Maybe he thinks China should gives guarantees to fight to protect Cuba ?
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 19 2023 13:17 utc | 320
—————-
Bliken goes there to bully, the standard US way. But, can the Chinese be bullied? Even, the Chinese in the US?

Posted by: ostro | Jun 19 2023 13:22 utc | 304

Posted by: John Marks | Jun 19 2023 12:00 utc | 292
.. and Afrikaners favouring Russia.
Which is bizarre to me because among the Afrikaners were great supporters of the NAZIs during the WW2. Complete with Hitler youth clubs.
Nazism was fundementally a race ideology. As the Afrikaners were (I think) Dutch, they would be one of the arian groups. Ukranian Nazism is inauthentic, a Slavic version of Nazism. If the Germans had won, they would either have redefined some Slavs as arien, or been ready to cast them aside whenever expedient.
On the other hand, that psychotic anglo-saxon fat fuck and war criminal winnie “the poo” churchill bombed the capital of Bulgaria and killed ~1000 innocent people.
Boo | Jun 19 2023 12:16 utc | 298
I am not necessarily down on Churchill, but I am always surprised that he retains a good reputation. Fundamentally he was a British chauvinist. Britain over all was his real agenda.

Posted by: Jmaas | Jun 19 2023 13:24 utc | 306

[319]
Why would Rand and Foreign Policy know better than any of us what the Russian strategy would be?
Probably because RAND was found by Curtis Le May inter alia and is a Pentagon cutout whose current CEO is from the Biden Administration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Gaverick_Matheny
It is a Circularity where policy gets the appearance of multi-sourcing rather than uni-sourcing……….
Most people never expected US to spent 2.5 times as long in Afghanistan as USSR did and to withdraw so chaotically when USSR withdrew in an orderly retreat by road………
It is a real problem when Americans think they know how OTHERS are going to react

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 19 2023 13:28 utc | 308

Going by what we did, not what we say, following WWII there was a desire to turn Germany into a pastoral state. What upchucked that idea was the USSR. We figured out that a power vacuum in Central Europe would be filled by the Russians. That largely locked us into making Western Germany into its old self again, minus the Nazism. Same thing with the Marshal Plan. It simply wouldn’t do for the Western Europeans to vote in communist governments. Hence the aid package.
And, notice that the same thing is still going on. Ukraine is about us making trouble between Russia and Western Europe. Unfortunately for us, I believe it is backfiring. Asia has grown up enough that Russia is realigning with with Asia, and to our disinterest. Numb nuts Washington is shooting itself in the foot with a no longer appropriate foreign policy.

Posted by: Jmaas | Jun 19 2023 13:33 utc | 310

. . .from the outlaw European Union:
The EU Parliament has called on NATO to invite Ukraine to join the alliance.
> MEPs call for the upcoming NATO summits to pave the way for an invitation to Ukraine
> The destruction of the Kakhovka dam by Russia constitutes a war crime
> A comprehensive EU reconstruction and recovery package for Ukraine needed
> Parliament supports opening EU accession negotiations this year . .here
The European Union with its 705 parliament members in five year terms representing half a billion people. As of July 1, 2019, the monthly salary is of €8,932.86, or just over €107,000 per year.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 19 2023 14:07 utc | 312

Why would Rand and Foreign Policy know better than any of us what the Russian strategy would be? Their thinking only reflects American ways of thinking – bomb the adversarial country into a heap of rubble.
Posted by: laguerre | Jun 19 2023 13:16 utc | 319
I generally find that the people who glory in Russia’s allegedly humane manner of waging war are the same people who glory in the alleged fact that there are hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian dead and the undoubted fact that there are millions of Ukrainian refugees.
It’s not a good look.

Posted by: Zinjanthropus | Jun 19 2023 14:12 utc | 314

@ whirlx
In the context of MAD discussion on a prior thread, you wrote something about Russia having multiples of missiles to shoot down ICBM’s and satellites. Can you please elaborate? TIA

Posted by: natokraine | Jun 19 2023 14:20 utc | 316

“If the Germans had won, they would either have redefined some Slavs as arien, or been ready to cast them aside whenever expedient.”
Us Finns were granted by Himmler the status of “honorary aryans”
Posted by: Catilina | Jun 19 2023 14:09 utc | 333

You bet. Easy job for right-wing ideologues, e.g. Helmut Schröcke in “Germanen. Slawen. Vor- und Frühgeschichte des ostgermanischen Raumes”. Slavs are just mislabeled “East Germanic tribes”, according to him.
Isn’t it ironic you can find his “research” free of charge on a Ukrainian server?
https://www.lander.odessa.ua/doc/SchrckeHelmutGermanen-SlawenVor-undFrhgeschichtedesostgermanischenRaumes.pdf

Posted by: Erast Fandorin | Jun 19 2023 14:24 utc | 318

@ natokraine | Jun 19 2023 14:20 utc | 336
Will do, stay tuned.

Posted by: whirlX | Jun 19 2023 14:38 utc | 320

“If we go broke, the likely cycle of events is that foreigners will come to distrust our government enough that raising foreign borrowing can be done only by paying a risk premium on the interest rate needed to borrow money. If the government doesn’t respond in a constructive way, paying the higher interest rate will aggravate the spending problem, making the country look less reliable, and thus further pushing up the risk premium interest rate needed to cover expenses. And so on and so on, until nobody will borrow us money and we default, most likely by not covering some debt when it comes due”
Posted by: Jmaas | Jun 19 2023 11:55 utc | 288
———————
Very simply put and clear. Thank you.

Posted by: Exile | Jun 19 2023 14:45 utc | 322

Posted by: hankster | Jun 19 2023 14:47 utc | 343
Sounds like a temper tantrum. Nato is getting an a$$ whooping in amount of lost material right now. Think of it as USSR equipment was “free”, but now, it’s not free, and it’s copiously expensive.
Nato could manage it for as long as they still had USSR legacy equipment to send, but we are plowing through industrial amount of big ticket items which can really bring US vassals to the brink of bankruptcy much faster. While someone thinks it’s good for US, it’s only good for so long until the customers don’t go completely broke, because what use is a dead customer for your products.

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 19 2023 15:01 utc | 324

Det | Jun 19 2023 13:37 utc | 330
—————–
It doesn’t matter the whole bloody NATO goes down the drain with their Nazis, including the gynaecologist VDL

Posted by: ostro | Jun 19 2023 15:05 utc | 326

@ Jmaas, §325:
Darwinian “Nazi” ideology was widespread throughout the world,from America to Europe to Japan until Adolf showed how to misuse it and gave it a bad name.
The Afrikaners were late to that, being essentially, Boers (“farmers”) and just wanted left in peace to mind their own business and enjoy farming. When the British took over the Cape in the wake of Napoleon´s conquest of the Netherlands, they migrated (the “Great Trek”) ENE, ending up in the Orange Free State and Transvaal. They were happy there. Relations with the Zulu and the Khoisan before them were mutually respected, with much trade (often in labour) between them.
That all changed when gold and diamonds were discovered at Kimberley. The Boers weren´t interested in mining and were happy to rent out mining rights, but that wasn´t enough for the greedy British. Most of Europe at the time supported the Boers. The rest is history.
The Boers, who became known as the Afrikaners when they branched out from farming, threw off British dominion in 1947 but they also didn´t want to destroy the cultures of the Zulu, Khoisan and others. Their ham-fisted application of this as “Apartheid” was their undoing because of its ready identification with the racial doctrines of Nazism rather than the cultural doctrines of, for example, the Soviet Union where nationalities such as the Ugrians, Manchu, Chukchi, etc., etc., were given their own territories (“okrugs”).
In this sense, it is easy to understand Afrikaner sympathy for Russia against Anglo-America.

Posted by: John Marks | Jun 19 2023 15:23 utc | 328

US General Hodges announced the possible acquisition of nuclear weapons by Kiev.
@hankster | Jun 19 2023 14:47 utc | 343
The dirty bomb is already there: tass.com/politics/1634955
The bio is on its way if not ready: tass.com/defense/1634937, tass.com/science/1634849, tass.com/defense/1634843
A regular nuke will appear when there will be means of delivery, like nato planes or missiles. It is more likely that they’ll drop a few on a region they control, to blame Putin for it and make Ukr uninhabitable. Can you imagine Crimea made radioactive by “unknown people” who exploded something somewhere? It worked well for NS, you can’t say it’s a completely SF scenario. NS explosions are permanent damage, bye bye forever.
The tiny slow smo can’t produce any results, will never be able to prevent any terrorism, won’t get a surrender from Zely or anyone monkey that might replace him, offers zero protection for civilians, can’t move the front line out of Donbass, Belgorod or Crimea after 1.5 years.

Posted by: rk | Jun 19 2023 15:32 utc | 330

“And so on and so on, until nobody will borrow us money and we default, most likely by not covering some debt when it comes due”
Posted by: Jmaas | Jun 19 2023 11:55 utc | 288
That is impossible as a matter of accounting. For US dollars to be US dollars they have to be transitively linked to the US Treasury. What that means is that when Treasury credits a US dollar account, that amount is automatically ‘lent’ back to Treasury on the other side of the balance sheet.
Government borrowing is merely an automatic accounting balancing item, not a matter of begging.
This is the real world, not a D&D game. There isn’t a fixed amount of gold coins that everybody is fighting for.

Posted by: The Accountant | Jun 19 2023 15:44 utc | 332

Slavyangrad has two posts about mass surrenders, claiming that it’s so serious that it stopped the counter offensive, without reference to the loss of lives and equipment. There was also a video claiming Ukr soldiers were openly cursing their commanders when captured and that the surrender factor has accelerated.
There was also a letter posted claiming that families are being forced to hold the bodies of dead relatives in their homes indefinitely because the morgues are overflowing in some areas.

Posted by: Eighthman | Jun 19 2023 16:20 utc | 334

That is impossible as a matter of accounting. For US dollars to be US dollars they have to be transitively linked to the US Treasury. What that means is that when Treasury credits a US dollar account, that amount is automatically ‘lent’ back to Treasury on the other side of the balance sheet.
Government borrowing is merely an automatic accounting balancing item, not a matter of begging.
This is the real world, not a D&D game. There isn’t a fixed amount of gold coins that everybody is fighting for.
Posted by: The Accountant | Jun 19 2023 15:44 utc | 352
Lets spin this down to an easier case because it is more common. A business somewhere borrows some money. As it is borrow and they get money, the value of the money received turns up on the left side of the balance sheet as an asset, a spendable asset because it is money. To keep track of the fact that it was borrowed, they will list the same value on the right side of the balance sheet as a debt. Hey, double entry bookkeeping It is the same for the Treasury.
I am not sure how they handle paper currency issue because it is a more complex situation. But I am sure it is a much less important category than these large outstanding loans that they make, and as it is normally handled by the bookkeeping it doesn’t produce spendable money. Saying it does over and over doesn’t cause it to be true.

Posted by: Jmaas | Jun 19 2023 16:30 utc | 336

“The war ends when the Federal Gov’t no longer can sell cheap debt to fund it.
Simple
Posted by: Exile | Jun 19 2023 16:23 utc | 355
Classic!!

Posted by: DakotaRog | Jun 19 2023 16:36 utc | 338

[332]
EuroParl is elected on LIST System
It is a Party Machine
You Americans should try it – vote for a Party and let them decide who your candidate is nationally
It is a fake parliament owned by lobbyists

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 19 2023 16:44 utc | 340

Posted by: Exile | Jun 19 2023 16:23 utc | 355
The war ends when the Federal Gov’t no longer can sell cheap debt to fund it.
The EU, UK, Japan, South Korea will buy cheap US debt even if they have to sell themselves to do it.
Or else …

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jun 19 2023 16:52 utc | 342

Russian Ka-52 helicopter loses tail, but continues to fly as if nothing happened

Again, these Russians are building flying tanks.
The Ka-52 continues to fly nonchalantly even with a broken tail boom.
Any other helicopter with a tail rotor is not capable of similar survivability with similar damage.
Your tail fell off!
– Leave me alone, I’m flying!

https://t.me/Slavyangrad/51427

Posted by: Norwegian | Jun 19 2023 17:15 utc | 344

359 – “All right. We’ll call it a draw!”

Posted by: Waldorf | Jun 19 2023 17:21 utc | 346

Russian Ka-52 helicopter loses tail, but continues to fly as if nothing happened
Norwegian | Jun 19 2023 17:15 utc | 358
It is those dual rotor helicopters. I wonder what the criteria is for building them like that? Their big B52 equivalent bomber uses propellers, and when it is at full cruising speed, the propellers brake the speed of sound out at the tips. The thing must be kind of noisy when in use. Before we were committed to jet fighters, we built a fighter plane like that. The plane got nick named the Thunder Screech because of how noisy the propeller was.

Posted by: Jmaas | Jun 19 2023 17:26 utc | 348

Chaka Khagan no. 353
😂🤣😂🤣

Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Jun 19 2023 17:38 utc | 350

Also note how the fork tongued demon cares about Ukrainian refugees now, but never cared about the millions of ethnic Russian Ukrainian refugees who already fled between 2014 – 2022, due to nazification and attempts by ukronazis to destroy russian language and culture.
The fork tongued demon is compassionate, the fork tongued demon cares, the fork tongued demon loved… With one fork of its tongue.

Posted by: UWDude | Jun 19 2023 18:22 utc | 352

@whirlX | Jun 19 2023 17:23 utc | 359
History is a funny thing indeed. Back in the 1922 Mine Workers strike the Afrikaners were 100% Communist. They called each other comrade and flew the red flag. It took artillery and bombs dropped from biplanes to subdue them. Then with WW2 the Afrikaners were 100% Nazi and hated Communists, and shortly after WW2 they started Apartheid, based on Nazi racial principals, even though the Nazi’s had lost badly to the untermenschen. Now of course it seems some Afrikaners are back in the Russian fold again, even want to go farming in Russia.

Posted by: gT | Jun 19 2023 18:33 utc | 354

@ natokraine | Jun 19 2023 14:20 utc | 336
Tuned to ballistic defense.
I claimed that RF has around 500 interceptors per 1 incoming ICBM.
And around 10 per each enemy’s military satellite.
That is based under assumption of a no-fail-target (there is a Russian synonym for that) and it is implemented within anti-anything doctrine that is rapidly evolving, ever since the first missile defeated ME-BF 109 and some Dornier few days later, over Stalingrad in 1943.
Idea behind was to use as much and everything in range towards each target.
Basically, shooting at ICBM since its launch and 2+ minutes ascent.
In 3-5 minutes one must identify, confirm, and fire on target.
10-15 minutes to impact is basically time to target ICBM all the way with longest range, long-mid range, mid-range, missiles in salvo.
Considering that ICBM has multiple war-heads and decoys, for each it must be factor 5.
Why exactly 5? I do not know exactly, but apparently it has to do with hit-probability calculus for each target. So acts as a 5 clusters in an AI algorithm calculating factors for deciding on a probability of kill.
Short missile flight times require that all applicable full domain sensors and surveillance assets must be linked to provide a complete and current air picture, preferably in real-time.
Russian battlespace manager differs from the USA, as it handles ICBM defense and an retaliatory attack simultaneously.
To destroy distant targets and above enemy’s territory a low yield nuke interceptors are used. The idea is to nuke every ICBM far away while ascending. Failing that, RF has enough far reaching weaponry to unload on each target multiple times. As a big Babushka set.
We are also thinking about those interceptions as a sync of the land based, sea based, air based, and space based anti-ballistic missile defense weapon systems, naturally.
So far, Soviets, then RF produced around 120 various anti-fly missiles of all sorts and types and ranges in thousands, adding to it is last 20 years of a pretty advanced missile tech being upgraded and developed. So they do have a stock.
At almost 10 years old, (it does take time to develop) – S-400/500 status was few years ago:

Russian Ministry of Defense has tested long-range missiles for
anti-aircraft missile system S-400. This was announced on 04 April 2015
by deputy commander of the Air and Space Defense (ASD), Major-General Kirill Makarov.
According to the deputy commander, the range of the target was slightly less than 400 km. Full-range rocket launch was not possible due to the insufficient size of the test range, the general explained. He noted that now the range of the S-400 is 250 km. “With the adoption adopted a new missile, which is now undergoing state tests, the destructive force of the S-400 will be up to 400
kilometers,” – said Makarov.

And for S-500 upwards.

A large, very long-range (400 km) high-speed missile with active radar guidance, system had been increased to the limits established by the ABM Treaty demarcation agreements, it can intercept targets with velocities of up
to 4.8 km/sec, corresponding to a ballistic missile range of 3,500 km.
By some accounts the 40N6 has an estimated speed of around 4.8
kilometers (3 miles) per second – Mach 14. However possibly slower in a real world.

That was a few years before SMO, now there are no treaties and the world moved on.
Nobody knows exactly, and I think nowhere near has been disclosed any reliable fresh info, on how many systems are produced and are in live service, but I am pretty sure that it is enough to overwhelm any ICBM many times over, before it reaches kill zone.
And when you think that RF is eleven time zones and as same goes for Moscow, about the same level of anti-air shielding is for Vladivostok or Murmansk, and that is a lot.
As for satellites there is a two tier deter strategy – one ground based and one space based. I reckon around at least 10 missiles locked on each satellite.
I do not know how they would deal with Thurayas and other clusters of geo stationary and a deep space stuff.
Some EMP I assume would do, but I do not know really if it is even doable or needed.
For a low orbit there was a theory in 80s that even a simple rocket loaded with few tons of a 2 cm ball-bearing ordnance would deny orbits to the USA crucial satellites at some 160-400 km.
What is important to understand is that one of the pillars of deterrent is impenetrability of air-space above any civilian and military target and the other is that retaliatory strike is embedded in anti-ballistic interception.
Legally it is not a second strike.
How is that really working in practice, remains to be seen, hopefully never.

Posted by: whirlX | Jun 19 2023 20:58 utc | 356

“Ukraine may have temporarily halted its counteroffensive into Russian-occupied areas to re-evaluate its tactics”
(Sly news)
“How’s it going at the front guys?”
“We’re getting the shit kicked out of us!”
“OK form a line, drop your kecks and bend over”
“Why?”
“We’re issuing you all with butt plugs, now get back out there.”

Posted by: GT Stroller | Jun 19 2023 22:31 utc | 358