Glad you like classical literature! There is much there to think about. I think your analysis is very accurate comparing Trump and Putin. It suggests to me another set of connections for my "special article". People who know Putin personally describe him as rather shy. You are certainly right about golden toilets! I will probably plagiarize that idea and pretend it is mine....LOL .
He has no finesse in most things. His idea for negotiations is to get out with the best deal for himself. And no one else. Hopefully he will bounce out of the issue entirely, and justify with his fake bravado. This is actually the best deal
I expect Trump to escalate the war with Russia to try and force e a peace agreement; IF his initial offer for a peace agreement is rejected (as is likely).
That is certainly possible. However, by the time the peace agreement is rejected - Russia will be much,much stronger and the US much, much weaker. Remember the Vietnamese kept the peace negotiations going for, what? Seven years? Eight? There is military "attrition" and diplomatic "attrition". In "long wars" patience wins .
I agree that on Ukraine, Russia can handle any US escalation. It's just a matter of when the USA will cut it's losses and transition to the planned guerrilla type uprising. It was all laid out in the RAND "unbalancing" paper that you probably read.
I've been impressed at Putin's calm management of the whole ordeal. On one hand I think he may not acknowledge just how monstrous the Western leaders are--good people can't understand the depths of evil (or maybe that's just my projection). Nevertheless, the calm management of the war may just have with the Ukrainian people enough by the end that they refuse to rebel once the full war ends
"Rube" isn't exactly a term I would use for someone born into great NYC real estate wealth and educated at some pretty good schools. Sure, he's crass and narcissistic, but, overall, he's been pretty brave over the past five years fighting the deep state, especially dodging that literal bullet. Now he's back driving the bus. I think the assassination attempt changed him, with the choice of Vance immediately after a good sign, and Kennedy, Musk, and Vick great shake it up advisor choices. That's what we'll get from him. Disruption and near chaos, which is what DC desperately needs.
I applaud Trump having fought so the ridiculous attacks, but I think he did so out of personal pride more than anything.
That said, I think his picks stink and will be Trump's downfall just like last time. This includes Vance, a younger and weaker man with a similar life story as myself, but a man who took the decision to sell out instead of having personal convictions. I expect we'll all be disappointed in Vance.
As for being a rube, being born into real estate wealth (as was Paris Hilton) doesn't negate that, nor does having studied Net Present Value at Penn. Remember, DJT still crows about having given us the vax when what we REALLY wanted was the wall.
I could be wrong--hopefully I am--but I'm old now and have stopped being humble, because I've been right about all the important issues since the 1990s: NAFTA, H1Bs, sand wars... I no longer believe a political solution exists, and Plato, Aristotle, and so many others were right: "democracy" is a poor form of government that leads to exactly the failure that we have today
Ichi is a very sweet cat-- but he got quite depressed after his two best friends, Chibi and Jet passed away. He's very sensitive. Prior to that, my live in partner of 12 years had suddenly dumped me just before Christmas. Ichi had bonded with her. And he immediately understood what was happening so when she came over to take her things he hid from her. He was depressed after that too. Chappy is not only a special needs cat – he is exceptionally good with other cats-- so I thought he would be a good friend for Ichi in his later years. But Chappy is very sensitive too and it will take him time to adjust to the new environment. I spent most of my time writing and researching. Having a cat helps me keep on track.
Let’s hope that Trump displays some circumspection and stops his blustering wrt the Ukraine situation. He hasn’t always demonstrated sound judgement in the past, and he has some warhawks surrounding him at present.
The difficulty is that ἀλέξειν is a verb, not a noun; so giving it a plural is "challenging", as they say nowadays. Your guess is better than mine! (My father was called Alexander, usually shortened to Alec or Alex, but there was only ever one of him that I could see).
"The name Alexander originates from the Ancient Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros; 'defending men'[2] or 'protector of men'). It is a compound of the verb ἀλέξειν (aléxein; 'to ward off, avert, defend')[3] and the noun ἀνήρ (anḗr, genitive: ἀνδρός, andrós; meaning 'man')". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander
Alexes. True the "west," hasn't anything to offer, except leaving. I could imagine President Putin making a big show (Russian style, not Akihabara style) of actually talking with someone from the west. Or is it talking to?
Those two Alexes (google it) are complete Trumptards and morons. In the summer of 2022 (after the fall of Mariupol), Mercouris was already droning on how ‘this will change everything.’ Then he claimed that the Ukrainian attacks on Kherson would fail. Then he predicted that ‘the fall of Bakhmut will change everything,’ and he repeated that narrative for Siverodonetsk, for Lysychansk, for Avdeevka, and now we hear the same for Pokrovsk.
I wonder why intelligent people keep on falling for this crap. One would think that after 6-12 months people with an IQ >100 have a long(er) term memory and remember his previous predictions and calibrate those with the current situation, right?
Then there is the bearded CIA handler with the schizophrenic artwork behind him, who manages to mispronounce just about every name of the people and cities he talks about. “Merkel” becomes “Muhrkel,” Kursk (pronounced “Koorsk” in Russian) becomes “Kuh-rsk” etcetera. The ‘Elensky joke was fun for a while, but eventually I expect a bit more of a serious attitude.
So now they are pumping the bullshit narrative that ‘Trump 2.0 has learned from his mistakes,’ and that ‘this time it’s different.’ Yet when you look at the people Trump has hired, there is NO change at all with Trump 1.0. Almost all of them are Deep State billionaires and tech entrepreneurs with again connections to the US Deep State, like JD Vance (Peter Thiel), Vivek Ramaswamy (biotech), Marco Rubio (fanatic Zionist and neocon), Howard Lutnick (keeping the BitCON and Tether./USDT scam going) Sebastian Gorka (Zionist and neocon), Pete Hegseth (Zionist and neocon), Janette Nesheiwat (Big Pharma vaccine shill) Mike Walz (neocon and Zionist) etcetera.
Just to keep all the dumb suckers happy, Trump throws in Elon Musk (another conman with his “Full Self Driving” promises) with his fake DOGE department which isn’t a real department and has NO legal authority to do anything, RFK Jr. (another Israeli puppet), and Tulsi Gabbard (she is flexible and will bend with the wind, mark my words). These 3 are hopelessly outnumbered, so even IF (!) they wanted to change anything, they won’t achieve anything, which will then be ‘sold’ by The Durex/Duran as ‘Trump really wanted to drain the swamp, but he was obstructed by the Deep State…’ 😂
Sure, Trump WILL be obstructed by the Deep State…BECAUSE HE HIRED THEM ALL HIMSELF, and yet intelligent people can’t seem to be able to figure this one out! 🤣
I believe in all probability that you have the process correct — that the talks will not mean a cessation of the fighting. I am less certain of where Russia will choose to divide Ukraine, if in fact they choose division over wholesale absorption. Putin is nothing if not cautious and the calculation may be that leaving the West in possession of a landlocked, dysfunctional rump state is more appealing than attempting to govern Galicia.
Our incredibly annoying British MPs will still be blaming somebody else for decades to come, they blamed Biden for leaving Afghanistan despite Britain leaving in 2007. It’s painful,,
The nasty attitude the French and Germans have towards the Russians amazes me.
You really, really want to piss off the biggest guy on the block? Also, enjoy your cratering economies and over priced U$ LNG. Dumb shits. Julian, your cat knows more about geo-political realities than Trump so low expectations work best.
Thanks for the article. Nice to have confirmation about what I've always believed, that Russia will fight until its three originally stated goals were achieved and that means not just in part of Ukraine but all of it. Maybe peace will come after all. Also, glad you found a cat, they are not normal.
I am normal. So I get along with animals better than people. It's Xmas so I get invited to a lot of parties here in Tokyo, apparently because I am regarded as "entertaining" -- humorous and friendly -- and also because of my connections. I enjoy them for the first 30 minutes. Can tolerate another 30 minutes and then have to leave, empathically overloaded.. It's an aspect of my particular form of ASD. In any case, I don't advertise my ASD here in Tokyo - and most people don't know unless they read this blog, which hasn't been going that long. Which is good because ASD is not well understood -- and the fact that there are somewhere around 50 different kinds.
Putin respects the verdict of history, which was an autonomous Ukraine. Maidan overturned the verdict, cancelling that autonomy and making it a slave state.
Firstly Chappy. I have written before about Zappa our (feral cat whom we adopted 11yrs ago) he was SO traumatised that we could not even hold him.....still cannot lift him up and cuddle him. BUT he knows he is loved. He may not be the cat you want to hug to death because he is special BUT he will grow to love you.
Hugs notwithstanding , Chappy will be Ichi's bro'. In the shelter, Chappy was very "amaterei", which means sweet and friendly and desiriing contact -- not only with other cats but with the caregivers. I worked at a zoo and I found that every animal is different and you have to respect that difference. The same applies to people.
Donald Trump is a rube. It's why the NYC elite never accepted him despite his decades of begging to be admitted into their circle.
DJT makes up for his weakness by using excessive bravado. He is the opposite of Putin, which makes DJT dangerous.
In this way DJT is the ultimate example of an American: thinking leveraged wealth and golden toilets represent something positive.
In before: No, I'm not a democrat or Biden lover; yes, I'm an old American
Glad you like classical literature! There is much there to think about. I think your analysis is very accurate comparing Trump and Putin. It suggests to me another set of connections for my "special article". People who know Putin personally describe him as rather shy. You are certainly right about golden toilets! I will probably plagiarize that idea and pretend it is mine....LOL .
He has no finesse in most things. His idea for negotiations is to get out with the best deal for himself. And no one else. Hopefully he will bounce out of the issue entirely, and justify with his fake bravado. This is actually the best deal
I read his book, which was obviously ghost written. Frankly, it is juvenile and shallow. Almost embarrassingly so.
I expect Trump to escalate the war with Russia to try and force e a peace agreement; IF his initial offer for a peace agreement is rejected (as is likely).
I agree. DJT will try to be a tough guy and will escalate until put into his place.
That is certainly possible. However, by the time the peace agreement is rejected - Russia will be much,much stronger and the US much, much weaker. Remember the Vietnamese kept the peace negotiations going for, what? Seven years? Eight? There is military "attrition" and diplomatic "attrition". In "long wars" patience wins .
I agree that on Ukraine, Russia can handle any US escalation. It's just a matter of when the USA will cut it's losses and transition to the planned guerrilla type uprising. It was all laid out in the RAND "unbalancing" paper that you probably read.
I've been impressed at Putin's calm management of the whole ordeal. On one hand I think he may not acknowledge just how monstrous the Western leaders are--good people can't understand the depths of evil (or maybe that's just my projection). Nevertheless, the calm management of the war may just have with the Ukrainian people enough by the end that they refuse to rebel once the full war ends
"Rube" isn't exactly a term I would use for someone born into great NYC real estate wealth and educated at some pretty good schools. Sure, he's crass and narcissistic, but, overall, he's been pretty brave over the past five years fighting the deep state, especially dodging that literal bullet. Now he's back driving the bus. I think the assassination attempt changed him, with the choice of Vance immediately after a good sign, and Kennedy, Musk, and Vick great shake it up advisor choices. That's what we'll get from him. Disruption and near chaos, which is what DC desperately needs.
I applaud Trump having fought so the ridiculous attacks, but I think he did so out of personal pride more than anything.
That said, I think his picks stink and will be Trump's downfall just like last time. This includes Vance, a younger and weaker man with a similar life story as myself, but a man who took the decision to sell out instead of having personal convictions. I expect we'll all be disappointed in Vance.
As for being a rube, being born into real estate wealth (as was Paris Hilton) doesn't negate that, nor does having studied Net Present Value at Penn. Remember, DJT still crows about having given us the vax when what we REALLY wanted was the wall.
I could be wrong--hopefully I am--but I'm old now and have stopped being humble, because I've been right about all the important issues since the 1990s: NAFTA, H1Bs, sand wars... I no longer believe a political solution exists, and Plato, Aristotle, and so many others were right: "democracy" is a poor form of government that leads to exactly the failure that we have today
Ichi is adorable by the way. I hope he and Chappy get acquainted and begin bonding soon. I understand it's on their terms.😁
Ichi is a very sweet cat-- but he got quite depressed after his two best friends, Chibi and Jet passed away. He's very sensitive. Prior to that, my live in partner of 12 years had suddenly dumped me just before Christmas. Ichi had bonded with her. And he immediately understood what was happening so when she came over to take her things he hid from her. He was depressed after that too. Chappy is not only a special needs cat – he is exceptionally good with other cats-- so I thought he would be a good friend for Ichi in his later years. But Chappy is very sensitive too and it will take him time to adjust to the new environment. I spent most of my time writing and researching. Having a cat helps me keep on track.
Let’s hope that Trump displays some circumspection and stops his blustering wrt the Ukraine situation. He hasn’t always demonstrated sound judgement in the past, and he has some warhawks surrounding him at present.
Hope is eternal
Alexi
Alexanders.
Thank you Tom. ( As usuall!) But how about pluralizing the short forms?
The difficulty is that ἀλέξειν is a verb, not a noun; so giving it a plural is "challenging", as they say nowadays. Your guess is better than mine! (My father was called Alexander, usually shortened to Alec or Alex, but there was only ever one of him that I could see).
"The name Alexander originates from the Ancient Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros; 'defending men'[2] or 'protector of men'). It is a compound of the verb ἀλέξειν (aléxein; 'to ward off, avert, defend')[3] and the noun ἀνήρ (anḗr, genitive: ἀνδρός, andrós; meaning 'man')". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander
Alexes. True the "west," hasn't anything to offer, except leaving. I could imagine President Putin making a big show (Russian style, not Akihabara style) of actually talking with someone from the west. Or is it talking to?
Suggested plural for the combined Alex:
Alexoi.
Apparently oi in transliteration is the masculine nominative plural & both are Greek.
Perfect. DONE!
Those two Alexes (google it) are complete Trumptards and morons. In the summer of 2022 (after the fall of Mariupol), Mercouris was already droning on how ‘this will change everything.’ Then he claimed that the Ukrainian attacks on Kherson would fail. Then he predicted that ‘the fall of Bakhmut will change everything,’ and he repeated that narrative for Siverodonetsk, for Lysychansk, for Avdeevka, and now we hear the same for Pokrovsk.
I wonder why intelligent people keep on falling for this crap. One would think that after 6-12 months people with an IQ >100 have a long(er) term memory and remember his previous predictions and calibrate those with the current situation, right?
Then there is the bearded CIA handler with the schizophrenic artwork behind him, who manages to mispronounce just about every name of the people and cities he talks about. “Merkel” becomes “Muhrkel,” Kursk (pronounced “Koorsk” in Russian) becomes “Kuh-rsk” etcetera. The ‘Elensky joke was fun for a while, but eventually I expect a bit more of a serious attitude.
So now they are pumping the bullshit narrative that ‘Trump 2.0 has learned from his mistakes,’ and that ‘this time it’s different.’ Yet when you look at the people Trump has hired, there is NO change at all with Trump 1.0. Almost all of them are Deep State billionaires and tech entrepreneurs with again connections to the US Deep State, like JD Vance (Peter Thiel), Vivek Ramaswamy (biotech), Marco Rubio (fanatic Zionist and neocon), Howard Lutnick (keeping the BitCON and Tether./USDT scam going) Sebastian Gorka (Zionist and neocon), Pete Hegseth (Zionist and neocon), Janette Nesheiwat (Big Pharma vaccine shill) Mike Walz (neocon and Zionist) etcetera.
Just to keep all the dumb suckers happy, Trump throws in Elon Musk (another conman with his “Full Self Driving” promises) with his fake DOGE department which isn’t a real department and has NO legal authority to do anything, RFK Jr. (another Israeli puppet), and Tulsi Gabbard (she is flexible and will bend with the wind, mark my words). These 3 are hopelessly outnumbered, so even IF (!) they wanted to change anything, they won’t achieve anything, which will then be ‘sold’ by The Durex/Duran as ‘Trump really wanted to drain the swamp, but he was obstructed by the Deep State…’ 😂
Sure, Trump WILL be obstructed by the Deep State…BECAUSE HE HIRED THEM ALL HIMSELF, and yet intelligent people can’t seem to be able to figure this one out! 🤣
I believe in all probability that you have the process correct — that the talks will not mean a cessation of the fighting. I am less certain of where Russia will choose to divide Ukraine, if in fact they choose division over wholesale absorption. Putin is nothing if not cautious and the calculation may be that leaving the West in possession of a landlocked, dysfunctional rump state is more appealing than attempting to govern Galicia.
Ow.. I forgot...
Cassandra's Happy Holidays wish to us all....
->https://x.com/OccupySchagen/status/1869193625160053095
And from her heart:
->https://www.occupyschagen.nl/Gifs/Yule.gif
Sander
PS. Yes she is a Wicca-White-Witch...
Truly lovely. And the cartoon is great!
Our incredibly annoying British MPs will still be blaming somebody else for decades to come, they blamed Biden for leaving Afghanistan despite Britain leaving in 2007. It’s painful,,
My Mom was British so I understand something of the point of view-- especially the inconsistencies.
The nasty attitude the French and Germans have towards the Russians amazes me.
You really, really want to piss off the biggest guy on the block? Also, enjoy your cratering economies and over priced U$ LNG. Dumb shits. Julian, your cat knows more about geo-political realities than Trump so low expectations work best.
Tucker Carlson recently interviewed Jeffrey Sachs. (link-I believe dodges the pay wall)
https://tuckercarlson.com/tucker-show-sachs-3
Very good article. I believe a reliable road map to future events.
B. at MoA has a similar article which I just saw now , which is even better than mine.
Thanks again for the splendid article...
Cassandra wrote a lookback on how it all be Began...
On the Maydan Square...
And what was promised the Ukrainians there.
And what has been the result NOW.
The whole Tweet:
->https://x.com/OccupySchagen/status/1869182527019360658
Part of it:
Cassandra: 🇺🇦Ukraine. Recommended.
The TRUTH.
ALL of the Truth.
Nothing BUT the Truth...
THE EMPTY PROMISES TO THE UKRAINE PEOPLE:
ARE: ' PEACE AND PROSPERITY '...
BUT PROMISES OF THE DEEP__SNAKE CANNOT
BE TRUSTED, THOSE ARE DEEP__LIES. 🥴
THE WORDS OF THIS HIGH-PRIEST OF 👹SATAN
ARE 🐍POISONOUS AND ☠️DEADLY.
NO PEACE, NO PROSPERITY,
BUT A HORRIBLE WAR, POVERTY, FREEZING COLD
AND ONE MILLION OF DEAD AND DISABLED
ON THE FRONT IN THE BROTHER - WAR
WITH 🇷🇺RUSSIA.
AND NOW 🇪🇺EUROPE HAS BEEN DESTROYED,
NATO IS DISARMED AND CANNOT HOPE
TO WAGE ANOTHER WAR WITH ASIA
IN AT LEAST 5 YEARS. 😳 🫣
AND THE EVIL ANGLO - ZIONIST 👑EMPIRE
IS ON THE BRINK OF ITS FINAL COLLAPS.
THE WEST HAS NO MORE FUTURE. 😵 ☠️ 🪦 🥀
AL HOPE IS IN THE EAST: 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇷 🇮🇩 🇸🇦 🇵🇰...
Sander
All hope IS "east"-- not "west". Look west and you see death and despair. Look east and you see hope.
God please turn him around to give him sense first concession
Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaae.
Thanks for the article. Nice to have confirmation about what I've always believed, that Russia will fight until its three originally stated goals were achieved and that means not just in part of Ukraine but all of it. Maybe peace will come after all. Also, glad you found a cat, they are not normal.
I am normal. So I get along with animals better than people. It's Xmas so I get invited to a lot of parties here in Tokyo, apparently because I am regarded as "entertaining" -- humorous and friendly -- and also because of my connections. I enjoy them for the first 30 minutes. Can tolerate another 30 minutes and then have to leave, empathically overloaded.. It's an aspect of my particular form of ASD. In any case, I don't advertise my ASD here in Tokyo - and most people don't know unless they read this blog, which hasn't been going that long. Which is good because ASD is not well understood -- and the fact that there are somewhere around 50 different kinds.
Exactly the same here. Can only take many people together for 30 mins!
Just like my home and animals.
Putin does NOT want all of Ukraine. He never did. However times have changed.
Europe doesn't want a Nazi country...the only people who want Ukraine is Blackrock!
Putin respects the verdict of history, which was an autonomous Ukraine. Maidan overturned the verdict, cancelling that autonomy and making it a slave state.
Firstly Chappy. I have written before about Zappa our (feral cat whom we adopted 11yrs ago) he was SO traumatised that we could not even hold him.....still cannot lift him up and cuddle him. BUT he knows he is loved. He may not be the cat you want to hug to death because he is special BUT he will grow to love you.
Coming back with all the above.
Hugs notwithstanding , Chappy will be Ichi's bro'. In the shelter, Chappy was very "amaterei", which means sweet and friendly and desiriing contact -- not only with other cats but with the caregivers. I worked at a zoo and I found that every animal is different and you have to respect that difference. The same applies to people.