Weekend Roundup: Hail Colombia! China And Ukraine, World War T
The degradation of our once proud nation continues apace. Zhou is off representing us at the ASEAN meetings and has twice referred to the host country, Cambodia, as “Columbia”. But this is apparently just fine with our ruling class, men like Bluto Barr and Turtle McConnell.
Now, speaking of the ruling class and their existential war against Donald Trump, I’m not going to go on about that at any length. Trump is being blamed by some for the Midterm debacle and exonerated by others. Each side makes legitimate points and, certainly the anti-Trump side played an underhanded game for their own reasons. All this will have to be sorted out in anticipation of 2024. All I want to say for now is that I don’t think Trump is helping himself by referring to Ron DeSantis as an “average” governor, or suggesting that there’s something “Chinese” about VA governor Glenn “Young Kin”. More importantly, I don’t think he’s helping conservative, who know that they need to attract as many supporters as possible. The source of DeSantis’ funding will also get sorted out, but attempting to destroy DeSantis for accepting money from a person who isn’t a movement conservative—without proof of DeSantis’ having acknowledge that person as his Lord and Master in all things political—is also misguided. No conservative can win without money. Donors regularly contribute heavily to candidates whom they may not support on every issue—accepting their money doesn’t ipso facto enslave that candidate. It all has to be sorted out over time. There are many conservatives across the country who would give an arm and/or a leg to have governors as “average” as DeSantis and “Young Kin” have been.
Moving on.
Doug Macgregor just did a terrific 28 minute interview that focused on developments with regard to China/Taiwan and Ukraine. In fact, the first 18 minutes that are devoted to China/Taiwan are perhaps the most fascinating. However, because the Kherson withdrawal is so much in the news, I’ve transcribed the 8 minutes or so devoted to the Ukraine conflict, below. However, I highly recommend the first 18 minutes to your attention:
[Discussion re China/Taiwan]
[18:50]
[Question re Ukraine]
[19:40]
When General Surovikin took command--he is the new theater commander, in other words, the equivalent of, say, Schwarzkopf or Tommy Franks and CENTCOM--[Surovikin] is now the Western Theater commander for everything that happens in and around Ukraine. And when he took command there were certain agreements that were made and new decisions from President Putin. Number One, [Russia is] going to prepare for a decisive operation to end the war. In other words, no more simply defend southern Ukraine and the territory that [Russia has] annexed, no more expectation of serious negotiations with anybody--those are over, [Russia] now has to end the war.
How do you end the war? Well, you launch offensive operations that are so devastating in their power and destructiveness that the enemy cannot resist them. However, if you're going to do that you have to scale back current activities. In other words, you've gotta make some changes on the ground, shuffle troops, change resource commitments, because you're now building up forces that are not in southern Ukraine--some are there, but most are not--that are being prepared with this mobilization force of three hundred thousand, integrated into this new force for these future offensive operations--which I talked about before, which others have mentioned--which will come this winter, once the ground freezes.
Now, it hasn't gone below 37 degrees at night in Ukraine, and it's gotta drop below freezing--significantly--and stay there for the ground to freeze. So, [the offensive] is not gonna happen until that is done.
Now, in Kherson, they had about twenty five thousand troops sitting in Kherson city. The Ukrainians were trying to assemble forty to sixty thousand to attack it. And there was a debate [on the Russian side]: Can we defend it? Well, yeah, we can probably defend it, but is it worth it? And what are we gonna do about the Russians who live in Kherson? Remember, we're talking about an area where the people who live in that area are Russians. So they said, let's withdraw the civilians. For the last several weeks you've seen the movement of civilians in Kherson out. ...
The twenty five thousand troops that were there were well prepared to defend it, but they said, No, let's not do that. Let's pull them across and redistribute those assets elsewhere. A lot of these soldiers that are in southern Ukraine--about seventy thousand to eighty thousand of them--have been fighting for several months. There's an interest in giving them some rest and refitting them for the future offensive. So pulling those twenty five thousand troops made operational sense.
Now, strategically? Putin's not concerned about what we in the West think, but I think he is concerned about what's happening in Russia. And the average Russian on the street is extremely upset. He takes the position that this is Russia, Russian territory. We should be moving forward, we need to liberate Odessa, we need to liberate Kharkov. These are Russian cities, that's what we need to do--why are we falling back? They've tried to explain that this was not a sudden decision. It was carefully considered.
The priority right now is to consolidate control over what we have. Let's not take any unnecessary casualties. And if the enemy goes into Kherson in great numbers, guess what? The entire place is carefully targeted for annihilation. In fact, the Southern Ukrainian Command made an announcement, that they were concerned that perhaps this was a trap. That if they go in great numbers into Kherson that the Russians will, in fact, concentrate their striking power--rockets, missiles, artillery--in great quantity and kill everything that goes into Kherson, because there are no Russians living there now. So the Ukrainians aren't stupid--they're actually on to something. They understand that it could be very dangerous for them to move in there in great numbers.
So I think eventually the Russian population will calm down, but right now they're angry. They're angry with Putin, they're angry with Surovikin, they're angry with the Russian military. They don't understand why anything is being given up. But remember. [The Russians] made a similar decision with Kharkov. They said, it's not worth holding. Pull out, pull back to the river. And that's what they've done. It hasn't hurt them militarily, and in fact they were able to inflict a lot of damage on the Ukrainians who subsequently poured in there. So I think if we see the Ukrainians go in any strength into Kherson, we will watch as they are annihilated. And [the Russians] can do it now because there aren't any civilians in the way.
So I would regard this as an operational decision with short term benefit in support of the long term strategy of building this enormous offensive striking power. I also think this is why the [US] administration has privately approached the Russians to talk to them. Because I think people in Washington as well as in London--because those are the two hubs with all the intelligence for CIA and MI6--they know what's coming. There are roughly two hundred fifty to three hundred thousand combat troops plus another two or three hundred thousand in support in [Belarus], in western Russia, on the western side of Ukraine and they are building up south of the lines in Southern Ukraine. So you have what looks like the potential for three operational axes. Now, how this will all come together and when it will happen, we think it depends on the weather, but they're pretty close to being ready. Once the ground freezes, whenever that is, I think we'll see this begin. Because again, [the Russians] no longer place any trust or confidence in negotiations. I don't think we could say anything to the Russians at this point that would persuade them to stop, which we've effectively tried to do. We've said, Look, we don't want you to do this, because after this so-called coalition of the willing [the US says it will use], I don't think the Russians care. I think the Russians will say, Fine, if they get in the way they're gonna be destroyed. It's unfortunate, but I think that's where we are now.
[26:30]
[Brings up analogy with the Battle of the Bulge--a fighting withdrawal that was successful in running down German offensive capabilities.]
I’ll make two points.
First, with regard to the Russians being averse to taking casualties, that should not come as any surprise in this type of war—disappointing as it may be to the West. The US has also, ever since Vietnam, been similarly averse to taking large numbers of casualties in our various wars around the globe.
Second, regarding climate, everyone talks about the weather in Ukraine, but how many actually have a clue about it? Ukraine is a huge country and has a wide range of climate zones. In some areas, like Kherson—near the Black Sea, the ground may never actually freeze. You may have seen some videos of soldiers trying to move on foot through fields in that region—it’s ridiculous how deep the mud is. So take note of what Macgregor says about the massive Russian buildup in Belarus and along the northern side of Ukraine. That’s where the we can expect a Russian offensive because that’s where the ground will freeze. I had difficulty finding a Ukraine climate map that wasn’t in Cyrillic, but these two maps will give you an idea of what I’m talking about, and where to expect ground freezing to set in earliest:
Finally, on the World War T front, there are some positive developments. I’ll just offer brief links.
Don Surber reports regarding a case in Oregon:
A cow can't sue the butcher shop, but a woman can sue her butchers. Two women in separate suits are suing doctors who sliced and diced them in the name of transgendering.
The first case was reported by Just the News, which said, "A young woman who regretted her gender transition helped shut down the U.K.'s central provider of pediatric "gender affirming care" this summer through litigation that prompted more scrutiny of the National Health Service-run Tavistock clinic.
"An older American detransitioner is following Keira Bell's lead, suing mental health professionals for allegedly rushed, sloppy and categorically false evaluations that authorized her for a taxpayer-funded double mastectomy despite the red flags she presented on mental health.
"Though she's not a minor, Camille Kiefel's lawsuit could make providers think twice about treating gender dysphoria in youth with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, as well as surgical removal of healthy breasts and genitals for all ages.
"The gender-critical Women's Liberation Front is sponsoring Kiefel's lawsuit. Filed in Oregon's Multnomah County Circuit Court, it alleges malpractice, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress."
There’s much, much more on these cases at the link.
Will Chamberlain
@willchamberlain
Jim Jordan is not an improvement over Kevin McCarthy.
Will Chamberlain
@willchamberlain
Reminder that Jim Jordan has been throttling Republican efforts to take on Big Tech for years.
His memo from the hearings back in 2020 shows that his strategy was to make consumers "aware" of censorship so the "market can respond."
While stopping antitrust in its tracks.
𝔹𝕝𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝔹𝕖𝕪𝕖
@realBlakeBeye
Biden/Fetterman 2024. It’s a no-brainer