An interesting explanation of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) economies and what the future holds for them.
Mar 022023
Feb 182023
One of the lies Putin and his stooges and running dog lackeys have used to justify the invasion of Ukraine is the goal of “denazifying” the place. To help bolster their claims that the place is rife with Pure Unadulterated Evil, they have tried to associate Ukraine with every bit of nastiness on the planet hoping that something will stick. And recently they thought they’d hit upon a goldmine: a photo of a Ukrainian military commander wearing an ISIS patch. “See? The Ukrainians are working with ISIS!”
Except… no. The Ukrainian in question has been identified, found and interviewed. Turns out he has a slightly unusual hobby… he collects “trophy” patches from his allies and enemies alike and wears them. I’ve certainly heard of worse, and weirder, things for soldiers in combat zones to do. In his case, rather than wearing a necklace of dried human ears (or other conveniently pokey-outey body parts) sliced off his fallen foes, he wears their patches.
And in this case, the ISIS patch came from a Russian Wagner Group fighter.
Russia’s False ‘Proof’ of Ukrainian Troops’ ISIS Link
In the video interview, he’s shown wearing British, American and Ukrainian patches, along with patches containing Christian verses… certainly an odd thing for an “ISIS member” to wear.
So once again, the Putinists are accusing their enemies of doing exactly what *they* are doing: being in cahoots with ISIS.
I know, we’re all stunned.
Feb 152023
The idea that there are bioweapon labs in Ukraine is pretty effectively debunked by Ryan McBeth:
The fact that there are *biological* labs in Ukraine strikes me as entirely unsuprising… and entirely to be expected. Ukraine is an agricultural nation, and where you find agriculture *and* modern society, you find laboratories that study agriculture. And a large part of that is studying the diseases and pests that can damage agriculture. The midwest of the United States is littered with such labs, many in local universities, where researchers study everything from anthrax to locusts, aphids to fungi. But the Russian propagandists months ago made a big, fake deal of this, and a distressing number of people in the West fell for it.
Feb 112023
Ummm…
Another Russian spacecraft docked to the space station is leaking
a Progress supply ship attached to the International Space Station has lost pressure in its external cooling system
C’mon, Russia. You used to be cool. For a time. A brief window. Back when the worst thing about y’all were your wacky likkered-up drivers on the ice.
Feb 052023
I don’t know what the Russian military was expecting, but being on the receiving end of the first industrial-scale use of robots to hunt down their soldiers one at a time was probably not high on their list.
Jan 242023
Up first:
U.S. Poised to Provide Abrams Tanks to Ukraine
Of note here is that this will, theoretically, spur the Germans to send their Leopard 2 tanks. The Leopard 2’s would likely be more advanced than the M-1s; and while there are more M-1’s in the world, the Leopards are closer to Ukraine and there are a number of countries willing to send Leopards. This is of course not pure altruism; they’ll likely be sending the older tanks that were about to be mothballed or scrapped; and if not, these donations will leave tank-shaped holes that will need to be filled with the latest and greatest. “You don;t need new tanks, we’ve got enough at home” no longer works as an excuse if you don’t actually have enough at home.
Additionally: the Russians might finally, rather overdue, be getting their crap in gear. So if they are faced with modern western MBTs, they’ll almost certainly launch their best anti-tank weapons at them. And sad though it may be for Ukrainians to hear, I’d rather modern NATO tanks get battlefield tested now, with Ukrainian crews, than later with NATO crews, on NATO territory. Losing these tanks to Russian weapons now will allow western designers to produce counter systems for when we need to fight Russian forces in Poland or Finland or Estonia or Wales.
Also:
McCarthy formally blocks Schiff, Swalwell from Intel panel
Never forget: Swalwell was the one who banged a Chinese spy and threatened to nuke American cities. He should *really* be the center of FBI attention, not sitting on the House Intelligence Committee. As for Schiff, he tried and failed to tie Trump to Russian collusion. Lots of people tried that, including some who should have known better at the FBI. Speaking of which…
Retired FBI counterintel agent reportedly involved in Trump-Russia probe arrested for ties to Russian oligarch
Also also: In recent years the NRA has become pretty much worthless in the fight to maintain Constitutional rights, even as they remain one of the Democrats primary boogeymen in *their* never-ending quest to render the citizens of the US into helpless subjects. But they’re finally stepping up a bit:
NRA sues over Illinois ban on semiautomatic weapons
Jan 212023
Below, a twitter thread discussing a recent increase in the appearance of air defense systems in and around Moscow, including Vlad Putin;s digs. The optimistic way of looking at this: every missile placed near Russia is a missile not placed near Ukraine. The pessimistic outlook: you generally don;t go to this kind of bother and expense to take weapons systems *away* from an ongoing conflict unless you have a reason to. It seems the Russians seem to think that the conflict is going to expand to aircraft attacking Moscow. Do they think the Ukrainians are going to do that? Or are they expecting NATO to do that? if so, keep in mind that the excuses being used include “it was a pre-emptive strike against Ukraine because they were going to attack *us.*”
Another possibility is they’re afraid of elements of the Russian Air Force deciding to go a wee bit off mission.
Air defense system spotted near one of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's residencies in Moscow Oblast. Yesterday, air defense systems started to appear on top of high buildings in the city of Moscow, including the Russian defense ministry. #WhatAirDefenseDoing pic.twitter.com/0sZLUKQLP7
— Euan MacDonald (@Euan_MacDonald) January 20, 2023
Jan 192023
I recently had a disturbing online conversation with a Russian aeronautical expert on the subject of Ukraine. One can reasonably expect a Russian will have a different point of view on the subject than a westerner would… but this was an *experience.* In short: It’s good and proper that Russia exterminate the Ukrainian people, because their culture, history and identity don’t exist; they’re a fiction, it’s all part of Russia and Russias destiny to retake that plot of land. “The history of Ukraine began with the betrayal in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in 1991 and will end in 2023.” Any who stand against the Russians goals deserve death and the nuking of western/NATO cities would be a small price to pay for Russia reclaiming it’s former empire.
Yeesh.
And of course one of the main excuses for why the “special military operation” is a wonderful thing? The need to get rid of all the Nazis in Ukraine. Ukraine, under the leadership of a democratically elected feller who I understand to be a Jew, is somehow being controlled by Nazis. Uh-huh. After years of weirdo whackaloons here in the west constantly banging on about fascists and Nazis – by which they mean anyone with politics to the right of FDR – I have no sympathy for Russians bleating on about Nazis. Especially when *this* is who the Russians are sending into battle against the Ukrainian people:
Hey @Seveerity, here's your video [ai] translated from Russian as requested by @Joe29707949. https://t.co/nBkg5bzrdD
— VidTranslator – targum.video AI bot (@vidtranslator) January 19, 2023
It’s bad enough that Russian leadership is clearly bugnuts, but that this has seeped out into the general populace is unnerving. I was told that Putin is felt to be too soft on the west, and: “If Kadyrov becomes president, the whole world will remember the beautiful and humane Vladimir Vladimirovich with tears.”
There have been more and more reports that NATO countries are running out of weapons and ammo. Again, this is both good and bad news. The bad is obvious. But the good is that the West is figuring this out *now* while our economies are still running and our factories are still standing. If the relatively tiny amount of ordnance the west is sending to Ukraine is drying up western armories… that’s a damned good sign that we need to start stocking up in a serious way.
Jan 162023
Jan 132023
There is, I think, a lot of wishful thinking here, but interesting speculation nonetheless.
The benefits of Russia’s coming disintegration
The author believes that the Russian Federation will collapse into dozens of independent states, Russia itself will become a minor rump state, and the world will be a happier, safer, more western place, with China somehow also reduced in power.
Ummm. Nice dream, I suppose, but wounded animals are bad enough; wounded *psychotic* animals with nukes are kind of a special sort of problem.
Also: the photo in the article shows part of a painting that appears to depict Satan setting Putin on fire. It’s not described in the article, but this is a mural painted at the St. Josaphat Church in Chervonograd city, Ukraine in 2017. This is well to the west of Ukraine, so it’s probably still standing. Looks a lot like a Jon McNaughton painting.