Didn't Take Long.

Just yesterday I reiterated the point that the United States will not continue with START and, bang, good ol' buddy Bolton confirms:

Having dismantled two of the three pillars of nuclear non-proliferation, the US now apparently wants to let the last one crumble as well. National Security Advisor John Bolton has said the New START is unlikely to be extended.Bolton, a notoriously hawkish Trump adviser, was addressing the Young America’s Foundation 41st annual National Conservative Student Conference on Tuesday, when he unleashed his scathing criticism on the New START struck under the Obama administration.Calling the landmark agreement “flawed from the beginning,” Bolton said that the deal failed to cover short-range tactical nuclear weapons and “Russian delivery systems,” without referring to any military hardware in particular.

Russians didn't hesitate and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was pretty explicit stating that if necessary Russia will position her inter-mediate range missiles closer to US territory to make the flight time shorter (in Russian). Recall my "small" disagreement with South Front earlier this year--here and here. For people who missed my slight disagreement with South Front, I repeat a (larger) scheme of things, how they will look like if Russia decides to take things closer to Caribbean Crisis 2.0. 

Generally speaking, positioning a variety of ballistic (or...drum roll...hypersonic gliders) closer to the United States in Chukotka fits quite well with Russia's development of her Arctic, and convenience stores and decent lodging will be made available pretty fast if push comes to shove. But! All this is just another "victory" of Trump's Administration, which continues its "winning" non-stop. I am getting a bit tired from this non-stop winning. So, make you own conclusions, after all latest Nuclear Posture Review disclosed more than was printed, or said. I liked this phrase from NPR-2018: 

The United States does not wish to regard either Russia or China as an adversary and seeks stable relations with both. 

LOL, and I am an alien from planet Zoltar.

Too Late, Too Little.

New York Times, its editorial board suddenly wakes up and recognizes new reality and sounds alarm. 

One of the striking warnings in a recent Pentagon white paper on the growing strategic threat from Russia is that its president, Vladimir Putin, could pull a “reverse Nixon” and play his own version of the “China card” with the United States, a reference to the former president’s strategy of playing those two adversaries against each other. Until recently, any relationship between Russia and China could largely be dismissed as a marriage of convenience with limited impact on American interests. But since Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2014, Chinese and Russian authorities have increasingly found common cause, disparaging Western-style democracy and offering themselves as alternatives to America’s postwar leadership. Now China and Russia are growing even closer, suggesting a more permanent arrangement that could pose a complex challenge to the United States.

One, then, is forced to ask a warranted and, in fact, irresistible question: under what stone did the editorial board of a herald of American liberal exceptionalism spend last 10 years? Why did this reality dawn on them on July 21, 2019 and what were they doing before this date? I know what--they were pushing all kinds of trash dressed as news and analytical materials on Russia and POTUS, being one of the main drivers behind Russiagate. For starters, using today the term "Western-style democracy" in relation to the United States, not to mention her pathetic European vassals desperately trying to bring Orwellian dystopian visions to life, is not a sign of a good taste or, for that matter, of being grounded in any reality. Especially from the outlet which, together with few other propaganda bullhorns of Democratic Party, did all they could, and, actually, largely succeeded, in undermining this very "Western-style democracy". But, I guess, one should expect that from the newspaper which is good mostly as an ersatz toilet paper in times of shortages and which is on its way towards the same end as US main-stream media--being a global laughing stock. Yet, some people still read NYT and this rag commands some attention of alleged "intellectuals". So, why not review NYT's retarded reaction to America's departure from the center of the universe. NYT, of course, does not understand that, in the end, China is Russia's neighbor with all this position entails.

Of course, to sound "competent", NYT refers to the "White paper".

Russian Strategic Intentions.A Strategic Multilayer Assessment (SMA) White Paper. May 2019  

It is a 151pages long concoction, heavy on pseudo-military lingo and simulacra ("US Leadership" anyone on page 123), which is mostly written, with few exceptions, by US and UK (and Israeli, such as Dima Adamsky) political "scientists" and that explains constant referrals to Russian authoritarianism, and some Russia's "coercive strategies", which still do not explain what can possibly the United States do to "stop" these damn Russians. In the best tradition of a military cadet of any Soviet era military academy, writing a preamble to a third or fourth year course work on missile attack on CBG (or deployment of air defense in EW dense environment), with all necessary mantras about Central Committee and "wise" policy of the Party, this white paper does the same, only with "democratic" memes. When no less than Dr. John Arquilla from Naval Post-Graduate School invokes no less than Alexis De Tocqueville's "prediction"  as a "starting point" of Russia being that second half (the US being first) of "marked by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe"(c), one, certainly, feels compelled to remind Arquilla (you may have guessed already--a Doctorate in Political "Science") that Tocqueville was writing primarily about demography in the times when not only nobody had any idea about internet and cruise missiles, but of the internal combustion engine too. 

How is Tocqueville relevant to modern Russia, whose power is NOT in her demography and her economy is about a quarter of that of China, remains a complete mystery to me. But, as I stated above, in one of many my course-works and even in thesis--compliments and bows to Communist Party of the Soviet Union were mandatory in preamble. The similarity with invocation of largely irrelevant but politically correct views and concepts in contemporary Western political, so called, "science" is remarkable in its "Sovietism". Moreover, the similarity with Soviet sloganeering becomes even more eerie when one reads Dr. Richard Weitz' (you guessed it right--a collection of useless degrees) "Recommendations": 

Other specific policy recommendations include:
• taking a tough line on intelligence activity in target states, including expelling suspected spies regardless of a likely tit-for-tat response, to deter penetration and control by Russian intelligence services and prevent easy access to local political elites and/or local socioeconomic assets;
• maintaining potent intelligence services and police forces and providing them with the training, guidance, and purview to empower them to meet hybrid force challenges, yet in measured and appropriate ways that will not worsen local dissatisfaction or provide Russia with a pretext for action;
• developing and implementing effective legislation and corresponding enforcement agencies, especially where financial monitoring and media licensing are concerned;
• demonstrating strong and unified national and international political will to stand up to Russia publicly; and
• showing a will and capacity to fight hybrid attacks with defense and deterrence measures—rather than adopting the Russian playbook directly, this means leveraging Western strengths in areas such as finance, soft power in third nations, intelligence gathering, and even cyberwarfare.

For people with Soviet experience these "recommendations" can only bring a smile to their faces since they have everything in them in terms of passion, slogans and vague generalities and practically nothing in terms of actual specific measures--it is so reminiscent of Party Slogans for May day printed in Pravda, you know--to increase productivity, to tighten our rank and file, to be for everything good against everything bad--that we MUST ask the question: do these "specialists: understand that they are simply NOT GOOD in any issue related to modern geopolitics, economy, military power, warfare, diplomacy and international relations? The record of American think-tankdom, driven by the armies of political "science" Ph.Ds, other "Doctors" in International Relations and retired (or active) military officers is one of unmitigated disaster in the last 30 years. Not a single forecast, not a single strategic prediction, not a single assessment turned out to be correct in the last 30 years. Most what American "analysts" wrote on international relations and geopolitics turned out to be a complete pseudo-scientific trash and demagoguery. The body of overwhelming empirical evidence of American military, economic, geopolitical decline is out there for everyone to see. But if the lack of knowledge of these "scholars", who are in the business of referring non-stop to each-other in their "academic" echo-chamber, about Russia is now expected, it is their complete lack of understanding of their own country--what is America of today and where it is going--which wows any observer with gaping holes in judgement by this army of mostly humanities-educated "specialists". 

No wonder then, that, be that NYT pieces or numerous White Papers and other "analytical products", most of them do not correspond to reality in any way. I stated years ago--the United States doesn't have geopolitical currency to buy Russia, period. Russia is out of US price range for a long time now. Yet, NYT still issues its own, delusional and grossly dated "recommendations":

Given its economic, military and technological trajectory, together with its authoritarian model, China, not Russia, represents by far the greater challenge to American objectives over the long term. That means President Trump is correct to try to establish a sounder relationship with Russia and peel it away from China. But his approach has been ham-handed and at times even counter to American interests and values. America can’t seek warmer relations with a rival power at the price of ignoring its interference in American democracy. Yet even during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union often made progress in one facet of their relationship while they remained in conflict over other aspects.The United States and Russia could expand their cooperation in space. The United States is already dependent on Russian rockets to reach the International Space Station. They could also continue to work closely in the Arctic, as members of the Arctic Council that has negotiated legally binding agreements governing search and rescue operations and responses to oil spills. And they could revive cooperation on arms control, especially by extending the New Start Treaty. It was encouraging that top State Department officials met their Russian counterparts twice in recent weeks, including in Geneva on Wednesday, although there was no immediate sign that the two sides made any progress on arms control or other major issues.

For delusional hacks at NYT--Trump cannot "peel Russia away from China" for a simple reason that China herself doesn't want to be peeled away from Russia. I also have news for them--START will not be extended for three reasons:

1. Nuclear weapons are the only weapons which allow the United States to realistically stay relevant in Great Power politics; US WILL initiate the failure of START also because (see below)...

2. US lags in weapons, especially hypersonic stand-off weapons, behind Russia and (see below)...

3. US conventional power is NOT (it never was) what it was and is being presented as "finest fighting force in history". US Armed Forces cannot win a conventional war against peer and, considering the dynamics of modern conflict, are inherently nuclear use-biased once real losses begin to mount. 

So, reviewing all those "recommendations" and "analyses" one can easily see American geopolitical and military thought in a state of a complete delusion and disarray. This outcome was inevitable once US "academe" disposed of any pretense of objectivity and operating with verified and sensible data, and bought its own politically correct, ideologically honed "democratic" exceptionalist narrative. The most important geopolitical mistake of  a century for the United States was to push, in a brief moment of her weakness, Russia away as an equal partner, thus assuring own departure, for a variety of reasons this pushing precipitated, from a historically brief position of a dominance. What to do then? How about removing all those think-tank sinecures for ignorant political "scientists" and, maybe, trying to get a grip on reality? I know it falls on deaf ears but that could be a good start. US foreign policy, economic and geopolitical thought, and, to a large degree, military one are bankrupt and in the state of intellectual paralysis. For that, as well for America's internal woes, some of them reaching disastrous proportions, the United States has only its "intellectual", entirely corrupt and subservient to globalist oligarchy, class to thank. Any fleeting signs of this class' opening its eyes to a reality, however, can only be described as too little, too late. 

In related news: Russia is slowly ridding herself of the heritage of Serdyukov (and cabal of liberal "specialists") reforms in Armed Forces by restoring repair-engineering battalions inside combined arms armies (in Russian).    

Some Insight Into The Minds of Russiagate Movers And Shakers.

Yvonne Lorenzo sent me the link to The Nation article about this whole Russiagate debacle. I wrote many times that West has larger issue with Russia than merely difference of policies. It is racial at the political top. So, here is summary, of sorts, of the "ideas" about Russia and Russians many exercise in the US. 

Key US officials behind the Russia investigation have made no secret of their animus towards Russia. “I do always hate the Russians,” Lisa Page, a senior FBI lawyer on the Russia probe, testified to Congress in July 2018. “It is my opinion that with respect to Western ideals and who it is and what it is west and for as Americans, Russia poses the most dangerous threat to that way of life.” As he opened the FBI’s probe of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russians in July 2016, FBI agent Peter Strzok texted Page: “fuck the cheating motherfucking Russians… Bastards. I hate them… I think they’re probably the worst. Fucking conniving cheating savages.” Speaking to NBC News in May 2017, former director of national intelligence James Clapper explained why US officials saw interactions between the Trump camp and Russian nationals as a cause for alarm: “The Russians,” Clapper said, “almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique. So we were concerned.” In a May interview with Lawfare,former FBI general counsel Jim Baker, who helped oversee the Russia probe, explained the origins of the investigation as follows: “It was about Russia, period, full stop.… When the [George] Papadopoulos information comes across our radar screen, it’s coming across in the sense that we were always looking at Russia.… we’ve been thinking about Russia as a threat actor for decades and decades.”  

It is always funny to read about "values" and "ideals"--if that "way of life" continues, the end-result will be precisely total elimination of everything of true value combined West ever produced with the US Constitution being shredded to pieces. Ah, wait, I forgot--these are the thoughts of people who are directly involved in criminal coup attempt, which by definition is anti-constitutional and violates this very same "way of life" these people allegedly try to protect. One has to have, of course, appreciation of their fever-pitch hatred of Russians and, what matters here, this is not a private, an exception that is, attitude. It is not a secret that very large strata of US policy-makers is afflicted by Russophobia. A large part of this Russophobia, apart from being racial--you know, dirty Slavs and all that jazz--is very much a suppressed complex of inferiority. Throughout all 20th and 21st century not only Russia presented itself as an inconvenient impediment to America-the-savior-of-humanity narrative, but Russia remains the only nation which can remove the United States from the map and can conventionally defeat any combination of forces the United States can assemble. This simple fact makes many in US "elite", which is largely ignorant on the issues of real war, very uncomfortable. 

As Graham Allison, a political "scientist" (that is to say a man who has no real scientific education), the author of stupid in its triviality "concept" of Thucydides Gap,  formulated it:

Technology, in effect, made Russia America’s insufferable but inescapable Siamese twin. The strategic reality is even more horrific. However demonic, however destructive, however devious, however deserving of being strangled Russia is, the brute fact is that we cannot kill this bastard without committing suicide.

There is, of course, a very funny point in this Allison's lament, which really makes his bloviation on this Thucydides Gap nothing more than incomprehensible and self-contradictory demagoguery, so characteristic of current American "intellectual" class. But it merely adds to a spectrum of high class, cultured and incisive thoughts on Russia produced in the deep recesses of American political "science" parallel universe. Nah, I am being facetious--most of this class doesn't have the mastery of the subjects involved: be that Russia, warfare, power or history. Speaking of which--Russia celebrates today Navy Day. "Cheating savages" rolled out some hardware which already packs a very good salvo of high-supersonic missiles and, in the nearest future, will be carrying 3M22 Zircons, which basically add to the flame of Russia hatred among exceptionalist crowd in D.C. 

Nowadays, participation of PLANs, Indian or Vietnamese Navy's ships in Russian Naval parades has become a routine and a good demonstration of increasing consolidation of Eurasian security architecture. Like this latest joint air patrol by Russia and China, with China buying yet another batch of S-400s  and, rumor has it, another batch of SU-35s (this one--SU-35--is yet to be confirmed). Obviously, Turkey willing to take part in commercial aircraft programs of Russia (in Russian) will only add to the Russia-related anxiety of the American "elites". So, to ease this anxiety Russia kicked Atlantic Council out of Russia--a long overdue decision. Those creeps do not operate in reality anyway and are good only for collection of information (aka spying) from Russia's "dissidents" (a euphemism for Russophobes) and for writing stupid amateurish narratives, none of which is ever based in...well...reality. 

A Different Universe.

When Paul (not yet Sir) was still with Linda and this guitar riff by Denny Laine sounded from all open windows in my (and others) small happy universe in Baku. From one of the best rock-albums of all time.  Paul and Linda's photo is haunting in its beauty....

It is Friday....

 

Meanwhile In The News.

I keep an eye on that constantly. 

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - A draft motion likely to be passed by South African lawmakers would give a new parliamentary committee until March 2020 to report back on proposed constitutional changes that would allow expropriation of land without compensation.The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has pledged to accelerate land reform, an emotive issue in South Africa and a source of frustration for many voters. Twenty-five years after the end of apartheid, when millions among the black majority were dispossessed of their land by the white minority, housing conditions and land ownership remain vastly unequal.Last year, the ANC proposed a controversial constitutional amendment that would allow the government to seize land without compensation, but the process has stalled. 

Of course, keep in mind that narrative (by Reuters, no less) about "dispossession" is good ol' British liberal BS, but that is expected from the media of the country, which is an exhibit A of a catastrophe that multiculturalism (euphemism for emasculation and disenfranchising of native white population) brings. Yet, the problem persists in South Africa and the white genocide is in the air. 

Here is the video of how Boers are being welcomed in Russia (it is mostly in Russian) and given tours of mostly abandoned or barely alive villages, no, not in fertile Stavropol or Krasnodar Regions or paradise of Crimea, but in truly historic and geographic center of Russia--Ivanovo Region (my late father was from one of those villages--not shown in this video). The Administration of Ivanovo Region helped with presentation for this particular family, where all charming (all ginger) kids learned to speak Russian on their own. 

There is a lot of land in Russia which needs loving care, especially in such areas as Central Russia (Central Strip of Russia). Will Boers take this offer too? Will rich Boers help their less fortunate brothers and sisters move too? They are the most vulnerable ones. South Africa is going to descend into chaos one way or another (actually it is happening as I type this) and the danger to whites there will only grow. Latest news only confirm that. 

Back to the US. James Kunstler today pointed out what I also wrote about not for once, whenever commenting on current US "elites", including in relation to a disgusting spectacle of Russiagate, which culminated two days ago in Muller's performance which was painful to watch and listen. But here is Kunstler verbatim:

In all this long and excruciating public playing-out of dark schemes, Mr. Trump, first candidate and now president, seems to have acted as little more than a tackling dummy for the Mueller Team and its backstage Clinton confederates. He tweeted childishly about the deeply partisan composition of the Mueller Team when he should have mounted a forceful legal opposition to the effrontery of their selection in the first place.

It resonates well with yesterday Tucker's rant. Is it all that bad, really, among these American "elites"? Yes, it is and it is terrifying. The incompetence level is simply off the scale, as well as a complete paralysis of the government. A bunch of high-school spoiled brats, like in this photo with doctored Seal of the President of the United States. Pathetic and yet another sign of immaturity and lack of any values and respect to the Office among those who contributed mightily to the downfall of the Republic. American "elites" are revolting. They are unfit to run the country.

President Trump walked, beaming, onto the stage at Turning Point USA’s student summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to loud applause from the attendees, as a huge image of the “Seal of the President of the United States” was projected on a screen behind him. But there was something different about this seal. The national symbol was replaced by a two-headed eagle, and instead of arrows, in its claw was a clutch of golf clubs. The national motto — “E pluribus unum,” meaning “out of many, one” — was replaced by the Spanish phrase “45 es un títere”: “45 [designating Trump, as the 45th president] is a puppet.”

Disgusting... all of them.  

"Allegedly Educated, Allegedly Smart".

They are not, and Tucker is right to stress this point. I will just leave this here. I just have to say--most of US media-political class are morons with maturity levels of teenagers.

The damage to the United States is gigantic and it is irreparable. I don't like Trump but he is not a traitor to US, DNC and Dem.Party and some GOPers are.  

Excellent Piece At Saker's Site.

Andrei Raevsky's (the Saker) resource does a great job providing some needed translations from Russian to English. One such translation was done today. It is a straight-forward summary of what we really all experienced in the last two decades about Putin and people behind him. Here is an excerpt from Saker's translation of Victor Anisimov's piece:

We know little, only what is shown to us by our and foreign media, which also doesn’t know any more than we do. And so we, with our “knowledge” scraped from the media, undertake to criticise Putin, who possesses considerably more knowledge than we do, saying that he “was mistaken”, that he “did not venture”, that he “was afraid”, and so on. In our faultfinding we resemble these “internet experts”, I only ask that offense isn’t taken if someone recognizes himself or herself in this description.

I also liked Anisimov's portrayal of many of those "experts". 

 

Yet, despite all screams of "bloody murder" from both Russia's "left" (primarily from Commercial Party of Russian Federation, also known as "communists") and the "liberal", a euphemism for Western grants' sustained creeps, such as Navalny, flank, Russia somehow carries on and, all things considered, is doing rather well. As Anisimov notes:

So who you are, “comrade Putin”? And who sent you to Russia, literally at the “last moment”? When it already seemed that Russia died and disappears from the world map! So who you are, the saviour of Russia? Will we have answers one day?

I know the feeling. Last May I and my friend from Baku childhood and naval academy, a former submariner, were sitting in the Georgian (ahh, yes, I know--good timing) restaurant Suliko, right behind magnificent Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg and he told me almost to the letter exactly the same thing. He said it was a miracle, I agreed. But then again, historic Russia's existence was always fogged by a bit of a mystery and a miracle, I would say. Many times in her history Russia was on the edge of oblivion and each-time some strange force pulled her back from the precipice. In a strange coincidence, this piece came out day after I watched (yesterday) Putin's unannounced visit to Irkutsk to deal with catastrophic flooding in the area and people displaced by it and by incompetence (and corruption) of local bureaucracy. This is not a photo-op or setup. Media always follow President. You can see and literally feel why majority of Russian people know that he is THEIR President. Don't forget to turn on Close Caption.

So, indeed, who are you Mr. Putin? What kind of force is in you and behind you?

Trump--The Iran Conqueror.

Larry C Johnson, formerly of CIA analytical org fame, posted today a good review of how Trump is owned by war-mongers he surrounded himself with. Larry gives the spread on four possible scenarios for escalation, but that is not what catches the eye in his excellent piece. This is what we should consider strongly:

If you listen to the neo-con crowd that are certain we can bomb Iran into submission. That is a fantasy and is based on a lie. From what I am hearing from knowledgeable sources no one on the Joint Chiefs of Staff at DOD are advising caution. We are in an old fashioned dick measuring contest. Pride is supplanting reason. This is a dangerous time and the future of Trump's Presidency and possibly that of America hang in the balance in my view. 

I totally get it why JCS wouldn't caution Trump on the possible war with Iran. As was noted before, both Bolton and Pompeo treat Pentagon as own fiefdom and it is only natural to assume that any voices of dissent would and are being suppressed. Plus, let's be honest, look at the list of wars Pentagon flushed down the toilet and one may get the idea why US would want to strike Iran. It is more than just pride, albeit this is also a major factor, but it is general America's obsession with nations which refuse to bow to US pressure and foundation of that is not just pride but exceptionalism and, in Iran's particular case, Israeli and Saudi influences--both are terrified by Iran's emergence as regional superpower.

Larry also makes a good point, which I also make for a number of years now:

There is a dangerous delusion within the Trump National Security team. They believe we are so dominant that Iran will not dare fight us. I prefer to rely on the sage counsel of Colonel Patrick Lang--the Iranians are not afraid to fight us and, if backed into a corner, will do so. 

There is one mistake though in this statement--it is not just Trump National Security team. This American ailment of thinking itself as a preeminent military power in history (recall, Obama's "the finest fighting force in history") is rooted in WW II and a gross misconception about real driving forces behind demolition of Wehrmacht (a real finest fighting force) at the peak of its might. Patton's Syndrome, reinforced by Hollywood, is a very dangerous thing, it is also very American thing. That is what Atkinson wrote:

As Rick Atkinson admitted in 1995, he could see in Patton: "the creeping arrogance, the hubris, which would costs the American Army so dearly in Vietnam. Summing up the achievements of his troops in crushing the German counterattack of December 1944, Patton with pardonable pride claims to have "moved farther and faster and engaged more divisions in less time than any other army in the history of the United States--possibly in the history of the world... No country can stand against such an Army." 

When this kind of things are at play--it is not a pride but ignorance which drives the war. Ignorance and huge insecurity against the background of the "impressive" list of lost wars. And then, of course, the question--WHO in Pentagon? As Andrew Bacevich put it bluntly in his symptomatically titled piece The Decline of Our Nation’s Generals:

It is small wonder that so few observers pay serious attention to what senior military officers have to say. What they say is mostly drivel. 

So, Mr. MAGA, or, rather, MIGA is free to follow the advice of his "team". He may get, in the end, his own Vietnam, or something even worse than that, and this, as we all know, is not conducive for the second term, as LBJ, should he be alive today, would testify to. That is, of course, if the United States will continue to exist as it exists today after Iran's "adventure". Considering utter inability of US political and military class to learn simplest things in geopolitics and war, one then, will be forced to ask what really have Trump conquered once missiles start to fly.      

The Birth Of Hard'n'Heavy.

1977, somehow in our school in Kamchatka this LP gets around and everyone looks at the cover mesmerized. We knew already what Rainbow (of course, Blackmore's) was. But that fist knocked us out completely.

And it was this piece, which started with what could be defined as the greatest intro on Moog in new genre for a new era. Tony Carey, Ronni (God Bless Your Soul) Dio, immortal Cozy Powell, Jimmy Bain and Ritchie Blackmore. It was a Blitzkrieg, Deep Operations, armored divisions with air fleets deploying over the space of our imagination. The Voice and Instruments and THE Guitar. That is how real heavy sounded and should sound. This was a music by men and for real men (Ronni died as a fighter laughing at his cancer).

Yes, we didn't do Fridays recently. But Rainbow also had an incredibly romantic side to them. Always try to catch the rainbow....

Damn, we were lucky to live in a time of titans...... 

You see, Ritchie called this masterpiece a "pop-music" type thing. 

I also remember us (me and my wife) sitting at the wedding of my classmate with him and his drop dead gorgeous bride (entering properly set restaurant across Nizami movie-theater in Baku) entering the proceedings under this music....

Of Course, He Doesn't.

Donald Trump doesn't see sanctions on Turkey right now. OK, then. 

Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump said Thursday he was not considering economic sanctions "right now" on Turkey after its major weapons purchase from Russia. "We're not looking at that right now," Trump told reporters. Speaking shortly afterward, he seemed to clarify: "We're looking at it. Very, very difficult situation for a lot of reasons." "We'll see what we do. We haven't announced that yet," he said. The United States said Wednesday that it was booting Turkey from its signature F-35 stealth fighter jet program after it defied warnings and began delivery of the S-400 missile defense system.

The issue here, of course, is extremely simple--sanction Turkey, and her drift away from NATO only accelerates, and there goes NATO as a viable military organization. Europeans will press on with their own European Armed Forces after that and, in general, it will be yet another Trump Administration's "win" for the United States. Isn't "winning" wonderful? Turks know what they are doing. As I stated before, and, let's be honest, that was very easy to predict, Russia already offered Turkey SU-35s as a "patch" deal until more serious military-industrial cooperation, involving some technology transfer will be hammered out between Turks and Russians. 

While Ahmed Aubodouth's (of The Independent) piece is full of butt-hurt delirium so characteristic of UK sewer, aka its Orwellian mass-media, let's be honest--even those morons understand that:

Turkey and Russia’s air defence deal is a nightmare for the US – and still Trump has no idea what Putin is up to

I deliberately, with my nose held, referenced this piece since even this guy gets it in terms of a nightmare. In other terms, however, he, as is expected, doesn't get it--Turkey is her own nation, with or without Putin's "evil" plans, and after Gulenist Coup in 2016 and, now obvious, inside job of shooting Russia's SU-24 down in 2015, or murdering of Russia's Ambassador  Karlov, it is clear that Erdogan knew who and how was behind those events. The rest of the piece is a standard "lefty" gibberish, including now tired bromides about European "values". But it is, indeed, a disaster for the US (as is the whole Trump's so called foreign policy, or lack thereof) and the issue here is not just political--it is, in the end, of the military-technological competition. What ALL Western media miss, of course, is the fact that Turkey is back into imperial game and is planning to lead Islamic world in the future. That is the main driver behind Erdogan's vision for Turkey and it goes without saying--one cannot deal with modern West which is becoming increasingly degenerate and not-agreement capable. One cannot also deal with defense of such vision as Turkish one by using American weaponry: a lot of it it is not that good, for starters, as F-35 demonstrated so vividly and, secondly, the United States can always, whenever she wants, shut off both equipment and logistical chains to entities which US dislikes. Turkey qualifies fully for such "treatment" because she increasingly asserts her own interests.

Russia is completely different in this respect. Russians are aware about what Turkey is up to and they have no problem with helping Turkey along her way to Asia greatness and even global relevance. And why not? Turks are striving and will continue to strive for this anyway and trying to arrest this development will merely increase the number of paroxysms and nobody in greater Eurasia really needs or wants that. Islam? Well, that is yet to be seen but one should not also forget that in Turkey Russia is staking a very valuable and voluminous market and hydrocarbons' hub. That, plus Bosporus and Dardanelles, aka Turkish Straits. Russia and her present Black Sea Fleet and what is shaping to be the new edition of 5th Operational Squadron (5 OPESK), not to mention Tartus in Syria, need those. Big, very big politics is involved. 

Would Trump sanction Turkey eventually? If he wants to accelerate solidifying Russia and China's positions within Eurasia, sure. But he has to be aware of the fact that this will increasingly shrink both American influence and, inevitably, her market for military toys. Russia, in this respect, knows really well what she is doing--Turkey will need many of those. Many of them already are and will be what neither NATO member, the United States included, can offer. Air Force Times may have their own doubts about SU-57 entering the picture after pretty much (I would assume, I could be wrong, of course--don't take it as a fact yet) settled deal with SU-35s for Turkey, otherwise Rostec's very own Chemezov wouldn't publicly offer them. 

In an official Rostec statement released Thursday, Chemezov was quoted as saying Russia is prepared to help Turkey procure advanced fighter jets. But the jets on offer are hardly an analogue of the stealthy F-35. Rather, Chemezov is offering up the Su-35, a heavily souped-up version of the Su-27."If our Turkish colleagues express a desire, we are ready to work out the deliveries of Su-35 fighter jets," Chemezov said.The Su-35 is a heavy multirole fighter jet and has recently become a popular export item. One of the jet’s standout features is extreme maneuverability. There are several videos online of Su-35s performing the demanding and impressive Pugachev’s Cobra maneuver.The jet had its combat debut in Syria in early 2016 to beef up escorts of Russian Su-24 and Su-34 fighter-bombers deployed in the conflict there. It was, ironically, part of Moscow’s message to Ankara after Turkish air defenses shot down a Russian Su-24 in November 2015.The Su-35 is not a stealth fighter, like Russia’s developmental Su-57. The Su-57 project is years behind schedule, and expectations have been downgraded several times in recent years. The Russian Air Force has focused on more Su-35 procurements while delaying the Su-57.

It has to be remembered that Erdogan openly spoke recently about not only SU-35s but SU-57s. Will Turkey get her hands on this combat aircraft? We all may discuss all combat virtues and faults of SU-57 whatever we want, but there is very little doubt that today it is the world's premier combat aircraft with unmatched capabilities, which make F-35 look like...ahem...turkey and Russia is putting this technology into series production with contract for the first 76 (three regiments) aircraft for Russian VKS signed just recently. So, Air Force Times needs to update itself. Now, one has to keep in mind Russia's military procurement truism: Russia never offers anything for sale abroad in terms of weapons unless new generation is already in IOC or nearing the conclusion of R&D phase. So, was Erdogan bluffing about S-500? Something tells me that there is a chance he didn't. Obviously not now, but down the road, why not? 

Meanwhile, Vladimir Zhirinovsky is Russia's main political clown and once he is gone, his political party (LDPR), essentially a one-man show, will dissolve itself naturally. But as any court jester, Zhirnovsky often speaks the truth, however in a bizarre, caricature form. So, who knows, what Russia has now in works. S-600, 700? Surely, Russia works on something which will follow S-500 which is also now in series production. And that brings us to this issue which I cover ad nauseam--in international relations combination of real military power and fair business is a deadly combination. Real power on the international arena exists ONLY when it rests on a foundation of a REAL military power. Real military power is a combination of factors among which the ability to produce most advanced and effective war machines is a defining feature. No machines--no power. Turks know this damn well. And as in any Asian culture the matter of prestige is of enormous importance. Ignorant filthy-moneyed Gulfie Arabs may have enough money to buy latest Rolls-Royce model or built (or rather pay for) pretty ugly post-modernist skyscrapers but it seems that Turks would rather drive Toyotas and manufacture cutting edge military technology with which they, later, will try to reclaim the glory of a Sublime Porte and for that they need to have more SU-57s and S-500 than Rolls-Royces or Lamborghinis. After all, there is always Aurus, as long as you have a desire to wait in line for couple of years. After all, this, allegedly omnipotent and omnipresent, dude rides in one.