T.G.—There is a curious balance of both tension and peace at Shambala, the 180-acre ranch in Soledad Canyon, north of Los Angeles in the Santa Clarita Valley, where 93 lions and tigers and other big cats along with two African elephants wander, stretch and sleep in a secluded river setting.

Since 1971, Shambala — which is ancient Sanskrit for “a meeting place of peace and harmony for all beings, animal and human” — has been beset by fire and flood, births and deaths, maulings and financial problems.

Yet Shambala has survived: the necessary $4,000 a week somehow always found; those early maulings simply memories offering insight into animal behavior.

These days, Tippi Hedren says, strolling past flower beds through jungle-like foliage down to the wooded picnic area by a man-made waterfall on the Santa Clara River, “Shambala is just Shambala.”

OBB—The Sea of Azov is a vital transport corridor. By attacking tankers carrying fuel from Russian ports to Crimea, Ukraine severely complicates the ability of Russian forces to resupply their southern group of forces. Russia relies heavily on a “shadow fleet” of aging, obscurely owned tankers to bypass Western sanctions and the G7 oil price cap. Targeting these vessels directly weakens Russia’s energy-export revenues, contributing to domestic fuel shortages and export bans within Russia. Ukraine’s ability to reliably strike dozens (the number 45 is cited today by Military Summary) of Russian ships over a matter of days demonstrates the continued success of its asymmetrical naval strategy. By deploying advanced sea drones rather than relying on a traditional navy, Kyiv is successfully neutralizing large portions of Russian naval logistics while imposing localized blockades on occupied territories.

The overall energy war (Russia targeting gas stations and other energy facilities in Ukraine, Ukraine targeting Russian oil refineries and other energy facilities) threatens to dent the volume of Russian oil sales, applies greater pressure on oil prices at a time when these are already under threat from the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, make it more difficult for countries to restock oil reserves, and contributes to the possibility of a looming global economic recession or depression.

BL–The Americanization of the European Right can be traced back to the late 19th century when industrialism shifted power from agriculture to commerce, eliminating conservative’s historical social base and forcing its defenders into the arms of the modern bourgeoisie. The decisive realignment came after 1945 in the West. The old paleoconservative Right lay in ashes implicated with fascism on the continent. With the coming of Hollywood films, jazz and standardized commodities reflecting the American look, French culture began to retreat. It was difficult to understand how much their Cold War alliance to America and implicitly its cultural order had implicated European rulers in this deculturing process. Please see Seducing the French: The Dilemma of Americanization by Richard Kuisel. Yet in spite of everything European politics is again beginning to deviate from the American model in France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Spain and Greece. All are today experiencing a revival of anti-liberal politics.

TF—The latest alleged game-changer is Ukraine’s drone-strike campaign inside Russia. But this is a lie, no less than previous propaganda drives. Yes, Kyiv’s drone campaign is certainly having an impact. But this is unlikely to change the course of the war. The Russian economy is faltering, yet it remains in a better position than much of the EU. But even more crucially, the Russian army continues to advance on the battlefield. It is steadily closing in on its goal of conquering the entire Donbass. Just the other day, Moscow announced the capture of Kostiantynivka — a town in Donetsk and the largest settlement it’s taken since Mariupol. All this flatly contradicts the prevailing “Ukraine has turned the tide” narrative. 

KS—Resistance to hegemony has existed for centuries but was greatly escalated with the onset of what’s known as the Scramble for Africa that placed all the Colonial/Imperial Empires into direct competition for what remained. One Empire that was placed on the menu was the Ottoman Empire—the Sick Man of Europe as it was then known whose lands were coveted by the other empires. And one Empire hadn’t really arrived on the world stage yet—the US Empire. Just prior to and as the 20th Century began, new views on how to attain systematic hegemonic control of the world were being voiced by the United States and the United Kingdom with Halford Mackinder’s system becoming dominant: control of the Eurasian Heartland via the maritime empires’ control of the oceans which is where most commercial trade took place as overland communication routes were very few at the time. And that doctrine also brought Japan into the mix as it had its eyes on Korea, Manchuria and the rest of East Asia to which it was suggested it control by President Roosevelt after Japan beat Russia in the 1904-5 war—Japan was to be an agent, a proxy of the USA in East Asia, or so it was suggested and interpreted by the Americans and Japanese at the time as I reported in an earlier article. So, naval power served the Imperial need to exert power and control colonies, and great competition ensued that continued after WW1.

GP—All of this filth—the manipulation of the rules, the discrimination, and the corruption—reveals two entwined issues, pervasive and polluting: the total disregard for the law by the rich and powerful, particularly Trump and other demagogues; and the socio-economic doctrine of greed and division, which affects the lives of everyone everywhere. An unjust reductive system that reduces everything to a commodity and everyone to a consumer.