In Davos and beyond, NATO’s upbeat narrative plays like a broken record, while on the ground, Russia is stacking up wins that could sink the Atlantic order.
By Pepe Escobar, posted with the author’s permission and crossposted with The Cradle
Three months after the start of Russia’s Operation Z in Ukraine, the battle of The West (12 percent) against The Rest (88 percent) keeps metastasizing. Yet the narrative – oddly – remains the same.
On Monday, from Davos, World Economic Forum Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab introduced Ukrainian comedian-cum-President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the latest leg of his weapons-solicitation-tour, with a glowing tribute. Herr Schwab stressed that an actor impersonating a president defending neo-Nazis is supported by “all of Europe and the international order.”
He means, of course, everyone except the 88 percent of the planet that subscribes to the Rule of Law – instead of the faux construct the west calls a ‘rules-based international order.’
Back in the real world, Russia, slowly but surely has been rewriting the Art of Hybrid War. Yet within the carnival of NATO psyops, aggressive cognitive infiltration, and stunning media sycophancy, much is being made of the new $40 billion US ‘aid’ package to Ukraine, deemed capable of becoming a game-changer in the war.
This ‘game-changing’ narrative comes courtesy of the same people who burned though trillions of dollars to secure Afghanistan and Iraq. And we saw how that went down.
Ukraine is the Holy Grail of international corruption. That $40 billion can be a game-changer for only two classes of people: First, the US military-industrial complex, and second, a bunch of Ukrainian oligarchs and neo-connish NGOs, that will corner the black market for weapons and humanitarian aid, and then launder the profits in the Cayman Islands.
A quick breakdown of the $40 billion reveals $8.7 billion will go to replenish the US weapons stockpile (thus not going to Ukraine at all); $3.9 billion for USEUCOM (the ‘office’ that dictates military tactics to Kiev); $5 billion for a fuzzy, unspecified “global food supply chain”; $6 billion for actual weapons and “training” to Ukraine; $9 billion in “economic assistance” (which will disappear into selected pockets); and $0.9 billion for refugees.
US risk agencies have downgraded Kiev to the dumpster of non-reimbursing-loan entities, so large American investment funds are ditching Ukraine, leaving the European Union (EU) and its member-states as the country’s only option.
Few of those countries, apart from Russophobic entities such as Poland, can justify to their own populations sending huge sums of direct aid to a failed state. So it will fall to the Brussels-based EU machine to do just enough to maintain Ukraine in an economic coma – independent from any input from member-states and institutions.
These EU ‘loans’ – mostly in the form of weapons shipments – can always be reimbursed by Kiev’s wheat exports. This is already happening on a small scale via the port of Constanta in Romania, where Ukrainian wheat arrives in barges over the Danube and is loaded into dozens of cargo ships everyday. Or, via convoys of trucks rolling with the weapons-for-wheat racket. However, Ukrainian wheat will keep feeding the wealthy west, not impoverished Ukrainians.
Moreover, expect NATO this summer to come up with another monster psyop to defend its divine (not legal) right to enter the Black Sea with warships to escort Ukrainian vessels transporting wheat. Pro-NATO media will spin it as the west being ‘saved’ from the global food crisis – which happens to be directly caused by serial, hysterical packages of western sanctions.
Poland goes for soft annexation
NATO is indeed massively ramping up its ‘support’ to Ukraine via the western border with Poland. That’s in synch with Washington’s two overarching targets: First, a ‘long war,’ insurgency-style, just like Afghanistan in the 1980s, with jihadis replaced by mercenaries and neo-Nazis. Second, the sanctions instrumentalized to “weaken” Russia, militarily and economically.
Other targets remain unchanged, but are subordinate to the Top Two: make sure that the Democrats are re-elected in the mid-terms (that’s not going to happen); irrigate the industrial-military complex with funds that are recycled back as kickbacks (already happening); and keep the hegemony of the US dollar by all means (tricky: the multipolar world is getting its act together).
A key target being met with astonishing ease is the destruction of the German – and consequently the EU’s – economy, with a great deal of the surviving companies to be eventually sold off to American interests.
Take, for instance, BMW board member Milan Nedeljkovic telling Reuters that “our industry accounts for about 37 percent of natural gas consumption in Germany” which will sink without Russian gas supplies.
Washington’s plan is to keep the new ‘long war’ going at a not-too-incandescent level – think Syria during the 2010s – fueled by rows of mercenaries, and featuring periodic NATO escalations by anyone from Poland and the Baltic midgets to Germany.
Last week, that pitiful Eurocrat posing as High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, gave away the game when previewing the upcoming meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.
Borrell admitted that “the conflict will be long” and “the priority of the EU member states” in Ukraine “consists in the supply of heavy weapons.”
Then Polish President Andrzej Duda met with Zelensky in Kiev. The slew of agreements the two signed indicate that Warsaw intends to profit handsomely from the war to enhance its politico-military, economic, and cultural influence in western Ukraine. Polish nationals will be allowed to be elected to Ukrainian government bodies and even aim to become constitutional judges.
In practice, that means Kiev is all but transferring management of the Ukrainian failed state to Poland. Warsaw won’t even have to send troops. Call it a soft annexation.
The steamroller on the move
As it stands, the situation on the battlefield can be examined in this map. Intercepted communications from the Ukrainian command reveal their aim to build a layered defense from Poltava through Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhia, Krivoy Rog, and Nikolaev – which happens to be a shield for the already fortified Odessa. None of that guarantees success against the incoming Russian onslaught.
It’s always important to remember that Operation Z started on February 24 with around 150,000 or so fighters – and definitely not Russia’s elite forces. And yet they liberated Mariupol and destroyed the elite neo-Nazi Azov batallion in a matter of only fifty days, cleaning up a city of 400,000 people with minimal casualties.
While fighting a real war on the ground – not those indiscriminate US bombings from the air – in a huge country against a large army, facing multiple technical, financial and logistical challenges, the Russians also managed to liberate Kherson, Zaporizhia and virtually the whole area of the ‘baby twins,’ the popular republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Russia’s ground forces commander, General Aleksandr Dvornikov, has turbo-charged missile, artillery and air strikes to a pace five times faster than during the first phase of Operation Z, while the Ukrainians, overall, are low or very low on fuel, ammo for artillery, trained specialists, drones, and radars.
What American armchair and TV generals simply cannot comprehend is that in Russia’s view of this war – which military expert Andrei Martyanov defines as a “combined arms and police operation” – the two top targets are the destruction of all military assets of the enemy while preserving the life of its own soldiers.
So while losing tanks is not a big deal for Moscow, losing lives is. And that accounts for those massive Russian bombings; each military target must be conclusively destroyed. Precision strikes are crucial.
There is a raging debate among Russian military experts on why the Ministry of Defense does not go for a fast strategic victory. They could have reduced Ukraine to rubble – American style – in no time. That’s not going to happen. The Russians prefer to advance slowly and surely, in a sort of steamroller pattern. They only advance after sappers have fully surveilled the terrain; after all there are mines everywhere.
The overall pattern is unmistakable, whatever the NATO spin barrage. Ukrainian losses are becoming exponential – as many as 1,500 killed or wounded each day, everyday. If there are 50,000 Ukrainians in the several Donbass cauldrons, they will be gone by the end of June.
Ukraine must have lost as many as 20,000 soldiers in and around Mariupol alone. That’s a massive military defeat, largely surpassing Debaltsevo in 2015 and previously Ilovaisk in 2014. The losses near Izyum may be even higher than in Mariupol. And now come the losses in the Severodonetsk corner.
We’re talking here about the best Ukrainian forces. It doesn’t even matter that only 70 percent of Western weapons sent by NATO ever make it to the battlefield: the major problem is that the best soldiers are going…going…gone, and won’t be replaced. Azov neo-Nazis, the 24th Brigade, the 36th Brigade, various Air Assault brigades – they all suffered losses of 60+ percent or have been completely demolished.
So the key question, as several Russian military experts have stressed, is not when Kiev will ‘lose’ as a point of no return; it is how many soldiers Moscow is prepared to lose to get to this point.
The entire Ukrainian defense is based on artillery. So the key battles ahead involve long-range artillery. There will be problems, because the US is about to deliver M270 MLRS systems with precision-guided ammunition, capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 70 kilometers or more.
Russia, though, has a counterpunch: the Hermes Small Operational-Tactical Complex, using high precision munitions, possibility of laser guidance, and a range of more than 100 kilometers. And they can work in conjunction with the already mass-produced Pantsir air defense systems.
The sinking ship
Ukraine, within its current borders, is already a thing of the past. Georgy Muradov, permanent representative of Crimea to the President of Russia and Deputy Prime Minister of the Crimean government, is adamant: “Ukraine in the form in which it was, I think, will no longer remain. This is already the former Ukraine.”
The Sea of Azov has now become a “sea of joint use” by Russia and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), as confirmed by Muradov.
Mariupol will be restored. Russia has had plenty of experience in this business in both Grozny and Crimea. The Russia-Crimea land corridor is on. Four hospitals among five in Mariupol have already reopened and public transportation is back, as well as three gas stations.
The imminent loss of Severodonetsk and Lysichansk will ring serious alarm bells in Washington and Brussels, because that will represent the beginning of the end of the current regime in Kiev. And that, for all practical purposes – and beyond all the lofty rhetoric of “the west stands with you” – means heavy players won’t be exactly encouraged to bet on a sinking ship.
On the sanctions front, Moscow knows exactly what to expect, as detailed by Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov: “Russia proceeds from the fact that sanctions against it are a rather long-term trend, and from the fact that the pivot to Asia, the acceleration of reorientation to eastern markets, to Asian markets is a strategic direction for Russia. We will make every effort to integrate into value chains precisely together with Asian countries, together with Arab countries, together with South America.”
On efforts to “intimidate Russia,” players would be wise to listen to the hypersonic sound of 50 Sarmat state-of-the-art missiles ready for combat this autumn, as explained by Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin.
This week’s meetings in Davos brings to light another alignment forming in the world’s overarching unipolar vs. multipolar battle. Russia, the baby twins, Chechnya and allies such as Belarus are now pitted against ‘Davos leaders’ – in other words, the combined western elite, with a few exceptions like Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Zelensky will be fine. He’s protected by British and American special forces. The family is reportedly living in an $8 million mansion in Israel. He owns a $34 million villa in Miami Beach, and another in Tuscany. Average Ukrainians were lied to, robbed, and in many cases, murdered, by the Kiev gang he presides over – oligarchs, security service (SBU) fanatics, neo-Nazis. And those Ukrainians that remain (10 million have already fled) will continue to be treated as expendable.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir “the new Hitler” Putin is in absolutely no hurry to end this larger than life drama that is ruining and rotting the already decaying west to its core. Why should he? He tried everything, since 2007, on the “why can’t we get along” front. Putin was totally rejected. So now it’s time to sit back, relax, and watch the Decline of the West.
“So now it’s time to sit back, relax, and watch the Decline of the West.”
I have stocked the larder full of popcorn!
??? You’ll be going down too.
No, the West actually starts somewhere off the Irish coast. America has outstayed it’s welcome: it’s time for it to f*ck off home and prepare to reap what it has shown. Furthermore, anybody who thinks the European elites are representative of their populations is demonstrably a bellend. As for the elites, do you think the US will take them? Remember, they aren’t exactly deeply tanned.
You forget HOW deep those Elites are integrated into Europe structures. If they go, there will be a big rift in everything regarding daily live. And i have low to no hope that the migrants we have here will be ANY help in restoring/maintaining public order and services.
No, I do realise that. I fully expect my homeland, the Disunited Queendom, to suffer greatly for what it has failed to do since WW2 (at least), when the current crisis ends. I am more sanguine as to the immigrant population; the first waves consider those who have come lately in far harsher terms than the native population; furthermore, the older wave and it’s children are far more assimilated than the media would have one believe. Besides, we can all do better than the incompetents set over us: it’s the 21st century, not the 19th, and some nations are again eyeing the stars. Still, I don’t particularly care for war or revolution – regeneration is preferable – but I’ll accept whatever befalls and carry on appropriately.
Regards, Seamus.
There are many native Brits who are not happy with the large influx of immigrants into their country resulting in more strain on the health service, social housing, schools, government budgets and social cohesion. One of the main points of Brexit was to control the borders and stop unskilled workers coming to the UK.
Very well say. I still remember the PIGS or the GIPSI in the 2010 crisis.
So Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Greece should know very good that they are not core of the West.
All of as are pure colonies, from lot of points of view
“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings.”
—Through the Looking-Glass
The PIGS should declare a State of Emergency just like Hungary officially just did.
And things will then take flight – that belly landed the last time Brussels showed its true face. This is Brussels nightmare!
When you betray your soul, when the people of the country are sold for a pittance as have Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain; you deserve to be called PIGS
I’m damn tired of hearing west, west, west…it is time for Asia, or maybe EuroAsia. I don’t mind seeing the Britain die. Being waiting for that to happen for more than half a century…:)
Yes! I’ve been wanting to explore data on this and how people there can be convinced that they should align with ZONE B, with the advantage of commong language with a lot of countries in Africa and South America (Portugal, Spain, Ireland).
As a strong advocate of European integration since 60 years, it pains me to know that Europe is gone. Europe has been buried in Ukraine. The “old Europe” of the founding fathers of European integration has been squeezed to death by the imperialists of Washington in the West and the “new Europe” of visceral Russia-haters in the East. If I were younger I would emigrate.
@Seamus: “No, the West actually starts somewhere off the Irish coast”
Pedant’s corner. The geographical West starts near Australia and New Zealand, as any New Year TV celebration shows. Likewise the political “West” starts near Australia and New Zealand. But the political “West” is a mental attitude more than a geographical location. For instance, Israel is politically “Western” though geographically and historically West Asian.
At present “everybody knows” that “West is West and East is East and never the two shall meet”. But I recommend an unusual book, very thick and well documented, called “The Shape of Ancient Thought”. It tells how traders in ancient times used to import & export, back & forth, East & West along the Old Silk Road and the old Indo-Chinese rivieria, not only goods but books and ideas. What we are seeing today is the return of this ancient interdependence for physical and mental development in the new-old multipolar world.
It depends. Yes, grr, like everyone, will have to pay more as inflation makes surviving substantially more expensive. But if grr is prosperous — ie financially “substantial” — then $6 or $12 a gallon for gas may be an annoyance, but it won’t destroy him. In contrast, the coming across-the-board inflationary tsunami will most certainly ***destroy*** the working class and the lower middle class (what’s left of it). And that’s the condition that makes for civil instability, civil unrest, and possibly civil war.
Stock up and hunker down … or flee (much as all the very smart Kiev residents did who packed up and headed west ***before*** the Russians came to town.).
There is something rotten in the state of +++++++?
The EU, US, UK, WEF, and WHO are all suddenly concerned about a “Global Food Crisis” as they claim that last year’s grain harvest in Ukraine is unable to be exported out of Ukraine, because of a Russian blockade of the Ukrainian Black sea ports.
Ukraine exports 20% of the worlds “Bread wheat” supply, and 7 % of the world’s industrial wheat supply. But the war in Ukraine and the Western sanctions against Russia has made commodities prices explode globally, leaving poorer countries in riots, because the price of wheat for bread has followed the global trend of hyperinflation. As a consequence, both Russia and India has placed restrictions on export of wheat, in order to safeguard its own populations enough food.
However, it is Ukraine itself who has blockaded its seaports for months, leaving Turkish vessels and sailors as shields, trapped in the harbors of Ukraine.
A fourth night ago, Ukraine let lose 420 mines surrounding the harbor of Odessa, and let the mines float off into the Black sea. As a result one of the merchant ships transiting the black sea struck a mine, but was able to limp into harbor. One of the lose mines was located near the Bosporus Strait, and the Turkish Navy has now located and destroyed 3 of the 420 mines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMOl_3esSYg
Merchant ships are no longer able to get insurance to enter the Black sea, because of the risk of mines.
Back in April Lithuania was planning to receive grain export out of Ukraine via Trains to Poland, and then on the Lithuanian Port of Klaipeda.
https://balticword.com/lithuania-is-ready-to-help-ukraine-to-export-unsold-volumes-of-grain-through-klaipeda/ The train net in Ukraine and Poland and Lithuania are not identical, so a test transport was to commence during the last part of May. How the test result is not yet reported.
Now The UK suggests escorting Ukraine grain vessels through the Black Sea to break the “Russian blockade”. But there is no Russian blockade of merchant vessels in the Black sea.
And at present Turkey has closed of the entrance to the Black sea for war ships.
It is the right/ obligation of Turkey to do so according to the Montreux Convention, in times of war. So unless the UK wants to enter into war with Turkey and Russia, that suggestion seems dead in the water.
So Yesterday the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin claims that Denmark is delivering Block II Harpoon missiles to Ukraine, to fend off the Russian black sea fleet.
https://news.usni.org/2022/05/23/denmark-sending-ukraine-anti-ship-harpoon-missiles-to-take-on-russian-ships-in-black-sea
The Danish surface based movable Harpoon system was commissioned in Denmark from 1988-2003, and the Block II RGM-84-L was first build in 2010. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpoon_(missile)
I doubt that the Danish surface based harpoon system has been upgraded after it was decommissioned.
In response to Lloyd Austin’s claim of Denmark sending Block II Harpoon missiles to Ukraine, The Danish Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-harpoon-idUSKCN2N91YC
The Harpoon claimed to have hit the Russian cruiser Moskva had the features of the Block II Harpoon.
Ukraine had a 5% share of world export for wheat
Russia 15%-20% depending on the source quoted.
Since the 2014 putsch Ukraine economy went into freefall. Once prosperous, now poorer than Albanians
Good heavens, I don’t know why everyone doesn’t see the obvious.
UK wants to send their warships for two reasons.
1. Justify the Harpoon upgrade.
2. Do you REALLY think “humanitarian aid” ships will be coming into the Odessa port empty? No, they will be loaded with heavy war equipment that can’t make it on the bombed railways and roadways.
It is a trick that goes back to antiquity. Loading ambulances with soldiers and weapons. The Lusitania in WW One. And so on.
I am against war but admit to enjoy seeing the West and NATO having its ass handed to itself by Russia. The West did all it could to bring us to this – and Russia will finish it.
I’m with you! I have considered myself antiwar, but I did support the Vietnamese during the American war there, and I certainly support Russia in this situation. I don’t know where you live, but the U.S.A. is INSUFFERABLE in its hubris and nastiness. But what does one expect of a nation founded on genocide and slavery?
Is there a nation in all of history founded on love and kindness? As an American, I am appalled at the acts emanating from the dark underbelly of the US but am not willing to condemn it in isolation. I believe a genocidal German leader made a comment to the effect that he admired the English for their unthinkable colonialist activities. Humanity seems to me a mystifying melange of elevated and depraved souls with most somewhere between these extremes. Will it ever come to pass that virtue prevails over evil? History does not provide much hope for that eventuality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG8QKDtT5Yg&t=0s
There is a series here that explains why the species has such a divide between bloodlines of Able vs Cain. NPC vs player souls. Good vs evil.
Russia will have to become a bridge of understanding between China and India, to prevent its Asian strategy from being hampered by the conflicts between Beijing and New Delhi.
Money talks cash screams.
When Russia, India and China get the trade routes operating the cash registers across Eurasia will be ringing. As the old football saying goes, ”winners are grinners losers are whingers.”
I think the Asian powers can grasp that unless they hang together, they will assuredly hang separately.
India has two problems both of its imagination.
The muslim problem a fake narrative created to control kashmir which is source of 4 river two supplying pakistan and two india.
To keep control of this indian elites especially first prime minister Nehru ( whose family was from Muslim Majority Kashmir though they had not been resident for three generations) had emotional attachment to Kashmir.
To keep this control the false narrative of pakistani ( and thus muslim) belligerence had to be created. An hindu right smarting from comparision with christian , muslim and modern values came up woefully short decided to use the muslim issue as its rallying point in creating exactly the same issue as Ukranian extremists did with ethnic Russians in Ukraine.
Though for decades the ruling classes were able to keep the cynical ploy and the fire under control to while justifying the stance against pakistan. Eventually they couldnt keep the fire under check as the hindu right just took it to its logical conclusion and gained not just power but have changed the whole political narrative. Now they cant dismount it as its what gets them votes else they have nothing else to offer.
The other was china based on imaginary lines drawn by British on map in north eastern india in place remote, hilly and very difficult to access with extremely sparse population laid claim to borders where neither british ever reached nor india nor china. but China Annexed previously autonomous Tibet whose border it was. Instead of siting down and resolving border issues of areas where almost nobody lives China and India choose to fight a war.
That china and India are seperated by high impassable mountains which doesnt allow either friendly relations nor agression and neither have happened in last 2000 years is lost on both China as well as India.
India is hobbled by both these issues.
If these mostly imaginary issues are resolved india can trade with whole of central asia through pakistan and afghanistan but it would as well be a route for central asian and Russian energy pipelines lines and also the Chinese Surplus and investments can power indias economy .
That’s gotta hurt!
Pepe –
Another excellent analysis.
I would assume that the next action by the US/Nato will be an attempt to open negotiations on an end-game political settlement.
I suspect that Mr Lavrov and President Putin are not in a mood for more Western promises..especially since they are winning on all front.
thanks again,
I think the US will do nothing but the Europeans will encourage negotiations, EU don’t want this to drag on past summer, winter beckons, power cuts, deaths, malnutrition … 90% of EU politicians will be looking at getting voted out of power next year if they don’t stabilise the situation, US/UK will be stirring the pot as usually, setting state against state
Alexander Mercouris thinks the opposite – he says it is the US that will reach for a negotiated settlement, not the EU. He bases this on the fact that there is already dissent building in the US political circles, and cites a NYT editorial which is basically arguing for a negotiated settlement from the Biden administration. In contrast, the British Telegraph wrote a scathing article attacking the NYT article as appeasement or some such nonsense, while Borel, Von der Leyen, the German “Green” ministers, the Poles, the Baltics etc are calling for “moar war”. The EU member states are also now completely subjugated to the EU machine who seem to be able to bend national leaders to their will.
It’s quite understandable that the Americans, having been frustrated in their naive hopes of a “quagmire” for Russia, would now like to freeze the conflict with Russia’s territorial gains at their current very minimal level.
However the Russians are certainly not going to oblige. Their original goals of demilitarising and deNazifying Ukraine have not yet been met, and that is merely Stage 1.
“To be an enemy of the United States is dangerous, to be a friend is lethal” – Henry Kissinger
Watching NATO trying to justify its existence is like watching Fauci telling us to get ready to mask up over the next big scare, Monkeypox.
Sorry ZelenskyY, but we’re bored with your whining about not enough aid coming from NATO countries (aka AMERIKA). President rectal probe has moved on to Taiwan, while the inevitable rash of school shootings (always during the summer before a federal election) is kicking in a few eeeks early.
Spot on Pepe
This American-urged effort by Ukraine against Russia reminds me of the story or Lydia (I think it was) and the Persian Empire. The king of the Lydian empire wanted to attack the Persian Empire. He sent ambassadors to the Greek oracle at Delphi. The Oracle said: “If you attack Persia, you will destroy a great empire.” Lydia attacked…and Persia wiped out Lydia. The Delphic Oracle had been deliberately ambiguous. And the empire that was destroyed was Lydia, not Persia. Now Ukraine will be destroyed.
David Ronin: That’s a good one! Thanks!
The Lydian king was Croesus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croesus. And the Persian king whom he so imprudently challenged was Cyrus the Great – bad choice.
“rich as Croesus” suggests that the Lydian Empire was very . . . rich!
Why didn’t they just chill out with what they had??
The uSA is terminal culture – no solidarity – everyone just says – hello / goodbye – no interaction, conversation, sharing ideas / all believe people are expendable within short horizon – so no on invests in relationships
the country NYC to SF is a movie script of slow disaster crackups
You obviously don’t live here and watch waaay to much EU television.
You’ve obviously have never visited the US. No one even utters hello/goodbye. The most you can expect is a slight head nod or grunt.
Get out of the cities — and even in NYC in my marginal neighborhood we nodded to each other and said hello — and into the rural areas. People talk to each other, though the habit of waving at anyone driving by has pretty much disappeared. People talk to me in the grocery store, at the gas pump, and everywhere else. The people who don’t do this are more bourgeois and snooty.
In rural Indiana I wave to every car as I take my daily walk, 99% wave back. I talk to everyone I meet in supermarkets, gassing up my car, etc. 99% are friendly, will take some time to talk and exchange pleasantries. Often road or supermarket aisle are temporarily blocked by people gossiping or catching up. Superficial? I can’t judge. My thinking is far different than my neighbours; (wherever those neighbors happen to be,
Taiwan, coastal US, or the 30 some countries I have visited), they appear unaware of many “facts” that I think I know. But aside from personal experience most of what I “know” is what I read. I’m willing to be corrected, or at least to listen…
Spot on.
Not to mention on the precipice of serious civil unrest.
Dare I say Civil War.
A Spanish style Civil War is our future – worth studying how normal people survived
I would suggest that the coming civil war in the U.S. will make the Spanish Civil War look very much like the first American Civil War… regional faction vs. regional faction.
I have been expecting it to come to civil war when I was a mere 6 years old in 1971, walking by some hippies talking amongst themselves. “Never trust anyone over 30” didn’t make them consider that even grade school children would also already regard them as dangerous lunatics.
Their real slogan wasn’t “Peace & Love,” it was “Ineffective police, sexual promiscuity, and kill anyone who disagrees with us.”
Cancel culture, which first feared it’s head in the U.S is a product of the Hippies’ indoctrination of college students, is for the purpose of killing their opponents through unemployment leading to literal starvation while wiping their hands of responsibility.
Kissinger took the collective west to the woodshed at Davis today. It’s all over but the crying, right Brandon?
It’s so telling when the elder unconvicted war criminal of the century publicly advises his fellow “elite” to back off, just to have him learn that he’s the only adult in the room; freebie Ukrop insult on top (Podolyak: “Davos alarmist”).
Kudos for the Brandon ref. Putin really is ruining his family business, making him lose millions and millions of dollars every day. Elections have consequences…
Kissinger is a fool and he’s actually gotten more neocon in the last 30 years. Russia will not go back to pre-operation days. The NAZIs must die and the Ukies must be disarmed and NATO must stabd down. Those are Russia’s demands. Kissinger instead should have repeated what he said after the wall fell – America stop pressuring Russia and learn to get along.
Kissinger like Scott Ritter is concerned that this thing could produce a nuclear war. Ritter’s solution is for Russia to push more energetically for a decisive win, Kissinger wants a settlement where Russia gets some territory because he knows Russia won’t settle for less than that. Given the crazies who are running our country, and Russia’s determination, things could get really nasty.
Despite the lack of trust between the parties a deal could still be done because they would implement it incrementally, limiting the gain if somebody didn’t go along with the deal.
The Gender Generals and Pay for Play retires do not run or control the US military.
Woke politicians or Brandon will never get near the Big Red Button. I am going “long,” the US Military take over America and clean house because it is in terminal free fall. No functioning economy, funny money and pronouns cannot support two wars book ending the planet.
During the take over Russia, China and friends will stand down. MAD is still MAD mutually assured destruction of planet earth is not part of the retirement plan, for anyone!
The Pentagon and the Deep State know very well that thermonuclear war would ruin their cosy world. The USA has never been seriously invaded or threatened with destruction. It would be utterly destroyed within the first hour of a thermonuclear war.
The Russians could say, “Nice continent you got there – shame if anything happened to it”. But they don’t have to. The Americans are sitting there in a glasshouse so big you could see it from Saturn.
John Stone:
I see no reason for Russia to stop now.
I mean, I don’t think Russia will stop now.
That horse left the barn between Dec. 2021 and the Munich Conference.
Too late for the West to “change its mind” and to try to shut the door.
Russia will stop fighting when it has had and has gained enough, and not a moment before.
It will not make “concessions” that would have it forgo any of its original aims.
Because those aims were reasonable.
They probably are not defined by territory, but by what Russia has to do to clear out noxious forces in Ukraine—to cleanse the country, so to speak.
Now there are even more reasons for Russia to control what occurs in the Ukraine.
it will interesting to see what will happen if the Poles really try to take over western Ukraine.
The “West” will only decline if the rest of the world stop funding the West.
The “Rubles for gas” may be what is needed, but all the other commodities should also be paid in Rubles.
A Dollar or Euro is created as a loan, that must be paid back, with “intrest”, and that “intrest” is also owing ever more “intrest”, ever “compounding” to larger numbers that can really add up over time. For a while the debt-compounding-interest adds a zero/digit every 10 years, then it will become only 5 years to need a new digit, then 2 years, then months, eventually days and hours new digits needed to track the ever compounding but never actually created/spent/printed calculation.
Did you see gas/patrol stations in the U.S. are adding a digit to their gas pump price displays? I can remember when all the prices were in cents only and no dollars.
Brandon is devaluing the dollar in order to pay down the federal deficit incurred by the pandemic handouts. Brandon giveth and Brandon taketh away.
The Dollar is being de-valued, but I don’t see any sign the National debt going down.
So long as the world keeps handing over the commodities for Dollars, the Western weapons manufacturers will keep manufacturing, and anyone refusing to take Dollars, we will bomb them back to the stone age, with Russia being the sole exception, for now.
Richard,
How do pay down the federal deficit ?
When the deficit is the private sector surplus.
Sounds as if you believe the monopoly issuer of the $ operates like that of a household ?
When in fact it is never the case.
https://www.businessinsider.com/goldmans-jan-hatzius-on-sectoral-balances-2012-12?op=1&r=US&IR=T
Don’t take this bankster seriously. It is a BS believing government deficit translates into private sector surplus. True provided there is no debt in the system requiring servicing and repayment as opposed to permanent roll-over (as it has been the case since LB collapse in 2008). Moreover in the system where money is conjured up out of thin air we face usury by applying interest on fake money.
Now if household consumption accounts for 70% GDP (the US) and households are levered to the brim plus purchasing power of wages has been deteriorating since Nixon broke the Gold Window, how you think Hiatus logic will work? This is pure illusion. The so called “the chosen few” siphon off true profits through kickbacks (eg. MIC contracts or Iraq reconstruction deals) leaving tax payers holding the bag. Ergo, tax payers are left with little (if lucky) to live on after servicing their liabilities, and will be burdened with additional costs so that the government can service the cost of the deficit, which will get worse with further unnecessary spending (another round of kickbacks for the chosen ………Hurra! Long live to democracy!). The guy is a worshiper of Keynesian economy, gloomed and doomed, as proven many times, starting from FDR New Deal failure until contemporary “dual/triple” FED mandate……..
Let me quote the classic: “ There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.” – Ludwig Von Mises
Brandon isn’t doing anything, he can barely dress himself.
Susan Rice runs the place now, she takes her directions from Obama whom takes his orders from the Rothschilds who, in turn, take their orders from the Medici family.
The word ‘interest’ was introduced to pretend it is something different than usury. It isn’t.
A German economist calculated that on average approximately 40% of everything we buy goes to compounded usury. Those billions end up in the pockets of the richest 10% on earth, but half of all that usury ends up in the well lined pockets of the 0.0001% richest people.
How am I ‘sticking it to putin’ when I am paying 50% more to russia for their energy and commodities. Kind of a question for the weird german government that somehow has temporarily made it into office. seems rather sadistic to me. maybe they like a good lashing from a woman in leather lederhosen brandishing a whip while the good german male crawls naked on hands and knees around a dark dungeon.
May the Green Party never darken our doorway again.
I am sorry for ordinary German people (as opposed to politicians who prospered in the past and are being enriched as I write these words).
Ordinary German people are being exploited by the same people for the third time (and along with them the whole Europe). So much time has passed, but yet no lessons have been learned. Firstly during WW1 (so called Balfour Declaration), secondly prior to WW2 and within its course: for instance https://www.wintersonnenwende.com/scriptorium/english/archives/articles/jdecwar.html…..or
Wall Street controlled Ashkenazi funding for I.G. Farben, A.E.G, Nationale Treuhand – orchestrated by consummate grifters like Paul Warburg or Jacob Schiff to name only the few (btw the latter was ardent Russian “friend” as well)…..
One of my German friends said once upon a time: “It were all Austrians in the first place, but we Germans took the hit……”
Fast forward to today, since late February this year Germans have been losing competitiveness of their economy in a speed light……. One can only ask: did it have to come to this? Apparently, it had to, if it did…….Sad and myopic……… If you are not interested in politics, politics will take an interest in you (universally applicable saying)
Ruble was 70 to a dollar.
Rooskie company has hypothetical 100 dollars in an account.
Putin (preemptively) invaded.
Sanctions.
Rubles falls to 150 to a dollar.
Putin declared 75% of all dollar accounts must be converted to Rubles (at 150 Rubles to the Dollar).
Rooskie company sells 75 Dollars for 11,250 Rubles.
Putin does “Gas for Rubles”.
Ruble goes up in value, now a Dollar only buys 55 Rubles.
If Rooskie company had sold them 75 Dollars today, they would only get 4,125 Rubles.
o_0
Expect more commodities from Russia to be sold only for Rubles after this first test with gas sales has established the president.
Expect the Ruble to continue to rise in value compared to the Western fiscally failing (NATO) nations.
After first sanctions, Ruble went in one moment to 155.4 for one Dollar
Now it is about 57-58 for one Dollar
“So now it’s time to sit back, relax, and watch the Decline of the West.”
This is so amazing to read, imagine and testify!
“The real tragedy of history is that we all are its stooges!” (Groucho Marx)
…but is good to hear from Saker
…Have we realize that it was a 404, nothing came out of it, it was just the worst dream; coup, war, racket, more war, etc. Diplomacy? Negotiations? none, only warmongering and mob lingo, so of which fictional government are we referring to? 404 was just that, a 404 (Martinov) but it gets even more hilarious, Polka will run “La Plaza”, but it will not be called “New Juarez” it will be more like the new Idlib and believe me by then we will be moving forward around 1914…..What an attrition!
I had rather… my Brazilian soap-opera, come Pepe, let’s sit and relax!
In those plazas people suffer, are hostages, die, that is not fiction, not a contest or game, and will take time to bring it all back to life, so, is not about funny…
…Is just one more comedian selling something that does not belong to him, 404, what a scam! $100b to Ukraine but the poor soul owns a mansion in Florida, something must smell very fishy in the keys…
If it was something, at best, a crisis management operation run by the fiendish with all the fools in town in their side…
Why is Pepe not worried about nuclear war?
Because America wouldn’t be America if it wouldn’t be doing business even with its enemies. They know as well that a world without Russia wouldn’t happen, and that a world without America is unacceptable in terms of lost profit. This gentlemen’s deal alone prevents nuclear annihilation of the planet.
The U.S. will learn to cope according to the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Right now we’re crossing from stage 2 into 3, the major hissy fits and headlines are past (except of course in Kiev, Warsaw and the Baltics).
“Bargaining” stage was introduced yesterday by the Pentagon hoisting Ukie flags upside down (translation: f*ck it!) and old Kissinger dramatically urging the Davos Crowd to tune it down. Full stage 3 won’t happen until China integrates Taiwan, Russia builds its land bridge to Kaliningrad, Kiev flies the Russian tricolor, and China and Russia both quit WTO and WHO. My guesstimates.
I left this comment on the Cradle, here it is for you guys …..
It is hard to say anything constructive. I liked the article and Pepe but, there was not a lot of new stuff here. The main line of defense by Ukraine has been broken in at least three places as of yesterday. The breach at Popasna is bleeding out all over the place now and doing so surprizingly quickly. So, the east is getting rolled up fast, even at the snail´s pace Russian forces are moving.
The political antics ( Polish involvement ), mercs ( watching for confirmation on Polish troops, possibly already smashed at a gathering point ), the panic over grain ( they would not be freaking out if they were getting enough grain out of Ukraine ), massive disunity in many directions within NATO and the EU at this point, plus tons of other stuff leave it all very interesting. Yet, the MSM seems less inclined to cover much anymore. What´s the matter fellas, don´t like the real thing?
In short the West missed and now it is blowback ….. long term blowback time. I have my suspicions where it is going but, I am going to keep that for myself, except to say there has been an enormous screw up here and it was not by Russia. I won´t drop names or make fun of people here because, the bottom line is many are suffering over something that was completely avoidable.
So, let´s end with a question: how long are the ´masters of the universe´ willing to stomach failure from their minions? I think the answer could be coming quite soon.
I wish well to all.
Whilst normal world of Global South, Russia and Far East are going about their normal business, the Western “elites” and satraps from South-East of Europe and the Balkans (including Serbian President – very sorry sight) are sucking to Herr Klaus Schwab at globohome meeting in Davos. They have been reduced down to Gates of Hell and his merry group of bio-weapon “specialists” who go around infecting people and then peddling their snake oil as cure.
Go Russia and never look back as there is nothing and no-one to look at. Just make sure to turn the taps of everything off to the cretins of Europe (Hungarian President is an exemption that confirms the rule).
The sorry state of affairs is that leadership of these countries Don’t represent most of the people. Nor do they provide for the interest of their people.
If we had “leadership” in South-East Europe adn especially the Balkans that would’ve been true. But here we don’t have “leadership”, we have collonial administratons, which answer to the local US embassies, not to their peope.
RT is saying there is a rethink in Bulgaria. It appears upset with the shameless EU hypocrisy with gas-ruble payments, which favor some big countries.
https://www.rt.com/business/556020-bulgaria-reconsidering-ruble-gas-payments/
Is this accurate, or too little too late? How long can these disastrous colonial administrations continue wrecking the will and future of their people?
The head of the colonial admin in Bulgaria is one “canadian bitch” (he lived there for most of his life) with an worthless MBA degree from Harvard who likes to roll over for its masters. The propaganda is overwhelming – propped by Integrity Initiative and Brigade 77 trained “journalist” traitors – altough the majority of ppl are not buying it.
The survival instinct is slowly kicking in and by a long bulgarian tradition the “chickens will be counted in the Fall” as the saying in Bulgaria goes. The meaning of the last saying is that once the fields are harvested the mostly agrarian folks will start descending on the capital with their tractors :D
So true. No leadership. Just globohomo imbeciles ready to usurp everything normal. Lamp-post effect will have to run its course. Typical Gauleiters.
Maybe China tensions are what happens next. China has spoken uniquely harshly in response to US support for Taiwan.
China will “prepare wine for friends, shotguns for jackals”
https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/status/1529275399892525057?cxt=HHwWgoCz5fX3ibkqAAAA
‘However, Ukrainian wheat will keep feeding the wealthy west, not impoverished Ukrainians.’
It won’t be feeding anybody for very long as the country’s most productive regions succumb to impacts of both the SMO advances themselves and related agricultural issues such as fertilization deficiencies. Exports are not, or should not be, the primary concern. Hopefully, however, some remedies can be put in place quickly enough to avoid dire consequences for residents of those parts of the former Ukraine that have experienced and will experience ongoing “ownership” changes.
Nothing new will happen. We have already spent hundreds of hours discussing the three possible scenarios:
1. The US will continue its proxy war in Ukraine to the last European idiot who is willing do die. Ukraine will cease to exist.
2. In case the US led NATO decides to get into a direct, conventional, war with Russia, the US sissies will get their behinds handed over to them by the Russians. Ukraine, Poland, Baltic states and Nordic states will cease to exist.
3. If the US decides to start a nuclear war, it will destroy the entire Europe. The US will cease to exist.
US sissies. Right on, bro. Trannies, queers, dykes, etc., but no racists. Not
much of a fighting force. Especially when you notice that Uncle $hmuel has not won a
war against anyone that could hit back in over 70 years.
one thing ive noticed with western media. the term “go fuck yourself” i cant say ive ever seen written in media articles ,if ever, that language is censored, but for russia no worries the snake island fake story is repeated and this foul language is permitted. only today a guardian article repeats the fake story as fact and includes the gfy as an embedded link to the fake radio broadcast. lolz ..so far removed from even ‘elensky admitting the brave soldiers were not killed and were safely taken by russia , but hey guardian is full tilt propaganda and isnt slowing down at the cliff edge.
i guess im sitting back awaiting the next week or so when it all falls apart. surely theres a maths equation like biology of cell sizes that limits lie sizes to sustainability
A couple of funny comments that can relate to this article:
“Let’s see US/UK stab France with the sub deal. Poland demands Norway shares its oil profits. Now Greece stabs Turkey behind its back. This NATO is a gang of criminals and thieves!”
And my favorite:
Poland vs Norway, Turkey vs Greece. I need bigger tub of popcorn.
And now one not so funny:
Ukraine withdrew from the Agreement on perpetuating the memory of the courage and heroism of the people of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the Great Patriotic War
If that doesn’t tell you which ideology Ukraine follows then I don‘t know what will.
Nothing new here.
What about Russia’s cooperation with the WHO’s global treaty to enslave all nations? Not much info about it, would be interested in reading what is actually happening within Russia wrt WHO, IMF, WEF (4IR, CyberPolygon) etc. as this will give us all a better understanding of Russia’s true position wrt “the West.”
After all, a multi-polar world is necessary in order to Build Back Better.
Ukrainians are like Arabs to the US just tools in a toolbox. Very expendable tools that is.
But i really do not know where this will end. The West is hell bent on “winning”.
But like this they.
After the first war carthage was still mighty.
After the second war carthage was still existing.
After the third war it was nowhere to be seen on the map.
Question is is this the first, second or even third for Europe.
And i know some are cheering here but i live in the west i don’t know
how many of the readers do as well. So i am looking at the abyss
while my collegues are just thinking “Putin bad – we need to punish”
but don’t realise what this means for us.
I hear Ghana is a good place.
One of the thoughts I am having more and more these days as I get older and I watch my kids get older is that there truly are no shortcuts in life. There is no substitute for hard work and honesty with yourself and others, despite what Western culture teaches today.
The news about the school shooting struck a cord with me today as I have two kids in Elementary school in the US, it struck me that the USA does indeed have a culture of death at its core at all levels of the culture not just leadership, it’s a dying culture. It’s well hidden in that outwardly the culture projects a culture of “life” but in practice it is one of death. This is a new visceral revelation for me since the start of the Russian SMO and signing up for the Telegram and getting first hand accounts/videos of the Russian military taking very painstaking efforts not to cause civilian deaths and also helping out Ukrainian wounded in the East and burying Ukranian KIAs. I can see compassion in the videos towards their fellow human beings. It’s the complete opposite of how the US military acted in Iraq and Afghanistan at the leadership level(I’m sure individual soldiers did show compassion).
You can only shake your head in disbelief that now some are blaming the weapons the school shooter used at the political leadership level, yet these same exact people are shipping billions of dollars worth of even deadlier weapons to Ukraine to cause further death and destruction without batting an eye at the Ukrainian casualties. As others on this blog and people like Lavrov have more eloquently put it , this is a culture of death and perhaps the most cynical to date in the history of this world.
I had the same thoughts when I heard about the massacre of two primary school teachers and 19 innocent pupils and the wounding of 15 more children at the Robb Elementary school in Texas. The contrast between Biden’s contrived outrage at the slaughter while at the same time the filthy hypocrite ships weapons and billions of US taxpayers money to the Kleptocrat Klown of Kiev and his psychopatic ukronazis in 404.
Do you remember Michael Moore’s film about the Columbine High School massacre in the USA where he made the point that it occurred on the heaviest day of aerial bombing of Serbia by NATO on 24th April 1999 during their unjustified war against Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
…..The U.S. Air Force is hosting Drag Queen Story Time at Ramstein Air Base Library in Germany.
“We’re celebrating Pride Month at the Ramstein Library with Drag Queen Storytime! Join us with special guest reader Stacey Teed! Be sure to wear your brightest and most colorful outfits!,” says the Facebook event announcement, which was posted by the Ramstein & Vogelweh Air Force Libraries page …
https://voxday.net/2022/05/24/checkmate-putin/
The death of so many people, mainly soldiers forced into the army by the hubris of King Volodomyr and his Nazi-supported backers, is judged as having no value as plans are made to extend this futile war.
“Ukraine”, ie NATO and its evil partners, wanting to reunify its former Russophone pieces, Crimea and LPR-DPR, with the present failed state is a pipe dream even BoJo, Ursula van der Crazy, Borrel, Biden should realize is madness. To have up to 40 countries meeting in Rammstein, Germany (!!) to “help Ukraine” in April points up the warped state our world, 12% vs 88%, has reached.
“Zelensky will be fine. He’s protected by British and American special forces. The family is reportedly living in an $8 million mansion in Israel. He owns a $34 million villa in Miami Beach, and another in Tuscany. ”
Don’t Cry for Me, Ukraina.
https://youtu.be/adUPdnzCAk8?t=5
Only one problem with that analogy, Russia never forgets nor does she forgive.
I suspect that this Ukrainian imbroglio was an attempt to splinter Russia (and tie up her attention) from China, prior to American direct involvement in the South Pacific.
Doesn’t feel far away.
Different world after that.
Ukraine, within its current borders, is already a thing of the past. Georgy Muradov, permanent representative of Crimea to the President of Russia and Deputy Prime Minister of the Crimean government, is adamant: “Ukraine in the form in which it was, I think, will no longer remain. This is already the former Ukraine.”
Yea, Ukraine is gone thanks to the west who outthought themselves.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir “the new Hitler” Putin is in absolutely no hurry to end this larger than life drama that is ruining and rotting the already decaying west to its core. Why should he? He tried everything, since 2007, on the “why can’t we get along” front. Putin was totally rejected. So now it’s time to sit back, relax, and watch the Decline of the West.
Yea, the joke is on them trying to ridicule Russia, guess what China is walking out on their so called WEF.
Note – when we talk about 150,000 or so ground forces, a majority of these are from the locals – DPR and LPR. Exact figures are unknown, but it appears that the brunt of fighting is being carried by locals fighting against the Kiev regime
Mr Martynov always credits the locals for doing the majority of the heavy lifting.
Cheers M
“Ukrainian losses are becoming exponential – as many as 1,500 killed or wounded each day, everyday”.
I wish someone would ask Mr Escobar to avoid this grotesque misuse of the word “exponential”. If the Ukrainians are losing 1,500 men every day, and if this were to double every day (a mild exponential increase), they would have to lose 100,000 men every day by the end of May.
Such clangers seriously undermine his technical credibility.
Don’t think it’s not really necessary to see the word ‘exponential’ in its exact mathematical meaning but simply as a ‘huge increase’…etc.
There’s nothing wrong with his statement. Doubling every day is ‘mild’? 1% per year is exponential and is pretty mild unless you’re talking about very long time scales.
His key point is that the total number of enemy removed from action is increasing (on average) day by day- it’s a convex curve, the second derivative with respect to time is positive.
I agree.
“As many as 1,500 every day” is just additive, not exponential.
“exponential” does not mean “many” or “a high number.”
It means not only an increase, but an increase in the *** rate of increase.***
If this is is what Pepe means (say, a progression from one death per day to 1,500) , figures are needed to support the statement.
The “Putin is the new Hitler” narrative is quite interesting. It’s just plain rhetoric, of course. But even though there are huge ideological and characterial differences between the two, and also the way of conducting strategic tasks differs a lot (and not only for chronological reasons)… I must say that some similarities appear to me, too.
Namely:
– Slander orchestrated by the opponents, who have control over MSM;
– False flags and made-up atrocities to accuse them;
– Frank speaking;
– Very good reasons that justify the military action;
– No intentions for World War;
– No intentions to expand to the west;
– Very reasonable requests, falling unheard;
– No tentative to rely on foreign military power;
– Britain trying to heat up things in continental Europe;
– Lots of Jews who instigate war;
– Banned symbols;
– Popular support.
I know you qualify what you say with large caveats but I think it is very wrong to in any way associate President Putin with Hitler and contributes to the Ukraine/Nato propaganda narrative/agenda.
It is my opinion that any comparison between the two leaders is fundamentally wrong and not only is hurtful to the Russian people but also personally to Putin as his family members suffered at the hands of Hitlers murdering army. Your comparisons appear very disingenuous and seem contrived to the point that comparisons can be made between so many to fit any argument. For example both leaders need air to breathe!!!
Gab, that’s just gab, what you gabble is pure pro-Hitler gobble-di-gook. Every claim is a lie.
“Every claim is a lie.”
No arguments whatsoever + deeming also “popular support” and “banned symbols” as lies when they’re clearly not = you just don’t care about historical accuracy, do you?
Maybe you prefer post-war propaganda instead, as the average westerner, in order to have your “absolute evil” as a scapegoat.
Incredible. Just saw the image of some top US military brass holding a conference about Ukraine and in the background at least three Ukrainian flags can be seen put up side down. That can’t be a mistake. It was all intentional, meaning they’ve lost hope in Ukraine winning the war. It seems now even these low IQ US officials understand that their latest experimentation i.e. taking advantage of Ukrainians as low level slave soldiers of NATO is over and Russia has won the war, and no way they could change the situation. I hope Russia doesn’t decide to soften its stance about total denazification of the region and liberation of the entire southern shores plus Transnisteria. If I were Ukrainian, I would immediately switch sides and look after treasonous leaders and corrupt bunch of criminals in Kiev, supported by the west, that have brought so much destruction to their nation. They shouldn’t allow Zelenski run away to one of his mansions in Tuscany/ Florida…
“They shouldn’t allow Zelenski run away to one of his mansions in Tuscany/ Florida…’
I agree. And I suspect that Z’s head will never rest easy on the pillow in either one of his palaces.
And he will be accused of war crimes and might be, in effect, imprisoned in one of his Elba’s.
‘Poland goes for soft annexation’. Various Russian speaking YT blogs are telling about Polish fighter planes being flown east into the Ukraine, ending with the shooting down of both the plane as well as the Polish pilot.
What is Russia’s response to the Polish sneaky/Jesuit policy of trying to annexate Galicia (with its capital Lvov)?
Will Russia just continue with destroying all military goods that cross the P/UA border?
As Mr. Hudson writes, no one thought it would happen this fast – Hungary declared a State of Emergency, after Pepe wrote this.
Lesson – the PIGS of 2010 – Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain who were sidelined by Brussels forcing bank bailouts, Blue Letters, should quickly follow Hungary – it is an Emergency, is it not?
As writes Kuzichev: the state of emergency in Hungary is a camouflaged response to the European Union
https://radiosputnik.ria.ru/20220524/kuzichev-1790508987.html
Oil, inflation, a looming bank to make 2008 look lie piglets, will make a pigsty out of the EU, without radical emergency action, and action now!
Use Ukraine, like Orban did – then go after the utterly bankrupt banking system. And Glazyev shows with the Russian Central Bank exactly what to do.
Ye ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
The decline of the west is mostly decline of Europe. USA has always option to focus Pacific instead of declining influence of (North) Atlantic. To West Coast (including Arizona and Nevada) Europe is minor player. Inside USA East Coast has relatively lost share of population during last 52 years. High energy cost have moved population to South.
The ongoing trial of Hillary Clinton attorney Michael Sussman has shown Russiagate was a total fraud from the get-go.
Targeting Trump and Putin, to prevent any possibility of the USA and Russia getting along.
And the key dossier of this entire hoax was prepared by MI6 Christopher Steele under chief Dearlove now at the Henry Jackson Society, HJS, which now s howling for war with China.
In other words the “West” has been explicitly pushed into an insane destructive role by Britain.
This key element is missing from Pepe Escobar’s narrative.
So why isn’t BMW and every other German company, large or small, screaming at their government to open Nord Stream 2 and cut the crap? WHY? What are they using for brains?
“So now it’s time to sit back, relax, and watch the Decline of the West.”
Or watch Russia and Putin save the West from its self-deluding, self-imposed decline by waking up rational peoples with no interest in suicide by globalization’s grasp for its self-defeating empire.
“To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”
— Henry Kissinger
Ukraine is the latest to find it out the hard way. :)
@SMarsh:”“To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”
— Henry Kissinger
Ukraine is the latest to find it out the hard way. :)”
And perhaps Finland is once again useful enough idiot owned by west learning nothing of its history.
While I appreciate the energy, this kind of grand/wishful tone drifts pretty far from what has actually happened so far, which is not much. The analytical framework of 12% vs 88% is fundamentally misleading.
First, because this isn’t a conflict between groups of countries. It’s a conflict within countries, between transnational globalist fascists/institutions and ordinary national citizenry/institutions. The 12% are not at all united.
Second, because the 88% are also not a united bloc. Many of those people simply have no say at all in the global economic order (even big population centers, like Nigeria or Bangladesh), and even in places with some global influence, massive disparities in development/living standards complicate relations (for example, look at the drastically different fortune of India compared to China). Furthermore, much of the power of the ‘Western’ fascists comes from human and natural resources originating in Zone B. Look at corporate friendly IP law, the drug war, the CNY/USD peg, the directional flows of fiat currencies and physical commodities, the relatively free movement of Zone A criminals through much of Zone B, etc.
Mexico is one of my favorite examples because, nominally, it’s Zone B and doesn’t send mercenaries/spies around the world directly supporting imperial projects and so forth. Yet, just in the first quarter of 2022, Mexico exported over $100 billion worth of production to the US. Or said differently, just from a GDP perspective (never mind all the other types of support), Mexico contributes more to the empire than ‘Western’ countries like Hungary, Greece, or New Zealand.
Third, even if you set aside issue number 1, the framework of 12% vs. 88% is still misleading because above a critical mass of population, aggregate number of people is a largely irrelevant statistic. Look at the land (and sea) area controlled just by the Five Eyes, never mind the rest of Zone A or Zone B areas that supply resources to the empire. That is not a minor part of the planet’s aggregate natural resources. Or said differently, to advocate the lens of 12% vs. 88% in critiquing the West is also to inherently suggest that the RF itself is a minor junior partner to the PRC.
The ‘Atlantic order’ won’t ‘sink’ until the rest of the world stops supporting the people at the top in control of the empire. That requires an economic inflection point, not a military-technical one.
No big deal. Australia has mainly been trading with Japan and China for over forty years. The only people who will hurt are The EU Europeans. Go Russia .
What is this if only “seventy per ent of weapons getting through”. That seems high to me and not being interdicted enough.
What happens next? With so many other commentators putting in their two cents worth, I am emboldened to do likewise.
I think Kiev is safe where it is. Russia has no need to go there.
Kharkov can be encircled and neutralised and left to join the party when she feels ready.
The Donbass will be fully liberated. I have no clear idea of how much additional country to the west and southwest of Donbass will eventually join Novorossiya, but perhaps quite a bit up to the Dnieper River.
Odessa looks to be a legitimate goal, but this will be difficult. Doable, but difficult if Russia wants it. And why wouldn’t she want it?
My two cents worth.
There has been some controversy about the main contributors we all are reading. For me, Escobar, Mercouris, Martyanov and the Saker’s Operation Z sitreps are key to my understanding of Ukraine (and so much else). The others regulars, mainly Ritter, Lira and Christoforou, are interesting enough if I have the time, but they are a bit like the Loony Tunes cartoons seen before the main feature.
We are watching the West destroy itself. Part of me thinks about time, and another part wonders can they really be that stupid/mad?
Did President Zelensky really just give the westernmost parts of Ukraine to Poland while engaging in an unwinnable war with Russia in the east?
And Bernard. Can’t believe I forgot to include Bernard in my go-to list,
Bernhard (Moon of Alabama) is at the top of my list.
Well the pain is starting to be felt in Denmark. There is a 3 months wait for network cables, a lead time of up to 256 days for Cisco components & today we got a mail from our IT department that there is long waiting time for orders for printer paper. A liter of fuel is 2,2 EUR.
Fuel here in Canada is about the same as yours! and we have enough oil to be completely independent of world markets.
Had Barbarossa been pre-empted the Huns would never have reached the Channel coast, but the French army succumbed with hardly a fight, thus giving rise to the myth of the German Blitzkrieg. By November 1941 it was already clear that the Nazis had been ground to a halt in Russia and the War was already lost!
I am not sure that we on the Balkans may rest and just watch what will go on. We can easilly be caught into some auxiliary track of the ucrainian war_
To think this could all have been avoided by the Ukrainians removing the puppet Zalenski and telling the U.S to go to hell!
Russia must keep close to its supply lines, totally destroying the Ukrainian military may be impossible because that means going West up to the Polish border which means easy resupply of Ukrainians.
Once the borders of the new states are established then the last battle will be Odessa.
This will be a hard nut to crack so starvation tactic would be best…this could take over a year but will save many lives.
Once Ukraine has no access to the sea then they have no economy…sending grain by rail may work for a time but sooner all later the countries over which the grain goes will start extorting more a more.
Ukraine will become dirt poor in the future…and their so called friend…the U.S will silently drop them and put a line through them in the U.S column like they have done so many times before.
Europe and the rest of U.S allies take note…the U.S is not your friend…the U.S has only one friend…the U.S one percentage!
Zelensky ran and was elected on a peace platform. The Azovs promised to hang him by the neck, if he negotiated a peace agreement with Russia. I have no doubt that the US took a similar stance. Hence, replacing Ze would have brought Ukraine to the exact same place that it is today, as that is what the people with real power wanted. Unsurprisingly, things have not worked out quite the way they expected.
There will be no delcine of the west. MAGA will take control from the Criminal Cabal that has seized power in D.C. and the world will be restored to normalcy.
I really would love it to happen , but … no , they have too much control over entire US : media , politics , judiciary , which means : oligarchies rule !!!
“The slew of agreements the two signed indicate that Warsaw intends to profit handsomely from the war to enhance its politico-military, economic, and cultural influence in western Ukraine. Polish nationals will be allowed to be elected to Ukrainian government bodies and even aim to become constitutional judges.
In practice, that means Kiev is all but transferring management of the Ukrainian failed state to Poland. Warsaw won’t even have to send troops. Call it a soft annexation.”
This is truly pathetic.
Foreign nationals coming in and ruling in Ukraine like Paul What’s His Name the ” consul” in Iraq.
But it seems that Ukraine is A-OK iwth this kind of thing with these foreign ringers coming in to run their country. . Victoria Nuland more or less appointed “Yats” to be –was it prime minister? —after 2014.
Then they brought in that Georgian fellow to be—was it the foreign minister? Or was it the finance minister? Whatever.
Then I reckon most of the Jewish oligarchs in Ukraine are working for the interests of Zionists in Israel.
And then there is the Biden-Clinton-McCain gang/clan burrowing into pivotal loci of the economy and extracting millions and twisting policy their way while shriveling the careers of honest justices.
And then there is the EU already since ca. 2006 egging on the Ukraine to use its status as a gas transit state to throw political tantrums against its major benefactor, Russia.
And the American neocons now have raised up this ass Zelensky to think he is some kind of Churchill, who will finish the job of shredding the country.
Maybe it would be silly if the Poles didn’t jump into this Swiss cheese of a country now and see how big a bite they can take out of it for themselves.
Pepe is spot on as usual.
What I find amusing is Zalenskis willingness to fight…then a look at the Jewish diaspora, its about 0.13% of the total population.
How many relations does Zalenski have on the front line?
How many of those males between 16 and 60 of Jewish beliefs have been allowed to slip over the borders? Or have a cushy job well away from the front line…probably in control of aid dollars or military hardware.
Could Israel be getting a great donation of military hardware in the not to distant future…to keep it out of Russian hands when the inevitable happens.
This war Will not be long as borell says. One day he says Ukraine will win and a week later: Ukraine needs to negotiate. I know that it is very hard for westerners to see the truth (including myself), for this in many ways was a last gasp.
This summer expect to see mass protests in the Western world and expect to see violent suppression, as the security agencies have been trained to do. That is the sum total of our democracy.
In this worlds big conundrum a few facts are obvious. The west does not have means to stop SMO in Ukraine. They couldn’t stop, hear or see a slow motion rocket that smacked in Zagreb the capital city of a NATO member at the beginning of this adventure and promptly refused to establish no fly zone excusing themselves by WWIII scare whilst in real terms they couldn’t not fight all flying equipment Russia had in Ukrainian sky.
They also knew of Sarmat but still didn’t believe it exists until the bang in March or April. They’ve hoped Ukrainian army and Azov specialists will be better than Afghanistan or Iraqi armies and AFU is better but RF army is not NATO, joke of an army losing wars against barefoot civilians, herders and farmers with ak47s.
NATO, US and so called international community is loosing on both fronts, on the battleground and media coverage.
This is a NWO although not as planned in Washington, Brussels and London.
See also:
„The Year of the Lemmings, the political Lemmings!“: https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2022/05/16/the-year-of-the-lemmings-the-political-lemmings-das-jahr-der-lemminge-der-politischen-lemminge/
and „The US Power Elite: they are doing it again!“: https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2022/04/09/the-us-power-elite-they-are-doing-it-again-die-us-machtelite-sie-tun-es-wieder/
and „Ukraine Crisis and Outlook: Culmination points in the East-West struggle“: https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2022/03/05/ukraine-crisis-and-outlook-culmination-points-in-the-east-west-struggle-ukraine-krise-und-ausblick-kulminationspunkte-im-ost-west-ringen/