William Walter Kay, Ecofascism.com
Bring on the Ides of March!: NATO’s Putin problem teeters on the correlation between military defeat and regime change. Lengthening Putin’s presidential tenure has been a supreme NATO objective since New Year’s Eve 1999. Then came the Russo-Ukraine War. Now, NATO must somehow humiliate Russia without toppling Putin.
The clearest, most authoritative, and comprehensive depiction of the current state of the Russo-Ukrainian War is Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi’s recent 4,500-word treatise: Modern Positional Warfare and How to Win in It. Here’s a high-fidelity abridgement of that document. (Western military equipment, endorsed by Zaluzhnyi, are hyperlinked to their corporate brochures.)
Mid-2023 the Russo-Ukrainian War assumed positional (non-maneuverable) forms reminiscent of 1914-18 trench warfare. Positional forms favor Russia. Ukraine must implement FIVE non-trivial transformations to overcome the positional crisis.
In September 1999 the CIA, and allied agencies, bombed four Russian apartment buildings – killing hundreds, injuring thousands. Said attacks facilitated the placement of Putin into the Russian presidency. This isn’t fringe conspiracy. The basic plotline – that the perpetrators were not Chechens but rather some Yeltsin-Putin cabal – is presented in detail in veteran American journalist David Satter’s The Less You Know the Better You Sleep (Yale University Press) and in Professor Karen Dashiwa’s Putin’s Kleptocracy (Simon & Shuster).
Aboriginal poverty in Saskatchewan is well-documented, well-publicized and well-nigh obvious to Saskatchewanians. Said poverty, however, isn’t universally endured. Internal income distribution explains its persistence.
In monarchies, the Monarch is Commander-in-Chief of armed forces. In republics these duties fall upon presidents, as per Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the US Constitution. Ukraine, a supposed republic, follows suit. Pursuant to Article 106, Section 17, of Ukraine’s Constitution, the President:
“Is the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”
Fourteen months into the Russo-Ukrainian War, Russia remains intriguingly parsimonious in deploying its world-class heavy artillery. This might change. On April 3 Russian media made much ado of a ceremony celebrating the transfer of TOS-1As to Airborne Forces. Hitherto TOS-1As were exclusively in the Radiological-Biological-Chemical Forces’ toolkit. Days later a TOS-1A struck Bakhmut.
“Toss-One-Alpha” to NATO, “Sunshine” to Russians, the TOS-1A is an armoured, self-propelled, ground-assault, multiple-launch-rocket-system firing unusually heavy, unusually short-range, unguided rockets with thermobaric warheads.
NATO prophesied a Second Russian Offensive (SRO) on the muddy heals of rasputitsa. Then when queried, on February 13, about upcoming festivities, Secretary-General Stoltenberg imparted: “we are seeing the start already.” The SRO crept imperceptibly. April Fools’ came early.
Center for American Progress’s fav pop-psych term, "denier," best applies to addicts refusing to admit to their problems. "Climate denier" implies the Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming hypothesis is so obviously correct that only the clinically delusional could doubt it.
CAP’s first "Deniers in Congress" report defines "climate denier" as anyone:
The real tragedy is what we don't see. We see billions squandered on wind and solar. Tragic enough, but we don't see the magnificent electrical infrastructures coal might create if similarly furnished with funds.
The world's largest coal-fired power stations, Inner Mongolia's 6,720 Megawatt (MW) Tuoketuo Station and South Korea's 6,100 MW Taean Station, were built in stages as additional generators were needed. Tuoketuo now sports a motley array of 12 steam turbines ranging in size from 300 to 660 MW. Taean's managers topped-up their 8 original 500 MW turbines with 2 Hitachi 1,050s.
Circa May 2021, NATO ordered its Ukrainian proxies to escalate provocations to invasion-provoking levels. With these marching orders came preaching orders from Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia Programme (CHREP).
CHREP prospers alongside the forty or so Russia & Eurasia faculties that blossomed across Western campuses after the Soviet Union's demise. Soviet Studies became Eurasian Studies. The Google Ngram graph of "Eurasia" hits a cliff at 1991. Outfits like Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and Stanford's Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies employ 50 to 100 PhDs each. Combined with Ukrainian Studies faculties, NATO's legion of Russia-stalking professors numbers 2,000+.
On July 9, Britain's largest circulation newspaper, the Daily Mail, claimed Ukrainian officials believed Ukraine was "suffering more than 20,000 casualties a month;" and, currently: "200 troops are killed and 800 wounded daily." Moreover, there were: "fears that the true scale of losses is being understated."1
This casualty count jibes with a June 15 Axios report which quoted Ukraine's lead negotiator and top Zelensky adviser, David Arakhamia, saying:
"Up to 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed and wounded each day in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, with 200 to 500 killed on average and many more wounded…" 2
At 10:40 AM local time on July 14 three cruise missiles launched from a Black Sea-based Russian submarine struck an 8-storey office building in downtown Vinnytsia – a city of 370,000 located 260 kilometers southwest of Kyiv and 400 kilometers north of the Black Sea coast.
In his nightly address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the attack as a Russian terror bombing. He claimed the target was a cultural centre frequented by veterans, and that 23 civilians, including 3 children, died. He implored Western allies to designate Russia as a terrorist state.
Historians will agonize over when the Russo-Ukrainian War actually started; but as Russia’s February 24 breach of Ukraine’s borders has been deemed by our media as Day One, let’s run with that. This makes June 4, Day 100.
Western war reportage can be predicted a week in advance by the simple expediency of reading Russian Ministry of Defence communiques. For instance, Russian news outlets detailed the demise of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, complete with video of thousands of troops surrendering, a week before our media begrudgingly conceded this fact. This time lag repeats regularly, lending credence to Russian claims.
Donetsk Oblast spans 26,517 square kilometres. (For comparison: Maryland covers 25,142 sq. k.; Wales encompasses 20,789 sq. k.; and Vancouver Island: 31,285.)
In 2014 Donetsk separatists joined their northern comrades in Luhansk Oblast in declaring independence from Kyiv. The ensuing 5-month war yielded a 450-kilometre "Line of Contact" severing western Donetsk Oblast from its capitol. Ukraine's army held western Donetsk at the current war's outset, February 24, 2022.
Prior to February 24 both Ukraine and Russia poured troops and equipment into this theatre. Ukraine positioned half its 200,000-strong ground force along this eastern front.
A September 16, 2021 Saskatchewan Government Public Health Measure proclaims:
Effective October 1, a proof of vaccination or negative test requirement will be implemented for all Government of Saskatchewan, ministry, crown and agency employees.
And:
Covid-19 came to Saskatchewan (pop 1,179,906) on March 12, 2020.
This highly infectious, deadly disease devastated 0.05% of the population; miraculously sparing 99.95%.
Officially, Covid killed 658 Saskatchewanians. Persons aged 80-and-over account for 298 (45%) of fatalities. 60-and-overs account for 85%.
"I have no doubt that the scientific and public health officials monitoring this crisis have the best intentions." Erin O'Toole 1
Canada's Recovery Plan, 2 the Conservative's go-to 2021 campaign doc, devotes ten pages to Covid. Under "Beating Covid-19 through vaccinations and testing" we learn:
"Canadians will likely need booster shots to protect against Covid-19. We need to be ready… Conservatives will implement a plan to ensure that Canada has faster and more consistent access to vaccines and that we have rapid access to booster shots to deal with future variants."
Contrast Covid’s impact on four East Asian countries (Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and South Korea) with its impact on four US Northeastern states (New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut). All eight jurisdictions host high-tech societies with market-orientated economies and democratic constitutions. All boast ultra-modern hospitals, medical colleges and public health programs.
Two differences: a) compared to the US Northeast, the East Asian countries engage in more trade and travel with Covid’s epicentre, China; and, b) Covid toured East Asia before debuting in the US Northeast.
Those lucky enough to have read Bertram Gross's Friendly Fascism (1980) hot from the presses have long been equipped with a conceptual tool helpful in grasping a key component of modern society. The book explicates the "complex" as in: military-industrial-complex. Gross's main insight:
"…the military-industrial-complex does not walk alone."
A foundational myth of Canada’s Covid protest movement has it that at some climatic point in this horror-show the judiciary will rush in to vanquish our medical tormentors. A recent ruling by Justice Kirker of Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench pours pails of ice-water onto this fever-born fantasy.
On December 7 the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) et al filed an Originating Application in pursuit of declarations vitiating Alberta’s Covid-related Public Health Orders on the grounds that these Orders violate Charter-protected rights and freedoms.