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LONGFORM

McKonets

May 25, 2022November 10th, 20239 min read

Good morning on the 25th of May, Towel Day – in loving memory of Douglas Adams, the author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – the Day of Kiev, and the Day of Youth in the former SFR Yugoslavia, it’s greatest holiday on Marshal Josip Broz Tito’s Official Birthday! Even though Kádár was born 110 years ago tomorrow in Rijeka – later also Yugoslavia, Croatia today – I am facing incredible time restraints and am forced to be as brief as possible, because I have to produce over forty deliverables tonight. I didn’t even have time to open Messenger yesterday. So no history, no extra fat on the meat today. I am sorry to let my readers down, for neglecting important events in other regions – the Middle East  and Asia especially – these past few days, but when I’m on the clock I have to pick and choose which stories make the cut, and can be part of a coherent narrative and this comes at the cost of some other stories.

First off, as of midnight, Hungary is in a State of Emergency, announced by our Prime Minister Viktor Orbán yesterday. Despite my compatriots’ hysteria, the reasons are clearly stated and sound reasonable to me – even if I, like most of you, am reflexively averse to any “Emergency Powers” any government just gives itself – which are the sanctions war initiated by Brussels, causing economic and energy turmoil in Europe. What measures we will take to stabilize the situation, I simply do not know yet. I will add that it’s not looking good over here, with the recent EU announcement of an Energy Rationing plan, encouraging “changes in behavior” in the face of the crisis. Maria Zakharova – spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation – called the rejection of Russian oil a collective suicide for the Union, and she’s not wrong.

This is the best place to note that at the time of writing both the US Dollar ( 56.9 ) and Euro ( 58.9 ) have dipped below 60 to the Ruble. The Golden Arches of McDonalds – on our cover today – are finally coming down and leaving Russia for good – even though there are all sorts of caveats – signaling the end of an era that began in 1989. It’s Konets ( конец meaning end ), or more aptly : McKonets. I think everyone remembers the first McDonalds in Moscow – replacing Café Lira, a place of community and polite discussion – that opened at dawn on 31 January 1990, to a crowd of 5,000+ people wanting to taste the minced rat called the Big Mac for the first time. Nike has announced the same, although their products will still be available through wholesale distributors.

Good riddance, but I will say – as a squatting slav myself – that if Adidas would try this it would be nationalized in an instant. We are, and have been in love with the brand – interestingly founded by another Adolf, rebranded to “Adi” Dasler after the Great Patriotic War – because of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, where Russia wore the TWO – no western decadence here, comrade – stripes for the first time, and millions of people got instantly infatuated with them, and Misha the bear, the game’s official mascot. So I remember saying no history, right? I guess this is automatic, my apologies!

This May 25 is historic for a few reasons, other than my little Hungary. Russia has announced the elimination of mine danger in the waters of Marioopol, and the opening of an open corridor to the Black Sea today, encouraged by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during a conversation with his German counterpart Baerbock, yesterday. On the same day, the US Treasury has terminated the now wealthy Russian Federation’s ability – sorry license – to pay interest, servicing their sovereign debt, in an attempt to manufacture a Russian Default, to show the US taxpayer that Russia is broke, even though this will incur the wrath and legal action of – American – bondholders, like pension funds managers.

In the same Marioopol, Denis Pushilin – head of the Donetsk People’s Republic – has announced the first stages of the tribunals over the Azov larvae will begin shortly, because they are not worth delaying. I look forward to the Western Presstitutes mental gymnastics once footage of these trials surface. Zaporizhzhya’s authorities have announced that the region will never again be under the control of Kiev. Under sources you will see the most affordable automobile, mass produced in Ukraine in the 1960s, called the ZAZ-965A Zaporozhets, named after the city. I earnestly hope the same renaissance awaits this brand as has recently been revealed for the beloved Moskvich ( meaning Muscovite ). See, I can’t stay away from History! 

Henry Kissinger – of all people, not a friend of any of us especially in Latin America and the Middle East – has emerged from the circus at Davos as the sole voice of reason, calling for the Holodomor Elensky regime to compromise and negotiate with Russia – something Russia is simply no longer interested in. They tried, in good faith, months ago and fell on deaf ears on the order of the US and Britain. This has caused Elensky’s top jester, Mikhail Podolyak to call the attendees “Davos Panickers”. The current area of tension in the world however is in the South China Sea.

As you know the anti-China quad held a high-level meeting in Tokyo yesterday, including the Bobblehead, and Australia’s new Prime Minister. It was here that sleepy Joe announced his support, including military support for the Chinese Island Province of Taiwan, since backtracked by the White House but heard loud and clear in Beijing. The answer was swift and serious. A joint military drill of Russian and Chinese aircraft right near the skies above the quad leaders, near the borders of Japan. To China, Taiwan – now being armed in traditional Ukraine fashion according to the NYT – is a vital internal issue that they simply won’t allow the US to exploit. Both Koreas have launched ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan now, citing provocation by the other. 

You can bet your pension that Global Times has responded accordingly, calling the US-Australian attempt to contain China “doomed to fail”, and drawing – correctly – the World’s attention to how the US regularly abandons its pawns, obvious to anyone looking at Ukraine today. They are also furious about an alleged – developing story – militarized insect project, further threatening food security around those US biolabs I really want to hear more about.

The region is turning into a tinderbox, based on the United States’ blueprints. In a column by Sohrab Ahmari in the American Conservative – obligatory caveat : their bias is the opposite of mine – the US’ stumbling into a two front war is explained by the deteriorating economic situation at home. No baby formula, historic inflation, skyrocketing gas prices and increasing deterioration of social cohesion. There is so much more happening, subtle moves in Moldova, flashy and extravagant ones in Turkey, like the absolute disowning of Greece, laughing at Elensky’s performance at Davos, and Syria – that I don’t have time to cover today. I am sorry, I feel that I am letting you down. All I can hope for is a better ratio between my two chosen professions in the future. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading, and have an absolutely brilliant Wednesday morning, day or evening whatever sky looks down on you reading these lines.

Peace, Land and Bread

From Facebook Archives : 25 May 2022

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