W.J. Astore
I haven’t written much about the progress of the Russia-Ukraine War. I have no special insight into what’s going on in Ukraine, or in Putin’s head, but I think I know something about the USA and its leadership.
The war itself: Russia and Ukraine are both losing. Russia is losing men and materiel; Ukraine is losing land and suffering all the destruction of a war fought on their turf. Many Americans seem to be cheering Ukraine and its resolute resistance, but at what cost, and for what purpose?
Historical analogies: American commentators like to refer to 1938 and Munich. Putin, naturally, is Hitler, and the world must stand up to him since Ukraine is only the first country on his list of potential conquests. If Putin wins in Ukraine, Poland would be next. Or the Baltic States. Because Putin wants to re-create the Soviet empire. Or the Russia of the Tsars.
But I think it’s much more like 1914. A regional conflict that may spin wildly out of control as more and more countries get swept into its escalatory spiral. Russian threats and nuclear red lines are more than worrisome. After all, wars are inherently chaotic and unpredictable, often creating their own bizarre logic of what’s right and wrong, what’s rational and irrational. Anyone who thinks they know how this war is going to end is overestimating the predictability of war. We’re all engaged in guess-work, and where nuclear threats are involved, guess-work is less than reassuring.
The Russia-Ukraine War could escalate to a world war: Already we’ve seen major economic sanctions involving the US, NATO countries, and Russia. Already we’ve seen Russia working with China and other countries to sell its fuel and other products as it seeks to evade those sanctions. Already we’ve seen inflation and recession in the US economy that can be tied back to those sanctions. Meanwhile, the US and NATO have sent tens of billions in weaponry to Ukraine to wage its war, which, to be blunt, is a form of proxy war for the US and NATO. The US president has called for regime change in Russia, declaring that Putin must go. Both Nord Stream pipelines have been attacked. This is not a simple regional war between Russia and Ukraine. It’s already a war with global implications openly funded by the US with the explicit goal of weakening Russia and removing Putin from power.
To use chess terminology, the war still appears to be in its opening stages. Perhaps the middle game has begun; what’s certain is the end game is nowhere in sight. As Matt Taibbi recently noted, the Washington Post observed that “recent events have only added to the sense that the war will be a long slog,” and “all of this adds up to a war that looks increasingly open-ended.” Even worse, the paper noted:
Privately, U.S. officials say neither Russia nor Ukraine is capable of winning the war outright, but they have ruled out the idea of pushing or even nudging Ukraine to the negotiating table. They say they do not know what the end of the war looks like, or how it might end or when, insisting that is up to Kyiv.
Taibbi’s response is telling: “What??? If the White House doesn’t think the war can be won, but also refuses to negotiate itself, or ‘nudge’ others to do it for them, what exactly is its end strategy? Waiting for things to get worse and then reassessing?”
To return to chess: In games involving highly skilled players, often draws are agreed upon early in the middle game, as both players realize they have no prospects for victory and that further play will merely prolong the inevitable. It’s time for the major players in this conflict to agree to some version of a draw, a negotiated settlement, an end to conflict. Chess, after all, is just a game. The players don’t have to worry about dying in a nuclear cataclysm. We do.
Bracing Views 
“The Russia-Ukraine War could escalate to a world war”
Bill, take off the rose tinted glasses. With the US dominating the 30 + NATO Nations this IS ALREADY A WORLD WAR escalating, not DE-escalating.
It’s the US that wants to keep the WAR going.
In March, the 2nd month of the WAR when the WAR could have been stopped under Turkish auspicious, Russia and Ukraine came to agreement to end it, but the US wouldn’t go for it and forbade Ukraine from negotiating further.
In December last year, Putin came out with proposals that would protect Ukraine and Russian interests but the US dismissed any negotiations for mutual understanding.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Military Warsaw Pact with it, there was no need for NATO to advance right up to Russia’s borders.
Russia made it perfectly clear, proceeding along that Path crosses a RED LINE for Russia, but the US dismissed those Russian concerns out of hand.
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Ray, I think my point was clear when I wrote: “It’s already a war with global implications openly funded by the US with the explicit goal of weakening Russia and removing Putin from power.”
What we must avoid is a catastrophic military world war like World Wars I and II.
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Yes you did Bill, but I think my point was just as clear, “this IS ALREADY A WORLD WAR escalating, not DE-escalating.
Whether it continues escalating or DE-escalating is up to the American People raising their voices.
I think all of us here all try to do that to the best of our talents and abilities, but I just don’t see any breakthrough yet especially at this Election Time as the MSM, the 5th Horseman of the Apocalypse, controls the Narrative. Is American Democracy completely Dead?
There are increasing anti-War demonstrations but the MSM doesn’t magnify that as Propagandists for the US WAR Machine.
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One factoid that Jimmy Dore noted: Hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico got $60M in federal aid. At the same time, Ukraine was promised another $625M in weaponry.
Russia needs to attack Puerto Rico for the latter to get real help.
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And it’s all BORROWED MONEY digging a deeper hole the Grandchildren’s Children will have to pay off and Americans think that’s normal or don’t pay attention at all.
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You know Bill, one thing that our esteemed commenter JG MOEBUS keeps bringing up ad nauseum…..
Who the hell in the US administration are the major players in this conflict calling each chessboard move?
I mean the actual persons. Like the Robert McNamaras? The Henry Kissingers?
People keep throwing out Victoria Nuland’s name. The Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Nuland’s bedmate, Robert Kagan, is a foreign policy commentator at the Brookings Institution, and co-founder in 1998 of the neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
What is the mechanism whereby the American people can get rid of this warmongering woman who with consummate hypocrisy accuses Russia of spreading misinformation in the US, while she openly seeks to put “stress on Putin where he is vulnerable, including among his own citizens.” There are hundreds of thousands of victims from the policies she has promoted.
Excerpts from an excellent article in the Ron Paul Institute blog in February 2021 reprinted with permission from Antiwar.com.
“From 2003 to 2005 Nuland was principal foreign policy advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney who “helped plan and manage the war that toppled Saddam Hussein, including making Bush administration’s case for preemptive military actions based on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.” The foreign policy establishment, with Nuland on the far right, believed that removing Saddam Hussein and installing a US “ally” would be simple.
The invasion and continuing occupation have resulted in over a million dead Iraqis, many thousands of dead Americans, hundreds of thousands with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at a cost of 2 to 6 TRILLION dollars.
From 2005 to 2008 Victoria Nuland was US Ambassador to NATO where her role was to “strengthen Allied support” for the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. On the 10th anniversary of the invasion, when asked about the lessons learned Nuland responded, “Compared to where we were in the Saddam era, we now have a bilateral security agreement … We have deep economic interests and ties. We have a security relationship. We have a political relationship.”
Nuland is oblivious to the costs. Nuland’s loyalties are to the elite who have benefited from the tragedy. According to online google, “One of the top profiteers from the Iraq War was oil field services corporation, Halliburton. Halliburton gained $39.5 billion in ‘federal contracts related to the Iraq war.’ Nuland’s boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, was the former the CEO of Halliburton.
In January 2020, seventeen years after the US invasion, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution demanding the US troops and contractors leave. Now, over one year later, they still have not left.
http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2021/february/11/why-victoria-nuland-is-dangerous-and-should-not-be-confirmed/
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January 25, 2021…..
:On January 5 Joe Biden quietly announced the nomination of Victoria (“Fuck the EU!”) Nuland as Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs. This announcement may signal the inception of the confrontation with Russia placed on hold during the Trump presidency. “Nuland is perhaps best known for her pithy ejaculation: “Fuck the EU!” in a telephone call with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in 2014.
Nuland is a career official, serving under multiple administrations, representing bipartisan imperialism. She was deputy director for “affairs in the former Soviet republics” in the Bill Clinton administration. Her task was to exploit the pain and suffering caused by the implosion of the Soviet Union to assert greater U.S. hegemony over Eurasia, using the traditional mix of covert operations, National Endowment for Democracy meddling, “color revolutions,” aid promises, etc.
….while Nuland built support for the coup in Kiev (Feb. 18 to 21), she boasted openly that the U.S. had invested $5 billion in supporting “the Ukrainian people’s European aspirations.” (This referred to the support of some Ukrainians for the violent overthrow of the democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, on the basis of his alleged pro-Russian policies and his opposition to European Union affiliation under the conditions the EU was then offering.) To state the matter honestly: the U.S. spent $5 billion to install a government in Kiev that would request NATO membership (ostensibly to protect it from always-aggressive, always expanding Russia) and bind it forever to the U.S. military-industrial complex and “Free World.”
Now Biden, deeply associated with Ukraine, and with the cause of NATO expansion—and whose son was famously employed by the country’s largest gas company two and a half months after the coup (May 12, 2014) up to April 2019, netting some $ 5 million—is nominating Nuland, mistress of the Maidan coup, for a high State Department post for “political affairs.”
That means interfering in other people’s political affairs, while always threatening them with war, or threatening to fuck them.
Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Lloyd Austin, Avril Haines… Biden’s announced cabinet already reeked. The addition of Nuland stinks to high heaven.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/01/25/basic-notes-on-victoria-fuck-the-eu-nuland/
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Jeff, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs is an “appointed” position right? By the President? Right?
Does not have to be approved by Congress? Right?
Can she then be “unappointed”? And would Biden have to do that?
The more I read about this warmongering woman the more I think she is the most dangerous of what you call the Presidents “handlers”. Probably Lords over Blinken as well I reckon. She is longtime insider.
Google is your friend Dennis:
On January 5, 2021, it was reported that President-elect Joe Biden would nominate Nuland to serve as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under Secretary-designate Antony Blinken. Hearings on Nuland’s nomination were held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 15, 2021. The committee favorably reported Nuland’s nomination on April 21, 2021. On April 29, 2021, her nomination was confirmed by the entire Senate by voice vote, and she started her work as Under Secretary of State on May 3, 2021.
So she could be canned by Senate voice Vote I assume?
Some Senator has to make a motion to vote on firing her ass? How likely is that?
I did not know that she held the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest diplomatic rank in the United States Foreign Service. I wonder if that is a big deal? What does the Foreign Service do anyway?
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The Foreign Service does exactly what it is told to do by the same people who tell all the elected politicians, career civilian and military bureaucrats, and anointed political appointees in DC what to do.
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And given the way EU nations are jumping onboard America’s War Train in Ukraine, apparently Nuland’s saying “F*** the EU” is old, old news among Europe’s Ruling Political Class.
They’re more interested in what she is going to do next to reward them for their loyalty to the cause.
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“Behind every war-making man is a warmongering woman.”
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ALEX, so you think Antony Blinken is just a puppet with Victoria Nuland’s hand up his interior?
The sock puppet is a type of hand puppet, which is controlled using one hand that occupies the interior of the puppet and moves the puppet around.
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I really don’t know what is going on at the State Department other than the hawks seem to be in charge. As, I think, they always are.
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If that’s a quotation, it’s a dumb one.
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But in this case it’s likely true. Joe clearly prefers the ladies on his staff. He and Kamala are often filmed holding hands and smiling broadly. And Jill may be the power behind the throne.
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So, Alex: Do You think that it’s Other Women who control all of Biden’s Harem? Or is it the Oligarchal Patriarch-Wanna-Bes that those Other Women answer to?
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Just a reminder,
On Remembrance Day, 1985, in the presence of The Governor-General of Canada, The Prime Minister, other government Leaders, the Military Brass, the Ambassadors of the Nations, and 25,000 People, the Spirit of these words were added after the moment of silence, and after all the Establishment religions prayed to God there should be no more war. During the silence as the wreaths were laid, everybody in person heard these deliberately slow spoken words:
“Hear O people and Nations, even to the ends of the Earth, the Word of the LORD God, who is, and was, and is to come, The Almighty.
The LORD has a controversy with the people.
Do you do well to honour the dead, and yet, deny the God of the Living?
Why do you follow the vain traditions of men, and make of no effect, the Principles of God?
You come here for one hour, one day a year, in a great show of Public Patriotism, and then forgetting, go back to work and make the same careless mistakes made by the generations prior to the 1st and 2nd World Wars.
Hitler is dead, but it’s his legacy that remains. A Soviet-American military-industrial complex consuming $trillions of dollars every year, holding the entire World hostage…………”
“Hostage” was the last word said perched on a bus shelter roof, as police got up and grabbed the megaphone. I was arrested for shouting, causing a disturbance, convicted and fined $250. I appealed without a lawyer to The Supreme Court of Canada.
https://rayjc.com/2011/02/23/the-declaration/
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You dah man Ray! “Good on yuh” as we say in Godszone.
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I may be on the way to the Supreme Court of Canada without a Lawyer for the 3rd Time in my Life. The last Time for the reason in my comment above was in 1986.
Since the Supreme Court of CanaDa was designed and build by Ernest Cormier, a member of my Family Tree, maybe this 3rd Time will be the charm?
I was at Peace in my 78 year old Retirement of a Meditative Contemplative Life until I was given a Municipal ticket with this wording, “Owner of a vehicle equipped with a window that does not conform to the standards established by regulation to ensure good good visibility for the driver” It’s called the tinted window Law and Quebec drivers hate it, especially in Gatineau-Hull where I live, since it’s one of the biggest money makers for government.
Apart from that, it’s total BS since the facts are my side windows are just a fractional shade darker than my windshield and the fine is 10% of my monthly Old Age Security of $1249 in US Dollars to pay my rent, utilities, food and car expenses.
I manage because my rent for a large 1 bedroom apartment right downtown in CanaDa’s National Capital District, HEATED, with a parking space is only $400/month.
Rents for smaller apts. on my street are going for almost 3 times my rent. I thank my God for that Saving Grace only because I’ve lived here for 17 years before rents started going crazy!
The actual Trial was on September 15 and usually it’s over the same day with no relief, excuse or escape. Because I claimed my Right to Constitutional Protection against “arbitrary detention” this is where it stands according to this email from the Crown Prosecutor,
—— Original Message ——
Sent: Thursday, October 6, 2022 2:20 PM
Subject: RE: RE: Case no:21-05669-3
Good day sir,
No worries, where we are and where we are going, I can help you with that.
The Pro forma hearing scheduled by the judge (Halloween, October 31) is so that on that day, you will be able to tell to the judge what you want to do in your file : either you will say you want to proceed with the trial or you will say you want to present an arbitrary detention motion.
If you decide to continue the trial without presenting the motion, then we will set a date for the continued trial. If you decide you want to present your motion, then we will set a date for the presentation of the motion.
So, the pro forma date was to give you time to think about it, and come to tell your decision. Therefore, the pro forma date coming up is neither to present the motion nor to continue the trial.
Hope that helps make it clear,
Cheers,
William Legault-Lacasse
Avocat
Affaires juridiques – Pénale
Ville de Gatineau
So far, so good!
I see God’s hand in this because of the current dangerous Times we live in, looking through their rose tinted glasses with reduced visibility with people not understanding the real threat to our Common Futures!
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Comment on Alexander Mercouris’s video blog today: (84,410 views. 9.4K thumbs up. 1,543 comments)
I have just visited my relatives in Russia.
Whatever goes on the tactical level, no matter how hectic the situation may seem – the rule of a thumb is the Russian Army cannot lose. Enemy attacks, maneuvering defense, skirmishes, land gained or lost – there must be no doubt: Russians are winning, they conduct the SMO in their own pace, very accurately, very much level-headed, steady and according to plan.
SMO has an overwhelming support among the Russian population, able-bodied men que up at the conscription centers, Russian economy is holding up, there is plenty of job offers, market shelves are full with goods and room temperature in an average Russian apartment is +25°C!
This got 130 thumbs up, and 34-replies.
Another one:
Alexander, thank you ever so much for stating the obvious. The leadership of the USA is seated through intrigue not the will of the people.
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“Overwhelming support,” eh? “Lining up at conscription centers,” eh? Riiiiiite.
Russia is taking on many of the practices and characteristics that America did during its War in Vietnam….:
FACTBOX: WHERE HAVE RUSSIANS BEEN FLEEING TO SINCE MOBILISATION BEGAN?
BERLIN, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Russians have piled across the border to neighbouring states since President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation on Sept. 21 for the war in Ukraine.
Here is a guide on how many people have crossed and how countries are reacting:
HOW MANY HAVE FLED RUSSIA SINCE MOBILISATION WAS ANNOUNCED?
Getting precise totals is difficult but the number of Russians who have left could run into hundreds of thousands, based on media reports and figures released by neighbouring states. Figures are not usually broken down, so can include men facing the draft, family members and other travellers.
The independent Novaya Gazeta Europe reported on Sept. 26 that 261,000 men had left since the mobilisation was declared, citing a Kremlin source. The report could be independently verified.
Russia has denied some reports in Russian media saying 700,000 Russians had fled the country since the announcement.
On Oct. 4, Forbes Russia reported that the number of people who have left the country since Putin ordered the draft could be as high as 700,000, citing a Kremlin source.
Continued at https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/where-have-russians-been-fleeing-since-mobilisation-began-2022-10-06/
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Dennis: What was that Your Man Mercouris was saying about “able-bodied men queuing up at conscription centers”? Or is this just more WaPo/MSM propaganda? … :
RUSSIA IS GRABBING MEN OFF THE STREET TO FIGHT IN UKRAINE by Robyn Dixon and Natalia Abbakumova
Police and military officers swooped down on a Moscow business center this past week unannounced. They were looking for men to fight in Ukraine — and they seized nearly every one they saw. Some musicians, rehearsing. A courier there to deliver a parcel. A man from a Moscow service agency, very drunk, in his mid-50s, with a walking disability.
“I have no idea why they took him,” said Alexei, who, like dozens of others in the office complex, was rounded up and taken to the nearest military enlistment office, part of a harsh new phase in the Russian drive.
In cities and towns across Russia, men of fighting age are going into hiding to avoid the officials who are seizing them and sending them to fight in Ukraine.
Police and military press-gangs in recent days have snatched men off the streets and outside Metro stations. They’ve lurked in apartment building lobbies to hand out military summonses. They’ve raided office blocks and hostels. They’ve invaded cafes and restaurants, blocking the exits.
At a predawn sweep on the Mipstroy1 construction company dormitories on Thursday, they took more than 200 men. On Oct. 9, they rounded up dozens at a Moscow shelter for the homeless.
Continued at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/16/russia-mobilization-men/
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The good old reliable Seattle Times at it again!
Endorsing Senator Patty Murray (D) The Senator for Boeing
First elected in 1992 “the Mom in tennis shoes” – 30-years ago
Running for her 6th Term!
Never seen a defense spending pork Bill she does not like!
The Comment section is good for a laugh though!!
*Murray has done zero. Your list of her accomplishments just reads like a leftist agenda. And look where that has us: war in Ukraine, China flexing its muscle, men winning women’s sporting events, highest inflation in 40 years.
*Since not one of Patties Bills have made a hill of beans difference in any Americans way of life. This is pure pork, and she is full of it.
*Nice article written by Murray’s campaign HQ. Omitted are Murray’s 100% votes for everything put forward by Democrat leadership. Omitted are Murray’s 100% votes for Biden’s disastrous economic policies. Omitted are a single negative, which is not credible for someone in office for 30 years. It’s clearly a 100% puff piece.
*Shocking I say! Patty was elected because she was “the Mom in tennis shoes”, an outlier who could change things. Now the script has flipped. Patty is not the same politician she once was, she’s gone to the Dark Side. I think we have another Senator, but we rarely hear anything from her. Both Senators are members of the protected class politician, exempted from any criticism solely by the “D” next to her name.
*She has become what she originally ran against “a career politician”.
*Patty Murray’s strength for the Democratic Party is being connected and bringing in donations. She can continue that out of office. Her time has passed. As she herself said as a new candidate decades ago, time for fresh energy in office.
*I remember Patty’s qualifications when she first ran as a 3rd grade teacher and a mom in tennis shoes. And now she has voted enough congressional spending to send us into oblivion. Has she stood up to any of these ridiculous defense spending bills? Supports Ukraine war spending. And the inflation this spending has caused?
*If Patty Murray supports women, why won’t she answer the question of whether she believes biological men and boys should be allowed to compete against women and girls in sports?
*Patty Murray is expected to be omniscient, clairvoyant, and three-dimensional. Republican candidates are only required to pose for attack ads.
I BET YOU $100 PATTIE MURRAY WILL BE RE-ELECTED IN A LANDSLIDE! GOOD OLE WA STATE EH!
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The problem isn’t Murray, Dennis, and all defense spending pork bills that she likes.
The problem is that the voters of Washington like those pork bills even better; and if she doesn’t provide for them and make those bills happen, they will replace her with somebody who will.
It is really no more complicated than that.
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Yeah, I know Jeff, she needs to be gone. Not going to happen for the reason you state.
I see the President is at it again today pissing off another nuclear armed country.
If the white house had its shit together this latest incident did not have to occur.
He made the “off-the-cuff remark” at a private Democratic Fundraiser. OK fine. But then the fools at the White house published a transcript which surely they knew was going to enrage the Pakistani’s!
Do they even care eh?
“Pakistan on Saturday summoned the US ambassador for an explanation after President Joe Biden described the south Asian country as “one of the most dangerous nations in the world” and questioned its nuclear weapons safety protocols.
Biden made the apparently off-the-cuff remark late on Thursday while talking about US foreign policy during a private Democratic party fundraiser in California, but the White House later published a transcript of his comments, which provoked outrage in Pakistan.
Washington’s relations with Pakistan have soured since last year, when the US ended a two-decade war in Afghanistan.
Pakistan provided crucial logistical access, but US officials believe Islamabad’s powerful military and intelligence apparatus also aided the Taliban, which swept back to power as foreign troops pulled out.
Biden was speaking about his frequent interactions with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, when he said: “Did anybody think we’d be in a situation where China is trying to figure out its role relative to Russia and relative to India and relative to Pakistan?
“This is a guy who understands what he wants but has an enormous, enormous array of problems. How do we handle that? How do we handle that relative to what’s going on in Russia?
“And what I think is maybe one of the most dangerous nations in the world: Pakistan. Nuclear weapons without any cohesion.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/15/pakistan-summons-us-envoy-over-joe-bidens-most-dangerous-nation-remark
One of these days there is going to be Chalmers Johnson’s “blowback” from one of these nations over Biden shooting his mouth off like this! Does he even realize how this pisses people off?
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“Blowback” by Pakistan, eh? How are they going to deliver their nuke?
By commercial airliner landing at JFK airport in NYC? How about on a cargo ship headed for Los Angeles Harbor? Or how about an Ox Cart?
And as far as Pakistan’s relationship with the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and ISIS, see the following: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/12/24/pakistan-sanctuary-for-al-qaida
Pissing the Pakistanis off is the least of anybody’s worries right now; especially Biden’s.
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Folks need to be more concerned about non-military “blowback” from Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC.
According to Bloomberg: “A war of words between the US and Saudi Arabia is escalating after President Joe Biden threatened to punish the Saudis for a cut in OPEC+ output—just as US gasoline prices tick up before the midterm elections.
“Some in the Biden administration view the cut as potentially undermining a plan spearheaded by Yellen to cap the price of Russian oil. In Europe, Germany is backing joint European Union debt to avert a winter energy crisis. Ironically, Russian LNG sales are still helping fill the continent’s storage tanks.”
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And Biden and the whole bunch in DC need to be even more concerned about what JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has to say about things…:
“THIS IS A F**KING WAR”: Jamie Dimon Slams Biden Energy Policy, Says Investors “Don’t Give A Shit” About ESG by Tyler Durden OCT 14, 2022
Three days after Jamie Dimon sparked a marketwide selloff which sent stocks to fresh 2022 lows after he predicted a US recession in “6 to 9” months citing drivers including rising interest rates, persistent inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and warned stocks could drop another 20%, the JPMorgan CEO who is expected to report earnings tomorrow (and hopefully clarify why his bank refuses to move its deposit rate above 0.01% in the process keeping $2.2 trillion in liquidity locked inside the overnight funding facility), doubled down today saying the Fed can’t cool the red-hot economy without bringing on a recession.
“I don’t know if it could be a soft landing — I don’t think so, but it might,” the JPMorgan chief executive officer said at an industry conference in Washington Thursday, adding that the alternatives would be a mild or a severe recession. “In a tough recession, you could expect the market to go down another 20% to 30%”, adding an additional 10% to the number he first floated on Monday.
It got worse: besides predicting a hard-landing and a 30% crash, the CEO of the largest US bank also said his “gut” tells him that the Fed funds rate will probably have to rise higher than the 4% to 4.5% level many economists are predicting, as inflation persists.
Continued at https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/fking-war-jamie-dimon-slams-biden-begging-saudis-oil-says-investors-dont-give-shit-about
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Murray is the sixth most senior member overall, and the third most senior Democrat, in a legislative body where longevity equals power. Currently, she chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and is a member of the Appropriations, Budget, and Veterans Affairs committees.
Whoop dee doo! If she is so powerful maybe she can talk to the big boss, Joe Biden, and see if she can arrange for Victoria Fuck the EU Nuland to get a pink slip!*
*Pink slip refers to the American practice, by a human resources department, of including a discharge notice in an employee’s pay envelope to notify the worker of their involuntary termination of employment!
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Why would Murray want Nuland pink slipped when she is helping make Murray’s constituents richer as the MICCMATT kicks into high gear for World War III?
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I was being sarcastic Jeff!
You know somebody in the Seattle Times was saying Pattie Murray never has never voted “NO” on a Bill in her 30-years in Swampland.
EXCEPT In October 2002, Murray was one of 21-Democrats in the Senate to vote against the War Authorization for invading Iraq.
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Heh. One can only wonder: “So what has she done since then to end that or any other War?”
CHOMSKY: 20 YEARS AFTER IRAQ WAR VOTE, US CONTINUES TO FLOUT INTERNATIONAL LAW
by C.J. Polychroniou, Truthout
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S. congressional vote to authorize the deadly war on Iraq, which according to some estimates, killed between 800,000 and 1.3 million people. In the exclusive interview for Truthout that follows, Noam Chomsky shares his thoughts on the causes and ramifications of this appalling crime against humanity.
Continued at https://truthout.org/articles/chomsky-20-years-after-iraq-war-vote-us-continues-to-flout-international-law/
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Total BULLSHIT that is rife on the internet!
And YouTube’s search algorithm serves them up to me by the dozen in my YouTube searches!
I wonder who really makes these propaganda videos? And who writes this incredibly biased commentary?
Ending with the obligatory…..In further pleas for assistance, the Ukrainian president, requested that the G7 provide more air defense systems.
Who is GN News?
307,658 views Oct 15, 2022
Russia’s Arms Stock Is Blown Up! Putin’s Ammunition Is Out!
The strike further blows Vladimir Putin’s soldiers, who are running short on ammunition. In the east of Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers sparked an incendiary explosion by hitting a cache of Russian mines and grad rockets. The enormous blast detonates, and its sheer force is audible from miles away.
Swiftly following the iron fire comes a shock wave that consumes everything in its path.
A cloud-like column of black smoke then surrounds the location.
The ammunition explosion strikes Putin’s soldiers in Ukraine, a further hit to their fighting capability.
According to reports, weaponry, ammo, and heavy artillery are running short, like the cruise missiles that struck Kyiv on Monday.
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Good question: Who and/or What is “GN News”? Your Friend Google is no help here.
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Backgrounder… :
HOW PRIVATE INTERESTS AND THE BANKING DYNASTIES CONTROL WASHINGTON by Shane Quinn
The disappearance of the USSR in 1991, a strategic catastrophe for Russia, ensured that large numbers of Russian people were living outside of the Federation. Millions of Russians in fact found themselves residing in the newly independent Ukraine in the early 1990s, and many of them have lived there without adequate rights.
THE SOVIET UNION’S EXISTENCE HAD GUARANTEED A MEASURE OF SECURITY IN THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA, PROVIDING A BULWARK AGAINST THE EXPANSIONIST FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES, which was a considerably more powerful country than the USSR. A somewhat similar stability has been gradually re-emerging with the return of Russia in the 21st century as a world power, having overcome a period of significant decline in the 1990s.
This century the percentage of Russians living below the poverty line has been greatly reduced, to as low as 11%. In the US it was officially estimated that 15% of Americans were living below the poverty line in 2014, and the real percentage was most likely higher than that. These figures have not been reported widely in the Western media.
Political scientist Moniz Bandeira wrote that the US has relied “on two fundamental pillars, NATO and the FED: NATO, consisting of the European countries subordinated to Washington’s guidelines; and the privilege of printing the dollar as fiat currency, the world’s single reserve currency. ONLY THE FEDERAL RESERVE (FED), THE CENTRAL BANK OF THE UNITED STATES, COULD AND CAN ISSUE THE DOLLAR AT WILL”.
Founded in 1913 the Federal Reserve, headquartered in Washington, is indeed very powerful. In 2012 for example the Federal Reserve, which is effectively controlled by some of the West’s most influential banks, amassed that year at least $9.5 trillion, which amounted to about 65% of America’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). QUITE A NUMBER OF AMERICANS BELIEVE THE FEDERAL RESERVE TO BE A GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED BANKING INSTITUTION, BUT THIS VIEW IS MISTAKEN. THE FEDERAL RESERVE, AS MENTIONED, IS OVERSEEN BY PRIVATE INTERESTS AND AMERICA’S LARGEST BANKS LIKE GOLDMAN SACHS, JPMORGAN CHASE, BANK OF AMERICA, CITIGROUP AND WELLS FARGO.
These US banks are closely connected to their European counterparts such as Deutsche Bank, Barclays and BNP Paribas. Also intertwined with the Federal Reserve and the other banks are the energy multinationals ExxonMobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum (BP).
The strongest branch of the Federal Reserve is the New York Federal Reserve Bank, which fell under the control of 8 long-established banking families. Only 4 of these dynasties hail from largely American backgrounds, which are Goldman Sachs, the Rockefellers, Lehman Brothers and Kuhn Loeb. The other 4 are the Rothschilds in Paris and London, the Warburgs from Germany, the Lazards from France and Israel Moses Sieff from Britain.
These families were still privately controlling the Federal Reserve into the 21st century. They have continued to hold sway over the international financial system, and became even wealthier in the aftermath of the 2007-08 financial crisis, which the public was called upon to resolve by digging into their pockets. THE ABOVE FAMILIES HAVE BEEN PERFORMING A CENTRAL ROLE IN THE OIL FUTURES MARKET, EITHER DIRECTLY OR THROUGH SUBSIDIARIES, ON THE NEW YORK MERCANTILE EXCHANGE AND THE LONDON PETROLEUM EXCHANGE.
The 19th century German-born banker Anselm Rothschild once said, “GIVE ME THE POWER TO ISSUE THE NATION’S MONEY, THEN I DO NOT CARE WHO MAKES THE LAWS”. His family members and colleagues have had that power. Moniz Bandeira noted, “THIS IS WHY THE UNITED STATES HAS NO REGARD FOR AND FLOUTS INTERNATIONAL LAW. IT ENJOYS THE PRIVILEGE OF MANUFACTURING DOLLARS WHEN AND HOW IT PLEASES, WITHOUT ANY BACKING, AND MANIPULATING ITS VALUE THROUGH THE DISCOUNT RATE”.
Continued at https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-private-interests-banking-dynasties-control-washington/5796169 [EMPHASES added.]
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Meanwhile, more GREAT News for America’s MICC here. Especially the part about “issues over which Beijing says it is ready to go to war.” … :
CHINA’S XI CALLS FOR MILITARY GROWTH AS PARTY CONGRESS OPENS by Joe McDonald
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Sunday called for faster military development and announced no change in policies that have strained relations with Washington and tightened the ruling Communist Party’s control over society and the economy.
China’s most influential figure in decades spoke as the party opened a congress that was closely watched by companies, governments and the public for signs of official direction. It comes amid a painful slump in the world’s second-largest economy and tension with Washington and Asian neighbors over trade, technology and security.
Party plans calls for creating a prosperous society by mid-century and restoring China to its historic role as a political, economic and cultural leader. Beijing has expanded its presence abroad including a multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative to build ports and other infrastructure across Asia and Africa, but economists warn reversing market-style reform could hamper growth.
“The next five years will be crucial,” Xi said in a televised speech of one hour and 45 minutes to some 2,000 delegates in the cavernous Great Hall of the People. He repeatedly invoked his slogan of the “rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” which includes reviving the party’s role as economic and social leader in a throwback to what Xi regards as a golden age after it took power in 1949.
The congress will install leaders for the next five years. Xi, 69, is expected to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as general secretary and promote allies who share his enthusiasm for party dominance.
THE PARTY’S MILITARY WING, THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY, NEEDS TO “SAFEGUARD CHINA’S DIGNITY AND CORE INTERESTS,” XI SAID, REFERRING TO A LIST OF TERRITORIAL CLAIMS AND OTHER ISSUES OVER WHICH BEIJING SAYS IT IS READY TO GO TO WAR.
CHINA, WITH THE WORLD’S SECOND-LARGEST MILITARY BUDGET AFTER THE UNITED STATES, IS TRYING TO EXTEND ITS REACH BY DEVELOPING BALLISTIC MISSILES, AIRCRAFT CARRIERS AND OVERSEAS OUTPOSTS.
“WE WILL WORK FASTER TO MODERNIZE MILITARY THEORY, PERSONNEL AND WEAPONS,” XI SAID. “WE WILL ENHANCE THE MILITARY’S STRATEGIC CAPABILITIES.”
Continued at https://apnews.com/article/china-beijing-xi-jinping-mao-zedong-government-and-politics-58c5232aaa6a578b24f7345700460de3 [EMPHASES added.]
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Still, China spends $230 Billion compared to the US spending over $800 Billion on their <ilitaries
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Our plan is to “bleed Russia”, as Hillary Clinton put it. I don’t think the people in Washington have thought beyond that. It’s interesting when you think about it since they all have so many university degrees. Is that what they have to show for it?
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Meanwhile Sweden says it will not join a multi-national task force to look into the Nord Stream sabotage, on the grounds that they would have to share their findings with other countries. Yes, mustn’t have any news leaks in any case. I guess one Assange was one Assange too much for them.
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Writing about the Russia-Ukraine War is a polarizing experience.
Pole 1: The Russians are winning. Putin is a chess master. The West is entirely to blame.
Pole 2: Ukraine is winning. Putin is a malevolent dictator. The war is entirely unprovoked.
Pole 2 is more common in the US. People here write to me about how I’m an “appeaser” merely for suggesting a quicker end to the war by negotiated settlement would mean far less destruction and killing in Ukraine. “Fight to the last Ukrainian” seems to be the motto.
As these two “poles” wage their own war, a real war on the ground is being waged in Ukraine. Whatever else this war is, it’s not a simple case of unprovoked aggression by a Russian dictator who must be removed from power. Nor is it simply a nefarious proxy war that’s following a Western script, with Putin playing the role of the aggrieved party.
Rather, it’s a complex geopolitical struggle involving nuclear-armed nations posturing for power, not just militarily but economically and politically. Resources and finances are crucial.
Too many Americans are content to wave a blue-and-yellow flag for a country that meant little or nothing to them back in February, if only to be congratulated for being on the “right” side against Russia.
Why not wave a peace flag instead? Find a way to stop the killing, not cheer it on when Ukrainians are doing it to Russians using U.S.-built weapons. Haven’t we seen enough suffering from war?
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“Haven’t we seen enough suffering from war?”
In a word, “No.”
If the inclusive pronoun “we” means the stupefied and browbeaten U.S. citizenry, “we” haven’t seen anything at all of the suffering war entails — and this by deliberate design. The recent Tom Cruise film, “Top Gun: Maverick” (from all reports) probably has more “suffering” in it than anything actual war has visited upon the United States to date. When the deaths and maiming of NATO (Nazi American Terrorist Operation) “advisers,” “special forces,” and out-of-uniform mercenaries finds its way onto U.S. television, theater, and cell phone displays — if not news reports of flag-covered coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base — then, perhaps, a more realistic — if not empathetic — grasp of war and its terrible consequences might penetrate the public consciousness. Until then, I think the word “entertainment” — more than “suffering” — adequately describes U.S. public attitudes toward war.
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Very well said, Michael.
That demonstrates very clearly what were and remain the Most Important Lessons Learned by the US government from Vietnam:
Don’t let the American people see American casualties or the remains of casualties. Does anybody recall when the last flag-draped coffin was offloaded at Dover AFB and shown on the nightly news? That hasn’t happened since the First Gulf War.
Control The Media by “embedding” it with combat forces and strictly controlling what it is able to release as “News,” “Information,” and “Reality.” And that also started with the First Gulf War with CNN breaking into the Big Time.
The third factor at work in Americans’ indifference to 21 years of post-9/11 War is the simple fact that it has not cost them a dime.
The entire Forever War has been put on Uncle Sam’s credit card, and piled onto the national, sovereign Debt. Thus, it’s not today’s taxpayers’ [or voters’] problem; but somebody else’s, somewhere down the road. And those folks making the decisions as to how spend all that money on the next Phase of The Forever War know that it will not be them who finally has to start paying the bills.
Back during the last “Good War,” there was increased taxes, mandatory purchases of War Bonds, and other means to get folks on the Homefront more actively and directly financially involved in the War Effort.
The bottom-line, bullet-hits-the-bone answer to Bill’s question of “Haven’t we seen enough suffering from war?” is, as You put it, “No.” And that is because the American people have ~ since that day in September 21 years ago ~ actually seen and experienced virtually Zero sufferings caused by their Government’s “War Against… .“
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Agreed. Rob the future now, because no one ever heard the future yell “Stop! Thief!”
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On Breaking Points today is a short video from a public meeting held by AOC where two men shout at her about her support of the war and disregard for the chance of nuclear war. It’s the first item at the top of the show. The danger of nuclear war is the #1 topic for Krystal and Saagar, more power to them.
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Former U.S. puppet President Barack Obama regarding the President of Syria: “Assad must go.”
Current U.S. puppet President Joe Biden regarding the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin: “This man cannot remain in power.”
Joseph Heller — “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”
Now, it seems to me – just for the sake of argument — that the Syrians and Russians have some legitimate reason for suspecting venal, underhanded, duplicitous, belligerent treatment from the U.S. government and its associated vassal retainers – code named EU and NATO — and that to suspect fair and rational discourse and diplomacy from us would render Syria and Russia not only naive and weak in our eyes, but soon extinct as well.
At any rate, justifiably paranoid or not, Presidents Assad and Putin remain at the head of their respective governments, while assorted government leaders in the “Combined West” (or Consolidated Waste, as I prefer to call them) have left the scene or appear soon to do so. Whatever that ultimately means.
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Heh. And What ~ one can only wonder ~ could possibly go wrong… :
NATO AND RUSSIA TO HOLD LONG PLANNED EXERCISES OF NUCLEAR FORCES AS TENSIONS OVER UKRAINE REMAIN HIGH by Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent
NATO and Russia are set to separately hold long planned exercises of their nuclear forces at a time of huge tension as Russia continues its war on Ukraine.
The Pentagon and the US intelligence community are watching for any unexpected or unusual movements of Moscow’s nuclear weapons during Russia’s exercise, which is expected to take place before the end of the month, according to several US officials.
“WE BELIEVE THAT THAT RUSSIAN NUCLEAR RHETORIC AND ITS DECISION TO PROCEED WITH THIS EXERCISE WHILE AT WAR WITH UKRAINE IS IRRESPONSIBLE. BRANDISHING NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO COERCE THE UNITED STATES AND ITS ALLIES IS IRRESPONSIBLE,” a senior defense official told CNN.
Continued at https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/16/politics/nato-russia-exercises/index.html
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One major problem is that the people on our side who are running the war aren’t paying a penalty for it. Neither is Zelenskyy, personally. This means it will be a long war.
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Are the people running the war on the other side paying a penalty for it?
More importantly, are the American and Russian people paying a penalty for it?
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Yes to all three.
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Can You elaborate on exactly:
~ 1. How the American People are paying a “penalty”? and
~ 2. How Team Putin is paying is paying its?
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Higher taxes/debt to pay for Ukraine. Higher energy prices to offset lost access to Russian oil. Ditto for food and fertilizer.
Soldiers killed. Money to fund the war. Lost access to energy markets, etc.
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Which Americans are paying higher taxes or are paying off that debt, Alex? Or will pay off that debt? And does OPEC+’s decision on Output Cutbacks have as much or more to do with higher energy prices than a reduction in imports of Russian oil?
Also, the cost of EVERYTHING is going up in the US. That’s what happens when trillions of Dollars of Free Money are printed up by the Government and distributed throughout the land. That’s what happens when an increase in the money and credit becomes and stays available to buy the same or less amount of goods, products, and services that are available for purchase. It’s called “Inflation,” and the War in Ukraine has little to do it.
And i doubt very seriously that Team Putin feels any cost whatsoever for or about the Russian Soldiers killed and/or maimed. Any more than Team Biden feels any cost for or about Ukrainian Soldiers and Civilians killed and/or maimed.
Finally, whatever access to energy markets in the West Russia has lost are more than being made up for by new markets in the East and South. And the Ruble seems to be holding its own these days against the Dollar, despite the Financial and Economic Warfare being waged by the West.
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We’re being told the whole World is already paying a penalty for it
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By people who are paying nothing at all, it seems.
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The only problem with the two Pole idea, Bill, is that it makes no mention of America’s Pole: America’s MICC, which is winning Big Time with all this, no matter what happens on the ground in Ukraine and who “wins” and who “loses.”
And i hope somebody besides Bracing Viewers gets to read Your explanation that: “Whatever else this war is, it’s not a simple case of unprovoked aggression by a Russian dictator who must be removed from power. Nor is it simply a nefarious proxy war that’s following a Western script, with Putin playing the role of the aggrieved party.
“Rather, it’s a complex geopolitical struggle involving nuclear-armed nations posturing for power, not just militarily but economically and politically. Resources and finances are crucial.”
i hope LOTS of people get to read that and think about it. Particularly the concluding sentence.
But that “complex geopolitical struggle” is not just about the US and Russia; China is a major player in this whole Game [think Go, not Chess], and when Xi gets his third term, will no doubt become even more directly significant.
As to Your question “Why not wave a peace flag instead?” : When is the last time, Bill, You saw masses of Peace Flags carried by masses of People Protesting Against War ~ any War ~ and Demanding Peace? Anytime in the last 21 years? Or even in the last 40?
And on a personal note, if i may: For me at least, the whole America-Russia War in Ukraine has been a personally polarizing experience, as well.
i have had a number of very long-standing friendships [Buddyships, actually, which are even closer than Friendships] from my time in the Army that have been literally terminated because of disagreements about that War. i’d already lost a couple over different takes on POTUS Maxximmuss XLV; but nothing like about what’s happening over there in Eastern Europe. It’s been an interesting experience.
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Watching CTV News tonight, and it doesn’t matter if you watch CBC, Global, CNN, MSNBC, or the BBC, it’s all the same US/NATO War script of the brave Ukrainian Forces taking back land that was occupied by the EVIL Russians leaving behind complete and utter devastating ruins.
Naturally the underlying theme is the Russians levelled the City they were holding. Only a blind fool could believe that.
Those buildings were destroyed by the UKRAINIAN FORCES in the WAR to take back the city, using American weapons, directed and controlled by NATO Intelligence.
I didn’t get that from Putin. I got that from watching our side’s WAR Propaganda by THINKING AND QUESTIONING.
Unfortunately, Today we have smart phones and dumb people!
The opening paragraphs above were also posted in The Washington Post after watching CTV News moved me to post this in The Washington Post. They don’t delete my comments anymore and the thread gets much longer as I answer every detractor calling me names with no discussion.
For 20 years the Pentagon told us they were winning the $2,000,000,000000 US WAR against Afghanistan, one of the poorest Countries on Earth, the Children of America’s Grandchildren will have to pay if we don’t self-destruct before then? It’s ALL BORROWED MONEY!!!
LAST YEAR when the LIE couldn’t be covered up any longer, the World saw the frantic hurried US exit from Kabul in another humiliating defeat for the MOST EXPENSIVE MILITARY IN THE HISTORY OF NATIONS, by just the latest, poor, 3rd World Country the US invaded since WWII and Americans see nothing wrong with that picture?
The last US WAR CRIME the “International Community” knows about, is on the way out of Kabul, a remote controlled US drone KILLED A CIVILIAN FAMILY OF 10 including 7 CHILDREN, and the US is not held Accountable by the “International Community”
In a MIRACULOUS turn of events, in THIS YEAR of the Lord 2022, Americans take everything the Pentagon says as Gospel Truth without question.
The AWESOME wonder of the Gospel TRUTH is if People did things the Resurrected Christ’s Way, Good things would follow on Earth.
The Gospel also tells of the WARS and other BAD things that would happen not following the Ways of the Christ Spirit and we’re at that Juncture in THIS MATERIAL WORLD TODAY.
How can I say that? It’s not the 1st Time.
On September 13, 1976, The Kansas City TIMES was quoting and reporting on me publishing this HISTORICAL US NEWSPAPER HISTORY,
“He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November TO DO GOD’S BIDDING: To tell the World, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered […] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of BABYLON,” he said.” […] He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a War with Russia.”
That 1976 FUTURE is TODAY with the Revelation of the details GENERALLY unfolding in the spirit of the letter.
The World is waking up to see Americans may hasten “its days are numbered” part of the 1976 Vision, and waits with bated breath.
With the benefit of 45 years hindsight, the last 8 years of intensified FBI, Military, Intelligence and Think Tank “experts” on TV constantly, unanimously, demonizing Putin and Russia, with no dissent allowed, the People have been prepared.
I thank God I’m still Alive and Healthy at 78 and able to point to the unchangeable recent Historical Record.
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Bill, no one says it better than you do.
May goodness help us and the truth prevail.
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Some comments from Andrei Raevski at his blog Vineyard of the Saker (emphasis in the original):
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