Tag: EU

War Plan Zero

NATO’s plan to defend the European countries that are actively taking part in its war against Russia is to hope that Russia doesn’t attack them.

NATO countries are not in danger of being attacked by Russia, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a regular press briefing, Kirby was asked whether the US-led military alliance has enough troops to repel a possible Russian strike on its eastern flank in case of a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict.

“All I can tell you is we’ve seen absolutely no indication that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has designs on striking NATO territory,” the spokesman said

While I have no doubt that Russia has no desire to invade and occupy Western Europe, I wouldn’t be so certain that the military with the best hypersonic missiles in the world is going to permit the European nations to wage war against them without holding them accountable for it.

It’s a bold plan. We’ll see how it works out for them.

DISCUSS ON SG

Germany Declares War on Russia

UPDATE: This isn’t an exaggeration. While it is an informal declaration of war, it is a material one by the relevant government minister that will be taken at face value by Russia, whether the moronic woman realizes it or not.

I have said already in the last days, we have to do more on Ukraine. Yes, we have to do more on tanks. But the most important part, and the crucial part, is that we do it together and that we do not do the blame game in Europe, because we are fighting a war against Russia and not against each other.

– Annalena Baerbock, Foreign Minister, Federal Republic of Germany, 25 January 2023

The German politicians caved, presumably after being shown their blackmail files, and agreed to formally take part in the NATO war against Russia by sending German tanks to Ukraine. The Russians have made it very clear that a) they are not fooled and b) there will be consequences for Germany getting directly involved in the war in Ukraine.

Russia branded the move a ‘blatant provocation’, with Moscow officials warning the new Nato supplies will ‘burn like all the rest’, while one raging Putin mouthpiece called for the German parliament to be destroyed.

Around 30 M1 Abrams tanks will be sent from the US, while Berlin will initially supply 14 Leopard 2 tanks and permit other Nato nations to send their own. Russian storage facilities have around 10,200 tanks, while an estimated 3,300 have been deployed in Ukraine, with 1,640 destroyed.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s officials hailed the move as a ‘punching fist’ for democracy, while Russia had warned it would cause a ‘global catastrophe’ and escalate the war beyond Ukraine’s borders.

Today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘I am certain that many experts understand the absurdity of this idea. The plan is disastrous in terms of technology,’ he said.

‘But above all, it overestimates the potential it will add to the Ukrainian army. These tanks burn just like all the others.’

Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Moscow Institute of the Middle East, told Waldman-LINE channel that nuclear tipped missiles should be used on the centre of German democracy.

He said: ‘German tanks with crosses on their armour will again march across Ukraine attacking Russian soldiers. I have a natural reaction to this – the Soviet Union bombed Berlin in 1941. And to me this is a signal that the Reichstag, or Bundestag, which now replaces the Reichstag, simply should not remain standing any longer. Flat, slightly radioactive, melted-down ground [will remain in its place].’

Meanwhile Putin’s favourite propagandist Vladimir Solovyov also ranted over the tank move which he plainly sees as a significant blow to Putin while also being proof in Russian eyes that Germany has directly joined the war.

‘It’s time to send a clear, resolute message that we now consider Germany a direct party to the conflict, rekindling memories of WW2. German tanks appearing will definitely mean we consider German territory, military bases and other sites as legitimate targets. NATO wants to fight in this cunning way, pretending that it’s not fighting.’

At this point, it’s fairly obvious that the Trotskyite Clown Worlders now ensconced in the USA are primarily waging war against Europeans by forcing Russians to kill them. The NATO-Russian war is something of a Xanatos Gambit; while Clown World hoped to use Ukraine and NATO to defeat Russia, their primary enemy, they’ll happily settle for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, Poles, and Germans, all of whom they hate nearly as much as they hate the Russians.

But while the Europeans haven’t figured this out yet because they’re all post-Christians steeped to their eyeballs in Clown World propaganda, the Russians, the Chinese, and most of all, the Arab world are very well aware of who is responsible. Which means that it may not just be government buildings in Germany that experience hypersonic missile attention when the Russians launch their offensive.

As with how the Gamma male who hides behind redefinitions and contorted reasoning to disguise his attacks on others is educated by a punch in the face, it appears the Germans are soon going to be administered an important lesson in how word magic is no defense against material reality.

DISCUSS ON SG

Germany Implodes

The economic engine of Europe is rapidly approaching crisis and economics depression:

The real estate sector in Germany dropped in the last three months of 2022 due to the surging costs of financing and to record inflation in Europe’s largest economy, a report published on Monday by BNP Paribas showed.

Investments in the country’s commercial property sector slumped by 50% from October to December, compared to the five-year average for the period, and reached just €9.9 billion ($10.6 billion).

The sector took a strong hit as investors shied away from deals due to rising interest rates and an overall worsening economic environment in Germany, the survey results revealed.

One of the fascinating things about Clown World is the way that it simultaneously manages to destroy economies while placing a nominal emphasis on economic growth uber alles. The collapse of the Germany economy should be followed, in relatively short order, by the collapse of the European Union.

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Polish Regulars in Ukraine

This news of large numbers of Polish regulars replacing Ukrainians and foreign mercenaries on the front is as-yet unconfirmed, but it won’t be very surprising if it is confirmed soon. It will, however, be a significant step toward transforming what had been a simple border dispute into a regional conflict.

There are no more Ukrainians on the front. There are only Polish there, Polish regular soldiers. And my war correspondents know that. What does this mean? This means that we are already at war with a NATO country. Directly. There are now fifteen thousand Polish regular soldiers there. What if there are hundreds of thousands; won’t we attack Poland; If they push us from there? The situation is evolving before our eyes. We are now at war with the Polish Regular Army and we already know that.

The war was always between Russia and NATO, but if the reports of Polish regulars on the front are true, that will mean that NATO plans to fight on even after the Ukrainian army has been rendered hors de combat.

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The Economics of Clown World

Michael Hudson explains the basic operation of what passes for Clown World’s economic system in an interview:

MEGA Radio: In your new book The Destiny of Civilization: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism, or Socialism you state that the world economy is now fracturing between two parts, the United States and Europe is the dollarized part. And this Western neoliberal unit is driving Eurasia and most of the Global South into a separate group. You just stated this in an interview from November. Could you explain this for our outlet?

Michael Hudson: The split is not only geographic but above all reflects the conflict between Western neoliberalism and the traditional logic of industrial capitalism. The West has deindustrialized its economies by replacing industrial capitalism with finance capitalism, initially in an attempt to keep its wages down by moving abroad to employ foreign labor, and then to try and establish monopoly privileges and captive markets or arms (and now oil) and high-technology essentials, becoming rentier economies.

A century ago, industrial capitalism was expected to evolve into industrial socialism, with governments providing subsidized basic infrastructure services (such as health care, education, communication, research and development) to minimize their cost of living and doing business. That is how the United States, Germany and other countries built up their industrial power, and it also is how China and other Eurasian countries have done so more recently.

But the West’s choice to privatize and financialize its basic infrastructure, dismantling the role of government and shifting planning to Wall Street, London and other financial centers, has left it with little to offer other countries – except or the promise not to bomb them or treat them as enemies if they seek to keep their wealth in their own hands instead of transferring it to U.S. investors and corporations.

The result is that when China and other countries build up their economies in the same way that the United States did from the end of its Civil War to World War II, they are treated as enemies. It is as if U.S. diplomats see that the game is lost, and that their economy has become so debt-ridden, privatized and high-cost that it cannot compete, that it simply hopes to keep making other countries dependent tributaries for as long as it can until the game finally is over.

If the U.S. succeeds in imposing financial neoliberalism on the world, then other countries will end up with the same problems that the United States is experiencing.

Read the whole thing. It’s really good and it even references Crusader Kings. And Hudson points out that the cruelest thing Russia can do to Europe is not to invade it, but rather, to abandon it to the rapacious rule of the US financial elite.

DISCUSS ON SG

EVs Are Not the Answer

Switzerland contemplates banning electric vehicles this winter.

Switzerland may become the first country to limit the use of electric vehicles (EVs) in a bid to ensure energy security this winter, German daily Der Spiegel reported on Thursday. Under the proposed action plan, which is yet to be adopted, the use of EVs in the country could be banned except in cases of “absolutely necessary journeys.” The government also plans a stricter speed limit on the highways. The harsh restrictions are being discussed as the government fears a power shortage in the coming months, due to the country’s high dependence on imports.

And for good reason. Electric vehicles already cost more to operate than internal combustion engines, even though gasoline is heavily taxed in Europe and electric vehicles are subsidized.

“Due to rising energy prices, in some cases, refueling an electric car is more expensive than a traditional one. And if you are recharging not at home but at a public rapid station, the prices would be even higher,” the report stated.

Experts have calculated that the previous cost of charging an electric car in the country was 50-70% lower than for refueling gasoline or diesel models. Now, a full battery of a ‘green car’ can cost more than a full tank of petrol.

The study highlighted that, for small B-segment cars, gasoline for a mileage of 1,000 kilometers would cost the owner €83 ($83). For a diesel car, the cost would be €71 ($71). Meanwhile, with an electric motor, it would cost €85 ($85) to drive the same distance, even though it was only €33 ($33) just a year ago.

It’s time for Europe to surrender to Russia. This is an economic war the EU cannot win.

DISCUSS ON SG

Winds of Change

I don’t think The Scorpions will be writing any ballads if the rumors that Germany is attempting to break free of US hegemony are true:

Solid German business sources completely contradict the “message” delivered by the German Council on Foreign Relations on the trip to China. According to these sources, the Scholz caravan went to Beijing to essentially lay down the preparatory steps for working out a peace deal with Russia, with China as privileged messenger.

This is – literally – as explosive, geopolitically and geoeconomically, as it gets. As I pointed out in one of my previous columns, Berlin and Moscow were keeping a secret communication back channel – via business interlocutors – right to the minute the usual suspects, in desperation, decided to blow up the Nord Streams.

Cue to the now-notorious SMS from Liz Truss’s iPhone to Tony Blinken, one minute after the explosions: “It’s done.”

There’s more: the Scholz caravan may be trying to start a long and convoluted process of eventually replacing the US with China as a key ally. One should never forget that the top BRI trade/connectivity terminal in the EU is Germany (the Ruhr valley).

According to one of the sources, “if this effort is successful, then Germany, China and Russia can ally themselves together and drive the US out of Europe.”

Another source provided the cherry on the cake: “Olaf Scholz is being accompanied on this trip by German industrialists who actually control Germany and are not going to sit back watching themselves being destroyed.”

The borders of the Great Bifurcation may not be what the rulers of the neo-liberal world order believe they are going to be. They’ve already discovered that 87 percent of the global population are on the other side of the fence, and that 87 percent may be growing as Europeans realize that their US-imposed “freedom and democracy” is actually nothing more than a long-term societal suicide pact.

The remarkable truth of the matter is that it would probably be less economically painful for Europe to cut ties with the USA than with both Russian and China. So, the real question would appear to be how intent is China on undercutting the global dominance of the USA.

I wish it were needless to say that a peaceful transition to a bifurcated global economy would be a much better outcome than Europe needing the Sino-Russian Alliance to militarily defeat the USA in order to remove Europe’s subordination to the globalist elite. But history suggests that at least some amount of direct war between the forces of the Nationalist Alliance and the US military in service to the Neo-Liberal Empire will be necessary before the latter accepts the situation.

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French Government Isn’t Vaccinated

Isn’t that just a tremendous surprise…

« Je me suis fait vacciner car je ne voulais laisser le sentiment que je n’accomplissais mon travail en tant que député. Je ne savais pas qu’Emmanuel Macron n’était pas vacciné ainsi que la plupart des membres du gouvernement. Et je ne savais pas qu’un nombre important de mes collègues ne l’était pas non plus. Et lorsque j’ai dis que j’étais malade après la vaccination lors de la campagne électorale, personne ne m’a écouté et on a voulu me faire taire. »

La bombe de Jean Lassalle, 10 October 2022

Translation:

“I got vaccinated because I didn’t want to leave the feeling that I was not doing my job as a deputy. I didn’t know that Emmanuel Macron was not vaccinated and neither were most members of the government. And I did not know that a significant number of my colleagues were not vaccinated either. And when I said that I was sick after the vaccination during the election campaign, nobody listened to me and they wanted to silence me.”

Somehow, I doubt it’s only the French government officials who weren’t vaccinated.

UPDATE: In COVID hearing, #Pfizer director admits: #vaccine was never tested on preventing transmission. “Get vaccinated for others” was always a lie.

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A Forward and Fragile Defense

The Germany Army has been effectively disarmed:

The German Army has enough ammunition for only one or two days of warfare, the German edition of news website Business Insider (BI) reported on Saturday, citing defense industry and parliamentary sources. According to BI, Berlin is significantly lagging behind the NATO requirement of maintaining stocks for at least 30 days of fighting. It was said that the problem “has been known for years,” as military drills have suffered from insufficient stores.

Stockpiles were further depleted after Germany, together with many other Western countries, began sending weapons and ammunition to Ukraine after Russia launched its military operation in the neighboring state in February. The deliveries included 53,000 rounds for self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, 21.8 million rounds for firearms, and 50 bunker-buster missiles, according to the German government.

The situation with the shortage “will not improve if ammunition is removed from the Bundeswehr stocks, while corresponding orders are not placed on the defense industry at the same time,” Hans Christoph Atzpodien, CEO of the German Security and Defense Industry Association (BDSV), told BI. The outlet’s sources, meanwhile, were quoted as saying that there have been “no significant orders” for defense companies to produce more armaments.

It appears Russia can roll over not only Ukraine and Eastern Europe, but Western Europe as well, if it happens to see fit once the inevitable winter offensive starts.

Duolingo has a Russian option, right?

DISCUSS ON SG

Unequivocal Motive

The US State Department publicly threatened to destroy Nord Stream 2 back in January 2022, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine even began.

State Dept vows Nord Stream 2 will be a ‘hunk of metal at bottom of the ocean’ if Russia invades Ukraine

The State Department on Thursday unequivocally warned that if Russia invades Ukraine the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will sit unused at the bottom of the ocean.

By Caitlin McFall

Updated Jan. 27, 2022 08:24 PM

The State Department on Thursday unequivocally warned that if Russia invades Ukraine the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will sit unused at the bottom of the ocean.

The controversial pipeline has become the U.S. and NATO’s biggest bargaining chip in its attempts to preserve Kyiv’s sovereignty.

But reporters questioned the diplomatic agency on whether Germany, which would profit from the functioning pipeline, is on the same page when it comes to countering a Russian incursion.

“We continue to have strong, clear communication with our German allies,” Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said. “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”

Her comments echoed those made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this week, but reporters pushed back on the ability to enforce this threat given the pipeline’s physical completion.

It’s 100-percent certain that the pipelines were destroyed on the orders of the US government, and most likely, by US military forces. And this unprecedented action unequivocally provides a legitimate basis for a declaration of war on the United States by Russia and by Germany.

And just to add to the gravity of the situation, Germany is on the hook to pay for the gas whether it receives it or not.

Germany is contractually obligated to purchase at least 40 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year until 2030. Just say no? They can’t: Gazprom is legally entitled to get paid even without shipping gas. That’s the spirit of a long-term contract. And it’s already happening: because of sanctions, Berlin does not get all the gas it needs but still needs to pay.