Reader’s Links for July 23rd, 2023

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Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

30 Replies to “Reader’s Links for July 23rd, 2023”

  2. 52 min Jim Rickards gives his much-researched opinion on the BRICS move. He says that all these countries have to do is to announce their currencies are linked to gold by weight. Then, as the U.S., its dollar, and the world realize all consequences of such debt, the dollar will drop against gold and the BRICS currencies will rise. This will also raise the standard of living for those countries. He also says this process can be expedited by supply-chain interruptions such as Russia ending the wheat deal with Ukraine.

    https://usawatchdog.com/new-brics-currency-boosts-gold-destroys-dollar-jim-rickards/

  3. Don’t Buy The Hype That Wagnerians Are Masterful Trainers
    By Larry Johnson Jul. 23, 2023 7:45 am
    TruthGettrGabTelegramShareTweet
    You know the adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” If the above photo, which purports to show two Wagnerians training Belorussian soldiers, is genuine then I can tell you flat out that these two clowns have no business training anyone. The very first rule of handling a firearm — a pistol or a rifle — is not to point the gun at anything or anyone you are not ready to kill or destroy. PERIOD. NO EXCEPTIONS. But there they are; standing down range from a bunch of guys pointing rifles at them.

    I have trained over 100 new shooters and have worked as a volunteer Range Safety Officer at a public gun range dealing with several thousand shooters over a period of three years. The immediate task in teaching a novice how to handle a pistol or rifle is muzzle discipline. The photo above is horrifying. The two trainers are standing in front of the troops who are pointing their rifles in a number of unsafe, dangerous directions. With only two trainers available they should have started with groups of four soldiers in a straight line facing down range. I have never seen nor would I ever countenance doing an L-shape formation to let the trainees practice dry fire. If you want a visual definition of “shit show”, just look at the photo above.

    Here are two more photos showing the same failure to safely handle a rifle:

    Several of the soldiers pictured have their fingers on the trigger of their rifle with “friendlies” down range. NO!!!!

    Just because someone has been in combat does not necessarily guarantee that he knows how to safely operate a combat rifle, like an AR-15 or AK-47. Look at the guy in the very center of the photo. He is standing upright with his rifle aimed at the soldiers to his left (your right as you view the photo). Bad stance and, most worrisome, bad muzzle discipline.

    I know first hand that Special Operations personnel, when they go through the initial Operators Training Course, will spend an enormous amount of time doing dry practice (i.e., operating the gun without ammunition). The objective is to build muscle memory and neural pathways so that the soldier or sailor (gots to include the SEALS) gets to the point that putting the rifle on safe or taking the safety off is no longer something the trainee has to think about. It becomes an instinctive action depending on the circumstance. Ditto for keeping the finger off the trigger until you are ready to engage the threat.

    I hope this photo is an aberration or is being used as an illustration of how not to teach troops to handle a rifle. Here is a video that shows me doing an emergency re-load drill while shooting at a three inch circle at 10 yards (yes, I hit the circle three times). I am not claiming I am some sort of special ops bubba by any measure. Just want you to see that I know how to handle the rifle safely and how to practice an emergency re-load drill while shooting accurately. My dear friend who was filming this challenged me to catch the second magazine in mid-air after I hit the magazine release. That’s the reason for the laughter. Please note, when I no longer have ammunition in the rifle my finger comes off the trigger.

    My point is simple — take a big grain of salt to any story touting the prowess of Wagner or the leadership of Prigozhin. I tend to believe those stories are being fed to the public as an information operation as opposed to journalistic reporting. What is not false or a deception is the fact that tensions are building on the Poland/Belarus border and that Putin has warned that any attack on Belarus will be viewed as an attack on Russia. That should make anyone’s blood run cold.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/dont-buy-hype-that-wagnerians-are-masterful-trainers/

    • Yes, he gone through the Operators Training Course. No doubt he’s been an instructor.

      He’s still getting Shoigu’s talking points.
      …………………

      Edward Luttwak happens to be an old friend of Putin. My “airplane brother”, who now lives six months in Israel, six in Singapore knows him quite well.

      How Putin enabled the Wagner revolt
      Prigozhin was right about Russia’s military failures

      Why do Russia’s wars always start with disaster? The answer is straightforward: because the autocrats who rule Russia – be they Tsars (with the exception of Napoleon’s nemesis Alexander I), Joseph Stalin or Vladimir Putin – appoint obedient toadies sadly lacking in military talent to command their forces.

      Talk about speaking truth to power!

      And none is more out-of-his-depth than Sergei Shoigu, Putin’s minister of defence. Shoigu studied engineering and skipped military service altogether. Nonetheless, he was rapidly promoted all the way to full general and then minister of defence by Putin because of his uncritical loyalty, which was further guaranteed by his obscure Tuvan origins that gave him no Muscovite power base to threaten the Kremlin (his birthplace is much closer to Beijing than to Moscow).

      As for Putin’s chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, his incompetence is of a very modern sort, indeed postmodern. Just like some telegenic US generals with PhDs but no actual hands-on combat experience, Gerasimov preached “post-kinetic” warfare, in which cyber war, “information war” or “hybrid war” replaced old-fashioned infantry, armour and artillery combat.

      It was Gerasimov who cooked up the brilliant plan that so convinced Putin – as well as the CIA, the US director of national intelligence and their fashionably post-kinetic military advisors – that the air-landed seizure of the Antonov field on the first night of the war would open the door to Kyiv….

      And, of course, as perfect yes-men, Shoigu and Gerasimov never told Putin that, if he wanted to invade Ukraine, he first had to declare war and mobilise the Russian army.…

      https://unherd.com/2023/06/how-putin-enabled-the-wagner-revolt/
      ………..
      Read the whole thing. The author knows what’s what and who’s who.

      Much longer article, but grand comprehensive interview. You’ll appreciate his remarks on China.
      Not everyone agrees with him, but he’s got his own opinions, unlike so most pro-Russian tools pretending to be “analysts”. (And – to further muddle the story – these tools serve different factions within Russia!)

      Three Blind Kings
      A Q&A with geostrategist and Pentagon guru Edward Luttwak

      https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/three-blind-kings-edward-luttwak

    • I think the whole Wagner group thing is/was a red herring, kabuki theatre, astroturfing or good old disinformation. Somewhere noted that on their March to Moscow, they managed to extract $ 6 billion from the us govt.

      • Yes, for sure.

        Especially given Wagner’s current deployment in Belarus along the border with Poland. That’s a check on Nato/Polish incursions from the west.

        Red herring chasers reveal their sponsors, who’s writing their scripts. Blather is nothing but factional spin. A gotcha trap.

        Wagner is GRU, foreign intel. Progozhin’s never been subject to the Ministry of Defense. His superior is *Putin*.

  4. The Vice President of the United States of America recently said: “When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population more of our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water”.

    There seems to be a debate about whether she meant pollution not population. The WEF so-called elites have stated repeatedly the population of the world must be brought down, some eugenists believe to less than 500 million. That is a given.

    I believe the decline of student’s reading abilities started in the seventies. So perhaps we have a dumbed down society that cannot read or at least comprehend what they are reading, I don’t know.

    Something is terribly lacking when the VP of the USA talks about clean energy and electric vehicles — children breathing clean air, drinking clean water.

    Is this pathetic woman aware of what is going on in the Congo, the hundreds of thousands of children working in the cobalt mining for pittance a day, under the most horrific conditions. Does she know of the numbers of deaths?

    Why are governments around the world so very concerned about the Ukraine? We have been constantly told about the monster in Russia, The “perfect” little man in the Ukraine.

    What about all the politicians worldwide, preaching to us about the destruction of climate change, the daily barrage of horse pucky we are fed. They are the ones who are responsible for the destruction we are seeing. Millions of trees have been cut down, millions of trees are dying because of spraying – geoengineering. What is happening to our air, our water systems?

    In the Congo, people were kicked off the land ( the politicians and elites like to use the term relocated), then in came the equipment to remove all the trees, and that was the start of the devastation of the land for what purpose? China. Money. Rape of the land.

    Children are working under the most horrific conditions that people in the West could not imagine. They are being poisoned, worked to death, and dying, so that self-consumed, morons like Harris can push electric vehicles.

    In Canada, the “environment minister” has stated solar panels, windmills, electric cars are the way of the future, with nary a mention of the cost to humans, animals and bird populations.

    Perhaps if someone would make a movie about the devastation these “climate clowns” are causing…….in your backyard……………

  5. You Read It Here First: Joe Biden Will Step Down from Office After Sudden Medical Emergency Before Weak and Feckless Republicans Muster Up the Nerve to Impeach Him
    By Jim Hoft Jul. 23, 2023 8:00 am422 Comments

    Gifts to Hunter Biden from Communist china including a Rolex and a diamond worth $80,000.
    On Tuesday the House Oversight Committee released a 14-year timeline of the Biden Crime Family’s influence peddling and selling out America to foreign regimes including Communist China.

    The Oversight Committee is likely just scratching the surface of the criminal actions by Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and the extended Biden family.

    The Biden family was selling out America to Ukraine, Romania, and Communist China.

    There is plenty of proof.

    On Wednesday IRS Whistleblower Joseph Ziegler confirmed in sworn testimony to Congress that the Biden Family received approximately $17 million in bribes from China, Romania, and other countries in exchange for political favors.

    On Thursday Senator Chuck Grassley released the FBI document showing Joe Biden was involved in a $10 million bribery scheme with Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky.

    The FD-1023 form alleged then-Vice President Joe Biden FORCED Zlochevsky, a Ukrainian oligarch, to pay himself and his son Hunter Biden a total of $10 million in exchange for a political favor.

    On Friday Rudy Giiuliani told The War Room audience the evidence collected against the Biden Crime Family is “the strongest case I’ve ever seen” and greater than the evidence his team had in New York in the 1980s to take down the mafia’s Five Families.

    * * * * * * * * * *

    So what now? What will Republicans do next? How will this end?

    Democrats are moving to jail President Trump on illegitimate charges in garbage court cases.

    Where are the Republicans?

    We all know the answer to this.

    Before Joe Biden is impeached he will have a slip, a fall, or a medical emergency. His administration will tearfully announce Joe is stepping down from office.

    Democrats and their lapdog media will then insist the Biden Crime Story is “yesterday’s news” and “has already been prosecuted.” The American public will be lectured on what a great leader Joe Biden was and how he should be forever honored in our memories and the history books.

    Republican leadership and Uniparty members will breathe a sigh of relief that they will not be forced to go through impeachment proceedings. They will tell us, “This is not who we are.”

    Just watch. You know this is true.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/you-read-it-here-first-joe-biden-will/

  6. The Total Number of Illegal Aliens Who Entered US Under Joe Biden Is More than the Population of 35 States
    By Jim Hoft Jul. 23, 2023 7:30 am165 Comments

    Back in October 2022, the Federation of American Immigration Reform, or FAIR Organization, released their fiscal year 2022 immigration numbers.

    FAIR.org estimated that 5.5 million illegal aliens had entered the United States by crossing over the open border with Mexico since Joe Biden entered office.

    That number has reached 7 million today nearly one year later.

    On his first day in office Joe Biden opened the US southern border to millions of unknown, illegal migrants from every corner of the world.

    FAIR.org reported on Joe Biden’s actions to flood America with millions of illegal aliens.

    Throughout the 2020 campaign, President Biden promised to extend amnesty to illegal aliens in the United States.
    On his first day in office, President Biden sent an immigration bill to Congress that included an amnesty program and pledged his support to give illegal aliens a path to citizenship.
    The Biden administration immediately issued an executive order directing agencies to take steps to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
    The Biden administration stopped construction of the border wall.
    The Biden administration expanded the grounds for claiming asylum by reversing legal opinions issued under the Trump Administration.
    The Biden administration ended the Asylum Cooperative Agreements (ACAs) with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras which required migrants to apply for asylum in one of the countries through which they traveled (and be denied) as a prerequisite to eligibility for asylum in the United States.[11]
    The Biden administration issued a policy to exempt unaccompanied minors and family units from expulsion under Title 42, releasing these populations into the U.S.
    The Biden administration revived the Obama Administration’s policy of allowing immigration judges to administratively close deportation cases.
    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued policies that make it easier to apply for benefits, including work permits, extended and expanded programs like Temporary Protected Status, eliminated the ability of officers to issue Notices to Appear (NTAs), and reduced screening and vetting in order to process more petitions and applications.
    Now that the borders are open the Biden administration is releasing THOUSANDS of illegal alien children with tuberculosis across the US.

    More than 7 million illegals have entered the US under Joe Biden’s watch.

    ? 144,571 illegal immigrants were encountered at the southern border in June — the clearest indication yet that Biden’s border crisis is not, in fact, under control.

    ? 7+ million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since Biden took office — including 1.4+ million…

    — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 22, 2023

    Joe Biden has brought in more illegal aliens in three years than the total population of 35 states!

    These 15 states have more population than the 7 million illegals allowed into the US under Joe Biden.

    And these 35 states have less population than the 7 million illegals brought into the US under Joe Biden.

    The only reason this could happen is if Democrats and Uniparty Republicans are purposely trying to destroy this country.
    At this point, there is no other explanation.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/total-number-illegal-aliens-who-entered-us-under/

    • This is truly horrendous. It is certainly happening here in England. Even in my small coastal town the really awful muzz are being brought in, given very nice housing. I’m talking about Somalis. A neighbour i know( who is not a pleasant person anyway) works in the harbour and goes out to ‘rescue’ these savages.
      We knew way back in the 90s this was happening here, living in east London and being on the front lines: doctors surgeries only taking invaders, shops that refused to serve you if you were white non- muzz, attacks by Taliban looking types outside the house – gangs of these roaming free even though a huge police station was down the road. Taking over the local council, council properties and selling them to other muzz and making a lot of money in the process of extracting this jizya . . As everyone knows(…) once a property is owned by a muzrat, it becomes part of the ummah, the isl amic world. Targeted murders that were never solved by the “police”.

  7. Eight Important Facts – Not Opinions – That Totally Debunk the Human – Caused Global Warming Hypothesis
    By Guest Contributor Jul. 23, 2023 7:15 am217 Comments

    This article originally appeared on JoeHoft.com and was republished with permission.

    Guest Post by Lynne Balzer

    1) The Global Warming “crisis” was once a global cooling “crisis”! In the 1960s, the weather started cooling off from the
    decades of warming that caused the 1930s dust bowl. But while the earth was cooling, the percentage of CO2 was rising at the same time. Carbon dioxide and overpopulation were blamed.

    This Time Magazine cover is the tip of the iceberg. There were hundreds of articles and books predicting an ice age by the turn of the century. But when temperatures began to rise again in the 1980s, the climate fear mongers told us that the carbon dioxide we were emitting was causing the earth to warm up! In the same year Meryl Streep hosted a PBS documentary entitled, “Race to Save the Planet”. It predicted that by the year 2000 the world’s average temperature would be four degrees warmer. None of this happened.

    Dr. McCullough on New Studies: “The COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign Has Generated a Tidal Wave of New Patients”

    2) It is impossible to disprove the global warming hypothesis. The following have been blamed on climate change: more heat waves but also more cold spells, more droughts but also more floods, less snow but also more snow, more mental illness and suicides, more alcoholism, more crime, more bugs, rats and bats, the civil war in Syria, more earthquakes and tsunamis. Whatever happens with the weather is blamed on climate change.

    A recent CNN report claimed that global warming doesn’t always mean warming. “The term ’global warming’ confuses people, because it triggers thoughts about warmth, and it sort of lends itself to misinterpretation when it also impacts the cold,” declared Mike Hulme of the University of Cambridge.

    A well known rule of science states, “if a theory can’t be disproved, it isn’t science.”

    3) “Climategate”: in 2009 and 2011 thousands of emails between prominent American and British scientists pushing this hypothesis were leaked. One email reads, “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temperatures to each series for the last 20 years [the 1980s onward].” This referred to a graph constructed by Michael Mann of Penn State University which grossly exaggerated the threat they claimed existed.

    The statistical methods Mann had used to create the uptick on the right side — which to some resembled a hockey stick — were first exposed as fundamentally flawed by Steve McIntyre, a Canadian statistician. This graph incorrectly showed that global temperatures had suddenly risen to their highest level in recorded history.

    This icon of the Global Warming movement eliminated the Medieval Warm Period (1000 years ago) and the Little Ice Age (from the 1500s to the 1700s) from climate history. Their emails also revealed the shocking and ruthless methods these men
    used to silence other scientists whose conclusions differed from theirs.

    James Delingpole, a journalist at the UK Daily Telegraph, described this collection of emails as “conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possible illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organized resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.” To deflect the blame from these
    corrupt scientists, several media outlets blamed the Russians for hacking the emails.

    This revelation should have ended the climate-alarmist fiasco. But because the media covered up the affair, most people have no idea that this important information ever surfaced!

    4) TRILLIONS of dollars have been spent on grants for alarmist scientists, trips for elites in their private jets to climate conferences, huge subsidies (paid by taxpayers) for EVs and solar panel and wind farms that take up huge land areas and are
    literally destroying wildlife and the environment. Well-placed individuals reaping the cash rewards of this deception – wind
    farms and carbon trading – have made fortunes. The main spokesman, Al Gore, increased his net worth from $1.7 million to $330 million from his investments in “green” energy. His documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, claimed that melting in West
    Antarctica or Greenland would cause a twenty-foot sea level increase in the near future. Actually the sea level is increasing by about 1 millimeter per year, the thickness of your fingernail, or seven inches per century. This is verified by NOAA.

    Between 2005 and 2017 no major hurricanes hit the coast of the United States, setting a record for the longest period of time with no category-3 or greater hurricanes. For decades scientists have been handsomely paid with government grants to push the human-generated climate crisis narrative. If they say there’s no problem, their grants will be discontinued and they’ll be out of a job.

    Figure 3: “An Inconvenient Truth”

    5) Most scientists do not believe there is a climate crisis. Recently a Nobel prize winning physicist, John Clouser, declared, “The popular narrative about climate change reflects a dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people.”

    Another prominent scientist, Hal Lewis, called it “the greatest and most successful fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist.” In the 2007 Global Warming Petition project 31,487 scientists declared, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse gases is causing, or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.” Some scientists, fearful of losing their jobs, waited till they retired to speak out.

    6) Carbon dioxide is NOT the main “greenhouse gas”. It comprises only about four hundredths of a percent (0.0415%) of the atmosphere. The main greenhouse gas, water vapor, is 70-100 times more powerful in holding atmospheric heat. Yet, in a Google search for pie graphs showing this, 99.9% show incorrect graphs such as this. Can you see what’s wrong with it?

    The correct graph should look like the one below:

    Trending: Jamie Foxx Breaks Silence in His First Public Statement Since Health Scare (VIDEO)

    Figure 4: EPA.gov

    7) Blaming methane and nitrous oxide for contributing to climate change is now being used as an excuse to steal farms from their owners and otherwise (under ESG mandates) destroy agriculture. Yet the truth is that the incidence of methane is just TWO parts per million, totally insignificant. This graph shows the small effect of carbon dioxide and the truly minuscule effect of methane and nitrous oxide compared to water vapor.

    Vegan alarmists have demonized these gases to force farmers to get rid of their cows, goats and sheep, to be replaced by lab “meat”. Because methane is produced in the growing of rice, policy makers want to forbid farmers from growing this crop that is a staple of half of the world’s people.

    The US and the European Union pressured over 100 nations to pledge to reduce the amount of methane and nitrous oxide in their countries a whopping 30% by the year 2030. If these nations actually go through with their promise, millions of people could starve. This is already happening in Sri Lanka, Ghana and South Africa.

    8) The earth is noticeably greener – evidenced in satellite photos – as a result of the slight increase in carbon dioxide. Because CO2 is vital for photosynthesis, which keeps us alive, the small increase in this trace gas has been a boon to agricultural production.

    Plants grow faster, absorbing more CO2 in the process. These are well-documented FACTS – not theories or predictions – which prove that the “climate emergency” is a total scam promoted for the sake of money and power by those currently governing our world.
    ********************
    Hundreds of fascinating facts like these can be found in Lynne Balzer’s richly illustrated book, Exposing the Great Climate Change Lie, available on Amazon.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/eight-important-facts-not-opinions-that-totally-debunk/

  9. Pro-Life Activists Attacked While Protesting Outside DC Planned Parenthood — Police Refuse to Charge Attackers, Despite Video
    By Cassandra MacDonald Jul. 23, 2023 1:00 pm256 Comments

    Two pro-life activists were assaulted while protesting outside the DC Planned Parenthood on Saturday.
    Terrisa Bukovanic, the Founder and Executive Director of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), and Michael Gribbin, frequently offer sidewalk counsel outside the clinic to let women know there is help and other options for women who change their minds.

    PAAU said in a press release that, according to Bukovanic, “the incident began when a woman approached her and threw coffee in her face and hair. When Gribbin went to grab the coffee cup her male partner assaulted him.”

    The incident, most of which was captured on video, shows Gribbon being thrown to the ground and punched repeatedly. It also shows Bukovanic being slapped in the face by the woman who had thrown the coffee.

    Despite the attack being on video, DC police declined to charge the attackers.

    “Even as a progressive anti-abortion atheist I understand that the abortion industrial complex is responsible for a mass genocide which will require immense bravery to dismantle,” Bukovanic said. “Pro-lifers must be committed to total non-violence to effectively challenge the institution of legal child killing around the globe.”

    Michael New, a Catholic University of America professor who helps coordinate pro-life sidewalk counseling efforts outside the DC Planned Parenthood, said in a statement, “It is sad, but unsurprising that the DC police have refused to press charges on two individuals who assaulted 2 pro-life sidewalk counselors outside the DC Planned Parenthood.”

    “Pro-lifers have first amendment rights and no one should have to fear for their safety while sidewalk counseling,” New continued. “As someone who coordinates sidewalk counseling efforts outside the DC Planned Parenthood it is of paramount importance that our volunteers are safe. If Terrisa and Michael wish to file civil charges against their assailants, they would have my enthusiastic support.”

    PAAU noted that this is not the first time that DC police have refused to charge people who attack pro-life demonstrators.

    “On August 31, 2019, Gribbin was chalking pro-life messages on the sidewalk outside the DC Planned Parenthood,” PAAU’s press release noted. “Quinn Chasan who worked for Google stole Gribbin’s chalk and threw it down the street. When confronted Chasan proceeded to assault Gribbin. Despite video evidence of the incident, the DC police refused to press charges.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/pro-life-activists-attacked-while-protesting-outside-dc/

  12. Ex-US Admiral Proposes Attacking Russian Ships in Black Sea Amid Grain Deal Spat
    23.07.2023
    Retired US admiral and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis has proposed deploying alliance forces in the Black Sea and having them attack Russian warships if they attempt to target ships streaming into or out of Ukrainian ports.

    “NATO and the US could escort the grain shipments at sea, something they have plenty of capability to do with three major NATO nations in the Black Sea,” Stavridis told US media, referring to Black Sea-adjacent NATO members Turkiye, Bulgaria and Romania.

    “With well stated warnings to the Russian Black Sea fleet, NATO should return fire if a Russian warship were to attack a grain ship, which is essentially a humanitarian vessel operating in international waters,” the retired admiral added.

    Stavridis knows a thing or two about aggressive naval operations far from Western countries’ home shores. From 1987-1988, he took part in enforcing ‘Operation Earnest Will’, the US military operation protecting Kuwaiti tankers during the Iran-Iraq War. That operation led to US attacks on Iranian warships, and on July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes missile cruiser shot down an Iranian civilian airliner over the Strait of Hormuz, killing all 290 passengers and crew onboard.

    Stavridis did not elaborate on the potential consequences of firing on Russian ships in the Black Sea, which would constitute an overt act of war…

    https://sputnikglobe.com/20230723/ex-us-admiral-proposes-attacking-russian-ships-in-black-sea-amid-grain-deal-spat-1112085294.html

  13. Ukrainian air defense against Odessa – substandard anti-aircraft missiles are becoming an increasingly serious problem

    During the night combined attack on the port infrastructure of the Kiev regime, eyewitnesses observed the extremely unsuccessful operation of enemy air defense. At least two anti-aircraft missiles left the trajectory and hit the city itself. And these are only those that got on the video – eyewitnesses report a larger number of faulty ammunition.

    One of these missiles hit the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral. Although Russia was immediately blamed for this attack, the nature of the damage indicates that they were inflicted by an anti-aircraft missile. Ukrainian sources themselves posted photos with traces of striking elements on the net, after which they began to bashfully rub them.

    #source
    https://t.me/readovkaru/3862
    ……………
    Regarding the night strike in Odessa and Nikolaev, you need to understand the following.

    1. The Armed Forces of Ukraine have long placed and stored weapons and ammunition in ports and, most likely, were confident that these stocks were safe due to the grain deal.

    2. Night detonations in Odessa allow us to conclude that everything brought to the ports, probably for the “South” grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was stored as tightly as possible. Some warehouses in the port area are still burning.

    3. The volume of destroyed ammunition and equipment is still difficult to comprehend, however, if weapons and ammunition were critical for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Kiev will urgently request more soon.

    4. To compensate for the supply of destroyed weapons, you will have to spend a significant amount of time…, which is not there.…

    #source
    https://t.me/milchronicles/2227
    …….
    The only part of “Ukraine” I know is Odessa.
    I thought it was Russia, who knew?

    • Kiev’s ‘incompetence’ to blame for damage to Odessa cathedral – Moscow

      Ukrainian claims that the largest Orthodox cathedral in the port city of Odessa was severely damaged by a Russian missile strike are completely false, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said, adding that it was likely hit by Kiev’s own air defense systems…

      According to the ministry, the Russian strikes overnight successfully hit Ukrainian naval facilities near Odessa that were “used to prepare terrorist acts against Russia” involving sea drones. Officials also claimed that the attack landed on compounds accommodating foreign mercenaries fighting for Kiev.

      Photos circulating on social media appear to show extensive damage to the cathedral’s facade, with the floor inside the lavishly decorated building strewn with rubble. The pictures also show the altar smashed into pieces and shattered ceiling murals.

      Initially founded in 1794, the Transfiguration Cathedral became the main church of the entire region before being demolished by the Soviets in 1936. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was restored and consecrated by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, in 2010.…

      https://www.rt.com/russia/580146-ukraine-strike-odessa-cathedral/

  15. Ukrainian television began to prepare the population: “The soldiers are running out”

    The UAF militant, on the air of Ukrainian television, outlined the problem that the Zelensky regime had previously tried in every possible way to hide: “The soldiers are running out,” says the military man.

    The nationalist also noted his real “headache”. Emphasizing that “motivated people” are running out – convinced Russophobes who themselves went to kill Russians back in 2014 and happily joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2022.

    What can be evidenced not by the militant’s performance itself, but by the fact that he was broadcast on Ukrainian television?!

    Most likely, the people of Ukraine are being prepared for the climax of the conflict. It’s just that Zelensky will not agree to sign a surrender, before that he will send all his strategic reserves for slaughter, after the destruction of which he will sit down “at the negotiating table” with quiet sadness.

    It will be interesting for the Russian Federation…

    @Slavyangrad

  16. Why mines have become the main problem of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

    During 1.5 months of a grueling counteroffensive, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost from 28,000 to 30,000 servicemen and hundreds of armored vehicles. The Ukrainian troops lost a significant part of their tanks and infantry fighting vehicles…

    One of the main reasons for the failure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine lies in the dense mining of all approaches to the front by the Russian army. According to foreign experts, the total area of ??minefields may exceed the size of six countries such as Belgium.

    Having blown up on a mine, one tank slows down the advance of an entire column, which becomes an easy target for artillery and front-line aviation. There is an exchange of scarce Western armor for cheap and massive mines, and the offensive slows down.

    How and with what the RF Armed Forces mine the front

    Often mines are manually installed by sappers. To create minefields in especially dangerous areas, an engineering system for remote mining “Agriculture” is used. There are many different mines in the arsenal of the RF Armed Forces…

    What is the result?

    The counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine slowed down, and in some places stopped altogether. In almost 50 days, their maximum advance in the southern direction amounted to only five of the 100 km separating Ukrainian troops from the coast of the Sea of ??Azov. Due to dense mining, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were unable to overcome the first line of defense of the RF Armed Forces, and many sectors of the front even approached it.

    #source
    https://t.me/milchronicles/2216

  17. ‘Stupidity’ behind foreign mercenaries’ deaths in Ukraine – Putin

    Not only the Ukrainian military, but also foreign mercenaries are suffering a high level of casualties in Kiev’s counteroffensive, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He characterized the effort as a failure.

    Since the assault kicked off in early June, Ukraine’s armed forces “have already lost more than 26,000 people,” Putin said during a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in St. Petersburg on Sunday.

    “As for the foreign mercenaries, they also suffer significant losses” during the counteroffensive, the Russian leader added.

    Lukashenko suggested that flawed tactics were to blame, which involves “walking in groups.” Putin replied by saying it was “because of their stupidity.”

    [Sport-killer tourists often have little training and even less discipline.]

    Moscow will make sure that “the public in the countries whose governments send people to the war zone” is aware of what is actually happening on the battlefield in Ukraine, the Russian president pledged. “We will inform people so that they can evaluate the actions of their governments.”

    https://www.rt.com/russia/580150-putin-ukraine-mercenaries-lukashenko/

  18. RT posts an interesting Hamas editorial. But adds a note up top to clarify that Russia's position on Israel is somewhat different.

    Ukraine fails to realize that Israel is not the US, EU or UK

    Kiev naively believes that Tel Aviv[*] will support it in the same way as Western countries. But it’s a big mistake.

    [*]Russia recognizes West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, as shown on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department website
    …………
    Quds News Network, described by wiki:

    The Quds News Network is a Palestinian news agency. It is associated with Hamas, and is popular among young Palestinian Internet users for showing videos of the Palestinian conflict and encouraging them to wage war on the Israeli government.

    Its website is blocked by the Palestinian Authority at the West Bank because it was critical of the administration of President Mahmoud Abbas, and for its ties with his rival Hamas. In the same week, the block led to protests in the Gaza Strip, accusing Fatah of censorship.

    Twitter suspended its accounts in 2019. On 26 January, 2021, QNN tweeted from a backup account, that their original Twitter accounts were restored.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quds_News_Network

  19. A group of Russian journalists went to document Ukraine’s use of cluster bombs. So Ukraine demonstrated them – up close and personal.

    Reporter killed in Zaporozhye Region was in civilian car, attack was deliberate — senator

    “It is impossible to get wrong a target, mistaking a civilian vehicle for a military one,” Viktor Bondarev, chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, said

    https://tass.com/emergencies/1650589

  20. Western companies reluctant to pull out of Russia despite sanctions, says Orban

    The prime minister said that, according to his information, 88% of pharmaceutical, 79% of mining, 70% of energy and 77% of other European industrial companies that were operating in Russia at the beginning of 2022 were still staying in the country

    https://tass.com/economy/1650587