel of the same name written by Bolesław Prus, which incidentally was one of Stalin’s favorite books. The movie as the book is high-brow, which is quite rare for an Ancient Egyptian themed movie. It centers around a young but strong-willed Ramses XIII who clashes with the powerful clergy over affairs of state, most notably over their relations with Assyria, Israel and Phoenicia. There’s lots of Machiavellan intrigue between the various political players; I can see why a leader like Stalin would have liked it. This film is more austere than the usual Hollywood film set in Ancient Egypt, it lacks the usual grand spectacles, perhaps owing to its lower budget, but is nonetheless refreshing and realistic. I think people overestimate Egypt’s grandeur at the time, because all they see are the majestic monuments. But Ancient Egypt was probably a giant shithole for most of its inhabitants, even if it was more developed than other places (not very difficult considering most of the world was still in pre-history at the time). I felt the plot was a bit slow-paced at times, which made it hard to stay engaged, but that’s typical of most high-brow movies. I felt they could’ve added more events in the plot, or at least compensated with more philosophical dialogue as in Tarkovsky’s movies. Also the main character was unlikeable and everyone in the film seemed grave and unsmiling. I wish someone could make a movie about Ancient Egypt which isn’t centered around the highest level of society; but perhaps on a Prophets sojourn among ordinary villagers and the like (I’m thinking of Thomas Mann’s novels based on the lives of Jacob and Joseph). I’m not going to complain much though because this is still the best Ancient Egyptian film. 8/10.

    4) About Elly – From an objective standpoint, probably the best movie I’ve ever seen, though not necessarily my favorite. It’s a masterpiece of realism. Everything about the movie feels real, anyone who’s ever been on a holiday trip with a group of friends would recognize this in an instant. The dialogue and script is sophisticated yet subtle, nothing is overdramatic or forced. I also liked the fact that the movie was easy to watch and not overly morbid or slow like many high-brow drama films. The beginning 35 minutes is uneventful but still enjoyable to watch as you get to know the characters, also introduced to the social dynamics of a group of middle-class Iranians. I can imagine this is exactly how middle class Iranians would interact with each other on a daily basis. To a Middle Easterner like me many of these dynamics (i.e. male-female interactions etc.) were very familiar, but I’ve read reviews by Westerners who found it novel and peculiar. In which case, this would be a bonus for those interested in learning more about Middle Eastern mores. The plot takes off at the 35 minute mark and never looks back. I won’t write much about it here for fear of spoiling, just watch the movie and you’ll see. The basic message of the movie, expressed very delicately without being overly didactic, is to warn against the half-truths so easily made by nearly everyone for the sake of expediency. 10/10.

    5) Reservoir Dogs – I first watched this movie when I was a teenager, so already I’m predisposed to think of it warmly upon rewatching just for the sake of nostalgia. The movie is still as entertaining as when I first watched it, and it remains one of my top 10 favorites. The plot, dialogue and characters are just fantastic. About the only negative I can think of is the excessive blood and gore, but that’s to be expected from Tarantino, and really this one is relatively mild compared to his other movies. I would’ve written more but these reviews have already taken too much time from me, and I’m not getting paid for any of this, so will stop here. 10/10.

    Edit: I’m currently watching Elia Suleiman’s The Time That Remains, a movie by a Palestinian Christian director. It’s really good so far, the beauty of the Holy Land is astonishing. I’ll write more about it later if I have time.

    You can watch About Elly on YouTube free:

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack, Bashibuzuk, Mikel
    • Replies: @sudden death
    @Yahya

    On a sidenote, recently have overwhelming sense of all fiction and movies to be rather bland, cause roughly since end of January had the feeling of living in a movie, with the plot taking off at Feb 24 and still not showing any signs of easing off - in what fiction movie you can watch Crimean bridge being blown up nearly live as a hangover present to Putin's 70 year jubilee, lol

    At the same time the sense of growing dread for all sides in this movie blows away even the first installment of Alien series...

    But perhaps it is just particularity of being Eastern European, people in Africa or South America probably justifiably are just as unfazed as ever;

    Also had the same feeling of living in movie since first Chinese lockdowns, but it all ended rather happily overall, even despite just official deathcount nearing 7 million worlwide alas it was just the prologue to the next localized(?) disaster serial.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Bashibuzuk, @LatW, @Mikel

    , @Yevardian
    @Yahya


    When the Dragon Man first started posting here, I thought he was another one of Laxa’s aliases.
     
    I don't really see the affinity. His posts remind me more of Beckow if he were dropped on the head several times as infant, or fried his brain with hard drugs.. oh wait.

    What sort of movies are you watching (and anyone else here)? I’ve been on a movie-watching spree the past few days. I tend to watch movies sporadically, haven’t binged on movies like this since high school. Some mini-reviews:
     
    Haven't seen Pharaoh, all the Polish films I've seen have been good. Mostly limited to Kieślowski and Wajda though. Could be interesting, I don't think I know a single really good film set in Antiquity, or even in the pre-gunpowder era more generally, though the material is obviously there. The best the sword n' sandal or period genre has managed so far seems to be high camp.

    Seen all the others you mentioned, though frankly I don't have a very opinion of any of those films except About Elly, Farhadi's A Separation and A Salesman are also excellent. Otherwise, I'm going to be pretty negative...

    I thought The Grand Budapest Hotel was a textbook, if not the textbook example of a film with excellent cinematography, decent atmosphere, respectable acting and avoiding vulgarity, that somehow it still didn't move me in the slightest, and I was even slightly bored. For some reason it all felt like a very mechanical exercise to me, though I can see the director's craft.

    Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers: I remember seeing this or its sequel as a very young child with my father (he clearly hated it, but tried to hide that for our benefit), of course as a boy I enjoyed the fights, but during all the long connecting sequences between the fights, where the characters walk whilst explaining why and how they're walking to the next fight, I think I just wanted to go home and play "Age of Empires" instead.
    I might appreciate the scene's scenery more since I've now walked through myself many of the film's sites in New Zealand, but maybe not. Peter Jackson also missed a golden oppurtunity to incorporate Keas into his movies (imagine a large fearless parrot with the personality of a seagull and you get the idea). I thought Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Christopher Lee gave very good performances though.

    Reservoir Dogs: entertaining film, I'd probably still enjoy it if I saw it today. But definitely not 10/10 in my book, far from it. I also completely understand people like German_Reader (or any of my family) who absolutely can't stand it. I can't totally hate Tarantino though, I remember watching Pulp Fiction at a friends house when I was about 12 and thinking it was the best thing ever (my cinema knowledge even of hollywood was then close to zero), until that movie inspired me to watch many far better films.

    You can watch About Elly on YouTube free:
     
    Actually, nowadays it's a nearly instant operation to stream nearly any film for free. Quite literally, all you need to do is go to yandex (Russian google) and search "[filmname], [english subs] + watch". The first page will almost always have 4-5 links to sites where you can then literally just click an embedded player and start watching, no further hassle involved.
    For years previously until finding this out, I sometimes spent hours to find torrents for more obscure films, only to find the torrent had no seeds or the film was dubbed.

    As for recently watched, I've hardly seen a single film this entire year, been too busy with grad-school. Though if I watched films to procrastinate instead of following the Ukraine War I probably could have seen plenty and felt a lot more contented too. I also rarely ever feel like watching films alone, changed personal circumstances and all that. It's also funny that two adult males arranging to watch movies together, instead of going to the pub, feels kind of gay...it's stupid, but don't most men have that feeling? On the other hand, I understand Arab and Pakistani men hold hands in public as friendship (in Iran this is limited to old or very rural people), so perhaps there arent the same hangups there.
    Actually, the last few films I saw were mostly by Pablo Almodovar, a flamboyant homo auteur famous for making extremely over-the-top melodramas practically overflowing with degeneracy. However, none of Almodovar's films have any political or 'woke' angle whatsoever, and he certainly has no illusions (well, he is one) about homos and trannies being righteous victims, usually he (accurately) portrays them as sex-obsessed, selfish and narcissistic scumbags, whilst the straight characters in his films are generally normal.
    But I don't know what your tolerance level for that stuff is, as long as their 'proclivities' stay firmly off-screen and they aren't shoehorned in to be falsely portrayed regular people I don't really care about homos in films.

    Otherwise,'Burning' was the best film of 2018, the last year I regularly went to the cinema. I can give you more general movie recommendations in another post (maybe).

    I'd also recommend this site for finding interesting films, ironically it's primarily a music site (good for that too), but much better than IMDB in terms of it's average user's review quality or taste.

    https://rateyourmusic.com/
    For a example, I sometimes look to this site-user for films, he writes very good reviews and generally agree with his taste.
    https://rateyourmusic.com/~onethink
    , @A123
    @Yahya

    Peter Jackson's LoTR trilogy is best in the Extended Cut DVD's (~12 hours). The Two Towers is the best paced movie of the trilogy as it does not have to carry the introduction or the many, many endings. However, I think of all three as one whole.

    The Princess Bride -- A rare move that can be enjoyed by children and adults. It has some of the best one liners and jokes ever. "Inconceivable!" "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

    Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. -- The movie that started it all. The good guys were good. The bad guys were bad.

    The Fifth Element -- Yes. It is Ludicrous. And, way over the top. It is supposed to be that way.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jVsQToSfag

    Babylon 5 -- OK. Not a movie. Seasons 2 thru 4 are some of the best stuff ever written. Despite effects that are now extremely out of date the whole thing is still insightful. President Clark = Biden.

    Honorable Mentions:
        -- Wag the Dog
        -- Dr. Strangelove
        -- Heavy Metal

    Not necessarily the greatest movies, but you should see them at least once.

    PEACE 😇

  642. @Wokechoke
    @Here Be Dragon

    The Russians use quite heavily equipped Chechens and Wagner mercenaries to clear urban areas. They look a bit like German Pioneer force structures from the Eastern front in ww2. Or even Canadian units from ww1.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFA_UWhCkV4

    Replies: @John Johnson

    The Russians use quite heavily equipped Chechens and Wagner mercenaries to clear urban areas.

    I’m sure they did but how many are remaining? Chechnya is exempt from the draft because they have given enough soldiers.

    Putin will most likely send out waves of men with Ak-47s once the Ukrainians approach urban areas.

    This whole war is exposing the problem of government corruption. The newest rifles were probably sent off to other countries in backhand deals.

    Early in the war the Ukrainians actually found Russian conscripts with mosin nagants.

    Yes that means the Russians actually sent men to the front with bolt action rifles.

  643. @Here Be Dragon
    @Ron Unz


    One thing that surprises me is that most of the pro-Russian activists seem to have departed from this thread, leaving it overwhelmingly filled with anti-Russians, who seem to believe that Putin is so military desperate he’s about to be forced to use nuclear weapons to defend himself.
     
    It should not be surprising.

    Of the 20-30 people here at least a half are paid trolls. Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    Of all the commenters only Beckow and AnonfromTN seem to be genuinely pro-Russian. There is a number of genuinely pro-Ukrainian participants, with which constructive conversations are sometimes possible. But a squad of paid trolls can easily take over a small forum and flood it with content no one wants to read.

    That is what is happening.

    A thread like this one has to be moderated. Otherwise it will soon be turned into a Ukrainan propaganda thread.

    Replies: @Mikel, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Yevardian, @John Johnson

    Of the 20-30 people here at least a half are paid trolls. Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    I didn’t post in this thread until comment #487.

    Yes you and a few dozen people here want to believe that the pro-Ukrainian posters MUST be paid. It couldn’t be possible that some of us actually oppose this needless war.

    Here are 200k Russians that don’t support the war:

    That’s 200k Rusisan men fleeing into Kazakhstan alone.

    MUST ALL BE PAID JEWS AT THE BORDER DERP. COULDN’T BE THAT PUTIN FUCKED UP BEYOND BELIEF.

    I have a friend over there who may be dead so this is personal to me. Maybe someday I’ll talk about the sad excuses for this war by his grave. I’ll see what he thinks.

    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don’t like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Yevardian
    @John Johnson


    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don’t like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.
     
    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum even before the Ukraine War started. I recall it's entry being marked by an thread of 1000+ comments consisting mostly of inanities between it and AaronB (an occasionally decent poster), then diagnosing people with various psychological hangups and disorders.
    Notice nobody has ever accused LatW, suddendeath, Mr. Hack, utu, Peter Akuleyev of being shills despite their pro-Ukrainian views. Only exception I know is our indomitable wordsmith (I would pay to hear his native Мат) Gerard and his neverending crusade against AP.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Beckow, @Mr. Hack, @Mikel, @Wokechoke

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @John Johnson

    It's really kinda funny and sad at once to watch Pynya - worshipping RusFed Fans trying to find some sense in what is currently ongoing.

    They will never figure out.

    Just like the dinosaures when hit by that meteorite...

    (Pynya is the derogatory nickname used in RusFed by Russian nationalists when describing one famously corrupt, old and tired individual who tries to behave as if he could control the largest country in the world and win a war against a coalition totalling 40% of global GDP.)

    , @Here Be Dragon
    @John Johnson


    You and a few dozen people here want to believe that the pro-Ukrainian posters MUST be paid. It couldn’t be possible that some of us actually oppose this needless war.
     
    Some indeed oppose the war and others support it. You might not be paid (though I doubt that) but you are for sure a troll. You do not write anything but these boring, stupid and monotonous diatribes time after time. Your comments are all the same and you are simply flooding the thread with this garbage that no one here wants to read.

    You repost trolling crap from Ukrainian propaganda press paraphrasing it and call it a comment?

    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don’t like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum.
     
    Were you a normal participant here you would have known that I am rather anti-Putin and not even at all pro-Russia. I am pro-Socialist, pro-USSR and pro-Buddhist. I do not need Andrew Anglin to tell me about Putin and Christians, let alone about Jews – I know more about them than anyone here.

    Nationalism of any kind is disgusting to me. I am anti-nationalist, anti-LGBT and anti-Christian, as well as anti-Satanist. Therefore I am anti-Ukraine. And you are a paid troll, sweetheart.

    We see your true colors :)
  644. @Ron Unz
    @Yevardian


    Have to agree on this point, also Laxa/Hall Monitor/Aether constantly changing handles whilst giving nonsensical ‘explanations’ of its gender, very bad form.
     
    Anatoly left the website and I really haven't been paying any recent attention to these threads, so I wasn't aware of these problems. But I checked, and sure enough "Monitor" is indeed that "Laxa" character operating under a different handle. This is the second time Laxa did that and sock-puppetry is strictly prohibited, so I've now merged them all together under "Laxa" and also banned "Laxa" from these threads.

    In addition, once the changes take effect, all "her" thousands of past comments will be hidden and only become visible upon individual request. In effect, all her voluminous nonsensical efforts will have been nullified, and the existing threads will become much less cluttered with junk as a consequence.

    Don't seriously misbehave unless you want all your own comments to suffer similar oblivion.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    “The rules are the rules”, however, I found a lot of Laxa’s commentary to be good quality stuff, and she certainly provided some of the “esoterical, psycho babble” stuff that this specific blogsite has always been known for (and is sadly lacking as of late). I don’t understand her predilection for sock puppeting, everybody could soon see through her various disguises anyway. Others have been banned from this website, for a while, and then allowed to participate again. I hope that this is the case with Laxa, and hope that Ron will soon bring her back into his good graces..

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Mr. Hack

    She must have been Ari Nussbacher’s favourite student.

  645. @Mikhail
    @Mr. Hack

    https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/hrono61/14012115/3953676/3953676_original.jpg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    That’s a good one, Mickey, but it still depicts Zelensky as a better captain of his ship, than old Putler:

  646. @Yahya
    @Yevardian


    It’s nice that both you and the Laxa entity are here to cancel each other out.

     

    When the Dragon Man first started posting here, I thought he was another one of Laxa's aliases.

    What sort of movies are you watching (and anyone else here)? I've been on a movie-watching spree the past few days. I tend to watch movies sporadically, haven't binged on movies like this since high school. Some mini-reviews:

    1) The Grand Budapest Hotel - Loved the tempo and tone of the movie. Brisk-paced story, gets to the point quick, without fluff or boring moments. The tone is comedic without being frivolous or overly ironic. The plot is nothing new, a mysterious murder occurs, and the main character is framed. But the narration and filming style is unique and original. The visuals are breath-taking. Wes Anderson creates a sense of place that makes you feel right at home. Also there are some wonderfully choreographed scenes, which I won't mention here for fear of spoiling the plot. Only thing I disliked was that the movie seemed to indicate that Mr. Gustav is a model of virtuosity amidst a sea of evil. He certainly has his virtues, but i'm not all that sure if he's a moral exemplar of a human being. He sleeps with old ladies who patronize the hotel, steals a valuable painting, and callously laughs off someone dying during the prison break scene. But overall a solid, entertaining movie. 9/10.

    2) Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - I watched the first movie in the series some years ago, watched this one after seeing the Tolkein discussion on this forum. Hard not to like LOTR. Don't have much to say other than it's a load of fun, a well-made adventure movie. Only thing I disliked was the two-dimensional, Manichean characters. Everyone in the film is either entirely good or entirely bad, there is no in-between. But overall great visuals and epic adventure. 8/10.

    3) Pharaoh - This is a somewhat obscure Polish movie released in 1966. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967, and is considered by some to be among the best Polish films ever made. It's based on a novel of the same name written by Bolesław Prus, which incidentally was one of Stalin's favorite books. The movie as the book is high-brow, which is quite rare for an Ancient Egyptian themed movie. It centers around a young but strong-willed Ramses XIII who clashes with the powerful clergy over affairs of state, most notably over their relations with Assyria, Israel and Phoenicia. There's lots of Machiavellan intrigue between the various political players; I can see why a leader like Stalin would have liked it. This film is more austere than the usual Hollywood film set in Ancient Egypt, it lacks the usual grand spectacles, perhaps owing to its lower budget, but is nonetheless refreshing and realistic. I think people overestimate Egypt's grandeur at the time, because all they see are the majestic monuments. But Ancient Egypt was probably a giant shithole for most of its inhabitants, even if it was more developed than other places (not very difficult considering most of the world was still in pre-history at the time). I felt the plot was a bit slow-paced at times, which made it hard to stay engaged, but that's typical of most high-brow movies. I felt they could've added more events in the plot, or at least compensated with more philosophical dialogue as in Tarkovsky's movies. Also the main character was unlikeable and everyone in the film seemed grave and unsmiling. I wish someone could make a movie about Ancient Egypt which isn't centered around the highest level of society; but perhaps on a Prophets sojourn among ordinary villagers and the like (I'm thinking of Thomas Mann's novels based on the lives of Jacob and Joseph). I'm not going to complain much though because this is still the best Ancient Egyptian film. 8/10.

    4) About Elly - From an objective standpoint, probably the best movie I've ever seen, though not necessarily my favorite. It's a masterpiece of realism. Everything about the movie feels real, anyone who's ever been on a holiday trip with a group of friends would recognize this in an instant. The dialogue and script is sophisticated yet subtle, nothing is overdramatic or forced. I also liked the fact that the movie was easy to watch and not overly morbid or slow like many high-brow drama films. The beginning 35 minutes is uneventful but still enjoyable to watch as you get to know the characters, also introduced to the social dynamics of a group of middle-class Iranians. I can imagine this is exactly how middle class Iranians would interact with each other on a daily basis. To a Middle Easterner like me many of these dynamics (i.e. male-female interactions etc.) were very familiar, but I've read reviews by Westerners who found it novel and peculiar. In which case, this would be a bonus for those interested in learning more about Middle Eastern mores. The plot takes off at the 35 minute mark and never looks back. I won't write much about it here for fear of spoiling, just watch the movie and you'll see. The basic message of the movie, expressed very delicately without being overly didactic, is to warn against the half-truths so easily made by nearly everyone for the sake of expediency. 10/10.

    5) Reservoir Dogs - I first watched this movie when I was a teenager, so already I'm predisposed to think of it warmly upon rewatching just for the sake of nostalgia. The movie is still as entertaining as when I first watched it, and it remains one of my top 10 favorites. The plot, dialogue and characters are just fantastic. About the only negative I can think of is the excessive blood and gore, but that's to be expected from Tarantino, and really this one is relatively mild compared to his other movies. I would've written more but these reviews have already taken too much time from me, and I'm not getting paid for any of this, so will stop here. 10/10.

    Edit: I'm currently watching Elia Suleiman's The Time That Remains, a movie by a Palestinian Christian director. It's really good so far, the beauty of the Holy Land is astonishing. I'll write more about it later if I have time.

    You can watch About Elly on YouTube free:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csfRfEI2uhk&t=1441s&ab_channel=ZiNoMovies

    Replies: @sudden death, @Yevardian, @A123

    On a sidenote, recently have overwhelming sense of all fiction and movies to be rather bland, cause roughly since end of January had the feeling of living in a movie, with the plot taking off at Feb 24 and still not showing any signs of easing off – in what fiction movie you can watch Crimean bridge being blown up nearly live as a hangover present to Putin’s 70 year jubilee, lol

    At the same time the sense of growing dread for all sides in this movie blows away even the first installment of Alien series…

    But perhaps it is just particularity of being Eastern European, people in Africa or South America probably justifiably are just as unfazed as ever;

    Also had the same feeling of living in movie since first Chinese lockdowns, but it all ended rather happily overall, even despite just official deathcount nearing 7 million worlwide alas it was just the prologue to the next localized(?) disaster serial.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @sudden death

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/10/08/07/63249451-11293851-image-a-15_1665211477159.jpg

    Replies: @LondonBob, @Bashibuzuk, @A123

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @sudden death


    alas it was just the prologue to the next localized(?) disaster serial.
     
    Great Reset is not intended to be local. If we think of it as a movie, then it is implicitly produced to become a global blockbuster.
    , @LatW
    @sudden death


    But perhaps it is just particularity of being Eastern European
     
    Indeed, the wonderful - the bold and beautiful - East Slavs never cease to provide great material (whatever you please - entertainment, horror, drama). Creative peeps. Here is a great flick that will stun you called "Apocalypse at the Munition warehouse" (filmed this summer). Hard to decide what genre it fits in - action drama or horror, true action and amazing sound effects start at around 3:00 and great culmination at the end and the actors are doing their own stunts(Under More)


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n64t8WlZzw0

    , @Mikel
    @sudden death


    people in Africa or South America probably justifiably are just as unfazed as ever
     
    Same as people in the US, if so. Biden's warning that we haven't been as close to nuclear Armageddon since the 60's (first mention of the Ukraine war in several days) was only the 9th most read column on my local newspaper, well behind sports news, your daily feel-good story and the most noteworthy crime news of the day in the state.

    The action movie we're in since last February is not only tragic but surrealist and scary too. People in DC can basically do whatever they want wrt Ukraine because American society doesn't care. Most everybody has been thoroughly convinced that the Russians are evil beyond redemption and that we must all help poor Ukrainians and that's all there is to it for most people. The war has lasted too long to keep paying attention.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @sudden death

  647. @sudden death
    @Yahya

    On a sidenote, recently have overwhelming sense of all fiction and movies to be rather bland, cause roughly since end of January had the feeling of living in a movie, with the plot taking off at Feb 24 and still not showing any signs of easing off - in what fiction movie you can watch Crimean bridge being blown up nearly live as a hangover present to Putin's 70 year jubilee, lol

    At the same time the sense of growing dread for all sides in this movie blows away even the first installment of Alien series...

    But perhaps it is just particularity of being Eastern European, people in Africa or South America probably justifiably are just as unfazed as ever;

    Also had the same feeling of living in movie since first Chinese lockdowns, but it all ended rather happily overall, even despite just official deathcount nearing 7 million worlwide alas it was just the prologue to the next localized(?) disaster serial.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Bashibuzuk, @LatW, @Mikel

    • Replies: @LondonBob
    @sudden death

    A nice justification for the general attack on Ukrainian infrastructure, Scott Ritter was saying that should be done just before the general Russian assault starts. The Ukraine and NATO combine incompetence and viciousness in equal measure.



    https://youtu.be/WWlEIXhRu_k

    Replies: @Grahamsno(G64)

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @sudden death

    Yes, that was one nice birthday present. Some high quality fireworks show. I expect Pynya to be moved by this "kind attention" from his "Kievan partners".

    https://kartinki-life.ru/articles/2021/02/08/gifki-pozdravleniya-s-dnem-rozhdeniya-ot-putina-1.gif

    , @A123
    @sudden death

    Governor DeSantis had a new causeway style bridge built in 3 days after Hurricane Ian. (1)

     
    https://rumble.com/embed/v1k72e0/
     


    The rednecks and roughnecks also delivered a remarkable accomplishment today, opening a temporary bridge to Pine Island. A few days before Governor Ron DeSantis announced the State DOT effort to help build the temporary bridge, locals from Honc Marine were already in 'git r done' mode.

    Incredibly a week after Hurricane Ian took out the bridge connecting Pine Island to Cape Coral, the temporary bridge was finished and five semi tractors/trailers from Publix Supermarket were first to cross into Pine Island with relief supplies.
     
    Note: Semi-Truck drivers are smarter than you may think. The second truck in line stops and is not going onto the span until the first one successfully makes the other side.


    While the Kirsch span is obviously further apart, the visible footing is darkened but appears sound. 2-lane road traffic will quickly resume. It should not take long for fabrication of the missing road deck panels, assuming there are not existing spares. The largest delay is likely to be moving the heavy marine construction equipment to the site, unless it happens to already be in the Sea of Azov.

    For Ukie morale, it is a huge boost. In terms of actual military logistics this is an inconvenience not a major obstacle.

    One of the important reasons for consolidating the Russian territory is providing a land connection to Crimea without a bridge vulnerability. In the long term, this actually hardens the Russian position. They now know they cannot rely on the bridge, so the land corridor is an existential survival requirement.

    PEACE 😇
    ___________

    (1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/10/06/hurricane-ian-recovery-day-7/
  648. @Yahya
    @Yevardian


    It’s nice that both you and the Laxa entity are here to cancel each other out.

     

    When the Dragon Man first started posting here, I thought he was another one of Laxa's aliases.

    What sort of movies are you watching (and anyone else here)? I've been on a movie-watching spree the past few days. I tend to watch movies sporadically, haven't binged on movies like this since high school. Some mini-reviews:

    1) The Grand Budapest Hotel - Loved the tempo and tone of the movie. Brisk-paced story, gets to the point quick, without fluff or boring moments. The tone is comedic without being frivolous or overly ironic. The plot is nothing new, a mysterious murder occurs, and the main character is framed. But the narration and filming style is unique and original. The visuals are breath-taking. Wes Anderson creates a sense of place that makes you feel right at home. Also there are some wonderfully choreographed scenes, which I won't mention here for fear of spoiling the plot. Only thing I disliked was that the movie seemed to indicate that Mr. Gustav is a model of virtuosity amidst a sea of evil. He certainly has his virtues, but i'm not all that sure if he's a moral exemplar of a human being. He sleeps with old ladies who patronize the hotel, steals a valuable painting, and callously laughs off someone dying during the prison break scene. But overall a solid, entertaining movie. 9/10.

    2) Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - I watched the first movie in the series some years ago, watched this one after seeing the Tolkein discussion on this forum. Hard not to like LOTR. Don't have much to say other than it's a load of fun, a well-made adventure movie. Only thing I disliked was the two-dimensional, Manichean characters. Everyone in the film is either entirely good or entirely bad, there is no in-between. But overall great visuals and epic adventure. 8/10.

    3) Pharaoh - This is a somewhat obscure Polish movie released in 1966. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967, and is considered by some to be among the best Polish films ever made. It's based on a novel of the same name written by Bolesław Prus, which incidentally was one of Stalin's favorite books. The movie as the book is high-brow, which is quite rare for an Ancient Egyptian themed movie. It centers around a young but strong-willed Ramses XIII who clashes with the powerful clergy over affairs of state, most notably over their relations with Assyria, Israel and Phoenicia. There's lots of Machiavellan intrigue between the various political players; I can see why a leader like Stalin would have liked it. This film is more austere than the usual Hollywood film set in Ancient Egypt, it lacks the usual grand spectacles, perhaps owing to its lower budget, but is nonetheless refreshing and realistic. I think people overestimate Egypt's grandeur at the time, because all they see are the majestic monuments. But Ancient Egypt was probably a giant shithole for most of its inhabitants, even if it was more developed than other places (not very difficult considering most of the world was still in pre-history at the time). I felt the plot was a bit slow-paced at times, which made it hard to stay engaged, but that's typical of most high-brow movies. I felt they could've added more events in the plot, or at least compensated with more philosophical dialogue as in Tarkovsky's movies. Also the main character was unlikeable and everyone in the film seemed grave and unsmiling. I wish someone could make a movie about Ancient Egypt which isn't centered around the highest level of society; but perhaps on a Prophets sojourn among ordinary villagers and the like (I'm thinking of Thomas Mann's novels based on the lives of Jacob and Joseph). I'm not going to complain much though because this is still the best Ancient Egyptian film. 8/10.

    4) About Elly - From an objective standpoint, probably the best movie I've ever seen, though not necessarily my favorite. It's a masterpiece of realism. Everything about the movie feels real, anyone who's ever been on a holiday trip with a group of friends would recognize this in an instant. The dialogue and script is sophisticated yet subtle, nothing is overdramatic or forced. I also liked the fact that the movie was easy to watch and not overly morbid or slow like many high-brow drama films. The beginning 35 minutes is uneventful but still enjoyable to watch as you get to know the characters, also introduced to the social dynamics of a group of middle-class Iranians. I can imagine this is exactly how middle class Iranians would interact with each other on a daily basis. To a Middle Easterner like me many of these dynamics (i.e. male-female interactions etc.) were very familiar, but I've read reviews by Westerners who found it novel and peculiar. In which case, this would be a bonus for those interested in learning more about Middle Eastern mores. The plot takes off at the 35 minute mark and never looks back. I won't write much about it here for fear of spoiling, just watch the movie and you'll see. The basic message of the movie, expressed very delicately without being overly didactic, is to warn against the half-truths so easily made by nearly everyone for the sake of expediency. 10/10.

    5) Reservoir Dogs - I first watched this movie when I was a teenager, so already I'm predisposed to think of it warmly upon rewatching just for the sake of nostalgia. The movie is still as entertaining as when I first watched it, and it remains one of my top 10 favorites. The plot, dialogue and characters are just fantastic. About the only negative I can think of is the excessive blood and gore, but that's to be expected from Tarantino, and really this one is relatively mild compared to his other movies. I would've written more but these reviews have already taken too much time from me, and I'm not getting paid for any of this, so will stop here. 10/10.

    Edit: I'm currently watching Elia Suleiman's The Time That Remains, a movie by a Palestinian Christian director. It's really good so far, the beauty of the Holy Land is astonishing. I'll write more about it later if I have time.

    You can watch About Elly on YouTube free:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csfRfEI2uhk&t=1441s&ab_channel=ZiNoMovies

    Replies: @sudden death, @Yevardian, @A123

    When the Dragon Man first started posting here, I thought he was another one of Laxa’s aliases.

    I don’t really see the affinity. His posts remind me more of Beckow if he were dropped on the head several times as infant, or fried his brain with hard drugs.. oh wait.

    What sort of movies are you watching (and anyone else here)? I’ve been on a movie-watching spree the past few days. I tend to watch movies sporadically, haven’t binged on movies like this since high school. Some mini-reviews:

    Haven’t seen Pharaoh, all the Polish films I’ve seen have been good. Mostly limited to Kieślowski and Wajda though. Could be interesting, I don’t think I know a single really good film set in Antiquity, or even in the pre-gunpowder era more generally, though the material is obviously there. The best the sword n’ sandal or period genre has managed so far seems to be high camp.

    Seen all the others you mentioned, though frankly I don’t have a very opinion of any of those films except About Elly, Farhadi’s A Separation and A Salesman are also excellent. Otherwise, I’m going to be pretty negative…

    [MORE]

    I thought The Grand Budapest Hotel was a textbook, if not the textbook example of a film with excellent cinematography, decent atmosphere, respectable acting and avoiding vulgarity, that somehow it still didn’t move me in the slightest, and I was even slightly bored. For some reason it all felt like a very mechanical exercise to me, though I can see the director’s craft.

    Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers: I remember seeing this or its sequel as a very young child with my father (he clearly hated it, but tried to hide that for our benefit), of course as a boy I enjoyed the fights, but during all the long connecting sequences between the fights, where the characters walk whilst explaining why and how they’re walking to the next fight, I think I just wanted to go home and play “Age of Empires” instead.
    I might appreciate the scene’s scenery more since I’ve now walked through myself many of the film’s sites in New Zealand, but maybe not. Peter Jackson also missed a golden oppurtunity to incorporate Keas into his movies (imagine a large fearless parrot with the personality of a seagull and you get the idea). I thought Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Christopher Lee gave very good performances though.

    Reservoir Dogs: entertaining film, I’d probably still enjoy it if I saw it today. But definitely not 10/10 in my book, far from it. I also completely understand people like German_Reader (or any of my family) who absolutely can’t stand it. I can’t totally hate Tarantino though, I remember watching Pulp Fiction at a friends house when I was about 12 and thinking it was the best thing ever (my cinema knowledge even of hollywood was then close to zero), until that movie inspired me to watch many far better films.

    You can watch About Elly on YouTube free:

    Actually, nowadays it’s a nearly instant operation to stream nearly any film for free. Quite literally, all you need to do is go to yandex (Russian google) and search “[filmname], [english subs] + watch”. The first page will almost always have 4-5 links to sites where you can then literally just click an embedded player and start watching, no further hassle involved.
    For years previously until finding this out, I sometimes spent hours to find torrents for more obscure films, only to find the torrent had no seeds or the film was dubbed.

    As for recently watched, I’ve hardly seen a single film this entire year, been too busy with grad-school. Though if I watched films to procrastinate instead of following the Ukraine War I probably could have seen plenty and felt a lot more contented too. I also rarely ever feel like watching films alone, changed personal circumstances and all that. It’s also funny that two adult males arranging to watch movies together, instead of going to the pub, feels kind of gay…it’s stupid, but don’t most men have that feeling? On the other hand, I understand Arab and Pakistani men hold hands in public as friendship (in Iran this is limited to old or very rural people), so perhaps there arent the same hangups there.
    Actually, the last few films I saw were mostly by Pablo Almodovar, a flamboyant homo auteur famous for making extremely over-the-top melodramas practically overflowing with degeneracy. However, none of Almodovar’s films have any political or ‘woke’ angle whatsoever, and he certainly has no illusions (well, he is one) about homos and trannies being righteous victims, usually he (accurately) portrays them as sex-obsessed, selfish and narcissistic scumbags, whilst the straight characters in his films are generally normal.
    But I don’t know what your tolerance level for that stuff is, as long as their ‘proclivities’ stay firmly off-screen and they aren’t shoehorned in to be falsely portrayed regular people I don’t really care about homos in films.

    Otherwise,’Burning’ was the best film of 2018, the last year I regularly went to the cinema. I can give you more general movie recommendations in another post (maybe).

    I’d also recommend this site for finding interesting films, ironically it’s primarily a music site (good for that too), but much better than IMDB in terms of it’s average user’s review quality or taste.

    https://rateyourmusic.com/
    For a example, I sometimes look to this site-user for films, he writes very good reviews and generally agree with his taste.
    https://rateyourmusic.com/~onethink

    • Thanks: Yahya
  649. Oil rallied hard on Friday, despite the general sell off and the dollar rising, the Klain-Blinken regime unable to do anything.

    [MORE]

  650. @sudden death
    @sudden death

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/10/08/07/63249451-11293851-image-a-15_1665211477159.jpg

    Replies: @LondonBob, @Bashibuzuk, @A123

    A nice justification for the general attack on Ukrainian infrastructure, Scott Ritter was saying that should be done just before the general Russian assault starts. The Ukraine and NATO combine incompetence and viciousness in equal measure.

    [MORE]

    • Replies: @Grahamsno(G64)
    @LondonBob

    Pussollini Putin(Don't insult Hitler by comparing him with Putin (Putler)) won't do anything other than firing random missiles at the lowest value targets you could come up with. The inspector Closeau like incompetence of Russia's Potemkin military is on full display and it makes for painful viewing and nothing exemplifies this better than the non show of their much hyped up air FARCE which is totally missing in action.

    Russia has gone from Ivan the terrible to Putin the risible.

    They might still win if millions of Ukrainians laugh themselves to death. Now that is a possible path to victory.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

  651. @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon

    Of the 20-30 people here at least a half are paid trolls. Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    I didn't post in this thread until comment #487.

    Yes you and a few dozen people here want to believe that the pro-Ukrainian posters MUST be paid. It couldn't be possible that some of us actually oppose this needless war.

    Here are 200k Russians that don't support the war:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcMvA4kSB5A

    That's 200k Rusisan men fleeing into Kazakhstan alone.

    MUST ALL BE PAID JEWS AT THE BORDER DERP. COULDN'T BE THAT PUTIN FUCKED UP BEYOND BELIEF.

    I have a friend over there who may be dead so this is personal to me. Maybe someday I'll talk about the sad excuses for this war by his grave. I'll see what he thinks.

    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don't like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @Here Be Dragon

    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don’t like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.

    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum even before the Ukraine War started. I recall it’s entry being marked by an thread of 1000+ comments consisting mostly of inanities between it and AaronB (an occasionally decent poster), then diagnosing people with various psychological hangups and disorders.
    Notice nobody has ever accused LatW, suddendeath, Mr. Hack, utu, Peter Akuleyev of being shills despite their pro-Ukrainian views. Only exception I know is our indomitable wordsmith (I would pay to hear his native Мат) Gerard and his neverending crusade against AP.

    • Replies: @QCIC
    @Yevardian

    Hack has always come across as a shill, sometimes a sincere one.

    , @Beckow
    @Yevardian

    Discussion should be open and unrestricted. We all have the choice to ignore personal attacks and not respond. Whoever the Laxa thing was, it was the points that we discussed not the person. I understand the rules, so let's live with them.

    Changing one's moniker is a silly evasion and betrays insecurity. Psycho-babble can be tiresome, but it is simply avoiding rational response. (AP often escapes into his version of emotional babbling that detract from his points.)

    Regarding 'shills', I strongly doubt there are any. To understand how others see the world or Ukraine-Russia war is enlightening. There are few other calm places one can find it. It may not matter one bit what people write, but it creates a small rational space as the world spins into madness. It helps us focus, knowing what others think is a gift.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123

    , @Mr. Hack
    @Yevardian


    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum
     
    More so than AaronB and Daniel Chieh in the past? Or even the Dragon Man and AP's recent bouts of fury? Laxa's being banned (hopefully temporarily) for sock puppeteering. Her ideas and writing style are often more than acceptable, IMHO, and it would be a shame to lose her presence here permanently. What can I say, her pro-Ukrainian views and usage of sarcasm appeals to me? :-)

    https://cdn.gardenchronicle.com/gc/2021/06/05191158/Triteleia-bigstock-ithuriel-s-Spear-Flower-Or-C-414141743-1024x683.jpg

    Triteleia Laxa come back!

    (Even Gerard was banned and allowed back by our former Impresario, sock puppeteering is not the worst infraction that I can imagine)

    Replies: @QCIC

    , @Mikel
    @Yevardian


    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum even before the Ukraine War started. I recall it’s entry being marked by an thread of 1000+ comments consisting mostly of inanities between it and AaronB (an occasionally decent poster), then diagnosing people with various psychological hangups and disorders.
     
    The psychoanalysis angle of her posts was tremendously tiresome but lately she wasn't so much into that and she was beginning to make plenty of sense in many of her posts. All in all, I'm not too happy about people being banned. With a few exceptions that the scroll button can perfectly take care of, it's quite amazing how well-behaved this basically unmoderated community has remained for years.

    Nonetheless, she must have known that sock-puppetry was prohibited on this website. It shouldn't have been so difficult to comply with the few rules our host imposes, even if you find them unfair. Unz doesn't owe us anything after all, especially considering that most of us on this blog don't agree with him on practically anything. We don't have the "right" to disregard his rules in order to be able to post on his website more often, as she apparently thought.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    , @Wokechoke
    @Yevardian

    I think I triggered Head Girl into shifting from Laxa to Monitor of Halls.

    Did her in, I did.

    Did you get to read or listen to Black Mischief?


    I am quite fond of the Armenian fixer in the story. Seal liked him too.

  652. @LondonBob
    @sudden death

    A nice justification for the general attack on Ukrainian infrastructure, Scott Ritter was saying that should be done just before the general Russian assault starts. The Ukraine and NATO combine incompetence and viciousness in equal measure.



    https://youtu.be/WWlEIXhRu_k

    Replies: @Grahamsno(G64)

    Pussollini Putin(Don’t insult Hitler by comparing him with Putin (Putler)) won’t do anything other than firing random missiles at the lowest value targets you could come up with. The inspector Closeau like incompetence of Russia’s Potemkin military is on full display and it makes for painful viewing and nothing exemplifies this better than the non show of their much hyped up air FARCE which is totally missing in action.

    Russia has gone from Ivan the terrible to Putin the risible.

    They might still win if millions of Ukrainians laugh themselves to death. Now that is a possible path to victory.

    • Agree: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Grahamsno(G64)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Potemkin

    Governor-General and City Builder

    “[After thrashing Johnny Turk], Potemkin returned to St. Petersburg in November 1783 and was promoted to Field Marshal when the Crimea was formally annexed the following February. He also became President of the College of War. The province of Taurida (the Crimea) was added to the state of Novorossiya (lit. New Russia). Potemkin moved south in mid-March, as the "Prince of Taurida". He had been the namesake of Russia's southern provinces (including Novorossiya, Azov, Saratov, Astrakhan and the Caucasus) since 1774, repeatedly expanding the domain via military action. He kept his own court, which rivalled Catherine's: by the 1780s he operated a chancellery with fifty or more clerks and had his own minister, Vasili Popov, to oversee day-to-day affairs. Another favored associate was Mikhail Faleev.
    The breaking of the Cossack hosts, particularly the Zaporozhian Cossacks in 1775, helped define his rule. However, Historian (((Montefiore))) argues that given their location, and in the wake of the Pugachev rebellion, the Cossacks were likely doomed in any case. By the time of Potemkin's death, the Cossacks and their threat of anarchic revolt were well controlled. Among the Zaporizhian Cossacks he was known as Hrytsko Nechesa.

    Potemkin then embarked on a period of city-founding. Construction started at his first effort, Kherson, in 1778, as a base for a new Black Sea Fleet he intended to build. Potemkin approved every plan himself, but construction was slow, and the city proved costly and vulnerable to plague. Next was the port of Akhtiar, annexed with the Crimea, which became Sevastopol. Then he built Simferopol as the Crimean capital. His biggest failure, however, was his effort to build the city of Ekaterinoslav (lit. The glory of Catherine), now Dnipro. The second most successful city of Potemkin's rule was Nikolayev (Mykolaiv), which he founded in 1789. Potemkin also initiated the redesign of Odessa after its capture from the Turks; it was to turn out to be his greatest city planning triumph.”


    I would like all to to see how this guy’s career and name got reduced to meaning “fake” in colloquial political English.

    Of Minor birth, he chose the right side in a palace coup, rose through the ranks, annexed Crimea, defeated the Turk in the Caucasus and kept the Cossack on a tight leash. An accomplished man you’d think? So let’s see the who what when and how on the defamation…


    "Potemkin Village"
    The notion of the Potemkin village (coined in German by critical biographer Georg von Helbig as German: Potemkinsche Dörfer) arose from Catherine's visit to the south. Critics accused Potemkin of using painted façades to fool Catherine into thinking that the area was far richer than it was. Thousands of peasants were alleged to have been stage-managed for this purpose. Certainly, Potemkin had arranged for Catherine to see the best he had to offer (organising numerous exotic excursions) and at least two cities' officials did conceal poverty by building false houses. It seems unlikely that the fraud approached the scale alleged. The Prince of Ligne, a member of the Austrian delegation, who had explored on his own during the trip, later proclaimed the allegations to be false.


    If anything, ambitious Russians ought to emulate Potemkin’s career. Dr. Prof. Georg von Helbig, might he have been a German academic interested in Germany colonising/conquering the east?

  653. Bashibuzuk says:
    @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon

    Of the 20-30 people here at least a half are paid trolls. Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    I didn't post in this thread until comment #487.

    Yes you and a few dozen people here want to believe that the pro-Ukrainian posters MUST be paid. It couldn't be possible that some of us actually oppose this needless war.

    Here are 200k Russians that don't support the war:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcMvA4kSB5A

    That's 200k Rusisan men fleeing into Kazakhstan alone.

    MUST ALL BE PAID JEWS AT THE BORDER DERP. COULDN'T BE THAT PUTIN FUCKED UP BEYOND BELIEF.

    I have a friend over there who may be dead so this is personal to me. Maybe someday I'll talk about the sad excuses for this war by his grave. I'll see what he thinks.

    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don't like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @Here Be Dragon

    It’s really kinda funny and sad at once to watch Pynya – worshipping RusFed Fans trying to find some sense in what is currently ongoing.

    They will never figure out.

    Just like the dinosaures when hit by that meteorite…

    (Pynya is the derogatory nickname used in RusFed by Russian nationalists when describing one famously corrupt, old and tired individual who tries to behave as if he could control the largest country in the world and win a war against a coalition totalling 40% of global GDP.)

    • Agree: S
  654. @sudden death
    @Yahya

    On a sidenote, recently have overwhelming sense of all fiction and movies to be rather bland, cause roughly since end of January had the feeling of living in a movie, with the plot taking off at Feb 24 and still not showing any signs of easing off - in what fiction movie you can watch Crimean bridge being blown up nearly live as a hangover present to Putin's 70 year jubilee, lol

    At the same time the sense of growing dread for all sides in this movie blows away even the first installment of Alien series...

    But perhaps it is just particularity of being Eastern European, people in Africa or South America probably justifiably are just as unfazed as ever;

    Also had the same feeling of living in movie since first Chinese lockdowns, but it all ended rather happily overall, even despite just official deathcount nearing 7 million worlwide alas it was just the prologue to the next localized(?) disaster serial.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Bashibuzuk, @LatW, @Mikel

    alas it was just the prologue to the next localized(?) disaster serial.

    Great Reset is not intended to be local. If we think of it as a movie, then it is implicitly produced to become a global blockbuster.

  655. @sudden death
    @sudden death

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/10/08/07/63249451-11293851-image-a-15_1665211477159.jpg

    Replies: @LondonBob, @Bashibuzuk, @A123

    Yes, that was one nice birthday present. Some high quality fireworks show. I expect Pynya to be moved by this “kind attention” from his “Kievan partners”.

  656. @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    The names Great Russia, White Russia and Little Russia were created to designate the three parts of one land and one state called the land Rus’ during the times when these three parts were separated. The Church created these names.
     
    False. Little Rus was first documented as having been used by the Galician king in 1335 and was later used by the Poles.

    "The first recorded usage of the term is attributed to Boleslaus George II of Halych.[8] In a 1335 letter to Dietrich von Altenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, he styled himself «dux totius Rusiæ Minoris».[8] The name was used by Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople in 1361 when he created two metropolitan sees: Great Rus' in Vladimir and Kyiv and Little Rus' with its centers in Galich (Halych) and Novgorodok (Navahrudak).[8] King Casimir III of Poland was called "the king of Lechia and Little Rus'."

    "Ukraine was never a part of Russia in this sense until Russia started grabbing parts of it from the 17th century. Just as Italy, Spain, or France were never part of Romania."

    Russia did not start grabbing her own parts but started returning them back
     
    Ukraine had never been part of Suzdal/Muscovy and had never been ruled from Moscow until Russia started grabbing these lands - other than during a brief period in the 12th century when a Suzdalian prince sacked Kiev and placed his man on the local throne. The locals in Kiev hated this easterner and drove him out in an uprising.

    Before that all the population of Rus’ called themselves Rusich.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich
     
    False. They called themselves Rusyns. Rusych only appeared in the 12th century and only in one work. It was a rarely used word back then.:

    https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B8

    В древнерусских памятниках слово встречается только 4 раза (2 раза в форме русичи и 2 в цокающей форме русици) и только в «Слове о полку Игореве».

    Rusyn on the other hand appeared earlier and was evident much more often. It was not a foreign version caused by Romanian influence.

    https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8B_(%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%8D%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC)

    Эндоэтноним «русин» как наименование жителя Древней Руси[3] встречается в «Повести временных лет» наряду с прилагательным «русьскыи»[4]. Здесь слово «русин» упомянуто в описании договора Олега с греками (911 год) (7 раз) и договора Игоря с греками (944 года) (6 раз). Используется это слово и в ранних редакциях Русской Правды (Краткой и Пространной)[5]

    Russians called themselves Russky but also used Rusyn until the 17th century. In contrast, Rusyn continued to be widely used in Ukraine until the 19th century and is still used by some Lemkos and Transcarpathians.

    "They would call Russians – Muscovites, and consider them to be a foreign people. In the 19th century they would rename themselves Ukrainians."

    These would refer to the population of the other part of Rus’ as Muscovites in order to avoid confusion
     
    The Volhynian Chronicle classified Muscovites alongside Moldovans as Orthodox but foreign.

    Those Ukrainians themselves were then calling their language руський and руська мова – i.e. the Russian language
     
    It was not Russian language, but Rus language. They weren't using the Suzdalian/Muscovite/Russian language and didn't consider their language to be the same as that of the Muscovites.

    The differences between the two were considered to be dialects.
     
    They were different enough that the 17th century Pereyaslav negotiations required the use off a translator, using Latin.

    The notion of the Ukrainians as a separate people was a much later and in fact political fabrication and not much else.
     
    You are writing the opposite of the reality. The notion of the Ukrainians as the same people was a later fabrication. I think it appeared in the early 16th century. Ironically pushed by Little Russians/Ukrainians themselves in the service of the Russian state, who were justifying their positions before resentful native Russians. It was used as proof by them that they had the right to obtain high administrative positions, because they were Russians too.

    Church Slavonic was the liturgical language of both the Russian Orthodox and the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church so I guess it had influence on both Russian and Ukrainian languages.
     
    No. When the Russian language was standardized, the literary form was packed with Church Slavonic; the Ukrainian literary language in contrast was much closer to the regular vernacular, so it did not have such influence. Standardized Rusyn (used in Slovakia and eastern Poland), unlike Ukrainian, incorporated some Church Slavonic so in some ways it resembles Russian (but in other ways, it is closer to Polish than standard Ukrainian).

    The historical, genetic and cultural distance between these peoples is far greater than between the Russians and the Ukrainians.
     
    Ukrainian is about as close to Russian as Italian is to Spanish.

    A Ukrainian who has never heard Russian will not be able to understand a conversation, in Russian and vice versa. We had an ethnic Russian nanny from Central Asia, who had heard hardly any Ukrainian before - she couldn't understand or follow a conversation. And I could not understand Russian (other than a word here or there, an occasional phrase) before I lived in Russia.


    As I said before the autosomal genes are mutable to such a degree that we do net get the same genes our paternal grandmothers and maternal grandfathers pass – from them we get mutated and unrecognizable genes.
     
    False. If autosomal genes were unrecognizable, than DNA tests wouldn't be able to accurately identify relatives through one's non patrilinear or non matrilinear grandparents. Or paternity tests wouldn't work with female children.

    Autosomal genes do not become unrecognizable through mutation; rather they get mixed between grandparents. For this reason it is not possible to determine which specific gene came from which grandparent, but one still has about 25% of the genes from each grandparent. About half of your father's genes come from his mother, and about half of your mother's genes come from her father. But they are mixed up with each other in the autosomes.

    So DNA testing using autosomal genes can show the approximate strength of the relationship between people, but cannot determine through which specific grandparent people they might be related. The sex chromosomes, OTOH, do not get mixed so they can be used to trace specific patrilinear descent (for males) and matrilinear (for both males and females).

    Most of one's genes, of course, do not come from the two sex chromosomes. The Y chromosome in particular only has about 200 genes. Traits such as intelligence are linked to genes from various chromosomes (particularly chromosome 10, which is not a sex chromosome):

    https://www.nature.com/articles/mp2017121

    Depending on the combination, one can resemble and have the character of any one of one's grandparents. I look like my father and my paternal grandfather, but my aunt's sons resemble her, who looks just like her father. So they look like their maternal grandfather.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon, @Here Be Dragon

    If autosomal genes were unrecognizable, than DNA tests wouldn’t be able to accurately identify relatives through one’s non-patrilinear or non-matrilinear grandparents.

    There are no such grandparents 🙂

    One’s grandparents are either patrilineal, or matrilineal. Or we have a virgin birth here? That can happen — the Pope said!

    However the Buddha was even cooler. He was born in a lotus flower.

    Or paternity tests wouldn’t work with female children.

    But that test indeed does not work with females.

    A woman who is not sure whether a particular man is her father or not cannot prove it if she does not have a twin brother or something.

    It is strange that a doctor does not know this.

    Autosomal genes do not become unrecognizable through mutation; rather they get mixed between grandparents.

    That is right, I guess I used a wrong term. The right word should have been recombination. But at the same time autosomes are more mutable than sex chromosomes.

    About half of your father’s genes come from his mother, and about half of your mother’s genes come from her father. But they are mixed up with each other in the autosomes.

    These are mutable genes and through the course of four generations they change a lot. Your great-grandfather’s autosomes are different from yours.

    We do not get the same entire chromosomes from our grandparents, but a mix of them (as our parents have got them mixed) so that genetic content of each pair of chromosomes is changed and different from what our grandparents passed to our parents — except for the sex chromosomes.

    And during this process of recombination it is not the same mathematical share of the genes that all grandchildren of a particular person inherit from him. There are variations.

    “Two grandchildren are fortunate to have three grandparents and one great-grandparent available for matching. For comparison purposes, let’s take a look at how many matches each grandchild has in common with their grandparents and great-grandparent.”

    “It’s interesting that the matches in 3 generations to the great-grandmother vary by 55%. The second tester has almost twice as many matches in common with her great-grandmother as does the first tester.”

    DNA Inherited from Grandparents and Great-Grandparents
    https://dna-explained.com/2020/01/14/dna-inherited-from-grandparents-and-great-grandparents/

    So in fact we do not know how much of autosomes we inherit from our great-grandparents. We do know that these are recombined, mixed and matched and messed up and come in different shares to different great-grandchildren, and often mutate on top of that.

    The sex chromosomes however do not change as much and come from the mother of our mother and the father of our father unaltered, the same as passed to them by the fathers of their fathers, and the mothers of their mothers.

    The rest of our genes are more generic and less significant.

    Traits such as intelligence are linked to genes from various chromosomes (particularly chromosome 10, which is not a sex chromosome).

    That research did not prove it and is not important.

    A number of other unrelated researches have been conducted in China and in Britain, and the results obtained in both countries determined that most of all intelligence is dependent on the genes contained in the X-chromosome.

    “16% of the IQ-related genes are located on X chromosome. It is reported that only 3.4% of all human genes belong to X chromosome. The obvious contrast may indicate that the IQ-related genes are over-represented on X chromosome.”

    “The further enrichment analysis identified 10 genomic regions with significantly larger amount of IQ-related genes. Among 10 regions, 4 belong to X chromosome.”

    A biology approach to identify intelligence genomic regions
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3933868/

    This is the more recent Chinese research. And the other ones earlier in Europe led to similar conclusions.

    “The autosomes and the sex chromosomes differ in their evolutionary origins, a fact that may have implications for the distinct contribution made by the X-chromosome to mental functioning.”

    “Natural selection has favoured the development of X-linked genes that are associated with higher cognitive abilities.”

    “Genes on the X-chromosome not only influence general intelligence, but also have relatively specific effects on social–cognition and emotional regulation.”

    X-linked genes and mental functioning
    https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article/14/suppl_1/R27/560887

    For that reason Jews determine Jewishness through the female line. And as a matter of fact Jews figured it out centuries ago.

    How?

    Because Jews are smart!

    Depending on the combination, one can resemble and have the character of any one of one’s grandparents. I look like my father and my paternal grandfather.

    That is normal. Or perhaps rather half normal.

    I look like the maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather of mine. I did not inherit the traits of the maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother of mine at all.

    And I have a cousin to whom the maternal grandfather of mine is his paternal grandfather. Guess what he looks like.

    He cousin inherited the features of his paternal grandfather and his maternal grandmother, the same as I did from those of mine. He did not inherit the features of his paternal grandmother – I did.

    It is notable because each of them had some notable traits. And it is seen and often comes out in our character. Me and him are incompatible and different people.

    My aunt’s sons resemble her, who looks just like her father. So they look like their maternal grandfather.

    That must have happened due to genetic anomalies common among these so-called nobles having children with their cousins and nephews. It is a common problem among the rich – inbreeding in order to keep the wealth in the clan.

    [MORE]

    Here is a noble Arab princess (for an example).

    • Replies: @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    “If autosomal genes were unrecognizable, than DNA tests wouldn’t be able to accurately identify relatives through one’s non-patrilinear or non-matrilinear grandparents.”

    There are no such grandparents 🙂

    One’s grandparents are either patrilineal, or matrilineal
     
    You know what I meant.

    Or paternity tests wouldn’t work with female children.

    But that test indeed does not work with females.

    A woman who is not sure whether a particular man is her father or not cannot prove it if she does not have a twin brother or something.
     
    Nonsense. Paternity tests are often used for female children. They will simply show that the girl shares about 50% of her genetic heritage with the man. This is good enough proof, and why such tests are used (a full sibling also shares about 50% of genetic material so some common sense is also necessary).

    Autosomal genes do not become unrecognizable through mutation; rather they get mixed between grandparents.

    That is right, I guess I used a wrong term. The right word should have been recombination.
     
    Correct. What this means is that the child or grandchild will have those genes (from maternal grandfather or paternal grandmother) but it can’t be determined from which specific grandparent they came. You would have to test those grandparents or a cousin through one of those grandparent’s lines in order to determine that.

    But you still have those genes from those grandparents; they will be about 25% of your genes from each one. They just can’t be traced directly. Only the sex chromosomes can be.

    Your great-grandfather’s autosomes are different from yours
     
    Sure. You only share about 12.5% with the great-grandfather (there is slight variation). If one of them is the sex chromosome than you can trace descent directly. Otherwise, DNA tests can’t prove direct descent only shared heritage (I.e., could be a grandparent’s brother or sister instead of a great-grandparent, those will have a similar percentage of shared genetic heritage). But you still have those same genes.

    And during this process of recombination it is not the same mathematical share of the genes that all grandchildren of a particular person inherit from him. There are variations
     
    This is correct. It doesn’t make a big difference for children or grandchildren but over several generations the variation can have an impact. So some people may have inherited a lot more genes from each of their great-grandparents than other people did, though the average from each great-grandparent would be about 12.5%. Eventually, after many centuries, one can have almost zero shared heritage with an ancestor…or not.

    The sex chromosomes are constant, but they are a very small percentage of one’s overall genes. Almost zero for Y-chromosomes.

    16% of the IQ-related genes are located on X chromosome. It is reported that only 3.4% of all human genes belong to X chromosome
     
    This shows that the X chromosome is indeed over represented and also that most the the genes determining intelligence are autosomal- 84%!

    “My aunt’s sons resemble her, who looks just like her father. So they look like their maternal grandfather.”

    That must have happened due to genetic anomalies common among these so-called nobles having children with their cousins and nephews
     
    This occurred with royals who were more free to flaunt Church restrictions, not nobles.

    And in this (my cousin’s) case it was from the peasant side of the family.

    It is a common problem among the rich – inbreeding in order to keep the wealth in the clan.
     
    In Muslim lands, close cousin marriages are very common. It seems to have been existed among Jews also, likely due to small population, which is why Jews often have genetic disorders.

    The Christian Church banned close marriages so among nobles cousin marriages involved 4th cousins or so, not close ones.

    And btw the healthiest offspring are not produced from pairings between very different or totally unrelated people, but from 3rd and 4th cousins (least healthy are from 1st and 2nd cousins):

    https://www.nature.com/articles/news.2008.562

    This may be one reason why nobles were generally healthier, stronger and smarter than commoners (or inbred royals).
  657. Good segment on the inevitable Kiev regime military doom:

    https://marksleboda.substack.com/p/ukraine-update-russian-forces-turn

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikhail

    Mikhail, I start to suspect that AP was right about you not reading Russian...

    Replies: @Mikhail

  658. @Mr. Hack
    @Ron Unz

    "The rules are the rules", however, I found a lot of Laxa's commentary to be good quality stuff, and she certainly provided some of the "esoterical, psycho babble" stuff that this specific blogsite has always been known for (and is sadly lacking as of late). I don't understand her predilection for sock puppeting, everybody could soon see through her various disguises anyway. Others have been banned from this website, for a while, and then allowed to participate again. I hope that this is the case with Laxa, and hope that Ron will soon bring her back into his good graces..

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    She must have been Ari Nussbacher’s favourite student.

  659. @Yahya
    @Yevardian


    It’s nice that both you and the Laxa entity are here to cancel each other out.

     

    When the Dragon Man first started posting here, I thought he was another one of Laxa's aliases.

    What sort of movies are you watching (and anyone else here)? I've been on a movie-watching spree the past few days. I tend to watch movies sporadically, haven't binged on movies like this since high school. Some mini-reviews:

    1) The Grand Budapest Hotel - Loved the tempo and tone of the movie. Brisk-paced story, gets to the point quick, without fluff or boring moments. The tone is comedic without being frivolous or overly ironic. The plot is nothing new, a mysterious murder occurs, and the main character is framed. But the narration and filming style is unique and original. The visuals are breath-taking. Wes Anderson creates a sense of place that makes you feel right at home. Also there are some wonderfully choreographed scenes, which I won't mention here for fear of spoiling the plot. Only thing I disliked was that the movie seemed to indicate that Mr. Gustav is a model of virtuosity amidst a sea of evil. He certainly has his virtues, but i'm not all that sure if he's a moral exemplar of a human being. He sleeps with old ladies who patronize the hotel, steals a valuable painting, and callously laughs off someone dying during the prison break scene. But overall a solid, entertaining movie. 9/10.

    2) Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - I watched the first movie in the series some years ago, watched this one after seeing the Tolkein discussion on this forum. Hard not to like LOTR. Don't have much to say other than it's a load of fun, a well-made adventure movie. Only thing I disliked was the two-dimensional, Manichean characters. Everyone in the film is either entirely good or entirely bad, there is no in-between. But overall great visuals and epic adventure. 8/10.

    3) Pharaoh - This is a somewhat obscure Polish movie released in 1966. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967, and is considered by some to be among the best Polish films ever made. It's based on a novel of the same name written by Bolesław Prus, which incidentally was one of Stalin's favorite books. The movie as the book is high-brow, which is quite rare for an Ancient Egyptian themed movie. It centers around a young but strong-willed Ramses XIII who clashes with the powerful clergy over affairs of state, most notably over their relations with Assyria, Israel and Phoenicia. There's lots of Machiavellan intrigue between the various political players; I can see why a leader like Stalin would have liked it. This film is more austere than the usual Hollywood film set in Ancient Egypt, it lacks the usual grand spectacles, perhaps owing to its lower budget, but is nonetheless refreshing and realistic. I think people overestimate Egypt's grandeur at the time, because all they see are the majestic monuments. But Ancient Egypt was probably a giant shithole for most of its inhabitants, even if it was more developed than other places (not very difficult considering most of the world was still in pre-history at the time). I felt the plot was a bit slow-paced at times, which made it hard to stay engaged, but that's typical of most high-brow movies. I felt they could've added more events in the plot, or at least compensated with more philosophical dialogue as in Tarkovsky's movies. Also the main character was unlikeable and everyone in the film seemed grave and unsmiling. I wish someone could make a movie about Ancient Egypt which isn't centered around the highest level of society; but perhaps on a Prophets sojourn among ordinary villagers and the like (I'm thinking of Thomas Mann's novels based on the lives of Jacob and Joseph). I'm not going to complain much though because this is still the best Ancient Egyptian film. 8/10.

    4) About Elly - From an objective standpoint, probably the best movie I've ever seen, though not necessarily my favorite. It's a masterpiece of realism. Everything about the movie feels real, anyone who's ever been on a holiday trip with a group of friends would recognize this in an instant. The dialogue and script is sophisticated yet subtle, nothing is overdramatic or forced. I also liked the fact that the movie was easy to watch and not overly morbid or slow like many high-brow drama films. The beginning 35 minutes is uneventful but still enjoyable to watch as you get to know the characters, also introduced to the social dynamics of a group of middle-class Iranians. I can imagine this is exactly how middle class Iranians would interact with each other on a daily basis. To a Middle Easterner like me many of these dynamics (i.e. male-female interactions etc.) were very familiar, but I've read reviews by Westerners who found it novel and peculiar. In which case, this would be a bonus for those interested in learning more about Middle Eastern mores. The plot takes off at the 35 minute mark and never looks back. I won't write much about it here for fear of spoiling, just watch the movie and you'll see. The basic message of the movie, expressed very delicately without being overly didactic, is to warn against the half-truths so easily made by nearly everyone for the sake of expediency. 10/10.

    5) Reservoir Dogs - I first watched this movie when I was a teenager, so already I'm predisposed to think of it warmly upon rewatching just for the sake of nostalgia. The movie is still as entertaining as when I first watched it, and it remains one of my top 10 favorites. The plot, dialogue and characters are just fantastic. About the only negative I can think of is the excessive blood and gore, but that's to be expected from Tarantino, and really this one is relatively mild compared to his other movies. I would've written more but these reviews have already taken too much time from me, and I'm not getting paid for any of this, so will stop here. 10/10.

    Edit: I'm currently watching Elia Suleiman's The Time That Remains, a movie by a Palestinian Christian director. It's really good so far, the beauty of the Holy Land is astonishing. I'll write more about it later if I have time.

    You can watch About Elly on YouTube free:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csfRfEI2uhk&t=1441s&ab_channel=ZiNoMovies

    Replies: @sudden death, @Yevardian, @A123

    Peter Jackson’s LoTR trilogy is best in the Extended Cut DVD’s (~12 hours). The Two Towers is the best paced movie of the trilogy as it does not have to carry the introduction or the many, many endings. However, I think of all three as one whole.

    The Princess Bride — A rare move that can be enjoyed by children and adults. It has some of the best one liners and jokes ever. “Inconceivable!” “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

    Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. — The movie that started it all. The good guys were good. The bad guys were bad.

    The Fifth Element — Yes. It is Ludicrous. And, way over the top. It is supposed to be that way.

    Babylon 5 — OK. Not a movie. Seasons 2 thru 4 are some of the best stuff ever written. Despite effects that are now extremely out of date the whole thing is still insightful. President Clark = Biden.

    Honorable Mentions:
        — Wag the Dog
        — Dr. Strangelove
        — Heavy Metal

    Not necessarily the greatest movies, but you should see them at least once.

    PEACE 😇

  660. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.
     
    I'll admit I find it difficult to imagine that any half-rational person could have ever believed that the Russians destroyed their own pipelines, given the facts I'd presented in my recent article:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday Col. Douglas Macgregor argued that the Western MSM coverage of the current Ukraine war was just total nonsense and that the Ukrainians had suffered massive losses and the Russians were doing fine:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwnQfO6Y4

    I'm not a military expert on this conflict and I haven't been following it closely, but Macgregor seems a very credible expert and these days I tend to discount anything provided by the MSM of "the Empire of Lies."

    Replies: @A123, @Wokechoke, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen

    Here’s a transcript of an excerpt of what MacGregor said (my bold):

    …and the territory that the Russians now occupy is territory where Russians live; these are Russians living in Ukraine, who’ve been treated as third class citizens for years, who’ve been told to either become Ukrainians in Ukrainian eyes or seek a different place to live, where they can speak their language, go to their churches, behave as normal human beings…

    From which one infers that Ron Unz would not approve of a”Ukrainian for the Children” initiative by a hypothetical Ukrainian homologue of him.

  661. @Mikhail
    Good segment on the inevitable Kiev regime military doom:

    https://marksleboda.substack.com/p/ukraine-update-russian-forces-turn

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    Mikhail, I start to suspect that AP was right about you not reading Russian…

    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @Bashibuzuk

    In this instance, you're carrying on like that individual, who will periodically divert from what has been presented.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

  662. @Triteleia Laxa
    @Thorfinnsson


    In antiquity the most developed civilizations had stronger gender roles than barbarians, as can be seen in the writings of Tacitus.
     
    "In antiquity"...great!

    (Good observation, though we know so little about antiquity it is very hard to see things as they actually were.)

    Now try observing the relevant time period, which is the present. And stick to the subject, which is socially mandated sexual roles.

    Today, it is the wealthiest and most sex-egalitarian countries which demonstrate the strongest sex differences in personality:
     
    No relevance to the discussion. People are welcome to pursue any subjective LARP they want, but there'll be no long-term mass movement based around it. I bet you!

    In addition to low birth rates, this has produced a deterioration in family quality and parental investment:
     
    Doubt it. Fathers were more absent previously, they just more often lived in the same house.

    Meanwhile let’s see how the real trads are doing:
     
    Again with focussing in on one stat, to ignore the bigger picture. "Trads," as a percentage of the world's population, shrink every year, with access to contraception, and people being lifted out of extreme poverty. Despite the differential birth rates.

    See how my point, that absent the material conditions which created them, 99% of identities become ephemeral, is only reinforced by your arguments?

    Replies: @Thorfinnsson

    “In antiquity”…great!

    (Good observation, though we know so little about antiquity it is very hard to see things as they actually were.)

    Now try observing the relevant time period, which is the present. And stick to the subject, which is socially mandated sexual roles.

    Prior to the Battle of Watling Street, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus exhorted his men by saying, “Ignore the racket made by these savages. There are more women than men in their ranks. They are not soldiers—they’re not even properly equipped. We’ve beaten them before and when they see our weapons and feel our spirit, they’ll crack. Stick together. Throw the javelins, then push forward: knock them down with your shields and finish them off with your swords. Forget about plunder. Just win and you’ll have everything.”

    The battle was a decisive Roman victory which ended the revolt of the Iceni.

    This has relevance for our present time period in which ideological efforts to integrate women into armed forces not produced good results.

    No relevance to the discussion. People are welcome to pursue any subjective LARP they want, but there’ll be no long-term mass movement based around it. I bet you!

    I disagree. A tiger does not change its stripes, and pound a square peg into a round hole will not meet with success.

    It’s likely that modern gender egalitarian ideology is not the sole reason for this decline, but at the very least it certainly is not doing anything to improve things.

    Doubt it. Fathers were more absent previously, they just more often lived in the same house.

    I’m not sure how a father who is entirely absent from the household is supposed to spend more time with his children than one who lives in the same home as his children.

    Again with focussing in on one stat, to ignore the bigger picture. “Trads,” as a percentage of the world’s population, shrink every year, with access to contraception, and people being lifted out of extreme poverty. Despite the differential birth rates.

    See how my point, that absent the material conditions which created them, 99% of identities become ephemeral, is only reinforced by your arguments?

    I have no dispute with the fact that the extensive mechanization of high-energy civilization enables adult women to enter the capitalist workforce in a way which was unthinkable in earlier times.

    My point is that the current model is a failure because people have stopped reproducing themselves. A contrast was drawn with the Amish, who are increasing as a share of both American and global population, for effect.

    But I do not agree with the essentially Marxist argument that one’s identity is solely determined by material factors. In modern India, the likelihood of an urban woman staying at home rises with income and education because being in the workforce is considered a sign of low social status. The husband’s higher earning power enables him to afford the positional good of a stay-at-home wife.

    In Bill W’s The Big Book, written in the 1930s, the author laments that his alcoholism meant that he often had to force his wife to go to work because he was unable to properly support her, “as she deserved.” In the context of the time, her social status was reduced due to this. In the same time period Britain had far fewer women in the workforce than Germany for the simple reason that it was a richer country, and prior to the triumph of gender egalitarian ideology social status was enhanced by women devoting themselves to home-making.

    Contemporary gender egalitarianism is of course made possible by mechanization, but it came to triumph due to the social conquest of civilization by the ideas of second-wave feminism.

    You are more on the money when you focus on contraception, but prior to the conquest of second-wave feminism it is not true that rising prosperity enhanced gender egalitarianism. During the 1950s, a booming American economy saw the average marriage age fall and the total fertility rate rise–facts bitterly lamented by the ugly authoress Betty Friedan (who graduated from a college notorious for lesbianism) in The Feminine Mystique. Even the proportion of women attending college fell. All of this in the world’s most prosperous and mechanized civilization, which was then wealthier than India and the Ukraine are today.

  663. German_reader says:

    The attack on the Crimea bridge really gives a strange taste to that recent comment by Fukuyama and similar people “That escape route won’t stay open for long”. I suppose it’s just a coincidence, after all there has long been talk about taking out the bridge. But combined with something like the Ukrainians killing Dugin’s daugher (which the Americans believe they did) it’s more evidence that giving a blank check to Ukraine may be rather unwise.
    One also wonders how they did it technically. Unless Ukraine now produces suicide bombers, I suppose the driver of the truck that exploded wasn’t in on the operation.

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @German_reader


    One also wonders how they did it technically. Unless Ukraine now produces suicide bombers, I suppose the driver of the truck that exploded wasn’t in on the operation.
     
    There are versions floating about it really being rocket or even some fancy air/water drone, cause despite having the footage, the blast looked so huge and imminent onscreen that is still not entirely clear that if truck blew up first from inside or was blown by the outside blast force.

    If it wasn't truck bomb, guess more strikes will be done too, from purely UA military standpoint preferably at the time when fuel/military trains are coming by, cause atm it is main supply route for RF army in Kherson.

  664. Biden’s deliberate talk of ‘Armageddon’ which is literally creating hysteria in the United States and elsewhere. Liberally showing on US MSM recently Russian corpses along roads around Lyman (something they don’t normally do so much). This bridge blast the day after Putin’s birthday.

    They are pulling out all the stops in attempting to goad Putin into doing a nuclear strike in Ukraine.

    If they succeed, Kherson might be the place, with it’s 15,000 Russian personell which are slowly being surrounded. [If those men were to be captured by Ukraine, no doubt for propaganda purposes they would be marched through central Kiev in a mile(s) long surrender column. I doubt Putin could survive that spectacle.]

    If the US/UK succeeds in goading Putin into making even a ‘limited’ nuclear strike in Ukraine, then as GR has elaborated upon, the US can move to sink the Russian Black Sea fleet and attack the Russian army in Ukraine.

    That is where they then want Putin to attack US forces with battlefield nukes in Ukraine, or, perhaps elsewhere, which then gives the US/UK the cover to engage in a full blown nuclear exchange with Russia, something it has long desired. [Hope I’m entirely mistaken, of course, particularly with the nuke stuff. We’ll see how this latest craziness plays out.]

    [MORE]

    Purported ‘Crimean Bridge to Hell!’ Ukrainian postage stamps for sale on Ebay. [Surely fake, or, from earlier. Someone’s already profiting from this?]

    https://www.ebay.ch/itm/165715081119

    • Troll: QCIC
    • Replies: @A123
    @S


    That is where they then want Putin to attack US forces with battlefield nukes in Ukraine, or, perhaps elsewhere, which then gives the US/UK the cover to engage in a full blown nuclear exchange with Russia, something it has long desired. [Hope I’m entirely mistaken, of course, particularly with the nuke stuff. We’ll see how this latest craziness plays out.]
     
    Why would the U.S. want a nuclear war with Russia?

    There is no upside for Americans. Not-The-President Biden is a laughable figure who could not lead anyone anywhere. All sides realize that America is functionally leaderless. He is puppet controlled by masters on the far side of the Atlantic.
    ___

    Why would the European WEF (primarily Scholz & Macron) want a nuclear war?

    A limited exchange would result in the EU keeping the MENA origin Muslims travelling on forged Ukie documents. Perhaps Truss wants back onto this team, but the people of the UK are trying to toss her under the bus.

    Remember, the WEF's goal is The Great Replacement. The fighting in Ukraine is merely a tactic. The European Elites in control really do not care if the Kiev regime wins or loses. WEF success criteria is turning Ukraine into a failed state.

    PEACE 😇
    , @S
    @S


    If they succeed, Kherson might be the place, with it’s 15,000 Russian personnel which are slowly being surrounded. [If those men were to be captured by Ukraine, no doubt for propaganda purposes they would be marched through central Kiev in a mile(s) long surrender column. I doubt Putin could survive that spectacle.]
     
    Should things continue to deteriorate, and to prevent scenes like the below from occurring, particularly the bottom one under 'More', Putin might be goaded into using a tactical nuke at Kherson.

    If Putin fails to prevent Kherson from falling, and something like the scenes below take place, he might well be replaced by someone far more hardline, which is what the US/UK wants.

    https://youtu.be/zDs5mljMvWA





    https://youtu.be/XJXUHQmoMqc

    https://youtu.be/OSxzwjMvFb8k

    Replies: @Wokechoke

  665. “Ambassador” Melnyk celebrating, sees it as start of the “liberation” of Crimea:

    [MORE]

    • Replies: @songbird
    @German_reader

    In my ideal state, ambassadors would be recalled for using foul language and/or referencing American pop culture in anything but a disapproving way.

    Replies: @German_reader

  666. I think a lot of the NATO and the Ukrainian folk thinks this sort of stuff actually plays well, that this is good PR, they even brag about it. Actually this is one of the reasons they are losing, and losing badly, the diplomatic war in the rest of the world.

    Militarily meaningless of course, have read trains will be resuming passage this evening. See a lot of hyperventilating but I think the only outcome is Russia pushing for a bigger win, namely all the way to Odessa, and why the rest of the world will turn a blind eye to it.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @LondonBob

    A lot people wince when they see Bridges getting blown to bits.

  667. @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon


    The current great people’s conscription army appears to be training with AK-47s and not even AK-74s.
     
    Nonsense.

    AK-47 is a rarity. They are collectible.

    Yes well I'm sure people said that it would nonsense to use a T-62 in an invasion.

    And here we are.

    They are obviously dipping into old stocks.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19912509/inside-russias-shambolic-mobilisation-rusty-weapons-soviet-tanks/


    Even without suppressors the Ukrainians will have a strong advantage in urban combat.

     

    Ukrainians have mobilized half a million of civilians. What advantage are you talking about? Suppressors are useless without sub-sonic ammo, are used for special operations with such ammo due to short range of it, and are used for photoshots for Facebook and propaganda.

    A strong advantage comes from training and experience.

    Suppressors are used with supersonic ammo to hide the flash and change the sound profile because they are hearing the sonic boom and not the initial explosion. Basically makes it harder to tell where the sound is coming from. That is why special forces will use them with supersonic 223.

    So no it isn't a facebook thing or dumb trend. Next time trying asking without being so presumptuous.

    A red dot requires more training to be used because a habit has to be formed to get used to it. Regular troops do not use neither red dot nor night vision even in the U.S. army.

    I've had people shoot my red dot at 100 yards within minutes. So I think professional soldiers will handle them just fine.

    Go shoot an AK in low light with iron sights if you think this isn't a mismatch.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    I’m sure people said that it would nonsense to use a T-62 in an invasion. And here we are.

    They are obviously dipping into old stocks.

    The article in the British tabloid you reference features photos of some rusted AKM rifles with mismatched stocks and handguards. The source of these images is said to be Visegrad24 web site.

    The web site belongs to the Visegrád Group which is a political alliance of Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Each of these countries has piles of AK rifles that went out of use there a long time ago.

    How naive a man can be?

    It is obvious that these photos were taken for a propaganda article and have nothing to do with Russia, and a person who does not know the difference between AK-47 and AKM should never talk or write about weapons, let alone argue with a guns fan like me.

    As for the T-62 tanks those had been given as a gift to the Donbas republics before the war. It is normal when outdated but reliable equipment is used during a war.

    You think NATO does not send outdated gear to their proxies?

    [MORE]

    The AKM rifles Russians keep in their stock are well maintained. A part of these are sold on the civilian market being in excellent condition.

    Suppressors are used with supersonic ammo to hide the flash and change the sound profile. Makes it harder to tell where the sound is coming from. That is why special forces will use them with supersonic 223.

    AK rifles are of a different design and construction and due to that a suppressor does not reduce their sound blast enough to be useful with regular ammo. More so it is even dangerous to use a suppressor on an AK other than with subsonic rounds because of the increased pressure coming through the barrel into the piston. The gases come out of the vent holes and make a loud snap right before the face of the shooter.

    And it puts a lot of weight on the end of the barrel and makes the rifle uncomfortable to handle. Apart from the special operations when the subsonic rounds are used a suppressor on an AK is useless and meaningless.

    The higher pressure due to a suppressor slowing down the gas flow results in increasing the rate of automatic fire which can overload the internal mechanics of the rifle and cause it to fail during a firefight. It is the same for other rifles of the gas piston design as well. For this reason with a suppressor either the subsonic ammo is used or the rifle is used in a semi-automatic mode.

    Americans prefer and are trained to shoot in semi-auto in either case but Russians prefer full-auto, and with subsonic ammo the barrel pressure does not change.

    But for the American standard AR-15 rifles the opposite is true – these will not work with subsonic ammo because the pressure in insufficient for the rifle’s mechanics. Some American special forces used to use subsonic 5.56 rounds with modified short barrel carbins with a regulable gas block but it was unreliable so in the end the German and Belgian gas piston rifles were bought for them.

    With a short 10-inch barrel the sound blast is too close to one’s ears so it makes sense for them to use a suppressor with regular ammo to not damage their hearing but it does not mask where the shot comes from whatsoever – it is still loud due to the supersonic clap that occurs about 10-15 meters in front of the shooter.

    The AK-74 as well as AKM has a 16-inch barrel so it does not need a suppressor for protecting the hearing.

    So no it isn’t a facebook thing or dumb trend. Next time trying asking without being so presumptuous.

    Yes it is a propaganda thing. Some photoshoots for the internet.

    Suppressors are more expensive than either AK or AR-15 rifles and do not last long. These are issued to some special forces operators and are not used often in real life.

    You are clueless, son.

    I’ve had people shoot my red dot at 100 yards within minutes. So I think professional soldiers will handle them just fine.

    Ukraine does not have professional soldiers except those mercenaries from various paid battalions. For a regular conscript a red dot sight is not going to be useful until he gains some experience.

    Your friends shot on the range at a target that does not move and does not shoot back.

    Go shoot an AK in low light with iron sights if you think this isn’t a mismatch.

    Define the low light.

    At night a non-illuminated target will be harder to see through the dimmed glass of the red dot sight. It does not make much sense to see the dot if the target is not seen behind it, does it?

    The Ukrainians actually found Russian conscripts with mosin nagants. Yes that means the Russians actually sent men to the front with bolt action rifles.

    You are a dumb paid troll, stop degrading this thread with this stupid crap.

    Russians have not sent conscripts to the front so far and those who were seen with the Mosin rifles were the Donbas militias. Yes a bolt action rifle is more accurate and simple to use, and a sniper Mosin with a scope is good up to 800 meters.

    There is nothing wrong with using those rifles.

    • Replies: @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon

    The article in the British tabloid you reference features photos of some rusted AKM rifles with mismatched stocks and handguards. The source of these images is said to be Visegrad24 web site.

    So you are certain that Russia is not issuing AK-47s? You believe the conscripts are properly equipped and cell phone videos of ancient equipment are fake?

    AK rifles are of a different design and construction and due to that a suppressor does not reduce their sound blast enough to be useful with regular ammo.

    The Ukrainians have their own AR/AK hybrid that shoots 7.62x39 and some squads have suppressors:
    https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/Ukraine-Issues-7-62-x-39-AR-47-Mash-Up-Rifles-Interesting-/121-732781/

    Suppressors are more expensive than either AK or AR-15 rifles and do not last long. These are issued to some special forces operators and are not used often in real life.

    That is not true. You can buy a quality suppressor for around $650
    https://www.silencercentral.com/shop/silencers/rifle/223-556/

    No basis in the belief that they don't last long:
    https://www.silencercentral.com/blog/how-long-do-suppressors-last/

    You are working from 1980s information or something.

    But for the American standard AR-15 rifles the opposite is true – these will not work with subsonic ammo

    I never claimed that they are used for subsonic ammo. You are the one that said that it is pointless to use them with supersonic which is false.

    Why do you think there is a market for 223 suppressors? Why do you think militaries use them? As I said it changes the sound profile and hides the flash. Stop digging your own grave. Admit you were wrong and move on.

    At night a non-illuminated target will be harder to see through the dimmed glass of the red dot sight. It does not make much sense to see the dot if the target is not seen behind it, does it?

    Yes I'm sure our special forces are clueless for using red dots and you the firearms expert of Unz is certain that irons will be fine.

    You can't see the iron sights once it gets dark. So you see something moving in moonlight, raise the rifle and you can't see your irons.

    Unlike you I have shot rifles with both in low light. You would be out of your mind to suggest that a team with red dots will be equal to a team with irons.

    Without a proper flash hider they will be blinded by the flash as well.

    Unlike you and Putin the Ukrainians have done their homework and will most likely attack these new conscripts at night for this reason. Putin's army of bakers and barbers will be running around with AK-47s and shooting at shadows. Ukrainians will come in with suppressed weapons and night vision and pick them off.

    Russians have not sent conscripts to the front so far and those who were seen with the Mosin rifles were the Donbas militias.

    Hilarious that you think it's fine if the militas have nagants.

    Russia made over 100 million AK-47s and you are actually trying to defend equipping fighting men with bolt action rifles.

    Does being a militia make them less deserving of having a weapon from at least the 1960s? Hitler was able to arm Polish-German separatists with machine guns and grenades in 1939 but Putin isn't able to do that in 2022?

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

  668. @S
    Biden's deliberate talk of 'Armageddon' which is literally creating hysteria in the United States and elsewhere. Liberally showing on US MSM recently Russian corpses along roads around Lyman (something they don't normally do so much). This bridge blast the day after Putin's birthday.

    They are pulling out all the stops in attempting to goad Putin into doing a nuclear strike in Ukraine.

    If they succeed, Kherson might be the place, with it's 15,000 Russian personell which are slowly being surrounded. [If those men were to be captured by Ukraine, no doubt for propaganda purposes they would be marched through central Kiev in a mile(s) long surrender column. I doubt Putin could survive that spectacle.]

    If the US/UK succeeds in goading Putin into making even a 'limited' nuclear strike in Ukraine, then as GR has elaborated upon, the US can move to sink the Russian Black Sea fleet and attack the Russian army in Ukraine.

    That is where they then want Putin to attack US forces with battlefield nukes in Ukraine, or, perhaps elsewhere, which then gives the US/UK the cover to engage in a full blown nuclear exchange with Russia, something it has long desired. [Hope I'm entirely mistaken, of course, particularly with the nuke stuff. We'll see how this latest craziness plays out.]


    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2022/10/GettyImages-1243809829.jpg

    https://youtu.be/S-juPsPG6FE



    Purported 'Crimean Bridge to Hell!' Ukrainian postage stamps for sale on Ebay. [Surely fake, or, from earlier. Someone's already profiting from this?]

    https://www.ebay.ch/itm/165715081119

    https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/04EAAOSw0GVjQTrb/s-l400.jpg

    https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/qTUAAOSw9HJjQTrf/s-l400.jpg

    https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/SpkAAOSwSS1jQTrb/s-l400.jpg

    Replies: @A123, @S

    That is where they then want Putin to attack US forces with battlefield nukes in Ukraine, or, perhaps elsewhere, which then gives the US/UK the cover to engage in a full blown nuclear exchange with Russia, something it has long desired. [Hope I’m entirely mistaken, of course, particularly with the nuke stuff. We’ll see how this latest craziness plays out.]

    Why would the U.S. want a nuclear war with Russia?

    There is no upside for Americans. Not-The-President Biden is a laughable figure who could not lead anyone anywhere. All sides realize that America is functionally leaderless. He is puppet controlled by masters on the far side of the Atlantic.
    ___

    Why would the European WEF (primarily Scholz & Macron) want a nuclear war?

    A limited exchange would result in the EU keeping the MENA origin Muslims travelling on forged Ukie documents. Perhaps Truss wants back onto this team, but the people of the UK are trying to toss her under the bus.

    Remember, the WEF’s goal is The Great Replacement. The fighting in Ukraine is merely a tactic. The European Elites in control really do not care if the Kiev regime wins or loses. WEF success criteria is turning Ukraine into a failed state.

    PEACE 😇

  669. @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon

    Of the 20-30 people here at least a half are paid trolls. Monitor of Halls and John Johnson write half of the comments being written here. Monitor of Halls has been writing like he is on amphetamine since the announcement of mobilization.

    I didn't post in this thread until comment #487.

    Yes you and a few dozen people here want to believe that the pro-Ukrainian posters MUST be paid. It couldn't be possible that some of us actually oppose this needless war.

    Here are 200k Russians that don't support the war:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcMvA4kSB5A

    That's 200k Rusisan men fleeing into Kazakhstan alone.

    MUST ALL BE PAID JEWS AT THE BORDER DERP. COULDN'T BE THAT PUTIN FUCKED UP BEYOND BELIEF.

    I have a friend over there who may be dead so this is personal to me. Maybe someday I'll talk about the sad excuses for this war by his grave. I'll see what he thinks.

    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don't like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Bashibuzuk, @Here Be Dragon

    You and a few dozen people here want to believe that the pro-Ukrainian posters MUST be paid. It couldn’t be possible that some of us actually oppose this needless war.

    Some indeed oppose the war and others support it. You might not be paid (though I doubt that) but you are for sure a troll. You do not write anything but these boring, stupid and monotonous diatribes time after time. Your comments are all the same and you are simply flooding the thread with this garbage that no one here wants to read.

    You repost trolling crap from Ukrainian propaganda press paraphrasing it and call it a comment?

    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don’t like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum.

    Were you a normal participant here you would have known that I am rather anti-Putin and not even at all pro-Russia. I am pro-Socialist, pro-USSR and pro-Buddhist. I do not need Andrew Anglin to tell me about Putin and Christians, let alone about Jews – I know more about them than anyone here.

    Nationalism of any kind is disgusting to me. I am anti-nationalist, anti-LGBT and anti-Christian, as well as anti-Satanist. Therefore I am anti-Ukraine. And you are a paid troll, sweetheart.

    We see your true colors 🙂

  670. @Here Be Dragon
    @AP


    If autosomal genes were unrecognizable, than DNA tests wouldn’t be able to accurately identify relatives through one’s non-patrilinear or non-matrilinear grandparents.
     
    There are no such grandparents :)

    One's grandparents are either patrilineal, or matrilineal. Or we have a virgin birth here? That can happen — the Pope said!

    However the Buddha was even cooler. He was born in a lotus flower.

    Or paternity tests wouldn’t work with female children.
     
    But that test indeed does not work with females.

    A woman who is not sure whether a particular man is her father or not cannot prove it if she does not have a twin brother or something.

    It is strange that a doctor does not know this.

    Autosomal genes do not become unrecognizable through mutation; rather they get mixed between grandparents.
     
    That is right, I guess I used a wrong term. The right word should have been recombination. But at the same time autosomes are more mutable than sex chromosomes.

    About half of your father’s genes come from his mother, and about half of your mother’s genes come from her father. But they are mixed up with each other in the autosomes.
     
    These are mutable genes and through the course of four generations they change a lot. Your great-grandfather's autosomes are different from yours.

    We do not get the same entire chromosomes from our grandparents, but a mix of them (as our parents have got them mixed) so that genetic content of each pair of chromosomes is changed and different from what our grandparents passed to our parents — except for the sex chromosomes.

    And during this process of recombination it is not the same mathematical share of the genes that all grandchildren of a particular person inherit from him. There are variations.

    "Two grandchildren are fortunate to have three grandparents and one great-grandparent available for matching. For comparison purposes, let’s take a look at how many matches each grandchild has in common with their grandparents and great-grandparent."

    "It’s interesting that the matches in 3 generations to the great-grandmother vary by 55%. The second tester has almost twice as many matches in common with her great-grandmother as does the first tester."

    DNA Inherited from Grandparents and Great-Grandparents
    https://dna-explained.com/2020/01/14/dna-inherited-from-grandparents-and-great-grandparents/

    So in fact we do not know how much of autosomes we inherit from our great-grandparents. We do know that these are recombined, mixed and matched and messed up and come in different shares to different great-grandchildren, and often mutate on top of that.

    The sex chromosomes however do not change as much and come from the mother of our mother and the father of our father unaltered, the same as passed to them by the fathers of their fathers, and the mothers of their mothers.

    The rest of our genes are more generic and less significant.

    Traits such as intelligence are linked to genes from various chromosomes (particularly chromosome 10, which is not a sex chromosome).
     
    That research did not prove it and is not important.

    A number of other unrelated researches have been conducted in China and in Britain, and the results obtained in both countries determined that most of all intelligence is dependent on the genes contained in the X-chromosome.

    "16% of the IQ-related genes are located on X chromosome. It is reported that only 3.4% of all human genes belong to X chromosome. The obvious contrast may indicate that the IQ-related genes are over-represented on X chromosome."

    "The further enrichment analysis identified 10 genomic regions with significantly larger amount of IQ-related genes. Among 10 regions, 4 belong to X chromosome."

    A biology approach to identify intelligence genomic regions
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3933868/

    This is the more recent Chinese research. And the other ones earlier in Europe led to similar conclusions.

    "The autosomes and the sex chromosomes differ in their evolutionary origins, a fact that may have implications for the distinct contribution made by the X-chromosome to mental functioning."

    "Natural selection has favoured the development of X-linked genes that are associated with higher cognitive abilities."

    "Genes on the X-chromosome not only influence general intelligence, but also have relatively specific effects on social–cognition and emotional regulation."

    X-linked genes and mental functioning
    https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article/14/suppl_1/R27/560887

    For that reason Jews determine Jewishness through the female line. And as a matter of fact Jews figured it out centuries ago.

    How?

    Because Jews are smart!

    Depending on the combination, one can resemble and have the character of any one of one’s grandparents. I look like my father and my paternal grandfather.
     
    That is normal. Or perhaps rather half normal.

    I look like the maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather of mine. I did not inherit the traits of the maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother of mine at all.

    And I have a cousin to whom the maternal grandfather of mine is his paternal grandfather. Guess what he looks like.

    He cousin inherited the features of his paternal grandfather and his maternal grandmother, the same as I did from those of mine. He did not inherit the features of his paternal grandmother – I did.

    It is notable because each of them had some notable traits. And it is seen and often comes out in our character. Me and him are incompatible and different people.

    My aunt’s sons resemble her, who looks just like her father. So they look like their maternal grandfather.
     
    That must have happened due to genetic anomalies common among these so-called nobles having children with their cousins and nephews. It is a common problem among the rich – inbreeding in order to keep the wealth in the clan.

    Here is a noble Arab princess (for an example).

    https://i.postimg.cc/zX69kty8/Harem-2.jpg

    Replies: @AP

    “If autosomal genes were unrecognizable, than DNA tests wouldn’t be able to accurately identify relatives through one’s non-patrilinear or non-matrilinear grandparents.”

    There are no such grandparents 🙂

    One’s grandparents are either patrilineal, or matrilineal

    You know what I meant.

    Or paternity tests wouldn’t work with female children.

    But that test indeed does not work with females.

    A woman who is not sure whether a particular man is her father or not cannot prove it if she does not have a twin brother or something.

    Nonsense. Paternity tests are often used for female children. They will simply show that the girl shares about 50% of her genetic heritage with the man. This is good enough proof, and why such tests are used (a full sibling also shares about 50% of genetic material so some common sense is also necessary).

    Autosomal genes do not become unrecognizable through mutation; rather they get mixed between grandparents.

    That is right, I guess I used a wrong term. The right word should have been recombination.

    Correct. What this means is that the child or grandchild will have those genes (from maternal grandfather or paternal grandmother) but it can’t be determined from which specific grandparent they came. You would have to test those grandparents or a cousin through one of those grandparent’s lines in order to determine that.

    But you still have those genes from those grandparents; they will be about 25% of your genes from each one. They just can’t be traced directly. Only the sex chromosomes can be.

    Your great-grandfather’s autosomes are different from yours

    Sure. You only share about 12.5% with the great-grandfather (there is slight variation). If one of them is the sex chromosome than you can trace descent directly. Otherwise, DNA tests can’t prove direct descent only shared heritage (I.e., could be a grandparent’s brother or sister instead of a great-grandparent, those will have a similar percentage of shared genetic heritage). But you still have those same genes.

    And during this process of recombination it is not the same mathematical share of the genes that all grandchildren of a particular person inherit from him. There are variations

    This is correct. It doesn’t make a big difference for children or grandchildren but over several generations the variation can have an impact. So some people may have inherited a lot more genes from each of their great-grandparents than other people did, though the average from each great-grandparent would be about 12.5%. Eventually, after many centuries, one can have almost zero shared heritage with an ancestor…or not.

    The sex chromosomes are constant, but they are a very small percentage of one’s overall genes. Almost zero for Y-chromosomes.

    16% of the IQ-related genes are located on X chromosome. It is reported that only 3.4% of all human genes belong to X chromosome

    This shows that the X chromosome is indeed over represented and also that most the the genes determining intelligence are autosomal- 84%!

    “My aunt’s sons resemble her, who looks just like her father. So they look like their maternal grandfather.”

    That must have happened due to genetic anomalies common among these so-called nobles having children with their cousins and nephews

    This occurred with royals who were more free to flaunt Church restrictions, not nobles.

    And in this (my cousin’s) case it was from the peasant side of the family.

    It is a common problem among the rich – inbreeding in order to keep the wealth in the clan.

    In Muslim lands, close cousin marriages are very common. It seems to have been existed among Jews also, likely due to small population, which is why Jews often have genetic disorders.

    The Christian Church banned close marriages so among nobles cousin marriages involved 4th cousins or so, not close ones.

    And btw the healthiest offspring are not produced from pairings between very different or totally unrelated people, but from 3rd and 4th cousins (least healthy are from 1st and 2nd cousins):

    https://www.nature.com/articles/news.2008.562

    This may be one reason why nobles were generally healthier, stronger and smarter than commoners (or inbred royals).

  671. Sabotage of the railway system in northern Germany, stopping rail traffic for hours:
    https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2022/sabotage-sorgt-fuer-bahnchaos/

    Apparently cables were cut in both Dortmund and Berlin, also special knowledge required, so clearly not just random vandalism.

    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader


    Apparently cables were cut in both Dortmund and Berlin, also special knowledge required, so clearly not just random vandalism.
     
    Communications, not power, cables (1)

    Der Spiegel magazine was more specific about the "sabotage" and said communication network cables for Deutsche Bahn were severed in two places.

    This isn't the first time "sabotage" has been in the news. The disruption comes after EU leaders say acts of "sabotage" blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines that run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.

    NATO and EU stressed that member countries need to secure critical infrastructure against potential attacks.
     
    While requiring some special industrial knowledge there is nothing implicating a state actor.

    Total outage ~ 3 hours. On a Saturday, so it did not impact business commuters.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/northern-germany-rail-network-disrupted-after-sabotage-communication-cables

    Replies: @German_reader

  672. @German_reader
    "Ambassador" Melnyk celebrating, sees it as start of the "liberation" of Crimea:

    https://twitter.com/MelnykAndrij/status/1578671329565634561?cxt=HHwWgsDT_bjNyOgrAAAA

    Replies: @songbird

    In my ideal state, ambassadors would be recalled for using foul language and/or referencing American pop culture in anything but a disapproving way.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @songbird

    The guy is just a total piece of shit, absolute fanatic who constantly goes on how ALL Russians are enemies and worships Bandera, yet also tries to play on German guilt, calls AfD "far right" etc. And it works, he's the darling of Greens and other shitlibs. If we all get incinerated for such people, it will be the dumbest end to civilization possible.

    Replies: @AP

  673. German_reader says:
    @songbird
    @German_reader

    In my ideal state, ambassadors would be recalled for using foul language and/or referencing American pop culture in anything but a disapproving way.

    Replies: @German_reader

    The guy is just a total piece of shit, absolute fanatic who constantly goes on how ALL Russians are enemies and worships Bandera, yet also tries to play on German guilt, calls AfD “far right” etc. And it works, he’s the darling of Greens and other shitlibs. If we all get incinerated for such people, it will be the dumbest end to civilization possible.

    • Agree: Mikhail, songbird
    • Replies: @AP
    @German_reader

    If it works then he is an effective diplomat: apparently the German establishment responds well to such treatment. The fault lies with the Germans and not with the Ukrainians for selecting an effective diplomatic for service in Germany. Your anger is misdirected.

    Ukraine didn’t send such a person to Poland or the USA.

    Replies: @German_reader

  674. @German_reader
    Sabotage of the railway system in northern Germany, stopping rail traffic for hours:
    https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2022/sabotage-sorgt-fuer-bahnchaos/

    Apparently cables were cut in both Dortmund and Berlin, also special knowledge required, so clearly not just random vandalism.

    Replies: @A123

    Apparently cables were cut in both Dortmund and Berlin, also special knowledge required, so clearly not just random vandalism.

    Communications, not power, cables (1)

    Der Spiegel magazine was more specific about the “sabotage” and said communication network cables for Deutsche Bahn were severed in two places.

    This isn’t the first time “sabotage” has been in the news. The disruption comes after EU leaders say acts of “sabotage” blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines that run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.

    NATO and EU stressed that member countries need to secure critical infrastructure against potential attacks.

    While requiring some special industrial knowledge there is nothing implicating a state actor.

    Total outage ~ 3 hours. On a Saturday, so it did not impact business commuters.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/northern-germany-rail-network-disrupted-after-sabotage-communication-cables

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @A123


    While requiring some special industrial knowledge there is nothing implicating a state actor.
     
    Indeed, could also just be entirely domestic, Antifa types have committed sabotage against the railway system before. Still ominous given the general circumstances of the times.

    Replies: @A123, @Bashibuzuk

  675. @A123
    @German_reader


    Apparently cables were cut in both Dortmund and Berlin, also special knowledge required, so clearly not just random vandalism.
     
    Communications, not power, cables (1)

    Der Spiegel magazine was more specific about the "sabotage" and said communication network cables for Deutsche Bahn were severed in two places.

    This isn't the first time "sabotage" has been in the news. The disruption comes after EU leaders say acts of "sabotage" blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines that run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.

    NATO and EU stressed that member countries need to secure critical infrastructure against potential attacks.
     
    While requiring some special industrial knowledge there is nothing implicating a state actor.

    Total outage ~ 3 hours. On a Saturday, so it did not impact business commuters.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/northern-germany-rail-network-disrupted-after-sabotage-communication-cables

    Replies: @German_reader

    While requiring some special industrial knowledge there is nothing implicating a state actor.

    Indeed, could also just be entirely domestic, Antifa types have committed sabotage against the railway system before. Still ominous given the general circumstances of the times.

    • Replies: @A123
    @German_reader



    While requiring some special industrial knowledge there is nothing implicating a state actor.
     
    Indeed, could also just be entirely domestic, Antifa types have committed sabotage against the railway system before. Still ominous given the general circumstances of the times.
     
    The Fascist Stormtroopers of Antifa tend to be more showy and openly claim credit. They would be inclined to tamper with the system so a signal stays green when it should be red.
    • Some type of wacky Green protest? Possible.
    • A pair of current or former rail employees with complaint? Also, possible.

    It is hard to see any possible benefit at the nation state-level.

    PEACE 😇
    , @Bashibuzuk
    @German_reader

    War in Ukraine is also an economic Anglo-saxon war against continental Europe, of which Germany is the industrial core.

    The goal is the destruction of the European middle class and a substantial reduction of the global one.

    https://asiatimes.com/2022/10/global-margin-call-hits-european-debt-markets/

    German elites probably know and understand this better than anyone, but they are basically part of the occupation administration.

    They cannot raise against their handlers.

    They are good dogs that don't bite the hand that feeds.



    If even these nihilistic trolls from Ramstein get it right, then German politicians can't claim ignorance and misunderstanding as a mitigating circumstance.

    https://youtu.be/NeQM1c-XCDc

    (I have always liked Einstürzende Neubauten more, they feel more genuine...)

    Replies: @S, @LondonBob

  676. @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikhail

    Mikhail, I start to suspect that AP was right about you not reading Russian...

    Replies: @Mikhail

    In this instance, you’re carrying on like that individual, who will periodically divert from what has been presented.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikhail

    Миша, Вы скорее всего неплохой человек и в некотором смысле Русский патриот. К сожалению, Вы ошибаетесь: РесФед (Ресурсная Федерация, к сожалению не переводится) - не Россия.

    If you read Russian then you should have no problems properly understanding what I just wrote above. Also, if you read Russian you should read what Russian nationalists, such as Konstantin Krylov or Yegor Prosvirnin have written about the RusFed.

    Both of them died, Krylov accused of being an extremist, convicted, censored and driven into abject poverty where he had to sell his belongings to feed his children, and Prosvirnin committed suicide (most probably was killed like Tesak - Martsinkevitch before him) a few months prior to the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

    Both were sincere patriots of their homeland and people, and both were stomped into the ground by Putin's regime like many thousands of others who wished Russian people well before them. On the other hand, Chubais and Abramovich are still living their days mostly unbothered and enjoying the fruits of their plundering of Russian lands' ressources.

    Poor Russian and Ukrainian Slavs have been goaded into killing each other by adroit puppeteers. Both people are earmarked for slaughter. A wise and decent man should not take sides into a rigged and immoral fight between two blindfolded and dumbed down populations.

    Как-то так...

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Mikhail

  677. @Yevardian
    @John Johnson


    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don’t like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.
     
    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum even before the Ukraine War started. I recall it's entry being marked by an thread of 1000+ comments consisting mostly of inanities between it and AaronB (an occasionally decent poster), then diagnosing people with various psychological hangups and disorders.
    Notice nobody has ever accused LatW, suddendeath, Mr. Hack, utu, Peter Akuleyev of being shills despite their pro-Ukrainian views. Only exception I know is our indomitable wordsmith (I would pay to hear his native Мат) Gerard and his neverending crusade against AP.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Beckow, @Mr. Hack, @Mikel, @Wokechoke

    Hack has always come across as a shill, sometimes a sincere one.

    • Agree: Here Be Dragon
  678. @German_reader
    @songbird

    The guy is just a total piece of shit, absolute fanatic who constantly goes on how ALL Russians are enemies and worships Bandera, yet also tries to play on German guilt, calls AfD "far right" etc. And it works, he's the darling of Greens and other shitlibs. If we all get incinerated for such people, it will be the dumbest end to civilization possible.

    Replies: @AP

    If it works then he is an effective diplomat: apparently the German establishment responds well to such treatment. The fault lies with the Germans and not with the Ukrainians for selecting an effective diplomatic for service in Germany. Your anger is misdirected.

    Ukraine didn’t send such a person to Poland or the USA.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @AP


    Ukraine didn’t send such a person to Poland or the USA.
     
    iirc Ukraine has also put quite a few Americans on its list of "Kremlin propagandists" (presumably to be tried in a war crimes tribunal according to the likes of Melnyk), and I'm pretty sure I've seen Americans online who thought it was stunningly insolent behaviour for a country that is so dependent on foreign support.
    It may work for now, but whether it will long-term (provided there is a long-term and the world doesn't end in the coming months) is an open question.
    You are right however that the fault lies with Germany insofar as any country with self-respect would have expelled Melnyk, permanently banned from him entering ever again, and blocked all his obnoxious tweets.
  679. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Mikhail
    @Bashibuzuk

    In this instance, you're carrying on like that individual, who will periodically divert from what has been presented.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    Миша, Вы скорее всего неплохой человек и в некотором смысле Русский патриот. К сожалению, Вы ошибаетесь: РесФед (Ресурсная Федерация, к сожалению не переводится) – не Россия.

    [MORE]

    If you read Russian then you should have no problems properly understanding what I just wrote above. Also, if you read Russian you should read what Russian nationalists, such as Konstantin Krylov or Yegor Prosvirnin have written about the RusFed.

    Both of them died, Krylov accused of being an extremist, convicted, censored and driven into abject poverty where he had to sell his belongings to feed his children, and Prosvirnin committed suicide (most probably was killed like Tesak – Martsinkevitch before him) a few months prior to the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

    Both were sincere patriots of their homeland and people, and both were stomped into the ground by Putin’s regime like many thousands of others who wished Russian people well before them. On the other hand, Chubais and Abramovich are still living their days mostly unbothered and enjoying the fruits of their plundering of Russian lands’ ressources.

    Poor Russian and Ukrainian Slavs have been goaded into killing each other by adroit puppeteers. Both people are earmarked for slaughter. A wise and decent man should not take sides into a rigged and immoral fight between two blindfolded and dumbed down populations.

    Как-то так…

    • Disagree: Mikhail
    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Bashibuzuk

    There is a documentary Weight of Chains by a Serbian-Canadian on youtube. The entire two hours is a bit overboard but there is an amazing interval near the beginning of excerpts from Serbian and Croatian television before the Yugo civil war was boosted into high gear.

    For the Croats: Serbs = Chetniks
    For the Serbs: Croats = Ustase

    The documentary maker claims this was on the television there all day every day to get the regular people into a rabid lunacy.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEYQ46gH08

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Mikhail, @S, @S

    , @Mikhail
    @Bashibuzuk

    Overall, your comments of late appear more agreeable to svidos than reasonable pro-Russian folks. Yes, Russia is far from perfect. There's also the matter of the Kiev regime being a corrupt, undemocratic and neo-Nazi influenced entity with blood on its hands.

    Replies: @John Johnson, @Bashibuzuk

  680. @German_reader
    @A123


    While requiring some special industrial knowledge there is nothing implicating a state actor.
     
    Indeed, could also just be entirely domestic, Antifa types have committed sabotage against the railway system before. Still ominous given the general circumstances of the times.

    Replies: @A123, @Bashibuzuk

    While requiring some special industrial knowledge there is nothing implicating a state actor.

    Indeed, could also just be entirely domestic, Antifa types have committed sabotage against the railway system before. Still ominous given the general circumstances of the times.

    The Fascist Stormtroopers of Antifa tend to be more showy and openly claim credit. They would be inclined to tamper with the system so a signal stays green when it should be red.
    • Some type of wacky Green protest? Possible.
    • A pair of current or former rail employees with complaint? Also, possible.

    It is hard to see any possible benefit at the nation state-level.

    PEACE 😇

  681. German_reader says:
    @AP
    @German_reader

    If it works then he is an effective diplomat: apparently the German establishment responds well to such treatment. The fault lies with the Germans and not with the Ukrainians for selecting an effective diplomatic for service in Germany. Your anger is misdirected.

    Ukraine didn’t send such a person to Poland or the USA.

    Replies: @German_reader

    Ukraine didn’t send such a person to Poland or the USA.

    iirc Ukraine has also put quite a few Americans on its list of “Kremlin propagandists” (presumably to be tried in a war crimes tribunal according to the likes of Melnyk), and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Americans online who thought it was stunningly insolent behaviour for a country that is so dependent on foreign support.
    It may work for now, but whether it will long-term (provided there is a long-term and the world doesn’t end in the coming months) is an open question.
    You are right however that the fault lies with Germany insofar as any country with self-respect would have expelled Melnyk, permanently banned from him entering ever again, and blocked all his obnoxious tweets.

  682. @German_reader
    The attack on the Crimea bridge really gives a strange taste to that recent comment by Fukuyama and similar people "That escape route won't stay open for long". I suppose it's just a coincidence, after all there has long been talk about taking out the bridge. But combined with something like the Ukrainians killing Dugin's daugher (which the Americans believe they did) it's more evidence that giving a blank check to Ukraine may be rather unwise.
    One also wonders how they did it technically. Unless Ukraine now produces suicide bombers, I suppose the driver of the truck that exploded wasn't in on the operation.

    Replies: @sudden death

    One also wonders how they did it technically. Unless Ukraine now produces suicide bombers, I suppose the driver of the truck that exploded wasn’t in on the operation.

    There are versions floating about it really being rocket or even some fancy air/water drone, cause despite having the footage, the blast looked so huge and imminent onscreen that is still not entirely clear that if truck blew up first from inside or was blown by the outside blast force.

    If it wasn’t truck bomb, guess more strikes will be done too, from purely UA military standpoint preferably at the time when fuel/military trains are coming by, cause atm it is main supply route for RF army in Kherson.

  683. Bashibuzuk says:
    @German_reader
    @A123


    While requiring some special industrial knowledge there is nothing implicating a state actor.
     
    Indeed, could also just be entirely domestic, Antifa types have committed sabotage against the railway system before. Still ominous given the general circumstances of the times.

    Replies: @A123, @Bashibuzuk

    War in Ukraine is also an economic Anglo-saxon war against continental Europe, of which Germany is the industrial core.

    The goal is the destruction of the European middle class and a substantial reduction of the global one.

    https://asiatimes.com/2022/10/global-margin-call-hits-european-debt-markets/

    German elites probably know and understand this better than anyone, but they are basically part of the occupation administration.

    They cannot raise against their handlers.

    They are good dogs that don’t bite the hand that feeds.

    [MORE]

    If even these nihilistic trolls from Ramstein get it right, then German politicians can’t claim ignorance and misunderstanding as a mitigating circumstance.

    (I have always liked Einstürzende Neubauten more, they feel more genuine…)

    • Agree: Yevardian
    • Thanks: S
    • Replies: @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    If even these nihilistic trolls from Ramstein get it right, then German politicians can’t claim ignorance and misunderstanding as a mitigating circumstance.
     
    Rammstein also gave us Amerika...

    https://youtu.be/Rr8ljRgcJNM

    Replies: @Coconuts

    , @LondonBob
    @Bashibuzuk

    Sure, 'Anglo-Saxons'.

    The German political elite have been vociferous supporters of the war.

    https://strategic-culture.org/news/2022/10/03/tearing-down-the-pantheon-of-western-founders-and-heroes/

    Replies: @German_reader, @Bashibuzuk

  684. @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikhail

    Миша, Вы скорее всего неплохой человек и в некотором смысле Русский патриот. К сожалению, Вы ошибаетесь: РесФед (Ресурсная Федерация, к сожалению не переводится) - не Россия.

    If you read Russian then you should have no problems properly understanding what I just wrote above. Also, if you read Russian you should read what Russian nationalists, such as Konstantin Krylov or Yegor Prosvirnin have written about the RusFed.

    Both of them died, Krylov accused of being an extremist, convicted, censored and driven into abject poverty where he had to sell his belongings to feed his children, and Prosvirnin committed suicide (most probably was killed like Tesak - Martsinkevitch before him) a few months prior to the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

    Both were sincere patriots of their homeland and people, and both were stomped into the ground by Putin's regime like many thousands of others who wished Russian people well before them. On the other hand, Chubais and Abramovich are still living their days mostly unbothered and enjoying the fruits of their plundering of Russian lands' ressources.

    Poor Russian and Ukrainian Slavs have been goaded into killing each other by adroit puppeteers. Both people are earmarked for slaughter. A wise and decent man should not take sides into a rigged and immoral fight between two blindfolded and dumbed down populations.

    Как-то так...

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Mikhail

    There is a documentary Weight of Chains by a Serbian-Canadian on youtube. The entire two hours is a bit overboard but there is an amazing interval near the beginning of excerpts from Serbian and Croatian television before the Yugo civil war was boosted into high gear.

    For the Croats: Serbs = Chetniks
    For the Serbs: Croats = Ustase

    The documentary maker claims this was on the television there all day every day to get the regular people into a rabid lunacy.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    ⁹Yes, that's the way it works, that is why Pynya waited for eight years before starting his war. It was the time required for the propaganda on both sides of the frontline to reprogram both Russians and Ukrainians so that they would utterly destroy each other.

    Once it is done, the whole Realm of Rus (ancestral to both populations) will be ready to be reset and used in a manner that suits the goals of the Globalist Cabal. The bellicose Eastern Slavs will profitably be finally tamed, and would become obedient Eastern Slaves, just like their German neighbors to the West have been goaded into aggression, bled and tamed into today's letzter Menschen - German Western Slaves.

    And yeah, a (limited?) nuclear war is more probable with every passing day.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mikhail

    , @Mikhail
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Did you see him in a Duran segment within the past week? He asked me to be in that documentary at a time when I couldn't connect with him in the production process.

    Chetniks more preferable to Ustashe.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    , @S
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    For the Croats: Serbs = Chetniks
    For the Serbs: Croats = Ustase

    The documentary maker claims this was on the television there all day every day to get the regular people into a rabid lunacy.
     
    That's why I don't watch TV and stick to DVD's. :-)


    https://youtu.be/MQHlINcKLuI

    'We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.'

    'The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.'

    'We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.'

    'This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.'

    'Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet. They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure.'

    'Whatever attitude one chooses toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons—a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty million—who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses.'

    'It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.' Propaganda (1928) by Edward Bernays - pg 23
     
    https://archive.org/details/propaganda-edward-l.-bernays/page/n23/mode/2up
    , @S
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    For the Croats: Serbs = Chetniks
    For the Serbs: Croats = Ustase

    The documentary maker claims this was on the television there all day every day to get the regular people into a rabid lunacy.
     

    Kind of like, depending where one lives and point of view, how (somehow) Putin, Zelensky, and Trump, were (and are) all 'Nazis'! simultaneously according to the corporate mass media.

    It makes sense in that the powers that be don't really like substantive identity, physical and, or, cultural, even if the 'identity' is often only empty symbolism of empty symbolism...cough..Trump...cough!..Putin.

    Yes, here and there, various typically small, powerless, or compromised in some way, groups are allowed a bit of identity, as it is politically useful for the moment, or, it simply makes the promoters of the genocidal (in the truest sense of that much abused term) Multi-Cultural system feel a little bit better about themselves and sleep more peacefully at night..

    The Proles and Animals are free.

    Replies: @A123

  685. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Bashibuzuk

    There is a documentary Weight of Chains by a Serbian-Canadian on youtube. The entire two hours is a bit overboard but there is an amazing interval near the beginning of excerpts from Serbian and Croatian television before the Yugo civil war was boosted into high gear.

    For the Croats: Serbs = Chetniks
    For the Serbs: Croats = Ustase

    The documentary maker claims this was on the television there all day every day to get the regular people into a rabid lunacy.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEYQ46gH08

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Mikhail, @S, @S

    ⁹Yes, that’s the way it works, that is why Pynya waited for eight years before starting his war. It was the time required for the propaganda on both sides of the frontline to reprogram both Russians and Ukrainians so that they would utterly destroy each other.

    Once it is done, the whole Realm of Rus (ancestral to both populations) will be ready to be reset and used in a manner that suits the goals of the Globalist Cabal. The bellicose Eastern Slavs will profitably be finally tamed, and would become obedient Eastern Slaves, just like their German neighbors to the West have been goaded into aggression, bled and tamed into today’s letzter Menschen – German Western Slaves.

    And yeah, a (limited?) nuclear war is more probable with every passing day.

    • Agree: S
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Bashibuzuk

    So as of today, what would you propose to end this war?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    , @Mikhail
    @Bashibuzuk


    And yeah, a (limited?) nuclear war is more probable with every passing day.
     
    The exact basis the US used for using the A bomb.
  686. @Yevardian
    @John Johnson


    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don’t like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.
     
    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum even before the Ukraine War started. I recall it's entry being marked by an thread of 1000+ comments consisting mostly of inanities between it and AaronB (an occasionally decent poster), then diagnosing people with various psychological hangups and disorders.
    Notice nobody has ever accused LatW, suddendeath, Mr. Hack, utu, Peter Akuleyev of being shills despite their pro-Ukrainian views. Only exception I know is our indomitable wordsmith (I would pay to hear his native Мат) Gerard and his neverending crusade against AP.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Beckow, @Mr. Hack, @Mikel, @Wokechoke

    Discussion should be open and unrestricted. We all have the choice to ignore personal attacks and not respond. Whoever the Laxa thing was, it was the points that we discussed not the person. I understand the rules, so let’s live with them.

    Changing one’s moniker is a silly evasion and betrays insecurity. Psycho-babble can be tiresome, but it is simply avoiding rational response. (AP often escapes into his version of emotional babbling that detract from his points.)

    Regarding ‘shills’, I strongly doubt there are any. To understand how others see the world or Ukraine-Russia war is enlightening. There are few other calm places one can find it. It may not matter one bit what people write, but it creates a small rational space as the world spins into madness. It helps us focus, knowing what others think is a gift.

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Beckow


    Regarding ‘shills’, I strongly doubt there are any.
     
    In general I would agree regarding UR (what would be the point on a site like this?), but also have to say that Laxa was the only commenter I've ever encountered here who did feel fake and inauthentic to me.
    I'm neutral on her/his/its return though, if the others here manage to convince Ron Unz to let her/him/it return, fine with me.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Yevardian

    , @A123
    @Beckow


    Regarding ‘shills’, I strongly doubt there are any.
     
    The evidence tying the WUHAN-19 virus to a laboratory in or near Wuhan is overwhelming to the point of being undeniable.

    What is the easiest explanation for "Patient Zero" at the Wuhan Wet Market?
    ___

    -1- A grand conspiracy spanning nations beginning with a theft from Fort Detrick.

    • Why would a conspiracy select WUHAN-19 for guaranteed global spread and limited actual fatality? Any conspiracy intentionally releasing WUHAN-19 is deliberately targeting the ENTIRE WORLD. Not a limited venture at China and Iran.

    • Knowing that global contamination was inevitable, why transport it to Wuhan? This complex chain could easily blow up the conspiracy, and it gains nothing as, again, the conspirators would have known total planetary spread was inevitable.

    • The 8-Month long, Crimson Contagion exercise proved that the U.S. had zero capability to contain a high spread event. Any conspiracy would have been called off based on that lengthy and extensive proof of inevitable failure & total U.S. vulnerability: (1)

    Key findings

    ♦ Insufficient federal funding sources for a severe influenza pandemic
    ♦ Confusion on how to apply the Defense Production Act
    ♦ The current medical supply chain and production capacity could not meet the demand
    ♦ Global manufacturing would be unable to meet the domestic demand for personal protective equipment and ancillary supplies

    Though both the report and Dr. Arwady commend many federal agencies for working together and devising response strategies, the pandemic exercise predicted dire consequences--110 million illnesses, 7.7 million hospitalizations and 586,000 deaths, all in the U.S. in the absence of a coordinated national response.
     
    Crimson Contagion was based on SARS-1 levels of transmission. The juiced WUHAN-19 virus was even easier to spread.
    ___

    -2- A few of the lowest paid security guards and manual labourers misappropriated animals slated for destruction. Then they sold them at the location where animals could easily be sold. As non-scientists they did not understand the risk.

    This also explains why WUHAN-19 is has few or no "weapon-like" characteristics. It really is a laboratory intermediate stage that exited containment. A weapon is targeted. The preliminary research material was far too contagious, and thus untargetable.

    The sole source claiming WIV had tight security, Danielle Anderson, has been proven 100% wrong in her assertions about experiments taking place at WIV. (2)

    Danielle Anderson, ‘Expert’ Who Helped ‘Fact-Check’ Lab-Leak Theory, Was Secretly Part Of Dangerous Coronavirus Research

    Anderson played a key role in suppressing a New York Post story which posited that COVID-19 may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, published in Feb. 2020, according to The Disinformation Chronicle. While she conducted that, and other, work, she failed to disclose she was involved in a grant for manipulating coronaviruses from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance.
    ...
    Anderson was also listed on a 2018 grant application by Daszak to DARPA, which proposed creating and studying genetically altered coronaviruses. DARPA denied the application, stating Daszak would need a GOF “risk-mitigation plan.”

    A number of journalists have run profiles of Anderson and consulted her on the lab leak theory without disclosing these blatant conflicts of interest. The suppression of the New York Post story began after Anderson conducted a fact-check for Health Feedback. The Post’s piece suggested the pandemic may have emerged from the WIV, which Anderson called “appalling” and “infuriating.”
     
    It is objectively proven fact that WIV was doing the exact research needed to produce the WUHAN-19 virus. And, the one and only source about 'tight' WIV security has been thoroughly debunked and discredited.
    ____

    Occam's Razor clearly points at #2 as the vastly more probable scenario. #1 is so convoluted to be entirely unworkable. Yet, Mr. Unz insists on #1, which suspiciously 100% exonerates the CCP from absolutely everything.

    Why is Mr. Unz so passionate about shifting blame away from the obvious and undeniable CCP / WUHAN-19 virus connection?

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/crimson-contagion-2019-simulation-warned-of-pandemic-implications-in-us/2243832/

    (2) https://dailycaller.com/2022/09/20/danielle-anderson-lab-leak-wuhan-covid-coronavirus-research/
  687. @Yevardian
    @John Johnson


    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don’t like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.
     
    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum even before the Ukraine War started. I recall it's entry being marked by an thread of 1000+ comments consisting mostly of inanities between it and AaronB (an occasionally decent poster), then diagnosing people with various psychological hangups and disorders.
    Notice nobody has ever accused LatW, suddendeath, Mr. Hack, utu, Peter Akuleyev of being shills despite their pro-Ukrainian views. Only exception I know is our indomitable wordsmith (I would pay to hear his native Мат) Gerard and his neverending crusade against AP.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Beckow, @Mr. Hack, @Mikel, @Wokechoke

    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum

    More so than AaronB and Daniel Chieh in the past? Or even the Dragon Man and AP’s recent bouts of fury? Laxa’s being banned (hopefully temporarily) for sock puppeteering. Her ideas and writing style are often more than acceptable, IMHO, and it would be a shame to lose her presence here permanently. What can I say, her pro-Ukrainian views and usage of sarcasm appeals to me? 🙂

    Triteleia Laxa come back!

    (Even Gerard was banned and allowed back by our former Impresario, sock puppeteering is not the worst infraction that I can imagine)

    • Replies: @QCIC
    @Mr. Hack

    Gerard's posts generate the best combination of informative and entertaining on this forum. I hope the constant churning between the three of you (with AP) hasn't driven him off. If not, the storm surge of trolls may have done it.

    The serious pro-Ukraine comments written by AP and Hack have little value without a counter-point from Gerard and others. The combination of the two different camps is tiresome but useful.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  688. @Yevardian
    @John Johnson


    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don’t like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.
     
    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum even before the Ukraine War started. I recall it's entry being marked by an thread of 1000+ comments consisting mostly of inanities between it and AaronB (an occasionally decent poster), then diagnosing people with various psychological hangups and disorders.
    Notice nobody has ever accused LatW, suddendeath, Mr. Hack, utu, Peter Akuleyev of being shills despite their pro-Ukrainian views. Only exception I know is our indomitable wordsmith (I would pay to hear his native Мат) Gerard and his neverending crusade against AP.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Beckow, @Mr. Hack, @Mikel, @Wokechoke

    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum even before the Ukraine War started. I recall it’s entry being marked by an thread of 1000+ comments consisting mostly of inanities between it and AaronB (an occasionally decent poster), then diagnosing people with various psychological hangups and disorders.

    The psychoanalysis angle of her posts was tremendously tiresome but lately she wasn’t so much into that and she was beginning to make plenty of sense in many of her posts. All in all, I’m not too happy about people being banned. With a few exceptions that the scroll button can perfectly take care of, it’s quite amazing how well-behaved this basically unmoderated community has remained for years.

    Nonetheless, she must have known that sock-puppetry was prohibited on this website. It shouldn’t have been so difficult to comply with the few rules our host imposes, even if you find them unfair. Unz doesn’t owe us anything after all, especially considering that most of us on this blog don’t agree with him on practically anything. We don’t have the “right” to disregard his rules in order to be able to post on his website more often, as she apparently thought.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel

    I've started a petition requesting leniency for Triteleia Laxa. See my comments #648 & #691 above. Up until now, she had a pretty clean slate, and as you point out: "but lately she wasn’t so much into that and she was beginning to make plenty of sense in many of her posts." I'm hoping that Ron Unz will have a softening of the heart and will reconsider his harsh pronouncements...

  689. @Bashibuzuk
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    ⁹Yes, that's the way it works, that is why Pynya waited for eight years before starting his war. It was the time required for the propaganda on both sides of the frontline to reprogram both Russians and Ukrainians so that they would utterly destroy each other.

    Once it is done, the whole Realm of Rus (ancestral to both populations) will be ready to be reset and used in a manner that suits the goals of the Globalist Cabal. The bellicose Eastern Slavs will profitably be finally tamed, and would become obedient Eastern Slaves, just like their German neighbors to the West have been goaded into aggression, bled and tamed into today's letzter Menschen - German Western Slaves.

    And yeah, a (limited?) nuclear war is more probable with every passing day.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mikhail

    So as of today, what would you propose to end this war?

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Mr. Hack

    This war cannot be stopped. It should have been avoided.

    It wasn't avoided because those who plan and execute these operations according to the plan, are among the smartest (and most evil) people who have ever lived on the face of Earth, while those who should have been busy preventing it, are among the most gullible and naive (if well intentioned) people.

    There is nothing now that could be done to stop for sure this massacre that is unfolding in front of our eyes.

    Even if this war doesn't turn nuclear (which I truly hope), it will nevertheless cause an increasingly immense suffering. I believe that everything we have seen until now is just the beginning. People might well starve and freeze to death in the frontline zone this winter. At large in Ukiestan and RusFed more attacks on vital and critical infrastructure are probable. There are many easy targets on both territories, that if attacked would make the life of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people, unbearable.

    And there is nothing that can be done now to avoid it.

    Even if Putin is removed from power, this war might well simply turn into a gigantic Civil War in the most part of the FUSSR. Think Afghan Civil War with nuclear weapons.

    Такие дела - смута, поруха и гибель множества невинных...

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @LatW

  690. German_reader says:
    @Beckow
    @Yevardian

    Discussion should be open and unrestricted. We all have the choice to ignore personal attacks and not respond. Whoever the Laxa thing was, it was the points that we discussed not the person. I understand the rules, so let's live with them.

    Changing one's moniker is a silly evasion and betrays insecurity. Psycho-babble can be tiresome, but it is simply avoiding rational response. (AP often escapes into his version of emotional babbling that detract from his points.)

    Regarding 'shills', I strongly doubt there are any. To understand how others see the world or Ukraine-Russia war is enlightening. There are few other calm places one can find it. It may not matter one bit what people write, but it creates a small rational space as the world spins into madness. It helps us focus, knowing what others think is a gift.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123

    Regarding ‘shills’, I strongly doubt there are any.

    In general I would agree regarding UR (what would be the point on a site like this?), but also have to say that Laxa was the only commenter I’ve ever encountered here who did feel fake and inauthentic to me.
    I’m neutral on her/his/its return though, if the others here manage to convince Ron Unz to let her/him/it return, fine with me.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @German_reader


    In general I would agree regarding UR (what would be the point on a site like this?), but also have to say that Laxa was the only commenter I’ve ever encountered here who did feel fake and inauthentic to me.
     
    How many women in the real world have you ever known who spend their discretionary time in a man space?

    This board is a man space. It might be the manliest man space on the whole freaking internet that I have ever seen. Maybe r/redpill is a match but I only visit it once every couple of months or so.
    , @Yevardian
    @German_reader




    @Beckow
    Regarding ‘shills’, I strongly doubt there are any.
     
    In general I would agree regarding UR (what would be the point on a site like this?), but also have to say that Laxa was the only commenter I’ve ever encountered here who did feel fake and inauthentic to me.
     
    Basically my feeling as well. That combined with the extreme verbosity and monomaniacal repetition, it wasn't about the actual 'opinions'. There are plenty other irritating commenters, but OTOH they don't spam and I'm at least sure they're real people.


    Btw, as you you were reading about the Diadochi recently, you might find Badian article ("Antiochos III and Rome: A Study in Cold War") interesting, the topic is pretty prescient, describing how grandstanding led to repeated escalations, ultimately resulting in a war between the two that neither power really wanted. Of course neither side had nuclear weapons and the Seleukids unexpectedly 'folded like a cheap suit' so it all ended with an anticlimax, but its a good read.
    https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/364346?journalCode=cp

    Replies: @German_reader

  691. @sudden death
    @sudden death

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/10/08/07/63249451-11293851-image-a-15_1665211477159.jpg

    Replies: @LondonBob, @Bashibuzuk, @A123

    Governor DeSantis had a new causeway style bridge built in 3 days after Hurricane Ian. (1)

     



    Video Link
     

    The rednecks and roughnecks also delivered a remarkable accomplishment today, opening a temporary bridge to Pine Island. A few days before Governor Ron DeSantis announced the State DOT effort to help build the temporary bridge, locals from Honc Marine were already in ‘git r done’ mode.

    Incredibly a week after Hurricane Ian took out the bridge connecting Pine Island to Cape Coral, the temporary bridge was finished and five semi tractors/trailers from Publix Supermarket were first to cross into Pine Island with relief supplies.

    Note: Semi-Truck drivers are smarter than you may think. The second truck in line stops and is not going onto the span until the first one successfully makes the other side.

    While the Kirsch span is obviously further apart, the visible footing is darkened but appears sound. 2-lane road traffic will quickly resume. It should not take long for fabrication of the missing road deck panels, assuming there are not existing spares. The largest delay is likely to be moving the heavy marine construction equipment to the site, unless it happens to already be in the Sea of Azov.

    For Ukie morale, it is a huge boost. In terms of actual military logistics this is an inconvenience not a major obstacle.

    One of the important reasons for consolidating the Russian territory is providing a land connection to Crimea without a bridge vulnerability. In the long term, this actually hardens the Russian position. They now know they cannot rely on the bridge, so the land corridor is an existential survival requirement.

    PEACE 😇
    ___________

    (1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/10/06/hurricane-ian-recovery-day-7/

  692. @Mikel
    @Yevardian


    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum even before the Ukraine War started. I recall it’s entry being marked by an thread of 1000+ comments consisting mostly of inanities between it and AaronB (an occasionally decent poster), then diagnosing people with various psychological hangups and disorders.
     
    The psychoanalysis angle of her posts was tremendously tiresome but lately she wasn't so much into that and she was beginning to make plenty of sense in many of her posts. All in all, I'm not too happy about people being banned. With a few exceptions that the scroll button can perfectly take care of, it's quite amazing how well-behaved this basically unmoderated community has remained for years.

    Nonetheless, she must have known that sock-puppetry was prohibited on this website. It shouldn't have been so difficult to comply with the few rules our host imposes, even if you find them unfair. Unz doesn't owe us anything after all, especially considering that most of us on this blog don't agree with him on practically anything. We don't have the "right" to disregard his rules in order to be able to post on his website more often, as she apparently thought.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    I’ve started a petition requesting leniency for Triteleia Laxa. See my comments #648 & #691 above. Up until now, she had a pretty clean slate, and as you point out: “but lately she wasn’t so much into that and she was beginning to make plenty of sense in many of her posts.” I’m hoping that Ron Unz will have a softening of the heart and will reconsider his harsh pronouncements…

    • LOL: Mikhail
  693. @Mr. Hack
    @Yevardian


    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum
     
    More so than AaronB and Daniel Chieh in the past? Or even the Dragon Man and AP's recent bouts of fury? Laxa's being banned (hopefully temporarily) for sock puppeteering. Her ideas and writing style are often more than acceptable, IMHO, and it would be a shame to lose her presence here permanently. What can I say, her pro-Ukrainian views and usage of sarcasm appeals to me? :-)

    https://cdn.gardenchronicle.com/gc/2021/06/05191158/Triteleia-bigstock-ithuriel-s-Spear-Flower-Or-C-414141743-1024x683.jpg

    Triteleia Laxa come back!

    (Even Gerard was banned and allowed back by our former Impresario, sock puppeteering is not the worst infraction that I can imagine)

    Replies: @QCIC

    Gerard’s posts generate the best combination of informative and entertaining on this forum. I hope the constant churning between the three of you (with AP) hasn’t driven him off. If not, the storm surge of trolls may have done it.

    The serious pro-Ukraine comments written by AP and Hack have little value without a counter-point from Gerard and others. The combination of the two different camps is tiresome but useful.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @QCIC

    I also pled for clemency when Gerard was banned. Although I abhorred his constant usage of foul language, he did seem like a a man with potential (I was tempted to print a "good guy", but his strong Ukrainaphobic views by definition take him out of that consideration). Anybody who can appreciate the music of Chick Corea has already elevated himself in stature. :-)

  694. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Mr. Hack
    @Bashibuzuk

    So as of today, what would you propose to end this war?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    This war cannot be stopped. It should have been avoided.

    It wasn’t avoided because those who plan and execute these operations according to the plan, are among the smartest (and most evil) people who have ever lived on the face of Earth, while those who should have been busy preventing it, are among the most gullible and naive (if well intentioned) people.

    There is nothing now that could be done to stop for sure this massacre that is unfolding in front of our eyes.

    Even if this war doesn’t turn nuclear (which I truly hope), it will nevertheless cause an increasingly immense suffering. I believe that everything we have seen until now is just the beginning. People might well starve and freeze to death in the frontline zone this winter. At large in Ukiestan and RusFed more attacks on vital and critical infrastructure are probable. There are many easy targets on both territories, that if attacked would make the life of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people, unbearable.

    And there is nothing that can be done now to avoid it.

    Even if Putin is removed from power, this war might well simply turn into a gigantic Civil War in the most part of the FUSSR. Think Afghan Civil War with nuclear weapons.

    Такие дела – смута, поруха и гибель множества невинных…

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Bashibuzuk


    Тепер, коли це почне відбуватися, випряміться і підніміть голову, тому що ваше викуплення наближається
     
    Luke 21:28
    , @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Такие дела – смута, поруха и гибель множества невинных…
     
    I wonder if there is still a way to avert a massive смута if the transfer of power is somewhat orderly. Some Patrushev or Kiriyenko (with the help of Zolotov & Rosgvardia or whoever) takes over and the system is more or less preserved. It is clear that a major demographic movement is happening regardless (the sheer number of those who have left both UA & RusFed (most young or in their prime) plus those who will be killed in the war and how it will reverberate on their families). But if the transfer of power is clean or relatively peaceful, a reasonable level of stability might be preserved. Through a dictatorship, naturally.


    It's just that it may not be the best scenario for the Russian people. Because the same ones stay in power anyway. The looting of what remains of Russia could continue. Alternately, a "liberal" scenario (unrealistic) would not be great either (unless some kind of a thorough multi-party system is established that is able to produce a robust government that can withstand external pressures and influences but those types of newly born multi-party systems are innately unstable). Some kind of a middle of the ground civic movement would be best, but how realistic is that... what I find somewhat tragic is that even if there was some kind of a movement of free Russian people, if the war is lost, then Ukraine will demand reparations (and the West will support that) and this will once again disillusion the Russian people (the way Yeltsin's years did) and alienate them from their neighbors.

    Last year I used to think to myself, the 90s will never come back, nothing like that can happen again, whatever happens, this time will be much more benign, more humane, less painful. I was totally convinced about it, and then my thoughts really started changing at the end of this summer. Yes, it could be just as bad... or worse because now there is a large war. Larger than any wars that happened after 1991 on the ex-Soviet periphery (although those were really bad, too).

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

  695. Bashibuzuk says:

    What the BlackRock propaganda failed to mention is that the ugly situation is the UK was because pension funds had used LDI to leverage their gilt portfolios through interest rate swaps and repurchase agreements up to seven times – 7X! – to match their actuarial liabilities.

    Leverage works remarkably well when interest rates are stable. Leverage works even better when interest rates are falling. But when interest rates rise in short order, leverage is devastating.

    For example, as happened in the UK, with over £1 trillion outstanding, levered to the extreme through BlackRock’s LDI funds, rising interest rates forced a doom-loop of selling to meet margin calls. Billions of pounds in pension funds faced immediate collateral risks. Thus, pension funds were forced to sell off various assets to raise cash to cover their bets.

    https://economicprism.com/who-else-bought-blackrocks-ldi-swindle-products/

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/larry-fink

    That’s why they need to pull the plug and Reset everything…

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Bashibuzuk


    In the short to medium term, however, the pain for much of the world will be intense, including the US. Much of the deflation in certain sectors of the US economy from the Fed’s intense interest rate policy should be offset by capital inflow from those who have lived beyond their means because of the weak dollar in the past.

    The prime beneficiaries of this have been Europe and their overly generous entitlement/pension systems
    , which are teetering on full collapse as we saw in the UK recently, and China with its massive trade surplus with the US.

    The winners will be those who produce and export base commodities. Because in broad strokes, assets inflated through easy credit for over a decade, like gov’t bonds, stocks, real estate and mid-to-high end consumer goods, will be deflating. On the flip side, base commodity prices, the main driver of inflation today, will continue rising – oil, gas, gold, metals, food, etc.
     
    https://tomluongo.me/2022/10/06/31-trillion-dollar-question-can-fed-afford-pivot/

    Every war is a Banksters' war.

    Another reason they needed Pynya to start the war was to prevent RusFed from benefiting from all the rising profits from the commodities exports. Pynya was supposed to vacate his seat in 2024 and he is getting older, so he might have died even before that. They needed a "man of his talents" at the head of the RusFed during their Reset operation. Better be certain of whom you deal with.

    Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

  696. @QCIC
    @Mr. Hack

    Gerard's posts generate the best combination of informative and entertaining on this forum. I hope the constant churning between the three of you (with AP) hasn't driven him off. If not, the storm surge of trolls may have done it.

    The serious pro-Ukraine comments written by AP and Hack have little value without a counter-point from Gerard and others. The combination of the two different camps is tiresome but useful.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    I also pled for clemency when Gerard was banned. Although I abhorred his constant usage of foul language, he did seem like a a man with potential (I was tempted to print a “good guy”, but his strong Ukrainaphobic views by definition take him out of that consideration). Anybody who can appreciate the music of Chick Corea has already elevated himself in stature. 🙂

  697. @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    The names Great Russia, White Russia and Little Russia were created to designate the three parts of one land and one state called the land Rus’ during the times when these three parts were separated. The Church created these names.
     
    False. Little Rus was first documented as having been used by the Galician king in 1335 and was later used by the Poles.

    "The first recorded usage of the term is attributed to Boleslaus George II of Halych.[8] In a 1335 letter to Dietrich von Altenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, he styled himself «dux totius Rusiæ Minoris».[8] The name was used by Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople in 1361 when he created two metropolitan sees: Great Rus' in Vladimir and Kyiv and Little Rus' with its centers in Galich (Halych) and Novgorodok (Navahrudak).[8] King Casimir III of Poland was called "the king of Lechia and Little Rus'."

    "Ukraine was never a part of Russia in this sense until Russia started grabbing parts of it from the 17th century. Just as Italy, Spain, or France were never part of Romania."

    Russia did not start grabbing her own parts but started returning them back
     
    Ukraine had never been part of Suzdal/Muscovy and had never been ruled from Moscow until Russia started grabbing these lands - other than during a brief period in the 12th century when a Suzdalian prince sacked Kiev and placed his man on the local throne. The locals in Kiev hated this easterner and drove him out in an uprising.

    Before that all the population of Rus’ called themselves Rusich.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich
     
    False. They called themselves Rusyns. Rusych only appeared in the 12th century and only in one work. It was a rarely used word back then.:

    https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B8

    В древнерусских памятниках слово встречается только 4 раза (2 раза в форме русичи и 2 в цокающей форме русици) и только в «Слове о полку Игореве».

    Rusyn on the other hand appeared earlier and was evident much more often. It was not a foreign version caused by Romanian influence.

    https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8B_(%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%8D%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC)

    Эндоэтноним «русин» как наименование жителя Древней Руси[3] встречается в «Повести временных лет» наряду с прилагательным «русьскыи»[4]. Здесь слово «русин» упомянуто в описании договора Олега с греками (911 год) (7 раз) и договора Игоря с греками (944 года) (6 раз). Используется это слово и в ранних редакциях Русской Правды (Краткой и Пространной)[5]

    Russians called themselves Russky but also used Rusyn until the 17th century. In contrast, Rusyn continued to be widely used in Ukraine until the 19th century and is still used by some Lemkos and Transcarpathians.

    "They would call Russians – Muscovites, and consider them to be a foreign people. In the 19th century they would rename themselves Ukrainians."

    These would refer to the population of the other part of Rus’ as Muscovites in order to avoid confusion
     
    The Volhynian Chronicle classified Muscovites alongside Moldovans as Orthodox but foreign.

    Those Ukrainians themselves were then calling their language руський and руська мова – i.e. the Russian language
     
    It was not Russian language, but Rus language. They weren't using the Suzdalian/Muscovite/Russian language and didn't consider their language to be the same as that of the Muscovites.

    The differences between the two were considered to be dialects.
     
    They were different enough that the 17th century Pereyaslav negotiations required the use off a translator, using Latin.

    The notion of the Ukrainians as a separate people was a much later and in fact political fabrication and not much else.
     
    You are writing the opposite of the reality. The notion of the Ukrainians as the same people was a later fabrication. I think it appeared in the early 16th century. Ironically pushed by Little Russians/Ukrainians themselves in the service of the Russian state, who were justifying their positions before resentful native Russians. It was used as proof by them that they had the right to obtain high administrative positions, because they were Russians too.

    Church Slavonic was the liturgical language of both the Russian Orthodox and the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church so I guess it had influence on both Russian and Ukrainian languages.
     
    No. When the Russian language was standardized, the literary form was packed with Church Slavonic; the Ukrainian literary language in contrast was much closer to the regular vernacular, so it did not have such influence. Standardized Rusyn (used in Slovakia and eastern Poland), unlike Ukrainian, incorporated some Church Slavonic so in some ways it resembles Russian (but in other ways, it is closer to Polish than standard Ukrainian).

    The historical, genetic and cultural distance between these peoples is far greater than between the Russians and the Ukrainians.
     
    Ukrainian is about as close to Russian as Italian is to Spanish.

    A Ukrainian who has never heard Russian will not be able to understand a conversation, in Russian and vice versa. We had an ethnic Russian nanny from Central Asia, who had heard hardly any Ukrainian before - she couldn't understand or follow a conversation. And I could not understand Russian (other than a word here or there, an occasional phrase) before I lived in Russia.


    As I said before the autosomal genes are mutable to such a degree that we do net get the same genes our paternal grandmothers and maternal grandfathers pass – from them we get mutated and unrecognizable genes.
     
    False. If autosomal genes were unrecognizable, than DNA tests wouldn't be able to accurately identify relatives through one's non patrilinear or non matrilinear grandparents. Or paternity tests wouldn't work with female children.

    Autosomal genes do not become unrecognizable through mutation; rather they get mixed between grandparents. For this reason it is not possible to determine which specific gene came from which grandparent, but one still has about 25% of the genes from each grandparent. About half of your father's genes come from his mother, and about half of your mother's genes come from her father. But they are mixed up with each other in the autosomes.

    So DNA testing using autosomal genes can show the approximate strength of the relationship between people, but cannot determine through which specific grandparent people they might be related. The sex chromosomes, OTOH, do not get mixed so they can be used to trace specific patrilinear descent (for males) and matrilinear (for both males and females).

    Most of one's genes, of course, do not come from the two sex chromosomes. The Y chromosome in particular only has about 200 genes. Traits such as intelligence are linked to genes from various chromosomes (particularly chromosome 10, which is not a sex chromosome):

    https://www.nature.com/articles/mp2017121

    Depending on the combination, one can resemble and have the character of any one of one's grandparents. I look like my father and my paternal grandfather, but my aunt's sons resemble her, who looks just like her father. So they look like their maternal grandfather.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon, @Here Be Dragon

    False. Little Rus was first documented as having been used by the Galician king in 1335 and was later used by the Poles.

    You continue to argue for the sake of arguing. That same article you quote to prove me wrong proves me right.

    “The toponym translates as Little or Lesser Rus’ and is adapted from the Greek term, used in medieval times by Patriarchs of Constantinople since the 14th century (it first appeared in church documents in 1335).”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Russia#Etymology_and_name_variations

    So the Church had introduced it first and then people followed. Agree that it is illogical to assume that a Galician prince influenced the Church and the rest of Rus’.

    Ukraine had never been part of Suzdal/Muscovy and had never been ruled from Moscow until Russia started grabbing these lands.

    You mean a part of Rus’ (which was renamed Ukraine centuries later) had not been ruled from Moscow, until another part of Rus’ reconquered it from Poles.

    And what does it refute then?

    First Rus’ was ruled from Novgorod and then from Kiev. That does not mean that Kiev was a foreign capital for Novgorod. Then after Kiev a part of Rus’ was ruled from Poland – which had never been a part of Rus’ and was indeed a foreign nation.

    And after Poland it was ruled from Moscow – which had never been a foreign nation and had been a part of Rus’ since the inception. You twist it all inside out to make it fit the Polish narrative.

    After Moscow the capital was transferred to Saint Petersburg and later back to Moscow. A state is defined not as the land of its capital, but a capital is defined as the main town of a state and it can be changed.

    Poland had been ruled from Kraków before Warsaw was made the capital.

    False. They called themselves Rusyns. Rusych only appeared in the 12th century and only in one work. It was a rarely used word back then.

    Back when?

    Suffixes can change over time. Suffixes can change due to foreign influence. Suffixes can be different in different dialects of the same language – it does not matter.

    The same article that you quote gives examples of a number of names used in that same book to refer to that same one people: “и русь и нѣмци” – when Rus’ is a plural form of the people, and “варяг на русинѣ” – when Rusyn is a singular form of Rus’.

    What difference does it make?

    Poles, Romanians and Czechs have had different names for themselves during different historical periods, and the same as Russians were made up of a number of tribes at some time in the past.

    So what?

    The Volhynian Chronicle classified Muscovites alongside Moldovans as Orthodox but foreign.

    You have not read that chronicle.

    Muscovite Rus’ was created as a principality less than 3 decades before the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle ends and at the time it was small and insignificant. It is not mentioned in the chronicle whatsoever.

    All other Russian cities and principalities are mentioned, but not Moscow. Back then it was a small settlement that had no power.

    Novgorod, Suzdal and other cities of the northern and eastern Rus’ are mentioned as often as the western and southern cities, and at all times as parts of one nation, which was ruled by a number of princes and was composed of a number of principalities; in modern terms we would call it a federation.

    All those princes and principalities were in an alliance and were defending their lands together against Hungarians, Lithuanians, Poles and Tatars.

    The central theme of the chronicle is that all the Rus’ regions are one nation. One of the phrases that is repeated often is that during the Yoke all of the princes were under the rule of Tatars.

    Here it is from the Ukrainian translation:
    http://litopys.org.ua/links/galvol.htm

    “Коли ото йшов хан Телебуга і хан Алгуй із ним великою силою, то з ними йшли руські князі, — бо тоді були всі князі руські у волі татарській, покорені гнівом божим.”

    The notion that in that chronicle some alien eastern Muscovites were presented as a foreign people might sound plausible to a foreigner who has no real knowledge of neither the Rus’ past nor her culture.

    The chronicle was written in the Russian language!
    http://litopys.org.ua/oldukr/galvxleb.htm

    You once again have demonstrated that Ukraine is nothing but a manufactured idea, false and artificial — a political fabrication created for an emotionally unstable, arrogant and ignorant generation.

    You are living in the alternative world of imagination.

    It was not Russian language, but Rus language. They weren’t using the Suzdalian/Muscovite/Russian language and didn’t consider their language to be the same as that of the Muscovites.

    The language that chronicle was written in is the same as was spoken then in all other parts of Rus’ and other chronicles of that time were written in.

    Rus’ and Russian is the same word but from different historical periods. Like Thou and You — Rus’ is an archaic word for Russian, and Russian is a modern form of Rus’.

    Unlike Ukrainian which appeared out of nowhere, because it was made up, “Russian” is a natural development of the name following historical development of the language, along with all its other words.

    They were different enough that the 17th century Pereyaslav negotiations required the use of a translator, using Latin.

    Another nonsense proving that you are alien to the Rus’ culture. Perhaps you are somewhat a Pole, but you are not a Ukrainian — at least not a real one.

    Otherwise you would have known that Ukrainian and Rusian are mutually intelligible even today, and back then were even closer than today. Negotiations required no translators (but there might have been one documenting it for foreign ambassadors).

    The Pereiaslav Agreement was recorded both in Russian and Ukrainian (then called Little Russian). See “Березневі статті”.

    The letter of Bohdan Khmelnytsky to the Russian Tsar was written in Little Russian without any translation.

    The notion of the Ukrainians as the same people was a later fabrication. Pushed by Little Russians/Ukrainians themselves in the service of the Russian state. It was used as proof by them that they had the right to obtain high administrative positions, because they were Russians too.

    Little Russians were still Russians.

    You do not understand what a people is. You often make references to who ruled what cities and what political alliance this or that group might have been in at that time or another, whereas a people is not a state.

    A people is an ethnic group defined and united with a common language, culture, folklore, cuisine and other traditions resulting from them having a common origin. Your understanding of a people is that of an American — because Americans are not a people but a political nation, aftificial and unnatural.

    When the Russian language was standardized, the literary form was packed with Church Slavonic; the Ukrainian literary language in contrast was much closer to the regular vernacular, so it did not have such influence.

    It is because Ukrainian did not have a literary form. It was a vernacular southern Russian dialect with a number of borrowed Polish words and rather peculiar and surrogate grammar.

    There has never been a sophisticated literary work written in Ukrainian, because it has never developed as a language above a vernacular dialect of a minor group of uneducated peasants.

    A Ukrainian who has never heard Russian will not be able to understand a conversation, in Russian and vice versa.

    Such a Ukrainian can be found in diaspora alone. All Ukrainians can if not speak then at least understand some Russian. And Russians from the Rostov region speak a southern dialect that sounds closer to Ukrainian than to standard Russian.

    So what?

    Germans from Hamburg cannot understand those from Munich. The High German dialect is as much if not more different from the Low German as Ukrainian is from Russian.

    Yet Germans do not consider it a reason substantial enough to see the two parts of the nation as two different peoples.

    And besides Germans had been for a long time divided before Germany was united — but have been at those times one people nevertheless.

    We had an ethnic Russian nanny from Central Asia, who had heard hardly any Ukrainian before – she couldn’t understand or follow a conversation.

    Must have been because you speak that émigré western dialect. Most Ukrainians might have some troubles understanding it either.

    And I could not understand Russian (other than a word here or there, an occasional phrase) before I lived in Russia.

    You had not been used to the Russian pronunciation, but I guess once you got used you started understanding Russian without learning it. Am I wrong?

    These are different things: one person can write and read in English but will not understand much watching news in English on TV, and another person can understand oral speech well but not written language.

    I can understand oral Hebrew to a degree, but can neither read it nor write in it.

    To sum it up this aspiration to see Ukrainians as part of Poland is a Polish thing made to fool those who are ignorant and to return those who were Polonized.

    But Poles do not want Ukraininans — Poles want to return Ukraine.

    • Replies: @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    "False. Little Rus was first documented as having been used by the Galician king in 1335 and was later used by the Poles."

    You continue to argue for the sake of arguing. That same article you quote to prove me wrong proves me right.

    “The toponym translates as Little or Lesser Rus’ and is adapted from the Greek term, used in medieval times by Patriarchs of Constantinople since the 14th century (it first appeared in church documents in 1335).”
     
    The same article also states:

    "The first recorded usage of the term is attributed to Boleslaus George II of Halych.[8] In a 1335 letter to Dietrich von Altenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, he styled himself «dux totius Rusiæ Minoris». The name was used by Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople in 1361 .."

    "Ukraine had never been part of Suzdal/Muscovy and had never been ruled from Moscow until Russia started grabbing these lands."

    You mean a part of Rus’ (which was renamed Ukraine centuries later) had not been ruled from Moscow, until another part of Rus’ reconquered it from Poles.
     
    Nothing was reconquered because Suzdal had not controlled Kiev and Ukrainian lands in the first place.

    First Rus’ was ruled from Novgorod and then from Kiev.
     
    The Rus that was ruled from Novgorod was a Rus of unassimilated Scandinavian rulers who took over Slavic lands. They took over Novgorod in 859 and then took over Kiev in 882, making it the new capital of their expanding trading and slave-selling enterprise. Novgorod did not rule over Kiev. There was not a Rus state in any recognizable form in the 9th century. It's like equating the Germanic-speaking Frankish Empire with modern France.

    And after Poland it was ruled from Moscow – which had never been a foreign nation and had been a part of Rus’ since the inception.
     
    Muscovites were considered foreigners and non-Rus by the Rus people of what is now Ukraine from the late 15th century. Which they were. The languages had diverged, they had different Churches, different political entities and cultures, etc.

    After Moscow the capital was transferred to Saint Petersburg and later back to Moscow.
     
    Yes, the Suzdalians/Muscovites shifted their capital around. This had nothing to do with Ukraine.

    The last legitimate, pre-Mongol ruler of Kiev lands was Daniel of Galicia. Muscovite princes were not his successors. The Galician princes were, and their claims were inherited by the Polish kings.

    False. "They called themselves Rusyns. Rusych only appeared in the 12th century and only in one work. It was a rarely used word back then."

    Back when?

    Suffixes can change over time. Suffixes can change due to foreign influence. Suffixes can be different in different dialects of the same language – it does not matter.
     
    Those are not suffixes. Suffixes are letters added to words to change their meaning or nature. The adjective Sad becomes the noun sadness, the adjective quick becomes the adverb quickly, etc.

    You are describing names for different peoples who have a common root. Rusyns or Rusnaks for Ukrainians. Russky for Russians. Analogous - Romans, Romanians and Romansch, three peoples with Roman descent who have retained the Roman root in their names.

    "The Volhynian Chronicle classified Muscovites alongside Moldovans as Orthodox but foreign."

    You have not read that chronicle.

    Muscovite Rus’ was created as a principality less than 3 decades before the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle
     
    I was not discussing the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle from the 13th century but the Volhynian Chronicle from the 16th century and also the Rus-language Lithuanian Chronicle from the 15th century-16th centuries. They are relevant because they come from the time when the Rus people of Ukraine were no longer the same as the Rus people form Muscovy. That had probably not been the case yet in the 13th century when the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle was written.

    Your argument is based on that flawed premise.

    So for example the earliest description of the Eulogy for Vitold written in 1428 described Moscow, Tver, Novgorod, Pskov as belonging to the Rus people alongside the Rus of Lithuania.

    But later editions in the later 15th and 16th centuries recategorized those non-Lithuanian Rus as Orthodox foreigners, like Moldavains or Bulgarians.

    Similarly, From the 1440s, the Lithuanian chroniclers began referring to the Rus territories of the Grand Duchy as “all the Rus land,” while calling the inhabitants of Northeastern Rus “Muscovites.”

    The Short Volhynian Chronicle included a description of the Battle of Orsha (1514) between the Muscovite and Lithuanian-Rus armies and a panegyric to Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozky, who led the army of the Grand Duchy in the battle. Several times the Grand Duchy was called the Grand Principality of Lithuania and Rus, while the Volhynian troops in Ostrozky’s army were referred to as “the valiant Lithuanian and Rus warriors.” The word “Rus” never applied to the Muscovites, their prince and state.

    So clearly they were perceived as a different nation, non-Rus.

    This was happening about 250 years after the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle had been written, 250 years of political separation and differing cultural influences.

    Rus’ and Russian is the same word but from different historical periods. Like Thou and You — Rus’ is an archaic word for Russian, and Russian is a modern form of Rus’.
     
    This is what Muscovites like to pretend. They have gotten away with it because they were a great empire who eventually conquered the lands of old Rus. I imagine that if Romania had become a great empire and conquered Italy it could lay a fantastical claim to Rome in a similar way.

    Unlike Ukrainian which appeared out of nowhere, because it was made up, “Russian” is a natural development of the name
     
    This is the only correct thing you wrote. The name Ukrainian was adopted by Rusyns/Rusnaks/Little Russians because their original names were part of an excuse by the Russky conquerors to subjugate them and erase their culture.

    "They were different enough that the 17th century Pereyaslav negotiations required the use of a translator, using Latin."

    Another nonsense proving that you are alien to the Rus’ culture. Perhaps you are somewhat a Pole, but you are not a Ukrainian — at least not a real one.

    Otherwise you would have known that Ukrainian and Rusian are mutually intelligible even today
     
    Nonsense. A Russian who hasn't been heavily exposed to Ukrainian will not be able to have a conversation or conduct a negotiation with a Ukrainian-speaking person, and vice versa. You don't understand that, because you grew up in Ukraine in a Russian-speaking family so you were exposed to both languages extensively.

    and back then were even closer than today
     
    Maybe. Although Ukrainian was influenced by contact with Russian for 300 years; in 1700 it had been isolated from Russian for centuries.

    Here is vernacular Ukrainian from 1619, part of a play. It was written in the Latin script:

    https://artefact.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/virmeny-7.png

    The main part of the play was written in the Polish language by as Rus playwright but he included humorous interludes in local Rus. Transcription of part of it:

    Климко. Що ты тутъ, побратиме, собі порабляешь?

    Кажи мені, як живешь, та якъ ся маешь?

    Стецько. Я тут не роблю ничого. Ось иду до дому свого

    Та и зъ тоіеми горшками, якъ зъ своими сусідами.

    Климко. Та на щотакъ много маешь? – либой на жонку кидаешъ?

    Стецько. На що? Чи хочешь вірити, що люблю хороше жити,

    Всёго достатекъ варити кажу, та ся не курчити,

    Такъ яко приналежаетъ сподарови, що все маетъ.

    ::::::::::::::

    So it says mhoho (as in modern Russian) rather than bahato (modern Ukrainian) but otherwise it's pretty similar to modern Ukrainian.

    A people is an ethnic group defined and united with a common language, culture, folklore, cuisine and other traditions resulting from them having a common origin.
     
    By this measure, Swedes, Danes and Norwegians are even more of a common people than Ukrainians and Russians. And Spaniards, Catalans, and Italians (as well as Argentines, Uruguayans and Chileans) as much of a common people as Ukrainians and Russians. With Mexican Mestizos being sort of like northern Russians.

    The Ukrainian language is further from Russian than Danish is from Swedish. It is like Spanish and Italian. Folklore is different - different folk songs and dances. Different political culture, Russians like their despots, they learned well from their Asian masters. Ukrainians are more democratic (and indeed chaotic) - like Poles. Common origin? Genetically Ukrainians are closer to Slovaks than to Russians, and equally as close to Poles as they are to Russians.

    "A Ukrainian who has never heard Russian will not be able to understand a conversation, in Russian and vice versa."

    Such a Ukrainian can be found in diaspora alone.
     
    There are now young western Ukrainians like that. They learn English, Polish or German rather than Russian and don't speak Russian at home or hear it on the streets much. And they speak literary Ukrainian, not the Galician dialect (which is sadly dying out in Galicia).

    Germans from Hamburg cannot understand those from Munich. The High German dialect is as much if not more different from the Low German as Ukrainian is from Russian.
     
    In that case, High and Low German are more different from one another than Danish is from Swedish because speakers of each claim they can understand conversations in the other language. . Will you claim those aren't languages?

    And Russians from the Rostov region speak a southern dialect that sounds closer to Ukrainian than to standard Russian.
     
    No they don't. They just speak Russian with an h sound rather than a g sound. That's the only thing about their speech which is like Ukrainian. Otherwise it's pretty much just Russian.

    There are pockets of actual Ukrainian-speakers in Kuban villages.

    "We had an ethnic Russian nanny from Central Asia, who had heard hardly any Ukrainian before – she couldn’t understand or follow a conversation."

    Must have been because you speak that émigré western dialect. Most Ukrainians might have some troubles understanding it either.
     
    No, we had guests from Kiev over, who spoke regular Ukrainian (I don't speak Galician dialect, I speak literary Ukrainian although it is a bit archaic, one of my grandparents lived in Kharkiv before the war).

    "And I could not understand Russian (other than a word here or there, an occasional phrase) before I lived in Russia."

    You had not been used to the Russian pronunciation, but I guess once you got used you started understanding Russian without learning it.
     
    Vocabulary and pronunciation. Took me at least a month with near full immersion (I avoided expats, spoke English only with my wife), maybe two. I never took formal lessons. I still am far from perfect - I get mistaken for a Czech, Balt or Pole when I speak Russian in Moscow.

    I can read and understand Chekov's plays in Russian, but I tried to read a book by Venedikt Erofeev in Russian and it was hardly comprehensible.

    Ukrainians who move to Poland easily and fairly quickly learn to speak and understand Polish. I'ts matter of weeks. Does that mean that Ukrainian and Polish are not different languages?

    To sum it up this aspiration to see Ukrainians as part of Poland
     
    Ukraine has a stronger heritage with Poland than with Russia. It formed as a nation while linked to Poland. Ties to Russia consist of largely mythological Old Rus, a break of hundreds of years during which the Ukrainian nation was formed, followed by 300 years or less, depending on region, of subjugation.

    There has never been a sophisticated literary work written in Ukrainian, because it has never developed as a language above a vernacular dialect of a minor group of uneducated peasants.
     
    High level of development is not necessary to produce great literature. Spanish is a simple language. And Galicia achieved full literacy of schoolkids about 20 years before Russia did. Ukrainian is more highly developed than Russian, because it is a real and natural language rather than an abstract one.

    From someone with greater knowledge of linguistics than I have:


    Compared to Ukrainian, Russian is a poor and underdeveloped language from every linguistic point of reference, particularly in terms of its vocabulary and grammar. It’s understandable, as modern Russian, from the historic perspective, is a very young and largely artificially created language, a sort of Esperanto [this is an exaggeration - AP]; and it hasn’t had enough time, unlike Ukrainian, to develop the variety of linguistic forms and shortcuts that emerge only when a language is used naturally and for a long period of time by common people communicating with one another daily , rather than via being concocted in an ivory tower. As a result, there’re thousands of Ukrainian shortcut adverbs (e.g.: торік, чимдуж, etc.) that can be expressed in Russian only by using a combination of three separate words. Likewise, Ukrainian has three single-word superlative degrees, while Russian has only one. Ukrainian has single-word forms of Future Imperfect (e.g. матиму, матимемо, матимеш, матиме, матимуть) completely absent from Russian. Ukrainian has the Plus Quam Perfectum tense (e.g. він почав був читати, та його зупинили); Russian doesn’t. And the list goes on and on.

    All U verbs in Present Imperfect ending in “є” also have two forms (e.g., буває/бува) vs only one (бывает)in R.

    Every U verb can be used in Plus Quam Perfectum (e.g., я був почав); this tense is absent from R altogether.

    Every U verb can be used in a single-word Future Imperfect (e.g., матиму/матимемо/матимеш/матимете/матиме/матимуть); again, there’s no such tense in R.

    U has thousands of single-word shortcut adverbs absent from R, such as торік, чимдуж, здебільш, навшпиньки, насамперед, завдальшe, etc. absent from R, all of which require two or three R words to express the same.

    U has three forms of superlative adjectives and adverbs (e.g., найвищий/якнайвищий/щоякнайвищий) vs one in R (e.g., наивысший).

    Another example: “the single-word Future Imperfect (майбутній час недоконаного виду) that is absent from Russian where it can be formed only with the Future form of the auxiliary verb “to be”. E.g. “We will live” in Russian can be formed only as “Мы будем жить”, whereas in Ukrainian, both as “Ми житимемо” (one word for “will live”) and “Ми будемо жити” (“to be” in the Future + Infinitive). Another tense Russian doesn’t have is Plus Quam Perfectum (Past Perfect in English) called in Ukrainian “давноминулий час” and indicating an action finished before some moment in the past, e.g. “Я був читав”.

    While in U, all of the above forms were present in common everyday speech in the 1700′s (that’s the speech and vocabulary Kotliarevsky used to write “The Aeneid” published in 1798), R at the time was a mere rudiment of what it has become after Pushkin and is today.
     

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon, @Philip Owen

  698. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Bashibuzuk

    What the BlackRock propaganda failed to mention is that the ugly situation is the UK was because pension funds had used LDI to leverage their gilt portfolios through interest rate swaps and repurchase agreements up to seven times – 7X! – to match their actuarial liabilities.

    Leverage works remarkably well when interest rates are stable. Leverage works even better when interest rates are falling. But when interest rates rise in short order, leverage is devastating.

    For example, as happened in the UK, with over £1 trillion outstanding, levered to the extreme through BlackRock’s LDI funds, rising interest rates forced a doom-loop of selling to meet margin calls. Billions of pounds in pension funds faced immediate collateral risks. Thus, pension funds were forced to sell off various assets to raise cash to cover their bets.
     
    https://economicprism.com/who-else-bought-blackrocks-ldi-swindle-products/

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/larry-fink

    That's why they need to pull the plug and Reset everything...

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    In the short to medium term, however, the pain for much of the world will be intense, including the US. Much of the deflation in certain sectors of the US economy from the Fed’s intense interest rate policy should be offset by capital inflow from those who have lived beyond their means because of the weak dollar in the past.

    The prime beneficiaries of this have been Europe and their overly generous entitlement/pension systems, which are teetering on full collapse as we saw in the UK recently, and China with its massive trade surplus with the US.

    The winners will be those who produce and export base commodities. Because in broad strokes, assets inflated through easy credit for over a decade, like gov’t bonds, stocks, real estate and mid-to-high end consumer goods, will be deflating. On the flip side, base commodity prices, the main driver of inflation today, will continue rising – oil, gas, gold, metals, food, etc.

    https://tomluongo.me/2022/10/06/31-trillion-dollar-question-can-fed-afford-pivot/

    Every war is a Banksters’ war.

    Another reason they needed Pynya to start the war was to prevent RusFed from benefiting from all the rising profits from the commodities exports. Pynya was supposed to vacate his seat in 2024 and he is getting older, so he might have died even before that. They needed a “man of his talents” at the head of the RusFed during their Reset operation. Better be certain of whom you deal with.

    • Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms
    @Bashibuzuk


    gov’t bonds, stocks, real estate and mid-to-high end consumer goods, will be deflating.
     
    Volatility, an asset class that mostly only the hedge funds of US/UK/Singapore knows how to profit from, will be inflated.
  699. @Bashibuzuk
    @Mr. Hack

    This war cannot be stopped. It should have been avoided.

    It wasn't avoided because those who plan and execute these operations according to the plan, are among the smartest (and most evil) people who have ever lived on the face of Earth, while those who should have been busy preventing it, are among the most gullible and naive (if well intentioned) people.

    There is nothing now that could be done to stop for sure this massacre that is unfolding in front of our eyes.

    Even if this war doesn't turn nuclear (which I truly hope), it will nevertheless cause an increasingly immense suffering. I believe that everything we have seen until now is just the beginning. People might well starve and freeze to death in the frontline zone this winter. At large in Ukiestan and RusFed more attacks on vital and critical infrastructure are probable. There are many easy targets on both territories, that if attacked would make the life of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people, unbearable.

    And there is nothing that can be done now to avoid it.

    Even if Putin is removed from power, this war might well simply turn into a gigantic Civil War in the most part of the FUSSR. Think Afghan Civil War with nuclear weapons.

    Такие дела - смута, поруха и гибель множества невинных...

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @LatW

    Тепер, коли це почне відбуватися, випряміться і підніміть голову, тому що ваше викуплення наближається

    Luke 21:28

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  700. @Beckow
    @Yevardian

    Discussion should be open and unrestricted. We all have the choice to ignore personal attacks and not respond. Whoever the Laxa thing was, it was the points that we discussed not the person. I understand the rules, so let's live with them.

    Changing one's moniker is a silly evasion and betrays insecurity. Psycho-babble can be tiresome, but it is simply avoiding rational response. (AP often escapes into his version of emotional babbling that detract from his points.)

    Regarding 'shills', I strongly doubt there are any. To understand how others see the world or Ukraine-Russia war is enlightening. There are few other calm places one can find it. It may not matter one bit what people write, but it creates a small rational space as the world spins into madness. It helps us focus, knowing what others think is a gift.

    Replies: @German_reader, @A123

    Regarding ‘shills’, I strongly doubt there are any.

    The evidence tying the WUHAN-19 virus to a laboratory in or near Wuhan is overwhelming to the point of being undeniable.

    What is the easiest explanation for “Patient Zero” at the Wuhan Wet Market?
    ___

    -1- A grand conspiracy spanning nations beginning with a theft from Fort Detrick.

    • Why would a conspiracy select WUHAN-19 for guaranteed global spread and limited actual fatality? Any conspiracy intentionally releasing WUHAN-19 is deliberately targeting the ENTIRE WORLD. Not a limited venture at China and Iran.

    • Knowing that global contamination was inevitable, why transport it to Wuhan? This complex chain could easily blow up the conspiracy, and it gains nothing as, again, the conspirators would have known total planetary spread was inevitable.

    • The 8-Month long, Crimson Contagion exercise proved that the U.S. had zero capability to contain a high spread event. Any conspiracy would have been called off based on that lengthy and extensive proof of inevitable failure & total U.S. vulnerability: (1)

    Key findings

    ♦ Insufficient federal funding sources for a severe influenza pandemic
    ♦ Confusion on how to apply the Defense Production Act
    ♦ The current medical supply chain and production capacity could not meet the demand
    ♦ Global manufacturing would be unable to meet the domestic demand for personal protective equipment and ancillary supplies

    Though both the report and Dr. Arwady commend many federal agencies for working together and devising response strategies, the pandemic exercise predicted dire consequences–110 million illnesses, 7.7 million hospitalizations and 586,000 deaths, all in the U.S. in the absence of a coordinated national response.

    Crimson Contagion was based on SARS-1 levels of transmission. The juiced WUHAN-19 virus was even easier to spread.
    ___

    -2- A few of the lowest paid security guards and manual labourers misappropriated animals slated for destruction. Then they sold them at the location where animals could easily be sold. As non-scientists they did not understand the risk.

    This also explains why WUHAN-19 is has few or no “weapon-like” characteristics. It really is a laboratory intermediate stage that exited containment. A weapon is targeted. The preliminary research material was far too contagious, and thus untargetable.

    The sole source claiming WIV had tight security, Danielle Anderson, has been proven 100% wrong in her assertions about experiments taking place at WIV. (2)

    Danielle Anderson, ‘Expert’ Who Helped ‘Fact-Check’ Lab-Leak Theory, Was Secretly Part Of Dangerous Coronavirus Research

    Anderson played a key role in suppressing a New York Post story which posited that COVID-19 may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, published in Feb. 2020, according to The Disinformation Chronicle. While she conducted that, and other, work, she failed to disclose she was involved in a grant for manipulating coronaviruses from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance.

    Anderson was also listed on a 2018 grant application by Daszak to DARPA, which proposed creating and studying genetically altered coronaviruses. DARPA denied the application, stating Daszak would need a GOF “risk-mitigation plan.”

    A number of journalists have run profiles of Anderson and consulted her on the lab leak theory without disclosing these blatant conflicts of interest. The suppression of the New York Post story began after Anderson conducted a fact-check for Health Feedback. The Post’s piece suggested the pandemic may have emerged from the WIV, which Anderson called “appalling” and “infuriating.”

    It is objectively proven fact that WIV was doing the exact research needed to produce the WUHAN-19 virus. And, the one and only source about ‘tight’ WIV security has been thoroughly debunked and discredited.
    ____

    Occam’s Razor clearly points at #2 as the vastly more probable scenario. #1 is so convoluted to be entirely unworkable. Yet, Mr. Unz insists on #1, which suspiciously 100% exonerates the CCP from absolutely everything.

    Why is Mr. Unz so passionate about shifting blame away from the obvious and undeniable CCP / WUHAN-19 virus connection?

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/crimson-contagion-2019-simulation-warned-of-pandemic-implications-in-us/2243832/

    (2) https://dailycaller.com/2022/09/20/danielle-anderson-lab-leak-wuhan-covid-coronavirus-research/

  701. @Here Be Dragon
    @John Johnson


    I’m sure people said that it would nonsense to use a T-62 in an invasion. And here we are.

    They are obviously dipping into old stocks.
     
    The article in the British tabloid you reference features photos of some rusted AKM rifles with mismatched stocks and handguards. The source of these images is said to be Visegrad24 web site.

    The web site belongs to the Visegrád Group which is a political alliance of Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Each of these countries has piles of AK rifles that went out of use there a long time ago.

    How naive a man can be?

    It is obvious that these photos were taken for a propaganda article and have nothing to do with Russia, and a person who does not know the difference between AK-47 and AKM should never talk or write about weapons, let alone argue with a guns fan like me.

    As for the T-62 tanks those had been given as a gift to the Donbas republics before the war. It is normal when outdated but reliable equipment is used during a war.

    You think NATO does not send outdated gear to their proxies?

    The AKM rifles Russians keep in their stock are well maintained. A part of these are sold on the civilian market being in excellent condition.

    Suppressors are used with supersonic ammo to hide the flash and change the sound profile. Makes it harder to tell where the sound is coming from. That is why special forces will use them with supersonic 223.
     
    AK rifles are of a different design and construction and due to that a suppressor does not reduce their sound blast enough to be useful with regular ammo. More so it is even dangerous to use a suppressor on an AK other than with subsonic rounds because of the increased pressure coming through the barrel into the piston. The gases come out of the vent holes and make a loud snap right before the face of the shooter.

    And it puts a lot of weight on the end of the barrel and makes the rifle uncomfortable to handle. Apart from the special operations when the subsonic rounds are used a suppressor on an AK is useless and meaningless.

    The higher pressure due to a suppressor slowing down the gas flow results in increasing the rate of automatic fire which can overload the internal mechanics of the rifle and cause it to fail during a firefight. It is the same for other rifles of the gas piston design as well. For this reason with a suppressor either the subsonic ammo is used or the rifle is used in a semi-automatic mode.

    Americans prefer and are trained to shoot in semi-auto in either case but Russians prefer full-auto, and with subsonic ammo the barrel pressure does not change.

    But for the American standard AR-15 rifles the opposite is true – these will not work with subsonic ammo because the pressure in insufficient for the rifle's mechanics. Some American special forces used to use subsonic 5.56 rounds with modified short barrel carbins with a regulable gas block but it was unreliable so in the end the German and Belgian gas piston rifles were bought for them.

    With a short 10-inch barrel the sound blast is too close to one's ears so it makes sense for them to use a suppressor with regular ammo to not damage their hearing but it does not mask where the shot comes from whatsoever – it is still loud due to the supersonic clap that occurs about 10-15 meters in front of the shooter.

    The AK-74 as well as AKM has a 16-inch barrel so it does not need a suppressor for protecting the hearing.

    So no it isn’t a facebook thing or dumb trend. Next time trying asking without being so presumptuous.
     
    Yes it is a propaganda thing. Some photoshoots for the internet.

    Suppressors are more expensive than either AK or AR-15 rifles and do not last long. These are issued to some special forces operators and are not used often in real life.

    You are clueless, son.

    I’ve had people shoot my red dot at 100 yards within minutes. So I think professional soldiers will handle them just fine.
     
    Ukraine does not have professional soldiers except those mercenaries from various paid battalions. For a regular conscript a red dot sight is not going to be useful until he gains some experience.

    Your friends shot on the range at a target that does not move and does not shoot back.

    Go shoot an AK in low light with iron sights if you think this isn’t a mismatch.
     
    Define the low light.

    At night a non-illuminated target will be harder to see through the dimmed glass of the red dot sight. It does not make much sense to see the dot if the target is not seen behind it, does it?

    The Ukrainians actually found Russian conscripts with mosin nagants. Yes that means the Russians actually sent men to the front with bolt action rifles.
     
    You are a dumb paid troll, stop degrading this thread with this stupid crap.

    Russians have not sent conscripts to the front so far and those who were seen with the Mosin rifles were the Donbas militias. Yes a bolt action rifle is more accurate and simple to use, and a sniper Mosin with a scope is good up to 800 meters.

    There is nothing wrong with using those rifles.

    Replies: @John Johnson

    The article in the British tabloid you reference features photos of some rusted AKM rifles with mismatched stocks and handguards. The source of these images is said to be Visegrad24 web site.

    So you are certain that Russia is not issuing AK-47s? You believe the conscripts are properly equipped and cell phone videos of ancient equipment are fake?

    AK rifles are of a different design and construction and due to that a suppressor does not reduce their sound blast enough to be useful with regular ammo.

    The Ukrainians have their own AR/AK hybrid that shoots 7.62×39 and some squads have suppressors:
    https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/Ukraine-Issues-7-62-x-39-AR-47-Mash-Up-Rifles-Interesting-/121-732781/

    Suppressors are more expensive than either AK or AR-15 rifles and do not last long. These are issued to some special forces operators and are not used often in real life.

    That is not true. You can buy a quality suppressor for around $650
    https://www.silencercentral.com/shop/silencers/rifle/223-556/

    No basis in the belief that they don’t last long:
    https://www.silencercentral.com/blog/how-long-do-suppressors-last/

    You are working from 1980s information or something.

    But for the American standard AR-15 rifles the opposite is true – these will not work with subsonic ammo

    I never claimed that they are used for subsonic ammo. You are the one that said that it is pointless to use them with supersonic which is false.

    Why do you think there is a market for 223 suppressors? Why do you think militaries use them? As I said it changes the sound profile and hides the flash. Stop digging your own grave. Admit you were wrong and move on.

    At night a non-illuminated target will be harder to see through the dimmed glass of the red dot sight. It does not make much sense to see the dot if the target is not seen behind it, does it?

    Yes I’m sure our special forces are clueless for using red dots and you the firearms expert of Unz is certain that irons will be fine.

    You can’t see the iron sights once it gets dark. So you see something moving in moonlight, raise the rifle and you can’t see your irons.

    Unlike you I have shot rifles with both in low light. You would be out of your mind to suggest that a team with red dots will be equal to a team with irons.

    Without a proper flash hider they will be blinded by the flash as well.

    Unlike you and Putin the Ukrainians have done their homework and will most likely attack these new conscripts at night for this reason. Putin’s army of bakers and barbers will be running around with AK-47s and shooting at shadows. Ukrainians will come in with suppressed weapons and night vision and pick them off.

    Russians have not sent conscripts to the front so far and those who were seen with the Mosin rifles were the Donbas militias.

    Hilarious that you think it’s fine if the militas have nagants.

    Russia made over 100 million AK-47s and you are actually trying to defend equipping fighting men with bolt action rifles.

    Does being a militia make them less deserving of having a weapon from at least the 1960s? Hitler was able to arm Polish-German separatists with machine guns and grenades in 1939 but Putin isn’t able to do that in 2022?

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @John Johnson


    So you are certain that Russia is not issuing AK-47s? You believe the conscripts are properly equipped and cell phone videos of ancient equipment are fake?
     
    Of course.

    As I said before Russians do not send conscripts to the front for now and AK-47s are collectible vintage rifles. No one is issuing these to no one. You saw photos of AKM rifles – which are not AK-47s.

    As for the videos that I have not seen I cannot comment on that. But common sense is that such videos are staged as it is a recurring theme of pro-Ukrainian propaganda.

    The Donbas militias however do use AKM and Mosin rifles as well as Soviet-era helmets and even Soviet red flags. Some people think it is hip and cool. Some do it for other reasons.

    The Ukrainians have their own AR/AK hybrid that shoots 7.62×39 and some squads have suppressors.
     
    That is not an AR/AK but a standard AR with 7.62 barrel and magazine well, casted for that caliber. Americans have been selling these on the civilian market for quite some time as far as I know.

    Nothing special.

    Ukrainians have been producing the Israeli Tavor as well but none of this changes the situation or solves the problems I mentioned earlier. Suppressors can be used with either of these three rifles.

    But it does not make sense in most real life combat encounters.

    That is not true [Suppressors are more expensive than AK or AR-15 rifles]. You can buy a quality suppressor for around $650.
     
    And how much do you think the M4 carbines cost for the U.S. government? $640 a piece. And an AK-74M for the Russian army? Around the same.

    But the suppressors the U.S. military uses are not those you referenced but either SureFire or Knight's Armament, and these do not sell for $650.

    Double it.

    No basis in the belief that they don’t last long. You are working from 1980s information or something.
     
    No it is because I know the gear. You are on the other hand clueless. A troll, posting stupid crap and flooding the thread with absurd.

    Your article – have you even read it?

    "High, sustained rates of fire will destroy a suppressor much faster than slow, limited rates of fire." A good mil-spec sound suppressor under the regular combat use will last 5-6 thousand rounds. The rifle will last twice as much.

    Why do you think there is a market for 223 suppressors? Why do you think militaries use them? As I said it changes the sound profile and hides the flash. Admit you were wrong and move on.
     
    You do not need to spend a thousand dollars for a flash hider, son and changing "sound profile" of a regular carbine does not change a thing. Snipers do that for using long-range rifles – then it makes sense. And with a short-range carbine it does not.

    Special forces in the U.S. do use suppressors with short-barrel carbines because it is safer to shoot them with a suppressor. The 5.56 is a loud round. And special forces can afford it whereas a regular forces cannot.

    Here is a MK 18 carbine with SureFire suppressor.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y6cLvJAnxE

    Most American special forces use these.


    You can see that with a suppressor it is of around the standard length despite that it has a 10-inch barrel (instead of a 16-inch). And even with a $1,200 suppressor the shot is still loud.

    You said that it is pointless to use them with supersonic, which is false.
     
    You can see that it is not. With a standard 16-inch barrel it is indeed pointless and useless. With a short barrel it is being done for comfort.

    Yes I’m sure our special forces are clueless for using red dots and you the firearms expert of Unz is certain that irons will be fine.
     
    It is not what I said – I said that some people prefer the regular iron sights. Of course not the special forces who train a lot and can use whatever kind of sights depending on the need.

    Please do not be so boring.

    You can’t see the iron sights once it gets dark. So you see something moving in moonlight, raise the rifle and you can’t see your irons.
     
    It depends on the rifle and on the sights.

    The Yugoslavian Zastava M70 AK variant was equipped with fluorescent iron sights as a standard. Tritium dots produce bright enough green light so even at night one can see the sight.

    https://i.postimg.cc/Rq50FkjZ/Zastava-M70.jpg

    For the Russian and other East European AKM and AK-74 there are the same kind of sights as an option, though these were not used as a standard issue.

    And the special forces model of both AK-74 and AKM had a side rail on the receiver for mounting a night scope.

    You would be out of your mind to suggest that a team with red dots will be equal to a team with irons.
     
    Depending on the team it can be. Of course whether the equipment is good does matter – including sights. But the end result will depend on their skills and other factors.

    Without a proper flash hider they will be blinded by the flash as well.
     
    Not if the flares or tactical lights are being used.

    The Ukrainians have done their homework and will attack these new conscripts at night. Putin’s army will be running around with AK-47s and shooting at shadows. Ukrainians will come in with suppressed weapons and night vision and pick them off.
     
    You should be a stand-up comedian. You might make a good one :)

    Hilarious that you think it’s fine if the militas have nagants. Russia made over 100 million AK-47s and you are actually trying to defend equipping fighting men with bolt action rifles.
     
    You are a clueless troll.

    An AK has the effective range of 300-400 m. A sniper model Mosin PU with match-grade ammo and the standard scope reaches up to 800 m.

    An AK-74 and the 5.45x39 mm round it uses can punch through a bulletproof vest from close range (up to 100-150 m). A Mosin uses 7.62x54 mm caliber – a lot more powerful round.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N2UclXPRAA

    It will punch through the vest from 400-500 m, and in good hands even without a scope will be accurate at these distances. Watch this video and read comments below it.

    Does being a militia make them less deserving of having a weapon from at least the 1960s?
     
    Being a militia means that one can do things a regular troop is not allowed to do. For example wear uniform one prefers and choose a weapon that is not standard. As I said earlier some people prefer to use vintage weapons.

    As for Mosin being a bolt action rifle that a troll has no understanding of note that a number of sniper rifles being used in the U.S. forces are bolt action as well – among them M24 and M40 (based on the Remington 700), and the latter has been used since the mid-60s. These rifles chambered in 7.62x51mm are similar to the Mosin PU both in power and effective range.

    Besides there are a lot of vintage guns in the American military. The M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun has been in service since 1933 – and is still being used!

    The M60 machine gun has been in use since 1950s. Some units are still using the Colt 1911 pistol – in use since 1911. These are all good, even exceptional firearms and their age does not make them bad.

    Replies: @John Johnson

  702. @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikhail

    Миша, Вы скорее всего неплохой человек и в некотором смысле Русский патриот. К сожалению, Вы ошибаетесь: РесФед (Ресурсная Федерация, к сожалению не переводится) - не Россия.

    If you read Russian then you should have no problems properly understanding what I just wrote above. Also, if you read Russian you should read what Russian nationalists, such as Konstantin Krylov or Yegor Prosvirnin have written about the RusFed.

    Both of them died, Krylov accused of being an extremist, convicted, censored and driven into abject poverty where he had to sell his belongings to feed his children, and Prosvirnin committed suicide (most probably was killed like Tesak - Martsinkevitch before him) a few months prior to the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

    Both were sincere patriots of their homeland and people, and both were stomped into the ground by Putin's regime like many thousands of others who wished Russian people well before them. On the other hand, Chubais and Abramovich are still living their days mostly unbothered and enjoying the fruits of their plundering of Russian lands' ressources.

    Poor Russian and Ukrainian Slavs have been goaded into killing each other by adroit puppeteers. Both people are earmarked for slaughter. A wise and decent man should not take sides into a rigged and immoral fight between two blindfolded and dumbed down populations.

    Как-то так...

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Mikhail

    Overall, your comments of late appear more agreeable to svidos than reasonable pro-Russian folks. Yes, Russia is far from perfect. There’s also the matter of the Kiev regime being a corrupt, undemocratic and neo-Nazi influenced entity with blood on its hands.

    • Replies: @John Johnson
    @Mikhail

    Ukraine is undemocratic?

    Putin ended direct elections in 2004 as part of a "fight against terrorism" as if that makes any sense.
    https://www.rferl.org/a/1056377.html

    Ukraine has direct elections and yes the people tossed the pro-Russian president before he finished his term.

    If Biden ordered the government to shoot at Trump protestors would you argue that he should finish his term since he was elected?

    Being able to toss your criminal president is a sign of a healthy democracy.

    In Russia you can't even hold up a blank sign:
    https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2022/03/14/woman-arrested-for-holding-a-blank-sign-is-a-nightmarish-glimpse-into-putins-russia/

    But keep defending the pipsqueak dictator. I'm sure he knows what he is doing.

    Replies: @Mikhail

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikhail

    I am very much interested in population genetics and genetic lineages. This defines my outlook.

    Moscow or Kiev today are transitory place holders to fit human populations into a certain framework. The place holders and the framework are impermanent. Systems evolve, including social systems.

    But genetic lineages endure. And some of them greatly influence human culture and civilization. The Indo-European Y haplogroup R1a had an outstanding impact on human history. From the Vedas to the first man in space, the R1a folks have done great things.

    And if the World would have been a better place, they would have worked for common human advancement and greater happiness as they often did in the past.

    Alas, the World is a mess. We do live in dangerous times.

    Therefore some lineages eliminate others to ensure their future survival and success. R1a populations have been prevented from achieving their full potential by many means in the past centuries. Today they have been turned into enemies in a fratricidal conflict. In fact, most R1a people my have been earmarked for culling by the Globalist Cabal.

    Most Svidos and Vatniks, Ukies and RusFed-ians are my extended family. I wish them all well. Thulean Friend has asked me whether I truly was an ethnic nationalist, that is my answer. Nations, countries, cultures shall change and pass, but I want my folks, my lineage to endure.

    I want my folks to do great things, helping each other and also their neighbors of other lineages if they are friendly and respectful. I want both RusFed and Ukiestan to vanish from the face of the Earth because they both prevent my folks from achieving their full potential. I want Global Cabal gone for good.

    As LatW beautifully wrote: "I want my people to live on forever", and among people of LatW, there are those of my lineage and I see them also as my family. I care for my blood and my soil not Putin or Zelensky, not modern nations or Globalist structures.

    It might be called Archeofuturism. Sooner or later we will come to that, to caring about our genetic lineage first and everything else later. Because it is the natural thing to do. I wouldn't give a darn about Pynya or Zelya if they both were not so detrimental, but they shall pass.

    Do you understand?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

  703. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Bashibuzuk

    There is a documentary Weight of Chains by a Serbian-Canadian on youtube. The entire two hours is a bit overboard but there is an amazing interval near the beginning of excerpts from Serbian and Croatian television before the Yugo civil war was boosted into high gear.

    For the Croats: Serbs = Chetniks
    For the Serbs: Croats = Ustase

    The documentary maker claims this was on the television there all day every day to get the regular people into a rabid lunacy.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEYQ46gH08

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Mikhail, @S, @S

    Did you see him in a Duran segment within the past week? He asked me to be in that documentary at a time when I couldn’t connect with him in the production process.

    Chetniks more preferable to Ustashe.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mikhail

    I only watched the Duran episode for about three minutes. The second he said we could see the film free on youtube I closed that and went and watched the first 30 minutes or so of the documentary.

  704. @Bashibuzuk
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    ⁹Yes, that's the way it works, that is why Pynya waited for eight years before starting his war. It was the time required for the propaganda on both sides of the frontline to reprogram both Russians and Ukrainians so that they would utterly destroy each other.

    Once it is done, the whole Realm of Rus (ancestral to both populations) will be ready to be reset and used in a manner that suits the goals of the Globalist Cabal. The bellicose Eastern Slavs will profitably be finally tamed, and would become obedient Eastern Slaves, just like their German neighbors to the West have been goaded into aggression, bled and tamed into today's letzter Menschen - German Western Slaves.

    And yeah, a (limited?) nuclear war is more probable with every passing day.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Mikhail

    And yeah, a (limited?) nuclear war is more probable with every passing day.

    The exact basis the US used for using the A bomb.

  705. @Mikhail
    @Bashibuzuk

    Overall, your comments of late appear more agreeable to svidos than reasonable pro-Russian folks. Yes, Russia is far from perfect. There's also the matter of the Kiev regime being a corrupt, undemocratic and neo-Nazi influenced entity with blood on its hands.

    Replies: @John Johnson, @Bashibuzuk

    Ukraine is undemocratic?

    Putin ended direct elections in 2004 as part of a “fight against terrorism” as if that makes any sense.
    https://www.rferl.org/a/1056377.html

    Ukraine has direct elections and yes the people tossed the pro-Russian president before he finished his term.

    If Biden ordered the government to shoot at Trump protestors would you argue that he should finish his term since he was elected?

    Being able to toss your criminal president is a sign of a healthy democracy.

    In Russia you can’t even hold up a blank sign:
    https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2022/03/14/woman-arrested-for-holding-a-blank-sign-is-a-nightmarish-glimpse-into-putins-russia/

    But keep defending the pipsqueak dictator. I’m sure he knows what he is doing.

    • Disagree: Mikhail
    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @John Johnson

    Are you that troll who has become a subject of discussion? The Kiev regime has appointed non-elected dupes all over the place, like the guy they had installed in Mariupol.

    The 2004 matter you brought up in Russia had popular support because many of the regions didn't have democratically run elections. Russia does have multi-candidate/multi-party elections as Western mass media noted that non-United Russia candidates gained in some of the recent voting.

    Evidence shows that Right Sector folks fired on government personnel and protestors. Meantime Kiev regime hasn't done an investigation of that or the Odessa massacre.

    Yanukovych was a democratically elected president who was democratically overthrown, shortly after he signed an internationally brokered power sharing agreement with the opposition.

    Unfortunately, the likes of Truss, Biden, Scholz and Macron aren't encouraging examples for espousing Western democracy.

    To borrow a bit from you: But keep defending the pipsqueak figurehead in Kiev. I’m sure he knows what he is doing.

    Replies: @John Johnson

  706. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Mikhail
    @Bashibuzuk

    Overall, your comments of late appear more agreeable to svidos than reasonable pro-Russian folks. Yes, Russia is far from perfect. There's also the matter of the Kiev regime being a corrupt, undemocratic and neo-Nazi influenced entity with blood on its hands.

    Replies: @John Johnson, @Bashibuzuk

    I am very much interested in population genetics and genetic lineages. This defines my outlook.

    Moscow or Kiev today are transitory place holders to fit human populations into a certain framework. The place holders and the framework are impermanent. Systems evolve, including social systems.

    But genetic lineages endure. And some of them greatly influence human culture and civilization. The Indo-European Y haplogroup R1a had an outstanding impact on human history. From the Vedas to the first man in space, the R1a folks have done great things.

    And if the World would have been a better place, they would have worked for common human advancement and greater happiness as they often did in the past.

    Alas, the World is a mess. We do live in dangerous times.

    Therefore some lineages eliminate others to ensure their future survival and success. R1a populations have been prevented from achieving their full potential by many means in the past centuries. Today they have been turned into enemies in a fratricidal conflict. In fact, most R1a people my have been earmarked for culling by the Globalist Cabal.

    Most Svidos and Vatniks, Ukies and RusFed-ians are my extended family. I wish them all well. Thulean Friend has asked me whether I truly was an ethnic nationalist, that is my answer. Nations, countries, cultures shall change and pass, but I want my folks, my lineage to endure.

    I want my folks to do great things, helping each other and also their neighbors of other lineages if they are friendly and respectful. I want both RusFed and Ukiestan to vanish from the face of the Earth because they both prevent my folks from achieving their full potential. I want Global Cabal gone for good.

    As LatW beautifully wrote: “I want my people to live on forever”, and among people of LatW, there are those of my lineage and I see them also as my family. I care for my blood and my soil not Putin or Zelensky, not modern nations or Globalist structures.

    It might be called Archeofuturism. Sooner or later we will come to that, to caring about our genetic lineage first and everything else later. Because it is the natural thing to do. I wouldn’t give a darn about Pynya or Zelya if they both were not so detrimental, but they shall pass.

    Do you understand?

    • Agree: S
    • Thanks: LatW
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Bashibuzuk

    https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/245/732/25e.jpg

    Pynya - know your meme??...

    , @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms
    @Bashibuzuk

    R1a is in a sense "Core Eurasian" being in the middle of the Heartland, and influenced/influenced by Inner Asians, Westerners, and Middle Easterners,
    https://i.postimg.cc/1XX9H26y/undefined-Imgur.png

    There is an ancient clade of R1a that's found in East Asia that may have founded earliest Sinitic cultures,
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R1a#Asia

    *I really don't care for Han ethno-nationalist purity claims since zero-Covid has shown to be a Great Leap Backwards.

    So far as the "West" I think it should be R1b and haplogroup I, since the latter is found in high frequencies in northern Europe,
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_I-M170#Distribution

  707. @German_reader
    @Beckow


    Regarding ‘shills’, I strongly doubt there are any.
     
    In general I would agree regarding UR (what would be the point on a site like this?), but also have to say that Laxa was the only commenter I've ever encountered here who did feel fake and inauthentic to me.
    I'm neutral on her/his/its return though, if the others here manage to convince Ron Unz to let her/him/it return, fine with me.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Yevardian

    In general I would agree regarding UR (what would be the point on a site like this?), but also have to say that Laxa was the only commenter I’ve ever encountered here who did feel fake and inauthentic to me.

    How many women in the real world have you ever known who spend their discretionary time in a man space?

    This board is a man space. It might be the manliest man space on the whole freaking internet that I have ever seen. Maybe r/redpill is a match but I only visit it once every couple of months or so.

  708. @Mikhail
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Did you see him in a Duran segment within the past week? He asked me to be in that documentary at a time when I couldn't connect with him in the production process.

    Chetniks more preferable to Ustashe.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    I only watched the Duran episode for about three minutes. The second he said we could see the film free on youtube I closed that and went and watched the first 30 minutes or so of the documentary.

  709. @John Johnson
    @Mikhail

    Ukraine is undemocratic?

    Putin ended direct elections in 2004 as part of a "fight against terrorism" as if that makes any sense.
    https://www.rferl.org/a/1056377.html

    Ukraine has direct elections and yes the people tossed the pro-Russian president before he finished his term.

    If Biden ordered the government to shoot at Trump protestors would you argue that he should finish his term since he was elected?

    Being able to toss your criminal president is a sign of a healthy democracy.

    In Russia you can't even hold up a blank sign:
    https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2022/03/14/woman-arrested-for-holding-a-blank-sign-is-a-nightmarish-glimpse-into-putins-russia/

    But keep defending the pipsqueak dictator. I'm sure he knows what he is doing.

    Replies: @Mikhail

    Are you that troll who has become a subject of discussion? The Kiev regime has appointed non-elected dupes all over the place, like the guy they had installed in Mariupol.

    The 2004 matter you brought up in Russia had popular support because many of the regions didn’t have democratically run elections. Russia does have multi-candidate/multi-party elections as Western mass media noted that non-United Russia candidates gained in some of the recent voting.

    Evidence shows that Right Sector folks fired on government personnel and protestors. Meantime Kiev regime hasn’t done an investigation of that or the Odessa massacre.

    Yanukovych was a democratically elected president who was democratically overthrown, shortly after he signed an internationally brokered power sharing agreement with the opposition.

    Unfortunately, the likes of Truss, Biden, Scholz and Macron aren’t encouraging examples for espousing Western democracy.

    To borrow a bit from you: But keep defending the pipsqueak figurehead in Kiev. I’m sure he knows what he is doing.

    • Replies: @John Johnson
    @Mikhail

    Russia does have multi-candidate/multi-party elections as Western mass media noted that non-United Russia candidates gained in some of the recent voting.

    They have controlled elections where Putin poisons any serious opposition. He ended direct elections which means he can replace anyone in the Duma at will.

    Can provide quotes from his former associates if you would like on how Russia is a dictatorship and not at all a democracy.

    Would you like those?

    Yanukovych was a democratically elected president who was democratically overthrown, shortly after he signed an internationally brokered power sharing agreement with the opposition.

    He was caught shooting protestors and the Kremlin never denied it:
    https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-yanukovych-behind-protest-deaths/25320039.html

    That is also the president that had spent millions on home furnishings despite having a modest government salary:
    https://transparency.eu/corruption-opulence-and-decadence-in-ukraine/

    That article describes how he had a $11 million dollar chandelier.

    If Biden was caught having Trump protestors shot by government snipers would you argue that he should stay in office because he was elected?

    Funny how Putin didn't call Ukraine a "made up state" whey they had a pro-Russian president.

    Replies: @Mikhail

  710. @sudden death
    @Yahya

    On a sidenote, recently have overwhelming sense of all fiction and movies to be rather bland, cause roughly since end of January had the feeling of living in a movie, with the plot taking off at Feb 24 and still not showing any signs of easing off - in what fiction movie you can watch Crimean bridge being blown up nearly live as a hangover present to Putin's 70 year jubilee, lol

    At the same time the sense of growing dread for all sides in this movie blows away even the first installment of Alien series...

    But perhaps it is just particularity of being Eastern European, people in Africa or South America probably justifiably are just as unfazed as ever;

    Also had the same feeling of living in movie since first Chinese lockdowns, but it all ended rather happily overall, even despite just official deathcount nearing 7 million worlwide alas it was just the prologue to the next localized(?) disaster serial.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Bashibuzuk, @LatW, @Mikel

    But perhaps it is just particularity of being Eastern European

    Indeed, the wonderful – the bold and beautiful – East Slavs never cease to provide great material (whatever you please – entertainment, horror, drama). Creative peeps. Here is a great flick that will stun you called “Apocalypse at the Munition warehouse” (filmed this summer). Hard to decide what genre it fits in – action drama or horror, true action and amazing sound effects start at around 3:00 and great culmination at the end and the actors are doing their own stunts(Under More)

    [MORE]

  711. @German_reader
    @Beckow


    Regarding ‘shills’, I strongly doubt there are any.
     
    In general I would agree regarding UR (what would be the point on a site like this?), but also have to say that Laxa was the only commenter I've ever encountered here who did feel fake and inauthentic to me.
    I'm neutral on her/his/its return though, if the others here manage to convince Ron Unz to let her/him/it return, fine with me.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Yevardian


    Regarding ‘shills’, I strongly doubt there are any.

    In general I would agree regarding UR (what would be the point on a site like this?), but also have to say that Laxa was the only commenter I’ve ever encountered here who did feel fake and inauthentic to me.

    Basically my feeling as well. That combined with the extreme verbosity and monomaniacal repetition, it wasn’t about the actual ‘opinions’. There are plenty other irritating commenters, but OTOH they don’t spam and I’m at least sure they’re real people.

    Btw, as you you were reading about the Diadochi recently, you might find Badian article (“Antiochos III and Rome: A Study in Cold War”) interesting, the topic is pretty prescient, describing how grandstanding led to repeated escalations, ultimately resulting in a war between the two that neither power really wanted. Of course neither side had nuclear weapons and the Seleukids unexpectedly ‘folded like a cheap suit’ so it all ended with an anticlimax, but its a good read.
    https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/364346?journalCode=cp

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Yevardian


    Btw, as you you were reading about the Diadochi recently, you might find Badian article (“Antiochos III and Rome: A Study in Cold War”) interesting, the topic is pretty prescient, describing how grandstanding led to repeated escalations, ultimately resulting in a war between the two that neither power really wanted.
     
    Thanks, might look at it. Not sure though if I would agree that it was merely due to grandstanding, maybe there really were irreconcilable interests (iirc Antiochos in all likelihood did want to expand to Europe, and the Romans already regarded Greece as a sort of protectorate where they would be the final arbiter) that made a clash inevitable. And while I generally regard most analogies with ancient history as dubious, the attitude of the Romans (completely uncompromising, unwilling to regard any other power as an equal, paranoid about alleged security threats, even ideological insofar as the republican Romans seemed to enjoy humiliating kings) strikes me as reminiscent of some aspects of the contemporary US, and I don't think one can regard today's geopolitical conflicts as merely an unfortunate misunderstanding.
    I just finished another book by the author of the Diadochi book during my travels on trains (The making of a king. Antigonus Gonatas of Macedon and the Greeks). Don't know if it's of interest to you, since it's directed at a general audience (though not dumbed-down imo), but I enjoyed it, since the 3rd century BC seems to be a relatively obscure period given the lack of sources that usually doesn't get much attention.

    Replies: @Yevardian

  712. S says:
    @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Bashibuzuk

    There is a documentary Weight of Chains by a Serbian-Canadian on youtube. The entire two hours is a bit overboard but there is an amazing interval near the beginning of excerpts from Serbian and Croatian television before the Yugo civil war was boosted into high gear.

    For the Croats: Serbs = Chetniks
    For the Serbs: Croats = Ustase

    The documentary maker claims this was on the television there all day every day to get the regular people into a rabid lunacy.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEYQ46gH08

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Mikhail, @S, @S

    For the Croats: Serbs = Chetniks
    For the Serbs: Croats = Ustase

    The documentary maker claims this was on the television there all day every day to get the regular people into a rabid lunacy.

    That’s why I don’t watch TV and stick to DVD’s. 🙂

    ‘We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.’

    ‘The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.’

    ‘We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.’

    ‘This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.’

    ‘Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet. They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure.’

    ‘Whatever attitude one chooses toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons—a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty million—who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses.’

    ‘It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.’ Propaganda (1928) by Edward Bernays – pg 23

    https://archive.org/details/propaganda-edward-l.-bernays/page/n23/mode/2up

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  713. German_reader says:
    @Yevardian
    @German_reader




    @Beckow
    Regarding ‘shills’, I strongly doubt there are any.
     
    In general I would agree regarding UR (what would be the point on a site like this?), but also have to say that Laxa was the only commenter I’ve ever encountered here who did feel fake and inauthentic to me.
     
    Basically my feeling as well. That combined with the extreme verbosity and monomaniacal repetition, it wasn't about the actual 'opinions'. There are plenty other irritating commenters, but OTOH they don't spam and I'm at least sure they're real people.


    Btw, as you you were reading about the Diadochi recently, you might find Badian article ("Antiochos III and Rome: A Study in Cold War") interesting, the topic is pretty prescient, describing how grandstanding led to repeated escalations, ultimately resulting in a war between the two that neither power really wanted. Of course neither side had nuclear weapons and the Seleukids unexpectedly 'folded like a cheap suit' so it all ended with an anticlimax, but its a good read.
    https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/364346?journalCode=cp

    Replies: @German_reader

    Btw, as you you were reading about the Diadochi recently, you might find Badian article (“Antiochos III and Rome: A Study in Cold War”) interesting, the topic is pretty prescient, describing how grandstanding led to repeated escalations, ultimately resulting in a war between the two that neither power really wanted.

    Thanks, might look at it. Not sure though if I would agree that it was merely due to grandstanding, maybe there really were irreconcilable interests (iirc Antiochos in all likelihood did want to expand to Europe, and the Romans already regarded Greece as a sort of protectorate where they would be the final arbiter) that made a clash inevitable. And while I generally regard most analogies with ancient history as dubious, the attitude of the Romans (completely uncompromising, unwilling to regard any other power as an equal, paranoid about alleged security threats, even ideological insofar as the republican Romans seemed to enjoy humiliating kings) strikes me as reminiscent of some aspects of the contemporary US, and I don’t think one can regard today’s geopolitical conflicts as merely an unfortunate misunderstanding.
    I just finished another book by the author of the Diadochi book during my travels on trains (The making of a king. Antigonus Gonatas of Macedon and the Greeks). Don’t know if it’s of interest to you, since it’s directed at a general audience (though not dumbed-down imo), but I enjoyed it, since the 3rd century BC seems to be a relatively obscure period given the lack of sources that usually doesn’t get much attention.

    • Replies: @Yevardian
    @German_reader

    I know the author Robin Waterfield, probably every English-language classics undergrad has come across his name, he's an extremely prolific translator. I heard he was working on a Gonatas biography, I think the last full study on him was done by W.W Tarn before WWI, I read that a while ago, wonder if any new finds have changed opinions. Of course Tarn later got a lot of flack, deservedly, for his boy-scout portrait of the Hellenistic Era, but great prose writer nonetheless.


    since the 3rd century BC seems to be a relatively obscure period given the lack of sources that usually doesn’t get much attention.
     
    The 3rd Century BC, east of Italy, might even be the most poorly documented period for the entirety of Greco-Roman Antiquity actually. That's even in comparison the 'Barracks Emperors' period between Commodus and Diocletion, or the late Dominate/early-Byzantine from Theodosius to Justinian or even until Heraklios.

    Anyway, back to 3rd Century BC, the period between 281 (Seleukos I's death) until 222 (Antiochos III) is characterised by huge blanks, and the point where the poverty of sources becomes most acute, from 261, is particularly frustrating, because the most largescale of all the Hellenistic conflicts between established kingdoms occurs exactly then. There are scattered fragments confirming that Egypt overran Seleukid possessions all the way to Babylon, and its armies may have even have reached as far as Iran (for the latter, more contested sources for this, there's scraps of epigraphic evidence coming from Ethiopia/Eritrea of all places). Obviously, this would mark the military high-point of Egyptian history by a massive margin, even if it was under non-native rulers that used non-Egyptian troops.

    But on the Hellenistic period more generally, it's obvious that most Romans, and by extension later Melkite Christian copyists, just weren't interested in the history of Greece/Western-Asia after Alexander, but before Rome's conquests there.
    It's pretty striking that not a single contemporary historian from the Hellenistic era survives, if you don't count Polybios for being a pro-Roman shill. Anyway, the only fully preserved parts of Polybios' work are those directly concerning Rome, even most of his narrative for Antiochos III's career is missing. If you really want to stretch definitions of 'history' you can count the Jewish Makkabees or Manetho and Bessoros' antiquarian works on ancient Babylon and Egypt respectively, but the latter two are pretty fragmented, and often not even very accurate.

    But otherwise, Heironymos, Duris, Timaios, Phylarchos, Marsyas of Pella, Alexander Polyhistor, Ptolemy I, literally everyone is lost. And those are only the writers who were most famous, there's actually over 200 (!) attested names of Hellenistic Historians, their existence only being known by a stray reference or quote. We also know some of these writers were extremely prolific, with 5-20 volume monographs on Makedonia or Parthia alone. But again, all vanished.
    Personally I blame the Islamic conquests as the single biggest factor for the loss.

    So, as you know, we have to rely on a few epitomisers from centuries later who often butcher their chronological sequencing in summarising, fail to reconcile contradictory sources, or corrupt/fuse names in translation to the point of unintellibility (this is particular to Syriac and Armenian sources). The overall picture is comparatively clearest in Greece and Egypt, especially thanks to papyrus finds, ostraka pieces and inscriptions, getting worse Anatolia and the Levant, and finally becoming almost hopeless to reconstruct with confidence once you reach Iran.

    Btw, if you looking for a readable account of general scope, I'd strongly recommend E.R. Bevan's books on the Seleukid and Ptolemaïc kingdoms. Obviously there are semi-popular works updated with more recent scholarship, but I find their prose can be pretty turgid, and the picture hasn't changed that much. Nowadays Green, Walbank and to a lesser extent Anson have well-written popular works, though I suppose there's plenty good books on the topic, old and new, available in German.

    Replies: @German_reader

  714. Happy Birthday Mr. Putler!

  715. S says:
    @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Bashibuzuk

    There is a documentary Weight of Chains by a Serbian-Canadian on youtube. The entire two hours is a bit overboard but there is an amazing interval near the beginning of excerpts from Serbian and Croatian television before the Yugo civil war was boosted into high gear.

    For the Croats: Serbs = Chetniks
    For the Serbs: Croats = Ustase

    The documentary maker claims this was on the television there all day every day to get the regular people into a rabid lunacy.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEYQ46gH08

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Mikhail, @S, @S

    For the Croats: Serbs = Chetniks
    For the Serbs: Croats = Ustase

    The documentary maker claims this was on the television there all day every day to get the regular people into a rabid lunacy.

    Kind of like, depending where one lives and point of view, how (somehow) Putin, Zelensky, and Trump, were (and are) all ‘Nazis’! simultaneously according to the corporate mass media.

    It makes sense in that the powers that be don’t really like substantive identity, physical and, or, cultural, even if the ‘identity’ is often only empty symbolism of empty symbolism…cough..Trump…cough!..Putin.

    Yes, here and there, various typically small, powerless, or compromised in some way, groups are allowed a bit of identity, as it is politically useful for the moment, or, it simply makes the promoters of the genocidal (in the truest sense of that much abused term) Multi-Cultural system feel a little bit better about themselves and sleep more peacefully at night..

    The Proles and Animals are free.

    • Replies: @A123
    @S


    Kind of like, depending where one lives and point of view, how (somehow) Putin, Zelensky, and Trump, were (and are) all ‘Nazis’! simultaneously according to the corporate mass media.
     
    Rights & Responsibilities are inextricably linked. No nation or culture can have one with out the other. The concept of effectively unlimited democracy has failed. The Sheeple have taken authority by numbers, but are controlled by the fascist Leftoids.

    The bane of polarization is for each action there is an opposite reaction. And, unlike physics, the opposite reaction is not equal, it is magnified.

    The U.S. system was built on Checks & Balances. At some level each side respected the other and the institutions of America's Constitutional Republic. That ended with the Blue Coup of 2020.

    The SJW Globalists imposed Not-The-President Biden after losing. Nazi Pelosi and her Nazi-crat party are fascists. The mass media is the reincarnation of Leni Riefenstahl's Lügenpresse.
    ____

    Saving Christianity and serving God is more important than the piece of paper known as the 1789 Constitution. If it has become so twisted it can be wielded against Judeo Christian values, it has to go. This is not unprecedented. The 1777 Articles of Confederate were also abandoned. A new Constitution is required.

    • One that protects traditional Judeo Christians
    • Schools will indoctrinate American values
    • Those that immigrate must assimilate
    • The idea of citizenship by mama's "drop location" will be permanent eradicated.
    • Citizenship and the vote must be earned.
    • And, so on...

    This does not have to be Civil War II. However, surrendering to SJW Islamic Globalism is not possible. If God requires a Civil War, so be it. Voting Red States and non-voting Blue territories is an acceptable outcome.

    No Surrender! No Retreat!

    How long would it take for the Millennials to quit?

    Offer unto them -- Avocado Toast and Pajamas.
    Yea, verily -- Provide Pumpkin Spice and Yoga Pants.


    The Sheeple have been trained to submit to SJW Islam. Inducing the sheeplings to bleat "Baaaa" for God may not be a profound spiritual breakthrough. However, it is a practical and relatively straightforward interim step.

    PEACE 😇
  716. @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikhail

    I am very much interested in population genetics and genetic lineages. This defines my outlook.

    Moscow or Kiev today are transitory place holders to fit human populations into a certain framework. The place holders and the framework are impermanent. Systems evolve, including social systems.

    But genetic lineages endure. And some of them greatly influence human culture and civilization. The Indo-European Y haplogroup R1a had an outstanding impact on human history. From the Vedas to the first man in space, the R1a folks have done great things.

    And if the World would have been a better place, they would have worked for common human advancement and greater happiness as they often did in the past.

    Alas, the World is a mess. We do live in dangerous times.

    Therefore some lineages eliminate others to ensure their future survival and success. R1a populations have been prevented from achieving their full potential by many means in the past centuries. Today they have been turned into enemies in a fratricidal conflict. In fact, most R1a people my have been earmarked for culling by the Globalist Cabal.

    Most Svidos and Vatniks, Ukies and RusFed-ians are my extended family. I wish them all well. Thulean Friend has asked me whether I truly was an ethnic nationalist, that is my answer. Nations, countries, cultures shall change and pass, but I want my folks, my lineage to endure.

    I want my folks to do great things, helping each other and also their neighbors of other lineages if they are friendly and respectful. I want both RusFed and Ukiestan to vanish from the face of the Earth because they both prevent my folks from achieving their full potential. I want Global Cabal gone for good.

    As LatW beautifully wrote: "I want my people to live on forever", and among people of LatW, there are those of my lineage and I see them also as my family. I care for my blood and my soil not Putin or Zelensky, not modern nations or Globalist structures.

    It might be called Archeofuturism. Sooner or later we will come to that, to caring about our genetic lineage first and everything else later. Because it is the natural thing to do. I wouldn't give a darn about Pynya or Zelya if they both were not so detrimental, but they shall pass.

    Do you understand?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    Pynya – know your meme??…

  717. @Bashibuzuk
    @German_reader

    War in Ukraine is also an economic Anglo-saxon war against continental Europe, of which Germany is the industrial core.

    The goal is the destruction of the European middle class and a substantial reduction of the global one.

    https://asiatimes.com/2022/10/global-margin-call-hits-european-debt-markets/

    German elites probably know and understand this better than anyone, but they are basically part of the occupation administration.

    They cannot raise against their handlers.

    They are good dogs that don't bite the hand that feeds.



    If even these nihilistic trolls from Ramstein get it right, then German politicians can't claim ignorance and misunderstanding as a mitigating circumstance.

    https://youtu.be/NeQM1c-XCDc

    (I have always liked Einstürzende Neubauten more, they feel more genuine...)

    Replies: @S, @LondonBob

    If even these nihilistic trolls from Ramstein get it right, then German politicians can’t claim ignorance and misunderstanding as a mitigating circumstance.

    Rammstein also gave us Amerika…

    • Replies: @Coconuts
    @S

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10JDA8SvwX8

    They made Stripped as well. I remember it playing on MTV a lot in the late 90s. There was some discussion about possible Fascist content. We all agreed it didn't really have much.

    With age my opinion changed.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Bashibuzuk

  718. Looks like TL/Monitor of Halls be gone, I will post this reply from earlier anyway.

    I think it sort of adds to what Thorfinnson wrote in another reply.

    You think socially mandated gender roles are essential to the functioning of a nation state. Good for you! But I see no mechanism for that to be true, nor any evidence of it being true.

    Differing conceptions of what a nation is clearly exist. Maybe you are aware of that as you switched terms in your reply from my use of nation to the more liberal ‘nation state’. For example:

    A Nationalist definition: A certain number of families reaching out from age to age and having in common certain permanent interests: the land to be defended, the continuity of the race to be assured, a fund of moral and economic capital to be developed.

    A Liberal definition: An aggregation of free, equal and rational individuals who consciously decide to create a community because co-operation will help them to fulfil their personal interests.

    Most European nations originated in kingdoms and other feudal entities before early modern times, and the political form was connected to a familial (often patriarchal) and hereditary understanding of politics; it’s obviously present in the etymology of terms like patria, patrie, nation, fatherland, motherland etc. You see some larger change in that understanding of politics during the Enlightenment era.

    The most functional states in the world currently have the least in the way of socially mandated gender roles.

    If someone was inclined to understand nations in the light of the nationalist definition above, the potential connection between it, gender roles and fertility should be fairly clear. The fact that the most functional nation states (using the liberal definition above) are also the most functional nations in the light of the nationalist definition won’t obviously be the case.

    [MORE]

    Just because you think what motivates you are external factors, it does not mean that actually external factors are what what motivates you.

    I see you seem to have a strong belief that certain external factors (like economic instincts) play a very deterministic role, but randomly ignore other potential examples. For example, instincts which are related to the perpetuation of populations and families.

    People need to be honest that they like and dislike some things, rather than pretending it isn’t about their likes and dislikes, and is instead about avoiding some fantasy apocalypse.

    Fantasy apocalypse isn’t just you straw manning and palming it off on me? Afaik Marxists would often predict that major economic change would bring an end to nations as no longer having any function. It may be economically determined and unavoidable, it might not involve any apocalypse.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Coconuts

    There was an old Polandball meme about "Polska cannot into Space", while in fact a Polish cosmonaut, Mirosław Hermaszewski, went into outer space with his Soviet colleagues. But there is a much more appropriate meme to be created about Liberals, biology and demographics.

    I suggest the following: "Liberals cannot (put) biology into demographics". They are retarded to such a degree that they do not understand the Selfish Gene basis of survival and evolution. These people are reproductively defective. No use discussing seriously anything family related with them. All we need to do is concentrate on raising our children in a way that they carry on the lineage and the values that ensure its long term survival.

    Let the Liberals have their 69 genders and their 666 gender roles. Actually encourage them: "Love is love is love is etc" repeated to them in a circular manner would make them believe we are sympathetic to their insane pulsions towards self destruction.

    Given that they think life is basically materialistic and therefore meaningless, let them die out..

  719. @S
    @Emil Nikola Richard


    For the Croats: Serbs = Chetniks
    For the Serbs: Croats = Ustase

    The documentary maker claims this was on the television there all day every day to get the regular people into a rabid lunacy.
     

    Kind of like, depending where one lives and point of view, how (somehow) Putin, Zelensky, and Trump, were (and are) all 'Nazis'! simultaneously according to the corporate mass media.

    It makes sense in that the powers that be don't really like substantive identity, physical and, or, cultural, even if the 'identity' is often only empty symbolism of empty symbolism...cough..Trump...cough!..Putin.

    Yes, here and there, various typically small, powerless, or compromised in some way, groups are allowed a bit of identity, as it is politically useful for the moment, or, it simply makes the promoters of the genocidal (in the truest sense of that much abused term) Multi-Cultural system feel a little bit better about themselves and sleep more peacefully at night..

    The Proles and Animals are free.

    Replies: @A123

    Kind of like, depending where one lives and point of view, how (somehow) Putin, Zelensky, and Trump, were (and are) all ‘Nazis’! simultaneously according to the corporate mass media.

    Rights & Responsibilities are inextricably linked. No nation or culture can have one with out the other. The concept of effectively unlimited democracy has failed. The Sheeple have taken authority by numbers, but are controlled by the fascist Leftoids.

    The bane of polarization is for each action there is an opposite reaction. And, unlike physics, the opposite reaction is not equal, it is magnified.

    The U.S. system was built on Checks & Balances. At some level each side respected the other and the institutions of America’s Constitutional Republic. That ended with the Blue Coup of 2020.

    The SJW Globalists imposed Not-The-President Biden after losing. Nazi Pelosi and her Nazi-crat party are fascists. The mass media is the reincarnation of Leni Riefenstahl’s Lügenpresse.
    ____

    Saving Christianity and serving God is more important than the piece of paper known as the 1789 Constitution. If it has become so twisted it can be wielded against Judeo Christian values, it has to go. This is not unprecedented. The 1777 Articles of Confederate were also abandoned. A new Constitution is required.

    • One that protects traditional Judeo Christians
    • Schools will indoctrinate American values
    • Those that immigrate must assimilate
    • The idea of citizenship by mama’s “drop location” will be permanent eradicated.
    • Citizenship and the vote must be earned.
    • And, so on…

    This does not have to be Civil War II. However, surrendering to SJW Islamic Globalism is not possible. If God requires a Civil War, so be it. Voting Red States and non-voting Blue territories is an acceptable outcome.

    No Surrender! No Retreat!

    How long would it take for the Millennials to quit?

    Offer unto them — Avocado Toast and Pajamas.
    Yea, verily — Provide Pumpkin Spice and Yoga Pants.

    The Sheeple have been trained to submit to SJW Islam. Inducing the sheeplings to bleat “Baaaa” for God may not be a profound spiritual breakthrough. However, it is a practical and relatively straightforward interim step.

    PEACE 😇

  720. @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    If even these nihilistic trolls from Ramstein get it right, then German politicians can’t claim ignorance and misunderstanding as a mitigating circumstance.
     
    Rammstein also gave us Amerika...

    https://youtu.be/Rr8ljRgcJNM

    Replies: @Coconuts

    They made Stripped as well. I remember it playing on MTV a lot in the late 90s. There was some discussion about possible Fascist content. We all agreed it didn’t really have much.

    With age my opinion changed.

    • Thanks: S
    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Coconuts

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB9lObWclFQ

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @Coconuts

    Yes this cover was excellent. One of the best DM covers ever made. I remember noticing the Leni Riefenstahl angle.

  721. @German_reader
    @Yevardian


    Btw, as you you were reading about the Diadochi recently, you might find Badian article (“Antiochos III and Rome: A Study in Cold War”) interesting, the topic is pretty prescient, describing how grandstanding led to repeated escalations, ultimately resulting in a war between the two that neither power really wanted.
     
    Thanks, might look at it. Not sure though if I would agree that it was merely due to grandstanding, maybe there really were irreconcilable interests (iirc Antiochos in all likelihood did want to expand to Europe, and the Romans already regarded Greece as a sort of protectorate where they would be the final arbiter) that made a clash inevitable. And while I generally regard most analogies with ancient history as dubious, the attitude of the Romans (completely uncompromising, unwilling to regard any other power as an equal, paranoid about alleged security threats, even ideological insofar as the republican Romans seemed to enjoy humiliating kings) strikes me as reminiscent of some aspects of the contemporary US, and I don't think one can regard today's geopolitical conflicts as merely an unfortunate misunderstanding.
    I just finished another book by the author of the Diadochi book during my travels on trains (The making of a king. Antigonus Gonatas of Macedon and the Greeks). Don't know if it's of interest to you, since it's directed at a general audience (though not dumbed-down imo), but I enjoyed it, since the 3rd century BC seems to be a relatively obscure period given the lack of sources that usually doesn't get much attention.

    Replies: @Yevardian

    I know the author Robin Waterfield, probably every English-language classics undergrad has come across his name, he’s an extremely prolific translator. I heard he was working on a Gonatas biography, I think the last full study on him was done by W.W Tarn before WWI, I read that a while ago, wonder if any new finds have changed opinions. Of course Tarn later got a lot of flack, deservedly, for his boy-scout portrait of the Hellenistic Era, but great prose writer nonetheless.

    since the 3rd century BC seems to be a relatively obscure period given the lack of sources that usually doesn’t get much attention.

    The 3rd Century BC, east of Italy, might even be the most poorly documented period for the entirety of Greco-Roman Antiquity actually. That’s even in comparison the ‘Barracks Emperors’ period between Commodus and Diocletion, or the late Dominate/early-Byzantine from Theodosius to Justinian or even until Heraklios.

    Anyway, back to 3rd Century BC, the period between 281 (Seleukos I’s death) until 222 (Antiochos III) is characterised by huge blanks, and the point where the poverty of sources becomes most acute, from 261, is particularly frustrating, because the most largescale of all the Hellenistic conflicts between established kingdoms occurs exactly then. There are scattered fragments confirming that Egypt overran Seleukid possessions all the way to Babylon, and its armies may have even have reached as far as Iran (for the latter, more contested sources for this, there’s scraps of epigraphic evidence coming from Ethiopia/Eritrea of all places). Obviously, this would mark the military high-point of Egyptian history by a massive margin, even if it was under non-native rulers that used non-Egyptian troops.

    But on the Hellenistic period more generally, it’s obvious that most Romans, and by extension later Melkite Christian copyists, just weren’t interested in the history of Greece/Western-Asia after Alexander, but before Rome’s conquests there.
    It’s pretty striking that not a single contemporary historian from the Hellenistic era survives, if you don’t count Polybios for being a pro-Roman shill. Anyway, the only fully preserved parts of Polybios’ work are those directly concerning Rome, even most of his narrative for Antiochos III’s career is missing. If you really want to stretch definitions of ‘history’ you can count the Jewish Makkabees or Manetho and Bessoros’ antiquarian works on ancient Babylon and Egypt respectively, but the latter two are pretty fragmented, and often not even very accurate.

    But otherwise, Heironymos, Duris, Timaios, Phylarchos, Marsyas of Pella, Alexander Polyhistor, Ptolemy I, literally everyone is lost. And those are only the writers who were most famous, there’s actually over 200 (!) attested names of Hellenistic Historians, their existence only being known by a stray reference or quote. We also know some of these writers were extremely prolific, with 5-20 volume monographs on Makedonia or Parthia alone. But again, all vanished.
    Personally I blame the Islamic conquests as the single biggest factor for the loss.

    So, as you know, we have to rely on a few epitomisers from centuries later who often butcher their chronological sequencing in summarising, fail to reconcile contradictory sources, or corrupt/fuse names in translation to the point of unintellibility (this is particular to Syriac and Armenian sources). The overall picture is comparatively clearest in Greece and Egypt, especially thanks to papyrus finds, ostraka pieces and inscriptions, getting worse Anatolia and the Levant, and finally becoming almost hopeless to reconstruct with confidence once you reach Iran.

    Btw, if you looking for a readable account of general scope, I’d strongly recommend E.R. Bevan’s books on the Seleukid and Ptolemaïc kingdoms. Obviously there are semi-popular works updated with more recent scholarship, but I find their prose can be pretty turgid, and the picture hasn’t changed that much. Nowadays Green, Walbank and to a lesser extent Anson have well-written popular works, though I suppose there’s plenty good books on the topic, old and new, available in German.

    • Thanks: German_reader
    • Replies: @German_reader
    @Yevardian


    But on the Hellenistic period more generally, it’s obvious that most Romans, and by extension later Melkite Christian copyists, just weren’t interested in the history of Greece/Western-Asia after Alexander, but before Rome’s conquests there.
     
    There's an article by Anthony Kaldellis about just that topic (I assume you already know it, but thought I'd still mention it, maybe interesting for someone else too):
    https://www.jstor.org/stable/41722255
    His argument essentially is that, as you have indicated, the Byzantines just weren't much interested in the history of the Greek city states, the Hellenistic kingdoms or even the middle Roman republic (as opposed to the late Roman republic and the early empire, the origin of their own political system, or to parts of the ancient Mideast connected to Christian sacred history).
    It's interesting though that Photios in the 9th century still had access to quite a few historians which are now lost (not just from the Hellenistic era, but also from late antiquity, which presumably would have been of higher interest to the Byzantines), so the destruction of Byzantium through external conquest must have played at least some role in the loss of texts.
  722. @Coconuts
    @S

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10JDA8SvwX8

    They made Stripped as well. I remember it playing on MTV a lot in the late 90s. There was some discussion about possible Fascist content. We all agreed it didn't really have much.

    With age my opinion changed.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Bashibuzuk

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Thanks: Coconuts
    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Speaking of fascist angle song covers, one of my favorite is the one made by Blood Axis on Warsaw/Joy Division's "Walked in line".

    The lyrics have been a little rearranged to present the other side of the story.

    https://youtu.be/r99YGX3mDb0



    When young, Michael Moynihan was a neo-Nazi (and later a Satanist), so perhaps it wasn't just trolling as in the case of Laibach and Ramstein.

    Moynihan is a very talented man, as is also his wife who on top of being an accomplished fiddler, helped translate the following book:

    https://www.innertraditions.com/books/plants-of-the-gods

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @LatW

  723. @Bashibuzuk
    @Mr. Hack

    This war cannot be stopped. It should have been avoided.

    It wasn't avoided because those who plan and execute these operations according to the plan, are among the smartest (and most evil) people who have ever lived on the face of Earth, while those who should have been busy preventing it, are among the most gullible and naive (if well intentioned) people.

    There is nothing now that could be done to stop for sure this massacre that is unfolding in front of our eyes.

    Even if this war doesn't turn nuclear (which I truly hope), it will nevertheless cause an increasingly immense suffering. I believe that everything we have seen until now is just the beginning. People might well starve and freeze to death in the frontline zone this winter. At large in Ukiestan and RusFed more attacks on vital and critical infrastructure are probable. There are many easy targets on both territories, that if attacked would make the life of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people, unbearable.

    And there is nothing that can be done now to avoid it.

    Even if Putin is removed from power, this war might well simply turn into a gigantic Civil War in the most part of the FUSSR. Think Afghan Civil War with nuclear weapons.

    Такие дела - смута, поруха и гибель множества невинных...

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @LatW

    Такие дела – смута, поруха и гибель множества невинных…

    I wonder if there is still a way to avert a massive смута if the transfer of power is somewhat orderly. Some Patrushev or Kiriyenko (with the help of Zolotov & Rosgvardia or whoever) takes over and the system is more or less preserved. It is clear that a major demographic movement is happening regardless (the sheer number of those who have left both UA & RusFed (most young or in their prime) plus those who will be killed in the war and how it will reverberate on their families). But if the transfer of power is clean or relatively peaceful, a reasonable level of stability might be preserved. Through a dictatorship, naturally.

    [MORE]

    It’s just that it may not be the best scenario for the Russian people. Because the same ones stay in power anyway. The looting of what remains of Russia could continue. Alternately, a “liberal” scenario (unrealistic) would not be great either (unless some kind of a thorough multi-party system is established that is able to produce a robust government that can withstand external pressures and influences but those types of newly born multi-party systems are innately unstable). Some kind of a middle of the ground civic movement would be best, but how realistic is that… what I find somewhat tragic is that even if there was some kind of a movement of free Russian people, if the war is lost, then Ukraine will demand reparations (and the West will support that) and this will once again disillusion the Russian people (the way Yeltsin’s years did) and alienate them from their neighbors.

    Last year I used to think to myself, the 90s will never come back, nothing like that can happen again, whatever happens, this time will be much more benign, more humane, less painful. I was totally convinced about it, and then my thoughts really started changing at the end of this summer. Yes, it could be just as bad… or worse because now there is a large war. Larger than any wars that happened after 1991 on the ex-Soviet periphery (although those were really bad, too).

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW

    I don't think anyone could tell how it is going to play out. There are no good solutions left and none can tell what the least negative would be.


    I was totally convinced about it, and then my thoughts really started changing at the end of this summer. Yes, it could be just as bad… or worse because now there is a large war. Larger than any wars that happened after 1991 on the ex-Soviet periphery (although those were really bad, too).
     
    It will most probably be worse than in the 90ies.



    Recently Girkin/Strelkov has seriously recommended re-reading this classic book of post-Perestroika doomers.

    http://loveread.ec/view_global.php?id=4712
  724. @LondonBob
    I think a lot of the NATO and the Ukrainian folk thinks this sort of stuff actually plays well, that this is good PR, they even brag about it. Actually this is one of the reasons they are losing, and losing badly, the diplomatic war in the rest of the world.

    Militarily meaningless of course, have read trains will be resuming passage this evening. See a lot of hyperventilating but I think the only outcome is Russia pushing for a bigger win, namely all the way to Odessa, and why the rest of the world will turn a blind eye to it.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    A lot people wince when they see Bridges getting blown to bits.

  725. German_reader says:
    @Yevardian
    @German_reader

    I know the author Robin Waterfield, probably every English-language classics undergrad has come across his name, he's an extremely prolific translator. I heard he was working on a Gonatas biography, I think the last full study on him was done by W.W Tarn before WWI, I read that a while ago, wonder if any new finds have changed opinions. Of course Tarn later got a lot of flack, deservedly, for his boy-scout portrait of the Hellenistic Era, but great prose writer nonetheless.


    since the 3rd century BC seems to be a relatively obscure period given the lack of sources that usually doesn’t get much attention.
     
    The 3rd Century BC, east of Italy, might even be the most poorly documented period for the entirety of Greco-Roman Antiquity actually. That's even in comparison the 'Barracks Emperors' period between Commodus and Diocletion, or the late Dominate/early-Byzantine from Theodosius to Justinian or even until Heraklios.

    Anyway, back to 3rd Century BC, the period between 281 (Seleukos I's death) until 222 (Antiochos III) is characterised by huge blanks, and the point where the poverty of sources becomes most acute, from 261, is particularly frustrating, because the most largescale of all the Hellenistic conflicts between established kingdoms occurs exactly then. There are scattered fragments confirming that Egypt overran Seleukid possessions all the way to Babylon, and its armies may have even have reached as far as Iran (for the latter, more contested sources for this, there's scraps of epigraphic evidence coming from Ethiopia/Eritrea of all places). Obviously, this would mark the military high-point of Egyptian history by a massive margin, even if it was under non-native rulers that used non-Egyptian troops.

    But on the Hellenistic period more generally, it's obvious that most Romans, and by extension later Melkite Christian copyists, just weren't interested in the history of Greece/Western-Asia after Alexander, but before Rome's conquests there.
    It's pretty striking that not a single contemporary historian from the Hellenistic era survives, if you don't count Polybios for being a pro-Roman shill. Anyway, the only fully preserved parts of Polybios' work are those directly concerning Rome, even most of his narrative for Antiochos III's career is missing. If you really want to stretch definitions of 'history' you can count the Jewish Makkabees or Manetho and Bessoros' antiquarian works on ancient Babylon and Egypt respectively, but the latter two are pretty fragmented, and often not even very accurate.

    But otherwise, Heironymos, Duris, Timaios, Phylarchos, Marsyas of Pella, Alexander Polyhistor, Ptolemy I, literally everyone is lost. And those are only the writers who were most famous, there's actually over 200 (!) attested names of Hellenistic Historians, their existence only being known by a stray reference or quote. We also know some of these writers were extremely prolific, with 5-20 volume monographs on Makedonia or Parthia alone. But again, all vanished.
    Personally I blame the Islamic conquests as the single biggest factor for the loss.

    So, as you know, we have to rely on a few epitomisers from centuries later who often butcher their chronological sequencing in summarising, fail to reconcile contradictory sources, or corrupt/fuse names in translation to the point of unintellibility (this is particular to Syriac and Armenian sources). The overall picture is comparatively clearest in Greece and Egypt, especially thanks to papyrus finds, ostraka pieces and inscriptions, getting worse Anatolia and the Levant, and finally becoming almost hopeless to reconstruct with confidence once you reach Iran.

    Btw, if you looking for a readable account of general scope, I'd strongly recommend E.R. Bevan's books on the Seleukid and Ptolemaïc kingdoms. Obviously there are semi-popular works updated with more recent scholarship, but I find their prose can be pretty turgid, and the picture hasn't changed that much. Nowadays Green, Walbank and to a lesser extent Anson have well-written popular works, though I suppose there's plenty good books on the topic, old and new, available in German.

    Replies: @German_reader

    But on the Hellenistic period more generally, it’s obvious that most Romans, and by extension later Melkite Christian copyists, just weren’t interested in the history of Greece/Western-Asia after Alexander, but before Rome’s conquests there.

    There’s an article by Anthony Kaldellis about just that topic (I assume you already know it, but thought I’d still mention it, maybe interesting for someone else too):
    https://www.jstor.org/stable/41722255
    His argument essentially is that, as you have indicated, the Byzantines just weren’t much interested in the history of the Greek city states, the Hellenistic kingdoms or even the middle Roman republic (as opposed to the late Roman republic and the early empire, the origin of their own political system, or to parts of the ancient Mideast connected to Christian sacred history).
    It’s interesting though that Photios in the 9th century still had access to quite a few historians which are now lost (not just from the Hellenistic era, but also from late antiquity, which presumably would have been of higher interest to the Byzantines), so the destruction of Byzantium through external conquest must have played at least some role in the loss of texts.

  726. @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon

    The article in the British tabloid you reference features photos of some rusted AKM rifles with mismatched stocks and handguards. The source of these images is said to be Visegrad24 web site.

    So you are certain that Russia is not issuing AK-47s? You believe the conscripts are properly equipped and cell phone videos of ancient equipment are fake?

    AK rifles are of a different design and construction and due to that a suppressor does not reduce their sound blast enough to be useful with regular ammo.

    The Ukrainians have their own AR/AK hybrid that shoots 7.62x39 and some squads have suppressors:
    https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/Ukraine-Issues-7-62-x-39-AR-47-Mash-Up-Rifles-Interesting-/121-732781/

    Suppressors are more expensive than either AK or AR-15 rifles and do not last long. These are issued to some special forces operators and are not used often in real life.

    That is not true. You can buy a quality suppressor for around $650
    https://www.silencercentral.com/shop/silencers/rifle/223-556/

    No basis in the belief that they don't last long:
    https://www.silencercentral.com/blog/how-long-do-suppressors-last/

    You are working from 1980s information or something.

    But for the American standard AR-15 rifles the opposite is true – these will not work with subsonic ammo

    I never claimed that they are used for subsonic ammo. You are the one that said that it is pointless to use them with supersonic which is false.

    Why do you think there is a market for 223 suppressors? Why do you think militaries use them? As I said it changes the sound profile and hides the flash. Stop digging your own grave. Admit you were wrong and move on.

    At night a non-illuminated target will be harder to see through the dimmed glass of the red dot sight. It does not make much sense to see the dot if the target is not seen behind it, does it?

    Yes I'm sure our special forces are clueless for using red dots and you the firearms expert of Unz is certain that irons will be fine.

    You can't see the iron sights once it gets dark. So you see something moving in moonlight, raise the rifle and you can't see your irons.

    Unlike you I have shot rifles with both in low light. You would be out of your mind to suggest that a team with red dots will be equal to a team with irons.

    Without a proper flash hider they will be blinded by the flash as well.

    Unlike you and Putin the Ukrainians have done their homework and will most likely attack these new conscripts at night for this reason. Putin's army of bakers and barbers will be running around with AK-47s and shooting at shadows. Ukrainians will come in with suppressed weapons and night vision and pick them off.

    Russians have not sent conscripts to the front so far and those who were seen with the Mosin rifles were the Donbas militias.

    Hilarious that you think it's fine if the militas have nagants.

    Russia made over 100 million AK-47s and you are actually trying to defend equipping fighting men with bolt action rifles.

    Does being a militia make them less deserving of having a weapon from at least the 1960s? Hitler was able to arm Polish-German separatists with machine guns and grenades in 1939 but Putin isn't able to do that in 2022?

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    So you are certain that Russia is not issuing AK-47s? You believe the conscripts are properly equipped and cell phone videos of ancient equipment are fake?

    Of course.

    As I said before Russians do not send conscripts to the front for now and AK-47s are collectible vintage rifles. No one is issuing these to no one. You saw photos of AKM rifles – which are not AK-47s.

    As for the videos that I have not seen I cannot comment on that. But common sense is that such videos are staged as it is a recurring theme of pro-Ukrainian propaganda.

    The Donbas militias however do use AKM and Mosin rifles as well as Soviet-era helmets and even Soviet red flags. Some people think it is hip and cool. Some do it for other reasons.

    The Ukrainians have their own AR/AK hybrid that shoots 7.62×39 and some squads have suppressors.

    That is not an AR/AK but a standard AR with 7.62 barrel and magazine well, casted for that caliber. Americans have been selling these on the civilian market for quite some time as far as I know.

    Nothing special.

    Ukrainians have been producing the Israeli Tavor as well but none of this changes the situation or solves the problems I mentioned earlier. Suppressors can be used with either of these three rifles.

    But it does not make sense in most real life combat encounters.

    That is not true [Suppressors are more expensive than AK or AR-15 rifles]. You can buy a quality suppressor for around $650.

    And how much do you think the M4 carbines cost for the U.S. government? $640 a piece. And an AK-74M for the Russian army? Around the same.

    But the suppressors the U.S. military uses are not those you referenced but either SureFire or Knight’s Armament, and these do not sell for $650.

    Double it.

    No basis in the belief that they don’t last long. You are working from 1980s information or something.

    No it is because I know the gear. You are on the other hand clueless. A troll, posting stupid crap and flooding the thread with absurd.

    Your article – have you even read it?

    “High, sustained rates of fire will destroy a suppressor much faster than slow, limited rates of fire.” A good mil-spec sound suppressor under the regular combat use will last 5-6 thousand rounds. The rifle will last twice as much.

    Why do you think there is a market for 223 suppressors? Why do you think militaries use them? As I said it changes the sound profile and hides the flash. Admit you were wrong and move on.

    You do not need to spend a thousand dollars for a flash hider, son and changing “sound profile” of a regular carbine does not change a thing. Snipers do that for using long-range rifles – then it makes sense. And with a short-range carbine it does not.

    Special forces in the U.S. do use suppressors with short-barrel carbines because it is safer to shoot them with a suppressor. The 5.56 is a loud round. And special forces can afford it whereas a regular forces cannot.

    Here is a MK 18 carbine with SureFire suppressor.

    Most American special forces use these.

    [MORE]

    You can see that with a suppressor it is of around the standard length despite that it has a 10-inch barrel (instead of a 16-inch). And even with a $1,200 suppressor the shot is still loud.

    You said that it is pointless to use them with supersonic, which is false.

    You can see that it is not. With a standard 16-inch barrel it is indeed pointless and useless. With a short barrel it is being done for comfort.

    Yes I’m sure our special forces are clueless for using red dots and you the firearms expert of Unz is certain that irons will be fine.

    It is not what I said – I said that some people prefer the regular iron sights. Of course not the special forces who train a lot and can use whatever kind of sights depending on the need.

    Please do not be so boring.

    You can’t see the iron sights once it gets dark. So you see something moving in moonlight, raise the rifle and you can’t see your irons.

    It depends on the rifle and on the sights.

    The Yugoslavian Zastava M70 AK variant was equipped with fluorescent iron sights as a standard. Tritium dots produce bright enough green light so even at night one can see the sight.

    For the Russian and other East European AKM and AK-74 there are the same kind of sights as an option, though these were not used as a standard issue.

    And the special forces model of both AK-74 and AKM had a side rail on the receiver for mounting a night scope.

    You would be out of your mind to suggest that a team with red dots will be equal to a team with irons.

    Depending on the team it can be. Of course whether the equipment is good does matter – including sights. But the end result will depend on their skills and other factors.

    Without a proper flash hider they will be blinded by the flash as well.

    Not if the flares or tactical lights are being used.

    The Ukrainians have done their homework and will attack these new conscripts at night. Putin’s army will be running around with AK-47s and shooting at shadows. Ukrainians will come in with suppressed weapons and night vision and pick them off.

    You should be a stand-up comedian. You might make a good one 🙂

    Hilarious that you think it’s fine if the militas have nagants. Russia made over 100 million AK-47s and you are actually trying to defend equipping fighting men with bolt action rifles.

    You are a clueless troll.

    An AK has the effective range of 300-400 m. A sniper model Mosin PU with match-grade ammo and the standard scope reaches up to 800 m.

    An AK-74 and the 5.45×39 mm round it uses can punch through a bulletproof vest from close range (up to 100-150 m). A Mosin uses 7.62×54 mm caliber – a lot more powerful round.

    It will punch through the vest from 400-500 m, and in good hands even without a scope will be accurate at these distances. Watch this video and read comments below it.

    Does being a militia make them less deserving of having a weapon from at least the 1960s?

    Being a militia means that one can do things a regular troop is not allowed to do. For example wear uniform one prefers and choose a weapon that is not standard. As I said earlier some people prefer to use vintage weapons.

    As for Mosin being a bolt action rifle that a troll has no understanding of note that a number of sniper rifles being used in the U.S. forces are bolt action as well – among them M24 and M40 (based on the Remington 700), and the latter has been used since the mid-60s. These rifles chambered in 7.62x51mm are similar to the Mosin PU both in power and effective range.

    Besides there are a lot of vintage guns in the American military. The M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun has been in service since 1933 – and is still being used!

    The M60 machine gun has been in use since 1950s. Some units are still using the Colt 1911 pistol – in use since 1911. These are all good, even exceptional firearms and their age does not make them bad.

    • Replies: @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon


    So you are certain that Russia is not issuing AK-47s? You believe the conscripts are properly equipped and cell phone videos of ancient equipment are fake?
     
    Of course.

    As I said before Russians do not send conscripts to the front for now and AK-47s are collectible vintage rifles. No one is issuing these to no one. You saw photos of AKM rifles – which are not AK-47s.

    Pretty amazing that you know what every Russian conscript is using.

    Well here you go ace
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5pYiLlLno0

    That's an AK-47 in the first shot. Look at the curve of the magazine. You can see it better at :31.

    You do not need to spend a thousand dollars for a flash hider, son and changing “sound profile” of a regular carbine does not change a thing.

    Why do you keep calling me son? If you think a suppressor is useless (as you claimed) for a 556 battle rifle then why is there a market for them?

    Here is an article explaining their utility in combat:
    https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2017/06/27/the-new-stealth-infantry-how-suppressors-will-change-battlefield-tactics/

    Wade's aim is to eventually equip every Marine in the experimental squad with a suppressed M27. Until recently, the suppressors were only used on the 5.56 mm-firing weapons.

    So the US military uses them on 5.56 weapons but Here Be Dragon of Unz thinks he knows better even though he went from stating they are never used with supersonic to now stating they are only used on short barrels.

    Your article – have you even read it?

    “High, sustained rates of fire will destroy a suppressor much faster than slow, limited rates of fire.” A good mil-spec sound suppressor under the regular combat use will last 5-6 thousand rounds. The rifle will last twice as much.

    Nice try. Only first quote is from the article. You added the second part.

    A modern suppressor can easily do 20k rounds if cleaned properly.

    And stop calling me son, you're not my authority. Probably just some boomer that hasn't read about suppressors since the 90s. Russians conscripts with AK-47s will be completely outmatched against Ukrainians with red dots and suppressors.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

  727. @Coconuts
    @S

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10JDA8SvwX8

    They made Stripped as well. I remember it playing on MTV a lot in the late 90s. There was some discussion about possible Fascist content. We all agreed it didn't really have much.

    With age my opinion changed.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Bashibuzuk

    Yes this cover was excellent. One of the best DM covers ever made. I remember noticing the Leni Riefenstahl angle.

  728. @Mikhail
    @John Johnson

    Are you that troll who has become a subject of discussion? The Kiev regime has appointed non-elected dupes all over the place, like the guy they had installed in Mariupol.

    The 2004 matter you brought up in Russia had popular support because many of the regions didn't have democratically run elections. Russia does have multi-candidate/multi-party elections as Western mass media noted that non-United Russia candidates gained in some of the recent voting.

    Evidence shows that Right Sector folks fired on government personnel and protestors. Meantime Kiev regime hasn't done an investigation of that or the Odessa massacre.

    Yanukovych was a democratically elected president who was democratically overthrown, shortly after he signed an internationally brokered power sharing agreement with the opposition.

    Unfortunately, the likes of Truss, Biden, Scholz and Macron aren't encouraging examples for espousing Western democracy.

    To borrow a bit from you: But keep defending the pipsqueak figurehead in Kiev. I’m sure he knows what he is doing.

    Replies: @John Johnson

    Russia does have multi-candidate/multi-party elections as Western mass media noted that non-United Russia candidates gained in some of the recent voting.

    They have controlled elections where Putin poisons any serious opposition. He ended direct elections which means he can replace anyone in the Duma at will.

    Can provide quotes from his former associates if you would like on how Russia is a dictatorship and not at all a democracy.

    Would you like those?

    Yanukovych was a democratically elected president who was democratically overthrown, shortly after he signed an internationally brokered power sharing agreement with the opposition.

    He was caught shooting protestors and the Kremlin never denied it:
    https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-yanukovych-behind-protest-deaths/25320039.html

    That is also the president that had spent millions on home furnishings despite having a modest government salary:
    https://transparency.eu/corruption-opulence-and-decadence-in-ukraine/

    That article describes how he had a $11 million dollar chandelier.

    If Biden was caught having Trump protestors shot by government snipers would you argue that he should stay in office because he was elected?

    Funny how Putin didn’t call Ukraine a “made up state” whey they had a pro-Russian president.

    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @John Johnson

    You provide no proof that Yanukovych ordered such. Meantime, there's ample evidence linking Right Sector as the perp. Euromaidan didn't include going into the wealth of others like Porky.

    You make a lousy monitor of the halls, which is why I'll try to avoid your input - something relating to a recent exchange between Ron and the Tenn based academic on the participation at these threads.

  729. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Coconuts

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB9lObWclFQ

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    Speaking of fascist angle song covers, one of my favorite is the one made by Blood Axis on Warsaw/Joy Division’s “Walked in line”.

    The lyrics have been a little rearranged to present the other side of the story.

    [MORE]

    When young, Michael Moynihan was a neo-Nazi (and later a Satanist), so perhaps it wasn’t just trolling as in the case of Laibach and Ramstein.

    Moynihan is a very talented man, as is also his wife who on top of being an accomplished fiddler, helped translate the following book:

    https://www.innertraditions.com/books/plants-of-the-gods

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Bashibuzuk


    When young, Michael Moynihan was a neo-Nazi (and later a Satanist), so perhaps it wasn’t just trolling as in the case of Laibach and Ramstein.
     
    I have read at least ten of Moynihan's pal's Stephen Flowers' books. Flowers has had a spectacle of a career. On the one hand, in the appendix to one of his books he has a letter from Michael Aquino where the late head goon passes on the authentic Aquino SS dagger. Then in a paragraph in his book on freemasonry he expresses dismay that the local freemason lodge in Bastrop Texas excommunicated him over the contents of the Brotherhood of Saturn book where he has a line drawing of the magus ejaculating on the face of the priestess. Apparently he thought they were going to give him a medal or something.

    Anyhow they are more like Asatru than George-Lincoln-Rockwell-exile-all-the-negroes-and-jews neo-Nazis and it appears to me they express an affinity for some German National Socialist ideas but are not nearly as far gone as Serrano and Devi. Not that I would endorse either in the vicinity of my normie pals but also the neo-Nazi label is a (very slight) exaggeration from what I have seen.

    Flowers' Lords of the Left Hand Path is a book that I will definitely re-read. The most fascinating item in that book is where he writes that Crowley was not in Gurdjieff's league. He has Gurdjieff as the unequaled modern black magician.

    It is important to study the enemy! : )

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    , @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    one of my favorite is the one made by Blood Axis on Warsaw/Joy Division’s “Walked in line”
     
    Interesting... one of my favorite versions back in the day was by Von Thronstahl (in this version one can feel the ethos of both a marching army and an athletic stadium):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svbhi0UczDA

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

  730. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    Такие дела – смута, поруха и гибель множества невинных…
     
    I wonder if there is still a way to avert a massive смута if the transfer of power is somewhat orderly. Some Patrushev or Kiriyenko (with the help of Zolotov & Rosgvardia or whoever) takes over and the system is more or less preserved. It is clear that a major demographic movement is happening regardless (the sheer number of those who have left both UA & RusFed (most young or in their prime) plus those who will be killed in the war and how it will reverberate on their families). But if the transfer of power is clean or relatively peaceful, a reasonable level of stability might be preserved. Through a dictatorship, naturally.


    It's just that it may not be the best scenario for the Russian people. Because the same ones stay in power anyway. The looting of what remains of Russia could continue. Alternately, a "liberal" scenario (unrealistic) would not be great either (unless some kind of a thorough multi-party system is established that is able to produce a robust government that can withstand external pressures and influences but those types of newly born multi-party systems are innately unstable). Some kind of a middle of the ground civic movement would be best, but how realistic is that... what I find somewhat tragic is that even if there was some kind of a movement of free Russian people, if the war is lost, then Ukraine will demand reparations (and the West will support that) and this will once again disillusion the Russian people (the way Yeltsin's years did) and alienate them from their neighbors.

    Last year I used to think to myself, the 90s will never come back, nothing like that can happen again, whatever happens, this time will be much more benign, more humane, less painful. I was totally convinced about it, and then my thoughts really started changing at the end of this summer. Yes, it could be just as bad... or worse because now there is a large war. Larger than any wars that happened after 1991 on the ex-Soviet periphery (although those were really bad, too).

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    I don’t think anyone could tell how it is going to play out. There are no good solutions left and none can tell what the least negative would be.

    I was totally convinced about it, and then my thoughts really started changing at the end of this summer. Yes, it could be just as bad… or worse because now there is a large war. Larger than any wars that happened after 1991 on the ex-Soviet periphery (although those were really bad, too).

    It will most probably be worse than in the 90ies.

    [MORE]

    Recently Girkin/Strelkov has seriously recommended re-reading this classic book of post-Perestroika doomers.

    http://loveread.ec/view_global.php?id=4712

  731. @sudden death
    @Yahya

    On a sidenote, recently have overwhelming sense of all fiction and movies to be rather bland, cause roughly since end of January had the feeling of living in a movie, with the plot taking off at Feb 24 and still not showing any signs of easing off - in what fiction movie you can watch Crimean bridge being blown up nearly live as a hangover present to Putin's 70 year jubilee, lol

    At the same time the sense of growing dread for all sides in this movie blows away even the first installment of Alien series...

    But perhaps it is just particularity of being Eastern European, people in Africa or South America probably justifiably are just as unfazed as ever;

    Also had the same feeling of living in movie since first Chinese lockdowns, but it all ended rather happily overall, even despite just official deathcount nearing 7 million worlwide alas it was just the prologue to the next localized(?) disaster serial.

    Replies: @sudden death, @Bashibuzuk, @LatW, @Mikel

    people in Africa or South America probably justifiably are just as unfazed as ever

    Same as people in the US, if so. Biden’s warning that we haven’t been as close to nuclear Armageddon since the 60’s (first mention of the Ukraine war in several days) was only the 9th most read column on my local newspaper, well behind sports news, your daily feel-good story and the most noteworthy crime news of the day in the state.

    The action movie we’re in since last February is not only tragic but surrealist and scary too. People in DC can basically do whatever they want wrt Ukraine because American society doesn’t care. Most everybody has been thoroughly convinced that the Russians are evil beyond redemption and that we must all help poor Ukrainians and that’s all there is to it for most people. The war has lasted too long to keep paying attention.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel


    Most everybody has been thoroughly convinced that the Russians are evil beyond redemption and that we must all help poor Ukrainians and that’s all there is to it for most people.
     
    What's the alternative? Perhaps organize a national drive where Americans can collect and donate socks for impoverished Russian soldiers who are going to meet a cold and brutal winter in Ukraine?

    https://youtu.be/jv06oduwnr0

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Mikel, @John Johnson

    , @sudden death
    @Mikel

    How relevant really are local newspapers and their websites though, considering that FOX, which most popular news TV channel in US, is regularly, if not constantly, pushing pro-RF talking points or even straight propjunk of RF origin at prime time?

    Watching from afar it seems that Ukraine/RF is on the verge of becoming absolutely bipartisan issue like Iran has become decade or so ago. It not only RF money/propaganda/covert operations at fault, the process is going due objective reasons too as RF has been stripped from that strong atheism/communism aura that USSR had, so only purely geopolitical/national security/atlanticist reasons are not that important for quite numerous segments of US voters. Not even to mention isolationism, which is absolutely traditional and strong political strain in US, despite being practice more or less abandoned since 1917. And those who care enough about pure geopolitica are far from being united front too, as the idea of getting the favor of RF against China is not out of fashion at all.

    Replies: @Mikhail, @Mikel

  732. @John Johnson
    @Mikhail

    Russia does have multi-candidate/multi-party elections as Western mass media noted that non-United Russia candidates gained in some of the recent voting.

    They have controlled elections where Putin poisons any serious opposition. He ended direct elections which means he can replace anyone in the Duma at will.

    Can provide quotes from his former associates if you would like on how Russia is a dictatorship and not at all a democracy.

    Would you like those?

    Yanukovych was a democratically elected president who was democratically overthrown, shortly after he signed an internationally brokered power sharing agreement with the opposition.

    He was caught shooting protestors and the Kremlin never denied it:
    https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-yanukovych-behind-protest-deaths/25320039.html

    That is also the president that had spent millions on home furnishings despite having a modest government salary:
    https://transparency.eu/corruption-opulence-and-decadence-in-ukraine/

    That article describes how he had a $11 million dollar chandelier.

    If Biden was caught having Trump protestors shot by government snipers would you argue that he should stay in office because he was elected?

    Funny how Putin didn't call Ukraine a "made up state" whey they had a pro-Russian president.

    Replies: @Mikhail

    You provide no proof that Yanukovych ordered such. Meantime, there’s ample evidence linking Right Sector as the perp. Euromaidan didn’t include going into the wealth of others like Porky.

    You make a lousy monitor of the halls, which is why I’ll try to avoid your input – something relating to a recent exchange between Ron and the Tenn based academic on the participation at these threads.

  733. @Bashibuzuk
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Speaking of fascist angle song covers, one of my favorite is the one made by Blood Axis on Warsaw/Joy Division's "Walked in line".

    The lyrics have been a little rearranged to present the other side of the story.

    https://youtu.be/r99YGX3mDb0



    When young, Michael Moynihan was a neo-Nazi (and later a Satanist), so perhaps it wasn't just trolling as in the case of Laibach and Ramstein.

    Moynihan is a very talented man, as is also his wife who on top of being an accomplished fiddler, helped translate the following book:

    https://www.innertraditions.com/books/plants-of-the-gods

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @LatW

    When young, Michael Moynihan was a neo-Nazi (and later a Satanist), so perhaps it wasn’t just trolling as in the case of Laibach and Ramstein.

    I have read at least ten of Moynihan’s pal’s Stephen Flowers’ books. Flowers has had a spectacle of a career. On the one hand, in the appendix to one of his books he has a letter from Michael Aquino where the late head goon passes on the authentic Aquino SS dagger. Then in a paragraph in his book on freemasonry he expresses dismay that the local freemason lodge in Bastrop Texas excommunicated him over the contents of the Brotherhood of Saturn book where he has a line drawing of the magus ejaculating on the face of the priestess. Apparently he thought they were going to give him a medal or something.

    Anyhow they are more like Asatru than George-Lincoln-Rockwell-exile-all-the-negroes-and-jews neo-Nazis and it appears to me they express an affinity for some German National Socialist ideas but are not nearly as far gone as Serrano and Devi. Not that I would endorse either in the vicinity of my normie pals but also the neo-Nazi label is a (very slight) exaggeration from what I have seen.

    Flowers’ Lords of the Left Hand Path is a book that I will definitely re-read. The most fascinating item in that book is where he writes that Crowley was not in Gurdjieff’s league. He has Gurdjieff as the unequaled modern black magician.

    It is important to study the enemy! : )

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Aquino was pure Evil.

    Moynihan grew up to become an Asatru family guy although he probably still practices Seidr and uses entheogens. Despite having moved on from the extreme fringe of far right occultism, some ten years ago he has used a poem by Serrano to make it into a song with lovely vocals contributed by his lady.

    https://youtu.be/d8mEIvGdvFU

    Other than that, he seems having evolved in the same direction as Varg Vikernes, and I am pretty sure that they both know each other well given that Moynihan has written a book about Norwegian Satanic Black Metal scene of the early 90ies.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_of_Chaos_(book)



    The most deviant among these guys probably was Boyd Rice. He comes as a highly functional and talented sociopath, although young Moynihan enjoyed touring in Japan with NON. I also happen to really like at least one song by Boyd Rice and Death in June, which is dedicated to the Black Sun that Azov Battalion adopted as one of their symbols.

    Of course, the Black Sun symbol is not only familiar to or interesting for Ariosophists or esoteric Hitlerites. Dead Can Dance had a song dedicated to this symbol on their debut album, Coil (connected to the industrial music pioneers of Throbbing Gristle) also have a song obliquely relating to the Black Sun.

    It's amusing that you mention Gurdjieff, I was rrcently thinking of the man and the influence he had on French occultism in l'entre deux guerres. I was wondering how someone who has always seemed so boring to me could instill such respect (bordering to awe) on his disciples.

    Perhaps it was because they had no access to some early esoteric writings to which we have access today ? Hard to tell. Anyway, P.D Ouspensky seemed more interesting to me when I still read on these topics (which was many years ago). But it is of course my purely subjective opinion.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

  734. @Bashibuzuk
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Speaking of fascist angle song covers, one of my favorite is the one made by Blood Axis on Warsaw/Joy Division's "Walked in line".

    The lyrics have been a little rearranged to present the other side of the story.

    https://youtu.be/r99YGX3mDb0



    When young, Michael Moynihan was a neo-Nazi (and later a Satanist), so perhaps it wasn't just trolling as in the case of Laibach and Ramstein.

    Moynihan is a very talented man, as is also his wife who on top of being an accomplished fiddler, helped translate the following book:

    https://www.innertraditions.com/books/plants-of-the-gods

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @LatW

    one of my favorite is the one made by Blood Axis on Warsaw/Joy Division’s “Walked in line”

    Interesting… one of my favorite versions back in the day was by Von Thronstahl (in this version one can feel the ethos of both a marching army and an athletic stadium):

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @LatW

    Yeah it is also good, but I love how Moynihan twisted the lyrics a bit. Anyway, today I prefer listening to less controversial music.

    Like the song below:

    https://youtu.be/P8SAtQ4e7Dg

    😉

  735. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Bashibuzuk


    When young, Michael Moynihan was a neo-Nazi (and later a Satanist), so perhaps it wasn’t just trolling as in the case of Laibach and Ramstein.
     
    I have read at least ten of Moynihan's pal's Stephen Flowers' books. Flowers has had a spectacle of a career. On the one hand, in the appendix to one of his books he has a letter from Michael Aquino where the late head goon passes on the authentic Aquino SS dagger. Then in a paragraph in his book on freemasonry he expresses dismay that the local freemason lodge in Bastrop Texas excommunicated him over the contents of the Brotherhood of Saturn book where he has a line drawing of the magus ejaculating on the face of the priestess. Apparently he thought they were going to give him a medal or something.

    Anyhow they are more like Asatru than George-Lincoln-Rockwell-exile-all-the-negroes-and-jews neo-Nazis and it appears to me they express an affinity for some German National Socialist ideas but are not nearly as far gone as Serrano and Devi. Not that I would endorse either in the vicinity of my normie pals but also the neo-Nazi label is a (very slight) exaggeration from what I have seen.

    Flowers' Lords of the Left Hand Path is a book that I will definitely re-read. The most fascinating item in that book is where he writes that Crowley was not in Gurdjieff's league. He has Gurdjieff as the unequaled modern black magician.

    It is important to study the enemy! : )

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    Aquino was pure Evil.

    Moynihan grew up to become an Asatru family guy although he probably still practices Seidr and uses entheogens. Despite having moved on from the extreme fringe of far right occultism, some ten years ago he has used a poem by Serrano to make it into a song with lovely vocals contributed by his lady.

    Other than that, he seems having evolved in the same direction as Varg Vikernes, and I am pretty sure that they both know each other well given that Moynihan has written a book about Norwegian Satanic Black Metal scene of the early 90ies.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_of_Chaos_(book)

    [MORE]

    The most deviant among these guys probably was Boyd Rice. He comes as a highly functional and talented sociopath, although young Moynihan enjoyed touring in Japan with NON. I also happen to really like at least one song by Boyd Rice and Death in June, which is dedicated to the Black Sun that Azov Battalion adopted as one of their symbols.

    Of course, the Black Sun symbol is not only familiar to or interesting for Ariosophists or esoteric Hitlerites. Dead Can Dance had a song dedicated to this symbol on their debut album, Coil (connected to the industrial music pioneers of Throbbing Gristle) also have a song obliquely relating to the Black Sun.

    It’s amusing that you mention Gurdjieff, I was rrcently thinking of the man and the influence he had on French occultism in l’entre deux guerres. I was wondering how someone who has always seemed so boring to me could instill such respect (bordering to awe) on his disciples.

    Perhaps it was because they had no access to some early esoteric writings to which we have access today ? Hard to tell. Anyway, P.D Ouspensky seemed more interesting to me when I still read on these topics (which was many years ago). But it is of course my purely subjective opinion.

    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Bashibuzuk


    I was wondering how someone who has always seemed so boring to me could instill such respect (bordering to awe) on his disciples.
     
    It seems to me the cult followers join because they want to be the guru. I read there were a thousand people at Gurdjieff's funeral. There ain't no way Ouspensky (who was a much better writer than the big guy) had a hearse display like this:

    https://i0.wp.com/www.jgbennett.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/funeral-procession-picture-scaled-e1645473932713.jpeg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  736. @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk


    one of my favorite is the one made by Blood Axis on Warsaw/Joy Division’s “Walked in line”
     
    Interesting... one of my favorite versions back in the day was by Von Thronstahl (in this version one can feel the ethos of both a marching army and an athletic stadium):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svbhi0UczDA

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    Yeah it is also good, but I love how Moynihan twisted the lyrics a bit. Anyway, today I prefer listening to less controversial music.

    Like the song below:

    😉

    • Thanks: LatW
  737. @Bashibuzuk
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    Aquino was pure Evil.

    Moynihan grew up to become an Asatru family guy although he probably still practices Seidr and uses entheogens. Despite having moved on from the extreme fringe of far right occultism, some ten years ago he has used a poem by Serrano to make it into a song with lovely vocals contributed by his lady.

    https://youtu.be/d8mEIvGdvFU

    Other than that, he seems having evolved in the same direction as Varg Vikernes, and I am pretty sure that they both know each other well given that Moynihan has written a book about Norwegian Satanic Black Metal scene of the early 90ies.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_of_Chaos_(book)



    The most deviant among these guys probably was Boyd Rice. He comes as a highly functional and talented sociopath, although young Moynihan enjoyed touring in Japan with NON. I also happen to really like at least one song by Boyd Rice and Death in June, which is dedicated to the Black Sun that Azov Battalion adopted as one of their symbols.

    Of course, the Black Sun symbol is not only familiar to or interesting for Ariosophists or esoteric Hitlerites. Dead Can Dance had a song dedicated to this symbol on their debut album, Coil (connected to the industrial music pioneers of Throbbing Gristle) also have a song obliquely relating to the Black Sun.

    It's amusing that you mention Gurdjieff, I was rrcently thinking of the man and the influence he had on French occultism in l'entre deux guerres. I was wondering how someone who has always seemed so boring to me could instill such respect (bordering to awe) on his disciples.

    Perhaps it was because they had no access to some early esoteric writings to which we have access today ? Hard to tell. Anyway, P.D Ouspensky seemed more interesting to me when I still read on these topics (which was many years ago). But it is of course my purely subjective opinion.

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    I was wondering how someone who has always seemed so boring to me could instill such respect (bordering to awe) on his disciples.

    It seems to me the cult followers join because they want to be the guru. I read there were a thousand people at Gurdjieff’s funeral. There ain’t no way Ouspensky (who was a much better writer than the big guy) had a hearse display like this:

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    http://www.bobbycampbell.net/10/GURDJIEFF.jpg

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

  738. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Coconuts
    Looks like TL/Monitor of Halls be gone, I will post this reply from earlier anyway.

    I think it sort of adds to what Thorfinnson wrote in another reply.

    You think socially mandated gender roles are essential to the functioning of a nation state. Good for you! But I see no mechanism for that to be true, nor any evidence of it being true.
     
    Differing conceptions of what a nation is clearly exist. Maybe you are aware of that as you switched terms in your reply from my use of nation to the more liberal 'nation state'. For example:

    A Nationalist definition: A certain number of families reaching out from age to age and having in common certain permanent interests: the land to be defended, the continuity of the race to be assured, a fund of moral and economic capital to be developed.

    A Liberal definition: An aggregation of free, equal and rational individuals who consciously decide to create a community because co-operation will help them to fulfil their personal interests.

    Most European nations originated in kingdoms and other feudal entities before early modern times, and the political form was connected to a familial (often patriarchal) and hereditary understanding of politics; it's obviously present in the etymology of terms like patria, patrie, nation, fatherland, motherland etc. You see some larger change in that understanding of politics during the Enlightenment era.

    The most functional states in the world currently have the least in the way of socially mandated gender roles.
     
    If someone was inclined to understand nations in the light of the nationalist definition above, the potential connection between it, gender roles and fertility should be fairly clear. The fact that the most functional nation states (using the liberal definition above) are also the most functional nations in the light of the nationalist definition won't obviously be the case.



    Just because you think what motivates you are external factors, it does not mean that actually external factors are what what motivates you.
     
    I see you seem to have a strong belief that certain external factors (like economic instincts) play a very deterministic role, but randomly ignore other potential examples. For example, instincts which are related to the perpetuation of populations and families.

    People need to be honest that they like and dislike some things, rather than pretending it isn’t about their likes and dislikes, and is instead about avoiding some fantasy apocalypse.
     
    Fantasy apocalypse isn't just you straw manning and palming it off on me? Afaik Marxists would often predict that major economic change would bring an end to nations as no longer having any function. It may be economically determined and unavoidable, it might not involve any apocalypse.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    There was an old Polandball meme about “Polska cannot into Space”, while in fact a Polish cosmonaut, Mirosław Hermaszewski, went into outer space with his Soviet colleagues. But there is a much more appropriate meme to be created about Liberals, biology and demographics.

    I suggest the following: “Liberals cannot (put) biology into demographics”. They are retarded to such a degree that they do not understand the Selfish Gene basis of survival and evolution. These people are reproductively defective. No use discussing seriously anything family related with them. All we need to do is concentrate on raising our children in a way that they carry on the lineage and the values that ensure its long term survival.

    Let the Liberals have their 69 genders and their 666 gender roles. Actually encourage them: “Love is love is love is etc” repeated to them in a circular manner would make them believe we are sympathetic to their insane pulsions towards self destruction.

    Given that they think life is basically materialistic and therefore meaningless, let them die out..

    • Agree: S
  739. @Here Be Dragon
    @John Johnson


    So you are certain that Russia is not issuing AK-47s? You believe the conscripts are properly equipped and cell phone videos of ancient equipment are fake?
     
    Of course.

    As I said before Russians do not send conscripts to the front for now and AK-47s are collectible vintage rifles. No one is issuing these to no one. You saw photos of AKM rifles – which are not AK-47s.

    As for the videos that I have not seen I cannot comment on that. But common sense is that such videos are staged as it is a recurring theme of pro-Ukrainian propaganda.

    The Donbas militias however do use AKM and Mosin rifles as well as Soviet-era helmets and even Soviet red flags. Some people think it is hip and cool. Some do it for other reasons.

    The Ukrainians have their own AR/AK hybrid that shoots 7.62×39 and some squads have suppressors.
     
    That is not an AR/AK but a standard AR with 7.62 barrel and magazine well, casted for that caliber. Americans have been selling these on the civilian market for quite some time as far as I know.

    Nothing special.

    Ukrainians have been producing the Israeli Tavor as well but none of this changes the situation or solves the problems I mentioned earlier. Suppressors can be used with either of these three rifles.

    But it does not make sense in most real life combat encounters.

    That is not true [Suppressors are more expensive than AK or AR-15 rifles]. You can buy a quality suppressor for around $650.
     
    And how much do you think the M4 carbines cost for the U.S. government? $640 a piece. And an AK-74M for the Russian army? Around the same.

    But the suppressors the U.S. military uses are not those you referenced but either SureFire or Knight's Armament, and these do not sell for $650.

    Double it.

    No basis in the belief that they don’t last long. You are working from 1980s information or something.
     
    No it is because I know the gear. You are on the other hand clueless. A troll, posting stupid crap and flooding the thread with absurd.

    Your article – have you even read it?

    "High, sustained rates of fire will destroy a suppressor much faster than slow, limited rates of fire." A good mil-spec sound suppressor under the regular combat use will last 5-6 thousand rounds. The rifle will last twice as much.

    Why do you think there is a market for 223 suppressors? Why do you think militaries use them? As I said it changes the sound profile and hides the flash. Admit you were wrong and move on.
     
    You do not need to spend a thousand dollars for a flash hider, son and changing "sound profile" of a regular carbine does not change a thing. Snipers do that for using long-range rifles – then it makes sense. And with a short-range carbine it does not.

    Special forces in the U.S. do use suppressors with short-barrel carbines because it is safer to shoot them with a suppressor. The 5.56 is a loud round. And special forces can afford it whereas a regular forces cannot.

    Here is a MK 18 carbine with SureFire suppressor.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y6cLvJAnxE

    Most American special forces use these.


    You can see that with a suppressor it is of around the standard length despite that it has a 10-inch barrel (instead of a 16-inch). And even with a $1,200 suppressor the shot is still loud.

    You said that it is pointless to use them with supersonic, which is false.
     
    You can see that it is not. With a standard 16-inch barrel it is indeed pointless and useless. With a short barrel it is being done for comfort.

    Yes I’m sure our special forces are clueless for using red dots and you the firearms expert of Unz is certain that irons will be fine.
     
    It is not what I said – I said that some people prefer the regular iron sights. Of course not the special forces who train a lot and can use whatever kind of sights depending on the need.

    Please do not be so boring.

    You can’t see the iron sights once it gets dark. So you see something moving in moonlight, raise the rifle and you can’t see your irons.
     
    It depends on the rifle and on the sights.

    The Yugoslavian Zastava M70 AK variant was equipped with fluorescent iron sights as a standard. Tritium dots produce bright enough green light so even at night one can see the sight.

    https://i.postimg.cc/Rq50FkjZ/Zastava-M70.jpg

    For the Russian and other East European AKM and AK-74 there are the same kind of sights as an option, though these were not used as a standard issue.

    And the special forces model of both AK-74 and AKM had a side rail on the receiver for mounting a night scope.

    You would be out of your mind to suggest that a team with red dots will be equal to a team with irons.
     
    Depending on the team it can be. Of course whether the equipment is good does matter – including sights. But the end result will depend on their skills and other factors.

    Without a proper flash hider they will be blinded by the flash as well.
     
    Not if the flares or tactical lights are being used.

    The Ukrainians have done their homework and will attack these new conscripts at night. Putin’s army will be running around with AK-47s and shooting at shadows. Ukrainians will come in with suppressed weapons and night vision and pick them off.
     
    You should be a stand-up comedian. You might make a good one :)

    Hilarious that you think it’s fine if the militas have nagants. Russia made over 100 million AK-47s and you are actually trying to defend equipping fighting men with bolt action rifles.
     
    You are a clueless troll.

    An AK has the effective range of 300-400 m. A sniper model Mosin PU with match-grade ammo and the standard scope reaches up to 800 m.

    An AK-74 and the 5.45x39 mm round it uses can punch through a bulletproof vest from close range (up to 100-150 m). A Mosin uses 7.62x54 mm caliber – a lot more powerful round.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N2UclXPRAA

    It will punch through the vest from 400-500 m, and in good hands even without a scope will be accurate at these distances. Watch this video and read comments below it.

    Does being a militia make them less deserving of having a weapon from at least the 1960s?
     
    Being a militia means that one can do things a regular troop is not allowed to do. For example wear uniform one prefers and choose a weapon that is not standard. As I said earlier some people prefer to use vintage weapons.

    As for Mosin being a bolt action rifle that a troll has no understanding of note that a number of sniper rifles being used in the U.S. forces are bolt action as well – among them M24 and M40 (based on the Remington 700), and the latter has been used since the mid-60s. These rifles chambered in 7.62x51mm are similar to the Mosin PU both in power and effective range.

    Besides there are a lot of vintage guns in the American military. The M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun has been in service since 1933 – and is still being used!

    The M60 machine gun has been in use since 1950s. Some units are still using the Colt 1911 pistol – in use since 1911. These are all good, even exceptional firearms and their age does not make them bad.

    Replies: @John Johnson

    So you are certain that Russia is not issuing AK-47s? You believe the conscripts are properly equipped and cell phone videos of ancient equipment are fake?

    Of course.

    As I said before Russians do not send conscripts to the front for now and AK-47s are collectible vintage rifles. No one is issuing these to no one. You saw photos of AKM rifles – which are not AK-47s.

    Pretty amazing that you know what every Russian conscript is using.

    Well here you go ace

    That’s an AK-47 in the first shot. Look at the curve of the magazine. You can see it better at :31.

    You do not need to spend a thousand dollars for a flash hider, son and changing “sound profile” of a regular carbine does not change a thing.

    Why do you keep calling me son? If you think a suppressor is useless (as you claimed) for a 556 battle rifle then why is there a market for them?

    Here is an article explaining their utility in combat:
    https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2017/06/27/the-new-stealth-infantry-how-suppressors-will-change-battlefield-tactics/

    Wade’s aim is to eventually equip every Marine in the experimental squad with a suppressed M27. Until recently, the suppressors were only used on the 5.56 mm-firing weapons.

    So the US military uses them on 5.56 weapons but Here Be Dragon of Unz thinks he knows better even though he went from stating they are never used with supersonic to now stating they are only used on short barrels.

    Your article – have you even read it?

    “High, sustained rates of fire will destroy a suppressor much faster than slow, limited rates of fire.” A good mil-spec sound suppressor under the regular combat use will last 5-6 thousand rounds. The rifle will last twice as much.

    Nice try. Only first quote is from the article. You added the second part.

    A modern suppressor can easily do 20k rounds if cleaned properly.

    And stop calling me son, you’re not my authority. Probably just some boomer that hasn’t read about suppressors since the 90s. Russians conscripts with AK-47s will be completely outmatched against Ukrainians with red dots and suppressors.

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @John Johnson

    Will post a reply on the new page, son!

  740. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    people in Africa or South America probably justifiably are just as unfazed as ever
     
    Same as people in the US, if so. Biden's warning that we haven't been as close to nuclear Armageddon since the 60's (first mention of the Ukraine war in several days) was only the 9th most read column on my local newspaper, well behind sports news, your daily feel-good story and the most noteworthy crime news of the day in the state.

    The action movie we're in since last February is not only tragic but surrealist and scary too. People in DC can basically do whatever they want wrt Ukraine because American society doesn't care. Most everybody has been thoroughly convinced that the Russians are evil beyond redemption and that we must all help poor Ukrainians and that's all there is to it for most people. The war has lasted too long to keep paying attention.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @sudden death

    Most everybody has been thoroughly convinced that the Russians are evil beyond redemption and that we must all help poor Ukrainians and that’s all there is to it for most people.

    What’s the alternative? Perhaps organize a national drive where Americans can collect and donate socks for impoverished Russian soldiers who are going to meet a cold and brutal winter in Ukraine?

    • LOL: John Johnson
    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Mr. Hack

    That would get you shot.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    , @Mikel
    @Mr. Hack


    we must all help poor Ukrainians and that’s all there is to it for most people.

    What’s the alternative?

     

    Making sure that we don't end up escalating to a nuclear war?

    That wouldn't even help the Ukrainians at all, would it?

    When is the last time you saw the leaders of a nation openly promoting a confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers like the Ukrainians are doing now? I can only think of the reports that Fidel Castro was doing that with the Soviets during the Cuban missiles crisis but, if true, it wasn't even done openly like now.

    Btw, what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Mr. Hack, @A123

    , @John Johnson
    @Mr. Hack

    Putin's remaining defenders at Unz tell us that everything is going fine. A major offensive by the Russians will happen any day now.

    They are just using conscripts literally taken from their jobs, handed AK-47s from the 1960s and they can't even make sure they all have socks.

    https://media2.giphy.com/media/eIfYQTaK3148kmMCxT/giphy.gif

  741. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel


    Most everybody has been thoroughly convinced that the Russians are evil beyond redemption and that we must all help poor Ukrainians and that’s all there is to it for most people.
     
    What's the alternative? Perhaps organize a national drive where Americans can collect and donate socks for impoverished Russian soldiers who are going to meet a cold and brutal winter in Ukraine?

    https://youtu.be/jv06oduwnr0

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Mikel, @John Johnson

    That would get you shot.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Wokechoke

    https://images.cartoonstock.com/lowres/ukraine-crisis-warmonger-vladimir_putin-military_draft-military_mobilisation-russian_army-EC500035_low.jpg

    kremlinstoogeA123's "real Christian leader" Putler loading up his true/blue Orthodox believers for a taste of Ukrainian paradise.

  742. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    people in Africa or South America probably justifiably are just as unfazed as ever
     
    Same as people in the US, if so. Biden's warning that we haven't been as close to nuclear Armageddon since the 60's (first mention of the Ukraine war in several days) was only the 9th most read column on my local newspaper, well behind sports news, your daily feel-good story and the most noteworthy crime news of the day in the state.

    The action movie we're in since last February is not only tragic but surrealist and scary too. People in DC can basically do whatever they want wrt Ukraine because American society doesn't care. Most everybody has been thoroughly convinced that the Russians are evil beyond redemption and that we must all help poor Ukrainians and that's all there is to it for most people. The war has lasted too long to keep paying attention.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @sudden death

    How relevant really are local newspapers and their websites though, considering that FOX, which most popular news TV channel in US, is regularly, if not constantly, pushing pro-RF talking points or even straight propjunk of RF origin at prime time?

    Watching from afar it seems that Ukraine/RF is on the verge of becoming absolutely bipartisan issue like Iran has become decade or so ago. It not only RF money/propaganda/covert operations at fault, the process is going due objective reasons too as RF has been stripped from that strong atheism/communism aura that USSR had, so only purely geopolitical/national security/atlanticist reasons are not that important for quite numerous segments of US voters. Not even to mention isolationism, which is absolutely traditional and strong political strain in US, despite being practice more or less abandoned since 1917. And those who care enough about pure geopolitica are far from being united front too, as the idea of getting the favor of RF against China is not out of fashion at all.

    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @sudden death

    https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1578841884528586753

    Replies: @S, @A123

    , @Mikel
    @sudden death


    How relevant really are local newspapers and their websites though, considering that FOX, which most popular news TV channel in US, is regularly, if not constantly, pushing pro-RF talking points or even straight propjunk of RF origin at prime time?
     
    You're confusing Fox News with Tucker Carlson, who indeed has gone a bit too far in the contrarian direction by continuing to promote total cranks like McGregor. But this is just the typical American inability to find a sensible middle ground, not any RF conspiratorial activity. Do you still believe that the militarily incompetent Russians who were unable to find out what the real mood in neighboring Ukraine was are capable of pulling the strings in American politics??

    Just download the Fox News app, check it for a few days and let me know how many mentions of Ukraine you find, if you can find any, and which position they were in.

    Tucker Carlson does have a few million followers, a bit more than rabid anti-russian Fox anchor Hannity I guess, but that's all.

    Americans as a whole are no longer interested in the Ukraine war, believe me. Yesterday I told my wife that Ukraine had blown up the Crimean bridge and she asked me to stop telling her things about that war. It's only bad news and she has enough things to feel worried about, she argued, so she doesn't need any more. I shut up, as requested, and will have to discuss the war with someone else irl... but who?? :(

    Replies: @sudden death, @keypusher

  743. Now, unless Ukraine is suddenly taken into NATO, Zelensky and company’s days are numbered.

    Ukraine isn’t going to be voted into NATO – and Nuland and the rest of them will never accept a Russian victory.

    The bad result is that it makes another 9/11 very likely. This time apparently a nuclear weapon detonated in Ukraine and blamed on Russia. Same as 9/11, they’re already engaged in the public media preparation/conditioning. The MSM is full of speculation along these lines and Biden has made a speech about it.

    The aim would then be to panic rush NATO into a full confrontation with Russia. IOW a major escalation.

    • Agree: LondonBob
    • Replies: @Beckow
    @Miro23


    ...Ukraine isn’t going to be voted into NATO – and Nuland and the rest of them will never accept a Russian victory.
     
    An immovable object meets an un stoppable force. At the meeting place are the poor Ukies. No wonder they are going existential and hysterical at the same time, they plan victory parades and also fear tomorrow. It must be tough.

    This happens when people fail to anticipate. There were endless opportunities to avoid getting into the situation. But mid-wits don't anticipate, they mindlessly move forward.

    We are in early stages, it will continue escalating. The lame calls for negotiation overlook the un-resolvable dilemma: Kiev can't simultaneously rule all of Ukraine and be in Nato aimed at its much larger neighbor. It can't be done, and it was obvious for the last 10 years that trying to do it is a bridge too far - it was bound to blow up.

    Smarter people know this, but idiots will continue lying: "what us in Nato? nooo...it was just loose talk, we had no plans. Look, we kept on postponing, in any case, why would that be a problem for Russia? Nato never attacks anyone, and when they do, they mean well. And anyway, we are richer and these rules don't apply to us..."

    Maybe a boom, maybe not, but the convoluted narcissist lies almost can't end in any other way. The Western vanity is like poison that has slowly taken over. At the heart of all big crimes is vanity...it is almost painfully visible when the likes of Truss, Baerbock, Biden come out to preach.

  744. S says:
    @S
    Biden's deliberate talk of 'Armageddon' which is literally creating hysteria in the United States and elsewhere. Liberally showing on US MSM recently Russian corpses along roads around Lyman (something they don't normally do so much). This bridge blast the day after Putin's birthday.

    They are pulling out all the stops in attempting to goad Putin into doing a nuclear strike in Ukraine.

    If they succeed, Kherson might be the place, with it's 15,000 Russian personell which are slowly being surrounded. [If those men were to be captured by Ukraine, no doubt for propaganda purposes they would be marched through central Kiev in a mile(s) long surrender column. I doubt Putin could survive that spectacle.]

    If the US/UK succeeds in goading Putin into making even a 'limited' nuclear strike in Ukraine, then as GR has elaborated upon, the US can move to sink the Russian Black Sea fleet and attack the Russian army in Ukraine.

    That is where they then want Putin to attack US forces with battlefield nukes in Ukraine, or, perhaps elsewhere, which then gives the US/UK the cover to engage in a full blown nuclear exchange with Russia, something it has long desired. [Hope I'm entirely mistaken, of course, particularly with the nuke stuff. We'll see how this latest craziness plays out.]


    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2022/10/GettyImages-1243809829.jpg

    https://youtu.be/S-juPsPG6FE



    Purported 'Crimean Bridge to Hell!' Ukrainian postage stamps for sale on Ebay. [Surely fake, or, from earlier. Someone's already profiting from this?]

    https://www.ebay.ch/itm/165715081119

    https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/04EAAOSw0GVjQTrb/s-l400.jpg

    https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/qTUAAOSw9HJjQTrf/s-l400.jpg

    https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/SpkAAOSwSS1jQTrb/s-l400.jpg

    Replies: @A123, @S

    If they succeed, Kherson might be the place, with it’s 15,000 Russian personnel which are slowly being surrounded. [If those men were to be captured by Ukraine, no doubt for propaganda purposes they would be marched through central Kiev in a mile(s) long surrender column. I doubt Putin could survive that spectacle.]

    Should things continue to deteriorate, and to prevent scenes like the below from occurring, particularly the bottom one under ‘More’, Putin might be goaded into using a tactical nuke at Kherson.

    If Putin fails to prevent Kherson from falling, and something like the scenes below take place, he might well be replaced by someone far more hardline, which is what the US/UK wants.

    [MORE]

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @S

    If theRussians have 15,000 troops on the West Bank of the Dneiper the Ukies have to attack with around 3x that number. That’s plenty of targets for Russian artillery, drones, missiles aircraft in a small compressed front. That’s suicide for the assault troops. The main worry for Russia would have to be a sweep south from Zaporwhaterverdia toward Melitopol.

    Replies: @S

  745. @Bashibuzuk
    @German_reader

    War in Ukraine is also an economic Anglo-saxon war against continental Europe, of which Germany is the industrial core.

    The goal is the destruction of the European middle class and a substantial reduction of the global one.

    https://asiatimes.com/2022/10/global-margin-call-hits-european-debt-markets/

    German elites probably know and understand this better than anyone, but they are basically part of the occupation administration.

    They cannot raise against their handlers.

    They are good dogs that don't bite the hand that feeds.



    If even these nihilistic trolls from Ramstein get it right, then German politicians can't claim ignorance and misunderstanding as a mitigating circumstance.

    https://youtu.be/NeQM1c-XCDc

    (I have always liked Einstürzende Neubauten more, they feel more genuine...)

    Replies: @S, @LondonBob

    Sure, ‘Anglo-Saxons’.

    The German political elite have been vociferous supporters of the war.

    https://strategic-culture.org/news/2022/10/03/tearing-down-the-pantheon-of-western-founders-and-heroes/

    • Replies: @German_reader
    @LondonBob

    I agree that framing it in terms of "Anglo-Saxons" is misleading. There is quite a lot of open "You deserve it" schadenfreude by Americans over Germany's coming economic woes though. Despite Germany's political elite hardly stepping out of line on Ukraine, as you yourself write, Germany is frequently treated as a quasi-enemy in Anglophone media. It doesn't seem far-fetched to suspect that US policy-makers would act on that view, all the more so given the profits US companies are set to make from LNG exports.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @A123

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @LondonBob

    Anglo-saxon in a broad sense. It's not the people we are pointing fingers at, but a system under the control of a transnational elite. It is just that the Anglo-saxon nations (Brits and Yanks) have been used as a substrate to grow this parasitic mushroom that is poisoning the lives of billions of people. Don't take that personally, most Brits and Yanks are decent people, but your elites are the core of the Globalist Cabal.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

  746. @Wokechoke
    @Mr. Hack

    That would get you shot.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    kremlinstoogeA123’s “real Christian leader” Putler loading up his true/blue Orthodox believers for a taste of Ukrainian paradise.

  747. @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Bashibuzuk


    I was wondering how someone who has always seemed so boring to me could instill such respect (bordering to awe) on his disciples.
     
    It seems to me the cult followers join because they want to be the guru. I read there were a thousand people at Gurdjieff's funeral. There ain't no way Ouspensky (who was a much better writer than the big guy) had a hearse display like this:

    https://i0.wp.com/www.jgbennett.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/funeral-procession-picture-scaled-e1645473932713.jpeg

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
    • Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mr. Hack

    My favorite take on Gurdjieff:

    His travels were 99% working on the railroad. The so-called Sarmoun Brotherhood occult knowledge came from weird Christians, Jews, and especially Muslims at the furthest reach of the Trans-Caucasian railway. The enneagram, sacred dances--the whole she bang--was located in little fringe spaces that were all within less than a day's walk from places like the Bukhara railway station.

    He constructed a bunch of smoke and mirrors around his sources. I forget who wrote this analysis. The name is gone but the text remains burned into my memory stores.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

  748. German_reader says:
    @LondonBob
    @Bashibuzuk

    Sure, 'Anglo-Saxons'.

    The German political elite have been vociferous supporters of the war.

    https://strategic-culture.org/news/2022/10/03/tearing-down-the-pantheon-of-western-founders-and-heroes/

    Replies: @German_reader, @Bashibuzuk

    I agree that framing it in terms of “Anglo-Saxons” is misleading. There is quite a lot of open “You deserve it” schadenfreude by Americans over Germany’s coming economic woes though. Despite Germany’s political elite hardly stepping out of line on Ukraine, as you yourself write, Germany is frequently treated as a quasi-enemy in Anglophone media. It doesn’t seem far-fetched to suspect that US policy-makers would act on that view, all the more so given the profits US companies are set to make from LNG exports.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @German_reader

    It's more than that.

    Anglo-saxon geopolitical thought has been very constant in the last 200 years. It had three major goals:

    1) ensure that all sea commerce of Anglo-saxon (now transnational) companies is unimpeded, under control, and linked to Anglo-saxon (in a broad sense) financial system.

    2) ensure that no land commercial routes, controlled by continental powers, are more practical and profitable than sea routes.

    3) ensure that no continental power, or a stable alliance thereof, could control competing sea routes.

    Now the Anglo-saxon "place-holder" is to be replaced by the Five Eyes or even the Anglosphere (of which India and especially Pakistan might rightfully be considered a part).

    The whole Atlanticist/NATO idea of "keeping US in, keeping Germany down and keeping Russians out" is not about democracy, Gay rights, or some other insignificant BS, but about controlling economic processes in Eurasia and avoiding competition. The whole global economy is to be controlled or at least very strongly influenced by the Anglo-saxon elite (not nation states or their people and of course not native ethnic groups).

    This elite is transnational, muti cultural and multi ethnic. But it is tied to decisions taken by the financial and planning centers in the Anglo-saxon Core (the London-NY Axis that has been put in place by giants such as Cecil Rhodes and others of his stature some 150 years ago).

    It has nothing to do with a specific animus against Germany, Russia or even China. It's just business - nothing personal. All the world wars they started are about business. They care for power and wealth and nothing more.

    Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms, @Emil Nikola Richard

    , @A123
    @German_reader


    There is quite a lot of open “You deserve it” schadenfreude by Americans over Germany’s coming economic woes though
     
    You are willing to admit that Germany has poor leadership.

    Germans elected Angela Merkel. She opened the borders to everyone. She used Germany's position in the EU to bludgeon Christians in Hungary and Germany.

    Let us consider the German Green Party. Stubbornly insisting that nuclear energy has to go. Insisting that wind and solar can be used for industry. The science denial, visible to all, is mind boggling. Your Greens killed NS2, not America.

    The Traffic Light Coalition that installed Scholz contains Green "anti-hydrocarbon" insanity as a core value. Ending internal combustion engines by 2035 is all about European Green, and the German Greens are the most powerful member if that movements.

    Everyone, not just Americans, realize that Germany dug this hole for themselves.

    Despite Germany’s political elite hardly stepping out of line on Ukraine,
     
    German Elites, via the European WEF, set Ukraine policy. The WEF orders Not-The-President Biden to send money and he jumps at their command. The idea that America is behind the Ukraine fiasco is absurd.

    Germany is frequently treated as a quasi-enemy in Anglophone media.
     
    Main Street America (e.g. MAGA) is treated as an outright enemy by the Anglophone media. They loved Not-The-President Biden's Reichstag speech inciting hatred of American citizens.

    Yes. I concede that the U.S. also has piss poor leadership. However, we didn't start this fire. Antifa started in Germany decades ago. Violent leftism was exported by Europe, across the Atlantic, to contaminate America.

    It doesn’t seem far-fetched to suspect that US policy-makers would act on that view, all the more so given the profits US companies are set to make from LNG exports.
     
    This makes no sense. The illegitimate White House occupant has been crushing hydrocarbon production in the U.S. High energy prices and the associated inflation are driving the midterm elections.

    If U.S. policy-makers were trying to use energy as policy, Step #1 would be making sure that America has enough energy. Instead this happens: (1)

    state-run Saudi Aramco raised its selling price for oil to the United States, lowered it for Europe, and kept them the same for Asia. It is the second time in the past few months the selling price increased for the U.S. while Europe got a break. The Saudis and the UAE are sending a message, and the Biden administration refuses to pick up what they are putting down. So you will pay even higher prices at the pump and just about everywhere else as raw material and transportation costs rise.

    The Biden administration called the production cuts a hostile act. Then, of course, Team Biden accused the Saudis of “aligning with Russia” following the pricing announcement. However, it was Russia, part of OPEC+, that aligned with the Saudis and the UAE when they pushed for cuts. It is not at all clear that Saudi Arabia has any particular interest in the goals of Vladimir Putin. They control OPEC+, along with the UAE.

     
    There simply is no coherent policy coming from DC. No long term vision of any kind. It is a cascade of stumbling from crisis to gaffes and back to more crises.

    Will the mental dribbler be removed from the White House early next year?

    If the American system was working correctly, that would be an easy "yes". However the heir apparent is Not-The-VP Kamala Harris. The DNC cabinet officials that could displace the current coup figurehead see the peril.

    An additional complication, The Twenty-fifth Amendment states:

    Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
     
    Given the polarization that exists in U.S. politics, blocking the appointment of a replacement Vice President should be expected. The Speaker of the House, almost certain to be a MAGA Republican, would be next in line.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2022/10/05/biden-begs-opec-for-more-oil-again-gets-massive-cut-instead-n1634702

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  749. Bashibuzuk says:
    @German_reader
    @LondonBob

    I agree that framing it in terms of "Anglo-Saxons" is misleading. There is quite a lot of open "You deserve it" schadenfreude by Americans over Germany's coming economic woes though. Despite Germany's political elite hardly stepping out of line on Ukraine, as you yourself write, Germany is frequently treated as a quasi-enemy in Anglophone media. It doesn't seem far-fetched to suspect that US policy-makers would act on that view, all the more so given the profits US companies are set to make from LNG exports.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @A123

    It’s more than that.

    Anglo-saxon geopolitical thought has been very constant in the last 200 years. It had three major goals:

    1) ensure that all sea commerce of Anglo-saxon (now transnational) companies is unimpeded, under control, and linked to Anglo-saxon (in a broad sense) financial system.

    2) ensure that no land commercial routes, controlled by continental powers, are more practical and profitable than sea routes.

    3) ensure that no continental power, or a stable alliance thereof, could control competing sea routes.

    Now the Anglo-saxonplace-holder” is to be replaced by the Five Eyes or even the Anglosphere (of which India and especially Pakistan might rightfully be considered a part).

    The whole Atlanticist/NATO idea of “keeping US in, keeping Germany down and keeping Russians out” is not about democracy, Gay rights, or some other insignificant BS, but about controlling economic processes in Eurasia and avoiding competition. The whole global economy is to be controlled or at least very strongly influenced by the Anglo-saxon elite (not nation states or their people and of course not native ethnic groups).

    This elite is transnational, muti cultural and multi ethnic. But it is tied to decisions taken by the financial and planning centers in the Anglo-saxon Core (the London-NY Axis that has been put in place by giants such as Cecil Rhodes and others of his stature some 150 years ago).

    It has nothing to do with a specific animus against Germany, Russia or even China. It’s just business – nothing personal. All the world wars they started are about business. They care for power and wealth and nothing more.

    • Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms
    @Bashibuzuk

    Thalassocracy is a more accurate term. Hence Japan is considered to be added as "Sixth Eye":

    https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Japan-pursues-greater-Five-Eyes-intel-sharing-amid-China-concerns

    Japan had been an Eurasian continental country with its control of Korea and Manchuria. It had been Anglo-Thalassocracy supported since Jacob Schiff, but grew too big and had to be tamed.

    , @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Bashibuzuk

    Have you performed the death march through Tragedy and Hope?

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/726546.Tragedy_and_Hope

  750. Bashibuzuk says:
    @LondonBob
    @Bashibuzuk

    Sure, 'Anglo-Saxons'.

    The German political elite have been vociferous supporters of the war.

    https://strategic-culture.org/news/2022/10/03/tearing-down-the-pantheon-of-western-founders-and-heroes/

    Replies: @German_reader, @Bashibuzuk

    Anglo-saxon in a broad sense. It’s not the people we are pointing fingers at, but a system under the control of a transnational elite. It is just that the Anglo-saxon nations (Brits and Yanks) have been used as a substrate to grow this parasitic mushroom that is poisoning the lives of billions of people. Don’t take that personally, most Brits and Yanks are decent people, but your elites are the core of the Globalist Cabal.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Bashibuzuk

    Here you got it, and the guy has barely scratched the surface.

    I mean, that's basic stuff.

    https://youtu.be/NgbqXsA62Qs

    No conspiracy theories, nothing but mathematics.

    Imagine if he got into VC capital, Investment Funds, Family Offices and other wealth management tools on top of just analyzing the TNCs.

    You see why I use the Anglo-saxon expression?

    Just like in the RusFed - power and wealth are mainly under Noviop control - but if the Noviop misbehave, people around the world would talk of Russian oligarchy and Imperialist Russia.

    Same thing here but with your people being used as a decoy or a tool and on a larger scale too.

    And about Germans - they are slaves. Their spine has been broken (unfortunately because they have been a great and so talented people). An Ukrainian Ambassador can spit in their faces and pee on their government as if they were a nation of frayers.

    What a shame.

    (Funny that it takes a crazy Russian to point you this kind of really basic stuff 🙂 )

    Replies: @S

  751. @German_reader
    @LondonBob

    I agree that framing it in terms of "Anglo-Saxons" is misleading. There is quite a lot of open "You deserve it" schadenfreude by Americans over Germany's coming economic woes though. Despite Germany's political elite hardly stepping out of line on Ukraine, as you yourself write, Germany is frequently treated as a quasi-enemy in Anglophone media. It doesn't seem far-fetched to suspect that US policy-makers would act on that view, all the more so given the profits US companies are set to make from LNG exports.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @A123

    There is quite a lot of open “You deserve it” schadenfreude by Americans over Germany’s coming economic woes though

    You are willing to admit that Germany has poor leadership.

    Germans elected Angela Merkel. She opened the borders to everyone. She used Germany’s position in the EU to bludgeon Christians in Hungary and Germany.

    Let us consider the German Green Party. Stubbornly insisting that nuclear energy has to go. Insisting that wind and solar can be used for industry. The science denial, visible to all, is mind boggling. Your Greens killed NS2, not America.

    The Traffic Light Coalition that installed Scholz contains Green “anti-hydrocarbon” insanity as a core value. Ending internal combustion engines by 2035 is all about European Green, and the German Greens are the most powerful member if that movements.

    Everyone, not just Americans, realize that Germany dug this hole for themselves.

    Despite Germany’s political elite hardly stepping out of line on Ukraine,

    German Elites, via the European WEF, set Ukraine policy. The WEF orders Not-The-President Biden to send money and he jumps at their command. The idea that America is behind the Ukraine fiasco is absurd.

    Germany is frequently treated as a quasi-enemy in Anglophone media.

    Main Street America (e.g. MAGA) is treated as an outright enemy by the Anglophone media. They loved Not-The-President Biden’s Reichstag speech inciting hatred of American citizens.

    Yes. I concede that the U.S. also has piss poor leadership. However, we didn’t start this fire. Antifa started in Germany decades ago. Violent leftism was exported by Europe, across the Atlantic, to contaminate America.

    It doesn’t seem far-fetched to suspect that US policy-makers would act on that view, all the more so given the profits US companies are set to make from LNG exports.

    This makes no sense. The illegitimate White House occupant has been crushing hydrocarbon production in the U.S. High energy prices and the associated inflation are driving the midterm elections.

    If U.S. policy-makers were trying to use energy as policy, Step #1 would be making sure that America has enough energy. Instead this happens: (1)

    state-run Saudi Aramco raised its selling price for oil to the United States, lowered it for Europe, and kept them the same for Asia. It is the second time in the past few months the selling price increased for the U.S. while Europe got a break. The Saudis and the UAE are sending a message, and the Biden administration refuses to pick up what they are putting down. So you will pay even higher prices at the pump and just about everywhere else as raw material and transportation costs rise.

    The Biden administration called the production cuts a hostile act. Then, of course, Team Biden accused the Saudis of “aligning with Russia” following the pricing announcement. However, it was Russia, part of OPEC+, that aligned with the Saudis and the UAE when they pushed for cuts. It is not at all clear that Saudi Arabia has any particular interest in the goals of Vladimir Putin. They control OPEC+, along with the UAE.

    There simply is no coherent policy coming from DC. No long term vision of any kind. It is a cascade of stumbling from crisis to gaffes and back to more crises.

    Will the mental dribbler be removed from the White House early next year?

    If the American system was working correctly, that would be an easy “yes”. However the heir apparent is Not-The-VP Kamala Harris. The DNC cabinet officials that could displace the current coup figurehead see the peril.

    An additional complication, The Twenty-fifth Amendment states:

    Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

    Given the polarization that exists in U.S. politics, blocking the appointment of a replacement Vice President should be expected. The Speaker of the House, almost certain to be a MAGA Republican, would be next in line.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2022/10/05/biden-begs-opec-for-more-oil-again-gets-massive-cut-instead-n1634702

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @A123


    The WEF orders Not-The-President Biden to send money and he jumps at their command.
     
    More unsubstantiated conspiracy theories of kremlinstoogeA123. All who enter his tent of illusions enter at their own risk, our high priest of fantasy is at it again:

    https://www.vallettafilmfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Doctor-Parnassius-2-800x450.jpg

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

  752. @A123
    @German_reader


    There is quite a lot of open “You deserve it” schadenfreude by Americans over Germany’s coming economic woes though
     
    You are willing to admit that Germany has poor leadership.

    Germans elected Angela Merkel. She opened the borders to everyone. She used Germany's position in the EU to bludgeon Christians in Hungary and Germany.

    Let us consider the German Green Party. Stubbornly insisting that nuclear energy has to go. Insisting that wind and solar can be used for industry. The science denial, visible to all, is mind boggling. Your Greens killed NS2, not America.

    The Traffic Light Coalition that installed Scholz contains Green "anti-hydrocarbon" insanity as a core value. Ending internal combustion engines by 2035 is all about European Green, and the German Greens are the most powerful member if that movements.

    Everyone, not just Americans, realize that Germany dug this hole for themselves.

    Despite Germany’s political elite hardly stepping out of line on Ukraine,
     
    German Elites, via the European WEF, set Ukraine policy. The WEF orders Not-The-President Biden to send money and he jumps at their command. The idea that America is behind the Ukraine fiasco is absurd.

    Germany is frequently treated as a quasi-enemy in Anglophone media.
     
    Main Street America (e.g. MAGA) is treated as an outright enemy by the Anglophone media. They loved Not-The-President Biden's Reichstag speech inciting hatred of American citizens.

    Yes. I concede that the U.S. also has piss poor leadership. However, we didn't start this fire. Antifa started in Germany decades ago. Violent leftism was exported by Europe, across the Atlantic, to contaminate America.

    It doesn’t seem far-fetched to suspect that US policy-makers would act on that view, all the more so given the profits US companies are set to make from LNG exports.
     
    This makes no sense. The illegitimate White House occupant has been crushing hydrocarbon production in the U.S. High energy prices and the associated inflation are driving the midterm elections.

    If U.S. policy-makers were trying to use energy as policy, Step #1 would be making sure that America has enough energy. Instead this happens: (1)

    state-run Saudi Aramco raised its selling price for oil to the United States, lowered it for Europe, and kept them the same for Asia. It is the second time in the past few months the selling price increased for the U.S. while Europe got a break. The Saudis and the UAE are sending a message, and the Biden administration refuses to pick up what they are putting down. So you will pay even higher prices at the pump and just about everywhere else as raw material and transportation costs rise.

    The Biden administration called the production cuts a hostile act. Then, of course, Team Biden accused the Saudis of “aligning with Russia” following the pricing announcement. However, it was Russia, part of OPEC+, that aligned with the Saudis and the UAE when they pushed for cuts. It is not at all clear that Saudi Arabia has any particular interest in the goals of Vladimir Putin. They control OPEC+, along with the UAE.

     
    There simply is no coherent policy coming from DC. No long term vision of any kind. It is a cascade of stumbling from crisis to gaffes and back to more crises.

    Will the mental dribbler be removed from the White House early next year?

    If the American system was working correctly, that would be an easy "yes". However the heir apparent is Not-The-VP Kamala Harris. The DNC cabinet officials that could displace the current coup figurehead see the peril.

    An additional complication, The Twenty-fifth Amendment states:

    Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
     
    Given the polarization that exists in U.S. politics, blocking the appointment of a replacement Vice President should be expected. The Speaker of the House, almost certain to be a MAGA Republican, would be next in line.

    PEACE 😇
    __________

    (1) https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2022/10/05/biden-begs-opec-for-more-oil-again-gets-massive-cut-instead-n1634702

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    The WEF orders Not-The-President Biden to send money and he jumps at their command.

    More unsubstantiated conspiracy theories of kremlinstoogeA123. All who enter his tent of illusions enter at their own risk, our high priest of fantasy is at it again:

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Mr. Hack

    A123 os right about Biden and Democratic Party being aligned with the WEF. It is in plain sight, nothing hidden about it.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  753. @S
    @S


    If they succeed, Kherson might be the place, with it’s 15,000 Russian personnel which are slowly being surrounded. [If those men were to be captured by Ukraine, no doubt for propaganda purposes they would be marched through central Kiev in a mile(s) long surrender column. I doubt Putin could survive that spectacle.]
     
    Should things continue to deteriorate, and to prevent scenes like the below from occurring, particularly the bottom one under 'More', Putin might be goaded into using a tactical nuke at Kherson.

    If Putin fails to prevent Kherson from falling, and something like the scenes below take place, he might well be replaced by someone far more hardline, which is what the US/UK wants.

    https://youtu.be/zDs5mljMvWA





    https://youtu.be/XJXUHQmoMqc

    https://youtu.be/OSxzwjMvFb8k

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    If theRussians have 15,000 troops on the West Bank of the Dneiper the Ukies have to attack with around 3x that number. That’s plenty of targets for Russian artillery, drones, missiles aircraft in a small compressed front. That’s suicide for the assault troops. The main worry for Russia would have to be a sweep south from Zaporwhaterverdia toward Melitopol.

    • Replies: @S
    @Wokechoke


    If theRussians have 15,000 troops on the West Bank of the Dneiper the Ukies have to attack with around 3x that number. That’s plenty of targets for Russian artillery, drones, missiles aircraft in a small compressed front. That’s suicide for the assault troops.
     
    The Ukrainians seem prepared to take 'high' and 'massive' losses at Kherson per the NY Times link below. However, the weather is about to turn (if it hasn't already) making it all mute for now.

    Perhaps against all the odds a miracle might happen and a peace agreement is made before the next combat cycle.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/world/europe/ukraine-south-kherson-russia.html
  754. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @LondonBob

    Anglo-saxon in a broad sense. It's not the people we are pointing fingers at, but a system under the control of a transnational elite. It is just that the Anglo-saxon nations (Brits and Yanks) have been used as a substrate to grow this parasitic mushroom that is poisoning the lives of billions of people. Don't take that personally, most Brits and Yanks are decent people, but your elites are the core of the Globalist Cabal.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    Here you got it, and the guy has barely scratched the surface.

    I mean, that’s basic stuff.

    No conspiracy theories, nothing but mathematics.

    Imagine if he got into VC capital, Investment Funds, Family Offices and other wealth management tools on top of just analyzing the TNCs.

    You see why I use the Anglo-saxon expression?

    Just like in the RusFed – power and wealth are mainly under Noviop control – but if the Noviop misbehave, people around the world would talk of Russian oligarchy and Imperialist Russia.

    Same thing here but with your people being used as a decoy or a tool and on a larger scale too.

    And about Germans – they are slaves. Their spine has been broken (unfortunately because they have been a great and so talented people). An Ukrainian Ambassador can spit in their faces and pee on their government as if they were a nation of frayers.

    What a shame.

    (Funny that it takes a crazy Russian to point you this kind of really basic stuff 🙂 )

    • Thanks: S
    • Replies: @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    No conspiracy theories, nothing but mathematics...Imagine if he got into VC capital, Investment Funds, Family Offices and other wealth management tools on top of just analyzing the TNCs....You see why I use the Anglo-saxon expression?
     
    Thanks for your insightful video.

    Regarding the British Empire and its purported 'fall', this is something that trips up a lot of people.

    The Empire was in large part a commercial empire, and financial clout and strings are somewhat invisible, unless you are already aware, or, you look for them.

    Anecdotally, not the best 'source' I know, I might add that there was an Irish fellow on the net who claimed the British still owned huge swathes of the Irish economy, despite Ireland formally being a 'republic' free from the United Kingdom.

    There was also a woman who had a site that claimed US/UK financial organizations were giving African nations loans they knew they couldn't pay back, and were taking control of large portions of their natural resources in lieu of payment.

    My take, despite claims to the contrary, is that the British Empire is undead, and very much lives on (as planned), more powerful than ever, in the form of the United States. [As a related aside, within Masonry, the 'New Rome' was the dream that someday there would be a world order which was to revolve around a central US/UK political axis, with the emphasis being on the United States.]

    DIPLOMACY: The New Rome
    (Sept. 22, 1958)

    'Flying into the U.S. from the far ends of the earth, a flock of foreign statesmen last week demonstrated that the roads which once led to imperial Rome and London now converge on Washington. Unlike their counterparts in the days of the Caesars and the Gladstones, they came not as satraps but as friends. But each of these ambassadors to the new Rome had a plea or a complaint.' Time (Sept. 22, 1958)
     
    https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,863882,00.html

    Replies: @S

  755. Kerch Bridge — Rail Service Resumes [MORE]

    At least one lane is open for road traffic. Presumably they are setting up a detour that will divide the two lane section to have one going each direction.

    Replacing the dislodged deck sections is not technically difficult. And, at this point, no one believes that the truck bomb did any structural damage to load bearing vertical elements.

    This is another action that is much more tied to morale than strategic effectiveness.
    ____

    One wonders who set off the bomb:

    • Is nearly identical Ukie/Pali morality on display?
    • Was it a terrorist suicide bombing?

    PEACE 😇

    [MORE]

    • Replies: @Mikhail
    @A123

    Like a tramp operating out of a whore house, a BBC presenter enthusiastically said it was destroyed.

  756. Looks like Germany is hoarding gas to prevent shortages in winter, exports to neighbours have been significantly reduced:
    https://multipolar-magazin.de/artikel/deutschland-dreht-den-hahn-zu
    Czech republic will be especially badly affected. Poor Czechs.

  757. @Mr. Hack
    @A123


    The WEF orders Not-The-President Biden to send money and he jumps at their command.
     
    More unsubstantiated conspiracy theories of kremlinstoogeA123. All who enter his tent of illusions enter at their own risk, our high priest of fantasy is at it again:

    https://www.vallettafilmfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Doctor-Parnassius-2-800x450.jpg

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    A123 os right about Biden and Democratic Party being aligned with the WEF. It is in plain sight, nothing hidden about it.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Bashibuzuk

    They may be aligned, but the picture of somebody in Brussels barking out orders across the ocean to Biden ordering him to send funds to Ukraine is just plain over the top. This is what I fear and see coming:

    https://image.cagle.com/156752/750/156752.png

    Replies: @Wokechoke

  758. Ukrainian realities.
    Some Ukrainian first publishes. See what the punishment of those who supported the Russians will be.

    Then, after two hours, a reissue is made.
    This is taken from the occupier’s mobile phone.
    But mobile phones are prohibited in the Russian army

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Mike_from_Russia

    The whiff of sulphur.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    , @Bashibuzuk
    @Mike_from_Russia

    Just another day in the RusFed/Ukiestan theater of horrors.

    Putin promised to defend these people, Zelensky promised to liberate them. It is therefore entirely normal that these people are now dead, having probably been tortured before being killed.

    It is sadly unsurprising. Hundreds of thousands will die before this unnecessary war ends. Millions could be killed if it goes global. Meanwhile, the fourth industrial revolution and the Great Reset are moving on.

    Humans are expendable, especially when they are Slavs...

    Replies: @Dmitry

  759. @Mike_from_Russia
    Ukrainian realities.
    Some Ukrainian first publishes. See what the punishment of those who supported the Russians will be.
    https://aftershock.news/sites/default/files/u18362/IMG_20221009_174753_093.jpg

    Then, after two hours, a reissue is made.
    This is taken from the occupier's mobile phone.
    But mobile phones are prohibited in the Russian army
    https://aftershock.news/sites/default/files/u18362/2022-10-09_17-47-15.png

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Bashibuzuk

    The whiff of sulphur.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Wokechoke

    The whiff of School of the Americas.

    https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-school-of-the-americas

    All you need is a few veterans of the "venerable" organization embedded into Azov or other similar Left Hand Path oriented battalions. The outcome is guaranteed...

  760. @sudden death
    @Mikel

    How relevant really are local newspapers and their websites though, considering that FOX, which most popular news TV channel in US, is regularly, if not constantly, pushing pro-RF talking points or even straight propjunk of RF origin at prime time?

    Watching from afar it seems that Ukraine/RF is on the verge of becoming absolutely bipartisan issue like Iran has become decade or so ago. It not only RF money/propaganda/covert operations at fault, the process is going due objective reasons too as RF has been stripped from that strong atheism/communism aura that USSR had, so only purely geopolitical/national security/atlanticist reasons are not that important for quite numerous segments of US voters. Not even to mention isolationism, which is absolutely traditional and strong political strain in US, despite being practice more or less abandoned since 1917. And those who care enough about pure geopolitica are far from being united front too, as the idea of getting the favor of RF against China is not out of fashion at all.

    Replies: @Mikhail, @Mikel

    • Replies: @S
    @Mikhail

    It's like the scene in 1984 where 'the official enemy' had changed mid-demonstration, and the demonstrators didn't skip a beat. :-)

    , @A123
    @Mikhail

    The hypocrisy of the Fake Stream Media is well known. No CIA involvement required to elicit Nazi Left fascist propaganda from the U.S. Lügenpresse.

    Also was the defining moment:

    • The Russian operation?
    • Not-The-President Biden's elevation?

    The blue column clearly predates the Blue Coup in America.

    PEACE 😇

     
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeksOV2UUAAb4Di.jpg

  761. @A123
    Kerch Bridge -- Rail Service Resumes [MORE]

    At least one lane is open for road traffic. Presumably they are setting up a detour that will divide the two lane section to have one going each direction.

    Replacing the dislodged deck sections is not technically difficult. And, at this point, no one believes that the truck bomb did any structural damage to load bearing vertical elements.

    This is another action that is much more tied to morale than strategic effectiveness.
    ____

    One wonders who set off the bomb:

    • Is nearly identical Ukie/Pali morality on display?
    • Was it a terrorist suicide bombing?

    PEACE 😇



    https://twitter.com/ClintEhrlich/status/1578789180221669376?s=20

    Replies: @Mikhail

    Like a tramp operating out of a whore house, a BBC presenter enthusiastically said it was destroyed.

  762. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Mike_from_Russia
    Ukrainian realities.
    Some Ukrainian first publishes. See what the punishment of those who supported the Russians will be.
    https://aftershock.news/sites/default/files/u18362/IMG_20221009_174753_093.jpg

    Then, after two hours, a reissue is made.
    This is taken from the occupier's mobile phone.
    But mobile phones are prohibited in the Russian army
    https://aftershock.news/sites/default/files/u18362/2022-10-09_17-47-15.png

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Bashibuzuk

    Just another day in the RusFed/Ukiestan theater of horrors.

    Putin promised to defend these people, Zelensky promised to liberate them. It is therefore entirely normal that these people are now dead, having probably been tortured before being killed.

    It is sadly unsurprising. Hundreds of thousands will die before this unnecessary war ends. Millions could be killed if it goes global. Meanwhile, the fourth industrial revolution and the Great Reset are moving on.

    Humans are expendable, especially when they are Slavs…

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    @Bashibuzuk


    are expendable, especially when they are Slavs…
     
    Not when you are taking about a developed region of Central European like Czech Republic. There is almost like a European value of life and human rights in such a country nowadays.

    But yes I would say this year the value of human's life in Russia/Ukraine has bypassed below the countries like Mexico and China, although normally it would be almost like Mexico, maybe slightly above China. For 2022, we are going to the level of Yemen or Eritrea.

    And I remember in what now still seems like a "happier" pandemic year of 2020, we were writing incorrect hypocritical snobby comments about the "primitive" conflicts of Armenians/Azerbaijanis, as you also.


    needed Pynya to start the war was to prevent RusFed from benefiting from all the rising profits from the commodities
     
    Politics in Russia in the last 30 years has been distracting and controlling of the expropriated population, while doing the resource extraction and move the profits of the appropriation to the West.

    The most simple "intelligence and status test" in the last 20 years has been are you moving your money outside Russia?

    It seems like a kind of conspiracy when you meet the most wealthy people who use only foreign bank cards and you know anyone from the "hidden society" that is living in different rules, that they have learned in some secret underground night class somewhere. Perhaps they are meeting every week in a bank vault to discuss their strategy to move offshore with the treasure? But this is partly because of the origin of the postsoviet elite in the security services, who were professionals in these specific areas, and also another herd behavior that can be explained as basic intuition.

    It was obvious for the deeper instincts, like not wanting to build a house next to the volcano, or noticing that you should probably escape from "Manson family". And there are a lot of distractions and magicians' tricks to distract the expropriated population, but you can not believe it with your deeper instincts.

    Even the politicians who receive salary for this job, do not seem like they believe it and it seems obvious when you see it with retrospect now. It seems kind of gullible that you would have believed it. Although even ten years ago, it was possible to be optimistic and believe there was some real intention (e.g. https://www.gazeta.ru/comments/2009/09/10_a_3258568.shtml )

  763. @Mikhail
    @sudden death

    https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1578841884528586753

    Replies: @S, @A123

    It’s like the scene in 1984 where ‘the official enemy’ had changed mid-demonstration, and the demonstrators didn’t skip a beat. 🙂

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  764. @Mikhail
    @sudden death

    https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1578841884528586753

    Replies: @S, @A123

    The hypocrisy of the Fake Stream Media is well known. No CIA involvement required to elicit Nazi Left fascist propaganda from the U.S. Lügenpresse.

    Also was the defining moment:

    • The Russian operation?
    • Not-The-President Biden’s elevation?

    The blue column clearly predates the Blue Coup in America.

    PEACE 😇

     

  765. @Wokechoke
    @Mike_from_Russia

    The whiff of sulphur.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    The whiff of School of the Americas.

    https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-school-of-the-americas

    All you need is a few veterans of the “venerable” organization embedded into Azov or other similar Left Hand Path oriented battalions. The outcome is guaranteed…

  766. @Mr. Hack
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    http://www.bobbycampbell.net/10/GURDJIEFF.jpg

    Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard

    My favorite take on Gurdjieff:

    His travels were 99% working on the railroad. The so-called Sarmoun Brotherhood occult knowledge came from weird Christians, Jews, and especially Muslims at the furthest reach of the Trans-Caucasian railway. The enneagram, sacred dances–the whole she bang–was located in little fringe spaces that were all within less than a day’s walk from places like the Bukhara railway station.

    He constructed a bunch of smoke and mirrors around his sources. I forget who wrote this analysis. The name is gone but the text remains burned into my memory stores.

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Emil Nikola Richard

    The only thing that is remarquable about Gurdjieff is that he understood at the time that those who have been called "Fallen Angels" and those whom we call today "Aliens/ ETs" are essentially the same thing. Although it might have been gleaned from a superficial reading of the Book of Enoch (or even from the Red Star novel by Bogdanov Malinovsky, who suggested using the red pentagram as the symbol of Soviet Revolution and the emblem of the Red Army.)

    Speaking of which:

    https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.11215

  767. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Emil Nikola Richard
    @Mr. Hack

    My favorite take on Gurdjieff:

    His travels were 99% working on the railroad. The so-called Sarmoun Brotherhood occult knowledge came from weird Christians, Jews, and especially Muslims at the furthest reach of the Trans-Caucasian railway. The enneagram, sacred dances--the whole she bang--was located in little fringe spaces that were all within less than a day's walk from places like the Bukhara railway station.

    He constructed a bunch of smoke and mirrors around his sources. I forget who wrote this analysis. The name is gone but the text remains burned into my memory stores.

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk

    The only thing that is remarquable about Gurdjieff is that he understood at the time that those who have been called “Fallen Angels” and those whom we call today “Aliens/ ETs” are essentially the same thing. Although it might have been gleaned from a superficial reading of the Book of Enoch (or even from the Red Star novel by Bogdanov Malinovsky, who suggested using the red pentagram as the symbol of Soviet Revolution and the emblem of the Red Army.)

    Speaking of which:

    https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.11215

  768. @Bashibuzuk
    @German_reader

    It's more than that.

    Anglo-saxon geopolitical thought has been very constant in the last 200 years. It had three major goals:

    1) ensure that all sea commerce of Anglo-saxon (now transnational) companies is unimpeded, under control, and linked to Anglo-saxon (in a broad sense) financial system.

    2) ensure that no land commercial routes, controlled by continental powers, are more practical and profitable than sea routes.

    3) ensure that no continental power, or a stable alliance thereof, could control competing sea routes.

    Now the Anglo-saxon "place-holder" is to be replaced by the Five Eyes or even the Anglosphere (of which India and especially Pakistan might rightfully be considered a part).

    The whole Atlanticist/NATO idea of "keeping US in, keeping Germany down and keeping Russians out" is not about democracy, Gay rights, or some other insignificant BS, but about controlling economic processes in Eurasia and avoiding competition. The whole global economy is to be controlled or at least very strongly influenced by the Anglo-saxon elite (not nation states or their people and of course not native ethnic groups).

    This elite is transnational, muti cultural and multi ethnic. But it is tied to decisions taken by the financial and planning centers in the Anglo-saxon Core (the London-NY Axis that has been put in place by giants such as Cecil Rhodes and others of his stature some 150 years ago).

    It has nothing to do with a specific animus against Germany, Russia or even China. It's just business - nothing personal. All the world wars they started are about business. They care for power and wealth and nothing more.

    Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Thalassocracy is a more accurate term. Hence Japan is considered to be added as “Sixth Eye”:

    https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Japan-pursues-greater-Five-Eyes-intel-sharing-amid-China-concerns

    Japan had been an Eurasian continental country with its control of Korea and Manchuria. It had been Anglo-Thalassocracy supported since Jacob Schiff, but grew too big and had to be tamed.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  769. @Bashibuzuk
    @Bashibuzuk


    In the short to medium term, however, the pain for much of the world will be intense, including the US. Much of the deflation in certain sectors of the US economy from the Fed’s intense interest rate policy should be offset by capital inflow from those who have lived beyond their means because of the weak dollar in the past.

    The prime beneficiaries of this have been Europe and their overly generous entitlement/pension systems
    , which are teetering on full collapse as we saw in the UK recently, and China with its massive trade surplus with the US.

    The winners will be those who produce and export base commodities. Because in broad strokes, assets inflated through easy credit for over a decade, like gov’t bonds, stocks, real estate and mid-to-high end consumer goods, will be deflating. On the flip side, base commodity prices, the main driver of inflation today, will continue rising – oil, gas, gold, metals, food, etc.
     
    https://tomluongo.me/2022/10/06/31-trillion-dollar-question-can-fed-afford-pivot/

    Every war is a Banksters' war.

    Another reason they needed Pynya to start the war was to prevent RusFed from benefiting from all the rising profits from the commodities exports. Pynya was supposed to vacate his seat in 2024 and he is getting older, so he might have died even before that. They needed a "man of his talents" at the head of the RusFed during their Reset operation. Better be certain of whom you deal with.

    Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    gov’t bonds, stocks, real estate and mid-to-high end consumer goods, will be deflating.

    Volatility, an asset class that mostly only the hedge funds of US/UK/Singapore knows how to profit from, will be inflated.

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  770. @Miro23

    Now, unless Ukraine is suddenly taken into NATO, Zelensky and company’s days are numbered.
     
    Ukraine isn't going to be voted into NATO - and Nuland and the rest of them will never accept a Russian victory.

    The bad result is that it makes another 9/11 very likely. This time apparently a nuclear weapon detonated in Ukraine and blamed on Russia. Same as 9/11, they're already engaged in the public media preparation/conditioning. The MSM is full of speculation along these lines and Biden has made a speech about it.

    The aim would then be to panic rush NATO into a full confrontation with Russia. IOW a major escalation.

    Replies: @Beckow

    …Ukraine isn’t going to be voted into NATO – and Nuland and the rest of them will never accept a Russian victory.

    An immovable object meets an un stoppable force. At the meeting place are the poor Ukies. No wonder they are going existential and hysterical at the same time, they plan victory parades and also fear tomorrow. It must be tough.

    This happens when people fail to anticipate. There were endless opportunities to avoid getting into the situation. But mid-wits don’t anticipate, they mindlessly move forward.

    We are in early stages, it will continue escalating. The lame calls for negotiation overlook the un-resolvable dilemma: Kiev can’t simultaneously rule all of Ukraine and be in Nato aimed at its much larger neighbor. It can’t be done, and it was obvious for the last 10 years that trying to do it is a bridge too far – it was bound to blow up.

    Smarter people know this, but idiots will continue lying: “what us in Nato? nooo…it was just loose talk, we had no plans. Look, we kept on postponing, in any case, why would that be a problem for Russia? Nato never attacks anyone, and when they do, they mean well. And anyway, we are richer and these rules don’t apply to us…”

    Maybe a boom, maybe not, but the convoluted narcissist lies almost can’t end in any other way. The Western vanity is like poison that has slowly taken over. At the heart of all big crimes is vanity…it is almost painfully visible when the likes of Truss, Baerbock, Biden come out to preach.

  771. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel


    Most everybody has been thoroughly convinced that the Russians are evil beyond redemption and that we must all help poor Ukrainians and that’s all there is to it for most people.
     
    What's the alternative? Perhaps organize a national drive where Americans can collect and donate socks for impoverished Russian soldiers who are going to meet a cold and brutal winter in Ukraine?

    https://youtu.be/jv06oduwnr0

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Mikel, @John Johnson

    we must all help poor Ukrainians and that’s all there is to it for most people.

    What’s the alternative?

    Making sure that we don’t end up escalating to a nuclear war?

    That wouldn’t even help the Ukrainians at all, would it?

    When is the last time you saw the leaders of a nation openly promoting a confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers like the Ukrainians are doing now? I can only think of the reports that Fidel Castro was doing that with the Soviets during the Cuban missiles crisis but, if true, it wasn’t even done openly like now.

    Btw, what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?

    • Replies: @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikel


    0, what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?
     
    The Orthodox Church position is that there must be a final Empire preventing the coming of the "Abomination of desolation" into this world.

    If this Katechon is destroyed, then there is nothing from preventing the coming of the Antichrist and the End of Days.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katechon

    Obviously, neither Noviop RusFed, nor Khazar Ukiestan qualify for the Katechon job. Interestingly, the Katechon does not necessarily need to be a Christian nation...
    , @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel


    Btw, what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?
     
    I have no crystal ball to be able to tell you whether or not the war in Ukraine is a prelude to what Christians call the Apocalypse. Are you ready for this event? You can read about it in the last book of the New Testament called "the Book of Revelation".

    Replies: @Mikel

    , @A123
    @Mikel


    what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?
     
    The Greek Orthodox think the entire fight is a bad idea. They, like the Israelis, suggest an armistice & negotiated deal.

    The Ukrainian Orthodox are likely willing to support Kiev aggression against the Russian Orthodox. The Russian Orthodox see the necessity of resisting senseless Ukie aggression and invasion.
    ___

    The tragedy is that all of this is driven by the Islamophile WEF. They desire The Great Replacement of Western European followers of God -- primarily Jews, Catholics, and Protestants.

    Islamic Jihadists are using the Ukrainian Orthodox as muscle. Blood in Ukraine supports Muslim Accelerationist dogma.

    It is quite sad that Zelensky is betraying the people of Ukraine in an unwinnable fight.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

  772. @John Johnson
    @Beckow

    The only thing you got right is that nothing has changed regarding Nato approval for Ukraine, the same push by some and resistance by others is still there.

    I didn't claim that.

    Ukraine didn't have the support of France or Germany in January and Turkey was on the fence. Now support has increased but we don't know to what degree. Ukraine would still have to apply. Turkey or France may still decide to keep them out. The vote has to be unanimous.

    I can provide sources if you want or you can go back to your Putin/Anglin/Roberts falsifiable narrative where NATO was just about to put nukes on the border and Putin had no choice to invade.

    Not only is it total bullshit but it never made any sense. NATO missiles move at Mach 5. There is no strategic gain in moving them closer. The whole world blows up regardless. Even in that scenario Ukraine will still have to qualify first, then apply, then somehow win over France and Germany.

    Putin is just plain full of shit and his main supporters like Anglin know it. That shouldn't be a surprise since Anglin has proven himself to be completely amoral. He had to leave the US for harassing some apolitical small town Jew over a real estate deal and he recently claimed that most White women f-ck dogs. In fact he has talked numerous times about how he hates White women while calling himself a White nationalist. I guess him and other ex-pat White nationalists can go ahead and create White children in labs.


    NY Post vague throw-away article about a supposed ‘deal’ rejected by Russia doesn’t show what you claim. What was the ‘deal’?

    Am I your personal Google assistant? I provided the article and you can read about it from other sources.

    If you believe the deal was never offered then that is fine. It isn't as if Putin would admit to it. But if it was truly about NATO then why not issue an ultimatum first? Especially when Ukraine didn't qualify for NATO and didn't have the votes of France and Germany? It doesn't make any sense to launch a full scale invasion as your first move. This is why the likely explanation is that Putin is just playing wargames and wanted to take Ukraine just as the Mongols once took Kievan Rus. He wanted play empire games and turn Ukraine into Russian territory before Parkinson's kills him.

    From 2021: Germany opposed Ukraine's entry into NATO
    https://thenewsglory.com/germany-opposed-ukraines-entry-into-nato/

    Of course you will not see that article mentioned in a pro-Putin blog or on Russian State TV. Putin has since moved away from his bullshit NATO excuse and now claims it was always about Donbas. Do I need to provide contradictory quotes from him? I certainly can.

    Replies: @LatW, @Beckow

    You try too hard to deny the obvious. Way too hard, and it doesn’t work.

    There was a plan to get Ukraine into Nato. This plan was hatched in Washington-London and they put people in place in Kiev who would do it. The reluctant second-tier partners like Germany or France have no power, they delay at best.

    No deal was ever offered to Russia to address it. You know this and you basically lie because that reality is the 800-pound elephant in the room: it made the war inevitable. As would Quebec or Mexico joining Chinese or Russian military alliance. This is not that complicated, the situation itself says it all.

    At least accept the obvious: Nato wants Ukraine and the rulers in Kiev want to be in Nato. Period. That means war. If Kiev-Nato can win the war, they will get what they want. If the lose, there will be no Nato in Ukraine. So you have to pretend that Kiev is winning to keep the dream alive.

    If Russia announces directly tomorrow that Nato in Ukraine means a nuclear war, you will say that they are bluffing or that their nukes don’t work. Or that nuclear war is not that bad. Whatever it takes to keep this going. Obsessions are like that.

  773. @Bashibuzuk
    @Mikhail

    I am very much interested in population genetics and genetic lineages. This defines my outlook.

    Moscow or Kiev today are transitory place holders to fit human populations into a certain framework. The place holders and the framework are impermanent. Systems evolve, including social systems.

    But genetic lineages endure. And some of them greatly influence human culture and civilization. The Indo-European Y haplogroup R1a had an outstanding impact on human history. From the Vedas to the first man in space, the R1a folks have done great things.

    And if the World would have been a better place, they would have worked for common human advancement and greater happiness as they often did in the past.

    Alas, the World is a mess. We do live in dangerous times.

    Therefore some lineages eliminate others to ensure their future survival and success. R1a populations have been prevented from achieving their full potential by many means in the past centuries. Today they have been turned into enemies in a fratricidal conflict. In fact, most R1a people my have been earmarked for culling by the Globalist Cabal.

    Most Svidos and Vatniks, Ukies and RusFed-ians are my extended family. I wish them all well. Thulean Friend has asked me whether I truly was an ethnic nationalist, that is my answer. Nations, countries, cultures shall change and pass, but I want my folks, my lineage to endure.

    I want my folks to do great things, helping each other and also their neighbors of other lineages if they are friendly and respectful. I want both RusFed and Ukiestan to vanish from the face of the Earth because they both prevent my folks from achieving their full potential. I want Global Cabal gone for good.

    As LatW beautifully wrote: "I want my people to live on forever", and among people of LatW, there are those of my lineage and I see them also as my family. I care for my blood and my soil not Putin or Zelensky, not modern nations or Globalist structures.

    It might be called Archeofuturism. Sooner or later we will come to that, to caring about our genetic lineage first and everything else later. Because it is the natural thing to do. I wouldn't give a darn about Pynya or Zelya if they both were not so detrimental, but they shall pass.

    Do you understand?

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms

    R1a is in a sense “Core Eurasian” being in the middle of the Heartland, and influenced/influenced by Inner Asians, Westerners, and Middle Easterners,

    There is an ancient clade of R1a that’s found in East Asia that may have founded earliest Sinitic cultures,
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R1a#Asia

    *I really don’t care for Han ethno-nationalist purity claims since zero-Covid has shown to be a Great Leap Backwards.

    So far as the “West” I think it should be R1b and haplogroup I, since the latter is found in high frequencies in northern Europe,
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_I-M170#Distribution

    • Agree: Bashibuzuk
  774. Bashibuzuk says:
    @Mikel
    @Mr. Hack


    we must all help poor Ukrainians and that’s all there is to it for most people.

    What’s the alternative?

     

    Making sure that we don't end up escalating to a nuclear war?

    That wouldn't even help the Ukrainians at all, would it?

    When is the last time you saw the leaders of a nation openly promoting a confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers like the Ukrainians are doing now? I can only think of the reports that Fidel Castro was doing that with the Soviets during the Cuban missiles crisis but, if true, it wasn't even done openly like now.

    Btw, what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Mr. Hack, @A123

    0, what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?

    The Orthodox Church position is that there must be a final Empire preventing the coming of the “Abomination of desolation” into this world.

    If this Katechon is destroyed, then there is nothing from preventing the coming of the Antichrist and the End of Days.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katechon

    Obviously, neither Noviop RusFed, nor Khazar Ukiestan qualify for the Katechon job. Interestingly, the Katechon does not necessarily need to be a Christian nation…

    • Thanks: Mikel
  775. @sudden death
    @Mikel

    How relevant really are local newspapers and their websites though, considering that FOX, which most popular news TV channel in US, is regularly, if not constantly, pushing pro-RF talking points or even straight propjunk of RF origin at prime time?

    Watching from afar it seems that Ukraine/RF is on the verge of becoming absolutely bipartisan issue like Iran has become decade or so ago. It not only RF money/propaganda/covert operations at fault, the process is going due objective reasons too as RF has been stripped from that strong atheism/communism aura that USSR had, so only purely geopolitical/national security/atlanticist reasons are not that important for quite numerous segments of US voters. Not even to mention isolationism, which is absolutely traditional and strong political strain in US, despite being practice more or less abandoned since 1917. And those who care enough about pure geopolitica are far from being united front too, as the idea of getting the favor of RF against China is not out of fashion at all.

    Replies: @Mikhail, @Mikel

    How relevant really are local newspapers and their websites though, considering that FOX, which most popular news TV channel in US, is regularly, if not constantly, pushing pro-RF talking points or even straight propjunk of RF origin at prime time?

    You’re confusing Fox News with Tucker Carlson, who indeed has gone a bit too far in the contrarian direction by continuing to promote total cranks like McGregor. But this is just the typical American inability to find a sensible middle ground, not any RF conspiratorial activity. Do you still believe that the militarily incompetent Russians who were unable to find out what the real mood in neighboring Ukraine was are capable of pulling the strings in American politics??

    Just download the Fox News app, check it for a few days and let me know how many mentions of Ukraine you find, if you can find any, and which position they were in.

    Tucker Carlson does have a few million followers, a bit more than rabid anti-russian Fox anchor Hannity I guess, but that’s all.

    Americans as a whole are no longer interested in the Ukraine war, believe me. Yesterday I told my wife that Ukraine had blown up the Crimean bridge and she asked me to stop telling her things about that war. It’s only bad news and she has enough things to feel worried about, she argued, so she doesn’t need any more. I shut up, as requested, and will have to discuss the war with someone else irl… but who?? 🙁

    • Replies: @sudden death
    @Mikel


    Do you still believe that the militarily incompetent Russians who were unable to find out what the real mood in neighboring Ukraine was are capable of pulling the strings in American politics??
     
    Vast amount of ongoing RF nonsense in Ukraine theatre was caused by very largely believing own ideological contraints and hubris even by allegedly high IQ people like Karlin (only tiny fraction of Ukrainians will seriously fight us, our military is superlative fighting machine and so on) thus resulting in refusal to take any efforts to prepare and take it more seriously at the very top levels, while relying just onto "Crimea redux" script.

    Their attitude to USA is way different as it is country worth effort in their eyes, so at the very least they were always trying directing their own finances, finding and using all possible connections (like Manafort, Flynn etc) in order to amplify and use those inner US political trends which are beneficial to them.

    Replies: @Mikel, @Wokechoke

    , @keypusher
    @Mikel


    Do you still believe that the militarily incompetent Russians who were unable to find out what the real mood in neighboring Ukraine was are capable of pulling the strings in American politics??
     
    It's convenient for various domestic actors to blame the Russians for their own screw-ups (viz. the Democratic party blowing the 2016 election). Recently the Times ran a bizarre piece on the Women's March in 2017 blaming Russian subversion for the fratricidal (sisterly?) battle among pro- and anti-Israel feminist leaders. You would think that Ukrainian domination of the current propaganda battle might prompt some reconsideration of Russian abilities in this area, but it's much too useful to blame the I.R.A.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/18/us/womens-march-russia-trump.html

    https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-new-york-times-linda-sarsour-and-misinformation/
  776. @Mikel
    @Mr. Hack


    we must all help poor Ukrainians and that’s all there is to it for most people.

    What’s the alternative?

     

    Making sure that we don't end up escalating to a nuclear war?

    That wouldn't even help the Ukrainians at all, would it?

    When is the last time you saw the leaders of a nation openly promoting a confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers like the Ukrainians are doing now? I can only think of the reports that Fidel Castro was doing that with the Soviets during the Cuban missiles crisis but, if true, it wasn't even done openly like now.

    Btw, what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Mr. Hack, @A123

    Btw, what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?

    I have no crystal ball to be able to tell you whether or not the war in Ukraine is a prelude to what Christians call the Apocalypse. Are you ready for this event? You can read about it in the last book of the New Testament called “the Book of Revelation”.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @Mr. Hack


    I have no crystal ball to be able to tell you whether or not the war in Ukraine is a prelude to what Christians call the Apocalypse.
     
    My crystal ball tells me that it's nothing of the like. It's just one particularly stupid way we may end up doing what we have done through the ages: find some excuse to massacre each other. But this time the scale would be unprecedented. Something like the Black Death in Europe but provoked in a deliberate way. Perhaps even worse, if the nuclear winter proponents happen to be right after all.

    That's what the nutter Zelensky is toying with.
  777. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel


    Most everybody has been thoroughly convinced that the Russians are evil beyond redemption and that we must all help poor Ukrainians and that’s all there is to it for most people.
     
    What's the alternative? Perhaps organize a national drive where Americans can collect and donate socks for impoverished Russian soldiers who are going to meet a cold and brutal winter in Ukraine?

    https://youtu.be/jv06oduwnr0

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Mikel, @John Johnson

    Putin’s remaining defenders at Unz tell us that everything is going fine. A major offensive by the Russians will happen any day now.

    They are just using conscripts literally taken from their jobs, handed AK-47s from the 1960s and they can’t even make sure they all have socks.

    • Agree: Mr. Hack
  778. @Mikel
    @Mr. Hack


    we must all help poor Ukrainians and that’s all there is to it for most people.

    What’s the alternative?

     

    Making sure that we don't end up escalating to a nuclear war?

    That wouldn't even help the Ukrainians at all, would it?

    When is the last time you saw the leaders of a nation openly promoting a confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers like the Ukrainians are doing now? I can only think of the reports that Fidel Castro was doing that with the Soviets during the Cuban missiles crisis but, if true, it wasn't even done openly like now.

    Btw, what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?

    Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Mr. Hack, @A123

    what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?

    The Greek Orthodox think the entire fight is a bad idea. They, like the Israelis, suggest an armistice & negotiated deal.

    The Ukrainian Orthodox are likely willing to support Kiev aggression against the Russian Orthodox. The Russian Orthodox see the necessity of resisting senseless Ukie aggression and invasion.
    ___

    The tragedy is that all of this is driven by the Islamophile WEF. They desire The Great Replacement of Western European followers of God — primarily Jews, Catholics, and Protestants.

    Islamic Jihadists are using the Ukrainian Orthodox as muscle. Blood in Ukraine supports Muslim Accelerationist dogma.

    It is quite sad that Zelensky is betraying the people of Ukraine in an unwinnable fight.

    PEACE 😇

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @A123


    The Ukrainian Orthodox are likely willing to support Kiev aggression against the Russian Orthodox. The Russian Orthodox see the necessity of resisting senseless Ukie aggression and invasion.
     
    Once again our visionary from the planet of Htrae, kremlinstoogeA123, has everything ass backwards.

    He's not even competent enough to realize that it's the Russian side that are the aggressors, and not the Ukrainians (i.e. the Ukrainians are the ones defending their home turf).

    Beware of the kool aid that kremlinstoogeA123 is trying so desperately to dole out at this blogsite, one sip could be disastrous:

    https://www.vallettafilmfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Doctor-Parnassius-4.jpg

  779. @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel


    Btw, what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?
     
    I have no crystal ball to be able to tell you whether or not the war in Ukraine is a prelude to what Christians call the Apocalypse. Are you ready for this event? You can read about it in the last book of the New Testament called "the Book of Revelation".

    Replies: @Mikel

    I have no crystal ball to be able to tell you whether or not the war in Ukraine is a prelude to what Christians call the Apocalypse.

    My crystal ball tells me that it’s nothing of the like. It’s just one particularly stupid way we may end up doing what we have done through the ages: find some excuse to massacre each other. But this time the scale would be unprecedented. Something like the Black Death in Europe but provoked in a deliberate way. Perhaps even worse, if the nuclear winter proponents happen to be right after all.

    That’s what the nutter Zelensky is toying with.

  780. @Bashibuzuk
    @Mr. Hack

    A123 os right about Biden and Democratic Party being aligned with the WEF. It is in plain sight, nothing hidden about it.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    They may be aligned, but the picture of somebody in Brussels barking out orders across the ocean to Biden ordering him to send funds to Ukraine is just plain over the top. This is what I fear and see coming:

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Mr. Hack

    Will your brethren blow up bridges pipelines and other stuff in Germany and Belgium then?

  781. @Bashibuzuk
    @German_reader

    It's more than that.

    Anglo-saxon geopolitical thought has been very constant in the last 200 years. It had three major goals:

    1) ensure that all sea commerce of Anglo-saxon (now transnational) companies is unimpeded, under control, and linked to Anglo-saxon (in a broad sense) financial system.

    2) ensure that no land commercial routes, controlled by continental powers, are more practical and profitable than sea routes.

    3) ensure that no continental power, or a stable alliance thereof, could control competing sea routes.

    Now the Anglo-saxon "place-holder" is to be replaced by the Five Eyes or even the Anglosphere (of which India and especially Pakistan might rightfully be considered a part).

    The whole Atlanticist/NATO idea of "keeping US in, keeping Germany down and keeping Russians out" is not about democracy, Gay rights, or some other insignificant BS, but about controlling economic processes in Eurasia and avoiding competition. The whole global economy is to be controlled or at least very strongly influenced by the Anglo-saxon elite (not nation states or their people and of course not native ethnic groups).

    This elite is transnational, muti cultural and multi ethnic. But it is tied to decisions taken by the financial and planning centers in the Anglo-saxon Core (the London-NY Axis that has been put in place by giants such as Cecil Rhodes and others of his stature some 150 years ago).

    It has nothing to do with a specific animus against Germany, Russia or even China. It's just business - nothing personal. All the world wars they started are about business. They care for power and wealth and nothing more.

    Replies: @China Japan and Korea Bromance of Three Kingdoms, @Emil Nikola Richard

    Have you performed the death march through Tragedy and Hope?

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/726546.Tragedy_and_Hope

  782. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    How relevant really are local newspapers and their websites though, considering that FOX, which most popular news TV channel in US, is regularly, if not constantly, pushing pro-RF talking points or even straight propjunk of RF origin at prime time?
     
    You're confusing Fox News with Tucker Carlson, who indeed has gone a bit too far in the contrarian direction by continuing to promote total cranks like McGregor. But this is just the typical American inability to find a sensible middle ground, not any RF conspiratorial activity. Do you still believe that the militarily incompetent Russians who were unable to find out what the real mood in neighboring Ukraine was are capable of pulling the strings in American politics??

    Just download the Fox News app, check it for a few days and let me know how many mentions of Ukraine you find, if you can find any, and which position they were in.

    Tucker Carlson does have a few million followers, a bit more than rabid anti-russian Fox anchor Hannity I guess, but that's all.

    Americans as a whole are no longer interested in the Ukraine war, believe me. Yesterday I told my wife that Ukraine had blown up the Crimean bridge and she asked me to stop telling her things about that war. It's only bad news and she has enough things to feel worried about, she argued, so she doesn't need any more. I shut up, as requested, and will have to discuss the war with someone else irl... but who?? :(

    Replies: @sudden death, @keypusher

    Do you still believe that the militarily incompetent Russians who were unable to find out what the real mood in neighboring Ukraine was are capable of pulling the strings in American politics??

    Vast amount of ongoing RF nonsense in Ukraine theatre was caused by very largely believing own ideological contraints and hubris even by allegedly high IQ people like Karlin (only tiny fraction of Ukrainians will seriously fight us, our military is superlative fighting machine and so on) thus resulting in refusal to take any efforts to prepare and take it more seriously at the very top levels, while relying just onto “Crimea redux” script.

    Their attitude to USA is way different as it is country worth effort in their eyes, so at the very least they were always trying directing their own finances, finding and using all possible connections (like Manafort, Flynn etc) in order to amplify and use those inner US political trends which are beneficial to them.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @sudden death


    Manafort, Flynn etc
     
    Manafort and Flynn! Those two poor guys had their lives destroyed by the DC swamp during the Russiagate witch hunts and Manafort hadn't even had any connection with Russia. Otherwise, he would have been charged for that but they had to find some financial crime instead. Flynn did want to improve relations with Russia and used to appear on RT but they didn't find anything either. He was sentenced for an inconsequential "perjury" crime.

    In a large country like the US you're always going to find some pro-Russian (or pro-China) people without anybody having done anything to receive that support. I don't believe the Russians are capable of influencing American politics by themselves beyond some Facebook ad campaign kind of operation.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @sudden death

    , @Wokechoke
    @sudden death

    I agree, the Ukraine infiltrated several levels of the US government. Vindman was a particularly excellent example of Ukraine’s sabotage of US Politics.

    A less heralded fellow was that Eco Health Alliance guy. Yorkshire or Mancunian accent, US and British citizen, But a Ukrainian through and through.

  783. @A123
    @Mikel


    what is the Christian Orthodox position on unleashing a war that will kill hundreds of millions of innocent people around the globe to avoid a country being invaded by another?
     
    The Greek Orthodox think the entire fight is a bad idea. They, like the Israelis, suggest an armistice & negotiated deal.

    The Ukrainian Orthodox are likely willing to support Kiev aggression against the Russian Orthodox. The Russian Orthodox see the necessity of resisting senseless Ukie aggression and invasion.
    ___

    The tragedy is that all of this is driven by the Islamophile WEF. They desire The Great Replacement of Western European followers of God -- primarily Jews, Catholics, and Protestants.

    Islamic Jihadists are using the Ukrainian Orthodox as muscle. Blood in Ukraine supports Muslim Accelerationist dogma.

    It is quite sad that Zelensky is betraying the people of Ukraine in an unwinnable fight.

    PEACE 😇

    Replies: @Mr. Hack

    The Ukrainian Orthodox are likely willing to support Kiev aggression against the Russian Orthodox. The Russian Orthodox see the necessity of resisting senseless Ukie aggression and invasion.

    Once again our visionary from the planet of Htrae, kremlinstoogeA123, has everything ass backwards.

    He’s not even competent enough to realize that it’s the Russian side that are the aggressors, and not the Ukrainians (i.e. the Ukrainians are the ones defending their home turf).

    Beware of the kool aid that kremlinstoogeA123 is trying so desperately to dole out at this blogsite, one sip could be disastrous:

  784. S says:
    @Bashibuzuk
    @Bashibuzuk

    Here you got it, and the guy has barely scratched the surface.

    I mean, that's basic stuff.

    https://youtu.be/NgbqXsA62Qs

    No conspiracy theories, nothing but mathematics.

    Imagine if he got into VC capital, Investment Funds, Family Offices and other wealth management tools on top of just analyzing the TNCs.

    You see why I use the Anglo-saxon expression?

    Just like in the RusFed - power and wealth are mainly under Noviop control - but if the Noviop misbehave, people around the world would talk of Russian oligarchy and Imperialist Russia.

    Same thing here but with your people being used as a decoy or a tool and on a larger scale too.

    And about Germans - they are slaves. Their spine has been broken (unfortunately because they have been a great and so talented people). An Ukrainian Ambassador can spit in their faces and pee on their government as if they were a nation of frayers.

    What a shame.

    (Funny that it takes a crazy Russian to point you this kind of really basic stuff 🙂 )

    Replies: @S

    No conspiracy theories, nothing but mathematics…Imagine if he got into VC capital, Investment Funds, Family Offices and other wealth management tools on top of just analyzing the TNCs….You see why I use the Anglo-saxon expression?

    Thanks for your insightful video.

    Regarding the British Empire and its purported ‘fall’, this is something that trips up a lot of people.

    The Empire was in large part a commercial empire, and financial clout and strings are somewhat invisible, unless you are already aware, or, you look for them.

    Anecdotally, not the best ‘source’ I know, I might add that there was an Irish fellow on the net who claimed the British still owned huge swathes of the Irish economy, despite Ireland formally being a ‘republic’ free from the United Kingdom.

    There was also a woman who had a site that claimed US/UK financial organizations were giving African nations loans they knew they couldn’t pay back, and were taking control of large portions of their natural resources in lieu of payment.

    My take, despite claims to the contrary, is that the British Empire is undead, and very much lives on (as planned), more powerful than ever, in the form of the United States. [As a related aside, within Masonry, the ‘New Rome’ was the dream that someday there would be a world order which was to revolve around a central US/UK political axis, with the emphasis being on the United States.]

    DIPLOMACY: The New Rome
    (Sept. 22, 1958)

    ‘Flying into the U.S. from the far ends of the earth, a flock of foreign statesmen last week demonstrated that the roads which once led to imperial Rome and London now converge on Washington. Unlike their counterparts in the days of the Caesars and the Gladstones, they came not as satraps but as friends. But each of these ambassadors to the new Rome had a plea or a complaint.’ Time (Sept. 22, 1958)

    https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,863882,00.html

    • Replies: @S
    @S

    Speaking of the 'New Rome' this site linked below is actually called 'Times of New Rome'. It rightfully senses something is not quite right about the present zeitgeist, even exploring Freemasonry a bit.

    The author of the excerpted piece, like some on the 'Right' who've noticed there's getting to be not much difference between 'Right' and 'Left', is someone on the 'Left' who has noticed as well.



    This writer brings herself right up to the edge, but, can't quite simply acknowledge that the whole Right vs Left dialectic has been a put up job from day one. Like many, she decides to doubledown instead.

    The power of the Big Lie is powerful indeed. :-(



    The Left Is Right

    'By what rationale are the people violently protesting government corruption and overreach at the Capitol to be called “conservative” while those cheering a plutocratic technocracy of unelected rich white men call themselves “progressive”?'

    'How did “conservatives” become the champions of “My Body, My Choice” while once-tolerant progressives have become just as fanatical as fundamentalist Christians, with no moral qualms about endorsing state violence to strip individuals of their right to make sovereign choices about their body and their lifestyle?'
     
    https://timesofnewrome.com/2021/01/the-left-is-right/
  785. Bashibuzuk says:

    Gentlemen!

    It has been great exchanging with you again.

    I hope that you found my “broken head” / “crazy Russian” take on present events entertaining and my occasional trolling not too annoying.

    My time on this site has run out, I have to attend to personal matters of great importance.

    I wish you all good fortune in the difficult times to come.

    Take care of yourself and your loved ones, for we do live on an Angry Planet.

    [MORE]

    I am still going on a long hike on the Bodhisattva path towards Nirvana and time is getting late.

    I have to light a beacon of Good Deeds before the darkness comes so I can locate a safe Shelter.

    I hope you too all fare safe on your personal paths.

    Many thanks to Mr Unz for his kindness in supporting our somewhat unhinged and freewheeling discussions.

    • Thanks: Mr. Hack, Mikel, Barbarossa
    • Replies: @A123
    @Bashibuzuk


    My time on this site has run out, I have to attend to personal matters of great importance.
     
    Best wishes in your endeavors.

    Hopefully Mr. Unz will find a new HBD blogger to fill the double vacancy left by AE's and Karlin's departures.

    PEACE 😇
    , @German_reader
    @Bashibuzuk

    Take care of yourself and good luck in whatever you're doing. Would be nice if at some point you visited again here (if we don't all get blown up, that is).

    , @S
    @Bashibuzuk

    Have very much enjoyed your input. Be well, and hope to see you again sometime in the future at this place. :-)

    , @LatW
    @Bashibuzuk

    Thank you so much, it's been great knowing you're out there.
    (Please, return if you can.)

    Слава Роду!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCq3LpUoPPk

    , @AP
    @Bashibuzuk

    Best wishes to you and your family, and looking forward to your inevitable return.

    , @keypusher
    @Bashibuzuk

    You will be very much missed. I hope you are able to come back soon.

  786. @Bashibuzuk
    Gentlemen!

    It has been great exchanging with you again.

    I hope that you found my "broken head" / "crazy Russian" take on present events entertaining and my occasional trolling not too annoying.

    My time on this site has run out, I have to attend to personal matters of great importance.

    I wish you all good fortune in the difficult times to come.

    Take care of yourself and your loved ones, for we do live on an Angry Planet.



    https://youtu.be/4IDH1MhktKQ

    I am still going on a long hike on the Bodhisattva path towards Nirvana and time is getting late.

    I have to light a beacon of Good Deeds before the darkness comes so I can locate a safe Shelter.

    I hope you too all fare safe on your personal paths.

    https://ngalso.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tayatha-om-gate-gate.jpg

    Many thanks to Mr Unz for his kindness in supporting our somewhat unhinged and freewheeling discussions.

    Replies: @A123, @German_reader, @S, @LatW, @AP, @keypusher

    My time on this site has run out, I have to attend to personal matters of great importance.

    Best wishes in your endeavors.

    Hopefully Mr. Unz will find a new HBD blogger to fill the double vacancy left by AE’s and Karlin’s departures.

    PEACE 😇

  787. @Bashibuzuk
    Gentlemen!

    It has been great exchanging with you again.

    I hope that you found my "broken head" / "crazy Russian" take on present events entertaining and my occasional trolling not too annoying.

    My time on this site has run out, I have to attend to personal matters of great importance.

    I wish you all good fortune in the difficult times to come.

    Take care of yourself and your loved ones, for we do live on an Angry Planet.



    https://youtu.be/4IDH1MhktKQ

    I am still going on a long hike on the Bodhisattva path towards Nirvana and time is getting late.

    I have to light a beacon of Good Deeds before the darkness comes so I can locate a safe Shelter.

    I hope you too all fare safe on your personal paths.

    https://ngalso.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tayatha-om-gate-gate.jpg

    Many thanks to Mr Unz for his kindness in supporting our somewhat unhinged and freewheeling discussions.

    Replies: @A123, @German_reader, @S, @LatW, @AP, @keypusher

    Take care of yourself and good luck in whatever you’re doing. Would be nice if at some point you visited again here (if we don’t all get blown up, that is).

  788. @Bashibuzuk
    Gentlemen!

    It has been great exchanging with you again.

    I hope that you found my "broken head" / "crazy Russian" take on present events entertaining and my occasional trolling not too annoying.

    My time on this site has run out, I have to attend to personal matters of great importance.

    I wish you all good fortune in the difficult times to come.

    Take care of yourself and your loved ones, for we do live on an Angry Planet.



    https://youtu.be/4IDH1MhktKQ

    I am still going on a long hike on the Bodhisattva path towards Nirvana and time is getting late.

    I have to light a beacon of Good Deeds before the darkness comes so I can locate a safe Shelter.

    I hope you too all fare safe on your personal paths.

    https://ngalso.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tayatha-om-gate-gate.jpg

    Many thanks to Mr Unz for his kindness in supporting our somewhat unhinged and freewheeling discussions.

    Replies: @A123, @German_reader, @S, @LatW, @AP, @keypusher

    Have very much enjoyed your input. Be well, and hope to see you again sometime in the future at this place. 🙂

  789. S says:
    @S
    @Bashibuzuk


    No conspiracy theories, nothing but mathematics...Imagine if he got into VC capital, Investment Funds, Family Offices and other wealth management tools on top of just analyzing the TNCs....You see why I use the Anglo-saxon expression?
     
    Thanks for your insightful video.

    Regarding the British Empire and its purported 'fall', this is something that trips up a lot of people.

    The Empire was in large part a commercial empire, and financial clout and strings are somewhat invisible, unless you are already aware, or, you look for them.

    Anecdotally, not the best 'source' I know, I might add that there was an Irish fellow on the net who claimed the British still owned huge swathes of the Irish economy, despite Ireland formally being a 'republic' free from the United Kingdom.

    There was also a woman who had a site that claimed US/UK financial organizations were giving African nations loans they knew they couldn't pay back, and were taking control of large portions of their natural resources in lieu of payment.

    My take, despite claims to the contrary, is that the British Empire is undead, and very much lives on (as planned), more powerful than ever, in the form of the United States. [As a related aside, within Masonry, the 'New Rome' was the dream that someday there would be a world order which was to revolve around a central US/UK political axis, with the emphasis being on the United States.]

    DIPLOMACY: The New Rome
    (Sept. 22, 1958)

    'Flying into the U.S. from the far ends of the earth, a flock of foreign statesmen last week demonstrated that the roads which once led to imperial Rome and London now converge on Washington. Unlike their counterparts in the days of the Caesars and the Gladstones, they came not as satraps but as friends. But each of these ambassadors to the new Rome had a plea or a complaint.' Time (Sept. 22, 1958)
     
    https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,863882,00.html

    Replies: @S

    Speaking of the ‘New Rome’ this site linked below is actually called ‘Times of New Rome’. It rightfully senses something is not quite right about the present zeitgeist, even exploring Freemasonry a bit.

    The author of the excerpted piece, like some on the ‘Right’ who’ve noticed there’s getting to be not much difference between ‘Right’ and ‘Left’, is someone on the ‘Left’ who has noticed as well.

    [MORE]

    This writer brings herself right up to the edge, but, can’t quite simply acknowledge that the whole Right vs Left dialectic has been a put up job from day one. Like many, she decides to doubledown instead.

    The power of the Big Lie is powerful indeed. 🙁

    The Left Is Right

    ‘By what rationale are the people violently protesting government corruption and overreach at the Capitol to be called “conservative” while those cheering a plutocratic technocracy of unelected rich white men call themselves “progressive”?’

    ‘How did “conservatives” become the champions of “My Body, My Choice” while once-tolerant progressives have become just as fanatical as fundamentalist Christians, with no moral qualms about endorsing state violence to strip individuals of their right to make sovereign choices about their body and their lifestyle?’

    https://timesofnewrome.com/2021/01/the-left-is-right/

  790. @Bashibuzuk
    Gentlemen!

    It has been great exchanging with you again.

    I hope that you found my "broken head" / "crazy Russian" take on present events entertaining and my occasional trolling not too annoying.

    My time on this site has run out, I have to attend to personal matters of great importance.

    I wish you all good fortune in the difficult times to come.

    Take care of yourself and your loved ones, for we do live on an Angry Planet.



    https://youtu.be/4IDH1MhktKQ

    I am still going on a long hike on the Bodhisattva path towards Nirvana and time is getting late.

    I have to light a beacon of Good Deeds before the darkness comes so I can locate a safe Shelter.

    I hope you too all fare safe on your personal paths.

    https://ngalso.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tayatha-om-gate-gate.jpg

    Many thanks to Mr Unz for his kindness in supporting our somewhat unhinged and freewheeling discussions.

    Replies: @A123, @German_reader, @S, @LatW, @AP, @keypusher

    Thank you so much, it’s been great knowing you’re out there.
    (Please, return if you can.)

    Слава Роду!

  791. S says:
    @Wokechoke
    @S

    If theRussians have 15,000 troops on the West Bank of the Dneiper the Ukies have to attack with around 3x that number. That’s plenty of targets for Russian artillery, drones, missiles aircraft in a small compressed front. That’s suicide for the assault troops. The main worry for Russia would have to be a sweep south from Zaporwhaterverdia toward Melitopol.

    Replies: @S

    If theRussians have 15,000 troops on the West Bank of the Dneiper the Ukies have to attack with around 3x that number. That’s plenty of targets for Russian artillery, drones, missiles aircraft in a small compressed front. That’s suicide for the assault troops.

    The Ukrainians seem prepared to take ‘high’ and ‘massive’ losses at Kherson per the NY Times link below. However, the weather is about to turn (if it hasn’t already) making it all mute for now.

    Perhaps against all the odds a miracle might happen and a peace agreement is made before the next combat cycle.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/world/europe/ukraine-south-kherson-russia.html

  792. @sudden death
    @Mikel


    Do you still believe that the militarily incompetent Russians who were unable to find out what the real mood in neighboring Ukraine was are capable of pulling the strings in American politics??
     
    Vast amount of ongoing RF nonsense in Ukraine theatre was caused by very largely believing own ideological contraints and hubris even by allegedly high IQ people like Karlin (only tiny fraction of Ukrainians will seriously fight us, our military is superlative fighting machine and so on) thus resulting in refusal to take any efforts to prepare and take it more seriously at the very top levels, while relying just onto "Crimea redux" script.

    Their attitude to USA is way different as it is country worth effort in their eyes, so at the very least they were always trying directing their own finances, finding and using all possible connections (like Manafort, Flynn etc) in order to amplify and use those inner US political trends which are beneficial to them.

    Replies: @Mikel, @Wokechoke

    Manafort, Flynn etc

    Manafort and Flynn! Those two poor guys had their lives destroyed by the DC swamp during the Russiagate witch hunts and Manafort hadn’t even had any connection with Russia. Otherwise, he would have been charged for that but they had to find some financial crime instead. Flynn did want to improve relations with Russia and used to appear on RT but they didn’t find anything either. He was sentenced for an inconsequential “perjury” crime.

    In a large country like the US you’re always going to find some pro-Russian (or pro-China) people without anybody having done anything to receive that support. I don’t believe the Russians are capable of influencing American politics by themselves beyond some Facebook ad campaign kind of operation.

    • LOL: Mr. Hack
    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Mikel


    Poor guys?
     
    Manafort:

    Manafort's trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was scheduled to begin in September 2018.[247] He was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering, failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, making false statements to investigators, and witness tampering...Manafort also apologized for his actions.[29][30][256]
     
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Manafort

    I'm not sure about Flynn, he may have gotten a raw deal, but I'm not that interested to review his case. Manafort was the type of "swamp junk" that Trump insisted that he was going to rid the DC area of. Oh well, another broken promise by one of our politicians..

    , @sudden death
    @Mikel


    Manafort hadn’t even had any connection with Russia. Otherwise, he would have been charged for that but they had to find some financial crime instead. Flynn did want to improve relations with Russia and used to appear on RT but they didn’t find anything either. He was sentenced for an inconsequential “perjury” crime.
     
    If you really believe that man who was running Yanukovich election campaigns or somebody who been dining alongside Putin himself, have no any acquired connections to RF which may be used for its political purposes, then you''ll also may find interesting some destroyed bridge which is being sold;)

    The question whether such connections have criminal character or not/were proven enough criminal or not under existing US law, is entirely separate topic.

    Replies: @Mikel

  793. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    Manafort, Flynn etc
     
    Manafort and Flynn! Those two poor guys had their lives destroyed by the DC swamp during the Russiagate witch hunts and Manafort hadn't even had any connection with Russia. Otherwise, he would have been charged for that but they had to find some financial crime instead. Flynn did want to improve relations with Russia and used to appear on RT but they didn't find anything either. He was sentenced for an inconsequential "perjury" crime.

    In a large country like the US you're always going to find some pro-Russian (or pro-China) people without anybody having done anything to receive that support. I don't believe the Russians are capable of influencing American politics by themselves beyond some Facebook ad campaign kind of operation.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @sudden death

    Poor guys?

    Manafort:

    Manafort’s trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was scheduled to begin in September 2018.[247] He was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering, failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, making false statements to investigators, and witness tampering…Manafort also apologized for his actions.[29][30][256]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Manafort

    I’m not sure about Flynn, he may have gotten a raw deal, but I’m not that interested to review his case. Manafort was the type of “swamp junk” that Trump insisted that he was going to rid the DC area of. Oh well, another broken promise by one of our politicians..

  794. @AP
    @Matra

    You seem to be bitter and offended that Eastern Europeans, unlike your own people (unfortunately), defend their own interests and attack those who oppose their interests.


    I’m starting to think Czechs (maybe Slovenes too) are the only Slavs who really are Europeans
     
    They haven't invited enough non-Europeans into their lands do be classified as Europeans in the modern sense.

    Czechs didn't resist the Nazis much and therefore weren't hurt by them too much, so they have little to ask for (if anything the reverse would be true, they had no reason no be so cruel to the Sudetenlanders, they didn't get treated like Poles were treated).

    Replies: @Dmitry

    I think, he is saying Czech Republic and Slovakia are the only slavic countries which seem to have politically normal governments. It seems like a true idea. Maybe there are a few other slavic countries which you can think have normal governments, but definitely not the majority and there are also some of the world’s most politically dysfunctional countries in this space.

    Although it’s not something slavic specifically, because all the slavic world is part of the postcommunist space and in “Aryan” Romania or Moldova are not so much better examples of the postcommunist civilization.

    defend their own interests and attack those who oppose their interests.

    This is 2022. It’s not some civilized time like the 1980s. We are cooking each other’s heads nowadays.

    In 2022, people in Israel-Palestine, Ethiopia-Eritrea and Yemen-Saudi, in both sides, can be saying “we may have our primitive tribal conflict, but we at least aren’t head cooking primitives like in Eastern Europe.

    haven’t invited enough non-Europeans into their lands do be classified as Europeans in the modern sense

    Ukrainians are the main refugees in Europe this year and Russians are main refugees in Central Asia and Caucasia. And with the current year’s events, not so much of a situation where it can be said “we are from a more peaceful and civilized region than Syrians”. The postsoviet space is not less volcanic than the Middle East.

  795. AP says:
    @Here Be Dragon
    @AP


    False. Little Rus was first documented as having been used by the Galician king in 1335 and was later used by the Poles.
     
    You continue to argue for the sake of arguing. That same article you quote to prove me wrong proves me right.

    "The toponym translates as Little or Lesser Rus’ and is adapted from the Greek term, used in medieval times by Patriarchs of Constantinople since the 14th century (it first appeared in church documents in 1335)."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Russia#Etymology_and_name_variations

    So the Church had introduced it first and then people followed. Agree that it is illogical to assume that a Galician prince influenced the Church and the rest of Rus'.

    Ukraine had never been part of Suzdal/Muscovy and had never been ruled from Moscow until Russia started grabbing these lands.
     
    You mean a part of Rus' (which was renamed Ukraine centuries later) had not been ruled from Moscow, until another part of Rus' reconquered it from Poles.

    And what does it refute then?

    First Rus' was ruled from Novgorod and then from Kiev. That does not mean that Kiev was a foreign capital for Novgorod. Then after Kiev a part of Rus' was ruled from Poland – which had never been a part of Rus' and was indeed a foreign nation.

    And after Poland it was ruled from Moscow – which had never been a foreign nation and had been a part of Rus' since the inception. You twist it all inside out to make it fit the Polish narrative.

    After Moscow the capital was transferred to Saint Petersburg and later back to Moscow. A state is defined not as the land of its capital, but a capital is defined as the main town of a state and it can be changed.

    Poland had been ruled from Kraków before Warsaw was made the capital.

    False. They called themselves Rusyns. Rusych only appeared in the 12th century and only in one work. It was a rarely used word back then.
     
    Back when?

    Suffixes can change over time. Suffixes can change due to foreign influence. Suffixes can be different in different dialects of the same language – it does not matter.

    The same article that you quote gives examples of a number of names used in that same book to refer to that same one people: "и русь и нѣмци" – when Rus' is a plural form of the people, and "варяг на русинѣ" – when Rusyn is a singular form of Rus'.

    What difference does it make?

    Poles, Romanians and Czechs have had different names for themselves during different historical periods, and the same as Russians were made up of a number of tribes at some time in the past.

    So what?

    The Volhynian Chronicle classified Muscovites alongside Moldovans as Orthodox but foreign.
     
    You have not read that chronicle.

    Muscovite Rus' was created as a principality less than 3 decades before the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle ends and at the time it was small and insignificant. It is not mentioned in the chronicle whatsoever.

    All other Russian cities and principalities are mentioned, but not Moscow. Back then it was a small settlement that had no power.

    Novgorod, Suzdal and other cities of the northern and eastern Rus' are mentioned as often as the western and southern cities, and at all times as parts of one nation, which was ruled by a number of princes and was composed of a number of principalities; in modern terms we would call it a federation.

    All those princes and principalities were in an alliance and were defending their lands together against Hungarians, Lithuanians, Poles and Tatars.

    The central theme of the chronicle is that all the Rus' regions are one nation. One of the phrases that is repeated often is that during the Yoke all of the princes were under the rule of Tatars.

    Here it is from the Ukrainian translation:
    http://litopys.org.ua/links/galvol.htm

    "Коли ото йшов хан Телебуга і хан Алгуй із ним великою силою, то з ними йшли руські князі, — бо тоді були всі князі руські у волі татарській, покорені гнівом божим."

    The notion that in that chronicle some alien eastern Muscovites were presented as a foreign people might sound plausible to a foreigner who has no real knowledge of neither the Rus' past nor her culture.

    The chronicle was written in the Russian language!
    http://litopys.org.ua/oldukr/galvxleb.htm

    You once again have demonstrated that Ukraine is nothing but a manufactured idea, false and artificial — a political fabrication created for an emotionally unstable, arrogant and ignorant generation.

    You are living in the alternative world of imagination.

    It was not Russian language, but Rus language. They weren’t using the Suzdalian/Muscovite/Russian language and didn’t consider their language to be the same as that of the Muscovites.
     
    The language that chronicle was written in is the same as was spoken then in all other parts of Rus' and other chronicles of that time were written in.

    Rus' and Russian is the same word but from different historical periods. Like Thou and You — Rus' is an archaic word for Russian, and Russian is a modern form of Rus'.

    Unlike Ukrainian which appeared out of nowhere, because it was made up, "Russian" is a natural development of the name following historical development of the language, along with all its other words.

    They were different enough that the 17th century Pereyaslav negotiations required the use of a translator, using Latin.
     
    Another nonsense proving that you are alien to the Rus' culture. Perhaps you are somewhat a Pole, but you are not a Ukrainian — at least not a real one.

    Otherwise you would have known that Ukrainian and Rusian are mutually intelligible even today, and back then were even closer than today. Negotiations required no translators (but there might have been one documenting it for foreign ambassadors).

    The Pereiaslav Agreement was recorded both in Russian and Ukrainian (then called Little Russian). See "Березневі статті".

    The letter of Bohdan Khmelnytsky to the Russian Tsar was written in Little Russian without any translation.

    The notion of the Ukrainians as the same people was a later fabrication. Pushed by Little Russians/Ukrainians themselves in the service of the Russian state. It was used as proof by them that they had the right to obtain high administrative positions, because they were Russians too.
     
    Little Russians were still Russians.

    You do not understand what a people is. You often make references to who ruled what cities and what political alliance this or that group might have been in at that time or another, whereas a people is not a state.

    A people is an ethnic group defined and united with a common language, culture, folklore, cuisine and other traditions resulting from them having a common origin. Your understanding of a people is that of an American — because Americans are not a people but a political nation, aftificial and unnatural.

    When the Russian language was standardized, the literary form was packed with Church Slavonic; the Ukrainian literary language in contrast was much closer to the regular vernacular, so it did not have such influence.
     
    It is because Ukrainian did not have a literary form. It was a vernacular southern Russian dialect with a number of borrowed Polish words and rather peculiar and surrogate grammar.

    There has never been a sophisticated literary work written in Ukrainian, because it has never developed as a language above a vernacular dialect of a minor group of uneducated peasants.

    A Ukrainian who has never heard Russian will not be able to understand a conversation, in Russian and vice versa.
     
    Such a Ukrainian can be found in diaspora alone. All Ukrainians can if not speak then at least understand some Russian. And Russians from the Rostov region speak a southern dialect that sounds closer to Ukrainian than to standard Russian.

    So what?

    Germans from Hamburg cannot understand those from Munich. The High German dialect is as much if not more different from the Low German as Ukrainian is from Russian.

    Yet Germans do not consider it a reason substantial enough to see the two parts of the nation as two different peoples.

    And besides Germans had been for a long time divided before Germany was united — but have been at those times one people nevertheless.

    We had an ethnic Russian nanny from Central Asia, who had heard hardly any Ukrainian before – she couldn’t understand or follow a conversation.
     
    Must have been because you speak that émigré western dialect. Most Ukrainians might have some troubles understanding it either.

    And I could not understand Russian (other than a word here or there, an occasional phrase) before I lived in Russia.
     
    You had not been used to the Russian pronunciation, but I guess once you got used you started understanding Russian without learning it. Am I wrong?

    These are different things: one person can write and read in English but will not understand much watching news in English on TV, and another person can understand oral speech well but not written language.

    I can understand oral Hebrew to a degree, but can neither read it nor write in it.

    To sum it up this aspiration to see Ukrainians as part of Poland is a Polish thing made to fool those who are ignorant and to return those who were Polonized.

    But Poles do not want Ukraininans — Poles want to return Ukraine.

    Replies: @AP

    “False. Little Rus was first documented as having been used by the Galician king in 1335 and was later used by the Poles.”

    You continue to argue for the sake of arguing. That same article you quote to prove me wrong proves me right.

    “The toponym translates as Little or Lesser Rus’ and is adapted from the Greek term, used in medieval times by Patriarchs of Constantinople since the 14th century (it first appeared in church documents in 1335).”

    The same article also states:

    “The first recorded usage of the term is attributed to Boleslaus George II of Halych.[8] In a 1335 letter to Dietrich von Altenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, he styled himself «dux totius Rusiæ Minoris». The name was used by Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople in 1361 ..”

    “Ukraine had never been part of Suzdal/Muscovy and had never been ruled from Moscow until Russia started grabbing these lands.”

    You mean a part of Rus’ (which was renamed Ukraine centuries later) had not been ruled from Moscow, until another part of Rus’ reconquered it from Poles.

    Nothing was reconquered because Suzdal had not controlled Kiev and Ukrainian lands in the first place.

    First Rus’ was ruled from Novgorod and then from Kiev.

    The Rus that was ruled from Novgorod was a Rus of unassimilated Scandinavian rulers who took over Slavic lands. They took over Novgorod in 859 and then took over Kiev in 882, making it the new capital of their expanding trading and slave-selling enterprise. Novgorod did not rule over Kiev. There was not a Rus state in any recognizable form in the 9th century. It’s like equating the Germanic-speaking Frankish Empire with modern France.

    And after Poland it was ruled from Moscow – which had never been a foreign nation and had been a part of Rus’ since the inception.

    Muscovites were considered foreigners and non-Rus by the Rus people of what is now Ukraine from the late 15th century. Which they were. The languages had diverged, they had different Churches, different political entities and cultures, etc.

    After Moscow the capital was transferred to Saint Petersburg and later back to Moscow.

    Yes, the Suzdalians/Muscovites shifted their capital around. This had nothing to do with Ukraine.

    The last legitimate, pre-Mongol ruler of Kiev lands was Daniel of Galicia. Muscovite princes were not his successors. The Galician princes were, and their claims were inherited by the Polish kings.

    False. “They called themselves Rusyns. Rusych only appeared in the 12th century and only in one work. It was a rarely used word back then.”

    Back when?

    Suffixes can change over time. Suffixes can change due to foreign influence. Suffixes can be different in different dialects of the same language – it does not matter.

    Those are not suffixes. Suffixes are letters added to words to change their meaning or nature. The adjective Sad becomes the noun sadness, the adjective quick becomes the adverb quickly, etc.

    You are describing names for different peoples who have a common root. Rusyns or Rusnaks for Ukrainians. Russky for Russians. Analogous – Romans, Romanians and Romansch, three peoples with Roman descent who have retained the Roman root in their names.

    “The Volhynian Chronicle classified Muscovites alongside Moldovans as Orthodox but foreign.”

    You have not read that chronicle.

    Muscovite Rus’ was created as a principality less than 3 decades before the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle

    I was not discussing the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle from the 13th century but the Volhynian Chronicle from the 16th century and also the Rus-language Lithuanian Chronicle from the 15th century-16th centuries. They are relevant because they come from the time when the Rus people of Ukraine were no longer the same as the Rus people form Muscovy. That had probably not been the case yet in the 13th century when the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle was written.

    Your argument is based on that flawed premise.

    So for example the earliest description of the Eulogy for Vitold written in 1428 described Moscow, Tver, Novgorod, Pskov as belonging to the Rus people alongside the Rus of Lithuania.

    But later editions in the later 15th and 16th centuries recategorized those non-Lithuanian Rus as Orthodox foreigners, like Moldavains or Bulgarians.

    Similarly, From the 1440s, the Lithuanian chroniclers began referring to the Rus territories of the Grand Duchy as “all the Rus land,” while calling the inhabitants of Northeastern Rus “Muscovites.”

    The Short Volhynian Chronicle included a description of the Battle of Orsha (1514) between the Muscovite and Lithuanian-Rus armies and a panegyric to Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozky, who led the army of the Grand Duchy in the battle. Several times the Grand Duchy was called the Grand Principality of Lithuania and Rus, while the Volhynian troops in Ostrozky’s army were referred to as “the valiant Lithuanian and Rus warriors.” The word “Rus” never applied to the Muscovites, their prince and state.

    So clearly they were perceived as a different nation, non-Rus.

    This was happening about 250 years after the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle had been written, 250 years of political separation and differing cultural influences.

    Rus’ and Russian is the same word but from different historical periods. Like Thou and You — Rus’ is an archaic word for Russian, and Russian is a modern form of Rus’.

    This is what Muscovites like to pretend. They have gotten away with it because they were a great empire who eventually conquered the lands of old Rus. I imagine that if Romania had become a great empire and conquered Italy it could lay a fantastical claim to Rome in a similar way.

    Unlike Ukrainian which appeared out of nowhere, because it was made up, “Russian” is a natural development of the name

    This is the only correct thing you wrote. The name Ukrainian was adopted by Rusyns/Rusnaks/Little Russians because their original names were part of an excuse by the Russky conquerors to subjugate them and erase their culture.

    “They were different enough that the 17th century Pereyaslav negotiations required the use of a translator, using Latin.”

    Another nonsense proving that you are alien to the Rus’ culture. Perhaps you are somewhat a Pole, but you are not a Ukrainian — at least not a real one.

    Otherwise you would have known that Ukrainian and Rusian are mutually intelligible even today

    Nonsense. A Russian who hasn’t been heavily exposed to Ukrainian will not be able to have a conversation or conduct a negotiation with a Ukrainian-speaking person, and vice versa. You don’t understand that, because you grew up in Ukraine in a Russian-speaking family so you were exposed to both languages extensively.

    and back then were even closer than today

    Maybe. Although Ukrainian was influenced by contact with Russian for 300 years; in 1700 it had been isolated from Russian for centuries.

    Here is vernacular Ukrainian from 1619, part of a play. It was written in the Latin script:

    The main part of the play was written in the Polish language by as Rus playwright but he included humorous interludes in local Rus. Transcription of part of it:

    Климко. Що ты тутъ, побратиме, собі порабляешь?

    Кажи мені, як живешь, та якъ ся маешь?

    Стецько. Я тут не роблю ничого. Ось иду до дому свого

    Та и зъ тоіеми горшками, якъ зъ своими сусідами.

    Климко. Та на щотакъ много маешь? – либой на жонку кидаешъ?

    Стецько. На що? Чи хочешь вірити, що люблю хороше жити,

    Всёго достатекъ варити кажу, та ся не курчити,

    Такъ яко приналежаетъ сподарови, що все маетъ.

    ::::::::::::::

    So it says mhoho (as in modern Russian) rather than bahato (modern Ukrainian) but otherwise it’s pretty similar to modern Ukrainian.

    A people is an ethnic group defined and united with a common language, culture, folklore, cuisine and other traditions resulting from them having a common origin.

    By this measure, Swedes, Danes and Norwegians are even more of a common people than Ukrainians and Russians. And Spaniards, Catalans, and Italians (as well as Argentines, Uruguayans and Chileans) as much of a common people as Ukrainians and Russians. With Mexican Mestizos being sort of like northern Russians.

    The Ukrainian language is further from Russian than Danish is from Swedish. It is like Spanish and Italian. Folklore is different – different folk songs and dances. Different political culture, Russians like their despots, they learned well from their Asian masters. Ukrainians are more democratic (and indeed chaotic) – like Poles. Common origin? Genetically Ukrainians are closer to Slovaks than to Russians, and equally as close to Poles as they are to Russians.

    “A Ukrainian who has never heard Russian will not be able to understand a conversation, in Russian and vice versa.”

    Such a Ukrainian can be found in diaspora alone.

    There are now young western Ukrainians like that. They learn English, Polish or German rather than Russian and don’t speak Russian at home or hear it on the streets much. And they speak literary Ukrainian, not the Galician dialect (which is sadly dying out in Galicia).

    Germans from Hamburg cannot understand those from Munich. The High German dialect is as much if not more different from the Low German as Ukrainian is from Russian.

    In that case, High and Low German are more different from one another than Danish is from Swedish because speakers of each claim they can understand conversations in the other language. . Will you claim those aren’t languages?

    And Russians from the Rostov region speak a southern dialect that sounds closer to Ukrainian than to standard Russian.

    No they don’t. They just speak Russian with an h sound rather than a g sound. That’s the only thing about their speech which is like Ukrainian. Otherwise it’s pretty much just Russian.

    There are pockets of actual Ukrainian-speakers in Kuban villages.

    “We had an ethnic Russian nanny from Central Asia, who had heard hardly any Ukrainian before – she couldn’t understand or follow a conversation.”

    Must have been because you speak that émigré western dialect. Most Ukrainians might have some troubles understanding it either.

    No, we had guests from Kiev over, who spoke regular Ukrainian (I don’t speak Galician dialect, I speak literary Ukrainian although it is a bit archaic, one of my grandparents lived in Kharkiv before the war).

    “And I could not understand Russian (other than a word here or there, an occasional phrase) before I lived in Russia.”

    You had not been used to the Russian pronunciation, but I guess once you got used you started understanding Russian without learning it.

    Vocabulary and pronunciation. Took me at least a month with near full immersion (I avoided expats, spoke English only with my wife), maybe two. I never took formal lessons. I still am far from perfect – I get mistaken for a Czech, Balt or Pole when I speak Russian in Moscow.

    I can read and understand Chekov’s plays in Russian, but I tried to read a book by Venedikt Erofeev in Russian and it was hardly comprehensible.

    Ukrainians who move to Poland easily and fairly quickly learn to speak and understand Polish. I’ts matter of weeks. Does that mean that Ukrainian and Polish are not different languages?

    To sum it up this aspiration to see Ukrainians as part of Poland

    Ukraine has a stronger heritage with Poland than with Russia. It formed as a nation while linked to Poland. Ties to Russia consist of largely mythological Old Rus, a break of hundreds of years during which the Ukrainian nation was formed, followed by 300 years or less, depending on region, of subjugation.

    There has never been a sophisticated literary work written in Ukrainian, because it has never developed as a language above a vernacular dialect of a minor group of uneducated peasants.

    High level of development is not necessary to produce great literature. Spanish is a simple language. And Galicia achieved full literacy of schoolkids about 20 years before Russia did. Ukrainian is more highly developed than Russian, because it is a real and natural language rather than an abstract one.

    From someone with greater knowledge of linguistics than I have:

    [MORE]

    Compared to Ukrainian, Russian is a poor and underdeveloped language from every linguistic point of reference, particularly in terms of its vocabulary and grammar. It’s understandable, as modern Russian, from the historic perspective, is a very young and largely artificially created language, a sort of Esperanto [this is an exaggeration – AP]; and it hasn’t had enough time, unlike Ukrainian, to develop the variety of linguistic forms and shortcuts that emerge only when a language is used naturally and for a long period of time by common people communicating with one another daily , rather than via being concocted in an ivory tower. As a result, there’re thousands of Ukrainian shortcut adverbs (e.g.: торік, чимдуж, etc.) that can be expressed in Russian only by using a combination of three separate words. Likewise, Ukrainian has three single-word superlative degrees, while Russian has only one. Ukrainian has single-word forms of Future Imperfect (e.g. матиму, матимемо, матимеш, матиме, матимуть) completely absent from Russian. Ukrainian has the Plus Quam Perfectum tense (e.g. він почав був читати, та його зупинили); Russian doesn’t. And the list goes on and on.

    All U verbs in Present Imperfect ending in “є” also have two forms (e.g., буває/бува) vs only one (бывает)in R.

    Every U verb can be used in Plus Quam Perfectum (e.g., я був почав); this tense is absent from R altogether.

    Every U verb can be used in a single-word Future Imperfect (e.g., матиму/матимемо/матимеш/матимете/матиме/матимуть); again, there’s no such tense in R.

    U has thousands of single-word shortcut adverbs absent from R, such as торік, чимдуж, здебільш, навшпиньки, насамперед, завдальшe, etc. absent from R, all of which require two or three R words to express the same.

    U has three forms of superlative adjectives and adverbs (e.g., найвищий/якнайвищий/щоякнайвищий) vs one in R (e.g., наивысший).

    Another example: “the single-word Future Imperfect (майбутній час недоконаного виду) that is absent from Russian where it can be formed only with the Future form of the auxiliary verb “to be”. E.g. “We will live” in Russian can be formed only as “Мы будем жить”, whereas in Ukrainian, both as “Ми житимемо” (one word for “will live”) and “Ми будемо жити” (“to be” in the Future + Infinitive). Another tense Russian doesn’t have is Plus Quam Perfectum (Past Perfect in English) called in Ukrainian “давноминулий час” and indicating an action finished before some moment in the past, e.g. “Я був читав”.

    While in U, all of the above forms were present in common everyday speech in the 1700′s (that’s the speech and vocabulary Kotliarevsky used to write “The Aeneid” published in 1798), R at the time was a mere rudiment of what it has become after Pushkin and is today.

    • Replies: @Here Be Dragon
    @AP

    Will post a reply on the new page.

    , @Philip Owen
    @AP

    Little is a geographical term applied to the portion of the territory concerned nearest the Imperial capital (Rome or Constantinople). Hence Lesser Britain (Britany) and Great Britain, the island, Asia Minor, Little Poland and indeed Little Russia. Great applies to the further less well known reaches, Magna Graecia for example.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

  796. @Bashibuzuk
    Gentlemen!

    It has been great exchanging with you again.

    I hope that you found my "broken head" / "crazy Russian" take on present events entertaining and my occasional trolling not too annoying.

    My time on this site has run out, I have to attend to personal matters of great importance.

    I wish you all good fortune in the difficult times to come.

    Take care of yourself and your loved ones, for we do live on an Angry Planet.



    https://youtu.be/4IDH1MhktKQ

    I am still going on a long hike on the Bodhisattva path towards Nirvana and time is getting late.

    I have to light a beacon of Good Deeds before the darkness comes so I can locate a safe Shelter.

    I hope you too all fare safe on your personal paths.

    https://ngalso.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tayatha-om-gate-gate.jpg

    Many thanks to Mr Unz for his kindness in supporting our somewhat unhinged and freewheeling discussions.

    Replies: @A123, @German_reader, @S, @LatW, @AP, @keypusher

    Best wishes to you and your family, and looking forward to your inevitable return.

  797. @Bashibuzuk
    @Mike_from_Russia

    Just another day in the RusFed/Ukiestan theater of horrors.

    Putin promised to defend these people, Zelensky promised to liberate them. It is therefore entirely normal that these people are now dead, having probably been tortured before being killed.

    It is sadly unsurprising. Hundreds of thousands will die before this unnecessary war ends. Millions could be killed if it goes global. Meanwhile, the fourth industrial revolution and the Great Reset are moving on.

    Humans are expendable, especially when they are Slavs...

    Replies: @Dmitry

    are expendable, especially when they are Slavs…

    Not when you are taking about a developed region of Central European like Czech Republic. There is almost like a European value of life and human rights in such a country nowadays.

    But yes I would say this year the value of human’s life in Russia/Ukraine has bypassed below the countries like Mexico and China, although normally it would be almost like Mexico, maybe slightly above China. For 2022, we are going to the level of Yemen or Eritrea.

    And I remember in what now still seems like a “happier” pandemic year of 2020, we were writing incorrect hypocritical snobby comments about the “primitive” conflicts of Armenians/Azerbaijanis, as you also.

    needed Pynya to start the war was to prevent RusFed from benefiting from all the rising profits from the commodities

    Politics in Russia in the last 30 years has been distracting and controlling of the expropriated population, while doing the resource extraction and move the profits of the appropriation to the West.

    The most simple “intelligence and status test” in the last 20 years has been are you moving your money outside Russia?

    It seems like a kind of conspiracy when you meet the most wealthy people who use only foreign bank cards and you know anyone from the “hidden society” that is living in different rules, that they have learned in some secret underground night class somewhere. Perhaps they are meeting every week in a bank vault to discuss their strategy to move offshore with the treasure? But this is partly because of the origin of the postsoviet elite in the security services, who were professionals in these specific areas, and also another herd behavior that can be explained as basic intuition.

    It was obvious for the deeper instincts, like not wanting to build a house next to the volcano, or noticing that you should probably escape from “Manson family”. And there are a lot of distractions and magicians’ tricks to distract the expropriated population, but you can not believe it with your deeper instincts.

    Even the politicians who receive salary for this job, do not seem like they believe it and it seems obvious when you see it with retrospect now. It seems kind of gullible that you would have believed it. Although even ten years ago, it was possible to be optimistic and believe there was some real intention (e.g. https://www.gazeta.ru/comments/2009/09/10_a_3258568.shtml )

  798. As predicted the retaliatory attacks on infrastructure begins. The end result being a quicker Ukrainian defeat and more economic devastation for Europe.

    Led by incompetent delusional ideologues.

    • Replies: @AP
    @LondonBob

    They hit a pedestrian bridge for bicyclists (and didn’t even fully destroy it), a park, and other civilian objects, no major infrastructure. They hit some commuter streets during rush hour when people go to work.

    If Ukrainians were like Russians they would have bombed Zaryadye park in Moscow and some random playgrounds rather than a major bridge transporting large numbers of tanks to Crimea.

    , @sudden death
    @LondonBob


    retaliatory attacks on infrastructure
     
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/10/10/08/63295793-11298407-image-a-14_1665385799841.jpg

    All the dust has not setlled yet, but today there were plenty of such precision strikes directed to absolutely critical infrastructure like dirt and asphalt, so from purely military UA POV it means just less RF long range rocketry becoming available for effective use;)

  799. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    Manafort, Flynn etc
     
    Manafort and Flynn! Those two poor guys had their lives destroyed by the DC swamp during the Russiagate witch hunts and Manafort hadn't even had any connection with Russia. Otherwise, he would have been charged for that but they had to find some financial crime instead. Flynn did want to improve relations with Russia and used to appear on RT but they didn't find anything either. He was sentenced for an inconsequential "perjury" crime.

    In a large country like the US you're always going to find some pro-Russian (or pro-China) people without anybody having done anything to receive that support. I don't believe the Russians are capable of influencing American politics by themselves beyond some Facebook ad campaign kind of operation.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @sudden death

    Manafort hadn’t even had any connection with Russia. Otherwise, he would have been charged for that but they had to find some financial crime instead. Flynn did want to improve relations with Russia and used to appear on RT but they didn’t find anything either. He was sentenced for an inconsequential “perjury” crime.

    If you really believe that man who was running Yanukovich election campaigns or somebody who been dining alongside Putin himself, have no any acquired connections to RF which may be used for its political purposes, then you”ll also may find interesting some destroyed bridge which is being sold;)

    The question whether such connections have criminal character or not/were proven enough criminal or not under existing US law, is entirely separate topic.

    • Replies: @Mikel
    @sudden death

    Well, if you think that Tucker, Tulsi or Greenwald express their opinions because they've had some "contacts" with Russians, and not because that's what they really think, it's you who needs to have a look at that auction of the London Bridge lol.

    Of course it's impossible to know if anyone is secretly on the Kremlin's pay. All we can do is use our common sense. My common sense tells me that a) The FBI knows of any public figure in the US with illegal contacts with Russia. Btw, if the FBI hadn't foiled Tucker's perfectly legal attempt to have a prime time interview with Putin perhaps the chances of this war would have been a little lower. At least a good number of Americans would have had a chance of hearing his unfiltered message and a small bridge of goodwill could have been built. b) Mueller and his thugs made sure to send a clear message to everybody that having friendly contacts with the Kremlin is not good for your health or for the well-being of your family.

    This is not to say that there are no Russian agents and double agents operating in the US. There have always been. What I'm talking about is the Kremlin being able to have any direct influence on American politics. They looked at that with the zeal of Torquemada and found nothing.

  800. @LondonBob
    As predicted the retaliatory attacks on infrastructure begins. The end result being a quicker Ukrainian defeat and more economic devastation for Europe.

    Led by incompetent delusional ideologues.

    Replies: @AP, @sudden death

    They hit a pedestrian bridge for bicyclists (and didn’t even fully destroy it), a park, and other civilian objects, no major infrastructure. They hit some commuter streets during rush hour when people go to work.

    If Ukrainians were like Russians they would have bombed Zaryadye park in Moscow and some random playgrounds rather than a major bridge transporting large numbers of tanks to Crimea.

  801. @LondonBob
    As predicted the retaliatory attacks on infrastructure begins. The end result being a quicker Ukrainian defeat and more economic devastation for Europe.

    Led by incompetent delusional ideologues.

    Replies: @AP, @sudden death

    retaliatory attacks on infrastructure


    All the dust has not setlled yet, but today there were plenty of such precision strikes directed to absolutely critical infrastructure like dirt and asphalt, so from purely military UA POV it means just less RF long range rocketry becoming available for effective use;)

  802. @Mr. Hack
    @Bashibuzuk

    They may be aligned, but the picture of somebody in Brussels barking out orders across the ocean to Biden ordering him to send funds to Ukraine is just plain over the top. This is what I fear and see coming:

    https://image.cagle.com/156752/750/156752.png

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    Will your brethren blow up bridges pipelines and other stuff in Germany and Belgium then?

  803. @sudden death
    @Mikel


    Do you still believe that the militarily incompetent Russians who were unable to find out what the real mood in neighboring Ukraine was are capable of pulling the strings in American politics??
     
    Vast amount of ongoing RF nonsense in Ukraine theatre was caused by very largely believing own ideological contraints and hubris even by allegedly high IQ people like Karlin (only tiny fraction of Ukrainians will seriously fight us, our military is superlative fighting machine and so on) thus resulting in refusal to take any efforts to prepare and take it more seriously at the very top levels, while relying just onto "Crimea redux" script.

    Their attitude to USA is way different as it is country worth effort in their eyes, so at the very least they were always trying directing their own finances, finding and using all possible connections (like Manafort, Flynn etc) in order to amplify and use those inner US political trends which are beneficial to them.

    Replies: @Mikel, @Wokechoke

    I agree, the Ukraine infiltrated several levels of the US government. Vindman was a particularly excellent example of Ukraine’s sabotage of US Politics.

    A less heralded fellow was that Eco Health Alliance guy. Yorkshire or Mancunian accent, US and British citizen, But a Ukrainian through and through.

  804. @Bashibuzuk
    Gentlemen!

    It has been great exchanging with you again.

    I hope that you found my "broken head" / "crazy Russian" take on present events entertaining and my occasional trolling not too annoying.

    My time on this site has run out, I have to attend to personal matters of great importance.

    I wish you all good fortune in the difficult times to come.

    Take care of yourself and your loved ones, for we do live on an Angry Planet.



    https://youtu.be/4IDH1MhktKQ

    I am still going on a long hike on the Bodhisattva path towards Nirvana and time is getting late.

    I have to light a beacon of Good Deeds before the darkness comes so I can locate a safe Shelter.

    I hope you too all fare safe on your personal paths.

    https://ngalso.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tayatha-om-gate-gate.jpg

    Many thanks to Mr Unz for his kindness in supporting our somewhat unhinged and freewheeling discussions.

    Replies: @A123, @German_reader, @S, @LatW, @AP, @keypusher

    You will be very much missed. I hope you are able to come back soon.

  805. @Mikel
    @sudden death


    How relevant really are local newspapers and their websites though, considering that FOX, which most popular news TV channel in US, is regularly, if not constantly, pushing pro-RF talking points or even straight propjunk of RF origin at prime time?
     
    You're confusing Fox News with Tucker Carlson, who indeed has gone a bit too far in the contrarian direction by continuing to promote total cranks like McGregor. But this is just the typical American inability to find a sensible middle ground, not any RF conspiratorial activity. Do you still believe that the militarily incompetent Russians who were unable to find out what the real mood in neighboring Ukraine was are capable of pulling the strings in American politics??

    Just download the Fox News app, check it for a few days and let me know how many mentions of Ukraine you find, if you can find any, and which position they were in.

    Tucker Carlson does have a few million followers, a bit more than rabid anti-russian Fox anchor Hannity I guess, but that's all.

    Americans as a whole are no longer interested in the Ukraine war, believe me. Yesterday I told my wife that Ukraine had blown up the Crimean bridge and she asked me to stop telling her things about that war. It's only bad news and she has enough things to feel worried about, she argued, so she doesn't need any more. I shut up, as requested, and will have to discuss the war with someone else irl... but who?? :(

    Replies: @sudden death, @keypusher

    Do you still believe that the militarily incompetent Russians who were unable to find out what the real mood in neighboring Ukraine was are capable of pulling the strings in American politics??

    It’s convenient for various domestic actors to blame the Russians for their own screw-ups (viz. the Democratic party blowing the 2016 election). Recently the Times ran a bizarre piece on the Women’s March in 2017 blaming Russian subversion for the fratricidal (sisterly?) battle among pro- and anti-Israel feminist leaders. You would think that Ukrainian domination of the current propaganda battle might prompt some reconsideration of Russian abilities in this area, but it’s much too useful to blame the I.R.A.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/18/us/womens-march-russia-trump.html

    https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-new-york-times-linda-sarsour-and-misinformation/

  806. @sudden death
    @Mikel


    Manafort hadn’t even had any connection with Russia. Otherwise, he would have been charged for that but they had to find some financial crime instead. Flynn did want to improve relations with Russia and used to appear on RT but they didn’t find anything either. He was sentenced for an inconsequential “perjury” crime.
     
    If you really believe that man who was running Yanukovich election campaigns or somebody who been dining alongside Putin himself, have no any acquired connections to RF which may be used for its political purposes, then you''ll also may find interesting some destroyed bridge which is being sold;)

    The question whether such connections have criminal character or not/were proven enough criminal or not under existing US law, is entirely separate topic.

    Replies: @Mikel

    Well, if you think that Tucker, Tulsi or Greenwald express their opinions because they’ve had some “contacts” with Russians, and not because that’s what they really think, it’s you who needs to have a look at that auction of the London Bridge lol.

    Of course it’s impossible to know if anyone is secretly on the Kremlin’s pay. All we can do is use our common sense. My common sense tells me that a) The FBI knows of any public figure in the US with illegal contacts with Russia. Btw, if the FBI hadn’t foiled Tucker’s perfectly legal attempt to have a prime time interview with Putin perhaps the chances of this war would have been a little lower. At least a good number of Americans would have had a chance of hearing his unfiltered message and a small bridge of goodwill could have been built. b) Mueller and his thugs made sure to send a clear message to everybody that having friendly contacts with the Kremlin is not good for your health or for the well-being of your family.

    This is not to say that there are no Russian agents and double agents operating in the US. There have always been. What I’m talking about is the Kremlin being able to have any direct influence on American politics. They looked at that with the zeal of Torquemada and found nothing.

  807. @Here Be Dragon
    @Philip Owen

    Please be aware that Philip Owen is a Ukrainian troll pretending to be British. He is posting and reposting Ukrainian lies and propaganda from Twitter.


    Even so the Armata was postponed to 2032 because Russia didn’t have the technology to make it.
     
    Lie.

    Russia will need to renew its industrial capacity and build new industry such as chip making, optics, boot making and gun barrel manufacture.
     
    Russia does need to build chip making factories and is working on it. However optics, boot making (!) and gun barrels manufacture has never been a problem in Russia.

    Even capability Russia once had like night vision seems to have disappeared.
     
    Lie.

    Excellent choice of Russian-made night vision optics is available on the civilian market.

    https://opticstrade.com/pricely_nochnogo_videniya

    Plilip Owen is a liar pretending to be an expert on various technical topics, but in truth he is a clueless internet troll posting photoshopped pictures of what is claimed to be a Russian-made disproportional and bent gun barrel.

    Russian barrels have been respected as some of the best in the world for decades Philip. And next time check at least with Wikipedia first – the T-14 Armata uses a smooth-bore barrel without rifling.

    Moron.

    Replies: @Yevardian, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Philip Owen

    I have actually worked with with Russian military factories helping them to export particularly with opto-electronics such as semiconductor lasers, especially SLDs and night vision systems. Expertise they may have had in 1990 has gone away in 2022. Some of it is in Ukraine or Georgia or Kazakhstan. Much of it was simply lost to bankruptcy and site redevelopment (many nodels of missile fiberoptic gyros for example).

    I also monitor iwth the assistance of an AI, about 500 Russian language news stories a day about 10 of which prove to be of interesting for my purposes. The general complaining about Russia no longer making gun barrels featured in January this year. Not bookmarked because not useful to me.

    Your experience in such matters is?

  808. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.
     
    I'll admit I find it difficult to imagine that any half-rational person could have ever believed that the Russians destroyed their own pipelines, given the facts I'd presented in my recent article:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday Col. Douglas Macgregor argued that the Western MSM coverage of the current Ukraine war was just total nonsense and that the Ukrainians had suffered massive losses and the Russians were doing fine:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwnQfO6Y4

    I'm not a military expert on this conflict and I haven't been following it closely, but Macgregor seems a very credible expert and these days I tend to discount anything provided by the MSM of "the Empire of Lies."

    Replies: @A123, @Wokechoke, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen

    On the war, my favourite American general is Ben Hodges, former Commander US Army Europe. He can be found on Twitter. He does think that the Russian army is corrupt and incompetent. He doesn’t go so far as to say they’ve lost.

    I tend to think that Russia has suffered much larger losses than Ukraine, especially in the first attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv. Ukraine intelligence is so much better. Russia only has 4 observation satellites. Russia has been making frontal attacks on towns not Ukraine. This doesn’t mean they’ve lost. They link below shows the reservists from Saratov leaving for the front after two weeks refresher course. They are wearing decent boots and most of them have a warm jacket. (That said, Turkey has refused an order to supply 200,000 winter uniforms – China already refused. The Uzbeks or Bangladesh might oblige). Most of this batch appear to have been Tatars. In another clip the priest seeing them off is a Mufti not a Christian. Russia is not winning but can take huge losses especially of ethnic minorities, before losing is a possibility. The 20-30 year olds are the smallest demographic in post WW2 Russian history. (WW2 aftereffects+the 90s) but the same applies to Ukraine.

    https://www.vzsar.ru/news/2022/10/10/saratovskih-mobilizovannyh-provodili-s-vokzala-na-front-fotoreportaj.html

  809. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.
     
    I'll admit I find it difficult to imagine that any half-rational person could have ever believed that the Russians destroyed their own pipelines, given the facts I'd presented in my recent article:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday Col. Douglas Macgregor argued that the Western MSM coverage of the current Ukraine war was just total nonsense and that the Ukrainians had suffered massive losses and the Russians were doing fine:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwnQfO6Y4

    I'm not a military expert on this conflict and I haven't been following it closely, but Macgregor seems a very credible expert and these days I tend to discount anything provided by the MSM of "the Empire of Lies."

    Replies: @A123, @Wokechoke, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen

    On the war, my favourite American general is Ben Hodges, former Commander US Army Europe. He can be found on Twitter. He does think that the Russian army is corrupt and incompetent. He doesn’t go so far as to say they’ve lost.

    I tend to think that Russia has suffered much larger losses than Ukraine, especially in the first attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv. Ukraine intelligence is so much better. Russia only has 4 observation satellites. Russia has been making frontal attacks on towns not Ukraine. This doesn’t mean they’ve lost.

    The link below shows the reservists from Saratov leaving for the front after two weeks refresher course. They are wearing decent boots and most of them have a warm jacket. (That said, Turkey has refused an order to supply 200,000 winter uniforms – China already refused. The Uzbeks or Bangladesh might oblige). Most of this batch appear to have been Tatars. In another clip the priest seeing them off is a Mufti not a Christian. Russia is not winning but can take huge losses especially of ethnic minorities, before losing is a possibility. The 20-30 year olds are the smallest demographic in post WW2 Russian history. (WW2 aftereffects+the 90s) but the same applies to Ukraine. The Saratov provincial government is negotiating with Uzbekistan for immigrants to replace the lost workforce.

  810. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.
     
    I'll admit I find it difficult to imagine that any half-rational person could have ever believed that the Russians destroyed their own pipelines, given the facts I'd presented in my recent article:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday Col. Douglas Macgregor argued that the Western MSM coverage of the current Ukraine war was just total nonsense and that the Ukrainians had suffered massive losses and the Russians were doing fine:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwnQfO6Y4

    I'm not a military expert on this conflict and I haven't been following it closely, but Macgregor seems a very credible expert and these days I tend to discount anything provided by the MSM of "the Empire of Lies."

    Replies: @A123, @Wokechoke, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen

    On the war, my favourite American general is Ben Hodges, former Commander US Army Europe. He can be found on Twitter. He does think that the Russian army is corrupt and incompetent. He doesn’t go so far as to say they’ve lost.

    I tend to think that Russia has suffered much larger losses than Ukraine, especially in the first attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv. Ukraine intelligence is so much better. Russia only has 4 observation satellites. Ukraine can avoid being surprised. Also Russia has been making frontal attacks on towns not Ukraine which has been encircling strong[points. Such losses don’t mean Russia has been defeated.

    The link below shows the reservists from Saratov leaving for the front after two weeks refresher course. They are wearing decent boots and most of them have a warm jacket. (That said, Turkey has refused an order to supply 200,000 winter uniforms – China already refused. The Uzbeks or Bangladesh might oblige). Most of this batch appear to have been Tatars. In another clip the priest seeing them off is a Mufti not a Christian. Russia is not winning but can take huge losses especially of ethnic minorities, before losing is a possibility. The 20-30 year olds are the smallest demographic in post WW2 Russian history. (WW2 aftereffects+the 90s) but the same applies to Ukraine. The Saratov provincial government is negotiating with Uzbekistan for immigrants to replace the lost workforce.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Philip Owen

    Always good to do the geography. Saratov is just north of Stalingrad. 2,500,000 people in the Saratov Oblast. Never heard of the place!

    Given the local weather they have I’d guess they have Parkas they own privately already or issued.

    , @Mr. Hack
    @Philip Owen


    Most of this batch appear to have been Tatars. In another clip the priest seeing them off is a Mufti not a Christian.
     
    Your observation puts the lie to A123's common narrative that the war is one between "real Russian Christians" and godless Ukrainian proxies for the atheistic West. He likes to rail against Moslems, but doesn't want to acknowledge the Moslem input to Russian forces fighting this war on Russia's side.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

  811. @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    On the war, my favourite American general is Ben Hodges, former Commander US Army Europe. He can be found on Twitter. He does think that the Russian army is corrupt and incompetent. He doesn't go so far as to say they've lost.

    I tend to think that Russia has suffered much larger losses than Ukraine, especially in the first attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv. Ukraine intelligence is so much better. Russia only has 4 observation satellites. Ukraine can avoid being surprised. Also Russia has been making frontal attacks on towns not Ukraine which has been encircling strong[points. Such losses don't mean Russia has been defeated.

    The link below shows the reservists from Saratov leaving for the front after two weeks refresher course. They are wearing decent boots and most of them have a warm jacket. (That said, Turkey has refused an order to supply 200,000 winter uniforms - China already refused. The Uzbeks or Bangladesh might oblige). Most of this batch appear to have been Tatars. In another clip the priest seeing them off is a Mufti not a Christian. Russia is not winning but can take huge losses especially of ethnic minorities, before losing is a possibility. The 20-30 year olds are the smallest demographic in post WW2 Russian history. (WW2 aftereffects+the 90s) but the same applies to Ukraine. The Saratov provincial government is negotiating with Uzbekistan for immigrants to replace the lost workforce.

    https://youtu.be/4dwP9RhfMQo

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Mr. Hack

    Always good to do the geography. Saratov is just north of Stalingrad. 2,500,000 people in the Saratov Oblast. Never heard of the place!

    Given the local weather they have I’d guess they have Parkas they own privately already or issued.

  812. @Philip Owen
    @Ron Unz

    On the war, my favourite American general is Ben Hodges, former Commander US Army Europe. He can be found on Twitter. He does think that the Russian army is corrupt and incompetent. He doesn't go so far as to say they've lost.

    I tend to think that Russia has suffered much larger losses than Ukraine, especially in the first attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv. Ukraine intelligence is so much better. Russia only has 4 observation satellites. Ukraine can avoid being surprised. Also Russia has been making frontal attacks on towns not Ukraine which has been encircling strong[points. Such losses don't mean Russia has been defeated.

    The link below shows the reservists from Saratov leaving for the front after two weeks refresher course. They are wearing decent boots and most of them have a warm jacket. (That said, Turkey has refused an order to supply 200,000 winter uniforms - China already refused. The Uzbeks or Bangladesh might oblige). Most of this batch appear to have been Tatars. In another clip the priest seeing them off is a Mufti not a Christian. Russia is not winning but can take huge losses especially of ethnic minorities, before losing is a possibility. The 20-30 year olds are the smallest demographic in post WW2 Russian history. (WW2 aftereffects+the 90s) but the same applies to Ukraine. The Saratov provincial government is negotiating with Uzbekistan for immigrants to replace the lost workforce.

    https://youtu.be/4dwP9RhfMQo

    Replies: @Wokechoke, @Mr. Hack

    Most of this batch appear to have been Tatars. In another clip the priest seeing them off is a Mufti not a Christian.

    Your observation puts the lie to A123’s common narrative that the war is one between “real Russian Christians” and godless Ukrainian proxies for the atheistic West. He likes to rail against Moslems, but doesn’t want to acknowledge the Moslem input to Russian forces fighting this war on Russia’s side.

    • Agree: Philip Owen
    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Mr. Hack

    Owen will be cheering on the rebellion of the Tartars against Moscow when the time comes. Stop trying to thread that needle. Saratov is next city over from the Ukraine border. It’s hardly a population from the other side of Russia. Volgograd must be full of Tartars as well.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Philip Owen

  813. @John Johnson
    @Here Be Dragon


    So you are certain that Russia is not issuing AK-47s? You believe the conscripts are properly equipped and cell phone videos of ancient equipment are fake?
     
    Of course.

    As I said before Russians do not send conscripts to the front for now and AK-47s are collectible vintage rifles. No one is issuing these to no one. You saw photos of AKM rifles – which are not AK-47s.

    Pretty amazing that you know what every Russian conscript is using.

    Well here you go ace
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5pYiLlLno0

    That's an AK-47 in the first shot. Look at the curve of the magazine. You can see it better at :31.

    You do not need to spend a thousand dollars for a flash hider, son and changing “sound profile” of a regular carbine does not change a thing.

    Why do you keep calling me son? If you think a suppressor is useless (as you claimed) for a 556 battle rifle then why is there a market for them?

    Here is an article explaining their utility in combat:
    https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2017/06/27/the-new-stealth-infantry-how-suppressors-will-change-battlefield-tactics/

    Wade's aim is to eventually equip every Marine in the experimental squad with a suppressed M27. Until recently, the suppressors were only used on the 5.56 mm-firing weapons.

    So the US military uses them on 5.56 weapons but Here Be Dragon of Unz thinks he knows better even though he went from stating they are never used with supersonic to now stating they are only used on short barrels.

    Your article – have you even read it?

    “High, sustained rates of fire will destroy a suppressor much faster than slow, limited rates of fire.” A good mil-spec sound suppressor under the regular combat use will last 5-6 thousand rounds. The rifle will last twice as much.

    Nice try. Only first quote is from the article. You added the second part.

    A modern suppressor can easily do 20k rounds if cleaned properly.

    And stop calling me son, you're not my authority. Probably just some boomer that hasn't read about suppressors since the 90s. Russians conscripts with AK-47s will be completely outmatched against Ukrainians with red dots and suppressors.

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon

    Will post a reply on the new page, son!

  814. @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    "False. Little Rus was first documented as having been used by the Galician king in 1335 and was later used by the Poles."

    You continue to argue for the sake of arguing. That same article you quote to prove me wrong proves me right.

    “The toponym translates as Little or Lesser Rus’ and is adapted from the Greek term, used in medieval times by Patriarchs of Constantinople since the 14th century (it first appeared in church documents in 1335).”
     
    The same article also states:

    "The first recorded usage of the term is attributed to Boleslaus George II of Halych.[8] In a 1335 letter to Dietrich von Altenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, he styled himself «dux totius Rusiæ Minoris». The name was used by Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople in 1361 .."

    "Ukraine had never been part of Suzdal/Muscovy and had never been ruled from Moscow until Russia started grabbing these lands."

    You mean a part of Rus’ (which was renamed Ukraine centuries later) had not been ruled from Moscow, until another part of Rus’ reconquered it from Poles.
     
    Nothing was reconquered because Suzdal had not controlled Kiev and Ukrainian lands in the first place.

    First Rus’ was ruled from Novgorod and then from Kiev.
     
    The Rus that was ruled from Novgorod was a Rus of unassimilated Scandinavian rulers who took over Slavic lands. They took over Novgorod in 859 and then took over Kiev in 882, making it the new capital of their expanding trading and slave-selling enterprise. Novgorod did not rule over Kiev. There was not a Rus state in any recognizable form in the 9th century. It's like equating the Germanic-speaking Frankish Empire with modern France.

    And after Poland it was ruled from Moscow – which had never been a foreign nation and had been a part of Rus’ since the inception.
     
    Muscovites were considered foreigners and non-Rus by the Rus people of what is now Ukraine from the late 15th century. Which they were. The languages had diverged, they had different Churches, different political entities and cultures, etc.

    After Moscow the capital was transferred to Saint Petersburg and later back to Moscow.
     
    Yes, the Suzdalians/Muscovites shifted their capital around. This had nothing to do with Ukraine.

    The last legitimate, pre-Mongol ruler of Kiev lands was Daniel of Galicia. Muscovite princes were not his successors. The Galician princes were, and their claims were inherited by the Polish kings.

    False. "They called themselves Rusyns. Rusych only appeared in the 12th century and only in one work. It was a rarely used word back then."

    Back when?

    Suffixes can change over time. Suffixes can change due to foreign influence. Suffixes can be different in different dialects of the same language – it does not matter.
     
    Those are not suffixes. Suffixes are letters added to words to change their meaning or nature. The adjective Sad becomes the noun sadness, the adjective quick becomes the adverb quickly, etc.

    You are describing names for different peoples who have a common root. Rusyns or Rusnaks for Ukrainians. Russky for Russians. Analogous - Romans, Romanians and Romansch, three peoples with Roman descent who have retained the Roman root in their names.

    "The Volhynian Chronicle classified Muscovites alongside Moldovans as Orthodox but foreign."

    You have not read that chronicle.

    Muscovite Rus’ was created as a principality less than 3 decades before the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle
     
    I was not discussing the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle from the 13th century but the Volhynian Chronicle from the 16th century and also the Rus-language Lithuanian Chronicle from the 15th century-16th centuries. They are relevant because they come from the time when the Rus people of Ukraine were no longer the same as the Rus people form Muscovy. That had probably not been the case yet in the 13th century when the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle was written.

    Your argument is based on that flawed premise.

    So for example the earliest description of the Eulogy for Vitold written in 1428 described Moscow, Tver, Novgorod, Pskov as belonging to the Rus people alongside the Rus of Lithuania.

    But later editions in the later 15th and 16th centuries recategorized those non-Lithuanian Rus as Orthodox foreigners, like Moldavains or Bulgarians.

    Similarly, From the 1440s, the Lithuanian chroniclers began referring to the Rus territories of the Grand Duchy as “all the Rus land,” while calling the inhabitants of Northeastern Rus “Muscovites.”

    The Short Volhynian Chronicle included a description of the Battle of Orsha (1514) between the Muscovite and Lithuanian-Rus armies and a panegyric to Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozky, who led the army of the Grand Duchy in the battle. Several times the Grand Duchy was called the Grand Principality of Lithuania and Rus, while the Volhynian troops in Ostrozky’s army were referred to as “the valiant Lithuanian and Rus warriors.” The word “Rus” never applied to the Muscovites, their prince and state.

    So clearly they were perceived as a different nation, non-Rus.

    This was happening about 250 years after the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle had been written, 250 years of political separation and differing cultural influences.

    Rus’ and Russian is the same word but from different historical periods. Like Thou and You — Rus’ is an archaic word for Russian, and Russian is a modern form of Rus’.
     
    This is what Muscovites like to pretend. They have gotten away with it because they were a great empire who eventually conquered the lands of old Rus. I imagine that if Romania had become a great empire and conquered Italy it could lay a fantastical claim to Rome in a similar way.

    Unlike Ukrainian which appeared out of nowhere, because it was made up, “Russian” is a natural development of the name
     
    This is the only correct thing you wrote. The name Ukrainian was adopted by Rusyns/Rusnaks/Little Russians because their original names were part of an excuse by the Russky conquerors to subjugate them and erase their culture.

    "They were different enough that the 17th century Pereyaslav negotiations required the use of a translator, using Latin."

    Another nonsense proving that you are alien to the Rus’ culture. Perhaps you are somewhat a Pole, but you are not a Ukrainian — at least not a real one.

    Otherwise you would have known that Ukrainian and Rusian are mutually intelligible even today
     
    Nonsense. A Russian who hasn't been heavily exposed to Ukrainian will not be able to have a conversation or conduct a negotiation with a Ukrainian-speaking person, and vice versa. You don't understand that, because you grew up in Ukraine in a Russian-speaking family so you were exposed to both languages extensively.

    and back then were even closer than today
     
    Maybe. Although Ukrainian was influenced by contact with Russian for 300 years; in 1700 it had been isolated from Russian for centuries.

    Here is vernacular Ukrainian from 1619, part of a play. It was written in the Latin script:

    https://artefact.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/virmeny-7.png

    The main part of the play was written in the Polish language by as Rus playwright but he included humorous interludes in local Rus. Transcription of part of it:

    Климко. Що ты тутъ, побратиме, собі порабляешь?

    Кажи мені, як живешь, та якъ ся маешь?

    Стецько. Я тут не роблю ничого. Ось иду до дому свого

    Та и зъ тоіеми горшками, якъ зъ своими сусідами.

    Климко. Та на щотакъ много маешь? – либой на жонку кидаешъ?

    Стецько. На що? Чи хочешь вірити, що люблю хороше жити,

    Всёго достатекъ варити кажу, та ся не курчити,

    Такъ яко приналежаетъ сподарови, що все маетъ.

    ::::::::::::::

    So it says mhoho (as in modern Russian) rather than bahato (modern Ukrainian) but otherwise it's pretty similar to modern Ukrainian.

    A people is an ethnic group defined and united with a common language, culture, folklore, cuisine and other traditions resulting from them having a common origin.
     
    By this measure, Swedes, Danes and Norwegians are even more of a common people than Ukrainians and Russians. And Spaniards, Catalans, and Italians (as well as Argentines, Uruguayans and Chileans) as much of a common people as Ukrainians and Russians. With Mexican Mestizos being sort of like northern Russians.

    The Ukrainian language is further from Russian than Danish is from Swedish. It is like Spanish and Italian. Folklore is different - different folk songs and dances. Different political culture, Russians like their despots, they learned well from their Asian masters. Ukrainians are more democratic (and indeed chaotic) - like Poles. Common origin? Genetically Ukrainians are closer to Slovaks than to Russians, and equally as close to Poles as they are to Russians.

    "A Ukrainian who has never heard Russian will not be able to understand a conversation, in Russian and vice versa."

    Such a Ukrainian can be found in diaspora alone.
     
    There are now young western Ukrainians like that. They learn English, Polish or German rather than Russian and don't speak Russian at home or hear it on the streets much. And they speak literary Ukrainian, not the Galician dialect (which is sadly dying out in Galicia).

    Germans from Hamburg cannot understand those from Munich. The High German dialect is as much if not more different from the Low German as Ukrainian is from Russian.
     
    In that case, High and Low German are more different from one another than Danish is from Swedish because speakers of each claim they can understand conversations in the other language. . Will you claim those aren't languages?

    And Russians from the Rostov region speak a southern dialect that sounds closer to Ukrainian than to standard Russian.
     
    No they don't. They just speak Russian with an h sound rather than a g sound. That's the only thing about their speech which is like Ukrainian. Otherwise it's pretty much just Russian.

    There are pockets of actual Ukrainian-speakers in Kuban villages.

    "We had an ethnic Russian nanny from Central Asia, who had heard hardly any Ukrainian before – she couldn’t understand or follow a conversation."

    Must have been because you speak that émigré western dialect. Most Ukrainians might have some troubles understanding it either.
     
    No, we had guests from Kiev over, who spoke regular Ukrainian (I don't speak Galician dialect, I speak literary Ukrainian although it is a bit archaic, one of my grandparents lived in Kharkiv before the war).

    "And I could not understand Russian (other than a word here or there, an occasional phrase) before I lived in Russia."

    You had not been used to the Russian pronunciation, but I guess once you got used you started understanding Russian without learning it.
     
    Vocabulary and pronunciation. Took me at least a month with near full immersion (I avoided expats, spoke English only with my wife), maybe two. I never took formal lessons. I still am far from perfect - I get mistaken for a Czech, Balt or Pole when I speak Russian in Moscow.

    I can read and understand Chekov's plays in Russian, but I tried to read a book by Venedikt Erofeev in Russian and it was hardly comprehensible.

    Ukrainians who move to Poland easily and fairly quickly learn to speak and understand Polish. I'ts matter of weeks. Does that mean that Ukrainian and Polish are not different languages?

    To sum it up this aspiration to see Ukrainians as part of Poland
     
    Ukraine has a stronger heritage with Poland than with Russia. It formed as a nation while linked to Poland. Ties to Russia consist of largely mythological Old Rus, a break of hundreds of years during which the Ukrainian nation was formed, followed by 300 years or less, depending on region, of subjugation.

    There has never been a sophisticated literary work written in Ukrainian, because it has never developed as a language above a vernacular dialect of a minor group of uneducated peasants.
     
    High level of development is not necessary to produce great literature. Spanish is a simple language. And Galicia achieved full literacy of schoolkids about 20 years before Russia did. Ukrainian is more highly developed than Russian, because it is a real and natural language rather than an abstract one.

    From someone with greater knowledge of linguistics than I have:


    Compared to Ukrainian, Russian is a poor and underdeveloped language from every linguistic point of reference, particularly in terms of its vocabulary and grammar. It’s understandable, as modern Russian, from the historic perspective, is a very young and largely artificially created language, a sort of Esperanto [this is an exaggeration - AP]; and it hasn’t had enough time, unlike Ukrainian, to develop the variety of linguistic forms and shortcuts that emerge only when a language is used naturally and for a long period of time by common people communicating with one another daily , rather than via being concocted in an ivory tower. As a result, there’re thousands of Ukrainian shortcut adverbs (e.g.: торік, чимдуж, etc.) that can be expressed in Russian only by using a combination of three separate words. Likewise, Ukrainian has three single-word superlative degrees, while Russian has only one. Ukrainian has single-word forms of Future Imperfect (e.g. матиму, матимемо, матимеш, матиме, матимуть) completely absent from Russian. Ukrainian has the Plus Quam Perfectum tense (e.g. він почав був читати, та його зупинили); Russian doesn’t. And the list goes on and on.

    All U verbs in Present Imperfect ending in “є” also have two forms (e.g., буває/бува) vs only one (бывает)in R.

    Every U verb can be used in Plus Quam Perfectum (e.g., я був почав); this tense is absent from R altogether.

    Every U verb can be used in a single-word Future Imperfect (e.g., матиму/матимемо/матимеш/матимете/матиме/матимуть); again, there’s no such tense in R.

    U has thousands of single-word shortcut adverbs absent from R, such as торік, чимдуж, здебільш, навшпиньки, насамперед, завдальшe, etc. absent from R, all of which require two or three R words to express the same.

    U has three forms of superlative adjectives and adverbs (e.g., найвищий/якнайвищий/щоякнайвищий) vs one in R (e.g., наивысший).

    Another example: “the single-word Future Imperfect (майбутній час недоконаного виду) that is absent from Russian where it can be formed only with the Future form of the auxiliary verb “to be”. E.g. “We will live” in Russian can be formed only as “Мы будем жить”, whereas in Ukrainian, both as “Ми житимемо” (one word for “will live”) and “Ми будемо жити” (“to be” in the Future + Infinitive). Another tense Russian doesn’t have is Plus Quam Perfectum (Past Perfect in English) called in Ukrainian “давноминулий час” and indicating an action finished before some moment in the past, e.g. “Я був читав”.

    While in U, all of the above forms were present in common everyday speech in the 1700′s (that’s the speech and vocabulary Kotliarevsky used to write “The Aeneid” published in 1798), R at the time was a mere rudiment of what it has become after Pushkin and is today.
     

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon, @Philip Owen

    Will post a reply on the new page.

  815. @Mr. Hack
    @Philip Owen


    Most of this batch appear to have been Tatars. In another clip the priest seeing them off is a Mufti not a Christian.
     
    Your observation puts the lie to A123's common narrative that the war is one between "real Russian Christians" and godless Ukrainian proxies for the atheistic West. He likes to rail against Moslems, but doesn't want to acknowledge the Moslem input to Russian forces fighting this war on Russia's side.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    Owen will be cheering on the rebellion of the Tartars against Moscow when the time comes. Stop trying to thread that needle. Saratov is next city over from the Ukraine border. It’s hardly a population from the other side of Russia. Volgograd must be full of Tartars as well.

    • Replies: @Mr. Hack
    @Wokechoke

    So, you buy the crap that kremlinstoogeA123 is trying to peddle here?:


    The European WEF provoked Russia into launching a defensive operation to protect & rescue Russian Orthodox Christians. This caused millions to flee into the EU. Thus, providing cover for millions of additional MENA origin Islamic Jihadists to infiltrate using forged Ukrainian documents.

     

    https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kogdgviJXTM/VpDqu4ZvykI/AAAAAAAAHiU/kQeHHtN5AHc/s1600/smiley-laughing-and-pointing.png

    Et tu, Brute?

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    , @Philip Owen
    @Wokechoke

    Saratov is a Muscovite colony set up in 1590. The original right bank inhabitants were Finns (Mordavians) and speakers of what is now Ukrainian. Remnants of both remain. On the left, Asian, bank were nomadic Tatars and Kazaks. These are all still present. There are enough Tatars to sustain a large central mosque (larger than the cathedral) in the city and a branch of the Tatar national university. The whole Lower Volga including Volgograd, until Communism a subordinate city in the Saratov province has siilar populations. Saratov was also the location of the Volga German Republic which was subject to genocide by the Soviets during the second world war. Tatars and Great Russians were moved into their villages. When I turned up briefly in 1994 about 60,000 Volga Germans had made it back, mostly to the twin city Engels across the Volga. (Including suburbs, the agglomeration is the 6th biggest in Russia, maybe the 7th depending on how you define the Volvograd conurbation. Before the revolution Saratov alone was the 3rd biggest city in Russia proper and has an appropriately strong cultural base). Most Volga Germans are now in Germany but a new Roman Catholic cathedral remains. All the Protestants seem to have gone.

    David Anthony argues the horse was domesticated and ridden at Khavlinsk in the north of Saratov as was the woolly sheep and arguably the wheel. Khavlinsk was also Russia's centre for chemical and biological weapon production - the home of Novichok then called Foliant. It is not entirely closed. The Russian nuclear bomber fleet is based at Engels.

    Saratov is a major industrial centre with food processing (worlds best durum wheat - much Italian pasta produced), engineering, electronics (last thermionic valve maker in the world), auto components, oil, gas and consequent industries.

    The province is poorer than average (disproportionately large rural population) so a very good place to assess Russian realities. Better than Moscow.

  816. @Wokechoke
    @Mr. Hack

    Owen will be cheering on the rebellion of the Tartars against Moscow when the time comes. Stop trying to thread that needle. Saratov is next city over from the Ukraine border. It’s hardly a population from the other side of Russia. Volgograd must be full of Tartars as well.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Philip Owen

    So, you buy the crap that kremlinstoogeA123 is trying to peddle here?:

    The European WEF provoked Russia into launching a defensive operation to protect & rescue Russian Orthodox Christians. This caused millions to flee into the EU. Thus, providing cover for millions of additional MENA origin Islamic Jihadists to infiltrate using forged Ukrainian documents.



    Et tu, Brute?

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Mr. Hack

    What is the WEF?

    Replies: @A123

  817. @Ron Unz
    @Philip Owen


    With the news that one pipeline is intact and one had two fractures we can make one conclusion without waiting for the Swedish investigation. The pipelines were not blown up from inside by explosvices delivered by PIGS. This makes Russia less likely as the cupprit although still not completely ruled out. An attempt to escape contract liability would be void if Russia obviously blew the pipelines.
     
    I'll admit I find it difficult to imagine that any half-rational person could have ever believed that the Russians destroyed their own pipelines, given the facts I'd presented in my recent article:

    https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-of-pipelines-and-plagues/

    Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday Col. Douglas Macgregor argued that the Western MSM coverage of the current Ukraine war was just total nonsense and that the Ukrainians had suffered massive losses and the Russians were doing fine:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwnQfO6Y4

    I'm not a military expert on this conflict and I haven't been following it closely, but Macgregor seems a very credible expert and these days I tend to discount anything provided by the MSM of "the Empire of Lies."

    Replies: @A123, @Wokechoke, @Brás Cubas, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen, @Philip Owen

    Ron,

    There was a technical problem (error message now forgotten) which seemed to result in rejection sof my post. Please delete the first two if convenient.

  818. @John Johnson
    Instead of spending 1.3 billion on gaudy a mansion I guess Vlad should have made sure his troops had armor and night vision:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov9nqMGVs88

    Hope they brought their tampons.

    Replies: @Philip Owen

    They also light open fires. Very visible at night with thermal imaging. My former client makes flammable blocks for cooking with low lateral heat signatures. Ukraine special forces at least will have them. Sitting around campfire with abottle of vodka is not a good idea in this war.

  819. @AP
    @Here Be Dragon


    "False. Little Rus was first documented as having been used by the Galician king in 1335 and was later used by the Poles."

    You continue to argue for the sake of arguing. That same article you quote to prove me wrong proves me right.

    “The toponym translates as Little or Lesser Rus’ and is adapted from the Greek term, used in medieval times by Patriarchs of Constantinople since the 14th century (it first appeared in church documents in 1335).”
     
    The same article also states:

    "The first recorded usage of the term is attributed to Boleslaus George II of Halych.[8] In a 1335 letter to Dietrich von Altenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, he styled himself «dux totius Rusiæ Minoris». The name was used by Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople in 1361 .."

    "Ukraine had never been part of Suzdal/Muscovy and had never been ruled from Moscow until Russia started grabbing these lands."

    You mean a part of Rus’ (which was renamed Ukraine centuries later) had not been ruled from Moscow, until another part of Rus’ reconquered it from Poles.
     
    Nothing was reconquered because Suzdal had not controlled Kiev and Ukrainian lands in the first place.

    First Rus’ was ruled from Novgorod and then from Kiev.
     
    The Rus that was ruled from Novgorod was a Rus of unassimilated Scandinavian rulers who took over Slavic lands. They took over Novgorod in 859 and then took over Kiev in 882, making it the new capital of their expanding trading and slave-selling enterprise. Novgorod did not rule over Kiev. There was not a Rus state in any recognizable form in the 9th century. It's like equating the Germanic-speaking Frankish Empire with modern France.

    And after Poland it was ruled from Moscow – which had never been a foreign nation and had been a part of Rus’ since the inception.
     
    Muscovites were considered foreigners and non-Rus by the Rus people of what is now Ukraine from the late 15th century. Which they were. The languages had diverged, they had different Churches, different political entities and cultures, etc.

    After Moscow the capital was transferred to Saint Petersburg and later back to Moscow.
     
    Yes, the Suzdalians/Muscovites shifted their capital around. This had nothing to do with Ukraine.

    The last legitimate, pre-Mongol ruler of Kiev lands was Daniel of Galicia. Muscovite princes were not his successors. The Galician princes were, and their claims were inherited by the Polish kings.

    False. "They called themselves Rusyns. Rusych only appeared in the 12th century and only in one work. It was a rarely used word back then."

    Back when?

    Suffixes can change over time. Suffixes can change due to foreign influence. Suffixes can be different in different dialects of the same language – it does not matter.
     
    Those are not suffixes. Suffixes are letters added to words to change their meaning or nature. The adjective Sad becomes the noun sadness, the adjective quick becomes the adverb quickly, etc.

    You are describing names for different peoples who have a common root. Rusyns or Rusnaks for Ukrainians. Russky for Russians. Analogous - Romans, Romanians and Romansch, three peoples with Roman descent who have retained the Roman root in their names.

    "The Volhynian Chronicle classified Muscovites alongside Moldovans as Orthodox but foreign."

    You have not read that chronicle.

    Muscovite Rus’ was created as a principality less than 3 decades before the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle
     
    I was not discussing the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle from the 13th century but the Volhynian Chronicle from the 16th century and also the Rus-language Lithuanian Chronicle from the 15th century-16th centuries. They are relevant because they come from the time when the Rus people of Ukraine were no longer the same as the Rus people form Muscovy. That had probably not been the case yet in the 13th century when the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle was written.

    Your argument is based on that flawed premise.

    So for example the earliest description of the Eulogy for Vitold written in 1428 described Moscow, Tver, Novgorod, Pskov as belonging to the Rus people alongside the Rus of Lithuania.

    But later editions in the later 15th and 16th centuries recategorized those non-Lithuanian Rus as Orthodox foreigners, like Moldavains or Bulgarians.

    Similarly, From the 1440s, the Lithuanian chroniclers began referring to the Rus territories of the Grand Duchy as “all the Rus land,” while calling the inhabitants of Northeastern Rus “Muscovites.”

    The Short Volhynian Chronicle included a description of the Battle of Orsha (1514) between the Muscovite and Lithuanian-Rus armies and a panegyric to Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozky, who led the army of the Grand Duchy in the battle. Several times the Grand Duchy was called the Grand Principality of Lithuania and Rus, while the Volhynian troops in Ostrozky’s army were referred to as “the valiant Lithuanian and Rus warriors.” The word “Rus” never applied to the Muscovites, their prince and state.

    So clearly they were perceived as a different nation, non-Rus.

    This was happening about 250 years after the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle had been written, 250 years of political separation and differing cultural influences.

    Rus’ and Russian is the same word but from different historical periods. Like Thou and You — Rus’ is an archaic word for Russian, and Russian is a modern form of Rus’.
     
    This is what Muscovites like to pretend. They have gotten away with it because they were a great empire who eventually conquered the lands of old Rus. I imagine that if Romania had become a great empire and conquered Italy it could lay a fantastical claim to Rome in a similar way.

    Unlike Ukrainian which appeared out of nowhere, because it was made up, “Russian” is a natural development of the name
     
    This is the only correct thing you wrote. The name Ukrainian was adopted by Rusyns/Rusnaks/Little Russians because their original names were part of an excuse by the Russky conquerors to subjugate them and erase their culture.

    "They were different enough that the 17th century Pereyaslav negotiations required the use of a translator, using Latin."

    Another nonsense proving that you are alien to the Rus’ culture. Perhaps you are somewhat a Pole, but you are not a Ukrainian — at least not a real one.

    Otherwise you would have known that Ukrainian and Rusian are mutually intelligible even today
     
    Nonsense. A Russian who hasn't been heavily exposed to Ukrainian will not be able to have a conversation or conduct a negotiation with a Ukrainian-speaking person, and vice versa. You don't understand that, because you grew up in Ukraine in a Russian-speaking family so you were exposed to both languages extensively.

    and back then were even closer than today
     
    Maybe. Although Ukrainian was influenced by contact with Russian for 300 years; in 1700 it had been isolated from Russian for centuries.

    Here is vernacular Ukrainian from 1619, part of a play. It was written in the Latin script:

    https://artefact.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/virmeny-7.png

    The main part of the play was written in the Polish language by as Rus playwright but he included humorous interludes in local Rus. Transcription of part of it:

    Климко. Що ты тутъ, побратиме, собі порабляешь?

    Кажи мені, як живешь, та якъ ся маешь?

    Стецько. Я тут не роблю ничого. Ось иду до дому свого

    Та и зъ тоіеми горшками, якъ зъ своими сусідами.

    Климко. Та на щотакъ много маешь? – либой на жонку кидаешъ?

    Стецько. На що? Чи хочешь вірити, що люблю хороше жити,

    Всёго достатекъ варити кажу, та ся не курчити,

    Такъ яко приналежаетъ сподарови, що все маетъ.

    ::::::::::::::

    So it says mhoho (as in modern Russian) rather than bahato (modern Ukrainian) but otherwise it's pretty similar to modern Ukrainian.

    A people is an ethnic group defined and united with a common language, culture, folklore, cuisine and other traditions resulting from them having a common origin.
     
    By this measure, Swedes, Danes and Norwegians are even more of a common people than Ukrainians and Russians. And Spaniards, Catalans, and Italians (as well as Argentines, Uruguayans and Chileans) as much of a common people as Ukrainians and Russians. With Mexican Mestizos being sort of like northern Russians.

    The Ukrainian language is further from Russian than Danish is from Swedish. It is like Spanish and Italian. Folklore is different - different folk songs and dances. Different political culture, Russians like their despots, they learned well from their Asian masters. Ukrainians are more democratic (and indeed chaotic) - like Poles. Common origin? Genetically Ukrainians are closer to Slovaks than to Russians, and equally as close to Poles as they are to Russians.

    "A Ukrainian who has never heard Russian will not be able to understand a conversation, in Russian and vice versa."

    Such a Ukrainian can be found in diaspora alone.
     
    There are now young western Ukrainians like that. They learn English, Polish or German rather than Russian and don't speak Russian at home or hear it on the streets much. And they speak literary Ukrainian, not the Galician dialect (which is sadly dying out in Galicia).

    Germans from Hamburg cannot understand those from Munich. The High German dialect is as much if not more different from the Low German as Ukrainian is from Russian.
     
    In that case, High and Low German are more different from one another than Danish is from Swedish because speakers of each claim they can understand conversations in the other language. . Will you claim those aren't languages?

    And Russians from the Rostov region speak a southern dialect that sounds closer to Ukrainian than to standard Russian.
     
    No they don't. They just speak Russian with an h sound rather than a g sound. That's the only thing about their speech which is like Ukrainian. Otherwise it's pretty much just Russian.

    There are pockets of actual Ukrainian-speakers in Kuban villages.

    "We had an ethnic Russian nanny from Central Asia, who had heard hardly any Ukrainian before – she couldn’t understand or follow a conversation."

    Must have been because you speak that émigré western dialect. Most Ukrainians might have some troubles understanding it either.
     
    No, we had guests from Kiev over, who spoke regular Ukrainian (I don't speak Galician dialect, I speak literary Ukrainian although it is a bit archaic, one of my grandparents lived in Kharkiv before the war).

    "And I could not understand Russian (other than a word here or there, an occasional phrase) before I lived in Russia."

    You had not been used to the Russian pronunciation, but I guess once you got used you started understanding Russian without learning it.
     
    Vocabulary and pronunciation. Took me at least a month with near full immersion (I avoided expats, spoke English only with my wife), maybe two. I never took formal lessons. I still am far from perfect - I get mistaken for a Czech, Balt or Pole when I speak Russian in Moscow.

    I can read and understand Chekov's plays in Russian, but I tried to read a book by Venedikt Erofeev in Russian and it was hardly comprehensible.

    Ukrainians who move to Poland easily and fairly quickly learn to speak and understand Polish. I'ts matter of weeks. Does that mean that Ukrainian and Polish are not different languages?

    To sum it up this aspiration to see Ukrainians as part of Poland
     
    Ukraine has a stronger heritage with Poland than with Russia. It formed as a nation while linked to Poland. Ties to Russia consist of largely mythological Old Rus, a break of hundreds of years during which the Ukrainian nation was formed, followed by 300 years or less, depending on region, of subjugation.

    There has never been a sophisticated literary work written in Ukrainian, because it has never developed as a language above a vernacular dialect of a minor group of uneducated peasants.
     
    High level of development is not necessary to produce great literature. Spanish is a simple language. And Galicia achieved full literacy of schoolkids about 20 years before Russia did. Ukrainian is more highly developed than Russian, because it is a real and natural language rather than an abstract one.

    From someone with greater knowledge of linguistics than I have:


    Compared to Ukrainian, Russian is a poor and underdeveloped language from every linguistic point of reference, particularly in terms of its vocabulary and grammar. It’s understandable, as modern Russian, from the historic perspective, is a very young and largely artificially created language, a sort of Esperanto [this is an exaggeration - AP]; and it hasn’t had enough time, unlike Ukrainian, to develop the variety of linguistic forms and shortcuts that emerge only when a language is used naturally and for a long period of time by common people communicating with one another daily , rather than via being concocted in an ivory tower. As a result, there’re thousands of Ukrainian shortcut adverbs (e.g.: торік, чимдуж, etc.) that can be expressed in Russian only by using a combination of three separate words. Likewise, Ukrainian has three single-word superlative degrees, while Russian has only one. Ukrainian has single-word forms of Future Imperfect (e.g. матиму, матимемо, матимеш, матиме, матимуть) completely absent from Russian. Ukrainian has the Plus Quam Perfectum tense (e.g. він почав був читати, та його зупинили); Russian doesn’t. And the list goes on and on.

    All U verbs in Present Imperfect ending in “є” also have two forms (e.g., буває/бува) vs only one (бывает)in R.

    Every U verb can be used in Plus Quam Perfectum (e.g., я був почав); this tense is absent from R altogether.

    Every U verb can be used in a single-word Future Imperfect (e.g., матиму/матимемо/матимеш/матимете/матиме/матимуть); again, there’s no such tense in R.

    U has thousands of single-word shortcut adverbs absent from R, such as торік, чимдуж, здебільш, навшпиньки, насамперед, завдальшe, etc. absent from R, all of which require two or three R words to express the same.

    U has three forms of superlative adjectives and adverbs (e.g., найвищий/якнайвищий/щоякнайвищий) vs one in R (e.g., наивысший).

    Another example: “the single-word Future Imperfect (майбутній час недоконаного виду) that is absent from Russian where it can be formed only with the Future form of the auxiliary verb “to be”. E.g. “We will live” in Russian can be formed only as “Мы будем жить”, whereas in Ukrainian, both as “Ми житимемо” (one word for “will live”) and “Ми будемо жити” (“to be” in the Future + Infinitive). Another tense Russian doesn’t have is Plus Quam Perfectum (Past Perfect in English) called in Ukrainian “давноминулий час” and indicating an action finished before some moment in the past, e.g. “Я був читав”.

    While in U, all of the above forms were present in common everyday speech in the 1700′s (that’s the speech and vocabulary Kotliarevsky used to write “The Aeneid” published in 1798), R at the time was a mere rudiment of what it has become after Pushkin and is today.
     

    Replies: @Here Be Dragon, @Philip Owen

    Little is a geographical term applied to the portion of the territory concerned nearest the Imperial capital (Rome or Constantinople). Hence Lesser Britain (Britany) and Great Britain, the island, Asia Minor, Little Poland and indeed Little Russia. Great applies to the further less well known reaches, Magna Graecia for example.

    • Replies: @Wokechoke
    @Philip Owen

    I thought it was more like this

    Gaul this side of the Alps, Cisalpine or Gaul over the Alps, Transalpine.

    The Romans did split Britain into a north and south, which probably reflected differences that predated Roman influences.

    Britannia Prima and Brittania Secundis and Caledonia. The administrative boundaries around 400AD.


    Corinium (Cirencester) plus Glevum (Gloucester) out West was almost as large, rich and as important as Londinium while the north around York was a dank bandit country. Same as it ever was.

    Replies: @Philip Owen

  820. @Wokechoke
    @Mr. Hack

    Owen will be cheering on the rebellion of the Tartars against Moscow when the time comes. Stop trying to thread that needle. Saratov is next city over from the Ukraine border. It’s hardly a population from the other side of Russia. Volgograd must be full of Tartars as well.

    Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Philip Owen

    Saratov is a Muscovite colony set up in 1590. The original right bank inhabitants were Finns (Mordavians) and speakers of what is now Ukrainian. Remnants of both remain. On the left, Asian, bank were nomadic Tatars and Kazaks. These are all still present. There are enough Tatars to sustain a large central mosque (larger than the cathedral) in the city and a branch of the Tatar national university. The whole Lower Volga including Volgograd, until Communism a subordinate city in the Saratov province has siilar populations. Saratov was also the location of the Volga German Republic which was subject to genocide by the Soviets during the second world war. Tatars and Great Russians were moved into their villages. When I turned up briefly in 1994 about 60,000 Volga Germans had made it back, mostly to the twin city Engels across the Volga. (Including suburbs, the agglomeration is the 6th biggest in Russia, maybe the 7th depending on how you define the Volvograd conurbation. Before the revolution Saratov alone was the 3rd biggest city in Russia proper and has an appropriately strong cultural base). Most Volga Germans are now in Germany but a new Roman Catholic cathedral remains. All the Protestants seem to have gone.

    David Anthony argues the horse was domesticated and ridden at Khavlinsk in the north of Saratov as was the woolly sheep and arguably the wheel. Khavlinsk was also Russia’s centre for chemical and biological weapon production – the home of Novichok then called Foliant. It is not entirely closed. The Russian nuclear bomber fleet is based at Engels.

    Saratov is a major industrial centre with food processing (worlds best durum wheat – much Italian pasta produced), engineering, electronics (last thermionic valve maker in the world), auto components, oil, gas and consequent industries.

    The province is poorer than average (disproportionately large rural population) so a very good place to assess Russian realities. Better than Moscow.

  821. It appears that the “rescuer of the Russian Orthodox” Putler himself, is cozying up more and more with world Islam. Doesn’t he realize that he’s being used by “Islamo-Soros” who’s true motives are to continue flooding Western Europe with Moslems?* How dumb can you be?
    https://www.unz.com/pescobar/russia-courts-muslim-countries-as-strategic-eurasian-partners/

    *Resident conspiracy nutter kremlinstoogeA123 recently pointed out:

    The European WEF provoked Russia into launching a defensive operation to protect & rescue Russian Orthodox Christians. This caused millions to flee into the EU. Thus, providing cover for millions of additional MENA origin Islamic Jihadists to infiltrate using forged Ukrainian documents.

  822. @Yevardian
    @John Johnson


    You want Andrew Anglin and other pro-Putin bloggers to give you some dumbed down take with your morning coffee and you don’t like dissenting views. Yea well this is an open forum. Cry more.
     
    The Laxa entity was seriously disruptive to this forum even before the Ukraine War started. I recall it's entry being marked by an thread of 1000+ comments consisting mostly of inanities between it and AaronB (an occasionally decent poster), then diagnosing people with various psychological hangups and disorders.
    Notice nobody has ever accused LatW, suddendeath, Mr. Hack, utu, Peter Akuleyev of being shills despite their pro-Ukrainian views. Only exception I know is our indomitable wordsmith (I would pay to hear his native Мат) Gerard and his neverending crusade against AP.

    Replies: @QCIC, @Beckow, @Mr. Hack, @Mikel, @Wokechoke

    I think I triggered Head Girl into shifting from Laxa to Monitor of Halls.

    Did her in, I did.

    Did you get to read or listen to Black Mischief?

    I am quite fond of the Armenian fixer in the story. Seal liked him too.

  823. @Mr. Hack
    @Wokechoke

    So, you buy the crap that kremlinstoogeA123 is trying to peddle here?:


    The European WEF provoked Russia into launching a defensive operation to protect & rescue Russian Orthodox Christians. This caused millions to flee into the EU. Thus, providing cover for millions of additional MENA origin Islamic Jihadists to infiltrate using forged Ukrainian documents.

     

    https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kogdgviJXTM/VpDqu4ZvykI/AAAAAAAAHiU/kQeHHtN5AHc/s1600/smiley-laughing-and-pointing.png

    Et tu, Brute?

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    What is the WEF?

    • Replies: @A123
    @Wokechoke

    WEF = World Economic Forum. It is a European institution best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. I suspect their slogan is "guns for me, but not for thee" (see [MORE]).

    The WEF provides core leadership to promote the SJW Islamic Globalist agenda, such as Open [Muslim] Borders.

     
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DU7zcRtXUAAUcJZ.jpg
     

    "Important" Americans are invited to attend the Davos conference where they receive instruction from their European thought leaders.

    This backfired when the WEF invited Trump. He provided instructions to Europe on how energy and climate change extremism was an invitation to economic disaster. They laughed at Trump. I bet they now wish they had listened to him.

    PEACE 😇



    https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/104938558-GettyImages-903214946.jpg
     

    This may not be from Davos, but it is funny
     
    https://images.indianexpress.com/2017/07/angela-merkel_mike-p-williams_759.jpg
     

  824. @Philip Owen
    @AP

    Little is a geographical term applied to the portion of the territory concerned nearest the Imperial capital (Rome or Constantinople). Hence Lesser Britain (Britany) and Great Britain, the island, Asia Minor, Little Poland and indeed Little Russia. Great applies to the further less well known reaches, Magna Graecia for example.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    I thought it was more like this

    Gaul this side of the Alps, Cisalpine or Gaul over the Alps, Transalpine.

    The Romans did split Britain into a north and south, which probably reflected differences that predated Roman influences.

    Britannia Prima and Brittania Secundis and Caledonia. The administrative boundaries around 400AD.

    Corinium (Cirencester) plus Glevum (Gloucester) out West was almost as large, rich and as important as Londinium while the north around York was a dank bandit country. Same as it ever was.

    • Replies: @Philip Owen
    @Wokechoke

    Cirencester was indeed a provincial capital. Up until Tudor times Gloucester showed signs of rivalling London. Kings and Queens or great rebels based themselves in the area. They executed rivals in Hereford and there is the battle of Tewkesbury where the Lancastrians were all but destroyed. Towards the end, Britannia was probably divided into 5 provinces which arguably became the 7 kingdoms of the Anglo Saxons plus various versions of Wales on the western side.

    I will defend the riches of the Vale of York. Roman Emperors came there to make their last stands. IT was a city with a hinterland big enough to feed legions. Constantine himself was born there as his father was beseiging another Emperor. York may have been the only city to stay permanently inhabitated after the Romans left.

  825. @Grahamsno(G64)
    @LondonBob

    Pussollini Putin(Don't insult Hitler by comparing him with Putin (Putler)) won't do anything other than firing random missiles at the lowest value targets you could come up with. The inspector Closeau like incompetence of Russia's Potemkin military is on full display and it makes for painful viewing and nothing exemplifies this better than the non show of their much hyped up air FARCE which is totally missing in action.

    Russia has gone from Ivan the terrible to Putin the risible.

    They might still win if millions of Ukrainians laugh themselves to death. Now that is a possible path to victory.

    Replies: @Wokechoke

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Potemkin

    Governor-General and City Builder

    “[After thrashing Johnny Turk], Potemkin returned to St. Petersburg in November 1783 and was promoted to Field Marshal when the Crimea was formally annexed the following February. He also became President of the College of War. The province of Taurida (the Crimea) was added to the state of Novorossiya (lit. New Russia). Potemkin moved south in mid-March, as the “Prince of Taurida”. He had been the namesake of Russia’s southern provinces (including Novorossiya, Azov, Saratov, Astrakhan and the Caucasus) since 1774, repeatedly expanding the domain via military action. He kept his own court, which rivalled Catherine’s: by the 1780s he operated a chancellery with fifty or more clerks and had his own minister, Vasili Popov, to oversee day-to-day affairs. Another favored associate was Mikhail Faleev.
    The breaking of the Cossack hosts, particularly the Zaporozhian Cossacks in 1775, helped define his rule. However, Historian (((Montefiore))) argues that given their location, and in the wake of the Pugachev rebellion, the Cossacks were likely doomed in any case. By the time of Potemkin’s death, the Cossacks and their threat of anarchic revolt were well controlled. Among the Zaporizhian Cossacks he was known as Hrytsko Nechesa.

    Potemkin then embarked on a period of city-founding. Construction started at his first effort, Kherson, in 1778, as a base for a new Black Sea Fleet he intended to build. Potemkin approved every plan himself, but construction was slow, and the city proved costly and vulnerable to plague. Next was the port of Akhtiar, annexed with the Crimea, which became Sevastopol. Then he built Simferopol as the Crimean capital. His biggest failure, however, was his effort to build the city of Ekaterinoslav (lit. The glory of Catherine), now Dnipro. The second most successful city of Potemkin’s rule was Nikolayev (Mykolaiv), which he founded in 1789. Potemkin also initiated the redesign of Odessa after its capture from the Turks; it was to turn out to be his greatest city planning triumph.”

    I would like all to to see how this guy’s career and name got reduced to meaning “fake” in colloquial political English.

    Of Minor birth, he chose the right side in a palace coup, rose through the ranks, annexed Crimea, defeated the Turk in the Caucasus and kept the Cossack on a tight leash. An accomplished man you’d think? So let’s see the who what when and how on the defamation…

    “Potemkin Village”
    The notion of the Potemkin village (coined in German by critical biographer Georg von Helbig as German: Potemkinsche Dörfer) arose from Catherine’s visit to the south. Critics accused Potemkin of using painted façades to fool Catherine into thinking that the area was far richer than it was. Thousands of peasants were alleged to have been stage-managed for this purpose. Certainly, Potemkin had arranged for Catherine to see the best he had to offer (organising numerous exotic excursions) and at least two cities’ officials did conceal poverty by building false houses. It seems unlikely that the fraud approached the scale alleged. The Prince of Ligne, a member of the Austrian delegation, who had explored on his own during the trip, later proclaimed the allegations to be false.

    If anything, ambitious Russians ought to emulate Potemkin’s career. Dr. Prof. Georg von Helbig, might he have been a German academic interested in Germany colonising/conquering the east?

  826. @Wokechoke
    @Mr. Hack

    What is the WEF?

    Replies: @A123

    WEF = World Economic Forum. It is a European institution best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. I suspect their slogan is “guns for me, but not for thee” (see [MORE]).

    The WEF provides core leadership to promote the SJW Islamic Globalist agenda, such as Open [Muslim] Borders.

     

     

    “Important” Americans are invited to attend the Davos conference where they receive instruction from their European thought leaders.

    This backfired when the WEF invited Trump. He provided instructions to Europe on how energy and climate change extremism was an invitation to economic disaster. They laughed at Trump. I bet they now wish they had listened to him.

    PEACE 😇

    [MORE]


     

    This may not be from Davos, but it is funny
     

     

  827. @Wokechoke
    @Philip Owen

    I thought it was more like this

    Gaul this side of the Alps, Cisalpine or Gaul over the Alps, Transalpine.

    The Romans did split Britain into a north and south, which probably reflected differences that predated Roman influences.

    Britannia Prima and Brittania Secundis and Caledonia. The administrative boundaries around 400AD.


    Corinium (Cirencester) plus Glevum (Gloucester) out West was almost as large, rich and as important as Londinium while the north around York was a dank bandit country. Same as it ever was.

    Replies: @Philip Owen

    Cirencester was indeed a provincial capital. Up until Tudor times Gloucester showed signs of rivalling London. Kings and Queens or great rebels based themselves in the area. They executed rivals in Hereford and there is the battle of Tewkesbury where the Lancastrians were all but destroyed. Towards the end, Britannia was probably divided into 5 provinces which arguably became the 7 kingdoms of the Anglo Saxons plus various versions of Wales on the western side.

    I will defend the riches of the Vale of York. Roman Emperors came there to make their last stands. IT was a city with a hinterland big enough to feed legions. Constantine himself was born there as his father was beseiging another Emperor. York may have been the only city to stay permanently inhabitated after the Romans left.

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