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Please visit Andrei’s website: https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/
and support him here: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=60459185
Many people are asking about made up numbers of Russian soldiers killed/injurned.
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/03/i-know-it-hurts-but.html?m=1
I recommed Andrei’s recent analysis of the topic.
Fascinating. However, not sure the financial analysis makes much sense. Does Russia really want to continue using the ruble for international trade? My guess is not as it would just fracture the current system to some degree. Does this really advance Russia’s cause – which is enjoy security?
No-one seems to analyse in depth the potential of the new financial system/currency. The massive advantage of such a currency would be that small players can join and add weight – which they can’t do with some trade in rubles, some in dollars. Most in dollars.
So why in rubles now? Probably smaokescreen, distraction, counter-sanction – and a switch to the new currency and system when it goes live for all Russian trade, together with a significant percentage of Chinese trade (they have a ton of T-bills to get rid of) plus a stack of other non-Western countries.
No one is expecting America to pay down its Debt, it can’t.
Why Roubles? Roubles to ‘unfriendly’ countries makes sense.
Russia basically told the Voodo Economists in EU that they better figure out a way to get roubles, or half their population will be dead by the end of next winter. No sanctions, just fair trade.
It’s pretty simple. The dollar and the EU have been *weaponized*. Reasonable players take measures accordingly to limit their exposure.
One would “think” reasonable leadership would have as a priority the protection of the”reserve” status of the dollar. What do we have, hugh deficts, high inflation, and a “weaponized” dollar. The country is run by gangsters. They don’t care.
the logic is very clear.. those who are hostile to russia will sell products it needs and will be paid in rubles which in turn can be used to pay gas/oil or other commodities supplied by russia. props up the value of rubles
Actually it’s ingenious. Forces foreign governments to own and carry Rubles. That means the currency RISES instead of falls under assault. Supports the international and valuation status of the Ruble and harms the western focused assault on the Ruble.
Easy to print more, just ask Rothschild.
Checkmate!!
“So why in rubles now?” … because it had to start at some time. I’m surprised it has not happened earlier. A country’s real reserves are in what lies in her underground and is in high demand across the world, not in her Central Bank, and in particular not under the shape of instruments issued by various governments no matter how highly quoted they might be.
Please Mr. Andrei America claimed they have tracked Kinzhal, is that true? What is your opinion.?
yes sure… they track were it hits, with 100 % accuracy.
They probably mean they detected it and followed its flight path. That is possible, just like it is possible to track a meteor or returning spacecraft traveling at hyper sonic speed. But tracking for purposes of interception is a very different thing to just being able to locate an object in a general area of airspace. Interception requires location and tracking of the object to precise coordinates and for that to be updated every few milliseconds, which is what is needed for the computers to be able to plot an intercept course. I suspect this is what is mean by not being able to track these things.
Is it correct that Russia is not often using the most modernized versions of armour, but rather they are using the more plentiful versions of T-72, BTR-80 and BMP-2? Very rarely do we see their best T-90 tanks, or even the most upgraded versions of T-80 and T-72. I am not seeing the BMP-3 either, or the new types of IFV and APC. Does this suggest that the best equipped units are being held in reserve?
Andrei spoke about capitalism and the difference between real productive GDP and the casino capitalism of Wall Street based on derived capital and speculation etc. I have noticed a lot of people seem to think capitalism is simply private trading on the markets for profit. They are very wrong. People have traded for profits for 1000s of years, but that was not capitalism. Capitalism became predominate during the Industrial Revolution as it gradually superseded the feudal mode of production and the systems that governed it. What was different about capitalism? How it produces goods and services for the market adn how that became the primary mode of production. The business owner hires labour en masse to produce goods and services that the owner takes to market expectation to to profit, i.e., the capitalist capitalizes upon hired labour, whereas the feudal lords simply taxed the produce of peasants and artisans. The root source of capital in capitalism is this form of production. Everything else is derivative of that like Andrei said. Yes, I am a commie, so see capitalism as a mode of production and the systems that govern it
It is important to distinguish between industrial capitalism and financial capitalism.
Industry makes physical products for sale and use.
The banks create money out of thin air as debt every time they make a loan. As such they are parasites.
All wealth is created by the workforce, not banks.
Hi
I write the following not so much to argue but to show that there are many shades of grey and things are often more nuanced than people realise. Hopefully at least some of it is useful to some who read it.
While some argue that only primary industries, e.g., fishing, farming, mining, forestry and so on, create wealth, I think that far more people would extend that to include secondary industries which refine and manufacture using the outputs of the primary industries. After all iron ore, or a lump of steel, is far less valuable than a nail if I want to attach one piece of wood to another.
I would argue that machines also add value and contribute to creating wealth. For example, a machine that makes nails creates value and greater than the inputs. Labour competes with capital equipment. I for one am happy to use a tool or a machine to replace manual effort. Imagine cutting a lawn without a lawn mower, it would be time to get a sheep or some rabbits!
Repetitive tasks involving information transformation are perfect candidates for replacement with software running on a computer. In this way “white collar” labour competes with software. Personally I would rather use a calculator or a spreadsheet to add up numbers than breaking out the pencil and paper.
I think that illustrates the point that it doesn’t matter if a person or a piece of software creates wealth. The increase in labour productivity is usually attributed to greater mechanization and automation. After all people don’t just get faster and faster and assembling things or calculating things.
Now as to the banks, some people expand this to the FIRE (Financial, Insurance and Real Estate) sector of the economy. Here there are arguments being made that they only move value (wealth) around rather than control it. I think that goes a little far as bank accounts are rather useful and many people voluntarily insure items. There is at least some substance to those arguments about transfer of wealth compared to creation of wealth. It’s fairly obvious that building more houses means there are more available for purchase or rent and occupation than reselling or renting out existing houses. Still you do need someone to handle renting and selling and if the owner wants to outsource that to a real estate agent then that is their choice.
I find it interesting to ponder the difference between financial capital, physical capital (e.g., machinery, buildings), and then less tangible forms of value / wealth generation (e.g., software, industrial processes).
Hopefully the above helps illustrate some concepts that I find useful to understand how certain aspects of economies function.
Cheers,
Liam
I wrote a book where I go on a lot about this topic. I hope it will be out soon.
The 4 inputs of wealth creation are: resources, labour, capital and knowledge. I differentiate between “wealth producers”, “wealth shufflers” and wealth destructors”.
It basically says that if money is not used to create/increase production of goods(intellectual goods included) it does not create wealth.The rest is all mis-allocation of money. So beside casino FIRE gimmicks, even most of service industry is useless, just shuffling money around.
Isn’t the T-14 their best tank, which they show off at 9 May parades each year?
– Capitalism became predominate during the Industrial Revolution as it gradually superseded the feudal mode … the business owner hires labour en masse to produce goods and services
This is some marxism. There have always been market economy. That is how Africa survive. Rome was full of market economy of course.
“Capital” is a reference to wealth in banks
It’s a Marxist analysis, Marx did coin the term “capitalism”, but fundamentally capitalism is political control by capital. Free markets don’t require capitalism. The Chinese will tell you that they have markets but not capitalism. So I find it helpful to separate the political and economic aspects because in some ways (and Marx was probably right on this), capitalism as a system will destroy free markets via monopolization.
Others in reply have pointed to the industrial revolution. Which is true, but modern capitalism is an English invention for the most part and its rise was completely dependent on colonialism and slavery. Some have argued that without the calories of Caribbean sugar plantations, the factory capitalism of the industrial revolution wouldn’t have been possible in England. Sugar produced was responsible for more calories than all the farm land in England. And much of the dirty work of maximizing profit from an industrial perfection was perfected on the sugar plantations.
England eventually switched to finance capitalism, though with the above you could argue that the original English capitalism was finance capitalism. The US was an industrial capitalist economy until the 80’s when it transitioned to finance capitalism as well. Finance capitalism always needs a source to extract profit from, hence the behavior of the west towards Russia and Eastern Europe post USSR, low cost Chinese labor, etc. It extracts rather than creates value.
A monopoly is a creature of the state. A monopoly is self-destructive without the guns, badges, and terror of the state to sustain it. Entrepreneurs will always bankrupt monopolies otherwise. True liberty is the best guarantee against a non-symbiotic monopoly.
I means they use the tool “good enough” for the job. No more.
It helps to realize that for the Russian military, a tank is a “common tool”. They have thousands of them for that reason.
For a tank to be useful in a low-intensity war like this, it needs to be there (quantity), have a gun, have enough protection against ATGM attacks so only those being close/professional will succeed.
Once you think of a Russian doctrinal use of a T72/T80 like a Bradley, you suddently realize it is NOT “unprotected”. And it is NOT undergunned etc.
Then, in place of US Strykers, you get the BMP2s. Etc. Basically equipment formally “classified” in the west “higher up” is in fact USED as the lowe tier would be in a US army.
This all comes from the Russian Mechanized warfare doctrine – Russian (and before Soviet) military prepared for fighting a war in an NBC-hostile environment. And for that you absolutely *require* every single soldier to travel/maneuver inside an NBC-protected vehicle.
Once you all realize that, you will also understand the HUGE quantities of the various Soviet/Russian armored units and their “bad quality”. In fact a Russian Army in a fighting mood is BETTER equipped and protected than a US one. That is because in place of a M1 you have the modern T90+ varieties, more-less with parity (not used in UA as that would be a waste, not needed), then the next tier is the “Braddleys” of Russia, aka the upgraded T72s/T80s (night vision etc) then, facing the Strykers you have the BMP3s (again, not seen in UA as there is no need for them so are not being wasted, these would fight along the T90+ series against a peer-enemy. Then you have the BMP2s, these are used in place of the up-armored Humwees(!). Then the BRDM, Tigrs etc. against the “normal” Humwees.
So, when you see an T72 blown up, think Bradley.
When you see a BMP2 blown up, think Humwee+.
When you see a Tigr blonw up, think casual Humwee.
Once you do these translations, the “russian” movements/achievements and the “ukrainian” destroyed equipment claims suddenly start making sense.
Now, for Ukraine, a T72 is an first-rate MBT and the BMP-4 is a first rate IFV. So for THEM this translation does not really apply. But for Russia these are not so. That is why Russians seem so “careless” with them.
And trust me. I would rather be in an “old” T72B, without night vision or built-in encrypted comms, than in a Stryker when against an ATGM team … And that is the choice the Russians are doing here. That is also why the tanks are the first in a column – the are there TO ABSORB THE ATTACK, should any come. They got nough of those, so why not use them …
Scrapping a blown up T72 is as much a work as scrapping a nicely preserved one. You get the sam ammounts of steel from it. And save a bunch of grunts as even these oldies can handle an ATGM or two.
Andrei, I love your podcasts. Tell me what watch brand embraces your wrist?
Andrei, I love your podcasts. Tell me what watch brand embraces your wrist?
1. Seiko Kinetic
https://cdn2.jomashop.com/media/catalog/product/s/e/seiko-kinetic-white-dial-brown-leather-men_s-watch-srn052_1.jpg
2. Movado
3. Citizen Eco-drive
4. Seiko Chronograph.
Oh boy .. laughing my head off here.
Smoothie, which watch are you wearing. Gotto be relevant to your analysis eh. Careful, sanctions all over the place. Just now you won’t be able to shop at the Champs-Élysées or something.
Just now you won’t be able to shop at the Champs-Élysées or something.
They have to pay me to even consider visiting Paris nowadays, let alone shopping for overpriced junk)) Nah, good ol’ COSTCO and regular jewellery stores do just fine. You can easily buy excellent Japanese or Swiss movements there under $600 and they are also aesthetically beautiful and durable and serve exact purpose to show precisely the time. I guess this is former military speaks in me.
Dang it Andrei! What about opsec? I warned you Bono will go out and buy everything you wear and then sport it onstage at U2 concerts. I am on the record for years about it! They nearly bankrupted my town of Malibu to bypass the coastal commission and building standards. Now Bono is parading around in a blue and yellow jock strap and clown shoes.
https://fivegunswest.blogspot.com/2021/09/reminiscence-of-future-screw-politics.html?q=Reminiscence+of+the+Future…+:+Screw+Politics.+ABBA+is+forever.+-+Andrei+Martyanov+Speaks+Out
God, not U2 aagain))) LOL.
Astounding video.
And a cool watch!
Andrei, you mentioned how to buy Rubles “you go to Russian International currency exchange and you buy rubles there”
So the question now is, what currency do you pay with, to buy those rubles?
Russia does not want U S dollars.
Russia does not want euros.
Maybe Russia would accept yuan, although the balance of trade with China might be so positive in Russia’s favour, that maybe they don’t really want any more Yuan.
So that really only leaves commodities.
Exchange one valuable commodity, gas, for another.
Maybe gold.
Russia would then have a gold backed currency.
It’s not that they don’t want euros or dollars, they simply doesn’t want their gas to be denominated in foreign currency anymore (for enemy countries). They doesn’t want to subsidise those western parasites anymore via promoting their money as world’s currency. Now they will only promote usage of their own currency or “friendly’ currencies. And of course, they can print their own money “out of a thin air”, and manage their fiscal and monetary politics. “Western World” in order to buy resources (energy, minerals, all kind of raw materials and others) will need to promote use of ruble. And despite all “financial” schemes and all, truth is, without all of that what Russia has Europe is dead and the rest of the “West” is in a big trouble (prices would skyrocket and shortages would occur).
Russia wants dollars to reclaim the 300 billion dollar reserve stolen by the US. So, in the meantime, they will accepts dollars for rubles until things reach an acceptable balance.
Yes, it what the savings are in that is important.
Last thing you want is a commodity backed currency
Government Debt and Deficits in Ruble Are Not the Problem. Private Debt Is.
By Michael Hudson
https://neweconomicperspectives.org/2013/03/government-debt-and-deficits-are-not-the-problem-private-debt-is.html#more-4969
Rubles-Yuan or Rubles-Rupees will be exchanged in large quantities as Russia trades with China and India. So a purchaser with dollars or euros goes to the Shanghai exchange and buys Yuan (assuming direct purchase of Rubles is sanctioned) then swaps the Yuan for Rubles, or maybe Russia will accept Yuan for its trade with China. There is an additional cost on the user doing these swaps. And dollars and euros don’t go near Russia. The China market is so enormous they can absorb dollars and euros. Same story for transactions via India/Rupee. If not, then the West is truly done – no resources and no manufactured goods.
I would have added that the West will very soon have to come to its senses – but I now doubt that.
Simples.
1) A Germany manufacturing company sells stuff in Russia – they earn rubles deposited in a Russian bank account.
2) A German gas seller buys/exchanges Rubles (deposited at Russian bank) for EURos /(deposited at a European bank). So now German gas seller has Rubles to buy gas for.
3) The German gas seller pays for Gas delivery by sending the Rubles (from their Russian account) to Gazprom.
4) The German manuf. company uses the EUR acquired to pay its salaries etc …
5) The German worker pays the Gas seller for his heating bill to the German gas seller.
6) Loop closed.
This is how trade was done for centuries before the Bretton Woods system. Works as long as the trade-balance is mostly in place. If it is not, you need independent payment methods like physical gold etc.
Now, for practical purposes, Russians will probably look to setup ways to do the EUR/RUB conversion in-bank which makes this easier for the Germany gas seller / German producer to do the deal as they do not need to agree directly.
But the main notion is the same.
US and Europe basically defaulted on their currencies. So they have “nothing” to pay with.
Thus they will, in effect, be asked to deliver goods/merchendise in exchange for the gas. If they have no goods/merchandise the Russians want, or of they are not willing to sell them for the gas, then no deal. Case closed. Carry on.
Andrei is Holdsworth and MacGlughlin fan !!!Is there anything about this man that isnt cool ? Should Russia and China develop Intercontinental ICBM? Oh wait ICBM are already hypersonic, they descend from space.Stupid me.
Good evening everyone and special thanks to mr Raesky and his crew for your outstanding job here. I’m one of those still waiting for Martyanov’s t-shirt front “well hello” back “it’s me again”. On a serious note I’d like to share my doubts the anglozionist establishment will ever come to it’s sense before the hypersonic missiles come along blowing their offices and homes. History unfortunately shows that empires usually fall fighting, and we may make no mistake: this one started back in the English industrial revolution, and then those same Englishmen living in America started shouting aloud “no taxation without representation” according to the 1689 bill of rights and then we all know how it ended and what started afterwards. Thank all of you very much and I must underscore I appreciate very much Hr. Martyanov pieces and cheers from a (20 C) evening at Vale do Ipiranga
“Martyanov’s t-shirt front “well hello” back “it’s me again”.”
I agree 100% — I normally do not do “merch” but this one I’d make an exception.
Can someone please advise the dude to do it etc.
Btw, slight correction for the back — technically, I think it is: “That’s me again”… lol.
Michael Hudson filled a sports stadium in Italy supporting MMT
Has written about it many times :
The Use and Abuse of MMT
https://michael-hudson.com/2020/04/the-use-and-abuse-of-mmt/
MMT as the Austerity Alternative
https://michael-hudson.com/2012/03/mmt-as-the-austerity-alternative/
Michael Hudson Finances vs Economy, Credit vs Money
Very important!
MMT summit in Rimini
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MayzfjnzeCk
How Russia can do things differently. As they decouple from the West and pivot towards Asia.
Not a problem
Biden has done Putin a huge favour. As politically a month ago this would have been difficult to do.
Now a walk in the park.
not a kinzhal but iskanders fired by OTRK crew today and destroyed foreign mercenaries training camp..
https://t.me/intelslava/23458
Thanks Saker and Mr. Martianov for making their voices heard in this ocean of BS that is Western “information”. Here in Italy media are disgusting, lately I had to hear about “Ukie grannies taking down RF drones with (literally, I am not joking, tomato sauce tin cans”. It would be hilarious, wouldn’t it be tragic!
One question: both the German so-called Chancellor and the Italian non-elected PM stated that to buy gas in rubles would be a contract violation, since the contract provided for purchases only in dollar or euros. Is it possible? Or is it another attempt at gaslighting the situation?
Off topic, but as you mentioned it… I agree with Alan Holdsworth and John McLaughlin’s statement,
that a guitarist’s true mettle is heard on an acoustic guitar. As a player of acoustic guitar for some 40
+ years, I can only concur this is true. The instrument is unforgiving and reveals every foible, every
tendency to slackness, but should one persist is rewarding beyond anything words can explain.
The acoustic guitar is an orchestra in itself and the sky is the limit with no boundaries except those
within ourselves. You did mention Kurt Cobain, imo, Kurt is a great player, even acoustically.
Here’s a great young player doing a wonderful version of Kurt’s final song, he takes it to places unknown
while perfectly preserving the spirit of Kurt’s original. For you Andrei, ( and the other Andrei, of course ),
I think you’ll enjoy. Best played loud!
Don’t quote me, but I think he’s Russian;
Eiro Nareth; “You Know You’re Right”, Loud Acoustic Version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydbXAHtDpOE
I do not know why there is much concern over the USD & Euro because any currency has backing value if there is production capacity relating to it, irrespective of raw materials (oil gas metals food etc..)
Japan, for example, has little raw materials to back its currency but the Yen is strong and always will be because of its industrial production capacity* & value adding. *Same as US and EU UK. Germany similar to Japan.
Too much printing of money in US EU therefore shouldnt therefore be serious problem for the medium & long term. Same might be said of bank lending but as I said in another post there needs to bank reserve ratios reimposed to curve the money supply expansion. Its also a function of the money circulation rate too.
This US$ obsession which seem to have been more prominent since year 2000 is more about its value relative to other currencies/nations, and the US’s ability to control the mkts and prices of commodities and political influence. Also those other banks and countries who are holding US$ also is involved in this equation too.
So in the end the USD & EURO GBP etc will always have value.
Given this the geo-political events in the past 20-30yrs appear to be about other issues.
When Iraq in 2000 decided to price its oil in Euros rather than US$ freaked out the power obsessed elites in Washington – result = 911/WTC op then 2003 Iraq invasion.
It would appear its more about the ability to control the price of oil and money flows into the US.
And the end profits of oil companies, profits banks in the US facilitating those money flows.
I would ask anyone else to comment on this.
I therefore see all this is as not a real US$ currency crisis at all.
So why worry about oil and gas sold for Rubles ?
The US was able to get away with printing trillions and trillions of money and getting tangible assets in return instead of inflation because of the petro-dollar effect.
Once this effect subsides – what the talk is about – all the inflationary effects will combine and the dollar will either devalue or some other (dractic) actions will be required on the US FED side.
Of course, US as well as the EU (way less of a problem for them) will survive. But their global economic power will be reduced in such a way as to enforce a qualitative change.
They effectively decided to use-up almost all their leverage in fighting Russia – a comparatively small player.
The thing is, once they decided to descend on Russia, all this was inevitable. They had to use so much of their economic tools as any less and the Russians would just laugh them off – like they did the last time. So thy HAD TO do all this, as long as they wanted -some- results. While Russia is comparatively small, they are also extremely resilient due to them sitting on a pile of natural resources AND having the technologies to exploit them.
The problem here is, some of these folks – in their sheer arrogance – did not realize they were committing an econo-political suicide (EU) and blowing off their own leg only to hit Russia with it (US).
Effectively, they gave up most of the leverage accumulated over a century only to spank Russia. The Chinese could not have hoped for a better outcome.
So, no. This is not the end of the US or EU. But it is the end of US /economical/ dominance. All they have now left is their military eminence. That will allow them to keep the ROW in check for a decade or two still.
But they will no longer dominate as they used to till now. You can keep a competitor in check by strong military. but you can dominate them only with a stronger economy. An asset they are burning up in front of our eyes.
Having looked at the comments and given the Rubles for gas a bit more thought, the only way I see this working is using gold as the basis of payment.
Payment for rubles in US dollars, and the Americans say thank you very much, those dollars are ours (as they have just done with all of Russia’s dollar reserves), and Russia loses those funds.
Payment for rubles in Euro, and Brussels says thank you very much, those euros are ours, and Russia loses those funds (as above)
So Germany, you want Russian gas. This is what I suggest:
1) Germany delivers x tonnes of gold to Russia.
2) On receipt of the gold in Russia, the Russian bank in charge of this process, sets up a Germany gas account, and credits that account with the equivalent value in rubles of the x tonnes of gold.
3) Germany orders gas and Russia delivers that gas, drawing the cost of the gas in rubles from the Germany gas account at the Russian bank.
The advantage of this method is that the ruble sales are merely book entries at the Russian bank.
The rubles are not physical rubles and they do not move anywhere, to any other country. They are book-entries only.
The only movement is gold in, gas out.
The Russian central bank would purchase the gold from Gazprom in rubles, building up its reserves, or if Gazprom needs foreign equipment, perhaps it could use some gold as a payment method, by-passing all foreign currencies.
4) When the German gas account is getting low, Russia advises Germany to send the next x tonnes of gold.
Who has heard this before – HE WHO OWNS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES.
I would think that more and more countries are waking up yo the fact that holding the major foreign currencies in their reserves (the reserves actually sit in the banks of the foreign country) could become disasterous, exactly as Russia has now found out.
Who has hears this before – IF YOU DON;T HOLD IT IN YOUR HAND, YOU DON’T OWN IT.
So I think that gold is the answer.
Thank you so much to The Saker and Andrei Martyanov for keeping us up to date with what is happening in Ukraine, You are the first blogs I look at in the morning, and the last I check at night.
I get angry watching the MSM news on TV (only watched it once in the last month because the TV was on while we were visiting relatives) and reading all the reports on Yahoo news gives me that hour of side splitting laughter that is so good for one’s health.
You are missing the point that German companies export a #&@{-load of good to Russia – for which they are paid in Rubles at the first stage.
These days, they sell these Rubles immediately for EUR, and then used these EUR to pay for their energy needs in Germany.
Once you put sideways the “detail” that the Germans exporting the goods are different to the Germans importing the gas, then no Gold needed. The Goods (“Gold”) is already being shipped to Russia as we speak.
The “Germans” just need to find a way to agree internally how to handle this, and Russia would be happy. No need to ship any golden bars around. They will just trade in Rubles instead of EUR. Simples.
User – hasn’t europe sanctioned all exports to Russia?
So doesn’t that negate your arguement?
Furthermore, you still appear to be having difficulty understanding that you can’t just buy rubles to buy gas with fresh air, you have to use money, as currency, because of the sanctions, no longer works.
Gold is money.
The U.S./EU have apparently come to an agreement for the U.S. to provide LNG to the EU, starting someday. It can’t make up for Russian NG and will cost more. True to form, the U.S. has found a way to profit from the discord and war. I think we all expected that. So they threw Ukraine under the bus and are going to make a lot of money while doing it. As a famous Ukrainian has said, “What a country!”
NATO’s eight brand new, shiny, eastern-flank battlegroups are analogous to the Grand Old Duke of York nusery rhyme in the context of Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine…
Oh, the grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.
When they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only halfway up,
They were neither up nor down.
NATO keeps on marching on the road to nowhere!
I preferred the remake:
The Grand old Duke of York
He borrowed 6 million quid
He gave it to some one he’d never, ever met
For something he never did..