Cold war 2.0

[Virtual ghost]

The details of what is going on in Bakhmut at this point.
In short: Wagner seem to be running out of cannon fodder.

 

[Virtual ghost]

 

[Virtual ghost]

 

[Virtual ghost]

2023’s most important election: Turkey

What leaked docs show about U.S.-Russia fight for Middle East

G7 foreign ministers urge unity on China, Ukraine

Sudan: Death toll rises as fighting continues

Sudan: Catastrophe was foreseeable, says expert

 

[The Cat]

2023’s most important election: Turkey

What leaked docs show about U.S.-Russia fight for Middle East

G7 foreign ministers urge unity on China, Ukraine

Sudan: Death toll rises as fighting continues

Sudan: Catastrophe was foreseeable, says expert

 

[Virtual ghost]

Erdoğan’s rival hits a nerve with viral election video


It is only about 3 weeks left to elections for president and parliament. Therefore now it comes the top of the campaigns.
However of changes happen in Turkey that will have quite big global consequences. Since this is one of the best placed countries in strategic sense and it also has a fair share of it's own economy. Not to mention that this should make it easier in Ukraine and making countries new NATO members. Towards some this is most important election globally in 2023.



Ukraine updates: NATO chief makes surprise visit to Kyiv

More Leopards for Ukraine: Denmark, Netherlands to send 14 tanks

Under pressure: Austin seeks to soothe Ukraine, European allies after intel leak

Spain’s water war gets political

Up to 20,000 flee Sudan violence to Chad

Tunisia opposition leader to be held in detention

 

[Virtual ghost]

Jens Stoltenberg said that "Ukraine’s rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family".

 

[Red Herring]

Erdoğan’s rival hits a nerve with viral election video


It is only about 3 weeks left to elections for president and parliament. Therefore now it comes the top of the campaigns.
However of changes happen in Turkey that will have quite big global consequences. Since this is one of the best placed countries in strategic sense and it also has a fair share of it's own economy. Not to mention that this should make it easier in Ukraine and making countries new NATO members. Towards some this is most important election globally in 2023

I don't think Erdoğan will give up power without a fight. Yes, the mood is against him, but I won't believe it until there is both an election victory and a peaceful transition of power. He's had years of twisting state institutions in his favor and just might try to pull a Trump/Bolsonaro even if he officially loses. After all, it's sort of become a fashionable thing to do.

 

[Virtual ghost]

I don't think Erdoğan will give up power without a fight. Yes, the mood is against him, but I won't believe it until there is both an election victory and a peaceful transition of power. He's had years of twisting state institutions in his favor and just might try to pull a Trump/Bolsonaro even if he officially loses. After all, it's sort of become a fashionable thing to do.

Yes, that is the risk but that also depends on the exact results. Large margin and tiny margin in result really make a difference in these kind of situation.
However I think it is obvious that my post in made on the premise that things will go according to law. If that doesn't happen all kinds of scenarios are possible.

 

[The Cat]

 

[SD45T-2]

Russia's air force accidentally bombs own city of Belgorod

Russia's military acknowledged that a bomb accidentally dropped by one of its warplanes caused a powerful blast in a Russian city not far from Ukraine's border, injuring two and scaring local residents. Belgorod, a city of 340,000 located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the...

www.yahoo.com

Blyat!

 

[Virtual ghost]

Towards this video the Ukraine is on the move.
We will see how quickly this will go.

 

[Red Herring]

Towards this video the Ukraine is on the move.
We will see how quickly this will go.

It's funny I see this post now in literally the very same minute I see a report by Tagesschau (main German news program) saying the Ukrainian offensive has not yet begun because they are still waiting for some supplies and the ground is still too wet from the winter, etc.

 

[Virtual ghost]

It's funny I see this post now in literally the very same minute I see a report by Tagesschau (main German news program) saying the Ukrainian offensive has not yet begun because they are still waiting for some supplies and the ground is still too wet from the winter, etc.

The problem is in the definition of "starting the offensive".
One thing is charging in all directions and going guns blazing for the history books. While another is probing the defense lines, starting to hit enemy defense lines and logistics from afar, getting the last of the supplies on the ground .... etc. In general it is wise to do second method first and then switch to the first once you realize that your enemy doesn't have things under control anymore. Since with that you just speed things up and fully take the initiative.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I've been making an effort to step away from politics, both out of a feeling that we're in terrain where the paradigms I'm familiar with no longer apply (not all in bad ways), and out of a bizarre notion that things might turn put better if I kept my mouth more or less shut (perhaps people will adopt whatever the opposite point of view I espose is, and I am a negative social media influencer). I can't really recall a single time when being extremely vocal about politics has corresponded with an outcome I wanted. (There are other reasons, also, that I'm not getting into.)

That being said, the idea of a renewed cold war is something I do want to weigh in on. Namely, is it true that it was inevitable? It didn't seem that way in the 90s, so what changed? I was quite young, in elementary school, but even so, it seems like the Cold War was a thing of the past and that this was not something that would be back in a few decades.

And if it wasn't inevitable, who screwed it up?

 

[Virtual ghost]

I've been making an effort to step away from politics, both out of a feeling that we're in terrain where the paradigms I'm familiar with no longer apply (not all in bad ways), and out of a bizarre notion that things might turn put better if I kept my mouth more or less shut (perhaps people will adopt whatever the opposite point of view I espose is, and I am a negative social media influencer). I can't really recall a single time when being extremely vocal about politics has corresponded with an outcome I wanted. (There are other reasons, also, that I'm not getting into.)

That being said, the idea of a renewed cold war is something I do want to weigh in on. Namely, is it true that it was inevitable? It didn't seem that way in the 90s, so what changed? I was quite young, in elementary school, but even so, it seems like the Cold War was a thing of the past and that this was not something that would be back in a few decades.

And if it wasn't inevitable, who screwed it up?

The answer to this is quite complex, however this can be defined through a few vital key points.

1. West didn't do nearly enough to turn Ex-USSR into genuine democracies. So those countries turned into textbook oligarchies where rich people were grabbing everything they could grab. What made things quite unstable especially since the previous system just collapsed. Therefore since there was such a mess people decided that they need a strongman that will make something out of all this. In other words they found him in Vladimir Putin that started to turn clock back as he took power.

2. The west was certain in it's superiority after the win in the cold war and thus it started to do stupid things. One such thing is making rich people even more rich and that was achieved by exporting job into China/Asia. Since the paradigm was that now we are fiends and that we can make global libertarian utopia out of the world. However as US started to leak industry the 9/11 happened and I am pretty sure that you know how that timeline went. In other words US through exporting jobs and military activity has run itself into debt, poverty and dysfunction . While on the other hand China through huge trade surpluses and new technologies has become one huge factory with great ambition to be the one to set the global narrative.

3. All across the world there are plenty of various little or bigger regimes, unstable democracies, war zones ...etc. What makes it an excelled chessboard for the new game of cold war. Especially since many features from the old game were still there. North and South Korea, Cuba, Taiwan question, line in Europe moved but you can still make a pretty clear border line between two spheres, various rebel groups are still in Latin America, OPEC is still there, NATO is still there, Iran is still out there .... etc.


In short it all comes down to western overconfidence and greed. Which made it overlook the fact that they just got upper hand, not a complete and final victory.

 

[The Cat]

I've been making an effort to step away from politics, both out of a feeling that we're in terrain where the paradigms I'm familiar with no longer apply (not all in bad ways), and out of a bizarre notion that things might turn put better if I kept my mouth more or less shut (perhaps people will adopt whatever the opposite point of view I espose is, and I am a negative social media influencer). I can't really recall a single time when being extremely vocal about politics has corresponded with an outcome I wanted. (There are other reasons, also, that I'm not getting into.)

That being said, the idea of a renewed cold war is something I do want to weigh in on. Namely, is it true that it was inevitable? It didn't seem that way in the 90s, so what changed? I was quite young, in elementary school, but even so, it seems like the Cold War was a thing of the past and that this was not something that would be back in a few decades.

And if it wasn't inevitable, who screwed it up?

If you really look, the cold war never ended.

It just cooled. 83 was the Grenada invasion, 86 brought the Contra scandal, when the Berlin wall came down in 89 the media shifted focus a bit because right away in 90 came operation Desert Storm, Bosnia-Herzegovina in the balkins from 92-95, 96 began the Afghan civil war, and you know what happened in 2001, which was used to fuel the Operation Enduring freedom in 03 and we went back into Iraq for them doing the same kind of civil rights violations we're doing today(the WMD's was used in certain aspects of the media to stoke the sentiments that the "bringing democracy and blue jeans to a religiously fundamentalist authoritarian regime didn't bring into accepting this operation as a good thing...) Through all of this there was all the usual at home distractions, The Regan Scandal, the OJ Simpson trial, The Clinton Scandal, Ellen and Rosie O'Donnell came out, Columbine started school shootings, The 2000 election scandal...to name but a few shiny distractions the American people fussed over in the 90's. Through it all the MIC lobbyists and War Hawks on both sides of the isle have been finding without issue billions and billions of dollars on defense and corporate welfare, but not a penny for social programs at home can be found without a cost in blood and souls. No my friend...the cold war has been cycled between the fridge and the heat lamp this whole time. The Real Housewives of Washington DC just arent as good about playing cards close to the vest, and we're in one of those times where to avoid the BIG EXPENSIVE, but not Profitable problems, our wealthy rulers have been inspired by Game of Thrones while failing to understand the subtext, and as the sun sets upon the dying embers of the Long Summer...Winter is coming. The Autumn of the aughts is falling fallow and the shadows of the past are rising. The Cows have finally come home to roost. And sadly many more than need be, wont survive the metaphor.


Peace is a difficult state to remain in. It takes work, and effort, and sacrifice and empathy. Qualities we allegedly value, but culturally since the 80's especially seem to be, in the hallowed halls of institution and power, are treated more like liabilities to be "strongly" defeated and tamped down... Because a fearful population is a desperate population and desperation...is so conveniently exploitable.

Political three-card Monte. Keep your eye on the red queen, Find the lady, win the prize. Just remember: All bets are off.

 

[The Cat]

 

[The Cat]

 

[Virtual ghost]