June 7, 2022 | by Eriс
A Divided Europe
Europe is one, and yet it is divided in more ways than we care to count.
The countries of the European Union share common currency, common trade space that implies free flow of goods and services as well as commons bureaucracy. They share common political views and aspirations, at least on paper.
But reality is quite different
Not all is well there. The war in Ukraine has revealed fissures and how ill prepared and partitioned the countries are in the face of a common enemy. Each nation has their own political agenda and in many case it is different from others.
(more…)
May 4, 2022 | by Eriс
The Dirty Business of War. Part III
Continued. Read Part I here and Part II here
There comes, slowly but surely, this late understanding that Putin’s Russia must be dismantled. Its injurious policies cannot go on. And as long as Vladimir Putin is in power, the world is in peril. Not just Ukraine – the entire world. Today there is no universal view how this is to be dealt with, except sanctions; they should choke the economy of that country, limit its ability to wage wars, propagate harmful agendas everywhere it gets a foothold – Middle East and Africa; or in faraway lands like Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The Russian Federation spawns wars, political instability, and along with oil and gas exports political pressure; it introduces corruption into local scenes and bribes politicians to accept its view of the world. But they have nothing to offer, except killing, robbing and pilfering. Supporting local dictators is as far as it gets. It has plans for other countries and we should have our own plans, to make sure Russia has no plans for us. No country in the world wants to confront Russia militarily on its own territory and we don’t think it is needed at this time. But it is not out of the realm of possibility with demented man at the helm over there. The world should be involved. This cancer must be removed, once and for all. It cannot be left alone, because in several years it will start another war.
April 30, 2022 | by Eriс
The Dirty Business of War. Part II
Continued. Read Part I here
Russia started this war but never officially called it “war”, it is only a “special operation”. It is for political and financial reasons it seems. If you are a soldier and you are killed or maimed at war, you are entitled to financial compensation. “Special operation” isn’t a “war” officially, thus no money. Putin promised an equivalent of $100,000 for every soldier killed in battle, but many families are unlikely to see any of it. The Russian military was offered, but never collected thousands of soldier bodies scattered all over Ukraine. Reasons? A missing soldier is MIA, and MIA doesn’t mean dead. “No body” equals “no pay” to the family. Money would probably be split up among the generals. A known fact: on paydays Russian commanders don’t distribute soldier funds until after the fighting is done for the day. They pocket the salaries of those who die. Heartless conniving SOBs, if you want our opinion.
Recent loss of “Moskva” (Moscow) rocket cruiser is a case in point. It quickly went under, after being struck by Ukrainian missiles. Its crew and military aboard are only MIAs now, with only a handful of survivors (no more than 50 out of possibly 1000+ people aboard). Russian TV was showing admirals meeting with survivors. The footage was made years before and was quickly slapped together to “minimize” losses to the public. Two days later the subject is no longer front-page news – or any news. Russia uses mobile cremation vehicles, incinerating bodies to hide war crimes. We don’t know whose bodies are being burned. Some people are not to be found ever again.
(more…)April 27, 2022 | by Eriс
The Dirty Business of War. Part I
What we describe below was mostly collected online. Mind you, we have no military service experience, see things through layman’s eyes and have no more sources of information than anyone else. It’s all out there, on the Internet and TV.
As war in Ukraine rolls on, we get a good glimpse of who is who and how things really are. Everyone must choose sides. Almost no one can seat in two chairs, but some try.
For those of us who speak neither Ukrainian nor Russian – Google Translate to the rescue. This is a war of a million eyes, ears and opinions expressed and posted across multiple platforms. Never has mankind had a closer look at war and its consequences. Of course, other conflicts – like Syria and Iraq – got their share of coverage. But the sheer intensity of this conflict, war playing so close to Europe itself, and the number of people killed, maimed, displaced, robbed and kidnapped by the invading Russian forces is staggering. Towns flattened, thousands of civilian people have been murdered in broad daylight by the occupiers. About 30% of Ukraine’s infrastructure had been thoroughly and purposely destroyed (as of this writing). We don’t know what Putin thinks, but we know his country would have a very large tab (probably over a trillion USD) to pay for this party. Just so you know: Germany made its final reparation payments for WW I in 2010. That’s almost a century later. Why he thinks he can get away with it is beyond us. He wouldn’t.
(more…)March 18, 2022 | by Eriс
The Long Arm of Corruption
As Russia’s war against Ukraine rages on, we, in the Western world, begin to see things that were hidden in plain view
Corruption kills.
The Russian Federation had been corrupted to the core and that lead to war. War leads to questions of who is responsible. That, in turn, produces an even larger issue of ultimate accountability. It has a lot to do with propaganda dispensed by the Russian Mainstream Mass Media, yielding perhaps a not-so-strange conclusion: every Russian citizen of legal age who voted and supported Vladimir Putin is responsible.
But isn’t collective responsibility too far reaching? Perhaps not. Let’s look at a similar historic example: Adolf Hitler’s Germany of the late 1930’s. Yes, history repeats itself and if we don’t learn from it, we might be doomed
(more…)March 1, 2022 | by Eriс
I Accuse
We are not the first to say this. French writer Emil Zola used the phrase in a famous newspaper defense of a wrongfully accused person in the bygone year of 1898.
It is now our turn.
The world had been watching a new war for the last few days. Watching intensely. There were and are wars being played around the globe, but none like this one. It’s not a local skirmish either. A war where military might of an entire country is brought against another smaller country. The latter doesn’t want to join the former in a union of sorts. They parted ways over 30 years ago, when the Communist Empire they both belonged to had split up. Both took diverging paths. The larger one took to capitalism for some years, becoming what you would call a modern “western-style” society. So did the smaller, which for better or for worse stayed the course. Not so for the larger country. After toying with “wild, robber-barons capitalism” they got themselves a leader whose earlier life was devoted to preserving Communist rule of the Soviet state.
(more…)January 29, 2022 | by Eriс
Killing Two Birds with One Stone. Putin vs. Ukraine, January 2022
We are witnessing unprecedented build-up of Russian forces along the borders of Ukraine these days.
It is our prediction that they will imminently attack that country. Why do we think so? Because the troop build-up had not stopped for one minute even when talks on various levels were conducted between the Europeans, Americans and Russians. Not for a moment.
It’s all on Youtube. The railroad trains with all sorts of heavy armor, troops, support vehicles and engineering elements of invasion force have been rolling from many places (some as far as Russia’s Far East) to the most western of its lands, bordering Ukraine on all sides. China should take the opportunity to take away some Russia’s land there, as Russian troops have been depleted along its border. We say it in jest of course, but there is a bit of joke in every joke.
(more…)December 7, 2021 | by Eriс
Fear In – Fear Out
Have you noticed just how much fear has begun dominating our daily lives? Not the fear of something that would cause pain and discomfort. More like that primal, innate, evolutionary fear programmed into our brains.
Fear as instinct was given to us by Mother Nature to improve human survival, as an evolutionary tool. Unfortunately, fear is bad for you. Like an acid, it erodes one’s self-worth, deprives you of clear thinking and fast acting; it introduces stress which can lead to heart attacks and psychological trauma. It is also a dreadful advisor at the time of trouble.
We are living through perilous times. Yes, an unfortunate set of ALMOST natural circumstances that just happened, affecting most of the worlds’ population. Western world lost its generally careless, free-wheeling life – where things were simple, affordable and available if you worked or ran a business that paid your bills. You didn’t have time to think about domestic politics, lack of products on the shelves, long delays for something you ordered online, pandemics (“what’s a pandemic?” was probably a good question without a specific answer in early 2019), “woke” pestilence, black racism, perennial guilt that white people must carry around forever. You didn’t have to think much about price of gas or what they taught your kids in school. Neither were you concerned about China, which was another country where they sold you low-priced products on eBay. Marxism was not something to fear – it was just another political theory and ideology from the twentieth century – it failed everywhere they tried it; Marxism had no place in your life.
(more…)November 24, 2021 | by Eriс
Be Damned If You Do – And If You Don’t
As we move forward on the timescale the world divided over Covid vaccination begins to realize that maybe, just maybe, not all is well with the process.
We read someplace that over 7.5 billions vaccine vials had been distributed. Most must have been administered by now. Earth’s total population is only 7.9 billion people.
Most people don’t possess the gift of in-depth critical analysis. Subjecting everything that occurs to them or around them to mental scrutiny is not their cup of tea. They just go with the flow. It is the same flow that comes into their living rooms from TV screens, MSM barrages and peer pressure from friends, relatives and employers. Also it comes from the governments – on every imaginable level. Vaccinate – and your problems are solved. Trust us!
(more…)November 7, 2021 | by Eriс
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Part III
Continued. Read Part I here, and Part II here
After separating from the EU through Brexit, Britain is experiencing gasoline shortages all over. Not enough truck drivers involved in distribution and none are willing to come to the UK from the continent where the salaries are higher. Consumers will ultimately pay for all of it. Formerly employed in the United Kingdom’s economy, Europeans left in droves, back to their respective countries. This shortage is not an isolated event, by no means.
In France, you will have to pay for PCR tests to enter restaurants and other public places. Everyone needs to be tested, but vaccinated don’t pay – only un-vaxxed do. On the other hand Sweden abolishes all coronavirus-related restrictions, after Denmark and Norway.
Red Cross refused all blood donations from vaccinated people. A now-archived document from the American Red Cross (dated June 12, 2021) explains that anyone who takes “any type of COVID vaccine” is “not eligible to donate convalescent plasma” because of the serious risks involved. “One of the Red Cross requirements for plasma from routine blood and platelet donations that test positive for high-levels of antibodies to be used as convalescent plasma is that it must be from a donor that has not received a COVID-19 vaccine,” the document explains. Scientifically speaking, it is critical for those receiving donor blood to have sufficient antibodies directly related to their own immune systems. Tainted blood from vaccinated people does not qualify. But only a month and a half later (public information dated July 28, 2021) they have changed their own tune regarding blood donations. Which one do you believe?
(more…)