Some Friday Business.

Starting from Pepe, who brilliantly observed from Moscow:

In Moscow, their toxic ghosts are always lurking in the background. Yet one cannot but feel sorry for the psycho Straussian neocons and neoliberal-cons who now barely qualify as Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski’s puny orphans. In the late 1990s, Brzezinski pontificated that, “Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical center because its very existence as an independent state helps transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.” With or without a demilitarized and denazified Ukraine, Russia has already changed the narrative. This is not about becoming a Eurasian empire again. This is about leading the long, complex process of Eurasia integration – already in effect – in parallel to supporting true, sovereign independence across the Global South.

Speaking of which. I do not particularly care about Trump the person, or as POTUS, for that matter--he was and remains an empty suite who never was equipped for dealing with the swamp he so proudly declared he would drain. But his indictment, indeed, opened the can of worms which this country, which goes to hell with a tremendous acceleration, may not survive. As James Kunstler, ever eloquent, notes:

It’s a little early to assess the knock-on effects of the Left’s ecstatic Trumpgasm. A common theme flying across the Web is that Alvin Bragg’s jerry-rigged case will only make a martyr of Mr. Trump, neatly illustrating and personifying the government’s apparent war against its own citizens — making it clear that they will stop at nothing and no one to enforce the corrupt bureaucracy’s will against the public — and that the net result will be to ensure Mr. Trump’s reelection in 2024.

I, of course, am interested in sociopolitical impact of the indictment, but after I researched the "artistic" career of Stormy Daniels, I would say that Trump's taste in women, despite being married to a beautiful woman, is rather an extension of his political tastes--kitsch and low brow. In the end, there are way more attractive pornstars, not to speak of very high level prostitutes, laboring as high end escorts, he could have easily afforded. But that's just me, what do I know. 

Now about EU "peacekeepers" in 404. Sure--more coffins for EU. The whole idea is risible and Russia will wipe them out. As for Lukashenko's attempts to stay relevant against the background of inevitable unification of Russia and Belarus, his "peace gesture"(c) was met, as expected, with this:

Belarusian proposals for a suspension of hostilities in Ukraine can be discussed but they don’t change Moscow’s analysis of the conflict, the Kremlin spokesman has stated. Dmitry Peskov noted that the initiative formulated by the key Russian ally could not be directly compared to the roadmap for peace in Ukraine set out by China. The latest proposals for a truce, which were outlined by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday, involve a ban on the movement of troops and weapons, so neither Russia nor Ukraine could use the armistice to regather their forces.

So, it is same ol', same ol' with Lukashenko, who never abandons his pathological habit of occupying two, or better three, chairs simultaneously, whilst sensing that the logic of the geopolitical events leads him into the irrelevance. Meanwhile in interview to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 404's Deputy Foreign Minister Melnik admitted:

"Мы не хотим начинать контрнаступление, которое не подготовлено. У нас сейчас приблизительно 50-60 танков с Запада, но русские как сейчас, так и прежде способны ежедневно производить или приводить в боеспособность до десяти танков. А это означает, что мы еще долгое время будем неспособны добиться решающего преимущества на поле боя", — сообщил дипломат.

Translation: "We don't want to start a counter-offensive that is not prepared. We now have about 50-60 tanks from the West, but the Russians, as now and in the past, are capable of producing or bringing combat capability up to ten tanks a day. And this means that we will still have a long time we will be unable to achieve a decisive advantage on the battlefield," the diplomat said.

No shit, geniuses (not Melnik, he understands nothing in the matter), finally someone in Pentagon and London did calculate a required force. Well, I guess attending Army War College and Command and General Staff College finally paid off. Somebody finally got a hold of a real economic capability of Russia--yes, 10 tanks a day x 365 days = 3, 650 tanks a year--and finally calculated that whopping 2 tank battalions of Western tanks is about a week or so of work for Russian tank and anti-tank crews and those pesky Ka-52s and Mi-28s. Ah, yes--the reality is a bitch. But sure, Russians are waiting for the last hope dash of the remnants of VSU and its NATO "allies" and then... well, only Kremlin and General Staff know what's then. Unleash your imagination.

Read My Lips(c).

In response to all those laments about Russia doing, or not doing, this and that and whatever is the emotional dish du jour for valiant armchair strategists such as myself. So, read my lips:

                   Russia owes nothing to anyone. Period. 

Get used to living with this idea, because Russia is not into the business of sorting out everyone's shit. Main purpose of Russia as a state (nation, civilization, collective, community--underline whatever you want) is to provide safe and prosperous lives for Russia's 146 (some say it is now more than 149) million of Russia's citizens. Per Belarus, Belarus IS a part of a unified state, so just leave it alone and let the thing play out. I will repeat what I said many times already--Belarus' main anti-Russian element is Lukashenko. Live with it. Why and how? Look at Ukraine. Lukashenko must go, Belarus may stay. Simple as that. I don't know how else to convey this simple truth. You can take one out of kolkhoz (state farm), you cannot take kolkhoz out of one. Lukashenko is former kolkhoz director with a world view and psychology appropriate for this level of management. Whole Belarus' "economic socialist miracle" was financed for decades by Russia and financing counts in, probably, more than $100 billion. Russia doesn't want to pay for some petty autocrat's career anymore, and rightly so. Enough is enough. 

Now that I pointed out obvious international law and geopolitical difference between Ukraine and Belarus, Russia MUST absolutely, and I think that was done already, tell Lukashenko to get lost, after his pathetic ass will be saved. People still, it seems, cannot get a huge distinction  between real intellect and being a cunning primitive crook such as Lukashenko. Now to the most important part. Empires shine, if they don't--they fail. I already stated this not for once, I will repeat it again--for New Yorker or Chicagoan who would visit Moscow or St. Petersburg for the first time, the whole experience could be a life-changing event, because the grandeur, opulence and the glitz of these cities, as well as of many other places in Russia can create a cultural shock. Especially if this person read and watched US media. NYC or Chicago look like a county fair trying to compete with Hermitage and Louvre in value of their art collections. Simple as that. 

Russians, for the last 30 years, were humiliated, thrown out of newly "independent" countries of former USSR, were abused, taken as slaves, accused of being drunks and backward, of being freeloaders and being impediment to a development of former Soviet Republics towards European (or American) levels of consumption and "enlightenment", same goes for former Warsaw block countries. Russians said: "fine". Today, European cities look like shitholes compared to many Russian cities, Russia is safe and Russians, majority of them, never lived as good as they do today. And former empire shines and not only through its glitz, public safety and standard of living. Russia simply doesn't need freeloaders anymore. Belarus was a freeloader for 30 some years and it was Lukashenko who made Belarus into a freeloader. Well, this time is over. For him, anyway, and if anyone thinks that Belarus is a viable economic entity without Russia, they should take a look at a much larger Ukraine. 

So, the point is simple--form a line trying to get in, guys, and nobody cares if the latest polls, such as in Ukraine, show a "softening" of the attitudes towards Russia. Sure, they show--living in a shithole changes attitudes fairly fast, but the Rubicon has been crossed and Russia asks today a question: "why do I need you?" Just ask those seasonal workers from Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other former "sufferers" from Russia's civilizating yoke who try, in millions, to get to Russia today, from their national and very "free" (from real economy, education or healthcare) countries to get any job to send money back to their "independent" nations. Let's say this, Belarus got lucky, but as Ukrainians, Belorussians better have a good case to present to Russia on why they are so crucial for her. It is better be a damn solid case, accompanied by a sincere apology. Maybe then Russians will reconsider. After all, they are the ones populating this ever-guilty and ever-backward Russia. Indeed, what can possibly these Russians offer when compared to a blessed West. 

I heard Paris smells like urine. San-Francisco, meanwhile, smells like shit and so, yes, I am sure there are many toilet bowls and strawberry fields which need tending by members of the future brave new world of a disintegrating West. The future of the West, from Los Angeles to Paris, increasingly smells like an excrement.