206 thoughts on “Failure Management”

1. Interested in real unadulterated intelligence, encryption, espionage and ungentlemanly warfare? Do read the epic fact based spy thriller, Bill Fairclough’s Beyond Enkription, the first stand-alone novel of six in TheBurlingtonFiles series. He was one of Pemberton’s People in MI6.

   Beyond Enkription follows the real life of a real spy, Bill Fairclough (MI6 codename JJ) aka Edward Burlington who worked for British Intelligence, the CIA et al. It’s the stuff memorable spy films are made of, unadulterated, realistic yet punchy, pacy and provocative; a super read as long as you don’t expect John le Carré’s delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots.

   For the synopsis of Beyond Enkription see TheBurlingtonFiles website. This thriller is like nothing we have ever come across before. Indeed, we wonder what The Burlington Files would have been like if David Cornwell aka John le Carré had collaborated with Bill Fairclough. They did consider it and even though they didn’t collaborate, Beyond Enkription is still described as ”up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”. Why? The novel explores the exploitation of the ignorance and naivety of agents to the same extent as MI6 does in real life.

   As for Bill Fairclough, he has even been described as a real life posh Harry Palmer; there are many intriguing bios of him on the web. As for Beyond Enkription, it’s a must read for espionage cognoscenti. To relish in this totally different fact based espionage thriller best do some research first. Try reading three brief news articles published on TheBurlingtonFiles website. One is about Bill Fairclough (August 2023), characters’ identities (September 2021) and Pemberton’s People (October 2022). What is amazing is that these articles were only published many years after Beyond Enkription itself was. You’ll soon be immersed in a whole new world! No wonder it’s mandatory reading on some countries’ intelligence induction programs.

   As for TheBurlingtonFiles website, it is like a living espionage museum and as breathtaking as a compelling thriller in its own right. You can find the articles at https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2021.09.26.php and https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2022.10.31.php.

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   • Thanks for the commercial. The publicity-speak begins in the very first sentence (“Interested in real unadulterated intelligence, encryption, espionage and ungentlemanly warfare? Do read the epic fact based spy thriller … .” Can we now get back to our regularly scheduled programming?

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2. Stoltenberg does not want to target Russia. That would be stupid. Stoltenberg is not a good guy, but he is also not stupid. Stoltenberg and Macron have made it clear that the USDOS is bluffing. Witness all of the backpedaling about letting Ukraine into NATO.

   Stoltenberg has already said that it is not possible for NATO to win a conventional war with Russia. Stoltenberg knows that undeniable NATO missile strikes on Russia mean war. Since conventional war is off the table, this means nukes. Nuclear strikes on Russia would produce fallout on NATO countries.

   USDOS has been saying Russia is a pushover for years. Stoltenberg has effectively said, “If he’s not so tough, why don’t you fight him?” This has prompted USDOD to shut the door on USDOS shenanigans, because obviously, they can’t.

   The problem with your mostly sage analysis has always been your refusal to consider non-quantitative means of knowledge. You are quant focused and unable or unwilling to consider anything not quantifiable. Thus you accept things at face value rather than reading between the lines. This is not the way international relations works.

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3. We are paying the price for the long Cold War, which created institutions which had not the slightest intention of going away once the war was over. Of course, the Cold War itself was a product of a very hot war (WWII) which was itself a consequence of the WWI settlement that settled nothing. There is a House That Jack Built quality to this history of disasters. What is certain is that a great opportunity was missed by our foolish and wicked rulers when the Cold War ended. America had a chance to resume a non-interventionist foreign policy and repair the cracks appearing in the social fabric even then. Instead we are mired in forever war and the country is crumbling around us.

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   • Odd how victory often contains the seeds of ultimate defeat…

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     • Dutch Boy: We are paying the price for the long Cold War, which created institutions which had not the slightest intention of going away once the war was over. Of course, the Cold War itself was a product of a very hot war (WWII) which was itself a consequence of the WWI settlement that settled nothing.”

       Ostei Kozelskii: “Odd how victory often contains the seeds of ultimate defeat…”

       ===============

       The key date was January 1, 1934, when Henry Morgenthau Jr was sworn in as Treasury Secretary.

       Morgenthau put his peeps in every nook & cranny of the federal leviathan [not the least of whom was Roy Cohn as J Edgar Hoover’s wife].

       Back in the day, I was raised on Robert Ludlum & Tom Clancy novels, where a Will Bill Donovan or an Allen Dulles would come riding over the hill with the cavalry, to save the day, but, in reality, I doubt there was ever a cavalry in the first place.

       It was always the likes of Henry Morgenthau & Roy Cohn [& their successors, such as Mark Felt & Henry Kissinger & Sandy “the Burglar” Berger].

       All fake. All ghey. All Anti-Amurrikkkun.

       I’m convinced that Morgenthau’s peeps had infiltrated the entirety of Military Intelligence, and especially that they were reading the correspondence of George Patton & Douglas MacArthur, and that that’s why MacArthur suffered a character assassination & why Patton suffered an ackshual literal assassination.

       https://rense.com/general92/patton.htm

       Conversely, it’s why Dwight “the j00 of West Point” Eisenhower became Supreme Allied Commander; because Morgenthau cherry-picked him [over Patton & MacArthur].

       The very same Dwight “the j00 of West Point” Eisenhower who sent the paratroopers with the bayonet’ted rifles into Little Rock, Arkansas.

       To save our (((Democracy))).

       https://i.imgur.com/m2JTjSP.png

       And of course it was why James Forrestal took a dive off the roof of the National Naval Medical Center.

       https://i.imgur.com/NG6zIKZ.jpeg

       And why Joseph McCarthy (((suicided))) himself via alcohol poisoning in the very same National Naval Medical Center.

       All fake.

       All ghey.

       All Anti-Amurrikkkun.

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       • Greatest comment to ever appear on this blog.

         Thank you.

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         • Them canoes ain’t got no rudders, Bro.

           Don’t become Marvin Pinchot Meyer.

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   • Is anyone harboring the illusion that the CIA, the FBI, or State have good track records.

     1. IN WWII, we didn’t see the Soviets were every bit as aweful as the Nazis.
     2. We decide to outsource our strategic advantage of manufacturing.
     3. During the cold war, we were unaware of the stupidity of the Soviet system.
     4. We wasted blood and treasure in Vietnam but let the Soviets have a satellite in Cuba, where we had a naval base.
     5. Who can forget the folly of our efforts in bringing our beloved democracy to the middle east.
     6. Oh, yeah, we missed that 911 thing.

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4. It’s possible, though, that this is a preparation for victory.
   That is, the crazy might die down just a bit.

   I just read a piece about how some CIA ISIS cutout and ‘construction magnate’ is preparing the camps in Sinai. Israel has forcibly herded the remaining Gazans into the southern end, Rafah, and is planning to move them to there.

   These will be camps of the same kind as are in Jordan.
   We don’t hear much about those, do we? Problem solved.

   They intend to have this largely accomplished “by Ramadan”, whenever that is.

   If Ukraine is wrapped up by fall, then, the oligarchs can take their seizures and cut a deal with Putin. A number of elections will happen, the right people get in place, and the asset stripping to undergird the Dollar and Euro markets will resume a more steady pace.

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   • Of course the refugees from these camps will eventually wind up in America and Europe.

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     • george 1: That’s been the plan all along.

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5. “What all of this suggests is that the people operating behind the curtain are deeply worried about project Ukraine.”

   I remember that Jacob Rothchild stated in 2022 or early 2023, I think, something along the lines of: “We must not lose in Ukraine. Many of our most important project would fail if the Russians win.”

   Jacob’s most important project now is probably trying to get heat relief.

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   • And just who did you think has run the HVAC concession in Hell these past aeons?

     Word in the shtetl is that JR has already settled in cool as a cucumber and is working on a plan to corner the market in pitchforks. The BBQ joint franchise is on the back burner until Marina Abramovic becomes available for kitchen duties.

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6. Even if all the corruption and money laundering etc., is revealed – that Blood Money book for example – nothing is going to happen to any of these f****. No amount of degeneracy or slaughter seems to make any difference. And I’m absolutely sure that all the European countries are going to line up to send troops to Ukraine – give me a freaking break. I used to laugh at the “great satan” moniker the POS middle eastern countries gave to the US, but you know what, they were, and are 100% right…

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   • A way for Putin to attack the real source of the problem would be to ‘flip’ Zelensky and pals by offering them a safe place to retire with their loot, in return for evidence against the (D)irtbags who are pushing this stupid fight.
     The back country of Russia would be safest from angry Ukes, or western pols/CIA fearing exposure. Putin would have motivation to keep the deal – a cheap way of ending wars , a terrifying threat against future western supporters of patsies against Russia.

     – just publicly making the offer would be an embarrassment to the evil, corrupt elites

     – Hit enemies in weak spots
     – Turn criminals against each other

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     • Trump could advocate for this, or even make his own offer of sanctuary, but would have to warn: The deep state and future (D)irtbag administrations might renege.

       Funny stuff, even if Zelensky refuses. And it would sow distrust between our (D)irtbags and Ukraines.

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   • usNThem:

     It’s funny you say that. In 2000 I could have been heard saying how much I loved my country and hated the middle easterners. It’s amazing how I feel now. I hate this country more than any other on the earth. I wish every day for it to burn to the ground so a new nation can be constructed.

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7. Ukraine has been a money laundering operation for decades, and both Obama and Biden used it extensively to redirect US aid money into their personal pockets. As a result, the Ukies have extensive blackmail files on US politicians that provides them with unlimited leverage. This is what DC is most fearful of at the present. When Ukraine falls, those blackmail files may be released and a whole lotta dirt is going to be revealed. And it could come out as an October Surprise if the Russians time their victory properly.

   And so you have the potential for a perfect storm. Ukraine falls and the corruption gets revealed. NATO gets exposed as a paper tiger. Elections get thrown into turmoil as voters look for someone to blame. The dollar craters and inflation soars. BRICS becomes an alternative to SWIFT. Rolling over Western sovereign debt finds no buyers. Invading illegal mercenaries organize and attack internally. Everybody starts shooting at everybody else and all Hell breaks loose.

   Keep your head down and the ammo box close at hand.

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   • ^This, this and this ^

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   • It’s hard to picture any “file” that Russia (or Ukraine) could “release” that would not be dismissed as Russian disinformation/conspiracy theory/QAnon, with all the regime’s media, and all the good bug people, agreeing in lockstep. The mere suggestion of such a thing sounds like so much “tick tock.” As Putin himself says, it’s about impossible to win a propaganda war against globohomo.

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     • Just so. And even if stories of vast Power Structure corruption in Ukraine were widely believed by AINO’s masses, so what? These are the people who sat around with their thumbs up their asses after a stolen election, state-sponsored BLM terrorism, J6 protesters being persecuted as political prisoners, and the Covid Captivity. Anybody really think they’re going to raise hell over a spate of white-collar crime? Ha! It is to laugh.

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     • Politicians facing reelection in November can be at significant risk if the tar of corruption is tied to them personally. And the Ukies are not stupid. They have video/audio recordings and paper trail/bank records that can be offered as corroboration. But the worst of it will be revelations of what happened to a lot of the military weapons that were provided to the AFU and wound up on the black market instead. This alone could amount to $billions in serious standoff munitions that could become problematic in the wrong hands all over the planet. Not a good look for Uncle Sam and the DC elites that have been cheerleading and supporting Ukraine for the past 10 years.

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     • One can deny the credibility of the source, and they certainly will. But what about the “money trail”? Also, unknown co-conspirators may come to light. At some point the pieces of the puzzle may come together and form an unassailable narrative.

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     • Jeffrey

       Spot on. Nothing that Tom said will happen will come close to happening.

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     • Not a financial expert by any means, I don’t know what happens if nonwestern countries stop buying TBs but I think that would break the treasury. And I’m sure the Russians would be happy to show the Chinese, Saudis and even Japanese any real dirt they found on Uncle Clown in the Ukraine. That might save TomA’s argument.

       That many Western dissidents would probably believe the Russians and that a few maturing normies might too, is a minor headache

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   • Are you suggesting the plates will stop spinning?

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8. Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion of sending European troops into Ukraine is most likely a domestic political ploy. The French president was chased out of an agricultural exposition by angry French farmers (he literally had to run) and probably felt that he needed to look tough somehow.

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   • I think they should start by sending him to the trenches in the Donbass

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     • Yes, and send Merkel and her Green buddies to the front too. My contempt knows no bounds for those evil monsters, with so much guilt, including against their own people.

       Merkel knew what a bloody travesty this is. One of the most disgusting politicians in history, in my opinion.

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       • Hate em all. It is increasingly hard to find a non traitor who actually wins elections. Funny how that is

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         • The human race selects for psychopathy and sociopathy in its rulers. Anybody who has power, probably shouldn’t. Same as it ever was. And so it always will be.

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         • If we could figure out some way to give power only to people who don’t want it. It would still corrupt them too, but maybe not as much or as quickly.

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         • Washington was a striking anamoly. In hindsight it was probably a drawback for the nation to start out with the least sociopathic President it would ever enjoy. It set the stage for the “vote harder” mindset.

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         • Ostei,

           I don’t know if the human race specifically selects for these traits, or rather that too often it is these sociopaths and psychopaths who put themselves forward as worthy holders of these positions, and contrive to hide, or otherwise obfuscate their hideous natures when they have done so. And if they are successful in attaining these positions, they naturally surround themselves with “a bodyguard of liars”, fellow sociopaths and psychopaths,making it yet more difficult to root them out through public awareness of their malevolence.

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   • As grim as all this has been, it was hilarious when Macron donned a Zelensky-like flak jacket a few times in the initial stages of the war. I saw some clips of the Ag Expo fiasco. They were quickly memoryholed here, of course, lest the peasants get any ideas.

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     • Given Macron’s sexual preferences, I’d suspect that he enjoys drama and wearing costumes.

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9. About 90% of the CIA’s power is an unlimited checkbook. And an opaque one at that. The only books more locked down than our intel agencies are the ones belonging to the Fed. If you have, for all intents and purposes, an unlimited budget, you can cause unlimited mischief around the world. At no point should anyone assume that this money is directed competently, or that anything going on inside that complex is anything more than one fiasco after another. Incompetence at that level is self selecting. You can’t fake it. Those who belong there and make careers there are so lacking in common sense and so enamored with themselves as fictional characters saving the world, that only the craziest of the crazies at Brown and Dartmouth would fit in. It’s community theater with money.

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   • Meanwhile, Civnat G. Normiecon, hopelessly indoctrinated by Clancy agitprop, thinks they are all Jack Ryan

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     • I’ve got to defend Clancy a little bit. “Clear and Present Danger” was explicitly about corruption in the White House and CIA, although it implied that congress did its duty to clean up that corruption. Government corruption and radical leftist infiltration, although small enough to fix, was prevalent in all of his books.

       So, I think Clancy made an accurate description of what was understood by the public in the pre-internet era.

       I won’t defend the garbage produced in his name since his death though; that shit is unwatchable/ unreadable.

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       • Along that same thought, a famous quote from Mr. Clancy,”What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms, and killing people. It’s not good at much else.”

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       • Aside from that, Red Storm Rising was the helluva read. In fact, I need to pick that one up again.

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         • Yes, that was one of his best. Since you like that one, I recommend “Red Army” by Ralph Peters.

           It is 1980s WW3 told from the Soviet side. It is highly detailed and puts a human face on our then-enemy.

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     • Actually, from Z’s description of the puff piece in the NYT it sounds like they may be spinning up a “they just wouldn’t let us win” Vietnam-style narrative for the Boomercons. Rambo goes to Moscow!

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   • Years ago I briefly dated a woman who worked for the CIA. It did not take long to realize that she was basically a cubicle jockey pushing paper around. She thought she was Mata Hari. About 90% of CIA employees are glorified cubicle jockeys producing the most important thing in any bureaucracy, reports.

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     • About 90% of CIA employees are glorified cubicle jockeys producing the most important thing in any bureaucracy, reports.

       So Z, did she put the correct coversheet on her TPS reports?

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     • And yet they seem to have a finger in every pie that goes against us. The election in 2020, Trump’s besieged presidency before that, the recent Polish election. They are a dangerous enemy and, I think, central to clown world government

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       • Well, not for nothing is it known as the “Central” Intelligence Agency…

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       • As JR Wirth noted, though, almost all of that power comes from their unlimited budget. There is a large margin for graft and incompetence when you can just throw infinite money at a problem. If their funding were to disappear, however, the entire house of cards may just come crashing down.

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         • If the dollar goes, they will be burning their Langley access cards. But we’re not there yet and I think they’re dangerous

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         • Wildstar,

           They have contingency plans reputedly, such as drug smuggling and other black deals to keep them flush. And while they are at these things, developing blackmail materials on other involved, also useful in greasing the skids from time to time.

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     • I thought they all said:
       “I’m not a spy, I just read books.”

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       • Nice reference.

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     • When I unwittingly worked for them my job was finely indexing court transcripts. Based on the material I was given it looked like they were mining lawyers’ rhetoric on behalf of defamation plaintiffs who were definitionally public figures but won their cases against regular schlubs anyway—pattern-seeking, like asking ChatGPT to make a successful argument against a “citizen journalist” who’s mentioned a government agent by name.

       Reading the cases as a literate human being, they were all de facto directed verdicts. The winning “strategy” was corruption, the fact that the system is rigged. But a textual analysis can’t show that. Some professional-class verbal tic would be found responsible. My job was to hunt down that tic so it could become managerial wisdom.

       I was a teenage chatbot for the CIA.

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     • I worked with a guy who had been a CIA analyst..He said it had been a pretty boring job, and when he discovered something of possible value, the layers above him invariably ignored and dismissed it..He also observed that nothing we saw in the media about CIA observations had not been heavily doctored and often changed completely…

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   • JR Wirth: It’s worth remembering that The Agency, just like every other organ of the US state, has been infested with POX, womyn, and woke. If it ever was a collection of some fairly sharp or capable or patriotic people, it is not so now. It reflects AINO just as much as today’s FBI . . and State Department . . . and your local DMV. Even given unlimited money, the end result of people chosen by diversity and political pokemon points rather than White, heritage American men of merit equals – Detroit? Lagos on the Potomac? Google Gemini?

     Garbage in + $$$$$ still equals garbage out. Just look out your city or suburban window for a real-time example.

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     • Yeah, I saw it as far back as the 1990s. Knew a guy who studied the Middle East and spoke one of the languages. Smart, down-to-earth guy. He was rejected by the CIA. Another woman studied women and something or other in global affairs, admitted to smoking pot and wasn’t even that interested in the CIA. She was accepted.

       The guy told me that every recruiter was black or a woman and that they wanted more diversity in the intelligence agencies.

       Now, this was the 1990s, so let’s say that’s when the rot started. (Not true, but let’s assume.) Okay, that would mean the agencies may have had some good people from the 1980s or even a few slipping in during the 1990s and early 2000s.

       First off, most of the good people would have left due to the agencies becoming insane, but the few good ones still there would now be in their 50s and nearing retirement. I highly doubt any good ones were recruited in the past 20 years or so.

       That means that the agencies – all of them – are not even near peak dysfunctional. Over the next five to ten years, any decent senior staff will be gone. We’re only seeing the beginning of this shit show.

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       • Citizen: I knew quite a few people in various government agencies back in the day. My husband and I left the government early in the Clinton years, when budgets and positions were being cut and diversity was being pushed So yes, to the best of my knowledge it really ramped up back then. And all the various colleagues we’ve had any contact with since we left have all since retired, which further supports your point.

         Clinton and diversity initiatives affected all aspects of government – not just State or the Agency. Husband had a college friend – military experience, border patrol, Soviet Studies/PolySci major, and mixed-race to boot (half mestizo/half White). He was rejected by the FBI in the mid ’90s. But his sister – a public school teacher – got in.

         People who think all the problems began with Obama just don’t have a clue as to how far back things go – just like those who blame the ‘collapse’ of the blaq family (as if it ever genuinely existed in the Western sense) on LBJ. The roots of the US decline go way back, even though there were times of greater or lesser stability. Think of Zman’s excellent example of falling down a staircase, with alternating stops on landings combined with precipitous tumbles.

         Personally, I don’t think we have any landings left, although ymmv.

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       • And that’s a very good thing…

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     • There are a handful of artifacts like Burns, and even as scummy as he is, Brennan, around, but they are like the last Tasmanian Devils in a Melbourne zoo. What you describe has been the case since at least the late Eighties.

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       • John Brennan, hired by the CIA in 1980 after admitting to them he voted communist, grew up in northern New Jersey (North Bergen), the son of Irish immigrants from County Roscommon, a rural county in the center of Ireland, population less than 7,000.

         William Brennan, Supreme Court Justice, grew up in Newark, right next to North Bergen, also the son of Irish immigrants from…. County Roscommon. It gets better. John’s father was a blacksmith (in 1948!), and William’s a “metal polisher.” What are the odds.

         It’s all there on wikipedia. Things that make me go hmmm

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   • All of these ridiculous agencies go back to FDR and the 2nd world war. So much of what is wrong with AINO comes from that era. The number one reason for existence of any bureaucracy is to justify its own existence and preferably its expansion. So the reason to exist just shifted from stupid rationale to stupid rationale. They have had their ridiculous finger in many, many cultural things since the war. Like modern art. From what I have heard, “modern art” was largely in opposition to the realism of Soviet art. Books. Movies. TV shows. They have had their fingerprints all over this crap. “Equality!!!” A big push for equality was in the name of fighting the Soviets.

     After the soviets, instead of packing up and going home after declaring “victory” they just moved on to other rationales. The world could be a perfect utopia and these people would find a reason to exist.

     All of these agencies need to be completely dismantled and every single person who has ever worked in any of them or as a contractor be barred from working in any level of government or as a contractor to any government agency at any level. They are a cancer on society and frankly, the world.

     The Pentagon needs to be condemned and maybe a park or something be in its place. The military mostly dismantled. America’s military power did not come from having an enormous military with a gigantic budget. The military was tiny in 1939. We are no longer the power we once were no matter how big the budget and no matter how many men in uniform we have. Do we even have the textile industrial capacity to give uniforms to 10 million men? How about boots? Could we make 10 million pairs of boots and then replacements?

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     • And why is the country so deep in debt?
       Why, to keep all these agencies and their spawn in business!

       The District of Columbia, the City of London, Brussels…none of these city-states, technically, are a part of the nation in which they reside.

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       • City of London is way different from the other two: it generates trillions. Number one place on the planet to do business.

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     • In other words, what you’re saying is that AINO should be dismantled. I wholeheartedly agree.

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   • The executive and field personnel are equivalent to mafioso. If they need black money, they shake down businesses or open up new Illicit substances pipelines. Not just the agency leadership but individual capos. They are equipped with all the latest surveillance gear and thus an uncrossable information gap versus investigators. Even if we eliminated their formal budget, cut off known black money sources, and fired them today it likely would take several human generations before most of the damage would diminish. You’d have to kill them off and that is highly unlikely and, moreover, if you could do it the teams fulfilling the liquidation operation would emerge just as terrible eventually. We are a siloed people, impotent; our hope the agency and others like it implode from their own conduct. Meanwhile, they aren’t interested in protecting your and I.

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10. “While the agency did the task assigned to it by the political side of Washington, the agency bears no ill-will to the Russians with regards to Ukraine.”

    I would imagine the political class probably has only the foggiest notion of what the deep state is up to at any given time. Chances are the intelligence and spy agencies have clandestine operations around the world totally out of the view of the political class. No line budget and no reports available to the political class.

    Putin complained to Tucker that nobody seems to be in charge. That was at the political level. Add in all these ridiculous agencies we have and there is probably a whole extra divide of overlapping interests where the political side is completely unaware of the agency’s interests.

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    • From the CIA perspective – Putin’s observation re: who’s in charge would be confirmation things are running according to plan. Also, the worst that could happen, whether the CIA (or any other alphabet agency for that matter), would be to solve a problem, or, ya’ know…actually fix something. That is unless, of course, they can create an even bigger problem in the process. Brownie points. promotions all round for that.

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    • I imagine the political class is acutely aware of how efficient these agencies are at gathering kompromat. See the DC brothel bust, reported shortly before the vote on the new FBI headquarters, for example.

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11. We will ‘tighten the noose’ on Putin. Just how does your fat self propose to do that Ms. Nuland? I am sure the Russians await with great anticipation your Rainbow Armies. Most estimates say they currently have about an 800,000, and growing every month, reserve force that is very well equipped and trained waiting for NATO to act.

    If it is long range missiles she and Stoltenberg are planning they should understand that Russia has plenty of those too. They have openly discussed using Finland as a launching point for the missiles. The people in Finland and all of Europe need to wake up fast.

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    • “The people in Finland and all of Europe need to wake up fast.”

      They should but would it matter near-term? The GAE will make Brezhnev look like a piker if one of the satrapies’ puppet governments ever feels threatened enough by its civilian populace. In fact, a NATO response to an event like the Gdansk shipyards likely will signal the end of the GAE is in fact close, but God help those who rise up initially. Look at the surveillance and oppression of the American population and multiply it by ten. It is reasonable to assume monitoring the domestic situations far exceeds foreign activities.

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      • Explain the success of the farmer revolt if that is the case.

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        • They have still not managed to win tangible victories over the demon clowns. The climate taxes and war on beef are still on the menu

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        • None of them have posed a threat to the central governments, just policies, and even those have not changed expect around the edges in places such as Holland.

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          • Jack Dodson – unfortunate, but true. That said, the literal poo flinging done at tptb is a pretty good symbol for figurative poo flinging done by tptb at the dirt people for lo these many years.

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        • The popularity is the success.
          By hook or by crook, white people are getting around the censors and starting to mobilize as a separate class.

          Good lord. We’re all Gazans now.

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12. Somewhat related to this is that, from what I gather from a Ukro-Russian connection, Avdeevka is one of the places in which Ukrainian forces were shelling civilians in the Donbass who leaned more in their sympathies towards Russia, especially since 2014.

    This whole business of atrocities against civilians in eastern Ukraine has, of course, been massively ignored by western media. One useful Youtuber who has reported a lot on suffering in the Donbass is Patrick Lancaster. I haven’t seen his videos for a few months now, but he did some very good video journalism telling stories not broadcast in the west.

    If we had a mainstream media worth anything, Americans would be horrified at what has been happening in that part of Ukraine in the last 10 years.

    I suppose the Deep State will continue to do all it can to keep a lid on any info about this, no matter what happens with the war. I suppose readers here tend to be more aware of it though.

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    1

    • Yes, thanks to alternative reportage, I was well aware of the level of atrocities against Russian ethnics in the Donbass tight after the coup in Kiev in 2014. One particularly noteworthy horror was in Odessa, where Russian ethnics at the Union of Trades (?) were burned alive, or otherwise murdered by Banderist thugs. Some images of those killed got out, and I vividly remember one of them, a heavily pregnant woman lying face up on her desk in her office who had been strangled with her desk phone’s cord, and likely raped, too, judging by how her skirt was pushed up.
      Any of those thugs participating in that abomination had best be in fear for their lives, as I recall President Putin remaking on this very outrage, and how they were identifying those responsible.

      Also I remember images of some unfortunate babushka torn to bits in a bombing attack in Donetsk when the Banderites still had a functioning air force.

      20

      1

      • Yes, thank you Jersey Jeffersonian. As I started to read your post I thought, “I should have mentioned Odessa,” and you did! I also remember video of the cheering and laughs of those on the street watching as people were trapped in that burning building.

        Some people claiming to be DR have glorified actions by Ukrainian groups such as Azov. They need to wise up about these thugs, as you rightly called them.

        Also good to know that I’m not the only one who leans Jeffersonian in these parts. Or Madisonian, Adams-onian, etc. 🙂

        8

        1

      • Strangling and raping a pregnant woman…. I would like to be against the idea of the death penalty but I can’t. Sometimes anything less is too feeble a response

        10

        • A slow, extended, torturous death for those who not only degrade and then kill such a woman, but also kill the life-to-be within her.

          5

        • Failure to mete out ultimate justice bespeaks insufficient respect for human life.

          12

    • I disagree with Z-man on the rate of Ukro-Nazi collapse…I think it could be very rapid, because they have no reserves, and the Russians are advancing on numerous fronts–often with virtually no resistance…The war is effectively over, IMO, and the next few months are just a mopping up operation…

      9

    • What nitwit would down vote this excellent observation?

      1

13. “This has opened up a hole in the Ukrainian defenses and has the Ukrainians scrambling to build new defensive lines further West.”

    There is another angle to it. Ukraine had money allocated to build those defense lines several months back, but that money got stolen. Contractors claimed they built the defense lines, but actually had very little structure on the ground.

    This has been a common theme is Ukraine. I read a few months back that the money for making clothes for soldiers got stolen, and so the soldiers had to pay for their own military uniforms.

    25

    • I saw some pics on line that showed three foot trenches that some contractor dug in a few days to make it look like the works was done. Ukraine is a very corrupt place.

      30

      • And always has been…Rand termed it the most corrupt nation in the world years ago (I have friends who worked there), and it hasn’t gotten better, that’s for sure…

        5

        • But why? They shouldn’t be.
          Famous for some of the most beautiful women in the world, White, literate, large, industrial and ag rich…thoroughly European. It could’ve countered Germany in importance.

          Slavers. Always attracted to the richest prize.
          Ukraine is another thing they’ve taken from us.
          Avenge, I say, avenge!

          5

      • “Ukraine is a very corrupt place.”

        In other news, Stacey Abrams has an ever so slightly gravitationally-enhanced tukhas…

        5

    • Then there’s the question of whether the deaths of some soldiers aren’t being reported so their commanders can pocket the dead soldier’s pay.

      Just a rumor.

      20

      • Once men’s sense of honor collapses, everything else soon follows

        10

        • Once you quit hearin sir and ma’am, the rest is soon to foller

          5

          • Our kids walkin’ the streets of Texas cities with green hair and bones in their noses.

            6

      • This is a time honored tradition, going back at least as far as the Duke of Marlborough…

        2

14. When I saw this report I laughed because this is the “narrative shift” we’ve all been expecting and waiting for.

    They’ve moved from defending democracy to the Sunk Cost Fallacy. The CIA has been there for a decade and we caused all this (because Ukraine asked us to, ofc). We can’t leave now!

    I also interpreted this to mean that the Government Party about to thrown in the towel on Ukraine funding. The Republicans have held together, and they clearly believe that getting us out of a wildly unpopular war in an election year is good politics. Remember, after efforts to blame Trump failed, they banned all questions about the Afghanistan surrender/collapse. The public knew it was a lie. If the Ukrainian govt/army collapses this year, it will be pinned on the people who started the war. Yes, Republicans were in on that, but mostly the regime, CIA, and State Dept.

    And NATO. Trump is running as the “clean up NATO or leave” candidate. His case is strengthened.

    It’s sad news for Ukraine. Many more boys will be arrested and sent to the front without training. If we’re lucky, one of them gets close enough to Zelenski to end the war.

    34

    • > If we’re lucky, one of them gets close enough to Zelenski to end the war.

      They won’t. Have you seen his “security detail”? It would be a fair assessment to suggest that Zelenskyyyyy is himself a hostage of MI6/CIA.

      20

      • As Sev keeps pointing out at his site, Zelenskyy would do well to search Ngo Dinh Diem and see what happened to him. “He’s a sonofabitch, but he’s OUR sonofabitch!” only takes you so far, until you’re not.

        I believe Hank Kissinger once said “To be an enemy of the United States is dangerous. To be a friend of the United States is fatal.”

        24

        • And neutrality is seen as antagonism.

          3

    • There’s plenty of time for the GOP to cuck and fully fund Ukraine. In that same spending bill there will be hundreds of line items funding every leftist constituency out there. All the LGBT people, the Indians, the feminists etc plus Ukraine, they’ll all get their funding, probably more than they asked for.

      17

      1

      • Chicago’s public transit system (CTA/RTA) are only still running trains/ busses because of COVID funds.
        Questions about operating expenses after Covid funding ends is discouraged.

        15

      • If they were going to do that, I think they would have by now. The closer to November we get, the less likely. More money will not save Ukraine, and they may be calculating that they will be in better standing with voters if they just sit it out.

        If Biden wants to force a govt shutdown over Ukraine, it will spread the Biden contagion to the Dems in the House and Senate.

        2

    • George Reedy, Lyndon Johnson’s press secretary remarked in an interview for the documentary “LBJ”:

      “Suppose that you are the President of the United States, and you give some orders and some men get killed. You aren’t going to say to yourself — I mean, to yourself, late at night — ‘Those men are dead because I was a damn slob and I gave some silly orders.’ What you’re going to say is, ‘My God, those men died in a noble cause, and we’ve got to see to it that they didn’t die in vain.’ So you send more men to vindicate their deaths.”

      10

15. It has been discussed in this space why the permanent state was not more willing to make deals with Mr. Trump and tolerate his presidency for 4 or 8 years, rather than burn down the facade of “democracy” in an effort to be rid of him. I’ve settled on Ukraine as the answer.

    They had plans there that go way back. Farther back than 2014. I personally knew retired US military personnel who were in Ukraine training Ukrainian soldiers as far back as 2007. It’s hard to say exactly what those plans were or what would have happened with the Ukraine project if She had been elected in 2016, but we can be sure it would have been different, and I believe his election really threw a wrench in the Big Plan. Presidents may have become largely superfluous, but you still need their approval to fight an overt war. Doesn’t do a lot for the credibility of “democracy” if the commander in chief is protesting US involvement in a war where US boots are on the ground.

    Why that was the big plan, what was so important about it, it’s difficult for someone like me to say. I’m inclined to prattle on about “if you’re not growing you’re shrinking” being applied to the GAE, colored by the End of History, and a generation of Nuland aged intel apparatchiks who majored in Russian studies and Russian language and spent their younger years in the agency working on defeating Russia. Suddenly they had nothing to do, so they had to find something to do. Whatever the reason, the Ukraine project was definitely important. The offspring of Biden, Romney, Pelosi, and Kerry weren’t on the boards of Chilean mining companies, Taiwan chip companies, or German car companies. No, they were on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. Recall that the first effort to impeach him was instigated by the MIC/NatSec state, over Ukraine.

    73

    • Superlative comment.

      12

    • You have to account for fury.

      The West’s Russian occupation government, the CCCP, collapsed. Efforts to impose a successor occupation—globohomo, GAE, whatever—have been marginally thwarted because Putin is only 95% on board.

      Russians abort their babies en masse, as we insist, but they don’t gouge out their children’s sex organs and make them live on in bodies twisted into Cronenbergian torture chambers. Russian teenagers are *nearly* the drugged-out suicide zombies the Anglosphere’s are, but they’re not fat, so they can still find some pleasure in each other. Etc.

      Such outrages—signs of life—cannot stand.

      Trump has *no sense for this,* like a man without eyes can’t conceive of color. There’s nothing they could say to him that would convert him to the cause of Total Slav Death. He can’t imagine it. He rather likes them. He has no idea what the problem is.

      (Also, he’s a sign of American life.)

      The average lib’s reaction to Tucker pointing out that there are normal 20th century American style grocery stores in Moscow: murderous *fury*.

      6

      • The same vindictiveness is also reserved for the Dirt People living in the United States and the rest of the GAE. The Cloud People could easily make minor concessions here and there to mollify the deplorables. Instead they want their enemies utterly broken, impoverished and destroyed.

        “Do not forget that these people want you broke, dead, your kids r@ped and brainwashed, and they think it’s funny.” — Sam Hyde

        5

    • Also, remember that Ukraine was formally declared a country when the USSR collapsed. The statelets that used to be Yugoslavia followed. All under the Clinton administration with its eventual CIA cutout, the Clinton Global Initiative foundation.

      I’d say somebody was prepared, and plans set in motion.
      Other players saw their chance, and were ready to make the best of it.

      The Cold War didn’t end, it became an internal Movement.

      5

    • They’ve been planning this since Putin took power and was revealed as a Russian nationalist. Can’t have that!

      4

16. I’m thinking they’ll do some reframing and try to sell the inevitable capitulation as some sort of spiritual victory. Probably pointing out Ukraine’s underdog status and how making the war last for a long time is meaningful in some way.

    They’ll also have to present some narrative about how the untold billions funneled into this war wasn’t squandered. Of course this is also the crowd we’re used to hearing, “If it saves just one life…” from. As others have said, they’ll probably state the end result would’ve been improved had funding encountered no resistance.

    10

    • A big problem for them is no one cares what they say or which excuse is offered. The Inner Party is the ultimate audience, of course, and the factions within it will try to leverage an advantage from the defeat. An advantage of the Deep State means never having to say you are sorry and meaning it.

      12

    • I wouldn’t be surprised to see them throw this in for good measure: “Ukraine’s decimation would have been so much worse if they weren’t all vaccinated.”

      18

    • Chad, I agree. The story will be written like a Nikki Haley ‘victory’ speech.

      8

17. I read this article differently. Obama was never a big fan of the Ukraine project and I think this is his people hitting back at the CIA, albeit in a respectful manner. This is standard DC insider score-settling. I think it presages a push by Obama’s people to throw Biden out.

    Obama’s people probably planted it to deflect blame from the Obama political class onto the CIA and Biden for the incipient debacle in Ukraine. We are obviously now about to enter the “blame fixing” stage and the 2014 stuff happened on Obama’s watch. So now the underlying message is: “they went rogue and overstepped the mark” that Obama set for them.

    Obama, being hopelessly lazy (otherwise he’d already be dictator), kind of checked out by his second term and let Nuland and Biden manage the Ukraine mess. They turned Ukraine into a cash and intrigue machine. Now that it’s a sh*tshow, they are all running away from it as fast as possible.

    24

    2

    • Interesting theory. The head of the CIA is Bill Burns, a flunky of the neocons, so he could be dishing on the agency he nominally runs and will not be running after the election.

      11

      • Burns also was the ambassador to Moscow for W and Obama and it appears he actually did warn against the Ukraine fuckery. Even so it is hard to see how Obama is able not to be tarred with the Ukraine brush, pardon the pun, since it happened on his watch. I think Captain is onto something here but the leak also may have come from the Biden camp in an attempt to pin blame on Obama.

        8

    • That’s very plausible, especially when you view Obama as the IC faction and Biden as the FBI faction. I do suspect there is a lot of inner Party anger at Obama over his shiftlessness, though, and his faction no longer has the juice it once did.

      6

    • Much or even most of the military buildup by the West in Ukraine prior to the Russian direct intervention, was under Trump. Not that he was ever curious enough to question what was going on.

      4

      • The president knows what is in the daily briefing book. Trump reportedly had a fetich for the thing, but the usual suspects made sure to leave out the stuff they knew would be a problem. Supposedly, when asked why he never read the briefing book Obama said, “what difference would it make?” He was no doubt right.

        26

        1

    • Obama is indeed lazy and I think he dropped the ball on foreign policy by letting HRC, McCain, Petraeus, Nuland, etc. run amok, basically rubber-stamping whatever garbage they put in front of him.

      He did have his moments, though: refusing to attack Syria was one, firing Stan McChrystal another.

      2

18. Medvedev’s recent press interview contained several comments on the American Deep State, its independence from elected officials, its control of domestic and foreign policy, the continuity of that policy despite elections, and the general high effectiveness of that policy.

    I guess no one, other than Americans, takes the public storyline seriously anymore.

    18

    • Might you have a link? I’ll check on the RT site in the meantime.

      3

19. Pingback: DYSPEPSIA GENERATION » Blog Archive » Failure Management

20. They’ll pin the Ukraine defeat on Biden just before he moves out, whenever that is and however it’s done.

    8

    • That’s possible. His departure also would provide cover to read Netanyahu the Riot Act.

      5

    • Puppets are natural fall guys. For instance, Obama didn’t throw the border wide open (even if he wanted too). So hanging Ukraine around Biden’s neck makes perfect sense.

      4

      • ^This. I call Biden the “throw-down president.” He is worthless and ready to push up daisies and the perfect candidate to enact hideous, destructive policies that would ruin anyone, even a person of value. The Ukraine War and the open border will be presented as his handiwork from now forward.

        5

21. Ukrainian military now resorts to raiding barber shops and fitness centers to grab men almost any age and throw them into the battle without training.
    When Ukrainians have no Poles, Jews and Russians to abuse they abuse each other.

    30

    4

    • I often wonder just what training does. Seems counterintuitive, but in Vietnam we sent soldiers from boot to the line and the results were pretty much that if you were to be a casualty, it would be in the first few weeks or a couple months. After which, the odds of a successful “tour” were as good as the old timers. IIRC. Seems your best training is on the line—assumes you are not part of a field weapon team—but rather a grunt level ground pounder on the line.

      4

      • I wonder how much the Vietnam experience resembles the high-intensity warfare that the Ukrainian Army is now enduring. I suspect that the Russian military is much less “forgiving” of tactical errors than were either the Viet Cong or the North Vietnamese Army.

        6

      • Speaking as a grunt: Battlefield OJT matters, but initial training is supremely important. During Vietnam, troops inbound to the war received additional jungle/counter-geurilla training for 4-6 weeks in Louisiana (called Tigerland), Hawaii, or Panama. That training saved LOTS of guys. Individual combat tours, rather than unit combat tours, was responsible for the high number of casualties in new replacements. The Vietnam acronym FNG (Fuckin’ New Guy) says it all.

        Ukraine is different because it is a meat-grinder slugfest. Defending in that fight only requires the skill to defend a trench and pray that each artillery round misses you. Anyone can do it.

        However, attacking (hence coordinated maneuver) against fortified positions…that requires quality training before the fight. One more reason those poor Ukranian bastards are doomed.

        20

        • Thanks for the correction/clarification Yes, come to think of it, I was referring to individual replacements in combat units.

          2

      • Recall though, that a goodly portion of the future ground pounders were constituted of the low IQ folks that would have otherwise been excluded prior to Macnamara’s okay to put them in the service to fill the personnel needs. That these guys got wasted was a shame, but a bigger shame would be if their slow-witted presence amongst the front line forces wound up getting other guys with more on the stick killed.

        4

        • We had guys like that roll down the pipe in the darker days of GWOT (05-09). I had one we called “Goldfish” because he couldn’t remember anything for 5 minutes and opened and closed his mouth to breathe.

          As I told my First Sergeant, “Taking Goldfish on patrol is the same as leaving my best two guys behind.”

          We managed to get him sent back to the states and discharged. But with todays standards that would be impossible.

          4

22. ‘Teacher says, that whenever they put a new star on the wall at Langley, an agent gets his wings.’

    Seriously, all the alphabets must go.

    When this is all over, we need to send Nuland and company over to Keeeev to walk a gauntlet of widows, orphans and wounded vets with sticks, ultimately to a scaffold.

    49

    • Otoh, Putin was KGB, right? Which is to say, the ‘deep state’ is also a repository of institutional knowledge, culture, tradition. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think they’re intrinsically virtuous, but heaping revolution on revolution is a kind of doubling down. If we’re lucky, there’s a Putin somewhere in our swamp.

      12

      1

    • When Truman authorized the CIA after WWII he noted you can’t have government by the people if the people don’t know what the government is doing.

      14

    • Maybe invite in the people from the Balkans who called Demon Albright out straight to her face. That scene was amazing. It is what it looks like in real life when holy water is sprayed on a demonic life form.

      In any case, I say let those across from the Slavic world who have tasted the bitter fruits of Albright, Nuland and other demonic beings come and join in the cathartic moment. They deserve that much after the hells they put those people through.

      8

      • Throw in Bill Clinton, too.

        3

        • He’d be a good candidate for quarterstaffing followed by a good drawing.

          1

23. You’re right about comparing this to a le Carre novel. I just read “The Spy Who Came In From the Cold” this weekend: it was the first Cold War novel (published in 1963) to portray the amorality, betrayal, deceit, solipsism, and ultimately the incompetence of the Western intelligence apparat. I had avoided le Carre my entire life, because I disapproved of his anti-American animus and his “moral equivalence” take on the East-West conflict, at least at its clandestine level.

    Lately, however, I’ve been disabused of any residual loyalty to this regime (like many here), and I see that its current Satanic manifestation is only a logical result of things going on for a long time. Still, it’s amazing me that even 60 years after the unsavory revelations of “The Spy…”, Western intelligence agencies are still playing the same crappy, incompetent game on the world stage. As you say, their response to failure is to double down. But I suppose their biggest success (aside from self-preservation) has been to manipulate and diminish their own native people.

    40

    • “But I suppose their biggest success (aside from self-preservation) has been to manipulate and diminish their own native people.”

      The open borders signal a transition from diminution to replacement. The Puritans who run the intelligence community always have hated Heritage Americans and Europeans.

      25

      • Still doesn’t make sense, but I can’t deny your observation. The “replacements” we are seeing simply are not up to the standards of those they replace. Maybe *they* really do believe you can run this country with tools obtained from Harbor Freight!

        10

        • It’s foreigners being foreign, in the broadest sense. You can take that to the bank.

          5

    • “ultimately the incompetence of the Western intelligence apparat”

      I’m not sure he portrays the incompetence of the Western intelligence apparatus — at least not the US side. The Brits had a mole in MI6 for a long time and the Americans consequently stopped trusting the Brits. Le Carre’s “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” is about the hunt for the mole. “The Spy Who Came In from the Cold” is about MI^ trying to protect a key East German asset — in which they’re successful. Though it’s a sordid affair.

      The thing about Le Carre’s novels is that the bad guys always win. Both Le Carre and Deighton were unhappy with the kind of dross Ian Fleming was serving up with his James Bond novels.

      Try some of Le Carre’s post- Cold War novels, particularly “The Night Manager.”

      5

      • TTSS. Just watched the original BBC series a couple weeks ago because I heard it was the best. I don’t speak toff brit so it was hard to keep up. Here’s the link for anyone interested.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ld2X0Fvypw&t=25049s

        3

        • You mean the one with Alec Guinness. Well-made piece of television — drab people in drab settings, and nothing much seems to be happening. The very antithesis of Ian Fleming’s James Bond. “The Night Manager” was also turned into a six-part TV series, but it’s not that great. One of Len Deighton’s books got turned into a 4-part TV drama a few years back — “SS-GB.”

          1

          • Yes, the one with Alec Guinness.

            2

        • Was that the Alec Guiness series? If so both of his Smiley series are the best.

          3

          • Yes, Alec Guinness. A more modern version of TTSS was made a few years ago, with Gary Oldman as Smiley, but it’s hard to understand the plot by watching the film.

      • Thanks for this reply Arshad. I’m currently reading le Carre’s “The Looking Glass War,” and it seems it’s moving in an “incompetence” direction, in its usual meaning. What I meant by “ultimately incompetent” regarding “The Spy…” is that to defend and protect the liberal West the Circus ends up empowering and protecting an unreconstructed Nazi, and leaks ruinous personal information about a British spy to the Soviets, while hanging said spy and a British citizen out to dry. In my view, if that’s where their schemes end, then the Circus has lost sight of something important.

        I’m a great Fleming admirer, and I feel his first Bond novel, “Casino Royale,” is a genuine novel of the Cold War, comparable to anything le Carre wrote (and INMO a model for the latter’s books). The later Bond books hearken back to an earlier heroic literature of Buchan, Conan Doyle, and Rohmer, and merely use the Cold War setting (less visibly as the series progresses). But I’m very absorbed in my current foray into Smiley’s moral world. Thanks again.

        2

      • As a stylist, there has never been an espionage novelist who can remotely hold a candle to Ian Fleming. The Bond novels and short stories are well worth reading just for the literary experience alone.

        4

        • Agree completely.

          1

24. “ The reason for the panic is the war has taken a bad turn. The Russians broke through a key stronghold called Avdeevka. This was a fortified city that secured a key part…”
    ————
    Z I don’t think so. There’s some rail yards there. Big whoop. In today’s maneuver warfare railyards aren’t a big deal. Something else made it a high value target and the only thing I can think of is the Ukrainian troops stationed there. That would indicate to me that Russians are getting fed up, they’re getting tired of the BS and are now going to get serious getting rid of the Ukes.

    The other big thing about Avdiivka is that for the first time, the Uke military broke and ran. The Uke high command authorized the retreat well after the fact. More of this is almost certain to follow. The high Command has lost control of its military… a full out surrender by the entire nation can’t be far away…

    14

    7

    • There is no such thing as maneuver warfare today. This is trench warfare. Avdeevka was a key hub in that line of defense, supplying the line with men and material, as well as providing air defense. It was also a center for artillery and drone operators. Capturing what military experts called “the world’s most fortified city” is a huge blow to Ukraine.

      34

      • > There is no such thing as maneuver warfare today.

        There is when the the retreating army gets overtaken before they have time to prepare their next level of defense.

        10

        • Ha. Yeah, the maneuver is called running for your life.

          24

          • In Korea, it was called “advancing in the other direction”.

            21

      • Perhaps we define the term differently?

        “Maneuver warfare, the use of initiative, originality and the unexpected, combined with a ruthless determination to succeed, seeks to avoid opponents’ strengths while exploiting their weaknesses and attacking their critical vulnerabilities and is the conceptual opposite of attrition warfare.”

        To me Avdiivka looked like the classic Russian pincer or encirclement maneuver…

        6

        • Yeah, when I think maneuver warfare, I think about tanks in the open field. I may write about this tomorrow, but the Russians ground down Ukraine, but got a huge break. They found old Soviet tunnels that let them outflank the Ukrainian defenders and come up out of the sewers behind their lines. The resulting panic collapsed the Ukrainian defenses.

          12

          • Yep. Regiments of shit-encrusted Rooskies would just about do the trick for me.

            3

    • The troops breaking and running prior to authorization is something that has been expected and feared a long time. You are right that this was a milestone.

      20

    • 1. You are correct when you say that one of Russia’s objectives is to just plain kill the Uke army. Russia found they could not maneuver as in days of yore and they could not force a political solution (shock & awe into Kiev’s suburbs). Sun Tzu says killing the other army & besieging cities is inferior to a couple other means of victory, but that is all there is left, give current technical circumstances. That will change when ADA becomes ubiquitous, cheap, and effective. Then NOTHING that flies in the atmo will survive, drone or human-piloted, reusable craft or disposable missile/drone. I bet even Long range OTH ISR like AWACS will be rendered nigh unusable. That leaves ground sensors and satellite. If no one takes the war to space.

      2. The history of htis part of Ukraine is such that it was bult up & fortified during WW2 and then after WW2, the Soviets fortified it even more. FF to 2014, and the Ukes fortified it even more. Avdeevka and all the front-line cities are really tough nuts to crack.

      2

      1

      • An author noted at WRSA, dump a few large loads of sand in low-earth orbit, counter to the direction of rotation for satellites moving at speed.

        As they start to crumble, their remains will add to the debris field until we don’t have anything in space, either, as the garbage smacks against everything up there.

        Earth is about to get a ring!

        Is this, then, the end of our high-tech age?

        3

      • As regards space-based Intelligence/Surveillance/Reconnaisance, those Rooskies may be, yet again, ahead of the game if it is true that they have successfully developed killer space vehicles capable of disabling High Earth Orbit Western ISR satellites. This, because rhe capabilities of HEO satellites are superior, not only in their “lingering” capabilities, but also in the sophistication of their capabilities. LEO satellites could be fairly easily shot down, but their number is Legion, and they are fairly easily replaced. But their kinetic destruction would drastically pollute near space with a fatal debris field. The Chinese destroyed one of their own old satellites in LEO by kinetic means to demonstrate capability, but the resulting massive debris cloud got them roundly excoriated by other space-faring nations.

        4

        • Speaking as a Chinaman (genetically if nothing else), the Chicoms are assholes in SO many ways.

          1

25. My take is somewhat different although you get close here:

    ” It could have to do with internal politics between factions in Washington.”

    The factions are the permanent ruling class you mentioned and the political actors who come and go. When this implodes, elected D.C. likely will try to turn sharply on the intelligence community. In addition to the Ukraine clusterfuck, the egregious crimes and misconduct of the CIA, highlighted during the failed coup against Trump, could be low-hanging fruit for the politicians to pick. Ignorant rubes and IC toadies such as Republican Mike Turner, shit-kicker of Dayton, will look really, really bad and need to deflect. Democrat pigs like Charles Schumer, senator from Tel Aviv, usually can count on the propaganda organs to protect them but that may prove inadequate.

    The IC is prepared to shift blame to the political class and is floating two alternative theories. The first is inadequate funding by the Ultra MAGA’s led to the military defeat. The other is that the Neoliberals forced the IC to be involved in an adventure doomed from the start. Either will work, and if that is wrong, there always is bribery and blackmail. Such is the advantage of being part of the Deep State rather than some easily bribed and/or misled moron elected by idiots who still believe they live in a liberal democracy rather than the actual National Security State that does as it pleases.

    Rinse, repeat, until it all collapses.

    27

    • Puddin’head and the neocons will blame the MAGA GOP for the defeat for not approving funding and the media will repeat non-stop. That is why the GOP should waste the $60 billion in Ukraine. It’s a drop in the bucket of our $34 billion in debt.

      They will lose the ability to argue that the US has been losing wars for 24 years and it’s time for a change. They will take the blame and we will stumble into the next neocon catastrophe. And more young men will die.

      8

      2

      • The inability to manufacture weaponry has been made explicit, so the next Neocon move will be to increase production capacity prior to another War o’ the Week. The problem there is the human capital has been intentionally degraded beyond the point of no return. Juan and Shanika ain’t be buildin’ no planes and sheeit. Cookies and the Gang will have to be sexually satisfied with video gangs now.

        19

        • There is also the economic problem. You cannot get a company to build a production line for making weapons unless they know they can get the expense plus a hefty profit from it during the term of the contract. That means Congress has to approve lots more money for longer term contract or much more expensive short term contracts.

          18

          • I’m not certain budgetary constraints matter at all, at least yet. Money can be printed a while longer, but again the human capital is not available. Retired Boomers and older X’ers may not be sufficient and they are about all that is available. Lots of pathologies have been laid bare, among them offshoring and the War on Whites, and the GAE has started to pay a price for these short-sighted luxury beliefs. It really is karmic.

            17

          • Yep, that’s a huge issue, maybe the issue.

            In WWII, it was consumer-based companies that switched their factories to military output, but it was understood that after the war, they’d switch back.

            But now, we have permanent military companies or divisions. If they build a plant to produce X, they need to know that they’ll have orders that will last as long as the plant. They’re not going to switch to something else down the road.

            This means that the Pentagon has to give very long-term contracts or, as you say, very lucrative short-term contracts to make up for the risk. It just doesn’t work very well.

            Some parts of society aren’t built very well for pure capitalism. Military production is one of them. The Russians had lots of excess military productive capacity. Thise wasn’t profitable. You had factories running at, what, 50% at most, employing more people than was really needed.

            That’s expensive but allows for you to ramp up quickly.

            The US model only works if we get into a big-time war where it’s all hands on deck and huge amounts of money will go into switching the economy around quickly. Well, we’re not going to do that for Ukraine.

            15

          • Jack,

            True. The real enemy for GAE isn’t Russia or China; it’s the bond market.

            However, as long as the bond market continues to buy treasuries – and it has lots of reasons to do so – GAE can throw money at any problem.

            That said, the US really is shoving a lot of debt down the throat of the global debt market. We use to require the market to absorb ~$4.5 trillion a year (I believe), but that’s close to $8 to $8.5 trillion a year now. That’s a lot of extra debt. Someone has to buy it.

            Let’s say that they do buy it, what other debt isn’t financed because the money went to treasuries. That’s a problem as well.

            Not saying anything will happen anytime soon, but we are putting pressure on the bond market.

            10

            1

          • There is also still an extreme disconnect of manufacturing ramp up from the reality of need. Yesterday, the repeated national news announcement was that in the next month or two, we’d be making and delivering 100k artillery shells per month! That from 6k currently.

            They failed to mention the 20-30k shells being fired by the Russians per day!

            6

        • @Citizen:

          I have assumed a priority of provoking and prolonging the Ukraine war has been to keep Europe onboard and especially to divorce Germany from Russia. That’s largely been done. I further expect pressure to be applied to Germany to buy more US debt in the near future since it buys so little now, which is odd given its financial ability to do so has been hit so hard, and that’s a hard circle to square. The demand for US debt remains there but is near a plateau, from what I gather (is that right?), so more buyers will be necessary at some point, possibly soon.

          As an aside, I always learn something from you about bonds and treasuries and that is appreciated.

          3

          1

          • Well, first, I’m not a bond trader nor do I have some special inside knowledge, so don’t take me too seriously.

            Luckily, we’re not talking about the inner workings of JP Morgan here, just the overall bond market.

            The global bond market is ~$235 trillion and, I believe but don’t quote me on this, that the annual debt financing (which is mostly refinancing of debt) is ~$40 trillion. (Could be wrong on that but it’s on the ballpark.)

            My point is that the US going from needing the bond market to absorb $4.5 trillion to $8 trillion is a big deal. That extra $3.5 to $4 trillion is close to 10% of the entire bond market. That’s a lot of extra debt to absorb.

            As to who will buy it? Good question. Central bank purchases are flat, so that leaves banks and investors. The still runs on dollars so there’s always a demand for treasuries, but still.

            Fed already put in regulations to make banks and money market funds buy more treasuries around 10 years ago. Pension funds have also upped their treasuries as well.

            So, I suppose that regulators would force the banks, pension funds and, importantly, target-date funds, i.e. 401ks, to buy more treasuries if the market can’t absorb them.

            What’s clear, however, is that the US and other govts can’t afford positive “real” interest rates, i.e., above inflation for too long (five or ten years). It would push up debt to GDP pretty quickly.

            Annual growth in govt debt to GDP is pretty much a function of interest on the debt due to other structural issues. Basically, the US runs a structural deficit of ~4% not including interest on the debt.

            So, debt to GDP grows when nominal GDP is lower than the deficit. If inflation is 2% and real GDP growth is 2%, you have nominal GDP growth of 4% which offsets the structural deficit of 4%. But then you have interest on the debt.

            If you have real rates of 2% and inflation of 2%, then you have treasury rates of 4%. With debt to GDP of 120%, that 4% rates means you pay 4.8% of GDP to interest on the debt, which means that your debt to GDP grows by 4.8 percentage points.

            You can see where this will lead in five or ten years. Not good.

            However, if inflation is 2% and treasury rates are 1%, i.e., negative real rates, than debt to GDP only grows 2.4%. Not great, but it’ll take time to be a problem.

            Now, if you keep rates way below inflation, you can grow your way out of debt. Let’s say inflation is 8% and treasury rates are 2%. Nominal GDP would be 10%, which is 5.5% more than structural deficit of 4.5%. Also, interest cost is only 2.4%, making the total deficit only 6.9% or 3.1% lower than your nominal GDP growth of 10%, so you lower your debt to GDP.

            That’s exactly what happened in 2022. It’s called Financial Repression. And it works. Lower the debt to GDP by crushing bond holders. The US lowered its debt to GDP from ~128% to ~122% by running inflation hot and keeping rates low.

            It’s what we and the UK did after WWII. Worked great, but bond holders were destroyed.

            But that was a different time. It’d be hard to do again. After just one year, people were freaking out. Also, the bond market started to push back.

            Anyway, I have no idea how this will play out, but the govt needs someone to absorb those bonds at a rate that, at best, isn’t above inflation and preferably below it.

            7

            1

          • Citizen. Who will buy the T-bills, if they are priced way below inflation? And we must borrow to meet our required bills.

            What am I missing here?

          • I should have waited for your response before liquidating everything to buy T-bills…

            Compsci asked the right question, I think. If these T-bills are as unattractive as would be necessary to stay afloat, it would seem they would have to be forced on other nations in the same way they have been on domestic financial institutions. I know there has been a modus vivendi where purchases are made in exchange for defense or access to markets or whatever, but that would seem to have an end date. I can’t help but think Germany and the unfortunate demise of Nordstream plays a role here but understanding it is above my pay grade.

            I’ll read your response again. There’s a lot to chew there, but, again, thanks.

            1

          • Compsci,

            The world runs on dollars so you’ll always have a certain demand for treasuries, which are the equivalent of dollars, which businesses and banks use to earn a bit of interest and have access to dollars in emergencies. Basically, they hold treasuries as an emergency fund, so even if the interest rate at or even slightly below inflation, you’ll just do it. It’s not seen so much as investment but as an insurance policy.

            Think of banks (all around the world due to the Eurodollar system) or a business with a dollar-denominated loan. They simply have to have dollars and if a crisis hits and dollars get short, they need those treasuries to get dollars in a panic.

            Now, the question is whether there’s enough of those guys out there to meet the huge increase in treasuries. I mean, banks and businesses might need to pay a premium to have access to dollars but others don’t. If the rate is low, well, I’ll put my money into something else.

            That’s what we’ll find out over the next couple of years. If there’s not enough demand, either the govt will regulate banks, pension funds and 401ks to increase their treasury holdings or the Fed will buy them. But what the govt can’t allow is rates to get above inflation and stay there year after year.

            That would push up debt to GDP, requiring even more debt to pay the interest. Doesn’t work.

            People use Japan as an example of a country that has way more debt to GDP than the US govt but Japan runs a huge trade surplus and holds huge amounts of dollar assets around the world.

            Basically, Japan’s govt buys a big part of Japanese govt debt, which would normally cause big-time inflation/currency devaluation, but Japan uses all those dollars from its trade surplus and foreign assets to buy the Yen on the open market when needed to keep it from collapsing.

            The US doesn’t have that option.

            3

    • “When this implodes, elected D.C. likely will try to turn sharply on the intelligence community.”

      That can’t happen. The Deep State rules. Elected officials are bit actors, paid to perform for the media. As someone said, politics is show biz for ugly people. There is no accountability in the USA or among its European thralls.

      12

      • I should have been clearer. Yes, it essentially will be kabuki, empty posturing, because the National Security State is in full control. At some point, maybe, another Church Committee show trial may happen but I agree that is long off if ever.

26. “What all of this suggests is that the people operating behind the curtain are deeply worried about project Ukraine.”

    In light of yesterday’s piece why should the people behind the curtain worry? Whom do thy need to fear? Doesn’t the public worship a winner and despise a loser? And who’s to say we haven’t or won’t have won the war no matter the “facts on the ground.” Indeed, it seems as though, regarding the self-immolator, dissidents, too, are losers until they become winners however that may happen. It’s a cynical world lacking what we call morality in which power is the idol we serve, no?

    5

    6

    • No one cares about the public very much. Managers inside a corporation do not care about the opinion of the staff, outside the extremes. What matters is the internal politics. Same thing in DC.

      26

      • I don’t know. I’ve seen some very effeminate CEOs open their doors to 23 year old women who convinced them to solve the injustices of the world. It started with a top priority of getting more female engineers. Then it morphed into making the company look more like the metro area where the office sat. That meant making it about 22% white.

        Point is, the management playbook starting in 06 or so was that you have to have happy employees and that it was critical to get Millenials in and make them happy.

        Do not underestimate the power of weak men and power hungry non-producing women, head nodding to that shibboleth in order to make the kids happy and how much cancer has grown out of that. Perhaps, they care way too much about all of the wrong people inside of the company.

        Trust and Safety! Trust and Safety!

        8

27. I remember back in 2021 when we left Afghanistan. The experts kept saying the puppets we installed there could hold on to power, and the Taliban couldn’t defeat the afghan army. Less than a month later Kabul fell.

    I would not be surprised if the same happens to the Ukraine.

    23

    1

28. Let’s make the incredibly optimistic assumption that this money will actually go to soldiers and weapons. How much money can reasonably be converted to heavy weapons? The tank factories in NATO countries are not exactly bustling and there is no sign of building new factories. Same with artillery shells. It doesn’t matter if we give a trillion if there are no weapons to give. What are they going to do, bomb them with dollar bills?

    32

    • Remember, that genocidal vampire Vicky “Cookies” Nuland told Amanpour we have to approve the $61 billion because that money is coming right back here to create jobs! Not even trying to hide the money laundering any longer, they’re boasting about it. This spiteful mutant has so much blood on her hands she makes Madeleine Albright look merciful.

      56

    • The money is both a McGuffin a grift. The problem for Ukraine is inadequate manpower. The excuse is lack of funding. The lack of equipment and weaponry due inadequate production facilities is also an issue independent of how much taxpayer funding is laundered.

      14

    • It is a good question. The way they have been doing this until now is they transfer existing stocks to Ukraine and then hand out contract to friends of government to make new stock. The trouble is there is very little to transfer that the US military will hand over and the Ukrainians can use.

      My hunch is they have a scheme to hand over long range weapons and maybe base F16’s out of Romania to deliver them. They will say the planes are flying out of Ukraine with Ukrainian pilots, but it will be mercs operating out of Romania. They will launch attacks on Crimea for public relations reasons to keep political support.

      20

      • I heard that we might be finally handing over the ATACMS, not because there was a debate and we finally decided it was the “right” thing to do, but because we didn’t have much else to give. We had to give them the ATACMS.

        I’ve been surprised over the past couple of weeks how the mood seems to have changed.

        It seems as though we’re watching a combination of Grant’s Overland Campaign mixed with the situation in early 1918 when the Germans were running low on everything and faced the prospect of a huge and fresh American army arriving en masse.

        Like Grant, the Russians seem to be hounding the Ukrainians, not allowing them to regroup and rest. Meanwhile, Russian’s main force continues to grow and likely will launch an attack this summer, facing a Ukrainian army that’s severely depleted.

        Unlike the Germans, the Ukrainians have no ability to launch one last big offensive to win the war, which is why this is all so cruel and pointless. The best the Ukrainians could do now is negotiate. The only leverage that they have is to tell the Russians that it would cost them a lot of lives to finish off the Ukrainians, but every day that goes by, that leverage is reduced.

        25

        • I did a post titled Russian Anaconda last year https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=30265

          The Ukrainians faced the same choices as the Confederacy. They also chose poorly.

          13

          • I understand the insanity of the neocons and their puppets in Ukraine, but I can’t understand why the Ukrainian people aren’t rioting in the streets. Sure, Western aid is keeping the economy afloat, but they have to be tired of seeing their sons and brothers killed.

            This war is over. It’s effectively been over since the summer of 2022 and most definitely over since the failure of the summer offensive last year.

            It’s just murder at this point.

            27

        • Spot on and great comment. The problem is that Ukraine itself is not able to make decisions and enter into negotiations with GAE approval. The revelations about the evil buffoon Boris Johnson answered that question for us. There are many problems with Putin, but to give the devil his due, he thoroughly understands that and his decision to grind down Ukraine and by extension NATO is a war of attrition has proved to be brilliant strategy. It does indeed resemble the siege at Vicksburg right up to the heroism of the defenders.

          14

          0

          • There should protests on the streets of Ukraine. I don’t understand why the people accept the murder of their sons, husbands and brothers.

            10

          • @Citizen:

            From what I gather, Kiev even now remains mostly peaceful with everyday life impacted but not miserable. Odessa is in siege mode and under total military occupation, and Kharkiv obviously is a dead letter. Those three cities would be where any demonstrations would have any effect.

            4

          • Ukrainian channels have been reporting an evacuation of sorts in Kharkiv. The important people are being relocated to Kiev and Lviv. Kharkiv is a big city with over a million people, so that is strange. It suggests Ukraine may not think they can defend it or they plan to turn it into a fortress.

            6

          • Pemberton was not a good choice for commanding the forces at V’burg.

            1

          • “ There should protests on the streets of Ukraine. I don’t understand why the people accept the murder of their sons, husbands and brothers.”

            Perhaps the Ukraine has a secret police force worse than the old USSR? Could the populace be scared silent/compliant? We already heard of rumors of “press” gangs raiding gyms, bars, and rec centers.—or just stopping folks on the street. How does that happen with seemingly little protest?

            3

        • @ Citizen of a Silly Country

          They have resisted en masse: by leaving Ukraine. They started leaving long before this war began. 20% of their pre-war young adults were bailing out for other countries because Ukraine was a Globohomo playground with a wretched future. 6 of 7 oligarchs who owned the country, and it’s political establishment, were Jews with ties to the (((transnational networks))) with control nodes in Europe and North America. It’s the most rational non-violent resistance one can offer as an individual. The Ukrainians with the will to resist the collaborator’s regime are long gone.

          Why did they not offer collective resistance? Atomized individuals do not offer collective resistance. The Ukrainians do not have and have never had an indigenous ruling class. They have an administrative class. They do not rule; they do not have the power to make independent decisions. Decisions are made elsewhere (recall Victoria Nuland’s 2015 conference call) and Ukie authorities get paid to carry them out. Who pays them?

          My take is that it used to be local ‘Ukrainian’ Jewish oligarchs (Big Jews) in the driver’s seat, but it seems clear to me that at this point they have been sidelined. The internationals (Biggest Jews) are now calling the shots because they are arranging the funding. The Little Jews (who comprise the great majority of Jews in Ukraine and elsewhere) and the Goyim get to suffer and die, same as it ever was.

          This is simply one more datum in the mountain of data that point to the absolute necessity of ethnocentric governance. A national people doesn’t always get a fair shake from a ruling class of it’s own ethnicity, but it is rare indeed in human history for one to get a fair shake from those outside one’s own group.

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          • Thank you, this is a sage analysis, down to rhe Big Jew/Little Jew distinction.

            3

29. They outright canceled my subscription. I was wondering why I didn’t see anything.

    1

    • I am not all that clear on what happened, but they said that they were unable to process some cards under the new rules, so those subs were cancelled. You can try Substack, which has not had any issue since they agreed to censor their content.

      4

30. Doubling down on failure. Mr Macron might deign to crack a history book noting key events from the year 1812.

    14

    • Macron just said the quiet part aloud. The problem for him is that Germany and Poland also did when they batted him down. Given both Olaf and Tusk are D.C. stooges, that had to sting.

      9

      1

    • It is a funny thing…

      Neither the Golden Hordes

      Nor the Grande Armee

      Nor the Wermacht…

      …could take down Russia

      But the diverse tranny militaries of NATO and their related open-hand slap sanctions will take down Russia?

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      1

      • I think the Golden hordes managed to occupy most of it and milk the Russians for taxes but I’d have to look it up to see what really happened

        The Kaiser s army, the Japanese and the Brits and French in the 1850s all managed to defeat Russia in the field but without occupying it. No country is technically invincible. But that is very double-edged and relevant to the fools in DC as well

        4

        • Yes, but last I looked, the Russians took back Crimea, and despite the setback encountered in the Russo-Japanese War, after engagements with the Russians in the late 1930s, the Japanese wanted no parts of war with The SU. And again, last I looked, the Russians are still occupying the Japanese northern islands post WWII, despite bleatings from Japan.

          3

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