Category: Uncategorized

Endgame Ukraine II

The unravelling has started and it’s obvious that the neocons have already decided to pull the plug and turn off the life support system of the Kiev regime.

Let’s summarize recent developments:

  • Zaluzhny’s aides are deleted, one by assassination
  • Large-scale new ‘house cleaning’ of entire general staff is reportedly announced from Zelensky’s side
  • Major media campaigns from both sides push urgent narratives of stalemates, Zaluzhny implying the war will be lost, and an eye-opening exposé on a ‘isolated’ and ‘messianic’ Fuhrer-bunker version of Zelensky
  • Zelensky suddenly cancels presidential elections, likely sussing the plan to promote Zaluzhny as challenger
  • Money spigot has still been turned off for the foreseeable future, with no realistic plans on horizon at the moment
  • Ukraine now catastrophically losing on virtually every front of the war, set to soon lose another major, strategically critical city
  • Many influential voices like Arestovich now openly push ceasefire
  • The ‘grim reaper’ CIA director set to pay visit, which only happens on eve of some major pivot or escalation. Diplomats and Foreign Secretaries are sent to ‘discuss options’ or ‘negotiate’—CIA directors are sent to deliver final threats of action

Now, much of the foregoing information is already being discussed elsewhere. But the one chief question no one else seems to be asking is the most critical of all: if factions in the West intend to replace Zelensky with Zaluzhny, then what is the actual purpose? What do they intend for Zaluzhny to do or accomplish that Zelensky cannot?

Some haven’t thought this through, and just assume that “Zaluzhny is a strong leader” and therefore is being made to replace Zelensky so that he can whip the military into shape and win the war. But why would Zaluzhny need to be president to do that? He’s already the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and that’s literally his job description.

So, logically speaking, the only possible explanation I can see making sense is that Zaluzhny is being chosen to sell the ceasefire to the people. Such a thing would sound more acceptable from the standpoint of a military leader and strategist who can explain that the situation is hopeless without time to recover and replenish the forces with an armistice. And more importantly, to sell it to the troops.

Notice how all of this has been transparent to anyone who simply watches the direction that the elite neocons are taking. This was obvious as far back as April and May, but the need to focus on the defense of Israel, which is the absolute #1 neocon priority, means that the Ukraine war will be over as soon as a military leader a) replaces Zelensky/Yermak and b) meets Putin’s terms.

However, it may not be as easy to accomplish (b) as the neocons and the media believe. I expect Putin will demand, at the very least, a complete end of the collective sanctions regime, a disinvitation to NATO, and the province of Odessa, and it’s going to be very, very difficult for all the true believers in the Narrative to accept that.

Notice, in particular, that the CIA director who is meeting with Zelensky this week wrote the following to his then-boss, Condoleeza Rice, in 2008 when he was the ambassador to Russia:

“Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin). In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, from knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin’s sharpest liberal critics, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests.”

In any event, don’t be surprised if the collapse and first attempt to reach a settlement happens considerably sooner than anyone expects. Keep in mind that the speed with which these events are taking place tend to indicate that the war in the Middle East is not proceeding as well as anticipated.

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US Casualties in Middle East

It appears US special forces are already actively engaged in the Middle East and possibly even in Gaza.

Five American service members were killed in a crash late Friday after their helicopter had a “mishap” during a training exercise and went into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the military said Sunday. Two officials confirmed that the five were Army special operations soldiers, as first reported by The New York Times and Washington Post. Search and rescue efforts went into Saturday before being called off, according to the officials.

“Training Exercise,” in the military context, is always a pseudonym. The US special forces don’t “train” overseas, unless they are training foreign militaries. The “mishap” was most likely the fact that the helicopter was shot down, although the list of possible culprits is far too long to even hazard a guess.

Meanwhile, Gazans are reporting encounters with English-speaking troops with US flags on their uniforms. Given the number of dual citizens in the IDF, this doesn’t necessarily mean US special forces are already on the ground in Gaza, but it would be very foolish to assume they are not already engaged there.

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Arktoons 14 Million

Sometimes slower, sometimes faster, but Arktoons just keeps growing. Keep an eye out for some interface changes soon, as well as the return of a few of our more popular comics and the introduction of some new ones.

There are three ways to support Arktoons. First and foremost, find a series that is a daily read. Our creators, both Arkhaven and independent, are putting out 4-8 new episodes every single day. There are now literally thousands of episodes available. And for the fiction readers, there is at least one text episode every day – Mondays feature Chuck Dixon’s The Sidewinders, for example.

Second, back our crowdfunding campaigns. We don’t have any running right now, because we’re working on fulfilling our existing ones, but we’ll launch another one once we get a few more of these omnibuses out, including both Midnight’s War and AH:Q. And third, subscribe to Arktoons.

Congratulations to everyone involved, from the authors to the backers, the creators, the devs, and the production team.

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Ukraine Endgame

As US supports pivots to the Middle Eastern front, Russian strategists are already contemplating what comes after the surrender of Ukraine, the fall of the Kiev regime, and the end of the Special Military Operation in Novorossiya.

Immediately after the end of the Special Military Operation, the West will not be able to fight with us. It does not have a trained army, it will not accumulate the required amount of resources, it has no plans for war with Russia. It only has scraps of speculation and guesswork. These three factors make war with NATO unlikely. It is clear that the United States can push the Europeans to take crazy steps. But on the economic and diplomatic front we have specialists who will try to keep them from doing this. And the NWO will lead to processes that will lead to a split in the European Union and NATO. If we break through a land corridor to Hungary, then Serbia will be magnetized to this axis. And it can be followed by Slovakia and Romania, where very interesting processes are taking place. Eastern Europe will begin to break away from old Europe, which will be severely depressed due to the economic situation. After all, Europe is  defeated not only on the eastern front, but also in the global south. 

Consider this: Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia have a combined population of roughly 42 million. This is substantial, it is also a promising market–make your own conclusion. As I already stated many times, Russia doesn’t need love or obedience, Russia is interested in trade with people who still recognize that there are only two genders. Simple as that. Once the land bridge is built, European structure changes dramatically.

It’s unlikely that either Zelensky or the Kiev regime will long survive the fall of Avdeevka, whether it is followed by a Russian winter offensive or not. Post-Zelensky succession struggles have already begun, and as the assassination of the top personal aide to the Ukrainian Armed Forces shows, they are likely going to be very violent and nasty. And the first priority of whoever wins will be to surrender to Russia on the most favorable terms possible.

My assumption is that Russia will not accept any settlement that does not include the transfer of Odessa. And while it is clear that Ukraine does not have the ability to prevent Russian forces from taking it, there is no reason for Putin to spend the Russian blood required to do so when a little patience and a new regime will likely allow him to accomplish his goals without it. This patient approach might, in fact, be a micro-analogy for the way Xi is approaching China’s desired reunification with its wayward island.

The longer Israel is enmeshed in Gaza, and the more US resources that pour into the region, the more it looks to me as if the October 7 attacks were intended to draw the US deep enough into the conflict to prevent its full engagement on any other front. While both the Netanyahu government and the anti-China faction of the neocons welcomed the redirection of the US military focus from Ukraine to Israel, it chiefly appears to serve the strategic interests of the Russians, which might explain why the Russians have been surprisingly inactive in Syria while Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran have all been unexpectedly passive in response to the slow-paced Israeli invasion.

The scale of the global violence may be limited and regional to date, but the strategic scope is observably worldwide. It appears the complexities of WWIII will pose an even greater challenge to historians than its predecessor. But now that the second front appears to have been opened, it can only be a matter of time before the third one – presumably Taiwan, though possibly the Philippines – follows suit.

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A Rainbow Flag Over Rome

Fake Pope Francis is removing all criticism of sodomy from the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy:

Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland, a prominent figure among traditionalist American Catholics and critic of Pope Francis for making the church more welcoming to the LGBTQ community, was removed from his post as bishop of Tyler, the Vatican has said.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Vatican confirmed that the decision followed “an apostolic visitation ordered by the Pope last June in the Diocese of Tyler,” but did not specify the reason.

“The Holy Father has removed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland from the pastoral governance of the diocese of Tyler, United States of America, and has appointed Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin as apostolic administrator of the same diocese, rendering it sede vacante.”

According to the statement, cited by the Vatican news, “as a result of visitation,” Bishop Strickland’s continuation in office was deemed “not feasible” and he was asked to resign on Thursday. Since the request was declined by the bishop, Pope Frances decided to remove him.

Now, I’m neither a theologian nor am I overwhelmingly concerned with the opinions of theologians. Nor do I take my own occasional contemplations on the subject terribly seriously; I am from the “glass darkly” school of theological thought. Though I do have my preferences, as I respect and admire Thomas Aquinas, have rather less regard for Augustine, enjoy both CS Lewis and Greg Boyd without taking either of them too seriously, and harbor naked contempt for Hal Lindsey, Joel Osteen, and John Piper.

The Kurgan makes his pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic perspective clear in a recently published article; to which I may or may not respond at some point in the next ten years depending upon my time and interest.

But, speaking of Roman Catholics, I do find myself wondering how the non-sedevacantists can bring themselves to defend this observably wicked man, whose actions are obviously reprehensible even in the eyes of heretics and pagans. And if the satanic rainbow flag is flying over Rome, in what sense have the gates of that particular church not fallen?

My chief criticism of all theology and all theologians is this: they tend to artificially narrow the art of the possible, by which I mean they usually assign divine significance to one of several possible interpretations of a phrase – often a phrase that has already been translated one or more times – and then deny all potential legitimacy to the other possible interpretations.

To my mind, balancing an entire theology upon an assumed metaphor is a precarious act indeed.

Evil observably exists. Mankind is observably fallen into evil. The world is observably ruled by an immortal being that hates Man, Jesus Christ, the Good, the Beautiful, and the True. Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Living Word, is literally and observably the only hope of Man.

And that is the full extent of the theology I am willing to assert and defend.

UPDATE: An American Catholic emails to defend Fake Pope Francis

I am a Catholic Christian who has followed Bishop Strickland’s movement within the Church. He has been an ardent defender of traditional morality, and Pope Francis has not. However, I cannot fault Pope Francis for removing him. The bishop went to Rome and gave a speech on October 31 in which he read a letter calling Pope Francis a usurper and suggesting that the Pope is the Antichrist. If you go to corporate headquarters to denounce the CEO, you’re going to get fired, especially when you’ve already been given several warnings. Pope Francis takes his role of maintaining unity of the Church seriously, and in my opinion, he tolerates too much heresy to maintain that unity. However, I cannot fault him for taking action against a bishop who basically declared himself to be in schism and dared the Pope to do something about it.

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The Descent of Marvel

Are they really even trying anymore? This is exceptionally bad dialogue, even by Hellmouth standards.

It goes without saying that this movie is going to bomb so hard, it will leave a crater that will make future archeologists suspect it caused the dinosaurs to go extinct. But the real question is: does this mark the nadir of Marvel?

And the answer is no. Because Disney hasn’t shuttered Marvel yet. But they will. Sooner or later, and probably sooner, they will.

Pity the poor Herald, who will watch this so we don’t have to.

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I Read, Therefore I Know

We’re finalizing the art for Books 2 and 3 of the Castalia History subscription, and there has been a lot of discussion for what, if any, subscriptions will be created once the Bindery comes online and the two volumes of Homer have been completed. What we’ve learned so far is that we will be able to offer subscriptions with much smaller print runs than before, which means that we can do more esoteric sets that we wouldn’t have previously contemplated.

But the History subscription is already on very sound footing, and the interiors for Book 4 are already being printed. So, we’re pleased to introduce the Castalia History logo in the form that will appear on the spines of all of the History subscription books in order to set them apart from the Library books as well as the future subscriptions. A more elaborate form will appear inside the books beginning with Book 4.

We would also welcome a discussion among subscribers concerning their opinions on what the next subscription or two should be. We’re presently in discussions with a major publisher that, if successful, will be offered as a separate subscription, and we’ve also kicked around a few ideas among the Castalia team.

  • The There Will Be War series (10 volumes)
  • Thomas Aquinas series (4-6 volumes)
  • Chinese Classics series (5 volumes)
  • Chick Lit Classics series (Austen, Bronte, etc.)
  • The Hardy Boys (3+ as copyright allows)
  • Arkhaven omnibus comic series

Please don’t opine without taking into account the availability of the works. Obviously, we will do a Tolkien series whenever we have the opportunity to do so. Anyhow, if you haven’t subscribed to Castalia History yet, you might want to wait until January to start your subscription with Book 4 so that you don’t start with the second book in a two-volume set. Unless, of course, you don’t mind paying five catchups to ensure you get both volumes of the Cambridge Medieval History.

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