Open Thread

Go at it.

Homo Sovieticus.

Roger Cohen laments:

I found that Homo sovieticus, far from dying out, has lived on in modified form, along with habits of subservience. So with the aid of relentless propaganda on state television, the old Putin playbook — money, mythmaking and menace of murder — has just about held.

I really do not care about human waste such as Cohen, but here he touches upon critical issue not understanding that what he perceives as Homo Sovieticus is, in fact, Russia's main weapon which is unbeatable. Sovieticus, Sovok and other contemptuous monikers given to average Russians by "advanced" liberal types from large urban centers of Russia are descriptions of people whose "backwardness" and alleged Sovieticusism is about being tied to their land, recognizing and following traditions and having a very pragmatic view of the world--precise values which allowed Russia to survive for millennium. 

Now, when Russia not just survives but prospers under the conditions which would implode any other peoples and wins the war against combined West, Cohen's lamentations are understandable--his social circle is that of mentally and morally deranged self-aggrandizing shysters who still cannot recognize the difference between tactical and operational, and machine-building and PR. And Cohen's BS is rebuffed by Spectator:

Americans are so consumed with ‘equity’ that our answer to plummeting educational attainment in public schools is to make sure no children can read, write or do maths, and we address these incidental shortcomings of perfectly equal students by no longer administering standardised tests: problem solved. We don’t defend our borders – out of helplessness, or carelessness, or paralysing niceness, or cynical short-termism – so we let more or less anyone into our countries who breaks our laws, which from a step back conveys a glaring lack of self-respect. Putin is right, too, that we renounce ‘the ideals of patriotism’, as any ardour for our own homelands is not merely dismissed as naff but condemned as malign. We teach our children to be ashamed of their heritage and cleanse our curricula of our culture’s classics; do you think Putin is removing Tolstoy from the syllabus of Moscow State University?

I guess those Americans who share same values with average Russians are also Homo Sovieticus, right? It is too late for the West, especially Europe. And, yes, Tolstoy is a part of Soviet/Russian public school syllabus, not of university, especially War and Peace and Anna Karenina. As are Pushkin, Dostoevsky and others. Tolstoy, of course, was also Homo Sovieticus since War and Peace is the first truly "nationalist" prose written in Western literature. Ah, those damn Soviets. Lomonosov then was, most likely, a closet communist--those Soviet ideas have been in the air circa 1750. 

Looking and experiencing St.Petersburg or Moscow's grandeur one gets the idea that the reality begins to hit hard even among West's "intellectual" class. One will see at Army 2023 exhibition all those NATO vaunted weapons on display for everyone to see and those are Leopards, Bradleys and other expensive military toys which met the same fate in Russia as did Teutons, Napoleon and Hitler's armies. I am not sure that I will be able to get there--but if I will, I will report. But my schedule is tight--I didn't see my friends, classmates and others in person since 2018.   

P.S. Another Russian secret weapon are 100% cotton socks. Try to buy 100% cotton socks of normal causal and even dressy type in the West--good luck with that. Here, you got it--I am not risking and am buying dozens of them, LOL. 

Well, Well, Well.

After tribulations and layover in Helsinki and being mecilessly questioned by FSB Border Guards at Torfyanovka Crossing and spending a whole day in St. Petersburg with my classmates, I reached Moscow. So, here I am reporting from Moscow and getting ready to do more videos. For now we are staying with my dear friend from childhood and naval academy classmate and trying to figure out how to navigate their mosntrous 4,000+ sq.feet  three storey house. My buddy complains that he is not living well, LOL)) But seriously, after sleepless St.Petersburg--I mean it--most stores (forget cafes and restraunts), Galeria works 24/7. Humanity moves even in the night. 

Russia doesn't seem to be affected by SMO in any meaningful way, despite some certain things which are new for the country at war with combined West. I will omit here the glitz and sensory overload. But here is the thing which may have slipped under the radar. First, Egypt refuses to supply arms to 404, now this:

Cairo is working to attract more Russian investment and promote joint projects, according to the Egyptian General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI). The government body wants to facilitate foreign investment flows into the North African country.

“Russia is present in many investments in Egypt. They invest in a number of industries, such as food, oil, and engineering,” GAFI chief executive Hossam Heiba told RIA Novosti during a press conference this week. Moscow and Cairo have been ramping up economic cooperation and saw trade turnover jump to over $6 billion in 2022, marking a 30% increase on the previous year. Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the Russia-Africa Summit in July that relations with Egypt are strategic in nature, noting that the two countries have numerous large-scale joint projects. One such venture is Egypt’s first nuclear power plant at El Dabaa, which is currently under construction and is run by Russian state energy major Rosatom. The plant will consist of four units using Russia’s VVER technology, each with a capacity of 1,200 MW and equipped with generation III+ VVER-1200 reactors, the most advanced technology currently available. Egypt expects the facility to be operating at full capacity by 2030.

Keep in mind Soviet-Egyptian cooperation and the monument to it which is Aswan Dam and many other things. So, all of it is only natural. One can clearly see the dynamics of Russia's return to Maghreb and Arabs are impressed--first Syria, and now SMO. So, here is the situation, my friends, and stay tuned. 

How Many Times.

Misleading people. VK, OK, FB, Twitter and other time wasting social media platforms ARE NOT "tech giants". They are code writing factories for people to get more mental disorders. Those "tech giants" use hardware developed and produced by REAL tech giants. But for some journo it is difficult to comprehend that Boeing for all its ills IS a tech giant, ROSTEC IS a tech giant, Rosatom is a hi-tech mastodon, even Newport News is a hi-tech giant.

VK Group, which owns a top Russian social media platform with the same name, will move its business back to Russia and quit the London Stock Exchange, the company said in a press-release on Friday. VK announced that its shareholders and board of directors have decided to terminate its activities in the British Virgin Islands, where the company is currently registered, and re-register as an international firm in one of Russia’s “offshores.” “Following the official registration in the Russian Federation, VK will become an international company – Public Joint Stock Company ‘VK’ with its seat in a special administrative district on Oktyabrsky Island, Kaliningrad region,” the firm stated.

I am not saying that this is the bad news for Russia, but enough with misnomers. The world is moved by real hi tech people who work 24/7 producing trucks, airplanes, operate nuclear and natural gas power plants, they build trains and buildings, they fly to space and it is all done by the hardware, granted using sophisticated algorithms developed by software braniacs with engineering degrees. There is a huge difference between developing mathematics for the space flight, and operating a gigantic manufacturing plant, and writing a code for people reporting on how many times they had bowel movement or posting memes. I am not saying that VK is not needed--social media are here to stay, but enough with this tech BS. It diminishes the role of people who DO move the world. 

Open Thread.

 Go at it.

That Will Be Interesting To Observe.

 The gas station masquerading as a  country.

The Russian space program has launched a probe to the Moon for the first time since 1976. Luna-25 blasted off from the Vostochny spaceport in the Amur Region and is aiming to touch down in the southern polar region by August 21. All previous probes have landed in the equatorial region. If it lands successfully, Luna-25 would arrive two days before India’s Chandrayaan-3 for a historic first lunarfall in the rugged polar terrain.

While such complex missions always have a non-trivial probability of failure, the more important aspect of this launch is the fact that Russia is back to interplanetary research. Even NASA's big honcho Nelson wished Russia success, while stating that Russia is not the part of "space race". Here is the point--this "race" today is a super marathon and patience and restraint insofar as PR goes are welcome.

Repetition Is The Mother Of Learning.

I should be busy next couple-three days, so here is my latest.