Briefly Noted: A New Concept In Governance; Ukraine

Regular readers will be familiar with one of my favorite refrains: The best government money can buy. Leave it to the Babylon Bee to develop that concept in a truly creative way:

The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee

Congress Members To Wear Barcodes So Lobbyists Can Scan Prices, Self-Checkout

babylonbee.comCongress Members To Wear Barcodes So Lobbyists Can Scan Prices, Self-CheckoutWASHINGTON, D.C.—In a move to make purchasing congresspeople easier and faster for lobbyists, Congress voted to approve a new measure that calls for congresspeople to wear barcodes on their foreheads so lobbyists, activists, and corporations can simply scan them and self-checkout.

This innovation promises to do away with the sleaziness inherent in the old concept of “making the sale” to John Q. Public:

Mark Window @MarkWindow1

But of course, they're telling the truth about Russia & China. #ColinPowell

Here’s another new concept, or a development of a possibility that I brought up a day or two ago. The idea is that the Russian Winter Offensive has already begun, but in an unexpected manner. Most commentators have naturally been expecting a massive “blitzkrieg” style of offensive—massive firepower, prepped by artillery and then spearheaded by tanks, designed to break through the equally massive Ukrainian fortified lines. What I suggested the other day was something along the lines of what we could call “stress testing”. The Russian offensive seems to be taking the form, for the time being, of heavy probing attacks which settle down as Ukrainian forces are transferred to oppose the attacks—resulting in the Ukrainian defenders being anchored in place and subjected to the usual attrition by artillery. In the meantime, the Russians move on to a new probing offensive: wash, rinse repeat.This is happening over a vast area but the result is a major intensification of the war of attrition approach:

Defense Politics Asia @DefensePolitics

Russia seemed to have really started it's Winter Offensives.. yes with a "s". It's not one, but multiple offensives (in order to read it correctly).

Larry Johnson has picked up on that:

IS THE WAR IN UKRAINE NEARING THE CULMINATING POINT?

I am mystified by the Western analysts who are downplaying the Russian offense in the Donbass along the defensive line that stretches from Bakhmut in the south to Seversk in the north as some sort of sideshow with no strategic importance. I disagree. I do not think that Russia is waiting for a “Spring offensive.” A Russian offensive is underway on multiple fronts and Ukraine is paying a heavy toll.

Larry references a recent video by Doug Macgregor, who, in a bit of a volte-face, likens the Russian approach to the culminating Allied 1918 offensive on the Western Front in WW1—with the important difference that the Russians are cautiously avoiding the massive casualties suffered by the US Army in its 100 day offensive in France:

Russia's deliberate and methodical conquest of Ukraine