Major problems for me and this blog - community brainstorming tomorrow, okay?

Dear friends,

As many of you have noticed, the new blog was down, now it is back up, but with a older version which is missing at least two posts and many comments.  My fault, my bad.  Now I need to fix it.  I will.  Still,

To be honest, I am having major problems and, to be equally honest, I need you guys to help me.  I am too tired right now to go into all the details, and I am waiting to hear from my IT volunteers, but I will write up a major announcement tomorrow where I will do a "state of the community" overview, list the problems that I am having, and ask for both help and suggestions as to how to address these problems.

A good friend whom you know under a alias wrote to me tonight "Keep the Blogger site going and don't crack up over the new version. We can fix everything except you."  He also made a couple of very intelligent suggestions.  Okay, I will call upon you all to help out since, after all, this is as much your blog, space and community as it is mine.

"See you" all tomorrow, kind regards,

The Saker

New Blog down

Dear friends,

The new blog is down (good thing I kept this one open).  As soon as I find out what is going on, I will let you know.  In the meantime, the big news is that following today's ballistic missile strike on Donetsk, Zakharchenko has declared the ceasefire over.

I apologize for all the problems with the new blog. 

The Saker

Blog news and donations update

Dear friends,

This has been a "week from hell" for me, with the main blog down for days, but now at least this problem has been fixed.  Still, since there are still some odd things happening with the new blog, I will continue to double-post on both blogs, for the time being.

The Latin American Saker Blog is coming along nicely with a top-notch team being assembled for various Latin American countries and I hope to announce its official start very soon.

Next week I hope to publish an extensive analysis of what I believe is a full-spectrum US war on Russia.  The "frontlines" of this war cut not only trough the Ukraine, but also across Novorussia and even across Russia.

Since a lot of you have asked for this, I have made the full transcript of the discussion of geopolitics on Russian TV available by clicking here.

Finally, I want to thank all those of you how have sent donations recently:

Via PayPal:

JSA, LB, PE, EM, AJ, MCMG, JS, RAB,JT, KS, FB, SB, CS, BK, HK, MD, DB, WE, LM, JEM, JH, NGG, BG, AW, RS, HI, DS, AB, MW, SF, RM, EFL, IBDF, SB, AP, JP, SC, AWMD, VB, ND, RH, HPO, JM, KA, RKS,

Via SnailMail:

DK, HJ, BR

My family and myself are all deeply grateful to you for this assistance without which we would be in big trouble!  Thanks so much for not giving in to "donor fatigue" and for keeping up your support.

Kind regards and many thanks,

The Saker

Various small notes + Open Thread

Dear friends,

As you can see, the new blog is still down.  I was told by my IT specialist that it will be back up tonight. As soon as I know something I will let you know too.

Guys, Hebrew is not the second language in the Ukraine.  Rate your sources, okay? 

(FYI - What is true is that the junta wants to make English the second language).

Gubarev was shot at. There are plenty of photos of his car here.

Colonel Cassad (I consider his one of the best sources on the Ukraine) has a very good photo of what I would call "politics in Banderastan".

A 'civilizational choice' indeed

Igor Strelkov, which some "hurray-patriots" had declared as being held prisoner in Putin dungeons, is alive and well, he just visited Cossacks in Crimea:

Strelkov with Cossacks in Crimea

But as to why he does not seem to be doing very much of anything - you guess is as good as mine.

As for Poroshenko and the Ukie Rada, they just passed a new law making the day of the founding of the Banderist "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (the Nazi Ukies of WWII) the official "Day of the Defender of the Fatherland".   Of course, nobody in the "West" seems to have noticed.

Just as western "human rights defenders" are not at all interested in the massive violations of human rights in the Ukraine.

I will be gone all day, so I leave you with the usual "open thread" which I will try to moderate as often as I can.

Kind regards to all,

The Saker

Four minor housekeeping issues

Dear friends,

In this short post I just want to share with you four small housekeeping items:

1) Your suggestions and comments about the new blog: they have all been carefully parsed and we have made a few immediate corrections, but there are still major problems with the migration to the new blog which have to be taken care of first before we turn to ironing out the aesthetic issues.

2) Many of you are still commenting on the old (this) version of the blog. Please do this only if posting comments here is impossible. Still, as long as there are unresolved problems with the new blog I will keep the other one open.

3) The Serbian blog is almost ready and I hope to make an official announcement about it very soon.

4) Some of you have asked me to react to something published by Gleb Bazov (Slavyangrad) or Vladimir Suchan. I have nothing to say to them and no comments to make about anything they post; any comment referring to them will be deleted.

Kind regards to all,

The Saker

First reply to your comments about the new blog

Dear friends,

Please forgive the short reply, I am swamped with work, but I want to let you know that the following change to the new blog has  already been approved: adding  another box on the right hand column with St George ribbon in it.  This box will also include links to the blogs philosophy, moderation policy, and a quick blurb about anonymous postings are welcome.

Second, the domain name/URL http://vineyardsaker.net/ is doing something weird: it is out of sync with the http://www.thesaker.net/.  The IT team is trying to find out what the problem is.  In the meantime, please only use http://www.thesaker.net/ 

Third, the CAPTCHAs have been removed (they might come back, if needed, but fixed).

Finally, with the help of your comments we will make a lot of changes and adapt the blog to your needs and preferences.  So please keep the suggestions coming in and please be patient (everybody involved is doing that pro bono and on his/her so-called "free" time).

I will keep you posted, of course.

Kind regards and many thanks,

The Saker

NEW SAKER BLOG IS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED!!

Dear friends,

It is with a huge pleasure that I can announce some very good and long waited  news: the new Saker blog is now up and running and you can use either of the two following links to access it: 

http://www.thesaker.net/

and

http://vineyardsaker.net/

My wonderful IT team (A, F and MB - thanks guys!!) put a lot of work into importing seven years worth of posts and comments and to add a host of improvements.  For example, from now on you will be able to sign on using a host of different social media networks.  Anonymous comments will still allowed.

Please pay careful attention to the "ABOUT" menu and its submenus including, most importantly, the new moderation policy.  FYI - I will be doing all the moderation myself, but these rules will be very strictly enforced.  I consider these rules to be both very minimalistic, vitally important and very permissible.  I have put up with a amazing amount of arrogant and nasty trolling here because of my naivete and because originally this blog had a full "anything goes/zero censorship" policy.  Now I know better and I have learned it the hard way.

Please look around the site and please take a look at the different pages and let me know what you think, preferable by posting your likes/dislikes as comments on the new blog (please no private emails or comments here, okay?).

I will continue double-posting here and on the new blog for at least one more month until all the kinks problems and other bugs and issues are resolved.  However,

Next Monday, October 13 I will close all comments on this blog (I mean the original vineyardsaker.blogspot.com) and you will only be able to post comments on the new blog.

After the new blog's minor issues will be solved (in a month or so) I will "freeze" this blog (again, I mean the original vineyardsaker.blogspot.com) and thus stop double-posting.  This means that I will not delete it and I will keep it as a repository of old articles and, if needed, as a well known fallback option should an attack (of any nature) be successful on the new blog.

So if suddenly all the Saker blogs including http://www.thesaker.net/ and http://vineyardsaker.net/ all go off-line and you can always try to come back here to get an update about the situation.

Also, in preparation for the worst be hoping for the best, the following mirrors do currently exist.  I will maintain the ones I own, but the three others do not depend on me and while I hope that they will remain up and running I cannot guarantee that:

run by me:

http://thesaker.ucoz.com/blog
https://thesaker.wordpress.com/

run by friends:

https://wikispooks.com/VS/
http://info.scoop.co.nz/Saker_Analytics
https://vineyardsaker.wordpress.com/

Finally, please write down the following email addresses you can reach me at:

vineyardsaker@gmail.com (primary)
vineyardsaker@mail.ru (main backup)
thesaker@unseen.is (only for secure communications)

You might wonder why I am so paranoid.  Well, first, I am paranoid by nature, nurture, training, education, professional inclination and experience.  But most importantly, I know that we are really making a difference.  Not only does this blog - according to Google - get anywhere between 20'000+ visitors per day (on a very quiet day) to an incredible 70'000 visitors in one day on August 31st (when events accelerated in the Ukraine), but the other four Saker Blogs - Russian, French, German and Oceania - are also doing very well, as are their associated YouTube channels.  Even better, I can already make the following pre-announcement:

We are working on two more Saker Blogs: Spanish and Serbian!  There also appears to be interest in creating a Dutch Saker Blog.

Add to this a very good collaboration with the great Russia Insider community of contributors and you will see that my paranoia is well-founded.  The recent Saker-bashing campaign - they are still at it - has convinced me that there are interests out there which are extremely annoyed by what the Saker community is doing.  Their attempts at smearing and discrediting me ended up backfiring at them (they lost a lot of credibility in the process) but I don't think that they will stop at that.  I expect both legal and technical challenges next, hence the time it took to prepare and secure the new blog in legal and technical terms.  Without going into any details, let's just say that we have put a great deal of redundancy and survivability into the new blog.

Finally, I apologize for the little time I have had to write for this blog.  I can promise you that all that time was spent in developing and strengthening our Saker community and that, God willing, things should return to some degree of normalcy soon.

Okay - your turn now: what do you think about all that?

Please let us all know what does not work and is still buggy (the CAPTCHAs for anonymous posting are not working for me, I think that I will completely remove the CAPTCHAs) and then please be patient while we fix it.

Again - please post your replies on the NEW blog's (http://www.thesaker.net/ ) Open Thread created for that purpose!  But if you *cannot* post there due to a technical reasons like some bug or mis-configured option, then please do post here.

Kind regards and many thanks to all,

The Saker

No posts were censored and nobody banned

Dear friends,

I have absolutely no idea what happened recently, but I am getting comments and emails form many of you saying that their comments had been "censored".  Guys, I did not censor any comments or, much less so, ban anybody (well, I did trash a few comments, but they were either totally insulting and rude, or spam; I mean no "normal" comment was trashed)

Blogger is clearly doing something weird again, that's all.  I took a look at the Google Apps Dashboard (see for yourself here: http://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en) and it reports nothing.  So maybe it is a local problem to some geographical area were all the "censored" comments came from?  I have no idea.  But here is my request to all of you:

1) Please do not immediately assume that your comment has been "censored" or that you have been "banned".

2) If a comment you posted does not appear within at the most 24 hours, just resubmit and email me.

3) On the new blog server the moderation policy will be both crystal clear and very simple.  So wait just a little more.

Speaking of which,

I was hoping to have the new server up by today, but it might take a few more days.  Please remember that the 3 IT specialists helping me are not getting paid a single penny and that they do that on whatever time they have left after work, family life, and personal "meatspace" obligations.  I think that you will all like the result very much, but we all have to be patient.  God willing, there is no much left to wait.

Kind regards to all,

The Saker

Blog news and donations (+open thread)

Dear friends,

First, the good news: our IT specialists are finalizing the final touches of the new blog and, God willing, it should go live before the end of the week.  I will make an official announcement when everything is ready, so don't worry about missing anything.

Second, today I have so much technical and administrative things to deal with and so many emails that I have to reply to that I will not post anything and leave an open thread for you to use as you wish.  Depending on how things go, this might be extended until Tuesday evening.

Third, I want to use this opportunity to thank those who have donated to the Saker blog:

Via PayPal:  

RC, CP, NM, RH, MD, PB, MF, FK, JP, MFA, JM, BR, JS, TS, LC, TPC, JV, MH,NR, LH, HS, JS, PP, ML, SB, SE, DK, RH, PG, RO, PP, MM, MM, RB, RA, JC, 2HF, KT, AR, HRS, KC, MD, AC, RS, DS, RF, NS, DB, HMK, PP.

Via Amazon:

PK, TW, S, SJ.

Via Snail Mail:

VR (sorry, no checks or money orders, so I could not cash yours), ET
and the following anonymous donors:

To all of you, my most heartfelt and sincere gratitude.  Over the past months your help has literally made the difference between paying bills or sinking further into debt (we have no savings or pension of any kind).

Also, I want to deeply thank those of you who have sent me very kind and often very personal emails and letter.  Two of the most often recurring themes in the emails and letters I get is a) many of you express an extremely strong feeling or rage and disgust with our overlords and rulers and b) many of you say "I wondered if I was alone or crazy with these thoughts".  It is completely Orwellian to read this same statement over and over and over again, sent from people from all over our planet, from New Zealand, to Finland and from Canada to Argentina.  It makes me feel that we are all the subjects of a planetary attempt at mind control and, frankly, I guess that we are.  To all of you I want to repeat one more time that you are not alone and that, as David Rovics so beautifully sings it, "we are everywhere" and "we'll shut them down".  Another amazing thing is how diverse "we" are: I get emails (and donations!) from Communists, Ron Paul Libertarians, anarchists, paleo-conservatives, all the imaginable flavors of progressives and liberals, Latin traditionalists, atheists, Muslims (Shia, Sunni and Salafi), Buddhists, and even a few Trotskysts.  So while "we" do not necessarily agree on everything, or even on most things, we do exist as a "we" because we do agree on a number of crucial things such as a passionate quest for the truth, our rejection of any form of imperialism and our refusal to submit to the AngloZionist Empire and its New World Order project.

When I look at the apparent zombies which live around me, I know often catch myself thinking that maybe that "zombie" is not a zombie at all, but a member of that "we" community which has grown in response to the infinite arrogance and evil of the Empire.  So that illusion of being alone in a world of zombies is just that, an illusion.  Thank you for reminding me of that through your emails and letters.

Honestly, I often feel disgusted, despondent, bitter, exhausted and very lonely.  The past months have been very hard on me but your support, in whatever form it took, has literally given me hope and energy to keep going.  Not only do I believe that we will "shut them down", I am now even sure of it because the Empire has failed in its key task: to turn us into their obedient zombies.

Okay, I need to go to work on a ton of things now.  So I will sign off for the rest of the day, possibly even into tomorrow, but I will keep moderating so please do use the open thread as you want.

Kindest regards to you all,

The Saker

A couple of short items about Russia Insider and book for donations

Dear friends,

First, I want to thank you all for your support and kind words about the Russia Insider project.  I am also truly delighted to be associated with this endeavor.

Second, I wanted to clarify a few things about Russia Insider and my role in it.  Russia Insider is not a blog or a collective of blogs.  The format used by RI is deliberately kept to short(er) posts, not long analytical essays.  The idea is to offer a go-to place to get a quick reaction to current events, along with a short commentary and enough links and sources for any reader to follow up should he/she decide to do so.  In my case, this is not unlike what I sometimes do with my mini-SITREPs.  I see that as very nicely complementing the much longer analyses I do here on this blog.

Also, no worries, most of my time will still be dedicated to this blog.

As for my contributions to Russia Insider, I have not been told to change my views, not say this or that or not to use this or that term.  Just like with any such project, if the editor in chief does not like something he can refuse to publish it, which is fine by me as long as I get to post whatever I want here, on my blog.  Please do not worry, my freedom is truly sacred to me and I would never associate myself to any project which would limit it.  The beauty in Russia Insider is that they fully share that philosophy.  Besides, I dare say that I am in pretty darn good company there, so I have no worries on that account at all.

Finally, please notice the new window on the left hand column which announces that author Yuri Dia Konov, whose book Russia's Diamond Ruble I recently reviewed on this blog, has offered to send any of his books (in English or Russian!) for free to anybody sending a donation to the Saker Blog.  So please do press that "donation" button and then email Yuri and tell him which book you want, and he will email you the PDF right back!

Kind regards and many thanks,

The Saker

A couple of blog housekeeping news

Dear friends,

I wanted to share with you a couple of blog housekeeping news.

First, the "kinda-but-I-am-not-so-sure-bad" news: after both of the people whom I had asked to help me as pre-moderators bailed out on me (the first one due to disagreements in the format of the blog, the second due to personal issues) I have decided that when the new blog goes live I will do all the moderation myself.

Which is both bad and good, really.  Bad: it will take more of my time I could have spend doing other things.  Good: at least I would bail out on myself.  Also, I have to tell you that with time I have lost my inhibition about tossing out "bad" comments and now I do this as soon as I see anything discourteous, the use of CAPS, or any other comment I think deserves to be trashed.  And this helped a great deal.  This morning when I woke up there were 66 comments awaiting in the moderation queue and all them them perfectly good.  Apparently the trolls are gradually giving up (except this one crazy guy who hates both the English and the Indians who regularly tries to post a comment advocating the genocide of both; for weeks I have been tossing his crap into /dev/null, but he keeps trying).  So since I will do the moderation myself, I will never bad a person, but I will shoot "bad" comments on sight with no remorse.

I have had another friend agreeing to pre-moderate for me, and I could ask another two, but why go down that road?  There are advantages to doing that myself and, even more importantly, there are much better ways to save time.

And this is the good news.

This morning I received an email from a reader who very kindly sent me a version of my latest SITREP corrected from all the numerous typos it had.

You can down load this corrected version by clicking here

This is when an idea hit me.  But first, let me explain my past dilemma.

God knows I am a terrible writer.  Not only is English not my first, second or even third language, but I always write under huge time pressure and, to make things worse, I never see my own typos.  Lastly, I simply never have the time to re-read myself and try to clean-up my writings.  In the past I have had readers posting comments with corrections, sending me emails with lists of mistakes to correct and even sending me completely proof-read texts.   The problem is that correcting is also time consuming.  As for simply replacing my text with another one is very tricky if not outright dangerous.  First, there is the possibility of a well-intentioned corrector incorrectly understanding my (poorly-written) text inadvertently making a mistake.  Second, there is the non-trivial risk of a not well-intentioned corrector deliberately mis-correcting what I wrote and then, once it is posted, crucifying me for saying something I never did.  With the recent smear-campaign against me where I was accused of saying things I never said I became very paranoid on that account.  As for re-reading the proofread text sent to me before posting it, that again takes too much time.

But then, this morning, "H" sent me my corrected SITREP as an attached document in ODT format.  All I had to do was to save it to Google Drive, and post the link (which I did above).  That solves ALL my problems because I can post a proofread text in just a few clicks and I don't have to re-read anything since the original document, with typos and all, is still posted.  Thus, it is absolutely clear that the corrected document has been edited by a friend but not by me and if a malevolent "corrector" twists something that I wrote and I get challenged on that, I can easily point to the original text as the only "original" one.  Finally, to for those of you who want to re-posts my stuff elsewhere, do have access to a well-formatted clean ODT text is also much better than to have to cut-n-paste my original text, no?

So here is my idea if you guys agree.

If somebody does the same thing "H" did today and sends me a corrected text as an attached ODT file I will immediately update the original post with a note at the bottom pointing to a clean, proofread, text.  Does that sound useful to you?  Please let me know.  I like the idea a lot, but I want to make sure that I did not miss something and that most of you like it too.

As for me, the next time I write something under huge time pressure (like yesterday's SITREP), I will add a note at the bottom saying "text needs proofreading" and, hopefully, somebody will pick that up, send me a corrected text to which I will then post a link.

Watcha think?

Please let me know.

Kind regards,

The Saker

Saker community news, blog update and donations

Dear friends,

First, I want to begin this news update with an un-official pre-announcement: it appears that the Saker Blog community might welcome a new Language Team in our community, and a big language at that!  Since this is neither final nor official, I don't want to announce this yet, but I cannot resist giving you a little head-up about this.

Second, I have seen the prototype of the new WordPress based blog, and it looks very good.  Here is what one of the two IT specialists preparing the new blog emailed me two days ago:" I am hoping to have this thing ready this week, and hopefully ready to go to the live next week... then we can do the dual post phase like we talked about, and I am hoping it is fully functional and live by Oct 1 or sooner."  There will be kinks and various issues needing fixing, so for at least a month I will be double-posting here, the this blogger platform, and on the new blog.  There will be plenty of time for everybody to adapt.

Third, I want to thank all the people who have sent contributions to support this blog: 

Via PayPal:

BE, PW, MG, DG,HM, HK, IG, DW MB, WC, RM, GJ, VA, WK, RA, 4PP, RH RS, SC, MC, J6, GE, BD, PZ, MM, BG PP, LH, WV, AS, ALP, DA, EI, WV, VDH, RR, TW, JB, JM, MM, GK, FS, AW, NGG, JV, SF, MD, BR, ND, NE, JT, PP, DBRC, NM, RH.

Via Amazon:

MD

Via snail mail:

JR, RK, S, BS (whom I especially thank for his long letter!)

To all of you I cannot say anything other than what I said before: that you really help me, not only financially, but also morally, especially at a time when the hate mail is pouring in.  I also want to thank you who simply send me very kind and often very heartfelt emails and letters.  What I feel reading them is that I had grossly underestimated the number of kind and truth-seeking people our there.  I am also regularly amazed at the deep felt anger so many of you feel when the realize how much they have been lied to.  It is, truly, mind-boggling.  I have already mentioned that even the Soviet era Pravda, Trud, or Izvestia were far more honest and lied far less then the modern MSM (take that form a fierce anti-Soviet like I used to be, who was totally against the CPSU rule over Russia).

Sure, our 1% masters and overlords can still enjoy the passive support of the army of zombies they have successfully created over the years, but I also think that they are becoming very concerned about those who took the "red pill" and are simply not buying any of their lies and propaganda.  Besides, one awaken and conscious person is far more effective than thousands of zombies, so this is not about numbers, but about networks of people.

In conclusion I will repeat that I am truly very sorry that I cannot write to every one of you a personal reply.  I physically don't have the time any more. Right now I am basically working two jobs: one regular one in "meat space" and one here, on this blog.  I the latter in reality takes more time than the "regular" one.  In fact, it takes every free minute I have.  And since you are not sending donations to this blog to have me spend time writing individual thank you notes but to actually work on this blog and the community it is building, I took the decision to thank you by means of a post like today.  But that thank you is no less sincere.  Without your help I simply could not do what I am doing.

My most sincere thanks to you all, kind regards,

The Saker

Small note: please read what is actually says

Guys,

I had a very good Sunday, finally (!) some time to relax, so I will only post this small request:

Please - read what I actually wrote, not what you think I have written or what you assume I have implied.

Seriously, I never personally took position on the Ferguson topic. I never said that I liked the policies of Helmut Schmidt, Charles de Gaulle, Margaret Thatcher, François Mitterrand or Francisco Franco or that consider them as great statesmen.  As for Iarosh, I even wrote that I was willing to slit his throat, yet I was accused of being somehow favorably disposed to him (is my "throat slitting" comment invisible or something?!).

So, please, read what it actually says, if needed read it twice, but stop with this stream of outraged comments about something I never wrote :-)

Or maybe it is a cultural thing.  Folks in the West like to don't talk to their enemies.  Russians do.  Then we kill them, no problem.  I would *love* to talk to Kolomoiski, a guy like that is certainly interesting.  Saying that does not imply any form of endorsement on my part. I would also love to shoot him.  Personally.  First the kneecaps, then the rest, leaving the vital organs for last.  And I *still* would enjoy talking to him in the process.

Maybe it is a cultural thing.  Anyway, if in the future I say that I like something in a person, please do not assume that I like that person.  These are two big differences (as they say in Odessa).

Kind regards and to those off for the US Labor Day - enjoy the R&R!

Cheers,

The Saker

Blog news update, donations and some personal thoughts

Dear friends,

Blog migration to new servers

First I would like to update you on the migration of this blog to dedicated servers in Iceland.  The short version is this: it is happening, we have already backed up the data, the server is up, WordPress has been installed, and the very kind IT specialists who are helping me are working on a few more matters.  It might take a little longer, but it is well worth the wait as everything will become both much easier and much better.  Also, no need to worry about "missing" the move - I will double-post here and on the new blog for at least a month.  Then I will "freeze" this blog with the last post indicating how to get to the new version.  So please have a little more patience and you will get:

1) dramatically improved moderation (thanks to new rules and the assistance of volunteers).
2) no more CAPTCHA nonsense, no more ads.
3) a multi-page blog with special pages for specific items.
4) much improved security and counter-attack options.
5) several easy to remember domain names.
6) the possibility to add features as we go.

And, just to confirm: anonymous blogging will be allowed, but you will have the option to sign up to avoid trolls using your nickname/alias.  You will not have to sign up, however.  That will be your choice.

Donations 

First, I want to thank the people who have sent me donations this month:

Via PayPal: JEM, MB, RF, DK, JMM, TD, AW, MF, ALP, VC, PN, NGG, GA, MT, LB, SK, JN, YF, JRL, AC, SF, JS, ET, SC, AT, ND, BB, AW, PB, MM, LH, CW, AA, RH, PM, HS, MB, SE, HRS.

Via Snail Mail: (all anonymous this month)

Thanks a lot to all of you - you are making this blog possible and you are helping me and my family to make ends meet at a time when this is not easy for us.  To all of you an immense and heartfelt 'thank you!'  not only for your generosity, but also for what is a very tangible sign of support.

Your support

I will be honest with you, this has been a very tough month for me for personal and blog related reasons.  On the family front, my oldest daughter left for college while my oldest son is in trouble with the law - a taxing combination, I assure you.  On the blog front, I have been shocked by the sharp rise of nasty, condescending and even outright rude comments and emails I got recently, so it was particularly heartwarming to also receive very kind expressions of support from so many of you. Let me immediately reassure you, the ratio of hatemail to kindmail is still overwhelmingly in favor of the latter, but even though I probably shouldn't say that, the hatred also gets to me.  So even as I wrote many times one heartfelt "thank you" weighs more than 100 insults, I am immensely grateful for all the expressions of support I have received from all of you.

I will share another personal thing here: the war in Novorussia literally tears me up inside.  I think about it 24/7 and it is gut-wrenching for me to follow it minute by the minute. Being emotionally so involved makes it very hard to keep up a more or less rational and fact-based blog.  Over the past months I have been grinding my teeth (literally) at every news of atrocity committed by the junta in Novorussia and every day I daydream about a massive, brutal and decisive Russian military intervention to finally stop it all and give these Ukie Nazis the end they deserve (it would take less than 24 hours, believe me).  But then I carefully think about it and I have to agree that making that US Neocon dream come true would pure folly and that the current solution (political and covert support) is the "least bad" one even if it often feels like a torture.

So while I love this blog, it is also very very hard for me psychologically and emotionally to fight that "information war" day after day after day and it takes all of my (so-called) "free" time (typically 80-100 emails each day, about 100 comments each morning only, 3-4 hours per day on getting the info, reading the sources, etc.  Then dealing with organizational issues, personality conflicts amongst friends and collaborators, and, last but not least, doing analysis and writing articles).  All this is to say that your support really means the world to me and gives me the energy and motivation to wake up every day and go right back to the"information war" which is no less important than the shooting war.  To know that at least one other person out there really cares is immensely encouraging and motivating, much more than I can express in words.  So thank you for all your expressions of support.

One more thing:  Fulan Nasrullah has had a family member hospitalized so he cannot write his Nigeria SITREP for a while, but he will come back later.

That's it for this short blog news update.  I will keep you posted with similar "blog housekeeping updates" on a regular basis.  In the meantime, a huge thank you to all, for your kindness, trust, support and simply for being out there :-)

Kind regards,

The Saker

Quick note to the readers & open thread

Dear friends,

I will spend most of the day tomorrow on the road.  God willing, I will be back tomorrow evening.  In the meantime, please feel free to discuss anything except the topic of global warming which (by popular demand) I am banning just because it would really burden this blog.  I will try to moderate the comments as often as possible from my van.

Also, one reader told me that the stupid CAPTCHAs now feature some kind of advertisement.  If so, sorry about that.  I ask for your patience just a little longer, the new server in Iceland should be ready soon, at which point I will move the entire blog.

Have a great day and "see you" tomorrow evening,

The Saker

Blog news: The Vineyard extends to Oceania!

Dear friends,

It is with all the pride of a proud father looking a a new baby that I am happy to officially announce the creation of the Vineyard Saker in Oceania! 

The folks who launched this new franchise of our community had been working with the various Saker Language Teams for a while already and I can say with great confidence that their work is nothing short of stellar.  Yet, there is something different in this Team, it is not really a Language Team as it is a Geographical Area Team.  Why?  Here is how they explain it in the "About" page of their blog:

The Oceania Saker idea grew out of discussions amongst the volunteer teams working with The Saker. The idea is to give the English team the same degree of editorial independence that the French,German and Russian teams enjoy. The obvious observation is that both The Saker and The Oceania Saker will publish in English but will be quite different.

Oceania sees itself as the first frontier where the global policies of neoliberalism hit home hard. Climate change,the rising sea levels and destructive uncontrolled capitalism has been the norm for a while now. While “bad” news, about what our policies as a collective human species do,might not have reached a central European town, they are quite evident in small Islands across the Pacific. The population has been dumbed down,abused,robbed and down right denied a voice in its affairs. We seem to swallow,without question or critique, the policies and “culture” of the AngloZionist Empire. As an example, the rich green fertile paradise of New Zealand has child poverty of 25%! 

While children are being murdered in Ukraine and Palestine, they talk about the next Hollywood blockbuster on morning radio. While Fascism is on the rise across Europe and rabid russophobia the norm, we do not seem to question it but instead join the choir. The events in Ukraine are especially a cruel joke on the intelligence of anyone whose grandparents fought Nazis in WWII. The descendants of Nazi collaborators are now being hailed as elected democratic politicians. This is lunacy. 

The Pacific nations have had a rich history of being friends of the earth, we have for thousands of years lived in harmony with our environment. It is this destruction of the harmony and beauty of our lands that has awaken many to the realities of destructive neoliberalism. We see our fate being decided on the world stage in this continuing struggle between the US and the sane world. 

The Oceania Saker team will continue to publish in the same spirit and will try its best to give various perspectives which represent the diverse nature of Oceania. We plan to cover a wide range of topics from social issues, to economic issues to political issues right across the globe.

I would only add that to have a one-person-blog like the "original" Saker fully monopolize a language spread all over the world would have been illogical wrong. Furthermore, Oceania is far enough and unique enough to deserve its own voice.  Last, but mos definitely not least, I know that I have *a lot* of readers from Oceania who often email me, send me articles, help with donations and participate in the comments and I really wanted them to have "their own" closer-to-home "vineyard".  I encourage them all to contact the wonderful Team at the Oceania Saker either to just say "hi" or offer their help, or both.

And to the Oceania Saker Team - thanks a lot guys, you really rock!

Kind regards and many thanks,

The Saker

Why I am not posting anything about the Russian-ICRC humanitarian convey to Novorussia

Dear friends,

I am getting a lot of comments and emails asking me to clarify the situation with the joint Russia-ICRC convoy for Novorussia.  The reason I am not posting anything about this is that all the information I see about this is completely contradictory.  The situation is so confused as to make even an educated guess impossible.  All I can say that that the convoy apparently left form the city of Naro-Fominsk, that it has been organized by the Russian Ministry for Emergencies (one of the most effective branch of government in Russia) and that if this convey ever crosses the border the stakes will be huge so rather than to speculate I prefer to keep quiet and frankly admit that I simply have no idea at this point in time where all this is headed.  It could quite literally be anything.

My apologies and kind regards,

The Saker

Upcoming changes to the comments section

Dear friends,

[This is yet again a post which 90% of you can ignore and which is directed at a most annoying 10% who mistake this blog for a kindergarten.  No need to point finger - we all know who is who.  Anyway, here goes:]

Over the past couple of days, when I looked at the comments section I have felt quite dismayed by the level of hostility which some of you have for each other.  I should tell you that as soon as I move this blog to the new server there will be a new set of strict rules for comments.  Anonymous comments will still be allowed, but I will ruthlessly impose the following rules:

1) all comments must add something substantial to the conversation.  No more comments like "hell yeah!!" or "that is stupid".  Unless it adds substance, it goes to /dev/null.

2) all comments must be respectful to everybody: author of the post, moderator, fellow posted and myself.  Forgive me for saying so, but I am sick and tired of the level of nastiness some thread reach.  Any form of disrespect anywhere in a comment and the full thing goes to /dev/null.

3) absolutely no more labeling.  No more "troll", "zioboy" or other labels.  If you disagree with somebody, explain why with facts and logic.  Let me deal with "trolls".

4) absolutely no CAPS. Capital letters are considered as YELLING.  So don't.

There will be other rules, but the ones above are just the basic requirements of "savoir vivre" which, to my great regret and frustration, some of you clearly need guidance with.

Right now, I have neither the time, nor energy, nor software to enforce these rules, but I would consider it as a personal favor if you all already decided to abide by them.  I will try my best to enforce them starting now.  But yes, those of you who are dead-set on picking a fight with each other might escape my vigilance and so will avoid my friend /dev/null for a while longer, but in less than a month you will have to go and spew your vitriol elsewhere.

So why don't you start behaving like adults now?

Thanks,

The Saker

PS: here is a rule of thumb you might want to consider: if you see that I did not let your comment through, ask yourself which of the above rules it violated.  Kuz it did.

This and that about this and that

Dear friends,

A couple of item to bring to your attention today.

Short Absence

I will be gone all day tomorrow (my wife and I are celebrating our 20th anniversary!) and then busy for most of Thursday and Friday.  I will leave an open thread, as usual, which I will do my best to moderate.

Trolls

Trolls have been a royal pain in the rear recently.  Some post their nonsense 3 or 4 times, so when I catch 2 or 3 one still gets through.  Recently, I noticed the following ones being especially active:
a) Putin bashers
b) Defeatists
c) Nazis
I try my best to filter them out, but this is really hard.  They take me by the numbers and then each of them slams me with 3-5 posts written in different comment section.  Please hang in there, before the end of the mouth I should have a new server and one (alas not two) pre-moderator who will help me deal with this issue.

Two substantive points now:

Military situation of Novorossia

Yes, there are indeed two mutually exclusive accounts of the situation.  The Ukies say that they are about to defeat the Resistance, as does most of the MSM, the Resistances is reporting huge Ukie losses.  One commentator even asked how such losses were possible if the Resistance did not regain any ground at all.  Actually, this contradiction is only apparent.  Here is what going on:

1) The Resistance is numerically small.  Too small to hold all the "front" everywhere.  Yes, in one location, the southern cauldron, it does have the Ukies pegged down, but only thanks to the fact that the Ukies ran out of ammo and that the Resistance has enough weapons and mines to keep them from retreating.  But even there the Resistances just does not have the manpower to mount an assault.  For the Resistance every solider counts, not only for obvious reasons of decency, but also because if it would expand soldiers at the rate the junta does it would rapidly lose the entire war.

2) The Resistance lacks firepower and armor.  This is getting better, but the Resistance does still not have what it takes to mount a counter offensive or even to engage the junta forces in open terrain.

The junta is fully aware of of these facts and it exploits these weaknesses by the following tactics:

i. always attack on all fronts at the same time
ii. use large armor formations
iii. use long range firepower (artillery)
iv. attack civilians to terrorize and weaken resolve

The Resistance is thus forced to do the following:

i. rapidly move artillery from one location to another
ii. engage in ambush tactics; attack from the flank; fake retreats
iii. try to draw in the junta forces into fire pockets and cut them off 
iv. use a lot of small reconnaissance units

To some degree this could be compared to a fight between a bear and a swarm of bees, in which neither side is really capable of a clear victory against the other.  The junta clearly has a huge numerical advantage and it is far from having used up most of its theoretical resources in hardware or men.  What it lacks is the combination of motivated and skilled men capable of mounting a sophisticated urban assault and engage the Resistance on its own terrain.

Keep in mind that almost all of the Ukie repressive machine (military, oligarch's terror squads, national guard, foreign mercenaries) is now engaged in the Donbass and that the only reason why this is possible is a mind-bogglingly shameful lack of resistance in the rest of the Ukraine.  This might change when basic supplies begin lacking and the first colds come in.  I bet you that the very same Ukies who don't care one bit that their fellow-citizens are being murdered every day by a Nazi junta will discover in themselves a totally new resolve to resist as soon as they become hungry.  I am sorry to have to bring up this shameful reality, but it simply cannot be ignored.  Thus the Resistance of Novorussia needs to hunker down and hold the fort as best can be until the rest of the Ukies realize that the Nazi junta sucks for them too.

Russia's compassionate treatment of Ukie soldiers: a civilizational choice

I have to say that I am shocked at the number of comments which condemned the Russian behavior as stupid, naive or otherwise misguided.  Then I realized that it is all a matter of presentation.  If you say "Russian is giving comfort, aid and support to Nazi war criminals who have butchered the innocent population of the Donbass" this does really sound crazy.  But this is a gross mis-representation to what took place.  First, the forces in the "southern cauldron" are light infantry, airborne and special forces.  They are not Nazi death squads.  Second, they were sent in under orders, often with threats to them and/or their families.  Third, they showed a great deal of personal courage, being stuck without food, ammo or support for weeks, under quasi constant artillery strikes from all sides, and little or no hope for rescue.  But most importantly, and this is what many people do not understand by no fault of their own, these guys are Russians as much as the Russians from Russia or the Russians from Novorussia.  Please understand that only a tiny minority of the Ukrainian population is really composed of crazy psychopaths like Liashko or corrupt scumbags like Poroshenko.  The vast majority of Ukrainians are really Russian culturally.  Sure, some speak Ukrainian and a most of them also feel Ukrainian, but in the same sense as a Bavarian feels Bavarian or a Floridian feels Floridian: not anti-German or anti-USA.  So when Russian soldiers see them, they see their own kind.  This is very hard to describe or to explain, but it is so. Sure, these Russian soldiers think "now what have you achieved?" and "how do you like your friggin independent Ukraine now?", bit mostly they feel sorry for them and what to show them a human, compassionate and, frankly, brotherly face.

Yesterday I saw a video of a group of Ukies crossing the border and surrendering to the Russian border guards.  Somebody was recording this on a phone and asking on of them, a professional military man with 10 years of service, why he had decided to surrender.  Listening to this Ukie officer speak, even I felt like this was one of my own people speaking, a fellow Russian who ended up in a terrible situation, but not one I wished any harm to.  I did not see a Liashko or a Poroshenko.  I saw a confused brother.

Keep in mind that a lot of the Russian soldiers welcoming the Ukie defectors are the very same ones who, a night, bomb the crap out of them right across the (very theoretical) border. So it's not like Russia has gone insane and only have flowers and hugs for those who objectively are fighting for the junta.  If they resist, the Russians will kill them.  And all the real Nazis have zero hope for mercy from the Russians.  But Nazis are a small minority of Ukrainians.  Mos are simply brainwashed, ignorant, often zombified people maybe, but still people worthy of compassion once they put down their weapons.  Just look at the following photo:

I much rather see that, then a humiliating incarceration or summary execution.

One more thing: the Ukraine, especially the Nazi-junta run Ukraine which I call "Banderastan" as always been about hatred.  Hatred of the Orthodox Christians, first and foremost, but also the hatred for Poles, Jews and Germans.  It has been about hatred for the Soviet Union and then for everything Russian.  And today, when I listen to the crazy nonsense the mainstream Ukie political figures spew, I am awed at how stupid and hateful this russophobic mindset is.  And look at the actions of these nationalists: from the burning of cops, to the use of sniper-provocateurs on the Maidan, to the betrayal of every single promise made or agreement signed, to the massacres in Odessa and Mariupol, to the use of White Phosphorus and ballistic missiles against civilians, at every step of its 6 months long existence this Banderastan has been ugly, vile, pathetic, uncivilized, dishonest, vicious, hypocritical, unprincipled and just plain evil.  It is crucial that Russia defeat this abomination not only by force of arms, but also morally, but not acting like the Ukies would.  In the end, it is a civilizational choice, one between a hate-filled materialistic ideology of total amorality versus an Orthodox Christian civilization which wants to uphold something more besides just the exchange rate of the Ruble or a visa-free entry into the EU.  Again, I will use two photos to illustrate my point:

Banderastan

Novorossia

The struggle against the Empire cannot be just narrowly limited to the battlefield.  It also means rejecting the imperial mode of operation, its values and its behavior.  We cannot resist and empire whose norms and values we accept.  Thus, it is essential for each one of us to either adopt an ancient code of conduct or develop a new one.  For Russia, this means a return to an Orthodox Christian or an Islamic code of honor which encompasses not only such issues as personal piety and morality, but also how to deal with a defeated enemy or a deceived and confused brother.  In Christian terms, this means that a correct faith (Orthodoxy) must be combined with the correct behavior (Orthopraxy) (I am sure that Islam has the same requirements).  For a country which in the not too distant past inflicted some horrible and inhuman treatment on its POW (Germans after WWII) it is a very important moral victory to have ditched that culture of retribution and replaced it with one of compassion.

That's it for right now.  I hope to post some interesting reports written by contributors later tonight, and I will personally be back only on Saturday afternoon.

Kind regards to all and please make use of the open thread.

The Saker