There Is A Saying In Russia...

... a very popular one, actually, that "for those who don't know what Physics is--the world is filled with miracles". It is, of course, a bit over the top but its foundation is solid and could be interpreted as judging things on their own merit when you have the tool kit. As SMO demonstrated, and, in fact confirmed it unequivocally--media all over the world are simply incapable of proper reporting, let alone analysis of modern warfare and they will NEVER be able to grasp as a professional class anything beyond lower level tactics (and even that is questionable) at the most on the company level, period. Anything above and what transitions into the high level tactics (brigade-level) let alone operational-tactical (division), not to speak of operational-strategic (corps, army, all forces) is and will remain beyond their grasp. 

And so--we had last 72 hours of all kinds of info-shysters who would have issues even with famous book by Alexander Vainer The Tactical Calculations, not to speak of things which are classified and require clearance. 

But then again, people who never commanded a squad in their life and do not understand what combat training of even enlisted rank is, they will not grasp it. Some of them, of course, will continue to push their agendas and do it in the most amateurish manner, which is characteristic of most media. Here is an example--a boy, a graduate of the Moscow State's Journo "department" who doesn't even have command of proper professional military terminology who passes at English RT for ... military expert.

Here is his CV. A typical butthurt liberal. 

Sergey Poletaev is an information analyst and publicist. He specializes in Russian foreign policy and in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Born in 1980 in Moscow, Poletaev is a graduate of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. In 2017, together with researchers Oleg Makarov and Dmitry Stefanovich, he founded the information and analytical project Vatfor. A Russian expert on international relations and a contributor of the Russian International Affairs Council, his articles have been published in specialist media like Russia in Global Affairs, Profile, Eurasia-Expert, and others. Poletaev is also a facilitator/organizer of interviews, online streams on political topics, as well as scientific and workshop conferences.

And this is all while real military and intel experts such as Larry Johnson or Scott Ritter appear in writing only occasionally on English RT. The issue here is NOT that the wider audience should suddenly be drowned in the issues of Required Force, communications networks (highly classified), or Combat Effectiveness of units and formations. NO, average Joe doesn't need it, but what average Joe (or Ivan) need is a professional assessment, which cannot be done at all by anyone with "degree" in journalism. You may ask but what about Marat, well--Marat being a very bright person and, actually, war correspondent--he communicates with real serious professionals on the level of Chiefs of Staffs of Brigades and Divisions. Plus, his and our friend, combat veteran Colonel Mikhail Popov is always there. Feel the difference? 

Same goes for me. I do not have expertise in all of it, but I know my limitations and when need be I ask and communicate with my good friends Colonel Trukhan, Lt. Colonel Shalandin and other people, many of who are senior and very senior officers with enormous academic and command (including operational) experiences such as many of you know--this group of sharp-witted dudes known as Callsign Katzman, or simply--Katzmans. And, of course, I constantly study myself. I can continue with this list for a long time--this is what "social circle of professionals" means, we know each-other and recognize each-other as professionals. Same goes to my good friends Larry Johnson, Scott Ritter, Colonel Daniel Davis and his friends, Colonel Jaques Baud, Commander Robinson Farrinazo of Brazilian Marines et al. My work has been recognized already in 2018 by Vice-Admiral Kumar, then Commander of one of the two fleets of Indian Navy. And, of course, I am invited to RT all the time. Last time I declined was ... three days ago. I declined--Christmas, you know.)) I will be there soon. I hope media, including RT, will learn some lessons. 

My task here is to underscore that while in the US we are staying more or less informed due to a vast and powerful network of the alternative media, not that what they report is necessarily always accurate, in Russia a completely obverse situation has developed--the so called "alternative media" in Russia (not all, of course) are, actually, the main generators of FUD and downright misinformation, while state or close to the state media, not least through the press-service of Russia's Defense Ministry, remain most truthful and non-dramatic. I am not going to go here into who and how covers up a destructive activity of all those Rybars, Podolyakas, or how the graduate of the philosopy department can run reviews on military-technological developments, but I want to stress, again--none of those are "military experts". All of them do not even know what it means and what comes into this. It is also understood that they are all being watched.

As hysteria around Kupyansk demonstrated in the last 72 hours--informational hygiene remains a critical requirement for extricating oneself from emotionally charged and downright hysterical "news cycle" and much of it depends on tuning out from those "voices" and info shysters who for the last 40 months completely discredited themselves and confirmed what Hunter Thompson (actually Agnew) noted astutely:

The press is a gang of cruel faggots. Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits—a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.

This is who most of them really are. They decided to ride the wave of war but forgot that it was for real professionals, especially starting from the brigade level up--a level at which none of them can understand what hits them and they do not even grasp how those levels operate. In the end, the lowest unit which gets its own staff is battalion. There is a reason for that. 

In related news, Randy, Larry and yours truly exchanged opinions on shit yesterday)) 

Randy also got the cameo in what is shaping to be a huge blockbuster this season: Marty Supreme. 

Randy plays ... a rich man)) In conclusion, never stop learning--I heard from doctors that it is not "training" of the brain through repetition but constant learning new things, which is real neural stimulation, which helps to stave off dementia. SMO is an incredible learning opportunity. 

They Just Don't Learn.

Chris Hedges of RT, formerly of NYT, a Pulitzer Prize winner, what have you, wrote a piece two days ago. It is about the decline of the "US Empire" and the piece is filled with historical parallels and, naturally, the fate of the Soviet Union is mentioned, despite a rather dramatic difference between the context of Soviet collapse and America's disintegration. I understand where Hedges is coming from but then he suddenly exhibits a defining trait of America's intellectual class, without exception, attributable to the whole of it, no matter if it is neocon wing of it or honest peace-loving people, such as Hedges. 

Russia, whose economy is roughly the size of Italy’s, is also attacked for destabilizing the Ukraine, supporting Bashar al-Assad in Syria, funding France’s National Front party and hacking into German computers. Biden has imposed sanctions on Russia — including limits on buying newly issued sovereign debt — in response to allegations that Moscow was behind a hack on SolarWinds Corp. and worked to thwart his candidacy.

I wrote about this issue not for once, but the ignorant myth of Russia's economy being the size that of Italy's, Spain's, Australia's, you name it, continues to be perpetuated by many and this myth is not just patently untrue, it is downright dangerous. Because American "elite" resides in a delusion about outside world for the last 30 years at least, they continue to make their decisions based on absolutely false premises, many of which are being pushed on them through media. Let's face it, statements such as "the finest fighting force in history" or "the largest economy on planet" are as American as flag, apple pie and baseball. Modern United States cannot live without self-aggrandizing. But how about forensic mental experiment? I will start with... America's GDP which does not reflect America's claim (mostly through inflation of the value of assets) to being largest economy in the world, with China long ago overtaking the US as a main manufacturing hub of the world. It is just cold hard fact, China's real sectors dwarfs that of the US. Using US Dollar and its value as a measure of economy, in the meantime, is a sign of ultimate economic and geopolitical ignorance. 

On the other hand, even common sense, forget actual IMF data which defines Russia's economy as being larger than that of Germany, should prompt people who call themselves "journalists" to merely imagine what would happen to Italy if she, granted my love for Italian culture and football, ever decides to build the space program the size of Russia's, will start building nuclear power stations, maintain state-of-the-art armed forces and, simply, provide decent standard of living for most people in the climate which, as Texas has demonstrated recently, can only be described as a calamity. Even this small list of real industries should give a pause to any journo at best, in a worst case--this list is a good primer for the start of a serious cognitive dissonance. But, no. The spouting of this crap continues unabated, I can remind you another popular cliche--Russia punches above her weight. This is not just the issue of ignorance, albeit this too. It is a classic case of Kubler-Ross grief model with Stages 3 (Bargaining) and 4 (Depression) being manifestly present in contemporary American writings, be that by delusional neocons or by those who profess views opposite to neocons'.  

Truth is, should Russia have the economy the size of Italy's, she wouldn't be able to do what she does and that is setting global agenda and, frankly, laughing at West's sanctions and even direct sabotage. America's "garrulous patriotism" cannot take it across the whole political and ideological spectrum. In a Stage 3 (Bargaining) of Kubler-Ross this bargaining takes grotesque forms with mantras of American greatness which begin to sound more and more ridiculous and do not anymore provide a desperately needed therapeutic effect. They cannot, because America's slide towards the bona fide thirdworldism cannot be stopped within present pseudo-economic and political system and culture, and what's left is to fight facts of life. Recall, brilliant essay by Irina Alksnis, a very sympathetic towards America's plight, which since then has become even more relevant.   

However, to hear this simple advice--not to mention  following it--the United States need to stop, at least for an instance, and silence themselves. To stop shaking air with statements, declarations, demands, and threats, which come across as either strange, or outright silly because of their obvious inability to ever become a reality. But it is precisely, it seems, what the US is not capable of doing. As a result--the continuation of never-ending declaratory carousel: Moscow, Assad must go! Russians, we will provide for freedom of navigation in Kerch Strait! Russians, we will punish you for support of Maduro. But the most insulting for Americans is that only Russia can understand them. Because we remember the pain behind those words. 

And so it goes: America's economy is not the largest in the world, hasn't been for a long time, Russia's economy is not the size of Italy's, it is much larger than that, it is, actually, larger than that of Germany and continues the pursuit of economy of Japan, but even these forecasts, which forget to mention Germany's real industries shrinking for 28 months in a row now, even this BS, heavy on FIRE economy--a real reason behind America's decline--stats show where the Italy's and Russia's economies are. And again, America's real economy, not manufacturing of debt--the main US industry--is not $23 trillion, it is not even $15 trillion and is probably around 12-13, at best. 

Real size of Russia's economy? Probably around $5 trillion now and at least Russia doesn't count prostitution and illegal drugs trade as addition to GDP as EU does.

Counting Drugs and Prostitution in GDP Makes a Mockery of Budget Rules

I don't understand why the author is so incensed? In the world where Tesla and Facebook have bigger "capitalization" than Boeing or General Electric, anything is possible, so adding sales of heroin and the value of the side-road or truck stops' restrooms blowjobs is only natural for creating an impression of large booming "economies". In fact, I see no difference between prostitution and cooking of books which is MO of modern Western "economies". Actually, no--there is a difference, prostitution is more honest. But then again, in my latest book, I touch upon the issue of inability of modern Western media, at least the majority of them, to learn. It is a systemic problem and it is, as I am on record for years, impossible to cure after decades of America's self-aggrandizing which, at some point, reached a scale of a full Kafkaesque grotesque and even well-intentioned people, who see the problems, are not immune from baneful effects of a BS narrative industry, which missed the point that the ball is over and that the fancy carriage is nothing more than yet another pumpkin, under the teary glance of a Cinderella bound to dream about the magic night, not knowing that the Prince is not coming. 

Will they learn? I don't know....

Fred Reed's Excellent Piece.

For a change--a piece of good journalism. Excellent piece by Fred Reed at Unz Review today.

 

Notes of a Reformed News Weasel:Understanding the Vacuity.

 

I, however, disagree with Fred in one thing. He writes:

Journalists are not stupid, running to well above average in intelligence. You could form a large chapter of Mensa by raiding newsrooms in Washington. However, with a fair few exceptions, they are not intellectuals, not contemplative, not studious. They are high-pressure fact-accountants, competitive, comfortable under tight deadlines, aggressive, combative, quick but shallow. This can be a serviceable substituent for stupid.  

I have to correct Fred here: stupidity is not defined by IQ metric alone. Real intellect is defined by self-awareness and understanding of own limitations, which, in the end, is a moral category. The world is filled with all those "through-the-roof IQ" and "Mensa level intelligence" failures and losers, who never achieved anything in their lives--I personally know several of them. US main-stream media "journalists" fail every metric in a framework which values knowledge, competence and truth. Life is complex and so are the outcomes. Other than that small note, the piece by Fred is superb and he nails it when he writes:

 They don’t know America, and they don’t much like it.

I see nothing intellectual about that and may add only that they know nothing about Russia, China, the rest of the world, about war, peace, culture, morality, common good, people in general and the list goes on, and on, and on. So much for "intelligence" of ignorant hacks.