Thanks Rob, excellent as usual. I really don't get British politicians' belligerence. It's not as if they can back it up with anything other than deception and lies. They really are stupid. Starmer to me looks as big a fool as Johnson, except that he has better manners and is more discreet. Perfidious Albion living up to its descriptor yet again. They keep leading with their chin and are way overdue to copping a wakeup call right there.
Leading with their chin is an apt description that could apply to many European leaders who are poking the bear - especially the Baltic states. Cheers Chris.
The fire department having the same staffing as when the population was half the the current amount, a large amount of fire trucks not in service due to budget cuts, and a 50% increase in service calls due to homeless hard more of an impact.
California water distribution is a nightmare, with the population doubling since the 70’s and no increase in reservoirs. Plus environmental lawfare forcing the dumping of water. It did not impact the firefighting. That was just local incompetence, such as a local reservoir being empty since last February for $130k repairs with a contract not issued till November. And the lawfare against controlled burns. Or even replacing creosote electrical poles.
It is a true statement about the fire design of houses. This is still very rare, but it works.
It’s climate changes fault. Nothing we can do. Favored by Democratic politicians and Allies to avoid responsibility.
The 45 minutes no response accuser is a powerful democrat lawyer, which makes it very powerful. My guess is lawsuits will be interesting. The areas burned houses lots of lawyers.
Back Nato or learn Russian: think the Eastern Ukrainians made their position clear over 10 years ago but were ignored. Thanks for the note on Starmer and the deal with Ukraine. I reckon the UK has at best a brigade or two and would last about 1 months tops if it was in the fight. The UK currently has 14,000 service personnel who are medically unfit to be deployed to a combat zone. The BEF suffered 90,000 casualties from August to December 1914. The Russians would make mincemeat of any British force.
Glad to hear it. I keep waiting for some to publish a decent book on battlefield archaeology for the Eastern Front which is an interest of mine but the amateur guys have destroyed many sites. There was a decent study of Crimea by British battlefield experts a few years ago. The best one is Culloden where they were able to establish that the wild kilt wearing claymore carrying barbarians actually had superior muskets and discharged more ordnance than the red coats.
Absolutely bonkers to think that Europeans are clueless about what the US empire is doing to hamstring them. Their countries are collapsing around them while they compete mindlessly to show themselves as the biggest sycophant.
Or maybe they do understand but are made to act they way they do.
Interesting point. Some may have been bought off I suppose but some simply don't care about the people they represent - such as Baerbock. I'm part of a generation that still remembers the notion of public service in which politicians actually - re-present the people rather than having allegiance to an ideology - such as globalism. Aneurin Bevin was a hero of mine and he believed that representatives should be OF the people and For the people. I think we need to get back to that principle really.
Just reading through the piece. Always a delight. One of the problems with wind power you have up here is that those in favour of wind turbines don't appreciate that you need to then build pylons and battery storage to utilise the energy. They then object to planning applications to install the subsidiary elements along with those who objected to the installation of the wind turbines!. Meantime the lights go out and they complain about that.
People may not know that I was very much part of the environmental movement when we were living in Machynlleth. Green culture was prominent in the town and in the Alternative Technology Centre where many of the Greens live. The big problem was always battery storage and I don't think it has been resolved.
That towards the end of dementia Bidens term they have allowed the targeting of Russian gas/oil logistics after not touching them during his presidency.
Just to mess up the situation further for Trump and people in general.
Keir Starmer is a complete idiot and so are the rest pushing for the UAF to mass conscript teenagers to be used as cannon fodder.
Don't know how people like that Ben Wallace etc can sleep at night.
From what I can see 'reported' Trump's picks seem to be moving towards handing a soft ultimatum to the RF.
It looks like they will be willing to offer Russia the oblasts but possibly under threat of increased support for the Banderists.
Tough deal to work out but Russia is in a strong position and will not be fooled.
The Kursk salient is looking more and more vulnerable with the RF forces probing around Sudzha.
Looking at the map it seems like a lot of the main defence lines around the forest belts have fallen or are under severe pressure.
Thanks for the summary - can't disagree with any of that. The teenager thing is really tragic. There is no point in culling the manhood of Ukraine to extinction when there is absolutely NO prospect of winning. War always wastes people but this profligate level of waste being supported by the West is obscenely inhuman.
There are still no European leaders differentiating between supposed Russian aggression towards European nations and Russia's attempts to deal with just the banderists and their anti Russian culture behaviour.
Just blindly following the ukronazis and dragging us all along with them.
What can you do, when our moronic leaders keep trying to outdo the last woke morons actions.
It is the annoying thing about leaders, managers etc in the 21st century. They are all entitled and want to leave their mark and input their style just for the sake of change.
Interesting demographic for Ukraine. The births recorded for 2024 show a marginal increase from a general decline trend since 2014. Prior to that Ukraine's population growth nose dived from 1989 with the secession from Russia and the crippling financial involvement of the IMF in the 1990s. The upshot of this of course is that the 18 to 25 demographic is amongst the lowest as a percentage of population
in Ukraine. I don't know if the 2024 statistic is rogue. But, the average of a new mother in Ukraine is 28; the average age difference in couples in Ukraine is 3 years; the average age of a French servicemen is 31.
Your writings resemble material I read on other sites . But that may be ' confirmation bias ' on both our parts . For us who see the Ukraine war as all-american aggression the news seems good . But you did not include Ukrainian successes in deep missile penetration of Russia which apparently have done major damage .
Has anyone attempted to quantify how much of US ' media' has made public how Blinken , Biden et al are puppets of jewish control . At a guess , very few acknowledgements on that because of ( ' conspiracy ' theory here ) jewish control of the media .
There were many Ukrainian successes this week with strikes on oil depots and other industrial sites that I have seen and recorded - see section on Ukrainian Missile/drone attacks. You may have missed them. There are two sections to Ukrainian attacks - the first records terrorist attacks which target civilians and the other section records attacks on legitimate military targets. With regard to Jewish control, there are some commentators who believe that the US is using Israel and others who believe that the Israelis are in control. I have no idea who is right. I am not sure what 'confirmation bias' is - so I'm not clear what you mean in this connection. Cheers.
Thanks Rob, excellent as usual. I really don't get British politicians' belligerence. It's not as if they can back it up with anything other than deception and lies. They really are stupid. Starmer to me looks as big a fool as Johnson, except that he has better manners and is more discreet. Perfidious Albion living up to its descriptor yet again. They keep leading with their chin and are way overdue to copping a wakeup call right there.
Leading with their chin is an apt description that could apply to many European leaders who are poking the bear - especially the Baltic states. Cheers Chris.
Both links on the LA fires are a bit off.
The latest is the LA Fire department did not respond for 45 minutes.
https://x.com/stevegrubershow/status/1879529568933126149
The fire department having the same staffing as when the population was half the the current amount, a large amount of fire trucks not in service due to budget cuts, and a 50% increase in service calls due to homeless hard more of an impact.
California water distribution is a nightmare, with the population doubling since the 70’s and no increase in reservoirs. Plus environmental lawfare forcing the dumping of water. It did not impact the firefighting. That was just local incompetence, such as a local reservoir being empty since last February for $130k repairs with a contract not issued till November. And the lawfare against controlled burns. Or even replacing creosote electrical poles.
It is a true statement about the fire design of houses. This is still very rare, but it works.
Cheers Ray - there will be lots of different views on this.
The five views so far:
Local and state incompetence - my view for Pacific Palisades Fire. Eaton Canyon Fire fire I don’t know yet.
Fire was not preventable, your fault for building here. Typified by Leighton Woodhouse at the free press https://www.thefp.com/p/stop-blaming-politicians-los-angeles-wildires?
Blaming water issues - David Stockman
Those that used private fire fighters to save property such as Caruso are greedy https://x.com/E_Barcohana/status/1878515030007656852
It’s climate changes fault. Nothing we can do. Favored by Democratic politicians and Allies to avoid responsibility.
The 45 minutes no response accuser is a powerful democrat lawyer, which makes it very powerful. My guess is lawsuits will be interesting. The areas burned houses lots of lawyers.
Sounds like an interesting issue to study - for someone with the time. Thanks Ray.
Since I live here, it’s a bit of a hobby of mine.
Given the fact that it's happening on your doorstep, it's not surprising that you devote time to it. I would if it were happening near me.
Back Nato or learn Russian: think the Eastern Ukrainians made their position clear over 10 years ago but were ignored. Thanks for the note on Starmer and the deal with Ukraine. I reckon the UK has at best a brigade or two and would last about 1 months tops if it was in the fight. The UK currently has 14,000 service personnel who are medically unfit to be deployed to a combat zone. The BEF suffered 90,000 casualties from August to December 1914. The Russians would make mincemeat of any British force.
Forgot to say that I'm enjoying Hoyt's Stalingrad book.
Glad to hear it. I keep waiting for some to publish a decent book on battlefield archaeology for the Eastern Front which is an interest of mine but the amateur guys have destroyed many sites. There was a decent study of Crimea by British battlefield experts a few years ago. The best one is Culloden where they were able to establish that the wild kilt wearing claymore carrying barbarians actually had superior muskets and discharged more ordnance than the red coats.
Great and comprehensive post, as usual.
Absolutely bonkers to think that Europeans are clueless about what the US empire is doing to hamstring them. Their countries are collapsing around them while they compete mindlessly to show themselves as the biggest sycophant.
Or maybe they do understand but are made to act they way they do.
Interesting point. Some may have been bought off I suppose but some simply don't care about the people they represent - such as Baerbock. I'm part of a generation that still remembers the notion of public service in which politicians actually - re-present the people rather than having allegiance to an ideology - such as globalism. Aneurin Bevin was a hero of mine and he believed that representatives should be OF the people and For the people. I think we need to get back to that principle really.
Just reading through the piece. Always a delight. One of the problems with wind power you have up here is that those in favour of wind turbines don't appreciate that you need to then build pylons and battery storage to utilise the energy. They then object to planning applications to install the subsidiary elements along with those who objected to the installation of the wind turbines!. Meantime the lights go out and they complain about that.
People may not know that I was very much part of the environmental movement when we were living in Machynlleth. Green culture was prominent in the town and in the Alternative Technology Centre where many of the Greens live. The big problem was always battery storage and I don't think it has been resolved.
Thanks for the work and great update Rob.
It is very vindictive behaviour by the neocons.
That towards the end of dementia Bidens term they have allowed the targeting of Russian gas/oil logistics after not touching them during his presidency.
Just to mess up the situation further for Trump and people in general.
Keir Starmer is a complete idiot and so are the rest pushing for the UAF to mass conscript teenagers to be used as cannon fodder.
Don't know how people like that Ben Wallace etc can sleep at night.
From what I can see 'reported' Trump's picks seem to be moving towards handing a soft ultimatum to the RF.
It looks like they will be willing to offer Russia the oblasts but possibly under threat of increased support for the Banderists.
Tough deal to work out but Russia is in a strong position and will not be fooled.
The Kursk salient is looking more and more vulnerable with the RF forces probing around Sudzha.
Looking at the map it seems like a lot of the main defence lines around the forest belts have fallen or are under severe pressure.
Lets see what events happen next week.
Thanks for the summary - can't disagree with any of that. The teenager thing is really tragic. There is no point in culling the manhood of Ukraine to extinction when there is absolutely NO prospect of winning. War always wastes people but this profligate level of waste being supported by the West is obscenely inhuman.
True Rob.
There are still no European leaders differentiating between supposed Russian aggression towards European nations and Russia's attempts to deal with just the banderists and their anti Russian culture behaviour.
Just blindly following the ukronazis and dragging us all along with them.
What can you do, when our moronic leaders keep trying to outdo the last woke morons actions.
It is the annoying thing about leaders, managers etc in the 21st century. They are all entitled and want to leave their mark and input their style just for the sake of change.
The 'Party Line' is that Russia's actions were unprovoked. Only Donald J has acknowledged that Putin had legitimate security concerns.
Wallace and Starmer are tories they don't have a conscience.
Hope you are ok in the borders with another storm. Electricity just back on in rural Perthshire.
Heard a good one the other day that in Scotland we don't suffer global warming we have global storming.
It gives us a glimpse into a typical Ukrainians day.
No electric since early morning but we have camping stoves, candles and an open fire. Update was late going in. Speak later.
Interesting demographic for Ukraine. The births recorded for 2024 show a marginal increase from a general decline trend since 2014. Prior to that Ukraine's population growth nose dived from 1989 with the secession from Russia and the crippling financial involvement of the IMF in the 1990s. The upshot of this of course is that the 18 to 25 demographic is amongst the lowest as a percentage of population
in Ukraine. I don't know if the 2024 statistic is rogue. But, the average of a new mother in Ukraine is 28; the average age difference in couples in Ukraine is 3 years; the average age of a French servicemen is 31.
Thanks for that.
Your writings resemble material I read on other sites . But that may be ' confirmation bias ' on both our parts . For us who see the Ukraine war as all-american aggression the news seems good . But you did not include Ukrainian successes in deep missile penetration of Russia which apparently have done major damage .
Has anyone attempted to quantify how much of US ' media' has made public how Blinken , Biden et al are puppets of jewish control . At a guess , very few acknowledgements on that because of ( ' conspiracy ' theory here ) jewish control of the media .
There were many Ukrainian successes this week with strikes on oil depots and other industrial sites that I have seen and recorded - see section on Ukrainian Missile/drone attacks. You may have missed them. There are two sections to Ukrainian attacks - the first records terrorist attacks which target civilians and the other section records attacks on legitimate military targets. With regard to Jewish control, there are some commentators who believe that the US is using Israel and others who believe that the Israelis are in control. I have no idea who is right. I am not sure what 'confirmation bias' is - so I'm not clear what you mean in this connection. Cheers.
I think we all want evil to be defeated - it's built into our DNA.