patrick.net

The clergy and their followers have zero to do with it.

How many Americans are going to die because the money the US could have spent on border security and the fentanyl crisis instead went to this corrupt muppet.

mell says

How many Americans are going to die because the money the US could have spent on border security and the fentanyl crisis instead went to this corrupt muppet.

Are you so naive to think that after war in Ukraine stops our illustrious political class will spend money wasted in Ukraine on border and fentanyl prevention? Or they will start another war, bail out banksters for the n-th time wit 10x more money they spend on Ukraine, or something similar?

Diplomacy now is the way to go and has been for a while

mell says

Diplomacy now is the way to go and has been for a while

Ask Chechens how it worked out for them

A bit of Russian propaganda from our friends at RT:


original link

Off topic, but notice how fast Croatia got NATO and EU membership

In 2011, relations between the US and Russia soured when President Putin accused the US of fomenting protests in Russia over its parliamentary elections. And from there, our State Department decided that Russia and the USA could not even pretend to be friendly.

Jump ahead to 2014: Neocons in the Obama administration figured it was time to cut Russia back down to size. That effort crystalized around the former Soviet province, Ukraine, and blossomed into the US-sponsored-and-organized Maidan Revolution, utilizing Ukraine’s sizeable Stepan Bandara legacy Nazi forces in the vanguard, to foment violence in Kiev’s main city square. The US shoved out elected Ukraine President Yanukovych — who angered America by pledging to join Russia’s Custom’s Union instead of the EU — and installed its own puppet Yatsenyuk, who was ultimately replaced by the candy tycoon, Poroshenko, replaced by the Ukrainian TV star, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky. Ha Ha. Who’s laughing now? (Nobody.)

From 2014-on, Ukraine, with America’s backing, did everything possible to antagonize Russia, especially showering the eastern provinces of Ukraine, called the Donbas, with artillery, rockets, and bombs to harass the Russia-leaning population there. After eight years of that, and continued American insults (the Steele Dossier, 2016 election interference), and renewed threats to drag Ukraine into NATO, Mr. Putin had enough and launched his “Special Military Operation” to discipline Ukraine. Once that started, American Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated explicitly to the world that America’s general policy now was to “weaken Russia.”

That was accompanied by America’s policy to isolate Russia economically with ever more sanctions. Didn’t work. Russia just turned eastward to the enormous Asian market for its oil and gas and utilized an alternate electronic trade-clearance system to replace America’s SWIFT system. Sanctions also gave Russia a reason to aggressively pursue an import-replacement economic strategy — manufacturing stuff that they had been buying from the West, for instance, German machine tools critical for industry.

Russia did sacrifice more than $50-billion in financial assets stranded in the US banking system — we just confiscated it — but, ultimately, that only harmed the US banking system’s reputation as a safe place to park money, and made foreign investors much more wary of stashing capital in American banks. Net effect: the value of the ruble increased and stabilized and Russia found new ways to neutralize American economic bullying.

Europe was the big loser in all that. For a while, Europe could pretend to go along with the US / NATO project, pouring arms and money into Ukraine, and at the same time depend on Russian oil and gas imports. Eight months into the conflict, the US blew up the Nord Stream One and Two pipelines, and that was the end of Europe’s supply of affordable natgas, to heat homes and power industry. In a sane world, that would have been considered an act of war against Germany by the USA. But it only revealed the secret, humiliating state of vassalage that Europe was in. Europe had already made itself ridiculous buying into the hysteria over climate change and attempting to tailor its energy use to so-called “renewables” in history’s biggest virtue-signaling exercise. Germany, the engine of the EU’s economy, made one dumb mistake after another. It invested heavily in wind and solar installations, which fell so short of adequacy they were a joke, and it closed down its nuke-powered electric generation plants so as to appear ecologically correct.

So now, Germany, and many other EU member states, teeter on the edge of leaving Modernity behind. They managed to scramble and fill their gas reserves sufficiently this fall to perhaps squeak through winter without freezing to death, but not without a lot of sacrifice, chopping down Europe’s forests, and wearing their coats indoors. Now, only a few days into Winter, it remains to be seen how that will work out. We’ll know more in March of the new year. France had been the exception in Europe, due to its large fleet of atomic energy plants. But many of them have now aged-out, some shut down altogether, and “green” politics stood in the way of replacing them, so France, too, will find itself increasingly subject to affordable energy shortages. ...

The USA poured over $100-billion into Ukraine in arms, goods, and cash in 2022. That largesse will not continue as America sinks into its Second Great Depression. In any case, much of that schwag was fobbed off with. The arms are spent, the launchers destroyed. A lot of weapons were trafficked around to other countries and non-state actors. Russia is going to prevail in Ukraine. The news emanating from American media about Ukraine’s military triumphs was all propaganda. There was hardly ever any real doubt that Russia dominated the war zone strategically and tactically. Even its withdrawals from one city or another were tactically intelligent and worthwhile, sparing Russian lives. The Special Military Operation wasn’t a cakewalk because Russia wanted to avoid killing civilians and refrain from destroying infrastructure that would leave Ukraine a gutted, failed state. Over time, the USA proved itself to be negotiation-unworthy, and Ukraine’s president Zelensky refused to entertain rational terms for settling the crisis. So, now the gloves are off in Ukraine. As of December 29, Russia shut off the lights in Kiev and Lvov.

The open questions: how much punishment does Ukraine seek to suffer before it capitulates? Will Zelensky survive? (Even if he runs off to Miami, he may not survive.) What exactly will be left of Ukraine? In 2023 Russia will decide the disposition of things on-the-ground. Failed states make terrible neighbors. One would imagine that Russia’s main goal is to set up a rump Ukraine that can function, but cease to be an annoying pawn of its antagonists. Ukraine will no longer enjoy access to the Black Sea; it will be landlocked. The best case would be for Ukraine to revert to the agricultural backwater it was for centuries before the mighty disruptions of the modern era. Perhaps Russia will take it over altogether and govern it as it had ever since the 1700s — except for Ukraine’s brief interlude post-USSR as one of the world’s most corrupt and mal-administered sovereign states.

Bottom line: Ukraine is and always was within Russia’s sphere-of-influence, and will remain so. The USA has no business there and it will be best for all concerned when we bug out. Let’s hope that happens without America triggering a nuclear World War Three. (Yeah, “hope” is not a plan. Try prayer, then.) Mr. Putin’s challenge going into 2023 is to conclude the Ukraine hostilities without humiliating the USA to the degree that we do something really stupid.

Mr. Putin’s challenge going into 2023 is to conclude the Ukraine hostilities without humiliating the USA to the degree that we do something really stupid.

Russian Center of Gravity since around 900AD Lake Ladoga towns -> Kiev/Konugard -> Vladimir -> Moscow

Ukraine hasn't been a functional country in 800 years. It was crushed by the Golden Horde and ruled direct, unlike forested Northern Russia which was tribuatory.

The Liberal government is spending more than $400 million to buy air-defence systems for Ukraine even though the Canadian Forces has been without such equipment for more than a decade.

Defence Minister Anita Anand announced Tuesday that Canada would purchase a "National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System" and associated munitions from the United States to donate to Ukraine. A NASAMS is a short- to medium-range ground-based air-defence system that protects against drone, missile and aircraft attacks. The donation will cost Canadian taxpayers approximately $406 million.

Patrick says

Except literally half of the USSR's whole budged is "secret articles". But these probably go to unicorn farms and such.

Top US general inspects Ukrainian troops
Mark Milley visited a German camp to oversee the Pentagon’s newly expanded training program

Here's Biden last year assuring us that we wouldn't send tanks to Ukraine because that means "World War 3" 😬

German foreign minister: "We are fighting a war against Russia"

NTB Staff
Jan 25, 2023

Last I checked, Germany wasn't, in fact, at war with Russia.

If it were, NATO treaties would kick in and WWIII would officially start.

https://notthebee.com/article/german-foreign-minister-we-are-fighting-a-war-with-russia

German foreign minister: "We are fighting a war against Russia"

NTB Staff
Jan 25, 2023

Last I checked, Germany wasn't, in fact, at war with Russia.

If it were, NATO treaties would kick in and WWIII would officially start.

25th January, 2023 12:53 IST
Putin In Negotiation With Taliban To Procure US Arms In Exchange For Recognition: Insider
"Putin is overseeing negotiations with Taliban to recognise its government. In return, he is offering a major arms and military swap," channel claimed.