IronForge | May 20 2022 5:44 utc | 201
I guess you have a workshop with an anvil and a yank flag pasted to the wall. I like looking at blacksmithing stuff – Asian ones are the best – very down to earth stuff. Very few of the yank blacksmith videos are much good. Need to go back to earlier historical footage for that.
America stuff is more aligned to dunking their cock in the fire then beating it flat on the anvil.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 20 2022 5:57 utc | 204

bobzibub | May 20 2022 4:33 utc | 196
“Are you saying it is a perverse incentives issue? I think analogous to what you say is the idea of the USD and the US expanding their money supply to unheard of levels. Like much of the world, the EU’s largest trading partner was China and so eventually the USD will lose its primacy as a medium of exchange to Remeni. When those dollars are repatriated things get expensive and Americans will be very unhappy.”
The US is forced by its imminently catastrophic economic position to keep expanding the money supply in order to prop up the entire finance structure, as it’s been doing with multiple rounds of QE since 2009. Thus it also has to take ever more extreme measures to sustain the position of the dollar as reserve currency, since inducing/forcing the world to hoard and use dollars is itself a form of imperialism as well as the only thing staving off disastrous domestic inflation. All this too is irrational. (The rational alternative would be to roll back the world empire and scale down the idiotic luxuries in order to live within our means. This also would be physically, ecologically, culturally and spiritually beneficial. But this would require relinquishing psychotic mindsets among both elites and the masses, and therefore cannot happen.)
It seems that while the massive campaign of war propaganda and materially feeding the war are toward this power goal, the empire has driven the sanctions weapon to such an irrational, even stupid extreme that it’s blowing back and quickly eroding the dollar’s position.
Considering that, and the whole debate in this thread over Ritter’s reappraisal, the idea that the empire can keep feeding weapons and mercenaries into the Ukraine in order to bleed the Russians, along with the idea that Russia’s slow-going action is actually a master strategy to bleed the West economically and in terms of military hardware, we have the picture of both sides trying to out-Verdun the other, a mutual forced attrition with each side expecting to outlast the other unto the other’s collapse. This is supposed to be the alternative to nuclear war.

Posted by: Flying Dutchman | May 20 2022 6:08 utc | 206

Posted by: IronForge | May 20 2022 5:44 utc | 201
A most interesting misleading deposition of misinformation regarding this data supplied on one person called Scott Ritter.
May one ask, who supplied this misinformed fiction not real facts from the real world?
Do you understand why deliberate entrapment is classified as very illegal. Any appeal to a higher court in many countries will automatically vacate any lower court decision based on deliberate entrapment……………
Remember for any type of net porn. The Police force can only employ legal aged loli’s. If they use the real under age ‘Loli’ . It is straight to jail they must go…………….
A true skeptic will “Question More”. If you go with the flow. You will leap of the cliff like a lemming.
Choices????????????
Question? Do you understand the concept of “Occam’s Razor”.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | May 20 2022 6:44 utc | 208

Posted by: Scorpion | May 20 2022 3:07 utc | 175
Innovations and advancement in golomodorism:
In XX century, ukies slaughtered their own cattle to shit on soviet economy, during a famine.
In XXI century, ukies slaughter their own population to shit on russian economy, during a plague.

Posted by: Arganthonios | May 20 2022 7:22 utc | 210

and Gruff
Not Z???
I am dying here
I am going to cartoon that

Posted by: ld | May 20 2022 7:28 utc | 212

Scott Ritter’s is an experienced analyst that offers a view of the war from his perspective as do others. Would the esteemed cabal here prefer him to lie so that his view is nicely tailored to theirs? What makes them right and him wrong?
All views are of interest when explained as to how they were derived. Agree with a previous poster, this naming all who disagree with the cabal as concern trolls is absurd. If you have a point then justify it, rather than going down the woke cancel road.

Posted by: Organic | May 20 2022 8:31 utc | 214

Posted by: the pessimist | May 19 2022 15:59 utc | 44
and others to the question where the „Cauldrons“ are?
Thanks for that very interesting youtube channel link to „military summary“.
My impression is that Russia moves forward slowly and is accepting that it is not able to block all this western support. Until now I haven’t seen one of these 777 destroyed. This to Martyanow, who claims that Russia sees everything in real-time.
They obviously do not.

Posted by: njet | May 20 2022 9:25 utc | 216

You are suggesting he could be coerced regarding information which apparently is public knowledge. Intel Slava is unknown individuals posting random haphazard videos from cell phones.
Posted by: jared | May 20 2022 0:54 utc | 154

No it’s not! Intel Slava Z is mostly ‘official’ video footage mixed in with stuff from a range of sources inc. Ukrainian

Posted by: Barofsky | May 20 2022 9:42 utc | 218

Not sure why the hubbub over Ritter. How did his view even change? It looks to me like he was wrong on his initial analysis and now is blaming Russia for not waging war in the manner he thought optimal. He still says Russia is winning, inflicting serious losses in the East. I am of the opinion that the East and parts of the south is all Russia has ever been interested in and their strategy has reflected that.

Posted by: Haassaan | May 20 2022 9:49 utc | 220

The US Senate approves the whopping $40 billion dollars to Ukraine by a big margin.
The US Senate has approved more than $40 billion in new “aid” for Ukraine, which has been the site of a Russian military operation since February.
The legislative body gave its blessing to the monumental package on Thursday, with 86 votes in favor and 11 against, the Bloomberg news agency reported.
“The message this sends is that the United States is committed, that we are going to stand with any country that is a democracy when there is an autocracy that attempts to overrun it,” Idaho Republican Jim Risch alleged.
This comes after objections by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul had delayed passage of the bill for an entire week.
“If Congress really believed giving Ukraine $40 bn was in our national interest, they could easily pay for it by taxing every income taxpayer $500,” Paul tweeted on Thursday.
The bill cleared the House of Representatives last week on a 368 to 57 vote.
The package, which is significantly larger than the $33 billion that Joe Biden had requested for Ukraine last month, now only awaits the president’s signature.
Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had authorized $100 million in additional US arms, equipment, and supplies for Ukraine.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | May 20 2022 9:58 utc | 222

“Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin has dismissed the possibility of deploying nuclear weapons or establishment of NATO military bases on her country’s soil, saying the alliance itself has not expressed any interest in placing nuclear weapons or permanent bases in Finland.”
I’m under the impression that Nato rules state that if need be, you must allow nuclear weapons into your country if you are a member state. Afterall effectively Nato is a nuclear alliance at heart.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | May 20 2022 10:05 utc | 224

@ #221
It’s just fake talk. Surely there will be nato bases, what’s the reason of joining nato anyway? Probably not nukes, since Russia can put nukes in Kaliningrad and on all borders.
But Finland is next Ukraine, in 1-2-3 years max. Bojo can’t wait to put some bases there too.
Shoigu, a person I think to be very weak in military field, said today that 12 military units will be formed in the Western Military District this year because of Finland/Sweden/nato.
I bet anything you want that Finland/Sweden will scream “danger!!! Russia put troops near our borders!!! nato, save us!!!” and the next step is only war.
By 2025 Finland will be called Finlandistan

Posted by: rk | May 20 2022 10:18 utc | 226

The message this sends is that the United States is committed, that we are going to stand with any country that is a democracy when there is an autocracy that attempts to overrun it,” Idaho Republican Jim Risch alleged.
Posted by: Republicofscotland | May 20 2022 9:58 utc | 219
Autocracy: a polity ruled by its own power alone.
By etymological components, the opposite of “autocracy” would be “heterocracy” – a polity governed by a different power alone.
Parallel with “autonomous” vs. “heteronomous” – self-governed and self-acting vs. governed and directed from the outside.

Posted by: Arganthonios | May 20 2022 10:23 utc | 228

@222
Azov today.Nice pun 🙂 Mind if I steal it?

Posted by: Tim | May 20 2022 10:39 utc | 230

Stonebird | May 20 2022 10:31 utc | 226
“Sorry for the OT, or is it just more of the same?”
More of the same all right. The US prepares biological warfare in Georgia, the Ukraine and elsewhere, launched bioattacks in China and Iran expanding to all of humanity, now in plain sight is preparing its next global bioattack.

Posted by: Flying Dutchman | May 20 2022 10:41 utc | 232

Credits to William Gruff in this thread
2022.05.20 Dad Joke

Posted by: Norwegian | May 20 2022 10:46 utc | 234

Haassaan #217

I am of the opinion that the East and parts of the south is all Russia has ever been interested in and their strategy has reflected that.

I believe Russia is interested in much more that just its struggle with resurgent nazism in Ukraine. It is primarily interested in putting an agreement together around its treaty proposal of December. They proposed a treaty with NATO and the USA. Neither of them took it seriously and so, as promised, Russia is now demonstrating the military and technical reasons why such a treaty will benefit all. IMO that includes the entirety of Ukraine as Russian tolerance of persistent belligerence is now zero.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 20 2022 10:56 utc | 236

@Norwegian | May 20 2022 10:04 utc | 220
Listened to Gonzalo, and basically agree: The Russians are winning in the East, and Ukraine has no chance to stop that. Also, that zoo of diverse equipment, together with untrained cannon fodder thrown into the meat grinder, may drink some blood but cannot change the outcome.
Also, he is right about the logistic problems. Even on an undamaged railway system, it usually takes a week to transport a batch of heavy load over 1200-1300km. And while he exaggerates in the sense that Ukrainian railways are not completely defunct, they certainly are highly disabled by electric substation, bridge, and rail calibrations.
I recall German railways having been hit by a storm in Winter 2007. Some of the overhead lines were damaged by falling trees, or blown away, and it took full 3 days for most lines working normally (albeit basic operation was restored within a day). But freight traffic suffered delays of almost a week. Similarly, Ukrainian railway workers and engineers keep the trains rolling somewhat. Gonzalo is exaggerating here, also when he thinks the Russians could and would track every lorry from Poland to the frontline. Even if they were able (and mind the distances and extent of the country are almost prohibitive for), it would need a lot of aircraft under risk of being shot down.
What the Russians seem to do, is causing disruption and uncertainty to the logistics of the fighting forces. Strikes on railways and bridges cause deliveries to stack up near the Polish border where parts are already calibrated. Transports are blocked on their way through the country, may be attacked, or just get stuck, so that planned arrival of supplies becomes almost an impossible task. And it does not end at the arrival points. Here too, incoming supply has to be stored before distribution, and daily MoD briefings report about attacks against these areas.
I cannot assess how much of materials, and troops, arrive at the frontlines in good shape, I am quite sure that almost nothing arrives in time. I have worked with logistics systems, in industry and railways, for quite a time, and I cannot envy those confronted with these tasks. As a matter of fact, they cannot win.
But as Zelensky’s advisor stated, as long as money is flowing in, they will not sue for peace.

Posted by: aquadraht | May 20 2022 11:03 utc | 238

@ #233
Clearly nato doesn’t care, they don’t feel any threat or pain (thank Shoigu for it). That’s why they want Finland and Sweden.
So a treaty is out of question, not before a Russian violent pre-emptive strike on the nordic puppets. Then ask nato again about a treaty. If they don’t do it now, they’ll be forced to do it much later, with thousands of nato troops there, exactly like in Ukraine.

Posted by: rk | May 20 2022 11:07 utc | 240

Latest on E. Ukraine
🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡️Several boilers for the Armed Forces of Ukraine are being created in Donbass at once.
According to “Come and See”, the Russian army has changed the tactics of military operations in the Donbass. Instead of trying to create one big cauldron for the entire 40,000-strong group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, now the enemy forces are dismembered, deprived of supplies and beaten in parts.
So, the largest boiler is being created in Lisichansk – there the catch can significantly beat the record of Azovstal. Nearly 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be surrounded. If the cauldron takes place, it will be not only a major military, but also a moral victory.

Posted by: Barofsky | May 20 2022 11:09 utc | 242

Interview with pro-Russian Ukrainian video blogger Yuri Podolyaka (In Russian) – answering questions from a youthful audience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT9ftHa3xcw&t=876s
Key points
– Eastern Ukrainians have had their culture suppressed by the ultra nationalists = in areas in under Russian control these people feel free
– Even under allegedly pro Russian president Yanukovich western Ukrainians had control of the education ministry distorting history
– The conflict is existential for Russia – as the nationalists in Ukraine and their backers with to destroy Russia
– YouTube keeps censoring Podolyaka – and his compatriot video bogger Mikhail Onufrienko but they get through, both of these guys produce videos in Russian and are well worth watching producing a couple of videos daily

Posted by: Aslangeo | May 20 2022 11:34 utc | 244

Posted by: Lex | May 20 2022 0:38 utc | 149
“If his output was written it might be different, especially as he seems a bit emotional. I’m not for him or against him, btw.”
In the last thread, I took his article Energy Intelligence and went through almost line by line, trashing almost every point he made.
Now half the people here want to give him a pass. Whatever.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | May 20 2022 11:45 utc | 246

@ njet 214
In my recollection, Tony @cyberspec1 twitted on recent destruction of a full US howitzer battery, in two phases:
– first smaller ammunition from an UAV, triggering retreat to forest land
– then, full artillery forest shelling

Posted by: Daniel | May 20 2022 11:46 utc | 248

Too many Khazar-Ashkenazi Tribals causing problems here in Murica and against RUS and Russian-Speaking Ukrainans…100
You’re not getting it, Khazar-Ashkenazi Tribals ARE Russian-Speaking Ukrainans, and another thing… so Mel Gibson and Mel Brooks walk into a gay jew bar and ask the bartender how do 2 Jews get elected president of Ukraine one after another?! bartender says start drinking and you’ll figuer it out

Posted by: GodBlessAmerica | May 20 2022 12:05 utc | 250

Greg Galloway | May 20 2022 10:21 utc | 224
The next one up is “monkeypox”. This has already been “gamed” in 2020, with several billions getting sick but “only” 270 million dead. I think it is Denmark which has already ordered 5 million vaccines. (I could be wong countrywise).
A relative of smallpox, thus a potential world killer. (Covid was also “gamed” by Gates et al before it’s release)
Sorry for the OT, or is it just more of the same?
Posted by: Stonebird | May 20 2022 10:31 utc | 226
Yes, that needs watching, it looks like we have community transmission.

Posted by: Bemildred | May 20 2022 12:14 utc | 252

Only 2 senators voted against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. This time 11 senators voted against the $40 billion boondoggle.

Posted by: Lysias | May 20 2022 12:40 utc | 254

Just as worrying is the dispersion of cases in small numbers without (yet) any known links or reasonable causes. Pre-seeding a pandemic?
Posted by: Stonebird | May 20 2022 12:40 utc | 250
Maybe. I’ve seen nothing much about where it comes from (“Africa”). There is also the mysterious hepatitis in US & Canadian east, which I have seen only a few unsupported causative factors mentioned for or inferred: lobsters and gay sex as I remember. What I notice is nobody wants to talk about them much. I haven’t been following it, I’ve just been noticing it now and then.

Posted by: Bemildred | May 20 2022 12:53 utc | 256

Hepatitis was linked to pfeeezer vaxxers. Apparently pfeeezer makes boo-boo on liver
Posted by: rk | May 20 2022 12:55 utc | 254
Up to now I like the lobsters. If it was pfeezer it would be less localized, they used pfeezer all over the place.

Posted by: Bemildred | May 20 2022 12:57 utc | 258

I have to thank PeterAU1 for his reply at 202. I had no coffee in my mouth so there was no chance of spewing on the screen. His remark about oriental blacksmithing was interesting. I used to know some knife makers in Inverness, Kalifornia who used A2. They would wait for a moonless night to heat the metal to the right temperature of 1725 degrees, shown by a cherry glow, before cooling in order to harden it.
I saw that there is a new military satellite launched by Russia yesterday and we all know where it will be parked. It could be a spy or it could be a satellite killer. The latter would be more interesting.

Posted by: Quid me vexari? | May 20 2022 13:09 utc | 260

Gonzalo, it’s not so easy.
The Empire is delivering 100s of trucks full of gasoline and diesel, the howitzers are shooting already and I have no doubt you can handle them after some days of instruction. If it’s broke you take the next.
Just think a minute what would you do if you want to support the UAF at any costs? You always find a way. If only a 1/10 of 50 b. arrives at the front it’s a lot. And it will be more.
As long as Russia does not attack the NATO-structures, avacs and central commands, its a risky game.
Martyanow says they see everything in real time.
For that they have made too many false decisions.
Russia still has advantage of air, supply and reserves. But if they want to avoid the build up of a new NATO army they must do more.
That’s what I think today. Let’s see what I will write tomorrow. :-))

Posted by: njet | May 20 2022 13:09 utc | 262

Stonebird | May 20 2022 10:31 utc | 226
“Sorry for the OT, or is it just more of the same?”
—
More of the same all right. The US prepares biological warfare in Georgia, the Ukraine and elsewhere, launched bioattacks in China and Iran expanding to all of humanity, now in plain sight is preparing its next global bioattack.
Flying Dutchman | May 20 2022 10:41 utc | 229
_____
Yes, very essentially on topic. Pepe Escobar outdoes himself with every article. Here, based on a unique intel source, he explains the elites’ panic behind Lloyd “Raytheon” Austin’s frantic ceasefire plea, which elicits a Siberian cat smirk on Soigu’s usually stony countenance. The desperate call came during Russia’s UN presentation of evidence on US bio-warfare labs in Ukraine. This is big and quintessentially ON topic.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/05/20/russia-rewrites-the-art-of-hybrid-war/

Posted by: Doug Hillman | May 20 2022 13:21 utc | 264

First time posting, been lurking since the start of the SMO! Love this place and it’s become my new go-to.
Recently on a video of Scott Ritter’s, he talked about when he tried to get the word out about Iraq not having WMDs and was told by a collegue that ”The CIA is going to fuck you in the ass.” Considering the first case was thrown out, his wife standing by him, allowed to see his children – I just think they were sending him a message. I agree with a lot of people here about how he should let a situation solidify before discussing it, no one’s perfect though.

Posted by: Minkz | May 20 2022 13:24 utc | 266

“…we have the picture of both sides trying to out-Verdun the other, a mutual forced attrition with each side expecting to outlast the other unto the other’s collapse. This is supposed to be the alternative to nuclear war.”
Posted by: Flying Dutchman | May 20 2022 6:08 utc | 204
Or we have the picture of both sides accelerating the immanent collapse of the US economy and polity, whether because both sides desire this for entirely different reasons or because there is some sort of coordination at the global elites level.

Posted by: Scorpion | May 20 2022 13:38 utc | 268

Until now I haven’t seen one of these 777 destroyed. This to Martyanow, who claims that Russia sees everything in real-time.
They obviously do not.
Posted by: njet | May 20 2022 9:25 utc | 214
Somebody here yesterday (et tu?) posted a couple of military overhead vids with crosshairs and all that sexy soldier FX stuff. Blowing up Howitzers, one whilst being towed into hiding in the woods. As a total amateur, I find looking at military videos without Hollywood music in the background and appropriate screams and barked orders discomfiting and so rarely look at such stuff. Especially since I gather some is lifted from video games! But this looked real. Some are saying these are laser hits but I don’t know if they have overhead laser capability. I think they can shoot up into space to zap satellites and up to 5 km over land before curvature of earth presumably makes a shot impossible.
Meanwhile Russell ‘Texas’ Bentley who is often on the front with the Donetsk troops (I believe he is a serving soldier therein now having citizenship there) reported that the M777’s were the only things really hurting them. A single shot can flatten a house apparently or leave a truck-sized crater in a road.
However, if they can be destroyed fairly rapidly and not many more are coming then it’s a problem that will cause additional loss of Russian lives for a short time only.
I very much doubt that the West can bring sufficient heavy weapons into that theater but they obviously have been able to bring some.
Industry-wise, they need to get rid of old inventory in order to justify new spending to Congress so the faster all this old stuff is blown up by the helpful Russians, the sooner they will have much better stuff for presumably next spring.
Meanwhile, this winter is going to go hard on Europeans esp. Germans. Will it wake the German people up to start questioning their leadership class? Unlikely. They have been bullied into submissiveness for decades now and their press is super-controlled.

Posted by: Scorpion | May 20 2022 13:50 utc | 270

from OilPrice dot com
Russia To Stop Gas Supply To Finland On Saturday Morning

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 20 2022 14:21 utc | 272

@Don Bacon #269
Finland does not want to pay using the new method. They want to pay euros in Western banks, which is not possible.
So they won’t get gas anymore. I don’t know what Putin is waiting for, he has to put the same payment method for oil and everything else.

Posted by: rk | May 20 2022 14:28 utc | 274

Things are going all Rambo-like over at Task & Purpose. Seems Bush the Lesser’s comment about Iraq, I mean Ukraine, must have hit a nerve. These military types are all so much alike. They have absolutely no problem with “the mission.” No, their issue is with leadership, failure in command and so on. They still do not grasp that everything they were ordered to do in Iraq, and did do in Iraq, all of it was based on a lie, a complete and utter falsehood. They take pride in and defend their effort regardless of how entirely wrong, mistaken and nightmarish that effort was found to be. I guess indoctrination creates permanent conditioning.
Please remember a phrase being bantered about back in the day: “Kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out.” That was the mindset of the U.S. military during that hellacious invasion. And nobody listened to Ritter then either.

Posted by: thecelticwithinme | May 20 2022 14:44 utc | 276

“This all could have been avoided, easily, if the EU masters had any consideration for their citizens. They don’t. And they are not stupid, nobody can be that stupid. The only realistic conclusion is that they are creating hardship and famine on purpose. They are.
Russia is now prepared to face off with these monsters and either defeat or destroy them. Russia’s military is prepared, and Russia’s economic, energy, and agricultural sectors are prepared. Russia has cemented its alliance with China, as well as other strategic countries, such as Iran and India, and much of Africa, South America and the Middle East. Russia is ready to fight the Third World War, whether conventional or nuclear. As I have said since 2015, “As goes Donbass, so goes the world.” It is true.
”
Excellent summary by Russell Texas Bentley at
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/05/18/us-nato-waging-war-with-russia-in-ukraine-but-russia-assured-victory-russell-bentley/

Posted by: Scorpion | May 20 2022 14:48 utc | 278

Re Ritter’s criticisms, this from Martynov:

For American person, especially the one who remembered Russia in 1990s it is sometimes inconceivable to grasp a simple fact that Russia has in many respects a real time situational awareness of not only of the whole battlefield but the whole theater. As recent VSU “counter-attack” in Zaporozhie has shown or, as today released video, Russians know exactly where those much-touted, in reality making no difference whatsoever, US M-777 howitzers are, what they are up to and Russians blow them apart (in Russian). These are just two examples out of very many of SMO being largely not only situationally but tactically aware. All this because Russia was into the game of cutting edge recon and intel much earlier than the US. Recall this? Modern Russian ISR is cutting edge and I spoke at length on the issues of such things as legacy MKRTz Legenda or newest Liana, but those two are just a few tools in the vast arsenal of Russian recon and targeting complex–NO other nation with the exception of the US has anything comparable.

Posted by: Barofsky | May 20 2022 14:52 utc | 280

The Ukraine Foreign Minister Kuleba recently returned from a whirlwind visit to other European countries, including high-level contacts with many, but apparently some Europeans are practicing “strategic ambiguity” toward Ukraine and the Ukie FM doesn’t like it. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 20 2022 15:09 utc | 282

The other night my wife and I were getting busy in bed….
She whispered in my ear “turn off the light and shove it in my arse”.
I guess I should have waited for the bulb to cool down first.

Posted by: jared | May 20 2022 15:20 utc | 284

@jared #43
Re: Dreizen and Donbas house construction.
I heard that as well but it isn’t clear to me.
In particular, explosives cause spalling in rock and brick. A rock or brick wall stops bullets great but high explosives cause pieces on the far side to get ejected at high speed. Maybe the layers of brick stop this, but then again, maybe not.
Then there’s what happens if a shell gets inside the rock/brick structure: the shrapnel ricochets probably clear the whole structure out.
I do know that the advent of gunpowder led directly to walls no longer being made out of brick…

Posted by: c1ue | May 20 2022 15:28 utc | 286

@circumspect #195
Let’s not forget Ukraine is the most corrupt nation in Europe and notable even in the big pond of the whole world…

Posted by: c1ue | May 20 2022 15:34 utc | 288

@njet #259
If only 1/10th arrive, you run out of trucks pretty quick.
Not to mention the roads get impassable.
You also tend to run short on drivers – they don’t sign up to get killed 90% of the time.
Yes, the US and EU could still get around this – but it means a full economic mobilization for war. This means the paid production of trucks, tanks, etc.
Do you see this happening? Because I don’t see any indication of that whatsoever.

Posted by: c1ue | May 20 2022 15:41 utc | 290

… the Russian people, understandably, will no longer accept rapprochement.
Posted by: Scorpion | May 20 2022 14:01 utc | 268
Complete agreement here but when I read your take it also brought to mind how things looked during the first week of SMO, when I quickly learned about the decade-long scheming of NATO+, the clown-faced puppet regime Kiev and, specifically, the inexcusable role of EU member states in fomenting the conflict.
The situation was clearly intended to damage the whole of Eurasia by making economic relations between RF and the EU next to impossible. The increasing impossibly of rapprochement you highlight is actually Mission Accomplished, as far as the RF-EU element of larger conflict is concerned.
As guarantors of Minsk II and enthusiastic contributors to pre-conflict escalation, the actions of France and Germany really take the biscuit, but, from a US perspective, all EU involvement in Ukraine was only ever about making the EU’s position untenable in the eyes of RF.
Disentanglement / disconnection of RF from the EU is geo-strategic win for the US.

Posted by: anon2020 | May 20 2022 15:51 utc | 292

@ Et Tu:
Or maybe the goal is to target one’s own populations? After all, it will be the under-40 set that will be most affected because they never got vaccinated against smallpox. Might just thin out some of the millennials among the “useless eater” population.
Not saying there’s necessarily intentionality or conspiracy involved, but one never knows these days.

Posted by: malenkov | May 20 2022 15:59 utc | 294

@ blues | May 20 2022 13:04 utc | 256 – i agree blues.. thanks for your overview here…
@ Minkz | May 20 2022 13:24 utc | 263
welcome to the posting part of moa! – i like what @ Henry Moon Pie | May 20 2022 14:22 utc | 270 more generally about all of the different sources for information we still have available to us.. cheers..

Posted by: james | May 20 2022 16:03 utc | 296

Posted by: c1ue | May 20 2022 15:45 utc | 287
You accidentally the word “immune”, or “impervious”, or “unpalatable” or some synonym. 😉

Posted by: Arganthonios | May 20 2022 16:17 utc | 298

@ 291
You seriously do not know how it works. Why would a target have the opportunity to avoid the trap? When they come for you they come for you. Particularly with electronic ‘crimes’ it is the simplest thing to fabricate any needed evidence. Prosecutors never play by the rules.
In a world of fair play your comment would make sense. This is America.

Posted by: oldhippie | May 20 2022 16:28 utc | 300