how I HATE Chopin! All that feminized hysteria, all those falling arpeggio fainting spells!
Posted by: malenkov | Apr 28 2022 17:18 utc | 98
I spent a few decades hating Mozart behind similar superficialities. Now I’m over that, regarding Mozart, thank goodness.
“Feminized hysteria” is very nearly a pleonasm, btw. (OMG, they’re having another pleonasm!) Alice Sara Ott’s recording of waltzes is my favorite Chopin album. She really whacks the stuffing out of that soundbox, I’ll tell ya.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 28 2022 17:45 utc | 104

@Aleph-Null
Zircons are sea launched hypersonic cruise missiles, Kinzhals are air launched, so if either were used on San Fran I’d expect Zircons. I would not expect hypersonic missiles to be wasted on San Fran though. The advantage of such missiles is that they cannot be shot down by American missile defences, but since SF doesn’t to my knowledge have any THAADS deployed most likely an older weapon system would be used for a nuclear attack on SF.
SF getting hit would mean strategic nuclear war btw. Nothing I proposed would be strategic nuclear war, actually what it would accomplish is a checkmate against NATO. S-400s have repeatedly throughout the war in Ukraine shown their ability to shoot down ballistic missiles and cruise missiles (even some old Ukie S-300s shot down older, non- hypersonic Russian Kalibrs over Odessa recently). By putting NATO in nuclear checkmate the hope would be that an end to the war could be negotiated before the use of strategic weapons, which are the weapons which would blow up SF among other cities and economic targets in the U.S.
What I am frankly hoping for at this point is a limited nuclear war which only hits military targets within the local theater of operations and not strategic level targets, other than of course American oil refineries to prove the point that Russia is not joking and is willing to go all the way.

Posted by: Cthulhu | Apr 28 2022 17:55 utc | 106

@98 malenkov – Come on, cut Chopin some slack. He was a great composer. And his Preludes are beautiful, too. Ryszard Kapuściński was a great journalist. His book, the Emperor, about Ethiopia and Haile Selasi is very good. Penderecki and Gorecki are also composers I like who are Polish. The ethnic baiting doesn’t really accomplish anything. That said, a lot of them are lame. Humanity.
@ 99 Aleph – I used to live on Great Highway in SF. Same view but a bit more south and to the west. I can visualize the same scene as you. Now I am in LA. I think we would go in a first strike. Cold comfort.
Posted by: lex talionis | Apr 28 2022 17:47 utc | 104

Ah, Penderecki, the guy who said he no longer had to write atonally once socialist realism was tossed on the trash bin of history and atonalism was no longer needed as a protest against it. Oh, and all those falling bombs on Hiroshima? In RL there was of course only one, and there was no thought of Hiroshima when he wrote the piece — but he knew the title would sell. (A German friend of mine once told me that his St. Luke Passion was so long and required so many instruments because he could pad his commission that way . . . no idea if that’s true, but the D-major chord at the end is as arbitrary as it is retchworthy.) After that, lots of B-flat minor. Gorecki wrote some amusing stuff early on but I find the Third Symphony a cure for insomnia. I don’t know Ryszard Kapuściński.

Posted by: malenkov | Apr 28 2022 18:04 utc | 108

“Feminized hysteria” is very nearly a pleonasm
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 28 2022 17:45 utc | 103

Yes indeed, but only very nearly. It’s a common error among social conservatives to think that the separation of sex and gender is a woke invention of the recent past.

Posted by: malenkov | Apr 28 2022 18:07 utc | 110

Antonio Guterres was delegated by his US sponsor to try to negotiate release of the Azovstal bunch. Obviously he got back empty handed.

Posted by: Milos | Apr 28 2022 18:11 utc | 112

UK is insane. Having listened to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman deliver a broadside to Trussed Lizzie I can only assume they are holding Crack Parties chez Johnson.
There is simply no way UK can physically survive the payback from this brazen warmongering.
http://defense-update.com/20190904_brimstone-td.html
Just as they acted like a dysfunctional computer program over Covid for 2 years it now appears the dysfunctionality has entered a Death Loop inviting total destruction. A senile US President elected by 81 million Suicidal Americans has invited everyone to sip the Kool-Aid

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 28 2022 18:13 utc | 114

What I am frankly hoping for at this point is a limited nuclear war…
Posted by: Cthulhu | Apr 28 2022 17:55 utc | 105
In a recent Q&A piece, Martyanov considered the possibility of conventional war, in which USA casualties mount to around 50K. AM doesn’t think USA is prepared for such a toll, or is consequently prepared to crank it up all the way, at that point. I find Andrei Martynov’s reasoning, and the reasonable sequelae thereby implied, the most informative of all sources available to me.
Who can read someone like AM emotionally, from an informative video? To me he seems quite scared, frankly, underneath the scrupulous professionalism. I think you’re sincere in your “frank hope” — as your reasoning is also thorough. But that phrase “limited nuclear war” — what is that fearsome thing? Like a verbal strange attractor, as Homo sapiens circles the drain.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 28 2022 18:18 utc | 116

On the way to Slavyansk …
https://t.me/NewResistance/7970

Posted by: Kim | Apr 28 2022 18:29 utc | 118

Boomhauer (110).
I have great respect for Galloway for what he’s done for the people of Palestine, and Iraq, however Galloway (A Scotsman) vehemently opposes the country of his birth (Scotland) dissolving the union with England, he’s a unionist to his core, and would probably laugh in your face if you mentioned William Wallace.
As for Jeremy Corbyn the media ran a nasty propaganda campaign against him much like the UK is now running one against all things Russian, Corbyn is the probably one of the greatest socialist PM’s that the UK never had.
The foreign secretaries speech today has coincided with the upping of propaganda in the UK on how we (the West) much make sure that Ukraine wins this war, also today is the first that I’ve heard the words regime change (Putin) used by several high ranking UK military men.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 28 2022 18:36 utc | 120

Just another tiny point that I just noticed – did you know that it is now exactly 77 years that japan doesnt want to make peace with russia? Technically they are still at war 😀

Posted by: Macpott | Apr 28 2022 18:40 utc | 122

On Liz Truss’s speech yesterday, Moscow reacts to it.
“Moscow has warned London that by “pumping” Ukraine with weapons, Britain is undermining European security. The remark came after the British foreign secretary urged allies to provide Ukraine with “heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes,” while also bolstering the defense capabilities of Moldova and Georgia.
Speaking to journalists by phone on Thursday, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the “tendency itself to pump weapons, including heavy weapons, into Ukraine and other countries is something that threatens the continent’s security and provokes instability.””
Truss added.
“Truss also proclaimed that the “war in Ukraine is our war,” with Kiev’s victory being a “strategic imperative” for Britain and its allies. She went on to call for “heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes” to be provided to Ukraine, adding that “we need to do all of this.””
This is very dangerous rhetoric, who is Truss grandstanding for Biden? Zelensky? Has Westminster made a decision to become more aggressive, mor epor-active in this conflict.
https://www.rt.com/news/554686-kremlin-uk-threatens-european-security/

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 28 2022 18:43 utc | 124

@ lex talionis | Apr 28 2022 17:47 utc | 104
Thanks for mentioning Henryk Górecki, whose Symphony #3 (for instance, as recorded by soprano Dawn Upshaw) is profoundly transformative music. Some pieces can deliver such an emotional charge to close listeners, it changes your life, the same way living changes your path in life. This work happens to be one of the finest examples, imho, of genius molding unendurable pain into vital beauty.
Clipping wiki’s description:

A solo soprano sings Polish texts in each of the three movements. The first is a 15th-century Polish lament of Mary, mother of Jesus; the second a message written on the wall of a Gestapo cell during World War II; and the third a Silesian folk song of a mother searching for her son killed by the Germans in the Silesian uprisings. The first and third movements are written from the perspective of a parent who has lost a child, and the second movement from that of a child separated from a parent. The dominant themes of the symphony are motherhood, despair and suffering.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 28 2022 18:47 utc | 126

Antonio Guterres was delegated by his US sponsor to try to negotiate release of the Azovstal bunch. Obviously he got back empty handed.
Posted by: Milos | Apr 28 2022 18:11 utc | 111
You only have to note that that the claimed civilians in Azovstal (clutches pearls) haven’t walked safely out, on any of the well publicised opportunities offered by RF forces, to feel the full tombstone weight of Ukie/NATO+ falsity concerning just who/what is down there.
At an absolute minimum, there are high level Azovstani snuff fiends who, if apprehended by RF forces, will never be released from jail – NEVER – and they know it.
I’d be wary of a high risk attempt to break the encirclement by NATO+ …. Kookie Nuland herself called for NATO intervention in Mariupol (obviously meaning Azovstal, just not wanting to admit it).

Posted by: anon2020 | Apr 28 2022 18:49 utc | 128

False flag in Kiev. Guterres is unharmed….
https://twitter.com/dmytrokuleba
my source nrk.no (they only read twitter).

Posted by: Anne Brit | Apr 28 2022 18:51 utc | 130

A lot of bombing raids took place last night by the Russian airforce destroying US and EU weapons shipped into Ukraine.
“A large batch of weapons and ammunition shipped to Kiev by Western countries was destroyed in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry has said.
A military warehouse set up on the territory of the Zaporozhye industrial aluminum plant was struck by Kalibr missiles, fired from Russian Navy vessels in the Black Sea.
The facility hosted “a large batch of foreign weapons and ammunition, supplied by the US and European countries to the Ukrainian army,” the ministry said.
Russian warplanes hit 59 Ukrainian military targets overnight, while artillery performed 573 strikes against Kiev forces; 18 drones were also shot down.”
Meanwhile the US POTUS Biden has asked Congress for a whopping $33 billion dollars to supply Ukraine with more weapons, I think we’re in this conflict for the long haul, the West in my opinion is not going to give Putin a way out of this conflict, which would again in my opinion be the normal procedure to end a conflict.
“US President Joe Biden has asked Congress for an additional $33 billion in funding to prop up Ukraine in the ongoing conflict with Russia. A vast part of the massive package is destined for additional military and security aid, while the rest will be used for economic and humanitarian assistance.
“The Administration is requesting $20.4 billion in additional security and military assistance for Ukraine and for U.S. efforts to strengthen European security in cooperation with our NATO allies and other partners in the region,” the white House said in a statement.
Unveiling the package during his speech at the White House, Biden said it was “critical” for the lawmakers to adopt it. “We need this bill to support Ukraine and its fight for freedom,” he said, admitting the price was not “cheap.” “But caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen,””

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 28 2022 18:56 utc | 132

“US President Joe Biden has asked Congress for an additional $33 billion in funding to prop up Ukraine in the ongoing conflict with Russia. ”
This resembles someone who fell in live mud. The more he moves the more he descends in.

Posted by: Milos | Apr 28 2022 19:06 utc | 134

We are the proud people of Poland and we no longer buy Russian gas take that Mr Putin.
However.
“Poland continues to buy Russian natural gas from Germany via reverse flows, after its direct supplies were suspended due to non-payment in rubles, Russia’s energy giant Gazprom said on Thursday.
“This week Poland refused to pay for the Russian gas with the new terms, in rubles. It was grandly announced that they no longer needed Russian gas and would not buy it any more. But in fact Poland keeps buying Russian gas after the direct supply was halted. It now buys the gas from Germany, and it comes back to Poland with the reverse flow via the Yamal-Europe pipeline,” Gazprom’s official representative Sergey Kupriyanov said.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 28 2022 19:10 utc | 136

What I am frankly hoping for at this point is a limited nuclear war which only hits military targets within the local theater of operations and not strategic level targets, other than of course American oil refineries to prove the point that Russia is not joking and is willing to go all the way.
Posted by: Cthulhu | Apr 28 2022 17:55 utc | 105

With the discussion linked below in mind I think this is a desperate hope which will not come true.
If the part about the “refusing-to-learn-from-experienced-people-snobs” at American elite universities is only half true, we are all in great danger. But it would explain so many of the incomprehensible political decisions of the last years….

So we’re in a dangerous situation. We have a lot of—I’m sorry, because I’m so disturbed by this—we have a bunch of punks, you know, 30-year-old punks who come from privileged backgrounds, claiming they’re experts in policy when they actually do not have the basic knowledge. And they’re advising presidents. And this is not a good professional system. we need to do something about it.

It’s part of a very worrying article I just found in a translated version on a German blog site. Just as I discovered MoA a few weeks ago thanks to another blog where it was mentioned. Since then I was just lurking, but am really impressed of this article. May be it was a subject here before, but I think everyone should have read it so another mentioning will not be amiss for sure:
https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/25/ted-postol-what-you-really-need-to-know-about-the-threat-of-nuclear-war/

Posted by: T.h.omas | Apr 28 2022 19:14 utc | 138

cockroach alert from 2002
And to think how relieved all the G7 and all the G20 were that he finally won a presidential election.

Posted by: sln2002 | Apr 28 2022 19:18 utc | 140

Polish troops will be deployed in Western Ukraine where they will not come into contact with Russian forces, if this is correct.
“Intelligence obtained by Russia suggests that Poland and the US are working on a plan for Warsaw to regain control of Ukrainian areas that Warsaw considers as “historically belonging” to it, Moscow’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergey Naryshkin has said.
According to the alleged plan, the first stage of this “reunification” will see Polish “peacekeepers” deployed in western Ukraine under the pretext of “protection from Russian aggression,” Naryshkin outlined in a statement on Thursday.
The details of the operation are now being discussed between Warsaw and the US government, he claimed, adding that the operation is designed to be executed without a NATO mandate, and only volunteer states taking part.
Warsaw has so far been unable to find any other nations to join its cause, he added. But the Polish authorities are unconcerned by this, as they want to minimize the number of “unnecessary witnesses” to their actions, Naryshkin said. ”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 28 2022 19:28 utc | 142

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 28 2022 13:17 utc | 15
” 1) means Russia can hit them without causing an invocation of Article 5 even if they hit them in Poland probably, and 2) they don’t realize Russia can hit them with missiles from inside Russia and with power if they cross the border.”
Not if they occupy cities and towns mostly. They might bring some missile defense too. However, it’s more likely that this would be not a major problem for Russia. Occupation of that area is not very cost-effective. Leaving it in anarchistic chaos neither. The predictable outcome, some protest, some diplomacy and some “carving up” like all World Wars started or ended with. What this reads if preparation for the final days of old Ukraine. A realistic planning ahead.

Posted by: John Dowser | Apr 28 2022 19:44 utc | 144

Zizek has written an article (Another one! lol) https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2022/04/25/commentary/world-commentary/w (no firewall to read just a sign in etc.) Any thoughts on his views?

Posted by: mark miller | Apr 28 2022 19:58 utc | 146

Opport Knocks@140…..Freeland, Freeland, Freeland. Canada is balls deep in the Ukraine…the WEF has infested the Canadian government, all parties, with new world WEF Nazi ideology.
Cheers

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Apr 28 2022 20:05 utc | 148

Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 28 2022 19:38 utc | 142

Totally agree with that. The Empire needs a bad taste of it’s own strategy of overwhelming impression of power. They are caught in confirming their superiority to themselves in such a way that they have totally lost the view for the rest of the world.
May be China can establish a real threat on the Pacific site while the conventional battle in Ukraine stays -as it actually seems- quite impressive for Nato observers. That should cause some overthinking.
Regarding the industrial output let’s not forget the lack of rare earths and other resources and even cheap food which will strike the empire and it’s poodles very soon if they keep escalating.
And that’s another worrying fact: the hole thing gets an existential threat for the empire as well meanwhile. It’s possible that the empire will find itself alone without clothes and with a worthless petrodollar, if Nato can not attain fully control of the conflict. And what’s the point with a humiliated empire without vassals and a suffering society? If they can’t rule the world, there is no need for a world…
There is an Asian saying, usually used as a curse: “You shall live in interesting times”….

Posted by: T.h.omas | Apr 28 2022 20:17 utc | 150

ERRATA @150
Azovstal

Posted by: sln2002 | Apr 28 2022 20:20 utc | 152

“with the uppity natives in Western Europe done away with.”
Posted by: Altai | Apr 28 2022 15:39 utc | 56
I think that the uppity natives of Western Europe are, indeed, the target. Before the special operation the US could only talk about their plans to force Germany to cancel Nordstream 2 to “teach Russia a lesson”. Yeah, destroying Germany’s economy is really going to teach those Russkies a lesson!
Poland trash-talking Russia, sanctioning Russians, providing transit for weapons and mercenaries to Ukraine, refusing to pay for its gas, and then expressing outrage at the shut-off of Russian gas to Poland, shows the entitlement displayed by uppity westerners, (which includes Americans, who are also scheduled to have their expectations of comfort and joy downsized).
“What I am frankly hoping for at this point is a limited nuclear war which only hits military targets within the local theater of operations and not strategic level targets”
Posted by: Cthulhu | Apr 28 2022 17:55 utc | 105
Not just you. Both the Rand Co and the Pentagon have published plans for a nuclear war between Russia and Europe, with the US sitting across the ocean waiting to pick up the spoils when they have annihilated each other. Like Truman talked about in WW2, so it’s been done before.
I’m pretty sure that Putin has already said that homie ain’t playing that game again.
The plans for war with China also predict a war Over There, with Australia, Japan and South Korea taking on China, and the US territory unscathed.
Dreamers!

Posted by: wagelaborer | Apr 28 2022 20:25 utc | 154

Posted by: gottlieb | Apr 28 2022 18:14 utc | 114
“At some point it will be the Empire of Lies that faces the decision to end human civilization, because Russia will not hesitate to resist a world without Russia.”
* * *
Well said, gottlieb. However, having rejected compromise and diplomacy, it has recently become abundantly clear, that the U$AN Empire doesn’t have a bloody clue what it’s gotten itself into.
The U.S. appears to be completely unaware of the numerous red lines it has already crossed, the possible consequences of continuing doing so and, ironically, that in 1991 the former Soviet Union divested itself of 15 Republics and became the Russian Federation specifically, so that the U$AN Empire would no longer have its symbiotic enemy and end up doing what it is doing right now – namely maliciously threatening the very existence of all life on earth.
But that is what it is doing right now.
Whether the U.S. is currently aware of it or not, the intellectual level of its ongoing foreign policy decisions is currently perceived by much of the rest of the world as a cross between a Wiley E. Coyote cartoon and another fascinating episode of the epic USAF “Starfighters” series.
It is a Greek Tragedy produced by Muppets.
The epitome of US/NATO idiocy has been to completely underestimate and/or lie about the incredible advantage the Russian Federation currently holds militarily with regard to the hypersonic weapons Russia possess and the U.S. along with its vassal states, do not. You can be quite sure that most Americans have no idea what a hypersonic Zircon or a Kh-47M2 Kinzhal really is, they “they” have them and the U.S. doesn’t.
What nonetheless perhaps trumps that level of idiocy is the current ignorance in the U.S. surrounding two extremely relevant factors, which I will now address in closing. The first is the completely fallacious myth being spread by some that a “classic” nuclear exchange between the U.S. and the Russian Federation might somehow be “survivable” by the U.S. Russia or the planet. This is, of course utter BS.
The second, is that the RF might chose to employ its hypersonic arsenal using only conventional and not nuclear payloads. The destructive potential of only the kinetic energy of a hypersonic missile coupled with a conventional payload is already so immense, that nuclear payloads might be completely superfluous. I wouldn’t want to consider what Manhattan or a nuclear silo in Montana would look like if one of those hit.
U.S. nuclear defenses are essentially geared to defending against ICBM strikes from over the North Pole. The ICBM the Russians tested just a few days ago carries 24 hypersonic payloads. One of those alone is sufficient to incapacitate every major city in a country like England in one strike.
What I am saying, is that you have been lied to and remain deeply ignorant of the danger you are in. I’m telling you this as a Central European. The west Ukrainian city Lviv is located only 700 kilometers to the east of my present location. This is certainly a bit more “immediate” than it might be for you, living somewhere in the Golden State on the Pacific Coast.
Perhaps the time has come to take a step back, to reconsider the possible consequences and revert to the ancient arts of compromise and diplomacy with honor.

Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 28 2022 20:32 utc | 156

@PavewayIV 126
Thanks for that Clare Daly
EVERYBODY. .take a gander at and a listen to Angry Clare if you missed it.
It doesn’t get any better than that, IMO.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 28 2022 20:34 utc | 158

I was impressed with this lengthy article review of the article by the lead potentate of CFR, the war party, richard haass:
The Washington bipartisan War Party (the neocons/neolibs, the deep state, and the military-industrial-congressional complex) goes on record in this Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) article telling the world: “What Does the West Want in Ukraine? Defining Success—Before It’s Too Late” (April 22, 2022).
This article is written by Richard Haass, President of the CFR. For those who don’t know, Mr. Haass – given his position – is the spokesperson for Washington officialdom on foreign policy. He is on Morning Joe on MSNBC a couple of times a week preaching the “forever war” doctrine to his flock in Washington.
https://original.antiwar.com/Ronald_Enzweiler/2022/04/27/the-war-partys-dictates-on-the-ukraine-war/
My comment: There never was any doubt as to who in the Wash DC cess pool was dictating the war in ukraine and the battle to the last ukrainian. Much of this will not be news to the informed observers on this site.

Posted by: Thomas | Apr 28 2022 20:46 utc | 160

Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 28 2022 20:32 utc | 155
The kinetic energy of hypersonic weapons is indeed formidable, and that is important when targeting for example large ships. But what you then suggest, that you don’t want to imagine what such a weapon would to Manhattan or to a nuclear silo is nonsense. The kinetic energy of a missile weighing 10 tons and traveling at 14,000 km/h (both of these estimates are generous) is equal to 18 tons TNT. This is 28,000 times less than the energy released by a 500 kiloton nuclear warhead. Reliably destroying a nuclear silo even with a nuclear weapon is challenging, which is why they are constructed that way in the first place, and also why certain strategic nuclear missiles place (like the Trident missile) have such an emphasis on accuracy (which is obviously not very important when a nuke is targeting for example a city).

Posted by: Unnamed | Apr 28 2022 20:54 utc | 162

from yesterday’s thread Richard Steven Hack | Apr 28 2022 12:20 utc | 318
“These (Polish) idiots are going to get slaughtered. There is also the possibility of a reaction from Belarus or any Russian forces still in Belarus. This would be the perfect opportunity to do what I suggested Russia do earlier – send a column down from Belarus down the Polish border and take Lviv – or at least block the Polish troops. Would depend on how many forces Russia would be willing to send, how long it would take to get there, and what the overall situation was.”
I have wondered that too RSH, why hasn’t Russia done that, it’s not that Russia lacks troops or weapons… They must have decided that it wasn’t worthwhile at the time; their bigger fish were in the East in the Donbass and the Mariupol/Odessa areas. Plus they are currently degrading the military assets in the western ukraine area quite effectively, and apparently are satisfied with that.
Putin’s stern warning yesterday was obviously directed at Polish and Romanian recklessness in the Western areas. Polish …uh…..’peacekeeping troops’ (lmao) she sends to Ukraine will be trounced
I am always worried about any escalation, as tactical and strategic nuclear forces can/might become involved.

Posted by: michaelj72 | Apr 28 2022 21:10 utc | 164

Posted by: Unnamed | Apr 28 2022 20:54 utc | 161
“The kinetic energy of a missile weighing 10 tons and traveling at 14,000 km/h (both of these estimates are generous) is equal to 18 tons TNT.”
Thank you, Unnamed, for your response and input. I am fully aware that the kinetic energy of one hypersonic weapon cannot be compared to 500 kiloton nuclear warhead. However, it is always a question of what you are trying to achieve. Why completely (and permanently) destroy a geographic location such as Manhattan, when one well-placed hypersonic will also bring the place to a complete and utter standstill? Remember 9/11? That was the day all of America stood still.
Your 500 Kiloton nuclear weapons approach is completely outdated.
The hypersonic missile which effectively took out a Soviet era nuclear bunker on the Ukrainian/Polish border just a few weeks ago is a good example (it was a clear and definite signal by the Russians) of what can still be achieved with high-velocity kinetic weapons for strategic purposes. The central point, however, is that the U.S. has no defense right now against any kind of incoming Russian hypersonic weapons, as it is only geared for taking down outdated ICBM technologies and sub-sonic cruise missile attacks, most of them looking North.
Therefore, it might be time for the U.S. to honestly tell its people, that the country has essentially become defenseless at this time. That might change sometime in the coming ten years, but that’s a long time.
That factor should also play a certain role in how the U.S. comports itself internationally from now on in. Should the Russian Federation ever share its hypersonic technology with China, from a global standpoint, US/NATO can pack its things and go home.
Game over.

Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 28 2022 21:30 utc | 166

@ Ghost Ship and others:
Amazing, isn’t it, how despite all the reports of Oligarch X having his yacht seized or Oligharch Y feeling forced to sell his football team, and despite the demise of Swiss and Austrian bank secrecy thanks to FATCA pressure, to date nobody, but nobody has found a trace of Putin’s fifty billion gajillion dollars of looted lucre?

Posted by: malenkov | Apr 28 2022 21:43 utc | 168

fyi – from Southfront, and their analysis of fighting in the Donbass, etc and their forecasts on where all this might go.
https://southfront.org/military-situation-on-donetsk-front-on-28-april-2022-and-forecast-of-conflicts-development/
“….A particular threat exists for Transnistria. Around this small unrecognised republic, on the one side, the Polish, Romanian and Moldovan armed forces are concentrating thousands of troops, while on the other side the Ukrainian armed forces are deploying new units formed by foreigners, including Turkish nationalists from the far-right organisation Grey Wolves.
NATO countries have stepped up arms deliveries to Kiev, including heavy military equipment and advanced weaponry. The likelihood that the conflict in Ukraine will escalate into a full-scale direct and open war between NATO and Russia by the summer of 2022 is extremely high. Recent statements and actions of the US and EU leadership show that the decision to enter into a war with Russia soon is likely to have been made.”

Posted by: michaelj72 | Apr 28 2022 21:46 utc | 170

“…Galloway (A Scotsman) vehemently opposes the country of his birth (Scotland) dissolving the union with England, he’s a unionist to his core Corbyn is the probably one of the greatest socialist PM’s that the UK never had….” Republicofscotland @119
I hate to say this but the true nature of the SNP-mentioned by Malenkov and exemplified in their over the top NATO Atlanticist policies- is probably the reason why Galloway stuck to Unionism. He could smell the Tories underneath the plaid and through the Burns Night sentimentality. The people who rule Scotland today are the same nasty lot who made the Scots working class and peasantry one of the most impoverished and bullied in Europe. The same lot too who left their brutal mark in every colony Britannia ever stole.
I’m all for Scottish independence, if its won by the working class on a socialist platform- John Maclean’s dream. But if its just a way of transferring the mouths of the bosses in Edinburgh from the troughs in Westminster to those in Washington and Brussels, its worst than a waste of time.
As to Corbyn, Mossad, the CIA and MI6 could never have succeeded if the socialist heartlands, including Scotland, had not been neutralised. Not only Sturgeon but Salmond too bear almost as much responsibility for that as the Scots Blairites whose place they took and whose policies they have continued.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 28 2022 21:52 utc | 172

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 28 2022 18:18 utc | 115
“In a recent Q&A piece, Martyanov considered the possibility of conventional war, in which USA casualties mount to around 50K. AM doesn’t think USA is prepared for such a toll”
This is why the US hasn’t started a war with North Korea. Pentagon war games show 50,000 US casualties in the first ninety days, which is way more than the US population is prepared to accept. The US population is used to a couple hundred US soldiers here and there over the course of a year. And that’s strictly a conventional war, no nukes being used by NK. NK has a massive conventional army with enormous artillery and is dug in terrain which is perfect for slowing a US armored attack.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 28 2022 21:58 utc | 174

michaelj72 #152

G. Doctorow, who closely follows Russian national media, on the issue of Poland seizing parts of western Ukraine, which I always thought was a distinct possibility. I have wondered to myself why russia hasn’t sent troops down from Belarus right there along the border with Ukrainian-polish border…

Doctorow assumes the Uke natonazis will welcome invading Poles. Doubtful, see history, trust issues. If Poland tried that stunt, then AFTER reaching Lviv and getting bogged down in a patriotic guerrilla war with Uke nationalists THEN Belarus might venture south and close the Polish border and slaughter the hapless invaders in a new western cauldron. They may delay acting while the two forces deplete each other and then settle down in what remains of Lviv. Where is the USA??? seven+ thousand miles away basking in global debt.

Putin’s recent warnings about a lightning response to any strategic provocations by The West must be seen in this light. We may soon find ourselves in a direct Nato-Russia conflict of some sort. I’ve always considered the Poles much more reactionary and even more lunatic than Old Europe

I see the Polish card and the Transnistria/Moldova card as pathetic asides by not-quite-nato exercises, ie arms length feints. IMO those feints will be met and erased. No direct nato engagement. No USA ‘we will back you all the way’ AGAIN! Clearly nato is out gunned and imo outclassed right now and would not want the blunt instrument of public revelation being applied to its head. The EU natonazi states cannot afford to be revealed as impotent fools/vassals/suckers that they are. Putin has set out his nation’s requirements for a just peace and indivisible mutual security in December ’21 by supplying the draft treaties. This clash is just the USA and NATO first response and it is all they know.
And then the Doctorow quote reveals this hedge:…

“….However, none of the foregoing takes into account the military powerhouse that Russia is today. [read that again] We may take the possibility of a Polish move of its forces into the Western Ukraine as the kind of intervention that Vladimir Putin had in mind when he said yesterday to legislators gathered in St Petersburg that it would provoke a lightning fast counter blow by Russia.
Meanwhile, a similar possible intervention by Romania in swallowing up Moldova and threatening to overrun the Russian separatist territory of Transnistria which is sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine, could also spark a powerful military response from Moscow.
The mainspring of history is unwinding spasmodically and destructively.”

Note that first conditional sentence…. I suggest readers do take that Russian powerhouse into account as that is the means by which peace and longterm security can be designed.
That is the nub of the Russian proposition:-
take us seriously,
stick to your agreements and promises,
respect our people and place in the world,
stop aggravating and hating us FOR NO GOOD REASON,
and calm down enough to see and then deal with your internal warmongers.
China asks the westies for the same, sane, human respect for itself and its borders as agreed 60 years ago.
It is a pity that Doctorow is too constrained to spell it out in blunt terms but he writes well enough. How many major losing battles will it take for the west to be revealed as a useless ally? Perhaps these two as described will do the trick or perhaps just one. If it comes to that then Russia will likely defend Transnistria savagely and let the Ukes tolerate their Polish friends for a week or two. Then enter the Belarus peacekeepers along the Polish border to drive out a Polish invasion. Either way it diverts the Uke army to concentrate into three fronts and that is a sweet blunder to make when it is stand off, long distance missile warfare with total air superiority in the Russian hands.
IMO there will be no nuclear escalation from any of this as there will then be only one target in the mind of the all the easties and that is mainland USA. It would be suicide for the USA to dare go to that trigger. They are chickenhawkes using proxies to do their dirty work. They are nobodies ally.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 28 2022 22:11 utc | 176

@ RSHack 173
One important factor holding the US back from attacking certain countries is the US strategy of forward basing. There are 40,000 US troops and families around the Persian Gulf, so Iran, where real men want to go, is off the hook. Repeatedly saying “all options are on the table,”as Obama did, then has no meaning. Korea is similar, with a huge US military base, including families within rocket range of DPRK. China is similar, and the US is sore afraid (always wanted to say that) of Russia.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 28 2022 22:15 utc | 178

Posted by: John Dowser | Apr 28 2022 19:44 utc | 143
“Not if they occupy cities and towns mostly. They might bring some missile defense too.”
If Poland invades, Russia is not going to care about western Ukraine cities and towns. The gloves will be off, unlike in Ukraine where Russia wants to make a political point. Russia will know when Poland makes its move – you can’t hide that. They will hit them before they can occupy Ukrainian territory.
Poland has no missile defense against Zircons and Kinzhal, and probably limited defense against waves of Kalibrs and Russian air power.
It’s going to be a slaughter.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 28 2022 22:21 utc | 180

Boomheist @35
Someone says there has never been a war that NYT doesn’t like.
vetinLA @55
War is the only way for them to get out/rid of the economic and social crisis they’ve created. Just look at WWI and WWII.
There is a Chinese saying: once the war machine starts, tons of gold come in. Nothing new under the sun.

Posted by: lulu | Apr 28 2022 22:22 utc | 182

Seems more the aim of the missiles is to test them out. It is a shame military budgets are so out of control and there is such a surplus that it makes using them too easy.

Posted by: Gailstorm | Apr 28 2022 22:28 utc | 184

@172 Cont’d–
Translated from the Russian “NATIONAL PROJECTS OF RUSSIA AND THE RISKS OF THEIR IMPLEMENTATION” which was submitted for publication 11 months ago:

By 2005, Russia had a set of favorable conditions for creating the foundation for the further development of the country, including the transition to new models of state management and the continuation of the course of investing in human capital. In this regard, for the first time in the modern history of Russia, in 2005, the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin decided to implement long-term all-Russian measures called “national projects”. Among the most important directions of the country’s social policy, priority projects were identified: “Quality Education”, “Affordable Housing”, “Modern Healthcare”, “Effective Agriculture”, as the most socially significant and affecting the quality of life of people [6].
The national projects 2019–2024 were developed in three main areas (“Human Capital”, “Comfortable Environment for Life” and “Economic Growth”) and approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 7, 2018 “On national goals and strategic objectives of the development of the Russian Federation until 2024” [1].
Officially, the program of national projects was launched in 2019 for a period until 2024, in July 2020 it was decided to postpone the achievement of a number of indicators until 2030 and adjust the program taking into account the changed circumstances [2]. According to the pre-crisis forecasts of the Ministry of Economic Development, economic growth as a result of the implementation of national projects from 2021 should have been 3% per year. During the first three quarters of 2019, expenditures on projects that in 2018 and were previously financed by the federal budget were executed, so the bureaucratic processes of their coordination did not cause difficulties.

And it continues. The pandemic was very successful in delaying Russia’s overall development goals while accelerating those related to the pandemic response. Do note the National Projects are quite similar to USSR and China’s 5-Year Plans. It should also be noted that the United Russia Party is becoming very similar to China’s Communist Party in how it interacts with Russia’s society and provides feedback to local, regional and national governments. Despite all the impediments placed in its way, Russia continues to develop its political-economy into a well-oiled machine–recall that political stability within Russia is only 22 years old, while economic stability is even shorter, @18 years. In many respects, Russia is a young developing nation learning fast on the fly. It took China 50 years to get its government to operate efficiently afterwhich it has soared.
The nation lacking any real form of centralized planning is the USA, and what institutions it does have that do the planning don’t bother to include the public interest. And the same can be said of its followers.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 28 2022 22:34 utc | 186

AZ Military News
@AZmilitary1
50 minutes ago the Israeli authorities called on their citizens to leave the territory of Transnistria “as soon as possible”
They were saying the same about Ukraine before the special operation begin…
………….
Looks like the war is about to spread.
As for sealing the Polish border, Russian forces would be amongst a hostile population. That wuold mean partisans, no opsec ect.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 28 2022 22:38 utc | 188

Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 28 2022 19:38 utc | 142
“Even more problematic is that Russia has not made even the first steps towards putting their industry on a war footing (central planning).”
A firm that manufactures cruise missiles recently took on 500 additional staff and they have been working round the clock to churn out the missiles (3 shifts). Who knows what else has been ramped up.

Posted by: Mongo | Apr 28 2022 22:41 utc | 190

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 28 2022 22:38 utc | 187
“As for sealing the Polish border, Russian forces would be amongst a hostile population. That wuold mean partisans, no opsec ect.”
Great! Russia gets to kill more nationalists. Win-win. A repeat of the 1940’s. Granted, that cost over 20,000 Russian lives. But it also took out over 200,000 Ukrainian nationalists. And Russia didn’t have the tech they have now, so today that figure might be much larger.
If you can’t join ’em, beat ’em. That was the whole point of my plan: threaten Lviv, drive the nationalists into Poland, let Poland deal with the Nazis.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 28 2022 22:55 utc | 192

Don Bacon @ 177
I seem to recall Scott Ritter in one of his many video interviews using the term “gone gopher” to describe the Ukrainian military strategy in the Donbas region of (formerly) Eastern Ukraine. Thinking this over last night as I often do when sleep won’t happen, the following arrangement of syllables occurred to me:
Genius Gopher “War” Planning
The Nazi American Terrorist Op –
or, NATO: an acronym standing for “flop” –
has started a war and refuses to stop
till few can distinguish the crook from the cop.
So dig some more trenches and live in the slop
till orders arrive to go “Over the top!”
Then charge across steppes in the open, “Chop Chop!”
as men all around you catch bullets and drop.
From dragon’s teeth sown, Death will harvest His crop.
Your NATO instructor (his “doctrine” hidebound)
has taught you a thing guaranteed to astound:
Wage war from a bunker: a burial mound,
then wait for some “help” from the “West” to come round.
But quickly you witness your aircraft all downed;
and what you imagined your “navy” is drowned;
then you a red vapor, no trace ever found.
Eternity now. Absent all light and sound.
“Gone Gopher” like George Custer’s “take the low ground!”
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2022

Posted by: Michael Murry | Apr 28 2022 23:06 utc | 194

i’m just a normal man
i wouldn’t hurt nothing at all
but here we are
our leaders have a plan
i’d only kill if it’s for them
now here we are
i drove in a car and flew in a plane
to come to your house and kick your door in
now it’s down to this, it’s just you and me
i’ll blow your fucking head off for my country
i go to church and tithe
i go to work in a suit and tie
but this is war
i’m really not sure why
but the tv says that you are wrong
now here we are
my feet hurt from the sand
but still i march on gun in hand
cause this is war
this isn’t what i planned
i wanted to be so much more
but this is war
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/smileemptysoul/thisiswar.html
And Jesus wept.

Posted by: bubbles | Apr 28 2022 23:11 utc | 196

In the intertubez ERA, the bloggers furiously would type, “the irony. it burns.”
Britain’s Truss tells China its rise depends on playing by the rules

Posted by: sln | Apr 28 2022 23:14 utc | 198

Richard Steven Hack | Apr 28 2022 22:55 utc | 191
It would mean clearing the civilian population. I’m not sure Russia is that keen on genocide.
It will be a different story if Russia moves in from the east once Ukraine military is destroyed, though by then whatever is left of Ukraine will likely have a different government.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 28 2022 23:16 utc | 200