It came to me that after watching Twin Peaks Season Three. It all came together spurring from Davis Lynch's Dune which I know by now every line, that Twin Peaks wrapped it up for me in terms of what Paul Atreidis, played then by Kyle MacLachlan, embodied in Special Agent Dale Cooper. Lynch, probably, embodies the pinnacle of an American culture in a sense of finding humanity, beauty and love in the midst of a complete insanity, mayhem and confusion. Ah, yes, about the beauty. So let's recall one which blew everyone away then in late 1980s and still, even today, remains beautiful, however merciless to all of us time is. Sherylin Fenn's beauty is so powerful that it is incomprehensible how we ended up with tattooed gift-less pretentious nobodies trying to define femininity and attraction by bearing it all.
This is not to mention the fact that Angelo Badalamenti's music is haunting and once you heard it--it stays. Here is Fenn doing her dance in 1990:
And this is her in 2017.
It is, indeed, dreamy. Badalamenti (Angelo) and his music is this ingredient which makes it simply intoxicating. But then Season Three adds Chromatics. Here is fans' compilation:
Here is official;
I envy people who would experience this for the first time.
You are "killing' me Ziad;)) I wanted to stay away from it but you got
me, buddy. LOL. OK, here it is--he is an honorable man, a true officer
and true CO who cares for his people. Most likely he also knew what was
coming, which makes me respect him even more. Navy fvcked it up badly,
especially in the times when men of integrity are worth gold in their
weight, hell, more than that.
So, I am on record now. It is not for me to assess what was going on there, but I think Captain Crozier did a very honorable thing.
As with Italy, the group of 11 Military Transport Aviation aircraft was formed by the orders of Sergei Shoigu to start deliveries of equipment and specialists to Serbia to help to deal with Covid-19. First IL-76s already landed in Serbia (in Russian). So, does anyone have any questions about "where is Russia" when speaking about Serbia anymore? I guess all questions have been answered. The reason Serbia wasn't first most likely is simple--Lombardy was in such a rough shape that aid was needed there first and it was needed urgently. It is clear that Russia will not abandon Serbs as people. Serbia's political top is a different matter--it is very pro-EU. Albeit, at this stage one question is not just warranted, but is irresistible--so how did EU perform so far? We all know the answer.
These are Russia's brothers in blood and faith and finally all speculations (and trolls) are put to rest.
UPDATE: from Russia's MoD from Serbia. Arrival of the first "bort" (board, aircraft). No interpreter between Russians and Serbs is crucial, a lot in common in languages.
I think The Donald will win next elections and may even lead the United States out of rut, to some degree (the US will never be the same again), but Donald continues to exaggerate, it seems.
Read attentively how the "news" is presented--same ol' Western BS: "people who spoke on the condition of anonymity." That means wet fantasies and attempts to present wishful thinking as a fact. Peskov yesterday flatly denied any consultations with Saudis, nor Russia is in any rush to accommodate anyone (in Russian). Russia is always open for good discussion but media, as always, think that they know better--they don't. Especially Western media which are in the business of propaganda primarily. I am not specialist in oil industry, but as I stated not for once, Russia is always ready for bargaining. How about the US? I don't know, Trump needs to save shale oil industry, which is going down in a pretty dramatic fashion as of lately. This, however, sounds more plausible in terms of Russia's actions:
Russia is rewriting its budget to prepare for oil prices at $20 a
barrel, according to people familiar with the discussions. Russia will
ramp up borrowing by 1 trillion-1.5 trillion rubles ($13-19 billion)
this year as a result, they said.“If the forecasts of a 15-20 million
barrel reduction in demand turn out to be right, then no production cut
will help raise oil prices,” said Kirill Tremasov, head of research at
Loko-Invest in Moscow and a former Economy Ministry official. “The
Russian government is doing the right thing, preparing for difficult
times and a low oil prices. There are no other options.”
The new variable, however, entered the situation: US oil companies unleashed a lobbying campaign for sanctioning Russia (and Saudi Arabia)--well, US IS one trick pony, after all (in Russian). But then again--desperate times call for desperate measures. Including spreading real fake news by Trump that he "brokered" some deal between Russia and Saudis. Hence this headline by Bloomberg.
All this posturing is just the start of a big game in quid-pro-quo. Is the United States ready to get off the Nord Stream-2's back or will the US continue to pretend that it is still a sole decider? Saudis called for a new OPEC+ meeting on Monday--it is understandable why. But here is this detail:
Kremlin yesterday flatly denied, I reiterate, any talks between Russia and Saudis. So what reality does Trump live in then? Very simple--pressure on him is colossal, especially when one considers these facts of US economy:
Texas oil is hurting like crazy, so Trump resorted to the pattern of his Secretary of the State who, as we all know, "lied, cheated, stole". This is the world where the policy is set by manipulating with perceptions for a short gain, which, in the long run, turns into a massive problem of credibility and of real economy. But that is the Trump's world. The world of the reality show, in which the border between reality and fantasy is so fuzzy, that one never knows which one he is in at any particular moment.
UPDATE: 04/03/20. I don't need to comment on this, speaks clearly for itself.
Start you watches, ladies and gentlemen, before possible (I am not saying that it will necessarily happen, at least I hope not) Elon Musk Witnesses Cult starts its "defense campaign" of their "engineering genius".
Let me now show how CPAP/BiBap machines differ from actual artificial ling machines. Here is a one by Philips, you can get this device for around $3,500 and can use it yourself. This is an expensive one, you can own one for around $1,100. Now, observe, what Russia delivered yesterday (you can see markings of Aventa clearly on the boxes) to the United States--a professional artificial lungs with not only the ability to provide required pressure and delivery of oxygen to damaged lungs but also monitor (and diagnosing) up to 40 different parameters, crucial for survival of the patient. This is one of the models of Aventa--a Russian brand developed and produced at Urals Instrumentation Plant, the one which recently stated that it is ready to drastically increase production from 300 units a month to 3,000. Russia has three such companies manufacturing these lung machines.
These are expensive machines which cost in excess of $16,000 and require professional nurses to operate them. There is an Aventa model which actually provides, through innovative design (especially filters), the plug-in for four patients simultaneously, those machines also provide critical support to toddlers too. Those, I recon, are even more expensive. I know, I know, Elon Musk is a space-time continuum thinker and may not know the difference between CPAP machines and serious professional medical equipment for critical patients, but to attach Tesla's sticker on something Tesla didn't produce--that is rich, my friends. It is also pathetic. It is so embarrassing for any normal human that one is left without words when looking at this snake-oil peddler carpetbagger's posturing pretending that he is more than just a figurehead for Obama Admin's attempt, by recruiting NASA and Military-Industrial Complex engineers and designers, to peddle its suicidal "green" agenda by promoting new "Steve Jobs" for the consumption of physics-mathematics challenged Public Relations, Communications and other office plankton academic majors, who would buy any of Musk's (and Tesla's) BS about upcoming saving of the world.... ah, wait, Bureau of Labor Statistics on-line. What do you say? No demand for majors in Communications or PR? Nobody can afford overpriced homicidal Tesla? Say it ain't so. Well, it is what it is, another day, another Musk's "genius moment" for the consumption of the same type of idiots who camp in a front of Apple stores before the release of the new model of... whatever the fvck Apple manufactures NOT in the United States. Hey, at least they have the right to attach their own stickers to an overpriced junk they sell.
As in Colonel Boyd's Loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. Our brilliant artist Veritas Semper Vincit summarized two "Os" (Observe and Orient) brilliantly in one painting:
We observe the financial Black Hole which consumes the United States, and huge parts of the world tied directly to US "finances", and the information from the fronts is getting, as is expected, even worse:
My only question is this: how the heck did they manage to miscalculate that badly? What is consensus, anyway? Economics is not a precise science, nor is statistics related to such issues as unemployment, pandemic, political preferences or, for that matter, climate change. The attempts to stick all those processes into some mathematical models are merely feeble attempts to move beyond Observe into the Orient stage in the Boyd's Loop, aka the intelligent decision making framework. In this particular case, transition from Observe to Orient is very difficult, because most of those "models" do not really work. In fact, they never did. E.g. how many people in this statistics are really unemployed? Did anyone count people who simply dropped out of job search even BEFORE this shitstorm, and who never were counted in order to create an illusion that unemployment was relatively low. Here is how the dry percentage numbers of people who simply gave up on jobs translates into a number of actual human lives BEFORE the shitstorm, in 2019:
When taken into consideration, the actual unemployment rate before Covid-19 was very high, but corrupt US media wouldn't even try to communicate in facts in order to cover for Obama's disastrous economic and social policies. But when OODA is substituted with GIGO (Garbage In-Garbage Out) one would expect a disastrous outcome . In a statistical alternative universe of US exceptionalism across the board, from "low" unemployment numbers, to Trump losing out to Hillary in most "opinion" polls, to America's defeating Nazism almost single-handedly, there is a constant flavor of Voodoo about American statistical reality. This Voodoo constantly keeps people off balance, because they begin to exist simultaneously in several realities, akin to a bizarre and, I admit, addictive world of David Lynch's 3rd Season of Twin Peaks. I will yet to write on this cinematographic masterpiece.
Models in US "economy" do not work, they never did because they failed to account for a stochastic black hole of "irrational exuberance" which sucked into its event horizon last vestiges of common sense and rational behavior which insured that:
"Might not always hold"? Really? When did they hold? Can this "economist" even grasp the fact that most statistics and "models" Western neo-liberal economists worshiped are in the foundation in the West's dramatic decline? Covid-19 merely lifted the curtain hiding the ugly reality of the financial gang-rape of the productive forces and the wealth transfer from so many in the disappearing middle class into the hands of so few. And we didn't deal with the REAL inflation yet. When this tsunami hits, expect the unexpected...albeit, what am I talking about--"the unexpected", "the sudden", "not anticipated" have been wrecking havoc with US domestic and foreign policies for too long now to expect fast, hopefully, recovery. I do not even want to go into the worst case scenario:
This time, however, we apply this definition not to the particular person or persons, but to the nations. No, don't expect me to talk about past, we need to concentrate on the present and the future. I periodically hear and read such fantasies: can you imagine if the United States, China and Russia would cooperate, what a wonderful world would it be then. I am not against this fantasy and I understand its appeal but I am also a hard core realist (no, not in American sense of realism which is largely a misnomer for a "slightly less exceptionalist") and I understand that this state of the affairs is, for now at least, well, fantasy. This, however, should not relieve superpowers from having Noblesse Oblige and exercising it. How? Let's go back in history before the United States completely went off the rails and at least tried sometimes to exercise Noblesse Oblige. Here is an account of the US military exercising it to the fullest in 2005.
This is how you do it, folks, and nobody has the right to forget that. This is how superpowers are supposed to behave in a global stress situations. Russians know this, they sent today a giant AN-124 Ruslan stuffed with medical supplies to the United States:
China was helping non-stop many others. Noblesse Oblige, folks. But how it relates to oil wars, you may ask? Well, here is the deal. Trump DID call Putin and they had a long conversation which dealt with issue like this, no it is not April Fool's joke, it is reality:
Says it all, and US shale oil industry is in deep-deep trouble, so much so that POTUS was forced to talk to Putin and.... he hasn't been ostracized for this call by even most vile DNC-controlled media, at least not yet. There is a reason why: Russia is a state actor which could be reasoned with, unlike is the case with MBS and Saudis, and here is this Noblesse Oblige point between the US and Russia, which doesn't exist between Saudis and Russia with US respectively. Russia understands that utter collapse of US economy, much of which is dependent today on shale oil, is NOT a blessing for Russia, especially when these were Russians who were indicating non-stop that they are interested in relatively soft-landing of the United States which would allow to avoid a huge economic mayhem globally. Unlike the United States, Russians know damn well what collapse of the superpower (USSR) looks and feels like. Russians also take account of US political class, much of which is simply totally corrupt, insane or both. So, Russians ARE NOT interested in the American implosion understanding consequences of that. This is both: understanding of the global trends and responsible behavior which, however emotionally would make sense for many in Russia, precludes burying the United States by annihilating its shale industry. Russians merely want to cut the US to size, not to kill the US, albeit for many this is a very desirable outcome.
But Russia, again, offers new (in reality-old) rules--Noblesse Oblige--between superpowers. This was in plans before Covid-19 pandemic and was, not without justification, termed Yalta 2.0. Putin proposed this "Big Five" summit in Jerusalem at Holocaust Forum on January 23, 2020 (in Russian). Putin spoke about victors, not losers, for this summit. Of course, this summit is postponed today due to obvious reasons, but the agenda still stands--multipolar world with great powers (superpowers) taking responsibility for its normal and peaceful development. Recall now, that the US is a huge part of this "Big Five", Saudis, however, are not. The multipolar world is already here and American unipolar moment is over, but it doesn't mean that US economy should be deliberately crushed, especially by the shithole of a gas-station masquerading as a country. Yes, it is Saudi Arabia I am talking about. One just don't allow some medieval satrapy which produces only two things, oil (and even that due to someone's expertise and technology) and Islamic radicals, to shape the global outlook before big guns had a chance to settle it. Nobody in their own mind ever proposed to cancel a pecking order geopolitically. Well, the United States tried, by proclaiming itself a hegemon, but that momentary lapse of reason was momentary in historic terms-some 20-30 years at best. The time of great powers is back with vengeance, Saudis, for some reason decided that they are the players here too. That goes way beyond the oil wars, that Saudi decision has metaphysical and geopolitical ramifications for the new world order--such ramifications are unacceptable.
If I would be MBS, I would be shitting my pants the moment I read this news. It is one thing for Saudis to play nations against each-other, totally another--to piss off such dogs as US and Russia, who are now in negotiations on how to handle this shithole of a country which decided that she has the right to, pardon my French, fvck with big guns. I am sure, that both Russians and Americans now are pretty much on the same page in terms of possible, democratic "regime change" in Riyadh. Moreover, I am 100% positive that neither Moscow nor Washington want to deal with MBS at this stage. The guy is, obviously, insane and, frankly, down right stupid. You see, some contours of new world order of Big-2 (in reality 3, with China in the background) already in a process of helping it to emerge. This is superpowers' Noblesse Oblige to each-other. It is an exclusive club and it should remain such. This, plus, in the end, rephrasing the words of one American general about Russians during Detente of 1970s, when he was speaking about comparing Rooskies and Chinese: Russians are, of course, sons of bitches, but they are our sons of bitches--they, like us, like nice suits and good Whiskey. This applies completely in reverse in relations to the US. Especially once present American "elites" will be cleaned out and place disinfected by current events and tribulations they bring.
We live in insane times, inside a geopolitical shift of unprecedented scale which, if we survive it, will be recorded in history as a final gasp of the liberalism and the ruin it brought upon the humanity. Some, in these times, lose their head and begin to behave irrationally, without calculating consequences for themselves and others. This is what Saudis did hoping for their bluff not to be called. It was called and now we have a rather unique situation, Russia and US cooperating. Hm, who would have thought. As per shale oil industry--it is for oil specialists to discuss if it will survive as such and if it will remain strictly for a domestic consumption. I do not want to go further in speculations on what would happen if Saudi Arabia ceases to exist as a state? Anything is possible in crazy times, including the emergence of some strange geopolitical configurations, especially when Noblesse Oblige is exercised.
UPDATE: immediate follow-up. Here are some more details.
