Coincidental In A Good Sense.

Paul Craig Roberts wrote a piece on DJT symptomatically titled I Feel Sorry For President Trump. In it PCR arrives to several conclusion one the more important of which is this:

I knew that, unlike Reagan who had prepared his run over the years and had a movement behind him, Trump had not.  Moreover, also unlike Reagan, Trump had no idea of what he was walking into and no idea of who to appoint to important offices who might be inclined to help him.  Generally speaking, the value of a presidential appointment, such as the one I had, lies NOT in helping the president, but in helping the ruling private establishment.  Any Assistant Secretary can be very helpful to private interests and end up a multi-millionaire.  Indeed, most of them do. 

Needless to say, and it is a consensus among people, who at least try to think beyond 24-hour news cycle of the main-stream media sewer, that Trump's appointments for his national security team are an epitome of a disaster. Truth is, Trump can not be THAT stupid not to recognize that in his National Insecurity Adviser John Bolton he has a pathological liar and dangerous sociopath who couldn't care less about POTUS visions and desires. It seems that some recent rumors around White House indicate that it finally started to get to Trump that Mr. Bolton is not there to "advise" POTUS on any serious national security issue--for that Bolton has zero qualifications--but to involve the United States in as many conflicts on behalf of Israel and Saudi Arabia as humanly possible. 

But rumors persist and here is what is beginning to trickle down. 

Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton is being left out of key meetings and to all intents sidelined. No surprise there. He’s deranged. 

Well, if true--good for Trump, for now. I will refrain from proclaiming it to be good for all of us, having an idea about the "level" of "expertise" of current US pool of national (in)security "experts" we may still get some other weirdo in place of Bolton, IF....which remains to be seen. But, as I said not for once and wrote about this profusely--lawyers and political "scientists", unless they becoming such after having extensive training in real military-intelligence and real economy fields, should not be even considered for positions of influence in what amounts to the question of war and peace, be it economic, political, diplomatic, ideological, let alone actual, kinetic warfare waged by the armed forces. Enough with incompetent, pompous and ego-driven war-mongering non-entities forming US foreign policy (disastrous) and military-political (also disastrous) doctrines while not being able to know shit from shinola, let alone weight of salvo by stand-off weapons from the weight of their bowel movement upon learning for who (them, that is) those weapons are coming in case of war. 

I think PCR does a good job addressing those problems with Trump's cabinet (or lack thereof) and it gives at least some hope that people like PCR and Tucker Carlson raise their important voices in defense of the last vestiges of sanity in D.C. If this creep Bolton will be removed by Trump at some point of time (better earlier than later), we all may then conclude that we might have dodged the bullet. I have a suggestion, although staunchly anti-Iranian, how about DJT does some justice and get General Flynn back to a position from which he was removed by military-intelligence-political junta ran from DNC headquarters as a result of their Russiagate witch-hunt? That, together with putting Mr. Comey, Clapper and Brennan behind bars for treason and anti-Constitutional activity could be a good sign of at least some recovery within already largely compromised and tarnished Republic. Nah, I am being unreasonable....    

G-8 Russian Poll.

Russian daily Vzglyad positions itself as a business daily. It does, indeed, attract many comments from all kinds of public ranging from uber-liberal loonies to normal people to armies of mostly Ukrainian trolls. I use Vzglyad merely as news aggregator and, once in a while, source of either decent or, opposite, down right stupid opinion pieces. In all, I don't take it too seriously. Yet, Vzglyad does provide good feel for public opinion in Russia (granted very roughly approximate) and here is one from two days ago regarding possible Russia's return to G-7, or G-8, if one wishes. 

25, 576 people were polled on-line and 92.3% of those responded negatively to the question if Russia should return to Great Eight. Here are slightly updated results--nothing changed. To interpret these results is really easy for anyone who knows Russia not from pages of NYT or WaPo, or Moscow Times, or Kommersant, but knows Russia's and Russian people. Russia doesn't want to deal with the so called West and doesn't see herself as a part of it, she sees her future in Eurasia. Modern West lost any value for overwhelming majority of Russians and this is not the heat of the moment poll--it is a well defined long term trend which has massive geopolitical ramifications. Why? How about this little piece of news: Russia and China signed new package of documents on military cooperation, which allowed Sergei Shoigu to call it (in Russian) a new stage of Russian-Chinese cooperation. This somehow coincided with Igor Korotchenko, who is one of Russia's main insiders on defense, stating three days ago at Solovyov's show, that Russia should extend her anti-missile umbrella over China (in Russian).

So, something is up and who knows what we will observe in coming months. Chinese meanwhile are moving people and hardware to Russia for Center 2019 military exercise. These are very big maneuvers and they also are designed to address some issues with inevitable exit of the United States from Afghanistan and a shitstorm which will happen there once US leaves. Somebody needs to clean up the mess, once the Taliban scourge starts pouring over the borders. I wish Zbig was still alive to see the fruits of his policies. 

    

$14.5 Billion Is A Large Chunk Of Money.

But this is precisely the sum India allotted for buying Russian-made weapons. It is a lot. As big defense sales (for Russia) honcho Dmitry Shugaev characterized  (in Russian) this portfolio: it is a breakthrough. As it is known well, India was under non-stop pressure by the United States trying to block India's purchase of S-400 systems. Something tells me, however, judging by the scale of this portfolio that new nuclear powered subs and, ahem, future 5th generation fighters are going to be the part of this whole deal. 

One has to keep in mind that India's contract for French Rafale attracted attention of some serious forces inside India. 

New Delhi: Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), headed by Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, has picked up the Rafale jet purchase and the related CAG audit report among 107 subjects shortlisted for scrutiny. Other controversial subjects chosen by the PAC for its scrutiny include the Goods & Services Tax (GST) and its tax collection network GSTN. 

Rafale is an excellent fighter but the deal between France and India whose value is estimated at 7.8 billion Euros was for....36 fighters. This would make Rafale's cost, ahem, roughly 217 million euros a pop, or $240 million a plane. Of course, there were all kinds of caveats, including France investing 50%  of a contract into India's related sectors. The problem with all this is that even if to reduce Rafale's cost by 50%, one gets a price tag of $240/2=120 million a fighter. Rafale is a great aircraft, but it is not that great as to have a price tag of $120 millions. For "fly away cost" Rafale's in 2013 went for around 79 million Euros, or $87 million. Still very high but nowhere near $120 mils. Enter those nasty Russkies. 

Rumor has it that SU-35, which is a monster of a fighter-plane, goes on the market for roughly $65 millions as a base price. Russian-Chinese contract for the regiment (24 planes) of SU-35S is valued at $2 Billion, which makes the cost per single SU-35S (Russian, full capability, version) at around $83 million--still less than Rafale under the most favorable conditions. The math is really simple here. I am not going to go into fanboys' comparison of Rafale and SU-35S, both are superb fighter planes, with Sukhoi having one obvious edge over French fighter--super-maneuverability. But then again, it holds this edge over any aircraft in the world. And, of course, now a juicy SU-57 is towering behind SU-35S and India finds herself in a conundrum. Truth is, Indians love Russian-made weapons. They always did, since good ol' Soviet times and, facing now a true revolution in military affairs, (needless to say India knows this through Joint Russian-Indian Venture Brahmos really well), India wants those technologies. If Turkey can have them (some of them), India for sure, having a long record of friendly relations with USSR/Russia, have more than a fair shot at upgrading herself to cutting edge weapon systems. After all, India is a genuine candidate for crossing into the hypersonic paradigm, with her Brahmos, sometime next decade. 

What else was discussed with Indian side in terms of weapons I don't know and cannot know but the sum of announced portfolio is really gigantic and we all may state pretty confidently that India does it not just for obvious geopolitical considerations towards China and Pakistan, but also having some thoughts about the United States which becomes increasingly unpredictable and, certainly, views Indian Ocean SLOCs, or, rather, their interdiction, as crucial in curtailing China's BRI project. India, meanwhile, wants to view Indian Ocean as India's Lake and that requires even larger investment into the modern navy. Enter those damn Russkies again, wink, wink, who know that India needs ships and, most importantly, subs. And all that, as you may have guessed it already, requires all those enablers, those sensors, combat management systems and other pretty expensive things going under C4ISR moniker.  And then, of course, there are all kinds of joint ventures possible for joint manufacturing of... a lot. So, let's put it this way, Prime Minister Modi had a very fruitful visit to Moscow. 

Soviet Mowgli (with Kaa Python) And TU-95.

There is an uncanny similarity.  

Both in appearance and in mission.  

 

Before It All Went Down.

There was (still is) magnificent Mike Oldfield and ever stunning Anita Hegerland (until certain point, hey--I am not exactly what I used to be either;))). And there was this incredible music. Of course Mike wrote a theme to Exorcist but he wrote so much more. 

But, but things changed after that, somehow. Yet, Moonlight Shadow still stirs emotions....

It is Friday....

And of course this.....

A Tiny Piece Of News.

Behind all the chaos of modern world and a wall of BS by the so called "legacy" media, one piece of news is of a particular interest. While MAKS-2019 proceeds as planned, with MC-21 making a flying (public) debut, news of CR-929 getting to fly in 2023 are a huge deal. As Izvestiya reports two days ago (in Russian), Chief Designer of CR-929 program Maxim Litvinov (I wonder if he is related to Stalin's 1930s Peoples' Commissar of Foreign Affairs) stated that the first flight of CR-929 will happen in 2023 while serial production will start in 2025. This is fast, folks, for a project of such a scale, it is really fast. Russia, in this joint venture, is responsible for a design of the wing and center section of aircraft (in Russian) and, drum roll, for PD-35 engine, which will power this machine. 

As you know, PD-14 already received the certificate of a type and is in serial production for MC-21. Here is what was stated about PD-35 in 2017:

Russia’s new bypass turbofan engine, dubbed PD-35, will be developed in the next six years, Alexander Inozemtsev, chief designer of Aviadvigatel (a subsidiary of the United Engine Corporation), has told TASS news wire. The engine is intended to power future wide body aircraft, including the Russo-Chinese C929. Inozemtsev said the powerplant program is currently in the scientific research phase. Total investment in the project will amount to almost 180 billion rubles (approximately $3 billion). Of this sum, 60 billion rubles will be spent on test benches and laboratory equipment. The PD-35 is a turbofan engine projected to develop 35 tons of thrust. The program was launched in the summer of 2016 as a joint effort by Russia’s largest powerplant specialists, Perm-based Aviadvigatel and NPO Saturn, which is located in Rybinsk (both are part of the United Engine Corporation). The plan is to scale up the core of the PD-14 engine, which is currently being developed for the Irkut MC-21 narrow body airliner, and add a stage to its high-pressure compressor. There will be nine stages in the compressor and two stages in the turbine.

So, these latest news about CR-929 taking to the skies in 2023, then, could be viewed as a confirmation that PD-35 development is on schedule (give and take a year). This is also a confirmation of Russian civil aviation not just taking off--we knew that it was taking off years ago--but getting to the cruise echelon. As Yvonne Lorenzo reports (in her wonderful review of my new book):

Russian-based MAKS 2019 aviation exposition, Boeing was an exhibitor, and the news was reported on the site included, “Boeing Company will announce new strategic initiatives and sign agreements with Russian partners at the International Aviation and Space Salon, according to the press service of the American aerospace manufacturer. Boeing will sign a number of agreements with Russian companies at MAKS-2019. ‘Agreements will be signed with Russian partners and will strengthen long-term obligations within the framework of the company’s partnership with the Russian aerospace industry,’ the statement says.” Thus, sanctions notwithstanding, Russian companies continue to buy—or at least have an interest—in Boeing products and “god-emperor” Trump, “grand and glorious” though he may think himself has—as of now—not prohibited any such sales to Russia by a vital member of the Military-Industrial complex.

What do ya know. Of course, one should remember that a lot of things, including a wing for B-787, were designed at Boeing's engineering facility in Moscow. So, while the United States sanctions Russia non-stop and insists, especially, on Europe doing the same (those morons evidently took it too far for their own comfort now), somehow Boeing continues to operate in Russia and even, well look at that, hosts Russian school kids, the winners of the contest Aviation From A to Z in 2018 (in Russian). Indeed, and why would Boeing do such a thing (wink, wink). 

But all this brings us back to a purely geopolitical question. Whose side is Russia on?  The answer is very simple: Russia is on Russia's side, period. Moreover, pushing on with the development of the MC-21 and CR-929 and the line of their power-plants such as PD-14 and PD-35 Russia not only returns to own domestic civil aviation market with a vengeance, she made sure she will have a huge share of a Chinese one. While public at MAKS 2019, traditionally, was treated to a dizzying display by Russian combat aviation, it was this bird which stole the show for people who look at the world not just through the aiming device. 

In related news, Europe (the United States is not far behind, but there is still a hope, maybe) continues her descend into madness and totalitarianism with Thought Crimes exposed now by Thought Police non-stop. 

PHP Central Europe would have gathered hundreds of users of PHP, a popular programing language, together in Dresden in October, if not for one seemingly innocuous tweet that sowed the seed of destruction coated in a shell of positive verbiage. “This year's PHP CE conference seems to have gone with the ‘White Males Only’ conference lineup. Shame. It's 2019, we can do better,” wrote Karl L Hughes, an obscure tech industry figure and “concerned citizen”, who had no plans to travel to Germany himself. The tweet went viral....  after the brouhaha, “ticket sales stopped.” This week, organizers published a notice saying that the event in Dresden was canceled, citing the tweets and articles as the reason. They say that there will be no PHP CE conference next year or ever again.

I am not sure in 20 years Europe will be able to produce a decent kitchen combine, let alone aircraft, because it will be too busy developing mechanisms of upholding gender, race and religious quotas, lest there be a dominance of smart white males in manufacturing of the technologies for the XXI century.    

Operation "Detachment".

This "operation" is combined West's crude attempt to woo Russia into useless Western "fold" by "detaching" her from China. Of course if one wanted this operation to fail, no better candidacy for this operation's handler could be found than Emmanuel  Macron, who would fit the bill perfectly. In a moment of, possible, sincerity Macron waxed Huntingtonian and concluded this: 

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron says it's time for Europe to reach out to Russia — to keep it in the Western fold, check its global ambitions and avoid being caught in the middle of a new Cold War. Macron didn't say outright whether he wants to lift EU sanctions imposed over Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, the heart of East-West tensions for the past five years. But he said new sanctions "are not in our interest." In a sweeping diplomatic speech Tuesday after hosting the G-7 summit , Macron sketched out a role for France as a "balancing power" — between Russia and its rivals, between the U.S. and Iran, between rich and poor countries. "Pushing Russia from Europe is a profound strategic error," Macron said. Europe's "weaknesses and mistakes" have helped lead Russia to boost its alliance with China and revive its influence in Syria, Libya and around Africa.

Macron makes one mistake here. Well, several mistakes, actually. For starters "Pushing Russia from Europe" was not a "strategic mistake"--that was the plan and main objective of Washington, headed then by Obama and being continuously implemented now by Trump Administration. Moreover, "pushing Russia" out is not just about Russia, but by implication about Europe itself. Europe as it exists today is of no interest to Russia in any metaphysical sense, except for purely economic interest as a market, but majority of Russians are counting their blessings now because of this "pushing out" largely succeeding. Europe, meanwhile, is a sacrificial lamb for the United States, which, in a desperate attempt to save herself, will demolish Europe economically because European elites are a pathetic parody on a required political leadership, some of them are outright imbeciles, not to mention that vast swathes of them are effectively products of the American selection. So, no--let Europe deal with the US, or vice-versa, and keep Russia out of it. 

Then, the other question arises--and what is France? What's so "special" about France that Macron proclaims her a "balancing power"? France has none to balance anything. As pretty much any European nation France is ran by the cabal of globalists, of whom Macron is an exhibit A, and thus cannot operate in the world of serious geopolitical, economic, military and cultural realities. In the end, Europe is an American slap-bitch and will remain so until fully consumed by the United States which will take Europe down with herself. So, I don't think anyone in Russia, with the exception of few urban liberals and Western NGOs' grant-eaters, wants to be in the Western "fold" or in present day emasculated, multi-"cultured", gender-fluid post-modernist Europe. As the Russian proverb (from anecdote about resurrection of mother-in-law) goes--if it is dead, let it remain dead. The only negotiations between Russia and the West in geopolitical sense can be on the conditions of surrender. If not, the West can go to hell. Russia doesn't need any "balancing" intermediaries. Last time I checked, Sergei Lavrov's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of the best diplomatic institutions in history. The deal is done and Europe, and combined West, must face what's coming for them and leave others be. Especially Russia, who saved Europe on few occasions in XIX-XX centuries.  Plus, please, French overwhelmingly do not even count Russia as European country and so be it.