«the money is being stolen and the weapons being resold somewhere else. [...] Andrew Anglin thinks that the money could be being sent to arm terrorists in Europe.»
There was a commenter on another site who was hungarian and wrote that during the wars funded and supported by the USA for the breakup of Yugoslavia and in particular after the war of aggression against Yugoslavia to split Kosovo, Hungary and nearby countries were flooded by weapons sold by the albanian (and bosnian) gangs, that also being flush with weapons moved into them. This is going to happen again.
That is just "collateral damage", consider this famous Z. Brzezinski interview:
“Q : When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against secret US involvement in Afghanistan, nobody believed them. However, there was an element of truth in this. You don’t regret any of this today?
B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, essentially: “We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war." Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war that was unsustainable for the regime , a conflict that bought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported Islamic fundamentalism, which has given arms and advice to future terrorists?
B: What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?”
What's more important? Some agitated eastern europeans or regime change in the RF and then setting up a chain of DOD/CIA bases on the northern and western chinese borders from which to train, fund and arm armies of "freedom fighters" inside China?
«The key takeaway here for us though is that the West + Ukraine is too corrupt to fight an honest war against a peer or near-peer opponent. Stealing 70% of a war arsenal paid for by the Western taxpayers»
There were huge rumours that during the wars in Chechnya and against the georgian war of aggression against Ossetia the RF military also was very corrupt and many units sold weapons to the opposite side, well funded by the USA. I guess that the reforms put in by V. Putin since 2004 and especially since 2008 have improved matters on the RF side.
On the ukrainian side the USA strategists know very well what is the state of thing; for example in the past pre-war years several military warehouses in Ukraine have been destroyed in fires, so many that it is hard to believe in accidents, and easier to believe that the local garrison and mafias has sold all the contents on the black market and then burned them down to hide the fact that they were empty.
«is a level of graft that makes winning wars impossible.»
My guess is that the USA medium term aim is to *lose* the ukrainian war, even if as slowly as possible, in order to create resentment against the RF by most ukrainians who would then fight an insurgency for many years, inflicting maximum economic damage on the RF. The worst outcome possible from an USA elite point of view is a quick ukrainian victory.
A quick RF victory would be preferable to a quick ukrainian victory, because it would still create an opportunity for a large insurgency for a long time. After WW2 the USA funded a Bandera insurgency in Ruthenia (western Ukraine) for over 10 years that killed up to 35,000 USSR officials and troops, and this despite not having any direct borders with Ukraine, behind which "freedom fighters" could safely retreat to rest, resupply and rearm after operations (they were several years of insurgency in Lithuania as well). Now that Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania+Moldova all have borders with western and south Ukraine, it will be much easier to keep training, funding and arming a long term insurgency after a RF victory.
«it seems that we have an Afghanistan 2.0 on our hands»
That's exactly the goal: a mix of USSR Afghanistan war, and of the USA Afghanistan insurgency, but with the RF as the occupiers this time.
«where Western taxpayer money is sent over in crate-loads, but very little of it actually seems to go towards either the war effort or state-construction or anything related to the supposed mission objectives.»
Most of the money allocated went not to Ukraine but to domestic rea-armament programmes, I guess mostly in anti-China function.
«Put simply: the war is indeed bleeding the West dry.»
Perhaps, but the question for the USA strategists is whether it will be the RF or the USA that will be bled dry first, and they are pretty sure about the answer.
As to that the USA have been able to fund, with "tax cuts", two on-and-off twenty year old wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and during them as a Marine Corps general said "The corps is at war, and americans are at the mall". These hugely expensive wars and occupations have lasted much longer than the USSR war in Afghanistan.
Also in this war the situation of the USA is much better, because while in Iraq and Afghanistan most of the fighting was done by USA troops, in this war and the insurgency war that will follow the fighting will be done by ukrainians and volunteers. "Let's you and them fight!" is a much better situation.
Also the damage on the european vassals is also pretty good for the USA, and their oil&gas and military-industrial complex are going to make big profits from the europeans.
As usual it is silly to think of abstract entities like "the West" or "the USA", what matters is which powerful lobbies are winning or losing.
>Perhaps, but the question for the USA strategists is whether it will be the RF or the USA that will be bled dry first, and they are pretty sure about the answer.
Russia is not the USSR. Putin is not Gorbachev (or Yeltsin, or Khruschev, or Stalin).
Putin has taken what was a ruined state & in 20 years restored it to a world power. That is why this administration & the deep state hate him.
He restored the Russian Orthodox Church, uniting a large faction of Russians behind him.
He restored relations with the Muslim factions as well. The Chechen forces have performed outstandingly in tbe smo.
These moves provide a cohesion within society, and restore internal morality in citizens.
They restored education; something like 1/3 of their university students graduate in engineering.
Our students think math is racist. 🙄
While our deep state drank their own koolaid re: "Russian stupid drunks," Putin quietly leapfrogged the US arms race. Their hypersonic weapons are proving themselves in the real world.
Our latest attempt failed liftoff. 🙄
Russia is nearly self-sufficient. Every sanction put on it has backfired, and brought it closer to complete self sufficiency, as Putin anticipated & prepared.
At the start of the smo, they pushed their arms manufacturing to where it has been keeping pace with their needs. Recently, it started surpassing.
Meantime, we read in Bloomberg that our stockpiles are running low. At the moment, our MIC is happily scoring orders for replacements. But what will they do if & when Russia and/or China cuts off access to critical raw materials and/or components?
Russia is in no hurry. They are using a fraction of their full military. Their forces are rotating in & out as needed, getting experience in a variety of situations, & are now possibly the most battle-hardened & cohesive in the world.
Our woke military is in self-destruct mode.
Putin is pursuing diplomacy, working with leaders to provide victims of UK/US/WEF colonialism an alternative to the IMF scam. Notably, he has stated that if they want to join BRICS, defaulting IMF loans won't be held against them.
Bottom line is our deep state puppet regime pursues diplomacy like a bunch of school yard bullies & is driving us off a cliff.
«Russia is not the USSR. Putin is not Gorbachev (or Yeltsin, or Khruschev, or Stalin). Putin has taken what was a ruined state & in 20 years restored it to a world power.»
The RF is today a lot weaker than the USSR, even if it is a in a lot better state than after the post-USSR collapse. It is not even remotely a world power.
V. Putin himself in February 2022 acknowledged that when writing:
“In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union grew weaker and subsequently broke apart. [...] Of course, practice, international relations and the rules regulating them had to take into account the changes that took place in the world and in the balance of forces. However, this should have been done professionally, smoothly, patiently, and with due regard and respect for the interests of all states and one’s own responsibility.”
Note that “changes [...] in the balance of forces”. V. Putin recognizes that the USA became an hyperpower, he just expected it to be done in a diplomatic way, rather than a neocon way, as described in:
My guess is that V. Putin's calculation is that it has enough resources to prevail in Ukraine and then afford 20 years of insurgency in western Ukraine; I think that is feasible, but it is also the most the RF can afford. Note that the goal of the USA elites is not defeating the RF, but grinding it down until regime change happens (and ideally breaking it up like Yugoslavia and the USSR).
«Russia is nearly self-sufficient. Every sanction put on it has backfired, and brought it closer to complete self sufficiency, as Putin anticipated & prepared.»
In part that was an USA miscalculation, but perhaps not: note that the USA sanctions against the RF have caused problems for the europeans, but not for the USA, and actually the sales opportunities of USA corporates have improved.
The european vassals of the USA have a choice between the damage of USA sanctions against the RF, or the against themselves, so they have chosen accordingly.
«Meantime, we read in Bloomberg that our stockpiles are running low. At the moment, our MIC is happily scoring orders for replacements.»
The usians are not at war, they are at the mall :-). Also this war is much better than Afghanistan or Iraq because it is ukrainian troops that are doing the fighting and dying.
«But what will they do if & when Russia and/or China cuts off access to critical raw materials and/or components?»
The USA control 90% of worldwide commerce and raw resources, and anyhow USA military strategists have analyzed supply chains and created huge (really huge) stocks of critical materials (much to the profit of suppliers too), including large stocks of computer components and raw metals for example.
«Notably, he has stated that if they want to join BRICS, defaulting IMF loans won't be held against them.»
Sure, but for most states being USA vassals still gives access to much bigger markets and resources than being PRC satellites. The USA elites are splitting the world market in two, a bigger USA one and a smaller PRC one (which includes the RF), because they know that currently most states will choose their side, and perhaps in 20-30 years time they would instead choose the PRC side (note: there is no RF side, the RF does not have the size and resources to be a rival to either the PRC or the USA).
«Bottom line is our deep state puppet regime pursues diplomacy like a bunch of school yard bullies & is driving us off a cliff.»
Quite the opposite I reckon: the USA political class are usually just "relatable buffoons" doing PR for their corporate sponsors, but those corporate sponsors and the deep state are actually highly skilled predators who are well informed and cleverly calculate odds. Again, they can hire the best and brightest from across the planet as minions by waving a green card.
All this said I think there is a good chance that the RF will manage to get a positive outcome from the "special military operation" but a lot of that will depend in the long term on PRC support, as the last thing that the PRC want is a "yeltsinized" RF allowing a chain of DOD/CIA bases on their borders funding, training and arming a lot of "freedom fighter" armies inside China-mainland.
«They restored education; something like 1/3 of their university students graduate in engineering.»
What I hear from russians today is that the USSR education system has not been restored, but is not quite as terrible (all the valuable people had emigrated) as during the collapse years, and opinions differ as to how whether it is somewhat bad or somewhat good.
«Our students think math is racist. 🙄»
This is something that most usians don't get: the USA elites don't care at all about education in the USA because they can get any number of cheap top-level educated graduates as immigrants. Why waste taxpayer money educating usians when the taxpayers of other countries are very willing to educate their best and brightest to the highest standards for emigration to the USA?
> create resentment against the RF by most ukrainians who would then fight an insurgency for many years
Russia gonna start supplying guns to Mexican-American narco-terrorists in the Southwest? Throw in a few for Black Nationalists or even White Nationalists. And don’t forget the Aztlan types. The southern border is wide open. #LetTheGamesBegin
«Russia gonna start supplying guns to Mexican-American narco-terrorists in the Southwest?»
It is as Rolo says that the RF cannot do "active measures" but also a fundamental dissymmetry: the countries bordering the USA are strictly vassals of the USA elites, where the USA military can do whatever they want, but the countries bordering the RF are not RF vassals, but USA vassals too, with exception of the PRC, and the partial exception of the "stans", where however USA "active measures" are in operation.
It is "domino theory" (or "'go' theory): the USA-controlled domino pieces are right up to the RF border (which is one of the reasons for the "sepcial military operation"), the RF-controlled ones are one or two oceans away, except for Cuba which is irrelevant.
I was wondering what all Russia was gaining with the continuation of the war but I see that the drain on the West is a good reason. Thanks Rolo. I don't know how to send crypto yet but hang in there.
«Ukrainian troops complaining that they have no weapons or have inferior weapons and that wages are going unpaid.»
There is BTW a simple explanation for this: the ukrainian government was a failed state and was already bankrupt *before* the "special military operation". Military operations cost a lot of money, and the ukrainian government never had the money to resist an RF operation.
My guess is that the USA are drip-feeding money into the ukrainian government (as loans of course, to be repaid eventually by selling all ukrainian state assets cheaply to USA corporations) to ensure that their defeat as bloody and slow as possible, creating maximum resentment by western ukrainians against the "kastaps" and then have an insurgency that is as bloody and slow as possible, because the intermediate goal is regime change in the RF and to break it up.
I guess you don't get how "the system" works: the "Washington Consensus" area is not totalitarian, the media etc. are not 100% controlled, there is no active preventive censorship like in formal dictatorships.
What "the authorities" care about is stories and media that get traction, that move markets or votes, they don't care much about fringes, except in part to discredit them by occasionally injecting noise in those fringes. When something gets popular then they care a lot, and act brutally and swiftly.
So you can find quite a bit of reliable information in the "back pages" of popular media, in unpopular media like "trade" magazines, etc.; many journalists who know very well that publishing "unaligned" content in popular places is career-terminating still play the game of slipping real information in the back pages etc. often under innocuous sounding titles and with very anodyne wording. Reading media requires a certain skill, real information is precious and dangerous and rare.
"they don't care much about fringes, except in part to discredit them by occasionally injecting noise in those fringes"
This is pretty much how it works. This is why people like Tucker Carlson or Noam Chomsky who say some good things are allowed to stay, but no one beyond that periphery. I think it's ok for CBS to air this because, as Rolo said, no one really cares anymore anyway and won't even pay attention.
They really shot themselves by switching the covid hoax for the Ukraine hoax and now they need a new one. The MIC will also need a new cash cow after the Ukraine hoax is over. I don't think it's any coincidence that this happened soon after we pulled out of Afghanistan. I think it's pretty obvious that sending billions/trillions to "defend" Taiwan is next on the list.
CBS News announced Monday that it had “removed a tweet promoting” the doc, assuring that since it was filmed, control over deliveries had improved. “Additionally, the US military has confirmed that defense attache Brigadier General Garrick M. Harmon arrived in Kiev in August for arms control and monitoring. We are updating our documentary to reflect this new information and air at a later date,” the network explained."
Russia started off this war with broad offensives against major targets like Kiev, now it has been reduced to boasting about capturing "fortified farms" on the outskirts of villages and towns in Eastern Ukraine nobody has ever heard of.
Russian propagandists have been talking about how corrupt Ukrainians sold them CAESAR artillery pieces and even the HIMARS, of course they still haven't shown any photographic proof of this, meanwhile we have photos of Ukrainians actually capturing Russia's most advanced attack helicopter, the Ka-52.
The only entity being bled dry is the Russian Federation, NATO countries have a combined GDP of around $45t, the aid being sent to Ukraine is a drop in the water. Russia meanwhile is asking Iran for drones and Syria/NK for troops, because contrary to popular misconceptions, Russia has indeed sent it's best troops in, mobilization would just mean sending in the dogshit conscripts who would be a liability rather than an asset in the long run, not to mention the extra strain on already stretched logistic chains.
I have been reading about the imminent collapse of the AFU since April, according to Russian MoD figured, the AFU has been destroyed completely, yet the slow pace of advance in Donbas still continues.
All in all, interest in this war will not subside anytime soon, it being a modern, mechanized war in the heart of Europe.
A useless measure. What matters is the real economy - the ability to take raw materials and turn them into valuable products.»
Indeed, especially for a "war economy", which is usually run on a "command", rather than "market", basis. Which is a situation that the RF has not reached yet.
From a "war economy" point of view the RF is indeed much stronger than GDP figures suggest, especially as it is self-sufficient in fuels and cereals (the fundamentals of any war). But same for the USA.
The question is whether the RF will be forced to switch to a "war economy" (as V. Putin said “we have not started anything serious yet”) and whether after a while that will cause "regime change", which seems to be what the USA strategists hope for.
Kiev was a feint, intended to hold UKR troops in place while Russia placed troops in strategic points around Donbass. And it worked.
Progress is slow for 3 reasons:
*The US spent 8 years building heavy fortifications around cities. It takes time to clear those.
* Russia is trying to minimize civilian casualties . UKR Nazis are using civilians as human shields. Even Amnesty Intl has called them out for that.
* Russia is rebuilding as it goes. It's also re-arming (ie, manufacturing replacement arms) as it goes. It reached a point, not long ago, when its arms manufacturing picked up the pace where it was faster than being used up. Now the military has picked up its pace.
Larry Johnson found a working link to the documentary on rumble. Here's a link to his post (the doc is embedded on the post) with his take on this & more:
«the money is being stolen and the weapons being resold somewhere else. [...] Andrew Anglin thinks that the money could be being sent to arm terrorists in Europe.»
There was a commenter on another site who was hungarian and wrote that during the wars funded and supported by the USA for the breakup of Yugoslavia and in particular after the war of aggression against Yugoslavia to split Kosovo, Hungary and nearby countries were flooded by weapons sold by the albanian (and bosnian) gangs, that also being flush with weapons moved into them. This is going to happen again.
That is just "collateral damage", consider this famous Z. Brzezinski interview:
https://dgibbs.faculty.arizona.edu/brzezinski_interview
“Q : When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against secret US involvement in Afghanistan, nobody believed them. However, there was an element of truth in this. You don’t regret any of this today?
B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, essentially: “We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war." Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war that was unsustainable for the regime , a conflict that bought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported Islamic fundamentalism, which has given arms and advice to future terrorists?
B: What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?”
What's more important? Some agitated eastern europeans or regime change in the RF and then setting up a chain of DOD/CIA bases on the northern and western chinese borders from which to train, fund and arm armies of "freedom fighters" inside China?
«The key takeaway here for us though is that the West + Ukraine is too corrupt to fight an honest war against a peer or near-peer opponent. Stealing 70% of a war arsenal paid for by the Western taxpayers»
There were huge rumours that during the wars in Chechnya and against the georgian war of aggression against Ossetia the RF military also was very corrupt and many units sold weapons to the opposite side, well funded by the USA. I guess that the reforms put in by V. Putin since 2004 and especially since 2008 have improved matters on the RF side.
On the ukrainian side the USA strategists know very well what is the state of thing; for example in the past pre-war years several military warehouses in Ukraine have been destroyed in fires, so many that it is hard to believe in accidents, and easier to believe that the local garrison and mafias has sold all the contents on the black market and then burned them down to hide the fact that they were empty.
«is a level of graft that makes winning wars impossible.»
My guess is that the USA medium term aim is to *lose* the ukrainian war, even if as slowly as possible, in order to create resentment against the RF by most ukrainians who would then fight an insurgency for many years, inflicting maximum economic damage on the RF. The worst outcome possible from an USA elite point of view is a quick ukrainian victory.
A quick RF victory would be preferable to a quick ukrainian victory, because it would still create an opportunity for a large insurgency for a long time. After WW2 the USA funded a Bandera insurgency in Ruthenia (western Ukraine) for over 10 years that killed up to 35,000 USSR officials and troops, and this despite not having any direct borders with Ukraine, behind which "freedom fighters" could safely retreat to rest, resupply and rearm after operations (they were several years of insurgency in Lithuania as well). Now that Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania+Moldova all have borders with western and south Ukraine, it will be much easier to keep training, funding and arming a long term insurgency after a RF victory.
«it seems that we have an Afghanistan 2.0 on our hands»
That's exactly the goal: a mix of USSR Afghanistan war, and of the USA Afghanistan insurgency, but with the RF as the occupiers this time.
«where Western taxpayer money is sent over in crate-loads, but very little of it actually seems to go towards either the war effort or state-construction or anything related to the supposed mission objectives.»
Most of the money allocated went not to Ukraine but to domestic rea-armament programmes, I guess mostly in anti-China function.
«Put simply: the war is indeed bleeding the West dry.»
Perhaps, but the question for the USA strategists is whether it will be the RF or the USA that will be bled dry first, and they are pretty sure about the answer.
As to that the USA have been able to fund, with "tax cuts", two on-and-off twenty year old wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and during them as a Marine Corps general said "The corps is at war, and americans are at the mall". These hugely expensive wars and occupations have lasted much longer than the USSR war in Afghanistan.
Also in this war the situation of the USA is much better, because while in Iraq and Afghanistan most of the fighting was done by USA troops, in this war and the insurgency war that will follow the fighting will be done by ukrainians and volunteers. "Let's you and them fight!" is a much better situation.
Also the damage on the european vassals is also pretty good for the USA, and their oil&gas and military-industrial complex are going to make big profits from the europeans.
As usual it is silly to think of abstract entities like "the West" or "the USA", what matters is which powerful lobbies are winning or losing.
>Perhaps, but the question for the USA strategists is whether it will be the RF or the USA that will be bled dry first, and they are pretty sure about the answer.
That is indeed the question.
Russia is not the USSR. Putin is not Gorbachev (or Yeltsin, or Khruschev, or Stalin).
Putin has taken what was a ruined state & in 20 years restored it to a world power. That is why this administration & the deep state hate him.
He restored the Russian Orthodox Church, uniting a large faction of Russians behind him.
He restored relations with the Muslim factions as well. The Chechen forces have performed outstandingly in tbe smo.
These moves provide a cohesion within society, and restore internal morality in citizens.
They restored education; something like 1/3 of their university students graduate in engineering.
Our students think math is racist. 🙄
While our deep state drank their own koolaid re: "Russian stupid drunks," Putin quietly leapfrogged the US arms race. Their hypersonic weapons are proving themselves in the real world.
Our latest attempt failed liftoff. 🙄
Russia is nearly self-sufficient. Every sanction put on it has backfired, and brought it closer to complete self sufficiency, as Putin anticipated & prepared.
At the start of the smo, they pushed their arms manufacturing to where it has been keeping pace with their needs. Recently, it started surpassing.
Meantime, we read in Bloomberg that our stockpiles are running low. At the moment, our MIC is happily scoring orders for replacements. But what will they do if & when Russia and/or China cuts off access to critical raw materials and/or components?
Russia is in no hurry. They are using a fraction of their full military. Their forces are rotating in & out as needed, getting experience in a variety of situations, & are now possibly the most battle-hardened & cohesive in the world.
Our woke military is in self-destruct mode.
Putin is pursuing diplomacy, working with leaders to provide victims of UK/US/WEF colonialism an alternative to the IMF scam. Notably, he has stated that if they want to join BRICS, defaulting IMF loans won't be held against them.
Bottom line is our deep state puppet regime pursues diplomacy like a bunch of school yard bullies & is driving us off a cliff.
«Russia is not the USSR. Putin is not Gorbachev (or Yeltsin, or Khruschev, or Stalin). Putin has taken what was a ruined state & in 20 years restored it to a world power.»
The RF is today a lot weaker than the USSR, even if it is a in a lot better state than after the post-USSR collapse. It is not even remotely a world power.
V. Putin himself in February 2022 acknowledged that when writing:
https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/full-transcript-vladimir-putin-s-televised-address-to-russia-on-ukraine-feb-24
“In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union grew weaker and subsequently broke apart. [...] Of course, practice, international relations and the rules regulating them had to take into account the changes that took place in the world and in the balance of forces. However, this should have been done professionally, smoothly, patiently, and with due regard and respect for the interests of all states and one’s own responsibility.”
Note that “changes [...] in the balance of forces”. V. Putin recognizes that the USA became an hyperpower, he just expected it to be done in a diplomatic way, rather than a neocon way, as described in:
https://asiatimes.com/2022/03/the-vindication-of-george-h-w-bush/
My guess is that V. Putin's calculation is that it has enough resources to prevail in Ukraine and then afford 20 years of insurgency in western Ukraine; I think that is feasible, but it is also the most the RF can afford. Note that the goal of the USA elites is not defeating the RF, but grinding it down until regime change happens (and ideally breaking it up like Yugoslavia and the USSR).
«Russia is nearly self-sufficient. Every sanction put on it has backfired, and brought it closer to complete self sufficiency, as Putin anticipated & prepared.»
In part that was an USA miscalculation, but perhaps not: note that the USA sanctions against the RF have caused problems for the europeans, but not for the USA, and actually the sales opportunities of USA corporates have improved.
The european vassals of the USA have a choice between the damage of USA sanctions against the RF, or the against themselves, so they have chosen accordingly.
«Meantime, we read in Bloomberg that our stockpiles are running low. At the moment, our MIC is happily scoring orders for replacements.»
The usians are not at war, they are at the mall :-). Also this war is much better than Afghanistan or Iraq because it is ukrainian troops that are doing the fighting and dying.
«But what will they do if & when Russia and/or China cuts off access to critical raw materials and/or components?»
The USA control 90% of worldwide commerce and raw resources, and anyhow USA military strategists have analyzed supply chains and created huge (really huge) stocks of critical materials (much to the profit of suppliers too), including large stocks of computer components and raw metals for example.
«Notably, he has stated that if they want to join BRICS, defaulting IMF loans won't be held against them.»
Sure, but for most states being USA vassals still gives access to much bigger markets and resources than being PRC satellites. The USA elites are splitting the world market in two, a bigger USA one and a smaller PRC one (which includes the RF), because they know that currently most states will choose their side, and perhaps in 20-30 years time they would instead choose the PRC side (note: there is no RF side, the RF does not have the size and resources to be a rival to either the PRC or the USA).
«Bottom line is our deep state puppet regime pursues diplomacy like a bunch of school yard bullies & is driving us off a cliff.»
Quite the opposite I reckon: the USA political class are usually just "relatable buffoons" doing PR for their corporate sponsors, but those corporate sponsors and the deep state are actually highly skilled predators who are well informed and cleverly calculate odds. Again, they can hire the best and brightest from across the planet as minions by waving a green card.
All this said I think there is a good chance that the RF will manage to get a positive outcome from the "special military operation" but a lot of that will depend in the long term on PRC support, as the last thing that the PRC want is a "yeltsinized" RF allowing a chain of DOD/CIA bases on their borders funding, training and arming a lot of "freedom fighter" armies inside China-mainland.
«They restored education; something like 1/3 of their university students graduate in engineering.»
What I hear from russians today is that the USSR education system has not been restored, but is not quite as terrible (all the valuable people had emigrated) as during the collapse years, and opinions differ as to how whether it is somewhat bad or somewhat good.
«Our students think math is racist. 🙄»
This is something that most usians don't get: the USA elites don't care at all about education in the USA because they can get any number of cheap top-level educated graduates as immigrants. Why waste taxpayer money educating usians when the taxpayers of other countries are very willing to educate their best and brightest to the highest standards for emigration to the USA?
> create resentment against the RF by most ukrainians who would then fight an insurgency for many years
Russia gonna start supplying guns to Mexican-American narco-terrorists in the Southwest? Throw in a few for Black Nationalists or even White Nationalists. And don’t forget the Aztlan types. The southern border is wide open. #LetTheGamesBegin
No active measures.
«Russia gonna start supplying guns to Mexican-American narco-terrorists in the Southwest?»
It is as Rolo says that the RF cannot do "active measures" but also a fundamental dissymmetry: the countries bordering the USA are strictly vassals of the USA elites, where the USA military can do whatever they want, but the countries bordering the RF are not RF vassals, but USA vassals too, with exception of the PRC, and the partial exception of the "stans", where however USA "active measures" are in operation.
It is "domino theory" (or "'go' theory): the USA-controlled domino pieces are right up to the RF border (which is one of the reasons for the "sepcial military operation"), the RF-controlled ones are one or two oceans away, except for Cuba which is irrelevant.
I was wondering what all Russia was gaining with the continuation of the war but I see that the drain on the West is a good reason. Thanks Rolo. I don't know how to send crypto yet but hang in there.
CNN just aired interview with Pink Floyd calling Biden a war criminal.
Per Intel Slava Z, looks like a broad offensive is starting.
Msm must be trying to get ahead of the coming crash into reality.
«Ukrainian troops complaining that they have no weapons or have inferior weapons and that wages are going unpaid.»
There is BTW a simple explanation for this: the ukrainian government was a failed state and was already bankrupt *before* the "special military operation". Military operations cost a lot of money, and the ukrainian government never had the money to resist an RF operation.
My guess is that the USA are drip-feeding money into the ukrainian government (as loans of course, to be repaid eventually by selling all ukrainian state assets cheaply to USA corporations) to ensure that their defeat as bloody and slow as possible, creating maximum resentment by western ukrainians against the "kastaps" and then have an insurgency that is as bloody and slow as possible, because the intermediate goal is regime change in the RF and to break it up.
How in the world was cbs allowed to publish this?
«was cbs allowed to publish this?»
I guess you don't get how "the system" works: the "Washington Consensus" area is not totalitarian, the media etc. are not 100% controlled, there is no active preventive censorship like in formal dictatorships.
What "the authorities" care about is stories and media that get traction, that move markets or votes, they don't care much about fringes, except in part to discredit them by occasionally injecting noise in those fringes. When something gets popular then they care a lot, and act brutally and swiftly.
So you can find quite a bit of reliable information in the "back pages" of popular media, in unpopular media like "trade" magazines, etc.; many journalists who know very well that publishing "unaligned" content in popular places is career-terminating still play the game of slipping real information in the back pages etc. often under innocuous sounding titles and with very anodyne wording. Reading media requires a certain skill, real information is precious and dangerous and rare.
"they don't care much about fringes, except in part to discredit them by occasionally injecting noise in those fringes"
This is pretty much how it works. This is why people like Tucker Carlson or Noam Chomsky who say some good things are allowed to stay, but no one beyond that periphery. I think it's ok for CBS to air this because, as Rolo said, no one really cares anymore anyway and won't even pay attention.
They really shot themselves by switching the covid hoax for the Ukraine hoax and now they need a new one. The MIC will also need a new cash cow after the Ukraine hoax is over. I don't think it's any coincidence that this happened soon after we pulled out of Afghanistan. I think it's pretty obvious that sending billions/trillions to "defend" Taiwan is next on the list.
I should have written "aired" not published, since its a documentary.
No back pages to bury it in. Wonder if it aired prime time or middle of night.
Also "context." See what else I posted above.
I clicked to go to CBS website and the page is blank.
Hmmm...now it says page has been removed. There was a cbs tweet with trailer. Wonder if that's still around.
They got pressure from somewhere.
CBS News announced Monday that it had “removed a tweet promoting” the doc, assuring that since it was filmed, control over deliveries had improved. “Additionally, the US military has confirmed that defense attache Brigadier General Garrick M. Harmon arrived in Kiev in August for arms control and monitoring. We are updating our documentary to reflect this new information and air at a later date,” the network explained."
Ukraine or Taiwan?
Why not both? 😂💰💰💰
#griftmaxxing
Russia started off this war with broad offensives against major targets like Kiev, now it has been reduced to boasting about capturing "fortified farms" on the outskirts of villages and towns in Eastern Ukraine nobody has ever heard of.
Russian propagandists have been talking about how corrupt Ukrainians sold them CAESAR artillery pieces and even the HIMARS, of course they still haven't shown any photographic proof of this, meanwhile we have photos of Ukrainians actually capturing Russia's most advanced attack helicopter, the Ka-52.
The only entity being bled dry is the Russian Federation, NATO countries have a combined GDP of around $45t, the aid being sent to Ukraine is a drop in the water. Russia meanwhile is asking Iran for drones and Syria/NK for troops, because contrary to popular misconceptions, Russia has indeed sent it's best troops in, mobilization would just mean sending in the dogshit conscripts who would be a liability rather than an asset in the long run, not to mention the extra strain on already stretched logistic chains.
I have been reading about the imminent collapse of the AFU since April, according to Russian MoD figured, the AFU has been destroyed completely, yet the slow pace of advance in Donbas still continues.
All in all, interest in this war will not subside anytime soon, it being a modern, mechanized war in the heart of Europe.
>GDP
A useless measure. What matters is the real economy - the ability to take raw materials and turn them into valuable products.
«>GDP
A useless measure. What matters is the real economy - the ability to take raw materials and turn them into valuable products.»
Indeed, especially for a "war economy", which is usually run on a "command", rather than "market", basis. Which is a situation that the RF has not reached yet.
From a "war economy" point of view the RF is indeed much stronger than GDP figures suggest, especially as it is self-sufficient in fuels and cereals (the fundamentals of any war). But same for the USA.
The question is whether the RF will be forced to switch to a "war economy" (as V. Putin said “we have not started anything serious yet”) and whether after a while that will cause "regime change", which seems to be what the USA strategists hope for.
Kiev was a feint, intended to hold UKR troops in place while Russia placed troops in strategic points around Donbass. And it worked.
Progress is slow for 3 reasons:
*The US spent 8 years building heavy fortifications around cities. It takes time to clear those.
* Russia is trying to minimize civilian casualties . UKR Nazis are using civilians as human shields. Even Amnesty Intl has called them out for that.
* Russia is rebuilding as it goes. It's also re-arming (ie, manufacturing replacement arms) as it goes. It reached a point, not long ago, when its arms manufacturing picked up the pace where it was faster than being used up. Now the military has picked up its pace.
Anyone want to buy a switchblade drone? Only $4k on the dark web!
🇺🇦 US kamikaze Switchblade drones are already being sold on the Darknet. The price of the drone is $4,000.
https://t.me/s/intelslava?before=35239
Larry Johnson found a working link to the documentary on rumble. Here's a link to his post (the doc is embedded on the post) with his take on this & more:
https://sonar21.com/cbs-goes-full-back-flip-and-tries-to-erase-reality/