patrick.net

Flying is overrated. They have that 7-day sleep train from Moscow to Hǎishēnwǎi (temporarily known as Vladivostok), don't they?

RWSGFY says

The aircraft, with 165 people onboard, eventually made a successful emergency landing in a stretch of farmland in southern Russia.

Bet the pilot was no diversity hire, and that saved lives.

What ???? - They bought a Boeing ????

https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/how-much-delicious-sanctioned-russian

Sanctions just mean that Russia sells its oil to India, which then turns around and sells it to the West:

Patrick says

Sanctions just mean that Russia sells its oil to India, which then turns around and sells it to the West

True, but it also means that oil prices in the West don't go even higher while depriving Russia with a lot of the profits.

zzyzzx says

True, but it also means that oil prices in the West don't go even higher while depriving Russia with a lot of the profits.

Russia is doing just fine. That's the problem ppl can't wrap their heads around.

The sanctions hurt NATO countries other than Canada and the US more than anyone else.

UkraineIsTotallyFucked says

zzyzzx says

True, but it also means that oil prices in the West don't go even higher while depriving Russia with a lot of the profits.

Russia is doing just fine. That's the problem ppl can't wrap their heads around.

The sanctions hurt NATO countries other than Canada and the US more than anyone else.

Aaaannnnndddd whaddya know!

https://patrick.net/post/1343769/2022-02-24-greeted-like-liberators-ukraine?start=3610#comment-2045851

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/radio-free-america-wednesday-april

Speaking of things heating up, the BBC ran an article yesterday that surprised no one except the entire Biden Administration. It bore the unfortunate headline, “Russia to grow faster than all advanced economies, says IMF.” The sub-headline added, “An influential global body has forecast Russia's economy will grow faster this year than all of the world's advanced economies, including the US.”

The headline should have read, “Joe Biden loses World War III.”

That wasn’t all yesterday. Bloomberg ran a similar story, this one headlined, “Russian Crude Shipments Surge to the Highest in Almost a Year.” It is now undeniable that the Biden Administration’s highly-publicized sanctions war against Russia has catastrophically failed. The U.S.’s faltering economy was well described yesterday in a Barrons article headlined, “Inflation Could Stick Around Much Longer. What to Do About It.”

A financial analyst quoted for the Barron’s story explained, “The backdrop of continued geopolitical stress is contributing to more persistent inflation and more caution.”

Who caused all this geopolitical stress? It did not exist four years ago.

As a core plank of its neocon foreign policy, Team Biden deliberately provoked Russia into invading Ukraine, and then set out to leverage the Proxy War to remove Putin, destroy Russia’s economy, and eradicate Russia as a potentially competitive superpower. Even if you somehow disbelieve NATO provoked Russia, the rest is undeniable. Without Congressional authorization, Biden undertook a Fifth Generation world war against Russia, a war via proxy, a war via economics, a war via propaganda and destabilization, and a war via thinly-disguised infrastructure sabotage, like blowing up Russia’s Nordstream pipeline.

It sort of snuck up on us, but it is evident Biden’s gamble failed. Sure, the clock is still running, the players are still going through the motions, but the crowd can see it’s over. There are six minutes left in the fourth quarter and the home team is down by three touchdowns. Might as well head for the parking lot.

From the current state of the world, it looks more and more like Biden’s disastrous defeat has been carefully scripted from Day One by the meritocratic Russian team, which outplayed our cross-dressing, diverse, inclusive neocon nitwits. Let us count the ways:

Biden has lost the economic war (see above). Instead of harming Russia’s economy, sanctions have only improved it, boomeranging on the U.S., which is paying an incalculable price.

Most informed commenters think the Proxy War in Ukraine is now just a matter of time before a politically-catastrophic surrender becomes necessary. Options for NATO to directly intervene in Ukraine evaporated when Iran launched its drone swarm against Israel, because the U.S. is now pinned. We can no longer commit to a major effort to save Ukraine, because we must now keep our military free for deployment to the Middle East in case a broader war breaks out. The rest of NATO must enter Ukraine without the United States. They won’t.

Russia has quietly forged alliances with all the U.S.’s most mortal enemies, and has armed them with paradigm-busting, air-defense-defeating hypersonic technology. Specifically, the Russia-Iran-China-North Korea axis now shares the ability to sink U.S. aircraft carriers, which is how the United States projects force around the world. By arming Iran and North Korea, the Russians have created other problems of regional instability for which the U.S. must now plan and must feebly attempt to contain, further distracting from our faltering Proxy War in Ukraine.

Russia’s lead in hypersonic weapons technology removes the option of nuclear war from the table, even if Biden’s deranged neocons ever thought it was an option.

Intellectual, anticommunist, and conservative commenter James Lindsay persuasively argues that DEI, which like sewer water has now seeped into every nook and crevice of our public and private institutions, is actually a long-term socio-political military strategy by our enemies, principally China, to destabilize the United States. DEI is rendering impotent our military, our government, our universities, and even our strategically-critical corporations staffed by graduates of those undermined universities (think Boeing). If James is right, and I think he is, China’s destruction-by-DEI plan is working perfectly.

The world is noticing. Yesterday, BRICS announced this on its website: “Russian Federation Council: 40 countries want to join BRICS.” Russia’s fast-growing BRICS alliance has inflicted a potentially mortal blow to American hegemony. Economists will correctly argue the dollar cannot be easily displaced. But that’s beside the point. The real threat is that Russia has given hope, a home, and a place to rally to countries long-frustrated with America’s constant post-Cold War bullying. Apparently there are a lot of frustrated countries, thanks largely to Joe Biden.

The worst thing about all this is every single one of those developments was completely predictable. Joe Biden is a human wrecking ball. His advisors are over-promoted, under-qualified DEI hires who have no idea what they are doing and are completely unprepared to compete with the Russians, who are cleaning our clock.

Biden must go. And here are seven more suggestions for what we could do to get our country safe and back on track.

We must admit we’re in a hole and stop digging.

We have to acknowledge we’ve lost, abandon the Ukraine project, and close our borders up tight. Send illegals back where they came from, or anywhere but here. Let France have them.

Support historic allies like the British (and Israel) and also stop mucking about the rest of the world. We must focus on rebuilding our own country. Rebuild our economy. Rebuild our military.

Limit the government to only a hundred classified documents a year, and require secret classifications to expire in five years.

Restore merit as the lodestar of all organized effort in America, public and private, just as it used to be. Delete victim status and grievance politics.

Restore patriotism, morality, honor, and family as central values in American life.

Enforce it by shaming and driving out of public life (lovingly and compassionately) people who advocate for bat-guano crazy ideas like the implausible notion that men can transform into women with enough surgery and medicine.

Patrick says

Speaking of things heating up, the BBC ran an article yesterday that surprised no one except the entire Biden Administration. It bore the unfortunate headline, “Russia to grow faster than all advanced economies, says IMF.” The sub-headline added, “An influential global body has forecast Russia's economy will grow faster this year than all of the world's advanced economies, including the US.”

Should I bother to dig up @socal2 comments saying that the Russian economy was collapsing?

Patrick says

Intellectual, anticommunist, and conservative commenter James Lindsay persuasively argues that DEI, which like sewer water has now seeped into every nook and crevice of our public and private institutions, is actually a long-term socio-political military strategy by our enemies, principally China, to destabilize the United States. DEI is rendering impotent our military, our government, our universities, and even our strategically-critical corporations staffed by graduates of those undermined universities (think Boeing). If James is right, and I think he is, China’s destruction-by-DEI plan is working perfectly.

Actuallly, they are doing us a favor. By speeding up the Collapse, renewal of America can thus start sooner and be faster. Cloward-Piven for MAGA.

Too bad 20,000+ sailers on the Navy will have to die. (4 carriers with 5,000 crewmembers each)

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/stiff-opposition-wednesday-april

Meanwhile, the Biden Administration is working diligently to ensure that Americans can enjoy an apocalyptic wasteland of economic woe. Forbes ran the story yesterday headlined, “U.S. Is Preparing To Sanction Chinese Banks Supporting Russia, Report Says.”

More sanctions! On China. Biden’s beef with the Orient ostensibly is a complaint that China keeps selling Russia ordinary, non-military commercial goods, which Russia has cleverly adapted to using in its war effort. And Biden wants it to stop. “Just don’t,” he mumbled, or unrecognizable words to that effect.

So, try to follow me here, the geniuses in Biden’s Administration have come up with a brilliant plan. Right as China and Russia are trying to get their own international financial system off the ground, Biden is threatening to cut off China’s banks from the U.S.’s international financial system.

The predictable result will be China accelerating its BRICS program. Is Biden trying to help BRICS replace the dollar? That’s an honest question.

Anyway, can somebody explain to me why, after sanctions worked so well with Russia, we’re looking to do the same thing to China?

Patrick says

The predictable result will be China accelerating its BRICS program. Is Biden trying to help BRICS replace the dollar? That’s an honest question.

Repeat after me:

BRICS IS BULLSHIT
BRICS IS BULLSHIT
BRICS IS BULLSHIT
BRICS IS BULLSHIT
BRICS IS BULLSHIT

Even SA, India and China formally declared at last year's BRICS confab in Johannesburg that they have no intention of replacing the USD.

Only Russia is really pushing the true BRICS mantra. As should be expected.

So anything you read that refers BRICS to sell you on a point is bullshit too.

Following the announcement about new US sanctions against Russia, one of Russian banks has changed its exchange rate drastically.

The bank will buy US dollars for 50 rubles/dollar and will sell them for 200 rubles per dollar.

https://sukwan.substack.com/p/friday-funnies-b7c

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/the-baddies-saturday-july-13-2024

Meanwhile, the rest of the world shocked geopolitical experts by responding to cratering U.S. leadership in entirely predictable ways. Bloomberg ran an irksome story Thursday headlined, “Modi’s Embrace of Putin Irks Biden Team Pushing Support for Kyiv.”



What irked, peeved, riled, and disgruntled Biden’s war planners was a photo destined to become one of those iconic pre-war images, like that happy sailor kissing a buxom nurse in Times Square after World War II. In this week’s photo, recently re-elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked happy and relieved while getting, not a kiss, but a full bear hug from the Russian Bear. In Moscow. Whew, Modi seemed to be thinking, I almost took a trip on the Hinden-Biden!

It looks like he doesn’t want to let go.

Now, as you know, I hate to criticize. But is “irked” a sufficiently strong sensation for Biden’s State Department to feel as one of the largest U.S. allies turns its back on us and embraces the RussoChinese axis? Are those State Department morons paying attention to current events? ...

China, historically unfriendly to Russia in the pre-Broccoli period, but now Russia’s closest ally, has 1.5 billion citizens. It sure looks like Biden’s neocon war experts have, through shrewd tactics and cunning strategeries, mostly by putting a guy in charge who calls the other NATO leaders “President Putin” by mistake, managed to create a Russia-India-China coalition accounting for nearly half the world’s population.

That’s a big army. But don’t worry. NATO’s arsenal of high-tech wonder weapons include more than just TikTok influencers. NATO generals, and I am not making this up, have announced record-shattering plans to someday build fabulously expensive hellscape swarms of AI drones that are infinitely more complicated and do less damage than cheap, dumb artillery shells, in which the Russians are swimming.

But listen. This is the main point. The AI drones will be built by transexual midgets with no fewer than three mixed minority parents. Check, check, check, check.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/sanctuarianism-wednesday-august-21

Two can play at the sanctuary state game. Late last week, President Putin issued a decree making Russia into a sanctuary country for people with traditional Christian values. You cannot make this stuff up; it could only happen in 2024.

In short, Putin’s decree waived certain Russian immigration requirements, such as demonstrating Russian language proficiency and passing a history test, for people applying for temporary residence permits. Applicants must come from countries “imposing destructive neoliberal ideological guidelines that contradict traditional Russian spiritual and moral values.”

Traditional Russian spiritual and moral values are anti-LGBTQ+, orthodox Christian values.

Even more entertaining, Putin ordered the Russian government to compile a list of approved countries with “destructive neoliberal values.”

Who wants to bet the United States appears prominently at the top of that list?

In classic Putin fashion, the move was not just virtue signaling. The overheated Russian economy is thirsty for skilled workers. The category of only ‘neoliberal’ countries ensures temporary workers will come from preferred, higher-income areas. The ideological character of the test causes applicants to self-select for conservatism; liberals won’t bother applying.

I wish we could do the same thing for Florida residency.

Putin has thrown down the bearskin glove and challenged the West to vote with their feet. As for me, I plan to stay and fight to the bitter end. How about you?

Lol, the "sanctions" resulted in Russian self-reliance and a booming economy in Russia.

I have to admit that this decree is a brilliant move politically, but I'm not about to give up on America or to trust Russia yet. The Russian psychology is still mired in cynical corruption, justified by the idea that "everyone does it". And they also had death jab mandates, a different kind of corruption, far more dangerous.

The first country to publicly hang everyone who mandated the death jabs will get my vote for most honorable country on earth.

https://www.rt.com/news/603014-usmanov-interview-sanctions-backfired/

Western sanctions against Russia have yielded results that are the opposite of their stated goal, metals tycoon Alisher Usmanov has said.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera on Thursday, the Russian billionaire argued that the sanctions regime has so far done more harm to the European Union countries than to Russia.

“They wanted to harm the Russian economy, and here it is growing. They wanted to punish the business elite, and the Russians brought the money back home. The Russian economy is adapting to the sanctions, while neighboring markets are suffering. Europe rejects Russian energy resources and is forced to buy them at a much higher price,” he told the publication.

EU ‘part of the conflict’ in Ukraine – BorrellEU ‘part of the conflict’ in Ukraine – BorrellREAD MORE: EU ‘part of the conflict’ in Ukraine – Borrell
Russia’s economy expanded 3.6% in 2023 despite the economic sanctions imposed by the EU, the US and their allies since the start of the special operation in Ukraine in 2022. The EU’s economic powerhouse Germany went through a recession last year, while the bloc’s other large economies, France and Italy, posted growth of under 1%.

Following the sanctions and the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline in September 2022 that led to a dramatic drop in Russia’s gas supplies to the EU, the bloc started buying liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US. According to estimates published by Russia's Energy Ministry, American LNG is 30-40% more expensive than Russian pipeline gas.

Patrick says

Russia’s economy expanded 3.6% in 2023 despite the economic sanctions imposed by the EU, the US and their allies since the start of the special operation in Ukraine in 2022.

Just like we adjusted the jobs report 800k here. All countries lie about their economics. I don't believe any of it. I go by what I see. 99.9% of Americans won't go to Russia, so they can't see it with their own eyes.

i literally don’t understand how did swamp elites got so many americans to care and hate russia out of nowhere. them 2 minutes hate rituals must have worked. monday we were thinking about work week, tuesday america transitioned into Russia hate. some like that.