WAR

Russia's military gains have been stunning over the past few months. The dynamics are amazing: in the area of responsibility of the Donetsk OTU, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost 100 km² in June, 400 km² in September, and 610 km² in November. 

Russia already controls 20% of the Ukraine territory which contains 90% of all the precious national interest resources.

But that's not the biggest news.  Blackrock’s trillion dollar Lithium fields are just west of Kurakhove, which is why the Ukrainians were forced to lose so many men trying to hold it.

The Russians will start overrunning Blackrock’s big investment over the next few weeks.

The Ukrainians are depleting and genociding themselves, by an 8 to 1 ratio, soon the Russians will walk through Ukraine.

Following the U.S. backed coup in 2014, the Ukrainian government and its western puppet masters built massive amounts of fortifications in eastern Ukraine in anticipation of an unavoidable Russian invasion. Russia has now conquered the majority of these fortifications leaving the remaining part of Ukraine vulnerable to rapid territorial losses beyond those eastern lines.

Couple that with a lack of manpower and dwindling support from the US, I believe it’s safe to say that Russia is fully capable of taking territory all the way to the Dnieper river with relatively minimal resistance.

The ending year has been a displeasing one.

Health wise it was the worst year I have ever had. For nearly half of it I was not able to work as much as I like. Even now, as I am recuperating, the challenge remains.

More disturbing for me though was the total breakdown of 'western' concepts that were, until recently, held high.

Liberalism, as an economic and societal concept, has broken down.

Globalism is no more. Free trade has been replaced with a myriad of tariffs and sanctions. The U.S. is forcefully pressuring its 'allies', especially in Europe, to buy its goods and to do its bidding. There is, astonishingly, no noticeable resistance to this.

The fake concept of 'fighting disinformation' is being used to implement outright censorship. Political activism gets threatened whenever it challenges the current Staatsräson as decreed from the top. Insulting politicians for their lack of consistency is now lèse-majesté that needs to be punished. Making fact based arguments is no longer seen as sensible reasoning but as taking partisan sides.

Most horrifying though is the breakdown of humanitarian concepts the 'west' once claimed to hold high. Mearsheimer says it best when he decries the the moral bankruptcy of the West:

Given the West’s presumed commitment to human rights and especially to preventing genocide, one would have expected countries like the United States, Britain, and Germany, to have stopped the Israeli genocide in its tracks.

Instead, the governments in those three countries, especially the United States, have supported Israel’s unimaginable behavior in Gaza at every turn. Indeed, those three countries are complicit in this genocide.

Moreover, almost all of the many human rights advocates in those countries, and in the West more generally, have stayed silent while Israel executed its genocide. The mainstream media has made hardly any effort to expose and challenge what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. Indeed some key outlets have staunchly supported Israel’s actions.

One wonders what people in the West who have either supported Israel’s genocide or remained silent tell themselves to justify their behavior and sleep at night.

All the above already had started some time ago. But it culminated in 2024 in ways that were more noticeable than ever.

The mask is off. The 'West', as we knew it, is done with.

Currently my best hope for 2025 and beyond is for a more sane East to arise.

Fierce clashes in the eastern countryside of Manbij between the SDF and the Turkish led SNA. Turkish airforce is providing close air support for the SNA Airstrike north of Maskanah

4 dead and dozens injured in clashes between the Men of Dignity Movement and the Sheikh of Dignity Forces in Sweida