Here’s General Ben (ATACAMS) Hodges for balance.

You’re missing your link. But good post. This is what moderation and sanity sound like. Rather than Ritter or MacGregor’s second rate bombast and blowhardism.

Orban is backing NATO expansion:

The party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has endorsed bids by Finland and Sweden to join the NATO alliance, the Fidesz party’s parliamentary faction said on March 1.

“We will provide our support to Finland and Sweden’s NATO accession,” Fidesz said.

The party, together with a junior partner, controls over two-thirds of the seats in Hungary’s parliament.

The statement came as lawmakers opened a long-delayed debate on ratifying the entry of the two Nordic countries, which applied to join the 30-member alliance last year after Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Lawmakers are expected to take a final vote in the second half of March.

https://www.rferl.org/a/hungary-nato-debate-sweden-finland-orban/32294510.html

IMO, Luka won’t commit because he is too afraid of the Poles. (And I would be too.)

Before going to China, Lukashenko yesterday declared non-visa regime for all Poles coming to visit Belarus till the end of the year, probably needs cash a lot lately too:

https://www.belta.by/society/view/gpk-bezvizovyj-vjezd-dlja-grazhdan-polshi-budet-razreshen-vo-vseh-punktah-propuska-na-granitse-s-es-553206-2023/

This is what moderation and sanity sound like.

There’s nothing moderate or sane about Hodges’ comments regarding Crimea (starting around 35 min). He doesn’t even acknowledge the major risks of Crimea’s “liberation” leading to a direct NATO-Russia war, quite possibly a nuclear one. Western support for such an enterprise would be seen as an attempt to deprive Russia of her Black Sea Fleet and thereby permanently cripple her as a great power, very risky gamble to think this would just be accepted by the military and security establishment of a nuclear power who are ideologically invested in her greatness.
And even if by some miracle Ukraine does “liberate” Crimea without catastrophe, there’s the minor question of what Ukraine will do with the hundreds of thousands of Russians there who have zero interest in living in a Ukrainian national state. Hodges essentially just waves away that question with such non-arguments like “the referendum wasn’t reliable anyway”, “the demographics are artificial and the results of deportations” (so mass expulsions carried out by Ukraine would presumably be ok?), and going on about the Tatars…sure, the Tatars, with their inspiring entrepreneurial history, were there before the Russians…but they’re not ethnic Ukrainians either…
Anyway, having seen about 50 minutes of this video, somewhat shocked that this drivel is supposed to be respected analysis, coming from a former senior general at that. It’s probably true that Ritter and MacGregor are essentially propagandists and grifters who tell disenchanted, “pro-Russian” Westerners what they want to hear. Hodges is fulfilling the same role for the NAFO crowd.

Lukashenko is searching for a new big brother, first 3 minutes or so are quite interesting to watch, absolutely everybody is still masking hard there, only exception for two leaders and orchestra:

The only moderate sane position for several months has been No Comment.

Meanwhile the longest comment threads on unz are this here thread in Anarcho Karlinstan.

Jewish population in European cities from MapPorn

Here’s an alternative scenario regarding the Crimea issue:
https://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/foreign-and-security-policy/sleepwalking-into-escalation-6485/

Circle in Dublin is small but growing at a geometric rate.

It’s probably true that Ritter and MacGregor are essentially propagandists and grifters who tell disenchanted, “pro-Russian” Westerners what they want to hear. Hodges is fulfilling the same role for the NAFO crowd.

Well, Hodges did predict better how well Ukraine would do at the beginning, even when much if the American Establishment predicted a quick defeat. So I would not compare him to Ritter et al.

He doesn’t even acknowledge the major risks of Crimea’s “liberation” leading to a direct NATO-Russia war, quite possibly a nuclear one

You think Russia has anything like the capability to start a war with NATO? They don’t even have the capability to defeat Ukraine.

As for a nuclear standoff, you’ve been obsessing over this all along, and using it to basically argue that Ukraine should surrender. Your attitude has done more to increase the future likelihood of nuclear war than any other. Hodges most certainly addresses this. Giving into nuclear blackmail does not make nuclear war less likely. It makes it more likely.

The idea that a nuclear power can defend its territory with nuclear weapons is established but Crimea is not Russia’s territory. Any more than Kherson, which they claimed in exactly the same nonsense process, and notice how Ukraine took it back and Russia, rather than use nukes, had to suck it up and have its propaganda bots go out to celebrate that as a great victory?

Russia war, quite possibly a nuclear one. Western support for such an enterprise would be seen as an attempt to deprive Russia of her Black Sea Fleet and thereby permanently cripple her as a great power

Russia’s Black Sea fleet cannot even leave the Black Sea. That is a current fact and one which they have no capability to change. Furthermore, they have other Black Sea coastline on which they could maintain their fleet.

And even if by some miracle Ukraine does “liberate” Crimea without catastrophe, there’s the minor question of what Ukraine will do with the hundreds of thousands of Russians there who have zero interest in living in a Ukrainian national state.

They voted for it in the only reliable election. The one held at the fall of the USSR. The 103% or whatever result Russia got clearly wasn’t reliable. As for expulsion, I sincerely hope that it doesn’t happen, but supporting the invasion of your country does often endnuo with expulsion, if any actually did klmuch support it. Let’s hope that Russia’s reparation payments are enough to buy those people off.

If they really are even close to as diehard Russian as Russian propaganda, the same propaganda that claimed immense support in Kherson and was found to be completely wrong, leads you to believe.

Anyway, having seen about 50 minutes of this video, somewhat shocked that this drivel is supposed to be respected analysis, coming from a former senior general at that. It’s probably true that Ritter and MacGregor are essentially propagandists and grifters who tell disenchanted, “pro-Russian” Westerners what they want to hear. Hodges is fulfilling the same role for the NAFO crowd.

Your equivocation between the two is a result of a lot of things, none of them include anything positive. I mentioned the style and you can’t even see how someone who expresses basic doubt and uncertainty is more credible than the Ritter “I am absolutely confident” act.

I am glad that you’re not in charge of Germany and that people like Pistorius don’t have the sort of neurotic housefrau attitude that seeps out of your comments.

I know this is isn’t kind, but it is true.

Rather than deciding Hodges isn’t credible because he doesn’t fit your priors of what a credible expert on this would sound like, you probably need to re-calibrate your idea of what such a person would sound like and base your idea around him. Michael Kofman is an even better option, as he is more careful to manage his image as his career depends on it, but Hodges is an excellent General and more expert that the slew of attention-whores that roll out in bombast for Russia

You also missed a lot of the key points, while getting outraged. For example, Hodges made the fundamental point that the key ground for Ukraine is Crimea. At the very least, it forces Russia to agree to peace to get it back or not have to humiliatingly surrender it, and Ukraine is certainly capable of getting to that point.

You didn’t understand that point because you don’t even have the basic knowledge to understand why key ground/key terrain is specific terminology. I guess your ignorance is why you can’t tell the difference between grifters and Hodges. You might as well be commenting on quantum physics, while thinking you have a clue as to what you’re talking about.

The thing about war is that you always need to be considering what your actions achieve. For example, fighting for Bakhmut doesn’t achieve much of anything for Russia. The only way they can force a surrender on Ukraine is to take Kyiv, and Bakhmut is 22 times further from Bakhmut than Bakhmut is from where they started. In other words, it does get them substantially closer to victory.

Meanwhile, for Ukraine, advancing into Donbas doesn’t get them closer either. In fact, it just gets them closer to better supplied and defended Russian lines. Thereby pitching Ukrainian weakness against Russian strength.

However Crimea can be cut off and, in its isolation, can force Putin into serious negotiations. Your neurotic self, so prone to fall in love with psychotic grifters as they balance you out, will probably enjoy the fact that the most likely result of Ukraine successfully isolating Crimea, is that Putin makes some dumb threats, but immediately sues for peace, in order to not have to surrender Crimea and even, maybe, gets to keep it, or at least Sebastopol.

There is no other way to end this war, except perhaps multiple years of attrition until someone puts a bullet in Putin’s head. Or the West tells Russia it’ll intervene as it has had enough of the pointless bloodshed. Putin has made clear that he is not negotiation capable. Having invaded the country twice in ten years, he has also shown he cannot be trusted. He was literally denying that he ever would, or had, even a few days before. And if the Ukrainian government surrenders, there’ll be occupation and a gruesome wars that will continue for generations, or until the resistance wins, all with an endless supply of weapons from Poland and the Baltics.

Now I get, as a neurotic who falls in love with psychotic grifters, you want to make some argument whereby everyone else must be the model of reasonableness and restraint so as to accommodate the grifters, but they’re won’t be that. That doesn’t work. The West kept Ukraine out of NATO, so Ukraine got invaded, twice. The West de facto let Russia have Crimea, so Putin invaded the rest of Ukraine. The West never threatened Russia with anything like invasion, so Russian official proganda regularly talks about nuking the West. There aren’t two equal sides. There’s the side that invaded a peaceful, democratic European country, while saying that they would never do it, and justified it with claims of a war against Satan and Nazis. And that same side held refrenda in territory they didn’t even fully control, claiming that they’d won in landslides, to say they’d officially and lawfully annexed vast swathes of land, and would defend it with nukes. You can have your petty resentments and whine and whinge about not being respected, but have some perspective. The usually catty squabbles over progressives and conservatives are irrelevant compared to Putin bringing back industrial scale war to Europe, and in a war of genuine conquest even. If Putin succeeds, the future will be a lot more bleak than otherwise. Not just for Ukrainians, but for anyone who wants there to be as small a possibility of nuclear threatening, industrial scale wars of conquest on their doorstep again. Steel yourself. Either the escalation happens now from strength, or it happens in the future in weakness. Hodges gets that, because is a consummate professional. Pity you don’t.

I saw that the Saker’s blog has been shut down for good. Looked back in the archives to see if he offered any particular reason why he decided to shut it down now, and didn’t find any. A year ago he had said that if he felt that if it came to be that direct war between the US and Russia was a certainty, he would considered his mission a failure and shut the blog down. Maybe that’s how he feels now.

Hungary is spiking NATO expansion (1)

The Hungarian parliament will begin to debate Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership bids on Wednesday; however, there are “serious discussions” to be had regarding the countries’ criticism of Hungarian democracy before ratifying their accession to the defense alliance, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said.
…
He revealed there is a strong counter-argument against the membership bids by some within his party. “They’re spreading blatant lies about Hungary, about the rule of law in Hungary, about democracy, about life here; how, the argument goes, can anyone want to be our ally in a military system while they’re shamelessly spreading lies about Hungary?”

“If they expect us to be fair to them, then they should also be fair to Hungary,” Orbán added.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced on Monday a Hungarian delegation would visit both Helsinki and Stockholm as part of the parliamentary ratification process “to dispel their concerns about unfounded lies about the state of Hungary’s democracy.”

“In recent years, lies and made-up news about Hungary have been spread by government officials in Sweden, quite regularly,” Szijjártó told Swedish broadcaster SVT.

We will have to see what is offered, but NATO expansion is in serious trouble.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://rmx.news/nato/hungarian-mps-lack-enthusiasm-over-sweden-and-finland-nato-bids-orban-warns/

I don’t see how a direct fight is avoidable.

Bakhmut/Artemovsk is the biggest battle in the last 50 years. It’s not as Bloody as Ypres where three of my grand uncles perished but it’s the biggest contest since the 1970s, dwarfing Iraq several times.

It’s just a prelude.

These people don’t have any sons. You are wasting your breath.

Finally watched the Chinese film The Founding of a Republic (2009) with a dreaded IMDB score of 4.9 (and that is maybe including CCP bots)

Obviously not that.

Instead it is because his every prediction about the course of the war and geopolitics was absolutely one hundred percent wrong.

As for a nuclear standoff, you’ve been obsessing over this all along, and using it to basically argue that Ukraine should surrender.

That assessment is based on what exactly? His impressive successes on the field of battle?

This isn’t the age of Napoleon. Serious modern militaries are huge bureaucracies, and the relevant impressive skills stem from that. It isn’t glorious in the way that the past was, but it is effective, and why the US could waltz through Iraq in 5 weeks, on the other side of the world, and Russia can’t even take Bakhmut in a year, right on their border.

Nah, come on, just because the Russians lie a lot and use some facts to justify unjustifiable actions of their own, one doesn’t have to become totally mendacious. Things like the PM gloating over Donbass children hiding in cellars aren’t what most people would associate with being peaceful, democratic etc., nor do certain influential political subcultures in Ukraine fit that description.

There you are again, equivocating between murderous huge invasions and mean words taken out of context. How do you not die of utter self-humiliation?

Would have been invaded even earlier, if the process for NATO accession had gone ahead in 2008 or 2014. Russia under Putin (and probably most other possible leaders) was never going to tolerate this, would have just led to an earlier “preventive” war.

If Russia had attacked NATO, their invasion forces would have been immediately destroyed on the border.

Yeah, too bad Russia has got those things called nuclear weapons. But I’m sure it’s all bluff, what could possibly go wrong in calling it.

You’re still trying to argue that states with nukes are less likely to threaten and use them if they get their way by threatening them, than if they don’t.

That isn’t a legal question, it’s how the Russian military and security establishment views the matter. And there can’t be much doubt that for them Crimea and the Black Sea Fleet are non-negotiable core interests.

They said the exact same as regards Kherson and there was actually more logic to it.

At a time when Russia’s future was uncertain due to the recent coup and in the hope of substantial autonomy within Ukraine. Which wasn’t achieved, with the consequence of serious constitutional crises regarding Crimean separatism already in the 1990s.
I’m tired now and not going to look up the details (easily researchable), but why do militant Westerners like you always have to resort to such transparently dishonest pseudo-arguments? You’ve got nothing better on offer?

You apply very different standards to the different sides. You’re bizarre.

Thought it was absolutely hilarious, when Madame Chiang Kai-Shek went to the US embassy

Correction: best guess would be that it was supposed to be the Blair House. Somewhere in Washington, at any rate, as she was meeting the Secretary of State.
_____
Not a bad intro to some of the changes the Great Migration brought to Boston:

Galadriel is actually the villain in Rings of Amazon Power

This character study maps her depiction to historical figures such as Pol Pot, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Amon Goeth.

Sauron and Adar are the heroes. Suddenly the show makes sense.

PEACE 😇

I don’t see how a direct fight is avoidable.

I am not sure why this bizarre idea keeps coming up:

    • America has no prestige or commitment on the line.
    • The U.S. House is going to cut Appropriations, not to zero but significantly.
    • Not-The-President Biden cannot obtain a Declaration of War, or even a quasi-constitutional AUMF.

Shutting down American involvement with Ukie Maximalist aggression is easy, relatively painless, and inevitable.

PEACE 😇

I read Christopher McIntosh’s new book, Occult Russia.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60560723-occult-russia

He is a smart guy and a talented writer, but most of his content is too obvious for this audience. One thing that might interest people is he is the first person I have seen to address Dugin’s occultism with any information. He does not use that really stupid trope every other writer in English seems to use, Putin’s Rasputin. And a citation (the first I have ever seen) to actual Dugin text on the subject!

Manifesto of the New Magi
Alexander Dugin and Sergey Kuryokhin
Open Revolt , Arktogeia 1996

https://eurasianist-archive.com/2019/08/26/alexander-dugin-sergey-kuryokhin-manifesto-of-the-new-magi/

There was only a very brief Russian speaking part portraying Stalin. But made did not miss emphasizing American support of KMT. The fact was that it was basically a US vs. Soviet proxy war.

Both the Americans and Soviets wanted a stalemate. George Marshall intervened in the crucial junction in 1946 that gave the CCP a chance to regroup–
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Mission

There were Germans on both sides, Hans von Seeckt for the KMT and Otto Braun for the commies. Japanese as well.

The translations are not very good. Let me know if there parts you are interested in.

Oh no, not at all, give me an exterminating angel…I liked the Goeth comparison. Raif stole the show of course. Doing God’s work.

it’s the biggest contest since the 1970s, dwarfing Iraq several times.

The Iranian Siege of Basra and the endless ‘Karbala’ operations (kind of like the 12 Battles of Isonzo) associated around the Arvand River area together had casualty totals approaching the 80’000 range. Although that was a much more protracted affair.

Really impressed how well the Ukraine and their NATO controllers were at stopping the Russians creating a land bridge to Crimea and liberating Mariupol, not like it wasn’t obviously going to be their first priority.

Europe needs more US influence, why wouldn’t someone on an alt right forum rejoice in such a prospect. I guess it makes a nice distraction form Bakhmut and the ongoing disintegration and economic collapse of the US itself.

The similarities to the Iran and Iraq war are more relevant than most, although Russia isn’t suffering anywhere near as many casualties as NATO and the Ukraine are.

I don’t know where I am with the whole Crimea/Donbas issue anymore. I still believe that those regions should have remained part of Russia with the breakup of the Soviet Union but now I don’t know what is the best thing to do with them now.

I think probably what’s best is to threaten Russia with a Ukrainian reconquest of those territories as a means of forcing Russia to sign an armistice. Remember, Russians can be reasonable: see the agreements ending the Crimean war as well as the war against Japan. People see the way that Russia fought to the end in WWII and assume that is what Russia is all about but that truly was an existential struggle. This war is far from existential: even if Russia suffers total defeat it will still be the world’s largest country in terms of land area, the world’s largest energy producer, the world’s 2nd largest food producer, a permanent member of the UN Security Council with veto power and one of only 2 countries in the world capable of effectively globally project military power. Russia is hardly staring down the barrel of its own Treaty of Versailles.

Russian nuclear threats are entirely irrelevant. If Russia wants to subject the world to a nuclear holocaust, that’s on them. But the West is not going to submit to nuclear extortion.

One other thing that people aren’t going to like but I think it is important to be said: a true Russian nationalist who wants a Russia that is a great power capable of challenging Western hegemony, that has united Russia/Belarus/Ukraine, and is strong enough to protect the rights of ethnic Russians living in the near abroad, should hope for complete Russian defeat in this conflict. Putin is leading Russia to oblivion. Russia desperately needs major reform and Russian history shows us that such reform in Russia only comes in response to major defeat.

Good article from Big Serge on the current fight: https://bigserge.substack.com/p/russo-ukrainian-war-schrodingers

There is no question that Russia maintains the initiative at the moment, but it is far from certain that that state of affairs will continue. It does appear, however, that Western assistance to Ukraine will need to be scaled dramatically if Ukraine is to be able to achieve operational breakthrough.

The land corridor was taken very early in the war, and involved fairly flat land that was difficult to defend (and indeed was barely defended). Mariupol took months.

Ritter et al were insisting that all of Ukraine would collapse in weeks (with possible exception of the far West). Hodges was much closer to reality than all of them, not even close.

ongoing disintegration and economic collapse of the US

You believe this?

It does appear, however, that Western assistance to Ukraine will need to be scaled dramatically if Ukraine is to be able to achieve operational breakthrough.

Where is this “scaling” going to come from?

The U.S. House is going to diminish and audit further funds. What non-U.S. countries will “scale up”? Germany? France? UK?

It is hard to envision anything other that Kiev aggression going into operational decline. This should drive Zelensky’s successor to the negotiating table.

PEACE 😇

Maybe Saker’s just not as shameless as the other ones who kept getting everything spectacularly wrong? IIRC he had one claimed that the Donbas republics alone would have taken Kiev if unleashed.

give it time.

“Big Serge” is the person who was writing that “it is a super smart ambush by Russia” every time Ukraine re-conquered large swathes of its territory. The man is a moron.

The Russian offensive was tried and it has failed. Confirmed destructions of Russian equipment demonstrate this. Kofman is right and has probably been the best and most measured voice on Ukraine throughout.

I would like to suggest an alternative to all these theories

Big Serge was a proponent of the various “feint” theories and various Russian false retreat but actually ambush theories. When he suggests an alternative, it means he is making up pro-Putin fan fiction.

At the moment, Russia has the initiative across the front.

Russia has been conducting a failed offensive for two months, while Ukraine builds its forces for its own advance and attrits the Russian force. You can call this ‘the initiative” if you like…I suppose. But the last two Ukrainian offensives were great successes, while Russia hasn’t had anything that can respectably be called a success since 7 months ago and even that was a prelude to disaster for them, as they spent their professional force achieving it.

Ukraine’s reserves are in a tenuous state right

Not true.

As a sort of metaphor for this, there are already rumors that some of Ukraine’s new Leopard tanks will be sent into combat around Bakhmut rather than held in reserve for a future offensive.

I can’t read any more. I’ve never seen such a bizarre attempt to grasp at straws. As a ‘metaphor” there are “rumours” of something that would be circumstantial evidence at best for his theory.

The man is an idiot. He has a track record of idiocy. Little different from Baghdad Bob.

I agree that Ukraine should be sent everything it needs to finish this war as quickly as possible. That is in everyone’s interests, including the Russians. I even still believe that Biden could just tell Putin that “enough is enough” and for him to f*ck off home, but I accept that my belief is based on much less information and understanding than that of Biden’s advisers. Still, Russia is achieving nothing but inflicting misery on Ukraine and losing a generation of their own soldiers. They should just f*ck off home and absolute c*nts like Big Serge can f*ck off with their fan fiction “theorising” too.

mean words taken out of context.

Mean words? Are you genuinely that stupid? The context as I understand it (and unless you can factually correct me, just shut up) was that the children of Donbass separatists would be hiding in cellars because of shelling from the Ukrainian army during its anti-terrorist operation. This actually happened in 2014/2015. Just because the Russians are now cynically using that background to justify their own (probably even worse) war crimes and imperial fantasies, doesn’t negate the fact that Ukrainian nationalists dealt with the crisis that started in 2013/14 in anything but “peaceful and democratic” fashion (imo quite counter-productively so).

Probably not surprising that you have intimate knowledge of videos made for teenagers by trannie influencers. With your deep ignorance you come across like a member of the TikTok generation yourself. But unfortunately since we’re increasingly in some sort of war euphoria, your attitude of course is seen as socially desirable and is rewarded by the powers that be.

Some of Saker’s long time readers believe he was pressured and threatened. One made the additional point that if USA-Russia war officially breaks out the Saker might be at risk of legal pressure from the government. I don’t know if this is accurate but is something to think about.

+++

Free speech is a great thing as long as you can hang on to it.

doesn’t negate the fact that Ukrainian nationalists dealt with the crisis that started in 2013/14 in anything but “peaceful and democratic” fashion

Look, you aged and neurotic hausfrau, you got all shrill over the Ukrainian President supposedly “gloating” and compared it to the twice-in-a-decade Russian invasion of Ukraine. You’re the most maudlin and pathetic commenter on a website chock full of them. I assume your idea of defending yourself from a foreign invasion would involve you trying to shame the younger generation of your own country for not feeding and f*cking the foreign soldiers because you’d be jealous of them. Of course the Ukrainian response involved some excess and of course it involved some violence. Their country was invaded. But they did not act like the Iraqi militias who you probably get all hot over, or the Taliban, or any other number of barbaric forces. They instead defended their country against their much larger neighbour and did so with surprising humanity. People like you are despicable. All weepy and raw over your own, mostly self-caused, “misfortunes”, resentful that no one takes you seriously and then prissy and judgemental over the imperfect manner in which others handle real serious problems. You’re marinated in your own grievances and not worth the air you breathe. Get a grip. No one listens to you because no one wants to be like you. Your wretched misery surrounds your every word. You are the beginning and the end of your own humiliation, so blather on about TikTok and disrespect and provocations all you want. You just look bitter and frail and stupid.

Saker’s commenters are ridiculous. Everything the Saker wrote for years has been definitively demonstrated as fan fiction. He left in total and deserved shame.

why wouldn’t someone on an alt right forum rejoice in such a prospect.

I don’t think it ever was “alt right”. US alt right was fundamentally stupid anyway.
But yeah, it’s strange how much of this space seems to have morphed into something that isn’t all that different from the takes one could find on Reddit.

Russians are rising up.

Something rather bizarre is happening in Bryansk Oblast with Russian sources reporting a large group (±40) of Ukrainian military crossing the border. Minutes ago, a "Russian Volunteer Corps" telegram posted this video claiming to be behind the mission. pic.twitter.com/LL5lpD92VH

— Dmitri (@wartranslated) March 2, 2023

Another video from a different group of alleged "Russian Volunteer Corps" fighters standing next to a Russian mailbox, allegedly in Bryansk Oblast. Gunfire can be heard in the background. pic.twitter.com/FQpw8h4fbw

— Dmitri (@wartranslated) March 2, 2023

Bully tried to pick a fight with a smaller student in class but it backfired completely.. pic.twitter.com/xrENdLae3V

— Zeno Calhoun (@zenoc_oshits) March 2, 2023

I stumbled across this recently. It’s billed as a little guy taking down a bully. Which I suppose it could be. However from this video I’m seeing and hearing a room of Hispanics provoke a gangly white boy who’s at his own desk in class, and they set the pugilist midget at him while they all film and howl in Spanish for the bigger kid to be beaten. The guy filming even kicks the white boy in the head. So it seems like a prepared ambush. The taller kid knowing he’s facing three or four assailants if he puts the little psycho in his place. The video cuts in after they’ve been posturing.

Anyone seen this? Comments welcome.

Stay away from niggers and hispanics. Don’t let your children get isolated among the foreigns.

Bahmut is just Debaltsevo 2.0 which won’t change anything in essence, but regarding US economics doomers seem to be still stuck in 2007-2009 with all that constant blabber about “not real economy”, while in reality today USA is the largest oil&natgas producer in the world;)

seems utu didn’t leave us afterall, or at least his spirit;)

I agree that it was a setup but I think the whiteboy legitimitately got beat. I don’t think he was holding back out of fear of getting jumped or anything.

That little kid can scrap.

This is Ukraine’s ROA, not the Russian people. But let’s see how this will play out.

Remind me of the Lithuanian prostitute-state China policy in the last 2 years? LMAO

Also remind me why Lithuania voted against joining the EU (90% voted against closing Ignalina NPP, when given the choice of keep it in operation or join the EU by fullfiling this criteria)?

Also remind me if harmless , silly film ( about great event) “Dvezhiniya vverkh” is banned in Lithuania in the same way that Nazi symbols and Mein Kampf books are banned in Israel, or NOT having sex with animals is banned in Scandinavia?

“I would prefer be a Lithuanian than a Belorussian”………….said nobody in history, ever.

so you believe that Ukraine will be capable of achieving operational breakthrough absent a substantial increase of Western support?

Ukrainian tank officer to the German media:

With 20-30 Leo2s supported by Bradley, something could be done. Best would be 60-90 Leo 2’s, then the Russians would have no chance and the whole front could be rolled up. He rules out a serious Russian resistance or a Russian counter-attack, because he thinks the Russians are living in the last century, the military academies teach outdated things, the textbooks there are unchanged for decades. The Russian army is hampered by a large, cumbersome bureaucracy and widespread corruption, the Ukrainian officer said. He said it would take the Russians at least 10 years to get up to modern, modern standards. Now they don’t even have the logistics to mount an attack. He mentions a video, typical of Russian military culture, where Gerasimov is looking at a map on a tablet and instead of enlarging it with two fingers, he uses a magnifying glass. He can’t wait for the Western tanks to arrive, because the old T-64s are very maintenance-intensive and not very effective in combat, but especially because they don’t have enough ammunition.

So probably when the Ukies got all those Leopards and Bradleys, they will start an offensive South. Bakhmut is just delaying action. It will draw on like the siege of Mariupol did, and those salt mines will be the new Azovstal.

Yes, but the probability, speed and decisiveness of such a breakthrough is directly related to the amount of Western support. I am doubtless that the Ukrainians think they can do it in June and they’ve been shown to have a good judgement of their abilities so far, but long range missile systems, and potentially other technological surprises, would end this war more quickly and be good for everyone, but Putin himself.

That’s unfair towards utu. I think he got quite unhinged because of the war, and yes, I made a conscious decision to be pretty nasty towards him (maybe I shouldn’t have, in any case I didn’t enjoy doing so). And he had always been “difficult”. But for many years before the pandemic/the war in Ukraine he did provide interesting content, quite a few of his comments had valuable information. He was also undoubtedly sincere in his views.
By contrast, I can’t remember Laxa ever having written something I found remotely interesting in the sense that it made me consider whether the other side might have a point. It’s all just standard establishment pap mixed in with tiresome psychobabble. Above all, the entire persona just feels fake to me. Why would someone like Laxa whose main message seems to be that absolutely everything with the contemporary West is fine even end up on a site like this? Because it’s a paid job for him/her/it?

At least it doesn’t post twitter crap that actively destroys the usability of the internet.

Russians are rising up.

Those guys in the video are just some fringe Neo-nazi freaks.
Didn’t LatW recently claim that those Russian Volunteers would be an asset for Ukraine or something? Well, colour me skeptical.

Are you sure about that?
The white kid gets kicked in the head when he’s down quite early by the cameraman, he looked groggy after the head kick. When the camera swings around there’s also a glimpse of another tall looking hispanic kid filming as well. Two cameras set up while the little henchman moves on the white kid.

At this point it is basic child abuse to send your boys into schools heavily populated by these foreign groups.

Interesting that the big kid is billed as a bully in the tweet. It’s quite typical for gangs of kids to send in such titchy loudmouths to help start a fight.

CIA and MI6 sponsored Kommando do the propaganda of the deed.

Really enjoyed Sailer excerpting that National Review story about the people behind the Roald Dahl alterations. I feel like it is a vindication of the idea that ethnic disclosures (including things like whether someone is a lesbian or a tranny) would improve society a lot. Only wish I knew more about who did it for James Bond, and who came up with that list of forbidden properties in the UK.

Couldn’t believe that one lesbo who identified as Jewish and Romani. Are there even real combinations like that?

You know tons of women got off to his character in the film

The plan would be to repeat with local variations the Croatian (German trained) offensive in Krajina, but on a bigger scale:

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

Here it’s a drive south from Zap Sich to Tokmak, Melitopol. A great big Panzerkiel with local air superiority/supremacy that cuts the land bridge to Crimea. Berdyansk or Mariupol might be alternative targets for it.

There could be several diversionary amphibious landings along the Dneiper around Kherson to pin down Russian troops into actively defending the Dneiper flank.

The Russians would be hoping to replicate various battles where wedges of German armor attacked them in the Kursk Salient, Kalach.

Well I’ve known a half Jewish half Gypsy (Jewish mother, so passing the Talmudic test) bisexual guy.

Did he wrote for the Daily Stormer?

Re the Bryansk events:

Is Ukrainian intelligence really stupid enough to publicly endorse these Neo-nazi low-lifes?

Can you ever write something correct. Ukraine did not endorse this. They expressed some schadenfreude, which is more than understandable given that Russia hundreds of thousands of troops engaged in these type of activities every day in Ukraine. Re-read my last post to you. And re-read it again.

Couldn’t believe that one lesbo who identified as Jewish and Romani. Are there even real combinations like that?

Though not a lesbian, there was the Manson ‘Family’ member Catherine Louise “Gypsy” Share who was Jewish and self identified somewhat with Gypsies.

She had an unbelievably tragic upbringing. Her two parents, members of the French Resistance, suicided in 1944 when she was two. Her adoptive American stepmother suicided when she was 16 in 1959. Her adoptive stepfather was blind. In the 1960’s she would drop out of college before falling in with the Manson Family. Yet, despite it all, she says she had a ‘relatively happy’ childhood in California.

They [the Manson Family] used her [Catherine Share’s] adopted nickname of “Gypsy”, which she had taken after meeting a man named Gypsy. They shared a birthday and she believed he was her cosmic twin…Per the Library of Congress, she sold her memoir She was a Gypsy Woman to Paramount Vantage in 2008.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Share

The Generals who were coming out of Crimea were either good or lucky they drove tanks through a largely undefended area. Or a largely sympathetic enclave. Mariupol was a fortress though full of nuts like the British guy who got snatched up.

The Russians ought to be able to contain a Ukie push south to Melitopol if they are worth their salt.
There can’t be too many more surprises in store with technology.

The Russian Armatas will be in the area, there will be drones and kamikaze drones all over, kornets mines and bunkers, every missile in the armoury will be made available etc.

Is Ukrainian intelligence really stupid enough to publicly endorse these Neo-nazi low-lifes?

After 2014 coup “Ukrainian” and “intelligence” do not go in the same sentence. Ukie Nazis never had the brains to at least hide their crimes. Just like Banderites took photos of women and children they murdered during Volhynia massacre, their admirers in 2022 and 2023 shot videos showing how they torture and murder Russian POWs. Only hopelessly dumb criminals would boast of their crimes and document them. And they do.

There were some wild videos from the south early days, someone driving for ten minutes filming with just a continuous burnt out Ukrainian column the whole stretch of the road, another of a Russian helicopter taking out an APC as traffic passed either side of the road.

After 2014 coup “Ukrainian” and “intelligence” do not go in the same sentence.

You can’t deny a certain competence at least to parts of the Ukrainian military, given the lack of success Russia has had in this war so far.
I’m puzzled what Ukraine could hope to achieve by backing these genuinely repellent Neo-nazis…it’s at odds with the messaging sold to Westerners (ok, most won’t notice, because their media won’t tell them). But it’s not like it will generate any sympathy in parts of Russian society either, like linking up with some hypothetical democratic opposition groups might do…so it’s just dumb and nihilistic.

Thanks. I suppose that is the difficulty: Gypsies have always been romanticized, so it is hard to know how much of it might be LARP.

To me, I would immediately wonder how solid her family history is, and whether she or her parents were raised by a single mother. People often create false stories about such things.

Here is one of the videos.

Where is this “scaling” going to come from?

This is a very important question. Is Ukraine going to receive an increased level of support? If the increased support doesn’t materialize, can Ukraine achieve operational breakthrough? If not, does that mean Ukraine has to agree to a disadvantageous peace?

They seem to have escaped Russian domination, which is quite a feat. Kyiv, Kharkhiv and Kherson are now forever safe from Russian rule and places like Belarus can only hope to one day be in a similar position.

To answer your questions: it doesn’t matter, no, and yes.

It is amusing to watch the endless belly-aching by the unhinged enthusiasts like that Shadow guy, cheering on a losing battle, watching as healthy men get pulverized to provide some excitement to the cheerleaders in Washington and London.

They are happy that they are dying and would like more. As far as they are concerned there are too many of the assorted Eastern European natives, fewer the better – the women they sometimes want to keep, they serve a purpose…

Look at the glee in the Western media as they talk about ‘100k of dead‘ – they like it. That’s the point of this madness. At the end they won’t much care if they win or lose as long as the damned white eastern Slavs are diluted. They killed 20 million last time – think about that for a moment, you can’t murder that many people if that’s not an absolute first priority for the perpetrators. They are at it again, and the stupid Ukies marched into it like good lemmings that they are…the last time 3 million Poles were killed, the question is, are they going to walk into it again? It looks like they are well on their way…heroes, all of them…

Another collection from RF propjunk crypt, lol

Closure of Ignalina NPP with Chernobyl type reactors of two units was negotiated in 1999 under your hero Paksas the PM by getting in exchange the compensation of all associated dismantling costs (including building long term storages of all radioactive materials) from EU, referendum of joining EU was done in 2003 and got 91% votes in favour with 63% turnout.

First reactor was closed in 2004, second was scheduled to be closed in 2009, thus LT already being within EU member for 5 years and having no any real risk to be expelled, the referendum was called in order to vote for prolonging the work of second and last remaining unit and failed to reach the mandatory 50% turnout, despite getting overwhelming “yes” vote from those who went to vote.

There was also 3rd referendum about building entirely new nuclear unit in Ignalina, but it was done in 2012, just a year after Fukushima, so unsurprisingly it was rejected then.

Not even to mention that those types of Chernobyl reactors are being dismantled in RF itself too.

Your driveling about that particular basketball related film is also laughable cause ofc it’s not banned.

Is the end of that video the Kherson bridge?

It resembles some of the scenes in Desert a storm as the Iraqis retreated.

It worked well in Donbas dangling these disingenuous Nationalists in front of the Russians, steeped as they were in their own ww2 myths.

Most of that historiography is out the window now. But it is interesting that the Ukies and their handlers are sponsoring such splinter factions.

You’re right that this madness is pointless, and yet you cheerlead for Putin and his invasion.

Thatcher had Putin’s number decades ago, and she noticed how little regard he had for the lives of his people.

Am intrigued by these tungsten cubes that James Miller is endorsing as a good way to relax. What is the idea behind them?

Do you manipulate them in your hands, while repeating Buddhist chants, and imagine dropping ‘rods from God’ on your enemies?

Mildly irritating graphic design. Would be useful to see the best representation of the line of contact in February and then superimpose the force strengths in an animated dissolve, rather than have the units cluster so much that it becomes impossible to see the line. Golivka as a city would also be useful to see highlighted as it is the base camp for attacks into southern Bahkmut.

It does show how much the war has escalated though. There are enormous concentrations of forces now. But they had been quite sparse before.

Would also be useful to see what the Russians are keeping in Belgorod and Kharkov border region.

He says what’s nice. That they’re pleasingly dense. Sometimes the basic things in life are the best. Like entering a warm room from the cold, a soft feeling blanket or a cool breeze.

Looked up some reviews on Amazon:

Several buyers emphasize what a great conversation piece it is, because people are always surprised how heavy it is (and what damage it can cause if you accidentally let it fall).
I suppose some people might indeed also enjoy the power fantasy of using it as a murder weapon by dropping it on some unsuspecting person from a great height?

forever safe

As American saying puts it, “Never say never”. LOL.

Can’t believe they want $40 for a 1″ aluminum cube. Would rather take my used aluminum foil to someone with a hydraulic press, or try melting it and pouring it into some mold.

BTW, am quite envious of Bill Gates because he has one of those periodic tables that includes samples of every element, except the radioactive ones.

@LNS
There is a certain relaxation that comes from manipulating prayer balls, but I am not sure the idea would work too well with cubes. Seems partly about esthetics, I’d guess. Men are often fascinated by material science and straight lines.

I don’t know if you realize it, but you are peddling the usual basement Anglo racism that ‘others don’t care about human lives‘…it has been used against all enemies, all nations that resisted.

You are in the company of Hitler, Cecil Rhodes, Teddy Roosevelt, and of course the completely deranged old hag, Thatcher. It must feel good, doesn’t it? You are at home now with the deep Anglo racism when it gets cornered: “they don’t care about human life, they are inhuman! let’s kill them!!!! because only we care about human life…”

What’s next? Are you going to parade with test tubes in front of cameras asserting pompously that they a ‘proof’ of…whatever, your ‘free’ media will cheer you on. Until you lose as you always do, I suspect you will change your name again…

You’re just an old and impotent SJW.

This is fair, but they’ve done pretty well. Certainly better than anyone would ever have expected. Even if you disagree with them, you can respect them for that. If Russia could only do so then Russia might try to make friends of them, rather than guarantee them as enemies.

To be fair, the Russians appear to value life in a different way than Western European people.

Watching War and Peace, the Russian version, from the 1970s I think, I was struck by filming of the French/Polish/German troops ransacking and slaughter in Moscow. The actors were playing the mayhem quite deadpan and Peter just walked around in the carnage fatalistically.

The French never let anyone do that to Paris. They always won at the outskirts in pitched battle or failing that they would capitulate declaring the city open.

Let’s say that Paris is the Western Capital of Capitals. Now it is full of niggers and Arabs with some Jewish financiers sitting on top.

The Russians didn’t mind the whole city going up in smoke and it is the great city of Eastern Europe.

Why are you engaging the shill? Looks like you are wasting your breath.

To me, I would immediately wonder how solid her family history is, and whether she or her parents were raised by a single mother. People often create false stories about such things.

Hmmm. I hadn’t thought about that. While I don’t have any particular reason to doubt her account, it’s not impossible some (or much) of it is not exactly as she has said. It would be interesting to know just how often people who are orphaned, and are then adopted, create fantastic stories about their never seen birth parents.

There’s a reasonable expectation now of a widening war with direct NATO v Russian strikes. The alignments of which private citizens get no say. A limited frontier war gets turned into a war of grand alliances instead.

Every man will have to look to his own defense in such circumstances.

they don’t care about human life, they are inhuman! let’s kill them!!!! because only we care about human life…

As late Douglas Adams (of “Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy” fame) wrote, “every religion will tell you that murder is sin, and kill you to prove its point”.

You are in the company of Hitler, Cecil Rhodes, Teddy Roosevelt, and of course the completely deranged old hag, Thatcher.

Well she’s dead now. F. Hayek described Thatcher after they met as the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

That might spoil your lunch but I am finishing mine. : )

Both stories suggest a sort of lukewarm mediocrity.

Surrendering to the Brits was a kind of easy way out among the Germans.

Neither strike me as guys resisting the party though. That was for senior coup leaders to play around with.

There’s a reasonable expectation now of a widening war with direct NATO v Russian strikes.

Frankly, I don’t think that European NATO clowns and their imperial overlords are crazy enough to push to that point. Then again, maybe I am too optimistic.

Hayek described Thatcher after they met as the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

As American saying puts it, “there is no accounting for tastes”. E.g., Nuland’s looks would make me puke, but rumor has it that she is married.

It is too early to rule out some egregious Western false flag event to stoke the fires.

If you like that, try gold!

You can paint it a different color so people don’t steal it.

You were shilling for Russia’s masterful encirclement of Ukrainian forces more than a year ago. What came of that?

That’s why Russia was able to march up to Kiev’s doorstep so easily – most of the Ukrainian forces are in the East, where they are in the process of being encircled.

The Russian Armatas will be in the area

Is there any proof of T14 Armata presence in Ukraine?

The purpose of the chassis is to carry a 152mm autoloader turret that does not work and is thus unavailable. Why would Russia send an incredibly expensive, logistically unsupportable, under barreled vehicle no better than a T72B3?

The T14 program is likely equivalent to the U.S. littoral combat ship. It sounded good on paper, but it is time to cut losses and abandon the idea.

PEACE 😇

Hayek is equal best Hayek. Sorry Yahya:

I don’t have many strong dislikes. I admit that as a teacher — I have no racial prejudices in general — but there were certain types, and conspicuous among them the Near Eastern populations, which I still dislike because they are fundamentally dishonest. And I must say dishonesty is a thing I intensely dislike. It was a type which, in my childhood in Austria, was described as Levantine, typical of the people of the eastern Mediterranean. But I encountered it later, and I have a profound dislike for the typical Indian students at the London School of Economics, which I admit are all one type–Bengali moneylender sons. They are to me a detestable type, I admit, but not with any racial feeling. I have found a little of the same amongst the Egyptians–basically a lack of honesty in them.

If I advise speaking about honesty, I think honesty is really the best expression of what I call the morals of a civilized society. Primitive man lacks a conception of honesty.

Surrendering to the Brits was a kind of easy way out among the Germans.

Well, even surrender has it’s risks, though Kinski’s surrender story, with first having escaped a German death sentence for desertion, then being shot by the Brits while surrendering to them, and then finally having his POW transport being torpedoed by a U-boat while on the way to internment, really takes the cake. 😀

You most certainly are far too optimistic.

Sullivan, Nuland & Blinken would have to go one way or another before the escalation is stopped.

Proof? It’s a theatre of combat not a court.

Right, de gustibus non disputandum est…but if Thatcher was not an old ugly decrepit hag, who would be? She played the role to perfection. Enjoy your lunch.

The deranged ‘Leave Shadow’ must had a crush on the old witch, I have occasionally met Englishman suffering from that…but given the propensity of the English men and women to start looking like each other as they age, and the bizarre Anglo mating habits, well, Leave is just one of them, the world has all kinds of people. It would be nice if the weirdos would mind their own business…

Yankel Wernik’s cross country walk through the Slav badlands was much more incredible. Almost as believable as Walter Rosenberg’s I mean the Rudy Vrba hike across Poland where Polish women dropped off food for this stranger…

You’d struggle to get anyone help like this in times of plenty without the local people calling the cops about you being vagrant.

It is too early to rule out some egregious Western false flag event to stoke the fires.

It does not have to be a false flag, like “Tonkin incident”. It can be a blatant lie, like Iraq WMD. Or any combination thereof.

…maybe I am too optimistic.

The leitmotif of this unfolding disaster has been that everyone has been way too optimistic. That’s how real catastrophes happen.

The problem is that the overlords don’t know where is the ‘point’… they are pushing to find out. It looks crazy, but like with a boiling chicken it has happened very slowly and gradually. We will still get some surprises, the lunatics are on the lose…

There is no way to deliver a false flag: (1)

THE DAILY CHART: AMERICA TO NEWS MEDIA—DROP DEAD

Recently the Washington Post openly declared that they no longer feel the need even to pretend at being objective, so we might actually get some honest left-wing coverage from them henceforth. Don’t think the American people haven’t noticed how much the mainstream media stinks, as this Axios chart shows:

16% trust in newspapers
11% trust in television

The only group that believes in the pro-war media are NeoConDemocrats, who are already pro-war. There are no swing voters dumb enough to bite on a false flag.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/the-daily-chart-america-to-news-media-drop-dead.php

Didn’t LatW recently claim that those Russian Volunteers would be an asset for Ukraine or something?

Actually, this group were on the frontline for quite a while (since last summer). They had their designated area to take care of in the East. Some of them had also fought near Kyiv, at the beginning of the invasion. And, yes, they are all pure Russians from Russia (they are the so called ultras), not Ukrainians, although a couple of them have lived in Ukraine for a while and have Ukrainian wives. They were persecuted in Russia for their political views. Their goal is to create a military political organization and to return to Russia eventually. I didn’t realize they would return to Russia so quickly, but they did post recently that they could feel the war is turning.

This is not Ukraine, but part of a potential Russian civil war (freedom fighting essentially). Imperialist wars sometimes turn into civil wars at home.

And, btw, they are not “low lives” at all. Their leader is someone who was able for many years to run an MMA club, he speaks two languages very well (English and German). They are far from “low lives”, but quality guys, the only issue for this wonderful world is their political views (for some reason wanting a homogenous homeland is considered a big crime these days, as well as not wanting to live under an FSBeshnik dictatorship led by a crazy grandpa).

You know, you don’t need to be that abusive towards him, he is one of the surviving original posters here, as well as one of the most level headed ones. I know he can hold his own, but he is also a delicate soul and he will leave if you trash him like that. And then there will be one less contrarian and this place will turn into a total Atlanticist echo chamber.

I don’t agree with a lot of what he says, but he is entitled to his position (plus he has never claimed that Ukraine shouldn’t exist, like some posters here).

Subtitled comparisons of mood before Zoperation and year after, case of HIV infected homo Krasovsky, working as RF propagandist. The same one who publicly called for burning and drowning of UA children several months ago on RT, now he is broadcasting again:

https://t.me/alexparkerlives/4439

You’re not wrong, but he gave it out repeatedly, so I gave it back. Did I escalate? Absolutely.

Do I regret it? A little. Or at least I would substantially, if I didn’t assume any apology wouldn’t be returned with some catty comment. I could be wrong. Let’s see

@German_Reader

I am sorry for my harshly personal words, actually without regrets, no matter your response. So I am sorry unreservedly.

https://www.traditionalright.com/his-majestys-birthday-4/

Europe and America must both understand that Russia cannot lose this war. I say that in two senses. First, Russia is much stronger than Ukraine. The Russian Army has started the war badly, as it usually does. But it learns, and in a war of attrition it always prevails by sheer numbers.

Second, Russia will do anything it has to in order to win. A defeat by Ukraine could bring down the Russian state, what’s left of it. Moscow will not let that happen …

As anything short of a Russian withdrawal to the pre invasion lines will be considered a win for Russia there is nothing more to say.

They were persecuted in Russia for their political views.

That may be their version, but who knows if it’s the whole truth. I haven’t investigated the issue deeply (tbh have neither inclination nor the necessary language ability), but I have already seen claims that one of the guys in the video was sentenced in Russia for a “knife attack on Caucasians”. So they might have been prosecuted not just for views or activism, but for actual violent crimes.

Their leader is someone who was able for many years to run an MMA club

I don’t see how that’s a recommendation tbh.
imo these people are an embarrassment to Ukraine, they should never have been allowed to settle there and will cause nothing but trouble, in return for rather limited benefits they provide (with their own dubious goals in mind). If Ukrainian intelligence indeed aided their incursion into Russia, what the hell were they thinking, how is this supposed to lead to anything positive? The practical effects are non-existent, it won’t generate any sympathy in Russia (because frankly, these aren’t sympathetic characters), instead it’s tailor-made to be used for propaganda by Putin and his circle (presumably with ample references to WW2 collaborationists).
Personally I think it would be good if Ukraine attempted to reach out to patriotic Russians who want an end to this war (though obviously that might require compromise or at least ambiguity on issues like Crimea), but these types are the wrong choice in that regard.

Thatcher’s cabinet was full of Jews from the Baltics and Romania.

Harold Macmillan called it her “Old Estonians”. He was such a good publisher, editor and PM.

Arguably Thatcher was the Head Girl for Nigel Lawson, Leon Brittan and Malcolm Rifkind. A kind of simulacrum of the Middle Class English they wished to be mistaken for as they stripmined the de nationalising industries, linked the UK to Soviet Oil/gas and bought Chinese coal to smash Arthur Scargill’s miners by 1984.

No one ever asked if Airy Neave, her mentor/handler was carbombed by the Jews either. The IRA never admitted it as I understand. Mossad probably got rid of him to pave the way to a compliant neoliberal 1980s UK.

Thanks, nice of you to defend me. But tbh Laxa’s insults left me totally cold. When users with real personalities who you have interacted with for years attack you (or vice versa) it’s always a bit depressing, like a failed relationship or something of the sort. But I’m not sure Laxa is even a real person. Could also be some experimental AI programme from MI5 or some other intelligence agency, sent to police discourse here (maybe a site as fringe as UR is the ideal testing ground?). So I really felt nothing from her insults.

how is this supposed to lead to anything positive? The practical effects are non-existent, it won’t generate any sympathy in Russia

It has an effect in war, even putinist nationalist Holmogorov gets it too:

What are they striving for? It is clear what. They form in us such a feeling of insignificance and powerlessness, complete disbelief in the system, that it will no longer matter whether we take Bakhmut or not, as it turned out in 1917 whether we took Lutsk or not.

Of course, you can persuade yourself to control yourself for a long time. But the flexibility of the psyche of the masses is also not unlimited.

https://t.me/holmogortalks/27770

Well, that’s not creepy at all.

I share this humble proposition on how Leftoids should be handled if they insist on being stupid.

🇺🇦Conscripted🇺🇦

That fad would end faster that a line of cocaine near Hunter.

PEACE 😇

But I’m not sure Laxa is even a real person.

I think she’s real, I can even understand to some extent how she can accommodate her nationalism with the pro-LGBT stance – there is a lot of rationalization there, but some of the criticism towards alt-right is valid. I don’t share that position fully (the pro-woke side), but I understand it.

And, btw, she is absolutely right about the situation on the ground in Ukraine. Maybe she’s just a bit too optimistic and forceful about it (there are still big ‘ifs’..), but it is an accurate assessment – and it matches with what a lot of competent Ukrainian officers say, except that these Ukrainian officers are way, way more cautious in their assessments and also recognize the hardship and the high costs.

I think she’s picking on you now because you do display what may be perceived by some as “weakness” sometimes, as in, you are sometimes willing to concede your opinion (you hold your opinion but also try not to be categorical – for more primitive minds this is a “weakness”) and you present both sides – as in, you state something that is obvious about the situation (e.g., “yes, Russia attacked Ukraine illegally”), but then you follow with “But…” (and then you present your contrarian opinion, which appears closer to what you truly believe and which is very different from the pro-Ukrainian position). I think this might trigger some people (but I do recognize that thought process, since I often catch myself with that same type of thinking in my private thoughts, it allows me to see both sides, but it doesn’t show for a consistent position, it’s even a bit frustrating because you end up floating among two positions and have to strain yourself to produce a consistent position).

Btw, I also want to apologize for being rude to you previously, I shouldn’t have used cuss words when communicating with you. I was very upset and frustrated about the atrocities in Ukraine.

I remember the essays from that chubby ginger asshole Karlin posted here, of course Holmogorov is also too precious to volunteer himself.
I don’t buy the argument that this will generate a feeling of powerlessness. It seems more likely to me that this will play to the Russian perception of being an aggrieved victim under threat from an overwhelming hostile alliance like in WW2. The Neo-nazi affiliations of the persons involved will make this all the easier.
And frankly, making use of such types should be a PR disaster for Ukraine in the West too. It only isn’t, because the West is also already in some kind of pre-war mood, where open discussion is becoming harder and harder.

Germany has had its own Bader Meinhof gangs so this might be a window into the faction that’s just emerged.

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

Car bombs for Maggie thatcher’s buddy, mostly shooting non com recruitment sarges execution style, many disloyal operatives shot also. A mix of Catholic and Protestant but mostly socialists. The Dugina carbomb made me think of the INLA at the time. A very murky outfit. Played beautifully with a backdrop of bombs while Old Estonians financially ravaged the UK.

I’m not sure Laxa is even a real person.

I do not doubt it.

The single most important trait for ‘authoritarian liberal’ acolytes is mental compartmentalization. Core dogma for enthusiastic Leftoids requires the ability simultaneously believe mutually exclusive concepts.

• Women are #1
• Trans-women (a.k.a. mentally damaged XY chromosome fails) are #1

In any well integrated mind those things are incompatible. Yet… There it is.

PEACE 😇

That may be their version, but who knows if it’s the whole truth.

It’s most likely a combination of political and actual things they have done. They were active during the demos of 2012 (Balotnaya and such). Yes, they do have some hooligan type of acts, which is of course impossible to excuse, they are absolutely combative, I won’t deny that. But they have had friends who were actually persecuted, tortured by the Russian police, murdered in custody, so it’s not a one side thing at all. Clearly, the regime finds them very dangerous. And there are two aspects here, from the pov of them being ethno nationalists, they are dangerous, and from the pov of some of their activity.

The tragic part about them, is that they look worse than they actually are – internally, they are quite benign, because they just want a European type of Russia. Yes, they are fascists, but they do have the right to oppose the neo-Soviet, neo-multiculti, RF surveillance state. For example, they have spoken against the use of AI in surveillance of individuals. You may find it interesting that the surveillance state is very prevalent in Russia, they have put all the latest tech into surveillance and oppression, instead of “creating a thriving auto industry”, like Denis White Rex, their leader, said.

I don’t share in the glorification of these people, but I see no problem with Ukraine sending such people – ethnic Russian, Russian citizens – back to Russia. Russia, after all, sends far worse people into Ukraine, who are not even Ukrainian citizens.

I keep hoping that DeSantis is is actually playing the media. He plans on backing Trump in 2024. Thus, becoming 2028 heir apparent due to term limits.

But, things like this make me wonder: (1)

Laura Ingraham Interviews Presidential Candidate After Spending Weekend Retreat With Him, and Never Mentions It…

According to Jacksonville 4 News Governor Ron DeSantis spent last weekend “huddled behind closed doors at a south Florida luxury hotel for a “Freedom Blueprint” retreat with more than 100 donors, elected officials and conservative influencers.” According to the report from those present, “Laura Ingraham hosted a fireside chat with DeSantis on Sunday.”

You would think this ongoing network and relationship would need a mention, perhaps even a disclaimer, if the Fox News pundit was going to follow up with additional promotion of the same candidate. Alas, as more people become familiar with the tactics of the professionally Republican, what ends up being highlighted is the transparent effort to manipulate the viewer.

It is almost like Wall Street Journal magnate George IslamoSoros Rupert Murdoch and the Uniparty do not like Donald Trump. Say it ain’t so…

PEACE 😇
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(1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/03/02/laura-ingraham-interviews-presidential-candidate-after-spending-weekend-retreat-with-him-and-never-mentions-it/

complete disbelief in the system

This is the key point, right there. When they lose the “belief in the system”, the assumption that the system is stable and functioning and can be relied upon, when all of a sudden there is a realization that this is not so (and every single drone flying on the Russian territory is a drop that fills the cup), then the whole chain of subordination will dissolve, people will stop obeying orders, people will stop considering authorities respectable. The same effect as in immediately after the collapse of the USSR. This is the real risk for Russia right now.

The smartest of them get it, that’s why they produced this video, called “Trap 22”, arguing that it was the Biden administration that led Russia into this trap, that Ukraine is now wrecked and will no longer pose a threat to Russia and that it’s time to extricate themselves from this war, otherwise the consequences will be even worse:

He may back Trump, even if he loses nomination fight to him, but then becomes Trump running mate after. Unless DJT has already declared somewhere that he needs certainly only a woman as VP this time;

Important note Bahkmut is NOT the deathstar and it is not a hill to die on for Ukraine – The ONLY significance is to Russia, because for some reason they have made it a hill to die on and they are! https://t.co/XnleMSldf2

— David Brookfield (大卫) – (大伟) (@DMBrookfield) March 3, 2023

“This Deathstar is not The Hill you are looking for to die on…”

The Ukrainian Bakhmut is a Tartar borrow-word meaning something like “Warhorse”. I don’t know why white people like the Ukies would use Tartar words. Artemovsk, what does that word mean in English? if anything?

Artemovsk, what does that word mean in English? if anything?

It was named so in a honor of a commie figure, sort of local lesser version of Leningrad instead of Petersburg:

Fyodor Sergeyev died in 1921 during the test of the Aerowagon. He was buried in Mass Grave No. 12 of the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Red Square, Moscow.

The city of Bakhmut (now in Ukraine), former center of Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, was renamed in his honor as Artemivsk in 1924. His infant son Artyom Fyodorovich was adopted by Joseph Stalin.

On 15 May 2015 President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a bill into law that started a six-month period for the removal of communist monuments and the mandatory renaming of settlements with a name related to Communism. In February 2016, the city of Artemivsk returned to its original name: Bakhmut.

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

I see no problem with Ukraine sending such people – ethnic Russian, Russian citizens – back to Russia

They should send them back to Russia – permanently. These people will cause nothing but problems. Frankly, Ukraine has far too many native extremists already, they don’t need foreign ones. I know you think now isn’t the time to criticize anything, but maybe you should consider whether such types (who have apparently already acquired intimate links with military and intelligence circles…) will play a constructive role in a post-war Ukraine that is in line with Ukraine’s alleged European orientation.

The U.S. Constitution automatically blocks the Electoral College vote for a Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket from the same state.

Florida resident Trump cannot pick Florida Governor DeSantis.

Dick Cheney performed the Vice President candidate, TX to WY, shuffle to avoid this. His personal & family connections to Wyoming made the cynical maneuver problematic but saleable. DeSantis has no similar option.
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Why would DeSantis give up his high profile office in Florida? His best 2028 campaign position is exiting Florida’s Governorship.

Also, there is little on offer for voluntarily becoming VP. Muhammad Pence of Islam, enemy of Jesus and the Constitution, tainted the Vice Presidential office with venal sin. Trump will be looking for genuine Christian faith & loyalty as a key traits for any VP. This is common sense, prudent behaviour after the consequences of Pence’s open treason against God and country.

PEACE 😇

Let’s hope Trump croaks soon, nothing positive to be expected from this egotist con man anyway. And if he’s dead, maybe his spell will be broken and you will have a chance to evolve personally too.

German WWII veterans who later became movie actors, while readily acknowledging having served in the Wehrmacht, will (apparently) feel compelled to claim to have engaged in some sort of ‘resistance’ to the German war effort

I’ve read and heard a fair amount of WW2 stories, and I think it is very striking how many seem to contain obviously fictive elements. And I am just talking about non-controversial things here, like Audie Murphy’s book To Hell and Back, which was not written by him, and which, in parts, reads very much like a trashy novel.

with the pro-LGBT stance

I’m with white Europeans, and therefore I’m with openness to LGBT to some degree.

Otherwise, I have no personal issue with such people, except T are deluded and often trying to force others to provide supply to their delusions, and LG are sexually dysfunctional.

I don’t think this makes me “pro-LGBT” by any ordinary definition.

I think she’s picking on you now because you do display what may be perceived by some as “weakness”

Close. I dislike unagentic views. I dislike things being stuck in the unconscious and I am willing to point this out, kindly or cruelly, to those who might snap out of it. I encourage people to know themselves.

Maudlin and victim-centred politics, which are the opposite of this, are the worst and particularly galling when criticising Ukrainians, who have more right to those politics than most, but the courage to not end up as whiny losers anyway.

Basically, man or woman, own your stuff, even your vulnerabilities, and don’t pretend they are those of whatever group you’ve decided to scapegoat for your own unacknowledged insecurities or perceived inadequacies.

Anyone who can do this is fine by me.

Btw, I also want to apologize for being rude to you previously, I shouldn’t have used cuss words when communicating with you. I was very upset and frustrated about the atrocities in Ukraine.

No problem, it’s understandable. At least one can still discuss things here.

they still act quite independently. They are well supplied, however.

Well-supplied, independently acting groups of extremist foreigners…terrible idea imo. But I’ll refrain from further comment, we’ll see when we hear of them again.

The Ukrainian Bakhmut is a Tartar borrow-word meaning something like “Warhorse”. I don’t know why white people like the Ukies would use Tartar words.

Most white people aren’t totally pathetic and can use words from any language they want without feeling threatened or insecure.

Like Chicago.

As a Christian, I offer sincere concern & forgiveness. That outburst is unlike you.

Are you experiencing a significant personal trauma?

Is there anything I, or others can do to help?

PEACE 😇

The leader visited Britain to train some British nationalists about 7 years ago. The nationalist group in question were well-meaning early 20 something and fun, though of course they got horrible publicity. The two I met and spoke to a few times, from the group, were bright and decent individuals and they liked this Russian MMA nationalist.

But I’ll refrain from further comment

Btw, you don’t have to always respond in full about these topics, I totally understand your particular circumstances (given your IP, location specifics, etc). It’s not like it’s the most important topic on the planet either.

It seems more likely to me that this will play to the Russian perception of being an aggrieved victim under threat from an overwhelming hostile alliance like in WW2. The Neo-nazi affiliations of the persons involved will make this all the easier.

It will achieve two things.

One, it will harden the stance of most Russians towards current Kiev regime. Maybe not to the level of former Ukrainians who ran away to Russia (some of them say that Ukraine must be annihilated, does not matter how), but in that direction.

Two, it will be very successfully used by RF government propaganda against both Kiev regime and its puppeteers and wannabe Nazis in Russia itself.

However, your own general position is untenable. In particular, if you think that Ukies are capable of doing something that will benefit for them, think again. If they were capable of that, they wouldn’t have had current menagerie for government.

The leader visited Britain to train some British nationalists about 7 years ago.

They have a relatively long history of international club visitations and such. Denis created a rather big MMA network. It was started already in Russia (but he left Russia and lived in the West for a very long time).

The nationalist group in question were well-meaning early 20 something and fun, though of course they got horrible publicity

The publicity is much worse than what they actually are (but they themselves generated with their visuals which is all part of it). These are basically young masculist ethnonats who want to live their youth and strength to the fullest. What I like the most about them is that they are at least willing to give some serious self-discipline a try and they realize that the biggest struggle is always within yourself.

They also wear decent clothing, and typically do not smoke or drink alcohol.

The two I met and spoke to a few times, from the group, were bright and decent individuals.

Yes, they are quite bright (but I wouldn’t call them intellectuals, although some of them do read) and better looking than average. They want Russia to be pro-European in the traditional sense (not multi-culti, etc).

“I see no problem with Ukraine sending such people – ethnic Russian, Russian citizens – back to Russia”

They should send them back to Russia – permanently.

I agree. Maybe that is happening now.

I know you think now isn’t the time to criticize anything, but maybe you should consider whether such types (who have apparently already acquired intimate links with military and intelligence circles…) will play a constructive role in a post-war Ukraine that is in line with Ukraine’s alleged European orientation.

The Russians ones should and do return to Russia.

Ukraine’s European orientation is most closely aligned with healthy conservative parts of Europe such as the Baltics and Poland, Italy too now. Not so much with the “maximum bringing in of non-European refugee parts of Europe.”

Town’s being overrun by Tartars now, of course. Except not riding a pony horde or shooting arrows.

Chicago is, as you might know, newly liberated from a black-lesbian mayor bearing an uncanny resemblance to Gollum. It’s yet to be seen if any of the other candidates will drive out the niggers besieging the Miracle Mile who now spoil the beautiful old Polish and Italian neighborhoods. They wont.

lol. Continentals do not do irony.

Poe’s law in action;)

Not so much with the “maximum bringing in of non-European refugee parts of Europe.”

In reality the “refugees welcome” people are some of the biggest supporters of Ukraine in Europe, and not just in the sense of hosting refugees from Ukraine (which is relatively uncontroversial across all political groups, in Germany even AfD hasn’t really objected to it), but of sending ever more advanced weapons systems and rejecting any suggestions of diplomatic attempts to end the war. There are some very strange alliances in this conflict, one of the strangest that being between Western wokes and Ukrainian nationalists (even those like “ambassador” Melnyk who are daft enough to openly go on about Bandera).
I notice the usual dig against Germany in your comment, and honestly, I find it kind of galling, especially given the implied comparison with Italy. I mean wtf, what has Italy even done all that much for Ukraine? They’re hosting one tenth of the refugees Germany does and while possibly not all their arms shipments have been publicly disclosed, it must be well below the stuff Germany has sent (which by now includes pretty much everything except fighter jets and submarines). I can only assume that Italy is now counted among the “good ones”, because Meloni (who so far has done nothing effective to stop immigration in the Mediterranean btw) has shown some signs of wanting to ally with PiS Poland on the EU level, so they can cover each other’s backs (like the former arrangement with Hungary which has been damaged because of the war in Ukraine). So once again, PiS Poland’s specific (or one could say, parochial) interests are apparently a determining factor. But the EU isn’t PiS Poland, nor will the latter pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

I’d say.

from a black-lesbian mayor bearing an uncanny resemblance to Gollum.

Proper manners would mean reserving that comparison for Jacinda, for whom the humorists have already constructed the proper memes, using pictures of her at 20, 25, 30, and 40 years old.

Rather, I think Lightfoot looks like some sort of extinct hominid. Or possibly some member of an undiscovered, and long-separated, pygmy tribe. Or an alien. In fact, I keep waiting for the Chinese to use deep-fake to cast her in their version of ET.
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Disney has made Peter Pan an Indian.

These cunts want Leopard II tanks and there won’t be any gratitude when they start using surplus stingers to pluck Lufthansa flights out of the sky from Tempelhof after they get chased out of the Steppe.

They’re hosting one tenth of the refugees Germany does and while possibly not all their arms shipments have been publicly disclosed, it must be well below the stuff Germany has sent (which by now includes pretty much everything except fighter jets and submarines).

But what is the issue there, how can this strange picture be explained? Germany has given the most out of the EU, from what I understand, isn’t Germany the second largest donor after the US? I may be wrong here, but Germany has given a lot. Especially, in terms of quality, Iris T is a very high end weapon and apparently there is now talk about Germany considering providing another interesting, very new and experimental weapon that detects and takes out drones (don’t know exactly what it is but very high end, and, of course, it might be that they just want to test it in real combat for commercial reasons since combat proof weapons are always more preferred). The Patriot system, of course (which is a very big deal).

I think it is more of a PR issue or some kind of an internal German or even intra – EU issue where Germany is a significant donor but they are still not perceived as such, partly because the political agenda differs from Poland and the rest of the E.Europe and the Anglo world.

And, on a different topic – speaking of fighter jets. This topic is a bit blown out of proportion. Some Ukrainian specialists are actually saying that, instead of fighter jets (like F16), Ukraine needs combat helicopters that can help take out ground targets (such as Apache). That instead of the fighter aircraft, they actually need ground-attack aircraft (such as A10 Thunderbolt).

I think the UK has until recently or currently been the second most generous “donor” in the Jew King of Kiev’s Chabbadathon.

talk about Germany considering providing another interesting, very new and experimental weapon that detects and takes out drones (don’t know exactly what it is but very high end, and, of course, it might be that they just want to test it in real combat for commercial reasons since combat proof weapons are always more preferred)

Probably this one:

https://t.me/m0sc0wcalling/20495

Italy is now counted among the “good ones”, because Meloni (who so far has done nothing effective to stop immigration in the Mediterranean btw) has shown some signs of wanting to ally with PiS Poland on the EU level, so they can cover each other’s backs (like the former arrangement with Hungary

Despite the current disagreements between Hungary & Poland over Ukraine, there is a simple truth.

Italy, Hungary, Poland, and others believe in Christian European values.

Other nations believe in Open [Muslim] Borders. Including 80%+ of German voters.

But the EU isn’t PiS Poland, nor will the latter pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

Brutal EU exploitation has indeed limited Poland’s ability to deliver on European values. Sane energy policies would be the best way to help Poland and Ukraine. Hungary is way ahead. Alas, the EU hates European values.

Samantha Power’s USAID may “contribute” something as welcome as syphilis and gonorrhea to Ukraine. Ukie reconstruction will fall to Brussels, Berlin, & Paris. Expect little from anti-Christian EU HQ. They despise Christian European values.

The CCP is the only deep pockets option for reconstruction. In a manner of years, will Ukraine be a CCP agricultural colony?

PEACE 😇

That must be it. Absolutely incredible. The precision!

And this is needed because those Iranian drones are still being used.

Last year:
-2x number of deaths as births in Japan
-more births in Iraq than Russia
-more births in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan combined than Russia
-6.5 million births in Europe (and many not of Euros), compared to 6.2 million in Pakistan
-more births in DRC than EU or US
-a million more births in Nigeria than the whole of Europe

IMO, nobody is serious about it, until this sort of thing enters national propaganda and starts being relentlessly propounded, despite it being super-politically incorrect. Only way to unlock full potential. But I can’t see anyone doing it, at this stage.

Was described as Levantine, typical of the people of the eastern Mediterranean. I have found a little of the same amongst the Egyptians–basically a lack of honesty in them.

Well the “duplicitous orientals” trope is an old one; so you are hardly the first person to notice or mention it. I’d like to point out though that other East Med + adjacent groups were also included in this duplicity club; Greeks, Jews, and Armenians. I don’t think I need to elaborate much on the “swindling Jew” trope; but I was reading Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad and he lumped Turks, Armenians and Greeks in as part of the pathologically dishonest “dogs of Constantinople” crowd:

Commercial morals, especially, are bad. There is no gainsaying that. Greek, Turkish and Armenian morals consist only in attending church regularly on the appointed Sabbaths, and in breaking the ten commandments all the balance of the week. It comes natural to them to lie and cheat in the first place, and then they go on and improve on nature until they arrive at perfection. In recommending his son to a merchant as a valuable salesman, a father does not say he is a nice, moral, upright boy, and goes to Sunday School and is honest, but he says, “This boy is worth his weight in broad pieces of a hundred—for behold, he will cheat whomsoever hath dealings with him, and from the Euxine to the waters of Marmora there abideth not so gifted a liar!” How is that for a recommendation? The Missionaries tell me that they hear encomiums like that passed upon people every day. They say of a person they admire, “Ah, he is a charming swindler, and a most exquisite liar!”

Every body lies and cheats—every body who is in business, at any rate. Even foreigners soon have to come down to the custom of the country, and they do not buy and sell long in Constantinople till they lie and cheat like a Greek. I say like a Greek, because the Greeks are called the worst transgressors in this line. Several Americans long resident in Constantinople contend that most Turks are pretty trustworthy, but few claim that the Greeks have any virtues that a man can discover—at least without a fire assay.

I’m open to the idea that East Meds are more dishonest than the average bear; but I’d like to see some empirical evidence. Stereotypes can be accurate at times; inaccurate at others. They are susceptible to the availability bias. There’s also a question of the “inherentness” of the dishonesty; wether it is biological in basis or cultural. Indians are likewise stereotyped as being duplicitous (at least the Beniya and Marwari merchants); the Chinese renowned for cheating in higher education. But the American-born (and socialized) Indian and Asians I knew didn’t strike me as being much different from other Americans; perhaps because they have assimilated into Anglo norms of fairness and honesty. But again, empirical evidence is needed on that front.

Bias of Priene once remarked that “the majority are wicked”. Samuel Johnson concurred with this in one of his Rambler Essays; so I don’t think Westerners are uniformly honest either. I think the normal distribution may apply here; where most are both honest and dishonest depending on occasion, some are pathologically dishonest, and a few on the other extremity are unfailingly upright. This would apply to every society, but the average point would differ. But these are speculations; I’m sure some experiments could be devised to measure these things more rigorously. You can’t use individual/anecdotal examples; otherwise I could just as easily compare Nehru to Trump and conclude Indics are more honest than Germanics. There will always be some overlap between the groups; that’s why it’ not a good idea to take a determinist view.

Hayek is equal best Hayek.

It’s funny you mention Hayek because I was reading into libertarian political philosophy lately; as an antidote to all the leftist (Orwell, Russell, Chomsky etc.) works I’ve been reading over the past year. I’m temperamentally inclined towards the right; but my status as an non-Westerner allows me to take a detached view of Western political battles. So far I’m more impressed with the intellect of leftist thinkers; but I do acknowledge that the capitalist camp is basically correct in the grand scheme of things.

However, both the libertarians/capitalists and socialists/communists err in that they neglect non-economic variables when assessing the feasibility of their political systems; chief among them culture and genetics. Reading them is like watching a baby try to navigate in the dark; they get so enthusiastic about some Latin American country adopting their favored political-economic plan; then start scratching their head when it all doesn’t work. Some of them write whole books on how, if only the Third World country adopts property rights; or on the other side; rise against the plutocrats; then Honduras will turn into Switzerland overnight. Very naïve and wrong-headed.

I have to appreciate the leftist concern with the poor and marginalized though. They’ve certainly been very helpful to the Palestinian cause; especially Norman Finkelstein, a truly ethical and humane scholar. On the other hand; the libertarian right also deserves great credit for combating the destructive ideology of socialism. Interestingly; if you count the number of major thinkers on either side; you’ll find they basically amount to a dozen or so people; a substantial portion of which were Jews. Think of Ludwig von Moses, Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Marx etc. Pretty remarkable. The history of 20th century Western political thought is in large part just a Jewish intellectual slug-fest; with some gentile foot soldiers aiding in the background.

In reality the “refugees welcome” people are some of the biggest supporters of Ukraine in Europe, and not just in the sense of hosting refugees from Ukraine

I was specifically responding to your comment that the presence of Ukraine’s far right anti-Russians causes Ukraine to be misaligned with European values. It aligns just fine with someone like Meloni, the Balts, the right wing Finns and Swedes. Even with Poles, despite Bandera complications.

There are some very strange alliances in this conflict, one of the strangest that being between Western wokes and Ukrainian nationalists

Mutual hatred of Putin, for very different reasons. And of course people of different ideologies can be outraged by the murderous invasion of another country. Basic decency is relatively universal.

I notice the usual dig against Germany in your comment

You are hypersensitive.

especially given the implied comparison with Italy. I mean wtf, what has Italy even done all that much for Ukraine?

The comparison with Italy was simply about compatibility, in response to your claim that the presence of the far right in Ukraine somehow contradicts European values. You don’t think that Meloni and her movement are very compatible with Ukraine’s right wing in a way that the German SPD, Greens, and Merkel are not?

Merkelism doesn’t have a monopoly on Europe’s values.

Yes, Germany has stepped up and that is praiseworthy. It is redeeming itself, after having been a major enabler of Russia.

Ukraine’s European orientation is most closely aligned with healthy conservative parts of Europe such as the Baltics and Poland, Italy too now.

But none of these parts are healthy. Italy has a lower TFR than Japan.

None of them really have a European orientation either, IMO, including Ukraine. Hungary seems to be the only one with any gumption, and it doesn’t seem like any of it is about anything greater than Hungary. They seem very fearful and restrained about it. No advocacy for Europeans that I am aware of, and they haven’t even kicked out US subversive ops.

display what may be perceived by some as “weakness” sometimes, as in, you are sometimes willing to concede your opinion (you hold your opinion but also try not to be categorical – for more primitive minds this is a “weakness”) and you present both sides

Understanding the other side’s position, even if you disagree with it; is a very admirable trait and should be encouraged. I think its referred to as the Ideological Turing Test: “if you can’t state the other side’s position better than its proponents; then you haven’t thought of the issue too well”. It’s a very useful technique to incorporate into ones mental toolkit. A lot of intelligent people fall into the ideological trap of not listening, let alone understanding, the other person’s viewpoints. It can turn even the most intelligent people’s brain into cabbage (see Noam Chomsky or Milton Friedman).

Got no comment on this squabble, but I like your insistence on ‘PiS Poland’ in the same delegitimising manner as others began insisting on ‘Rusfed’.

A system less capable than The Russian Pantsir.

Poland figured this out and are well on their way towards a similar platform.

PEACE 😇
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The drones getting chopped up in that vidya are not exactly the objects the Flying Lawnmowers (although I prefer the idea that they are flying Stihl Grass Trimmers) Iranians have provided.

These objects here shown are the sort of mid price quad drones you can buy yourself. More likely to be the sort of object the Chinese will provide Russia.

The Geran/Shahid drones are pretty easy targets in a sense, so meh.

I’m not sure why it’s a triumph to shoot down small hovering camera-objects with shells from a 20mm cannon with armed proximity fuses. A lot of 20-40mm cannon anti aircraft weapons can do this stuff.

You may have been lathered up watching too much of the merciless vids of grenades getting dropped on lonely looking soldiers in slit trenches without the means to meet it with a 20-40mm reply.

Ideological Turing Test [..] It’s a very useful technique to incorporate into ones mental toolkit. A lot of intelligent people fall into the ideological trap of not listening, let alone understanding, the other person’s viewpoints.

It’s a very useful technique. For me, the most frustrating part is seeing two somewhat different opinions, ideological outlooks or even perspectives of facts, seeing that both make sense in their own way, or from their particular perspective. And trying to figure out some kind of a compromising view between those but then that view doesn’t seem as truthful anymore. Or even having to choose one view (when both seem to make sense in their own way).

from a black-lesbian mayor bearing an uncanny resemblance to Gollum.

Rather, I think Lightfoot looks like some sort of extinct hominid. Or possibly some member of an undiscovered, and long-separated, pygmy tribe.

She looks like Groot to me. 🙂

The title says Antonovsky Bridge, the Ukrainian Army did disintegrate in the South, the Russians advanced about as fast as an army can, strangely this is always ignored, despite the main thrust being there.

My comment was nothing but an amusing quote from Hayek. Sorry that wasn’t clear. Hayek, of course, being genuinely brilliant, but liable to some of the criticism you allege.

Schopenhauer, Lacan, Nietzsche and late Wittgenstein are worth a read.

A year ago he [Saker] had said that if he felt that if it came to be that direct war between the US and Russia was a certainty, he would considered his mission a failure and shut the blog down. Maybe that’s how he feels now.

I don’t see how a direct fight is avoidable…Bakhmut/Artemovsk is the biggest battle in the last 50 years…It’s just a prelude.

The US/UK wants to commence WWIII with Russia very badly.

They haven’t been religiously and painstakingly recreating all the leadup events to WWII, ie ‘Lend-Lease’, new US Army uniforms being near replicas of those of WWII era, Zelenkski’s ‘Churchillian’ speech before the US Congress, etc, they can think of, as a lead up to this desired new world war, for nothing.

In such a WWIII scenario, Russia and China may well not experience anything much too good. Wars are often like that.

For the US/UK, however, throw in the ‘Fall of Capitalism’, ie the impending economic and political collapse of the United States and it’s Western bloc, into the mix, and the United States may well experience much the same catastrophe Russia experienced 1917-21, as described in Imperial Apocalypse, ie defeat in a World War, civil war, economic collapse, famine, etc.

Of course, I’d rather be wrong.

https://academic.oup.com/book/12205?login=false

My comment was nothing but an amusing quote from Hayek. Sorry that wasn’t clear.

I know; I was just using you as a springboard to introduce a new topic.

It seems that not many people here are interested in discussing economics.

I assume most are vaguely capitalist; but again few here have written about their economic views.

It would be nice to have some intellectual discussions going on the sidelines.

Where’s AaronB when you need him?

Such incompetents. Eh?

What will Trump’s 2nd term bring in terms of foreign policy: (1)

one of Trump’s greatest strengths was his willingness to work with potential adversaries respectfully, thus defusing their baseless yet believed fears of the evil American empire seeking their destruction. Remember how North Korean leader Kim Jong Un considerably calmed down after Trump treated him as his nation’s leader instead of a madman? Biden takes over the White House, and the missiles resume flying. Not a coincidence.

Putin could and did respect Trump because Trump made it clear America had no aggressive interests toward Russia, instead preferring peaceful and mutually beneficial economic measures. This is something the Biden administration cannot claim. Those who think they are best qualified to run the lives of American citizens seldom, if ever, stop at that point. Remember the idiotic comments the Afghanistan charge d’affaires recently made regarding Afghani women?

Ironically, Putin’s invasion, along with Biden’s ineptitude — pardon the redundancy — has scuttled what would have been a logical next step in Trump’s foreign policy: eliminating altogether, if not solely America’s participation in, NATO. With the Russian-perceived threat of NATO aggression removed, an economically engaged Russia loses much of its Ukrainian invasion rationale.

Ending NATO seems a bit too far.

Blocking expansion and improving relations with Russia are reasonable goals.

PEACE 😇
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(1) https://redstate.com/jerrywilson/2023/03/02/how-trumps-nationalism-kept-the-peace-n710487

Vague capitalism works. Institutional functioning is what best enables it. That is derived from many factors, but a key and often ignored factor is the smartness and size of the smart fraction. The United States absolutely dominates there and so dominates economically. This is why people from Arkansas are richer than those from Hong Kong. The Arkansas people are lifted up by the brightest and most dynamic Americans.

Hayek solved why socialism fails. The market is an information processing machine. Socialism is akin to thinking you can get alpha by stock picking, but also by putting the most inept in charge of picking stocks, and making them pick absolutely everything. Capitalism is putting your money into an index fund. Index funds win every time. Socialism could just about function in agrarian and tractor producing economies. It is ridiculous now, and only something that totally ignorant people or ideologues propose.

Obviously pure capitalism also fails, despite people not wanting it to, because it results in politically undesirable outcomes and people rebel.

Probably what is is also what should be.

If a mediocre country’s elite really want to improve that country then applying the basic international consensus on economics is a good idea, but that is just a start. The real work is in the stuff LKY did. Relentlessly making institutions better. Institutions are gigantic pieces of technology based around established processes and procedures for improving these processes. If you understand this, you’ll also understand why the Russians are failing in Ukraine and cannot fix themselves. Their military processes are all broken and cannot be changed in the course of months or even years. Dominic Cummings also writes about this in relation to the British civil service. This stuff is hard and involves crushing institutional interests to improve them.

Other than that, eugenics/culture can help, but the timeline is extremely long and the intelligence of the average person matters more for how they organise their own life than it does for the economy. Most jobs just don’t require much brightness, and they require less and less, not more and more.

There. Solved. Lol.

It seems that not many people here are interested in discussing economics.
I assume most are vaguely capitalist; but again few here have written about their economic views.
It would be nice to have some intellectual discussions going on the sidelines.

Trump recently expanded on how MAGAnomics will work in his 2nd term. The recent rollout features tariffs as a key component: (1)

The Golden Arrow – President Trump Announces Economic Agenda 47 Which Includes “Universal Baseline Tariffs”

To achieve this goal, we will phase in a system of universal, baseline tariffs on most foreign products. On top of this, higher tariffs will increase incrementally depending on how much individual foreign countries devalue their currency. They devalue their currency to take advantage of the United States, and they subsidize their industries, or otherwise engage in trade cheating and abuse. And they do it now like never before, and we had it largely stopped and it was going to be stopped completely within less than a year.
…
We will revoke China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, and adopt a 4-year plan to phase out all Chinese imports of essential goods—everything from electronics to steel to pharmaceuticals. This will include strong protections to ensure China cannot circumvent restrictions by passing goods through conduit countries—countries that don’t make a product, but all of a sudden they’re making a lot of the product, it comes right through China, right out of China, and right into our country.

We will also adopt new rules to stop U.S. companies from pouring investments into China, and to stop China from buying up America, allowing all of those investments that clearly serve American interests. We’re not going to allow bad things to happen to our country anymore. And we will eliminate federal contracts for any company that outsources to China.

Gradually decoupling from Asian imports is a key driver for MAGA Reindustrialization. Growing the U.S. economy is a necessity.

A country without trade policy is unilaterally disarmed in the face of nations that strategically manage their interaction with the global economy.

PEACE 😇
___________

(1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/02/27/the-golden-arrow-president-trump-announces-economic-agenda-47-which-includes-universal-baseline-tariffs/

Kind of surprised that none of our resident military experts has commented yet on the recent humiliating losses in a battle taking place in Vuhledar, where the Russian side has lost up to 130 tanks. Apparently the “liberating” army is still not capable of coordinating its tactics to avoid these kinds of punishing losses.
A member of a Ukrainian artillery unit runs back after taking coordinates before firing a M109 self-propelled artillery unit at Russian mortar positions around Vuhledar from a frontline position on December 19, 2022, in Donetsk region of Ukraine. On March 1, 2023, the New York Times reported that Russia lost at least 130 tanks and military vehicles following a battle in Vuhledar.
https://www.newsweek.com/tank-loss-vuhledar-reveals-russia-repeating-key-mistakes-expert-1784893

The market is an information processing machine.
…
Capitalism is putting your money into an index fund. Index funds win every time.

Small investors can use index finds as a strategy because large and active investors are pushing the information discovery.

However, active investors can have stupid ideas. ESG index funds under perform better constructed alternatives: (1)

ESG causes pension investment strategies to underperform passive funds

The IPFI also found an increase in the prevalence of ESG and other alternative pension investment strategies. The institute has argued that pension funds should not use ESG to select investments because their fiduciary duty is to maximize participants’ returns. It also said that ESG, in general, underperformed passive investment strategies, which further explains why so many state pensions are struggling to perform.

The institute also looked at the use of proxy advisory firms and found that the use of their recommendations by public pension funds does not benefit returns. According to the study, of the five worst-performing state pensions, four were relying on services from proxy advisory firms. Additionally, South Dakota, which had the best-performing state pension, did not take assistance from such firms.

The IPFI calls on state pension funds to return to their fiduciary obligations by focusing entirely on the financial returns of their investments.

Cherry picking data could find some funds that outperformed in a specific time frame. However, ESG carries huge risk related to government support for uneconomic “green” investments. When those subsidies go away — Losses will be large & sudden. Remember the Solyndra fiasco.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://www.valuewalk.com/esg-pension-investment-strategies-proxies/

You seem to mistakenly assume the goal of life is to accumulate the most physical things possible – so for your, the “wealth” of people in Arkansas is impressive.

Yet, there is more spontaneous joy and happiness in a village without running water in the jungle in the Philippines than in the soulless Walmart-driven suburbs of any Arkansas town. And I have been to both – I doubt you have. I doubt you’ve ever been out of a large liberal city, and you’ve certainly never been out of European civilization.

Similarly, human beings are much happier living in poorer but more equal societies – where individuals are respected, and ones worth is not judged by money. Capitalism creates enormous and tremendous “respect deficits” that lead to incredible psychic pain, and social degradation at the edges (the truly degraded underclass that exists only in hyper-capitalist Anglo societies), quite aside from economic inequality – indeed, that one has more “toys” than another is largely meaningless, what crushes the soul is the implied value differential in capitalist societies.

Capitalism, too, encourages the worst instincts of human nature. As Keynes said – “Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work together for the benefit of all.”

Capitalism, with it’s deification of the profit motive, drives away all other spiritual and moral values – creates soulless, ugly, cities.(because profit more important than beauty), destroys communities and the environment, and encourages our worst instincts.

All this – so that people in Arkansas can become obese and shop at Walmart and own a lot of toys and live in a big lonely house where they don’t know their neighbors, built on a razed forest, and be constantly anxious that someone else has more money than them even though they already have every human necessity and comfort.

But hey, statistically, they are wealthier than people in Hong Kong, not to mention that village in the jungle. And that’s what matters – how many “points” you’ve accumulated in the game of life.

Anyways, I don’t have time now to post so I won’t be responding or getting into any discussions – just saw this rather egregious sample of soulless capitalist triumphalism and had to post this rather “drive by” response that doesn’t come close to doing the topic justice. I developed it a bit further in my discussions with AP on Christianity, but it really deserves a rather thorough discussion one of these days.

Incidentally, one of the most ominous things is that certain factions of the American elites is beginning to promote Chinese capitalist exploitation as an “alternative” to American as a distraction from genuine reform – this is an obvious example of the Chinese proverb of the monkeys and “three bananas in the morning, four in the afternoon” (worth googling). And they are manipulating the blind passions of stupid people – indeed, the anger that capitalism has – justly – created in them is being manipulated to exploit them yet again. This is how nothing ever changes. The anger that might lead to change is being manipulated to exploit them yet again.

I just looked at Michael Hudson’s Wikipedia page – despite regularly posting on a premiere neo-Nazi site like this one, there is zero mention of any controversy surrounding him, and the page reads like he’s a totally respectable member of the mainstream.

Yahya – Keynes, Hayek, etc were better and more interesting economists than the Jewish bunch that came after WW2 to dominate the field, but that’s perhaps because of the general loss of intellectual – and moral and spiritual – dimension after the war that affected everyone. Keynes, for instance, clearly included a moral and spiritual dimension in his discussions of economics that later thinkers couldn’t even imagine.

Anyways, gotta run – enjoy the conversation, people.

It seems that not many people here are interested in discussing economics.

As near as I can tell the leading internet economists are Brad Delong on the left coast and Tyler Cowen as the voice of sanity. Together they impress me about as much as Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman. Not much. Although on his wikipedia page it says Cowen was a chess champion of New Jersey once. That impresses me but they did not cite a master rating number for him.

I would like to make money in a free market economy but there does not appear to be any rational way to do that. Medical doctors now all work for corporations. All the lawyers I know work for the government. I used to work for a corporation. The skills which I saw with most career advantage were eating shit and sucking ass.

The best source book I have ever read was Joe Schumpeter History Economic Analysis. It is free online here:

http://digamo.free.fr/schumphea.pdf

What do you want to talk about? Bitcoin? The price of Tesla stock? Bezos’ divorce? We are never going to Mars. Self driving cars and every man having a driver’s license will never coexist. Corona virus is basically the cold and flu and a scam for picking our pockets and worse.

Perhaps economics as a discussion topic is dead as Monty Python’s parrot. I have never been able to find one single sub reddit worth following. I do like to read Naked Capitalism most days but they don’t really cover much economics either. Ten years ago I read Barry Ritholtz every day but it seems that guy got a lobotomy when New York media called the 2016 election for Trump. Well before midnight in my time zone. I was in a bar and it was like when Bush blew the towers in 2001 it was that dead.

It seems that not many people here are interested in discussing economics.

Because there is nothing to discuss. A Misesian, free market economy is the only economic system consistent with natural law. Anyone who even suggests that fractional reserve lending, central banks or state issued currencies should continue to exist should be executed along with their families.

Anyone who doesn’t recognize these economic truths is gay.

Biden has been a national political figure for 50 years or so. Putin only emerged after Yeltsin allowed the Serbs to get trashed in Kosovo at the end of the 1990s. When Putin emerged Russia did absolutely nothing while the US invaded and subdued a heavily armed Iraq (for Israel’s sake) and fumbled around in Afghanistanistan’s mountains looking for a man who was always sitting in a villa next to the Pakistani staff college. Putin was busy throttling the Chechens and refitting the oil and gas industry looking for a closer connection with Germany. At the same time the US and UK rolled NATO into the East, demanding the EU take in Poland and Balts plus the Romanians. All the while the mercurial British were about to leave the EU anyway. On a slightly larger scale all the work of Kissinger to break Russian and Chinese alliances, gone in a puff of smoke.

And here we are in the same place as General Eric von Manstein in 1943-44 in the Donbass. A few tractors with guns strapped to turrets, rockets on trucks and piston engine aircraft doing some spotting and dropping bombs on hapless soldier’s heads.

You seem to mistakenly assume the goal of life is to accumulate the most physical things possible

No, and nothing I’ve written should give that impression. You’re projecting again. We were discussing economics, therefore economic production was a relevant point.

so for your, the “wealth” of people in Arkansas is impressive.

It is undoubtedly an impressive economic achievement.

Yet, there is more spontaneous joy and happiness in a village without running water in the jungle in the Philippines than in the soulless Walmart-driven suburbs of any Arkansas town. And I have been to both – I doubt you have. I doubt you’ve ever been out of a large liberal city, and you’ve certainly never been out of European civilization

Sometimes there is and sometimes there isn’t. And I’ve been to plenty of places, thank you. And not as some halfwit backpacker who thinks he is spiritually enlightened but can’t even get over his mommy issues.

Similarly, human beings are much happier living in poorer but more equal societies

I’ve heard this from every halfwit backpacker I’ve ever met in those poorer countries. They romanticise the locals but never get to actually know them. Relying on their ignorant first impressions, that the locals are so keen to make good. Usually the locals have secret rude names for those deluded dirty foreigners, in one case equivalent to “stray dog.”

Capitalism

Your entire ranting description of what you perceive as “capitalism” might also serve as a description for you mum. This is not a coincidence. You merely see your own shadow. Try to learn to understand that shadow, rather than project it everywhere. You’ll feel better.

But hey, statistically, they are wealthier than people in Hong Kong, not to mention that village in the jungle. And that’s what matters – how many “points” you’ve accumulated in the game of life.

I’m sorry you feel deep down that you’ve lost at the game of accumulating points in life. But honestly, most people don’t care.

So, a bunch of defensive, insecure insults – by the rules of online argument , I believe I’ve “won” 🙂

Don’t have time to get involved. Enjoy the rest of your convo.

Bukele is going Cultural Revolution on gang symbols on gravestones. But he is canny so he says it is like how the swastika was removed from post-war Germany, all the while making videos like Riefenstahl.

Two, it will be very successfully used by RF government propaganda against both Kiev regime and its puppeteers and wannabe Nazis in Russia itself.

This is already happening. Russian Nazi scum that infiltrated Bryansk region from Ukraine among other things fired at a civilian vehicle in which a man was transporting three teenagers to the school bus stop. The driver was killed, the boy was wounded by a bullet to the chest, but he still helped two teenage girls in the vehicle to get to safety. Bryansk officials intend to nominate the boy for a medal “For courage”.

The boy was successfully operated, the bullet that hit him was removed, and today he was visited by his mother (which is a human thing) and Bryansk Gov. Alexander Bogomaz (which is a political thing).

Bottom line is, the more crimes Ukies and their pet Nazis perpetrate, the more material they provide for the RF government propaganda, the more hatred they will stir among the RF citizens, and the more justified that hatred will be.

These cunts want Leopard II tanks

Germany should stop naming its tanks after big cats. German Tiger and Panther tanks already were in Russia in WWII. We all know how that ended.

You seem to want to kill a lot of people.

What did the universe ever do to you?

I knew a man who was a prominent lawyer in Nicaragua with one of the most beautiful houses in Managua and a huge loving family. He was on the ins with the government and his resources were not unencumbered with guilt but he was a really happy man.

The Sandanistas killed a bunch of his relatives and stole all of his property. He hitchhiked to the United States and got a job as a hotel bellhop. When I met him he was a hotel bellhop. He wanted his property back but he didn’t want to kill anybody.

Yes, you’ve won. Absolute total victory. Now go and enjoy exactly how this success of yours makes you feel.

I agree with the point you were making and you were definitely being unnecessarily rude. That’s not how you have a conversation.

Vague capitalism works. Institutional functioning is what best enables it. That is derived from many factors, but a key and often ignored factor is the smartness and size of the smart fraction. The United States absolutely dominates there and so dominates economically. This is why people from Arkansas are richer than those from Hong Kong. The Arkansas people are lifted up by the brightest and most dynamic Americans.

Thanks for the perceptive comment. I agree with many of your points; especially on the need for a multi-varied analysis on the question of societal performance. In my view; economic outcomes are determined by 4-5 key variables: cognitive capital, cultural capital, institutional capital and geographic capital. The relative importance of the variables will differ by society; and each of these variables can be expanded on at length; but i’ll focus on the cognitive component which I agree is criminally neglected by academics and theoreticians.

First, with regards to the smart fraction theory; it’s a concept which I used to substantially agree with; but have recently reconsidered its validity in terms of predictive power. Basically I think the average is more important than the smart fraction; both because the mean in large part determines the size of the smart fraction; and because the examples of India and Pakistan demonstrate the limitations of the Smart Fraction Theory in predicting economic success.

The 3,000+ Jāti caste system makes it incredibly difficult to estimate India’s mean IQ; and the test results given by Lynn are imo unreliable and unreflective of Indian genotypic realities. But I think it’s reasonable to use British test results as a proxy for South Asians in general. I’ve written an in-depth post on this subject here: https://www.unz.com/isteve/the-racial-reckoning/#comment-5751004. Basically I think Indian genotypic IQ ranges from 92-95. If I had to give a single number it would be 93. Of course there will be significant regional and caste variation in the modal figure; but averaged out I think 93 is a reasonable estimate of South Asian IQ.

Now if we assume that the standard deviation for Indian IQ is 15, we can calculate z-scores and quantify the number of smart fraction Indians (IQ 130+). For a population of 1.4B people, and a mean IQ of 93; that would come to 9.5 million Indians with 130+ IQ. If the mean is reduced to 92, the smart fraction would congruently decrease to roughly 8 million. If we increase mean IQ to 94, it would amount to 11.5 million. So for all intents and purposes we can estimate India as containing 8-11.5 million cognitive elites. Pakistan would come to 1.3-2.3 million given the same parameters.

By comparison, the United States with 330 million people and a mean IQ of 100 would count 7.5 million IQ 130+ individuals. The United Kingdom with 66 million people would count 1.5 million cognitive elites. The statistics tell us that there are more smart Indians than smart Americans; and more intelligent Pakistanis than intelligent Britons. To shift to the less reliable anecdotal plain; I think we’ve all met sharp Hindus and Muslims from the subcontinent; they’re certainly out there – and in large numbers too.

The problem then is why are India and Pakistan giant shitholes?

These two countries are closer to Nigeria and Congo in per capita GDP than to Vietnam or Mexico. Even war-torn countries like Syria and Ukraine maintain more functioning economies than India and Pakistan. The smart fraction theory has little to answer on this question. The solution will lie in the averages.

India is a nation of gypsies and Jews. The latter are launching rockets into space; while the former are moving around in bullock carts. There is a large reservoir of intelligent and civilized Indians like Nehru, Gandhi, Rajagopalachari, Tata, Tagore, Sen etc; but they are outnumbered 100 to 1 by the Sher Singhs and Narendra Modis. The Jews in India are being dragged down by the Gypsies. The Jews have created isolated pockets of civilization and prosperity in India; but its clear that they are insufficient in proportion to the overall population. If India had a mean IQ of 100; you can bet on the situation looking very different; regardless of the defects which are abundant in Indian culture.

Despite the population differential; Britain outmatches India in number of Nobel laurates by a magnitude of 12 to 1. I believe culture and institutions play a role; but averages matter because they impact these two variables. Especially in a democracy where the average taxi-driver has as much political power as the average scientist; the common man will determine the shape of institutions. Their behavior and cultural conditioning matter.

You mention Lee Kuan Yew; whom I agree was a remarkably pragmatic and effective leader; but he had the autocratic power necessary to bend institutions to his will. In India only Nehru had the prestige and power to affect change; but he failed owing to his democratic inclinations; lack of economic realism; and lack of courage to tackle endemic corruption in India. Manmohan Singh was intelligent and good-willed but he could not meaningfully reform the system. But we’ll leave the discussion of political systems to another day.

I don’t want to kill people. Saying that that people who endorse fractional reserve lending and/or fiat money should be indiscriminately slaughtered is merely a common figure of speech.

The only group of people I really hate are white liberals (and I include NeverTrump “conservatives” in that group). And even them I don’t want to kill, I just want to remove all their power and make them into second class citizens.

It is how I chose to respond to the unnecessary rudeness in his random interjection. I stand by it one hundred percent.

Nevermind that the last comment before that one he wrote to me was another random interjection to accuse me of being a narcissist psychopath sociopath.

Pointing out that I am not his mother and that he has serious mother issues is merely giving back his messed up energy to him.

But thanks for your intervention. It sort of demonstrates you care. Not enough to withhold judgement prior to actually looking back a little bit, but enough to write down your first reaction. That’s something.

I was specifically responding to your comment that the presence of Ukraine’s far right anti-Russians causes Ukraine to be misaligned with European values.

I can’t claim to understand all the intricacies of Ukraine’s political life. But tbh, the more I read about the events of the last ten years, the more I think that those radical right-wing (or worse in some cases) groups which seem to have an outsized influence in Ukraine will cause a lot of problems in the future. I don’t think they can really be compared to anything that exists in the EU in their militancy and their readiness to use violence and threats to advance their goals. For now this is overlooked because of Russia’s invasion, but should that war ever come to a conclusive end, I think there’s a lot of potential for trouble.

You are hypersensitive.

I probably am, sorry. I need to step away for some time from this forum, my sickness-induced excessive posting wasn’t good for me.

You don’t think that Meloni and her movement

Meloni is already seen as a fraud by many, so far she hasn’t achieved anything.
But no, I don’t think she and her party are comparable to the radical (or far) right in Ukraine…as I wrote above, the latter includes groups which in their militancy and readiness to use organized violence aren’t comparable with anything in the EU.

Yes, Germany has stepped up and that is praiseworthy. It is redeeming itself, after having been a major enabler of Russia.

I don’t agree with that narrative. The Minsk agreement would have been the best way to avert the catastrophe going on since February 2022.

The Minsk agreement would have been the best way to avert the catastrophe going on since February 2022.

Poroshenko, Merkel, and Holland all confessed the same thing: Minsk agreements were a ruse from the get go, meant by Ukies and the West to fool Putin. Besides, that train has left the station more than a year ago and will not come back.

If you Jerry’s don’t hand over victory to the Ukies they’ll be using stingers on Lufthansa flights out of Tempelhof in bitter revenge.

btw, if somebody is really repulsed by fractional reserve system, it is possible these days for everybody to participate and borrow or lend without any fractionalism in action thanx to the net technologies – idk much about US, but in EU there are lot perfectly legal and functioning non banking internet based p2p lending platforms, which began functioning roughly about 8-10 years ago.

I should add to what the US may soon expect to experience, in addition to possible defeat in a world war, civil war, economic collapse, famine, etc., is a Communist Revolution.

Relatedly, recently I came across some online whimpering from a couple of modern Progressive Multi-Culturalists who know what’s coming.

Rather belatedly, they expressed concern about ‘eating their own’ in regards to some of the ‘me too’ accusers, who seem to have been able to ruin other people’s lives without any due process. These self declared progressives expressed this concern, while still engaging themselves in what creates the problem, ie the routine demonization of those whom they disagree with and things they don’t comprehend, which is almost everyone and everything.

And what exactly is coming for large numbers of them?

It is something I certainly don’t wish for them or upon anyone else.

At the hands of their own fellow progs, particularly of the ‘woke’ type, being made to dig a ditch, stand in line in front of it, with some barrels of quicklime at the ready off to the side, and being unceremoniously mowed down into said ditch by some guys operating a belt fed machine gun.

More than the bullets themselves ripping into you, knowing that it was your own ideological people whom ordered your execution, and that they don’t want you, has really got to hurt.

However, even psychos realize it’s not good for one’s health to be surrounded by too many other psychos.

Hence the great culling.

Another story about exploits of Ukie-sponsored Nazi scum in the Bryansk region, village of Sushany. 35 years old guy Oleg was in his house drinking tea with two women neighbors. In the window he saw four masked and armed bandits. Right before them were two young mothers with three little children. Oleg ran out and shouted at bandits telling them not to harm children. They started shooting in his direction with automatic rifles. He was wounded in the shoulder, another bullet hit one of the women on the ear, but meanwhile the mothers with children managed to run away. Then the bandits threw hand grenade into the house. He and both women managed to escape, but the house burned down.

you’d have to go back to the Romans doing a treaty with Perseus’s Macedonia and the embassy of The consuls for 171 BC Publius Licinius Crassus and Gaius Cassius Longinus for this sort of totalized bad faith.

Another collection from RF propjunk crypt, lol

No such term of “RF propjunk crypt” exists you demented retard……..especially to Lithuania – a failed, irrelevant shithole country with some nice countryside. Except honouring Nazi scum/collaborators, negotiations over gas contracts and recent provocations from these trash over Kaliningrad transit………takes up ZERO space in Russian media or national consciousness you dumbfuck. The most famous Lithuanian is the guy who presents Vesti in the evening (note how he has his actual name, not like all 3 Baltic fuckup states where the slavic name is faggotised/lithuanianised against all normalcy of the civilised world.

I would say the number of us Russians who know the name of the Lithuanian President or PM is at the same very low level as Americans who can locate “Ukraine” on the map you idiot. The fact is I am basically the only guy in Russia even interested in the fact Paksas was cheated out from Presidency – there was NOTHING on it on radio at the time, blogosphere was much smaller then, but nothing on it then, near zero interest on tv and only a small amount more on newspapers.

EU, referendum of joining EU was done in 2003 and got 91% votes in favour with 63% turnout.

Baltic freakshow is that irrelevant , its true I had forgotten the order of things ( accession into EU before this Ignalina referendum) – but the basic facts remain the same
The average voter in Litva ( a dumbass) went into that EU referendum with the Ignalina issue and its implications of it silenced and not part of the campaign. It’s not like there was pro-joining EU campaigning with ” no issue about closing down Ignalina……because Russia and Belarus will save us in energy to enable us to join EU” ( which is the practically what happened)

Closure of Ignalina NPP with Chernobyl type reactors of two units was negotiated in 1999 under your hero Paksas the PM by getting in exchange the compensation of all associated dismantling costs (including building long term storages of all radioactive materials) from EU, referendum of joining EU was done in 2003 and got 91% votes in favour with 63% turnout.

First reactor was closed in 2004, second was scheduled to be closed in 2009, thus LT already being within EU member for 5 years and having no any real risk to be expelled, the referendum was called in order to vote for prolonging the work of second and last remaining unit and failed to reach the mandatory 50% turnout, despite getting overwhelming “yes” vote from those who went to vote.

LT already being within EU member for 5 years and having no any real risk to be expelled

For sure that’s correct that expulsion not under threat, we know now from historical perspective even more because we know Gayropa will tolerate ,even encourage, any breaking of rules or agreements if its for anti-Russian purposes (i.e Minsk agreements) …….but this referendum was done very much under the tension and focus that EU status was under threat over the issue…..and national security via energy done under even more threat. You are simply a typical Baltic lying POS to imply electorate thought there was not a real risk of this happening. As for EU referendum – they obviously fixed and lied about the turnout. Ignalina referendum was about same turnout for every other election in Lithuania……..and deliberately done with Seima elections on same day ( and not over 2 days like EU referendum), which in addition to the stolen Presidential elections before, is not exactly encouraging or likely an honest referendum process you idiot.

Your driveling about that particular basketball related film is also laughable cause ofc it’s not banned.

Just banned from showing it in cinemas under the punishment of closure, who knows – maybe cinema set on fire, bullet to the head for the owners, no advertising on tv…..”sure” not banned you laughable POS!!! Next you will be trying to convince that Lithuanian scumbag authorities have not banned people wearing shirts with the letters Z.V, O on it. Lithuanian pals told me there was no cinemas showing it near them. Can you name me ONE cinema that showed it you retarded idiot?
It made 47 million USD in Russia. Litva-Nazi republic is lets say 47 times smaller than Russia. There is or was since 1991 always interest from Litva in Russian and old soviet films, Lithuanian enthusiasm for basketball, depiction of Paulauskas………we can all assume it was banned to the point it didn’t even make 0.1% of 47 million in Lithuania. Not as bad as 404 banning the films of……..their own (puppet) President, but in the same level of lowlife behaviour

Minsk agreements were a ruse from the get go, meant by Ukies and the West to fool Putin.

I don’t believe Merkel and Hollande intended them as a ruse back in 2015, imo their recent comments must be seen in light of the dominant climate in today’s West where any attempts at a negotiated solution are denounced as appeasement. Merkel is very vain, she wants to protect her image (I assume the same applies to Hollande).
It’s probably true though that Ukraine never intended to implement them, and that no serious attempt was made to provide sufficient incentives/pressure to change that.

Besides, that train has left the station more than a year ago and will not come back.

True enough. But all the possible outcomes now are much worse.

The US University and College system has trained far too many people to expect management jobs and influencer status. An over production of Turchin’s predicted Troublemakers. Similar issues in the UK. Lot’s of liberals who’ve conveniently discovered Ukie patriotism as a cure for British or American nationalism. Let the Pussyrioters get their war on, far from me and mine.

Boris Johnson ought to grab a rifle and go die in the Donbass for example, along with half a hundred of his own pro Ukie confederates on both sides of the Atlantic.

all the possible outcomes now are much worse.

This cloud has silver lining: all masks came off, the hideous faces are exposed for all to see. As an added bonus, Putin and others in Russia (Putin is not young, although he is not decrepit and demented like some clowns we know) learned that you can never trust the West an inch. Will be useful in the future (if there is future, that is).

The hateful left see Russians as a metaphor for Europeans in general, conservatism, traditions and so on, they aren’t in favour of Ukraine, they couldn’t care less.

all masks came off, the hideous faces are exposed for all to see.

I don’t agree with that assessment either. May be comforting for Russians now to adopt such self-serving views, that everybody in the West was their enemy anyway, that there was no possibility of any dialogue at all, Holy Russia against the Empire etc. And sure, there’s an awful lot to criticize on the Western side. But still, it was Putin’s choice to start this demented preventive war project, there was no clear and immediate need to do something that drastic. You say you can never trust the West an inch…well, as I recall, even a few days before last year’s invasion there were still official Russian statements that there were no plans for an invasion at all…how is that for trustworthiness?

if there is future, that is

Indeed, if.

Wonder which nations are supplying the crews for the Leopards, I guess not many are volunteering hence the number to be supplied keeps dropping?

Boris Johnson ought to grab a rifle and go die in the Donbass for example, along with half a hundred of his own pro Ukie confederates on both sides of the Atlantic.

So what’s holding you up in pursuing a career where you could put your superlative military knowledge to better use than scribbling on far-right blogs? Uncle Prygozhin is still trying to enlist more recruits. Perhaps kremlinstoogeA123 might be preferable, as he’s convinced that the Russians are fighting a defensive war against “Nazis”:

The Biden regime was determined to start this conflict from the moment they were installed, look at Hilary’s crazy rant the other day. I don’t rule out that the Ukrainians were going to attack the Donbass, signs that they were going to. Sanctions and false flags were being ratcheted up for years. Fortunately they believed their own propaganda, Russia was a lot stronger than they thought, they were blinded by their own hatred.

Obscure rightwing blogs are a key battle ground for making sure your own folk or sons don’t go off to die in someone else’s wars. I’m picking my own hill to die on right here.

Johnson has the example of Churchill who did at least command a battalion of troops on the Western Front for a time. No one can doubt that Churchill was both a backroom warmonger and first hand practitioner of killing fuzzywuzzy-dervishes and Germans.

Boris Johnson should get his AK47 and raise a regiment from his own funds to go fight there, just as his political idol did.

Those guys were Russians returning home to Russia. In contrast, Russia sent many times more Chechen, Buryat and Russian bandits into Ukraine where they terrorized civilians.

I’d guess daddy issues more than mommy issues but otherwise you are very correct.

I need time to respond to this, after some reflection. It is high quality and densely packed with observations. I’ll get back to you.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53510

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/53510/53510-h/53510-h.htm

ਪੰਜਸ਼ਸ਼ਤਰਪਰਵਾਨ

ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ

I can’t claim to understand all the intricacies of Ukraine’s political life. But tbh, the more I read about the events of the last ten years, the more I think that those radical right-wing (or worse in some cases) groups which seem to have an outsized influence in Ukraine

They had about 2% support, they wouldn’t do anything significant that would be against general consensus. They aren’t much of an independent actor.

“You don’t think that Meloni and her movement”

Meloni is already seen as a fraud by many, so far she hasn’t achieved anything.
But no, I don’t think she and her party are comparable to the radical (or far) right in Ukraine

She herself is not currently, but a Ukraine that includes those guys is compatible with a Meloni Italy. Her youth:

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-rome-italy-gay-rights-51255b9f6e8627b3c5daddc83df83c3b

Has Meloni been in power long enough to achieve anything significant? Give her at least a year before judging.

This is all fine and dandy, Wokey, posturing for your own graveyard and all, but I was hoping that you’d comment about the continuing shortcomings of the Russian military that I brought up in comment #179? 130 lost russian tanks deserves a mention or two here at this blog, I would think?…

Lavrov was laughed off by the crowd in India when he performed the usual patented RF nonsense about being attacked:

https://t.me/m0sc0wcalling/20685

Ecological impact of the Nordstream bombings seems to be greater than assumed at first…apparently they happened in an area where WW1-era German chemical weapons were dumped in 1947…the bombings disturbed toxic sediments. Might affect Baltic Sea cod populations and other marine animals (the way I understand it, could even be a factor in extinction of already endangered Baltic Sea porpoises):

True victory would be helping you rise to the next level and transcending your current views on capitalism – seeing it’s evil, and also it’s ultimate stupidity.

This would not be a victory over you but a victory with you, and a general victory for mankind – which is the only kind of “victory” worth having.

Provoking you into a defensive outburst intended to demean me is rather an occasion for regret, but it also offers hope, because it shows you are rather insecure in your commitment to capitalism. Which is a good sign.

Cheers.

Lot’s of liberals who’ve conveniently discovered Ukie patriotism as a cure for British or American nationalism. Let the Pussyrioters get their war on, far from me and mine…Boris Johnson ought to grab a rifle and go die in the Donbass for example, along with half a hundred of his own pro Ukie confederates on both sides of the Atlantic.

Yes, I agree.

In past wars, such as the US Civil War and WWI, though I think those were wars that would best not of been fought, US Congressmen and their British MP equivalents (to their credit) volunteered to lead men into battle, often enough either being killed or wounded in the process. They had, after all, advocated for these wars in many instances.

So, yes, in keeping with that tradition, Johnson, Biden, or, perhaps his son, Hunter in lieu of him, and the rest of the US/UK politicos who advocate for the war, should join the International Legion and go fight in Ukraine.

Frontline Ukrainian soldiers’ life expectancy just ‘four hours,’ US Marine claims

The average life expectancy for a soldier fighting on the front lines in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut is just four hours, according to an American who is fighting against Russian forces in the Donbas.

Former US Marine Troy Offenbecker detailed the intense fighting, some of the deadliest since Russia launched its invasion a year ago, in an interview with ABC News.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/23/life-expectancy-on-frontline-in-ukraine-4-hours-soldier/

It’s fine, Vuhledar was just a feint for the real prize, the capital of the Solar System Artemovsk, formerly called Bakhmut by its Ukronazi occupiers…

As near as I can tell the leading internet economists are Brad Delong on the left coast and Tyler Cowen as the voice of sanity. Together they impress me about as much as Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman. Not much.

Cowen is very intelligent; but his knowledge is spread over too wide a surface. His eclectic tastes prohibits him from making groundbreaking breakthroughs on any particular topic; he moves on too quickly. But otherwise I have benefited from his link round-ups on his blog; I don’t really read newspapers or magazines so having someone collect noteworthy articles is useful for me. Substack has alleviated my information deficit to a certain extent though. Still, Cowen digs up some interesting articles from time to time:

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/03/russia-facts-of-the-day.html

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/03/the-link-between-iq-and-income-is-overrated.html

You make a good point on the zombie-like nature of economics. I’m reading a treatise from 1925 and it seems as though it could’ve been written yesterday. The debates haven’t changed much in the dismal science; because fundamentally they are about political worldviews and temperamental inclinations; not economics as a science per se. Economics as a subject is just a means to the political end.

Such extraordinary grandiosity and so close to the surface

CNN, citing its sources in the Ukrainian General Staff, reports that on February 28, 2023, the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine amounted to:
259,085 people killed, died from wounds, diseases;
wounded, crippled 246,904;
deserted, as well as missing – 83,952;
captured – 28 393.
From: https://www.algora.com/Algora_blog/2023/03/03/ukraine-loses-over-half-a-million

just a feint = 130 Russian tanks? Like Kherson was a feint too? What a bunch of BS.

the real prize, Bakhmut = a town of 70,000 before the war, today less than 5,000? More Russian BS.

Looks like the Russian “liberators” will finally get their prize Bakhmut, after trying to do so for the last 10 months. Anther 10,000 years and they might get to Kyiv?…

Sounds exaggerated.

Lol, divide by more than 10. CNN obviously didn’t say any such thing. Some random blog by a lunatic did. Source: they had wet dreams about it.

17% of Ukrainians know someone killed. That extrapolates to 10-20,000 dead. Given that Ukraine is no more atomised than the US and the average American knows 600 people. This also is similar to the proportion of people who knew Covid deaths at the time when deaths were that high. Ultimately, this is a rough calculation based on extrapolation and it may be higher, but it certainly isn’t anything close to the number listed here. Russia would have already decisively won and been parading through Lviv rather than surrendering Kherson.

Yes, it really could be that much lower than people talk about. The Ukrainians have been exceptionally conservative in their tactics and dumb artillery, the only effective part of the Russian military, is for suppression not killing. You could fire 50,000 shells and not hurt one person in a decent trench.

Russian fatalities are also likely much lower than Ukrainians report, though they may be accurate as to Russian casualties. They are quite good for equipment, which is surprisingly disciplined, as confirmed by video and photo evidence.

Ukraine has been given shells containing anti tank mines, to add to the thick cordon of mines laid both on the road and off it around Vuhledar. The ‘battle’ was US mines versus Russian tanks. The Russians will figure it out eventually because they do not overdramatize and quit after taking casualties. The Russian commander at Stalingrad was Chuikov who’d ineptly commanded the 9th Army during the debacle of the Winter War against Finland. Anyway, the Russians seem to have de-evolved from using tanks en mass for armoured maneuver warfare to employing them as close support for numerous small bands of assault infantry. Modern weapons make concentrations of infantry or tanks too vulnerable , and thanks to US surveillance gets Ukraine real time intel on all the Russians try do by way of swift maneuvers on and substantial scale. The regular Russia army is slow to adapt because they resist learning from Wagner’s success with their modern take on WW1 Stormtroop tactics. Wagner are not aiming to encircle and destroy, which leads to pitched battles, they are just moving forward methodically and making the Ukrainians’ positions untenable. Eventually Ukraine will have withdrawn so much they will run out of strategic space.

That extrapolates to 10-20,000 dead.

Sounds too low. Way too low. Just as AnonfromTN’s 600 000 Ukrainian casualties are absurd.
Personally I have no idea, it’s not like there’s any reliable data. So it’s all spin and propaganda, which is then amplified by hyper-partisans like you and AnonfromTN.

True to form, the Soviet Boomer believes whatever he reads, it must be true, it’s on the internet!

I gave my justification. Actually two. Both are reasonable. Not some fake blog but acrual calculation. My estimate is even only somewhat lowest than the proportional casualties were from a year of WW1, and Ukraine have made no charges across the trenches.

17% of Ukrainians know someone killed. That extrapolates to 10-20,000 dead. Given that Ukraine is no more atomised than the US and the average American knows 600 people

According to the poll it was 17% of Ukrainians had a family or someone close who was killed; it wasn’t acquaintances so the number would be much lower than 600 per person. Maybe 10 times lower (immediate family, cousins, close friends, close classmates – 60 people?). So by your methodology (which is rough) that could be 100,000 killed. Of course, the poll also means that 83% of Ukrainians have not lost any people close to them in this war. This makes the really huge figures be doubtful.

Neither side is open about its casualties and probably exaggerates the other side’s casualties. So we make guesses based on these snippets of information like that poll. A few months ago (December IIRC), before Bakhmut and Vuhledar, Saratov had a monument of all the known war dead. Extrapolating from that (based on Saratov’s percentage of Russia’s population), meant 30,000-40,000 dead in Russia, at that time. After recent battles it could very well be double that by now.

Of course the losses are qualitatively lopsided. Russia is emptying out its prisons on the Ukrainian battlefields, while Ukrainians are losing some of their best people.

Yeah, maybe, it doesn’t seem completely impossible that casualties are much lower than commonly supposed (whereas AnonfromTN’s 600 000 Ukrainian casualties do seem logically impossible, since I don’t see how Ukraine would still be able to continue fighting after such losses). Would be very at odds with the media image of this war. I can’t claim to know, it’s all very opaque.

There’s a lot of fake assaults in both sides of this war. As there are in every war. The numbers are hugely inflated by that. Furthermore, medical care for the wounded is near infinitely better than WW1. An infection that would certainly kill you then, is now a simple course of antibiotics to treat. I wouldn’t be shocked if Ukrainian fatalities were as high as 40,000 but they aren’t higher than that. They could also be as low as 10,000. It is very hard to know.

I don’t believe Merkel and Hollande intended them as a ruse back in 2015

Seems to have been a ruse when she said that multiculturalism had ‘utterly failed’ in 2010.

I think she would have sought to placate Putin by default. But her exact feelings at the time are probably immaterial because, whatever the case originally, she would have quickly realigned them.

Whats is the reason of such difficulty to produce a direct link from CNN instead of some noname blog without any link to CNN too?;

According to the poll it was 17% of Ukrainians had a family or someone close who was killed; it wasn’t acquaintances so the number would be much lower than 600 per person.

It likely wasn’t just people they know, but people they know of. That’s the way military death reporting by civilians works. Everyone was their best friend, even if they never met them.

Seventeen percent That is the proportion of Ukraine’s territory they have lost so far.

You point out that Ukrainian success is closely tied to American assistance. True enough. You do realize that US assistance is only bound to increase into the near future?…

Eventually, it’s you that will have to withdraw your bizarre excuses for plain old fashioned Russian ineptitude, because it’s you that’s running out of strategic space upon which to buttress your empty rhetoric. 🙁

You want someone to willingly interact with CNN?

Eeewwwwwwwww……

PEACE 😇

It’s a huge genocidal war that killed fewer soldiers than the Vietnamese killed US troops in a decade of fighting…and even fewer Ukie civilians.

Get your story straight.

“According to the poll it was 17% of Ukrainians had a family or someone close who was killed; it wasn’t acquaintances so the number would be much lower than 600 per person.”

It likely wasn’t just people they know, but people they know of

Sorry, it was relatives or loved ones. So not just people they knew of:

https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/02/24/one-year-of-russias-war-made-ukrainians-believe-in-themselves-poll/

https://ratinggroup.ua/en/research/ukraine/kompleksne_dosl_dzhennya_yak_v_yna_zm_nila_mene_ta_kra_nu_p_dsumki_roku.html

:::::

Same poll also indicates increased optimism, by the people in Ukraine whose relatives are fighting and report back home – that is, people who know much more about what is going on than do the clueless Western consumers of Russian fairytales.

I could not find a link to CNN. Which might mean two things (among other possibilities): 1) the numbers were invented by the site that presented them (there are many examples of that); 2) CNN removed the page as “politically incorrect” (there are just as many examples of that, as well). Not to mention that CNN “reported” so many lies, that even if the page were on their site, it would mean exactly nothing.

There are various estimates.
NY Post estimates Ukrainian casualties at ~150,000
https://nypost.com/2023/02/14/ukraine-losing-large-number-of-troops-as-it-boasts-of-russian-casualties/
Pro-imperial Deutche Welle bemoans high number of Ukrainian casualties.
Pictures of enormous cemeteries of war dead with flags over the new graves in numerous Ukrainian cities are all over the Internet.
Pro-imperial The Guardian talks about 600-1,000 Ukrainian casualties per day
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/10/ukraine-casualty-rate-russia-war-tipping-point
Pro-Russian “colonelcassad” estimates Ukrainian losses at ~200,000 killed and 300-350,000 wounded.
Rumors have it that during his recent visit to the US Ukrainian defense minister Reznikov spoke about ~240,000 Ukrainian dead. But as he is a beggar, he could have inflated the numbers to ask for more help.

We might learn real numbers after the war, or maybe not even then.

Very well then, many Ukie soldiers have been thrice injured instead of getting septic infections.

One thing that Russian style artillery does, and this is verifiable in every historical account where such artillery is used in such unlimited concentration: Ukies are going to have classic ww1 shellshock on a massive scale. The landscape Ukraine’s troops are defending is a moonscape.

Would be interesting to see how many men are on injury three.

An infection that would certainly kill you then, is now a simple course of antibiotics to treat.

That would have been relevant if Ukrainian forces evacuated their wounded. They tend to abandon them on the battlefield along with the dead.

It would be the right thing for them to do.

Ukraine capturing Crimea means real negotiations start. Ukraine will have something Russia wants.

Ukrainian success is closely tied to American assistance

Success in a war is eye-catching, but it is a poor substitute for successfully avoiding that war. Was it really that difficult?

I have no doubt there’ll be a lot of PTSD. Yet another thing for Putin shills like you to get wet over.

Lay off both the crackpipe and Putinist propaganda.

Would be interesting to see how many men are on injury three.

We might never learn that. Ukraine has huge problems with drafting men. Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, said the country could cease to exist if its borders were opened to men now.
https://www.easternherald.com/2023/02/27/ukraine-will-cease-to-exist-if-the-border-is-open-to-men/

Recently medical commissions all over Ukraine decided that wounded (excluding those who lost a limb) are fit for service. Those deemed fit were speedily transported to Bakhmut/Artemovsk as reinforcements. RIP.

Yeah, when you have an authoritarian madman a a neighbor that stirs up trouble and then decides its time to invade your territory, it does indeed become difficult to avoid war.

😁 OPEN THREAD HUMOR 😆

As usual, open the [MORE] tab for the rest.

PEACE 😇

Do you really think that you’re going to convince anybody that it’s easier to encourage young men in Russia to sign up for the military right now?

You can’t even get people with an education to stay put – look at yourself?

An upper estimate is for 700,000 Russians to have fled conscription since it was announced.[26] Many went to Kazakhstan, Serbia,[27] Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia, and Finland.[28]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_emigration_following_the_2022_invasion_of_Ukraine#:~:text=An%20upper%20estimate%20is%20for,Emirates%2C%20Georgia%2C%20and%20Finland.

Protest of Russians living in the Czech Republic against the war in Ukraine. People fleeing Russia are mostly young and educated.[7]

You’re making some progress, kremlinstoogeA123. At least you’re beginning to understand that it was Russia that invaded Ukraine, not the other way around. Keep it up!

I wonder what Bukele would do if he were president of Palestine.

Peter the Great purchased Balts from Swedes cheap, and they are certainly not worth more. Maybe not even worth what he paid.Lithuania was granted independence on conditions.
Russia still holds the deed to the land,and local neobarbarians are really just squatters.
Eviction is quite possible.To European Union.

If Ukraine had captured Crimea (presumably at significant cost), do you really think Zelensky (or whoever would be heading the government in such a scenario) could give it back to Russia as part of a peace deal? Anybody who would even propose that would risk being branded a traitor giving away the fruits of victory.

I wonder what Bukele would do if he were president of Palestine.

As an authentic Judeo-Christian Palestinian he would be welcomed by native Palestinian coreligionists. Hopefully, he would have the backbone to clear key Christian cities, such as Bethlehem and Nazareth from Muslim occupation.

Bukele grasps the plight of indigenous Palestinian Jews: (1)

In 2015, the Israeli ambassador to El Salvador praised Bukele as a “partner for cooperation,” but besides that very little is known about his views on the Jewish state and the Middle East’s various conflicts.

Still Bukele, who until April 2018 served as mayor of the capital, San Salvador, came to Israel last year on a government-sponsored trip, and is not afraid to talk about it.

After winning the election Sunday, he retweeted a picture showing him in deep reflection at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City. At the time, he also posted a video of his visit at the holy site on his Instagram account:

The region needs positive Judeo-Christians like Bukele.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://www.timesofisrael.com/his-dad-was-an-imam-his-wife-has-jewish-roots-meet-el-salvadors-new-leader/

Why didn’t Putin arrest them all when they fled?

Anyone who even suggests that fractional reserve lending, central banks or state issued currencies should continue to exist should be executed along with their families.

Some modern Austrian economists do support fractional reserve banking, under certain circumstances. Eg Antal Fekete, Juan Ramón Rallo and their disciples. Hayek himself wasn’t opposed to central banks.

I find Austrian monetary theory persuasive but there are some lacunae. The idea that government and central bank intervention during a crisis provoked by the misalignment of investments during the bust cycle deepens the recession and prevents recovery is clearly falsified by the evidence of the latest crises. And considering “praxeology” a branch of science is quite ridiculous.

It’ll be beyond PTSD which was mostly just A label for disillusioned Vietnam veterans.

Strictly speaking that’s true. There’s a lot of footage where you see a couple of guys get hit, the attack is broken up then more guys come to recover the injured then they get killed. The only thing that appears to be offensive to you is the violation of a border. Which in any other context you’d dismiss as a technicality or imaginary line on a piece of paper.

Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more despicable…

I really think you might have been assigned by some intelligence agency to this site.

That’s impossible in my view.

One would need to believe that intelligence agencies are capable of assigning agents to obscure blogs where they spend countless hours writing about very different subjects, flouting the rules of those blogs which has them expelled and unable to accomplish their mission, making rather unbelievable claims like being two persons or having supernatural powers and on top of all that, constantly engaging in absurd psychoanalytical language with the rest of the commenters.

I can’t believe in all of those things at the same time. It’s much easier to believe that the personage is genuine and a little off her rocker, like many of us here.

Btw, she has been told multiple times that psychoanalysis is a total turnoff for normal guys but it doesn’t seem to register. It’s like me deciding to participate in a strongly female-dominated forum and constantly talking about heavy machinery. A few ladies could possibly go along from time to time and show some interest in the John Deere versus CAT controls debate but the vast majority would keep scrolling down and wishing I would shut up.

She does write insightful comments sometimes though. If she just avoided all of the above, having a regular defender of normie views with just some idiosyncratic perspectives would enliven the debates, I think.

Pro-Russian “colonelcassad” estimates Ukrainian losses at ~200,000 killed and 300-350,000 wounded.

As usual for RF propagandists, suffering from constant amnesia episodes, previously just roughly week ago he was posting about 14 entirely new UA brigades, which will come into front for new offensives:

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/78902

So what is it – half milliom losses just in previously existing 8 brigades while just barely being able to replenish them with already wounded soldiers in order to resume defence somehow or entirely new 14 ones, on top of those already existing and fighting?

Or both things at the same time, lol

Good point.

It would be difficult to take Sevastopol but taking the northern part would be possible, if the corridor were taken. It could then be exchanged in a peace deal. Could be sold to the Ukrainian people in exchange for peace, some combination of NATO and EU membership, aid, etc.

Does Chiang Kai-shek have any legitimate male-line descendants, under age 80, who aren’t part Russian? Or who aren’t dual citizens?

There seems to be at least some small doubt about mayor of Tapei Wayne Chiang (whose father was said to be illegitimate) being a real Chiang. But I suppose illegitimacy may be a lesser deal due to the historical nearness to polygamy.

Crazy how Wayne’s two sons (his only children) were born ten years apart.

It would be difficult to take Sevastopol but taking the northern part would be possible, if the corridor were taken. It could then be exchanged in a peace deal.

If it worked like that, would be a good solution. iirc I’ve seen suggestions that parts of Biden’s administration might regard such a scenario as a goal of the coming Ukrainian offensive. But it’s very high risk. Lots of room for catastrophic miscalculations, like people on the ground going further than planned in their victory euphoria, Putin immediately resorting to a nuclear demonstration etc. If such a campaign succeeded, it might lead to a clean end to the war, which has gone on far too long already, so would be a very good thing. But it could also lead to catastrophe.

Apologies to Yevardian.

I didn’t respond to you asking for me to respond to the last week discussion with Yahya about the standard of living differences of Israel and EU.

https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-210/#comment-5831103
https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-210/#comment-5839118

https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-210/#comment-5831073

strongly doubt average quality of life is higher in Israel than Spain

Most of these EU countries like Italy, Spain, even Poland, have received a lot more infrastructure investments.

Countries like Spain and Poland have investments for shiny modern infrastructure especially for transport, constructed by the world’s best engineers in Siemens and Schneider Electric, as result of tens of billions of dollars of EU funding from the wealthy countries.

Housing quality relative for the cost will also be a lot higher in those EU countries than Israel, as Israel has quite a lot of proportion of unsafe buildings.

In terms of safe atmosphere in the streets, it’s similar between Israel and EU. The crime in Israel seems narrowly located. So, many areas, feel unusually safe. For example, Israeli people are putting their bags or even bicycles unattended on the beach. But, the proportion of people killed in political violence/terrorism will be a lot higher.

There are also sectors in Israel with decades of lack of the police investment especially for Arab villages in the North, control by local clans.

I think quality of healthcare is similar to EU. Coronavirus pandemic some of the Middle Eastern countries like Israel and UAE were managing better than the EU.

inequality in Israel is an order of magnitude higher in Israel than Spain, whatever the figures say.

Inequality in Israel is different than in EU as determined a lot by religious community. Bedouin and Haredim are the poorest sector of Israel, with the fast population growth. Bedouin living like ancient tribes in Africa. Haredim like 18th century villagers. Without the external support, they would have some Malthusian conditions to limit the population growth.

Northern Arab villages have a lot of underinvestment in the public infrastructure. So, the Arab village has famously large villas and luxury automobiles, but the roads are like in a third world country. But those populations don’t have military burden.

Secular people, which is especially more in secular Ashkenazim, in Israel are living a bit like they are Western Europeans, just with a worse housing and infrastructure. And they have the significant burden of the taxes to fund the other populations and military.

There are also some imbalances like the religious settlements in the West Bank having modern infrastructure and swimming pools, while many cities in legal territory of Israel seemed much more underinvested. I guess this is related also a lot to the time of the construction.

find it hard to believe Jew (with options or skills) would ever rather immigrate to Israel

This is from the Bashibuzuk/Ano4, discussion.

I guess he doesn’t know that much of the movements of postsoviet elites. Quite a few of them, which are many without any Jewish roots, are buying villas in Israel.

But it’s not the same extent as Marbella, Forte dei Marmi, London, Cyprus, Miami, Monaco where the political class are owning hundreds of billions of dollars of the most expensive properties.

Almost all the Russians that immigrate to Israel are nonelite class people. Russians in Israel is mostly working class, middle class, people, significantly from provincial cities. It’s because Israel is the only semi-developed country with a kind of open immigration border to Russia or for a part of a population in Russia.

So it’s one of the more overall nonelite Russian emigration.

@Yahya
https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-210/#comment-5831073

cucked than Spain. Spain admitted 500,000 immigrants

I’m not sure this is true. Israel is probably the more multinational place in the Mediterranean, also with negative consequences of the religious wars. Any Mediterranean country seems more homogenous culturally or ethnically.

Also, I don’t think many immigrants care about that for their immigration decision. I don’t know if you have emigrated from Egypt? But most emigrants like the multicultural places. This is one of the reasons why countries like Canada can be popular for emigrants.

If you emigrate, you will probably be happier in the more multicultural space on average. That’s typical life of the emigrant, not exactly like a tourist.

But for the middle class or working class immigration, countries like Spain and Italy are often going to 40% youth unemployment. I doubt there is much in terms of high level career development for most immigrants there.

When Russian elite are going to Marbella, it’s not for the working opportunities there. Russian elite is less than a hundred thousand people though. Most emigrants need to have jobs.

GDP per capita (PPP)

It’s a different topic, but in general I think PPP is less relevant than nominal data, not only from very scholastical and opaque calculations. But for the topic immigration when we are interested in our personal income in the international market.*

For example, PPP measures comparable products for substitutions. So, luxury product in one country, will be viewed as a parities cheap substitute in other countries. Use of substitutes increases income in PPP adjustment, but reduces the perceived income. When income increases, prices do not increase for no reason, but often the selection of the products available in the country are becoming a different quality. For example, the luxury supermarkets are dominating in United Kingdom which sell higher quality substitutes. If the main shop in your country is wholefoods, then ICP will adjust the national income down relative to the countries with mainly Aldi.

ICP specifications are like “500 gram package of mushrooms”. So, in the wealthy country with luxury shops, they will buy expensive luxury mushrooms and compare this to the cheap mushrooms in the country where the luxury mushrooms are not commonly sold. But the price difference between the mushrooms is not only reflecting parity, but it can be because the mushrooms are different qualities.

If packages are sold in the different sizes, they have to half or double the package. But it’s often cheaper to buy the product in larger quantities.

So, countries where the packages which are sold are smaller, will have adjustment down, compared to countries with larger packages.

Basket of goods for comparison is also determined by the price structure of all the countries in the region, while the consumption structure is very different between countries.

So, prices of beans and rice, could be very high in Switzerland, but it’s not a significant part of Switzerland’s peoples’ consumption. While price of beans and rice, can be very important for people in Africa.

This must have interesting implications. For example, you can guess, that countries with consumption patterns more similar to the world average, will have more accurate PPP adjustment, than countries with consumption patterns less similar to the world average.

Consumers adjust their behavior, depending on price, it could be guessed. So, if rice and beans, are unusually expensive in your country, the consumers will buy less. But price estimate for the country will adjust for these products relative to world consumptions, even if they are not consumed often in the country. Those effects could be a bit smaller in large country (like China) than small country overall as the proportion of the world product basket is determined by the relative population of country in the world.

–

*Stereotypically labor immigrants thinking “how many weeks of work is 1 BMW”, not “how many days I can survive in Mexico with $5”.

The German system is an evolution of the Gepard anti-aircraft guns sent to Ukraine already. The cannon is probably the best for anti-drone defense since the shell works a bit like a shotgun. It is not clear to me if the Russian cannons have a similar feature.

The Pantsir is a higher performance system, but the drone challenge is that the defender may use up all of the expensive missiles or even cannon ammunition defeating cheap drones. Russia is working on a 2S38 cannon system which is designed to address the problem. Lasers and jamming may be better in some cases.

The best defense against drones is to blow up the warehouse where they are stored….

It’s not a her.

There’s a fundamental misunderstanding here.

The US and UK want Sevastapol as a base for themselves. From there they will scour the sea of Azov out of Russian shipping and turn Rostov into a Ghost-town.

This is not about you Ukies. Never was!

are really just squatters

Aha, people who have lived in that place for 4 thousand years are “squatters”. Hahaha. No, yours are the real squatters. The Baltic people have been on their current territory for thousands of years and the Lithuanians had a huge kingdom. You are there very recently and only thanks to filthy Soviet invaders. You are so fucking lucky that my brothers have a much more mellow temper than I do! That they didn’t go all Chechen on you. There would be none of you left there.

You are nothing but filthy, disgusting, entitled, undereducated but overrated, shorter than us yet acting like some hot shit, coddled and babied like no other in the EU, yet still fucking insolent, mediocre squatters in places that were built by Europeans.

You will soon be forgotten and be lucky that you are not finally evicted. Since you have absolutely zero manners or good will and are only abusing others’ patience. You are mentally ill with your outdated imperialism which you have no means or justification, and absolutely no balls and above all NO TALENT to ever maintain. Thank God for your incompetence.

Just leave already.

After what you have done to Ukraine, you will never be considered normal humans again. And our children will not be learning Russian – ever. Enjoy the last generation of the near abroad who still speak Russian – these are the last ones you will ever see. Enjoy learning Mandarin.

Eviction is quite possible.To European Union.

You wish! So that you swine can squat in our well maintained homes. Не дождётесь, суки ёбаные!

What eviction? The Baltic States have been in the EU for 20 years. A civilized, orderly, beautiful, democratic and benign place, that your vatnik filth will never see, never be able to build for themselves and should never be allowed to live in. The ones to be evicted should be yours! We’ve had 30 years of your BS, we are done.

You know when you talk this way, then one has nothing left but really wish for an independent Ingermanland. You are your own worst enemy.

And quit with all the Peter I lies already – nothing was “bought or sold”, everything was fought over or pried out through lies and intrigue.

I could be wrong but 20mm cannon have proximity fuses and I suspect there are variations with a schrapnel buckshot burst like that. What the Russians might not have a very sensitive targeting system that won’t produce collateral damage. The main difference between our gleaming weapons and those of our Russian friends is a design philosophy that creates a very focused collateral footprint.

I don’t think they can really be compared to anything that exists in the EU in their militancy and their readiness to use violence and threats to advance their goals. For now this is overlooked because of Russia’s invasion, but should that war ever come to a conclusive end, I think there’s a lot of potential for trouble.

Frankly, I don’t think such direct comparisons with the EU are adequate in this case. Ukraine is in a very different situation right now than any EU country. If even a single EU country were to come anywhere close to this stress level and tension, as well as threat to their existence, that Ukraine is experiencing, real aggressive groups would appear in that EU country as well. There are plenty of such examples from the past.

Of course, this is an unrealistic scenario. The EU is very comfortable, with no real threats (or the real threats to it are not perceived as such by most of the population, which is very unfortunate and will cost our children tremendously).

Yes, Eastern Slavs, including Ukrainians, can be quite combative, they have a less of a filter (not all, most are normal, but some are that way, sometimes they go a bit too far). So there is a difference between what, let’s say, a Swedish freedom fighter vs an Eastern Ukrainian or Russian one would be like. They could both be formidable, just in different ways. The whole population is fighting, including the far right.

The problem with what you write – disliking far right in Ukraine, Russia (or even Poland, et al) – is that to be fully honest, these are the only people who could potentially save Europe from where it is going right now. IF they were in power – meaning, if they had significant positions in the government, vs the limited street and grassroots (and some media and military) power they have now in Ukraine.

I understand that you would prefer some kind of conservatives to do this job (save Europe), not the far right types, but unfortunately these “conservatives” have no interest, desire or the necessary balls and stamina to even initiate it, much less carry through to the end. This is our dilemma. The result will be such that we will lose everything.

The problem is that after the war, these veterans groups will be pushed aside and compromising politicians will take their place. I’m really hoping that this doesn’t happen in Ukraine. Those who are fighting for Ukraine need to have a say in how Ukraine will develop.

It is easy to believe more Russian men will volunteer if the country is being attacked on her border. The West is using Ukraine to attack Russia. The border is only a half hour by air from Moscow. This is one of many facets to the SMO which is not difficult to understand.

You cannot reverse the logic because Russia is effectively attacking the West in Ukraine. This is a not-so-subtle distinction which you guys like to ignore.

Not that it matters much, but it’s no wonder that such ignoramic old barbarian as you has only very hazy idea what is he talking about, cause ethnic Lithuanian lands had nothing to do with 1721 Treaty of Nystad:

In Nystad, King Frederick I of Sweden formally recognized the transfer of Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, and Southeast Finland (Kexholmslän and part of Karelian Isthmus) to Russia in exchange for two million silver thaler, while Russia returned the bulk of Finland to Swedish rule.

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

By the way, the other day, I heard the 1:7 ratio again (UA vs RU). I don’t know which location, maybe Bakhmut. This ratio I have heard of several times, by informed types. No need to believe it right away, of course, may or may not be correct, just interesting that this has popped up in internal Ukrainian conversations.

My limited understanding is that proximity fuses are not available below 40 mm shells; possibly they will be eventually. The 35 mm shell used by the German/Swiss cannon system incorporates a precise time fuse which is programmed during firing to detonate just ahead of the target and impact it with a bunch of tungsten pellets which are moving at the high speed of the projectile.

I could be wrong but 20mm cannon have proximity fuses and I suspect there are variations with a schrapnel buckshot burst like that.

IIRC the most up to date version of Pantsir is 30mm.

It is believed (but not proven) that the “brain” sets a time after firing for the detonation rather than relying on a proximity sensor. I have questions about this concept.

However, drones can be made of fiberglass or balsa. I have even more problematic questions about how proximity sensors could cope with the threat spectrum.

PEACE 😇

Regarding previous discussions about RF air force abilities, here’s illustrated example why they stopped actively trying airbombing targets in Kharkov;

Russian pilot who bombed Kharkiv TV tower sent to jail for 12 years.

The attack was carried out on March 6 last year, using 8 x FAB-500 bombs with a total weight of 2.5 tons.

His plane was shot down by Ukrainian forces immediately after the bombs were dropped. pic.twitter.com/cXTbMQCpWs

— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 3, 2023

Pretty intuitive to me that the Yamnaya rode horses. Even if they weren’t the same beasts they are now, I never believed that cattle wagons alone would be the force multiplier required for an expansion like that.

He is a Serb. Not even a Slav, but Albanian-like people who unlike Albanians have adopted a language not native to them, and a fake “Slavic” identity. These pseudo-Slavs live vicariously through Russia. Some volunteer to kill Slavs in Ukraine. Croats, half-Slavs in the Balkans, have problems with these non-Slav Larpers.

Their president is better though. He’s sending ammo to Ukraine.

Madame Chiang Kai-Shek went to the US embassy and a black marine looked like he wanted to rape her (“She is so hot, man!”).

The point of that scene was show that she, Song Meiling was whoring for her American sugar-daddy. Whileas her older sister Song Qingling, Madame Sun Yat-sen, was depicted as a saintly matron.

When in fact it was always known that Qingling was pro-Soviet. She faciliated the First and Second United Front in 1927 and 1937, respectively, allying the KMT with the CCP and USSR.

It was only revealed recently from Soviet archives that she actually joined Comintern in 1927.

The CCP wants to depict the KMT as stooge for the US, but plays down its proxy relationship with the Soviets.

Song Qingling in the USSR
The third sister, Song Ailing married the richest man in China at the time, shown below
The triplet goes (supposedly)– Qingling loved her country, Meiling loved power, Ailing loved money.

He is a Serb

In that case, he is pathetic (would be below my honor or any desire to ever say anything against his people). Which doesn’t excuse his transgression though. There will be zero patience towards a Serb (or anyone else) that repeats Russian imperialist talking points to hurt my people.

Russian pilot who bombed Kharkiv TV tower sent to jail for 12 years.

So a violent Ukie Maximalist court, beholden to Kiev regime aggression, violated international law about treatment of uniformed combatants?

Congratulations!

Zelensky has abrogated all international norms. Therefore, Putin is both legally and morally entitled to follow the European WEF lead.

PEACE 😇

The CCP wants to depict the KMT as stooge for the US, but plays down its proxy relationship with the Soviets.

Definitely got that impression.

The point of that scene was show that she, Song Meiling was whoring for her American sugar-daddy.

That’s interesting. I thought it was pretty curious how she had no children, even though Chiang was obviously fertile, at least at one time. It had crossed my mind that it might possibly be explained by a venereal disease (i.e. that she was a literal whore), though I wouldn’t feel completely confident about saying so, and it is possible Chiang acquired one and gave it to her.

So a violent Ukie Maximalist court, beholden to Kiev regime aggression, violated international law about treatment of uniformed combatants?

Your country wouldn’t do that? Your country wouldn’t punish those who bomb your suburbs and murder civilians? You are in no position to lecture. Everyone who transgressed will be punished.

Is hard to understand. Intermediate altitude by the look, not high enough to avoid shoulder-launched missiles, not low enough to be useful. I guess the pilot learned his lesson.

Maybe they were more potent missiles, in which case it was just a gamble, Russian Roulette.

As people like to point out, some of the Russian moves are hard to fathom. A pilot should be fairly competent, so who knows?

If I were a serious Unz commenter in good standing, I would assume a bunch of the Russian (((commanders))) are intentionally working to get some of their best troops annihilated. Who would ever do such a thing and more importantly, who would ever believe it????

Your country wouldn’t do that? Your country wouldn’t punish those who bomb your suburbs and murder civilians? You are in no position to lecture.

Quite obviously, any country would be insane to order their air force to use conventional bombs against American cities. And it would be odd for Americans to lecture, when we must have set the record on bombing civilians.

BTW, are you sure he killed anyone? I thought initial reports on the matter were wrong? And they got him for breaking some Ukrainian criminal code because it was supposed to be civilian infrastructure.

1990s First Nato expansion east from which Ukraine is specifically excluded by Washington. George Kennan predicts a new Cold War but Russia does nothing

2004 Second Nato expansion, from which Ukraine is again excluded, and no reaction from Putin’s Russia

2008 Third wave of Nato expansion in announced in advance consisting of Ukraine and Georgia getting Nato membership. Georgia is invaded months later.

From this point on there was a clear choice for Ukraine, and just how far Putin would go became obvious in 2014. Kiev thought the either /or could be obviated by getting the US firmly on their side, but all that happened when Biden took office and started strongly supporting Ukraine’s right to join Nato was that Ukraine got on a fast track to full scale war with Russia.

And they got him for breaking some Ukrainian criminal code because it was supposed to be civilian infrastructure.

I don’t know about this case, but it says he dropped 8 bombs on a TV tower in Kharkiv. That’s not the point. The point is that the Russian troops think they can walk into another country and act with impunity. Anyone who does that in any normal country will be punished, regardless if they abide by international laws or not. Certainly the US, Russia or even some midsize countries would dole out the punishment swiftly and would care little for international norms. So quit lecturing.

The fact that there aren’t a lot of pilots involved in the war strikes me as weird.

They haven’t trained enough pilots and to carry out a serious attack by air is very complicated. The Russians haven’t done it in a long time. It requires very serious skills and coordination.

might just encourage their replacement with drones

The Russians have used plenty of Iranian drones, including on residential areas in Kyiv, don’t pretend to be dense or that you haven’t noticed it.

I think it speaks to the fact that Ukraine doesn’t have much of an air force, and so doesn’t expect or require reciprocity.

Ukraine has an excellent air force which is still functioning but it is on the cusp of having some serious hardship. However, they have some great young pilots such as Juice and the hero Karaya.

They fled just in the nick of time. The had a short window of opportunity to leave and those that made it did, and those that didn’t, stayed put. As time goes on, it gets harder and harder to leave Russia.

You sound like some sort of point man for the Kremlin official line. It’s really not as complicated as you make it out to be. Yanukovych was supposed to be Putler’s man in Ukraine, but he really wasn’t. He was a criminal thug that tried to play both sides against the middle and tried to further enrich himself. He couldn’t deliver Ukraine to Putler and his Asiatic league. He was toppled from power and Putler sensed a weakened Ukrainian military, and decided to bring Ukraine back into the Russian fold and attacked Ukraine in 2014. All the rest is just so much posturing.

…The US and UK want Sevastapol as a base for themselves….This is not about you Ukies. Never was!

Precisely. The plan goes back 20-25 years or more. It was originally very simple:
– Kiev signs extension treaty w Russia for Sevastopol bases.
– US-UK place their people in power in Kiev – first Orange then Maidan, even Yanukovitch for a few years cooperated.
– At some point Kiev terminates or doesn’t renew the bases treaty.
– If Russia objects, utilities are cut off and Nato comes in w a show of force.

Russia was expected to back down and leave quietly. Sevastopol and Crimea would become a premier Nato base controlling Black Sea, Caucasus, Middle East (Iran), Russia. It would be a glorious victory, seminars in Yalta, visits by Nato ships, parades.

The thick-headed radicalism by the Ukies on Maidan ruined it. They lacked finesse and Nuland&Co. screwed up – fearful of Russia they moved too fast openly provoked the Russian minority and casus belli was provided. So we have a war because Russia refused to take it lying down.

The anger and hysteria in the West is palpable. They deny the obvious plan to kick the Russian Navy out of Crimea, try to confuse with empty talk about “EU” – a cover story, sugar candy dangled in front of the gullible poor Ukies.

The desperate Ukie-boosters deny it and use meaningless slogans like Europe, sovereignity, democracy, or far-fetched dreams of “Intermarium’. None of it matters any longer, the only thing that matters is who wins. It may come down to nuclear brinksmanship and we all lose. Each month the catastrophe goes on the odds of nukes go up by 1% – it is no longer unthinkable.

Eg Antal Fekete, Juan Ramón Rallo and their disciples. Hayek himself wasn’t opposed to central banks.

Mises is the last word and he says no fractional reserve and certainly no central banks.

The idea that government and central bank intervention during a crisis provoked by the misalignment of investments during the bust cycle deepens the recession and prevents recovery is clearly falsified by the evidence of the latest crises.

I don’t know about all that but I do know that fractional reserve lending and central banks lead to credit booms not backed by real savings which leads to (often devastating) debt deflation. That is readily observable.

He was toppled from power and Putler sensed a weakened Ukrainian military, and decided to bring Ukraine back into the Russian fold and attacked Ukraine in 2014.

If Putin had launched a full-scale war in 2014, Ukraine would quickly have folded.
He didn’t. Nor did he do so for another seven years. Something must have changed in 2021. As to what that might have been, so far Sean’s answer seems like the most plausible guess.
I mean, if you just want comforting narratives that nothing Ukraine or its Westerns sponsors did contributed to this situation (because anything else would be the “Kremlin official line”), why even read the comments here? You could just stick to consuming the majority of Western media, where such questions aren’t asked.

Your country wouldn’t punish those who bomb your suburbs and murder civilians?

Not sure there’s much precedent for this. The Japanese in WW2 tried (and executed) a number of captured US aviators as war criminals. Led to major outrage in the US (there was a Hollywood movie about one specific “trial”):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_Airmen%27s_Act

iirc North Vietnam also threatened to carry out war crimes trials against captured US airmen, but didn’t actually do so.
Other than that I can’t think of anything (neither WW2 Germans nor the Allies post-war tried the other side’s airmen, even senior commanding officers, for war crimes).
Obviously the existing precedents (mostly imperial Japan) aren’t ones that should generate much sympathy for the idea of trying pilots among Americans.

Interesting historical tidbit:
https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cases/nat-sec/Vietnam/Rolling-Thunder-and-the-Law-of-War.html

During the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran, the mercurial government of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini announced its intention to try one of the hostages, Lieutenant Colonel David M. Roeder, USAF, as a “wartime criminal and mercenary spy,” owing to his having flown 100 missions in F-105s over North Vietnam during the Rolling Thunder campaign. Although Colonel Roeder’s trial did not occur in part due to Vietnamese failure to provide witnesses and evidence…

…If Putin had launched a full-scale war in 2014, Ukraine would quickly have folded….He didn’t. Nor did he do so for another seven years. Something must have changed in 2021.