After all we’re deep into the metaverse spectrum, where things are the opposite of what they seem.
By Pepe Escobar, posted with the author’s permission and widely cross-posted
Fast but not furious, the Global South is revving up. The key takeaway of the BRICS+ summit in Beijing, held in sharp contrast with the G7 in the Bavarian Alps, is that both West Asia’s Iran and South America’s Argentina officially applied for BRICS membership.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has highlighted how BRICS has “a very creative mechanism with broad aspects”. Tehran – a close partner of both Beijing and Moscow – already had “a series of consultations” about the application: the Iranians are sure that will “add value” to the expanded BRICS.
Talk about China, Russia and Iran being sooooo isolated. Well, after all we’re deep into the metaverse spectrum, where things are the opposite of what they seem.
Moscow’s obstinacy in not following Washington’s Plan A to start a pan-European war is rattling Atlanticist nerves to the core. So right after the G7 summit significantly held at a former Nazi sanatorium, enter NATO’s, in full warmongering regalia.
So welcome to an atrocity exhibition featuring total demonization of Russia, defined as the ultimate “direct threat”; the upgrading of Eastern Europe into “a fort”; a torrent of tears shed about the Russia-China strategic partnership; and as an extra bonus, the branding of China as a “systemic challenge”.
There you go: for the NATO/G7 combo, the leaders of the emerging multipolar world as well as the vast swathes of the Global South that want to join in, are a “systemic challenge”.
Turkiye under the Sultan of Swing – Global South in spirit, tightrope walker in practice – got literally everything it wanted to magnanimously allow Sweden and Finland to clear their paths on the way of being absorbed by NATO.
Bets can be made on what kind of shenanigans NATO navies will come up with in the Baltics against the Russian Baltic Fleet, to be followed by assorted business cards distributed by Mr. Khinzal, Mr. Zircon, Mr. Onyx and Mr. Kalibr, capable of course of annihilating any NATO permutation, including “decision centers”.
So it came as a sort of perverse comic relief when Roscosmos released a set of quite entertaining satellite images pinpointing the coordinates of those “decision centers”.
The “leaders” of NATO and the G7 seem to enjoy performing a brand of lousy cop/clownish cop routine. The NATO summit told coke comedian Elensky (remember, the letter “Z” is verboten) that the Russian combined arms police operation – or war – must be “resolved” militarily. So NATO will continue to help Kiev to fight till the last Ukrainian cannon fodder.
In parallel, at the G7, German Chancellor Scholz was asked to specify what “security guarantees” would be provided to what’s left of Ukraine after the war. Response from the grinning Chancellor: “Yes … I could” (specify). And then he trailed off.
Illiberal Western liberalism
Over 4 months after the start of Operation Z, zombified Western public opinion completely forgot – or willfully ignores – that Moscow spent the last stretch of 2021 demanding a serious discussion on legally binding security guarantees from Washington, with an emphasis on no more NATO eastward expansion and a return to the 1997 status quo.
Diplomacy did fail, as Washington emitted a non-response response. President Putin had stressed the follow-up would be a “military technical” response (that turned out to be Operation Z) even as the Americans warned that would trigger massive sanctions.
Contrary to Divide and Rule wishful thinking, what happened after February 24 only solidified the synergistic Russia-China strategic partnership – and their expanded circle, especially in the context of BRICS and the SCO. As Sergey Karaganov, head of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy noted earlier this year, “China is our strategic cushion (…) We know that in any difficult situation, we can lean on it for military, political and economic support.”
That was outlined in detail for all the Global South to see by the landmark February 4th joint statement for Cooperation Entering a New Era – complete with the accelerated integration of BRI and the EAEU in tandem with military intelligence harmonization under the SCO (including new full member Iran), key foundation stones of multipolarism.
Now compare it with the wet dreams of the Council on Foreign Relations or assorted ravings by armchair strategic “experts” of “the top national security think tank in the world” whose military experience is limited to negotiating a can of beer.
Makes one yearn for those serious analytic days when the late, great Andre Gunder Frank penned ” a paper on the paper tiger” , examining American power at the crossroads of paper dollar and the Pentagon.
The Brits, with better imperial education standards, at least seem to understand, halfway, how Xi Jinping “has embraced a variant of integral nationalism not unlike those that emerged in interwar Europe”, while Putin “skillfully deployed Leninist methods to resurrect an enfeebled Russia as a global power.”
Yet the notion that “ideas and projects originating in the illiberal West continue to shape global politics” is nonsense, as Xi in fact is inspired by Mao as much as Putin is inspired by several Eurasianist theoreticians. What’s relevant is that in the process of the West plunging into a geopolitical abyss, “Western liberalism has itself become illiberal.”
Much worse: it actually became totalitarian.
Holding the Global South hostage
The G7 is essentially offering to most of the Global South a toxic cocktail of massive inflation, rising prices and uncontrolled dollarized debt.
Fabio Vighi has brilliantly outlined how “the purpose of the Ukrainian emergency is to keep the money printer switched on while blaming Putin for worldwide economic downturn. The war serves the opposite aim of what we are told: not to defend Ukraine but to prolong the conflict and nourish inflation in a bid to defuse cataclysmic risk in the debt market, which would spread like wildfire across the whole financial sector.”
And if it can get worse, it will. At the Bavarian Alps, the G7 promised to find “ways to limit the price of Russian oil and gas”: if that doesn’t work according to “market methods”, then “means will be imposed by force”.
A G7 “indulgence” – neo-medievalism in action – would only be possible if a prospective buyer of Russian energy agrees to strike a deal on the price with G7 representatives.
What this means in practice is that the G7 arguably will be creating a new body to “regulate” the price of oil and gas, subordinated to Washington’s whims: for all practical purposes, a major twist of the post-1945 system.
The whole planet, especially the Global South, would be held hostage.
Meanwhile, in real life, Gazprom is on a roll, making as much money from gas exports to the EU as it did in 2021, even though it’s shipping much smaller volumes.
About the only thing this German analyst gets right is that were Gazprom forced to cut off supplies for good, that would represent “the implosion of an economic model that is over-reliant on industrial exports, and therefore on imports of cheap fossil fuels. Industry is responsible for 36% of Germany’s gas use.”
Think, for instance, BASF forced to halt production at the world’s biggest chemicals plant in Ludwigshafen. Or Shell’s CEO stressing it’s absolutely impossible to replace Russian gas supplied to the EU via pipelines with (American) LNG.
This coming implosion is exactly what Washington neocon/neoliberalcon circles want – removing a powerful (Western) economic competitor from the world trading stage. What’s truly astonishing is that Team Scholz can’t even see it coming.
Virtually no one remembers what happened a year ago when the G7 struck a pose of trying to help the Global South. That was branded as Build Back Better World (B3W). “Promising projects” were identified in Senegal and Ghana, there were “visits” to Ecuador, Panama and Colombia. The Crash Test Dummy administration was offering “the full range” of US financial tools: equity stakes, loan guarantees, political insurance, grants, technical expertise on climate, digital technology and gender equality.
The Global South was not impressed. Most of it had already joined BRI. B3W went down with a whimper.
Now the EU is promoting its new “infrastructure” project for the Global South, branded as Global Gateway, officially presented by European Commission (EC) Fuhrer Ursula von der Leyen and – surprise! – coordinated with the floundering B3W. That’s the Western “response” to BRI, demonized as – what else – “a debt trap”.
Global Gateway in theory should be spending 300 billion euros in 5 years; the EC will come up with only 18 billion from the EU budget (that is, financed by EU taxpayers), with the intention of amassing 135 billion euros in private investment. No Eurocrat has been able to explain the gap between the announced 300 billion and the wishful thinking 135 billion.
In parallel, the EC is doubling down on their floundering Green Energy agenda – blaming, what else, gas and coal. EU climate honcho Frans Timmermans has uttered an absolute pearl: “Had we had the green deal five years earlier, we would not be in this position because then we would have less dependency on fossil fuels and natural gas.”
Well, in real life the EU remains stubbornly on the road to become a fully de-industrialized wasteland by 2030. Inefficient solar or wind-based Green Energy is incapable of offering stable, reliable power. No wonder vast swathes of the EU are now Back to Coal.
The right kind of swing
It’s a tough call to establish who’s The Lousiest in the NATO/G7 cop routine. Or the most predictable. This is what I published about the NATO summit . Not now: in 2014, eight years ago. The same old demonization, over and over again.
And once again, if it can get worse, predictably it will. Think of what’s left of Ukraine – mostly eastern Galicia – being annexed to the Polish wet dream: the revamped Intermarium, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, now dubbed as a bland “Three Seas Initiative” (with the added Adriatic) and comprising 12 nation-states.
What that implies long-term is a EU breakdown from within. Opportunist Warsaw just profits financially from the Brussels system’s largesse while holding its own hegemonic designs. Most of the “Three Seas” will end up exiting the EU. Guess who will guarantee their “defense”: Washington, via NATO. What else is new? The revamped Intermarium concept goes back all the way to the late Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski.
So Poland dreams of becoming the Intermarium leader, seconded by the Three Baltic Midgets, enlarged Scandinavia, plus Bulgaria and Romania. Their aim is straight from Comedy Central: reducing Russia into “pariah state” status – and then the whole enchilada: regime change, Putin out, balkanization of the Russian Federation.
Britain, that inconsequential island, still invested in teaching Empire to the American upstarts, will love it. Germany-France-Italy much less. Lost in the wilderness Euro-analysts dream of a European Quad (Spain added), replicating the Indo-Pacific scam, but in the end it will all depend which way Berlin swings.
And then there’s that unpredictable Global South stalwart led by the Sultan of Swing: freshly rebranded Turkiye. Soft neo-Ottomanism seems to be on a roll, still expanding its tentacles from the Balkans and Libya to Syria and Central Asia. Evoking the golden age of the Sublime Porte, Istanbul is the only serious mediator between Moscow and Kiev. And it’s carefully micromanaging the evolving process of Eurasia integration.
The Americans were on the verge of regime-changing the Sultan. Now they have been forced to listen to him. Talk about a serious geopolitical lesson to the whole Global South: it don’t mean a “systemic challenge” thing if you’ve got the right kind of swing.
“…in real life the EU remains stubbornly on the road to become a fully de-industrialized wasteland by 2030. Inefficient solar or wind-based Green Energy is incapable of offering stable, reliable power. No wonder vast swathes of the EU are now Back to Coal.”
To put a fine line on this: the EU is guaranteeing they will be the high priced producers, unable to compete on global markets… thus withering away as significant entities on every level, including cultural, scientific, technologically, and militarily. Meanwhile, The US will lead from the rear.
Pepe is one of the most interesting and readable commentators here. Or anywhere.
Pepe Escobar is way to optimistic regarding the “metaverse spectrum.”
“Money” created out of nothing as debts was used to “pay” for strip-mining the natural resources of a fresh planet at about exponentially increasing rates. Most of the problems emerging around the world are due to the series of industrial revolutions being able to have that fresh planet to strip-mine as fast as possible.
The established systems are reaching various limits due to the diminishing returns from creating more “money” out of nothing as debts in order to “pay” for more strip-mining of the rapidly dwindling stock of natural resources.
It will no longer be remotely close to enough for some people being able to more effectively resist the previously established systems based on enforcing frauds, becoming about exponentially more fraudulent, because while that was happening the planet was actually being strip-mined.
The human species are trapped in a much worse “metaverse spectrum” than indicated in the article above. While we were living inside of that Wonderland Matrix Bizarro World, whereby Huge Lies became almost totally triumphant, “business as usual” continued, year after year, Century after Century.
More “business as usual” is impossible (other than as an extrapolation of mass murders by many orders of magnitude.) We continue to be collectively trapped inside of the situations driven by civilization made and maintained by excessively successful organized crime, where the alternative forms of organized crime are still indulging in most of the same old Huge Lies as were the case originally.
Please read Veghi’s article. He hits the nail on the head regarding the US Hegemony that is in trouble:
http://www.thephilosophicalsalon.com
Time to learn about the world of “derivatives” and “debt” that is haunting the US Empire.
The fact that one can even get on here to exchange ideas is largely due to this “strip-mining” practice. There is inherently nothing wrong and negative about progress and development. The real fundamental issue is about a balance of needs and vigilance against excess. The real fraud is talk of climate change and its nefarious agenda to strip us off the wonder of progress.
Yes, I agree, vientito!
There is nothing but the dynamic equilibria between different systems of more or less organized lies operating robberies. The situation surrounding us, as exemplified by these times in the Ukraine, is due to the deeply entrenched and established systems necessarily driving everything as far out of balance as possible.
Excessive successfulness leads to final failures.
PS, Blair: Don’t forget, alongside EROCI (energy returned on CAPITAL invested – that’s to say: strictly notional ‘money’ – there’s the even more draconian EROEI – energy returned on strictly non-notional, real ENERGY invested).
It’s EROEI, operating on that most crucial of the strip-mined resources, energy, which is putting a final, all-time end to the BAU that we’ve been pursuing this past few centuries: ‘growth’n’PROGRESS!forever’.
That’s over now. Say hello to the Long Descent…
Certainty is !!
You know, Escobar, and the pro-Russian current generally, are right about a lot of things. But they’re fundamentally wrong about fossil fuels. It would be very good for Russia if renewable energy was useless or if climate change was fake, so it’s understandable that there’s a tendency to believe that. But neither of these things is, in fact, true.
The fact is that, first, climate change is serious stuff which is affecting Russia no less than the rest of the world. When Siberia’s burning you know something is wrong. And second, although oil companies have done their considerable best, at enormous expense, to block and rubbish renewable energy and electric vehicles and so on, the fact is that solar and wind power are quite cheap. Sure, their intermittent nature means if they dominate it requires a bit of revamping of the grid and storage systems, but there’s been a lot of research put into that stuff over the last couple of decades, and it’s not the impossible barrier that opponents of renewables want to think it is. And the possibility of low-wind winters, as happened recently, means maybe the system needs to end up a bit overbuilt . . . but that’s not really an issue, because wind and solar are, as I say, really cheap. They used to be expensive, but they kept getting cheaper and now they’re about the cheapest things on the block, and it does not seem that they’ve reached the stage of mature technology with fairly stagnant costs yet so we can expect them to continue getting cheaper for a bit longer. Even without governmental mandates, the shift to renewables is pretty inevitable at this point just because when contracts for energy generation come up, even though fossil fuels tend to have better subsidies, renewables tend to win the bid. There are already places (although Germany ain’t one of them) where new solar installation is actually cheaper than continuing to operate old coal plants.
So yeah, electricity generation is going renewable. This is going to happen even if the EU declares tomorrow that they’ve decided they don’t believe in climate change and they’re not going to promote the transition after all. It’d slow things down a bit, but it wouldn’t stop. Meanwhile, transportation is gonna go electric because electric cars are better and the momentum is there now. Every year a higher percentage of cars sold are electric, and so far it’s an exponential growth. Starting from very small, but we’re just getting to the “it gets bloody big bloody fast” part of that curve. Every major manufacturer is expanding its line of electric vehicles. I mean, Ford is making electric versions of its best-selling pickup trucks (and they pull harder than the internal combustion ones)! We are in the last year or two before the impact of electric vehicle sales exceeds the size of economic growth and actually starts shrinking gasoline consumption.
Losing their fossil fuel imports is incredibly damaging to the EU RIGHT NOW, because the transition is not all that far along, and in the case of Germany because energy aside, they do need a significant amount of fossil fuels as industrial inputs rather than as fuel. But that does not extrapolate to the future; it is wise of Putin to have this confrontation now and use Russia’s leverage while it still has it, and as a side note use the sanctions to push Russia into greater economic diversification so it will be ready when oil and gas gradually stop being important products.
Öl und Gas sind nachwachsende Rohstoffe sagt Thomas Gold in seinem Buch “deep Hot biosphere “.
the time better spent on investigating how much current BTU is required to make a solar panel and a lithium iron battery and how that BTU is derived from. we are heading into a wrong direction. serious rethink about the root definition of “renewable”. also, a key question is whether industrial activities are rightfully the cause of the observed creeping rise in planet temperature. until that is fully elucidated all these talks of green technology are just deliverance of fools’ errands.
Renewables? How about unreliables? It’s obvious that you haven’t invested the time to find out exactly how much this green crap actually costs for what you actually get. Maybe you should educate yourself before you post next time. I’ll not supply you with specifics because obviously you have access to the internet. Yours truly, sincerely immaculate deception.
” whether industrial activities are rightfully the cause of the observed creeping rise in planet temperature.”
Man made causes and other causes could exist at the same time.
There is a certain amount of hand waving here in your assumption that renewable energy will become cheap and ubiquitous to the point where it displaces fossil fuels. Show me a case where any *unsubsidized* renewable energy source has paid for itself when all costs are taken into account. Unless that problem is solved scaling up will just scale up the inefficiencies.
Without reliable, cheap renewable energy the proliferation of electric vehicles just guarantees the building of more coal plants. Electricity is not an energy source in and of itself, it is a form in which energy can be transmitted. Lithium batteries of course have their own environmental issues.
And then if everyone drives electric there is the massive upgrade required to the electrical grid which would require war economy measures in most countries. And all without reducing carbon production in the slightest if the renewable energy sources are not there.
At this point green obsessed Western societies are running ahead of what is currently possible. The mostly likely (and maybe the intended) result of all this is a drastic reduction in economic activity and living standards.
,, The fact is that, first, climate change is serious stuff ..” Really?
”Doctored Data, Not U.S. Temperatures, Set a Record This Year by James
Taylor” ..
”EconLog. 1.6%, Not 97%, Agree that Humans are the
Main Cause of Global Warming. By David Henderson”.
”The UK Telegraph in their ClimateGate Series exposed the U of East Anglia
Climate Scientists, who were tasked with supplying the UN’s IPCC with
temperature data.. for having deliberately placed thermometers on
rooftops next to hot air con outlets, on black tarmac car parks, in city
centers and supplied many readings from Russian locations with NO
thermometers”.
There are 3 basic climate science principles: -1) Climate science is in it’s absolute infancy.-2)The climate is so complex it is impossible to model or predict. -3)The inherent complexity ensure it will always be changing and nothing man does impacts that.
Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is the highest it’s been in nine years,
increasing more than 30% from last year, while the Antarctic’s level is
well above normal. Most years the Arctic loses ice, but this year ice extent has increased” more than 77,000 square miles. That’s according to the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility’s High Latitude Processing Center. 2021.
The Antarctic interior recorded its coldest April-to-September this year since records began in 1957. 2021. According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), the average temperature at the US Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was minus 60.9ºC for the six months. It was also the station’s second coldest winter (June, July and August) on record, with an average seasonal temperature of minus 62.9ºC. This was an extraordinary 3.4ºC below the long-term average (1881-2010) for winter.
I can answer that:
There is no Clima change, its Orwell newspeak. We have natural weather and nature changes as has normal happened for the earth during its time cycles.
There is no CO2 problem, its a financial instrument invented by Goldman Sachs for central control by Wall Street of global energy price and allocation.
The Siberian and Australian wildfires are due to two causes: Environmentalists laws of prohibition farmers to burn their crops (firebelt) thus creating 5 times more area to be burned, and arson. Ask the police and fire brigade.
Humans cant control the weather as it depends on the earth’s place in relation to the sun under its circulation, the regulating planets and our moon, and the suns related degree of penetration of the exosphere, exobase, thermosphere, karman line, mesosphere, stratosphere, ozon layer, and troposphere.
All the stupid calculations are in vain as there is only 1 universal rule. Adaption to nature’s changes, as we adapt ourselves to live in Sahara and Arctic areas, summer, spring, autumn and winter times.
@Purple; ” it is wise of Putin to have this confrontation now … ”
… not before, and not later. One characteristic of a wise leader is timing, and Putin has it in spades.
A good leader is aware that eight years can make a great difference to his child’s eligibility for marriage.
EU$A Leaders are rushing their premature children into shotgun marriages with “renewables”. I blame all those Green Girls in Power.
“Younger than she have been marriage made.
Yes, and marred in the making” — Shakespeare, Juliet
“My salad days, when I was Green in judgment” — Shakespeare, Cleopatra
The climate agenda is a huge scam! They have been able to control the weather for many years from about 1954. They produce the weather so they can sell the climate bluff and push the world to fit into the UN’s Agenda 2030.
As I read this I was smiling quietly, recalling JOhn Micheal Greer’s dismisal of what he called “the eco-technic future”. It is interesting to note that a recent study of the uk energy system concluded that a move to an electric vehicle fleet, if possible, would require 20x the generation capacity, No, I do not have a link, I simpy noted it in passing, along with a lot of other stuff that points to a monumental cluster f…. being implemented under the guise of a response to “global warming.
Greer addresses that hobgoblin in a simialr style here: https://www.ecosophia.net/the-fire-this-time/
Everyone should read this before they opine on climate change. Millenia of wasted time could be avoided.
There was “nothing wrong” with the sources of energy and what they were used for.
The problem is the West has this issue with over consumption and is totally ignoring their collective behaviour while making false claims of its superiority. They then export their hubris to the developing world.
It’s not the technology that is the problem, it’s the behaviour of the collective of highly credentialed, highly compensated and highly incompetent and corrupt. Meritocracy is dead.
A traffic jam of EV’s is still a traffic jam; a new disposable “smart” phone (or e-bike) doesn’t do anything for the behaviour behind the procurement of resoures for that dubious “advance”.
Warming of the oceans precedes increased CO2 levels in the gas atmosphere, since CO2 is less soluble in warm water than cold. The loose correlation between two variables in a dynamic system, does not tell us which one is the cause and which one is the effect.
CO2 outgases from the ocean’s equatorial region and is absorbed at the higher colder latitudes. In any case CO2 is a plant food, since without it, photosynthesis by plants would not be possible and all plant life would die off. The increased CO2 levels have increased crop yields, that have never been higher.
The earth’s climate is controlled by the oceans that act as a heat sink and as they have warmed there is increased evaporation from the surface, that cause cloud formation at higher altitude, where it is colder – the lapse rate. Clouds cover 51% of the surface and they reflect radiation from the sun back into space.
Without the oceans the earth would have the same climate as the moon- 250 deg F during the day and minus 250 deg on the nightside.
He, he, he! The civilization running on the so called “renewable” sources of energy can support only about 500 to 800 million people world-wide…
… and the Globalists know about it!
Posa:
But don’t you understand? All this is fine with W. European billionaires. They are tied to the US FED-it’s printing mill, and to the US Wall Street Markets whose members are making even greater billions$$.
The whole point being, it is the US Capitalist System/EU Super Wealthy who find it expedient to destroy the entire W. European industrial/manufacturing base, along with their public health care system — all of which will leave millions of Europeans earning low wages; just like in the US.
If the US Central power is unable to dismantle the EU, along with defeating Russia, China/BRICS – trading system, then the US “is toast.”
Meaning, the rapacious swindlers in the US, are now forced to play “hard ball.”
Better watch out.
Hey Rubi:
We’re both saying the same thing! The International Alpha Predator Class is committed to “controlled disintegration” of the global economy. The BRICS won’t go along and now they have the power to avoid Western coercion… but they’ll be happy to sell the Uber Predators the rope to hang themselves and the Green Energy myrmidons.
Reply 2 Rubicon
Best post I’ve ever read, anywhere.
Encapsulates the whole rotten mess completely.
Nothing in politics is created in a vacuum or by chance. It’s a “show.”
Green power is far cheaper than fossil fuels and will give the countries and industries that transition early a tremendous advantage.
Europe and America’s failure to adapt to global warming will see their industries and economies rapidly fall into a steep decline due to lack of competitiveness.
Meanwhile, China’s self disciplined persistence will see it continue to continue to outpace the decadent West and gradually exert a more healthy, sustainable influence across the globe.
The worst of the case is that the West is full of amateur politicians, Queen Elizabeth being the only one with some prestige, but disabled by age, so the West would not be in a good position to face the changes that seem to come and the consequences can be catastrophic for the population that will be abandoned to its fate.
Looking bad for the collective West. It’s tough when a 400 year-old project goes down.
There is synergy between “the EU remains stubbornly on the road to become a fully de-industrialized wasteland by 2030,” and “what’s truly astonishing is that Team Scholz can’t even see it coming.” I used to think cookie-cutter functionaries such as Scholz and vollen Lügen were motivated by Sinclair’s “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” However their evident malevolent delight at ongoing catastrophe makes clear they are ideological stakeholders. They do not fear pitchforks nor losing elections. These released minions are fascinating case-studies.
Q: Where will they fight it with Russia, considering Russia’s new doctrine of no world war being fought on Russian soil?
A: in the Metaverse portals within the opium dens of Bavarian nazi sanatoria. Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Uncle Lavrov dusts off the land-holdings, duties, and prerogatives of the “Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland.” (thanks to Guilherme Wilbert for the reminder)
Re: So Poland dreams of becoming the Intermarium leader, seconded by the Three Baltic Midgets, enlarged Scandinavia, plus Bulgaria and Romania. Their aim is straight from Comedy Central: reducing Russia into “pariah state” status – and then the whole enchilada: regime change, Putin out, balkanization of the Russian Federation.
Yes, I agree this is a ludicrous dream. However I submit they are lucid enough now to understand it is not possible to internally coup Russia and are hell-bent on General Plan Ost. Using Eastern Eurolemmings and Scandinavians to do what UkroNazis failed to accomplish. They need to get going the kinetic action for the mass sacrifice. In the current correlation of forces, they may be doomed – it’s too little too late, but they don’t care, like sacrificing Ukies. Roscosmos publishing the coordinates makes clear where the demonic influences will be exorcised.
Please name leaders in the west promoting MULTILATERALISM.
It will be great if you would kindly share a speech by that western leader promoting multilateralism and its essence and essentials elements.
If one can’t name a leader, then is the west for dominance, hegemony and imperialism (Monetary Imperialism, presently)?
It’s all but certain that Russia is going to win in Ukraine. No, it’s certain. What happens afterwards will likely happen fast. In any event we can expect 2023 to be a lot different. Worse.
Except for Russia and its allies… as Western investors begin moving $$$billions into the victor’s markets.
I wouldn’t want to be a European this winter.
only if those investors are assured that their earnings would not be hijacked by their own government. global finance is DOA and the world is about to enter a transitory period of schizophrenic spasm.
The Corriera dela Serra leak a few weeks ago showed Britain’s Plan :
The Commonwealth of Europe,
Under the Crown, of course.
Poland may be dreaming their Brzezinski Intermarium (Austro-Hungarian, and what happened to that?)
but they never heard of Primes inter Pares?
Then maybe we’ll see Ausie troops in Polands just announced NATO permananent base on Russia’s border?
“… Britain’s Plan:”
If you believe rubbish like that, you’ll believe anything.
For a politician like Boris Johnson, “long-term planning” means figuring out how to stay in office the week after next.
The only “foreign policy plan” he has, is doing what Washington tells him to do.
Tail wags dog, US cock-boat in the wake of the British man’o-war is the sorry tail, sorry tale.
BoJo knows this. Ed Sullivan, the poodle, does not get it.
«Poland may be dreaming their Brzezinski Intermarium (Austro-Hungarian,»
It as first the lithuanian intermarium empire, then it became the lithuanian-ruthenian one, and then the lithuanian-ruthenian-polish one that was dismantled in 1795 by Catherine II, and the extreme nationalistic upper-middle classes of all three sides never got over that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruthenian_nobility
Pepe reveals the major conflicts going on in the Western Sphere of influence. It goes far beyond the issues in the Ukraine.
He points out Professor Veghi’s latest article. “Veghi reveals the high stakes game being played with, primarily the US Hegemonic and the terrible problems it has found itself in:
Pepe: “Fabio Vighi has brilliantly outlined how “the purpose of the Ukrainian emergency is to keep the money printer switched on while blaming Putin for worldwide economic downturn. The war serves the opposite aim of what we are told: not to defend Ukraine but to prolong the conflict and nourish inflation in a bid to defuse cataclysmic risk in the debt market, which would spread like wildfire across the whole financial sector.'”
You can read Veghi’s article describing the storm brewing within the US Financial Center & it’s relations with the EU’s Financial Centers. http://www.thephilosophicalsalon.com
“About the only thing this German analyst gets right is that were Gazprom forced to cut off supplies for good, that would represent “the implosion of an economic model that is over-reliant on industrial exports, and therefore on imports of cheap fossil fuels. Industry is responsible for 36% of Germany’s gas use.”
“This coming implosion is exactly what Washington neocon/neoliberalcon circles want – removing a powerful (Western) economic competitor from the world trading stage. What’s truly astonishing is that Team Scholz can’t even see it coming.”
This is key to understanding how the US is intent on fully subordinating all the EU countries, making them complete vassal states of the US Hegemony *while* attracting the EU Oligarchs who are totally invested in the US $$ System.
rt
multinational task force has frozen $30 billion in funds belonging to sanctioned Russian individuals and $300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets, the US Treasury Department announced on Wednesday.
************
The new supplies -1 billion-will bring London’s overall military aid to Kiev to £2.3 billion ($2.8 billion). The UK, which has been one of the strongest backers of Ukraine since the start of the Russian offensive four months ago, has also provided £1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) to the country in economic and humanitarian assistance.
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consequences of ???
Germany has assumed control of three liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers that belong to Russian energy major Gazprom, Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reported on Thursday citing maritime operator Dynagas LNG.
Gazprom has not confirmed the seizure at the time of writing this article.
According to the report, the firm said that the German government confiscated the charters of its three LNG tankers which were previously fixed to Gazprom’s German subsidiary, Gazprom Germania.
Two of the three ships, the Amur River and the Ob River, had previously been chartered to Gazprom Germania until 2028. The contract for the third tanker, the Clean Energy, was valid until 2026. All three are now effectively under the control of the German government for “an indefinite period of time,” Monaco-based Dynagas said.
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sputniktelegram
🇵🇱🇺🇦The Polish authorities are working on scenarios for the actual dismemberment of Ukraine.
Warsaw has already realized that it is impossible to prevent Russia’s victory, said the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Naryshkin.
According to intelligence data, Poland plans to create a proxy state controlled by Poland in the “Eastern Territories” “under the protection” of the Polish armed forces.
There is also a project to form a “buffer zone” from central Ukraine, which should allow Warsaw to avoid a direct clash with Russia.
At the same time, Poland is convinced that the United States and Britain will support this plan.
Earlier, Naryshkin stated that Poland is gradually taking control of state institutions of Ukraine and plans to introduce troops into its western part.
******************
I wonder what end game is for Moldova..then Bulgaria ejecting loafs of Russians in its parliamentary crisis ….has Georgia got more in common with Hungary and Serbia ????????
extra stress for very vulnerable economies Spain Italy
Algeria wants to raise the price of gas for Europe.
The oil and gas state company Sonatrach is looking for ways to revise the cost of natural gas under long-term contracts.
Algeria’s role as a gas supplier to Italy, Spain and other Southern European countries has increased due to the introduction of EU sanctions against Russia.
Meanwhile, the exchange price of gas on the stock exchange in Europe is approaching $ 1,600 per 1000 cubic meters.
******
The decisions of yesterday’s Madrid summit marked the beginning of the creation of permanent NATO bases in Eastern Europe, the Polish Foreign Ministry said.
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And Canada
”
Selling Russian-owned assets to pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction may sound like a logical approach to restitution, but as the Canadian government gains new powers to begin this process, questions remain about how it will work, and whether some issues are headed to court.
C-19, the budget implementation bill, received royal assent last Thursday. Among its many measures are new powers to seize and sell off assets owned by individuals and entities on Canada’s sanctions list. While the new powers could be used in any international conflict, the Liberal government’s current priority is helping victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
CBCnews.
There are lots of old prophecies speaking of an “end of the age” time of three great wars. Some of the details are very specific: e.g. riots, rebellions and revolutions all over Europe. Italy is headed for very hard times. The pope will be forced to flee into hiding with few priests surviving the massacres.
And France is mentioned for wrath of God levels of retribution… of Paris being destroyed. Not by Russia… but by the French themselves.
Keep an eye on France. If/when we see Paris in flames we’ll know the big one is getting close.
“In parallel, at the G7, German Chancellor Scholz was asked to specify what “security guarantees” would be provided to what’s left of Ukraine after the war. Response from the grinning Chancellor: “Yes … I could” (specify). And then he trailed off.”
The empire propaganda is so effectively delivered that it seems those creating it make plans as if it’s true. Repeated failure is all wracked up to the genius/evil of Putin. If we are so clever how does he keep managing this?
I still get this sick, sinking feeling that the bunny they pull out of the hat will be a biological weapon. Still it is not how much you spend, but the value received for your investment.
In corrupted procurement systems hype does not equal value. True patriots to not deliver crap to their customers while laughing all the way to the bank. Let’s pray the promised bioweapons do not deliver as pitched. The silver bullet is actually rubber.
The chancellor could probably say our stake holders will profit mightily from the sacrifices of the fodder.
Removed – no capitals. Mod.
On June 30th, the Russian Ministry of Defence revealed thst Russian forces left their military positions on Zmeiny Island. According to Russian military officials the decision was a “step of goodwill” aimed at demonstrating to the world community that Moscow does not hinder the efforts of the UN to organize a humanitarian corridor for the export of grain from the territory of Ukraine.
The spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry claimed that the Russian withdrawal would not allow Kiev to speculate on the impending food crisis, blaming Russia for the impossibility of exporting grain.
“Now it is up to the Ukrainian side, which has not yet cleared the Black Sea coast off its shores, including the port waters.” – the report of the Russian MoD reads.
The Russian Defence Ministry did not mention the new attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) at the Russian military positions on the island.
On June 27th, there were first reports about the destruction of the Russian Pantsir-S1 air defence system deployed on the island. Later, satellite imagery confirmed that at least one of the Russian Pantsir-S1 systems was damaged.
In total, according to various reports, 2 or 3 Pantsir-SM systems as well as 2 or 3 Tor-M2U systems. Satellite imagery revealed that the other systems were not destroyed but were forces to permanently change their positions on the island.
Later on June 29th and June 27th, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported that Ukrainian missiles were intercepted over the island. Thus, there were still air defence systems working in the Russian military positions on the island.
The Ukrainian attacks on the Russian positions did not stop.
On June 30th, Ukrainian media claimed that Russian forces left their positions and allegedly burned their military equipment left on the island.
Photos and satellite images confirm that fire broke out in several areas on the island which was likely the result of the shelling. The pier is seen damaged.
5 raid boats of the BL-820 project were seen moored to the island. They were likely used for evacuation of Russian servicemen.
The Ukrainian military released the video showing the attack on the island which took place on June 21. The Kiev’s military shows that the shelling is carried out by Ukrainian self-propelled howitzer 2C22 “Bogdana”. However, Kiev’s forces now have a big choice of foreign equipment to hit Russian positions on the island.
The Ukrainian attacks are carried out with close cooperation with the US military intelligence. The US reconnaissance aircraft are always spotted in the Black Sea are before the shelling. Thus, US RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance UAV took off from the Italian Sigonella airbase and carried out a reconnaissance mission over the Black Sea in early hours on June 30th.
The strategic impact of the Russian withdrawal was less significant than the political one. The AFU still have no chance to take control of the island and to deploy any military equipment there as the Russian Black Sea fleet is still patrolling the sea. However, the declaration of the Russian “goodwill” is another failure of the Russian propaganda as such decisions are always seen as the weakness by the enemy. All the signs of “goodwill” that Moscow has ever made to its “Western partners” during or before the military operations in Ukraine have never had any positive results.
At the same time, the process of grain transport from the Ukrainian ports was already agreed. On June 28th, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres spoke about the preliminary agreement under which grain blocked in Ukraine will be exported from three ports to Turkey with the consent of Russia. Thus, the Russian decision to leave Zmeiny island was not part of the political agreement, but the necessity to save the lives of Russian servicemen.
Träum weiter Emerett. wer soll dir und den Urkrainern glauben.
Translation. Mod:
Keep dreaming Emerett. who shall believe you and the Urkrainians.
The Russians left the island in part for it is not needed right now. That is for when they take Odessa. They will clean up the Donbass soon.
2 times your Ukrainians tried to take zimeny. Let them try again. Obviously any supposed retreat by Russia like kviv is a mouthpiece for the western propaganda.
I don’t see Russia losing anywhere and I see fools coming up with more useless threats for domestic consumption. But some know better, so keep ” bringing it on”. The words of one of your heroes!
PS. Rolando, keep dreaming. Your west either gets destroyed by the economic hardship coming or get a faster destruction by your superpower means.
They said time and time again that they are not going to war with Russia, but I guess you were not listening.
‘Well, in real life the EU remains stubbornly on the road to become a fully de-industrialized wasteland by 2030.’
As Victoria Nudelman would say (has said), what is bad about that?
Or Madeleine Albright: “Its worth it”. I have always said women are the real violent sex.
Rudyard Kipling “The Female of the Species”; https://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/hum100/female.html
Fabio Vighi’s excellent linked essay adds incisive historical analysis and leaves no doubt aboutnwhere we are headed.
Sobre o intermarium, o Thierry Meyssan publicou um artigo muito legal ontem na rede voltaire, intitulado A fuga da paz na Europa.
Translation. Mod:
On the intermarium, Thierry Meyssan published a very cool article yesterday on the voltaire network, entitled The escape from peace in Europe.
The question that must be answered is whether Russia would be willing to use its full military power when NATO begins its final provocation by attacking cities and military bases inside Russia.
Russian published doctrine is clear for that situation. Attacks inside Russia are a trigger for full on nuclear war.
I have no doubt that the doctrine would be followed promptly
Pepe’s “You’re either with us or you’re a “systemic challenge”
is the same rhetoric that W Bush said to every country. the War on Terror and Iraq in 2001.
It meant then you back the $US, or you do not.
A improper declaration you are to be classified as friend or foe with no neutral position allowed.
And the $US is merely the revamped surrogate of the GBP and EURO.
Is it any wonder things are led to what exists now with Russia and BRICS?
I wonder how it feels to be one of the western leaders in a G7 meeting & here comes “The Big Guy” senile Joe to give you your shit bat -lol marching orders & you have to agree to them even if they mean committing suicide. Crazy world!!
“Western public opinion completely forgot – or willfully ignores”
The West used to have a more-or-less free press. The BBC, the New York Times, the Guardian, and Der Spiegel certainly had a pro-West bias, but they also had real investigative journalists who tried to uncover, and to tell their readers, the truth.
That is gone now. Genuine journalism was attacked from two directions. First, the media had less money, because in the age of the internet, far fewer people buy newspapers or magazines. Second, Snowden showed that the sleazy and illegal actions of governments could be revealed to the public (us); consequently, governments gave a higher priority to controlling the media. Now, what you read in the mainstream media isn’t worthy to be called “journalism”, still less investigative independent journalism. What you see, in the United States and its satellites (European or other) is merely re-worded government and corporate press releases.
extract from John Helmet latest article..Polish situation and politics
“…..
Balcerac: “Poland is being played on from several sides. On the one hand, the Russian invasion of Ukraine causes an increase in the prices of energy raw materials, and the acceleration of inflation is being exploited by the opposition. On the other hand, the European Union bureaucracy manipulated by Berlin is blocking the disbursement of EU funds to Poland; that too is being exploited by the opposition.”
“In addition, our biggest ally, the United States, is playing a double game, dreaming up plans for regime change in Warsaw. This is evident from the activity of US Ambassador Marek Brzezinski, who spends more time praising the opposition than talking to government representatives. Example: a few days before the provocation by [Civic Platform] MP Klaudia Jachira in the Sejm, Ambassador Brzezinski posed for photos with Jachira in his residence, with his arm around her.”
hmm. Lots of Pish mercs in Ukraine…wonder if that is part of a more deliberate plan….?
corrections
John Helmer. .
Polish mercs
rusvesna
Russia may sever diplomatic relations with Bulgaria – Ambassador | Russian spring
Russian Ambassador to Sofia Eleonora Mitrofanova told Bulgarian TV about the possibility of a break in diplomatic relations due to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats.
On Tuesday, retired Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov announced the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats who were said to have worked for the security services, using their diplomatic activities as a front. The Russian Foreign Ministry told RIA Novosti that Moscow “will give an appropriate response.”
In an interview with Bulgarian National Television (BNT), Mitrofanova said that Sofia’s actions cannot remain without consequences. She said she was in contact with Moscow, which would “take very drastic measures.”
“Even diplomatic relations can be severed,” she replied to a question about possible measures.
Источник: https://rusvesna.su/news/1656617915
Rusvesna
More than 600 tanks, about 500 artillery systems and other weapons will be included in the new military aid package that will be provided to Ukraine by more than fifty countries. This was announced by US President Joe Biden at the NATO summit in Madrid.
“The United States is uniting the world to support Ukraine, allies and partners around the world are making a significant contribution. Secretary of Defense Austin just brought together more than 50 countries that have made new commitments, and this is a global effort to support Ukraine,” the American leader said.
Biden listed what would be included in the new military aid package:
►140,000 anti-tank systems
►more than 600 tanks
►about 500 artillery systems
►more than 600 thousand artillery ammunition
►Additional HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems (quantity not specified)
►anti-ship complexes and air defense systems (the number is not specified)
Источник: https://rusvesna.su/news/1656603352
JJ
Rusvesna
This amount of weapons will be destroyed by russians in the first minute it enter Ukraine.
Is there an answer to the following question?
If we all here understand the fact, that the fading Empire is about to the destroy Europe and in particular Germany, we can assume that the German government is also aware of this fact. They can not be that stupid.
The question however remains: Why do the Germans go along? Why don’t they put their foot down and tell the Americans to go f…k themselves.
Even if some politicians like the Greens (Habeck, Baerbock) are bribed or blackmailed to do as their masters say, is there no Patriotism left in the rest of the political arena? Shouldn’t we hear at least some voices of reason telling the government that they are destroying Germany?
We are governed by weaklings. It is outrageous!
Van der Leyen (or van der Crazy as Alex Christoforou likes to call her), Habeck, Baerbock belong in front of a court charged with Treason.
And where is the industry? No protest, no complaints? What is happening?
The only hope now is that the German population will finally understand what is happening. They will see it on their bank statements that there is less and less left in their pocket. No more Mallorca holiday twice a year. No car.
Never mind the criminal and appalling behaviour of the German government towards Russia which would have been reason enough especially with regard to German history to be on the street and demand a change of policy. But when it comes to their own worsening living conditions the German Michel will finally end up protesting on the street. And that can get violent.
It is Van der Lying, actually.
@Demeter.
Have you read “The White Rose”? Memorial tribute to a handful of True Patriots who struggled in vain to awaken “the damned, smug, compact majority” that were indoctrinated with self-destructive False Patriotism. Four million Germans died from that previous false indoctrination by Brown Shirts in Power. How many will die from this present false indoctrination by Green Girls in Power?
How many Germans does it take to open a gas tap?
Swinging sultan Erdogan rides again. And one of the last (weak) lighthouses in dark Europe – Sweden – turns out. I just didn’t know that lighthouses worked with…gas.
The quote in Pepe’s article by Fabio Vighi “the purpose of the Ukrainian emergency is to keep the money printer switched on while blaming Putin for worldwide economic downturn. The war serves the opposite aim of what we are told: not to defend Ukraine but to prolong the conflict and nourish inflation in a bid to defuse cataclysmic risk in the debt market, which would spread like wildfire across the whole financial sector.”
He must have been reading my comments lately. Few have a grasp on the reason behind all conflicts. History is replete with countless examples. War is the health of the state.
Allow me to enlighten those still in dark corners.
All Western currencies are based on nothing. And their time is up by any measure. Bond yields. Central bank interventions to no avail. Rising inflation. All fiat currencies throughout history last an average of 35 years. All have failed. The Federal Reserve issued USD is over 109 years old and measured against the only true money, gold, has lost 99% of it’s purchasing power or “value.”
Everything exists in modern civilisation because of:
1. Energy
2. Credit
You don’t have to be an Einstein to know these two critical elements underpinning the modern world’s standard of living are being both destroyed and depleted simultaneously. Credit can only exist because of energy.
Take energy away and there is no credit because credit is a claim on future energy performing work in a real economy to enable debt to be paid back. Creating debt to pay for the cost of money, or interest, in the current system of growth without restraint comes at a cost. Now there is nothing any person or government or central bank in the West can do to stop credit from seizing. Or stop their currencies from collapsing to zero. Their death was written in stone since their birth.
Russia and China are the best placed to weather the coming cataclysm. Why?
Preparedness over decades. Stockpiling energy. Food. Finished goods. A new monetary system. To name just four elements in their respective leader’s plans for a new way to organise and govern their complex civilised societies.
The journey on the longest road starts with the first step. Russia is leading by example to practically secure it’s currency before those in the West are rendered worthless. Yet Russia has much more to achieve if it wants to survive both hyperinflation and the imminent demise of Western currencies.
“Given that the slump in economic activity will lead to a decline and collapse in purchasing power for the West’s major currencies, it would be logical for the gold-rich Russia-China axis and nations in their sphere of influence to protect their own currencies from this rapidly developing catastrophe. So far, none of them appear to be prepared to do so by introducing gold standards. A few of them are only acquiring additional gold.
Only Russia, under pressure from currency and trade sanctions has loosely tied its rouble to energy and commodity exports. In the vaguest of terms, it might be regarded as a synthetic equivalent of linking the rouble to gold.”
— Alasdair Macleod
https://www.goldmoney.com/research/inflation-recession-and-new-currencies
Neither the economics gurus formulating guidance in central bank policy decisions or the general public have a basic understanding of why “currency” is not “money” or why the modern monetary and financial system is broken.
Another problem is that the Western monetary system is based not just on credit, but on usury. Because of the nature of usury, the monetary supply is a Ponzi scheme if the amount of “stuff” available doesn’t increase faster than the money supply. It’s also why banksters have become such a giant parasite on Western civilization.
I couldn’t agree more Prof. Spudd.
Creating debt to pay debt, plus the interest on that increased amount of debt is exactly “a ponzi scheme” to use a simple analogy.
Now the central banks of the West have no choice but to “inflate the debt away” meaning just that, but simultaneously debasing their currencies until no one has faith in the issuer of the currency and they become worthless. Do you see the BoJ, the ECB and the Fed are now the “buyer and lenders of last resort,” because no one wants these toxic “assets” and they must buy their own debt ( bonds ). Japan ( and the US and EU ) is already technically insolvent, with the Yen losing value against the USD in rapid decline, that could be the snowflake that starts the avalanche. Fragility and counterparty risk is contagious. There’s no entity or sovereign that can bail out the West, or would want to even, if it were possible now, unlike 2008 when China used its USD reserves. It’s too late now.
The bifurcation into two global monetary systems is under way. What remains of the world’s productive capacity and the energy and capital needed to continue a life of “relative luxury” has shifted from West to East. A state of equilibrium with other nation states is only possible by cooperation as the US and it’s minions have yet to discover. Until then they will descend in the dark ages, or face total destruction, if they try anything more stupid than what they’ve already done.
Excellent Analysis! And probably the only explanation that can explain the choice of EU leaders from perspectives of Economic Realism. This is the only way-for the ponzi scheme to continue.
The basic idea is to enact a global surcharge on the cost of production to keep the empire of lies in Business-Since it has long reached the inherent contradictions of capitalism. It had already reached the limits in 1973- but was averted by enactment of petro-dollar. And then demise of USSR gave it another lease on life. But the end of the road is near. Thus, EU coalescing with US is the rational choice.
However, i believe that this grand reset would be very difficult to achieve-as the general acceptance for violence has gone very low-it entailed an expanded program of overt and covert violence even at its heyday but now that the prime is past-no body is willing to put up with it.
Cheers and thanks Xafer!
In fact the much touted buzzword “reset” is another smokescreen propaganda piece dreamt up by the WEF ( the so called “World Economic Forum” ) to divert attention away from the real issues of a collapsing debt-based monetary system, exclusively “made in the U.S.A.” and exported around the world since 1944, when the Bretton Woods Agreement began. The US broke the Agreement in 1971 by refusing to allow gold to be exchanged for dollars. The rest is history.
https://voxeu.org/article/operation-and-demise-bretton-woods-system
The only “reset” is the one already underway. A new multipolar world and monetary system with
Russia and China leading the way as per my previous comments and the many informative posts and essays on The Saker.
O império da mentira bolou um plano genial mas fica a velha pergunta, combinaram com os russos?
The empire of lies came up with a brilliant plan but the old question remains, did they agree with the Russians?
I don’t like to mark the homework of Nobel Laureate Escobar, but I’m afraid that Great Britain is not AN island, it is many islands. MAINLAND Britain is indeed one Island, but the fulminating revolutionaries of Alba might wish to confront Pepe on the sudden disappearance of the Isles of Skye, Rhum, Eigg, Muck, Jura, Arran, Lewis, Harris etc etc, not to mention the Orkneys and the Shetlands.
Then there is the Isle of Man; the Isle of Anglesey, Bardsey island and several other little isles that the Welsh consider their own.
Then there are the Isles of Scilly and the various Channel Islands, including Guernsey, Jersey, Sark etc etc.
I’m sure I’ll get some outrage from some English folk if I don’t mention Lundy and Lindesfarne too…..
Oh, and the Isle of Wight.
Good to hear that Escobar is a prime mover behind the future closure of Caledonian MacBrayne…..
Pepe outdoes himself here!! Wonderful!!! Thanks to the Saker team!!
Yes, many thanks Pepe! Loved that one!! And thanksPosted by: karlof1 | Jul 1 2022 16:51 utc | 206 for the philosophical link — I’ve been musing on that one, a sort of Homerish eagle like perspective – refreshing!! Just needs the second poem hinted at in the final sentence, don’t you think?
«regime change, Putin out, balkanization of the Russian Federation»
In the past 40 years there have been lots of regime changes by various means (“color” revolutions, coups, invasions) nearly all of them have been done by the USA, and the vast majority the USA have won, and in the few cases where the USA did not win they keep trying, because they can afford to. Almost everybody wants USA dollars, almost nobody wants to be “sanctioned” by the USA.
V. Putin and his team are playing a weak hand fairly well, and the USA have made some mistakes, but it is far from clear that the Russian Federation is in a strong position, even if probably they will take most of Ukraine.
The biggest strategic advantage that the Russian Federation has is that the top priority of China-mainland can only be to prevent a ring of USA DOS/CIA bases and biolabs on their huge and weak northern and western borders, and therefore must do whatever it takes to prevent regime change in the Russian Federation.
But other than that the Russian Federation must eventually become a China-mainland satellite, because only they can compete with the USA in the long term, and China-mainland has a long tradition of rather soft dealings with their satellites.
Russia is not a satellite of anybody. The are a a clear strategic backbone for China. And China is a Cushion for Russia against the freaks.
Scumbag west European politicians is all that they are. No good whatsoever. Don’t get me started on the UK.
«Scumbag west European politicians is all that they are. No good whatsoever. Don’t get me started on the UK.»
But it is not so much the politicians that are corrupt, it is their voters, and of course their (business and finance) sponsors.
As to their voters, a large minority of EU-USA-UK-AUS-CDN voters have been fully corrupted by 40 years of reaganism/thatcherism from which they have benefited tremendously, mostly thanks to booming real estate and stocks inflation, entirely paid for by the lower-middle and lower classes (the “deplorables”).
They are sitting pretty in their homes that they would no longer be able to buy, with pensions either of the old defined benefits type, or pension accounts fattened by central-bank supported stock price rises.
The politicians they vote for just reflect the self-satisfied smugness and short-termist priorities of that large block of corrupt “F*ck you! I got mine” voters.
The key aspect is “Sultans of Swing” … The Music … this is just a music crisis not a missile crisis or economic crisis … info-cyber-war already take place … the single question for the AWS is: noise or music? Live-eviL- Miles-Hermeto álbum … 1971 … Inspired by reminiscence of Tarkus last friday
“A plague o’ both your houses!” Capuletos & Montecchios.