Dear Vlad, I regard you as a friend – since we share similar interests like judo, martial arts love of animals and stuff like that. I know you're busy – so I forgive you for not writing or calling or even posting photos of your breakfast on Facebook for me, like my other friends do — or would do if I had any other friends .
No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it.
Fabulous Julian. You’ve outdone yourself. Keep up the good work and don’t sweat the small stuff. We’ll all read your next article whenever it pops up in our inbox. Big hugs for Itchi.
"Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye. Miyamoto Musashi"
Today's Duran, with Mercouris, Diesen and Crooke talks at length about how difficult it must be for Russia to bear the weight of the world; the West is worse than Python's Black Knight. It leaves me in deep despair because I feel I do perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye. A shamanic understanding.
> Russia and China are establishing themselves as rational actors – not just rational but principled.
Nobody can authoritatively know this, Julian. It would be more accurate to state that this is how they are successfully projecting themselves, in contrast to the United States and it's dead-end "rules" and "order".
This is the best e-begging I have ever experienced. It worked on me. Subbing now.
> Microsoft crashing my system every day or two.
There is a free alternative, of many flavours and varieties. It is called Linux. Yes, even an old sperg like you is capable of learning to use it, especially since you show no apparent signs of cognitive decline.
I have used it before -- Mint, Opensuse, Manjaro-- loved them all. I was using Ghostspectre Win10-- (modded) which worked fine until I accidentally let MS "update" it. When I get time, I will install Linus and run Windows programs in a virtual machine.
Cool. BTW, I have tried twice to upgrade to a paid sub in the past 14-15 hours since reading your post, and both times I get an error that looks like an API error from Substack's payment processor. Could you please have a look and see what's up? It's not an issue with my card, am a paid sub to half a dozen other publications on this platform.
I realise that Westerners often know no better and frequently use "Vlad" when referring to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, but "Vlad" is not a friendly, diminutive form of "Vladimir". "Vlad" is a friendly diminutive of the name Vladislav. The name "Vladimir" is never shortened to "Vlad". The friendly forms of Vladimir are are Volodya and its variants with diminutive suffixes: Volodka, Volodyenka; Vova and its diminutive suffixes: Vovka, Vovochka; Vovchik and Vovan. Russians often ask me why Americans always call Putin "Vlad". Apart from the fact that "Vlad" does not mean "Vladimir", unless he were a close friend and speaking to him in private, a Russian would never publicly refer to the Russian head of state using the diminutive form of his name, as Americans do when referring to their president as "Joe".
Thank you for this. I didn't know, of course. And it is important that I learn these things. Of course, the "conceit" of my "letter" is that Putin and I are close friends and talking in private. What would Putin prefer his close friends to call him,
America was supposed to be an experiment shuttering out the royal old world with it's titles, and diminutives for a more egalitarian country and our addresses always reflected such "Ike" "the Gipper" "Joe" or FJB etc even if the experiment failed we pretend we are all casual and the same.. Even the Elites pretend who dress in hard hats and cowboy boots on campaign trail.
Most of the British do the same with their "royalty", though not with the monarch, so they never called Elizabeth II "Betty" or the present King of Great Britain "Charlie", but encouraged by the media they play this silly game in the UK of using the friendly diminutives of the names of other members of the royal family, hence "Kate Middleton" for the Princess of Wales, and her husband the Prince of Wales is often referred to as "Wills", and his brother as "Prince Harry". This familiarity is encouraged by Royal Family Inc. so as to give the impression that even though members of the royal family are by definition socially superior to the common folk, they are the monarchists' friends. Well of course they are: the monarchists allow the "royals" to live according to their manner born.
Yeah, so do I — and I was one Queen Elizabeth's so-called "subjects". They scrapped the demeaning term "subject", I think, when the UK joined the EU, so now I am a British citizen in exile in Darkest Mordor and Chuck Windsor is my "King". I have never been a monarchist, nor were my father and grandfathers.
But there have been no aristocratic titles in Russia since 1917. Putin is not Lord Vladimir, Prince Vladimir, Grand Duke Vladimir etc: he is officially President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Addressing him politely and formally, one would say "Vladimir Vladimirovich", and more informally, simply as "Vladimir". Only if one has a friendly relationship or kinship with someone whose given-name is "Vladimir", would one use those diminutives that I listed above. Furthermore, some Russian given-name diminutives — especially those with a "k" in them — may sound impudent, cheeky or mocking. My son's name is Vladimir; I never address him as "Vladimir": for me, he is always my Vova; sometimes, though, I call him "Volodya". However, when he was a little boy and was, say, fooling around in the bedroom rather than going to sleep, I would say: "Vovochka! What are you doing? Turn out the light and go to sleep!"
How to address Russians formally, informally and intimately is a bugbear for native English speakers because in Russian there are no cognates for "Mr.", "Mrs." "Miss", and "Ms". Russians just say "man", "woman", "girl", "boy" or "lad", or "young man", "young woman". And for all elderly people "granddad" or "grandma". And children call all adult, but not elderly, men "uncle" and adult, but not elderly, women "auntie". I have lived in Moscow for 31 years and every Russian non-acquaintance here has long addressed me most respectfully as "granddad". In Imperial Russia there were aristocratic titles, which, of course, have long gone. The strange thing is, however, that Russians sometimes address foreign males as "gospodin", which means "lord"! Occasionally I am sometimes addressed this way by Russians who know that I am a foreigner because they know my family name - so "gospodin Smeet" would be be a Russian equivalent of "Mr. Smith", although some Russians have taken to saying "meester" or "mister" when addressing native English-speaking men. It is not rude in Russian to say, for example "Excuse me man" or: "Excuse me woman" when addressing an unknown man or woman in order to get information, e.g. (literally) "Excuse me man, can you not tell me where the metro station is", whereas in English, one would say: "Excuse me, sir ..." or: "Excuse me ma'am ..." etc. All Russians have a given name and a name, their patronymic, derived from their fathers' names. Vladimir Putin's father was also called "Vladimir", hence Putin's full name is Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and using that full name is the formal way of addressing a man or woman in Russian. Less formally, one uses just the name and patronymic; informally — just the name; and then there are numerous, very informal, friendly diminutives of the person's name. I, like Putin, was named after my father. My name is also quite common in Russian. Russians do not have middle names. I have a middle name, but it is not my father's name of course, as I was named after him. My middle name is Michael, so Russians often mistakenly believe that my father's name was Michael. My father's name was Dennis - Денис in Russian - so in order to avoid confusion, I tell Russians that I am "Denis Denisovich" - Денис Денисович - which combination is again not unusual in Russia, and because of this, many Russians think that I have Russian forebears who emigrated West. My son's name is Vladimir, my elder daughter is called Yelena, and my younger daughter - Aleksandra, hence they are formally addressed as Vladimir Denisovich, Yelena Denisovna, Aleksandra Denisovna - but I just call them Vova, Lena, and Sasha. And my very informal name is "Deniska" - Дениска - or "Deniskins" in English. However, addressing a Russian "Denis" as "Deniska" might sound impudent or cheeky, because "Deniska" is how you would address a little boy called Denis.
Probably my favourite was your re-analysis of the English system of tenses in the light of German and Russian verb moods. After reading it, I understood for the first time how the swopping over of "shall" and "will" between first person sentences and second/third person sentences, according to presence or absence of emphasis, was a natural outcome of the verb system. Previously I had thought we had to just accept it as a lexical oddity.
I remember being mightily impressed, but I have lost the article and can't actually remember the details of your analysis. Is there a reference to your explanation of your theory anywhere that I could follow up?
Let me add one more question to your list. Why offer a peace deal now when Zelensky’s legitimacy as President of Ukraine is no longer recognised in Russia? Who is supposed to sign the deal?
Zelensky was nobody even before. There was and is American dictation. The EU is also humiliated by the Americans, and the EU cannot do anything either. For the EU, the only solution is to pay off the debts of the Ukrainians.
It's a matter of style. Some people try to get reality by reading between the lines and connecting dots, some people read chicken entrails, and others just swipe whatever floats by in a butterfly net.
That's a very optimist view. I think Vlad may just get us all killed. Putin’s limited drawn-out war has enabled the West to get more and more involved into the conflict to the point that the conflict now is really between the West and Russia. West’s prestige is now involved and the West cannot permit Russia to prevail.
Serbia’s President Aleksander Vucic, Hungary's Viktor Orban as does Slovakian president Robert Fico say that WW3 is coming and they should know they sit in on the meetings. (scroll down to the 5 min video)
Then again, are there any LeMay disciples still in DC? I think there are many times when it would be most efficient to use nuclear weapons. However, the public opinion in this country and throughout the world throw up their hands in horror when you mention nuclear weapons, just because of the propaganda that's been fed to them.
Perhaps? From my perspective we are witnessing the last desperate gasps of the Globalists to establish their New World Order. They are DOOMED. Rule 1, on page I of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow". Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. That is the first rule. I do not know whether your Lordships will know Rule 2 of war. It is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China". It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives...
That is a very good point, Rudey. We cannot know authoritatively. And even if we did know at this point in time--who knows about tomorrow? Rather, rationality and principle are understood relativistically as you say in contrast to the US.
Beautiful as a sunlit summer day.
Truth is absolute beauty.
Hope springs eternal!
I believe Vlad comes from Vladislav rather than Vladimir. Common error among westerners. Otherwise great article, as usually.
Good setup for the article 😉
Never disappointing and right on point as usual. We thank you..
No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it.
Carl von Clausewitz
Really, you have the best quotes -- with the best ideas!
THANK YOU! I quote others only in order the better to express myself.
Michel de Montaigne
Fabulous Julian. You’ve outdone yourself. Keep up the good work and don’t sweat the small stuff. We’ll all read your next article whenever it pops up in our inbox. Big hugs for Itchi.
I was surprised to find a photo of Putin hugging Ichi!
Ha ha me too!
"Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye. Miyamoto Musashi"
Today's Duran, with Mercouris, Diesen and Crooke talks at length about how difficult it must be for Russia to bear the weight of the world; the West is worse than Python's Black Knight. It leaves me in deep despair because I feel I do perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye. A shamanic understanding.
The "shamanic understanding" is basic to our nature--and allows us to connect to nature.
“True philosophy entails relearning to see the world anew.”
― Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception
> Russia and China are establishing themselves as rational actors – not just rational but principled.
Nobody can authoritatively know this, Julian. It would be more accurate to state that this is how they are successfully projecting themselves, in contrast to the United States and it's dead-end "rules" and "order".
> The US has no principles—only slogans.
Cette exacte. https://youtu.be/kRbVEl2RZeo
This is the best e-begging I have ever experienced. It worked on me. Subbing now.
> Microsoft crashing my system every day or two.
There is a free alternative, of many flavours and varieties. It is called Linux. Yes, even an old sperg like you is capable of learning to use it, especially since you show no apparent signs of cognitive decline.
I have used it before -- Mint, Opensuse, Manjaro-- loved them all. I was using Ghostspectre Win10-- (modded) which worked fine until I accidentally let MS "update" it. When I get time, I will install Linus and run Windows programs in a virtual machine.
Cool. BTW, I have tried twice to upgrade to a paid sub in the past 14-15 hours since reading your post, and both times I get an error that looks like an API error from Substack's payment processor. Could you please have a look and see what's up? It's not an issue with my card, am a paid sub to half a dozen other publications on this platform.
Thank you for making me smile in this so dark and crazy times....
I realise that Westerners often know no better and frequently use "Vlad" when referring to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, but "Vlad" is not a friendly, diminutive form of "Vladimir". "Vlad" is a friendly diminutive of the name Vladislav. The name "Vladimir" is never shortened to "Vlad". The friendly forms of Vladimir are are Volodya and its variants with diminutive suffixes: Volodka, Volodyenka; Vova and its diminutive suffixes: Vovka, Vovochka; Vovchik and Vovan. Russians often ask me why Americans always call Putin "Vlad". Apart from the fact that "Vlad" does not mean "Vladimir", unless he were a close friend and speaking to him in private, a Russian would never publicly refer to the Russian head of state using the diminutive form of his name, as Americans do when referring to their president as "Joe".
Thank you for this. I didn't know, of course. And it is important that I learn these things. Of course, the "conceit" of my "letter" is that Putin and I are close friends and talking in private. What would Putin prefer his close friends to call him,
America was supposed to be an experiment shuttering out the royal old world with it's titles, and diminutives for a more egalitarian country and our addresses always reflected such "Ike" "the Gipper" "Joe" or FJB etc even if the experiment failed we pretend we are all casual and the same.. Even the Elites pretend who dress in hard hats and cowboy boots on campaign trail.
America is the most grandiose experiment the world has seen, but, I am afraid, it is not going to be a success.
Sigmund Freud
Most of the British do the same with their "royalty", though not with the monarch, so they never called Elizabeth II "Betty" or the present King of Great Britain "Charlie", but encouraged by the media they play this silly game in the UK of using the friendly diminutives of the names of other members of the royal family, hence "Kate Middleton" for the Princess of Wales, and her husband the Prince of Wales is often referred to as "Wills", and his brother as "Prince Harry". This familiarity is encouraged by Royal Family Inc. so as to give the impression that even though members of the royal family are by definition socially superior to the common folk, they are the monarchists' friends. Well of course they are: the monarchists allow the "royals" to live according to their manner born.
I refer to Charles as Chuck. Also Chucky" And Chuck the Fuck.
Yeah, so do I — and I was one Queen Elizabeth's so-called "subjects". They scrapped the demeaning term "subject", I think, when the UK joined the EU, so now I am a British citizen in exile in Darkest Mordor and Chuck Windsor is my "King". I have never been a monarchist, nor were my father and grandfathers.
But there have been no aristocratic titles in Russia since 1917. Putin is not Lord Vladimir, Prince Vladimir, Grand Duke Vladimir etc: he is officially President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Addressing him politely and formally, one would say "Vladimir Vladimirovich", and more informally, simply as "Vladimir". Only if one has a friendly relationship or kinship with someone whose given-name is "Vladimir", would one use those diminutives that I listed above. Furthermore, some Russian given-name diminutives — especially those with a "k" in them — may sound impudent, cheeky or mocking. My son's name is Vladimir; I never address him as "Vladimir": for me, he is always my Vova; sometimes, though, I call him "Volodya". However, when he was a little boy and was, say, fooling around in the bedroom rather than going to sleep, I would say: "Vovochka! What are you doing? Turn out the light and go to sleep!"
Thanks. I can use this when I write Putin's reply to me.
How to address Russians formally, informally and intimately is a bugbear for native English speakers because in Russian there are no cognates for "Mr.", "Mrs." "Miss", and "Ms". Russians just say "man", "woman", "girl", "boy" or "lad", or "young man", "young woman". And for all elderly people "granddad" or "grandma". And children call all adult, but not elderly, men "uncle" and adult, but not elderly, women "auntie". I have lived in Moscow for 31 years and every Russian non-acquaintance here has long addressed me most respectfully as "granddad". In Imperial Russia there were aristocratic titles, which, of course, have long gone. The strange thing is, however, that Russians sometimes address foreign males as "gospodin", which means "lord"! Occasionally I am sometimes addressed this way by Russians who know that I am a foreigner because they know my family name - so "gospodin Smeet" would be be a Russian equivalent of "Mr. Smith", although some Russians have taken to saying "meester" or "mister" when addressing native English-speaking men. It is not rude in Russian to say, for example "Excuse me man" or: "Excuse me woman" when addressing an unknown man or woman in order to get information, e.g. (literally) "Excuse me man, can you not tell me where the metro station is", whereas in English, one would say: "Excuse me, sir ..." or: "Excuse me ma'am ..." etc. All Russians have a given name and a name, their patronymic, derived from their fathers' names. Vladimir Putin's father was also called "Vladimir", hence Putin's full name is Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and using that full name is the formal way of addressing a man or woman in Russian. Less formally, one uses just the name and patronymic; informally — just the name; and then there are numerous, very informal, friendly diminutives of the person's name. I, like Putin, was named after my father. My name is also quite common in Russian. Russians do not have middle names. I have a middle name, but it is not my father's name of course, as I was named after him. My middle name is Michael, so Russians often mistakenly believe that my father's name was Michael. My father's name was Dennis - Денис in Russian - so in order to avoid confusion, I tell Russians that I am "Denis Denisovich" - Денис Денисович - which combination is again not unusual in Russia, and because of this, many Russians think that I have Russian forebears who emigrated West. My son's name is Vladimir, my elder daughter is called Yelena, and my younger daughter - Aleksandra, hence they are formally addressed as Vladimir Denisovich, Yelena Denisovna, Aleksandra Denisovna - but I just call them Vova, Lena, and Sasha. And my very informal name is "Deniska" - Дениска - or "Deniskins" in English. However, addressing a Russian "Denis" as "Deniska" might sound impudent or cheeky, because "Deniska" is how you would address a little boy called Denis.
I really enjoy your linguistic explanations.
Probably my favourite was your re-analysis of the English system of tenses in the light of German and Russian verb moods. After reading it, I understood for the first time how the swopping over of "shall" and "will" between first person sentences and second/third person sentences, according to presence or absence of emphasis, was a natural outcome of the verb system. Previously I had thought we had to just accept it as a lexical oddity.
I remember being mightily impressed, but I have lost the article and can't actually remember the details of your analysis. Is there a reference to your explanation of your theory anywhere that I could follow up?
Let me add one more question to your list. Why offer a peace deal now when Zelensky’s legitimacy as President of Ukraine is no longer recognised in Russia? Who is supposed to sign the deal?
The Ukrainian parliament is apparently discussing it. But the NeoNazis will kill anyone who gets out of line.
Zelensky was nobody even before. There was and is American dictation. The EU is also humiliated by the Americans, and the EU cannot do anything either. For the EU, the only solution is to pay off the debts of the Ukrainians.
I deal with this in my special article.
In principle, not that far removed from Alzheimer's joe. The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes.
Felix Frankfurter
It's a matter of style. Some people try to get reality by reading between the lines and connecting dots, some people read chicken entrails, and others just swipe whatever floats by in a butterfly net.
That's a very optimist view. I think Vlad may just get us all killed. Putin’s limited drawn-out war has enabled the West to get more and more involved into the conflict to the point that the conflict now is really between the West and Russia. West’s prestige is now involved and the West cannot permit Russia to prevail.
Serbia’s President Aleksander Vucic, Hungary's Viktor Orban as does Slovakian president Robert Fico say that WW3 is coming and they should know they sit in on the meetings. (scroll down to the 5 min video)
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news-selections/world-news/president-of-serbia-we-will-have-world-war-within-3-to-4-months
Then again, are there any LeMay disciples still in DC? I think there are many times when it would be most efficient to use nuclear weapons. However, the public opinion in this country and throughout the world throw up their hands in horror when you mention nuclear weapons, just because of the propaganda that's been fed to them.
Curtis LeMay
Perhaps? From my perspective we are witnessing the last desperate gasps of the Globalists to establish their New World Order. They are DOOMED. Rule 1, on page I of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow". Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. That is the first rule. I do not know whether your Lordships will know Rule 2 of war. It is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China". It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives...
Bernard Law Montgomery
Everything is great except usually in Russia, Vladislavs are usually called Vlad. Vladimirs are lovingly called Vova
That is a very good point, Rudey. We cannot know authoritatively. And even if we did know at this point in time--who knows about tomorrow? Rather, rationality and principle are understood relativistically as you say in contrast to the US.