Ah, Yes! Good Ol' And Tried...

 ... self-medication from the times of victorious Wehrmacht and SS which many is US military still hold in high regard. Maybe because they don't know what winning wars is? Just a wild guess but...

Russia Sends Waves of Troops to the Front in a Brutal Style of Fighting. More than 1,000 Russian soldiers in Ukraine were killed or wounded on average each day in May, according to NATO and Western military officials.

That's how coping looks like. I want to stress again, that Pentagon in general is a sour grapes territory of losers who sense that this is above their professional competencies. So, what's left? Yes, waves of those Red Army peasants prodded from the behind by NKVD troops who overwhelmed artsy Germans in waves--a favorite shtick of Colonel Macgregor who learned all those fairy tales from... yes, Germans. Obviously, math is not a strong forte of "NATO and Western military officials" because the whole system of officer training in the West is a joke. It does not allow for a development of the main capability of the officer which is having a developed mental instrumentation for space-time awareness of the battle space. This comes from not only massive curriculum in STEM but in appropriate study of tactics, operations and military history. They don't teach real military history in NATO military academies--they teach propaganda based on strategic fairy tales. 

Patrick Armstrong gives a good review of the newest book on REAL history:

The central theme and, no doubt, a complete surprise to most of its readers, will be that the the conventional story has got it exactly backwards: Stalin was not Hitler’s co-conspirator. He understood four things: 1) the previous good Moscow-Berlin relations were gone forever, 2) Hitler was a threat to all around him, 3) Hitler would break any agreement as soon as he could, 4) the only response was an agreement of Germany’s neighbours to block him. “Collective security” they called it: only together could Hitler be stopped; individual agreements just encouraged him to push somewhere else. This volume retails, meeting by meeting, the efforts of Soviet diplomats to get their interlocutors to grasp this and to construct an anti-Hitler resistance arrangement. They were not unsuccessful: important people in France, Britain (even the anti-Bolshevik Winston Churchill who met the Soviet Ambassador often), Romania and Czechoslovakia agreed with Stalin’s appreciation of the situation but they could never quite push their governments over the finish line.   

So, consider ramifications. They are severe for the West.

On A Lighter But Still Serious Note...

 ... I am always serious with anything concerning food. Jackson Hinkle goes to KFC in Russia. 

OK, let me go on a record here: be those times when McDonald's was still in Russia or now, when Vkusno i Tochka took its place, Russian fast food fries have never been better than the ones in the US Macs. I don't know what's the deal with it. Sandwiches themselves? Sure, Big Mack in Russia was actually better than in the US, but not fries. But Russians, for some reason, do love KFC better. Yeah, try to get them out of Russia. In related news, as usual journo BSers have been debunked in less than 48 hours. 

Korean automakers Kia and Hyundai are not going to leave the Russian market. This was stated by official representatives of companies in Russia to Izvestia. They added that the work of dealerships and service areas continues as normal, and the maintenance of cars and the fulfillment of warranty obligations goes according to the regulations. Earlier, the Telegram channel Mash wrote about the closure of Kia and Hyundai in Russia. According to him, manufacturers began to sell the remains of cars from Russian warehouses with a margin of one million rubles to fill the vacant places with Chinese cars. It was noted that some Hyundai stores have already changed their signage to BAIC. Journalists also reported on the mass dismissal of employees from former manufacturers' salons. At the same time, it was noted that the company was going to continue servicing Korean models, but at an inflated price.

So, here is from the Navalny's type of people. They should apply for work at CNN or WSJ or something--they qualify.  

Back to food, yes, you can get hash browns in Russia too, but it is not the same. And, of course, I still didn't have the chance to find in Russia chicken fried steak. People say they serve them somewhere. Maybe next time, hopefully. Meanwhile, here is another video from rural Russia by an American. 

The only thing which is not entirely correct is that the stream of Germans to Russia is rather significant. Plus, this type of chicken is not the mainstay of Russian meals. Generally, the food price growth was rather moderate.

Yet Another BS From WSJ.

No, really. The bunch of the so called "journalists" from this tabloid rag are at it again. 

Now, here is the guy who knows about it more than all US MSM and so called "Intel" community combined.

САМАРКАНД, 16 сен - РИА Новости. У России нет проблем с беспилотниками, они лучшие и их достаточно, заявил директор Федеральной службы по военно-техническому сотрудничеству Дмитрий Шугаев."У нас нет проблем с беспилотниками. У нас лучшие беспилотники. У нас самые замечательные беспилотники", - сказал он журналистам. На вопрос, достаточно ли их, Шугаев сказал, что "у нас всего достаточно". Ранее некоторые СМИ и Telegram-каналы распространили неподтвержденную информацию о том, что в зоне проведения спецоперации России на Украине якобы были найдены фрагменты беспилотника, внешне схожего с иранским дроном-камикадзе. Комментируя эти сообщения, Шугаев призывал верить только заявлениям по линии министерства обороны.

Translation: SAMARKAND, September 16 - RIA Novosti. Russia has no problems with drones, they are the best and there are enough of them, said Dmitry Shugaev, director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation. "We have no problems with drones. We have the best drones. We have the most wonderful drones," he told reporters. When asked if there were enough of them, Shugaev said that "we have enough of everything." Earlier, some media outlets and Telegram channels disseminated unconfirmed information that fragments of a drone, outwardly similar to an Iranian kamikaze drone, were allegedly found in the Russian special operation zone in Ukraine. Commenting on these reports, Shugaev urged to believe only statements from the Ministry of Defense.

 

But you can sense butt-hurt miles away from all kinds of Western media and "military" outlets. Pathetic. Only sore losers spread fakes and Western media and most "analysts" take a crown here. Larry wrote a superb piece on that:

Politicized intelligence is not a new phenomena. It happened during the War in Vietnam as President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara pressured CIA analysts, George Allen and Sam Adams (those are real names) to change their conclusion that the Viet Cong had not been decimated by U.S. and South Vietnamese military operations. George, who trained me as a new analyst, wrote an amazing but largely unknown book, None So Blind: A Personal Account of the Intelligence Failure in Vietnam Hardcover – August 28, 2001. Allen tells you in detail how politics played a major role in that intelligence failure. Well worth your time.

I saw politicization as an analyst responsible for Honduras during the U.S. backed Contra war against the Nicaraguan Sandinistas. I recall one occasion where I puzzled over a CIA field report about a Contra attack on a Sandinista target but there was no corroborating intelligence. Because I had friends on the operations side of the house working on the Central American Task Force, I was able to make some quiet inquiries. I was stunned to learn that the guy in charge of the military ops in that task force–a guy who graduated from West Point in 68 but missed the war in Vietnam–was drafting the operations orders for missions he wanted the Contras to carry out and then published those orders as intel about the success of those operations. Only one little problem–the operations never took place.

I plan to speak about this tomorrow, especially in a view of a shitload of fakes spread by... Russian TG channels in the last week, all which have been utterly debunked by both Kremlin, MoD and real (REAL) military professionals. It is especially poignant against a terrifying data on many thousands of KIAs of VSU and foreign mercenaries (many of them are regulars with "legend") near Kharkov and annihilation of VSU forces around Kherson.

Some Thoughts On Russian "Opposition".

I deliberately used "opposition" term, instead of more traditional "liberals", for a reason--at this stage I see less and less difference between most of the politico-ideological fringes in Russia be that "liberals", self-proclaimed "nationalists" or, even, some "communists" from, what Alexander Rogers astutely termed as CPRF (Commercial Party of Russian Federation--you know, "communists"). There is very little difference between these people and media which serve them. Practically all of them are hysterical and, as was noted not for once (this relates to any media), are populated by office plankton which fancies themselves "journalists". This is an eclectic public which is badly educated and has no serious professional or human skills but, because they have degrees in "journalism", "economics", sociology, what have you, they think that they know things. They don't in regards to any field which actually requires serious expertise, forget serious system analysis.

As I stated not for once--modern world became so complex that ability to use iPhone or, even, write some app counts for nothing where systematic education and ability to grasp complex reality is required. Person with degree in the so called "journalism" does not have cognitive apparatus for passing judgements on even basic technological and industrial topics, forget military ones--that is a wowser. Such a person surely will not be able to write Manufacturing Plan (say for leading edge of the wing of aircraft), nor will.... nah...whom am I kidding here--most of them don't know shit from shinola. Add here, usually, egos larger than cathedrals, arrogance and organic disagreement with policies (usually from liberal, that is libertarian, perspective--that is, it is all about me, me, me) no matter how good or bad those policies are and you get this BS from known mouth-piece of Western "business circles" rag Kommersant which drops the "news" (5 days ago) about Russian MC-21 narrow body aircraft being under threat because the West stopped providing composite materials for MC-21's "black", that is fully composite carbon fiber, wing (in Russian).  

The fact that trio of losers who wrote (or were ordered to) this piece forgot to mention that such a "threat" was realized already in 2015 and that there was a reason that UAC (United Aircraft Corporation) responded to publication and to Kommersant's "sources" which were used for writing this load of crap, as totally contrived, seemed not to bother them. Of course, they know better, because they are...journalists. But, as you may have guessed already, in the world of liberal (and so called "patriotic") hamsters this publication created yet another shitstorm about "Putin Vse Slil" (Putin Flushed Everything Down). And here we come to the key issue--it is not surprising that it is very difficult to find bio (or basic CVs) info on all those liberal (and "patriotic") journos. Who would want to flaunt their incompetence. But hear me out. It was this same Kommersant which 8 month ago, in April 2018, started spreading not only fake (I called it immediately, in Russian) but deliberately provocative info about allegedly 7 Russian aircraft destroyed at air-base Khmeimim in Syria. Well, Kommersant was spreading this BS based, yet again, on its "sources" in MoD. Boy, was there a revelation when their "source" turned out to be nothing more than amateur Roman Saponkov who decided to become a freelance "hero-reporter" and who, most likely himself was BSed by his Syrian "sources" of the level of janitor in the convenience store near Khmeimim most likely. 

Inevitably the BS was utterly debunked with a single SU-24 having its empennage slightly damaged by a shrapnel--damaged parts were replaced within 24 hours and the aircraft continued to fly combat missions. Saponkov doubled down on his BS and, basically, should be treated as a pathological liar and a man with zero military experiences. But Kommersant really DOES know what it is doing and for WHOSE benefit it is constantly spreading all kinds of BS. After shistorm created by this rag subsided somewhat and, as usual, all premise of this shitstorm turned out to be mostly a disinformation, specialists started talking. For starters they reminded these panic-mongers that already in 2015 things were rolling:
Russia aims to regain its leadership in the carbon fiber sector and the production of strong, lightweight composite materials used in construction and industry.   
So, basically for people who spread such a BS it is beyond their grasp that after Match 1, 2018 Putin's speech to Federal Assembly they should have made a note to themselves that they know very little. But significance of that speech was not in new weapons, by now even Russian "opposition", while cringing, already knows inside that they are fools. No, the significance of Kinzhals, Zircons, Avangards, what have you is in the fact that such missiles use large percentage of carbon fiber and other composite materials in their assembly. So, one is forced to ask then--can the nation which develops such breakthrough materials which allow weapon systems to remain under control and functional while flying in the cloud of a hot plasma, develop a carbon fiber material for a wing of a commercial aircraft? Well, for people with even an iota of common sense the answer seems obvious. This is not to speak of the fact that Kommersnat's BS was already debunked. But now recall this, recent "vbros" (throw in of fake info). Another BS spread, gleefully by Russian "opposition" media.

Of  course, this too was debunked, but couple days ago, Russia, as if taunting this bunch of Russian urban know-it-all office plankton, announced that Concern Tehnodynamica completed trials of fire protection and oxygen systems for both SSJ-100 and MC-21 (in Russian) thus continuing to increase the share of the domestic parts in both aircraft to such a degree that no "sanctions" will matter. But my issue is not with Russian industry, which continues to produce state-of-the-art technology, both military and civilian, totally out of own resources but with this extremely narrow circle of pretentious "market analysts", merchandisers, marketing specialists and holders of other degrees in recognition of a good Scotch from the bad one and Ph.Ds in the brands of smartphones, designer clothing and jewelry. Do they even feel (I don't think they have brains to grasp) this sense of own uselessness other than in the fields no serious person cares about? I give them this, though, they are useful tools (and many of them subsist on foreign grants and stipends) and idiots in a titanic war combined West, under American guidance, unleashed on Russia and Russian people. But that is the point--these are precisely the people who can produce nothing of value, beneficial to either own nation, or humanity and who can only sell ignorance and disinformation in the world in which their "reporting" is nothing more than trash thrown out daily on a dumpster where it truly belongs.    

UPDATE: Ah, lovely. Today 01/16/19 (or 16/01/19 for Europeans) the General Director of Aerocomposit company, Anatoly Gaidansy, in his interview to popular weekly Arguments and Facts (AiF) humiliates and wipes the floor with incompetent BSers from Kommersant (in Russian), while assessing their BS as: 

                      Это полнейшая техническая безграмотность

Translation: this is a complete technical illiteracy. 

My question is to Gaidansky: Anatoly, what did you expect from those losers from this liberal cabal in Moscow, the knowledge of composite structures and how their specifications are formed and applied? I am sure those advanced girls and boys from Kommersant and other "market" publications can tell us all a lot about AS9100, ah..well. In late Soviet times, during Gorbachev's disaster, the only use their newspapers would be good for as a toilet paper only. In Stalin's times they would be...well, they wouldn't be.