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Russian Artillery--Battle of Berlin, Spring 1945
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OH Wait! I forgot. There’s
another war going on in Eastern Europe...that Ukraine thingy. It is interesting
in the last couple of months to see how mixed Western leaders and mainstream media have
become around prognosticating what Ukraine’s chances are for success in the war against Russia. A growing number of analysts suggest that the
best Ukrainians can hope for is some kind of stalemate, with the lines of
contact frozen, something akin to the Korean DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) model. That’s a best-case
scenario. Chances are, Ukraine will have to accept far worse, the longer the
conflict continues.
OTHERS feel Ukraine may go on the
defensive and develop asymmetric warfare tactics (long-range drones, missiles,
sabotage, pinprick strikes behind Russian lines) as its primary method of
operation. But bigwigs like the American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, NATO chief Stoltenberg,
and EU President Ursula von der Leyen still
believe in magic and achieving the impossible, when stating yet again that Ukraine
can carry on its fight against Russia as long as it’s given enough money and armaments. Meanwhile, French President Macron
blows hot and cold around the idea of sending French forces into Odessa to
discourage Russia from attacking the famous Black Sea port. Of all the dangerous, dumfuk
ideas! And ridiculous (as in it ain't gonna happen). In Brussels last week, Stoltenberg, Blinken
and American Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, tiresomely reaffirmed their commitment to
bring Ukraine into NATO, ignoring Russia’s red lines and its demand that Ukraine becomes a neutral country and never joins NATO.
BUT lesser minds think alike: Stoltenberg
et al are banging on for the EU to pony up 100 billion bucks to be set aside in a slush fund
to finance Ukraine’s war efforts into 2025 and beyond and, in addition have those
greenbacks locked into NATO’s budget just in case Trump wins the presidency
in November (and acts to end the war and scale back U.S. commitment to the 75-year old military alliance). To finance this boondoggle effort, Stoltenberg
suggests the EU and U.S. steal confiscate Russian central bank assets on
deposit and “frozen” in West since 2022 when Russia invaded
Ukraine. However, such a potentially disastrous action is deemed unlikely.😨 FINANCING the Ukrainian war effort is becoming less palatable for Europeans now that American funding commitments have been held up in Congress and U.S. attention is turning toward Israel and the Gaza horror show. As a sign of their desperation, EU leadership has even floated the idea of borrowing money in international money markets for Ukraine. Throwing good money after bad and adopting policies to further provoke
Russia seems the modus operandi these days.
OF COURSE:
👉Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was
illegal under international law, but it was not an unprovoked attack, as many politicians and MSM talking heads will suggest. For years, Russian officials warned the West that bringing Ukraine
into NATO was a red line for them. Yet our foolish officials continued to insist
that was their intention, come hell or high water. Just last week, American Secretary of State Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made mouth noises underscoring their commitment to this
foolishly provocative and wholly unnecessary goal. Of course, the real goal was
to “weaken Russia", not save Ukraine (and never mind how many Ukrainians have to die in the process).
👉Ukraine has already lost.
It is a dead man walking. Inertia, additional funding, and policies pursued by errant knaves in Kiev
and Washington can keep it going for a while, but some analysts suggest Ukraine's
battered army may not last the summer. The war-ravaged country is out of weapons, out of manpower and out of time.
👉Contrary to public opinion, the
Russian military is no “Potemkin” construct. It
is robust and growing. Recently, it created a fifth military district, the “Leningrad
District”, to address the security threat posed along its western and northern borders by
the new NATO idiots members, Norway and Sweden. Plans to create a
1.5-million-man army are on schedule, with a significant number of volunteers
joining the ranks each month.
👉Its weapons industries manufacture
military equipment, missiles, bombs, artillery shells, tanks, drones, etc., on a scale multiples greater than the entire West’s military production
capabilities combined.
👉If the recent terrorist attack on
Moscow’s Crocus City Hall, killing nearly 140 concert goers and that ISIS now takes
credit, was found to have been formulated or supported by Ukrainian intelligence
services or Britain’s MI6 or even the CIA, then the repercussions could be deadly
if Russia chooses to launch reprisal attacks.
👉Unless Ukraine bids for peace now
it could well lose Kharkiv and Odessa and their surrounding territories, leaving it a
land-locked and dysfunctional rump state on the ass end of Europe.
👉In a recent meeting with Belarusian president Lukashenko, Putin laid out Russia's position on key points necessary to end its Special Military Operation in Ukraine:
👌The "Istanbul Agreement" of 2022 Between Kiev and Moscow that was sabotaged by former British PM Boris Johnson, can be a starting point for future talks, "but a number of new realities have emerged in two years," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Significant modifications and additions to the original proposal are necessary to craft an 'Istanbul Plus' treaty. "But realities [i.e., four eastern Ukrainian oblasts and Crimea are now part of Russia. That's non-negotiable. Ed.] have to be taken into account." 👌No NATO. Ukraine must be neutral, like Austria, with a limited size for its army, post-conflict.
👌"De-Nazify" Ukraine through the enactment of new laws.
👌It must accept security guarantees from Russia.
👌Russia will have veto power over any foreign troop presence in Ukraine.
👉Moscow does not think Ukraine or the West will consider Istanbul Plus a basis for negotiation, but Putin laid down his markers. It should be noted that Zelensky is presenting his completely unworkable (as far as the Russians are concerned) 10-point plan at a major "Peace" conference in Switzerland in June. Russia was not invited. How they expect this to work when two years of sanctions and warfare have only strengthened Russia, is anybody's guess. And what's the point of such a gathering when the other side isn't there to negotiate?😕
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Paris Peace Conference, 1919
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👉Western intransigence means Ukraine's fate will be determined on the battlefield, not around the negotiating table.
👉Russia has the world’s largest
stockpile of nuclear weapons. Something to keep in mind.
FUN FACT#1—Palestinians living in northern
Gaza, several hundred thousand, where much of the infrastructure and homes have
been destroyed, making the enclave there more like a moonscape or something
from a post-Apocalyptic movie, have adopted the “Gazan Diet” as part of their
health and fitness regimes. Starvation, make no bones about it, is the
timeless weight-loss method guaranteed (you heard me!) to drop
those unwanted pounds and inches in record time.
FROM the famines of early Rome to
the “Volcanic winter” of 535-536 that affected food production globally,
[Sorry, no stats on this one. Ed.] to the climatically impacted famines experienced
by the Mayan peoples of Central America, where decades-long droughts killed an
estimated 1,000,000, to the many, many famines and micro-famines
occurring in Europe and elsewhere throughout our shared millenniums including, more recently, the Russian
famine* of 1601-03 that killed 1/3 of the population, famine has proven it is
the number one diet to win the battle of the bulge. There are perennial favourites like the Irish
Potato Famine of 1844-49, the 1876-78 Indian famines (est. 5.5 million), and
Ukraine’s “Holodomor” (3 to 5 million in 1931-32). Of course, the record holder
is Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward” social
engineering faux pas, during which an estimated 15 to 55 million Chinese
died of starvation. Honorable mention goes to the “Holodomor”,
of course.
TODAY, we turn our attention to
Gaza Strip where Oxfam reports that Palestinians
in the northern half of the enclave receive 245 calories per day+ or
less than 12% of an average diet. (Hell! My burger’s condiments have
more calories than that!) And Gazans in Rafah and in the southern zone currently
receive “just 41 per cent of the
daily calories needed per person.”
By all accounts, Israelis are
doing a bang-up job assisting Palestinians with their diets. It remains to be
seen, in the coming weeks and months, whether the Gazan Diet will be
up to snuff in the starvation stats. The Holodomor killed an estimated
13% of the Ukrainian population. A ‘back-of-the-napkin’ calculation gets us a hefty 336,000 deaths that the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza must tote up
if they want to beat Ukraine’s record. Granted, they have a long row to hoe, but with the
IDF’s (Israeli Defense Force) help, through its blockades, killing of aid workers,
closing food distribution networks, destroying infrastructure, homes, and
croplands, those perky residents of the Gaza Strip have a shot at topping
Ukraine’s death-by-starvation numbers, and to drop those unwanted pounds
permanently.
AS AN ASIDE, Jonathan Swift’s 1729
“A Modest Proposal”, while dealing primarily
with the issue of poverty in Ireland, and suggesting the Irish poor sell
their children as a food source to the wealthy (no need mentioning how the Irish
breed like rabbits—then and now!), it goes without saying that Gaza, with nearly
half its population under the age of 18, would be well advised to consider Swift’s proposal as a way of solving both their impoverishment issues, and at the same time maintaining healthy protein levels with a steady supply of meat at hand. Cannibalism is
not the exclusive domain of the rich!
FUN FACT#2 PEOPLE ARE
FUNNY—It seems
just about every other day there are reports of a school shooting somewhere in
the United States (and, though rarer, here in Canada, as well). “Soft
targets.” That’s what they call places like schools, churches, community
buildings, in other words places that cannot monitor and identify every threat coming
their way. No matter how advanced today's security systems are there’s one thing they
can’t do: They can’t read people’s minds.
For example, the smiling scholar stepping to the
podium to get his diploma might carry a samurai sword beneath his robes as he
prepares to lop off his professor’s head over some imagined grievance. The
“ugly duckling”, teased for years by her classmates, might carry a
semi-automatic handgun in her frumpy, unstylish gym bag, all set to murder the
sorority queens as they shower after cheer-leading practice.
HARM can come to your child from ‘mad
hatters’ with blades or ticking time-bombs in lunchpails. And guns, of course. Guns
are a part of the culture and are everywhere in the lower forty-eight with over
393 million firearms thought to be in the possession by Americans. It goes
without saying that some gun owners are bad apples. Some are loons and even terrorists.
All it takes is the slightest pull on the trigger to release chaos and harm
upon those we love, particularly our children. Our precious ones live safe and
sheltered in their homes, under their parents’ watchful eyes. But what happens
to them on the walk to school? During recess? In the classroom? How can we
prevent our children from becoming statistics in police reports—dead, in black
and white. THAT’S WHY my heart skipped a
beat when I read about guns designed for children.
I REMEMBER, back in the day, watching the
movie, “Old Yeller”, waiting for the scene when young Travis Coates, tears
streaming down his face, uses his 22-rifle to put down his beloved, but now
rabid, pet dog. I don’t know if the rifle he used to kill “Old Yeller” was adult-sized
or a smaller version—I couldn’t see through my tear-blurred eyes. Fast forward
a few decades and gun makers have given us a remarkable solution: protection that
comes in a range of firearms, from handguns to long rifles, even semi-automatics, that are designed in size and operability
with children in mind. What an important
development in gun design and personal safety! Providing functional, easy to use
handguns and rifles for our children, arming them
so they can be safe from the random violence and mayhem so prevalent in our modern world.
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Note the orange safety zip-tie trigger guard
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IT’S SIMPLE—train and school our
children how to use real weapons to defend themselves. Help pass “Carry
Concealed” laws in every state (and province!). LOWER age restrictions for possessing
a weapon. “How young?” Some ask. I say: how young is too young when the lives of our children are at
stake?
IS YOUR CHILD starting school
next year? Are they heading into the world, away from the safety of their home
to learn the “3 Rs”? Well, it’s high time they learned a fourth, namely Rifle!
Give them the proper tools and let them learn how and when to use them. Safety
and security in their knapsacks or in quick response, open-carry holsters. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!
Cheers, Jake. ______________________________________
* “If only,” I hear reader’s saying.
“If only it could have been worse, then we wouldn’t have all the trouble
we have now with those damn Reds!” If wishes were calories, we'd all be "Mr. Creosote."
+ Israelis are efficient in their
blockade methods. For example, after 2007 Israel imposed a blockade of Gaza
following the election of Hamas as the enclave’s government. Gaza was then walled-off
(remaining sequestered to this day) while Israeli officials clamped down on
imports, even calculating the minimum calories
Gazans needed for survival, and limiting food imports accordingly. In 2010,
they had to ease their blockade somewhat following the disastrous Mavi Mamara incident during the “Gaza Freedom Convoy” which sought (unsuccessfully) to bring food and supplies into the Palestinian
territory by ship.
