#and if I have a seizure... let's just say that I understand Viktor a little bit too much 😞

[sovamurka]

not gonna lie...

this part of enemy mv is kinda epilepsy core

[ghoulluck]

She gives lily a few fries in the car. She thinks briefly about driving it over the bridge. She puts on her sunglasses, pushes off the media circus and goes upstairs. 

There was the momentary panic as she took in the pressure of restraints and distinct lack of Indy. The last thing she remembered was a kiss, a reassurance, and blonde...She took in her brother sleeping across the room but she didn't relax any. 

 Ryan didn't quite understand where they were, or what happened yet. Watching the rise and fall of Indys chest, she at least could see he was exhausted. She lost track of the time until she heard the distinct approach of footsteps she had recognized even in her half aware state. The sleek dog at her feet heard it a second later as he stood up, his stump twitching happily until the blonde walked in and a dog like him.

They don’t search her anymore and she gives the officers on duty a bag for themselves. Lily bursts into the room, excited to see her brother and the dogs reunite happily. Julien sets her bag down and the bags of food down. Ryan finally was awake. 

 Something is off and to her surprise indy is asleep and ryan is awake. 

She blinks mechanically and she brings the food to the dark eyed woman.  Ryans posture was tense as she tried to sit up, staring the blonde down. Julien doesn’t like the gaze very much. She takes the bags to set them beside Ryan at the smaller table. Unlike with indy, she has no protocol, no familiarity and she’s unable to read the other. She swallows as she grabs a small packet of fries for adolf and gently disburses them to the dogs. 

She puts her sunglasses down next to her purse and she hopes indy wakes up soon to in effect help smooth her in, but no such luck. She gives the same rigid mechanical smile. “My name is mrs perita.” The ring on her finger burns in sharp betrayal of her words as she pulls up a seat to sit neatly to mask her sudden onset of nerves. Ryan looks far too much like her brother.

She made the blonde nervous. Indy said this woman had nerves of steel, but right now she looked a little more like gold. Metal at first glance but malleable and easily scratched. 

She didn't calm her posture as she glanced at her brother, warning the woman not to wake him up, "The lawyer." Her voice hurt from lack of use "I know," She added as she tugged her arm a little. A silent way of asking for the binds to be removed. The blonde heard the familiar tug. It echoed somewhere in a vast open space in old memories and she pulled a clip from her tan suit to carefully start with the metal locks. She acknowledged the statement with a nod and she undid the straps as well. 

Ryan was tense and she waited till each restraint was off to lift her arms and rub at her wrists. They were slightly swollen and tender to the touch. She looked at the food bag, her stomach was growling. Adolf was wearing the fries sleeve on his snout and julien hushed his whining as she stepped back to push the food closer to Ryan and to get a cup of water to help with the hoarseness of her throat. The initial shock wears off and she sits again. Ryan took it slowly, reaching inside for the fries first, her tastebuds telling her she wanted the salt.

"Thank you," She said firmly as she ate a few. "For helping us..." She added, meaning the gratitude was for more than the fries. Julien is quiet as she reaches over to pluck the fry sleeve from her dogs nose. Adolf looks at ryan but the blonde gives a stern look until he sits at her feet to beg with his eyes instead. Lily lays by him. 

Julien nodded complacently as she folds her scarred hands, left under right. “No need to thank me. Your case was exceptional. I had to take it to ease my own curiosity.” It was the first case she had taken in well over three years since Eddie had taken her life and her husband's request for a separation had prompted her to find an outlet for her frustration with her personal life and a way to channel her self destructive energy. “May I ask what indy has told you?”

Ryan ate slowly, letting the salty taste linger before she swallowed each bite. There was more reasons the lawyer was here than she was letting on. Only someone as insane as they apparently were would take to the chance to defend them. She glanced at her brother when his name was said, "Not enough." She replied. Letting Adolf lick the residual salt and oil from her fingers. Glancing at the blonde again, "He only tells me that we're gonna be okay."

The extra fries seem like a good choice. Ryan seems capable of putting away as much food as indy does and she makes plans to bring more for them the more Ryan recovers. She can tell by the subtle twitch across Ryan’s features that indy has when they omit something. She doesn’t say anything about that and instead focuses on nodding. 

“He is correct. What do you remember so far during your stay here at the hospital?"

Ryan wasn't one to censor herself. She had been broken down too many times. It was her job as a soldier to give any and all information required to her superiors, which in her mind Julien was. She chewed and swallowed. "Lights...I remember fighting at some point. I remember being x rayed, then MRI, then ultrasound. Then I was alone for...I'm not sure how long. And I remember the dogs. And then you, you moved us here," She listed off clinically. 

The list helped immensely. Unlike indy, ryan gives information freely and she looks at him briefly.

"How long have we been here for?" 

She’s not sure if he’s slept in ages. She knew he would dislike her taking advantage of the situation, but she brings her phone out to record their conversation. 

“You have been here a total of four months next week.” 

Ryan pauses in eating and her jaw flexes against her will. Four moths. Too long. If they had survived in here that long then Julien had to know more than Ryan would have suspected her brother to reveal. She relaxed her jaw, closing her eyes for a second when there was an ache in the top of her spine before she began on the chicken pieces Julien had brought.

Julien spun her ring around her finger a minute as she collected her thoughts. “I’ve collected my own evidence. I also took precautions to protect your items. When the trial is over the items will be returned.” She had kept one photo. It was in her bag as she would occasionally bring it out to remind herself of them and that they needed someone their side. “I also retrieved your vital medication and have ordered a supply in advance to be administered to you under the guise of anti seizure medication.” 

She thinks of viktor. She thinks of the video. Her anxiety skyrockets and her nails bury into the soft palms of her flesh and she presses them instead to the seat to conceal the motion. “May I ask you about the seizures?”

Ryan didn't touch her neck where she normally wore the titanium ring shed once worn. Shed wanted to throw the damn thing in the river when she had lost Stan but Indy kept it and she had cherished it in the end...Regardless she recognized that first look of a token that weighed with a lifetime of memories that someone didn't want for a second on the blondes face. 

She gave Julien a moment of privacy as she focused on her food, glancing at Indy again, counting the seconds between his breaths before she could divert her attention, "I don't think I need to give you permission. If you need information ask.”

“Even if you are my client, you have the right to decline information,” she reminded the woman with the near sharpness of the knife. She can’t imagine Ryan reciting the awful details out loud. As much as she lives with her own memories of the compound, there is a distinct difference between the abuses. She can draw a fat line where they end in similarities. “I advise you to exercise that right when you need to. As the question went relating to your seizures, can you tell me when they first started?”

Ryan absorbed this information but she didn't respond, she finished her chicken and put the box in the bag with the fry box. Flexing her jaw again before she answered, "I took a fall from a rooftop. My spine fractured and healed too quickly. Its part of my modifications. There's a bone buildup at the base of my skull, it creates pressure when the point is too stressed it causes a seizure." 

Indy and her had been stretching it out every night to try and help with the problem, it had scared them both the first time it happened and she shifted. It only hindered their life on the run and she couldn't remember but it may have been the reason they were here.

The genetic modifications. 

“From my understanding, both of you are modified.” She understood that Ryan had been just a sort of prototype. “The healing effect is too quick,” she stated aloud more so to herself then Ryan as she finally frees her nails from the soft flesh of her palm before returning to the motion to think. “Thus the serum. I understand the circumstances around this were incredibly unfavorable. You lost your husband around the time you were modified.” She digs so deep she knows she’s bleeding openly as the images keep flashing behind her eyelids every time she blinks. She feels her anger boil up. The face from the video had a name now. 

“There is little to nothing about Stan except a photo and a ring. Even when I subpoenaed the district for the marriage license there was none to be found."

The soldier nodded, “I was failing. Indy joined the program to keep me going. I needed him.” She was honest, “He's as fast and as strong as me, he sees better in the daylight.” The sun hurt her eyes sometimes but her night vision was unmatched. 

There was the first betrayal of emotion and discomfort as she listened now. 

She was silent for a moment. Counting Indys breaths again trying to calm herself, “Your timelines wrong.” She corrected, “I knew Stan before the elite forces recruited us.” Her tone had changed, the slightest strain now as she flexed her own hand, “We married when things got...difficult. There would be no record. Indy and I aren't supposed to exist, they wouldn't put us on paper anywhere.” She stopped as she took a small breath at the pain in her neck again.

She blinks. That made sense. Her mind connects a few dots and her timeline begins to shift into different possibilities. She pauses when she notes the discomfort. She knew she had to gather sealed records. After Ryan was eighteen any other evidence disappeared. She had videos, photos —  adolf begins to whine as he props his paws up on the bed. “May I help?” She wiped her hands on her suit without thinking as she stands. 

She had seen indy do it Ryan’s sleep, adjusting and adjusting, the only problem is execution and strength. She’s sure she cannot match them.

Ryan squeezed her eyes closed for a second, her mind hurt. She forgot for a moment where she was, "Stan...no..." She almost called for him. But then she remembered he was gone. She breathed harshly through her nose. "Hurts," She said through grit teeth, refusing to open her eyes.

Her eyebrows knit a brief second and she thinks about the head trauma indy had told her about. She puts a knee up on the bed as she warns Ryan, “I’m going to try to help.” She delicately pinches the base of the skull. She recalls the way indy grasps Ryan’s neck and she knows her hands are too small. So she uses both to focus the pressure on where she thinks it should be. “Is this okay?”

Ryan shoulder tenses but she doesn't strike out, opening her eyes to watch Juliens movements. The hands on the back of her neck were foreign. They were too small, but they were hard and the fingers dig into the knotted muscle and bone, "Wh-where--" Ryan didn't recognize these white walls. “You’re in room with your brother,” she stated immediately. The lawyer remembers the crash of the man being so easily thrown into the wall. Julien knows something like that would probably kill her. She keeps kneading the muscle. “He’s asleep because he’s tired and he’s been worried about you.” Somehow she thinks talking ryan through will help the situation.

Ryans breath is quiet but short and fast, her eyes forcing over to see her brother sleeping across from her. For a split second she thinks he's dead and her arm tenses again before she sees his chest rise and fall. Her head dropping back slowly into the hand squeezing it, "Hospital--n-no we need to be..." She couldn't remember where she needed to be. 

“You need to be here until you’re both okay.” 

She doesn’t mention the trail. She doesn’t mention that she needs to make them human in the eyes of the jury and she feels ryan relax a little bit. Adolf gives a soft whine and he hops up into the bed to crawl up to ryan on his belly. She continues even when her hands hurt, she’s sure when she knows to stop she can.

Ryans breathing leveled out slowly. The pieces came back and she finally went back to her silent breath, she felt a tremble in Juliens hands and reached up to touch the blondes arm, “Thank you” she said this more quietly. She had shown weakness and she hated herself a little bit for that, “Sorry its....” she sighed, “It's hard to talk about him. I miss him, but ill tell you whatever you need.”

The touch makes her stop her movements and she nods as she returns to her seat across from the other. “I’m sorry for your loss.” It’s the first words that come out of her mouth. She wouldn’t press the subject anymore, not after that. “I will ask when I need it. Can you feel the seizure before it happens?” There were signs and now she’s going back to medical questions where it’s safe.

The phrase was a reflex and held no depth, but something in Juliens eyes. She knew the lawyer was sorry. She swallowed. She was exhausted now but she nodded, "If I'm focused on it yes I can."

Julien nodded. She herself can feel her edge dying and she instead gets up from her place to retrieve the photo of Ryan with Stan. “I’m going to have to bind you again before I leave,” she tells the other. Adolf crawls towards Ryan’s feet to lay on them. “Adolf is your dog for as long as I am your lawyer.”

Ryan was obviously not thrilled about this, "Will you leave them looser?" She asked softly. Shifting to let the dog settle more comfortably. She had said thank you enough times so she nodded slowly. She was sure Indy appreciated the company, maybe she would too.

She returns with the photo and she puts it directly into one of Ryan’s hands so she can hold it before it must be hidden again. “Yes, i'll ask for accommodations to be made as well.” There was swelling on both of their wrists and shed demand padding to make it less painful. Julien waits to gauge Ryan’s reaction.

She squeezed the smooth photo paper, it was like she knew what it was before she even looked. The edges of the photo were faded and there was a crease from where it had been unfolded and folded a hundred times. She was seated on the edge of a helicopter, one she had flown once upon a time. Indy leaning on the edge with his arm crossed, and Stan, The broad man seated behind her, crouching a little to hug her shoulders. Every one of them smiling, at that moment in time they didn't have a care in the world even in the middle of a warzone. If she had still had tears they would have been in her eyes. She stared a second longer before she took a breath. Thanking Julien with a look.

“Hide it,” she urged the other softly. She’d keep the ring safe, but she would return it to the chain it belonged to around the place it should be hanging. She lifted some of the straps and started organizing them before lifting the ones for Ryan’s wrists. 

Ryan looked at Julien. She understood she was a lawyer, she was meant to help but this was a whole different level. Ryan couldn't understand someone caring, "You should bring burritos next time, Indy likes those, and one for yourself." She couldnt help the words as she tucked the photo under her thigh where she would still be able to reach it.

She wants to smile, but she doesn’t. “I can’t chew,” she states in embarrassment, “but I’ll be happy to bring burritos next time.” She puts one of her fingers in between the space of Ryan’s wrist and her binds to ensure good space without giving away they’ve been undone more then once. “Thank you Mrs West. I assure you I will do my best to serve you and your brother.” With that she puts the cloth straps over the other and she steps away, not liking how her stomach is turning and she puts the remaining food by indy before picking her bag up and whistling to lily.

No one had served them before. Her and Indys entire lives had composed of debt, of being trapped by things they couldn't control, jumping from one form of slavery to another. "Goodbye," She said it to be nice, she was aware she might not be present the next time the lawyer was there. 

She sighed and rested her head back. "How long have you been awake?" She asked her brother when they were alone.

“Enough to know our lawyer can’t chew,” he stated when she is gone and there is utter silence. He chuckles a little bit about the bag and it rustles as he inspects it. Wendy’s. Good choice. He spits out the picking mechanism julien had given him and he unlocks himself. They’re on a schedule. The next visit won’t be until one in the morning to make sure they’re okay and have water. He can easily tell she’s upset. “You guys talk about anything important?” Even if he is hungry he moves the bag aside because Ryan takes priority and he goes to her to undo what julien has just done.

She shifts as he undoes her before she sits up to lean on him, she was aware he had been close, but she had been somewhere and she wanted him here while she could remember. She silently pulled up her leg to pull out the photo she had been gifted. Showing it silently to Indy as she hid half of her face in his white shirt.

He stares at the photo in utter silence. There’s only one place she could have gotten the photograph and he observes. He gives it back to ryan as he puts an arm around her shoulders with a nod of is head. Julien was a good person. “You gonna be okay?”

The tell tale flex in her jawline, turning her head then readjusting at the sharp ache it caused, "You need to eat." She reminded him as she eyed the bag of food then made space for him to sit next to her

He hummed in her non response and avoidance. He grabs the bag and he goes to sit with her. The fries are cold, but bountiful and even cold fries are better than hospital food. He gets an arm around her shoulders and he squeezes her to his side as he eats.

She rolled onto her side, her head resting low on his chest so she could watch the door under his arm as he ate. He did enough guarding while she was down she needed to return the favor, stealing a small kiss to his stomach between bites so he wouldn't choke.

He chuckles a little. His fingers leaf through her hair and he rubs at her scalp with the bit of nail he does have to ease her. He eats the small burger and he finished the fries, except for one which he pokes Ryan in the face with. He’s still her older brother despite everything.

She was focused on watching the door. Listening to the hospital run outside, they had guards on the door, she could hear them talking to each other, the rubs to her scalp really only helped her focus more. The fry pulled her out of her stupor and she turned her head carefully, twisting more in her shoulders to glare at him as she bit the fry dangerously close to his fingers, tucking her picture safely under the pillow they were laying on.

Indy was satisfied with her reaction to the fry. He poked the side of her face with his finger to rub the salt and oil on her skin before becoming still. He could stay all night in her bed. His head hurt a little from sleeping too much. He kept his arm slung around her shoulder and he keeps his hand in her hair as he listens too. It’s all very mundane but it’s still very much a prison.

Ryan was getting antsy. Now that she was aware just how long they had been here trapped in beds, "Do you really think she'll be able to help us?" She asked, shifting against him as if that alone would vent out her excess energy.

“I didn’t tell her about anything,” he stated confidently as he is shift her more so on him. He had told her about the serum, the modifications, Stan. Really he only gave information about Ryan’s seizure and that she had a plethora of health issues. Julien had delivered. 

“She must have found the safe house."

Resourceful. That was evident enough, "I don't want to be in here" She muttered against him as she settled, her eyes still trained on the door, her neck tightening as she felt her stress level rise slowly. 

[newsnigeria]

Check out New Post published on Ọmọ Oòduà

New Post has been published on http://ooduarere.com/news-from-nigeria/world-news/kidnapping-tool-of-imperial/

Kidnapping as a tool of imperial statecraft?

[This column was written for the Unz Review]

There is nothing new about empires taking hostages and using them to put pressure on whatever rebel group needs to reminded “who is boss”. The recent arrest in Italy of Alexander Korshunov, the director for business development at Russia’s United Engine Corporation (UEC), is really nothing new but just the latest in a long string of kidnappings. And, as I already mentioned in distant 2017, that kind of thuggery is not a sign of strength but, in fact, a sign of weakness. Remember Michael Ledeen’s immortal words about how “”Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business“? Well, you could say that this latest spat of kidnappings is indicative of the same mindset and goal, just on a much smaller, individual, scale. And, finally, it ain’t just Russia, we all know about the kidnapping of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou by the Canadian authorities.

By the way, you might wonder how can I speak of “kidnapping” when, in reality, these were legal arrests made by the legitimate authorities of the countries in which these arrests were made? Simple! As I mentioned last week, words matter and to speak of an “arrest” in this case wrongly suggest that 1) some crime was committed (when in reality there is ZERO evidence of that, hence the talk of “conspiracy” to do something illegal) 2) that this crime was investigated and that the authorities have gathered enough evidence to justify an arrest and 3) that the accused will have a fair trial. None of that applies to the cases of Viktor Bout, Konstantin Iaroshenko, Marina Butina or, for that matter, Meng Wanzhou or Wang Weijing. The truth is that these so-called “arrests” are simple kidnappings, the goal is hostage taking with the goal to either 1) try to force Russia (and China) to yield to US demands or 2) try to “get back” at Russia (and China) following some humiliating climb down by the US Administration (this was also the real reason behind the uncivilized seizure of Russian diplomatic buildings in the USA).

This is not unlike what the Gestapo and the SS liked to do during WWII and their kidnapping of hostages was also called “arrest” by the then state propaganda machine. By the way, the Bolsheviks also did a lot of that during the civil war, but on a much larger scale. In reality, both in the case of the Nazi authorities and in the case of the imperial USA, as soon as a person is arrested he/she is subjected to solitary confinement and other forms of psychological torture (Manning or Assange anybody?!) in order to either make them break or to at least show Russia and China that the US, being the World Hegemon gets to seize anybody worldwide, be it by a CIA kidnapping team or by using local colonial law enforcement authorities (aka local police forces).

US politicians love to “send messages” and this metaphor is used on a daily basis by US officials in all sorts of circumstances. Here the message is simple: we can do whatever the hell we want, and there ain’t nothing you can do about it!

But is that last statement really true?

Well, in order to reply to this we should look at the basic options available to Russia (this also applies to China, but here I want to focus on the Russian side of the issue). I guess the basic list of options is pretty straightforward:

Use official and confidential diplomatic channels to protest and demand a release

Publicly protest and denounce these kidnappings as completely illegal (and immoral to boot!)

Retaliate by using legal means (sanctions, cancellation of agreements, etc.)

Retaliate by using extra-legal means (counter-kidnappings, not unlike what China allegedly decided to do in the case of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor)

Frankly, in the case of the USA, options one and two are useless: the AngloZionist leaders have long given up any hope of not being hated and despised by 99% of mankind and they have long dropped any pretense of legality, nevermind morality: they don’t give a damn what anybody thinks. Their main concern is to conceal their immense weakness, but they fail to do so time and time again. Truly, when wannabe “empires” can’t even bring an extremely weakened country such as Venezuela to heel, there ain’t much they can do to boot their credibility. If anything, this thuggery is nothing more than the evidence of a mind-blowing weakness of the Empire.

But that weakness in no way implies that Russia and China have good options. Sadly, they don’t.

Russia can engage in various types of sanctions, ranging from the petty bureaucratic harassment of US representations, diplomats, businessmen and the like to economic and political retaliations. But let’s not kid ourselves, there is very little Russia can do to seriously hurt the USA with such retaliations. Many would advocate retaliation in kind, but that poses a double problem for the Kremlin:

Once a country has gone down the road of illegal brute force, there is no way back. The examples of the US, Israel or, for that matter, the Ukraine show that once primitive thuggery becomes part of your political arsenal you will forever remain a thug and everybody will see this (whether everybody will have the courage to openly state this is a different issue altogether).

The reality is that double and triple standards have long become the essential key feature of all western ideological systems, from the Papacy to modern capitalism. The Kremlin fully understands that in the AngloZionist Empire “some are more equal than others” and that that which is “allowed” to the World Hegemon is categorically forbidden to everybody else. Thus if Russia retaliates in kind, there will be an explosion of hysterical protests not only by the western legacy corporate and state ziomedia, but also from the 5th columnist in the Russian “liberal” press.

And yes, unlike the USA, Russia does have a vibrant, diverse and pluralistic media and each time when Putin agrees to a press conference (especially one several hours long) he knows that he will be asked the tough, unpleasant, questions. But since he, unlike most western leaders, can intelligently answer them he does not fear them. As for Dmitrii Peskov and Maria Zakharova, they have heard it all a gazillion during the past years, including often the most ridiculously biased, mis-informed and outright ridiculous “questions” (accusations, really) from the western presstitute corps in Russia.

So yes, Russia could, in theory, retaliate by arresting US citizens in Russia (or by staging Cold War type provocations) or by kidnapping them abroad (Russia does have special forces trained for this kind of operation). But this is most unlikely to yield any meaningful results and it would create a PR nightmare for the Kremlin.

The truth is that in most of these cases we always come down to the fundamental dichotomy: on one hand we have a rogue state gone bonkers with imperial hubris, arrogance and crass ignorance (say, the USA and/or Israel) while on the other we have states which try to uphold a civilized international order (Russia, China, Iran, etc.). This is by logical necessity a lop-sided struggle in which the thugs will almost always have the advantage.

[Sidebar: here I want to address a logical fallacy which I regularly hear in the West: when one political system proves stronger, or more capable of survival, than another one, this supposedly proves that the stronger state is also somehow “superior”. This is the argument used by those who claim that the Soviet Union “lost the Cold War” and that “Capitalism has proven much more sustainable/efficient than Communism”. This is utter nonsense for at least two reasons: first, the USSR did not “lose” the Cold War – the CPSU and the Soviet ruling Nomenklatura decided to break-up the USSR (against the will of the people!) and, second, the fact is that the Soviet Union was squandering its wealth all over the planet while the USA was robbing the entire planet blind. How can we compare the two? Finally, allow me this metaphor to make my point: if we would lock up a human being and a hyena in a small empty cell to see who will survive we can be pretty darn sure that the hyena will immediately and very “effectively” kill the human and eat him. Does that “victory” somehow prove the hyena’s “superiority”? Of course not! For one thing, capitalism implies infinite growth in a finite environment, which is exactly what a malignant tumor does for a living and which is self-evidently non-sustainable. So are we going to compare one political system – Communism – which does not rely on growth and which is therefore sustainable, and which spread its wealth all over the planet with one based on (international) “highway robbery” (don’t take my word for it, take it from Paul Craig Roberts himself who unambiguously stated recently that “American Capitalism is Based on Plunder”). Yes, the Soviet system was fundamentally rotten, profoundly dysfunctional and ineffective (only imbeciles or ignoramuses would deny that!), but it was not in any way “defeated” by the West nor is Capitalism any “better” or “superior” (whatever you want that to mean) than Communism (more on this here if you are interested).]

For all these reasons, there is really nothing much Russia (or China) can do about this situation besides publishing an official warning to the Russian people saying that if they travel abroad they should realize that “US intelligence agencies continue their current hunt for Russians around the world”. They also made public the list of countries which have extradition treaties with the USA: Australia, Austria, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bolivia, Brazil, United Kingdom, Hungary, Canada, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Dominica, Greece, Guyana, Haiti, Guatemala, Germany, Honduras, Greece, Israel, India, Jordan, Iraq, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Lithuania, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia, Monaco, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, Netherlands, Nicaragua, new Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, El Salvador, San Marino, Swaziland, Seychelles, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Turkey, Uruguay, Philippines, Finland, France, Czech Republic, Chile, Switzerland, Sweden, Sri Lanka, Ecuador, Estonia, South Africa, South Korea, Jamaica and Japan.

The MoFA concluded by warning that “The Russian foreign Ministry strongly urges all Russian citizens planning trips abroad to carefully weigh all the risks, especially if there is reason to assume the possibility of claims against them by American law enforcement agencies”.

Some caveat emptor before buying your airline ticket, right?!

Conclusion: it will get a lot worse before it gets better

First, we need to always remember that kidnappings are just the latest manifestation of an overall pattern of thuggery by the USA. The attitude is pervasive, and US citizens are not free of this climate of thuggery. Another good example are the outright bribes offered to the ships captains of Iran, to sail their crude carriers to somewhere were the US can literally pirate the carrier. Remember the amazing confession by Pompeo himself: “We lied, we cheated, we stole…. it reminds you of the glory of the American experiment”?

You don’t?

Then here is a quick refresher:

It can almost be rewritten and expanded like this: We lie, we cheat, we steal, we kidnap, we bribe, we extort, we pirate, then we threaten, and then we tell everyone how exceptionally morally superior we are.

Yet a certain limit has been crossed. It is as if their own belief in their own moral superiority has inverted to the extent that their own moral superiority is so big, and so certain, that any small actions of thuggery is allowed to them. This will not change any time soon and even the most innocent traveler must have awareness of this. This is why the Chinese are now openly wondering if sending Chinese students to the USA is such a good idea after all.

So the first thing we have to accept is that this pattern of thuggery will not stop, if anything – it will expand.

Second, we have to also realize that there are no good options for the Russians or the Chinese. In fact, this is normal: civilized actors often find themselves “out-gunned”, so to speak, by thugs, sociopaths and criminals. Over time, however, thuggery is always self-defeating because it is inevitably linked to a delusion of impunity. As for civilized states, while it is true that they are at a fundamental disadvantage when faced by uncivilized thugs but, again, over time they eventually prevail if only because everybody always ends up fed up and disgusted with the thugs. Finally, while thuggery can seem attractive to people with sociopathic inclinations, most human beings need a higher ideal than just unbridled consumption to inspire them. Communism had (and I would argue, still has) this ability. Capitalism does not.

For the foreseeable future, however, we can only expect more of the same. Thanks to the ceaseless efforts of Obama and Trump the Empire is collapsing even faster than it normally would and we can expect that the current sequence of humiliating defeats for the USA (and, of course, Israel which has its own humiliating wounds to lick!) will continue and that the USA (and, of course, Israel!) will have to find more small targets (be it kidnapped Russian nationals or empty buildings in Syria) to kidnap or destroy and feel powerful again.

This will be revolting, disgusting and simply plain stupid.

But there is nothing Russia (or China) can do to stop it, at least not for the foreseeable future.

The Saker