Is Europe actually at war with Russia?
Despite all the propaganda, few ordinary people in Europe have their tongues hanging out eagerly for a full on war with Russia, especially over what’s commonly seen as the most totally corrupt country in Europe. Just ask the Bidens, père et fils. Once you look past all the individual leaders of most of the EU … Continue reading
The end of the one superpower world.
That long interlude between Christmas and New Years affords an opportunity to consider the last year in the rear view mirror and what’s likely to happen in the new one coming at us. Most years are pretty much business as usual with nothing spectacular or Earth shattering occurring, but some ones do have some big … Continue reading
The realities of nuclear mega death because of the Ukraine.
The noted historian A.J.P. Taylor caused a big stink when he wrote a fascinating book on WWII that instead of attributing its root causes to various cunning schemes of almost Machiavellian complexity, put forward the simple idea that it was all caused by various miscalculations on the part of the many parties involved. In other … Continue reading
Forcing the annihilation of the Ukraine.
Back in the years when Boris Yeltsin was running the remains of the Soviet Union, I noticed a new face who was always in the background of any group shot of the old boozer. As time went by, he kept getting closer to the front row. A little research yielded a name, so I started … Continue reading
For as long as it takes to ruin ourselves.
When it comes to economics, there are more schools of thought, that’s to say radically irreconcilable viewpoints, than there are in similar pseudo-scientific fields such as sociology or psychology. However, there are some guidelines that most practitioners accept. Any economy that has two successive quarters of zero or negative growth is either in a recession … Continue reading
We’re approaching peak stupidity over the Ukraine.
In the months the war in the Ukraine has ground on, one thing that has become alarmingly obvious to all is how weak and out of touch the leadership of the US is, but even more so that of the EU. The latter has continued to pursue relentlessly an anti-Russian sanctions policy that is obviously … Continue reading
French expediency versus the patience of a Russian endgame.
France is hurriedly trying to get all of its 56 nuclear power plants back up online and generating. It was always a slightly smug Gallic boast that about 70% of their electricity came from nuclear generation. That fact that their power strategy evolved in that totally different direction to all other countries in Europe is … Continue reading
Putting a price cap on Russian oil.
Back in July when the idea of putting a price cap on Russian oil was first floated by the Biden administration, Putin commented quite wittily to some reporters on the effect such a poorly thought out move would have on the world price of oil. If the West block should really go for such a … Continue reading
Blame America for all your troubles.
Having a great defense is always a good idea but if it isn’t backed up by a good offensive capability, then failure becomes inevitable for the oldest of reasons. Your great defense has to succeed every time in stopping every attack, but their offense only needs to succeed once for you to lose. That’s a … Continue reading
Biden does Putin’s job for him.
Two months ago in a piece with the self-explanatory title of Putin begins to pick apart the EU, I outlined Putin’s options to destroy the EU. It essentially came down to starving it, particularly Germany, of resources it couldn’t obtain from anyone else in realistic quantities. The only question for him was whether he just … Continue reading
What’s it actually mean if the new Donbass republics join the Russian Federation?
It’s basically a game changer and one which as usual seems to have been totally unanticipated by the so-called “Kremlin watchers”. Hitherto, Russia has been conducting a Special Military Operation which comes with certain limitations. They’re not responding to an attack on sovereign Russian Federation territory but attacks on ethnic Russians in a neighbouring country. … Continue reading
Rules.
All human activities across all societies no matter how politically arranged operate inside some sort of a framework of consensually agreed parameters. These parameters may be conventions, rules and even codified laws. Without them, building even the most simple society would be impossible since they enable the second most powerful feature of human beings – … Continue reading
Letting an octogenarian bull wearing high heels loose in a china shop.
Like most people who watched the highly orchestrated psycho-drama of Nancy Pelosi and whether she’d touch down in Taiwan or not on her magical mystery tour of parts oriental, i wondered why risk a war with China by a needless visit that was obviously designed to both provoke China over an issue that had laid … Continue reading
Putin begins to pick apart the EU.
A few weeks back In a piece entitled the winners and losers after the sledgehammer strike, I wrote the following about probably the biggest casualty of the whole sanctions disaster, the EU. “The obvious way for Russia to eliminate the EU as a threat is to destroy Germany. Kill Germany, the EU withers. It’s a … Continue reading
The fighting over the last scraps of the Ukraine begins.
We’re all familiar with with the expression about rats leaving a sinking ship but it has a corollary. Nearly every one of those rats has something of value held between its pointy ratty little teeth that’s been stolen from the sinking hulk as it paddles away. Whether the ship in question is a business enterprise … Continue reading
The winners and losers after the sledgehammer strike.
In the aftermath of the sledgehammer strike, it’s worth trying to have an informed guess as to what the new world will look like after all the pieces fall back to the ground and begin to be reassembled into a different jigsaw puzzle by geo-political forces. Who will be the winners, who will be the … Continue reading
They’ve got much better ones than us.
The Germans decided to seize three tankers transporting Russian Liguified Natural Gas (LNG), so in response Russia effectively nationalised the huge joint venture of the Sakhalin-2 oil and LNG project to an as yet to be created Russian holding company. This is in all but name nationalisation in retaliation and looks to be the ideal … Continue reading
The reaction to the sledgehammer by West block Europe.
First of all, let’s define terms. West block Europe is NATO and the EU combined since the latter is now totally perceived by the East block as nothing more than the hostile political arm of NATO being used to wage the economic sanctions war on Russia. The UK is a member of NATO but has … Continue reading
The Sledgehammer.
Over last weekend a conference called the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) took place. The chances are you might not even of heard it occurred but it did and what came out of it confirmed my worst fears of how dire a situation the US, EU and the West in general have managed to … Continue reading
When all the lying had to stop.
If you haven’t realised it yet, you must know by now that it was all a bloody pack of lies all along. And you’ve yet to feel the full impact of falling for it all. Your standard of living in the US, EU and Western Europe is dropping like a stone, your currencies are wrecked … Continue reading
Pointman's 
My belated condolences. I always enjoyed reading his posts and will miss his insight and wide ranging views. May hew…