I’m not religious, but I just said a prayer in hope the killing will stop.

Meanwhile, there’s still a near-total MSM blackout of Seymour Hersh’s remarkable Nord Stream pipeline attacks

Even more MSM deceptive silencing. There is a total blackout of the MOST plausible scenario… An industrial accident.

There are three critical, objective facts that must be explained in any credible offering:

    -1- Why were only 3 of 4 pipes hit?
    -2- Why did the events extend over 17 hours?
    -3- Why were the ruptures 50 miles apart?

Impossible maintenance plus operator error remains the overwhelmingly obvious explanation. This is well explained here: (1) (2). Read the full articles.

The idea of an attack on the NS pipes is lobotomite level stupidity. Can anyone show objective, physical evidence recovered from the sea floor. Nope. Case Closed.

• Do violent NeoConDemocrat Warmongers, like Mr. Unz (?), want war? Therefore, they ruthlessly promote war scenarios, while suppressing accurate coverage of plausible accidents.

• Those of us who support the MAGA peace party refuse to be seduced by Mr. Unz calls to conflict.

Peace or Unz? I choose Peace!

If you choose Unz war. That is about you.

PEACE 😇
___________

(1) https://thelawdogfiles.com/2022/09/nordstream.html

(2) https://thelawdogfiles.com/2022/10/nordstream-ii-electric-instapundit.html

Can you list modern pipelines where similar accidents have occurred?

Pipelines are highly vulnerable to sabotage. They are part of the “high trust” world.

…part of the “high trust” world

The high trust world seems to be gone. It will be very volatile with the current technology and geographic reach once that reality sinks in…

The crazy thing is that it was the ones who are most benefitting from the high-trust world who decided to destroy it…very churlish and infantile, a kid breaking toys so the others can’t play with them, or a pure schadenfreude – a resentment of others, the fear that they are catching up…they just couldn’t allow it even if it also destroys them.

Progress on natural gas pipelines between Russia and China. https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/russia-to-invest-almost-100bn-in-gas-pipelines-to-china/

Power of Siberia 2 will be built through Mongolia.

He added that Russian supplies to China through the 3,968km Power of Siberia 1 had increased 48% in 2022, reaching a record of 15.4 billion cubic metres (bcm) over the year.

Russian state energy company Gazprom hopes to start delivering up to 50 bcm of gas using the 2,600km Siberia 2 line by 2030.

A Far Eastern extension of Power of Siberia 1 will also be constructed to the Sakhalin islands. Sometimes referred to as Power of Siberia 3.

Meanwhile China is signing 30 years duration giant LNG contracts with Qatar, while RF is not getting any commitments of such type in advance.

IIRC, Gazprom pipeline exports into Europe were nearly 170 bcm before Covid, so “record” of 15 bcm and plans of 50 bcm in 2030 into China are truly breathtakingly impressive in comparison;)

However, thanx to china-russia-all-the-way for the link, lots of interesting info there, e.g. it looks like mass house 3D printing is becoming practical reality atm, masonry and masons might become endangered species in the future:

A joint venture of cement giant Holcim and British International Investment, called 14Trees, has printed 10 houses for sale in Kenya.

It’s the biggest complete printed development in the world, said Denmark-headquartered printer maker Cobod, which made the printer used by 14Trees.

14Trees printed the houses at an average rate of one a week in 10 weeks between October 2022 and January 2023. In the fastest instance, it printed a house in 18 hours.

Six of the houses are 76 sq m in area, with three bedrooms. Four have two bedrooms and 56 sq m of space.

Prices for the smaller homes start at $28,680. The bigger ones start at just over $39,000, according to the 14Trees website.

https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/developer-sets-record-with-10-houses-printed-in-kenya/

Can you list modern pipelines where similar accidents have occurred?

I will look around for a list, but I am not sure anyone has gone to the effort to compile one in that exact format. However, 30 seconds with a search engine found this article. Sorry, it is a Guardian piece: (1)

Survivors of the BP rig explosion told interviewers that right before the April 20 blast, workers had decreased the pressure in the drill column and applied heat to set the cement seal around the wellhead. Then a quickly expanding bubble of methane gas shot up the drill column before exploding on the platform on the ocean’s surface.

Even a solid steel pipe has little chance against a 164-fold expansion of volume — something that would render a man six feet six inches tall suddenly the height of the Eiffel Tower.

Number One Deepwater Drilling Issue

SolveClimate contacted scientists at the Colorado School of Mines, Center for Hydrate Research, who focus on the fundamental science and engineering of methane hydrates to gain further insight. They did not want to speculate on the role that methane hydrates could have played in the BP disaster, but they were willing to provide a basic understanding of the nature and behavior of these familiar but little understood substances.

“Gas hydrates are the number one flow assurance issue in deepwater drilling,” Carolyn Koh, an associate professor and co-director of the Hydrate Center, told us in an exclusive interview.

Did Deepwater methane hydrates cause the BP Gulf explosion?
Strange and dangerous hydrocarbon offers no room for human error

The fact that hydrates are a specific area of study at one of the best engineering schools in the country is a strong indicator that this is a serious issue. Hydrate plug mistakes are at best costly and at worst lethal.

Pipelines are highly vulnerable to sabotage. They are part of the “high trust” world.

Can you list modern pipelines where similar sabotage/attacks have occurred?

Which, in your estimation, causes more hydrocarbon industry incidents — Sabotage? Industrial accidents?

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/may/20/deepwater-methane-hydrates-bp-gulf

The crazy thing is that it was the ones who are most benefitting from the high-trust world who decided to destroy it…

I concur.

European Elites, such as the German Green Party, both benefit from technology and simultaneously try to destroy it.

The largest problems in Europe, including energy & migration, are 100% caused by European leadership.

PEACE 😇

I recently discovered the wonderful literary critic Ed Simon through DBHs blog, and was reading through some of his works.

He’s developed this wonderful concept that writing is a kind of literally magic, literally a spell and incantation 🙂

My first axiom is that all poetry is incantation; my second axiom is that all prose is conjuration….the purpose of verse…..is to affect some sort of alteration in our reality, even if only in the mind of the reader, in a manner that’s equivalent to how a magical spell is intended to have a spiritual consequence….

I like it much! 🙂

It’s funny, over on Sailers blog, it’s a badge of honor to declare, following Sailer himself, that one no longer reads fiction but only books with some sort of “utility”, thus cementing ones reputation as a properly robotic modern concerned only with efficiency and power. This is, in that world, “masculine”, tough, adult. Fiction is for women and the follies of youth, over there.

And yet all this indicates, is that their minds have become so entirely captive to a particular magic spell, the magic incantation cast by the written works that developed the modern world view, that they can no longer even contemplate breaking it’s hold 🙂

I do feel, strangely, when I speak to a committed modernist, that they are ensorcelled – they are under some magic spell. Logic doesn’t work, rationality doesn’t work, in breaking it’s hold – perhaps only a stronger incantation, a stronger white magic, would work – if it could break through that hardened defensive ring that is part of the original spell.

And yet that strong white magic is already there – in all the great works literature of the world that constitutes the counter-narrative, which is practically the great literary tradition of every country.

He has a chapter “Prayer is Poetry” that sounds fascinating and want to read – I never thought of it that way before, but it’s obvious. And a monk is lived poetry.

Here is the delightful Ed Simon again –

Literature—it must be affirmed, admitted, understood, experienced—is fundamentally spooky….. But literature is spooky, for the mere uttering of words affects the world. And not just that, but literature with all of its mimesis and exposition is able to create entirely new worlds. Literature preserves characters and voices that seem as real to us as our own families, there are histories and narratives that seem as tangible as our own lives, there are lines of poetry that read as if they were spells. Undeniably, uncannily, unnervingly, deeply, wierd.

Beckow’s leader?

It’s funny, over on Sailers blog, it’s a badge of honor to declare, following Sailer himself, that one no longer reads fiction but only books with some sort of “utility”, thus cementing ones reputation as a properly robotic modern concerned only with efficiency and power.

Wow, interesting insight. Except baseless and pointless and dumb. But other than that….

Neverending ruthless assaults continued in the course of war on christianity:

Iraqi Information Minister reviews
A New Science of Heaven
Robert Temple
Hodder & Stoughton 2021
400 pages

A remarkable work by a remarkable man and I encourage all to read it. If you are a physicist or an astrophysicist or an astronomer who has a paid gig doing plasmas the probability that you will hate this book is .99 unless you control yourself and read no more than 8 or 9 pages at a time.

Temple is a shameless name dropper. Paul Dirac, David Bohm, Rupert Sheldrake are the shiniest celebrity intellectuals he claims as friends. I lost count of the number of top tier people he hangs with.

The book is a mix of hard science facts which are important and not well known, sound theorizing and speculation around these facts, and then subsequent skating out onto thin ice further to no ice and drug addled nonsense. It would have been a much better book (not that it is a bad book) if he had taken pains to distinguish which was which, but alas he does not do this enough. I am suspicious that he didn’t really see these differences himself.

Let’s start with the important facts.

Recently discovered Kordylewski clouds cosmic dust sitting at the L4 and L4 Lagrange points in the earth moon system. Claimed to exist by Polish astronomer Kordylewski 50 years ago but observed and accepted only in 2018. Temple also starts with this as it is Chapter one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kordylewski_cloud

The cosmology that is taught and accepted at Harvard and similar places is a theory or a working hypothesis. Big Bang &c. There are alternative unaccepted ridiculed theories which are consistent with all extant data. If you want to see how far these go the best place to begin is Anthony Peratt Physics of the Plasma Universe.

https://ia800702.us.archive.org/29/items/AnthonyPerattPhysicsOfThePlasmaUniverse_201901/Anthony-Peratt--Physics-of-the-Plasma-Universe.pdf

You are very likely to give up before getting too far because it is challenging to the poor brain cells exciting to this energy level. Robert Temple claims that he has gotten very far. This is dishonest, as a trained astrophysicist with man years of free time would be stressed to read all the books that Temple cites. There is NO WAY that he has read them. There is NO WAY that he understands one thousandth of what he claims to understand.

Nevertheless he tells an interesting story.

He says the Kordylwesky clouds are alive. His definition of life (on page 164) is as good as any. He explicitly acknowledges nobody knows what life is. He continues to go right on stacking cards upon the upper stories of this house logic chain with nothing like the qualifications and disclaimers that I would prefer to see.

He says the clouds are vastly superior to humans in intelligence by multiple orders of magnitude. The clouds contain a complete and intermittently accessible (to rare humans) Akashic record. The clouds have reliable models of what the earthlings are going to do next and for many years decades centuries to come. The clouds are in contact with similar intelligent living clouds elsewhere in the solar system and in the galaxy and on the other side of the universe.

Also he says there are current peer reviewed publications and professional scientists who totally agree with him although their published claims are far more modest.

Thank god for that last part anyway.

Example:

From plasma crystals and helical structures towards inorganic living matter

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/9/8/263/pdf

There’s more. Much more.

The sun is not a nuclear fireball. It is more like a light bulb illuminated by interstellar electric plasma currents.

We have plasma currents inside our bodies and extending outwards in a sizable elliptical shell. Auras.

David Bohm’s hidden-variable quantum potential = Rupert Sheldrake’s morphogentic field. You might think I am making this part up and I wish I was because this book is mostly very fun to read and Robert Temple is mostly a very likable man but he says (on p. 298) there is “no doubt in my mind” regarding this point.

Wilhelm Reich’s orgone energy = Reichenbach’s odic field = Lytton’s [fictional] vril.

And there is much more but I hope most can get the gist here. This is one of those rare books that when I reached the end of the text on page 319 (there are 81 pp endnotes, appendices, index) the first thing I did was go to page 1 and start re-reading. The re-reading was about 200 pages every word the material is that dense. The cited references are exhaustive and almost all are legitimate.

One wishes to emphasize here, specifically language.

We live in an age in which great imaginative works of literature are devalued in favor of other mediums, like television, film, and even worse things like Twitter.

And while television and cinema have value, certainly, it’s worth emphasizing the particular magic of words.

In the Bible, God literally spoke the world into being (and I believe other cultures have similar traditions) – and in later additions to that book, it’s said the Word became flesh. The Australian aborigines, I believe, sing their landscape into existence.

While I have never ceased loving reading, especially fiction, I am influenced enough by the ill winds of modernity to have somewhat lost – although never entirely – the special pleasure of sinking into a great work of imaginative literature and fall under it’s spell – as spell.The modern part of me came to somewhat doubt that it is a spell – why am I wasting my time on mere words, when the world is out there?

So it is bracing to be reminded of a truth known to every intelligent and imaginative child, and that I knew so well in my own childhood – a book is a world, is reality – perhaps even more real than mundane, quotidian reality.

So for all those sad and dejected moderns who love to read but as they develop into dismal modern adults begin to feel faintly guilty at doing anything so terribly impractical and inefficient, and feel faintly immoral for “escaping” the “real” world – it is a useful reminder that through great literary works of imagination you may actually be connecting more deeply to the real world than ever before 🙂

And so we overcome modernity – step by step, inch by inch.

Power of Siberia 1 – 38 BCM
Far Eastern extension – 10 BCM
Power of Siberia 2 – 50 BCM

Imports from Russia by LNG ships are also on the rise. “China Boosts LNG Imports From Russia to Highest Since 2020.”

By 2030 or sooner, it’s possible to see the Chinese market equal the volume of Russian exports to Europe in 2019. China might be able to get 90% of natural gas from domestic production, pipelines, and Russian LNG.

You can’t claim it’s totally made up:
https://www.ncronline.org/news/ukrainian-catholic-leader-warns-against-russian-orthodox-ban
An influential segment at least of Ukrainian nationalism (or patriotism or whatever you want to call it, not going to debate the terms) really is highly authoritarian, and also quite unhinged in its wish for some final reckoning with Russia that will supposedly usher in their utopia. Of course Russian criticism of this is quite hypocritical given what’s going on in Russia, with all the chauvinism and increasing repression of dissent. But the crucial question indeed is why exactly Ukraine should be given the unconditional support it demands from Western countries, as if the interests of hardline Ukrainian nationalists and most Westerners were identical.
I recently saw someone on Twitter compare Ukraine to Serbia before 1914/during WW1 in some ways (most notably of course in their transparent desire to drag in their great power sponsors into a war, to achieve irredentist goals they won’t be able to achieve on their own). Not a flattering comparison of course, but with more than a little truth to it.

Intense combat footage from the point-of-view of a Ukrainian soldier with the callsign “Predator” (à la the Schwarzenegger film).

One of his comrades is very scared and cannot bring himself to engage the enemy but still proves useful in the situation by passing ammunition to Predator.

Meanwhile, there’s still a near-total MSM blackout of Seymour Hersh’s remarkable Nord Stream pipeline attacks story, with some plausible speculation that if the story gets sufficient traction in Europe, the result might be the collapse of NATO.

Wasn’t the Russian invasion of Ukraine meant to usher in the collapse of NATO (and not…you know, increase its support after Russia launched the first large scale war in Europe since 1945) like the analysts over at The Saker and Moon of Alabama were saying around 1 year ago?

Regarding Bakhmut. It seems the best parallel is the battles of the Rzhev salient, where the Soviets suffered much larger casualties than the Germans despite having superiority in both manpower, armor and artillery. A new development has been the sabotage of the Wagner Group by the Russian Ministry of Defence in the form of the creation of artificial shell hunger. Power games going on between Shoigu and Prigozhin it seems. In any case the defence of Bakhmut by the Ukrainians has proven to be commendable.

We went from “3 Days to Kiev” to “365 Days to Artyomovk”.

Trump wanted to improve relations with Russia. In part to head off a China/Russia team up. Tucker Carlson discusses this point, and others in this segment. This is even more important than the ones that Sundance calls out.(1)

In his opening monologue Monday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson outlined the insufferable Ukraine narrative and the geopolitical consequences that will flow from the outcome of foreign policy.

Additionally, Carlson contrasts the difference in DC priority for financially assisting Ukraine while places like East Palestine, Ohio, suffer a catastrophic toxic chemical disaster.

1/3 of all cars sold in Russia come from China. Clearly, Trump will try to unwind this mess 2025-2028. However, Not-The-President Biden’s perfidy can never be wholly repaired. America and the world have been permanently damaged by the 2020 coup that placed an unelected puppet in the white House.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/02/21/tucker-carlson-outlines-ukraine-conflict-china-alignment-with-russia-and-contrast-of-ukraine-spending-against-crisis-in-ohio/

I recently discovered the wonderful literary critic Ed Simon through DBHs blog, and was reading through some of his works.

I’ve also recently discovered this fine high-brow culture blog: http://www.aplvblog.com/p/other-essays.html

A nice counter-balance to the political, historical and economic blogs I follow.

You’ll like this post: http://www.aplvblog.com/2012/02/calvin-coolidge-on-classics.html

Regarding Bakhmut. It seems the best parallel is the battles of the Rzhev salient, where the Soviets suffered much larger casualties than the Germans despite having superiority in both manpower, armor and artillery.

Where did you get this piece of info? Even Western pro-Ukrainian sources are appalled by staggering Ukrainian losses at Bakhmut and shocked by much smaller losses of the RF. Many Western observers advise Ukraine to abandon Bakhmut to preserve personnel. In contrast, the owner of “Wagner” outfit Prigozhin trolled Ukraine by advising it to defend Bakhmut at all costs.

We went from “3 Days to Kiev” to “365 Days to Artyomovk”.

There never was “3 Days to Kiev” except in manufactured lies of pro-Ukrainians. Sad (for NATO) truth is that despite all Western weapons and training Ukrainian army is losing ground on all fronts.

But take heart and keep posting. Here we have too few US/Ukie trolls peddling the official Western narrative. You’d be a third or a forth such creature. Pretty flattering place for a nonentity.

idk if that contemplated ban became existing law atm, but Moscow branch of orthodoxy is not even whole or single existing orthodoxy branch in Ukraine, where native ukrainian Orthodox church is operating too, to say nothing of all christianity.

Using the same tuckerian propjunk logic it also could be always said that king in England declared a total war on christianity in 16th century and won it;)

Slovak Foreign Minister on Facebook:

For Putin’s collaborators and especially for ours in the Carpathian Basin and Felvidék, for all those who want peace at the cost of the destruction of Ukraine, I have only one message: Иди нахуй!

I will leave it to the reader to translate that statement in Cyrlic at the very end.

it also could be always said that king in England declared a total war on christianity in 16th century and won it;)

Might not even be that incorrect a statement tbh, it’s not like Henry VIII was a pleasant character.
Anyway, of course Tucker Carlson is saying lots of daft things. But is he wrong on the core issues? Ukraine’s officially stated goals are pretty crazy, either unachievable without direct Western intervention, or leading to incalculable risks, if by some miracle Ukraine does manage to achieve them. But open debate about war aims, the conditions and limits of support is heavily discouraged in Western countries, shouldn’t be surprising this is causing growing resentment.

Incorrect. The Russian losses at Bakhmut have been eye-watering. There are pictures of fields filled with dead Wagner soldiers who have been told to assault Ukrainian positions head on over and over again.

There never was “3 Days to Kiev” except in manufactured lies of pro-Ukrainians. Sad (for NATO) truth is that despite all Western weapons and training Ukrainian army is losing ground on all fronts.

Please do not lie, there are compilation of clips from Russian state media showing the likes of Solovyov, Simonyan and Kadyrov boasting about how they will next “deNazify” Poland and victory is but a matter of 2 weeks. Not to mention the various pro-Russians who had gotten too high on their own copium supplies over the years.

There was a lot of talk at one time about a plan to build a pipeline through Afghanistan. Supposedly one of the reasons for western invasion. I always assumed this was nonsense because securing a pipeline there was obviously doomed to failure.

As far as I can tell no attempt to build said pipeline was ever started.

Spot on:

Anyone following this Portuguese story?

According to reasonably reliable sources (there is no such thing as 100% reliable sources of info in a war), Ukrainians are losing ~10 military personnel for each Russian lost. Advice to abandon Bakhmut (Artemovsk) was given Ukraine by many Western analysts. Ukrainian clown-in-chief cited Ukrainian losses as a reason to give him more weapons ASAP.

As to sources, whatever someone says or said in his/her TG or other media is about as reliable source of info as Nostradamus. E.g., many websites claim that the Earth is flat, so what?

By 2030 or sooner, it’s possible to see the Chinese market equal the volume of Russian exports to Europe in 2019. China might be able to get 90% of natural gas from domestic production, pipelines, and Russian LNG.

Wish all the best sincerely for RF to achieve that goal as relative shortage of gas in Asia was/is keeping prices there quite high most of the time, so additional supply will drive Asian spot prices&LNG demand down too, which is also good for European spot buyers. Besides RF cannot really dictate/influence/buy politicians regarding China, like they were used to do in fragmented Europe over gas dependency.

Also it means way easier possibility for Australian natgas redirection to Japan or Turkmenistan natgas to Turkey, then to EU as Erdogan is planning.

as Erdogan is planning

Nobody in his/her right mind would claim that wonnabe sultan is particularly smart. Yet his moves are so much smarter than the actions of European politicians. It’s a new low for Europe. Pretty sad considering that modern civilization emerged there.

New Boudica just dropped:

biden’s having a blast in poland pic.twitter.com/BbGsk0cHlQ

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) February 21, 2023

Poland can replace its Dead Souls in Donbass with American sponsored souless niggers though.

biden’s having a blast in poland pic.twitter.com/BbGsk0cHlQ

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) February 21, 2023

New Poles Previewed by Biden in Brave Polish Visit.

Punishment Battalions though. Not regular recruits. Good way to empty jails and prisons.

And yet that strong white magic is already there – in all the great works literature of the world that constitutes the counter-narrative

Light isn’t counter to anything. If you perceive it as that, your sight is still partial.

Thanks for demonstrating your gullibility yet again.

Back in July last year, you were predicting that if the Europeans continued to supply Ukraine with arms to defend itself, probably Berlin and Paris would be conquered by Russia. Instead Russia is still stuck outside Bakhmut. Were your great sources what informed you previously?

Now we are in the middle of the third time. European countries are supplying weapons and ammo to the Kiev regime, and training Ukie soldiers. I am sure they hope for something very different than the inevitable end, which would likely be the third repeat of the results of the first two attempts. They would be lucky if Berlin and Paris are spared this time. Or they might not get lucky. That’s anybody’s guess.

I didn’t know about it so I read a few stories, it seems to be part of the current Portuguese government’s growth strategy. One of the articles said that the number of foreign workers in the country has already increased from 100,000 to 650,000+ since 2015.

There are also a lot of illegal immigrants already and this new law will give them official status.

It looks like some kind of trend, given what is going on in Ireland and the UK immigration numbers reaching record levels. I was reading a couple of Portuguese opinion articles promoting increases in immigration, arguing it was needed to sustain the pensions and social security system.

Invert,

most media and politicos were saying that Russia would reach the Atlantic if westerers were not sending the Ukies these weapons. Which was absurd. The Ukies themselves were saying they were protecting Berlin and Paris.

Ron,

Do an analysis of the concrete poured by Ukraine in the run up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The construction $ amounts are truly astounding.

Much of German rearmament in the 1930s was building up the Westwall after remilitarizing the Rhine 1936. Very little was really spent on tanks and planes. The bulk of the expenses were bunkers, traps and mine belts. Their very own version of the infamous but misunderstood Maginot line in fact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Line

Ukraine was a massive concrete pour by NATO.

https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/eastern-europe/ukraine/ukraine-line

@Ivashka

the ancestors of the Eastern Slav fought with the Hun

Who did they fight against, was it the Avars?

Han Chinese fought with the Xianbei in the Northern Wei (386–535) to expelled the Rouran, who may have became the Avars after migrating west.

A weird thing about the ethnogenesis of steppe empires is that they often begin with defeat at the hands of a more powerful rival back home. The losers flee across the vast Eurasian steppe and wind up with a mighty empire far away.

https://www.unz.com/isteve/the-avars-of-dark-age-hungary-were-mongolians/

Later on, Han Chinese fought with Manchus and Khalkha Mongols in the Qing to expel the Dzungar Mongols. The Dzungars who migrated west became the Kalmyks, one of their descendants was Lenin.

@Wokechoke

Mulan portrayed a Han Chinese fighting against Turco-Mongol barbarians, but she was already a sort of a barbarian, fighting against other barbarians.

East Slavic nationalism, at least for a lot of Ukrainian bros, is suppose to be about European Slavs liberating themselves from “Asiatic” Turco-Mongols.

Someone from the Rus’ Khaganate, which is already sort of a Turco-Mongol dynasty, fighting against other Turco-Mongols, would probably not be an appropriate hero for that brand of nationalism.

You should be able to trust your ally, but if he stabs you in the back he’s not your ally. It’s not normal what the US did to it’s German ally and Germany’s reaction (saying nothing) is completely abnormal. It is also abnormal to have the American Navy in the Baltic Sea, especially after blowing up a Russian -German pipeline. US behavior has made China and Russia unite against them. There are people in the German Bundestag (parliament) that want good relations with Russia and now they may want to leave NATO and become allies of Russia too, or at least have friendly relations. If that happened, I don’t think the US Navy would remain in the Baltic Sea.

Were all the balloons shot down with sidewinders?

Maybe, shows that earth-based laser weapons are just not practical, that they didn’t iron out the flaws by now.

I didn’t know about it so I read a few stories, it seems to be part of the current Portuguese government’s growth strategy.

The question is – are they trying to fill the hard to fill jobs, or is this for anyone who speaks Portuguese (is from former colonies).

It looks like some kind of trend, given what is going on in Ireland and the UK immigration numbers reaching record levels.

If this is what they’re planning to do now, then some of the EU freedom of movement treaties need to be re-opened and re-negotiated. The very basic EU principles were put in place for Europeans and weren’t designed to be messed with like this.

most media and politicos were saying that Russia would reach the Atlantic if westerers were not sending the Ukies these weapons

Nope. They were saying the Russians would overrun the Ukrainians. Which turned out to drastically overestimate the Russians.

Russia’s GDP is roughly equal to Italy’s. No one with a room temperature IQ thinks Russia is any threat to Western Europe. A lot of these threads consist of Russophiles telling themselves that Western Europeans are afraid of them.

Even Western pro-Ukrainian sources are appalled by staggering Ukrainian losses at Bakhmut and shocked by much smaller losses of the RF.

??…

Care to back this one up Profesor? Sounds kind of sovoky (again). 🙁

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-02-27/germany-post-world-war-ii-ukraine-russia

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-09-08/russia-invasion-of-ukraine-jolting-germany-into-rebuilding-military

There was panic for some time at the start.

“A possible Russian invasion of Europe is “more than ever” and Germany could be wiped off the map at any moment, according to a leaked report in Germany. Top military officials in Germany have urged the country to prepare for an impending war with Russia, fearing that the war in Ukraine will escalate into a global conflict with NATO.”

https://expatguideturkey.com/germany-speaks-of-leaked-documents-russians-can-invade-at-any-moment/

“In the 68-page report, Zorn argues that although the modern German army has conducted operations in areas such as Afghanistan, these experiences are not sufficient for a future war, and that the Bundeswehr should prepare for a “forced war” on its territory. Warning that the possibility of war in a NATO member country in Eastern Europe “is increasing again”, Zorn urged Germany to play a leading role in the continent’s defense and to build a “stronger” armed forces.”

…EU principles were put in place for Europeans

Who would that be? Are the Angolans with Portugal residency European? Bolivian mestizos in Spain? Turks with relatives in Germany? Indians with EU work/student visas? Their relatives?

It is not simple, there are 100’s of millions Third Worlders who could be European, maybe 1-2 billion if they apply themselves. Restricting it would remove the one positive that keeps EU going: free movement. Imagine Latvia or Slovakia with no ability to easily leave? The reality of what we have – or don’t have – would hit hard.

EU won’t restrict freedom of movement and it can’t control its borders. They decided to manage it, pushing the inevitable consequences into future. But the ruling liberals celebrate it, embrace it and declare it that it is the ‘new shiny world‘.

EU was a great idea with a built-in self-destructive policies. A Faustian bargain par excellence: live well now at the expense of your society-nation’s future. We are close to the time when Mephisto wants his pay. Maybe that’s why we are having a war…

“I’m not religious, but I just said a prayer in hope the killing will stop.”

Excepting of Vladimir Putin.

Russia continues to sink into the cesspool of its own making.
———
Demographic Challenges Weigh On Russia’s Military Ambitions
By The Jamestown Foundation – Feb 18, 2023, 2:00 PM CST

– Russia is looking to grow the size of its armed forces to 1.5 million by the end of 2026.
– According to the Russian population census of 2020–2021, the number of men 18–26 years old in Russia was around 7.21 million in 2021.
– The number of young men in Russia is inevitably decreasing, presenting a challenge that make realizing its military ambitions impossible.
…
https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/International/Demographic-Challenges-Weigh-On-Russias-Military-Ambitions.html

“Meanwhile, there’s still a near-total MSM blackout of Seymour Hersh’s remarkable Nord Stream pipeline attacks story, with some plausible speculation that if the story gets sufficient traction in Europe, the result might be the collapse of NATO. I’ve published a couple of columns and a few of Hersh’s interviews are starting to get some attention”

What more denial do you need? Straight from the highest USA government authorities – WE DIDN’T DO IT!
——-
John Kirby denies U.S. sabotaged Nord Stream pipelines
“It’s a completely false story. There is no truth it,” Kirby said when asked about reporting by journalist Seymour Hersh alleging U.S. involvement.
02/19/2023 02:47 PM EST

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby repeatedly denied the United States was involved in explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines, speaking Sunday on “Fox News Sunday.”

“It’s a completely false story. There is no truth to it, Shannon,” Kirby told host Shannon Bream, when asked about an article by journalist Seymour Hersh alleging U.S. involvement. “Not a shred of it. It is not true. The United States, and no proxies of the United States had anything to do with that, nothing.”
…
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/19/john-kirby-nord-stream-seymour-hersh-00083589

Who would that be?

Those who signed the original treaty – you think those nations don’t deserve to be respected? This is against the spirit of the original document.

Although in the case of the Portuguese, it might be that they are trying to consolidate their nation in these chaotic times, maybe that’s what it’s about.

Restricting it would remove the one positive that keeps EU going: free movement. Imagine Latvia or Slovakia with no ability to easily leave?

It would actually be fantastic. The elites would finally have to take care of their people not partially, but fully.

EU won’t restrict freedom of movement and it can’t control its borders.

It would be possible to find the legal language to stop this, the problem is the lack of political will. As usual.

EU was a great idea with a built-in self-destructive policies. A Faustian bargain par excellence: live well now at the expense of your society-nation’s future. We are close to the time when Mephisto wants his pay. Maybe that’s why we are having a war…

I don’t disagree with you. It’s late, but it might be not too late.

Russia is very lucky that she only has physical challenges on the Western flank. Imagine if Russia had active enemies in the East and in the South? Currently 90% or even more, 95-97% of the Russian military is active on the Ukrainian front. Russia is completely exposed, except for Rosgvardia at home and the nuclear triad.

According to the Russian population census of 2020–2021, the number of men 18–26 years old in Russia was around 7.21 million in 2021.

I hope those cubs are salvaged and don’t have to go into combat. Not now, not in the next 100 years.

I think it is indeed for anyone in the Portuguese speaking world, citizens of Brazil, Anglo, Mocambique etc.

It’s not totally surprising Portugal would do something like this given their past policies. Under the Salazar regime, after WW2 the colonies were officially absorbed into Portugal itself and the people were all made full Portuguese citizens. This was far-right Portuguese nationalism.

According to reasonably reliable sources

Such as? Konashenkov and his 44 destroyed HIMARS systems? Or the desrtruction of 4 Bradley IFVs before they had even arrived in the European continent never mind Ukraine? [See tweets after the MORE tag].

By the way, what are your thoughts on Putin’s drab speech yesterday? My personal highlight was when he talked of the gender-neutral Anglican God

US believes Russia had failed intercontinental ballistic missile test around when Biden was in Ukraine

This would actually explain a lot about how milquetoast Putin’s much-hyped address was yesterday, the original plan was to give a rousing performance about how “Russia’s borders end nowhere” (in reference to the almost global range of the Sarmat missile) and how everyone must “listen carefully”, but after Putin got word of the test’s failures he had to re-use his speech from September 30, 2022.

The EU stands for antiracism first and foremost. Estonians are expected to learn and apply EU values. Estonia is too white according to antiracist values. As the most prosperous former Soviet country in the EU, Estonia will be expected to take in non-white asylum seekers. The smart ones from the younger generation in Estonia have learned these high status values and will push for them backed by the full institutional and media power of the EU.

It seems that Wagner PMC was not the superlative fighting machine many pro-Russians said it was. According to Aleksandr Khodakovsky, it is not being deprived of ammunition out of spite, but simply getting it’s fair share like all the other units. Prigozhin posts a picture of one day’s worth of dead Wagnerites, seemingly to put pressure on the Russian MoD to give it back its privileged position on the resupply pecking order.

Someone from the Rus’ Khaganate, which is already sort of a Turco-Mongol dynasty

Ashkenazi Jews (such as Zelensky) are not related to the Turkic Khazars but are a mix of roughly 45% Italians, 45% Semites, and 10% Northern Euros (including Slavs). They came to Ukraine from the West.

The Turkic Jewish Karaites of Crimea, whom the Nazis spared because they weren’t Semitic Jews, may have been related to the Khazars.

The smart ones from the younger generation in Estonia have learned these high status values

Actually, Estonia is not a good example to make your point, because Estonian nationalists are rather high IQ.

It appears that Portugal is willing to give one year residence permits to people from all those countries, it is not clear whether this is a permanent residence which would allow them to reside anywhere in the EU. It looks like an internal Portuguese affair (it’s for Brazilians).

Estonia will be expected to take in non-white asylum seekers.

And who may I ask, is the hidden hand forcing Russia to naturalize almost 200,000 Tajiks every year? Aided of course by the Russian-language schools established by Putin (again some hidden hand must be forcing him correct?)

Russian schools open in Tajikistan

Naturalization of Tajiks by the Russian Federation

2011 – 6,152
2012 – 9,773
2013 – 12,476
2014 – 14,638
2015 – 16,758
2016 – 23,012
2017 – 29,039
2018 – 35,732
2019 – 44,707
2020 – 63,389
2021 – 103,681
2022 – 173,634

High trust environment was completely destroyed even before the war by RF in 2021 when they decided to leave empty all Gazprom operated natgas storage facilities in EU before the winter, which was the main cause of natgas price spike.

Situation could have been even worse because of this, but God was not happy with it and decided to make two very warm european winters in a row;)

He said the journalist told him “of course” everyone knows that America destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines, but no one is allowed to say that.

Hmmmm…. an establishment, elite university economist received an anonymous leak from a left-wing reporter? Add that to Sachs track record. Everyone smart & honest realizes he was 100% wrong about the WUHAN-19 virus.

You are using a debunked conspiracy theorist as a source for another conspiracy theory. Based on that information lineage — You make an excellent case that “everyone should know that America is *not* involved”

The journalist told him that the newspaper he’d once read “was dead.”

Establishment journalists (and establishment academia) have been quite panicky since Musk bought Twitter. Being a shill for the Globalist Lügenpresse is not the sinecure that it once was.

PEACE 😇

You should be able to trust your ally, but if he stabs you in the back he’s not your ally. It’s not normal what the US did to it’s German ally

Germany stabbed Greece, Italy, Hungary, and Poland in the back at various times over the years. These were also abnormal events benefiting German banks over individual workers.

German Bundestag (parliament) that want good relations with Russia and now they may want to leave NATO

Many have said that NATO and EU are linked. Thus, you suggest that Germany intends departure from the EU.

This is excellent news. It will be delightful to watch DEXIT (Deutsche Exit) struggle the way that Brexit did. Christian European nations should be able to keep Islamophile, open borders, Germany tied up in knots for a decade or more.

PEACE 😇

…This is against the spirit of the original document.

Sure, but spirit changes over time. For example the spirit in the early 90’s was ‘no Nato expansion’, then the West decided to change it.

Spirit is not legally enforceable and the laws against migration are notoriously hard to enforce…if Bulgaria decides that they will sell residency – via some subterfuge like student visas – what can EU do about it?

The elites would finally have to take care of their people not partially, but fully.

Right. But it will not happen – the elites have skillfully designed a system of no accountability and minimum control (that’s what ‘globalism’ means to them), they are not giving it up. Even if borders would close for regular people, the elites would remain free and above national sovereignty…But in their defense, that’s what people wanted – they screamed bloody murder for no borders and no restrictions on wealth, they were giddy with excitement when it happened. We are just living with the consequences.

It would be possible to find the legal language to stop this, the problem is the lack of political will.

I doubt anything would pass the endless legal challenges against discrimination, EU Charter, etc…There is no definition of who is a “European” in any Euro document, so there is no way to base laws on that. There is also the question of enforcement…if a Portuguese speaking Angolan gets Portuguese citizenship and decides to move to Riga and pimp the local women, there is not much (other than the crime itself) Latvia can do. We bought it, the good, the bad, the swarthy…

EU was a great idea with a built-in self-destructive policies. A Faustian bargain par excellence: live well now at the expense of your society-nation’s future. We are close to the time when Mephisto wants his pay. Maybe that’s why we are having a war…

A collection of sovereign countries makes sense. However, was the EU design ever a great idea? A European ‘Super State’ that threatens national sovereignty was a terrible idea.

Intra-EU flow of goods, manufactured to common standards is a reasonable goal. Allowing individuals easy short-term transit (e.g. tourists, businessmen) could also have made sense. Permanent relocation of workers:

    • Drains source countries, interfering with family formation
    • Undercuts labour markets in recipient countries.

Schengen, as currently administered, is a built-in self-destructive policy. If the only way to get rid of it is ending the EU, so be it.

PEACE 😇

Chinese FM allegedly requiring for unilateral RF ceasefire as a condition for Xi spring visit in Moscow, Zoperating fan is fuming because of this. If this is truthful leak from RF, means US found some counterarguments for now regarding CCP’ied China musings about potential military supply against UA.

https://t.me/skurlatovlive/9487

I doubt anything would pass the endless legal challenges against discrimination, EU Charter, etc…There is no definition of who is a “European” in any Euro document, so there is no way to base laws on that. There is also the question of enforcement…

The way to fix the EU from the inside is what I dub — ‘The Spirit of Sovereignty’

if a Portuguese speaking Angolan gets Portuguese citizenship and decides to move to Riga and pimp the local women, there is not much (other than the crime itself) Latvia can do. We bought it, the good, the bad, the swarthy…

In this example, what can Sovereign Spirit do about it?

The Latvian government arrests the Angolan for improper documentation and places him in detention. There is much legal byplay before the final move. The sovereign Latvian Supreme Court overrules the ECHR/ECJ as exceeding EU authority and violating the Latvian constitution.

Multiple other countries do this on migration cases. Thus, firmly establishing that the EU/ECHR/ECJ are junior entities. European institutions are inherently subordinate under the doctine, ‘Spirit of Sovereignty’.

The EU functions like a bully. It makes threats and others submit. When push comes-to-shove what are actual EU (not sovereign member state) capabilities?

    • EU Air Force — Bombers = none. Air superiority fighters = none.
    • EU Navy — Surface combatants = none.
    • EU Army — Mechanized infantry = none. Armor/tanks = none.

The EU only exists as it does because nations willingly sacrifice their sovereignty. If a small group of countries stand up and shout, “NO MORE!” the EU will reform or disintegrate.

PEACE 😇

I don’t know the Russian language, so my understanding of Putin is limited.

My impression is that he was dealt a tough hand when he became President, rose to the challenge and did a good job for his country.

His extemporaneous speaking skill is second to none. He gives real answers to tough questions.

Ha, ha.

You and Rula are discounting the possibility the USA has supplied more weapons than what we have been told publicly. I assume that is the message of Igor’s numbers.

The Z-posters will be mightily dissapointed when they realise China is not going to prop them up in the same way NATO is helping Ukraine.

Funny thread made by a Chinese Communist True Believer. Of course the leadership of the PRC are far more rational and want Russia to continue increasing its dependence on China so they can extract cheap natural resources to fuel their economic growth.

But here in the “greatest” and “richest” nation on earth, our rulers claim they can’t figure out how to house homeless people at a reasonable price and pace. I’m sure this will happen here in California aaaaaaaany day now. Just one more sales tax increase and they’ll have enough to get it done then. Or maybe two. Three, tops.

I am starting now to read Alfred de Custin’s “Letters From Russia”, perhaps only to feel somewhat topical 🙂 After all, I do live in these times.

It’s a bit of an infamous book, banned in Russia until 1996, apparently, and originally published in 1843 in France.

Custine was a French reactionary, who hated and feared democracy, and traveled to Russia to find arguments against democracy then developing in France. What he found in Russia horrified him. He was horrified by the autocracy, oppression, and cruelty of the upper classes, but also by the cringing subservience and servility of the population and their own willing participation in their oppression.

It is an interesting case of “getting what you wished for” curing your illusions about the thing you desired – I’d wager nine tenths of our internet reactionaries, if they found themselves in the sort of society they claim to want, would quickly flee back to the awful liberal countries they left.

Which isn’t to defend modern liberalism (Woke, etc) – it is indeed awful. I often say to my friends that the Right is often correct in it’s criticism, or at least it’s sense that something is terribly wrong, but right-wing “solutions” would be horrific.

For myself, I have always liked Russians whenever I met them, and obviously Russia will always occupy a glorious place in world literature and music. I’ve never been there, and I’m sure there are fascinating aspects to the culture and lifestyle that I’d love to see in happier times (at the moment, I imagine Russia is boringly autocratic, as autocratic tendencies make everything boring).

I also find there is often a “paradox” with human societies, where formally very bad structures and behaviors somehow produce on another level very interesting, appealing, and valuable people and institutions – Russia, for instance, used to have a very appealing spiritual life on one level and produced many interesting and valuable spiritual types, despite on another level being spiritually horrific.

But there is obviously a dark side to that country that – perhaps too banal an observation to need making – that keeps on cropping up, and should be something we all know more about.

So to that end, I read!

Well, there was enough good in the EU idea – when it was high-level. But it has changed. There has been a full takeover of EU by the uber-liberal globalist elites, so today it is questionable.

One can have a successful ‘imperium’ – a combination of sizeable disparate countries-regions – only as long as the elites let go off ideology. An imperium that pushes ideology is a fatal combination, it eventually always collapses.

So I agree, EU has become a pretty horrible idea. The people who think that it can be reformed and changed are in my view naive – the stranglehold the assorted liberal and global business groups have on EU is unshakeable. The real problem is that there is no way back and the benefits of EU (there are still many) are hard to let go.

Given that, another inane march on the east (always Russia!) seems like the least painful among bad choices. But I am giving them too much credit, they actually don’t choose it – the hatred of “Russia!” is for many of them inbred…that’s what they do.

So now you celebrate the ‘global warming’? You guys are weird, at the bottom of it is not much more but hatred for anything ‘Russian’, it trumps everything…

Your attempt to compare blowing up a pipeline in international waters to the level of storage supplies in some gas tanks is very pathetic – not at all on the same level. If you don’t get that, read something about criminal law.

Who sells what to whom and at what price has nothing to do with ‘high trust’. But you know that, you are just trying to distract the few fools around here (Mr. Hacks?)…crime is a crime, prices are simply trade. I would like a new i-Phone 14 for $200, why can’t I have one? Why didn’t US ship a million of them to my local mall so they would have to sell them at a deep discount?

One can have a successful ‘imperium’ – a combination of sizeable disparate countries-regions – only as long as the elites let go off ideology. An imperium that pushes ideology is a fatal combination, it eventually always collapses.

They always have the exact same ideology: do not mess with my stuff. Anything else is busy work for the rabble.

The EU was spec’d out in the late 1930’s early 1940’s by German bankers. We all are fascists now.

That’s really bad for Russia. Thanks for pointing it out. The same forces are not at work in Russia as the EU and America.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: There are powerful forces at work in the US and Europe successfully bringing about rapid change in racial demographics.

Zeihan was still beating the Russia-may-invade-Poland drum fairly recently, due to the call-up. He has also come out saying that he thinks Xi is about to commit to supplying arms.

Since he is obviously a tool, I think that proves that point.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: There are powerful forces at work in the US and Europe successfully bringing about rapid change in racial demographics.

Yes, the forces of the Religion of GDP Growth, which are evidently also active in Russia. Poland is also taking in large numbers of Uzbeks.

China has way too many people to need to do this, plus Russia is about as de-industialized if not more so than the EU, so they will need it also.

Beckow and his buddy waiting for a $200 I-phone 14*. Clearly, he’s living in a fool’s paradise. 🙂

*over 6″ long…like carrying around a subway sandwich in your pocket, and at $800 before a trade in, why not consider an Android flip for $600 after a trade-in? Fits in any pocket easily, expands to over 6 inches when you’re using it – much smarter!

[MORE]

Actually, Estonia is not a good example to make your point, because Estonian nationalists are rather high IQ.

In all established white Western countries, most of the high IQ population actively supports or passively follows antiracism and feminism because it is regarded as the high status ideology necessary for upward mobility or even just avoiding non-personing for any low six figure job. In emerging white Western countries, the smart kids are herding and adopting these beliefs. However, if the youth in Estonia are a rare exception then congrats. Your nation has a fighting chance of staying homogenous and true to roots despite choosing the EU/NATO path. However, if you are being intellectually dishonest and Estonia is not actually a rare exception then too bad for not facing up to it. It would mean you are taking the package deal but unwilling to acknowledge the trade off. You get the joy now of inflicting fatalities against the Russian military but will have to deal with being an old man walking through city streets that don’t speak to you anymore.

You know very well me not being the proponent of “blowup of NS by US” theory, so all your fuss about equalizing is misplaced, as is laughable the whining about trust breach from the fan of the side, which is abusing that trust.

However, deliberate market manipulation and abuse of a dominant player is an offense in criminal codes too, so should read about it indeed;)

The alt-right or whatever you want to call it seems these days to be limited to two tendencies; retreat to fantasy, or despairing gloom and defeatism.

The retreat to fantasy is a striking feature of the rights mentality that really came to the fore in the last year or so. I find it absolutely fascinating and am somewhat perplexed by it. It’s very prominent on this site, especially it’s owners comments, but to really get a good taste of it go to Vox Days blog. I enjoy going there once a week or so to discover a completely alternative reality that I did not know I lived in 🙂

But this retreat to fantasy is very interesting. It used to be a notable feature of the Arab mentality, especially in it’s wars with Israel, but I think to some extent it’s a regular feature of undeveloped societies in general.

As far as I can understand it, the retreat to fantasy is the gesture of someone who isn’t serious about acquiring power – people with a weak will to power who prefer comfort.

People who are serious about acquiring power are the harshest, most unsparing realists – they are really tough on themselves. They choose pain over comfort, they know how to inflict pain on themselves. (I don’t mean “realism” in the sense that they are materialists who discount the so called “supernatural”. Rather the opposite).

The retreat to fantasy on the right simply means it is a movement not really interested, for the moment, in acquiring genuine power, and would rather relax in a nice soothing bed with goose feather pillows and plush quilts – which is a tendency that all men and women of good will should rather encourage, so it’s fine by me 🙂

But still, interesting from a sociological perspective.

But it’s the second tendency of the Right that really annoys me – the complete defeatism and gloom. You see this very prominently in some of the commenters on this forum, but you’ll see it in Rod Drehers blog, Paul Kingsnorths blog, and countless others.

One of the attitudes that I think every worthwhile human being must have, is be high spirited in the face of overwhelming odds, to sort of laugh at fate and grim necessity, and to remain cheerful, and with high morale, in the face of the terribleness of everything.

I am not of the Right – in fact I despise much of what they stand for. Yet in terms of my values and what I desire the world if anything is even more grim and terrible – yet I don’t succumb to despair and remain cheerful and high spirited.

In the end, what these two tendencies reveal is that the right is essentially part of nihilistic modernity no less than any other faction.

I am reminded of French anthropologist Levi-Strauus theory of structuralism – if two social institutions seem opposed but share the same underlying structure, they are the same thing really.

We all are fascists now.

Reminds me of what Jimmy Dore said: “Why do we fund Nazis in Kiev? Why can’t we fund our own? We have them”.

You know very well me not being the proponent of “blowup of NS by US” theory

It’s like contract killing. Anyone with IQ greater than shoe size knows who ordered it. However, which particular killer was hired to pull the trigger is rarely established.

Jimmy Dore is a comedian.

I would like you to know I am a serious thinker. I didn’t listen to Tulsi Gabbard’s Sunday speech but I did read the transcript. When you were at the rally did you happen to notice if she had four guys who look like Brad Pitt Tyler Durden working her security?

I presume not just anybody could get close enough to smell her Aloha brand perfume.

I was reading a bit in Richard Burtons interesting little tract The Jew, the Gypsy, and El Islam, and I came upon this amusing description of the sort of Ashkenazi Jews who had immigrated to Palestine in the 19th century –

The Ashkenazím, who are wrongly represented to be considered pariahs by the Sephardím, have brought from Northern climates a manliness of bearing, a stoutness of spirit, and a physical hardness strongly contrasting with the cowardly and effeminate, the despised and despicable Sephardím “Jew of Israel’s land.” If spoken to fiercely, they will reply in kind; if struck, they will return the blow; and they do not fear to mount a horse, unlike their Southern brethren, who prefer an ass, or at most an ambling pony, to the best of Arab blood. They will travel by night over difficult and dangerous paths, whereas their congeners tremble to quit the city walls; and they can endure extremes of heat and cold, of hunger and thirst, which might be fatal to any soft Syrian who would imitate them. The Ashkenazím of the Holy Land are in a word “men”; the Sephardím are not. “The Spanish and Portuguese Jews are of far higher and more intellectual type than the English and German,” says Dr. Linsdale. Possibly; but in the matter of manliness there is no comparison. And, as has been remarked,[Pg 56] the Ashkenazi is “eating up” the Sephardi wherever they meet.

Now, his description of the Sephardim certainly no longer applies today in Israel. The Sephardim are physically very robust and generally good looking and athletic today, in Israel, and have a reputation for being tough, and certainly not for cowardice or effeminacy – although no more so than the Ashkenazim.

But I have always thought that Ashkenazim in Israel – the early ones at least – were a self-selected bunch and were selected for qualities that would be required in a primitive pioneering society. Arthur Koestler, in his book on Israel, noted also that the men looked basically like robust northern Europeans and not like the urban Jews he was used to (successive waves of Ashkenazim probably complicated the picture with less self selected bunch)

And certainly, the above description cannot be applied with the same force to the majority of diaspora Jews, in America and Europe.

What I loved and enjoyed about living in Israel as a child in the 80s was the Wild West atmosphere of the place, the vast open spaces, and the pioneering spirit – I haven’t been there in a while, but like all things no doubt those times are gone and Israel has, no doubt, “grown up” and become boring. Is it still empty and wild? Doubtful. My friends return with reports of a stifling bureaucracy and heavy handed state.

I should probably visit soon to satisfy my curiosity.

At this point in my life, I am not attached to the Jewish character of Israel, and my own vision for it’s future is of a Jewish-Arab fusion that will produce something novel and interesting – a new cultural entity, neither Jewish, nor Arab, but that thing that in the seeming old age of the world we have perhaps forgotten can exist, a novel people and culture? European, Arab, Levantine, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, elements will go into it – but it will be unlike any of these and transcend them all.

It’s like the world is old, and we can only imagine the old ethnic and racial categories. But why? The Romans were an interesting and worthwhile people, with interesting characteristics. But they gave way to and became a part of the Italians, who were a novel people, capable of doing entirely new things, and equally worthwhile and interesting.

Of course, I’m not proposing Globalism – the forced and unnatural combinations of humans to smooth out differences and create a boring uniform type. Rather the opposite! A rich “particularity” of culture and people that nevertheless is an example of universal spiritual themes.

Tulsi Gabbard is a very interesting and perhaps quite promising politician. And that on top of being an esthetically pleasing lady (unlike the Victoria Nuland’s types).

Tulsi as the first female POTUS ? Would be surprising given her stance seems running against the MIC and the Deep State.

…They always have the exact same ideology: do not mess with my stuff. Anything else is busy work for the rabble.

That’s true, but when anything else is elevated to absurd levels – the one-world, worship-Floyds-LGwhatever-hate whitey, etc… – it is ideological. Whether the people pushing it believe it or only use it to control the rabble really doesn’t make that much difference. It is everywhere, it is what they have become…

EU was spec’d out in the late 1930’s early 1940’s by German bankers. We all are fascists now.

Among others…to be fair the one-Europe idea has been pushed by multiple groups – Napoleon was also into it, and before him assorted Catholic dynasties. The basic plan always runs into an issue with enough material resources and land. That triggers an attack on the east where there are plenty of resources…we have ended up there again.

It is very unlikely it will work this time – actually this one is comparatively among the weakest attacks. The only thing the West has going for it this time are the endless Ukie human sacrifices…and social media (!) It won’t be pretty to look back at the carnage and stupidity, it never is, the Westerners always for a time apologize profusely – and then they start hating and plotting again. They will never forgive.

However, if the youth in Estonia are a rare exception then congrats. Your nation has a fighting chance of staying homogenous and true to roots despite choosing the EU/NATO path.

Most Western youngsters identify more with their Discord channel and their MPOG team than with an ethnic group, let alone a nation. The kids are netizens before they are citizens. Global networks are coming to replace everything else.

The period of classical Empires is gone, the nations are also heading towards the exit. So do the traditional religious affiliations too. The conflicts in MENA and Eastern Europea are archaic. They only exist because people are vindictive and actually rather dumb. Intelligent people would have never brought such a calamity upon themselves or would have fixed it ASAP if handled by their ancestors.

Sorry for being somewhat vulgar, but in these conflicts, as the Russian saying goes: “борьба была равна, боролись два го☆на.” People who have started this are only worthy of disdain, those who perpetuate it and derive pride from it are pitiful…

Do you sell mobile phones, Mr. Hacks? Sorry to hear it, no wonder you like fat chicas and 110 degree weather…

By the way, I never wear head coverings of any kind…try again…

What does it mean that you are not a ‘proponent‘ of something that unquestionably happened? It is kind of like saying that you are not a proponent of the sun rising tomorrow…good luck with that. Once you depart reality it is a lonely place – only you, Mr. Hacks, and of course Biden&Co….

deliberate market manipulation and abuse of a dominant player is an offense

Riiiight….and in international trade no less…where the hell do you live? There is so much ‘deliberate market manipulation by dominant players‘ that your head would spin. But not for you, since you really, really, like those particular dominant players, it is ok. You are reaching new levels of pathological hypocrisy…or is it narcissism in your case?

Tulsi as the first female POTUS ? Would be surprising given her stance seems running against the MIC and the Deep State.

Tulsi has no chance as long as the American political system remains corrupt to the core. On the other hand, in a democracy with her record, message, and looks she’d have a shot at it.

I’d wager nine tenths of our internet reactionaries, if they found themselves in the sort of society they claim to want, would quickly flee back to the awful liberal countries they left.

Yeah. The countries that oppose the West are all shitty places to live. But that’s only really an issue if you think that those countries are good or that you would rather live there.

I have never expressed any admiration for Russia and China and I certainly wouldn’t want to live in a place like either of them. But they are enemies of the regime ruling the United States and I support them on that narrow front. No hypocrisy there.

When you were at the rally did you happen to notice if she had four guys who look like Brad Pitt Tyler Durden working her security?

Can’t say, did not stay long enough: I got bored and left at 4:15 (that’s 3 h 45 min after the start, something like 2 h after boring repetitions started).

According to the Center for Analytical and Practical Research of Migration Processes, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to an increase in the influx of migrants to the Russian Federation, replacing local residents (dead, wounded, disabled and those who left)[1]. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in January-September 2022, 12.78 million migrants arrived in the Russian Federation, which is 3.5 million more than in the same period in 2021[2].

According to official data for 2014, Russia ranks first in Europe and second in the world after the United States in terms of the number of labor migrants[3]. According to the data of the Federal State Statistics Service, the bulk of migrants are from the CIS countries[4]. Up to 2 million foreign citizens annually arrive in Moscow for the purpose of employment, of which 300-400 thousand are officially employed[5][6]. According to the National Research University Higher School of Economics, in 2013 the number of legal and illegal labor migrants in Russia was about 7,000,000 people[7], according to the Russian Federal Migration Service – 4.5 million[8], over 83% of which are citizens from the CIS countries with visa-free entry to Russia

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%B5_%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82%D1%8B_%D0%B2_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B8

I have never expressed any admiration for Russia and China and I certainly wouldn’t want to live in a place like either of them.

Can’t say anything about PRC, I was in big China only briefly (once at a scientific meeting, once as a tourist). Today’s RF is perfectly livable (you need to speak the language, though), whereas the US is developing the worst features of the late unlamented Soviet Union at an alarming pace.

Oh, I get that, but I think you’re making an extremely serious mistake.

A victory for China and Russia would massively increase the likelihood that Western society becomes like them. That’s how these things work.

I think the much more intelligent course is to work for reform within the West – I too despise the current regime, the culture of Woke, etc. In fact, my spiritual beliefs cause me to despise far, far more aspects of the current system than you or any alt-righter!

A person like Vox Day, actually admires Russia and China – he admires cruelty, oppression, authoritarianism, etc. So it makes total sense for him to support a victory for those countries, as he’d like to see that reproduced in the West.

He imagines he would be a member of the elite, and have the opportunity to oppress others, and he lives vicariously through those countries now as best he can.

But if this isn’t your attitude, and you recognize that those countries are currently worse than the West – even though the West is terrible! – then you’re making a possibly fatal mistake. This “us/them” thinking is far too simplistic.

We must work for reform within the West whole simultaneously resisting even worse alternatives.

Edward N Luttwak makes it clear, the implosion and destruction of RusFed should be avoided.

The reason he gives is that it might advantage China too much.

Given that China too doesn’t want to see RusFed terminally weakened, it means that RusFed would be kept around as a pariah state that the West might use as a scarecrow and a whipping boy, while China siphones its natural ressources for a cheap price and the Central Asian/ Turkic folks overtake its lebensraum through rampant colonization.

(Спасибо Путину за это…)

At this point in my life, I am not attached to the Jewish character of Israel, and my own vision for it’s future is of a Jewish-Arab fusion that will produce something novel and interesting – a new cultural entity, neither Jewish, nor Arab, but that thing that in the seeming old age of the world we have perhaps forgotten can exist, a novel people and culture? European, Arab, Levantine, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, elements will go into it – but it will be unlike any of these and transcend them all.

You are turning here a (proposed) ethnogenesis process into metaphysics, your main tendency, and deviation. Metaphysics make you claim some new people.

But in these words, you are also extremely extremely modern – they could very well stand on the opinion page of “The Guardian” or “New York Times”, or even “Haaretz”, I suppose. Obviously the new is good, obviously the new transcends the old, obviously the new is unlike anything ever was (The Book of Hiob notwithstanding).
Wishful metaphyscis, I say.

There are not so few people for whom alien abductions at night for the sake of anal probing are happening unquestionably, so such belief in a single blog post with plenty of holes might be similar;)

A country, which is capable to contaminate its own international pipelines flowing the main source of income like oil, also is more than capable to blow underwater ones due to incompetence too, the malice of any side is not only one explanation left atm.

I am reminded of French anthropologist Levi-Strauus theory of structuralism – if two social institutions seem opposed but share the same underlying structure, they are the same thing really.

This why the carefully woven patterns of cousin marriages are so important – they are structural relics of a family of civilizations of the past, and its [matrilineal] system of values.

“One of the attitudes that I think every worthwhile human being must have, is be high spirited in the face of overwhelming odds, to sort of laugh at fate and grim necessity, and to remain cheerful, and with high morale, in the face of the terribleness of everything.”

God would call that arrogance. Plus, no punishment by God would be possible, as consequences of act [punishment] would be divorced from the act itself. Imagine the world where God constantly punishes trespassers but they never realize it is a punishment. This is what you are effectively proposing.

Is that true, though? The modern vision is one of an engineered uniformity that specifically avoids the rich particularity of things produced through natural processes. A new culture, a new people, individual, particular, with traits, attributes, qualities, a way of life, a cuisine, habits, customs – in short, not just a stripped down, abstract, consumer or user of technology, a number, a unit – isn’t this rather against the vision of modernity?

Think of it this way – I want to build a baroque medieval Cathedral, modernity wants to build a steel and glass box 🙂

That being said, I admitted I am not simply a traditionalist and do believe that as much as we must be inspired by the past, and even resurrect parts of it, we must reach out to the new – only, not the new as conceived by technological modernity, but the new as increasing realization of divine Good.

And I have also made clear that I believe ethnogenesis to be primarily a spiritual and metaphysical process, not a physical one. In fact, the new people I’m envisioning can even retain it’s exact current ethnic composition and successfully mutate into an entirely novel culture and people.

The factors that make a people – that bind them- are metaphysical not genetic. People of the same genetic stock often divide into different peoples.

But perhaps in my zeal I’m overstating the case. Why not let the physical also make a contribution, provided one understands the metaphysical binding agents are primary?

No doubt, physical mixing will contribute to this novel prompt, or happen inevitably anyways. It’s already happening in Israel.

You’re the one who first bro9u9ght up cellphones and their costs, remember?…

I do like Mexican ladies, they usually have very pleasant personalities, and a lot of them are quite attractive too. As for weather, we’ve been experiencing mid 60’s for several weeks now, poised to experience 70’s soon enough. How about you? Next time you visit Phoenix do so from October – March – nobody visits during the summer months except those that don’t know any better. Don’t expect to hook up with me during the summer, I hope to be gone to the cooler lake country up north….

To be fair, the opposite perspective – a wholesome recognition of every happenstance as the act of God, the attitude the Arabs call “maktub” (in philosophical terms, a kind of extreme occasionalism aka the doctrine that God is the only true cause ) – also leads to divorce between a deed and its consequences, since everything can be potentially connected to anything.

The truth is the exact opposite of what you say.

I’m not proposing that you don’t acknowledge that you suffer or don’t recognize bad situations – you just don’t collapse in despair, and remain high hearted. Even if that means recognizing you have to radically change your behavior and yourself.

Thing is, in a world created by a Good God, ones fundamental attitude, despite everything, must be optimism. Weren’t the Gospels the good news? Read the early Christians – they were full of good cheer and optimism while quite clearly acknowledging the awfulness of the world situation on the proximate level.

A Good God, who will not abandon his creation but lovingly lead everyone to the Way, and who has already defeated the dark powers on high and rescued mankind from bondage to them, wants his creatures to be optimistic and of good cheer.

Far from arrogance, it can only be such a God’s desire.

Your view is the dark pagan view, of a God who punishes, and is jealous of human happiness 🙂

Quite aside from God, though, one should be of enough of a philosophical temper, and have enough of a breadth of view, to develop a certain sophisticated detachment from this silly world of ours 🙂

Montaigne said that philosophically, despair and sadness are stupid, and the philosopher is cheerful 🙂

So cheer up, you despairing Pole 🙂

Vivek might be the prototype for yet unseen Indians in the West seeking national leadership, to try to walk back the woke. Overall, by comparison to other conservatives, his message is not really bad, but I find his official spot to be atrocious. Lots of backs of people, and dark silhouettes of cowboys, and people with welding-masks on. Way too many blacks – first face is of a black girl. His tone seems too weak and unsure. And I don’t think trying to re-appropriate foundational myths and spin them as diversity that worked (E. pluribus unum, LOL), seems like it could possibly gain traction. Who are they going to drudge up, Crispus Attucks?

You’re Israeli, right? I remember well how Israel’s defeat in the 2006 Lebanon War ended Israel’s plan to make Judea and Samaria judenfrei. The Israeli far rightist who were rooting for Hezbollah in that war didn’t want to be ruled by Nasrallah but they wanted to see the Israeli regime weakened so it would have less power to persecute them.

That’s where I am, the weaker the US regime is, the less damage it can do here at home. Right now, China/Russia pose no threat to me, the US regime does. If the situation changes, my opinion will change with it.

Also: fuck white liberals

We must work for reform within the West whole simultaneously resisting even worse alternatives.

But my (brilliant, imo) thesis is that the West’s problems are the result of a fraudulent monetary policy that is inherently unreformable. I’m all for building something better, but the current system cannot be reformed, it can only collapse. Accelerationism is the only way out.

A victory for China and Russia would massively increase…

Too many people from all sides talk about what they would want, or not want, and speculate how it would change the world. None of that is very relevant – what happens is not based on our wants. The war is driven by a simple correlation of forces and willpower. The victory – if we ever agree on it, and it is not at all certain that we will in this ‘media’ war – will determine the rest.

Let’s see: X decided some time ago that Y is weak and that by using a smaller Z, neighbor of Y, major benefits can be obtained. X went for it, pushed and got ready, Z also got ready `and then – unsurprisngly – Y attacked.

Y is much stronger than Z (even with X) in that region. X also has a major problem: it can’t actually fight a real war because it cannot take casualties – in other words, X knows how to kill, but not how to die…that means it can kick-ass of any third rate country, but it has to stay away from countries like Y that can cause major casualties. So instead Z stepped in as the designated casualty-provider, X has been cheering them on from a safe distance…

How is this likely to end? It is really not that complicated…

Jimmy Dore is a comedian.

And he honestly says that. Whereas libtards are a comedy (or a freak show, if you are a pessimist) but they would never acknowledge that. E.g., you cannot parody Alzheimer-in-chief, he is a perfect self-parody.

Your view is the dark pagan view, of a God who punishes, and is jealous of human happiness

Experience as well as the Bible provide more support to the idea that this is true, than to the idea that this is untrue. However, God punishes but is not jealous of human happiness (unless you are a freemason which you very well might be).

Negating the Evil does not cancel it – you are a bit like a self-blinded man talking about the greatness of darkness.

So cheer up, you despairing Pole

I think I am rather detached – neither despairing nor singing hymns like you. Detachment is a natural consequence of being able of perceiving the great stupidity and the great blindness of the majority of humanity: indeed, it is such a great tragedy that it can be only contemplated in silent awe. Remember, only cosmic perspective, a perspective above the stars so to say, allows you to see the truth, among else that man has never been the crown of natural creation – in other words, the “religion” of survival is untrue. But, anyway, why we would need such a religion if that was true…?

Ability to self-deceive in a limited sense may be useful for survival, but at the greater scale, it is detrimental (Example: belief in Co2 as the leading cause of weather instability). Maybe human being exists in order to prove this concept. We cheat, because we want to survive, but because we cheat, we can’t survive: Der Teufelskreis aka vicious circle.

Yeah, I remember, during summers you go to visit the mosquito country…

And the Mex-chicas, they are indeed pleasant, eating all those carbohydrates help. They also tend to have a 2-3 years attractive window when they are of certain age….after that, well, when it is hot like in Phoenix maybe it doesn’t make that much difference…

For your enjoyment I am reposting something from another (maybe better?) culture:

Yeah, Ukrainian girls are always hot. Slovak girls are nice too…

Aliens? where did you go my friend…you are really getting lost in your attempts to evade the obvious…

But ok, the perpetrator is a mystery…Of course, they won’t confess but will boast about it – a weird combination that requires simultaneously lack of honor and self-discipline, like small children hiding candy behind their back…

Cui bono? For a milli-second try to reverse the players and imagine how credible it would if the pipeline was American and Russia had shown – repeatedly and in writing – an absolute hostility to the pipeline…can you try? or is your mind so hardwired that ‘enemy’ is an ‘enemy’, and your side can do no wrong….that’s how civilizations perish.

New Troubles seem inbound:

I am starting now to read Alfred de Custin’s “Letters From Russia”, perhaps only to feel somewhat topical 🙂 After all, I do live in these times.

Don’t know if you’ve watched Sokurov’s Russian Ark; but it’s readily available on Youtube with English subtitles for free:

The Marquis de Custin features as the central character. As the narrator walks through the Hermitage; he encounters the haughty French aristocrat; who proceeds to condescendingly opine on Russian history and society. The commentary is quite banal and mediocre; for example when the Marquis opines that Russians admire their dictators because they are an Asiatic people; or that the orchestra they pass by couldn’t possibly be Russian; since the music they played was original, and Russian are only good for copying Europeans. From brief summaries of Custin’s book; this seems to be the thoughts he expressed in his book; but I must say that film is a very limited medium to muse philosophically on history or culture. The bite-sized thoughts are inevitably superficial; they are too constrained by the limited space for dialogue. But i’d recommend watching the movie just for the ride throughout the Hermitage; and the unique cinematography.

I watched another of Sokurov’s films; a recent one set in the Louvre; and i’d strongly discourage against watching it. It’s an uninspired copy of Russian Ark.

Balzac was another French reactionary who hated democracy; wrote positively of Russia’s “despotism”; and even contemplated relocating to Russia, but was discouraged by the stringent citizenship requirements of the time. He wrote to Lady Hanska that he thought Custin’s book was “horrible”; and contrasted the “blind obedience” of the Russians to the “deep lack of discipline” of the French. Balzac’s admiration for obedience is a fairly peculiar notion by today’s standards; but perhaps this was a reflection of French instability at the time. As JS Mill wrote: “the first lesson of civilization [is] that of obedience”; for civilization to function properly, the powers of authority must be vested in a particular institution, whether democratic or autocratic. The latter is easier to establish; the former more durable.

I agree that generally it’s better to live in a democracy than an autocracy. But that doesn’t necessarily mean democracy is the best possible option for every state/society in every time period. Democracy requires several preconditions to establish itself and function properly. Chief among them is education of the masses and the formation of civil society. These conditions were not present in 19th century Russia. The autocratic system was deeply-rooted; the nascent Russian state having been influenced by Byzantine political thought, and to lesser extent Mongol and Ottoman administrative practices. The Russian system was even more centralized than the Ottoman state. It would’ve required a prolonged organic process to move away from that system. The other alternative is dramatic upheaval; which could and eventually did result in disaster and instability, as the experiences of 1917 and 1991 demonstrate.

Autocracy doesn’t necessarily need to be despotic and oppressive. There are several variations of each particular form of government. In the autocratic form it ranges from Lee Kuan Yew-style benevolence and competence to Ivan The Terrible-style despotism and incompetence. In my opinion, the best course of action for Russia in the 19th century was a gradual moderation by the formation of civil society which could accompany the autocratic system. The would serve as a counterbalance to the despotic tendency of the Russian autocracy; while retaining the efficacy and long-term orientation of a centralized government without the need to appeal to short-sighted voters.

If Russia had adopted democracy during the 1800s; likely the result would’ve been demagoguery and despotism of the majority. The Russian peasantry were insufficiently educated or inculcated with a democratic value system. Konstantin Pobedonostsev wrote the most convincing defense of Russian autocracy in Reflections Of A Russian Statesman: https://academic.shu.edu/russianhistory/index.php/Konstantin_Pobedonostsev,_Reflections_of_a_Russian_Statesman. It’s a one-sided polemic but he makes a few timeless points on the downsides of the democratic system; how it discourages intelligent and honorable people from participating in government; and the illusory nature of majority rule. On the other hand; I think George Cornewall Lewis authored the most balanced treatment of different governmental systems in A Dialogue On The Best Form Of Government. Lewis employed the Socratic technique to outline the positives and negatives of each system; and even took biological, cultural and societal differences into account; which is quite rare for an academic. His conclusion is one I agree with substantially; both are important; but the quality of the populace matters more than the form of government.

Spirit is not legally enforceable and the laws against migration are notoriously hard to enforce…

That’s true and I wasn’t arguing that this wouldn’t be a problem. My point was a bit different: this is kind of changing the rules in the middle of the game type of thing (I know you don’t agree, because you see this is all as consistent, everybody agreed to everything, can’t have your cake and eat it too, etc). But I believe that when you make such drastic changes, it merits at least a conversation.

Imagine, if the EU is one big country (I know it isn’t but just for the sake of illustrating my point), the population has been roughly static for hundreds of years and then somebody decided to change the composition of citizens in a drastic, irreversible way. This would call for a conversation or discussion at least, imo. The East doesn’t want this and there is nothing wrong with a conversation.

In normal law, this would be called “substantial changes of circumstances” with a petition for “modification”. I understand that this may not fly with the way the situation is in the EU right now, but I am talking about the PRINCIPLE.

Do we know a 100% what the European majorities, both in the East and the West really think about this issue?

I do agree with you that the seeds were put in a long time ago and not much was done to oppose a long time ago.

if a Portuguese speaking Angolan gets Portuguese citizenship and decides to move to Riga and pimp the local women, there is not much (other than the crime itself) Latvia can do

The laws against that are very strict in Latvia now (even for Russian women and their Russian pimps). So that wouldn’t be allowed to fester. There are mostly two categories of migrants – tech migrants (or other skilled workers) or service workers (delivery, nurses, etc). People would happily come for these opportunities (the rules now allow only a limited number to come), but they would have to work their *ss off and, even if they had a higher or same level salary as in Portugal, they wouldn’t have all those other benefits of Portugal – warmer weather, more relaxed population, cultural ties, language.

I was born in America and lived most of my life here, although I did spend a significant chunk of my childhood in Israel when it was a rather fun country to be in.

I have no problem with weakening the American system or rooting for the collapse of the global system – I myself have similar attitudes.

But rooting for China and Russia and against America won’t lead to the current system being replaced by something better – it will lead to a worse version of the current global system taking over everywhere. If America collapses but China and Russia stay strong, America would just be reorganized along Chinese or Russian lines – which would be a significantly worse tyranny than we have now.

Cognitively, it shouldn’t be difficult to both despise America, and China and Russia, to root for none of them, and to want the whole system to end. For my part, I root for the lesser of two evils now, which is obviously the West, while at the same time rooting for it to collapse.

It’s very common for tough guy tyrant type countries to think democracies are soft and weak and won’t die for their cause. This mistake happens so often – and always blows up in the face of those who make it – that it should really have its own name and be studied as a special psychological phenomena. Quite literally every single tough guy tyrant, everywhere, for the past several hundred years, has made some version of the “they’re paper tigers” mistake, only to suffer for it.

Just as I mentioned earlier that large civilizations suffer from a kind of “autism”, I think there is something about the tough guy mentality that similarly creates a kind of autism when it comes to their “weak” adversaries.

Certain mindsets appear prone to certain blind spots, and it’s actually quite interesting to study. Democracies are similarly autistic when they think everyone will become just like them when a tyrant is overthrown.

If America collapses but China and Russia stay strong, America would just be reorganized along Chinese or Russian lines

You imply that Pax Americana will be replaced by Pax Sinica. That would hardly be an improvement. I advise you to consider the possibility that the US will transform from a bloated overreaching empire to a normal country. With the US aggression and terrorism sponsored or directly perpetrated by the US ending the whole world would become a much better place. Multi-polar world is preferable to any unipolar world (the latter basically means one bully terrorizing everybody else with impunity).

The Germans won’t even say boo to their occupiers when their main energy pipeline is blown up. For all practical purposes they now are a conquered nation. The generals in Lagos Nigeria have more backbone. It is against the law to display a swastika. The college fraternities probably don’t even have duels any more.

Maybe they have them with rubber swords.

Given that China too doesn’t want to see RusFed terminally weakened, it means that RusFed would be kept around as a pariah state that the West might use as a scarecrow and a whipping boy, while China siphones its natural ressources for a cheap price and the Central Asian/ Turkic folks overtake its lebensraum through rampant colonization.

It’s correct that China may not want the RusFed “terminally weakened”, but China still wants a weak RusFed that they can exploit. Also, if the craziest scenario comes to pass (RusFed loses spectacularly and chaos ensues at home, not a given, but an “if”), who in the world will be able to control this smuta? It will be so fragmented, that it will take some uber strict local leader to control, it is certainly not going to be outsiders from the West – they may try to influence the situation, but they will definitely not hold the reins on it.

Xi will present his peace plan soon and most likely he will defend things such as “territorial integrity”. He will not fully side with Russia.

Btw, you know who didn’t do well at the Munich Conference? The one Khodorkovsky. He was beset by Ukrainian journalists who questioned and almost shamed him about why he has not provided more help for the Ukrainians (out of his pocket, as many others did).

Then when speaking to Dozhd, he admitted to be somewhat startled by how mainstream the talk about “disintegration of Russia” has become. Or maybe not “mainstream”, but less marginal than before. These overseas Russian liberals are just sitting there, biding their time, hoping that the Ukrainian military and the Russian freedom fighters will topple Putin for them (paying with blood and sweat in the process) and then they can just cruise back in, and take all the warm seats in Russia like what they used to have back in the early 90s (just with higher commodity prices). I don’t want to trash them, they have a right to their vision. It’s just that things have changed, the attitude towards Russia has changed.

I think what you have is “resignation”. True detachment leads to exhilaration and joy 🙂

Similarly, I think you haven’t achieved the full cosmic perspective, which liberates. You still have some lingering resentment that humans aren’t so important, some lingering despondency at dashed expectations. That’s merely the first stage of “seeing through” the world, and you’re still clinging to the residues of a human-centric vision, not a cosmic, all embracing one.

The full cosmic perspective shows that there was never any need for humans to be so important, as seperate from the cosmos – because from the perspective of the cosmos, these separations are artificial. There is only the All. Humans are unimportant as humans, but of infinite worth as the All of the cosmos, just like everything else 🙂

This banishes all despondency and replaces resignation with exhilaration.

@Yahya

Thanks, I have not seen Sukorov’s film – it looks interesting I will check it out!

As for Custin’s book, it’s been highly praised by very intelligent people so I’m sure it isn’t just composed of the sorts of banal platitudes you mentioned, which are not only trite but racist and illiberal – if it does contain things like that, I suspect those are distortions, and it’s treated in a much sophisticated and nuanced manner.

But I shall see when I read the book – if it’s largely simplistic, dumb things like Asiatics like autocracies and aren’t creative, I’ll be the first to admit it’s worthless trash!

As for civilization requiring obedience, I am not a fan of that kind of civilization, even if JS Mill said that 🙂 I believe in my discussion with AP something of my opposition to this kind of hierarchical, overly complex civilization came out.

I am something of an anarchist and a socialist, and am convinced that humans can organize with a minimum of hierarchy and coercion, and can cooperate on a voluntary basis to secure life’s necessities and satisfy all worthwhile human desires. Anything more authoritarian can only have nefarious purposes in view, like the enriching of an elite class at the expense of everyone else, or projects of conquest and subjugation which are inherently wrong.

I’m inspired in this party by my reading of both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, which strike me both as anarchist and socialist in spirit, and in the latter case, unambiguously and explicitly so.

Hunter-gatherer tribes often have a loose political structure with no clear central authority, and the chief is merely “primus inter pares” and is followed willingly in limited ways, and has no ability to exact strict obedience. When Europeans first began dealing with American Indians, they were frustrated by the inability of the Indian chiefs to exact strict obedience from his people of the kind needed to enforce treaties.

Noted anthropologist David Graeber recently wrote a book called the Dawn of Everything, that explores early human societies and that was precisely meant to combat these restrictive notions of what is politically possible for humans – this sense that only obedience and hierarchy makes possible coexistence, he shows has taken shape in historic times only, and previously, humans had much more expanded political imaginations that permitted all sorts of shifting, flexible arrangements, including hierarchy and obedience parts of the year, anarchism the rest, etc.

His book questions why the human political imagination lost it’s flexibility and contracted into a narrow orthodoxy that doesn’t come close to representing the range of the possible.

I’m prepared to accept that a given moment in time, a particular society may be unprepared for democracy – but I think it’s plainly an urgent moral and spiritual imperative that such a society be put on the path towards freedom and democracy, and as soon as possible, trained and educated for freedom.

Nor do I think democracy is the ideal – a far less hierarchical and more anarchist society is my ideal 🙂

But I cannot accept, from a moral and spiritual perspective, that any human society is incapable of or unworthy of freedom, and is so vicious as to need to be permanently ruled by coercion.

And while I admit there of course can be benevolent autocrats, it’s plainly a great evil and a great injustice to keep any people in a state of coercion indefinitely.

However, if the youth in Estonia are a rare exception then congrats. Your nation has a fighting chance of staying homogenous and true to roots despite choosing the EU/NATO path.

I was talking about the elites, not the “youth” – I thought you were talking about the elites in your original post? And, btw, some of the elites are quite young. My point was that your example is not a good one because the Baltic States are a bit different than the rest of the EU in this regard in that a sizable portion of the elites (not all, but a sizable portion) are not connected to what you call the “high status ideology”. Yes, there is such a type who are trying to do that (similar to how back in the day, some tried to larp as “Germans”, we called them “willow Germans” – willow being a light flexible tree that bends easily or sways easily, they are looked down on, similarly, we now have “willow Anglos” or “willow Euros” – people who kiss up to the leading ideology but they are not the majority). One can be respectable and successful without adhering to this ideology.

I’m not saying this won’t change at some point. But it is not the case now. It is different from the West that way. Again, for now.

Also, looking further into the future, we do not know what will be the status of this ideology. What will be the status of the West. It doesn’t mean that other ideologies (those in the East) will become more appealing, everyone sees the duplicity of them (authoritarian at home but parking your money in the West or other safe places), besides the essence of those ideologies is not that appealing to begin with.

It would mean you are taking the package deal but unwilling to acknowledge the trade off.

The package deal is not “black and white”. The package deal is a parliamentary set up with everyone represented at the Euro Parliament and a pluralistic system. The package deal also respects local culture – this is emphasized in how languages are respected in the EU. You have a very one sided view of the EU. Remember also, if things get really bad – too compromising – there is a way out, it is not like the Soviet Union that way.

You get the joy now of inflicting fatalities against the Russian military

There is no “joy” in what is happening. This is a humanitarian catastrophe and a deep wound on the body of everyone who is post-USSR, that will not heal (or will take forever to heal). The scale of this was not expected. There is no “joy”, just dislike, worry and some minor fear.

But, yes, that they moved the troops from Pskov to Ukraine might be a bit of a relief.

Everyone is thinking, comprehensively, what can be done to make the future safer. There is no joy, the price for the Ukrainians is excruciatingly high. And it’s not even over.

but will have to deal with being an old man walking through city streets that don’t speak to you anymore

This will be neither the fault of Russia nor the West. This will be our own fault.

Once again, thank you for your “kind hearted” concern, it is noted. Not that you guys don’t have similar problems and not that you have some “magical pill” to solve these problems.

Such as? Konashenkov and his 44 destroyed HIMARS systems? Or the desrtruction of 4 Bradley IFVs before they had even arrived in the European continent never mind Ukraine? [See tweets after the MORE tag].

LMAO – Konashenkov would have said that Russian air-defence intercepted 44 missiles fired from HIMARS you idiot, not that they destroyed 44 launch systems ( although several HIMARS on the battlefield and rockets/missiles for it in storage have been destroyed already).

If you are going to propogate this mindless BS, surely you should at least check what he said – and what is entirely plausible/probable ( that they have intercepted 44 missiles from HIMARS, plus many more since then)

Anyway, HIMARS has been near-useless since winter – lack of camouflage and covering its tracks , plus our military adapting to spot, track, destroy and not get deceived/overwhelmed in AD, from the latest (NATO conducted)Ukronazi trick.

As for the Bradley IFV’s – I’m sure they were even displayed at the military EXPO in Moscow region.

By the way, what are your thoughts on Putin’s drab speech yesterday?

His “drab” speech was mainly about social payments and new tax initiatives (as is usual for the address) – of course it should be “drab” to westerners watching you ridiculous cretin. He can’t exactly discuss SMO strategy and tactics in public
As for the “failed Sarmat test” – only plankton like you could swallow typical American BS like that.

Accept facts – Konashenkov NEVER lies . Ukronazi freaks can’t do anything but lie, and lie big you retard.

My “favourite”, without being disrespectful to all the other extreme BS, is ukronazi freaks giving awards posthumously to Border Guard and Navy at Snake Island …..for one of them “heroically” saying in comms to Moskva to go f**k itself………even though he didn’t say it, even though NONE of them were killed or even injured or showed any resistance……..even though they surrendered immediately!!!! As in typical ukronazi loser idiocy…..once it was established that all 80 of them were alive and surrendered immediately but were then released early in a prisoner swap…….they gave them the Hero of Ukraine medals anyway!!!!!!!!

this sense that only obedience and hierarchy makes possible coexistence, he shows has taken shape in historic times only, and previously, humans had much more expanded political imaginations that permitted all sorts of shifting, flexible arrangements, including hierarchy and obedience parts of the year, anarchism the rest, etc.

Walter Bagehot in Physics & Politics states that hierarchy and obedience were necessary to scale from tribal structures into nascent forms of civilizational structures like city-states. Anarchism may be feasible for a small tribe of Indians; but what will it look like for a nation of 100 million people? I don’t think full-scale anarchism has been attempted by any modern nation; and it’s not because of a lack of imagination. We saw in the 20th century how almost half the world took up the radically experimental communist system; people are open to new ideas. But anarchism seems to be discouraged because of how unrealistic it is. The only instances of anarchism I can think of are inadvertent; viz. following state collapse; and the result is almost always negative. Consider the example of ISIS in Iraq and Syria; or the chaos of the post-Soviet collapse. I think they can legitimately be categorized as periods of anarchy; even if not in the form that anarchist tend to imagine or advocate.

I’m open to the idea that anarchism could work better than present systems of political organization. But my conservative instincts tell me it won’t end well; may even be worse than communism. I’d have to see some strong empirical evidence to suggest the contrary.

I’m prepared to accept that a given moment in time, a particular society may be unprepared for democracy – but I think it’s plainly an urgent moral and spiritual imperative that such a society be put on the path towards freedom and democracy, and as soon as possible, trained and educated for freedom.

And while I admit there of course can be benevolent autocrats, it’s plainly a great evil and a great injustice to keep any people in a state of coercion indefinitely.

I think the idea of democracy and freedom as moral imperative is a dangerous one. It gets you stuff like Iraq and Afghanistan. The emphasis should be on realism; and recognizing that different systems are appropriate for different circumstances. There is no one-size fits all; and the so-called march towards the end of history is an illusion.

Democracy advocates tend to overdo their criticism of authoritarian systems. The image is always one of severe repression and suffocation of all forms of liberty. But having lived under both a democratic and authoritarian system; I can’t say my liberties were significantly different under the latter. I can still read books; move around as I like; go to the cinema; listen to music on my way to work etc. Most of the activities I cherish I am capable of doing under both systems. The only difference is that I don’t get to express my opinion in a newspaper; but since I’m not a journalist; that’s not much of a curtailment. I can vote in both systems, but my vote wouldn’t matter either way.

I’d much rather be living in an authoritarian system with a GDP per capita of $50,000 than a democratic system with $10,000 of per capita income. The key factor is economic development, not form of government.

If smuta just limited to RusFed that would be half of problem, thing is that we have major smuta brewing quietly almost everywhere.

Things fall apart, center cannot hold, and all that. Entropy is taking over.

Who’s gonna keep paying for pension plans for our retirement LatW ?

Who’s gonna help finance public debt ?

The Algerian harraga racailles, Romani maques and the Nigerian scammers ?

They’re not idiots…

Third turning’s nearly done. We’re getting overdue for the fourth one.

Major crisis is coming our way whenever we are.

The people who think that it can be reformed and changed are in my view naive – the stranglehold the assorted liberal and global business groups have on EU is unshakeable. The real problem is that there is no way back and the benefits of EU (there are still many) are hard to let go.

Certainly gradual reform is not available. Working through EU institutions will be strangled by the elites, as you suggest.

The potential save is a sudden, dramatic transformation. Multiple EU countries simply repudiate EU actions that conflict with national sovereignty. Imagine an collection of sovereign equals — Controversial ECJ/ECHR junior court rulings are treated with derision and then vetoed under the principle of national sovereignty.

Brexit proved that a small country cannot leave the EU. They would be savaged. However, a group of countries within the EU can dramatically change the structure by defying the authoritarian liberals in Brussels.

PEACE 😇

The point I’m making is that an American defeat and humiliation at the hands of a stronger Russia or China would not lead to improved political outcomes in America, as Greasy seems in my opinion quite foolishly to expect – but rather significantly worse internal politics as the Chinese and Russian systems – exploitative and oppressive and coercive – gain credibility and influence.

Ultimately, of course I’d rather America shrink to just being an ordinary country – I’d like the whole stinking global system of capitalism to collapse lol 🙂

In the meantime, one must choose the lesser of two evils.

But really, one can simultaneously pray for the current American system to collapse as well as that of China and Russia – the whole world deserves to be free and happy.

Multi-faith dialogue doesn’t seem to help architecture any:

You know very well me not being the proponent of “blowup of NS by US” theory

It’s like contract killing. Anyone with IQ greater than shoe size knows who ordered it.

You are misunderstanding the application of IQ in this context.

Everyone with a modicum of common sense realizes that the most likely scenario is that the NS events are accidents. Mistakes do last 17+ hours.

There is a very special form of stupidity that plagues high-IQ individuals who have no relevant knowledge and then over reach. Jeffery Sachs is a perfect example of this. He is a competent economist who got virology 100% wrong.

PEACE 😇

It is an interesting case of “getting what you wished for” curing your illusions about the thing you desired – I’d wager nine tenths of our internet reactionaries, if they found themselves in the sort of society they claim to want, would quickly flee back to the awful liberal countries they left.

We don’t want Russia, the Russians are not doing it right (and, yes, they have a different mentality). We want the benign 1930s autocracies of Central Europe (not Nazi Germany either, that’s another exaggeration). You grabbed the worst example and extrapolated on all of the right wingers. That’s not what we want. We would even be ok with a managed democracy, with elements of nationalism. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy. Nobody in today’s world is going to accept living under a “Leader”, but they will accept certain enforcements such as immigration control (and possibly a few other protectionist measures).

And, btw, I have been the champion of what you posted above since day one. Let all those who admire Russia from a distance, actually go there, instead of trying to push Ukrainians and others into Russia’s arms. I think this should satisfy them.

Don’t know if you’ve watched Sokurov’s Russian Ark; but it’s readily available on Youtube with English subtitles for free:

The Marquis de Custin features as the central character. As the narrator walks through the Hermitage; he encounters the haughty French aristocrat; who proceeds to condescendingly opine on Russian history and society. The commentary is quite banal and mediocre; for example when the Marquis opines that Russians admire their dictators because they are an Asiatic people; or that the orchestra they pass by couldn’t possibly be Russian; since the music they played was original, and Russian are only good for copying Europeans. From brief summaries of Custin’s book; this seems to be the thoughts he expressed in his book; but I must say that film is a very limited medium to muse philosophically on history or culture. The bite-sized thoughts are inevitably superficial; they are too constrained by the limited space for dialogue. But i’d recommend watching the movie just for the ride throughout the Hermitage; and the unique cinematography.

It’s a brilliant movie but it’s brilliance can’t be really appreciated on a small screen. On a large screen it really has a hypnotic effect, transporting the viewer in time and place. I was fortunate to see it when it was released in theaters and afterwards for a few minutes I was in nearly a trance. As you correctly wrote, the dialogue was kind of irrelevant.

Nowadays of course many people have home theaters so one needn’t wait for a film festival or something to see it.

I watched another of Sokurov’s films; a recent one set in the Louvre; and i’d strongly discourage against watching it. It’s an uninspired copy of Russian Ark.

His Moloch wasn’t bad.

I agree with the rest of your comments.

You’ll get niggers and like it.

Dammit, left you a long reply but my phone shut down 🙂 Too tired to retype, but basically –

1) Based on recent discoveries that radically revise our understanding, pre-historic people’s actually did create seasonal cities as large and complex as anything in historic times yet without coercive political structures.

So the scaling issue may not be determinative 🙂

2) Imposing freedom suddenly on an unprepared population is self indulgent ideological extremism that prefers to gaze adoringly at its own exalted vision rather than make any concessions to a messy reality that requires gradual, sensitive, and nuanced measures.

One must be morally educated.

3) Agree that formal political structures like democracy may not always be the best indication of freedom. Hierarchy and inequality of wealth and power are the salient factors, as well as exploitation and oppression.

There is some correlation between formal political structures and these conditions, but it is imperfect.

Your experience is not necessarily representative as you are wealthy in your country. When I travel to poor countries my comparative wealth creates an experience of privilege that I am under no illusions is denied the average person there.

4) I cannot agree that economic development is as important as you think. Wealthy countries often exhibit dissatisfaction and malaise, and strained social relations, despite economic development.

Clearly, the spiritual environment has an enormous influence on people’s life satisfaction and the possibility of harmonious social interaction – and things like inequality, injustice, oppressive hierarchies, contribute to shaping the spiritual environment.

That being said, I am sure there are countries that are freer than the West in significant ways without really being democratic – much of South East Asia strikes me as this way – but specifically, Russia and China are significantly more oppressive and exploitative than the West..

Those political systems are not ones that one should desire to gain credibility at the expense of the West.

That being said, one should pray for the whole rotten glass bal capitalist system to collapse 🙂

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in January-September 2022, 12.78 million migrants arrived in the Russian Federation, which is 3.5 million more than in the same period in 2021[2].

Wait a minute. Are those numbers real or is there a typo? Those are insanely high numbers even for Russia! Almost 13M new arrivals?? That’s a lot.

Assuming something like one million young Russian men left to avoid being himars’ed (ok, this number is debatable, but it is at least hundreds of thousands apparently). Then the recent casualties of the war (possibly a 100K both killed and wounded, maybe more, as not all will be counted). Possibly others who left as early as January 2022.

On the plus side (for Russia, I guess) – a large number of Ukrainians who fled to Russia or children who were trafficked into Russia (they say it is at least tens of thousands of children), overall refugees could be a large number.

However, this is not 12 or almost 13M. That means the vast bulk of them are young Central Asians. Possibly others like Vietnamese, etc.

Up to 2 million foreign citizens annually arrive in Moscow for the purpose of employment, of which 300-400 thousand are officially employed

Do these 2M rotate back home after they are done with their contracts and receive the salaries that they bring back home, or are there new 2M arriving in Moscow each year? (!!!) There is probably a lot of back and forth movement, but it looks like more and more are accumulating in Moscow. It’s a huge Eurasian megacity now. All this activity will most likely attract even more foreigners. It will thrive but it won’t be truly Russian. Then again if the non-Slavs do not exceed 10%, it might be ok.

Русский мир

Русский, indeed. My deepest condolences.

although several HIMARS on the battlefield and rockets/missiles for it in storage have been destroyed already

It does not appear that any have been destroyed on the battlefield. We certainly don’t have any photographic documentation of such

I don’t believe it is possible for the Chinese or Russian systems to take hold in the United States. What would be much more likely is to see the US fracture into multiple separate nations. That would be ideal.

I don’t regard immigration controls as necessarily an autocratic measure, although honestly, in my ideal world, people would be allowed to go anywhere.

There were no passports or border control before the First World war, you know. It was a freer world.

But in today’s world, mass immigration is often a capitalist measure to keep wages down in some countries, to avoid developing and distributing wealth fairly in other countries, and in the current climate of deliberate stoking of racial tensions it’s incendiary.

Still, though, my ideal society is heavily multi-cultural and multi-ethnic and multi-religious – kind of like those fascinating imperial cities in the dungeons and dragons books I used to read as a kid 🙂 I love variety and color and feel my world is expanded by the “other”, not threatened by it – but of course, it would have to be done with the encouragement of inter-group harmony and respect, the opposite of now.

But I get that you’re an ethnic nationalist who disagrees with me. That’s fine.

Fair enough, there are different types of right wingers. I had in mind specifically the alt-right that cheer on China and Russia, and generally seem like really odious people, and not just traditional conservative types. Traditional conservative types are far more sympathetic, even though I don’t count myself among their ranks.

As for your vision, you want to sort of fine tune the precise level of autocracy, and that’s not terrible, but I wonder if that’s really possible as anything more than a temporary measure – in reality, nothing stays “static” for long, and the world is movement (one of the weaknesses of the fascist vision is it’s static nature. Not because this is undesirable, but because this is impossible). Spiritually and morally, I think there is an imperative to move towards ever greater equality and justice and non-coercion and freedom, but of course judiciously and with wisdom.

But I understand that you have a different perspective on this.

A rally in Saratov to support the war in Ukraine on Defenders of the Fatherland day.

Clearly far fewer than the 10,000 claimed (in a conurbation of 1.3m) but people who don’t assess the picture or just see it on tv will remember the 10,000. I’ve seen more for a market. The flag holders were clearly organized beforehand and with hangers on are a significant fraction of the crowd.

https://www.vzsar.ru/news/2023/02/22/saratovskiy-miting-v-podderjky-prezidenta-i-svo-sobral-10-tysyach-chelovek.html

Most modern pipelines would be better designed. These had no valves to shut off flow and no one tried to place emergency valves (surely standing by somewhere) after the accident.

For my money Gazprom/Russia did it. Putin had been trying to push Germany to use NS2 not NS1. Gazprom went so far as to fake technical difficulties to NS1, stopping the gas flow to force Germany onto NS2. The Germans didn’t take the bait.

Why? Using NS2 would have changed the terms and conditions of the contracts. Putin was still so sheltered from the reality of Russia’s war losses and sanctions environment that he was prioritizing NS2 as an issue. Blowing up the alternatives would have saved Gazprom from contractual liabilities. Using NS2 would have locked Germany in.

There is some good news. America sees the problem: (1)

President Trump Warns America That Joe Biden, The State Dept and NATO are Putting us on The Brink of World War III

President Donald Trump sends a warning to America that Joe Biden, his administration, and the foreign policy establishment in Washington DC, has positioned us on the brink of World War III. He’s right, and CTH will outline the data soon.

…”a lot of people don’t see it, but I see it, and I’ve been right about a lot of things.”

President Trump says in this video message that he see’s Joe Biden putting us into direct military conflict with Russia and it is likely to happen very quickly if someone does not intercede soon.

Video and transcript in the article.

Ultimately the U.S. House will lead the intervention. Not-The-President Biden lacks the authority to start a war. The funding is also unavailable.

His own cabinet would suspend him as unfit for duty if the lobotomite tried to announce WW III.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/02/21/president-trump-warns-america-that-joe-biden-the-state-dept-and-nato-are-putting-us-on-the-brink-of-world-war-iii/

That’s fine, but that happening in a world where China and Russia remain strong would leave the American statelets prey to very negative political and economic forces.

The problem is you’re failing to see that America does not live in a vacuum, and others have aggressive and imperialistic tendencies. It’s wonderful to be “left alone”, but others may not let you. Moreover, people within these newly minted American states will naturally look to the successful large powers for political and economic inspiration, as humans do, and there are no shortage of people in America more than willing to recreate here structures of oppression and exploitation for their own benefit. No doubt, the large successful powers will be flattered at the imitation and gratified to assist them, and acting out of mere political prudence in helping multiply copies of their political structures around the globe.

I suggest you haven’t really thought this through.

The whole global system has to be reformed and experience a collapse, not one part of it, if there is going to be any genuine change. In the meantime, one has no choice but to choose the lesser of two evils – while never forgetting it is an evil, and that it too should collapse as part of the disappearance of the larger system of evil.

Prigozyn is being groomed by western coverage as a future warlord in the former RussianFederation.

Most modern pipelines would be better designed. These had no valves to shut off flow and no one tried to place emergency valves (surely standing by somewhere) after the accident.

These were property designed pipelines with the required valves.

Suddenly changing valve positions during an incident can easily make things worse. I would be unsurprised to learn that emergency operator action caused the NS2 event 17 hours after the first blowouts.

Alas, we will never have a proper After Action Review because of the politics. There is likely much the industry could learn from understanding this complex accident.

PEACE 😇

Patently absurd. The verified equipment loss ratios published by Oryx may capture more Russian losses than Ukrainian but the difference will not be huge. They suggest something over 3 Russian losses to one Ukrainian at teh quipment level. It’s unlikely infantry will be very different.

This is graphical using Oryx numbers as well as many other sources. To some extent, Russia lost more because they had more to start with.

https://github.com/leedrake5/Russia-Ukraine

“The point I’m making is that an American defeat and humiliation at the hands of a stronger Russia or China would not lead to improved political outcomes in America, as Greasy seems in my opinion quite foolishly to expect – but rather significantly worse internal politics as the Chinese and Russian systems – exploitative and oppressive and coercive – gain credibility and influence.“

While I disagree that the Russian and/or Chinese systems would take root in America, I do agree that the political outcome of a defeat at their hands would not necessarily be for the better. North Korea getting bombed to rubble in the 1950’s resulted in their country becoming more autocratic, not less. Likewise, a military defeat might merely encourage the U.S. to turn their security infrastructure inwards instead of outwards.

The Rus have tried it all.

Every fad.

Time to strike hard and fast.

And what /who is Oryx owned by? He, who pays the musicians, calls the tune.

If what you (or your Oryx) say were even remotely true, the war would not still be going on the territory Ukraine claims as its own, with Ukrainian troops losing position after position.

Likewise, a military defeat might merely encourage the U.S. to turn their security infrastructure inwards instead of outwards.

It’s already turned inwards. Remember hundreds of political prisoners held on the pretext of Jan 6? Even though the only violent act on that day on Capitol Hill was a government thug murdering an unarmed woman.

Wait a minute. Are those numbers real or is there a typo? Those are insanely high numbers even for Russia! Almost 13M new arrivals?? That’s a lot.

No it’s not a typo. Yes it’s very high.

According to the quantitative characteristics of the incoming migration flow to Russia, the official data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for 2016–20176 indicate an average value of 15 million people per year. And this is only in terms of the number of registrations with the migration service. Not all of them stay in the country year-round, but the total share of migrants from abroad, annually present in the country at any given time, is at least 8%[7] of the population of Russia. The overwhelming majority of such migrants are labor migrants who make out their stay in the Russian Federation for short periods, often continuously over and over again. Taking into account the volume of illegal migrants, whose number even officials estimate with a surprising range of 2.6 to 8–10 million people [8], it is impossible to determine the actual number of migrants.

Yes we tried it all, and we’re tired. Can we have some peace for once ? For a change ? I truly wish we could…

In Wales the sheep outnumber the humans 3 to 1.

Can’t find the link atm, but even according to official stats, number of ethnic Russians in RF went down from 115 to 105 million during last decade, so assuming overall official population at 147 million, there are roughly 29% non-Russians in RF now.

Usually historically big internal problems started when number of ethnic Russiants went down towards 50% in empire, both in tzarist and soviet editions.

Currently 90% or even more, 95-97% of the Russian military is active on the Ukrainian front.

How much of a serial bag of excrement do you have to be to believe that stupid nonsense you idiot?

According to the Russian population census of 2020–2021, the number of men 18–26 years old in Russia was around 7.21 million in 2021.

I hope those cubs are salvaged and don’t have to go into combat. Not now, not in the next 100 years.

That’s 900000 new boys/men a year, which is 1.8-1.9 million births each year in Russia. America is about 3.6 million births a year with at least 2 times the population – there is nothing wrong with this………..so WTF is the point is your point you dumb retarded gutterslag?

We have received at least 5 million Ukrainians in the last year you dumb POS, in addition to millions more on liberated territories. That’s 8 million East Slavs, new Russians. That alone makes the SMO a huge success in history…..that’s before we get to the stunning success on the battlefield.

Russia is very lucky that she only has physical challenges on the Western flank. Imagine if Russia had active enemies in the East and in the South?

Is this pitiful dumbfuck projection that , “Russia is very lucky that China and India aren’t midget scumbag losers with massive inferiority problems who have contributed zero to humanity like the Baltics and Poland, constantly whoring for war “( and losing like the insignificant POS’s that they are)?

Russia is “lucky” that despite heroic success in defeating at least once every century for the last 500 years of western scum trying to making us extinct……..that China are sane, peaceful nation for most of the millenium?
Does the issue about lack of men of fighting age apply to Japan you stupid retard, LMAO?!!!!

Could that statement of idiocy be a result of your psychosis caused by being a a lowlife in Latvian “education” system, where the heroic achievement of Soviet Union in GPW is considered “only” because Japan didn’t attack? LMAO

Forgetting about the scale of the achievement in defeating Nazi Germany, and even forgetting what I am sure was an implication about Japan in GPW that satisfies severely retarded Baltic revisionists……..Soviet army did annihilate Japan you idiot, which probably is main reason US dropped nuclear bomb on Japan twice . Strategically of course Japan was already defeated by western and eastern allies before Soviet intervention, but Japan had more than enough potential to give serious defence on own territory for over a year more at least.

I notice zero concerns about the lack of Ukrainian men of fighting age – typical for a piece of trash wanting as many of them sacrificed for the sake of anti-Russian fantasies of some clown from some nothing country

Are the Angolans with Portugal residency European? Bolivian mestizos in Spain?

Well, yes.

Spanish law only requires one Spanish grandparent to be able to claim Spanish nationality. There are many millions who qualify all over Latin America and elsewhere, including the Philippines. Some time ago they also passed legislation offering Spanish nationality to anyone who could prove to be a descendant of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in the 15th century. This was an act of somewhat belated repentance for that injustice. My guess is that they must be trying to figure out how to determine if any North African or Arab is descended from the Moors that were also expelled from Spain during the Reconquista in order to be equanimous and offer them the same deal.

As far as I can see, the rest of the Western European countries with an imperial past, and even some without it, are following similar policies. So you guys should clearly understand what the situation is. If Slovakia’s aspirations when it joined the EU are fulfilled and it becomes as prosperous as Germany or Scandinavia, lots of exotic people are likely and totally entitled to migrate to your lands. Some of them will only be European citizens because your Western partners felt ashamed of their history in past centuries.

But I’m not sure it’s Westerners you should blame if that comes to pass. They’re just going through their own issues but you always had the chance of electing leaders like Orban and form an alliance to defend EE values before Brussels manages to put order in the rebel Hungarian province. Pour encourager les autres.

It does not appear that any have been destroyed on the battlefield. We certainly don’t have any photographic documentation of such

There has been plenty. Mainly in the form of incinerated MATV’s – which more than strongly implies HIMARS – as identifying the destroyed complex it was carrying is difficult of course , although even then there is imagery/video that proves it was HIMARS not other MLRS. Of those targeted in its hangars or other shelter – there has been wreckages shown in Donbass and Kharkov.

that’s before we get to the stunning success on the battlefield.

It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad…

Clearly far fewer than the 10,000 claimed (in a conurbation of 1.3m) but people who don’t assess the picture or just see it on tv will remember the 10,000

Clearly far more than 10000 you mentally retarded worthless bag of shit.
Patriotic events in Saratov are always well supported you idiot.
In addition to the very large crowd size…….its obvious from the photos and video that it was extremely cold there yesterday – Minus 18c. How many scandinavian faggots would attend a patriotic event during a war in even Minus 1 you idiot?

For sure, you’re a 70 year old incel loser, and habitual liar.

baaaa

My guess is that they must be trying to figure out how to determine if any North African or Arab is descended from the Moors that were also expelled from Spain during the Reconquista in order to be equanimous and offer them the same deal.

I guess it’s doable.

Ils avaient leur organisation hiérarchique officielle reconnue par l’Etat ; connue sous le nom de « Niqabat al-Andaloussyine », avec des biens et des Houbous (Fonds Communs) voués à l’éducation de leurs enfants, et aux mariages de leurs jeunes gens. Ils avaient même leurs écoles et hôpitaux et tout ce qui leur faut pour vivre une vie honorable dans un pays frère. Ils avaient même leurs quartiers à Alger, et ils étaient majoritaires à la Casbah.

Around 30 – 40 % of pre-colonial families of Algiers were of Morisco / Andalusian descendent. Probably more in Oran and Tlemcen, and even higher still in some Moroccan urban centers.

Certaines familles andalouses ont gardé leurs noms de famille andalous, entre autres : Qortbi, Qortbaoui, Lahmar, Bou’abdalli, S’aidouni, Chebili, Zaidouni, Zanoun, etc.

https://hoggar.org/2006/08/08/les-andalous-dalgerie-un-cas-comateux-ou-une-cause-oubliee/

Also:

L’antisémitisme désigne à la fois l’hostilité aux juifs et aux musulmans. Tout souverainiste n’est pas antisémite. Tout antisémite n’est pas souverainiste. Mais il l’est devenu souvent aujourd’hui.

https://www.attali.com/societe/derriere-le-souverainisme-se-cache-trop-souvent-la-haine-des-musulmans/

Ça promet…

😏

Russian population possibly overestimated by up to 30 million people.

H0w amny Slavs would be an interesting question. Especially under 40.

p.s. This Pryannikov guy is really good, thanks for the recommendation.

I think the Russians are fighting the war they need to fight.

It is not about optics in the West.

I think it is about decimation. If there are 500,000 dangerous Ukrainian fighting men including NeoNazi, hardcore nationalists, mercenaries and serious soldiers/fellow travelers then Russia expects to kill or maim at least 450,000 of them. Once this brutal task is complete, they will reach an agreement if Kiev has not already capitulated.

Maybe this war is all about reviving the big family in Russia?

The men come home from fighting the good fight and have 6 kids each. Have 2 more for your fallen comrades!

The meme: Replace your self-centered PTSD with the sound of 8 screaming (and laughing) kids….

I think the Russians are fighting the war they need to fight.

I believe neither Russian, nor Ukrainian people need to fight this war.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/balancing-east-upgrading-west

Somebody else does…

(You can find the pdf of the article online).

And yeah, according to Martin Armstrong, who was citing “his sources in Ukraine”, Russian army has already killed and maimed more than 250 000 Ukrainian combatants.

From personal experience, 4 kids were enough to take care of my own PTSD, 8 kids is unfortunatelly over the top for most modern men. Although I once had a nice talk with an Ashkenazi Haredi Rabbi who had 16 children.

Seriously though, the birthrate of ethnic Russians is rather low and is falling even further since the Covid epidemics started. Also, recent polling indicates that young Russians are being less inclined to have children since the beginning of war.

Eastern Slavs don’t need even more abysmal demographics. Somebody else does…

In America: (1)

In 2020, the number of all chickens in the United States totaled around 518.3 million.

So, if each chicken is 3/5 of a human for U.S. House representation….. OOOooo….

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://www.statista.com/statistics/196028/total-number-of-all-chickens-in-the-us-since-2000/

I don’t regard immigration controls as necessarily an autocratic measure

Stricter ones than now would be considered “autocratic”, but I agree that they should not be regarded as such.

although honestly, in my ideal world, people would be allowed to go anywhere.

Why, of course, they would.

There were no passports or border control before the First World war, you know. It was a freer world.

In some ways, it was definitely freer, but also less compact and “squeezed together” than now. We all know how much smaller the world got. Although I’m not fully sure there was no “border control”. That’s something I doubt.

Still, though, my ideal society is heavily multi-cultural and multi-ethnic and multi-religious – kind of like those fascinating imperial cities in the dungeons and dragons books I used to read as a kid 🙂 I love variety and color and feel my world is expanded by the “other”, not threatened by it – but of course, it would have to be done with the encouragement of inter-group harmony and respect, the opposite of now.

One can experience plenty of such in today’s world in places such as London, what with all their multi-ethnic food courts, etc. And there are many such mixed, colorful places in the world. I wouldn’t say there is a lack of such, if one wants to indulge.

I had in mind specifically the alt-right that cheer on China and Russia, and generally seem like really odious people

I agree, these people are complete hypocrites, I saw that on day one when I first encountered the alt-right. And I say this as someone who likes Russia and would do well there (under certain circumstances).

As for your vision, you want to sort of fine tune the precise level of autocracy, and that’s not terrible, but I wonder if that’s really possible as anything more than a temporary measure

It can be a permanent measure or at least work long term. Highly controlled migration, no public funding for scandalous contemporary “art” projects, no formal gay marriage, even some control over predatory financial institutions, etc. Nothing too extreme or oppressive. It could easily go on for a long time.

Spiritually and morally, I think there is an imperative to move towards ever greater equality and justice and non-coercion and freedom, but of course judiciously and with wisdom.

Freedom is very important and freedom is worth fighting for. There would be freedom under my model, but also order and responsibility. And of course equality, everyone should be middle class, with only a few exceptions. The elite should serve the people. There could be even more freedom than in a multi-cultural neoliberal society, our current societies are not always even that free.

I guess it’s doable.

If this kind of thing is doable, then it will be done in due time.

As you know from your time in France, these days these laws are passed based on emotions. I actually know very well why the Sephardic Jews were given a blanket right to Spanish nationality. It’s because some of them managed to keep speaking an old form of Spanish centuries after being expelled from the Iberian peninsula. You still find small communities of Jews that speak their version of Spanish (Ladino iirc) in places like Turkey or Israel itself. For years the Spanish TV would go on and on about this. I guess these poor people maintained their old speech because they never could assimilate to the places they settled in more than due to a sense of belonging to the country that expelled them. But the Spanish legislators interpreted things their own way.

Based on the information you provide here, I’m sure plenty of people must be working on extending the same right to the the other victims of the Alhambra Decree. The problem is that Spain, like the rest of Southern Europe, is already receiving lots of undocumented Maghrebis and they are actually one of the groups with the highest rate of assimilation problems so tptb must be waiting for more propicious times.

Once Western European countries get Californized with several generations of immigrants of all origins living there and constituting a sizeable, if not a majority, of the population, further immigration trends look likely to accelerate, rather than decline.

In 2020, the number of all chickens in the United States totaled around 518.3 million.

Egg layers, maybe? But not broilers, of which there were nearly 10 billion hatched in the US that year.

https://sentientmedia.org/number-of-chickens-in-the-us/
(I think they use government stats)

I meant “need” in the sense the opponents have been selected to fight and certain things need to occur before the fight ends.

It seems ground rules have been accepted within or above the governments for a long time. I have no idea how this really works and would probably find it upsetting if I knew. My thoughts on the SMO are only informed by a tiny knowledge of a few small aspects of the conflict.

Within this game, I suspect that Russia will fight, Ukraine will fight and lose. Ukraine will be recombined with Russia in a manner that could be good in the long run, but who really knows? The angry armed resistance which the West has carefully grown makes any civil solution impossible so these men must die to make way for the next phase. I doubt the planners of the conflict expected this, but would not be shocked to find out that everything was intentional.

I don’t know if Putin is part of the high level diabolical maneuvering. He might be or may simply be trying to deal with it as best he can. He seems genuinely intelligent and articulate and approximately watching out for the Russia people, given all sorts of caveats. Sadly, there has been no US President in my lifetime who could live up to those standards, so if nothing else his existence helps me see how things “might be” with a “world leader”. I respect what he appears to be, even though I don’t know enough to establish if this image is factual. Of course many see all bad there and some of that may be true.

Based on this comment and your user name, I’m now having flashbacks to Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds.

Go Tippy! Go Susie!

Unironically quoting Oryx is a bad form.
These cretins presented one Russian tank as twenty tanks just because Kiev regime moved that one slightly and photoed from different angle.
And,of course,anything questionable is destroyed Russian tank,which is especially laughable when they presented photos of T-64s in the first two weeks and stuff.
And then there were attempts to present debris of obviously Kiev regime trash like T-72 AMTs as Russian T-90s of all things…
Oryx lies.BY DEFAULT.
It’s not open source,it’s as far from intelligence is possible,it’s classic black propaganda piece.
Problem here,of course,is that Oryx is a lying propaganda piece that has been caught lying more times that I care to count.
Another example : The final question regarding Ukraine’s tanks, is where are all the captured Russian tanks? According to Oryx Ukraine has captured over 500 functional Russian tanks including nearly 200 T-72B3 tanks. Ukrainian tank brigade seemingly have around 60 tanks, so shouldn’t they be able to field at least 3 tank brigades with T-72B3 tanks? Plus another 5 brigades with other captured tanks. Yet, I have not seen a single formation of captured Russian tanks in service.

Think I have only seen bits of it, but I recall this:

If what you (or your Oryx) say were even remotely true, the war would not still be going on the territory Ukraine claims as its own, with Ukrainian troops losing position after position.

If Ukrainian troops were losing “position after position” then now, a year into the war, Russia would control more than 15% of Ukraine which is less than the 20% they had controlled earlier.

I don’t know what that means,

but Tippy Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette looked great in the movie. Forget about the damn birds.

Philip Owen presenting drug-induced hallucinations as facts.

Not that you guys don’t have similar problems

China implemented mass internment in at least 2017-18 to get Uighurs to join the common social fabric. Levels of immigration to China are very low. The large numbers of students from the rest of the developing world in China find it difficult to stay after graduation. The racial demographics of China are not changing.

not that you have some “magical pill” to solve these problems.

Orban and China have figured out a solution: Fudan University in Budapest. Orban knows he can’t trust white people in education. Once Orban is retired from politics whatever institution he creates in education will rot because it will be the focal point of progressive efforts. Therefore a prestigious Chinese university needs to be built in every European country that wishes to preserve national sovereignty against malign progressive forces seeking to bring in mass immigration from outside of Europe. The Chinese university will be a safe space for the bright minds of a country to get an engineering and science education without cultural Marxist indoctrination.

Great discussion with a former CIA analyst and Johns Hopkins professor:

Fan of the original Bob Newhart show.

…common for tough guy tyrant type countries to think democracies are soft and weak and won’t die for their cause

Your terminology is wrong. Who attacked Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan… thinking it would be a ‘cake walk‘? Are you calling Bush, Blair&Co. tyrants? Tough guys starting wars thinking it would be easy are in all systems, from Queen Victoria to Napoleon and Hitler, and all sides in WW1…

tough guy mentality that similarly creates a kind of autism when it comes to their “weak” adversaries

I am not sure what that means, it sounds clever but meaningless. In this war, the West expected Russia to collapse economically – they didn’t, is that autism? Now they think that Kiev will win on the battlefield, also autism? Russia thought that most Ukies wouldn’t fight – but they do fight and die, who is autistic in that equation?

None of this changes anything: stronger force in its own region is facing a weaker adversary supported by the West, but the West won’t come in and fight…

If your point is that Europeans would fight in Ukraine, I disagree. Maybe the Poles, Romanians, Balts, and a few mercenaries like now. But the Germans, Dutch, French, Italians, etc… would not go to die in the Ukie fields. More would fight if their own borders were crossed – but how is that in the realm of possible? Who seriously believes that Russia wants a land war with EU? It would go nuclear…

With your level of thinking I am not sure anyone can help you – you live in your stereotypes. And you talk about blind spots, precious :)…

In the other thread, LatW, you were attempting to resolve the riddle of the Scots. You’d also mentioned your Scottish in origin woman friend and her personality characteristics.

Were you were aware that the Scots have high testosterone levels? Certainly the men do, and I can only presume the women do as well.

Below is an excerpt (with link) to an article about high testosterone in women. It matches up pretty well with your description of your lady friend.

‘Competitive and social dominance are correlated to testosterone levels. “Although they can get along with others, [women with high testosterone] don’t hesitate to rise to the challenge and compete when the situation warrants it,” says Sweeton. “Others may view them as a leader, and a person they can turn to for guidance when a situation is unclear or a problem is particularly challenging.”

https://www.bustle.com/p/if-you-have-these-7-personality-traits-you-might-have-high-levels-of-testosterone-9185973

As an aside, below is a clip from the Scotploitation flick Trainspotting. In between the subtle promotion of the degeneracy of heroin use and addiction, some hard truths about Scotland’s actual situation is spoken aloud between 1:14 -1:50.

I’d swear, a major draw of the film for many was simply having the opportunity to hear an abundance of the Scottish brogue spoken, a brogue which is indeed music to the ears. 🙂

In all established white Western countries, most of the high IQ population actively supports or passively follows antiracism and feminism because it is regarded as the high status ideology necessary for upward mobility or even just avoiding non-personing for any low six figure job.

No, it is because the alternative is generally stupider.

The smartest most accomplished people in the world will tend to support the smartest most accomplished ideology available.

Those who disagree with this ideology tend to focus on its excesses and never focus on the excesses of the ideology they would prefer in its place. This allows them to delude themselves that they are actually smarter and more accomplished, when really they’re just biased.

Yes, the fact that it is high status is helpful, but it is high status because it is (relatively) high quality. Those who do not understand this fail for the same reason that black people blaming their lack of economic productivity on white supremacy fail. They engage in magical thinking. They think to themselves “the only reason this thing I resent succeeds and the thing I like does not succeed is because the thing I resent succeeds and the thing I like fails.” This is stupid on the face of it, but they contort themselves in knots to avoid the obvious.

If something is dominant over you or you are jealous of it, start with the assumption that it is better than you and work on improvement, rather than dismissing it as crazy.

That assumption may end being wrong, but it is better than what most people do.

Ironically, we have arrived at a point where progressives build on established forms of knowledge in a way that takes advantage of centuries of human intellectual endeavour, whereas those self-styling as trads or other sorts of dissidents know little about these forms of knowledge and just alight on any random half-baked idea that kind of sort of looks like it might be flattering to them.

Basically, if something is doing well and you’re not, criticising it is generally just a way of Futher criticising yourself. If those successful people are totally stupid, what does that make you?

Instead, realise that either what they are doing is extremely hard, or they are doing it very well, and find the genuine quality there. Then steal it. And school yard negs like “it is just high status” only serve to delude you and yours, giving you pseudo understanding and ensuring that you forever miss the actually high quality points, so can’t learn from them.

This type of cope may accurately be described as Satanic.

although several HIMARS on the battlefield and rockets/missiles for it in storage have been destroyed already

Any photographic proof? None so far has been produced.

Anyway, HIMARS has been near-useless since winter – lack of camouflage and covering its tracks , plus our military adapting to spot, track, destroy and not get deceived/overwhelmed in AD, from the latest (NATO conducted)Ukronazi trick.

Winter is still ongoing… The mobilized at Makiivka vocational school 19 certainly found out the usefulness of HIMARS at 1 minute past New Years…

for one of them “heroically” saying in comms to Moskva to go f**k itself………even though he didn’t say it, even though NONE of them were killed or even injured or showed any resistance……..even though they surrendered immediately!!!!

How is the Cruiser Moskva doing these days?

nah, shove the darkies into the combat zone. Tartars, Slants etc. Conserve the white boys for technical fields like repair and electronic warfare.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/teen-gang-war-continues-dublin-22502497

Dublin. The Terror of balbriggan.

On imitating the rich and successful.

https://www.businessinsider.in/miamis-billionaire-bunker-is-a-high-security-island-that-has-a-13-person-police-force-for-its-42-residents-a-real-estate-agent-got-me-past-the-guardhouse-heres-what-the-exclusive-community-looks-like/articleshow/69270651.cms

“It’s been called the “Billionaire Bunker” and one of the “wealthiest, private, most secure communities in Miami Beach and the world.” Indian Creek is a village of just 42 people on a tiny private island in Miami’s Biscayne Bay. Its “Billionaire Bunker” nickname stems from its wildly wealthy and high-profile residents, including billionaire investor Carl Icahn, supermodel Adriana Lima, and Spanish singer Julio Iglesias.”

Rich and successful…

“The island’s 42 residents are protected by a private 13-person police force that patrols the perimeter from the water and by land.”

4:1 resident:police ratio. Heavily armed exclusivity is a trait of the very rich and powerful, don’t be fooled by what these residents say in public about social justice.

Maybe up to 12,000 Polish KIA in Ukraine’s Commie drawn boundary.

Sorry, make that perhaps up to 2,500 Polish KIA, with Russia’s in the 12K to 20K range and the Kiev regime’s now said to be somewhere between 100K-150K.

Ironically, we have arrived at a point where progressives build on established forms of knowledge in a way that takes advantage of centuries of human intellectual endeavour

You have this 180° backwards. Or, you are looking at 40-50 years ago. I am not sure which.

Current progressives are are actively anti-intellectual. Tapping “centuries of human intellectual endeavour” means valuing the contribution of white male patriarchs. In the U.S. many of them owned slaves.

This bit of open racism is promoted by today’s progressives.

The country where something was banned in half of it was built by the banned thing? Umm… No. And, the part of the country that did the banned thing was the less developed part. Industrial progress occurred else where. The message is dishonest, anti-intellectual, and illogical.

those self-styling as trads or other sorts of dissidents know little about these forms of knowledge and just alight on any random half-baked idea

Dissident movements in the U.S. are grounded in an actual understanding of U.S. history and western civilization. Topics eschewed by modern day progressives. In the historical sense of the word, the traditionalists are the ‘liberals’ with well rounded education & knowledge.

By defention every political platform must be straightforward and have wide appeal. MAGA is a necessary & unifying symbol of dissent, not the intellectual core.

most of the high IQ population actively supports or passively follows antiracism and feminism because it is regarded as the high status ideology necessary for upward mobility or even just avoiding non-personing for any low six figure job.

No, it is because the alternative is generally stupider. The smartest most accomplished people in the world will tend to support the smartest most accomplished ideology available.

Go back 50 years — Companies used to run anti discrimination efforts to improve productivity. They also helped avoid legal actions.

Today — Being openly normal now generates HR events. I am in a Red State, yet because I work for a largish company, I have to self censor to retain my job. There is a punch card of anti-intellectual progressive things that must be marked complete as part of each annual performance review. Fortunately, some of the tasks can be cleverly subverted.

Instead, realise that either what they are doing is extremely hard, or they are doing it very well, and find the genuine quality there.

The problem is that the today’s progressives are actively anti-quality. It is Aesop’s ‘The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs’ Fable.

How does an ESG score help anyone? This is not a small number of extremists. A broad segment of woke society wants to make this the law of the land. What I and others do is extremely hard. Progressives do not want to learn from that example.

PEACE 😇

The Chinese university will be a safe space for the bright minds of a country to get an engineering and science education without cultural Marxist indoctrination.

And they would learn writing the 14 Words in Chinese…

我們必須確保我們人民的生存和白人兒童的未來

That’s an 88th level of trolling.

Admirable…

😏

Yes, allowing yourself to build a few follies here and there is the least you can do for yourself. Even if those follies need only be figurative. Go out and take risks!

Another roundtable where the very astute “Independent Political analyst” Mike Averko was not invited to attend? You seem to be losing your luster, Mickey…

Current progressives are are actively anti-intellectual.

The university is full of people under the injunction of “be intellectual.” Footnoting and sourcing is exhaustive. Most of them no longer have any sort of voice at all. It is entirely subordinate to “intellectual.”

Dissident movements in the U.S. are grounded in an actual understanding of U.S. history and western civilization.

Who? I don’t see many who surpass wearing claims of such grounding as more than a skinsuit for their neuroses. And no more than handful seem to have an understanding of what they claim to.

The problem is that the today’s progressives are actively anti-quality.

Despite representing the largest conglomeration of quality human capital in history…

It is more complex than what you present.

How does an ESG score help anyone?

Good question. I can answer that at length. Don’t make it rherotical next time. And really think about how it serves some people to truly believe in ESG and how it benefits some parts of them internally.

…perhaps up to 2,500 Polish KIA

Perhaps, but maybe not…how many are also Ukies who lived in Poland?

Poland is divided: fanatical noisy Russo-phobes, normal people with attitudes similar to French-Italians…and, as always, a large middle group (50%+) waiting to see how it goes.

How many are willing to actually fight in Ukraine? The proof of the pudding is in eating it…Like our resident fire-eaters – AP, Mr.Hacks, Shadow-guy – how many will risk their skin for the glorious causes of Ukraine-in-Nato, banning the Russian-language, and the ever favorite: conquer and dismantle the damn Russians once and for all!!!…

My guess is a lot fewer than are posturing and yelling right now.

…Despite representing the largest conglomeration of quality human capital in history…

You are right, it is huuuge! But more like a huge pile of sh..t, piled high and deep…

Your narcissism betrays insecurity. You are grasping for straws… footnotes! yeah, that’s how we spot an intellectual…how about PowerPoint skills? Pile it on, it is amusing to watch the collapse…

Not that there is much better stuff elsewhere, but after this pile of sh..t is gone something is bound to appear…

I agree, I wouldn’t force my preferred form of social organization on any country that didn’t want it.

While I think an extreme alt-right state that is hostile to and humiliates and even engages in violence against foreigners should become an international pariah and be subject to pressure, a merely conservative, traditional state that wants to largely retain it’s demographics and culture, but is also capable of welcoming foreigners to a limited extent and doesn’t excessively repress alternative lifestyles and points of view is something that it is perfectly possible to coexist with.

In short, I’d be happy to coexist with a country like your ideal, but a country founded by the majority of the Unz commenters should become an international pariah 🙂 (and would)

In non extreme cases, any social change that I favor should be encouraged in non-coercice ways – even seductive ways, if you understand what I mean (not in a sinister way lol, but an honest, open way). If a lifestyle and philosophy is genuinely more capable of bringing humans happiness, it’s inherent appeal should be made manifest and serve as the basis for a seductive appeal.

And at the end of the day, not every society needs to come down precisely on the same social arrangements on different metrics, and there ought to be room for genuinely different visions of the good life provided one avoids obvious large scale injustice, cruelty, and evil.

It can be a permanent measure or at least work long term. Highly controlled migration, no public funding for scandalous contemporary “art” projects, no formal gay marriage, even some control over predatory financial institutions, etc. Nothing too extreme or oppressive. It could easily go on for a long time

.

I don’t seriously object to any of this, even if they aren’t my preferred social arrangements exactly (although I am 100% with you on banning socially predatory finance!), and as long as they don’t spill over eventually into outright repression against gays or cruelty to foreigners (and there is no reason they need to).

My only point is that it is a “static” vision, like all conservative visions, and I do believe that a genuinely healthy society needs to be moving towards a moral horizon, a vision of the Good, in some way, to retain it’s vigor and energy and self-confidence, and even will to live. (Your vision of the Good obviously need not be that of the Woke). But you need an Ideal that you are moving toward, trying to manifest.

I understand the purpose of human life as the ever greater realization of the divine Good, the reaching out to it more and more, the attempt to realize a Platonic Ideal, and that is the source of the life-force.

But this is just a general philosophical remark that you are free to reject or take to heart, and at the end of the day, it’s your society and within rather broad moral latitudes you should have the freedom to make your own choices.

And of course equality, everyone should be middle class, with only a few exceptions. The elite should serve the people. There could be even more freedom than in a multi-cultural neoliberal society, our current societies are not always even that free.

I probably agree with this in it’s entirety 🙂

I think the Russians are fighting the war they need to fight… I think it is about decimation. If there are 500,000 dangerous Ukrainian fighting men including NeoNazi, hardcore nationalists, mercenaries and serious soldiers/fellow travelers then Russia expects to kill or maim at least 450,000 of them

Here we have meticulous and bloodthirsty R1b culture in full display. Beasts like QCIC see a need for maximum Slavic deaths.

Your terminology is wrong. Who attacked Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan… thinking it would be a ‘cake walk‘? Are you calling Bush, Blair&Co. tyrants? Tough guys starting wars thinking it would be easy are in all systems, from Queen Victoria to Napoleon and Hitler, and all sides in WW1…

Yes, the West certainly suffers from its own version of debilitating autism that leads it to it’s own failed adventures across the globe.

The West always thinks it’s materialism and nihilism are just so stupendous and appealing that everyone else will rush to adopt the moment they free them from the malign forces preventing them from doing so. Look at Leaves No Shadows.

I think you are vastly underestimating the willingness of the West to do what it takes to prevent an outright and significant Russian victory of a type that would constitute a real challenge to the world order, even if it’s painful and requires sacrifice. And I think this is a blind spot that comes from the particular mentality that is always impressed by the “decadence” of liberal countries, and habitually falls into this particular mistake.

But of course, events will take their own unpredictable course and we will end up where we will end up, all rhetoric aside.

Current progressives are are actively anti-intellectual.

The university is full of people under the injunction of “be intellectual.” Footnoting and sourcing is exhaustive. Most of them no longer have any sort of voice at all. It is entirely subordinate to “intellectual.”

We may actually be close to agreeing here.

My definition of “intellectual” requires engaging in thoughtful consideration.

Mindless footnoting and dogmatic, uncritical regurgitation is “anti-intellectual”. No longer having any sort of voice at all is the paragon of anti-intellectual outcomes.

Dissident movements in the U.S. are grounded in an actual understanding of U.S. history and western civilization.

Who? I don’t see many

I suspect you live in a prog area. Because of cancel culture they are all around you, but you do not see them. They have to be careful … as CR put it … To preserve pretense:

…necessary for upward mobility or even just avoiding non-personing for any low six figure job.

Because the Fake Stream Media is a dogmatic progressive institution, big breakthrough names like Newt Gingrich cannot be repeated today. So, if you are asking “Who is the new Gingrich?” You are posing an invalid question, based on a poor assumption.

As a necessity, anti-prog dissident intellectual thought leadership is diffuse. There is no easily targeted Newt Gingrich figure. That is a strength not a weakness.

The problem is that the today’s progressives are actively anti-quality.

Despite representing the largest conglomeration of quality human capital in history

Your choice of “representing” was a subtle admission. Current day progs are rarely creating. They had the privilege of inheritance, and are squandering it. The future desired by progressives is one where human capital becomes depleted. And, they will rejoice that poorer people have smaller carbon footprints.

Workers will also have less physical security and be in much more personal danger.

Look up how much worse crime has gotten in Chicago and Philadelphia. On top of that consider the rampant destruction in prog cities like Portland and Minneapolis.

One cannot separate modern, grievance based progressivism from woke extremism. The first makes the second inevitable.

How does an ESG score help anyone?

Good question. I can answer that at length. Don’t make it rherotical next time. And really think about how it serves some people to truly believe in ESG and how it benefits some parts of them internally.

Clearly, I was not talking about emotional state. The proposition is ESG as commercial regulation. (1)

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently released its 2023 Regulatory Agenda, which outlines another ambitious year of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rulemaking under Chair Gensler. According to the agenda, the SEC plans to finalize 29 rules throughout the year and propose an additional 23 rules or amendments.
…
While these rules will impact many aspects of the U.S.’s financial markets and its investors, three rules that are expected to be finalized will significantly change how firms interact with ESG issues. This includes finalization of rules that would require publicly traded companies to disclose various types of greenhouse gas emissions, restrict which funds can include ESG-related terms in the fund’s name, and require investment advisers and investment companies to provide greater transparency and disclosures about how ESG factors are considered in investment strategies.

If you want to address the question I asked, consider it in this form — In America, how does ESG reduce the cost of whatever widgets are being produced?

I get to see some of the energy bills where we are paying 300%+ more for “green” electricity. And, there are government subsidies on top of that. The failed concepts of industrial wind & solar increase the cost of energy and thus diminish the standard of living in a material sense.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://www.acaglobal.com/insights/sec-plans-finalize-esg-related-rules-2023

Yes, the narcissist is the person who recognises things bigger than them and the person who dismisses everything as sh*t, so as not to have to do this, obviously is very balanced and reasonable.

Please learn to distinguish between you wanting something to “collapse” and it actually being about to.

Not intentionally, but I see your point.

I think war is satanic and the claimed motivations on all sides never quite seem adequate to explain what is going on.

If you want to address the question I asked, consider it in this form — In America, how does ESG reduce the cost of whatever widgets are being produced?

You seem to be arguing with the very idea of a luxury product, which is ok, as far as a general theme towards practical considerations goes, but luxury consumption is not a symptom of something awful. Instead, it usually the opposite. An imperfect sign of success, health and quality.

No longer having any sort of voice at all is the paragon of anti-intellectual outcomes.

Ok, so we have differing definitions in this instance, but please don’t get confused by your definitions and come to think that rambling incoherently without any knowledge or education is therefore superior, or any more of having a voice.

Also, I asked you to name some people who were true intellectuals by your definition. It doesn’t seem that you’ve done this, but instead went off on one about progressives again, thereby demonstrating my point.

I reject your insult. I comment here in my own tiny effort to stop the war by discussing issues which people would rather ignore.

Sadly, the conflict has a life of its own. My post is offering a notion of what may be required for the beast (the war) to die a natural death.

I think people who share your views have created this travesty.

Great job, morons.

Philip Owen presenting drug-induced hallucinations as facts.

Drug effects wear off. Mental defects do not. There is Russian saying “only the grave can straighten a hunchback”.

But of course, events will take their own unpredictable course and we will end up where we will end up, all rhetoric aside.

Now, that’s likely the most intelligent statement on this thread.

Some time ago they also passed legislation offering Spanish nationality to anyone who could prove to be a descendant of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in the 15th century.

Anybody take them up on it? This looks like the silliest PR move conceivable.

Who holds the world record for ancient apologies? On April Fool’s Day the Greek parliament could apologize to the Turks for wiping out Troy.

Forget about the damn birds.

Thought I heard someone say once that Birds can be watched as an allegory. If so, that might make them hugely entertaining.

When I was quite young, I used to enjoy the movie Gremlins 2. Rewatched it about a year or so ago, and found that it is pretty funny if you watch it from that angle. (Surely, unintended by the film-makers?)

You seem to be arguing with the very idea of a luxury product,

You seem to misunderstand what a luxury product is.

Luxury must be *voluntary* spending, often on an intangible quality. Fair trade chocolate is a luxury. Despite identical nature of the physical product, the intangible “fairness” justifies the higher luxury price.

When ESG is a mandate and all products must be ESG, then involuntary ESG is a necessary feature not a luxury.

I asked you to name some people who were true intellectuals

Try rereading my answer. You obviously missed my point.

dissident intellectual thought leadership is diffuse. There is no easily targeted Newt Gingrich figure. That is a strength not a weakness.

The fact that there are no names for me to list is a highly desirable feature of broad based intellectualism throughout the populist movement.
____

The fact that start up institutions such as University of Austin are necessary is a damning indictment of the status quo.

https://www.uaustin.org/

WE’RE BUILDING A UNIVERSITY DEDICATED TO THE FEARLESS PURSUIT OF TRUTH.

This is what intellectual life should be, but no longer is. The rescue plan for New College in Florida is another example.

PEACE 😇

The consequences on middle size Russian cities for losing the war in Ukraine and certainly for the prosperity of Muscovites and Petersbergers would be a quick reduction in wealth and overall life expectancy (even excluding war dead).

they have to know this.

but God was not happy with it and decided to make two very warm european winters in a row;)

Not sure it is really true (I think it would maybe just encourage foolish casualties), but a lot of people are saying that the warm weather is really good for Russians because it makes any advance impossible, until May or June, when they will have called up a lot of manpower.

NATO has been siding for a while, but this tweet is just Wowzers:

It reads, “This war will shape the continent. It will set rules and draw frontiers. Books will be written and studies done on the reality we face today. We are Harry Potter and William Wallace, the Na’vi and Han Solo. We’re escaping from Shawshank and blowing up the Death Star. We are fighting with the Harkonnens and challenging Thanos. Ukraine is hosting one of the great epics of this century.”

A new term has been coined in response — Ukringe

Everyone needs to check out the responses here (1).

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nato-criticised-tweet-comparing-ukraine-conflict-harry-potter

If “losing” the war involves Russia leaving Ukraine and a return to normalcy then the consequences for normal people would be positive.

I think you are vastly underestimating the willingness of the West to do what it takes to prevent an outright and significant Russian victory of a type that would constitute a real challenge to the world order, even if it’s painful and requires sacrifice

Just as Italians are far from your average Europeans, Russian react in their own peculiar ways. Their Army are very unlikely to be broken (and that would be super dangerous thing for the Western opponents to enable Ukraine achieve anyway). Indeed Reuters reported just the other day that Ukraine has been told the West does not have an inexhaustible supply of arms. There have been some inept handling of Russia fomations, but at this point there is no massed infantry attacks by conscripts. In fact the main fighting is by Wagner Group. They are using completely novel small assault groups of infantry made up from convict volunteers. Omniscient US surveillance and intel cannot assist Ukrqaine against the creeping attack of Wagner, but mean that more traditional tank drive tactics such as were used last week in an attempt to take Vuhledar by a crack regiment of the regular Russian army result in disastrous losses. I see Wgner as a modern use of light infantry to break the deadlock a la WW1 Stormtroopers, but at a snails pace.

Is the sacrificing by the West an open ended commitment or is there some kind of timetable to an envisioned termination by Russia? None is proposed as far as I know and so the ball is in the Kremlin’s court; I cannot for the life of me see why Putin would draw the line at a SMO, and cease hostilities when Russia is three times the size of Ukraine, has a nuclear backstop for any great advances by Ukraine great enough to break the Russian army and rout it. has not yet officially declared war on Ukraine, and retains an option for a substantial increase in infantry from a full call out of reserves (official state of war).

Since the Kremlin called out a relatively moderate portion of its reservists and doubled the troops available to be used in the Special Military Operation, Ukraine has ceased to make serious advances, and Western commentary has been reduced to repeating that Putin has well well short of his original objectives and timetable at huge cost. . I think there has to be a recognition that Russia can’t be outmatched in Ukraine and so the West cannot force a decision, so the war is going to continue without an end in sight

No, it is because the alternative is generally stupider.

The smartest most accomplished people in the world will tend to support the smartest most accomplished ideology available.

What you seem to be saying is that, if antiracism meant getting demoted, or fired and blacklisted, or socially-stigmatized, or jailed, if there had been a decades long propaganda campaign against it, and if the schools taught against it from a young age, you think that the elites and middle-class strivers would have the same alignments.

Doesn’t seem entirely plausible.

I suspect it’s an open ended commitment with no end in sight, but that’s just my sense of things.

Probably, this silly war will continue for a while and then just sort of peter out – end with a whimper, not a bang, and without any clear cut, decisive outcome.

Protracted open ended conflicts are quite common across the world, with lulls and flare ups etc. Israel is in one such now and neither party shows any signs of flagging energy. This is probably the historical norm. Decisive, clear cut outcomes, seem to be an expectation created by the modern West, and to be derived from the end of history doctrine and the idea that the world is converging on the same political and historical systems – history ends with a bang, not a whimper – but are probably an historical anomaly.

One almost gets the sense mankind likes fighting for it’s own sake, even as it eventually gets bored with power and empire.

As in my quote from Plotinus, the silliness of war shows what children’s games are the “serious” affairs of men…

I’m sure the West can force a humiliating defeat on Russia, but as you say, that would be dangerous and pointless. Humiliating an opponent is always bad policy unless you also make sure you crush him so completely he cannot rise again. Otherwise, they just come back with a vicious sense of grievance and a burning resentment, and the cycle of violence continues.

War is for the most part psychological – they are largely fought for reasons of pride and self respect. Egypt could only make peace with Israel after it acquitted itself creditably in the 73 war. Hezbollah was only able to stop attacking Israel regularly after it likewise acquitted itself creditably in the 06 war.

Russia right now seems to have a burning sense of grievance and injured pride – how to repair that? What kind of a victory would mollify it’s pride without actually being a victory (like 73 and 06)?

I don’t pretend to know. Perhaps just being able to fight the West for a few years without being utterly defeated or collapsing will be good enough.

Who can predict the future anyways…

The smartest most accomplished people in the world will tend to support the smartest most accomplished ideology available.

This must be why Leninism was so influential.

Posted this in links earlier, but just a lengthy interview with someone deeply embedded in the American foreign policy establishment, notable in that she practically discounts any possibility the Russians blew up Nordsteam, whilst suggesting Ukrainians could have done it. (German_Reader should be pleased)
Although to my mind it seems extremely unlikely this could have been carried out without at least somebody in the US greenlighting it, though perhaps this decision to go-ahead of some senior officials was indeed ‘cordoned off’.

https://unherd.com/2023/02/absolute-victory-over-russia-isnt-possible/

I still see this war as a mutal lose-lose-lose situation for Russia, Ukraine and Europe whatever happens, with only US and possibly Chinese interests benefitting.

I still see this war as a mutal lose-lose-lose situation for Russia, Ukraine and Europe whatever happens, with only US and possibly Chinese interests benefitting.

Well put. In my opinion it is unrealistic to expect Ukrainians not to fight back, but what exactly are Russians dying for? A multipolar world order i.e. a world where some Chinese car brand displaces Lada in the Russian automobile market? A world where Russia sells hydrocarbons to the Global South for rock-bottom prices?

This image will always be emblematic of this war, fields of dead Russians outside of Bakhmut.

Probably, this silly war will continue for a while and then just sort of peter out – end with a whimper, not a bang, and without any clear cut, decisive outcome.

Thats what America is hoping for : an attenuated Russia to be easily stalemated by lower than current levels of Western arms and a then-demoralised Putin to order a withdrawal from Donbass. But Putin’s mother barely survived WW2 in Leningrad (ihis returning father is said to found her barely living atop a cart of corpses), Putin never met his brother who died in a orphanage of diphtheria during the war

With a personal history like that, Putin is steeped in the concept of sacrifice for final victory, and in a particularly sticky patch would surely draw on an untapped plenitude of Russia’s materiel and human resources to fight a conventional war if the current level of mobilisation let to a petering out of the Russian effort. I don’t accept the premise that Russia cannot amp up its conventional effort from Special Military Operation effort very considerably by moving to a decreed state of war. That Putin has not done so suggests he thinks he is on track for victory at the current level, which is not provoking the US . Convincing him he is losing will be a challenge, and even them why should he admit defeat when that is likely to make his own continued leadership shaky. Putin’s main characteristic is, according to Stuermer’s book on him, is an aversion to acting impulsively and so he is not likely to overdramatise any difficulties. At present Russia is prolly doing better than we know from Western orientated media. The Ukrainians are firing more rounds a day through their Western howitzers than the Western suppliers knew those weapons could fire (they are designed for) and that is from a Ukrainian gunner speaking on CNN. Wagner groups new craping infiltration tactics under massive area bombardments do not seems very vulnerable to Western technicaly advanced precision and deep strike weapons in the way that armoured maneuver warfare has proved to be. I think Russia is likely to take all Donbass eventually.

she practically discounts any possibility the Russians blew up Nordsteam, whilst suggesting Ukrainians could have done it

Although to my mind it seems extremely unlikely this could have been carried out without at least somebody in the US greenlighting it

Ukrainians might have wished for it, but they had neither ability nor opportunity to do it. The waters where all explosions happened were and are controlled by NATO (i.e., the NATO godfather, the US). There were NATO naval maneuvers in those areas a few months before the blasts. The investigation is conducted by NATO members, Russians are not even allowed to participate. Many months passed since the event and the “investigation” is getting exactly nowhere. Looks to me like an investigation of the break-in into chicken coop by the fox who broke into it. Another telltale sign: Western MSM (directed by we know who) work hard to bury the issue. So, both classical “cui bono” and the way the “investigation” and media coverage of that terrorist act are going point to the same suspects. And those suspects are neither Ukrainians nor Russians.

Prigozhin posted on social networks the picture below of rows of corpses of dead Wagner troops

https://static.mondo.rs/Picture/1239930/png/Vagner-Bahmut.jpg?ts=2023-02-22T14:33:34

Yes, I’ve seen this. I linked it back in comment 61.. And one has to remember this is just one day’s worth of dead, in one sector of the front and the bodies of only those that were managed to be extracted from the killing zone.

The Russians are dying for Chinese interests at the end of the day.

In other news:

“China adheres to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, including Ukraine. China does not recognize the DPR, LPR, etc.” – Chinese Deputy Representative to the UN.

At the end of the day, I think the Chinese don’t subscribe to this Axis of Resentment style of politics that Russian elite do, they just want to trade, get rich and not rock the boat too much beyond giving some mildly militant statements against “American hegemony” as PR to attract the Global South countries towards China.

Im not sure that these day by day extremely minute analyses amount to much, although I can see why some people enjoy them, like a competitive sport.

In the larger picture it’s been like a year, and nothing really dramatic has happened. I don’t think much will change.

Eventually, it will just stop, without much being gained by anyone, and just a sense of the futility of it all.

Perhaps Plotinus had the wisest attitude to war.

Ukrainians might have wished for it, but they had neither ability nor opportunity to do it.

Honestly I think so too.
But when/if it’s eventually conceded that the Russians detonating whatever leverage they had over Germany is too preposterous to believe, blaming the Ukrainians for it makes sense.
After all, they’re in no position to complain or deny it, whereas it could create a diplomatic scandal between Germany and Poland/Sweden if it was revealed they were involved (of course all European countries would be too cowardly to express anger or shift blame towards the US directly).

@War Observer

At the end of the day, I think the Chinese don’t subscribe to this Axis of Resentment style of politics that Russian elite do, they just want to trade, get rich and not rock the boat too much beyond giving some mildly militant statements against “American hegemony” as PR to attract the Global South countries towards China.

I think China’s strategic interests remain strictly in their own backyard. And whereas there at least was a non-trivial segment of Europe interested in friendly relations with Russia, China’s East/Southeast/ neighbors and India will hate and fear China whether the US is involved there or not.

Anybody take them up on it?

I don’t know. My guess is that Sephardi Jews still looking to emigrate must find Israel more attractive than Spain. But I’m sure some must have taken up the offer. A Shengen passport is very convenient for many people. You can settle anywhere in the EU and Spain also has plenty of visa-free travel around the world and lots of bilateral treaties, especially with Latin America.

My personal view is that Spain didn’t gain much long-term by expelling the Jews. Some of them settled in other European countries where they contributed to European culture, like Spinoza in the Netherlands, or David Ricardo in England, while Spain was entering a period of cultural decline. But this gesture of grating foreigners citizenship rights based on events that happened half a millennium ago, thus making fellow EU partners be co-responsible for those events, shows how immigration issues are handled in the EU.

My guess is that Sephardi Jews still looking to emigrate must find Israel more attractive than Spain.

I’m really not sure about that.
Standard of living in Spain, especially for average people, is much higher than Israel’s, with the latter’s problems of religious nuts, housing price crisis, unstable governments, fuzzy borders, African migrant crime, unassimilated Russians despising brown Mizrachim, high cost of food, abrasive public behavior, and so on.

My personal view is that Spain didn’t gain much long-term by expelling the Jews. Some of them settled in other European countries where they contributed to European culture, like Spinoza in the Netherlands, or David Ricardo in England, while Spain was entering a period of cultural decline.

It’s often forgotten that the final expulsions of Moriscos and Conversos coincided with the period that the Ottoman Empire was at its height and seemed unstoppable. A little earlier in 1480, the Ottomans had even staged a probing invasion of Italy at Otranto. Nobody at the time could have known that front wasn’t going to go anywhere, as the Turks went on to overwhelm Hungary instead.

For a century Ukraine has been regarded as the ‘Geographical Pivot of History’. the Heartland of the World Island. Denying it to one’s enemy is no small achievement.

The war is an attempt to reverse Russian nationalist humiliation at losing the Soviet Empire in 1991. The inferiority complex gifted Russian by Nicholas I and Offical Nationality was strongly embedded in the security services. Similar things happened in Germany after WW1. Russia will be lucky to keep its rump of the Donbas by the time this ends.

They don’t have the ammo to launch a ground offensive. Even if they capture the dump in Transneistra, it is likely all rotten. More likely they will be crushed trying.

Russia does have a huge supply of anti-aircraft missiles. Now they have all but exhausted their other long range missiles, these are being repurposed as inaccurate weapons to keep up attacks on UA infrastructure but rarely hit the target when they do get through.

90,000 Russian troops are going to be cut off in Taurida. By September at latest, they should have no fuel, no ammo and no food. If Russian ammunition is already so scarce, maybe less. If the problem is not scarcity but rather poor logistics led by Push, the huge new influx of reservists will be counter productive.

Ukrainian’s new weapons start rolling across the fields in May. Until then mud will save Russia from big defeats.

Can Putin survive the loss of Crimea? Most of his henchmen, particularly Medvedev have made stupid statements of aggression against the rest of the world to prove their loyalty. Mishtustin the constitutional successor, has made a few grunts of support but nothing outrageous. He as stayed as far back as possible. This indicates questionable loyalty to Putin. A true loyalist would offer to nuke London or otherwise put himself beyond The Pale. He probably enjoys Xi’s support to still be in office. Before the IT workers fled, there were 7m men of military age in Russia. As well as the refugees and military who must number over 1m, Russia needs another 1m extra production specialists to keep the economy rolling and increase military production. This from a group which represents demographic collapse and should be making babies (Putin has ordered an increase there too).

Xi owes Putin a return visit to Moscow. He didn’t turn for the anniversary. With Xi and a succesful launch, rather than a failure of the Sarmat, Putin’s speech would have been more upbeat. In practice, Xi is maintaining sanctions on Russia (military gear, top end chips) and distancing himself from a loser. He sent Wang Yi instead to tell Putin to get his act together. Xi and the politburo may change their minds if the US gets too triumphalist but even then all they can offer in time would be ammunition for Russia’s obsolete weapon systems.

The tanks are coming. Still not tank weather until May. Mud.

Could that nuclear waste mutant be a reverse Michael Jackson, and want to be a black woman? Do we know anything about his other targets?

This “comment” is classical sour grapes, with some blatant lies thrown in for credibility. Trolling for the imperial cause gets harder and harder by the day. My condolences.

Looks like the empire is getting hysterical. To create a money laundering opportunity it stupidly attached itself to a lost cause. Even sent Alzheimer-in-chief to the place where he and his wayward son got sizeable bribes. Now it is desperately looking for ways to save whatever remains of its face. Tough luck.

Standard of living in Spain, especially for average people, is much higher than Israel’s, with the latter’s problems of religious nuts, housing price crisis, unstable governments, fuzzy borders, African migrant crime, unassimilated Russians despising brown Mizrachim, high cost of food, abrasive public behavior, and so on.

Israel’s GDP per capita (PPP) was $52,000 compared to Spain’s $46,000 in 2022. In nominal terms the gap would be even larger; $58,000 for Israel and $29,000 for Spain. Gini co-efficient is roughly similar for both countries; around the 33-34 range.

Most importantly for a long-term oriented Jew, Israel is less cucked than Spain. Spain admitted 500,000 immigrants in the first half of 2022; almost double their previous year. Spain will likely admit more African and Muslim immigrants over the next 20-30 years than Israel. And with sub-replacement fertility (compared to Israel’s ~3 TFR); Spain has 50-70 years left of demographic dominance; after which instability will kick in; or Spaniards will fade gently into the good night. Israel has its demographic problems too; but I think they are in a slightly better position to address them – at least their leadership and populace recognize the problem.

Is it surprising that the shittiest administration in history attracts shit? Scum will remain scum, whether straight, transgender, or transvestite.

I don’t dispute that Ukraine is a corrupt Mafia state (Russia is a Fascist state mostly free from low and mid level civilian corruption). I don’t dispute that Biden’s son was being used for some purpose. Probably not wittingly from what I have read of his abilities. I would also include the Clintons, Blair, Prime Ministers of Sweden and Israel and senior officials across Europe and the US on the Ukrainian (specifically Pinchuk’s payroll). This does not make Russia right to invade.

Israel’s GDP per capita (PPP) was $52,000 compared to Spain’s $46,000 in 2022. In nominal terms the gap would be even larger; $58,000 for Israel and $29,000 for Spain. Gini co-efficient is roughly similar for both countries; around the 33-34 range.

Well I haven’t visited either country, so this isn’t worth much, but my gut feeling tells me inequality in Israel is an order of magnitude higher in Israel than Spain, whatever the figures say. With elected governments at least, a lot of care is done to reduce the appearance (if not the reality) of inequality and so the figures can be assumed to be manipulated.

Probably Dmitry could comment on this more profitably, since he’s visited both countries and seems to speak passable Hebrew and and possibly understands Spanish when spoken (I merely learned to read it and haven’t spoken with natives irl) as well.

Additionally, Carlson contrasts the difference in DC priority for financially assisting Ukraine while places like East Palestine, Ohio, suffer a catastrophic toxic chemical disaster.

Well, there was zero priority under Trump to equip trains with better brakes. And there was much military assistance to Ukraine under Trump.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/22/donald-trump-toxic-train-derailment-east-palestine-ohio
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-admin-approves-sale-anti-tank-weapons-ukraine/story?id=65989898

If NATO had written this, it would be one thing. But it’s actually a quote from a text written by a real soldier in the battlefield. That changes things a little, the way I see it.
Anyway, what the soldier (who is also a journalist)’s text reveals is just how steeped in Western popular culture Ukrainians are. For better or for worse.

I think Fair Trade is a bad example to make your point. Many people intrigued by Fair Trade notions think it goes beyond fairness as they are concerned that crimes and immoral acts are being perpetrated to create the product. In any given case it is difficult to know if this is true, but it should not be considered optional.

I realize that Fair Trade and similar bandwagons may be rolled up with various other aspects (communism, etc.) which blur the facts.

It is a challenge for free exchange, especially with fungible products.

I know nothing about ESG.

PS: Good chocolate is one of the key food groups, I’m not sure how anyone considers it a “luxury”…

What is the minimum additional trouble which would need to have been created by the West or Ukraine in order for you to begrudgingly agree that Russia’s moves were in fact defensive?

Context for the question above. Many people would agree that the West was meddling in Ukraine, but they might argue over the degree of the meddling, or simply ignore it and say that always takes place. The West found a sympathetic audience for their meddling and nurtured a coup and what followed. The locals attacked Donbass with the obvious plan of driving out any resistance to the coup. Some of the fighters probably reveled in their own little genocide.

These facts could all be sugar-coated but I think the points are not controversial.

The next piece is the West wanted to expand NATO into Ukraine and place weapons there pointed at Russia. The degree to which these weapons would be a serious military threat or merely a political threat is unknown.

For many people these limited facts are enough to definitively show that Russia was responding defensively to an actual threat created by the West.

People in your camp seem to believe the balance of facts is such that Russia was not defending herself but attacking. Can you respond to the question at the top in the box?

Although to my mind it seems extremely unlikely this could have been carried out without at least somebody in the US greenlighting it,

Given the dementia and leakiness of Not-The-President Biden’s administration, I cannot fathom anyone being stupid enough to seek a green light from the U.S. Anything requiring operational security has to exclude the DC Dysfunction.

PEACE 😇

I wouldn’t force my preferred form of social organization on any country that didn’t want it.

These days it’s not so much about “forcing” (except in the case of countries such as Russia), but more about meddling – latching on to a small home grown progressive minority in an Eastern European country and artificially bolstering it.

I’d be happy to coexist with a country like your ideal

Right, my ideal is very benign (and above all, people should be loved and taken good care of, the strong must support the weak, but that only means there need to be more of the strong around). But even my ideal is considered “far right” by some of today’s leading ideologues. And, of course, local liberals who take for granted what was built by the normal majority.

but a country founded by the majority of the Unz commenters should become an international pariah

It’s actually a rather diverse group here. I’m a bit surprised how few real WNs there are on these boards. This group is so diverse that they couldn’t hold a coherent ideology and maintain a country. They are mostly contrarians (which is fun and unusual, but how would they run a country? Once they established that desired country of theirs, they would turn contrarian towards it again).

But if you’re talking about a potential right-wing pariah, we need to be clear about based on what? If they live peacefully and are not openly aggressive towards their neighbors in their little or not so little realm, then there is no reason to make them a pariah. After all, there are states with rather questionable politics that have not been made pariahs by the West (certain oil states in the Middle East, etc). So what is allowed to an oil country would not be allowed to a white country (assuming that country is not in NATO)?

doesn’t excessively repress alternative lifestyles

Alternative lifestyles always existed, even in the 1930s. Forms of women’s lib existed back then as well.
It just didn’t take extreme forms. But there is a problem here with consistency, of course, things such as if hetero society does not behave well, then it doesn’t really make sense to “oppress” gays. Then it becomes a race to the bottom.

If a lifestyle and philosophy is genuinely more capable of bringing humans happiness, it’s inherent appeal should be made manifest and serve as the basis for a seductive appeal.

We enter the realm of subjectivity here. Who gets to decide that? Happiness is subjective. If you take a utilitarian approach and find things that bring the maximum good to the maximum number of people, then you might have a point. No need to deny wellbeing to humanity if such wellbeing can easily be promoted and expanded.

Certain things can be measured empirically – for example, what kind of a lifestyle reduces blood pressure or which ingredients in food production should be avoided. But when it comes to human happiness, it becomes subjective. Also, something that may be making one happy at one point, may not make them happy forever, etc. There are different stages in life where one’s needs will be different. The hedonistic approach is a bit slippery.

My only point is that it is a “static” vision, like all conservative visions, and I do believe that a genuinely healthy society needs to be moving towards a moral horizon, a vision of the Good, in some way, to retain it’s vigor and energy and self-confidence, and even will to live. (Your vision of the Good obviously need not be that of the Woke). But you need an Ideal that you are moving toward, trying to manifest.

If you’re looking for an Ideal, then some aspects of archeofuturism may provide such. In my ideal state, the ideological basis would be drawn from the ancestral wisdom (the ethical guidelines contained in a body of poetry called daina). There is also value in the Greco-Roman heritage, obviously. Or even some kind of mythopoetic exercise.

You see, “Ideal” is a tricky word – we can view it as something one strives for, something that is more defined as a permanent search, an unending journey, where we are in a flux and thriving for something that is not constant, that is not here and that is not fully defined. Some abstract ideal of humanity. But an “Ideal” can also be something very concrete, something from the past, that which once was but is in essence timeless, that can be exalted and idealized.

I understand the purpose of human life as the ever greater realization of the divine Good, the reaching out to it more and more, the attempt to realize a Platonic Ideal, and that is the source of the life-force.

I hope you are talking about the metaphysical Platonic Ideal here, because the political and even to some extent the ethical Platonic Ideal is deeply totalitarian.

Anatoly is becoming increasingly optimistic about Russia’s chances in the war based on two reasons:

1. Data indicates that Ukrainian losses are high and that the rate of attrition for Ukraine is no less than it was earlier in the war
2. China seems to slowly be coming around to providing Russia with backing

point 1 I don’t think is too relevant. I believe that Ukraine has enough manpower to fight forever.

point 2 is more interesting. Russia is capable of providing most of its own armament needs but China could be very helpful with EW and other systems that will help close some of the technological gap with NATO supplied Ukraine.

Oh, geez, another one of these… well, at least he appears to be some kind of a masculist, he should really focus on his own country and population. What state is he from?

well, at least he appears to be some kind of a masculist

That is decidely *not* a good thing. Guys who are obsessed with “manhood” are the cringiest weirdos there are

My impression is that much of China’s military hardware is still closely based on Russian equipment. What makes you believe they have more advanced EW systems than Russia? I can imagine China has more quantity but not more quality.

Has Toly volunteered yet? They say chicks dig scars.

I don’t dispute that Ukraine is a corrupt Mafia state (Russia is a Fascist state mostly free from low and mid level civilian corruption

Russia is no more fascist state than the US. In fact, there is a lot more variety of opinions in Russian MSM, whereas the “unanimity” of American MSM today is the same that was in Hitler’s Germany in late 1930s.

My university censored out numerous websites and whole domains. To be fair, I can easily access the sites that it censored out via my home internet service provider and via my cellphone. I recently flew to Kenya via France. Experimentally I found that France censored out the same sites that my University, whereas in Kenya there is freedom of speech: no internet censorship.

If you want to call someone fascist, Ukraine qualifies with its extrajudicial imprisonment, murders, and torture of political prisoners.

Why not? He seems to enjoy ice baths and seems quite ambitious about “American manhood”. Maybe a little too ambitious….

“If American men don’t undergo a physical revolution, our civilization will fall.

The New American Man must be able to point out places for mountains & passes, change the course of rivers and lay down rules for the oceans. All soy culture must be corrected or reduced to ashes.”

LOL

Any photographic proof? None so far has been produced.

WTF? Are you a bacha boy for Oshkosh executives? That seem’s the only logical explanation of your ridiculous comments and agenda.

Unlike Russia, China has an advanced electronics industry. They are behind Russia in jet engine technology but ahead of Russia in every other field. China has been prepping for a hot war with the US for decades whereas the Russian military is mainly for bullying Russia’s hapless neighbors.

China is a basket case in its own right, I’m even more skeptical about China long term than I am about Russia, but the US is so degenerate and gay that a China/Russia alliance could conceivably defeat it.

Are you Joy Behar ?

If not… Why do you sound exactly like her?

PEACE 😇
________

Note: That is a jpeg of the tweet. You can follow back to the original diatribe here:

https://instapundit.com/571220/

2. China seems to slowly be coming around to providing Russia with backing

There is nothing concrete there yet. Is this some Chinese game to put pressure on the West to further their own agendas?

First, China stressed quite clearly that they believe “territorial integrity” should be respected. It is not clear from the recent visit to Moscow whether China and Russia are on the same page here (it doesn’t appear so, it’s more that China simply doesn’t want the US to prevail and become stronger and they still want a “multi-polar” world).

It would also be a risk for the CCP to openly support RusFed with weapons (or even start some kind of a war production program). They are struggling from the lack of growth and would be sanctioned on top of that. Will they sacrifice their economy for Putin?

Seriously, has anyone from western countries ever actually heard of any “Ukrainian” community, culture, festival or language or anything else from this fake diaspora in their country before 2014, or even since only last year?

I have NEVER heard ANYTHING about this fake group from any western locals before

The excellent Mikhael/Mr Averko is a genius on such issues – maybe you can even inform on how many Banderetards in US and Canada there actually are?

I know nothing about ESG.

Like most progressive policies, ESG is horrifying dogma locked on a path towards certain disaster. It is anti-American deception that pretends to be socially conscious. (1)

The ‘ESG’ Scam Rates Slave-Using Chinese Firms Higher Than Clean American Energy Producers

Expecting publicly traded companies to do more than simply return shareholder value — their fiduciary responsibility — is a fairly new development in Western capitalism. The idea that corporate leadership and shareholders should explicitly care about environmental, social, and corporate governance (known as ESG) issues beyond how they might affect the bottom line has been around for only about 30 years.

But now, ESG investing has become a big driver in steering capital to corporations deemed to be good stewards of subjective principles. By 2025, financial management firms that claim to invest with ESG principles are projected to account for $50 trillion of a total global value of $140.5 trillion — more than a third of managed investments.
…
Ben M. “Bud” Brigham, founder and executive chairman of Brigham Minerals and other energy companies, has been an ESG skeptic for years. He tells me that “companies innovating in free markets strive to create value for their owners which benefit all the legitimate stakeholders. This is empirically validated in America, where we enjoy unprecedented levels of clean air and clean water compared to other major economies. In contrast, ESG investing — a relatively subjective exercise — often represents the influence of illegitimate stakeholders, and therefore ends up being irresponsible, destructive, and counter to its stated goals.”

So, here’s the bottom line from the self-righteous global elites: Chinese-government-owned coal, fine; Chinese slave-provisioned solar power, good; Chinese state-owned natural gas, better; American domestic natural gas and oil, terrible.

Voluntarily screwing up your personal return by picking bad (but CCP green), investments is a luxury.

Damaging U.S. industry by making energy more expensive is sedition, possibly treason. Decreasing already precarious retirement by government mandating ESG into 401-K investments is entirely involuntary.

The “E” in ESG is actually for “Evil”.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/28/the-esg-scam-rates-slave-using-chinese-firms-higher-than-clean-american-energy-producers/

白人

白人 is still associated with 白人至上. And basically all Chinese can discern the R1a vs. R1b distinction.

I would use the term 战斗民族 kämpfendes Volk. It’s really an affectionate term and some Chinese people will find it hilarious that you know it.

Russian girl fenhong explains why 战斗民族 have no fear of Covid–

Yeah I’ve heard of Чжандо минзу – suits us well. I’ll take it.

And it’s true that most among us don’t care much about Covid. I actually feel some compassion when I see young and fit East Asians wearing masks outside, even though several studies in peer reviewed journals have demonstrated that most masks are completely useless.

Was discussing it with one of my sons while on a walk downtown, and he told me : “they do it out of respect for others”. I asked him : “would you too do it out of respect, even if you knew that it is useless?” He answered: “if I was in their country, I would. So that I don’t frighten or alienate them.”

China is coming along, but I think they are still 90% copy, 10% figure it out on their own. With 10X the people they may be OK, but if they have 1/10 the innovation, maybe not. Time will tell.

They seem to be behind Russia in many fields, but I agree they have ridden the Western microelectronics boom which Russia completely missed, other than sending loads of smart people to help out in the West. Russia is still catching up with the Soviet Union in some areas, but has advanced in others.

I think the “New Great Wall” Chinese underground missile system seems real, but no one at Unz wants to engage on this important topic.

Лучше один раз увидеть чем десять раз услышать:

The anthropology of drift…

There is a Bandera memorial in New Jersey. The CIA imported hundreds of Ukrainians after WWII to wage cold war. Victoria Nuland has always been tight with these idiots.

I think the original photos of a battlefeild strewn with Russian (Wagner) show the Western take on Russia’s KIA is greatly exaggerated, just as Iran’s were in the Iran-Iraq war. The Ukrainian ought to have scores of such photos but there is just that one. Where is the drone footage of these human waves, it would be great propaganda.

At the end of the day, I think the Chinese don’t subscribe to this Axis of Resentment style of politics that Russian elite do, they just want to trade, get rich and not rock the boat too much beyond giving some mildly militant statements against “American hegemony” as PR to attract the Global South countries towards China

China’s military spending is remaining stable at 2%. But their economy is growing, In a generation America will need very much higher military spending and an alliance with Russia to deal with China militarily. Economically, I don’t see how China can be contained at all, and that is why they are sticking to economic growth. It will be the West that does not like the ‘rules based order’ where China plays by the rules and wins hands down.

Will they sacrifice their economy for Putin?

No. But they may believe that the US is too degenerate and gay to do anything to respond to Chinese support for Russia.

China’s goals are to keep the war going as long as possible and to increase Russian dependence on China. China lacks food and energy so having Russia as a junior partner provides them with the resources they need to have a full confrontation with the United States. The goal is not to ever have such a confrontation at all, but rather to have a credible enough threat that the US avoids responding to Chinese actions that the US disapproves of.

I don’t see China going all out to arm Russia, but rather giving Russia a lot of behind the scenes help like it has been doing so far with the implied threat that if the US places sanctions on China that China can respond by providing Russia with any and all equipment it needs. China (correctly, imo) calculates that the US is too degenerate and gay to do anything other than just accept this humiliation. I mean, come on, Biden is gonna sanction China? That would cause a huge economic hit to the United States and would be extremely unpopular with the Democrat’s big donors. Further, the US knows that it would lose a proxy war against China and that the loss of this war would lead to the guaranteed fall of Taiwan once Ukraine was defeated.

Ultimately it is all somewhat academic as the Russian military is a basket case and shows no capability of achieving operational breakthrough against Ukraine. The longer this conflict drags on, the less the US can permit Ukraine to fall. But Russia could conceivably batter Ukraine enough that Ukraine would be forced to accept an armistice where they give up the Donbas and Odessa and where Ukraine waives the right to join the EU.

This would still be a severe strategic defeat for Russia. Russian territorial gains would remain unrecognized not only by the West but by most non aligned states as well, China included. Russia would still remain heavily sanctioned and would forever lose its place as a great power, instead being converted into a glorified Chinese satellite.

I think the “New Great Wall” Chinese underground missile system seems real, but no one at Unz wants to engage on this important topic.

I’m not familiar. What can you tell me about it?

…Sephardi Jews still looking to emigrate must find Israel more attractive than Spain.

They get both. I have not seen the numbers lately, but there was a substantial number that received Spanish passports when it was introduced (L America, Izrael…) The only requirement is religion and a hispanic surname (or close enough). Given the very mixed populations, it is just creative paperwork.

Spinoza in the Netherlands, or David Ricardo in England

I recall that they were from Portugal, but I could be wrong. The 16th century expulsion of Jews and Moriscos was one reason Spain declined. But there were others: very top heavy society with an annual colonial tribute, over-extended power projection – invading England, Portugal…, an ideological tailspin to a rigid clericalism…

By the 17th century too few did what would be considered real work, similar to the US-West today. But the West went ideologically in the exactly opposite direction and tries to maintain vitality with extreme openness…

The elites consciously try to avoid Spain’s fate, but they are overdoing it: the opposite of a failed policy is not automatically the solution, that would be too easy….

…the West certainly suffers from its own version of debilitating autism that leads it to it’s own failed adventures across the globe.

Ok, we agree. But it kind of says exactly the opposite of that you claimed earlier about ‘tyrants’ underestimating the enemy to start wars. The recent history has been the opposite. The cliche that you repeated is a favorite unthinking nonsense by many in the West – as if they literally didn’t see what has happened right in front of their eyes.

you are vastly underestimating the willingness of the West to do what it takes to prevent an outright and significant Russian victory…

Not at all. I simply think that the willingness is not that important by itself – the war will be decided by the real stuff: arms, soldiers, people putting their lives at extreme risk, economy, logistics… The Western willingness is not enough – they clearly will not send a large number of soldiers to risk their lives in the Ukie mud. Russians may not either at some point, but the odds are a lot higher.

I mostly see rhetoric from the West – banging drums, chest-beating, over-the-top rhetoric. That betrays weakness, fear that if Russia goes fully militaristic they won’t be able to stop it…like scared monkeys they jump, shout and throw feces… if there is an actual need to send soldiers, who will do it? Ukies are not enough in the long run. Or it can be solved with nukes and that is not a good place to be.

That’s just nonsense. Of course it was the Americans who blew up the Nordstream pipelines, you just don’t want to accept it, because it would complicate your nice and tidy story about Russian imperialism being the only problem. Because it actually reveals what this conflict really is, a great power conflict where all the Europeans are essentially just powerless pawns, and where US elites certainly aren’t acting out of altruistic concern for the best interests of Europeans, or even Ukrainians.
Incidentally for me this also totally undermines the case that it always being made here that it was intolerable for Ukraine to accept the Minsk agreements, because of them being so horribly unfair, limiting Ukrainian sovereignty etc. Well, it’s crystal clear now that even a major country like Germany doesn’t have real sovereignty and is essentially in a master-servant relationship with the American hegemon. Why the hell should anyone think the kind of Russian influence in Ukraine that existed before 2014 was some intolerable injustice given this context?
And saying those pipelines were destroyed by an accident (not even a Russian false flag operation, which might at least have some plausibility, albeit infinitesimally small), that’s just beyond silly. Are you happy to be in the company of total crackpots like A123?

The tanks are coming

Which tanks are you babbling about? The 14 Challengers? LOL.
As for the Leopards, it’s clear now that it was never more than a political manouevre, intended to make Germany the scapegoat for Ukrainian reverses. Apparently they didn’t expect Scholz to actually cave in and send tanks…now that he did, even PiS Poland suddenly is talking about problems with sending their Leopards…and mighty Finland has apparently offered to send three (!) special de-mining tanks. Absolute farce. Ukraine will be lucky to get a few dozen Leopards, of different versions at that.

I have finished reading another Ukraine-related book (Nicolai N. Petro, The tragedy of Ukraine. What classical Greek tragedy can teach about conflict resolution). Amusingly enough Karlin is cited in it, for his compilation of Crimean opinion polls. Didn’t expect to ever see Unz review referenced in a non-fringe publication, lol.
As for the book itself, I have mixed feelings. There’s quite a bit about the distinction between nationalism and patriotism, and given the way such arguments are usually deployed in Western societies (promotion of mass immigration, facilitation of blatant ethnocentrism among immigrants, while suppressing any ethnocultural sentiments among the native population) I can’t have much sympathy for them. A core thesis of the book is that some kind of Truth and Reconciliation commission could be a solution for Ukraine…with South Africa and Spain given as positive models. Well, South Africa is a dystopian hellhole where Boer farmers regularly are murdered in the most bestial ways imaginable, and in Spain the Left has reneged on the transitional compromise and sought to enshrine its own, highly selective of history in law. So not really much of a success story imo.
The book is probably also somewhat tendentious regarding events in Ukraine itself (e.g. regarding “Snipergate” during the Euromaidan)…obviously I couldn’t check many of its claims. It’s also been overtaken by events, most of it was written before Russia’s invasion, and the author acknowledges that to some extent. I still think it’s useful though. It has definitely reinforced my view that Ukraine should never be given support in an attempt to re-conquer Crimea or the parts of the Donbass held by the separatists before February 2022. There’s something truly noxious in the political culture of Galicia, and the uncritical embrace of Ukrainian nationalism by the EU (Slava Ukraini and all that shit) is really absurd, either a betrayal of “European values”, or a sign that those were never more than a facade for other interests anyway (maybe quite possible, given the puzzling behaviour of EU negotiatiors during the negotiations for the EU association agreement…what the hell did they think they were doing when setting such an impossible choice before Ukraine?).

We have a saying, the goose will scream when hit…… so do you, bigger better things, but you know the West has peaked. If you prefer, let’s call it a gradual relative collapse…

Regarding, what I want: peace, prosperity, good life, and no meddling in sovereign states by the know-it-all big guys. And maybe for the culture to be better at entertaining…

You either don’t acknowledge the recent run of the Western aggression – quite bloody by any standard – and the busy-body obsessive meddling in everything from ‘gender’ to Ukraine, or you like it. You seem to like it, so take the good with the bad.

In Ukraine the collective West clearly overreached led by the emotional nutcases often referred to as ‘neo-cons’, now they are panicking. You look for any signs that Russia is ‘collapsing’ or that Ukies will beat them on the battlefield. It almost certainly won’t happen – just think. Once it was clear that Russia moved, Kiev-West should had taken the offer of Minsk+…some face saving way to end it and maybe wait to fight another day (when Russia is weak). Your hurrah-patriotism will not get you a better deal.

…A core thesis of the book is that some kind of Truth and Reconciliation commission could be a solution for Ukraine

The T&R main role is to create an approved narrative, it always reflects the ideology of the ‘winning’ side, as it did in S Africa.

When I see the distinction between ‘patriotism’ and ‘nationalism’ I always stop reading – it is not much more than the ancient tribal thinking – ‘when I steal your cow it is good, when you steal my cow it is bad…‘ It is used to manage simpler people who sense there is something wrong when presented with similar events described in an opposite ways (Kosovo vs. Crimea) Verbal manipulation.

…puzzling behaviour of EU negotiatiors during the negotiations for the EU association agreement…what the hell did they think they were doing when setting such an impossible choice before Ukraine?

That was the crux of the matter – the objective was to create a binary choice: Kiev: you are 100% with us or you are 100%v with Russia. That was obviously intentional, the goal was it either to steam-roll over Russia (and its Ukie supporters, Crimea, Donbas,…) or to create this conflict. Well, we have a war because Russia refused to just roll over.

Wars are horrible and have very bad long-term consequences and they often get people ready for another war. But wars also clarify things, there will be a winner in this war and the odds are that it will Russia: more territory, more power, etc… The problem with intentionally stirring up wars is that at some point the results can come back to haunt you. Every single Nato war adventure in the last 20-25 years has backfired, they lost and were much worse off afterwards. If Kiev gets worse deal than Minsk the war has been a loss for them…is anyone seriously thinking that Kiev will even get something like the Minsk deal again?

When is see the distinction between ‘patriotism’ and ‘nationalism’ I always stop reading

In the book it’s actually meant as a critique of Ukrainian (Galician) nationalism, Petro thinks there should have been a civic patriotism that includes Russophones without telling them to give up their language, view of history etc.
Of course the argument now is that these fractures no longer matter because of Russia’s invasion, which has made Ukrainian Russophones hate Russia and will cause them to voluntarily (?) give up the Russian language, but who knows.

That was the crux of the matter – the objective was to create a binary choice

Yes, but still, what the hell were the EU people thinking? Were they really crazy enough to think that this kind of geopolitical power play could redound to the EU’s benefit? It most certainly hasn’t…

Anyway, depressing as all of this, in the madness there still are some things that can make one laugh, albeit in a bitter way: