HIGH OCTANE ON FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS IN RUSSIA
Monday I blogged about France's announcement to weaponize space with laser-carrying satellites, ostensibly for the purpose of giving France an independent space defense capability for their space-based assets. I also speculated that one might envision these "lasers" to be far more powerful than the standard optical frequency lasers that the term itself (lasers I mean), conjurs in the popular mind, and might be something capable of offensive use, such as x-ray or gamma ray lasers (or so called grasers). Such powerful weapons could conceivably be deployed against ground targets in any number of ways; we'll get back to that, because there was a little "method" in my madness yesterday when I posted the blog about the French story.
Which brings us to the subject matter today: many people sent articles on the recent fires occurring in Siberia, this being one example:
NASA Images Capture Worst Siberian Wildfires in 10,000 Years
Here's another example, from RT, which is noting that President Putin has called in the Russian military to respond:
This is how water bombing of Siberian wildfires looks up close and personal (VIDEO)
This article notes that two regions seem to be the centers of most of the fire, the Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk regions:
Massive wildfires continue to rage in Siberia, emergency declared in several regions (VIDEO)
Several emails which shared various versions of this story all wondered the same thing: fires in the vast tracts of forest in Siberia, particularly in the summer, are nothing new. And given the fact that much of Siberia, to this day, is very remote from human habitation, undergrowth builds up, rendering the fire hazard much higher from lightning strikes and so on. But many of those emails speculated that perhaps these fires were not naturally occurring, and this it the high octane speculation that I want to entertain today, though I should explicitly state that there has been nothing from any media source, especially from any Russian media source, indicating any evidence that this is so.
But with that in mind, there is one intriguing thing to note about these fires, especially those concentrated in the regions of the cities of Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk: both regions lie on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, with both cities being major terminals along the railroad. Thus, the fires, viewed from the standpoint that they might not be natural, could conceivably interfere with, or even potentially shut down traffic along that vital and strategic railroad. And let us recall that the Trans-Siberian railroad figures prominently into Sino-Russian plans for Eurasian integration and for China's one belt one road initiative. Viewed in this way, the fires could be disguised attempts at interdiction or even at the temporary destruction of vital segments of the Trans-Siberian. This would effectively severely strain communications between western and European Russia with the extremities of eastern Siberia.
As all this was coming into my email inbox, along with many people's speculations along the above lines, F.L.M. sent this article about the explosion of a Russian munitions factory:
Russian Ammo Depot Has Been Burning For Hours After Exploding In Giant Shockwave
Now, what's interesting here is the location of this munitions factory:
A Russian ammunition depot in the country's Siberian region caught fire earlier today, sending a powerful shockwave through local communities and touching off secondary explosions that have continued for hours, making it difficult to bring the blaze under control. It is unclear how many casualties the incident may have caused already, but it has forced the evacuation of approximately 11,000 people from nearby communities.
The fire at the base belonging to Russian Military Unit 74008, which manages a territorial arsenal in the village of Kamenka in the central Russian region of Krasnoyarsk began shortly before 1:00 PM local time on Aug. 5, 2019, according to state-run media outlet TASS. The fire quickly spread to a warehouse containing artillery ammunition, including shells and artillery rockets, as well as propelling charges, triggering a massive explosion. The base also reportedly houses various other munitions, including tank shells, anti-tank guided missiles, surface-to-air missiles. (Emphasis added)
What's also intriguing here is what is not being said, even though a vague suggestion is made that the forest fires and the ammunition factory explosion might be related:
The exact cause of the fire is unclear, but there are a number of forest fires raging across Siberia at present amid an unprecedented heatwave. This means that major firefighting resources are already spread thin in the region.
Russia has suffered similar accidents in the past. The last such incident, in May 2018, led to fires that burned for a week before aerial firefighting aircraft and helicopters could put out the blaze. This is not a problem necessarily limited to Russia, either. (Emphasis added)
Taken together, the ammunition factory explosion plus forest fires in crucial regions along the Trans-Siberian Railway represent a serious threat to Russia's national security, and additionally, efforts to subdue them will require major commitments of resources, including Russia's military. In other words, a more perfect way to keep the Russians "occupied" while other major geopolitical events - Iran, Hong Kong protests and so on - are occurring. (And notably, the Hong Kong protests are also keeping the Chinese busy as well.)
And this returns me to Monday's blog about France's announcement that it intends to weaponize space with laser-carrying satellite weapons systems. Many people pointed out that such things have probably been up there a long long time. And as I also pointed out in Monday's blog, the presence of x-ray or gamma-ray space-based laser systems could give an offensive capability to whomever would put them up there. I also pointed out that the discovery of the Mossbauer effect during President Reagan's "Star Wars" or "Strategic Defense Initiative" made x-ray and gamma-ray lasers more than a one-shot affair, but made such systems practical, in that they could be used over and over again. Additionally, x-rays and gamma rays are not optically visible, and hence, if one wanted to "cook" are region of already dry forest and start a forest fire, such systems would be an appropriate choice. Of course, there are problems with this high octane scenario, not the least of which is that such systems would ionize a column of the atmosphere, and this could be visible to the naked eye, yet no such reports have come out of Russia (unlike reports associated with some of the fires in California). Weighing against that view is the remoteness of the region, and the relative lack of humans with cameras who might happen to see and record such a thing. Such systems might also be used to cause explosions in an ammunition plant as well, but again, we have no reports from anyone in Russia experiencing the effects of exposure to colimated x-rays or gamma rays, which could be fatal (though as the explosion article notes, there was apparently one fatality, and we're given no information as to the cause of death).
In any case, from my perch on the end of the high octane speculation twig, these caveats notwithstanding, I don't think, given the geopolitical chaos in the world, that we can rule out the possibility that a fully fledged geophysical warfare might be taking place right before our eyes, especially considering the recent flurry of earthquake activity in the American southwest, some of which rendered the US base at China Lake inoperative.
See you on the flip side...
40 Comments
Help the Community Grow
Please understand a donation is a gift and does not confer membership or license to audiobooks. To become a paid member, visit member registration.
Jim Stone thinks something radiation-related happened in Russia regarding the Boom:
http://82.221.129.208/.we2.html
“On Monday, there was an enormous sequence of explosions in a Siberian weapons facility that I ignored because of the shootings, and because I figured it was an accident. However, something happened today that is beyond weird:
Russia was testing a missile (and the reports on this are conflicting; some are saying they were testing a jet engine, some are saying they were testing a rocket engine, and some are saying they were ‘testing’ a missile that got shot down). I’ll go for ‘Russia tried to launch a nuclear weapon, and it got taken out right at the moment of lift off’ for the following reason:
After the explosion, there was a ‘brief’ radiation spike. And the Russian government advised people to put FORTY (40) drops of iodine in a glass of water and drink it. They also said there was no threat from the radiation spike (but drink that iodine).
Okay, well, I can confirm that ONE drop of iodine in a glass of water is enough to make it un palatable; 40 drops is a LOT. You don’t take that for a ‘brief radiation spike’. I’m calling hoax on the engine test; you don’t get radiation spikes from rocket explosions unless there is something someone is not admitting to, and the 40 drops of iodine cinches it. Something BIG happened in Russia that was nuclear weapons related. There’s no way out of it despite the whitewash. You can read the whitewash HERE:”
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/russia-brief-radiation-spike-russian-missile-range-explosion-severodvinsk/
(One thing not mentioned by JS is one – or a few – tactical nukes ‘cooking off’ via the explosion or resulting fires. This would not be a full-fledged nuclear explosion; ‘just’ the explosives packed around the uranium/plutonium core dustifying the radioactive material and spreading it around the area. Nasty. That might be the reason for the iodine ‘requirement’…)
So much for the largest organic food producer on the planet, right? Wasn’t there an apparent unannounced spike of radiation out of Russia last month or so too?
Apparently, there may or may not have been two ‘incidents’ which might have prompted the iodine-taking warnings:
“Run on Iodine Pills after ‘Isotope Powered’ Rocket Explosion in Russia”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-10/chernobyl-style-cover-run-iodine-pills-after-isotope-power-source-explosion-russia
“…a confirmed spike in radiation levels in the aftermath of a reported rocket engine explosion at a northern testing facility Thursday. Authorities confirmed the accident involved an ‘isotope power source for a liquid-fueled rocket engine’. … as Reuters reported, there’s a run on iodine (used to reduce the effects of radiation exposure) in the northern port cities of Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk, near where the mystery accident occurred.”
It is possible that JS or I conflated the two incidents. At this moment, it is unclear whether the Siberian ammo-dump explosions had any iodine-taking warnings…
Comment below that article:
otschelnik, 10 Aug 2019
“The press release is from Rosatom: ‘Isotope power source for a liquid fuel rocket stand’ is the correct translation. Facility in Nyonoksa where the accident occurred belongs to the Russian Navy. Must be a localized event if it’s a test stand.”
From the land of tying all thoughts and actors together:
Doc, please do start a new category-
Tom O’Neill came out with
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316477559/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
O’Neill is the first I’ve seen to tie Manson in with Jolly West and Sydney Gottlieb in Haight Ashbury. The next evidentiary tie in needs to be Manson’s ties to Boy’s Town. MK clearly has ties to Jonestown, Summer of Love, The Doors, LSD,……………., Helter Skelter, and probably a much longer list of all these different nasty visible points sticking up on the iceberg we’re all scratching at.
Now this one would be an interesting book. Thanks for the link. If I am not mistaken there is some material regarding this in Peter Lavenda’s Sinister Forces. After examining the data there over a decade ago, I remember thinking a man like Charles Manson would inevitably emerge from the mind control experiments he participated in while under psychiatric care in facilities. He fit their profile, and the technology would be a thing to attract Manson to such studies with keen interest.
There are way more connections that have been carefully covered up.
I think I found out from a documentary on Courtney Love’s guilt in murdering her husband that her dad was a roadie for the dead. I think I found out in the same doc that Manson and the Stones’ manager were besties. Manson supplied underage girls to the manager for the band. He really did expect to get the job in the Monkey’s. Apparenlty for what he felt was good reason. Any wonder that Roman (pedo much in Jack Nicholson’s house?) Polanski’s family was involved. Word from a different documentary was that Manson’s family was supplying drugs to Polanski’s house.
A lot of cases, when “they” want something… truly done; they do it themselves – and throw the prepped patsies under the just-in-time justice/media buses.
A sort of pre-color revolutionary style operation.
[Playing devil’s advocate here.]
In the first YouTube video embedded into the Russian explosion it is possible to pause between 7-8 seconds and see what looks like a “greenish” electric flash shoot from the sky down into the fire and cause the big explosion. Clearly the sky lights up in the frame before the explosion begins.
You are right! Now that I really pay attention, the whole cloud lights up like an incandescent light.
nice catch. lot’s o green in that screen. missed it the first 5 times. slowed down to .25 speed it’s still hard to see. then stopped action just before and after it’s clear. had read recently that chemtrails have been modified and will become less and less visible. wonder if they’ve worked on hiding the rod of God as well.
This was also interesting, in the sense of ‘clandestine’ ops:
“NASA circling DC-8 Jet around San Andreas Fault sparks Conspiracy Theories”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-07/nasa-circling-dc-8-jet-around-san-andreas-fault-sparks-conspiracy-theories
“The plane was spotted flying extremely low to the ground over Altadena and Southern California on July 22, several weeks after California’s Searles Valley was struck with a magnitude 6.4 and 7.1 within 24 hours around July 4/5. NASA spokeswoman, Kate Squires, told CBS Los Angeles (CBSLA) that the plane was conducting a mission to study the effects of fire smoke on air quality. However, conspiracy theory-websites don’t buy the government’s explanation of why the aircraft was zig-zagging over the faultline.”
Studying the effects of fire smoke on air quality. Uh-huh. And pigs fly. The actual mission could be to somehow measure stress build-up in the fault (meaning natural sources). Or, it could be to detect ‘unnatural’ build-ups (meaning man-made sources). As Joseph has pointed out, “Two can play that game…”
The use of high and low tech combined attack might have been overlooked. Have had interesting sidebar conversations with a few coworker spec ops guys.
https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Blast-Factory-Injured-Special/dp/1683504941/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=blast+factory&qid=1565234287&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Tales From the Blast Factory: A Brain Injured Special Forces Green Beret’s Journey Back From the Brink Paperback – January 23, 2018
It’s a different world. Spec Ops are standard first use now. All other forces (not mercs) are for public consumption. One kid served 4 years active. Busy life. Now serves reservist while living with wife and kids and working mundane job in USSA. Doing alright in his thirties. Been stabbed, shot and shrapnelled multiple times on 15+ occasions. If he makes it he’s gonna be one bent and pained 60 year old.
Most of the worst risks run in being too close to inevitable blasts – as in the book above. This kid was lucky with blasts so far. His medical work is targetted to get him operational. So far they have. Kids like this have a cynical Capt America attitude. They believe in the winter soldier work ethic and do not question their directives.
As a reservist he works a long weekend a month. Flown to some wet op target (usually far away) with a crew of 4 to 8 other guys from all branches spec ops. Team is dropped, set up target, take out target with help from above or not (drone usually now), picked up and taken home. It’s all wified and hightech ground work supervised from above.
When considering how special forces have grown the last couple decades, it makes it easier to see how many of these small groups can go out and come back repeatedly and to anywhere. Including here. Did anyone notice William Colby when he stood up for the Franklin Scandal investigator? And how he was stood down? Multiply those teams by magnitudes of order.
If nothing else, my bet is there were humint on the ground assessing and coordinating with satellite and/or drone. Probably same as that land slide that dammed a russian river over night a couple months ago.
Keep in mind teams like this frequently retire and go merc. Teams from all countries. Harvey Weinstein, used a number of retired Mossad teams repeatedly to silence anyone who wasn’t charmed with his sexuality. Does this make any of those hundreds of deaths of md’s, phd’s and banksters make any more sense. The extra concept added here is that the retired spec operatives all too frequently go merc and work for corporate clients. And who are the wealthiest most corrupt corporate clients today? It wouldn’t a certain few companies in the pharmaceutical industry would it?
Zen, right on the money. I made the right decision to get out at the end of my tour, but unfortunately a friend of mine didn’t. He was involved with the over throw in the Belgium Congo and others and eventually left out to dry by Oliver N. and spent time in prison. People don’t have a clue of how many thousands of soulless people are involved. Overthrowing other countries yesterday, overthrowing their own country today, for the money in most instances.
Am I wrong in thinking that the differences between Special Forces, Mercenaries and Mafia Hitmen are rather nuanced?
DT, you and I share the same opinion here. The all do the same job, often with the same tactics. The motivations and chains of command are “different”. Special Forces often makes good training for the other two after their service ends–and the money can be quite good.
One of the reasons I agree with you here is a member of my family had training in special forces operations during the 1950’s and 1960’s. He passed away years ago, but the types of missions he trained for were consistent with mercenary and mafia groups. After his period of service concluded he declined to re-enlist–and this created quite a stir among those within military circles from what I gather. He believed such training was necessary and was not afraid to use his skills in defense of his country, but he was not convinced his government used the military in a just and forthright manner. As a soldier he could not question a mission, but as a civilian he could make the decision to refuse. That’s what he did. He never regretted his decision either–for Vietnam turned into exactly what he thought it would become. Refusal to re-enlist as a veto of misused service is an act of courage in my book.
Seeing the news yesterday about the Siberian ammo dump explosions also made reminded me about what Tom Bearden said in a couple of his books about various countries using scalar weapons to ignite ammo dumps.
The major problem do the rest of the world know who they dealing with. The USA is in reality the CSA with loyalty to their old masters in London that is why their hostility to Russia, China, Persia. Until they are unmasked we will be their victims and toys.
Twice you mentioned the CSA in your comments recently, and twice I’ve been tempted to respond. One only need to look seriously at the Lincoln Memorial’s architecture and art to see what the Northern establishment thought about the man–despite his attempt to issue money from the treasury rather than the bank. IMHO, many of the things of which you are most critical look are not regional–but philosophical. If one takes out the references to CSA and USA, and replaces them with differences between two banking philosophies, a clearer picture emerges. IMHO, the root of Lincoln’s war, and this nation’s imperial aspirations, falls on the shoulders of the Hamiltonian banking system’s supporters–not those of Andrew Jackson and his banking system. If one sniffs around long enough one will find Hamiltonians in both places occupying seats of power. Because these people enshrine their heroes on seats of power, one only needs to look at the Lincoln Memorial to see their veneration of their imperial ideal in a statesman. And, Lincoln was a first class rascist!
Please pardon a grammatical error. I was unable to edit properly. The relevant phrase should read, “are most critical are not regional–but philosophical”.
Kind regards and respectfully yours, OC
PS: With respect to slavery, it was, and in its Hamiltonian variation in modern society, most decided still is, our shared national disgrace.
Racists?? What’s that based on? I’d be interested in your facts if you have any.
db
To you, DB, I would say look at his speeches and his statements to various newspapers throughout his career. Those were the biggest clue to me. My Christian values cannot permit me to say anything less than this–though I have considered the possibility he was much worse. I do realize some may know some of these things yet do so sympathetically. I’m still learning what I do not know, so I am no expert. But I am learning.
In my readings I have found numerous examples of these cited by many authors from both sides of the aisle. It’s not until you look at the historical data that you see the true portrait of this man emerge. You have to read from both his apologists and his critics. I started my investigations with Tom DiLorenzo’s two books and William Bennett’s works on US history. The first is a critic–though there are many who consider him discredited because some of his political views find common linkage to others with views far more radical than he yet possessing a clear racist world-view. (Perhaps the linkage is they are working with a common set of data, with one discussing views from a racial context and DiLorenzo looking strictly at the historical data with a strong view of economic theory. One doesn’t have to embrace his theories to consider his data, though. It’s the data that most interests me.) The latter is a Republican writer who is friendly to the Republican cause and declares Lincoln as the champion of the Republican ideal. Then, there’s Michael Lind’s book, What Lincoln Believed: The Values and Convictions of America’s Greatest President. The title will tell you he is also an apologist–but an honest one at that. In there you will find an apologist willing to discuss some of the man’s problems while providing explanations for them. The former and latter contain quite a few quotes from the man, but be prepared for a few bombshells in each. Read them with an open mind. To understand someone you do need to examine him or her through several persons eyes by those having the sense to document their sources. After considering the data, if you arrive at a different conclusion, thats OK with me. It’s equally important for you to see why someone like me can arrive at this decision–and use him as an example of a well-known racist figure in the Union orbit whose genuine mission was the preservation of the Hamiltonian, Federalist, Whig tradition. Though the Whigs were deeply committed to the British banking model, I will not say anything of that as of yet because it is yet another page of history. Its an avenue to explore that remains on my list.
Okay, fair enough. I’ll check it out.
Lincoln’s on record stating he had no intent to free slaves. I haven’t researched that much but have always been curious what was the intent on the moves to take back the currency issuance. It looks like Jackson sincerely intended to eradicate central banks and control the currency. It always felt like the way Lincoln and Kennedy tried to do so was naive. Such naivite from such cynical folk is odd. Kennedy came from a mafia family and Lincoln was a railroad lawyer.
I understand the extent of the fire is larger than many US states or European countries. Sabotage? Certainly could be and I don’t think the Russians wouldn’t not think so either. Things of strategic importance sure do have a tendency to be violently compromised there recently (China and US, too), which also makes me think of the Empire’s response to their thwarting of the Ukraine putsch and taking back Crimea, and their explicit threat to “make them pay” via asymmetrical means. I assume that little cold war is still going on.
That said, sometimes natural disasters are natural, you know. And I don’t think you necessarily need space-based lasers to set a huge tinder-dry swathe of Siberia aflame. Low-tech means (matches) would do just as well in that vast wilderness.
I assume they have many “secret” military bases in Siberia. Weapon testing, rocket fuel depots etc. I think some of them might be underground bases.
I mean “secret” like Area 51. Everyone knows it’s there, but it’s “secret”.
It is all starting to unravel and a perfect storm is approaching.
My immediate reaction is sabotage.
In reading several posts; I’m in the low-tech circle.
HUMINT agents in place w/a little technical assistance.
My thoughts as well. Pay some professionals (Mercs) with specific instructions to place some remote detonated pyro in pre-selected areas to maximize effectiveness. Timed devices would allow you to slip out the AO before the show and avoid sending a signal that could potentially be detected. That’s how I would do it anyway. The remote area would make movement pretty easy for professionals.
Ah. Gosh and Foggy hit things quickly with keen insights. Having read the blog myself I suspect Dr. Farrell’s point is less specific as to the cause of the interference and suggests there might be foreign influence.
How can Russia afford not consider these suspicious when they have significant intelligence with respect to our military capability? How can Russia not afford to be cautious in their public statements? Little matters as to whether this one has a Western provenance. Russia knows the US will meddle there–and divert attention from that meddling with accusations of Russian interference locally. I’ve read transcripts of many of Putin’s speeches. This man is no mental midget! Though he presents his rhetoric using historical references wrapped within an academic argument with biting criticisms and complaints, Putin’s words read to me like a political interpretation of the lyric to one of Asia’s deepest cuts in it’s early catalogue with John Wetton on bass and vocals:
“Fate looks certain but then nothing’s guaranteed
Want for nothing, but is nothing what you need
Always pushing though you’re never satisfied
I did believe you ’till I found out that you lied
Time and time again
Time and time again
Again
What I give you I get nothing in return
Can’t forgive you, watching all your bridges burn
All day long I stand and watch you do it wrong
I have to say that’s how you did it all along
Time and time again
Time and time again
Again
When others learned it seemed that you could only see
And someone showed you, then why was it always me
I knew the limit, you were always out of bounds
How could I trust you when I caught you messing ’round
And time and time and time again
Time and time again
Time and time again
Again”
Credits go to Wetton, Howe, Palmer and Downes for this one.
Remember, Russia has maintained some type of relationship with the US politically and economically going all the way back to the Revolutionary War period. They are not unaware of our history.
And they have suffered at the hands of the same mafia that the USSA has.
Err, it was an ammunition depot that went up, not an ammunition factory . Risk of a fire in an ammunition factory would be much higher than in an ammunition depot (which is only a storage area). I do wonder why the scale of the explosions. Most ammo depots which I have seen pictures of do not allow concentrations of ammo. They spread it out over large numbers of separated bunkers, so there is little risk of a super-boom. Security concerns?
This might be a reason, if it was sabotage:
“Russian aluminum producer Rusal said that it had shut down operations at its plant in Achinsk as a safety precaution, with only essential staff remaining on site.”
If there was any ‘man-made’ causing of those Siberian fires, I suspect very low-tech means. A match is much cheaper than a gamma-ray satellite. Bribe or blackmail someone (or infiltrate someone) and you can have multiple forest fires on the cheap. I have worried about this aspect for both the US and Russia for a long time.
That said, any ‘choke point’ (railway, strait, bridge) becomes a potential target in unrestrained covert warfare…
I agree with you, Goshawks. Multiple large explosions at a military ammunition depot should be quite difficult to cause by accident, because of the way magazines are constructed, insulated and spaced apart. Also there was another similar incident at a military ammunition depot in Kazakhstan (which is also important to The Belt & Road Initiative) in June. As I wrote at the time, I think these events – and the agents provocateurs on the streets of Hong Kong – have been part of the US’s “negotiations” with China and others over re-setting the global financial system. I have the uncomfortable feeling that day-to-day control of Hong Kong is going to be given to China as part of the “deal.”
On the question of using matches to start fires, if you have invested heavily in space-based lasers, you’re probably itching to use them and show off your new toy to the other kids in the playground. The shepherds like to do things “because they can.”
Concerning Hong Kong, I wonder what is really going on. The original protests were quite brave, and got the internal ‘government’ to back-down on its latest subjugation-of-Hong-Kong maneuver. I would have thought the public would have quit there. The trashing of ‘government’ offices and symbols is beginning to force a face-saving response by China. 1989 Tiananmen Square, Mk.2 ?
Are we looking at agent provocateurs here? Could be Western or could be Chinese. I am sure the Hong Kong public does not want to lose what freedoms they have left…
We have family who used to live there and friends who still do. Take a look at a few videos of the white shirts. Obvious provocateurs – chasing down, beating up unarmed protesting boys and girls with sticks and bats. Whether or not plane loads of color revolution provocateurs were flown in to start the protests, the massive reaction to the new law looked plenty sincere. Naive but sincere. These people are well aware of Falun Gong. They see what is coming. To think Beijing is going to back down and let HK not suffer the social score that the rest of China suffers is the only naivite I see. So while massing troops nearby, the provocateurs were sent in (much like Paris this year) to make it violent whether the protesters got violent or not. The violence makes the army look needed and welcome.
ZDB, thank you. Most observant. The Hong Kong public is truly caught between a rock and a hard place. I wish them the best…
I don’t think the Russians will let themselves be “California-ed”