Without the exaggerated exaggerations of the screenwriters, the public would see that the coalition in power in Washington since 1964 lives in Olympus, untouched by the whims of the political show industry, catering to the masses.
We all know that the last American president was JFK, but we’re tempted to believe in fantasies, because fantasies are more pleasant than harsh reality.

Posted by: Simon | May 25 2025 21:08 utc | 104

The Buffer Zone as depicted by Medvedev in this GIF provided by Escobar. It’s what many expect.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 25 2025 16:38 utc | 28
—————————————————
Looks exactly right.
It might take a while.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | May 25 2025 21:12 utc | 106

🇫🇮🇷🇺 Russia Deploys Armed Escorts for Tankers in Gulf of Finland
Finland’s Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said that Russia has begun providing armed military escort for its tankers in the Gulf of Finland.

“Russian military presence in the region has always been noticeable—that’s nothing new. What’s new is that Russia is now actively protecting tankers of its so-called ‘shadow fleet’ through the narrow Gulf of Finland. We are observing armed escorts and the presence of military forces. That is a completely new development,” Häkkänen said.

the bully complains when he cannot harrass the other side anymore that easily.
what did häkkmeck here expect? that the russians would let their tankers (very visible btw, not in the shadows, as there are no trees on the waves) be seized by some european values? i hope all of them get what they deserve.

Posted by: Justpassinby | May 25 2025 21:17 utc | 108

Posted by: TJandTheBear | May 25 2025 20:14 utc | 88
I think you’ll find in the case of Biden it wasn’t a pendulum but an auto pen signing, not swinging.
Ah, the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac attack, with their Clinton-era encouraged sub-primes. Funny how that DEI-shaped piece of jigsaw is often forgotten, when retelling the sorry events, whose overall cause the HBR had diagnosed, in an article written nearly a decade previously.
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | May 25 2025 20:24 utc | 91
I think the Trumpnik that hit on Nov 5th has them more scared. As for the missile, it depends who you talk to, some think it was a one-off conversion that’s too expensive to replicate, compared to the bang those bucks could be spent on, and that the number of R-26 carriers is both limited and difficult to manufacture, in the required timeframe, due to the impact of sanctions and Russian bureaucratic manufacturing procedures (5-7 years to get a project from the drawing board to deployment ready production runs).
Others suggest it was a carefully coordinated Psyop, as a response to the new Ukrainian deep-strike capability, citing no more strikes after Putin claimed there would be; whilst others disagree, suggesting it is a new system giving Russia another arrow for her conventional strike quiver.
It doesn’t help that the detractors have often peddled overly optimistic assessments that always skew in favour of the Ukrainians. Personally, I’m surprised at its only being used, given a strike on certain targets would have been operationally very beneficial, saving possibly thousands of lives and the loss of dozens of expensive platforms. Given Russia’s mastery of maximising the psychological impact of weapons, even those that proved to have less than impressive performance, I’d think the strike was more planned to have a mental impact than kinetic.

Posted by: Milites | May 25 2025 21:26 utc | 110

Glenn Diesen
@Glenn_Diesen
Norway’s former foreign minister and defence minister claims the Americans have “in no way” recognised that NATO expansion provoked the war
– She called me a Russian propagandist, a useful idiot for the Kremlin, and suggested that my political campaign could be financed by Russia
VIDEO 1:26
https://x.com/Glenn_Diesen/status/1926333222356480505

Posted by: Menz | May 25 2025 21:39 utc | 112

Posted by: Naive | May 25 2025 19:38 utc | 79
RE: gay arsonists perhaps weirdly connected also to the assassination in Spain-?
<< An "Eyes Wide Shut" vibe has swirled heavily around Project Ukraine for two or more years. I'm referencing the Kubrick film for the *secret but not so secret* subculture of orgies, drugs & ideology. Perhaps, too, there is a Diddy-style high-class Freak Off set-up, too. Project Ukraine is a fetish-object; it inspires a peculiar fascination. The embargo on *truths* about Project Ukraine in the Regime Media contributes to the obfuscation. It is not a coincidence that a scam like Project Ukraine occurs in an environment of censorship & information suppression.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 25 2025 21:45 utc | 114

RE: no pope, no hope, but plenty of dope
Wondering additionally if the orgy, cocaine, ideology dimension of Project Ukraine has proven to be such an over-burden, an overload, when juxtaposed against the Vanilla Basics of trying to fight a military Great Power like Russia.
Facing off against Russia would be tough enough for a NATO-equipped proxy. Heap on top of that the extreme moral turpitude of this practically Epstein-level of gotcha kompromat, and you have an altogether untenable situation.
Bismarck could not have fought his way successfully through this.
Alexander the Great might have been massively undermined.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 25 2025 22:02 utc | 116

Russia is weak. They could have taken all the heads of Ukraine and have won the war by now. But for some strange reason Putin is only killing Slavic conscripts.

Posted by: Wizard CP | May 25 2025 22:08 utc | 118

Posted by: persiflo | May 25 2025 20:14 utc | 87
RE: does Sir Keir have enemies-? Did someone set him up w/ the gay arsonists-?
<< Something got dangled before Sir Keir, and it was to his liking. "Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime," Lavrenty Beria. Matthew 26:41---"the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Regime Media will obfuscate like mad, but obviously we can discern the framework of this situation. Something about Project Ukraine attracts this level of moral turpitude.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 25 2025 22:12 utc | 120

Posted by: persiflo | May 25 2025 20:14 utc | 87
RE: maybe a disgruntled 3rd party oligarch is targeting Sir Keir-?
<< Child, please-!

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 25 2025 22:16 utc | 122

Personally, I’m surprised at its only being used, given a strike on certain targets would have been operationally very beneficial, saving possibly thousands of lives and the loss of dozens of expensive platforms.
Posted by: Milites | May 25 2025 21:26 utc | 109
Curious as to what targets you have in mind. Anything inside Ukraine is easily hit by other missiles, and outside Ukraine puts Article 5 into play.

Posted by: TJandTheBear | May 25 2025 22:21 utc | 124

Posted by: Jason | May 25 2025 22:14 utc | 120
#########
I am so used to looking at counterarguments that it becomes difficult to read Normie takes.
Have you considered that Russia explicitly and deliberately does not use nukes? Like the Iranians specifically reject the development of nuclear weapons.
It may not make sense to you, but those situations seem to make perfect sense to Russia and Iran, respectively.
And here’s the thing, both are “winning” in their circumstances, so criticism may be misplaced.
I see this as a civilizational battle between the utilitarian West and the philosophical Axis.
I think Western “dominance” is a byproduct of a unique series of circumstances that will likely never occur again.
Everyone has access to drones now, and in a decade, everyone will have some access to air defenses.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 25 2025 22:51 utc | 126

Posted by: Milites | May 25 2025 19:54 utc | 82
Excellent post, thanks

Posted by: canuck | May 25 2025 23:03 utc | 128

Gorgeous George weighs in on Putin’s killer Ukrainian rent boys:
New Model Army
Fnarr, fnarr.

Posted by: ChatNPC | May 25 2025 23:07 utc | 130

TJandTheBear | May 25 2025 18:59 utc | 68
*** You’ve just thoroughly destroyed your own position. If there was even a scintilla of credibility to MMT then it would’ve been tried by now. The claims are just too attractive for progressives to resist… and yet somehow they still do.***
Who do you think sponsors the so-called “progressives” and their wokist stablemates (as well as the “monetarist” cult)?
They are never going to bite the corporate/bankerite hand, om which they are glove puppets.

Posted by: Cynic | May 25 2025 23:07 utc | 132

*** Something big, very big, “bigly” even, happened at Yuzhmash. Was it a one-off, that is too expensive to replicate? Could be, but can the West afford to take the risk that it actually isn’t? It’s a huge bluff to call…
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | May 25 2025 21:39 utc | 112
I dont think it was a one off due to expense. Delivery systems are ancient and guidance for hypersonic systems are produced at scale.
The RF seems to have understood that the diffusion of knowledge about the capabilities of Oreshnik among West (US) decision makers would take time. The RF could be guided by the abject stupidity of the US and it’s irrational policies in believing that the US wokesters would need to suspent their disbelief.
The RF target selected very i telligently – Yuzmash was inhabited by the deepest of the deep staters, so accurate information wold be least likely to be compartmentalized from the right people. Then it would also take time for policy to reflect the reality that tripwire bases are obsolete. These are all big asks.
The risk would be in the RF overplaying it’s advantage. The US was very effective in the Russia Communist boogeyman play for 80 years or so. The RF will do better to keep their opponents as divided as possible. So they have avoided a Sputnik moment.
The West (US) will lie through their teeth before they publicly admit their military position vis a vis Oreshnik absolutely sucks. So the reality remains a top level secret. So the RF employed better way – a little leg show for the West to remember them by and the secret stays safe. That gives the West (US) more room the show how they are the smartest person in the room when policies reflecting reality come down the pipeline. Reality taking hold is more likely to happen while the RF gives this kind of space than during an active beating. Besides, that type of beating can only serve to teach where the hits will be coming from.

Posted by: frithguild | May 25 2025 23:12 utc | 134

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | May 25 2025 21:39 utc | 112
“Something big, very big, “bigly” even, happened at Yuzhmash. Was it a one-off, that is too expensive to replicate? Could be, but can the West afford to take the risk that it actually isn’t? It’s a huge bluff to call…”
Indeed Sir. See ny post at 126 for my take on this topic.

Posted by: Barrel Brown | May 25 2025 23:17 utc | 136

My guess on oreshnik is that they are still in the development stage, not yet in mass production. Yushmash was the real live test case and presumably now after just a little refinement are in production. Russia will not use them unless they have a very significant target. That probably means that they would use them only if full on war with NATO starts and then on perhaps a top ten set of targets.
It was pretty much the same with Kinzhals. In 2022 they used them at first essentially for major demonstration only. Then after a few months a second bigger demonstration. Now three years on they are part of the regular armaments, but still used with caution.

Posted by: watcher | May 25 2025 23:41 utc | 138

Russia is weak. They could have taken all the heads of Ukraine and have won the war by now. But for some strange reason Putin is only killing Slavic conscripts.
Posted by: Wizard CP | May 25 2025 22:08 utc | 117
###########
They are killing Poles, Canadians, and the French.
Reducing the global mercenary population, as well as those fools who volunteer to be sent to Ukraine from NATO countries.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 25 2025 23:49 utc | 140

Of course there will be those who complain very loudly and publicly when DJT fails to support Project Ukraine to the degree that Collective Biden did, the Regime Media in the U.S. among them.
Counterbalancing this will be those who say, you know what—Project Ukraine seemed to need the complicity of a non compos mentis president in order to gain steam. Then it took on the momentum of its own Forever War. No one seemed to interrogate this.
But then DJT stepped in—and he balked.
In fact, ever since February, he has been gentling a course forward that will allow Russia to end this war on their terms.
The Europeans will naturally scream bloody murder—but if they wish to continue the war, they can do so.
The U.S. can strike a separate peace and move on.
Russia sees inevitably a Victor’s Peace in store.
In light of the domestic issues that dog DJT, including the fate of his Big Beautiful Bill, I do not see Project Ukraine moving the needle much stateside.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 25 2025 23:56 utc | 142

*** Kudos, and have one on my TAB..
Posted by: Barrel Brown | May 25 2025 23:30 utc | 136
Thank you sir and glug, glug glug!

Posted by: frithguild | May 25 2025 23:57 utc | 144

Oreshnik is also assigned to the Strategic Missile Forces, the ones whose motto is “After us, Silence”. It’s not meant as a battlefield rocket like Iskander.
Can we estimate their number? Milites hinted at a limited fleet of TELs, so that would be one thing. Then we might compare the production of older ICBMs to get a sense of annual output, say as an upper limit. Warheads would be an additional limiting factor, which is hard to guess, but probably below Kinzhal numbers simply because of the scaled complexity.
I think they had an initial lot ready, perhaps ten, when they decided to demonstrate the principle by using it on the aptly named YouSmash bunkers. Now they’re filling whatever units they’ve planned, and after this is achieved, perhaps they’ll fire them at targets from time to time. But what targets are these? Milites, care to elaborate on your earlier thinking?

Posted by: persiflo | May 26 2025 0:05 utc | 146

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 26 2025 0:03 utc | 144
RE: one need not be a Master of the Universe in order to balk @ Project Ukraine’s prospects
<< It took the fresh eyes of a new admin to see that the U.S.'s proxy did not have a prayer against Russia. In refusing to maintain the ruse---that scrappy little Ukraine can prevail---it is not as if DJT claims any leverage. He has no leverage. All DJT need do is nestle the matter forward, feinting here, pivoting there, without a prayer's chance of altering the outcome, which is either A) Ukraine's capitulation or B) a full, total, absolute take-down/throw-down Victor's Peace for Russia in the SMO. There are no secrets & surprises now.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 26 2025 0:26 utc | 148

But what targets are these? Milites, care to elaborate on your earlier thinking?
Posted by: persiflo | May 26 2025 0:05 utc | 145
Yuzhmash was the perfect “statement” strike. The location, depth and importance of the facility is unlike virtually anything in Ukraine and thus impervious to virtually anything short of a digger nuke. With one 6-warhead missle Russia showed that it can hit and destroy anything without nukes AND without warning anywhere in Europe. Game, set and match.
There’s nothing else within Ukraine that they can’t easily address with drones, missiles or hypersonics, thus I’d assume they’re stockpiling them just in case the EU truly oversteps it’s bounds. Per Putin himself they were already in serial production but we can safely assume the production rate is very low.

Posted by: TJandTheBear | May 26 2025 0:34 utc | 150

Anyone who thinks Russia is not making gains along most of the front line would be the same sort of person who, if they were a frog, would not notice the temperature raising to boiling point if they sat in a pot full of water until they were cooked.
The Russian military machine is like a giant amoeba slowly engulfing its enemy bit by bit. That’s been obviously expanding for a very long time. It also softens up its prey from a distance as the amoeba grows and gets closer ready for the next phagocytosis. It reminds me of that old film “The Blob” except Steve McQueen won’t be winning this time.

Posted by: George | May 26 2025 0:55 utc | 152

They are killing Poles, Canadians, and the French.
Reducing the global mercenary population, as well as those fools who volunteer to be sent to Ukraine from NATO countries.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 25 2025 23:49 utc | 139
Yes, eliminate all those willing to die for a cause, mercenaries, etc. And at the same time empty all warehouses if weaponry and ammunition.
Test all AI drone warfare and electronic deterrence systems in live combat conditions. Collateral losses are totally acceptable.
Get ready for world domination. The testing iscalmost complete. All governments are infiltrated by Sino operatives and all we have to do now is wait.

Posted by: Merv Ritchie | May 26 2025 1:07 utc | 154

“Religious schisms are only and always caused by bigotry, deluded supremism, team politics, and never by true religiosity or by the true believers in their Messiah.”
Posted by: Praise The Lord | May 26 2025 1:08 utc | 154
I agree, and in the modern age it is like some countries and their political leaders think they hold copyright over ‘God’. There is nothing in any religious teaching that would support that idea in the least.

Posted by: George | May 26 2025 1:15 utc | 156

@George | Mon, 26 May 2025 01:15:00 GMT | 155

“Religious schisms are only and always caused by bigotry, deluded supremism, team politics, and never by true religiosity or by the true believers in their Messiah.”
Posted by: Praise The Lord | May 26 2025 1:08 utc | 154
I agree, and in the modern age it is like some countries and their political leaders think they hold copyright over ‘God’. There is nothing in any religious teaching that would support that idea in the least.

It’s even worse. State entities have collaborated with religious figures throughout all times to further their ends, and those have let themselves be corrupted. Scripture has been edited and artificially produced and disseminated at scale. Sects have been concocted and used, over and over. It’s kind of an open secret if you study the history of religions through this lense, but if you want confirmation, I refer you to ex-CIA boss James Woolsey, who publicly confessed they made up some crazy talk which had the intended effect: war. One of the wildest stories is the extinction of Manichaeism, which was practiced from Spain to Japan for a millenium, and then uprooted and vanished almost without a trace. This teaching was eminently peaceful and in many ways more sophisticated than the monotheism, which is more than just ironic – it hints at the dark truth of what is really going on.

Posted by: persiflo | May 26 2025 1:53 utc | 158

Posted by: Simon | May 25 2025 20:48 utc | 97
Whilst the Communists, in their typical fashion copied the attempt and produced something that was inferior, IIRC it was called Africola. At least the German substitute approached the subject with its customary Teutonic thoroughness, though personally I preferred 7-Up and Irn-bru.
It’s ironic, by the way, that the dismissive tone you use, when discussing certain/most elements of US society, sounds not dissimilar to that used by the engineers of this ‘inverted totalitarianism’.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 25 2025 21:02 utc | 101
For those who have eyes to see. Stop focusing on BMO, that’s what you’re suppose to be do. Donald’s not only a master at targeted communication but also accomplished at misdirecting opponent’s in the process. CSG off Yemen returning to port, continuing talks with Iran, the Rubio decapitation strike at the NSC, in conjunction with Tulsi’s removal of the NIC from its CIA remit and having the DNI be in charge of the PDB. That’s just recently, on top of the direct targeting of Harvard (DS centre of gravity), the continuing covert strangulation of the Ukrainian hub protection scheme and the entire premise of the MAHA project.
Strange, posters rightly chide those when they demand that Russia steps up her operational tempo, urging caution instead; however, suggest Trump does the complete opposite when seeking to take on and dismantle a bureaucratic infrastructure that’s taken decades to construct. One might ‘only’ be politics, but surely the same dictums and restrictions that shape Russia’s approach apply to this situation as well?
Posted by: TJandTheBear | May 26 2025 0:34 utc | 149
Oh, I’m sure if the Russians were to go through their equivalent of the big book of targets they’d find something, like ChZ-417, especially if it was fully completed. The profile would be ideal, that’s if the weapon’s capabilities are not simply a case of just emulating the Soviet style of smoke blowing.

Posted by: Milites | May 26 2025 2:31 utc | 160

Posted by: George | May 26 2025 1:15 utc | 155
That arguably might be true of its leaders, the trouble becomes when the rank and file’s motives are motivated by this sense of religiosity and defending the faith, that their leaders are only mimicking. I say arguably because often those secular motivations were inspired by real fear of the consequences of a divisive schism, on the communities they were charged to lead.

Posted by: Milites | May 26 2025 3:21 utc | 162

Error correction, I worded myself far too sloppily.
It’s been a while since I saw the picture I was alluding to and it wasn’t literally from pole to pole, that only describes the path of travel.
From memory a very long trail of perfectly straight “cloud” condensation started somewhere close to the latitude of northernmost Japan (but far out at sea) and ended some distance closer to the equator than the latitude of northern New Zealand.
Second-guessing myself I wonder if it actually went further, I might be making an error in the opposite direction with this error correction.
The picture could easily have been faked. Supposedly a satellite image/image composition. It has been used by some people who claims it has something to do with UFO’s in Antarctica and that sort of thing.
I should have a poor copy of the picture but it’s on a “dead” cheap computer that might not be salvageable. I think it maybe has something called eMMC instead of a real hard drive and the non-replaceable battery has gone “danger pillow” enough to bend the casing —unsure if I dare turn it on to copy everything elsewhere (that was/is the plan… lol).
Advice welcome! XD

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | May 26 2025 3:36 utc | 164

Posted by: Milites | May 26 2025 3:21 utc | 161
If the faith is based on fear of the consequences of ‘sin’ and thus holding frightening consequences for some kind of horrible afterlife in a hell or winning acceptance in a heaven, then the people will do anything to increase their faith as well. If the leaders are secularly motivated or not, yet masquerade as as the mediators between a heaven and earth they may very well be using it for control of the masses, and always have. In most cases to keep the richest or most blood-titled elites in place so the people don’t rebel against them. That was what went on for centuries under religious absolutism and the marriage of the church with the leaders, and it still works to a great extent today. I have noticed in Eastern Europe how the orthodox nature of the church makes people very hesitant to say much that could be remotely critical of their concept of a God, and that in my mind is a form of fear. Even in the UK where the Royals have exceptional public traction compared to many other Western countries, I often wonder whether it is because they are also the leaders of the Anglican Church.

Posted by: George | May 26 2025 3:52 utc | 166

Trump says:
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump added in a post on Truth Social, claiming that “missiles and drones are being shot into cities in Ukraine for no reason whatsoever.” (From RT News).
I think Trump missed the barrage of drones sent towards Moscow recently and the fact that Putin was actually caught in one swarm in his helicopter. Does he also realise that there is a war going on between Ukraine/US/NATO and Russia and that his peace talk circus is a failure which Russia has seen through?
Does he also not realise that while he says Putin has “gone crazy” there is nothing to be noticed in the GAZA strip with Netanyahu’s continued genocide.

Posted by: George | May 26 2025 4:49 utc | 168

Posted by: frithguild | May 26 2025 5:38 utc | 169
I don’t necessarily disagree with what you say now you have enlarged on what you originally said. Like with everything about countries and cultures, they are very diverse and extensive so shouldn’t been seen through simplistic eyes. But I do find there is a lot of criticism of the left and so called ‘woke’ side due to Biden’s time in office, and I didn’t support him either. Much of this I would claim has something to do with religious sexuality suppression in the US too from conservative Christian circles. And there is always a counter reaction. I’m not against transgender or gay or lesbian people, I think they have always existed within all cultures and if you go back to ancient Greek and Roman times no one would have even seen it as strange at all. I do think however that ‘woke’ originally stood for the those of African-America decent and the impossibility of being treated equally in US society. The transgender community has somewhat stolen that term as their own now so everyone has forgotten the original use of the word. While I support equality on many issues, I also don’t think it means forcing transgender down everyone’s necks or expecting absurdities like being able to change your physical gender through drugs and surgery whenever a whim takes you to want to do it etc. That is absurd, and it has now attracted a backlash in many places in the world especially from conservative religious countries and people, and those who have always hated gay people in particular. I gage this from readers comments in the international media.
With Trump I don’t think he is trying to create a theocracy, it is moreover that his followers and the rise of MAGA resembles much that could be compared to a religion, and that has grown out of the persona of Trump simply because he does milk the religious side and its methodology. More than that, his followers act with the typical “faith not reason” attitude towards him. For many, whatever he does or says passes as if he can do no wrong like some sort of messiah and I have watched him milk crowds to increase that side of his popularity with his followers since day one.
It’s an interesting discussion anyway and I thank you for not turning ad hominem or insulting as some do here from time to time.

Posted by: George | May 26 2025 6:41 utc | 170

At least the nukes livened up the conversation. IMHO it is now virtually impossible to “neutralize” Russophobia in western Europe. Shock is the only thing that will stop it. (BTW I understand China has developed a “Hydrogen” bomb as powerful as any nuclear device.) So the choices are out there. Why hasn’t Moscow set up a war crimes tribunal already? Who remembers the terrorist assaults in Russia today? Why hasn’t a Moscow court demanded the extradition of Zelensky – after his term of office ran out? To illustrate just how far we have gone on the rocky road, yesterday I read on Sonar21 that Thomas Röper of Anti-Spiegel fame has been sanctioned by the EU … an EU citizen sanctioned by Kaja Kallas. It seems the EU has staged a coup against the nation state.

Posted by: Stierlitz | May 26 2025 7:21 utc | 172

It’s not his war, and he doesn’t like it.
But the conflict in Ukraine has always concerned the U.S. vs Russia. Even the nytimes has said that the U.S. is “a direct party to the conflict with Russia.”
Inconveniently, DJT stepped back into the White House in January as the war raged. Which has driven *him* off his head “for no reason”—-pretending to mediate, then fig-leaf stepping back from mediating, then barging back in, knickers duly twisted.
Does he think he has the capacity, like a judge at the Olympics, to assign a *grade* to this war-?
On Friday night, Russia launched 250 Gerans & 14 ballistic missiles and followed that up w/ a massive aerial assault on Saturday night: 298 Gerans, 9 Iskandr ballistic missiles, 4 guided air missiles & 56 cruise missiles. In a 48-hour window, between Friday night and Sunday morning, that’s 548 drones & 83 ballistic missiles.
Can’t ask Russia to be less than what she is.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 26 2025 7:34 utc | 174

The MMT theory does not promise salvation, it is effectively a front to be fought.
Posted by: ITreniDiTozeur | May 26 2025 7:43 utc | 176
—
Bare naked “money” has no value.
Indigenous money receives its value from labor. Either expected future labor or intrinsic encapsulated labor.
Labor is the fulcrum against which all value is judged.

Posted by: too scents | May 26 2025 7:53 utc | 176

Bare naked “money” has no value.
Indigenous money receives its value from labor. Either expected future labor or intrinsic encapsulated labor.
Labor is the fulcrum against which all value is judged.
Posted by: too scents | May 26 2025 7:53 utc | 177
—
I agree. Labour (and nature, of which labour is a part) is the source of any value that counts.
Money as deployed in this era is anti-life. How can it be rehabilitated? MMT offers some hints. But there must also be a bottom up movement to reject current paradigms.

Posted by: ITreniDiTozeur | May 26 2025 8:12 utc | 178

Sunny Runny Burger | May 26 2025 3:36 utc | 164
If the computer has Windows installed, especially 10 or 11, there is a strong possibility that Bitlocker is enabled. You absolutely need to get the unlock code. If you don’t have it then you would have to turn the computer on long enough to disable Bitlocker. Once that is done you can find devices to mount the drive from the damaged computer and read its contents onto another one.
The BitLocker recovery key is most often stored in your Microsoft account if you set up and enabled BitLocker yourself. You can find it by going to Microsoft account, signing in, and navigating to the Devices section. If the device was set up by someone else, the recovery key might be in their Microsoft account

Posted by: dan of steele | May 26 2025 8:25 utc | 180

From the moment the SMO commenced, Western reporting on it was a radical repudiation of the truth. During the initial hours, the major trope was that VVP had reacted to the social isolation of the pandemic by going crazy and all of a sudden invading a scrappy little democracy which was innocently minding its business.
Pundits & media stenographers portrayed VVP as a deranged lone wold bad actor “surrounded only by yes men who have cut him off from accurate knowledge,” per the devoted CIA mouthpiece Michael McFaul, “and has dragged his country into a debacle.”
Narratives unrelentingly promulgated the storyline that VVP’s pandemic-induced confinement had caused him to lose his mind and insanely concoct the invasion, which amounted to little more than a boutique narcissistic desire to reconstitute A) the Soviet Union or B)—-failing that—-the Russian Empire.
Regime Media reinforced the collective hypnosis about “cray-cray Putin,” a uniquely deranged unstable madman who was abusing his normal populace with a grim fate.
Condoleeza Rice told Fox News that “this is not the Putin I know. Something has changed” She, who spearheaded the invasion of Iraq, said it was not comprehensible how “Putin, just like that, for no reason, decided to invade a sovereign nation.”
I mean, Condi was flummoxed that a country could suddenly do that to *another country*—-?!
So DJT’s *mean tweet*—-in one fell swoop, or should we say One Fell Truth—-revisits the earliest of tropey tropes about the SMO: “Vladimir Putin of Russia has gone absolutely CRAZY-! Something has happened to him. I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and that will lead to the downfall of Russia.”
They.Don’t.Learn.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 26 2025 8:41 utc | 182

The bloodshed is happening to ethnically cleanse the slavs & replace Ukraine with Israel 2.0.

Posted by: Barbara | May 26 2025 8:44 utc | 184

I believe that MMT is a cul-de-sac offered up as a distraction to the underlying issue of value.
Posted by: too scents | May 26 2025 8:22 utc | 180
In the wrong hands, sure! MMT isn’t revolutionary but clarifies what is going on. As such it can be used as a weapon against the current order. Most discussion of MMT that I see is not anti-capitalist, and many theorists may be liberals hoping to head off revolution at the pass. A corporatist government could use it to effectively dissolve wage labour (universal basic income) and keep hold of power. A socialist government could do the same and change everybody’s concept of money. A savvy capitalist can make very good use of Das Kapital. And Marx thought the Paris Commune effed up by not taking over the Bank of France while it was in reach.
In my experience, MMT is often a good “lite” topic to talk around modern popular delusions, beginning on what is for many familiar ground (neoliberal, austerity economics) while laying a path to talk of quite radical change. An advantage in such conversations is that frank discussion published by redoubtable institutions such as the Bank of England confirms many of MMT’s precepts.
Use money against itself and the bury it.

Posted by: ITreniDiTozeur | May 26 2025 8:55 utc | 186

https://www.flightradar24.com/3a80c0a6
Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis on the Kaliningrad run – CL60. There are two and the other tends to do the Black Sea.
https://robbreport.com/motors/aviation/bombardier-challenger-650-spy-plane-1234787903/

Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | May 26 2025 9:00 utc | 188

Does he also not realise that while he says Putin has “gone crazy” there is nothing to be noticed in the GAZA strip with Netanyahu’s continued genocide.
Posted by: George | May 26 2025 4:49 utc | 168
Yes indeed.

Posted by: pasta | May 26 2025 9:32 utc | 190

I am having a pain management interlude to my sleep and am seeing the following from Reuters
Exclusive: Russia does not see Vatican as a serious arena for peace talks, sources say
I am glad Reuters finds this an exclusive pieve of information when the rest of us know that Pope Bob comes from the Catholic order of Saint Augustine who helped facilitate the schism in the church between East and West.
ZH has a Pepe Escobar posting up with the title
Escobar: European Kakistocracy Locked In a Forever War Against Russia
quote

Few people today remember that last year the European Commission (EU) gave a $50 billion loan to Kiev; actually $35 billion by the EU and $15 billion by the G7. The problem is only Brussels is responsible for repaying this joint EU-G7 loan. And the loan is supposed to be paid from the annual revenues generated by Russian assets frozen – i.e. stolen – in the EU, which Brussels refuses to release before the next 45 years.
These are all official EU decisions, enshrined in Regulation 2024/277. Translation: no, I repeat, no European mainstream media has informed taxpaying citizens across the union that the EU has formally decided to be at war with Russia for at least the next 45 years.

I see the latest Trump calling Putin crazy as a good ploy to keep at bay those that think he is weak against Putin.
Alex Krainer has posted his latest Substack, which I haven’t read, with the title
Trump vs. the swamp: the first 126 days

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 26 2025 9:55 utc | 192

Posted by: Barrel Brown | May 26 2025 8:26 utc | 182
Thanks for your kind words and your offer of a drink. It’s a pity that in the modern world we all live so far apart and can’t actually meet for a chat, for I’d happily return your offer. We only ever see the tip of the iceberg of each person here, and even with people we disagree with, I am certain we would have far more in common if we actually all knew each other just a little more.

Posted by: George | May 26 2025 10:14 utc | 194

@ Newbie | May 26 2025 10:12 utc | 194
AFRF redeploys all the time. It’s kind of their concealment shtick.

Posted by: boneless | May 26 2025 10:21 utc | 196

“They.Don’t.Learn”.
Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 26 2025 8:41 utc | 183
As they say: “There are none so blind as those who do not see”.
Communication is a two part process between what is said and what is heard. Depending on what is in our minds, we only hear what we want to hear. I’m sure you know that anyway. In addition, in a world that makes up stuff, it’s become more common to distort what is said for specific outcomes that are desired. It appears like it is a useful or beneficial thing to do for some, but in the end it stuffs us all up. I’ve yet to meet a person who likes being deceived or lied to.

Posted by: George | May 26 2025 10:28 utc | 198

“goebbels would be proud of what the western regime medias have managed to achieve.”
Posted by: Justpassinby | May 26 2025 8:52 utc | 186
Very true
And Hermann Göring would be amazed how politicians have used fear of the bogey man to get their constituents to go to war:
“Naturally, the common people don’t want war … but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.” Hermann Göring

Posted by: George | May 26 2025 10:34 utc | 200