I do wonder at Helmer sometimes; much of what he writes is pretty good. This might, however, be his "Seymour Hersh" moment when he becomes a Washington-narrative stooge?
After all, how many independent journalists actually have a pension? There are a few brave ones that rely on coffee cups of cash... ;-)
To be honest, with Helmer, we must wait and see if he really has been bought - or if this was just an aberration.
Independent journalists, if they are successful, have private pensions or investments. But success often means cultivating those who publish their stuff, a sort of symbiosis. Most "independent" journalists are not therefore "independent" at all -- but very dependent on publishers and also "friends". You will notice that the people who appear on Larry Johnson's site all call each other "friends". I used to belong to the Foreign Correspondent's Club in Tokyo. It was like the barrels of seawater crabs I used to see in the Tsukiji Fish market, pick up one and all the others are hanging on. They never get out of the barrel until they are eaten. They are not bad people. Some are very nice. But their opinions are not independent. They make good money as ex-pats. Many are married to Japanese. A few speak fluent Japanese (not many). It makes no difference. I have "sources" who worked in other big cities -- Hong kong, Moscow, Bangkok, the US of course. It is always the same. I am a little different. I have always been an outlier --which means that I don't "group-think" as much as most people; therefore I am regarded with a certain suspicion. For Japanese clients in government or business, that is often OK because a "gaijin" is exactly that -- an "outsider", an "outlier". My value is in NOT doing "group think"-- providing a honest -- not always "right" but more authentic analysis of things. As far as I can see, Helmer has been in Moscow a lonnnnnnnnnnnggg time -- which means he was originally part of the journalistic community there -- with which I am familiar. Eyes wide shut.
I can only say that in our time, a person who wants to think independently HAS to be an outlier. There is too much group think - and it goes from top to bottom of just about any society.
May I ask what your opinion of Larry Johnson is? I regard most of what he says as being good - with the exception of European politics where he only peddles the mainstream narrative.
Yes, I am not a regular reader but my last few encounters, a chat on Dialogue Works, one of his columns and a couple of critiques such a this, have left me feeling there is something 'off' about him, not as neutral as I normally find him. I can't really put my finger on it. I wonder if he has been got to by the 5th Column?
In a recent talk, he compared Russia's economy to Italy in accordance with Western talking points. He's smart enough to know that nominal GDP has next to nothing to do with a society's war fighting capabilities or economic sustainability, but he chose to use the talking point to make a case that the Russian economy is on the brink and *Putin* is desperate for a deal with the West to prevent the collapse of the Russian economy.
Sy Hersh got a million dollar advance to publish his hatchet job on JFK...
One thing that make me trust Helmer's honesty a little more is that he hasn't gotten on Substack or Patreon - while they are good easy for independent journalists and pundits to get a little bit of support for their projects, I suspect a lot of Sy Hersh supporters are straw and not real. It's such an easy way to run the independent media puppet theater, getting the puppets to self censor and support Bari Weiss (ie Matt Taibbi) for opaque subscriptions.
Unlike yourself Julian, I purposely avoid Helmers articles. Im well aware it's best to read from many different views on subjects to base an opinion. But for me despite him being labelled by many as yet another expert on Russian policies. In my opinion he makes half of it up as he goes along. For me after the attack upon Putins residence. The terrorist attack upon one of the military negotiating team. The amount of interviews by Lavrov. Taking a much more aggressive role. Clearly shows the hardening of the Russian side. Putin has been in the minority on the diplomatic front. Even he has been convinced now. This can only be finished on the battlefield. Sure the Russians know they're dealing with lying cheating extremists. They're trying to keep a lid on things. I do believe they've finally accepted they're going to have to have some type of direct confrontation with the West. The thing is have the Chinese realised this yet?
Per Martyanov, Russia is the only country other than the US having the capacity to produce commercial aircraft with entirely domestically sourced components. This is not only not being reported in the West, but the Western media is falsely claiming that Russia is dependent on the
West, when the process of replacing aging aircraft with "made in Russia by Russians" is underway. As Martyanov has emphasized, this is a big deal. Even China cannot do this yet and Russia withdrew from the joint venture in commercial aircraft manufacture.
I wasn't aware that the US was able to produce an aircraft with entirely domestic components. After all, much of Boeing's aircraft are made in Japan (the carbon-fibre wings and other assorted goodies). Their avionics might be wholly US, but many of the less complex chips will be made in China or Taiwan.
In his speeches and interviews, Putin has made clear that Russia cannot rely on exporting oil for cash forever and must transition to other sources of revenues. In this respect, the SVO is very useful because developing new weapons means developing new technologies, with spinoff benefits in the commercial sector. Take Teflon. It was an accidental discover, found when TFE gas polymerized into a waxy, white solid inside its container overnight. and was, was first used in the Manhattan Project for gaskets and seals to hold corrosive uranium hexafluoride. So the metallurgical advances used for Oreshnik also find application in jet engines for commercial aircraft.
Plus, they have just agreed a big deal with India for SJ-100 and MC-21 short-haul airliners (hardly a sign that they are under pressure supplying the domestic market). Is that in the bin ,too?
I have been taking Mr. Helmers writing with a generous pinch of salt for some years . He has a very strong dislike ( loathing perhaps ? ) for president Putin and this colours his column's contents . At the end of the day he writes opinion pieces .
I think this was an April Fool's joke mistakenly released for Valintine's Day and Bloomberg fell for it.
If anything it shows the level of delusional thinking in the USA. People will believe this just as people still believe in Russiagate or G. Washington and the cherry tree.
Are not Boeing themselves in trouble at the moment? According to Mentour Now (I have no idea how reliable he is), they have big problems with their new variants, not to mention their problems with those already in the air.
Isn't it amazing how stupid journalists and politicians in the West are? Am I the only one who finds newspapers like the Guardian, NYT, Bloomberg pure comedy gold? (I used to be a paid subscriber until circa 2014, but they've all gotten progressively worse, pun intended)
I honestly think this is downstream of the mass formation from the Covid era. People seem to say and write the zaniest things.
Russia has positioned itself into a winning strategy.
When the USA goes to war with Iran, what happens to Ukraine if Russia ups the tempo?
I normally avoid Helmer. His deep hatred for Putin has led to some very weird interpretations for the Kremlin decision-making process. He fixates on Putin while completely ignoring Russian domestic politics and regional geopolitics.
Then again, I do wonder why the Russian government continues to be so soft on Russian Zionists when they're a small minority of the population (much smaller than Muslims who have very significant role in the SMO and shoring up Russian's Central Asian border regions), Israel has been deeply complicit in planning and executing basically every anti-Russian action in the West (Russia-gate, ISIS in Syria, Banderites, terror tactics going back to the 1970s to force Russian Jewish emigration). This is something that gets brushed aside by "multipolarists" who typically have their own prejudices against Muslims and Western centering of the Jewish Holocaust above other concurrent and prior Western perpetrated genocides, but it strikes me as a very weird continuation of a policy that arose from Zionist oligarch dominated 1990s and early aughts
But interesting that you're citing Moon of Alabama (who does these great news title compilations that you've used to good effect here) given B's strange defenses of Epstein and Chomsky. Even if I were to believe that he's done it completely in good faith, I do wonder about the ideological blinders that led him not to see Epstein and Chomsky's role in the Western deep state. Really weird since one of his strengths was piercing through coordinated Western MSM messaging.
It's good that Ichi and Chappy explained this, and thanks for the typing, Julian. It seems that "Russia and Putin are knuckling under" is the official line right now. Of course, perfidious Putin is going to disappoint Trump & friends again and hammer 404 into the ground.
As a matter of course, a priori, it is my working assumption that the media and most mainstream journalists are dishonest in their reporting. Moreover they have gotten worse over time with the growing reliance of western governments and the Epstein Class on narrative management. If Helmer is relying on Bloomberg, the leading business publication that caters to New York and London, then he has lost all credibility. For a long time he has advocated the thesis that Putin is estranged from his generals (see his series on the electric war in the the Ukraine) despite growing evidence that this was part of wider strategy by the Russians. By persisting with this narrative it is only logical that he would eventually rely on Bloomberg's Ukrainian and western sources to spin a fable that the Russians would surrender economically to the Americans. How low have the mighty fallen.
"...do you think that Putin is willing suddenly to give up years of sacrifices and effort to build Russian economic sovereignty and multipolarity to become another American vassal state?"
Yes. The Russian leadership would gladly trade all of Russia for a gelato in Tuscany.
Lei el articulo en cuestion del Sr Helmer, tambien leo mucho a los sitios web rusos, me concentro en los menos pro occidentales (RT), en cierto que la economia rusa, comotoda economia no es perfecta, siempre hay problemas regionales, y mas en una federacion extensa comola rusa, pero la conclusion general es que, todo el mundo ruso , no se explica la presencia de Nubuillina en el Banco Central todavia, de hecho la ven como la espada mas occidental en rusia. Ahora suponer que Niubullina o cualquier otro funcionario es capaz de convencer a VVP, como si este fuera una marioneta, es pecar de inocente, por decir lo menos, Shoigu, los oligarcas, el "general armagedon" y por que no Prighozin pueden dar fe ello, bueno Prigo, no creo que este en condiciones...... Si creo que VVP, como buen Judoka y estratega a largo plazo que es, mantiene todas las opciones sobre el tablero, es lo logico, entiendo que pensando a largo plazo rusia no puede continuar con este tipo de economia, ni de problemas causados por occidente en el plano economico y financiero, debe buscar soluciones que permitan el crecimiento a largo plazo y a veces una media solucion estrategica es mejor que una excelente solucion tactica. Da la impresion de que el Sr Helmer como muchos periodistas que no estan de acuerdo en como se comporta occidente, proyecto sus opiniones y pensamientos en VVP, olvidando que VVP es ante todo ruso, algo que ningun extranjero por mas que viva en rusia puede entender, por que es algo espiritual, en rusia esta el dicho de que " Rusia debe contener a Occidente pero debe cuidarse de Oriente" creo que eso lo resume todo
I do wonder at Helmer sometimes; much of what he writes is pretty good. This might, however, be his "Seymour Hersh" moment when he becomes a Washington-narrative stooge?
After all, how many independent journalists actually have a pension? There are a few brave ones that rely on coffee cups of cash... ;-)
To be honest, with Helmer, we must wait and see if he really has been bought - or if this was just an aberration.
Independent journalists, if they are successful, have private pensions or investments. But success often means cultivating those who publish their stuff, a sort of symbiosis. Most "independent" journalists are not therefore "independent" at all -- but very dependent on publishers and also "friends". You will notice that the people who appear on Larry Johnson's site all call each other "friends". I used to belong to the Foreign Correspondent's Club in Tokyo. It was like the barrels of seawater crabs I used to see in the Tsukiji Fish market, pick up one and all the others are hanging on. They never get out of the barrel until they are eaten. They are not bad people. Some are very nice. But their opinions are not independent. They make good money as ex-pats. Many are married to Japanese. A few speak fluent Japanese (not many). It makes no difference. I have "sources" who worked in other big cities -- Hong kong, Moscow, Bangkok, the US of course. It is always the same. I am a little different. I have always been an outlier --which means that I don't "group-think" as much as most people; therefore I am regarded with a certain suspicion. For Japanese clients in government or business, that is often OK because a "gaijin" is exactly that -- an "outsider", an "outlier". My value is in NOT doing "group think"-- providing a honest -- not always "right" but more authentic analysis of things. As far as I can see, Helmer has been in Moscow a lonnnnnnnnnnnggg time -- which means he was originally part of the journalistic community there -- with which I am familiar. Eyes wide shut.
I can only say that in our time, a person who wants to think independently HAS to be an outlier. There is too much group think - and it goes from top to bottom of just about any society.
May I ask what your opinion of Larry Johnson is? I regard most of what he says as being good - with the exception of European politics where he only peddles the mainstream narrative.
Yes, I am not a regular reader but my last few encounters, a chat on Dialogue Works, one of his columns and a couple of critiques such a this, have left me feeling there is something 'off' about him, not as neutral as I normally find him. I can't really put my finger on it. I wonder if he has been got to by the 5th Column?
In a recent talk, he compared Russia's economy to Italy in accordance with Western talking points. He's smart enough to know that nominal GDP has next to nothing to do with a society's war fighting capabilities or economic sustainability, but he chose to use the talking point to make a case that the Russian economy is on the brink and *Putin* is desperate for a deal with the West to prevent the collapse of the Russian economy.
I would agree with you in part; up until a few months ago, Helmer was pretty sharp. But then, so was Seymour Hersh.
Helmer is still spot on when it comes to shipping - but that is his daily bread.
Sy Hersh got a million dollar advance to publish his hatchet job on JFK...
One thing that make me trust Helmer's honesty a little more is that he hasn't gotten on Substack or Patreon - while they are good easy for independent journalists and pundits to get a little bit of support for their projects, I suspect a lot of Sy Hersh supporters are straw and not real. It's such an easy way to run the independent media puppet theater, getting the puppets to self censor and support Bari Weiss (ie Matt Taibbi) for opaque subscriptions.
There is no way Putin CAN agree to this nonsense. If he did he would be cutting his own throat.
Unlike yourself Julian, I purposely avoid Helmers articles. Im well aware it's best to read from many different views on subjects to base an opinion. But for me despite him being labelled by many as yet another expert on Russian policies. In my opinion he makes half of it up as he goes along. For me after the attack upon Putins residence. The terrorist attack upon one of the military negotiating team. The amount of interviews by Lavrov. Taking a much more aggressive role. Clearly shows the hardening of the Russian side. Putin has been in the minority on the diplomatic front. Even he has been convinced now. This can only be finished on the battlefield. Sure the Russians know they're dealing with lying cheating extremists. They're trying to keep a lid on things. I do believe they've finally accepted they're going to have to have some type of direct confrontation with the West. The thing is have the Chinese realised this yet?
Helmer did some excellent reporting on the Skripals. He is better on UK matters than Russia....LOL
Per Martyanov, Russia is the only country other than the US having the capacity to produce commercial aircraft with entirely domestically sourced components. This is not only not being reported in the West, but the Western media is falsely claiming that Russia is dependent on the
West, when the process of replacing aging aircraft with "made in Russia by Russians" is underway. As Martyanov has emphasized, this is a big deal. Even China cannot do this yet and Russia withdrew from the joint venture in commercial aircraft manufacture.
I wasn't aware that the US was able to produce an aircraft with entirely domestic components. After all, much of Boeing's aircraft are made in Japan (the carbon-fibre wings and other assorted goodies). Their avionics might be wholly US, but many of the less complex chips will be made in China or Taiwan.
In his speeches and interviews, Putin has made clear that Russia cannot rely on exporting oil for cash forever and must transition to other sources of revenues. In this respect, the SVO is very useful because developing new weapons means developing new technologies, with spinoff benefits in the commercial sector. Take Teflon. It was an accidental discover, found when TFE gas polymerized into a waxy, white solid inside its container overnight. and was, was first used in the Manhattan Project for gaskets and seals to hold corrosive uranium hexafluoride. So the metallurgical advances used for Oreshnik also find application in jet engines for commercial aircraft.
This is incorrect. Japan and Russia supply US with at least 25% of every Boeing produced. Like all machined titanium parts electronics etc..
Plus, they have just agreed a big deal with India for SJ-100 and MC-21 short-haul airliners (hardly a sign that they are under pressure supplying the domestic market). Is that in the bin ,too?
I have been taking Mr. Helmers writing with a generous pinch of salt for some years . He has a very strong dislike ( loathing perhaps ? ) for president Putin and this colours his column's contents . At the end of the day he writes opinion pieces .
Isn't everything "opinion"? Oh ...wait. I don't write "opinion" - I write "truth" LOL
I read you for your opinions, but they are well judged opinions nevertheless. I appreciate the varying shadows you cast on current affairs.
I think this was an April Fool's joke mistakenly released for Valintine's Day and Bloomberg fell for it.
If anything it shows the level of delusional thinking in the USA. People will believe this just as people still believe in Russiagate or G. Washington and the cherry tree.
Are not Boeing themselves in trouble at the moment? According to Mentour Now (I have no idea how reliable he is), they have big problems with their new variants, not to mention their problems with those already in the air.
Schryver is on the money.
Isn't it amazing how stupid journalists and politicians in the West are? Am I the only one who finds newspapers like the Guardian, NYT, Bloomberg pure comedy gold? (I used to be a paid subscriber until circa 2014, but they've all gotten progressively worse, pun intended)
I honestly think this is downstream of the mass formation from the Covid era. People seem to say and write the zaniest things.
Russia has positioned itself into a winning strategy.
When the USA goes to war with Iran, what happens to Ukraine if Russia ups the tempo?
Schryver is always "on the money". He and Berletic. But they are NOT among Larry's "friends"!
Yes, the three of you are. Larry is not alt media. He's mainstream alt media.
Helmer analysis talent has gone to hell.. blackmail?
I normally avoid Helmer. His deep hatred for Putin has led to some very weird interpretations for the Kremlin decision-making process. He fixates on Putin while completely ignoring Russian domestic politics and regional geopolitics.
Then again, I do wonder why the Russian government continues to be so soft on Russian Zionists when they're a small minority of the population (much smaller than Muslims who have very significant role in the SMO and shoring up Russian's Central Asian border regions), Israel has been deeply complicit in planning and executing basically every anti-Russian action in the West (Russia-gate, ISIS in Syria, Banderites, terror tactics going back to the 1970s to force Russian Jewish emigration). This is something that gets brushed aside by "multipolarists" who typically have their own prejudices against Muslims and Western centering of the Jewish Holocaust above other concurrent and prior Western perpetrated genocides, but it strikes me as a very weird continuation of a policy that arose from Zionist oligarch dominated 1990s and early aughts
But interesting that you're citing Moon of Alabama (who does these great news title compilations that you've used to good effect here) given B's strange defenses of Epstein and Chomsky. Even if I were to believe that he's done it completely in good faith, I do wonder about the ideological blinders that led him not to see Epstein and Chomsky's role in the Western deep state. Really weird since one of his strengths was piercing through coordinated Western MSM messaging.
Bloomberg, WSJ, NYT, WaPo, … trial ballon kings mostly to keep their sheepish readership in their “we are (still) #1” dream.
It's good that Ichi and Chappy explained this, and thanks for the typing, Julian. It seems that "Russia and Putin are knuckling under" is the official line right now. Of course, perfidious Putin is going to disappoint Trump & friends again and hammer 404 into the ground.
Drs Ichi and Chappy are publishing their book on Predictive History. They call it Predictive Kibble.
Good Sensing Master Julian...
Cassandra
As a matter of course, a priori, it is my working assumption that the media and most mainstream journalists are dishonest in their reporting. Moreover they have gotten worse over time with the growing reliance of western governments and the Epstein Class on narrative management. If Helmer is relying on Bloomberg, the leading business publication that caters to New York and London, then he has lost all credibility. For a long time he has advocated the thesis that Putin is estranged from his generals (see his series on the electric war in the the Ukraine) despite growing evidence that this was part of wider strategy by the Russians. By persisting with this narrative it is only logical that he would eventually rely on Bloomberg's Ukrainian and western sources to spin a fable that the Russians would surrender economically to the Americans. How low have the mighty fallen.
Helmer's opinions on Putin are clearly influenced by "old friends" in Moscow, who didn't like Putin in the 90s and still don't. OLD friends.
"...do you think that Putin is willing suddenly to give up years of sacrifices and effort to build Russian economic sovereignty and multipolarity to become another American vassal state?"
Yes. The Russian leadership would gladly trade all of Russia for a gelato in Tuscany.
Lei el articulo en cuestion del Sr Helmer, tambien leo mucho a los sitios web rusos, me concentro en los menos pro occidentales (RT), en cierto que la economia rusa, comotoda economia no es perfecta, siempre hay problemas regionales, y mas en una federacion extensa comola rusa, pero la conclusion general es que, todo el mundo ruso , no se explica la presencia de Nubuillina en el Banco Central todavia, de hecho la ven como la espada mas occidental en rusia. Ahora suponer que Niubullina o cualquier otro funcionario es capaz de convencer a VVP, como si este fuera una marioneta, es pecar de inocente, por decir lo menos, Shoigu, los oligarcas, el "general armagedon" y por que no Prighozin pueden dar fe ello, bueno Prigo, no creo que este en condiciones...... Si creo que VVP, como buen Judoka y estratega a largo plazo que es, mantiene todas las opciones sobre el tablero, es lo logico, entiendo que pensando a largo plazo rusia no puede continuar con este tipo de economia, ni de problemas causados por occidente en el plano economico y financiero, debe buscar soluciones que permitan el crecimiento a largo plazo y a veces una media solucion estrategica es mejor que una excelente solucion tactica. Da la impresion de que el Sr Helmer como muchos periodistas que no estan de acuerdo en como se comporta occidente, proyecto sus opiniones y pensamientos en VVP, olvidando que VVP es ante todo ruso, algo que ningun extranjero por mas que viva en rusia puede entender, por que es algo espiritual, en rusia esta el dicho de que " Rusia debe contener a Occidente pero debe cuidarse de Oriente" creo que eso lo resume todo