I am not going to tread on states of mind. Nor of what one did or did not know.
But as things are playing out, it shows the rest-of-the-world pretty good how untrustworthy the rulers of the west are.
Amazing really, as the west was build on trust. And (white) westerners on the whole are still a pretty trusting lot... its in their dna. Does tell us a thing or two about who rules us I'd say.
Rolo, I take it that you don't buy into the argument that Russia needed the 8 years to be able to beef up its military (so that NATO would be afraid to direct Russia) and safeguard itself from the current type of sanctions.
That argument strikes me as a cope but I don't know enough about Russia circa 2014 to definitively know.
I share the "military man" sentiment but only in despair not hope. In the current context, all the Russian military men are likely - deep down - to be hugely demoralized by the military outcomes of the last 10 months (e.g. now scrambling to refurbish 60 year old tanks after huge losses) and, as such, hardly interested in taking on additional problems like running a vast, modern nation state. And they know that up and the down the line they are all lying to each other - that's gotta be a confidence drainer, again, in those "deep down" moments.
Further afield, the "military" model is perhaps more interesting. In Brazil - both Lulu and Bolsanaro may be very ill - and hints that the generals are weighing their options - options with some constitutional sanctions. And in Germany even more intriguing - the round up of the 24 "far right" plotters - how likely is it that they were plotting without any understandings with some elements of the military - with some of the some elements promptly betraying them? As always - things will probably get more interesting not less.
Theres no subtitles on the interview he does here so if you dont understand Russian at all no point in watching it. TLDR is that in his opinion Putin has almost no actual authority to make important decisions in any sphere. Putins job according to him is to function as a go between between the "Feudal Oligarchic Clans" that actually run Russia. What makes this Neo-Soviet boomers take interesting for me is that he doesn't say its a grand conspiracy theory but that its a just more like a natural outgrowth of the Yeltsin system because thats actually what Yeltsin was more or less.
The guy doesn't say Putin is just a straight traitor and clone of Schwab but that he was selected in the 90s to serve in a position that never had any real power to begin with. For example in 2014-15 Moscow did everything in its power to push Donbass against its will back into Ukraine but they did move fast to liberate Crimea. The Neo Soviet Boomer says that if you assume that this was a compromise between the Oligarchic groups that run Russia it makes sense.
Thats where I sort of break with the guys analysis, I cant for the life of me imagine any oligarchs that would have wanted to so much as even liberate Crimea. If you however look at it through the lense of Oligarchs vs Patriots in the military circles coming to a compromise I can see it having a lot of truth. If that take is true it probably follows that while Putin has plenty of friends and associates amongst the Oligarchs he is more or less closer to the patriots in the military side. However to assume the military leadership in general is totally on the Patriotic side would be an error. For example why cant Putin actually just get rid of shoigu? Is Shoigu really the only guy Putin can "trust" in that position? Doubtful. But if we assume the liberal oligarchs have veto power over who gets to be appointed as ministers regardless of what Putin wants Shoigu makes sense. He is the oligarchs man making sure the military doesn't get too influential. In short he was a compromise appointment, not a straight crook like the prior ministers but he was also largely harmless and being from outside the military not to close to the patriotic base. Since the oligarchy will not allow a real patriot from within the military as defense minister that means the military is stuck with Shoigu as the least bad option.
The military desperately needed mobilization but that would not be allowed without giving the oligarchy something in return, kherson, grain deals, etc. The military literally isnt allowed to damage the Ukrainian rail network, they probably asked but the compromise was being allowed to hit the electric grid a little bit. This is the best explanation for Russias schizo approach to the war imo.
Like probably the reason the SMO started so half assed was because the compromise position was the Oligarchs tolerate a half ass smo and if it works the military/patriotic group than owes the oligarchy a lot of favors. If it doesn't work the military owes the oligarchs even more favors to try and scratch out some kind of win from the ruins of the failed initial plan. This would also explain why we havent seen plan Bs and Cs from the military side, its because the military cant make these plans without input and demands from the Oligarchy and Putin personally just doesn't have the power to give the military what they want.
So in the Neo-soviet boomer guys scheme Putin is just a figurehead/guy who trys to make compromises between the different Oligarchic groups who have their own interest and who collectively run Russia. Putin is just there trying to maintain a balance between them and get them to come to consensus but he has no real authority of his own. In my modified take Putin has very little power and still acts as the guy who tries to get the Oligarchs to reach comprise positions but the disagreements are mainly between patriots associated with the military and the Oligarchs and while Putin doubtlessly has friends in the Oligarchy and sympathies left from his Westernizer years he is closer to the military side now and is moving closer all the time. Regardless he still doesn't have the authority to make unilateral decisions and this explains why it looks so much as if he just doesn't like making them. He literally cant.
Of course this is all just some Soviet boomers speculation which i find half convincing but it doesn't require any 5D chess and it explains Putins lack of taking any important decisions, schizo war conduct and schizo/contradictory stuff coming from the Kremlin all the time.
A cogent reading as usual vis a vis the oligarchy and their insidious grip on everything, but not a decisively correct reading on the larger canvass. (Russia in the world)
In 2014 Russia was clearly not ready for war.
They might have packed an impressive military punch against a weaker opponent for a while, but then what? Think of the important diplomatic groundwork that was done over the 8 years . Such improved relations with China and India, Russian influence in Africa, Iran, fickle Turkey cleverly headlocked into compliance on many occasions. The impressive Syria campaign...and what about Belarus, the "closest" Slavic family?Even Lukashenko wasn't really on board with Russia...for so long not recognising the Crimea vote. Time was needed for the development of those 5d support mechanisms and let's not forget the 6d hypersonics ...for when the attrition war phase is over.
There was also the gradual path to food self-sufficiency and general import substitution at home.
Sorry I probably forgot to take my 5d meds again this morning.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the whole time the West was arming Ukraine undercover of Minsk I & II... Russia didn't know? Ukraine is right next door. Russian intelligence couldn't see that Ukraine's army was being built up? And if they did know, which is likely the case, why did Russia do nothing? If Putin was aware of this deception and waited 8 years, all possibilities point to his complicity in setting the stage for the war today. Many of us began to believe the 8 years of inaction was a calculated move. But to what end? The great reset? The long-awaited consolidation of eastern and western elites?
>But a serious war would run counter to the oligarch’s plan to converge with the Western elite. So, somethings got to give. Someone’s got to man up and unleash the Russian war machine.<
All we can do is pray that Russia's patriot bloc rises up. This could be Russia's 2nd великая отечественная война (Great Patriotic War). A battle for her soul.
Вставай страна огромная! - Arise huge nation!
Вставай на смертный бой - Arise to the deadly fight
С олигархической силой темною - Against the dark oligarchical powers
с проклятой схемой - Against the damned schemes
She's the only thing left on the planet worth fighting for.
"Russia deserves a better caste of elites, folks."
Around 2016, I had pretty much concluded that elite rule was pretty much inevitable, a view that was reinforced when I came across Gaetano Mosca and his friends.
My hisitorical examination of political decision-making arose because by 2008 or so, it was becoming clear that the results of elite policies; internationally as well as domestically; in the US as well as Europe; from the mainstream right as well as the mainstream left; were not only uniformly destructive, but democratically unpopular as well. All results, all policies.
So my support for Trump was misunderstood: I saw a vote for him as throwing a log across the road to enmire a juggernaut.
Back then is when I came up with a saying that pretty much summarized my political outlook: "We need a better class of oligarchs." That's my own actual quote.
You should stop; you're beginning to think like a boomer ;-)
> The plan is simple, really. We, uh, kill the oligarchs and we mobilize the country.
> Let’s wind the clock back a hundred some years. These zhids and Liberals wouldn’t dare cross any of us. I mean, what happened, did our balls drop off? Ukraine? That’s just the beginning. And as for the Kremlin’s so-called 5D plan? The West will push us until we squeal …
> Russia deserves a better caste of elites, folks.
> And the patriot bloc is gonna have to give it to them.
There is nothing more sapping of morale for men in trenches enduing extreme hardships and facing death at every moment than a war with no real purpose, no great objective. A succession of defeats is bad for morale but far, far worse is enduing hardship and imminent death for no good reason. Every soldier needs a great cause to fight for. The Russians in 1941, the Germans in 1944 and 1945 fought on despite huge losses and great defeats because they were fighting for a cause, a reason. The French collapsed in 1940, the Germans in 1918, the Americans towards the end of the Vietnam war despite the huge resources of military material most possessed because they sensed no real reason to fight anymore. This is what Putin is now doing to his forces. Morale is already falling fast (read Strelkov if you doubt this) and without a reason to fight or a hope of victory the process can soon become unstoppable. NATO and the Ukies know this. NATO is and will ramp up its support, and make no mistake they posses hugely greater material and economic resources than Russia, if they chose to use it, and they are making that choice right now.
There is a smell about Putin. It’s the stink of Gorbachov, of a loser, and I have a bad feeling that as things start deteriorating it could soon change into the stench of a Yeltsin. And please don’t think Putin is controlled or influenced by anonymous oligarchs (or bad advisors, or some Rasputin). He’s been in power for nearly a quarter century and has had plenty of time to entrench himself and his cronies in the entirety of the state and the economy. When their army in the Ukraine collapses, so will their public support, and in the disgust and anger at the regime and at the war the risk of a Yeltsin outcome will be high with the West offering inducements (Join the EU, we will rebuild you, make you like Europe and the US) that will of course turn out to have been illusory, but by then it will be too late.
Can the situation be changed? Yes, but only if Putin and his cronies are somehow levered out of power and a new regime mobilizes fully, destroys the bridges across the Dnieper, declares for and uses its full military might for quick and decisive victory. Faced with having to mobilize a million men of their own and to try and cross the Dnieper, NATO will almost certainly have to cut its losses and settle for only Ukraine west of the Dnieper.
Well I’m not a Russian. It’s up to you and your friends, Rolo. It’s time to come to your senses, abandon Putin, try and get rid of him, and hope it’s not too late, because time is running out.
I’m sorry to sound pessimistic, but there is a very, very bad smell starting to come from the Ukraine, and it's not from the Ukies.
The West likes to spout the theory that Putin opposed the oligarchs, but the video of all his houses and priceless possessions make him look like an oligarch, too...I've believed all along that he is Herr Schwab's boy in Russia....Antony Sutton wrote all about the US building up Russia into the best enemy money can buy...his books are now free to read online
(1) When one takes a measured and dispassionate look at the conflict between the USSA and Russia, it is obvious that YHWH would side with Russia. The perversion, revision, anarchy, and degeneracy of the WOKE support the WEF. Russia supports its conservative and traditional Orthodox church.
(2) The term 5D is so 20th century. We must look to the future and begin talking about the 6D strategy that will soon be developed by China's Quantum Computers.
I am not going to tread on states of mind. Nor of what one did or did not know.
But as things are playing out, it shows the rest-of-the-world pretty good how untrustworthy the rulers of the west are.
Amazing really, as the west was build on trust. And (white) westerners on the whole are still a pretty trusting lot... its in their dna. Does tell us a thing or two about who rules us I'd say.
Shout out to Musk and Ye...
Rolo, I take it that you don't buy into the argument that Russia needed the 8 years to be able to beef up its military (so that NATO would be afraid to direct Russia) and safeguard itself from the current type of sanctions.
That argument strikes me as a cope but I don't know enough about Russia circa 2014 to definitively know.
I share the "military man" sentiment but only in despair not hope. In the current context, all the Russian military men are likely - deep down - to be hugely demoralized by the military outcomes of the last 10 months (e.g. now scrambling to refurbish 60 year old tanks after huge losses) and, as such, hardly interested in taking on additional problems like running a vast, modern nation state. And they know that up and the down the line they are all lying to each other - that's gotta be a confidence drainer, again, in those "deep down" moments.
Further afield, the "military" model is perhaps more interesting. In Brazil - both Lulu and Bolsanaro may be very ill - and hints that the generals are weighing their options - options with some constitutional sanctions. And in Germany even more intriguing - the round up of the 24 "far right" plotters - how likely is it that they were plotting without any understandings with some elements of the military - with some of the some elements promptly betraying them? As always - things will probably get more interesting not less.
This neo-soviet boomer guys take on Putin is likely fairly close to the truth imo.
https://t.me/germansadulaev/763
Theres no subtitles on the interview he does here so if you dont understand Russian at all no point in watching it. TLDR is that in his opinion Putin has almost no actual authority to make important decisions in any sphere. Putins job according to him is to function as a go between between the "Feudal Oligarchic Clans" that actually run Russia. What makes this Neo-Soviet boomers take interesting for me is that he doesn't say its a grand conspiracy theory but that its a just more like a natural outgrowth of the Yeltsin system because thats actually what Yeltsin was more or less.
The guy doesn't say Putin is just a straight traitor and clone of Schwab but that he was selected in the 90s to serve in a position that never had any real power to begin with. For example in 2014-15 Moscow did everything in its power to push Donbass against its will back into Ukraine but they did move fast to liberate Crimea. The Neo Soviet Boomer says that if you assume that this was a compromise between the Oligarchic groups that run Russia it makes sense.
Thats where I sort of break with the guys analysis, I cant for the life of me imagine any oligarchs that would have wanted to so much as even liberate Crimea. If you however look at it through the lense of Oligarchs vs Patriots in the military circles coming to a compromise I can see it having a lot of truth. If that take is true it probably follows that while Putin has plenty of friends and associates amongst the Oligarchs he is more or less closer to the patriots in the military side. However to assume the military leadership in general is totally on the Patriotic side would be an error. For example why cant Putin actually just get rid of shoigu? Is Shoigu really the only guy Putin can "trust" in that position? Doubtful. But if we assume the liberal oligarchs have veto power over who gets to be appointed as ministers regardless of what Putin wants Shoigu makes sense. He is the oligarchs man making sure the military doesn't get too influential. In short he was a compromise appointment, not a straight crook like the prior ministers but he was also largely harmless and being from outside the military not to close to the patriotic base. Since the oligarchy will not allow a real patriot from within the military as defense minister that means the military is stuck with Shoigu as the least bad option.
The military desperately needed mobilization but that would not be allowed without giving the oligarchy something in return, kherson, grain deals, etc. The military literally isnt allowed to damage the Ukrainian rail network, they probably asked but the compromise was being allowed to hit the electric grid a little bit. This is the best explanation for Russias schizo approach to the war imo.
Like probably the reason the SMO started so half assed was because the compromise position was the Oligarchs tolerate a half ass smo and if it works the military/patriotic group than owes the oligarchy a lot of favors. If it doesn't work the military owes the oligarchs even more favors to try and scratch out some kind of win from the ruins of the failed initial plan. This would also explain why we havent seen plan Bs and Cs from the military side, its because the military cant make these plans without input and demands from the Oligarchy and Putin personally just doesn't have the power to give the military what they want.
So in the Neo-soviet boomer guys scheme Putin is just a figurehead/guy who trys to make compromises between the different Oligarchic groups who have their own interest and who collectively run Russia. Putin is just there trying to maintain a balance between them and get them to come to consensus but he has no real authority of his own. In my modified take Putin has very little power and still acts as the guy who tries to get the Oligarchs to reach comprise positions but the disagreements are mainly between patriots associated with the military and the Oligarchs and while Putin doubtlessly has friends in the Oligarchy and sympathies left from his Westernizer years he is closer to the military side now and is moving closer all the time. Regardless he still doesn't have the authority to make unilateral decisions and this explains why it looks so much as if he just doesn't like making them. He literally cant.
Of course this is all just some Soviet boomers speculation which i find half convincing but it doesn't require any 5D chess and it explains Putins lack of taking any important decisions, schizo war conduct and schizo/contradictory stuff coming from the Kremlin all the time.
A cogent reading as usual vis a vis the oligarchy and their insidious grip on everything, but not a decisively correct reading on the larger canvass. (Russia in the world)
In 2014 Russia was clearly not ready for war.
They might have packed an impressive military punch against a weaker opponent for a while, but then what? Think of the important diplomatic groundwork that was done over the 8 years . Such improved relations with China and India, Russian influence in Africa, Iran, fickle Turkey cleverly headlocked into compliance on many occasions. The impressive Syria campaign...and what about Belarus, the "closest" Slavic family?Even Lukashenko wasn't really on board with Russia...for so long not recognising the Crimea vote. Time was needed for the development of those 5d support mechanisms and let's not forget the 6d hypersonics ...for when the attrition war phase is over.
There was also the gradual path to food self-sufficiency and general import substitution at home.
Sorry I probably forgot to take my 5d meds again this morning.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the whole time the West was arming Ukraine undercover of Minsk I & II... Russia didn't know? Ukraine is right next door. Russian intelligence couldn't see that Ukraine's army was being built up? And if they did know, which is likely the case, why did Russia do nothing? If Putin was aware of this deception and waited 8 years, all possibilities point to his complicity in setting the stage for the war today. Many of us began to believe the 8 years of inaction was a calculated move. But to what end? The great reset? The long-awaited consolidation of eastern and western elites?
>But a serious war would run counter to the oligarch’s plan to converge with the Western elite. So, somethings got to give. Someone’s got to man up and unleash the Russian war machine.<
All we can do is pray that Russia's patriot bloc rises up. This could be Russia's 2nd великая отечественная война (Great Patriotic War). A battle for her soul.
Вставай страна огромная! - Arise huge nation!
Вставай на смертный бой - Arise to the deadly fight
С олигархической силой темною - Against the dark oligarchical powers
с проклятой схемой - Against the damned schemes
She's the only thing left on the planet worth fighting for.
Head of the Snake, General Armageddon (whoever you are).
This is what has to be done.
Sooner the better.
Blimey! Not really on board with the antisemitism and the murderous war agenda, but the acknowledgment that all is kakistocracy is most welcome.
"Russia deserves a better caste of elites, folks."
Around 2016, I had pretty much concluded that elite rule was pretty much inevitable, a view that was reinforced when I came across Gaetano Mosca and his friends.
My hisitorical examination of political decision-making arose because by 2008 or so, it was becoming clear that the results of elite policies; internationally as well as domestically; in the US as well as Europe; from the mainstream right as well as the mainstream left; were not only uniformly destructive, but democratically unpopular as well. All results, all policies.
So my support for Trump was misunderstood: I saw a vote for him as throwing a log across the road to enmire a juggernaut.
Back then is when I came up with a saying that pretty much summarized my political outlook: "We need a better class of oligarchs." That's my own actual quote.
You should stop; you're beginning to think like a boomer ;-)
> The plan is simple, really. We, uh, kill the oligarchs and we mobilize the country.
> Let’s wind the clock back a hundred some years. These zhids and Liberals wouldn’t dare cross any of us. I mean, what happened, did our balls drop off? Ukraine? That’s just the beginning. And as for the Kremlin’s so-called 5D plan? The West will push us until we squeal …
> Russia deserves a better caste of elites, folks.
> And the patriot bloc is gonna have to give it to them.
Oh wow this is good.
There is nothing more sapping of morale for men in trenches enduing extreme hardships and facing death at every moment than a war with no real purpose, no great objective. A succession of defeats is bad for morale but far, far worse is enduing hardship and imminent death for no good reason. Every soldier needs a great cause to fight for. The Russians in 1941, the Germans in 1944 and 1945 fought on despite huge losses and great defeats because they were fighting for a cause, a reason. The French collapsed in 1940, the Germans in 1918, the Americans towards the end of the Vietnam war despite the huge resources of military material most possessed because they sensed no real reason to fight anymore. This is what Putin is now doing to his forces. Morale is already falling fast (read Strelkov if you doubt this) and without a reason to fight or a hope of victory the process can soon become unstoppable. NATO and the Ukies know this. NATO is and will ramp up its support, and make no mistake they posses hugely greater material and economic resources than Russia, if they chose to use it, and they are making that choice right now.
There is a smell about Putin. It’s the stink of Gorbachov, of a loser, and I have a bad feeling that as things start deteriorating it could soon change into the stench of a Yeltsin. And please don’t think Putin is controlled or influenced by anonymous oligarchs (or bad advisors, or some Rasputin). He’s been in power for nearly a quarter century and has had plenty of time to entrench himself and his cronies in the entirety of the state and the economy. When their army in the Ukraine collapses, so will their public support, and in the disgust and anger at the regime and at the war the risk of a Yeltsin outcome will be high with the West offering inducements (Join the EU, we will rebuild you, make you like Europe and the US) that will of course turn out to have been illusory, but by then it will be too late.
Can the situation be changed? Yes, but only if Putin and his cronies are somehow levered out of power and a new regime mobilizes fully, destroys the bridges across the Dnieper, declares for and uses its full military might for quick and decisive victory. Faced with having to mobilize a million men of their own and to try and cross the Dnieper, NATO will almost certainly have to cut its losses and settle for only Ukraine west of the Dnieper.
Well I’m not a Russian. It’s up to you and your friends, Rolo. It’s time to come to your senses, abandon Putin, try and get rid of him, and hope it’s not too late, because time is running out.
I’m sorry to sound pessimistic, but there is a very, very bad smell starting to come from the Ukraine, and it's not from the Ukies.
As Blumenthal notes, no coverage of this in the corporate ("English language mainstream") media.
The West likes to spout the theory that Putin opposed the oligarchs, but the video of all his houses and priceless possessions make him look like an oligarch, too...I've believed all along that he is Herr Schwab's boy in Russia....Antony Sutton wrote all about the US building up Russia into the best enemy money can buy...his books are now free to read online
And take Russian big Pharma with you on the way out the door.
Two comments:, Rolo:
(1) When one takes a measured and dispassionate look at the conflict between the USSA and Russia, it is obvious that YHWH would side with Russia. The perversion, revision, anarchy, and degeneracy of the WOKE support the WEF. Russia supports its conservative and traditional Orthodox church.
(2) The term 5D is so 20th century. We must look to the future and begin talking about the 6D strategy that will soon be developed by China's Quantum Computers.
Wow. Well, the part about "going down swinging" was the hopeful note struck here. Whatever we think we may deserve, we ain't going to get it.