A Superb Review ...

 ... from Larry. 

Following up on my critique of the current US intelligence community’s conclusions in the current Annual Threat Assessment regarding Russian losses, this is not an aberration or departure from standard operating procedure. Instead, it is the natural result of political pressure and bureaucratic cowardice preventing analysts from telling hard truths to political masters.

These are professional's insights. 

And Again, And Again ...

... and again, for those who still buy into the Western media BS, here is Larry from Moscow. 

Putin’s position regarding Ukraine has not changed. He will not negotiate with Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky is no longer the constitutional authority in Ukraine. He must be replaced and Russia will only talk to his successor. Russia is not going to make any territorial concessions. Zaporhyzhia and Kherson, along with Donetshk and Luhansk, are now permanent members of the Russian Federation. That is non-negotiable. I was struck by Donald Trump’s comment today, where he opined that Ukraine may cease to exist as a country. It appears to me he is starting to pay attention to daily Presidential Daily Brief and that Tulsi Gabbard, in her new role as the Director of National Intelligence, is making sure that the President is getting an unvarnished briefing on the true situation in Ukraine.

Agree with Larry completely--Tulsi knew the situation long before Trump was elected. Now, with her in the powerful position it becomes clear that Trump gets REAL intelligence on SMO and the "spread" so to speak. In Russian circles there is a "rumor" circulating that Russian position on 404 may even be tougher than initial conditions given to the US delegation in Saudi Arabia. Looks like there will be de Facto Russian bases in what is called причерноморье (near Balck Sea) --Odessa and Nikolaev--a euphemism for eventual joining Russia de Jure--while the whole political system of 404 will be overhauled per Russia's design.  

Duh!

Wow, what a secret has been disclosed, not. 

Soldiers of Ukraine’s ‘Thor’ special operations group use satellite data provided by the CIA to choose targets when conducting drone strikes against Russian forces, the unit’s commander told the Times. The 27-man group, which is formally a police special operations unit, functions independently from the Ukrainian army and works in close collaboration with Ukraine’s military intelligence, the GUR, which provides them with ammunition and intel. According to the Times, the unit has complete license to select its missions, where they barrack and when they fight. The unit’s commander, whose name is said to also be Thor, claims he uses a special application on a tablet that is synced to a CIA satellite to select potential targets for their attacks. “We select targets in the program, and targets can be placed there both by the CIA satellite and by our own satellite, which our volunteers pay for. Information is collected from all kinds of sources there. We choose, then we arrive and conduct our own reconnaissance,” Thor told the outlet.

In related news--water is wet, fire is hot and the sky is blue. The US runs a tight routine here between completely discrediting itself as "the finest fighting force in history" which cannot fight a real war and a power who hides behind proxies. As I stated not for once, in real war with Russia the US satellite recon and navigation constellation would have been gone in about 72 hours. But then again, Washington knows the ultimate outcome, not for 404 which de facto doesn't exist as a real state anymore, but for itself. 

Medvedev, meanwhile, is on a roll:

Russia is rapidly boosting its military production capacity to meet the demands of the Ukraine campaign, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of the country's national security council, has told journalists. “Our enemies thought that our industry would be overwhelmed,” the official, who also has previously served as Russian president and prime minister, said by videolink on Wednesday. “There were endless claims: munitions are running out, tanks are running out, missiles are running out.” Medvedev said he'd witnessed military factories working round the clock during his inspections. And new manufacturing capacities are being built, he added. “Sure, we didn’t think it would be necessary sometime ago. But it became a necessity,” he said of the expansion.

And here is the trick, Western "democracies" and FIRE "economies" cannot do that even if they will allocate (print, that is) needed sums of money. Recalling what Jeffrey Sachs once said about Russia:"We cut the patient open and learned that it has a different anatomy." I continue to write about this for years--Russian economy differs dramatically from those of the combined West. As Medvedev stated:

Where Russia lags behind, Medvedev acknowledged, is in designing and producing large strike drones. However the country has “several models that have already gone into series production.” “I am certain that [putting these to use] is a matter of several months,” he promised.

This is the point, at this stage Russian Military-Industrial Complex and economy in general are the only entities in the world capable to R&D, introduce and ramp up dramatically the mass production of the advanced weapon systems in a very short period of time. Guess what Main Organizational Mobilization Directorate of Russian General Staff does? Yes, it constantly plans and counts, counts, counts and, believe me, they know how to count. They also know when and how NATO nations lose any capacity to measure up to a modern war--and that holds the answer to the puzzle of Russia's strategy in SMO.

Just Yesterday I Posted About It.

Bang, today--another iteration by Tucker and Glenn Greewald of this simple idea, which so much has been written and talked about, especially by Michael Hudson, that "financial capitalism" and system it produces is basically a BS which not only does not produce anything but metastasizes into political instability both internally and abroad. 

The only thing I disagree with is this "Silicon Valley" products, much of them being as virtual as any "financial engineering". Enough to take a look at this news.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics on Thursday commented for the first time on Intel's decision to outsource more of its chipmaking, but declined to talk about any possible partnership with one its key rivals. Intel, one of the few remaining firms that both designs and makes its own chips, said last week it would lean more heavily on outside factories, or foundry manufacturers, and could even licence technology from outside firms.

It is clear the United States is being demolished as an industrial country and, if to follow a rather convincing, albeit not perfect, theory that the United States is merely a vehicle for global finance then it inevitably leads us to a conclusion that the life of the United States as a useful economic vehicle is over and the demolition is in progress. This view, certainly, has its merits. I am sitting here with a bucket of pop-corn waiting to see the sequence of the largest cognitive dissonances in the camp of fanatic libertarians and laissez-faire enthusiasts, primarily from GOP--I do not count Democratic Party as sane political organization--who will have to now try to defend a real economy's demolition by the ideology which is in the foundation of their MO--making money, anyway they can. Again, let's recall that day in 2000. 

This is the start of the US industry being shipped in earnest to China. Do you see those red colors enthusiastically voting "Yea", in fact, they voted it with "fuck, yes". Those are all GOPers, and while outsourcing chipmaking is not China-related, it makes little difference for average Joe or Jane since, in the long run, they are screwed all the same. Right, the idea was: let's remove all those industries elsewhere, while we, in America, will strategize, conceptualize, interface and prioritize(c). 

In other words, do nothing but steal. I know it is almost unfair to use Russia as an example but here is how real economy looks like. This is a gigantic shipyard being built in Murmansk Region by energy giant NOVATEK. The shipyard will produce floating natural gas liquification plants, aka GBS LNG platforms. The scale is massive. 

Or this:

You can see the video (in Russian) here. 15,000 people are building this monster with a dry dock of 415 meters. Considering that the whole thing is also needed for "other" projects which may or may not be of pure LNG nature (wink, wink). Having said all that, here is another picture which gives the impression of an immense scale of the construction.

So, Russia taking the third place in global shipbuilding is not just inevitable but merely a matter of a relatively short time. This also is a cushion, of sorts, if Europe succumbs to US pressure and rejects Nord Stream-2, Russia's LNG will still be much cheaper than any alternative. Rostislav Ishenko recently stated that NS-2 for Russia is now primarily a political matter, rather than economic one, because Russia will do just fine without NS-2, which I happen to agree with, but she shouldn't give up on it for geopolitical reasons. Maybe, but in the end, Russia is not responsible for Europe and if the US manages to shut down NS-2, let Europe live with the consequences. European intransigence is Europe's problem, Russia's future in any case is NOT with Europe in general. But as they say, we'll see about NS-2. Maybe Germany will find a spine at some point of time. If not, to hell with them all in EU. But this was my position for years now, for all my OK awareness of the geopolitical factor, but at some point of time one has to consider pure economic sense.