Evan, I am impressed by the plain-spoken finesse with which you express yourself. I commend you. As for your topic of discussion, here is my off-the-cuff commentary: My sense is that Russia has always struggled with elements in its society that look longingly to the "sophisticated west" and are rather easily enticed by its various charms and dissolute lifestyle — but they almost always do so weighed down by a persistent inferiority complex. My impression is that Russians are not naturally as treacherous or prone to extreme debauchery as, say, the British. But they are fast learners, and, if they stick with it for a while, they soon excel in all the ancient sins. In any case, they represent a more or less impotent minority of the Russian populace at this time. The majority clearly views matters as your report suggests: they perceive clearly and correctly that they are engaged in a great war with the Anglo-American empire and its motley crew of European vassal states. They have prosecuted this war with impressive patience and prudence, and over the course of four and a half years they have succeeded in wrecking, methodically attritting, or otherwise exposing as inefficacious the overwhelming majority of western armaments that have been brought to bear against them. The US/NATO has suffered, over the past 4+ years in Ukraine, the most consequential strategic defeat of the post-WW2 era. In conjunction with what has happened in West Asia over the past two and a half years, US/NATO/Israeli military capability has been decisively shattered. In 2024 and 2025, the Yemeni chased out of the Red Sea two successive American carrier strike groups. The US Navy was so traumatized by this experience that, earlier this year, when the USS George H. W. Bush was dispatched to the region, they did not dare transit the Red Sea, and instead took the long way around the tip of Africa in order to reach their destination in the Arabian Sea. Meanwhile, as a result of the February 28, 2026 US sneak attack on Iran, all US bases in the Persian Gulf region have been rendered untenable — several of them smashed good and hard; others simply vacated because they are no longer defensible. The US Navy's 5th Fleet has nowhere to make port within thousands of kilometers of their strike flotilla's current position. The fleet vacated its main base in Bahrain early in 2026. Since then, they have remained well distant from the Iranian coastline. And since the USS George Washington's September 5th close encounter with a new type of Iranian anti-ship missile, the fleet has moved even further distant, and the Bush ran away to Thailand. Fools believe the US controls the Strait of Hormuz. Fools believe the US retains sufficient military power in the region to inflict meaningful damage against Iran. Fools believe the US would not soon regret giving the Iranians another opportunity to strike back at them fully unrestrained. I am convinced the Iranians would like nothing so much as one last chance to avenge the IRIS Dena. In any case, the US/NATO/Israel militaries have been rendered incapable of meaningful offensive operations for at least the next decade. And they are utterly defenseless against Russian and Iranian long-range firepower. The entire panoply of American 20th century implements of war has proven to be shockingly anachronistic here in late 2026.

Ansar Allah is single-handedly dismantling the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and oil is whistling past the graveyard. Western financial markets are fractured fairy tales.