No Shit, Pardon My French.

If this psycho acknowledges it, then something is afoot:

US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are having second thoughts about providing Ukraine with various types of aid amid its conflict with Russia, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland acknowledged on Monday. Speaking during a panel discussion hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce, Nuland was asked to comment on the political split in Washington regarding support for Kiev. The State Department official attempted to downplay friction on the matter, noting that the US “has contributed more than $30 billion to the security, economic prosperity, and humanitarian situation in Ukraine.” “You can’t do that without overwhelming support of both parties in the Congress,” she added.

You have to almost pity them--meaning neocons--right now. Can you imagine their feelings right now? They had a perfect "plan", just plan, no A,B,C..., and then, from the git go this plan started to go haywire the minute they started implementing it. It went wrong immediately. Recall immortal Russian classic:

It was not Napoleon alone who had experienced that nightmare feeling of the mighty arm being stricken powerless, but all the generals and soldiers of his army whether they had taken part in the battle or not, after all their experience of previous battles—when after one tenth of such efforts the enemy had fled—experienced a similar feeling of terror before an enemy who, after losing HALF his men, stood as threateningly at the end as at the beginning of the battle. The moral force of the attacking French army was exhausted. Not that sort of victory which is defined by the capture of pieces of material fastened to sticks, called standards, and of the ground on which the troops had stood and were standing, but a moral victory that convinces the enemy of the moral superiority of his opponent and of his own impotence was gained by the Russians at Borodinó. The French invaders, like an infuriated animal that has in its onslaught received a mortal wound, felt that they were perishing, but could not stop, any more than the Russian army, weaker by one half, could help swerving. By impetus gained, the French army was still able to roll forward to Moscow, but there, without further effort on the part of the Russians, it had to perish, bleeding from the mortal wound it had received at Borodinó. The direct consequence of the battle of Borodinó was Napoleon’s senseless flight from Moscow, his retreat along the old Smolénsk road, the destruction of the invading army of five hundred thousand men, and the downfall of Napoleonic France, on which at Borodinó for the first time the hand of an opponent of stronger spirit had been laid.

You think those who concocted this "plan" in the US read this? No, for any crook from within the Beltway it is an excruciating torture to study real history of Russia, because the very existence of Russian people and their country, which, time after time, destroyed enemies much more powerful and skilled than pathetic excuse for "strategists" in Washington, contradicts every single belief those war criminals and white board amateurs profess. We all live today through classic Russian grand battle, be that Borodino, Stalingrad, Kursk or Berlin--it is about annihilation. Tolstoy again:

And it is well for a people who do not—as the French did in 1813—salute according to all the rules of art, and, presenting the hilt of their rapier gracefully and politely, hand it to their magnanimous conqueror, but at the moment of trial, without asking what rules others have adopted in similar cases, simply and easily pick up the first cudgel that comes to hand and strike with it till the feeling of resentment and revenge in their soul yields to a feeling of contempt and compassion.   

They only now begin to suspect that they are being looked at with contempt. As a result, today Vladimir Putin signed the law on suspension of the START from 2010. 

With it, the US loses any kind of access to Russia's nuclear weapons facilities, where weapon systems are created which are generations ahead of what is being planned and developed in the US. I am on record: the US lost the arms race and the scale--most likely mind-boggling--of this loss is yet to be fully revealed. In related news, Richard Haas who passes in the US for a thinker, continues to live in alternative reality:

Putin now finds himself playing for time. Unable to defeat Ukraine’s military, he is attacking economic and civilian targets, hoping to break the will of Ukrainians. He may also believe that, despite what Western leaders say, it is only a matter of time before European governments, along with the US, rethink the costs of supporting Ukraine. 

I am on record--you cannot educate US "diplomat" and "strategist" in anything, they do not receive proper education in the colleges. By education I mean not degrees but actual knowledge, ability to learn and knowing own limitations. But even this pseudo-intellectual (primarily through incompetent use of big words: strategy, costs, national interests et al), after fluffy operational-strategic BS, admits that there are doubts. Sure. Let them doubt--an entirely new feeling for arrogant, uncultured and ignorant pseudo-professionals within US "academe" and "elites".

As Was Anticipated...

Russia is ready to increase energy supply to Europe:

President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia was ready to boost natural gas supplies abroad, after Europe accused Moscow of curbing flows and pushing prices to new records. Speaking at an energy forum in Moscow, Putin said Russia was ready to meet new orders from buyers for higher volumes. "If they ask us to increase more, we are ready to do so," Putin said, adding that Russia is increasing supplies "as much as our partners are asking us." Europe is facing a gas crisis leading up to the coldest season of the year, with a surge in prices and depleting reserves caused by a cold end to last winter.

But, of course, even in this bit of news, the last phrase is, as is traditional, a lie. The Agence France Presse (which reports it) merely adds:

But Putin on Wednesday blamed "systemic flaws" in the European energy market and brushed off criticism, saying that "some try to pass their errors onto others".

And why don't journos and staff BSer, ah, pardon my French, writers expand on what Putin said and what REAL energy professionals warned for years--"green energy" is a utopia turned totalitarian religion in perverted (literally and figuratively) minds of West's humanities dumbed down "elites", who have zero background in engineering and natural sciences, and it was inability of "green" sources to supply modern civilization with steady energy this civilization needs to survive, forget about living decently. Here is Putin verbatim:

Повторю:рост цен на газ в Европе стал следствием дефицита электроэнергии,а не наоборот. И не нужно, что называется, перекладыватьс больной головы на здоровую, как у нас говорят, как пытаютсяделать некоторые наши партнёры. Иногда слушаешь, что на этот счёт говорится, –удивляешься, просто удивительно, как будто не видят цифр – я ещёоб этом скажу, – не видят реалий, просто прикрывают своисобственные ошибки. Всё последнее десятилетие шаг за шагомв европейскую энергетику закладывались системные изъяны. Именно онии привели к масштабному кризису рынка в Европе.  Напомню,что, пока на ведущих позициях была атомная и газовая генерация,подобных кризисов не было, неоткуда было им взяться. Добавлю,что в России такие проблемы сегодня, слава богу, невозможно представить.Долгосрочный подход к развитию ТЭКа позволяет нам обеспечивать ценына электроэнергию для населения и предприятий на самом низкомуровне в Европе. Для сравнения: средняя цена электроэнергии в Россиив пересчёте на евро составляет около 20 евро за мегаватт-час,В Литве – 256, в Германии и Франции – 300,в Великобритании – 320.

Translation: I repeat: the rise in gas prices in Europe was the result of a shortage of electricity, and not vice versa. And there is no need, as they say, to shift from a sore head to a healthy one, as we say, as some of our partners try to do. Sometimes you listen to what is being said about this, and you are surprised, it’s just amazing, as if they don’t see the numbers - I’ll say more about this - they don’t see the reality, they just cover up their own mistakes. Over the past decade, step by step, systemic flaws have been laid in European energy. It was they who led to a large-scale market crisis in Europe. Let me remind you that as long as the leading positions were atomic and gas generation, there were no such crises, there was nowhere for them to come from. I will add that today, thank God, such problems in Russia are unimaginable. A long-term approach to the development of the fuel and energy complex allows us to provide electricity prices for the population and enterprises at the lowest level in Europe. For comparison: the average price of electricity in Russia in terms of euros is about 20 euros per megawatt-hour, in Lithuania - 256, in Germany and France - 300, in the UK - 320.

 

Never mind, of course, that Russia will be hated (traditionally) for exposing, yet again, incompetence of West's elites, because these people are incapable of critical thinking and are butt-hurt, severely.  But then again, this is one of those "we told you so" moments. Read my lips: Western elites are IN-COM-PE-TENT. I am not alone, I will remind you about this: 

Our Elites Couldn’t ‘Reset’ a Wall Outlet, Let Alone the Global Economy.

Let's face the facts--reading, by even moderately educated and cultured human, mental excrement by Fukuyama, Schwab, sophomoric sloganeering by Bill Gates, or generalizations by Mearsheimer, or pseudo-economic "strategy" demagoguery by Luttwak, among many others, can only inspire laughter, the kind one has when seeing a kindergarten child pontificating on the matters of quantum mechanics. It is risible, that these people pretend to be running what amounts to the ship of fools. Enter Vicki Nuland--another fine product, together with her hubby Robert Kagan, pretending to know the world outside. 

 

Nuland is in Moscow currently, after the whole ordeal of getting permission to enter Russia--as a private person she is listed as "undesirable" for Russia--and to allow its "diplomat" to get the permission from Russia, Washington was forced to remove some Russians from its own "black list". So, she was allowed, met with Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov who openly stated that at this stage positions of the sides to negotiations do not fit well (in Russian).  No surprise, they do not. They WILL NOT for a long time. But Nuland, who passes in D.C. for "expert in former USSR" is in Moscow trying to squeeze from Russians whatever the US can in terms of Ukraine, which increasingly becomes a burden for the US, and discuss issues of mutual relations which de facto have been almost finished off during Trump Administration. Usually Russians are permissive to US envoys and allow them to meet "above" their pay grade. This time, however, Nuland has been denied meeting with Lavrov. Putin expressed a conviction that eventually Russian-American relations will stabilize, and one can only hope so. We'll see. Hopefully they will in the long run. But then again, looking at D.C. cadres, including US Congress which is hell bent on wrecking the relations with Russia completely, this may take a very-very long time. 

But geopolitical and economic events run their course. Yesterday some flake from California lamented Russia's position by writing this shit: 

Increasing reliance on Moscow is not only a geopolitical danger -- the increase of demand for fossil fuels also poses a serious threat to climate goals. Europe hasn’t just turned to Moscow for natural gas, it has also looked into stockpiling coal for the winter. China and India, too, are facing their own energy crunches. China has even experienced rolling blackouts in recent weeks as Beijing struggles to keep up with demand. This has led to skyrocketing coal demand in a time that the world needs to stop burning coal altogether. Ultimately, these energy crunches around the world showcase just how much we are still reliant on fossil fuels to shore up our energy security, and the outsized power that this gives to major energy players such as Russia, creating a dangerous and delicate geopolitical (im)balance. 

Here is her: Haley Zaremba is a writer and journalist based in Mexico City. She has extensive experience writing and editing environmental features, travel pieces, local news in the Bay Area, and music/culture reviews.

 

You see, she has zero experience in anything except writing on something she has no experience in. Indeed, it is well known fact that energy is so simple, almost like writing about environment and travel. Anyone can become energy "analyst", without attending Masters Degree program in engineering with the focus on power-generation, or Geology faculties with specialization in surveying and resources development. Just like that, I wonder if tomorrow I can start writing about... about...ah, yes, quantum mechanics or cosmology. And why not? Here is another mentally inadequate cretin, who gets excited about Estonia buying some subsonic anti-shipping missiles which will, in his fantasy:

Cutting off sea trade to Kaliningrad slowly could starve the 400,000-person exclave and mitigate the threat it poses to NATO’s eastern flank. NATO as a whole—and non-aligned Finland, as well—certainly possesses the striking power to threaten supply convoys sailing from St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad.

Lavrov, help!

These people ARE NOT exceptions, in their delusions, incompetence, down right cretinism they are representative of the West's "elites" thinking and that is why we observe today a geopolitical FUBAR on unimaginable scale. All of it is systemic and comprehensive. In related news, check out a wide-spread incest and pedophilia of French elites. The latest one (in Russian) and before (also in Russian). The West is sick and the sickness is untreatable, it metastasized into everything from economy, to culture, to morality to even science. Europe is certainly done. The United States? Will the silent majority raise its voice? There are still several seconds to midnight.