patrick.net

I bet the US would not allow them to do that no matter what, proving that they are mere vassal states even now.

I'm just asking whether Japan and Germany would be allowed to remove US bases.

I'm guessing they have no choice and are thus not really independent countries.

Patrick says

I'm just asking whether Japan and Germany would be allowed to remove US bases.

I'm guessing they have no choice and are thus not really independent countries.

They can. In the end those bases can only exist there with native support.

It appears that the Ministry of Propaganda has grown tired of 'reporting' on the Ukraine/Russian war.

It appears that the Ministry of Propaganda has grown tired of 'reporting' on the Ukraine/Russian war.

I don't seem to see any more of those Ukraine flags flying everywhere,

I don't seem to see any more of those Ukraine flags flying everywhere, but maybe that's just in my area. What about where you live?

RayAmerica says

I don't seem to see any more of those Ukraine flags flying everywhere, but maybe that's just in my area. What about where you live?

RayAmerica I don't see them in my area either, except maybe on a random house that still has its BLM decorations up too.

The Economist ran a screamer today - claiming, two years in, that the Russians are going to run out of artillery gun barrels any day now because of tube wear, because some idiot told them they only produce one new barrel per week - so let's run the numbers.

Artillery barrel wear is measured in "Effective Full Charges" - basically the amount of wear on the barrel that you can expect if you fire a standard round at full charge. Firing at a reduced charge would decrease it, while firing at a "super" charge will increase it. Cannon barrels are generally good for around 2000 EFCs before they wear out of spec.

Assuming that all rounds fired in theater are fired at full charge, and that the Russians fire 20,000 rounds per day on average, this breaks down to a requirement for ten new gun barrels daily. According to, uh... the Economist's own article, the Russians have at least two artillery barrel foundries, so meeting this requirement would seem to me to be trivial - although I know it might surprise some of my readers in the West to learn that a Soviet gigafactory can in fact produce multiple pieces of a given steel product daily.

Except the Economist's case actually gets worse because artillery barrels often don't need to be replaced completely, they just need to be bored out and relined - a process that's considerably less resource-intensive than manufacturing a new barrel.

There's this ridiculous analytical cottage industry of taking some production figure for Russian war materiel gleaned at the bottom of the 1990s, assuming it's unchanged under wartime conditions in 2024, and using it to say This Is How Ukraine Can Still Win.

For lack of a better term, it's cope.

Russia have detained the terrorists.

They are singing like canaries. They claim they were recruited on Telegram to commit the attack in exchange for money.

Putin himself claims that Ukraine tried to assist the terrorists into Ukraine after the attack.

It’s clear some organized entity used patsies as proxy to carry out the attack. Textbook CIA behavior. Combined with Ukraine trying to assist the terrorist in their escape… the evidence would strongly suggest this attack was organized by Western Intelligence.

Whether that be Ukraine, CIA, MI6, Mossad, or some other Western entity, they all serve the same globalist masters, and share the same goal of defeating Russia by any means necessary.

Regardless of what the truth is, Putin is going to have a response. He claims Ukraine, and all those who assisted, will pay a heavy price.

The Economist ran a screamer today

Regardless of what the truth is, Putin is going to have a response. He claims Ukraine, and all those who assisted, will pay a heavy price.

Patrick seems to be wobbling between believing that radical Islam is a fundamentalist retrograde force facing humanity that needs to be countered - then slides back to its all the work of the Jews and the CIA!

Why do you think this is a dichotomy, that it has to be one or the other?

I do also think there is a lot of Jewish hatred for Russia, and this goes back a long way. For example, Jacob Schiff financed Japan in the Russo-Japanese war.

Jacob Schiff financed Japan in the Russo-Japanese war.

Whatever else you think about the Russians, they are not dumb bunnies. You can be sure they are carefully putting together the puzzle pieces, having already been careful to take the suspects alive. They were, incidentally, all in one car driving toward the Ukraine border when apprehended by Russian police. That is being considered “a clue” as to who their handlers are. But then, who is Ukraine’s handler? (Cue: thinking music.)

At least one of them — Fariduni — confessed that his gang received all their instructions over a Telegram social media channel. The gang, by the way, were all natives of Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic. Its population is 98 percent Muslim, around 97 percent of them Sunni and 3 percent Shia. Neighboring Iran is militantly Shia, for what it’s worth. The four Crocus perps were living as immigrant workers in Russia. How hard would it be to track who was the proprietor of the alleged Telegram messaging site that offered payment and sent orders to the perps? I’m guessing that would not be so difficult.

Russia Retaliation Strike Sends Hypersonic Missiles Into Kiev

Building Used by Security Service of Ukraine SBU Is Leveled