The "Art" We ...

 ... deserve. Enshittification of culture continues. Sure, we all know who DJT is--narcissistic BSer and much-much more. But this Canadian "artist", she doesn't even understand that "painting" Trump's portrait with cow's shit, she automatically has become, and you guessed it--a shitty artist. 

Well, British built their huts during middle ages out of cow's dung and dry grass. But they needed to survive and hide from elements. It was the matter of life and death. For this "artist" it is the matter of trash and ... more trash. 

Yes. Responsible Citizens ...

 ... who are armed save lives. Jordan is a hero. RIP to those killed by that nutjob. 

They Cope Hard ...

 ... really hard. Morning headlines are filled with doom and gloom for Russia. Harry Kazianis, an infoshyster and a mediawhore, who collected around himself the crowd of the same incompetent BSers like he is, provides the tribune in his so called National Security Journal, where nobody has any real serious background in real security, to these "deep thinkers". 

Russia lost more ground than it gained this spring for the first time in years, and a report says Putin plans a winter ‘hail Mary’

This drivel, including statements like these: 

But now, Russia appears to have embraced another form of attack: Striking Ukrainian civilians as they fill up at gas stations.

Is written by an admirer of 404 Nazis and supporter of terrorism: 

Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy.

Average US journo in legacy media is a war criminal and Silver is an exhibit A, not to mention the fact that he wouldn't know a first thing about warfare. But judging by his hysterical writing, he is upset and tries to cope, including by spewing BS about SMO, because the reality of 404 and NATO is grim. And, of course, there is losing of ground but not by Russia. 

Just to demonstrate one of many details about SMO, today:

The Russian Aerospace Forces launched a pinpoint strike on the "underground city" in the village of Khoten, Sumy region. A carefully hidden facility of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which Western curators designed as an impregnable bastion, has turned into a mass grave.

One of the classic 404 strongpoints, or rather underground positions, constructed under the supervision by "experts" from UK, France and Germany. By different estimates--many hundreds of KIAs and many hundreds of wounded in this single strike. Elsewhere Russian Army continues to gain ground and liberate town after town (today it is Baksheevka) and the movement is relentless. So, they all try to cope by inventing something which doesn't exist in reality, they support any terrorist and Nazi from either 404 or their own countries, where war criminals occupy high political and military offices. They are the trash of history who are on the verge of being disposed into the dustbin of history. Let them suffer. 

Aah, No!

 Not 12 years. And not "half". 

It will take NATO about 12 years to approach at least half the level of the Russian Armed Forces in terms of equipment and combat capabilities. This was stated by the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK Valery Zaluzhny. "It will take NATO about 12 years to equal at least half the level of the Russian Armed Forces," Zaluzhny said at a general meeting of Ukrainian ambassadors in Kyiv, where Euro-Atlantic integration was discussed.

Critical capabilities such as C2, stand-off weapons, air-defense, strategic nuclear forces, combat armor et al will not be closed either in 12 or 20 years. In terms of combat experience and combined arms operations, well ... cannot see it at all. Of course, I can always be accused of bias or Russian rah-rah, but I was warning combined West against committing suicide by cop for nearly two decades. They didn't listen. 

And here is a very good analogy in ... football. It is only 8 minutes long but it is totally applicable. 

You cannot change the DNA in some well-established culture, any attempt will fail with catastrophic results, e.g. Germany National Team. This is the thing which US academe and military still cannot understand. You cannot make US a great land power. It is impossible, even if you run all of the US officer corps through Russian military academies and the Academy of General Staff. So much more than just some set of military skills comes into this. As Russians joke, which is true to a large degree--Russia as a country is one huge military academy attached to one huge military-industrial plan. That's the root system supplemented with an enormous historic experience of the land warfare. 

Do they even know what a nightmare was Eastern Front in WW I? 

Yep, no idea. This motif is present in Randy and mine discussion on Friday. 

Enjoy, if you will. 

Banality Of Evil.

They will not be able to whitewash the "American Way of War". 

It Is Just the Warmup.

They cannot even hide this anymore. Too late as ABC reports: 'The damage is enormous': Ukraine grapples with record-breaking Russian strikes:  

Russia set new wartime records for the rate and scale of its missile strikes on Ukrainian cities in July, according to data published by the Ukrainian air force and analyzed by ABC News, as the Ukrainian government accelerated its efforts to patch well-publicized gaps in its aerial defensive umbrella. Across July, Russia launched a total of 381 missiles of all types into Ukraine, the air force in Kyiv said, at a rate of just over 12 per day -- setting new wartime records for the overall number and rate of missiles launched into the country. The data also indicated that missiles have become a more prominent element of Russia's nightly -- and sometimes also daytime -- combined strikes, which are largely comprised of drones. In July, though, the proportion of Russian missiles in the overall munition count increased to a record high of just over 7%, according to Ukrainian air force data analyzed by ABC News.

ABC and its "military analysts" can "analyze" shit because they still buy the BS fed to them by 404. But even this picture shows that their narratives created by amateurs in Pentagon and CIA begin to fall apart. Even if to accept these numbers of missiles (which are well below the actual numbers)--this is the indication of Russia's enormous (order of magnitude) lead over NATO in production of stand-off high precisions weapons. Most of all, huge portion of those are supersonic and hypersonic weapons--technologies beyond NATO's grasp. 

But other question emerges, until now all these "experts" have been saying that NATO AD provided to 404 was extremely effective (intercepting 146% of Russian missiles), yet--here we are, "the damage is enormous". Well, it has very little with West's AD systems which are at best mediocre, at worst--useless. It is in the fact that Russia is set to wrap up not only 404--this is the decomposing corpse of the nation, but with the West because Russia sees no redeeming qualities in it. Just pure, distilled evil.  

About the "Big Picture".

Scott nails it. I have been at this thesis for almost two decades. 

The US has no experts in Russia--not in CIA, not in Academe, not in Pentagon, not is State Department. It is the result of an overall decline always second rate US intellectual class and confirmation bias. In case of, say, late Brzezinski--also a result of personal vendetta by a mediocrity reaching a serious government post. 

The US empire was sliding towards the abyss for a while, and indicators of this collapse warrant to be revisited in light of a new information becoming available with each passing day. Meanwhile, the US military will find, yet again, the excuse that it is strictly 404 thing, while, of course, this is the "American Way of War"--killing civilians. 

Children, again. Pure terrorism--this is what they do, kill civilians, children. This is Gelendzhik. My today's video is titled Banality of Evil. Washington and Brussels will never whitewash themselves. Russians view the West as evil. Rightly so. A few exceptions of people of morality, honor and integrity merely confirm this fact.