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March 30, 2023
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-75
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There is absolutely no sign that these token gestures are hurting the greenback right now. Yes, the dollar’s proportion of global reserves has sunk from 72 per cent in 1999 to 59 per cent as central banks increasingly diversify their investment funds and discard currency pegs. However …
Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | Mar 31 2023 12:23 utc | 197
The reduction in currency demand is hurting. But the thing is, the West sliding into a planned totalitarianism economy and forced reduction in imports (=forced reduction in consumer good items, livestock products and carbon credits) is front running the decrease of western currency demand. The impact is somewhere, it’s what we manifest through the Green Tyranny agenda and prices of stuff and living going up.
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 31 2023 12:36 utc | 201
Outraged | Mar 31 2023 10:52 utc | 183
We watch this collapse of empire. Have been watching some videos from China and Asia. Although high population density and busy, I found Thailand and China to be very peaceful places. Peaceful on the mind. Thailand my idiot daughter nearly got me into a fight. Nearly poked a bloke in the eye with a stick for eating pineapple. He wasn’t a wimp that fights a woman. If I was young it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but I was already fucked then. I push the idiot child back behind me and shut her down. She was going to get me hammered. It’s a bastard getting old. Hand signals and so forth sorted the situation out.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 31 2023 12:39 utc | 202
https://www.voltairenet.org/article219090.html
Interesting interpretation of historical past – with which I do not fully concur – and future directions which are sadly probable……
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 31 2023 12:39 utc | 203
My guesstimate of the 650,000 NATO ground forces being assembled:
Which only goes to show how far your assessments are from reality…………you really must look at ACTUAL combat forces in any of these countries which are probably 30% current Establishment strength
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 31 2023 12:42 utc | 204
I can’t see how Russia takes all of Ukraine
Cannot see any logic in your assertion. Once the defensive “Vauban fortresses” Kiev has built around DPR are breached it is not clear what defensive lines remain to obstruct a Russian sweep…………
Nor is it clear whether Ukrainian populace will offer any resistance once the regime collapses
Where forces are concentrated Russian artillery pulverises it – maybe there are no more defensive redoubts once Bakhmut falls and the breakthrough is achieved ?
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 31 2023 12:50 utc | 205
John Kennard @115–
Well, I disagree with you over the coup performed in Philadelphia as its proceedings were to be kept secret forever and did establish an aristocracy–the US Senate and US Supreme Court. And yes, inventive ways to finance war have existed since wars needed financing–why wars is an excellent question seldom asked.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 31 2023 0:51 utc | 124
You nailed it Karl.
My thought would be that the US finance system is based around war. Without war, the US finance system collapses. Reduce that to the threat of war. Russia has called the US bluff. Russia is just sitting there. An immovable object. The battle of Kursk. Russia vs the so called west.Russia is good at setting up bug zappers. Exceptionally good at turning a trap for them into a trap for the attackers.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 31 2023 12:55 utc | 206
I guess I should put up a link to “send in the clowns” as that is what so often occurs here. The idiot people manning the anglo troll factories.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 31 2023 13:03 utc | 207
More on the Bunkerbuster Mar 31 Translate OK
Terrifying impact 130 meters underground from a Russian super-sonic Kinzhal missile at the NATO command center in Ukraine!
Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile with a target impact speed of Mach 12 (twelve times the speed of sound) managed to hit the Ukrainian-NATO joint command, control and communications center installed at a depth of 130 meters!
The underground headquarters (built 400 feet underground) housed a number of NATO officials and reportedly housed over 300 people.
https://www-pronews-gr.translate.goog/amyna-asfaleia/enoples-sygkroyseis/ektakto-tromaktiko-ktypima-se-120-metra-vathos-me-rosiko-yper-yperixitiko-vlima-kinzhal-sto-kentro-dioikisis-tou-nato-stin-oukrania/?_x_tr_sl=el&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 31 2023 13:05 utc | 208
Posted by: bevin | Mar 31 2023 1:09 utc | 128
Thank you for that comment. I think & have felt exactly the same way, & have for 20 years since the rolling clvsterfuck of the Bush 2 admin occurred. The ridiculous, over the top arrogance of a bunch of utterly incompetent & openly corrupt people, which refused to make any course corrections, because “we’re an Empire now and we create our own reality,” to paraphrase Rove, was really frightening to me as someone who’s not in the 0.1% they served. It’s not that Nixon, also Carter, obviously the Clintons weren’t overt scumbags, but Bush’s self-assurance (which seemed to be a hangover from his drinking/ drugging youth + privilege) never really being checked except, at most, in his falling popularity levels the last 2 years, some of the comedy directed at him (by John Stewart, e.g., now sadly a Power Suckup palling around with HRC and Condi Rice e.g.) were pretty paltry blowback . . . the problem remains that after Bush the ability of the Ruling Class to non-stop smash everything remaining in the gov’t. & the economy that was semi-functional, while creating a gravy train of profit$ for themselves and impoverishment for everyone else, became utterly open with the MSM, even people who’d been controlled opposition previously (NPR for instance, which once had Frontline and other media that at least called out some of the worst excesses, & now is fully co-opted to Imperial Cheerleading) . . . well, I am relieved that the comeuppance seems to be here. For U$A as a global hegemon, at the very least, definitely some of the chickens are coming home to roost (as Malcolm X said) vis regular ‘Murican life. Sadly, I see little recognition of the intensity of the shite-storm that is coming among most deluded ‘Muricans, but it’s going to be like other collapsing Empires, quite, quite ugly for most, with few even among the people who’ve been stuffing their faces with looted booty even benefiting either!! About damn time, let the tides of justice flow!!
Posted by: SkepticalThinker | Mar 31 2023 13:05 utc | 209
“Ukraine has lost a very high number of people in this was. The biggest loss has occurred between the 20-40 age range.
They’re losing a lot of people who are in the peak working ages. This will severely hamper Ukraine’s ability to run the economy as the war continues”
https://twitter.com/LogKa11/status/1641721779839221760
Demographic disaster. One can make various analysis on what’s going on. Substantial portion of 20-40 year old females have left the country. Ukraine has lost approx. half of 20-25 year old males. Maybe a fifth/sixth of 25-35 year old males.
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 31 2023 13:10 utc | 210
the post from : OttoE | Mar 31 2023 9:53 utc | 172
#10 (mobilization) appears wrong, though. It’s citizens, not rubles. – Apropos, CyberspecNews informed yesterday “…Putin signed a decree on spring conscription, according to which 147,000 people will be called up to the Russian Armed Forces from April 1 to July 15…”
refers to the quote below from the link
10. We have a mobilization resource of 31 million rubles! It is necessary to select 500 thousand of the most motivated citizens, exclusively volunteers, and equip them with the highest level of equipment, and they will sweep away everything in their path. We have the richest country. Look at the success of PMC Wagner with the number of no more than 30-40 thousand.
mobilization has nothing to do with conscription ; conscription is carried out 2x a year !!!
the difference should be clear at the latest since last year’s discussion about the mobilization of the 300 000
Posted by: ghiwen | Mar 31 2023 13:13 utc | 211
Minimum, incomplete, low-ball KIA(only)(FEBA only) 440+ … Translated:
Summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of a special military operation (31.03.2023)
💥 On the Kupyansk direction, air strikes and artillery fire of the “Western” group of troops hit the Ukrainian armed forces units in the areas of Sinkovka and Berestovoye, Kharkiv region.
◽️ Up to 30 Ukrainian servicemen, two armored fighting vehicles, one vehicle and a D-20 howitzer were destroyed.
💥 In the Krasno-Limansky direction, strikes by assault aircraft, artillery fire and active actions of units of the Group of Forces Center defeated enemy manpower and equipment near the village of Chervona Dibrova in the Luhansk People’s Republic.
◽️ During the day, up to 85 Ukrainian servicemen, three armored combat vehicles, three pickup trucks, a D-20 howitzer and a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery unit were destroyed in this direction.
💥 In the Donetsk direction, during active action by units and artillery fire of the “Southern” group of troops, the total enemy losses for the day amounted to 260 Ukrainian servicemen and mercenaries, four infantry fighting vehicles, four armored personnel carriers, two armored fighting vehicles, six vehicles, four pickups and one D-30 howitzer.
💥 On the South Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia directions, air strikes and artillery fire of the Vostok Group of Forces defeated AFU units in the areas of Novomikhailovka and Ugledar of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
◽️ The total losses of the enemy were up to 35 Ukrainian servicemen, two pickup trucks, as well as D-30 and D-20 howitzers.
💥 In the Kherson direction, up to 30 Ukrainian servicemen, 16 vehicles and an Acacia self-propelled howitzer were destroyed as a result of gunfire during the day.
💥 Operational-tactical aviation, missile forces and artillery of the groups of troops (forces) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during the day hit 74 artillery units in firing positions, manpower and equipment in 76 areas.
◽️ A fuel depot of the 126th Territorial Defense Brigade was destroyed near the village of Otradokamenka, Kherson region.
💥 The air defense forces intercepted three HIMARS rockets and destroyed three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles near Marinske and Zeleniy Pod settlements of Kherson Oblast.
📊 In total, since the beginning of the special military operation destroyed (losses over previous 24hrs(+?)):
404 aircraft, (Daily avg 1.1)
227 helicopters, (Daily avg 0.6)
3,625(+3) unmanned aerial vehicles, (Daily avg 8.9)
415 surface-to-air missile systems, (Daily avg 1.1)
8,487(+15) tanks and other armored combat vehicles, (Daily avg 21.8)
1,076 multiple rocket launchers, (Daily avg 2.8)
4,469(+7) field artillery and mortars, (Daily avg 11.4) and
9,231(+32) special military vehicles. (Daily avg 23.3)
reply to 197
Whenever anyone asks, “how much longer can this go on?”, the correct answer is always, “Until it can’t go on any longer”. That applies to dollar hegemony.
Reserves have almost nowhere else to go other than yuan or gold. I do wonder about the % of world trade conducted in the dollar. I think getting below 50% is very attainable. I can’t see any single alternative to the dollar but maybe many smaller alternatives will add up to dethrone it. CNN is finally commenting on this dedollarization threat. Maybe much of the world will simply get rid of most dollar reserves and replace them with nothing as the world turns to mercantilism, encouraged by China.
Posted by: Eighthman | Mar 31 2023 13:21 utc | 213
Paul Greenwood @ 202
I will note that there are 30 countries in NATO, if each sends 3000 soldiers, which is a very small number to sneak upon your populace, especially with a captured media, that’s a force of 100,000, all professionals as I don’t think anyone in the EU or USA still has conscription. It would be pretty easy for the EU to escalate to a large force without anyone noticing, well, except the Russians. They EU might well be doing it, Lukashenko and Orban have just said so.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Mar 31 2023 13:32 utc | 214
The situation around the Lavra is becoming more complicated. The believers who gathered in the monastery yesterday did not miss the commission of the Ministry of Culture and today again did not allow officials to enter the Lavra. Supporters of the UOC demand that the decision to evict the monks be formalized during the trial
At the Lavra, the number of provocateurs is increasing. Believers are harassed with threats and accused of reading prayers in Church Slavonic, calling it Russian. Journalists also provoke the audience and then write statements about obstructing the work of the media
Kyiv demonstrates readiness to cross the line. The main goal is to prevent the holding of the Easter service and the procession
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/39876
Posted by: Down South | Mar 31 2023 13:36 utc | 215
@ YetAnotherAnon, §178:
Azerbaijan´s days are numbered, like the Ukraine´s.
It´s going to be swallowed by Turkey, along with the Turkish-speaking Irani province of Azerbaijan. In exchange, Iran will take the Kurdish-speaking area of SE Turkey. So Iran will take over all Kurdistan and Turkey will stretch to the Caspian.
Win-win for Turkey and Iran.
Russia will take Lezgian-speaking Quba and Xizi, in the North. Armenia will keep Nagorno-Karabagh and contiguous territory.
Posted by: John Marks | Mar 31 2023 13:38 utc | 216
Remember, not a word about losses!
On Kharkiv television, correspondent employees were given new manuals for covering the situation in Bakhmut.
Main narratives:
🤡 The Armed Forces of Ukraine hold on and give a worthy rebuff.
🤡 The advance of the occupiers is a temporary phenomenon and is associated with “perfidious maneuvers that do not meet the rules of war” (STA?)
🤡 The Armed Forces of Ukraine have technical superiority over the Wagner and the RF Armed Forces.
🤡 Local residents support the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukraine.
At the same time, it is forbidden to talk about the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Bakhmut and the obsolete weapons of the Ukrainian army. One cannot doubt the victory of Ukraine, speak positively about the enemy, remind about the Russian-speaking population in the Donetsk region.
For violation of the rules, the fine is 8 thousand hryvnia.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/39867
Posted by: Down South | Mar 31 2023 13:39 utc | 217
Prigozhin published his “Plan for Russia’s Victory” in the SMO in Ukraine.
“I have drawn up a very simple and clear plan for Russia’s victory in this war. I ask every Russian citizen to study and support it. It consists of 12 items:
1. Immediately stop the supply of gas and any resources to those countries that supply the Kiev regime with military equipment.
2. Why the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the GUR and SBU buildings in Kiev were not destroyed, if these structures officially commit terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation. Destroy it!
3. Clearly and clearly define the boundaries of the SVO. Our soldiers don’t know what they’re fighting for. Kharkiv, Odessa, Nikolaev, can you answer this question once and for all? This is our historical land, and we will liberate it. That’s it, period, no illusions and “agreements”.
4. Why are the railway bridges in Ukraine still intact, along which military trains travel to the Donbass? This task is completed by a rocket attack in a few hours.
5. Immediately start military operations near Kiev. Zelensky gives orders to bomb Donetsk, Belgorod, and the Bryansk region. It is not necessary to destroy Kiev, but the front near the Ukrainian capital will quickly cool down the hotheads who dream of bombing the Crimea and other regions of Russia.
6. Make the oligarchs work for the country and for Victory! Take away the assets of billionaires living abroad and in luxury mansions and send them to the military. This should be a priority for the state. Everything for the front, everything for Victory!
7. Ineffective commanders and military leaders should not just be dismissed, they should be brought to justice! This will raise the morale of all fighters when they see that justice really exists.
8. Every commander of an army, company, division, or platoon must regularly come to the front line. First, this is the only way he will get an understanding of how his fighters fight and how they live. And secondly, this is the only way to properly plan operations: not from a warm headquarters, but right on the spot!
9. No negotiations with Kiev — you can only sit down at the table with the real owners of Ukraine, that is, with Britain and the United States. And that can only be discussed on the terms of their withdrawal from Ukraine and in no other way.
10. We have a mobilization resource of 31 million rubles! It is necessary to select 500 thousand of the most motivated citizens, exclusively volunteers, and equip them with the highest level of equipment, and they will sweep away everything in their path. We have the richest country. Look at the success of PMC Wagner with the number of no more than 30-40 thousand.
11. Put the country on a “war footing”. There should be no illusions in this matter. Everyone has to work hard to win. Introduce a military tax — for everyone with an income above the subsistence minimum. Those who do not want to fight — let them help with rubles.
12. During the Second World War, two relatives and one adopted son of Stalin fought. Until such a thing happens in our country, the people will not fully believe that the entire leadership of the country is interested in Victory.
Victory Will Be Ours!”
“I will note that there are 30 countries in NATO, if each sends 3000 soldiers, which is a very small number to sneak upon your populace, especially with a captured media, that’s a force of 100,000, all professionals ”
3,000 professional soldiers is way too much for at least 20 of the 30 countries.
Look at Estonia for example. Army size is 6,000. You are talking about them sendimg half their entire army LoL.
Why do that when you can easily send 50,000 pollacks to do the job (of dying) and noone would notice LoL
Posted by: Comandante | Mar 31 2023 13:51 utc | 219
“Prigozhin published his “Plan for Russia’s Victory” in the SMO in Ukraine.”
I am no fan of mercenaries, wagner or its loudmouth leader.
But that plan makes perfect sense and I agree 100% with it.
If Russian leadership still is under the illusion that somehow Ukraine will surrender soon and NATO will let them. If they truly still believe in that fantasy then they all deserve what they will be getting. Which is eventual defeat and a very sad fate once they are taken out of power in Russia.
Posted by: Comandante | Mar 31 2023 13:59 utc | 220
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Mar 31 2023 13:32 utc | 212
Your military experience is clearly way ahead of anyone currently active. Why you think 30 countries furnish 3000 personnel that blend into a combat force operating various platforms and ready to engage is beyond belief !
UK could barely equip 8-10,000 soldiers and that is a nation way ahead of Albania or Bulgaria or Luxembourg or Montenegro or Macedonia or Iceland or Croatia or Belgium or Latvia or even Netherlands……..
NATO sending troops to Ukraine means Berlin, London, Paris, Riga, Helsinki, Washington, Rome, Warsaw, Bucharest, Sofia, The Hague – can all expect to be vaporised
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 31 2023 14:01 utc | 221
LightYearsFromHome | Mar 31 2023 13:32 utc | 212
And mediately you have a regional war which cannot defeat Russia unless nuclear weapons are deployed, which would result in the extinction of humans. NATO’s supplies are depleted, it’s armies unused to eat, and it’s defenses non-existent. While the impact of energy loss will be less in summer, such a war will dras g out, and when Winter comes, they will sue for peace on terms disadvantageous to themselves.
Posted by: Hermit | Mar 31 2023 14:06 utc | 222
Prigozhin published his “Plan for Russia’s Victory” in the SMO in Ukraine.
Posted by: Frank | Mar 31 2023 13:41 utc | 216
I guess Prigozhin is also a concern troll…
Posted by: shadowbanned | Mar 31 2023 14:15 utc | 223
What is needed is for an equivalent of the Bolsheviks to take over once again, physically exterminate the couple million people that need to go, and start running the country(Russia) properly.
– shadowbanned
NATO sending troops to Ukraine means Berlin, London, Paris, Riga, Helsinki, Washington, Rome, Warsaw, Bucharest, Sofia, The Hague – can all expect to be vaporised
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 31 2023 14:01 utc | 219
Riga won’t be — it’s 40-50% Russian. Same for Tallinn. Lithuania on the other hand has very few Russians, so no such restraints there other than where the fall out will go (it borders both Kaliningrad and Belarus).
Sofia might be spared too, depending on how much/little sentimental connection remains in the Russian leadership for Bulgaria after the third major betrayal in a century. This time it is their fault — all of Eastern Europe was signed over to the US by Russia itself in the early 1990s, it’s not as if all of those places wanted it. Bulgaria was the most loyal satellite and definitely didn’t.
On the other hand Russophobia runs deep in Romania and Poland, and those countries also agreed to host Aegis Ashore, so they are getting blasted no doubt if it comes to that.
Posted by: shadowbanned | Mar 31 2023 14:25 utc | 225
A very unimportant topic in the grand scheme of things, but I see Wimbledon has lifted the ban on Russian/Belarussian players competing.
I’m certain everything possible will be done behind the scenes so a Russian/Belarussian player doesn’t get to close to winning the tournament.
Posted by: chalk | Mar 31 2023 14:46 utc | 226
Re: Arrest of a WSJ journalist in Russia
The Lefortovo court arrested Evan Gershkovich, a US citizen who was previously detained on suspicion of espionage and works in the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal.
The journalist was detained in Yekaterinburg while trying to obtain secret information. Gershkovich, according to the department, collected data on one of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation. The Wall Street Journal denied the allegations against its employee and demanded his release.
@Down South | Mar 30 2023 16:54 utc | 25
I do not think the WSJ reporter was a “spy” in the sense that he was working for some US intelligence agency. He was simply trying to find out facts — something that Western journalists very seldom do. But durning a time of war, collecting information about sensitive military matters, like weapons production, is a crime.
Looks like he was just stupid — or full of American exceptionalism.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Mar 31 2023 14:53 utc | 227
Posted by: GoFast | Mar 30 2023 21:33 utc | 89
##########
Ropke has always been obviously bad. I recommend you go over your list of trusted sources with a blowtorch to clear out more of the low integrity and malevolent voices that may be there.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 31 2023 14:59 utc | 228
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Mar 31 2023 14:53 utc | 225
given the penetration of US media by the CIA, I’m not going to dismiss the possibility that he is a spy. I think you always have to give that possibility considerable weight.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Mar 31 2023 15:04 utc | 229
about Prighozin:
please read his TG. His sarcasm can be very entertaining. And he makes a lot of valid points: many “socially lost” young men have found something to live for thanks to Wagner ( I’m the first to admit that a nonmilitary alternative would have been preferable, but we know who started this war). I don’t know if Wagner soldiers qualify as mercenaries, even if they themselves accept that designation. On all of their Telegram accounts there is a big amount of patriotism. Dying for Russia yes, dying while trying to make money…hardly so. The relationship between the official Russian army and Wagner is for me hard to fathom and maybe we will only understand it after many years – I know of nothing comparable in history. But Prighozin is no ordinary loudmouth: he has a tale to tell and is worth listening to.
Posted by: Anthony | Mar 31 2023 15:08 utc | 230
[225]
I do not think the WSJ reporter was a “spy” in the sense that he was working for some US intelligence agency. He was simply trying to find out facts
Do you know the difference between KNOWLEDGE and BELIEF ?
Unless you know for a fact that he was NOT engaged in espionage you have no basis to determine what he was doing to the detriment of Russian national security.
It is very common for agents to use journalist cover – BECAUSE – journalists get visas much more readily than CIA agents – just as Embassy staff get visas to act as agents. It is so common for journalists to be “agents” ………
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/why-frederick-forsyth-s-spying-days-could-spell-disaster-for-today-s-journalists-10481961.html
https://www.rcfp.org/journals/the-news-media-and-the-law-winter-2003/will-history-government-usi/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3884636/ABC-journalist-Mark-Colvin-reveals-father-British-MI6-spy.html
Frank Gardner. BBC Security Correspondent son of MI6 operative whose career path looks very much like MI6
None of this is to say WSJ journalist is a “spy”……….I simply have no knowledge and no idea what he was caught doing
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 31 2023 15:14 utc | 231
Posted by: Comandante | Mar 31 2023 13:51 utc | 217
Last summer or Fall, Estonia had some kind of military exercise involving some thousands of reservists. IIRC, substantial portion, up to half of them didn’t show up at all.
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 31 2023 15:16 utc | 232
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 31 2023 12:39 utc | 200
What a world, stay safe!
Posted by: anon2020 | Mar 31 2023 15:30 utc | 233
Ha! No, not them. I have some opinions about where — despite the obfuscation — the buck probably stops. But, definitely not a “ukraine thread” topic. 🙂
Posted by: natokraine | Mar 30 2023 22:14 utc | 101
Missed your reply. Thanks.
I agree about elections but not that highlighting rogue elements like ‘neocons’ implies that you think elections will fix the problem. (Actually, seems to me their continued presence no matter any election results would argue the opposite.)
Sometimes when dealing with very big, complex issues, it’s good to work on one specific aspect which is part of the overall dynamic but also exists within its own clearly perceivable parameters. Although the neocons didn’t spring up out of nowhere and clearly enjoy some sort of organized sponsorship far beyond the scope of a dead man called Strauss, nevertheless they are a fairly easy bunch to identify and analyze (as per Meyssan’s article linked earlier).
So focusing on them might actually function a bit like a lever, or can opener, which opens up access to much more hidden within once that initial breach is made. Whoever ‘they’ are, they have many spears, but the neocons are clearly the tip of one important one. Why not take it on specifically (at least as a clear point of reference in discussions)?
I quite understand that people recoil from discussing overly elaborate conspiracy theories and so forth. But talking about things always and only in abstract, generalist terms doesn’t do much either, in fact it might be enabling by promoting a culture and mentality of vagueness which gives everyone the feeling that nothing can be done, that we are all blundering willy-nilly through the same interminable fog together.
Meanwhile, operations like the neocons operate in full view of us all, in broad daylight. And keep making things happen – whilst rubbing our noses in it to boot, even as we keep rubbing our eyes refusing to believe what they keep revealing: a world of our own making completely untethered to what we thought it was and what we think it should be.
These people are indeed creating new realities. One might – understandably – call it hubris and forecast – no doubt correctly at some point – that they will fall. But meanwhile, decade after decade, they damage hundreds of millions of lives and we do little about it, and they keep functioning. It’s not hubris, really, until it falls. Until then, it’s called success.
Well, maybe the Russians and Chinese will save us from them by finding a way to starve them out without their being able to nuke us all to kingdom come. Another vague notion…
Actually, in terms of elections, I think the first thing is that citizens should step back, not follow the increasingly hysterial media which has worsened considerably the past few decades and greet all the provocative BS with silence and disengagement, even a little bit of healthy scorn, but at least reserve. The country needs to calm down so that cooler heads can prevail and common sense come to the fore. Then a path forward might be found. But by remaining in chronic inflammation with continuous bipolar manic-depressive episodes, nothing good will come of anything – at least in the national political realm.
You are right, this is not Ukraine. But the topic came up discussing how Russia can use the SMO to achieve victory, doing which pretty much means the neocons running US and NATO policy have to exit the stage somehow. How do they do that? It IS a Ukraine issue on some level because without addressing it, what happens on the ground doesn’t mean all that much except to the almost 20 million Ukrainians who have already voted with their feet by choosing exile, and the about half a million who are KIA or wounded – not to mention the residents of the Donbass and nearby oblasts and any RF soldiers in combat.
So Ukraine is not really about Ukraine. But what else is new?
Interesting interpretation of historical past – with which I do not fully concur – and future directions which are sadly probable……
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 31 2023 12:39 utc | 203
Pray tell, Sir!
Posted by: Down South | Mar 31 2023 13:39 utc | 217
Remember, not a word about losses!
The MSN home page that greets me when I open Microsoft Edge is instructive (location US). For most of the SMO, chock full of articles about Ukraine victories, Russian tanks blown up, etc from the usual sources. Today, not a single link to anything Ukraine. Been that way for a few weeks, just an occasional article now and then. Difference between US media and Ukraine’s is that here, no formal restrictions are necessary. The media, and most of the US sheeple, willingly comply with the government’s wishes.
Posted by: Mike R | Mar 31 2023 15:40 utc | 236
Bits and pieces, here and there in MSN, about shadow Ukie HQ being demilitarized. Dima suggests others of late have followed.
As for blowing up buildings, they are symbolic at best, a waste of ammo at worst. Finding the staffed C&Cs and removing them must be high on the MOD acquisition list.
Cheers M
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Mar 31 2023 15:49 utc | 237
Petri Krohn | Mar 31 2023 14:53 utc | 227
I do not think the WSJ reporter was a “spy” in the sense that he was working for some US intelligence agency. He was simply trying to find out facts — something that Western journalists very seldom do.
Just take a look at his Twitter feed or the mediocre articles he was publishing, by the way always a group work …
This guy never PUBLISHED any facts, just told stories with his buddies.
Obviously, his presence in Russia is not justified by the quality of his published work.
He was simply trying to find out facts in order NOT TO PUBLISH them— something that journalists very seldom do.
Posted by: La Bastille | Mar 31 2023 15:49 utc | 238
USA tied Ukraine currency to Dollar immediately after Feb 24, 2022 invasion.
Link to currency chart below. After looking at Dollar Ukraine currency chart. Compare Dollar with other currency.
https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=UAH
Posted by: Ramsey Glissadevil | Mar 31 2023 15:54 utc | 239
Posted by: La Bastille | Mar 31 2023 15:49 utc | 238
West news media seldom send their citizens to hostile territories to collect news. In the US, it has been either unattributed news feed from Ukraine or attributed from foreign accented reporters.
In this case a US citizen was caught, red handed or not we don’t know. But I am sure Russia has some sort of evidence.
Very strange. Could be a green-horn OGA agent masqueraded as a leech tacking-on WSJ reporter.
Posted by: KitaySupporter | Mar 31 2023 16:03 utc | 240
@ shadowbanned
> Bulgaria was the most loyal satellite and definitely didn’t.
How so? Couldn’t Bulgaria have tried to stay in Russia’s orbit?
Posted by: natokraine | Mar 31 2023 16:04 utc | 241
Prigozhin makes good requests, if considered without context. But, again, the slow methodical efficient use of resources gave time — now a year! — for diplomatic and dedollarization efforts to yield results. That’s more important for everyone — Russia included — in this global war (NATO started decades ago) than concluding the “Battle of Ukraine”.
I hope Prigozhin himself understands this and is playing “bad cop” or some other constructive role.
Posted by: natokraine | Mar 31 2023 16:16 utc | 242
Remember Daniel Pearl, once again WSJ’s reporter, kidnapped in Karachi and beheaded on a video in 2002? Ostensibly he was collecting data on Islam terrorists for his book, but in reality he was tracking down bin Laden.
The same technique is used by OGA in many cases, not by WSJ. WSJ has no say, just sells its name as cover. Patriotism has anything to do with it. For crying out loud, WSJ’s boss is an Australian by birth.
Posted by: KitaySupporter | Mar 31 2023 16:18 utc | 243
@ shadowbanned
> Bulgaria was the most loyal satellite and definitely didn’t.
How so? Couldn’t Bulgaria have tried to stay in Russia’s orbit?
Posted by: natokraine | Mar 31 2023 16:04 utc | 241
Oh, the naivety…
It was not an option. All the 1989 revolutions happened directly by order from Moscow. Just as spheres of influenced had been decided on some napkins in Yalta, they were then reassigned in the late 1980s. What we don’t know is whether that happened on that ship around Malta, or it was done long before that, and if the latter, how long exactly (you can see claims from people with various levels of inside knowledge that date the early such deals to as far back as the early 1970s, and the internal decision to dismantle the system starting to take shape with certain circles in the Soviet elite already in the 1960s). Hopefully one day we will know, but unfortunately there are barely any live witnesses left at this point to testify.
In Poland and the Baltics there may have been a majority that wanted capitalism and there was real bottom up opposition. Not really true for many of the other countries. The same way the US ambassador tells them what to do now, the Soviet ambassador told them to dismantle socialism, and they did it. The details differ — Causesku was killed, Honecker and Zhivkov fell after internal coups within the party, which then proceeded to surrender power shortly after, and so on. The coups are not the same though — e.g. in the GDR there was real pressure on the regime because of all the other events in Central Europe, but in Bulgaria there wasn’t.
In the USSR itself there was very little desire to either break up the union or dismantle communism. There was the early 1991 referendum where all republics that voted (which didn’t include the Baltics, Georgia and Moldova) voted at 70% and above to preserve the union, and it was 90%+ in Central Asia — the votes in the 70-75% range were in Russia and Ukraine, which is telling about the source of the disease.
But despite that being the popular opinion, you know what happened.
Because it was not a bottom up driven transition, it was orchestrated from the top, and the opinion of the masses did not matter. The predatory oligarchy that had been slowly forming in the late Soviet era around the various corruption, black market, and smuggling schemes combined with the pro-Western elements in the nomenklatura and the intelligentsia had long made their deal with the West, and there was to be no turning back.
Posted by: shadowbanned | Mar 31 2023 16:42 utc | 244
Posted by: Down South | Mar 31 2023 11:31 utc | 194
This is the Ukrainian conundrum, the bulk of their forces are only operationally capable if they occupy field defences or fortifications, forcing the Ukrainians to use their more capable units to hold the flanks’ or the pincer jaws open.
Posted by: Milites | Mar 31 2023 16:54 utc | 245
Prigozhin is quite right. His plan for victory seems to work out well.
It is similar to what Sergej Glaziev already suggested.
I do not understand why Russia is still delivering oil, natgas and other commodities to Ukraine and unfriendly countries. That‘s crazy.
Posted by: Lesjeuxsontfaits | Mar 31 2023 17:22 utc | 247
Posted by: Anthony | Mar 31 2023 12:11 utc | 197
Prighozin is no ordinary loudmouth: he has a tale to tell and is worth listening to.
Very much so, I keep an eye on his TG channel, he is the new leader of “flyover” Russia, and a sharp loud mouth with a lot of things to say, and witty at it.
Good link to the new Foreign Policy concept, it will be thoroughly analyzed.
Posted by: Paco | Mar 31 2023 17:25 utc | 248
“Re: NATO’s glorious 2025 Counter-Offensive
My guesstimate of the 650,000 NATO ground forces being assembled:
200,000 Kiev
200,000 USA
100,000 EU
100,000 Mercs and BaziBazooks
50,000 England, Oz, Canada
Posted by: Exile | Mar 31 2023 12:33 utc | 200”
Dont forget the Avengers and Aquaman. LoL
Posted by: Comandante | Mar 31 2023 17:29 utc | 249
“Prigozhin published his “Plan for Russia’s Victory” in the SMO in Ukraine.”
Hmm, a dangerous populist with no sight of the big picture. No match for the Kremlin you would think, but populists are popular ( on this blog for example!!)
Posted by: Tim | Mar 31 2023 17:36 utc | 250
Down South @ 142
Responding to your link.
The E-7 may be a variation on a 1990s Boeing 737, it is still a 737, which is a 1967 plane. It is to replace the E-3, which is a Boeing 707 from 1957. So the 1967 plane will be a mainstay for USAF into the 2030s.
US has just not done all that much since the glory days of early postwar.
A friend who is a recently retired aircraft inspector/accident investigator tells methe entire 737 fleet i geriatric and ready to be grounded, not just the Max. He worked on 737s as an 18 year old trainee and for the next 50 years. Good plane but done now.
Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 31 2023 17:40 utc | 251
If a new open thread starts soon I’ll repost this From Russell Bentley, it’s a must read:
https://www.greanvillepost.com/2023/03/30/the-bakmut-diversion-and-the-donbas-defense-a-view-from-donetsk/
IIRC Bentley has warned of this before. Whether you agree or not, like or dislike, Bentley has lived a few miles from the front for over 8ys now, has comrades fighting, and is tuned into the Donbas grapevine, a much higher perch than any TG, youtube, or social media pundit.
I’ve followed him since before the SMO on youtube before he got banned, Bentley can get ahead of himself and alarmist but when he writes his few and far between long articles he’s very clear headed, concise, and focused, and writes very well. Piggy back this with Prigozhin’s statement @ 218.
Here’s his TG synopsis:
The upcoming AFU/NATO offensive will be a decisive battle in the nine-year war in Donbass. April 2023 will go down in Russian and world history, either as June 1941 or May 1945. I predict the upcoming offensive will not be directed at Bakhmut or Zaporizhia, it will be, as originally planned by NATO, directed at the main cities of Donbass – Gorlovka and Donetsk/Makiivka.
If AFU/NATO forces manage to advance 15 km from their current positions into these cities, Russia will lose Donbass, Crimea, and the war. But if Russia can repel these attacks and prevent the Nazis from entering the cities, the Nazis will be defeated, the AFU will be shattered, and NATO will retreat from Ukraine in defeat, and Russian Forces can then advance as far forward as needed to achieve all goals of the SMO. The stakes could not be higher – Victory or Death. https://t.me/TXDPR/5968
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Mar 31 2023 17:40 utc | 252
If AFU/NATO forces manage to advance 15 km from their current positions into these cities, Russia will lose Donbass, Crimea, and the war.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Mar 31 2023 17:40 utc | 252
Sorry, that Bentley dude is nuts. 15km changes nothing, except for some drug addicts on cnn and bbc
Posted by: rk | Mar 31 2023 18:28 utc | 253
Russell Bentley is great but some kind of bipolar guy.
Either everything is well or everything is a disaster.
Real life does not work like this. Thankfully
Posted by: Comandante | Mar 31 2023 18:29 utc | 254
I have just watched a video of Napolitano and McGregor on Ukraine. In it, they showed a clip of an interview by AP wity Zelensky which took place on a train. I was shocked to hear Zelensky say, in response to a question about the Bakhmut situation in terms of massive casualties say that the reason he was sending more troops in was because if Putin won Bakhmut he would then telegraph it to the West and the rest of the world as a big victory for Russia and it would put a lot pressure on Ukraine then in terms of what the West thinks of Ukraine. So, that’s it, 16yr olds are being sent to their deaths just for a PR win or to prevent a PR win for Russia. That’s it There was no military reason given by Zelensky, it was about the optics of a defeat. My God what a disgrace he is to humanity, utter moral depravity and absence of any consideration about the state of his country, the enormous KIA’s the UAF are accumulating, nothing, just PR PR PR. This will not end at all well for him. He will be answerable to a higher power.
Posted by: Jo Dominich | Mar 31 2023 18:34 utc | 255
Posted by: rk | Mar 31 2023 18:28 utc | 253
Mentioned it earlier, but if Ukraine manages to wedge themselves into Gorlivka or Makeevka, they might be able to get hundreds of thousands human shields which could (would) be very bad. It would result in unprecedented slaughter.
Contrary to what most people think, I don’t think it would lead to regime change or Russia losing the war, enough bloodshed it will lead to nuclear strike on rear staging areas a.k.a Poland. The Russians can’t afford to let that to happen.
The good news is the Ukraine deployment map (for what it’s worth) isn’t showing such Ukraine deployment, crap ton of their forces are committed to Chasov yar and N/NW of Krasna Gora. Also the attrition Ukraine forces taking in terms of these armored vehicles and tanks all over front is such that they lack depth to sustain or reinforce any large attacks.
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 31 2023 18:36 utc | 256
chalk@226
Don’t forget that last year’s ladies champion was a beautiful young woman from Moscow, competing for Khazakstan.
As I write the semi final of the ATP Tournament in Miami is going on: both contestants are Russian.
In the womens quarter finals five of the eight contestants were representing Russia or Belarus. And then there was the aforementioned muscovite, making six out of eight.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 31 2023 18:48 utc | 257
unimperator @ 210
That link is so good I will offer it again.
https://twitter.com/LogKa11/status/1641721779839221760
Using the primitive technique of calipers against computer screen I get that 2/3 of all 20 year olds have left Ukraine. Some of those left for the grave, most emigrated. For just female 20 year olds it is 3/4 gone.
Also notice that the number of 20 somethings in the general population was already anomalously low. This would be because of outmigration beginning in 1991. That generation was born outside Ukraine. There is just no way Ukraine will ever repopulate from this base. And no one at all is returning. If there were returnees at the moment the PR flacks would be all over it. Even just one would get publicity.
These are said to be UN stats Wish the Twitter poster would supply the source. Is this for all former Ukraine? In 2021 it would have to be. The number of recent departures should be smaller for Crimea and Donbass, no idea how UN fudged for that. I will guess the picture is even worse for Kiev rump Ukraine and gets worse by the day.
Ukraine is in the dustbin of history
Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 31 2023 18:48 utc | 258
@Lightyearsfromhome # 252
Read it. Interesting. Plausible. I will read more of this guy. Ta. D.
Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 31 2023 19:06 utc | 259
In response to Lesjeuxsontfaits@247,
Maybe not crazy but calculated, since it gives Russia a lever for disrupting military production if and when such developments go beyond statements of intent and take on the characteristics of a material threat. In this regard, masking of Russian oil & lng exports is an additional force multiplier to this strategy. If the mic of states hostile to Russia who are projecting rearmament programs are planning based on currently available resources, shortages and deficiencies may be induced at any time when the availability of military equipment for these states is of paramount importance.
Such a scenario has the potential for more significant strategic benefits than forcing your opponent to readjust right at the onset, thus scaling down their projected military potential to a realistic level. Think of it as the difference between popping the tire of a parked car and popping the tire of a car making a sharp turn at high speed.
The main risk is that this approach allows your opponent the time to find a substitute for critical resources. However, if the Russians have correctly gauged their market share out of the real market volume, the risk is manageable.
Judging by the public record of Europe’s energy replacement efforts — both the unwillingness of OPEC+ to cooperate and the categorical rejection of gas producing states that Russian gas shipments can be replaced in full — any effort to fill the vacuum left by the rejection of Russian energy resources is at best decades away, and only as the result of a concerted investment drive for which there is little enthusiasm.
Posted by: Skiffer | Mar 31 2023 19:12 utc | 260
oldhippie | Mar 31 2023 18:48 utc | 257
Ukraine is in the dustbin of history
Can you have a dustbin of history ? Shirley, all history is dust ?
Bin there, dunnit …
Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Mar 31 2023 19:17 utc | 261
Scorpion | Mar 30 2023 21:43 utc | 94
…because unlike you I think – respectfully – that they [the Straussians] are very dangerous and are not being called out nearly enough.
It has been noticed by almost everybody how the Democratic Party, on matters of foreign policy, has become indistinguishable from the Republicans, after the end of the cold war in 1991. While the phenomenon stands big as a tiger, its reasons, however, are rarely discussed. Now Thierry Meyssan’s article offers an explanation:
It is important to understand that these groups are neither truly left nor right wing. Some members have switched five times from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party and back again. What is important to them is to infiltrate power, whatever the ideology.
So the phenomenon is the result of the relentless and professional work of a discrete political group, the Straussians. What makes the matter delicate is the fact that the original group headed by Leo Strauss was a 100 percent Jewish enterprise. It’s a fact that protects them. Forget about free speech. Calling them out, as you propose, or shining a light on their plots, will get you marginalized as an anti-semitic conspiration theorist.
Posted by: grunzt | Mar 31 2023 19:28 utc | 262
“EU may return import duties on Ukrainian grain – Reuters
The Prime Ministers of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia appealed to Ursula von der Leyen with a demand to cancel the benefits for the supply of Ukrainian grain.”
https://twitter.com/Spriter99880/status/1641886834107076629
Ukraine? What’s that, never heard.
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 31 2023 19:38 utc | 263
General “Mascara” Milley claims that Russia has not made any progress in the last 20 days in and around Bakhmut.
Posted by: Catdog | Mar 31 2023 19:46 utc | 264
Don Firineach @ 258
Russell’s righteous but keep in mind the below, which is also correct:
Comandante @ 254
Either everything is well or everything is a disaster.
For people playing down the NATO build up check this shit out, but yes, it is a tightly framed shot so it could be much less than it suggests and it has no location or date, could be anything like Iraq 2003, or Vietnam 1968. But, if it is UKR right now what this little snippet suggests is full on NATO deployment.
https://t.me/Separ13_13/10111
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Mar 31 2023 19:52 utc | 265
@Peter B | Mar 31 2023 10:32 utc | 177
We can call it the diabetic army, and the biggest threat it will present anyone is to itself, the Untied Mistakes of Amnesia™. One Nation Under Educated™, land of the fee, home of the slave.
Posted by: Hermit | Mar 31 2023 19:59 utc | 266
@LightYearsFromHome 264
thats my criticism of trusting images in this war.
I counted 7 (?) vehicles (APC???) I am no military guy.
But behind this row there could be a vast emptiness. We just can´t tell.
Thats how they do film with a limited budget.
A the left end of the camer pan I don´t see much more.
I would be worried if this row of vehicles did indeed continue within the image.
Apart from that:
On the one hand, I am a bit concerned that the ports of Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Gdansk have loaded some serious shit to make life difficult for RU.
On the other I tend to trust true experts like Big Serge and ohers in this forum, who suggest to stay calm. After all the fear re: ship cargo loaded, was spread by journalists who have no military background like Doctorow I believe.
Posted by: AG | Mar 31 2023 20:12 utc | 267
Posted by: SkepticalThinker | Mar 31 2023 13:05 utc | 209
you forgot JFK and Reagan, I wonder why? the biggest scumbags in the presidential office of all. JFK, like Biden, took us to the brink of nuclear war to preserve his precious military tough guy image, while Reagan, demented like Biden, and with the cooperation of the democratic party, sometimes enthusiastic, sometimes feigning opposition, transformed US society.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Mar 31 2023 20:21 utc | 269
Nato spent months planning a big offensive that unfortunately used Bakhmut as a main hub. The Ukies spent years loading Bakhmut and Soldar with ammunition for the big offensive. If you didn’t notice Ukraine ran short on everything once the Russians stormed Bakhmut. Oops
The mines north of Vulhedar are one of the last large stockpiles of ammo the Ukrainian army has that is close to the front line, the guys that held that line stopped a major disaster for Ukraine.
Posted by: OohCanada | Mar 31 2023 20:22 utc | 270
Posted by: P. Walker | Mar 30 2023 23:32 utc | 113
you mean like Bush jr shredding the Geneva conventions didn’t cement in everyone’s mind how worthless treaties with the US government were?
Posted by: pretzelattack | Mar 31 2023 20:24 utc | 272
haha just for you peops something happened that nobody talked about
Z and his crowd are now target of the orthodox templars…. guys do you even understand?
There is nowhere they can escape to from gods wrath :F
Posted by: Macpott | Mar 31 2023 20:33 utc | 273
# 260
You can have a dustbin
Of future history.
It’s nihilistic
But the dust blows forward
Posted by: Dingo | Mar 31 2023 20:41 utc | 274
Abu Dhabi, New Delhi, Riyadh and Seoul allegedly supplied missiles to Kiev.
https://www.intelligenceonline.com/international-dealmaking/2023/03/28/uae-saudi-arabia-india-and-south-korea-secretly-supply-missiles-to-ukraine,109928422-eve
Posted by: Luna | Mar 31 2023 20:48 utc | 275
Reading the various armchair assaults anticipated by anxious admirals and army advocates…
The US does nothing without air support-superiority- supremacy.
Where’s that coming from?
My military expertise, gained solely from propping us this virtual bar, is that fighter jets will have to be based in Poland and or Romania. And will require in-air fuelling to make to the front and back.
Russia can shoot down both the jets and especially the slow, loitering tankers.
Gleaned from twitter and telegram,… the first cohort of gung-ho ex-mil who rushed to Ukraine to “kill me some rookies” quickly lamented the absence of air cover/support.
If NATO is mustering a Spring Offensive, be it 100k, 300k or ? …..where planes?
Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 31 2023 21:06 utc | 276
So, that’s it, 16yr olds are being sent to their deaths just for a PR …
Posted by: Jo Dominich | Mar 31 2023 18:34 utc | 255
I watched that interview. This is the first time I listen directly to what zelensky has to say. I was appalled to see that he views that fight in Bahkmut as a PR ooeration. Obviously Zelensky and the staff of the white house have no sense of humanity. Are they a kind of zombies?
Posted by: Richard L | Mar 31 2023 21:12 utc | 277
Luna | Mar 31 2023 20:48 utc | 274
Abu Dhabi, New Delhi, Riyadh and Seoul allegedly supplied missiles to Kiev.
Excellent. Not only has Russia demilitarised Ukraine and USNATO, it’s now demilitarising the whole world.
The US procurers have swept through everyone’s military kitchen cupboards, busily pilfering.
In six months there won’t be a functioning fully-equipped military outside the Russia-China bloc.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 31 2023 21:13 utc | 278
I thought Bentley’s piece was sobering. It does seem plausible that the Ukrainian forces could overrun a city and then use the inhabitants as human shields. It’s certainly not the time for anyone to become complacent.
As for the dustbin of history, perhaps with DU dust?
Posted by: Boris Badenov | Mar 31 2023 21:16 utc | 279
@ Luna | Mar 31 2023 20:48 utc | 274
An open, non-paywalled link:
UAE, KSA, India, South Korea secretly supplying missiles to Ukraine – Al Mayadeen English, Source: Intelligence Online, Mar28’23
There’s a pair of things, big things, about the Ukraine war that aren’t getting any attention. First is, is Russia doing a good job with its propaganda efforts? Wartime propaganda is important, as every enemy soldier who deserts or defects is one less you have to kill on the battlefield. I am certain that much as the current new military observation/spy technology has changed and improved greatly the effectiveness of artillery fire and airstrikes, with far fewer misses and greatly increased effectiveness, the same has to also be true for wartime propaganda. It is now possible to produce far more of it, get it in much broader circulation, and make it better and more effective than back in the pre-internet days. A better product, more of it produced more cheaply, distributed far wider and more directly targeted than ever before. Is Russia doing this? If not, why not? And how well is it working? Certainly Ukraine is putting out plenty of its own propaganda, but they are doing so with the full assistance of our wonderful newsmedia and official government sources, so that part is easy, mostly already done for them. Does Ukraine have a Russia-targeted propaganda effort, and if so, how well is it working? The above questions about the war’s propaganda efforts need investigation and answering; to date, nobody seems to be interested in it. This is wrong.
Second undiscussed big thing in the Ukraine war is what the long-term effects of the Russian victory might be to whatever rump Ukraine exists after the war. I am guessing that there will be some rather large and severe sociological results and problems from the Ukraine military’s abject failure on the battlefield—said failure can’t be hidden once the war is over the way it is attempted to be hidden now. In particular, the most severe butcher’s bill will require some sort of political and sociological reckoning, or alternatively, a severe postwar repression, once all is done. Will Ukrainians try to hold responsible their idiotic and corrupt political class that deliberately and willfully caused this war? Can they produce a new political class? With losses of the current scale, there will have to be unplanned and unanticipated effects across all Ukraine society, much like happened in post-20th century Europe after both world wars, particularly the first. There should be historians and sociologists looking at this question; I hope there are. I rather doubt that there will be any such inquiry from the US academy and intelligentsia—let’s face it, Americans in both these classes are not that much more interested in real history that any other American is, and they are probably more servile towards official America than most other Americans. But there ought to be something coming out of Europe on this, I’d think. Anyone seen any?
What might should happen, but probably won’t, is what the below story almost had happen:
Read this story about a jarhead who’d been to Vietnam ’67-68 and was posted back to rural US somewhere around 1969 as a recruiting sergeant. Part of his job was to go and bring the parents/wives the official telegram of death. Jarhead sergeant went to deliver said telegram to a farmer at home, whose son he’d recruited and who’d gone off to Vietnam. Farmer got coldly angry at the sergeant, telling him of how he’d lied to his son about his not going to Vietnam, lied to him about career job training in the Marines. Farmer gave the sergeant 30 seconds to get off of his property or he was going to go get his deer rifle and shoot him dead. Sergeant took the hint and ran.
Things would probably be a lot better in this world if more folks thought like that farmer, hell, did better than that farmer and skipped the 30 second warning. Seems to me that there’s a lot of folks in Ukraine who ought to think like that, too.
Posted by: Daniel White | Mar 31 2023 21:25 utc | 281
I believe Wagner made a smart attack in the night just before or during a snowstorm and were able to advance very close to the Mine entrance. What is found in the mine may be critical to what happens next.
Posted by: Yuri777 | Mar 31 2023 21:26 utc | 282
Where is the motivation for NATO troops? What is NATO fighting for?
Who will lay down their life for Europe, Borrell, Scholz, or Von der Leyen?
Who will fight for an England , now without values, without traditions, without history, without culture?
Compare that to the patriotic Russians fighting for the survival of their language, their culture, their religion, their history, and their families.
The West are not the good guys, they are the opposite.
https://russia-insider.com/en/history/us-atrocities-korean-war-chem-and-bio-weapons-mass-civilian-bombing-and-execution/ri23685
The Western leopard has not changed its spots.
Posted by: CitizenSmith | Mar 31 2023 21:29 utc | 283
Y’all seem in denial. Moscow lost way too much in this war and got mischievously exploited by its so-called ‘allies’ as a result. Russian elites, including Vladimir Putin, couldn’t even deny the hellish reality that Russia is in, militarily and economically, now.
Posted by: Sirtet | Mar 31 2023 21:33 utc | 284
Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 31 2023 2:22 utc | 137
the possibility of Russians resorting to tactical nukes raises its head…
Before contemplating the use of tactical nukes it may be worthwhile to answer the following questions:
1) How many refineries are presently in operation in CONUS? What would be the effect of a conventional warhead Kinzhal arriving in the centre of that mass of volatile fluids and exposed pipework?
2) How critical to the functioning of America are the massive oil storage facilities located in Cushing OK?
3) America presently has seven military shipyards. How long would it take to restore them to operation after the arrival of Mr Kinzhal?
4) How many aircraft assembly plants presently operate in the US? How many will be inoperable after Mr Kinzhal pays a visit? Will it take months, or years, or decades, to restore them to full function?
5) You may know nothing of the semiconductor industry upon which everything from your cell phone to the F-35 and pretty much everything else is wholly dependent. The clean room standards, the fragility of the process, the complexity of the supply chain, imply that a brace of conventional warheads bursting through the ceiling of ASML and one or two other critical suppliers will quickly return America to the 1950’s. And the 1950’s may be an optimistic estimate. There are not enough nags, hostlers, and blacksmiths to put the pony express back in operation. The Erie Canal would require a decade of donkey labour to re-open. Without diesel fuels American rail-roads can no longer deliver more Palestinian spectacles or much of anything else.
The American people manifest a death wish. They lack the capacity to appreciate the contours of contemporary reality. Americans hunger for the learnin’ but they don’t know the gitten of it.
Posted by: Sushi | Mar 31 2023 21:37 utc | 285
Never believe anything until it has been officially denied?
Then that means my Russia calculations are correct: they just suspended me on Twitter. As soon as that article started getting traction (this morning), they banned me.
We’re all going to revert back to samizdat and zines at this rate.
Not only has the U$ used the fine-toothed comb to locate Soviet armaments in Europe, Africa and South America…. They are so shameless/ desperate they even asked Cuba for its Soviet weapons.
Cuba!
Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 31 2023 21:42 utc | 287
Posted by: Daniel White | Mar 31 2023 21:25 utc | 280
Its not the Western elites, its a philisophy and a way of life. Its the emotional saturation from too much entertainment, drugs and something they call white guilt. Educational decay and ethical crisis. People having no moral compass anymore now that religion is dead so they invent their own based on that guilt combined with consumerism. Top journalists in the NYTimes declaring the end of objectivism.
Thats what is driving this, not the elites. They are a just reflection of the sickness of the minds of westerners.
I know for I live there. You have no idea how deprived of reason and education young people are.
Posted by: alek_a | Mar 31 2023 21:44 utc | 288
@ Melaleuca | Mar 31 2023 21:06 utc | 275
Russia can shoot down both the jets and especially the slow, loitering tankers.
And pre-emptively destroy them on the ground, along with the runways & facilities as they begin to accumulate or assemble. If they wish to be restrained, destroy all applicable runways, aircraft/facilities as above the moment the first flight loaded & armed, prepares to take-off.
US/NATO Gen4 & below Aircraft are suicidal deathtraps re RF integrated layered ADS & on station CAP long-range(400km) AA. F-35 is a money-pit joke. Only prospect, is F-22, not enough, still analogue tech, not integrated, operate as essentially individual pilots isolated from C4ISR, so no go.
US/NATO has no truly capable nor sufficient ADS … certainly sweet FA missile reloads …
See: Six Day War, Arab-Israeli ’67 War, this time much quicker/accurate/devastating via missile strikes …
@ Aaron Lee | Mar 31 2023 21:37 utc | 284
Unsurprising. MoA is digital Samizdat, no ?
Posted by: Sirtet | Mar 31 2023 21:33 utc | 282
Seems Yahoo! is missing a mod today…..
Posted by: Digital Spartacus | Mar 31 2023 21:45 utc | 290
Anon comment at Unz Review:
“While at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday, visiting a relative’s grave, I noticed the high-than-usual number of funerals. I just assumed it had to do with the 9-March Russian hypersonic missile strike on the NATO command center near Lvov.”
https://www.unz.com/isteve/pelosis-new-theory-of-anglo-american-jurisprudence-you-are-entitled-to-trial-to-prove-your-innocence/#comment-5890992
Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | Mar 31 2023 21:57 utc | 291
The Russell Bentley Related Posts
As I read his bottom line, the questions is who is playing rope-a-dope (ie the Mohammed Ali boxing tactic where you lay on the ring ropes and conserve strength while the opponent wastes his while throwing punches that are blocked).
Is Ukraine playing rope-a-dope in Bahkmut;saying stay here with your forces and let me block your artillery with our expendables? Because we are regrouping sewhere and
will go downtown Sevastopol very soon.
Or is Russia playing rope-a-dope; saying you just stay on the ropes you dope and take our shots because very soon we are going up top with the bombers and missles and come top down from the north and kick your butt onto the Black Sea.
Or are they both playing, each crying I win you lose.
The winner will be the boys who have the toys to play with.
Posted by: Jerr | Mar 31 2023 21:57 utc | 292
Posted by: bevin | Mar 31 2023 1:09 utc | 129
Simply Profound.
Posted by: Archyzer | Mar 31 2023 21:58 utc | 293
Zakharova: “John Kirby, the Coordinator for Strategic Comms at the NSC in the White House, made yet another statement that US journalists allegedly do not feel safe in Russia as they might face jail time.
John, in the United States even US Presidents do not feel safe as they might face jail time.”
Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 31 2023 22:08 utc | 294
I have just watched a video of Napolitano and McGregor on Ukraine. In it, they showed a clip of an interview by AP wity Zelensky which took place on a train. I was shocked to hear Zelensky say, in response to a question about the Bakhmut situation in terms of massive casualties say that the reason he was sending more troops in was because if Putin won Bakhmut he would then telegraph it to the West and the rest of the world as a big victory for Russia and it would put a lot pressure on Ukraine then in terms of what the West thinks of Ukraine. So, that’s it, 16yr olds are being sent to their deaths just for a PR win or to prevent a PR win for Russia. That’s it There was no military reason given by Zelensky, it was about the optics of a defeat. My God what a disgrace he is to humanity, utter moral depravity and absence of any consideration about the state of his country, the enormous KIA’s the UAF are accumulating, nothing, just PR PR PR. This will not end at all well for him. He will be answerable to a higher power.
Posted by: Jo Dominich | Mar 31 2023 18:34 utc | 255
That’s what he is, a true Westerner, which is why the West hugs him so close. What amazes me is that everything he says is projection, the assumption that Russia thinks and operates just like the West does. It looks like he actually believes it.
As for the dustbin of history, I had to look up what actually is a dustbin. A more up to date term should be ‘dumpster of history.’ The eyesores that people rent that are dropped along the road in the rural county I live in, so the residents can discard the vast amounts of shit they buy from Walmart and Lowes that has exceeded its useful life. They do get emptied on a schedule, by big trucks with hydraulic arms. No humans have to touch them.
Posted by: Mike R | Mar 31 2023 22:18 utc | 295
@Melaleuca | Mar 31 2023 22:08 utc | 292
US journalists’ fear is misplaced – given what the present and previous administrations have done with Julian Assange, Russia is relatively benign. This is assuming he’s really a journalist, not a spook…
Posted by: zeke2u | Mar 31 2023 22:19 utc | 296
Posted by: Jerr | Mar 31 2023 21:57 utc | 290
Re. rope-a-dope in Bakhmut. I just saw a vid on twitter where one of the Ukrainian soldiers complain that the better quality troops (army) are doing the fighting instead of terro-defence (mobilized). I’ll post it if I find it again, but it seems to indicate that they are actually using up the better offensive potential in Bakhmut. The EU/UK trained troops, aren’t in that large volumes. Not that the training is probably very good, anyway.
Posted by: unimperator | Mar 31 2023 22:25 utc | 297
Here’s Lukashenko stating Poland and planning on invading Belarus.
Twitter: “Idiot. Poland just finished building a Big Beautiful Wall.”
Remember when trolls swarmed here at the very start of the sloSMO insisting it was impossible for Ukraine to have NAZIs, because Zelensky was Jewish?
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1641763965339410433
Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 31 2023 22:25 utc | 298
zeke2u | Mar 31 2023 22:19 utc | 294
Post was more in appreciation of Maria’s acerbic wit.
I know she has a Fanclub here
Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 31 2023 22:27 utc | 299