Note: The Monday Taki post is up. I take up the same theme in the post today, but from a slightly different angle. Sunday Thoughts is up behind the green door and it is all about the big story.
America is a nation of moralizers, which is why every issue is cast as a fight between good guys and bad guys. This is something that goes to the very beginning of the country and it continues to define the culture. We saw this with Covid, where it quickly became a fight between those who worshipped Covid and those who were the villains for not obediently following government commands. We are seeing it with the war in Ukraine, where it is all good guys and bad guys.
Reality, of course, is not white hats versus black hats, at least not when it comes to relations between countries and people. The Charles de Gaulle quip that “No nation has friends only interests” reflects this reality. The moral thing to do in international affairs is that which serves the interests of the people. That will often conflict with what is seen as the right thing to do by some other nation. This is made clear in Ukraine, where Russia is waging a war in what they see as their vital interests.
If one needs to have a moral principle in this area, then it is that a moral government acts in the interests of its people. After all, the point of government, no matter the style of government, is to protect the collective interest of the society. For government to act outside the interest of the society means it is not a legitimate government. It is something imposed on an unwilling population. This is the argument against colonialism, no matter the practical benefits to the locals.
With that in mind we can assess the players in Ukraine. The Russian side is the easiest as Putin has been the most vocal in explaining his motives. The Russians see NATO, especially America, as an expansionist adversary. They are not wrong about this, at least with regards to the United States. The whole point of meddling in Ukraine has been to destabilize Russia. Washington views conquering Russian as unfinished business from the Cold War.
The Russians have had to lie back and take it since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but now they have decided to fight back. From their perspective, Ukraine is the line in the sand and they are acting from both the narrow interests of Russia, but also the historical reality of Eurasia. The Russians, in part, define themselves within the greater definition of Eurasia. Their role is to defend this region, which includes the Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, who they see as brothers.
One can not like the results of this point of view and also respect it. War is an ugly business and it is a tragedy for the people in Ukraine. The Russians are not wrong, however, in how they view the situation. They see they have no choice and it is clear they are right about that. The West has done nothing to seek peace, instead opting to flood the area with weapons. It is a terrible thing, but the actions of Russia align with that old Charles de Gaulle maxim.
One the other side is Ukraine, which is a much more complicated thing as there is more than one player. There is the Zelensky government, which is largely the creation of Washington. Then you have the various nationalists groups. How much they have been supported by Washington is unknown. Then there are opposition groups that want Ukraine to follow the model of Belarus. They are characterized as pro-Russian, but they view themselves as the genuine Ukrainian nationalists.
The easy one to analyze is the Zelensky government. It is clear at this point that they have no interest in the people. They are in this for personal reasons. If they cared about the interest of Ukrainians, they never would have gone down this road. They certainly would not be telling Ukrainians to fight to the death, while they shoot videos for Western consumption in Poland. Instead, they would be ready to take the deal on offer, but that is not where their bread is buttered, so the war continues.
The ultranationalists, on the other hand, are the mirror of the Zelensky government, in that they are motivated by ideals. They have an image of a Ukrainian ethnostate modeled on Israel and Japan. This may be unrealistic or even insane, but they genuinely believe it is in the best interest of their people. The fact that they are being used by Washington as a disposable pawn on the international chessboard is a good reminder that the enemy of the national interests is naivety.
As an aside, this is the appeal to Western nationalists. Nationalism does not exist in the West as a practical matter. There are no nationalists parties, other than those wearing the idea as a fig leaf. Victor Orban is popular with the American Right because he is seen as something that has not existed in American politics for a century. In Western Europe, genuine nationalism is forbidden. This makes the Ukrainian nationalists seem like heroes, despite the disastrous results on the ground.
Finally, we have America, which is the world’s great meddler. The Biden administration could end the war tomorrow, but their real supporters see a profit in prolonging the conflict so that is the plan. This means a decline in the standard of living for Americans and possibly worse. They have repeatedly said that your suffering is the price they are willing to pay for whatever it is they are doing. The interests of Americans count for no more than the lives of Ukrainians.
Of all the players in this war, it is Washington that is the furthest away from the standard implied by Charles de Gaulle quip. There are no American interests in Ukraine and the American people are not benefitting from the war. In fact, Washington is much like the Zelensky government, in that they are acting from narrow self-interest. It was not so long ago when it was revealed that the Biden family had been taking bribes from the Ukrainians going back to the Obama years.
The best one can say about the Washington position is they are demanding you and your family suffer in defense of the abstract principles of liberal democracy. Maybe you can fashion an argument that says they are acting from the interest of the Global American Empire, which benefits some residents of North America. Many nationalists have drawn a parallel between this view and the and Eurasianism while condemning Russia and supporting Ukraine.
The problem with that approach is it puts the self-proclaimed Western nationalists on the side of the Global American Empire and the EU, entities that are explicitly anti-nationalists and arguably anti-Western. This quickly looks like a suicide pact in favor of maintaining intellectual purity in the face of reality. It is a reminder that intellectual purity can be as self-defeating as moral purity when it comes to reality. No man should put his ideals ahead of the life of his people.
In the end we are where history always leads us. There are no good guys or bad guys, no grand morality tale to frame the future. Ukraine is about the nature of great powers, fading empires and the decline of the West under American leadership. War is the violent transition from one scene of history to the next. What must matter to the genuine nationalist is what is best for his people, even if it means being flexible on those noble ideas that are so inspiring in the abstract.
If you like my work and wish to kick in a few bucks, you can buy me a beer. You can sign up for a SubscribeStar subscription and get some extra content. You can donate via PayPal. My crypto addresses are here for those who prefer that option. You can send gold bars to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. Thank you for your support!
Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.
The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.
Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount on purchases if you use this link. If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb. Just email them directly to book at sa***@mi*********************.com.
[…] If they cared about the interest of Ukrainians, the Zelenskys never would have gone down this road and be telling Ukrainians to fight to the death, while they shoot videos for Western consumption in Poland. […]
“it was Putin’s job to resist by building a better civilization in Russia, one that Ukraine and the world would see as a superior alternative” It was, and still is Putin’s job to go into the Ukraine and kick ass. It was his job 5 years ago. This will make Russia a better civilization. Russia keeps its brothers and the remaining smoking ash, well, anybody who wants it and won’t weaponize it against Russia. We are beyond yackity-yack. This country has too many woke yackity-yack lawyers. I say they are a danger to the climate. They expel way too much… Read more »
“The Biden administration could end the war tomorrow, but their real supporters see a profit in prolonging the conflict so that is the plan. ” The basic question is who are these real supporters and what is their objective for the war. “The best one can say about the Washington position is they are demanding you and your family suffer in defense of the abstract principles of liberal democracy. I believed this 20 years ago and during the Bush II period War on Terror. I no longer believe this drives the perpetuation of the war. I have also been a… Read more »
The Ukrainians are fighting for something they won’t be allowed to have if they win.
The Biden Administration is not primarily motivated by money, that is secondary. They are woke leftists, which is now state policy. Don’t ever be fooled by their prattle about ‘separation of church and state’. Without telling anyone, they’ve adopted a set of secular values as de facto state religion. As such they are dedicated to the Pursuit and Exhibition of Moral Purity, and the Cult of the Narrative.
The woke left is eager to sacrifice you, your family, and your whole society on the bloody altar of their Holy Narrative.
Hey, Eric the Red, you’re sick in Bed
But not on the head
Secular Fundamentalism.
The reality is the black hats{many} and the white hats {few}, are all playing the roles assigned by the small hats {Evil}, pawns in the game. The braindead masses stare at talmudvision, believing what they’re told. A Recipe For Disaster, coming soon to a gulag near you.
And now the morons in Gomorrah, DC are moving to sanction Chinese officials:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-expands-travel-bans-chinese-officials-hours-after-demanding-beijing-condemn-russia
I guess these fools think they can simply narrate and print their way to victory.
What a time to be alive.
We are dinosaurs watching the meteors approach.
The second largest producer of American pharmaceutical ingredients after China is…India.
Mull that one over.
When Soros turned sharply on the PRC was the signal that Globohomo’s Master Plan with China had fallen to pieces. I still entertained it might be a head feint, with the end game being the PRC picks up the pieces of the battered Russian economy, but, naah, this ain’t 4D chess. It is pure retardation. It is people with nukes who think Twitter is real.
If you sanction the entire world, aren’t you in effect just sanctioning yourself?
they want us destroyed. they are goading the rest of the world into doing it .I men what other motive could they have that would explain their behavior. a 10 yr old can see the utter self destructivness of the things they are doing.
[…] Realism and Ukraine ZMan. […]
Normally, I like your posts but this one isn’t great. Nato’s expansion eastward did not pose any threat to Russia. Seriously, was Nato going to invade? Germany, the powerhouse which would have had to supply the troops for such an endeavor, has a hopelessly depleted army that couldn’t fight its way out of a wet paper bag. As for the proximity of nukes on Russia’s border, even that’s a non issue. Nuclear subs are the game changers here. Russia isn’t scared of nukes on its border because they’re always there, just off its coast. What Russia is scared of is… Read more »
nato conquers through “color revolutions”. The just tried them in Kazakhstan and Belarus. we succeeded in Ukraine in 2014 and that’s how Zaleski got there . I was surprised , since Putin was one of the World economic forum’s Young global leaders . they have taken his page down from the website. I thought given that, he would be rolling along like other young global leaders like Trudeau and Macron toward enslaving to the global agenda.
Thanx for sharing your WEF talking points.
could just be a coincidence. But i read klaus’s book , and things just seem to be falling in place for them .
Agree, the first question must be ‘what is best for our people.’ There are lots of problems with Putin, beginning with his ties to China and his gangster methods. But on every score he’s better than Globohomo. He is not going to fill up Ukraine with Arabs and blacks, his Syrian fighters notwithstanding, he is not going to have trans book hour at the local children’s library, he’s not going to have gay parade ticker tapes in Kiev, no LBGHT alphabet perversion shows in Krakov anytime soon, he’s hardly closer to the CCP than the Biden family. Speaking of which,… Read more »
The cross pollination is that the Jewish mob supplanted Cosa Nostra and the Irish.
They act like the mafia, but that only explains their tactics, not their motivating strategy, which is woke leftism. In any case, the mafia itself is just one example of a subjective value system, and history is stuffed to overflowing with those. The woke left spat on objective truth long ago, so it’s no wonder their tactics and those of the mafia are so similar.
My concern here is not their motivation but the way they do business and their lack of morality. And the 1930s hoodlums have nothing on ‘our current rulers’ in that regard. Plus, I think they learned from the mob’s methods. If you’re going to have power, someone wants the goods on you, to control you. The Epstein operation was all about blackmail. Before that big shot Capos had pictures of J Edgar in delicate situations with men. This is probably central to how the Deep State or whatever we call it this week, controls people, in the White House, Congress,… Read more »
Baring the specific reference to Ukraine (which is great too). This should be the first paragraph in American high school history textbooks. Set the kids straight right from the get-go. Zman: “In the end we are where history always leads us. There are no good guys or bad guys, no grand morality tale to frame the future. Ukraine is about the nature of great powers, fading empires and the decline of the West under American leadership. War is the violent transition from one scene of history to the next. What must matter to the genuine nationalist is what is best… Read more »
JEB Logic:
Washington had a mass freakout over guys in costumes trespassing the Capitol grounds for a few hours
But Washington would be perfectly cool with China or Russia setting up missiles in Tijuana
*****
I don’t think that logic holds, JEB
looking at this mess , the globalist get a lot from starting this up via their puppet in Ukraine : The Russians mop up the closest thing to nationalist in Europe. the Ukrainian nationalists . The western world stops paying attention to the horrific damage done to people, economies , and countries by Covid policies, including some bad side effects from the vax. the grain supply will cause famine in Africa leading to waves of 100’s of millions or starving refugees to Europe. same thing for south and central American refugees to the US and Canada. the destruction of the… Read more »
The misguided American drive to democratize the world can be seen as resulting from that same universalist illusion: the belief that at heart, all people are alike, and given a choice, all will desire the same things.
I think for a while it was a legitimate grand vision, albeit borne of a mix of naïveté and hubris for the most part and cold calculus to a lesser extent, but we now have the experience and the track record to know that trying to make the world in our image is never going to work And our rulers know that but they persist. But now they are not pushing any of this with good intentions but for dark reasons. That’s the problem. We no longer have any moral standing. That is what worries me is that we can… Read more »
It is almost like they are attempting to usurp the Supreme power, who made us in His image, and to remake humanity in their own image to spite their Father. Gee, who would lead such forces in a worldwide rebellion against God’s will, truth, justice, and beauty? They don’t even hide the pentagrams, severed goat heads, and human sacrifices anymore…
Oh hell yeah! ever see the marina abramovich video of ” spirit cooking”? or any thing else she has done for that matter.
The great illogic in all this is that AINO has been subverting its own civilization for the past 60 years while simultaneously attempting to impose that civilization upon people for whom it is entirely alien. It’s madness.
The US has never been about democratizing the world.
Its all realpolitik in the interest of the elites only given a facade to explain the constant overseas actions to the voting public.
That’s probably one of the best summations I’ve read of the problem. I’m many things, but pithy has never been one of them. I’ll be stealing this.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the most dangerous force in the world is that of IDEOLOGY: those “noble ideas that are so inspiring in the abstract” that Z refers to. The Platonic world view starts by assuming the reality of these abstract ideals; of a world in which these imagined possibilities can be brought to fruition: “If we can imagine it, we can make it happen”. This imagined ideal then serves for the idealogue and idealist as the standard by which all else must be judged. For example, Marxism and communism posit an ideal state, unlike anything anyone has… Read more »
The real Bill: Bravo! Truly well thought and written.
Thanks!
And since I was unable to post just that one word— ‘Your post it too short: try again’— I’ll say it again:
Thanks!
With ideology you have no cause for action in scale . Ideas motivate men when pure gain is not in the offing.
Simply, give people something to fight for or be crushed by anyone with even the most half witted ideas.
This little Gem by Slo Joe back in the ’90’s is apparently being promoted by the wily Chinee who have not forgotten the bombing of their Embassy.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/resurfaced-clip-biden-boasting-he-proposed-natos-78-day-airstrikes-belgrade-goes-viral
“I was the one who suggested the bombing of Belgrade. I was who suggested to send American pilots and blow up all the bridges over the Danube”..
Joe Biden, 1999
I remember very well that during the Balkan Wars, ca. 1995-99, Biden was the politician banging the war drum the loudest. And the Russians cannot have forgotten what he instigated against their little brothers, the Serbs.
“If one needs to have a moral principle in this area, then it is that a moral government acts in the interests of its people” The problem, of course, is defining what exactly who “the people” are, and what their “interests” are. In the multi-0racial, multi-ethnic U.S. of 330 million+, that is literally impossible. Derek Chauvin thought he was serving the interests of the people when he arrested George Floyd. After all, “the people” don’t want to be suckered by a drug addict passing counterfeit money, do they? Turns out out a whole lot of people couldn’t care less if… Read more »
This book is for you:
https://www.alibris.com/booksearch?mtype=B&keyword=the+end+of+democracy+buffin+de+chosal+&hs.x=0&hs.y=0
Bring back the draft!
Hey, if they’ll follow anything their masters want…
We can play draft dodger, get the chicks and take over the institutions while they’re Over There
I bet a good 3/4 of illegals and H1b scabs run home if we bring back the draft
Then there’s this: https://nailheadtom.blogspot.com/2014/01/you-must-register.html
It would be interesting to know just how many resident aliens (male 18-25) register for the draft. I’m betting none. Most of the H1-Bs I worked w/ over the years were older than 25. But the Latinos seem mostly under or in their twenties.
Hah. You think they will let us win even that? No, native americans must fight abroad only white males can be trusted to die for muh democracy, so we need ppl from the third world to keep the factories going! Exemptions for Sanjay Mahamoud, Parris Island for Bob Smith.
“it is all good guys and bad guys.” It’s all comic book morality. It’s not a mistake that our pop culture has been taken over by super heroes. It’s the perfect representation of shlock propoganda. Get all the dummies obsessed with childish idolatrous characters, paint an idiotic picture of morality for the masses, and make a TON of money. America at it’s finest. “If one needs to have a moral principle in this area, then it is that a moral government acts in the interests of its people.” When is the last time this has been true of America? The… Read more »
They are Marvel Brained Soymerican Bug Men
And like a train that is never late, here come the ‘Marvel Generation™’ Westerners to fight on the side of Good, ‘just like the Avengers!1!’ hurr durr’.
The good news is, that people this easily programmed are probably best served being rapidly removed from the gene pool via Grad rocket or cruise missile. You can’t fix stupid, but you can hit it with shrapnel repeatedly.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/no-gun-no-helmet-no-action-the-frustrations-of-some-novice-americans-who-signed-up-to-fight-in-ukraine/ar-AAVicf3
Apex: I am rapidly becoming so callous and cynical that I even surprise myself at times. Most of these wannabe meat eaters barely made it through basic training in ‘our’ feminized military, and think they’re going to and show everyone how it’s done. But without their drones and ever present air support, they’re revealed as the poseurs they always were.
Absolutely. Read their personal accounts (although you likely have). Many turned tail the moment they realized they are the goat herders this time. It is hilarious. I don’t know how bad things will get here, but even my old ass probably could repel these jack wagons.
Pretty sad when the guys who are itching to fight come back crying
So we can only imagine what the tens of millions of young Americans who don’t want to fight would be like when sent to a Ukrainian battlefield and hypersonic missiles are dropping on them faster than it takes them to fart
Dagnabit, where’s MY spandex codpiece
Also, I see the Vision.
‘Taint just the small hats.
Presented without frills:
——————-
Bolshies took out Czar
Positioned as chamberlains in US
Stalin took out Bolshies
Lend Lease>
Stalin, Czar of All Europa
Stalin, Churchill, FDR:
United White Empire
United Ice Peoples North
Axis nationalists were in the way
J**s wanted in, sold the vision
Good as breakers
No more WW1
>no more nukes
>no more war, til Strauss said f**k the savages, ride the tiger
Straussian Long March
til nations are broken
No nations no war: corp master
Just assets
The Hard Peace
(>>Beyond Nature)
Meanwhile in the MIC world we are discussing the inconvenient fact that spending those windfall profits generated from this latest crusade might be difficult during a nuclear winter. Hard to receive Amazon packages in radioactive fallout conditions.
Seriously, look up US gov’t contract awarding online for a glimpse of the machinations that happen behind the curtain. You think those Patriot missiles build themselves?
This almost makes the KBR and Halliburton fiasco look tame…
Sounds like the primary problem the MIC has with a nuclear winter is it will greatly reduce their potential customer base and thus be bad for business
There is no Nuclear Winter.
Carl Sagan thought it up.
Okay, so say a nuclear winter is an exaggeration
But turning NYC, LA, DC, Boston, SF and Seattle to rubble might also bad for business
Or maybe not. Maybe there is some serious profit to be had??
MIC and GAE think they will profit from turning the Left Coast and Acela corridor into obsidian plains: here’s hoping!!!
There would likely be a nuclear winter effect from a strategic exchange, but odds are it would be something more like a big volcanic eruption that gives a few years of poor crop yields, not the crazy -30C predictions.
The real concern is that the elites might be thinking that wiping out half the Northern Hemisphere would get rid of the annoying badwhites while they relax in their New Zealand bunkers and then they get to come out afterwards with absolute rule over the remaining starving brown hordes.
We forget just *how many times* Russia has been invaded, with what results. Of course the Russian worldview is different. Change comes when the elites go to war. The West, Russia, and China all are developing similar technologies– their own vaccines, passports, central bank digital currencies, and internet platforms. It seems a turf battle as the new tech creates a new ordering. Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia, with a big heapin’ helping of Brave New World in Oceania. Islam had become almost entirely Western- girls in skirts going to college!- so “we” resurrected jihad in the mujahideen, armed them, and use… Read more »
Russia is a great civilization
Ukraine is a backwater
Pulling for Ukraine in this struggle is like pulling for an Indian Reservation over Paris in her prime
You are talking absolute shit! Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — Putin’s invasion really — is a completely unjustified disaster. Yes, America has been meddling in Ukrainian politics. Yes, the Maidan Revolution might fairly be described as a coup. Yes, degenerate Western elites desperately want to destabilize Russia in order to make it safe for trannies and African “refugees”. So what! There was absolute zero chance that NATO would ever militarily invade nuclear armed Russia, which is the only thing that could ever have justified Russian military action. If the West was trying to subvert Russia, it was Putin’s job to… Read more »
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
So I’ll argue against your assertion on two fronts. Firstly, your acceptance of subversive meddling and empire creation versus up front, in the open, invasions. This really is an embodiment of the gynocracy that America has become. When men have a problem, they fight or at least have it out with each other openly. When a woman has a problem, she talks behind the person’s back, has sex with her friend’s husband, or is passive aggressive in her interactions. Russia is being direct, and masculine. We want a written guarantee that nato will never admit Ukraine or we will invade.… Read more »
There was never any chance of Russia being invaded from Ukraine, so a written guarantee was unnecessary and would have gained Russia nothing. Of course, there wasn’t much chance of Ukraine joining NATO any time soon either, and it probably would have been wise for them to give their big irrational neighbor the guarantee it was asking for. I’m not sure that would have helped though — Putin could have come up with some other pretext to pursue his dream of Greater Russia. Also, are you seriously suggesting that war is somehow preferable to diplomacy because war is masculine and… Read more »
Since diplomacy is preferable to war, why isn’t DC helping to broker a peace deal? Maybe because they don’t want an outcome that doesn’t destabilize Russia – in which case, the swamp’s meddling in Eastern European affairs has is largely responsible for the current situation.
There was never any chance of Russia being invaded from Ukraine, so a written guarantee was unnecessary and would have gained Russia nothing. It’s not likely Putin would settle for a written guarantee and nothing else. He (I’m confident this is his chosen pronoun) is surely smart enough to have learned a lesson from Neville Chamberlain’s piece of paper gripped between his fingers and fluttering in the wind. Of course, there wasn’t much chance of Ukraine joining NATO any time soon either … I’m going to stop all this bothersome car maintenance. There’s not much chance I’ll have an accident… Read more »
How on earth did you get that I justified wars because smart people have a plan in place? You have a serious reading comprehension deficiency. That was a counter to your assertion that Putin was destroying the Russian economy. It was my assertion that the long term effects are likely to be more felt by the US because of countries wishing to move away from the dollar. Secondly, you’re moving the goalposts. Subversion and coups are not diplomacy. At your own admission, the US has been meddling and subverting countries (including Ukraine). That’s not diplomacy. That’s feminine war. At least… Read more »
JEB, how about you remind us again about the 2M Covid deaths you insisted we would have in 2020?
Your track record here is non-existent. Your knowledge of current affairs dismal. I see no reason to pay attention to your current drivel wrt Ukraine as you appear as ignorant in that matter as you were wrt Covid. Time to find another group to post in where you have not yet demonstrated your profound ignorance to your fellow commentators.
Can you link to that? Because I’m quite sure I never said anything of the sort.
I’m going out for a while — maybe when I get back I’ll post some links to what I actually did say.
So you now say you did not buy into the Covid fear porn of the media at that time?
You never, ever, to my memory responded to any challenge of mine to your (mis)understanding wrt Covid—albeit, I might have missed one or more of our postings. To my memory, you simply reiterated the “administration” line and basically doubled down. You were simply panic stricken, and it showed.
Yes, please do reprint you postings—including the dates—and explain how they have been proven to date to be even remotely correct. Cite those referenced stat’s as well—if you can find supporting sources.
I got back home later than expected, but it wasn’t hard to find links. In various places I did talk about one or two million dead, but I always made it clear that I was talking about worst case scenarios. For example, this comment from April 1, 2020, very early in the pandemic: https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=20164#comment-156783 However someone replied to that comment by challenging me to provide my own prediction, and my reply is the best summary I could find of my own thinking at the time: Why would you want my prediction?!? I am not pretending to be an expert, so… Read more »
Oops, the second link should have been:
https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=20164#comment-156806
Damn, no matter how carefully you proofread…
Well done! Spot on neocon parody!
What? You weren’t kidding? Oh, my…
Al-KKKaeda sez whaaat
“which is the only thing that could ever have justified Russian military action.” Or what. Zeus’s thunderbolt will strike them down? That’s an insane position to hold if you are trying to be a great power. You can only use military action the moment you are invaded? It’s nothing about better alternatives. Policy change liked that is done through elites with overwhelming soft economic power. NGO’s move in, the politicians are bought and paid for, and the media makes the population go along with it. Russia can’t compete in this soft power game. Those were attacks against their sphere. And… Read more »
There was never any chance of Russia being invaded.
The FUSA was never invaded either. Well, there’s that whole hateful “illegal alien” conspiracy theory. And yet…here we are somehow without representation in our own “government”, without cultural legitimacy that reflects our founding heritage (or even that of the 80’s), without any formidable institution that stands for those things that our grandpas supposedly died on Omaha Beach to preserve. Without an economic system that serves our people – or even the pretense of our nation. And whats left of the USA is being economically, socially, politically, and technologically destroyed or enslaved because sovereign States and democracy. Or covid or something… Read more »
“But then if that were the case, I wouldn’t have to move 1000 miles from my home to find white people who don’t want to choke themselves to Autoerotic asphyxiation while watching Netflix replacement porn.”
That was downright poetic! The whole thing was. First-rate post!
What IP wrote. Damn fine writing there.
It is not a situation of Russia being invaded—and never was. You have a misunderstanding of the (security) issues involved. JFK almost started a nuke war when Russian missiles were based in Cuba in 1960’s—why? Cuba could never invade the US. Even a staging of a Russian invasion force in Cuba would take months and be observable and countered. The crisis was because nuke missiles in Cuba were 20 minutes away from Washington, DC. Similarly, a NATO aligned Ukraine might be a future base for US nukes just a few minutes away from Moscow. Decapitating strikes and “launch on warning”… Read more »
As Z has opined. We are the new Athenian Empire. Just as tyrannical and just as arrogant. I have been trying to convince my fellow countryman to avoid the Sicillian Expedition but sadly it looks like only a crushing defeat will knock sense into these chickenhawks.
I don’t want this (several people I know personally have served in the US Military) but I fear it may be the only way these people will wake up.
Insofar as Ukraine = Russia historically and culturally then, yes, Russia has already been invaded by the USA / CIA and NATO to an extent vis a vis military training etc. These current borders are meaningless, but you are hanging your hat on them entirely. I think you have a hard case to prove that the USA would only ever stop there and not keep poking and pushing eastward. Are you oblivious to all the foreign nations we HAVE invaded in the past 75 years? And you want everyone to think that this time it’s different? Nah, you would be… Read more »
“Russia has already been invaded by the USA / CIA and NATO to an extent vis a vis military training etc.”
US troops invaded Russia in Sept 1918 and stayed there–battles, deaths, an actual war–until the summer of 1919, as did French and British troops.
“Not least to stop the outrageous culture war against the Russian community by the Zelensky regime.”
Not to mention Zelinsky’s having killed about14,000 Russians in the Donbas over the last 8 yrs. By artillery bombardment of civilians.
You bring several interesting points worthy of consideration. However, a couple points I would disagree with. First, even if Russia were turned into a City on the Hill promised land, its morality would never be visible to the average westerner. The morality of Russia, as perceived by Americans, has been demonized for over a decade now, and its denigration has only accelerated since Russia was blamed for the coming of the Anti-Christ, Trump. Second, you imply an autonomy of the populace to select rulership based on better, alternative methods. I can not really ever think of this happening in history… Read more »
And I suspect, Putin is one step ahead wrt Russia and China relations. That is to say Putin can imagine a future Chinese/American squeeze to eliminate Russia (as it currently exists) in order to grab current Russian resources—at least on China’s part, and an inexplicable “hate” on America’s part.
No fan of Putin, but his country is between a rock and a hard spot geo politically.
Missing from your equation is that the people of the Donbass WANT to join with Russia
Bu go ahead and drop bombs on them if it makes you feel good
The people of Crimea wanted to join Russia, and that’s why there was so little fighting. The people of the Donbass were much more mixed, which guaranteed violence. In any case, how would that justify invading the rest of Ukraine?
And I certainly don’t advocate our dropping bombs on anyone. God, people here are so stupid sometimes!
Then what do you advocate? Let’s hear it.
And Regarding the Donbass, the clear majority are “Russian” just that they were moved over into Donbass for political purposes and that now is their home, sorta like Dems moving black voters to Idaho and Somalis to Minnesota who then plant seeds there and do not want to be uprooted if they don’t have to, but if they have to and the Kiev forces are trying to get rid of them, then you get what we get going on today.
Imagine what Washington would do if Mexico agreed to a military pact with Russian or China, one that allowed the pact to station advance weapon systems on the border.
I don’t want to be the skunk on the porch Z, but Mexico has been moving Chinese fentanyl into the US with impunity. It’s just a different/new form of warfare.
Why would Russia or China even bother? Like everyone else in the world, they simply can walk across the Mexican border to do their business. And what are the odds Russia has not sent operatives into the United States across the border already? To echo RoBG below, Mexico already ferries Chinese fentanyl into the United States with impunity.
If Russia or China put advanced weapon systems in Mexico we would, hopefully, militarize the border (which might have some positive side effects). But we would not launch a war of conquest against Mexico! Unlike 1962, the Russians and Chinese already have advanced weapon systems in submarines just off our shores, so putting more in Mexico wouldn’t buy them that much militarily. Certainly nowhere near enough to justify the agony of an invasion. (Besides, as I’ve pointed out several times now, there is no way that NATO — with or without Ukraine — would ever have had the stomach to… Read more »
You do not live on the same earth as the rest of us. America has invaded Iraq twice. We have been waging a war on Syria from Iraq. We occupied Afghanistan for twenty years.
You really think America would not launch a war against Mexico if Russian put weapons on the border? Really? You are an actual adult and you think this?
Let me make this as simple as possible: Russia. Nuclear weapons. Lots of them. I mean lots and lots. Is it clear now why NATO would never launch a military attack on Russia, even if European elites weren’t the sort of people whose top priorities are making money, celebrating sexual abnormality, and welcoming ragtag armies of colored people into their countries in order to atone for the Holocaust? On reconsideration, yes, I can imagine some circumstances where some American administrations might attach Mexico. It’s a bit of a crap shoot — I doubt Al Gore would have invaded Iraq. But… Read more »
A few years back it seemed the country was split almost 50/50 on the question of moving closer to Russia or the EU, but once Zelenskky become president, he started shutting down any pro Russian TV stations or media, and it seems that was enough to change the numbers
Its nice to have total media control. the majority of people in any country can seem to hold any idea in their head unless they see it on appear on TV in a positive light
” … the people of the Donbass WANT to join with Russia
Bu go ahead and drop bombs on them if it makes you feel good … .”
The Ukrainian gov’t had been shelling the Donbass since 2014, killing around 14,000 ethnic Russian Ukrainian citizens in the process. They started the artillery barrages after the Donbass declared independence after Zelinsky’s gov’t made it unlawful for Russians to use their own language.
Zelinsky is not only a NWO stooge, he also has the blood of 14,000-odd of his own citizens on his hands.
JEB: You must be the one the militia right refers to as “Aesop.” Hur dur, we must support a Juice coup engineered by the GAE and the pursuit of trannydom because otherwise White people will die. Stellar logic there, sugarbritches.
People like him are never going to learn until, unfortunately, the war is brought to our shores, and it will be brought to our shores if we start a war with Russia — or China
“People like him are never going to learn…”
Falcone, you could have ended your comment there. He will never learn, no matter what. He runs/thrives on emotion. Facts mean nothing to folk who are like that.
” He runs/thrives on emotion.”
Yep, and they’re not even *his* emotions. His TV set has thoughtfully supplied him with them.
Wait, this was a serious comment? That’s even funnier.
“If the West was trying to subvert Russia, it was Putin’s job to resist by building a better civilization in Russia, one that Ukraine and the world would see as a superior alternative. ”
The neocon cries out as he strikes you.
Were you born stupid, or did you take lessons?
“it was Putin’s job to resist by building a better civilization in Russia, one that Ukraine and the world would see as a superior alternative” It was, and still is Putin’s job to go into the Ukraine and kick ass. It was his job 5 years ago. This will make Russia a better civilization. Russia keeps its brothers and the remaining smoking ash, well, anybody who wants it and won’t weaponize it against Russia. We are beyond yackity-yack. This country has too many woke yackity-yack lawyers. I say they are a danger to the climate. They expel way too much… Read more »
How odd it is to be rooting for Russia to win.
The contest is to see if any western-ish power is capable of resisting the cultural degeneracy of GAE and globohomo.
Russia is not even Western, really. Their “high culture” is western (literature, architecture, classical music, ballet, etc) but their government is more asiatic. (Leaning towards totalitarian)
I don’t think they can lose, but they can’t really win either. What a bloody waste.
It is because we (and by “we” I mean.. the DR) are a nation under occupation by a powerful and hostile force. It is natural for those in our position to root for another power that gives our oppressors a bloody nose… even if that power is not exactly our ally.
ProZNoV: Well said. It’s tragic to be rooting for America’s putative enemy, but as Zman has reminded us, the Cold War is long over. I’ve personally come a long, long way from drunkenly but patriotically singing the Star Spangled Banner with a group of friends while leaving the Marine Bar in Moscow 40 odd years ago. Russia is a great civilization, but it’s not our civilization. That does not automatically make them our friends or our enemies – as Zman notes, their interests are not naturally our interests, particularly in an utterly unnecessary internal quarrel caused by meddling from the… Read more »
“Russia is a great civilization, but it’s not our civilization.”
I agree but the Orthodox Church is the last of the true Christian established Churches and one that I’ve given serious thought to over the past three years.
If Genes, Culture and Faith are the tripod on which a People rest, then the Russian Two out of Three ain’t bad.
Bill: I very much enjoyed my time in Russia long ago and was comfortable with the Russian people (albeit not their government at the time), though I was aware, even then, of our different modes of thought. I only began to approach these ideas of peoplehood, nationhood, what makes a culture, etc. during my prior year elsewhere in Europe. The Russians and their faith are White Christians; as such they are not my enemy. And while I enjoy what little I recall of the Russian language, I would still prefer my grandchildren speak English. What the future holds, who knows?
I think a “win” for Russia is simply to have buffer zones around her borders
I think they will win that. Seems achievable.
A “win” for the USA is something entirely different and far more perverse if you ask me.
“What must matter to the genuine nationalist is what is best for his people, even if it means being flexible on those noble ideas that are so inspiring in the abstract.” I have wondered when in history noble ideas took precedence over reality. I guess it was from the very beginning, whenever that was. An abstract concept, like the existence of a non corporeal entity, i.e. government, should only exist to serve the people they rule. They should only be the referees for enforcing the agreed upon rules of society. If they attempt some change or try to “fix” some… Read more »
“This quickly looks like a suicide pact in favor of maintaining intellectual purity in the face of reality… No man should put his ideals ahead of the life of his people.”
Wise words, which this ethno nationalist will keep in mind.
When Truman authorized the continuance of the CIA after WWII ended, he made the point that “Government by the people isn’t possible if the people don’t know what the government is doing”. Z left out the presence of the CIA in Ukraine training a rebel army to kill Russian separatists, 14,000 so far, another motivation for Putin.
Nice try but the CIA was established by the 1947 National Security Act.
Yes, but it was morphed (I believe) from the WWII organization, the OSS. The “mistake” is a difference without distinction.
What you’re doing there is falling for the guy running the shell game on a city street. The OSS (CIA’s predecessor) was “officially” dissolved in 1945. However, nothing was actually terminated. All its clandestine activities were shuffled around via other organizations (BIR, SSU, SI, X-2) for a couple years — “Follow that pea! It’s easy! It’s right there under the left shell! You got this!” In 1946 Truman created the CIG, Central Intelligence Group. and most clandestine activities were part of the OSO office of the CIG. Then, in 1947 the CIA was created and took on those activities. I’ll… Read more »
You mean it was formally organized by Wall Street analysts and empowered in the State Department.
Warning to dissidents: its parent, the OSS, was made to root out and hunt down German (and French, Dutch, English, etc.) “werewolves”, dissidents and saboteurs enraged by the rape of post-war Germany.
Add: the CIA has been “providing assistance”, training resurrected SS units since 2015.
Annnd…the co-founder of Azov is
Nathan Khazin, yarmulke-wearing Israeli citizen, served in the IDF.
Judeonazis. We’ve gone full circle.
Regarding the Taki article. The colonial empires did lose. France was treated as a conquered nation by FDR. Charles de Gaulle spent most of ww2 fighting FDR more than Hitler. Churchill for his part was increasingly left a vassal of America as the war dragged. In fact, once Hitler established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the West had to explicitly refute their own foreign policy of the last century. This all sped decolonization.
Chamberlain had a smarter foreign policy than Churchill.
The colonial empires loss was explicitly confirmed with the suez crisis.
did everyone see the chart that came out, that shows the huge correlation between getting fully jabbed, and rabid support for the ukraine fiasco?
People were always pretty average and dumb, but they have been weaponized. They used to just leave them be to be dumb on their own. Not anymore.
People?
That bunch are nothing more than so many brain stems with legs for our new Red Guards to manipulate this way and that as they please.
I have a feeling this war is going to go on for a long time as Ukraine is a big country and cannot be taken overnight. Like Afghanistan, lots of lives will be lost and money spent before people get sick of it. The Zelensky theatre group will become a government in exile until people get sick of the antics, but that may take a long time since Americans love television.
Russia cannot afford to let it drag in for too long
Russia is on track to take control of various territories. So it will de facto end when they are in control of those areas regardless of what the USA says or wants. Then everyone’s attention will drift over to something else and people will forget about all of it like they forgot about Russia taking crimea. Meanwhile the Ukrainian military will be quietly decimated by a methodical Russia.
They don’t call them Ukrainians No-brainians for nothing
Falcone: There are Ukrainians . . . and then there are (Ukrainians) – “home to one of the world’s largest Juice communities.” https://jewishunpacked.com/who-are-the-jews-of-ukraine/ That’s why Zelensky made a point of calling Mila Kunis while encouraging real Ukrainians to fight to the death.
Hi 3g4me,
Yes, I am very well aware of the Potato Juice in Ukraine
Put it this way, if they weren’t there our country wouldn’t be making a big deal of Ukraine to begin with
We dutifully follow the nose over here. Worse than Toucan Sam.
There are 43K Jews in Ukraine, about 1% of the population.
NOOOO
Not Mila Kunis!!!
Come, sweet nuclear ICBM of death
All I know is I am approaching life and planning on the assumption the EBT cards go unfilled
Yup @Falcone, and hungry ppl are dangerous.
Are we, now
Don’t give me ideas
Agree with you. Beans bullets & bandages.
Converting cash into hard assets
Picking up a used tractor this week.
Spingehra: I actually recently saw a litany I prefer to the standard bx3: Guns, grub, ground, and gold. Perhaps I ought to change my pseudonym to 4g4me!
wonder if the Rus will start spinning up training and so forth for disaffected Americans, here at home?
one upside to the US getting into a shooting war would be the reduction in normies and prog cadres. what a surprise for those useless fukkers. half will probably croak in boot camp.
Progs only ever send other peoples’ kids to die. Lots of normies will die, but they’re not our worst enemies. Meanwhile the left is busy replacing the population with third-world prog minions and Chinese and Indian grifters.
“If one needs to have a moral principle in this area, then it is that a moral government acts in the interests of its people. After all, the point of government, no matter the style of government, is to protect the collective interest of the society.”
Society has a collective interest only in broadest terms, e.g. a liveable climate, sufficient food and shelter. Beyond these basics, interests differentiate.
Which is why large, multiethnic empires are terrible.
Amazing! Globo Project has successfully transformed through propaganda the incredibly corrupt oligarchy in Ukraine into a model “liberal democracy”. Of course, it’s more believable that Stormy Daniels could be transformed into the Virgin Mary. But the power of narrative monopoly is an almost irresistible feature of Globo. A Zman would have predicted, the Hive Mind is at work: my e-mail inbox has been flooded by outpourings of sympathy for Ukraine from my contacts in the high and low echelons of the business and finance community. They blast out their support for the Globo narrative. In pointed contrast, my dissident or… Read more »
The US’ recent own goal with the Saudis is a great reminder of how arrogant and dumb the current American foreign policy establishment is.
Anyone with a functioning brain cell knows the Saudis are a people with a lot of pride and very long memories.
The Saudis are going to hold Biden’s comments against the US for a very, very long time and they will use them as a cudgel to extract huge amounts of free stuff.
Just like Moe Green told the Corleones they don’t have that kind of muscle anymore. (in that case they still did). We will find out if this crime empire has any. After this ends and soon, we will be left what we are always left with, more encumbrances on our liberties. Climate change nonsense and the ideological implementation of it by the Biden admin is obviously the real objective. Along with steering our attention away from all of the major issues facing us economically and culturally. Will Americans fall for it once again? Gaslighting is the new regime doctrine. Will… Read more »
i don’t know that it is gas lighting. it looks like normie and the prog cadres actively demand this kind of drama, continuously. at this point it is all so transparent that one can only conclude that the majority of the population are co-dependents.
Well, Western politics seem akin to pro wrestling, with much higher stakes like who will win WW3.
Even after repeatedly being told it’s all fake, the pro wrestling marks continue to shriek, “It’s still real to me, d*mmit!”
I imagine they would have much the same response if they were told this about their political systems.
“Will Americans fall for it once again?”
Oh, you can bet your bottom dollar they will. The never ending susceptibility of most people to go along with the narrative no matter how illogical is fascinating.
The propaganda is of very poor quality yet incredibly effective. Even intelligent people are willing to turn off their mind and let someone else do their thinking for them. I don’t understand it and it has caused me to lose almost all faith in my fellow citizens.
This event has me more blackpilled then the covid shit did and I did not think that was possible. All the Globohomo cadres had to do was run up “old glory” and masses of folks forgot all the BS they have been fed over the last years and happily marched off in cadence.
I am thinking of moving to Antarctica.
Most people have always been dummies, but these current generations coming up are special.
Starting with Gen X, this is the MOST MARKETED TO and the MOST MEDIA SATURATED generations in history.
TV and movies, toy companies, video games, pornographers, etc. have scientifically TARGETED young minds since their childhood.
The minds of the masses today are extra “mushy.”
Yup.
It sucks to realize the real purpose of all those 80s cartoons, which we thought were so neat back in gradeschool, was to sell all manner of merch, preferably charged at 15% interest on mom and dad’s credit cards.
Mountain Rat: I complained to my husband the other day that while I want a White country rather than a purported “high IQ” society, and while I realize someone has to pick up the garbage and others must try to raise the standards and abilities of the lowest decile, this insanity really does make me question if it’s worth it. If most people were always this stupid and easily led, how on earth did humanity survive?
I think if one reads Dutton’s, “The Genius Famine”, one gets a better idea of the purpose and need for a high IQ society. Then, if you think about our current 21st century society—one where much of the “good life” life is intellectually driven, rather than manual labor based, you can appreciate the IQ controversy more.
However, as you point out, HBD science is more, much more than simple IQ. Many incompatible behavioral characteristics are hereditary. So yes, one is better, all things being equal, living among one’s own kind.
I have been wondering the same. Is there anyone worth fighting for to leave a future to?
put not your trust in princes nor in the sons of men in whom there is no help.
It seems the Azov boys are looking at the same fate as their hero Hitler: Choosing certain destruction rather than accepting any compromise.
I don’t think annihilation is in the best interest of their “people”. But there is a sense of nihilism found amongst all national socialists. They speak of protecting their people but do the opposite. They claim to operate out of racial “pride” for their history and heritage, but what actually motivates them is hatred (for themselves and others) and pure, unadulterated narcissism.
Another product of modernity, another cold cut on the kosher sandwich, as they might say.
It seems the Azov boys are looking at the same fate as their hero Hitler: Choosing certain destruction rather than accepting any compromise. I suspect that (like Hitler) they are not given a choice: they are responsible for some of the most heinous atrocities against ethnic Russians; rumor has it the humanitarian corridor in Mariupol is working so lethargically because the Russian will not allow any of them to escape or surrender. Allegedly, every man is checked for Nazi tattoos, like the SS were checked for blood type tattoos and they will share the fate of the SS: executed before… Read more »
From what I can gather from multiple sources inside Ukraine, the Azov Battalion has committed multiple atrocities on the civilians in the Donbas area for the last 8 years. Literal crimes against humanity. There is some question whether the actual Russian troops in Mariupol would even accept their surrender. Regular Ukrainian army yes… Azov paramilitary maybe not. Aside from the regular Russian troops at Mariupol however there are two other Russian aligned groups there fighting. Chechens, who have been deployed by Russia as mercenaries, and the Luhansk and Donetsk local forces. The Chechens may not accept the Azov’s surrender because…… Read more »
Those who aren’t semi-pro hires just looking for some action, remember the Holodomor and who ordered it.
We blithely go on about, say, Abe Lincoln and forget that other people’s histories are as vital to them as ours is to us.
Inside baseball. The oil & gas business is about finding crude oil and getting it out of the ground and into a refinery as efficiently as possible. In new fields, lots of natural gas is co-produced with oil and it slows things down; so most times, the gas is flared onsite. Then new pipelines are built and compressors installed and the gas goes to market at about a buck per million BTUs. This is Nordstream II and all the other main natural gas trunk lines in Eastern Europe. Or you could take natural gas from other parts of the planet,… Read more »
“This is why Nordstream II will go online later this year, just in time for winter.”
Yep, I can’t see Europe freezing for globohomo’s sake. That’s why I wonder why the fuss. It doesn’t make sense to have a political diversion that leaves you in a weaker position by alienating your allies.
Maybe the regime knows they’re toast and have decided to go scorched earth. I suspect, however, the US is simply so weak they can’t keep a bit player like Zelensky from causing a scene. Maybe Ukraine is when everybody realizes the US’ decline is no longer incipient.
The West will realize the importance of NatGas long before next winter.
Farmers right now are recalculating their growing ambitions based upon the price and availability of fertilizer.
A cold winder is one thing, a cold and hungry winter is exponentially worse.
“I suspect, however, the US is simply so weak they can’t keep a bit player like Zelensky from causing a scene.”
That gives me a great deal of hope! Thanks. I think that’s why they’re screeching about nuclear war, like the psycho ex-GF saying she’ll kill your whole fambily.
I totally agree with this analysis but there is another part to it, and while directly related it is larger. The main objective of the United States has been to keep Germany and the rest of Europe divorced from Russia, and a key way to do so was scuttling Nordstream II. Short term, at least, the mission has been accomplished. It is the Empire at its most cynical, but, again, the most amazing part has been the ability to whip the rubes into a frenzy over something that ultimately harms them. While a larger portion than normal has been apathetic,… Read more »
This is why Nordstream II will go online later this year, just in time for winter.
I’m not so sure. Europe (Germany) did not need to be in this situation. Never mind nuclear, but we allowed fracking, Europe could be self-sufficient in 2-3 years, easily. Britain alone has shale gas enough to power all of Europe for 500 years.
No, they WANT us to freeze, just like they want us to starve.
…but IF we allowed fracking.
Which, incidentally, is perfectly legal if you’re doing geothermal.
Geothermal was causing quite a stir in Nevada in the 70’s, small one and 3 man mines were quite excited by the potential.
I always wondered what happened to it, but then nobody had yet heard of Maurice Strong.
(Father of the Green environmentalist movement, socialist partner of Armand Hammer, head of Petro Canada- with five mansions in Communist China.)
Pretty much the same story in my region: some buzz in the seventies and eighties, several pilot plants built but it’s been at least a decade since I’ve heard of any new scams projects. Unless you happen to live on a volcano, like Iceland or northern California, it’s not really viable. There are three main issues: 1)The further down you have to drill to get at operating temperatures, the denser the crust is, and the denser the crust is, the harder it is to get a flow from the feed well to the drain. 2) You fairly quickly cool down… Read more »
Yup.
The eco-death cult is in full control and mass depop is one of their top agenda items.
One thing I don’t get
If depopulation was the goal, then why did they go ahead and give all sorts of medicines and medical help to Africans to get them to breed like crazy and reach numbers they otherwise couldn’t on their own?
Shock troops for the destruction of Europe (at least).
So, if They can get a food famine going, it’ll be Go Time. Just watch.
On Option B, I would not, under any circumstances want to crew on a LNG tanker. If things got spicier, various attack modalities would detonate your vessel. And it would only take one such detonation to make Option B clearly a dead loss: uninsurability for starts; and with that, all of the investments into the liquifaction facilities, the specialized tankers, and the receiving facilities would be functionally an utter fiasco. Against a serious, highly motivated opponent, defense would not be possible; if a submarine didn’t get you, a long range, standoff hypersonic cruise missile surely would. The big-brained strategists aiming… Read more »
Heck, all by itself an LNG tanker would be hugely vulnerable to Exocet missiles which are ancient by today’s standards.
Here is what happens when one straps a hand grenade to a 20 lb. propane tank containing about 138.56 cu ft (assuming a standard legal fill up) of propane and detonates the grenade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bY-G5wAHqM
The largest LNG carriers have something like 9,400,000 cu ft capacity, which is nearly 68,000 times larger than that BBQ grill tank in the video.
The video shows a conflagration event, which is actually a relatively minor and manageable failure contingency (similar to a wellhead fire). A BLEVE is a fundamentally different type of failure event and results in a detonation modality (similar to a MOAB). The closest similar comparison would be something like the fertilizer warehouse explosion in Beirut in 2020, or the Texas City disaster in 1947. The latter knocked an aircraft out of the sky.
Yep, the Hindenburg event was similar. You do realize that a number of the crew survived that “cash” in Lakehurst?
Here is Youtube video explaining the nature and hazards of a BLEVE. The Hindenburg disaster was not a BLEVE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuPVEsQaGB0
I wonder, Z. Consider: I’ve heard it said that only 25% of the recent hike in gas prices is due to the conflict in the Ukraine. The rest of it was on Biden, who closed off the pipeline projects and crippled the American oil and gas industry. The vast majority of our economic woes are self inflicted. I wonder if we are not being misdirected again. In historical context…this thing in the Ukraine is just another minor bush war really. They’ve gone on since the end of WW2. It’s just a bunch of empty virtue signalling for the peons to… Read more »
I agree, Glenn. Things are not going well for the Regime and they need something to deflect attention from their miserable poll numbers. This will do as well as anything now that Covid is receding and trucker convoys are circling D.C. If inflation can’t be stopped, what better excuse than to blame your problems on “the enemy”? If the Regime can get merely close to half the population to go along with that narrative, war it is. The other Regime nightmare is the coming election this fall, which promises to sweep away lots of progressives on both sides of the… Read more »
upvote for Chinatown ref
Jursst find the girl
“The future, Mr. Gittes…the FUTURE!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1i3dB2qWbA
Retail energy prices are always based on future expectations. The pricing algos are all looking 6-12 months out. There is also the LIFO issue. It is why gasoline prices go up like a rocket and come down like a feather. As soon as future begin to rise, retail prices rise faster, but when futures decline, retail prices trail as the calculated holding cost declines. The point is, higher energy costs were planned, but the are offers a handy excuse. It is adding something to the cost of gas, for sure, but the bulk of the increase is due to the… Read more »
If that is indeed the plan, get ready for Mutiny On The Bounty. You’ll see Biden, Pelosi, and Turdo swinging from lamp posts when people start going hungry.
Glen: The EBT horde will riot first, and their targets will not be the Globohomo bigwigs behind their high fences. It will first be retailers in any urban environment. Then, once they realize that they still have nothing to eat in front of the flat screens they’ve stolen while lounging in their latest name-brand labels they’ve ‘liberated,’ they’ll come for the White suburbs. Globohomo will, if ultimately necessary, retreat to its bunkers in Virginia and even New Zealand, while imploring us to fight to the death for ‘national unity.’ They’ll be quick to re-emerge as duly elected via ‘ordered succession’… Read more »
Their drones are doomed though. The fat bastard and his fat wife who blithely had the Biden sign in their yard down the street from me are in for a very bad day if the balloon goes up.
Even all suburbs are not created equally. I saw a map once that showed lethality rates for hypothetical “looters,” no other description provided or needed, and lethality for the locusts increased the further they strayed from the city center. This is from memory, but consequences started in the “inner suburbs” and by the time it came to the “outer suburbs” the lethality increased dramatically, and once into rural areas it skyrocketed. This was some years back but it was quite plausible and would seem to apply today. My guess is “looters” are largely dead within a month or two, and… Read more »
I’d stop eating right now if that would speed it up.
The Hunter stuff is being leaked because Biden is about to get dumped.
The smart, unexpected move would be to off the disposable inflatable love doll. We’re expecting them to JFK #1, but who expects #2 to be The Incident?
#3, Pelosi, would have an air accident, leaving #4, Shumer, as the usurper and uncontested ruler.
We might be watching Macbeth in real time here.
I can see them trying to come up with some convoluted rationale for trying to reinstall Barry or Hilldawg.
On the other hand, I can also see them coming up with some convoluted story that Hunter was really a deep cover CIA agent who did it all because he loved America soooo much.
Gas prices are very “inelastic”, in other words small shortages in meeting demand cause great price increases in remaining available stock. It has been that way since the Carter years at least. What this means is also that oil price can swing down fast as well if the demand falls or the supply increases. Supply increase is not out of reason either. OPEC hates the US, yes, but they also know that $200 a barrel oil will collapse the world economy, which will mean they get even less revenue from their exports. Look at what happened in 2020 during quarantine—<$50… Read more »
Compsci: I don’t pretend to understand the intricacies of futures’ markets, but fwiw gas here has dropped from $4.09 two weeks ago to $3.89 at present – that’s fairly significant, if still much higher than the $3.29 it was about 2 months ago.
Yep, gas will fluctuate just on speculation as to who’s winning in Ukraine or realization that the world has not shut down due to removal of Russian supply from the market.
That’s why I don’t panic wrt current oil pricing—but I do feel for folks who live paycheck to paycheck. Panic when you see long lines at to pump for limited supplies—as in the 70’s.
Vladimir Putin and the Russians are not ripping down the monuments to my ancestors and desecrating their graves.
The people behind the puppet Zelensky regime are.
That’s temporary, Rick. The looming race wars will take care of that.
Maybe race realities will make slavery great again. 😂👍
In the future when China and Russia are picking over the carcass of FUSA and the White “Notsees” of the separatist greater Idaho front are getting supplies from China via their canadian territories, while being droned by Russia via their bases in the new african state of Chicango (in exchange for power and water), and the Tejano frontier states are staying neutral as to keep the tortilla price down and the fentanyl price up, all financed by the Bank of London members during their weekly zoom calls from mega yachts or Jackson-Aspen, things will make more sense. Like how decades… Read more »
I think you present a plausible reality
Eh, genocide is more likely. Thanks, automation!
I’ll pick my own cotton this time thank you.
Can’t say for sure about the Russ, et al, but as for the USA – no truer statement than…”we have America, which is the world’s great meddler”.
(Assuming ‘great’ means most obtrusive / obnoxious vs. constructive)
Like the Chinese, the Russians think like a land empire. Their meddling is inversely proportional distant from their homeland. They will offer token support for distant allies and constantly meddle in the affairs of the people on their border. American operates like a sea empire. Anywhere they can reach is fair game.
I damn sure wish we – actually DC, would meddle on our own border – the southern in particular. The swamp has no problem whatsoever butting into everyone else’s business worldwide, except for freaking Mexico. They could force the beaners to stop the flow of illegals in a heartbeat if they wanted to, but no dice. The Ukraine? Existential threat. This manic desire to F with the Ruskies really must go back, as you said, to the fact DC never actually defeated them during the cold war – at least not in a climactic & decisive manner – they just… Read more »
Well, that and the undying enmity of the little hats for things that, supposedly, happened in the times of their great grandparents.
Yes, Mackinder had his points concerning the differing concerns of the World Island vs. those of the outer islands, we hostis humani generis buccaneering at their expense.
I wish someone like Congressman Thomas Massie, just for shits and giggles, would introduce legislation to require the elected representatives and the actual permanent government to remain in D.C. during the duration of this conflict, and to shut down all egress in the event the nukes start to fly. Because, by God, these people simultaneously belief nuclear war is justified and they will somehow survive it. If the latter falls the former falls. We are led by madmen, sociopaths and psychopaths, and only fear of their own certain demise. This has precious little to do with Russia, the Ukraine or… Read more »
*believe and “certain demise might stop them.” Geez. Monday.
Jack: For whatever reason, I’m rereading the William Forstchen fiction trilogy about a future America after an EMP. While the first volume came out in 2008 and primarily deals with the resultant breakdown in civilization, the second is from 2016 and presents the reappearance of ‘elected officials’ and their calls for national unity and compliance, and the resultant civil war. Forstchen’s portrayal of the slimy smiling bureaucrats really is spot on, and his predictions to me are prescient. Whenever said collapse happens and for whatever reason, the cockroaches will always remain. That’s the history of humanity, and why the victors… Read more »
No doubt the cockroaches will endure. Those that remain will be the dumber variety who did not or could not afford to buy boltholes in New Zealand (I’m not certain that is the silver bullet they think, either, but they do think it). I imagine all of the other nuclear powers, including allied ones, have developed weaponry that would make the D.C. Metro Area tunnels unsurvivable. People abroad loathe these types more than even we do; Also, it is hard to see how a few EMP’s would not be a good thing at this point despite the poverty and misery… Read more »
Those were/are good reads – a seemingly distinct future possibility.
Massie, along with every other elected official that doesn’t “go along to get along” (e.g. Scott Brown) has been banned from committee assignments, limiting their effectiveness in the permanent “government.”