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June 29, 2022
Ukraine Open Thread 2022-99
Comments
@298
“It’s worth keeping in mind, however, that back when Snake island was first captured, it was the most optimal piece of terrain for controlling activity in the bay of Odessa. ”
The first capture was to disable the nato radar stationed there for many years. Nato moved the radar equipment just before the operation started but left a lot of Ukr soldiers alone on the island that were captured (first they were presented as dead heroes by MSM, then MSM even said it was a fake story)
Posted by: rk | Jun 30 2022 13:00 utc | 301
@ ostro
Andrei Martyanov writes books and articles, and gives his opinions in videos, using his real name. Love him or hate him, he has his name written under his thoughts. In other words, he is a public figure subject to either criticism, or endorsement. I’m not defending his opinions, I have nada military knowledge, I don’t know if what he states is correct or not, I leave that to professionals. I read him when interested just like I read MoA or everything else, just to keep informed.
You, on the other hand, are ostro, an internet handle. We don’t know your expertize, but we do know you don’t like, or hate, him. I’m giving you a chance, right now, to elevate yourself in the level of a public figure: please do give your real name, your education and experience, and what have you accomplished in your military life (he’s military, so you must be too). Then, if you have some criticism for any of his opinions, you can write a critique and publish it. Everybody, from military professionals to laymen, then will have a chance to evaluate both of you.
If you don’t do that, I would assume you’re butthurt, probably you have tried to behave like a boss at HIS blog and he has kicked your ass. Or any other reason, that you can explain, to make us understand your (pathological?) negative opinion on him.
ps: i wrote this message before reading RSH post, so I’m glad I’m not the only one
Posted by: albagen | Jun 30 2022 13:03 utc | 302
@ Skiffer | Jun 30 2022 12:37 utc | 296
Everything what you said is correct.
Just to remark that in order to efficiently protect this island, RF would have to neutralise many NATO air Intel assets flying nearby and keep on doing it. That can be done in the next phase.
Island has a value, but there is no need to bleed troops and equipment over it.
It is now lot smarter to withdraw off it for the time being.
If RF ever opts to go for Odesa, reclaiming it back is not really an obstacle.
Posted by: whirlX | Jun 30 2022 13:05 utc | 303
@ psychohistorian | Jun 30 2022 5:39 utc | 211
The DNR is organising prisoner exchanges. There are pictures on Azmilitary1 Telegram channel. I also saw a comment from a DNR official saying that 144 prisoners had been exchanged – DNR soldiers for injured Ukrainian soldiers.
Posted by: cirsium | Jun 30 2022 13:11 utc | 304
In response to rk@302,
I’ll readily believe that, but it did take some time for the Russians to show any interest in actually holding the island. As many have pointed out, there’s no good reason to actually station troops there if your only objective is to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, since it is readily assailable from the air. I still think the island’s geographic position became important after the loss of Moskva and stopped being important after the capture of the Kinburn Spit.
Posted by: Skiffer | Jun 30 2022 13:12 utc | 305
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jun 30 2022 12:58 utc | 301
I think you err !
The Cold War was a state that rested where the Allied Forces came to rest in 1945. Sure, UK traded bits of Germany with USSR zone and US turned over Thuringia to USSR having stripped it of industrial know-how……..
Fact is there was nothing else that could happen. UK was terrified – it was bankrupt and France had a very strong Communist Party which had been the backbone of the Resistance. The Red Army was simply overwhelming for UK in 1945 as an adversary. Ernest Bevin created NATO to keep US troops in Europe as protection.
There is NO new Cold War because China is an industrial power and India is not a colony. The Foreign Minister of India has an education and pedigree which shows up EVERY Western Foreign Minister as infantile and pig ignorant. A New Era has come into being.
The “leaders” are in Russia, China…..and if it wants to step up – India.
USA is a has-been with a re-tread President with 50 years Washington experience and a crew of Straussians who thought they could build One Ring To Bind Them All
Western Europe has been destroyed by Eastern Europe – it should never have expanded the empire to include the buffer zone of the Warsaw Pact which had lots of land and peasantry……..it was never going to be anything other than trouble and cheap labour to hollow out West European living standards.
Eastern Europe was how Germany competed with China – cheap labour and cheap land.
No Cold War. US would like to think it can control Europe but Europe cannot afford weapons and has demographic problems. There is no manpower – even Ukraine could not get its men to fight – they fled years ago as did those in Lithuania……….Peter Poroschenko even got his son to London to keep him away from UAF recruiters !!!
Europe is headed down the drain. Energy is one problem, the other is uncompetitive industry and bloated bureaucracy which are overpriced. EU runs on negative interest rates ……..it is zombified like Japan.
Europe has no money for weapons. Look at UK and how it wasted money on flat-tops by scrapping most of surface fleet – a Navy gets SSBNs and flat-tops but nothing else and no planes for the flat-tops.
An Army without recruits and with more horses than tanks and no ammunition – and no manufacturing capacity or chemical industry. No Royal Ordnance, no Vickers tanks, no ICI for explosives, and totally dependent upon US.
This is play-acting. Russia is the paramount military power on the European continent. It has used a small force to destroy a Ukrainian force 3-times bigger even though trained by NATO, armed by NATO, and given targeting info and Intel by NATO.
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 30 2022 13:15 utc | 306
Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 30 2022 12:00 utc | 288
You are amusing ! IF Jewish schools are using public funds (as many are in USA) to have religious schools with prayer there is NO reason for publicly-funded State schools to deny prayer because of some half-wit decision in 1962 in Steven I. ENGEL et al., Petitioners, v. William J. VITALE, Jr., et al.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…
Yet it was Jews who brought a case to ban School Prayer in Schools – yet the Constitution ensures religious freedom.
I went to a school with Christian Assembly and a Jewish Assembly. I see no reason why there should be Prayer in Congress but not in School.
Arganthonios – you would appear to belong to the A Hitler camp which removed crucifixes from schools in Bavaria and replaced them with his own favoured symbol. Then again Himmler preferred his Occult to Christianity.
The Warren Court was a menace because Earl Warren when Governor of California had all the Japanese-Americans rounded up and put in concentration camps and stole their property during WW2. As a reward he was put in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and started dismantling US society.
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 30 2022 13:25 utc | 307
Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 30 2022 12:00 utc | 288
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 30 2022 13:29 utc | 308
Posted by: albagen | Jun 30 2022 13:03 utc | 303
————————————————–
Sure, he writes lot of books. Have you read one of them, by the way? He is a guy, who suddenly left without a country (his own words) in 1991. In that year Azerbaijan became sort of independent. In that year, USSR collapsed. Martyanov was less than 20 years old then. There was no USSR naval academy in Baku, before 1991, only a higher uchilitsa (school). Those were the terrible days in that region. Chechnya next door, Armenia too. Never ending fighting in that area. Anyway, even in the Soviet times, that area, Baku and all were province. Anyway, instead of going to Mother Russia, he ran away to…the Empire of Lies…well, the Empire of Lies took in certain people…those days…
Sure, he write books, or rather he wrote books. You can too. But, who buys them? Have you ever read a review/critique of his books by a known Russian scholar?
All this “expert” does is attack known Russian people in his blog, and he does it quite subtly.
And, he doesn’t have a country to return, even if he wants. Azerbaijan won’t take him back, neither Russia.
Posted by: ostro | Jun 30 2022 13:30 utc | 309
Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 30 2022 12:00 utc | 288
“But the Separation of Church and State!” you might respond. Well, the Separation of Church and State means what the Supreme Court says it means, and within a few years the court will probably be much more sympathetic to religious freedom claims of all sorts. I’m suggesting they strike down the current secular public school regime as an unconstitutional restriction of the free exercise of religion.
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 30 2022 13:31 utc | 310
Biden’s dementia is getting dangerous (for the West). “Bomb Michigan. Damn, I meant Moscow!”
Posted by: Vragtes | Jun 30 2022 13:31 utc | 311
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 30 2022 13:32 utc | 312
@NemesisCalling | Jun 30 2022 7:24 utc | 226
If you Europeans don’t understand it with your ideal around centralized gov’ts, who cares? My country is none of your fucking business anyway.
No offence, but it is the other way around.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jun 30 2022 13:41 utc | 313
Russia says its forces have relinquished control of Snake Island in the north-western Black Sea, which has been battled over since the start of the war.
Moscow says its withdrawal is a “goodwill gesture” to facilitate grain exports – but Ukraine celebrates a victory.
UK PM Boris Johnson commits to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade.
Nato’s chief says members have agreed a significant increase in funding for the alliance, on the second day of its Madrid summit.
Jens Stoltenberg says Sweden and Finland will sign the protocol to join Nato on Tuesday, though member states will then need to ratify it.
Ukraine’s military has welcomed fresh Nato pledges but officials say shells are continuing to rain down in eastern Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin who likens himself to the Imperialist Peter The Great accuses Nato of having imperial ambitions.
Posted by: Toad Prophet | Jun 30 2022 13:50 utc | 314
Just to remark that in order to efficiently protect this island, RF would have to neutralise many NATO air Intel assets flying nearby and keep on doing it. That can be done in the next phase.
Island has a value, but there is no need to bleed troops and equipment over it.
It is now lot smarter to withdraw off it for the time being.
If RF ever opts to go for Odesa, reclaiming it back is not really an obstacle.
Probably most important, is the not so small matter regarding Russian AAA technologies and equipment.
Were the Russians insistent on keeping the island, they would have to deploy and use their AAA assets to protect the garrison, given it is basically a rock.
All the while being monitored by sophisticated NATO recon assets.
Makes more sense to let the Ukies have it, and to regularly bombard the place using long range GRAD ballistic missiles. Doing so makes keeping the place expensive, using ballistic missiles gives no electronic signatures for NATO to gather and analyze. Sort of HIMARS in reverse, with the Ukies on the receiving end.
INDY
Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Jun 30 2022 14:00 utc | 315
Unfortunately, Russian MOD never reveals Russian casualties except for the one time I recall… If the figure is low, seems it would be prudent to state the daily figure. If it is extremely high, maybe they don’t want to admit it? I’m at a loss on the truth. But MOD is not doing anyone any favors by not discussing it.
Posted by: Mike | Jun 29 2022 17:10 utc | 34
Information is power. Russian operational security has been excellent during the SMO. Why let your enemies know what losses you have incurred? It would make absolutely no sense. If Russian and allied forces have had very few personnel losses since the last report, which I believe to be the case, then they wouldn’t want the Ukrainians or NATO to find out. It is much better to let them believe their own lies. I expect the Russians to provide a very detailed report of personnel losses after the SMO is over. At least that is what I would do if it was up to me. Keep the Ukrainians and NATO guessing until it’s all over. The reason they reported the losses after the first stage of the SMO is probably because they were relatively high so the disclosure would feed the Western narrative.
Posted by: Latin Jack | Jun 30 2022 14:07 utc | 316
@ostro | Jun 30 2022 12:51 utc | 299
One can imagine how foolish are these Norwegian politicians, even the retired ones…
Stoltenberg is a severely compromised Quisling. It is not all stupidity.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jun 30 2022 14:12 utc | 317
@Richard Steven Hack | Jun 30 2022 4:56 utc | 208
So you have no direct knowledge of Wagner operating in Ukraine.
As for mercenaries being terrorists, that is my personal assessment after watching USA use them in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. USA uses mercs because they are not bound by military law and chain of command, and can be disavowed if they’re caught massacring civilians or otherwise acting illegally. USA uses them precisely to act as terrorists. I have no comparable knowledge as to how Russia uses their mercs, but I suspect it’s similar. Terrorists can be useful in a world where other countries use terrorists to advance political goals.
I just think it would be counter-productive for Russia to use mercs in Ukraine, given their aims and the nature of the battle. Russian-Ukrainians would remember being terrorized by a bunch of mercs with Nazi tattoos, if they’re being sent in by Russia to remove the other group of Nazi-tattooed freaks that were previously terrorizing them. And of course the Russian MoD has come out and denied their presence in Ukraine, they don’t normally lie about things that could be easily disproven.
Posted by: Kingsmeg | Jun 30 2022 14:13 utc | 318
So far, one of the favorite pastimes of Ukrainian officials and propagandists in recent months has been unraveling the timing and results of the Russian special operation. In the Nikolaev OVA, for example, they stated that “the enemy did not abandon the idea of capturing the south of Ukraine and the subsequent occupation of Moldova.” Despite the fact that the goals of the SMO have been spoken about more than once, the predictors of them turned out to be so-so.
In reality, everything is simple: the special operation will end when all its tasks are solved. How exactly it will look depends more on Kyiv than on Moscow. But the Kyiv regime, led by Western “friends”, is doing everything to drag out the special operation. This leads to the loss of an increasing number of people and territories by Ukraine, which, if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had everything right in his head, could have remained with Ukraine.
The situation with Moldova is similar. As long as the head of the republic, Maia Sandu, takes into account the interests of the Russian-speaking population living in the country and does not aggravate the situation with Pridnestrovie, there is no reason for concern. Otherwise, if the republic joins the anti-Russian sanctions and starts pursuing an aggressive Russo-phobic policy, Russia’s attitude may change.
At the moment, the Moldovan leadership is demonstrating relative prudence, which the Kyiv authorities should learn from.
Posted by: ostro | Jun 30 2022 14:16 utc | 319
… I still think the island’s geographic position became important after the loss of Moskva and stopped being important after the capture of the Kinburn Spit.
Posted by: Skiffer | Jun 30 2022 13:12 utc | 306
Thanks for the updates and your analysis, much appreciated.
Posted by: anon2020 | Jun 30 2022 14:18 utc | 320
Makes more sense to let the Ukies have it, and to regularly bombard the place using long range GRAD ballistic missiles. Doing so makes keeping the place expensive, using ballistic missiles gives no electronic signatures for NATO to gather and analyze. Sort of HIMARS in reverse, with the Ukies on the receiving end.
INDY
Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Jun 30 2022 14:00 utc | 316
Yes, perhaps the Ukrainians will assault it a few more times.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 30 2022 14:19 utc | 321
Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 30 2022 14:19 utc | 322
————————————————–
Russia didn’t say that they’d allow the Ukraine to occupy it, did they?
Posted by: ostro | Jun 30 2022 14:31 utc | 322
RE: Snake Island.
– Snake Island have strategic values in controlling and monitoring NATO activities in Western side and some beyond Ukrainian borders on the Western sides.
– It hold strategic values to secure Black Sea Fleet from NATO underhanded move from beyond Ukraine. Warships depending on their targets sometimes needs it to be closer to shore, Snake Island should be able to secure more near shore mission for missile warships.
The problem is the island is very visible, of little area and is too close to shore to be properly defended.
RF have VDV and Black Sea Fleet committed in SMO. They should go after Odessa with Airborne ops and shore bombardment. It’s much more logical and sane ops than Gostomel and areas around Kiev. They have bomber fleet with KH22, Kinzhal. They should use them. A little show of forces with full complement of airforce eawacs, drone recon, fighter escorts for bomber fleet flying strike mission to Odessa via Black sea should be possible.
Posted by: Lucci | Jun 30 2022 14:33 utc | 323
Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 30 2022 14:19 utc | 322
————————————————–
Russia didn’t say that they’d allow the Ukraine to occupy it, did they?
Posted by: ostro | Jun 30 2022 14:31 utc | 323
It seems rather exposed to me, I would not want to station anybody there while the environment remains hostile. Better to let the Ukrainians try to hold it. They have already wasted a lot of assets on it.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 30 2022 14:37 utc | 324
Posted by: Linda Wood | Jun 29 2022 23:08 utc | 134
The American people have no way to stop them, no means with which to pull the plug. War is a private industry with its own printing press, its own insatiable financial fueling machine, with responsibility and answerability toward no one. The United States has become a military industrial dictatorship, a war machine with no mind. Posted by: Linda Wood | Jun 29 2022 23:08 utc | 134
<=When the oligarch points to an objective, the nation state responds. Military is but one weapon in the nation state arsenal.
The NATO group of nations are controlled by global monopoly-powered corporations whose activities are transparent to national boundaries. The corporate topsides are cross linked and their Oligarchs owners are interlocked in a coordinated triangle (corporation <=> media <=> government). The armed nation states, ignore those they govern, because they are proxies in service to oligarch directed activities (treaties and use of force problem solving) as well as tax agents collecting from the pockets of the governed, sufficient revenue, to support oligarch interests.
Russia, China, Iran etc. may be the only barrier between liberty and total slavery of humanity to corporate owned monopoly power. The great reset replaced the public political system with a privately-owned digital platform and it completed the transfer of monopoly powers from the public domain (intangible assets) to greedy private hands.
90% (Ocean Tomo, Sept, 2021), of the assets on exchange-registered monopoly powered global corporate balance sheets are intangible paper-tigers (bonds, copyrights, contracts, deeds, patents, stocks and trademarks, etc. (BCCDPST)s. Monopoly powers are stuffed into copyrights, contracts, deeds, patents and trademarks and wealth is stored in contracts, stocks, bonds, and off-shore banks and derivatives.
The desire for control and possession of everything drives the Oligarch; the oligarch drives the nation state; the nation state drives the international organizations, and these organizations incite the chaos and hate we see in the world. I wonder if the laws which created the intangible assets were to be abolished, if the monopoly powers would disappear and the stored wealth and political systems would again become benefits for those who are the governed?
agree with the following:
https://www.greanvillepost.com/2021/01/25/the-usa-is-an-oligarchy/). article confirm above posted by Hermit | Jun 30 2022 10:09 utc | 257
Government now treats population as cattle – injects them, prods them, rounds them up, and disposes of them Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 30 2022 11:29 utc | 281
Posted by: snake | Jun 30 2022 14:42 utc | 325
Ah, the sh#t stirrers have returned this morning, how nice.
Re: Snake Island – the telegrammers explained it to my satisfaction. UA deployed enough of an air and sea defense upgrade, and (important!) combined with the fact that it’s right next to Romania – means UA defenses mostly don’t have to use their radar, that function is sheltered behind NATO border. Thus full time RF coverage for targeting purposes becomes too difficult. That in turn makes it less effective to take out the relatively longer range attack stuff, every time they shoot at the island.
So that’s that – as there likely won’t be anything in Odessa this year anyway (if at all – a guarantee of UA access to it is likely to eventually be a negotiated item, in my personal opinion), keeping the island would be continue to be a very costly way to bait UA planes and boats to come out into the open – that can be done some other way, and there are fewer of them for the moment too.
Posted by: ptb | Jun 30 2022 14:42 utc | 326
I wonder if [“]Russia[“] will able to capitalize from this.
Posted by: Rune Denmark | Jun 30 2022 11:43 utc | 284
By associating “Russia” with “capital” I cannot be certain if you intend to differentiate public and private (.gov-sponsored or investor-owned) enterprises from cultural artifacts express nostalgia for some historical relationship.
In fact, the past isn’t even over. There are at least two communication channels joining governmental and entrepreneural FDI in Cambodia and Russia economic development.
SCO (2001 NGO): CN, RU, IN, PK, KZ, KG, TJ, UZ, AM*, AF*, AZ*, BY*, TR*, LK*, KH*
ASEAN (1967 FTA): BN, KH, ID, LA, MY, MM, PH, SG, TH, VN
EAS (East Asia Summit): US, AU, JP, NZ; CN, RU, IN, KR, ASEAN
Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 30 2022 14:42 utc | 327
@324
That won’t be in the style of the current operation. It keeps nazis occupied there, thinking they’ll be attacked. Another +20k nazis are sitting doing nothing near Belarus. Another idiotic idea, probably from nato, that helps Russia.
The funny thing is nato doesn’t know when or what will happen next, they haven’t seen any operation like this before.
If Poland waits for the 20k Americans as protection to attack Ukr, they’ll be turned into something much worse than Afghanistan or Syria instantly. US base won’t be hit by Russia while US won’t stop missiless. Duda will be their last president :))) the fate they deserve for voting retards. All this works for all Baltic states or other puppets in the area too. Russia will then maintain war in those areas until nothing remains of them.
Posted by: rk | Jun 30 2022 14:50 utc | 328
@ Arganthonios # 288
BRAVISSIMO (again).
To privatise all schools may indeed be “best thing”. The question remains for whom. If the top earning elites want their children be brought up with top quality education, then CARE FOR THIS STANDARD IN ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS so that everybody can benefit equally. But that’s socialism, you know, which for Paul Greenwood & likes is even worse than the joooos.
Posted by: OttoE | Jun 30 2022 15:08 utc | 329
Today, Putin delivered a video address to the participants of the X St. Petersburg International Legal Forum’s Tenth Plenary Session. There’s a translated transcript at Saker’s. Toward the end of his short address, Putin utters this sentence:
“All these areas require adequate and flexible legal regulation and painstaking joint work.” [My Emphasis]
I’ve bolded that one word because proper regulation–enforcement–of international law or the lack thereof is why we’re in the current crisis and have had so many before. This problem is within the context of most everything I write here. Lawbreakers must be held accountable for their actions. That they haven’t only encourages them to continue to break the law. The emerging Multipolar World must find a way to deal with this intractable problem; otherwise, we’ll just have our same old world.
@Opport Knocks #196
Putin didn’t reference Falklands referendum – he was responding to allegations by BoJo that women don’t start wars “because they don’t have toxic masculinity”.
Thatcher, HRC, Albright were the counterexamples given.
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 30 2022 15:20 utc | 331
@moaobserver #249
The credibility hole you have dug yourself is pretty deep, and getting deeper.
Maybe if you made a single factually verifiable statement as opposed to continually posting repurposed Stars and Stripes nonsense…
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 30 2022 15:25 utc | 332
HelenB | Jun 30 2022 3:54 utc | 200
It’s a matter of social reformation. They are trying to reindoctrinate people into subordination to the capitalist world order after COVID loosened discipline. The same happened in Britain after WWII, and even briefly during the 2020 election (in the form of political hooliganism AND the moral indignation in response).
Then again, US citizens have no Constitutional right to bodily integrity. No society whose reproduction is centered on labor exploitation or aggressive childhood indoctrination would be likely to enact one, either. Most American political discourse, including everything taught in the system of childhood education, is elite-originated disinformation.
Paul Greenwood | Jun 30 2022 11:29 utc | 281
> Governments are out of control
Is subject-object inversion all that neoliberal “philosophy” has left? Sad!
The purpose of the state is and always has been to impose values on things against their will. The European value is servitude. If you don’t want to be controlled like the servant that you are, don’t create structures of control and don’t populate them with fantasies, passions, and other delusional ideals. Simple cause and effect.
Posted by: sippy the shot glass | Jun 30 2022 15:26 utc | 333
“Democracy” in Ukraine: the banning of opposition parties: Video from Anatoly Shariy, with English subtitles, click the CC button.
https://youtu.be/ewBOBcRenE0
Posted by: Susan | Jun 30 2022 15:27 utc | 334
Mike Pompeo has lost a lot of weight.
https://twitter.com/HudsonInstitute/status/1542217406629675009
Posted by: too scents | Jun 30 2022 15:28 utc | 335
@ostro #310
It would be more effective if you debunked/debated what Martyanov says, as opposed to his credentials.
Any serving officer of any reasonable level, retired or active service, is actively prohibited from talking about military theory and practices.
If what Martyanov posts about military calculus, logistics etc is wrong, it would be useful to understand why – but this ad hominem is just pointless.
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 30 2022 15:32 utc | 336
@OttoE #330
You are under several basic misapprehensions:
1) The rich don’t send their kids to public schools – they send them to the high cost prep academies. School vouchers are great for them because otherwise their property taxes would be utterly wasted on the public schools to which their children don’t attend.
2) Private schools by definition are going to be discriminatory. Is this really a societal good?
3) In practice, the idea of “competing schools” has proven to be a failure. It just isn’t economic reality for middle class and below income neighborhoods to support 2 or more schools. What ends up happening is “magnet” schools get all the best students and teachers, and the rest get the leftovers.
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 30 2022 15:37 utc | 337
@ Skiffer | Jun 30 2022 12:37 utc | 296
thanks skiffer and a few others on the topic of snake island…. a week or two back ( june 22nd) i linked to indian punchline article on this… i think those interested would benefit from reading it… Southern Ukraine is the priority in NATO’s planning
here is his article from yesterday fwiw – G7: Cracks in Western unity on Russia
” The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in his capacity as the host, made a final appearance before the media on Tuesday with a somewhat somber atmosphere that reflected his message to the assembled journalists, “A time of uncertainty lies ahead of us. We cannot foresee how it will end.”
Scholz was referring to the Ukraine crisis and its consequences. Scholz spoke of a “long haul” and of consequences for everything and everyone. Gone was the triumphalist western narrative about the “cancel Russia” strategy.
Indeed, the main point of contention among the G7 countries was how to deal with Russia. The G7 countries see that they have failed to isolate Russia and, perhaps, it is not even in their interests to entirely fall out with Moscow for economic reasons.
The summit barely agreed to discuss a batch of new sanctions against Russia, but the deliberations underlined the limits of using economic tools to punish Russia. The Western strategy is in logjam — Russia is winning the war despite the US’ massive weapon deliveries to Ukraine; sanctions failed to deter Russia and are possibly hurting Europe more than Russia; and, ideas have run out. ”
Posted by: james | Jun 30 2022 15:44 utc | 338
The Warren Court was a menace because Earl Warren when Governor of California had all the Japanese-Americans rounded up and put in concentration camps and stole their property during WW2. As a reward he was put in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and started dismantling US society.
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 30 2022 13:25 utc | 308
That’s not quite correct.
A few years ago– following the disgracefull, scurillous US Senate Judiciary Committee, Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee hearing– I published an innerboob essay to memorialize New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964). That is a civil dispute decided in the so-called Warren court, 1954-1969. Sullivan is a “landmark,” or “super-precedent,” ruling, concerning the 1st Amd. right of long-forgotten negro plaintiffs who purchased a publication of a “political” advertisement soliciting funds to bail out MLK and later vindicated Ellsberg’s leaking defense of public interest to which every contrite Klan’s man (H.Black) and “citizen journalist” vanity press (G.Greenwald) has appealed since. Which is tragic.
Now, generally I’m not one to resort to statistical (ab)normal descriptions and “expert” inferences to rationalize (read: limit) either Q controversy or consenus of opinions. I’m more interested in facilitating plain language, reasonable dialectic. However, this wikistf longitudinal graph said to compile “ideological leanings of Supreme Court” associates dramatizes the ignorance in the popular imagination of liberal and conservative judicial “activism” . For is shows, over time and regardless of composition, CJ, or dissent, regression to a mean (zero). Most important, W.O. Douglass who never was CJ and is little recalled today, was the outlier who momentarily influenced the course of reasoning within the Warren court and murky expectations of illiterate, litigious 1st Amd. tribulations today.
Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 30 2022 15:49 utc | 339
Posted by: ostro | Jun 30 2022 13:30 utc | 310
you are a one-trick pony, aren’t you? RSH and me attacked you with certain argments and you don’t present a counter-argument but continue with your stupidity? do you REALLY hate Martyanov that bad? do you in your sleep dream about Martyanov and strangle the pillow while your teeth produce sparks from spasms you have?
you know, I’ve written books, and translated many, and I don’t give a flying fuck if somebody buys them or not. I did my job, as well as I could. Of course I would like them to be read by 8 billion people on this planet and some aliens in Mars and Jupiter, but in the end the pleasure, and value, of them for me is doing them as well as I could.
you continue doubling down on your stupidity as if you own the subject matter, as if those that you present as facts about his past matter to us. no, mate, they don’t, and it’s a BIG if whether they are facts, or important. they are just your opinion, and you better keep it to yourself if you don’t want to be ridiculed from now on. so, beware! if you want to lower the standard of discussion, you better get the hell out of here, because nobody cares about your shit.
Posted by: albagen | Jun 30 2022 15:50 utc | 340
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 30 2022 15:32 utc | 337
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What credentials?
Posted by: albagen | Jun 30 2022 15:50 utc | 341
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I don’t like those who claim that they suddenly were without a country call as their own…and find a way to jump ship to the Empire of Lies. Anyway, that “expert” has no way to go back home…for…reasons…😋
Oh, inhabitants of the Empire of Lies…
Posted by: ostro | Jun 30 2022 16:06 utc | 341
Posted by: snake | Jun 30 2022 14:42 utc | 326
“The desire for control and possession of everything drives the Oligarch; the oligarch drives the nation state; the nation state drives the international organizations, and these organizations incite the chaos and hate we see in the world. I wonder if the laws which created the intangible assets were to be abolished, if the monopoly powers would disappear and the stored wealth and political systems would again become benefits for those who are the governed?
Great summation. Key question. Thanks.
Posted by: ostro | Jun 30 2022 16:06 utc | 342
look, idiot. we don’t care what you like or you don’t like. it’s not a crime to emigrate to any place, it has happened, is happening and will happen. when you are settled, it’s kinda hard to go home, even if you long for it. it has happened to me, and i returned home, but i don’t consider myself a hero. now I long for the place I left, which is and will remain in my heart. just saying it vaguely.
tell us those “reasons”, you moron, or shut up.
Inhabitant of the Empire of Lies?!?!? What the fuck is that, dickhead? My sister lives in that “Emprire”, what is she? What are her 3 boys, smart ass? Almost everybody has some relative in that “Empire”. What are they, you unreasonable donkey?
Either you stop your shitty shit, or I won’t stop until someone informs Martyanov I’ve come to his defense and he contacts me and asks for my paypal address to send me half of his donations, give me a medal, and make me his best buddy. Got it?
Posted by: albagen | Jun 30 2022 16:19 utc | 343
Posted by: albagen | Jun 30 2022 16:19 utc | 344
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Oh, don’t get your knickers twisted…over guy without a country to call as his own…😋
Posted by: ostro | Jun 30 2022 16:31 utc | 344
Posted by: Skiffer | Jun 30 2022 12:37 utc | 296
Great post (as usual)!
Posted by: Kingsmeg | Jun 30 2022 14:13 utc | 319
I just think it would be counter-productive for Russia to use mercs in Ukraine, given their aims and the nature of the battle. Russian-Ukrainians would remember being terrorized by a bunch of mercs with Nazi tattoos, if they’re being sent in by Russia to remove the other group of Nazi-tattooed freaks that were previously terrorizing them. And of course the Russian MoD has come out and denied their presence in Ukraine, they don’t normally lie about things that could be easily disproven.
Reminds me of Bertrand Russell’s challenge of MAD, in which he likened a rabid dog running loose in a village and the townspeople decided to unleash another rabid dog in the hopes it would kill the other one (or kill each other, I can’t recall exactly).
How many of such folks could there even be? I’d like to think they aren’t being used (for the reasons you note), but what I’d like and what IS could be two different things… If there’s one scenario that best is served by the word “speculation” it is this one, of Wagner.
Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 30 2022 2:20 utc | 185
And look at Europe: every single leader at the same time agreeing in lockstep to overwhelmingly stupid and terrible policies. Since when do European leaders agree on anything? Never. Again, it smacks of coordination.
Kompromat? Seems the US has now gotten them all in a trap. With Russia pretty much severed the Europeans now are dependent on US for LNG. Figure that everything the US says is about projection. In one word: BLACKMAIL. Hey, pull my finger! (idiots)
Posted by: Linda Wood | Jun 30 2022 4:30 utc | 204
Great post!
I’d say that the real problem is that violence in ingrained in US culture. Look at the gun crimes. Politicians remark how horrible, yet they steal from their citizens to fund their money laundering scheme (MIC).
And speaking of “pull my finger”…
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jun 30 2022 12:19 utc | 292
How many times must the Kurds fall for thinking the West is going to save them?
Posted by: Seer | Jun 30 2022 16:44 utc | 345
How many times must the Kurds fall for thinking the West is going to save them?
Posted by: Seer | Jun 30 2022 16:44 utc | 347
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Will Finland and Sweden double cross the Kurds?
Posted by: ostro | Jun 30 2022 16:51 utc | 346
@ostro #342
Yet again, you are focusing on motives for posting as opposed to examining the content.
Nor is it the least bit credible that Martyanov is trying to jump anywhere – he is clearly posting what he thinks is true information, unlike some others I might name.
So again: do you have substantive critique of what he is saying?
If so, please post it.
Or is all you can do, is ad hominem?
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 30 2022 16:52 utc | 347
Posted by: ostro | Jun 30 2022 16:51 utc | 348
Will Finland and Sweden double cross the Kurds?
If the US tells them to.
Posted by: Seer | Jun 30 2022 17:15 utc | 348
c1ue @ 349
was asking @ostro:
“Or is all you can do, is ad hominem?”
To which I answer:
No, he (ostro) can also blame Jews.
It wouldn’t be moonofalabama otherwise 🙁
Posted by: Joe6pack | Jun 30 2022 17:17 utc | 349
re: ostro
The various commenters who spent the time to patiently (at first) point this out are right. If someone can’t address the substance of the subject when asked to do so, they’re full of crap. If they won’t address it as a matter of habit, they’re not arguing in good faith, just trying to get a rise out of others or simply waste their time.
As someone from eastern europe who lives in the US and have a life here (and now profoundly unhappy with the whole situation), I also would agree with albagen @344 about immigrating etc.
Posted by: ptb | Jun 30 2022 17:36 utc | 350
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 30 2022 13:25 utc | 308
You can have religious freedom at home.
If you want your kids indoctrinated into a particular religion, send them to the church or applicable equivalent, or indoctrinate them yourelf.
Religious teachings are subjective to say it politely, and there already are a gazillion of institutions geared around them, there is no need or justification to shoehorn them into schools.
Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 30 2022 17:37 utc | 351
Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 30 2022 17:37 utc | 353
“Religious teachings are subjective to say it politely, and there already are a gazillion of institutions geared around them, there is no need or justification to shoehorn them into SECULAR schools.”
FIXED!
Posted by: Seer | Jun 30 2022 18:41 utc | 352
Don’t pray in my school and I won’t think in your church. (bumper sticker way back when)
Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 30 2022 19:04 utc | 353
Then again, US citizens have no Constitutional right to bodily integrity.
Paul Greenwood | Jun 30 2022 11:29 utc | 281
No one has any rights, period, because there are no such things as ‘rights’. Rights are an imaginary construct created by the powerful to convince the powerless that they need not rise up and rebel, because they are already free. So you have your ‘rights’, right up until the point you actually need them, and then you don’t.
This is what happens when you try to assert your rights:
I know my rights!
Posted by: Kingsmeg | Jun 30 2022 19:04 utc | 354
Posted by: Seer | Jun 30 2022 18:41 utc | 354
Also known as, schools.
One thing among many where gringos are in no position to give lessons to almost anybody else.
Not to speak of y’all eagerly claiming for the selling and buying of religious teaching – I’m almost certain that this can be construed as being blasphemous at some level, wasn’t there some sort of sin that involved “trafficking in the favor of the holy ghost”?
For being so sure of the truth and universal value of religious dogma [and of a particular religious dogma that is], there’s an awful lack of confidence on its ability to take root unless it’s force-fed into people with undeveloped critical skills, much less any trust on people reasonably choosing it out of their own free will [cough], damn, one could be excused to think that nobody actually believes there to be an an all-powerful and all-loving force behind any of it
The thing waynor said. Don’t pray in my school and I won’t think in your church.
Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 30 2022 21:55 utc | 355
Don’t pray in my school and I won’t think in your church.
Posted by: Arganthonios | Jun 30 2022 21:55 utc | 357
I would be more than happy to do that for you as soon as you return the tax money taken from me to give to your school.
Deal?
Posted by: T.D. | Jul 1 2022 0:18 utc | 356
That’s the thing, they’re taxes 😉
They’re not a restaurant tab, or a club membership fee.
Why are gringos so gratingly childish?
Posted by: Arganthonios | Jul 1 2022 9:22 utc | 357
Dying thread joke for Arganthonios, Aleph, and others of similar bent:
A couple made a deal that whoever died first would come back and inform the other if there was sex after death.
After a long life together , the wife was the first to die and true to her words, she made first contact.
W: “Darling. Darling.”
H: “Is that you my love?”
W: “Yes , I’ve come back like we agreed”
H : “That’s wonderful! What is it like in the afterlife? Is there sex?”
W: “Well, as soon as I get up in the morning, I have sex. After sex and breakfast it’s off to the these green pastures with an amazing crystal lake. Thereafter I bathe in the warm sun and have sex a couple more times. Then I have lunch, you’d be proud – lots of greens. After lunch, it’s back to the pastures again. Then it’s more sex until late at night. I catch some much needed sleep and then the next day it starts all over again.”
H : “Oh wow! Are you in Heaven?”
W: “No, I’m a goat somewhere in the Middle East ”
Posted by: waynorinorway | Jul 1 2022 10:55 utc | 358
Posted by: waynorinorway | Jul 1 2022 10:55 utc | 360
Ahahahahahahahahahhahahahahah
Posted by: Arganthonios | Jul 1 2022 13:50 utc | 359