On Culture...

 ... in a larger sense. By far not everything is bad in American culture as we used to know it. In the end, for century New York's skyline was the envy of the world. Not anymore. NYC today is a shithole and high culture barely survives, and so does a remainder of clear understanding of one national self. You can take the girl out of the village, you cannot take the village out of the girl. The best America can offer today compares in terms of high culture as a Wanker county fair muppet show to Bolshoy Ballet. Even Washington's National Gallery of Art has its roots in Russia. American elites, however, ooze provincialism (not to speak of low intelligence) non-stop. So, Condi Rice decided to raise her opinion on Russia while having zero grasp of what she is looking at. County fair, all along. Nothing is wrong with county fairs, though, per se. Unless, of course, it is State Department and Pentagon.

Nima And Larry...

 ... no BS, excellent talk. 

 

Meanwhile RT Continues...

 ... to provide the tribune to some obviously shady amateurs--running along the front-line and calling oneself a military correspondent--does not make one a military planner and military professional. Vladislav Ugolny is represented as a Russian journalist born in Donetsk. You will find precious little about this guy, except that he is not military and he was... the head of Russian department of BBC called "Svet", he himself confirms it (in Russian). In other words, yet another creep similar to Rybar, Cassad, Edda et al. Look what he writes and rudderless RT (Simonyan is too busy parading herself a fool that she is at Russian TV) publishes this crap:

Over the year and a half of the military operation, Ukraine has become more capable of acting in the Black Sea region and has gradually moved from exclusively defensive to offensive tactics. This has been possible because of foreign assistance and the transfer of weapons capable of striking the rear positions of the Russian military. As a result, both sides attack each other’s military infrastructure without being able to completely destroy the enemy’s forces. However, while Ukraine is concentrated only in this region, Russia’s scope of action is broader – it continues to destroy military facilities along the entire length of the front line and can exert pressure on Ukraine’s strategic rear. Meanwhile, the victory of either side can only be ensured by means of a land operation – eventually, either the Russian flag will return to Odessa or the Ukrainian flag will fly over Sevastopol. Otherwise, the region will only face further escalation and constant threats, including terrorist attacks. 

To illustrate what kind of creature this BSer is, here is him:

As you can see yourself, he is fresh from puberty and is in dire need to prove himself a strategist of global scale. Hence:

Meanwhile, the victory of either side can only be ensured by means of a land operation – eventually, either the Russian flag will return to Odessa or the Ukrainian flag will fly over Sevastopol. Otherwise, the region will only face further escalation and constant threats, including terrorist attacks (c).  

Yes, and then they will take Moscow. It is impossible to explain to RT and Simonyan, who is utterly unqualified to run anything, except into the ground, and who has zero serious background in anything, that most (not all, exceptions like Scott Ritter are far and between) of RT's "military experts" are full of shit ignoramuses, even when they have former military ranks. So, something is wrong at RT, not with Ugolny who merely desperately tries to talk about things he has no clue about. My suggestion to RT is to "hire" military "experts" from high schools. And no, I have no intentions to offer myself as such, I simply see no reason of continuing to appear at RT.

Open Thread.

 Go at it.

Remember Your Name.

I know it is Friday and it should be fun. But it is difficult to do it each Friday. Here is the movie which will not be shown in the West. Even in Poland which participated in shooting this movie in 1974 and it was titled in Polish Zapamiętaj Imię Swoje, Remember Your Name in Russian. It is very loosely based on the real story of Russian child being, among many hundreds of thousands, shipped to Auschwitz. Yes, it wasn't just Jewish death camp. Here is one of the Slavic girls who would have been lost in posterity if not for Nazis documenting every single prisoner in their camps. 

She was a Polish girl, Czeslawa Kwoka. One of the 139,000 Poles removed from their villages in 1939 and later in 1942 deported  to Auschwitz. 

She was merely a prisoner # 26947 captured here on photo three months before she died in concentration camp. She is beaten here, and here she is terrified. She will be beaten again after photo-session. Like many Slavs she was considered untermensch. Needless to say that many Ukrainians, like Yaroslav Hunka who was met with standing ovation in Canada's Parliament, left their mark not on the battlefield, where their SS formations have been utterly demolished by the Red Army, but primarily as guards in concentration camps, mass executioners of Soviet population, watch the movie Come and See, including mass murder of Jews and Red Army POWs, such as Babi Yar horror.You can get to Babi Yar memorial in Kiev, by following avenues of Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera--both cadre Nazi officers and genocidal murderers. Just in case you doubt it--Babi Yar here is marked as Babin Yar. Remarkably, the US Embassy is just about a kilometer away from this. Very symbolic.

In general, combined West is oblivious, for a number of reasons, not least through well developed Holocaust Industry by Hollywood, to the fate of Russian and other Slavic children. I don't believe that what passes for Western "intellectuals" today can process all of that nightmare--they have no intellectual and moral foundation for that. And here comes this movie which is almost as powerful as Come and See. Sadly it is only in Russian. For those who want to watch, here is the link. But this all shows the side of SMO, which Westerners in general, with some notable exceptions, many of who read this blog, are incapable to understand--SMO now acquired almost a religious character, and some information provided here may help to understand why. I cannot convey now the scope of the reaction in Russia to Canada's infamy. Russians have now a complete proof of evil which combined West represents today. 

I disagree with otherwise brilliantly eloquent George Galloway, Western public will not react in any way to what have happened last weekend in Ottawa. It is pure statistics, the sample size--Allies  lost fewer KIAs combined in WW II than Leningrad lost civilians and military during the Siege. It is just the matter of quantitative impact which is in the foundation of historic memory. Modern Western establishment doesn't have any, together with morality. No Canadian, American or British suffered slavery, torture, inhumane treatment and death in numbers which ensure proper societal reaction to an absolute evil which Nazism represents. Some voices of consciousness from the West are very few. But then again, in the US military history of WW II has been written by defeated German generals and SS with Abwehr officers. Make your own conclusions this Friday evening.

Nima And Me Talking.

Yesterday. 

 

Oh, Please!

The US Army studied armored warfare based on Patton's "advances" against virtually non-existent Wehrmacht's armor in Lorraine, and from the fairy tales by Manstein and Guderian, who had to confabulate in order to explain how, in the end, they got beaten by Katukov and Rotmistrov tank armies. The turkey shoot in the Gulf added very little, in fact--detracted, from the combined arms, and all attempts by honorable David Glantz and Jonathan House to change the perspective on the Red Army and WW II made a huge splash, but still failed. This was inevitable, when one operated on correlates of war, this ever valuable war statistics, lifted directly from Nazi sources. GIGO--Garbage In, Garbage Out. 

Now, as RT notices, they want to train based on... drum roll--"lessons from Ukraine". 

The US is preparing its troops for future wars by examining the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and fielding its own experiments based on experience gained from that battlefield, Defense One reported on Thursday. The National Training Center (NTC) in California and the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) are training US service members to use drones, electronic surveillance, and satellites and combine them with artillery strikes, according to commanders who spoke with the outlet. At the same time, troops are learning to conceal themselves from enemy drones and surveillance. “The thing we struggle the most with is this business of a transparent battlefield,” Brigadier General Curtis Taylor, the head of the NTC, told the outlet. He explained that his center has been teaching soldiers to hide from UAVs in buildings and minimize the use of communication equipment. Meanwhile, the JRTC has reportedly been pushing units to simplify their command posts to be put up and taken down quickly. 

Ah, poor-poor lads, tactics is important and all--surely one needs to conceal oneself but tactical, let alone operational, manuals--the level at which outcomes of wars are decided--are written very differently than a collection of anecdotal evidence from grunts on the ground, however important those are. In order for one to understand, as the original from Defense One piece describes:

Drones, electronic surveillance, and satellites allow adversaries to easily identify U.S. formations, Taylor said—and combining that data with artillery or missiles means the enemy can strike anywhere, anytime. At JRTC, forces playing the “opposing force,” called OPFOR, have learned to fly drones that use apps to scan for Bluetooth or WiFi signals, Gardner said. 

While EMCON is just a teeny-weeny part of a much larger picture of massive scale combined arms and multi-domain operations one needs what the US never got from her wars starting from Korea, because one cannot interrogate the enemy which is not a loser but quite the opposite--has beaten the US. That means an extremely limited access to viable combat statistics, especially in terms of crucial correlates between combat effectiveness of formations and weapons' arsenal they use. Now, add here a complete caricature 404 provides in terms of combat data to NATO and you will get the idea. No number of the US Army officers on the ground in 404 will change the paradigm, even with 24/7 work of US ISR complex. One still NEEDS those huge arrays of combat information for systematization and generalization in order to develop operational and strategic models for victory on the battlefield. And bar some SIGINT and localized data at the locations of already utterly demolished VSU, US Army and Intel is not getting access to the most important data sets. 

And then, of course, there is the issue of hardware, or, speaking in more learned language--procurement policies. It is as simple as 2 x 4 piece of lumber:

1. If you don't have AD which even remotely is as capable as that of Russia--you are left only to despair (or salivate) at the element of war which you cannot change, because the impact of your air forces and long range fires is diminished dramatically. Suddenly, it becomes the issue of strategy and even politics. 

2. If you don't have hypersonic weapons, let alone integrate them into your TOE, what is that you gonna do? Train for what? Right, just conceal yourself and your HQ which still is NOT going to help since HQs and Comm. Posts by definition are C4 units and will be detected and annihilated. So, how are you going "to train" for that. Surely, the Parameters prescription is dubious at best: 

The Army must focus on developing command-and-control systems and mobile command posts that enable continuous movement, allow distributed collaboration, and synchronize across all warfighting functions to minimize electronic signature.  

You can minimize, you cannot eliminate it.

3. You CANNOT train the US Army for 3,600 casualties a day. Most importantly, you CANNOT train American public to accept such a price, especially being paid fighting who knows where for who knows what objectives, unless one turns the US into Orwellian prison-state, which is in progress as I type this. But even then...

At this stage the VSU lost half-a-million KIAs and at least twice this number of wounded. And this is the lower-end estimates. These numbers are much higher than US Army's all KIAs in WW II and Vietnam combined. 

But in the end, you cannot turn expeditionary colonial army into continental juggernaut--you simply cannot. Sheer economics and weapons enter the set of considerations here, which cannot be properly discussed within one short post. So, they can train whatever they want, but no training, however important on human-professional level, can substitute tools of 21st century war. But then again, I repeat ad nauseam--the West lost the arms race. To demonstrate, here is one such butt-hurt imbecile: 

The dismal performance of Russia’s conventional forces in the early days of the war in Ukraine risks convincing some in NATO that the future Russian threat to the Alliance can be deterred primarily via NATO’s conventional superiority, and that enhancing deterrence of Russian nuclear use in a future conflict is therefore no longer a high priority. This is a dangerous fallacy. 

The guy is full of shit, with "degree" in... international relations and is completely lost in his pseudo-expertise, but he is REPRESENTATIVE  of the "intellectual" level of current US military-political top which is NOT trainable or is capable of learning, and this is a grim reality of the defeat of the combined West. You cannot win when the only thing you know is how to operate in GIGO mode.

Finally!

The presidential candidate I can vote for. Terry is incomparable in this role, from one of the greatest movies of the century. 

Come to think of it, the President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho knew what his country needed to be saved. He recognized the guy who could save the country--a no small feat. This is more than current POTUS, or rather puppeteers who have their guiding hand up his ass, plus a bunch of morons who voted for him, can do. And so he is back with awesome program. He knows how to fix shit now(c) and this is the powerful message in the times when the country either fixes her shit now or it will be gone. In the end, I miss COSTCO's famous greeting at the entrance: "Welcome to COSTCO, I love you." Vote Camacho!

A Reminder About Economy.

Real economy, and why Lavrov stated about decision on battlefield. 

 

A Few Importnat Points From My Friends.

First, Larry makes an astute observation. It is a classic intel analyst observation. 

Western analysts continue to be blinded by their deep-seated belief that Russia is a crumbling gas station and attributes the shortage to:

a combination of factors including maintenance at oil refineries, bottlenecks on railways and the weakness of the rouble, which incentivizes fuel exports.

Maybe. But let me suggest an alternative explanation. Russia is husbanding its stockpile of diesel fuel as a contingency for an offensive that will take control of Kiev and Odessa. Farfetched? Maybe. Recent remarks by Speaker of Russia’s Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, and echoed byForeign Minister Lavrov and Defense Chief Shoigu, carries an ominous message for the West — Russia is not interested in a negotiated settlement with Ukraine

Is Larry correct? He may well be, and even if this hypothesis will not actualize, it is one of those cases that the hypothesis was valid and professional. Will know soon enough.

 

That brings us to my other friend, Marat Khairullin, here is what Marat states:

На этой неделе стало окончательно ясно, что ВСУ уже даже не на пороге поражения, а прочно, обоими ногами перешло эту грань. И, выражаясь образно, дверь за этим порогом с треском захлопнулась, отступать уже некуда. Как сказал намедни Лавров — на поле боя, значит на поле боя. Адекватные люди, следящие за нашей официальной дипломатией, прекрасно знают, что глава нашей дипломатии отвечает за каждое свое слово. В данном случае, если он выразился так категорично, это значит, что наша сторона уверена, что лягушка уже сварилась, топор упал, кровавый рассвет украинский армии наступил, кирдык уже приземлился укропам на голову и т.д. — одним словом тенденция взяла свое.  

Translation: This week it became completely clear that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are no longer even on the verge of defeat, but have firmly crossed this line with both feet. And, figuratively speaking, the door behind this threshold slammed shut with a bang, there was nowhere to retreat. As Lavrov said the other day, on the battlefield means on the battlefield. Adequate people who follow our official diplomacy know very well that the head of our diplomacy is responsible for every word he says. In this case, if he expressed himself so categorically, this means that our side is sure that the frog has already been boiled, the ax has fallen, the bloody dawn of the Ukrainian army has arrived, the kirdyk has already landed on the dill’s head, etc. - in a word, the trend has taken its toll.  

 

If anyone wonders what "kirdyk" is--here is explanation. Obviously the synonym to kirdyk is good ol' Russian pizdets, but Marat cannot use it, of course;) But Marat makes this necessary accent on Lavrov's statement which was:

Russia’s Lavrov rubbishes Ukraine peace plan and warns conflict will be resolved on battlefield

For those who do not understand, let me translate--Lavrov didn't talk about 404 and the remnants of its army. No, Lavrov was talking about combined forces of NATO. Read Marat's piece in full, he also gives a very good insight into Lavrov's statement. It always was about NATO and now ALL Russian political top speaks about it openly--either the remnants of 404, which is a euphemism for NATO, follow Russian conditions or 404 ceases to exist, together with NATO whose military defeat, should it decide to commit a suicide, is not in doubt. It takes Lavrov and his nonchalant attitude to deliver the message.

Open Thread.

Go at it.

Nobody Gives A...

 ... shit who they are in Canada's Parliament. The fact that one gal had a (half)courage to call it, aw, please. 

Canadian Parliament knew what they have been doing. Most of them are political whores, they will sell anything for reelection. Yes, most of Trudeau's party support SS and Nazis, as long as they kill Russians. So do many US Democrats and many Republicans. Canadians voted for Trudeau's party, Americans voted for Biden. Biden, or rather Obama's clan, support Nazis as long as they kill Russians. Of course, sanctimonious recriminations are all good, but West's political elites, for the most part, are genocidal maniacs, they just let their guard down for a second.

Caitlin Nails It...

In rock'n'roll style. 

Antibiotics and other disinfectants now should be a standard issue for those who are interviewed by people from Politico, WaPo, NYT, WSJ, CNN, PBS, especially by Christian Amanpour, and other heralds of "democracy". Who knows what other diseases they carry.

P.S. Ringo wrote, actually, some awesome music. Yes, I mean Octopus's Garden and Devil Woman (not Cliff Richard's one) among others.

Scott's Excellent Talk...

 ... at Judge's. 

Plus, for those who continue to doubt numbers. Here is today's RT headline:

The number of Ukrainian servicemen killed since the counteroffensive began has now surpassed 83,000, Russian Defense Ministry data shows 

I reiterate, we still do NOT know the number of KIAs in the rear of 404. This number is huge due to relentless Russia's salvos of stand-off weapons at locations, assembly areas of VSU and 404's military-industrial infrastructure. We are easily looking at least at half-a-million KIAs for VSU... so far. More is coming. Shoigu's estimate of SMO continuing through 2025 is a good estimate, once one considers that 404 is NOT even the main target, NATO is. Or, broadly speaking, as follows from Patrushev's program article--Pax Americana, a euphemism for "rules-based order". It is unsustainable, especially when sheer incompetence of Western "elites" and military-industrial weakness have been exposed dramatically.

And?

404 lies 99% of the time, Western press whores do the same. So what's the news?  

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, was shown on Russian state television on Tuesday attending a defence leaders' meeting remotely, a day after Ukrainian special forces said they had killed him. In video and photographs released by the defence ministry, Sokolov was shown as one of several fleet commanders on video apparently joining an in-person meeting of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and other army chiefs, although not speaking. It was not clear when the video was filmed. Ukraine's special forces said on Monday that Sokolov had been killed along with 33 other officers in a missile attack last week on the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol in Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014. In response to the Russian video, the Ukraine special forces said on Telegram: "Since the Russians were urgently forced to publish a response with Sokolov allegedly alive, our units are clarifying the information."

And since when, all of a sudden, they decided to debunk 404 propaganda? White House, State Department and Pentagon, obviously, still use it? What happened, wink, wink...

Marat On Losses...

... for both sides. In Russian. But Marat gives excellent spread, including operationally. He also confirms what I speak about for months now--Russia gives primarily KIA numbers for VSU. So read it--it is extremely important. 

Eva's Sacred Rage.

She published op-ed at RT. 

Whether Trudeau (and his Stepan Bandera-sympathizing deputy PM Chrystia Freeland) knew about Yaroslav Hunka or not, the question remains: why was he never brought to justice? He, or any of the other 2,000 SS Nazis Canada reportedly took in in the years following WW2. Having been accepted as anti-communist refugees with little to no scrutiny, these suspected war criminals and collaborators have been allowed to live out the rest of their days in peace, and most of them have done so openly under their own names, as the Simon Wiesenthal Center has repeatedly reported.

There is much to be said about Canada's history with Ukrainian Nazis. Not only did it take them in after WW2, but the government-backed Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which, until recently, listed Nazi-collaborator veterans organizations as members, as well as government-funded Ukrainian ‘youth centers’ that celebrate Nazi collaborators like Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich. There are even monuments honoring Nazi collaborators and Ukrainian Insurgent Army criminals still standing in Canadian cities. Canada has also supported modern-day Nazis in Ukraine itself, by training members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion on Canadian soil, although Canadian corporate media has in recent years attempted to downplay this.

I fully agree with Eva--this was NOT a coincidence. It is also not a coincidence that US Congress is "blind" to the fact that they support Nazi regime in Kiev.

Judge And Larry.

Have a great discussion. 

Especially in regards to Polish-404 issue. But now comes this question: did Russia plan for it? Plan for what, you may ask. Well, for accelerated implosion of the West. I now can convincingly say--yes. It is generally a normal practice for competent governments to do a contingency planning, same goes for any competent General Staff and today we see the outcome. 

Gaius Baltar wrote an excellent piece on what is wrong with the Western political class. 

A breakdown of diplomacy doesn’t quite describe how bad things have become. The behavior of US and European leaders has become increasingly unhinged and any semblance of rationality has been abandoned. It is impossible to listen to western leaders without coming to the conclusion that something is very wrong. Firstly, they seem to have created an upside-down fantasy world where Freudian projection rules and opponents are demonized. Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are both Satan himself, Russia is still losing, and the West is still almighty – as well as the pinnacle of justice, freedom, democracy and culture. Secondly, they can’t seem to be able to open their mouths in public without insulting the non-western world. Joe Biden, Annalena Baerbock, Ursula von der Leyen, Josep Borrell and Emmanuel Macron have barely been seen in public for months without insulting someone. Borrel’s comment about Europe being the garden and the rest of the world a jungle is the pinnacle of this – because we all know what jungles are associated with.

The pressure is getting to the western political elites and they can’t keep a lid on their emotions and real opinions. They can no longer hide their hatred for anyone who resists them, or their contempt for them. Their doublethink, double standards, and extreme sense of entitlement, which justifies any action from them while condemning it from their opponents, is out in the open for all to see. All this, as well as their complete absence of competence and their total abandonment of reality, is very symptomatic for a certain type of people. That is not a coincidence as we shall see.

Correct: they are unhinged and incompetent. As I already stated--a shocking discovery of sheer incompetence of the US media military "expertise" from the US top brass is shocking because those people, even if they have been paid, have to maintain at least some believability to the nonsense they spew. But here is the problem--real military professional would have been able at least to frame the BS into some consumable form in order to have some ways to retreat and explain things away once the BS was exposed. Not the case with US generals--they went all in and, evidently, many of them sincerely believe the BS they spew. That is shocking and, in some bizarre sense, inevitable against the background of the US Army losing one war after another, raises the question among Russian military professionals if those people are competent at all, even considering an acute case of professional envy and jealousy they experience. 

This is the new paradigm for Russia. Russians knew all along that most about NATO military was pure PR, but now--the only hope remains that some people in Pentagon are competent enough to see a disaster they helped to unleash and they can see where it all leads to. They are, as I am on record for years, the last vestiges of some remaining competence and connection to the reality in the West. After Canada's Parliament and some high ranking Canadian officer enthusiastically cheering on the veteran of 14th Waffen SS Division during this weekend, one has to assume that many of them are simply in the process of unbecoming the officers. 

Now, we get to the next act of the "drama" and a whole new wave of desperation, denial and hatred in D.C. because of that:

Ukraine has received the first batch of US-made M1 Abrams tanks promised by Washington this winter, President Vladimir Zelensky said on Monday, confirming a New York Times report from earlier in the day. Writing on Telegram, Zelensky said the Abrams main battle tanks “are already in Ukraine and preparing to reinforce our brigades” while thanking Kiev’s allies for their support. The delivery was first reported by the New York Times, which cited two US defense officials as saying that the tanks arrived in Ukraine “months ahead of initial estimates.” The shipment, according to the article, could help Kiev in its ‘counteroffensive’ against Russia, which has been going on for more than three months but has failed to gain any ground. Neither the Times’ sources nor Zelensky would say how many Abrams tanks Ukraine has received thus far. In late August, Politico reported that the US planned to deliver ten of the 31 tanks promised by President Joe Biden in late January by mid-September.

These are older versions, wouldn't matter if they have been the latest ones--the outcome is going to be the same, burning Abrams tanks will be gladly paraded by Russians for everyone to see and that marks, with the exception of those F-16s, the limit the US reached in terms of what she can supply to 404. The conclusion is not only merited but irresistible--the combined West failed at war. And here is the punchline--Russians did plan for that, they just couldn't anticipate that the West would self-annihilate that fast. After today's Volodin's statement things get even clearer.   

Ukraine to either surrender on Moscow’s terms or cease to exist — top Russian lawmaker. 

You see? After that--it is NATO's turn. Very simple.

Oh, Canada!

My latest. 

 

Back To Rostov-on-Don.

And I don't mean the city. I mean submarine of the project 636 which sustained damage a few days ago during attack of 404 on Sevastopol. Remember my retort to American submarine "experts" 6 days ago, when they suggested that the sub will be written off? I will remind you, when even observing obviously doctored photo:

Moreover, even a first year enlisted moron would see the lack of deformation of submarine's hull which is the first indication of a limited explosive impact, which was primarily limited to... drum roll--light hull of a submarine, because ALL Russian SSKs of pr. 877 and 636, same as second and third generation of Russian nuclear subs have a TWO hull design--light (outside-лёгкий) and hard (жёсткий) hull, where all systems are. But, of course, neither Sutton nor Amick, who have zero knowledge and experience, unlike me, with Soviet/Russian SSKs can recognize the damage to the LIGHT hull which took the brunt of explosion, which, BTW, almost fully intact sail testifies to.  

Well, guess what? Right, I was correct and those sub "experts" had no clue what they have been talking about. And why am I not surprised?

МОСКВА, 25 сентября. /ТАСС/. Полученные 13 сентября подводной лодкой "Ростов-на-Дону" Черноморского флота (ЧФ) повреждения не критичны и не приведут к значительному увеличению времени ее нахождения на плановом ремонте. Об этом ТАСС сообщил источник в оборонно-промышленном комплексе. "У субмарины незначительные повреждения, которые не повлияли на ее прочный корпус. Их устранение может лишь незначительно увеличить время нахождения подлодки на плановом ремонте", - сказал он. 13 сентября Украина нанесла удар крылатыми ракетами по Севастопольскому морскому заводу, где находились на ремонте два корабля. Как сообщило в тот же день Минобороны РФ, два корабля ВМФ, поврежденные в результате удара, "будут полностью восстановлены и продолжат боевую службу в составе своих флотов". Как уточнил собеседник агентства, плановый ремонт подлодки "Ростов-на-Дону" на Севморзаводе должен был продлиться несколько месяцев.

Translation: MOSCOW, September 25. /TASS/. The damage received on September 13 by the Rostov-on-Don submarine of the Black Sea Fleet (BSF) is not critical and will not lead to a significant increase in the time it spends under scheduled repairs. A source in the military-industrial complex reported this to TASS. “The submarine has minor damage that did not affect its robust (hard--my note) hull. Eliminating them can only slightly increase the time the submarine is undergoing scheduled repairs,” he said. On September 13, Ukraine launched a cruise missile attack on the Sevastopol Marine Plant, where two ships were being repaired. As the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the same day, two naval ships damaged as a result of the strike “will be fully restored and will continue to serve in combat as part of their fleets.” As the agency's interlocutor clarified, the planned repair of the Rostov-on-Don submarine at Sevmorzavod was supposed to last several months.

As you can see, and I stressed it many times, it is difficult to compare education of cadre naval officers in USSR/Russia and the US. First, US Naval Academy course of study is much-much shorter (only 4 academic years against 6--5 calendar--years in USSR/Russia), and guess what? Right from the get go the major course exhausted, sleepy and hungry Russian Plebes of the first year began to study is... drum roll... a major course called ТУЖК (Теория Устроиства и Живучести Корабля, Theory of Design and Survivability of the Ship) and in my time the basic design was good ol' submarine of project 613 (NATO Whiskey)  with eventual progression to other projects including nuclear-powered subs and, of course, surface ships. So, here we are today, at 25 September 2023. I am taking my bow and my curtain call, you brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes, and I thank you all(c). I am going to sleep, have fun;))

Thank You, George.

Great term: infamy!

The only reason US Congress Nazi sympathizers (which there are many) are not there yet is because the new War Crimes Tribunal is yet, it will, to define Azov and Kiev regime as Nazi. They, also are licking the spittle of Nazis.

Oh, Please!

Yes, ass-hole, you "didn't know". In related news, I am Pope. 

ВАШИНГТОН, 25 сен – РИА Новости. Спикер канадской палаты общин Энтони Рота извинился за приглашение в парламент и чествование во время визита Владимира Зеленского престарелого украинского бойца дивизии СС "Галичина". Некий Ярослав Хунка, представленный спикером как ветеран борьбы против русских в годы Второй мировой войны, удостоился в пятницу овации во время торжественного заседания парламента по случаю визита Владимира Зеленского. Американское агентство Ассошиэйтед Пресс опубликовало фото с подписью "Зеленский и (премьер Канады Джастин - ред.) Трюдо приветствуют присутствующего в парламенте Ярослава Хунка, который служил в Первой украинской дивизии в ходе Второй мировой войны". Хунка, как выяснилось, состоял в 14-й добровольческой дивизии "Галичина" войск СС, которая не только воевала против Красной армии, но и отметилась зверствами в отношении евреев, поляков, белорусов и словаков. "Позже мне стала известна дополнительная информация, которая заставила меня пожалеть о принятом решении… Я хотел бы в первую очередь принести глубочайшие извинения еврейским общинам Канады и всего мира. Я принимаю всю ответственность за свой поступок", - заявил Рота. Он настаивает, что лично принимал решение пригласить Хунку в парламент, и никто, в том числе члены украинской делегации, не знали, кого они будут чествовать.

Translation: WASHINGTON, September 25 – RIA Novosti. Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons Anthony Rota apologized for inviting an elderly Ukrainian soldier from the SS Galicia division to parliament and honoring him during Vladimir Zelensky’s visit. A certain Yaroslav Hunka, introduced by the speaker as a veteran of the fight against the Russians during World War II, received a standing ovation on Friday during a ceremonial meeting of parliament on the occasion of the visit of Vladimir Zelensky. The American Associated Press published a photo with the caption "Zelensky and (Canadian Prime Minister Justin - ed.) Trudeau greet Yaroslav Hunk, who was present in parliament, who served in the First Ukrainian Division during the Second World War." Hunka, as it turned out, was a member of the 14th Volunteer Division "Galicia" of the SS troops, which not only fought against the Red Army, but was also noted for atrocities against Jews, Poles, Belarusians and Slovaks. "I later became aware of additional information that made me regret the decision... I would first like to offer my deepest apologies to the Jewish communities of Canada and around the world. I accept full responsibility for my actions," Rota said. He insists that he personally made the decision to invite Hunka to parliament, and no one, including members of the Ukrainian delegation, knew who they would honor.

Too late. And demands of opposition for Trudeau to apologize to the world and Canadian veterans of WW II are meaningless. World saw it and Canada, through its main legislative body, simply confirmed what everyone knew all along--it is a hotbed of banderism and Russophobia. Let me remind you something from much earlier from Canada. Remember?

As was the case with the Soviet Union in the past, modern Russia should remain in the mass Western mind a grim, dark, hopeless place or, as American-Canadian Russia “scholar”, Ph.D. in American History, John Robson stated in an editorial in the Ottawa Citizen in 2000: Normal for Russia is filthy, corrupt, menacing and hollow. Nothing good has happened there, nor will it. Russia is a lump of dung wrapped in a cabbage leaf hidden in an outhouse. Russia is doomed by history and culture. It stinks, literally and figuratively, and always has. People there have no manners. . . . The bottom line is: Russia has sucked, sucks and will suck.

Ask the Ottawa Citizen where did this piece go? But this, is how they view Russia and Russians in Canadian "elites", much of which are tacit supporters of Nazism and its branch of banderism.

The "Unexpected" (Not Really) Problem.

Russian troops report all along the line of contact. Obviously such a video is not available on YT. The problem is with the smell of rotting corpses of VSU cannon fodder--most of them lay in the field and are not evacuated. As you may expect the putrid smell is unbearable. Which brings us to the issue of KIAs--the number is growing. So much so, that even creeps from WaPo quote:

Kiev has lost a substantial number of Western-supplied armored vehicles in attempts to breach well-fortified Russian defenses in the southern section of the front, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing a military officer on the ground. In an interview with the newspaper, an unnamed Ukrainian air-assault-unit commander claimed that Kiev had gained some ground in Zaporozhye Region near the settlements of Robotino and Verbovoye, scenes of fierce fighting in recent weeks, although he admitted that the advance was “modest.”He added that the progress came at a high cost in military vehicles, including German Marder and US Stryker infantry fighting vehicles. “A lot of equipment was lost there,” he said, without providing exact numbers. The commander also pointed out that Ukrainian troops have encountered serious defenses along their way. “You just have to understand that there is a saturation of anti-tank mines and a saturation of enemy forces, it’s just colossal”, he said.

Which brings us to 404 BS about Klescheevka, which, in accordance to Western propaganda, is under "control" of VSU. First, there is literally nothing left of it, and secondly, as Akhmat guys laugh: yes, khokhol CAN enter Klescheevka, the problem for them is that by far not all of them can exit it afterwards. They played the video of how VSU cannon fodder "conducts operations" around there--basically they get personnel there, after that it gets slaughtered by Akhmat, then they wait for another batch and the process repeats itself over and over again. So, everything you need to know about NATO "tactics". 

Now, even sewer of Business Insider cannot bypass this "news". 

Russia's Soviet-era airplane bombs present a lethal challenge to Ukraine because they are difficult to intercept even using the most advanced air defense systems,  military experts say. Oleksiy Melnyk, from the Kyiv-based think tank Razumkov Center, said that combatting air-dropped bombs was "particularly vexing" for Ukraine. Hi-tech air defense missiles are designed to strike more lightweight targets and are ill-equipped to counter the bombs' old, heavy iron construction. The bombs' dense build and Russia's ample stocks are a significant problem for Ukraine, he said. The powerful bombs can weigh from 1,100 to 2,200 pounds. Melnyk told Insider that the "dumb" freefalling bombs are dropped from an aircraft during horizontal flights or with the plane's nose up or down. He said the plane's alignment and "altitude will further define the ballistic trajectory." 

Well, correct, he just forgot to make a distinction that these are Western "hi-tech" systems which cannot do that--all major Russian air defense complexes, however, have heavy bombs as their standard targets. E.g. for Buk AD system, JDAM munitions in all of their "modifications" is a standard target, not to mention the fact that that AD system is much more than just kinetic means. But what can you say? Real war is not studied in Western military academies, evidently. But then again, you cannot teach military science to cretins who work as "experts" in US media. 

As Larry penned the excellent piece on Ben Hodges:

Ben Hodges was not a good general and he is doing an even worse job as a pundit in his dotage. Ignore his “Pillsbury” doughboy demeanor. He can’t help that he is starting to look like his Aunt Mildred as he ages (just one of the consequences of losing testosterone and eating too much pudding). At least Jack Keane looks and sounds like a guy who once was a general. But Hodges cannot be excused for being a blind, partisan cheerleader when it comes to discussing the war in Ukraine. His weak-minded, shallow analysis reflects poorly on his prior education and his failure to comprehend concepts such as strategy, tactics and order of battle. To quote Bugs Bunny, “what a maroon.”

Exactly, and what I highlighted is even more important--Russian operational level officers are dumbfounded by sheer idiocy and manifest military incompetence of Western generals the likes of Petraeus, Ben Hodges, Keane et al, not to mention clowns from British Army who "consult" already retarded British media. The question is: what did they study in their service life? Evidently not much. So, when I say that such people like Petraeus or Ben Hodges wouldn't be allowed to command even the regiment in Russian Armed Forces I do not exaggerate much. 

Aw, So Cute.

98 year old 14 Waffen SS Division veteran got emotional and cried while Ze received standing ovation in Canadian parliament during his speech. He (the veteran) fought Russians in WW II. Canadians, enjoy, you lost any claim to victory in WW II, you are collaborators to Auschwitz and Belsen, to massacre of tens of millions of innocent civilians. You wanted it, you got it--the land of escaped Nazis. The US is not far behind, though. Throw away your worthless WW II awards--a logical conclusion for your country which has no honor or decency.

No Drugs, Sex (MayBe) and Rock'n'Roll.

Shaman Sings the Anthem with 70, 000 people. 

Generally, it explains how morons from Ivy League miscalculated:
 

He said 10 years ago that you will hear from me soon. Boy, was he right...

Something For The Weekend...

... those morsels of the West which are still there, but the world moved on. My favorite Canadian girls do what they do best:

Yet, it takes Russian band to do it such a way that to remind what this once was... not anymore. 

One cannot always be concentrated on the death and suffering. When the new world will be formalized this is what will be taken into it. Maurice White is smiling from heavens...

Weekend Update (Not SNL).

My latest. Also use as an open thread. 

 

In Related News.

Water is wet, fire is hot, the sky is blue. 

Prominent US Democratic Senator Robert Menendez has been charged in a federal case for his alleged corrupt relationship with three businessmen. The indictment, unsealed in the Manhattan federal court on Friday, also names his wife, Nadine, as well as three other suspects, allegedly involved in the scheme. According to the document, the lawmaker and his wife, from at least 2018 until 2022, received “hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using Menendez’s power and influence as Senator” to serve the interests of the three businessmen, as well as a foreign state actor, namely Egypt. “Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,” the indictment reads. A search of Menendez’s home yielded some $100,000-worth of gold bars, as well as nearly $500,000 in hidden cash, according to prosecutors.

Next thing you know, they will tell us that politicians lie. No way. James Kunstler wrote a perfect analogy today: 

The new science of blobology informs us that political blobs blow up like dying stars gorging on runaway fusion.The blob expands beyond the viable limits of its internal contradictions and implodes in a spectacular vacuum of absurdity. The Washington DC blob’s dire pulsations lately signal that it’s about to blow its toxic endoplasm all over our nation’s capital, drowning many denizens in deadly slime.

It is a deadly slime.

ZKP.

About a hit on the building of Staff of Black Sea Fleet. Immediately for people who may have questions: NOBODY IS in this building except for maintenance and guard crew. During war time all C4 departments of the Staff operate out of ZKP (Запасной Командный Пункт--ЗКП)--a Reserve Command Post, which is underground and is very difficult to identify and attack. So, the attack is primarily for PR reasons, militarily it has a very low value, plus disruption of the civilian traffic in the area of Lenin's Street, Nakhimov's Square, Nakhimov's Ave and on the hill where the Staff and Rear Service of the Fleet are located. 

Per US P-8 Poseidon in the vicinity in the international air space--this is US MO--fight through proxy, hide behind them. Poseidon was scanning electromagnetic picture of Sevastopol's Air Defense during attack for "library" reasons and transfer of data to VSU for the next attack. In real war, there would have been no US assets anywhere above the Black Sea because they would have been all shot down. Pentagon knows this, but, as was pointed out many times--they see for the first time the real war, so they want "to take part". Expect some response from Russia, Misters Kalibr, Iskander and Geran will be very busy in the next few days.

Europe, Its Head.

This is everything you need to know.  

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, lied, blaming Russia for the tragedy of Hiroshima, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in Telegram channel.Zakharova wrote that on September 21, Von der Leyen "made a rather remarkable speech" at the award ceremony Atlantic Council. "I praised the head of the Japanese government for supporting the Kyiv regime and fighting Russia. I remembered that his family was from Hiroshima, and during the nuclear bombing in 1945, his relatives died there. About United States and the Washington executioners who dropped bombs on Japanese cities and civilians — not a word," said the representative of the Foreign Ministry.

According to her, "the defendant of the largest in history European Union corruption scandals went further - laid the tragedy of Hiroshima ... to Russia." Zakharova also quoted Von der Leyen as saying: "Many of your relatives died when the atomic bomb razed Hiroshima to the ground. You grew up with the stories of survivors and wanted us to heed the same stories, look into the past and learn something about the future... Russia threatens to use nuclear weapons again. It's disgusting, it's dangerous, and it's unforgivable under the shadow of Hiroshima." "It is disgusting and dangerous how Ursula von der Leyen lies," the representative of the Foreign Ministry said. In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. About 220,200 people died directly from the explosions of the two bombs, and more than <>,<> died due to lethal doses of radiation. The vast majority of casualties were civilians.

Yes, it is disgusting but it is also the main reason why Russia has nobody to talk to in modern West. Ursula Von Der Lugen is a typical Euro (German) politico with no morals, honor or decency. This is also how history is taught across universities in the West. But then again, Mearsheimer quotes Fukuyama, that liberalism defeated Nazism. They do have issues, don't they?

Larry On Jake Sullivan.

Jake Sullivan is definitely something else altogether. The US knew many National Security Advisers who have been less than qualified, to put it politely, for advising anything on matters of real national security, but Sullivan tops them all. 

Give Sullivan kudos for being a master of spin. He presents the press with a steaming pile of manure while assuring them it is a delicious plate of chocolate mousse. Slurp it up guys. He starts off with the red-herring that Russia has not yet captured Kharkiv, Kiev or Kherson. A meaningless point, proving nothing, because Russia’s military operations are concentrated on destroying the Ukrainian army — which is losing upwards of 1,000 troops a day — rather than conquering cities. So far Russia regularly bombing critical targets in Kharkiv, Kiev, Kherson, Lviv and Sumy with missiles and drones and Ukraine is impotent to stop those attacks because its air defense is no longer viable.Sullivan deserves a Burger King crown as a reward to giving the press a Big Whopper by claiming that Ukraine has taken back more territory than Russia has. This is patent nonsense. Someone needs to get a map out and show him Bakhmut, Soledar, Lysyschansk as well as the location of the three defensive lines erected under General Surovikin’s direction a year ago. Is Sullivan really this blind and stupid? Maybe.

Read the whole thing at Larry's blog. But Larry also is correct that Biden Admin will continue with "support" for 404. Russia is fine with it, she will continue to wipe this "support" out until nothing is left, Wall Street GDP numbers notwithstanding, if you know what I mean.

Garland, Scott and Me.

Should be live here in about 30 minutes. 

 

Ah, Sure!

I wanted also to become a billionaire (not really, being a millionaire is good enough) and own an airline (not really) but here I am--none of those things. I guess because I am not Mr. Yuri Ignat, my imagination is too... timid. 

МОСКВА, 21 сентября. /ТАСС/. Украина хотела бы в перспективе получить от США истребители пятого поколения F-35, а от Швеции - истребители нового поколения, которые сейчас находятся в стадии разработки. Об этом заявил представитель Воздушных сил Вооруженных сил Украины Юрий Игнат. "Мы тоже должны думать про перспективу, не про один F-16. Есть самолеты F-35, будет также Gripen новой модели", - сказал он на брифинге в медиацентре "Украина", который транслировался в YouTube.

Translation:  MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. In the future, Ukraine would like to receive fifth-generation F-35 fighters from the United States, and new-generation fighters from Sweden, which are currently under development. This was stated by the representative of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Yuriy Ignat. “We also need to think about the future, not just the F-16. There are F-35 aircraft, there will also be a new model Gripen,” he said at a briefing at the Ukraine media center, which was broadcast on YouTube.

As you might expect, the reaction of Russian MoD was:

No, no, my sources tell me that this is exactly how they reacted to this in General Staff in Moscow, wink, wink.

Incomparable Michael Brenner...

... writes a superb piece: US Can't Deal With Defeat. In which he deconstructs the whole, so called, "strategy": 

A society represented by an entire political class that is not sobered by that prospect rightly can be judged as providing prime facie evidence of being collectively unhinged. Amnesia may serve the purpose of sparing our political elites, and the American populace at large, the acute discomfort of acknowledging mistakes and defeat. However, that success is not matched by an analogous process of memory erasure in other places.The U.S. was fortunate, in the case of Vietnam, that the United States’ dominant position in the world outside of the Soviet Bloc and the PRC allowed it to maintain respect, status and influence.

Things have now changed, though. The U.S. relative strength in all domains is weaker, strong centrifugal forces around the globe are producing a dispersion of power, will and outlook among other states. The BRICs phenomenon is the concrete embodiment of that reality. Hence, the prerogatives of the United States are narrowing, its ability to shape the global system in conformity with its ideas and interests are under mounting challenge, and premiums are being placed on diplomacy of an order that seems beyond its present aptitudes. The U.S. is confounded.

Read the whole thing, it is superb and is one of those flames of academic and human brilliance which manifests itself not unlike a separate piece of charcoal which continues to burn bright in the pile of spent ashes after the steaks have been grilled and guests left the backyard to continue the conversation and eating in the dining room inside the house.

And This Is News Exactly How?

You do not achieve the breakthrough in first three days, max five-six, let's stretch it for a good measure to fifteen--it is over. Your "offensive" is done, you lost operationally. In 404 case--you lost the war because without NATO's support 404 doesn't exist as a country anymore. Sy Hersh breaks the news, which are not really the news for anyone with half a brain:

US intelligence analysts believe that Ukraine has given up on its counteroffensive against Russia and the only thing prolonging the conflict is the unwillingness of Washington and Kiev to acknowledge their failure, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed. Writing on Substack on Thursday, the veteran reporter cited an unnamed source, who “spent the early years of his career working against Soviet aggression and spying” as rejecting the Ukrainian narrative about a slow but steady progress of the counteroffensive. “‘It’s all lies,’” the source said, according to Hersh. “‘The war is over. Russia has won. There is no Ukrainian offensive anymore, but the White House and the American media have to keep the lie going.’”This sentiment is shared by many figures in the US intelligence community, and the CIA in particular has been skeptical of Kiev’s claims of a continued push forward, unlike the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), he explained.

For those operationally challenged in Biden's Admin, imbeciles from corporate media and Institute For (Not) Study of War, here is the explanation for the middle school kids:

Предполье (передовая полоса обороны) - укреплённая полоса впереди главной полосы обороны или впереди укреплённого района, отдельный элемент современной обороны. Назначение предполья — задержать наступающего противника с целью выигрыша времени и измотать его в период подхода к оборонительной полосе. Условия местности и обстановки могут приводить к самым разнообразным решениям оброняющейся стороны по организации предполья. Глубина предполья может значительно колебаться.

Translation:  Predpolye (forward defense line, forefield) - a fortified zone in front of the main defense line or in front of a fortified area, a separate element of modern defense. The purpose of the forefield is to delay the advancing enemy in order to gain time and exhaust him during the period of approach to the defensive zone. Terrain and situational conditions can lead to a wide variety of decisions by the defending side to organize the forefield. The depth of the forefield can vary significantly.

Everything what third iteration of VSU does is confined to forefield, a grey zone of several kilometers deep, where Pentagon generals for months are trying to approach Russian first line of defense and report about "capturing" some raised to the ground hamlets which have no tactical, let alone operational significance and serve merely to attract masses of VSU troops to be annihilated by long-range fires. 

Now comes this sensitive moment, but do the mental forensic experiment, ask yourself a question--which army will be better at strategic defense, the one which never fought one, namely the US Army, or the one which fought it since hell knows when, including such recent classics as Defense of Moscow, Defense of Leningrad, Rostov-on-Don, Stalingrad and few others, Kursk included? There you go! Anyone who ever studied REAL war and not the BS which is taught in West's military academies, should know that real wars are fought for political objectives other than PR BS on CNN or in NYT. 

So, when Sy's "source" states this:

“The truth is if the Ukrainian army is ordered to continue the offensive, the army would mutiny. The soldiers aren’t willing to die any more, but this doesn’t fit the B.S. that is being authored by the Biden White House,” the source concluded.  

This is not news. Russia can do this as long as it takes, while observing West imploding and the whole thing going to hell in a handbasket. That's the political objective, but try to explain this to Petraeus, Keane or any of the Kagans that in the 21st century war with high-precision and precision-guided munitions produced in massive numbers and their ranges varying anywhere between 4 to 8,500 kilometers, the "captured" territory in and of itself indicates nothing. The term "long range fires", meanwhile, takes on an ominous meaning. But hey, the modern US deserved such generals and strategists like Petraeus and Zelensky. Yep, times of Ike and Bradley are over. At least for now. Send  in the clowns.

Or may be, show must go on? If you know what I mean.