Desperate Times--Desperate Measures.

Saker nails it:

The terrorist attack on NS1 and NS2, combined with all the threats and hysterics prove that the entire leadership of the West is both suffering from major butthurt AND in a full panic mode.  The blowback from all this crass stupidity will be nothing short of absolutely huge. And if the AngloZionist are dumb enough to want a shooting war, Russia will oblige, I have absolutely NO doubts about this whatsoever.

Reality is, the US was in the damage control mode for a long time now, and terrorism against pipelines is a clear sign of a desperation and is primarily reaction to decisive results of referenda. You just cannot spin anymore the fact that Russia returned to herself a territory one and a half times larger than that of the whole of Benelux, which also happens to be the producer of 80% of (former) Ukraine's GDP. You just cannot spin this with clogging media with useless and meaningless tactical minutiae of VSU "capturing" some village or town, or two, without any real prospects of holding those for long. So, you lash out in desperation, frustration and panic. And, of course, one needs to continue to spew BS. 

As I already pointed out--blowing the pipelines should not obscure the real situation:

Russian natural gas exports to Europe have dropped by more than 82% in one year, according to Spain's Energy Transition Minister Teresa Ribera. "In just a year, the flow of gas from Russia fell by more than 82%. In fact, in January 2021, supplies from Russia accounted for about 40% of the gas consumed in Europe. At the moment, this figure does not reach 10%," Ribera was quoted as telling a Spanish broadcaster on Friday.Spain, which does not depend on Russia for gas supply, has sufficient resources to help its closest neighbors, France and Italy, the Spanish minister added.

The dynamics was obvious for a while. Russia is simply shutting EU off because EU is an open enemy of Russia, plus it stole Russian money. So, in overall economic terms it is not unexpected for Russia and necessary measures have been taken. Now EU will have to live without Russian gas and that means a final blow to Germany's, grossly overrated and overvalued, economy and it will also fail to produce any tangible benefits for the US economy, since the US economically right now is a complete mess. Interesting times we live in. Per pure geopolitical and military effect--wait for the developments in Ukraine and I believe it was Scott Ritter who described the outcome for the US in Ukraine as Afghanistan 1.0 but on steroids. I, honestly, expect nothing less, but something tells me that it will be more.

Some Headlines From My Friends.

Larry had it with US Media BS about 404 and he sounded off on Germany's Economy Minister Herr Robert Habeck:

If you think the West has learned its lesson and opted to focus on truth, think again. Germany’s Economy Minister, Robert Habeck, was peddling these whoppers to his own government this week:

Western sanctions in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine are still taking a heavy toll on the Russian war machine. . . .The Russian economy is collapsing,” . . . adding that Germany had played its part here by reducing exports to Russia in March by 60%, with an even sharper fall expected in April.

The obvious question for any reporter with the brain power of a cretin would be, “what is the evidence that Russia’s economy is collapsing?” The truth is that all sectors are firing on all cylinders. Just because Germany has decided to commit economic hari kari by declining to purchase cheap Russian oil, does not mean that Russia is bleeding out financially. The Economist reported two weeks ago that Russia is running a record trade surplus.

It is worth noting, that Herr Habeck, same as Fyodor Lukyanov, has degree in philology and philosophy. He is literally Doctor of Philosophy in... Philosophy. In other words, he wouldn't be able to run 7-11 Store without bankrupting it in  a week, let alone German economy which he helps to obliterate very efficiently. Needless to say, the guy is also a dedicated Grune. Hey, don't look at me, Germans elect these freaks. 

In related news, Mark Chapman came up with one of the best article titles in a long while, especially against the background of my own complete inability to come up with meaningful title and I speak about this often. Most of the titles of my books and chapters are created by my wonderful editor. So, here is the title:

How Many Frequent-Flyer Miles Would it Cost to Send Ursula von der Leyen Non-Stop to Hell?

Let's face it, Western politics is run by amateurs. So is economy, as for military--boy, are we going to be describing this clusterfuck for many years to come. It is something very special. The Commander of California's National Guard General Baldwin is so upset, is so hurt emotionally, that he proposed sending MiG-29s to Ukraine, because, obviously, his formation which was responsible for "training" the VSU failed miserably preparing their subjects for real war, because neither Baldwin nor his "trainees" know much about real war. There you go, see the result for yourself. That is why Baldwin has all those fantastical ideas and even thinks that sending US combat aircraft to 404 will change much. Not really. As Vladimir Putin himself went on record today (in Russian)--the armaments which West supplies to 404 are "peanuts" for Russian air defense systems. I am telling you: wait for a White Paper on Russian AD in 404--it will be a wowser. Some people in Pentagon (not General Baldwin, of course) already know that. This is you primer for Saturday.  

Desperation Sets In.

I am not the first one who noticed this, anyone with IQ higher than room temperature could have noticed that. Difficult to miss really: 

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Thursday called on China to use its influence with Russia to urge a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis, but policy experts doubted Beijing would back Washington in the standoff. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Beijing said it wanted all sides to remain calm and "refrain from doing things that agitate tensions and hype up the crisis."Blinken stressed that tensions should be reduced and warned of the security and economic risks from any Russian aggression, the State Department said.U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said U.S. messages to Beijing had been very clear. "We are calling on Beijing to use its influence with Moscow to urge diplomacy, because if there is a conflict in the Ukraine it is not going to be good for China either," Nuland said at a regular State Department news conference. "There will be a significant impact on the global economy. There will be a significant impact in the energy sphere."

Basically, this whole panopticon is akin to asking China to influence China's crucial military ally whom huge chunks of China's security depend on to act counter to Russia and China's national interests just because petulant and ignorant children in Foggy Bottom want so. This, folks, is the "level" of the US "diplomacy", which for the last 20+ years provided us with a panoply of amateurs who in normal country wouldn't be allowed to run a 7-11 convenience store or even mow the lawns in any self-respecting middle class Home Owners Association. Yet, here we are--the bunch of State Department chicken-hawks, war-mongers and neocons desperately try to repeat their failed "strategy" of 2014 hoping yet again that Russia will bait and will "go in" and will tie her resources in 404 which Russia doesn't want or need and thus will allow neocons' "plan" to deal with China without Russia to succeed. Good God, they ARE that stupid. 

Here is J.D. Vance:

Billions spent on the Kennedy school, grand strategies seminars, and the Georgetown school of foreign service has bought us an elite that’s about to blunder us into a Ukraine war. Our country is broken, especially in how it trains its leaders.

I have news for J.D. Vance--there is a whole issue with the US education starting from K-12. They do not teach there, as it is done in normal countries, the relation between cause and effect. That is why the US lost its all post-WW II wars, lost its economic race to China, arms race to Russia and effectively produced "elites" which constantly humiliate their own country by their ignorance, incompetence and bizarre behavior. Read an acerbic piece by Fred Reed about the art of governance. They don't teach real governance in the US. Fred has a point, in fact, many of them. 

A Faintly Curmudgeonly Analysis of the Sino-Dimbulbian Clash

Well, Paul Craig Roberts notes in his latest: 

It is over. Putin has won. Victoria Nuland, the neoconservative war monger appointed Undersecretary of State by the White House fool, announced Washington’s surrender when she called on China to use its influence with Russia to save Ukraine from invasion. She thus acknowledges what everyone had already concluded: the US and NATO lack the capability. Washington’s surrender followed the request of the Ukrainian president that Washington stop the “Russian invasion” propaganda as there were no signs of an invasion being prepared and Washington’s rhetoric was too provocative. Germany refused flyover permission to the UK for arms deliveries to Ukraine. Two NATO members announced that they would not send troops if NATO got involved in Ukraine. Washington saw the writing on the wall.

The reality is catching up with Washington. West will have to pay for a mess which it created in 404 in 2014. Russia is NOT taking this freak of a country on her balance and it was the West which precipitated Russia's ultimatum and the issue today is way bigger than just the Ukraine. It is about Russia breaking off with the West on Russia's terms. Those in the West who would have second thoughts--they are welcome to Moscow if they have something to say of substance. If not, too fvcking bad, it's West's problem and they should go back. As Saker noted, Russians are "snow niggers" for the West and Russians, overwhelming majority of them, are just fine with that. This is the fact the combined West should internalize. Russians don't give a damn.  Except when they do, but for that Russia has Defense Ministry and damn good Armed Forces. 

Speaking of which, some details have been revealed about modernization of good ol' Udaloys (pr. 1155) and, as you might expect, all of them will get 3M22 Zircons in addition to other weapon systems and full update of electronic suites (in Russian). 

There is an interesting "slip of the tongue" in this video that Admiral Nakhimov will actually get a navalized version of S-400, albeit media state that Nakhimov will retain Fort-M (S-300FM), but then again, it is not long now for Nakhimov to get to trials.

America Needs War.

Desperately. In this particular instance the war is more needed on Democrat's side of the isle  due to a variety of reasons, which are:

1. US being caught in the Catch 22 of Russia's "ultimatum" and having no other ideas about how to extricate itself from Ukraine's conundrum;

2. The coming trashing of Democrats at the upcoming mid-terms, aggravated by POTUS' "excellent" rating;

3. With Democrats' agenda imploding as I type this and massive systemic crisis engulfing combined West.

The US, being geopolitically one trick pony, is hell-bent on pushing Russia towards invasion of the country Russians neither want nor need and would prefer NATO (and US with EU) cleaning up and paying for the mess they created in 404. The US desire is so strong that good ol' Joe went on record today. 

President Biden addressed the brewing conflict between Russia and Ukraine during a press briefing Wednesday, saying of Russian President Vladimir Putin, "my guess is he will move in."    

Of course,  it remains a matter of speculation on what conflict POTUS had in mind (maybe he meant China and Taiwan, or whatever), but the truth is--Washington  is desperate. So much so that it continues to issue empty threats promising Russia a "catastrophe" and even forbidding Russia any operations with the US Dollar (in Russian). I slowly reach for a pop-corn bucket.  Not to be outdone, of course, are all kinds of professional abusers of legislative positions such as Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy promising: 

Sen. Chris Murphy appeared Tuesday on Anderson Cooper 360, where the Connecticut Democrat addressed the growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine, with Russia now reportedly having hundreds of thousands of troops posted at the Ukrainian border. Though Russia invaded Crimea, a pro-Russia area of Ukraine, in 2014 with little pushback, Murphy said things would go much differently if Russian President Vladimir Putin were to invade. “There is going to be continued U.S. assistance, assistance to an army that’s ready to fight and a population that is not just going to let Russia march into the center of Ukraine,” Murphy said. “Putin seems to be getting absolutely horrible advice. People telling him he is going to be greeted as some kind of liberator in a country that has turned against Russia over the last 10 years and is going to fight for its survival.”

Well, for starters you can look up this Senator's biography filled with studies of combined arms operations, deployments into operational zones, degrees in weapon system integrations... Ah, wait, I am screwing with you. Senator's pathos about "army that's ready to fight" and, especially, which is funny, about population are the occasions on which I always like to enroll the help from Sergei Victorovich Lavrov:

because at this stage one has to ask a question: how else these people want to embarrass their own country by the virtue of them being elected to the positions they are utterly unqualified for? They literally have no grasp of the reality, especially economic one (forget military--it is impossible to explain to average US politician what it is) outside of their constituency. But hey, what do I know. People continue to ask me to comment on this or that statement or talking by one or the other American "expert" on Russia. Read my lips: bar some few exceptions, US academe, including those who specialize in Russia are not experts. They are narrative-mongers, majority of who have no serious skills, background nor experience in anything they try to "analyze" about Russia--this problem is systemic and is due to a complete corruption of the America's education, especially history and military history and over-saturation of the American body-politic by people without any serious education or lawyers. It is literally the situation of auto-mechanic with vocational school performing an open heart surgery and thinking that he knows what he is doing. You can easily predict the result, for a patient.    

Gaps and Preventive Wars of Desperation.

More than four years ago I wrote my first piece for Unz Review and in it I advanced the thesis that extremely tense situation around Russia could be viewed as an approach to a preventive war of sorts.

for Washington, whose political discourse is based on American exceptionalism and foreign policy now is defined completely in terms of military power, emergence of a “peer” military power is absolutely unacceptable. While China is an economic giant and is now arguably the largest economy in the world, she still has a long way to go until she becomes a true “peer” to the United States militarily. This is not the case with Russia. It becomes also true when one begins to look at doctrinal and technological developments both in the US and Russia. The contrast is startling, even if one considers a very dubious US intelligence on Russia.

Many things have changed since then but the thesis of a preventive war against Russia by the combined West, led by the United States, not only didn’t lose much of its relevance but, in fact, increasingly accentuates the only framework the United States, as a formal leader of a combined West, uses when dealing with Russia and, increasingly, China. Preventive war, in all of its known  manifestations ranging from sabotage and  propaganda to various levels of military violence, is the only method of conducting foreign relations the United States knows precisely because the United States doesn’t know what real war is, nor is it abreast of a profound technological and operational change which is taking place in the warfare of the 21^st century.

The obverse side of this de facto loss of the arms race by the United States is astonishing in its volume, in the last thirty years, stream of military and geopolitical concepts, doctrines, theories and ideas most of which never panned out and, in fact, played a baneful role in preventing the United States from facing a global reality described not in US establishment and academe platitudes but in tangibles. But, of course, you already know all that because that is what I do—I try to describe the world in tangibles. But here is the thing—the indicator of any loss or, otherwise, victory is always a gap. This is how we describe the state of play, in gaps—how large they are and what are the dynamics of these gaps. Recall how gaps factor in all that:

You see the gap, you see gap's dynamics and you pretty much know who the winner of this particular race is. Easy. But that's sports, where the means of objective control are the deciders of the outcome. While one can debate the validity of one or another referee call, such as shameless dive by Raheem Sterling against Denmark two days ago (not to mention two balls simultaneously of the field), which got England to Euro-2020 finals, in games, in races--it is more difficult. 

In the end, time and finish strip are irrefutable proofs of a victory. But that is not the case with international relations, geopolitics and military power. Especially military power. For starters they are infinitely more complex than any sports competition, hence their "rules books" are not books per se, but a gigantic variety of those and require years and years of a professional study. A layman can, and does, understand soccer or ice-hockey rules and tactics, a layman will have a really hard time understanding basic principles of Search Theory, as an example, and why the probability of detection (PD) of the target in search is: 

                                    PD=1- exp (-z(t))

Where z(t) is: 

Which is, actually, pretty straight-forward with U being the speed of the search object (e.g. submarine), p(rho) is a search area coverage rate (search productivity) and tau is a delay time (time late). Mathematically it is extremely simple but it is a physical essence of this whole "Search" thingy which requires many years of study and experience to grasp it and start thinking in images and concepts which describe all that. This applies to anything military be it basic use of ballistic tables for artillery to ships' maneuvers on a tactical level to thinking in probabilities, required forces and combat effectiveness on the operational and strategic levels. How it is all related to the subject of this post, preventive war that is, you may ask. Here is a straight answer after this fairly long introduction. 

 

Ask yourself a question how the blob in D.C. thinks. I can tell you how: Washington never denounced the preemptive nuclear strike option and I don't mean doctrinal statements about using nukes when there is a danger to the existence of the state, such as Russia's military doctrine explicitly states, same as it is written in many US Nuclear Posture Reviews throughout the last 10 years. I am talking about loosening criteria for a preventive nuclear strike including obfuscated by the military lingo simple military expediency in killing the enemy just because it could be killed with a minimal own costs. Just recall a simple fact that the US is the only country which actually used nuclear weapons. Then recall such things as this in 2008:

The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new NATO by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists. Calling for root-and-branch reform of NATO and a new pact drawing the US, Nato and the European Union together in a "grand strategy" to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a "first strike" nuclear option remains an "indispensable instrument" since there is "simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world". The manifesto has been written following discussions with active commanders and policymakers, many of whom are unable or unwilling to publicly air their views. It has been presented to the Pentagon in Washington and to NATO's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, over the past 10 days.  

Or, let's recall immediate post-WWII plans for nuking USSR which were prevented not by non-existent then Soviet nuclear deterrent but by dubious effectiveness of American nuclear weapons in case of a large scale war in Europe with the Soviet Union. But the United States was always a nuclear-biased nation and even 2018 (Trump's) Nuclear Posture Review included some bizarre things:

Really? We’re Gonna Nuke Russia for a Cyberattack? The Trump administration’s new nuclear strategy includes a provision that is truly bonkers.

In general, Russians were always aware of the US nuclear views and knew that any situation in which USSR/Russia would fall below a certain second (response) strike in nuclear capabilities had a serious probability of initiation of a decapitating American nuclear strike which would, in theory, settle the issue of the American economic and military hegemony once and for all, by means of destroying USSR/Russia. This is not an insane scenario, these things are constantly on the mind of a large portion of the American military-political elite and this is how it views the world. Russians know this and Russia was developing a second strike capability (response-headon, or otvetno-vstrechnyi udar) like there was no tomorrow. Well, Russians succeeded immensely in this field and, in fact, doing so redefined not only the rules for nuclear deterrent but for any type of the war as a whole. 

Let me explain. Just a few days ago the news about S-500 passing combat missile launches and of A-235 Nudol, evidently, being developed also in mobile variant, went largely in a matter-of-factly mode but there are some things which need to be understood in their ramifications. S-500 has a range of around 600 kilometers for aerial targets. That, as I already stated before, means that any NATO combat aircraft flying around Berlin, or more generally, over East Germany will be shot down. Same goes for any aerial target over Romania once S-500 are deployed in Crimea. Once one considers the fact that Russians are talking now about "one missile--one target", it becomes clear that targeting for S-500 could be obtained from any source which allows higher uncertainties in targeting of aircraft and that means targeting from such radar complexes as Container, which can see the commercial and combat planes on runway in Netherlands. 

This capability alone has strategic ramifications because the only viable instrument in NATO's war plans against Russia was its air-power which was considered "sophisticated" and numerous enough to fight Russia including delivering nuclear weapons. If S-400 wasn't bad enough, S-500 effectively denies NATO air forces any crucial command and control function because any aircraft carrying this mission out will be shot down even before it will be able to detect anything and vector fighter aircraft towards any threat. Obviously, the fact that S-500 is designed to shoot down any hypersonic and ballistic targets with the speed of up to 7 kilometers per second, and low orbit satellites and is integrated with the rest of Russia's AD is a strategic factor in itself which dramatically reduces probabilities of delivering a nuclear, not to speak of conventional, strike against Russia. With S-500 and A-235 Nudol coming on-line and both performing well in tests, Russia continues to develop not only always impressive air defense but the air defense of an immense power, including full blown anti-missile capability, including ICBMs.  

This is a gap and the dynamic of this gap is very simple--it is not static, it is widening. In fact, the speed of this widening only increases. At this stage, Russia has an overwhelming edge over the United States both in quality, quantity and combat experience with her air-defense systems and this has become a strategic problem for the United States. American conventional logic of SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense) operations of throwing a bunch of TLAMs and turning on ECM against some outdated and not realistically integrated third world AD doesn't apply here. In fact, Russia can do her own ECM suppressing and, as RAND's big air operations honcho David Ochmanek admitted in 2019: 

“We lose a lot of people. We lose a lot of equipment. We usually fail to achieve our objective of preventing aggression by the adversary. In our games, when we fight Russia and China, blue gets its ass handed to it.”

This was two years ago, since then any mentioning of F-35 "being unmatched in the skies" can cause a hysterical laughter among air-defense and serious Air Forces professionals and even flag-waiving ignorant fanboys such as David Axe have to report that:

The U.S. Air Force Just Admitted The F-35 Stealth Fighter Has Failed

So, how do you fight Russia in the skies? Well, you cannot do that around Russia and in Eastern Europe without losing most of your air force. I omit here extensively discussed reasons for Biden Administration sudden urge to seek summit with Putin. But I have to advance the thesis here that Russia's military edge over the US (and NATO) is much larger than most in the West would admit. There are gaps everywhere and they continue to widen. What are those gaps?

1. We already briefly discussed Air Defense capabilities--Russia's technological lead here is gigantic;

2. Combined Arms capabilities, especially Russia's mobilization and deployment capability, are significantly greater than those of NATO;

3. Missile gap is real and the United States is nowhere near Russia in terms of missile technology. It is not even fair to compare. In fact, it is down right ridiculous. US lag here is counted in generations, not years.

4. Surface fleets--this is the whole other story;

5. Lastly, nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. Avangard, Sarmat, Poseidon, Burevestnik... do I need to say more? 

So, if you are in D.C. today and you are one of the representatives of a powerful school of thought that Russia delenda est by any means and anything, including preventive nuclear strike, must be considered to achieve this objective, and you see the dynamics of the so called "arms race" which is being lost and not by slight margin but by "50 lengths", ask yourself a question what military options do you have? Right, only a massive nuclear preventive strike which will be three decades late and, in fact, the more time passes by, even this strike may fail to achieve objective of physical elimination of Russia other than triggering a second strike response which will destroy the United States.  

Am I overstating my case? Not necessarily, we can only guess the stakes in the power struggle in D.C. As the events of the last few years demonstrated, Washington is packed with insane people ready to go to any length in their lust for power and quenching their thirst for exceptionalism kool-aid in their delusional state. This insanity may metastasize into the very military-political top who in their desperation from recognizing America's weakness may try to unleash unthinkable, especially knowing that the time is running out and that they will never be able to narrow, let alone close, any gap before America's nuclear strategic arsenal begins to dramatically lose its deterrent effect and Russia will transition into the new military-technological reality as she did last decade with what can only be described as the REAL revolution in military affairs. The Pax Americana is already dead and these are Russia's highly advanced weapons which for now keep relative peace on the globe. They are the guarantee against the preventive war. But will they be enough to prevent a desperation war which may originate inside increasingly chaotic, delusional and irrational American military-political establishment? These are the chaotic thoughts which visited me in the last couple of days.

Even She Gets It.

I mean Frau Kanzlerin begins to suspect that it is not about Russia or "democracy", it is about devouring Western Europe and putting Germany at the altar of America's desperation to preserve an illusion of own hegemony, for just a little bit longer, as a first sacrificial victim. The rest of Europe will follow. Today she figured it out, sort of...

“I know that there is controversy about Nord Stream 2 and I know the opinion of many member states,” she said. “But I would like to point out that the gas delivered through Nord Stream 2, which isn’t yet flowing, is no worse than the gas from Nord Stream 1, that which flows through Ukraine, and that which comes across Turkey from Russia.”

Frau Merkel forgot only one thing, Nord Stream 1 (aka NS) was completed in 2011-12, in the times when, despite the United States already being vehemently opposed to this pipeline, it was a really bad idea to admit to Europeans that they were being held merely as a meal ready to eat (MRE) by the United States, which called them still "partners" and "allies". At that time, on Obama's watch, everything in the US was supposed to be running smoothly and efficiently, you know "the finest fighting force in history", Obama's uncle liberating Auschwitz and things of this nature. The going was good still, or at least it was viewed as good, and it was possible to play the game of "allied relations" and "common values" with Europeans who thought that the US was in Europe to "protect" them. 

Well, it is 2021 and we all know the score, more or less. The United States cannot compete with Russia or China and is in a terminal, for the America's self-proclaimed hegemony, decline; to stop it America needs Europeans to become food. Unsurprisingly, those in Europe who have some brains left after a thorough brainwashing and blackmailing do not want to become food for the United States. Who would? Well Poland and Baltic States with Ukraine would, but they are merely jackals circling the table with the main course on it, or, as Ukraine, are used condoms to be thrown into the trash bin. The main course is Germany, because once it is eaten, the rest of Europe will follow. Now Germany's colorless and not very bright Frau Merkel notes:

“I have the impression that with Nord Stream 2 we may be waging a conflict that is much wider, and touches upon the question of the extent to which we want to trade with Russia, especially in the energy sector,” 

The hell you say, Einstein. Russia can live without Germany, in fact Russia's very successful import-substitution program was launched precisely to achieve this goal--living without dependence on Europe. It is Germany which is an occupied country and which cannot admit to itself that it is being slowly cooked by the US to achieve German industrial collapse to open the road for both American (that means Russian ones bought by US and re-sold to Germany for much higher price) hydrocarbons and industrial products. One shot, two rabbits, the American thinking goes, "opening" German market while making German products much less competitive at the American one. That's the plan anyway and to implement it, Germany must be denied Russia's affordable energy. Nord Stream 2, thus, delenda est. 

There is one problem here, though, for America and her lapdog UK, America's geopolitical thinking and planning, such as Skripal Affair, Czech 2014 explosion of munitions storage, allegedly by Russians, with ensuing diplomatic comedy, or attempts to light up several simultaneous conflicts around Russia, not least through attempts at the overthrow of government of Belarus--all of those attempts failing spectacularly--are just some indicators of an extreme detachment of the US establishment from the reality and its inability to face facts. US will throw under the bus anyone, if need be, such as it happened with Czech republic, always heavy on Russophobia, and these all are desperate attempts by the US in trying to prevent integration of West European economies into the colossal Eurasian market being formed by China and Russia. As I wrote two weeks ago:

So, what’s left realistically is to push Ukraine into the suicidal campaign with Russia being designated aggressor before even the first shots are fired. What the United States does not recognize is the fact that this unties Russia’s hands who already has an overwhelming escalation dominance not only over Ukraine, but whatever might be attempted in terms of “support” for irrational regime in Kiev. Russia has many options, the United States has one—it needs war in Donbass, which, Washington’s thinking goes, will allow to drive Europeans into submission, which allegedly should allow the United States to save her hegemonic status. It will not, even if Europe is driven into submission.

So, Russia just goes about her business because she knows the game, she knows the score and she long ago calculated the United States' moves, which are not, frankly, that difficult to predict. Scott Ritter is way more than me informed about the underwater currents inside the Beltway and he may well be right when stating this:

These are policies pushed and promoted by the “Putin whisperers.” For the moment, their will continues to prevail. But their days are numbered, as realpolitik pragmatists in the White House, Pentagon and Intelligence Community are recognizing the reality that the days of taking for granted US global hegemony are over, and that for the United States to remain relevant, it must adapt to the reality of a multi-polar world, and Russia’s rightful role therein. This will not happen overnight, but it is in the process of happening. In promoting and supporting Biden’s latest round of sanctions, the “Putin whisperers” have reached their high-water mark. From here on out, their influence will begin to ebb as the national security demand for fact-based assessments outstrips the domestic political need for fact-free propaganda.

But something tells me that it is now too little, too late and cleaning what amounts to US foreign policy Stables of King Augeas will require a man of Herculean abilities and courage, especially after the wasteland left in domestic and foreign policies by America's (and Israeli-first) neocons the likes of Kagans, whose intellectual abilities are inversely proportional to their gigantic ambitions, and whose damage to Russian-American relations and America herself is profound and not easily fixed, if it is possible at all. When even meek and cowardly Frau Merkel begins to understand that the bottom is in sight, that tells you something. 

American Modern Art At Its Finest.

Feeling bad, down? Dire Straits' The Telegraph Road in your head? The Friday at Smoothie's Blog (I kid, I kid)? Well, apart from superb music, the video shows places I've been many times to, or very similar ones. I know how desperation looks and feels like--I know American West really... not bad. I, for some reason, never was attracted to the glitz of big cities, I always preferred back roads' diners, not an exquisite cuisine. I never will be able to live in Canada (despite loving her magnificent nature)--they are not big of Chicken Fried Steak--I have to have those. Yet, as always blues makes it all come together very nicely, especially when played by Joe Bonamassa. 

Blues is eternal...So is American desperation (yes, I almost stole it from Pink Floyd).