Soooo, no speculation about any other reasons (besides official) for cancellation of the aerial part of the parade?
My crazy take on this is that NATO can cover Moscow with some sort of EW systems that can disturb comm and nav so you dont want to fly formations over your capital city in those conditions… Thou storms do fall in the same category of unwanted events…

Posted by: Lurker | May 9 2022 11:42 utc | 203

Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | May 9 2022 10:48 utc | 190
I think you misunderstand what I was trying to say. The neocolonialists or internationalists do not wish to occupy territory or even to invade or indulge in large scale military activity but by proxy wars and regime change will alter society and rentier capitalism ideology becomes acceptable under their influence. After all Russia is halfway there. Many who are socialists are taking the side of Russia in its current form which is full of rampant oligarchy and exploitatitive capitalism. And irony of ironies, the west first turned on their own capitalist class first to apply sanctions on them hoping that they will then be able to put insider pressure.

Posted by: Orage | May 9 2022 12:19 utc | 205

Posted by: Andrew Celestina | May 9 2022 11:40 utc | 198
Thank you for posting Putin’s speech. I love the emphasis on history to explain today’s situation. In contrast the typical Westerner hardly remembers what he vigorously spewed hatred for yesterday, and his future vision certainly doesn’t go further than the next quarterly financial report.

Posted by: Sarmat | May 9 2022 12:35 utc | 207

Posted by: Andrew Celestina | May 9 2022 11:40 utc | 198
“This is where the power of Russia lies, a great invincible power of our united multi-ethnic nation.
Glory to our heroic Armed Forces!
For Russia! For Victory!
Hooray!”
”
Wish I lived in a country whose leader could give such an intelligent, impassioned, patriotic, moral and rousing speech.
Such things are rare in world history. In an Empire of Lies they are impossible.

Posted by: Scorpion | May 9 2022 12:52 utc | 209

John Goss | May 9 2022 8:08 utc | 168
Zakharova mentioned the subject but neither confirmed or denied. Kadyrov in his telegram channel said they had delivered a big fish to Putin and there were four more big fish of the shark variety. I copied and pasted the machine translation from his telegram channel to a comment thread here around March 4. That has now been wiped from his telegram account but still many references to it on twitter.
After the last lot of civilians/hostages were evacuated Zelensky stated that all civilians were out of the steelworks which struck me as odd.
My guess is the other big fish are either out of the steelworks or dead. Possibly they gave themselves up, but it is also possible they were used as bargaining chips to get the hostages out. Four big fish exchanged for the lives of the 250 or so civilians that were in the bunkers at the steelworks?

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 9 2022 13:08 utc | 211

May 9 Victory Day celebrations in Kherson and Melitopol (videos). Finally people can freely celebrate the victory of their fathers and grandfathers over Nazism, as they used to do from 1945 up until a few years ago, when Ukrainian authorities started gradually morphing the May 9 Victory Day into May 8 “Remembrance and Reconciliation” Day and Ukrainian nationalists started assaulting Red Army veterans during the celebrations.

Posted by: S | May 9 2022 13:11 utc | 213

@208
‘What I meant was that the old style capitalism that Marx described and asked workers to unite and fight against was that of the capitalist owning the means of production and exploiting labour to extract added value and convert that to vast profits. ‘
One of the reason that Michael Hudson is one of the few Marxist economists still talking sense is that he has read more than Volume One of Capital. If you go ahead to Volume 3, Marx talks about financialization etc, and what he says is much more of relevance to today’s world.
CF here
https://michael-hudson.com/2021/07/finance-capitalism-versus-industrial-capitalism-the-rentier-resurgence-and-takeover/
This is why some people talk about our current socio-economic set up as really being a form of neo-feudalism instead of capitalism ‘proper’, where the mass of people are really serfs, controlled and constrained by debt bondage, while oligarchs at the top, who have made their money fro usury, debt, speculation etc. are really feudal overlords, like kings and landowners in the 12th century, who don’t make anything but simply extract money from pre-existing entities (land, the stock market).

Posted by: Hidari | May 9 2022 13:22 utc | 215

Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | May 9 2022 2:54 utc | 134
You can’t separate geopolitics from economics. It simply doesn’t work that way, especially now. Europe’s economy (the EU) is dominated by German industry running a trade surplus which puts many other European countries at economic disadvantage. But German industry is based heavily on cheap Russian gas. The companies (all fully international) can move but that doesn’t help German workers and all the economic activity that they generate.
I’m certainly not suggesting that europe falls into an abyss it cannot be extricated from. But I question what the US can provide Europe. We buy our stuff from China. Also, the EU was originally an economic union turned political. It’s highly unlikely that the political survives economic turmoil. Already the EU is suggesting that consensus will be thrown away for majority because a few nations refuse to get on board with banning Russian hydrocarbons. Nations leaving the EU is a distinct possibility and that is a geopolitical problem for the US.
While it is clear that the geopolitical goal of the US was to split Europe (especially Germany) from Russia, it is not at all clear that things are going according to plan. I maintain that the plan was to secure the gas fields in the Donbas for fracking and supplying europe with non-Russian gas. It’s the only explanation I’ve found that makes sense given that every oil/gas producing power says that Russian supplies cannot be replaced with existing production.
But even in that plan, forcing Russia and China together has been recognized by US foreign policy as disastrous since at least the end of WWII. Splitting them was a primary goal of US foreign policy for decades. Then it wasn’t economic so much as military geopolitical. Now it is both. This would all be different if the US was still an industrial powerhouse, but it isn’t. It’s a declining power with a financialized economy that’s brittle.
If Ukraine took the Donbas and Russia could be destabilized to the point of collapse/regime change and if a new regime was super western friendly, then the plan of splitting Europe from Russia works. But that’s a plan based on best case scenarios that has already failed and it currently looks like any hope of a turnaround is fading very fast. The Russian economy was supposed to be collapsed already.
That europe could have been the prize doesn’t mean that is now. Nor does it mean that “Europe” will survive in its present form over the medium term. The article’s author is using a lot of unexplained assumptions and so are you. But once the assumptions break down into unpredictable variables, the analysis from them fails as a predictive model.

Posted by: Lex | May 9 2022 13:29 utc | 217

I have read the G7 Statement today after their meeting yesterday. They accuse Russia of “breaching the international rules based order”. I didn’t think we had an international rules based order rather, that the UN is founded on International Law not rules. This is the speak of the NWO which, as far as I can tell, is not yet in place and Russia and China have given it one massive punch in the face. The other thing the Leaders at the G7 stated it was ‘an honour’ to have Zelensky there. So, they are honouring a liar, a thief, a tin pot nazi dictator and a totally incompetent fool. Shame on them. Mind you, with BoJo there, he’s in the same league as Zelensky – 2 clowns but dangerous ones. BTW I thought Putin’s speech today was simple, great, relevant and true. I watched the March of the Immortal Regiment and was moved to tears. Go Russia, Go!!

Posted by: Jo Dominich | May 9 2022 13:41 utc | 219

Natalia Usmanova was interviewed almost 2 minutes by a journalist where Reuters only showed 1min including a framing that Russia caused damage and agony and that she is so terrified.
When you listen to everything she said, she calls out the Asov as the bad guys.
A very good example on how western media is manipulating the facts supporting a certain narrative.
Posted by: Rasta @184
—————————-
This is nothing new here. It’s the Western MSM’s tradition: “manufacturing narratives“.
Check the full video of “iconic” Tiananmen Tank Man, which shows the tanks were actually leaving Tiananmen, trying to avoid the Tank Man and the Tank Man acutally climb onto the top of the tank .
Also check out:
– non-existing “Tiananmen Massacre” confirmed by the cables from American Embassy in Beijing ;
– Black info and media gullibility: creation of the Tiananmen myth;
– CBS finally admits “There Was No Tiananmen Square Massacre”
Yet, New York Times’ journalist Nicolas Kristof won the most prestigious Pulitz award for his reporting about Tiananmen Square Massacre. The gullible Westerners still hold memoerials for this non-existing massacre year after year.
This tells you how powerful and influencial Western MSM is in terms of manufacturing narratives to brainwash its audience.

Posted by: lulu | May 9 2022 13:43 utc | 221

@ Andrew Celestina | May 9 2022 11:40 utc | 198
Warms thanks for contributing the transcript of Putin’s speech.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 9 2022 13:53 utc | 223

https://mobile.twitter.com/OSINT88/status/1523403272517976064?t=Zy8syOL2CEZ83OPt22s1Gw&s=09
Four hours ago got out of bed and saw this information posted in three different feeds. The version above is as close to an origin as I can find. If this was real would expect it to be everywhere.
Suspect that is a real document that does not mean what someone claims it means.
Tired of information operations.

Posted by: Oldhippie | May 9 2022 14:03 utc | 225

Posted by: librul | May 9 2022 13:58 utc | 220
the republican establishment is every bit as much pro nazi as the democrat establishment. the uniparty.

Posted by: pretzelattack | May 9 2022 14:12 utc | 227

Posted by: Jo Dominich | May 9 2022 13:41 utc | 215
“I have read the G7 Statement today after their meeting yesterday. They accuse Russia of “breaching the international rules based order”.
”
If the G7 sez Russia broke the rools, then she did cuz them’s the rools wot the G7 sez!

Posted by: Scorpion | May 9 2022 14:14 utc | 229

Why US Strategy Will Fail
bevin | May 8 2022 19:03 utc | 52 introduced the following:

the US has decided on a long term bloc strategy which will have two key features, apart from guaranteeing a permanent arms economy to hobble Eurasia’s plan to escape poverty by investing in peaceful pursuits and social infrastructure.
The first is the ‘weakening’ of Russia
The second is to tie up Europe

This is a re-run of Kennan’s 1947 foreign policy containment strategy.
In 1947 this strategy worked as:
1) US benefited from seizure of German intellectual property
— also UK technical advances (Radar, cryptography, early computer tech, operations research, wizard war)
2) Rest of world productive capacity destroyed
— US gained global markets
— US FDI to supplement US production (notably Canada, later ROW)
— Assisted by Marshall Plan transfers (Give them money to buy our exports)
3) US GI bill resulted in vast improvement in human capital
— Assisted by high calibre educated immigrant inflows fleeing the devastation in Europe.
4) US control of International organizations World Bank, IMF, UN, etc.
5) War delivered Fossil Fuel (FF) mechanization. US greatest global FF producer
and therefore best able to benefit from this in form of highway system, supply chain transport, the “vacation,” the motel, fast food, the shopping mall, and suburban development.
6) Baby boom resulted in massive investment in social infrastructure: schools, hospitals, bridges, roadways, etc. Increase in internal labour market demand.
7) Cultural hegemony (coca cola, later McDonalds et al) rock and roll, literature, and art leadership. The US was an attractive leading edge society and offered expanding opportunity to its domestic population and to immigrants. A rising tide which lifted all boats.
8) Creation of the “enemy” and the offer of a US nuclear shield. I suggest this only came about because of the foregoing. PAX Americana did not create the modern world. WWII gave birth to “modernity,” the US was the leading beneficiary, and PAX Americana was an outcome, not a cause.
Today
1) Technical advances more evenly distributed. Norway makes an advanced naval strike missile. Turkey produces advanced drones. Russia and China lead in hypersonics, China leads in AI, communications, high speed rail, EV production, space exploration.
2) Demand shifting to Global South which offers cheap labour and an increasing middle class market. US market is bi-polar with enormous concentration of wealth in top 10% and an eroding middle class. Chinese FDI displacing US.
3) US human capital edge displaced by wokism, poor quality public school system, conformist mediocrity vs meritocracy, focus on job skills in place of how to think. US still attracting high quality immigrants but this may change as US global leadership is increasingly called into question. Bulk of immigration is of low calibre likely to be displaced by AI automation.
4) No change as of yet. But a key concern of RF, China and the Global South going forward. A multi-polar world will demand multi-polar institutions.
5) Need to move away from FF mechanized supply chains to electrification and low emissions supply chains. A complex and rapidly evolving area of debate but includes such things as China’s development of pedestrian centred cities linked by high speed levitated rail.
6) US massive immigration intended to compensate for low replacement rate. Immigrant communities have higher birth rates and will form majority population within 18 years or so. This immigration issue, and “wokism” constitute a significant source of social conflict undermining US “melting pot” cultural homogenization. China is centred on Han culture and RF on slavic culture. Global South experiencing the greatest population growth rate and an increasing middle class leading to greater economic opportunity for all as the economic tide goes out in the US.
7) Cultural hegemony in decline. China produces blockbuster movies celebrating its “victory” in the Chosin Reservoir battle. RF will likely deliver a movie on the liberation of Donbass. India is developing its own cultural industry. This trend likely to accelerate and is abetted by the ubiquity of low cost computing and necessary software coupled with Internet distribution channels. Current US cultural hegemony is depended on MSM censorship and cancel culture and is deemed extremely fragile for this reason. Once the public gets to see “behind the curtain” you cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube and social unrest erupts.
8) I argue the US is attempting a return of Kennan’s 1947 containment strategy but this attempt will fail as the necessary precursor elements are either not present, or are in decline in the US.
22-2-22 and the SPO will likely go down in history as a major turning point in global history equivalent to 1066, 1789, or 1776. This is dependent on the world surviving to afford us the longue durée. Our surviving the contemporary period is not assured. As for music this is what the future sounds like:
https://youtu.be/b97hqSDRspw
One picture is worth 1,000 songs

Posted by: Sushi | May 9 2022 14:20 utc | 231

@ Roger # 92
That was a solid assumption back when the US was a huge 300+m industrial country with no other country being able to compete following the breakup of the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact and the bottom falling out in any case from the Russian Federation successor state with no evidence to date that it can recover.
But 20 years after shipping off the industrial base to China now the US has to face a country that is rapidly becoming a peer competitor with a greater population and soon GDP and an authoritarian government with clear goals that can keep a lid on unsustainable cost overruns like we saw run rampant in the US after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Posted by: Altai | May 9 2022 14:33 utc | 233

Sushi I believe that we a getting somewhere. I suspect that b recommended Streeck not as an endorsement of all he wrote but as being provocative and insightful. I agree with the assessment. I also drew attention to Streecks recent articles in the EU and the death of democracy in Europe.
See 216 above to oldhippie and Juliana.
The underlying reality is that the US is a maritime power, with coastal interests wherever the sea leads it whilst China, Russia, Iran are land powers with interior lines. The sort of thing that Mackinder noted.
I suppose this means that Russia must take the Black Sea coast back in the current campaign.
A problem that we haven’t discussed here is the dilemma facing the US: it is all very well to keep the war going to ‘weaken’ Russia, but it could equally well lead to Russia’s strengthening. The longer the war goes on the more likely is Russia to keep going west. Had the Ukrainians made peace last week they would very likely have kept Odessa. Had they made peace in February they could have kept-under the not very onerous Minsk conditions, the entire east.
If peace isn’t made until June Kiev could come into play.
The US is acting irresponsibly, keeping the war going really does not benefit it at all. It makes the gutter press happy by providing lurid copy. And it keeps the Merchants of Death content as PAC coffer filing time comes up again. But, as in roulette, doubling down means increasing the extent of potential losses.
Have they fallen into a Russian trap?
Excellent music , thanks.

Posted by: bevin | May 9 2022 14:39 utc | 235

Posted by: oldhippie | May 8 2022 20:46 utc | 71
I’d say the cultural significance of Lvov goes with Cracow and Prague as major cities in 19 century Austro Hungarian empire. Note the none of the 3 had been destroyed during WWII. Somehow the Soviets and the Germans reached and agreement. Warsaw and Berlin had been completely destroyed

Posted by: RJB | May 9 2022 14:43 utc | 237

Nazi missile shotdown heading for civilian area in Lugansk today.
“Air defense forces of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) shot down a Ukrainian Tochka-U missile that targeted a residential area in the settlement of Novaya Astrakhan, the LPR people’s militia reported on Monday.
“On the day of celebrating the Great Victory, the Ukrainian Neo-Nazi forces bombarded a residential area in the community of Novaya Astrakhan, firing a 9M79-1 Tochka-U ballistic missile,” the LPR people’s militia said on its Telegram channel.
The emergency warning system helped avoid casualties among civilians, the LPR people’s militia said.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | May 9 2022 14:47 utc | 239

From Streek again, the beginning of the oft-discussed passage on this thread:
“Ukrainian politics apart, an American proxy war for Ukraine may force Russia into a close relationship of dependence on Beijing, securing China a captive Eurasian ally and giving it assured access to Russian resources, at bargain prices as the West would no longer compete for them.”
This author is about 10 years out of date. The Russia-China alliance is way beyond his ken – as seems to be the case with most Western policy-makers albeit perhaps that is just what is presented on the public consumption level.
Also, the word ‘America’ is almost meaningless now, the difference between the desires of the people and the actions of their ruling class being now extreme. It is quite likely that America is about to go into profound internal chaos soon. His article treats ‘America’ as if it is a dependable, well-understood entity with dependable, easily understood policies. (Not!)
Incidentally, the same US power networks pushing this war seem to be in cahoots (in the “Biden” administration) with the same ones bringing the country to its knees ASAP. For why?
We wonders, aye, we wonders…

Posted by: Scorpion | May 9 2022 14:54 utc | 241

Seeing the multiple comments about Lviv and Poland I’ll share an interesting “discovery” I made while reading about WW I. The official reason why Poland lost Lviv is given as being because of a neurotic Zionist British Foreign Office diplomat named Sir Lewis Namier, who single handed redrew the Curzon Line before giving it to the Soviets. Original being called version “A” which included Lviv and the changed version “B” where it would be in the Soviet area.
What’s particularly interesting about this British diplomat is that he was not British. He was born in Poland and his original name at birth was Lewis Bernstein. More details about this very interesting history can be found here,
https://tinyurl.com/3c8tzruy
This historical figure has much in common with what Lavrov recently said as well as the following article’s hero Bernays, with whom he has much in common.
See on ZH today’s article,

The Psychology Of Manipulation: 6 Lessons From The Master Of Propaganda
According to Bernays, those doing the “governing” constitute an invisible ruling class that “understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses”.
MON MAY 9, AT 5:20 AM

I love how this “theme” repeats itself over and over and over when big screen historical events are discussed.
*******
Let the old bones stay buried and not give them the power to hurt the present living
Posted by: hk | May 8 2022 19:32 utc | 58
Tell that to the North American Indians.
If I was an Indian watching any of the John Ford’s westerns with the imagery of the West, I’d be reminding myself immediately that all that I see was stolen from me and not “Oh, well. Easy come easy go.” No matter the amount of time, the land is theirs because that land was STOLEN. Not sold, not given, not traded ….. STOLEN.
******
Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 9 2022 2:23 utc | 129
Poland is a captured State, much like Ukraine today. More similarity than meets the eye. There is no geopolitical decision that they make that is not cleared first by their Western Masters. To think otherwise I think is wishful thinking.

Posted by: Tom_12 | May 9 2022 14:57 utc | 243

His name at birth was Ludwik Bernstein Niemirowski

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 9 2022 15:03 utc | 245

“That the Polish society do not react to this outrage, after having suffered the genocide by these same criminals´ancestors who now run amok in Europe…”
If you are referring to the physical attack on the Russian Ambassador it reveals P{Poland as unfit to host any embassy whatsoever. It is a legal requirement of the host country to protect the Embassy and staff of foreign representatives. If Poland cannot do this it should state so and warm all foreigners they are not safe in Poland or its capital.
It was a basket case country before 1939 and seems to have reverted to type in recent years. It is frankly giving the appearance of being a country in steep decline and will certainly go into economic reverse with such incidents. Hardly likely China will invest there and with von der Leyen gagging to run up more debts and pay for golden lavatories for Zelensky it is clear Poland will no longer be recipient of EU funds as it has been.

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 9 2022 15:09 utc | 247

Posted by: Tom_12 | May 9 2022 14:57 utc | 239
You may find this interesting………
http://web.archive.org/web/20151222102914/http://journals.indexcopernicus.com/fulltxt.php?ICID=1127276

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 9 2022 15:20 utc | 249

Putin’s Victory Day Address
Posted by: Andrew Celestina | May 9 2022 11:40 utc | 198
Thank you, Andrew.

Posted by: juliania | May 9 2022 15:31 utc | 251

Thanks to Andrew Celestina @198 for posting Putin’s speech transcript. I’m reposting the core of Putin’s speech, the part that few in the West will be allowed to read or hear:

We are proud of the unconquered, valiant generation of victors, that we are their heirs, and it is our duty to preserve the memory of those who crushed Nazism, who bequeathed us to be vigilant and do everything to ensure that the horror of the global war does not happen again.
And therefore, despite all the disagreements in international relations, Russia has always advocated the creation of a system of equal and indivisible security, a system that is vital for the entire world community.
Last December, we proposed to conclude an agreement on security assurances. Russia called on the West to engage in an honest dialogue, to search for reasonable, compromise solutions, and to take into account each other’s interests. All in vain. Nato countries did not want to hear us, which means that in fact they had completely different plans. And we’ve seen that.
Preparations were openly underway for another punitive operation in the Donbas, for the invasion of our historical lands, including Crimea. Kiev announced the possible acquisition of nuclear weapons. NATO has begun active military development of the adjacent territories.
Thus, a threat was systematically created that was absolutely unacceptable for us, and right at our borders. Everything said that a clash with neo-Nazis, Banderaites, on whom the United States and its junior companions bet, would be inevitable.
Let me repeat that we have seen how the military infrastructure is unfolding, how hundreds of foreign advisers have begun to work, and there have been regular deliveries of the most modern weapons from NATO countries. The danger grew by the day.
Russia gave a preemptive rebuff to the aggression. It was a forced, timely and the only correct decision. The decision of a sovereign, strong, independent country.
The United States of America, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, began to talk about its exclusivity, thereby humiliating not only the whole world, but also its satellites, who have to pretend that they do not notice anything, and dutifully swallow all this.
But we are a different country. Russia has a different character. We will never give up love for the Motherland, from faith and traditional values, from the customs of our ancestors, from respect for all peoples and cultures.
And in the West, these thousand-year-old values, apparently, decided to cancel. Such moral degradation became the basis for cynical falsifications of the history of World War II, incitement of Russophobia, glorification of traitors, mockery of the memory of their victims, crossing out the courage of those who obtained and suffered the Victory. [My Emphasis}

After his speech and the parade, Putin met with the father of the Hero of Russia Vladimir Zhoga and presented Artem Vladimirovich Zhoga with the star of the Hero of Russia, which was posthumously awarded to his son, Vladimir Zhoga, the commander of the Sparta battalion who died in Donbass.
Putin then took part in the Immortal Battalion March, of which there’s video here. The official Kremlin video of the Victory Parade is atop the page with Putin’s speech below. Video of Putin laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is here.
Happy Victory Day to all barflies!!

Posted by: karlof1 | May 9 2022 15:36 utc | 253

“…a neurotic Zionist British Foreign Office diplomat named Sir Lewis Namier,..”
Somewhere in here, on one of the shelves of books, is a volume of essays entitled Vanished Supremacies, I wish that I could find it but it would take a while. In which, among the memorable phrases which this master of English prose used, or in this case chose from an official report, is one featuring “Poles in Top Hats..” As I recollect it, after half a century, those Poles were visitors to the Frankfurt Diet of 1848 warning the democrats there of the danger, to property, of awakening the Ukrainian serfs from their political and national slumber.
Again my memory is not very fresh, but I believe that the saviour of those Poles and their Top Hats, not to mention property, was Tsar Nicholas and his army.
Namier was indeed neurotic, zionist and a Tory but he was also one of the most important British Historians of the C20th. And, as I said, a very elegant essayist to boot.

Posted by: bevin | May 9 2022 15:48 utc | 255

What is the reason given for no flyovers in the Victory Parade?

Posted by: Norwegian | May 9 2022 15:55 utc | 257

Norwegian | May 9 2022 15:55 utc | 253
Weather. Parts of Russia have experienced severe weather over the last few days. Very strong winds from dry storms (severe weather keeping fire fighting aircraft grounded), but flyovers look to have been canceled right across Russia.
I would guess there was some sort of terrorist threat from the usual culprits.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 9 2022 16:02 utc | 259

@Peter AU1 | May 9 2022 16:02 utc | 255

Weather

Thank you. One can speculate, but that does not seem unreasonable. I saw a clip from a parade in Norilsk with a snow blizzard https://t.me/intelslava/28379

Posted by: Norwegian | May 9 2022 16:11 utc | 261

One of the Nazi (Azov) commanders tried to escape from the Azovstal complex in a tank, he didn’t make it.
https://twitter.com/timand2037/status/1523436162836172800

Posted by: Republicofscotland | May 9 2022 16:22 utc | 263

Posted by: karlof1 | May 9 2022 15:36 utc | 249
The west lives in a political reality show of its own making, with the tinsel, clowns and courtiers that remind me of Velázquez and Goya paintings with all those runts running around for the court merriment. Yesterday was the turn of Cacofonix Bono and his side kick, today the turn is for the richest and smarter guy in the whole galaxy, can have all the money in the world Elon but Rogozin wiped his ass with your face this morning, not only compossing songs but denying you something a lot dearer than money, the right to partake in a world celebrated party, the defeat of nazism, and not only that, you got the label of collaborator by providing the neonazis with military grade communication tools. And just to bury that rich guy in the mud, out in space the Russian cosmonauts unfurled the Banner of Victory. Eat your heart out Elon, and go to the underground to drop some coins on Cacofonix and The Itch.
https://t.me/rogozin_do/2667
Picking up that link I realized that the clowns had company, oh la la son of Pierre, if your “pére” would be here to see you, Rogozin informs us that the 9th of May poster boy Justin and I’m no fascist ‘cause I’m jew Zelensky spend their time granting a medal to a dog, the pen full of lice and dogs barking at each other, or so says Rogozin.
https://t.me/rogozin_do/2676

Posted by: Paco | May 9 2022 16:31 utc | 265

Posted by: Republicofscotland | May 9 2022 16:22 utc | 263
A couple of other tweets found from your link:
@ILRUSSO1
the wife of a Ukrainian soldier in Azovstal. He said: ‘The situation is very serious and it is getting worse. There are many injured who will not be up to seeing tomorrow. My husband asked me to google how he can survive without water
@The_Real_Fly
Azov Battalion: Our forces trapped inside the Azovstal complex do not have sufficient reserves of drinking water and food.

Posted by: Sarmat | May 9 2022 16:44 utc | 267

About russophobia:
There is a constant resistance against any argument or evidence which comes from the possibility that it could lead to a more pro Russia view on this conflict.
So better to disregard it. Don’t read or watch it.
It’s psychology, and no matter of educational background.
So you are against the Empire or not.
No idea where this comes from. What makes the difference here. It’s not the partisan orientation, not intelligence or personal history.
I stopped all my arguing even with closest friends.
The political development is a question of power. Nothing about enlightenment. Revolutions are always a play of the mighty, and never result from intellect.

Posted by: njet | May 9 2022 16:56 utc | 269

By the response of the Polish Interior Minister, justifying the attack on the Russian ambassador, one would say that it was organized by himself.
https://www.rt.com/news/555196-poland-envoy-attack-response/
When in the Earth before this any official has justified an agression on grounds of a military conforntation in or with any country.
One would say that the “rules based order” changes as the wind blows, without notice…
For the same token Eastern Ukrainian refugees in Poland would have jusitified attacking any Ukrainian official at hand, of whom there are a bunch in Poland, starting with Azov Commander Biletsy and Right Sektor leader Yarosh, as rumor has…
When in the Earth an Interior Minister justifies violence in any way, all the more against acredited foreign officials?
Should we start justifiably attacking any US official because of their military interventions everywhere?
This minister should either resign or give and explanation.

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | May 9 2022 17:38 utc | 271

Posted by: Paco | May 9 2022 16:31 utc | 265
I can’t figure out who wrote that first paragraph, you or karlov1, but that is some serious, genius-level prose sallying forth there.
(It begins with: “The west lives in a political reality show of its own making….” )
Muchas Gracias!!

Posted by: Scorpion | May 9 2022 17:42 utc | 273

Karlof1 @ 253. Great post. I enjoyed the video links to the Victory Parade in Moscow. What a Statesman Putin shows he really is. I was impressed by him joining the March of the Immortal Regiment with a picture of his father. He is clearly not someone who is afraid of his own citizens and is a Hands On President. I think back to the Remembrance Day Memorials here I think it was 2 years ago (may be 3yrs) when BoJo, clearly drunk, started off too early to place his Wreath and then placed it upside down. We’ve got him and the Russian’s have Putin. How I wish there were Statesmen in this Country. Jeremy Corbyn could have been but, as he’s the best Prime Minister the UK never had, we will never know. Like Putin, Corbyn is a very serious minded politician, loves his country and had a great economic plan for its improvement. But, hey ho, we’ve got Bojo on par with Zelensky who didn’t appear to be able to muster up any Statesmanlike qualities for the Victory Day Celebrations in the Ukraine. Fancy putting up a photo to commemorate the Day of an Army Soldier wearing the Nazi Logo. The man isn’t fit for office.

Posted by: Jo Dominich | May 9 2022 18:14 utc | 275

In another thread I commented (on b’s “must read”) that most political prognostication strikes me as whimsical fairytales, imagined to occur on a previous planet, not the one we do and will inhabit. I think I can reduce the graphs I track, as a means of gaining some insight into the planet’s immediate future, down to two. One of them our fault, the other just our bad luck in the year 2022.
Our fault: The ceaseless, exponential trend of GHG accumulation in Earth’s atmosphere. Most explosively, presumably self-sustaining from not-so-permanent permafrost thaw, the chart for methane:
https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends_ch4/
Two straight years of unprecedented increase comes close to statistical confirmation of a new baseline beneath which it does not sink, because more methane makes for more methane (until all the permafrost is gone).
Bad luck: We’re riding the rise of the Sun’s mysterious 11-year sunspot cycle. More sunspots means more solar storms, showering Earth with more radiation:
https://spot.colorado.edu/%7Ekoppg/TSI/
From Greg’s TSI Page (Total Solar Irradiance) we can see this cycle last crested in 2015. Now it’s headed back up again, toward a 2026 peak. The difference Greg measures here, from roughly 1360 to 1362 Watts per square meter, is amazingly minuscule — but the climate records show that just a little dab of this solar radiation will do ya.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 9 2022 19:18 utc | 277

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | May 9 2022 17:38 utc | 271
The same people running Ukraine (Kiev) are the ones running Poland. I wouldn’t expect any civilized behavior from them. It’s just wishful thinking.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/poland-appoints-ex-banker-with-jewish-roots-as-prime-minister/
“rules based order” = “no rules”
At least it wasn’t as bad as the case in Turkey.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/9/turkey-sentence-five-people-for-life-over-russian-envoys-killing
Was that incident really just an “unfortunate” accident of sleeping on the job for the security detail ?

Posted by: Tom_12 | May 9 2022 19:32 utc | 279

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 9 2022 15:20
Here’s a valid link to your article, Paul:
https://tinyurl.com/mr2ctp8y
(Sigh. Not only do I have to do everything at home, but also keep the shop.)

Posted by: Leuk | May 9 2022 20:25 utc | 281

Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

The person who said that had a different kind of faith than my own — a faith in some kind of historical progress, for which I find no basis. Of course not. The point of faith is believing something, even though there’s no particular reason to believe it. For instance: I have a faith that truth is good for you, in the long run. But this faith of mine diametrically contradicts any available evidence.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | May 9 2022 17:40 utc | 272

Ah, but the quote is much more perceptive than the man who uttered it. After all, once that arc bends toward justice, it continues to bend back downward. Justice is just the midpoint on the arc. As we see now.

Posted by: malenkov | May 9 2022 22:27 utc | 283

I’ve only been able to skim this thread, but commenters indicate that Bono has been out being pompous again on the world stage. At such times it’s crucial to revisit John Cooper Clarke’s wonderful poem, “Bongo’s Trousers”:
Bongo’s Trousers
The quality is very bad (audience cell phone recording), but the stand-up humor is priceless.

Posted by: Grieved | May 10 2022 2:44 utc | 285

@Scorpion | May 9 2022 19:32 utc | 278

Seems to me they are determined to crash the country as soon as they can without being blamed.

That thought occurred to me way back in March of 2020 and I’ve believed it ever since.

Posted by: majoab | May 10 2022 6:26 utc | 287

Posted by: Enigma | May 8 2022 14:36 utc | 3
> “Just wondering, it seems Ukraine has limitless supply of fighter jets and helicopters. How come they keep flying these crafts knowing they will be shot down?”
As Ukraine had to know of the likely scenario that Russia would come hard at their airports before or after any escalation in the Donbas, with help of NATO, they prepared for a decentralized air force, hidden in various locations (maybe even around or over the border) and flying solo missions mostly, ah hoc support and not in any formation or other forms of organized air operation.
This is not just a theory, there have been some witnesses and interview with relevant personnel, kind of bragging about it really. But it’s really a handicapped air force, flying short and low altitude missions. The amount of linked NATO/US radar and satellite systems in combination with the remaining SAM installations do prevent complete domination of the skies over Ukraine. This only will change when all systems are tracked and taken out, one by one. After that, the conflict ends.

Posted by: John Dowser | May 10 2022 10:00 utc | 289

It is not possible to argue that those things have been good for the planet where we live and evolved nor for the creatures with whom we share the Earth. And that fact is catching up with us now, making it apparent that all that “progress” was not good for us in the long run.
Posted by: Henry Moon Pie | May 10 2022 6:41 utc | 288
I think the problem is a lot of the “progress” turned out to be cheap plastic crap intended mainly to make a quick profit, and deceptive services that are intended to extract rent, and lots and lots of waste also intended to make quick profits.
I think the main effect is we are making the planet unsuitable for creatures like we are. We have no respect or gratitude. Instead of working with and enhancing, we consume and degrade. Stupid.
How many generations of crap do we have in our storage lockers?
Creatures that crap up their own nests cannot stay anywhere long.
Anyway, thank you for your comment.

Posted by: Bemildred | May 10 2022 11:46 utc | 291

Bemildred @291 re Henry Moon Pie @288

I think the problem is a lot of the “progress” turned out to be cheap plastic crap intended mainly to make a quick profit, and deceptive services that are intended to extract rent, and lots and lots of waste also intended to make quick profits.

I quite agree. One key example is manufacturing a new car, washing machine or refrigerator. Which bright spark decided that its component parts should cross an international border 3-5-10-15 times (and probably back again) as each far-away place adds just the tiniest bit of value?
They complain about problems with the supply chain but have they never heard of warehousing?

Posted by: echelon | May 10 2022 14:14 utc | 293

Good interview with Mearsheimer on CGTN (from mid-April):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74iAMskV68Y

Posted by: farm ecologist | May 10 2022 15:49 utc | 295