There are multiple articles out in Lefty media outlets, all suggesting that the collective West screwed up and that Ukraine is facing the end game. Among the outlets featured are two US ones—the WaPo and Politico. Interestingly, reading the two US articles suggests they both rely on basically the same sources, who—while admitting that the Ukrainian offensive is a complete bust, still attempt to maintain a stiff upper lip. But “US officials and insiders alike” are starting to whisper the question: Was this all a big screwup? How do we prepare a narrative for the American public that gets us out of this without blame? One gets the impression that they’re preparing for Election 2024. There’s a NYT article out, too, that suggests what that narrative will be.
The French have found a new scenario for legalizing the deaths of their top military in Ukraine, reporting the death of General Jean-Louis Georgelin, former Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces, during an unexpected hike in the mountains.
The 75-year-old general, who had never been interested in mountaineering before, suddenly developed a love for mountain tourism and went on a hike in the Pyrenees... alone... and fell in the area of the Fosten Pass, which is located at an altitude of 2650 meters.
In short, another case of inexplicable desire of NATO generals for solitary dangerous journeys, ending in extensive injuries, as if from a close explosion of heavy ammunition.
It is interesting when they will get tired of playing games? When will it finally be recognized that the entire NATO bloc is waging war against Russia on the territory of former Ukraine? Or will it continue? They will soon run out of falling private planes, sinking yachts, and the mountains will be littered with the bodies of officers from the North Atlantic Alliance who decided to take a solitary walk along mountain trails...
In addition to the mentioned mountain adventurer, on August 1, General Potts of the US Armed Forces died in the state of Maryland. He felt the urge to fly alone on a private plane, on which he crashed. And a few months ago, "a helicopter crashed in the mountains of Mexico" with a group of officers who were most likely planning to visit the Vinnitsa House of Officers the day before...
As a homeschooler of 4 kids, it bothers me that parents want to send their kids to ANY school, even ones that claim to be Christian. I get it that many parents are stressed out with two jobs, but where there is a will, there is a way. It's not that hard these days to find other like-minded parents with whom to share the load. Also, what do we mean by "Christian" in this context? Most of the schools I've known that claim to be Christian are nothing of the sort. They are secular with a patina of spirtual gloop on top. You have to do your homework carefully.
Another alternative is the Hillsdale College curriculum called , “Classical Academies.” It is a focus on the classics, languages, history (primarily WesternCiv.) and reading, writing, and math. My wife’s nephew is Head Master at a school in Dallas/Ft. Worth area and responsible for promoting the curriculum in the TX area. These are basically charter like schools and the children learn to think critically, get great instruction without indoctrination into left wing neurosis. The academies are growing in number and offer a great education. You can find more about it at the Hillsdale College site.
The author of the piece on Christian Schools I’m not sure about. Ex National Review and Bloomberg. The negative on one of the curriculum raised a red flag with me, Abeca. My info is 20 years out of date, but their phonics material was A+, and my daughter learned to read from it after a negative experience with a public school that believed in the whole word methodology.
My experience was my daughter at a Christian school was taught an excellent foundation of reading, writing, and arithmetic. K-5. After that public school in our area was the best option.
The line from the Federalist article, about how eliminating meat and dairy (etc) from our diet could end up killing people, is actually the least of the very much intended consequences. The greatest consequence will not be outright death but a lifetime of sickliness among the general population. And think about it: how brave and rebellious are you when you are sick? Exactly. Sickly people tend to be mentally weak and submissive, and they spend loads of their lifetime income on the medical / pharmaceutical system.
This is the real danger of this demonic push to malnourish the people. It's just one more prong in the overall effort to create weak little citizens controlled by all-powerful big government. A story as old and disatrous as any over the last few thousand years.
To think that many hundreds of years were spent under the threat of plague and famine and then the frantic search for remedies, treatments and vaccines (!) all to “improve” the “health” and welfare of citizens, only to now deprive them of that very thing. Preposterous and perhaps even criminal.
Ray, it is indeed ironic (if that’s the word) that the Dems and cronies will be forced to “collude with Russia” in an eventual peace deal, the exact same thing they accused Trump of doing!!! Could this explain the fury/furies being unleashed in SoCal by Hurricane Hillary? And why they continue to be in denial (as with Covid and its origins, treatments etc) over another great “clusterf” on the horizon?
If these casualties are true then we either have no defense against this weapon or leader has chosen to not defend NATO personnel in Ukraine. Seems a little like how our people were left hung out to dry in Libya. Per CSIS report the Iskander maneuvers at 30g in flight and the warhead can also maneuver independently. Do our carriers have a defense against the upgraded Russian missiles? I fear that we will learn in a horrible way that our aircraft carriers would have been great in the last war but will be obsolete LARGE SLOW TARGETS in any modern global war. Will our subs be destroyed in dry dock?
Before Ukraine, my impression of Russia's armed forces came from the tragic incompetence of the Kursk sub debacle, and those pictures of rotting, rusting nuclear subs in Murmansk. It looks like they have been quick learners. Russia has shown itself way ahead in nearly all areas of military capability. I suspect that we might find out that the same is true for submarine technology. The only area we remain stronger is, perhaps, in airlifting capacity. However, the Russian ADs would soon nullify that.
Mine too. Russia’s naval ability is still lacking, in contrast to China. One article commented China in one shipyard had more capacity than the entire U.S. naval ship building capacity. Overall 20x greater.
And the us shipyards have too high an inspector to worker ratio, too much micromanagement (comments noted a 30 to 1 ratio in one incident).
My guess is Putin has rebuilt the Russian Military through various live fire exercises (Georgia, Chechen wars, Syria), which through each one was relatively small, each one exposed issues that have been fixed.
Shipyard activity isn't the same as turning out quality. While I'm not discounting China's navy, in terms of combat capability I'd still lean toward the Russian navy. True, the Chinese navy is much newer in terms of when its ships were built, but the Russian missile capabilities make it extremely dangerous, even on older ships.
It would be interesting to have a deep dive (no pun intended) on what the Chinese navy really has in terms of quality. I'm sure they are still learning, but I'm sure too that they could give us a run for our money. Especially if we are stupid enough to put surface ships in the Straits of Taiwan.
In both theatres--China and Russia--it's a lot to do with logistics. The US has to go half way round the world in opposite directions to attack these countries. For China and Russia they simply need to stay within their own zones and play defense. BTW, China exported nearly half a million more cars to Russia this year than last.
Interesting insights, Ray. A key factor in Russia's success at beating the Ukr army has been that they have a military-industrial production system behind them. Perhaps Team Putin checked over what was left of the Soviet system and upgraded what was useful. We in the West don't have much military-industrial capability at all.
Since Putin came in the Russian military has been involved in several wars pitting their systems against Western systems: Chechnya, Georgia, Syria--and close observers in Iraq. They've done a lot of learning based on experience.
Maybe all the neocon shuttle diplomacy is just a weight-loss programme for Vicky Nuland. She must be burning off the calories going up and down those airplane steps.
“Western officials have been spending the last few weeks whining to the media that Ukraine’s inability to gain ground is due to an irrational aversion to being killed. They’ve been decrying Ukrainian cowardice to the press under cover of unnamed sources, from behind the safety of their office desks.”
“Fight until the last Ukrainian! The USA has forced its proxy state to use WWI tactics. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men died to protect the big guy and his son's corruption.”
The Ukrainian soldiers are not cowards. It's a disgraceful slur on the part of the neocons. Maybe they should go over there and show them how to do it. As for your final sentence, that's basically what it comes down to. Nothing to do with protecting democracy; everything to do with hiding the paper trail and destroying evidence of Biden's corruption.
We took advantage of a weak and divided Ukraine, as Mercouris has stated, (referring to Mearsheimer), and its “project” to join Nato - Minsk was a ruse. We foisted on them weapons of dubious efficiency and had no strategic answer to the war of attrition conducted by Russia. With the clarion call of more promises coming out of Brussells about Nato membership - even as the number of Ukrainian dead mount and blame begins to be cast their way…you wonder when the Ukrainian people will rise up .
Even were the Ukrainian people to rise up, the are now scattered and greatly weakened in consequence. And rise up against whom (sadly)? Their own corruptocrats vigorously participated in both the warring engagement and the large corruption of siphoning funds and materiel into black markets. The historical burdens of the region (Holodomor, Banderas, the low trust, high pride, high fight first tribal habits of that region of the European SE) coupled with the skills of black market and a western elite all too happy to get their cut as well have made for tragedy on epic scale. The reverberations in an internet era, because the big lie won't work, will be noticable across centuries. I pray for all involved, and for a righteous justice
The only form of "rising up" that I can foresee is what is happening now to a small extent: mass surrenders, draft-age kids hiding in their grannies' lofts, going slow on the battlefield, etc.
"At 17.00 Kiev time. More than 100 people were injured as a result of a rocket attack on an "exhibition" in Chernihiv with a modified Iskander K missile. More than 60 people died.
The NATO air ambulance has been working around the clock, carrying heavy ones to the countries of the alliance.
Destroyed several key specialists - NATO cryptographers from the Baltics - 11 senior NATO officers are missing"
The Iskander maneuvers in flight up to 30g per CSIS report. The separate warhead can also maneuver. If the casualties are true then we either have no defense against this weapon or our ‘leadership’ has chosen to not defend them. Whatever happened to Chris the ambassador to Libya and the secret soldiers in Libya? Have we left our people defenseless in Ukraine along with the Ukrainians? To be killed at will by the Russians? How vulnerable are the aircraft carriers? I hope we do not learn the hard way that they are the legacy weapons from the last world war.
Some on the left criticized us for arming the Afghan jihadis who were fighting the Russians. The Obama admin then arms jihadis in Syria with weapons in Libya after we removed Ghadafi, who was supposed to have been cooperating. This is all so convoluted it is difficult to see how it all contributes to the well being of the American people.
Not really. So many people are dying suddenly these days, what's another 11? Even children dying of cardiac arrests is being normalized. I'm sure all of them peacefully died in their sleep ;-)
In all seriousness, my brother allowed his two-year-old twins to be vaxxed. My biggest fear is that they won't live until adulthood, especially my nephew, since myocarditis is one of the serious vaccine side effects for young males. And who knows how the shots will affect my little niece. Luckily, only about 10% of Canadians between the ages of six months and four years are vaxxed. Not all parents were as crazy reckless as my brother and his wife, who are planning on getting shot #5 in the fall.
That said, some days you have to laugh or you'll cry. Somedays, everything seems so bleak that it would be a blessing the twins weren't around for what is sure to be a dystopian future.
I can't even imagine the level of brainwashing you need to get to that level, Claudia. Kids just aren't dying of Covid, period. Yes, we have to choose laughter. And hope. This will be sorted out one day - if not here, then in the afterlife.
Florida will NOT participate in any such "Blue" mad-think. Tallahassee and Orlando do not wag the State dog.
illuminatibot
@iluminatibot
BREAKING!
A new and more lethal OMICRON variant has been detected.
It's called BS-24/7.
It attacks the truth and insults your intelligence.
Dmitry Polyanskiy 
@Dpol_un
The French have found a new scenario for legalizing the deaths of their top military in Ukraine, reporting the death of General Jean-Louis Georgelin, former Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces, during an unexpected hike in the mountains.
The 75-year-old general, who had never been interested in mountaineering before, suddenly developed a love for mountain tourism and went on a hike in the Pyrenees... alone... and fell in the area of the Fosten Pass, which is located at an altitude of 2650 meters.
In short, another case of inexplicable desire of NATO generals for solitary dangerous journeys, ending in extensive injuries, as if from a close explosion of heavy ammunition.
It is interesting when they will get tired of playing games? When will it finally be recognized that the entire NATO bloc is waging war against Russia on the territory of former Ukraine? Or will it continue? They will soon run out of falling private planes, sinking yachts, and the mountains will be littered with the bodies of officers from the North Atlantic Alliance who decided to take a solitary walk along mountain trails...
In addition to the mentioned mountain adventurer, on August 1, General Potts of the US Armed Forces died in the state of Maryland. He felt the urge to fly alone on a private plane, on which he crashed. And a few months ago, "a helicopter crashed in the mountains of Mexico" with a group of officers who were most likely planning to visit the Vinnitsa House of Officers the day before...
As a homeschooler of 4 kids, it bothers me that parents want to send their kids to ANY school, even ones that claim to be Christian. I get it that many parents are stressed out with two jobs, but where there is a will, there is a way. It's not that hard these days to find other like-minded parents with whom to share the load. Also, what do we mean by "Christian" in this context? Most of the schools I've known that claim to be Christian are nothing of the sort. They are secular with a patina of spirtual gloop on top. You have to do your homework carefully.
Another alternative is the Hillsdale College curriculum called , “Classical Academies.” It is a focus on the classics, languages, history (primarily WesternCiv.) and reading, writing, and math. My wife’s nephew is Head Master at a school in Dallas/Ft. Worth area and responsible for promoting the curriculum in the TX area. These are basically charter like schools and the children learn to think critically, get great instruction without indoctrination into left wing neurosis. The academies are growing in number and offer a great education. You can find more about it at the Hillsdale College site.
I have to be honest, here, KLG. It's actually my wonderful wife who does most of the work. I'm self-employed and work all the hours God sends.
Tx for your kind words, KLG. Parenting is definitely a duet. I can't imagine how single parents cope!
The author of the piece on Christian Schools I’m not sure about. Ex National Review and Bloomberg. The negative on one of the curriculum raised a red flag with me, Abeca. My info is 20 years out of date, but their phonics material was A+, and my daughter learned to read from it after a negative experience with a public school that believed in the whole word methodology.
My experience was my daughter at a Christian school was taught an excellent foundation of reading, writing, and arithmetic. K-5. After that public school in our area was the best option.
Always look at the author, the swamp is deep and wide and the propaganda spreaders are everywhere.
I do that a lot, it’s so tiring I need to do that. Same with people quoted in articles.
And he lives in Brooklyn.
https://www.nationalreview.com/author/vince-bielski/
Latest from military summary channel.
Iskander attack. https://youtu.be/itRJ3JkZ0is
The line from the Federalist article, about how eliminating meat and dairy (etc) from our diet could end up killing people, is actually the least of the very much intended consequences. The greatest consequence will not be outright death but a lifetime of sickliness among the general population. And think about it: how brave and rebellious are you when you are sick? Exactly. Sickly people tend to be mentally weak and submissive, and they spend loads of their lifetime income on the medical / pharmaceutical system.
This is the real danger of this demonic push to malnourish the people. It's just one more prong in the overall effort to create weak little citizens controlled by all-powerful big government. A story as old and disatrous as any over the last few thousand years.
To think that many hundreds of years were spent under the threat of plague and famine and then the frantic search for remedies, treatments and vaccines (!) all to “improve” the “health” and welfare of citizens, only to now deprive them of that very thing. Preposterous and perhaps even criminal.
They are three-quarters there. During Covid, most people were scared, sick, and stupid, but not poor. I guess that last one will be along soon.
Bingo. Clear as day what’s happening.
I could not figure out the why of the Jeddah Conference.
My guess was making the Saudis feel more important.
What Seymour Hersh wrote is terrifying in the degree of narcissism and hubris it shows.
Ray, it is indeed ironic (if that’s the word) that the Dems and cronies will be forced to “collude with Russia” in an eventual peace deal, the exact same thing they accused Trump of doing!!! Could this explain the fury/furies being unleashed in SoCal by Hurricane Hillary? And why they continue to be in denial (as with Covid and its origins, treatments etc) over another great “clusterf” on the horizon?
Republican Chris Christie Advocates for More War, More Conflict, More Turmoil, More Weapons, More U.S Intervention
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/08/19/republican-chris-christie-advocates-for-more-war-more-conflict-more-turmoil-more-weapons-more-u-s-intervention/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=republican-chris-christie-advocates-for-more-war-more-conflict-more-turmoil-more-weapons-more-u-s-intervention
Maybe he’ll be a “heavy one” at the next secret conference in Ukraine
Notice that none of those cities banning meat are in New Jersey…
If these casualties are true then we either have no defense against this weapon or leader has chosen to not defend NATO personnel in Ukraine. Seems a little like how our people were left hung out to dry in Libya. Per CSIS report the Iskander maneuvers at 30g in flight and the warhead can also maneuver independently. Do our carriers have a defense against the upgraded Russian missiles? I fear that we will learn in a horrible way that our aircraft carriers would have been great in the last war but will be obsolete LARGE SLOW TARGETS in any modern global war. Will our subs be destroyed in dry dock?
Before Ukraine, my impression of Russia's armed forces came from the tragic incompetence of the Kursk sub debacle, and those pictures of rotting, rusting nuclear subs in Murmansk. It looks like they have been quick learners. Russia has shown itself way ahead in nearly all areas of military capability. I suspect that we might find out that the same is true for submarine technology. The only area we remain stronger is, perhaps, in airlifting capacity. However, the Russian ADs would soon nullify that.
Mine too. Russia’s naval ability is still lacking, in contrast to China. One article commented China in one shipyard had more capacity than the entire U.S. naval ship building capacity. Overall 20x greater.
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-ukraine-war-sinks-new-russian-ship.html?m=1
And the us shipyards have too high an inspector to worker ratio, too much micromanagement (comments noted a 30 to 1 ratio in one incident).
My guess is Putin has rebuilt the Russian Military through various live fire exercises (Georgia, Chechen wars, Syria), which through each one was relatively small, each one exposed issues that have been fixed.
Shipyard activity isn't the same as turning out quality. While I'm not discounting China's navy, in terms of combat capability I'd still lean toward the Russian navy. True, the Chinese navy is much newer in terms of when its ships were built, but the Russian missile capabilities make it extremely dangerous, even on older ships.
It would be interesting to have a deep dive (no pun intended) on what the Chinese navy really has in terms of quality. I'm sure they are still learning, but I'm sure too that they could give us a run for our money. Especially if we are stupid enough to put surface ships in the Straits of Taiwan.
In both theatres--China and Russia--it's a lot to do with logistics. The US has to go half way round the world in opposite directions to attack these countries. For China and Russia they simply need to stay within their own zones and play defense. BTW, China exported nearly half a million more cars to Russia this year than last.
Yes, all those juicy extended lines of communication. That car stat is amazing. To paraphrase Carlin, it's a big BRICS club, and we ain't in it.
Interesting insights, Ray. A key factor in Russia's success at beating the Ukr army has been that they have a military-industrial production system behind them. Perhaps Team Putin checked over what was left of the Soviet system and upgraded what was useful. We in the West don't have much military-industrial capability at all.
My gut feeling is Russia has been preparing for this militarily and economically for years.
Since Putin came in the Russian military has been involved in several wars pitting their systems against Western systems: Chechnya, Georgia, Syria--and close observers in Iraq. They've done a lot of learning based on experience.
And the Armenia Azerbaijan War, where Turkish and Israeli drones defeated the Russian armed / tactics of Armenia.
Now Russia has figured out how to counter Turkish Drones.
Yes. And Ray is right: the neocons were planning a lot, but so were the Russians. The enemy always has a vote.
We have a huge dry dock capacity issue, and maintenance backlog in subs.
Rickover would be turning over in his grave - unless he was buried at sea, of course!
Nearly 40% of us subs are out of commission:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/08/uss-boxer-unable-to-get-underway-after-two-year-200-million-overhaul-symptom-of-military-readiness-problems/
Wow! Mind you, I'm ex-Royal Navy, so that sounds pretty good by our standards! :)
Apologies for the redundant comment. It did not look like the last one went in.
Maybe all the neocon shuttle diplomacy is just a weight-loss programme for Vicky Nuland. She must be burning off the calories going up and down those airplane steps.
Can we hope she was one of the “heavy ones” the evacuated?
https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/video/cow-airlifted-helicopter-swiss-alps-72455559
“Western officials have been spending the last few weeks whining to the media that Ukraine’s inability to gain ground is due to an irrational aversion to being killed. They’ve been decrying Ukrainian cowardice to the press under cover of unnamed sources, from behind the safety of their office desks.”
“Fight until the last Ukrainian! The USA has forced its proxy state to use WWI tactics. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men died to protect the big guy and his son's corruption.”
The Ukrainian soldiers are not cowards. It's a disgraceful slur on the part of the neocons. Maybe they should go over there and show them how to do it. As for your final sentence, that's basically what it comes down to. Nothing to do with protecting democracy; everything to do with hiding the paper trail and destroying evidence of Biden's corruption.
That's the only positive thing I can say about Ukraine: they have shown remarkable resolve and courage.
We took advantage of a weak and divided Ukraine, as Mercouris has stated, (referring to Mearsheimer), and its “project” to join Nato - Minsk was a ruse. We foisted on them weapons of dubious efficiency and had no strategic answer to the war of attrition conducted by Russia. With the clarion call of more promises coming out of Brussells about Nato membership - even as the number of Ukrainian dead mount and blame begins to be cast their way…you wonder when the Ukrainian people will rise up .
Even were the Ukrainian people to rise up, the are now scattered and greatly weakened in consequence. And rise up against whom (sadly)? Their own corruptocrats vigorously participated in both the warring engagement and the large corruption of siphoning funds and materiel into black markets. The historical burdens of the region (Holodomor, Banderas, the low trust, high pride, high fight first tribal habits of that region of the European SE) coupled with the skills of black market and a western elite all too happy to get their cut as well have made for tragedy on epic scale. The reverberations in an internet era, because the big lie won't work, will be noticable across centuries. I pray for all involved, and for a righteous justice
The only form of "rising up" that I can foresee is what is happening now to a small extent: mass surrenders, draft-age kids hiding in their grannies' lofts, going slow on the battlefield, etc.
"At 17.00 Kiev time. More than 100 people were injured as a result of a rocket attack on an "exhibition" in Chernihiv with a modified Iskander K missile. More than 60 people died.
The NATO air ambulance has been working around the clock, carrying heavy ones to the countries of the alliance.
Destroyed several key specialists - NATO cryptographers from the Baltics - 11 senior NATO officers are missing"
(IL_RUSSO) - unconfirmed
“Heavy ones”? Who or what are the heavy ones? Does that mean important ones? As in we don’t want anyone to know they were here?
The Iskander maneuvers in flight up to 30g per CSIS report. The separate warhead can also maneuver. If the casualties are true then we either have no defense against this weapon or our ‘leadership’ has chosen to not defend them. Whatever happened to Chris the ambassador to Libya and the secret soldiers in Libya? Have we left our people defenseless in Ukraine along with the Ukrainians? To be killed at will by the Russians? How vulnerable are the aircraft carriers? I hope we do not learn the hard way that they are the legacy weapons from the last world war.
I remember being very angry and offended when AMB Stevens was killed.
But I read recently that he was the point man arranging the shipment of Libyan weapons to our Jihadist allies in Syria.
Not as sympathetic as I used to be.
Some on the left criticized us for arming the Afghan jihadis who were fighting the Russians. The Obama admin then arms jihadis in Syria with weapons in Libya after we removed Ghadafi, who was supposed to have been cooperating. This is all so convoluted it is difficult to see how it all contributes to the well being of the American people.
"11 senior NATO officers are missing". Chickens coming home to roost.
Not really. So many people are dying suddenly these days, what's another 11? Even children dying of cardiac arrests is being normalized. I'm sure all of them peacefully died in their sleep ;-)
Come on, Claudia, as kids we were always having cardiac arrests back in the 70s. Our parents just told us to run it off.
Ha ha, yes.
In all seriousness, my brother allowed his two-year-old twins to be vaxxed. My biggest fear is that they won't live until adulthood, especially my nephew, since myocarditis is one of the serious vaccine side effects for young males. And who knows how the shots will affect my little niece. Luckily, only about 10% of Canadians between the ages of six months and four years are vaxxed. Not all parents were as crazy reckless as my brother and his wife, who are planning on getting shot #5 in the fall.
That said, some days you have to laugh or you'll cry. Somedays, everything seems so bleak that it would be a blessing the twins weren't around for what is sure to be a dystopian future.
I can't even imagine the level of brainwashing you need to get to that level, Claudia. Kids just aren't dying of Covid, period. Yes, we have to choose laughter. And hope. This will be sorted out one day - if not here, then in the afterlife.
Or died in a plane crash in Maryland
https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-army-general-killed-maryland-plane-crash
Or had heartattacks after being addressed with the wrong pronoun.
Ba-boom, swish. Nice one.
Or
Died suddenly….
No cause of death released due to privacy concerns
At the Kennedy museum in Dallas they noted the windshield was destroyed. Strange.
I've read a lot from both sides on JFK's death and I still can't decide whether it was a lone nutter or a conspiracy (or both?).