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"The Empire distributes goods and services. The finest, the most plentiful, the most convenient. In return, you get to be a citizen of the Empire and are subject to its laws. The Empire is the only civilization on the planet. Everywhere else is... well, Nobarland. The Empire is The Grid. You live on it. It lives in you. Escape at your own peril."

Koch Industries, Cargill, and Nestle don't believe this horse shit. Why do you?

This weekend, President Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin made good on a promise he articulated in 2018. In my humble ranking scheme, this promise ranked number 6 on a six point scale. I was so taken aback by what I read, that I humbly submitted the question of what had transpired to the MIT group on linkedin. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6911414676132106240

There are old-heads on this distribution that have forgotten more than I'll ever know - which is why I'm asking for your feedback.

Ivano-Frankivsk got minimal attention in the news. It was an old mine turned in 1955 into a nuclear weapons storage facility. It was emptied in 1993 when the weapons were transferred to Russia. In 2018 it was reopened as the barracks for 2 battalions of 10th Mountain Assault Brigade. Apparently also a conventional weapons storage facility, since the Ukrainians announced several secondary explosions on the site. It’s supposed to be nuclear missile proof, though, so either it actually wasn’t or there was a load of ammunition leaving or entering the place.

A warhead that weighs 500 kg travelling at hypersonic speed carries kinetic energy equivalent to the explosive force of 4000 odd kg of TNT. Delivered directly to the roof of an underground bunker, the kinetic punch would be greater than a small nuclear bomb exploding in the air above. The blast ‘overpressure’ alone would be as lethal as explosions and flying objects.

https://lnkd.in/dE43dMue

As an inquisitive armchair observer, it strikes me that Russia's use of something bordering on transmedium (low atmospheric) hypersonic missiles in Ukraine this weekend - may have rendered longstanding conventional force assumptions obsolete.

Am I getting ahead of myself, or, is this what happened and what we'll see awkwardly and very disingenuously playing itself out over the next couple of weeks?

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I have seen a translation of a recent speech of Putin and it is clear to me that his conception of 'enemies foreign & domestic' destroys any rational notion of democratic rule. Hearsay about the age and experience of some of his troops also lend credibility to the idea that they are largely impressed into service. I take this simply to mean Putin's empire is crude and delivers no luxuries to the masses. Not even good vodka.

Considering the dearth of plenty Russians succeed with, it comes as no surprise that their Genius class is capable of running a rocket science industrial complex such that MiGs and missiles still fly. Russian hardware has a brutally effective economy. Nevertheless, I don't know where their generals have gotten any experience in holding ground. They can slow roll in Ukraine while the Western press, except for Kasparov, falls asleep and wakes up to be woke. Not even Hollywood would dare make a SEAL movie where operators move against Russians, but we'll certainly generate idiot memes and cancel RT. There's only one button Americans are afraid to click. But a little bird told me that his son, in the 82nd Airborne is not answering his cellphone.

Stateside, Messrs Koch, Cargill and Nestle may have what it takes to survive the arbitrary elbows and knees of a mixed martial economy, but that's not a skillset taught in magnet schools. It may become that only officers will be capable of being peaceful and keeping peace while the rest of us Peasants snatch crumbs by any means necessary.

I am reminded of the latest Superbowl halftime show and a t-shirt. The t-shirt reads: "Everybody wants to be a gangster until it's time to do gangster shit." Welcome to the United States of Studio Gangsters. (Brought to you by Tiffany)

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We have been so richly blessed.

Life is a caper. So is a nasturtium bud. It's all in what we make of it.

If you're pickled all the time, you'll get eaten up.

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