Ray and Larry...

 ... having a superb discussion at Judge's. 

 

Kent Rollins' Advice...

 ... in economy cooking. I am not saying that we will have Great Depression 2.0, but there is a good chance that shit will get really bad. Now, the way Kent presents things is absolutely wonderful--both historic references and cooking proper. 

Stews, including presented here Hoover Stew, are very economic way of cooking during hard times. I am not, obviously, referring to the level of food desperation such as was in Russia in 1990s, when many people subsisted on such "diet" as pan-fried onions and bread--this was the time of a near famine in some localities in Russia (that's your Chicago and Harvard school of economics in action). But having basic Krakow sausage, beans and some pasta, certainly, helps and those are staples and they work in providing nutrition and calories. 

While I doubt that the US will repeat the horror of Great Depression and the Dust Bowl...

... we still should expect some serious disruption of supply chains which will be more severe than it was during Covid criminal lock-down when such things as milk, bottled water and some meats simply evaporated from very many grocery stores. I will elaborate on the issue of the "Civil War" (I didn't watch the movie yet, because it is a Hollywood neural programming BS), but we should view all that as a steady decline of America's standard of living which is absolutely tangible with the inflation making serious inroads into the grocery prices, especially for people who are in low-paying jobs or unemployed altogether.

Some Comments...

 ... from me with Nima. 

Ryabkov defines US "elites" as:

”There are plenty of people among those in power in the US and other key Western states, who are de facto provocateurs. They’ve made testing Moscow’s resolve the goal of their existence... As they please their own geopolitical notions, they bring closer the phase, in which holding control of events and preventing a catastrophic collapse would be very difficult,” said Ryabkov. “They live in a bubble and do not perceive outside signals that go against their preconceptions.”

My fourth book is precisely about it. On average US "elites" are highly uncultured and uneducated people whose foremost feature is creation of the alternative reality. This, most likely, is the result of US higher education, or rather its degeneracy across the board, because most of US "elites" are children of well to do class, who never experienced real life and serious difficulties and have no moral reference points in their lives. Hunter Biden comes to mind, as does Trump, or majority of US "academe" which has been utterly corrupted by sinecures and pandering to upper class' sensibilities, real scholarship be damned. Add here grotesque religious views and doctrines of a large portion of America's protestant sects and cults and voila'. As Ryabkov concludes:

”As a matter of fact, it is irrelevant for us who the next US president will be,” he explained. “No chance for the improvement of the situation can be seen, considering the fundamental anti-Russian consensus of the American elites.”

Lavrov echoes today:

Russia won’t be viewing Europe as a partner for “at least one generation,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has predicted. The diplomat remarked that Moscow and the West are already locked in a confrontation that has no end in sight.

Well, I would say that this is for more than "one generation", because the European politics is a dumpster on fire and until it burns completely out leaving only smoldering remnants, no any meaningful contacts are possible, but then the Europe as we knew it will be gone and I doubt there will be anybody to talk to still--I do not exaggerate when I say that the West (as in Europe) is over. We observe this process in progress as I type it. Which makes me really cringe when reading such news:

PARIS — France’s decision to invite Russia to attend the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings has stoked tensions with allied nations as leaders prepare to gather on the Normandy beaches on June 6. Last month, Paris caught Western countries off guard when D-Day organizers announced they were extending an invitation to Moscow even as Russia launches a fresh offensive on Ukraine. Officials from the United Kingdom, the United States and two other World War II allies expressed concerns over the move, raising questions ranging from the symbolic nature of the occasion, protocol issues and queries about diplomatic engagement with Russian representatives. The White House is not pleased about the invitation, two administration officials told POLITICO. “We would defer to the government of France, which organizes the commemoration at Normandy,” one of the officials said. “But perhaps this will remind the Russians that they actually fought real Nazis once, not imaginary ones in Ukraine.”

As was noted by a few REAL American WW II scholars, there would have been no Normandy Landing if not for the Soviet Union and Red Army. There was also a reason why in Tehran Stalin demanded American, not British, general to lead the landing. But since Anglo-American WW II history is primarily accurately constructed confabulation which for at least three generations "educated" American "elites" (UK is a terminal case, all their WW II "scholars" are primarily of the level of Anthony Beevor, that is the level of a sewer), you wouldn't expect anything from US diplomats and military but arrogance and ignorance. After all, we all know that Patton defeated Hitler and that his 3rd Army's battling 10 operational German tanks in Lorraine is a peak of the military art. Many still believe in those military fairy tales by Hollywood and as US (and British) strategic "planning" in 404 demonstrated--it was done by amateurs. 

Obviously, such revelations from no less than Washington Post from 2015 will be increasingly erased in the West:

Don’t forget how the Soviet Union saved the world from Hitler

No worries here, they will forget. Already did. West has the whole industry set up by defeated Wehrmacht and SS which provided talking points for generations of what passes in the West for statesmen, military and government bureaucrats. It is not going to change until the very end, which is near. The US had about 80 years (an instance in historic terms) to get it right, it failed and learned absolutely nothing.

Friday...

... really tired, but life goes on. Go at it. Yes, I know--I am weak, but this is irresistible.

 

China Spoke...

 ... so did Putin. The level of coping in the West reaches a fever pitch. Educational foundation for real economy and why the US falls behind. 

 

 

No, It Is Not "Soviet Ways"...

 ... if anything else it is very American, and not bad at all, law. 

The government of Georgia wants to put the country back in time to its old Soviet Union days, as it signed a controversial new "foreign agents" law that many believe will end Georgia’s young democracy. Tens of thousands of angry protesters took to the streets of Tbilisi and other cities across Georgia to voice opposition to the new law and were met with a heavy response from Georgian riot police. Estimates vary, but nearly 200,000 people were out in the street on Saturday, a staggering show of force in a country of only 3.7 million people. The capital has been on edge as angry protesters remain outside the Parliament banging against barricades and smashing barriers that surround the building. Violent clashes between police and protesters continue.

Soon people around the world, if not already, will begin to vomit when hearing term "democracy" from war criminals such as Lindsey Graham or bimbos from FOX or CNN. "Democracy" is a euphemism for the US NGOs running amok in any nation the US deems "useful" and making sure those countries are enslaved and their development is arrested. One of such people yesterday shot the Prime Minister of Slovakia. Generally, US NGOs are "foreign agents", as are native people who work for them. Considering the fact that Georgia is underdeveloped and poor country (they wanted out of Soviet Union--good riddance), its only utility for the US is being a ram against Russia. For that purpose the US needs corrupt government of lapdogs and young unemployed imbeciles in Tbilisi, who could be promised all kinds of West's mythical "benefits", such as "high standard of living" or free reign of LGBTQ+++ , all of it due to economic and military incompetence of American "strategists" who live in alternative universe. 

Georgia is not going anywhere but into utter oblivion under the US "cooperation", as did 404, because chaos and misery is the only product the US peddles. So, they now are afraid to "lose" Georgia because once the law passes all real foreign agents and their sources of "income" will be exposed. As I am on record--US elites are utterly geopolitically incompetent, because they do not understand strategy and resources which are required for achieving strategic goals. Many people in Georgia who experienced "American support" in 2008 understand that if Georgia wants to survive as a nation, the only way to do it is to build pragmatic relations with Russia. Plus, they also see where the whole BRICS thing is going and some really want the part. In Soviet Union, Georgia and Georgians were the richest people, they looked at Russians with contempt. Boy, things changed in 35 years. Tbilisi is a shithole and many Georgians recall the blessed Soviet days with nostalgia, when they travel today to Russia and experience immense wealth and glitz of Russian cities. Plus... (in Russian) Putin and Xi are doing a very good business.

Can NATO...

 ... handle defeat? 

The answer is simple--NO, it cannot. I understand that Tony Shaffer is "against corruption", against this "stupid war" et al, we all are, but it is too late now to step away from the precipice of what can only be defined as America's realistic view of herself in the last 80 years. As I repeat ad nauseam--the roots of the chaos we live through today are on the battlefields of WW II and the insane speed with which the history of WW II has been rewritten in the West to fit its "democracy" narrative. The ideological imperatives of the Cold War 1.0 played a cruel joke on the United States and eventually THE narrative became a reality for the US ruling class. And now we all see not only American military power myth dissipate, but we see clearly the nature of the West's ruling class as... if you expect me to use terms like incompetent, evil et al, no, we knew this already--they are children who decided to play games adults play. And play they did and now they see their toys thrown away and as mischievous children being pointed by adults towards corner--for punishment.  

I want to remind you Michael Brenner's precise diagnosis:

Americanism provides a Unified Field Theory of self-identity, collective enterprise, and the Republic’s enduring meaning. When one element is felt to be in jeopardy, the integrity of the whole edifice becomes vulnerable. In the past, American mythology energized the country in ways that helped it to thrive. Today, it is a dangerous hallucinogen that traps Americans in a time warp more and more distant from reality. There is a muted reflection of this strained condition in the evident truth that Americans have become an insecure people. They grow increasingly anxious about who they are, what they are worth and what life will be like down the road.

There was good in America and it did thrive until... it bought into own narrative. And here is a contrast.

A young marine, Hero of Russia, answering the question what did he get the highest honor the Motherland can give for, simply answers: for the love to Motherland and moving paperwork in the staff. No bravado, no chest thumping. You cannot defeat these people, as I warned for many years--these are adults because they know what they are fighting for and what price to be paid. I can only repeat, I lost the count how many times, what is being said from highest podiums to among simple people in the streets--Russia cannot be defeated on the battlefield, period. Historic Russia, certainly, lost some battles but inevitably she proved Clausewitz' dictum that the result in the war is never final better than anyone in history, because in the end, she won her wars. 

Meanwhile, no matter how evil, children will be children. 

The whole world is to blame for Ukraine’s failure to stop Russia’s recent advances in Kharkov Region and must now help Kiev to change the situation, President Vladimir Zelensky told ABC News in an interview on Thursday. It comes after Russian forces managed to capture several settlements near Ukraine’s second-largest city over the past week. Top military officials in Kiev have admitted that the situation is now “extremely difficult,” and that Ukrainian troops are struggling to hold ground due to being outgunned and outnumbered. Asked if he believes Ukraine’s failures on the battlefield to be the fault of the US, Zelensky told ABC reporters that “it’s the world’s fault,” and accused the international community of giving “the opportunity for Putin to occupy.”

I will share with you a secret of sorts--how I wish Tom Clancy was still alive.