I see Yates has slithered free of censure, and that’s understandable.

The worst that could be attributed to her is “selectivity” in those supposed victims she stood with so publicly. With so many other cases in hand, any experienced pole climber would have to be front and centre with the most high profile one.

Clownworld.

Biden Blames USA Downgrade On Trump (3 Aug)

The new regime talking points are out – namely that Fitch downgraded the US credit rating from AAA to AA+ on Tuesday because of MAGA Republicans and all things Trump.

Well he is also telling big lies about Covid, climate and J6 so I suppose trying this on is at least consistent.

Ben Fordham chats with Janet Albrechtsen (10:58)

https://omny.fm/shows/ben-fordham-full-show/breaking-news-scathing-report-revealed-on-bruce-le

Ukrainian ‘Offensive’ Enters Phase 2

Now, I wanted to move onto a new discussion of Ukraine’s ongoing catastrophic losses, in light of some recent new revelations to that account. This will then segue into a few battlefield updates.

Firstly, let’s acknowledge the fact that days ago, after spending a couple weeks doing preparatory work, which included various attempts to strike Russia’s rear and degrade logistics, Ukraine began the official Phase 2 of their offensive. It was even announced by MSM.

NYTimes:

Ukraine has launched the main thrust of its counteroffensive, throwing in thousands of troops held in reserve, many of them Western-trained and equipped, two Pentagon officials said on Wednesday, hours after Russian officials reported major Ukrainian attacks in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Ukraine has now thrown its 10th Corps into battle, after having previously depleted the 9th Corps in the first phase of the offensive. The first days of the battle are described by some as the single largest armor losses for the AFU since the start of the conflict. They came brazenly into prepared positions, hoping to prove some modicum of success to their Western handlers, but were brutally rebuffed as before.

There were rumors in the Ukrainian lobby that the loss of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after the first 50 days of the summer offensive campaign was over 11,000 soldiers and officers. More than 25,000 people were injured.

An example of this is that, the enemy has lost 81 out of the 185 BMP Bradleys’ which were supplied to them; or 66 out of 145 of the Leopards that were supplied to them. The list could go on and on.

They took a little new territory in Rabotino but as of this writing it was already taken back. Staromayorsk near Velyka Novoselka is the only place Russian forces had to retreat. The artillery war simply destroyed the entire small village, leaving no place to hide, so they were forced to withdraw. However, the good news is, the soldiers themselves say they had little to no losses in doing so.

Just listen to the report from this Kaskad Ballation fighter, which includes the revelation that Ukraine was using a chlorine-like chemical weapon in the area as well:

Staromaiorske was the only right decision to leave. After weeks of shelling, there isn’t a single complete house left there. This village can no longer be defended. Because it almost doesn’t exist anymore. Our forces carry out smaller counterattacks, but these do not serve to recapture the village, but to keep the enemy busy and not let him rotate. Yes we have casualties, but enemy casualties in the last few days are really brutal. I’ve already lost count of armored vehicle losses. Not to mention the loss of staff. Luckily there are some UA soldiers surrendering instead of dying these days.

Ukrainian reports that they ‘captured’ Staromayorsk are lies, though. The village is now in a grayzone with both sides incurring with small groups just for positional clashes without establishing control. When Ukrainian forces try to enter, they get hammered with artillery.

On that note, there’s an important aspect I’d like to cover. There has been a lot of talk from pundits about Russia not having enough “counter-battery” capabilities, whether it’s in lack of barrels or lack of CB radars on the front, or the claim that Western artillery is simply superior in range and accuracy to the Russian variety. There are a few reports here and there to give it some credence, but it’s then amplified to absurdity by 6th columnists and schizopatriots to make it seem like Russia is completely overmatched in this regard.

Here’s one account on this topic straight from the front which gives quite the contrary view, sent by a soldier to the respected Russia ‘Two Majors’ military channel:

Now, a little on Ukrainian losses. There have been a few interesting ‘oblique’ reports coming from different sectors of society, which have given us some new insight, like the following:

The terrible truth about Ukraine’s losses

But how many others are lying in the fields, how many are missing, how many are not identified

Here are two new Ukrainian reports from their own internal channels. The first describes a new AFU assault unit that was destroyed in Klescheyevka, south of Bakhmut/Artyomovsk.

And here is another, from the 35th Brigade of the AFU, desperately pleading for help after they were slaughtered in Staromayorsk:

Wallstreet Journal reports that there are upwards of 50,000 servicemen with limbs blown off:

In fact, this number is likely much higher as a leak already from last year had it at nearly 60,000, but this is a good confirmation.

A last very interesting oblique account of corporeal losses is the following fascinating report:

DEAD SIM CARDS

. A representative of one of the operators in Ukraine said, “Since the beginning of July, every week we lose 5.5 thousand SIM cards in the east of the country, other operators have the same numbers.

Now, to the more interesting losses data. I have begun piecing together Ukraine’s likely heavy tank losses, just to see how much longer they can possibly last with the current level of attrition.

This new Sputnik article covers it in detail. But one critical mistake they make is that they misattributed a quote by Ukrainian ground forces commander Volodymyr Karpenko, who says Ukraine lost up to 50% of equipment, to the present day. However, his quote is actually from a June 2022 National Defense interview, which makes it all the more interesting.

Here is even a tweet from a pro-Ukrainian account showing the timestamp just to make certain this is in fact an old quote rather than an article from last year which has been stealth updated with a new quote, or something like that.

Here we have the Ukrainian ministry of defense admitting in June 2022 that they lost not only 50% of all initial equipment in only 4 months of fighting at that point, but staggeringly, they had lost 400 tanks. Also, as an aside, at that point, Oryx had only listed 116 tank losses for the AFU. This clearly shows the laughable bias in Oryx’s accounting as the official AFU count of their own losses was 4x higher than his.

This is important because Ukraine is said by some sources to have started out with 1,200-1,500 total operable tanks, with another batch mothballed. But some experts believe the operable starting number was much closer to 800. That means we can extrapolate that if Ukraine had already lost 400 tanks by June, in only 4 months of fighting, by the end of 2022 they should have lost somewhere around another 600, which would put them at ~1000 for the year. So if the 800-1200 figure for their starting number of tanks is accurate, they would have completely depleted those by early this year, which in fact confirms the folklorish claim that they had lost their entire starting army.

But let’s crunch the numbers deeper to see what they may have left now, and how much longer they can hold out.

But the truth is, signs of collapse are now everywhere. Take this letter from an American militar instructor:

From a letter from an American military instructor after his trip to Ukraine: “…Even the best Ukrainian brigades that a year ago fought successfully and were determined to defeat Russians, today, differ little from ordinary infantry brigades, which almost do not have heavy weapons and are equipped with all sorts of rabble, which Ukrainian military registration and enlistment offices literally grab on the street, like during the centenary war in Europe. carried Ukrainians for these months. personal composition, and some have already changed their combat strength twice. and combat command and control, which themselves do not enter into battles and only control combat actions from well-protected command posts. bicycle because the command of the brigades has lost its sense of responsibility for its soldiers and considers them solely as expendable material for the execution of toy or other task. And it only reinforces the loss. The general mood in the Ukrainian headquarters is despondency and anger. And the faces of those people who planned to storm Seva stopol, have the seal of hopelessness. In frank conversations, many Ukrainian senior officers now more and more often admit that they do not see any prospects for a successful completion wars. The only hope that, oddly enough, but many of them, is hope for a direct intervention in this war. But, again, many people here add that this hope is like faith in Santa Claus.”

In light of what he says about the West possibly tiring of Zelensky, it’s interesting that such headlines appeared today:

My immediate thought was that the U.S. is conditioning the public for the possibility that they may have to “take out” Zelensky due to his recalcitrant refusal to enter negotiations later this year, once time has run out and the U.S. has no answers left for Russia’s increasing annihilation of the AFU. I predicted such a possibility months ago in one of my earliest articles where I said that once things had begun to turn ‘terminal’ later this year, Zelensky and his controllers would find themselves at increasing loggerheads to the point that Zelensky likewise would begin threatening his ‘partners’ with some of the dirt he has on them.

The West may find that Zaluzhny is ultimately more amenable to peace talks given that he has previously clashed with Zelensky over AFU losses and repeatedly wanted to put off the offensive until the AFU was properly supplied, as well as withdraw from Bakhmut early this year in order to preserve the lives of his soldiers. But each time, Zelensky chose to sacrifice his men like cannonfodder. In the end, perhaps the West will find a willing dance partner in Zaluzhny for their planned armistice, and Zelensky, being in the way, will have to be summarily ‘removed’.

Interestingly, along this tack came news today that Ukraine is beginning negotiations with the U.S. on those long sought-after ‘security guarantees’:

Sure, Russia has only lost 5,000 troops and Ukraine has lost over 1.4 mn.

Who started the war and got repelled back?

Who believes this nonsense?

Fitch Downgrades America

The rating agency may be too optimistic about the U.S. fiscal future.

By The WSJ Editorial Board

The decision by Fitch Ratings on Tuesday to downgrade U.S. debt has jolted Wall Street and Washington, but why is anyone surprised?

The downgrade to AA+ from AAA may even be an overly optimistic assessment of the U.S. fiscal outlook, and it ought to be a warning to the political class, which will ignore it.

The reason U.S. debt hasn’t been downgraded earlier and more often is because the dollar remains the world’s reserve currency. But that “exorbitant privilege,” as the French like to call it, is not a birthright. It can vanish in a flash if markets perceive a broader American decline in governance or its ability to meet its financial obligations.

This is where political leadership matters, and where it has failed.

The White House criticized Fitch’s decision, but there’s a reason the downgrade happened on Mr. Biden’s watch.

It’s a no-confidence vote in U.S. political leaders, and that starts at the top.

H B Bear
Aug 3, 2023 12:08 AM
Sancho – if the jury didn’t do it’s job (or presumably be about to) wouldn’t know any of this.

It would probably have all come out in the appeal.

Accept a Walkley and your credibility is lost for ever.

Too true. In what regard should we view an award whose judges, over the years, have included a plagiarist (Philip Adams) and a flat-out lunatic (Margo Kingston)?

I could go on, but suffice to know that Walkleys have been awarded and received by some of the most noxious weeds in the media garden.

A further point against them: Entering is free for MEAA members (the Journo, Muso and Clowns union) but non-members are required to pay $200 (last time I looked; probably more now) per entry. The Walkleys would be more honestly proclaimed as ‘honouring the best stories by paid-up union members in good standing’

If Ukraine agrees to neutrality that is the principle war aim.

Yes but Russia’s war aims are both malleable and voluminous.

German figures are roughly 4M/13.6M which gives 29%.
Russian figures are roughly 10.6M/34M which gives 31%.

So the Russians lost men at a ratio of over 3:1, seeing the Germans were also fighting on other fronts? Oh.

TRAGIC END Vegan influencer Zhanna Samsonova ‘dies of starvation’ after trying to live off an all fruit diet

She certainly influenced me.

Perth airport security are knife and fork dodging, rude, dumb, inefficient and make me think unpatriotic thoughts and partial to outbursts of slurs about the “right kind of people to profile” for aeronautical entrepot French cake and jelly moulds. Stuff you can’t shout in an airport anymore, even as a joke. Old mate next to me was angry too but was laughing at how angry I was…my remark about unpatriotic thoughts and my desire to keep it zipped lest the Federales taser me and kill my dog made him chuckle.

Pence wasn’t asked to reject the ballots on suspicions alone, he was being asked to have the allegations investigated by the relevant states before accepting them.

Yes, which wasn’t an altogether unusual request. I recall ‘hanging chads’ in Florida as being important at one time in a Presidential election.

The truth is that they just couldn’t wait to get rid of Trump, and knowing how dodgy the Biden ‘win’ was, they wanted to grab the reins of power asap. Their actions at present re Trump suggest that the rule of law has always been the last thing on their mind, and those who thought calling it a ‘coup’ at first might now, looking at what is going on with the Biden corruption and the now very Stalinist use of lawfare against Trump, be beginning to change their minds about that.

oops. To clarify – Those who thought calling it a coup at first was a bit much .. might be beginning to change their minds now given what’s happened and is continuing to happen re the loss of the rule of law

Anyone opposed to disciplining children is not sitting in an airport lounge, listening to Reuben, aged about 4 with an ear piercing, shrieking “You listen to me, young lady…”, at his dim, trout-pout, yummy mummie mother.

Not for the first time, I suspect.

Anyone opposed to disciplining children…

It all went to shit when we stopped beating our offspring.

It all went to shit when we stopped beating our offspring.

Possibly.
I’ve never beaten any of mine.
Locking them in a suitcase with a cat and a couple of rats seemed to do the trick.

Most defendants rely entirely on the police and prosecution behaving honourably.

Not too sure about that one, the police have a well earned reputation for dishonourability.

It would be a most delicious irony were Mizzzz Knickerless to now sue Dumbgeld for professional incompetence and legal malpractice in the handling of her case.

I’m not sure any of us would like the forensic spotlight shone on our day to day activities. Of course, it all occurs in the background of Canberra.

IANAL – but Drumgold seems to have been working without solid process, making statements and performing actions that could never be justified if queried.

Can anyone advise whether DPP typically act like this when they feel the case or the favourable political winds justify such a careless approach?

that is why his position is untenable. A situation, I would argue, it has been since he gave his evidence

Again, IANAL, but he seems well out of his depth and unclear on the legal process, not to mention principles, which a DPP might be expected to know very well.

It seems like every single referral he has ever made in ACT system could be in question …

Bruce of Newcastle
Aug 3, 2023 10:10 AM
German figures are roughly 4M/13.6M which gives 29%.
Russian figures are roughly 10.6M/34M which gives 31%.

So the Russians lost men at a ratio of over 3:1, seeing the Germans were also fighting on other fronts? Oh.

Given that the Soviets used tactics that would have been considered primitive if used on the Somme in 1916, quite possible.

I notice in catching up that a few of the comments against Dumbgeld, and by implication the claims made by Mizzzz Knickerless, have been Zero Upticked. Is her favourite uncle lurking and intervening?

this oversight was identified due to my own self-reporting

A tap on the shoulder? How can you “omit” a property owned by your wife? Is he really that rich?

I suppose he is. He’s a politician.

You might doubt it but the longer this goes the stronger his hand becomes.

“Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by contentment. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being, nor can the dead ever be brought back to life. There is no instance of a nation having benefited from prolonged warfare“

Putin is facing blowback from the Ukraine debacle already, this will grow as the cost in Russian lives and $$$ grows.

Black Ball:

So who is Albanese trying to fool? And what’s so dangerous about his plans for a treaty that he refuses now to even mention the word?

I’ve an ugly feeling that while we are being mesmerised at the front door by the vacuum salesman, there’s something odd going on in the backyard – and the dog isn’t barking!

https://www.sciencealert.com/newly-discovered-t-cells-could-rid-late-stage-cancer-patients-of-tumors

And look! Synchronicity! The lead bod is named Sewell

“Our findings really surprised us as nobody knew that individual T-cells could recognize cancer cells via several different cancer-associated proteins simultaneously,” explains Cardiff University biologist Andy Sewell.

Even now, there seems to be a misapprehension of what Russia’s aims were/are in Ukraine.

Just days after the SMO began, President Putin gave a speech outlining the goals:

1. De militarize Ukraine,
2. De Nazify Ukraine and
3. Take control of Lughansk and Donetsk, to protect the occupants, from the shelling by the Ukraine Govt, which had been occurring since 2014, when the democratically elected Yanokovitch Govt was overthrown by a CIA coup, directed by Victoria “I have a dream” Nuland and assisted by the most famous prisoner of the Vietnam war.

Item 1 includes the NATO troops, that are flooding in and, ……., becoming one with the steppes.

Putin has massive support for this venture, from within the Russian populace.
The record numbers of young men, signing up to fight are a testament to this.

The Muscovites have quickly taken territory, then dug massive defences, just in case NATO became involved directly.
I know, I know, ……, a drinking contest, sure. A dance contest, sure.
A hot war with Russia, ……., ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Stoltenberg is still under his desk.

Now that every member of the EU has emptied their arsenals and treasuries, there is bugger all left to give to the most corrupt nation in Europe, that is neither a member of NATO, nor the EU.

So, in April 2022, ‘elensky could have negotiated, still losing the above mentioned bits, and ended the war.
Now, Ukraine will still lose those bits, plus Zaphorohzye, (Crimea was NEVER a chance), but, another *120,000 “Ukrainians” are dead.

Absolutely brilliant strategy. Vicky Nuland should be congratulated, no doubt she will receive some EU Peace Award, from Von der Crazy probably.

We are entering the final straight in this conflict. UKR is running out of everything.
Biden said in January, “as long as it takes, …..” We shall see how long that is AND whether or not Nuland and Sullivan get everyone killed in a nuclear exchange.

One thing is certain, ‘elensky shouldn’t start a wine cellar.
It will not be the Muscovites that do him in. Those stern chaps, always within 3 metres, are not there to protect him, they are waiting for the signal.