One law good for me , one different law for thee, ha?
Posted by: Wondrous | Sep 4 2023 12:13 utc | 152
Expect a thunderous silence from the EU.

Posted by: jpc | Sep 4 2023 12:23 utc | 303

Posted by: Wondrous | Sep 4 2023 12:13 utc | 152
Heard there are also a lot of well-aged and able bodied ukies in Spain and Cyprus who would love to go back defend Ukrainian democracy. They must be well rested too.

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 4 2023 12:30 utc | 305

If Putin agrees a new grain deal instead doing what he should which is declaring war on Erdogan then we know he is just protecting his oligarchs

Posted by: Night Tripper | Sep 4 2023 12:37 utc | 307

Wondrous | Sep 4 2023 12:13 utc | 152
They’re using the trick of labeling some of them as “illegal” refugees. So for the moment they’re probably trying to collect in the tens of thousands range, the poor ones I suspect. Once they’re dead, 1-2 months, they’ll have to find other tricks to collect the standard refugees. It’ll be fun to see the West loving Ukr running from police all over EU. They went to the wrong side. Oops

Posted by: rk | Sep 4 2023 12:39 utc | 309

The reason I believe Russia has not sought to end this conflict in a thunderous blitz of blood and bricks all over Kiev and Lvov and others is that they do not want a moral equivalence with the bloodthirsty tactics of the West. They also know innately that this is exactly what the West wants and then the screams of outrage will start all over media and internet. Russia is keenly aware of world opinion and wishes to keep that of the non western populace on its side. Yes, if pushed they could go all out, but when all dust is settled Russia knows that THEY will be left with the burden of rebuilding what they have destroyed. The West will not pony up a square Dollar unless its in the form of decades burdening loans paid to Blackrock etal. Essentially paying themselves. Even then,they will not give a conquered Ukraine the luxury of new loans. We can see this in what Russia is already doing in places like Mariupol. building houses, roads and schools even within 12 months of taking control.
Believing saner heads will see reason in Kiev, London, DC and Brussels is not the hope but that sheer Sheer exhaustion will see the fickle warmongers shift focus elsewhere when the wishful dreams are not realised before election day. The only game available is the one being played, exhaust the provocateurs and inflict as much pain as possible on their lackeys. True it is costing Russia dear in the form of personnel but what else can they do?. Biped robot soldiers are still incredibly expensive for all sides. Reducing these to manageable prices will make humans even more gung-ho I fear

Posted by: DaVinci | Sep 4 2023 12:44 utc | 311

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Sep 3 2023 16:08 utc | 26
Posted by: Boris Badenov | Sep 3 2023 17:14 utc | 36
Posted by: Boris Badenov | Sep 3 2023 19:22 utc | 64
Cardboard is a garbage material for drones. Low strength-to-weight ratio tending to zero on moisture absorption, an absurd false economy, with plastic and composites as far better options.
If cardboard is such a poor drone material, the real question is why all the cardboard drone stories, to which the answer seems to be a fake subtext of how easily Evil Putin can be defeated, in order to distract from Ukrainian conscripts being massacred at the front.
A kind of Ghost of Kiev and Pickle Jar Grannie shoot down Kinzhal swarm thing.
We can’t be too far from stories of Zelensky parting Russian lines in the manner of a chanting, Himmlerian Ukro-Gandalf, advancing unscathed on foot.
Good luck unthinking that shit.

Posted by: anon2020 | Sep 4 2023 12:56 utc | 313

@SCCC, I’m sure we are all on ASIO or other 3 letter agencies lists just for being on M of A.
I’m probably on multiple lists because I’m the sort of guy who likes to know how stuff works, from the jab to IEDs to how to destroy infrastructure. Heck probably just typing IED got a ping on their monitor.
I do play it safe, though I know how to make an IED I don’t make any. Same with protests, I’ve turned my back on a presidential motorcade but I’d never be dumb enough to join a J6 protest and get done for trespassing.
I also know from life experiences. ( like living in a country with active terrorism or visiting a conflict zone like the Gaza Strip and meeting senior men in Fatah and Hamas) that Australia is just crazy to get itself involved in arming Ukraine. If I can find out how to make an IED then so can the whack jobs, if I can find Linkden profiles and photos for dozens of the drone manufacturers key players then so can those seeking revenge. And if a couple of posters can ask about what can be done about the cardboard drones and I can see a solution then so can others and unlike me they might act on such solutions.
BTW as I’m in security I always have to assess security risks to the sites I’m protecting or the targets in providing bodyguard services to.

Posted by: Neal | Sep 4 2023 12:57 utc | 315

Silence over who killed Prigozhin

How long were the ‘investigations’ into the Septemeber 11th attacks…4 years? Maybe you can at least give them the time it takes to complete an average inner city murder investigation in Maerica, land of the free.
Further my money is on the Maerica intelligence agencies for killing Hot Dog Man. He burned them but good, pulling up a bunch of their ‘grass’ internal 5th columnists, taking a couple cool billion, and humiliating them in my view. I’m sure the kind of clowns responsible for the Ukraine debacle took it personally.
I don’t think the Russians did it at all. It increases instability and its just not Putins style. If Hot Dog was gonna die it would be off stage in a more accidental way. No, the Russians didn’t kill Hot Dog…it was another escalation. Easy to get the deluded hordes of the West to believe such however. They don’t ask many questions.

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Sep 4 2023 13:00 utc | 317

Posted by: DaVinci | Sep 4 2023 12:44 utc | 157
“True it is costing Russia dear in the form of personnel but what else can they do?”
Stop their imperialistic, land grabbing invasion, designed to leave Putin in history books as a conqueror?
Nah, no amount of dead humans is too much for that goal 🙁

Posted by: Membrum Virile | Sep 4 2023 13:11 utc | 319

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB_iG2Wr4_M
good discussion with Brian Berletic.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 4 2023 13:19 utc | 321

I see European officials are making overatures to Russia, describing Russia as inherently “European” – seems to me an effort to keep Russia from gravitating too much toward east. While Russia would want to leave door open to commerce, seems a more constructive future to focus toward East – including Turkey, Middle East and then East.
My suggest to Russia: To create second capital located in east to facilitate commercial development and relations in that direction.

Posted by: jared | Sep 4 2023 13:21 utc | 323

james@105….and Russia bears no responsibility? It was over a year before they hit the SBU building on the island? Why? They know where all the bunkers are……they dilly dallied with fancy spectacular night time hits and left the command and control structures intact. It wasn’t until NATO tapped some Russian generals and cadet graduations before Russia concluded the Ukrainians er, NATO, were playing the long game, for keeps.
Now that the SloMo has bypassed the GuerillaMo stage and entered the TerrorMo phase, one really does wonder where this leads…..the drones have changed the fabric of war, in the air, on the land, on the water, and under it…..a Russian lake quickly has become a pond. The largest country on the planet is a target rich environment…..lots of trouble to be caused and back home in Whitehall, the laughter requires tempering…..four hundred years past due.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Sep 4 2023 13:24 utc | 325

Posted by: anon2020 | Sep 4 2023 12:56 utc | 158
#########
Great point about the propaganda angle.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Sep 4 2023 13:29 utc | 327

RU MOD claims AFU launched another landing attempt in Crimea yesterday (probably same Snake island route) and aircraft destroyed 4 boats.

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 4 2023 13:29 utc | 329

@grunzt | Sep 4 2023 9:35 utc | 140
@Doctor Eleven | Sep 4 2023 13:00 utc | 160
Sure it is an ‘interesting question’ why there is radio silence on this issue – from both the west and Russia. Before discussing who did it, it is more important to learn how it was done.

Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 4 2023 13:34 utc | 331

Stop their imperialistic, land grabbing invasion, designed to leave Putin in history books as a conqueror?
Nah, no amount of dead humans is too much for that goal 🙁
Posted by: Membrum Virile | Sep 4 2023 13:11 utc | 161
##############
You win today’s 🤡 award. An American lecturing about killing people for self-aggrandizement. 😂
You have several countrymen in the bar who are similarly delusional.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Sep 4 2023 13:35 utc | 333

Slavyangrad did nice, brief video update/analysis if situation at the front: https://t.me/Slavyangrad/61748

Posted by: jared | Sep 4 2023 13:36 utc | 335

Reports of Legionaires Disease Epidemic ravaging Ukie batallions…
https://t.me/geromanat/9469
Telegram channels: Two battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were hospitalized in Kharkiv hospitals due to the outbreak of the “legionnaires’ disease” epidemic
In the Kharkiv region, in the ranks of the Ukrainian formations stationed in the region, an outbreak of a dangerous disease is recorded – “legionnaires’ disease” (legionellosis). This is reported by a number of Telegram channels.
Legionellosis is spreading most actively among the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including among Polish mercenaries. It became known about the outbreak of a dangerous disease in the 14th separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which takes part in the battles in the Kupyansk direction. The command of the brigade tried to hide the fact of the epidemic to the last, but now this is no longer possible.
On the night of September 3, two entire rifle battalions of the 14th mechanized brigade were taken from the vicinity of Kupyansk to Kharkov and placed in the infectious diseases departments of city hospitals. Two rifle battalions – about a thousand soldiers.
First, Kharkiv is now dealing with a thousand carriers of a dangerous disease, and possibly more. Secondly, the combat effectiveness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kupyansk direction will begin to suffer seriously if thousands of militants are put in infectious diseases hospitals.
For now, these battalions of the 14th brigade will be replaced in positions by the remnants of the 32nd separate mechanized brigade, which was sent for reorganization after huge losses in the Novoselovsky area (Lugansk People’s Republic).
Recall that legionellosis is a serious disease with damage to the lung tissue and the development of pneumonia.
If these rumors are true, then the APU is in for a nightmare. Infectious diseases have been the scourge of any army at all times, and infections like dysentery can turn the tide of any military campaign.
Infections in the modern army, with the current level of movement and contacts, feel just fine. And to create a quarantine in the conditions of hostilities, as well as to observe other security measures in the army, is simply impossible for Bankova.
Imagine what would happen if the coronavirus returned, with some new highly contagious mutation and high lethality. Here, no Western help will help – only their own abilities to overcome crises and adapt.
Finally, corruption leading to substandard housing is taking a toll…
INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 4 2023 13:40 utc | 337

Doctor Eleven | Sep 4 2023 13:00 utc | 160
I agree that both the US and France have a “reason” to damage Wagner by killing its leadership – but I doubt that even the CIA has the amount of access to both the hangars of a Russian airport, and the passenger list of scheduled flights, to perform such a carefully planned operation – this is Russia after all, and not some third world country like Panama or Equador.

Posted by: grunzt | Sep 4 2023 13:42 utc | 339

@anon2020 | Sep 4 2023 12:56 utc | 158
And/Or the company simply paid for advertising to Zeli because no one buys their carboard crap. Isn’t the same thing Byecraptar did?

Posted by: rk | Sep 4 2023 13:44 utc | 341

Posted by: grunzt | Sep 4 2023 13:42 utc | 171
########
As we say in English, “Where there is a will, there is a way” and “necessity is the mother of invention”.
My advice is not to put anything beyond human capability. The ingenuity of sick people will win more times than not.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Sep 4 2023 13:45 utc | 343

https://t.me/sharednewsby/12079
🎼🎶🎵
We don’t need no education
We’ve already got thought control
Lots of cocaine on Elensky’s table
And the NATO on the phone
Hey! NATO! Here comes another drone!
More and more it’s just
Another death to postpone the fall
🎼🎶🎵

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Sep 4 2023 13:53 utc | 345

@grunzt | Sep 4 2023 13:42 utc | 171
Too many assumptions.

Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 4 2023 13:57 utc | 347

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 4 2023 13:40 utc | 170

Finally, corruption leading to substandard housing is taking a toll…

Cue the headlined accusations of Russian ‘bio-warfare’ in the British press as the Empire casts around for someone, anyone to blame for their own incompetence.
One can already guess what the next few weeks of propaganda narrative are going to look like …

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 4 2023 14:01 utc | 349

Finally, corruption leading to substandard housing is taking a toll…
Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 4 2023 13:40 utc | 170
Dirty hot tubs and saunas are what all boys there love, isn’t it? Or Duda has too many “missing” people to list as hiking or swimming accidents. Using a few real or imaginary outbreaks, he can explain any numbers, even blame Evil Putin for it, or Evil Luka.

Posted by: rk | Sep 4 2023 14:04 utc | 351

Posted by: dh | Sep 3 2023 21:38 utc | 83

Making Reznikov the UK Ambassador is an escape shuttle to London before the shit hits the fan for the junta.
Reznikov gets even further from the frontline, just as Zelensky attempts to recall Ukrainians in the EU for conscription.
Posted by: Lev Davidovich | Sep 3 2023 22:46 utc | 95

Someone at MoA recently noted that as defense minister, Shoigu’s job is provisioning the Russian armed forces.
Today, the Kherson Region Acting Governor made this point in reference to Ukraine’s defense minister, as reported by TASS:

GENICHESK, September 4. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has decided to sack Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov, effectively making him the scapegoat for Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive, Kherson Region Acting Governor Vladimir Saldo told TASS.
“Zelensky needs a scapegoat because the [Ukrainian] nationalists and the West are demanding that those culpable for the failure of the so-called counteroffensive be identified. Military leaders are still needed, and even Zelensky realizes that. But, the civilian defense minister within the Kiev regime has no impact whatsoever on the course of military action. This is why the regime’s ringleader has chosen to sacrifice Reznikov, a person who is not from his personal coterie and whom he has no qualms about jettisoning,” the official said.
Saldo noted that Rustem Umerov, Reznikov’s potential replacement, is neither a politician nor a military specialist, or even an administrator. “Such a minister will do next to nothing for the military agency,” he added. [Bold added.]

Posted by: David Levin | Sep 4 2023 14:06 utc | 353

Roger | Sep 4 2023 8:06 utc | 134
Ukraine: A Country Of Old And Damaged Men
_Roger Boyd.
I’d suggest you have another look at the Ukrainian demographic graphic you posted on your substack.
I suggest this revision: “Ukraine: A Country Of Old And Damaged Men
Women.
Your graphic shows the number of “excess” females emerging at age 40.
But age 60 – this is the largest population cohort by a significant margin.
The second largest cohort is excess females aged 80-85.
Females aged 20-25 are so depleted to qualify for “endangered species” categorisation.
As cohort, they are never returning to Ukraine, and will never birth the next generation of Ukrainians.
While at the moment there’s a swell in the age 10-15 females, one can imagine they too will find a way to leave in the next decade, as they move into their reproductive viable years.
With females aged 20-30 already gone from Ukraine, females aged 0-5 are also significantly depleted (mirrored with the low numbers of 0-10 males.)
Ukraine already is a nation of babuskas.
With females aged 0-1 numbering just 100,000, Ukraine will cease to exist within their lifetime.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 4 2023 14:07 utc | 355

doing what he should which is declaring war on Erdogan then we know he is just protecting his oligarchs
Posted by: Night sTripper | Sep 4 2023 12:37 utc | 155
Declaring (“waging”) wars where there is no need to declare wars is the kind of stupidity the Americans get up to.
Putin is smarter than that.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 4 2023 14:12 utc | 357

Putin is smarter than that.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 4 2023 14:12 utc | 180
So capitulation then. He walked away from one grain deal as it wasn’t in Russias interests. I assumed it meant he had a spine. We will see.
Any new Turkish brokered deal will similarly work in the Turks and a Ukrainians favour, and against Russia.

Posted by: Night Tripper | Sep 4 2023 14:15 utc | 359

My suggest to Russia: To create second capital located in east to facilitate commercial development and relations in that direction.
Posted by: jared | Sep 4 2023 13:21 utc | 163
Thank you for your comment.
I have already seen that under discussion.
This war certainly has been a catalyst for change.

Posted by: Bemildred | Sep 4 2023 14:16 utc | 361

GENICHESK, September 4. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has decided to sack Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov, effectively making him the scapegoat for Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive, Kherson Region Acting Governor Vladimir Saldo told TASS.
…
Saldo noted that Rustem Umerov, Reznikov’s potential replacement, is neither a politician nor a military specialist, or even an administrator. “Such a minister will do next to nothing for the military agency,” he added. [Bold added.]
Posted by: David Levin | Sep 4 2023 14:06 utc | 178
The real scapegoat is not the Jew they just sacked it’s the Muslim patsy they threw in to take the coming fall.
Things must really be bad …

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 4 2023 14:18 utc | 363

Posted by: Night Tripper | Sep 4 2023 14:15 utc | 181
Come now, be reasonable.
Putin played a master chess move here.
1. Kills the grain deal and Turkey’s profits.
2. Proposes a grain deal based on Russian grain to compensate Turkey’s profit loses.
3. Erdogan can’t refuse, after a ll, he’s still making profits, doesn’t matter if it’s Ukrainian grain or Russian.
No choice but for Erdogan to accept, resulting in a direct market for Russian grain where previously Russian grain sales were being blocked.
The man’s a genius. More smarts in his pinky than in your entire genetic line.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 4 2023 14:23 utc | 365

Putin meets Erdogan today. What is the guessing on the outcome of that? Grain deal back on?
Posted by: Ed4 | Sep 4 2023 10:49 utc | 146
If I had to bet, they will do a deal. Mainly because Erdogan needs Putin a lot more than Putin needs Erdogan. Erdogan is having talks with Iran too, he has some fences to mend. But the truth is I would not bet on it.

Posted by: Bemildred | Sep 4 2023 14:31 utc | 367

Ukraine will mobilize men with HIV, tuberculosis, and mental illness. Any student who shows up for university classes seeks his own death. They announced the conscription of women and may get another 70K who escaped to Poland. Give them a gun, prime them with meth and send them to the meat grinder.
The demographics suggest Ukraine is mostly finished as a nation – unless they can get people shipped back in handcuffs. Birthrates were much higher in WW 1 & 2 and nations could recover. Unless they capture women in pens for breeding,I don’t see how Ukraine survives. Throw in disease that typically coincides with war and it looks like game over.
This may be Russia’s greatest danger: a whole nation of dead enders, running on hate.

Posted by: Eighthman | Sep 4 2023 14:37 utc | 369

juliania @ 121
Potted history from a Larouchie.

Posted by: oldhippie | Sep 4 2023 14:41 utc | 371

Probably it was already discussed, but Dima’s latest suggests that the sacking of the defense minister Reznikov by Z means that Ye Olde Greateste Counteroffensive is officially over.
The plan to press-gang refugees from the EU suffers from a fatal flaw. Any male who fled is by definition a beta male, who probably enjoys watching his girlfriend get railed by an alpha male, if he can even get a girlfriend.
Perhaps we should call the 5th generation of the UAF the “cuck army.”

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | Sep 4 2023 14:48 utc | 373

sean the leprechaun | Sep 4 2023 13:24 utc | 164
i suppose one can easily blame russia for going too slow… i take it that is what you are suggesting here.. i think the idea is to ramp up in accordance with the ramping up of the other side… how much is enough, or too much?? hard to know.. i don’t know that anyone does.. cheers –
on who killed prigozhin………… makes sense the gru took prigohzin out and putin is not going to say anything about it.. he was probably left out of the loop in all likelihood.. that is my take at this point.. yes – speculative of course because we will never find out..

Posted by: james | Sep 4 2023 14:50 utc | 375

If I was Russia I’d hire some science fiction writers like Alastair Reynolds and put them in charge of the drone weapons development programme. I’m not a science fiction writer but we’re in the realm of extreme forward blue sky (no pun intended) thinking, and imaginative minds will pay dividends in terms of leapfrogging several generations of drone warfare.
For example, by looking at existing weaponry and its roles, and figuring out whether drones could do it better. Then figuring out how the enemy will attempt to stop drones from doing it better, and stop the enemy.
The novelty and power of being able to fit a fairly sophisticated computer into a tiny package hasn’t even begun to be touched upon yet. I saw a video the last day of a huge Chinese dragon wheeling through the night sky, composed of about 1500 drones, the psychological elements could also be made formidable.
For example – port city oceangoing route denial, you could have small but very long-lived persistent submarine drones move very slowly into position over the course of weeks, then when activated or a timer runs out, they start to target ships passing nearby overhead with upwards-directed torpedoes. You could use the same platform to launch small missiles directly into the target city, and even have them receive burst instructions when they surface, one time padded so as to be indecipherable.
These could have bait release pods so if they need to move around they just push out something that attracts large numbers of fish, and best of luck trying to find them in that mess.
Measures, countermeasures, counter-countermeasures, these layers could be foreseen and developed relatively easily and cheaply these days. The possibilities are horrendous and almost infinite.

Posted by: Due West | Sep 4 2023 14:51 utc | 377

Thoughts?
Posted by: Aivazovsky | Sep 4 2023 8:29 utc | 136
As I always do, I’d recommend Sheikh Imran Hosein’s eschatological interpretation of the hand of purpose guiding the Ukraine war:
An Islamic Eschatological Analysis of the Ukraine War – Birmingham lecture
The fun starts 9 minutes in. I warn you though, the Sheikh is not a man of few words, but then again there is much to be said.
While I’m not a Muslim and indeed look askance at all three abrahamic religions I find interpretive value in the Sheikh’s Islamic Eschatological method for understanding the current, historical and future events in Ukraine.
Some arrive at truth by logic and others arrive by the spirit, but arrive they all do in the end.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 4 2023 14:52 utc | 379

New Grain Deal
Ukraine gets nothing.
https://www.rt.com/russia/582353-putin-erdogan-grain-deal/

Posted by: Trubind1 | Sep 4 2023 15:04 utc | 381

Posted by: Stephane | Sep 4 2023 11:53 utc | 150
The mouse was developed, possibly not invented, by Doug Engelbart, then at the Stanford Research Institute and also working at PARC. The first version was the size of a shoebox with encoder wheels to match.
The Alto, which I consider to be the first PC, had a 15 inch bitmapped display, the hardware built and assembled by PARC. Software was written in b. Wikipedia now has the proper description. I still have an org chart from the Reagan White House, created using SIL, the graphics editor, with James Brady as Press Secretary.
I became the team lead in Webster NY for GUI incorporation in a discrete product in the early eighties. Part of that product was GUI HW and software, display, keyboard and mouse being part of the HW. Greatest fun I ever had, leveraging PARC and adding/inventing at the application level lots of things. Xerox created a division in Palo Alto, i.e. not PARC, for productizing a networked set of workstations known as STAR. Microsoft copied a great deal of that design a long time later.
Before MS had Windows, it had MS Word. I knew it as a PARC reject from the Bravo series of text editors developed for internal use only.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | Sep 4 2023 15:10 utc | 383

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Sep 4 2023 13:00 utc | 160
I don’t think the Russians did it at all.
Agree “cui bono” puts a thumb on the scale for it’s western intel.
Probably had some hired local “help”
its just not Putins style.
Agree. He was coming for Prigozhin with a world of prosecution pain.
Wagner and Prigozhin were certainly making excessive profits from the contracts they held to supply the sloSMO.
On the other side of the contracts … both within the military and that interface zone of public-private… were others who didn’t want Prigozhin/ Wagner corruption investigated too forensically.
There’s a place where murky Russian corruption meets and morphs with Ukrainian corruption and UK corruption and U$ corruption.
That place is Israel. And Israel has the very, very best covert ops guys on the planet.
Prigozhin, as Putin intimated, had a lot of enemies. “A complicated destiny”.
Prigozhin had crossed and double crossed seriously nasty people for decades.
And then he foolishly danced in front of a klieg-light of publicity, while thwarting the long laid plans of the U$ neocon|”Nudelmans”.
One of the intel agencies has a slogan: “no one is beyond our reach”
IMO, this is not an idle boast..

USA-247 – Wikipedia
USA-247, also known as NRO Launch 39 or NROL-39, is an American reconnaissance satellite, operated by the National Reconnaissance Office and launched in December 2013. The USA-247 launch received a relatively high level of press coverage due to the mission’s choice of logo, which depicts an octopus sitting astride the globe with the motto “Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach”.

Certain Someones believed they needed Prigozhin dead. And so dead he now is.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Sep 4 2023 15:11 utc | 385

Due West @190
Sorry, but “imaginative minds” in a late stage capitalism environment give you things like the F-35 and Zumwalt class destroyers.
The problem with America isn’t the lack of wild ideas, it is a deficiency in mental discipline and grounding in reality.

Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 4 2023 15:14 utc | 387

Grain deal only if Russia reconnected to SWIFT. Maybe Russia will ship some additional grain to Turkey regardless. No real change to current situation.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian ships near Bosphorus aimed at damaging gas pipelines.
Expect to see more desperate moves from Ukraine.

Posted by: the pessimist | Sep 4 2023 15:17 utc | 389

Posted by: Trubind1 | Sep 4 2023 15:04 utc | 192
Most likely Ukraine and the entire West will be left out of the grain deal. That basically means that Nato countries will have no extraordinary privileges to skim off the grain, the grain should end 100 % where is dictated on the agreements. What those countries do with the grain after that is up to them.
Recall that the earlier variant guaranteed shares to the west before anyone else, and consequentially a huge part of the grain was shipped directly to EU states. The new agreement with Turkey, as an intermediary and packager, some benefits and subsidies, but without dealing with the west.
Nato will target these grain ferries.

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 4 2023 15:17 utc | 391

@174 A Verse about the Ukrainians.
“Keep you doped with religion and sex and Nazis
And you think you’re so clever and classless and free
But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see”
With help from John Lennon

Posted by: canuck | Sep 4 2023 15:21 utc | 393

William Gruff @ 195
The third word in my post is “Russia”. No idea why you think I’d want to help America.
As for reality, it’s changing almost too quickly to keep up.
A far better idea to lay the path than try to win that race.

Posted by: Due West | Sep 4 2023 15:21 utc | 395

Anyone want to speculate why Xi isn’t going to the G20? I’ll throw one out there, admittedly unlikely as it’s too humdrum, not 5 dimensional enough, but Xi could be doing Putin a kindness by not again leaving him the odd man out, as he was in South Africa.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Sep 4 2023 15:24 utc | 397

Anyone want to speculate why Xi isn’t going to the G20? I’ll throw one out there, admittedly unlikely as it’s too humdrum, not 5 dimensional enough, but Xi could be doing Putin a kindness by not again leaving him the odd man out, as he was in South Africa.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Sep 4 2023 15:24 utc | 200

Because they are concentrating work on BRICS. It is also reality, and a message, that G20 is a dead-end group, and everyone else should start operating in BRICS Format, too.

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 4 2023 15:28 utc | 399