@ The Scots bloke | Dec 12 2022 20:29 utc | 22
‘Tis BS indeed. The ‘account of events’ is straight out of a UK/MI6 written script for hollywood style “Enemy at the Gates” propaganda.
However, do not merely take my word for it … Blissex has vouched for the Financial Times report along with, yet again, the utter SEWERAGE of the, breathlessly, ‘amazing‘ StrategyPage, which is literally 100% proof distilled Corporate_MSM shit.
Your assessment is not only corroborated but directly validated by a known Empire serial dis/mis-information & propaganda advocate.
Cheers.
– – –
@ Blissex – All

… Nixon managed to detach the PRC from the “second world” in 1972 (and after that the PRC allowed the DOD/CIA to setup a few bases on the southern border of the USSR), the current USA ruling elites hope that with regime change in Moscow they can detach the RF from the PRC, and get some DOD/CIA bases on the northern and western borders of the PRC from which to destabilize the PRC with the usual techniques.

Found that credible primary source reference yet , ideally declassified if possible, as it is 50 years ago now, for the bolded claim please ? (ah, no NYT or WaPo nor analogues from the ’80’s, thank you)
&

Military operation in Ukraine
Attempt on Kherson Region official’s life made by Ukrainian terrorists — authorities TASS
Ukraine crisis
Russia’s UNESCO mission says Kiev impinges on freedom of religion by sanctioning church TASS
EU needs stronger action to fill potential gap of 30B cubic meters of gas in 2023, IEA says
Despite progress on reducing reliance on Russian gas, EU is not out of danger zone yet, IEA chief cautions

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 12 2022 23:39 utc | 104

@ karlof1 | Dec 12 2022 23:00 utc | 84
I agree with your post. I have also wondered what the end game of the West is. I have come to the conclusion that they wish for a nuclear exchange initiated by RF. A depopulation event which the elites can survive in their bunkers. However this is also flawed since by the time they emerge from the bunkers the world will be controlled by their enemy.

Posted by: MG | Dec 12 2022 23:41 utc | 106

«Blissex has vouched for the Financial Times report along with, yet again, the utter SEWERAGE of the, breathlessly, ‘amazing’ StrategyPage»
That seems to me a straightforwardly malicious claim, which may be designed purely to troll for controversy, or perhaps it comes from ignoring the difference between quoting and endorsement.

Posted by: Blissex | Dec 12 2022 23:46 utc | 108

Hi, all the history facts may be true or not.
But now, we’re living that daily – may be or not having influenced today by those history facts/stories – okay?
Now, we’ve (not the olders) to decide where want to go on.
UKR-War (SMO) is reaction of what issues? Here reading, you all now that.
What’s about a “lot of” the HIMARS rockets, produced and shipped by US to UKR, that killed a lot of civis in Donetzk?
Okay- no matter – that is collateral.
I think about a very new future, where some 200 civis in Florida would have been killed – what thinking, the US-CNBS-CNN and also the very “democratic” Fox News would have to speak about every minute (lie in 9-11) minute-by-minute, who is blamed for that ?
Think.
Same scene now: Donbass fires itself – grotesk – isn’t it ?

Posted by: spare_truth | Dec 12 2022 23:50 utc | 110

EU needs stronger action to fill potential gap of 30B cubic meters of gas in 2023, IEA says
Despite progress on reducing reliance on Russian gas, EU is not out of danger zone yet, IEA chief cautions
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 12 2022 23:39 utc | 103
Well, that article is a load of pie in the sky nonsense. I can see a lot of politicians getting sacked in the near future.

Posted by: Gt Stroller | Dec 12 2022 23:51 utc | 112

Posted by: Roger | Dec 12 2022 23:22 utc | 91
«So yes, EU is 5 times the size of Russia+Belarus at PPP, industry to industry ratio is slightly less (services don’t fight wars).»
Many services are not that relevant to war, but for example services also include medicine and logistics :-).

Posted by: Blissex | Dec 12 2022 23:54 utc | 114

@ Roger | Dec 12 2022 21:12 utc | 38
Very important to keep in mind indeed & often overlooked.
Excluding multiple various ‘off-book’ funding/allocations, US/EU/NATO spends ~$2Trillion+ on ‘Defense’ in USD/year.
RF ~$68Billion (equivalent) in USD/year (Not PPP).
Yet, given demonstrable assessable facts of current situ subsequent last ten months ?
@ Melaleuca | Dec 12 2022 21:37 utc | 55
LOL. Oh well done indeed. Alas, far too true though.
@ Peter AU1 | Dec 12 2022 22:22 utc | 71
Yes indeed. UK/Ukies evermore trying to incite …

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 13 2022 0:01 utc | 116

https://tlgrm.ru/channels/@rybar/41960
Ukraine has found 5 tanks ! Woo hoo ! How nice to know they still have a few left (uh…for now).

Posted by: Eighthman | Dec 13 2022 0:04 utc | 118

«the logical thing for the Western elites would be to negotiate an acceptable settlement, but that would require significant losses by them»
What can the RF give the USA in exchange of the USA giving up control of Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Romania, Sweden, Bulgaria, Czechia, etc., and to give up trying to achieve “regime change” in the RF itself?
Some dreamers have answered “peace”, but right now the USA (and Germany, UK, France, …) are not at war, but the RF is at war with their (disposable, in the words of _elenski himself) proxy.

Posted by: Blissex | Dec 13 2022 0:07 utc | 120

Roger @100–
Thanks for your reply. So you see no escalation by Biden since the Neoliberal Parasites he fronts for can continue to reap in lots of loot from their new EU prize and of course from their usual source the US public? IMO, that too would be a semi-rational choice for to continue confronting Russia risks disaster as Putin hinted during his presser at Bishkek:

The United States has this theory of a preventive strike. This is the first point. Now the second point. They are developing a system for a disarming strike. What does that mean? It means striking at control centres with modern high-tech weapons to destroy the opponent’s ability to counterattack, and so on.
What are these modern weapons? These are cruise missiles that we did not have at one time – we did not have land-based cruise missiles. We removed them; we scrapped them. Meanwhile, the Americans were smarter at that time when they were holding talks with the Soviet Union. They scrapped land-based missiles but retained air- and sea-based missiles that were not covered by the treaty, and we became defenceless. But now we have them and they are more modern and even more efficient.
There were plans to deliver a preventive disarming strike with hypersonic weapons. The United States does not have these weapons, but we do. Regarding a disarming strike, perhaps we should think about using the achievements of our US partners and their ideas about how to ensure their own security. We are just thinking about this. No one was shy about discussing it out loud in the past. This is the first point.
The United States has a theory and even practice. They have the concept of a preventive strike in their strategy and other policy documents. We do not. Our Strategy talks about a retaliatory strike. There are no secrets whatsoever. What is a retaliatory strike? That is a response strike. It is when our early warning system, the missile attack warning system, detects missiles launched towards Russian Federation territory. First, it detects the launches, and then response actions begin.
We hold regular exercises of our nuclear forces. You can see them all, we are not hiding anything. We provide information under our agreements with all nuclear countries, including the United States. We inform our partners that we are conducting these exercises. Rest assured they do the exact same thing.
After the early warning system receives a signal indicating a missile attack, hundreds of our missiles are launched and they cannot be stopped. But it is still a retaliatory strike. What does that mean? It means that enemy missile warheads will fall on the territory of the Russian Federation. This cannot be avoided. They will fall anyway. True, nothing will remain of the enemy, because it is impossible to intercept hundreds of missiles. And this is, without a doubt, a potent deterrent.
But if a potential adversary believes it is possible to use the preventive strike theory, while we do not, this still makes us think about the threat that such ideas in the sphere of other countries’ defence pose to us. [My Emphasis]

Notice the coy construction of Putin’s statement. He says the USA has a particular doctrine that Russia doesn’t but lacks the means to deliver upon it while Russia does. Thus, the Hypersonic Gap was finally introduced to the global public. Perhaps the West has finally listened despite not at all liking what it just heard.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 13 2022 0:09 utc | 122

Apparently there was a major attack on military barracks around Bryansk. Which is where presumably mobilized troops are staging for the now mythical Winter Offensive that may never come.
This shortly after the West gave the greenlight for attacks deep in Russia.
And this is presumably just the beginning. This is what happens when you don’t mobilize the necessary resources and don’t finish the job on time, and when you repeatedly do not respond to ever bolder attacks even though you repeatedly talked about “red lines”. You look weak and pathetic and then nobody is afraid of you.
Let’s see if we finally see the decapitation strikes that should have been done if not on Day 1, no Day 100 the latest, but I am not holding my breath….

Posted by: Tbx | Dec 13 2022 0:11 utc | 124

Yes, indeed and there lies the rub ; to comport yourself in war so as to be a good effective soldier , and still remain an honourable person who can sleep at night , and be respected by all and sundry .
Posted by: Brother Ma | Dec 12 2022 20:28 utc | 21
—
All personal genius and integrity aside, a good and effective soldier, regardless of rank and position, is first and foremost a first-rate dumbass.
Because he has to follow orders and nothing but orders. In exceptional cases he may have the opportunity to follow his conscience, but that will be the end of his military career.

Posted by: Nobody | Dec 13 2022 0:17 utc | 126

Blissex | Dec 12 2022 23:54 utc | 113
Oh FFS the EU leadership is monumentally stupid. 9 packages of sanctions that they placed on themselves and they are now floundering madly trying to avoid sliding into 3rd world status.
Organising a fuck in a brothel is beyond them, any plan they make is doomed to failure. The evidence from this year should dispel any notion the the EU is capable of waging a war.
Get serious dude.

Posted by: Klaatu | Dec 13 2022 0:21 utc | 128

MG @105–
Thanks for your reply. The big problem for elites and their precious bunkers are two fold: First, Russia knows where they’re located; second, the kinetic energy of a hypersonic missile makes it more powerful than a nuclear warhead in that it is capable of literally burrowing into the ground/rock/mountain before erupting. In other words, hypersonics are Bunker Busters, and Russia has promised to use them on just those sorts of targets. The upshot is there’s no place for elites to hide, and that’s one of the several gamechangers presented by hypersonics.
Gt Stroller @114–
Thanks for your reply. Yes, it would be excellent if they would just mind their own business and sit in their counting house like Mr. Scrooge.
juliania @118–
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, we do need some form of national organization to maximize technological efficiency of, for example, the power grid and interstate highways along with regulating the financial system to eliminate fraud. But the form of national government that now exists in DC IMO is mostly unneeded.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 13 2022 0:35 utc | 130

@ Blissex | Dec 12 2022 23:46 utc | 107
If engaging, at least have the minimal courtesy to address your post to the poster (me) directly, as you have demonstrated you are capable of so doing, instead of taking a surreptitious, quiet dump in a dark corner of the bar, when you thought no-one was looking. This particular practice, not doing so ‘selectively’, is an ubiquitous ‘trait’ amongst a particular ‘class’ of ‘contributors’ …

designed purely to troll

An inadvertent, shocking exposure of your fruedian slip (was forced to avert my eyes), self-descriptor, or mere projection, Blissex ?

ignoring the difference between quoting and endorsement

YOU have both quoted & personally recommended & endorsed as ‘amazing‘ ‘StrategyPage’ sewerage at least twice now, whilst also now selectively ignoring your own posted content re the former, on record … remarkable.

in 1972 (and after that the PRC allowed the DOD/CIA to setup a few bases on the southern border of the USSR)

Have you found that credible primary source reference yet, ideally declassified if possible, as it is 50 years ago now, for the bolded claim please ? (ah, no NYT or WaPo nor analogues from the ’80’s, thank you)
PS There is no shame in admitting your extra-ordinary claim is baseless BS, you’d even score a coupla points of cred … dontcha know.
& in other news:

EU ambassadors agreed 18 bln euro aid package for Ukraine
Iranian Defense Minister: Kiev Has Shown No Proof of Russia Using Iranian Drones
Nine Months Into Special Military Operation, Are Dogfights Over Ukraine Making Russian Aces?

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 13 2022 0:42 utc | 132

bevin @124–
Thanks for your reply. Looks like the only way to attain the Four Freedoms is to upend Dollar Hegemony and foment a massive financial crisis within the Outlaw US Empire. The problem’s been festering for decades, and that seems to be the only sensible action that will give us the results we desire.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 13 2022 0:51 utc | 134

@ Karlof1 Post 97
my deep apologies. Just couldn’t pass up Ms. Yellen’s “as long as it take” statement of yesterday.
I sense the guys and gals managing Z are now running scared. Sanctions are all they got and clearly they have failed and/or backfired.
3 days ago
China’s Xi was given a royal warm welcome in Riyadh. Recall earlier this year President Biden was snubbed.
At the summit with the Gulf Arab Leaders Xi took away the petrodollar punch bowl.
Reuters: China’s Xi calls for oil trade in yuan at Gulf summit in Riyadh | LINK
And backing up his statement;

BEIJING, Dec 9 (Reuters) – China’s President Xi Jinping said in Riyadh on Friday that China and Gulf nations should make full use of the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange as a platform to carry out yuan settlement of oil and gas trade.
China and states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are natural partners for cooperation, Xi said in a speech at the China-GCC summit.
“China will continue to import large quantities of crude oil from GCC countries, expand imports of liquefied natural gas, strengthen cooperation in upstream oil and gas development, engineering services, storage, transportation and refining, and make full use of the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange as a platform to carry out yuan settlement of oil. [.]
LINK
Now, considering Ghana has announced it will be using gold to buy oil. hmmm
Egypt has joined the BRICS Development Bank. Argentina, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, and Turkey are not just interested in BRICS membership but have filed official applications to join. And With so many other countries standing in line to join….
I smell the mouse-click dollar is toasting.

Posted by: Likklemore | Dec 13 2022 1:01 utc | 136

@Posted by: ReinhardVonSiegfried | Dec 13 2022 0:55 utc | 134
Russia started with too small a force, that is well known. Now Russia is bringing its forces up to more advisable strength and in the meantime has destroyed the Ukrainian army that existed at the start of the conflict, and is now grinding through the 100,000s of new recruits and mercenaries which are armed by the West and gain very significant intelligence from US satellites etc. As Ukraine seems amenable to feed its reserves into the slaughter house Russia is happy to oblige.
Once those reserves are fully annihilated/committed and the Russian forces are up to strength and the ground is fully frozen you may see the front line move West at a quicker pace. Russia can take its time as Ukraine and the West bleeds out, hence the attempts by the West to escalate and cause other conflicts (e.g. Kosovo). Russia is not embarrassed, and it will simply grind onwards until it is happy that the Ukrainian army is heavily weakened and fully committed. That’s the time a good general strikes, especially one that values the lives of his troops.

Posted by: Roger | Dec 13 2022 1:08 utc | 138

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 12 2022 23:39 utc | 103
This again?
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/02/18/great-wager-spy-soviet-union
About two dozen American military technicians from the National Security Agency settled into Northwest Beijing to train the Chinese in how to operate the American computers, transmitters and radar.
It’s not that big a secret that it happened.

Posted by: Bill Smith | Dec 13 2022 1:15 utc | 140

bevin @141–
The best soldiers are smart men and, in wartime, merit is rewarded.
Yes, usually by preserving one’s life.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 13 2022 1:25 utc | 142

“As Ukraine seems amenable to feed its reserves into the slaughter house Russia is happy to oblige.”
Yes, its all going brilliantly, isnt it? Just anytime now, the magical counteroffensive will materialize, like poof!, suddenly. Logistics and everything. Yes, indeed, all according to plan. (sigh.)

Posted by: Fnord73 | Dec 13 2022 1:33 utc | 144

karlof1 | Dec 13 2022 1:25 utc | 142
For the ordinary or frontline soldier it seems more luck of the draw. Certain skills help but still luck of the draw.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 13 2022 1:45 utc | 146

Sure the best soldiers are smart men but the smartest men are never soldiers.
Thats mine.

Posted by: Comandante | Dec 13 2022 1:49 utc | 148

44Cadillac | Dec 13 2022 1:41 utc | 145
I think the future of tech depends on number and quality of stem graduates. At some time I think China will take a clear lead in most technologies. It already leads is is at the cutting edge of a good number.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 13 2022 1:54 utc | 150

@84
”
IMO, there’s no policy imaginable that would allow the West to attain its goals, yet it persists to its own detriment. Why? Hubris? Pleonexia? Because they have nothing better to do? Stupidity? Or is the irrationality of Racism and related belief in one’s own Exceptionalism driving those who say they’re in charge
”
Russias ability to launch enough nuclear weapons isn’t a given. Over a long enough period of time it will disappear or its central government will fail and nukes will be sent all over- sold, destroyed, launched, break down, abandoned.
I think you lack a little imagination. I can spin half a dozen scenarios where Russia is destroyed without terminal damage.

Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Dec 13 2022 2:04 utc | 152

The Scots bloke | Dec 12 2022 20:29 utc | 22
The Financial Times, IMHO, is not an honest reporter of facts, sad to say. Something happened in the UK to make propaganda acceptable without fact finding.
The BBC may have started it during the first Iraqi war, Desert Storm. I have no clue about its origins, but am curious about a cavalcade of sorts, even the Murdoch paper joining in.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | Dec 13 2022 2:05 utc | 154

@ Bill Smith | Dec 13 2022 1:15 utc | 140
Yawn, yet again, promptly on behalf of Blissex. Are you & Blissex joined at the hip, or just a sock, left or right ?
How comforting, you found the time to follow the NS Archive link provided to you regarding your repetitious propagation of Bakers lies re expansion of NATO by the lying NYT. Though you elegantly chose to use a distant subsidiary secondary source … Boston NPR … yet another Empire RFE analogue … nice touch.
Yet PRC allowed the DOD/CIA to setup a few bases on the southern border of the USSR. ?
Merely very limited provision & training on US supplied ELINT/COMINT monitoring equipment operated by a total of 2 CIA staff (per MASSIVE DOD/CIA BASE (Ho ho ho)). No, a listening post is not a DOD/CIA Base. And not when 110% under the absolute, total & direct control & supervision of PRC PLA throughout … from flight ingress to egress from China, ’til termination of access & seizure of kit.
Is one description unlike the other ? One blown out of all proportion for propaganda effect ? An interesting play on words, by Blissex, is it not, that you support/ed, as for on other occasions, such as the BS StrategyPage ?
Bravo though. There may be hope for you yet. 🙂
Perhaps inform the bar re the Hainan Island incident 2001 ?
Have you gotten around to actually reading the Briefing Book #613 ‘NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard’, from National Security Archives, even merely the abstract, yet ? You know, re your repeated posting of falsehoods re Baker’s/NYTs outright serial propaganda lies. Merely curious ?

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 13 2022 2:10 utc | 156

General Short? Thank you , Minimo. I don’t doubt you. I mentioned Macgregor as he was certainly involved in a staff capacity for Wesley Clark. I looked up some information from way back then and they certainly mention him as planning for the destruction of Yugoslavia. The Americans cried they couldn’t get equipment in fast enough as the main ports were Salonika in Greece and Durres and Valona in Albania.
As for armies lying ,oh yes, I know a bit about that. I am glad to say I was one of the first people , if not the first civilian to independently manage to debunk Israel’ s loss of a F35 to Stork damage! Lol . It was almost certainly due to crap – quality or shot down by Russia/Syria.
Posted by: Brother Ma | Dec 13 2022 2:05 utc | 153
Yes. General Short. I forgot to add the link to his obituary: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dailypress/name/michael-short-obituary?id=15495687

Posted by: MiniMO | Dec 13 2022 2:13 utc | 158

Posted by: dust | Dec 13 2022 0:46 utc | 132
Thanks, dust. I do notice partial truth in Rove’s admission: “… and you, all of you, will be left…” He should have stopped right there, having admitted what a selfserving chamber of horrors his ‘reality’ actually would turn out to be. But I won’t blame him for all of it — it’s a big club, is the phrase that comes to mind, and I’m very glad not to be in it. Also thanks to karlof1 who reminds me that there are a lot of folk with knowhow in and out of government who make things run. They are part of us, the good part. By their fruits …

Posted by: juliania | Dec 13 2022 2:22 utc | 160

Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 12 2022 20:21 utc | 20
As stated in the esoteric masterwork the Bhagavad Gita, a soldier like all of us is bound to duty, if that duty entails war then he is correct in doing so. However duty only encompasses what needs be done and no more, and requires it to be fulfilled without hatred or malice. Any soldier that enjoys killing or commits war crimes is of course not fulfilling duty.

Posted by: Organic | Dec 13 2022 2:33 utc | 162

This may be the best EU plan since it was unelected.
Posted by: Elmagnostic | Dec 13 2022 2:14 utc | 159
I think the obstinate persistence in self-destruction of the EU aristocratic elites is something to behold: WWI, WWII, and now this each dramatically reducing their stature; and each very much their own doing, with Uncle Sugar cheering them on.

Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 13 2022 2:41 utc | 164

@ Peter AU1 | Dec 13 2022 1:28 utc | 143
Sadly, to Empire, Peru, Kazakhstan, Serbia/Kosovo, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, etc are also but mere pawns.
Speaking of Empires Boeing/Airbus duopoly & the consequences of the huge tranche of self-defeating sanctions re the Ukraine conflict:

Western airlines need to return to Russian airspace – IATA
The ban on flying over the world’s biggest country is weighing heavily on the industry, the airline association says
Aeroflot Orders 339 Russian-Built Planes
Aeroflot refreshing fleet with Russian planes.
Aeroflot Group and United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) have signed an agreement for the purchase of 339 Russian-built planes. This deal includes the following aircraft:
210 Irkut MC-21
89 Sukhoi Superjet New
40 Tupolev Tu-214
This deal is worth $16 billion at list prices, and was signed at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. The Russian government will help with financing for this order.
These planes are expected to join Aeroflot’s fleet between 2023 and 2030, with the first Sukhoi planes being delivered in 2023, and the first Irkut and Tupolev planes being delivered in 2024. The planes are intended for all Aeroflot Group airlines, including Aeroflot, Rossiya, and Pobeda.
Historic Day: COMAC Delivers The 1st C919 To China Eastern.
The carrier is the launch customer for the first homegrown Chinese narrowbody aircraft designed to disrupt the Airbus and Boeing duopoly.
The world’s first C919 aircraft, bearing the registration B-919A, is being delivered to its world’s first customer, China Eastern Airlines (CEA). The Shanghai-based airline is the launch customer of the type and has been heavily involved in its development.
The flight followed news that China Eastern’s aircraft acceptance team for the first aircraft arrived at COMAC’s Delivery Center late last month. The C919 is China’s first homegrown large passenger aircraft to meet international airworthiness standards and follows the smaller regional jet, the ARJ21, to production. The aircraft features an advanced aerodynamic design, propulsion system, and materials, as well as lower carbon emissions and higher fuel efficiency than the planes it is looking to replace …
World Airline Body Calls for Post-War Return to Russian Airspace
Western airlines should prepare to return to Russian airspace (really ?) when the war in Ukraine has ended, the head of the global airline trade group said Tuesday.
Flights between Russia and the West came to a virtual standstill following mutual (reciprocal !) airspace bans in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February. The closures limited Russian-owned and chartered flights around the world while also forcing Western airlines to take longer and more expensive routes to reach Asia. (Hence commercially noncompetitive re up to doubled costs, including Air Frieght costs as well as reduced flights thereof)
International Air Transport Association (IATA) head Willie Walsh said war-related airspace closures have created unsustainable congestion(costs for) over Europe. 
He also warned that Chinese carriers (Oh no !) would gain a competitive advantage over their European rivals once Beijing relaxes its Covid-19 restrictions (Now paste tense)…

What now for the lost market share of Boeing/Airbus duopoly, increased passenger, operating & air freight costs along with reduced access to critical raw materials re maintenance & manufacture. In less than a decade likely locked out of Russian, Chinese, in fact Eurasian markets minimum …
And so late stage Empire dies … such ‘winning’, not.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 13 2022 2:58 utc | 166

Mike Whitney has an excellent article on the war. His conclusions are not for the faint of heart.
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/putin-shrugs-off-washingtons-provocations-and-sticks-to-business/

Posted by: bevin | Dec 13 2022 3:14 utc | 168

@bevin | Dec 13 2022 3:18 utc | 168
Bevin, IIRC Schopenhauer was well known (and liked?) in Britain in the 19th century, because his language even in translation was easier to comprehend – and his fame in Britain preceded his fame in Germany. – but we both are veering off topic 🙂

Posted by: fanto | Dec 13 2022 3:50 utc | 170

Bonami @157–
Thanks for your reply. Yes, the use of bioweapons is a distinct possibility given past (or recent?) behavior, but as Covid proved, they are volatile and almost impossible to contain. One of my old favorite films is The Omega Man, and little has changed since that time. Also, if Russia thinks it’s being attacked by Bioweapons and suspects the only possible culprit, most of North America will be made inhabitable.
44Cadillac @145–
Thanks for your reply. Along with the Hypersonic Gap there’s an educational gap of the same sort JFK recognized in 1961 except it’s much worse today. Look at where Russia is located latitude-wise and understand its goal to make that region just as livable as temperate latitudes and what sort of developmental technologies that will require. And that’s merely one example of several.
Peter AU1 @146–
Thanks for your reply. Yes, luck is involved to be sure; but then the smart often make their own luck. I recall describing the current trench conditions back when this all started to educate james and others who had no clue. Back then I wrote that if you’re on the wrong side of the FEBA then your best move is to leave Ukraine, and that advice remains very solid.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 13 2022 4:08 utc | 172

@ Jordi #12 Re t.me. Intel Slava Z . . . . All good from New Zealand working fine.

Posted by: Kiwikris | Dec 13 2022 4:16 utc | 174

The Omega Man (1971) – Original Introduction Featurette Youtube. Runtime: 4m.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 13 2022 4:29 utc | 176

Yet another on the spot source compares Kosovo with Donbass/Ukraine as RT reports:

The ongoing standoff in Kosovo bears an uncanny resemblance to the Donbass crisis, Russia’s envoy to Belgrade Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko told Rossiya 24 TV channel on Monday.
“The whole situation, everything, including Pristina’s attitude towards the Kosovo Serbs, resembles, although on a smaller scale, what has happened and is still happening in Ukraine,” the diplomat said. The West is also treating the ethnic Albanian government in Kosovo the same way it has Kiev, he argued.
Comparing the Donbass crisis to tensions in Kosovo, the ambassador added that “Pristina’s desire … to take control over all of Kosovo, including the regions inhabited by Serbs, at all cost” is what “lies at the heart” of this standoff. Any further escalation would lead to more drastic consequences, Botsan-Kharchenko warned.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic still seeks to get out of this spiral of tensions “through peaceful means” and avoid transforming it into a full-blown conflict, according to the envoy.
“Pristina openly … bets on hard power, brute force,” Botsan-Kharchenko added, which makes a peaceful resolution “extremely hard” to reach.
NATO seized Kosovo from Serbia in 1999, following the bombing of Serbia. The US and its allies continue to enable the ethnic Albanians in the province, the Russian ambassador has said recently, comparing it with their behavior towards Kiev. Botsan-Kharchenko specifically referred to former German chancellor Angela Merkel’s admission that the Minsk agreements were intended to give Ukraine time to arm against Russia.

I seem to recall this playbook from earlier incidents elsewhere in the world, particularly with Color Revolutions. The NATO overlords have refused Serbia’s right to send in additional police as the UNSCR allows.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 13 2022 4:32 utc | 178

⚡️🇷🇺🇺🇦⚔️ #Chronicle of the Special Military Operation for 12 Dec 2022⚡️
♦️#Starobelsk Direction:
▪️ In the #Kupyansk – #Svatovo section, units of the 14th Mechanized Brigade of the AFU are conducting a positional defence. The 14th Brigade’s tank battalion has one T-64B1B tank and four T-72s in a state of combat readiness.
▪️ A reconnaissance team of the 80th Air Assault Brigade of the AFU is searching for Russian fire positions near #Stelmakhovka. Ukrainian artillery and tactical aviation are engaged to hit the identified targets.
▪️ In the #Lyman sector, combined assault groups of the 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade and 25th Airmobile Brigade continue their attempts to storm Russian positions in the direction of #Chervonopopovka. There are positional battles near the #Medvezhye tract and #Zhuravka gully.
♦️#Soledar Direction (MAP):
▪️ In the #Bakhmut (#Artemovsk) area, fighting continues in the vicinity of #Bakhmut. Wagner PMC assault units have taken control of two enemy strongholds on the #Bakhmut – #Soledar line.
▪️ In the #Toretsk (#Dzerzhinsk) sector, Russian units supported by artillery are conducting an offensive east of #Toretsk.
▪️ In the #Lysychansk sector, Ukrainian commanders are preparing to storm RF Armed Forces’ positions near #Belogorovka.
♦️#Lugansk People’s Republic:
▪️ Ukrainian militants shelled the towns of #Svatovo and #Kremennaya with rockets and barrel artillery. Residential buildings and a gas pipeline were damaged and civilians killed.
♦️#Donetsk Direction:
▪️ Motorized riflemen of the RF Armed Forces are fighting in the centre of #Maryinka. Russian artillery strikes enemy positions on the western outskirts of the city.
▪️ In the #Ugledar sector, the RF Armed Forces are conducting a local offensive near Bolshaya (Velikaya) Novosyolka. There are no significant advances.
▪️ Ukrainian militants shelled residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in #Donetsk, #Gorlovka, #Yakovlevka, #Yasynuvata, #Kashtanovoye and other settlements in the agglomeration. At least three civilians were killed.
♦️#Zaporozhye Direction:
▪️ In the village of #Konstantinovka, an enemy SRG detonated an explosive device near a bridge support on the #Melitopol – #Berdyansk highway.
▪️ Along the line of contact, artillery duels continue. The RF Armed Forces hit concentrations of AFU personnel in #Dorozhnyanka, #Gulyaypolskoye, #Orekhov and #Malinovka.
♦️#Kherson Direction on Southern Front:
▪️ In #Skadovsk, there was an assassination attempt on the deputy head of the #Kherson region. A mine was planted under his car. The driver died on the spot, the official was taken to Simferopol hospital in serious condition.
▪️ Russian artillery shelled enemy positions in #Chernovbaevka, Chervonyy Mayak and #Lvovo.
In turn, the Ukrainian militants fired mortars at residential buildings in #Aleshki and Golaya Pristan.

https://t.me/sitreports/2039

Posted by: Down South | Dec 13 2022 4:45 utc | 180

Posted by: Moaobserver | Dec 12 2022 22:38 utc | 75
well the info at that link was pretty convincing.
I have been mystified and perturbed for months by this artillery thing. Those fields of craters made no sense at all.
Seems to me you may well be right and all is not well at all within the Russian military.
I want them to succeed. I want peace and preservation of lives and I don’t think that’s going to happen until Russia ‘wins’ – or a ceasefire.
So I can only hope that they are waking up to their own deficiencies as so many little things here and there seem to indicate and that Putin has enough friends and dependable people to be able to make change happen.
Because it certainly looks bad.
However I don’t think the US or fascism or imperialism are winning. Those are global bigger issues. To me it seems they’ve losing out big time and there Russia is winning big time. Unless Putin is simply being played by all his new ‘allies’ which I know is always on the cards.
But his military machine and the will and ability of the Russian people will be enough to maintain what they currently have and that’s enough. If they can hold the line the ‘new order’ will become established and his new friends will become accomplices and they’ll all work in together and it’ll come out well.
So that’s my wishful thinking and cultish psychosis.
Thanks for the link and the truth therein. I’ve subscribed to them. If you have any more such please share.
🙂

Posted by: abrogard | Dec 13 2022 4:51 utc | 182

Acco Hengst | Dec 13 2022 2:05 utc | 154
>…When did the media start lying?
Oh dear. Probably when Adam’s PR and crisis management team framed Eve and the serpent….
>…”Curious…even the Murdoch paper joining in.”
Oh dear.
Rupert Murdoch is the son of Keith Murdoch.
Keith Murdoch ….. didn’t invent lurid, tabloid journalism, but he enthusiastically embraced it…He discovered – at a very young age – the intoxicating influence and Power of the Press, and didn’t hesitate to insert himself into backroom politics and even military planning during WW1. (Wikipedia for the more sanitised version)
Post WW1 Keith Murdoch became a Media Baron.
A powerful man with waaaaay too much capacity and willingness to direct, control, steer and extort a fledgling nation of a mere 6million….
Rupert learnt well at his father’s knees. From the Adelaide Advertiser his tentacles eventually thrust themselves into Narrative Media in both the UK and US.
He started The Australian, the only national newspaper (never profitable) as a bully pulpit. Replicating and exceeding his father, he has exerted power, his Might, over an anaemic Australian politic/business class way disproportionate to his “Right”.
None of us @bar will know the exhilarating elixir, the supreme aphrodisiac of toppling governments; prevailing; insisting on policies that vest huge, incomprehensible profits… the pure unadulterated rampancy of being just one singular man, possessing the kind of global power where princes, bishops and polities everywhere can be made to bend, yield in servility, to your will…
The flip-side of any coin of the kind possessed by Murdoch – is he must, in turn, cede, submit, romance, seek favour and patronage.
And that, that is The Swamp, where creatures are simultaneously predator and prey..
Murdoch has gone close on occasion to losing his Empire… the bankers, the extenders of credit, the owners of debt… they can also insist on their primacy.
Someone will have a “hit piece” orchestrated against them. They can be destroyed…. Others will never be named.
In the roiling, murky depths of The Swamp, who is your chum, and who is just chopped fish, will forever remain imprecise and involuted.
For the rest of us, in the caustic words of Carlin: It’s a Big Club, and you ain’t in it.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 13 2022 5:12 utc | 184

“For the rest of us, in the caustic words of Carlin: It’s a Big Club, and you ain’t in it.”
Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 13 2022 5:12 utc | 183
People outside of that group should take pride in that. Sure many others noted the reference from an earlier post(whom knows what’s what), glad someone actually mentioned it. Carlin was top notch:)

Posted by: dust | Dec 13 2022 5:30 utc | 186

@ Moaobserver | Dec 12 2022 22:38 utc | 75
@ abrogard | Dec 13 2022 4:51 utc | 181
Virtually every single article by ‘Roman Skomorokhov’, head honcho & moderator of TopWar.ru going back to Feb2422 may as well have been written by ISW or BBC.
Cannot find a resume of the above ‘Roman Skomorokhov’. Does he have one ?
Well IF that shit was true, the Ukraine is in an order of magnitude worse off. In worse shape than currently assessed. And Empire/US/NATO/EU is absolutely shambolic up against such a derelict incompetent Military. Oh no !
Oh, wait, Empire has FA ammunition & exhausted almost ~30 nations War Stocks Materiels. Ukraine is on it’s 6th+ forced conscription mobilization of boys & girls & men & women up to 60 ? All is lost !
Why don’t you read something globally recognized by experts in their fields (History, Military, Russia, Strategic/Operational/Tactical Doctrine & Armaments, etc) worldwide by Dr Lester Grau & Co for example ?
Hell, B even linked a 2018 study The Russian Reconnaissance Fire Complex Comes of Age (pdf) – Lester W. Grau et al in the Week in Review Thread for ya. Did ya’ll miss it ?
Or you could just do a PDF search on Dr (LtCol) Lester Grau, Senior Historian/Researcher on Russian Studies at US Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Or not …
Clearly Dr Grau & Co compared to the product of ‘Roman Skomorokhov’, are clearly fraudulent, ignorant, unqualified rubes … the state of the US Army must be beyond salvation !

Lester W. Grau is the Research Coordinator for the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Defense Language Institute (Russian) and the U.S. Army’s Institute for Advanced Russian and Eastern European Studies. He retired from the US Army in 1992 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His military education included the Infantry Officers Basic and Advanced Courses, the United States Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Air Force War College. His Baccalaureate and master’s degrees are in International Relations. His doctorate is in Military History. He served a combat tour in Vietnam, four European tours, a Korean tour and a posting in Moscow. He has traveled to the Soviet Union and Russia over forty times. He has also been a frequent visitor to the Asian subcontinent, especially Pakistan and Afghanistan. He visited Iraq in October 2003. He is a recent CENTCOM Fellow.
Publications
Grau has published over one hundred articles and studies on tactical, operational and geopolitical subjects. His book, The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan, a translation of a study by the Soviet Frunze Military Academy was published in 1996. The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War, co-authored with Ali Jalali, was published in 1998. The Soviet-Afghan War: How a Superpower Fought and Lost, a translation from a study prepared for the Russian General Staff, was published in 2000, and is in almost 700 libraries. The Partisan’s Handbook, first published in the Soviet Union in 1942. The Coils of the Anaconda: America’s First Conventional Battle in Afghanistan were published in 2011. He is also republishing General Skeen’s 1932 Passing It On: Short Talks on Tribal Fighting On the North-West Frontier of India.
He is an occasional contributor to the Journal of Slavic Military Studies.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 13 2022 5:34 utc | 188

Scholtz must have been partying with Zelensky prior to saying what RT reported: “Economic cooperation can resume after Moscow loses in Ukraine, the German chancellor has said.”
Yes, whatever it takes and however long it takes until all EU is bankrupted. That’ll show Russia who’s boss!
Northern Europe’s lucky Winter has begun on a mild note. But there’ll be less gas available for the next winter and even more unemployed.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 13 2022 5:47 utc | 190

Blissex | Dec 13 2022 0:07 utc | 119
Attempting to understand your transactional analysis:
“What can the RF give the USA in exchange…” for what you’ve characterized as “concessions” — that is, the US fulfilling its promises, honoring, not abrogating, its treaties, following international law (not malleable made-up “rules”), abiding by UN resolutions, ceasing illegal sanctions, coups, assassinations, and serial unprovoked wars. What can Russia possibly offer in “fair” exchange for these generous “concessions” to criminals, to mass-murderous psychopaths?
“Some dreamers have answered peace”. (How silly and
naive). Well, yes it is indeed too late for such a quaint childish notion of peace and mutual security. So, though it may not offset the oh-so-generous US “concessions” all that Russia can now offer the US is its continuing existence,.its very survival. But it’s a limited a time offer — Going, going …

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Dec 13 2022 6:30 utc | 192

They do seem to have sown up the UK/EU elites as vassals, so the US elites (which also have the Latin American elites under a lot of control) can continue for quite a while.
Posted by: Roger | Dec 12 2022 23:37 utc | 100
You think so. Not quite. At least South American elites are more like whores than puppets or servants. They are rather independent minded and they’ll have no qualms about leaving their present day daddy sugar U.S for the guy they just met (China) who happens to have a bigger bank account and a shinier Lamborghini. Remember, those countries have been independent for almost as long as the U.S. so their elites don’t feel like newborns or kids who have anything to learn from the big guys in North America and Europe, even more so when to a great extent they are also White Europeans themselves. Even as we speak the main trade partner of almost all countries in LATAM has come to be China and since the 1960s some countries like Peru, Cuba, Nicaragua and others have been even equipping their military with Soviet and then Russian stuff. In Washington they know all this, just like the old rich fart knows that the young ravishing blonde may disappear any day from his home to never come back again.

Posted by: gatobart | Dec 13 2022 7:08 utc | 194

@bevin
It was Toqueville who observed that Russia and the USA were the powers of the future because they were the only once with open space to explore. Written in the early 1800s

Posted by: Orgel | Dec 13 2022 8:19 utc | 196

karolf1 [189]
“Aber ein Russland, das den Krieg beendet (…) braucht auch die Chance, dass in anderen Zeiten wieder möglich ist, ökonomische Kooperation zu beginnen: Nur ist das nicht jetzt”, sagte Scholz. Nach dem Krieg werde Russland aber das größte Land auf dem europäischen Kontinent bleiben. “Deshalb ist ganz zentral, dass wir für diese Zeit Vorbereitung treffen.”
Your German translation skills are poor ! Scholz did NOT say what you claim he said and RT has spiced the translation.
Scholz is trying to placate an angry population with platitudes stating – once Russia ends the war it can be allowed to participate again as it is the largest land mass on the European Continent.
It is typical Scholzian twaddle. Saxony saw snow yesterday and the A4 was blocked with trucks. It is cold and Saxony burns coal to keep warm but coal is scarce. Schwedt and Leuna provide fuel but gas and oil pipeline imports are now restricted so Eastern Germany could run short of petrol/diesel and heating oil.
Scholz is trying to sound like he has a plan. Like Macron he is hoping he can find a chink up light up ahead. Fanatics in his party are out to attack AfD right to stand in elections which will blow up the political landscape in Eastern Germany where it is the young who vote AfD to express anger and the old vote Linke (Communist) for better pensions.
Scholz is on the edge of a volcano which will split Germany.
Just remember in 1990 Kohl sidelined the 23. May 1949 German Constitution which under Art 23 stated: „Dieses Grundgesetz gilt zunächst im Gebiete der Länder Baden, Bayern, Bremen, Groß-Berlin, Hamburg, Hessen, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Schleswig-Holstein, Württemberg-Baden und Württemberg-Hohenzollern. In anderen Teilen Deutschlands ist es nach deren Beitritt in Kraft zu setzen.“
and in Art 146 stated Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Art 146
Dieses Grundgesetz, das nach Vollendung der Einheit und Freiheit Deutschlands für das gesamte deutsche Volk gilt, verliert seine Gültigkeit an dem Tage, an dem eine Verfassung in Kraft tritt, die von dem deutschen Volke in freier Entscheidung beschlossen worden ist.
A Referendum on a New Constitution for a United Germany………….Kohl ditched it and instead created New Federal States on territory of GDR and had each one apply to join the Federal Republic under Art 23……..without referendum ………so it was similar to Russia re-integrating Novo-Rossiya in DPR and LPR although Russia did hold referenda which Germany did uniquely for Saarland 1935 and 1955.
So Germany faces a very difficult few years ahead steered onto a disaster course by Scholz-Habeck-Lindner-Baerbock and school is terrified

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Dec 13 2022 8:52 utc | 198

Posted by: Julian | Dec 12 2022 22:41 utc | 78
I don’t think there will be a winter offensive as advertised. But the current offensives will continue and there’s a good chance Kiev Ukraine’s lines will simply crumble. And then Russia will cautiously and slowly advance Westward where and when it wants. Which won’t be much. They’ll be waiting for capitulation at least to talking point rather than going for overwhelming military victory.
Is my guess.

Posted by: abrogard | Dec 13 2022 9:14 utc | 200