Originally published at: NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE NEFARIUM AUGUST 14 2025
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:31 — 22.7MB)Well the Putin-Trump summit kicks off tomorrow… and Joseph has some thoughts, and some extremely high octane speculation, about it (today there’s no focus article):
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Maybe not a bad idea if the USA can let go of perfidius Albion. It is high time it gets mothballed, hpefully for good this time. It would also mean to let the Israel project go. Sad to say, living on the european continent myself, UK with MI6 will drag down the whole of European countries to the bottom of the northsea. The infection of folly has seeped in to deep in the whole of europe. I see nothing but war and destruction amongst european countries themselves over scraps of food and scarce resourses. I see no future for european countries at all after burning all bridges with the rest of the world. Europeans don’t yet understand that we as a peoples have harakiried ourselves.
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Quite agree. And independent Scotland and a free Cymru while we are at it.
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I think the two Alexanders summed it up nicely this time around.
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I shudder when I see the khaki clad aggressive beggar doing his ward rounds. The UK has mostly switched off the TV despite what you may be told by the lame stream media.
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Is there still a mandatory tax on everyone to support the BBC? The US is trying to eliminate public funds for our national government network.
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Indeed the so called TV “license” which is nothing more than a state propaganda fee.
If you want more info watch Black Belt Barrister on youtube who unpacks how illegal their hard sell tactics are.
Auntie is long gone.
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That trans Russia -Alaska- USA railway is a ruse. It is economically non viable.
Sea transport is the cheapest, that’s why sea powers have advantage.
Besides we are at the cusp of new air transport era that Gen. Kwast was talking about years ago
" we have operational tech to move commercial cargo in two hours anywhere in the world"
Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska is all about China containment.
No more smooth Silk Road thru southern route of European-Asian land mass since now USA controls Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Question is whether Putin bought Trump’s bluff( promise of Russia- Alaska bridge) or will ask for serious privileges, like new airfare tech or something else.
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Agree. If anything, some purpose-built icebreaker rail-car ferries would seem more technically feasible.
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Was thinking about Russia being at the top of the world, along with Alaska, Greenland, Canadian providences (that hope King Charles will allow them to separate from Canada) and the proximity and value of shipping lanes, as well.
Maritime container and bulk shipping may dominate the tonnage to ports, however once there, trucks with wheels on highways deliver to all parts in between. Without the trucks not much finally gets delivered. Developing infrastructure to support future Transcontinental highways seems the way to go.
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Both railway and highways are very difficult to mantain in arctic enviroments. Wherever one can find rare earths in more temperate climates is a winning solution.
About that post post modern Russia. I don’t think Lavrov has received your memo doc. The old guards are still dreaming of empire.
This is what Lavrov had worn to Alaska summit.
So let me ask you a question: do you believe, in the main and all things considered, that contemporary Russia is nothing but a continuation of the old Soviet Union in a new guise, ala the Golitsyn thesis? If so, declare your own positions openly so that I can respond, rather than posting a snarky meme and not elaborating. If you do not believe that, then, join the club, because you’re talking about a post post modern Russia that would take more than a t-shirt or hoodie being worn by Lavrov to confirm the opposite. If Lavrov wearing a hoodie is enough to convince you that “Lavrov didn’t get the memo” then what, I ask you, does the rebuilding of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow represent? A massive deception operation ala Golitsyn? What about all those returns of old tsarist symbolisms, including the Russian tri-color, the Romanov double-headed eagle, the uniforms of the Preobrazhensky Prikat for the Kremlin guards? The re-writing of verses in the Russian national anthem? Or did you not get the memo, doc? My point is, that you now have to start offering explanations for all these other things, which you have not done, but rather seem to be sniping at me constantly, without exposing your own view. Or, of course, you can quit being a snarky pettifogger.
I have lots of old t-shirts with slogans.
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Multiple subtle messages being sent. My first reaction to the flyover and red carpet among F-22s was ‘threatening’, but then thought it might just be DJT/cabinet clumsiness in creating a tribute of sorts.
Lavrov is not dumb…maybe the message was ‘treat me like USSR/CCCP and I’ll act like it’.
Wow doc! you must have had a bad night. My remarks were addressed at Mr. Lavrov, not you.
Foreign Minister of Russia wearing quite symbolic shirt during Alaska summit is either peculiar sense of humor( I don’t think this is the place and an occasion)) or luck of respect to the host of the meeting, or signal to their own brethren, who are also watching this spectacle.
Nostalgia for good ole CCCP among majority of disenfranchised Russian population is something that should worry all of us. It is also a sign that building of new post post modern Russia is limp at best.
Are the symbols of old empire important? You betcha. But they will never replace what is inside of souls of citizenry.
Personally I am rooting for post post modern Russia more than anybody on this forum, I presume. As an immigrant from Eastern Poland I am an indirect witness of atrocities installed on Poles either by Imperial Russia or Soviet Russia. I don’t ever want to see in my lifetime Russian imperialistic attempts, because it ain’t a pretty picture.
That Russian longing for times of CCCP is what’s worrying me, and permits me to think, that change in the hearts and souls of Russian has yet to materialize.
On the more personal note, summing up one of the longest an active members of your website, particularly the Forum part with “snarky pettifogger” is also telling more of you, than of me, unfortunately.
Last time I checked, most of my comment are with so called “foot notes” in a form of links to various resources. A lot of them are videos( signs of the times) and most of them containing some form of statistics, so we all don’t live in the fantasy land or HOS mode to much.
On the subject of current state of Russian affairs, I personally find quite educational( statistics present abundantly) YouTube channels of Konstantin and Elvira Bary.
CCCP shirt most likely targeted at his own Russian population where love and nostalgia for old times is quite alive and growing.
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QVBB…just so you know, not a criticism / an observation. I often struggle to comprehend your meaning. The combination of english as a second language and sarcasm is often confusing and hard to understand your meaning. I’m sure you’re a fun character…just know it’s hard to ‘grok’ (original sense) you sometimes.
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Wasn’t “Snarky Pettifogger” one of Slartibarfast’s world builders in Hitchhikers guide? 
Agreed on easy to misunderstand meaning through text and across language barriers. Again, I must suggest that we are in DIRE need of a sarcasm font…
One of my main personality traits is clowning around…sometimes too often or inappropriately and text communication can only aggravate this… Incidentally, when I was a teenager my much younger brother would bother me to no end with puns and wordplay. I’d regularly make him aware that I thought puns were the lowest form of humor and plead with him to stop.
Additionally, he loved to go to garage/yard sales, which I also had no patience for at the time. I’d tell him “Why would anyone want to stop and look through other peoples second-hand junk”…
Well, in 2011 I experienced a major head injury resulting in partial reconstruction of the left side of my face. This event tweaked my personality. It wasn’t an NDE experience but I did sleep for almost three full days and was made a bit worse due to the anesthesia when the restorative surgery came about a week later. While I’ve always been somewhat jovial, the old(er) me was much more serious, reserved. Now… more impulsive, and as many relatives would point out,
now have a near obsession with wordplay/puns etc. They’re usually the first thing my mind throws at me, and it takes a bit of effort to hold them back at times. I describe it as a sort of “voluntary tourettes”
And to top it off… I couldn’t pass up an estate sale sign now to save my life. Partly due to the nostalgia factor to be sure, but I’m convinced there was a lesson there for me as well. Perspective and patience… I’m still working on them.
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