Posted by: rk | Mar 28 2025 18:05 utc | 48
>>>>
Your understanding of Russia and Russian people is ZERO.

Posted by: pepe | Mar 29 2025 14:13 utc | 204

Re: organ harvesting ?
Following The trade in illegal organ harvesting illuminates an entire web of grisely corruption. Interesting that this global trade is rarely discussed in mainstream media

Posted by: Exile | Mar 29 2025 14:21 utc | 206

ZH has a posting up with the title
Russia Says UK & France Behind Latest Attack On Its Energy Infrastructure
quote

There’s been another reported attack on the Sudzha pipeline infrastructure in Russia’s Kursk Region on Friday. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova conveyed to journalists a Russian military assessment saying a metering facility was “de facto destroyed” in a Ukrainian HIMARS attack.
But unlike some of the prior Ukrainian attacks on the area, the Kremlin is directly blaming the West, going to far as to say that orders for the new strike came directly from European capitals.
We “have reasons to believe that targeting and navigation were facilitated through French satellites and British specialists input [target] coordinates and launched [the missiles],” Zakharova said, as cited in national media.
“The command came from London,” she emphasized, describing it as part of a West-backed “terror” campaign meant to degrade and destroy Russia’s energy infrastructure.
The Kremlin has concluded this demonstrates that Kiev is “impossible to negotiate with,” she explained. The Ukrainians have done nothing to actually uphold the energy ceasefire put forward by Trump, despite that Zelensky “publicly supported” it, she said, suggesting it was all an empty game.
“Over the past 24 hours, the Kyiv regime continued its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure using various types of drones and HIMARS multiple rocket launchers,” the Russian military had also described.
Russia has alleged Ukraine launched rockets on the Sudzha facility, which had already been damaged in an earlier attack this week, along with nearly 20 drones launched at an oil refinery in the southern Saratov region.

When are we going to see an attack on the European capitals directing these attacks?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 29 2025 15:06 utc | 208

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 29 2025 15:06 utc | 209
When are we going to see an attack on the European capitals directing these attacks?
<=I agree its long, long overdue.. imagine a British Isle without a London; a French Riviera without its Paris. Hope Trump closes the immigration door to arriving Brits and French. Its time for Europe to defend itself in the world wars its so good at starting. .

Posted by: snake | Mar 29 2025 15:24 utc | 210

Glenn Diesen:
“Former Zelensky Ally Speaks Out From Prison”
Oleksander Dubinsky is in a ukrainian prison but answered a number of questions snet to him by Glenn Diesen. Dubinsky has a VERY “Different view” on a number of things that happened since february 2014. His view are so radical, so “off the beaten path” that I had to view this interview a few times before I was able to wrap my head around these ideas.
Now I understand why the ukrainian birthrate has been dropping since the year 2014 (think: Maidan coup) to the lowest ever.

Posted by: WMG | Mar 29 2025 15:57 utc | 212

US-Russia Talks Stall, Escalation Expected
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85_qJLCd_c8
John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris and Glenn Diesen

Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 29 2025 16:11 utc | 214

RF will not allow the attacks on gas transmission center to go unchallenged……..UK and France have stepped on a land mine now….
There is no telling what form the counter strike will take……….but it will be powerful and quick………

Posted by: tobias cole | Mar 29 2025 16:38 utc | 216

216 – I overheard a woman in London today who was speaking Russian. Was she actually Russian, or one of the many Ukrainians more comfortable speaking Russian than Ukrainian? No idea – it could have been either.

Posted by: Waldorf | Mar 29 2025 17:13 utc | 218

Posted by: unimperator | Mar 29 2025 15:38 utc | 212
Looking at the victims’ nationalities, does this mean in Amsterdam one out of five is dutch?
Posted by: Passerby | Mar 29 2025 17:31 utc | 220
If you add the ukranian assailant and the brit who stoped him, even worse, one out of seven.
But it’s a tourist point, and probably easier to stab tourists who are gazing at something …
S has a new post, and as big serge a lot of potential new advances by RF, found interesting that I hadn’t noticed in the maps yet, in sumy RF might finally go south from gordeevka and cut a slice there.
As for the Zaporozhye gambit will wait until I see something comming up from the E-105 and see how serious based on how many drives RF takes after crossing the river (3 is the right answer)

Posted by: Newbie | Mar 29 2025 18:10 utc | 220

osted by: HB_Norica | Mar 29 2025 18:22 utc | 222
Karlof1 is right.
A redneck is not
The name comes from the red bandanas that coal mine union workers would wear.
They were simple workers.
Obviously the US regime didn’t -and doesn’t like workers rights so they turned it into an insult:
A dumb hillbillie doing the things you describe.

Posted by: Ed Bernays | Mar 29 2025 20:24 utc | 222

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 29 2025 20:35 utc | 224
https://slate.com/culture/2019/12/redneck-origin-definition-union-uprising-south.html
Jeez why don’t you use the web to look something up instead of repeating nonsense

Posted by: Ed Bernays | Mar 29 2025 21:21 utc | 224

your bandanna version showed up and attached itself to the meaning forty years after it was being commonly used for southern agrarian farmers.
I only accept snide corrections from people when they are RIGHT, otherwise, its really fucking annoying when they are wrong.
You clearly have a very shallow quick like understanding of the term, I wouldnt be surprised if you looked it up just today and started spouting nonsense, or if you heard about the miners bandennas and thought that was the origin, but the gaul to tell me I need to research a bit more, when clearly you have not is just…
…annoying.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 29 2025 21:33 utc | 226

🇬🇧🇺🇦 A dead militant in the village of Guevo was found wearing a patch from Gordonstoun—the elite British naval school that trained Prince Philip and King Charles III. The patch bears ‘Gordonstoun,’ but the trail leads to Westminster. All roads lead to London.

very short video
https://x.com/apocalypseos/status/1906098351927677147

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 29 2025 21:59 utc | 228

miner wars, 1920″s.
first known citation of redneck, 1891
from wikipedia:
Political term for poor farmers
The term originally characterized farmers that had a red neck, caused by sunburn from long hours working in the fields. A citation from 1893 provides a definition as “poorer inhabitants of the rural districts … men who work in the field, as a matter of course, generally have their skin stained red and burnt by the sun, and especially is this true of the back of their necks”.[15] Hats were usually worn and they protected that wearer’s head from the sun, but also provided psychological protection by shading the face from close scrutiny.[16] The back of the neck however was more exposed to the sun and allowed closer scrutiny about the person’s background in the same way callused working hands could not be easily covered.
By 1900, “rednecks” was in common use to designate the political factions inside the Democratic Party comprising poor white farmers in the South.[17] The same group was also often called the “wool hat boys” (for they opposed the rich men, who wore expensive silk hats). A newspaper notice in Mississippi in August 1891 called on rednecks to rally at the polls at the upcoming primary election:[18]
Primary on the 25th.
And the “rednecks” will be there.
And the “Yaller-heels” will be there, also.
And the “hayseeds” and “gray dillers”, they’ll be there, too.
And the “subordinates” and “subalterns” will be there to rebuke their slanderers and traducers.
And the men who pay ten, twenty, thirty, etc. etc. per cent on borrowed money will be on hand, and they’ll remember it, too.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 29 2025 22:07 utc | 230

You admit it is a social/ political term mostly, and not primarily as you said “sunburned necks of agricultural workers.”
According to the OED2 (1989), the first definitive example of redneck to describe rural white laborers of the American South dates to 1893: “Red-neck . . . [is] a name applied by the better class of people to the poorer inhabitants of the rural districts” (Shands 1893, 53). 2 But during the 1890s, redneck also entered the political discourse of Mississippi when Democrats used it to denigrate farmers within their party who supported populist reforms (Ferguson 1952, 519). [End Page 434]
And LOL at discrediting my source and then citing Wikipedia.

Posted by: Ed Bernays | Mar 29 2025 22:29 utc | 232

https://maratkhairullin.substack.com/p/large-frontline-summary-march-28th?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2099482&post_id=160153445&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=502eix&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
use auto webside translate
https://translate.google.com/?hl=de&sl=auto&tl=de&op=websites

Posted by: smartfox | Mar 29 2025 23:35 utc | 234

March 29, 2025 by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
A Third Way to end the war in Ukraine

Posted by: james | Mar 30 2025 4:23 utc | 236

“Redneck” is just a useful and approved-by-MSM term to denigrate anyone who is white and who doesn’t like being denigrated for being white.
Posted by: Spectator | Mar 30 2025 1:18 utc | 237

That is how modern usage has evolved … it is applied to people who have no connection with agriculture … such as truck drivers, construction workers, mechanics, etc. However you won’t see it applied to university lecturers or tax accountants.
There’s phrases such as, “redneck engineering” which only very tangentially relate to farmers. To the best of my knowledge, there’s no equivalent phrases such as “redneck biotech” but perhaps there should be.

Posted by: Tel | Mar 30 2025 6:12 utc | 238

Both eggheads and red necks are relatively recent. Long hair used to prevent sunburn, and men had to be primarily active outdoors.

Posted by: jopalolive | Mar 30 2025 7:25 utc | 240

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 30 2025 9:16 utc | 243
Vaqueros are Mexican or other Spanish-speaking cowboys, buckaroos are white or black English-speaking cowboys. Not a lot of people know that.

Posted by: Spectator | Mar 30 2025 11:18 utc | 242

Gauchos for ever.

Posted by: Merkin Scot | Mar 30 2025 11:44 utc | 244

28 Mar, 22:06Updated at: 29 Mar, 00:00
IMF board of directors approves $400 mln tranche to Ukraine
This will bring the total disbursements under the IMF-supported program to $10.1 billion
© Veronika Zorina/TASS
WASHINGTON, March 29. /TASS/. Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed the Seventh Review of the Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Ukraine, which provides Ukraine with another tranche worth $400 mln, the IMF press service said in a statement.
“The IMF Board today completed the Seventh Review of the Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Ukraine, enabling a disbursement of about $0.4 billion to Ukraine, which will be channeled for budget support,” the statement reads. This will bring the total disbursements under the IMF-supported program to $10.1 billion.
“Sustained reform momentum, progress at domestic revenue mobilization, as well as full and timely disbursement of external support during the program period are necessary to safeguard macroeconomic stability, restore fiscal and debt sustainability, and improve governance,” according to the Fund, which greenlighted a four-year program under the EFF mechanism with financing worth $15.5 bln for Ukraine in 2023.
“The slowdown [in Ukraine] is expected to continue in 2025,” the IMF noted. In particular, the country’s GDP is projected at 2-3% this year, at 4.5% in 2026, and 4.8% in 2027. Unemployment totals 11.6% in 2025, and the Fund’s experts expect it to decline to 10.2% in 2026, and to 9.4% in 2027.
“The program remains fully financed, with a cumulative external financing envelope of $148.8 billion in the baseline scenario and $162.9 billion in the downside scenario, over the 4-year program period,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said. “The enactment of the tobacco excise tax law is welcomed, as it supports the authorities’ commitment to implementing the National Revenue Strategy. Accelerated implementation of this strategy, including modernization of the tax and customs services, reduction in tax evasion, and harmonization of legislation with EU standards, is required to meet high priority spending needs. This, combined with improvements in public investment management frameworks, medium-term budget preparation, and fiscal risk management, will support growth, investment, and fiscal sustainability,” she noted.
The authorities in Kiev “continue working to complete their debt restructuring strategy” and they are currently “focused on reaching agreement with the remaining holders of external commercial claims, including GDP warrants,” Georgieva added. “Reaching agreement consistent with the program’s debt sustainability objectives is essential to reduce fiscal risks and create space for critical spending,” she stressed.
“Sustained progress in anticorruption and governance reforms is needed. Additional efforts are required, including appointment of the new head of the Economic Security Bureau, completing the audit of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, strengthening AML/CFT frameworks, and amending the criminal procedure code,” IMF Managing Director was quoted as saying.

Posted by: Jo | Mar 30 2025 12:14 utc | 246

“With remarkable transparency, the Pentagon has offered a public accounting of the $66.5 billion in weaponry it has supplied to Ukraine.” But a nytimes investigation published on 30 March reveals that America’s involvement in the war was far deeper than previously understood. “The secret partnership both guided big-picture battle strategy and funneled precise targeting information down to Ukrainian soldiers in the field: before Mr. Trump’s return to power, the United States and Ukraine were joined in an extraordinary partnership of intelligence, strategy, planning and technology whose evolution and inner workings have been known only to a small circle of American and allied officials.”
The nytimes article crows about the depth of involvement Collective Biden’s Pentagon & CIA had w/ Ukraine, perhaps even lamenting the fact that this BFF bond has dropped away now that DJT’s Pentagon is in power. Still, the deets the nytimes publishes are very flattering to the U.S. side in what we nonetheless recognize as a losing effort.
Notably, here are some takeaways:
A U.S. base in Wiesbaden, Germany, supplied the Ukrainians with the coordinates of Russian forces on their soil. The idea behind the partnership was that America’s close cooperation with Ukraine would compensate for Russia’s vast advantages in manpower and weaponry. To guide the Ukrainians as they deployed their ever-more-sophisticated arsenal, the Americans created an operation called Task Force Dragon. Each morning, U.S. and Ukrainian military officers set targeting priorities — Russian units, pieces of equipment or infrastructure. American and coalition intelligence officers searched satellite imagery, radio emissions and intercepted communications to find Russian positions. Task Force Dragon then gave the Ukrainians the coordinates so they could shoot at them.
Ultimately, the U.S. military and C.I.A. were allowed to help with strikes into Russia. Longstanding policy barred the C.I.A. from providing intelligence on targets on Russian soil. But the C.I.A. could request “variances,” carve-outs to support strikes for specific objectives. Intelligence had identified a vast munitions depot in Toropets, 290 miles north of the Ukrainian border. On Sept. 18, 2024, a swarm of drones slammed into the munitions depot. The blast, as powerful as a small earthquake, opened a crater the width of a football field. Later, the C.I.A. was allowed to enable Ukrainian drone strikes in southern Russia to try to slow advances in eastern Ukraine.
My thoughts: gotta wonder now the extent to which such U.S. assistance has wound down since DJT’s team has come aboard. Can imagine Sec Hegseth’s Pentagon is *not* at all engaged thus on behalf of Project Ukraine. Are the UK and France trying to step boldly into the vacuum-?

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 30 2025 13:30 utc | 248

While the British economy flat-lined in mid 2024, Sir Keir began to spend increasing amounts of time not on domestic issues but on Project Ukraine. When the economy contracted in January 2025, Sir Keir committed the government to borrowing even more, insisting that a rebound was soon to follow.
In the past week, Sir Keir has had to ask Parliament to cut 5 billion pounds from spending in support of disabled citizens and another 3 billion pounds from other spending on behalf of social services.
Britain now runs a permanent deficit. It is necessary to import capital from abroad, increase taxes or cut spending in order to stay afloat, but just barely. The cost of energy is the highest in the world.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir hosts summits on behalf of Project Ukraine every other week—and attends summits elsewhere, either in Paris or Brussels, in support of Project Ukraine in the in-between weeks. British foreign policy has become one-notedly uni-dimensional: the government focuses exclusively on Project Ukraine. Britain sends, on average, 3 billion pounds each year to Kiev—and follows that up w/ as much weaponry as it can muster.
Ukraine is now a major reason why the British government is finding itself running out of money. Foreign bond holders grow anxious, seeing the shape of Britain’s economy, and Parliament has to slash spending or raise taxes in order to reassure confidence.
Throughout this period, the seriousness of Sir Keir’s foreign policy is reduced to hanging out w/ Macron or bear-hugging Zelensky in his sweaty green t-shirt and badmouthing VVP. The strength of Sir Keir’s European bond rests on his willingness to diss VVP.
One wonders what part Farage might play in the very near future… Right now, Sir Keir seems to be a cut-out for *other* interests.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 30 2025 13:58 utc | 250

252 – There are parliamentary by-elections coming up – if Reform does well in them it could shake the government up and even produce a crisis.

Posted by: Waldorf | Mar 30 2025 14:15 utc | 252

“3 billion pounds each year to Kiev”
@steel_porcupine | Mar 30 2025 13:58 utc | 252
3bn a year is not going to change anything in UK, not even 10bn a year.
Since I don’t see any news about protests or upset people, it means the population loves it. How much does the average person uses on utilities and food a month? Until you’ll see numbers in the 70-90%, the average Muhammad (the most common name in UK) will not care
Posted by: rk | Mar 30 2025 14:11 utc | 253
rk you don’t know what you are talking about: British 10 year gilts are 4.81% the highest in the Western world-even the US 10 year is 4.31% -why is that? -it is because the UK economy is stagnant, tax receipts are falling, energy prices are the highest in the Western world , they have huge debt (110% of GDP) so even a 1 billion a year to Ukraine is 48 million pounds a year in interest payments that Britain doesn’t have as it is all borrowed.
Foreign investors will want greater yields of gilts if UK blows money as it is in Ukraine.
steel porcupine is correct you are way off base, like usual.

Posted by: canuck | Mar 30 2025 14:57 utc | 254

“Being a redneck has everything to do with economic status. You clearly don’t know where or why the term came into being. I suggest you find out.”
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 29 2025 5:47 utc | 146
“I’d disagree with you there. It’s more to do with your upbringing and economic status of your parents than your own economic status. I know guys who own businesses and are rolling in dough but they live for hunting, drinking then spending the night shooting coyotes attracted to the gut pile. I know guys with generational wealth that can’t read or write, look like they fought a raccoon over a place to bunk in a culvert but drive a 150K truck and carry a wad of cash in their pocket that would choke a horse”
Posted by: HB_Norica | Mar 29 2025 18:22 utc | 222
Yes, I have met the same type of ‘rednecks’ HB Norica referred to: , karlofi is incorrect

Posted by: canuck | Mar 30 2025 15:04 utc | 256

253 – Some of the pro-Palestine demos in London have been huge. Disturbing enough to the powers that be that a lot of arrests have been made.
255 – There is repression, sure. The MSM also do their best to convey the idea that protest is pointless. I remember in 2003 when there were huge demos, one big London one in particular, against the Iraq war before it started. The BBC followed two or three people who were on that, and then months later after Bush and Blair invaded anyway, the BBC interviewed them and asked if they were still going on demos. They said no. And indeed after the invasion happened protest dwindled down to the hardcore protester types, usually radical left or pacifists. The BBC clearly wanted to convey the futility of protest. Although it occurred to me that if peaceful protest was simply ignored, the next step might be un-peaceful protest.

Posted by: Waldorf | Mar 30 2025 16:06 utc | 258

Posted by: berthold | Mar 29 2025 8:48 utc | 172
Good post.

Posted by: horseguards | Mar 30 2025 17:33 utc | 260

Posted by: malenkov | Mar 30 2025 22:11 utc | 263
Too be honest, I don’t think it is right that a whole family must abstain from consumption of alcohol at a big holiday feast like Christmas Dinner just because one person in the group is a recovering alcoholic. To demand such is the sign of a Karen, a control freak. That said, because the demand was (unjustly) made but Canuck just laughed it off, proves he doesn’t care what other people think. Better off just to have told the Karen upfront that he isn’t going to attend the dinner.

Posted by: Spectator | Apr 1 2025 0:56 utc | 262