Uncle Volodya says, “The tragedy about history – personally and globally – is that while we may learn it we rarely learn from it.”
“The Edge… There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”
Hunter S. Thompson, from “Hell’s Angels”
One person conditioned to rule and control: the media sells it and you live the role
Mental wounds still screaming; driving me insane
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train….
Ozzy Osbourne, from “Crazy Train”
I imagine many of you – perhaps even most of you – remember this video from 2007, in which Chris Crocker worked himself into an hysterical state of emotion over perceived disrespect of imploded pop star Britney Spears. You don’t have to be a fan of girl-pop to have seen it, because it was just so bizarre; you likewise, to be honest, do not have to be a fan of girl-pop to see through the lens of hindsight that Spears could have had the career Taylor Swift had, if she had caught a couple of breaks, if someone had shielded her from terrible choices and if she had been born with Swift’s evident business acumen and common sense.
Anyway, the comparison I sought to draw is between Crocker’s hysterical defense of Britney Spears, and the leaders of the European Union’s stubborn fighting retreat in defense of their own out-of her-depth pop star, Kaja Kallas. No matter how stupid Kallas appears with the things she says, no matter the discomfort of the European electorate with an unelected bureaucrat making simpleminded – not to mention expensive – decisions on their behalf…the stunned leaders of Europe’s major powers continue to pretend that she is in her right mind, and deserves support.
By great good fortune, our agent in darkest Mordor – Dennis ‘Moscow Exile’ Pennington – forwarded a lengthy piece, in comments, on the revolving beacon of stupidity that is Kaja Kallas, nicely translated for those who do not read Russian. I had already begun to put this post together, but this addition was most welcome, and among its revelations was this allusion that despite her barking-mad Russophobia and addled crazy-talk – perhaps because of it – official Russia is not at all dissatisfied with her appointment to (effectively) Foreign Minister of the European Union. From Associate Professor of the Faculty of International Relations and Foreign Regional Studies of RSUH Vadim Trukhachev,
“As Prime Minister of Estonia, Kallas did not build extensive connections outside of Europe, but she spoke arrogantly about other continents. She is likely to make many mistakes because of her arrogance and inexperience in large-scale international affairs. Therefore, it is quite convenient for us that she is to be the head of European diplomacy.“
Looking once again at events transpired from the vantage point of hindsight, he could hardly have been more right: by the most fortuitous alignment of the stars, Kallas is as sharp as a marble, as efficacious as a chocolate teapot, a rocket that is all booster and no payload…and yet the EU will not hear of getting rid of her, so that she continues to weaken Europe’s foundations with her corrosive and abrasive stupidity. If the European Union had set itself up as your implacable enemy, as it did thanks to the fatuous ignorance of its leaders, so that you desired its downfall and marginalization, you could hardly have made a better choice than Kaja Kallas – her teaming with Ursula Von Der Leyen is like the union of strawberries and cream; so perfect it makes you lightheaded. As well to look for leadership in the Hundred-Acre Wood, under ‘E’ for ‘Eeyore’.
Committed as it is to capital-D Diversity, and convinced it is forging a new path that all will follow, the European Union’s diplomacy department can hardly sack a photogenic young woman, never mind that if she was any thicker, she would be soundproof. They can’t even get rid of Von Der Leyen, whom nobody would consider either young or photogenic, because the EU gasbags harped since forever on the boon to mankind that feminine leadership would be – there’ll be scarcely any war any more, you know, because women are thinkers; nurturers. There’s always a way out without bloodshed, and they’ll find it, because it is their nature.
For Kallas, who has defined herself by her loathing for the Soviet Union and the inheritor of its bloody mantle – Russia – no offence is too trivial to blame on her persecuters. Why, when she was a child under the cruel thumb of the Soviets, she never had any sweeties! She and other children like her had to make do with sour cream into which sugar had been stirred – think of it! Oh, the humanity!
Kaja Kallas was born in 1977, in Tallinn, Estonia. Marzipan is sweet, isn’t it? Did you know it was invented in Tallinn, by a student at Town Hall Apothecary? There’s even a museum room in Tallinn dedicated to the glory of marzipan. The Kawe Chocolate Factory was founded in 1921. In Tallinn. Where Kallas was born, in 1977 – presumably the business had hit its stride by that time, since it exported globally. In 1948, after the war, the company was nationalized and renamed ‘Kalev’. By 1962, when ‘the Soviets’ had thoroughly ruined it to the extent that it earned international recognition as a confectionery, it was a supplier to the entire USSR and throughout the world. Right in the very same city where Kallas was born! Not to belabour the point, there was no – repeat, no – shortage of chocolate and other candy in Tallinn, Estonia, in 1977 and in the years to follow. During the 1970’s there was a cocoa shortage – for which I suggest the Soviet Union was hardly to blame, it has never been a big exporter or grower of cocoa – and Kalev developed the popular ‘Kama bar’, which used a faux chocolate; perhaps that’s what drove the young Kaja to sour cream with sugar. That, or her parents. If so, she should thank them for her sparkling, straight teeth.
Speaking of her parents, her father – Siim Kallas – was a Communist Party member during the Soviet years. He was, according to references, a ‘prominent Estonian politician who played a major role in the country’s independence process in the early 1990s’. We should assume nothing from his being a member of the Communist Party – many adults throughout the Soviet Union were, and it was a good way to get on in business and influence – the point I am making is that he could easily afford to supply his child with candy now and again, so it was not poverty that drove her to sour cream and sugar.
However, Estonian independence – as I’ve mentioned before, in connection with the other Baltic statelets – appears to have been sought purely for its own sake, so that Estonians could dance around on their side of the border and shout mockingly that they are not Russians. Oh, some of them are: about 30% of Estonians are Russian-speakers who use Russian as their mother tongue, although a much smaller percentage are not Estonian citizens because they do not hold an Estonian passport. This means they will not be allowed to vote in Estonian elections, based on a constitutional amendment approved in March 2025. This was mildly condemned by the Security and Human Rights Monitor, although the author was at pains to point out it was the fault of Russian aggression; the original plan was that by encouraging permanent residents without Estonian citizenship to participate more fully in public life, inter-ethnic tensions might be managed more effectively. Anyway, the point I intended to make is that rather than independence ushering in growth, the reverse is true, at least in population. Like its fellow Baltic states, the population of Estonia grew steadily and predictably until it achieved its independence, thanks to the efforts of politicians like Siim Kallas. At that point it began a decline that was almost the reverse image of its growth. This reinforces an impression that the radicals who shout and howl for independence and association with the European Union want it so they can leave the country, and get good-paying jobs somewhere else in the EU.
Speaking of good-paying jobs in the EU, it’s probably safe to say none pays as well as politics. At the end of her term as Prime Minister of Estonia – owing largely to skepticism she really was unaware of her husband’s commercial dealings in Russia even as she was shouting that all businesses must divest their interests in Russia (considering she lent €370,000.00 to his holding company, which had a nearly 25% interest in Stark Logistics) – 66% of the electorate wanted her to resign. Instead, having been PM of a country whose population was about the size of a medium city in China, she liked the taste of power, and set her sights higher. She indicated interest in being appointed – not elected, ha, ha, as if – NATO Secretary General, a position that went instead to Mark Rutte, who has a head startlingly like a head-sized gumdrop with a face on one side, at least in terms of his contribution to global diplomacy.
She was instead appointed – not elected, we already had a good laugh over that example of democracy in action – High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; effectively, as I suggested earlier, the European Union’s Foreign Minister. Previous appointees Josep Borrell, Federica Mogherini and Baroness Catherine Ashton suggest cluelessness is an asset rather than an impediment.
We’re taught, as we learn social skills, that there is no shame in being stupid; even in being unable to break out of stupidity despite having the benefit of good schooling. And that’s true, as far as it goes, so long as a person’s stupidity cannot significantly impact the lives of others – stupid and harmless go together, as Forrest Gump informed us, like peas ‘n carrots. Stupid and mean, however, is an undesirable union on the order of fast and radioactive, or sticky and blazing. On her very first day in her new appointment, Kallas tweeted, “The European Union wants Ukraine to win this war”. It should be in the very DNA of a diplomat that the first word to precede ‘war’ should be ‘end’, not ‘win’ – a war pursued to a military victory is going to cost lives, and diplomats are appointed (not elected) to seek and sustain peace, not death – I remind you once again that female politicians were ostensibly our ace in the hole for avoiding war. Does Kallas sound like a war-avoider to you?
Along with characterizing Kallas as “…the world’s most reckless and incompetent “diplomat”, Thomas Fazi writes, “At a time when the war in Ukraine is unquestionably Europe’s foremost foreign policy challenge, it is difficult to imagine anyone less suited to the role than Kallas, whose deep-seated hostility towards Russia borders on obsession. On her very first day in the job, during a trip to Kyiv, she tweeted: “The European Union wants Ukraine to win this war” — a statement that immediately caused unease in Brussels, where officials viewed it as out of step with settled EU language two years into the war. “She is still acting like a prime minister”, one diplomat commented.
Just months before her appointment, she proposed breaking Russia into “small states” and, since then, has repeatedly demanded the full restoration of Ukraine’s 1991 borders, including Crimea — a position that effectively rules out negotiations. While even Donald Trump has acknowledged that Ukrainian NATO membership is a non-starter, Kallas insists it remain a goal — despite it having been a red line for Russia for nearly two decades. Kallas has even declared that “if we don’t help Ukraine further, we should all start learning Russian”. Never mind that Russia has no strategic, military or economic reason to attack the EU. Earlier this year, she denounced Trump’s efforts to negotiate an end to the war, dismissing them as a “dirty deal”, which explains why US Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly cancelled a scheduled meeting with her in February.”
I guess I have to take back any implication that European politicians are uniformly as stupid and careless as Kallas is – if that were true, Russia would surely know it, and it would be incomprehensible that Moscow would be under-the-radar satisfied with her appointment, as a prominent political-science professor in Russia quoted earlier suggests it is. Instead, they must reason that her being up to her nostrils in bubbling crazy will make it impossible for Europe to get anything constructive done. And so far, they’re right.
“Kallas’s single-minded fixation on Russia has rendered her virtually silent on every other foreign policy issue. As former UK diplomat Ian Proud, who served at the British Embassy in Moscow from 2014 to 2019, observed, she comes across as a “single-issue High Representative” who is “intent only on sustaining the decade-long European policy on non-engagement with Russia, whatever the economic cost...Technically, the High Representative’s role is to reflect the consensus of the member states as an extension of the Council, not to freelance as a supranational policymaker. Yet, Kallas interprets her role otherwise, repeatedly acting as though she speaks on behalf of all Europeans — a top-down, anti-democratic approach that is symptomatic of a broader authoritarian trend supercharged by von der Leyen.”
Thomas Fazi is a writer and columnist; I wonder what he clears in a month? I think it’s probably substantially less than Kaja Kallas does – the position of High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy pays €28,026.00. Per month. 130% of the highest EU civil-servant salary – Kaja Kallas is the highest-paid civil servant in the European Union. Yet Thomas Fazi dispenses more diplomatic sense in a few sentences – for free – than Kaja Kallas has in her entire political career. Make of that what you will.
In another discussion which included the jaw-dropping admission by Kallas that the Soviet Union and China having contributed anything substantial to the Allied victory in the Second World war was ‘news to her’, the author writes, “When she said, “We need to put them [Russia] in the position where they need to negotiate,” she appeared foolish. It’s the winner, not the loser, that gets to dictate terms. Her grade school approach to geopolitics shows a lack of strategic depth and historical knowledge, both of which are essential for someone holding such a senior position.” Time and again in our discussions, we have highlighted exactly this point – if Russia wins a military victory, it will mean Ukraine has surrendered or collapsed, because it can fight no more. In such a scenario, what would be the appropriate importance accorded to negotiations? Put another way, would the victor be likely to enter into negotiations with the defeated? How do you see that playing out?
In that context, Kallas’s contention, “I can tell you that nowadays, people don’t really read and remember history that much..” was a slapstick plea for a pie in the face, you wonder if she can read at all.
Anyway, although it has taken me until all the way to the end of the post to raise what motivated me to write it in the first place, it was Kallas’s typically-stupid exhortations to all of her fellow playmates out there in Romper-Room land to immediately send all their air defense systems to Ukraine, to defend it against any further attacks from the Oreshnik hypersonic weapon. The incoming missile was recorded by the Ukrainian side as in excess of Mach 10, and no western country has an air-defense system which can reliably engage it with a hope of stopping it; a present fact of which Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy reminded the EU’s hapless Foreign Minister, along with the suggestion that she is “not very bright or knowledgeable”, on social media.
A few armchair warriors offered their opinion that the jewel in America’s air-defense crown, the Terminal High-Altitude Area Air Defense system (THAAD) would be just what the doctor ordered. So let’s take a look at it. For one thing, THAAD is designed to intercept an incoming ballistic-missile threat during the terminal phase of its flight. In the case of Oreshnik, it may not be at its fastest in that phase, but probably close to it, and it is possibly a MARV – Maneuverable Re-entry Vehicle – weapon. The THAAD utilizes a non-explosive kinetic-kill (skin-to-skin contact) rocket to effect a direct hit on the incoming threat, and destroy it. But a MARV does not necessarily follow a predictable path, the Oreshnik carries six separate independently-targetable warheads, and unless the THAAD battery is directly in the path of the warhead’s direction, the defense system is presented with a crossing-target rather than a closing-target situation, which increases the difficulty of getting a successful intercept.
THAAD interceptors cost $12 million apiece. If the battery blows off all its interceptors and is subsequently struck itself and destroyed, wave goodbye to somewhere between $1 and $1.8 Billion. During the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, the USA rushed a THAAD battery to Israel’s defense; despite the supposed ‘very good performance’ of Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system…well, I’ll just repeat what the Hudson Institute said:
“Israel’s missile defenses were sufficiently stressed that the US had to rush one of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems to the theater. During the 12-Day War, US forces reportedly expended around 150 THAAD interceptors and 80 SM-3 interceptors in the defense of Israel, depleting roughly 25 percent of the entire US interceptor stockpile. US forces also deployed an undisclosed number of Patriot interceptors to defend America’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Compounding this, the US Navy used roughly 200 SM-2 and SM-6 interceptors defending against the Tehran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea.”
Remember, although Iran allegedly had a few hypersonics – or certainly some of the video presentations showed the inbound tracks of some very fast weapons – they were mostly older and predictable straight-ballistic-path missiles, which despite their relative speed, should not be tremendously difficult targets by comparison with more sophisticated technology. Yet in addition to Iron Dome’s frantic defensive efforts, the USA expended around 150 THAAD interceptors. Calculator, please. Thank you. Tap, tap, tap….that’s $1.8 Billion. In 12 days. And that was the good part – the USA also blew off around 80 SM-3’s. Let’s say it was 80, for simpler math. The SM-3 is more than twice as expensive as the THAAD interceptor, at $27.9 Million each. So that’s another $2.2 Billion, for a total of $4 Billion in 12 days. And that’s not even the bad part – the expenditures represent ‘roughly’ a quarter of the entire US interceptor stockpile.
Not hard to see why Washington decided to give Iran a miss this time, at least for now – is it? If we assume it will cost the same amount to replace the expended interceptors – and that Israel is not going to pay for them, which is almost as funny as EU diplomats being ‘elected’ – the USA is looking at around $8 Billion spent in 12 days. To defend an ally who supposedly had the most sophisticated short-range air-defense system money could buy already, against an enemy NATO regularly laughed at, and claimed religious nutjobs make the worst missile technologists. Not even figuring in the time lag it will require to replace a quarter of the total inventory of such complex weapons, which in turn reduces the length of time the United States could expect to effectively defend itself in a sustained conflict, were that to occur.
Kaja Kallas should know all this. She’s the High Representative for European Foreign Policy, and the only part that I can see as applicable from her performance so far is the ‘high’. Surely to God she receives or is included in classified briefings on military happenings around the world, together with technical details on the military threats to Europe. Failing that, can she read? What would you divine from the information in the preceding paragraphs? US expended a quarter of its air-defense stocks against a not-very-highly-rated enemy + Russia has an undisclosed number of Mach-10-capable ballistic missiles against which there is no current defense + the only ones deployed so far have been unarmed, although the missile was designed to carry nuclear warheads = (rush all your available air-defense reserves to Ukraine so we can aggravate the conflict some more OR Try not to be stupider than nature intended)?
What did you get? Her term in office extends to 2029, which probably makes this the most useful piece of advice we will see from her.The last working-class hero in England. Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ??? - 4 November 2021 Georgina the cat ???-4 December 2025
It's already been forever. My stomach turns every time I see her. In tandem with vdL .. eek .. horrors. Absolute horrors. Warmongering harpies doesn't cut it.
on January 20, 2026, 11:39 pm