... Crocus-city, SMO, NATO.
...
... Crocus-city, SMO, NATO.
...
... required to fight Russia, albeit I agree with overall Macgregor's points. But the US simply has no resources to fight Russia, and any force in Poland and Romania will be destroyed. Keep in mind those 600,000+ Russian troops which are not engaged in 404--they are there to precisely meet NATO threat. Moreover, US Army has no experience of fighting with its C4ISR disrupted and operational rear being under constant long-range fires--it simply never fought like that. Its TOE is for running over feeble opponents. Globalists in Washington, be them from Pentagon or State Department with CIA are simply not good at real war and everything that this war entails. They will be destroyed and in the last ditch attempt they may try to escalate to nuclear threshold--but in this case Washington will be wiped out. Unlike Washington, Moscow has the best anti-missile shield in the world.
I was waiting for this message for so long, and it finally arrived:
... Sabah notes:
Keep in mind that it is not just about military industry of Russia, however mighty and with unrivaled surge capability. As Sabah continues:
Russia's economy grew by 3.6 percent in 2023, more than any other G7 country. The IMF forecasts growth of 0.9 percent in 2004 for Europe, while growth in Russia is forecast at 2.6 percent. This rate is double the previous estimates. Russia is also currently at an all-time low of 2.9 percent, hitting a record high of 2.9 percent.
And here is what I was stressing when talking about whole of economy, not just military-industrial complex. Here are some, very few, indices:
Translation: The greatest growth among manufacturing industries was shown by: production of finished metal products, except machinery and equipment - 151.5%, production of computers, electronic and optical products - 147.2%, production of other vehicles and equipment — 138.6%, production of vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers — 137.9%, beverage production — 129.8%, production of medicines and materials — 122.8%. The extractive industries index amounted to 102.1%.
Bunch of other manufactured items from furniture, to food, to paper, to clothing to other finished products--all show two digit growth.
In related news, Kiev now is ready to talk about borders as they were prior to February 2022. Moscow is not interested--it already stressed that the starting point of any talks are full new regions of: Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson and then... Russia will begin to dictate what and how the rest will go.
P.S. Per teeth--five hours (it was agreed in advance) yesterday: six "posts" (pivots), one root canal, four temporary segments (including two bridges). Now a month or two with temporaries until metal-ceramic permanents will be installed. But that will be easy now--the main job was done yesterday. I need a drink, my dentist also said so, LOL))) Ah, YES, completely forgot--I finished the book, now only Foreword remains, technical work of finishing editing by Clarity Press, indexing and off we go. I really need a drink!
... in memory of victims of Crocus-City atrocity... In Oktyabrsky Hall, only 3,700 spectators. Obviously packed. Today Piknik is the most important band in Russia.
The Crocus Concert Hall Atrocity: No Going Back
As I watched the sudden and dramatic implosion of the bridge the though crossed my mind, “Is this a metaphor for what awaits the United States?”
Recall Piknik's suddenly sounding incredibly poignant songs--Don't cry the executioner, don't dull your axe... No Going Back, indeed...
... actual reporting by Associated Press.
... why would Russia be interested in fighting the UK?
UK military ‘couldn’t fight Russia for longer than two months’ Failure to secure more funding for Armed Forces puts us at a disadvantage, warns Deputy Chief of Defence Staf.
As I am on record (yet again)--procurement is not some mindless accounting: $2 billion here, $5 billion there. This is not how it works, especially when neither Germany nor UK have any real money and the whole premise of their wet dreams about fighting Russians is built around BS of Russia attacking those two EU losers. It is all about defrauding taxpayers for the sake of feeble militaries and their narrowing industrial base in both countries. Real procurement, however starts with serious threat assessment and solid development of technological requirements for a force--combined West ain't got any.
This European kindergarten is becoming absolutely preposterous:
Macron Wants to Run Europe’s Foreign Policy. Not Everyone Agrees
... says something, it means he has huge reasons to do so, unlike it is the case with spokespersons circus in the West who simply lie to your face. Same goes for Mr. Bortnikov--the Director of FSB.
... for those who went to listen to Soviet/Russian rock-legends Piknik to Crocus-City. Edmund Shklyarsky (Russian Pole, BTW) and his legendary Piknik sang--Don't cry the executioner, don't dull you axe...
Remarkably, Piknik sang 38 years ago--my Phone is zero-zero-zero...
... in the Conclusion to my book which is almost done. I use Roger Scruton's quote.
Truth and goodness, simple as that.
... as always--calm and moral disposition and clear mind.
... 25 years ago a gang-rape of Yugoslavia.
That was a critical event which spurred the removal of alcoholic Yeltsin and emergence of Vladimir Putin and the group of "siloviki"--people from intelligence and military circle who understood everything already then, that Russia and the West went separate ways and the conflict was inevitable. Yugoslavia was a warning. In very many respects it was a watershed moment. Let's remember those innocent civilians who have been "democratically bombed" by NATO cowards.
... that an important event has happened in the "alternative" media, many of which are fast becoming very mainstream--Mr. Shapiro who is an Exhibit A of Zionist and Israeli-firster, "fired" Candace Owens. Unlike Shapiro who is a demagogue who passes for "conservative" in his Daily Wire org, Candace is a combination of intellect, beauty and guts. The girl got it in a really big way. I doubt she would suffer much from leaving a media org which openly supports Israel's atrocity in Gaza.
Some separate anti-Zionism conservative groups here and there in the US are not a challenge to America's "conservative" Zionist establishment--they suffer both from historic and governance illiteracy and still imbue from the poisonous well of American exceptionalism and pseudo-scholarship rooted deeply in the propaganda of the Cold War 1.0. So, they are no danger to AIPAC and dweebs like Ben Shapiro with his DW, Candace is. She is, in many respects, what many Americans want to see their country as--a success story based on some values which are NOT dictated by AIPAC. They want true American national interests served first. Israel doesn't factor in here except for a bunch of fanatics from Christian Zionism death cult--the main vehicle for promotion of neoconservatism in the US. Candace also, implicitly, challenges the status-quo of the US Holocaust Industry, one of the major tools of Israel's control of cowardly and illiterate US Congress and WW II history ignorant American public. Candace asks THE question: Why Does Everyone Think I Am Going To Be Killed? Well, it is really simple, because there is nothing that Washington will not do on the orders from its masters from Israel. As a wholesale atrocity in Gaza demonstrates, it is the only thing they are capable of--fighting women and children of Gaza and going hysterical threatening everyone.
As was expected: the cover of ISIS, in reality MI6-GUR terrorism is written all over it. All for the money, which excludes any ISIS connection. And, of course, they have contacts in 404 and have been running to their "window" to 404 side.
Everything one needs to know. Mourn victims, give kudos to FSB and MVD. Now, finally, State Duma WILL legislate death penalty (in Russian). Even Macron expressed... condolences to Russian people--what do ya know. US did too. London "decisively condemned" the terrorist act? Really!? Surreal. Was the US involved in any way? At this stage it doesn't matter--Kiev Nazi terrorist regime is a creature of the United States and that says it all.
... they say more than 100 casualties have been confirmed so far. But get this:
Translation: “At this time, there is no indication that Ukraine or Ukrainians were involved in an armed attack,” John Kirby, coordinator of strategic communications at the National Security Council, said at a media briefing.
Hm, why such a rush to the conclusions? The hallmarks of London and Washington activity are terrorist and false flag operations. This is the "surprise" GUR big honcho--a MI6 asset--Budanov was talking about.
First Petr Tolstoy, now no less than Mr. Nebenzya:
US officials have repeatedly warned Ukrainian military commanders that their attacks on Russian oil infrastructure could trigger global energy price hikes, the Financial Times revealed on Friday. Washington is reportedly worried that this could threaten Joe Biden’s re-election bid. The White House has “grown increasingly frustrated by brazen Ukrainian drone attacks” on Russian refineries, terminals and other oil infrastructure, the British newspaper quoted one of its sources as saying. Washington’s objections come months before a presidential election in the US, where “Biden faces a tough re-election battle this year with petrol prices on the rise, increasing almost 15% this year,” the newspaper noted.
Good Lord! Does Washington establishment know anything beyond elections? Of course, not. They do not have even basic skills in governing, have zero understanding of war, but they sure as hell know how run election campaigns, which is a euphemism to BSing the public into a complete cognitive dissonance and then into stupor, that it loses any resistance to manipulation. And this is not the end of it for the West. A lot of opinions are flying today about Europeans willing to send troops to 404, the main problem which is excluded from the discussion, however, is WHAT troops can, say, France, Poland and Netherlands send to 404? And the issue is not just sending troops there--let's imagine, for the sake of argument, that Paris somehow is able to put together up to 100,000 troops--how are they going to sustain them? Remember Libya? France and UK ran out of precision-guided munitions in three days. And, of course, one needs to feed and replenish ammo stocks for these troops--good luck with that.
Now, for those who are getting over-excited about prospects of a nuclear war once NATO "official" forces get their asses kicked, which is a probability approaching one (100%), the US will not get involved--in fact, the United States desires nothing more than seeing a lovely war in Europe, while staying behind Atlantic "ocean wall". Of course, US troops in Europe will be annihilated if it escalates, but by now it is just the matter of speculation. At this stage I am getting sick and tired of European excuses about "we didn't elect" Macron, Scholtz, Meloni et al. Enough, you did elect them, unlike 2020 elections in the US, Macron's victory over Le Pen was a landslide--you cannot fake such a massive gap in elections. Germans tolerated insidious economic and cultural suicide by Merkel regime, which is also responsible for wrecking much of the European economy, as long as Germany lived relatively well--this time is over. There is always a hell to pay for our sins on a global, as opposed to personal, scale. This revelation:
”Nothing terrifies a sitting American president more than a surge in pump prices during an election year,” former White House energy adviser Bob McNally told the FT.
should tell Europeans, granted they even comprehend ramifications, that:
In related news, Victor Orban congratulated Vladimir Putin with reelection and stressed Hungary's desire to increase cooperation with Russia (In Russian). You see how it works between normal people?
... getting the story right!
But here is what Pepe stresses the most:
This was of course a referendum. Donbass represents a microcosm of the solid internal cohesion of Russian citizens around the policies of Team Putin – while at the same time sharing a feeling experienced by the overwhelming majority of the Global South. VVP’s victory was a victory of the Global Majority.
It was a referendum. Read the whole thing at Sputnik...
... about opening music in my latest video--I repeat, this is a famous march (one of the best, really) called La Victoire est à Nous (Victory is ours) French Napoleonic Military March. It is from French Opera of the end of XVIII century. Here it is in full:
... not reporting which is useful, makes sense, albeit Poletaev, whoever this person is (Vatfor is a collection of amateurs), should have read this blog about ten years ago when I warned that, indeed, as the tittle to his piece reads:
Western ‘expertise’ on the Ukraine conflict could lead the world to a nuclear disaster. Pundits are completely out of touch with reality – which is why their views pose a danger to humanity
This is exactly what they in Washington needed and wanted to hear (and read), because the whole premise of the clusterfuck they created in the last 10+ years was that Russia is weak, and that all Russia's offers have been not a rational conduct of diplomacy but the signs of weakness. And here comes the second most important tenet of medical ethics as derived from Hippocratic Oath:
I will not be ashamed to say "I know not"
Sadly, there is no ethics in American so called "strategic studies" and geopolitics and selling BS as knowledge is not only encouraged but rewarded handsomely most of the time. And here we are 10 years later and who knows how many millions of Ukies and tens of thousands of Russians killed and wounded.
No, I mean it...
Somebody has to tell this Pierre Schill, that nobody gives a shit about France and nobody intends to "engage" this chihuahua unless French go and fight Russia, LOL)) Yeah, Macron wants to send 2,000 of those mighty French warriors. Good luck to them, even lurking in the operational rear doesn't guarantee survival for those poor poor dears .
Meanwhile incomparable Michael Hudson with Nima.
... I repeat--Russian MoD gives numbers of VSU losses based on objective control. That is physically identifying bodies of VSU KIAs and wounded primarily at the line of combat contact. Russian MoD does not give estimates of KIAs and wounded in the tactical, let alone operational rear of VSU because it cannot reliably count them. E.g. couple of days ago VKS dropped two 1,500 kg KABs on top of Kraken Nazi battalion. The only thing which was known is that there have been 300 of them--nobody survives two KABs, so MoD stated with a degree of reliability that UP TO 300 of Nazis have been wiped out. But, as I repeat ad nauseam--the real number of VSU KIAs is much-much higher than total number of losses Russian MoD estimated at 444,000.
And here is the professional who says the same, and he is from NATO.
And here is the part which matters:
“They are missing over 10 million people. I estimate that the losses should be counted in the millions, not hundreds of thousands. There are no resources in this country, there is no one to fight.”
Meanwhile RUSI's US Army's Lt.Colonel Vershinin has a DUH! moment--LOL))
I have news for Vershinin, in conventional war with Russia there will be NO NATO maneuvers--there will be wiping out of C2 in operational and strategic rear and after that, after mighty F-35s will be shot down, any large enough formations will be detected and then annihilated by stand off weapons. Thus for the US Army alone 3,600 casualties a day--well, good luck sustaining this for more than two weeks. I repeat: Gulf War was anomaly sold to unsophisticated public through media as some kind of future warfare which it was not. One cannot learn real war from that turkey shoot. And they didn't.
P.S. An immensely important statement by Putin today:
Путин: Россия помнит о преступлениях власовцев и не простит новых предателей
... when one is uneducated hack. Thanks to Alexander Rogers who dug this up from Foreign Affairs. A classic case of one cretin BSing another one on May 26, 2022. Which demonstrates what US higher education in strategic sphere is--a collection of morons with humanities degrees selling their ignorance as expertise.
On a lighter note, but the most American thing, and I mean it in the most positive way, the part of America I love dearly. So, if hot-rodding on the ground hasn't been enough--how about taking two Yak 55s, sticking them together and adding a jet engine and voila'--13 minutes of pure awesomeness.
... for themselves.
Guess from three times who won the elections? Of course, liberal opposition;)) Can you imagine if Navalny was alive and was running--I bet he would have won like... 0.1% of the votes. But what is new in this case is that Russia and Russians do not give a flying fuck about West's reaction which is so predictable. And this not just because the Western "democracy" is the saddest joke, it is because Russians do not give a flying fuck about West, simple as that. If tomorrow Paris will disappear without a trace, or Low Countries will go under water--Russians still will not give a flying fuck about it, well maybe for the treasures of Louvre. Riots breakout in Cologne and London and Islamists kill natives, too bad--West's problem. None of Russia's business. Terrorist acts in Rome? Fine with Russians. Russia will gladly embrace those Westerners who are immigrating to Russia, but for the West in general--nothing. It is over for Europe and soon coming to the United States. This is metaphysical.
... on the fate of NATO.
... of Russia's Anti-Terrorism Committee. This is the extent of "military" capability of the West--to kill civilians. It is a truism--terrorism is the weapon of the weak. That's NATO.
... on YouTube on why Dune captured the imagination so much of so many. It is really simple, actually--true heroes, sacrifice, real men and women of incredible courage and dedication--all of this against the background of wussies and woke amorphous losers promoted as the "It" current thing. This poor generation doesn't get real examples of incredible courage and human spirit being blocked from the real world by perverts from establishment, but it still penetrates... In all different ways and it is like antibiotic whose action is not always noticeable at first. I would have never loved the book if not for Lynch's incredible vision:
Use as Open Thread...
... well, this Czech general got the brains to say it like this. Plus, subs... no, not sandwiches))
... my point with Nima about once great Britain:
Dearlove is a poor poor dear who still cannot resign himself to the fact that UK cannot do anything BUT to be at "gray war" with Russia, because the only thing UK can do "militarily" is terrorism and pray that the "gray war" doesn't turn a real one. Dearlove, having no real education--a feature, not a bug--and spending some time as MI6 head during Iraq invasion where he was cooking "intelligence", because modern MI6 cannot intel anything, is utterly unqualified as are most of UK "analytical" institutions ranging from MI6 to RUSI, to Chatham House, to have even remotely objective picture of the outside world of the XXI century warfare and economies. This is a gene in UK, it is its cultural DNA to view herself as important and believe all kinds of BS just to insulate themselves from a cruel reality of UK being reduced to a largely shithole with good football stadiums.
UK may increase her defense budget whatever--2-3-5%--it would make no difference whatsoever because she can produce next to nothing which really matters on the modern battlefield. Let alone sustain it for... two days. The degeneration, the precipitous decline of Britain and her media-political class in the last 20 years is astonishing and there is no coming back from it because it is a result of steady accumulation of the critical mass of shitty higher education, grabbing onto a chimera of past greatness, which is not there, and of debilitating bitterness, which went critical. Well, just to demonstrate deep running incompetence, now a tradition, of British, here is from great Correlli Barnett who documented British "intel" on the eve of the WW II.