Marco thanks for your honesty. In this 5 chess Putin good Biden bad your are a trulyu voice of reason. I have been following your work since 24 February and all your analysis proved to be precise. Please do more podcasts.
Rolo was on a roll on this, lots of interesting insights without the afterthought of having to host the podcast on his own blog.
Too many things to comment on, which sadly most I have forgotten of as conversation shifted to other topics.
On Putin, I think he does his best. Let's not forget he has been playing what amounts to the highest stakes poker game on this planet for how long? A decade? Objectively, he won most of the games so far. He checkmated the Americans in Syria, because Assad is still there. True he got outplayed at Maidan, but stopped dead any rerun of that in Byelorussia and Kazakhstan. He made inroads with the German industry with the will of the German government (Merkel) set against increased economical synergy with Russia. He was instrumental with creating the SCO Eurasian alternative (not the greatest fan of it) to the globalized system centred on control of the seas by the US navy. He got to the point he freaking started a conventional war by military invading the Ukraine, something simply unthinkable up to just this past January. Conventional media vilified him as they did to no one these past 80 years: he really got them mad, a sign he must be doing something right. One is led to predict we won't be able to speak about him without violating some future hate speech law in a generation of two.
Yes he is tentative and overcautious, to the point of getting taunted by internet amateur pundits, because any rush decision could spell his demise. Saddam style demise.
Telling the tale that the Kiev blitz of Feb-March was a feint to divert enemy troops from the Donbass, that one is 5D chess nonsense. Retreating 10 km from Davydov Brod, or letting the bridge bombing go unavenged are just military setbacks you have to regroup from, not repay tit-for-tat, if it's overly taxing for your resources to get some PR ephemeral victory.
Or do I need to remind you that Russians, just like us, green-light their undertakings after weighting them against linear programming charts, and evaluating min-max solutions of outcomes https://youtu.be/yuBe93FMiJc?t=173
.. and yes as Riley keeps saying in earnest, war is bad, mass death is horrific. We were constantly reminded that all the time. Any whiff of "my group against yours" leads to genocide, never even think about it. And yet here they are, preaching that "they won't stop anyone who wants to travel to Ukraine and help with the cause". Then those volunteers die like flies (how many deaths so far in Ukraine, any idea? 20-30,000?), even manage to record their own death with go-pro, and - least but not last - internet people unanimously comment cheerfully at their demise. Latest one https://odysee.com/@Velyaminov:a/he-last-battle-of-the-Belarusian-militant-group--Volad-:2
On the other hand sometimes time spent in the killing zone beyond the front line can just result in the loss of a limb or two. In that case you get to cheer up and smile like a simpleton, and you will also get a medal and an official pardon, because of course they care about you https://southfront.org/russian-prisoners-on-front-lines-fighting-to-deserve-pardon-and-honor/
Vertigo Politix tells us that the highest freedom lies in the manly instincts that celebrate war and winning. These should dominate other instincts like that for happiness, something quite contemptible and observed in grocers, Christians, cows, women, Englishmen, and sundry wretched human types https://odysee.com/@VertigoPolitix:5/What-Freedom-Must-Become-1:d
The ideal that war and hardships are indispensable to shake societies and individual men, respectively, from the listless malaise of life devoted to business still stand. The everlasting fascination most have with weapons and tactics won't fade either. But undeniably the real thing is horrendous to watch, even just from one's own armchair. Imagine to feel it, smell it in first person. I really pity these poor devils.
Marco thanks for your honesty. In this 5 chess Putin good Biden bad your are a trulyu voice of reason. I have been following your work since 24 February and all your analysis proved to be precise. Please do more podcasts.
Could you please invite Nikola Mikovic to the podcast.
Another good conversation to boot.
Rolo was on a roll on this, lots of interesting insights without the afterthought of having to host the podcast on his own blog.
Too many things to comment on, which sadly most I have forgotten of as conversation shifted to other topics.
On Putin, I think he does his best. Let's not forget he has been playing what amounts to the highest stakes poker game on this planet for how long? A decade? Objectively, he won most of the games so far. He checkmated the Americans in Syria, because Assad is still there. True he got outplayed at Maidan, but stopped dead any rerun of that in Byelorussia and Kazakhstan. He made inroads with the German industry with the will of the German government (Merkel) set against increased economical synergy with Russia. He was instrumental with creating the SCO Eurasian alternative (not the greatest fan of it) to the globalized system centred on control of the seas by the US navy. He got to the point he freaking started a conventional war by military invading the Ukraine, something simply unthinkable up to just this past January. Conventional media vilified him as they did to no one these past 80 years: he really got them mad, a sign he must be doing something right. One is led to predict we won't be able to speak about him without violating some future hate speech law in a generation of two.
Yes he is tentative and overcautious, to the point of getting taunted by internet amateur pundits, because any rush decision could spell his demise. Saddam style demise.
Telling the tale that the Kiev blitz of Feb-March was a feint to divert enemy troops from the Donbass, that one is 5D chess nonsense. Retreating 10 km from Davydov Brod, or letting the bridge bombing go unavenged are just military setbacks you have to regroup from, not repay tit-for-tat, if it's overly taxing for your resources to get some PR ephemeral victory.
Or do I need to remind you that Russians, just like us, green-light their undertakings after weighting them against linear programming charts, and evaluating min-max solutions of outcomes https://youtu.be/yuBe93FMiJc?t=173
.. and yes as Riley keeps saying in earnest, war is bad, mass death is horrific. We were constantly reminded that all the time. Any whiff of "my group against yours" leads to genocide, never even think about it. And yet here they are, preaching that "they won't stop anyone who wants to travel to Ukraine and help with the cause". Then those volunteers die like flies (how many deaths so far in Ukraine, any idea? 20-30,000?), even manage to record their own death with go-pro, and - least but not last - internet people unanimously comment cheerfully at their demise. Latest one https://odysee.com/@Velyaminov:a/he-last-battle-of-the-Belarusian-militant-group--Volad-:2
On the other hand sometimes time spent in the killing zone beyond the front line can just result in the loss of a limb or two. In that case you get to cheer up and smile like a simpleton, and you will also get a medal and an official pardon, because of course they care about you https://southfront.org/russian-prisoners-on-front-lines-fighting-to-deserve-pardon-and-honor/
Vertigo Politix tells us that the highest freedom lies in the manly instincts that celebrate war and winning. These should dominate other instincts like that for happiness, something quite contemptible and observed in grocers, Christians, cows, women, Englishmen, and sundry wretched human types https://odysee.com/@VertigoPolitix:5/What-Freedom-Must-Become-1:d
The ideal that war and hardships are indispensable to shake societies and individual men, respectively, from the listless malaise of life devoted to business still stand. The everlasting fascination most have with weapons and tactics won't fade either. But undeniably the real thing is horrendous to watch, even just from one's own armchair. Imagine to feel it, smell it in first person. I really pity these poor devils.