Posted by: UncleTom | Sep 28 2022 19:43 utc | 103
Re concern about “Russia looking Weak” – I see your point, however
The Russians do not tend to do reflex panicky reactions and tend not to respond to endless media cries to do something – just not in their nature up to now (but this may be changing in terms of Russian public opinion)
BUT – the west will interpret Russian actions as being caused by weakness – this will probably lead to more western adventurism endangering everybody when a real red line is crossed
The west seems to think that it has immunity – that nobody can harm them
I feel that he reason the Cuban Missile crisis was resolved and that the cold war did not go hot is because the west feared being annihilated by nuclear weapons – growing up there was a lot of dystopian fiction about nuclear war – now there is none

Posted by: Aslangeo | Sep 29 2022 8:28 utc | 204

The defeat of NATO and the West is entered.
Short of weapons and ammunition the Westerner terrorist group has released all his dogs against the bear.
It turns out in the bear family it’s the cub who’s lost
in Ukraine.
After a fierce struggle against packs of bastards
Of all races, the bear weakens. No problem.
Dad comes in with all the equipment that’s so missing
to the western terrorists and to his surprise he
discover four little cubs in fact a new
family is founded.
In family they will be stronger.
The military defeat will of course be historic.
Or, how a fraction of the Russian army defeated
in less than a year the colonialists and
ukrainian Banderism in an exemplary war.
Of course the bellicose nature the terrorist character
and the story these people carry presages the worst
for themselves.
The fair has already begun before the end of the
Hostilities .
Without energy and without resources the decere europeans
are heading for the abyss they call hell.
The return to the cold churches can be very well combined
with the Middle Ages.

Posted by: la bouteille | Sep 29 2022 8:50 utc | 206

The United States has its own mobilization: there is a massive recruitment of mercenaries for “work” in Ukraine
They pay double the rate for fighting in Ukraine, and they are looking for those who are well-versed in Soviet (!) small arms and have combat experience in Eastern Europe.
They pay up to $ 2 thousand a day, which indicates that “specialists” are recruited for high-risk tasks.
https://t.me/CyberspecNews/9427

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 29 2022 8:53 utc | 208

We know our consent has not been and will not be requested…
Posted by: polarbear4 | Sep 29 2022 3:14 utc | 168
Tacit consent is consent.
Or: as long as we don’t say NO, we are effectively saying YES.
One of the main functions of narrative control is to so bewilder the population with trivia and misdirection that they are unable to come together around any cause except that of defending against an existentially threatening monster which is usually, of course, yet another lie.

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 29 2022 9:08 utc | 210

fwiw as background
There are 27 EU members, none of whom, afaik, appear to support russia v ukriane, or the referendums.
The EU represents about 447 million people with a combined GDP of US$17.1 trillion in 2021, 3rd in size behind the USA and China, versus about $1.7 Trillion in Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union
Despite Brexit, afaik, there is no known movement of exodus from the EU at this present time.
NATO membership consists of 30 countries, ~20 of whom are also in the EU.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_NATO#List_of_member_countries
Plus ~24 of the 38 members of the OECD are also members of NATO, ~22 are members of the EU.
Russia is now banned permanently from joining the OECD after Feb 24th invasion of Ukriane, it’s application was suspended after the Crimea annexation in 2014.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OECD#Current_members
OECD member countries account for three-fifths of world GDP (60%), three-quarters of world trade (75%), over 90% of global official development assistance.
The OECD excludes Russia, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Brazil … and all the other member nations of the CTSO, the SCO and BRICS!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_Security_Treaty_Organization#Member_states
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation#Member_states
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS#Member_countries
The only “UN/western international group” Russia/China belong to is the G20. The entire EU as a single block is a member of the G20, which includes 14 NATO members plus another 7 individual EU nations who are also NATO partners.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G20
So NATO, the EU, the far majority of the OCED / G20 nations – the bulk of the wealthiest most powerful nations in the world – do not support Russia in any form.
afaik barely a handful of nations are openly supporting Russia at the United Nations this week or any other week.
188 nations did not support Russia’s position on Ukraine on a General Assembly Resolution in March. Only 4 did.
Propaganda or not, the far majority of these nations’ peoples believe their governments, politicians, and what the msm media tell them about Ukraine. The attitudes, beliefs and knowledge bank around MoA is a distinct exception to the rule.
So, imo, nothing geopolitically has changed this year so far. Even with the oblasts now voting positively to join Russia. This too is being rejected en masse. Whilst there has been some mass protests to date, some in the tens of thousands, there is no overwhelming clear coordinated or constant Europe wide mass protest movement happening, yet.
Note the SCO is not a security/defense treaty body, but the smaller CSTO is.

Posted by: SeanAU | Sep 29 2022 9:11 utc | 212

As the UK’s economy circles the plug hole, the president of Ukraine, Zelensky, calls the PM Liz Truss and demands more cash.
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenational.scot%2Fnews%2F22817827.liz-truss-zelenskyy-asks-pm-cash-phone-call-amid-panic%2F

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 29 2022 9:16 utc | 214

While Shoigu or who is in charge of strategy waits for US to enter Ukr or strike Russia, other news from today: Ukr has destroyed a gas pipeline in Kershon and 30 dead after Ukr hit a refugee convoy near Kharkov. Shooting continues to prevent medical support.

Posted by: rk | Sep 29 2022 9:20 utc | 216

rk #209
You can be certain that Russia will continue to be blamed for the gas pipeline sabotage. This is a vital brainwash element to be engraved in the mind of all europeans as they freeze this winter. The mantra of Russia did it, again and again. Sickening both in the doing and in seeing it take hold.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 29 2022 9:27 utc | 218

Posted by: JK | Sep 29 2022 2:50 utc | 165-215
No thank you.
No, I’m not going to follow your rotten link.
No, I’m not going to read your dusty article (if it exists and if it’s not a virus).
No, I’m not going to change my topic of interest because you want to, I’m going to continue to follow the news about the SMO in Ukraine.
And stop polluting this thread with your childish and off-topic posts.
And, by the way: Fuck Hitler !

Posted by: UncleTom | Sep 29 2022 9:54 utc | 220

“Russia said on Wednesday that its “special military operation” in Ukraine will continue at least until it captures all of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.”
https://news.antiwar.com/2022/09/28/russia-says-military-operation-to-continue-at-least-until-donetsk-is-liberated/
So does that mean the plan to go to Odessa and beyond is now being scrapped? What happened to de-nazify and de-militarise, and Nato back to 1997? Is Putin getting cold feet?
Posted by: Et Tu | Sep 29 2022 8:52 utc | 205
Grab yourself a dictionary and find the meaning of “at least”.

Posted by: CM of Berlin | Sep 29 2022 10:00 utc | 222

Fack the Ukrainians! Ancestors of neo- Nazism! Destroy this statelet, kill the people and start from fresh.

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Sep 29 2022 10:28 utc | 224

@ Den Lille Abe | Sep 29 2022 10:28 utc | 222
Eww.
Ukrainian people don’t deserve what’s happening to them. Their mostly foreign owners betray them.

Posted by: dfg | Sep 29 2022 10:33 utc | 226

@JK #215
I briefly read the link you posted about Hitler. I am not sure Hitler really was a (viertel-)jew but I think he feared it might be true because he ordered the demolition of his fathers village of birth first thing the Germans entered Austria in 1938. Thus eliminating possible confirming data. There is an other version about him fearing his grandfather was of some other ethnicity with a name sounding like he was an egyptian in my ears.
But the rest of the part I read is the usual deception hiding the true culprit: the british imperial doubleplay aimed to coach Germany against the Soviets as the primary aim.
That explains all the steps taken by Britain.
Including how they set up several battles to fail.
Both in France and Norway, and in France Hitler presumably was convinced the British were on his side, Churchill having turned down the french request for further british assistance. The british didnt want Hitlers troops to suffer too many casualties and always feared a separate peace between the Germany and the Soviets.
And Hitler a double agent? Not at all, he was a dupe and there really was a very skilled double agent namely the brit Houston Steward Chamberlain (HSC), who virtually all anglosaxon posters avoid to even breathe about!
He was the one who figuratively speaking anointed Hitler, like John the Baptist did with the Messiah. And the parallell was really sought by HSC, he struggled invain to encourage the german Wagner-cult in the direction of seeking aryan liberation from the jews combined with a christian connotation.
Compulsory reading for the nazis was authored by this british agent of influence.

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Sep 29 2022 10:41 utc | 228

I’m not even sure German citizens are going to be hard hit this winter , if Ma Merkel were in charge in the same circumstances they would be, on the other hand ‘Mutti’ would never have allowed those circumstances to develop.
I reckon all the rest of the EU are going to be fine, in the short term as most will follow the method england is attempting, that is borrow up large and use the funds thus acquired to pay off the already too greedy, too profitable energy corporations.
Of course now that the same morons who devised this stay warm now, pay for it all later, plan have done a grand job tanking the quid it is going to be interesting for all contortion afficianados to observe the positions that Kwasi supported by the Truss, manage to achieve.
The problem with this of course is that all the money borrowed will have to be repaid eventually and rising interests rates mean that this will be an incredibly expensive operation, one that will be turned over and over then re-financed all set for some future ‘government’, ie future citizens, to pay back at two or three hundred percent of what was borrowed. Or by then maybe all of europe will renege, maybe even unwillingly renege as their economies are forced out into the light of reality. That very notion will make the borrowing very expensive indeed – yet I doubt that will cause the mob of careerist creeps who pass for europe’s leaders a moment’s hesitation.
Germany is a slightly different kettle of fish because it is difficult to imagine that even if the german government did borrow enough money to fund replacement fuel, that there is sufficient available energy to even cover all the citizens let alone all those german industries dependent on energy.
This current german ship of fools are likely to hesitate over who gets what; citizens or business, I expect them to select the worst of possible worlds, an attempt at subsidising both which will lead to neither copping sufficient. Expect cataclysmic disruption in germany -watch out poland! lol, cause in 2023 its gonna be:
‘springtime for Weidel and Germany, winter for Poland not France’
I have no idea if amerika had assistance in blowing up the pipelines but the poles who, lets face it, have never suffered a reputation of being the sharpest knives in the drawer, have foolishly insinuated that ‘We woz part of it yer worship’.
By the end of euro-winter that and all the other taunts poland has been hoiking in the general direction of germany will cause the newly installed german fascist administration to demonstrate its own citizenry that “we don’t take no shit from untermenschen” kamerad.
This will provide an interesting diversion for the rest of europe, just as their bones begin to thaw. None of them will be particularly concerned initially – both nations Germany & Poland, are nuke free and both belong to Nato so that the odds of any other euroarse being dragged in are highly unlikely.
Of course what happ,ens after that is anyones guess as amerika will undoubtedly side with the poles whilst the eu gang ( most of whom are already on the outer with poland) plus many of whom depend on germany to buy their debts are inevitably gonna go with the huns. Whats that saying so popular among dumb greedies “money talks and bullshit walks” – as we all now know zelenski offers the world nothing other than bullshit.
‘It’ll be like 1939 all over again’ the numbskulls all imagine as once more, the poor people of europe are encouraged to shoot each other and blow each other up while they convince themselves “this is just like what great-grandad did”. Meanwhile arsehole greedies count their shekels – here we go again.
Predicting beyond that is tough as past that will be the result of moves not yet made – other than it will get worse, natch, who joins what side or forms an entirely new side with . . . ., is still murky.
Go team, go! Let’s see those bodies stack like cordwood the last week of autumn.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 29 2022 11:16 utc | 230

@ Debsisdead | Sep 29 2022 11:16 utc | 228
>> ‘Mutti’ would never have allowed those circumstances to develop
That sounds very strange, to me. To me, she, like Trump, developed the current circumstances, by doing what her handlers wanted at the time and doing nothing they didn’t, like help Germany regain its independence and really safeguard NS2 from USA/UK financial attacks.
>> all the money borrowed will have to be repaid
Haven’t we learned by now that it doesn’t? Yes, there are periods where it’s repaid. Then there are periods of defaults and currency devaluation. TPTB choose whatever suits them best for the near or intermediate term.

Posted by: dfg | Sep 29 2022 11:32 utc | 232

This is a link to a video of Carlson Tucker, a popular Fox News political commentator, on TV yesterday, talking about the pipeline bombing. The youtube video of his show – which I linked to above – got almost 900K views in one day. Tucker is the most-viewed cable news commentator in the U.S., and regularly addresses 3.2 million people per show.
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Sep 28 2022 16:57 utc | 65
Thank you for posting this. I watched all 11 minutes of the clip. simply WOW. Stunning. All Barflies especially, foreign Barflies should watch the clip. It signals a deep divide in US society that regimist Media is trying to hide.

Posted by: Exile | Sep 29 2022 11:58 utc | 234

Interesting that it is ex East Germans who are up in arms at the injustice of energy poverty.
West Germans not so much. Because while East Germans became free of their WW2 victors the West Germans haven’t of theirs.
When the USSR defeated the Nazis in WW2, they and the ‘allies’ occupied all the terrain of the Nazis and its allies. Based on Yalta.
The difference is that as the victorious Red Army left its occupied territories of Europe , the US and U.K , France did not, and indeed have occupied MORE of that now ‘free’ Europe.
Including The Poles, who are taking their revenge for the stitch up of Yalta by attacking both Germany and Russia with the natzo strings. When it should be FUKUS they should be extracting revenge on! They are really as dumb as they always have been. It is going to be another mega failure, with the pyrrhic new lands they pick up like a hot potato. The criminal destruction off their coast is not going to go unpunished in history.
The Italians as losers were equally occupied by the FUKUS and still are ! Never mind the new trans Benito babe! Her posturing is easy to see through. She too is not going to evict natzos from Italian soil.
The only occupied country leader that tried to free Europe from Natzo this century was Mutti Merkel – while she stayed there was peace, stability and development. Within a day of her departure the delayed shitshow rolled into action.
She didn’t want to sacrifice Germans yet again in another futile attempt in the Great Games ancient financiers , set on destroying a ever closer European Union.
The financial death of the Euro is progressing now as the City and Fed and WB circle the diminishing wagons instead of making peace and giving up their megalomania.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Sep 29 2022 12:09 utc | 236

re dfg | Sep 29 2022 11:32 utc | 230
Perhaps you have forgotten how Ms Merkel fought to keep NS 2 going despite roadblocks thrown in Germany’s way by amerika and other amerikan puppet governments. I dunno what else she could have done. It was only after she went that amerika was able to lean on the new leaders to halt implementation.
Your comment about paying back international loans is puzzling, it is possible to delay payback tho that is always incredibly expensive long term, but no one ever gets let off even starving African nations caught in a famine usually only manage to get a ‘holiday’ where they don’t hafta pay for a while but the interest meter keeps running. Haiti is still broke because of loans it had to take out more than 300 years ago to pay for a bill france landed them with for the cost of freeing all the slaves. If you ask ‘international finance experts’ they will claim the debt was made null and void when all that really happened was a ‘rationalisation’ which combined that loan with a bunch of others Haiti had to get in order to meet payments on the original loan into one large ‘portmanteau debt’ . No one gets off these loans.
England will never be able to walk away from this current self-inflicted mess, if there was the slightest chance it could no borrower will be interested in lending the dosh. If inflation is considered to be an issue, then interest rates will reflect that. As for devaluation as a work-around, banks will either insist that england bet against that eventuality with derivatives or more usually lend the funds in a currency they consider more secure.
In these circumstances any loans will be in a market that suits those making the loan to england – always.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 29 2022 12:21 utc | 238

@ Posted by: SeanAU | Sep 29 2022 9:11 utc | 210
“Note the SCO is not a security/defense treaty body, but the smaller CSTO is.”
I think this is a failure by you to see the wood for the trees!
If you look at the Good Neighbourliness Treaty signed by Russia and China – you will see that.
As of tomorrow – Russia will start in earnest. China and the SCO will legally defend any attack on any SCO.
Game. Over. Lots of tears before bedtime in our Collective Waste.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Sep 29 2022 12:32 utc | 240

I started to put together an Aclos page on claims about Iranian Shahed 136 drones. The claims seem to be based on doubtful evidence from Ukrainian and US/UK/Israeli sources.

Posted by: diagonal | Sep 29 2022 12:36 utc | 242

SeanAu @201 re hatching chickens, the French have a similar proverb, if somewhat more pithy:
“Il ne faut pas vendre la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué”
Don’t sell the bearskin before having killed him.

Posted by: Cousin Jack | Sep 29 2022 12:49 utc | 244

@ Debsisdead | Sep 29 2022 12:21 utc | 238
Agree that Natzos demand more repayment from RoW, either in interest or pound of flesh. I thought you were referring to within Natzoland.
As for Merkel, what happened to the phone hack? When Trump joked about it while meeting with her, she looked at him queerly as though to say “I can’t believe you’re mentioning that! Aren’t we supposed to pretend it never happened?” She was a dog that didn’t bark. As for the pipelines, she didn’t say much. But, she said just enough to trick Russia into thinking there’s still a chance of doing business with the west, while the west continued its buildup in the east. Merkel’s contribution was to obfuscate.
Maybe my POV is wrong and yours is right. (I value your opinions and read all your comments.) Not confident there’s enough time in the day to find the evidence to change our POV’s.

Posted by: dfg | Sep 29 2022 13:22 utc | 246

She didn’t want to sacrifice Germans yet again in another futile attempt in the Great Games ancient financiers , set on destroying a ever closer European Union.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Sep 29 2022 12:09 utc | 236
—
I still remember how, after Schröder’s refusal to take part in the Iraq war, she had nothing better to do than fly to Washington on her own to personally apologize to Bush for Germany.
She enjoyed rolling in filth.

Posted by: Nobody | Sep 29 2022 13:36 utc | 248

Michigan Dude | Sep 29 2022 13:06 utc | 246
In a way seems off topic, but where you say “One or the other must prevail, and the other must be put down.”…
More likely neither side prevails and disintegration results… Kind of ironic, Balkanization of the US; all those seeds the US has sown abroad all these years in attempts to keep others weak enough to be ruled by the Hegemon coming full circle; the Ukraine debacle looking like the feather that broke the proverbial back.

Posted by: DoesItReallyMatter | Sep 29 2022 13:42 utc | 250

I’m getting more and more convinced that,  as I had predicted in April on Moon Of Alabama to much ridicule, America is going to nuke Kiev and blame Russia. This is almost inevitable now as I see it.

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Sep 29 2022 13:46 utc | 252

@RT 245
I did not imply that at all!
Quite the opposite. I said Hitler was a dupe and wrote that there was a brit who was a skilled double agent.
Some people commenting sometimes seem to me to have attention deficiency disorder…
Further I wrote/implied that Churchill betrayed the French and plausibly may be believed to have made a deal with Hitler on that account.
The british aristocray/oligarchy had middlemen placed in Spain and elsewhere who could carry out secret negotiations with their Nazi stooges/dupes who never really had a clue!
About your ideas about posion gas: Hitler was himself injured by gas in WW1 at least there are some who make that claim. And others who claim he never was that close to the front. In any case all those who knew, Hitler included, what transpired during WW1 were apalled by the results.
And obviously understood that there would be payback in kind.

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Sep 29 2022 13:48 utc | 254

The Odessa taking was all rumors and talk thats true. At no point did Russian government mention taking Odessa. I understand Odessa does not even have a Russian ethnic majority so taking it and absorving it would be a terrible idea.
Sure at some point this could change but Russia is at no position to wven dream about Odessa right now.

Posted by: Comandante | Sep 29 2022 14:10 utc | 256

I’m not sure it’s on topic but then Ukraine does owe a lot of money so maybe it is. Or will be. The Bolsheviks can, I think, fairly be said to have been successful at repudiating the czarist debt in 1917. Its true that Russia settled it in 1996 by paying off 200Bn for 400M but what’s that – 0.5c on the dollar?

Posted by: Guy L’Estrange | Sep 29 2022 14:13 utc | 258

@veto
It stands to reason China might be thinking they are next.

Posted by: chunga | Sep 29 2022 14:20 utc | 260

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Sep 29 2022 13:48 utc | 255
Hitler was awarded a medal for bravery , and was wounded in WWI. So he was definitely on the “front”. I remember all this from what I have read about him , and no, l am not a Hitler fan -boy, in fact , the opposite; as he cost my family both life and livelihood.

Posted by: Brother Ma | Sep 29 2022 14:24 utc | 262

Posted by: chunga | Sep 29 2022 14:20 utc | 261
I can’t think of any reason why China would not want to do everything possible to make sure that US does not win in Ukraine. Except if they have a “back agreement”. But China would be incredibly stupid to trust the globohomo’s whose objective is to take over everything, including slicing up China to small manageable pieces.

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 29 2022 14:27 utc | 264

There has been a great deal of talk from US leaders about Russia using a nuclear weapon in Ukraine. This has gone on long enough now that it makes quite a few people suspect that the US is planning a false flag nuclear detonation in Ukraine that it will blame on Russia.
Should this happen, Russia will know that it did not detonate a nuclear weapon. I personally think Russia would act to take out those who ordered the strike, which would mean an attack on the US mainland. What that would entail is anyone’s guess.

Posted by: Steven Starr | Sep 29 2022 14:33 utc | 266

The Posts from those who like crying and complaining ‘woe is me’
In Africa we have professional ‘pleureuses’, bands of ladies one can hire for every/any occasion to wail and lament cry and complain and provide the background noise while the rest can get on with the business in hand
With you in the west this appears to be a very widespread habit, many turn up here, plus many wouldbe amateurs joining in as if to prove their worth
For some reason the outer provinces of the empire, the fiveyed, seem particularly stuffed with these cry babies: there are one of two here that would give the gnarliest pros a run for their money
Please do not feed stop and read nor pat them

Posted by: Gerrard White | Sep 29 2022 14:36 utc | 268

Funny.
When a ‘vote’ does not go Joe Biden’s way, he immediately runs to a microphone and yells that the elections were ‘fraudulent’ and a ‘sham’.
The USA is now firmly opposed to the basic human right of ‘self-determination’. If Emperor Joe says Kiev rules you, then that is how it must be because the Emperor has so decreed. There won’t be no stinking voting. What do you think this is, a democracy?
And so it goes …
From an old lefty, now from a political movement best described as ‘extinct’, and thus now clear of any ‘blinders’ that make one believe that ‘your side’ is honest and true while its the ‘other side’ that lies.
An interesting spot with clear vision from which to observe the absurdities of politics inside the Empire of Lies where the entire economy is built on fraud, speculation and political corruption and every politician learns how to lie before they reach the city council.
If they are running for office and their lips are moving, they are lying. And it does not matter if they play for Team Red or Team Blue. Its all still within the Empire of Lies, where the only thing one can be sure of is that everything is a lie. Everything is for show. Nothing is for real. And so it goes.

Posted by: Kurt Von Gutman | Sep 29 2022 14:42 utc | 270

Hey @aristodemos then I thought, maybe you prefer those comments pushing the notion of nuclear attacks or nuclear false flags happening at any moment instead than the info/comments I make ….. It’s a weird world where nothing surprises me anymore. Some of the things being said here are right out of a comic strip. I sail right past them. Cheers

Posted by: SeanAU | Sep 29 2022 14:43 utc | 272

As Nato allies attacked Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, Nato has responded by saying there better not be any attacks on Nato infrastructure in return or else.
“NATO says any attack on critical infrastructure will be followed by a decisive response, it said in a statement on Thursday. Statement alliance in connection with incidents on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.”
https://ria.ru/20220929/nato-1820290168.html

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 29 2022 14:46 utc | 274

SeanAu:
As even in retirement I lead a busy and active life during several hours of the day, I did not happen to take the time to read whatever section you responded to my reportage of events in Prague, etc. Be reminded that I have consistently decried all the nuke-puke fear mongering which some posters proffer.
However, the possibility of a nuclear false-flag should be separated from tossing bombs around. My reason for that is that the Empire of Lies is becoming desperate and if the chance that there are not enough sane and sober heads in the Pentagram, Pandora’s Box will once again, after numerous millennia, once again lead to mass destruction.
The strilngpullers behind the scenes have no respect for human life, as they consider the vast majority of humanity as nothing more than “cattle”.

Posted by: aristodemos | Sep 29 2022 14:51 utc | 276

Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 29 2022 11:16 utc | 230

I’m not even sure German citizens are going to be hard hit this winter , if Ma Merkel were in charge in the same circumstances they would be, on the other hand ‘Mutti’ would never have allowed those circumstances to develop.

It was never about Germans freezing in winter but about the freezing of machines, industries, the German economy as a whole and consequently the EU economy.
The Germans will be warm, snug and jobless once the layoffs begin, as German industries either downsize, collaps or migrate to China and the USA …
All economic and geopolitical influence Germany might have had will evapourate, along with it’s role as a political pole on the global stage.
Once that happens, there goes it’s economic and political bargaining power vis a vis Iran, China, India, the USA, Ukraine , israel and the rest of the pack of wolves …

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 29 2022 15:02 utc | 278

@ Posted by: Milton | Sep 29 2022 14:50 utc | 276
LOL… another redirect, this time with decent sidespin. Conflating my points with far-right and goldbug sites. Nice try though.
To make my central point more clear: “All theoretical economists are useless, regardless of where they reside on the spectrum.”
Their main job is to spin a narrative relative to one policy or another, behind a veneer of selected statistics. Which neatly explains your admiration for them.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 29 2022 15:09 utc | 280

Germans are blaming gas pipeline attack on Russia:
“An unnoticed, conspiratorial damage to pipelines at a depth of 80 meters in the Baltic Sea requires sophisticated technical and organizational capabilities that clearly point to a state actor,” Gerhard Schindler, former president of the German Federal Intelligence Service, told the German media outlet Welt. “Only Russia can really be considered for this, especially since it stands to gain the most from this act of sabotage.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/28/nord-stream-pipeline-explosions-eu-00059262

Posted by: GoFast | Sep 29 2022 15:10 utc | 282

That sounds very strange, to me. To me, she, like Trump, developed the current circumstances, by doing what her handlers wanted at the time and doing nothing they didn’t, like help Germany regain its independence and really safeguard NS2 from USA/UK financial attacks.
Posted by: dfg | Sep 29 2022 11:32 utc | 232
Yes. And No. Or maybe it depends who you define as her handlers.
While Merkel is to blame for the direction things have been going in, she did not always do what the United States of America wanted her to do. I remember being rather put off when Merkel appeared next to Obama, announcing that Germany was going to cut its dependence on Russian gas by building LNG terminals to bring US LNG to Germany. 5 years later, the promised terminal had not materialized. There were no plans to build that terminal, either. Instead, NS2 was under construction. The US retaliated by making her use a side entrance to the White House when she was forced to visit. Merkel was close to German industry, and that industry’s influence showed in her support for NS2.
I think she was under extreme pressure regarding NS2. But she didn’t stop its construction. Either she wasn’t strong enough in her last months in office to push it through (or stop it), or she decided to leave the decision to her successor. No one expected that successor to be Scholz. It was expected that it would be Armin Laschet from Merkel’s party CDU. It would not have been Scholz if not for the disastrous performances of his oppoenents Laschet and Annalena Baerbock during their election campaigns, that seriously damaged their parties.

Posted by: Martina | Sep 29 2022 15:12 utc | 284

SK will send 3b worth of weapons to Ukr, paid by US, thru Czech republic.

Posted by: rk | Sep 29 2022 15:20 utc | 286

@ Tom Pfotzer
Thanks for the Tucker Carlson link. It’s good that there’s someone prominent inside the U.S. articulating a different perspective on the war.
Unfortunately, Tucker is blowing it with bad reporting. Last week he said that the war in Ukraine could have been halted back in April, but the Biden administration wanted to keep a “regime change war” going because they blamed Russia for the 2016 election. Carlson cited Foreign Affairs and Ukranian Media as his sources.
I dug into it, and the September/October 2022 Foreign Affairs article that says there was almost a peace deal in April makes no mention of Biden intervening to prevent peace. Now Ukrainian media is not trustworthy.
The bigger issue: Tucker Carlson can’t reach a wider audience by throwing around claims that aren’t from credible media sources. He’ll likely continue to circulate among circles that are already non-mainstream in U.S.A. That’s a shame because he has a perspective that would be worth hearing more about, but what can you do?

Posted by: GoFast | Sep 29 2022 15:36 utc | 288

@Posted by: Hermit | Sep 29 2022 15:10 utc | 282
I had the delightful experience of attending a course on managing nuclear weapons by James Blight and Janet Lang, who have spent their lives studying the Cuban missile crisis. Everything you say is correct, it was individual decisions not to escalate plus sheer damn luck that stopped the nuclear war in 1962. We are still in the same position given the proliferation of nuclear weapons through the US levels of command, with a highly dispersed ability to launch such weapons during times of crisis.
An excellent book: “Dark Beyond Darkness” by the couple
We also got incredibly close with the Able Archer exercise in 1983, documentary on that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPit2BGNKwo

Posted by: Roger | Sep 29 2022 15:48 utc | 290

Posted by: Lex | Sep 29 2022 11:05 utc | 229
Did you know that the damage caused by hurricane Ian will be included as GDP for the US?
Yes, I do.
Ergo, using these numbers to compare nations is disingenuous.
Not so. That overstating it beyond all reason.
All things/data have their limitations. Keeping things reasonable and in balance surely helps. There is not one “yardstick” that works perfectly.
The GDP numbers provided work fine in the context used and assuming reasonable people understand the limitations and know how to seek additional nuanced data/info.
This is a commentary site, not a place for tiresome lengthy detailed analyses at an “economic research paper” level.
Keeping it simple should not be an excuse to criticize valid comparative data / info as if it was done INTENTIONALLY TO MANIPULATE READERS when it is clearly not.

Posted by: SeanAU | Sep 29 2022 15:53 utc | 292

Posted by: SeanAU | Sep 29 2022 15:41 utc | 290
Unfortunately it’s hard to see any end to this. Ukrainian “advisors” said that they will fight to the “last man”. If they make such an announcement, normal rules of war would then dictate that population centers be destroyed, but of course this will not ever happen.

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 29 2022 15:55 utc | 294

Debisdead@238
Time for a Jubilee. All public, corporate debts would be erased. Only person to person and small (and I mean truly small) personally owned businesses would be exempt. Most of the indebtedness in the world accrues specifically those with too much greed-based financial empowerment, most specifically such parties as have inherited immense endowments. Only truly earned income should be excused.

Posted by: aristodemos | Sep 29 2022 16:14 utc | 296

I can’t think of a reason why China blah blah blah
Posted by: unimperator | Sep 29 2022 14:27 utc | 265
Let’s have a rational assessment here. We can do both personal and state level.
Did Putin do Xi a solid by launching SMO, driving columns up to Kiev, and having a 3 day SMO mutate into the battle against North by South? How about others in BRICS? How about BRI? And the rest of the “South”?
Did China, Iran, possibly India, and whoever else Russia cozies up to and complains about the empire together, wanted to start the big showdown now?
Where they ready? Did they know what was coming?
Where they privy to Putin’s plans?
It is the Russians __who have been and are all over the place__ about what they want, what grievance needs to be corrected, etc. Their documents in December 2021 was as written by the victor of a global war! They were making demands that far far exceed Ukraine or Maidan or whatever.
So if you are a schmuck that promised ‘undying love’ for ‘friend Putin’ and then he puts your nation behind an _untimely_ strategic decision with existential consequences, is it possible that you may start thinking ‘is friend Putin really acting in our interest? should we delegate the fate of our nation to Russian Federations moves vs. West?’
Would you be super happy about what is going on?

Posted by: obviousmatter | Sep 29 2022 16:17 utc | 298

Forget roaming charges, soon they’ll be nowhere to roam too.
“Europe is now admitting that mobile network blackouts will occur. To put this in context, 500k towers in Europe have backup battery supplies which will last for 30 mins.”
https://twitter.com/thesiriusreport/status/1575432761292341248?cxt=HHwWgIC-hfvvh90rAAAA

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 29 2022 16:21 utc | 300