Hakuna Matata

Working as a prostitute is a risky business, isn't it?

Now Thailand is a member of the BRICS block of countries (including Russia, India, Brazil, China, South Africa, Indonesia and some other countries). Who cares about the so-called "Western Democracies"! Europe is on decline.

He is definitely exaggerating, isn't he?

Absolutely, there is no smoke without fire!

Not everyone in power in Europe has gone mad: an encouraging bit of news from….Belgium In the past several weeks, GD has written a couple of essays on how Belgians are viewing Russia and its war in and over Ukraine. In one article, he put the spotlight on the newly installed Minister of Defense, Theo Francken, who a decade ago was bold and exposed the government and media lies about the illegal migrants who overwhelmed Europe, including Belgium, in 2015, but now has been promoting the government and media lies about ‘democratic’ Ukraine struggling for its life against its aggressive neighbor, Russia. In another article, GD discussed how not only Belgian elites but also Belgian middle classes have been brainwashed by official anti-Russian propaganda to the point where they say they approve the introduction of the military draft and are ready to send their sons to fight the Russians on the front lines. Now, based on today’s news in Politico, which surely many of you read, GD wishes to leaven our thoughts about how much Belgians want war by calling attention to an article that may have escaped you: https://www.politico.eu/article/seizing-russian-frozen-assets-act-of-war-belgian-pm-bart-de-wever/ It appears that the Belgian Prime Minister, Bart De Wever, Theo Francken’s boss, has commented to journalists following yesterday’s gathering of heads of European governments here in Brussels, saying that ‘seizing frozen Russian assets is an act of war’ and should not be considered at all. In actual fact, confiscation of the enemy’s assets usually follows rather than precedes a declaration of war, but that is a minor detail. Perhaps the link between the two is the reason why Russia never formally declared war on the United States and on certain EU Member States after identifying them as de facto co-belligerents last summer over their targeting assistance to Ukrainian long range missile strikes within the Russian Federation. Why would a Belgian PM have anything to say on the subject? Because of the 300 billion euros of Russian Central Bank assets that countries in the West have seized, 200 billion is sitting here in Euroclear, a financial institution based in Brussels. De Wever went on to say that confiscation of the Russian assets would endanger the entire global financial system, and it would prompt counter measures by Russia that should be avoided. And so, as it turns out, not all of the European leaders who gathered here yesterday have lost their minds, even if the biggest loudmouths – including Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Ursula von der Leyen and the now ubiquitous Kaja Kallas are good candidates for padded cells in mental institutions. ©GD, 2025

Oh, how many of those crazy farangs live in Thailand! Mental health issues is not what you can immediately recognize in your friend or neighbor, isn't it? Beware!

U.S. control over Ukrainian nuclear power plants? Today’s news on the Ukrainian front centers on the one-hour telephone conversation between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday during which Trump suggested that the USA take ownership of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. The BBC’s commentators could make no sense of this. Let’s give it a try below. Most of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants are within territory under its own control. However, the largest such plant, indeed the largest nuclear plant in all of Europe, is in Zaporozhye under Russian command. Because of repeated Ukrainian missile and drone attacks which damaged the generators providing electricity needed to control the plant and also damaged administrative facilities, the Zaporozhye plant is not operating presently, but it could be restored in relatively short order. Now why would the USA be interested in taking control of those plants? For one thing, these are tangible assets of considerable present and future value. In that sense, they are easy to claim as partial reimbursement for the cash and war materiel that Washington poured into Ukraine over the past three years, much easier to quantify than the much touted rare earth deposits that were first identified as potential compensation to the USA but are likely a chimera. Secondly, US ownership would, like the imagined rare earths mining, provide a focus for long terms American presence in Ukraine and thereby would be a ‘guarantee’ against possible future Russian ‘aggression’ without the need for boots on the ground. This would knock down entirely the British-French initiative for a coalition of the willing to position so-called military peace enforcers, which the Russians categorically reject and which could be a trigger for the start of WWIII. Thirdly, US ownership would prevent the more insane groups within Ukrainian civil and military elites from using the nuclear waste buried just around the power plants to create ‘dirty bombs’ to attack Russia, as the revanchists surely have been plotting. What surprises me about this proposal is that it found an author within the Trump entourage and was quickly taken up to the level of The Boss. There were plenty of smart assed Yale and Harvard educated lawyers in the entourage of Joe Biden but all they cooked up for their boss was sophomoric level ideas that lacked any grasp of how the real-world functions. Not so the people around Trump. Bravo! How would the Russians take this idea of U.S. ownership of Kiev’s nuclear power plants? I think it will go down very well in Moscow. This kind of adult analysis of the situation and preparation of constructive tentative solutions has not been seen on the U.S. side for decades. If I may here complete the thinking process that I opened yesterday in my chat with Judge Napolitano, I think the essence of the reset Trump is proposing to Putin is for a new Russian-American alliance, as per in WWII, set within a reconfigured understanding of who are the Allies and who are the Axis. The Axis today is Britain, France and Germany! If I am right, then it is essential that progress be made on the Ukraine settlement post haste so that Trump can join Putin, Xi and Modi in Moscow on 9 May. ©GD, 2025

Breaking: Russian Military Shoots Down Its Own Drones Post Trump-Putin Call | Ukraine War Ceasefire

Ukraine hit Russian oil refinery in Krasnodar that produces millions of tons of fuel

Ukraine Violates Putin-Trump Ceasefire Deal With Drone Strike On Russian Oil Facility

Ukraine and Russia trade strikes

Oh, what a shame for Great Britain. Those criminal Brits in Thailand are hitting the news headlines almost every day! Deport them from Thailand and send them to the Ukraine (as Keir Starmer is proposing).

On a suicidal mission Impossible? 😮 Kamikaze! Probably, he was simply drunk. Is Russia to benefit from this? I don't think so. Might have been orchestrated by British MI 6. What do you think?

Elon Musk is definitely capable of detecting the true location of the attackers. Enough is enough. It's high time that Starlink should be disabled for any location in the Ukraine!

Maybe also Ukrainian, Belarussian, Kazakhstani, etc.

Trump’s supposedly one-sided support for Russia over Ukraine In the past two days, major media have highlighted what they call Donald Trump’s blatant favoritism towards Russia by his withdrawal of U.S. materiel and intel assistance to Kiev. The morning news brings accounts of the damage caused to Ukrainian energy infrastructure, hotels and residential housing by the latest massive Russian attacks, which were facilitated, they say, by the lack of relevant intel warnings to Kiev of impending attacks. Granted that these measures cutting Kiev off from vital supplies are seen as pressure to bring Kiev to the negotiating table, they still allow the anti-Trump mainstream broadcasters to renew old accusations against Trump from the 2016 electoral campaign and then from his first term as being a friend of Putin, if not a dupe of Putin. After all, no such massive pressure is being directed at Russia, even if sanctions are threatened. Indeed, when asked by a reporter yesterday whether Putin was not taking unfair advantage of the U.S. cut-off of intel support, Trump said that Putin was just doing what anyone would do under the circumstances, fighting his fight with the greatest energy to end the war as soon as possible. The BBC and CNN are presenting on air so-called experts, including the impossibly partisan, anti-Trump former security adviser John Bolton, to inform us of the assumed personal dimension to state-to-state relations in which President Trump is acting arbitrarily. And what are alternative media saying about the favoritism being shown by Washington to Moscow over Kiev in the softening-up process ahead of peace talks? Frankly speaking, nothing. There are alternative media experts who have always been cheerleaders for Russia and they accept the present American policy reversal as normal, if belated recognition that the entire proxy war led by Joe Biden was imposed by the Deep State, which is finally getting its comeuppance as Trump and Musk wield a wrecking ball on traditional policies and institutions to solidify their own hold on power. There are also more sophisticated experts in the alternative media who are pleased to see the positive policy threads in what the Trump administration is doing, including the massive pressure now being applied to Kiev, but do not see past the verbal contradictions and bluster of Trump’s daily appearances before the public and do not credit him with having a prioritized scenario for ending the war justifying the term ‘brilliant.’ As readers of these pages know, I do see what Trump is doing to be ‘brilliant’ because the confusion he is creating is intended to disarm his opponents, of whom there are many on Capitol Hill, as well as many in foreign capitals who are surely acting in collusion with Trump’s domestic foes. However, in this brief essay, I put aside these issues and ask what is the objective rather than just subjective explanation of Trump’s latest moves against Kiev and mere tap on the wrist to Moscow while it blasts away generally on the battlefield and now enters into a big offensive in Kursk to encircle a large contingent of Ukrainian elite forces and to destroy others in the shrinking territory that they still control. Trump, of course, is doing more than just shutting down the supply of weapons and war materiel to Kiev, cutting Ukraine’s access to U.S. satellite and other intelligence essential for targeting offensive missiles and drones into Russia and for its air defense. It is likely that in the coming days, Kiev will lose its access to Musk’s Starlink network of satellites that presently assure field communications. That will be devastating for the Ukrainian war effort and is not really replaceable by anything that the Europeans possesss. There are two key explanations of what this is about. The first is to remove the United States from its position as de-facto co-belligerent with Ukraine in the war. Though the Russians never chose to press this point, de jure they had every right to declare war on the United States over its indirect but critical participation in the war. Moreover, Trump’s claim to be an honest broker in ending the war makes sense only if the United States is not a participant aiding one side in the way it has been until now. The second reason is to smash the false narrative of Ukraine’s ability to carry on by itself which Zelensky used in his dispute with Trump in the Oval Office. Let us recall: Donald Trump had told Zelensky that from the very start of the war, the Ukrainians could not have held their own against the Russians for more than a few days or a maximum of two weeks had they not received American military support. Zelensky vehemently denied that and said that he had heard the same from Putin. By withholding U.S. support today and letting the Russians proceed with their offensives as they wish, Donald Trump is holding Zelensky’s feet to the fire in the expectation that they will be more realistic, humbler in the peace talks which are to come. Otherwise, the Ukrainians would persist in presenting their demands for a peace that deprives Russia of what it won on the battlefield, thereby sabotaging the peace process. In the meantime, the Europeans are doing their very best to sabotage the talks by offering material and financial aid to Kiev to continue the war indefinitely. Their problem is that they do not really have the goods to deliver on these promises. In his own way, Trump is also messaging to the Europeans to come to their senses and acknowledge their impotence without U.S. participation. Yesterday, Washington announced that it will not participate in planning any joint military exercises with the NATO countries for the coming year. And Defense Secretary Hegseth indicated that more than 30,000 troops will be withdrawn from Germany and reassigned to Hungary, another clear indication that those European countries which remain defiant will be punished by the Americans without delay and without hesitation. Further European defiance can only lead to the total loss of the U.S. security umbrella. Do these measures seem to be arbitrary and issued at the personal whim of a narcistic President? Not if you are serious about your vocation as a geopolitical analyst.

Trump’s supposedly one-sided support for Russia over Ukraine In the past two days, major media have highlighted what they call Donald Trump’s blatant favoritism towards Russia by his withdrawal of U.S. materiel and intel assistance to Kiev. The morning news brings accounts of the damage caused to Ukrainian energy infrastructure, hotels and residential housing by the latest massive Russian attacks, which were facilitated, they say, by the lack of relevant intel warnings to Kiev of impending attacks. Granted that these measures cutting Kiev off from vital supplies are seen as pressure to bring Kiev to the negotiating table, they still allow the anti-Trump mainstream broadcasters to renew old accusations against Trump from the 2016 electoral campaign and then from his first term as being a friend of Putin, if not a dupe of Putin. After all, no such massive pressure is being directed at Russia, even if sanctions are threatened. Indeed, when asked by a reporter yesterday whether Putin was not taking unfair advantage of the U.S. cut-off of intel support, Trump said that Putin was just doing what anyone would do under the circumstances, fighting his fight with the greatest energy to end the war as soon as possible. The BBC and CNN are presenting on air so-called experts, including the impossibly partisan, anti-Trump former security adviser John Bolton, to inform us of the assumed personal dimension to state-to-state relations in which President Trump is acting arbitrarily. And what are alternative media saying about the favoritism being shown by Washington to Moscow over Kiev in the softening-up process ahead of peace talks? Frankly speaking, nothing. There are alternative media experts who have always been cheerleaders for Russia and they accept the present American policy reversal as normal, if belated recognition that the entire proxy war led by Joe Biden was imposed by the Deep State, which is finally getting its comeuppance as Trump and Musk wield a wrecking ball on traditional policies and institutions to solidify their own hold on power. There are also more sophisticated experts in the alternative media who are pleased to see the positive policy threads in what the Trump administration is doing, including the massive pressure now being applied to Kiev, but do not see past the verbal contradictions and bluster of Trump’s daily appearances before the public and do not credit him with having a prioritized scenario for ending the war justifying the term ‘brilliant.’ As readers of these pages know, I do see what Trump is doing to be ‘brilliant’ because the confusion he is creating is intended to disarm his opponents, of whom there are many on Capitol Hill, as well as many in foreign capitals who are surely acting in collusion with Trump’s domestic foes. However, in this brief essay, I put aside these issues and ask what is the objective rather than just subjective explanation of Trump’s latest moves against Kiev and mere tap on the wrist to Moscow while it blasts away generally on the battlefield and now enters into a big offensive in Kursk to encircle a large contingent of Ukrainian elite forces and to destroy others in the shrinking territory that they still control. Trump, of course, is doing more than just shutting down the supply of weapons and war materiel to Kiev, cutting Ukraine’s access to U.S. satellite and other intelligence essential for targeting offensive missiles and drones into Russia and for its air defense. It is likely that in the coming days, Kiev will lose its access to Musk’s Starlink network of satellites that presently assure field communications. That will be devastating for the Ukrainian war effort and is not really replaceable by anything that the Europeans possesss. There are two key explanations of what this is about. The first is to remove the United States from its position as de-facto co-belligerent with Ukraine in the war. Though the Russians never chose to press this point, de jure they had every right to declare war on the United States over its indirect but critical participation in the war. Moreover, Trump’s claim to be an honest broker in ending the war makes sense only if the United States is not a participant aiding one side in the way it has been until now. The second reason is to smash the false narrative of Ukraine’s ability to carry on by itself which Zelensky used in his dispute with Trump in the Oval Office. Let us recall: Donald Trump had told Zelensky that from the very start of the war, the Ukrainians could not have held their own against the Russians for more than a few days or a maximum of two weeks had they not received American military support. Zelensky vehemently denied that and said that he had heard the same from Putin. By withholding U.S. support today and letting the Russians proceed with their offensives as they wish, Donald Trump is holding Zelensky’s feet to the fire in the expectation that they will be more realistic, humbler in the peace talks which are to come. Otherwise, the Ukrainians would persist in presenting their demands for a peace that deprives Russia of what it won on the battlefield, thereby sabotaging the peace process. In the meantime, the Europeans are doing their very best to sabotage the talks by offering material and financial aid to Kiev to continue the war indefinitely. Their problem is that they do not really have the goods to deliver on these promises. In his own way, Trump is also messaging to the Europeans to come to their senses and acknowledge their impotence without U.S. participation. Yesterday, Washington announced that it will not participate in planning any joint military exercises with the NATO countries for the coming year. And Defense Secretary Hegseth indicated that more than 30,000 troops will be withdrawn from Germany and reassigned to Hungary, another clear indication that those European countries which remain defiant will be punished by the Americans without delay and without hesitation. Further European defiance can only lead to the total loss of the U.S. security umbrella. Do these measures seem to be arbitrary and issued at the personal whim of a narcistic President? Not if you are serious about your vocation as a geopolitical analyst.

OK, today you're in a peaceful mood... 😀

Yesterday’s breaking news in The Financial Times included an article from their Washington correspondent James Politi telling us that: The author then quotes directly from Trump’s latest message on his Truth Social platform: The author does not break out the logic of this statement, though that is highly relevant. Trump speaks of ‘pounding’ on the battlefield. What he obviously had in mind was the preceding evening’s massive attack on energy infrastructure across Ukraine using missiles and drones. What Russia was doing was to take advantage of Ukraine’s loss of U.S. intel that had been guiding its air defenses. Insofar as Donald’s domestic and foreign opponents might cry foul, accusing the U.S. of enabling this destruction, the President was now, quite logically, pledging to apply great pressure on Russia so that it, too, would hasten to the peace table that Trump is preparing. What amazes me is that colleagues in the nonmainstream media whom I greatly esteem for their worldly experience and intellectual sophistication utterly fail to see what Trump is doing because they still do not understand that he may just be a cleverer political operator than they could be. After all, we know that Trump is superficial, narcistic, a person who hardly reads anything. Consequently, they take his remarks at face value and scoff at the foolishness in his claim now to pummel Russia with new sanctions. They joke at his expense that the US has already thrown at Russia all the punishing sanctions it was capable of and that Russia’s remaining exports to the United States available for crushing tariffs are just enriched uranium for American nuclear power plants and fertilizer, without which U.S. farmers need not bother plant their seeds for the coming season’s crops. What these colleagues miss is that the latest threats to punish Russia were meant for the ears of Trump’s opponents, who are uninterested in the effectiveness of sanctions against Moscow and only want to hear that more sanctions are coming so that the Kremlin will finally be broken and submit to Washington’s will. Put in simple language, what Trump was doing was neutralizing his enemies, nothing more. And so, I ask: who is the better negotiator, Donald Trump or my far more sophisticated and intellectually consistent colleagues? I close this brief essay with a remark on another recent initiative of the Trump administration that has not been given the full attention of serious analysts that it merits. This initiative pertains to the Middle East. I have in mind the latest direct meetings between the U.S. hostage negotiator and Hamas over the release of U.S.-Israeli dual national hostages, the dead as well as those alive. The BBC and other broadcasters have mentioned this, have pointed out that it is the first such direct American talks with the terrorist organization, as Washington calls Hamas. But they do not explore what this means for U.S. – Israeli relations, although just a tiny bit of attention suggests there is a gold mine here to be explored. We have heard in recent days how Trump has threatened Hamas with dire consequences if it does not agree to Israel’s latest changes to what was agreed a month ago about the end of Phase One and start of talks over a possible extension into Phase Two of the cease fire. Lightning bolts would be delivered to the miscreants. And now it turns out that Trump negotiators are meeting behind closed doors with these same miscreants and are doing so without the presence of the Israelis, whose war it is after all. Has Washington finally extricated itself from the web of deception that Benjamin Netanyahu has been spinning for three decades? Hopefully someone with greater expertise and research in Middle Eastern politics will take this ball and run with it.

And their families too!