@Whitehat - you're right, I don't have my finger on the pulse of the Eastern European everyman's sentiments about Russia. But despite sharing slavic roots, I know a lot of Czechs who are biased against Russia. They remember 1968 and the subsequent occupation. I lived in a communist-era housing estate where the people called the cockroaches "Russians". A few years ago one of the country's 2 nuclear plants announced a tender for construction of new reactors, and the government schemed how to exclude Russian companies. In my neighborhood, I know of 2 or 3 Ukrainian families who immigrated here prior to the war. Czechs, at least until the war started, were generally prejudiced against Ukranians, too, seeing them as poor, less educated and from a dysfunctional country. So, there's a lot of different sentiments that I perceive. What Gonzalo Lira said recently is: "Europe needs Russia". I think this is true. As you said above, this could translate into a new and more powerful Russian hegemony over Europe, since the EU countries are dependent on Russian resources (especially energy). On the other hand, realizing this dependence could simply lead to a more pragmatic and peaceful relationship between the EU and Russia as they realize their shared interests. I've heard it repeated many times that Russia has an economy the size of Italy. So, although it is a big country and it is true that "Europe needs Russia", Russia does not hold all the cards in the EU-Russian relationship.

@Whitehat - Oh, and one more thing. You mentioned varying age groups. Older people here remember 1968 and the following 20+ years of military occupation, and many loathe and distrust Russia. That invasion kind of put the kibosh on whatever pan-slavic feelings there might have been. During my time as a high school teacher, I observed that the younger generations seem to be influenced by social media just as much as Western youngsters. That's one reason why the apparent relative cultural conservatism of Eastern Europe may be very fragile; older people are not so tolerant of LGBT nonsense, for example, but the youth embrace what is coming out of Hollywood and US and UK universities. I don't use Facebook so I don't know for sure, but I expect a lot of young people have UKR flags in their profile. As I said before, all the public schools are displaying UKR flags. That is a kind of state propaganda in my view. My teenage daughter's school had a blue-and-yellow day, where the students were supposed to dress in UKR colors (she didn't). I have neighbors flying UKR flags from their homes.

The main counter-narrative I've seen is complaints that it is too expensive to host this many migrants. I've heard complaints that Czech pensioners get a pension of X per month, while the UKR migrants get 10X in state support per month, and it's not fair. And also complaints about the gypsies among the UKR immigrants.

@Starrynight

Quote:

I lived in a communist-era housing estate where the people called the cockroaches "Russians".

The oldtimers around here (rural central Kansas) have for decades called the black and orange-red box elder bugs that invade everyone's houses in the autumn "Democrats."

@Starrynight

Thank you for the reports from where you live. One of the things that makes this forum so valuable is hearing from people all over the U.S. and the world.

Just an aside, but two of my favorite commentators -- Fred Reed and the host of the Geopolitics & Empire podcast (whose actual name I have not been able to find) -- both live in Mexico. I find that very interesting. Even life under narcoterror cartels is preferable to life in these Dystopian Disunited States? Hmmm. Probably depends on where exactly in Mexico you are. I've never seen any Mexico residents here on the Forum. Would be great to have that perspective here, though. AMLO may be a socialist, but I sure do appreciate his resistance to the vaxxx and the globalists.

"you would think the Ukrainian government would have journalists in this war in order to drum up support."

Every single Ukrainian above probably age 10 HAS a cell phone WITH a camera and maybe half of those have some sort of access to the internet. Just like with no new pix of Sasquatch or UFOs, despite damned near EVERYONE on the planet having a camera-phone on their person at all times... there are extremely few pix of this 'hot' war, and the literal BILLIONS of dollars worth of weapons provided. (Well, there ARE those clips from computer games, but.... )

This is a piss-poor reality show, and a badly scripted one too. And 10% for the big guy...

"but we would clean Russia's clock in a conventional war."

And just HOW do you think we could limit them to "a conventional war"?

@Heartlander "China DOES NOT CARE about its own people"

Yup. I recall Mao being interviewed at one point and he was asked what he thought about the idea of America nuking China and wiping out 900M people.

Mao's response? A shrug and 'We've still got 600M left'.

Tells you all you need to know about how they view human life (at least of the type that isn't their own).

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So long, and thanks for all the fish.

" ... but we would clean Russia's clock in a conventional war."

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Mission Complete

The truth is just too powerful to know. Those who hold the truth suffer more than those who believe the lie. -The Hall of Tears

@Whitehat

I understand it was not / is not your intent to make a big deal over your viewpoint on Russia. I am probably violently in agreement with most of what you posit. I would however, like to ask how the demographics might affect your assessment. Russia, not unlike many nations, has a demographic issue of few young people, more older people and is facing a potentially crippling decline in population. (Yes, okay, Ive been watching a few of Peter Dreizens videos) but Im wondering if the population issues might actually severely impact all of our projections regarding the future. Thoughts on that issue specifically?

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I remember the Diamond Princess.


Slowly at first, then all of a sudden.

Best article I have read on any site in years. Short and to the point and is spit on. Thank you for all you do KD.

@ Starrynight,

The European nations are tribal, all of them. East, west, north and south. No exceptions.
They all have gone to war against each other repeatedly. For centuries, over and over and over and over. The war in Bosnia was not that long ago, and was medieval in its barbarity. Certainly in Croatia (literal nazis too).
In my travels to the UK, everyone dislikes the English. On the continent, everyone resents the Germans. And they of course dislike everyone back. The Czechs kicked out 2 million Germans from the Sudetenland, as the Germans were not exactly benevolent conquerors. Same in the Polish east, massive forced migrations. Communism was just another in a long line of barbarities. And the list is endless.

This is the main reason we have US forces in Europe, among others (like dictating to them or else). Euros do not spend anything on defense. Trump called them out on it. He was correct. They spend all their money on freebies and socialism.

The only sane ones on the entire continent seem to me are the Swiss, who looked around and said to themselves: "these fuckers are crazy". So they became neutral (along with becoming financial parasites, but I digress).

I would prefer to let Europe do what Europe does (i.e. kill each other if they want, and us stay the fuck out of it). But as the 20th century has shown (not once but TWICE)....that just can't happen. Europe just cannot handle peacetime. They just can't.

But the Russians have nukes, and MADD is still a thing.

Thank God for the bomb I suppose.

Ukie flag wavers everywhere should be reminded that America long ago used to proudly proclaim to mind its own business. John Quincy Adams in his famous oration of July 4 1821 eloquently speaking of the nation, as"she" in custom of that time, on the 45th anniversary of American independence:

She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause, by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself, beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet upon her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world: she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.

How much has the nation forsaken its foundational principles

@ Radiosity,

It's not just the Chinese who do not value individual human life, it's the entire non-western world.

Yep.

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Quote:

And just HOW do you think we could limit them to "a conventional war"?

Send the fags in and give the Rooskies head and let them be 'tops' in the missionary position, then stab them in the back in the heat of passion.

Otherwise, they walk over NATO like Hitler did to France, but without the Bordeaux and escargot for the victors.


(It will not be a conventional conflict. It will be nuclear sooner or later).

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Stop trying to sit at the tables that Jesus would flip over.

It has always been very enlightening to read Karl's great tickers and the comments from keenly perceptive and discerning followers.

However, is it only me that is noticing the rapid fire distractions from the primary agenda of the Globalists?

Ukraine loss is a loss for the Globalists and gives US an opportunity to regain our sovereignty from the traitors in DC.

We need to regain control of our own country, before we can tackle our challenges with Russia or China.

Now is also a good time to end the almost bankrupt US central bank and not let them continue with the their ending support of a small class of asset owners over making the rest of us all poor.

It is a good time to put an end to the stealing, by putting an end to deficit spending. We need to take away the power of the corrupt government. End the Fed!

It is time to get rid of the traitors before their war on us kills us all. I bet the traitors would kill us first, before the Russians or the Chinese could or would!

Quote:

I would prefer to let Europe do what Europe does (i.e. kill each other if they want, and us stay the fuck out of it). But as the 20th century has shown (not once but TWICE)....that just can't happen. Europe just cannot handle peacetime. They just can't.

Come on, we're $30 trillion in debt, we do not NEED to keep an armed force in Europe. We can sell them arms and profit on their inability to not hate each other.

We do not need to be, and shouldn't be, the world's police force. It's time to get out of that mode of thinking. The golden, post WWII age, is over.

@Keenan - wasn't it Dick Cheney, or some other leader in the Bush 2 administration, that proudly admitted the US is an empire? It seems the temptation to global power overwhelmed the American isolationist impulse sometime between WW1 and WW2...

And imperialism requires wars of intrigue and interest abroad, and ultimately the methods used to quash the freedoms of others are brought home to control the domestic population, too...

@Dingleberry - The WHOLE world at this point. Just look at the left. And hell, the so-called conservatives haven't exactly done much to 'conserve' anything, including human life. The only thing they've managed to conserve is their track reckon of abject failure :/

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So long, and thanks for all the fish.

@Hapie - Meh on The Fed. The problem does not lie there and it is exactly this sort of stupidity that is why we're where we are.

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Illinois Congressman Sean Casten announces death of his 17-year-old daughter. In her sleep.

Sad for the girl. The parents can hang, for all I care. And the people that injected her. That fucker was vaxfascist who didn't learn from his 'breakthrough' infection.

@Tickerguy

Agree that the problem is Congress and deficit spending. 100%

If there was no "'buyer of last resort" in the system, and the Treasury Dept had to sell debt at auction in the open market (like corporate bonds), would not the problem have been cut off earlier?

If the Treasury had to sell $2.77T, and the demand wasn't there at 1.5%, then the system should naturally digest it at much higher rates, and thus choke off the palatability of this kind of spending.

Having an intermediary is convenient, and if they can absorb this debt, even temporarily, it helps the Treasury Dept and Congress to spend more than the market would normally bear. I guess this works until they either have to stop being the buyer of last resort, or have to disgorge what they currently have.

Am I missing something?

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Diversity + proximity = WAR

-They wanted camps; I want ropes.

Quote:

Send the fags in and give the Rooskies head and let them be 'tops' in the missionary position, then stab them in the back in the heat of passion.BITE THEIR DICKS OFF!

FIFY

@Starrynight: NYT reporter Ron Susskind quoting a "high Bush admin official", thought widely to be Karl Rove, who said: "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

Certainly the impetus to global empire accelerated in the wake of WW2, which left the world in ruins, except for the undamaged USA. However, the imperial bug infected the USA as early as the late 19th century which was opposed by a number of American thinkers & writers including Mark Twain, brothers William and Henry James, Andrew Carnegie and former president Grover Cleveland.

You may be interested in the book "Imperial Cruise" by James Bradley, who incidentally was the son of one of the five who raise the flag over Iwo Jima

@Keenan - fascinating info, thank you for that.