#putin does not dare against nato

[herukapadmajungiansworld]

Ben Wallace on Vladimir Putin’s response to Nato:

“An ever more aggressive President Putin, with constant threatening red lines that then usually melt away, he hasn’t dared go near Nato.

Russia has been very very cautious of respecting Nato’s territory. We have not seen lashings out into areas like Estonia or Latvia. They have been absolutely considerate of Nato. They have been really really cautious to make sure that they don’t provoke.

You could argue that the alliance in itself does function. The deterrent of Article 45 functions.”

Wallace added that the War in Ukraine has seen a “reinvigoration” of Nato, having “stagnated” years ago. He also said Russia is weaker than they let on.

“ Post 1991, Nato had just stagnated … Many populations in Europe would have been surprised that Nato was a nuclear alliance. They’d just forgotten to talk about it. So, it didn’t have plans to do ‘what happens if’. They had just died.

We’ve seen a reinvigoration of what Nato needs and the supreme allied commander needs to do it’s job and new domains.

I think [the war] is winnable. I think Russia is much more fragile than the Russian’s want to admit … The splinter in the hierarchy of the Russian army is very real, the casualty rates are atrocious.”

[zogdon]

US-made Ukrainian armor destroyed in Kursk Region (VIDEO)

US-made Ukrainian armor destroyed in Kursk Region (VIDEO) https://www.rt.com/russia/607603-us-made-armor-destroyed-kursk/

The World needs Peace in Ukraine..or more of the following...

US and other western armour suffer more and more casualties.

The Russian drones have become so precise, so accurate.. that all of the Zelensky armour has become transparent victims as soon as they start moving, or firing even from dug in well camouflaged positions.

There is no escape for any western armour..

The shinier, the better for the Russian drone units.

Today, the Russian Federation forces have full control over all of Ukraine.. they spot all of the Zelensky troop movements, even just by groups of 3-4 soldiers.. from number of different devices.. from space satellites, to roaming drones, from high flying spy aircraft, which are out of range of western air defences. The Russian Airforce is equipped with the most modern technology, which can spot a little bird from outer space.

Yes.. as the Russians claimed in the 1960's, that they had already concurred space observations, long before any other country...and today the Russian space program delivers immediate and direct locations of all enemy positions and even of hidden armour.

War against the Russians, means you can't rest.. rather, you must keep up with the incredible Russian flexibility and know how, the technological developments that all wars demand... every single day. And it's in that real world of war, that the Russians prevail, in every single big war... everyday on the battlefield. That's why we all see again, that Russia has won already in Ukraine. Now, the Kremlin must decide on the Political issues.. i.e. how much of Ukraine do they want to take? Is it worth the extra money and troops, and the lives these Russian heroes. Yes, the Putin government is fair dinkum when it assesses Russian..and actually all casualties, and Putin keeps offering Peace, Real Peace.. yet the Evil that sent in Ukrainians to die in massive numbers (around 700,000 claimed), rejects proper Peace negotiations, every single time.

Despite all the Russian Victories, all of the territories gone, and all of the Russian firepower facing Zelensky and Nato, the backroom Washington bosses still entertain illusions of victory over the Russians.

It's sad...to say the least.. but we must consider all the innocent Ukrainians made to fight for Evil. We hope and prey, that the Ukrainians realise the inescapable trap, that Washington set up for them.. and all of Ukraine...very similar to Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan.. inly this time the west does not dare fight against Russians, so sends the poor Russian immigrants of Ukraine, as proxy Nato troops.

But it ain't working..just so many more Ukrainians will die before Peace occurs.. or a Nuclear war destroys the world.

[beardedmrbean]

International Criminal Court judges should “watch the skies,” according to a top Kremlin official who threatened a violent response to the arrest warrant issued against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I’m afraid, gentlemen, everyone is answerable to God and missiles,” Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, who held the title of Russian presidency under Putin from 2008 to 2012, said on Monday. “It’s quite possible to imagine how a hypersonic Oniks fired from a Russian warship in the North Sea strikes the court building in The Hague. It can’t be shot down, I’m afraid.”

XI ARRIVES IN MOSCOW FOR MEETING WITH PUTIN

ICC officials issued an arrest warrant for Putin and another Russian official last week, one day after United Nations investigators accused Moscow of perpetrating “a war crime” against Ukrainian children deported into Russia. Kremlin officials dismissed the warrant as “null and void,” but Medvedev added his own provocative touch.

“And the court is just a pathetic international organization, not the people of a NATO country,” Medvedev said, per state media. “So, they won’t start a war. They’ll be scared. And no one will be sorry.”

The former Russian president issued that retort on the same day that Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow. Xi and Putin will discuss how the two countries “can jointly promote strategic coordination and practical cooperation” and “practice true multilateralism” together, in the words of a Chinese diplomat who opened his press briefing with a rebuke of the ICC.

“The ICC needs to take an objective and just position, respect the jurisdictional immunity of a head of state under international law, prudently exercise its mandate in accordance with the law, interpret and apply international law in good faith, and not engage in politicization or using double standards,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

Xi embarked on his visit to Moscow just weeks after unveiling a “peace proposal” that calls for a ceasefire and the lifting of Western sanctions on Russia but does not urge Putin to withdraw his forces from Ukraine. Xi has prioritized ties with Putin as both leaders seek to challenge the U.S.-led alliance network in the vicinity of their historic empires. The Chinese leader’s trip to Moscow bookends a visit from Putin to Beijing last year, when they issued a statement calling for a "transformation of the global governance architecture and world order” — just weeks before Putin launched his attempt to overthrow the Ukrainian government.

"Ukraine is closely following the visit of the President of the People's Republic of China to Russia,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said Monday. “We expect that Beijing will use its influence on Moscow to force it to stop its aggressive war against Ukraine.”

Neither China, Russia, nor the United States has signed the treaty that established the ICC, but Ukraine’s parliament issued a call Monday for the treaty signatories “to take all possible measures” to haul Putin before the court.

“The crimes are carried out on the direct orders of the senior political and military leadership of the Russian Federation and constitute a gross violation of the current norms of international law, which requires a decisive and effective response from the international community by bringing the Russian leadership to international criminal liability,” the parliamentary resolution said.

Medvedev condemned the ICC for daring to issue a warrant against “the president ... of a nuclear power that isn’t party to the ICC for the same reasons as the U.S. and some other countries,” and argued that the warrant will lead to a “collapse” of international law.

“The consequences for international law will be disastrous,” he insisted. “No one now will be turning to international institutions. Everyone will be making agreements between themselves. All the foolish decisions of the U.N. and other organizations will be bursting at the seams. A dark decline of the entire system of international relations is coming.”

[originalleftist]

This should be obvious, it shouldn't need to be said- but it really does.

Some thoughts:

What I see more and more is that many, perhaps most people still have, at their core, a very simplistic worldview. One in which morality, right and wrong, true and false are not ultimately based a consistent principles, or upon facts and reason, or even on shear utility, but upon which side you're on. There are Good People (my side), and there are Bad People (the other side/sides), and if you're one of the Bad People, then you forfeit all rights and personhood and deserve anything that happens to you. It evokes the Medieval concept to the Outlaw- which IIRC meant, literally, someone outside the law, and it's protection.

And if you dare speak up and say, maybe all people deserve rights, then you're one of the Bad People, and you deserve it too. So even if one is not primarily driven by sadism and the shear pleasure of getting to be cruel to a socially sanctioned legitimate target to make yourself feel powerful (and many people are and do), there is a very strong incentive to go along with the mob, or at least to stay silent and let it do as it will, so as not to become one of it's targets.

There is also a large component of simple sadism and bullying, and also self-interest/clout chasing, of course.

You see it at all levels of society, on a whole range of issues. I became increasingly and painfully aware of this first on social media, particularly in fandom, where gatekeeping and in-group bullying is often the norm. The point was driven home a couple years ago, watching supposed "progressives" fall in line to join an incel hate mob against Amber Heard. I have also observed it from many so-called "Leftists" who's view of international politics seems to amount to "The US/the West is bad, Putin/Xi/Assad/etc are against the West, therefore they are good"- even though those people and their regimes are as brutal, regressive, bigoted, and imperialist as any in the West*. Team-based morality, rather than principles. And it's no surprise to see it again now with Israel and Gaza. You can see it in any war, probably, where the norm quickly becomes to demonize the entire population of the enemy country, down to the last child, as innately evil and undeserving of rights- even people descended from that nationality who were born in other countries (see Japanese Americans "interred" during World War II for just one example).

It's a twisted way to view the world, but it is still very much the norm. And even people who see it and understand it's injustice in one case, will turn around and perpetrate it in another (I think of some "feminists" I've encountered who fully grasp the injustice of witch-hunting women and disbelieving or blaming r*pe survivors- right up until they're Jews).

*Some of the more superficially intelligent ones might counter that the West has more power and is therefore the oppressor, and that this makes its actions less defensible than those "resisting" it. I've seen this same argument employed to defend Hamas's atrocities against Israel. Of course, power dynamics are a tricky thing. Russia has less power than the United States, but far more than the Ukrainian nation it is trying to destroy (Kremlin apologists try to sidestep this by simply treating Ukraine as an extension of NATO/the US, which does double duty by serving their agenda of erasing Ukraine as a sovereign country and cultural identity). Israel wields more military and economic might than Hamas, but it is hard to see how that power disparity advantages some random Israeli civilian who falls into the hands of a Hamas gunman. And of course worldwide, Jewish people are still a tiny and highly marginalized, frequently-targeted group.

It is also possible for a person to be privileged in some respects and to be disadvantaged in others- indeed this is probably true of just about every single person on the planet, to one degree or another. People are comprised of many different identities with many different ramifications for how society interacts with them. I can't help but feel that a lot of this idiocy might be mitigated if the average person had even the slightest grasp of intersectionality (I admit I have only a superficial grasp of it myself, but enough to grasp this point).

[babyawacs]

.@time .@history ‎ #ukraine .@peace .@nato .@ukraine .@otan .@msc .@us_stratcom @us_stratcom .@bbcr4 .@bbcradio4 .@pacificsubs @pacificsubs .@ussocom @ussocom .@g chq .@nsagov .@odnigov .@atom .@iaeaorg .@energy ‎ ‎in the geopolitical game of nations where presidencies and countries are bought and sold and revolutions by colors expend ed inthisgame ‎ someone tried to conquer ukraine to west likely as empoverished agricultural colony isuspected lukoil jewish networks covert quarrel with putins russia joining this effort or daring this effort where west fellapart in instability trying to setup against china noone following the us why would andshould they and wars unthinkable trade network dependencies someone in this used the chance to unite west setit up against china and russia useful inthis and ukraine in this as empoverished agricultural colony : but whoever did this underestimated how all in by russia mean s severity and the onthe cheap conquest by color revolutions and russia accepting it longago failed but does now not pay the warbi ll

.@time .@history #ukraine .@peace .@nato .@ukraine .@otan .@msc .@us_stratcom @us_stratcom .@bbcr4 .@bbcradio4 .@pacificsubs @pacificsubs .@ussocom @ussocom .@gchq .@nsagov .@odnigov .@atom .@iaeaorg .@energy ‎ ‎in the geopolitical game of nations where presidencies and countries are bought and sold and revolutions by colors expended inthisgame ‎ someone tried to conquer ukraine to west likely as…

[romanmigracs]

I don’t think you understand what is at stake, here, do you?

This is WAAAYYY bigger than Russia. Even Russia’s nuclear arsenal is not the biggest concern, here (although it is certainly not negligible).

Russia led by Putin has nullified international treaties they signed, committed massive amount of war crimes, violated human rights systematically, kidnapped children, shot down a passenger plane with international passengers, caused grain prices to rise so that Third World countries are at the brink of a famine, toyed with blowing up more than one nuclear plant, flooded a valley with people living in it, caused unnecessary death of civilians and military personel and vast material distruction. All in hopes of material gain and for hunger of power. Putin’s goverment has bet the farm to commit genocide in Ukraine. Putin has tried to utilize international energy trade as a weapon, and his minions have threatened the international community with attacks on information cables in the seabed and rattled the nuclear sabre.

Everyone, NOT JUST PUTIN, are waiting to know, whether such transgressions are punishable? Everyone. Jury is stil out. Does the international community stand in support of the values they have declared to protect? Or are they just big words that vanish, when push comes to shove? Putin clearly objects to such international values and has very deliberately violated against them all to make a point.

If he is driven out of Ukraine and Russia needs to oust him and show remorse of what they have done, international treaties such as Declaration of Human rights and the Geneva Convention will grow stronger. Everyone will see that violating international agreements will bring no benefit and a clear, physical punishment from the international community. Even for a dictator of mighty Russia. Even to the richest man of the World. No-one is bigger than all the people in the world. No-one will dare challenge them all at once. If the people of the World choose to cooperate. IF.

If Putin, after doing all of this that he has done, “saves face”, it is the end of the international community as a whole. Then it is (again) a free-for-all every-man-for-himself -scenario. The one with the nukes gets to do what he wants. So, everyone will get themselves a nuke or two. Everyone allies with the biggest and strongest, not the one who they like, not the one who will keep the world safe. Everyone just allies with the guy with the biggest guns.

Time for human rights, time for fair trade, time for international treaties on climate change and collaboration in the polar regions are over. Every little pesky country will try to get nukes and bigger powers - US, China, UK, Germany(!), India - are forced to shed their thin veil of peace.

Putin declared that sovereign countries between Russia and US should be divided into spheres of influence and lose their independence. They caused Finland to join NATO and Sweden has applied too! These are countries that previously believed in non-alliance and buffer zones between great military powers. Believed in assertive military power, defence without projection of power abroad. This is bad enough, it is a death of a dream. It is not like Finland thinks that US is this saint of a giant. We know full well they can - on a bad day - invade a country to rid them of weapons of mass destruction that do not exist. US sometimes disguised their bad behaviour quite poorly, but at least they tried to disguise it. Putin makes no real effort to even disguise his actions. He wants his approach to be out in the open, he wants this to be the way of the world from now on. He wants to return to imperialism - not just for Russia but for all of the world. He believes that in the chaos that ensues, Russia and his mafioso ways will find prosperity.

The World either wants that. Or we don’t.

We shall see.

[kksingh11]

Can Russia save the world from N Disaster?

Pentagon is encouraging all out acts against Moscow to teach the latter a lesson, as to how dare it stopped its Eastern movement, which includes Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and many other ex-USSR nations. The aim is strategic defeat of Russian Federation (RF) and here the RF is fighting US imperialism, its military wing NATO (Yes, NATO is subservient to Pentagon), EU and other allies, which are 50!

Incidentally, RF possess maximum Nuclear War Heads of ex-USSR and is sufficient to annihilate US, EU, NATO and other allies. It is not that the RF will remain intact after the N war starts, but will be equally destroyed. No one wins this war.

The terrorist acts by the Ukraine regime inside RF, US plus NATO military activities close to RF borders & inside Ukraine are increasing. The supply of middle to long range weapons to AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine) is increasing. They include artilleries, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or drones, fighter aircraft and ships (soon will be supplies in bulk), AD systems, Electronic measures and counter measures (ECMs), real time information (Through satellites of US and allies), guidance, etc. In fact, the war against Russia is not being fought by Ukraine but by Pentagon, which has learnt to minimize its own casualties in many past wars, where it was directly involved, latest being Afghanistan. Ukraine is no more a sovereign country or state.

By the way, US had "invested" 3 Trillions of USD in Ukraine in 2014 to destabilize an elected government (Known as Maidan or Color revolution) and install its own puppet government. Since then, almost 8 years, it used Ukrainian land to establish chemical, biological and virus laboratories, uranium enrichment factories and many other such industries which gave it high returns on its initial investments. The rich land for wheat and other agricultural and industrial products were no longer for Ukraine but the "suppliers" of weapons to one of the most corrupt regime, in Kiev, in the world.

The border with Russia, along East, NE and SE were converted into highly fortified war zones, and supply of weapons knew no bounds. Who were paying for this? The working people of Ukraine, which turned into either poor wage slaves, paupers, neo-Nazis and a big percentage of women turned towards prostitutes not only in Ukraine but were supplied globally.

Escalation of war is on. One need not forecast. Nuclear was is still not inevitable, but we are inching towards its, after more than a year of devastating war. The hunger for more and more world market, profit, plunder and hegemony is leading globe to not merely to climate emergency, human disaster (in form of mass hunger and disease and refugees) but to nuclear holocaust. Russia, itself a capitalist country, must think hard & take proactive action, including the worst, to save its own as well as globe's disaster! The final safety of the world is only socialism, replacement of private property (means of production and subsistence) with social wealth.

Do read this article: "Russia reacts to German stance on Putin arrest warrant"; https://www.rt.com/russia/573232-russia-germany-putin-arrest-warrant/ to have an insight into the hypocrisy of the capitalist imperialist world.

This above act is an illegal and highly provocative one by ICC (International Criminal Court) of which neither Russia not China, India, US are members and not liable to even respond to its notice. If you wonder that how ICC dared to issue such a warrant, which does not even have any means or wherewithal to ensure its implementation, be sure you are a child as far as geopolitics or imperialism is concerned! Need to learn more, as such political knowledge is essential in your own country.

[mazz7]

STOP EVIL PUTIN NOW

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

What will it take for the west to act against this demented, kleptocratic, evil hate machine???

He cares for nothing but himself. He cares nothing for the Russian people.

He laughs at our pacts and behaviour guidelines – as apparently, they do not apply to him.

He is giving NATO and the rest of the world the finger. Daring anyone to stop him.

So, is that reason to let him continue? You may be fearful of a massive world war. He just sees you as being scared. The US reports they do not want war with Russia. Great he thinks… I can do what I want, and they won’t stop me. Not blocking Russia from Ukrainian air space does NOT guarantee this scum will place the world in a precarious position. It just guarantees that millions of innocents will be killed. And for what!!!!!

Ukraine has been trying to join NATO for years….given Putin ignores and changes rules so he can kill and destroy innocents, it is about time NATO changed the rules URGENTLY to protect the innocents.

Admit Ukraine to NATO and help these brave and helpless people to defend their lives and what is rightfully theirs.

I believe his family is in Switzerland, if this is true, they need to be kicked out. Why should they be protected when he cannot even keep his word on a ceasefire for civilian refuge and emergency supplies.

You are dealing with a madman!!!!! I think half of Russia would be happy if someone took him out.

I am on the other side of the world, and I am in tears daily seeing what is happening while we do nothing. Get bloody tanks and aircraft in there ASAP… TALK LESS – DO MORE.

[yourreddancer]

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

March 13, 2022 (Sunday)Russian president Vladimir Putin has asked China for help in his war against Ukraine, according to U.S. officials. Observers see this as a defining moment for China and the direction it wants to take in the twenty-first century. In what might be a sign of how China will react to that request, the spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said he had never heard of it. "The high priority now is to prevent the tense situation from escalating or even getting out of control,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russian forces struck a military facility in Ukraine about 15 miles from the Polish border. Poland is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and by the terms of the treaty establishing NATO, “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all,” and the parties will retaliate accordingly. 

Biden has repeatedly warned that NATO will respond to any attack on a member country, but Russian state TV continues to insist that no NATO country will actually help another. This assertion has observers concerned that Putin might widen the war to involve NATO, which would give him the legitimacy he needs to justify his war of aggression. 

Others say that these events indicate weakness and frustration on Putin’s part. As the Russian invasion has gone more slowly than he had apparently anticipated, the Russian military is firing indiscriminately at civilian targets, evidently trying to terrorize the country into submission. But the troops are underfed and undersupplied, and there appear to be too few of them to subdue Ukraine. Ukraine’s Euromaidan Press says that Russia has opened 14 recruitment centers in Syria.

The strike in western Ukraine near the Polish border killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 100. The facility received western arms shipments. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the strike “does not come as a surprise” but “shows…that Vladimir Putin is frustrated by the fact that his forces are not making the kind of progress that he thought that they would make against major cities including Kyiv, that he’s expanding the number of targets, that he’s lashing out and he’s trying to cause damage in every part of the country.”

Sullivan also said that the U.S. is very concerned that Russia will use chemical weapons. It has falsely accused Ukraine and the U.S. of preparing chemical weapons, which might well be a warning that Putin intends to use them himself. 

Putin, of course, has used chemical weapons before, most recently against opposition leader Alexei Navalny. His goons also did so on March 4, 2018, in the U.K, in a poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. That poisoning seemed to be a sign that Putin was confident enough in his power that he was willing to kill someone in England and dare then–prime minister Theresa May to do something about it.

What happened next seemed to illustrate Putin’s growing security in the face of weak U.S. and European resistance. May condemned the attack, as did U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. But May couldn’t do much because Brexit had isolated England and then-president Trump refused to back her. He promptly fired Tillerson, along with one of Tillerson’s deputies who contradicted the White House version of why Tillerson was out. Russian state TV then warned May not to threaten a country armed with nuclear warheads. And, just about then, Republicans in the House exonerated Trump from “colluding” with Russia in the 2016 election, outright rejecting the evidence and findings of our own intelligence community.

There remains a lot to learn not only about why former president Trump allowed such aggression, but also about why members of the Republican Party were willing to look the other way when U.S. policy under Trump benefited Russia—when the U.S. abruptly withdrew from northern Syria in October 2019, for example, or when Trump withheld money appropriated for Ukraine’s defense to pressure Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky into helping him rig the 2020 election.

At least part of the answer to that question is the disinformation campaign launched by Russia to undermine our democracy. False stories in the media have divided us and convinced many people in the U.S. of things that are simply lies.Former representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) released a video today echoing Russia’s false story of “25 to 30 U.S. funded bio labs in Ukraine,” and demanded a ceasefire to secure them.

Later this afternoon, White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted: "This is preposterous. It's the kind of disinformation operation we've seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent.” Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) slammed Gabbard for “parroting false Russian propaganda.”

David Corn of Mother Jones today broke another news story: a Russian government agency distributed a 12-page document to media outlets telling them, “It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally….” The call to feature Carlson is in the section titled “Victory in Information War.”

[opedguy]

Musk’s Peace Proposal Rejected by Ukraine

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Oct. 4, 2022.--Billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, 51, was rebuked by Kiev for daring to suggest and end to the Ukraine War, something Kiev won’t do unless the U.S. pulls the plug on Ukraine’s funding.  Ukraine receives most of its funding to pay government salaries from the U.S. and to fund the war against the Russian Federation.  With unlimited cash-and-arms flowing from the U.S. and NATO, Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky has zero incentive to end the war.  Most discussions in the press are about the prospects of 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin using tactical nukes in Ukraine or, worse yet, firing ICBMs at U.S. targets, should the war take an ugly turn for the worse for the Kremlin.  Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Ukraine War is the collective West trying to destroy the Russian Federation, something Putin acknowledged Oct. 30.

Former Centcom commander and disgraced CIA Director David Petraeus has been talking about Putin’s dire situation in Ukraine.  While it’s true that the battlefield shifts around, it’s also true that after seven months of fighting Putin controls the entire Black Sea coast and all of Ukraine’s strategic ports. So like other propagandists from Kiev, Washington, London and Brussels, Petraeus only talks about Russian losses in Ukraine.  Long-range prospects are up in the air for Ukraine, since Zelensky presided over the lost of 25% of Ukraine’s territory.  Getting back every square mile of Russian occupied territory is seen as a great victory by Kiev and colossal failure by Moscow.  Yet as the battlefield changes, so does the areas of occupation.  So far, Putin has won the territorial battle in Ukraine, something that could change in the future but not without U.S. funding.

Without U.S. funding the Kiev government could not pay its salaries nor continue the war effort.  Zelensky said he’s applied for accelerated NATO membership, whatever that means.  He’s been told by 64-year-old NATO Secretary-General Jens Stotenberg, that NATO requires 100% consensus of its 30 members to join the Trans-Atlantic Alliance.  No one in NATO, including Stoltenberg, wants to take on the Russian Federation, opening up a war on the European Continent.  From Day 1, Feb. 24, Zelensky has asked the U.S. and NATO to send troops to Ukraine and to set up a no-fly-zone.  U.S. and NATO officials rejected Zelensky’s request on the basis that it would potentially start WW III.  Zelensky told the U.S. and NATO that WW III has already started in Ukraine, giving daily excuses why the U.S. and NATO should intervene.  Zelensky heard again that NATO is in no hurry to sign Ukraine up.

Musk tried to come up with some common sense ways to shift the destructive conflict to the peace table.  Musk thinks that Crimea should stay as Russian sovereign territory since it was a gift to Ukraine by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1954, when Ukraine was a Soviet satellite.  All that changed in 1991 when the Soviet Union broke up and many former satellites got their independence.  Musk’s formula for peace was exactly the same as Putin at the outset of the war when he told Zelensky the war would end if Kiev recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and that Crimea was a Russian territory.  Zelensky told Putin “no way,” rejecting his peace offer, gambling that he could defeat the Russian Federation.  Zelensky’s decision cost untold destruction to Ukraine’s infrastructure, nearly 6,000 deaths and 15 million citizens displaced to other countries.

Musk’s plan was no different than Zelensky had at the start of the conflict, namely, he had no control over Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea.  Yet flush with U.S. cash-and-arms, Zelensky decided to gamble with Ukraine’s infrastructure and sovereign territory, losing 25% to the Kremlin in the last seven weeks.  While analysts like Petraeu like to talk about Putin’s failure, they don’t talk about Zelensky’s failures, clearly much greater that Putin’s.  Zelensky claims Ukraine would never cede territory to Russia taken by force.  But Donetsk and Luhansk were independent of Kiev at the start of the war and continue their independence. Crimea has been in Russian hands since the Feb. 22, 2014 pro-Western, CIA-backed Kiev coup that ousted Kremlin-backed Kiev President Viktor Yanukovych.  So, when it comes to losses in the last seven months, Ukraine has lost more sovereign territory to the Kremlin.

Zelensky thinks he has a black check from 79-year-old President Joe Biden to continue fighting the war against the Kremlin. Putin said Sept. 30 that he sees the war as the U.S. and NATO war to destroy the Russian Federation.  Biden said March 26 in Warsaw, Poland that Putin should not remain Russian President. Zelensky said Oct. 3 that he will not negotiate peace if Putin is still president.  Musk tried his best to make some bridging proposals to end the conflict, only to be told by Kiev to “F-Off.”  With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder that the war rages on, with Pundits debating the prospects of nuclear war.  Zelensky isn’t concerned about WW III on the European Continent or nuclear war for that matter, he only wants to beat Putin on the battlefield.  Musk tried to offer constructive suggestions on how to end the conflict to reduce the chance of a bigger calamity..

About the About  

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.  

[glitterypeanutmugnickel]

March 13, 2022

Heather Cox Richardson

Mar 14

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Russian president Vladimir Putin has asked China for help in his war against Ukraine, according to U.S. officials. Observers see this as a defining moment for China and the direction it wants to take in the twenty-first century. In what might be a sign of how China will react to that request, the spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said he had never heard of it. "The high priority now is to prevent the tense situation from escalating or even getting out of control,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russian forces struck a military facility in Ukraine about 15 miles from the Polish border. Poland is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and by the terms of the treaty establishing NATO, “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all,” and the parties will retaliate accordingly.

Biden has repeatedly warned that NATO will respond to any attack on a member country, but Russian state TV continues to insist that no NATO country will actually help another. This assertion has observers concerned that Putin might widen the war to involve NATO, which would give him the legitimacy he needs to justify his war of aggression.

Others say that these events indicate weakness and frustration on Putin’s part. As the Russian invasion has gone more slowly than he had apparently anticipated, the Russian military is firing indiscriminately at civilian targets, evidently trying to terrorize the country into submission. But the troops are underfed and undersupplied, and there appear to be too few of them to subdue Ukraine. Ukraine’s Euromaidan Press says that Russia has opened 14 recruitment centers in Syria.

The strike in western Ukraine near the Polish border killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 100. The facility received western arms shipments. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the strike “does not come as a surprise” but “shows…that Vladimir Putin is frustrated by the fact that his forces are not making the kind of progress that he thought that they would make against major cities including Kyiv, that he’s expanding the number of targets, that he’s lashing out and he’s trying to cause damage in every part of the country.”

Sullivan also said that the U.S. is very concerned that Russia will use chemical weapons. It has falsely accused Ukraine and the U.S. of preparing chemical weapons, which might well be a warning that Putin intends to use them himself.

Putin, of course, has used chemical weapons before, most recently against opposition leader Alexei Navalny. His goons also did so on March 4, 2018, in the U.K, in a poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. That poisoning seemed to be a sign that Putin was confident enough in his power that he was willing to kill someone in England and dare then–prime minister Theresa May to do something about it.

What happened next seemed to illustrate Putin’s growing security in the face of weak U.S. and European resistance. May condemned the attack, as did U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. But May couldn’t do much because Brexit had isolated England and then-president Trump refused to back her. He promptly fired Tillerson, along with one of Tillerson’s deputies who contradicted the White House version of why Tillerson was out. Russian state TV then warned May not to threaten a country armed with nuclear warheads. And, just about then, Republicans in the House exonerated Trump from “colluding” with Russia in the 2016 election, outright rejecting the evidence and findings of our own intelligence community.

There remains a lot to learn not only about why former president Trump allowed such aggression, but also about why members of the Republican Party were willing to look the other way when U.S. policy under Trump benefited Russia—when the U.S. abruptly withdrew from northern Syria in October 2019, for example, or when Trump withheld money appropriated for Ukraine’s defense to pressure Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky into helping him rig the 2020 election.

At least part of the answer to that question is the disinformation campaign launched by Russia to undermine our democracy. False stories in the media have divided us and convinced many people in the U.S. of things that are simply lies.

Former representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) released a video today echoing Russia’s false story of “25 to 30 U.S. funded bio labs in Ukraine,” and demanded a ceasefire to secure them.

Later this afternoon, White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted: “This is preposterous. It’s the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent.” Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) slammed Gabbard for “parroting false Russian propaganda.”

David Corn of Mother Jones today broke another news story: a Russian government agency distributed a 12-page document to media outlets telling them, “It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally….”

The call to feature Carlson is in the section titled “Victory in Information

[xtruss]

Oops! Turns Out Ukraine Is in the Russian Sphere of Influence After All

Somebody is Cutting and Running! Wake up Ukraine! Stop Licking the Scrotums of the US, UK, France, Germany NATO (North Atlantic Terrorist Organization) and Their Puppet Allies.

— Marko Marjanović | Saturday February 12, 2022

Kiev, Take a Hint

The White House has made it clear that not a single US soldier will die for Ukraine, is evacuating the Embassy, and has even told its citizens that if things go off they are categorically on their own since the US military will not risk evacuating them.

Very interesting.

It wasn’t so long ago that we were hearing that Ukraine shares America’s values, needs to be supported as a plucky free nation standing up to Putin, and that Washington wants it as an Article 5 NATO member sometime in the indeterminate medium-term future.

Instead, we’re getting… a speedy and total American withdrawal before the first shot of the feared Russian counter-escalation has even been fired.

Talk is talk, but demonstrable action is something else. The EU and NATO can promise all the eventual memberships in the world, but this shows that ultimately Russia cares enormously more about Ukraine’s orientation than the West does. Moscow has far more to lose and is far more invested. The American escape shows that no matter what EuroKiev and Washington may wish for, the Ukraine is in fact firmly in the Russian sphere of influence. And if Kiev is wise it is going to find a way to live with this fact that has been so clearly demonstrated to it and for its benefit.

If Zelensky is smart he needs to quickly get on the air and say a few words about the ethnic kinship of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples, the unacceptability of resolving the Donbass question by force, and he needs to release the pro-Russian Medvedchuk and reverse his crackdown on the opposition media.

The Russian buildup to 90-100 battalion tactical groups has already shown that militarily the Ukraine is Moscow’s playground where not even the world’s superpower dares to tread. A semi-competent leadership would take that military balance *reality* into account and pay it proper respect. (You don’t see Belgrade begging for Russian troops and missiles, it is ecstatic if it is just allowed by the Empire to remain nominally neutral.)

The buildup has also, for the time being, frozen the march of never-ending new sanctions against Russia. The Lithuanian/Polish/neocon cretins wanting to see more sanctions “before Russia invades” have been shut up. The Empire realizes that passing all sanctions would also make it lose all the leverage that it has. It finally gets that it must keep some dry powder, or else the Russian might as well go out and get hung as a lamb for a sheep.

Thus so far the Russian buildup has had two positive consequences for Russia (along with some negative ones). I don’t know if that is enough. But it is within Kiev’s power to ensure that it is enough, by allowing itself to be bent just a little and dish out some appeasement. It’s not as if Kiev isn’t using its force dominance against Ukraine’s own pro-Russians and peaceniks, and thus doesn’t have any great moral standing here.

The sole alternative the Americans have to offer are fantasies about “insurgency” and “the biggest Molotov cocktail party in the world” — in which the Americans will participate only as distant voyeurs and by sending Ukrainians explosives.

What’s the better deal there? The “Russian” alternative is for Zelensky to just fulfill his damn election promises, and get to work on his pro-economy, pro-talks program on whose strength he swept the election. He may want to consult his financier Kolomoisky on that:

“If Zelensky listens to [the west] and doesn’t make his own appointments he’ll end up like Poroshenko. He’ll have the same poll numbers — 5, 10, or 15 instead of 73 per cent,” he said.

“This is your game, your geopolitics,” he said. “You don’t care about Ukraine. You want to hurt Russia, and Ukraine is just an excuse.”

The New York Times:

“They’re stronger anyway. We have to improve our relations,” he said, comparing Russia’s power to that of Ukraine.

“People want peace, a good life, they don’t want to be at war. And you” — America — “are forcing us to be at war, and not even giving us the money for it.”

“You all won’t take us” in the alliance, Mr. Kolomoisky said in the interview, in a conference room at his offices in Kiev. “There’s no use in wasting time on empty talk. Whereas Russia would love to bring us into a new Warsaw Pact.”

Instead, he said, the United States is simply using Ukraine to try to weaken its geopolitical rival. “War against Russia,” he said, “to the last Ukrainian.”

“We’ll take $100 billion from the Russians. I think they’d love to give it to us today,” Mr. Kolomoisky said. “What’s the fastest way to resolve issues and restore the relationship? Only money.”

[megacircuit9universe]

Shook

TUE JAN 28 2020

Adam Schiff appears to have been right yesterday, when he said the leak of the Bolton manuscript had blown a hole in the President’s defense, because today... the second full day of that defense in the Senate, they cut it unexpectedly short... at the end, yielding back seventeen full hours of the time which had been allotted to them by the rules.

I didn’t get a chance to see it, but from what I’ve heard, it was basically just arguing that John Bolton (former hero of the Bush Neocons, and revered by the Tea Party as well) can’t be trusted, because he’s a disgruntled former employee with a book to sell... followed by doubling down on the Dershowitz (criminal defense adviser for both OJ Simpson and Jeffrey Epstein) interpretation of impeachment which essentially says... Presidents can’t be impeached for anything, ever.

He admits that he didn’t used to think this about Clinton, and that today, no constitutional scholars agree with him... but he’s still right... because he thought about this matter a lot guys!  A lot!

They then ended with some talk about how impeachment is hell and just shouldn’t be done anymore ever again... and then some kind of video montage of Democratic Senators from December of 1998 talking about how that impeachment was a bad idea... before resting their case.

Apparently this final video montage drew some muted laughter from those in attendance... and much mockery on social media.  

I mean, sure... the left has, for months, been playing old 1998 clips of Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell and even Dershowitz, to expose their hypocrisy in the present day... but that doesn’t quite work the other way, because the Clinton impeachment was founded on lying about a blow job.

I mean... If Lindsey Graham felt that lying about a blow job was not too minor a matter to impeach a president over... then surely he should feel that extorting a military ally who is in a war against Russia, to throw an election... would also be fair game.

On the other hand, if Jerry Nadler in 1998 thinks Clinton shouldn’t be removed from office for lying about a blow job... it does not at all, in any way follow, that he should also not want Trump removed for extorting a military ally who is in a war against Russia, to throw an election... and also obstruct the shit out of congressional oversight.

And to imply that the two things are somehow interchangeable... is not only insulting to even the intelligence of small children... but, laughable.

It was very much unlike the eloquent closing arguments of the prosecution last week, which went viral on social media, even as Congressman Schiff was begrudgingly congratulated by those on the right, for being so well spoken.

Later in the evening, news broke that McConnell does not, as of the time of writing, have the votes necessary to prevent witnesses from being called... something he sadly figured out during a meeting with his caucus after the defense had rested their case.

So is the needle shaking?  Yes... like the needle of a gauge on top of a pressure cooker that’s getting ready to blow.

The next phase of the trial is going to be a bunch of written questions from Senators for the prosecution and defense, which Chief Justice Roberts has requested they keep to questions that can be answered in like five minutes.

After that, then there will be votes to either conclude the trial, or move on to another phase of witness testimony, etc.... expected to happen on Saturday.

So, we still have three long days, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, for things to shift and change. 

Maybe McConnell can manage to dial down the burner under that pressure cooker, and bring this whole thing to a conclusion on Saturday, with an acquittal of Trump, just two days before the State of the Union Address.

But McConnell doesn’t really have any control over that burner knob. The flame’s been cranked up by developments which are wholly outside of his control... the Parnas tapes, the Bolton manuscript, Trump himself issuing blunt threats against those involved... and three days is enough time for more damning developments to break.

It’s difficult to speculate about what’s going on in the minds of those GOP senators who aren’t yet willing to vote against witness testimony, but here are some things they should be thinking about...

1) Acquittal effectively destroys congressional oversight forever, over any future president... and in fact destroys impeachment itself as a remedy for a rogue president.

The only way that isn’t a terrible mistake, is if Trump remains president for life, much like Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Peng are now.  In other words... the goal of acquittal would be to deliberately nullify our democracy in favor of a dictatorship... now... when the dictator in question is of their own party.

Rather than being a far fetched conspiracy theory... this is in fact, exactly how democracies around the world have died many times in the past. It would simply be a case of history repeating itself, this time in America.  And thus, it’s almost a guarantee that at least some faction of the current Senate, is consciously striving for that outcome.

The problem, however is... for that to work, Trump needs to win in November... something that’s going to be a lot more difficult to do, even if he cheats his ass off, because the rest of the government, the press, and the public, are now on very high alert to the danger.

And if Trump doesn’t win... well, they just handed that dictatorship over to the enemy party.  So now they’re really fucked forever!

On the other hand, if they vote to remove Trump, but he does squeak it out to become the dictator... then they’re really fucked forever!

Such is the whirling dervish of second guessing that can arise, as soon as you even entertain the idea of departing from a common sense interpretation of the constitution... the one that you swear to defend upon taking office... the one you swear to defend when being an impeachment juror.

2) Looking bad to history isn’t just about being frowned upon long after your death anymore.  There are things called movies... many of which will be made about this insane chapter in our history... which will come out long before you’re dead.

What actor will play you, and will they be a villain? 

Well, unless Emperor Trump for life cracks down on all media with an iron fist, imprisoning any producer who would dare to make anything but pro-regime propaganda... odds are, if you vote to acquit... you’ll be played by an ugly actor portraying you as the caricature of cowardice and closed minded idiocy.

Unless you’re Mitch McConnell... in which case it will be an ugly actor portraying you as the caricature of evil incarnate, hell bent on burning down American democracy from the inside, no matter what the cost.

3) Even if the above two items seem too outrageous to be worthy of consideration, I still fall back to my original point from several entries ago... that Trump is a loser.

Since he’s been in office, all the governors and congressmen he’s stumped for have lost their contests... in many cases to dark horse Democrats in regions that seemed solidly Red. 

He was trounced in the mid-terms, losing the House in a blow out not seen since the last days of Nixon, and then... after Replacing Sessions with Barr as AG, and defeating the Mueller probe... still managed to get impeached on a completely different matter!

How will he screw up an acquittal?  Because he will... the day after he gets it.  And that’s gonna come back to haunt you on election night.

He is a third rate thug who got lucky in 2016.  He is still a third rate thug today, and his luck ran out a long time ago.  You’d be an idiot to back him now.

------

Again, like I’ve said before... eject this loser now, and the GOP has the whole rest of 2020 to rally around Pence, and talk about how it was sad, but Trump had to go, because he took it too far...  lost his way... lost sight of the good... wasn’t up to the stress because of health reasons and got a little bonkers... huh?

No matter how you dissect it, this does all boil down to a moment of reckoning for the Republican Party.  Either be swallowed whole by the extreme right, or eject them, by ejecting their chosen demagogue. 

And by extreme right, I mean conspiracy theory loving, xenophobic, morons in favor of idiotic trade wars, ballooning deficits, anti-education, anti-environment, pro-Putin and other dictators, anti-NATO, and... in the final analysis... just plain anti-constitution, in everything it spells out and stands for.

Eject them and rebuild the party on it’s old foundations... or be ejected by them, and watch as they burn that grand old party to the ground, in the name of reactionary rage, and nothing more.

That seems like a good enough place to leave it tonight.

I’m going to bed.

[alexsmitposts]

US Seeks to Become World Political Schemers On an practically daily basis, representatives of the present political élite of Washington and US media voice accusations of Russia, China and some other countries which allegedly try “to interfere” with the internal affairs of the US. At the same time, Washington does not mention that the budget-financed US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has been officially operating for 35 years already, as well as other organisations of the kind, whose objective is to influence the policy of other countries. One of the NED founders, Allen Weinstein, said: “Much of what we are doing today used to be done in secret by the CIA 25 years ago.” Over the recent decades, against the backdrop of the comprehensive propaganda campaign conducted by Washington within the country and abroad about the alleged “advantages of the American democracy,” the American élites adopted the idea of a certain special role of the US, a sort of American Messianism, of its right to interfere in any matters and countries worldwide with impunity. According to the research of the American Carnegie Mellon University, from the end of World War II to 2000, the US interfered with elections in 45 countries of the world at least 80 times, which does not include the organisation of military coups and color revolutions. The American website AlterNet, found at least 80 cases of local and regional conflicts (since 1953) in which Washington participated. AlterNet also notes that, historically, about a half of all revolutions organized with the US failed, and success was never a sure-fire thing. In the modern history, the majority of instances of US intervention in the politics of other states fell on the Cold War period. Back then, Washington actively sought to strengthen its geopolitical positions on the international scene, regularly trying to secure a pro-American government in this or that country. Since, in the wake of World War II, the list of European players was generally finalized, the states of Asia, Africa and South America became the usual arena of the US activities. At the same time, the political activities of the US Administration often closely intertwined with the US economic interests, a desire to receive control over transport corridors, natural minerals, first of all oil and gas. Washington always sought to disguise its true purposes by the propaganda trends relevant at the time, like prevention of “a spread of communist ideas in Asia and Latin America,” or “Islamic radicalization of the Middle Eastern states.” The containment mechanisms of the UN or international condemnation did not always prove an effective barrier to the attempts of the White House to change the political map of the world. And a considerable number of the countries, in pursuit of “the American benefits” in the form of military, economic or other aid, very quickly oriented their political course following the US lead, becoming de facto silent puppets in the expansionist world game of the US. The actions of Washington are not only tolerated by certain European countries, but also the European Union as a whole, whose political leadership lost independence from the actions of Washington a long time ago. “The agreements and doctrines which are the cornerstone of the EU and the NATO, oblige Europeans to participate in all military enterprises of the US,” the Austrian Contra Magazin reports. Showing utter defiance to the independent policy of other states, representatives of the current US political élite of the USA actively seek to interfere with the internal affairs of many countries of the world. In response to Donald Trump’s tweets about the anti-government protests in France in December 2018, the French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian was forced to officially urge the US President not to interfere with the domestic policy of France. It is known that the former president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko resorted to the help of the US lobbyist organisations more than once, trying to get the favor of Washington. Now it turned out that his successor Volodymyr Zelensky used this experience as well. It became known after the US lobbyist company Signal Group Consulting LLC published a report on the work in favor of the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, which was revealed by the Ukrainian office of Voice of America, referring to a number of documents. On a practically regular basis, international media publishes statements about the instances of open intervention, which is unseemly for US Ambassadors, in the affairs of other sovereign states. Thus, in November 2018, Poland saw a political demarche of the US Ambassador in Warsaw Georgette Mosbacher for her criticism of the freedom of media after she sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki in which she explained what is and what is not appropriate for the ministers of the Polish government to say to the Polish TV channel TVN. In February, the US Ambassador to Moldova Dereck J. Hogan actively participated in the internal political process in the country, which clearly showed attempts to interfere with the pre-election situation in this country. In June, the representative of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC), archpriest David Isakadze accused the acting US Ambassador to Georgia Elizabeth Rood of attempts to aggravate the situation in Georgia. Everybody knows about the scandalous activities of the US Ambassador in Berlin Richard Grenell who, as of January this year, began to send threats to the representatives of the German business community because of their actions in cooperation with Russia. In March, he criticized the policy of the German Ministry of Finance. And, on August 1, in his speech, he dared criticize the government of the Chancellor Angela Merkel for their unwillingness to join the naval mission in the Strait of Hormuz. Such behavior, inadmissible for a diplomatic representative and concerning the state institutions and the policy of Germany as though it were not the leading European state, but a vassal territory of the US, was met with indignation in the German political business community. It also forced the Vice Chairman of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) Wolfgang Kubicki to urge the Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to banish the US Ambassador R. Grenell from the country. The former US Ambassador in Moscow Michael McFaul admitted in the memoirs that the US had wanted a change of the power in Moscow and tried to depose Vladimir Putin. According to Der Spiegel, Americans trained activists of the liberal opposition and paid millions to the civil organisations which, in McFaul’s own words, could not be politically neutral. Today, Washington continues to use the same methods seeking to influence the domestic policy of Russia by publishing on the Twitter webpage of the US Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs on August 2 detailed information on the places, meeting time and route of an unauthorized rally in Moscow. The head of the Russian MFA Department for Information Issues Ilya Timokhov directly specified the other day that such call relaying was the most relevant and scandalous example of the US Department of State’s intervention in the internal affairs of Russia: “… it is nothing other than propaganda of the rally organizers since it keeps the Russian language text with an appeal to rally.” Here, only a small number of examples of outright intervention of the US authorities and institutions in the internal affairs of Russia and other states were given. Certainly, one could give a great many examples of the sort, as well as the informal tools used by Washington in order to influence other states in a way that would be favorable for the US by imposing American style democracy on other countries. In particular, such tools include not only the US intelligence agencies, which are aimed specifically at these objectives, but also numerous western non-profit organisations and religious sects. You will learn more about those in the future materials of the NEO.

[babyawacs]

#ukraine .@peace .@nato .@ukraine .@otan .@msc .@us_stratcom @us_stratcom .@bbcr4 .@bbcradio4 .@ pacificsubs @pacificsubs .@ussocom @ussocom .@gchq .@nsagov .@odnigov .@atom .@iaeaorg .@energy ‎ ‎in the geopolitical game of nations where presidencies a nd countries are bought and sold and revolutions by colors expended inthisgame ‎ someone tried to conquer ukraine to west likely as empoverished agricultural colony isuspected lukoil jewish networks covert quarrel with putins russ ia joining this effort or daring this effort where west fellapart in instability trying to setup against china noone following the us why would an dshould they and wars unthinkable trade network dependencies someone in this used the chance to unite west setit up against ch ina and russia useful inthis and ukraine in this as empoverished agricultural colony : but whoever did this underestimated how all in by russia means severity and the onthe cheap conquest by color revolutions and russia accepting it longago failed but does now not pay the warbill by far not itmust be about food production not for its donbas steel which ru ssia needs desperately thereon any sleazy sleazy sleazy dictatorship move by putin only confirmed how west unites against that and turns russia into nort hkorea whichr ussia anticipated and didnotallow mostly with china and of a sudden this is now west is weak disrespected from south hesitant topay war bills russia with blood red eyes agony managed catastrophy needs peace but cannot even s e e m weak as it sacrificed somany and putinmaynot even understand how badly the wars w e a k e n e drussia even in stalinism times for decades despite propaganda and (!)communismtrade network russia on top giving it some leverage and indu stry still yet heavyindustries ressource based before machines were turned smart outpacing commies it can be a prestep to alot worse while russia isalotmore fragile than allthink and the path to peace is what west cannot allow about appeasement of a dictator and what putin tries to fake that i tis percieved as victory while surrounded by sharks handling a c a t a s t r o p h y  but will always be convincing all goes byplan anyday what a luck with him thentoo if there is a path to peace itis along the realdeal icebreaker path here or awacs aperture earlywarning thunderstorms mess ahead

#ukraine .@peace .@nato .@ukraine .@otan .@msc .@us_stratcom @us_stratcom .@bbcr4 .@bbcradio4 .@pacificsubs @pacificsubs .@ussocom @ussocom .@gchq .@nsagov .@odnigov .@atom .@iaeaorg .@energy ‎ ‎in the geopolitical game of nations where presidencies and countries are bought and sold and revolutions by colors expended inthisgame ‎ someone tried to conquer ukraine to west likely as empoverished…

[fapangel]

There has been speculation that today's earthquake in NK could be a collapse of one of their cave/mountain testing areas, while some say it was for certain a H-test. Which theory do you give more credence to? Also, how the fuck did they figure out Teller-Ulam so fast? That was like 8 months at most and they certainly didn't have the capability we had when we developed our H-bombs.

Probably because Russia was helping them. 

I wasn’t making this argument months ago because it seemed so insane on the face of it to suggest that Russia would want a nuclear-armed North Korea, especially considering the less-than-perfect relations between the DPRK and their de-facto client state, China. But given that the North Koreans suddenly made huge leaps ahead in their previously trouble-plagued missile and nuclear programs almost overnight, the argument must be considered. Somehow, from somewhere, their stymied program received a quantum leap in technology - an outside infusion. And it was almost certainly the fucking Russians. 

Fingers were pointed at an ex-Soviet Ukrainian rocket factory, but the reporting on that came mostly from the New York Times, a proud defender of Communism’s atrocities for 85 years and running, to say nothing of the obvious convenience of said claims for Russian narratives and Ukrainian evidence to the contrary: two North Korean infiltrators eagerly took tons of snapshots of fake schematics laid out in the building as a honey trap before they were promptly arrested. That’s pretty solid evidence that the Ukrainians weren’t just aware of the threat, but were pretty damn proactive in policing it - wherever the real schematics are, they sure as hell aren’t in that shuttered factory. But it does establish that the DPRK was at least after that source, which gives Russia a convenient excuse - against their enemy and victim, no less - when the DPRK starts producing said engines from schematics provided from Russian design bureau archives. If they’re willing to do that much, then why not provide the motherfucking bastards with Teller-Ulam design, too? 

“They’d never risk nuclear destabilization!” you say? Think again. Just last week Russia was conducting a massive nuclear forces drill and three days ago they conducted an ICBM test of their own. This, and other tests, is most likely testing on penetration aids and decoys for their missiles - ongoing development of efforts I was reading about years ago to ensure their weapons can bypass any US missile shield. (While the GMD system is still rather lackluster, once the Space Fence II radars are online and the Multiple Kill Vehicle is finished, the system will take a huge leap forward in potency and readiness - and the SM-3 system we’ve already deployed ashore in Europe can actually cover most of the United States from ICBM attack with only four or six sites.) This is in addition to their recent public statements reasserting late-Soviet era “de-escalatory strike” doctrine - in other words, compensating for their weak conventional forces by just tac-nuking any NATO army that dares to defeat them. Or their open boasting of patrolling off the US coast with SSGNs armed with nuclear cruise missiles, which is why Washington D.C. is now guarded by radar-equipped tethered aerosats. Or the “accidentally” revealed details of a nuclear torpedo designed to nuke harbors. Or their recent boasting of the upgraded SS-18 “Satan” being able to “destroy Texas with one shot” (it can’t.) These aren’t the actions of a nation - or rather, leader - that’s afraid of the nuclear option. In fact, Putin seems hell-bent on advancing it, using it as a cudgel to get his way. Since the threat of MAD defines the outer limits of what any nation will or will not do with conventional force, the further he can push that limit, the more murder, invasion and barbarity he can get away with without NATO stomping him flat. 

This is also reflected in Putin’s current actions - he’s actively invading the Ukraine, assisting Iran and Syria in the Middle East, opening channels to the Taliban, making great inroads with the Turks, and rapidly modernizing his conventional forces even as he wages relentless psy-ops against the United States, specifically to foster division, disunity and discord, whether it be any clown chanting “Calexit” or stroking the racial tensions as hard as possible. And let’s not forget the massive “Zapad” exercises, where his massive military is openly rehearsing for an invasion of Eastern Europe. In every possible theater, Putin is waging a new Cold War against western democracy in general and America in particular, and he is playing to win. Many, many analysts have pointed out that a full-scale war on the Korean Peninsula will likely lead to an opportunistic invasion of the Baltic states by Putin, who will then say “if you try to take them back, I’ll tac-nuke you, and if you tac-nuke me back, I’ll push the button and we’ll all die.” Putin’s proven adept at fostering chaos and division as best he can, with an eye towards exploiting opportunities that arise from it as they come. Given what he stands to gain from potential war in Korea - or from the long-term destruction of America’s credibility and power in the Pacific if we allow the nuclear DPRK to live - I see no reason why he wouldn’t take the risks. His nukes make him mostly if not completely immune to real consequences from his fucking around - i.e., destruction of his state - so he’s got no real reason not to make the world a much shittier place as long as he might benefit from it. 

This is the kind of behavior we can expect from a nuclear DPRK, too - except they’ll be invading Seoul, not Crimea, and if we try to intervene they’ll kill millions of Americans with nuclear retaliation strikes. Will we really risk our citizens by the millions to save Seoul? Don’t count on it. 

Nothing in this world happens in a vacuum. Putin is hell bent on our destruction, and North Korea is increasingly looking like another pawn in a bigger game. Never lose sight of that.