A generic drone image – this ain’t the innocent one drowned by Russia
Oh look: the front pages this morning are Lineker-free all of a sudden: how amazing! Well, it is Budget Day, and so, finally, there were some leaks. After all, Hunt presented the thing to the ministers in the cabinet. Someone must have blabbed …
As usual, Auntie Beeb has collected this morning’s print editions’ front pages: “Newspaper headlines: ‘Back to work budget’ and ‘Russia downs US drone” (link). Keep that ‘drone’ in mind, I’ll come to this below.
As for the Budget, last evening, the Speccie in their email newsletter observed that:
“[…] this big fiscal event doesn’t feel very hyped this year. That’s a deliberate move by the official Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and the real Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who feel there has been a bit too much hype and excitement generally in Westminster over the past few years.”
Interesting, isn’t it, how leak-free the Treasury is when they put their mind to it. But whose fault is it that we were being driven from one ‘excitement’ to the other, producing anxiety and fear? It’s quite remarkable that the MSM seem to be fascinated by one alleged ‘budget leak’, namely that Hunt is going to do ‘something’ about pensions as well as child care because he wants everybody back at work.
Why people should go back to work in order to pay more taxes so that thousands healthy young male illegal migrants can be kept, work-free, in hotel accommodation: well, he and the whole of Westminster regard us as stupid fools who’ll do as we’re told.
It’s also noteworthy that the US bank crash has utterly gone from the ‘points to talk about’ which our MSM provide us with. Tomorrow everybody in the Westminster newsrooms will belly-ache about the budget, with a bit of ‘Tory anger’ thrown in.
Meanwhile, the Westminster news editors must have been jubilant to’ve received another ‘shiny object’ to dangle before us: yon US drone. It’s still on online front pages. Here’s what happened: last evening an American publication pushed a ‘breaking news’ into my inbox. Under the headline “Russian Military Jet Crashes into U.S. Drone over Black Sea” I read:
“A Russian military plane collided with a U.S. drone in international airspace over the Black Sea on Tuesday, prompting U.S. forces to land the unmanned aircraft in international waters, west of Crimea.” (paywalled link)
That’s both bland and serious. How could this happen, over ‘international waters’! Well, see the original statement from US European Command – and please do not giggle (my emphasis):
“U.S. European Command confirmed that a Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of a U.S. MQ-9 drone, which was on a routine mission in international airspace when two Russian jets attempted to intercept it. “Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner. This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional,” a spokesman for the U.S. European Command said in a statement.” (paywalled link)
‘Environmentally unsound’ – good grief! That’s so heinous! You can read the whole US statement here. It is dripping with feigned innocence. How did the US know what exactly happened when yon drone was unmanned’ and then ‘landed’ on the water?
I had just digested this news of ‘environmentally unsound’ Russian jet fighters attacking a pure, innocent drone just going about her business in airspace so close to the Crimea that Russian Navy ships were able to pick up the floating debris already when, lo and behold, I received another ‘Breaking News’ alert.
This alert was attached to yesterday evening’s SitRep by “Simplicius’, headlined “BREAKING: Russian Su-27’s Finally Down American Drone Near Crimea” (link). Do read the whole thing! Meanwhile, see the Russian report, published by TASS which I can still access, for some odd internetty reason. You will keep in mind, at all times, that this is of course only Russian State Propaganda, won’t you:
“MOSCOW, March 14. /TASS/. A MQ-9 American drone was detected by Russian airspace control means near the Crimean Peninsula, it violated the boundaries of the area of the temporary airspace regime established during the special operation, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.” (link)
Such Russian declaration is of course meaningless to the USA, eager to support their ally with all the info they can reap. Next, the official statement of the Russian MoD (my emphasis):
“On 14 March 2023 in the morning, the Russian airspace control systems have detected an American MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle flying over the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula in the direction of the state border of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said. “The drone flew with its transponders off, violating the boundaries of the temporary airspace regime established for the special military operation, communicated to all users of international airspace, and published in accordance with international standards.” According to the ministry, following abrupt maneuvering the drone “went into an unguided flight with a loss of altitude and collided with the water surface. The Russian aircraft did not use on-board weapons, did not come into contact with the unmanned aerial vehicle, and returned safely to their home airfield,” it added.” (link)
This begs the question: what took the US European ‘drone’ Command so long to get their story out? Did they need to check and interpret the data from the other info gathering platforms with which they’ve encircled this area, in order to determine the fate of that poor drone? Did they need the time to formulate the beautiful statement about this ‘environmentally unsound’ attack?
Still, it’s a welcome shiny object to keep us in abject fear – this might have been a ‘cause of war’, after all! And then what use would today’s budget have been! Note that ‘breaking news’ aren’t always just ‘breaking’ but carefully organised information, placed into the public space by the usual suspects. Keep this in mind, especially since we, in the ‘free’ west, are forbidden to access Russian sources.
That’s all I have for today. We can talk about the budget when we know what’s in it. Meanwhile, I enjoyed the ‘breaking’ news about yon innocent drone. It was a nice diversion. Have a good day.
Has todays crap budget done anything for the average man/woman in the street, no. Has this crap budget done anything to promote the Conservative Party’s electoral fortunes despite the smiles of that phoney Conservative Hunt, no. And has this crap budget done anything for that sticking plaster Starmer and his woefully out of touch Labour Party, definitely not. We are in desperate need of an alternative voice which will not come from Reform UK and their useless leadership, but I was mightily impressed with what Ben Habib said on just about everything issue on Dewbs and Co on GB News this evening. I have totally given up on Farage now who will never deliver and seems a wet blanket compared with Habib. If only he would start a new right of centre political party, then we might have something to hope for. Politically speaking we are not in a good place at the moment, stuck between a rock and a very hard place.
CH. He has a logical mind and he is quick , polite and well educated. Leaders do not bother with reason although they have to have access to it. More important is fast calculating and rough and decisive .with confidence. IMHO. Then there’s another sort of attribute difficult to name of seeing pathways in unknown territory.. instinctively.. Or maybe that’s Superman. A Lucky guesser ?
Yesterdays industries generated understanding of Organising and a thousand skills.. Today the fast communication and seeming help of technology merely hides stuff behind dangerously impenetrable curtains of selling something.. The present population can now be classified as IGNORANT. Staggering along behind a few nodes of knowledge as in professions or Civil service, with long reaching records, and corruptible tech institutions ( For exactly the same reasons )
Just enabling it basically. Waiting to see just how bad the budget actually is. Wierd that Bojo has spoken against the Corporation tax rise that he instigated. Presumably it is petulance because Sunak has replaced him. Either he has forgotten it was his policy or he hopes others have forgotten.
It is a thoroughly BAD policy anyway.
Pauline………I wouldn’t worry about Boris Johnson if I was you. He is a thoroughly discredited individual and anything he says on just about any subject one cares to mention, is not worth the paper on which it is written. He is yesterday’s man and failed to deliver the Brexit the majority voted for in 2016, failed to deliver on a workable trade deal and should have had the political conviction and backbone to revert to WTO Rules on the 31st January 2020 which would have saved all the hassle we have to endure over the past three years. He failed to deliver upon Fishing and Territorial Waters and gave fishing licences away to the French at the expense of our own fishermen and effectively allowed the European Commission to annexe Northern Ireland which is an integral part of the United Kingdom with separate customs and single market rules, and more latterly trashed our civil liberties and freedoms in the name of an respiratory infection and which led to thousands of our citizens to lose their jobs and sent this country’s debt off the scale and pole axe the economy. And if that wasn’t enough he railroaded the Covid laws through parliament without so much as a debate expecting us to obey those draconian rules of association to the hilt, whilst at the same time broke the rules himself by holding drinks parties and the like on government property. I won’t mention the fact that he has now nominated his father for a knighthood, but hold on I already have. The man has no shame and it will be a good day for this country when he eventually loses his parliamentary seat.
““When I use a word,’ Doris said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
Apologies to Humpty Dumpty.
Ahhh! Her we go then.
“Escalating crisis at Credit Suisse triggers fresh fears for European banks”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/03/15/escalating-crisis-credit-suisse-triggers-fresh-fears-european/
The baking crisis is now going global but I hear that there are more major US banks about to tip up as well.
“Please do not giggle.” I failed. Even forewarned, it just burst out.
Further.
“This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional.”
Well we know, because we are told all the time – almost as often as we are told they are running out of ammunition – that ALL Russian military personnel are useless.
Sounds to me that those pilots were demonstrating exceeding competence and resourcefulness in the manner of RAF pilots who would try to nudge doodlebugs off course with their wings, if they had exhausted their very limited supply of shells.
Perhaps flyer will comment, he having expertise in these matters.
I was researching this drone downing incident overnight.
Drone could have easily been shot down, but more useful to inspect the largely intact (dampish!) electronics and design features of construction. The race is on for the carcass, Note: that area of the sea is not open to non bordering nations – except for commerce – grain, lithium, oil and so on.
Quick,mobilise the pipeline destruction team?
‘This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional’
Flying close to a jinking aircraft at speed. Incompetent really? Were they flying upside down a la top gun?
Unsafe? Unmanned drone commanded from say 1,000 miles away. Unsafe for whom?
Unprofessional – yor avin a larf. Pilots are not american cropduster punters drafted in for the job.
American spokesman said they were in international airspace.
Russian ambassador said they were in Russian airspace – from the newly Russian areas, previously Ukrainian, which America refuses to acknowledge as Russian.
The last part, surprisingly not reported by the msm – but reported by Viv (bravo! (or brava?)).
Well at least now the russians have shoo’ed away spies on preparations for their next big push.
And remember – Bahkmut is of no importance. That’s why the uS, sorry meant Ukies, are fighting tooth and nail to keep it.
‘Tis ‘brava’ because I’m not ‘fluid’ and insist on being identified as female, even when I (occasionally) self-identify as collie …
😉
Yes Bicotte that is what I thought. Russia has never prevented ‘commerce’ in the Black Sea region. It is concerned about military and espionage missions on it’s doorstep.
Lineker poll; 87% vote to sack him. Unfortunately on 14,576 votes, hardly a landslide but a good indication of voter apathy.
The yanks must think we are stupid! Non of their statement even sounds true!
We are not all as dopey as Biden!
The banking crisis hasn’t gone away, far from it, it’s still gathering momentum en coulisse. What governments and the mainstream media are doing is simply evil, they’re trying to keep information suppressed, the hoi palloi calm and in the dark while bankers and politicians have first access to any money that is left and we are left with nothing.
We haven’t reached the stage of bail ins yet but we will, this may take a while to play out. So much for politicians that are supposed to represent us and look after our interests, they just couldn’t care less about us and treat us with utter contempt.
Bank runs are ongoing all over the world now and I thinks some rather spectacular failures are imminent. Do not listen to the mainstream media or our politicians, evil the lot of them.
Flyer. Dead right. I think anyone with savings in bank deposits should remove them now, just leaving enough for day to day needs. The £85000 “guarantee” isn’t worth the paper its written on: I think the banks only have 1.3% of the money needed to pay back to deposit holders their own money.
Why make a gift of our hard -earned savings to greedy bankers who “never give sucker a break?”
Another huge thing MSM are evilly keeping dark is the World Health Organisation raw power grab dressed up as looking after our health. A WHO Pandemic Treaty treaty is is still in the pipeline. But they hope in May to sneak through the power grab under the seemingly innocuous title of “International Health Regulations Amendments”. This will mean goodbye to most of our most basic human rights eg bodily autonomy; and the WHO recommendations will become orders. And our spineless useless authorities will obey those orders. The only way we could defeat this power grab is for civil disobedience by a critical mass of ordinary people.
If the majority of the people who are angry with the establishment, or fearful for the future of themselves and their families, cannot be bothered to cough up £25 to join centre Right challengers, then I have little hope they have the spine for civil disobedience. Most people are even too frightened to refuse to pay their BBC propaganda tax!!!
Cash is king. The perfect means of exchange. Then comes beauty. Long after electricity dies.. But first comes organisation. More value than life itself… ( The stupidist soldier knows that,. even though his Officer thinks its something else )
Sadly, only the Civil Service knows when we will decline to the required level, and if they will then stop their ‘ managed decline ‘. Also will they then tell us ?.. And who will then take charge.? All other countries are rapidly falling into their favoured religion before the usual empire starts again.
Hunts budget designed to increase taxes, in the hope that there’ll enough left over to reward the rare companies for surviving and then, they hope, growth , but making it painful enough for people to never return to a well run country.
t g s Didn’t granny say God helps those who help themselves?
Good heavens I wonder what was on that drone that made it ‘environmentally unsound’ when it was destroyed by the Russians ( apparently) but it was O.K for other ‘forces’ to blow up the gas pipeline which did cause an environmental disaster which for some reason didn’t bother the US.UK.E.U and received scant attention by the media.
Excellent point Norman.