Thanks both Don and Tom, just seems like Biden administration was scared to death and decided to slow down support to not let UA win, time will tell us more
Thank you for posting this. It's worth reading, although it takes a long time. I'd be interested in Tom's thoughts on it - and others'. Was the Biden administration perhaps a tiny bit less useless than we thought?
The UK Telegraph has an article about the NYT article. They call it an "investigation" as though NYT has uncovered a scandal. It doesn't read like an investigation to me. The Telegraph headlines it as evidence that Russia was right that it's a proxy war, and my Russia contacts are now crowing that the NYT has proved that they were right all along. I guess half the Telegraph readers nowadays are Russia supporters.
Yes it is US centred and patronising. It also plays down US mistakes and plays up Ukraine mistakes. Does feel to me like an accurate portrayal largely. I'm interested in what others think.
«…which is as disturbing for the Dumpfists because, you know, the USA must now fully focus on ‘containing’, if not outright ‘countering China’… after spending the last 30+ years with pumping so much money and high-tech into the PRC to extract profits from that country, that Beijing ‘suddenly’ grew into the leading superpower. But, no reason to worry: that’s now going be stopped by Dumpfists investing a few millions into ‘arms’. Then deploying these around few spots of the little puddle of water also known as the ‘Pacific Ocean’. Additionally, they’re going to make lots of strong statements, using lots of unusual expressions: that’s instantly going to make America great again. Even more so because these are going to be accompanied with endangering US military alliances in the Pacific, and then abandoning the local US allies to the level where these start pivoting around the PRC» – US policy is generally incomprehensible. No one can even explain this policy properly, because it is the policy of schizophrenics, marasmuses, and gerontocrats who themselves do not know what they want. And that is why US global leadership is no more, because no normal country in the world would count on the US and its crazy administration to belch the next moment. Therefore, each country is trying to make decisions independently and build new alliances. That's why I'm struck by the comparison of Trump with Reagan, because idiot Trump does everything the opposite in both economic policy and foreign and domestic. Trump is a sentence for the USA. The Trump administration and other liberal left-wing elites in the US and European leaders are genetically incapable of pursuing normal, logical, consistent policies, as well as practical and beneficial ones for their countries. On top of all that, Trump is openly working for other states and intelligence services of other countries to bring down the United States. Or more precisely, for the Russian intelligence services, which have had him by the balls since 1989. Also, all this insanity is reflected in the syndrome of sanctions that are in place at one moment and then lifted. However, this can be easily explained. For example, large American corporations come to a meeting with Xi Jinping, where they are popularly explained that American corporations will simply be shut out of Asia because China controls almost all of Asia and, in fact, the trans-Pacific region. As a result, the corporations understand that they will suffer billions in losses. Then these technology corporations come to idiot Trump, who is mainly backed by industrial clans, because digital corporations are now making the most money, but the old industrial clans are still trying to resist technological progress and return everything to the era of obscurantism and religious fanaticism in order to maintain their place in the sun. And so these digital corporations come to Trump and explain to him that they understand that the industrialists are behind him, but they talked to them and also explained to them that they will not buy their products from them and put them in a position. Accordingly, they tell Trump that they will put you in a position and therefore lift the sanctions, because we are suffering billions in losses. After that, Trump, like a dirty dog who depends not only on Vladimir Putin, but also on US industrialists and some other morons who are trying to carry out their idiotic policies in the US, goes and lifts the sanctions regime. At least that was the case during Trump's previous presidency. The US is beginning to understand that China is not a force to be dealt with roughly.This is how the US is flushing its sanctions and influence in the world down the toilet. All because marasmacy does not imply any logic. It is difficult in such a situation of complete insanity to predict anything and explain any events when degenerates are at the helm of power. Everything is happening against logic, because the world is ruled by idiots. These are idiots who received an inheritance from their father and mother, managed to go completely bankrupt, who used drugs all their lives or were with prostitutes in Moscow hotels, who, as a result of the civilizational political vacuum, found themselves in power and rule the world. From such elites one can only expect behavior that contradicts logic.
«which is as disturbing for the Dumpfists because, you know, the USA must now fully focus on ‘containing’, if not outright ‘countering China’… after spending the last 30+ years with pumping so much money and high-tech into the PRC to extract profits from that country, that Beijing ‘suddenly’ grew into the leading superpower» – This is absolutely true, because companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are helping China build their digital "Big Brother" system of control and surveillance. Other US corporations have provided large infusions of investment and technology that have skyrocketed China's industrial capacity and economy. As a result, the US has created for itself a powerful and dangerous competitor that is encroaching on world hegemony, which has become technologically more advanced than the US. The US is already lagging behind technologically in many parameters. China is ready to pay for world leadership, while the US elites, on the contrary, are receding into the shadows and rapidly losing influence. The US sought to use China in its confrontation with the USSR. This was the program of the idiot Henry Kissinger. He was the architect of this idiotic plan. As a result of the aggressive confrontation as such, China did not get out of the USSR, but as a result, China pushed the US out of the first position. In essence, these decisions of Kissinger and the greed of American corporations turned out to be a time bomb that affected the future dominance of the US.
«Yes, now I’m ‘down to Ukraine’. Sure, we’re complaining about Pudding’s invasion, and the resulting carnage (while, at the same time, supporting even more of carnage, and a genocide in Palestine… but, you know, that’s OK, because that genocide is done by ‘our friends’ and thus ‘OK’, at least ‘hitting the right ones’, if not ‘not interesting’)» – I wouldn't generalize like that, because Ukrainian society is very diverse. That is, every segment of the Ukrainian population will have different opinions about Israeli policy. For example, I know for sure that the Zionist corruptor Bibi has always collaborated with Putin on Syria. They have always kept in touch with that part of the financial elites of the Kremlin, who are Jews. For example, these are Friedman, Aven, Vekselberg, Abramovich, Deripaska, Milner, Sechin and others. That is, Israel sometimes benefited from this chaos and genocide of the Assad regime on the borders. The weaker Israel's enemies, the calmer it feels in Israel. That is why Israel, sensing danger from Turkey and Qatar, began to demand that Russia leave its military bases in Syria. Also, this defeat in Syria hit hard on the business interests of the Kremlin's financial elites, almost all of whom are Jewish. Israel and the US are trying to provoke protests in Turkey to thwart Erdogan's plans. For example, as was the case during the Obama era, when the US tried to stage a coup thanks to Abdullah Ocalan. This greatly worsened relations between the US and Turkey at the time. Israel is also trying to enlist the support of the US and Russian elites to ensure its own security. Israel is trying to survive in this region and cynically walks on corpses using any methods. Therefore, supporting or not supporting Israel is not a question here. In the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, there are no good and bad people in the traditional sense. Both sides are worthy of each other and are ready to go to any atrocities to achieve their goal. I personally don't see any point in taking anyone's side.
One moment, Trump is threatening Russia for getting in the way of his peace masterplan, the next moment he is turning on Zelensky for getting in the way of his new minerals masterplan. Nobody, including the man* himself knows what these non-existent plans actually mean.
* if you can call a putrid jelly with 10 functioning neurons a man
Thanks Tom for calling out what is happening between the US and China. Pour money and tech into China and what did they expect would happen after 40 years? Oh, the Communist Party will hold elections and become liberally democratic, of course! Yachts and palaces for the investors are proof of concept. But now they're scrambling, panicking really, using tariffs to reverse 60 years of industrial decay.
Even accumulated over six months of fighting in Kursk, it doesn't stop feeling a large amount of hardware and troops was spent. To what end?
It's my understanding that Ukraine didn't achieve a high enough ratio of Russian losses to be worth the amount of resources and troops expended (approximately 1:1.8, if I remember correctly). But I suppose that an attacking army has a difficult time achieving the required loss ratio (at least 1:3 for Ukrainian side, I suppose)
The equipment ratio wasn't good. The Russian/North Korean personnel losses were heavy (of some indeterminate number). A lot of Ukrainian crew were protected by their western vehicles, but Ukrainian losses were going to be heavier than normal while attacking and retreating.
Dear Tom and Don, thank you! In the meantime there is one more development that could play out these days (or not): https://x.com/sentdefender/status/1906196225046794430
Thanks both Don and Tom, just seems like Biden administration was scared to death and decided to slow down support to not let UA win, time will tell us more
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/29/world/europe/us-ukraine-military-war-wiesbaden.html
Thank you for posting this. It's worth reading, although it takes a long time. I'd be interested in Tom's thoughts on it - and others'. Was the Biden administration perhaps a tiny bit less useless than we thought?
The UK Telegraph has an article about the NYT article. They call it an "investigation" as though NYT has uncovered a scandal. It doesn't read like an investigation to me. The Telegraph headlines it as evidence that Russia was right that it's a proxy war, and my Russia contacts are now crowing that the NYT has proved that they were right all along. I guess half the Telegraph readers nowadays are Russia supporters.
I haven't read the whole article, but it appears to me it's one side of the story - the American side. What I have read sounds rather patronizing.
Yes it is US centred and patronising. It also plays down US mistakes and plays up Ukraine mistakes. Does feel to me like an accurate portrayal largely. I'm interested in what others think.
«…which is as disturbing for the Dumpfists because, you know, the USA must now fully focus on ‘containing’, if not outright ‘countering China’… after spending the last 30+ years with pumping so much money and high-tech into the PRC to extract profits from that country, that Beijing ‘suddenly’ grew into the leading superpower. But, no reason to worry: that’s now going be stopped by Dumpfists investing a few millions into ‘arms’. Then deploying these around few spots of the little puddle of water also known as the ‘Pacific Ocean’. Additionally, they’re going to make lots of strong statements, using lots of unusual expressions: that’s instantly going to make America great again. Even more so because these are going to be accompanied with endangering US military alliances in the Pacific, and then abandoning the local US allies to the level where these start pivoting around the PRC» – US policy is generally incomprehensible. No one can even explain this policy properly, because it is the policy of schizophrenics, marasmuses, and gerontocrats who themselves do not know what they want. And that is why US global leadership is no more, because no normal country in the world would count on the US and its crazy administration to belch the next moment. Therefore, each country is trying to make decisions independently and build new alliances. That's why I'm struck by the comparison of Trump with Reagan, because idiot Trump does everything the opposite in both economic policy and foreign and domestic. Trump is a sentence for the USA. The Trump administration and other liberal left-wing elites in the US and European leaders are genetically incapable of pursuing normal, logical, consistent policies, as well as practical and beneficial ones for their countries. On top of all that, Trump is openly working for other states and intelligence services of other countries to bring down the United States. Or more precisely, for the Russian intelligence services, which have had him by the balls since 1989. Also, all this insanity is reflected in the syndrome of sanctions that are in place at one moment and then lifted. However, this can be easily explained. For example, large American corporations come to a meeting with Xi Jinping, where they are popularly explained that American corporations will simply be shut out of Asia because China controls almost all of Asia and, in fact, the trans-Pacific region. As a result, the corporations understand that they will suffer billions in losses. Then these technology corporations come to idiot Trump, who is mainly backed by industrial clans, because digital corporations are now making the most money, but the old industrial clans are still trying to resist technological progress and return everything to the era of obscurantism and religious fanaticism in order to maintain their place in the sun. And so these digital corporations come to Trump and explain to him that they understand that the industrialists are behind him, but they talked to them and also explained to them that they will not buy their products from them and put them in a position. Accordingly, they tell Trump that they will put you in a position and therefore lift the sanctions, because we are suffering billions in losses. After that, Trump, like a dirty dog who depends not only on Vladimir Putin, but also on US industrialists and some other morons who are trying to carry out their idiotic policies in the US, goes and lifts the sanctions regime. At least that was the case during Trump's previous presidency. The US is beginning to understand that China is not a force to be dealt with roughly.This is how the US is flushing its sanctions and influence in the world down the toilet. All because marasmacy does not imply any logic. It is difficult in such a situation of complete insanity to predict anything and explain any events when degenerates are at the helm of power. Everything is happening against logic, because the world is ruled by idiots. These are idiots who received an inheritance from their father and mother, managed to go completely bankrupt, who used drugs all their lives or were with prostitutes in Moscow hotels, who, as a result of the civilizational political vacuum, found themselves in power and rule the world. From such elites one can only expect behavior that contradicts logic.
«which is as disturbing for the Dumpfists because, you know, the USA must now fully focus on ‘containing’, if not outright ‘countering China’… after spending the last 30+ years with pumping so much money and high-tech into the PRC to extract profits from that country, that Beijing ‘suddenly’ grew into the leading superpower» – This is absolutely true, because companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are helping China build their digital "Big Brother" system of control and surveillance. Other US corporations have provided large infusions of investment and technology that have skyrocketed China's industrial capacity and economy. As a result, the US has created for itself a powerful and dangerous competitor that is encroaching on world hegemony, which has become technologically more advanced than the US. The US is already lagging behind technologically in many parameters. China is ready to pay for world leadership, while the US elites, on the contrary, are receding into the shadows and rapidly losing influence. The US sought to use China in its confrontation with the USSR. This was the program of the idiot Henry Kissinger. He was the architect of this idiotic plan. As a result of the aggressive confrontation as such, China did not get out of the USSR, but as a result, China pushed the US out of the first position. In essence, these decisions of Kissinger and the greed of American corporations turned out to be a time bomb that affected the future dominance of the US.
How dare Putin get in the way of Trump's Nobel Peace Prize. Because that's what this is all about.
«Yes, now I’m ‘down to Ukraine’. Sure, we’re complaining about Pudding’s invasion, and the resulting carnage (while, at the same time, supporting even more of carnage, and a genocide in Palestine… but, you know, that’s OK, because that genocide is done by ‘our friends’ and thus ‘OK’, at least ‘hitting the right ones’, if not ‘not interesting’)» – I wouldn't generalize like that, because Ukrainian society is very diverse. That is, every segment of the Ukrainian population will have different opinions about Israeli policy. For example, I know for sure that the Zionist corruptor Bibi has always collaborated with Putin on Syria. They have always kept in touch with that part of the financial elites of the Kremlin, who are Jews. For example, these are Friedman, Aven, Vekselberg, Abramovich, Deripaska, Milner, Sechin and others. That is, Israel sometimes benefited from this chaos and genocide of the Assad regime on the borders. The weaker Israel's enemies, the calmer it feels in Israel. That is why Israel, sensing danger from Turkey and Qatar, began to demand that Russia leave its military bases in Syria. Also, this defeat in Syria hit hard on the business interests of the Kremlin's financial elites, almost all of whom are Jewish. Israel and the US are trying to provoke protests in Turkey to thwart Erdogan's plans. For example, as was the case during the Obama era, when the US tried to stage a coup thanks to Abdullah Ocalan. This greatly worsened relations between the US and Turkey at the time. Israel is also trying to enlist the support of the US and Russian elites to ensure its own security. Israel is trying to survive in this region and cynically walks on corpses using any methods. Therefore, supporting or not supporting Israel is not a question here. In the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, there are no good and bad people in the traditional sense. Both sides are worthy of each other and are ready to go to any atrocities to achieve their goal. I personally don't see any point in taking anyone's side.
One moment, Trump is threatening Russia for getting in the way of his peace masterplan, the next moment he is turning on Zelensky for getting in the way of his new minerals masterplan. Nobody, including the man* himself knows what these non-existent plans actually mean.
* if you can call a putrid jelly with 10 functioning neurons a man
Thanks Tom for calling out what is happening between the US and China. Pour money and tech into China and what did they expect would happen after 40 years? Oh, the Communist Party will hold elections and become liberally democratic, of course! Yachts and palaces for the investors are proof of concept. But now they're scrambling, panicking really, using tariffs to reverse 60 years of industrial decay.
Thomas Friedman told us that two countries with McDonald's wouldn't go to war with one another.
"No two countries that both have a McDonald's have ever fought a war against each other."
that's a past observation from the previous century, so it may become irrelevant in the near future.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lexus_and_the_Olive_Tree
And even then it was untrue ;)
The amount of Ukrainian vehicles destroyed over that 2.8 km stretch makes me sick...
It is not an anomaly. The posting of the wrecks happens when video or satellites imagery is available to Andrew Perpetua's team so you're see it in fragments over diffent days. Here's a small one less than 3 km from that image:https://map.ukrdailyupdate.com/?lat=51.179316&lng=35.173159&z=14&d=20178&c=1&l=0
Another one further up the same road: https://map.ukrdailyupdate.com/?lat=51.181334&lng=35.148525&z=13&d=20170&c=1&l=0
A parallel road leading into Sudzha: https://map.ukrdailyupdate.com/?lat=51.171675&lng=35.203543&z=14&d=20165&c=1&l=0
That same parallel road, but these are different vehicles: https://map.ukrdailyupdate.com/?lat=51.153240&lng=35.197792&z=13&d=20144&c=1&l=0
I'll combine it all in my next report.
Even accumulated over six months of fighting in Kursk, it doesn't stop feeling a large amount of hardware and troops was spent. To what end?
It's my understanding that Ukraine didn't achieve a high enough ratio of Russian losses to be worth the amount of resources and troops expended (approximately 1:1.8, if I remember correctly). But I suppose that an attacking army has a difficult time achieving the required loss ratio (at least 1:3 for Ukrainian side, I suppose)
The equipment ratio wasn't good. The Russian/North Korean personnel losses were heavy (of some indeterminate number). A lot of Ukrainian crew were protected by their western vehicles, but Ukrainian losses were going to be heavier than normal while attacking and retreating.
Thank you so very much. Again and again.