$100 billion here and a hundred billion there, pretty soon we're looking at serious money

And not too long after that, we'll be looking at bankruptcy. I gotta say I'm not impressed by Carney. For a supposed financial savant, he's committing Canada to long term spending at levels totally beyond our capacity to pay. This is happening with little or no consultation with the public. All the while, mainstream media do their best to limit discussion. We can debate whether Korean or German subs might best suit our needs, but there's no discussion at all about whether these legacy manned combat systems have any role to play in 21st century warfare. Same goes for warships and fighter jets. What the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are proving right now is that war ain't what it used to be. Big warships make big targets. The Ukrainian navy has pretty much kept Russia's Black Sea Fleet in drydock for the past four years using cheap unmanned drones. In Israel, and in USA's Gulf bases, Iran has destroyed the most sophisticated air defence systems in the world using cheap unmanned drones. Mark Carney is loading us up with at least $500 billions in obsolete technology that wouldn't survive a one month war with Iran, let alone Russia or China. On the other hand, even while our new armoury becomes a smoking ruin, we'll (or our children and theirs) continue to pay for all this foolishness for at least the next fifty years. That will require massive tax hikes, equally massive spending cuts, or some combination of both. It is high time we had a public debate on what kind of a society we want, and prioritize our spending accordingly.

Starmer's Summit of Silliness promises to keep making empty promises for as long as it takes

British PM Sir Keir Starmer only got that job because the Israel lobby in Britain kneecapped his predecessor on account of his refusal to endorse Israel’s extermination campaign against the Palestinian people. As such, he is fully aware that his tenure is at all times dependent on far more than the whims of British voters. Indeed, every “sovereign” nation outside the Big Three exists at the pleasure of their more powerful neighbours. So what’s an enfeebled vassal state to do when world events call upon it to show some spine? Why, call a meeting, of course! And that’s what Starmer did, hastily convening the “Securing our Future” confab in London yesterday. And, while our own PM Fluffy wasn’t on the original guest list, there he was in all the photo-ops, ingratiating himself with his fellow non-entities. Here’s a quote from his official website: “Ukraine’s fight for sovereignty is a fight for freedom and democracy everywhere. The important discussions we had today reinforced our shared resolve: as Allies, we will remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine. Canada will be there for Ukraine until there is a just and lasting peace. Slava Ukraini!” - The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada If hot air, wishful thinking, and empty promises could win wars, the Ukrainian army would have occupied the Kremlin a year and a half ago! Slava Ukraini indeed! Starmer’s coalition of the deluded concluded with promises of allied “boots on the ground and planes in the air” to push back Putin and save democracy. When you read the fine print, this remains entirely dependent on what is euphemistically referred to as the “US backstop.” In other words, he affirmed what Trump spelled out to Zelensky last Friday applies to the entirety of Europe; without America you’ve got no cards. But you can bet the empty promises will keep on coming for as long as it takes.

Canada sends toxic waste to Ukraine disguised as "military support"

It’s gotta be grating for Zelensky and company to feign gratitude for the latest “aid package” from Canada. As splashed all over Canadian media, at the joint meeting of NATO defense ministers in Mannheim this week, our guy Bill Blair was pleased to announce our latest contribution to Ukraine’s existential struggle to save the free world from Putin; 80,000 air-to-ground missiles! Wow! We’re really coming through on that “whatever it takes for as long as it takes” promise we’ve made over and over again since February 2022. I gather Blair would have been humiliated if Canada was the only Ukraine ally to show up in Mannheim without an announcement of new military support. Blair called Canadian Forces boss Jennie Carignan. “Jenn honey, what do we have in the cupboard for Zelensky? Anything left?” General Jennie, recently promoted to the top job after a CAF career on the HR side, had no clue, but promised she’d look into it. Couple weeks later Bill gets a call. “Hey Bill, the cupboard’s pretty much bare, but here’s a thought; we’ve got a warehouse full of obsolete missiles we pulled out of service twenty years ago. We’ve been planning to dispose of them, but it’s gonna cost a thousand a pop. There’s 80,000 of ‘em in that warehouse, Bill. Do the math.” “Holy Mother of God! Are you thinking what I’m thinking? I think we got us a twofer on our hands! We get some nice PR for our solid support for Zelly’s war, plus, we get rid of an $80 million disposal expense! Love you, doll!”

It's down the memory-hole for Ukraine and Zelensky

I just did a scroll-through of the home pages of CBC News, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. There was not a single reference to Ukraine or its president, who for the better part of two years was met with rapturous applause as he toured the capitals of the democratic world in a never-ending fundraiser. Likewise, not a single story about the Ukraine war in the news section of today’s Globe & Mail. A passing reference in a story about Xi’s upcoming trip to the EU is as close as we get. Not a peep in the opinion section either. So what happened? Where’s Zelensky? Is the war over and media forgot to mention it? Have the plucky Ukrainians driven the Russians out of their land and secured the future of the Free World? No. Although none of those news platforms seem interested in informing us, the war is going horribly. For Ukraine. This is a monumental humiliation for the US and NATO. Time, therefore, to change the subject. Move along, folks! Nothing to see here! So, what’s the newest existential threat barreling down on us? At CBC it’s the imminent threat of a bird-flu pandemic. At Fox it’s the imminent threat of the antisemitic, Marxist, Israel-hating, terrorist-loving radicals occupying college campuses across America. At CNN, MSNBC, and in the pages of the Globe & Mail, the biggest threat to the future of civilization is a familiar one-Donald Trump! The brain trust at the Globe are so threatened by the possibility of a Trump win in November they’ve reached Rachel Madow levels of hysteria in sounding the alarm! Four full pages in the opinion section devoted to “can-democracy-survive-Trump” gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. Ya, they warned us last time too. There’s not a lot of folks convinced the world is better off after three years of Joe Biden as the top prop in America’s billionaire-run Theatre of Democracy. So goodbye, Zelly, your fifteen minutes are up. I’m sure you’ll be very well compensated. It’s a shame about your country…

The Holy Grail of air defense systems goes to Ukraine

The news readers at CBC have been referring to the Patriot missile system in those terms. Yup, the "Holy Grail" of anti-missile missile defence. One of the few places where Patriots see action is in Saudi Arabia, who have invested billions in this anti-missile missile system. The result? The towel-heads 'o terror they are fighting over there in Houti-land, who are marginally less primitive than the Taliban who ran the US Army out of Afghanistan, routinely manage to get missiles past the Holy Grail of air defense systems. Hard to imagine this is going to be a game-changer. A single Patriot battery requires three tractor-trailers to move it, and a crew of 90, who require extensive training. It most likely won't arrive before this war is over, and if it does, it won't last a week. But at least Zelensky was able to go home and talk about a successful trip to plead for more weapons from the people who pushed this war on him.

Dead babies shouldn't write foreign policy

The First Lady of Ukraine was in DC the other day, pleading for more war and more weapons. She had some pics of dead babies in her powerpoint presentation, because there’s nothing like a dead baby to roust the Free World from its slumber. Yup, if we don’t quadruple down, and then some, to boost Ukraine, we are standing with PUTIN THE BABY-KILLER!!! WE NEED WEAPONS demanded the First Lady of Ukraine. The truth of the matter is the Nations of Virtue, ie the NATO/US/EU combine, are pretty much tapped out for weapons. The Russians are blowing this stuff up faster than we can build more of it, and by a rather wide margin. It is past time to acknowlege Ukraine has lost this war. It was essentially lost in the first 48 hours. All that our “support” has done is ensured the deaths of tens of thousands of people, mostly Ukrainian. A tear-jerking PR stunt by the First Lady should not be allowed to divert our attention from the reality of this war. These are the best of times for American arms manufacturers. They are the worst of time for the people of Ukraine.

Putin has looted trillions from Russia

When Bill Browder showed up on CBC recently, I thought Brodie Fenlon’s CBC News must be the last news network to give this charlatan any cred. I was wrong. Here he is on MSNBC; Putin's a mafia boss trying to hold on to power. Bullshittin’ Bill has a whole new take on the Ukraine war, not to mention a new book to flog. Apparently this war isn’t about NATO expansion or any of that stuff, not at all. Instead, it’s about Putin the mafia boss desperately trying to stay in power. Hmm… Well, Bill should know a thing or two about mafia bosses. “His” Hermitage Capital was the wunderkind of a couple of Israeli mafia bosses. If you drew a venn diagram of Israeli and Russian mafia bosses you’d see an extraordinary overlap. They had a decade of salad days looting post-Soviet Russia. They originally supported Putin on the mistaken assumption that he would allow the party to continue. He didn’t. Bill got most of his ill-gotten loot out of Russia in the nick of time, and reinvented himself as a human rights crusader, a discredited schtick that apparently still has traction at CBC and MSNBC. Here’s a NYT story about the much-suppressed doc about Browder, The Magninsky Act; Behind the Scenes. You can still find it online if you make the effort. My favorite scene is near the end, where the pudgy middle-age Jew leaps out of his limo and sprints a hundred yards in nine seconds flat to avoid a guy trying to serve a subpoena! Bullshittin’ Bill still bills himself Putin’s enemy #1. If that’s the case, Putin doesn’t have much to worry about.

How I learned to trust the CIA

I’ve been a fan of the CIA’s World Factbook for a long time. I think their stats on everything from GDP per capita to live births per 100k are as reliable as anything out there. I think the CIA is pretty solid in the data end of things. It’s everywhere else they screw it up.

But that’s likely to change going forward. Check out this CIA website for kids!

Gives ya hope for the future, don’t it!?

But I digress. I happened to be rooting around on the CIA Factbook website, and I found some stats on mobile phone use in various countries. I was surprised to see Ukraine, the poorest country in Europe, enjoyed higher cell-phone penetration than many more prosperous European countries like Germany, Sweden, Denmark… well, most of them, actually.

So in a country where everybody can be a citizen journalist, why is there such a dearth of footage from all the resistance that is allegedly going on in Ukraine?

And it really makes me wonder about this story at CBC right now. Look past the spiffy “Press” kit and you’ve got a couple of guys with cell phones. When any of the really dramatic shit they talk about goes down, their cell batteries happen to be down.

Does their story pass even the most cursory sniff test?

Not in my world.

As I’ve said before, what’s going on here has little to do with Ukraine, which just happens to be the battleground the American Empire has chosen to stage its Waterloo.

Right now, Western “unity” is unravelling even faster than Ukrainians are fleeing their country. We keep ramping up sanctions because that’s all we’ve got.

While the woke militaries of the West were refining their pronoun protocols, the Russians were refining their hypersonic missile technology.

Between that, and the fact those sanctions are destroying the dollar economy as even allies are negotiating work-arounds, it’s over.

Which explains the desperation of the hysterical reporting found across Western media.

They know it’s over too.

Greatest own-goal of all time!

A brief history of Sleepy Joe's warnings to the world

As we all know, America is the undisputed leader of the world.

OK, maybe not the actual "world" world, but the free and democratic world; the "good guys." Being global supremo is a heavy burden. It's a lot like herding cats. It takes a lot of stern warnings to keep a lid on things. Allies and adversaries alike need frequent reminders of who's in charge.

Here's the Biden admin warning its Middle East allies not to play footsie with Bashar al-Assad, the evil dictator of Syria. Result? Assad just wrapped his Middle East Friendship Tour of US allies.

Here's a stern Biden warning to NATO ally Turkey to cease and desist ignoring previous warnings, or else!

Result? Business as usual.

Even before he took the oath of office, Sleepy Joe warned India against buying weapons from Russia. Result? India still buying Russian weapons. Also ignores Biden warning not to buy Russian oil by buying Russian oil.

Here's Biden warning China of consequences for support of Russia. Result? China still supporting Russia.

Here's Biden warning the European allies a year ago that America is back. How's that working out for them?

Iran has of course been thumbing their nose at US warnings since 1979, and life goes on.

And here's the most ominous Biden warning of all, warning Putin against invading Ukraine. Result? Putin invades Ukraine.

I think I'm starting to detect a pattern here. Maybe Sleepy Joe isn't the right guy to be leading the world.

Uncle Sam has a serious credibility deficit, and it's making the world a more dangerous place.

Sunset is heading for the barn

I've been retired a couple years now.

Believe me when I say I've had a lot of time to sit on the stoop and watch the world go by.

Back in my pre-retirement era, I used to see the cows coming up to the barn at sunset.

Now, I notice the sunset itself heading for the barn!

At the summer solstice, the sun sets well to the right of the barn, at least when viewed from my perch on the stoop.

At the winter solstice, it's way over to the left of the barn.

The sunsets are inching closer to the barn every night.

It's been $3,000 in propane got us to this point. 

If they don't stop Putin, it'll be double or triple to get to this point next year.

Yet, life will go on, at least for those of us fortunate enough to live in life-will-go-on zones, as opposed to actual war zones.

But, as the sunsets move a couple degrees closer to the barn every night, and as the war hysteria ramps up on my screens every night, I think I'll just grab my vape and a 6-pak, and head to the barn myself.

No TV and no internet out there.

Why is Larry Fink long China and short American Empire?

Read something to that effect at Zerohedge. Maybe Larry knows something we don't?

There's a school of thought out there posits current US policy vis-a-vis Russia so utterly stupid, self-defeating, and suicidal, that it can't possibly be accidental.

They're deliberately trying to crash the US economy, and those of our European satrapies.

That would seem to give some credence to the conspiracy theory the pandemic was intended to do that.

Crash the economy so Klaus and the gang can pull the switch on their "reset."

Alas, that campaign was badly mismanaged, nowhere more so than in America.

War with Russia is Plan B.

Don't know if I buy that.

Maybe America's best and brightest really are that stupid and arrogant.

Daily Mail becomes first Western media to tell the truth about Ukraine War: Putin has won

Check it out.

Nobody can accuse the Daily Mail of being pro Putin.

Yet here we are; a major mouthpiece for Empire is second guessing Empire.

As the reality of what’s actually happening in Ukraine begins to overflow the protective berms of media narrative control, we’ll be seeing many more media climb-downs in the days ahead.

My guess is that the prevailing narrative will linger longer in Canada than anywhere else. After all, we’re proud to house the largest Ukrainian diaspora anywhere in the world.

Unfortunately, that diaspora is shot through with what are euphemistically referred to as “ultranationalists.” From Putin’s point of view, these are the “Nazis” he is talking about when he talks about the denazification of Ukraine.

They revere the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Stefan Bandera. Every year on Bandera's birthday, they parade around in torchlight processions displaying nazi regalia.

Bandera’s OUN rounded up and murdered tens of thousands of Jews, Poles, Roma, and others during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

Their banner is the the black and red flag Chrystia Freeland was proudly holding in a recent (quickly deleted) tweet.

The wokelings at CBC, who a few weeks ago were tripping over themselves trying to link a confederate flag at the Ottawa truckers’ protest to fascism, are now twisting themselves into pretzels as they try to explain away their support of actual nazis.

The uber-woke Brodie Fenlon will soon enough have to answer this wake-up call.

In praise of double standards

Thank goodness we in the West enjoy the blessings of a free press and unfettered TV news coverage. Unlike in Russia, where the benighted masses have access only to state propaganda, we are privy to the truth.

And the truth can be ugly, as the 24/7 saturation coverage of Putin’s war in Ukraine makes plain. Who can even imagine the sub-human barbarity of killing civilians, even women, children, and most shockingly, babies! If there was ever any doubt who are the good guys and who are the bad guys in this world, is has been definitively put to rest for all time.

The people of Afghanistan must be relieved they spent twenty years occupied by USA/NATO, and not the barbaric Russians. We don’t talk about civilian deaths (100,000+) because, as Stalin once said, when you cut down a forest there’ll be a few wood chips. “Collateral damage,” we call it.

Last we heard, and we’ll hear nothing more while Putin hogs the news cycle, is after the good guys left, we seized Afghanistan’s gold and cash reserves from UK and USA banks. Afghan civilians, women, children, and yes, even babies, face certain starvation.

The ongoing Saudi war on Yemen, aided and abetted by UK/USA, has some collateral damage too. (100,000 +)

The carnage continues in Iraq, where US troops remain on the ground two years after the democratically elected government demanded they leave. (200,000+ civilian deaths)

Let’s not forget Syria (350,000 + civilian deaths) in a “civil war” that wouldn’t have lasted a month without the lavish support of the Nations of Virtue. American forces remain on the ground protecting Syrian petroleum resources from Syria.

So let’s not forget who is good and who is evil. NATO officially announced today that Ukraine can stop waiting for actual military support, because this war has nothing to do with it. After engineering the 2014 coup, after 30 years of vague promises of EU and NATO membership, after coddling and encouraging the most belligerent and reactionary elements recklessly and relentlessly for many years, the long-sought disaster unfolding today is not our problem.

That’s how we roll, here in the Nations of Virtue!

Putin reeling as sanctions from heck inconvenience some Russian banks

This is how their masters in the West "stand with Ukraine."

President Biden, leader of the free world, uncorks the "mother of all sanctions," but strategically omits Russia's main exports, oil and gas. Why? Because pain at the pumps would stir unrest among his populace, the vast majority of whom couldn't find Ukraine on a map and couldn't care less.

The raging chihuahuas of NATO's peanut gallery demand a ban on Russia's inclusion in SWIFT, the global interbank clearing system. Today's headlines inform us the deed is done.

Bravo!... well, not really. It's not Russia that's kicked out of SWIFT, nor the Russian banking system, but a handful of individual banks.

Oh wow! That's gonna give Putin pause...

Meanwhile, Uncle Sam's Club is promising to flood the country with lethal weapons. How those are to be delivered with Russia in control of Ukrainian airspace is a closely guarded secret. What we can be sure of is that any actual deliveries will either be seized outright by the Russians, or blown up in their warehouses.

That is of course a moot point for American arms manufacturers. There's plenty more where those came from!

And while the pundits wring their hands over the largest ground war in Europe since WWII, they should be grateful that Putin didn't take a page out of the NATO playbook, and simply bomb the country to ratshit as NATO did in Serbia over ten weeks in 1999.