You Remember This Funny Song...

... by Shangri-Las (no, not the Leader of the Pack) Remember (Walking In The Sand), which was turned into global musical meme? Well, it is a perfect zeitgeist piece, courtesy of Tik-Tok:

First, Larry posts a superb piece by his friend Helmholtz Smith about basics of strategy--real strategy:

One of Napoleon’s observations is that you should never interrupt your enemies when they are making a mistake. Russians know this, not least because they were careful not to interrupt Napoleon himself in 1812. Putin and his team have had plenty of opportunities to meet NATO’s leaders, observe them, negotiate with them and assess them. It’s unlikely they’re very impressed. But when they started their “special military operation” in Ukraine they could never have dreamed how self-destructive NATO would be. What mistakes? First, the West has not shot itself in the foot with its economic sanctions – Hungary’s Viktor Orban is right when he observes that it has put a slug into its lungs. One can still limp along with a broken foot, but a shot to the lungs is pretty serious. Second, who in Moscow could have imagined that NATO would shovel its ammunition and weapons stockpiles into the Ukrainian black hole in the expectation that if they can get the latest wonderwaffe to General Steiner they’ll be in Moscow by Christmas. A good reason for Moscow to take it slowly – let the mistakes develop, compound and metastasize. It’s happening by itself. Naturally, inevitably, logically. No outside effort required. An unexpected bonus. Don’t interrupt.

Read the whole brilliant piece at Larry's blog. But in a continuous sped-up Shangri-Las denial, as if "oh, no, oh, no" may help, the real "Oh, No" begins to creep into the completely panicked West's ruling class minds:

Gazprom has declared force majeure on gas deliveries to at least one major customer in Europe, which would protect the Russian giant from compensation payments for unrealized deliveries, Reuters reported exclusively on Monday, quoting a Gazprom letter it had seen. Gazprom cannot fulfill its supply obligations due to “extraordinary” circumstances, says the letter dated July 14 and seen by Reuters. The force majeure Gazprom declares in the letter is about supply via Nord Stream, the key Russian gas export route to Germany, a trading source told Reuters today. This force majeure could further worsen the gas row between the EU and Russia, which has already slashed supply to major customers, including Germany and Italy. Russia claims a delay in the return of a repaired turbine due to the Western sanctions on Moscow prevents the reliable operation of a Nord Stream compressor station, for which the turbine was intended.

And the rumor has it--the deliveries may not resume at all, "Oh, no!" The rationing comes to Europe one way or another, and anyone who thinks that this is all, no--it is just the start. Biden's desperate (and disastrous) visit to Saudi Arabia. As James Kunstler reports:

The American news media gets briefed: Saudi Arabia graciously agrees to bump up its oil production somewhere in the 2025-2027 time-frame — a triumph for US diplomacy, the networks are informed. Air Force One wings home through clouds of despair. The White House team members spend the flight updating their resumés.

Well, let those cretins "cap" the oil price and see what happens. Today's market reacted to Biden's "triumph" in Saudi Arabia with the general growth of prices:

If they want oil to get around $180 per barrel and finally completely obliterate American economy, they surely can try. But so desperate their desire to not allow Russia "to finance SMO" from profits' windfall is that they may already have lost any inhibitions, multiplied by sheer incompetence across the board, that they will do it. But they need to do something immediately because Seversk today came under operational control of Russian forces (in Russian) and Mr. Ushakov, resonating with Lavrov's yesterday's article in Izvestya, stated that Kremlin doesn't see any desire from Kiev's regime and its puppeteers from the West to negotiate. And that means that conditions for negotiations may change (in Russian). Oh, no, oh, no, oh no-no-no-no...

Speaking of which. There is yet another British veteran, of Falkland War no less, who suddenly saw the light after being captured in Donbass and is now very sorry for serving with "Azov" Nazis, and wants to live. 

A British man, who fought alongside the infamous Neo-Nazi ‘Azov’ regiment in Mariupol, has asked London for help in a video published by a Russian journalist over the weekend. Identified as John Harding, the man says he would otherwise “face the death penalty.” “I would say to [UK Prime Minister] Boris Johnson, if you can help, if you can influence [Ukrainian] President Zelensky, if you can influence the president of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), or if you can influence [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, then please do,” Harding can be heard saying. The clip was posted by a correspondent with Moscow's Channel One broadcaster, Marina Kim, on her Telegram channel. “People’s lives are depending on this. So, if you can, please, help,” he adds, saying that “otherwise I face the death penalty. My friends face the death penalty.”

No shit, genius! Next thing we know he will be saying that he saw nothing, he heard nothing, he knew nothing when "Azov" thugs were killing, raping and robbing civilians. Hey dude, there are consequences for actions, didn't you know? It is called causality, a precise thing Western "elites" do not understand. Mr. Smith is on target with his "don't interrupt".  Or, as Shangri-Las sing:"Oh, no. Oh, no."  This is a primer for Monday.