Dnipro, Tuesday Morning, 9 September.
Just returned from a quick trip west to help a family to the border, plenty of military traffic. On drive towards Kropyvnytskyi I thought there must be lightening storm over the town, but turns out they were being pummelled by drones. Saturday nights attack was pretty intense, lots of drones overhead and plenty of gunners firing into the air with 50 mm cannons etc. No real air defence left in Dnipro that I can tell, haven't heard to unmistakable sound of a PVO for a while, but could be they just stopped using on drones as they not a viable defence, and they can't shoot much else down so maybe they just sit back and enjoy the show.
Plenty of military traffic, same as usual, several convoys, a lot of damaged armour heading west this trip, so given the road they must be from the Donbas front.
All else same as usual. Power starting to look shaky again, and I am guessing we not far off the Russians getting a serious and knocking much of it out again.
The biggest failure of taco don is his inability to get a real ceasefire against energy infrastructure in place before winter. Hitting Ukraine's energy is not a requirement for Russia, but it is a retaliation against Zelenksy's attacks in Russian energy. What a fool and loser Trump has turned out to be.
One thing does my head in. I know we always say neocons have no reverse gear, but surely they should have a neutral or a park.
A few examples.
The 12 day war in Israel, Iran clearly won that altercation. Israel was in its knees and begging for a ceasefire. The usa was begging China and Russia to stop Iran from shutting down the Straits of Hormuz. But now Israel and the usa are pushing for 12 day war the sequel.... How do they think it will end differently??
Second, sanctions. After trumps liberation day tariffs, the usa lasted a fortnight before it was begging China to talk and the usa ultimately paused all tariffs as it was fucking with their economy.... But just a few months later we are back here again. How will it end any different this time??
Third, The idea that the usa can takeover Venezuela and start pumping all its oil, which is heavy crude, meaning it is primarily used for fuel oils, and to process into petrol or diesel requires significantly more processing, or blending, which costs more... Not to mention the time it will take. Also, have they been to Venezuela.... I have.. Taking Venezuela and subduing the millions who will resist and have easy hiding in the mountains will take years, and the usa will not ever succeed. They won't even be able to capture Caracus, well protected in the mountains along the Guaire River. Madura is enormously popular amongst the people or Venezuela, opposition against him is massively overstated in the west.
I must be missing something, as frankly none of the above is going to end well for the usa. Sure you can bomb Venezuela, but it's like a horse fly biting a horse. It might make the horse whince, but it won't kill the horse. It might make the horse angry and kick out, as will much of south and Latin America who are sick of the usa.
I have an office in Cali in Colombia and Santiago in Chile, and even my workers there in both countries hate the usa. The days when the usa was a beacon of freedom and democracy in south America are long gone. Even in Ukraine people are openly mocking the usa now. Everyone loves a winner, no one wants to be associated with a loser.
Going to be an interesting few months.
