'Indecision and failure to push back against Putin over the past decades has led to this crisis. For years, Western leaders acquiesced to Putin’s threats, bluster and bullying. As many Russia-watchers have argued for years, Putin’s threats are hollow. The tired notion that the West should avoid humiliating Putin — as French President Emmanuel Macron has said — has worked to Putin’s benefit.by archive - Archive
'..Providing more aid to Ukraine won’t significantly raise the risk of a wider war — but it could shorten the existing conflict.' 'Even more urgent than the F-16s, Breedlove told me, is the provision of ATACMS. Its rockets could be fired from the same launchers as the HIMARS system that the Ukrainians already possess. “It would take less than a day to incorporate into their fighby archive - Archive
'Dan Rice is correct. Get the M26 cluster munition for HIMARS into the counter-fire fight to destroy Russian artillery and sever the "land bridge" as HIMARS get in range. And the US has huge amounts of these available.' - Ben Hodges (Source, August 26, 2023) 'But what Kyiv's military needs now are DPICMs for HIMARS in the form of M26 or M26A1 rockets, Rice sby archive - Archive
'BS excuse from "official". They haven't even asked Manufacturer to increase production. "Pentagon continues to resist (UKR requests) because officials fear US doesn’t have enough ATACMS to supply UKR without undercutting its own readiness for any future conflict with China."' - Ben Hodges (Source, August 28, 2023) Context (The Wall Street Journby archive - Archive
'..American officers appear to have unrealistic expectations of what a single counteroffensive operation can achieve. The U.S. should be focused on helping Ukraine fight the war the way it wants to fight, not chirping from the sidelines. .. ..U.S. military experts appear to want the Ukrainians to hold on all other fronts and focus on a single thrust toward Melitopol. Such advice isby archive - Archive
'..In the meantime, everything focuses on those 7-10km advances from Robotyne and other frontline areas. As always, the fighting and the dying will be done by Ukrainians, but the West absolutely must ensure that there are sufficient rocket artillery systems, ammunition, and support to do the job.' - Jan Kallberg, Ukraine — Victory Is Closer Than You Think, August 23, 2023 'by archive - Archive
'Its amazing that Mykola’s clear and logical analyses are rarely quoted in the major western press, whereas failed analysts who have consistently overrated Russian capabilities and damned Ukrainian ones, get mentioned all the time.' 'The one good story to come out of this desperate need to claim credit in Washington and London is that there is now a real awareness that the Ukraiby archive - Archive
'This reality has been opaque to most American military and civilian strategists. For over three decades, the common view of war, for them, has been that war is a rapid, decisive operation, as exemplified in the Panama Invasion (December 1989-January 1990) and the First Gulf War (August 1990-February 1991). Both operations were done quickly and decisively and with minimum casualties. These oby archive - Archive
'UPS workers ratified a massive five-year labor deal that includes big wage increases and other improvements to work rules and schedules, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said Tuesday.' - UPS workers approve massive new labor deal with big raises, August 22, 2023 Context UK’s Fast-Growing Wages Put Another Jumbo Rate Hike on the Cards, August 15, 2023 NY Fed fiby archive - Archive
Something of a kerfuffle has broken out over the issue of China’s economic angst. On one side is Adam Posen, who in a Foreign Affairs article attributes China’s current predicament to the reluctance of private firms to invest, which he in turn attributes to their fears that an authoritarian regime like Xi’s will not respect their property rights and may expropriate them. On the other side, Adam Tby archive - Archive
'(Bloomberg) -- China’s state-owned property developers are warning of widespread losses, fueling concerns that the housing crisis is expanding from the private sector to companies with government backing.' - China’s State Developers Warn of Losses as Crisis Spreads, August 18, 2023 '(Bloomberg) -- Only a week ago, Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co. attracted little notice withiby archive - Archive
'But despite the fall in CPI, the figure is still historically high and needs to be seen in the context of stubborn core inflation, record wage inflation..' - Record wage growth and sticky inflation could push Bank of England base rate beyond 5.5 per cent, August 16, 2023 '..to offset severe impact of inflation..' 'The United Auto Workers is seeking a 46% wageby archive - Archive
'It gets worse. Kirkpatrick volunteered that many of the reports involving “metallic orbs” are based “very much” on “multi-sensor observations.” Multi-source, corroborative data, as described by Kirkpatrick, are among the most valuable to scientists. Yet not one member of the NASA panel followed up on Kirkpatrick’s second intriguing revelation of the morning. Indeed, the chair of the NASAby archive - Archive
'I can tell you anything I like..' - 'Now U Do', August 3, 2023 Context (Project C - Phase II 2022 - 2032) - Eye Opener, To Heal in The Electric Universe '..LPPFusion's Focus Fusion will not be having issues competing for rare critical minerals..' Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Rossby archive - Archive
'The Atlanta Fed compiles an index of core sticky consumer prices - goods or services for which the cost changes far more slowly. In June, the index showed a rise of 5.6%. This was up from last June's 5.4% rate..' - ..A sticky inflation situation, August 10, 2023 Context (Banking Reform - English/Dutch) '..a truly stable financial and monetary system for the twenty-fby archive - Archive
'..we refuse to declare that we want Ukraine to win and we stop short of providing what’s really needed…long-range precision weapons to make Crimea untenable for Russian forces and air power to support ground operations.' - Ben Hodges (Source, August 10, 2023) 'Helping Ukraine 'as long as it takes' is the right approach. But helping Ukraine 'as quick as it taby archive - Archive
'..The Biden Administration has some internal tensions over this issue, even after the U.K. and France provided the cruise missiles. The Department of Defense (DoD) is the main source of resistance to this supply, and its senior analysts, in their best tradition, have convinced the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) to oppose the supply. Even when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the Natiby archive - Archive
'The Ukrainians are now fighting a slow, patient war in which they are dismantling Russian artillery, ammunition depots, and command posts without weapons such as American ATACMS and German Taurus missiles that would make this sensible approach faster and more effective. They know far more about fighting Russians than anyone in any Western military knows, and they are experiencing a combat eby archive - Archive
'The colonel accused politicians of counting coins over lives and considering only the value of weapons provided rather than weighing it against the cost of storing, maintaining or destroying weapons approaching obsoletion. “We received Nasams rockets produced in 1994. In 2024, they will reach their service life limit. The disposal of an Amraam AIM-120B missile is $26,000 to $28,000. It’sby archive - Archive
'“Powerful lessons from Ukraine’s own past, as well as its neighbors’ history and present, have taught Ukrainians that Moscow can’t be trusted,” Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, wrote in Politico.' 'In remarks since the invasion, has said more of the same, giving no indication thatby archive - Archive
'The Biden administration has said it wants to deliver more weapons to Ukraine as quickly as possible..' - U.S. expects to begin delivering Abrams tanks to Ukraine in September, July 27, 2023 'The Hollywood-tailored excitement of the Battles of Kyiv and Kharkiv may have unduly raised the bar for what Ukraine can accomplish in short order. Yet the Battle of Kherson, begun inby archive - Archive
'So-called core inflation rose 0.2% in June and was tracking at a 4.8% annual rate, much higher than the Fed would like. .. Inflation has inflicted much pain Fed officials have pledged not to be complacent about inflation, repeatedly expressing concern over the impact on lower-income families and workers. .. “The reality is that current inflation rates still hold a negative imby archive - Archive
'Once again, the Federal Reserve has underestimated inflation for basically the eighth quarter in a row. They've been surprised on what's happened to inflation, and because they're surprised on what's happening with inflation and the strength of the economy, they're gonna be surprised by what they have to do to interest rates.' - Summers (Source, July 9, 2023by archive - Archive
'..help reinvigorate Turkey’s application to enter the European Union..' 'Mr. Stoltenberg said that Mr. Erdogan had lifted his objections to Sweden’s entry into the alliance and would take the country’s bid to his Parliament for ratification as soon as possible. In return, Sweden and Turkey would continue to work bilaterally against terrorism, Sweden would help reinvigorate Tby archive - Archive
'(CNN) — Ukraine deserves to have NATO membership, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, following talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia said it was closely watching. Zelensky spent this week visiting NATO countries, courting support ahead of a NATO summit in Lithuania next week where members are expected to reaffirm that Ukraine will eventually join. “Wby archive - Archive
'..Many now consider themselves deists—people who believe in a divine being but don’t adhere to the tenets of Islam..' '..With half of the country’s population below the age of 32 .. religious schools are underperforming and have little appeal among Turkish youth. A recent poll found that religiosity is much lower in the younger generation, with far fewer describing themselves aby archive - Archive
'Prof Carsten Welsch, a physicist at the University of Liverpool who lost leadership of a £2.6m research project on a novel plasma generator that could be used in cancer treatment when the UK lost membership, said it would be “absolutely fantastic news” to return to Horizon Europe. “It would be a gigantic relief. It would mean that the politicians would have thankfully listened to the sciby archive - Archive
'In Vilnius, the alliance should launch a roadmap that will lead clearly to Ukraine’s membership in NATO at the earliest achievable date. As with Finland and Sweden, the process can bypass the Membership Action Plan in light of the close and ongoing interactions between NATO and Ukraine..' Opinion | Ukraine Needs a Roadmap to NATO Membership ASAP Any further delay will only inviteby archive - Archive
'Imagine how much more damage to Russian logistics Ukraine could do if they had ATACMS and Gray Eagle Drones...no Russian ammunition storage site anywhere inside Ukraine would be safe. Russian bases and the Black Sea Fleet would not be safe. @SecDef Sir, what are we waiting for?' - Ben Hodges (Source, July 5, 2023) Context (Ukraine needs ATACMs) - Ukraine's Top Generaby archive - Archive
'German industry on Tuesday warned that Europe must become more self-reliant in the hunt for raw materials .. The BDI's Niedermark said that agreement to recycle and process raw materials sent an important signal but called for a similar push to establish domestic mining in Europe.' - German industry urges reduced dependency after China export controls, July 4, 2023 Conteby archive - Archive