Morning music
On this day a year ago
From the newspapers
Quelle surprise. Still, were the Americans to have concluded that the release had been deliberate, that would have left the USA (and UK etc) with two questions: “why?“, and “how to respond?“. China is too large, too populous, and too powerful to be impacted by either economic or military sanctions, so it is more diplomatic to conclude, officially, that any “Covid” release was “a terrible accident“…
“Vladimir Putin is ‘terribly scared’ as he marks the first anniversary of his invasion of Ukraine, says an ex-Russian secret services general.
The Russian dictator has badly misread the West’s resolve to stand up to him, and did not realise his army’s incompetence, according to the former chief of the Moscow division of the FSB.“
The time will come, and [in Russia] we will see empty shelves, goods shortages, people impoverishment, and technological backwardness in all areas.
Savostyanov predicts that Russia now faces a bleak future. If Putin somehow succeeds in Ukraine he would enact a repressive crackdown.
His angry inner circle ‘which has lost everything accumulated over 20 years’ would need to be eliminated.
Despite Putin’s desperation, Savostyanov rated the chances of Putin using his nuclear arsenal as slight. ‘I can say no more than one per cent that Putin will decide to carry out the nuclear threat,’ he said.
This could lead to breakaway attempts by some regions, he said.
‘As the federal budget is reduced, subsidies will be reduced, respectively, in the regions…., and they will say: ‘Why do we need Moscow?’
He forecast an attempt to bring to power a figure who ‘will be able to keep the situation under control and, on the other, start reforms’.
[Daily Mail]
I suppose that Savostyanov assesses the use of the nuclear arsenal as “one percent” mainly because there is no “big red button” to be pushed by Putin; the missiles can only be launched by a series of protocols involving Putin, the Strategic Rocket Forces (in Russia, separate from other arms: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Rocket_Forces) and both the navy and aerospace commands as well as the relevant directorate(s) of the FSB (security service) which last (if the protocols are the same as in Soviet days) control parts of the launch codes.
As I blogged a year ago, it should never have been like this— the invasion should have been swift, overwhelming, and near-bloodless, a Blitzkrieg for the sake of mercy, minimizing harm to the Ukrainian civilians and their homes (and infrastructure).
All the same, the war in Ukraine is one which Russia now has to win, bitter though any victory will be— for both sides in the conflict.
Factors which may help Russia to victory include its much larger population, and so its larger potential recruit pool; its unused weapons of enormous destructiveness, both conventional and nuclear; the fact that Russia’s size and dispersed large population mean that Russia itself cannot be successfully invaded and occupied (unless, arguably, by future Chinese forces); the fact that Russia is still a functioning economy (unlike Ukraine) and with enormous reserves of valuable hydrocarbons; finally, the fact that the forces of the Kiev regime may now be running out of arms and ammunition, as well as manpower.
“Mohammad Yahia Alloush“…What a surprise…
“Mansoor Khan“…yet another “surprise”…
If that were to happen, and the Russian Federation split into a number of pieces (perhaps as many as a dozen), the Chinese would find it easy to pick up the pieces, not by war but by —mainly— slow osmosis. The former Soviet Far East, Eastern Siberia, maybe as far west as the Urals.
It may be that a terrible choice lies before Putin.
Intellectual-historical figures of interest
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Ilyin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Bely
More music
UK journalism and the death of basic literacy
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/twisted-killer-millionaire-mistress-murdered-29310955
Take a look at that crime report. Not untypical of many seen these days, especially in the Daily Mail and, as here, Daily Mirror.
The narrative confused generally, and in its details; the second defendant sentenced to, in one paragraph, “four-and-a-half years” but, in another, “four years“; unnecessary adjectives and adverbs put in almost randomly (“twisted“, “sick“, “bizarrely” etc); ages of the defendants at some of the relevant times not printed, making the report less informative than it could have been; also, “Unbelievably, her and Jarvis told officers that she was in fact Carol“.
“Her and Jarvis“?!
Enough. That report was, according to the byline, written by not one but two Daily Mirror “journalists”, named as Lauren Davidson and Joe Smith.
The best newspaper now, from the point of view of literacy, seems to be the Guardian.
Strange that, now that so many newspaper scribblers have degrees or diplomas in journalism, their product has become so unprofessional. In my opinion, the same, mutatis mutandis, can be said of barristers now (and in fact since the 1980s/1990s). As late as the mid-1970s, barristers did not even need a degree to be Called, though in fact most had attended university. Is the Bar better now? I think not.
Just a few “thoughts out of season”…
Tweets seen
There is no “benefit“. None. Fact.
“The world is not without kind people” [Russian proverb]. Kind people of all kinds.
The USA increasingly has a population which might be described as “ignorant, raceless, cultureless rubbish“. Not all, not everywhere, of course.
I suppose that is why the Jews find it so easy, via their control and/or influence over TV, radio, Press and other publishing, to control the American mass mind.
A young girl literally pilloried, probably for minor theft, though possibly for expressing dissident thought.
Meanwhile, the Jew Zelensky and his Zionist cabal have been ripping off —also literally— billions of pounds and U.S. dollars. Zelensky himself, with his wife, owns multimillion-value properties in Florida, Italy, and several other places.
You do not have to be pro-Putin or even pro-Russian to think that inviting the nuclear destruction of your own families, neighbourhoods, and cities, is a very bad idea. Or to think that risking that for the benefit of a Jew-ruled Zionist kleptocracy and tyranny is actually absurd.
The Ukrainians working with the CIA, and with the Americans in general, should reflect on what happened to others who relied on the American “ally” (Viets, Kurds, Afghans, Iraqis etc). They were abandoned to their fate…
More tweets
“49 people must lose their homes; Canton Aargau is establishing new asylum-accommodation.” To which the tweeter replying (as far as I know, no relation to Alison Chabloz) tweets that it is “an absolute outrage“. As it is.
Native residents losing their homes so that hutches for black/brown invaders can be created (living-space for 100 invaders).
Even peaceful Switzerland now affected badly by migration-invasion.
Why has at least one Canadian not dealt with Trudeau (yet)?
So much for the “end-user certificate” regime…
One has to wonder how long it will be before human soldiers will be a rare sight on battlefields, the heavy fighting being done between forces consisting mainly of automatic machines: drones, driverless tanks, long-range missiles, and masybe robot armies too.
Late tweets
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 