Peter Zeihan may not have the academic credentials of the thoroughly discredited Jeffery Sachs. However, Zeihan does have a better track record of accuracy. (1)

• Product that was normally produced for export from China is now being locked up within the Chinese system at the same time that the population is purchasing less. You have an oversupply of goods and an under demand, both at home and abroad. With all those extra goods prices go down, and you get deflation.”

• “The Chinese economic system isn’t really based on exports or consumption, it’s based on investment, the idea that the state fosters mass borrowing in order to build industrial plant infrastructure. Based on whose numbers you’re using, those are somewhere between 40-70% of the entirety of the Chinese economy, and has generated the vast majority of economic growth.”

• “You can only do that for so long. Eventually you don’t need any more bridges, or any more factories, and I would argue the Chinese reached that point before Covid. Again, there’s been this three, four year lag between reality and the data finally manifesting.”
More spending won’t help.

It is also important to note that gradual decoupling from CCP goods is NOT inflationary. (2)

New Trade Analysis Shows Longevity of President Trump’s Tariffs Diminishing Chinese Imports – China fell from 21.6% of U.S. imports in 2017 to 16.5% in 2022

New analysis of the long-term impact from Section 301 tariffs triggered by President Trump against China, shows just how consequential economic nationalism can become.

Our own analysis of U.S. consumer prices in 2019 showed that prices of imported goods actually declined despite the tariffs. A recent report from CPA takes a look at the impact to Chinese exports to the U.S. Bottom line, the tariffs worked to reduce Chinese imports.

With the leading opponent to President Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, not supporting tariffs on behalf of the multinationals and Club for Growth donors who stand behind him, it’s worth revisiting the actual outcome to American consumers to dispel the popular myths about tariffs raising prices here at home.

Most of the analysis is, for obvious reasons, looking at data before the CCP lost control of their WUHAN-19 virus. There are more detailed statistics in the article.

Did CCP officials intentionally release the virus to cover up their own poor economic performance? That is much more plausible than a shady international conspiracy. All it takes is an idiot with more authority than competence. Plus, an easily cowed workforce trained to blindly obey government/party authority.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=55592

(2) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/07/01/new-trade-analysis-shows-longevity-of-president-trumps-tariffs-diminishing-chinese-imports-china-fell-from-21-6-of-u-s-imports-in-2017-to-16-5-in-2022/

On some issues. On Russia related matters of recent note, Zeihan isn’t.

Here is the most recent poll showing Trump’s strength with independents (1).

If you go into the cross tabs for INDEPENDENTS only:

Trump — 35.1%
Biden — 29.7%
Cornell West — 6.9%
Undecided — 28.3%

Really it is too early for these numbers to be particularly meaningful. However, it debunks the obviously bogus claim that Trump is unappealing to moderate swing voters. They are clearly up for grabs. Trump has a great deal of time to improve his popularity further.

At some point, the DNC will have to stop hiding the Veggie-in-Chief away from the public. So, there is a highly likely Democrat down side when the gaffes start flowing like manna.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://emersoncollegepolling.com/august-2023-national-poll-trump-debate-snub-may-open-door-for-other-candidates/

Zeihan is Lockheed Boeing whore. Your comment is idiotic.

The CCP buys Boeing: (1)

China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd. is the likely customer to take delivery of the first Max upon resumption, he said.

As of the end of July, Boeing has 118 unfilled Max orders all destined for China, 34 of which are for China Southern. Boeing also has orders for 25 777 widebody jets as well as as 11 787 “Dreamliner” from Chinese airlines, Herbert said.

Your comment is lobotomite gibbering.

PEACE 😇
___________

(1) https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/boeing-s-737-max-sales-to-china-is-a-significant-positive-for-jet-maker/ar-AA1fMG56

On some issues. On Russia related matters of recent note, Zeihan isn’t.

It would be better if Zeihan “stuck to his lane”. His expertise are commercial technology and Asia. The further he gets away from those topics the more likely he is to stumble into error.

PEACE 😇

Iraqi Information Minister reviews
Forbidden Science 5; the journals of Jacques Vallee 2000-2009
Anomalist Books, 2023, 562 pages

If you would like one book which encapsulates everything important in UFO’s currently in the newspapers and on the television and on the internet news, you cannot do better than this book. There are no reliable narrators in this subject, but Jacques Vallee is the least unreliable. He has first hand reports on all the major issues. In order of importance:

1. The Advanced Aerospace Weapons Program. This was a program funded by the U. S. Government beginning in 2008. Multiple tens millions dollars funding and contracted out to credentialed civilian research scientists. The instigator was Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. The chief manager was Harry Reid’s long time personal friend and rich campaign donor Robert Bigelow. The technical lead was Colm Kelleher who previously supervised Bigelow’s private research effort at Skinwalker Ranch. Vallee was involved from day one, intermittently, with limited enthusiasm. Much of the subject was classified top secret government data controlled by intelligence officers who have burned Jacques Vallee on previous occasions countless times. For the bad faith behavior of these maximally unreliable individuals see the previous four volumes of Vallee’s journals.

2. The tic tac Nimitz incident. Covered ad nauseum in other outlets but Vallee knew about it as soon as anybody who wasn’t there. One of the pilots was subsequently employed by Bigelow in the 2008-? project. Doug Kerth. This episode is short and not conclusive.

3. The Wilson-Davis memo leak of the century. Richard Dolan’s terminology. Vallee just calls it the Wilson-Davis memo. There is a memo that was written by Eric Davis quoting an interview with former DIA head Thomas Wilson reporting a conversation with an anonymous civilian defense contractor manager from an unnamed civilian defense contractor claiming he knew of a recovered space ship “clearly not of this earth and not made by human hands” the contractor is working to reverse engineer. This is supposedly worthy of much fuss but Vallee is not impressed. Davis from Wilson from closest hand is at minimum third hand information.

This is utterly worthless and if Dolan really believes it is the leak of the century we ain’t doing that hot.

_______________________________________________________________________

There is a bunch of other great information in the book padded with the mundane details of Vallee’s life. His wife died in January 2010 from glioblastoma. This is 100% terminal and takes you out quick. It is not known as Ted Kennedy’s disease but it was the last disease of Ted Kennedy.

The physical reality of a transcendent unknown cannot yet be formulated into a scientific statement that makes sense.

p. 415

Anybody says otherwise is mistaken. Unless they are a government spook. In which case they are more likely lying their ass off.

A huge batch of government reports went into a landfill when they went to computer files. The single best data base of every incident report ever anywhere on earth is probably Vallee’s. With the caveat that he only has investigated or credited reports where stuff was visible up in the sky or on the ground to somebody. If an alien comes into Whitley Strieber’s bedroom in the middle of the night and telepaths great dope into his mind, that is not something that Vallee takes note of. Nothing on the huge abductee contactee population with no UFO attached. So, nothing on the CIA officer (there are actually two) who reports he was visited.

I don’t believe that Prigozhin faked his own death, but just to use it as a springboard… I wonder how difficult it would be to seed human remains with your own DNA, such that the bog standard forensics tests would identify the corpse as you.

I’m thinking it might possible with a skeleton, but difficult with a cadaver.

Prigozhin is still alive, thats how he did it

Zeihan strikes me as one of the biggest Gen-X blowhards I have ever listed to [I haven’t listened to your link yet]. To be fair I have scrupulously avoided TED talks as tempting as they may be. Some initial comments Zeihan has made in past talks were sensible but after a while the big picture seemed so far off I felt dirty 🙁

There is no reason to believe DNA test results in this intrigue-filled scenario. Could it be true? Sure. Could they fool us? Duh.

Now is not the time for fear!

That comes later.

What if China decides to transition from quantity to quality? Maybe they would turn their back on the Western world and let things catch up after the frenzied growth and prosperity of the past 30 years. What do they really need? Food and energy plus a few other things. Maybe they just need to produce enough to support the basics in terms of imports and exports and stay focussed on internal prosperity. In a productive sense they already have too much of almost everything. Maybe they need to prune a lot of the businesses they don’t need and go to the 30 hour work week, leaving more time for health, welfare and intellectual and spiritual pursuits. They have a lot of billionaires but the CPC can just tell them to go up the country if they don’t like it.

If they keep increasing productivity it seems they may soon get to the point of having to give stuff away and then why bother?

For energy maybe they should just clone Starship and put up solar power satellites.

Ben Hodges on RT

Re: https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/581941-ben-hodges-nato-proxy-war/

The interviewer Afshin Rattansi, is a very good journalist, but not a military analyst (I can think of a few) who’d do an even better job at challenging the anti-Russian/pro-Kiev regime shill, who is on record for saying that the Kiev regime will retake Crimea by the end of this year – something not mentioned on this show.

When the OSCE was brought up, no mention that said org noted an increase in Kiev regime firings on Donbass rebel territory in the weeks leading up to the start of Russia’s special military operation.

Ben Hodges’ “Russia’s war against Ukraine” characterization isn’t as accurate as NATO’s proxy war against Russia. Russia patiently waited seven years for the Minsk Accords to be honored. The Kiev regime acknowledged it didn’t intend to honor the UN approved settlement plan. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said that a war situation was evident on the territory of the former Ukrainian SSR, in the years prior to 2022, with NATO arming and training the Kiev regime.

Russia was content with a neutral Ukraine within its Communist drawn boundary. The Kiev regime’s persecution of a long-standing Ukrainian church, while allowing other churches to honor Stepan Bandera, is one of many examples of what the likes of Hodges choose to ignore.

What if China decides to transition from quantity to quality?

If you were in the market for industrial equipment 15 or 20 years ago, there was a trade-off: Chinese stuff was cheap and abundant but didn’t perform as well, or as reliably, as what you could get from Japan or Europe. (Even then, America wasn’t in the running.) Today, Chinese goods are not only still cheaper, they’re also better in most cases.

As a general rule: If you do high-volume manufacturing for long enough, and you stay in business and remain profitable for long enough, process improvements will eventually catch-up with you, and quality will improve.

When it comes to making cars, the Chinese are no slouches, either. See:
https://sundries.com.ua/en/the-most-reliable-chinese-car-brands-have-been-named/

Chinese brands compare very well on reliability with global and American brands. And when it comes to electric car reliability, Tesla is trounced by many Chinese firms.

This “Chinese = low quality” meme is out of date and doesn’t really reflect reality.

Hodges predicted that Russian invasion would not work. I think he is correct that the US could give Ukraine sufficient arm for them to win the war, but it is wishful thinking by him to assume Russia would probably not resort to nuclear weapon in order to stave off such a defeat.

There were hegemonic dynamics on both sides in the run up to the invasion. Russia had relied on the threat of invasion to make Ukraine abide by the Russian interpretation of Minsk, but the level of US arms supply and training had all but removed that wedge by late 2021. So Russia decided it was now or never.

Yes, and in a couple of decades China will have worked out how to make things that will be on the cutting edge. The US sanctions against China are a huge impetus for it developing its own productive capacity for such state of the art advanced products. So America is in effect getting China into those businesses.

When do the Chinks win the Indianapolis 500?

This is close to what I meant, a future China focussing more on high-end products like Switzerland or Germany. Higher value added. Fewer workers, smaller factories, more automation.

China still makes a lot of junk.

Many Chinese products have lots of features but have also been cost engineered to the bare minimum of reliability. Admittedly some of the design process involves Western engineers and management. These people are descendants of the idiots who killed Detroit.

Does not compute. The Brits are pretty damn good at making Formula One cars, but can’t make a quality car for everyman anymore (not helped by their government going electric car mad, which the Brits are even less able to make than petrol/diesel cars) without help from Nissan/Ford/GM.

I drove a Chinese van last year, a Ford Transit “white van man” equivalent vehicle. It was pretty damn good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxus_V90

Half the medical kit in Brit hospitals is Chinese. Not looked at big-ticket things like MRI scanners, but the x-ray machines with “General Electric” on the side are made in China.

Interesting interview, thanks for posting.

To me the conversation played like a job interview for Hodges which he passed with flying colors.

I am sympathetic to the notion that Hodges had an active role in planning this entire Ukraine mess.

He seems like a late cold warrior who never learned the big lessons of that conflict and does not weight the risks of nuclear conflict correctly. I think he is extremely dangerous.

Don’t eat salad!

Had a dream last night I was in Panama. (Possibly influenced by the drought affecting the canal)

My Spanish has sadly deteriorated due to disuse. Had trouble communicating. But I can remember just enough of a snatch of one exchange to understand, when I awoke, that at least one of my interlocutors, who I had trouble understanding, was speaking gibberish.

Of course, for all I know, that could be exactly the sort they speak down there (never been), but probably not.

Central Bank Digital Currency is the most exciting fear porn on the internet.

You need to sun your balls!

Russia had relied on the threat of invasion to make Ukraine abide by the Russian interpretation of Minsk, but the level of US arms supply and training had all but removed that wedge by late 2021. So Russia decided it was now or never.

What do other countries do to make the side that signs a treaty after losing a war and refuses to fulfill it? Don’t they also use a “threat of invasion“?

Kiev lost the war against Donbas in 2014-15 and signed Minsk to get out of the total defeat. There is no “Russian interpretation of Minsk” – it is 1-page treaty that Donbas gets an autonomy within Ukraine. Kiev simply refused to implement it and instead armed heavily with Nato.

None of that matters now: winner of the war will dictate the settlement. The odds are Russia will win and the peace treaty will be an order of magnitude worse for Kiev than Minsk would be.

The question is not whether Hodges is a gambler and a fool. The question is why would rational people in Kiev provoke a war they can’t win? Hodges plays with others’ chips, so he ultimately doesn’t care – but Ukies are dying for this bet, and their country is slowly being destroyed.

How someone else put it –

It’s sad to see how the general is lying about Russia, Georgia, Iraq, Syria… It’s obvious he knows that he is lying. He does not have brain to understand that it’s a different time now, it’s not 1970 when people could not check the facts themselves. Now it’s not a problem.

Anyway, I understand why President Eisenhower did not trust the MIC and appointed a civilian to be his Secretary of Defense.

Active military-former military versus civilian doesn’t necessarily make for a good separation from the MIC. After all, Eisenhower was former military when he made that observation. Thinking of all of the neocon chicken hawks with little if any military background, willing to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian.

Hodges predicted that Russian invasion would not work. I think he is correct that the US could give Ukraine sufficient arm for them to win the war, but it is wishful thinking by him to assume Russia would probably not resort to nuclear weapon in order to stave off such a defeat.

There were hegemonic dynamics on both sides in the run up to the invasion. Russia had relied on the threat of invasion to make Ukraine abide by the Russian interpretation of Minsk, but the level of US arms supply and training had all but removed that wedge by late 2021. So Russia decided it was now or never.

Hodges predicted that the Kiev regime will take Crimea by the end of this year.

The Kiev regime can’t win on account of it having no substantive arms producing capacity combined with its comparative (to Russia) limit in having armed personnel, especially in a war of attrition where it’s losing badly. In addition, the collective West is only able to provide a limited amount of arms to the Kiev regime.

Based on numerous accounts, a deal could’ve very well have been reached at the Istanbul March 2022 talks, which were nixed on account of neocon-neolib Anglo-American meddling.

That mischief making prolongs the agony, well short of a Kiev regime victory.

That’s a fascinating lineup of known Putin supporters that are here to give us the weekly report on how Russia moving backwards is actually forward progress.

The Ukrainians have actually pushed far enough to where they can attack remaining Crimean supply lines with artillery:

Oh and Alexander Mercouris is a disbarred lawyer who was caught engaging in fraud:
https://www.legalcheek.com/2017/07/barrister-who-was-disbarred-after-forging-lady-hale-letter-sued-for-200000-by-ex-client/

He has since switched to bootin’ for Putin.

Putin really attracts some quality defenders.

A convicted sex offender, a disbarred lawyer, and of course Steven Seagal.

Just a dream team line up to defend a mass murdering dwarf.

Oh and we could add Anglin, a self-described White nationalist who openly hates White women and fled to Asia after being ordered to pay restitution over harassing a small town Jew in a completely pointless and stupid case.

Yes, and in a couple of decades China will have worked out how to make things that will be on the cutting edge.

China was actually supposed to dominate both the US electric vehicle and compact auto market by now if we go by past predictions. How many Chinese auto lots have you seen?

They were also supposed to overtake the Japanese and Koreans in electronics.

Year of the Chinese and End of the Dollar predictions are made every single year.

Good luck to this year’s contenders.

So there’s no misunderstanding, I didn’t say the following which should’ve been italicized –

Anyway, I understand why President Eisenhower did not trust the MIC and appointed a civilian to be his Secretary of Defense.

Kiev lost the war against Donbas in 2014-15 and signed Minsk to get out of the total defeat. There is no “Russian interpretation of Minsk” – it is 1-page treaty that Donbas gets an autonomy within Ukraine. Kiev simply refused to implement it and instead armed heavily with Nato.

How would Kiev be at near total defeat in 2014-2015 if the fighting was almost entirely by militias?

Here is the Minsk agreement and I’m not seeing anything that says Donbas gets autonomy:
https://www.unian.info/politics/1043394-minsk-agreement-full-text-in-english.html

Which point are you referring to?

If the invasion is about Minsk then why didn’t Russia simply move forces to the LPR/DPR lines? Why were they trying to take Kiev in a brutal invasion?

You do acknowledge that Russia is currently fighting for territory that was not part of the Minsk agreement?

BBC said over 50 thousand Kiev regime KIA in their so-called counter-offensive. Russian defense ministry has it at 43 thousand.

Zelensky now harping on a prolonged conflict with Euromaidan Press showing photos of age 50 and over conscripts.

You rail against CNN which nonetheless seems to have a linking to your pro-Kiev regime/anti-Russian slant.

This should be good –

Boris Johnson, or those behind him, have killed a lot of people. Talks could have succeeded in the spring of 2022 and avoided the bloodshed.

Spectator:

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/ukraines-real-killing-fields-an-investigation-into-the-wars-first-aid-crisis/

I am told by those working here that many of those lost in the war die while they are being moved back to safety rather than on the front line. The long journeys to hospital, sometimes up to ten hours, can be lethal, and the availability of adequate first aid is the difference between life and death.

Ukrainians believed that the very best care would be available for their soldiers. But the stark truth is emerging: soldiers are dying in their hundreds or even thousands due to poor medical provision. The problem is being ignored by the military hierarchy, whose focus is on sourcing weapons and pushing the counteroffensive rather than prioritising injured fighters.

Another problem is that corruption has been allowed to flourish. One example is the proliferation of low-quality medical supplies being used to treat Ukrainian soldiers. A few weeks ago Volodymyr Prudnikov, the head of Ukraine’s Medical Forces Command’s procurement department, was accused of supplying 11,000 uncertified Chinese tactical medical kits to the front line. It is alleged that Prudnikov awarded £1.5 million-worth of contracts to a company co-founded by his daughter-in-law and was attempting to pass the Chinese kits off as Nato standard. He has been fired and now faces an investigation, but has yet to comment.

It is just one example of the profiteering that is needlessly risking the lives of soldiers. Another example of corruption occurred last year in Lviv, where 10,000 tactical first aid kits worth £700,000 were sent by American volunteers and then mysteriously disappeared. It was recently reported that the US is investigating this case.

Tourniquets are perhaps the most-needed first aid tool, particularly when the evacuation process is prolonged. But if tourniquets are badly made, they can be lethal. There have been complaints from the front line about Chinese-made tourniquets that either gradually lose pressure or come apart, leading to renewed bleeding with fatal consequences. A Chinese tourniquet costs just £2, while a Ukrainian ‘Sich’ tourniquet is £15. An authentic American CAT tourniquet comes in at around £35.

Investing in decent tourniquets is money well spent. The medics I speak to say that two-thirds of Ukrainian soldiers die from blood loss. I meet Bilka, 24, a medic in the 243rd Territorial Defence Battalion, who has just returned from Bakhmut. She explains what happens to the injured person on the front line: ‘You have to drag a person with your hands approximately three to five kilometres. You can’t drive there even in armoured vehicles because of the heavy shellings and mines.’

Medics, she says, try to avoid using the official first aid supplies issued to them, because of the admin that is involved. Each component of a government-issued medical kit must be accounted for, including equipment that is obviously sub-standard. ‘If a drug has expired, the write-off procedure is so difficult that it is easier to record that it has been destroyed by fire,’ she says.

Some medical staff are funding equipment with contributions from their own salaries even though the average doctor in Ukraine only earns about £300 a month and a nurse half that sum. The situation has become so bad recently that medics at one hospital in Dnipro, which was overloaded with injured men from the front line, had to raise money to buy antibiotics, analgesics, gauze and even gloves needed for treatments. Meanwhile some £3 billion a month is spent on warfare.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66581217

“There has been a dramatic rise in Ukraine’s number of dead, according to new estimates by unnamed US officials. The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville has been on the front line in the east, where the grim task of counting the dead has become a daily reality.

The unknown soldiers lie piled high in a small brick mortuary, not very far from the front line in Donetsk, where 26-year-old Margo says she speaks to the dead.

“It may sound weird… but I’m the one who wants to apologise for their deaths. I want to thank them somehow. It’s as if they can hear, but they can’t respond.”

At her cluttered desk outside the mortuary’s heavy door, she sits, pen in hand. It is her job to record the particulars of the fallen.

Ukraine gives no official toll of its war dead – the Ukrainian armed forces have reiterated that their war casualty numbers are a state secret – but Margo knows the losses are huge.”

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xpSA6T1LszM

Which point are you referring to?

How about 11. – and don’t try to play stupid like with Nato in Kiev Constitution:

11. Conducting constitutional reform in Ukraine, with the new constitution coming into force by the end of 2015, providing for decentralization as a key element (taking into account the characteristics of individual areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, agreed with representatives of these areas), as well as the adoption of the permanent legislation on the special status

It is also mentioned in points 4,9,12. (You should read the Russian version for clarity.)

If the invasion is about Minsk then why didn’t Russia simply move forces to the LPR/DPR lines? Why were they trying to take Kiev in a brutal invasion?

If Nato invasion of Serbia was about Kosovo, why did they brutally bomb Beograd and the rest of Serbia? I suppose the answer is that wars are like that – nobody respects ‘boundaries’, they just want to win.

do you acknowledge that Russia is currently fighting for territory that was not part of the Minsk agreement?

Yes, absolutely – I said it many times. Kiev refused painful but fair concessions – neutral Ukraine with Donbas having an autonomy. Now it is for as many marbles as the winner can take. That’s my point – Kiev screwed up. It is not clear why they would if they had Ukraine’s well-being as their first priority. It looks like they didn’t.

Just idly browsing the 2019 Rand report on “Extending Russia”:

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3063.html

“Continuing to expand U.S. energy production in all forms, including renewables, and encouraging other countries to do the same would maximize pressure on Russia’s export receipts and thus on its national and defense budgets. Alone among the many measures looked at in this report, this one comes with the least cost or risk.”

It’s almost risk-free to blow up Europe’s main energy pipeline, because they’re so supine AND they’ll buy American LPG. But… the Saudis cut production and the oil price is rising again. Coal use was a record in 2022, and oil use will be a record in 2023.

The Saudis seem to be belatedly coming to the conclusion that permanent war in the M.E. maybe isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Must say the Brit tanks are being well hidden. No firework videos yet. I guess they’re being held back for the blitzkrieg thrust to Melitopol 😉

China was actually supposed to dominate both the US electric vehicle and compact auto market by now if we go by past predictions. How many Chinese auto lots have you seen?

In 2022, 5.9M electric vehicles were sold in China — more than the rest of the world combined. The overwhelming majority of these were domestic models. China is leading the world in electric car production, and frankly it’s not even close.

Why aren’t they dominating the US electric vehicle market? Why do you think?

…The short answer is protectionism. There’s a 27.5% tariff on Chinese vehicle imports. See, e.g.: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/auto-loans/china-electric-cars

How many of those “Chinese EV’s” never existed?

How many have been abandoned?

The CCP centrally planned economy has huge problems. A significant amount of theoretical GDP does not actually translate to real world productivity.
____

Protecting American jobs from subsidied foreign SOE competitors is High-IQ industrial policy in the interest of America’s citizen/workers.

PEACE 😇

In his life, it was not enough that he was bald, suffered from arthritis, atherosclerosis, Lyme disease, whipworm, Helicobacter pylori, gum disease, tooth decay and gallstones – poor Ötzi was the first victim of lynching!

BBC said over 50 thousand Kiev regime KIA in their so-called counter-offensive. Russian defense ministry has it at 43 thousand.

Not sure of your point.

Are you trying to tell me the counter-offensive has been costly? Yes that seems to be the case.

I think you might be again projecting your own fanboyism. I never once said that the counter-offensive will be a smashing success with few casualties. In fact I was critical of the US for demanding a counter-offensive. I think they should have stayed quiet and prodded at the lines. If they were doing well defensively in Bakhmut then the US/UK should have left them alone. Talk of a grand counter offensive only spurred Russia to dig in. I also think they should have waited until some of the M1s and F16s arrived. Waiting a little longer also makes it harder for Russia to counter-attack once it rains. But I also think the US is correct in that Ukraine is spreading their forces too thin and should focus on destroying supply lines to Crimea.

Unlike Putin’s fanboys I can actually criticize everyone. I don’t have an emotional attachment to Putin or any politician for that matter. Trump Tribe here in fact would get angry when I would criticize Trump out of concern that he wouldn’t be re-elected. Well I guess their blind fanboyism won in the end. Oh wait.

You rail against CNN which nonetheless seems to have a linking to your pro-Kiev regime/anti-Russian slant.

CNN normally gets the weather correct.

That doesn’t mean they are “my side” or something. The majority of the world takes the side of Ukraine. Maybe you missed the 143-5 vote against Russia.

I rail against CNN because they are dishonest and hold too much influence over the US public. That was proven beyond a shadow of the doubt with the hunter laptop story and the 50 CIA experts nonsense. But it’s nothing specific to CNN. All major US media is garbage. Fox News is among the worst. However turning to pro-Russian sources is not the answer. It’s changing one biased source for another.

This should be good –

Patrick Lancaster works for Russian media. As with Ritter he takes a paycheck to be the “US military voice” for propaganda.

Judge Napotino only interviews pro-Russian sources and never asks real questions. Napolitano is a very short man like Putin. Do short bitter men vibe off Putin? Does he fulfill some fantasy of a cruel small man getting revenge against the world?

Serious question: Is there a publicly known US defender of Putin that is at least 5’8 and has a stable career? Without any convictions?

My Economics 1 professor was very fond of a joke.

Ask a doctor how do you describe a healthy patient. The answer they give is he hasn’t had a complete workup yet!

Every one of us is going to die. Helicopter pylon is going to win.

That van looks a lot like a Ford, maybe a little bit like a Nissan, too.

Seriously, you’re posting serpentza vids? And Zeihan? Come on.

A significant amount of theoretical GDP does not actually translate to real world productivity.

Case in point: Nearly 20% (!!) of the US GDP is in healthcare, of all things. Think about that one for a minute. And then consider that in spite of this, life expectancy in the US has been falling to laughably low levels, and life expectancy in China has recently surpassed it.

The Chinese are not doing that bad. I’d say that they’re playing their hand more or less correctly. The US, in contrast, is self-sabotaging in ways that people just 20 years ago would hardly even believe possible.

China was actually supposed to dominate both the US electric vehicle and compact auto market by now if we go by past predictions. How many Chinese auto lots have you seen?

In 2022, 5.9M electric vehicles were sold in China — more than the rest of the world combined. The overwhelming majority of these were domestic models. China is leading the world in electric car production, and frankly it’s not even close.

Your stat is wrong.

Top 5 companies make up for 52% of EV sales.
https://insideevs.com/news/651978/world-top-ev-oem-sales-2022q4/

In any case it doesn’t change the fact that we have seen many predictions in the past about China dominating various US markets including EV and compact cars. They were supposed to overtake KIA and they don’t even have a foot in the market. These were predictions about the US market and not Chinese production.

The Chinese in America are not as cunning or aggressive in business as other ethnic groups. I don’t see why so many view the Chinese as capitalist gods that are waiting to be unleashed.

Maybe they will dominate some future market, maybe they won’t. But we have been hearing for over a decade on how the Year of China domination is right around the corner.

Any day now just like the End of the Dollar.

Oh and EV sales are on the decline so the Chinese takeover is even less likely.
https://jalopnik.com/dealers-are-turning-away-ev-inventory-report-1850771467

Electric vehicles in the US are mostly for wealthy liberals that want to virtue signal. That is why so many of them cost over $60. They are status symbols. I support EVs but not as a status toy for liberals with too much money.

Which point are you referring to?

How about 11. – and don’t try to play stupid like with Nato in Kiev Constitution:

Conducting constitutional reform in Ukraine, with the new constitution coming into force by the end of 2015, providing for decentralization as a key element (taking into account the characteristics of individual areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, agreed with representatives of these areas), as well as the adoption of the permanent legislation on the special status

Special status does not mean autonomy. Washington DC has special status but that does not make it an autonomous region.

Here is a paper describing that special status:
Ukrainian authorities did agree to extensive provisions on the “special status” of the self-proclaimed republics, which would grant them, among others, rights to linguistic self-determination and creation of separate police units
https://epicenter.wcfia.harvard.edu/blog/through-ashes-minsk-agreements

Furthermore:
the updated Minsk II stipulated that local elections would be allowed when Ukraine deemed that the security conditions were sufficient or “right.” And after the local elections were held, Ukraine would take full control of the border.

Which means they were never granted political autonomy as security conditions were never met. Russian troops never left.

You keep speaking of Minsk as if Ukraine is the side that ended it.

Would you like to tell us which side attacked the Donetsk Airport in September 2014?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Donetsk_Airport

Seriously, you’re posting serpentza vids? And Zeihan?

Zeihan has a solid track record accurately documenting CCP dysfunction.

serpentza was a fairly random grab. He must be skilled at playing the YT algorithm. There are hundreds of videos on the catastrophic “ghost car” fiasco in the CCP auto industry. Here is an alternative source. The same fact set is everywhere.

The Chinese are not doing that bad. I’d say that they’re playing their hand more or less correctly.

Failed property developer Evergrande tried to access markets recently. This went exceedingly poorly. And, this is not a unique situation. All of the large CCP linked or SOE property companies have one foot in the grave.

The US … is self-sabotaging in ways that people just 20 years ago would hardly even believe possible.

No doubt, the U.S. has some serious problems. Most notably deindustrialization. The concept of “free trade” is actually “unilateral disarmament”.

The answer is MAGA Reindustrialization. If rebuilding America requires tariffs and aggressive industrial policy, those are High-IQ MAGA decisions.

PEACE 😇

Ukrainian authorities did agree to extensive provisions on the “special status” of the self-proclaimed republics, which would grant them, among others, rights to linguistic self-determination and creation of separate police units

So, more than South Tyrol has? But no veto power over national Ukrainian policies like Russia wanted?

Perhaps, the whipworm reduced his inflammation.

I was looking at this, which paints a different picture: https://cleantechnica.com/2023/02/01/plugin-electric-vehicles-get-30-share-of-auto-market-in-another-record-month-in-china/

Not sure of your point.

Are you trying to tell me the counter-offensive has been costly? Yes that seems to be the case.

I think you might be again projecting your own fanboyism. I never once said that the counter-offensive will be a smashing success with few casualties. In fact I was critical of the US for demanding a counter-offensive. I think they should have stayed quiet and prodded at the lines. If they were doing well defensively in Bakhmut then the US/UK should have left them alone. Talk of a grand counter offensive only spurred Russia to dig in. I also think they should have waited until some of the M1s and F16s arrived. Waiting a little longer also makes it harder for Russia to counter-attack once it rains. But I also think the US is correct in that Ukraine is spreading their forces too thin and should focus on destroying supply lines to Crimea.

Unlike Putin’s fanboys I can actually criticize everyone. I don’t have an emotional attachment to Putin or any politician for that matter. Trump Tribe here in fact would get angry when I would criticize Trump out of concern that he wouldn’t be re-elected. Well I guess their blind fanboyism won in the end. Oh wait.

You rail against CNN which nonetheless seems to have a linking to your pro-Kiev regime/anti-Russian slant.

CNN normally gets the weather correct.

That doesn’t mean they are “my side” or something. The majority of the world takes the side of Ukraine. Maybe you missed the 143-5 vote against Russia.

I rail against CNN because they are dishonest and hold too much influence over the US public. That was proven beyond a shadow of the doubt with the hunter laptop story and the 50 CIA experts nonsense. But it’s nothing specific to CNN. All major US media is garbage. Fox News is among the worst. However turning to pro-Russian sources is not the answer. It’s changing one biased source for another.

This should be good –

Patrick Lancaster works for Russian media. As with Ritter he takes a paycheck to be the “US military voice” for propaganda.

Judge Napotino only interviews pro-Russian sources and never asks real questions. Napolitano is a very short man like Putin. Do short bitter men vibe off Putin? Does he fulfill some fantasy of a cruel small man getting revenge against the world?

Serious question: Is there a publicly known US defender of Putin that is at least 5’8 and has a stable career? Without any convictions?

Pragmatic advocacy on my part which is the opposite of what you spew.

Zelensky is listed as the same height as Putin. Size is irrelevant when it comes to numerous things including opinions regarding Russia-Ukraine. Not sure of how tall Ray McGovern and Larry Johnson are. Napolitano has had on at least two people with pro-Kiev regime/anti-Russian sentiment. Much better than CNN, MSNBC and post-Tucker Fox News. You inaccurately categorize Napolitano’s show with the pro-Putin designation. Are Tony Shaffer and Danny Davis “pro-Putin”? Johnson and McGovern will likely object to your simplistically inaccurate categorization.

The majority of the world isn’t supporting the collective West sanctions against Russia. Over time, more and more are realizing that the Kiev regimes is a corrupt, lying, undemocratic and neo-Nazi influenced entity with blood on its hands before and after 2/24/22.

F-16s aren’t a game changer for several obvious reasons.

Concerning neocon-neolib and svido delusions –

Norway Slaughters Treacherous Reindeer Who Crossed Border into Russia, Kiev Regime Forces Claim to Take Hamlet of Rabotino After 3 Months, Zelensky Asks West to Pay for “Elections” Amidst War, more…
https://marksleboda.substack.com/p/norway-slaughters-treacherous-reindeer?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2#details

You are incoherent: special status is now not autonomy? Your DC example is way off – it has special status as the capital city, as do many capitals around the world. In Europe there are plenty of autonomous, specials status, territories, many federations – get a map, maybe you will find a few. Not everything is about “DC” and you…:)

You show desperation – it is dawning on you how big a disaster this could be for Kiev and the West. How much better would they be if they acted normally and gave their Russian minority normal rights and stayed neutral in the geopolitics they simply can’t win. All of these reasons will be eventually published in the West and then the nature of how disastrously provocative the neo-con policies in Ukraine have been will be well known. That is what worries you.

But not yet, we are in the war-making mode. Morale has to be kept up. Right? Any lie is good for fighting a war.

Some common sense from current House majority instead of quite frequent bootlicking of Putler these days – US trade deficit will be contracting while EU dependence on capricious Kremlin schackles could be extinguished fully:

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has revealed he plans to promote U.S. natural gas exports at an upcoming G7 meeting. McCarthy will frame his agenda in the context of Europe buying more U.S. gas as a way for the continent to wean itself off Russian gas following its war in Ukraine.

“If we just replace Russian natural gas with American in Europe alone for one year, we would lower 218 billion tons of CO2 emissions because our natural gas is cleaner. America would be economically stronger, our prices would be lower and the world would be safer,” McCarthy said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures.
Earlier in the current year, U.S. secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed that they had discussed with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell regarding the U.S. and the EU’s unprecedented cooperation on energy security.

“We share our commitment to prevent a climate catastrophe through accelerating the global clean energy transition, building resilient, secure and diversified supply chains for renewable energy, and doing it in a way that creates good paying jobs and lowers costs for people on both sides of the Atlantic,” Blinken said.

Last year, U.S. LNG exports to Europe jumped 140%Y/Y to 56 billion cubic meters (bcm) as Europe ditched Russian gas. Also, for the first time ever, U.S. LNG exports exceeded pipeline exports of natural gas on an annual basis.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/US-LNG-Exports-to-Take-Center-Stage-At-G7-Meeting.html

Also should be reminded that average price of RF natgas for core EU was roughly around 330$ for 1000m3 during last decade prior Covid, so current market price of 350EUR for LNG is not anyhow more costly when accounting inflation, the only problem is still existing EU LNG import facilities bottlenecks. Prior Covid EU imported roughly about 170 billion bcm from RF, so far US has managed to replace roughly third of this amount with 56 billions bcm last year.

Pragmatic advocacy on my part which is the opposite of what you spew.

Zelensky is listed as the same height as Putin. Size is irrelevant when it comes to numerous things including opinions regarding Russia-Ukraine.

It’s not at all irrelevant when a dictator wears shoe lifts.

He is clearly insecure about his height if he feels the need to add 4″ heels and won’t allow himself to be photographed with tall Western women.

Zelensky is short but has actual confidence.

This war would not exist if Putin was 5’10. It is classic Napolean syndrome.

I also can’t help but notice that his close associates like Medvedev and Kadyrov are also very short. Stalin also preferred short henchmen. Tall and handsome officers had no chance during the purge. Stalin was very insecure about his height and kept it a secret from the public. Russia has created quite a few short and murderous men.

Napolitano has had on at least two people with pro-Kiev regime/anti-Russian sentiment.

The guy is a pro-Russian hack. He sits and nods like a robot when Larry C or MacGregor ramble. A real journalist is supposed to ask questions that challenges the expert. Napolitano gives them a platform and doesn’t question any of their past claims.

Are Tony Shaffer and Danny Davis “pro-Putin”? Johnson and McGovern will likely object to your simplistically inaccurate categorization.

Shaffer went on his show and talked about how Russia is going to win.

I’ve seen dozens of Napolitano interviews where he just sits there and snickers while his guest rambles about how Russia is winning. He has been doing this since the invasion.

He has a right to softball pro-Putin guests and I have the right to call him out on it. He is a pro-Putin hack that is afraid to ask MacGregor real questions.

The majority of the world isn’t supporting the collective West sanctions against Russia. Over time, more and more are realizing that the Kiev regimes is a corrupt, lying, undemocratic and neo-Nazi influenced entity with blood on its hands before and after 2/24/22.

The majority of the world is non-White, poor to middle income and wants cheap oil from Russia. The 143-5 vote however makes it clear that the world does not view Putin’s war as justified. There were multiple votes in fact and the only consistent supporters of Putin have been dictatorships like Belarus and North Korea.

F-16s aren’t a game changer for several obvious reasons.

I never said they were a game changer. I’ve said that Ukraine should have waited for them and the m1s to arrive before launching a counter-offensive.

The Pacific cycle El Nino is in force so out comes the tropes of “warmer then average temperatures!”

Now average is made up of all collected temperature readings, high and low, divided by the number of readings.

I would consider a long run of average daily temperatures to be the anomaly and this would be something to be investigated!

I think Hodges believes in power. He strikes me as a “If you have power and don’t use it, what’s the point?”

Just like I’ve the right to call you out for the neocon-neolib svido troll that you are.

On one of your many empty calories comments (have better things to do), the Kiev regime isn’t in a good can wait mode regarding F-16s or any other weapon. Russia waited seven years. Russia is winning and will ultimately win.

Hodges believes in the disingenuously stated rules based international order, which allows for one side to make moves that another party can’t. This very point concerns how Western mass media is very selective on its use of illegal.

EVs in China = Coal Powered Cars. LOL

Just like I’ve the right to call you out for the neocon-neolib svido troll that you are.

Neocon-neolib? Well that’s a new one anyways.

On one of your many empty calories comments (have better things to do), the Kiev regime isn’t in a good can wait mode regarding F-16s or any other weapon. Russia waited seven years. Russia is winning and will ultimately win.

Ukraine made the mistake of launching a counter-offensive before all the hardware arrived but Russia made the bigger mistake of trying to take the entire country instead of Donbas.

What is a win for Russia? Marching on Kiev? Putin signaled that he is no longer interested. He just wants Donbas and his “mission accomplished” banner that he can fly for State TV. They won’t point out that he originally said the war is about preventing NATO expansion and Sweden/Finland joined as a result of the invasion.

In any case the world views Putin as a loser. No reason to get personally frustrated with me over it.

Just read the comments on any Russia/Ukraine video on youtube. The world views him as a second rate Hitler. In fact the Germans will get a break in all this. They won’t be the most recent European country to have a psychopathic dictator start a needless war. Russians are the new Germans.

There have also been predictions of imminent Chinese collapse, and supposedly savvy speculators who lost a lot of money kinda believing it. Good luck to those shorting China in various ways. There may be a period of stagnation for China, but is the US going to be ahead in the sanction-sensitive technology in fifty years; how about thirty? Whether the US is capable of out innovating China is questionable, so effectively incentivizing their getting into key areas of production they are currently dependent on the West for is not obviously harmless in the long term. Quite apart from their ancient history and recent trajectory, China has all sorts of formidable economies of scale.

What is a win for Russia?

To feel compelled to fight it is not necessary to believe you’ll win.

You are incoherent: special status is now not autonomy?

Zelensky hoped that this would be interpreted in a way that would not cancel Ukraine’s independence. But Russia refused.

how big a disaster this could be for Kiev and the West

Beckow is starting to hedge a little bit – “could.”

For Ukrainians the disasters were having Russia as a neighbor, and Putin stupidly underestimated Ukrainian resolve and launching an ill-fated invasion. Defending one’s independence was not a “disaster.” I understand that your people of course allied with the Nazis and did nothing against the Soviets, and when Putin looked to be strong you personally hoped for his victory.

Russia is just grinding its military to dust in Ukraine. But not only there – it just lost 5% of its transport fleet in one night, due to drone attacks within Russia itself. Russia will kill a handful of civilians in retaliation, it’s all that the weak can really do. And hide behind their minefields, hoping that they aren’t breached and that in the end they can keep as much as they can of what had been stolen more than a year ago. I still give 50/50 odds of Ukraine retaking the Crimea corridor as I did many months ago. In your ignorance you didn’t think Ukrainians would fight to defend themselves, and also in your ignorance you didn’t know that Ukrainians were the best fighters amongst the eastern Slavs. You stupidly thought Soviet or Russian Empire military prowess and success was about Great Russians and called World War II a Russian victory, leading to the moronic prediction that this war would be just another easy victory of a Russian juggernaut, rather than the larger and more populous but weaker Great Russians trying to defeat the less numerous, but superior, “Little Russians” Ukrainian fighters.

How much better would they be if they acted normally and gave their Russian minority normal rights and stayed neutral in the geopolitics they simply can’t win

“Acted normally” – allowed a foreign country to dictate their internal and external policies.

For you, being a lackey and collaborator, this is indeed quite normal. Capitulate without a fight and hope that someone else saves you. And maybe be sneaky and whine about it. But not for others.

You are upset that the Ukrainians did not surrender their sovereignty without a fight, as you surely would have done. It highlights your inferiority to peoples such as Poles, Ukrainians, Finns. etc. And your parasitism vis a vis these peoples. They were the ones who prevented Hitler from winning and the ones who later caused the downfall of the Soviet system. While you benefited form their efforts. Clever, but nothing to be proud of. Your lack of gratitude, like your chronic dishonesty, speaks to your inferior character.

Any lie is good for fighting a war.

You inadvertently confess something about yourself here.

More like the Kiev regime are the new Nazis with their pro-Bandera tilt, increased repression and dream of wonder weapons saving them from defeat.

Put mildly, Kiev regime controlled Ukraine not likely to get into NATO. Perhaps if it just consists of Galicia and Trans-Carpathia or a portion of that territory.

I can understand why neocon-neolib, svido leaning folks are frustrated with the reality that the sanctions have backfired with the Kiev regime losing and being incapable of winning.

Somewhat amusing BS:

Substantiating that is another matter. PBS should be known just as BS with Christiane Amanpour as a prime example. Russia should’ve run out of missiles by now according to the crock that was uncritically presented awhile back. Meantime, the Kiev regime is the side more dependent on armed personnel over the age of 50 and younger than 18.

Dig the crapola about WW II Slovakia. Dubcek and Husak weren’t Nazi allied along with numerous other Slovaks. Much like how the French and for that matter the Ukrainians among others had noticeable numbers with either the Axis or Allies.

https://www.mzv.sk/documents/10182/2369491/BROZURA_70_VYROCIE_SNP_indd.pdf/007d0f33-4aa1-4e3a-95ae-5ef5096360d3

Why Retired U.S. Generals Are So Often WRONG w/Larry Johnson fmr CIA

You are upset that the Ukrainians did not surrender their sovereignty without a fight, as you surely would have done. It highlights your inferiority to peoples such as Poles, Ukrainians, Finns. etc. And your parasitism vis a vis these peoples. They were the ones who prevented Hitler from winning and the ones who later caused the downfall of the Soviet system. While you benefited form their efforts. Clever, but nothing to be proud of. Your lack of gratitude, like your chronic dishonesty, speaks to your inferior character.

Would Poles have still fought Hitler without the Anglo-French guarantees or would they have capitulated like the Czechs and Slovaks did?

I wonder what China are doing on AI, which threatens to make a lot of things easier (but could also destroy education for many)?

Only just realised how much depends at present on NVidia.

NVIDIA A100, to be exact, at £7,000 a pop on Amazon. And I thought processing power was getting cheaper!

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/23/nvidias-a100-is-the-10000-chip-powering-the-race-for-ai-.html

“A year ago we had 32 A100s,” Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque wrote on Twitter in January. “Dream big and stack moar GPUs kids. Brrr.” Stability AI is the company that helped develop Stable Diffusion, an image generator that drew attention last fall, and reportedly has a valuation of over $1 billion.

Now, Stability AI has access to over 5,400 A100 GPUs, according to one estimate from the State of AI report, which charts and tracks which companies and universities have the largest collection of A100 GPUs.

I think the people behind ChatGPT have 10,000 of them.

Could this be America’s Wunderwaffen, it’s A-bomb equivalent? I imagine a bunch of bright Chinese are beavering away at creating an equivalent or better. Or perhaps they just work at NVidia.

Imagine a military version, trained on maps, terrain, radar sites, real-time aircraft and satellite locations, plotting launch times and routes into Russia for drones. Almost certainly exists right now. I hope Russia are thinking about this.

Two little news items

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/30/eu-fossil-fuel-burning-for-electricity-fell-to-lowest-on-record-in-2023-data-shows

The European Union is stoking its power plants with fewer lumps of coal and barrels of oil and gas than it has ever recorded, data shows.

The 27 member states burned 17% less fossil fuel to make electricity between January and June 2023 than over the same period the year before, a study from the clean energy thinktank Ember found. The EU made 410TWh of electricity from sources that release planet-heating gases, which analysts say is the lowest level since 2015 – the first year for which they have monthly data – and “very likely” since 2000.

The drop in fossil fuel generation was driven by a fall in demand for electricity, as well as some growth in clean power, the study found.

“We’re glad to see fossil fuels down, but in the long-term it is not going to be sustainable to rely on the fall in demand to do this,” said Matt Ewen, a data analyst at Ember and author of the report. “We have to be replacing this energy rather than just expecting it to go away and not be used.”

If you whack up the price, demand will fall.

Ctrl-F “Nord Stream” returns nothing, what a surprise!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/29/china-coal-plants-climate-goals-carbon

…after regional power crunches in 2022, China started a spree of approving new projects and restarting suspended ones. In 2022 the government approved a record-breaking 86 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity. One gigawatt is the equivalent of a large coal power plant.

This run of approvals is continuing, potentially on track to break last year’s record

… in the first half of 2023, authorities granted approvals for 52GW of new coal power, began construction on 37GW of new coal power, announced 41GW-worth of new projects, and revived 8GW of previously shelved projects. It said about half of the plants permitted in 2022 had started construction by summer.

China is the world’s biggest carbon emitter, contributing almost a third of the world’s greenhouse gases in 2020.

They’ll use the cheap coal to sell expensive panels, storage batteries and windmills to the EU, not to mention powering the BASF plants moved from Germany.

Working on domestic GPU development, which has been making great progress of late if this is to be believed: https://www.techspot.com/news/99948-huawei-alleged-have-ai-gpu-matches-nvidia-a100.html

America’s Wunderwaffen

The A100 is made at TSMC, in Taiwan. Whether it can viably be made in America — with its diverse workforce and anti-discrimination laws — is an open question.

MOSCOW, Aug 29 (Reuters) – Russia’s Gazprom (GAZP.MM) said on Tuesday it generated a net loss of 18.6 billion roubles ($197 million) in the second quarter of 2023 after a net profit of 1.03 trillion roubles a year earlier following the collapse of gas exports to Europe.

Gazprom has suspended the disclosure of its exports data, but according to Reuters calculations, supplies to Europe, once its key source of earnings, were about 15 billion cubic metres (bcm) in January-July compared with 62 bcm for the whole 2022.

“The decline in exports to Europe was partially offset by supplies to China, which continue to grow as part of contractual obligations, as well as the efficient operation of the oil business,” Famil Sadygov, Gazprom’s Deputy CEO, said on Telegram messaging app.

He also said the earnings were impacted by the rouble rate, which weakened 24% against the U.S. dollar in the first six months of this year.

The Kremlin-controlled company also said its net income for the first six months of the year fell to 296 billion roubles from 2.5 trillion roubles in January-June 2022, while its base for dividend payment reached 618 billion roubles for the period.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russias-gazprom-says-it-swings-q2-net-loss-exports-europe-slump-2023-08-29/

So in 2023 Gazprom pipeline natgas exports in EU will be roughly about 30-35 billion m3 compared with 170 billion m3 before Covid, but exports in China last year reached “record” of 15 billion m3, this year might be more, maybe 20-25 billion m3, so the overall cumulative loss of pipeline natgas export volume still remains in tune of 100 billion m3 for RF.

Note that this poster, Mikhail, is a supporter of the Nazi collaborator Vlasov.

Would Poles have still fought Hitler without the Anglo-French guarantees or would they have capitulated like the Czechs and Slovaks did?

Making that alliance rather than accepting a more convenient one with Hitler who had wanted one but who was refused by Poland was itself an example of Polish “stubbornness.”

Without Anglo-French guarantees Poland would have had pursued some other anti-German alliance. Maybe not have demanded Polish-inhabited lands back from Czechoslovakia as a condition for an alliance with that state. I doubt Poland would have voluntarily given up its lands to anyone, without a fight.

Population ratio of Finland to USSR was worse than Germany-Poland and Finns chose to fight Soviets without an alliance.

Note that idiot poster AP doesn’t distinguish between those among the Nazi supported (to whatever degree) and their opponents. The USSR was on the Allied side but brutally totalitarian. Conversely, Vlasov’s army didn’t come close to having the negative baggage of Bandera’s forces.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/16122019-czech-russian-relations-and-the-roa-conflicting-historical-narratives-analysis/

Population ratio of Finland to USSR was worse than Germany-Poland and Finns chose to fight Soviets without an alliance.

As was their choice, the Finns refused a land swap agreement to avert war. The Soviets (Stalin in particular) sensed Finland would be a Nazi ally in a Nazi-Soviet war. Molotov-Ribbentrop was signed as a pause in conjunction wit the Soviets not ready to successfully combat Nazi Germany. On the subject of Stalin, the Military History Channel runs a documentary on best wartime leaders. Roosevelt number 6, Hitler at 5, Ho Chi Minh 4, Churchill 3, Mao 2 and Stalin 1.

In 2022 the [Chinese] government approved a record-breaking 86 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity. One gigawatt is the equivalent of a large coal power plant.

They’ll use the cheap coal to sell expensive panels, storage batteries and windmills to the EU, not to mention powering the BASF plants moved from Germany.

Not-The-President Biden’s ill conceived “Inflation Reduction Act” insists on making these in the America. This has to be among the worst New Deal efforts ever, but at least there is some domestic job creation.

America is being unintentionally saved from the scourge of wind & solar largely by power grid limitations. These inefficient methods require specific geography often well away from population centers. There is now an ~10 year wait to add new intermittent sources to the grid across much of the country.
___

The first new nuclear plants in the U.S. Vogtle 3 has opened. Unit 4 is loading fuel and will soon join its sibling (1)

August 17, 2023

Georgia Power announced today the process to load fuel into the Vogtle Unit 4 reactor core has begun at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Ga. Loading fuel marks a pivotal milestone toward startup and commercial operation of the second new unit at Plant Vogtle. Vogtle Unit 3 – the first newly-constructed nuclear unit in the U.S. in more than 30 years – entered commercial operation on July 31, and is providing customers and the State of Georgia with reliable, emissions-free energy.

Each unit will supply 1.1 Gigawatts of carbon free electricity for at least 40 and up to 80 years.

The construction of Vogtle 3&4 were screwed up by government design changes after concrete was already poured. Then the prime contractor went bankrupt. Hopefully, this will push the industry towards Small Modular Reactors [SMR] that come with less project completion risk.

Nuclear is the future, not wind and solar.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://www.georgiapower.com/company/news-center/2023-articles/vogtle-unit-4-starts-nuclear-fuel-load.html

Could this be America’s Wunderwaffen, it’s A-bomb equivalent?

Yes Wunderwaffen.

No A-bomb.

More like Haunebu.

You are a supporter of the Nazi collaborator Vlasov. So it’s just funny when you accuse and criticize others of collaborating with the Nazis.

You are a supporter of the Azov neo-Nazi collaborator Zelensky. So it’s just funny when you accuse and criticize others of collaborating with the Nazis.

PEACE 😇

How would Kiev be at near total defeat in 2014-2015 if the fighting was almost entirely by militias?

The rebels were losing and to rescue the situation a couple of formed up battalion tactical groups of the Russian army crossed the border and cut a swath though Ukraine, leading Kiev to agree to Minsk in order to stop the rout of their forces. When Ukraine began dragging their heels Germany and France brokered Minsk2 , and Merkel said that the objective of it was to stop the Russians military going into action again before Ukraine had built up their forces to a reasonable level.

Here is the Minsk agreement and I’m not seeing anything that says Donbas gets autonomy:

Far more autonomy that they had before, and crucially what was in effect an East Donbass veto over Ukraine ever joining Nato

If the invasion is about Minsk then why didn’t Russia simply move forces to the LPR/DPR lines? Why were they trying to take Kiev in a brutal invasion?

In 2015 Russia could rely on the threat of it making huge inroads into Ukrainian territory with a few battalion tactical groups and staying there, because Ukraine was lacking in weapons and determined leadership. The position did not alter much even after there was a widespread perception that Trump had kept back arms from Ukraine.

Biden entering the White House and back when he was VP Biden had been a super Hawk on Ukraine as was Blinken, so when Biden became president he initiated an acceleration of US arms to Ukraine, which had much more resolute professional officers leading it. The capabilities of Ukraine had by 2021 increased greatly and were continuing to improve , which was an ongoing erosion of Russia’s ability to present a meaningful and valid threat to initiate either a limited or full scale invasion and landgrab. Doing nothing was losing Russia its wedge of military dominance Russia decided Ukraine was not going to compromise and was begining to be a match for Russia, so it was now or never. That is a long winded way of saying that Russia’s preferred solution was not invading Ukraine but threatening to do so as a means to the end of sidelining Ukraine’s Nato ambitions. Biden’s policy obviated Russia’s policy of hybrid pressure, so there was no choice but to do what was only threatened and use the full scale invasion option before it completely disappeared.

Says the supporter of Charlotsville rallies supporting president Trump – guess that’s quite funny too;)

You are confusing me with someone else…. How very Nazi of you.

Did you place your Swastika band on your neck instead of arm? It seems to be cutting off oxygen to your brain.

Let me offer you some free life advice — Be Less Fascist.

PEACE 😇

You’ve stopped supporting Trump? That would be some new flash development indeed, which is excusable reason to be out of the loop;)

I continue to support Trump.

You support the Charlotte Nazis. Why are you such a Zelensky/Hitler fan boy? 😉

PEACE 😇

More like the Kiev regime are the new Nazis with their pro-Bandera tilt, increased repression and dream of wonder weapons saving them from defeat.

You and the Russians can keep calling them Nazis but no one is buying it.

Where is your evidence of this pro-Bandera tilt? I’ve never heard a single Ukrainian politician reference Bandera. Just because something is repeated at Moon of Alabama or Russian TV doesn’t make it true.

Put mildly, Kiev regime controlled Ukraine not likely to get into NATO.

Ukraine was not likely to get into NATO before the war and they had no intention of applying. They didn’t qualify and they didn’t have the votes of France or Germany. Zelensky won on a neutral platform. Putin attacked Ukraine because his time is running out and not because Ukraine was in the process of joining.

Finland joined NATO and they have more border with Russian than Ukraine. How is that not a loss if the war is about NATO?

Perhaps if it just consists of Galicia and Trans-Carpathia or a portion of that territory.

So you think it is possible for Russia to march on Kiev? Is that right?

Why hasn’t Belarus joined the war if this is all such a great idea?

How would Kiev be at near total defeat in 2014-2015 if the fighting was almost entirely by militias?

The rebels were losing and to rescue the situation a couple of formed up battalion tactical groups of the Russian army crossed the border and cut a swath though Ukraine, leading Kiev to agree to Minsk in order to stop the rout of their forces.

Not even 2.5% of Ukrainian forces were used. It was mostly militia fighting by both sides.

This is one of the largest battles and only 200 Ukrainians soldiers/militia men were killed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Donetsk_Airport

Ukraine was trying to minimize the fighting on both sides. They made the mistake of not hammering Donbas hard to being with. Same mistake they made with Crimea.

Not sending in a serious AFU force was the mistake. To suggest that they were near defeat is ridiculous. They had over 1 million infantry that were not involved. Ukraine made the mistake of thinking they could make peace with a region that was being undermined by Russia.

Here is the Minsk agreement and I’m not seeing anything that says Donbas gets autonomy:

Far more autonomy that they had before, and crucially what was in effect an East Donbass veto over Ukraine ever joining Nato

So you acknowledge that an unresolved border disqualified them from applying to NATO? Then why did Putin claim that he had to invade because of NATO?

If the invasion is about Minsk then why didn’t Russia simply move forces to the LPR/DPR lines? Why were they trying to take Kiev in a brutal invasion?

In 2015 Russia could rely on the threat of it making huge inroads into Ukrainian territory with a few battalion tactical groups and staying there, because Ukraine was lacking in weapons and determined leadership.

I’m talking about 2022. Why not send the same force to Donbas and dig in? Why was he trying to take the whole country?

That is a long winded way of saying that Russia’s preferred solution was not invading Ukraine but threatening to do so as a means to the end of sidelining Ukraine’s Nato ambitions.

The preferred solution was to not invade over NATO even though Ukraine didn’t qualify because of Donbas? Which means the preferred solution was working and an invasion wasn’t needed.

Azov are not as Nazi as Hitler, and Vlasov whom Mikhail is a supporter of placed himself under Nazi command whereas Zelensky did not place himself under Azov command.

Thanks for voluntarily showing your ignorance though.

Btw, any Nazis supporting Trump?

Nuclear is the future, not wind and solar.

Not in America.

We have only had 6 new reactors come online since 1990

Nuclear is a waste of time in America.

Democrats don’t like them and Republicans don’t want “big government” aka the Feds to build them.

Utility companies risk endless lawsuits when trying to build one. Solar, wind and natural gas are safer.

Solar efficiency will have increased 50% by the time nuclear advocates get ONE new plant built. The South is the ideal place for new reactors and most of their Republicans don’t give a flying F if they burn natural gas and most believe in the apocalypse anyways. Meaning this world is temporary so no need to spend time on trying to get a nuke plant built. Better to golf and pray.

Alas, humour seems beyond you.

Thanks for voluntarily showing your ignorance though.

any Nazis supporting Trump?

Trump is a Judeo-Christian who supports the rights of indigenous Jews in Jewish Palestine. One of his children converted & married into Judaism.

I suppose it is possible, but there are probably more anti-Semitic Nazis supporting Not-The-President Biden. After all, the White House occupant trained his German Shepard to bite black people.

PEACE 😇

crucially what was in effect an East Donbass veto over Ukraine ever joining Nato

I have never doubted AP and others when they said that but in reality that point was never part of the Minsk Agreements themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_agreements

So I’m not sure where it comes from. With Minsk-2 in place, as I hoped Zelensky would achieve, parts of Donbas would get a special self-government status inside of Ukraine and Ukraine would recover control of the border with Russia but I don’t see how an autonomous Donbas could ever hope to prevent Kiev from signing multinational treaties.

Zelensky hoped that this would be interpreted in a way that would not cancel Ukraine’s independence.

Did he also interpret the meaning of “we will win the war against Russia and conquer Crimea”? He is quite a creative guy, but maybe in the wrong profession now.

Minsk didn’t cancel Ukraine’s independence: it was a normal autonomy deal that exists all over Europe. You create straw-men to fight. That shows bad will, you know that your case is otherwise indefensible.

allowed a foreign country to dictate their internal and external policies.

By your definition US-EU have been dictating to all others what they can do for decades – often with bombs. Doesn’t that bother you? They say it is for “human rights” and “security”. Why is it different when others ask for human rights and some security? We know the answer: you are brainwashed narcissists who focus razor-sharp only on yourself and are unable to others as equal. That’s why there is this war – but now you must prove your superiority. So far you have come up short.

It highlights your inferiority to peoples such as Poles, Ukrainians,

That is fascist language – get hold of yourself. You are drinking poison hoping that others will suffer – it never works that way, you only poison yourself. But I suspect you are too dumb to understand that. (On to more teary myths, crying over losses and being a lot less than what you could have been.)

On a practical level, it is the Ukies and Poles who are swarming to live among us, begging us to let them be like us, many wanting to forget who they are, women crying, children learning a new language – all of them happily living normal lives.

Killing and dying to keep others from speaking Russian and to join Nato to fight more wars is about as stupid and self-denying as it gets. Enjoy and don’t forget a few heroic poems, that’s what it is all about? Or is it? The bottomless self-hatred that is willing to destroy it all just not to be who you are? Maybe instead move to the ultimate “West”, maybe Iceland? (Hey, they are also in Nato and I am sure Russian language is frowned upon there.)

How Scholz & Merkel killed Germany: (1)

WELL, LIKE MOST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD THEY HAVE LOUSY POLITICAL LEADERSHIP: Germany Is Losing Its Mojo. Finding It Again Won’t Be Easy. Europe’s biggest economy is sliding into stagnation, and a weakening political system is struggling to find an answer.

Two decades ago, Germany revived its moribund economy and became a manufacturing powerhouse of an era of globalization.

Times changed. Germany didn’t keep up. Now Europe’s biggest economy has to reinvent itself again. But its fractured political class is struggling to find answers to a dizzying conjunction of long-term headaches and short-term crises, leading to a growing sense of malaise.

Germany will be the world’s only major economy to contract in 2023, with even sanctioned Russia experiencing growth, according to the International Monetary Fund. . . .The problems aren’t new. Germany’s manufacturing output and its gross domestic product have stagnated since 2018, suggesting that its long-successful model has lost its mojo. (2)

You have to read pretty far into the article before you see a reference to Germany’s “irrational energy policy.”

The German Greens killed NordStream long before the industrial accident that destroyed 3 out of 4 tubes.

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://instapundit.com/603028/

(2) pay wall — https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/germany-is-losing-its-mojo-finding-it-again-wont-be-easy-c4b46761

In March 1939 Germans – Hitler personally – told Slovak leaders to either declare independence or be split between Hungary and Poland. They were clerical fascists, similar to people who run Poland most of the time. They took the deal and then went too far. They are despised by almost all Slovaks, like Petain in France – we have no Waffen SS marchers or Bandera stadiums. We understand WW2, AP doesn’t.

In the 1944 uprising most people fought against Germany – Minister of Defense, generals, officers, villagers…Husak was one of the leaders, Dubcek’s older brother died in the fighting. People like AP understand nothing – he is driven by hatred. You can’t cure hatred and with additional losses it only gets worse. They are a sorry case and they are slowly losing again.

I’m behind the tech, the P100 at $30k seems to be the thing, and the big tech companies are snaffling them all!

https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/29/googles-new-a3-gpu-supercomputer-with-nvidia-h100-gpus-will-be-generally-available-next-month

“Despite their $30,000+ price, Nvidia’s H100 GPUs are a hot commodity — to the point where they are typically back-ordered. Earlier this year, Google Cloud announced the private preview launch of its H100-powered A3 GPU virtual machines, which combines Nvidia’s chips with Google’s custom-designed 200 Gpbs Infrastructure Processing Units (IPUs). Now, at its Cloud Next conference, Google announced that it will launch the A3 into general availability next month.”

https://www.techspot.com/news/99903-ai-surge-propels-nvidia-revenue-staggering-135-billion.html

AI surge propels Nvidia’s revenue to a staggering $13.5 billion

The new chips have 80 billion transistors. Mind, a modern £110 CPU can have 11 billion.

They had over 1 million infantry that were not involved …Ukraine was trying to minimize the fighting on both sides. They made the mistake of not hammering Donbas hard to being with. Same mistake they made with Crimea.

If they signed the Minsk agreement, Kiev thought it had to halt formed up Russia army units advancing.

I’m talking about 2022. Why not send the same force to Donbas and dig in? Why was he trying to take the whole country?

Because Ukraine was on track to becoming a Western security asset and they had already tried limited or hybrid military operations before Minsk made them think their geopolitical objective had been achieved, which had resulted in freezing of the front line. However the agreement did not pan out the way Russia anticipated in the several years following because the carrot of Donbass being returned was not sufficient to entice Ukraine into giving Donbass the effective veto over Ukraine entering alliances with the West. Russia also realised that, especially after Biden and Blinken came in and altered US policy, Ukraine was becoming a match for Russia. By 2021 Russia could see its strategy of military pressure to obtain geopolitical concessions had failed, and they would soon no longer have a usable military option. So they had to take a decision.

The preferred solution was to not invade over NATO even though Ukraine didn’t qualify because of Donbas? Which means the preferred solution was working and an invasion wasn’t needed.

That is a fair point. I suppose Russia was not happy with the way Ukraine was integrating with Nato without becoming a formal member, and thought such interoperability cooperation in the context of an annually reiterated ‘Ukraine will join someday Nato announcement and indicated Ukraine and Nato’s future intentions. Yes, Russia could go on the assumption that Washington’s influence as ‘he who pays the piper’ notwithstanding, it would be unable get the qualifications for entry altered down the line.

But no matter now nice that would be for everyone, accurate predictions about others require us to think about what we would in the others situation. Russians’ own intent in Kiev’s ‘s situation would be to the Kremlin to sleep. Why wouldn’t the Russians think with Ukraine’s inside track due to the Trump impeachment and President Biden hawkish, Kiev intended to to lull the Kremlin into passivity?

He’s a cyber dumbbell with an autistic trait.

You reveal your sheer ignorance on this one regarding Bandera and neo-Nazi influence in Kiev regime controlled Ukraine. On another dopey point of yours, Patrick Lancaster appears more independent than the likes of the BBC’s James Waterhouse.

As I’ve reasonably noted, the longer the conflict, the greater the chance of the Kiev regime losing more territory. Finland and Sweden were already on their way of becoming either NATO members or pretty much being such. They’re not more secure by being in NATO.

Russia attacked the Kiev regime on account of the latter’s failure to implement the Minsk Accords, while building up its forces in conjunction with the OSCE report of increased Kiev regime attacks on Donbass rebel territory.

Your false equivalency whataboutism is quite telling of what a fool you are. Vlasov doesn’t have the bloody baggage of Bandera who the likes of Azov honor. Vlasov is a more ethical figure to honor than Bandera. Bandera is honored in Kiev regime controlled Ukraine in a way that Vlasov isn’t in Russia.

I think this was expected from day 1 of the SMO. In the short run it is impossible to sell more gas if the available pipelines are full. Does Gazprom also sell gas inside Russia?

I wonder how much natural gas Russia is supplying to Ukraine these days?

I read that Russia is still supplying significant amounts of uranium to the USA but have not confirmed the details.

Minsk didn’t cancel Ukraine’s independence: it was a normal autonomy deal that exists all over Europe

Minsk meant that Russia would decide the nature of Ukraine’s constitution and that Russia would set Ukraine’s internal language policy.

That is a cancellation of independence.

allowed a foreign country to dictate their internal and external policies.

By your definition US-EU have been dictating to all others what they can do for decades

Review the word dictate.

The closest parallel would be occupied Germany and Japan getting constitutions from the American occupiers. Except of course you demanded that Ukraine give in to Russia without even an occupation. A preemptive surrender, like Czechoslovakia in the 1930s.

On a practical level, it is the Ukies and Poles who are swarming to live among us, begging us to let them be like us

It’s really remarkable how you have the need to throw a lie into every post.

This is a rather exotic lie.

There are only about 3,000 Poles in Slovakia, mostly moving due to marriage:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339092648_Migration_of_the_poles_to_Slovakia_after_World_War_II

Otherwise no point in moving. Average wages are lower (1,200 Euros in Poland versus 1,000 Euros in Slovakia):

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

And unemployment is higher – 2.7% in Poland versus 6% in Slovakia:

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

Ukrainians are fleeing the war, but Poles swarming into Slovakia? What a weird thing to lie about.

I guess post-WW2 Germany just got too uppity for the powers that be. Is a recurring pattern, Russia seems to be caught in a similar cycle. It looks the USA is still falling into round one, though I suppose the Civil War could have been the first round.

You are too dumb to realize that we aren’t talking about Bandera or about the Ukrainian government.

We are talking about the fact that Vlasov was a Nazi collaborator who served under Hitler and that it is very funny that you, a Vlasovite, are criticizing others for working with Nazis or whatever.

The other stuff may or may not be true but is irrelevant to the point. You are a fanboy of a Russian Nazi collaborator even as you whine about Nazis. That’s funny. 🙂

But we know that you can’t get it, you are too slow.

Talking about how the Church has changed:

In 1722, the Superior of Missions wrote in his official report about how the increasing numbers of mulattoes, illegitimate or not, was exposing the colonies “to the terrible punishment of those famous cities of abomination, which were destroyed by the fire of Heaven.” To him, the mingling of the races was “a criminal coupling of men and women of different species, whence comes a fruit which is one of Nature’s monsters.”

crucially what was in effect an East Donbass veto over Ukraine ever joining Nato

I have never doubted AP and others when they said that but in reality that point was never part of the Minsk Agreements themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_agreements

So I’m not sure where it comes from

The nature of the autonomy was kept vague in the original document, with various possible interpretations. It could have simply meant that the locals choose their own governors. This is roughly how the Ukrainian side saw it and wanted it to be. The important thing, however, was how Russian sponsor of the Donbas rebels interpreted it. This is how:

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2020/05/minsk-conundrum-western-policy-and-russias-war-eastern-ukraine-0/minsk-2-agreement

Surkov coordinated the drafting of extra demands (published on 13 May as proposals from the DNR/LNR). These would give the occupied regions even greater powers: responsibility for legal regulation of the Ukraine/Russia border; the right to conclude agreements with foreign states; their own charters (which would, for example, prevent the president of Ukraine from dismissing local executive organs); their own budgets to ensure ‘financial autonomy’; and rights to introduce states of emergency and hold elections and referendums. Lastly, Ukraine would write a neutrality clause into its constitution

:::::::::

So for example, allowing autonomous Donbas to sign a free trade zone agreement with Russia would effectively veto Ukraine’s integration with the EU.

Do not mis under estimate Germany. Nordstream is not destroyed. It is in need of some expensive repair. They still have great engineers. The first cause of all of this is prospective Germany Russia partnership terrifies London and New York goons.

…Review the word dictate.

All right: must be in Nato, must assist US in its military adventures, must use US dollars and keep its earnings (reserves) in either London or US, must vote with US in “UN”, must privatise and sell to ‘investors’, a lot more… and the US embassy insists on rainbow parades and open borders. Is that enough dictating for you?

Russia would decide the nature of Ukraine’s constitution and that Russia would set Ukraine’s internal language policy.

No, only a small part about the Russian minority having autonomy in its region and Ukraine remaining neutral – what’s wrong with that? If Kiev agreed there would be no war, we all know that. So you lie about ‘sky-is-falling’ made-up things that were not even discussed before the war.

There are only about 3,000 Poles in Slovakia

We see Poles daily in their beat-up cars trying to sell old bicycles, rotten meat and home-made booze – they don’t look prosperous to us, but we seldom venture to the dreary flatlands over the mountains, usually not much there. If they are getting better, good for you – just don’t try to sell us your crap. And the Ukies begging us to stay are everywhere – refugees? no, most don’t ever want to go back and it is not the “Russians” they are running away from – it is their miserable, corrupt, foreign-dominated country.

The German Greens killed NordStream long before the industrial accident that destroyed 3 out of 4 tubes.

I guess post-WW2 Germany just got too uppity for the powers that be

Are you suggesting that the German Greens are the ultimate “powers that be” within the European Empire?

And, that they became “uppity” with physical reality? For example, in their “uppitiness” the tried to ignore that energy is required to manufacture goods?

You do provide a decent description of how the German Greens are taking down the German people with no outside intervention.

PEACE 😇

I am a little curious – what language is used in these exchanges? Do they speak Polish, Slovak or a mixture? Are the languages close enough to make it irrelevant which is used? Or is it a case of resorting to probably bad English?

On higher level unfortunately it is bad English – the 500-word illiterate version that so much of the world lives in today. The lower ones are a mixture of Polish-Slovak-Czech, even a few Russian, German and English words. Or they just wave arms.

The Ukies we have don’t seem to do a lot of business, many expect to be taken care off while they wait for overseas visas. The ones working do menial jobs – but all Ukie cleaning ladies in Prague hotels claim they were educated ‘office workers’ back home. How this is a “win” for the ordinary Ukrainians I will never understand. Did they live such miserable lives before?

Some demands from the rebels on what the Law on Special Status would look like is totally different from what the Minsk Agreements say. Minsk-2 did not include the agreement that Ukraine would not be able to join any military or economic alliance. It’s just not there in the Agreement signed by the parties and guarantors.

This is not to say that Minsk-2 was not a poison pill meant to destabilize Ukraine. Probably none of the signatories had much intention of fulfilling their part of the deal, not even the Western guarantors, we now know. But Ukraine never complied with the legal changes that should precede the rest of the points so the rebels and Russians didn’t have the chance to dishonor the agreement themselves.

In any case, saying that Minsk prevented Ukraine from joining NATO is wrong. At most, that’s what the Russian side hoped but, not being in the Agreement, Ukraine had no obligation to meet that demand.

I’m not the dummy with an autistic trait, unlike yourself who has yet to successfully refute any of my points concerning Vlasov and Bandera

…Review the word dictate.

All right: must be in Nato, must assist US in its military adventures, must use US dollars and keep its earnings (reserves) in either London or US, must vote with US in “UN”, must privatise and sell to ‘investors’, a lot

Which of these were forced upon and dictated to whom?

Was Slovakia forced to be in NATO? Poland?

Russia would decide the nature of Ukraine’s constitution and that Russia would set Ukraine’s internal language policy.

No, only a small part about the Russian minority having autonomy in its region and Ukraine remaining neutral

So Russia, a foreign country, would only determine a “small part” of Ukraine’s constitution and internal laws and policies.

So, no longer an independent state.

And “autonomy”, according to the Russian side, meant being able to make treaties with other states (i.e., free trade with Russia) that would therefore cancel Ukraine’s ability to, say, link itself with the EU.

“There are only about 3,000 Poles in Slovakia”

We see Poles daily in their beat-up cars trying to sell old bicycles, rotten meat and home-made booze

According to Beckow-the-serial-liar.

Meantime, there are more Czechs, Hungarians, and Romanians in Slovakia then there are Poles. Despite Poland having a huge border and many more people who could move there.

we seldom venture to the dreary flatlands over the mountains

About 1,000 Slovaks have moved to Poland.

That’s 1/3 of the number of Poles living in Slovakia (3,000)

Yet Poland has almost 7 times the population of Slovakia.

So per capita, Slovaks are far more likely to go to Poland than vice versa.

Poland is of course mostly flat, as is half of Germany (including most of the DDR), the Baltics, Belarus, most of Russia and Ukraine, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, half of France, etc.

Not sure about dreary. Poland is sunnier than much of northern Europe, including most of Slovakia:

Ben is setting himself up again:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-breakthrough-could-come-in-weeks-former-u-s-general-says/ar-AA1fZGMF?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=c5bd392ff7c14e819137974059051521&ei=9

Tony Shaffer gets a well deserved thrashing in the comments section:

German DW Aired Propaganda:

https://marksleboda.substack.com/p/debunking-german-propagandas-absurd?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2#details

You are clearly autistic, it is evident in your writing style, your linguistic impairment, and your personal life (poor social skills, never married). I don’t make fun of you for that, it just is. At least you are fairly high functioning.

Some demands from the rebels on what the Law on Special Status would look like is totally different from what the Minsk Agreements say

The Minsk agreements state “decentralization” but don’t specify what that means. The Russian rebels/Russians consistently have stated that this means that Donbas gets to sign trade agreements with Russia, effectively cancelling EU association or membership. This doesn’t contradict the vague “decentralization” stated in the agreement.

Zelensky, when he sought peace at first, wanted to work out “decentralization” in a way that would be acceptable to a sovereign state (such as allowing local elections for governors rather than have the central government appoint them), but the Russian side wasn’t interested in that.

But Ukraine never complied with the legal changes that should precede the rest of the points

IIRC neither side withdrew their weapons.

Making that alliance rather than accepting a more convenient one with Hitler who had wanted one but who was refused by Poland was itself an example of Polish “stubbornness.”

Yep, but one indeed has to wonder whether Poland would have been better off trying to make a deal with Hitler. Millions of Polish citizens perished in WWII, after all. Had Poland allied with Hitler, ethnic Poles could have fared much better, and ditto for Polish Jews since Hitler gave his loyal allies more leeway in dealing with their Jewish problem than he gave to his enemies. A Nazi alliance would have been an especially good thing for Poland had Poland not been asked to participate in a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and had Poland not been asked to engage in either mass murder or forced sterilizations by the Nazis.

Such a scenario would have been worse for the Soviets in the medium-term, but I’m unsure about the short-term or the long-term because the Soviets might not have been as bled dry in this scenario and I also don’t know just how capable the Nazis would be in regards to holding onto the Soviet Union indefinitely without a large-scale permanent Nazi troop presence there. And mass deportations of tens of millions of Slavs are going to be quite logistically challenging to execute in and of themselves. Though Soviet Jews would get deported en masse to Siberia or Central Asia or wherever rather than having millions of them get murdered, most likely.

Without Anglo-French guarantees Poland would have had pursued some other anti-German alliance. Maybe not have demanded Polish-inhabited lands back from Czechoslovakia as a condition for an alliance with that state. I doubt Poland would have voluntarily given up its lands to anyone, without a fight.

Danzig was not Polish territory and thus could have been given up without sacrificing Poland’s territorial integrity. Hitler did not demand the Polish Corridor before Poland accepted the British Guarantee. Rather, Hitler simply wanted an elevated extraterritorial road through the Polish Corridor, according to what I have read on the Axis History Forum. Similar to this:

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

Danzig and an elevated road through the Polish Corridor were reasonable Nazi demands, frankly. Poland already had its own port at Gdynia by then and the Nazis were apparently willing to give Poland trading rights at Danzig as well.

Population ratio of Finland to USSR was worse than Germany-Poland and Finns chose to fight Soviets without an alliance.

TBF, the Soviets killed millions during peacetime (either directly or indirectly), whereas the Nazis did not. That probably made Soviet occupation seem more intolerable relative to Nazi occupation, before one could actually foresee the Holocaust. Nazi occupation in Czechia pre-WWII was probably brutal but nevertheless did not involve mass murder yet. Finns, on the other hand, could have quite reasonably expected the mass murder or at least the gulagization of anyone who resisted any new Soviet-imposed Communist order in Finland.

Interestingly enough, since Poland decided to resist the Nazis, allying with both the Anglo-French and the Soviet Union would have probably been the best move. At the very least, Poland could have asked for written guarantees from the Anglo-French that they would be willing to fight the Soviet Union if the Soviet Union would have refused to withdraw from Poland after an Allied victory over Nazi Germany. Simultaneously pissing off both of its powerful neighbors was not a smart move for Poland!

As for Teschen, I think that Poland unnecessarily made a big deal out of it. AFAIK, a major railroad ran through there, so it made sense for Czechoslovakia to want it and to want to keep it. Once Czechoslovakia gave territory to Nazi Germany, I could understand why Poland would want its own small share, but Poland should not have made the return of Teschen a precondition for an alliance with Czechoslovakia beforehand.

The Minsk agreements state “decentralization” but don’t specify what that means. The Russian rebels/Russians consistently have stated that this means that Donbas gets to sign trade agreements with Russia, effectively cancelling EU association or membership. This doesn’t contradict the vague “decentralization” stated in the agreement.

I suppose that Russia could have argued that Ukraine could sign its own agreements with the EU but that these agreements with the EU simply wouldn’t apply to the Donbass? But then the Donbass would have been independent in all but name, no?

But Yeah, as I have said for years, it’s rather difficult to get a sovereign state to give 10-20% of its population veto power in determining its domestic and foreign policies. Interestingly enough, federalization was unpopular even in Novorossiya outside of the Donbass even back in early and mid-2014. And even in the Donbass, support for it was only about 50-50 at best back then. Though AFAIK, this Ukrainian polling didn’t actually define what “federalization” meant, so people could have had their own impressions of this term.

Honestly, autists should get married if they will have the opportunity to do so. Maybe it would be easiest for them to marry other autists, though then they might need IVF and genetic screening for their kids in order to prevent their kids from becoming non-functional autists (as in, in order to significantly reduce this possibility).

Your svido way of having lost on your idiotically stated dumb ass comments.

That sunshine duration map of Europe looks quite unreliable. Just a few examples:

Vitoria-Gasteiz is inside the 2000-2500 hours sector but in fact it only has 1,886/year:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitoria-Gasteiz#Climate

Bordeaux is well inside the 1800-2000 sector but it exceeds 2000 at 2,069/year:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux#Climate

Warsaw is in the 1600-1800 sector but is almost 2000 at 1,998/year:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw#Climate

Sorry. My climate nuttiness didn’t allow me to let that pass.

Honestly, I wonder if the three million Polish Jews that were murdered during the Holocaust would have preferred a Nazi-Polish alliance, but with many more of them surviving, over real life. They would have likely most of all preferred an Anglo-Franco-Soviet alliance against Nazi Germany, though.

A hypothetical fake death of Prigozhin, would be a story like in some of the famous mafia films. For example, the story of the film “Once Upon in America”.

However, I’m not sure it would be too easy for him to hide after as he was one of the most famous celebrities in the world. In Russia or Belarus people would probably immediately identify him if he goes out. Probably even in Miami.

He would need at least somewhere few people follow about the war in Ukraine, which might not be so many parts of the world. Maybe some distant parts of Africa or Latin America.

There are some better quality brands or products in some areas from China nowadays.

The issue with middle income trap, is it even possible to transfer a significant part of the manufacturing to a more labor cost invariant areas.

Also China is a very large economy, so this could be more difficult than for smaller countries, because probably most of the manufacturing in the world is labor cost variant and China’s advantage is a low cost of labor. So, would there be enough demand in the world economy for the labor cost invariant manufacturing for a country as large as China to escape middle income trap.

EVs are a lot easier to enter market, easier to build, than ICEVs. The transition to EVs means more countries’ companies could enter the automobile export market.

Tesla already showed the EV transition allows for entry to previously closed industry for new companies, as one of the first new automobile companies in America which is making profit since many years earlier.

Even Vietnam has domestic EV companies now, with “Vin Fast”.

There was a kind of crazy hype with their stock launching this month.

Biden allowed Nordstream to go ahead because Germany was to help with China, which is the enemy. Russians are regarded as an annoyance and not taken seriously by Washington. Germany’s manufacturing and capital goods export (China) strategy is totally screwed without cheap energy and the digital transformation is passing them by.

In reality renewables have a very heavy cost.

I have always wondered if there isn’t some ulterior motive to the renewables nonsense, apart from the grift.

(((Grant Shapps))), who under a false identity wrote and sold a £400 booklet on the internet on how to run a Ponzi scheme, becomes Defence Secretary. Impotently spouts some nonsense about Ukraine in his first statement.

Replying to John Johnson from the other thread:

I dislike many aspects of Mormon religion and life, but nevertheless anyone who has had any contact with them must admit they are an interesting group with some features that stand out in modern America.

(I am basing my impressions on a job I had in my twenties which had me visit Utah on and off for a year, and later random trips).

Of all Whites, they seem the only group that has retained some genuine corporate self-confidence and vitality (there are plenty of supremely self-confident Whites among the elites, but as individuals). I’ve seen Mormons get angry, and act with self-assertion, in a way I rarely see with other Whites – they seem to have retained some connection to the thymotic side of life. I’ve also seen frequent acts of explicit politeness and kindness that reflect a self-conscious striving after “virtue” that stands out in the cynical wasteland of modernity. And there is an interest in dressing at least somewhat decorously and attractively that suggests the hint of a connection to a concern with aesthetics, however attenuated.

They are also the only Whites I’ve seen who are almost as interested in money as Jews 🙂 And who will be unashamed to clearly act with money interests in mind in a way that’s unusual among Whites and more common among Jews and Chinese (and perhaps certain subcontinentals).

The connection to money is interesting. I’m on record for thinking money is one of the great evils of life, but on “lower” levels it can reflect a desire to live and flourish for a minority group that does not have the same level of access to the standard forms of power as the majority.

It’s likely forgotten today, but the Scottish were known for being extreme misers and money hoarders (anyone remember Scrooge McDuck lol?), and having an obsession with money. The Scots were a conquered minority within the United Kingdom – and that probably likewise accounts for the explosion of Scottish genius starting in the 18th century and the truly outsized contribution the Scots made both to the intellectual development of Great Britain and the practical tasks of administering the Empire and developing the physical infrastructure of modernity.

Of course there is a dark and disturbing side to Mormon life, and there is often a vulgar and gross materialism, and egotistic selfishness – and one can easily see how others can be antagonized by a group that is excessively self-regarding. And Mormon religion contains many extremely unattractive elements, and I am not offering them up as a perfect example of spiritual health.

Like everyone else in modernity, Mormons are a deeply sick community – and even the good things are often more lower level approaches to and reflections – often even distortions – of a more distant true good than their full realization, but it may be that one can learn some lesson from them.

The one White American community that is imperfectly assimilated to modern life but still participates in it, that has retained some vital connection to the “irrational”, seems to have avoided at least some of the worst and most advanced excesses of the dysfunctions afflicting most everyone else.

Interesting.

Did you see the South Park episode on them?

Watched Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944). (Slight spoilers)

Honestly, autists should get married if they will have the opportunity to do so. Maybe it would be easiest for them to marry other autists, though then they might need IVF and genetic screening for their kids in order to prevent their kids from becoming non-functional autists (as in, in order to significantly reduce this possibility).

It’s probably something in the environment.

There was a pretty significant increase since the late 90s.

U.S. Seeking Perpetual War in Ukraine? w/ Alastair Crooke fmr Brit ambassador

Saw a tiny snake the other day that was just over an inch long.

Gave me the idea that wildlife officials ought to try to stock snakes, they like do with fish. I’m not taking about posionous stuff, but a lot of the bigger snakes seem to be getter rarer in these parts.

https://www.ft.com/content/c5af0740-7fba-4c9d-962d-8a1b563196e3

Vietnamese EV maker worth more than Ford or GM after US listing

No paywall: https://archive.li/TX86r#selection-1819.0-1821.2

I posted this in newslinks a couple weeks ago.

If your digital revolution is the FAGM’s + AI then everybody it passes by may be at an advantage real soon now. : )

U.S. Seeking Perpetual War in Ukraine? w/ Alastair Crooke fmr Brit ambassador

What does the U.S. gain from perpetual war? Little to nothing. Funding cuts are coming.

What does the German led European Empire gain from perpetual war? More channels for MENA and sub Saharan migration.

“Follow the Money” often works, but in this case it is a false lead. The brain damaged Veggie-in-Chief is a puppet run by Macron and Scholz.

PEACE 😇

One possible approach is modest cosmetic surgery combined with a new life story as a long lost brother named Boris who looks surprisingly like the infamous Yevgeny.

Is there some kind of timeline-graph of US presidential candidates mentioning Israel in debates, over the decades? If not, someone should make one.

I personally should like to know the exact time when ideas like “America needs Israel” exploded, and became part of an echo chamber.

I’ve seen Mormons get angry, and act with self-assertion, in a way I rarely see with other Whites – they seem to have retained some connection to the thymotic side of life. I’ve also seen frequent acts of explicit politeness and kindness that reflect a self-conscious striving after “virtue” that stands out in the cynical wasteland of modernity.

Yes they can be friendly until they want something from you. If you are non-Mormon then you will be subject to a different set of rules.

The one White American community that is imperfectly assimilated to modern life but still participates in it, that has retained some vital connection to the “irrational”, seems to have avoided at least some of the worst and most advanced excesses of the dysfunctions afflicting most everyone else.

I think you are over-idealizing them. In no way would I describe them as being in more touch with spirituality than say average Catholics.

Their morality that they claim to be spiritual is a front. There is nothing in the Bible that says to be honest and fair until you start doing business with non-Mormons. Christianity is not supposed to “turn off” when the business day starts.

They only participate in non-Mormon life when required.

I was warned about doing business with them but assumed it was just mainstream Christian bigotry. Wouldn’t these pro-family Mormons extend their strong morals into business and daily life? I figured they have a bad rep from Christians that are offended by their additional beliefs.

I was wrong. I fully admit that.

They are not simply obsessed with greed or drive for money. They actually wouldn’t be that bad if they were simply materialistic. The problem is that they view non-Mormons with complete disdain and not as fellow Americans that are deserving of some basic level of business ethics.

They view the current world as a spiritual test and the successful enter heaven to manage their own world where at most we get to be their servants. So by rejecting the Mormon faith we prove that we have utterly failed the divine calling and thus we might as well be exploited on earth and in heaven. Secular Americans don’t even get to be servants. They go to hell.

Mormon door knockers might seem friendly but they haven’t reached the period where they are under pressure to have a large family and modern house which in the current economy can be difficult. The men look to cut corners in business which leads to their reputation.

Their religion is extremely controlling and most likely dysgenic. It started out as polygamous but without a plan for what to do with the excess men. The origin story reads like an SNL sketch where a man actually tells his wife that an angel told him to take multiple wives.

As a religion it selects for submission and ex-communicates the rebellious and independently minded. Women are not allowed to select non-Mormons and are under pressure to choose their husband early. This leads to them selecting from a limited gene pool and often for non-physical characteristics. Meaning they are not selecting the strongest or healthiest men in a mixed community. In many ways it functions like a nerd mafia. I actually don’t think half the men buy into the beliefs. They like that the women are locked down and they get a lot of business connections.

I personally should like to know the exact time when ideas like “America needs Israel” exploded

One date springs immediately to mind — October 23, 1983. A literal Muslim explosion that senselessly killed over 200 Americans in Beirut. That solidified the Judeo-Christian bond of opposition to degenerate Allah Ahkbar death screamers.

That incident pressed Christian American values to have meaning. Defending Jewish Palestine from the forces of Satan/Allah/Lucifer is a duty placed upon us by God.

PEACE 😇

Pat Buchanan was cancelled for opposing Iraq war 1 and mentioning Israel in same sentence. ~ Jan 1991.

https://www.adl.org/resources/profile/pat-buchanan-his-own-words

A hypothetical fake death of Prigozhin, would be a story like in some of the famous mafia films. For example, the story of the film “Once Upon in America”.

They already DNA’d him.

Prigozhin had a deathwish. I’m not at all surprised that he returned to Moscow.

Making a deal to enter Belarus was nuts given that he tried to start an insurrection.

He needed to exit Eastern Europe entirely. The guy had over a billion dollars. He could have built a fortress in Argentina with thousands of guards and waited out the war.

I don’t think we will ever understand the real Prigozhin.

Why is Putin’s propagandist calling for a tactical nuke if everything is going so well?
https://www.newsweek.com/putin-state-tv-host-russia-ukraine-nuclear-weapons-1821567

Napolitano is a sad Putin hack who has been cheering the Russians since the war started. He isn’t as overt as Ritter but his position is obvious by the show format where he lets pro-Putin guests ramble while he nods and makes cracks about Zelenksy. As with other Putin defenders he is obsessed with Zelensky and Nuland. It’s all about the Jews to him but he doesn’t have the balls to say it.

I did some research into Napolitano and turns out that he is a closet homo who was kicked out of Fox News for sexually harassing young men:
https://news.yahoo.com/andrew-napolitano-fox-sexual-harassment-224300192.html

Are self-hating men just somehow attracted to Putin?

No wife or kids and has been accused of sexually harassing men.

Closet homo.

The Putin US Dream Team is unreal. A convicted sex offender, a closeted homo, some America hater who makes fake war videos, Steven Seagal. Just an amazing lineup.

“The 500-word illiterate version that so much of the world lives in today”
The lingua franca of North London, in other words…

That solidified the Judeo-Christian bond

Shouldn’t that be the “Hindu-Judeo-Christian” bond, as Vivek has said he believes in those values more than most Christians? And he was a member of Shabtai, while at Yale?

@Emil
Curious how they don’t quote Buchanan referencing the ADL. (As I imagine he must have done.)

Which of these were forced upon and dictated to whom? Was Slovakia forced to be in NATO?

All of them. We were told that without being in Nato we can’t be in EU. Period.

You have double standards when it comes to applying the term dictate. The inconsistency you display – some can, others can’t – is a sign of poor mental health. Or desperate losing ideology: Russia having any say is a “dictat“, but your side is all saints. Right? St. Augustine said that all saints have past…are you so unaware?

And “autonomy”, according to the Russian side, meant being able to make treaties with other states (i.e., free trade with Russia) that would therefore cancel Ukraine’s ability to, say, link itself with the EU….So, no longer an independent state.

Complete nonsense. The Aland Islands have autonomy in Finland and strong links to Sweden, is Finland not independent? South Tyrol in Italy, endless other examples of regions that have trade and cultural links to others. You are making up a straw-man because you know there was no reason for Kiev to reject Minsk and provoke the war. It will end much worse for them now. You medicate yourself with scary lies.

Poland having a huge border and many more people who could move there.

And yet, almost nobody did until the luckless Ukies showed up. You are mixing what I said: Polish peddlers doing odd jobs, selling crap to do ‘business’ and people who permanently migrate to live in other countries. You either lack logic or you are intentionally deceptive.

Finally, a guy who claims that Poland is a sunny paradise…have you been there? Or better, have you visited other places? But contra gustos no hay disputas…

It might be something like this discovered as culprit, like earlier lead toxicity, maybe some microplastics or yet unknown materials which are considered as not harmful so far:

Asian-Americans have nearly twice the levels of toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in their blood compared to other ethnicities.

A study that tested the blood and urine of more than 3,000 Americans found the average levels of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were 89 percent higher in Asian-Americans.

Researchers said it is unclear why, but it could be due to a diet that is high in seafood, which is a major source of PFAS contamination.

PFAS are a group of synthetic chemicals present in food packaging, clothes and thousands of other products in the US.

Because of their ubiquity, they leach into soil, drinking water, the air and food, exposing Americans to the toxins almost everywhere.

They have been deemed ‘forever chemicals’ because they don’t break down in the environment or human body.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12441343/Asian-Americans-exposed-toxic-PFAS-forever-chemicals.html

Are the Saudis building an arcology?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukaab
_______
What would Sikhs do to these people on YouTube who play jazz to cows?

The Putin US Dream Team is unreal. A convicted sex offender, a closeted homo, some America hater who makes fake war videos, Steven Seagal. Just an amazing lineup.

You know what’s really funny is that Girkin (Strelkov) himself before he got arrested, when his precious rants were still publicly available, said that McGregor is full of it. He totally dismissed his “insights” as unserious. LOL

We were told that without being in Nato we can’t be in EU

Were you explicitly told that in the media? Do you have verifiable information that that’s what the government was explicitly told?

The Aland Islands have autonomy in Finland and strong links to Sweden, is Finland not independent?

Well, the difference is that Sweden has given up on its imperial “rights” to Finland, doesn’t hold any grudges or resentments against their former colony, doesn’t hold any revanchist or territorial claims, and they don’t meddle with Finland’s internal affairs (unlike Russia with Ukraine, they don’t place their assets in Finland’s internal power structures and institutions the way that Russia did with Ukraine (or at least they don’t do it as aggressively), they don’t try to dominate their culture and language (yes, they do have bilingualism, which Finns hate by the way, but it is fading away). They are on good terms, amicable, trust each other. They don’t call each other ethnic slurs. They are both part of the West (or the Northern European community). Whereas Ukraine doesn’t want to be with Russia. You deliberately ignore these vital differences.

All the former colonial powers have pretty much given up on their former colonies, except Russia. And even Russia has a skewed view of its colonial past, because the Russian nation was not the only builder of the Empire.

Polish peddlers doing odd jobs, selling crap to do ‘business’

Well, Polish goods are well known to be overall cheaper (which isn’t bad, btw), but, once again, you deliberately choose to ignore the more affluent or middle-class Poles, by far, most Poles are not what you describe. Those are just slightly more lower middle class folks that are trying to get by. You are deliberately ignoring successful Poles or even the middle class types.

I would bet on PFAS over pesticides or herbicides.

It would have shown up in farm kids if it were the latter.

You know what’s really funny is that Girkin (Strelkov) himself before he got arrested, when his precious rants were still publicly available, said that McGregor is full of it. He totally dismissed his “insights” as unserious. LOL

That is indeed funny but the Putin club would never discuss it in their sphere just as they never discuss MacGregor’s long list of failed predictions.

Napolino is one of those self hating gays like Rohm. A modern day Ernst Rohm if there ever was one.

(Inside Napolino’s basement where he and another ex Fox employee are dressed in leather)

Yea go ahead and use that whip over there…no the other one…..yea with the spikes….as I was saying earlier it is Jews like that little faggy prince Zelensky that are behind this war. Did you see him prance around in that video? They bring their corruption to YEAAOOOOWWW take it easy back there! Not enough lube! Look you need to hurry up and finish because I have a show with MacGregor in about 30 minutes. I can meet you later after Mass.

I’m not defending their religion or practices.

There’s lots of bad there, the point is, there might be something interesting that has saved them partially from some of the worse excesses of modern nihilism, at least for a time (and perhaps not that much longer), and that can be useful to learn from, at least for secular Americans – while still rejecting most of their religion and practices.

I could never in a million years be a Mormon, but I try and look at the larger picture. I’ve learned things from people, who, on the whole, I’ve despised.

It is hard to stereotype. I am sure there are less business-minded Poles, we just don’t see too many. Poor Polish hustlers selling shoddy goods is what we encounter. They also seem desperate. It is the same image that most people in UK and other places have.

They don’t call each other ethnic slurs.

Actually they do, in the usual lame Scandie way…:) If you have a problem with ethnic slurs, maybe jumping up and down about “Moskali” is not a good way to show it.

They are both part of the West…whereas Ukraine doesn’t want to be with Russia.

Ukraine is in Eastern Europe, about the same as Russians, Georgians, Romanians, etc…part of the same overall region. Some more, some less, and some dream of being something else. You can’t stage a “revolution” to force others to obey you new invented identity. That has never worked – geography tends to stay the same.

The reason for the war is the Ukie fanatical unwillingness to treat their fellow Russian citizens as equal, to accept that they have cultural and economic rights. Majority can’t disposes millions of people who want to stay who they are and import military conflict into Ukraine with Nato. That would eventually lead to a much bigger war.

It is something that you pretend not to see – out of atavistic hatred of Russia. It will not end well for the Ukies – there is no realistic scenario that is better for Kiev than what Minsk offered, or how things were pre-Maidan. You are just in a denial and anger stage.

That is indeed funny but the Putin club would never discuss it in their sphere just as they never discuss MacGregor’s long list of failed predictions.

The Putin club would rather trash or dismiss Strelkov (someone who knows the front inside out or at least used to until very recently) than MacGregor – that is super delusional and grotesquely funny. I haven’t followed MacGregor enough to judge his “predictions”, he doesn’t interest me much. He seemed somewhat biased.

The few times I watched his videos I was more interested in the Scots Irish regalia he had in his background. It seemed like he really wanted to appear “warlike” and martial. It’s ok, that’s not a bad thing, but you also have to be somewhat informed about the particular things on the ground. I don’t expect him to understand the intricacies of Eastern Slav battle culture either.

Napolino is one of those self hating gays like Rohm.

Oh, but he’s just another contrarian (which, again, is not bad and can be really cool, but you have to follow at least some of the facts), he just wants to trash the establishment. I used to watch Alex Jones for a while (for entertainment purposes – not for updates on current affairs, lol) and “The Judge” use to be on Alex a lot. No idea about his closet gayness, that is too creepy to even think about. But it is not surprising they sided with Russia, they distrust the US establishment (and they try to make money with their shows, it’s their niche – although these days it can actually do harm because of the war).

You sure know how to cherry pick while being quite okay with instances like this:

https://www.washingtonblade.com/2023/08/08/transgender-soldier-from-us-named-ukrainian-military-spokesperson/

https://thepressunited.com/updates/german-gay-pride-event-celebrates-nazi-collaborator-video/

They’ve some big mother pythons in Florida. There’s also the matter of the super wild pigs in the US – the apparent result of a cross bread with a Eurasian variant.

Tucker’s recent interview with Orban was quite informative, unlike the foreign policy drivel peddled by the likes of Amanpour, O’Reilly, Velshi, Cuomo, Haley, Pense and Christie.