Are you wondering why, considering the strikes on Russian Jets were 18 months in the planning, that Russian intel did not pick up on what was being planned? Perhaps they did.
NewRules reported that:
"Zelensky’s "18-month masterstroke" looks more like an amateur miscalculation—Ukraine targeted scrap metal, not Russia’s active bomber fleet.
🔥THE REALITY:
🔸 Russia operates ~60 Tu-95MS bombers—the rest (140+) are stripped-down hulks in open storage.
🔸Ukraine assumed operational jets would be left exposed while retired ones were hidden. WRONG. Russia stores both outside.
🔸 Drone footage shows strikes on engine-less A-50s & no fires—proof they hit empty "Christmas Trees," not fueled bombers."
Russia's considerable retaliation, with drones, was for the train terrorist attacks.
Then there is the continuing US hubris, and Trump's delusions. Does anyone seriously think that Putin would do what the US tries to do, and order Iran not to enrich uranium? Iran is producing ground-breaking cancer treatments with its nuclear medicine THAT is a major reason for their nuclear program to be continued.
The US hubris was added to by Pete Hegseth this week, who declared that Australia had to greatly increase its defence budget, presumably by buying more inferior US military rubbish. Australia generally goes All the Way With the USA, but the PM finally said Ya-Boo-Sucks to that.
Meanwhile Medvedev continues his acid outpourings on the Ukraine war and Zelensky in particular. His nicknames for the Cocaine Comedian are a hoot.
Thanks Rob for a great round-up of the interesting times that we live in.
I'd like to call attention to a recent event: a van hauling a trailer full of drones was stopped by Russian police near Moscow, some two weeks ago. It turned out that it was a vehicle belonging to a Russian private contractor working for the military, and both the van and the drones were legit.
At that time the cops were soundly laughed off for their mistake; some of the commenters took part in the ribbing (I am happy to say that I did not). But now I think that perhaps the cops were acting on a tip; perhaps the FSB had learned something about the Ukrainian project, but not quite enough, and law enforcement were encouraged to make stops like that. Puts the matter in a whole new light, doesn't it? Note that some of the drone transports didn't make it, for some reason.
By the evening of June 8, the Liberty -- which was armed with only a handful of .50-caliber machine guns -- was nearly sunk. A barrage of torpedoes slammed into the ship's hull as Israeli aircraft dropped napalm and strafed her deck repeatedly. The attack lasted two hours, according to Bowen.
Dozens of Americans were dead, and the questions of why and how hung over the survivors, and public and defense officials in the wake of the attack and the brief war.
Barely 20 days later, the Navy said it had an answer to what had happened or, rather, a partial one: The Liberty was doing its duty, the attack was unprovoked, Israel had "ample time" to identify the ship, but the U.S. could not identify the reason for the attack, according to a 1967 Department of Defense press release. The U.S. government has never publicly blamed Israel for anything other than an accident.
The Liberty's survivors say that Israel had to have known that the vessel was American -- flying an American flag -- and the attack was made without warning or justification.
In 2005, the USS Liberty Veterans Association submitted a report to the DoD asking for a formal investigation, unsatisfied by the Navy's 1967 inquiry. The report, summarized by the survivors, in part said that their radios were jammed, preventing distress frequencies from reaching superiors; the Israeli aircraft attacking the Liberty were unmarked; and the planes deliberately strafed their life rafts, anticipating that the sailors would abandon ship.
Western leadership incrementally but relentlessly moves the policy trajectory away from the will of its citizens. This divergence is looking like the definitive problem of the coming years and won't be easy to reverse. Hopefully financial default comes before horrendous defeat in battle. Jeffery Sachs and Glenn Diesen posted a good discussion about this. Sachs says its the growing control of intelligence agencies that is behind this drift and I agree with him.
I think it was Orlov who said that Rogue elements in the CIA/MI6/Mossad maybe behind much of this. I am optimistic that the people in Europe will resist the build up to war especially if cuts have to be made to build the war machine.
The amazing resilience of these hawkish narratives originate from a European world view and is not far from the realist approch espoused by Machiavelli in The Prince. The dollar system provides the fuel so that poor countries lend the West money to oppress them. Let's hope the foundation and plumbing of this construction crumble as painlessly as possible.
I studied Machiavelli a long time ago - still have a copy of The Prince. Have you seen Alex Krainer on the remnants of the British Empire and the banks. He discussed it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqFThobu8TE
Yeah, I get his updates. He has his narrative which is deeply anti-UK and designed to sell his service. I have been following doomer culture for 20years and have gotten used to urgent prognostication. I feel like the massive inertia of the Western financial system will prevent too dramatic a collapse but the brakes that are used to slow the downfall will impoverish the middle class.
Man, not sure about "incrementally". Persecuting russian-speaking latvians, claiming russia is going to invade europe at any minute, reversing elections that don't go as planned, declaring nationalist parties as far-right, etc..
I didn't realize the rape of German science after WWI which got the USA into world wide level science. Then there was Operation Paperclip and the transfer of Nazi science and other science around the world. This is the ongoing Nazi support in the West which is seen in Ukraine today. Finally a discussion about education in the US which is a political issue, not fundamental to the country.
In another article, he describes how South Korea barely survived not being a US vassal like Ukraine and being set up as Ukraine in Asia to combat China. Not covered in this article, something that I only saw once in a video, is the US political take over of Taiwan to become a Ukraine against China. Have others seen this?
"Warmongers Get A Win In Romania, A Small Loss in Poland, And A Big Loss In South Korea
Thanks for slogging through this again this week, Rob. How demoralizing it must be.
The West is led by a group of blatant and insufferable incompetents.
How on earth can these idiots be allowed to stand up in public and pronounce obvious falsehoods and outright fabrications (see lindsey graham, this kemp idiot, baerbock, rutte and the rest of 'em).
Ukrainian terrorists kill innocent russian civilians daily and the ROW says fuck all.
Larry Johnson in a video this morning. Russia changed from SMO to Counter Terrorism position which is a major step of enlarging internal Russian legal actions in the war in Ukraine. I think the next escalation would be to call their actions a Wwar.
I think that he 2+ hour meeting before the formal "peace talks" meeting in Turkey between principals from Russia and Ukraine in which Russia told Ukraine, once again, that the settlement now is the best one that they could get and if not now, Ukraine will loose much more.
From most of the sources I have read it looks like Russia pretty much got away with the drone strike on its airbases. Some pride and a few planes lost but most of all lessons will be learned and punishment swift.
Definitely looks like any peace now will hinge on the removal of the banderist/ terrorist regime.
The attack on the railway bridges and civilian casualties caused is a sign of things to come if any territories are ceded to Russia.
Full recognition of Donbass etc as part of Russia by the UN would not be accepted by the banderists and no-one could live in peace after so much blood shed already.
That Lindsey Graham is a nasty piece of work,
Does anyone remember his statements on Ukraine and its resources?
Are you wondering why, considering the strikes on Russian Jets were 18 months in the planning, that Russian intel did not pick up on what was being planned? Perhaps they did.
NewRules reported that:
"Zelensky’s "18-month masterstroke" looks more like an amateur miscalculation—Ukraine targeted scrap metal, not Russia’s active bomber fleet.
🔥THE REALITY:
🔸 Russia operates ~60 Tu-95MS bombers—the rest (140+) are stripped-down hulks in open storage.
🔸Ukraine assumed operational jets would be left exposed while retired ones were hidden. WRONG. Russia stores both outside.
🔸 Drone footage shows strikes on engine-less A-50s & no fires—proof they hit empty "Christmas Trees," not fueled bombers."
Russia's considerable retaliation, with drones, was for the train terrorist attacks.
Then there is the continuing US hubris, and Trump's delusions. Does anyone seriously think that Putin would do what the US tries to do, and order Iran not to enrich uranium? Iran is producing ground-breaking cancer treatments with its nuclear medicine THAT is a major reason for their nuclear program to be continued.
The US hubris was added to by Pete Hegseth this week, who declared that Australia had to greatly increase its defence budget, presumably by buying more inferior US military rubbish. Australia generally goes All the Way With the USA, but the PM finally said Ya-Boo-Sucks to that.
Meanwhile Medvedev continues his acid outpourings on the Ukraine war and Zelensky in particular. His nicknames for the Cocaine Comedian are a hoot.
Thanks Rob for a great round-up of the interesting times that we live in.
I'd like to call attention to a recent event: a van hauling a trailer full of drones was stopped by Russian police near Moscow, some two weeks ago. It turned out that it was a vehicle belonging to a Russian private contractor working for the military, and both the van and the drones were legit.
Link to article: https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/putin-trump-phone-call-deadend-afu (scroll about halfway down)
At that time the cops were soundly laughed off for their mistake; some of the commenters took part in the ribbing (I am happy to say that I did not). But now I think that perhaps the cops were acting on a tip; perhaps the FSB had learned something about the Ukrainian project, but not quite enough, and law enforcement were encouraged to make stops like that. Puts the matter in a whole new light, doesn't it? Note that some of the drone transports didn't make it, for some reason.
Cheers for that Ralf.
Many thanks for that Joy - there's lot I didn't know there. You are right, from the footage I've seen none of them exploded.
you dhold post a remeberence:
By the evening of June 8, the Liberty -- which was armed with only a handful of .50-caliber machine guns -- was nearly sunk. A barrage of torpedoes slammed into the ship's hull as Israeli aircraft dropped napalm and strafed her deck repeatedly. The attack lasted two hours, according to Bowen.
Dozens of Americans were dead, and the questions of why and how hung over the survivors, and public and defense officials in the wake of the attack and the brief war.
Barely 20 days later, the Navy said it had an answer to what had happened or, rather, a partial one: The Liberty was doing its duty, the attack was unprovoked, Israel had "ample time" to identify the ship, but the U.S. could not identify the reason for the attack, according to a 1967 Department of Defense press release. The U.S. government has never publicly blamed Israel for anything other than an accident.
The Liberty's survivors say that Israel had to have known that the vessel was American -- flying an American flag -- and the attack was made without warning or justification.
In 2005, the USS Liberty Veterans Association submitted a report to the DoD asking for a formal investigation, unsatisfied by the Navy's 1967 inquiry. The report, summarized by the survivors, in part said that their radios were jammed, preventing distress frequencies from reaching superiors; the Israeli aircraft attacking the Liberty were unmarked; and the planes deliberately strafed their life rafts, anticipating that the sailors would abandon ship.
Cheers George
Western leadership incrementally but relentlessly moves the policy trajectory away from the will of its citizens. This divergence is looking like the definitive problem of the coming years and won't be easy to reverse. Hopefully financial default comes before horrendous defeat in battle. Jeffery Sachs and Glenn Diesen posted a good discussion about this. Sachs says its the growing control of intelligence agencies that is behind this drift and I agree with him.
I think it was Orlov who said that Rogue elements in the CIA/MI6/Mossad maybe behind much of this. I am optimistic that the people in Europe will resist the build up to war especially if cuts have to be made to build the war machine.
The amazing resilience of these hawkish narratives originate from a European world view and is not far from the realist approch espoused by Machiavelli in The Prince. The dollar system provides the fuel so that poor countries lend the West money to oppress them. Let's hope the foundation and plumbing of this construction crumble as painlessly as possible.
I studied Machiavelli a long time ago - still have a copy of The Prince. Have you seen Alex Krainer on the remnants of the British Empire and the banks. He discussed it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqFThobu8TE
Yeah, I get his updates. He has his narrative which is deeply anti-UK and designed to sell his service. I have been following doomer culture for 20years and have gotten used to urgent prognostication. I feel like the massive inertia of the Western financial system will prevent too dramatic a collapse but the brakes that are used to slow the downfall will impoverish the middle class.
Man, not sure about "incrementally". Persecuting russian-speaking latvians, claiming russia is going to invade europe at any minute, reversing elections that don't go as planned, declaring nationalist parties as far-right, etc..
They are all in on authoritarianism, blatantly.
Two recent posts by the Canadian geopolitical and economic analyst Roger Boyd.
Make America Dumb Again
https://rogerboyd.substack.com/p/make-america-dumb-again
I didn't realize the rape of German science after WWI which got the USA into world wide level science. Then there was Operation Paperclip and the transfer of Nazi science and other science around the world. This is the ongoing Nazi support in the West which is seen in Ukraine today. Finally a discussion about education in the US which is a political issue, not fundamental to the country.
In another article, he describes how South Korea barely survived not being a US vassal like Ukraine and being set up as Ukraine in Asia to combat China. Not covered in this article, something that I only saw once in a video, is the US political take over of Taiwan to become a Ukraine against China. Have others seen this?
"Warmongers Get A Win In Romania, A Small Loss in Poland, And A Big Loss In South Korea
Roger Boyd
Jun 05, 2025"
https://rogerboyd.substack.com/p/warmongers-get-a-win-in-romania-a
Thanks Don
Thanks Rob, so much stuff happening. These are definitely the months when decades happen.
True
Thanks for slogging through this again this week, Rob. How demoralizing it must be.
The West is led by a group of blatant and insufferable incompetents.
How on earth can these idiots be allowed to stand up in public and pronounce obvious falsehoods and outright fabrications (see lindsey graham, this kemp idiot, baerbock, rutte and the rest of 'em).
Ukrainian terrorists kill innocent russian civilians daily and the ROW says fuck all.
Larry Johnson in a video this morning. Russia changed from SMO to Counter Terrorism position which is a major step of enlarging internal Russian legal actions in the war in Ukraine. I think the next escalation would be to call their actions a Wwar.
I think that he 2+ hour meeting before the formal "peace talks" meeting in Turkey between principals from Russia and Ukraine in which Russia told Ukraine, once again, that the settlement now is the best one that they could get and if not now, Ukraine will loose much more.
https://sonar21.com/russia-is-in-no-rush-to-retaliate/
One of my substack feeds said that Russia also offered Ukraine a second option which included terms and Donbass and Crimea to Russia only.
It doesn't really matter if true or not because the banderist wont accept either of the options anyway.
I think there will be a lot more decapitation strikes coming in the near future.
Great update as usual Rob. Well what is to do?
From most of the sources I have read it looks like Russia pretty much got away with the drone strike on its airbases. Some pride and a few planes lost but most of all lessons will be learned and punishment swift.
Definitely looks like any peace now will hinge on the removal of the banderist/ terrorist regime.
The attack on the railway bridges and civilian casualties caused is a sign of things to come if any territories are ceded to Russia.
Full recognition of Donbass etc as part of Russia by the UN would not be accepted by the banderists and no-one could live in peace after so much blood shed already.
That Lindsey Graham is a nasty piece of work,
Does anyone remember his statements on Ukraine and its resources?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/npDqU47qZ7s
Even a retired British colonel (appropriately named) stated that the UK should help Ukraine get nuclear weapons.
https://en.iz.ru/en/1896249/2025-05-31/british-colonel-called-ukraines-support-developing-nuclear-weapons
Yes, the collective West are in it for the long haul.
Tricky one for Russia!
Israel's zionist genocidal behaviour is, as usual, evil.
The Trump Musk breakup introduces more volatility into World affairs as 2 of the biggest ego led man children go head to head.
I wonder what our idiot leaders will do next week?
Thanks Vova - I've seen the video posted a few times along with reports on these actions by civilians. I think they are real.
thank you!