Life takes us in many strange directions and wonderful discoveries. It never turns out the way we thought it would.
Monday, February 28, 2022
Sunday, February 27, 2022
Is It Possible For The US To :Lose To Russia If The Two Countries Go To War?
Not really possible.
If nuclear are weapons are used, the war ends in a stalemate, the world economy crashes, and two or three billion people die of sickness and starvation.
If conventional weapons are used, the Russian air force is outnumbered by about three to one and therefore cannot plausibly attack the United States via international air space over the Arctic and across Alaska. The United States would not strike at Russia at all, as there is no strategic benefit to be gained from doing so. It escalates the conflict without achieving any advantage for the United States.
Russia will be diplomatically isolated and the United States somewhat so until the violence is ended, hopefully in a few days or weeks. As long as Russia is prevented from harming the United States, its economy implodes during and after the war and the United States would then be considered the victor. It would then cooperate with its European allies to rebuild Russia, both to protect its nuclear arsenal and to keep it from being economically and politically consumed by China.
Things Are Starting To Get Unpleasant For Vladimir Putin
I am lucky to have two very good Ukrainian friends right here in Pacifica. Elena and I have dear Russian friends. We love them all. We are heartbroken to see what is happening now in Ukraine. To me, it is just as crazy as the US invading Canada.
There have been a lot of developments over
the last 24 hours. I'm a veteran of the US armed forces. There is a proud
tradition going back two centuries. When a man or woman is killed on the
battlefield, every effort humanly possible is made to recover the body. It is
very important that the fallen person is honored for his or her sacrifice. It
is very important that the dead military person receives a dignified burial. It
is very important that the family of the dead military person gets closure.
Ukrainians on the ground are reporting that thousands of dead Russian soldiers
are being left by Russian troops. Ukrainians are reporting that a number of
Russian soldiers are surrendering to them, handing over their weapons, and
saying: "I want no part of this."
The US, Canada, and the European Union
have decided to disconnect many Russian financial institutions from the SWIFT
financial messaging system. This will cripple Russia's economy. Putin built up
a financial war chest of up to $800 billion US dollars. He most probably will
not have access to these funds. Russian assets around the world are being
frozen. Unknown to many people, Putin is the wealthiest human being on earth.
His assets are held by six close friends. It is a complex maze. The best
financial specialists in the world will tackle this maze. These financial moves
will cause great pain to the average Russian person. The Ruble will crash when
the Russian Central Bank cannot support the Ruble. Many people will lose their
jobs. Many people will lose their life savings. Unemployment will go up. Great
human misery will follow.
Russian forces are encountering violent
resistance from the Ukrainian people. They were not expecting this. Putin is
having to pour more and more troops into Ukraine. Russians in the big urban
areas continue violent protests against the war. They are getting arrested in
large numbers. Despite the best efforts of Putin, Russian people continue to
hear the truth about what is happening in Ukraine. They know about all their
countrymen dying. They know that their economy is about to crash.
As time moves forward, Putin will get more
and more desperate. He knows, as they say in English, the "he has painted
himself into a corner." You are going to see large-scale cyber-attacks.
Threats of nuclear weapons usage will be heard. My feeling is that Putin's
inner circle will eventually force him from office.
With all these Russian troops pouring into
Ukraine, it is a perfect time for an old-fashioned ambush by NATO forces. This
could be done with stealth cruise missiles, drones, stealth bombers, etc. If
Putin claimed it was NATO forces, they could resort to "plausible
deniability."
Saturday, February 26, 2022
The Economist Magazine Cover Story-Isatiable Putin
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Blowing Up The Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor Complex?
One other bizarre thing happened. Thursday morning at the pool. A person was talking about the Chernobyl nuclear reactor complex. Reactor number four imploded and caused a disaster in 1986 leaving parts of Ukraine and Belarus uninhabitable. The other reactors in the complex never were deactivated because of high radiation. There was serious concern that some insurgency group would blow up the complex. What could follow would be a devastating release of radioactive material affecting both Europe and Russia. To me, such an act would be madness. The Russians took this possibility seriously. They sent a large contingent of troops to secure the area
Friday, February 25, 2022
Draconian New Bank Account Seizure Law In Canada
| The #1 Lesson From Bank Account Seizures in Canada... Do This Before It's Too Late |
| by Nick Giambruno |
 |
"We are broadening the scope of Canada’s anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules…
As of today, a bank or other financial service provider will be able immediately to freeze or suspend an account without a court order."
These are the words of Canada’s minister of finance, Chrystia Freeland.
Freeland's announcement shocked millions of Canadians and many more across the world.
A major Western country had just thrown out any semblance of the rule of law and property rights on a mass scale—something unprecedented in recent memory.
Many Canadian companies and everyday citizens were paralyzed, suddenly unable to access the money they thought was theirs.
There was not even a pretense of due process. It wasn't needed since the government simply granted itself emergency powers. The fundamental civil liberties that most Canadians thought they had proved to be illusory.
Imagine if the crackdown against dissidents in Canada instead happened in Venezuela, Cuba, or elsewhere. Is there any doubt there wouldn’t be a fevered pitch call for sanctions or worse?
Instead, to the extent the mainstream media even mentioned it, coverage was generally sympathetic to the Canadian government. The media rationalized their actions as necessary measures against insurrectionists and potential terrorists.
The Canadian banks sheepishly complied. There was no attempt to protect their clients and push back against this blatant government overreach.
If you understand how money, banking, and politics really work, none of this should be surprising.
Like almost all governments, the Canadian government heavily regulates and influences the nominally private banking system. If a Canadian bank were to disobey, the government would immediately give it the kiss of death by revoking its license, removing access to the central bank's clearing system, and perhaps arresting executives.
The banks will do whatever the government tells them when the chips are down. They have no choice.
Banks are not independent entities, as events in Canada make clear. They are ultimately extensions of the government and the will of politicians in charge at the time.
Here’s the bottom line and the number one lesson from the fiasco in Canada…
Canada has set the dangerous precedent that politicians can use banks and money as blunt weapons against their domestic opponents and get away with it.
I have no doubt we’ll see more of this soon in other countries.
It would be foolish to assume that politicians wouldn't use this new power at their disposal. The only question is, what pretext are they going to use to sell it to the masses?
Today, banks are a tool to stifle dissent and force compliance to vaccine mandates.
Tomorrow, you may find that the government has frozen your bank account because you exceeded your monthly carbon allowance by driving your car too much or buying too much meat. After all, the media and many politicians have already declared a "climate emergency."
The politicization of money is an urgent danger you cannot afford to ignore. But, thankfully, there is something you can do about it.
What You Can Do
It's essential to clarify you don't actually own the money in your bank account.
Once you deposit money at the bank, it's no longer your property. Instead, it belongs to the bank, and they can do whatever they want with it.
What you own is a promise from the bank to repay you. The currency in your bank account is really just an unsecured liability. Technically, you're a creditor of the bank.
That’s a very different thing from cash in hand. Yet the vast majority of people wrongly conflate the two. Perhaps events in Canada will change that perception.
Prominent Canadian psychologist and best-selling author Jordan Peterson recently said:
"I don't know what to make of all of this because it's happening so quickly. I can't believe the state to which the country has degenerated.
I've been in contact with a reliable source within the Canadian military, and he told me today by email that if I had any sense, I'd take my money out of the Canadian banks because the situation is far worse than I've been informed. And that's just one of such messages I've received on a daily basis."
The more money you have in the bank, the more leverage politicians hold over you to shape your behavior. All it takes is the stroke of a politician’s pen to target the bank accounts of large groups of people they don’t like.
It behooves free and independent people to ensure that someone else isn't in charge of their destiny. A big part of that is securing your money. No politician or constitution will do that for you. It's something you have to take responsibility for.
The Current Ukraine Invasion Explained
My 30-year-old daughter is a very bright lady. She has a BA degree. She speaks several languages fluently. She is well informed. Last night she asked me the following question:
"I don't understand anything about
Ukraine and what is going on now. Please explain it to me."
Is Ukraine A
Country Or Just Another Province of Russia?
I shall give a simple answer here. In my last corporate job, I got to go
to a trade show in Hannover, Germany each year. I would always meet some great
clients from Ukraine. I always went home with two or three bottles of superb
Ukrainian brandy. One cold morning, one of the Ukrainians made a most-profound
comment:
"700 years ago, Kyiv was a
sophisticated and advanced European city. At the same time, Moscow was just a
group of log cabins on the Moscow River."
I was always told by these people that
Ukraine was a separate country from Russia, They considered themselves
culturally superior to Russians. They felt that history "had dealt them a
bad set of cards." Like Poland, they found themselves to be a buffer state
between great powers. For a lot of their history, they were occupied and
dominated by Russia.
Is Vladimir
Putin a psycho like Hitler, Stalin, etc? No! I would compare him (somewhat) to
the Russian czar Catherine the Great. He is a man of remarkable intelligence.
He has a Russian mindset going back hundreds of years. It is paranoid fear of
invasion and the need to have buffer states to protect Russia. He already knows
that this invasion is going to be a lose-lose situation for Russia. His economy
is going to "take a big hit." There will be a powerful Ukraine
insurgency movement. Many Russian military personnel are going to die. A
retired US general was interviewed on CNN yesterday. He had extensive
experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. He gave a great assessment of what comes
next. He said that in order to continue to occupy Ukraine, Putin would need to
keep an army in the country of 800,000. He said Putin did not have the troops
to do this. He warned about the huge costs of such occupations. For example,
the US spent $2 trillion to $3 trillion dollars in their unsuccessful
occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Why Aren't
US Military Personnel In Ukraine Now Defending The Country Against Russians?
People like my beloved daughter are the main reason. People in the US do not
understand Ukraine or its complex relationship with Russia. People in the US
are war-weary after 20 years of war in Afghanistan. Many of my politically
conservative US friends are violently opposed to military intervention in
Ukraine. In fact, a lot of them are on the side of Putin. President Biden knows
that public opinion in the US is against any US military involvement. Friends
of mine in Russia are now addicted to Fox News. Their heroes are people like
Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, etc. What we might see is Turkey militarily
intervening in Ukraine after secret payments of tens of billions of dollars
from the US.
Will Putin
Follow Through With His Threat To Use Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine If
Any Foreign Power Intervenes? Probably no, and history is on the side of those
who believe this. Russia has had nuclear weapons since 1949-almost 73 years. In
my opinion, they have a much better record with nuclear weapons than the US.
Russia has never used nuclear weapons in military operations. Contrast this to
the hundreds of thousands of people killed and maimed in Japan when the US
employed nuclear weapons. Russia has no published record of nuclear weapons
lost from delivery aircraft. The US has a long record of mishaps with aircraft
carrying nuclear weapons. To this day, there are 1-2 US hydrogen bombs not
accounted for. In 1962, a submerged Russian submarine found itself surrounded
by US Navy ships near Cuba. A decision was made to launch a nuclear torpedo.
Three keys had to be inserted to launch the nuclear weapon. Two Russian Navy
officers inserted their key. The political commissar on the submarine declined
to insert his key to fire the weapon. In 1983 tensions were quite high between
the US and Soviet Union. A Soviet ballistic missile radar beam bounced off the moon.
It gave an erroneous report of 5 US ICBMs on their final attack trajectory to
the Soviet Union. A Lieutenant Colonel in the Soviet Rocket Forces was
skeptical of what his radar was showing him. He declined to inform Soviet
leadership of an impending nuclear strike. Even if Putin gave the launch order
for tactical nuclear weapons, I doubt that his subordinates would carry out
such an order.
Thursday, February 24, 2022
Putin Is Prepared To Use Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine
Most disturbing last night was General Wesley Clark on CNN. He is a retired 4-star general. At one time, he was the supreme commander of NATO. He stated that Putin was ready to use nuclear weapons if anyone interfered with his invasion.
1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores;
Elena and I Got Married 21 Years Ago Today
21 years ago this morning, Elena and I got married. Our wedding was not an elaborate church event. It took place at our apartment located at 877 Willow Drive in the Willow Glen section of San Jose, California. Two of our readers were present at the wedding-Joao and Djenane Santos. Also present was my South Korean platonic roommate Jacqui Kwon. Pastor Sam Nandakumar of Crossroads Bible Church officiated at the wedding. All of us were dressed in casual clothes. It was a simple ceremony. Afterward, Elena and I went to lunch at Aqui Mexican Restaurant. 21 years later, I could still show you the table where Elena and I ate lunch. We spent the afternoon exploring shops in the Willow Glen area. It started to rain. We went to Blockbuster Video. We rented DVDs to watch over the weekend. It was our honeymoon.
The
time has passed so fast. We have gone through wonderful times and hard times.
Elena is the very best of South American women. She is tough! She can take hard
times!