... my first attempt at being a journalist (I suck at interviewing people), thankfully Dr. Lama did excellent job himself. So, this is an introduction to what I would like to frame as Conversations with Dr. Lama. Hey, that's my first time, all right.
The proper term will be "cooking books". But finally people that matter speak about it and I was calling on that for years.
I am on record--ALL, without exception, Western establishment rating agencies and most of the "economists" are frauds. "Biased" is not the term to use here. US economic statistics is a case in economic fairy tales whose only task is to hide US' departure from largely self-proclaimed economic hegemon status. Real US economy is dwarfed by China, and India, for all India's huge problems with poverty and other social ills, still is larger than the US as an economy.
Again, just one of the clues from World Steel Association:
War is a great litmus test, always was. Just to demonstrate:
Translation: ChTZ-URALTRAK LLC has significantly increased the number of tank engines produced. It was possible to achieve production volumes exceeding the best indicators of the post-war period of the USSR due to the competent organization of production, ”the message says on VKontakte. Igor Meshkov, Director for Special Assignments of Uralvagonzavod, noted that ChTZ is undergoing technical renovation and modernization of production, and over the past year, the number of employees has been increased by 30%. “According to the results of the first quarter of this year, the volume of monthly production of modernized diesel engines exceeded the indicators of the USSR during the Cold War by 12%. Such indicators were achieved for the first time in the recent history of ChTZ,” he said.
Now ask yourself a question: can the US do the same? No. US has the "best" stock market in the world where it trades thin air, but in terms of tanks the US cannot produce modern tank at all. And this is just one example. Do Moody's or S&P ratings in any way reflect this reality? Of course not, most people who work there they are products of fraudulent economics programs of Western universities and have no grasp of the modern economy and productive forces--it is difficult in scientific sense (physics, math, chemistry, engineering etc.) and they don't teach those and they lack cultural upbringing to get it. So, they produce useless fumes of finances and concoct preposterous GDP numbers. Some of them cook books unwittingly, others do it on purpose. Result, however, is always the same--GIGO (Garbage In, garbage Out).
And here we come to this sensitive topic of which, as an example Larry wrote not for once, when describing CIA--the West lacks serious strategic intelligence and forecasting capability due to atrocious incompetence of its "intel" community which operates in virtual reality and echo chamber and is incapable, on the institutional level, to produce anything firmly grounded in reality. One cannot produce that when operates within West's framework of economic and military data completely devoid of context. As a result we all have to content with US economy the size of $23 trillion, while in reality it is only half of that, we have to accept fraudulent numbers of growing "capitalization" of things which, in reality, lose their value due to tear and wear and growing obsolescence. In the end, the result of all that is cheap propaganda of the US "defeating" Hitler, or F-15 being the best fighter in the world, while never encountering serious competent enemy in the skies or Air Defense. It is one non-stop chest thumping, which Senator Fulbright summarized succinctly in 1960s.
“It is simply not necessary for us to go around forever proclaiming: ‘I am the greatest!’ The more one does this sort of thing, in fact, the more people doubt it….”
Ah, Carole King. In related news:
Translation: The EU wants to use money from Russia sanctions to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. But the money has to be found first - and the legal situation is unclear, as unpublished documents show. But Brussels has come up with a trick.
But, but... now they conclude that EU may not touch these funds and that they have to be returned to Russia once the hostilities are over, granted they will find them;)) Well, as Carole King sang--it is too late. The combined West stole this money from Russia and now any kind of attempts to play it "judicially" is risible--it is too late. EU demonstrated what it is and there is nothing to talk about: EU will pay for restoration of 404, including the territories which became part of Russia and it will not be done by "investing" Russia's funds into some shitty EU papers and using interest on them to pay for 404's restoration. EU, same as the US, is non-agreement capable, period. Proper conclusions have been made by the Russian side.
In related news, CIA's big honcho Burns noticed:
Good luck trying to "spy" on Russia or China. But I have some news for CIA and their World Factbook--most economic data on Russia there is mostly crap written by the followers of the Wall Street "methods", as is, incidentally, data on the American economy which is dramatically smaller than it is being portrayed. They should forget about using US Dollar as a measure of anything real economy related because it is nothing but pseudo-economical legerdemain used to run financial institutions by the United States. And yes, the table has been upended altogether and it is a fait accompli. But even IMF cannot hide facts anymore, even if it doctors its own data:
Do you know what drives this growth? No, not service economy--this one shrank somewhat because one needs only so many spa salons and "success coaching" businesses. The real growth is in real economy (Hint: it is around 4-5% at least) ranging from transport to shipbuilding, to aerospace to extraction. You know, tangibles which make humanity live and prosper. Meanwhile, here are the results of IMF "activity" in Argentina (among many other countries):
P.S. Germany OK-ed the transfer of its MiG-29s it gave to Poland in 2002 to Ukraine.
Mr. Stoltenberg is an exhibit A of why Western "economics" education is primarily a fraud. Don't look at me, an authority on economics orders of magnitude greater than me, Michael Hudson, also thinks so.
Remarkably, Jens Stoltenberg's thesis title (from Oslo University) was, drum roll: Makroøkonomisk planlegging under usikkerhet. En empirisk analyse ("Macroeconomic planning under uncertainty. An empirical analysis"). One cannot make this shit up even if one tries. So, this "economics" graduate wrote a thesis on something that cannot be accomplished in the modern West because "macroeconomic planning" and the modern West are irreconcilable things. SMO exposed all superficiality and chaos of West's economies dramatically.
Remarkably, Stoltenberg, complaining about VSU using "enormous amount" of ammunition, forgets a simple fact of life that Russian Armed Forces use ORDER OF MAGNITUDE than whatever is left of VSU-NATO cabal more, and Russia is not just feeling fine, but dramatically expands the production of every single military materiel and technology she needs. That's real macroeconomic planning under uncertainty. But it is too late for Stoltenberg, and NATO in general, to learn now anything of substance about REAL war and REAL war economy. So, the only thing which is left is to spew propaganda which is increasingly detached, if not completely already, from economic and military realities on the ground. They DID miscalculate that badly, they ARE that ignorant--because the failure is systemic, across all institutions of the combined West, military included.
Well, USA Today begins to suspect things:
'Little by little they are winning': Tide turns in key Ukraine city. Live updates as Russian offensive begins.
Anybody who is anybody speaks openly about the fact that Russia's war is with the combined West non-stop for many years. This blog speaks about it for 8 years. So, when some begin to exclaim recently that Russia must understand that her war is with the West, the immediate question is--what stone did you sleep under for the last 8 years. So, in terms of the larger picture we have today Putin and Xi doing their thing in Samarkand, with Xi stating:
And this type of statements is expected but as I am on record, there is a guy in Russian government who is so powerful that many in the West prefer not to talk about him directly very often. His name is Alexandr Novak and he is Russia's energy minister. While putin and Xi were busy making grand strategy statements, Novak, commenting on the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline to China stated this:
Translation: SAMARKAND, September 15. /TASS/. The Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline may become a de facto replacement for Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. This was announced on Thursday by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak in an interview for the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program, a fragment of which was shown on the Rossiya-1 TV channel. “Well, in fact, yes,” said the Deputy Prime Minister, answering a question from journalist Pavel Zarubin whether the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline could become a replacement for Nord Stream 2. Novak recalled that the Power of Siberia-2 project is being discussed "for a capacity of 50 billion" cubic meters of gas.
This is a very bad news for EU, which for many decades thought about Russia as a perpetual backward entity entirely dependent on West's industrial and technological expertise. So, seeing now how Russia doesn't give a damn must hurt. Like that:
All the meanwhile Mr. Sechin is laughing all the way to the bank, as is Russia's budget and social and industrial programs.
Boy, that's gotta hurt. Not Russia, of course, who is awash in cash. Nope, EU and a neocon cabal in D.C. who have issue of grasping pretty much any issue related to the reality. It is especially important against the background of this RAND and others' "plan" to sacrifice Europe at the altar of Pax Americana, hoping that this sacrificial lamb will extend America's life for any substantial time period. I doubt it to be the case, because the US is the cradle of globalism which goes not just through some cyclical crisis but through the terminal collapse, and in this case whatever value in Europe's sacrifice is, it is not going to change much in terms of systemic collapse of modern combined West and its leader, the United States. Another matter, the United States HAD an opportunity to make landing somewhat softer, but with three corporate figureheads in a sequence, such as Obama, Trump and zombiesque Biden, all opportunities to avert a complete crash have been wasted. America is in dire need of a serious statesman with balls of steel, which modern US "elite" preparation system cannot produce.
Now, as you probably can sense yourself that this crisis around Kharkov which Western (and Ukie) media were trying to fan, as usual, simply fizzled out and a local tactical success, primarily for PR, of VSU was all for the optics and didn't result in any serious consequences, except beaten to death cliches and... fakes (in Russian). Or, in English:
Vitaly Sovin: The US propaganda machine is playing dirtier than ever in its information war against Russia. From Taliban ‘bounties’ to claims about North Korea, the US media’s ‘anonymous sources’ are weaponizing ‘fake news'.
Considering the fact that Politico is a controlled rag, a euphemism for "free press", as most Western media are, such a piece is a dual-track "message" whose point is not to only naturally try to portray the US "in control", but also serves as an attempt to remove a responsibility for war crimes committed by the combined West in Donbass. While the title of the piece speaks for itself, U.S. approves of Ukraine striking Russian-occupied Crimea, passages like this are more important and indicative.
1. Pay attention to this good ol' trick of a "senior administration official". Never any names or titles. Just that--senior "official". It is not accidental, since, see next:
2. "Supporting" striking Crimea is a bridge too far for the United States, because there are plenty of the US assets in Europe and elsewhere which could be introduced to real strikes.
3. The United States already has committed or supervised a copious number of the war crimes and crimes against humanity in and around Donbass and remaining incognito for some "officials", granted they are not made-up virtual reality figures, which you cannot put past any US media, is important since war crimes and crimes against humanity do not have statute of limitations.
This is the issue a bunch of good ol' boys and girls from State Department, CIA (MI6) and Pentagon cannot wrap their brains around, because they still think that beating the crap with impunity from some third world backwater is everything it is about the war. It is not. The score is being kept and Russia has a very good memory--meaning names, positions, activity of those people in D.C. is well documented and attempts to distance themselves from atrocities committed by their Ukie SOBs will fail. Russia doesn't fight 404, Russia fights combined West headed by the United States and there are many charges which will be leveled against many people in D.C. E.g. as reported:
This is just one such occasion among many others, including location of mass graves of raped and murdered by Kiev regime's thugs women in Donbass (in Russian), which are being scored not only to Nazis of Kiev regime, but their curators from D.C. and London. For the US "elite" which has zero experience with Nuremberg Trials and crimes against humanity committed by German Nazism, it seems inconceivable that at some point of time they can get charged as war criminals, which many of them are, and get revenge served to them cold. Some, however, do get it either on intellectual or emotional level, hence absolutely fanatical and desperate attempts in trying to keep Kiev regime afloat by pumping it with weapons and "volunteers" and, surprise-surprise, being, in fact, in direct command and control of VSU or, rather, whatever is left of it. One of the major drivers behind all this irrational and, incompetent, behavior is recognition by some of the immediate future the United States faces economically, which also translates into the further decomposition of America's governmental institutions (I am on record since 2015 that the US is ungovernable) and further military weakening, not that the US can fight a real war in Europe. It cannot.
This is the environment which is conducive for all kinds of internal and foreign policy turns which will, not may, weaken the United States to such a degree that we are talking about actual "regime change" in D.C. and the chaos which ensues. Many people in D.C. worry. Hence, we see more desperation such as attacks on nuclear power station in Zaporozhie and increased number of atrocities against civilians and the US is FULLY engaged in these decisions. As I stated, Russia has a very good memory and, unlike the US, knows what price must be paid in demolishing the criminal globalist order and bringing people on whose hands is the blood of millions of innocent people around the world to justice. They miscalculated grossly, which is not surprising, once one considers in what economic and military alternative universe they all existed since recently, when cognitive dissonance became too severe.
To illustrate a complete brainwash of the Western public and people who "govern" them, French decided to ask themselves a question on when those dirty, smelly and poor Russian bastards will crawl back to Europe begging to lift sanctions. As France Info reported:
Translation: Almost six months after the start of the war in Ukraine, economic sanctions have repeatedly been taken against Russia. Many large companies have left the country. But that had no consequences for Moscow, which continues to hold firm. Walking into a supermarket in Moscow (Russia) is like walking into any other Western supermarket. The shelves are well stocked. Customers can easily find French products or bottles of wine from Europe. The shortages that some Russians feared a few months ago have not happened. "There are items that have disappeared but they have been replaced," says a Russian. "I'm not going to lie to you, there is everything," confirms another.
The French "journo" still ended up "reporting" beaten to death tropes about China's "parts" and cannibalizing commercial aircraft, but what else do you expect from their kind. Hello, Paris? Russia is a global food EXPORTER, and you can go into ANY supermarket in Russia from Moscow, to Krasnoyarsk, to Vladivostok with Khabarovsk and they will look, especially in large chains such as Lenta, Magnit or Auchan (French chain, btw), like the horns of plenty. Here are Russia's favorite Aussies shopping in Novosibirsk's (one of many) toy stores.
Western "economists" and "analysts" are a very interesting breed--they carry worthless pieces of paper called degrees in "economics" from universities where people who never worked a day in life on real job teach them how real economy works, and they love hyperbole. Like this:
As you all know I don't deal with this voodoo which Western economics is because I don't deal in magic, occult and magic spells, aka Wall Street. But as always, for anyone who wants to glimpse at economic reality of the world it is worth noting that Ruble was revolving around 60-61 (Hey, Joe, where is those promised 200 for a dollar) for a duration of the last week or so and today it closed at:
Allegedly it is all about divestment and ridding off the "toxic" Russian assets. Sure. But something tells me that there is a lot more to this story than Reuters puts on, and the issue here is very simple: in the long run real economy on which the financial system rests, not the stock market, wins. And while I am no specialist in securities--I am simply not that interested in speculation in general--I give you one example to illustrate the issue.
You try to kick them out, but no--they just don't want to. You see, when one's life is dependent on real, tangible things, not some funny papers--sanctions or not--try to kick them out. And mind you, Russia is imposing her own sanctions on the "unfriendly" countries. But, getting back to Ruble, it is absolutely not a secret that Russia since June went public stressing that:
Russia Doesn’t Want Stronger Ruble, Seeks to Avoid ‘Sharp’ Gains
Make no mistake, I get no pleasure from seeing misfortunes of many people in the West, when they have to face an increasingly difficult economic situation. When it comes to little children--there are no borders for me ethnically, racially, nationally what have you. Innocents MUST have real childhood and should never go hungry. D.C. is finally waking up to one of many emergencies which begin to pop up here and there in the US. There is nothing funny or schadenfreudeish about this.
"Supply chain disruptions" is a euphemism for incompetence, malice and ignorance of the Western bureaucracies who have zero understanding of real economy, real governing, real international relations, real warfare and real whatever you want to define as real. But in any civilization, children going hungry is the bottom line--you allow this, you are gone. Not so in the combined West where economic suicide continues within a perverted and dehumanizing economic paradigm rigged to feed 1% and its degenerate desires.
Why Russia’s Economy Hasn’t Collapsed Under The Weight Of Sanctions
I put quotation marks for a reason but make no mistake--I understand the importance of money for the economy, they are the blood of economy. But here is the problem about which I am on record for many years--unlike tangibles of agriculture, machines, healthcare and education, money, finances that is, whose properties can be described in purely materialistic terms, e.g. "this lathe is 50 years old but it still does the job and does it well", or "this dump-truck sucks, and is about to break, because...", you realistically cannot do this with money.
Whether you like it or not, but money always carry with them a huge baggage of appropriated mythical qualities which are, unlike it was the personal case with Hank Hill who shed his tear for his truck by watching movie about the "death" of a tractor, money and their effect are omnipresent in human culture and are either extolled or condemned. In the end, Judas sold Jesus out for 30 silver coins, money that is, not for the new Ford truck or X-Box whatever the latest model. Remarkably, it is in the times of serious troubles when money lose all its allure and tangibles become more precious than money. What's the point of money when life-sustaining 125 grams of bread in Leningrad in 1942 could be received only by presenting the coupon (card--kartochka) and you couldn't buy it even if you wanted to no matter amount of money. What is the worth of money when your life depends on tourniquet and a vile of penicillin but you need it now to survive and no amount of money can buy you both, rather inexpensive items.
You may say my examples are not precise, sure--I do not pretend to cover all bases. But for years I continue to drive this point home: money are just the medium of exchange and as such they are a derivative, however important, because they either have foundation of tangibles or they don't. Bretton Woods and US Dollar emerged primarily due to a fact that the United States in 1944 was the only country among world powers which not only hasn't been devastated by the War, but, in fact, benefited greatly from the war and in 1945 US economy was responsible for 50% of world's manufacturing in goods. Simple as that, anyone who tells you otherwise--they better get back to school and take a basic truthful course of the history of the 20th century. But now we live in the 21st.
No shit, geniuses. How about you learn for warm-up what is the national power and how it is formed, before throwing our way all these contrived financial psychobabble and translate it into normal human language for the average Joe on the street, that the US economy is dwarfed by China's, that India, for all her problems is ticking up economically and will overtake the US fairly soon, that Russian economy is larger than that of Germany possibly two to three times, that the only thing which matters in the world is how large your economy is and what you produce and how you can defend your resources and sovereignty. And it goes without saying that the United States and its currency begin to fail across the board on pretty much any criteria.
And then there is a power element to all this: Russia's massive resources are defended by one of the best armed forces in the world and massive arsenal of both nuclear and conventional high precision stand-off weapons. The United States cannot realistically fight conventionally Russia without sustaining catastrophic loses and immediately escalating to the nuclear threshold. Hence a hysteria about Ukraine and a complete butt-hurt propaganda about Russia "losing" in 404. This is not about caring about Ukraine, it is in full understanding that the US-established zero-sum game militarily with Russia is an excellent demonstration of how US proxies have their asses kicked starting from Georgia in 2008, to Syria and now, the last best hope of neocons, in Ukraine. Against the background of the US having zero prospects in Syria, having been pushed from Iraq and being utterly humiliated militarily in Afghanistan--the US doesn't seem that mighty and invincible, in fact the opposite is true and the world took note.
The only chance for the US to fight China is on Indian Ocean's SLOCs, where the US Navy still holds the edge, primarily because of its submarine force, but China is building up and will eventually both mitigate her dependence on SLOCs and develop a serious naval deterrent. I don't want to even go into the discussion of the US pretending that it can fight PLA on the continent--this is not even funny. So, there you are. Now Borisov made an announcement that new State Order for Defense (GOZ) will include further robotization and deployment of direct energy weapons (in Russian). Always keep in mind this military aspect--it is what shapes geopolitics.
Russia de facto introduced the gas Ruble, oil Ruble is coming because both Gazprom and Rosneft exited their EU subsidiaries and now have nothing to do with them--let Germany "nationalize" them (I guess one can always use additional office furniture and empty storage facilities) and now EU doesn't have contracts for gas and oil, since, before the latest events, contracts were signed with... and you have guessed it, EU subsidiaries of Gazprom and Rosneft which now haму no relation to either Gazprom or Rosneft. Good luck, EU, negotiating new contracts with Gazprom and Rosneft. I heard Gazprom Bank is a very good bank, and, most importantly, it is in Russia which precludes the repeat of West's standard procedure of robbing others, such as was freezing Russia's currency assets worth in excess of $300 billion. I know, for German "elites" who still view Russians as subhumans (old habits are difficult to get rid of) this whole thing is so humiliating but Europe made her choices. No contracts, no resources. What is the Euro worth now? And this is just the start.
Now, we can go back to what I mentioned yesterday about Hungary and Slovakia becoming this proverbial window from EU in order to somehow satisfy its needs. Well, I am 100% sure both Hungary and Slovakia will be only happy to oblige because they have no problems with doing what is profitable for their countries and do not give a shit about ideology. This also explains the fact that Russians are in no hurry to return about 500 Boeing and Airbus planes leased by Russia's air lines and Russians are really stunned by sheer idiocy of the West which thinks that it can steal more than 300 billion USD from Russia and Russia will not retaliate. Those 500 commercial aircraft cover a large portion of $300 billion stolen from Russia and Russians will have no problem servicing them, because Russia has her own massive aerospace and adjacent to it industries capable to manufacture any spare parts. So, you see--physical economy is a very different game than currency speculation and stock trading, and even banking. It is what you have at hand which matters, not what you project. In the times of troubles this is absolutely true.
In related news, Russia continues to lose tremendously in 404, to such a degree that what's left of Marines 503 battalion of VSU (264 people) decided not to risk it anymore:
POTUS made a declaration in Warsaw in his speech, he stated that Russian economy will shrink two fold (hm, what it reminds me about, I wonder, wink, wink) due to sanctions and then stated something altogether strange--he stated that Ruble to US Dollar going rate is: 200 to 1 (in Russian). Well... Here is March 26 (I mean today) and here is the reality:
Well, color me surprised... not. As I state non-stop, one has to even lie professionally, by "professionally" meaning making lies believable--they cannot do that in the West due to incompetents dominating corridors of power and influence from Brussels to Washington D.C. Plus, it is my assertion for a long time that most of them in those corridors do not even understand what real economy is and why, even if it would come this, you know 200 Rubles to 1 USD, it would make little difference because Russians want Rubles, not Dollars and Ruble today, unlike it was in the Soviet Union, buys you anything you want, because Russia IS NOT the country of deficit as Soviet Union was.
So, basically POTUS lying openly to everyone merely proves the level of desperation in D.C. regarding this whole 404 business, after all, the US wanted to see Russia getting her nose bloodied there, but it turned out quite differently. Again, I reiterate, those who "planned" Iraq and Afghanistan, it goes logically, would have huge difficulties understanding and assessing what goes on in Ukraine today. I just have one advice--hire more lawyers and PR people, they will show you how to plan and assess military campaigns properly, or how to govern (wink, wink).
Here are VSU soldiers surrendering (Nazis--are a different thing, they will be annihilated or taken prisoners and persecuted):
Mariupol: a drastic drop in intensity of Neo-Nazi response by heavy weapons is reported (they simply are running out of ammo) and the city sees law and order returning. As War Gonzo reports: the actual size of fanatical Nazi force in Mariupol was around 20,000, most of it is annihilated and two pockets which are left and shrinking both contain roughly of 3,000 each. This was yesterday. Judging by reports of very many Nazis trying to escape Mariupol even dressing in women's clothing Mariupol's operation is at its end and most what is left is smoking out a remainder of what was considered the best fighting force in 404, and de-mining the city.
Here are some specimen taken POW by Kadyrov people. I think they might be Azov but I am not 100% sure.
You all know my attitude towards Western "analytics" in both military and economy, I make it patently clear all the time. Here is another case of Duh!
I spoke about this today too. Sadly, it seems MacDonald's decided to reverse its earlier decision to move out of Russia and Russians are now stuck with this obesity-inducing institution. But there is a logic in MacDonald's decision--move out of Russia, scores of others are already waiting in the wings to take your place. Both Russian and international. Only people who haven't been to Russia or know literally nothing about her--primarily Western journos and "intelligence" community--they should understand that neither China, nor Turkey, not India are letting this huge lucrative market to slip through their hands. Moreover, China, while leading the world in some civil technologies, is staying with Russia to also "harvest" some other Russian technologies, including extraction and aerospace among many others, where Russia leads the world.
And then, of course, there is energy, agriculture, tourism (enter Turkey) and some major civil construction projects. Most Westerners still cannot grasp that the edifice of Western "prosperity" has disintegrated, and that the combined West long ago stopped being this "It" thing in most fields. As the example of France shows, some begin to grasp it. Here is some news (I spoke about it today) from Germany:
Well, this is just the start. I have a "secret" to divulge--most of Europe's economy is not economically viable, because it is unsustainable in general and Russia DOES NOT depend on EU anymore. Especially with many others gladly trading with Russia, while the combined West literally goes to hell with increasing speed. Even my beloved Pink Floyd (great musicians, ignorant politicians) decided
It is always regrettable when people of art get involved in politics while having zero background in politics related fields, but Pink Floyd were first, while I hoped to see U2 relieving Russia of their over-hyped and grossly overrated music. Well, what can I say, there is nothing more ironic than multi-millionaires (I believe Pink Floyd's catalogue is worth many billions) trying to be righteous. What combined West doesn't get yet is that it is over for it. No, make no mistake, financial markets will continue to function, stocks will trade, somebody will even make some small fortunes playing with currency, but one fact remains unchanged--Europe will (it is already in progress) lose its manufacturing industries due to competition and high energy costs and this is not changing. The Brave New World is upon us and those in the West who didn't understand it will feel it soon or, as this hapless steel company from Germany found out--you cannot cheat nature and laws of physics. You simply can not, no matter how you try.
I will address the issue of an abject failure of the main masturbation subject for fanboys and military porn lovers--Ukie UAVs--in a dense air defense environment and with fully operational air force later. Many people do not understand that this was predicted and I wrote extensively on this issue, such as this, a year ago:
In general, it will be fascinating to discuss how ignorant militarily people are when buy into military porn not understanding what is behind all this "shiny" military technology operationally. As Andrey Raevsky pointed my attention today to this link (found out at Colonel Cassad's site) with a pseudo-military psychobabble by some Ben Connable:
Updated: Russian Occupation of Ukraine Troop-to-Task Estimate
Of course, money are important as are the prices. They are the reflection of actual economy, but the average Western "economist" today is a person who is removed from actual economy very far. Suffice it to say that modern managerial class in the West understands only the language of stocks, capitalization, futures and trades. They DO NOT understand how economy works. How else can you explain Europe's and, to a somewhat lesser degree, America's ongoing economic suicide.
Well, Russia did warn about this long time ago, nobody listened. Poland wanted "market" to decide prices on energy, as a result we have what Poland wanted--Gazprom laughing all the way to the bank because of the spot pricing, instead of the long term contracts with fixed price. Not that there is no a downside to this for Gazprom, because, obviously, the pricing not just squeezes, it kills EU customers. But for now, Gazprom already has pretty much returned its investment into the NS2 and really doesn't care what happens to NS2 at this point.
To understand the scale of a calamity in Europe it is enough to look at this graph.
At this stage one begins to understand why they fail all the time. I speak about it in my latest video:
In an affront to the West, Gazprom now got to another domestic project. It is not enough for Gazprom to have already highest skyscraper in Europe as its corporate office--a truly magnificent Lakhta Center.
