conflict
Is Ukraine War a Money-Sucking Charade?

By John Leake
This morning I perused the Getty Archive for images of the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-43) and the Battle of Kursk (1943) — two of the biggest between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia. The archive contains thousands of images of men in combat, bombed out wreckage, and dead soldiers.
I then did a webs search for Battle of Kursk 2024 and got a few images of a solitary howitzer.
The most vivid footage I have seen of the current war in Ukraine has been taken from killer drones in the act of killing individual soldiers or small groups of soldiers in the field. However, I’ve still not seen anything even remotely approximating the panoramic views of destruction that were captured by film cameras at Stalingrad in 1942-1943.
Pondering this reminded me of an old friend who specializes as a leasing agent for warehousing facilities near major international airports. In early 2022, she got a call from a man who claimed his company was a Pentagon contractor in the business of transporting military supplies from the United States to Ukraine. He was seeking a large warehouse adjacent to an east coast international airport, preferably around Baltimore. When she asked him about the leasing term he wanted, he replied without hesitation, “ten years.”
“Ten years?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes, ten years.”
Another thing that struck me as incomprehensibly strange during the Biden years was the extraordinary confidence and bravado about the prospect of escalating war with Russia. The EXACT same people who had expressed mortal terror about COVID-19—which posed zero risk to the young and healthy—expressed zero fear about the prospect, however remote, of an eventual nuclear exchange with Russia.
A dear (and now former) friend in Austria who has earned a tidy living as a lobbyist had, between March 2020 and February 2022, repeatedly expressed his opinion that Covid lockdowns and compulsory vaccination were necessary to stop the spread of the deadly virus.
However, in February 2022, he told me that he and his family were willing “to lose everything to defend Europe against Russia.” How to reconcile his terror of COVID-19 with his extraordinary sang-froid about escalating with Russia instead of seeking a neutrality deal for Ukraine similar to that of Austria in 1955?
Is it possible that globalists like my ex friend aren’t worried about escalation because they believe the war in Ukraine is a relatively contained affair in the eastern provinces that is being sustained primarily to suck money out of western treasuries, especially the U.S.?
Where exactly have all of the money and weapons gone? Elon Musk’s DOGE has given us glimpses into where U.S. taxpayer money may go when no one is watching. I wonder if he can put some scrutiny on the tens of billions that have purportedly gone to Kiev.
Another little clue is evidence that much of Ukraine’s wealthy elite has left the country and is partying in Switzerland and the South of France. The French paper Le Monde published a report about the fun they are having in France (see Ukrainian oligarchs’ secret escape to the French Riviera).
Please note that I am NOT declaring anything; I am merely asking questions. Five years after the COVID-19 debacle, it’s become clear that Western governments and their mainstream media propaganda organs told hundreds of massive lies to their citizenries. As soon as the Covid Crisis showed major signs of abating in the winter of 2022, the EXACT SAME guys and girls lurched us into the Ukraine Crisis, and the money floodgates opened yet again, just as they had in March 2020.
Were the producers of the The Wizard of Oz and The Matrix telling us something about the way the world works in the era of photographic and electronic representations of reality?
Invite your friends and earn rewards
Artificial Intelligence
AI Drone ‘Swarms’ Unleashed On Ukraine Battlefields, Marking New Era Of Warfare

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
Artificial intelligence-powered drones are making their first appearances on the battlefield in the Russia-Ukraine war as warfare creeps closer to full automation.
In bombardments on Russian targets in the past year, Ukrainian drones acting in concert were able to independently determine where to strike without human input.
It’s the first battlefield use of AI “swarm” technology in a real-world environment, a senior Ukrainian official and Swarmer, the company who makes the software, told the Wall Street Journal in a Tuesday report. While drones have increasingly defined modern battlefields, swarms until now had been confined to testing rather than combat.
“You set the target and the drones do the rest,” Swarmer Chief Executive Serhii Kupriienko told the WSJ. “They work together, they adapt.”
So far, the Swarmer technology has been used hundreds of times to target Russia assets, but was first used a year ago to lay mines on the front, the Ukrainian official told the WSJ. The software has been tested with up to 25 drones at once, but is usually utilized with only three.
Kupriienko told the WSJ that he was preparing to test up to 100 drones at once with the linking software.
A common arrangement used on the battlefield includes one reconnaissance drone to scout out the target and two explosive drones delivering the payload on target, the official told the WSJ.
While Western nations such as the U.S., France and the United Kingdom are also pursuing drone swarm technology, they have not deployed swarm technology on the battlefield the way Ukraine has, according to the WSJ. Currently, autonomous weapons are not regulated by any international authority or binding agreement, but ethical concerns around the technology has led many to call for increased regulation of weapons like the Swarmer system.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
conflict
Trump Pentagon Reportedly Blocking Ukraine From Firing Western Missiles Deep Into Russia

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
The Department of Defense has spent months blocking the Ukrainian military from using American and British-made missiles to hit targets deep inside Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eldridge Colby reportedly designed the procedure to review requests to carry out the long-range strikes with weapons that are either of U.S. origin or that require American intelligence or use components provided by the U.S., according to the WSJ. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly has the final say on whether Ukrainian forces can use the MGM-140 ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) to hit targets in Russia.
The reported blocks on missile strikes coincides with a Trump administration effort to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment further on the matter.
BREAKING: President Vladimir Putin reacts to B-2 Flyover pic.twitter.com/1mzVn7DxlW
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 15, 2025
The Biden administration allowed Ukraine to carry out strikes with ATACMS in November, weeks after President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, the New York Times reported. Trump criticized the move during a December interview with Time magazine.
“It’s crazy what’s taking place. It’s crazy,” Trump said. “I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done.”
Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska on Aug. 15 for a summit meeting during which Trump sought to secure a cease-fire in Russia’s war with Ukraine. As Trump greeted Putin, a B-2A Spirit stealth bomber and several fighters carried out a flyover of Elmendorf Air Force Base.
Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and major European leaders on Aug. 18 to update them on the summit.
In July, Trump reached an agreement with NATO where members of the alliance would purchase weapons, including MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missiles, and donate them to Ukraine.
-
Alberta1 day ago
With no company willing to spearhead a new pipeline under federal restrictions, Alberta takes the lead
-
National2 days ago
Canada’s birth rate plummets to an all-time low
-
espionage2 days ago
North Americans are becoming numb to surveillance.
-
Alberta1 day ago
Halfway River First Nation makes history with Montney natural gas development deal
-
Crime2 days ago
Pierre Poilievre says Christians may be ‘number one’ target of hate violence in Canada
-
Business1 day ago
Elon Musk announces ‘Grokipedia’ project after Tucker Carlson highlights Wikipedia bias
-
Alberta1 day ago
Taxpayers: Alberta must scrap its industrial carbon tax
-
Bruce Dowbiggin1 day ago
The McDavid Dilemma: Edmonton Faces Another Big Mess