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.

Of Course, He Does.

Was there ever any doubt?

The city of Artyomovsk, or Bakhmut as it is known by Ukraine, is of more symbolic than operational importance, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has claimed. The battle for Artyomovsk – a major stronghold and logistics hub for Kiev’s forces in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) – has continued for months, being described by some as the fiercest in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Asked about the city during his trip to Jordan later the same day, Austin suggested that the city was “more of a symbolic value than it is [of] strategic and operational value,” according to Reuters. Yan Gagin, an adviser to the DPR’s acting head Denis Pushilin, said on Monday that Russian forces have encircled the key city, trapping around 10,000 Ukrainian troops inside. The Pentagon chief, however, said he wouldn’t consider it a strategic setback if  Ukrainian troops decide to reposition themselves on new defense lines west of the city.

Well, Monty Python saw this decades and miles away. 

Now those brilliant "operational minds" from London and D.C. command those clowns from VSU's General Staff to throw their best reserves in a desperate effort to maintain some opening for Bakhmut cauldron, which makes little sense since they lose those there in industrial quantities under incessant Russian fire, since Russian Army has now a full fire control (aka operational envelopment) of the whole cauldron and last remaining opening. 

Meanwhile Russia continues the removal of Western NGOs, finally, and the new kid on a chopping block is Transparency International. 

МОСКВА, 6 мар — РИА Новости. Генеральная прокуратура признала нежелательной деятельность Transparеncy International на территории России, сообщило ведомство в своем Telegram-канале.Подчеркивается, что такое решение принято после изучения материалов, поступивших в надзорный орган.

Translation: MOSCOW, March 6 - RIA Novosti. The Prosecutor General's Office recognized the activities of Transparency International in Russia as undesirable, the agency said in its Telegram channel. It is emphasized that this decision was made after studying the materials received by the supervisory authority.

Russia also stopped providing info about her Armed Forces to OSCE (in Russian) and that also is about time. Generally speaking, the whole spectrum of West dominated institutions from OSCE to UN should be completely destroyed and then reconstituted in some other form, e.g. new UN and its HQ should be removed from NYC. UN is an absolutely corrupt organization and is due for major cleaning operation for a very long time. It is a travesty that such economic and military pip squeaks as France and UK are permanent members of UN SC, while India with her massive economy and serious military and nukes is not. Time to rethink UN. I am also on record that International Olympic movement is dead and stinks to heaven with its corruption--that thing should simply be killed off. I omit here pure propaganda BSers such as IMF and WB. 

James Kunstler today brilliantly described the issue:

We’re waiting for financial markets, banks, and monies to blow, as an engine will when submerged in water. It can’t not happen, though every known device has been deployed to keep up appearances. The credibility of finance was thrown overboard a long time ago. Capital was sloshing around in the bilges as the ship heaved and pitched in the angry waters, and it had to go somewhere. The next turn will be when you go looking for where it went and you discover to your nauseated chagrin that the capital is just… gone! Through some legerdemain of physics, it disappeared… turned into a kind of anti-matter… fell through a black hole (possibly ripped by that iceberg), or up the smokestacks, like it was never there at all.

Parallels with Titanic are not just warranted, but irresistible. This is your Monday primer.

You Have Made Your Bed, Now Sleep In It.

I seldom refer to such media cloaca as WaPo, but here is where I break my own rule:

Tell me who your friends are and I will tell who you are. For those who don't remember: Donald Trump was very enthusiastic to have coward and cuck John Bolton as his National Security Adviser. I think Trump recognized in Bolton his very own other--aggressive chicken-hawk trying to hide his cowardice behind....Well, why don't I repeat myself from the last year:

It has to be understood very clearly that Bolton-Trump and Trump-Pompeo relations are symbiotic ones. If one recalls--Trump made his admiration for Bolton known even before Trump was considered a serious contender for the Oval Office. In the end, he DID hire Bolton. Both Trump and Bolton are frauds as statesmen: Bolton is a Beta-male and a coward who sublimates his complexes in aggressive rhetoric and behavior, this is not to speak of Bolton being an Israeli asset par-excellence.These are precisely the traits Trump recognizes in him because he is one himself. Recall his statement about his, Trump's, "military background" he received in a... boarding school for boys. Recall how Kevin Costner's character in undeservedly chastised The Postman, in the final battle with Will Patton's character, astutely notices how one fraud can recognize the other. This is exactly the situation. Trump is fool, but Bolton is merely an experienced bureaucrat, which testifies to the level of Trump's foolishness and incompetence. I doubt there is any Good Cop-Bad Cop dynamics there.  

Now Trump wants to stop Bolton's memoirs from being released on June 23. Oh, come on Donny, wait till Pompeo gets out (or is removed) of your admin--I am sure another "salvo" of "revelations" will follow to make NYT national best-seller list. Stalin was prescient when uttered his now sacramental: "Cadres decide everything". But then again, we are talking different "weight categories" in terms of intellect and life experiences, with Stalin winning even without getting in the ring for a fight. Trump's cadre "policies" or, rather, lack thereof, are astounding--the number of treasonous (both to him and the country) mediocrities (at best) which he at different times appointed or pushed through as his proteges (like this cuck Gorsuch) is very impressive. From Bolton, to Mattis, to Gorsuch, to Milley, to yet another coward Sessions--the list is telling. It is not only telling in terms of a very shallow pool of America's statesmanship "talent", I am not even sure any exists out there at all, and I am on record about extremely low quality of American "elites" and mechanism which "prepares" them, it is especially telling about Trump's lack of real leadership qualities which manifest themselves primarily in the ability to select both professionals and allies for a job. Trump got none.

Well, the way Trump is consistently absent from defending General Michael Flynn, speaks a lot. And then, of course, there is this little teeny-weeny issue of American "conservatism" which allegedly exists somewhere out there but is somehow obscured and is not allowed to manifest itself by this Conservatism Incorporated (aka Conservatism Inc.). Can we stop this charade, what goes under the title of American Conservatism Inc. IS THE American conservatism. It is a USA, USA, USA Ra-rah, NASCAR, NFL, flag waiving "conservatism" which is as conservative as I am Chinese. There is nothing conservative in American "conservatism" because it is radically Neo-liberal economically and ignorant culturally. As GOP demonstrated in the last couple of weeks it is not a conservative party. It hasn't been in ages. Real conservatism to be a viable ideology requires a nation and here is the problem, the United States never really coalesced into one and if any trend on true nationhood existed at some point of time, it was destroyed completely in the XXI century. Now the destruction is being formalized. And then, of course, there is this yet another teeny-weeny issue of "economy", with all that poison that financial capitalism is being a parasite on the host's body, in Michael Hudson's words, and American "conservatives" do not want to part with one. Fact is--they can't, they just do not know better. 

So, here we are, with Trump trying to stop another shyster's book from being released, and the issue is not just Ukrainegate, which whores from US media want to revive. At issue, I think, is a larger picture of Trump's betrayal of his promises (what's new for America) which were delivered through truly conservative theses written for Trump by his campaign speech-writers. All for naught. Not least through Trump's cowardice, weakness and inability to learn, which the very fact of Bolton's book being published is a powerful testimony to. After all, it is written by a guy:

President Donald Trump praised his new National Security Adviser John Bolton during a meeting alongside senior military leadership and Vice President Mike Pence on Monday, saying that he will be a "fantastic representative" on his team. "He's highly respected by everybody in this room and John, I want to thank you very much," Trump said to Bolton, who served as United Nations ambassador during the George W. Bush administration. "This is going to be a lot of work. Interesting day. He picked today as his first day, so generals, I think he picked the right day, but certainly you're going to find it very exciting because you are going to do a fantastic job and I appreciate you joining us."

I have to steal from James Kunstler: the nation where John Bolton or Lindsey Graham are considered "conservative", and the POTUS is paraded as a weakling not capable to surround himself with even remotely competent and dedicated people, and where the main tool of governing is Twitter account, such nation deserves fully a title of Clusterfuck nation. As for Trump, as they say: You Have Made Your Bed, Now Sleep In It. 

What Could Be Better Than...

Sitting home (on standby lay-off)  in the evening, sipping my...latte and reading Michael Hudson. The only thing which could probably be better for pleasuring my mind and sensibilities is to watch Twin Peaks Season 4, which, sadly, doesn't exist yet, I keep my fingers crossed, but that would be too good to be true. So, the next best thing: Michael Hudson on this ever relevant issue of Real Economy and Modern Monetary Theory and how shit hits the fan in his (yet another) brilliant piece at Unz. Hudson doesn't mince words and for me, and many here and not here, who have experience with "socialism" in USSR, and actually studied political economy of capitalism, Hudson's observations hit the spot immediately:

If governments do not provide enough purchasing power by running budget deficits to enable the economy to grow, the role of providing money and credit will have to be relinquished to banks – at interest, and for purposes that the banks decide on (mainly, loans to buy real estate, stocks and bonds). In this respect banks are competitors with government over who will provide the economy’s money and credit – and for what purposes. Banks want the government out of the way – not only regarding money creation, but also for financial and price policies, tax policy and laws governing corporate behavior. Finance wants to appropriate public monopolies, by taking payment in natural resources or basic public infrastructure when governments are, by policy rather than necessity, short of their own money, or of foreign exchange. (In times past, this required warfare; today foreign debt is the main lever.)

Of course we all remember Holy Reagan's sacramental (yes, yes, we also heard about it in USSR): "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." It sounded so cute, especially for people in the US who were and are very high on the American social and economic ladder and who wage day and night their existential struggle against taxes on their wealth (and we know, taxes will make them poor and will force them to actually perform productive labor--a terrifying future, GULAG really) and because of that, as Hudson notes:

To get into this position, banks need to block governments from creating their own money. The result is a conflict between private bank credit and public money creation. Public money is created for social purposes, primarily to maintain production and consumption growth. But bank credit nowadays is created largely to finance the transfer of property and financial assets – real estate, stocks and bonds.

We all know--government is bad, bad, bad in the world of big fat dividends, capital gains taxation, houses which sell for very high hundreds thousands to millions, in the world of Porsches and private jets. Government is, what we are told, there to get our guns, money, liberties and other dear to us things, and hence financial capitalism, as we are told, is the only guarantee from evil government succeeding. Ahem, but here is the problem--government wouldn't be the problem in the society where this government is controlled by all those REAL checks and balances and by sophisticated enough electorate. Or, in addition, in the society, such as Russia, which has a profound historic experience in building its state (government) in such a way that is controls crucial economic activities in order to maintain social balance in the society. Same, to a large extent applies to China and, actually, many other Asian societies. This, in the US, is called (wrongly, of course) "communism", "socialism", Marxism and other "scary" titles all of which are designed to scare the shit from unsophisticated voter who doesn't have the time to figure out that, as an example, Cultural Marxism, has very little to do with actual Marxism and is as organic to Western Europe and the United States especially as baseball, Flag and Apple Pie. In fact, Cultural Marxism is an invention of, let's put it in simpler terms, "banks" and people behind FIRE economy to channel frustrations and economic dislocation of us, deplorable plebes, into the safe steam releasing valve of contrived, in fact totally unnatural, "values" and occupy, otherwise suspicious masses who do not live in mansions and drive Ferraris, with business of worrying about how many genders will be discovered in the next decade or how many different ethnicities and races are properly represented in the murky stream of mediocrity pouring out of Hollywood's sewer. In the end, it is so important to be inclusive and metrosexually "sophisticated".  

While all this game of shadows happens, Hudson posits (and I subscribe to every word of his here--I write about it myself for years now):

At issue is how to measure “the economy.” For the wealthy One Percent, and even the Ten Percent, “the economy” is “the market,” specifically the market value of the assets that they own: their real estate, stocks and bonds. This property and financial wrapping for the “real” production-and-consumption economy has steadily risen in proportion to wages and industrial profits. It has risen largely by government money and credit creation (and tax breaks for property and finance), along with its economic rent, interest and financial charges and service fees, which are counted as part of Gross Domestic Product [GDP], as if they were actual contributions to the “real” economy.

Music to my ears, I already wrote two, and am writing third, books wrapped around this whole thesis which dictates the real weight of strategic PREDICTORS, 90% of which are expressed in terms of tangibles: manufacturing base, machine-building, finished goods, scientific and educational prowess of the nations, not in prices for assets. But Hudson, as if thinking, that what he conveys was not making me feel good already, he delivers a blow:

Financial engineering replaces industrial engineering – along with political engineering by lobbyists seeking tax breaks, rent-extraction privileges, and government subsidy. To increase property and financial asset prices and corporate behavior, companies are drawing on credit and government subsidy not to increase their production and employment, but to bid up their stock prices by share buyback programs and high dividend payouts. Buybacks are called “repaying capital,” so literally this policy is one of disinvestment, not investment. It is favored by tax laws (taxing “capital” gains at a lower rate or not at all, as compared to taxes on dividends).

Oh boy, my smile is now wider than my face and it just feels good to know that all these years, what I, and many other people, from PCR, to Hudson to first rate thinkers in Russia, were writing about is coming true in a front of our very eyes--a complete implosion of the whole "economic" theory by Chicago boys and a violent stripping down of an American so called economy to its naked, bare bones, self and it is not a pretty picture. Once the hologram (as James Kunstler aptly calls it) of grossly overpriced or useless assets, convoluted bookkeeping and snake oil trading is switched off, we suddenly are presented with American economy which is dramatically smaller and less capable than it was assumed based on false Wall Street indices, and the economy which now can only be saved by government, if, of course, this government is capable of right decisions, which, at this stage is a huge question. After all, people in this government, in a decision circuit, are themselves the products of a hologram and many truly believe in their laissez faire' orthodoxy with all their hearts--because they do not know better. Even now, when US government, granted grossly incompetently, tries to prop up US economy which will never be the same. Because, economy based on "financial engineering" (aka fraud) and ran by "financial engineers" is bound to collapse. In general, just read Hudson's excellent piece. I did and enjoyed it mightily. We are not in Kansas anymore(c).