thesaker | The blowing up of Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) –
everybody knows who did it, but the suspect cannot be named – took to
the next level the two-pronged imperial project of cutting off cheap
Russian energy from Europe and destroying the German economy.
From the imperial perspective, the ideal subplot is the emergence of a
US-controlled Intermarium – from the Baltic and the Adriatic to the
Black Sea – led by Poland, exercising some sort of new hegemony in
Europe, on the heels of the Three Seas Initiative.
But as it stands, that remains a wet dream.
On the dodgy “investigation” of what really happened to NS and NS2,
Sweden was cast as The Cleaner, as if this was a sequel of Quentin
Tarantino’s crime thriller Pulp Fiction.
That’s why the results of the “investigation” cannot be shared with
Russia. The Cleaner was there to erase any incriminating evidence.
As for the Germans, they willingly accepted the role of patsies.
Berlin claimed it was sabotage, but would not dare to say by whom.
This is actually as sinister as it gets, because Sweden, Denmark and
Germany, and the whole EU, know that if you really confront the Empire,
in public, the Empire will strike back, manufacturing a war on European
soil. This is about fear – and not fear of Russia.
The Empire simply cannot afford to lose the “garden.” And the
“garden” elites with an IQ over room temperature know they are dealing
with a psychopathic serial killer entity which simply cannot be
appeased.
Meanwhile, the arrival of General Winter in Europe portends a
socio-economic descent into a maelstrom of darkness – unimaginable only a
few months ago in the supposedly “garden” of humanity, so far away from
the rumbles across the “jungle.”
Well, from now on barbarism begins at home. And Europeans should
thank the American “ally” for it, skillfully manipulating fearful,
vassalized EU elites.
Way more dangerous though is a specter that very few are able to
identify: the imminent Syrianization of Europe. That will be a direct
consequence of the NATO debacle in Ukraine.
The Syrianization of Europe
In the Ukrainian battlefield, NATO’s crusade against Russia is doomed
– even as in several nodes as much as 80 percent of the fighting forces
feature NATO personnel. Wunderwaffen such as HIMARS are few
and far between. And depending on the result of the US mid-term
elections, weaponization will dry out in 2023.
Ukraine, by the spring of 2023, may be reduced to no more than an
impoverished, rump black hole. The imperial Plan A remains
Afghanization: to operate an army of mercenaries capable of targeted
destabilization and or/terrorist incursions into the Russian Federation.
In parallel, Europe is peppered with American military bases.
All those bases may play the role of major terror bases – very much
like in Syria, in al-Tanf and the Eastern Euphrates. The US lost the
long proxy war in Syria – where it instrumentalized jihadis – but still
has not been expelled.
BAR | One would think that Europeans would be outraged to see their already
limited energy supply cut even further but they are strangely quiet. Sweden
announced that it wouldn’t participate in a Joint Investigative Team
because of fears that national security would be compromised. That’s a
strange position to take considering that a terror attack took place
near that country.
The countries involved are more than likely silent because they know
that their super power ally, the United States, was involved in the
sabotage. They murmur about Russia being the culprit but they also know
that makes no logical sense whatsoever.
Europe is under the thumb of the United States, which is determined
to turn allies into impoverished vassal states. France is suffering from
fuel shortages created by sanctions against Russia and a general strike
has been called. Italians are also protesting high fuel prices and are
calling for an end to that country’s EU and NATO memberships. But these
governments dare not complain.
The U.S. runs a protection racket not unlike that of its infamous
organized criminal gangs. The state is reminiscent of characters in the
movie Goodfellas, who promised partnerships with local
businesses only to loot them and then set them on fire. The Biden
administration is akin to a mafioso boss. European governments do
nothing but grovel out of fear, which is just what the criminal gang
wants.
The truth of U.S. “partnerships” with allies has been revealed as a
gigantic fraud. In reality these countries are living under occupation
and now there is no pretense that they will be treated any differently
from other countries living under U.S. control. Germany, Italy, Spain,
Poland, and the UK all have U.S. troops stationed on their soil. Germany
has gold reserves held by the Federal Reserves. They are not truly
independent and the Nord Stream sabotage shows it.
Russia isn’t the only country the U.S. is trying to weaken. The
hegemon has come out of the closet. It has no friends, only enemies and
puppets and all end up being treated badly. Europe went along with the
scam only to see the ruble rise in value and the euro decline. It turned
out that Russia had a strong economy while the Europeans were very
weak.
TASS | Moscow is ready to provide all interested parties with detailed
clarifications on preparations by Kiev for a provocation with the use of
a `dirty bomb,’ Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
told Channel One television on Monday.
Earlier on Monday, "the question was answered fully by Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, who commented on the
situation. He pointed to a certain interest among overseas experts and
said we are ready to establish appropriate contact. We want to make it
clear to everybody that we are ready to [answer] any questions and that
we will give the necessary answers, the Russian diplomat emphasized,
adding that Russia had repeatedly reiterated this position.
"What the United States, what Britain and France should do now is
postpone all their business to sit down and review the materials
mentioned by Russia in phone calls and analyze the information in
public," Zakharova said. According to her, the Anglo-Saxon duet had
created another monster who was currently pushing the world to the most
dangerous brink.
Zakharova also said Kiev’s continued shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant was a direct proof of its nuclear blackmail.
Lavrov
told reporters on Monday that the risk of Kiev using a "dirty bomb"
would be on the agenda of a UN Security Council meeting soon. According
to him, some of Moscow’s partners had suggested discussing the
developments at a professional military level, while he dismissed as
"not serious" the West’s rejecting these as false allegations.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, Chief of the Radiation, Chemical
and Biological Defense Troops of the Russian Armed Forces, said at a
briefing on Monday that Russia’s top brass had all forces and means
ready for executing missions amid radioactive contamination. Russian
Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu earlier warned his British, US, Turkish
and French counterparts of the Ukrainian threat. Washington, London and
Paris, however, dismissed Russia’s warnings as false allegations.
navy.mil | OMAN - On October 19th, General Michael
“Erik” Kurilla, commander of CENTCOM, conducted a visit aboard the USS
West Virginia, a U.S. Navy Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile
submarine at an undisclosed location at sea in international waters in
the Arabian Sea.
Kurilla was joined on the USS West Virginia by Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and NAVCENT.
During his visit on board the submarine, General Kurilla received a
hands-on demonstration of the capabilities of the vessel, which operates
globally under U.S. Strategic Command.
“I was thoroughly impressed with the crew of the USS West Virginia;
these sailors represent the highest level of professionalism, expertise,
and discipline across the U.S. military,” said Kurilla. “These
submarines are the crown jewel of the nuclear triad, and the West
Virginia demonstrates the flexibility, survivability, readiness, and
capability of USCENTCOM and USSTRATCOM forces at sea.”
USSTRATCOM forces are on watch 24/7 globally, operating in all domains,
while supporting other commands, to defend the nation and our allies.
West Virginia is one of six ballistic-missile submarines stationed at
Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia, and is capable of carrying up
to 20 submarine-launched ballistic missiles with multiple warheads.
sonar21 | There is an uptick in the panicked speculation about Ukraine using a
dirty bomb in order to fabricate a pretext that would justify NATO’s
intervention in Ukraine. Reminds me a lot of the previous efforts by the
Brits and the Yanks to manufacture a crisis in Syria in August 2013
that would compel the United States and the Brits to send their troops
to aid Islamic rebels seeking to overthrown Syrian leader Assad. Barack
Obama had vowed in August of 2012 that any use of chemical weapons by
Assad’s government would represent crossing a red line that would be
followed by retaliation by the West. Why did Obama balk at responding to
this alleged crime against humanity by Syria? Sy Hersh provided the
answer:
The answer lies in a clash between
those in the administration who were committed to enforcing the red
line, and military leaders who thought that going to war was both
unjustified and potentially disastrous.
We may be on the cusp of a new fabricated provocation–this one
involving a dirty nuke. The Russian General Staff are taking this threat
seriously and are on the phone to Turkey, France and China to warn
about this plot to detonate a dirty bomb and blame Moscow. The Russians
clearly learned the lessons from Syria and sarin. Remains to be seen if
the current U.S. military leadership has the backbone their predecessors
displayed in August 2013.
Let me take you back 9 years to August 2013. Washington’s political
class had Syrian fever–i.e., they were hot and anxious to overthrow
Syria’s Bashir Assad and the news channels were peppered with dire
predictions of Assad’s imminent demise. Then came word of an alleged
“sarin” gas attack on Syrian civilians by Assad’s military. At least
that this the story the media was pushing.
I was working inside a SCIF at Fort Bragg at the time and had access
to the intelligence reports about the attack at Ghouta. General Michael
Flynn was the head of DIA at the time. In contrast to the propaganda
being spun by State Department’s INR, the CIA and the media–i.e., that
the Syrian rebels were steamrolling the Syrian government and, wait for
it, Syrian President Assad was on the ropes–DIA did a great job of
honestly reporting the combat activity and the order of battle. The DIA
reports told an entirely different story–the Syrian Army was making
progress in containing the rebel uprising and the combat effectiveness
of the rebels was waning.
Then came the alleged sarin attack by the Syrian government at
Ghouta. Turns out this was a lie. Sy Hersh got the story and did, as
always, first rate reporting:
Obama’s change of mind had its
origins at Porton Down, the defence laboratory in Wiltshire. British
intelligence had obtained a sample of the sarin used in the 21 August
attack and analysis demonstrated that the gas used didn’t match the
batches known to exist in the Syrian army’s chemical weapons arsenal.
The message that the case against Syria wouldn’t hold up was quickly
relayed to the US joint chiefs of staff. The British report heightened
doubts inside the Pentagon; the joint chiefs were already preparing to
warn Obama that his plans for a far-reaching bomb and missile attack on
Syria’s infrastructure could lead to a wider war in the Middle East. As a
consequence the American officers delivered a last-minute caution to
the president, which, in their view, eventually led to his cancelling
the attack. . . .
The joint chiefs also knew that the Obama
administration’s public claims that only the Syrian army had access to
sarin were wrong. The American and British intelligence communities had
been aware since the spring of 2013 that some rebel units in Syria were
developing chemical weapons. On 20 June analysts for the US Defense
Intelligence Agency issued a highly classified five-page ‘talking
points’ briefing for the DIA’s deputy director, David Shedd, which
stated that al-Nusra maintained a sarin production cell: its programme,
the paper said, was ‘the most advanced sarin plot since al-Qaida’s
pre-9/11 effort’. (According to a Defense Department consultant, US
intelligence has long known that al-Qaida experimented with chemical
weapons, and has a video of one of its gas experiments with dogs.) The
DIA paper went on: ‘Previous IC [intelligence community] focus had been
almost entirely on Syrian CW [chemical weapons] stockpiles; now we see
ANF attempting to make its own CW … Al-Nusrah Front’s relative freedom
of operation within Syria leads us to assess the group’s CW aspirations
will be difficult to disrupt in the future.’ The paper drew on
classified intelligence from numerous agencies: ‘Turkey and Saudi-based
chemical facilitators,’ it said, ‘were attempting to obtain sarin
precursors in bulk, tens of kilograms, likely for the anticipated large
scale production effort in Syria.’ (Asked about the DIA paper, a
spokesperson for the director of national intelligence said: ‘No such
paper was ever requested or produced by intelligence community
analysts.’)
When the first reports surfaced about the attack in Ghouta I
immediately started looking at the intelligence briefs to the Joint
Chiefs of Staff that were published in the days prior to the attack. I
reasoned that if the Syrian military was the culprit then the United
States intelligence community would have detected the Syrian chemical
weapons units standing up and making preparations for the attack. Why?
Because the United States was part of warning system for Israel. There
was the fear that Syria might use chemical weapons against Israel and
the United States was using its technical means to monitor the activity
of the Syrian military units that would carry out such an attack. The
Syrians used a binary chemical weapon system. This means that two
chemicals had to be mixed together in order to create a deadly brew.
That type of activity can be detected by intelligence technical
measures. Oddly, there was no prior intelligence indicating any activity
by the Syrian military in the days preceding Ghouta. Nothing. Nada.
Zero. Zip.
Would you be surprised to learn that British and CIA intelligence
officers may have been involved in the Ghouta plot with the mission of
manufacturing a casus belli that would allow the United States and the
United Kingdom to intervene militarily in Syria?
Which brings us back to Ukraine. There is serious concern that the
West is once again trying to concoct a false flag that can be used to
rally a reluctant public to go to war with Russia. Instead of chemical
weapons, the current scheme reportedly involves detonating a dirty nuke
in territory ostensibly under the control of Russia. The Ukrainian
military is suffering catastrophic casualties and, western propaganda
notwithstanding, will have great difficulty sustaining any offensive.
The United States and its NATO allies realize this and are searching for
a pretext to send NATO forces to the rescue. It appears that the West
is considering using the threat of defeating a nuclear attack as the
justification for sending its own forces into the Ukrainian maelstrom.
I think the Ukraine situation is far more dangerous than what
transpired in Syria. Russia’s national security is at stake and the West
is panicked at the prospect of Ukraine being beaten into submission. At
least Russia is doing the right thing–moving preemptively to warn
relevant countries that it knows what is being plotted and that it will
take appropriate actions to counter such an attack if it occurs. We are
sitting on a nuclear powder keg. Pray that cooler heads prevail.
aftershock |The
Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has information about the
Kyiv regime planning a provocation related to the detonation of the
so-called "dirty bomb" or low-yield nuclear weapons.
The
purpose of the provocation is to accuse Russia of using weapons of mass
destruction in the Ukrainian theater of operations and thereby launch a
powerful anti-Russian campaign in the world aimed at undermining
confidence in Moscow.
Recall that at the Munich Security Conference on February 19 this year. President Zelensky announced his intention to restore the nuclear status of Ukraine.
It
should also be noted that during the course of the special military
operation, Zelensky repeatedly called on NATO countries to strike at the
Russian Federation. QUOTE: “What should NATO do? Preemptive strikes so they know what will happen to them if they use it. And not vice versa - wait for Russia's nuclear strikes ... ".
More
recently, on October 22, in an interview with Canadian TV channels,
Zelensky called on the world to strike at the Kremlin if Russia strikes
at the “decision-making center” on Bankova Street, where the Office of
the President of Ukraine is located.
I
would like to recall the likelihood of a complex radiation situation
that may develop around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, the
largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
From
February 24 to the present, the territory of the Zaporozhye power plant
has been subjected to 39 fire strikes by the armed forces of Ukraine,
10 of them using unmanned aerial vehicles and 29 using various artillery
systems.
At
first, the shelling of the station by the Armed Forces of Ukraine did
not cause concern among the world community, since, according to the
conclusion of a number of American experts, the risk of radiation spread
when large-caliber artillery shells hit spent nuclear fuel containers
would be insignificant, and nuclear reactors withstand the fall of a
civilian aircraft.
However,
the forecast of the development of the radiation situation carried out
by our specialists, subsequently confirmed by relevant European
scientific organizations, showed that the release of radioactive
substances would affect almost all of Europe.
In
addition, despite the visit of the IAEA Director General Grossi, the
Armed Forces of Ukraine do not stop attempts to seize the station by
sabotage. So, on September
1, 15 and 30, as well as on October 17, special units of the Armed
Forces of Ukraine tried to land troops across the Kakhovka reservoir and
take control of the nuclear power plant.
According
to the information we have, two organizations in Ukraine have specific
instructions to create the so-called "dirty bomb". The works are at the final stage.
In
addition, we have information about the contacts of the office of the
President of Ukraine with representatives of the UK on the issue of
possible obtaining technology for creating nuclear weapons.
For this, Ukraine has an appropriate production base and scientific potential.
So,
in Ukraine there are nuclear industry enterprises that have stocks of
radioactive substances that can be used to create a "dirty bomb" - these
are three operating nuclear power plants: South-Ukrainian, Khmelnitsky
and Rivne with 9 pools of spent nuclear fuel, which contain up to one
and a half thousand tons of uranium oxide enriched to 1.5%.
At
the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant with storage
facilities for radioactive waste, 22,000 spent fuel assemblies
containing uranium-238 are stored, as well as products associated with
operation - uranium-235 and plutonium-239, which are the main component
of the nuclear charge.
At
the recently created enterprise for the processing of radioactive waste
"Vector", at the Prydneprovsky chemical plant, at the disposal sites
for radioactive waste "Buryakovka", "Podlesny", "Rossokha" can
accommodate more than 50 thousand cubic meters. m. of radioactive waste, which can also be used as components for a "dirty bomb".
In
addition, the Vostochny Mining and Processing Plant produces uranium
ore at two mines out of three with a capacity of up to 1 thousand tons
per year.
It
should also be emphasized that there is a scientific base in Ukraine -
this is the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology, whose
scientists took part in the nuclear program of the USSR, where various
experimental facilities are currently operating, including the Uragan
thermonuclear facilities, as well as the Institute for Nuclear Research
at the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv, where research is being
carried out at the WWR-M reactor using high-level radioactive materials.
I want to remind you that a "dirty bomb" is a container with radioactive isotopes and an explosive charge. When
the charge is detonated, the container is destroyed, and the
radioactive substance is sprayed by a shock wave, while creating
radioactive contamination of the area over large areas, and can also
lead to radiation sickness.
As
a radioactive substance, uranium oxide can be used, which is in the
composition of spent fuel elements stored in spent nuclear fuel storage
facilities and spent fuel pools of nuclear power plants. In
addition, radioactive substances from the spent nuclear fuel storage
facilities of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant can be used.
According
to the plans of the Kyiv regime, the explosion of such a munition can
be disguised as an abnormal operation of a low-yield Russian nuclear
munition, in which highly enriched uranium is used as a charge. The
presence of radioactive isotopes in the air will later be recorded by
the sensors of the International Monitoring System installed in Europe,
with the subsequent accusation of the Russian Federation of using
tactical nuclear weapons.
It
is worth noting that similar information warfare technologies have
already been used by the West in Syria, when the White Helmets filmed
propaganda videos there about the use of chemical weapons by government
forces.
One
of the most resonant and widely replicated episodes is the provocation
organized by the specified non-governmental organization on April 4,
2017 in the city of Khan Sheikhoun.
Pay your attention to the photo in which people taking soil samples are without personal protective equipment. But it doesn't seem to bother anyone! Especially those who made the decision to use a missile attack on the territory of a sovereign country - Syria.
The
Americans, using this provocation as a pretext, without waiting for the
beginning of the investigation and, moreover, the decision of the UN
Security Council, launched a missile attack on the Shayrat airbase,
grossly violating the norms of international law.
It is highly likely that a similar scenario will be used in this case as well.
The
detonation of a radiological explosive device will inevitably lead to
radioactive contamination of the area over an area of up to several
thousand square meters.
Thus,
in Ukraine there is a motive for the use of a "dirty bomb", as well as
the scientific, technical and industrial potential for its creation.
As
a result of the “dirty bomb” provocation, Ukraine expects to intimidate
the local population, increase the flow of refugees across Europe and
expose the Russian Federation as a nuclear terrorist.
The
Ministry of Defense has organized work to counter possible provocations
from Ukraine: forces and means have been put in readiness to perform
tasks in conditions of radioactive contamination.
Barrons | The US and Russian defense chiefs spoke Friday for the first time in
months but Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he saw no interest
from Moscow for broader talks to end the Ukraine war.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin "emphasized the importance of
maintaining lines of communication amid the ongoing war against Ukraine"
during the call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu, said a US
spokesman, Brigadier General Pat Ryder.
Russia's defense ministry confirmed the call and said the two discussed Ukraine without further details.
The defense chiefs last spoke on May 13 when Austin urged Moscow to implement an "immediate ceasefire" in Ukraine.
Russia
did not do so, and Kyiv's forces have since regained swathes of
territory from Moscow's troops in the east and south of the country with
the United States and other Western powers sending in billions of
dollars in weapons.
Austin separately spoke with his Ukrainian
counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov "to reiterate the unwavering US commitment
to supporting Ukraine's ability to counter Russia's aggression," Ryder
said.
Blinken said the United States would keep contacts with
Russia but said that any broader diplomacy depended on President
Vladimir Putin showing an interest "in stopping the aggression."
"We have seen no evidence of that in this moment. On the contrary, we
see Russia doubling and tripling down on its aggression," Blinken told a
joint news conference with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.
Blinken
pointed to Russia's recent attacks on power stations and other civilian
infrastructure in Ukraine and the mobilization of troops who Blinken
called "horrifically, cannon fodder that Putin is trying to throw into
the war."
"The fundamental difference is that Ukrainians are
fighting for their country, their land, their future. Russia is not and
the sooner President Putin understands that and comes to that
conclusion, the sooner we will be able to end this war," Blinken said.
profilesinsuccess | Ed’s wife, Marilynn, was beside him every step of the way through the
BTG journey. In fact, several years before they married, she left CTEC
and became Ed’s first employee at BTG. “She’s my moral compass,” he
says. “Through all the ups and downs, she’s always kept me on the
straight and narrow, and is an exceptional judge of character. She’s got
this sense about her, and she keeps me grounded.” Ed is also grounded
by his remarkable daughters—one a research physician and professor at
Harvard Medical School, and the other a practicing physician in DC who
successfully treated one of the anthrax patients. “As proud as my
parents were of me when I showed them my speech at the White House, I’m
equally proud of my daughters,” says Ed.
Ok I'll weigh in. The question for me isn't whether it's okay to express schadenfreude wrt Walensky. It's how can we pressure her, as executor of a family trust whose $ comes from her father's role in Titan Corporation, to pay reparations to Titan's torture victims in Abu Ghraib
Ed’s engagement in the
business community has remained strong in the wake of selling BTG. In
2006, he joined with a team of investors to form a Special Purpose
Acquisition Corporation, raising $126 million in the public market to
purchase a civilian government contractor called ATS Corporation. Ed
served as CEO of ATS, leading it to flourish until it was sold in 2010
to Salient Technologies, Inc.
Ed then shifted his focus full-time
to his participation in nonprofit and for-profit boards—commitments he
has prioritized since 1984. Using his “Seven P’s” as guiding beacons,
he has served as a Board member, Advisor, or Committee member of over
fifty organizations, including Virginia’s Center for Innovative
Technology, the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the Technology
Work Group of the Virginia Economic Recovery Commission, and Holy Cross
Hospital.
Education, as well, has remained a passion for Ed, and
although full-time academic teaching never became the focal point of his
career, he taught mathematics at NYU and Kingsborough Community
College. During his tenure at NASA, he taught similar courses at Boston
University and Northeastern University. Later on, he continued to teach
at American University, the University of Maryland, and George Mason
University. He served as President of the Board of Directors of the
Northern Virginia Community College Educational Foundation, as well as
on the Board of Trustees at Virginia Commonwealth University. One of his
greatest honors came when he was asked to serve on the Board of
Trustees at New York University, his Alma Mater, and more recently, he
was invited by Governor Terry McAuliffe to serve on the Board of the
Virginia 529 Program. “It’s a lot of fun,” he says. “We have to think
about how you finance a college education, and what the return on
capital for that education will look like in 20 years.”
In
advising young people entering the working world today, Ed underscores
the importance of commitment as a foundation for laying out the Seven
P’s. “Nothing is easy,” he says. “Don’t flounder. Figure out what you
want to do and then go do it. And when you face setbacks, remember you
have two choices. You can go back to bed and hide, or you can go to work
and put on a brave face. Those moments will be your waypoints, and I
hope you choose to do what you have to do, rather than what you might
want to do in that moment.”
Beyond that, Ed has found that the
Seven P’s tend to lead people to that ideal ground where altruism and
self-interest intersect. “Self-interest is fine, but never at the
expense of others,” he says. “Altruism is wonderful, but you can’t have a
mission without money. I think the real value set is all about pursuing
something of importance, but in a business-like way so you ensure you
have the resources to actually accomplish it.”
From his days
delivering papers and playing street ball in Manhattan, to his
introduction of President Bill Clinton at the White House, to his legacy
of leadership throughout the DC business community, Ed’s astounding
accomplishments are the projection of the mission sense that has always
guided him—a pixel-precise vision he hopes the entire country will
reclaim with time. “When I graduated from college and started work at
NASA, every single person in that organization—and across the U.S.—was
aligned and motivated in our goal to make it to the moon,” he reflects.
“Now, I attribute our national sense of malaise to the fact that we’ve
lost our mission sense as a country. Everyone needs that object called
mission—the new moon that inspires them to write their future, and then
go out and live it.”
amidwesterndoctor |In democratic republics, it should not be possible for
unelected groups to forcefully dictate the lives of citizens without
those policies being legalized by the legislative process.
Unfortunately, our bureaucracy has bypassed that process by allowing committees (whose members are appointed rather than being elected democratically) to craft “guidelines” (as this is the limit of their authority), and then have the rest of the government (and media) treat those guidelines as law.
Unfortunately, the members of these committees tend to be individuals
who have been bribed and inevitably arrive at conclusions that support
their sponsors.
Two excellent recent examples were the NIH panel (directly
appointed by Fauci) recommending remdesivir while prohibiting
ivermectin while having extensive financial ties to remdesivir’s
manufacture, and that of the committee which
made the highly questionable guideline for almost everyone to take
statins having extensive financial ties to the statin manufacturers.
Although guidelines should only be treated as advice rather than law (this in fact was the decision of a federal judge), there has instead been a continual push to strengthen the guidelines and force ones that border upon absurdity onto the American people. In California for example,
the state chosen to pioneer vaccine mandates for our nation, countless
parents have been forced to flee the state so their children can remain
in school, and parents who are not financially advantaged have been
forced to make many very difficult decisions because of these mandates
(many of these stories are quite tragic).
Recently this guideline-based governance ratcheted up another notch as California passed a law that
stated anyone physician who provides advice to a patient that conflicts
with a CDC guideline is guilty of professional misconduct. As you can
imagine, this sets a variety of concerning precedents, such as how
“advisement that does not carry the weight of law” can be allowed to
supersede our sacred constitutional freedoms that have been enshrined in
the Bill of Rights, and previously have been consistently upheld by our
courts.
Throughout its history, the CDC and its
advisory committee the ACIP, have consistently voted to approve each
vaccine presented before them, regardless of the evidence against doing
so (and as Steve Kirsch recently proved,
its leadership has willfully disregarded that evidence). This raises an
obvious question; why is it that the ACIP always acts in this way?
When examining complex questions, one helpful strategy, Occam’s Razor,
is to first consider the simplest explanation and see if it fits
relatively well to addressing the question at hand. In many areas of
medicine (e.g. journal publications, research findings, and medical
practices chosen by physicians or hospitals), there is a tendency to adhere to the financial interests of the involved parties.
Not surprisingly, this is also the behavior guideline committees
typically follow so the question naturally becomes: what are the
financial conflicts of interest of the CDC?
consentfactory | The main goal of gaslighting is to confuse, coerce, and emotionally
manipulate your victim into abandoning their own perception of reality
and accepting whatever new “reality” you impose on them. Ultimately, you
want to completely destroy their ability to trust their own perception,
emotions, reasoning, and memory of historical events, and render them
utterly dependent on you to tell them what is real and what “really”
happened, and so on, and how they should be feeling about it.
Anyone who has ever experienced gaslighting in the context of an
abusive relationship, or a cult, or a totalitarian system, or who has
worked in a battered women’s shelter, can tell you how powerful and
destructive it is. In the most extreme cases, the victims of gaslighting
are entirely stripped of their sense of self and surrender their
individual autonomy completely. Among the best-known and most dramatic
examples are the Patty Hearst case, Jim Jones’ People’s Temple, the Manson family,
and various other cults, but, the truth is, gaslighting happens every
day, out of the spotlight of the media, in countless personal and
professional relationships.
Since the Spring of 2020, we have been subjected to official
gaslighting on an unprecedented scale. In a sense, the “Apocalyptic
Pandemic” PSYOP has been one big extended gaslighting campaign
(comprising countless individual instances of gaslighting) inflicted on
the masses throughout the world. The events of this past week were just
another example.
Basically, what happened was, a Pfizer executive confirmed to the
European Parliament last Monday that Pfizer did not know whether its
Covid “vaccine” prevented transmission of the virus before it was
promoted as doing exactly that and forced on the masses in December of
2020. People saw the video of the executive admitting this, or heard
about it, and got upset. They tweeted and Facebooked and posted videos
of Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Bill Gates, the Director of the CDC,
official propagandists like Rachel Maddow, and various other “experts”
and “authorities” blatantly lying to the public, promising people that
getting “vaccinated” would “prevent transmission,” “protect other people
from infection,” “stop the virus in its tracks,” and so on, which
totally baseless assertions (i.e., lies) were the justification for the systematic segregation and persecution of “the Unvaccinated,” and the fomenting of mass fanatical hatred of anyone challenging the official “vaccine” narrative, and the official New Normal ideology, which hatred persists to this very day.
The New Normal propaganda apparatus (i.e., the corporate media,
health “experts,” et al.) responded to the story predictably. They
ignored it, hoping it would just go away. When it didn’t, they rolled
out the “fact-checkers” (i.e., gaslighters).
The Associated Press, Reuters, PolitiFact,
and other official gaslighting outfits immediately published lengthy
official “fact-checks” that would make a sophist blush. Read them and
you will see what I mean. They are perfect examples of official
gaslighting, crafted to distract you from the point and suck you into an
argument over meaningless details and definitions. They sound exactly
like Holocaust deniers pathetically asserting that there is no written
proof that Hitler ordered the Final Solution … which, there isn’t, but
it doesn’t fucking matter. Of course Hitler ordered the Final Solution,
and of course they lied about the “vaccines.”
The Internet is swimming with evidence of their lies … tweets, videos, articles, and so on.
Which is what makes gaslighting so frustrating for people who believe
they are engaged in an actual good-faith argument over facts and the
truth. But that’s not how totalitarianism works. The New Normals, when
they repeat whatever the authorities have instructed them to repeat
today (e.g., “trust the Science,” “safe and effective,” “no one ever
claimed they would prevent transmission”), could not care less whether
it is actually true, or even if it makes the slightest sense.
These gaslighting “fact-checks” are not meant to convince them that
anything is true or false. And they are certainly not meant to convince
us. They are official scripts, talking points, and thought-terminating
clichés for the New Normals to repeat, like cultists chanting mantras at
you to shut off their minds and block out anything that contradicts or
threatens the “reality” of the cult.
You can present them with the actual facts, and they will smile
knowingly, and deny them to your face, and condescendingly mock you for
not “seeing the truth.”
valdaiclub | On October 24-27, 2022, the 19th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club,
titled “A Post-Hegemonic World: Justice and Security for Everyone”,
opens in Moscow. The annual Valdai Club Report “A World Without
Superpowers” will be presented at the conference. This year’s report is
based on the Valdai Club’s hypothesis about the inevitable oblivion of
the “superpower” concept. The opening of the meeting and the
presentation of the new Valdai Report can be viewed here.
Live broadcast on the site begins October 24, 2022 at 9:30 a.m. Moscow Time (GMT+3)
The meeting will be attended by 111 experts, politicians, diplomats and
economists from 41 countries, including Afghanistan, Brazil, China,
Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia,
South Africa, Turkey, the United States, Uzbekistan, and others.
Traditionally, more than half of the participants in the Valdai Club
meeting are representatives of foreign countries, and this year is no
exception.
TAC | Given that American politicians
are always more preoccupied by domestic affairs than foreign policy,
members of Congress are quick to adopt the “true faith.” This faith
explains why for the last eight years members thought a future war with
Russia was a low-risk affair. Ukrainians would provide the cannon fodder
and Washington would provide the expensive weaponry and munitions.
Predictably, Washington’s governing strategic principles are
unchanged from previous U.S. interventions around the world. Muddle
through: masses of soldiers—in this case Ukrainians advised by U.S. and
allied officers—and huge infusions of cash, equipment, and technology
can and will permanently alter strategic reality in America’s favor.
The stupefying air of self-righteousness the Biden administration assumes when it attacks erstwhile strategic partners such as Saudi Arabia
or delivers moralizing lectures to Beijing’s leadership, or when its
media surrogates express contempt for the Russian state, is downright
dangerous. Political figures in Washington are ready to indulge any
transgression if it is committed in the name of destroying Russia.
They do not view U.S. foreign policy in the context of a larger
strategy, nor do they comprehend Russia’s capacity to hurt the United
States, a bizarre judgment of Russia’s actual military and economic
potential.
The result is a toxic climate of ideological hatred making it hard to
imagine a contemporary U.S. secretary of State ever signing an
international agreement renouncing war
as an instrument of U.S. national policy, as Secretary of State Frank
Kellogg did in 1928. But as one of Shakespeare’s characters in the Merchant of Venice warned, “The truth will out.”
The ongoing buildup of 700,000 Russian forces
with modern equipment in Western Russia, Eastern Ukraine and Belorussia
is a direct consequence of Moscow’s decision to adopt an elastic,
strategic defense of the territories it seized in the opening months of
the war. It was a wise, though politically unpopular choice
in Russia. Yet, the strategy has succeeded. Ukrainian losses have been
catastrophic and by November, Russian Forces will be in a position to
strike a knockout blow.
Today, there are rumors in the media that Kiev may be under pressure
to launch more counterattacks against Russian defenses in Kherson
(Southern Ukraine) before the midterm elections in November. At this
point, expending what little remains of Ukraine’s life blood
to expel Russian forces from Ukraine is hardly synonymous with the
preservation of the Ukrainian state. It’s also doubtful that further
sacrifices by Ukrainians will assist the Biden administration in the
midterm elections.
The truth is Moscow’s redline concerning Ukrainian entry into NATO
was always real. Eastern Ukraine and Crimea were always predominantly
Russian in language, culture, history, and political orientation.
Europe’s descent into economic oblivion this winter is also real, as is
support for Russia’s cause in China and India and Moscow's rising
military strength.
In retrospect, it is easy to see how Congress was beguiled by the
denizens of think tanks, lobbyists, and retired generals, who are, with
few exceptions, people with a cocktail level of familiarity with
high-end conventional warfare. Members of the House and Senate were
urged to support dubious strategies for the use of American military
assistance, including reckless scenarios for limited nuclear war with
Russia or China. For some reason, U.S. politicians have lost sight of
the reality that any use of nuclear weapons would overwhelm the ends of all national policy.
indianpunchline | To be sure, the Biden team cannot but be worried that London is
drifting into chaos and the Conservative Party’s faction leaders scurry
around like headless chicken looking for a substitute to Truss who
stepped down on Thursday.
The
British economy is disintegrating and the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Jeremy Hunt anticipates that a cut on the defence budget is inevitable.
That is to say, the Deep State’s fun and frolic in Kiev is no longer
affordable. The UK is heading for hard times, the rubric of Global
Britain looks delusional.
Enter
President Biden. The reports from Moscow suggest that Russians have
hard intelligence to the effect that Washington has demanded from
President Zelensky some spectacular performance on the battlefield as
the midterms in the US on November 8 is round the corner.
That
adds to the enigmatic comment by a second defence minister in London
James Heappey that the conversations that Wallace would be having in
Washington were “beyond belief,” hinting that particularly sensitive and
serious issues were on the agenda.
Indeed,
after arrival in Washington, Wallace headed straight for the White
House to meet up with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Biden’s
point person for the Ukraine war. A White House readout
said the two officials “exchanged views on shared national security
interests, including Ukraine. They underscored their commitment to
continue providing Ukraine with security assistance as it defends itself
against Russian aggression.”
As
British politics descends to skulduggery that will extend into months,
the US will be a stakeholder. Historically, since the World War 2,
Britain led the US from the rear in criticalsituations involving Russia.
Indeed, Biden issued a rare statement on Truss’ exit,
which stated that the US and the UK “are strong Allies and enduring
friends — and that fact will never change.” He thanked her “for her
partnership on a range of issues including holding Russia accountable
for its war against Ukraine.” Biden underscored that “We will continue
our close cooperation with the U.K. government as we work together to
meet the global challenges our nations face.”
Biden
has sent a powerful message to Britain’s political class signalling
that he expects them to come up with a new prime minister who will
faithfully adhere to the compass set by Boris Johnson on Ukraine. In
immediate terms, what does it signal for the Anglo-American project in
Kherson? Will it go ahead? That is the big question.
The
situation in Kherson is assuming the nature of a large-scale military
confrontation, as Zelensky is throwing everything into it in an attempt
to wrest control of the strategic Kherson city, which has been under
Russian control since March, before the midterms in the US.
russia-briefing | In light of the United States threatening Turkish banks with sanctions
and SWIFT disconnection if they continued to operate Russian MIR
payment cards for Russians visiting Turkiye, Ankara has been discussing a
solution.
MIR cards could previously be used to make payments and withdraw
money from the ATMs of five Turkish banks prior to September 2022, when
Russian tourists vacationing in Turkey began to have difficulties using
the cards following Turkish banks withdrawing under US pressure. Private
banks IsBank and DenizBank were later the first to announce that they
would no longer be working with the Russian payment system, and three
public banks, Ziraat Bankasi, VakifBank, and Halkbank, joined them on
September 27, meaning that there are no longer any banks in Turkey that
will accept Russian MIR cards, meaning that Russian tourists cannot make
payments while in Turkiye.
Ankara has proposed using its Troy
national payment system in place of MIR cards, and it is
understood that the Central banks of Russia and Turkiye are discussing
the issue.
Representatives of the Turkish tourism industry have also proposed
launching a system of prepaid cards for Russian tourists that would work
during their time in the country. Russians could pay for such cards in
rubles in Russia along with their tour packages and then use them to pay
for goods and services. Turkiye is a major holiday destination for
Russians with the winter season a huge boost to Turkiye’s tourism
sector.
Troy is Turkey’s national payment system, which has been operating
since 2016. More than 12 million Troy cards were in circulation as of
March 2022.
Should the United States threaten Turkiye with sanctions for using
its own sovereign payment card system, this would create a new era of
the reach of sanctions and possibly destroy the use of SWIFT as a global
payment gateway.
Putin and Erdogan just agreed to hugely expand Turk
Stream pipes and make Turkey the de-facto pipe gas gateway to Europe.
There are no other pipe available. Pipe is superior to LNG transport and
infrastructure. It's a pipe dream to make
Erdogan abandon that economic bonanza and leverage over EU they will
get (joke intended).
Elizabeth Rosenberg flies to Turkey to bludgeon Erdogan into cutting ties with Russia.
Elizabeth Rosenberg came from the Center For A New American Security CNAS - funded by military contractors - and formerly headed by
Victoria Nudelmann nee Nuland.
duvarenglish | Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Treasury Department Elizabeth Rosenberg traveled to Turkey to discuss sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia. US Treasury previously warned Turkish businesses of possible sanctions risks if companies establish relations with sanctioned Russian entities and individuals.
A senior U.S. Treasury Department official traveled to Turkey this
week to discuss sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia
following its invasion of Ukraine, the Treasury Department said, as Washington closely monitors growing economic ties between Ankara and Moscow.
Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes
Elizabeth Rosenberg traveled to Ankara and Istanbul from Oct. 17 through
Octç 19, where she met with counterparts including officials from the
ministries of finance and foreign affairs as well as representatives in
the private financial and commercial sectors, according to a statement.
The Treasury said the meetings "affirmed the importance of close
partnership" between the United States and Turkey in addressing the
risks caused by sanctions evasion.
"During her meetings, Assistant Secretary Rosenberg covered a range
of topics, including the sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia
by a broad coalition of over 30 countries, energy security, anti-money
laundering policy, and countering the financing of terrorism," the
Treasury said.
Treasury and State Department officials engaged in talks with Turkish
compliance officials, financial professionals, and government
counterparts, it added.
Washington and its allies have imposed several rafts of sanctions
targeting Moscow since its invasion of Ukraine, including targeting the
country's largest lenders and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo also traveled to Turkey
in June to discuss the invasion and the enforcement of sanctions imposed
on Moscow.
NATO member Ankara opposes Western sanctions on Russia and has close
ties with both Moscow and Kyiv, its Black Sea neighbors. It also
condemned Russia's invasion and sent armed drones to Ukraine.
At the same time, it has ramped up trade and tourism with Russia.
Some Turkish firms have purchased or sought to buy Russian assets from
Western partners pulling back due to the sanctions, while others
maintain large assets in the country.
But Ankara also pledged that the sanctions will not be circumvented in Turkey.
The U.S. Treasury warned both the country's largest business group
TÜSİAD and the Turkish Treasury Ministry in August that Russian entities
were attempting to use Turkey to bypass Western sanctions.
Turkey has said joining sanctions against Russia would have hurt its
already strained economy and argued that it is focused on mediation
efforts.
ecosophia | It’s been a busy couple of weeks, hasn’t it? A Pfizer executive admitted
under oath that all those claims that the Covid vaccine would protect
you from catching Covid had no data at all backing them. Inevitably,
corporate media flacks are now insisting at the top of their lungs, in
the teeth of ample evidence, that nobody ever made the claims in
question. Ukrainian agents used a truck bomb to damage the bridge that
links Crimea to Russia; Russia, which has supposedly been running out of
missiles since about a week since their forces invaded Ukraine,
responded by sending a flurry of the missiles they aren’t supposed to
have any more to blow up another round of Ukrainian targets, focusing on
the energy and transport facilities the Ukrainians are going to need to
face the massive winter offensive Russia is all too clearly preparing.
The rate of inflation here in the US has reached levels not seen
since Jimmy Carter’s day, while the economy in the US and globally is
reeling in ways that normally signal a serious recession on the way.
The mix of inflation and recession is called “stagflation,” for those of
you who don’t remember the Seventies, and it’s no fun. The prices of
fossil fuels are swinging all over the place, up because supplies are
dwindling, down because a failing economy means that fewer people will
be able to afford to burn them. Oh, and Greta Thunberg has come out in
favor of nuclear power, because it’s less ecologically damaging than
burning coal. (As you’d expect from a child of privilege, the one thing
she can’t possibly imagine is getting by with a lot less.)
There’s
plenty that can be said about any of these things. Just now, though, I
want to focus on something a little different. The events that fill
newspaper websites and give media pundits raw material for their
gyrations don’t happen out of the blue, for no reason at all. They are
the results of cascading chains of cause and effect that ultimately
reach back into the tangled recesses of collective thought. It’s been
pointed out, and truly, that politics is downstream from culture; it
needs to be remembered in turn that culture is downstream from
imagination. The shapes that fill today’s daydreams and nightmares are
anything but irrelevant to the future. They will presently become
cultural icons, and thereafter make their way into the political sphere.
This
is why it’s worth paying close attention to the way that so many people
in the comfortable classes are now insisting at the top of their lungs,
in remarkably shrill tones, that nobody ought to do their own research
or think for themselves. Social media in recent weeks has been full of
that theme. Mention that you’re looking into something yourself or
making up your own mind, rather than believing whatever tripe the
fashionable pundits approved by the corporate media want you to believe,
and you can be sure to field a flurry of denunciations in tones ranging
from clumsy mockery to saliva-flecked rage.
This is new. Not long ago it was still fashionable to give lip
service to thinking for yourself and doing your own research, even
though the unstated rule was that if you did so you had to come up with
the same results as the talking heads on corporate media. No doubt many
of my readers recall how a few years back, asking a woke activist for
evidence for their claims would get the instant response, “It’s not my
job to educate you! You need to go educate yourself.” Go back a few
more decades and you’ll find pundits insisting in smug tones that
liberal democracy was superior to all other systems because it thrives
on free inquiry and the clash of competing ideas.
So how did we
get, in rather less than half a century, from liberal pundits preening
themselves over the open society to their present-day equivalents
demanding blind faith in the dogmatic utterances of officially approved
experts? That’s a complex story, and we can begin it with a famous BBC
documentary titled The Century of the Self, which originally aired in 2002.
ejmagnier | Ukraine, the most corrupt country in Europe, has been chosen as the
best US war theatre for its loyalty to Washington and readiness to play
the most crucial role in confronting Russia regardless of the
consequences. Kyiv is ready to offer the country and its inhabitants to
fight Russia in a proxy war. The US could have done nothing against
Russia without Ukraine’s readiness for sacrifice.
This US objective has been carefully planned since the 2014 Maidan
coup when Washington was responsible for appointing the future Ukrainian
leaders, disregarding the EU interest and well-being. The US-NATO
training of the Ukrainian army for confronting Russia started in 2015
under President Barack Obama and not in February 2022. The current US
administration officially wished to annex Ukraine with minor damage but
had been preparing for war for a long time. He who sows the wind reaps
the storm, and Biden got what had been wished for.
Some people in the West resist the idea that the ongoing war in
Ukraine is between Washington and Russia. However, a four-star general
Jack Keane (former vice chief of staff of the US army), has said that
“the US has invested $66 billion in the Kyiv regime, a relatively small
sum, which helped in arming Ukraine and motivating the public for a war
against Russia. It is quite well worth it. We (US soldiers) are not
doing the fighting, but Ukraine is (on our behalf).”
Moreover, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said that
his country, along with more than forty countries – beyond NATO allies –
have established a Contact Group at the US Air Base in Ramstein,
Germany, “to express commitment and intensify the support to Ukraine.”
The US has been the driving force ahead of all European and western
countries in sending weapons, offering intelligence support and “US and allied Special Forces” on the ground in Ukraine. Many more elements confirm that the US and its NATO allies are directly involved in an entire proxy war to weaken Russia and
outlast President Vladimir Putin by investing more than $200 million
per day to achieve its target. Ukraine just volunteered as a theatre to
defend the “global international security order” (in fact, the US hegemony), as General Mark Milley, the Joint Chief of Staff Chairman, said.
So far, the US has succeeded on several military and economic levels
and gathered enormous gains from the war on Russia in Ukraine. It is
reviving NATO, suspending the Nord Stream 1, selling its expensive gas,
breaking the financial Russian-European relationship and pushing Europe
to send weapons to Ukraine to confirm the continent’s military
involvement. All these are tremendous achievements for the US in a war
where those killed are tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers but no
Americans.
Russia cannot win all its battles against the 30-NATO nations. But
its withdrawal from several cities does not confirm the victory of the
West in the ongoing war. The Russian President is preparing a new army
of hundreds of thousands of men who will plunge into the battle this
winter, which is expected to be harsh on everyone in Europe. Putin has
appointed a new Russian military commander – the seventh since the
Russian war began last February – to lead the upcoming winter battle to
end Ukrainian gains in the east and south of Ukrainian territories and
exhaust the West’s resources. That indicates that more ties of troops
will be seen, and more intelligence services hit on both sides are
expected.
For a long time, the CIA did not act so openly against Russia, and
the United States did not engage in a war of this magnitude against a
superpower country determined to win at all costs. However, Ukraine’s
territory is the theatre of the military operations, and the collateral
(economic) damage affects Europe this time, the natural US partner in
its last decades’ wars. Washington can withstand long years of this war
of attrition. Does Moscow have the patience to sustain a long battle
with the will to win at any cost? It seems so to Putin’s determination
to grab more Ukrainian territories and destroy more of the country’s
infrastructure. Undoubtedly the belligerents are preparing for a hot but
rather cold forthcoming winter.
History observes the shake-up of the Pax Americana that is taking
place in modern times. Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan and other
states are prepared for new world order. This is building up in Asia
with solid industry, an exchange of trade in local currency, large
reserves of food, and a prosperous future for those who represent almost
half of the world’s population. This leaves the West, which means only
11 per cent of the world’s population, struggling to find enough energy
to fill up its gasoline stations and thinking about its crumbling
industry and gas reserves in 2023.
johnhelmer | In war, force and money do the talking on the ground. Not talk in the air.
On the electric battlefield in the Ukraine, the targeting of Russian
attacks is being calculated to cut the command and control links between
the Galician capitals of Lvov and Kiev west of the Dnieper River and
the Russian east, according to fresh analyses prepared by a North
American military specialist in infrastructure demolition.
In the first round this month, he says, the missile raids were a
“reconnaissance in force. The Russians were experimenting with, and
proving, their operational concepts; for instance, how well Iranian
drones perform in concert with their other weapons options and tactics.
They were testing NATO counter- measures as well.”
For the time being, this is allowing the wealthy quarters of both
cities to enjoy plentiful electricity; even rising house prices
according to Kiev realtors in interviews to European media. They are
the sources for western media reporting of how normal and resilient the
two cities are.
However, the BBC is now reporting President Vladimir Zelensky as saying “that
30% of Ukraine’s power stations had been destroyed in the past eight
days. Parts of the capital Kyiv have no power and water after new
strikes on Tuesday.” The state propaganda organ added: “UK defence
intelligence said it was highly likely that Russia had become
increasingly willing to strike civilian infrastructure, in addition to
military targets, since its setbacks on the battlefield.”
The North American military source has a different assessment. “The
power losses in those cities have been targeted to pit those without the
money or means for relief against those who have it. The Russian
General Staff goal, in my estimation, is not to break the Ukrainian
population’s will to fight, or their western backers’ stream of cash and
arms. It’s quite the opposite, in fact. The Russians are even allowing
the electric trains to keep moving between Lvov and Poland carrying
western reporters, rotating NATO staffs, and military resupplies. It’s
to concentrate the new US arms supplies where they can be attacked more
cost-effectively in the east; to prevent Zelensky’s men from
communicating with their units and with the civilians across the
Dnieper, in Kharkov and Odessa; and to allow those who want to leave to
head for Poland and Germany. The Russian general who defeated Napoleon
once called that his ‘Golden Bridge’ strategy.”
He is referring to Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov (lead image, left). The deadline in the Russian calculation is November 15, when President Joseph Biden (centre) will meet President Vladimir Putin (right)
at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, along with a Ukrainian
delegation headed by Zelensky. “A quick glance at Ukrainian rail ticket
sites shows that the trains are still running between Kiev and Lvov. I
don’t believe this is an accident, nor a failure, of the Russian side.
With the escalation this week, I believe we are in the attrition phase
of the Electric War which coincides with the Ukrainian electricity
market data releases, and the approaching Indonesia meeting.”
By sustaining the attacks with low-cost drones, the North American
source comments, “it is unlikely that the Ukrainian utility crews,
certainly exhausted now and terrified from working around the clock to
effect repairs, using what must be dwindling stocks of spares, will be
able to keep up. Where will Ukrainian utilities like DTEK, find in-time
spares for 330kV gear that is unique to Russia and the CIS countries?
Furthermore, will 1000MVA, 750kV-330kV autotransformers, with all their
required metering, control and protection relays, breakers, etc., fall
out of the sky like the Russian, Iranian, or Turkish drones do? The
answers to those questions are nowhere and no.”
“We can anticipate that the strongest attacks, in terms of
concentration, accuracy and impact, will occur with lower temperatures.
Now, with winter just weeks, if not days, away, inclement weather
including high winds, heavy, wet snow — all famous for knocking down
power lines — will only compound the problems for the Ukrainians.”
“Who can doubt that the Russians will coordinate their strikes with
the poor weather, using it as a force multiplier? Just like old Kutuzov
did to the French.”
Algorithms
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Most people look at the Egyptian pyramids and see massive stone monuments,
ancient wonders of the world.
I see an algorithm. An algorithm run on the platfo...
Wokeness in November
-
Regardless of one’s personal feelings about wokeness and the culture wars
(I think such things are important for many reasons, but have also spilt
plenty o...
Return of the Magi
-
Lately, the Holy Spirit is in the air. Emotional energy is swirling out of
the earth.I can feel it bubbling up, effervescing and evaporating around
us, s...
Covid-19 Preys Upon The Elderly And The Obese
-
sciencemag | This spring, after days of flulike symptoms and fever, a man
arrived at the emergency room at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
He ...
Silver
-
Noticed this.
Today is the 11th and Silver is from the 11th Group.
Silver is atomic number 47
"The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom, which de...
-
(Damn, has it been THAT long? I don't even know which prompts to use to
post this)
SeeNew
Can't get on your site because you've gone 'invite only'?
Man, ...
First Member of Chumph Cartel Goes to Jail
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With the profligate racism of the Chumph Cartel, I don’t imagine any of
them convicted and jailed is going to do too much better than your run of
the mill ...
