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April 5, 2023
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-81
Comments
Posted by: HeyHeyHey | Apr 6 2023 1:15 utc | 94
See my comments to that piece over there.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 6 2023 3:10 utc | 101
Posted by: Response2 | Apr 6 2023 1:11 utc | 92
So you don’t understand what “in theater” means. It’s not Ukraine.
You also don’t understand that Poland’s war game was run under the assumption that it HAD all those NATO weapons: the F-35s, the Abrams, etc.
Five days.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 6 2023 3:12 utc | 102
Just watched John Wick, Chapter 4, about to have four cheeseburgers, so everyone fuck off. Don’t give a shit what you all think.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 6 2023 3:13 utc | 103
@Fnord73 | Apr 5 2023 21:20 utc | 55
Since 2018, every US military college or institute that has published the results of wargames has determined that the USA/NATO could not win against either Russia or China in a limited regional war without thermonuclear escalation which would result in the extinction of most extant species, including humans.
Suggesting that parts of NATO might accomplish what the whole cannot, does not, on its face, appear credible, no matter what never-battle-tested against peer competitors “wonder weapons” are brought to the party.
Posted by: Hermit | Apr 6 2023 3:18 utc | 104
⚡️🇷🇺🇺🇦⚔️ #Chronicle of the Special Military Operation for 5 Apr 2023⚡️
🔹#Russia’s Border Areas:
▪️ In the #Bryansk region, an Ukrainian light aircraft crashed. The pilot was detained and the circumstances of the accident are being investigated. According to some reports, the pilot was gathering reconnaissance information at the behest of the Ukrainian command.
➖ In addition, the AFU terrorists attacked the Suzemsky district using UAVs. One civilian was wounded by a burst munition.
▪️ In the #Belgorod region, the Shebekinsky urban district has been under fire from Ukrainian terrorists for the past three days.
➖ A mortar attack hit Novaya Tavolzhanka, damaging three houses and several cars, with no civilian casualties.
▪️ In the #Kursk region, Ukrainian terror forces struck the border areas. AFU shelling hit the village of #Gordeyevka in Korenevsky district, causing power supply problems also in #Uspenovka and #Troitskoye.
🔹#Starobelsk (#Svatovo) Direction:
▪️ The situation in this section of the front remains steadily tense, mutual artillery duels and reconnaissance continue along the line of contact.
▪️ The Ukrainian terrorist forces fired two HIMARS MLRS rockets at the civilian infrastructure of #Rubezhnoye. Several residential buildings were damaged, two people were killed, one was wounded.
🔹#Soledar (#Bakhmut) Direction:
▪️ After taking control of #Bakhmut, urban fighting has shifted westwards.Clashes continue in the area of the Avangard stadium.
➖ In the south of the city, fierce fighting continues in the area of the destroyed MiG-17 monument.
🔹#Donetsk Direction:
▪️ Russian servicemen are cracking down the enemy’s defences in the #Avdeyevka fortification.
➖ The Russian Aerospace Forces and the artillery of the RF Armed Forces almost continuously strike at the positions of militants in the area.
▪️ Ukrainian terrorist formations once again shelled #Donetsk and other DPR settlements. A woman was wounded in the village of #Vladimirovka.
🔹#Zaporozhye Direction:
▪️ The situation in this section of the front has not changed significantly. Both sides are concentrating reserves to the forward defence lines and exchanging artillery strikes.
▪️ Ukrainian terrorist formations attempted to attack the civilian infrastructure of #Energodar. An unmanned Polish drone was intercepted near the #Zaporozhye NPP, but no damage was caused.
🔹#Kherson Direction on #SouthFront:
▪️ Artillery duels continue in Kherson region at the line of contact along the #Dnieper River.
🔸Political Events:
▪️ In #Ukraine, severe pressure on the canonical UOC-MP continues:
➖ The schismatics of the OCU forcibly seized a church in the Chernovtsy region of Ukraine and staged a brawl with believers.
➖ In the #Rovno region, the Paraskevskaya church has been seized.
➖ In the #Lvov region, in one of the churches, there were clashes between believers of the OCU and the UOC-MP. The parties to the conflict were separated by the local police.
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 3:23 utc | 105
Ukrainian families being torn apart in Europe, mothers turn to Russia for help — envoy
“The problem has reached such proportions that Ukrainian mothers, who have lost all hope of getting justice, flood social networks with messages and ask us for help,” Nebenzya said
Mothers of Ukrainian children removed from their homes in Europe are asking Russia for help, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said at the Arria-formula meeting of the UN Security Council initiated by Russia on Wednesday.
“The West is not concerned about the Ukrainization of Russian-speaking children taken from Donbass by Kiev, to say nothing of the forcible Ukrainization of Russians that is in full swing across Ukraine,” Nebenzya said. “Hushing up the fact that children are being taken away from Ukrainian refugees in European countries is part of this propaganda campaign. According to various sources, children have already been removed from 80 families in Germany alone.”
“The same thing is happening in Spain and Portugal.” The number of victims is in the hundreds.
“Strangers are taking small children and bringing them to orphanages,” the diplomat stressed. “The mothers who try to get their kids back are threatened with criminal prosecution.” In the meantime, Ukrainian ambassadors and consuls merely throw up their hands. “They are not going to quarrel with the governments of the countries delivering weapons to [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky’s regime.”
“The problem has reached such proportions that Ukrainian mothers, who have lost all hope of getting justice, flood social networks with messages and ask us for help,” Nebenzya said.
Video recordings of such appeals were shown during the meeting.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/40500
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 3:26 utc | 106
@Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 5 2023 21:35 utc | 60
Land of the fee and home of the slave 🙂
A country with more known incarcerates and under judicial supervision than any previous or current totalitarian regimes and which has greater inequality than pre-revolutionary France has no right to speak of freedom. As for alleged bravery, having wasted more money than any other country in all of history on arms, weapons and its military, and being to stupid to recognize the actual risks they run, and still only dared use their military against countries incapable of competing, their “brave” looks a lot more like “bully”.
Posted by: Hermit | Apr 6 2023 3:31 utc | 107
@Fnord73 | Apr 5 2023 23:58 utc | 82
Oh, you were trolling? How sweet!
Why ever would you imagine the KIA ratio to be so low? My analysis earlier this year suggested some 15 to 20 thousand Russian casualties to 450 to 600 thousand Ukrainian casualties. I”m pretty sure that the Ukraine, now running on empty, has not succeeded in lessening the odds, when they could not do so fresh to the war just after being trained and provisioned by NATOs best.
Which is exactly as predicted by anyone sane. If NATO cannot prevail against Russia, what hope did the Ukranian Nazis have against Russia and her allies?
Posted by: Hermit | Apr 6 2023 4:10 utc | 108
Make no mistake, things are going to hell in a handbasket, especially for Finland.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 5 2023 18:09 utc | 20
I am prepared 🙂
Not much of a 5D chess player, but in an ordinary, mundane, boring 2D chess for us yokels it is customary to respond to an attack to launch a counteroffensive on the opposite side of the board. I would enjoy seeing UAF to storm Melitopol and Kiev being taken (encircled) from Belarus.
The site whose name begins with z and includes hedge, linking to which is verboten here, claims the Elensky regime is now talking about abandoning claims to Crimea (as long as the rest of the “occupied”, ie liberated, territory is “liberated”). They’re about a year too late for that.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Apr 6 2023 4:15 utc | 110
@Catilina 110
Taking Kiev from Belarus will be exponentially more difficult than it would have been a year ago. After Putin’s inexplicable decision to withdraw from North Ukranazistan last April the nazis have been fortifying the border nonstop. It will take far more forces and involve far greater casualties than Russia has shown any appetite for thus far in this conflict.
If Kiev were to be taken the best time would have been 2014, or failing that March 2022 (instead of just standing still at Gostomel).
Now the only relatively non destructive way to take Kiev will be to wait for a total Ukranazi collapse, also depending on NATO to not occupy most of Ukranazistan including Kiev to “protect it from Russia” befre Russian forces can capture the city.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Apr 6 2023 4:23 utc | 111
General Krivonos, former Ukraine national security council chairman who said in September 2022 Ukraine losses are hundreds of thousands, recently came up with another statement where Bakhmut is a (wrong kind of) meatgrinder and should have been abandoned weeks ago.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 6 2023 5:03 utc | 112
“Joni Mitchell” aka (Roberta Joan Anderson) and “Stephen (Edwin) King” are total knavish creeps who came out in support of the Nazi Ukraine ethnic cleansers. They can rot in hell.
Posted by: blues | Apr 6 2023 5:20 utc | 113
Struck with the reality of the failed Ukraine campaign, the west has thrown its dummy out the pram and signed up Finland.
Posted by: HERMIUS | Apr 5 2023 21:55 utc | 65
Finland is like Australia in many ways, a country with a small population and small military best served by neutrality with a focus better on business and trade with their powerful neighbors. And yet the corrupt governments of both have signed their sovereignty over to the USA to be used as military bases against their neighbors with the accompanying bullseyes painted on them. And their reward? Lost trade and massive increased expenditure on US arms leading to a lower standard of living. That the actions are beyond idiocy and self interest demonstrates a hidden hand in play.
Posted by: Organic | Apr 6 2023 5:48 utc | 114
No point saving a penny and losing the Pound.
No point saving the cent and losing the Dollar.
Stealing that $300 billion from Russian Federation is having some blow-back … and it is ongoing and on a roll.
Useful piece from GeoPolitical Economy [30 mins]
Countries worldwide are dropping the US dollar: De-dollarization in China, Russia, Brazil, ASEAN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz5UmwhQuiU
The Desai/Hudson conversations on this channel are also excellent and very informative ..
Posted by: Don Firineach | Apr 6 2023 6:00 utc | 115
“Refugees or IDPs”: Poland moans from Ukrainian refugees and thinks about the need to denazify Ukraine.
“The mass migration of the Ukrainian population to the EU territory threatens to destabilize at least on a macro-regional scale, leads to the disorganization of our economies and brings us into confrontation with an enemy that was mistakenly considered defeated: Nazism.
✔️ In our impulse, we remained blind: almost no one paid attention to the fact that the majority of Ukrainian “refugees” were from areas that to this day are not covered by hostilities. No one remembered that Ukraine, being within its current borders a state larger than Poland, has a territory that allows for free internal migration. They came to their senses when it was already too late, and 10 million 400 thousand Ukrainians crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border in 13 months. But this is not an escape, but an escape to a better life, because if they themselves ask, encourage, make it easier, then only a fool would not take advantage of it.
✔️ Under the guise of “humanitarian aid”, we let tens of millions of visitors, displaced persons into the Schengen zone, practically without any control, and among them, without the slightest doubt, also thousands of bandits, criminals, terrorists. This is an act hostile to Europe, this is yet another invasion carried out on the orders and from the handrails of our Anglo-Saxon occupiers.
✔️ With sincere regret, seeing in the Ukrainians our brothers-Slavs, we observe among them the consequences of a long-standing Nazi indoctrination. The state cult of Bandera, Shukhevych and other Nazi collaborators left an indelible mark on subsequent generations of Ukrainians. These people have been horribly harmed and raised to hate their neighbors, ethnic and religious minorities, and anyone who does not share this cult. Ukraine is a territory where denazification is absolutely necessary.
✔️78 years after the end of World War II, the Nazi state is in the center of Europe, and we ourselves pay for the education and training of its paramilitary personnel. Can we protect ourselves from this threat?”
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/40542
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:01 utc | 116
Putin’s Red Lines. Why is the dictator not responding?”: Bild convinces readers that Ukraine has proven that you can do anything with Russia, including attacks on its territory, and it will not escalate.
“Now it’s clear: all the Kremlin’s “red lines” have disappeared. Russia did not carry out any of its threats. And this despite the fact that Ukraine is now even bombing villages in Russia!
At first, Moscow demanded not to supply weapons to Ukraine. In the summer of 2022, after the new supply of Western weapons, new Russian threats followed: this would cross the “red lines” that would force Russia to escalate the situation in Ukraine. But nothing happened, and the more the West supplied, the quieter Moscow became. Only “Western infantry and battle tanks” remained taboo. Even the most important of all red lines, “attacking Russia”, was crossed by Ukraine a few months ago and thus exposed yet another bluff. These empty threats have prompted Ukraine to now openly attack and destroy Russian military units in western Russia, as filmed by their own drones. No longer thinking about the alleged “red lines” of Russia.
The West now also sees Putin’s bluff. Since March, dozens of Western tanks and infantry fighting vehicles have been arriving in Ukraine every week. By the summer there should be 500 tanks, which Kyiv should use to deliver the last, blow to the Russian army.
Zin Note: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This is how a child thinks. A drunk beating his chest at the bar, waiting for a bouncer to come break up the fight. They tried to call Putin’s bluff, and now Ukraine is 40% mined. Hundreds of thousands have died. The soil is soaked with blood, while trillions have been shaved off the global economy. But they glibly brag that they poked the bear and are still alive?
This, ladies and gentlemen is bait. They’re tempting their enemy to make a stupid callous move. Grow up, and show maturity.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/40546
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:04 utc | 117
⚡️🇷🇺🇺🇸📌 Key Statements from the #NATO Ukraine Commission and the #NATO Foreign Ministers’ Meeting from 4-5 April⚡️
🔹 #Finland became the 31st member of #NATO, the fastest accession process in modern history;
🔹 #Finland itself will decide on the deployment of foreign troops on its territory;
🔹 #NATO countries supported #Ukraine with about 150 billion euros, including 65 billion euros in military aid;
🔹 Countries agreed to develop a multi-year initiative to support #Ukraine;
🔹 #NATO noted the need to help #Ukraine make the transition from Soviet-era equipment and doctrines to #NATO standards and improve interoperability with #NATO;
🔹 #NATO will continue to support #Moldova, #Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as they “face pressure from #Russia”;
🔹 The Alliance will continue close cooperation with #Mauritania and #Tunisia;
🔹 The need to counter #Russia’s growing rapprochement with #China was noted;
🔹 Heads of State and Government from #Australia, #Japan, #NewZealand and Republic of #Korea are invited to attend the #NATO Summit in Vilnius in July 2023;
🔹 South Korea has begun supplying more ammunition to #NATO allies, allowing deliveries to #Ukraine to continue;
🔹 #Japan has decided to open a special diplomatic mission to #NATO.
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:06 utc | 118
🇺🇦Zelensky’s adviser Podolyak regrets that during the first months of the war they did not slaughter all the pro-Russian people, but says they can still be killed.
Then hundreds of people disappeared, they were killed under the guise of war without trial and investigation.
https://t.me/sitreports/6802
Same video on Twitter
https://twitter.com/AlternatNews/status/1642674108377735169
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:13 utc | 119
Kramatorsk, temporarily occupied by Ukraine, flooded for 2 days: Ukrainian Army’s facilities also damaged
The flooding in Kramatorsk began yesterday — initially it was written that a dam was broken (the blame for which was shifted to the Russian Army’s shelling). Later, it turned out that the wall at the water discharge well in the Gorodeshchino microdistrict burst because of the high water level, as a result of which the Torets River rapidly began to overflow its banks and flood the city.
As of this morning, many private houses were flooded and locals are known to have been affected. Emergency services have not yet been able to cope with the elements, while spectacular photos and videos of the floods circulate in the network. According to some reports, the water flooded not only residential areas, but also Ukrainian positions near Kramatorsk — dugouts, trenches, as well as parking lots with armored vehicles.
As a reminder, Kramatorsk is one of the Ukrainian military hubs in the Donetsk direction, part of the enemy’s defense line Slavyansk-Kramatorsk-Druzhkivka-Kostyantynivka-Chasiv Yar. It is also where the enemy is accumulating reserves for the “Bakhmut meat grinder.”
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:21 utc | 120
Poland is preparing to deploy an American corps in Powidzie, Poland
Today, Polish Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak accompanied the US Ambassador to Poland, Brzezinski’s son, during the opening of another American base in Poland.
The new military facility is built on the model of American bases that have been operating in Western Europe for many years.
The Long-Term Equipment Storage and Maintenance Complex (LTESM-C) is the largest project funded by NATO in the past 30 years.
The area of the object is almost 80 thousand square meters. m., including more than 100 warehouses, vehicle repair and maintenance points, fuel depots, hangars, ammunition depots, administrative and residential buildings, etc.
The American base will store several thousand units of military and military equipment, including tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery, vehicles, etc. All this will be designed to deploy a full-fledged army corps.
The new complex will reduce the time required to fully equip the newly arrived units of the US Armed Forces with equipment from one and a half months (in the case of the transfer of equipment from the United States) to just a few days.
Blashak also said that “American weapons are the best in the world” and Poland will work even more closely with Washington in this direction. In fact, the Polish politician said that Warsaw is refusing European initiatives in favor of the American military-industrial complex.
Thus, the commissioning of yet another US base near our borders is yet another challenge to the military security of the Union State. It should be understood that in addition to the next thousands of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, additional thousands of American military personnel will arrive in Poland to store and maintain weapons and military equipment. In fact, we will soon witness the deployment of another American brigade in Poland, capable of turning into 5 AKs in just a few days.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/40577
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:22 utc | 121
Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:13 utc | 120
One of the twitter comments pointed out that this footage has several cuts and is pieced together and that seems indeed to be the case.
I dont understand russian anyway, but arranging some snippets does not make it any more trustworthy, at least to me.
Posted by: Grasdackel | Apr 6 2023 6:30 utc | 122
Posted by: Grasdackel | Apr 6 2023 6:30 utc | 123
I wasn’t aware of that. Thanks for pointing it out. They’ve done enough bad things to report about without having to resort PR gimmicks (if it is indeed the case) like this. Silly.
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:48 utc | 123
Eight new assault brigades: Ukraine is preparing 40,000 fighters for a counteroffensive.
It is reported by Reuters. According to the agency, we are talking about the “Offensive Guard”, which is being prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Interior Minister Igor Klymenko told the news agency that he believes Ukraine still has significant mobilization potential and that its recruits include women, people with no military experience, and former police and military personnel.
The agency writes that much depends on the expected counter-offensive of Kyiv.
A failed and costly attempt to retake territory from Russian forces could undermine optimism among key Western supporters and push them to encourage Kyiv to start negotiations with Moscow.
https://t.me/rezident_ua/17181
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:50 utc | 124
“Strangers are taking small children and bringing them to orphanages,” the diplomat stressed. “The mothers who try to get their kids back are threatened with criminal prosecution.” In the meantime, Ukrainian ambassadors and consuls merely throw up their hands. “They are not going to quarrel with the governments of the countries delivering weapons to [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky’s regime.”
Last week I was visiting a relative in a apartment block in Munich – while I was waiting outside to get buzzed in.Two busy-buddy social working type women with clipboards came to the door and asked me if any ‘Russians’ lived in the building. They came in when I did and started looking at the name tags on the doors for ‘Russian’ names.
Scary really scary
Posted by: Exile | Apr 6 2023 7:10 utc | 125
@ blues | Apr 6 2023 5:20 utc | 114
Shut in a room with Sean Penn for eternity?
Posted by: John Kennard | Apr 6 2023 7:11 utc | 126
https://declassifieduk.org
A site to feast on………
Seems Habeck has decided Media ie newspapers are losing readers in Germany and need help – so €630 million a year “subsidy” is proposed by his Ministry.
Quite a few states in EU subsidise print media such as France, Austria, Sweden
https://rm.coe.int/file-2-marius-report-eng/1680a4d519
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/funding-news-media-sector
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 6 2023 7:15 utc | 127
Poland is preparing to deploy an American corps in Powidzie, Poland That’s close to 100,000 troops with supply, tactical air, and command considered.
Barflies – you all are skeptical when I predict that NATO is preparing a 650,000 ground force glorious (sic) offensive for 2024 or 2025. But here is further evidence
200,000 The Ukraine
200,000 USA
100,000 EU
100,000 Mercs
50,000 England, Oz, Canada
Posted by: Exile | Apr 6 2023 7:16 utc | 128
@ Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:01 utc | 117
Close to the knuckle indeed.
But when the Wall Street/City of London Axis says “Jump” its colonies and compradors and their wannabes don’t delay to ask “How high?”
Posted by: John Kennard | Apr 6 2023 7:24 utc | 129
https://poland.uso.org/usopowidz
Do let Ben Wallace know where you found 50,000 soldiers from UK, Australia, Canada………..MoD has clearly not being paying them since they could not mobilise 50,000 if they tried……..let alone equip them.
There will not be any “Ukraine” in 2024……….
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 6 2023 7:27 utc | 130
There was a claim that Russians took Bakhmut rail station (one of the three critical fort areas). Whether it happened guess we’ll hear soon enough.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 6 2023 7:44 utc | 131
Or do you really think that Poland with western Ukraine would not soon use this position of power (economy) as a means of exerting pressure on EU neighbors?
Not without first allowing the EU to bleed for reconstruction and then benefit from the result!
THE NEVER MISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO DAMAGE GERMANY / HUNGARY / AUSTRIA….
Hyenas stop corpse crawlers of the EU
Posted by: mo3 | Apr 5 2023 22:08 utc | 71
You are not articulate in English. Perhaps you are a German or Austrian. History of Europe is a bit more complicated than your zoological knowledge let you to understand. In mid 16th century for example, a Hungarian prince Stephan Batory led military campaign against Austrian Maximilian II Habsburg in Transylvania. Batory was coronated asPolish king in 1575. The other contender to this throne was Maximilian himself.
Posted by: Chris | Apr 6 2023 7:49 utc | 132
Exile | Apr 6 2023 7:10 utc | 126
“Last week I was visiting a relative in a apartment block in Munich – while I was waiting outside to get buzzed in.Two busy-buddy social working type women with clipboards came to the door and asked me if any ‘Russians’ lived in the building. They came in when I did and started looking at the name tags on the doors for ‘Russian’ names.
Scary really scary”
The hohols are so stupid they don’t get it that the resurgent Nazism of Europe hates them as much as it hates all Slavs and has the same agenda as that of the original Nazis, to completely depopulate them and take their now-empty land.
This doesn’t change just because the Ukrainians themselves once again are openly Nazi, any more than their ardent eagerness to collaborate in WWII changed the genocidal disdain of the Nazis back then.
Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Apr 6 2023 7:50 utc | 133
Soros already in the 1990s was writing manifestoes advocating this Nazi program of the complete depopulation of Eastern Europe.
Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Apr 6 2023 7:54 utc | 134
Our source in the OP said that Syrsky reported to Zelensky about the decision to withdraw troops from the northern districts of Bakhmut and move away from the industrial zone of the city so that the Armed Forces of Ukraine would not be in the boiler.
The Ukrainian army has created a fortified area in a high-rise building in the west of Bakhmut, but enemy artillery destroys quarter after quarter and the General Staff will be forced to give an order to leave the city in 7-10 days.
https://t.me/rezident_ua/17139
Our source in the OP said that Syrsky reported to Zelensky in the morning about the critical situation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Bakhmut, 15% of the city is under the control of the Ukrainian army, and the enemy continues to squeeze pincers from three sides.
The General Staff recommends that the Office of the President start preparing an information campaign that Bakhmut has fulfilled his role and enabled the Armed Forces of Ukraine to prepare for the spring counteroffensive.
https://t.me/rezident_ua/17182
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 8:14 utc | 135
Another dream woke me up before dawn – I heard sonic booms in my sleep – and through cloudy skies saw squadrons flying through the high clouds. I said to my family let’s stop the picnic, war is declared, we must go and hide in the cellars…
Now I drank some calming tea and checkin our sites, it seems that the Collective Waste is mindlessly driven to greater folly.
This Easter is surely going to be marked as an escalation where the whole Judaeo-Christian edifice built from Rome, to St Paul’s in The City, after a millennium finally collapses from its over indulgence. That thousand year reich is cracking.
Songs of the Eastern Orthodoxies sound a lot like the songs of the Eastern religions.
Human voices are immense.
Maybe I should read a Dostoevsky book – it seems de rigueur. if we want to rail against this Modern Waste.
As this quote from some search I just did glaringly states :
‘Dostoyevsky was active in the era of a steep rise of Russian ethnic nationalism. He died before the age of pogroms, and the views expressed in his diaries lie somewhere between “indifference” and “distrust” on the scale of Judaeophobia. But he made up for this in his hate of Europeans, especially Poles, and liberals whom he considered a detrimental influence. Nowadays, his quotes are a bottomless source of memes shared by Russian nativists, radical liberals, born-again Orthodox and militant loyalists. He’s your man if you want to rise in arms against the dark demons of liberal democracy and Western globalism.”
Maybe I shall look into a sea voyage to a new life in the East or South, for sure the North and West is not rousing from our Collective Wastrel Dream.
What says the bar?
Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 6 2023 8:18 utc | 136
Hello , Could anybody comment on the so called Independent Russian media site. Navoya Gazetta and its Founder Dimitri Muratov.
Posted by: Mr Sukh | Apr 6 2023 8:29 utc | 137
I thought that article was quite interesting, as it indicates to me that European thought is not quite as monolithic as a cursory reading of the MSM would suggest. Bets look like they are being hedged and who knows where this will lead. More straws in the wind.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/german-insurers-renew-cover-blast-damaged-nord-stream-gas-link-2023-04-04/
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 6 2023 8:43 utc | 138
DunGroanin | Apr 6 2023 8:18 utc | 137
I must admit that I am quite fond of indulgence but the issue seems to be to keep it in perspective and not continue on into advanced depravity, corruption and hypocrisy. The West seems to have done all of that but still pretends to be the eternal innocent even as it acts as the most dissolute of whore-mongers. It is that hypocrisy that I find most repugnant, a lot like Jimmy Bakker’s tears of repentance that were forgotten even before they dried.
I have no truck with Puritans either as to me they seem to despise the vast bulk of humanity in all of its many iterations and lust to inflict their own inadequacies onto the rest of us.
The Confucian life of harmony does seem to have a lot of attraction, so heading East may be the way forward. West is a busted flush.
That’s my two-bobs worth DunGoanin
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 6 2023 9:00 utc | 139
@DunGroanin | Apr 6 2023 8:18 utc | 137
This Easter is surely going to be marked as an escalation where the whole Judaeo-Christian edifice built from Rome, to St Paul’s in The City, after a millennium finally collapses from its over indulgence. That thousand year reich is cracking.
I remember Easter 1975 in the mountains with snowy weather and pictures on the TV with helicopters leaving embassy rooftops.
I am not in the mountains, but it is snowing today.
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 6 2023 9:14 utc | 140
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:50 utc | 125
Is it 40K, or 80K or 200K or 650K? I know inflation in the West is bad, but this is getting ridiculous!
Posted by: Milites | Apr 6 2023 9:22 utc | 141
“Just watched John Wick, Chapter 4, about to have four cheeseburgers. Don’t give a shit what you all think”.
I’ll state the obvious anyway : you have peculiar tastes in cinema… and food.
Posted by: Nanker | Apr 6 2023 9:26 utc | 142
If you want a glimpse into US think tanks and hegemony mindset, Foreign Policy and American Enterprise Institute are advocating for “bringing back the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth”.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 6 2023 9:36 utc | 143
Posted by: Down South | Apr 5 2023 19:50 utc | 31
“The time has come to return the Polish-Lithuanian Union”: Washington does not hide the desire to “solve the Eastern European problem once and for all” and at the same time weaken Western Europe, strengthening the loyal Young Europeans.
According to the new plan, Ukraine and Poland should unite into the Commonwealth; there will be not just a buffer from Russia but also a counterbalance to the Paris-Berlin union, and at the same time the problem of Kiev’s unpreparedness for the EU and NATO will be solved.
Foreign Policy: “The Commonwealth was one of the largest countries in Europe.” What if this is a possible political solution to the problems facing Ukraine and Poland today? Both countries face a threat from Russia. Imagine that at the end of the military conflict, Poland and Ukraine form a common federation or confederation, uniting foreign and defense policies and almost instantly bringing Ukraine into the EU and NATO.
The Polish-Ukrainian alliance will become the second-largest state in the European Union and perhaps the largest military power, providing a more than adequate counterbalance to the Franco-German tandem—something that the EU is sorely lacking after Brexit.
A Polish-Ukrainian alliance may well prove to be the easiest way to turn post-war Ukraine into a stable, prosperous, and strong country that can keep Russia at bay—something that is acutely in Warsaw’s interests.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/40621
Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 9:36 utc | 144
@ Hermit | Apr 6 2023 4:10 utc | 109
Not worth your time, IMHO. It’s been here a year and seemingly hasn’t learned anything.
Posted by: natokraine | Apr 6 2023 10:37 utc | 145
Posted by: Exile | Apr 6 2023 7:16 utc | 129
your statement and your numbers are pretty nonsense, it won’t happen , NATO article 5 ever heard of it ?
to send regular troops in a war zone it needs some sort of legitimation in each european country
100K mercs maybe, but who should pay them ?
Posted by: publicdisorder | Apr 6 2023 10:53 utc | 146
06-04-2023 Kramatorsk.
⚡️ One of the workshops of the Kramatorsk plant. More than 30 armored vehicles were successfully hit by the RF Aerospace Forces.
https://twitter.com/TobiAyodele/status/1643914188064972805
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 6 2023 10:55 utc | 147
Some positive non war news re what has been occurring, behind the lines, Translated:
The main statements of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Marat Khusnullin:
◾️Over the past year, 9.5 thousand facilities have been built and reconstructed in new regions of the Russian Federation, this also took place under the shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
◾️Hundreds of kilometers of gas pipelines have been built in the new regions of the Russian Federation, a supply system independent of Ukraine has been created in the Zaporizhzhya region;
◾️In Mariupol, 11 thousand houses have already been restored, this year their number will be increased;
The water pipeline for supplying the DPR with water is fully ready, in the near future it will go to the Donetsk agglomeration;
◾️The Government of the Russian Federation is preparing a program to bring the roads in new regions into a normative state in three years, which is 21 thousand km;
◾️In the near future, the situation with cellular communication in new regions will be radically improved;
◾️64% of the population of the new regions of Russia regularly receive pensions;
◾️In the new regions of the Russian Federation, new houses are being built under a preferential mortgage of 2%.
A clown in action: No country, under any circumstances, can deploy nuclear weapons on foreign territory – Macaron said in China
Posted by: rk | Apr 6 2023 11:25 utc | 149
Posted by: Outraged | Apr 6 2023 11:02 utc | 149
“64% of the population of the new regions of Russia regularly receive pensions”
Are you sure this is positive news?
Posted by: Membrum Virile | Apr 6 2023 11:44 utc | 150
Translated:
Vladimir Putin met with Acting Head of the DPR Denis Pushilin, Acting Head of the LPR Leonid Pasechnik and Acting Governor of the Zaporizhzhya Region Yevgeny Balitsky.
Putin’s statements:
◾️The AFU today killed 14 of its soldiers, who were surrendering;
◾️The Russian Federation in Ukraine is dealing with a regime that is most brutal even towards its servicemen;
◾️The task of the Russian Federation is to push the Armed Forces of Ukraine to a distance from which they will not be able to cause damage;
◾️There are plans to build new sections of the railway in new regions of the Russian Federation;
◾️The task of the military is to ensure that there is no shelling of Donbass at all;
◾️All social guarantees for the soldiers of the Sudoplatov volunteer battalion in Zaporozhye must be spelled out properly.
Pushilin’s statements:
◾️In the DPR, the air defense system was strengthened;
◾️A new water pipeline to supply the DPR is already filling with water;
◾️It is necessary to double – up to four lanes – the road to Uspenka near the checkpoint with the Rostov region.
Pasechnik’s statements:
◾️The Armed Forces of Ukraine switched from targeted shelling of military facilities on the territory of the LPR to chaotic shelling of the civilian population;
◾️The situation on the territory of the LPR is stable, controlled, the enemy is much less likely to shell the republic.
Statements by Balicki:
◾️The Sudoplatov battalion will conclude a contract with the Russian Armed Forces in April and receive weapons.
Just watched John Wick, Chapter 4, about to have four cheeseburgers, so everyone fuck off. Don’t give a shit what you all think.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 6 2023 3:13 utc | 104
I’m downloading it now from piratebay.
Posted by: Surferket | Apr 6 2023 11:56 utc | 152
Nobrain | Apr 6 2023 11:54 utc | 153
Fatuous risible rubbish made up out of whole cloth. Farcebook grade. Got the wrong bar buddy. Hm … desperation ?
Posted by: Nopain | Apr 6 2023 11:54 utc | 153
Do you remember what happened when Europe refused to sell cheese to the Russians, their biggest cheese customer? Russia went into the cheese business and within months replaced European cheese. This is looking like the greatest boost to the Russian economy ever. Russia does not need Europe, but Europe needs Russia, more so every day it seems.
Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Apr 6 2023 12:25 utc | 154
Outraged @ Apr 6 2023 11:59 utc | 155
you should read an alternate, likely very close to truth, history of us meddling in the period after the ussr was broken up.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/04/no_author/ukraine-a-colony-of-the-us-since-1991/
to the great god fortune of the world, the image of nuclear disarmament and non proliferation was better than leaving the kiev cabal with nuclear arms
imagine if they had the bomb!
Posted by: paddy | Apr 6 2023 12:27 utc | 155
Richard Steven Hack | Apr 6 2023 3:13 utc | 104
b.’s stricture against sledging other posters prevents me from saying more than that those of you relatively new to this bar should watch Hack closely to observe a stereotype of destructive egocentricity self immolate.
Posted by: Debsisdaed | Apr 6 2023 12:31 utc | 156
paddy | Apr 6 2023 12:27 utc | 157
It’s amazing that they are complaining about this now. At the time it was seen as a great triumph of Clintonian diplomacy to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. Now it seems that they don’t give a rats arse if every man and his dog has them. Fuck!!
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 6 2023 12:36 utc | 157
Debsisdaed | Apr 6 2023 12:31 utc | 158
the concept of planning a war from war games is fully irrational/unreasonable.
the poles expect a flood of usa wunderwaffen, and do their games by the ‘advertizing’ called specification sheets.
the reality is for usa wunderwaffen the only reliable measure is the constant profit of the military industry complex.
the spec sheets are fiction never delivered and never tested until….
someone is dumb enough to try make war the wunderwaffen!
Posted by: paddy | Apr 6 2023 12:42 utc | 158
@ Nopain
“Beijing came out today and said its partnership with Moscow is rhetorical. “. This is a made up lie by NYT.
“Chinese officials saw the writing on the walls. Beijing would never give Western money up to be Moscow’s ally.”
They have and will again. Sanctions mean counter sanctions
“USA and the EU could find cheap labor like elsewhere”…
Cheap labor … is not the issue, raw materials & actual physical manufacturing centers where”cheap labor” can go to is. Currently the EU just scuttled its major manufacturing Nation (Germany) and companies fleeing high energy costs.
It would take a decade or 2 for US/EU to wholly de-couple from China, let alone get raw materials & processing plants up.
“. Beijing couldn’t afford to lose those partners.”
Those “partners” have openly declared going to war with China by 2025. So, lost them they have.
“.This isn’t even mentioning the billions of dollars in production and jobs that have already been removed in Russia and would continue to do so.”
Again, Russia has the raw materials & plants up. There are many many other Countries in the World… So Nike plant become “Sike”… hardly matters.
USA “bags of money” is coming to an end, and with it, choices.
Posted by: Trubind1 | Apr 6 2023 12:57 utc | 159
ZimZum | Apr 6 2023 12:36 utc | 159
the multiple facets of ‘neoliberal evil’ are being exposed
and destroying the orthodox church in ukraine is ignored……
Posted by: paddy | Apr 6 2023 13:01 utc | 160
Good footage of yet more apartments completed in Mariupol, along with reconstruction of the city. TG, 107s. (Russian language).
More footage of the Muddy Track of Death(MToD), under RF Fire Control, the fragile tenuous MSR for AFU remnants in Artemovsk(Bahkmut). TG, 54s.
Translated: ‘Road to the west of Artemovsk. Another site with abandoned wheeled vehicles, including Turkish MRAPs.’
@ Surferket | Apr 6 2023 11:56 utc | 154
Sorry, do still have some standards, TS & CAMs are unacceptable. Patience is a virtue. Cheers. 🙂
@ paddy | Apr 6 2023 12:27 utc | 157
We’ve been in up to our elbows since ’45, certainly ever since start WWI at least …
imagine if they had the bomb!
I’d prefer not to, my extant nightmares are bad enough.
@Nopain
“New Delhi is forming more pacts with Washington and Paris […]”
maybe that’s the worst of all your deluded statements. Right now India is on fire because Blinken want to derail the next G20 forcing that any issued official statement would include a straightforward condemnation of Russia in the US terms.
So even this reliable US partner is becoming sick of the US diplomatic – media circus. When India will sit down with China to address their longstanding issues, US will be as surprised as they have been when Saudi and Iran did so.
Posted by: w | Apr 6 2023 13:05 utc | 162
Mini-Napoleon is in China to lecture Prez Xi on intl’ rules-based order, soon to be followed by Von der Crazy. It would be peak clown world if they dial in Elensky during one of meetings lol.
At the same time, Iranian and Saudi FMs are discussing warmed up relation in…China. What a time to be alive, to witness decades happening in mere weeks.
Posted by: _newbie_ | Apr 6 2023 13:07 utc | 163
I know the last post I made was utter tosh and, I apologise for that but, I wonder, has anybody seen this?
https://www.greanvillepost.com/2023/03/30/the-bakmut-diversion-and-the-donbas-defense-a-view-from-donetsk/
Would appreciate any thoughts on this.
Posted by: Ken Tucky | Apr 6 2023 13:23 utc | 164
Surferket@154….it runs a bit long, a few scenes could have been trimmed, but overall a good movie…..my first time in a theatre in almost 30 yrs, better experience than I remember.
Cheers M
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Apr 6 2023 13:24 utc | 165
Posted by: paddy | Apr 6 2023 12:42 utc | 160
‘the concept of planning a war from war games is fully irrational/unreasonable.’
Ask the French in 1870 how irrational the Prussian’s were.
Posted by: Milites | Apr 6 2023 13:27 utc | 166
Nopain@153….deUSAdollarization; invasions, not required. International program….do follow along.
Cheers M
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Apr 6 2023 13:30 utc | 167
paddy | Apr 6 2023 13:01 utc | 162
I would like to imagine that the scales would fall from a lot of eyes very quickly, but western propaganda is bigger than I ever thought, way bigger, and I was constantly on my guard, searching for reality.
When reality kicks in, and I say that only because what can’t go on forever will not, it will not be pretty. I would hope that heads will roll, but see little appetite for that, at least in the short term.
Being silly here but it is hard to get your head around the French Revolution with nukes.
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 6 2023 13:33 utc | 168
@ Ken Tucky | Apr 6 2023 13:23 utc | 166
Has already been discussed in depth starting Mar31’23 here, Ukraine Open Thread – 2023-75 Mar30’23, ‘bevin | Mar 31 2023 3:43 utc | 142’ & further ‘LightYearsFromHome | Mar 31 2023 17:40 utc | 252’.
That’s 2 for 2 ‘interesting’ dump & run re ‘any thoughts?’ … ever actually read the site/thread articles/posts ?
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 6 2023 13:33 utc | 170
Propaganda does not work as well, so the DS is trying to restrict any news that does not slavishly follow the official narrative. The peasants are striking back though, through consumer boycotts (Disney losing billions) and many conservative Americans are looking forward to a situation where Washington cannot spend money like water. They’re also the ones who have been preparing, since Biden’s ‘victory’, for the dark times.
Posted by: Milites | Apr 6 2023 13:53 utc | 170
Hello , Could anybody comment on the so called Independent Russian media site. Navoya Gazetta and its Founder Dimitri Muratov.
Posted by: Mr Sukh | Apr 6 2023 8:29 utc | 138
Pro-western, based in Latvia, owned by oligarch Lebedev. Oligarch’s son is a British peer, friend (lover?) of Boris Johnson, owner of English rag ‘The Independent’.
Posted by: Browser | Apr 6 2023 14:00 utc | 171
Please excuse me if this post distracts from more serious discussion.
I was just reading some pro-Ukrainian twitter thread, which I sometimes do for laughs, and had an epiphany of the scatological variety. One of those image associations that once you’ve seen it, you start seeing it everywhere.
It was in relation to this banal fluff image:
https://i.postimg.cc/hjLbjk3M/Fs-Xx-UI-WAAEk-J1e.jpg
The intended interpretation, I assume, is like a throwback to Superman ripping his human disguise before heading out to save the world or whatever. But, since I’ve been on the internet for quite some time, I’ve had my fair share of exposure to what used to pass for shock content, so my immediate association to seeing hands in that position was goatse.
But that’s only half of it. As soon as that image materialized in my mind, I was struck by the self-referential nature of what I was seeing, because of how accurately the national symbol of Ukraine represents, despite its stylized form, the image of a naked man bending over a camera in a display of his private parts. You have the legs, the genitalia, the reverse buttocks forming a heart, the inverted scrotum outline and the anus — everything a minimalist symbol would need to represent a complex subject.
Can’t say I was shocked that it hadn’t occurred to me sooner, since it took a specific context to get on that wavelength, but now I just can’t unsee it. Before this, I would readily have agreed with the popular interpretation, where the trident is presumed to depict a falcon or eagle, either rising or falling. Now I’m inclined to think that 20’th century Ukrainian nationalists, who were notorious pederasts and perverts, merely adopted a symbol depicting their favorite pastime.
Posted by: Skiffer | Apr 6 2023 14:01 utc | 172
Milites | Apr 6 2023 13:53 utc | 172
Solzhenitsyn describes “free” life under totalitarian regime:
– perpetual & generalized fear, feeling of being nothing, of not enjoying any rights
– dissimulation, general and mutual mistrust, any sincere protest being doomed to isolation and incomprehension
– general ignorance, total lack of transparency, absolute disinformation, due to secrecy and mistrust between citizens abandoned to newspapers and official speakers (today the MSM)
– systematic sniffing (today provided by IT)
– treachery as a form of existence, denial, not doing evil, but ignoring and turning away from those the regime excludes.
– lie as a form of existence, because if our soul is polluted, our intelligence remains relatively lucid. Do we have to present to our children the lie as the truth from the outset, to make their life easier? Or make them understand to lie, to lie relentlessly as soon as they leave home ?
– cruelty, mainly when the victim is defenseless
– psychology of slaves
— from “the Gulag archipelago”, part 4, chap. 3.
Posted by: fabrice | Apr 6 2023 14:03 utc | 173
reply to 153
Good Grief. Your post is one distortion after another. I hardly know where to begin. First, the US can issue all the dollars they wish ( while its economy falters) but it cannot ‘print’ oil, gas, metals or even artillery shells. That fact is becoming painfully obvious.
Second, the overwhelming majority of foreign companies have not left Russia. And Russia is getting established businesses basically for free as servile corporations slink away. China, Turkey or India can pick up bargains here, too.
Europe? They are mostly vassals and cowards who will obey Big Daddy USA unless US power falls apart. If the dollar falls, US soft power ( and eventually hard power) go with it.
Where is the logic of treating India and China as utter fools who don’t follow their own interests? India is making $ hand over fist from Russian energy and China knows that , if Russia falls, the US will push regime change on Bejing.
NATO is stronger? Than what? With Turkey and Hungary as members? With drained finances? Weapons used up? Sweden and Finland basically defacto were united with NATO.
The figures I’ve seen suggest the brain drain out of Russia is pretty much the same as it’s been. And they still build good weapons and nuclear reactors.
Posted by: Eighthman | Apr 6 2023 14:09 utc | 174
Posted by: fabrice | Apr 6 2023 14:03 utc | 175
It almost sounds like he was describing life in the modern west. Now, would this be similar to how the PTB have used Orwell’s 1984 as a blueprint?
Posted by: irish al | Apr 6 2023 14:10 utc | 175
Milites | Apr 6 2023 13:53 utc | 172
I have noticed the restriction on anything that doesn’t fit with the Russia evil narrative and I was quite shocked at the uniformity of the western media, definitely just playing for the “team” although it is hard to see why, as they are shredding their credibility and that is what they trade on.
I hope you are right, as there seems to be little appetite or perhaps ability to fight back against the bullshit and lies, at least here in the land of OZ.
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 6 2023 14:11 utc | 176
I could pull this article apart reasonably adequately. There are plenty in “b”‘s comment section who could pull it apart better.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65179074
But no matter how it’s pulled apart, it’s holy writ to the most of us living in Europe. Thousands of journalists can turn this sort of material out in their sleep; and from the universities to the think tanks down to the scrubby little web sites like Bellingcat there’s an immense army of people all working along the same lines.
It’s a Sisyphean task combating this tsunami of misinformation and slant. I don’t think it’s going to be done.
This is why, my view, we in Europe are destined for a bleak future. After the Ukrainian war is over we shall find ourselves living in a parochial Western enclave, increasingly cut off from the wider world and increasingly preoccupied with our local tribal animosities. And no constructive thinking about how we could accommodate to a world in which the Golden Billion no longer rule the roost.
So it seemed to me when I had got to grips with the implications of February 21st 2022: the day when the Russians finally abandoned Minsk 2 and recognised the self-declared Republics. With the abandonment of Minsk 2 they abandoned any hope of rapprochement with the West. Professor Robinson writes well on that. He explains in detail what many of us felt instinctively after that crucial event. And with Russia goes China, India, maybe all Asia and the Global South. It was the day when, for us in Europe, the earth shifted on its axis.
Any chance, however slim, of some return to sanity? Any prospect that the electorates of Europe will see through that mass of misinformation they have been so assiduously fed?
I did see one chance recently. The North Stream sabotage fits no story that that information army can come up with. Any examination of it, any solution proposed to the puzzle of why it occurred, must be at odds with the story we are being sold. I set out that question on Colonel Lang’s fine site recently. I believe if the question were asked in Europe, rather than in the States, it would be the thread that would lead to the unravelling of the web of falsity we in Europe are currently enmeshed in.
. There are some interesting loose ends still to be examined. The main one is in Germany, a country I’ve come to regard as my second Heimat.
Any Germans around here at the moment? Tell me what’s happening! Pretty well an entire country determinedly looking the other way. None daring to ask why Scholz isn’t doing what any normal leader would do: raising hell until he finds out who blew up his gas pipes.
Is there anyone in that inert pudding of a country brave enough to raise his head above the parapet and explain why Scholz is acting so oddly?”
Posted by: English Outsider | Apr 6 2023 14:12 utc | 177
irish al | Apr 6 2023 14:10 utc | 176
Hi, could you explain what PTB stands for ?
thanks !
Posted by: fabrice | Apr 6 2023 14:13 utc | 178
Mini-Napoleon is in China to lecture Prez Xi on intl’ rules-based order, soon to be followed by Von der Crazy. It would be peak clown world if they dial in Elensky during one of meetings lol.
Posted by: _newbie_ | Apr 6 2023 13:07 utc | 165
It seems Ursula offended Xi. He said this during today’s meeting: “Anyone who expects China to make compromises and concessions on the Taiwan issue is just shooting himself in the foot. All these are impossible dreams.” To Macaron he said that China insists on promoting peace through negotiations
Posted by: rk | Apr 6 2023 14:19 utc | 179
@153.
Massive open ended military expenditures then guaranteed for years despite the US only needing to spend pennies on dollar right now…
So let’s play devils advocate. Why even bother with this overexending debt machine to maintain military infrastructure across thousands of miles for an enemy that will never attack it?
How is that a victory or even good? I’d define victory as being able to de mobilize and reinvest in peace time things.
Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Apr 6 2023 14:20 utc | 180
Posted by: rk | Apr 6 2023 14:19 utc | 180
Well China let Macron come down the plane steps to ……….nothing…….no reception
Maybe they are watching the pictures from France now BlackRock HQ in Paris is occupied ?
Maybe they watched Jimmy More yesterday with amazing video of French diners nonchalantly eating while the surroundings are ablaze out of the windows
Links to UK were blocked today – no Chunnel, no sailings, no flights – Dover is backed up and France is closed because of revolution on the streets…….
Macron is going to be toppled
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 6 2023 14:26 utc | 181
what PTB stands for ?
@ fabrice | Apr 6 2023 14:13 utc | 179
Powers That Be
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 6 2023 14:28 utc | 182
[178]
why Scholz isn’t doing what any normal leader would do: raising hell until he finds out
and HOW does he do that ?????????
He is “Kanzler aufs Abstellgleis gestellt” and Biden ordered him to DC to tell him………SPD is just ahead of SPD in polls and Habeck is profiling himself to replace Scholz……..or simply to walk over to Friedrich Merz, – the Man from BlackRock and go into coalition with him
You really don’t understand the German voting system which is a disaster……….Germans are incandescent but the system was designed to stop “populism”. ie. keep control within party system
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 6 2023 14:32 utc | 183
From Xinhuanet
BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday in Beijing that China stands ready to issue a joint call with France for political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.
Xi told the press, after the talks between him and French President Emmanuel Macron, that China is committed to facilitating peace talks and political settlement on the Ukraine crisis, and stands ready to issue a joint call with France for the international community:
To stay rational, exercise restraint, and avoid taking actions that might cause the crisis to further deteriorate or even spiral out of control;
To strictly abide by international humanitarian law, avoid attacking civilians or civilian facilities, and protect women, children and other victims of the conflict;
To earnestly honor the solemn pledge that nuclear weapons must not be used and nuclear wars must not be fought, oppose the use of biological weapons under any circumstances, and oppose armed attacks against nuclear power plants or other civilian nuclear facilities;
To resume peace talks as soon as possible, observe the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, accommodate the legitimate security concerns of all parties, seek political settlement, and foster a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture;
To jointly address the spillover effects of the Ukraine crisis in food, energy, finance, transportation and other fields, and reduce the negative impact of the Ukraine crisis on the world, especially on developing countries.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 6 2023 14:33 utc | 184
From Xinhuanet
BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping held a trilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Beijing on Thursday.
Xi pointed out that the concurrent visit to China by Macron and von der Leyen demonstrates the positive desire of the European Union (EU) to grow relations with China and advances the common interests of China and the EU.
In a complex and volatile world beset by the protracted Ukraine crisis, faltering global recovery, volatile financial markets and growing difficulties facing developing countries, China and the EU need to stay committed to dialogue and cooperation, uphold world peace and stability, foster common development and prosperity, promote human progress, and address global challenges together, Xi said.
Noting that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership, Xi said China is prepared to work with the EU to set the right direction and tone for China-EU ties, fully resume exchanges at all levels, revitalize mutually-beneficial cooperation in various fields, and overcome disturbances and challenges, thus injecting fresh impetus into China-EU relations and global peace, stability and prosperity.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 6 2023 14:35 utc | 185
psychohistorian | Apr 6 2023 14:35 utc | 186
Xi pointed out that the concurrent visit to China by Macron and von der Leyen demonstrates the positive desire of the European Union (EU) to grow relations with China and advances the common interests of China and the EU.
Looking at the news, Xi and his staff gave France’s Macron a regal greeting, with lots of hand-shaking, then a walk on the red carpet reviewing the troops before the Macrcron/Xi give-and-take in a conference room — with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen not to be seen. . . . NYT–The Latest: War in Ukraine – Macron Urges Xi to ‘Bring Russia Back to Reason’
So Ursula apparently had no part in this, as should be the case for the “president” of an illegal bloc.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 6 2023 14:48 utc | 186
Posted by: fabrice | Apr 6 2023 14:03 utc | 175
The Poles, under communist occupation, used to refer to themselves as, ‘exiles in our own country’. The solution to this type of regime is to create your own positive reality, where you refuse to be emotionally manipulated or distracted. I keep subverting the agenda with a fair degree of success, but will not expend any energy on reacting to their clown world, with its sponsored clowns, doing clownish things.
Posted by: Milites | Apr 6 2023 14:51 utc | 187
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 6 2023 14:35 utc | 186
I just watched the presser Xi Jinping and Macron, what a hypocritical slimy scum that Macron is, Russia is guilty as if the war started in 2022 and not in 2014 and then the runt dared to remind Xi about human rights while during years he has been pounding at the Yellow Vests and France is up in arms with his retirement laws. Felt like puking but I listened to it all and convinced myself that for as long as Europe does not get rid of this stinking elitists we’re on the road to big troubles.
Presser in French:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GzUJkGwls8
In English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TshzjvDouak
Xi was a lot more restrained but reminded Macron that Europe needs to be independent to be taken seriously, what a kick in the nuts. I’ll check for a presser with VonDerKorrupten, she deserves another Erdogan treatment even though the Chinese are way more polite.
Posted by: Paco | Apr 6 2023 15:00 utc | 188
The following report (very-heavy negative bias !!) is on Today’s BBC News Website:
“French leader Emmanuel Macron has urged his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to help stop Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“I know I can count on you to bring Russia to its senses, and bring everyone back to the negotiating table,” he told Mr Xi in Beijing.
Mr Xi said China and France had the “ability and responsibility” to safeguard world peace”
Posted by: Engineer-John | Apr 6 2023 15:05 utc | 189
Posted by: ZimZum | Apr 6 2023 14:11 utc | 177
As an ideological poacher turned gamekeeper, I’ve tracked the changing mood of American conservatives for over 20 years now. The ‘burn it down’, with radical reform of the system movement are gaining increasing credibility and support. The Democrat’s installation of their puppet Biden, by stealing an election, did not go to plan and has only accelerated this process of disillusionment at a system most trusted to work in their interests.
Posted by: Milites | Apr 6 2023 15:08 utc | 190
@ Posted by: Down South | Apr 6 2023 6:06 utc | 119
As Groucho Marx once said: I don’t know if I want to be part of a club that would allow someone like me as a member!
150 billion Euros is about 75% of Ukraine listed 200 billion GDP.
That GDP number is certainly overstated, Ukraine has lost many factories, mines and farmland. So, Ukraine is basically in an iron lung right now. With the mass exodus, and large KIA, even if war stops tomorrow, they have little resources for any GDP, outside of farming.
#Mauritania and #Tunisia? Wow, that will scare off Russia.
GDP respectively 10 B and 47 B. Much of Tunisia GDP is based on tourism. Mauritania is valuable ONLY of they can find lithium or nickle deposits in the desert.
Japan in NATO is a joke. Japan debt to GDP ratio is 262, the HIGHEST in the world. Their interest rate is actually negative (-0.1) making it pointless to invest there. A decades old problem of declining birth rate has left a much older population:
Median age in 1990 = 37.3
Median age in 2020 = 48.4
Urban percentage – 91%. Means they have no exposure to survival skills needed for combat.
Posted by: BroncoBilly | Apr 6 2023 15:22 utc | 191
The VonDer….whatever presser is all by herself, good Xi, no good to appear in photos with that kind of people.
I’ll drink something and torture myself listening to that despicable human? being.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQoJbk2D2WY
Posted by: Paco | Apr 6 2023 15:26 utc | 192
Posted by: English Outsider | Apr 6 2023 14:12 utc | 178
Don’t pull it apart, accept the figures and then see if those facts actually support the conclusion, which in this case they don’t. Even if you double the KIA figures you get the following.
For the first two + months a rate of 40 PCM
The next three months 16 PCM
The final 8 months 8 PCM
2 Para, fighting Argentinian conscripts, suffered 16 dead and over 60 wounded. For a unit who has been employed in a fire brigade/assault role this VDV regiment has suffered increasingly lower casualties as the SMO has continued.
So, even accepting the worst case scenario, doubling the KIA, this shows that a frontline Russians unit has suffered comparatively few casualties in a full-spectrum modern war.
Posted by: Milites | Apr 6 2023 15:37 utc | 193
Posted by: Paco | Apr 6 2023 15:00 utc | 189
Meanwhile BlackRock office in Paris got ransacked, lol.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 6 2023 15:54 utc | 194
From Reuters
Macron seeks China’s help on Ukraine, Xi ‘willing’ to call Zelenskiy
China’s Xi Jinping expressed willingness to speak to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the head of the EU said on Thursday, after French President…..
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 6 2023 15:56 utc | 195
… merely adopted a symbol depicting their favorite pastime.
Posted by: Skiffer | Apr 6 2023 14:01 utc | 174
Arestovych, probably. That and the fact that the cretinous filth of Ukraine’s diplomatic corps hardly even pretend to speak on behalf of a real country fit a pattern of running Ukraine into the ground.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/qwghlm/529967993
Posted by: anon2020 | Apr 6 2023 16:22 utc | 196
Karlof @ 61
Thank you for this post about individualism raging against the collective betterment, ‘west’ against the ‘east'(includes working for the collective improvement).
I very much appreciate your writing and read all what you post very carefully, thank you.I learn a lot, your efforts are very much appreciated.
Some years ago there was a book by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk (My name is red). It in a very beautiful writing exposed the difference, as one side was painting elaborate portraits of individual rulers, while the other was forbidden to do so. The incredibly stylized generic paintings were in order, great miniatures of horses painted with one, just one hair of the brush, under the light of candles, where the toiling artists went gradually blind.
I see the same thing about Chinese civilisation now, and selfishness of our societies.Thank you for all you do. BTW, my efforts to make my friends and acquantaces to make them read the book ran into the ground.
Posted by: stranger | Apr 6 2023 16:37 utc | 197
Posted by: English Outsider | Apr 6 2023 14:12 utc | 178
Diese US-installierte Regierung Deutschlands vertritt natürlich US-Interessen.
Und das zu 85% MSM-verdummte-gerne auch Masken-tragende deutsche Volk,geschichtsvergessen wie kein anderes,
vertraut ihren Ministern.Die restlichen 15% spielen keine Rolle.
Verstanden?
Установленное США правительство Германии, конечно же, представляет интересы США.
А немецкий народ, 85% которого отупели от MSM и любят носить маски, забыл историю как никто другой,
доверяет своим министрам. Остальные 15% не имеют значения.
Понимаете?
This US-installed government of Germany of course represents US interests.
And the German people, 85% of whom are MSM-dumbed-down and like to wear masks, have forgotten history like no other,
trust their ministers. The remaining 15% don’t matter.
Understand?
Ce gouvernement allemand installé par les Etats-Unis représente naturellement les intérêts américains.
Et le peuple allemand, à 85% abruti par les médias et portant volontiers des masques, oublie l’histoire comme aucun autre,
fait confiance à ses ministres, les 15% restants ne jouent aucun rôle.
Compris ?
Posted by: Oberbayer | Apr 6 2023 17:03 utc | 198
English Outsider | 178
“Is there anyone in that inert pudding of a country brave enough to raise his head above the parapet and explain why Scholz is acting so oddly?”
EO, life is way too comfortable for the general population in the ‘western’ world to consider sticking their heads out! Not likely in our life time. Even the french ‘revolutionaries’ have become passive, at least for the time being..
Posted by: Rd | Apr 6 2023 17:27 utc | 199
ZH has a posting up with the title
Xi Pledges Active Peace Role After Macron Urges Him “Bring Russia To Its Senses”
the quote
French President Emmanuel Macron is currently in Beijing urging his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to “bring Russia to its senses” over the war in Ukraine.
The French leader has made it crystal clear that his purpose is to dissuade China from offering any level of support to Moscow, whether political, economic or military. “I know I can count on you to bring Russia to its senses and everyone to the negotiating table,” Macron told Xi during a bilateral meeting as part of the 3-day visit.
And then a NYT quote internal to the article
Xi Jinping “reiterated his willingness” to speak with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine “when conditions and time are right” but offered no timeline for such a conversation, the head of the European Commission said on Thursday after meeting with China’s top leader.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the commission, which is the European Union’s executive arm, told reporters that she had encouraged Mr. Xi to reach out to the Ukrainian president.
I think Marcon is delusional and we know that Ursula von der Leyen is both delusional and racist as can be.
The important part of this visit to me is the validation of Xi/China as the new global mediator
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 6 2023 17:56 utc | 200