‘Vladimir the Terrible’: the US Deep State desperately needs a Russian Villain to cover its tracks;
Unending series of neoliberal MSM witch hunt and false flag operations by Western intelligence agencies
designed to weaken and discredit Russian leader
Europe has manufactured an artificial "Russian enemy"
in order to create an artificial "European identity" Guy Mettan
Demonization of Putin is integral part of policy of the US and British elite toward Russia, designed
to weaken, and, if possible, dismember the Russian state. It is also an instrument of increasing national
unity by creating a demonized external enemy.
Russophobia of the US elite should be understood in the context of
Neoliberalism as a New Form of Corporatism as Russia represent
an obstacle for complete domination of the globe by the US neoliberal empire. Nothing personal here,
just business. Recent statements by Putin
made at Valday club in Sochi (October 24, 2014) also do not produce any love to Putin from the global
and first of all the USA neoliberal elite as well as London-based financial oligarchy. Not accidentally
for both the US and GB elite Putin is a "Great Satan".
In colloquial usage, the term demonization is used metaphorically to refer to
propagandadirected on delitimization
of particular individual or group.
Delegitimization is the psychological process which undermines or marginalizes an individual or
entity by presenting value judgments as facts which are construed to devalue legitimacy. The ultimate
goal of justifying harm or war.
The concept applies to a wide spectrum of social contexts but generally means categorization of
individual or groups into extreme social categories which are ultimately excluded from society.
Delegitimization provides the moral and the discursive basis to harm the delegitimized group, even
in the most inhumane ways.
It is related to stereotyping in a sense that it leads to prejudice when people emotionally react
to the name of the person, ascribe evil intention and characteristic to the person or group without
evaluating objective evidence.
A major topic in the Russian media is mystification with how Putin is portrayed in the Western media.
Wildly popular at home, and seen as a decent, modest, an admirable person, and Russians don't understand
how there can be such a disconnect with Western impressions.
Recently, leading Russian commentators
and politicians have been suggesting that this can only be explained by a deliberate campaign to
defame Putin, by governments or other groups.
>The day before another member of Putin's inner circle, Vyasheslav Volodin,
made similar remarks, telling foreign journalists "an attack on Putin is an attack on Russia."
The logic, they argue, is that by defaming the leader of a country, you weaken his power domestically
by undermining popular support for him, and internationally, by rallying popular opinion to support
policies against that country. The ultimate goal, they argue, is to weaken the country itself. They
also talk about regime change.
They argue that if one looks at the facts, that there is evidence of ongoing character assassination
which cannot be explained by a vague popular zeitgeist in the West, but is more likely the result
of a dedicated effort to introduce this defamation into the news flow.
Newsweek has been one of the most virulent Putin-bashers for years
The issue of manipulation of news by intelligence services has been in the news recently with
revelations that the CIA and German Secret Service (GSS) have long-running programs to influence
how media executives and top journalists convey and interpret the news, including direct cash payments.
Here are some examples they point to:
Portraying him as a scheming dictator trying to rebuild a repressive empire.
Claiming he personally ordered the murder of a number of journalists, and personally ordered
a KGB defector to be murdered with radiation poisoning.
Frequently citing unsubstantiated rumors he is having an affair with a famous gymnast.
Allegations that he has stashed away billions for his personal benefit, without providing
evidence.
Recent article in newsweek claiming he leads a luxurious and lazy lifestyle, sleeping late.
Recent article in NYT focusing on a supposed personal arrogance.
Hillary Clinton mentioning in speech after speech that he is a bad guy, a bully, that one
must confront him forcefully.
Mis-quoting him on his regret about the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Articles about a supposed super-luxury villa built for him in southern Russia.
The over-the top headlines in the western media (they were worst of all in Germany) portraying
him personally responsible for murdering the victims of MH17.
And soft stuff - magazine covers making him look sinister, monstrous, etc.
RI sat down with
The Saker, a leading analyst of Russia in international affairs, and asked him what he thinks:
So, is there any credence to this line of thinking, or is this conspiracy theorists running
wild?
There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the US is waging a major psyop war against Russia,
although not a shooting war, for now, and that what we are seeing is a targeted campaign to discredit
Putin and achieve "regime change" in Russia or, should that fail, at the very least "regime weakening"
and "Russia weakening".
And the Economist has been the very worst of them all...
So this is a US government program?
Yes, Putin is absolutely hated by certain factions in the US government two main reasons:
1. He partially, but not fully, restored Russia's sovereignty which under Gorbachev and Yeltsin
had been totally lost … Russia then was a US colony like Ukraine is today … and,
2. He dared to openly defy the USA and its civilizational model.
… a free and sovereign Russia is perceived by the US "deep state" as an existential threat which
has to be crushed. … this is a full-scale political assault on Russia and Putin personally.
So what the Russians are saying, that the constant personal attacks against Putin in the
global media are partly the result of deliberate efforts by US intelligence services, … basically,
planted stories…
Yes, absolutely
It seems like “Operation Mockingbird” all over again… Are you aware of other instances
aimed at Putin?
(Editors Note: Operation Mockingbird was a CIA program started in the 1950s
to influence the US media, which was gradually exposed by investigative journalists starting in the
late 60s, culminating in sensational televised congressional hearings in 1975 which shocked the nation,
forcing the program’s termination. Critics maintain that the same tactics have continued since, under
different programs.
Wikipedia)
Yes, of course. Since this defamation has very little traction with the Russian public … Putin's
popularity is higher than ever before .., there is an organized campaign to convince them that Putin
is "selling out" Novorussia, that he is a puppet of oligarchs who are making deals with Ukrainian
oligarchs to back-stab the Novorussian resistance…
… So far, Putin's policies in the Ukraine have enjoyed very strong support from the Russian people
who still oppose an overt military intervention…
… but if Kiev attacks Novorussia again - which appears very likely - and if such an attack is
successful - which is less likely but always possible - then Putin will be blamed for having given
the Ukrainians the time to regroup and reorganize.
Warm and fuzzy...
So you are saying that if the Ukrainian military strengthens its position enough to deliver
a serious blow to the East Ukrainians, the US can use this as a method to strike at Putin’s support
base…
Yes, that’s right ... there are a lot of "fake patriots" in Russia and abroad who will reject
any negotiated solution and who will present any compromise as a "betrayal". They are the "useful
idiots" used by western special services to smear and undermine Putin.
Is it limited to government special ops, or are there other groups who might have an interest
in doing this?
Yes, well here is something that most people in the west don’t appreciate… there is a major behind-the
scenes struggle among Russian elites between what I call the "Eurasian Sovereignists" (basically,
those who support Putin) and what I call the "Atlantic Integrationists" (those whom Putin refers
to as the "5th column).
The western media talks about this as the struggle between Russian liberals and conservatives,
reformers and reactionaries, right?
Well its sort of like that, but not exactly…
The former see Russia's future in the Russian North and East and want to turn Russia towards Asia,
Latin America and the rest of the world, while the latter want Russia to become part of the "North
Atlantic" power configuration.
The Atlantic Integrationists are now too weak to openly challenge Putin - whose real power base
is his immense popular support - but they are quietly sabotaging his efforts to reform Russia while
supporting anti-Putin campaigns.
Regarding the revelations of CIA activities in Germany, do you think this is going on
in other countries, in the US?
I am sure that this is happening in most countries worldwide. The very nature of the modern corporate
media is such that it makes journalists corrupt.
As the French philosopher Alain Soral says "nowadays a reporter is either unemployed or a
prostitute". There are, of course, a few exceptions, but by and large this is true.
This is not to say that most journalists are on the take. In the West this is mostly done in a
more subtle way - by making it clear which ideas do or do not pass the editorial control, by lavishly
rewarding those journalists who 'get it' and by quietly turning away those who don't.
If a journalist or reporter commits the crime of "crimethink" he or she will be sidelined and
soon out of work.
There is no real pluralism in the West where the boundaries of what can be said or not are very
strictly fixed.
Ok, but is it like what has been revealed in Germany, …similar specific operational programs
in France, the UK, Italy, Latin America, etc.
Yes, one has to assume so – it is in their interests to have them and there is no reason for them
not to.
As for the CIA, it de-facto controls enough of the corporate media to "set the tone". As somebody
who in the past used to read the Soviet press for a living, I can sincerely say that it was far more
honest and more pluralistic than the press in the USA or EU today.
Joseph Goebbels or Edward Bernays could not have imagined the degree of sophistication of modern
propaganda machines.
If the US is doing it, can't one assume other governments are too? Are the Russians doing
it against western leaders?
I think that all governments try to do that kind of stuff. However, what makes the US so unique
it a combination of truly phenomenal arrogance and multi-billion dollar budgets.
The US "deep state" owns the western corporate media which is by far the most powerful media on
the planet. Most governments can only do that inside their own country ... to smear a political opponent
or discredit a public figure, but they simply do not have the resources to mount an international
strategic psyop campaign. This is something only the US can do.
So foreign governments are at a great disadvantage in this arena vis-a-vis the US?
Absolutely.
Quotes from Putin speech and answers to the questions at the meeting of the Valdai International
Discussion Club
”The world is full of contradictions today. We need to be frank in asking each other if we
have a reliable safety net in place. Sadly, there is no guarantee and no certainty that the
current system of global and regional security is able to protect us from upheavals. The
international and regional political, economic, and cultural cooperation organisations are also
going through difficult times.“
”The Cold War ended, but it did not end with the signing of a peace treaty with clear and
transparent agreements on respecting existing rules or creating new rules and standards. This
created the impression that the so-called ‘victors’ in the Cold War had decided to pressure
events and reshape the world to suit their own needs and interests.“
”In a situation where you had domination by one country and its allies, or its satellites
rather, the search for global solutions often turned into an attempt to impose their own
universal recipes. This group’s ambitions grew so big that they started presenting the
policies they put together in their corridors of power as the view of the entire international
community. But this is not the case.“
”A unilateral diktat and imposing one’s own models produces the opposite result. Instead
of settling conflicts it leads to their escalation, instead of sovereign and stable states we see
the growing spread of chaos, and instead of democracy there is support for a very dubious public
ranging from open neo-fascists to Islamic radicals.“
”Today, we are seeing new efforts to fragment the world, draw new dividing lines, put
together coalitions not built for something but directed against someone, anyone, create the
image of an enemy as was the case during the Cold War years, and obtain the right to this
leadership, or diktat if you wish.“
”Sanctions are already undermining the foundations of world trade, the WTO rules and the
principle of inviolability of private property. They are dealing a blow to liberal model of
globalisation based on markets, freedom and competition, which is a model that has primarily
benefited precisely the Western countries.“
”You cannot mix politics and the economy, but this is what is happening now. I have always
thought and still think today that politically motivated sanctions were a mistake that will harm
everyone.“
”Russia is a self-sufficient country. We will work within the foreign economic
environment that has taken shape, develop domestic production and technology and act more
decisively to carry out transformation. Pressure from outside, as has been the case on past
occasions, will only consolidate our society.“
”We have no intention of shutting ourselves off from anyone and choosing some kind of closed
development road. We are always open to dialogue, including on normalising our economic
and political relations. We are counting here on the pragmatic approach and position of business
communities in the leading countries.“
”Russia is supposedly turning its back on Europe — such words were probably spoken already
here too during the discussions — and is looking for new business partners, above all in Asia.
Let me say that this is absolutely not the case. Our active policy in the Asian-Pacific region
began not just yesterday and not in response to sanctions, but is a policy that we have been
following for a good many years now. Like many other countries, including Western countries, we
saw that Asia is playing an ever greater role in the world, in the economy.“
”There is no doubt that humanitarian factors such as education, science, healthcare
and culture are playing a greater role in global competition. This also has a big impact
on international relations, including because this ‘soft power’ resource will depend to a great
extent on real achievements in developing human capital rather than on sophisticated propaganda
tricks.“
”We are sliding into the times when, instead of the balance of interests and mutual
guarantees, it is fear and the balance of mutual destruction that prevent nations from engaging
in direct conflict.“
”In absence of legal and political instruments, arms are once again becoming the focal point
of the global agenda; they are used wherever and however, without any UN Security Council
sanctions. And if the Security Council refuses to produce such decisions, then it is immediately
declared to be an outdated and ineffective instrument.“
”It is obvious that success and real results are only possible if key participants in
international affairs can agree on harmonising basic interests, on reasonable self-restraint, and
set the example of positive and responsible leadership.“
”International relations must be based on international law, which itself should rest on
moral principles such as justice, equality and truth. Perhaps most important is respect for one’s
partners and their interests. This is an obvious formula, but simply following it could radically
change the global situation.“
”The work of integrated associations, the cooperation of regional structures, should be built
on a transparent, clear basis; the Eurasian Economic Union’s formation process is a good example
of such transparency.“
”Russia made its choice. Our priorities are further improving our democratic and open
economy institutions, accelerated internal development, taking into account all the positive
modern trends in the world, and consolidating society based on traditional values and patriotism.“
”Russia does not need any kind of special, exclusive place in the world. While respecting
the interests of others, we simply want for our own interests to be taken into account and for
our position to be respected.“
”Building a more stable world order is a difficult task.We were able to develop rules
for interaction after World War II, and we were able to reach an agreement in Helsinki
in the 1970s. Our common duty is to resolve this fundamental challenge at this new stage
of development.“
Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a "mentally unstable" Donald Trump in the 2016 US
presidential election during a closed session of Russia's national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked
Kremlin documents.
...
Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of the documents for some months and to have carefully examined
them. The papers, seen by the Guardian, seem to represent a serious and highly unusual leak from within the Kremlin.
Yaawwwnn ...
We know, without reading it, that the story is fake because its main author is Luke Harding. Harding also authored the story which
claimed that Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manaford met Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. That story was
proven to be false but the Guardian , to its shame, still has it
up on its website .
The Guardian story claims that the 'leaked' nonsense paper was discussed in high level Kremlin meeting in January 2016.
It was then decided, it alleges, to support Trump. But in January 2016 there was no one, not even Donald Trump himself, who thought
that he would win the Republican primary or even the presidency. But the Kremlin is supposed to have discussed him at the highest
level well before anyone thought he could win?
Various people make interesting remarks about the new Guardian fakery:
I am seriously coming to the conclusion that Luke Harding is a Russian operative who has been put in place as part of a long
term dastardly plan to make British journalism appear ridiculous.
The next Luke Harding MI6 hoax.
Passing off forged Kremlin minutes saying things like "It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate his [Trump's]
election to the post of US president."
Hilarious
theguardian.com/world/2021/jul"¦
The part of the media that feigns anger at misinformation is uncritically promoting a story today by Luke Harding that Russia
was blackmailing Trump -- the same Harding who has published many false stories, championed the Steele Dossier and claimed Trump
was long a Russian agent.
...
Now suddenly, Harding claims he obtained leaked, highly sensitive Kremlin documents that just so happen to prove all the lies
he's been peddling for years, that not even Mueller's huge team found. Because it advances liberals' interests, journalists are
uncritically spreading it.
...
I will once use this shabby behavior to against highlight 2 points:
1) The contempt and loss of trust people harbor for the corporate media is completely justified and well-earned.
2) These outlets are by far the most prolific and destructive disseminators of disinformation.
Even people who are typically inclined to promote all kinds of anti-Russian nonsense are cautious on this item.
This Guardian story is likely to make big waves. I would remain somewhat cautious for now, however. For a "leak" of this magnitude,
we need at least some details on the chain of custody. Also note the Guardian's own hedging ("papers appear to show") theguardian.com/world/2021/jul"¦
Also, just putting this out there, if the US had this and thought it was real, how likely is it that it would have survived
the waterfall of leaks of the past few years? And yet, here we are, with this as exclusive by the UK's Guardian, and conspicuously
not, say, WaPo or NYT.
Christopher Steele, the 'former' British intelligence officer who peddle the fake dossier about alleged Russian Trump kompromat
on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign, worked and still works for Orbis Intelligence, a British private outlet run by 'former'
British spies.
They embarass us all with this sort of stupidity. And being British, of course, they double down on it.
" REVEALED: Iran plotted to kidnap Iranian-American journalist from Brooklyn, transport her by speedboat to Venezuela and
then fly her to the Islamic republic because she criticized regime, FBI say"
You just cannot get much more ludicrous than that.
@ 1 bemildred.... i knew it was a lie when i heard it on the cbc radio yesterday... if the cbc is running with it - it is an outright
made up lie... accept everything on the surface and never question anything!!! be a good citizen, lol...
The articles from The Guardian and all don't prove anything about Russia's plans. The cite the January 26 meeting of the Security
Council as Proof of Putin's plans. If I were in Putin's place, I would also have been happy with Trump's election and its likely
socioeconomic impact on the US society.
Harding strikes me as someone who's completely into the business of selling stories. He senses where the money is , looks at his
sales numbers and concludes he's doing great because that is how he measures things. No concept of 'truth' other than financial
success in the market of ideas. I suspect he makes a lot of money.
damn, i wish i had it in me to be a cult leader...i'd make a beeline to the guardian office and have an army of kool-aid drinking
simps at my disposal. when they aren't harrassing and firing women writers for calling out "female identifying" sex offenders
in dresses or stirring up imaginary "anti-semitism" they're peddling this delusional nonsense and LARPing as MI6 spooks. truly
in their own little world. i'll guess some LSD in the water cooler and a decent powerpoint presentation is all it would take to
be the limey jim jones.
The chunks of the supposed document that the Guardian included with its article really give it away. The text - supposedly from
an internal Kremlin communication - reads as no more or less than a chunk of English passed through Google Translate. Idiomatically,
it is chock full of awkwardness and simple ridiculous phrasings. There are even grammatical errors! "..во Ð²Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ð¿Ñ€ÐµÐ±Ñ‹Ð²Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ
его..." is simply incorrect. In Russian, the last two words are reversed in order.
It recalls the recent Putin's Palace story, with the "комната грÑзи".
It's just shameful how little pride the propagandists take in their work. I understand that they hold their audience in only
the lowest of regard (not without cause, to be fair), but it's not like there is any shortage of Russian-speakers in the west
they could go to for proofreading, if not copy writing.
"Of course, this is such a continuation of absolutely low-quality publications. Either the newspaper is trying to somehow increase
its popularity, or the newspaper continues such a frenzied Russophobic line. Of course, all this does not and cannot correspond
to the truth. This, in fact, is not true ... This is a continuation of the exercises on total demonization of Russia and Putin,
which The Guardian sometimes likes to do, or is it a desperate attempt to attract some new readers by publishing such tales,
"Peskov said.
"REVEALED: Iran plotted to kidnap Iranian-American journalist from Brooklyn, transport her by speedboat to Venezuela and then
fly her to the Islamic republic because she criticized regime, FBI say", Bemildred | Jul 15 2021 15:31 utc | 1
I TOLD you all that the FBI needed new script writers. Either that or they have so little imagination that they
have to use up all the scripts from a couple of years back, as they cannot afford new ones.
Doesn't matter - the MSNBC watchers will never accept this. I still try to punch through the armor of confirmation bias now and
then. My last jab was: "I think Russiagate is every bit as much evidence-free bullshit as Quanon!". No effect whatsoever. Willing
to agree with half of what I said - just like Fox watchers.
Unfortunately, I don't think my fellow citizens here in the heart of Pindostan will pay attention until things get bad enough
that they know actual hunger - and then they will serve the elites by fighting each other.
Sorry for the pessimism, the one positive thing I do think I can do is tend my vegetable garden!
"во Ð²Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ð¿Ñ€ÐµÐ±Ñ‹Ð²Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ ÐµÐ³Ð¾", maybe awkward but semikosher, many examples can be found Googling it ---like during
stay of his vs. during his stay (e.g. kamchatka.mid.ru can be found to say: "ÑвÑÐ·Ð°Ð½Ð½Ñ‹Ñ Ñ Ð´ÐµÐ¹ÑтвиÑми и поÑтупками
пригÐ"ашаемого во Ð²Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ð¿Ñ€ÐµÐ±Ñ‹Ð²Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ ÐµÐ³Ð¾ в РФ, в том чиÑÐ"е, в ÑÐ"учае депортации").
Jeez, it just gets worse-as soon as I saw the name Luke harding, I knew it was a pile of trash; really, who in the hell reads
this without a sense to vomit.
Well, there there is Orbis: "great reporting."
MI6 and prob cia has this clown on the payroll; I tried to watch the last 5 minutes of the video but could not get past the
first minute; the guy is absolutely repulsive and they continue to double down on this garbage.
I think you really nailed it; we see it every day, with this latest pail of s___, that these purveyors absolutely have no shame
or embarrassment, but believe their audience, the sheeple, are complete idiots or stupid. The question is who is stupid as this
level of stupidity cannot be fixed or underestimated.
I remember the scene in the movie "The Big Short" where Steve Carell
was saying, "they knew all along!".
Goldman Sachs, et al, had over-leveraged the housing mortgages and "they knew all along"
if and when it all crumbled the government would cover Wall Street's bad bets with taxpayer debt.
They knew all along it was bs but they did it anyway.
The MSM is a different arena but has the same arrogant attitude towards average joe citizen.
The MSM knows it is selling bs but they don't care.
What I see is they are counting on the "Reiteration Effect" (look it up, it is a real thing).
"Russia bad", "Russia bad", "Russia bad", "Russia bad", "Russia bad", "Russia bad".
There have been a steady stream of "Russia bad" stories and "Russia helped Trump" stories, and over time
the fact that these stories are one by one debunked does not matter. The "Reiteration Effect" is what matters.
"Say something a million times and it becomes true" is not a mere cynical phrase, it actually works - the "Reiteration Effect".
Keep putting out these "Russia bad" stories and "Russia helped Trump" stories and over time people will accept the basic message
as true.
The MSM has known all along they were selling bs, but they don't care.
They definitely didn't know 2008 would happen. On the contrary: they thought they had discovered the elixir of immortality
for capitalism.
The USA was caught completely off-guard in September 2008. You have to search with a magnifying glass to find the ten people
who predicted the crisis would happen in its nature and more or less its timing - but even then, most of them were Marxists, i.e.
outside the commanding heights of the USG.
I like the idea of the makers of this thing deciding that it's a shoddy job which only Harding will take. Also Harding gets all
the attention but let's not forget the honourable mentions in this story: Julian Borger and Dan Sabbagh.
I saved this from somewhere (?) years ago. Doesn't matter, you can read Paulson's coup document for yourself.
The WSJ link still works but you hit a pay wall. You can put the following url at
http://web.archive.org/
and read the original WSJ publication and Paulson's coup document dated Sept 20, 2008 at the WSJ.
"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion,
and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
Did you catch that? Paulson went further. Not just the courts are cut out but "any adminstrative agency" as well.
Paulson also was giving to Himself the authority to APPROPRIATE any funds He wished.
"Any funds expended for actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses, shall be deemed
appropriated at the time of such expenditure."
HE could pass ANY legislation He wanted to:
"(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities
of this Act."
The word "term" has a duel meaning. It also refers to TIME, as in length of a term.
Give powers to anyone and hire anyone He wished to:
"(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;"
What miscellaneous authorities did G-d Paulson give Himself? Answer: Authority over the police and the military.
"In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall take into consideration means for""
(1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and
"providing stability OR". That OR makes for confusion (intentional confusion). Stability is a word used often in the context
of economics but it is also used in the context of police action. Get it? He wants to create his own SS. See the very next
word: "protecting", as in "We Serve and Protect".
(2) protecting the taxpayer."
The last one is my favorite. Who is a *taxpayer*? Hmmm, is not everyone, even candy purchasing kids liable to pay tax? Corporations
are also taxpayers...
G-d Paulson covered all his bases.
Even the one about being G-d Forever:
"Sec. 9. Termination of Authority.
The authorities under this Act, with the exception of authorities granted in sections 2(b)(5), 5 and 7, shall terminate
two years from the date of enactment of this Act."
Paulson wants you to believe this terminates in two years. However, 2(b)(5) does NOT terminate and that one says he can
just place the crown back on His own head:
"(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities
of this Act."
Cheers
A coup! A massive scandal that has been totally missed.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only
for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus
becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the
lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."-- Joseph Goebbels (Luke Harding's Father?)
I'm not normally a follower of this topic even though one of our sleazers, Downer, was involved but needing something to smile
at while in our CV lockdown I watched the link.
What an understatement! It's a hilarious 28m:51s train wreck interview with a complete dick. Thanks b for sharing it.
@Vk, I'm sorry to contradict you but if you pick up a copy of the Financial Times in 2008 before the crash, everyone was predicting
it. I checked recently, and sure enough, it was all over the paper.
By 2007, the financial elite already knew something would happen - but not a structural crisis. In fact, they predicted nothing:
the chain of bankruptcies started at the end of 2006; September 2008 was just the date it "leaked" to the "real economy".
Not every crisis is bad for capitalism. Cyclical crisis are natural and beneficial to capitalism. The crisis of 2008 was not
a cyclical crisis, but a structural one. They probably thought it was either a cyclical crisis (a la Dotcom crisis of 2000) or,
if something more serious, something the free market would easily be able to "self-regulate" out of.
Henry Kissinger has said, not unreasonably, that we are in "the foothills" of a cold war
with China. And Vladimir Putin, who nurses an unassuageable grudge about the way the Cold
War ended, seems uninterested in Russia reconciling itself to a role as a normal nation
without gratuitous resorts to mendacity. It is, therefore, well to notice how, day by day,
in all of the globe's time zones, civilized nations are, in word and deed, taking small but
cumulatively consequential measures that serve deterrence.
If arrogance were a deadly disease, George Will would be dead.
George Will has been an
ass clown since I first had the displeasure of watching him in the 1970s. Age has not brought
an ounce of wisdom. Nevertheless, this total lack of self reflection and ability to project
American sins on others is unfortunately not unique to our man George. It seems a habit
throughout the entire US political spectrum. The ability to view, for example, the invasion
of Iraq as perfectly normal behavior, while viewing any resistance to US/Israeli dominance as
beyond the pale is the character of the decaying American superpower. George Will is but one
manifestation of it. It was once infuriating. But now it's simply like listening to the
ravings of a schizophrenic. More pathetic than anything else.
What do you expect from George Swill? He is a pathetic, disoriented refugee from his home in
Victorian England, when barbarism never set for a single instant on the British Empire.
There's a way to get the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth from the
mainstream news media. Just look at their propaganda and ask yourself, "Why do they want me
to believe this particular lie?" If you can figure that you, you will have the truth.
Well, you know, the white man's burden...
The funny thing is that they seriously consider themselves a "superior race", while behaving
like wild barbarians.
Such opinions/articles of "Western civilized people" cause only a condescending smile,
nothing more. So let's let George Will entertain us.
I find it pretty bizzarre how western media obsessively try to portray the Defender
incident as a some sort of "victory" for "civilized nations".
What exactly is the victory here? The fact that Russia only resorted to warning fire and
didn't blow up the ship?
Decades of propaganda masquerading as news has led most "educated" Americans into a Matrix
of false narratives. Should you dare mention election fraud or question the safety of COVID
vaccines in the presences of anyone who considers the NY Times and Wash Post as the "papers
of record", they will be happy to inform you that you are "captured" by false news. Dialogue
with these true believers has become almost impossible. We are the indispensable, civilized
nation, don't you understand basic facts?
My sister, who is truly a good-hearted person, unfortunately keeps CNN and MSNBC on most
of the day in her small apartment, and lives for The NY Times, which she pours over,
especially the weekend edition. She knows that Putin is evil and Russia is a bad place to
live, etc etc. I got rid of my TV ten years ago and started looking elsewhere for my
information. I live in a rural area of a Red state, she lives in Manhattan. We have to stick
to topics that revolve around museums, gardening, and food.
This is precisely the type of arrogance that has led to US leaving Afghanistan with their
pants down - having spent untold Trillions of dollars and having nothing to show for it. And
soon, leaving Iraq and Syria too. It reminds me of how the US left Vietnam and Cambodia.
The 'White' establishment in Washington and across the US military industrial complex, has
an air of superiority and always seem to feel that they can subjugate via throwing money at
people! This in effect turns everyone they deal with into Whores (yes, prostitutes). Its
fundamentally humiliating, and sews the seeds of corruption - both economic and moral. Then,
they are shocked that there's a back clash!
The Taliban succeeded not with arms - but by projecting a completely different narrative
of "Morality (i.e. non-corruption), honor, and even intermingled nationalism with their
narrative". They projected a story that suggested that new Afghan daughters would not turn
into Britney Spears or porn stars.
And, believe it or not, the Chinese see themselves as having been fundamentally humiliated
by the West and couch their efforts as a struggle for their civilization (its not ideological
or even economic) - they are fighting for honor and respect.
Western Civilization (and western elite) on the left and right are fundamentally
materialistic. They worship money, and simply don't understand it when others don't. When
they talk about superiority, they are basically saying the worship of money rules supreme.
You sort of become dignified in the west if you have a lot of wealth. They want to turn the
whole world into prostitutes. Policy and laws are driven by material considerations.
Now, I am not saying that spirituality or religion is good; and in fact, the Chinese are
not driven by religious zeal (they are, on the whole, non-religious). What I am saying is
that - no matter how its expressed - be it through religion, through culture, through
rhetoric, etc. - all this back clash is really a struggle for respect, 'honor' and thus a
push back to Western Arrogance, and the humiliation it has caused. The West simply doesn't
understand that there are societies - especially in the east, that value honor over other
things.
When Trump calls other people losers, he is basically saying he is richer, they are
poorer. In his mind, winning, is all about money. When people write articles about the
superiority of a civilization - they are implicitly putting other people down. That's not
just arrogant, its rude and disrespectful. Its basically like a teenager judging their
parents. How dare a newly formed nation (the US), judge or differentiate or even pretend to
be superior to the Chinese, Persians etc.?
Our foreign policy (and rhetoric) in the West has to completely change. We have to be
really careful, because, (honestly), it won't be very long before these other (inferior)
civilizations actually take over global leadership. Then how will we want to be treated?
Don't for a second think these folks can't build great gadgets that go to Mars! Oh, did China
just do that? Does Iran have a space program? Did they just make their own vaccines? Once
they start trading among themselves without using the USD greenback, we are finished.
Some notable recent achievements of 'civilised' nations include:
-Illegal invasion and bombing of multiple non-aggressor nations
-Overthrowing of democratically elected Governments
-Support of extremist and oppressive regimes
-Sponsoring of terrorism, including weapon sales to ISIS
-Corruption of once trusted institutions like the UN and OPCW
...when all she did was offer slight resistance to Western aggression? The key event was
the August 2013 false-flag
gas attack and massacre of hostages in Ghouta in Damascus.
What really angered the West was the Russian
fleet in the Mediterranean that prevented the NATO attack on Syria. (You will not find a
single word of this in Western media.) This is why Crimea needed to be captured by the West.
As revenge and deterrence against the Russian agression.
The standoff was first described by Israel Shamir in
October 2013:
"The most dramatic event of September 2013 was the high-noon stand-off near the Levantine
shore, with five US destroyers pointing their Tomahawks towards Damascus and facing them -
the Russian flotilla of eleven ships led by the carrier-killer Missile Cruiser Moskva and
supported by Chinese warships.
Apparently, two missiles were launched towards the Syrian coast, and both failed to
reach their destination."
A longer description was published by Australianvoice in
2015:
"So why didn't the US and France attack Syria? It seems obvious that the Russians and
Chinese simply explained that an attack on Syria by US and French forces would be met by a
Russian/Chinese attack on US and French warships. Obama wisely decided not to start WW III
in September 2013." Can Russia Block Regime Change In Syria Again?
In my own comments from 2013 I tried to understand the mission of the Russian fleet. This
is what I believed Putin's orders to the fleet were:
To sink any NATO ship involved in illegal aggression against Syria.
You have the authority to use tactical nuclear weapons in self-defense.
I am sure NATO admirals understood the situation the same way. I am not sure of the
American leadership in Washington.
Insulting language aside, the narrative they are trying to create is that there is an
anti-Russia, anti-China trend developing and that those sitting on the fence would be wise to
join the bandwagon.
This will be particularly effective on the majority of folks who barely scan headlines and
skim articles. Falun Gong/CIA mouthpiece Epoch Times is on board with this, based on recent
headlines.
Wikipedia has a list of reliable
and unreliable sources . "Reliable" are those sources that are under the direct control
of the US regime. Any degree of independence from the regime makes the source "unreliable."
WaPo and NYT are at the top of the list of reliable sources.
This is the diametric opposite of how Wikispooks defines reliability.
Reliability of sources is directly proportional to their distance *from* power.
At A Closer Look on Syria (ACLOS) we only trust primary sources.
Makes me remember the cornerstone work from former Argentine president DF Sarmiento, who
dealt with "Civilization or Barbarism" in his book "Facundo". Of course, his position was the
"civilized" one.
Those "civilized" succeeded in creating a country submitted to the British rule, selling
cheap crops and getting expensive manufactures, with a privileged minority living lavishly
and a great majority, in misery.
Also, their "civilized" methods to impose their project was the bloody "Police War"
This article is fundamentally about propaganda and "soft power".
Soft power in foreign policy is usually defined when other countries defer to your
judgement without threat of punishment or promise of gain.
In other words, if other countries support your country without a "carrot or stick"
approach, you have soft power.
For years, the US simply assumed other "civilized" of the western world would dutifully
follow along in US footsteps due to unshakeable trust in America's moral authority. The
western media played a crucial role by suppressing news regarding any atrocities the western
powers committed and amplifying any perceived threats or aggressions from "enemies".
Now, with the age of the internet, western audiences can read news from all over the world
and that has been a catastrophe for western powers. We can now see real-time debunking of
propaganda.
In the past, the British would have easily passed off the recent destroyer provocation as
pure Russian aggression and could expect outrage from all western aligned countries. The EU
and US populations could have easily been whipped into a frenzy and DEMANDED reprisals
against Russia if not outright war. Something similar to a "Gulf of Tonkin" moment.
But, that did not happen. People all over the world now know NOTHING from the US or
British press is to be trusted. People also now know NATO routinely try to stir up trouble
and provoke Russia.
So, Americans and even British citizens displayed no widespread outrage because they
simply did not believe their own government's and compliant media's side of the story.
US and British "soft power" are long gone. No one trusts them. No one wants to follow them
into anymore disastrous wars of aggression.
Western media still do not understand this and cannot figure out why so many refuse
western vaccines or support the newest color revolutions.
They cast Germany as a victim or potential victim of foreign aggressors, as a peace-loving
nation forced to take up arms to protect its populace or defend European civilization
against Communism.
I remember a tv history program that had interviews with German soldiers.
I recall one who had seen/participated in going from village to village in the USSR
hanging local communist leaders. He said they had been taught that by doing this
they were "protecting civilization".
Arrogance is not a deadly disease or even a hindrance for mainstream presstitutes; it is a
job qualification, making them all the more manipulable and manipulative. And so, as with
Michael Gordon, Judith Miller, Brett Stephens and David Sanger (essentially all of them
pulling double duty for the apartheid state), people will die from their propaganda, but they
will advance.
Name a leader with moral courage and integrity among suzerainties (private plantations).
Nations without integrity and filled with Orcs (individuals without conscience), can't be
civilized. They're EVIL vassals of Saruman & Sauron, manipulated by Wormtongue.
"The true equation is 'democracy' = government by world financiers."
– J.R.R. Tolkien
Henry Kissinger, in his interview with Chatham House stated, "the United States is in a
CRISIS of confidence... America has committed great moral wrongs." What are U$A's core
values?
According to a CFR member :
"How lucky I am that my mother studied with JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis and WH Auden and that
she passed on to me a command of language that permits me to "tell the story" of the world
economy in plain English. She would have been delighted that I managed to show that the evil
Gollum from Tolkien's tales lives above the doorway in the Oval Office, which he
certainly does. I saw him there myself. He may have found a new perch over at The Federal
Reserve Bank as well."
– Excerpt From, Signals: The Breakdown of the Social Contract and the Rise of
Geopolitics by Dr Philippa Malmgren
The Financial Empire has ran out of LUCK. "In God We Trust"
I thought moral superiority was the official position of NATO. The explicit intent is to
weaponize human rights and democracy . So it is not merely the mundane 'our group is better'
or the somewhat nostalgic western form of moral superiority, it's weaponized moral
superiority.
George Will looking good I tellya. Anybody know who does his embalming?
Doesn't Will's article reek of Nazi propaganda against the Russians as a mongrel Asiatic
uncivilized people? Of course to attack the Chinese as uncivilized? China uncivilized? 5,000
years of continuous culture? The Russians and Chinese must join up with civilization.
Unfortunately at least in the West race is only about skin color. It certainly wasn't the
case with the original Nazis. Will's piece is blatantly racist out of the tradition of
Nazism.
Oxford and the Ivy League. The training grounds for the Anglo American deep state and the
cheerleaders of the empire. Expect nothing more of these deeply under educated sudo
intellectuals.
Plenty of people who work for the MIC and in various policy circles/think tanks have
plenty "to show for it" where all these wars are concerned. Many billions of dollars were
siphoned upwards and outwards into the bank accounts and expensive homes of the managerial
and executive classes (even the hazard pay folks who actually went to the places "we" were
bombing) not just at Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Booz Allen, etc. but plenty of lesser known
"socioeconomically disadvantaged" Small Businesses (proper noun in this context) companies
who utilized the services of an army of consultants to glom onto the war machine. In most
cases of the larger firms, Wall Street handled the IPOs long ago, and these companies have
entire (much less profitable) divisions dedicated to state and local governments to
"diversify" their business portfolios in case the people finally get sick of war. But that
rarely happens in any real sense because the corporate establishment "legacy media" makes
sure that there's always an uncivilized country to bomb or threaten....and that means the
"defense" department needs loads of services, weapons, and process improvement consultants
all the time. War is a racket; always has been, always will be.
Unfortunately, it seems that truly large segments of the population in the developed
western countries and especially in the Anglo-sphere believe the propaganda emanating from
the imperial mouthpieces. The US citizenry is a case study in manipulating the public.
Indeed, the DNC liberals are effectively the vanguard of the pro-war movement, espouse
racist Rusophobia and conitnue Trump's hostility to China. The so-cslled conservatives follow
their own tradition of imperial mobilization behind the Washington regime: Chin,Latin
America, the very people who berated the 'Deep State' now paise its subversive activities
against the targeted left-wing governments.
As for the moribund left - it would be better described as leftovers - it is often taken
for a ride as long as the imperial messaging is promoted by the liberal media. The excuses
for imperialism are a constant for many of them (even as they call themselves
anti-imperialists) and the beleaguered voicesfor the truth are far and few. The latter often
face silencing campaigns not just from the establishment hacks, but from their own supposed
ideological comrades, who are, of course, in truth nothing of the sort.
All in all, despite the consistent record of manipulative propaganda and utter criminality
the imperial regime never loses the support of the critical masss of the citizenry.
All in all, despite the consistent record of manipulative propaganda and utter criminality
the imperial regime never loses the support of the critical masss of the citizenry.
Maybe 50% of the people here bother to vote, in IMPORTANT elections. Can be a lot less if
the election is not important. The only people still engaged politically here at all are the
people with good jobs. The American people have given up. And there are a lot of angry people
running around, with guns. Claiming the citizenry here support the government is imperial
propaganda. Why do you think they like mercenaries and proxies so much? And this is all in
great contrast to when I was young 50 years ago.
Speaking of always blaming Russia regardless the facts, it's now revealed that
OPCW sent its team to Germany
before Navalny made it to the hospital in Omsk:
"'How is it even possible?' Russia asks OPCW after report claims team was sent to Germany the same day Navalny fell ill in
Siberia"!!!!
"[T]he OPCW states [Link at Original] that its secretariat 'deployed a team to perform a technical assistance visit' related
to the suspected poisoning of a 'Russian citizen' at Germany's request on August 20. The problem is that on that day, Navalny
was only flying from the Russian Siberian city of Tomsk to Moscow. It was on that flight that he first felt ill and was then rushed
to a hospital in another Siberian city, Omsk, following the plane's emergency landing ." [My Emphasis]
OOPS!!!! Someone must have put the Brits in charge. It will be very interesting to see how this gaff is spun.
I admit to some amusement over the suspension of the female American sprinter Sha'Carri
Richardson by WADA. Imagine if she were Russian. WADA has waged a political war against
Russian Olympians ruling against the entire national team most of whom never used performance
enhancing drugs according to independent testing. And now the expected cries of racism
against a blood test for a banned drug. Sort of ironic I suppose, but watched a clips of
several African American sports pundits and they all agreed that rules are rules and must be
followed. It has been mostly white pundits who have virtue signaled that her suspension must
be lifted due to racism.
Russia under Putin stewardship has been doing more than just good given the disaster of
Yeltsin period. That's said. Russia now is just a one-man-Putin show. It's not the "Russian
system of governance."
So, the question is what would happen after Putin?
Given the fact that several "oligarchies" are pulling their strings around Putin,
another-Yeltsin is waiting at the gate of Kremlin is very likely. I hope I am wrong for the
Russians' best interests!
Putin
Signs Law Forcing Foreign Social Media Giants To Open Russian Offices (reuters.com) 47
Posted by msmash on Thursday July 01, 2021 @12:45PM from the how-about-that dept. President
Vladimir Putin has signed a law that
obliges foreign social media giants to open offices in Russia , a document published by the
government on Thursday showed, the latest move by Moscow to exert greater control over Big
Tech. From a report: The Russian authorities are keen to strengthen their control of the
internet and to reduce their dependence on foreign companies and countries. In particular, they
have objected in the past to political opponents of the Kremlin using foreign social media
platforms to organise what they say are illegal protests and to publicise politically-tinged
investigations into alleged corruption. Moscow has fined firms for failing to delete content it
says is illegal, slowing down the speed of Twitter as punishment, and on Wednesday opened a new
case against Alphabet subsidiary Google for breaching personal data legislation. by
Vlijmen Fileer ( 120268 ) on
Thursday July 01, 2021 @12:47PM ( #61540686 )
Other countries do the same. But somehow get less media attention for it
In the later years of an abusive relationship I was in, my abuser had become so confident in
how mentally caged he had me that he'd start overtly telling me what he is and what he was
doing. He flat-out told me he was a sociopath and a manipulator, trusting that I was so
submitted to his will by that point that I'd gaslight myself into reframing those statements in
a sympathetic light. Toward the end one time he told me "I am going to rape you," and then he
did, and then he talked about it to some friends trusting that I'd run perception management on
it for him.
The better he got at psychologically twisting me up in knots and the more submitted I
became, the more open he'd be about it. He seemed to enjoy doing this, taking a kind of
exhibitionistic delight in showing off his accomplishments at crushing me as a person, both to
others and to me. Like it was his art, and he wanted it to have an audience to appreciate
it.
I was reminded of this while watching a recent Fox News appearance by Glenn Greenwald where he
made an observation we've discussed here
previously about the way the CIA used to have to infiltrate the media, but now just openly
has US intelligence veterans in mainstream media punditry positions managing public
perception.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/jU58mrEpPvU
"If you go and Google, and I hope your viewers do, Operation Mockingbird, what you will
find is that during the Cold War these agencies used to plot how to clandestinely manipulate
the news media to disseminate propaganda to the American population," Greenwald
said .
"They used to try to do it secretly. They don't even do it secretly anymore. They don't
need Operation Mockingbird. They literally put John Brennan who works for NBC and James
Clapper who works for CNN and tons of FBI agents right on the payroll of these news
organizations. They now shape the news openly to manipulate and to deceive the American
population."
In 1977 Carl Bernstein published an article titled " The CIA and the Media " reporting
that the CIA had
covertly infiltrated America's most influential news outlets and had over 400 reporters who
it considered assets in a program known as
Operation Mockingbird . It was a major scandal, and rightly so. The news media are meant to
report truthfully about what happens in the world, not manipulate public perception to suit the
agendas of spooks and warmongers.
Nowadays the CIA collaboration happens right out in the open, and the public is too
brainwashed and gaslit to even recognize this as scandalous. Immensely influential outlets like
The New York Times uncritically pass on CIA disinfo which is then spun as fact by cable news
pundits . The sole owner of The Washington Post is a CIA contractor ,
and WaPo has never once disclosed this conflict of interest when reporting on US intelligence
agencies per standard journalistic protocol. Mass media outlets
now openly employ intelligence agency veterans like John Brennan, James Clapper,
Chuck Rosenberg, Michael Hayden, Frank Figliuzzi, Fran Townsend, Stephen Hall, Samantha
Vinograd, Andrew McCabe, Josh Campbell, Asha Rangappa, Phil Mudd, James Gagliano, Jeremy Bash,
Susan Hennessey, Ned Price and Rick Francona, as are known
CIA assets like NBC's Ken Dilanian, as are
CIA interns like Anderson Cooper and CIA applicants like
Tucker Carlson.
They're just rubbing it in our faces now. Like they're showing off.
And that's just the media. We also see this flaunting behavior exhibited in the US
government-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a propaganda operation geared at
sabotaging foreign governments not aligned with the US which according to its own founding
officials was set up to do overtly what the CIA used to do covertly. The late author and
commentator William Blum
makes this clear :
[I]n 1983, the National Endowment for Democracy was set up to "support democratic
institutions throughout the world through private, nongovernmental efforts". Notice the
"nongovernmental"" part of the image, part of the myth. In actuality, virtually every penny
of its funding comes from the federal government, as is clearly indicated in the financial
statement in each issue of its annual report. NED likes to refer to itself as an NGO
(Non-governmental organization) because this helps to maintain a certain credibility abroad
that an official US government agency might not have. But NGO is the wrong category. NED is a
GO.
"We should not have to do this kind of work covertly," said Carl Gershman in 1986, while
he was president of the Endowment. "It would be terrible for democratic groups around the
world to be seen as subsidized by the C.I.A. We saw that in the 60's, and that's why it has
been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that's why the endowment
was created."
And Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED, declared in 1991:
"A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."
In effect, the CIA has been laundering money through NED.
We see NED's fingerprints all over pretty much any situation where the western power
alliance needs to manage public perception about a CIA-targeted government, from Russia to
Hong
Kong to Xinjiang to the
imperial propaganda operation known as Bellingcat.
Hell, intelligence insiders are just openly running for office now. In an article titled "
The CIA
Democrats in the 2020 elections ", World Socialist Website documented the many veterans of
the US intelligence cartel who ran in elections across America in 2018 and 2020:
"In the course of the 2018 elections, a large group of former military-intelligence
operatives entered capitalist politics as candidates seeking the Democratic Party nomination
in 50 congressional seats" nearly half the seats where the Democrats were targeting
Republican incumbents or open seats created by Republican retirements. Some 30 of these
candidates won primary contests and became the Democratic candidates in the November 2018
election, and 11 of them won the general election, more than one quarter of the 40 previously
Republican-held seats captured by the Democrats as they took control of the House of
Representatives. In 2020, the intervention of the CIA Democrats continues on what is arguably
an equally significant scale."
So they're just getting more and more brazen the more confident they feel about how
propaganda-addled and submissive the population has become. They're laying more and more of
their cards on the table. Soon the CIA will just be openly selling narcotics door to door like
Girl Scout cookies.
Or maybe not. I said my ex got more and more overt about his abuses in the later years of
our relationship because those were the later years. I did eventually expand my own
consciousness of my own inner workings enough to clear the fears and unexamined beliefs I had
that he was using as hooks to manipulate me. Maybe, as humanity's consciousness continues to
expand , the same will happen for the people and their abusive relationship with the
CIA.
* * *
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Money quote: " Zerohedge has more traffic than Huffington Post, Vox, Vice, The Atlantic and
pretty well any of the other bluecheck day camps for aspiring establishment shills."
Late Stage Globalism Is A Tale of
Narratives vs Networks
Over the past few weeks in my weekly
#AxisOfEasy newsletter I've been covering how Big Tech and the corporate media tried,
unsuccessfully, to keep a lid on the Wuhan Lab origin narrative. At one point I half-joked
"I'll shut up about this when it's safe to talk about Ivermectin" . This week, I did end up
writing a piece about Ivermectin, namely how doctors can't even mention it in their videos or
podcast appearances without being penalized by social media platforms.
Bret Weinstein, an evolutionary biologist who has studied bats (from which COVID-19
purportedly originated) was recently on
Triggernometry , the UK based podcast that my company, easyDNS , has been sponsoring since mid-2020. It turns out that
neither Weinstein nor Triggernometry can say the word "Ivermectin" in their shows. If they do
they'll get an automatic takedown by YouTube and a strike on Facebook for violating community
standards.
Matt Taibbi recently posed the question " Why has
"˜Ivermectin' become a dirty word? " He cites Dr. Pierre Kory in his testimony to a
US Senate Committee hearing on medical responses to COVID-19 in December 2020. Kory was
referring to an existing medicine that was already FDA approved that he was describing as a
"wonder drug" in treating COVID-19, that drug was Ivermectin.
This Senate testimony was televised and viewed by approximately 8 million people. YouTube
removed the video of this exchange. They later suspended the account of the United States
senator who invited Dr. Kory to speak. (Kory also appeared on Brett Weinstein's show and they
took down that as well).
Associated Press for their part "fact
checked" the senate testimony, and because, in their words "there is no evidence that
Ivermectin is a "˜miracle drug' against COVID", they labeled it as false:
CLAIM: The antiparasitic drug ivermectin "has a miraculous effectiveness that obliterates"
the transmission of COVID-19 and will prevent people from getting sick.
AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. There's no evidence ivermectin has been proven a safe or effective
treatment against COVID-19.
... ... ...
But I'm looking beyond that, outside of network TV. The hottest news outlets are fast
becoming independent journalists like Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald , self-publishing via their Substack.
That's mainly email.
Joe Rogan has a larger audience than Rachel Maddow and Don Lemon combined. So too does Steve
Bannon, btw. The few times I've been on his
Warroom I was astounded at the reach of his audience. According to company sources he's
doing between 2.5 and 3.5 million downloads per day. The last people I would ever expect to be
tuning into Bannon are telling me "I saw you on Warroom". (It's mind-blowing).
Zerohedge has more traffic than Huffington Post, Vox, Vice, The Atlantic and pretty well any
of the other bluecheck day camps for aspiring establishment shills.
It's because of independent, renegade journalists and people writing outside of major
outlets that these stories are starting go mainstream despite the best efforts of Big Tech,
enforcing whatever canon the corporate press deems to be truth, or the establishment anointed
"fact checkers" who try to step in whenever something looks to gain traction:
The Wuhan lab origin was suspected for over a year (and the Fauci emails prove it).
Zerohedge was on it almost immediately and
got deplatformed for their troubles. It was finally pushed over the line in a
Medium post by Nicholas Wade over a year later.
Ivermectin may be next round and it looks like if it gets anywhere it will be thanks to
people like Matt Taibbi and Bret Weinstein.
What is the common thread here? It's the power of decentralized networks and open source
protocols vs narrative control that is promulgated from global governments, amplified by the
corporate media, and enforced by technocratic platforms.
... ... ...
It may seem like the censorship is absolute and that the narrative and the spin is
overwhelming. But take solace that it only appears that way because the facade is breaking.
As more people realize that the centralized technocratic system is failing, those who's
privilege and position are premised on it have to double down, triple down. They have to burn
the boats.
They're fully committed now and because they have no other choice they have to overstep and
overreach. Too much, too soon. Too late.
In reality big tech is the part of neoliberal elite that control the politics and politician
(the USA politics and politicians were privatized during Reagan and nothing changed since that
period). They also has strong ties with intelligence community often emerging from some some
intelligence agency plan and DAPRA or CIA funds. So it is strange to be suprozed that they will
always take the side of the government -- they control the goverment...
The Democrats in Congress want comprehensive regulation of social media which will
ultimately allow regime regulators to decide what is and what is not "disinformation." This has
become very clear as Congress has held a series of Congressional hearings designed to pressure
tech leaders into doing even more to silence critics of the regime and its preferred
center-left narratives.
Back in February, for instance, Glen Greenwald reported:
For the third time in
less than five months , the U.S. Congress has summoned the CEOs of social media companies
to appear before them, with the explicit intent to pressure and coerce them to censor more
content from their platforms.
House Democrats have made no secret of their ultimate goal with this hearing: to exert
control over the content on these online platforms. "Industry self-regulation has failed,"
they said, and therefore "we must begin the work of changing incentives driving social media
companies to allow and even promote misinformation and disinformation." In other words, they
intend to use state power to influence and coerce these companies to change which content
they do and do not allow to be published.
Greenwald is probably right. The end game here is likely to create a permanent "partnership"
between big tech in which government regulators will ultimately decide just how much these
platforms will deplatform user and delete content that run afoul of the regime's messaging.
It might strike many readers as odd that this should even be necessary. It's already become
quite clear that Big Social Media is hardly an enemy of mainstream proregime forces in
Washington. Quite the opposite.
Jack Dorsey, for instance, is exactly the sort of partisan regime apparatchik one expects
out of today's Silicon Valley. For example, during October of last year ,
Twitter locked down the account of the New York Post , because the Post reported a story on
Hunter Biden that threatened to hurt Biden's chances for election.
Over 90 percent of political donation money coming out of Facebook and Twitter goes to
Democrats.
Yet, it's important to keep in mind that this isn't going to be enough to convince
politicians to pack up and decide to leave social media companies alone. The regime is unlikely
to be satisfied with anything other than full state control of social media through permanent
regulatory bodies that can ultimately bring the industry to heel. Regardless of the ideological
leanings of the industry players involved, they're likely to see the writing on the wall. As
with any regime where the regulators and legislators hold immense power -- as is the case in
Washington today -- the regime will generally be able to win the "cooperation" of industry
leaders who will end up taking a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" position.
Silicon
Valley Is Ideologically Allied with the Regime. But That's Not Enough.
It's been abundantly clear for at least a decade that ideologically speaking, Silicon Valley
is as
politically mainstream as it gets. The old early-2000s notion that Silicon Valley harbors
secret libertarian, antiestablishment leanings has been disproven dozens of times over.
Moreover, Washington has a long history of co-opting tech "geniuses" to serve the whims of
the regime. Even back in 2013 Julian Assange already saw the "ever closer union" between
government agents and Silicon Valley. Assange saw how federal agencies were hiring Silicon
Valley workers as "consultants" and saw where the "partnership" was headed. He concluded "The
advance of information technology epitomized by Google heralds the death of privacy for most
people and shifts the world toward authoritarianism."
But even if Silicon Valley is packed full of stooges for the NSA --
as appears to be the case -- this still doesn't mean that Silicon Valley firms are willing
to happily hand over their property to the federal government. After all, Silicon Valley CEOs,
managers, and stockholders are all still at least partly in it for the money. All else being
equal, they prefer profit to loss, and they want freedom to make decisions free of regulatory
control. They probably don't care about freedom in the abstract, but they care about it for
themselves.
The Threat of Regulation Creates Support for the Regime
On the other hand, once federal policymakers and regulators start making threats, the game
changes entirely. All of a sudden, it makes a lot of sense to pursue "friendly" relations with
the state as a matter of self-preservation. If Washington has the ability to destroy your
business -- and if it has become impossible to "fly under the radar" -- then it makes a lot of
sense to make Washington your friend.
Under these circumstances, there's little to be gained from blanket opposition to federal
regulation, and a lot to be gained from embracing regulation while merely working to ensure
that regulation benefits you and your friends.
Big Business versus Small Business
So, it should never surprise us when big business ultimately ends up siding with the regime.
It would be folly not to, especially if one has the means to hire lobbyists, attorneys, and PR
consultants which can help Big Business negotiate effectively with regulators. Needless to say,
the outcomes of these negotiations are likely to end up helping the big players at the expense
of smaller ones who aren't even present at the negotiating table.
For small firms that have little hope of influencing federal policy, it still makes sense to
simply oppose federal activism altogether and hope for the best. But if your firm manages to
get a seat "at the table" it's best to seize the opportunity. To quote an old saying among
lobbyists: "if you're not at the table, you're on the menu."
But let us not forget that even when private firms can bring immense amounts of resources to
bear for purposes of influencing public policy and negotiating with bureaucrats: the regime
itself ultimately holds the advantage. No private firm in the world has the resources to ignore
or veto the wishes of the regime's army of regulatory, prosecutors, and tax collectors. No
private firm enjoys anything approaching the coercive monopoly power of the state.
But this doesn't mean those firms can't share in this power. And that's very often what
happens. Faced with a "join us or be destroyed" ultimatum from federal regulators or lawmakers,
most private firms choose the "join us" option. Of course, many smaller firms aren't even
offered the choice.
Tillyoudrop 9 minutes ago (Edited)
Wwwwrong.
BIG BUSINESS is the Regime, they own this fxxxing place, and they control you by the
balls.
AriusArmenian 3 minutes ago remove link
All the major social media companies in the US were funded and controlled by the CIA
from startup.
There is not a future end-game - it has been the CIA's agenda from the beginning.
The CIA along with Watt Street and the MIC owns and controls the US from top to bottom -
and they intend for the lumpen white people to fall on their swords. This is all to the
interests of the rich and powerful button pushers. I pity the young people like idiots so
easily used by the elites.
freedommusic 10 minutes ago
Well when DARPA, the DOD, CIA, et al, created your company what choice do you have?
What did you think this company is YOURS Mr Z?
We created LifeLog with The Peoples money, handed it
over to you so there is plausible deniability, and are now weaponizing this data against
the very people who have funded it.
Welcome to the MO of monolithic government.
bunnyswanson 1 minute ago
Big Business is the regime. Unfair competition is the name of their game. Monopolizing
their industry is their goal. Oversight committees should have stopped them but simple men
who define themselves by what they own sell out eagerly.
C urious it was to
read that the Russian judiciary ruled last Wednesday that Alexei Navalny's political
network is an extremist movement. Its members should be grateful that the courts recognized it
as a movement, given Navalny's nationwide support has never exceeded 3 percent or so, but on
paper they are now liable to arrest and prosecution and, if convicted of one or another charge,
could be fined or imprisoned.
There have been no arrests, so far as has been reported. But think of all those chances
Western intel agencies and their clerks in the press may now have to lionize a new cohort of
oppositionists as Navalny's heroic followers. Let us not forget, a kooky poseur journalist
named Oleg Kashin had the nerve to call Navalny "Russia's true leader" in a recent
New York Timesopinion piece.
There is no limit to the silliness in all matters Russian, it seems. At least not at the
Times .
I say "curious" because, in the ordinary conduct of statecraft as we have had it for the
past seven decades, the Moscow's court's ruling, exactly a week prior to President Joe Biden's
first summit with President Vladimir Putin, would have to be counted obtuse. Wouldn't minding
one's manners -- especially given that the Navalny network's significance resides solely in the
minds and news pages of Western propagandists -- be the wise course?
I don't think so. I have no clue as to the independence or otherwise of the Russian
judiciary, but it is unthinkable the Russian leader did not know in advance of what the courts
were about to determine. I think Russia was indeed minding its manners -- a different and
altogether more honorable set of manners than American pols and diplomats have exhibited lo
these many decades.
In a sensible read, the court ruling was a calculated gesture in response to Biden's
commitment,
announced during a Memorial Day speech, to confront Putin in Geneva on June 16 with the
question of human rights in the Russian Federation. "We will not stand by and let him abuse
those rights," saith the man from Scranton.
We will not stand by, Moscow replied in so many words, as you grandstand at Russia's
expense. Recall in this connection, Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, has lately made
it a habit to note
that Moscow is monitoring human rights in the U.S. since the Jan. 6 protests at the Capitol.
"We have no taboo topics," Lavrov said in evident response to Biden's speech. "We will discuss
whatever we think is necessary."
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, and President Vladimir Putin meeting with
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, 2017. (President of Russia)
It would be very wrong to take this matter as a passing spat as the Russian and American
presidents find their feet with one another. In my view, the court judgment last week and
Lavrov's remarks on human rights as a two-way street make the Geneva encounter far more
important than it may have otherwise turned out to be.
Five Principles
To understand this, we must go back and back and back some more until we reach the early
1950s, when newly independent India and newly socialist China were working out how two very
large neighbors ought best to conduct their relations. It was while negotiating a bilateral
agreement on this question in 1953 that Zhou Enlai, Mao's cultured, subtle, farsighted premier,
first articulated his Five Principles, the ethical code by which the People's Republic would
conduct its relations with all nations.
These were incorporated into the Sino–Indian Agreement of 1954 and have been
justifiably well-known since. Note that four of the five have to do with respectful conduct and
parity:
– Mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty;
– Mutual nonaggression;
– Noninterference in the internal affairs of other nations;
– Equality and mutual benefit among nations;
– Peaceful coexistence.
A year after New Delhi and Beijing signed their accord, Zhou's principles were reiterated at
the historically monumental conference of nonaligned nations Sukarno hosted at an Indonesian
hill station called Bandung. When the Non–Aligned Movement was formally constituted six
years after that, the Five Principles effectively became the non–West's statement -- of
aspiration, of intent -- to the West: This is what we have to offer the postcolonial world, the
NAM said in so many words. This is our contribution to a new and peaceable world order. This is
how we will manage our relations with others.
The Grand Mosque of Bandung, Indonesia, with its twin minarets, adjacent to the city square
in Asia-Afrika Street, 2008. (Prayudi Setiadharma, Wikimedia Commons)
The United States never had any time for the NAM. As readers of a certain age will recall,
it dismissed the movement, with-us-or-against-us style, as a badly dressed bunch of
crypto–Communists or Soviet dupes. The decades since are an easy lesson in why Washington
took this utterly awful position: It has not once, not in any given year, observed even one of
Zhou's principles. It has always, in any given year, abused all five.
Vladimir Putin
One may admire or detest Vladimir Putin, but he is undeniably possessed of an excellent
grasp of history, as many of his speeches attest. I doubt he thinks very specifically about the
NAM or Zhou's principles, but, without naming them, these are what he will have on the table
when he meets Joe Biden.
This is the meaning of the oddly timed court judgment against Navalny's apparatus and the
message Lavrov conveyed in response to Biden's Memorial Day speech: Internal affairs are to be
resolved internally.
Geneva will mark the start of a long and welcome process. Its importance will lie in its
formalization of a stance Russia -- and China, too -- have adopted since those two
catastrophically stupid mistakes Biden and Secretary of State Blinken made last March, when
Biden called Putin a murderer and tin-eared Blinken hollowly lectured the Chinese about human
rights and democracy.
President Joe Biden in Oval Office, April 27. (White House, Adam Schultz)
Beijing and Moscow have ever since stiffened their backs toward the U.S., giving as good as
they get on all the questions with which Washington customarily browbeats others.
If we have begun a process, where will it lead? In my read to an excellent place, where
nations mind the better set of manners noted above -- Zhou Enlai's manners, let us say.
Before this century is out, and very possibly before the midway mark, Zhou's Five Principles
stand to become the norm in international relations. Zhou's true topic was parity between West
and non–West. This will be achieved, and strange it is that the opening months of the
Biden administration have opened us to this salutary prospect. The U.S. will otherwise lead us
all into an egregiously messy period of history, and I do not think rising powers -- Russia,
China, India, others -- will find this acceptable.
One other matter must be clarified as Geneva approaches.
I do not know the merits of the case against Navalny or, since last week, the ruling against
his followers. But I have always found it curious that The New York Times and the other
major dailies recite as rote that Navalny and his people consider the two charges of
embezzlement (and the two convictions) that put him in jail in the first place to be "trumped
up" or "politically motivated." Why doesn't the Times ' Moscow bureau do the gumshoe
work and inform readers whether or not this is so?
True, Times ' Moscow correspondents are among the worst in my lifetime, but this kind
of kabuki requires one to consider carefully whether the charges are indeed legitimate.
My read: The legal case against Navalny probably holds water, and the American press uses the
power of omission to avoid acknowledging this.
Pitiful, if this is the case.
The larger point here: We must learn to put all such questions aside in contexts such as we
have now in U.S.–Russia relations. Anyone who has ever been in a Marxist reading group
knows the importance of distinguishing between primary and secondary contradictions. Let us not
forget the essential lesson, no matter anyone's political stripe.
What is the primary contradiction here? It is Washington's refusal to observe the principles
of noninterference and sovereignty, and it is vital far, far beyond bilateral relations that
Russia defends these. The Navalny case and the associated matter of human rights are, plainly
and simply, a secondary contradiction -- and one it is imperative to leave to Russians to
resolve.
Geneva in June, a rather nice place to be. Let us see if Biden and Putin mind their manners
-- and whose manners these turn out to be.
Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International
Herald Tribune , is a columnist, essayist, author and lecturer. His most recent book is
Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century . Follow him on Twitter @thefloutist . His web site is Patrick Lawrence . Support his work via
his Patreon site .
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those
of Consortium News .
Reddit is one of the world's most influential news and social media platforms. The website
attracted
over 1.2 billion visits in April 2021 alone, making it the United States' eighth most visited
site, ahead of other leviathans like Twitter, Instagram and eBay. Now majority-owned by a much
larger corporate publishing empire, Reddit is also far ahead of more established news sites,
garnering three times the numbers of Fox News and five times those of The New York
Times .
That is why it was so surprising that so little was made of the company's decision to
appoint foreign policy hawk Jessica Ashooh to the position of Director of Policy in 2017, at
which time it was also the eight most visited site in the U.S. Ashooh, who had been a Middle
East foreign policy wonk at NATO's think tank the Atlantic Council, was appointed at around the
same time that the Senate Select Intelligence Committee was
demanding more control over the popular website, on the grounds that it was being used to
spread disinformation. In her role as Director of Policy, she oversees all government relations
and public policy for the company, in addition to managing content, product and advertising.
Yet a Google search for "Jessica Ashooh Reddit" filtered between late 2016 and early 2017
(after she was appointed) elicits
zero relevant results, meaning not one media outlet even mentioned the questionable
appointment.
This is all the more hair-raising, given her resume as a high state official -- all of which
raises serious questions about the extent of collaboration between Silicon Valley and the
national security state.
A hawk's talons on Syria
The Atlantic Council is the de-facto brains of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and
takes
funding from the military alliance, as well as from the U.S. government, the U.S. military,
Middle Eastern dictatorships, other Western governments, big tech companies, and weapons
manufacturers. Its board of directors has been and
continues to be a who's who of high U.S. statespeople like Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and
Condoleezza Rice, as well as senior military commanders such as retired generals Wesley Clark,
David Petraeus, H.R. McMaster, James "Mad Dog" Mattis, the late Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, and
Admiral James Stavridis. At least seven former CIA directors are also on the board. As such,
the council chooses to represent both political wings of the national security
state.
Ashooh's LinkedIn resume epitomizes the troubling relantionship between think tanks and big
tech
Between 2015 and 2017, Ashooh was Deputy Director of the Atlantic Council's Middle East
Strategy Task Force, working directly with and under Madeline Albright and Stephen Hadley. This
is particularly noteworthy, given both these individuals' roles in the region. As Bill
Clinton's secretary of state, Albright oversaw the Iraq sanctions and the Oil for Food Program,
denounced as "genocide" by the
successive United Nations diplomats charged with
carrying them out. In an infamous interview with 60 Minutes , Albright casually brushed
off a question about her role in the killing of half a million children,
stating "the price is worth it." Meanwhile, Hadley was deputy or senior national security
advisor to the government of George W. Bush throughout the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions,
surely the greatest crimes against humanity thus far in the 21st century.
Ashooh appears to be as hawkish as her bosses. Her particular area of expertise is the war
in Syria, regarding which she has been among the most belligerent voices, constantly calling
for more American intervention to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad. In a 2015
interview with Al
Jazeera , she praised the U.K. government's decision to bomb the country, claiming that the
British public was "coming around" to the idea of war. A shocked interviewer asked "how will
the British airstrikes [on] Syria make the British public any safer?" Ashooh replied that it
was "generally a positive decision" because "it goes a long way in improving international
consensus on the way forward on Syria," although she lamented that there wouldn't be "much
improvement in the situation without ground troops." There will be "no political solution
without a military element," she predicted, essentially making the pitch for war.
Ashooh has also constantly praised and supported Syria's opposition forces. In 2016, she
said that she was
very happy that "fighters on the ground from a number of key factions" were uniting against the
"Assad regime." She condemned Russia for claiming these opposition forces were members of
terrorist groups like Al-Nusra, Jaysh al-Islam or ISIS, insisting that these were "moderate"
rebels.
Of course, the idea that there was still any measurable distance between "moderate" rebels
and outright militant jihadists by 2016 was
hard to maintain . Even The Washington Post by this time was
admitting as much, noting that so-called moderates were now so "intermingled" with al-Nusra
that it was difficult to tell them apart.
Nevertheless, the New Hampshire native took to the pages of The New York Times to
demand that the U.S. arm the opposition. Of course, it was already doing so, the CIA
spending
$1 billion per year fielding rebel mercenary armies in the conflict -- with one in every 15
dollars the agency
spent going to this endeavor. All of this Ashooh surely knew, yet she maintained that the
West must continue to "jack up the price" of Russia defending Assad. "As long as [Assad]
remains in power and remains the figurehead of the Syrian government this conflict won't end,"
she said , laying out
her regime-change-or-bust position. Just weeks before unexpectedly taking over at Reddit,
Ashooh seemed to still be in full foreign-policy-hawk mode, condemning Obama in the pages of
The Washington Post for his apparent softness on Syria and
demanding that Trump "restore U.S. credibility" by "order[ing] targeted, punitive strikes
against the Assad regime."
Ashooh attends British Polo Day at Abu Dhabi's Ghantoot Racing and Polo Club. Photo | Ahlan
Dirty war, dirty warrior
Ashooh is actually even more involved in the Syrian conflict than one might realize from her
hawkish opinions alone. Between 2011 and 2015, she worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the United Arab Emirates, in her own words , "[p]rovid[ing] senior decision
makers with policy analysis and strategic advice, with a particular focus on Syria."
At that time the UAE was using its enormous financial clout to arm and fund a myriad of
jihadist groups attempting to overthow the secular strongman Assad and establish some kind of
Islamic state. Far from a conspiracy theory, this comes straight from the horse's mouth, as
then-Vice President Joe Biden revealed in a Q&A session in 2014. The future president
frankly stated :
The Saudis, the Emiratis, what were they doing? They poured hundreds of millions of
dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad,
except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra and al-Qaeda and the extremist
elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world. "
Under pressure, he later apologized
for his loose lips.
MintPress News asked the Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs to comment on precisely
what Ashooh's role was, but they failed to respond.
Ashooh is pictured during her time as a "consultant" in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo |
Academyalumni
Ashooh herself appears to have been a relatively major player in the Syrian Civil War. In
her previously mentioned Washington Post
article , she notes that her boss was a former Emirati Air Force General and that she was
flown to Istanbul in 2013 to attend an emergency meeting with leaders of the Syrian opposition,
as well as ambassadors from unnamed Arab and Western states, in order to plan a response to a
reported chemical weapons attack and to help the U.S. "coordinate with the Syrian
opposition."
At the same time as she was advising the nation on Middle Eastern affairs, the UAE was
widely accused of flying ISIS and al-Qaeda leaders into Yemen to help them intensify the
Saudi-led onslaught on the impoverished nation and of smuggling
U.S.-made weaponry -- including small arms, TOW missiles and Oshkosh fighting vehicles -- to
the jihadist groups. While Ashooh's writing is careful to maintain a distinction between the
"moderate" rebels she supports and the fundamentalist radicals she does not, it certainly is
noteworthy that the entities she worked for consistently seem to end up in league with the most
regressive forces in the region. MintPress also reached out to Reddit for comment on why
they appointed Ashooh, given her past history, and on the wider phenomenon of government
penetration of social media. The company initially promised to issue a response to the inquiry
but has not followed through with it.
Regime change is on the table for more than just one Middle Eastern nation. In a 2017
paper for the
Center for the National Interest -- a think tank established by former Republican President
Richard Nixon and the "Godfather of Neoconservatism,"
Irving Kristol -- Ashooh explores the different options for forcing regime change in Iran,
but concludes that overthrowing the "odious regime" is an impossible task right now, and
criticizes the idea as a quixotic dream.
Nevertheless, she is far from an Iran dove. An Atlantic Council report
she co-wrote insists that "Iranian interference in the Arab world must be deterred," and that
"America's friends and partners must be reassured that the U.S. opposes Iranian hegemony and
will work with them to prevent it."
Ashooh's commitment to fighting against Middle Eastern dictatorships might seem more
principled if she did not appear so enamored of the least democratic one of them all. In 2016,
she accompanied Albright and Hadley to Saudi Arabia and praised the monarchy's dynamic
leadership on the economy and its nurturing of a new generation. "It was really really exciting
to see that level of energy and the level of government support for these young people who were
interested in shaping their own futures it was just wonderful," she
said . In an
article about her experience for business news website Market Watch , she waxed
lyrical about how forward-thinking the Saudi government is and how the country has become "a
hub for the dynamic and positive change that is swelling up throughout the region." Presumably,
this excludes Yemen, a nation they were bombing
relentlessly . In a 2020
interview , Ashooh revealed that her dream job would be U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
One of her
earliest comments on her public Reddit page (made before she began working
there) is deflecting the Kingdom from criticism of its dreadful
treatment of women.
Ashooh's Reddit account, which doesn't identify her real identity, uses the moniker,
arabscarab
As part of the Atlantic Council, Ashooh was tasked with envisaging a new Middle East for the
21st century. Given her output
, it seems that she advocates for a transition towards a more privatized, free-market economic
setup, not completely unlike the shock therapy tried in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s.
"We have to "encourage states to make the reforms that move economies from state-based to ones
that support entrepreneurship, because the age of state-based economies is over," she
said at a
talk at New York University in 2015, adding:
You've got to move to support entrepreneurship in the region and let people take advantage
of the natural industrial tendencies of people in the Middle East. My God, if you've ever
been to a Turkish bazaar or a market in Cairo you know that these countries are perfectly
capable of having functioning market economies. But the state has gotten in the way.
Ashooh's LinkedIn
profile also notes that in 2010, she worked as an advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Planning "on
a variety of strategic and economic development issues," but does not go into any more detail
about what those issues were. A further biography merely states that her
consultancy agency "provid[ed] strategic and management consulting services to the Ministry of
Planning of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Northern Iraq." Unsurprisingly, the
organization has links to the U.S. military; the agency's lead partner being a former Army
captain.
Think Tankie
Ashooh comes from a relatively prominent New Hampshire family of Lebanese descent, the most
notable of which is probably her uncle Richard . Richard Ashooh was Donald
Trump's Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration and a former executive at weapons
manufacturer BAE Systems. Unlike her uncle, Jessica appears to lean more Democratic, having
donated money to a number of local politicians, as well as to anti-Trump Republican groups
aimed at convincing them to vote blue, such as Right Side PAC and the now infamous Lincoln
Project. However, she also appears to have great respect for many Republicans, having written
her
doctoral thesis at Oxford University on the Middle East policy of the George W. Bush
administration. She also
stated that the person she would have most liked to have met was 41st President George Bush
Senior, describing him as possessing "incredible amounts of strategy, finesse and restraint."
Thus, her political views appear to be exactly in the center of the neoliberal "
blob " in Washington.
Ashooh also worked
for the right-wing think tank the CATO Institute and is a Term Member of the more
Democratic-aligned Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The CFR's term member program is
intended to, in its own words, "cultivate the next generation of foreign policy
leaders."
Surveillance Valley
How and why, then, did a hawkish young mandarin hothoused at elite universities and in the
halls of state power end up an executive at an anarchic messageboard site with an
anti-establishment reputation? Virtually everyone else in senior roles at Reddit has relevant
backgrounds in marketing or tech, having worked with comparable companies such as Yelp, Expedia
and Snapchat.
Tom Secker -- a journalist, podcaster and
researcher who runs SpyCulture.com ,
an online archive about government involvement in the entertainment industry -- was deeply
skeptical. "That someone whose entire career has been in international relations and foreign
affairs is now the senior policy wonk at Reddit is simply bizarre. Given her ties to the CFR,
Atlantic Council and the like, it's downright suspicious," Secker told MintPress .
Underneath the surface, however, the Atlantic Council has been rapidly expanding its
influence and control over big social media companies. In 2018, it announced that it would be
partnering with Facebook to promote trustworthy sources and derank, demote and even delete low
quality or fake news, thus effectively curating what the platform's
2.85 billion worldwide users see in their news feeds. But the effect of recent algorithmic
changes has been to throttle alternative media traffic in favor of establishment sources such
as CNN , Fox News and The New York Times . Even such more mainstream
liberal sites as Mother Jones have seen their numbers crater. Facebook later
admitted that they were directly targeting Mother Jones because of its left-leaning
content, raising the question that if such a middle-of-the-road liberal outlet was being
penalized, wasn't the collapse in traffic to more radical publications surely deliberate? Given
the Atlantic Council's funding and the identities of those on its board , their control over
social media is tantamount to state censorship on a global level.
Earlier this year, Facebook also hired NATO press officer Ben Nimmo to be its intelligence
chief, in another move that
dismayed free-speech advocates. In the past, Nimmo has identified a Welsh pensioner and an
internationally known Ukranian pianist as Russian bots, raising more questions about the
suitability of the Atlantic Council to be an arbiter of truth online.
The Facebook-Atlantic Council link mirrors that of Microsoft with
NewsGuard , a new piece of software purportedly trying to fight fake news by placing either
green shields or red warning logos, corresponding to an outlet's credibility, beside all links
in its browser, Microsoft Edge -- this credibility being decided entirely by NewsGuard itself.
Newsguard pushed Microsoft to install the software on all its products as standard. Again,
however, NewsGuard's system rated establishment websites like Fox News and CNN as
trustworthy but independent media as suspect. And again, a glance at its advisory board makes it clear that
this is a state operation. Those in key positions included George W. Bush's Secretary of
Homeland Security and former NSA and CIA Director General Michael Hayden; ex-White House
Communications Director Don Baer; and former Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Worse still, NewsGuard is also linked to a PR agency
employed in whitewashing the Saudi
government's human-rights record and its role in the carnage in Yemen.
Twitter, too, has some extremely troubling links with state power. In 2019 Gordon MacMillan,
a senior Twitter executive responsible for the Middle East region, was
outed as an active duty officer in the British Army's 77th Brigade, a unit dedicated to
online operations and psychological warfare. Far from causing a scandal, only one major U.S.
outlet even mentioned
the story, and the journalist in question resigned from the profession weeks later,
claiming the existence of a network of top-down state censors who quash stories that
threaten the power and prestige of the national security state. To this day, MacMillan remains
in his post at Twitter, strongly suggesting the social media company knew of his role before he
was hired.
Over the past few years, Twitter, Reddit and Facebook have
announced the deletion of hundreds of thousands of accounts linked to sources in Russia,
Iran, China and other enemy states,
often on the recommendation of Western governments or state-sponsored intelligence
organizations. However, they never seem willing or able to find any manipulation of their
platforms by Western governments. Thus, the upshot of this has been to slowly dissuade critics
of Western foreign policy from using their services.
"The mainstream media-politik establishment has managed to get a hold over Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram -- shadow-banning and downrating posts considered 'Russian propaganda' or
whatever other excuse they use to marginalize perspectives and content outside of the
mainstream," Secker told MintPress . "Audiences for this sort of content are
increasingly pissed off and alienated by the major social media sites."
Increasingly, unwelcome political voices are either brushed off by centrist pundits as
repeating Russian talking points or smeared as being amplified by Kremlin-based bot farms. The
popularity of movements on the left like
Black Lives Matter or the Bernie
Sanders' campaign were written off as partially linked to Russia, while others
suggested that the January 6 insurrection in Washington was essentially a Russian
operation.
The irony is that many of the wildest accusations against Putin that have fed this climate
of suspicion began life in Atlantic Council documents. For example, the organization has
published a series
of studies that suggest that virtually every European political party challenging the
neoliberal status quo in some way -- from Labour and UKIP in the U.K. to Syriza and Golden Dawn
in Greece and PODEMOS and Vox in Spain -- are secretly controlled by Russia, functioning as the
"Kremlin's Trojan Horses," in its words.
The Atlantic Council is also deeply intertwined with a U.K. government-funded organization
called the Integrity Initiative, something that purports to be a group defending democracy from
disinformation. However, in practice, it appears to be doing the opposite: planting
disinformation about politicians' supposed links to Russia in order to undermine them. The
Integrity Initiative is a government-backed cluster of journalists who operate in unison to
conduct propaganda blitzes on
unsuspecting publics. In 2018, it
launched a successful operation to prevent Colonel Pedro Baños being appointed
Spain's head of national security. Considering Baños too soft on Russia for the Atlantic
Council and other hawks' liking, the initiative sprung into action, creating a storm of protest
that led to another individual being chosen.
Reddit actually played a key role in a 2019 propaganda blitz against anti-war Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn. A few days before the U.K.'s general election, Corbyn promoted documents leaked
on the platform that showed that Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson was negotiating with
American companies, putting much of the country's National Health Service up for sale. With
just days to go before polls opened, it could have proved a game changer. Reddit quickly came
to Johnson's rescue, however,
asserting that the documents were part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The story in
the pliant British press switched from "Boris Johnson is selling off the NHS" to "Corbyn
promotes Russian disinfo," thus greasing the skids for an easy victory for the hardline
anti-Russia Conservative Party, an outcome the hawks at the Atlantic Council were no doubt
relieved by, given Corbyn's open skepticism about war, empire and nuclear weapons. The veracity
of the documents was not challenged.
For a while
Founded in 2005, Reddit has grown to become one of the world's largest and most influential
websites. However, it began life as an anarchistic messageboard whose culture was profoundly
libertarian and anti-establishment. For years, the company's administrators took a near free
speech absolutist position. Aaron Swartz, Reddit's co-founder, was an open source hacktivist
and even attempted to download and publish the entirety of academic publisher Jstor's library.
When authorities got wind of what he was doing, they threatened him with 40 years in prison, an
action that caused him to take his own life in 2013.
Reddit's own position on free information and free speech was often so extreme it caused
huge controversy. The site became the internet's largest source of child pornography. It was
only after CNN began reporting on it to a nationwide audience that
things began to change. Other, grossly offensive communities like /r/BeatingWomen and
/r/CoonTown were also protected.
Nevertheless, the culture established by anarchistic tech bros remained for some years, with
the site resembling darker corners of the internet like 4Chan and 8Chan as much as more
family-friendly mainstream social media like Facebook.
Ashooh's arrival in 2017 coincided with a new era in the site's history. Gone were the days
of protecting communities that would bring in bad publicity. Her team quickly
brought in a new content policy and began to delete communities that violated it. Last
year, she oversaw the banning of over
2,000 communities in a single day, including /r/The_Donald, the main Donald Trump
subreddit, and /r/ChapoTrapHouse, the most active left-wing community. These decisions have
helped the money flow in; since 2017 revenue has more than tripled .
However, what has been lost across the internet is the liberatory potential of these
technologies. In the 1990s and 2000s, many predicted that the internet would usher in a new era
of egalitarianism and genuine democracy, helping even to reduce barriers and tensions between
nations. For a while, the new medium allowed political actors to challenge the status quo and
gain huge followings quickly. Alternative media was easily outperforming legacy media, and
challenging the status quo when it came to news. Seeing that, the reaction since 2016 has been
swift, as the elite have moved to retighten their grip over the means of communication.
Ashooh's jump from national security state official to Reddit Director of Policy is just one
more point of reference on that chart.
NBC pushed regular neocon garbage, so it is not very interesting interview. We saw better
executed similar attempts to attack Putin in the past. The guy is really second rate: too pushy,
too opinioned to be a good interviewer. He really is not interested in Putin opinions, he need to
push the agenda of his handlers. He demonstrated zero respect as if Russia is a US vassal (it was
in 1990 under alcoholic Yeltsin) . In other words he is a regular Pressitute. This neocon pushed
the label killer on Putin, while this label is appropritate to any recent US presendent to much
greater measure. Just look at how many people were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in attempt to
achive "full spectrum Dominance" and enhance andcement global neoliberal empire. But some moments
when Putin destroyed neocon agenda are pretty educational.
Russian President Vladimir Putin this week sat down for an interview with a US media outlet
for the first time in nearly three years . NBC's Keir Simmons talked to Putin for about 90
minutes, and released a teaser segment Friday night.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the conversation centered on the Russian leader's
perspective on American politics and his personal thoughts and comparison of Donald Trump and
Joe Biden. Putin called the former president "extraordinary" and "talented" while noting that
Biden is "radically different" and is a quintessential "career man" in politics .
https://www.youtube.com/embed/oh_obIUJ7HA
"Well even now, I believe that former U.S. president Mr. Trump is an extraordinary
individual, talented individual, otherwise he would not have become U.S. President," Putin told
Simmons.
" He is a colorful individual. You may like him or not. And, but he didn't come from the
US establishment, he had not been part of big time politics before , and some like it some
don't like it but that is a fact."
"...President Biden is a career man. He has spent virtually his entire adulthood in
politics," Putin said in part.
"That's a different kind of person, and it is my great hope that yes, there are some
advantages, some disadvantages, but there will not be any impulse-based movements, on behalf
of the sitting U.S. president."
Also interesting is Putin's response to the March George Stephanopoulos interview with Biden
wherein the US President dubbed Putin a "killer" with "no soul". Putin responded in this new
NBC clip:
"Over my tenure, I've gotten used to attacks from all kinds of angles and from all kinds
of areas under all kinds of pretext, and reasons and of different caliber and fierceness and
none of it surprises me."
Putin called the "killer" label "Hollywood macho."
Putin also took aim at a recent
Washington Post report over Russia-Iranian military relations and the transfer of advanced
satellite systems. "It's just fake news," Putin dismissed. "At the very least, I don't know
anything about this kind of thing. Those who are speaking about it probably will maybe know
more about it. It's just nonsense, garbage."
activisor 2 hours ago
Funny how Putin has become leader of the free world! He and Lavrov are streets ahead
of the rest, and have massive support outside Russia based on their common sense approach
to world events. He will be hard to replace.
yerfej 2 hours ago
EVERYONE with common sense realize Putin is the ONLY current leader who gives a ****
about his country and people and is willing to cooperate with any country that isn't
wandering around the globe looking to tell everyone else what they can say or do or
think.
No_Pretzel_Logic 2 hours ago
How fascinating that you speak for "everyone" with common sense. That's quite a
skill.
Do tell us about the responses from people you've polled in the Scandinavian
countries, Poland, UK, France, etc.?
George Bush League 2 hours ago
You can start by not being such an pathetic condescending azzhole.
smellmyfingers 54 minutes ago
Putin, articulate, intelligent, answers without a teleprompter and without babbling or
stumbling.
Is he perfect? Obviously not nor is he a messiah. But I'd bet people have more
confidence in him out in front than the corruption and lies the USA and many other
western nations have that are completely compromised.
chunga 2 hours ago remove link
Dmitry Orlov has got some interesting translations from Putin at the thing in St.
Petersburg.
President Vladimir Putin said Russia doesn't want to stop using the dollar as he accused the
U.S. of exploiting the currency's dominance for sanctions and warned the policy may rebound on
Washington.
Russia has to adopt other payment methods because the U.S. "uses its national currency for
various kinds of sanctions," Putin said late Friday in St. Petersburg at a videoconference with
representatives of international media organizations. "We don't do this deliberately, we are
forced to do it."
Settlements in national currencies with other countries in areas such as defense sales and
reductions in foreign-exchange reserves held in dollars eventually will damage the U.S. as the
greenback's dominance declines, Putin said. "Why do U.S. political authorities do this? They're
sawing the branch on which they sit," he said.
Putin spoke a day after Russia announced it will eliminate the dollar from its oil fund to
reduce vulnerability to sanctions, a largely symbolic move as the switch in holdings will take
place within the central bank's reserves. Russia has tried with limited success to shift away
from the dollar for years amid international sanctions over Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea
and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, as well as for alleged cyber attacks, election
meddling and espionage operations.
The Russian leader's comments came ahead of his first summit meeting with U.S. President Joe
Biden in Geneva on June 16. While he praised Biden as one of the world's most experienced
leaders, Putin said he expects no breakthrough in relations with the U.S. at the talks.
And he offered a warning at Friday's meeting for the U.S., based on what he said was his own
experiences "as a former citizen of the former Soviet Union."
"The problem with empires is that they think they can afford small errors and mistakes,"
which gradually accumulate, Putin said. "There comes a time when they can no longer be dealt
with. And the U.S., with a confident step, a confident gait, a firm step, is walking straight
along the path of the Soviet Union."
Sanctions are the "gentlemanly" neo-imperial language of gunboat diplomacy, never better
expressed than the attempts of the British government in the early 1950s to discipline a newly
democratic Iran. First the British Labour Government, then a Conservative government under a
splenetic Churchill, tried to put a halt to the runaway popularity of Mohammed Mossadegh, prime
minister of Iran, and his policy to shut down the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and nationalize
Iran's own oil. The British sabotaged their own company, refused to distribute the oil, and did
everything else they could to impoverish Iran. This was only after the AIOC had refused to
budge from its insistence on taking practically all of the profits and to refrain from treating
Iranian oil workers as subhuman. Ironically, the British needed AIOC money to finance their own
program of industrial nationalization and the welfare state. As is so often the case, the
"sanctions" merely hardened anti-imperial sentiment, and were succeeded by a joint US-UK
directed regime-change coup d'etat
None of this need suggest a diminution in the importance of national sovereignty. Sovereign
nations should be free to trade with whomsoever they choose, to protect which domestic
industries they consider worthy of protection. That is their right. They also have the right to
enter into trade agreements with others for the purpose of regulating the conditions of trade
between them, provided that they enter into such agreements without duress, bribery or
punishment.
Questions of Definition
The Council for Foreign Relations (CFR) explains that sanctions have become one of the most
favored tools for governments to respond to foreign policy challenges. The term sanctions
can refer to travel bans, asset freezes, arms embargoes, capital restraints, foreign aid
reductions, and trade restrictions, and represent efforts to coerce, deter, punish, or shame
entities that are considered by those who wield them to endanger their interests. They are
generally viewed as a lower-cost, lower-risk course of action in calculations that balance
diplomacy against war. Yet sanctions can be just as devasting in terms of loss of human life.
They may be particularly attractive in the case of policy responses to foreign crises in which
national interest is considered less than vital, or where military action is not feasible.
Sanctions that blanket entire populations generally do most damage to poorer and more
vulnerable social strata, who lack the means to avoid or compensate for their consequences. The
USA has more than two dozen sanctions regimes. Some target specific countries such as Cuba and
Iran, others target specific categories of person or institution or even specific named
individuals. Sanctions have been used in efforts of counterterrorism, counter-narcotics,
nonproliferation, democracy and human rights promotion, conflict resolution, and cybersecurity.
They are frequently applied as a form of punishment or reprisal for behavior in which it is
alleged that the target has engaged and of which the applying entity disapproves.
In the case of the UN Security Council sanctions resolutions must pass the fifteen-member
council by a majority vote and without a veto from any of the five permanent members: the
United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom. The most common types of UN
sanctions, binding for all member states, are asset freezes, travel bans, and arms embargoes.
The UN relies on member states for enforcement, with all the idiosyncrasies and abuses that
this entails. The council-imposed sanctions against Southern Rhodesia in 1966 were intended to
undermine Ian Smith's white supremacist regime and were followed in 1977 by another set of
comprehensive UN sanctions against apartheid South Africa. They have been applied more than
twenty times since 1990 against targeting parties to an intrastate conflict, as in Somalia,
Liberia, and Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The European Union imposes sanctions as part of its Common Foreign and Security Policy. They
must receive unanimous consent from member states in the Council of the European Union, the
body that represents EU leaders. The EU has levied its sanctions more than thirty times.
Individual EU states may also impose harsher sanctions independently within their national
jurisdiction.
The USA resorts to economic and financial sanctions more than any other country. Presidents
may issue an executive order that declares a national emergency and invokes special powers to
regulate commerce for a period of one year, unless extended by the president or terminated by a
joint resolution of Congress. Most of the more than fifty states of emergency declared by
Congress remain in effect today. Congress may pass legislation imposing new sanctions or
modifying existing ones.
In 2019, the United States had comprehensive sanctions regimes on Cuba, North Korea, Iran,
Sudan, and Syria, as well as more than a dozen other programs targeting individuals and
entities (currently some 6,000). Existing U.S. sanctions programs are administered by the
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), while other departments,
including State, Commerce, Homeland Security, and Justice, may also play an integral role. The
secretary of state can designate a group a foreign terrorist organization or label a country a
state sponsor of terrorism, both of which have sanctions implications. State and local
authorities may also contribute to enforcement efforts.
The practice of sanctions received a significant boost with the formation of the World Trade
Organization, which recognizes the legitimacy of sanctions as a response to the failure of
parties in a trade dispute to reach agreement on satisfactory compensation. A complainant may
ask the Dispute
Settlement Body for permission to impose trade sanctions against the respondent that has
failed to implement. The complainant's retaliatory response may not go beyond the level of the
harm caused by the respondent. The complainant should first seek to suspend obligations in the
same sector as that in which the violation or other nullification or impairment was found,
unless the complainant considers it impracticable or ineffective to remain within the same
sector The complainant is allowed countermeasures that are in effect and would in other
circumstances be inconsistent with the WTO Agreement. In other words, the result is that a
complainant responds to one trade barrier with another trade barrier, contrary to the
liberalization philosophy underlying the WTO. Such measures are nearly always harmful for both
the complainant and the target. Although such retaliation requires prior approval by the DSB 1,
the countermeasures are applied selectively by one Member against another. The suspension of
obligations is temporary and the DSB is obligated to maintain a review of the situation for as
long as there is no implementation. The suspension must be revoked once the Member concerned
has fully complied with the DSB's recommendations and rulings.
In a 2019 decision
the WTO allowed China to impose trade sanctions on $3.6 billion of American goods on the
grounds that the USA had not followed WTO rules in the way it imposed duties on what it
regarded as unfairly cheap Chinese goods. The ruling concluded a case that China brought
against the USA in 2013 that stemmed from levies placed on more than 40 Chinese goods. At issue
were subsidies that the USA accused China of providing to its companies so that they can sell
goods more cheaply overseas.
The case touched on some of the deep politics of neoliberalism for which the WTO is supreme
icon, and which make the very notion of sanctions problematic as evidenced in frequent
criticisms of the WTO . These are that free trade benefits developed countries more than
developing countries; that countries should trade without discrimination means a local firm is
not allowed to favor local contractors, giving an unfair advantage to multinational companies
and imposing costs for local firms; ; it is important that nations be allowed to assist in the
diversification of their economies and not be penalized for favoring emerging industries; free
trade is not equally sought across different industries "" notably, both the US and EU retain
high tariffs on agriculture, which hurts farmers in developing economies; principles of free
trade often ignore environmental considerations, considerations of labor equity and cultural
diversity.
After 9/11 "" still one of the least understood events in modern history "" and amidst the
subsequent US invasions of the sovereign countries of Afghanistan and Iraq, and
de-stabilization of many others (including Libya, Syria, Ukraine), the USA set about disrupting
what it deemed the financial infrastructure supporting terrorists and international criminals,
(but not including the USA itself). The Patriot Act awarded Treasury Department officials
far-reaching authority to freeze the assets and financial transactions of individuals and other
entities suspected of supporting terrorism, and broad powers to designate foreign jurisdictions
and financial institutions as "primary money laundering concerns." Treasury needs only a
reasonable suspicion""not necessarily any evidence""to target entities under these laws. The
centrality of New York and the dollar to the global financial system means these U.S. policies
are felt globally. Penalties for sanctions violations can be huge in terms of fines, loss of
business, and reputational damage. Sanctions regimes today increasingly impact not merely the
primary targeted countries or entities but also those who would do business with such countries
or entities.
Questions of Effectiveness
Sanctions have a poor track record, registering a modest 20-30 percent success rate at best,
according to one source, Emily Cashen, writing for World Finance in 2017. According to leading
empirical analyses, between 1915 and 2006, comprehensive sanctions were successful, at best,
just 30 percent of the time. The longer sanctions are in place, the less likely they are to be
effective, as the targeted state tends to adapt to its new economic circumstances instead of
changing its behavior.
Examples of "successful" applications of sanctions (always judged from the very partial
viewpoint of those who impose them) are said to include their role in persuading the Iranian
leadership to comply with limits to its uranium enrichment program. But if this was "success,"
why then did the USA break its agreement with Iran in 2018? And why was there an agreement in
the first place if Iran had never had nuclear weapons nor was likely to produce them on its own
account without serious provocation. Sanctions are also said to have pressured Gadaffi in
handing over the Lockerbie suspects for trial, renouncing the nation's weapons of mass
destruction and ending its support for terrorist activities. But then, if that was "success,"
why did NATO bomb Libya back to the stone age in 2011?
Sanctions that are effective in one setting may fail in another . Context is everything.
Sanctions programs with relatively limited objectives are generally more likely to succeed than
those with major political ambitions. Furthermore, sanctions may achieve their desired economic
effect but fail to change behavior. Only correlations, not causal relationships, can be
determined. The central question is one of comparative utility: Is the imposition of sanctions
better or worse than not imposing sanctions, from whose viewpoint, and why? Best practices are
said to combine punitive measures with positive inducements; set attainable goals; build
multilateral support; be credible and flexible: and give the target reason to believe that
sanctions will be increased or reduced based on its behavior.
In cases where the targeted country has other trading options unilateral measures have no
real impact or may be counterproductive. Sanctions against Russia over Ukraine may have simply
helped to push Russia closer to its eastern neighbors, notably China.
To bypass sanctions Russia has shifted its trade focus towards Asia. Asian non-cooperation with
the sanctions helps explain why Russia was expecting to grow its trade with China to $200bn by
2020. For several countries in western Europe, the sanctions had a double-edged sword.
Russia is the European Union's third largest commercial partner, and the EU, reciprocally, is
Russia's chief trade partner, accounting for almost 41 percent of the nation's trade prior to
the sanctions. In 2012, before the Ukrainian crisis began, the EU exported a record
€267.5bn ($285bn) of goods to Russia. Further, US sanctions against Russia
increasingly and patently had nothing to do with Ukraine and everything to do with US interest
in exploiting its imperial relationship with West European vassal states to grow its LNG
(liquefied natural gas) market in competition with Russia, and by doing everything possible to
obstruct "" and to coerce European nations into helping it obstruct "" Russia's Nord Stream 2
oil and gas pipeline that will bring cheap Russian oil to Europe without passing through
Ukraine. The very opposite of principles of globalization and free trade.
The USA can afford to be aggressive in sanctions policies largely because (for the time
being, and that time is getting shorter by the day) there is no alternative to the dollar and
because there is no single country export market quite as attractive (for now and even then,
one must wonder about China) as the USA. Sanctions that are effective in one setting may fail
in another. Context is everything. Sanctions programs with relatively limited objectives are
generally more likely to succeed than those with major political ambitions. Furthermore,
sanctions may achieve their desired economic effect but fail to change behavior. Only
correlations, not causal relationships, can be determined. The central question is one of
comparative utility: Is the imposition of sanctions better or worse than not imposing
sanctions, from whose viewpoint, and why? Best practices are said to combine punitive measures
with positive inducements; set attainable goals; build multilateral support; be credible and
flexible: and give the target reason to believe that sanctions will be increased or reduced
based on its behavior.
Sanctions and Human Misery
Since the early 1990s, the US, Europe and other developed economies have employed sanctions on
other nations more than 500 times , seeking to assert their influence on the global stage
without resorting to military interventions. Yet military interventions tend to happen in any
case suggesting that in some cases the sanctions are intended to "soften up" the target prior
to armed conflict).
The economic stranglehold of stringent sanctions on Iraq after the successful allied
invasion of 1991 caused widescale malnutrition and prolonged suffering, and a lack of medical
supplies and a shortage of clean water led to one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern
history. Sanctions all but completely cut off the oil trade. Iraq lost up to $130 billion in
oil revenues during the 1990s, causing intense poverty to many Iraqi civilians. Prior to the
embargo, Iraq had relied on imports for two thirds of its food supply. With this source
suddenly cut off, the price of basic commodities rose 1,000 percent between 1990 and 1995.
Infant mortality increased 150 percent, according to a report by Save the
Children, with researchers estimating that between 670,000 and 880,000 children under five
died because of the impoverished conditions caused by the sanctions. Then US Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright notoriously excused this horrendous slaughter as "worth the
price ." During the Gulf War, almost all of Iraq's essential infrastructure was bombed by a
US-led coalition, leaving the country without water treatment plants or sewage treatment
facilities, prompting extended outbreaks of cholera and typhoid.
Targeted sanctions can be equally devastating. The de facto
boycott on Congolese minerals, for example, has led to the loss of more than 750,000 jobs in
the nation's mining sector. The loss of income resulting from this mass redundancy has had
a severe impact on child health in the nation, with conservative estimates recording a 143
percent increase in infant mortality. Despite an international shift away from comprehensive
sanctions, this Congolese suffering indicates targeted measures are still not free from ethical
quandaries.
Application of sanctions became more popular at the end of the first cold war because
previously targeted nations could negotiate for relief with the oppositional superpower. In the
succeeding era of greater enthusiasm for sanctions it became clear that they could have dire
consequences for civilian populations, and this helps account for increased popularity of
targeted sanctions.
Sanctions of Spite: Syria and the Caesar Act
There are many current examples of the murderous horror of the impact of sanctions by
"civilized," usually western powers, especially when their targets are poorer countries such as
Venezuela and Syria. Not untypically, some of the behaviors that the imperialists seek to
change are themselves the consequence of past imperial aggression.
The secular regime of Bashar Assad in Syria has faced a ten-year existential threat from the
Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda affiliates, ISIS and other jihadist entities supported by an array
of global and regional actors including the USA, UK, and other NATO members, Israel, Jordan,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the UAE. Whatever the regime's defects they are at the very
least comparable and in some cases dwarfed by those of many of Syria's opponents in the Arab
world.
The significance of genuine popular support for Assad , demonstrated in numerous polls, has
been marginalized by western mainstream media. The regime's survival, with air support from
Russia and ground support from Hezbollah and Iran, is extraordinary by any measure. Yet the USA
has continued to interfere in the affairs of Syria with a view to its continuing impoverishment
and destabilization by allowing Turkey to occupy large areas of the north west and populate
these with jihadist emigrees; funding Kurdish forces to secure Syria's oil resources on behalf
of the USA, and for maintaining prisons and camps for ISIS supporters, by maintaining its own
military bases; and permitting a constant succession of Israeli bombing attacks on what Israel
claims are Iranian-backed militia or Syrian Arab Army militia working in collaboration with
Iran; and approving further Israeli incursions into the Golan Heights.
Defeat of ISIS and recovery of non-Kurdish areas outside of Idlib by the Syrian Arab Army
(SAA) took place in conditions of considerable economic challenge, exacerbated by US-imposed
sanctions against both Syria and its neighbor Lebanon. This had a corrosive impact on relations
among top regime figures. Bashar al-Assad's billionaire first cousin and richest man in Syria,
Rami Makhlouf, complained in early 2020 of regime harassment and arrests of employees. Until
then, the Makhlouf family enjoyed exclusive access to business opportunities and monopolies on
hotels, tobacco, and communications, partly
camouflaged by a philanthropic empire that assisted many Syrians through the conflict .
Some $30 billion of the country's wealth, representing 20% of all deposits in Lebanese banks,
was trapped by Beirut's financial implosion, exacerbated by the unprecedented explosion ""
possibly accidental, possibly sabotage "" in the city's harbor area on August 4. Syrian
businessmen needed Beirut's banks to conduct business abroad, and to evade sanctions. A regime
crackdown on money transfer companies made matters worse by creating
a dollar shortage , depriving thousands of families who were dependent on foreign
remittances. Before the explosion, purchasing power of the Syrian pound was already worth 27
times less than before the start of the conflict.
Deteriorating economic conditions ravaged Syria's surviving pretensions to socialist
principle. In the first decade of Bashar's rule, there had been big gains in healthcare in
terms of available beds, hospitals, and nursing staff. But by now there were 50% fewer doctors,
30% fewer hospitals. Before the conflict, 90% of pharmaceutical needs were filled by Syrian
factories. By 2018 those factories which remained had trouble getting raw materials and
replacement parts for equipment because of sanctions. Before the conflict there was improved
land irrigation and food security. In 2011, abject poverty stood at less than one percent,
rising to 35 percent by 2015. The percentage of those facing food insecurity had fallen from
2.2% in 1999 to 1.1% in 2010. Now, 33% lacked food security. One third of homes were
damaged or destroyed, 380,000 killed and 11 million displaced since 2011.
Economic conditions were worsened by ever tightening economic sanctions and US enforcement
of the so-called Caesar Act from June 2020 (named after a faked human rights scandal in 2015).
The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act sanctioned the Syrian government, including President
Bashar al-Assad, for alleged war crimes. The purposes were to cripple Syria for the purposes of
regime change, while luring Russia further into the Syrian quagmire. The Act targeted 39
individuals and entities, including the president's wife, Asma. Anyone doing business with the
regime, no matter where, was potentially vulnerable to travel restrictions and financial
sanctions. The Caesar Act smeared the Syria Central Bank as a "˜money laundering'
institution and sought to render it impossible for Syrian companies to export and import from
Lebanon. It made it difficult or impossible for Syrians abroad to transfer money to family
members. The Act contributed to devaluation of the Syrian pound which tumbled from 650 Syrian
pounds to one US dollar in October 2019 to 2600 to the US dollar in summer 2020.
The Caesar Act (alongside legal initiatives in Europe designed to charge senior
administration officials with war crimes) were designed to stymie reconstruction, hit the
construction, electricity, and oil sectors, and cripple the Lebanese private companies that
would otherwise lead reconstruction efforts. Sanctions prevented non-U.S. aid organizations
from assisting reconstruction. An opposition leader predicted it would result in "
even greater levels of destitution, famine, and worsening criminality and predatory
behavior " and would precipitate regime change, migratory flight, excess deaths, and youth
deprivation. In a climate of regulatory confusion, sanctions often encourage over-compliance.
Prospects of reconstruction investment funds from Russian companies were
negatively impacted . Blumenthal ascribed responsibility for the Caesar sanctions
initiative to a "years-long lobbying campaign carried out by a network of regime-change
operatives working under cover of shadowy international NGOs and Syrian-American diaspora
groups." The country had already suffered severe US and EU economic sanctions. A 2016 UNESCO
report found that sanctions had brought an end to humanitarian aid because sanctions
regulations, licenses, and penalties made it so difficult and risky (Sterling 2020). In 2018,
United Nations Special Rapporteur, Idriss Jazairy, observed that sanctions impacted negatively
on
After 500,000 civilians returned to Aleppo following its liberation in 2016, US sanctions
and UN rules prohibited reconstruction. Returnees were allowed "shelter kits" with plastic but
rebuilding with glass and cement walls was not allowed because "˜reconstruction' was
prohibited.
In brazen acknowledgment of US support for the HTS terrorists of Idlib, the Caesar Act
exempted Idlib province, as well as the northeast areas controlled by US troops and the SDF. It
designated $50 million for "˜humanitarian aid' to these areas. Other US allies pumped in
hundreds of millions of dollars more in aid, further exacerbating pressure on the Syrian pound
and substantially increasing prices for all commodities in regime-controlled areas.
"best-designed sanctions can be self-defeating, strengthening the regimes they were designed
to hurt and punishing the societies they were supposed to protect."
They recalled the destruction of Iraq's middle class in the 1990s, when US sanctions killed
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis:
"Their effect was gendered, disproportionately punishing women and children. The notion that
sanctions work is a pitiless illusion." .
Several European nations (Italy, Poland, Austria, Greece, Hungary) indicating unease with
the continuing stagnation of US and EU sanctions policy, restored tacit contacts with Damascus.
While the EU was an important source of humanitarian aid for internally displaced people in
Syria and for displaced Syrians abroad, it continued to refrain from dealing directly with
Damascus
or from support for reconstruction efforts, on the grounds of continuing instability.
Conclusion
Under indubitably wise international leadership, acting within a framework of equitable
political power among nation states whose sovereignty is sacrosanct, then perhaps sanctions
policies might sometimes be strategically appropriate. These conditions clearly do not apply.
The increasing weaponization of sanctions is a powerful contribution to a crumbling world
order, one that invokes the grave danger of over-reaction by an aggrieved victim, in a context
of intense economic and military competition between rival nuclear powers.
Oliver Boyd-Barrett is Professor Emeritus at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, and at
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is an expert on international media, news,
and propaganda. His writings can be accessed by subscription at Substack at https://oliverboydbarrett.substack.com.
A comprehensive roundup of the sanctions-based aggression being imposed on the world by
the bankster dominated west. I really don't think the majority of citizens have a clue what
is being done by their rulers, nor any idea of the sheer hatred being fostered by those
actions. The time for waking up is well overdue, the west has been sucked dry by those same
policies (especially the US) and the fall is imminent.
"The increasing weaponization of sanctions is a powerful contribution to a crumbling world
order, one that invokes the grave danger of over-reaction by an aggrieved victim, in a
context of intense economic and military competition between rival nuclear powers."
Fact: "War is the health of the state" [Randolph Bourne]- meaning, the "business" of
governments is always war- war on its citizens, war on other nations, it never ends.
Invade the world, invite the world. Economic cold war vs. 1/3 of the world's landmass and
population. Seemingly purposeful hollowing out of it's middle class, the abolition of
educational/societal standards to placate the demands of wokeness and the replacement of it's
historical population with an eclectic mix of third world strivers, corrupt east asians and
south american day laborers. Oh, and an increasingly debt centric economy.
The USA is obviously a very prudent country which focuses on it's own long term survival
first and foremost. I expect it to do quite well in the coming years.
My good friend in Canada says that it seems to be a "BioSecurity Fascist State" forming
also. And it's not against Cuba , it's against the populace of Canada. Worse than anything in
the US.
Sanctions strike hard at the very essence of positive international relationship ""
trade.
U.S. economic sanctions are insulting, provocative, corrosive and largely ineffective.
However, trade is hardly the essence of positive international relationship.
Britain traded massively with Germany right up until Britain attacked Germany in 1914.
Germany traded even more massively with the Soviet Union right up until Germany attacked the
Soviet Union in 1941. Were it not for Japanese trade with China, the Mukden Incident that, in
1931, opened the conflict that developed into World War II in Asia""well, it probably would
not have occurred. In short, the trade premise that underlies your article needs to be
revisited.
Sanctions is war. US wars are always cloaked behind our alleged love for democracy and
freedom, but alleged friends beginning with Saudi Arabia and impacting every country South of
our border, prove we are liars, interested only in preserving the best interests of our
wealthiest citizens.
The purpose of US foreign policy is to enhance the profits of global US Corporations
regardless what the consequences are to local targeted populations. The US has extraordinary
power over the EU, but the Russian pipeline is evidence that EU support is cracking.
Shame on the USA for failing to respect the national sovereignty of other nations big and
small. Our constitutional form of government is not a model example of the fruits of
democracy and freedom, as both are crippled by original design, for profit prisons and
schools, toll roads, and the moral hazards imposed by misguided religious fanatics who impose
their will on a disinterested public.
Winston Churchill was a great one for blockades. Churchill, the MoFker is responsible for
5 million deaths. During the 2nd World War he shipped grain from India to Britain and left
the Indians to starve. Five million Bengalis and east Indians died of starvation. Let's hope
when the tide turns all this is forgotten and forgiven.
The war against Japan was instigated by blocades.
The war against Iran is the next.
Syria policy has nothing to do with oil or Assad being a dictator. It is a continuation of
Israel's policies. The whole purpose of these wars is to establish an independent Kurdish
state so that the pressure on Israel could be reduced and states in the region could be
destabilized. While the US was busy trying to fight Israel's wars in ME, China has become a
strategic threat with no signs of slowing down the process of overtaking the US as the
dominant superpower of the world. Despite all the damage these policies have caused, even the
so-called conservatives in the US keep repeating nonsensical ideas like "Kurds deserve a
state." Not realizing that there is no such thing as "deserving a state" or that this just a
zionist project that offers nothing to the US.
Regarding China, sanctions should be used more not less, unless the US wants to be the
secondary power. However, they are not needed with other countries. In ME, the US should wash
its hands off Israel and let the most moral army of the world protect their own country. That
country is a huge liability and problem for the US, it offered the US nothing other than
selling American military secrets and earning 1.5 billion Muslims' disdain. To counter Russia
and Iran, the US should double down on cooperating with Turkey, increase investments and
military support so that Turks can be more active in Central Asia and Afghanistan as well.
This is the smartest and the most efficient way for the US to achieve its goals in Asia and
ME. Which would be slowing China's growth, Russia's creeping in the South, and Iranian
activity in Arab ME.
However, the US basically does the opposite of everything it should. Turning
neutral/unfriendly with Turkey is one of the dumbest things the US foreign service could do,
considering the fact that Turks are the historical enemies of all three of China, Russia, and
Iran, and they did exactly that? Why? For Israel whose feelings were hurt by Erdogan of
course. Currently, the US government is a hostage to vocal minorities and interest groups.
Therefore, its relative decline will not stop unless actual Americans with no double
allegiances step up and take back their government.
Canada is a pathetic American colony, selling their resources cheap in return for being
allowed to have a few crappy hockey teams and access to degenerate American entertainment.
The Brits tell them to murder white Germans, they do it. The Americans tell them to murder
Afghans, they do it...
The US government is a menace to all, including the US population. All US presidents are
war criminals, and sanctions are only one aspect of their endless criminality.
Sanctions are the modern day adaptation of siege warfare. It's essentially a
"˜starve them out' approach to foreign policy. Theoretically, one presumes, the goal is
to cause enough instability to harm the targeted regime. But I can't think of a single time
they have succeeded at anything but causing mass suffering to those at the bottom of the
power pyramid.
In the case of sanctions on Iraq and the subsequent corrupt Oil-For-Food Program, the
sanctions became a vehicle to transfer billions of dollars to oligarchs and their pet
politicians" as usual.
The latest Novichok victims were exposed to the deadly agent as a result of a leak from a
nearby UK laboratory, authorities have confirmed.
Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill at a house in Amesbury on Saturday,
after being exposed to Novichok "" the same nerve agent that poisoned ex-Russian spy Sergei
Skirpal.
Rt.com reports: Two people,
this time a British couple in their 40s with no link to Russian intelligence, were affected by
a chemical substance on Saturday. Four days later, the UK's counter-terrorism chief said the
chemical that hit them was the same that sent former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and
his daughter, Yulia, into a coma in early March.
Back then, it took mere hours for the UK government to pin the blame on Moscow and unleash a
massive diplomatic offensive together with its allies. Moscow, still waiting for compelling
evidence to be produced, has been shut out of the investigation, and it has raised a number of
questions about the poisoning "" none of which have been answered.
Linking the two poisonings "is clearly a line of enquiry" for UK investigators, but the new
incident doesn't look likely to answer any of those concerns either.
The new victims, 45-year-old Charlie Rowley and his 44-year-old girlfriend Dawn Sturgess
were discovered in Amesbury, some 12 km (7 miles) north of Salisbury. Both scenes, though, are
located around Porton Down, which houses a secretive government chemical lab.
Porton Down has been a crucial part of the Skripal case investigation. It was there that the
chemical agent was identified as Novichok in both cases. Back in March, UK officials cited this
as proof that the substance came from Russia "" only to later be contradicted by the lab's
chief executive, who said they weren't really able to verify the agent's origins.
As for the location of the new scene relative to the old one, 12 km doesn't seem like an
improbably large distance. Plus, a friend of the victims said the couple had been to Salisbury
before they fell ill. The UK Home Secretary's working theory is that the exposure was
accidental, which begs the question: how would that be possible after four months and a massive
clean-up operation? Also, why were there only two random people in the whole 12km radius that
were affected?
Curious timing
Investigators say it's unclear if the supposed Novichok came from the same batch that
poisoned the Skripals in March. But, according to experts, the nerve agents of the Novichok
family lose their potency very quickly, which makes it unlikely that a trace powerful enough
had survived for four months to strike again at this particular moment.
And the moment is significant for two reasons "" two events key to Russia's international
image. One is the hugely successful FIFA World Cup, where the English team just secured a
quarter-final spot. British fans seem to be enjoying themselves in Russia, and berating British
politicians and media for their efforts to scare them away from the event.
The other is the preparations for a summit between US President Donald Trump and Russia's
Vladimir Putin. A date and a place for the meeting "" Helsinki, Finland, July 16 "" were set
just last week, and a possible rapprochement between the two rival superpowers seems to be
keeping British officials up at night.
Nobody died, again
One of the key questions asked back in March was: why did the Skripals survive if they were
indeed exposed to a military-grade nerve agent? While UK officials peddle Novichok as a deadly
nerve agent manufactured by the Soviets, claiming its recent use was the first chemical attack
in Europe since World War Two, it appears to have a surprisingly low lethality rate.
A friend of the couple described Rowley becoming increasingly ill over the course of the
day, before finally being taken to the hospital. There, the supposedly deadly Novichok gave
doctors enough time to treat the couple for a completely different diagnosis: the medics
initially believed that the couple had taken contaminated drugs (Rowley is a registered heroin
addict). Samples from the two were only sent to Porton Down on Monday, two days after they were
admitted.
Back in March, the Skripals were similarly discovered slipping in and out of consciousness
on a park bench. They were also treated for an opioid overdose at first, before the diagnosis
switched to nerve agent poisoning. Both ultimately survived and have now been discharged from
the hospital.
Analysts have repeatedly questioned the apparent low lethality of the supposed
"military-grade nerve agent." Russian officials, as well, have said that if such a deadly
substance had indeed been used, survival would be impossible.
British officials are still investigating the incident. However, this time "" now that
Novichok has been brought up "" they seem less inclined to point fingers, even as England fans
frolic in Russia and Theresa May's handling of Brexit continues to divide the public.
"HUNTSVILLE: The Army's experimental Multi-Domain Task Force is a "game changer" that's
turned the tide in "at least 10 wargames," the commander of US Army Pacific says. "Plans are
already changing at the combatant command level because of this." The key: the unit cracked the
Anti-Access, Area Denial (A2/AD) conundrum, Russia and China's dense layered defenses of
long-range missiles, sensors, and networks to coordinate them. "Before, we couldn't penetrate
A2/AD. With it, we could," Gen. Robert Brown said of the task force's performance in "at least
10 exercises and wargames. With the Multi-Domain Task Force," he told me after his remarks to
the AUSA Global conference here, "we could impact their long-range systems and have a much
greater success against an adversary. If I go into any more, it'd be classified."
"In the future, Brown said here last week, "all formations will have to become multi-domain
or they'll be irrelevant, [but] it's going to be years before it can happen." The Army's goal
is modernize enough forces to wage multi-domain warfare against either China or Russia -- but
not both at once -- by 2028." (Breaking Defense)
Comment: I was intrigued when, in April, SecDef Austin announced he was sending two units
with about 500 personnel to Germany. The units are a multi-domain task force and a theater
fires command. Sounded like a mere symbolic move. But there's nothing symbolic about these
particular units. They are an early implementation of the Pentagon's new multi-domain
operations doctrine which focuses on theater level operations. That doesn't mean mass divisions
and corps. It means theater level employment of global assets across the entire spectrum of
conflict. It's still billed as a concept rather than a full blown doctrine, but it's getting
there and is already being implemented in the Pacific theater.
In an Army Chief of Staff paper, "Army Multi-Domain Transformation Ready to Win in
Competition and Conflict" dated 16 March 2021, the multi-domain task force (MDTF) is described
as "theater-level maneuver elements designed to synchronize precision effects and precision
fires in all domains against adversary anti-access/ area denial (A2/AD) networks in all
domains, enabling joint forces to execute their operational plan (OPLAN) directed roles." The
MDTF's purpose is during competition, to "gain and maintain contact with our adversaries to
support the rapid transition to crisis or conflict"; during a crisis, to "deter adversaries and
shape the environment by providing flexible response options to the combatant commander"; and
if conflict arises, to "neutralize adversary A2/AD networks to enable joint freedom of
action."
Russia has been modernizing their doctrine, force structure and equipment in earnest for at
least the last decade. Surely China has been moving in the same direction. It's about time we
do the same. It will be several years, at least, before this doctrine can be fully implemented
with the necessary force structure and equipment. In many ways, our military has atrophied
terribly due to two decades of brigade level, at best, counterinsurgency operations. However,
we should, and apparently are, implementing this new doctrine now with the minimal force
structure changes of the MDTF and the inclusion of EW within cyber. Our current equipment can
be employed more effectively especially if land, sea, air and space systems are better
integrated. It's an evolution, not a revolution.
A2/AD is just modern defense IMO – is it really necessary to have a doctrine that
demands superiority over Russia or China at – lets say – 200 km from their border?
And at which point do we just call this outright agressive posturing ? DougDiggler
says: June
3, 2021 at 1:42 pm
Is this more Pentagon wishful thinking, like their exercise that involved firing a still
nonexistent hypersonic from a B-52? I get the feeling that NATO's ID Pol army would not fare
well in attacking the military professionals of Russia, not even in these proposed multi-front
"crumbling" attacks. However, it is nice that they're finally getting around to studying
Operation Bagration. However I think the operational heirs to that offensive have probably
improved on it and have also spent much time considering being on the receiving end of such a
nightmare. They play chess while we play Nintendo. Christian J. Chuba says:
June
1, 2021 at 5:32 pm
Wow. We've been pushing our navy up Russia and China's nose today and doing the same with
NATO war games on land and air patrols. I hope this doesn't give us a false sense of confidence
to be outright reckless.
For some reason we have become obsessed with depriving the Russians control of their arctic
coastline. I'm not saying we are control freaks (actually we are control freaks) but I can
easily see a situation developing up their if we think we have some technology edge. That is
one place Russia wants to be secure and for some reason, if there is water, we must have our
navy just outside that 12 nautical mile limit.
What kills me is that we do this in the name of 'freedom of navigation' but that route is
going to be mostly transporting Chinese stuff to Europe and only because the Russians are
paying for the necessary ice breakers and rescue stations. In other words, we are waving our
wand over waters that are only navigable because of Russian investment.
Can the MIC make anything other than cost over-runs these days? d74 says:
June
1, 2021 at 11:38 pm
The answer is too easy: no.
Not only are the costs insane, but the functionality is insufficient. Simply put, it doesn't
work or seem unfit for fighting. Stacking technologies is a dream that does not stand up to
warfare realities. 'Keep it simple' seems out of reach.
I followed the adoption of the 120mm mortar by USMC. They started with a good weapon, with
confirmed potential. The end point was tactical paralysis.
This is (was) a very small issue, and an old one. It is significant. blue peacock
says: June
2, 2021 at 9:42 am
Washington would be easy to spot in a game of chess. It's the player with no plan beyond
an aggressive opening. That is no strategy at all. The failure to think several moves ahead
matters.
While I don't agree with everything many pundits including Chas Freeman say about our
behavior with respect to China, I do see the point that Chas makes in the quote above. Iraq and
Afghanistan are great examples. Our political and governmental leadership have no sense of
"smarts", all they've known for decades is bully behavior under both Democrats and Republicans,
especially towards those they perceive as weak, like our "invasion" of Grenada. How would we
actually perform against a serious military rival like China or Russia? What would be the
reporting at hysterical CNN, MSNBC and Fox when a few carrier strike elements are sunk? Would
they be shrieking to unleash nuclear-tipped ICBMs? How would a "mission accomplished" George
Bush/Dick Cheney type with all their hubristic swagger react? The continental US has not been
attacked like ever. What happens when Seattle, Los Angeles and even DC are under actual missile
fire? How would contemporary woke Americans who have no tolerance for "sacrifice" react?
Do we have the force that reflects good value for money considering that we spend more than
Russia & China combined on the military? What type of military do we actually have relative
to the tens of trillions of dollars spent over the last decade on the credit card? What are the
metrics to evaluate actual effectiveness of a military beyond graphics and tables on Powerpoint
slides?
What would an actual strategic plan to crush the CCP look like? IMO, it begins with insuring
no dependence on a Chinese supply chain. Would the Party of Davos even allow that?
"HUNTSVILLE: The Army's experimental Multi-Domain Task Force is a "game changer" that's
turned the tide in "at least 10 wargames," the commander of US Army Pacific says. "Plans are
already changing at the combatant command level because of this." The key: the unit cracked the
Anti-Access, Area Denial (A2/AD) conundrum, Russia and China's dense layered defenses of
long-range missiles, sensors, and networks to coordinate them. "Before, we couldn't penetrate
A2/AD. With it, we could," Gen. Robert Brown said of the task force's performance in "at least
10 exercises and wargames. With the Multi-Domain Task Force," he told me after his remarks to
the AUSA Global conference here, "we could impact their long-range systems and have a much
greater success against an adversary. If I go into any more, it'd be classified."
"In the future, Brown said here last week, "all formations will have to become multi-domain
or they'll be irrelevant, [but] it's going to be years before it can happen." The Army's goal
is modernize enough forces to wage multi-domain warfare against either China or Russia -- but
not both at once -- by 2028." (Breaking Defense)
Comment: I was intrigued when, in April, SecDef Austin announced he was sending two units
with about 500 personnel to Germany. The units are a multi-domain task force and a theater
fires command. Sounded like a mere symbolic move. But there's nothing symbolic about these
particular units. They are an early implementation of the Pentagon's new multi-domain
operations doctrine which focuses on theater level operations. That doesn't mean mass divisions
and corps. It means theater level employment of global assets across the entire spectrum of
conflict. It's still billed as a concept rather than a full blown doctrine, but it's getting
there and is already being implemented in the Pacific theater.
In an Army Chief of Staff paper, "Army Multi-Domain Transformation Ready to Win in
Competition and Conflict" dated 16 March 2021, the multi-domain task force (MDTF) is described
as "theater-level maneuver elements designed to synchronize precision effects and precision
fires in all domains against adversary anti-access/ area denial (A2/AD) networks in all
domains, enabling joint forces to execute their operational plan (OPLAN) directed roles." The
MDTF's purpose is during competition, to "gain and maintain contact with our adversaries to
support the rapid transition to crisis or conflict"; during a crisis, to "deter adversaries and
shape the environment by providing flexible response options to the combatant commander"; and
if conflict arises, to "neutralize adversary A2/AD networks to enable joint freedom of
action."
Russia has been modernizing their doctrine, force structure and equipment in earnest for at
least the last decade. Surely China has been moving in the same direction. It's about time we
do the same. It will be several years, at least, before this doctrine can be fully implemented
with the necessary force structure and equipment. In many ways, our military has atrophied
terribly due to two decades of brigade level, at best, counterinsurgency operations. However,
we should, and apparently are, implementing this new doctrine now with the minimal force
structure changes of the MDTF and the inclusion of EW within cyber. Our current equipment can
be employed more effectively especially if land, sea, air and space systems are better
integrated. It's an evolution, not a revolution.
A2/AD is just modern defense IMO – is it really necessary to have a doctrine that
demands superiority over Russia or China at – lets say – 200 km from their border?
And at which point do we just call this outright agressive posturing ? DougDiggler
says: June
3, 2021 at 1:42 pm
Is this more Pentagon wishful thinking, like their exercise that involved firing a still
nonexistent hypersonic from a B-52? I get the feeling that NATO's ID Pol army would not fare
well in attacking the military professionals of Russia, not even in these proposed multi-front
"crumbling" attacks. However, it is nice that they're finally getting around to studying
Operation Bagration. However I think the operational heirs to that offensive have probably
improved on it and have also spent much time considering being on the receiving end of such a
nightmare. They play chess while we play Nintendo. Christian J. Chuba says:
June
1, 2021 at 5:32 pm
Wow. We've been pushing our navy up Russia and China's nose today and doing the same with
NATO war games on land and air patrols. I hope this doesn't give us a false sense of confidence
to be outright reckless.
For some reason we have become obsessed with depriving the Russians control of their arctic
coastline. I'm not saying we are control freaks (actually we are control freaks) but I can
easily see a situation developing up their if we think we have some technology edge. That is
one place Russia wants to be secure and for some reason, if there is water, we must have our
navy just outside that 12 nautical mile limit.
What kills me is that we do this in the name of 'freedom of navigation' but that route is
going to be mostly transporting Chinese stuff to Europe and only because the Russians are
paying for the necessary ice breakers and rescue stations. In other words, we are waving our
wand over waters that are only navigable because of Russian investment.
Anyway, so they were able to develop a simulation? That's impressive.
There are reasons to be skeptical. After decades of stonewalling on the issue, suddenly
American military chiefs appear to be giving credence to claims of UFOs invading Earth.
Several viral video clips purporting to show
extraordinary flying technology have been "confirmed" by the Pentagon as authentic. The
Pentagon move is unprecedented.
The videos of the Unidentified Flying Objects were taken by U.S. air force flight crews or
by naval surveillance and subsequently "leaked" to the public. The question is: were the
"leaks" authorized by Pentagon spooks to stoke the public imagination of visitors from space?
The Pentagon doesn't actually say what it believes the UFOs are, only that the videos are
"authentic".
A Senate intelligence committee is to receive a report
from the Department of Defense's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force next month.
That has also raised public interest in the possibility of alien life breaching our skies
equipped with physics-defying technology far superior to existing supersonic jets and
surveillance systems.
Several other questions come to mind that beg skepticism. Why does the phenomenon of UFOs or
UAP only seem to be associated with the American military? This goes back decades to the
speculation during the 1950s about aliens crashing at Roswell in New Mexico. Why is it that
only the American military seems privy to such strange encounters? Why not the Russian or
Chinese military which would have comparable detection technology to the Americans but they
don't seem to have made any public disclosures on alien encounters? Such a discrepancy is
implausible unless we believe that life-forms from lightyears away have a fixation solely on
the United States. That's intergalactic American "exceptionalism" for you!
Also, the alleged sightings of UFOs invariably are associated with U.S. military training
grounds or high-security areas.
Moreover, the released videos that have spurred renewed public interest in UFOs are always
suspiciously of poor quality, grainy and low resolution. Several researchers, such as Mick
West, have cogently debunked
the videos as optical illusions. That's not to say that the U.S. air force or naval personnel
were fabricating the images. They may genuinely believe that they were witnessing something
extraordinary. But as rational optics experts have pointed out there are mundane explanations
for seeming unusual aerial observations, such as drones or balloons drifting at high speed in
differential wind conditions, or by the crew mistaking a far-off aircraft dipping over the
horizon for an object they believe to be much closer.
The military people who take the videos in good – albeit misplaced – faith about
what they are witnessing are not the same as the military or intelligence people who see an
opportunity with the videos to exploit the public in a psychological operation.
Fomenting public anxieties, or even just curiosity, about aliens and super-technology is an
expedient way to exert control over the population. At a time when governing authorities are
being questioned by a distrustful public and when military-intelligence establishments are
viewed as having lost a sense of purpose, what better way to realign public respect by getting
them to fret over alien marauders from whom they need protection?
There is here a close analogy to the way foreign nations are portrayed as adversaries and
enemies in order to marshal public support or least deference to the governing establishment
and its military. We see this ploy played over and over again with regard to the U.S. and
Western demonization of Russia and China as somehow conveying a malign intent towards Western
societies. In other words, it's a case of Cold War and UFOs from the same ideological
launchpad, so to speak, in order to distract public attention from internal problems.
However, more worrying still is that there is a dangerous reinforcing crossover of the two
propaganda realms. The fueling of UFO speculation is feeding directly into
speculation that U.S. airspace is being invaded by high-tech weapons developed by Russia or
China.
U.S. lawmakers are demanding answers from the Pentagon about whether the aerial "encounters"
are advanced weaponry from foreign enemies who are surveilling the American homeland at will.
Some U.S. air force aviators have recently expressed to the
media a feeling of helplessness in the face of seeming superior technology.
At a time of heightened animosity towards Russia and China and febrile talk among Pentagon
chiefs about the
possibility of all-out war, it is not difficult to imagine, indeed it is disturbingly easy
to imagine, how optical illusions about alien phenomena could trigger false alarms attributed
to Russian or Chinese military incursions.
The stoking of UFO controversy appears to be a classic psyops perpetrated by U.S. military
intelligence for the objective of population control. Its aim is to corral the citizenry under
the authority of the state and for them to accept the protector function of "our" military. The
big trouble is that the psyops with aliens are, in turn, risking the exacerbation of fears and
tensions with Russia and China.
With all the Pentagon-assisted chatter, it is more likely that an F-18 squadron could
mistake an errant weather balloon on the horizon for an alien spacecraft. And amid our new Cold
War tensions, it is but a small conceptual step to further imagine that the UFO is not from
outer space but rather is a Russian or Chinese hypersonic cruise missile heading towards the
U.S. mainland.
Money quite from comments: " more importantly it is devastating information about the dishonesty of our government. What have we
come to? What recourse is available?"
The man cast as a linchpin of debunked Trump-Russia collusion theories is breaking his silence to vigorously dispute the U.S.
government's effort to brand him a Russian spy and put him behind bars.
In an exclusive interview with RealClearInvestigations, Konstantin Kilimnik stated, "I have no relationship whatsoever to any
intelligence services, be they Russian or Ukrainian or American, or anyone else."
Konstantin Kilimnik: Decries the U.S. government's "senseless and false accusations." AP Photo
Kilimnik, a longtime employee of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, spoke out in response to an explosive
Treasury Department statement declaring that he
had "provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy" during the 2016 election.
That press release, which announced an array of sanctions on Russian nationals last month, also alleged that Kilimnik is a "known
Russian Intelligence Services agent implementing influence operations on their behalf."
Treasury 's
claim came shortly after two other accusatory U.S. government statements about the dual Ukrainian-Russian national. In March,
a U.S. Intelligence Community
Assessment accused Kilimnik of being a "Russian influence agent" who meddled in the 2020 campaign to assist Trump's reelection.
A month earlier, an FBI
alert offered $250,000 for information leading to his arrest over a 2018 witness tampering charge in Manafort's shuttered Ukraine
lobbying case, which was unrelated to Russia, collusion, or any elections.
Treasury provided no evidence for its claims, which go beyond the findings of the two most extensive Russiagate investigations:
the 448-page report issued in 2019 by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the 966-page report issued in August 2020 by the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence.
Treasury has declined all media requests for elaboration on how it reached conclusions that those probes did not. Two unidentified
officials
told NBC News that U.S. intelligence "has developed new information" about Kilimnik "that leads them to believe " (emphasis
added) that he passed on the polling data to Russia. But these sources "did not identify the source or type of intelligence that
had been developed," nor "when or how" it was received.
"Nobody has seen any evidence to support these claims about Kilimnik," a congressional source familiar with the House and Senate's
multiple Russia-related investigations told RCI.
Adam Schiff: Treated the Treasury claim about Kilimnik as the Trump-Russia smoking gun. "That's what most people would call collusion,"
he said. (Al Drago/Pool via AP)
Despite the absence of evidence, the Treasury press release's one-sentence claim about Kilimnik has been widely greeted as the
Trump-Russia smoking gun. Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who heads the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC that Treasury's
assertion about Kilimnik proved that Russian intelligence was "involved in trying to help Trump win in that [2016] election. That's
what most people would call collusion."
Speaking to RCI in fluent English from his home in Moscow, Kilimnik, 51, described these U.S. government assertions as "senseless
and false accusations."
His comments are backed up by documents, some previously unreported, as well as by Rick Gates, a longtime Manafort associate and
key Mueller probe cooperating witness. (Gates pleaded guilty to making a false statement and to failing to register as a foreign
agent in connection to his lobbying work in Ukraine.) The evidence raises doubts about new efforts to revive the Trump-Kremlin collusion
narrative by casting Kilimnik as a central Russian figure.
"They needed a Russian to investigate 'Russia collusion,' and I happened to be that Russian," Kilimnik said.
Highlights from the interview and RCI's related reporting:
Kilimnik denies passing 2016 polling data to Russian intelligence, or any Russian for that matter. Instead, Kilimnik says
he shared publicly available, general information about the 2016 American presidential race to Ukrainian clients of Manafort's
in a bid to recover old debts and drum up new business. Gates told RCI that the Mueller team "cherry-picked" his testimony about
Kilimnik to spread a misleading, collusion-favorable narrative. The U.S. government has never publicly produced the polling data
at issue, nor any evidence that it was shared with Russia.
Despite his centrality to the Trump-Russia saga, Kilimnik says no U.S. government official has ever tried get in touch with
him. "I never had a single contact with [the] FBI or any government official," Kilimnik says.
Kilimnik shared documents that contradict the Special Counsel's effort to prove that he has Russian intelligence "ties." Photos
and video of his Russian passport and a U.S. visa in his name, shared with RCI , undermine the Mueller report's claim that Kilimnik
visited the United States on a Russian "diplomatic passport" in 1997. To judge from the images, he travelled on a civilian
passport and obtained a regular U.S. visa. The Mueller team has never produced the "diplomatic passport."
Kilimnik denies traveling to Spain to meet Manafort in 2017. If true, this would undercut the Mueller team's claim that Manafort
lied in denying such a meeting. That denial was used to help secure a 2019 court ruling that Manafort breached a cooperation agreement.
The Special Counsel never furnished evidence for the alleged Madrid encounter.
While the Treasury Department and Senate Intelligence Committee claim that Kilimnik is a Russian intelligence officer, no
U.S. security or intelligence agency has adopted this characterization.
Kilimnik has never been charged with anything related to espionage, Russia, collusion, or the 2016 election. Instead, the
Mueller team indicted Kilimnik on witness-tampering charges in a case pertaining to Manafort's lobbying work in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, t he FBI's $250,000 bounty for Kilimnik is larger than most rewards it offers for the capture of violent fugitives,
including those accused of child murder .
Reviving the Polling Data Conspiracy Theory
Kilminik has provided an inviting target for proponents of Trump-Russia conspiracy theories. He was born in 1970 in Ukraine when
it was part of the Soviet Union, and later worked for Paul Manafort as a translator and aide there. This background makes him one
of the few people in the broad Trump 2016 campaign orbit to possess a Russian passport.
To this Mueller and others have added a series of ambiguous and disputed allegations to say that the FBI "assesses" him to "have
ties to Russian intelligence." This characterization, first made in a 2017 court filing, quickly transmogrified into a presumed fact
of the collusion narrative.
Rather than prosecute Manafort for any crime related to Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, the Mueller team instead pursued
him on financial and lobbying charges involving his pre-Trump stint as a political consultant in Ukraine. In 2018, it accused Kilimnik
of seeking to pressure two "potential witnesses" by sending them text messages about Manafort's Ukraine lobbying work.
As the Russia probe came to a close without a single indictment related to a Trump-Kremlin conspiracy, the Mueller team used Kilimnik
to suggest collusion without formally alleging it.
In January 2019, the Mueller team accused Manafort of breaching their cooperation agreement by lying about his interactions with
his Russian employee. Topping the list were alleged false statements about
sharing election
polling data with Kilimnik in 2016.
Andrew Weissmann: Despite this lead Mueller prosecutor's suggestion otherwise, the Mueller report "did not identify evidence of a
connection between Manafort's sharing polling data and Russia's interference in the election," as the report itself stated. NYU Law
"This goes to the larger view of what we think is going on, and what we think is the motive here," lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann
told Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC. "This goes, I think, very much to the heart of what the
special counsel's office is investigating."
Weissmann's musings became collusion fodder. Media pundits and influential Democrats, namely Congressional intelligence leaders
Schiff and Mark Warner, speculated that Kilimnik shared Trump campaign polling data with Russian intelligence officers as they allegedly
worked to turn the election in Trump's favor. "This appears as the closest we've seen yet to real, live, actual collusion," Warner
told CNN . "Clearly, Manafort was trying to collude
with Russian agents."
But soon after, the Mueller team quietly undercut Weissmann's "larger view" and the conspiratorial innuendo that it had fueled.
One month after igniting the frenzy about the polling data, Weissmann submitted a
heavily
redacted court filing that
walked back some of his
claims. The following month, the Special Counsel's final report acknowledged that its musings and speculations about Kilimnik could
not be corroborated. The Mueller team not only "did not identify evidence of a connection between Manafort's sharing polling data
and Russia's interference in the election," as the report stated, but also "could not assess what Kilimnik (or others he may have
given it to) did with it."
Rick Gates: Ex-Manafort aide says the Mueller team "cherry-picked" his testimony about Kilimnik to spread a misleading, collusion-favorable
narrative. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
"I have no idea who made up the lies about 'detailed' or 'sensitive' polling data, or why they did it," Kilimnik says. "They were
mostly quotes of the polls from the media, such as LA Times and others. They would be 'Clinton "" 43, Trump "" 42.' Never anything
more detailed. I never got even a page printed out with either polling data or any other info."
This public data was shared, Kilimnik says, with Ukrainian clients of Manafort's as part of both regular political chatter and
an effort to encourage future business. "I shared this info with a lot of our clients in Ukraine, who were closely following the
race and who were excited about Paul working for [Trump]," Kilimnik says.
If any government official did receive his polling data, Kilimnik adds, they were not Russian but rather from Ukraine or even
the United States. "I would share it with our political contacts in Ukraine, basically to keep their interest to Paul and our Ukrainian
business alive. Also I shared it with the U.S. and other embassies, basically offering the opinion that the election is not over."
Kilimnik's account is corroborated by Gates, the ex-Manafort associate and Trump campaign official whose testimony was used by
the Mueller team "" deceptively, he says "" to suggest a connection between the polling data and possible Trump-Russia collusion.
The Special Counsel's office "relied heavily on Mr. Gates for evidence" about the polling data, the
New York Times noted in
February 2019.
According to Gates, that reliance entailed significant creative license by Mueller's prosecutors, particularly Weissmann. Gates
says he told the Special Counsel's Office that the polling data was not sensitive information, but rather publicly available figures
taken from media outlets.
"I explained to them, over the course of many interviews, what the polling data was about, and why it was being shared," Gates
told RCI. "All that was exchanged was old, topline data from public polls and from some internal polls, but all dated, nothing in
real time. So for example, Trump 48, Clinton 46. It was not massive binders full of demographics or deep research. No documents were
ever shared or disclosed. And this is part of what Mueller left out of the report. They cherry-picked and built a narrative that
really was not true, because they had pre-determined the conclusion."
Happier times: Manafort and colleagues, with Kilimnik far left and the boss seated in white shirt, red tie. AP Photo
Asked why Manafort shared any polling data with clients in Ukraine, Kilimnik and Gates stressed the same reason: money. "The were
some outstanding debts, which we were working to get repaid, which never happened," Kilimnik says. "And there was also Paul's reputation.
He was very well known to a lot of people in Kiev, and he hoped [he] could generate some new business" by showcasing his work for
Trump's campaign.
"This was a way that Paul was using to let people in Ukraine know that he was doing very well in the United States running the
election of Donald Trump, and that he was trying to collect the remaining fees that he was owed," for prior work in Ukraine, Gates
says. "He was trying to position himself. This is not unlike any other political operative, Republican or Democrat, in politics.
They all do it."
The Mueller report itself quietly bolsters Gates' and Kilimnik's converging recollections. "Gates' account about polling data
is consistent [redacted]," it states, ""¦ with multiple emails that Kilimnik sent to U.S. associates and press contacts" in the summer
of 2016. "Those emails referenced 'internal polling,' described the status of the Trump Campaign and Manafort's role in it, and assessed
Trump' s prospects for victory." The corresponding footnote cites eight emails from Kilimnik to these "U.S. associates and press
contacts." This indicates that the Mueller team obtained direct evidence of the polling data that was shared; how it was discussed;
and with whom it was shared.
Rather than highlight the Kilimnik emails that it obtained, and Gates' account that the polling data was shared for financial
reasons, the Mueller report mentioned this information only in passing and ultimately concluded that it "could not reliably determine
Manafort's purpose in sharing" the information.
Weissmann did not respond to a request for comment.
The Kilimnik Passport Kilimnik's passport from the time in question "" to judge from photos and a video he shared with RCI
"" was issued in the standard red ... Konstantin Kilimnik via RealClearInvestigations ... not in the green of the diplomatic corps.
Mueller cited a Kilimnik "diplomatic passport" as evidence of "ties to Russian intelligence." Government of Russia/Wikimedia
Although the Mueller report walked back Weissman's innuendo regarding polling data, its assertion that Kilimnik has "ties to Russian
intelligence" remains a foundation of the Russia collusion narrative.
Putting aside the fact that the government has never produced any evidence that Kilimnik communicated with Russian intelligence
or the Kremlin, RCI has obtained documents that undercut the government's basis for assuming those unspecified "ties."
In Mueller's own telling, Kilimnik's only direct link to the Russian government was his enrollment in a Soviet military academy
from 1987 to 1992, where he trained as a linguist. "It's a language school, similar to what you guys have in Fort Monterey," Kilimnik
said, referring to the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, in Monterey, California. "It's a university that trains
military translators, mostly for the army, not for the intelligence services. Basically it was a military training, for five years,
focusing on English and Swedish. In normal circumstances, I would actually go and serve in the army, but because Soviet Union was
falling apart, I was able to get a job as the instructor of Swedish at the university. I never served in the real army. If teaching
Swedish counts as spying "" that will be very surprising."
To substantiate Kilimnik's alleged Russian intelligence "ties," the Mueller team wrote that Kilimnik "obtained a visa to travel
to the United States with a Russian diplomatic passport in 1997." (Intelligence operatives often travel to foreign countries under
diplomatic cover.)
Kilimnik's U.S. visa shows an "R" for "regular." (The typo in his last name was corrected on a later visa.) Konstantin Kilimnik via
RealClearInvestigations
But Kilimnik's passport from that period "" to judge from the images he shared with RCI via a messaging app "" was issued in the
standard red color, not in the green color of the diplomatic corps. The document also contains a regular U.S. visa issued on October
28, 1997 "" the same date the Mueller report claims he traveled to the U.S. "with a Russian diplomatic passport." The U.S. visa to
Kilimnik is issued under the category of "R" "" which stands for Regular "" and "B1/B2," the designation for a temporary visa for
business and tourism.
The Mueller team's claim that he possessed and travelled on a diplomatic passport is "a blatant lie," Kilimnik told RCI. "I never
had a diplomatic passport in my life. It's one of many very sloppy things in the Muller report, which don't make sense."
The Mueller report cites Kilimnik's "travel to the United States with a Russian diplomatic passport."
Mueller report, Page 133
Told of the Mueller report's apparent error concerning Kilimnik's passport, a Justice Department spokesperson declined comment.
Former Special Counsel Mueller and former lead prosecutor Weissmann did not respond to emailed queries.
Ironically, at the time when Mueller team claims that he visited the U.S. on behalf of the Russian government, Kilimnik was in
fact working for the U.S. government at the U.S. Congress-funded International Republican Institute (IRI) in Moscow. As RealClearInvestigations
has
previously reported , Kilimnik's 10-year IRI tenure is among several substantial Western government connections that have
been ignored in amid efforts to accuse him of ties to the Russian government. "I gave IRI my CV which clearly said which school I
graduated from, and gave my detailed background," Kilimnik recalls. "I never concealed anything."
Kilimnik: No Madrid Meeting With Manafort
When it comes to his travel history, Kilimnik says that the Special Counsel's Office made another significant error: falsely claiming
that he and Manafort held a meeting in Spain .
"I have never been to Madrid in my life," Kilimnik says. Wikimedia
When Manafort denied that he and Kilimnik met in Madrid in 2017, the Mueller team accused him of lying and cited this as one of
several alleged breaches of their cooperation agreement. The Mueller report claims that the two met in the Spanish capital on Feb.
26, 2017, "where Kilimnik had flown from Moscow."
It also states that Manafort initially denied the Madrid meeting in his first two interviews with the Special Counsel's office,
but then relented "after being confronted with documentary evidence that Kilimnik was in Madrid at the same time as him."
But Kilimnik tells RCI that no such meeting occurred, and that he believes that Manafort was coerced into changing his story.
"I have never been to Madrid in my life," Kilimnik says. The "documentary evidence" referenced in the Mueller report was, he speculates,
a flight booking that was ultimately cancelled. "I was thinking about going to Madrid, and I discussed it with Paul," he says. "But
it made no sense. And ultimately, it was too expensive. So I didn't go."
Had he actually visited Madrid, Kilimnik says, the Mueller team would have "easily found proof "" tickets, boarding passes, border
crossings "" all that stuff. It's not rocket science to get it. The European Union is a pretty disciplined place. There would be
at least be a record of me crossing the border somewhere in the EU."
Kilimnik told RCI that the last time he saw Manafort was one month before the alleged Madrid trip, around the time of Trump's
inauguration in Janaury 2017. "I did not attend any of the inauguration events myself," he recalls. "But I spent some time to meet
with Paul, and to catch up. That was our last meeting in-person, in Alexandria [Virginia]."
Asked why Manafort would have admitted to a Madrid meeting that did not in fact take place, Kilimnik said that his former boss
faced heavy pressure while locked up by the Mueller team, which included a long stint in solitary confinement. "I don't know why
he said that. I have difficulties to imagine Paul's psychological state when he was jailed. A guy who [had] a very high-level life.
Jail is a tough place. I still get the shudders to think what he had to go through."
The allegation that Manafort lied to the Mueller team proved consequential. In February 2019, U.S. District Judge Jackson
sided
with the Special Counsel and voided
Manafort's plea deal. No longer bound to give him a reduced sentence for cooperating, Jackson
nearly doubled Manafort's
prison term on top of his earlier conviction and excoriated him for telling "lies." President Trump pardoned in Manafort in December
2020.
Told that Kilimnik denies ever visiting Madrid, and asked whether the Special Counsel's office collected concrete evidence to
the contrary, both former Special Counsel Mueller and lead prosecutor Weissmann did not respond. A Justice Department spokesperson
declined comment.
FBI Alert Contradicts Senate-Treasury Spy Claim
Over one year after Mueller closed up shop, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) unilaterally upgraded Kilimnik's
alleged Russian intelligence status. The panel's
August 2020 report
declared that Kilimnik, far from merely having "ties" to the GRU as Mueller had claimed, is in fact a full-fledged "Russian intelligence
officer."
The Senate made the leap despite offering no new public evidence to support its explosive "assessment", and even acknowledging
that its "power to investigate" "" as well as "its staffing, resources, and technical capabilities" -- ultimately "falls short of
the FBI's."
Richard Burr and Mark Warner, Republican chair and Democratic co-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The FBI and Justice
Department do not endorse their panel's judgment that Kilimnik is a "Russian intelligence officer." AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
The Senate also labelled Kilimnik a Russian spy despite simultaneously presenting new evidence that he was, in the Committee's
own words, a "valuable resource" for officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, with whom he was "in regular contact."
In September 2020,
RCI asked the FBI and Justice Department whether it shares the SSCI's judgment that Kilimnik is a "Russian intelligence officer."
A DOJ spokesperson replied that "the Mueller report speaks for itself," and advised that the public "defer" to how Kilimnik was characterized
in the Mueller report and the Special Counsel Office's indictments. This strongly suggested, RCI reported, that the FBI has not adopted
the SSCI's view that Kilimnik is a Russian spy.
The FBI's February "alert"
offering $250,000 for information leading to Kilimnik's arrest bolsters this reporting. It once again states that Kilimnik is "assessed
by the FBI to have ties to Russian intelligence" "" shunning the SSCI's spy language and reverting to Mueller's original, ambiguous
characterization.
The wording of the FBI alert underscores that while the Senate Intelligence Committee and Treasury Department have declared that
Kilimnik is a Russian spy, the nation's top law enforcement agency has never adopted that assessment. When Manafort's legal team
asked the Special Counsel's Office for any communication between Manafort and "Russian intelligence officials,"
they
were told that "there are no materials responsive to [those] requests." In unsealed notes from early 2017, Peter Strzok "" the
top FBI counterintelligence agent who opened the Trump-Russia investigation ""
wrote :
"We are unaware of ANY Trump advisers engaging in conversations with Russian intelligence officials."
Asked whether the FBI has altered its characterization of Kilimnik in light of Treasury's claim that he is a "known Russian Intelligence
Services agent", an FBI spokesperson declined comment.
The FBI's alert was also remarkable for the size of the Kilimnik bounty, which is more than double the amount of most members
of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. While the bureau is offering $100,000 each for information regarding six alleged murderers,
and $200,000 for another, the FBI is offering $250,000 for help nabbing Kilimnik on a lone witness tampering charge in Manafort's
Ukraine lobbying case.
The Mueller team
accused Kilimnik of sending text messages to two individuals with whom Manafort had worked during his Ukraine lobbying days.
Kilimnik's aim, the Special Counsel's Office alleged, was to pressure the pair to attest that their prior work was focused on lobbying
officials in Europe, not in the United States. These individuals "" identified in court documents as "Person D1" and "Person D2"
"" were not active witnesses for the Mueller probe, but instead, according to the Special Counsel's Office, "potential witnesses."
The 13 Kilimnik messages to these "potential witnesses"
cited by Mueller include the following:
[Person D2], hi! How are you? Hope you are doing fine. ;))
My friend P [Manafort] is trying to reach [Person D1] to brief him on what's going on.
If you have a chance to mention this to [Person D1] - would be great.
Basically P wants to give him a quick summary that he says to everybody (which is true) that our friends never lobbied in the
U.S., and the purpose of the program was EU.
Hi. This is [Kilimnik]. My friend P is looking for ways to connect to you to pass you several messages. Can we arrange that.
Kilimnik says that he was not trying to tamper with anyone. "I do not understand how two messages to our old partners who helped
us get out the message about Ukraine's integration aspirations in EU, and asking them to get in touch with Paul, can be interpreted
as 'intimidation' or 'obstruction of justice,'" he says.
Whether or not Kilimnik sought to tamper with "potential witnesses" in Manafort's Ukraine lobbying case, the alleged 2018 infraction
has nothing to do with 2016 Trump-Russia collusion.
The FBI alert from February raises questions about the bombshell Treasury Department claims released two months later. If the
U.S. government stands by Treasury's claims about Kilimnik, why is he wanted only on a minor, non-Russia related witness-tampering
charge, and not for taking part in alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election? If Kilimnik indeed passed on "sensitive information
on polling and campaign strategy" to Russian intelligence while working as a spy, why has he not been indicted alongside the Russian
social media company charged by Mueller in February 2018, or the Russian intelligence officers charged by Mueller in July 2018?
To Kilimnik, the answer is found on that same Russian passport that Mueller mischaracterized. "It is clear to me that the indictment
of 2018 was pulled out of the thin air, simply to have a Russian face in the mix," he says. "I understand that they needed a Russian
to investigate 'Russia collusion,' and I happened to be that Russian," he says.
"The funny thing is that I'm not hiding. And I would have explained the same thing to the FBI or anyone who never reached out
to me. They don't because they don't want the truth."
From Russian Spy to "Influence Agent"
In Kilimnik's eyes, his utility as a Russian national for the Trump-Russia collusion narrative also explains his prominent inclusion
in the recent U.S. Intelligence
Community Assessment , released in March one month after the FBI alert for his arrest.
In yet another new iteration of how Kilimnik is described by the U.S. government, the ICA does not call him a Russian intelligence
officer, but instead a "Russian influence agent."
The ICA does not define the term "Russian influence agent," or explain how it reached that new assessment about Kilimnik. Nor
does it put forth any evidence for the alleged Russian influence activities ascribed to him .
The report alleges that Kilimnik was part of a "network of Ukraine-linked individuals "¦ connected to the Russian Federal Security
Service (FSB)" who "took steps throughout the [2020] election cycle to damage U.S. ties to Ukraine, denigrate President Biden and
his candidacy, and benefit former President Trump's prospects for reelection."
Andriy Derkach: "I have never met him in my life," Kilimnik says of this Ukrainian lawmaker with reputed Kremlin ties. Petro Zhuravel/Wikimedia
As part of this alleged meddling network, the ICA asserts that Kilimnik tried to influence U.S. officials; helped produce a documentary
that aired on U.S. television in January 2020; and worked with Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker alleged to have Kremlin ties.
"Derkach, Kilimnik, and their associates sought to use prominent U.S. persons and media conduits to launder their narratives to U.S.
officials and audiences," the ICA states.
Kilimnik says the U.S. intelligence officials who wrote those words are using their anonymity and power to launder their false
narratives about him.
"I have no idea what they're talking about," he says. "I would really love to see at least one confirmation of the things they
allege. Pulling me into this report with zero evidence really shows that [U.S. intelligence] people high up do not give a damn about
the truth, facts, or anything."
As for Derkach, "I have never met him in my life," Kilimnik says. "I don't know why, or on what basis, they're making claims that
he has any relationship to me."
"I had zero meetings with anybody related to the Trump campaign. In fact, I have tried to do my best "" understanding how I've
gotten into this mess "" to stay as far as possible from any U.S. politics." If he had held such meetings, Kilimnik adds, "this should
be easy to prove."
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to requests for comment.
No Effort to Contact Russiagate's Top Russian
Even though Kilimnik's name fills dozens of pages of the Mueller and Senate Intelligence reports after years of federal scrutiny
and he is the target of a $250,000 FBI reward, this seemingly critical Russiagate figure has never been contacted by a single U.S.
government official, to judge from the public record as well as Kilimnik's account.
The lack of contact is similar to the way FBI, Mueller, and Senate investigators treated other supposedly central Russiagate figures.
When Joseph Mifsud, whose conversations with George Papadopoulos triggered the FBI's Trump-Russia probe, visited the U.S. in early
2017, the FBI subjected him to
a light round of questioning and then let him leave the country. The Mueller team later claimed in its final report that Mifsud
had lied to FBI agents, yet inexplicably did not indict him. Despite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's central role in publishing
the stolen Democratic Party emails supposedly hacked and supplied by Russia, the
Mueller team never contacted him and the Senate Intelligence Committee
shunned an offer to interview him .
Kilimnik believes that this avoidance is deliberate. "The FBI and others could have had the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv or Moscow, or
have any of my numerous contacts in the U.S., reach out and start a conversation, if they wanted info," he says. "But they do not
really need it. All they is need is a scarecrow. And as one of the few people within reach of the Trump campaign who has a Russian
passport, they picked me."
"They never reached out to me," he adds. "I never had a single contact with FBI or any government official, basically since charges
were brought [on] Paul. Nobody ever tried to talk to me because they know the truth. They understood damn well that I will tell them
what I'm telling you."
Kilimnik says that he has had only minimal contact with Manafort since the former Trump campaign chairman was released to home
confinement in March 2020 and subsequently pardoned by Trump in late December. "We had one short contact after he got out of jail,
basically catching up about family and kids and everything," Kilimnik recalls. "I want to give him time to just basically get his
life back to normal. We have not spoken on the telephone."
After years in Ukraine working with Manafort, Kilimnik now lives full-time in Moscow with his wife and two children. "I have been
pretty open all my life, and have not been hiding from anyone," Kilimnik says. "I would have been happy to answer any questions from
the FBI, or whoever. But I refuse to be a toy in bizarre political games and have my life ruined more than it has been because of
the senseless and false accusations."
Despite being labeled a Russian spy who meddled in the 2016 election, Kilimnik has no plans to return to the U.S. and try to clear
his name. "I am not going to the U.S. on my own dime, with no visa in COVID times only to be crucified by the media, having zero
chance of justice," he says. "This is a sad continuation of a deeply wrong story. I thought it would be over with Trump gone and
the need to create lies about his 'ties to Russia.' But obviously, I was wrong."
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roc993 19 May, 2021 Did the Democrats and the media ever apologize for spending 2 years claiming the election was stolen by
Trump? The drumbeat was continuous - ratcheting up day by day - "Walls closing in" - right up to the point Mueller threw cold
water on the entire thing. Then they slinked away without another word. And no censorship of those entities and individuals by
FaceBook and Twitter? Fascinating. Reply 40 11 2 reply
N notenough 19 May, 2021 What are the odds that the FBI/Treasury Dept, CIA, etc are lying to the public about this whole mess
THEY created....100%. These are all political organizations, tasked with protecting the status quo, the status quo being the protection
of Empire. Reply 30 7 1 reply
A AJMG 19 May, 2021 "In his speech before a joint session of Congress last week, President Biden complained about "Russia's
interference in our elections," even though his intelligence czar had released a report the previous month formally dismissing
the idea Moscow had interfered in the 2020 election or the 2016 election." Reply 23 7 1 reply
D daniel155 19 May, 2021 No one, even those on the other side, believes there was Russian collusion though they will never
admit it. Hillary still says the Russia stole the election from her. I guess she uses that to cope with the fact that she blew
a very winnable election. Reply 28 7
A AJMG 19 May, 2021 Trump opposed Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, & today we learn that Biden has accepted it. If Putin favored
Trump, it was a bad miscalculation since Trump was way more tough on Russia than any Democrat. Reply 36 6 1 reply
DH Derrick Hand 19 May, 2021 Hate to tell you guys but the Russia collusion discussion is over, no matter who is right. The
Media has succeeded in mudding the water and destroying any trust in finding the truth with respect to anything political, including
any election and that includes the coming one in 2022. This is like an argument at a table for four in a raucous high school cafeteria.
You should be more concerned where this total loss of trust is going to lead us and that is not a good place. Reply 16 6 3 reply
W Wisewerds 19 May, 2021 A wholly partisan, politically biased prosecutor lied and cherry-picked information to support a
pre-determined conclusion in an effort to savage an opponent and jail his supporters? I would put on my shocked face, but its
currently at the cleaners. Instead, I will just suggest that this is now standard operating procedure for our left-fascist oppressors.
Reply 21 4 1 reply
C Crutch 19 May, 2021 I can't wait for 2022 House win by Republicans. The first thing they should do is haul Adam Schiff in
under oath to discuss his every utterance, then expel him from the House. Reply 40 9 5 reply
A archon27 19 May, 2021 It not sedition if the democrats try to oust a legally elected president on a falsified premise...
because THEIR "evidence" was believable... This is literally the mantra of the left. Reply 27 6 3 reply
Mark H 19 May, 2021 If the wider media do not pick this up then the matter of Trump campaign's collusion with Russia can never
be cleared up, and will continue to serve the intention of the establishment. VAPOR 19 May, 2021 The media portrayed both Obama
and Biden as uninvolved. But now we know they both actively followed the investigation. According to former acting attorney general
Sally Yates, she was surprised that Obama knew about the investigation and knew more than she did at the time. Obama called upon
former FBI director James Comey to stay after a meeting to discuss the investigation. Comey had mentioned using the Logan Act
to charge Flynn, even though the unconstitutional law has never been used successfully in a prosecution since the country was
founded. Biden has repeatedly denied knowledge of the investigation. Just a day before the latest disclosure, George Stephanopoulos
asked Biden in an interview what he knew of the Flynn investigation. Biden was adamant that he knew nothing about "those moves"
and he called it a diversion. But that is not true if he took the relatively uncommon action for a vice president of demanding
the unmasking of Flynn information.
Justis 20 May, 2021 Thank you for your continued work. This is all hidden from Americans in this age of media coverage. But more
importantly it is devastating information about the dishonesty of our government. What have we come to? What recourse is available?
VAPOR 19 May, 2021 Carter Page Sues FBI, Comey, McCabe for Millions Nov 28, 2020" Former Trump campaign aide Carter Page filed
a $75 million lawsuit against the FBI and several former high-ranking bureau officials ... Reply 6 1 1 reply
V VAPOR 19 May, 2021 Just a reminder that Obama and his minions committed the greatest political crime in US history when
they weaponized government agencies to influence and discredit a presidential election and frame Trump. Reply 7 3 1 reply
V VAPOR 19 May, 2021 Obama needs to answer questions about his involvement with the Fake Russian Dossier and the weaponization
of government agencies to get Trump. He basically planted evidence and then said prosecute Trump by the book.
futbolfan 19 May, 2021 I respect all the dogged investigators who root out the truth of the crimes and corruption of our "justice
department", and FBI. I hope they keep up the good work. Personally I have no more faith in anything which was soaked in the hate
and insanity of the Obama thug regime...
Jerubbesheth xx 19 May, 2021 Give it up already. The Russia Trump Collusion was already disapproved by Mueller. Americans
are tired of the disinformation and propaganda. Bolshevik Schiff is a pathological liar. If anyone colluded with Russia it was
certainly Liberal Commie Democrat Clinton. The reason Bolshevik Schiff doesn't investigate Clinton? Schiff and Clinton are part
of the swamp. Clinton bought and paid for colluded with an ex-British Spy on a false dossier on Trump. Clinton was already in
Putin's pocket. Clinton approved the sale of Uranium one to the Russians, and then Clinton receives $145 Million from Russian
Oligarchs for her Corrupt Clinton Foundation. Mueller was FBI director at the time. So now who is colluding with the Russians.
I guess Clinton's colluding with the Russians is the good kind for the liberal commie Democrats, while the Liberal commie Democrats
deflect the bad colluding onto to Trump. Colluding is colluding anyway you cut it. Hillary's colluding wasn't disapproved. Reply
10 3 3 reply
C chuckstephens06 19 May, 2021 While the Special prosecutor office was capable of any transgression or corruption, one needs
to realize that it wouldn't have been possible without the assistance of corrupt lefty operative Judge, Amy Berman Jackson...
Jackson's non legal, political approach to decision making, has been the example that all corrupt lefty judges follow... Plus
her questionable relationship with Weissman outside of the Courtroom... Reply 6 2
K kochcomics 20 May, 2021 Lets see what we have here: 1)Kilimnik says he has no ties to the Russian government. OK. Do you
really believe that no one in the Putin's government has directly or indirectly debriefed him. Really? Do you think he would have
a choice in the matter? Do you know anything about Putin at all? Does he believe in democracy,. You clearly know little about
Trump. We've had Trump here for 40 years - from the NY Post page six to Howard Stern. Its a joke. Hey, he was proposing running
with Oprah as his VP in 2002. Then he tricked into the birther stuff. Lets check out the apologies from the Donald and the push
back from Republicans (apart from McCain) 2) There were enough sympathetic Russians around (Putin included) to raise concerns.
As the Donald himself made clear, he would have no problem with outside foreign help. The investigation took place. It was damning,
but not pretty clear that no . The collusion was possible but speculative, but as Jared himself said, the campaign was too chaotic
for any collusion to really get off the ground (though you are still stuck with Manafort as a conflicted party). But in Donald
world, everything is a bout big pronouncements... See more Reply 2 2
F futbolfan 19 May, 2021 For years, we on the right knew who had done what, and who should be arrested, Comey, Rosenstein,
Strzok, Mueller, etc. But I am not a lawyer, and I am not sure what crimes, exactly, these evil and sick creeps would be charged
with, if they ever were arrested. For me, the key question now is, if they WERE charged with whatever the appropriate offence
would be, what is the statute of limitations on those types of crimes? There is NO statue on treason, as far as I know. But what
about conspiracy? Obstruction of justice? Betrayal of oath of office? Sedition? The reason these questions are still alive is,
obviously there are people still patiently digging into the twisting trails of the conspirators, and eventually they may reel
in some live prospects for prosecution. Maybe even including "the big guy with black skin" Obama himself. Nothing would make me
happier than to see that African nightmare in handcuffs. Reply 4 4 2 reply
DC dana crow 20 May, 2021 Can't blame them for running with lies, innuendo and conspiracy theories when all Trump and Republicans
could ever muster in response was nuh-uh or let-mueller-finish-his-work. "Ties to [insert boogeyman]" is always a tell. It literally
means NOT the boogeyman. And since the "ties" are conveniently redacted, he probably ordered borscht from someone whose second
cousin gave a talk at a charity event hosted by a retired russian intel gofer. The election interference/russia collusion business
was always a cynical ploy to isolate Trump from his friends and bog down his administration. And it was wildly successful.
will.ganness 20 May, 2021 Who is calling the January 6th Protests the biggest threat the the country since the Civil war? The Democratic
Party, the MSM, The FBI.... Who produced and directed Russiagate? The same three!! If progressives think they should get on board
with Insurrectiongate, they should have more sense! VAPOR 19 May, 2021 The Fake Russian Dossier do it by the book Crossfire Hurricane
insurance policy to overturn a presidential election and frame Trump. Where is Professor Misfud and why won't Steele talk to Durham?
Call in Mary Jacoby and ask her what she discussed with Obama at the white house.
spinbag48 1 day ago Adam Schiff is a fool who told us he had the goods on Trump, but it turns out he is a liar. I do have
a question... The FBI spent 2 years and $35 million dollars investigating Trump only to find out they didn't have a case. But
when the pipeline got hacked Biden said the FBI told him that the Kremlin wasn't involved within a day of two. How is it they
got that good so quick? Same with the election within a couple of days they knew that the election was fair and square. Even though
I saw many people of TV say they saw corruption right in front of them. But the shooting of Andrew Brown took a month when they
had numerous videos that they couldn't release until the investigation was complete. I have lost all faith in the FBI, and the
press. They don't even pretend they are fair or truthful. Reply 1 1
CA Clear 4 All 19 May, 2021 The USIC and media has destroyed their own name. Nothing that the Russia collusion purveyors say
now has value on any topic. Russia didn't do that.
Justis 20 May, 2021 Why did Horowitz not discover this in his investigation? Was that investigation another coverup, finding just
enough to look authentic? Is he too, untrustworthy?
"... A draft report published online by the assembly's Committee on Foreign Affairs caused consternation in Russian media on Monday, after statements came to light that argued the bloc "should establish with the US a transatlantic alliance to defend democracy globally" and "deter Russia" from supposed aggression in Eastern Europe. ..."
A draft report published
online by the assembly's Committee on Foreign Affairs caused consternation in Russian media on Monday, after statements came
to light that argued the bloc "should establish with the US a transatlantic alliance to defend democracy globally" and "deter
Russia" from supposed aggression in Eastern Europe.
As part of its "vision" for future ties with Moscow, the paper concludes that the EU should put forward a number of incentives
designed to persuade Russians that a turn to the West would be beneficial, including visa liberalization and "free trade investment."
[...]
At the same time, the committee puts forward a number of extreme steps that it says the bloc should take. It insists that
Brussels "must be prepared not to recognize the parliament of Russia and to ask for Russia's suspension from international
organizations with parliamentary assemblies if the 2021 parliamentary elections in Russia are recognized as fraudulent."
The success or failure of this operation will depend entirely on the Russian people. Will it fall for the Western European
honey trap once again?
After Putin is gone, bets are off. Also, the EU continues to suffer from refugee waves from Syria and Libya, and its economy
continues to deteriorate (recession confirmed for Q1 2021). The whole system is so exhausted that they don't talk about even of
the absorption of Moldova anymore (the Moldovan president had to bring that up to the Kremlin; good they remembered them).
This looks like Biden had some surge of sanity, but it's not: I read an article on Izvestia some days ago and it seems Russia
won the war for the Arctic and has expelled the USA from that sea. That, combined with the fact that Russia has been ramping up
investment on the sector, results in the fact that, soon enough, Russia will also have the infrastructure to deliver cheaper LNG
by ship to Europe, too.
That means the USA has given up on the NordStream II in order to hurt the Russian LNG investments. Yes, people, that's the
insanity of the situation: the USG is completely lost. It still has its ace in the hole, though: the Green Party is set to win
the next German general elections, and they're rabid Atlanticists. Like, this would cost Germany dearly and they wouldn't last
two years in government, but at least Russian gas to Europe through a non-Ukrainian route would be stopped.
Speaking of the Ukraine, this whole situation makes us reflect: it is patent at this point in time that the EU is a subsidiary
of NATO - it expands eastwards after those countries become NATO members. They're the "socioeconomic" version of NATO. This has
created a huge problem for the EU, though, because the Ukraine is a massive financial black hole to the American economy (through
the IMF) and the USA is pressuring the EU to make it a member quick, so that this black hole goes to European (i.e. German) hands.
The thing is Germany obviously doesn't want that, because it needs the Euro to keep at where it is or stronger (you can only enter
the EU by entering the EZ nowadays). The Ukraine is salivating to become an EZ member - that's the whole point of the Maidan coup
in the first place - so Ukraine entering the EU without entering the EZ is out of the table. The EU must've told the USA that
no, the Ukraine must first become a NATO member, then they'll make it an EZ-EU member. The Ukraine is the proverbial hot potato.
All of that coupled with the hard economic fact that, without the Russian gas transit exclusivity, you can't leverage Ukraine's
debt, because, after Maidan, all of the public goods and infrastructure were privatized to American capitalists. That means we
have the absurd situation where Germany has to give up cheaper gas for itself (which would be essential for its economic recovery)
in order to make the Ukraine happy so that it enters the EU, so that it becomes a financial black hole... to the German economy!
Germany has to pay the Ukraine for the privilege of having to pay it even more, for eternity.
The price of nation-building has become more and more expensive to the capitalist world. Turns out those Third World shitholes
have learned something after all those decades.
Taiwan is also suffering from a significant brain drain to the Mainland. They're trying to solve the problem by demonizing
those people by calling them "traitors".
More Hacks, More Baseless Accusations Against Russia
In January police in various countries took down the Emotet bot-network that was at that
time the basic platform for some 25% of all cybercrimes.
Based on hearsay Wikipedia and other had falsely attributed Emotet to Russian actors.
The real people behind it were actually
Ukrainians :
The operating center of Emotet was found in the Ukraine. Today the Ukrainian national police
took control of it during a raid (video). The police found dozens of
computers, some hundred hard drives, about 50 kilogram of gold bars (current price
~$60,000/kg) and large amounts of money in multiple currencies.
Now the U.S. is accusing Russia of somehow having part in another cybercrime :
President Joe Biden said Monday that a Russia-based group was behind the ransomware attack
that forced the shutdown of the largest oil pipeline in the eastern United States.
The FBI identified the group behind the hack of Colonial Pipeline as DarkSide, a shadowy
operation that surfaced last year and attempts to lock up corporate computer systems and
force companies to pay to unfreeze them.
"So far there is no evidence ... from our intelligence people that Russia is involved,
although there is evidence that actors, ransomware is in Russia," Biden told reporters.
"They have some responsibility to deal with this," he said.
Three days after being forced to halt operations, Colonial said Monday it was moving
toward a partial reopening of its 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers) of pipeline" the largest
fuel network between Texas and New York.
Biden however is badly informed. There is no evidence that DarkSide has anything to do with
Russia. It is, like Emotet, a commercial
'ransomware-as-a-service' criminal entity that wants to make money and does not care about
geopolitics.
Yes, a version of the DarkNet software does exclude itself from running on system with
specific
language settings :
The DarkSide malware is even built to conduct language checks on targets and to shut down if
it detects Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Armenian, Georgian, Kazakh, Turkmen, Romanian, and
other languages ...
That is a quite long list of east European languages and Russian is only one of it. Why the
authors of DarkNet do not want their software to run on machines with those language settings
is unknown. But why would a Russian actor protect machines with Ukrainian or Romanian language
settings? Both countries are hostile towards Russia. To claim that this somehow points to
Russian actors is therefore baseless.
The Kremlin has once again pointed out the importance of cooperation between Moscow and
Washington in tackling cyberthreats amid a cyber-attack on Colonial Pipeline, a US company.
"Russia has nothing to do with these hacker attacks, nor with the previous hacker attacks,"
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Preskov assured reporters on Tuesday.
"We categorically reject any accusation against us, and we can only regret that the US is
refusing to cooperate with us in any way to counter cyber-threats. We believe that such
cooperation - both international and bilateral - could indeed contribute to the common
struggle against this scourge [known as] cyber-crime," Peskov said.
The U.S. seems notoriously bad at attributing computer hacks. It claims that the recent
SolarWinds attack which intruded several government branches was also done by Russia. But that
attack
required deep insider knowledge and access to SolarWinds' computers
and processes :
The recently discovered deep intrusion into U.S. companies and government networks used a
manipulated version of the SolarWinds Orion network management software. The Washington borg
immediately attributed the hack to Russia. Then President Trump attributed it to China. But
none of those claims were backed up by facts or known evidence.
The hack was extremely complex, well managed and resourced, and likely required insider
knowledge. To this IT professional it 'felt' neither Russian nor Chinese. It is far more
likely, as Whitney Webb finds, that
Israel was behind it .
Indeed - the programmers of an Israeli company, recently bought up by SolarWinds, had all
the necessary access for such a hack. However the U.S. sanctioned Russia over the SolarWinds
hack without providing any evidence of its involvement.
If the U.S. continues to blame Russia without any evidence for each and every hack there may
come a time when Russia stops caring and really starts to hack into or destroy important U.S.
systems. The U.S. should fear that day.
Posted by b on May 11, 2021 at 17:31 UTC |
Permalink
Thanks b. I don't think Russia is going to escalate destructive attacks any time soon.
There's no upside.
They might even be reluctant to reveal their capabilities in the Ukraine.
For the moment, mockery is the best remedy while they up their game.
@ b who ended with
"
If the U.S. continues to blame Russia without any evidence for each and every hack there may
come a time when Russia stops caring and really starts to hack into or destroy important U.S.
systems.
"
How can you write such assertions that vary from the approach that both Russia and China
are taking?....strong defense but no offense.
Now if empire tried to hack into a Russian or Chinese system/network then appropriate
takedowns of malicious systems/networks would seem logical....and I expect they know
how...but will not do it on the basis of another avenue of empire lies and deceit.
You should have titled the post "Killing Two Birds With One Stone".
This pipeline is huge, running from Texas through the Southeast and all the way up to New
England. It's condition is beyond awful with multiple leaks along the route some of which
lose more than a million gallons per month and much more than can be determined since some of
the gasoline / jet fuel went into the aquifers. These faults have been well known for decades
and although some of the areas are heavily populated no remediation was done. The local
outcry recently caught the attention of the press when kids reported a gasoline smell along
the pipeline route to the police. The locals demanded the pipeline be closed for repairs and
sought answers from state officials and Federal authorities as to why this situation was
allowed. To blame the Russians for the closure of the pipeline which results in a surge in
prices and limited availability of gas for the summer is an absolute stroke of genius.
https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/ncdeq-colonial-pipeline-spill-huntersville/275-70e16fb6-c945-4634-b933-3975d0573f2e
It is odd that certain elements of the us intelligence community, along with negative
factions within the us political establishment, continue to absolutely refuse to enter into
verifiable and mutually binding international agreements on cyber security with exactly the
nation states that they accuse (without evidence) of malicious activity in the same sphere,
while at the same time operating in this field in an openly declared hostile manner under the
secrecy deemed necessary for 'national security'.
Probably it was not a false flag. First of all the state of IT security at Colonial Pipeline
was so dismal that it was strange that this did not happened before. And there might be
some truth that they try to exploit this hack to thier advantage as maintenance of the
pipeline is also is dismal shape.
Notable quotes:
"... "As for the money-nobody really knows where it really went." If you are right about the perpetrators, my guess would be that it went into the black-ops fund, two birds one stone. ..."
"... I have become so used to false flags, I am going to be shocked when a real intrusion happens! ..."
"... an in depth article researching solarwinds hack - looks like it was Israel, not a great leap to see that colonial was a false flag https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/01/investigative-reports/another-mega-group-spy-scandal-samanage-sabotage-and-the-solarwinds-hack/ ..."
"... Regarding the ownership of Colonial Pipeline: 'IFM Investors, which is owned by 27 Australian union- and employer-backed industry superannuation funds, owns a 16 per cent stake in Colonial Pipeline, which the infrastructure manager bought in 2007 for $US651 million.' ..."
"... 'The privately held Colonial Pipeline is valued at about $US8 billion, based upon the most recent sale of a 10 per cent stake to a unit of Royal Dutch Shell in 2019.' ..."
The Colonial Pipeline Co.,ransomware attack was a false flag. They wanted to blame Russian
hackers so they could derail Nordstream II
It is common knowledge that the only real hackers that are able of such sabotage is CIA
and Israeli. It's the same attack types they do to Iranian infrastructure on a regular
basis.
The Russians are not that stupid to do something they know will be blamed on them and is
of no political use to them. And could derail Nordstream2.
As for the money-nobody really knows where it really went. CEO is ultra corrupt. They
never ever invested in their infrastructure so when it went down they came up with a
profitable excuse. Just look at their financials/balance sheet over the years. No real
investment in updating and maintaining infrastructure. Great false flag. Corruption and
profiteering.
"As for the money-nobody really knows where it really went." If you are right
about the perpetrators, my guess would be that it went into the black-ops fund, two birds one
stone.
I'm not familiar with your handle - hello. IMO, it would be counterproductive for Russia
to initiate such a hack. What really affects and debilitates US oil and gas interests is low
prices, both at the pump and on the stock exchange. The hack helped jack up prices (which
were already being jacked-up despite demand still lagging behind supply) which only HELPS
those energy interests. It has long been known, the math isn't complicated, what level crude
must trade at for US domestic oil & gas operations to be profitable. Remember that just
as the pandemic was emerging Russia and Saudi Arabia once again sent the global crude market
into the depths of despair.
I do agree the hack can be interpreted in light of the desperation of US energy interests
to try to kill NS2. I have not yet read the recent articles discussing Biden's recent moves
in that regard. If these moves are a recognition that US LNG to Europe (and elsewhere) are
diametrically opposed to climate responsibility, I'd welcome those moves. As is usually the
case though, environmental responsibility is probably the least likely reason.
Regarding the ownership of Colonial Pipeline: 'IFM Investors, which is owned by 27
Australian union- and employer-backed industry superannuation funds, owns a 16 per cent stake
in Colonial Pipeline, which the infrastructure manager bought in 2007 for $US651
million.'
also
'The privately held Colonial Pipeline is valued at about $US8 billion, based upon the
most recent sale of a 10 per cent stake to a unit of Royal Dutch Shell in 2019.'
"... What is clear is that the FBI is taking a thumb-screws page from the playbook of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who deployed the little-used Foreign Agents Registration Act to pursue the white whale of collusion. As Lee Smith reported for RealClearInvestigations , just three people had pleaded guilty to FARA violations in the half-century before Mueller deployed it to pressure and punish Trump allies. ..."
"... And note, the FBI's zeal to crack down on unregistered foreign agents does not extend to the president's son Hunter Biden, who, Paul Sperry reported for RCI, "failed to register as a foreign agent while promoting the interests of foreign business partners in Washington, including brokering meetings with his father and other government officials." It appears that we have two tiers of justice: one for Biden administration enemies, another for its family and friends. ..."
The Biden administration is vigorously pursuing key figures from the phony Trump/Russia collusion scandal that roiled the nation
for four years. But instead of trying to punish the liars who perpetrated that fraud, it is targeting the truth-tellers who challenged
and exposed the conspiracy to negate the 2016 election.
Working from the same playbook used to smear dozens of Trump associates, the administration and its allies are planting stories
based on blind quotes in friendly media outlets to seek revenge.
On April 16,
Washington
Post columnist David Ignatius reported that the Justice Department is investigating Kash Patel – who had worked with Rep. Devin
Nunes and later the Trump administration to reveal the Russiagate hoax – for the "possible improper disclosure of classified information."
Ignatius said he received the tip from "two knowledgeable sources" who "wouldn't provide additional details."
Violating the bedrock principles of American justice and journalism, this article is an exercise in thuggery as the government
uses a powerful media outlet to intimidate and besmirch a citizen without evidence. With nothing to respond to, how can Patel defend
himself? If Patel is lucky, the federal government has only placed a sharp sword over his head that may not fall. If not, he might
be dragged into a lengthy court battle that could drain his finances and also cost him his freedom.
We don't know if Patel broke the law, but note that the administration has shown no interest in pursuing former FBI leaders such
as
James Comey and
Andrew McCabe , who improperly disclosed information regarding Russiagate.
Trump's former lawyer Rudolph Giuliani is also in the "cross hairs of a federal criminal investigation," according to
an April 29
article in New York Times that relied on "people with knowledge of the matter."
At issue, those anonymous sources say, is whether Giuliani was serving two masters when he counseled Trump to remove Marie L.
Yovanovitch as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in 2019. "Did Mr. Giuliani go after Ms. Yovanovitch solely on behalf of Mr. Trump,
who was his client at the time?" the Times reports. "Or was he also doing so on behalf of the Ukrainian officials, who wanted her
removed for their own reasons?"
I'll leave it to the lawyers to determine the wisdom of bringing a case based on the parsing of tangled motives. What is clear
is that the FBI is taking a thumb-screws page from the playbook of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who deployed the little-used Foreign
Agents Registration Act to pursue the white whale of collusion.
As Lee Smith reported for RealClearInvestigations , just three people had pleaded guilty to FARA violations in the half-century
before Mueller deployed it to pressure and punish Trump allies.
And note, the FBI's zeal to crack down on unregistered foreign agents does not extend to the president's son Hunter Biden, who,
Paul Sperry reported for RCI, "failed to register as a foreign agent while promoting the interests of foreign business partners in
Washington, including brokering meetings with his father and other government officials." It appears that we have two tiers of justice:
one for Biden administration enemies, another for its family and friends.
The targeting of Giuliani looks especially suspect and politically motivated after three main news outlets that have driven much
of the false Russiagate coverage – the New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News –
were forced to correct a recent story , once again based on anonymous sources, claiming the FBI had warned Giuliani in 2019 "that
he was a target of a Russian disinformation campaign during his efforts to dig up unflattering information about then-candidate Joe
Biden in 2019." Giuliani was never given such a briefing.
Considering the numerous instances in which the press published bogus information from "informed sources" during Russiagate, one
has to ask why they continue to serve as vehicles for falsehoods. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me
a dozen times and you're not fooling me – we're acting in concert. As RCI editor
Tom Kuntz has argued, journalistic integrity demands, at the very least, that these organizations tell their audience who exactly
had misled them. Confidentiality agreements should not protect liars.
A third example of the Biden administration's effort to punish Russiagate figures is its renewed effort to put former Manafort
associate Konstantin V. Kilimnik behind bars. In an extensive new article for RCI,
Aaron Maté reports that the Treasury Department provided no evidence to support its recent claim that Kilimnik is a "known Russian
Intelligence Services agent implementing influence operations on their behalf." It also refuses to explain how it was able to discover
the truth of Kilimnik's identity, which the two most extensive Russiagate investigations – the 448-page Muller report and the 966-page
Senate Intelligence report – failed to uncover.
This absence of evidence has not stopped the peddlers of the Trump/Russia conspiracy theory from claiming vindication. Democrat
Rep. Adam Schiff casts Treasury's unsubstantiated claim as smoking-gun evidence of collusion. The New York Times reports that the
claim demonstrates that "there had been numerous interactions between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence during the year
before the [2016] election."
Who needs proof when the government says it's so?
The FBI is also putting the screws to Kilimnik, offering $250,000 for information leading to his arrest on witness-tampering charges
involving text messages he sent in 2018 to two people who have only been identified as "potential witnesses" involving Manafort's
lobbying work for Ukraine, not Russiagate.
In an exclusive interview, Kilimnik told Maté, "I don't understand how two messages to our old partners who helped us get out
the message about Ukraine's integration aspirations in [the] EU, and asking them to get in touch with Paul, can be interpreted as
'intimidation' or 'obstruction of justice.'"
Maté also reports that the $250,000 bounty on Kilimnik is more than double the amount the FBI is offering for information leading
to the arrest of murder suspects.
The Biden administration's campaigns against Patel, Giuliani and Kilimnik suggest how the winners of the 2020 election are attempting
to rewrite the history of Russiagate. Having been debunked and rebuked by their own investigators, the conspiracists are taking a
second bite at the poisoned apple. Using anonymous sources to make unsubstantiated charges in the nation's most influential news
outlets, they are seeking to punish people for the crime of exposing their malfeasance.
"... What is clear is that the FBI is taking a thumb-screws page from the playbook of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who deployed the little-used Foreign Agents Registration Act to pursue the white whale of collusion. As Lee Smith reported for RealClearInvestigations , just three people had pleaded guilty to FARA violations in the half-century before Mueller deployed it to pressure and punish Trump allies. ..."
"... And note, the FBI's zeal to crack down on unregistered foreign agents does not extend to the president's son Hunter Biden, who, Paul Sperry reported for RCI, "failed to register as a foreign agent while promoting the interests of foreign business partners in Washington, including brokering meetings with his father and other government officials." It appears that we have two tiers of justice: one for Biden administration enemies, another for its family and friends. ..."
The Biden administration is vigorously pursuing key figures from the phony Trump/Russia collusion scandal that roiled the nation
for four years. But instead of trying to punish the liars who perpetrated that fraud, it is targeting the truth-tellers who challenged
and exposed the conspiracy to negate the 2016 election.
Working from the same playbook used to smear dozens of Trump associates, the administration and its allies are planting stories
based on blind quotes in friendly media outlets to seek revenge.
On April 16,
Washington
Post columnist David Ignatius reported that the Justice Department is investigating Kash Patel – who had worked with Rep. Devin
Nunes and later the Trump administration to reveal the Russiagate hoax – for the "possible improper disclosure of classified information."
Ignatius said he received the tip from "two knowledgeable sources" who "wouldn't provide additional details."
Violating the bedrock principles of American justice and journalism, this article is an exercise in thuggery as the government
uses a powerful media outlet to intimidate and besmirch a citizen without evidence. With nothing to respond to, how can Patel defend
himself? If Patel is lucky, the federal government has only placed a sharp sword over his head that may not fall. If not, he might
be dragged into a lengthy court battle that could drain his finances and also cost him his freedom.
We don't know if Patel broke the law, but note that the administration has shown no interest in pursuing former FBI leaders such
as
James Comey and
Andrew McCabe , who improperly disclosed information regarding Russiagate.
Trump's former lawyer Rudolph Giuliani is also in the "cross hairs of a federal criminal investigation," according to
an April 29
article in New York Times that relied on "people with knowledge of the matter."
At issue, those anonymous sources say, is whether Giuliani was serving two masters when he counseled Trump to remove Marie L.
Yovanovitch as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in 2019. "Did Mr. Giuliani go after Ms. Yovanovitch solely on behalf of Mr. Trump,
who was his client at the time?" the Times reports. "Or was he also doing so on behalf of the Ukrainian officials, who wanted her
removed for their own reasons?"
I'll leave it to the lawyers to determine the wisdom of bringing a case based on the parsing of tangled motives. What is clear
is that the FBI is taking a thumb-screws page from the playbook of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who deployed the little-used Foreign
Agents Registration Act to pursue the white whale of collusion.
As Lee Smith reported for RealClearInvestigations , just three people had pleaded guilty to FARA violations in the half-century
before Mueller deployed it to pressure and punish Trump allies.
And note, the FBI's zeal to crack down on unregistered foreign agents does not extend to the president's son Hunter Biden, who,
Paul Sperry reported for RCI, "failed to register as a foreign agent while promoting the interests of foreign business partners in
Washington, including brokering meetings with his father and other government officials." It appears that we have two tiers of justice:
one for Biden administration enemies, another for its family and friends.
The targeting of Giuliani looks especially suspect and politically motivated after three main news outlets that have driven much
of the false Russiagate coverage – the New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News –
were forced to correct a recent story , once again based on anonymous sources, claiming the FBI had warned Giuliani in 2019 "that
he was a target of a Russian disinformation campaign during his efforts to dig up unflattering information about then-candidate Joe
Biden in 2019." Giuliani was never given such a briefing.
Considering the numerous instances in which the press published bogus information from "informed sources" during Russiagate, one
has to ask why they continue to serve as vehicles for falsehoods. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me
a dozen times and you're not fooling me – we're acting in concert. As RCI editor
Tom Kuntz has argued, journalistic integrity demands, at the very least, that these organizations tell their audience who exactly
had misled them. Confidentiality agreements should not protect liars.
A third example of the Biden administration's effort to punish Russiagate figures is its renewed effort to put former Manafort
associate Konstantin V. Kilimnik behind bars. In an extensive new article for RCI,
Aaron Maté reports that the Treasury Department provided no evidence to support its recent claim that Kilimnik is a "known Russian
Intelligence Services agent implementing influence operations on their behalf." It also refuses to explain how it was able to discover
the truth of Kilimnik's identity, which the two most extensive Russiagate investigations – the 448-page Muller report and the 966-page
Senate Intelligence report – failed to uncover.
This absence of evidence has not stopped the peddlers of the Trump/Russia conspiracy theory from claiming vindication. Democrat
Rep. Adam Schiff casts Treasury's unsubstantiated claim as smoking-gun evidence of collusion. The New York Times reports that the
claim demonstrates that "there had been numerous interactions between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence during the year
before the [2016] election."
Who needs proof when the government says it's so?
The FBI is also putting the screws to Kilimnik, offering $250,000 for information leading to his arrest on witness-tampering charges
involving text messages he sent in 2018 to two people who have only been identified as "potential witnesses" involving Manafort's
lobbying work for Ukraine, not Russiagate.
In an exclusive interview, Kilimnik told Maté, "I don't understand how two messages to our old partners who helped us get out
the message about Ukraine's integration aspirations in [the] EU, and asking them to get in touch with Paul, can be interpreted as
'intimidation' or 'obstruction of justice.'"
Maté also reports that the $250,000 bounty on Kilimnik is more than double the amount the FBI is offering for information leading
to the arrest of murder suspects.
The Biden administration's campaigns against Patel, Giuliani and Kilimnik suggest how the winners of the 2020 election are attempting
to rewrite the history of Russiagate. Having been debunked and rebuked by their own investigators, the conspiracists are taking a
second bite at the poisoned apple. Using anonymous sources to make unsubstantiated charges in the nation's most influential news
outlets, they are seeking to punish people for the crime of exposing their malfeasance.
She would need to rewire her brain to have a thought that was not programmed into her... After her Russiagate adventures there are
some doubts that this is possible. But money do not smell.
Perhaps Maddow is just sad that there's no longer official justification to intimidate and harass those who choose not to wear
masks, something that leftists have enjoyed doing for the best part of a year.
The notion that people who don't wear masks are a "threat" is of course completely ludicrous since the COVID-19 virus particle
is 1,000 times smaller than the holes in the mask anyway.
After Texas ended its mask mandate, COVID cases dropped to a
record low and a similar pattern was observed in Florida and South Dakota.
Lordflin 46 minutes ago (Edited)
She would need to rewire her brain to have a thought that was not programmed into her...
What a mindless shill... first that singer... what's her name... and now this creature...
What is the effect ZH is going for here exactly...?
takeaction 36 minutes ago (Edited)
Rachel...Pelosi...Schumer...Swalwell.....Cuomo (Both of them) Lemon, Anderson, Fauci, AOC, Maxine, etc.
With or without a mask...
takeaction 18 minutes ago (Edited) remove link
All calm....Gorgeous weather.....78 today.
Hamilcar 28 minutes ago remove link
Branch Covidians like Madcow "Love F$#%ing Science".
And by "science" they mean believing whatever braindead politicians or left-wing corporate media make up as they go along without
any critical analysis and hysterically denouncing any evidence that contradicts the narrative as heresy.
It's going to be fun when all these people become the object of universal mockery they deserve. In a JUST world they would
be severely punished though.
Lordflin 24 minutes ago
I have always been impressed by the willingness of those who know virtually nothing of the sciences to believe almost anything
if it is told to them in the name of science...
signer1 9 minutes ago
To quote Mark Twain, "It's easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled".
Citxmech 18 seconds ago
Apparently, it's also easier to get people to believe illogical arguments by telling them it's "science" than it is to get
them to actually think critically about the stupid shlt they're being asked to believe.
toiler4fiat 26 minutes ago
Madcow, like [neo]liberalism, is a disease. You can't repair a damaged brain like you can't turn a pickle into a cucumber.
For any fairly recent US posters on this site, here is a hint to the wise.
There is a significant Russian presence on the WSJ comments. Basically our Russian
visitors dominate these comments - at a ratio perhaps of 8-1 - or even worse.
The best way to get your footing on this site is to understand that these Russians are
educated, fluent in English, knowledgeable about us, oftentimes quite funny ( sometimes not.
) And the Russians are seeking to pass as Americans.
In this capacity, the Russians will often be earnest & insightful. As well as say
horrible things about Republicans and about Democrats.
They are here to stoke division and conflict. They seek to amplify partisanship and
misinformation.
As soon as you understand these essential facts, you will find it quite easy to work the
thread.
For any fairly recent US posters on this site, here is a hint to the wise.
There is a significant Russian presence on the WSJ comments. Basically our Russian
visitors dominate these comments - at a ratio perhaps of 8-1 - or even worse.
The best way to get your footing on this site is to understand that these Russians are
educated, fluent in English, knowledgeable about us, oftentimes quite funny ( sometimes
not. ) And the Russians are seeking to pass as Americans.
In this capacity, the Russians will often be earnest & insightful. As well as say
horrible things about Republicans and about Democrats.
They are here to stoke division and conflict. They seek to amplify partisanship and
misinformation.
As soon as you understand these essential facts, you will find it quite easy to work the
thread.
Just over ten years ago, on July 25, 2010, Wikileaks released 75,000 secret
U.S. military reports involving the war in Afghanistan . The New York Times, The Guardian ,
and Der Spiegel helped release the documents, which were devastating to America's intelligence
community and military, revealing systemic abuses that included civilian massacres and an
assassination squad, TF 373, whose existence the United States
kept "protected " even from its allies.
The Afghan War logs came out at the beginning of a historic stretch of true oppositional
journalism, when outlets like Le Monde, El Pais, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, The New York Times,
and others partnered with sites like Wikileaks. Official secrets were exposed on a scale not
seen since the Church Committee hearings of the seventies, as reporters pored through 250,000
American diplomatic cables, secret files about every detainee at Guantanamo Bay, and hundreds
of thousands of additional documents about everything from the Iraq war to coverups of
environmental catastrophes, among other things helping trigger the "Arab Spring."
There was an attempt at a response -- companies like Amazon, Master Card, Visa, and Paypal
shut Wikileaks off, and the Pentagon flooded the site with a "denial of service" attack -- but
leaks continued. One person inspired by the revelations was former NSA contractor Edward
Snowden, who came forward to unveil an illegal domestic surveillance program, a story that won
an Oscar and a Pulitzer Prize for documentarian Laura Poitras and reporters Glenn Greenwald and
Jeremy Scahill. By 2014, members of Congress in both parties were calling for the resignations
of CIA chief John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, both of whom had
been caught lying to congress.
The culmination of this period came when billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar launched
The Intercept in February 2014. The outlet was devoted to sifting through Snowden's archive of
leaked secrets, and its first story described how the
NSA and CIA frequently made errors using geolocation to identify and assassinate drone targets.
A few months later, former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden admitted, "We kill people based
on metadata."
Fast forward seven years. Julian Assange is behind bars, and may die there. Snowden is in
exile in Russia. Brennan, Clapper, and Hayden have been rehabilitated and are all paid
contributors to either MSNBC or CNN, part of a
wave of intelligence officers who've flooded the airwaves and op-ed pages in recent years,
including the FBI's Asha Rangappa, Clint Watts, Josh Campbell, former counterintelligence chief
Frank Figliuzzi and former deputy director Andrew McCabe, the CIA's John Sipher, Phil Mudd, Ned
Price, and many others.
Once again, Internet platforms, credit card companies
like Visa and MasterCard , and payment processors like PayPal are working to help track
down and/or block the activities of "extremists." This time, they're on the same side as the
onetime press allies of Wikileaks and Snowden, who began a course reversal after the election
of Donald Trump.
Those outlets first began steering attention away from intelligence abuses and toward
bugbears like Trumpism, misinformation, and Russian meddling, then entered into partnerships
with Langley-approved facsimiles of leak sites like Hamilton 68 ,
New Knowledge , and especially
Bellingcat , a kind of reverse Wikileaks devoted to exposing the misdeeds of regimes in
Russia, Syria, and Iran -- less so the United States and its allies. The CIA's former deputy
chief of operations for Europe and Eurasia, Marc Polymeropolous, said of the group's work, "
I don't
want to be too dramatic, but we love this ."
After the Capitol riots of January 6th, the War on Terror came home, and "domestic
extremists" stepped into the role enemy combatants played before. George Bush once launched an
all-out campaign to pacify any safe haven for trrrsts, promising to "smoke 'em out of their
holes." The new campaign is aimed at stamping out areas for surveillance-proof communication,
which CNN security analyst and former DHS official Juliette Kayyem described as any online
network "that lets [domestic extremists] talk amongst themselves."
Reporters pledged assistance, snooping for evidence of wrongness in digital rather than
geographical "hidey holes." We've seen The Guardian warning about the
perils of podcasts , ProPublica arguing that Apple's lax speech
environment contributed to the January 6th riot, and reporters
from The Verge and
Vice and
The New York Times listening in to Clubhouse chats in search of evidence of dangerous
thought. In an inspired homage to the lunacy of the War on Terror years, a GQ writer even went
on Twitter last week to chat with the author of George
Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech about imploring the "authorities" to use the "Fire in a
Crowded Theater" argument to shut down Fox News.
Multiple outlets announced plans to track "extremists" in either open or implied cooperation
with authorities. Frontline, ProPublica , and Berkley Journalism's Investigative Reporting
Program used " high-precision digital forensics "
to uncover "evidence" about the Boogaloo Bois, and the Huffington Post worked with the
"sedition hunters " at the Twitter activist group "Deep State Dogs" to help identify a
suspect later arrested for tasering a Capitol police officer. One of the Huffington Post
stories, from February, not only spoke to a willingness of the press to work with law
enforcement, but impatience
with the slowness of official procedure compared to "sleuthing communities":
The FBI wants
photos of Capitol insurrections to go viral , and has published images of more than 200 suspects.
But what happens when online sleuthing communities identify suspects and then see weeks go by
without any signs of action ? There are hundreds of suspects, thousands of hours of video,
hundreds of thousands of tips, and millions of pieces of evidence the FBI's bureaucracy isn't
necessarily designed to keep organized.
The Intercept already saw founding members Poitras and Greenwald depart, and shut down the
aforementioned Snowden archive to, in their words, "focus on other editorial priorities" --
parent company First Look Media soon after launched a partnership with "PassionFlix," whose
motto is, " Turning your favorite romance
novels into movies and series ." Last week, they announced a new project in tune with
current media trends:
Are there legitimate stories about people with racist or conspiratorial views who for
instance shouldn't be working in positions of authority, as cops or elected officials or
military officers? Sure, and there's a job for reporters in proving that out, especially if
there's a record of complaints or corruption to match. It gets a little weird if the
newsworthiness standard is "person with a job has abhorrent private opinions," but it's not
like it's impossible that a legit story could be found in something like the Gab archive,
especially if it involves a public figure.
But that depends on the media people involved having a coherent standard for outing
subjects, which hasn't always (or even often) been the case.
Here The Intercept is announcing it considers QAnon devotee Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alex
Jones "violent white supremacists" -- they're a lot of things, but "violent white
supremacists"? In the first piece about "extremists" on Gab, reporter Micah Lee claimed to have
found an account belonging to a little-known conservative youth figure; the man's attorney
later reached out to deny the account was his, leading to a correction .
When asked about his process, Lee responded, sarcastically, that he "certainly wouldn't want to
accidentally do investigative journalism about white supremacist domestic terrorists." When
asked how he defined a terrorist, and if he'd be naming public figures only, the sarcastic
answer this time was, "Of course I won't be naming anyone. Racist white people must be defended
at all costs."
Greenwald left the organization among other things after an editor asked that he address the
"disinformation issue" in a piece about Hunter Biden's laptop, a reference to a claim made by
50 intelligence officers that the story had "the classic earmarks of a Russian disinformation
campaign." He found it inappropriate then for a publication with The Intercept's history to be
pushing an intelligence narrative, and the Gab project struck him in a similar way.
"The leap from disseminating CIA propaganda to doing the police work of security state
agencies is a short one," says Greenwald, "and with its statements about what they are doing
with this Gab archive, The Intercept and its trite liberal managers in New York have now taken
it."
we need to find a way to keep stories like this from being reported.
lovingly,
rachel maddow's wife
ted41776 1 hour ago remove link
they hate us for our freedumb
was anyone punished for that WMD lie that cause the death of hundreds of thousands of
Iraqi civilians and a few thousand US troops?
i mean it is a widely accepted fact now, isn't it? that it was a lie that caused a
genocide and deaths of hundreds of thousands of people?
where are the nuremberg trials? UN? anyone?
crickets
Lt. Shicekopf 1 hour ago
Operation Mockingbird has paid immense dividends, one of the most successful programs
ever.
Maltheus 1 hour ago remove link
I dunno. What's the name of the program to infiltrate the schools? Gives Mockingbird a run
for its money.
fishpoem 32 minutes ago
Use the titles of any of the books written by members of the Frankfurt School. Start with
Marcuse. How such circular reasoning, boring prose, and patently bogus arguments became
mandatory reading material in every college in America is a puzzle future historians will
have to unravel.
Well, if the ruling Marxist Democrats allow historians to exist in the future...which they
probably won't. Truth, in that era, will be what "art" became in Hitler's Germany and
Stalin's Russia: cliched state-worship.
Most of the "reporters" for the big media cartel were always enemies of the American
people.
tedstr 57 minutes ago
News organizations have always been agents of the IC. Just as they are agents of Hollywood
and the biz news are agents of corporations. They no longer have the staffs to truely "do
news" so they rely on being spoon fed from their sources. they will never bite the hand.
Steve in Greensboro 1 hour ago remove link
Lee Smith on Bannon's Warroom 53 in December 2019.
Lee Smith: " Here's something that boggles me still that there are still people after what
we have seen and after I've documented in the book what the press has become what the WaPo
what the prestige brands of American journalism have become and nonetheless there are
Republicans only blocks from here who are more than happy to treat whether it's the WaPo,
NYT, CNN, MSNBC as though these are regular news networks still. Even after three years of
seeing them operate exactly like media operatives "
Steve Bannon: "You believe they are the opposition party media. Right?
Lee Smith: "It's not a media, it's a platform for intelligence operations. It's not media
at all. This is like the Arab press."
Joe Davola 1 hour ago
Maybe a curious investigative reporter might look into why "financial services" companies
jump right in whenever the deep state needs them.
NewMouldy 1 hour ago
Kabuki theatre..
College deans, professors, teachers were all bought and paid for decades ago by the deep
state. The very people that educate upcoming politicians, reporters and scientists.
This is how we got to where we are now.
US Banana Republic 6 minutes ago
When media "personalities" like Cuomo, Madcow, and Cooper make more than $10 million
dollars a year from corporate sponsors towing the corporate/government line then NOBODY want
to be a hard hitting investigative reporter. Everybody wants to be a corporate/government
boot licker.
As always, follow the money.
Isn't Life Gland 15 minutes ago
Ali Watkins is my favorite. "Worked" her way all the way up to the pinnacle gig at the New
York Crimes..on her back.
A cyberattack that crippled the US fuel supply wasn't the work of Russia, President Joe
Biden said. Confusingly, Biden then said that Russia bears "some responsibility" for the
attack.
A ransomware attack on Friday shut down a gasoline and diesel pipeline running 5,500 miles
along the entire US East Coast. Operated by the Colonial Pipeline Company, the vital fuel
artery normally transits 100 million gallons per day from Texas all the way to New York. The
Biden administration responded by invoking emergency powers to enable truckers to transport
more fuel, as traders scrambled to import fuel by sea from Europe.
A ransomware attack on Friday shut down a gasoline and diesel pipeline running 5,500 miles
along the entire US East Coast. Operated by the Colonial Pipeline Company, the vital fuel
artery normally transits 100 million gallons per day from Texas all the way to New York. The
Biden administration responded by invoking emergency powers to enable truckers to transport
more fuel, as traders scrambled to import fuel by sea from Europe.
Addressing the attack on Monday, Biden initially threw cold water on the claims of Russian
involvement, instead blaming "transnational criminals."
"So far there's no evidence from our intelligence people that Russia is involved,"
Biden told reporters. However, he followed that statement by saying that the ransomware used
"is in Russia," and Russia therefore has "some responsibility to deal with
this."
Rumors of Russian involvement were stoked by several mainstream media outlets over the
weekend, after it emerged that 'DarkSide,' a criminal hacking organization believed by CNN's
anonymous sources to be based in "a Russian-speaking country," was responsible for the
attack. In a short statement on Monday, the FBI confirmed "that the DarkSide ransomware is
responsible for the compromise of the Colonial Pipeline networks."
Other media outlets took the opportunity to link the hackers to the Russian government,
"whether they work for the state or not," in the words of one cybersecurity consultant
to NBC.
"... As the world has become more complex, people have relied more and more on stereotypes and simplifications to help them interpret and filter events around them. Propaganda manipulates this desire for simplicity – handing people easy answers rather than winning them over with rational arguments. Society then rallies around these stereotypes and squashes dissents with 'herd mentality', an irrational set of psychological behaviors where individuals are swept along with a group, overriding their own rational assessments ..."
Below is a repeat of a Glenn Diesen quote from karlof1 comment # 57
" "As the world has become more complex, people have relied more and more on stereotypes and
simplifications to help them interpret and filter events around them. Propaganda manipulates
this desire for simplicity – handing people easy answers rather than winning them over
with rational arguments. Society then rallies around these stereotypes and squashes dissents
with 'herd mentality', an irrational set of psychological behaviors where individuals are
swept along with a group, overriding their own rational assessments." "
Think about the vaccine situation and what just happened to the medical profession in the
West....they got railroaded into agreeing that there was not an off the shelf "ivermectin" to
the virus and guaranteed future income to Big Pharma is more important.
Hey docs!!! Do no harm! Your complicity in this war crime against humanity is noted. What
are the responsible and humanistic actions to take now and why does the public not see
evidence that you are organizing to do them?
Until the reality of the CIA--to undermine peaceful relations and promote wars required
for Military Keynesianism--is taught in grade school, it will always find recruits. As with
the FBI, government sponsored propaganda was and remains required to manufacture the reasons
for their existence. Nations that promote an equitable polity have no need for a secret
police force, but do need some force to counter attempts from the outside to foment
destabilization. For example, today's Russia is freer than at any previous time in its
history as only extremist ideologies are banned while Communism--still deemed extremist by
the West--is relegated to a normal ideology with status as a normative political party.
Indeed, I'd argue that Russia remains the only genuine Liberal Western nation, which is a
reality Russophobes are unable to accept or even contemplate. The same also applies to the
concept of Communism thanks to the unwillingness to even attempt to understand Marx. And as
Western thought gets subsumed by Wokeness, the ideological divide between Neoliberal nations
and all others will continue to grow.
"... No, people get their belief systems (religious, political, economic, cultural) from their identity groups. **Then** (if called upon) they apply the intellect to rationalize the beliefs that they **already** hold. ..."
"... Rationalizing the Russiagate nonsense was seemingly inevitable with the 24/7 help of the MSM, and the continuous chirping of Democrat politicians. The intellect was not a lighthouse beacon that led intelligent Democrats through the fog of 24/7/52 issued propaganda, rather; the intellect was the tool that solidified vaporous forms into false-reality. ..."
My two cents. People are mimics. It is fascinating when you realize this.
People don't muse, contemplate and chew over the circumstances and issues in their environment and then resolve - "aha! I have
got it." That is not where people get their belief systems. For example, a million and more people didn't all independently study
the Bible and then realize that their interpretation was fully consistent with those of the Roman Catholics and therefore they
should go join the Catholic Church.
No, people get their belief systems (religious, political, economic, cultural) from their identity groups. **Then** (if
called upon) they apply the intellect to rationalize the beliefs that they **already** hold.
The epiphany came to me when I observed intelligent people falling for Russiagate. WTF !! I thought intelligent people
would get it. Russiagate would be a flash-in-the-pan that would disappear in a few days (or less!). Boy was I wrong. The intellect
does not rule, group identity does. Those that identified Democrat (generalizing here, of course) fell in step with the beliefs
common to Democrats, including Russiagate.
Rationalizing the Russiagate nonsense was seemingly inevitable with the 24/7 help of the MSM, and the continuous chirping
of Democrat politicians. The intellect was not a lighthouse beacon that led intelligent Democrats through the fog of 24/7/52 issued
propaganda, rather; the intellect was the tool that solidified vaporous forms into false-reality.
To find one's identity in groups is deeply human. People are dominated by their need to be group-accepted. It is unsurprising
that group acceptance and group identity produce what we call fashion - fashion in style, fashion in vocabulary, fashion in beliefs.
This applies to Wokism. People are mimics.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) announced in a statement on Monday that it was
creating a
new intelligence “center†focused on tracking so-called “ foreign malign influence, †reported Politico. This new
entity, known as the Foreign Malign Influence Center, was mandated in the recent intelligence and defense budget authorization acts,
representing the reality that the impetus for its creation came from Congress, and not the intelligence community.
For example, the most recent
defense
expenditure authorization required that the ODNI establish a “ social media data analysis center †to coordinate and
track foreign social media influence operations by analyzing data voluntarily shared by US social media companies. Based upon this
analysis, the ODNI would report to Congress on a quarterly basis on trends in foreign influence and disinformation operations to
the public. As envisioned by Congress, the intelligence community would determine jointly with US social media companies which data
and metadata will be made available for analysis.
In short, the intelligence community, using data obtained from the social media accounts of American citizens, will report to
Congress how this data influences the political decision making of these same American citizens.
If this does not make the most ardent defender of the US Constitution ill, nothing will.
It is not as if the US intelligence community wasn’t trending in this direction on its own volition. The straw that broke the
camel’s back, so to speak, was the publication in March 2021 of an
intelligence community assessment
entitled ‘Foreign Threats to the US 2020 Presidential Election’. In this document, the US intelligence community assessed that
“ Russian President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed
at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence
in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US .â€
But the most damning portion of this assessment came when it delved into the specific methodology employed by Russia to achieve
these nefarious aims. “ Throughout the election cycle â€, the assessment declared, “ Russia’s online influence actors
sought to affect US public perceptions of the candidates, as well as advance Moscow’s long standing goals of undermining confidence
in US election processes and increasing sociopolitical divisions among the American people. During the presidential primaries and
dating back to 2019, these actors backed candidates from both major US political parties that Moscow viewed as outsiders, while later
claiming that election fraud helped what they called ‘establishment’ candidates. Throughout the election, Russia’s online influence
actors sought to amplify mistrust in the electoral process by denigrating mail-in ballots, highlighting alleged irregularities, and
accusing the Democratic Party of voter fraud. â€
As an American citizen who is politically engaged, I read the intelligence community assessment with a combination of interest,
concern, and outrage. The notion of “ Russian online influence actors †affecting “US public perceptions of the candidatesâ€
is as intellectually vacuous as it is factually unsustainable. The stupidity encapsulated by such analysis can only be excused by
the fact that the intelligence community assessment is a document produced more for the benefit of domestic political consumption
than a genuine effort at identifying and quantifying legitimate threats to the US.
The assessment itself is short on hard data. However,
the House Intelligence
Committee has documented some 3,000 social media ads bought by Russian “troll farms†between 2015-2017, at a cost of some
$100,000. These ads were in addition to so-called “organic posts,†some 80,000 of which were published on US social media, free
of charge, by alleged Russian “bots†resulting in 126 million “views†by Americans. These ads were crude, unfocused, and simply
inane in terms of their content.
To put the alleged Russian influence campaign into perspective, one need only reflect on the fact that during his short bid for
the Democratic nomination,
Michael Bloomberg spent nearly $1 billion underwriting the single most sophisticated public relations campaign, including hundreds
of millions of targeted social media ads put together by the most brilliant political minds money could buy. All this money, time
and effort, however, could not change the reality that, to the American public, Michael Bloomberg was an unattractive candidate â€"
in the end his $1 billion bought him exactly two delegates.
The fact is, the political opinions of most American citizens are formed based upon a lifetime of exposure to issues that matter
for them the most, whether it be education, right-to-life, gun control, social justice, agriculture, energy, environment, law enforcement,
or any other of the multitude of sources of causation that impact the day-to-day existence of the American electorate.
Some of these beliefs are inherited, such as the working-class attachment to unions. Some are driven by current affairs, such
as the growing awareness of climate change. But all are derived from the life experience of each American, and the thought that these
deeply held beliefs could be bought, changed, or otherwise manipulated by social media posts published by foreign actors, malign
or otherwise, is deeply insulting to me, and should be to every other American as well.
The irony is that by creating an intelligence organization whose task it is to help prevent the political Balkanization of America
by analyzing the social media accounts of Americans who hold differing political beliefs than “the establishment†the newly minted
Foreign Malign Influence Center ostensibly serves, the resulting process will only cause the further political division of the United
States.
Some 74 million Americans voted for a candidate, Donald Trump, who has promulgated the very issues that the Democratic-controlled
Congress seeks to denigrate and suppress through the work of this new intelligence center. These ideas will not simply disappear
because the Democrats in Congress have empowered a “center†within the intelligence community whose sole function is to demonize
any political thought that does not conform with the powers that be.
As it is currently focused, the Foreign Malign Influence Center is the living, breathing embodiment of politicized intelligence,
two words which, when put together, represent the death knell for any intelligence organization. Worse, the work it will be doing,
when turned over to a Democratically controlled Congress desperate to undermine the political viability of those 74 million American
citizens, will only further fracture an already divided nation.
The Foreign Malign Influence Center was specifically mandated to examine the social media influence campaigns operated by Russia,
China, Iran, and North Korea. It is particularly telling that they were not directed to investigate the two largest foreign sources
of political influence in America today, namely the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and the Murdoch media empire. President
Putin could only dream about being able to buy congressional seats the way AIPAC does, or control what information becomes magnified
(and, by extension, suppressed) by the newspapers, television and radio enterprises owned by Rupert Murdoch.
These are the true villains when it comes to foreign corruption of American politics. These foreigners, however, have a seat at
the establishment table. Their malign influence will never be labeled as such, and they will never have to withstand the ignominy
of having their work scrutinized under the politicized microscope of an intelligence community that has allowed itself to be corrupted
by domestic American politics to the point that it no longer serves the American people as a whole, but only a select class of American
persons.
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those
of RT.
Congozebilu 4 hours ago 4 hours ago
Foreign Malign Influence Center sounds like something out of a cartoon.
AwareAussie2 Congozebilu 4 hours ago 4 hours ago
The catch words "freedom", "democracy" and "terrorism" don't work any more, they need to now use different phrases to con us.
John Titor 4 hours ago 4 hours ago
The Foreign Malign Influence Center is just the latest in the Democrat Government Propaganda machine.
frankfalseflag 4 hours ago 4 hours ago
Does Scott Ritter actually expect Americans to wake up to the fact that they are getting more lies and propaganda than the Germans
got from their Reich Chancellery in the 30s and 40s?
These folks have had it with the constant stream of baseless propaganda U.S. intelligence is spilling over the world:
Dear Director of National Intelligence,
we, the the 4-star Generals leading U.S. regional commands all over the world, are increasingly concerned with about
the lack of evidence for claims you make about our opponents.
We, as true believers, do not doubt whatever judgment you make about the harmful activities of Russia, Iran and China.
However - our allies and partners do not yet subscribe to the bliss of ignorance. They keep asking us for facts that support
those judgments
Unfortunately, we have none that we could provide.
Media reports have appeared in which 'intelligence sources' claim that Russia, China and Iran are all paying bounties
to the Taliban for killing U.S. soldiers. Fortunately
no soldier got hurt
by those rumors.
Our allies and partners read those and other reports and ask us for evidence. They want to know how exactly Russia, Iran
and China are doing these things.
They, of course, hope to learn from our experience to protect their own countries.
Currently we are not able to provide them with such information. Your people keep telling our that all of it is SECRET.
We therefore ask you to declassify the facts that support your judgments. *
Sincerely
The Generals
---- PS: * Either that or shut the fuck up.
Look, The generals and the intelligence agencies haven't won a war for a long time. So now they will fight each other
. At least ONE of them will win this time ! Success.
The NYT is simply a propaganda organ of the corporate oligarchy. Whenever the US does
something bad, it is always "alleged". When opponents of US hegemony are accused of doing
something bad, it is never "alleged" - for example, you won't read about the "alleged Douma
chemical attack" in the NYT.
Just a small point about English grammar: "alleged burglar", "alleged miracle" and
"alleged conspiracy" are all correct, because "alleged" is being used here as an adjective.
"Alleged antique vase", on the other hand, is incorrect because what is being alleged is not
that the object is a vase; what is being alleged is that the vase is antique. Because it is
being used to describe an adjective (antique), it is being used adverbially: therefore the
correct usage is "allegedly antique vase".
This reminds me of John Michael Greer's formulation: the "allegedly smart phone". I use it
all the time, to imply that intensive users of mobile devices may not be quite as intelligent
as is generally believed. Note that what is being is alleged is not that it's a phone, but
that it's smart!
NYT does use "alleged" correctly. In the land of truth, one need merely state one's
statement. In the land of lies, one must insert "alleged", so that others know the statement
is truth.
Back in the good old days, when things were more innocent and simple, the psychopathic
Central Intelligence Agency had to covertly infiltrate the news media to manipulate the
information Americans were consuming about their nation and the world. Nowadays, there is no
meaningful separation between the news media and the CIA at all.
Analysis: US
blinks first on Russia-Ukraine tensions
Journalist Glenn Greenwald just highlighted an interesting point about the reporting by The
New York Times on the so-called
“Bountygate†story the outlet broke in June of last year
about the Russian government trying to pay Taliban-linked fighters to attack US soldiers in
Afghanistan.
“One of the NYT reporters who originally broke the Russia bounty story
(originally attributed to unnamed ‘intelligence
officials’) say today that it was a CIA claim,†Greenwald
tweeted .
“So media outlets - again - repeated CIA stories with no questioning:
congrats to all.â€
Indeed, NYT’s original
story made no mention of CIA involvement in the narrative, citing only
“officials,†yet this latest article speaks as though it had
been informing its readers of the story’s roots in the
lying, torturing , drug-running , warmongering Central
Intelligence Agency from the very beginning. The author even writes “The New
York Times
first reported last summer the existence of the C.I.A.’s
assessment,†with the hyperlink leading to the initial article which made no
mention of the CIA. It wasn’t until later that The New York Times began reporting that the CIA
was looking into the Russian bounties allegations at all.
The Daily Beast , which has itself uncritically published many articles
promoting the CIA “Bountygate†narrative, reports the
following:
It was a blockbuster
story about Russia’s return to the imperial “Great
Game†in Afghanistan. The Kremlin had spread money around the longtime central
Asian battlefield for militants to kill remaining U.S. forces. It sparked a massive outcry
from Democrats and their #resistance amplifiers about the treasonous Russian puppet in the
White House whose admiration for Vladimir Putin had endangered American troops.
But on Thursday, the Biden administration announced that U.S. intelligence only had
“low to moderate†confidence in the story after all.
Translated from the jargon of spyworld, that means the intelligence agencies have found the
story is, at best, unproven â€" and possibly untrue.
So the mass media aggressively promoted a CIA narrative that none of them ever saw proof of,
because there was no proof, because it was an entirely unfounded claim from the very beginning.
They quite literally ran a CIA press release and disguised it as a news story.
In totalitarian dictatorships, the government spy agency tells the news media what stories
to run, and the news media unquestioningly publish it. In free democracies, the government spy
agency says “Hoo buddy, have I got a scoop for you!†and the
news media unquestioningly publish it.
In 1977 Carl Bernstein published an article titled “ The CIA and the Media
†reporting that the CIA had
covertly infiltrated America’s most influential news outlets and had
over 400 reporters who it considered assets in a program known as
Operation Mockingbird . It was a major scandal, and rightly so. The news media is meant to
report truthfully about what happens in the world, not manipulate public perception to suit the
agendas of spooks and warmongers.
Nowadays the CIA collaboration happens right out in the open, and people are too
propagandized to even recognize this as scandalous. Immensely influential outlets like The New
York Times uncritically pass on CIA disinfo which is then spun as fact by cable news
pundits . The sole owner of The Washington Post is a CIA contractor ,
and WaPo has never once disclosed this conflict of interest when reporting on US intelligence
agencies per standard journalistic protocol. Mass media outlets
now openly employ intelligence agency veterans like John Brennan, James Clapper,
Chuck Rosenberg, Michael Hayden, Frank Figliuzzi, Fran Townsend, Stephen Hall, Samantha
Vinograd, Andrew McCabe, Josh Campbell, Asha Rangappa, Phil Mudd, James Gagliano, Jeremy Bash,
Susan Hennessey, Ned Price and Rick Francona, as are known
CIA assets like NBC’s Ken Dilanian, as are
CIA interns like Anderson Cooper and CIA applicants like
Tucker Carlson.
This isn’t Operation Mockingbird. It’s so much worse.
Operation Mockingbird was the CIA doing something to the media. What we are seeing now is the
CIA openly acting as the media. Any separation between the CIA and the news media, indeed even
any pretence of separation, has been dropped.
This is bad. This is very, very bad. Democracy has no meaningful existence if
people’s votes aren’t being cast with a clear
understanding of what’s happening in their nation and their world, and if
their understanding is being shaped to suit the agendas of the very government
they’re meant to be influencing with their votes, what you have is the most
powerful military and economic force in the history of civilization with no accountability to
the electorate whatsoever. It’s just an immense globe-spanning power
structure, doing whatever it wants to whoever it wants. A totalitarian dictatorship in
disguise.
And the CIA is the very worst institution that could possibly be spearheading the movements
of that dictatorship. A little research into the many, many horrific
things the CIA has done over the years will quickly show you that this is true; hell, just
a glance at what the CIA was up to with the
Phoenix Program in Vietnam will.
There’s a common delusion in our society that depraved government
agencies who are known to have done evil things in the past have simply stopped doing evil
things for some reason. This belief is backed by zero evidence, and is contradicted by
mountains of evidence to the contrary. It’s believed because it is
comfortable, and for literally no other reason.
The CIA should not exist at all, let alone control the news media, much less the movements
of the US empire. May we one day know a humanity that is entirely free from the rule of
psychopaths, from our total planetary behavior as a collective, all the way down to the
thoughts we think in our own heads.
May we extract their horrible fingers from every aspect of our being.
The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is
to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack , which will get you an email
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"... we, the the 4-star Generals leading U.S. regional commands all over the world, are increasingly concerned with about the lack of evidence for claims you make about our opponents. ..."
"... We, as true believers, do not doubt whatever judgment you make about the harmful activities of Russia, Iran and China. However - our allies and partners do not yet subscribe to the bliss of ignorance. They keep asking us for facts that support those judgments ..."
"... Unfortunately, we have none that we could provide. ..."
"... You say that Russia thought to manipulate Trump allies and to smear Biden , that Russia and Iran aimed to sway the 2020 election through covert campaigns and that China runs covert operations to influence members of Congress . ..."
"... Media reports have appeared in which 'intelligence sources' claim that Russia, China and Iran are all paying bounties to the Taliban for killing U.S. soldiers. Fortunately no soldier got hurt by those rumors. ..."
"... Our allies and partners read those and other reports and ask us for evidence. They want to know how exactly Russia, Iran and China are doing these things. ..."
"... They, of course, hope to learn from our experience to protect their own countries. ..."
"... Currently we are not able to provide them with such information. Your people keep telling our that all of it is SECRET. ..."
"... We therefore ask you to declassify the facts that support your judgments. * ..."
These folks have had it with the constant stream of baseless propaganda U.S. intelligence is
spilling over the world:
Dear Director of National Intelligence,
we, the the 4-star Generals leading U.S. regional commands all over the world, are
increasingly concerned with about the lack of evidence for claims you make about our
opponents.
We, as true believers, do not doubt whatever judgment you make about the harmful
activities of Russia, Iran and China. However - our allies and partners do not yet subscribe
to the bliss of ignorance. They keep asking us for facts that support those
judgments
Unfortunately, we have none that we could provide.
Media reports have appeared in which 'intelligence sources' claim that Russia, China
and Iran are all paying bounties to the Taliban for killing U.S. soldiers. Fortunately
no soldier got
hurt by those rumors.
Our allies and partners read those and other reports and ask us for evidence. They
want to know how exactly Russia, Iran and China are doing these things.
They, of course, hope to learn from our experience to protect their own
countries.
Currently we are not able to provide them with such information. Your people keep
telling our that all of it is SECRET.
We therefore ask you to declassify the facts that support your judgments.
*
Sincerely
The Generals
---- PS: * Either that or shut the fuck up.
The above may well have been a draft for the letter behind
this report :
America’s top spies say they are looking for ways to declassify and
release more intelligence about adversaries’ bad behavior, after a group
of four-star military commanders sent a rare and urgent plea asking for help in the
information war against Russia and China.
The internal memo from nine regional military commanders last year, which was reviewed by
POLITICO and not made public, implored spy agencies to provide more evidence to combat
"pernicious conduct."
Only by "waging the truth in the public domain against America’s 21st
century challengers†can Washington shore up support from American allies, they
said. But efforts to compete in the battle of ideas, they added, are hamstrung by overly
stringent secrecy practices.
“We request this help to better enable the US, and by extension its
allies and partners, to win without fighting, to fight now in so-called gray zones, and to
supply ammunition in the ongoing war of narratives," the commanders who oversee U.S. military
forces in Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, as well as special operations troops, wrote to
then-acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire last January.
“Unfortunately, we continue to miss opportunities to clarify truth,
counter distortions, puncture false narratives, and influence events in time to make a
difference," they added.
The generals must have been seriously miffed to write such a letter. There have been a
number of published intelligence judgments where the NSA had expressed
low confidence in conclusions made mainly by the CIA. The NSA is part of the military.
Between two bureaucracies such an accusing letter or internal memo is the equivalent of a
declaration of war. It is doubtful that the intelligence folks would win that fight.
That gives some hope that the Office of the DNI and the agencies below it will now lessen
their production of nonsensical claims.
Posted by b on April 28, 2021 at 15:49 UTC | Permalink
Thanks for that b....is it rubber meets the road time?
I just read that the US is getting all its ambassadorial folk out of Afghanistan....maybe
somebody is believing May 1 is a firmer deadline than the Biden 9/11 myth.
The shit show is about to crash, IMO, but if it is in slow motion, this crazy could go on
for a while....what geo-political straw will break the camel's back?
Lewis Black, a pretty good US comedian, used to have a bit in the mid-2000's where he would
ask the W administration flacks why they didn't just make up evidence about the Iraq WMDs
after they "found out" that there were no weapons in the country. Black would tell them just
make it up; we're used to it. Just give us an excuse to believe in the BS for God's sake;
we'll do it!
I feel it's the same with our satrap nations around the world. At this time, is there
anyone who does not understand that US foreign policy is conducted for and by MICIMATT (look
it up)? So the generals have got nothing to worry about: keep pounding out that BS; there's a
willing, able, and ready corps of salesmen and women in the media who will make enough of the
public believe it for "democracy's" purposes.
General Mackenzie who testified before the US House Armed Services Committee said
Iran’s widespread use of drones means that the US is operating without
complete air superiority for the first time since the Korean War.
Iran has time and again stated that its military capabilities are merely defensive and are
designed to deter foreign threats.
General Flynn had been head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (military).
The CIA was out to get him. It took a while but they eventually hamstrung him good.
"Dear Generals, who haven't won a war in 75 years, so much for the DIA huh? We'd love to
share our intelligence with you, our evidence showing the overwhelming and egregious misdeeds
of our hateful, spiteful disgusting enemies, whose questioning of our Word should be met with
charges of treason, but to give you evidence on top of our own unquestionable and 100%
correct threat estimations, would compromise our Intelligence Gathering Methods which are of
the strictest security and would threaten the ongoing ability of this Agency to gather and
disseminate the unquestionable facts that without fear of contradiction we know is the truth.
In short, dear Generals - work on winning a war, any war, and don't meddle in places that
befuddle your ability to follow orders. Hooah! The CIA."
Intel Wars: DIA, CIA and Flynn’s Battle to Consolidate Spying
The Defense Department wants in on the spying game. But will the CIA block their
efforts?
The CIA essentially absorbed the Pentagon’s only military-wide spying
agency seven years ago [2006]
when the Defense HUMINT Service was dismantled -- and now, the Pentagon wants it back.
The CIA is quietly pushing the Armed Services committees along, hoping that
Flynn’s DCS will be remembered by history as a failed power
grab.
The CIA/FBI/17+ known/unknown agencies are clearly a security apparatus that's gone out of
control when even the USA's "nine regional [four-star general] military commanders" are out
of the loop and pleading to be better informed. Worryingly, though, they ask for "ammunition
in the ongoing war of narratives," which they apparently are ready to go right along
with.
Western news media, of course, has become but a compliant weaponized appendage of that
security apparatus, and democracy, which depends on informed voters, is nowhere in control of
any of this.
I do not see how this is possible. Every major event, from Vietnam, to JFK, to 9-11, and a
myriad of others, had US lies baked into the cake. If the US ceased to lie, it would cease to
function as America functions today. It would be incapable of empire.
The US establishment, from the President on down, is based on lies. They cannot survive on
truth.
b ended his post with: " lessen their production of nonsensical claims."
"Nonsensical" misses the mark. They are *agenda-driven* claims.
I don't believe the Generals care one whit whether the spineless jellyfish pols
in other countries see through our lies. The Generals want the Pentagon to
have more participation in shaping the agenda and it's attendant narrative.
The military used to be that part pf the US government apparatus ("deep state") that
emphasized the value and importance of allies the most.
IMHO what is happening here is that the generals sense the imcreasing cracks in the
US-centered alliance system. They attribute it to the work of the intelligence community,
which is certainly a contributing factor, but thr real cause is the relative decline in US
power and general unreliability due to political instability. The USA is less and less
attractive as a partner. When the generals ask another country for a favour as they had been
used to for decades they increasingly often get just questions and excuses in return.
Is this a sign of a struggle between the CIA and Pentagon as to who is the boss of foreign
and war policy? Anybody remember when CIA supported jihadists were fighting Pentagon
supported groups (were they jihadists?) in Syria. Seems like the Pentagon is the one deciding
on relations with the Syrian Kurds, and not the CIA. Flynn was actively helping the Damascus
with info about the CIA backed jihadists.
I would rather have the Pentagon win as they are not all that hot-to-trot for actual wars.
The CIA should just go back to running US media, law makers, corporation and ruining civil
liberties.
Isn't it safe to assume that *anything* the CIA says publicly, either through direct
channels or their co-opted corporate media, is false? Cue the Mike Pimpeo quote: "We lied, we
cheated, we stole..." and of course the entire history of that useless agency, lol.
PRAGUE, April 25. /TASS/. The evidence that some "Russian agents" were present at the ammo
depot in the village of Vrbetice was not mentioned in the reports of the Czech
Republic’s Security Information Service, Czech President Milos Zeman said
in his emergency televised address in connection with the 2014 incident on Sunday.
"I can state that the report of the Security Information Service says and I underline this
- that there is neither proof nor evidence [of eyewitnesses] that these two agents [the
Russians who were accused of involvement in the incident - TASS] were at the [ammo depot] in
Vrbetice. When the premises of the second depot were examined right before the explosion
there, no explosive device was found there," Zeman said in his address broadcast by Prima and
CNN Prima News TV channels.
The president stressed that the suspicion about the alleged role of two foreign agents in
the 2014 ammo depot explosions in Vrbetice came to the surface over the past weeks. "The
Security Information Service had never before mentioned the incident in Vrbetice over the
past six years," he noted.
…
In the Russian-language version of the same story Zeman also talks about the possibility
that the explosives were not properly handled:
…
Zeman also said that careless handling of ammunition is being considered as the cause of the
explosions and the possible involvement of foreign intelligence services is being considered.
"We are working with two versions - that the explosions [in Vrbetica] occurred as a result of
careless handling of ammunition, and the second version - that agents of foreign special
services are to blame for this," Zeman said.
…
Zeman also provided an indirect hint as to who might have coordinated the scandal on the
Czech side and on whose orders:
PRAGUE, April 25. / TASS /. Czech President Milos Zeman questioned the effectiveness of the
American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in connection with incorrect information, on the
basis of which the United States made an erroneous decision on a military operation against
Iraq.
"The CIA is the intelligence agency that informed the US government that there are weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq. And this [CIA allegation] was not only not confirmed, but was
[completely] refuted," Zeman said Sunday in an interview with Prima and CNN. Prima NEWS . -
The consequences [of this step by the CIA] were terrible - thousands of lives, enormous
material damage, and so on. Is this how a high-quality intelligence service works? "
The head of state made such a statement, answering the question whether he intends to
confer the rank of general on the head of the Security and Information Service -
counterintelligence of the Czech Republic - Michal Koudelka, who was recently awarded the CIA
medal in the United States . Zeman said that he would consider the possibility of his
promotion next year and only if the version of the Czech special services about the
involvement of foreign agents in the explosions at the ammunition depot in the village of
Vrbetice in 2014 is confirmed.
Earlier Zakharova noted that the local authorities didn’t even know who
operated the ammo depot:
…
“Seven years have passed. Did the trial take place? There was no court.
Two people died ... Here is the answer to your question, including - who is the beneficiary
of all this marasmic parade. There was an investigation, there was an investigation - nothing
came of it, " RIA Novosti quotes Zakharova.
…
She said that "the local authorities did not know that since 2006 the ammunition depot has
not been used by the army, and the Ministry of Defense is renting out the warehouse premises
to private arms companies."
Zakharova added that "the huge amount of weapons that were in the warehouses for eight
years were without any control from the authorities."
…
These days evidence no longer has to be presented for a claim because the accusation is a
loyalty test for the Amerikastani Empire and vassal citizens. The more outlandish the claim
the more they have to rush to prove their loyalty so outlandish evidence free claims are far
from as insane as they seem to be. They have a very definite purpose.
I do not want to talk about Covid though I'm Indian and my former teacher died today of
it. I am convinced that discussions about it inevitably work to split the anti Imperialist
resistance.
"I am convinced that discussions about it inevitably work to split the anti Imperialist
resistance."
That is an interesting take - world view.
My view is that:
The world is essentially run by and for and as it pleases wealthy and influential persons
and organizations. They can do this because they have money and power and are thereby able to
control access to money and power. These persons and organizations are the owners and the
effect of their influence where it is somewhat constructive is neoliberalism and where it is
less constructive is destabilization (surely there is a better term).
Beneath them are the operatives which serve them and thereby climb the ladder of wealth
and influence. These are the politicians and beauracrats and media and the military. The
beauracrats are particularly problematic because they are unelected, unaccountable, operate
unmonitored and collaborate.
In this system, the only means for yourselves and family to survive is to serve the owners
- via the structures created to enrich the beauracrats.
When truth is marginalized, the fringe is the only place where it’s
to be found.
So it looks like Russia didn’t pay the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers
after all.
Last summer, the New York Times announced in a front-page
story that “American intelligence officials have concluded that a
Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants
killing coalition forces in Afghanistan â€" including targeting American
troops.â€
The article rang with certainty. “Some officials have theorized that the
Russians may be seeking revenge on NATO forces for a 2018 battle in Syria in which the American
military killed several hundred pro-Syrian forces, including numerous Russian
mercenaries,†it said. The operation, it went on, appears to be
“the handiwork of Unit 29155, an arm of Russia’s military
intelligence agency, known widely as the GRU. … Western intelligence
officials say the unit, which has operated for more than a decade, has been charged by the
Kremlin with carrying out a campaign to destabilize the West through subversion, sabotage and
assassination.â€
This was red meat for congressional Democrats eager to tar Trump with whatever brush was at
hand. Nancy Pelosi issued a call to arms, declaring: “Congress and the
country need answers now.†Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer adopted a tone of
mock disbelief: “Russia gives bounties to kill Americans and the
administration does nothing? Nothing? Donald Trump, you’re not being a very
strong president here as usual.†Joe Biden called the report
“horrifying†and said “there is no bottom to
the depth of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin’s depravity if
it’s true.â€
Except that it isn’t true now that we know that U.S. intelligence
agencies, according to the White House, view the report with only “low to
moderate confidence†â€" which, in layman’s language,
either means that it could be true â€" kind of, sort of, maybe â€" or
that it’s pure baloney. In any event, it’s hardly reason
to accus a sitting president of “a betrayal of every single American family
with a loved one serving in Afghanistan or anywhere overseas,†as Biden did the day
after the story broke.
Charlie Savage, whose byline appears on a number of last summer’s pieces,
offered a series of mealy-mouthed excuses for how he and his fellow Times reporters managed to
get it so wrong. “Former intelligence officials … have
noted that it is rare in the murky world of intelligence to have courtroom levels of proof
beyond a reasonable doubt about what an adversary is covertly doing,†he said . He
described the original intelligence findings as “muddiedâ€
because a key figure in the alleged plot “had fled to Russia â€"
possibly while using a passport linked to a Russian spy agency.â€
So it isn’t the Times’s or the
CIA’s fault, you see â€" it’s merely a hazard
of the trade. But isn’t it’s curious how words like
“murky†and “muddied†never
cropped up last summer when the Times was busily egging Democrats on with stories
charging that the bounties had led to “at least one U.S. troop
death†or maybe even
three ? “Father of Slain Marine Finds Heartbreak Anew in Possible
Russian Bounty,†a Times
headline declared. “American officials intercepted electronic data
showing large financial transfers from a bank account controlled by Russia’s
military intelligence agency to a Taliban-linked account,†another
claimed .
All of which was nonsense, as is now clear. Yet not only has the Times failed to apologize
but White House spokesman Jen Psaki managed to spin the story last week so that
it’s still Moscow’s fault and “there
are [still] questions to be answered by the Russian government.â€
Although the corporate media dutifully echoed the Times, a few skeptics did get it right.
Ray McGovern, an ex-CIA official who now heads a group calling itself Veteran Intelligence
Professionals for Sanity, called the
story “dubious†right off the bat. Scott Ritter, the ex-UN
weapons inspector who blew the cover off charges that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq
was bristling with weapons of mass destruction, wrote that
“there is no corroboration, nothing that would allow this raw
‘intelligence’ to be turned into a product worthy of the
name.†Caitlin Johnstone, who covers U.S. politics from Australia yet still does a
better job of it than most stateside reporters,
denounced the entire affair as a “malignant psyop,†adding:
“It really is funny how the most influential news outlets in the western
world will uncritically parrot whatever they’re told to say by the most
powerful and depraved intelligence agencies on the planet, and then turn around and tell you
without a hint of self-awareness that Russia and China are bad because they have state
media.â€
Then there’s someone named Dan Lazare who had pointed
out a few obvious facts in Strategic Culture a few days after the supposed Times scoop came
out:
“But the report doesn’t even make sense. Not only have
the Taliban been at war with the United States since 2001, they’re winning.
So why should Russia pay them to do what they’ve been happily doing on their
own for close to two decades? Contrary to what the Times wants us to believe,
there’s no evidence that Russia backs the Taliban or wants the U.S. to leave
with its tail between its legs. Quite the opposite as a quick glance at a map will attest.
Given that Afghanistan abuts the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and
Kyrgyzstan and is less than a thousand miles from Chechnya, where Russia fought a brutal war
against Sunni Islamist separatists in 1999-2000, the last thing it wants is a Muslim
fundamentalist republic in the heart of Central Asia.â€
The fact that the New York doesn’t even consider†the broad
geopolitical backdrop, the article added, “makes its reporting seem all the
more dubious†â€" words that are as appropriate now as they were
then.
None of this matters, however, because Strategic Culture, it turns out, is
“controlled by Russian intelligence†and publishes
“fringe voices and conspiracy theories.†Yes,
that’s what the Times
says , and its source, as usual, is nothing more than unnamed U.S. government sources
whispering in its ear. But if Strategic Culture is so marginal, how is it that it got the story
right while the Times’s own conspiracy tales turned out to be false?
When truth is marginalized, the fringe is the only place where it’s to be
found.
B ack in the good old days, when things were more innocent and simple, the psychopathic
Central Intelligence Agency had to covertly infiltrate the news media to manipulate the
information Americans were consuming about their nation and the world. Nowadays, there is no
meaningful separation between the news media and the CIA at all.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald just highlighted an interesting point about the reporting by
The New York Times on the so-called
Bountygate story the outlet broke in June of last year about the Russian government trying
to pay Taliban-linked fighters to attack U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
“One of the NYT reporters who originally broke the Russia bounty story
(originally attributed to unnamed ‘intelligence
officials’) say today that it was a CIA claim,†Greenwald
tweeted .
“So media outlets â€" again â€" repeated CIA stories
with no questioning: congrats to all.â€
Indeed, the NYT’s
original story made no mention of CIA involvement in the narrative, citing only
“officials,†yet this latest article speaks as though it had been informing its
readers of the story’s roots in the
lying, torturing , drug-running , warmongering Central
Intelligence Agency from the very beginning. The author even writes “The New
York Times
first reported last summer the existence of the C.I.A.’s
assessment,†with the hyperlink leading to the initial article which made no
mention of the CIA. It wasn’t until later that The New York Times began reporting
that the CIA was looking into the Russian bounties allegations at all.
The Daily Beast , which has itself uncritically published many articles
promoting the CIA “Bountygate†narrative, reports the
following:
“It was a blockbuster
story about Russia’s return to the imperial “Great
Game†in Afghanistan. The Kremlin had spread money around the longtime central
Asian battlefield for militants to kill remaining U.S. forces. It sparked a massive outcry
from Democrats and their #resistance amplifiers about the treasonous Russian puppet in the
White House whose admiration for Vladimir Putin had endangered American troops.
But on Thursday, the Biden administration announced that U.S. intelligence only had
“low to moderate†confidence in the story after all.
Translated from the jargon of spyworld, that means the intelligence agencies have found the
story is, at best, unprovenâ€"and possibly untrue.â€
So the mass media aggressively promoted a CIA narrative that none of them ever saw proof of,
because there was no proof, because it was an entirely unfounded claim from the very beginning.
They quite literally ran a CIA press release and disguised it as a news story.
In totalitarian dictatorships, the government spy agency tells the news media what stories
to run, and the news media unquestioningly publish it. In free democracies, the government spy
agency says “Hoo buddy, have I got a scoop for you!†and the
news media unquestioningly publish it.
In 1977 Carl Bernstein published an article titled “ The CIA and the Media
†reporting that the CIA had
covertly infiltrated America’s most influential news outlets and had
over 400 reporters who it considered assets in a program known as
Operation Mockingbird . It was a major scandal, and rightly so. The news media is meant to
report truthfully about what happens in the world, not manipulate public perception to suit the
agendas of spooks and warmongers.
Nowadays the CIA collaboration happens right out in the open, and people are too
propagandized to even recognize this as scandalous. Immensely influential outlets like The
New York Times uncritically pass on CIA disinfo which is then spun as fact by cable news
pundits . The sole owner of The Washington Postis a CIA contractor ,
and WaPo has never once disclosed this conflict of interest when reporting on U.S.
intelligence agencies per standard journalistic protocol.
Mass media outlets
now openly employ intelligence agency veterans such as John Brennan, James
Clapper, Chuck Rosenberg, Michael Hayden, Frank Figliuzzi, Fran Townsend, Stephen Hall,
Samantha Vinograd, Andrew McCabe, Josh Campbell, Asha Rangappa, Phil Mudd, James Gagliano,
Jeremy Bash, Susan Hennessey, Ned Price and Rick Francona, as are known
CIA assets like NBC’s Ken Dilanian, as are
CIA interns like Anderson Cooper and CIA applicants like
Tucker Carlson.
This isn’t Operation Mockingbird. It’s so much worse.
Operation Mockingbird was the CIA doing something to the media. What we are seeing now
is the CIA openly acting as the media. Any separation between the CIA and the news
media, indeed even any pretence of separation, has been dropped.
This is bad. This is very, very bad. Democracy has no meaningful existence if
people’s votes are cast without a clear understanding of
what’s happening in their nation and their world. When their understanding
is being shaped to suit the agendas of the very government they’re meant to
be influencing with their votes, what you have is the most powerful military and economic force
in the history of civilization with no accountability to the electorate whatsoever.
It’s just an immense globe-spanning power structure, doing whatever it wants
to whoever it wants. A totalitarian dictatorship in disguise.
And the CIA is the very worst institution that could possibly be spearheading the movements
of that dictatorship. A little research into the many, many horrific
things the CIA has done over the years will quickly show you that this is true; hell, just
a glance at what the CIA was up to with the
Phoenix Program in Vietnam will.
There’s a common delusion in our society that depraved government
agencies who are known to have done evil things in the past have simply stopped doing evil
things for some reason. This belief is backed by zero evidence, and is contradicted by
mountains of evidence to the contrary. It’s believed because it is
comfortable, and for literally no other reason.
The CIA should not exist at all, let alone control the news media, much less the movements
of the US empire. May we one day know a humanity that is entirely free from the rule of
psychopaths, from our total planetary behavior as a collective, all the way down to the
thoughts we think in our own heads.
May we extract their horrible fingers from every aspect of our being.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those
ofConsortium News.
Wiffle , April 22, 2021 at 17:36
Go to any platform and 98% of commentators’
“opinions†are exact duplicates of what the unholy intel/press
partnership has trained them to say.
Hot Dog , April 21, 2021 at 19:00
Douglas Adams, brilliant author of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, invented the
Infinite Improbability Drive to cross vast intersteller distances in a mere nothingth of a
second without all that tedious mucking about in hyperspace. Following in his footsteps I
adopted the Infinite Improbability Filter, which I use to parse every statement from
governments. I recommend it. Afghans have to be paid by Russians to shoot the invaders and
occupiers of their country ?? Infinitely improbable. Saddam Hussein had nuclear bombs in
aluminum tubes that he could fly over US cities ?? ?? Infinitely improbable. A bunch of guys
in a cave can knock down a skyscraper in Manhattan ?? Infinitely improbable. Joe Biden will
put an end to war ?? ?? Infinitely improbable. The USA is spreading democracy in oil
producing nations ??? Infinitely improbable. Russia won the 2016 election ??? Infinitely
improbable. The CIA are the good guys ??? Infinitely improbable. Believe the corporate media
??? ??? Infinitely improbable. (hXXp://www.earthstar.co.uk/drive.htm). RIP Adams.
Rex Williams , April 21, 2021 at 18:52
“Drug-running�
Well done, Caitlin.First time I have seen any indication of that in the media and even I
have known about it for a decade. Not just drug-running, but the world control of heroin.
Australian soldiers filling in the role of protector of the crops in Afghanistan and also
killing innocent civilians, a matter now under investigation but proven already.
Thankfully, when you list the past members of that infamous group and the controlling role
they enjoy in today’s media, one should not forget the contributions made
by many ex-CIA personnel seen on the pages of Consortium News and what a valuable
contribution they have made to this publication. Many thanks to them.
I am sure that there will be many comments on this subject today.
Hot Dog, I could not agree more, but Hot Damn there is more so much more. Is it possible
that the revelations in this book I discuss might free Julian? The book proves miss use of
secrecy classifications that were used to cover up an act of executive action with extreme
prejudice
The pivotal events that allow the re-opening of the JFK murder case are exposed in Josiah
Thompson’s “LAST SECOND IN DALLASâ€.
Like I have stated already please don’t take my word for this. Read the
book thanks to the Zapruder film and the recordings taken that day of police radios being
still of a quality to allow top notch analysis of them, irrefutable evidence has been
verified. The story of facts have changed the nature of what we now know to be true. Facts
that are provided with their mathematical proof.
If you believe in science, especially science as pursued in this investigation by
individuals of exculpatory character and honesty you will learn the latest scientific
interpretations of the evidence analysis.
Something that, as it turn out cannot be said about the Ramsey Panel.
Thompson’s investigation has neutered the Warren Commission and other
various government attempts, see the House Select Committee effort and the Ramsey
Panel’s efforts to cover up the truth.
This results in exposing the lies the CIA committed to trying to cover up their
involvement. Lies ironically exposed by individuals investigating the murder, lies discovered
in part by the release of JFK documents in 2017. Why did CIA lie from day one, Nov.
22,1963?
DECLASSIFY, DECLASSIFY, DECLASSIFY, Jimm you got it, and the curtain has been pulled back
slightly if not more by this investigation.
Time for all to pressure CIA for the truth.
Thanks CN
PEACE
Anonymot , April 21, 2021 at 10:11
Yes, excellent about the media, but there’s a far greater importance
than that; the CIA IS, yes IS the American government. Certainly, it manages the public
through its controlling influence on the MSM, but its controlling interest in foreign affairs
has been followed by its creeping increasingly into the domestic field, also. It has been
fighting for supremacy over both the State Department and the FBI for years and won the
former hands down via the Bush and Obama years. Hillary at the State Department was the
CIA’s dream! The devastation that followed, from the burning of everything
from Libya to the Ukraine was their wildest wishes come true.
Trump ran on the idea that the intelligence agencies were too invasive and he battled with
them from the beginning, but the CIA knows where everyone’s skeletons are
hidden and Trump has a pile of them. What the CIA then did was point out to him that he had
little room to squiggle or they would put him in jeopardy. As a sop, they allowed him to
spend four years not hating Russia and instead, hating China, climate change, the EU, etc.
while he allowed them to dictate what the CIA wanted done domestically, pipelines, the
border, etc. That made them tower over the FBI.
Now that the CIA helped dump Trump with their media control, they are back in the saddle
with Biden, Russia, the CIA’s favorite target for WW III, is back on the
front burner with its usual hocus pocus stories about the Ukraine, Iran is heating up and so
is China.
But America is now the mosquito attacking the elephant and the CIA with all of its ignorance
and incompetence is back, leading the dance with their partners in the military and the
military industrial complex.
It will be great fun to go out with a bang.
Philip Reed , April 21, 2021 at 10:08
Whatever happened to Carl Bernstein? Where is that guy from Watergate and Mockingbird? Now
turned into a CNN shill.
Sad. Thanks Caitlin for reiterating what most of us know but always needs your persistent
clarification.
Just a short beef with your article. Why did you feel it necessary to include Tucker in your
list of CIA connected media personalities? Especially based on a link to an article that was
an obvious hit piece on Tucker. Tucker has morphed into one of the only MSM personalities who
attacks hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle. He reports on subjects that none of the other
corporate media outlets won’t touch out of pure political felty to the
Democratic Party. He used to take sides years ago. No longer the case. He often has Glenn
Greenwald on in recent times and they are obviously simpatico with each other. Give Tucker a
break Caitlin. He’s the only one on MS corporate media who dares to
deviate from the “ chosen narrative “.
Stevie Boy , April 21, 2021 at 08:02
Unfortunately, this is also true of all the members of the ‘Five
Eyes’ sewer.
In the UK, MI6, MI5, GCHQ and the other related institutions infest the MSM. The BBC and the
Guardian being two obvious direct mouthpieces for the security services. And, the CIA run
their operations directly out of RAF bases (Eg. Anne Sacoolas and her husband).
During the World Wars, the security services maybe had a legitimate role in fighting obvious
enemies. However, now we are the enemy !
Can this sewer ever be drained ?
Donald Duck , April 21, 2021 at 06:19
A slow-burning coup has been emerging in the West since the 1990s.; it is now reaching its
full fruition. Political parties, the MSM, the military and spook organisations, state and
corporate bureaucracies, a trillionaire class, film and entertainment industries have
congealed into a massive technocratic centrist blob. Orthodox politics and ideology is now a
thing of the past. These now are the controlling force behind a quasi-religious narrative
that now seems unassailable. Where this is taking us in anybody’s guess.
Maybe into the eugenicist Brave New World or of Yevgeny Zamyatin’s
dystopian novel ‘We’ first published in 1924.
Well we’d better wake up soon, or we are not going to wake up at
all.
Tumour: A ‘body’ can be 99 percent healthy yet one
cancerous cell can cause much damage growing into a tumour. Although it realizes that by
destroying the very body it feeds on it is also destroying itself yet that end does not
prevent its greed for reproduction. Most US citizens are well aware where the tumour lies and
its progress.
For those who have the interest I made a short video illustrating the thesis above regarding
the possibility that US is suffering a malignant tumour in three areas.The three areas are
the war machine, wall street, education. It can be found on YouTube. John Hagan.
Dave , April 20, 2021 at 21:17
Ms Johnstone is spot on, as usual. The CIA â€" aka the Christian Investment
Authority â€" is no longer needed. Of course, it never was needed, given that the
USA taxpayer funds more than fifteen other “intelligenceâ€
agencies, including State Dept. intelligence, the FBI, the various military intelligence
groups, etc. The CIA was from its beginning an extra-legal, law-breaking, and often illegal
operative group representing the filth, the sleaze of America’s corporate
and banking empires. If the CIA is defunded, don’t worry about its work
force. They will re-emerge in the media, the think-tanks, the corporate bureaucracies, the
military-industrial complex, and foreign government sinecures. Anyway, good riddance to bad
rubbish…at least an honest and responsible American can hope the CIA is
disbanded as soon as possible.
S.P. Korolev , April 22, 2021 at 04:17
Haven’t heard that acronym before, excellent! My favourite is
‘Capitalism’s Invisible
Army’…
Putin promises 'asymmetrical' response to any threats made against Russia, promises those
provoking Moscow will come to regret it
Russian President Vladimir Putin has given a stern warning to anyone threatening the
national security of Russia, telling officials that those responsible will "regret their
actions like they have never regretted anything before."
IMHO NATO and D.C. need to pull their heads out of their arses, for mankind's sake.
exactly what does the US gain by constantly smacking down russia? better jobs, higher
education, better health maybe? less debt/smaller deficits for US citizens?
why is it in the interest of the US to have open southern borders with tens of millions of
the poor, sick and stupid seeking to join the free **** army of entitled karens - and yet -
antagonize, vilify and belittle fellow white christians of russia?
the US is being invaded as we speak, its tax dollars are being siphoned off to pay for the
poor, sick and stupid flooding in.
it is not russia that is doing the invading.
it is economic migrants answering the siren call of the GOON squad and a criminal cabal
that is building a political base that cannot be defeated.
it is not russia that is bankrupting the US by forcing it to blow out spending beyond its
tax base to defend its citizens.
it is socialist policies like the "green new deal" and the response to a (yet to be
isolated) virus that are bankrupting the nation.
the enemy of the US is within and is ripping the country apart.
the enemy is socialism and the pursuit of the lowest common economic and educational
denominator by mentally challenged morons like the illlegal POTUS (POXONUS) and his illegal
immigrant VPOTUS (VPOXONUS).
looks so real 10 hours ago (Edited)
Colonize Russia and China the elites get off Scott free from persecution of international
crimes committed by them. Their rise is terrifying to the elites soon if not stopped will
impose international law on them, like going after the NazI's after WW2. They must feel the
noose tightening judging by the paranoid attacks. That said recent moves by the west looks
like they are ahead they are attacking on all fronts.
jusstpassinthru 9 hours ago (Edited)
Once again, it seems we're mistaking a corporation for a country. The United States
government and America are two totally different things. At present the US corporate
government is operating totally as a criminal organization.
cui bono? The corporation.
9 Corpus Juris Secundum, § 883
"The United States government is a foreign corporation with respect to a state." 19C.J.S.
Corporations § 883 citing In re Merriam's Estate, 36 N.Y. 505, 141 N.Y. 479(1894), and
affirmed in United States v. Perkins, 163 U.S. 625, 41 L.Ed. 287 (1896).
Putin remarked how to "attack Russia" has become "a sport, a new sport, who makes the
loudest statements." And then he went full Kipling: "Russia is attacked here and there for no
reason. And of course, all sorts of petty Tabaquis [jackals] are running around like Tabaqui
ran around Shere Khan [the tiger] – everything is like in Kipling's book – howling
along and ready to serve their sovereign. Kipling was a great writer".
The – layered – metaphor is even more startling as it echoes the late 19th
century geopolitical Great Game between the British and Russian empires, of which Kipling was a
protagonist.
Once again Putin had to stress that "we really don't want to burn any bridges. But if
someone perceives our good intentions as indifference or weakness and intends to burn those
bridges completely or even blow them up, he should know that Russia's response will be
asymmetric, swift and harsh".
"Tensions skirting wartime levels"
Now compare all of the above with the
White House Executive Order (EO) declaring a "national emergency" to "deal with the Russian
threat".
This is directly connected to President Biden – actually the combo telling him what to
do, complete with earpiece and teleprompter – promising Ukraine's President Zelensky that
Washington would "take measures" to support Kiev's wishful thinking of retaking Donbass and
Crimea.
There are several eyebrow-raising issues with this EO. It denies, de facto, to any Russian
national the full rights to their US property. Any US resident may be accused of being a
Russian agent engaged in undermining US security. A sub-sub paragraph (C), detailing "actions
or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in the United States or
abroad", is vague enough to be used to eliminate any journalism that supports Russia's
positions in international affairs.
Purchases of Russian OFZ bonds have been sanctioned, as well as one of the companies
involved in the production of the Sputnik V vaccine. Yet the icing on this sanction cake may
well be that from now on all Russian citizens, including dual citizens, may be barred from
entering US territory except via a rare special authorization on top of the ordinary visa.
The Russian paper Vedomosti has noted that in such paranoid atmosphere the risks for large
companies such as Yandex or Kaspersky Lab are significantly increasing. Still, these sanctions
have not been met with surprise in Moscow. The worst is yet to come, according to Beltway
insiders: two packages of sanctions against Nord Stream 2 already approved by the US Department
of Justice.
The crucial point is that this EO de facto places anyone reporting on Russia's political
positions as potentially threatening "American democracy". As top political analyst Alastair
Crooke has remarked, this is a "procedure usually reserved for citizens of enemy states during
times of war". Crooke adds, "US hawks are upping the ante fiercely against Moscow. Tensions and
rhetoric are skirting wartime levels."
It's an open question whether Putin's State of the Nation will be seriously examined by the
toxic lunatic combo of neocons and humanitarian imperialists bent on simultaneously harassing
Russia and China.
But the fact is something extraordinary has already started to happen: a "de-escalation" of
sorts.
Even before Putin's address, Kiev, NATO and the Pentagon apparently got the message implicit
in Russia moving two armies, massive artillery batteries and airborne divisions to the borders
of Donbass and to Crimea – not to mention top naval assets moved from the Caspian to the
Black Sea. NATO could not even dream of matching that.
Facts on different grounds speak volumes. Both Paris and Berlin were terrified of a possible
Kiev clash directly against Russia, and lobbied furiously against it, bypassing the EU and
NATO.
Then someone – it might have been Jake Sullivan – must have whispered on Crash
Test Dummy's earpiece that you don't go around insulting the head of a nuclear state and expect
to keep your global "credibility". So after that by now famous "Biden" phone call to Putin came
the invitation to the climate change summit, in which any lofty promises are largely
rhetorical, as the Pentagon will continue to be the largest polluting entity on planet
Earth.
... ... ...
Whatever happens next, for all practical purposes Iron Curtain 2.0 is now on, and it simply
won't go away. There will be more sanctions. Everything was thrown at the Bear short of a hot
war. It will be immensely entertaining to watch how, and via which steps, Washington will
engage on a "de-escalation and diplomatic process" with Russia.
The Hegemon may always find a way to deploy a massive P.R. campaign and ultimately claim a
diplomatic success in "dissolving" the impasse. Well, that certainly beats a hot war.
Otherwise, lowly Jungle Book adventurers have been advised: try anything funny and be ready to
meet "asymmetric, swift and harsh".
Lordflin 10 hours ago
Very true...
Also true... Kipling was a great writer... loved him as a kid... Still remember Rikki
Tikki Tavi... who couldn't...
War is coming... and Putin will get dragged to the party kicking and screaming... but he
has no choice but to show up...
zoghead 16 hours ago
Amazing how calm and composed Putin is when he talks of the West. I admire him for this
phenomenal restraint. No one knows more than him, how the West (politicos and press) bandy
him personally and his country around for absoutely no reason. The Russians are peaceloving
folks, and just want to be left alone.
wootendw PREMIUM 16 hours ago
Putin remarked how to "attack Russia" has become "a sport, a new sport, who makes the
loudest statements." And then he went full Kipling: "Russia is attacked here and there for
no reason. And of course, all sorts of petty Tabaquis [jackals] are running around like
Tabaqui ran around Shere Khan [the tiger] – everything is like in Kipling's book
– howling along and ready to serve their sovereign. Kipling was a great writer".
For those who haven't read The Jungle Book , Shere Khan is US - and the story doesn't end
well for him.
"... THIS is why the U.S. maintains a rotating cast of "evil" countries to demonize. Whether its Russia, China, the DPRK, Iran, Cuba, or Venezuela, Americans will always find a way to externalize and blame the internal violence of their capitalist imperialist system on foreign foes. ..."
"... When will Americans get it through their head that the U.S. is NOT a "democracy" that needs to be "defended" because it was NEVER a democracy to begin with. The problem isn't other countries that you've been brainwashed to hate. It is YOUR capitalist imperialist system country. ..."
"... The definition of insanity is watching your colonial, capitalist, imperialist country time and time again inflict mass murder and violence both domestically and abroad and still thinking your country is a "democracy" that must be defended from "authoritarian" countries abroad. ..."
"The danger for American elites is not that the U.S. may become less able to accomplish geopolitical objectives. Rather, it is
that more Americans might begin to question the logic of U.S. global hegemony," writes
@RichardHanania :
THIS is why the U.S. maintains a rotating cast of "evil" countries to demonize. Whether its Russia, China, the DPRK, Iran,
Cuba, or Venezuela, Americans will always find a way to externalize and blame the internal violence of their capitalist imperialist
system on foreign foes.
When will Americans get it through their head that the U.S. is NOT a "democracy" that needs to be "defended" because it
was NEVER a democracy to begin with. The problem isn't other countries that you've been brainwashed to hate. It is YOUR capitalist
imperialist system country.
The definition of insanity is watching your colonial, capitalist, imperialist country time and time again inflict mass
murder and violence both domestically and abroad and still thinking your country is a "democracy" that must be defended from "authoritarian"
countries abroad.
"... "Pro-Kremlin" and "pro-China" are labels which have literally lost all meaning in face of an almost totally unified global response to Covid19, and yet, if Nick has his way, they will be used to destroy any semblance of alternative media in Western society ..."
"... At one point in his incoherent diatribe he even cites "conspiracy theorists" alleged "antisemitism" (without any evidence to back it up). A beautiful example of what Huey Long called "fascism coming in the name of anti-fascism". ..."
"... Nick doesn't care about that. He's just here to promote authoritarianism and chew gum, and he's all out of gum. He's a massive hypocrite. Nothing more needs to be said. ..."
Nick Cohen has an "
op ed on the same subject, urging action against free speech so that "Russian meddling"
doesn't persuade us all to break quarantine and rush outside like lunatics.
He spent the last four years comparing Jeremy Corbyn to Stalin, and now he's arguing that
Facebook and YouTube should do some Stalinist censoring of their platforms in line with
government policy.
Has no one at Graun HQ even noticed that the Kremlin (as well as China) is actually in
lockstep with the West on the issue of covid19? Or does no whisper of reality percolate through
their glassy walls any more?
"Pro-Kremlin" and "pro-China" are labels which have literally lost all meaning in face
of an almost totally unified global response to Covid19, and yet, if Nick has his way, they
will be used to destroy any semblance of alternative media in Western society
His article's headline " Social media no longer tolerates toxic lies? Don't believe a word
of it ", makes the intent plain. He is returning to the theme that big tech companies have to
do their part to make sure Russians and "conspiracy theorists" don't harm our society.
But this time he is overtly demanding wrong-thinking people (specifically David Icke in this
instance) should be un-personed and barred from social media to "protect public health".
At one point in his incoherent diatribe he even cites "conspiracy theorists" alleged
"antisemitism" (without any evidence to back it up). A beautiful example of what Huey Long
called "fascism coming in the name of anti-fascism".
Nick doesn't care about that. He's just here to promote authoritarianism and chew gum,
and he's all out of gum. He's a massive hypocrite. Nothing more needs to be said.
"... "Russia feels threatened by the quality of our alliances and, even in the current environment, the quality of our democratic institutions. It sets out to denigrate them, and it uses intelligence services to that end. It is a serious problem, and we should organize to prevent it," the British spook told the actress. ..."
"... To some, the pairing of a Hollywood star and a veteran spymaster might seem strange. But, in reality, the silver screen and the national security state have always been intimately intertwined. ..."
"... Jolie herself has slowly become a leading member of the U.S. national security apparatus, joining the influential and well-endowed Council on Foreign Relations think tank in 2007, and penning a joint op-ed in The New York Times ..."
"... "We talked to a lot of the women in the CIA," said Jolie of her experiences preparing for her role. She appeared to have nothing but admiration for the organization; "One after the other, they are just these lovely, sweet women that you can‟t imagine being put in a dangerous situation, but they really are," she added. Salt ..."
"... The level of state involvement in Salt ..."
"... In 2014, former Deputy Counsel or Acting General Counsel of the CIA, John Rizzo, wrote that his organization "has long had a special relationship with the entertainment industry, devoting considerable attention to fostering relationships with Hollywood movers and shakers -- studio executives, producers, directors, big-name actors." Many of America's most familiar faces have visited the organization's headquarters in Langley, VA, including Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Bryan Cranston, and Tom Cruise. ..."
"... "Probably Hollywood is full of CIA agents and we just don't know it. And I wouldn't be surprised at all to discover that this was extremely common," said "Batman" star Ben Affleck in 2012, before going to describe himself, perhaps jokingly, as a CIA agent himself. ..."
"... Democrat-aligned voters' opinion of the FBI has been steadily rising over the last decade, to the point that 77% hold a favorable view of the institution (and almost two-thirds of the country supports the CIA). ..."
With election fever still gripping the U.S., talk of rigging or interference in the democratic process is reaching new levels,
high enough that even Hollywood legend Angelina Jolie is talking about it. In an
extraordinary interview in Time magazine, the star of "Wanted, Maleficent, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," sat down with
the former head of the UK's MI6 spy network, Sir Alex Younger, to ask how worrying the threat from Russia or China really is.
"Russia feels threatened by the quality of our alliances and, even in the current environment, the quality of our democratic
institutions. It sets out to denigrate them, and it uses intelligence services to that end. It is a serious problem, and we should
organize to prevent it," the British spook told the actress.
Younger also went on to discuss the rise of China, and how the West must act to challenge the supposed threat Beijing poses. "We
are going to have two sharply different value systems in operation on the same planet for the foreseeable future. We mustn't be naïve.
We need to retain the capacity to defend ourselves," he told Jolie.
Never challenging him, Jolie even asked the head of perhaps the world's most notorious spying agency how we can protect ourselves
from fake information.
To some, the pairing of a Hollywood star and a veteran spymaster might seem strange. But, in reality, the silver screen and
the national security state have always been intimately intertwined. And as much as Jolie presents herself as a leading humanitarian,
even being appointed as a Special Envoy for the UN Commission for Refugees, she has spent an inordinate amount of her free time rubbing
shoulders with some of the world's worst human rights abuses.
At World Refugee Day in 2005, Jolie shared a stage with then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice was a key player in
the Bush administration, responsible for the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, two of the world's worst humanitarian and refugee crises
that continue to plague the planet to this day.
Jolie herself has slowly become a leading member of the U.S. national security apparatus, joining the influential and well-endowed
Council on Foreign Relations think tank in 2007, and penning a
joint op-ed in The New
York Times with John McCain two years ago calling for U.S. intervention in Syria and Myanmar. "Around the world, there
is profound concern that America is giving up the mantle of global leadership," they
questionably
asserted, decrying America's "steady retreat over the past decade" that has, "dangerously eroded the rule of law," and condemned
the Trump administration's inaction in Syria that could have "deterred mass atrocities," and reduced the refugee crisis.
Salt
Jolie's collaboration with high-level government officials is not limited to her personal life, however. The 45-year-old Californian
has also worked closely, and openly, with CIA officials as part of her movies. A case in point is the 2010 blockbuster Salt
, where Jolie plays a CIA agent accused of being a Russian spy. The movie was released at the same time as the real-life Anna Chapman
scandal, where the Russian national was caught spying for her country inside the U.S., and marked the beginning of hardening American
relations with Moscow, ending up at the point where some
have declared the beginning of a new Cold War.
" Salt was the first big cultural product reflecting this geopolitical change, for most of the 2000s Hollywood had
no interest in evil Russians," Tom Secker, an investigative journalist with
SpyCulture.com told MintPress . "If you watch the film the Russian politicians are clearly based on Vladimir Putin and
Dmitry Medvedev."
Jolie, playing an evil Russian spy in Salt, chokes out an NYPD officer
"We talked to a lot of the women in the CIA," said Jolie of her experiences preparing for her role. She appeared to have nothing
but admiration for the organization; "One after the other, they are just these lovely, sweet women that you can‟t imagine being put
in a dangerous situation, but they really are," she added. Salt even hired a former CIA officer to be an on-set technical
advisor.
A CIA document Secker shared with MintPress highlights the extent of CIA involvement in Hollywood and their reasons for
doing so. "In an effort to ensure an accurate portrayal of the men and women of the CIA," it reads. "For years the Agency has worked
with creative artists from across the entertainment industry. [The CIA Office of Public Affairs] interacts with directors, producers,
screenwriters, authors, documentarians, actors and others to help debunk myths and provide authenticity, and of course to protect
Agency equities," it adds. But perhaps the most important reason stated is, "to help prevent inappropriate negative depictions of
the Agency," in mass media.
Propaganda on an enormous scale
The level of state involvement in Salt is far from abnormal. In fact, Alford and Secker's book "
National Security
Cinema " details how, since 2005, documents they obtained showed that the Department of Defense alone had closely collaborated
in the production of over 1,000 movies or TV shows. This includes many of the largest film franchises, such as "Iron Man," "Transformers,"
"James Bond," and "Mission: Impossible," and hit TV shows like "The Biggest Loser," "Grey's Anatomy," "Master Chef" and "The Price
is Right."
In general, the military or the CIA will offer free services to productions, such as the use of prohibitively expensive military
equipment, or technical direction, in exchange for editorial control over scripts. This allows the agencies to make sure the power,
prestige, and integrity of these organizations are not challenged. Sometimes entire movies are radically rewritten.
"The Department of Defense actually apologized in their covering letter to the producers of "Hulk" (2003), since the changes they
required were so extensive," Dr. Matthew Alford of the University of Bath told MintPress .
But really the disturbing thing here is the pattern and the scale What I suggest is that we focus on the deliberate, major,
secretive pressures that rewrite scripts -- and we find they're all on the side of the national security state. Systematically
scrubbed from the screen is an unsavoury century of military history including war crimes, illegal arms sales, racism and sexual
assault, torture, coups, assassinations, and weapons of mass destruction. It amounts to the airbrushing of an entire mediated
culture."
Thus, the large majority of big-budget productions featuring military or intelligence services have been greenlighted by the national
security state, who have negotiated for control over the message in order to better propagandize both Americans and the global public.
However, serious antiwar content rarely makes it to network TV or Hollywood drawing boards, so wholescale interference is usually
unnecessary.
In 2014, former Deputy Counsel or Acting General Counsel of the CIA, John Rizzo, wrote that his organization "has long had
a special relationship with the entertainment industry, devoting considerable attention to fostering relationships with Hollywood
movers and shakers -- studio executives, producers, directors, big-name actors." Many of America's most familiar faces have visited
the organization's headquarters in Langley, VA, including Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Bryan Cranston, and Tom Cruise.
In recent years, collaboration has become even more overt. The Department of Defense even
tweeted out during the Oscars how
proud it is to work so closely with Hollywood to further its own image.
Meanwhile, the latest series of the hit spy show "Jack Ryan," for instance, has the eponymous CIA hero travel to Venezuela to
help overthrow tyrannical dictator Nicolas Reyes (a clear allusion to current president Nicolas Maduro). John Krasinski, who plays
Ryan, said that he worked closely with the Agency in order to make the show more realistic. Krasinski also
described the CIA as amazingly
"apolitical." "They're always trying to do the right thing," he said of them, claiming they "care about the country in a bigger,
more idealistic way."
Last month, a real CIA agent, Matthew John Heath, was
arrested
outside Venezuela's largest oil refinery carrying explosives, a grenade launcher, a submachine gun, and stacks of U.S. dollars.
"Probably Hollywood is full of CIA agents and we just don't know it. And I wouldn't be surprised at all to discover that this
was extremely common," said "Batman" star Ben Affleck in
2012, before going to describe himself, perhaps jokingly, as a CIA agent himself.
https://cdn.iframe.ly/VKxIpdm?iframe=card-small&v=1&app=1 Propaganda works
The effect of years of propaganda has been to improve the standing of the deep state and make the American public more conducive
to supporting the tactics of the CIA and the military. One
academic study found that showing torture
scenes from the hit spy series "24" to liberal college students made them far more likely to support the use of it against anyone
deemed an enemy of the state.
Democrat-aligned voters' opinion of the FBI has been
steadily rising over the last decade, to the point that 77% hold a favorable view of the institution (and almost two-thirds of
the country supports the CIA).
Thus, while the entertainment industry might be liberal in that it largely opposes Trump and donates to the Democratic Party,
it works closely to support and uphold the national security state, promotes ultra-patriotism and American aggression throughout
the world. While Jolie might present herself as a champion of human rights, working with the very institutions responsible for destroying
those rights around the globe undermines this assertion.
Feature photo | Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie addresses a press conference at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh,
Feb. 5, 2019. Photo | AP
The FBI has produced 68
pages relating to a Democrat National Committee (DNC) worker who was shot dead in 2016 in
Washington, including an investigative summary that appears to suggest someone could have paid
for his death.
... The newly
released files show top Department of Justice officials met in 2018 and discussed Rich's
murder. They reviewed Rich's financial records and did not identify any unusual deposits or
withdrawals.
...One witness saw an individual walking away from the location where Rich was killed but
thought Rich was merely drunk so did not alert authorities . They realized something bad had
happened when they saw a bloodstain on the ground in the same place the following day, as well
as police tape surrounding the scene.
A person whose name was redacted took Rich's personal laptop to his house , according to one
of the newly released documents. The page also indicates that authorities were not aware if the
person deleted or changed anything on Rich's personal laptop.
The FBI came into possession of Rich's work laptop, the bureau
previously revealed .
On another page, it was said that "given [redacted] it is conceivable that an individual or
group would want to pay for his death."
"That doesn't sound like a random street robbery," Ty Clevenger, a lawyer, told The Epoch
Times.
... ... ...
The files were released this week in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Texas resident Brian
Huddleston, who Clevenger represents.
Huddleston sued the FBI after it told him it would take 8 to 10 months in June 2020 to
respond to his Freedom of Information Act request. Huddleston asked the FBI to produce all
data, documents, records, or communications that reference Seth Rich or his brother, Aaron
Rich.
A federal judge earlier this year ordered the FBI to produce documents concerning Rich by
April 23. The FBI identified 576 relevant documents but only produced 68 of them to
Huddleston.
The FBI has declined to speak about the lawsuit. Attorneys for Rich's parents did not
immediately respond to requests for comment.
The documents show that some reporting on Rich's death was wrong, such as an ABC News
report
that claimed the FBI was not involved in investigating the murder.
Clevenger said he found concerning how the government apparently does not know whether
anything was deleted from Rich's personal laptop.
The documents were largely redacted but the information that did get through "shows that
their whole narrative is falling apart," he added. "It's a step in the right direction."
The attorney plans to ask U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant, an Obama nominee, to produce
unredacted copies for his perusal. The judge could rule that some redactions were improper.
Defendants could also face repercussions for not producing all of the documents they have
concerning Rich, including fines.
U.S. Attorney Andrea Parker, who is representing the FBI, told the judge in a court filing
this week that the bureau can only process 500 pages per month for each Freedom of Information
Act request. She asked the court to give the bureau additional time to produce all of the
relevant records.
Clevenger told the judge in a court filing this week that the private sector routinely
processes 500 pages or more per day and that the government should be afforded no more than two
weeks to produce the remaining 1,063 pages.
RiverRoad 1 hour ago
Was a reward offered for solving his murder? A robbery murder with a nice reward attached
in DC gets solved pretty quickly. Is it correct that his parents were given a million dollars
by the FBI to agree that questions re his murder are only conspiracy theory?
Buzz-Kill 11 hours ago (Edited)
WoW! The FBI does exist. Wonder when they're gonna get on the Hunter Biden investigation.
Waiting with anticipation! /s
Brazillionaire 2 hours ago
I think Chris has that scheduled for 2025 early/mid summer. But, then again, no reasonable
prosecutor...
Nelbev 12 hours ago
And PETER STRZOK was the FBI agent handling the investigation? Not an important detail to
mention in article, guess he was familiar with Seth case after his work burying the Clinton
investigation, and obvious match, best FBI agent to pick for the investigation.;
Art link https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20690299-fbi-documents-on-seth-rich
He seems to be everywhere doesn't he?
Hillary.....Seth....Trump.....and covering up for dems and attacking repubs 100% of the
time.
LetThemEatRand 12 hours ago
Crazy conspiracy theories for f's sake. It is totally common in a robbery not to take the
guy's wallet.
williambanzai7 PREMIUM 12 hours ago
They solve all the cases involving known terrorist suspects with connections to the FBI.
But everything else is a puzzle wrapped in an enigma.
hackjealousy 12 hours ago
If only the attacker had dropped his passport at the scene.
LetThemEatRand 12 hours ago
"A person whose name was redacted took Rich's personal laptop to his house, according to
one of the newly released documents. The page also indicates that authorities were not aware
if the person deleted or changed anything on Rich's personal laptop."
Happens all the time. Wear your mask, take your jab, 9/11, WMDs.
r0mulus 11 hours ago
Yes- why exactly would anybody be handling Rich's personal laptop after he died? And why
would they need to have their name redacted?
Seth Rich's murder was a political assassination. Did John Podesta have Seth Rich
murdered?
Soloamber 12 hours ago
Are the Kennedy's gun shy ?
Podesta wanted an example .
DNC ordered hit .
Seasmoke 12 hours ago remove link
Lost all respect for the FBI.
Tinfoil Masker 12 hours ago
You mean like 58 years ago right?
r0mulus 11 hours ago
At this point, it's been at least 75 years since they deserved any respect. Probably
longer.
lwilland1012 11 hours ago
Durham? What the Hell is a John Durham?
Dr Phuckit 11 hours ago
Summed up in three words
Russia Russia Russia
Redactions don't protect the Innocent, they protect the Guilty.
And it's obvious some people at the FBI were deeply involved.
sbin 11 hours ago
Epoch times
Surprised they didn't blame China.
Almost as believable as Bellingcat Gatestone White helmets or CNN.
DNC scum had Seth Rich murdered.
messystateofaffairs 10 hours ago
FBI released? Thats for disinformation purposes not part of a search for truth.
uhland62 9 hours ago
I thought NSA saves every keystroke people make. So when Seth's keystrokes happened, there
was a computer glitch?
ClamJammer 7 hours ago
Right, but they only use that for evidence to lock up the likes of you and me, not to
expose the crimes they themselves commit. Despite being funded by the tax-payer, i dont think
a FOI request works there.
El Chapo Read 12 hours ago
About as truthful as the 9/11 Commission Report.
Spare me.
NightWriter 12 hours ago
Just like the 2020 Election verdict:
The Deep State finds the Deep State not guilty.
Mzhen 12 hours ago
The Rich murder was a subject of discussion for FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa
Page.
Gringo Viejo 10 hours ago
5 years after the fact. What's the FBI's motive in releasing this information at this
time?
... ... ...
Soloamber 10 hours ago
The FBI motive ...They were told to .
Kanzen Saimin 9 hours ago
It's a clever tactic used by professional liars. If you can distract people for long
enough they will forget about what happened in the first place.
... ... ...
uhland62 9 hours ago
Same thing happened in Australia. What made Australia has been privatized, deregulated,
and digitized. And now we are payment slaves to a handful of global billionaires.
But today we celebrate national militarism day, Anzac Day and we get softened up by the
politicians to accept a war against China.
Rich family representative, Brad Bauman, responding to the conspiracy theorists' claim
that the FBI was investigating the case said, " The FBI is not now and has never been a party
to this investigation. "
" The FBI has indirectly denied investigating the case , which Washington police consider
a robbery gone wrong."
" Snopes.com looked
into the matter and stated: "We were able to confirm the FBI is not investigating Rich's
murder "
Kanzen Saimin 9 hours ago
Wikipedia wasn't allowed to be referenced when I attended university years ago. The
co-founder disavows it now.
Half a decade later, they still can't find their own ***.
That's the way it will stay.
sbin 12 hours ago
Barr and Dunham are looking into it.
gcjohns1971 1 hour ago
Given the sordid, lawless, partisan, and seditious history of the FBI since its founding,
why should anyone suspect their actions here are benign?
ThanksIwillHaveAnother 3 hours ago
Seth Rich supported Bernie Sanders. He saw how Hillary and Dems piped in cheers for
Hillary and detuned the real cheers for Bernie. He saw how the powers behind the curtain
manipulated Hillary into being the nominee. He sent the files to WikiLeaks. Now ask
yourself...would someone want him killed???
Chief Joesph 3 hours ago remove link
Really can't help to think Hillary Clinton had a hand in Rich's murder. Afterall, Rich
knew about her financial affairs, along with the rest of the Democratic party, and was
passing it on to Wikileaks. It also stands to reason why the Democrats would like to see
Julian Assange murdered too. Needless to say, Assange will never see any prospects for Biden
to pardon him.
But what doesn't make sense is if this murder was at the hands of someone wanting to rob
Rich, then why didn't they take his computer along with his wallet? (Neither was taken). The
Police invented that story for public consumption.
Dragon Breath 3 hours ago (Edited)
We're certain that Director Wray at the FIB is burning the midnight oil trying to solve
Seth Rich's murder, Wiener's laptop crimes, Clinton's computer server crimes, and any day now
Hunter Biden's crimes with evidence on his laptop that he "lost" at the computer repair shop.
Wray and the FIB have it all under control...
It's all under control...
DayWear 3 hours ago
"the bureau can only process 500 pages per month"
that is so laughable I can't believe the fbi attorney even agreed to say it.
MaF 33 minutes ago
500/month = 25 pages/day = 3 pages/hr.
Sounds like only 1 govidiot is doing all the "work."
fleur de lis 2 hours ago remove link
As if the FBI would even dare issue parking tickets to the DNC psychopaths whom they know
very well to be the plotters.
The FBI ain't what it used to be.
Only listen to Comey for one minute.
The FBI is just a security guard agency for whomever has the biggest checks and best
benefits.
TheySayIAmOkay 3 hours ago
Smartest criminal in DC. No traffic cams. No store cams. No gunshots. No witnesses. He
even stole stuff that wasn't there.
Vandal 2 hours ago
Yep...and the American Gestapo(FBI) is complicit in the coverup. True Deepstate kind of
stuff.
Blurb 3 hours ago
Let's see here...
The FBI would have benefited from this guy getting killed, and they're the ones
investigating the murder...
The media reports that the FBI are not investigating, which turns out to be a lie.
The FBI somehow ends up with Seth Rich's laptop, even admitting that 'someone might have
deleted something'.
The FBI won't turn over documents, many of which had redacted content.
These are the people we got glimpses of from 2016 to 2020. Now, they are back in the
shadows.
I'll just leave this here, for anyone interested in a level of detail to this case that
most people aren't aware of.
tl;dr: The FBI may have provided the guns used to kill Rich. An FBI agent's car was broken
into the night of Rich's murder, and guns were stolen. Then the FBI ****** with the
timestamps of the event to make it look like it took place after the murder, when in fact, it
took place before.
Suzy Q 3 hours ago remove link
I remember that incident of the stolen guns. Very odd circumstances surrounding that
"theft" of FBI weapons.
TheRealBilboBaggins 4 hours ago
With all the obvious wrong-doing at the FBI, did any FBI agents come forward to denounce
it? Anyone? Anyone?
True Ferris Buehler moment looking for an FBI agent to testify against criminality.
Jung 5 hours ago
It was already a long while back when Julian Assange spoke about Rich and the so-called
Clinton email scandal: justice in the USA is worse than many a banana republic (more
sophisticated). Of course it was not Russia, it was proven to be no hack at all, but a
person, likely Seth Rich. At the end of time we'll know more.
US Banana Republic 4 hours ago
Guaranteed the Deep State (and that includes the FBI), the Clintons and the DNC all had
their fingers in it. But especially Hillary.
JOHNLGALT. 5 hours ago
Never mind. JOHN DURHAM is on the job. SARC.🆗
Fat Beaver 12 hours ago (Edited)
Never anything about the female fbi officer's duty weapon stolen off the front seat of her
suv 2 blocks away from the murder site 2 hours before the murder...she was apparently
shagging up with another agent and parked in his driveway and left the gun on the front seat
with passenger side window completely open...she reported it to police 2 hours before the
murder...this was found by a private investigator about a week after the murder and
published, never to be brought up again.
Nelbev 11 hours ago
It was a .40 caliber Glock and a rifle stolen out of the FBI vehicle, but no casings found
on ground at murder site, thus it is assumed that the murder weapon was a revolver (unless
someone picked up the casings).
Nelbev 11 hours ago remove link
Some informed person at the scene could have cleaned up, but doubt it. Rich was only
wounded at scene, not dead. As I remember there was funny business at the hospital too before
he died. I do not see reporting of the bullet's caliber.
JustSayNo 10 minutes ago
I don't need to read it. I won't believe a thing the FBI says and I also don't believe
that ANY US attorney actually does the job the American taxpayer pays them to do. I've got no
faith in any US attorney and the FBI has been a joke for longer ago than they shot that guys
wife and kid out west. FBI=coverup, period. And everyone knows it.
When I want to know what really happned to Seth Rich, the ZH comments section is actually
my best source
The federal bureaucracy, including the FBI, is now part of the democrat fascist regime in
TOTAL control in washington. Long ago these bureaucrats stopped working for the public and
began focusing on their own agenda where they don't have to answer to anyone. Reality is that
washington is a national Mafioso operation demanding extortion (protection) money from the
public, they serve themselves. The scary part is they don't just demand the protection money,
they demand everyone adhere to politically correct thoughts, speech, and actions, or you'll
be destroyed by the state.
Downhill from here 4 hours ago
What is the FBI's jurisdiction to conduct the investigation? He was not a state law
enforcement officer, he was not an interstate traveler, and was not a federal employee.
TheFederalistPapers 5 hours ago
The FBI is a brand and not a law enforcement agency.
rag_house 5 hours ago
Our government has a long history of having those that commit the crime then perform an
investigation on themselves. Wouldn't be surprised one bit if that is true here.
notfeelinthebern 12 hours ago remove link
All rats lead to Rome, is what they are not saying.
El Chapo Read 11 hours ago
All roads lead to Tel Aviv.
FIFY.
Dumpster Elite 23 minutes ago remove link
The FBI....they make the KGB look like a boy scout organization. Seriously...do you TRUST
the FBI, or do you view them as an enforcement tool of the Globalists.
DeeDeeTwo 25 minutes ago
Whew, it's a good thing Trump drained the swamp and declassified everything.
Totally_Disillusioned 26 minutes ago
The FBI has released their "findings" which we all know from previous "findings" released,
they are a mix of half-truth, manufactured evidence and outright lies. With our Federal law
enforcement, we will NEVER know the truth about matters they "investigate". Several quickly
come to mind such as Russiagate, Kennedy assassination, MLK assassination, explosion Murrah
Federal Building in Oklahoma City, 9/11, Justice Anton Scalia's murder, Ruby Ridge, Dividian
Compound, as well as so many more to list.
PT 5 hours ago
Only five years late. Who knows what progress they might make in another five years?
fishpoem 16 minutes ago
A person whose name was redacted took Rich's personal laptop to his house If one follows
the bread crumbs through the forest, it will certainly lead straight to the Witch's
house.
Angelo Misterioso 19 minutes ago
Strange that not a single house on that street had any video or ring doorbell or stuff
like that...
...The view from Moscow is very different, fueled by a sense of grievance that the West is
determined to weaken Russia and stoke a pro-democracy "color" revolution to topple Putin. By
this reading, the U.S. and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies have repeatedly
betrayed Russia, abandoning missile treaties and expanding ever closer to its borders, since
Putin became the first foreign leader to offer help to Washington after the Sept. 11, 2001
terrorist attacks in the U.S.
"The Kremlin feels in a fortress, under sustained pressure from the U.S. and the West in
general. With its aggressive actions, Russia is trying to deter the U.S., but Washington is
just responding with stronger measures," said Oksana Antonenko, a director at Control Risks in
London. "We are certainly at the most dangerous point since the Soviet Union collapsed."
... ... ...
On Wednesday, the day before Russia announced its troop withdrawal, Putin warned rival
nations not to cross Russia's "red line" in his annual state-of-the-nation speech, saying
pressure on his country had become "a new form of sport." But he also held out an olive branch
of talks on strategic security.
... ... ...
Prosecutors this month asked a Moscow court to declare Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation
and his campaign offices to be extremist organizations, which could subject staff and
volunteers to criminal prosecution and imprisonment. They accused them of plotting to stage a
"color" revolution in Russia on the instructions of unnamed foreign states.
A top Putin ally, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament,
described Navalny as a "tool of American policy" that allowed himself to be used for
interfering in Russia's domestic affairs.
... ... ...
In his call with Biden, Putin raised an alleged plot to stage a coup against Belarusian
President Alexander Lukashenko hatched in consultation with the U.S., according to the Kremlin.
Lukashenko, who's ruled Russia's neighbor and closest ally since 1994, has faced months of
pro-democracy opposition protests since disputed elections last August.
"The practice of organizing coups and planning political assassinations, including of top
officials, that's going too far," Putin said in his annual address. "They've overstepped all
boundaries."
In talks with Lukashenko in Moscow next day, Putin said Russia is tightening military and
security cooperation with Belarus.
... ... ...
Putin insisted in Wednesday's address that "we really don't want to burn bridges" with the
West, before adding that anyone who mistakes Russian intentions for weakness "must know that
Russia's response will be asymmetrical, swift and tough."
"... The USA has striven to obtain full spectrum dominance and they appear to have gotten close in terms of public political imagination, western political elites almost entirely in the 'hate russia' camp, useful idiots snapping at the Russian and Chinese heels, permanent state of conflict awareness and uncertainty in the public mind, perfection of colour revolution technique and its social infrastructure development mechanism. ..."
I think Scott Ritter is engaging in an imaginative future if he thinks the 'hate russia'
team has no successors. The academy will be full of them just itching for an interns job with
a congresscritter.
Speaking of warmongers, where is Tony Blair these days? Could he be the USA useful idiot
egging Boris on to sail a warship or two to the Black Sea? He never met a war he didn't like,
did the 'hard man' act for Bush the fool, and has been traipsing about any warzone
pontificating for a fat fee and would be right at home being the bumper-upper for Boris. It
would all be hush hush as he is hated in UK.
In 2018 Boris appointed the previous UK ambassador to Turkey, Richard Moore, to the Chief
of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). He was formerly the Director General, Political, at
the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Moore attended St George's College,
Weybridge. Batchelor's degree at Worcester College, Oxford. He then won a Kennedy Scholarship
to study at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University. In 2007, he attended the
Stanford Executive Programme.
Excellent article, B highlights that change won't come from the new administration BECAUSE
money flows to the congressional-industrial-military cabal only if the existing regime is in
power AND USA remains a 2 party system - one 'better' than China.
This principal was echoed in November 2020 by ex US Army Danny Sjursen
"...it's obvious that the Biden bunch has no desire to slow down, no less halt, the
"revolving door" that connects national security work in the government and jobs or
security consulting positions in the defense industry. The same goes for the think tanks
that the arms producers amply fund to justify the whole circus...
Or consider retired Marine Corps major general turned defense consultant Arnold Punaro
who recently said of Biden's coming tenure, "I think the industry will have, when it comes
to national security, a very positive view."
Given the evidence that business-as-usual will continue in the Biden years, perhaps it's
time to take that advice from Cornel West, absorb the truth about Biden's future national
security squad, and act accordingly. There's no top-down salvation on the agenda -- not
from Joe or his crew of consummate insiders. Pressure and change will flow from the
grassroots or it won't come at all."
Salvation can only COME FROM the good people of America
But the very voting system prevents other voices being heard. There is no proportional
representation, therefore no other views than the highly paid military-industrial
consultants, the merchants of violence.
The Tweedledum and Tweedledee American political system is ossified, inflexible,
suppressive.
A giant echo chamber.
Hello! Hello! anyone with a brain in there?
The echos bounce and fade. No reply.
American foreign policy is brain dead.
Until compulsory military service is Brought back to USA, all children of the highest
earning bracket straight to the front line, no soft touch deployments, no bone-spur
deferment.
Then, and only then, will foreign policy change under the US 2 party self-enrichment
system.
"...For four years, both "choices" were hammered by the Democrats into the supine brains
of the US masses. which has given rise to "automatic" and forceful unthinking
attitudes..."
This is not true, and pardon me for saying so because indeed there are elements of truth
in what you are saying. It is NOT the US masses that are grabbing guns and ammunition and
commiting mayhem on their fellow citizens. It is the gullible and the weak and the mentally
disturbed, who are present in any large and stressed society. They probably match the one
percenters at the top and cohorts in the ten percent - (just a guess on my part) but they are
NOT the 'masses'.
The masses have bucked the mainstream mantras of the past O-T and now B years. We don't
have power - power is as you say with the rich, with the party demagogues, with the leeches,
and as b points out, their rule is coming to an end but they still hold the reins of power.
Whether or not Biden saw, or Trump saw, or even Obama saw, that this is not the way it ought
to be - they have each been powerless to do anything about it in a meaningful way so far.
Don't give up. It's a long haul but here's where I agree with the TINA principle. There is
no alternative. We just have to keep on keeping on. The Dems will lose power in Congress come
next elections. There will be inroads made, and if Republicans get elected, so be it. A few
more will have better souls, and inch by inch the oldies will have to yield. It's gonna
happen. And, in answer to a post above:
What has Putinist regime "restraint " achieved so far except brazen falsehood and enmity?
Putin and his cohorts have achieved the reinstatement of the Russian Federation with
alignment with China and the tipping of the balance of world understanding in their favor.
This is a force mightier than the US and western allies neoliberal, oligarchic agenda, and
with patience and firm commitment it will prevail.
Thank you for that incisive statement. One only has to watch those 5 minute utoob by Steve
Pieczenic I posted to get a sense of the totality of USA dominance and imagined dominance and
the malign drivers of its reach. I know he is a blowhard but he was at the apex of the dirty
game. He is a rigid anticommunist, he talks as if Putin is one of their successes, he hates
Xi so he must be alarmed that they have been brought into anti empire unity.
The USA has striven to obtain full spectrum dominance and they appear to have gotten
close in terms of public political imagination, western political elites almost entirely in
the 'hate russia' camp, useful idiots snapping at the Russian and Chinese heels, permanent
state of conflict awareness and uncertainty in the public mind, perfection of colour
revolution technique and its social infrastructure development mechanism.
Conventional weaponry has slipped their grasp. But that is matched by an alternative that
they won't hesitate to use.
Putin and his cohorts have achieved the reinstatement of the Russian Federation with
alignment with China and the tipping of the balance of world understanding in their favor.
This is a force mightier than the US and western allies neoliberal, oligarchic agenda, and
with patience and firm commitment it will prevail.
Thank you, that is the essence of diplomacy and the avoidance of conflict and even
war.
War must end. It is an ignorant reversal of human progress, it poisons minds and the earth
itself. Its legacy is one of tears and material loss. It give no one person of good will any
benefit. It slaughters the innocent!! children, women and men and our environment. It is the
game of ignorance asserting superiority over thought and imagination.
It is the daring imagination of betterment that motivates the development of OBOR and the
east to west transit corridor in Russia. It is imagination of betterment to build trade and
access to economy and elevation from poverty that is of the utmost benefit to us humans
sharing and caring for this beautiful planet.
If the west cast off its parasitic mentality toward the other and embraced the same daring
imagination for its people's betterment they might come close to the achievements we have
seen in Russia and China and elsewhere that the philosophy is paramount. There is always hope
and the chance that might come about.
Intensifying anti Russian policies will result in the same outcomes the USA achieved in
their anti Iranian policies.
EJ Magnier reports on the recent JCPOA members meeting:
"The Islamic Republic proved to be a shark with sharp teeth during its negotiation with the
signatories (Russia, China, France, Great Britain and Germany) of the nuclear deal in
Vienna, leaving few choices to the negotiators. Iran showed how complex and inflexible its
position is with the most powerful county in the world, forbidding the US envoy to join the
mediators in the same room because Donald Trump revoked its 2015 nuclear deal agreement.
Moreover, Iran used the Israeli sabotage actions against the Natanz nuclear facility as an
excuse to hit Israel, the US and all European negotiators who side with the Americans...
...Iran did not ask for a guarantee against another Trump-like decision – which
revoked the nuclear deal – in the future because its nuclear capability is the
guarantee. Iran is not asking for a guarantee from China and Russia, which are under US
sanctions. Iran exhausted its patience in 2018 when it waited for an entire year without
using its right to gradually withdraw from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).
Iran then believed Europe might come forward and hold to its commitments even if the US
pulled back. That was not the case, and Tehran is now aware that Europe and the US have the
same objectives hidden behind different behaviours.
Today it is known that Iran is enriching uranium up to 60% and can reach 90% in several
months. This does not mean Iran is necessarily producing nuclear weapons, but it is enough
to cross the West's red lines. If the US sanctions are not lifted or partially lifted, if
the deal is revoked or other sanctions are imposed in the future, Iran will fall back into
its complete nuclear cycle without any warning."
round-color: rgb(222, 227, 233); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">
Then, and only then, will foreign policy change under the US 2 party self-enrichment system.
"...For four years, both "choices" were hammered by the Democrats into the supine brains of the US masses. which has given rise to
"automatic" and forceful unthinking attitudes..."
This is not true, and pardon me for saying so because indeed there are elements of truth in what you are saying. It is NOT the US
masses that are grabbing guns and ammunition and commiting mayhem on their fellow citizens. It is the gullible and the weak and the
mentally disturbed, who are present in any large and stressed society. They probably match the one percenters at the top and cohorts
in the ten percent - (just a guess on my part) but they are NOT the 'masses'.
The masses have bucked the mainstream mantras of the past O-T and now B years. We don't have power - power is as you say with the
rich, with the party demagogues, with the leeches, and as b points out, their rule is coming to an end but they still hold the reins
of power. Whether or not Biden saw, or Trump saw, or even Obama saw, that this is not the way it ought to be - they have each been
powerless to do anything about it in a meaningful way so far.
Don't give up. It's a long haul but here's where I agree with the TINA principle. There is no alternative. We just have to keep on
keeping on. The Dems will lose power in Congress come next elections. There will be inroads made, and if Republicans get elected, so
be it. A few more will have better souls, and inch by inch the oldies will have to yield. It's gonna happen. And, in answer to a
post above:
What has Putinist regime "restraint " achieved so far except brazen falsehood and enmity?
Putin and his cohorts have achieved the reinstatement of the Russian Federation with alignment with China and the tipping of the
balance of world understanding in their favor. This is a force mightier than the US and western allies neoliberal, oligarchic
agenda, and with patience and firm commitment it will prevail.
Thank you for that incisive statement. One only has to watch those 5 minute utoob by Steve Pieczenic I posted to get a sense of the
totality of USA dominance and imagined dominance and the malign drivers of its reach. I know he is a blowhard but he was at the apex
of the dirty game. He is a rigid anticommunist, he talks as if Putin is one of their successes, he hates Xi so he must be alarmed
that they have been brought into anti empire unity.
The USA has striven to obtain full spectrum dominance and they appear to have gotten close in terms of public political
imagination, western political elites almost entirely in the 'hate russia' camp, useful idiots snapping at the Russian and Chinese
heels, permanent state of conflict awareness and uncertainty in the public mind, perfection of colour revolution technique and its
social infrastructure development mechanism.
Conventional weaponry has slipped their grasp. But that is matched by an alternative that they won't hesitate to use.
Putin and his cohorts have achieved the reinstatement of the Russian Federation with alignment with China and the tipping of the
balance of world understanding in their favor. This is a force mightier than the US and western allies neoliberal, oligarchic
agenda, and with patience and firm commitment it will prevail.
Thank you, that is the essence of diplomacy and the avoidance of conflict and even war.
War must end. It is an ignorant reversal of human progress, it poisons minds and the earth itself. Its legacy is one of tears and
material loss. It give no one person of good will any benefit. It slaughters the innocent!! children, women and men and our
environment. It is the game of ignorance asserting superiority over thought and imagination.
It is the daring imagination of betterment that motivates the development of OBOR and the east to west transit corridor in Russia.
It is imagination of betterment to build trade and access to economy and elevation from poverty that is of the utmost benefit to us
humans sharing and caring for this beautiful planet.
If the west cast off its parasitic mentality toward the other and embraced the same daring imagination for its people's betterment
they might come close to the achievements we have seen in Russia and China and elsewhere that the philosophy is paramount. There is
always hope and the chance that might come about.
Intensifying anti Russian policies will result in the same outcomes the USA achieved in their anti Iranian policies.
EJ Magnier reports on the recent JCPOA members meeting:
"The Islamic Republic proved to be a shark with sharp teeth during its negotiation with the signatories (Russia, China, France,
Great Britain and Germany) of the nuclear deal in Vienna, leaving few choices to the negotiators. Iran showed how complex and
inflexible its position is with the most powerful county in the world, forbidding the US envoy to join the mediators in the same
room because Donald Trump revoked its 2015 nuclear deal agreement. Moreover, Iran used the Israeli sabotage actions against the
Natanz nuclear facility as an excuse to hit Israel, the US and all European negotiators who side with the Americans...
...Iran did not ask for a guarantee against another Trump-like decision – which revoked the nuclear deal – in the future because
its nuclear capability is the guarantee. Iran is not asking for a guarantee from China and Russia, which are under US sanctions.
Iran exhausted its patience in 2018 when it waited for an entire year without using its right to gradually withdraw from the
JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Iran then believed Europe might come forward and hold to its commitments even if the
US pulled back. That was not the case, and Tehran is now aware that Europe and the US have the same objectives hidden behind
different behaviours.
Today it is known that Iran is enriching uranium up to 60% and can reach 90% in several months. This does not mean Iran is
necessarily producing nuclear weapons, but it is enough to cross the West's red lines. If the US sanctions are not lifted or
partially lifted, if the deal is revoked or other sanctions are imposed in the future, Iran will fall back into its complete
nuclear cycle without any warning."
sset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/4689067">
https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/4689067
Tom , Apr 17 2021 22:07 utc |
40
Posted by: Bernard F. | Apr 17 2021 21:21 utc | 38
I suspect Sullivan and Blinken's next gig will be something like that. "We came here to
forget", but instead of the French Legion, it will be PMC Wagner.
Personally what I would do would be a Operation Bagration 2.0 at the slightest misstep by
Ukraine. There is may too much on the table here. Bio labs, nests of NATO rats, nuclear power
plants, NATO missiles on the Ukrainian and Belarus borders with Russia. Time to clear out the
rats including Lviv. After disinfecting this part of eastern Europe (again) of that other far
more dangerous virus, Nazism, life will be much more peaceful in that part of the world, and
likely by the domino effect (yes I actually said that!) to other places in the world plagued
by US exceptionalism.
... two decades a coordinated anti-Russia propaganda originating from the U.K. [MI-6
– its former spies – Khodorkovsky - The Interpreter - Henry Jackson Society] and
Washington DC a nest of anti-Russia lobbyists [Atlantic Council – BellingCat, etc]. In
fact it's the vast majority with groundless and poor reasoning, these folks despise
everything left, Socialist and Communist. Too many years and too much wealth have pushed the
anti-Russia agenda. The new generation with social media lack comprehension what information
is published and with what political agenda.
Due to the 9/11 attacks on America. the US and UK gave new life and purpose to NATO. From
Afghanistan the expeditionary force was sent to Libya and Syria. The colour revolutions gave
blood to anti-Putin rhetoric. US politics of both parties tried to divide the EU into Old and
New Europe. The criminal acts of CIA torture, rendition and black sites made a number of
states accomplishes in war crimes. No issue a decade later with drone assassinations. Calling
out "Putin" as killer is ridiculous looking in the mirror how many tens and hundreds of
thousands have died on the battlefield at the hands of the UK/US and allies. And the sales of
arms, munitions and lethal weapons reach new heights in the Middle East and warring
parties.
OCCRP Report: The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2 Billion on Soviet-Style Arms for Syrian
Rebels
The Czech Republic is responsible for arms and munitions delivery to Bulgarian arms
dealers working with Pentagon contracts. These ended up in the Ukraine, Syria, Libya and
Yemen. The bomb blast in Vrbetice most likely saved many (innocent) lives.
Some repentants
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Op-Ed of Dec. 2017 - 'NATO should not have committed to
membership of Ukraine and Georgia'
In the recent past I have written about Legatum at a time Anne Applebaum found her employ
at the think tank. The red alert signs and alarm bells were up at the time and I gave some
background information. The first lady of Poland (almost) and her hubby former UK citizen and
CIA agent Radek Sikorski of Afghan and Angola fame.
Anne Applebaum's Confession
Anne Applebaum: how my old friends paved the way for Trump and Brexit | The Guardian
– July 2020 |
We are to believe this cabal of humanity hating zealots will fade into the
background??
Because facts will matter???
Facts have never mattered. In this post-modern illusion our leaders call a reset, facts
actually have negative value...sorta like negative interest rates.
Expect insanity to multiply at the same rate as the money supply expands
Adam Curtis' new documentary series ("I Just Can't Get You out of my Head") deals (in
part) with the way the West's entire worldview sees everything in simplistic Manichean terms,
like Star Wars. The West is always good (even when they act immorally) and the baddies are
always lone rogues, like a spaghetti Western. WW2 shaped the West's entire thinking about its
role in the world: the Allies are on the side of decency and freedom while the enemy is
simply evil through and through, beyond redemption. A parade of baddies from Hitler to
Castro, Uncle Ho, Khomeini, Gaddafi, Hussein, Assad, Putin and Xi. Bond movies and Hollywood
write the scripts, the MSM pumps out the pulp. No one wants to hear that history is a tad
more complicated than bogeymen vs. Marvel superheroes, but then history does have a lovely
way of biting people on the ass...
Why Washington's Anti-Russian Policies Are Likely To IntensifyMina , Apr 19
2021 16:49 utc |
1
Thanks to a monoculture of anti-Russia hawks in U.S. policy institutions relations between
the U.S. and Russia are likely to further decline. But some hope might be seen at the
horizon.
Scott Ritter predicts the end of a
generation of anti-Russian influencers in Washington DC who depict Russia and is policies as
being run by just one man:
These "Putin whisperers" infiltrated every aspect of American culture and politics, their
writings achieving near-scripture-like reception in the pages of American newspapers and
political journals, and the authors of this intellectual dreck being offered prime seats at
the table of national security policymaking, either on the National Security Council, or as
a National Intelligence Officer.
...
These "Putin Whisperers" thrived during the administration of President Barack Obama, led
by the likes of Michael McFaul, and achieved near-critical mass during the Trump
administration, empowered by overly politicized claims of collusion with Russia by people
in the Trump circle. They continue to play an important role today, filling the airwaves
and pages with anti-Putin propaganda whose cumulative effect is to dumb down the American
public by demonizing Russia and its president to the point that any accusation will be
accepted at face value , regardless of the lack of corroborating evidence or the improbable
veracity of its claim; the recent scandal over allegations that
Russia paid the Taliban bounties to kill Americans in Afghanistan serves as an apt
illustration of this phenomenon.
Unfortunately the constant demonization of Russia's president by the 'Putin-whisperers'
has already led to some
tragic consequences :
A children's author and parish councillor died after a neighbour with mental health issues
shot him in the face and stamped on his head, believing he worked for Vladimir Putin and
was to blame for the spread of Covid-19, an inquest heard.
But the danger of seeing everything caused by just one man is much greater. It explains
the
confused policies of the Biden administration which may lead towards war.
Biden is a prisoner of his own anti-Russian rhetoric, influenced in large part by the need
to be seen as responding to a domestic political prerogative founded on decades of Russia -
and Putin-bashing at the hands of the "Putin whisperers" and their ilk. It is one thing to
spout off as a candidate for president; it is an altogether different reality to be serving
as president, where words and actions have life-or-death consequences.
As the realities set in the people and their policies will have to change:
These are policies pushed and promoted by the "Putin whisperers." For the moment, their
will continues to prevail. But their days are numbered, as realpolitik pragmatists in the
White House, Pentagon and Intelligence Community are recognizing the reality that the days
of taking for granted US global hegemony are over, and that for the United States to remain
relevant, it must adapt to the reality of a multi-polar world, and Russia's rightful role
therein. This will not happen overnight, but it is in the process of happening. In
promoting and supporting Biden's latest round of sanctions, the "Putin whisperers" have
reached their high-water mark. From here on out, their influence will begin to ebb as the
national security demand for fact-based assessments outstrips the domestic political need
for fact-free propaganda.
I am not that optimistic. The Blob is resistant to change because those who are inside it
tend to bite away anyone with even a slightly different view.
Consider the case of Matthew Rojansky, Director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is known as a middle-of-the-road expert of U.S.
and Soviet/Russian relations - not a hawk, but also not an appeaser.
Rojansky was supposed to chair the Russia desk in Biden's National Security Council. As
soon as that became know the 'Putin Whisperers' came out in force to fight the nomination.
Axios
led the charge :
Posted by b at 16:38
UTC |
Comments (54)
I am surprised that the Russians did not "leak" a few videos from the EU-sponsored refugee
camps in Greece. People becoming mad, violence, suicide attempts, it would be enough to close
for good the debate on Russian prisons.
1) Conflict is a career opportunity. Peace is a bad way to get the grants, bribe money,
and stature that the DC sociopaths want. No one whose career depends on conflict gets
promoted without conflict.
2) They believe (possibly correctly) that they can attack Russia indirectly, or directly via
proxy, and that Russia will only defend, rather than going on a counteroffensive.
3) Sociopaths have a psychological attachment to doing bad things. If a sociopath were given
a choice between scamming a client out of $1000 and earning that amount by selling a good
product, the sociopath would choose the former option every time, even if the profit and
effort were the same.
And, by the way, Washington (even american people) isn't the unique policy maker.
As James wrote
@ james | Apr 19 2021 4:19 utc | 62
[...]
russia leadership under putin and company have played their hand exceedingly well and have
not got sucked into playing the game the way the west has wanted them to[...]
I posted it in the morning
Putin, as a leader of a country with 180 millions citizens and a huge history (and the
wounds of USSR collapsus) must consider "Overton window". He done it very well.
As a "Commander in Chief", he must consider first, not to be defeated.
Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of
defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy. #
To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating
the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.
We must stay focuse have at some facts (not fake) news. As b. focused, Russia weaponized...a lot
Russian new weapons/military doctrine since 2010, even not Russian propaganda.
Sanity will never set in without a massive defeat for Amerikastani interests. The most
obvious two, which are not mutually exclusive, are Occupied Syria (including the Muhaysinic
Emirate of Idlibistan and the Kyrd zionistan) and Ukranazistan. Russia needs to move on both
immediately and Brook no further delay. What has Putinist regime "restraint " achieved so far
except brazen falsehood and enmity?
It is possible that Biden is acting tough with symbolic sanctions to divert the attention
from the reality that the Nord Stream 2 is well and soon alive. He also gets praise from the
anti-russia
elements in his government.
Yet Ritter is right in a way. The tit-for-tat that Russia has decided to start will escalate
to the point of a serious accident that may shake the USA. That Biden qualify Russia's
response to the sanctions as "escalatory" shows that he took note that Russia will not stop
retaliating. He is starting to worry that this path will lead to a paralysis of the
diplomatic exchange on several important issues and to violent consequences detrimental to
the USA and its allies.
Is Biden still mentally capable of an independent opinion?
There are complex historical reasons for Central and Eastern European countries to tilt
toward the US and become "anti-Russia," which is difficult for outsiders to comment on. It
is a pity that internal disintegration rather than coercion from the US had directly led to
the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russian Federation was one of the main promoters of
the disintegration, and the original agreement to replace the Soviet Union with the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was signed by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian
leaders who had destroyed the Soviet Union had no idea what would happen to their country
afterward.
The collapse of the Soviet Union has brought about geopolitical changes globally, and
the evaluation of the event is destined to vary from country to country and from time to
time. But it has become increasingly clear that Russia has been the biggest loser from that
collapse.
Many Russians once believed that when the Communist Party stepped down and the Soviet
Union collapsed, the US and the West would embrace Russia and respect them who had taken
the initiative to end the Cold War. The reality, however, is harsh. Moscow has received no
gratitude or kindness from the West. From the moment the Soviet Union collapsed, the US has
arrogantly treated Russia as a defeated country in the Cold War, engaging in all possible
moves to suppress Russia at will.
The collapse of the Soviet Union was a geopolitical disaster for Russia. As the dominant
power in the Soviet Union, if it chose to support reforms to solve problems at the
beginning, Russia could pay a much smaller price than the geopolitical price it would pay
in the following 30 years. Back then, Moscow had a broad sphere of influence and powerful
control capability that it could act independently and defiantly against Washington. But it
has ceded those geopolitical resources, giving up its advantages.
The US' vicious attitude toward Russia offers a glimpse into the brutality of great
power competition and helps people see through Washington's geopolitical manipulation
measures. The US portrayed its Cold War with the Soviet Union as an ideological
confrontation to conceal its intention to dominate the world alone. Many people, including
Russians, believed that a political change of course would fundamentally change their
relationship with the US, and that Russia could thus integrate into the West and become a
dignified member of the Group of Eight.
However, if the foreign policy establishment learned nothing and suffered neither personal
nor professional consequences from the War on Iraq, what makes Ritter so sure that anything
will be different this time?
This attitude was not uncommon among others, such as the Eastern Europeans.
Before 1991, they were vassals of USSR, now they are vassals of vassals - a notch down the
pecking order.
In Iran, there have been several million people - largely inhabiting the Greater Tehran
area and rather influential - who shared an analogous attitude as the Russians did before
1991.
Fortunately for Iran, Judeo-Christians tried to destroy her by trying to destroy her
economy.
Now, that population, has no leg to stand on - they are discredited domestically as their
programme of productive engagement with the West turned out to be a fool's errand.
Russians, in 1991, did not expect USSR to break-up, they did not understand that USSR was
unified in the corpus of the Red Tsar - just like the Russian Empire was unified (like the
United Kingdom) in the person of the Emperor of Russia.
In an analogous manner, the "Secularist Liberals" in Iran, denizens of Tehran - should
they get to power, will preside over the disintegration of Iran, since she is unified in the
Shia Religion.
It is indeed necessary for the US to recognize the reality of a multi-polar world.
However, let us be accurate, the West is one and only one empire of the Five Eyes alliance
and not just the US.
Ultimately the question is this: Will the Western empire accept it has failed and will never
control the entire world or will it use the nuclear weapons it used twice to become a global
empire to ruin the world for anyone else?
Browder's grandfather is Earl Browder, General Secretary of the Communist Party USA. Now
freely admitted that he held that post on the payroll of FBI and Office of Naval
Intelligence. Bill merely continues the family business of damaging Russia by any means
possible.
" The CIA/Establishment/Neocon/liberal doctrine of a unitary imperial superpower that must
assimilate all of creation into its usurious, profit making empire, or else, is challenged
seriously by few."
There is NOTHING "liberal" in how our latest empire persues it's prerogatives of global
corporate hegemony.
... two decades a coordinated anti-Russia propaganda originating from the U.K. [MI-6
– its former spies – Khodorkovsky - The Interpreter - Henry Jackson Society] and
Washington DC a nest of anti-Russia lobbyists [Atlantic Council – BellingCat, etc]. In
fact it's the vast majority with groundless and poor reasoning, these folks despise
everything left, Socialist and Communist. Too many years and too much wealth have pushed the
anti-Russia agenda. The new generation with social media lack comprehension what information
is published and with what political agenda.
Due to the 9/11 attacks on America. the US and UK gave new life and purpose to NATO. From
Afghanistan the expeditionary force was sent to Libya and Syria. The colour revolutions gave
blood to anti-Putin rhetoric. US politics of both parties tried to divide the EU into Old and
New Europe. The criminal acts of CIA torture, rendition and black sites made a number of
states accomplishes in war crimes. No issue a decade later with drone assassinations. Calling
out "Putin" as killer is ridiculous looking in the mirror how many tens and hundreds of
thousands have died on the battlefield at the hands of the UK/US and allies. And the sales of
arms, munitions and lethal weapons reach new heights in the Middle East and warring
parties.
OCCRP Report: The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2 Billion on Soviet-Style Arms for Syrian
Rebels
The Czech Republic is responsible for arms and munitions delivery to Bulgarian arms
dealers working with Pentagon contracts. These ended up in the Ukraine, Syria, Libya and
Yemen. The bomb blast in Vrbetice most likely saved many (innocent) lives.
Some repentants
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Op-Ed of Dec. 2017 - 'NATO should not have committed to
membership of Ukraine and Georgia'
In the recent past I have written about Legatum at a time Anne Applebaum found her employ
at the think tank. The red alert signs and alarm bells were up at the time and I gave some
background information. The first lady of Poland (almost) and her hubby former UK citizen and
CIA agent Radek Sikorski of Afghan and Angola fame.
Anne Applebaum's Confession
Anne Applebaum: how my old friends paved the way for Trump and Brexit | The Guardian
– July 2020 |
We are to believe this cabal of humanity hating zealots will fade into the
background??
Because facts will matter???
Facts have never mattered. In this post-modern illusion our leaders call a reset, facts
actually have negative value...sorta like negative interest rates.
Expect insanity to multiply at the same rate as the money supply expands
Adam Curtis' new documentary series ("I Just Can't Get You out of my Head") deals (in
part) with the way the West's entire worldview sees everything in simplistic Manichean terms,
like Star Wars. The West is always good (even when they act immorally) and the baddies are
always lone rogues, like a spaghetti Western. WW2 shaped the West's entire thinking about its
role in the world: the Allies are on the side of decency and freedom while the enemy is
simply evil through and through, beyond redemption. A parade of baddies from Hitler to
Castro, Uncle Ho, Khomeini, Gaddafi, Hussein, Assad, Putin and Xi. Bond movies and Hollywood
write the scripts, the MSM pumps out the pulp. No one wants to hear that history is a tad
more complicated than bogeymen vs. Marvel superheroes, but then history does have a lovely
way of biting people on the ass...
No one fact check's the claims made by the intelligent agencies. Bernie was told the
Russians wanted him to win the election and he jump right in the laps of the liars. Trump
knew more before he was president than he did once he was elected. That is why General Flynn
was removed under false charges. He knew what was what. I remember the head of the CIA told
Trump that the Russian has killed ducks and poison children. Trump fell for the lie hook line
and casino
Now we have a president that has mental issues and already believes the Russian are dirty
What could go wrong?
A foreign military bloc of nations is inching closer to Moscow, Vladimir Putin reacts in
kind, and somehow Russia is the aggressor. And learned Ph.D.'s scribble on, defying pure logic
from Washington's Think Tank Row. Here's the latest sensational proof that the world will
never, ever be at peace.
Dr. Mamuka Tsereteli and James Carafano have a new plan for defeating Russia for good. Now
get this, in America, we have institutions like The Heritage Foundation that fund supposed
research to perpetuate wars. No, really. The latest report of the foundation "Putin Threatens
Ukraine -- Here's the Danger and What US, Allies Should Do About It" is a blueprint for
continuing friction between west and east. Let's examine the three takeaways Heritage
Foundation puts forward.
According to Tsereteli and Carafano, Putin is about to attack Ukraine. These well-paid
foreign policy geniuses say a military buildup inside Russian territory, which was in response
to threats from Kyiv, proves beyond a doubt the dastardly Putin is about to overrun Russia's
neighbor. To quote the report, "Putin plans to use Russian forces in a full-blown military
engagement with that country [Ukraine]." Well, let's find out why Russia's president alerted
his military.
Didn't I just read how Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced that his country's
National Security and Defense Council had approved a strategy aimed at retaking Crimea and
reintegrating the strategically important peninsula? Yes, I am sure of it. Another Washington
think tank has already outlined something called the
Crimean Platform Initiative , another genius plan hatched in the bowels of CIA
headquarters, to make Crimea an expensive proposition for Russia.
This came into being the instant Joe Biden took the oath of office as president, and it's
only part of an overall strategy to engage Russia in a winner take all confrontation that many
experts say, is long overdue. And the has taken unilateral aggressive steps toward the Donbass
region and any pocket of the pro-Russia sentiment inside Ukraine. A statement by Russia's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova on this issue bears repeating
here:
"All efforts by Kyiv to reclaim Crimea are illegitimate and cannot be interpreted in any
other way but a threat of aggression against two Russian [federal] subjects. We reiterate
that we will consider the participation of any states or organizations in such activities,
including the Crimean Platform initiative, as a hostile act against Russia and direct
encroachment on its territorial integrity."
Now that we've established who the aggressor is, let's take a look at Tsereteli's and
Carafano's next brilliant takeaway point. The dynamic duo of war strategies says cosmetic
measures against Russia will not do! The "west" (meaning NATO), they say, needs a more clear
strategy. Which certainly means a massive arms buildup west of the Siverskyi Donets River. The
Zelensky government is being pushed from Washington to take even more drastic measures to force
Russia into a war stance. The editorial board of the Washington Post recently advised
Zelensky:
"Mr. Zelensky now has the opportunity to forge a partnership with Mr. Biden that could
decisively advance Ukraine's attempt to break free from Russia and join the democratic West.
He should seize on it."
So, now that we've shown who is doing the pushing here, let's turn to the final takeaway
from Heritage Foundation master strategists. Tsereteli and Carafano come right out and say
"countries left outside of NATO will remain targets of Russian aggression and manipulations."
So, the purpose of all this supposed spread of militaristic-based democracy is to expand NATO
to? I mean, seriously. Washington is not reaching out with the Peace Corps to shore up a
budding Eastern European democracy. The United States is kidnapping another former Soviet
republic on the way to the big score. My country has military bases in almost every country in
the world, has had more wars than the Mongols, and spends more on weapons than everybody else
combined – but Russia is being aggressive! Who believes this bullshit?
Let's be real here. First, please understand who is doing the "thinking" there in
Washington. Take James Carafano, the former Lt. Colonel who wrote speeches for the head of the
U.S. Army Chief of Staff. Carafano teaches at West Point, what the hell else can he advise, of
war with Russia does not come about? The man's life is about justifying war. Then there's
Mamuka Tsereteli, who's also the Founding Executive Director at the America-Georgia Business
Council. America-Georgia business, hmm? I wonder if there is an America-Ukraine business
council in the works soon? But, you can see where this new strategy from Heritage Foundation is
headed, can't you? Taking advice on foreign policy from these so-called experts is putting the
foxes in charge of the hen house. Only they're not as smart as foxes. They don't need to be.
The public is just that numbed and misinformed these days.
Is heavily involved in helping promote the EU's Three Seas Initiative (3SI), which is an
asymmetrical warfare economic platform to cut Russia off from the EU, and install the U.S. and
central European powers in her place in East Europe. This report from Mamuka Tsereteli at
Emerging Europe lays out the plan. To learn more about Tsereteli's role, readers should
research the so-called Frontier Europe Initiative, currently propagandizing for greater
Georgia-Ukraine strategies against Russia. Make no mistake, the narrative and strategies these
people are discussing are the precursors to including not only Ukraine in NATO but Georgia as
well. Retired Air Force General Phillip Breedlove and former CENTCOM Commander General Joseph
Votel are two of the "experts" helping to draft these strategies. And The Heritage Foundation
stands center stage of the move for NATO to force Putin and Russia into an inescapable
corner.
And there, is your true geopolitical Eurasia picture. The "west" will run on to Moscow,
start World War III, and then blame Putin for the holocaust.
retrocop 1 day ago
We protect other countries borders, but not our own. The Pentagon lists military personnel
in 514 "outposts" in 45 countries, and the DOD "acknowledges" personnel in more than 160
countries. Not bad for a nation that is essentially bankrupt.
TheABaum 23 hours ago
Did you mean entirely bankrupt?
The Count 20 hours ago (Edited)
Well, the border to Mexico is not really a border. It's just a never ending supply of
cheap labor.
Village-idiot 22 hours ago (Edited)
The Globalists really don't like Putin; they don't like anyone who fights them and
wins.
Putin already took their Russian central bank away from them.
He is also protecting the Russian culture, and is quickly turning Russia into the most
Christian country in the world (around 85% Christian so far).
Putin reputably hates paedophiles as much as Trump does.
They must destroy Putin before his ideas start to spread.
.
gro_dfd 21 hours ago (Edited)
From reading comments on ZH, Putin's ideas have already spread. His pro-capitalist,
anti-globalist, fiscally-conservative, nationalist, and culturally conservative views are
noticed. He has many admirers in the US.
jldpc 22 hours ago
It has been 209 years (1812) since Napoleon's complete defeat in Russia.
It has been 99 years (1917-1922) since the end of the Russian Revolution discarding
hundreds of years of Czarist rule, and the control/corruption of the elitist classes.
It has been 79 years (1942-1945) since the Germans were routed and destroyed by the
Russians.
Think the Russians are going to cave-in to Joe B. and his band of wishful thinkers?
Threatening the well armed, and very experienced Russians is a fool's game.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. – Alexander Pope
REDinFL 17 hours ago remove link
All of the angels are in heaven,
And few of the fools are dead.
-James Thurber, from "Further Fables for Our Time"
PatriotSurge 17 hours ago remove link
I guarantee neither PedoJoe, nor any of his advisors have ever heard of the folly of
attacking Russia. They don't read history.
Hell, most of them don't even read, clearly.
philbutler 11 hours ago
You are right. The only difference is, the Euromaidan put the Fourth Reich 250 miles from
Moscow. It's a helluva head start over where Hitler finished. Nukes will be the endgame on
this one I think.
@ pnyx -- It's not only that USians are unaware of much of what's happening in other
countries, it's the fact they are misinformed and misled about current events by propaganda.
This is also the case in Europe because their MSM also have been co-opted by the coordinated
Intelligence Apparatus (CIA - MI6 - FiveEyes) that controls the flow of information in the
U.S. MSM. We are witnessing censorship/control of Social Media, Search Engines, and formerly
independent websites as well.
This is an all-out effort of Class War. One aspect of this is to broadcast a hidden
personal message that if I feel oppressed, "it must be my own fault" because "success"
supposedly is within everyone's grasp (note the emphasis on celebrity 'culture').
The U.S. has leveled sanctions on Russia over election interference and cyberattacks,
including barring U.S. financial institutions from buying new domestically issued Russian
government debt.
The Biden Administration went where Presidents Obama and Trump had not, barring U.S.
financial institutions from buying new domestically issued Russian sovereign bonds. The move
excluded the secondary market, though. Anyone can still trade the so-called OFZs already in
circulation. And it was matched by a substantial carrot: a dovish speech on Russia by Biden,
floating a potential summit with Putin this summer.
The market had feared worse, says Vladimir Tikhomirov, chief economist at BCS Global Markets
in Moscow. The ruble is still down 4%, and stocks 3%, since Russia stoked tensions a month ago
by massing troops on Ukraine's border. That is despite buoyant oil prices that should benefit
Russia. "Everyone was discussing direct punishment of Russian companies or a cutoff from
SWIFT," he says, referring to the backbone for global financial transactions. "The actual
sanctions turned out to be relatively mild."
Global investors have been fleeing the OFZ market without any push from the White House.
Foreigners' share of outstanding bond holdings have fallen to 20% from about a third last
summer, notes Aaron Hurd, senior currency portfolio manager at State Street Global
Advisors.
Political risk still depresses the value of Russian assets by 15%, Tikhomirov
estimates. That is reasonable considering Biden's options for escalating sanctions, says
Daniel Fried, an Atlantic Council fellow who was the State Department's sanctions coordinator
under Obama. "He could move into the secondary debt market, restrict state-owned energy
companies' ability to raise capital, or go after the money hidden by Putin and his cronies," he
says. "It could get to be a pretty tight squeeze."
To close the political risk gap, Putin needs to at least restore calm with Ukraine, risking
domestic political face after a month of hyping the alleged threat from Russia's southern
neighbor. The coming week offers two opportunities for Putin to move toward Biden's proffered
stable relationship, Tikhomirov says. He could sound friendly in an annual state of the nation
address scheduled for April 21, and he could turn up (virtually) for the global climate summit
Biden has called on April 23-24.
These may be far overshadowed by Alexei Navalny, the
Russian opposition leader who is on hunger strike in a maximum-security prison outside
Moscow. Navalny-allied doctors said April 17 he could "die within days" without outside medical
intervention. Backing off from its merciless treatment of Navalny would also look like an
embarrassing climb-down from the Kremlin's point of view.
Hurd expects a stalemate where Russian assets could nudge higher as oil prices remain firm
and the Central Bank of Russia raises interest rates. Putin will make few concessions with his
party facing parliamentary elections in September, he predicts. Washington will be constrained
by the European Union's reluctance to stiffen anti-Russian measures. "The ruble could still go
higher from here, but we remain tentative over the next six months," he says.
Putin has essentially accomplished the goal he set after his 2014 invasions of Ukraine, a
self-sufficient Russia that can pursue its perceived security interests without worrying what
the rest of the world thinks, says Yong Zhu, portfolio manager for emerging markets debt at
DuPont Capital Management.
Government debt amounts to a mere 18% of gross domestic product, and in a pinch can be
serviced domestically. That keeps yields too low to pay for the country's geopolitical
turbulence, he concludes: 10-year Russian domestic bonds pay about 7% annually, compared with
9% for Brazil or South Africa. "Russia doesn't really need anything beside the iPhone," Zhu
quips.
Self-reliance has also spelled isolation from the capital and talent that could lift Russia
to its proper place in global innovation and growth. But Putin and his regime seem to like it
that way.
It is difficult to find a black cat in the empty dark room, but neoliberal MSM jump over
their head screaming Cat! Evil Russian cat!
Notable quotes:
"... Looking for something in wikipedia, I discover that in 1961, the first manned spaceflight was..."a propaganda victory". There's no hope! ..."
"... I think Russians have weaponized word 'weaponized' because presence in headlines represents most useful mechanism to map current extent of Mockingbird 2 operations. ..."
"... It was an interesting demonstration of the circularity of belief mechanisms at work when people adopted ideas like: "Putin did not really intervene in our elections, he was much more devious. He made us think he did intervene and that way caused us to undermine ourselves! That is how devilish he is and we were even more right than we thought about that!" ..."
"... It is beyond question that such a "system" is overly hysterical, to say the least ..."
With the US/UK press in full Russia hysteria mode, right now, it's time for a thread on
things the Anglo-American media has accused Moscow of "weaponising."
We shall start with Charlie Sheen.
Yes. Really. Not a joke.
Take a bow, @ak_mack & @ForeignPolicy
Bryan MacDonald's thread is a good opportunity to update our list of all the issues, ideas
and things Russia has weaponized.
Even while the list below now includes 111 entries - like robotic cockroaches, postmodernism
and 14.legged squids - it is likely far from being complete.
Some people, crazed extremists no doubt, might regard all that as a way of softening up
public opinion for conflict. Reading through the list, it seems more like the ravings of
paranoid schizophrenics then it does journalists.
This demonizing of Russia is an attempt to portray it as a threat: there is certainly a clash
of interests between Russia and the West. But the confrontation being pursued will not lead
to the conclusion NATO predicts. Failure to heed the warnings of history is leading us to the
nuclear apocalypse. https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Even for Reuters their center headline, photo and subtext are over the top.
They no longer make any effort to disguise political opinion as facts
(their sheeple readers won't catch on).
As of this writing the headline is: Half of Republicans believe false accounts of Capitol riot: Reuters/Ipsos poll
and the subtext is: Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump
and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event
that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have
listened.
He tread water wearing a blissful smile as the organism approached him (14 armed
killer squid). Obviously the "vampire Squid" Goldman Sachs has been submersively trying to
disrupt Russia.
Why would the CIA be so interested in the ability of North Korea to modify weather? Most
probably because the CIA's efforts to pull off a repeat of the flooding in North Korea in
1994-1995 failed and they want to know why.
Aside: Research the CIA's "Operation Popeye" in 1967 Vietnam if you are doubtful of
how evil and crazy the CIA is.
Most likely the party involved in foiling the CIA's plot to flood North Korea again and
trigger another famine was China and not Russia. Not only does China have extensive
experience with cloud seeding, but they are in the proper location to accomplish the task.
Cloud seeding is how the Chinese provided clear weather over Beijing for the Olympics in
2008... they seeded air masses farther upwind to make it rain there and dry out the air
heading to Beijing. If the air heading towards North Korea (relatively consistent west to
east flow there) has already been seeded and much of the moisture in it already precipitated
out, then when the CIA's spook planes seed it nearer to the Korean peninsula it will be too
dry to squeeze much more rain out of. The CIA would be cockblocked and frustrated and they
will naturally want to know why their attempts at genocide failed.
Our Mission
At Collateral Global, we believe that there is an urgent need to study the consequences of
public health measures implemented in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, including the
second and third-order effects.
Through commitment to the enduring principles of scientific inquiry, we aim to provide
scholarship and research, building an evidence-based understanding of mitigation measures
that is both accessible and actionable.
How long until the above site is compromised or McCarthyism-smeared?
Maybe these count. I looked for variations of weaponize in title. These were stories I
remember reading and did quick search to retrieve something about them. Great list.
I am deeply troubled that you conveniently neglected to include another fearsome Russian
Super-Dooper Weapon: the children's cartoon Masha and the Bear .
It's obvious that Masha and the Bear is a nefarious Russian plot to steal the precious
bodily fluids of our children!
We must be constantly vigilant. The CIA, FBI, MI6, NSA, and Homeland Security must be
notified about the Masha Threat. YouTube must censor Masha. And blue check-marked Twitter
police must condemn anyone who watches Masha.
This one didn't have the word 'weaponize', close though: "opening a new front in its spy
battles".
accusing the Kremlin of opening a new front in its spy battles with the West amid the
worldwide competition to contain the pandemic.
...
American intelligence officials said the Russians were aiming to steal research to
develop their own vaccine more quickly, not to sabotage other countries' efforts. There was
likely little immediate damage to global public health, cybersecurity experts said.
Russia's weaponized Zersetzung
...
And although economic sanctions might hurt Russia's economy, they won't easily heal the
divisions that weaponized decomposition has deepened in America. Putin's assault on the
national soul is working.
The U.S. media is weaponizing ignorance.
The more one absorbs their reporting, the more the brain is reduced to mush.
I can only manage a few hundred works and I become irritated and disoriented.
My hat is off to people who can somehow look at that stuff and remain sane.
Or are they...hmmm...
A major mistake in interpreting the massive parallelism of all these claims is to assume a
form of central coordination.
In fact the parallellism is spontaneous once the target has a bad reputation. Centrally
organized propaganda can tune the reputation of the target but even that is not essential and
it can happen organically. Once the reputation is set however the process has its own
momentum. There is a bit more to it than merely the reputation of the target because the
positive reputation of those who attack the target also plays. In fact you have to work with
a large network of trust relations to get a good picture.
Glenn Greenwald recently linked to an article of Erik Weinstein on Russell Conjugation , how
the same events get an entirely different emotional content depending on the reporter. In the
long list of links above everyone is using the same spectacles for looking at events, but
also for filtering what is relevant , meaningful and worthy of attention.
This is why the NYTimes is still an interesting paper once you know how to read it. But few
people can use it that way.
The Russians, along with the Chinese, have apparently weaponized the protests of British
citizens against overreaching Police legislation.
"The disruption being caused through "Kill the Bill" protests in UK is an effort by the
Sino-Russian alliance to destroy trust and confidence in political and institutional systems,
in a bid to leave society demoralised and feeling powerless against events." https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/china-russia-use-social-media-fuel-protests-uk
div> Surely Harry and Megan must have been weaponized by that dreadful
Putin! Stands to reason. Doesn't it?
We need to keep in mind one thing: That which The West accuses Russia of, they are actually
committing themselves.
Nearly all of the 'weaponisations' that we are reading about above, The West is actually
DOING. The hypocracy is incredible. But we need to look at this hypocrisy, because in all
instances the propaganda is being directed at YOU! You / Us / Me in The West. We are the
target of this propaganda. In many instances it is MILITARY ORGANISTIONS that are targeting
civilians with lies and misinformation. WE are being attacked by military organisations.
I think enough is enough on The West. It's disgraceful that military organisations are
allowed to target civilians with BLATANT propaganda. It's time to fight back.
Howdy people. I think Russians have weaponized word 'weaponized' because presence in
headlines represents most useful mechanism to map current extent of Mockingbird 2
operations.
classical psychological projection by the weaponized narrative enablers of the worst Empire
in all human history, as we stand at 90 Seconds to Midnight on the very precipice of nuclear
war and ecological catastrophe, and the engine of the Armageddon Express starts to go off the
cliff....
I have two parakeets that I have been trying to weaponize for the better part of a month. But
it appears to be totally hopeless. If Mr. Putin happens to read this blog for some
weaponistic purpose, would you please offer me some of your invaluable advice? Please?
I think weaponized sheep is the winner, with incompetence a close second.
Jen, can you please tell me where one can watch the skating? Or perhaps, well we would call
them re-runs in the ancient history days - perhaps utoobs?
I see tantalizing hints on RT, but no real films.
The russian skaters (from what I saw last year) are truly amazing. Thanks.
If the system used by restaurants and cafes in HK is similar to what we have in Australia,
then they are required at least to provide a method by which their customers can be contacted
and advised if someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 has also visited the eateries
within 14 days of the customers having visited the establishments. That way those customers
can know if they need to isolate and limit their contacts with others.
The contact tracing is also supposed to help government authorities know how quickly the
disease is or is not spreading so they only have to lockdown certain neighbourhoods or areas
where there may be a cluster developing, instead of locking down an entire city or a state or
even a whole country.
Also you need to be careful reading Al Jazeera articles: Al Jazeera is definitely not a
fan of Russia or China.
"... And among those chafing at the government's response, like restaurant owners and their
customers, a form of grassroots resistance was forged.
Instead of asking their customers to scan the health department's QR code and transmit
their location, some owners have designed an alternative code that feeds into a Googleform
which will be erased every 31 days, the period for which businesses are required by
authorities to retain the data ..."
That action by the restaurant owners is not exactly grassroots resistance if the
authorities have already approved the Googleform and the erasures.
Around ten years ago, I called this "Dog Putin ate my homework syndrome". It is not only
propaganda against an economic, political and even soul competitor (last resort of real
Christianity is Russia), it is not even just a projection ("killer Putin", as Putin himself
explained). Its primary purpose is to tell you why you are living worse than 20 years ago,
why your children will live even worse than you now if they remain in this lost cause of
deeply corrupt and rotten so called countries. It is an excuse for everything that is wrong -
it is all because Putin and Xi weaponised it.
When I see such things in alt media, since I do not consume the swill from the main
sewerage media, I get that sinking feeling that I live in a wrong place, a place without a
future.
I do not care who the "authorities" denigrate, Russia, China, they are even to me. I only
wish they would do something to reduce the problems of our own societies instead of always
blaming someone else. Because as long as the rulers and their sewerage media sycophants keep
pointing fingers at Russia and China nothing will change for the better here where I am.
Any propaganda works if the people know they will never suffer the consequences of war.
The idea, all the way from Saddam Hussein, that we can influence the USA public to stop
their govt waging war on us, is misplaced.
I used to believe it too. I dont believe anymore. I dont believe the USA govt needs to
strain themselves to get the citizens behind them to put up blockades/sanctions or launch
cruise missiles.
Some still think this or that event will be used to "sanction russia", "attack iran"
etc.
(The "more sanctions coming" part is weird. As though Russia today prospers at the
pleasure of the West)
The only thing that stops an attack on Iran is hard cold realities of thousands of dead US
Marines and destitution at home once the oil terminals are blown up. Same vs Russia.
Still bloggers write stuff to try to convince the Anerican public.
Only thing that convinces any person/society is the consequences for actions.
But mark my words: West was beaten on 2020-01-08. Payment soon to Russia for going along
with the c19. Iran got some of its payment with that 25yr agreement.
It's still "One Country / Two Systems" in China / Hongkong as far as I can tell. If
Googleforms are not available in Hongkong, maybe you need to tell
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
"Because as long as the rulers and their sewerage media sycophants keep pointing fingers at
Russia and China nothing will change for the better here where I am."
Posted by: Kiza | Apr 6 2021 1:18 utc | 51
Absolutely Kiza, damn shame, but expect no change, and no disappointment will arise. The
new feudalism has arrived.
The take away ending quote
"
For the EU, the Chinese entry into global politics is more problematic. It was trying to
leverage its own 'strategic autonomy' by erecting European values as the gateway to inclusion
into its market and trade partnership. China effectively is telling the world to reject any
such hegemonic imposition of alien values and rights.
The EU is stranded in the midst. Unlike the U.S., it is precluded from printing the money
with which to resurrect its virus-blighted economy. It desperately needs trade and
investment. Its biggest trading partner, and its tech well-spring, however, has just told the
EU (as the U.S.), to give up on its moralising discourse. At the same time, Europe's
'security partner' has just demanded the opposite – that the EU strengthens it. What's
to be done? Sit back, and watch (with fingers crossed that no one does something extremely
stupid).
"
Trying to wade through the muck that passes as news today IS a fools errand.
Long time reader of MOA, followed Paveway long ago.
B, keep this site alive and let me know how to contribute.
It was an interesting demonstration of the circularity of belief mechanisms at work when
people adopted ideas like: "Putin did not really intervene in our elections, he was much more
devious. He made us think he did intervene and that way caused us to undermine ourselves!
That is how devilish he is and we were even more right than we thought about that!"
I recently read an article which stuck with me on a Flemish 'eminence grise' (Jan
Balliauw)on Russia which commented on
the European turnabout over the Sputnik vaccine(in dutch) : yes we misjudged the Russian
vaccine but it is the fault of the Russians and the bastards are cheering now! And he goes on
to the main theme by emphasizing the Russians can't be trusted.
It is beyond question that such a "system" is overly hysterical, to say the least
. Show me the proof that there is a need to cancel democracy and human rights for something
that does not affect 99.9% if anyone at all. And if you do, why not lock everybody in because
of traffic accidents, violent crime or actual diseases such as malaria, dengue fever or
whatever.
I question the motives for what is going on: that is to say: I do not accept that people's
health is the driving factor behind this. Show me the proof that what is claimed is actually
happening and if so also show me the proof that the intrusive technology is actually
meaningful. In my view this is conditioning the people to accept personal surveillance on a
level that goes far beyond 1984, and it is infinitely more scary than "covid".
How Russia Amerika+France+UK+++ weaponized "the Great Syrian Democratic
Revolution"
How much longer can people still insist that there is a Syrian revolution, when the most
powerful group is not only friendly to the West, but an "asset"?
In Australia, the minimum that restaurants, cafes, other dining establishments, other
private retail establishments and places where large numbers of people might gather can do is
provide a way in which customers and patrons can be notified that they may have come in
contact with someone who has COVID-19 or who has tested positive for COVID-19. But most of
these places cannot compel people to leave their contact details (usually mobile phone
numbers) with them.
In cases where places do compel people to leave their mobile phone details for the
purposes of contact tracing, people have the option of going somewhere else that does not
insist on their leaving their contact details behind.
The system used in Hong Kong dining places appears to be
similar to the system used in Australia: by law, these establishments must provide
methods by which people can be contacted if they become sites of infection. They either
encourage people to download a contact-tracing app or ask people to write their details down
on paper forms. Customers have the option also of not going out at all and eating at home,
which is difficult to do in a culture where dining out in public with friends and family is
expected and where most people live in small apartments so they prefer to entertain others by
taking them out to restaurants and cafes.
Some restaurants and cafes in HK have also refused to take people's contact details and
have opted to serve takeaway meals only.
Theoretically this system would reduce the need for blanket lockdowns of an entire city or
a larger administrative unit such as a state or province, or even country. In Sydney, the NSW
government used contact tracing to determine that a cluster of COVID-19 cases was limited
mainly to the northeast side of the metropolitan area and this part of Sydney was subjected
to lockdown. Traffic access to the area (population: about 250,000) was blocked by police.
The lockdown lasted about 21 days and included New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. During this
period people living in the affected area couldn't leave it but were allowed to leave their
homes for exercise, essential shopping and getting takeaway meals within the area.
The issue that Al Jazeera brings up is an issue of compulsion and creeping authoritarian
rule (based on stereotypes about China and the Chinese government) but it uses a poor example
to demonstrate what it wants its readers to believe. It turns out that the HK govt is not
forcing all dining establishments to use its contact-tracing app but is giving them a choice.
Al Jazeera should have done better research.
Show me the proof that there is a need to cancel democracy and human rights for
something that does not affect 99.9% ...
Jen is not advocating for canceling democracy and human rights. And the pandemic
affects us all. Everyone is capable of getting sick and passing it on to others.
Democracies have responded to the pandemic with measures that many people find onerous and
many lies have been spread by some of these people such as: 1)"masks don't work" (they do
work but they protect others, not the mask-wearer) ; 2) "only old people die" (even teens
have died); and 3) that the pandemic is a hoax (it's not just the flu!).
Your "... does not affect 99.9% if anyone at all" is just regurgitating
nonsense.
Many more-authoritarian countries have actually been more successful in fighting the
pandemic. They haven't had to have the long "lockdowns" (a misnomer that exaggerates) that
Western democracies have imposed. Among the things that they have done (as temporary
emergency measures) is: rigorous contact-tracing, and quarantining the sick and suspected
sick.
I would also note that the hypocrisy is astounding:
People that DEMAND a return to normalcy also argue against the actions that could have
returned us to normal much sooner than waiting for experimental vaccines;
Libertarians that don't complain much about laws like speed limits and the prohibition
against yelling "fire!" in a crowed theater are DEMANDING an end to pandemic measures that
curtail their liberty;
Republicans that are pushing for voting ID and accept a police state are DEMANDING that
the economy be "opened up".
I should add, for the benefit of readers that don't know me, that my criticism of those
who are critical of pandemic measures doesn't mean that I'm not skeptical of many things
about this pandemic such as:
USA/Empire desire to stoke hate for China;
Big Pharma - government ties;
mRNA tech which has been funded by US Mil for use in biowarfare;
the immense propaganda spawned by the the above and the sheeple's acceptance of
same.
The only thing that holds America or the "democratic" West together is an increasingly rabid
hatred of Russia and China.
The Western-controlled Free Press and its unhinged accusations against Russia is matched
by its equally unhinged torrent of Yellow Peril propaganda against China, as evidenced
below:
Simply put, the collective West--led by the America and the Anglosphere--resembles a
civilization of paranoid schizophrenics, whose delusional ravings will drive them towards
world war--total war.
Needless to say, things will not end well for them.
"... The adjectives used in the FAZ to describe Putin had overwhelmingly negative connotations, including: threatening, rough, aggressive, confrontational, anti-westem, power-political, untruthful, cool, calculated, cynical, harsh, abrasive, non-substantive (arguments) and implausible (arguments). ..."
"... The words used to describe Obama had a completely different tone: committed, fanatically welcomed, enthusiastic, conciliatory, praised, hopeful and resolute ..."
"... The former FAZ Washington correspondent Matthias Rub wrote the adulation to US President Bush cited above shortly before the Iraq War began in 2003, in violation of international law. One year later he received the Arthur F. Bums Award for a different article. The Arthur F. Bums Award is presented by Germany's Foreign Minister. So, who selects the winners today? ..."
An interesting undergraduate thesis from Munich put together a list of the adjectives and
adverbs used in select articles about Obama (USA) and Putin (Russia) in the Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung between 2000 and 2012.
The words selected were ones that implied a value judgement in their description of Obama or
Putin. The adjectives used in the FAZ to describe Putin had overwhelmingly negative
connotations, including: threatening, rough, aggressive, confrontational, anti-westem,
power-political, untruthful, cool, calculated, cynical, harsh, abrasive, non-substantive
(arguments) and implausible (arguments).
The words used to describe Obama had a completely different tone: committed, fanatically
welcomed, enthusiastic, conciliatory, praised, hopeful and resolute :' In plain language:
The reporting in the once renowned FAZ newspaper is definitely not neutral, independent,
unbiased nor objective these days. So where is this bias coming from? Does this style of
reporting possibly have anything to do with the closeness that the FAZ's writers have to
certain elites and powerful circles? In the following chapters, we won't only be considering
the FAZ when it comes to this question. We will also look into why the mainstream media doesn't
even want you to imply that they're close to the elite.
Chapter one, scene two: A few years ago, the reporter Thomas Leif painted a rather
conspiratorial picture in the ARD television documentary Strippenzieher und Hinterzimmer
(Puppet Masters and Back Rooms). In it, journalists, ministers and party officials appeared to
all be sitting in the same boat, isolated from the common folk and getting along like
gangbustcrs. Viewers got to see how politics is made in secret meetings behind the scenes. The
film was about a corrupt world of cozy connections.4 What was being shown, however, wasn't a
conspiracy theory.
The film was controversial, because die people being shown in it were the perpetrators. They
thought that this form of corruption was completely normal. The journalists portrayed in the
documentary took it as an affront when they were simply asked about these secret networks
operating in the background.
... ... ...
The manipulation of the readers has been noticeable at the FAZ for many years. Dr. Heinz
Loquai gave a famous speech in 2003 where he said the following about the FAZ:
We learn from the FAZ's Washington correspondents that, among other things, Bush
studies the bible every day, prays regularly and bases his actions on the question, "What
would Jesus do?" The president is a "paragon of modesty and close to his people." There may
be "an arrogant bone or two in Bush's body," but he is "a man of love." His "portion of
missionary fervor" is "softened by statesmanlike prudence," through "patient waiting," the
"natural political talent's decision" has been "expressed." Although Bush may know that he is
not an intellectual, he can rely on "his political instinct, his wisdom and his natural
wit."
So (...) lectured, we can continue to count on the judgement and objectivity of leading
German daily and weekly newspapers' America correspondents! Embedded with the allied troops,
embedded in the political-media network in Washington - what's the difference? 16
The former FAZ Washington correspondent Matthias Rub wrote the adulation to US President
Bush cited above shortly before the Iraq War began in 2003, in violation of international law.
One year later he received the Arthur F. Bums Award for a different article. The Arthur F. Bums
Award is presented by Germany's Foreign Minister. So, who selects the winners today? The
jury includes, for example, the journalists Sabine Christiansen and Stefan Kornclius
(Sflddeutsche Zeitung).17 Keep these names in the mind. We will come across them and their
interesting connections quite often.
" Reporters uncritically echo intel agencies' election claims. Did they learn nothing from
the Iraq war?" that a wrong question to ask. In reality presstitutes are controlled by their
pimps from intelligence agencies. Like was the case in the USSR he MSM has generally abandoned
journalism and became propaganda arm of the State Department and CIA if we are talking about
foreign policy. .
By no stretch of the imagination can NPR or NYT any longer be called a news organizations.
They are propaganda outlets. The book, "Legacy of Ashes," is a good place to start to learn
something about CIA. And
Presstitutes Embedded in the Pay of the CIA by Dr. Udo Ulfkotte describes how CIA controls
journalists.
Notable quotes:
"... Some of our guys told us stuff. We won’t tell you who or why you should trust them, and we won’t show you any evidence that backs them up. The intelligence community is making a bold appeal to its own authority — an authority of which journalists have good reason to be skeptical. ..."
"... Organizations like the Central Intelligence Agency have a history of propagating disinformation to media outlets. Their biases are obvious: They exist not to report the truth but to disrupt foreign adversaries and, at least in theory, to further American interests. Formally they answer to the president and are overseen by Congress, but they also protect their parochial interests like all bureaucracies. ..."
"... Mr. Rall is a political cartoonist, columnist and author of "The Stringer," a graphic novel forthcoming in April. ..."
Reporters uncritically echo intel agencies' election claims. Did they learn nothing from the
Iraq war?
If your mother says she loves you, check it out, goes an old reporter’s saying. What
if the intelligence community says so?
On March 15 the National Intelligence Council declassified an “intelligence community
assessment” titled “Foreign Threats to the 2020 Federal Election.” From a
journalistic standpoint, the section titled “sources of information” is of
interest. It says only that “we considered intelligence reporting and other information
made available to the Intelligence Community as of 31 December 2020.”
To put that in layman’s terms: Some of our guys told us stuff. We won’t tell
you who or why you should trust them, and we won’t show you any evidence that backs them
up. The intelligence community is making a bold appeal to its own authority — an
authority of which journalists have good reason to be skeptical.
Organizations like the Central Intelligence Agency have a history of propagating
disinformation to media outlets. Their biases are obvious: They exist not to report the truth
but to disrupt foreign adversaries and, at least in theory, to further American interests.
Formally they answer to the president and are overseen by Congress, but they also protect their
parochial interests like all bureaucracies. (Speaking of bias, I draw cartoons for Sputnik
News and frequently appear on their radio programs. I have many other clients as well. That may
affect how seriously you take this article.)
Yet many in the media greeted the report with utter credulity. NPR aired a story March 17
titled “Russia’s Efforts at Information Warfare Against the West
Continue”—not “Intelligence Agencies Claim . . .” Reporters Mary Louise
Kelly and Greg Myre framed the report’s election-interference claims as straightforward
fact, analyzed the political implications, and discussed what the U.S. might do to retaliate.
“But the bigger question, Mary Louise, is how can the U.S. stop these major breaches
being carried out by Russia?” Mr. Myre said.
The segment ignored the possibility that the report’s claims might be false or
mistaken. It failed to mention the lack of documented evidence and the anonymous sourcing. NPR
interviewed a single expert: Glenn Gerstell, a former general counsel of the National Security
Agency, identified only as an “official,” who took the report at face value.
Other media outlets were careful to use proper journalistic form, such as “report
says” and “report alleges.” Yet they too presented unsourced allegations as
fact. CNN said the report “confirms what was largely assumed” and called it
“a wholesale repudiation of many false narratives that were pushed by right-wing news
outlets.” CNN didn’t address the questions of anonymous sourcing or
reliability.
While the New York Times allowed that “the declassified report did not explain how the
intelligence community had reached its conclusions,” it bent over backward to give the
benefit of the doubt to the intelligence community: “The officials said they had high
confidence in their conclusions about Mr. Putin’s involvement, suggesting that the
intelligence agencies have developed new ways of gathering information after the extraction of
one of their best Kremlin sources in 2017.”
In May 2004 the Times’s editors published a 1,200-word letter to readers apologizing
for their coverage of Saddam Hussein’s nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. “We
have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have
been,” they wrote. “In some cases, information that was controversial then, and
seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking
back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence
emerged—or failed to emerge.”
You’d think they’d have learned something from the mother of all
intelligence—and journalistic—failures.
Mr. Rall is a political cartoonist, columnist and author of "The Stringer," a graphic
novel forthcoming in April.
Appeared in the April 2, 2021, print edition.
Douglas Wolf
From the 50's on to the fall of the Soviet Union (which the "intelligence agencies
completely missed) the assessments of the Soviet military was WAY overexaggerated to justify
huge budgets for themselves and the military-industrial establishment. When the SU crumbled,
new boogie men had to found! Oh and they missed the plot that became 9-11. WMD's in Iraq
-nope. The list is long of the screwups and politically motivated reports. I say this as
someone who has a long friendship with a CIA officer
Bryan Smith
Asking the media if they have any ethics,, is like asking the executioner why he is an
hatchet man? Because the money is good!
Robert Bridges
50 Intelligence officers, including Brennan, said the Hunter Biden story was Russian
misinformation before the election. They were wrong. Of course, they, and you, won't
apologize to the American people for that blatant attempt to affect the election.
Michael Bomya
Mr. Rall reminds us of the WMD ploy that was the premise for the Iraq war, however he
misses entirely the more recent 2016 Russian collusion narrative. The alleged journalists are
simply extending their Russia story into a tome as thick as Tolstoy's "War and Peace". I
might take the recent intel report to mean that Russia spent $75K on faceyspacey ads in the
run up to the 2020 election, a 25% increase over their spending to install a sleeper agent,
Donald Trump, into the White House.
No Mr. Rall, there are many "news" articles that I stop reading halfway through due to
anonymous sources, a dearth of facts and its' alignment with a Dem narrative. I am not easily
morphed into a consumer of fiction, when I wish to read the news.
David Everson
As long as their agendas coincide they will cooperate. The rest of us are left to sort out
the epistemological sewage we live in.
Bill Schmaltz
"I'm from the government, I'm here to help you". (Be afraid)
"We're the FBI, we're here to pursue justice" (Not always)
"We're the intelligence community, you can trust us". (No, you can't)
Michael Kwedar
Sadly the question "Cui Bono" addresses a lot of what Mr. Rall declaims.
Richard Taylor
The author gives the "journalists" too much credit for being anything other than the
political hacks they are. The intelligence information coincides with their political views
and hence it is gospel. No need for any further review.
Richard Bolin
The issue of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction was not a failure of the intelligence
community at large. That assessment was made by a rogue intelligence component that had the
White House's ear. I was a senior intelligence officer at the time and when I asked my staff
if they were still seeing evidence that Iraq still had a weapons of mass destruction program
the unanimous answer was no.
Marc Jones
Yet the Director of the CIA still went forward, declaring "Slam Dunk!" Was it not his
responsibility to vet the information he was passing on to ensure its accuracy, or was he one
of the rogues? Where do you want to start with these rogue operations and elements? The 1950s
in Latin America and Iran? The 1960s domestically? The 1970s in Asia? The 1980s and 1990s in
the Middle East and again in Latin America? The record is long, ugly and it has a cause.
There is a difference between gathering information and conducting clandestine foreign
intervention.
The former is necessary and relatively benign. The latter leads to embarrassing and
dangerous rogue operations. The United States has a military, Constitutionally established
and maintained for the purpose of conducting violence in the country's behalf. It was the
intent of the founders that would only happen after the members of Congress debated and
agreed there was a need to do so. We need to return to that standard.
Kenneth Wilson
The "journalists" cited all intend to propagate the Democratic Party narrative that it's
only "The Russians" who interfere in US presidential elections. You will not hear anything
about China's involvement from "the intelligence community" or these same journalists.
Also you can be sure that "the intelligence community" won't say publicly anything about
Dominion voting systems. One member of the intel community, former Trump cybersecurity chief
Chris Krebs (who had been fired by Trump) testified to the Senate Homeland security committee
that in no way were the voting machines connected to the Internet. Until Senator Ron Johnson
showed evidence that yes, the machines are in fact connected to the Internet. Thus the vote
counts can be manipulated from anywhere, including from servers abroad.
Madison Bagney
As Reagan famously said, "Trust but verify." Sadly advice that most Americans fail to
do.
In truth, the West has a very long list of reasons for which to hate Putin and everything
Russian, but I believe that there is one reason which trumps them all: the western leaders
sincerely believed that they had defeated the USSR in the Cold War (even medals were
made to commemorate this event) and following the collapse of the former superpower and the
coming to power of a clueless, alcoholic puppet, the triumph of the West was total. At least in
appearance. The reality, as always, was much more complicated.
The causes and mechanisms of the collapse of the Soviet Union are not our topic today, so I
will just indicate that I believe that the USSR never "collapsed" but that it was deliberately
destroyed by the CPSU apparatus which decided to break up the country in order for the Party
and Nomenklatura to remain in power, not at the helm of the USSR, but at the helm of the
various ex-Soviet republics. Weak leaders and ideologies which nobody really believes in do not
inspire people to fight for their rulers. This is why the Russian monarchy collapsed, this is
why the masonic democracy of Kerenskii collapsed and this is why the Soviet Union collapsed
(this is also one of the most likely reasons for the final collapse of the US as a state).
Putin, who was not very well known in the West or, for that matter, in Russia, came to power
and immediately reversed Russia's course towards the abyss. First, he dealt with the two most
urgent threats, the oligarchs and the Wahabi insurrection in the Caucasus. Many Russians,
including myself, were absolutely amazed at the speed and determination of his actions. As a
result, Putin suddenly found himself one of the most popular leaders in Russian history.
Initially, the West went into a kind of shock, then through a process reminiscent of the
so-called " Kübler-Ross model " and,
finally, the West settled into a russophobic frenzy not seen since the Nazi regime in Germany
during WWII.
In this sequence, Russia committed two very different types of "crimes" (from the
AngloZionist point of view, of course):
The minor crime of doing what Russia actually did
and The much bigger crime of never asking the Empire for the permission to do so
The West likes to treat the rest of the planet like some kind of junior partner, with very
limited autonomy and almost no real agency (the best example is what the USA did to countries
like Poland or Bulgaria). If and when any such "junior" country wants to do something in its
foreign policy, it absolutely has to ask for permission from its AngloZionist Big Brother. Not
doing so is something akin to sedition and revolt. In the past, many countries were "punished"
for daring to have an opinion or, even more so, for daring to act on it.
It would not be inaccurate to summarize it all by saying that Putin flipped his finger to
the Empire and its leaders. That "crime of crimes" was what really triggered the current
anti-Russian hysteria. Soon, however, the (mostly clueless) leaders of the Empire ran into an
extremely frustrating problem: while the russophobic hysteria did get a lot of traction in the
West, in Russia it created a very powerful blowback because of a typical Putin "judo" move: far
from trying to suppress the anti-Russian propaganda of the West, the Kremlin used its power to
make it widely available (in Russian!) through the Russian media (I wrote about this in some
detail here and here ).
The direct result of this was two fold: first, the CIA/MI6 run "opposition" began to be
strongly associated with the russophobic enemies of Russia and, second, the Russian general
public further rallied around Putin and his unyielding stance. In other words, calling Putin a
dictator and, of course, a "new Hitler", the western PSYOPs gained some limited advantage in
the western public opinion, but totally shot itself in the leg with the Russian public.
I refer to this stage as the " phase one anti-Putin strategic PSYOP ". As for the
outcome of this PSYOP, I would not only say that it almost completely failed, but I think that
it had the exact opposite intended effect inside Russia.
A change of course was urgently needed.
The redirection of US PSYOPs against Putin and Russia
I have to admit that I have a very low opinion of the US intelligence community, including
its analysts. But even the rather dull US "Russia area specialist" eventually figured out that
telling the Russian public opinion that Putin was a "dictator" or a "killer of dissidents" or a
"chemical poisoner of exiles" resulted in a typically Russian mix of laughter and support for
the Kremlin. Something had to be done.
So some smart ass somewhere in some basement came up with the following idea: it makes no
sense to accuse Putin of things which make him popular at home, so let's come up with a new
list of accusations carefully tailored to the Russian public.
Let's call this a " phase two anti-Putin PSYOP operation ".
And this is how the "Putin is in cahoots with" thing began. Specifically, these accusations
were deployed by the US PSYOPs and those in its pay:
Putin is disarming Syria Putin will
sell out the Donbass Putin is a puppet of Israel and, specifically, Netanyahu Putin is a
corrupt traitor to the Russian national interests Putin is allowing Israel to bomb Syria (see
here )
Putin is selling the Siberian riches to China and/or Putin is subjugating Russia to China Putin
is corrupt, weak and even cowardly Putin was defeated by Erdogan in the Nagorno-Karabakh war
The above are the main talking points immediately endorsed and executed by the US strategic
PSYOPs against Russia.
Was it effective?
Yes, to some degree. For one thing, these "anti-Russian PSYOPS reloaded" were immediately
picked up by at least part of what one could call the "internal patriotic opposition" (much of
it very sincerely and without any awareness of being skillfully manipulated). Even more toxic
was the emergence of a rather loud neo-Communist (or, as Ruslan Ostashko often calls them
"emo-Marxist") movement (I personally refer to as a sixth
column ) which began an internal anti-Kremlin propaganda campaign centered on the
following themes:
"All is lost" (
всепропальщики
): that is thesis which says that nothing in Russia is right, everything is either wrong or
evil, the country is collapsing, so is its economy, its science, its military, etc. etc. etc.
This is just a garden variety of defeatism, nothing more. "Nothing was achieved since Putin
came to power": this is a weird one, since it takes an absolutely spectacular amount of mental
gymnastics to not see that Putin literally saved Russia from total destruction. This stance
also completely fails to explain why Putin is so hated by the Empire (if Putin did everything
wrong, like, say Eltsin did, he would be adored in the West, not hated!). All the elections in
Russia were stolen. Here the 5th (CIA/MI6 run) column and 6th column have to agree: according
to both of them, there is absolutely no way most Russians supported Putin for so many years and
there is no way they support him now. And nevermind the fact that the vast majority of polls
show that Putin was, and still is, the most popular political figure in Russia.
Finally, the big SNAFU with the pension reform definitely did not help Putin's ratings, so
he had to take action: he "softened" some of the worst provisions of this reform and,
eventually, he successfully sidelined some of the worst Atlantic Integrationists, including
Medvedev himself.
Sadly, some putatively pro-Russian websites, blogs and individuals showed their true face
when they jumped on the bandwagon of this 2nd strategic PSYOP campaign, probably with the hope
to either become more noticed, or get some funding, or both. Hence, all the nonsense about
Russia and Israel working together or Putin "selling out" we have seen so many times recently.
The worst thing here is that these websites, blogs and individuals have seriously misled and
distressed some of the best real friends of Russia in the West.
None of these guys ever address a very simple question: if Putin is such a sellout, and if
all is lost, why does the AngloZionist Empire hate Putin so much? In almost 1000 years of
warfare (spiritual, cultural, political, economic and military) against Russia, the leaders of
the West have always hated real Russian patriots and they have always loved the (alas, many)
traitors to Russia. And now, they hate Putin because he is such a terrible leader?
This makes absolutely no sense.
Conclusion: is a war inevitable now?
The US/NATO don't engage in strategic PYSOPs just because they like or dislike somebody. The
main purpose of such PSYOPs is to break the other side's will to resist . This was also
the main objective of both (phase one and phase two) anti-Putin PSYOPs. I am happy to report
that both phases of these PYSOPs failed. The danger here is that these failures have failed to
convince the leaders of the Empire of the need to urgently change course and accept the
"Russian reality", even if they don't like it.
Ever since "Biden" (the "collective Biden", of course, not the potted plant) Administration
(illegally) seized power, what we saw was a sharp escalation of anti-Russian statements. Hence,
the latest " uhu, he is a killer " -- this was no mistake by a senile mind, this was a
carefully prepared
declaration. Even worse, the Empire has not limited itself to just words, it also did some
important "body moves" to signal its determination to seek even further confrontation with
Russia:
There has been a lot of sabre-rattling coming from the West, mostly some rather
ill-advsied (or even outright stupid) military maneuvers near/along the Russian border. As I
have explained it a billion times, these maneuvers are self-defeating from a military point of
view (the closer to the Russian border, the more dangerous for the western military
force). Politically, however, they are extremely provocative and, therefore, dangerous. The
vast majority of Russian analysts do not believe that the US/NATO will openly attack Russia, if
only because that would be suicidal (the current military balance in Europe is strongly in
Russia's favor, even without using hypersonic weapons). What many of them now fear is that
"Biden" will unleash the Ukronazi forces against the Donbass, thereby "punishing" both the
Ukraine and Russia (the former for its role in the US presidential campaign). I tend to agree
with both of these statements.
At the end of the day, the AngloZionist Empire was always racist at its core, and that
empire is still racist : for its leaders, the Ukrainian people are just cannon fodder, an
irrelevant third rate nation with no agency which has outlived its utility (US analysts do
understand that the US plan for the Ukraine has ended in yet another spectacular faceplant such
delusional plans always end up with, even if they don't say so publicly). So why not launch
these people into a suicidal war against not only the LDNR but also Russia herself? Sure,
Russia will quickly and decisively win the military war, but politically it will be a PR
disaster for Russia as the "democratic West" will always blame Russia, even when she clearly
did not attack first (as was the case in 08.08.08, most recently).
I have already written about
the absolutely disastrous situation of the Ukraine three weeks ago so I won't repeat it
all here, I will just say that since that day things have gotten even much worse: suffice to
say that the Ukraine has moved a lot of heavy armor to the line of contact while the regime in
Kiev has now banned the import of Russian toilet paper (which tells you what the ruling gang
thinks of as important and much needed measures). While it is true that the Ukraine has become
a totally failed state since the Neo-Nazi coup, there is now a clear acceleration of the
collapse of not only the regime or state, but of the country as a whole. Ukraine is falling
apart so fast that one could start an entire website tracking only all this developing horror,
not day by day, but, hour by hour. Suffice to say that "Ze" has turned out to be even worse
than Poroshenko. The only thing Poroshenko did which "Ze" has not (yet!) is to start a war.
Other than that, the rest of what he did (by action or inaction) can only be qualified as "more
of the same, only worse".
Can a war be prevented?
I don't know. Putin gave the Ukronazis a very stern warning (" grave consequences for Ukraine's statehood as such ").
I don't believe for one second that anybody in power in Kiev gives a damn about the Ukraine or
the Ukrainian statehood, but they are smart enough to realize that a Russian counter-attack in
defense of the LDNR and, even more so, Crimea, might include precision "counter-leadership"
strikes with advanced missiles. The Ukronazi leaders would be well-advised to realize that they
all have a crosshair painted on their heads. They might also think about this: what happened to
every single Wahabi gang leader in Chechnya since the end of the 2nd Chechen war? (hint: they
were all found and executed). Will that be enough to stop them?
Maybe. Let's hope so.
But we must now keep in mind that for the foreseeable future there are only two options left
for the Ukraine: " a horrible ending or a horror without end " (Russian
expression).
The best scenario for the people of the Ukraine would be a (hopefully
relatively peaceful) breakup of the country
into manageable parts . The worst option would definitely be a full-scale war against
Russia.
Judging by the rhetoric coming out of Kiev these days, most Ukrainian politicians are firmly
behind option #2, especially since that is also the only option acceptable to their overseas
masters. The Ukrainians have also adopted a new military doctrine (they call it a "military
security strategy of Ukraine") which declares Russia the aggressor state and military adversary
of the Ukraine (see here for a machine translation of the official text).
This might be the reason why Merkel and Macron recently had a videoconference with Putin
("Ze" was not invited): Putin might be trying to convince Merkel and Macron that such a war
would be a disaster for Europe. In the meantime, Russia is rapidly reinforcing her forces along
the Ukrainian border, including in Crimea.
But all these measures can only deter a regime which has no agency. The outcome shall be
decided in Washington DC, not Kiev. I am afraid that the traditional sense of total impunity of
US political leaders will, once again, give them a sense of very little risk (for them
personally or for the USA) in triggering a war in the Ukraine. The latest news on the
US-Ukrainian front is the delivery by the USN of 350 tonnes of military equipment in Odessa.
Not enough to be militarily significant, but more than enough to further egg on the regime in
Kiev to an attack on the Donbass and/or Crimea.
In fact, I would not even put it past "Biden" to launch an attack on Iran while the world
watches the Ukraine and Russia go to war. After all, the other country whose geostrategic
position has been severely degraded since Russia moved her forces to Syria is Israel, the one
country which all US politicians will serve faithfully and irrespective of any costs (including
human costs for the USA). The Israelis have been demanding a war on Iran since at least 2007,
and it would be very naive to hope that they won't eventually get their way. Last, but not
least, there is the crisis which Blinken's condescending chutzpah triggered with China which,
so far, has resulted in an economic war only, but which might also escalate at any moment,
especially considering all the many recent anti-Chinese provocations by the US Navy.
Right now the weather in the eastern Ukraine is not conducive to offensive military
operations. The snow is still melting, creating very difficult and muddy road conditions
(called " rasputitsa " in Russian) which greatly inhibit the movement of forces and
troops. These conditions will, however, change with the warmer season coming, at which point
the Ukronazi forces will be ideally poised for an attack.
In other words, barring some major development, we might be only weeks away from a major
war.
We must not forget President Putin's outrageous opinion piece in the New York Times of
September 11th 2013: delivered at the same time as he had the impertinence to propose
the voluntary relinquishment of all chemical weapons by Syria -- thwarting the traditional
wholesale bombing campaign that the "Allies" were working up to. This was an unforgivable
affront to the USA -- and to Obama in particular; who had only just invoked his "red line".
It made him look ridiculous -- and a man in his position can't afford to look ridiculous.
This behaviour by Mr. Putin has never been forgotten or forgiven and it will be quite a
while before the New York Times prints another oped by him.
Russia was "back": in 2013 Russia stopped the planned US/NATO attack on Syria (the
pretext here was Syrian chemical weapons). In 2014 Russia gave her support to the
Novorussian uprising against the Ukronazi regime in Kiev and, in the same year, Russia also
used her military to make it possible for the local population to vote on a referendum to
join Russia. Finally, in 2015, Russia stunned the West with an extremely effective military
intervention in Syria.
Don't forget what Russia did the Georgia's American trained and supplied military in
2009.
This was an unforgivable affront to the USA -- and to Obama in particular; who had only
just invoked his "red line". It made him look ridiculous -- and a man in his position can't
afford to look ridiculous.
Excellent observation.
To deal with contemporary western elites is, to a great extent, to deal with Satan
himself. The devil- and presumably, his minions- does not mind confrontation or opposition
anywhere as much as he hates being the object of derision.
"The devil the prowde spirite cannot endure to be mocked." -- St. Thomas More
"why does the AngloZionist Empire hate Putin so much?"
I have an explanation, but that would tend to get me labelled a "sixth columnist".
It is obvious to anyone who does not believe that Putin is the Saviour Of Russia, but just
a neoliberal politician who is moderately better than Yeltsin, and whose real alternatives,
not Quislings like Navalny but real alternatives, are all far more nationalist and not
beholden to international capital than he is. Since the 90s are now over, and the attempt to
destroy Russia has failed, how does one ensure that the country does not become even stronger
and, crucially, more assertive?
One possible answer is interesting: keep demonising the man in power, *even though you
know that demonising him hardens support behind him*. Especially since it hardens support
behind him. As long as you keep attacking him, the Russian people support him more, making it
less likely for someone who would be more nationalist and less neoliberal to take charge.
I've come to think that the whole "Putin the Devil" thing is pushed so hard by the
corporate-communist-left (aside: I do struggle these days with what to call them) mostly as a
distraction. "Hey! Look over there! A BAD MAN!" (and pay no mind to what I'm doing over here,
flooding the country with replacements, thrashing the constitution, coming up with vaccine
passports and enabling a totalitarian technocracy).
In fact, it's a necessary hallmark of ALL totalitarian leftist regimes to have a huge
"outside enemy" who threatens the very existence of the state and is used to distract from
domestic troubles. Try to find a single totalitarian state without one.
So the U.S. has everything to gain and little to lose (Biden gov thinks anyways) by
goading Ukraine into "taking back Crimea." The U.S. is committed to fight that war down the
very last Ukrainian.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced this week that the country's National
Security and Defense Council had approved a strategy that is aimed at retaking Crimea and
reintegrating the strategically important peninsula.
Christopher Caldwell delivered what I thought was a good assessment of Putin in 2017, and
this excellent piece by The Saker complements and updates it for me. I think Putin is even
more reviled than ever by the U.S. Dems, because Putin = a national-sovereignty proponent =
Trump.
I play online chess -- speedy games, and so I have a lot of experience with players from
Russia and Ukraine. They tend to favor what chess players call "quiet moves." Is this a
manner of thought, a philosophy, that can be extrapolated to government? (U.S. players, by
contrast, tend to be more impetuous and impulsive in their chess style.)
The "Russia question" appears to have surfaced in response to a March 16 US
intelligence
community assessment
that "Russian President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted,
influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden's candidacy, and the Democratic Party."
The 15-page public document is fluff. We heard it all before in December 2020, when fifty former intelligence officials
denounced news reports of Hunter Biden's corrupt ties to Ukrainian oligarchs as Russian disinformation.
The
New
York Post
claimed to have gotten hold of a laptop with smoking-gun emails to and from Biden's son. The voters never were
allowed to consider the evidence, because the rest of the media suppressed the report and Twitter blocked reposting of the
Post
expose.
In a December 4 column, I called this the "
Treason
of the spooks
."
By way of tying up loose ends, the intelligence community has now delivered an "assessment" claiming that "a key element of
Moscow's strategy was its use of people linked to Russian intelligence to launder influence narratives -- including misleading or
unsubstantiated allegations against President Biden -- through US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US
individuals, some of whom were close to former President Trump and his administration."
Those are weasel words. The Post published the text of Hunter Biden emails that, strictly speaking, were "unsubstantiated" to
the extent that the geek squad had not proven their provenance and the younger Biden hadn't owned up to their authenticity.
But that does not prove they were false, much less justify employing extraordinary means to suppress the reports.
Source:
New York Post
Apart from Biden's ABC interview, the nomination of Victoria Nuland as undersecretary of state for political affairs has sent
an unmistakable signal to Moscow and, more importantly, to America's European allies.
In early 2014 Nuland was taped on a cell phone call with America's ambassador to the Ukraine ordering the composition of the
next Ukrainian government after the Maidan coup, in the tone of a colonial viceroy.
Told that there might be
some difficulties, Nuland explained that the UN was being enlisted in support and said, "That would be great, I think, and
help glue this thing." She added, "And, you know,
fuck
the EU."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the time denounced the remark as "unacceptable." That sort of faux pas
normally would rate being assigned a diplomatic mission to the South Pole, but such is Washington's ideological fervor that
Nuland survived and resurfaced.
Nuland is a neoconservative, a former deputy national security adviser to then-vice president Dick Cheney, as well as the
spouse of Robert Kagan, one of the most persistent advocates of global transformation via the projection of American power.
You really don't know what the hell is going on, do you! Putin is the moderating force in
Russia, keeping the hardliners at bay. Once he is gone, people who aren't going to take any
more **** from the US and its allies will be coming to power. Then we will see people like
you piss in their pants worrying how to save themselves from Russia's fury.
Maltheus 1 hour ago
Putin is an old guy. I fear that his replacement won't have the same patience and wisdom.
Or maybe I'm eagerly looking forward to it. Either way, it doesn't take much for things to
get out of hand rather quickly.
European Monarchist 1 hour ago (Edited) remove link
President Putin is likely the healthiest leader Russia has ever had.
He is also 68, a full decade younger than Joe Biden.
I think he will be around for a while.
Vladimir Putin's hard-core daily routine includes hours of swimming, late nights, and no
alcohol
Take a look at a day in the life of Vladimir Putin:
Putin rises late in the morning, taking breakfast around noon. He usually tucks into a
large omelette or a big bowl of porridge, with some quail eggs and fruit juice on the side.
Newsweek reports that the ingredients are "dispatched regularly from the farmland estates
of the Patriarch Kirill, Russia's religious leader."
Once he's finished his meal, he drinks coffee.
Next, it's time to exercise. Newseek reported that Putin spends about two hours
swimming. While he's in the water, Putin often "gets much of Russia's thinking done," Judah
writes.
After he's done swimming laps, Putin lifts weights in the gym.
re Navalny: the Charite Hospital reports on his health confirmed what doctors in Omsk had
discovered and b, indeed, had reported here: the man suffers from very serious health
problems. It is a measure of the cynicism of the imperialist secret police that they have
choreographed this soap opera to end up in Navalny's death in a Russian prison. Another
Magnitsky for the Canadian House of Commons to fawn over as it licks Washington's ar
boots.
"... "Concern" about Libya in 2011 and Syria since 2011 to the present. So many "concerns" keep popping up about places that empire does not fully control. ..."
"... For some odd reason, this empire has no concern for the largest ethnic groups in its empire. It 24/7 calls them "deplorables" or "racists". The empire should look in the mirror at itself. ..."
"Concern" about Libya in 2011 and Syria since 2011 to the present. So many "concerns" keep popping up about places that empire
does not fully control.
For some odd reason, this empire has no concern for the largest ethnic groups in its empire. It 24/7 calls
them "deplorables" or "racists". The empire should look in the mirror at itself.
US "intelligence" i.e the people who leak made up BS via anonymous sources to their media
mouthpieces
sbin 2 hours ago
Funny
I can not think of anything intelligent they have ever done.
If a list was drawn up of all the threats to Americans the MIC and Intelligence agencies
would be at the top.
joethegorilla 2 hours ago (Edited)
The US Intelligence used to be under the military chain of command. Dulles talked
Eisenhower into letting him start the CIA as a civilian agency. Everyone warned this domestic
political meddling would happen and guess what? They did it anyway. Spying on Americans is a
feature, not a bug.
"The strategic stealth bomber will be able to deliver conventional and thermonuclear
weapons to enemy targets anywhere and anytime in the world. It will be able to destroy any
target, anywhere".
Once it gets there, anyway – which at presumably subsonic speed may take a long,
long time.
So basically this will cost a huge amount of money to do what ICBMs have been able to do
for 60 years, and what Burevestnik can do with a lot more flexibility and stealth.
"Afghanistan is a great base from which to invade Central Asia and threaten Russia from
the south. The country has been occupied by the US for 20 years "
If Russia, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Iran got together and supported the Taliban,
they could get the Americans out of Afghanistan double quick.
I am slightly puzzled that they haven't done so long ago.
Unless they prefer to keep the Americans tied up and bleeding in Central Asia. Keep your
enemies closer, etc.
This uncomfortable thought came to me while listening to Joe Biden talking about "soulless
killer" Vladimir Putin. Smaller insults have sparked off wars. The "Footless, yellow
earth-worm" slur moved Kaa the Rock Python to devour Bandar Log. Luckily, easy-going Putin
replied with a smile. He said that in his
childhood, kids responded with "I am rubber, you are glue; bounces off me and sticks to you";
he only wished good health for the American president and proposed to debate him online, so
that Americans and Russians, as well as the whole world, could form their own opinion. Biden
evaded the challenge. It's not clear he remembered who Putin is. An empty suit with a
teleprompter, called him Donald Trump Jr . Biden
said Putin meddled in the US elections and he will pay a price for it. Alas, Putin couldn't
influence the US dead, and they swung the elections as they voted for Biden by whole
cemeteries. Yes, Biden is a senile dummy that couldn't even board Air Force One without
stumbling thrice
the next day, but there is somebody who operates the teleprompter, and that is the problem.
The Russians were visibly furious. When US leaders drop such invective, it's like pirates
passing a 'black spot' in Treasure Island .
It's a signal that the foreign leader has to be deposed or killed outright. That's how they
spoke of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gadhafi; both were killed and their 'rogue states'
devastated. It was clearly a show of hostile intentions, not just from Biden but also from the
US establishment speaking like ventriloquist through the current White House tenant.
Afghanistan is a great base from which to invade Central Asia and threaten Russia from the
south. The country has been occupied by the US for 20 years, and Trump was determined to pull
out the troops. Biden has already hinted that the US will renege on its agreement with the
Taliban to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The withdrawal was supposed to be completed by
May 2021; it will be "tough" for the United States to withdraw forces from Afghanistan in six
weeks, he said. Biden has also scrapped Trump's plan to withdraw forces from Germany, and with
good reason. His administration wants Germans to drop the Nord Stream II project, and it is
easier to convince a country if you have forty military bases there.
Fighting against Iran never stopped. When the US isn't doing it her best friend Israel is
acting. It has emerged that during the last two years, Israeli frogmen sabotaged 12 Iranian
tankers, reported the Wall
Street Journal . But it all backfired. On February 16, the entire Mediterranean coast of
Israel was covered with sticky black mess.
... ... ...
The blow to Israel was terrible – animals, plants and fish died; for a long time it
will be impossible to swim and sunbathe on the oily shores. Only now the sad truth has begun to
leak out: 'the worst pollution of the century' had been done by Israelis. The first to speak
about the source of the pollution was Israeli Minister of the Environment Gila Gamliel. She
said the oil was released by the Iranian tanker Emerald carrying a cargo of
US-sanctioned oil products to Syria. This is Iranian eco-terrorism, she said. But Gila was
quickly gagged – the Israeli military censorship forbade discussion of this topic, except
in the most general terms. It appears Gila Gamliel was right – up to a point. The Israeli
dissident
Richard Silverstein wrote about it:
It was a deliberate attack by Israel on the Iranian vessel. Israel's naval commando unit,
Flotilla 13 covertly attached a mine to the Emerald . The intent was to cause minor
damage that would send a message to Iran that its own attacks on Gulf shipping would bring a
cost. This Times of London
report written by Haaretz columnist Anshel Pfeiffer confirms my source. However, the
commandos didn't realize that the Emerald was a rusty old hulk in desperately
ill-repair. The Israeli mine, which was supposed to cause minor damage, actually ripped a
hole so big that much of the contents of the ship's hold leaked into the Mediterranean. This
is what caused the Israeli environmental disaster: Israel itself.
Biden voted for Gulf War Two. Why? Because as he admits, he is a Zionist. Zionists are
traitors, terrorists and murderers. Yet Biden the terrorist accuses Putin of being a
killer?
The illusion of a US president having any actual authority is pretty much being dispelled by
this ventriloquist's dummy Biden signing whatever is placed in front of him and parroting
whatever is on the teleprompter. A stupid egotist his entire life, his mental decline isn't as
apparent as it might be quite yet because he's been carefully stage managed so far. They're
being extremely careful not to let the cat out of the bag in letting people get a glimpse of
what he's really like. And it's downhill from here.
The virus hysteria has been a test case lab in assessing what works, what doesn't, how to
improve on herding and suppressing the population, etc. Insofar as dead foreign leaders goes,
who really knows?
When tens of millions of dollars are available lots of people in some leader's circle might
be tempted to expose the target to some form of poisoning or lethal radiation. Hugo Chavez
expressed suspicion at how he and other leaders opposed to US diktat seemed to come down with
cancer.
The US itself has claimed some of it's diplomats were possibly targeted by mystery rays in
Cuba so the idea of something like this is not far-fetched; it's just a case of projection,
accusing others of what one is guilty of.
LOL, you don't know how many times, since his campaign and now as (fake) POTUS that Biden
has reminded me of Chauncey Gardiner. It's the perfect comparison.
(But, Jobotomy Xiden will be gone soon and then the bi-racial, sociopathic Hillary 2.0 will
be inaugurated. Excuse me while I go hurl.)
Think of the hysteria and histrionic nation wide wailing and teeth gnashing over Trump
calling it "the China virus" and the dead silence when Biden calls Putin:
A soulless killer. .
I wish Putin would take revenge and pull a Soleimani on Biden & Co. but perhaps he
laughs & chalks it up to the senile, demented ramblings of a clown.
Is this more theater?
To add to the insanity, the embrace and total absolution of the pathological liar, war
criminal and mass torturer and murderer, George W. Bush leaves me .stunned:
Bush on Putin, 2001:
"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We
had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul ; a man deeply
committed to his country and the best interests of his country."
Biden is a sociopath, one of limited intelligence. But a sociopath nevertheless.
If he is instructed by his controllers to initiate a nuclear war, he will do so
unhesitatingly.
I would not be surprised if both Joe and Hunter were somehow benefiting from drug traffic
across the border. Actually, I expect that is largely what is behind Biden's open border
policy.
It's impossible for normal people to understand sociopathic behavior. The American political
class has been selected for sociopathy now for generations.
"Americans should write a letter of apology to Putin, apologizing for our rude and senile
leader (and the degenerate lunatics that surround him) and ask for President Putin's
understanding and patience. "
Not a bad idea at all. I would formulate some things differently though, the idea is that
the letter should also circulate, so mind the crude tone, show that even Americans can be
tactful gentle-man. Even that would impress the whole world.
Thanatopia's attacks on Putin differ vastly from its deranged Sinophobia. Thanatopians want
Putin gone, replaced by a New Yeltsin, and Russia vivisected for further pillage. But they
don't want Russians dead, because this 'Free Russia' will be needed for the Great Purpose-the
destruction of China.
The truly Evil campaign to entirely falsely accuse China of genocide in Xinjiang, is a call
not just to war, but to genocide. A China devastated would still rise again, even if the USA
and its villainous stooges succeed in breaking it up, again, as was nearly achieved in the 19th
and 20th centuries.
The USA and the Western vassals promote, train and finance separatists in Xinjiang, Tibet,
'South' Mongolia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, even 'Manchuria'. Such civil discord would cause millions
of deaths, but it gets worse.
The Imperial hatemongers never cease to vilify the CCP. The 'New Nazis', 'It is 1939 again,
and 'appeasement' is treason', human organ harvesters etc. All lies, all the crudest
projection. But the CCP is 100 million strong, and the Chinese CCP Government enjoys 95%
satisfied or highly satisfied rating from the populace, according to the latest Harvard poll.
So the entire population is complicit, 'Xi's willing executioners' etc, and must be punished.
SARS CoV2 was obviously meant to kill millions of Chinese and devastate the economy, but the
'blowback' has been cosmic retribution, and that has only made the Western genocidists even
more enraged.
The Western oligarchy does not do mass high kultur. Kultur is a commodity and a venue for
narcissistic display and mass kultur is base, exploitative and mind-destroying, keeping the
plebs permanently obtunded, morally, intellectually and spiritually. 'Feed 'em muck' as Nellie
Melba recommended.
Worldometer/coronavirus today: Tanzania population >60 million; CV19 cases <600. Dear
Scott, that cannot be correct! (If all the brainwashing serves me right.)
RIP President Magufuli, the man who busted WHO with their fraud -- or scientific
incompetence. Ha. This story could have been the lead paragraph, and no stone should be left
unturned to find out if Magufuli was murdered. This especially includes death by a deadly viral
infection, ala Operation Zyphr ?
Minor correction: Biden does not represent the American people. Those who think they support
him are unaware of their Stockholm syndrome.
Now, let's arrest our schadenfreude about Israel's acts of sabotage spoiling their own
coastline. Our fragile seas are too precious for that sort of vindictive spirit. Nevertheless,
it is okay be encouraged about this colossal blunder, because it proves the controllers are
really not in control at all. And they damn well know it.
Finally, forget not Shere Khan totally trumps Kaa. But as fate would have it even he loses
in the end.
Unless neocons are insane, I don't think that they want to start a war with Russia and much
less China. The U.S. can't even win a war against goat herders with homemade explosives. The
U.S. military is more concerned about having black transgender soldiers than about being
efficient.
Also, China practically owns the U.S. and Canada at this point.
This is probably just another distraction to keep people from noticing that they are
(again!) being fleeced and raped.
It now appears the Russians and Chinese are using our woke BS against us like a deflector
shield.
Putin's speech of the US projecting its own psychology on others, mentioning BLM and racism
plus the Chinese mentioning the US "persecution of blacks".
They inflict this woke shit on us but didn't realize it could also be used by their
enemies.
Ultimate blow back for the dumb fuckers in Washington. Totally hilarious.
Of course semi-demented Biden was lured into this provocation by neocon Stephanopoulos. This
evil gnome with connections to Epstein. That was an easy trap to avoid, but he got into it with
both legs.
Comments to the article are interesting. Fro example H. Trsgget display the same level of Neo-McCarthyism as
Biden has. Of course, ABC has specific audience and commenters but still...
Asked what he would tell Biden in response to his remarks, Putin said: "I would tell him:
'Be well.' I wish him health, and I say that without any irony or joking."
He noted that Russia would still cooperate with the United States where and when it
supports Moscow's interests, adding that "a lot of honest and decent people in the U.S. want
to have peace and friendship with Russia."
"I know that the U.S. and its leadership is generally inclined to have certain
relations with us, but only on issues that are of interest to the U.S. and on its
conditions," Putin said. "But we know how to defend our own interests, and we will work with
them only in the areas we are interested in and on conditions we see as beneficial to
ourselves. And they will have to reckon with it."
Speaking in separate comments later Thursday, Putin said he would ask the Foreign Ministry
to arrange a call with Biden in the next few days to discuss the coronavirus pandemic,
regional conflicts and other issues.
"We must continue our relations," he noted. "Last time, President Biden initiated a call
and now I would like to offer President Biden to continue our discussions. It would be in the
interest of both the Russian and U.S. people and other countries, bearing in mind that we
bear a special responsibility for global security as the largest nuclear powers."
Other Russian officials and lawmakers were less diplomatic.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia's Security Council who served as president in
2008-2012 when Putin had to shift into the premier's job because of term limits, said that
"time hasn't spared" the 78-year-old Biden and cited Sigmund Freud as saying, "Nothing costs
so much in life as illness and stupidity."
And Andrei Turchak, the leader of the main pro-Kremlin United Russia party, described
Biden's remarks as a reflection of "the U.S. political marasmus and its leader's
dementia."
Old neocon still is dreaming about imperial greatness and full spectrum Dominance, when the
country is significantly and irreversibly crippled by neoliberalism and its accumulation by
dispossession which eliminated a large swats of well paid workers and professionals. It is now
the country where the Congress is now hiding from people behind barbed wall.
It is difficult to teach old dog new tricks. Intimidation of the opponent replaced diplomacy.
Semi-Dementia mixed with arrogance in action. "White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden
would continue to look to cooperate on efforts to stem Iran's nuclear program and, more broadly,
nuclear nonproliferation. But she said Biden did not regret referring to Putin as a killer and
pushed back against suggestions that the rhetoric was unhelpful."
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Director of National Intelligence came out with a report today saying
that Vladimir Putin authorized operations during the election to under -- denigrate you,
support President Trump, undermine our elections, divide our society. What price must he
pay?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: He will pay a price. I, we had a long talk, he and I, when we -- I know
him relatively well. And I-- the conversation started off, I said, "I know you and you know me.
If I establish this occurred, then be prepared."
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You said you know he doesn't have a soul.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I did say that to him, yes. And -- and his response was, "We understand
one another." It was-- I wasn't being a wise guy. I was alone with him in his office. And that
-- that's how it came about. It was when President Bush had said, "I looked in his eyes and saw
his soul."
I said, "Looked in your eyes and I don't think you have a soul." And looked back and he
said, "We understand each other." Look, most important thing dealing with foreign leaders in my
experience, and I've dealt with an awful lot of 'em over my career, is just know the other guy.
Don't expect somethin' that you're-- that -- don't expect him to-- or her to-- voluntarily
appear in the second editions of Profiles in Courage.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So you know Vladimir Putin. You think he's a killer?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Uh-huh. I do.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So what price must he pay?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The price he's gonna pay we'll-- you'll see shortly. I'm not gonna--
there's-- by the way, we oughta be able that ol' -- that trite expression "walk and chew gum at
the same time," there're places where it's in our mutual interest to work together.
That's why I renewed the start agreement with him. That occurred while he's doin' this. But
that's overwhelmingly in the interest of humanity, that we diminish the prospect of a nuclear
exchange. But that and SolarWinds as well. He's been -- they've done some mischievous things,
to say the least. And so we're gonna have -- I'm not gonna announce what I'm doing, but he's
gonna understand that --
Vladimir Putin issues new 'kill list' - and six of the targets live in Britain
EXCLUSIVE: The warning of a deadly post-pandemic campaign comes from same spy who alerted
that Salisbury novichok victim Sergei Skripal was earmarked for assassination
That's a lovely little compilation about Putin and his family, thanks.
The narrative says that Putin's mother survived the siege of Leningrad, but it doesn't go
into the details. You can get the story from one of the several Russian documentaries about
Putin - I forget which one but I could dig for it if pressed.
Putin's father came back from the front, wounded and on crutches. He showed up just as
medics were taking his wife out to whatever transport they were using to clean up the dead
bodies - she was practically dead, and the witness to this says she was "washed up". Putin's
father fought the medics away with his crutches and took his wife back into their home, and
nursed her back to life.
Thus runs the story, and this is the woman who later gave birth to Putin, already with two
brothers dead that he never knew. It sounds exaggerated when I write out the story like that,
but I never disbelieved it when I heard it, and I still don't.
So this is the depth of the man who heads the Russian Federation. Personally touched by
war, personally grieving for the losses of Russia, personally committed to the safety of
civilians and to minimal death in general.
~~
While I'm on the subject, two other stories occur to me. One was when he first took
command of Russia and addressed the war in the Caucasus - his famous episode with his
military commanders in the tent, when he said they would not drink to success until they had
achieved it (I paraphrase), and put his glass down untouched. To drink prematurely, he said,
would be to dishonor all those who had already died in this war. First, to stop the
dying.
But the story I wanted to say about that was that he also forcefully told his generals to
be very careful how they conducted operations: they were entering places where civilians
lived - old people, those who had fought in the Great Patriotic War, those to whom everyone
present owed their lives. He was very serious about taking great care not to harm those most
honorable people.
The second story is when the Berlin Wall went down, and crowds surged to invade the Stasi
building, ripping its secrets into the open. They also came to the KGB building. The chief of
that bureau fled, leaving by the back way. That left Putin as next in command. He went down
to address the crowd. He stood in front of them and they asked who he was and he lied and
said that he was "the interpreter". He said that this building was the property of the USSR.
In his gun he had twelve bullets, he said, eleven for those whom he faced and the last for
himself. The crowd understood that this building was not East Germany but the Soviet Union,
and that this officer would defend it with his life. Whatever they thought, they turned away
and left the building unmolested.
~~
I'm impressed with the character and caliber of this human being called Putin, for good
reasons, I find. There's a heroic scale to him that comes from Russia itself and the
experiences that Putin was born into and from. And yet he personally is a naturally modest
man. He bears that heroic dimension of scale with the grace that comes from ordinariness. He
loves ordinary people. He renews his own mental health from being in their company. The
security state of Russia chose the best person it could find, in a last-ditch attempt to save
their country. It worked.
[D]ifficult, dramatic, and bloody events abound in the history of every nation and every
state. But when we evaluate other people, or even other states and nations, we are always
facing a mirror, we always see ourselves in the reflection, because we project our inner
selves onto the other person.
You know, I remember when we were children and played in the yard, we had arguments
occasionally and we used to say: whatever you call me is what you are called yourself.
This is no coincidence or just a kids' saying or joke. It has a very deep psychological
undercurrent. We always see ourselves in another person and think that he or she is just
like us, and evaluate the other person's actions based on our own outlook on life.
There is an additional passage of interest which sets out rules for future talks that I
have not seen reported in 'western' media:
I know that the United States and its leaders are determined to maintain certain
relations with us, but on matters that are of interest to the United States and on its
terms. Even though they believe we are just like them, we are different. We have a
different genetic, cultural and moral code. But we know how to uphold our interests. We
will work with the United States, but in the areas that we are interested in and on terms
that we believe are beneficial to us. They will have to reckon with it despite their
attempts to stop our development, despite the sanctions and insults. They will have to
reckon with this.
We, with our national interests in mind, will promote our relations with all
countries, including the United States.
The 'takes one to know one' quote is not a direct quote from Putin, it is a claim by
Biden.
Here is the Daily Beast's take on it. (Yeah, I know it's a ridiculous source, but it
was the first source I found that correctly attributed that quote to Biden.)
Biden recalled: "We had a long talk, he and I, when we... I know him relatively well. And
the conversation started off, I said, 'I know you and you know me. If I establish this
occurred, then be prepared.'"
The president also confirmed that, some years ago, he was alone with Putin in his
office and he brought up the topic of Putin's lack of a human soul. "I said, 'I looked in
your eyes and I don't think you have a soul,' and he looked back and said, 'We understand
each other.' The most important thing of dealing with foreign leaders... is just know the
other guy."
The Guardian's translation of "it takes one to know one," which has been amplified by
western media and social media, is absolutely incorrect. It implies that Putin is
admitting that he is a 'killer,' which he absolutely does not do. Anybody that has a
working knowledge of Russian will be able to translate the saying that Putin uses to mean
that he is suggesting that Biden is projecting. In fact, Putin provides context for this
statement by referring to US History.
I say bullshit. "It takes one to know one" - suggests some equivalence for the two
people. That meaning is not in Kremlin transcript of Putin's words. Putin is saying "you
are projecting (your own problem)".
I understand that this is just semantics, but something as widespread as this has become
in western media can have a big impact on perception of lazy westerners if the
interpretation is incorrect. This should be obvious, regardless of the supposed "elegance"
of the phrase.
"Takes one to know one" does not imply projection, it rather implies hypocrisy. Putin is
not accusing Biden of hypocrisy, he is accusing Biden of projection. "Takes one to know
one" gives a western audience the suggestion that Putin qualifies an admission of being a
killer with an accusation that Biden is also a killer. Putin, in fact, does not do
this. He only suggests that Biden is projecting and only projecting.
Minister Lavrov today confirmed Putin's words,
saying " [We] will be ready to cooperate only in those areas that are of interest to
us, and only on terms that are beneficial to us ".
In my opinion, the Chinese representatives gave a good answer to the American side,
although this answer will obviously not be heard.
The Americans have completely lost the culture of negotiation. If there are no elementary
human manners, then what kind of agreements can we talk about?
A sad picture. And dangerous. A madman with nuclear weapons (and chemical weapons, by the
way) is not the best option for a reliable negotiating partner.
"In a desperate bid to thwart the strategic partnership between Russia and Europe,
Washington is resorting to ever-more frantic threats of sanctions and other disruptive
measures. Biden is playing the personal insult card in a gambit for blowing up bilateral
relations with Russia as a way to sabotage Nord Stream 2.
"It's a pathetic move, one that actually speaks more of America's historic enfeeblement
rather than pretensions of power. Russia would do well to stay calm and let the Americans
make fools of themselves."
It seems Russia's doing just that--attending to the vital business of developing its
nation and peoples. Russia's geared for numerous patriotic celebrations throughout the
year, and Biden's comments were made on the eve of Crimean reunification with Russia, which
only served to cement Russians closer and hold Putin in even greater esteem. Talk about an
Own Goal!
Outlaw US Empire Nord Stream policy is close to being the same as literally torpedoing
it, making it an act of war against the EU and Russia. Somehow, I don't think Blinken
understands that fundamental fact.
"I know that the United States and its leaders are determined to maintain certain
relations with us, but on matters that are of interest to the United States and on its
terms. Even though they believe we are just like them, we are different. We have a
different genetic, cultural and moral code. But we know how to uphold our interests. We
will work with the United States, but in the areas that we are interested in and on terms
that we believe are beneficial to us. They will have to reckon with it despite their
attempts to stop our development, despite the sanctions and insults. They will have to
reckon with this."
This statement is a positive, that is the mark of a government that adheres to real
values, beneficial to the growth of humanity, and not just for the enrichment of a greedy
minority of it's citizens.
The most peculiar aspect of Biden's outburst is its timing.
If there was one moment in time when it would be ill advised for even the most brass
necked, cynical American exceptionalist not to restrain himself from accusing anyone of
murder, it would have to be that moment in which the bulkiest object in the "Out" tray on
the Presidential desk happened to be a crude coffin like box containing the butchered
remains of the Washington Post journalist and long established CIA asset Adnan
Khashoggi.
Now there was the victim of a killer, the Crown Prince, acting with the permission of
the US government and in the spirit of the Deep State which put Joe Biden in office.
Joe was perhaps thinking of Khashoggi-a beltway denizen he must have run into in one of
the cocktail parties or brothels on the circuit- when he murmured admiringly, to himself,
blissfully unaware of the presence of George Stephanopolous- one of the grande horizontales
of American culture- and the TV camera, "That guy, whatsisname, the one from whatsitcalled,
Russia, is a killer."
Putin fell into a trap. He should have not said a damn thing after Biden spouted off
about him being a killer. The western MSM on both sides of the Pond are now running with
the incorrect translation and narrative that Putin admitted to being a killer. The western
MSM is now also claiming that Putin's wishing Biden good health means he's threatening to
poison him.
Putin should have heeded Mark Twain's wise words:
"Don't wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it."
The western media was captured many years ago and serves only its propaganda business
model.
America is number one instigator and developer of conflict across the entire planet and is
increasingly unworthy of anyones trust or respect.
The US media has degenerated into a slave to the propaganda business model that it has
chosen to adopt.
The US is the Number One instigator and manipulator of conflict across the planet and is
unworthy of anyones trust or respect. The American way defines all that is devious and
corrupt.
None of this is new. There was some disruption for a few years recently, but now that all
obstacles are permanently neutered the destruction of the future for personal gain can get
back into top gear once again.
@Boogity | Mar 20 2021 19:42 utc | 141, and others Barflies...
Putin don't wrestle with the pig.
1) as b., and thanks for his Job, all of us must go to the original and extensive
version. MSM and chats are narrative tools reducing and calibrating our souls.
2) with regards to China and Russia stay tune about context
3) be careful about "translation".
To Biden as an old man, Putin just wish him Good health.
"I would say "stay healthy." [... ] I am saying this without irony or tongue in
cheek."
But "secondly, taking a broader approach to this matter" "to the US establishment, the ruling class – not the American people who are
mostly honest, decent and sincere people who want to live in peace and friendship with
us", he said something like [you are not qualified to speak to Russia from a position
of strength]
their mindset [of US ruling class] was formed in rather challenging circumstances which
we are all aware of. After all, the colonisation of the American continent by the
Europeans went hand-in-hand with the extermination of the local people, the genocide, as
they say today, outright genocide of the Indian tribes followed by a very tough, long
and difficult period of slavery , a very cruel period. All of that has been part of
life in America throughout the history of the United States to this day. Otherwise,
where would the Black Lives Matter movement come from? To this day, African Americans
face injustice and even extermination.
The ruling class of the United States tends to address domestic and foreign policy
issues based on these assumptions. After all, the United States is the only country to
have used nuclear weapons , mind you, against a non-nuclear state – Japan, in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WW II. There was absolutely no military need for the
bombing. It was nothing but the extermination of civilians.
I am bringing this up, because I know that the United States and its leaders are
determined to maintain certain relations with us, but on matters that are of interest to
the United States and on its terms. Even though they believe we are just like them, we
are different. We have a different genetic, cultural and moral code. But we know how to
uphold our interets .
[...]
despite their attempts to stop our development, despite the sanctions and insults. They
will have to reckon with this.
We, with our national interests in mind, will promote our relations with all
countries"
And he said that on March 18th, 7th anniversary of Crimea reuniting to Russia.
Yang Jiechi stated China's position at his opening remarks, saying China hopes this
dialogue is sincere and honest.
Opening remarks were for 8mn (4x2mn),
But after Yang Jiechi spoke Blinken broke protocole agrement, recall journalists in order
to show is strength. They came to 90mn press conference.
Strength was on chinese side:
"we thought the US would follow the necessary diplomatic protocol In front of the Chinese
side, the US side is not qualified to speak to China from a position of
strength"
"the US must focus on its own human rights issues -- like the Black Lives Matter
movement -- and not meddle in the country's internal affairs "
Putin's elaboration of the history and founding culture of the USA was brilliantly well
done, I thought. As an academic lesson it could hardly be more concise, nor more
penetrating and accurate.
He was speaking to his home constituency of Russia, but he was well aware that the whole
world would listen. The so-called Global South listens to these words for the same reason
we do, to know what has now been said out loud and thus can now be referenced in future
discussions and in future geopolitical positions and stances.
In this sense, all of these words, and words like them, are strength to the backbone of
the world. It clarifies what Russia is now prepared to say out loud, and it suggests very
clearly where a lesser nation might stand, perhaps, and even solicit the support of Russia
- at the UN or in diplomacy at least, if not with S-400s.
And so as these words are sent out into the real world as things that can now be
"noticed", to use the judicial sense of the word, the growing world alliance coheres around
these words, and the world changes in its global attitude.
Those who believe that none of this matters - and this would obviously include the
ruling class of the US, described so perfectly by Putin - are in for a shock.
I can't easily demonstrate how greatly these words matter, other than to remind us how
things used to look half a dozen years ago, when the US was such an ogre, and how things
look now, when the US is more literally a dotard than ever before, and when the fear of
challenging the US is beginning to disappear from the world, overcome by disgust.
These are dangerous times - for the US. Being described accurately is a small step from
being in someone's cross-hairs.
Just a theory, but maybe all of our newsrags' belligerent headlines aimed at China are a
necessary diversion to conjure enough faux-enmity to make it appear that our government is at
least making the attempt at stopping China from eating our economic lunch.
I'm sorry, but once again the thought that a dem admin, which is primarily funded by those
who prosper from our "relationship" with China ( here is
an oldie from 1996 re: China covertly funding the Dem Party) would bite the hand that feeds
is a little farfetched.
Occam's Razor holds that some type of token effort (lame headlines from lame sources
hardly any American reads and military maneuvers in the S. China Sea) is still needed to keep
the plebs from realizing how hitched at the hip Chinese and American elites realky are.
Take it from an American, b: it is far more the case for urban libs to froth at the mouth
at the mention of Russia then a deplorable to advocate going to war with China. Deplorables
are nationalist: revitalizing our domestic manufacturing would more butter our bread while
dems are internationalists, chomping at the bit for a round with Russia. We are more
Russophobic then than Sinophobic.
17 March Russia withdraws it's US Ambassador for consultations:
"Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov has been summoned to Moscow
for consultations in order to analyse what needs to be done in the context of relations
with the United States.
The new US administration took office about two months ago and the symbolic 100-day
mark is not too far away, which is a good occasion for trying to appraise what Joe
Biden's team has managed to do and where it was not very successful.
The most important thing for us is to identify ways of rectifying Russia-US
relations, which have been going through hard times as Washington has, as a matter of
fact, brought them to a blind alley.
We are interested in preventing an irreversible deterioration in relations, if the
Americans become aware of the risks associated with this."
Pres. Putin invite Pres. Biden for a live on-line public discussion of issues:
"I want to invite President Biden to continue our discussion, but on the condition that
we do this actually live, as they say, online. Without any delay, but directly in an
open, direct discussion. It seems to me that it would be interesting for the people of
Russia, for the people of the United States, and for many other countries", Putin said
on air on the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
The talk to be tomorrow (Friday). If not, then Monday, as he is spending free time in
the Taiga (oblique reference to North Korea going up the sacred mountain to re-majorly
rethink policy). This also places a live face to face in Prime media time, avoiding the
dead news weekend.
Biden is an intelligent man, but can't appear on an unedited live TV show with Putin -
not because of his age-related related memory recall difficulty - this is normal - but
because it risks exposing the cartoon-like tropes, lies, racism, & duplicity of the US
Govt. approach.
Especially when compared and contrasted with the serious and adult approach of the
Russian President. Nearly 100 days in, USA Govt. has been given the chance, and it is
clear USA Govt aggression and attempts to interfere in Russian domestic policy will
continue. Should Russia abandon soft diplomacy and strategic patience with USA?
Perhaps it is all theatre, coordinated by the Presidential envoys.
Perhaps a 'crisis' is created, Ukraine creates a threat to Europe, climate must be
cooperatively addressed, the Middle East could explode at any moment, a new peace treaty
in the Gulf required, blah blah, blah.
A live face to face airs the issues from both sides publicly, done respectfully,
sensibly, no political point scoring or spittle-mouthed fabrications from the US Govt
side.
The Press filter is sidestepped - a Trump tactic. It would be intended as a circuit
breaker, and the start of a new course for USA Govt. Russia is ready, has been for years,
and repeated it over and over.
If the USA Govt fails to step up it will hardly be the end of the world. But it will
show what a lot of short-sighted, self-interested, careerist, and functionally useless
time-servers most of the US political class are.
They will identify themselves as impediments to the health and welfare of the American
people.
The president named the fight against the pandemic, regional conflict resolution, and
strategic stability issues as possible topics, noting that he would be ready to talk to
Biden on Friday or Monday in an "open" chat.
"I would like to suggest to President Biden that we continue our discussion, but on the
condition that we actually do it live, without any delays, directly in an open, live
discussion," Putin told the Russia 24 TV channel on Thursday. "I think it would be
interesting for the people of Russia and the people of the United States and many other
countries," he added.
It would be so delicious to actually witness such a debate. By asking for it to be
streamed live, Putin is subtly calling out Biden's lie that he "told Putin he had no soul"
(whereas it's unlikely that Biden actually had a 1:1 meeting with Putin during the Obama
administration) as well as making Biden look weaker when Crash Test Dummy doesn't respond to
the invite.
Biden"s time is limited. Cannot be trusted near a microphone, no matter how well prepared
or how thoroughly edted. Has trouble walking, begins to have trouble standing up.
Kamala is still very much a problem. First, no one likes her. Not the public, not her
peers. The public is not prepared for her accession. Her competence is possibly even lower
than Biden's. She may be better able to read a TelePrompter, she still annoys everyone when
she speaks. May turn out to have some aptitude for riding herd on the advisors, we shall see.
She may be able to function as some sort of ringmaster but will contribute nothing, she knows
nothing.
It shall be government by advisors and functionaries and hidden hands. The advisors and
functionaries are all steeped in hegemony and exceptionalism. They have no idea of anything
else. Anyone who ever had a thought in their head was weeded out of academia and out of
public life a long time ago. That leaves the hidden hands. We will never know much about
that. It does appear they are perhaps ready to close down the American project and move
on.
If those within the US government were so stupid as to swallow Russiagate's bullshit thus
resulting in a "deep hatred of Russia," why would Russia want to deal with such obtuse idiots
incapable of logic or critical thinking?
IMO, the current goal of Russia/China/Iran is to completely ice-out the Outlaw US Empire
from having any practical impact on global affairs. The new initiative to Re-ratify the UN
Charter is a case in point for such a policy. The not agreement capable nation now has a
figure head that can't be allowed to talk without minders, a fact Putin would like the entire
world to observe. The world has no way to deny that it sees a nation talking like a Gangster
and acting like a Gangster as its recent behavior's been very explicit and public. IMO, such
behavior hasn't been observed since 1938, but there'll be no appeasement or betrayal of
another nation this time. China's already invited Lavrov to Beijing once its diplomats return
from Alaska. Yet the Empire lies to itself when it says it has more tools to deal with
Russia. The reality is it has no more cards to play--not even its nukes.
Absolutely no difference in foreign policy?
B, I think you're pandering to your audience.
I wonder what President Putin would think- or perhaps "feel" about teamBiden versus
Trump?.
How would you like to be called a "killer, without a soul"? Not withstanding all the
theatrical bellicosity of Pompeo, Putin at least understood that Trump admired him as a
person. I contend this is a big difference.
Do you think the Dems want any comparison with the Trump administration? They are after
contradistinction.
The Dems, the internationalists and the Blairites imagine themselves to be on a roll. Putin
is in their crosshairs.
This time the belligerence is the real thing.
International Music Festival volunteer coordinator and representative of Crimea Federal
University Polina Bolbochan: Mr President, I have a somewhat personal question for you.
Yesterday, President Biden got quite tough in his interview, including with regard to you.
What would you say to him?
Vladimir Putin: With regard to my US colleague's remark, we have, indeed, as he said,
met in person. What would I tell him? I would say "stay healthy." I wish him good health. I
am saying this without irony or tongue in cheek. This is my first point.
Secondly, taking a broader approach to this matter, I would like to say that difficult,
dramatic, and bloody events abound in the history of every nation and every state.
But when we evaluate other people, or even other states and nations, we are always
facing a mirror, we always see ourselves in the reflection, because we project our inner
selves onto the other person.
You know, I remember when we were children and played in the yard, we had arguments
occasionally and we used to say: whatever you call me is what you are called yourself. This
is no coincidence or just a kids' saying or joke. It has a very deep psychological
undercurrent.
We always see ourselves in another person and think that he or she is just like us, and
evaluate the other person's actions based on our own outlook on life.
With regard to the US establishment, the ruling class – not the American people
who are mostly honest, decent and sincere people who want to live in peace and friendship
with us, something we are aware of and appreciate, and we will rely on them in the
future – their mindset was formed in rather challenging circumstances which we are
all aware of.
After all, the colonisation of the American continent by the Europeans went hand-in-hand
with the extermination of the local people, the genocide, as they say today, outright
genocide of the Indian tribes followed by a very tough, long and difficult period of
slavery, a very cruel period.
All of that has been part of life in America throughout the history of the United States
to this day. Otherwise, where would the Black Lives Matter movement come from? To this day,
African Americans face injustice and even extermination.
The ruling class of the United States tends to address domestic and foreign policy
issues based on these assumptions. After all, the United States is the only country to
have used nuclear weapons, mind you, against a non-nuclear state – Japan, in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WW II. There was absolutely no military need for the
bombing. It was nothing but the extermination of civilians.
I am bringing this up, because I know that the United States and its leaders are
determined to maintain certain relations with us, but on matters that are of interest to
the United States and on its terms.
Even though they believe we are just like them, we are different. We have a different
genetic, cultural and moral code .
But we know how to uphold our interests. We will work with the United States, but in
the areas that we are interested in and on terms that we believe are beneficial to
us.
They will have to reckon with it despite their attempts to stop our development,
despite the sanctions and insults.
They will have to reckon with this.
My bolds, to bring out the essence.
Essentially, he is saying 'We reject your posturing and rudeness, do what you want. We are
ready, and will go our own way. You are not worthy of our cooperation. It' over'.
So, the ball, once again, is in the USA Govt court.
Vladimir Putin, you may have noticed, is everywhere. He has soldiers in Ukraine and Syria,
troublemakers in the Baltics and Finland, and a hand in elections from the Czech Republic to
France to the United States. And he is in the media. Not a day goes by without a big new
article on "
Putin's Revenge ", " The Secret Source of
Putin's Evil ", or "10 Reasons Why Vladimir Putin Is a Terrible Human Being".
Putin's recent ubiquity has brought great prominence to the practice of Putinology. This
enterprise – the production of commentary and analysis about Putin and his motivations,
based on necessarily partial, incomplete and sometimes entirely false information – has
existed as a distinct intellectual industry for over a decade.
...At no time in history have more people with less knowledge, and greater outrage, opined
on the subject of Russia's president. You might say that the reports of Trump's golden showers
in a Moscow hotel room have consecrated a golden age – for Putinology.
...
Compared to the 40-year cycle of US deindustrialisation, during which only the rich gained
in wealth; the 25-year rightwing war on the Clintons; the eight-year-old Tea Party assault on
facts, immigration and taxes; a tepid, centrist campaign; and a supposed late-breaking
revelation from the director of the FBI about the dubious investigation of Clinton's use of a
private email server – well, compared to all those factors, the leaked DNC emails must
rank low on the list of reasons for Trump's victory. And yet, according to a recent report,
Hillary Clinton and her campaign still blame the Russians – and, by extension, Barack
Obama, who did not make a big issue of the hacks before November – for her electoral
debacle. In this instance, thinking about Putin helps not to think about everything else that
went wrong, and what needs to be done to fix it.
This evasion is the essence of Putinology, which seeks solace in the undeniable but faraway
badness of Putin at the expense of confronting the far more uncomfortable badness in front of
one's face. Putinology predates the 2016 election by a decade, and yet what we have seen in
connection to Trump these past few months has been its Platonic ideal.
As my ilk has said for a long while, when it comes to US foreign policy - IT DOES NOT MATTER
WHO IS PRESDIENT - the facts are fixed around the policy (to quote the dodgy dossier case).
Of course Venezuela is Cuba 2.0. There is no independence from Empire
The New York Times and The Washington Post have long been, and continue to be,
stenographers for the State Dep't and CIA -- why is anyone surprised at these recent
campaigns?
Perhaps it could help to correct the misused vocabulary. Then we can say that "The policy
of inhumane interventionism defends illiberal world order and fosters anti-democratic
aspirations."
@psychohistorian (1) "The NYT continues to be a water carrier for empire and it has and
continues to be very effective in doing so....in spite of b's and others efforts."
Carrying water for the empire is an essential component of the NYT's business model. It is
what gives them unparalleled access to government officials and intelligence operatives,
which creates the false aura of authoritativeness that surrounds the Times, which, in turn,
attracts readers and advertisers and, importantly, influences what is written and said by
other media outlets. That is how the Times became and has remained the "paper of record."
It's a perfect symbiotic relationship. The WaPo has some of the same cachet but will always
be second tier in terms of managing the narrative that the U.S. government wants people to
hear.
@Bobby | Mar 9 2021 18:40 utc | 10
Are you serious?
31 billions is just what's US steal from Venezuela blocking money in US banking system.
EU and others, like England, Korea or Japan.... as well and $billions more.
And that's only the emerge part of iceberg.
@chet380 16: "The NYT could, and should be, called out for its lies every week."
Why? It's the main establishment newspaper. And as such it's useful for discovering what
the establishment wants you think, at any given moment. What they emphasize, what they
ignore, conceal.
All this can be analyzed, and it'll help you figure out what the establishment's plans
are. In a similar way to what they used to call 'kremlinology'.
@4 dsfco
If Russia and China really ever formed a bloc Europe and several countries in the Middle East
and Asia would immediately switch firmly into the American camp and form a bloc, too. That`s
precisely what Washington wants!
Bejing does the opposite, making deals with key allies of the USA, like recently the EU,
Japan, Australia, New Zealand (RCEP) etc. - thus stalling the US efforts. The "Eurasian Bloc"
is a Russian wet dream but it`s not in the interest of China.
@42 Passer by
You are reading this wrong. It says in sweet EU diplomacy talk: "Accept a partnership on
equal level if you want our continued support."
[The US could also suffer damage.But then the US has also never been shy about losing
lives in the US to maintain its hegemony.
Interesting times ahead. The US goal of full spectrum dominance is on schedule and
raring to go.
Posted by: jiri | Mar 5 2021 3:57 utc | 73]
The US do not have a functional Nuclear Shelters for their citizens. That's a first.
It's also do not have nuclear proofed infrastructure such as power infrastructure, farms,
water system, etc.
It doesn't have citizens cohesion necessary to survive shattered government authorities
(easy to riot, looting, and murdering happen. Too divided)
Nor it trained or can be controlled in any nuclear warfare scenario protocols to reorganize
and rebuild (recent covid measures reveals their Karen mentality).
It never have or achieve food securities and independence.
It never have energy independence.
It's industrial sector hollowed up with middle managerial class the one that have the
knowledge to ensure their crews and workers can remain in production rapidly aging and or
moving aboard with no replacement due to corporate 'restructuring' culture (no regular s
became senior enough to have their level of experience).
I can go on and on of how delusional your statement is but I'll just stop for now because
it's dumb when you have to specifically point this out.
The only one that can take nuclear war and win their race for rebuilding perhaps just
Russia.
At the end of January, Putin was given the opportunity to address the World Economic Forum
(WEF) in Davos, Switzerland (online). The WEF is a prestigious assembly of political leaders,
corporatists and billionaire elites many of who are directly involved in the massive global
restructuring project that is currently underway behind the smokescreen of the Covid-19
pandemic. Powerful members of the WEF decided that the Coronavirus presented the perfect
opportunity to implement their dystopian strategy which includes a hasty transition to green
energy, A.I., robotics, transhumanism, universal vaccination and a comprehensive surveillance
matrix that detects the location and activities of every human being on the planet. The
proponents of this universal police state breezily refer to it as "The Great Reset" which is
the latest make-over of the more familiar, "New World Order". There's not a hairsbreadth
difference between the Reset and one-world government which has preoccupied billionaire
activists for more than a century. This is the group to which Putin made the following
remarks:
"I would like to speak in more detail about the main challenges ..the international
community is facing . The first one is socioeconomic .. Starting from 1980, global per capita
GDP has doubled in terms of real purchasing power parity. This is definitely a positive
indicator. Globalisation and domestic growth have led to strong growth in developing
countries and lifted over a billion people out of poverty .Still, the main question is
what was the nature of this global growth and who benefitted from it most ..
developing countries benefitted a lot from the growing demand for their traditional and
even new products. However, this integration into the global economy has resulted in more
than just new jobs or greater export earnings. It also had its social costs, including a
significant gap in individual incomes . According to the World Bank, 3.6 million people
subsisted on incomes of under $5.50 per day in the United States in 2000, but in 2016 this
number grew to 5.6 million people.. ..
Meanwhile, globalisation led to a significant increase in the revenue of large
multinational, primarily US and European, companies In terms of corporate profits, who got
hold of the revenue? The answer is clear: one percent of the population .
And what has happened in the lives of other people? In the past 30 years, in a number
of developed countries, the real incomes of over half of the citizens have been stagnating,
not growing . Meanwhile, the cost of education and healthcare services has gone up. Do
you know by how much? Three times
In other words, millions of people even in wealthy countries have stopped hoping for an
increase of their incomes. In the meantime, they are faced with the problem of how to keep
themselves and their parents healthy and how to provide their children with a decent
education .
These imbalances in global socioeconomic development are a direct result of the policy
pursued in the 1980s , which was often vulgar or dogmatic. This policy rested on the
so-called Washington Consensus with its unwritten rules, when the priority was given
to the economic growth based on a private debt in conditions of deregulation and low taxes on
the wealthy and the corporations .
As I have already mentioned, the coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated these problems.
In the last year, the global economy sustained its biggest decline since WWII. By July, the
labour market had lost almost 500 million jobs . In the first nine months of the past year
alone, the losses of earnings amounted to $3.5 trillion. This figure is going up and,
hence, social tension is on the rise." (" Session of Davos Agenda 2021Online Forum,
Putin Addresses World Economic Forum, Jan 27, 2021)
Why is Putin telling his elitist audience these things? Does he think these fatcats don't
know how the system works or how it was originally set up? Does he think they are unaware of
the glaring flaws in a system that shifts all of the profits to obscenely wealthy corporations
and scheming elites while working people slip further into debt and desperation?
Putin knows how globalisation works, just as he knows who it was designed to benefit. It's
no secret. Check out this quote from the Russian president in a speech nearly 5 years ago:
"Back in the late 1980s-early 1990s, there was a chance not just to accelerate the
globalization process but also to give it a different quality and make it more harmonious and
sustainable in nature. But some countries that saw themselves as victors in the Cold War,
not just saw themselves this way but said it openly, took the course of simply reshaping the
global political and economic order to fit their own interests.
In their euphoria, they essentially abandoned substantive and equal dialogue with other
actors in international life, chose not to improve or create universal institutions, and
attempted instead to bring the entire world under the spread of their own organizations,
norms and rules. They chose the road of globalization and security for their own beloved
selves, for the select few, but not for everyone." (President Vladimir Putin, Meeting of the
Valdai International Discussion Club)
"To the victor belongs the spoils"? Isn't that what Putin is saying, that Washington figured
its Cold War triumph entitled them to create a system whereby they could pillage and loot the
rest of the world with impunity?
Indeed, that is precisely what he's saying. And he knows what he's talking about, too.
Putin has followed developments in global trade for over 20 years. He knows the system is
rigged and he knows who rigged it. And now he's telling them in no uncertain terms that they
are responsible for the mess the world is in today. "The world is in crisis, because you
fu**ed up." That's what he's saying. It's not a subtle message, he's simply laying it on the
line. Check out this blurb from an earlier speech by Putin where he shows that he's not just a
capable leader but also an astute critic of social trends linked to globalization:
"It seems like elites don't see the deepening stratification in society and the erosion
of the middle class (but the situation) creates a climate of uncertainty that has a
direct impact on the public mood. Sociological studies conducted around the world show that
people in different countries and on different continents tend to see the future as murky
and bleak . This is sad. The future does not entice them, but frightens them. At the same
time, people see no real opportunities or means for changing anything, influencing events
and shaping policy. As for the claim that the fringe and populists have defeated the
sensible, sober and responsible minority – we are not talking about populists or
anything like that but about ordinary people, ordinary citizens who are losing trust in
the ruling class. That is the problem . " (President Vladimir Putin, Meeting of the
Valdai International Discussion Club)
In this one brief comment, Putin shows that he has a better grasp of 'what is going on' in
the west than any of the numbskulls in congress today. And notice how he ignores the hype about
"racial justice", BLM, "white supremacy" and the other "racialized" bunkum that's
propagated in the media today. He's not hoodwinked by that nonsense. He knows it's just
another diversion promoted by the cadres of dirtbags who use race and identity politics to
conceal their role in the ongoing class war. That's what's really going on. The men that
Putin is addressing in his speech are the very same men who are doing everything in their power
to eviscerate democracy, skewer the middle class and grind America's working population into
dust. It's plain old class war dolled-up to look like racial unrest. Here's more from
Putin:
" During the past 20 years we have created a foundation for the so-called Fourth
Industrial Revolution (AKA–"The Great Reset")based on the wide use of AI and
automation and robotics. The coronavirus pandemic has greatly accelerated such projects and
their implementation . However, this process is leading to new structural changes, I am
thinking in particular of the labor market. This means that very many people could lose
their jobs unless the state takes effective measures to prevent this . Most of these
people are from the so-called middle class, which is the basis of any modern society.
. The rise of economic problems and inequality is splitting society, triggering social,
racial and ethnic intolerance . Indicatively, these tensions are bursting out even in the
countries with seemingly civil and democratic institutions that are designed to alleviate and
stop such phenomena and excesses.
The systemic socioeconomic problems are evoking such social discontent that they
require special attention and real solutions. The dangerous illusion that they may be
ignored or pushed into the corner is fraught with serious consequences." ( Putin, WEF)
Putin understands that the Covid-related lockdowns and closing of "non-essential" businesses
is merely prelude for the massive societal restructuring project elites have in store for us.
They've already put millions of people out of work and expanded their surveillance capabilities
in anticipation of the social unrest they are deliberately inciting. Putin thinks this
futuristic strategy is unnecessarily reckless, disruptive and fails to account for intensifying
social animosities and widening political divisions that are bound to have a catastrophic
impact on democratic institutions. But Putin also knows that his appeal for a more cautious
approach will be brushed aside by the billionaire powerbrokers who set the policy and call the
shots. Here's more:
" Society will still be divided politically and socially. This is bound to happen
because people are dissatisfied not by some abstract issues but by real problems that concern
everyone regardless of the political views that people have or think they have. Meanwhile,
real problems evoke discontent. "
This is a recurrent theme with Putin and one that shows that he has a deeper understanding
of what is really happening in both the United States and Europe than any of his peers.
Populist candidates, like Trump, have not gained momentum due to thier abilities and charisma,
but because the financial situation of millions of Americans continues to deteriorate forcing
them to seek remedies outside the establishment candidates. The economic distress is real and
widespread and, as Putin notes, it is expressing itself in outbursts of discontent, frustration
and rage. Here's more:
"So, the key question today is how to build a programme of actions in order to not only
quickly restore the global and national economies affected by the pandemic, but to ensure
that this recovery is sustainable in the long run, relies on a high-quality structure and
helps overcome the burden of social imbalances. Clearly economic growth will largely rely on
fiscal incentives with state budgets and central banks playing the key role.
Actually, we can see these kinds of trends in the developed countries and also in some
developing economies as well. An increasing role of the state in the socioeconomic
sphere at the national level obviously implies greater responsibility and close
interstate interaction when it comes to issues on the global agenda.
Calls for inclusive growth and for creating decent standards of living for everyone
are regularly made at various international forums. This is how it should be, and this is an
absolutely correct view of our joint efforts.
It is clear that the world cannot continue creating an economy that will only benefit a
million people , or even the golden billion. This is a destructive precept. This model is
unbalanced by default. The recent developments, including migration crises, have reaffirmed
this once again." ( Putin, WEF )
Putin's recommendations, of course, are going to be dismissed with a wave of the hand by the
men in power. The last thing these sociopaths want is "inclusive growth.. and decent standards
of living for everyone." That's not even on their list, and why would it be. After all, they
know what they want. "They want more for themselves and less for everyone else." (George
Carlin) Which is why the system works the way it does, because it was constructed with that one
solitary goal in mind.
Putin also acknowledges the need for greater state intervention in the economy to
counterbalance the more destructive effects of "smash and grab" capitalism. And, while he
rejects the swift and far-reaching structural changes (The Great Reset) that would precipitate
massive social upheaval, he does support a larger role for the state in providing essential
fiscal stimulus, employment and a more equitable distribution of the wealth. This does not
imply that Putin supports state socialism. He does not. He merely supports a more regulated and
benign form of Capitalism that veers from the "scorched earth" model backed by powerful members
of the WEF and other elitist organizations.
With that in mind, Putin makes these specific recommendations:
"We must now proceed from stating facts to action, investing our efforts and resources
into reducing social inequalit y in individual countries and into gradually balancing the
economic development standards of different countries and regions in the world. This would
put an end to migration crises."
The focus of this policy aimed at ensuring sustainable and harmonious development
are clear. They imply the creation of new opportunities for everyone, conditions under which
everyone will be able to develop and realize their potential regardless of where they were
born and are living
I would like to point out four key priorities , as I see them.
First, everyone must have comfortable living conditions, including housing and
affordable transport, energy and public utility infrastructure. Plus, environmental
welfare, something that must not be overlooked.
Second, everyone must be sure that they will have a job that can ensure sustainable
growth of income and, hence, decent standards of living. Everyone must have access to an
effective system of lifelong education, which is absolutely indispensable now and which will
allow people to develop, make a career and receive a decent pension and social benefits upon
retirement.
Third, people must be confident that they will receive high-quality and effective
medical care whenever necessary, and that the national healthcare system will guarantee
access to modern medical services.
Fourth, regardless of the family income, children must be able to receive a decent
education and realize their potential. Every child has potential." (Putin, Davos )
What does it mean that the current president of Russia is now throwing his weight behind
a program that is nearly identical to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's economic Bill of
Rights? Doesn't that seem a bit odd? After all, Putin is a devout Orthodox Christian, a
strong proponent of the traditional family, a self-avowed social conservative, and a
hardscrabble survivor of the failed Soviet state. Who would have thought that such a man
would support a program that provides a decent standard living to every member of society
regardless of their circumstances?
But it makes sense, doesn't it? Putin is pushing for a return to the heavily-regulated
"Heyday" of 20th Century capitalism, when workers' wages were still on the rise, when college
tuition and health care were still affordable, and when the American Dream was still within
reach of the average guy. People were happier then, because they felt that if they applied
themselves, worked like hell, and stashed their savings in the bank; they'd eventually reach
their goal. But that's not true anymore. People are much more pessimistic now and no longer
believe that America is the land of opportunity.
Putin wants to rekindle that optimism. He wants to avoid social unrest by implementing
programs that provide a more equitable distribution of the wealth. This isn't a return to
Communism. It's sensible way to soften the harsher effects of unrestrained capitalism ,
which is presently ravaging the West. Here's Putin again:
"This is the only way to guarantee the cost-effective development of the modern economy,
in which people are perceived as the end, rather than the means . A strategy, also being
implemented by my country, hinges on precisely these approaches. Our priorities revolve
around people, their families, and they aim to ensure demographic development, to protect the
people, to improve their well-being and to protect their health. We are now working to
create favourable conditions for worthy and cost-effective work and successful
entrepreneurship and to ensure digital transformation as the foundation of a high-tech future
for the entire country, rather than that of a narrow group of companies.
We intend to focus the efforts of the state, the business community and civil society on
these tasks and to implement a budgetary policy with the relevant incentives in the years
ahead ." ( Putin,
Davos )
Imagine a political leader who actually put the needs and well-being of his people before
the special interests of his deep-pocket donors and shady corporate buddies. Imagine a leader
who stood eye-to-eye with the big money guys and told them that their system "sucked" and that
they were taking too much for themselves leaving nothing for anyone else. Imagine a leader who
invited more criticism, hectoring, demonizing and punitive sanctions for "speaking truth to
power" in order to stand on the side of ordinary working people, pensioners, cast-offs and the
other victims of this globalist rip-off system.
The reason Putin spoke out at the WEF confab and put himself at risk, was because Putin is
one of the "good guys" who actually believes that everyone deserves a shot at a decent life.
And that's what sets Putin apart from the other leaders in the world today. He doesn't just
"talk the talk", he also "walks the walk."
IF the above comment by BHObama is really him he is arguing that we should hold the course
of American exceptionalism and dominance. I personally, after 70 years of hearing how "we
should tell the world that only we matter" and expect them to ignore their own needs and
aspirations is why China (in particular) is on the rise and the 'myth of America' is
crashing. The recent rebellion among people sick of the way things are heading (typified by
the so-called tRUMP diversion) should serve as a wake up call that something is horribly
wrong.
It wasn't tRUMP that was the problem nor was his idiocy a solution. It is the results of
years of flagrant propaganda that created a nation that considers itself exceptional. We are
exceptionally selfish and war like.
Had the US corporate/banking/Wall Street NOT MADE the egregious mistake with millions of
jobs "offshored"
It was not a mistake. It was done consciously by design by the NWO ELITE CABAL, knowing
the Consequences is going to bring to the 99.9%. The Transnational Globalist Elites do not
have allegiance to a country any more. All they care about is more profit and power.
After reading Putin's statements and Whitney's commentaries, I am further convinced that
whenever some individual or organization constantly and consistently badmouths Putin and
Russia ; these messages come from the enemies of humanity.
It depends on what is meant by globalisation. Globalisation of trade is not necessarily a
bad thing. The problem is that "trade" is not the operative word of the elites, "loot"
is.
That thing doesn't exist. Every complex society in history has eventually collapsed and had
to be regrown from a new basis. Trying to "design a system" is self-defeating. I guess one
could rig governmental buildings with self destruct charges and sarin gas containers controlled
by random nuclear decay to keep the monster in check and to shed useless load from time to
time. "Schrödinger's Office Warmers". I'm going to patent that.
There is too much of a focus on "isms". Right policy is right policy no matter the system.
But the ghosts of Cecil Rhodes still exist. There is a certain group that believes it is their
divine right to rule over all others. There are some who dont belong to their group but will
agree with them as long as they can reap crumbs. Hence the struggles in the world. God alone
will eventually "fix" the problems of man. Until then it is a constant squabble.
The premise that Putin is not the dangerous evil that the US Military Industrial Complex
makes him out to be, is certainly valid. He is trying to carve out a profitable role for Russia
in the future, that depends on participation in Western economies. Germany is on board with
that, but not the USA.
But, like claiming Trump is a populist, there is a certain naivety in suggesting Putin is an
advocate for the common man. I agree with all his words, which fall on deaf ears in the West,
but like Trump, Putin takes care of himself first. Trump sought to destroy universal health
care and was able to pass another tax cut for the rich, designed by the Aynn Rand nutcase Paul
Ryan.
Still it should be recognized that when Clinton and Larry Summers bamboozled Russia into
reorganizing their society into a dozen Oligarchs, the average Russian suffered greatly, which
ultimately led to Yeltsin resigning in tears and handing the reins of Government over to Putin.
Under Putin the average Russian income doubled.
Meanwhile, the USA is doing its best to reignite the cold war. Given our engineered reliance
on Chinese goods today, this doesn't make a lot of sense. These Putin speeches make a lot of
sense yet contradict the current economic structure of Russia and China today, not just the
West.
For those of us in the West taxing the rich is a partial solution to designing a sustainable
economy, which promotes the general welfare, as declared in our constitution. This is an issue
which only Sanders, Warren and a fresh delegation of progressive representatives support today.
They are still a minority.
""To the victor belongs the spoils"? Isn't that what Putin is saying, that Washington
figured its Cold War triumph entitled them to create a system whereby they could pillage and
loot the rest of the world with impunity?"
Putin is an Orthodox Christian and I greatly admire that.
He is also pro family, pro traditional values and a social conservative.
But some people might think that his conservative leanings make him more "free market" than
he really is.
Putin does not worship the market or the people who are able to exploit the system to
their own advantage. Remember, in order to put Russia back on the right track, Putin had to
reign in the oligarchs who had split up the country's wealth under Yeltsin leaving the economy
in dire straits.
This is the lesson that Putin has for us all: If you can't reign in the Bill Gates,
George Soros and other cutthroat oligarchs who want to own and control everything, than you are
not going to have a free and prosperous society .
I was hoping that Trump would meet Putin so Putin could give him so pointers on this issue.
But now the oligarchs have their puppet in the White House so we're screwed.
I've been admiring Putin for several years now. However I can't get one particular thought
out of my head. And it goes to Trump too. Why did he give his credence to Covid19? Why hasn't
he, or any major leader, stood up to the 'science' and rebuked the world wide reaction to this
obvious psy-op? I'm not saying there isn't a set of symptoms (and that's the CDC definition)
that define Covid19. What I'm saying is what any one with a thinking brain is pondering: Why is
everyone wearing a useless mask, closing their pub, standing on a specific X when in line,
bumping elbows, and acting like a certain type of cattle? Why is MSM dedicating 50 minutes of
every hour to a set of symptoms we have all lived with our entire life? I'll answer my own
question. Remember 911 and the news coverage then? If you don't let me remind you. It was 24/7
Osama Bin Laden, Iraq Iraq Iraq, Muslim bad, weapons of mass destruction. Over and over again.
And today we are living with the consequences of our silent acquiescence. And if you don't know
what the consequences were you haven't been on an airplane. There's a reason the media reports
the way they do. It's not really reporting, it's a particular method, a method of
indoctrination, previously known as brainwashing. Ala Edward Bernays.
We have been criminally assaulted by Big Tech, the MMSM, and corrupt politicians, and there
should be consequences.
It was NOT a mistake. Just ask Romney or Paul Ryan or any "American" CEO. The people behind
the offshoring knew exactly what would happen. How could they not? They didn't care as long as
they made personal fortunes out of it.
Go back to the London Conference 1953 and see how The West rigged export surpluses in West
Germany's favour together with 66.2% Debt Reduction and limits on repayments to permit export
surpluses.
This deal alone guaranteed Trade Deficits in UK and USA and a violation of IMF and GATT
rules on persistent trade surpluses. Look how Germany had an undervalued D-mark made
convertible in 1957 and not until 1972 did USA try to reverse it with a Forced Revaluation of
D-Mark. That is when the Werner Plan put the EEC on course for a Single Currency. – which
1991 Germany locked in at an undervalued rate against D-Mark thus gaining persistent surpluses
when Unification should have meant trade deficits.
Distortions of World Trade to serve Western geopolitical interests led directly to higher
inflation in USA and UK which required OPEC to recycle surpluses through Western Banks into
Second World economies. The distortions are what skewed global trade and currency crises for 50
years.
Globalisation was simply a means of exploiting cheap labour and welfare standards to
FINANCIALISE the economic system and facilitate Unbalanced Budgets in The West consistently and
on an upward trend.
China has simply exploited The West and accessed technology and manufacturing capacity to
render The West a non-industrial society of paper-shufflers and transaction-traders wholly
dependent on China for physical goods
@the
grand wazoo more of the same? Bomb Syria. Check. More troops to Syrian and Afghanistan.
Check. More sanctions on Russia. Check.
In Syria, they are stealing 140,000 barrels-day. That is a Trump legacy. But Bidet is
doubling down. They now have 11 bases in Iraqi Kurdistan-North Syria province. They seem to
want to create a de facto country in North Syria.
They are also focusing on Thailand and Myanmar. This is fundamentally 'If we can't have it,
we destroy it.' And a f#ck you to China.
I expect that under Bidet we are going to see Israel dictate American Foreign policy to the
point where the U.S. is no more than a Thug. BiBi the Clown faces another election. I wonder
how that will play out?
@GMC
is why they stepped in to help Syria. Libya had the highest standard of living in Africa
– the real reason it was invaded is because Gaddafi had been influencing African leaders
to switch Africa to a gold standard and to price all African commodities in a new African
currency. That would have pushed out France and the US economic influence over Africa. So for
that he had to die – and now Libya is among the worst places in Africa. But France reaped
what it sowed. Refugees on top of refugees using Libya as their spring board.
Europeans should thank Putin because the refugee problem could be even worse from Syria
right now. But they have themselves to blame anyway.
Christianity is actually more humane than leftist secular humanism or any of its
ideological offsprings.
Did anyone compare number of victims during Christian forced conversions, inquisition and
compare it to victims of other ideologically inspired terror and atrocities?
Orthodox dogma is VERY VERY different from Vatican or Protestants that is much closer to
Plato's time when God and Mother Nature were synonymous.
@Franz
investment in clandestine media control in Russia (Max Blumenthal article), sanctions, Syria,
the neocons are circling Russia and getting ready to strike and Putin is going to this Davos
dufus derby talking about stagnant US wages. There's a deafening lack of focus here.
The whole point with Russia, in case some might have missed it, is that the Empire sees the
need to control Russia as an existential priority. Not just to eliminate it as a threat but
because they know that if China has free access to Russia's natural resources, the Empire is
finished.
It's for this reason that I think that if Putin doesn't see this, he's ceded the field
already.
@Anonymous
derstands this now, but Russia is still stuck at the reaction part of the
problem-reaction-solution cycle. They are being bombarded with problems and can't catch a
break. I see some attempts by the Russian government to form some sort of a political line and
seek real political allies but it looks like they are being blocked by Germany and the
Russian oligarchs. We shall see.
Mike Whitney is reading way too much into Putin's Davos speech, it's simple politics –
praise globalization some to make Xi happy, poo-poo it some to appeal to the average Westerner,
add happy talk about fairness, stir, not shake and serve cold – there's nothing more to
it.
For all these many years now Putin has been relentlessly demonized as a thug, dictator,
threat, you name it. Many Americans have bought into these images under the influence of the
American propaganda machine. One can see the reason for this campaign when one looks at what he
actually says. Americans might get some idea that a president should be looking out for their
interests and that would be bad. Putin can give speeches, field questions, give his personal
analysis on different subjects whilst standing on his feet. Compare him to the current addled
mental midget we have and note the vast difference.
@chris
oy the USA. In an ideal world, the US Deep State would like the USA Empire to have an exclusive
monopoly on nuclear weapons while preventing other geopolitical rivals from acquiring nuclear
weapons. That is exactly what happened at the end of WWII when Truman decided to drop two
atomic bombs on Japan to intimidate Stalin who frantically embarked on a nuclear weapons
program.
What the Yanks wants to do is to 'defang' the Russian bear so they no longer have to fear
Russian nukes, without which Russia would no longer pose an 'existential threat' to the USA.
The Yanks could then do anything, such as bomb any country they want and pretty much rule the
world, FOREVER.
{" What shocked me then about Trump, and now about Putin is that they don't seem to get
it, this isn't some kind of friendly game of Cricket or something, their opponents don't just
want to beat them they want to destroy them "}
Don't be fooled by Putin & Co speeches to the West.
Don't be fooled either by them using terms like "our partners" and such.
Russian leadership got a rude awaking after Yeltsin: Putin is quite aware of what
GloboSorosaNATO is trying to do. He is a former KGB officer posted to East Germany and knows
quite a lot about West/NATO mindset.
@Flying
Dutchman han to its own? And particularly a people that suffers from the mania of
objectivity as much as the Germans. For, after all this, everyone will take the greatest pains
to avoid doing the enemy any injustice, even at the peril of seriously besmirching and even
destroying his own people and country.
Now it is entirely unlikely that a KGB agent cum President of Russia is ignorant of matters
relating to propaganda.
Isn't it perfectly understandable that the whole country ends up by lending more credence to
enemy propaganda, which is more unified and coherent, than to its own?
...I concede that here's plenty of US racism expressed by wars of aggression against
countries outside the USA but that's supported by all races within the USA and both main
parties. In foreign policy, there's only one War Party, dedicated to ruling the world, in the
most aggressive country on earth. That's nothing like the reality within the USA. Yanks don't
want to treat other Yanks like they treat disobedient foreigners and they certainly don't want
to copy Israeli Jews. [email protected]
Absolutely agree.
Russia lacks solid, political structures-from a written constitution and time honored customs
and conventions-and Putin knows this. I thought his reforms were meant to address this
area?
Russia needs some more time, some more babies and good men at the helm. We can hope.
@antibeast
ct and practical causes than the more theoretical nuclear threats it poses.
Owning the significant Russian natural resources would make the US bullying of China,
Europe, the Middle Eastern vassals all the more effective. Yeah, the official story might be
nukes but the vastly more significant pay-off is the control of all the other actors. The proof
is the fact that the neocons are absolutely in a frenzy about destroying Russia, and yet
nuclear stuff never even comes up.
And if you wanted to neutralize a threat, you don't make a frontal attack on it, you would
be better served to befriend the country and create better ties than to try to overtly destroy
them.
In this screenshot of his response in 2007, Mr Navalny bans somebody for being "a bugger and
a kike". Still, Jews supported him all right when told by their betters. They didn't even
mention his real anti-Jewish prejudice for they were (reasonably) afraid the Russian masses
would see it as rather a feather in his cap. The Jews are in line with the obscure real power,
and have to follow its demands, like the jesters before the king. The Covid plans for the world
reset are more important for the Masters than Jewish sentiments, and Jewish leaders recognise
that.
The Biden regime considers Russia its enemy Number One. Russia is in relatively good shape.
Russians are on their way out of Covid mass hysteria. They have begun to dismantle the Covid
measures. The rules are still there, but people sabotage them as they sabotaged Brezhnev's
rules. They also have their own vaccine Sputnik-V which is an old-style vaccine without gene
modification, as opposed to much of the Western stuff. I do not think it is necessary for
health, but it could help citizens under the spell of Covid to recover and forget the lockdown
nightmare.
Things began to move very fast after Biden was installed in the White House. After a year of
delays caused by US sanctions, on Monday 25/01/2021 the Russian pipe-laying vessel
Fortuna resumed its work off Denmark's shores on the undersea pipeline Nord Stream 2 to
sell Russian gas directly to Europe bypassing the latest US colony, the Ukraine. The US wants
Germany to stop the project and buy (more expensive) American gas instead. It would make Russia
more vulnerable. Despite the sanctions, Germany refused to stop the project. At the same time,
the Russians began to supply gas to Serbia creating a new line bypassing the Ukraine. At this
time, the Biden regime employed the Navalny card.
The return of Alexei Navalny to Russia is part of a plan to undermine Russia. The immense
power of Big Data and its social networks promoted his return as the new savior. But somehow it
didn't work. Instead of the expected tens of thousands, only one or two thousand followers
turned up at the airport, fewer than for a pop singer. He was promptly detained and arraigned
for thirty days. It was anticipated, and his people published his new Gelenjik Palace
film together with his call to demonstrate on 23/01.
The Russian internet had been saturated by YouTube pushing people to view it. The video had
been offered endlessly, time after time, and the numbers of viewers allegedly grew into the
billions. It was basically a psyops played by Google (the owner of YouTube) against Putin.
Again, it didn't work.
I witnessed the demo on Saturday 23/01, and it was not particularly impressive. Being a day
off, with a lot of people walking the streets and practically nobody carrying a poster or a
slogan, it is difficult to estimate how many were actually demonstrating, but it was in the low
thousands, as far as I could see. The police were well behaved; none of the rough justice we
see meted out in Paris or Amsterdam, let alone Washington. The Navalny activists were also
rather peaceful, excepting some marginal figures who were promptly arrested.
It seems that the Russians are not as silly as the Western planners expected them to be. In
1990 they, or their parents listened to Yeltsin's calls to throw off the privileged Communist
rulers because they, the rulers, had it so good with cars, dachas, Western goods. They paid for
this response with ten of the most awful years our generation experienced. Now they and their
children are unlikely to smash their state and their life just because their president has (or
has not) a palace. We shall see what the Russian state will do against inevitable future
assaults.
Putin is a cautious statesman. He does not want to aggravate relations with the Biden
regime, but the digital giants do not leave him many options. A Russian company gave a hand to
the Parler social network that was
deplatformed by Amazon, and it came back into being. Another Russian social network, Vkontakte , began to attract Western users. And
Russia is not alone: Turkey's Erdogan hit
Twitter , Pinterest and Periscope with advertising bans after they refused to follow
Facebook and appoint a local representative to take down contentious posts under a new law
aimed to pass the right to censure from the networks to the Turkish state. Russia plans to
follow the Turks. China has its own networks and is immune to the Big Five pressure.
My apologies if this has already been posted. Aaron Mate continues to rise in stature--
IMO-- as he keeps digging into Russiagate and exposing deeper and deeper proof of U.S. and
U.K. plots, programs and coverups regarding Russia. In this video Mate and Max Blumenthal
start by explaining how Twitter inadvertently boosted the Grayzone's explosive uncovering of
the BBC, Bellingcat and others' programs designed to do what Russiagaters accuse Putin of
doing; the difference is that Blumenthal gives evidence in the form of emails. impressive.
bottom line, "R2P""Russia bad"... the wheels are falling off.
Putin is considered the richest man in the world for the amount of wealth he
controls , not the amount he owns. Alexei Navalny is considered the bravest man in the
world for returning to Russia after recovering from Novichok poisoning in Germany. Putin had
Navalny's returning flight diverted to avoid mobs of protestors, then arrested Navalny at the
airport.
Never lacking a certain Russian sense of humor, Putin charged Navalny, whom he calls "the
blogger," with violating parole
... ... ...
Putin called the EU's bluff, expelling three E.U.
diplomats from Russia during a visit by the EU's foreign minister, Josep Borrell, on
February 5. Putin's pugnacious foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, spoke disapprovingly of the
E.U. in a press conference standing right next to the humiliated minister. This is the same
Lavrov seen laughing in a famous White House
photo with U.S. President Donald J. Trump on the day after Trump fired FBI Director,
James Comey.
With the E.U. suddenly voting 28-0 against Russia, with Joe Biden proclaiming "America is
back," and with Tony Blinken promising Russia must pay for the recent SolarWinds cyber attack
against the U.S., Vlad the Underpants Poisoner must be feeling his briefs getting
uncomfortably snug.
As Putin desperately tries to wriggle out of the sanctions surrounding him and his
oligarch buddies, he faces the ultimate decline in his fortune: the green new deal.
The
majority of Putin's wealth is still in the ground , and it's worthless if the world turns
away from fossil fuels as quickly as it appears to be. Without the NORD-2 pipeline shipping
gas from Russia to Germany, without the corrupt contracts to supply satellite nations with
fuel, Russia has nothing to sell except tourism and nesting dolls.
Putin will encounter the same problem the nations of the Arab Spring encountered:
domestic youth realizing their futures look nothing like the lives they see on their phones.
The Russian people are not stupid. They know they're not enjoying the same quality of life as
their European neighbors. Even though Western Democracies fail to provide for basic living
needs, they are at least exciting and hold the possibility of getting unbelievably
rich.
... ... ...
STEVE O'KEEFE is the author of several books, most recently Set the Page on Fire:
Secrets of Successful Writers , from New World Library, based on over 250 interviews. He
is the former editorial director for Loompanics Unlimited.
Today we are disclosing four networks of accounts to our archive of state-linked information
operations; the only archive of its kind in the industry. The networks we are disclosing
relate to independent, state-affiliated information operations that we have attributed to
Armenia, Russia and a previously disclosed network from Iran.
...
Russia
Today we're disclosing two separate networks that have Russian ties.
1. Our first investigation found and removed a network of 69 fake accounts that can be
reliably tied to Russian state actors. A number of these accounts amplified narratives that
were aligned with the Russian government , while another subset of the network focused on
undermining faith in the NATO alliance and its stability .
...
Be a good citizen!
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Twitter adds a warning to @MaxBlumenthal's report in @TheGrayzoneNews on leaked UK gov't
files ( https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters..
) exposing a major propaganda campaign targeting Russia: "These materials may have been
obtained through hacking."
That's too bad because Twitter's 'hacked material' insert created a Streisand effect
and the such marked Grayzone story went viral.
The censors did not like that. Some twenty hours after the 'hacked materials' insert on
tweets to that story was first applied it vanished.
I have, by the way, no idea if the British material was hacked or if it comes from a whistle
blower. Neither is that important. The material is genuine and it is full of information which
the British authorities want to hide but which that the global public deserves to know. That is
the only thing that is important for publishing it.
Posted by b on February 24, 2021 at 15:16 UTC | Permalink
You would think they would hire people who have some idea as to what might be plausible
when they invent these stories? It's very strange to see. There has been a long string of
these unconvincing stories aimed at Russia. The claim the supported Trump after 2016 was a
watershed too, all caution to the winds after that. Skripals, Navalny, one after another that
makes no sense. It's like they want to make a point and are failing. Or maybe propaganda is
all they have.
Putin surprised me. He flatly refused the offer of Schwab and his ilk. He condemned the
manner of recent pre-Covid growth, for all the growth went into a few deep pockets. Moreover,
he noted that digital tycoons are dangerous for the world. In his own words , "Modern
technological giants, especially digital companies, are de facto competing with states. In the
opinion of these companies, their monopoly is optimal. Maybe so but society is wondering
whether such monopolism meets public interests".
The tycoons were probably amazed. In 2007 in Munich, they laughed at him. Max Boot, a
Russian Jewish émigré, called Putin,
"The louse that roared" and added, "in Putin's sinister and absurd rhetoric, you can hear an
empire dying". Mad Max didn't know yet which empire is dying.
Putin was supposed to be softened up by pro-Navalny demos on January 23 (The Davos talk was
on January 27), but he was not. Quite the reverse. The Russian President does not like to be
pushed. The demo on January 31 was met with force; those detained were sentenced to heavy (by
Russian standards) fines. Three European diplomats were expelled from Russia for joining the
demonstration. Josep Borrell, a Spanish diplomat and a representative of the EU, went to Moscow
and was harshly treated. In the concluding press-conference, the Russian minister for foreign
affairs Sergey Lavrov told the press that Russia does not (repeat, not) consider the EU to be a
"reliable partner". The expulsions were carried out at the same time. In addition, Putin warned
the West that 'sanctions' (acts of economic warfare) could cause Russia to use direct military
force. It was probably the first such warning since 1968.
At the same time, Russia practically ended corona restrictions. Bars and restaurants have
been opened for night revellers; sport events have returned; schools are open; in some parts of
Russia, the masks became "recommended" instead of "compulsory". Russians are now allowed to
travel and return freely from many countries. The Russians have easy access for their vaccine
Sputnik-V that was deemed by The Lancet the best of all existing Corona vaccines. It is a coup
comparable to the first Sputnik launched in 1957, the Western experts said. Thus Russia has
derailed the Grand Reset.
This development had caused a huge shift in consciousness in Russia. If until now (since
1970, at least) the Russian educated classes tended to feel inferior to the West, the
prosperous lands of the free, then this has now changed. One of the leading Russian theatre
directors, Constantine Bogomolov declared that
the West is undone. The West's compulsory political correctness, its culture-cancelling, its
kneeling and boot-licking of BLM, its cult of transgenders, its fear of 'harassment' and sex,
its obligatory smile, its wokeness, its fear of death (and of life!), are comparable to the
behaviour of Alex, the victim of Clockwork Orange therapy, said Bogomolov.
The young man [Alex] does not just get rid of aggression – he is sick of music, he
cannot see a naked woman, sex disgusts him. And in response to the blow, he licks the boot of
the striker. The modern West is such a criminal who has undergone chemical castration and
lobotomy. Hence this false smile of goodwill and all-acceptance, frozen on the face of a
Western person. This is not the smile of Culture. It is a smile of degeneration.
He concludes:
The West tells us: Russia is at the tail of progress.
Wrong.
Just by chance, we have found ourselves at the tail of a runaway train, rushing headlong
into [Hieronymus] Bosch's hell, where we will be greeted by smiling multicultural,
gender-neutral devils.
We should uncouple our carriage off the train, make a sign of cross and start rebuilding
our good old Europe, the Europe we dreamed of. The Europe they have lost.
Take notice of his call to 'make the sign of the cross'. In the West, the churches are
barred, service had been discontinued. The Anglican Church is on the verge of dying ,
with its Archbishop of Canterbury celebrating BLM, removing statues from the churches,
accepting every SAGE edict locking the churches up. Meanwhile Russian churches are all open and
worshippers are pouring into their cathedrals every feast and Sunday.
Russian boys and girls are flirting with each other, fearless of MeToo and harassment
charges. Russian cafes are open. Whoever wants, can get a jab against Covid, or ignore it.
For the first time in many years, Russia shows the way for the West. This is good. Perhaps,
the West, after a long-needed correction, will be able to overtake Russia again. Though Russia
showed the way of socialism to Europe, the best results of socialism were achieved elsewhere,
in the North of Europe. Good old Europe (and the US, its overseas offshoot) are still able to
repeat this feat and get rid of the plotting tycoons and their preaching of compulsory love. At
this occasion, perhaps banning all tycoons is a good idea. In the better world before their
rise, there were no multi-billionaires. History is not over; we are entering the most
interesting part of it. Be of good cheer!
Bravo! Israel Shamir. I enjoyed every syllable of that essay. It frames the shocking
reality that is nowhere treated so forcefully in print in the decadent West. These tycoons
not only purchasse their corrupted governments but are positioned to trade them in concert
like Monopoly board properties, all in plain sight of our blind mass media.
Putin courageously stepped up a notch when he said as much to the Davos crowd and then
demonstratively restored to his own countrymen many of the basic freedoms that have just been
erased in the locked-down EU.
How long will it take for Europe's venal career politicians to realize they are in danger
of becoming just expendable hirelings in the new world order they have so gleefully promoted?
Probably nothing short of a revolution could now save the United States from the new
feudalism.
But Putin's warning must have resonated among the European politicians, whose status and
relevance still derives from a long tradition of statism with a strong social components.
Will the national governments finally grasp that the gravest threat is not the hated populism
but relegation to irrelevance by corporations and plutocrats. The stakes are clear; either
governments will reassert their prerogatives or plutocrats will govern.
For the first time in many years, Russia shows the way for the West. This is good
. Perhaps, the West, after a long-needed correction, will be able to overtake Russia
again.
This is good and timely and needs to be repeated often.
Actually, near where I'm at, "Russia" has been showing the way since Putin got rolling,
even before they tried pulling the Obama rug over our eyes when our hollowed-out economy
became obvious in the days after Bush W. ("War President") made large segments of the old
working class ashamed to be American again.
By all means, let Putin pull out a dusty copy of Ron Reagan quotes and start punting them
back to the United States of Blah.
How did Ron put it in 1982? Oh Yeah: "A nation that cannot honor its own people's rights
cannot be trusted anywhere else."
Putin can simply quote the Dead Cowboy. The current Plutocracy won't get it, the
economically wrecked in the USA already knows it, and everyone else can enjoy the Old Truth
that always gives a wicked return: What goes around comes around.
thank you mr. shamir for the uplifting analysis of this brave new world order being
foisted upon us.
I don't think we will be able to throw off our billionaire overlords unfortunately, as the
average citizen is too compliant and indoctrinated to understand what is happening to
them.
We have no vladimir putin to slay the dragon here. i'm just glad that russia is here as a
counterweight to the kleptocratic cthulhu wrapping its tentacles around the world.
Max 'Jack' Boot's comment reminds one of Croesus. Contemplating whether to attack Persia
or not, he consulted the Pythia at Delphi and the oracle declared that, if he attacked, a
great kingdom would fall. He attacked, but the Empire that fell was his, not Persia. And
brilliant example of Zionazi hubris.
The State must observe intricate arcane rules, while the tycoons have no such limits. As
a result, they shape our minds and lives, making the State a poor legitimate king among
powerful and wealthy barons.
Just by chance, we have found ourselves at the tail of a runaway train, rushing headlong
into [Hieronymus] Bosch's hell, where we will be greeted by smiling multicultural,
gender-neutral devils.
We should uncouple our carriage off the train, make a sign of cross and start rebuilding
our good old Europe, the Europe we dreamed of. The Europe they have lost.
There are some fine sentiments – and many in the West would like to joint the
project.
I love to read Chris Hedges whenever I can. Here's a bit from his recent essay on the new
and dangerous 'Cancel Culture' - which has become a rather effective and 'liberal' elitist
weapon against, among others, those who criticize Israel, as well as against many radicals,
and Wikileaks....
....The cancel culture, a witch hunt by self-appointed moral arbiters of speech, has
become the boutique activism of a liberal class that lacks the courage and the organizational
skills to challenge the actual centers of power -- the military-industrial complex, lethal
militarized police, the prison system, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, the intelligence agencies
that make us the most spied upon, watched, photographed and monitored population in human
history, the fossil fuel industry, and a political and economic system captured by oligarchic
power....
....The cancel culture was pioneered by the red baiting of the capitalist elites and their
shock troops in agencies such as the FBI to break, often through violence, radical movements
and labor unions. Tens of thousands of people, in the name of anti-communism, were cancelled
out of the culture. The well-financed Israel lobby is a master of the cancel culture,
shutting down critics of the Israeli apartheid state and those of us who support the Boycott,
Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement as anti-Semites. The cancel culture fueled the
persecution of Julian Assange, the censorship of WikiLeaks and the Silicon Valley algorithms
that steer readers away from content, including my content, critical of imperial and
corporate power.
In the end, this bullying will be used by social media platforms, which are integrated
into the state security and surveillance organs, not to promote, as its supporters argue,
civility, but ruthlessly silence dissidents, intellectuals, artists and independent
journalism....
Putin's response to the Duma Speaker is worth citing fully. Too bad so few will read his
words:
"What you have said regarding the so-called platforms, the IT companies, presents a major
challenge, and not only to us alone. You can see what happened in the United States. This is
a watershed running across the world as a whole, an ideological watershed, which is
absolutely obvious . I have said this before, but I can repeat it now: if they behave
like this in their own country, how will they treat others if they think themselves
exceptional? This is a serious matter, and we certainly need to think about it in
advance, this is the obvious thing.
"As for freedom of speech, the situation is perfectly clear to us as well. The so-called
double standards have manifested themselves so vividly recently that we have no doubt about
how our so-called opponents will behave towards us, no doubt at all.
"Just take a look at Ukraine, where three leading channels have been shut down at the
stroke of a pen. And everyone keeps silent, while some have even given them an approving pat
on the back.
"How can we comment on that? The only thing we can say is that they are using these
instruments to attain their own geopolitical goals. This is also true for Ukraine. Why are
the developments pivoted on Nord Stream 2? They want Russia to pay for their Ukraine
geopolitical project, that is it. In fact, this is a rather primitive and simple thing. We
have become aware of this long ago, but this is the world we are living in.
"Or take a look at what has happened in Latvia. They have clamped down on 16 of our media
outlets, but the only reaction to this is silence. Why have the Western truth seekers not
provided any assessments of what is happening to freedom of expression there, in Europe? No,
there are no evaluations, as if this is how it should be, because they are allegedly fighting
propaganda. As if what they are doing is not propaganda. What is it then? This is an
instrument of attaining their geopolitical goals, in this particular instance, with regard to
our country.
"We must take this into account. I would like to say once again that this is nothing out
of the ordinary. I believe we have been observing this, seeing this happen for a long time,
but the recent events have especially vividly confirmed the correctness of our views and
assessments." [My Emphasis]
Myself and many others would certainly like to know what Putin sees as "their geopolitical
goals" as well as those "with regard to our country." I know Putin's said he sees the Outlaw
US Empire is trying to deter Russia's development, but that seems too simplistic to me
knowing that the #1 policy goal is Full Spectrum Dominance.
The last outstanding nugget from Putin's conference is an admission by Putin of his
political-economic philosophy made during his reply to the Communist Party's Gennady
Zyuganov:
"The growth of unemployment during the pandemic – it is not big but it is still here
and we are seeing and recording it. I speak about this all the time and encourage the
Government to do what is necessary to reach pre-crisis levels. In general, the situation is
improving and has proven to be better than preliminary forecasts. But you are right. It is
clearly necessary to focus on this all the time .
"Of course, I know that the Communist Party is always concerned over issues of
privatisation. I have also spoken about this. Probably, our approaches to this matter do not
always coincide, but at any rate I believe we share the common view that privatisation for
the sake of privatisation is unacceptable for us, especially the way it was carried out in
the 1990s in some areas. It must be beneficial for the economy; it must improve the economic
structure. We must proceed from the premise that any step in this context must create a
better, more efficient owner de facto, in practice rather than formally . But obviously,
this must be done in a certain environment so as not to give away what costs millions and
maybe billions for next to nothing. This is the bottom line for us." [My Emphasis]
Lots of trolls accuse Putin of promoting Neoliberalism. The above proves them liars.
Putin's foremost concern has always been for the welfare of his fellow Russians. If I
haven't made that clear over the years of my reporting on his speeches and pressers, then the
failure must be on those feigning blindness when they can see perfectly well.
IMO, the four main political parties are all fundamentally nationalist, even the
Communists. I don't think anyone/party anti-Russian/pro-Neoliberalism has any chance
politically, and won't for many years. However, it's what I'll term progressive nationalism
that seeks to promote the same in its partners--even in those nations that don't deserve such
treatment. Russia takes the high road and doesn't deviate, which I find commendable. It's my
hope that the Eurasian Bloc will follow the examples of Russia and China, but selfishness and
greed are formidable obstacles, not to mention exceptionalism.
Yesterday's Lavrov presser has finally had the Q&A section added to it and its a
doosey! Lavrov's sounds incendiary in print! "Question: Your recent interview generated a lot
of controversy. You implied that Russia admits the possibility of breaking off with the EU.
How do you see this break and what conditions would have to happen for it to occur, that is,
where does Moscow draw the red line?"
Lavrov: "This interview took place on February 12, and the EU High Representative for
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell was here on February 5. Upon his return, he
made a number of statements to the effect that Russia had failed to live up to expectations
and to become a modern democracy and is rapidly moving away from Europe. That is, it sounded
as if Russia was a hopeless case. This happened several days before the interview. Hence, the
question as to whether we were ready to break off with the EU during the interview with
Vladimir Solovyov based on those remarks about Russia. As a matter of fact, anyone who is
even slightly interested in the situation in Europe has long known that a break-off has been
underway for many years now. The EU has been consistently tearing down our relations.
"2014 was a turning point. A coup took place in Ukraine, and the EU showed it was helpless
and unable to comply with the agreement that was reached between the government and the
opposition right before the coup. Importantly, Germany, France and Poland put their
signatures under it. The opposition spat on these signatures and on the EU, which thought it
was important to comply with this agreement. It was then that the EU was really humiliated.
Everyone knows what happened next. By and large, the EU turned a blind eye to the attacks
against the residents of Crimea and eastern Ukraine on the part of the ultras and neo-Nazis
who came to power, and decided to put all the blame on the Russian Federation.
"The EU has consistently destroyed all the mechanisms without exception that were based on
the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, including the biannual summits and annual meetings
between the Russian Government and the European commissioners and presidents of the European
Commission, projects to form four common spaces, over 20 sector-specific dialogues and almost
every other more or less important contact, as well as the Partnership and Cooperation
Council's annual meetings with the Russian Foreign Minister and the EU High Representative
for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. These meetings were supposed to be used to conduct a
full review of all areas of cooperation between Russia and the EU. To reiterate, all of that
has been destroyed. Not by us, mind you."
That's the most candid I've read of his answers to the events of that time. Lavrov turns
down his fire and brimstone to make this very important distinction as he finishes his
answer:
" Importantly, we do not have any problems in our relations with individual European
countries , I would even say, most European countries. Russia's relations with Finland
are a very good example of how they are being built systematically and based on general
principles, primarily, equality and mutual benefit, and how they are translated into the
language of specific economic, cultural and other projects that are of interest to both
sides.
" The EU should not be confused with Europe. We are not leaving Europe, we have many
friends and like-minded people in Europe, and we will continue to expand mutually beneficial
relations with them ." [My Emphasis]
It's the NATO/EU combo controlled by the Outlaw US Empire that's the problem. And another
blast aimed at the EU over Navalny related events:
"In evaluating the questions expressed by Mr Haavisto, we heard that our colleagues from
Finland and other EU countries always bring them. We know that they are edited and written by
the EU, in Brussels, and are a subject of consensus. We hear this regularly enough, and these
statements are practically the same, word for word. If the organisation called the European
Union has made this decision, we take it as a certainty. We reply to problematic issues,
and the main point we express is how the EU consistently, diligently and deviously avoids
specific discussions that are fact-based rather than accusations often made against us for
some reason or without any evidence ." [My Emphasis]
In the last Q&A, Lavrov again restates what he earlier said about the EU being at
fault for the utter erasing of relations that were painstakingly built up over many years,
and he repeats what Merkel said at the time foe emphasis, for Russia was innocent of all the
crap it was being accused of in 2014:
"At this point, German Chancellor Angela Merkel specially took the floor to say in public
that Russia must be punished and that in this situation politics must prevail over the
economy. This was very unconventional for a representative of Germany."
This ought to remind people that this proved Merkel to merely be a cheap prostitute
unworthy of any trust, who should have been ousted from her position years ago.
"... The information discussed is from government files which outlay various projects and from companies and -- interestingly -- from charities who make bids to run the FCO projects. All underlying files are available for download as one archive file (~80 MB). ..."
"... The budget for the various anti-Russian projects runs at dozens of millions pounds per year. The first programs were launched in 2016 and some continue through this year. ..."
"... Note that 'Russian disinformation' is whatever Britain does not like about Russia. 'Exposing' such 'disinformation' is best done by spreading one's own. These are not defensive programs but attacks on Russia. ..."
"... Many years of painstaking work of HMG through its embassies and intelligence cutouts precede a chemical attack. They create Media, CSOs and pseudo humanitarian organisations that happen to be just at the correct place and in the correct time with their cameras ready when 'suddenly' a dreadful accident 'shocks every one into action'. ..."
"... Do you believe HMG staged the 'Navalny accident' as part of some kind of a secret operation? Did HMG create Media outlets, nurture bloggers and stringers that it controlled? Did it engage Russia's youth and CSOs? Did it try to demonise Putin just like it had done with Assad by labeling them Evil Dictators who poisoned their people with forbidden chemical weapons? Do you know what all of this is needed for? They need it to delegitimise a leader of a country and convince people around the world that 'no holds should be barred to fight a mad dictator'. Can you grasp the gravity of what is going on? ..."
"... That view is not even exaggerated. The 'west' has the knives out against Russia. We previous mentioned a report from the Pentagon think tank RAND which evaluated how to best 'unbalance and overextend' Russia. ..."
"... The aims we have towards Russia are very big. We do not want anything less but regime change in Russia, which is difficult to achieve by economic pressure. ..."
"... The new documents also reveal some interesting new points on Navalny who seems to be on the British government payroll: ..."
"... By now you must have guessed the identity of one of the popular YouTubers investigating corruption. After obtaining EXPOSE Network files and examining the case studies two years ago, we didn't figure out which YouTuber the FCO supported through ZINC. We refrained from making any preliminary conclusions even when journalists discovered that Vladimir Ashurkov, a close ally of Alexei Navalny, was a part of the Integrity Initiative cluster. ..."
"... But when we saw Mr. Navalny and Bellingcat together, things started to make sense. By digging deeper, we discovered another Navalny's supporter who lives in London - some shadowy Maria Pevchikh who is promoting a system of smart voting in Russia. The Labour used a similar voting system to take the votes of the Conservatives. So, basically it is highly likely that the UK recommended the system to Mr. Navalny. ..."
"... It also turned out that Navalny began a smear campaign against the RT - one of the few media outlets in the West that allows those who disagree with the official position of western government to speak out. Note that Navalny's campaign was running in parallel with that of the Integrity Initiative. A reasonable question is - why Navalny who is mostly engaged in political battles inside Russia spends time fighting a TV network operating outside the country? ..."
"... Not only countries bordering Russia, a cell existed in Spain and it had consequences, when the new government came to power the local cell ran a campaign against the new nominee for National Security for not being tough on Russia as required, he was out of the job, and the main local newspapers were and are in bed with British intelligence dutifully reporting how bad Russia is and how good Navalny and his boys are, journalists working for the media with the largest readership in the country. ..."
"... Devinette: when was the last time a state which was not supported by the US has committed a chemical attack? ..."
"... BTW Maria Pevchikh accompanied Alexei Navalny from Omsk to Berlin. She was the one who was supposed to have gone to his hotel room in Tomsk and picked up the water bottle supposed to contain Novichok, at least until information came out that she acquired the water bottle from a vending machine at Omsk airport en route to Berlin. Pevchikh was the one person in Navalny's entourage who did not submit to questioning by Russian authorities on Navalny's poisoning. ..."
"... I recall that I first found the video below from a MofA comment, but very pertinent to this discussion and maybe it is discussing the same program: Top French Intel Boss Reveals Operation Beluga: US UK Plot to Discredit Putin and Destabilize Russia ..."
"... It gives me pause to try to understand the ethics / morals / humanity of the thousands of western bureaucrats working on these elaborate (sometimes comical) plans to destroy other nations. ..."
"... One visible thing about the complete "undermining of Russia", is that a large amount of bureaucratic planning has gone into it. The quantity of companies that have been employed and with specific duties to perform is shocking. An incidental factor is that the UK and French participants get well paid. £975 or £700 per day, in comparaison to "locally found" participants. ..."
The reporting was based on the British Integrity Initiative's internal files which some 'anonymous' organization had acquired
and published.
Data acquired from Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office by the same group
revealed large British propaganda programs in support of Jihadis in Syria as well as British influence operations designed to
undermine the security institutions of Lebanon and to secretly influence its population.
Now another large set of files has been published by the same source. These describe an extensive British government program designed
to undermine Russia by organizing and financing 'independent' Russian language media, by 'training' Russian journalists and by secretly
paying Russian influencers. It is certainly not the only British anti-Russia program but it probably has, secretly, the most public
influence.
The anonymous author has laid out the complete Undermining Russia program in four extensive parts:
One ,
two ,
three ,
four .
The information discussed is from government files which outlay various projects and from companies and -- interestingly -- from charities
who make bids to run the FCO projects. All underlying files are available for
download as one archive file (~80 MB).
The most interesting files are the bids the companies make for projects. They reveal previous projects, methods and people and
thereby create the larger picture.
The budget for the various anti-Russian projects runs at dozens of millions pounds per year. The first programs were launched
in 2016 and some continue through this year.
ENGAGE – working through the British Council to implement people-to-people activities between ethnic Russians and
local communities to develop links along the lines of 21st century skills – includes English language skills and media literacy,
social enterprises and cultural activities;
ENHANCE – supporting independent media in Russia's near abroad to bring balance and plurality to Russian language
media, in the Baltic States and Eastern Partnership countries;
EXPOSE – by debunking and exposing Russian disinformation in real time, which can be reported in mainstream media
with the goal to expose malign state disinformation in countries that are targeted by it. If you expose disinformation, it
is less likely to be impactful; therefore, the Russian State becomes less credible.
ENABLE – working with allied governments through the Government Communication Service to improve their strategic
communications to their populations.
Note that 'Russian disinformation' is whatever Britain does not like about Russia. 'Exposing' such 'disinformation' is best
done by spreading one's own. These are not defensive programs but attacks on Russia.
Projects to achieve the above were to be implemented in nearly every country that borders Russia and has a Russian speaking minority
as well as in Russia itself.
The British government does not want you to know about such projects. The 'Supplier Event' sheet says:
Security
No unauthorised disclosures of activity on this work. Contract will need to take a look at who we are working with. Basic IT
security reasonable steps should cover our requirements but the FCO may request an explanation of what steps have been taken to
ensure security and Duty of Care.
It should be noted that for security reasons, some grantees will not wish to be linked to the FCO. It should be noted that
the Programme Team would prefer the programme documents do not end up in the Russian media. We know that they are following us,
and we are expecting an expose soon.
What is the overall purpose of such secret programs? The author of the Undermining Russia series
explains that with regards
to the 'poisoning' of Alexei Navalny:
Many years of painstaking work of HMG through its embassies and intelligence cutouts precede a chemical attack. They create
Media, CSOs and pseudo humanitarian organisations that happen to be just at the correct place and in the correct time with their
cameras ready when 'suddenly' a dreadful accident 'shocks every one into action'.
Do you believe HMG staged the 'Navalny accident' as part of some kind of a secret operation? Did HMG create Media outlets,
nurture bloggers and stringers that it controlled? Did it engage Russia's youth and CSOs? Did it try to demonise Putin just like
it had done with Assad by labeling them Evil Dictators who poisoned their people with forbidden chemical weapons? Do you know
what all of this is needed for? They need it to delegitimise a leader of a country and convince people around the world that 'no
holds should be barred to fight a mad dictator'. Can you grasp the gravity of what is going on? Well, you ought to. They
are preparing us for war with the Russians and the Chinese. They are looking for casus belli, and only the truth can stop them,
because 'if wars can be started by lies, they can be stopped by truth'. (Julian Assange)
That view is not even exaggerated. The 'west' has the knives out against Russia. We previous
mentioned a report from the Pentagon think tank RAND which evaluated how to best 'unbalance and overextend' Russia. In the
end it was clearly aimed at regime change in Russia, or if not otherwise possible, war. On Friday
Gabriel Felbermayr , the president of the Kiel
Institute for the World Economy, was asked by a German radio station about new sanctions the EU might impose on Russia. He is skeptic
that those might work
because (my translation):
The aims we have towards Russia are very big. We do not want anything less but regime change in Russia, which is difficult
to achieve by economic pressure.
The new documents also reveal some
interesting new points on
Navalny who seems to be on the British government payroll:
These self-exposing documents show that the FCO has established a network of popular YouTubers in Russia who investigate corruption
in the government, and the YouTubers get assistance from some journalists from the Baltic States. Also, the FCO has experience
of instigating protests in Russia.
By now you must have guessed the identity of one of the popular YouTubers investigating corruption. After obtaining EXPOSE
Network files and examining the case studies two years ago, we didn't figure out which YouTuber the FCO supported through ZINC.
We refrained from making any preliminary conclusions even when journalists discovered that Vladimir Ashurkov, a close ally of
Alexei Navalny, was a part of the Integrity Initiative cluster.
But when we saw Mr. Navalny and Bellingcat together, things started to make sense. By digging deeper, we discovered another
Navalny's supporter who lives in London - some shadowy Maria Pevchikh who is promoting a system of smart voting in Russia. The
Labour used a similar voting system to take the votes of the Conservatives. So, basically it is highly likely that the UK recommended
the system to Mr. Navalny.
It also turned out that Navalny began a smear campaign against the RT - one of the few media outlets in the West that allows
those who disagree with the official position of western government to speak out. Note that Navalny's campaign was running in
parallel with that of the Integrity Initiative. A reasonable question is - why Navalny who is mostly engaged in political battles
inside Russia spends time fighting a TV network operating outside the country? Was RT really such a problem for him? No, it wasn't.
It was a problem for the Western imperialists and apparently, they told Navalny to join in.
Anyway. Here are again links to the four parts of 'Undermining Russia':
One ,
two ,
three ,
four .
They give extensive insight into the methods the 'west' is using to destroy foreign countries. Knowledge that one needs to really
understand what is happening in this world.
Posted by b on February 15, 2021 at 19:24 UTC |
Permalink
Projects to achieve the above were to be implemented in nearly every country that borders Russia and has a Russian speaking
minority as well as in Russia itself.
Not only countries bordering Russia, a cell existed in Spain and it had consequences, when the new government came to power
the local cell ran a campaign against the new nominee for National Security for not being tough on Russia as required, he was
out of the job, and the main local newspapers were and are in bed with British intelligence dutifully reporting how bad Russia
is and how good Navalny and his boys are, journalists working for the media with the largest readership in the country. Some
got fired when the scandal went public, others went through the revolving door, that simple. They had a lot to do with the Assange
case, as explained in the link bellow.
Russian authorities are more sophisticated that the British, not to mention Americans. The way I see it, American flunkies tend
to make most glaring mistakes routinely, and with propaganda efforts they may get some mileage in Latin America -- not as much
as they could wish. But in Europe and Middle East, it takes the British to keep track which country is which etc.
In that vein, Russia is not so eager to clobber Navalniks with political accusations. To a larger degree than China and the
West, Russia wants to allow free access to information etc., and focuses on discrediting "Navalniks". Let them have 40 offices
around the country plus a slew of foreign ones, online TV channels etc. In the same time, Russia is copying Western methods.
For example, tagging people as "foreign agents" if they use foreign money to operate.
Converting stories "discrediting the regime" into flops, like "Putin palace".
Imposing rules that make it hard for new parties to run in elections -- copied from New York State?
Imposing rules that make it hard to run demonstrations where you want and issuing pesky penalties for violations.
In the same time, collaborating with the West puts people who do it in an unpopular box. Navalny tries to circumvent those
limitation with rank demagogy, but he still suffers by contagion, and from condemnations from less cynical followers of other
Western projects -- for accepting Russian Crimea, frowning on immigrants etc.
On the US side, the program 60 Minutes just aired a segment where president of Microsoft claimed that the Russians used 1000+
hackers for the SolarWinds flair. No wonder Microsoft produces such crap software. If the Russians could manage 1000+ engineers,
then they should be outsourced for all of DOD's software.
The Biden admin is supposedly now deciding what new sanctions or actions to take against Russia. And this psyop comes out.
Timing. All about timing. Somebody timed this.
Just confirms that the Biden regime will take the US into a shooting war with Russia just as the Brits were going toward that
if their propaganda failed to oust Putin.
Thanks b.
Skimmed through part 1.
I see you are quoted. A question (which may be answered in a later part of the same), are the connections to the "five eyes" as well as the Spanish
(re. Paco post) organised by the UK or are they joint efforts? (Anonymous doesn't think too much of the others.)
The FCO seems to be the operative, but is it really the originator? In the sense that at present the financial and "sanctions"
elements are part of US/Israel policy. They may have been suggested by the FCO discretely?
-----
I note that Corbyn was attacked for anti-semitism by the FCO and also by Israeli media. They also seem to be deeply involved in
the same setup. Were the Israelis involved in the planning?
Many things to consider given this new information. It provides extra dimensions to
Today's Crooke
essay and the
one by Tim Kirby I posted yesterday. Agent Smith tried to pooh-pooh it all by saying the international culture wars are a
side show when in reality they are the crux of the matter since at the end of the day everything boils down to First Principles--Values.
Truth, Virtue and Promotion of the Individual to Advance the Many versus Lies, Deceit and Denigration of the Individual to Advance
The Few.
@10 erelis. Noticed the paid advert on 60 minutes last nite, also. But after watching for 5 minutes, had to switch channels. Saw
b's latest write up on Solarwinds which I would tend to trust note than ms / CBS. A follow up from b would be nice.
The poisoning narratives touted by the Western oligarchies and their corporate media should be seen for what they are, hilariously
funny. As I said on a previous occasion, I laughed out loud for about half a minute when I read that Navalny had been poisoned
with a 'novichok-like substance'. In the most literal sense those stories do not pass the laugh test. From the
Litvinenko-polonium
story to the Navalny- novichok underpants story they have all been a tissue of quite absurd lies.
Worryingly, despite the absurdities and the frequent changing of details in these narratives, people who are demonstrably quite
intelligent in their daily lives appear to be buying into the anti-Russian narrative. People who can watch 'Game of Thrones' and
comprehend a fictional character's argument when he asks the question 'why would I frame myself' are seemingly incapable of applying
the argument in real life situations. Why would the FSB frame themselves? Why would they use a substance that has not yet succeeded
in killing any of the intended targets? There must be literally hundreds if not thousands of toxins that could be used and there
are countless other ways of killing a person.
Imagine a check box list of the desirable characteristics of an assassination weapon, neither 'novichok' nor polonium would
tick enough (if any) of those boxes to be considered.
So what is it about? Clearly that rubbish is not going to work on the people of the Russian Federation (at least not enough
of them to be worthwhile) That just leaves us as the target, they are quite obviously manufacturing consent. Do they actually
mean to start WW3? or is it a bluff intended to frighten the Russians into submission? Or ruin their economy with massive increases
in arms expenditure? Perhaps it is just more pressure to cancel Nordstream 2 so the US can sell their overpriced fracked gas and
delay their coming economic collapse for a short while. Only time will tell, I fear the worst.
Oligarchies usually end with arrogance, stupidity, ignorance and eventually insanity. The modern counterparts of Nero and Caligula
are running the western world. While dynasties are usually founded by exceptional people, as a rule the only exceptional thing
about their descendants is their arrogance.
Russians can, and do, watch and read western media to see firsthand how badly western press slander Putin and Russians in
general. Putin is extremely popular in Russia for saving the country from oligarchs, reuniting Crimea, shutting down western sponsored
terrorism in southern Russia and standing up to naked aggression from NATO. Western press shows Russians just how stupid western
people have become by believing the inane poisoning stories, airplane shootdowns, and Russian "invasions" such as Crimea. The
Russians only need to read western press to know the west is preparing regime change or war. Putin and the Kremlin do not need
to say a word to convince Russians the west considers them enemies.
The constant lies about Russia and threats to Europeans and Turkey are backfiring. The Germans, Turks and others are furious
over the British and Americans constantly demonizing them for making smart business deals and military purchases with Russia.
With all the "maximum pressure" campaigns and sanctions, some European and Middle East countries consider the US and UK bigger
threats than Russia.
If the west actually achieves the goal of starting war with Russia, the result will be disastrous for the west. Russia has
become so advanced militarily, there is no doubt Russia would easily crush any attacks and then counter attack. Be careful what
you wish for, Americans.
Whilst we the British people, who have no problem with the Russians, have no say in the matter.
Oh to be a fly on the wall at the next official Anglo Russian get together. That will be a 'shortest straw' gig as no British
politician will want to face Lavrov now, especially after that EU prat visit last week.
What's going on? Why this animosity towards Russia?
I'll give you my opinion.
The British leadership are VERY ambitious. The nature of their empire has changed. First, They no longer seek to become an
empire of nations, but rather an empire of national leaders - primarily Heads of State who control the domestic legal system.
Second, they are a feminist empire, with power passed from mother to daughter. They are able to do this because, while there can
be but one King, there can be multiple queens simultaneously. For example, from the death of George vi in 1952 until the death
of Mary of Teck in 1953 there were no less that three queens of the United Kingdom. Then until 2001 there were two queens. Like
chess, with two queens you always win the game.
But they can only do this while the United Kingdom exists. England alone, shorn of Scotland, loses the medieval laws and powers
that underpin this empire.
If you investigate the monarchies of Europe you will find that they all are members of the Order of the Garter (KG). This is
a sovereign order, which means that in order to join one must swear an oath to the Sovereign of the Order, Queen Elizabeth.
If you investigate the politicians of the US you will find many that have joined the Order of Bath (KB) even though it is explicitly
against the constitution for them to do so (I think it is called the Emoluments Clause, but I may have misremembered). Again,
in order to join this organization you must swear an oath to Queen Elizabeth.
It used to be that only the Republicans (Reagan, Bush, Weinberger and so on). But in January 2001 I came across a photograph
of the three Clintons "leaving Buckingham Palace following a private visit". The benefits gained by the Clintons is what has launched
the family into the big time of money and personal unrestrained power and the complete control of the Democratic Party.
This is a millennial empire. It is meant to last for a thousand years. The other great civilizations - Russia, China, Iran - are equally millennial, and are seen as a threat to the British plans
for world domination.
The other great civilizations understand all I have written. They know a fight is coming. And I think that this is the reason
that Lavrov finally took off the gloves when dealing with Borrell last week. For while he would bend over backwards to understand
the EU position in the past, the UK has now quit the EU. The only ties now to the British Empire are those personal ones to the
monarchs of Europe like, in the case of Borrell, Felipe vi and his father, juan Carlos. Both Knights of the Garter.
@ John Cleary | Feb 15 2021 22:07 utc | 19 with the description of the British empire
About that Queen thing. I can't think right now where the details are but it is my understanding that annually the Queen presents herself to the City
of London in a supplicatory manner. I agree that there is empire and that the Queen is part of the fabric of the curtain behind which are the real lever movers,
those that own global private finance.
British hostility to Russia has a long history. Indeed, we should not forget that the British Royal family supported Hitler. No
doubt this, at least in part, accounts for Neville Chamberlain's 'appeasement' Adolf Hitler, following Germany's annexation of
Sudetenland in 1938 and sequent invasion of Czechoslovakia in March, 1939.
See- A brief history of the British Royals and their alleged Nazi connections 28 Aug 2017; Link:
https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2017/08/28/brief-history-british-royals-and-their-alleged-nazi-connections
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 15 2021 21:27 utc | 14 -- "Many things to consider given this new information. It provides extra dimensions
to Today's Crooke essay and the one by Tim Kirby I posted yesterday. Agent Smith tried to pooh-pooh it all by saying the international
culture wars are a side show when in reality they are the crux of the matter since at the end of the day everything boils down
to First Principles--Values. Truth, Virtue and Promotion of the Individual to Advance the Many versus Lies, Deceit and Denigration
of the Individual to Advance The Few."
Thanks, karlof1, for yet another informative article. Saved it for study along with the Tim Kirby article.
So much to read... so much to learn.... so much to pleasure in.... first principles, eternal values, objective truth, good
governance... and did God say that the white man's burden is to go rape, pillage, rob the rest of the world?
And thanks for reminding me that his name is Agent Smith.
This is to help me remember not to engage trolls and / or idiots:
"Never again will we try to persuade a foolish person with reason, for it is senseless and dangerous. In conversation with
them, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken
possession of them. They are under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in their very being.' -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters
and Papers from Prison
... These self-exposing documents show that the FCO has established a network of popular YouTubers in Russia who investigate
corruption in the government, and the YouTubers get assistance from some journalists from the Baltic States. Also, the
FCO has experience of instigating protests in Russia ...
It would be interesting to know if the Russian-language news website Meduza.io might have some connection to this assistance
to the YouTubers. Meduza.io is based in Riga, Latvia, and employs Russian-language journalists.
Kevin Rothrock , formerly of The Moscow Times (English-language
newspaper in Moscow), is editor-in-chief of Meduza.io's international version.
BTW Maria Pevchikh accompanied Alexei Navalny from Omsk to Berlin. She was the one who was supposed to have gone to his hotel
room in Tomsk and picked up the water bottle supposed to contain Novichok, at least until information came out that she acquired
the water bottle from a vending machine at Omsk airport en route to Berlin. Pevchikh was the one person in Navalny's entourage
who did not submit to questioning by Russian authorities on Navalny's poisoning.
I think we should see a bit more (in Google's English-language translation) of what Gabriel Felbermayr said to Katharina Petz
of Deutschlandfunk:
Gabriel Felbermayr : I am sceptical about [further sanctions]. The question is always what we want to achieve with
sanctions. If we really want to bring Russia to its knees economically, we would need a large coalition of countries to do so,
and Europe alone cannot do as much as is necessary. At least China on board and, best of all, India and other [Russia's] trading
partners would need it. The fact that sanctions have worked so badly in the past has to do with the fact that they are being undermined
by other countries, that is a key problem. That is why I am sceptical that putting a on it (sic) really helps now. The objectives
we have with Russia are very large. After all, we want nothing less than regime change in Russia, which is very difficult to achieve
with economic pressure ...
... I believe that we must also see who we are hitting with the sanctions. Are these really the people who are acting and
who, in the light of the sanctions, may then reconsider their actions, or is it the general population that is hit very diffusely,
each a little bit. This does not hurt enough, so to speak, to put great pressure on the regime, but it does hit the general public.
That is why I believe that a sanctions instrument that is much more adicating (sic) to individuals is more promising and does
not affect the broad mass of Russians. That already exists, we are using it in the European Union. These could be travel restrictions,
that could be the freezing of assets abroad, and this could also be sanctions against certain companies that are very close to
the Kremlin. Perhaps there is more that can be done than Europe alone, because Russian foreign assets are not in China, so to
speak, and the second residences of Russian oligarchs are not somewhere in the Third World, but in Monaco and London and Paris.
So smart sanctions are certainly what is more promising – one has to ask whether Europe has the right instruments ...
...Yes, of course, the economic impact of the sanctions is quite different. Germany suffers from the Russia sanctions that
have been in place since 2014, more than any country in the world, in absolute terms, and is also much more affected in percentage
of economic output than in France. In Germany, this costs about 0.2% of GDP, according to various estimates, and in France this
figure is much lower. There are, of course, other European countries where the level of concern is higher, [Bulgaria] for example,
or the Eastern European Member States of the European Union as a whole. This unequal concern is certainly a political dilemma.
It is also a political problem with regard to the United States of America, which, while always insisting and pushing for
sanctions, has so far drawn little economic disadvantage from it, simply because US trade with Russia is very low. That is the
core problem when it comes to forging a broad coalition that costs are too unevenly distributed. We would certainly also have
to think about compensation mechanisms within Europe or within the Western world, so that the joint fight against the violation
of human rights, for example in Russia, must be paid for economically, not only by a few countries ...
... Yes, I would agree, I think [Nordstream II shutdown] is overestimated. The question is how much billions of export revenues
Russia generates in the European Union by selling natural gas, that is the central question. And whether natural gas enters the
European Union via Ukraine or Turkey or Germany does not matter much. It may even be the case that the possibility of shutting
down or blocking such a pipeline again, or imposing conditions, means that Germany will even get a leverage over Russia that would
not otherwise have been possible.
So I also think that Nord Stream 2 is overestimated. Here again the question would have to be asked, who does it actually
cost if you do not complete the project. A great many European and German investors are also negatively affected, and with sanctions
we want to inflict pain, above all, on the Russian power apparatus and not on ourselves. I believe that Nord Stream 2 is a bad
instrument ...
So the sanctions regime against Russia is hitting the EU, and Germany and parts of Eastern Europe in particular, harder than
it's hitting Russia and the EU needs more nations on board with sanctioning Russia.
I can't imagine the US would be willing to compensate the EU for any losses it has to sustain by sanctioning Russian government
officials and businesspeople.
The UK aristocracy and their opportunists have nothing to credit themselves but ill-gotten money or the hope thereof, they have
always been forced to equate money=virtue to pretend to any merit, between themselves and their families. This is the cause of
their eternal hatred of socialism and virtue in government, and their eternal hatred of Russia, even in the post-USSR era. If
they have no one with less money to hate, they have no claim to personal merit, and must face the truth.
Of course the same is true of the upper classes anywhere, even among the poorest. For what was the purpose of their lying,
cheating, stealing and perpetual materialism, what were the values they taught their children, if money is not virtue. Virtue
is an unknown land to them, an unforgiveable sin, for that way lies the ugly truth about them.
Lots of people living in la la land - that is - in the good old times when the West subjugated the planet.
UK economic drop 2020
-10 %
EU economic drop
-7 %
Russia economic drop
-3.1 %
Moment to reach 2019 Q4 economic level:
UK beginning of 2023
EU beginning of 2023
Russia Autumn 2021
>>Gabriel Felbermayr: The aims we (EU) have towards Russia are very big. We do not want anything less but regime change in
Russia.
Yes, Gabi, it is good that you are honest. It will only warn people of your intentions, so it is preferable to talk that way.
:) Meanwhile, in the real world, lots of EU businesses and NGOs will flew out from Russia and be replaced with Asian ones. It already happening with cars, trade, energy flows, diplomatic missions and tourists. So good riddance to bad rubbish.
>>I can't imagine the US would be willing to compensate the EU for any losses it has to sustain by sanctioning Russian government
officials and businesspeople.
The place of the EU in this whole scheme was already described by Victoria Nuland. That is - "F the EU". :)
This is not a problem though, they have long experience with it.
US will not be selling any LNG to EU/Germany to compensate for loss of NS2. The fracking business is shutting down and shutting
down right now. Wells are going offline, replacements are not being drilled. No drill, no gas. Fertilizer shortages are already
in sight. As we lose ability to grow food we will not be sending feedstock material across the ocean just because it sounded good
in a strategic fantasy.
Posted by b on February 15, 2021 at 19:24 UTC | -- "They give extensive insight into the methods the 'west' is using to destroy
foreign countries."
Thanks, B, for using the light of truth to expose the insanity of western leadership. It gives me pause to try to understand the ethics / morals / humanity of the thousands of western bureaucrats working on these
elaborate (sometimes comical) plans to destroy other nations. How does a "civil" servant like that conceive such evil, then go home to teach their children how to be human beings? This banality of evil is absolutely unfathomable to ordinary people such as I.
Reminds me of the thousands of good Germans who "went along to get along" on the way into WW2. Also, the thousands of good British "planners" who war-gamed their way into WW2.
>>And whether natural gas enters the European Union via Ukraine or Turkey or Germany does not matter much.
This ignorant euro-puppet should be fired immediately.
Having a gas pipeline via Turkey increases the geopolitical weight of Turkey and it allows it to blackmail the Balkan Countries
receiving the gas.
Using the Ukrainian route means that additional billions of euros will have to be invested in repairing the old and disrepeit
Ukrainian Gas Transit Network which is from the 80s, with good amount of the money disappearing due to corruption.
The gas then may stop due to Russia-Ukrainian disputes (as it happened in the past) or "misterious" explosions may happen on
the pipeline (as it happened too).
It is also unclear for how long will Russia be interested in saving the EU from freezing (in January the EU was forced to buy
record amounts of gas due to cold temperatures), considering the rise of Asian markets.
Right now Russia is connecting the Western pipelines and the Eastern Pipelines, meaning that "EU gas" may be reserved for the
East.
Gazprom is also looking to accelerate work on the Power of Siberia 2 (PoS2) pipeline, as part of plans to unite domestic gas
transmission infrastructure across eastern and western Russia into a single system.
TASS reports Lavorv's comments after meeting Finnish Foreign
Minister revealing the lawless nature of the EU's behavior as it abets crimes against its own laws:
"The minister paid special attention to the fact that Brussels enables brazen violations of rights of Russian speakers and
attacks on the Russian language and culture in the Baltic States, Ukraine and several other states. '
Of course, we cannot
but take into account the EU condoning blatant breaches of Russian speakers, Russians and the attacks on the Russian language
and culture that we witness in the Baltic States, Ukraine and some other countries. When Russian-speaking [TV] channels are shut
down, when criminal cases are opened against Russian-speaking journalists for simply doing their jobs, when the disgraceful institute
of statelessness remains in the EU, while the European Union watches it all without any desire to change anything, I believe that
it is not Russia distancing itself from the EU, but the very EU moves away from the Russian language, Russian culture and all
things Russian, meaning that it is drifting away from the Russian Federation ,' the minister noted." [My Emphasis]
As reported earlier, Russia will finish Nord Stream 2 and continue fulfilling its commitments. But given EU co-responsibility
for the terrorism and refugee crises combined with the recent revelations, I don't see any positive developments occurring.
Thanks for that very revealing translation of Gabriel Felbermayr's words. It shows that a man can be intelligent and insane
at the same time. He speaks as if the need for destroying Russia is a given. Sounds like he is one of those thousands who go along
to get along....
"I fooled myself. I had to. I didn't want to see it, because I would then have had to think about the consequences of seeing
it, what followed from seeing it, what I must do to be decent. I wanted my home and family, my job, my career, a place in the
community." -- Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45
For Psychohistorian and John Cleary, regarding the City of London...
The City was never thoroughly brought to heel by William the Conqueror with the result that it was granted a sort of autonomy
within the realm, hence its absence in the Doomsday Book, which assessed the realm's lands for taxation by the crown. Whether
or not it is part of the United Kingdom is a moot point, for its autonomy (strengthened over time) makes it, in a sense, impervious
to United Kingdom legislation that it wishes to ignore. In this regard, it is a sort of anomaly, like the Channel Islands (the
last remaining part of the Duchy of Normandy still under the British crown) and the Isle of Mann, both of which are NOT part of
the United Kingdom and were not part of the European Union, and both of which are notorious tax havens.
The peculiar status of the City of London is what has made it a great financial center, for it can regulate itself (and does,
to some extent, if only to keep the scandalmongers at bay), unlike the New York and Swiss financial centers, which are subject
to "outside" oversight, New York by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and Switzerland by the FINMA (Financial Market
Supervisory Authority).
MarkU @ 16 -- "While dynasties are usually founded by exceptional people, as a rule the only exceptional thing about their descendants
is their arrogance."
Ancient Chinese wisdom on generational wealth: First generation make money; second generation keep money; third generation
lose money. Start over.
MarkU @ 16 -- "Oligarchies usually end with arrogance, stupidity, ignorance and eventually insanity. "
Good fit for most parts of the Western (*) leadership, lying one day, reversing their own lies the next, then reverting to
their original lie, then pivoting to some other lie. Insane. They have gone past derision, gone past shame, gone past dishonour,
into insanity. Destruction cometh next.
"Now it's time to expose another intelligence cutout - BBC Media Action. Don't be surprised that the detested mainstream media
outlet BBC has its own secret firm which gets its funding from your taxes as well as from the CSSF." (Taken from part two)
One visible thing about the complete "undermining of Russia", is that a large amount of bureaucratic planning has gone into
it. The quantity of companies that have been employed and with specific duties to perform is shocking. An incidental factor is
that the UK and French participants get well paid. £975 or £700 per day, in comparaison to "locally found" participants.
Other things of note are the targeting of Russian speaking, younger age groups and the admission that the over 40's are more
difficult to change. (This is a common factor for other areas of propaganda as well.)
The "Covid story" has had an effect. No longer are " mother and daughter tea parties " with 40 participants possible.
Not a joke , but it serves to underline the thoroughness of the propaganda effort leading up to effect a "regime change".
----
About the Monarchy, and inferred connection to the "landed Gentry Aristocracy". Possible, but would rely on education in the "best"
Schools, and their production of eligible members of "secret" manipulative societies via old boy networks, as well as "ordinary"
leaders. ie Politicians, Top civil servants.
Private Schools such as Eton and Harrow have recognised "specialities" and form the basis of networks. It is not for nothing that
you have to put the names down of likely progeny almost at birth. Closed shop attitude as in a "trade Union"! ST. Johns, Leatherhead,
produces clergy for example.
The UK Monarchy was connected by intermarriage to almost all the Royalty in Europe. There are still connections (for those who
have the cash), through such goups as Bilderberg, etc.
The relation of the "Dukes" to a desire to take over Russia, is a possible source of interest. ie. The Duke of Grosvernor owns
the Square mile of the City of London. (Which is an entity in itself.) The City has the key to the finance of the UK and much
of the "dark money, and money laundering in the world.
----
all for today.
Obama, Bernie and DJT have led their flocks to nowhere. What led us to them is the establishment's desire to derail
populist Movements.
One clue (among many): Each of these so-called populists is pro-Empire.
Obama conducted covert wars and regime changes. He declined to prosecute any CIA people for rendition & torture
and dismissed privacy concerns about NSA spying. He also lied to us: 1) about a 'public option' in his healthcare plan and
2) never making the Bush tax cuts permanent (Obama participated in the 'fiscal cliff' farce that made most Bush tax cuts permanent
while cutting social programs);
Bernie , aka "Senator F35" is a closet Zionist that supports the Empire. He was Hillary's sheepdog in 2016. He then
founded "Our Revolution", a nonprofit that accepted money from large donors. Bernie folded like a tent in 2020 to support establishment
candidate Biden. Bernie put forth a bogus bill to end US involvement in the Saudi war on Yemen that would not actually end
that involvement due to an exception. And he has criticized Venezuela's Maduro as USA has been trying to overthrow him.
Trump - a billionaire conman, Clinton insider, and friend of Epstein - got in front of the Tea Party parade with
slogans like "America First". His actions show that he is a fraud who is actual "Empire First". Trump dramatically increased
spending on the military, terminated multiple peace agreements, renegged on his peace deal with North Korea, gave Israel everything
on its wish list (including killing Iranian Gen. Soleimani), militarized space, and continued the War on Whistle-blowers with
prosecution of Assange. Along the way he lied to the American people about the severity of the looming pandemic and excused
MbS's killing of Jamal Khashoggi.
Nothing will change as long as we keep falling for compromised leaders that are promoted by a compromised media.
I heard this when I was a student in London. It may be hearsay after all, as I also tried to find relevant info after your
comment. Trouble is the enormous power of the City, the Banks, and major corporations all who have a "vote" (or not) in the affairs
of the Corporation, make any detailed study next to impossible. Trusts, etc. I followed somebodies FOI request which led to .....
nothing.
Note that known Grosvenor territory (the house I had a flat in. The street belonged to them.) were part of their assets, and
in the last seven years of a 99yr lease. After which it had to be "returned in the same state as it was "sold" in the first place.
The present Duke does apparently not have much to say in the Grosvenor Family Trust. He is still rich. (according to one grovelling
article).
It does make a prime suspect for setting up the Anti-Russian saga, as those Banks/Corporations and Billionaires etc. would
be the ones to profit massively from a"regime change".
Like clockwork, the NYT begins to set a rationalization for more US imperialism in Syria. This is such a contrived article. It
doesn't come out of the blue.
These ferocious dogs never stop. The push is to rebuild the Turkish relationship, and so regain influence over Syria through 'protecting
Idlib' and its 'children.'
About Tim Kirby advises to Russia. The guy is completely delusional and really ignorant of Russia history and mental structures.Russi
is not going to metamporphose in USA or UEJohn Hermer:
http://johnhelmer.net/1000th-dance-with-bears/
But Russia is going fine with China
Thanks for your reply! I've often disagreed with Kirby; but as I wrote in my first linking to his essay, there are some suggestions
that merge with ideas we've discussed over the months here. I've written about what I see as Russia's fundamental ideology, how
it differs from the West, and fume intensely when Putin says differences with the West aren't ideological when it's so clear they
are--Putin just laid out the vast chasm in his Davos speech. Lavrov just reiterated that Russia cannot abide nations/organizations
that are pathological prevaricators. And China is the same. IMO, the First Principles of Russia and China are the ones humanity
needs to adhere to and merge with policy. They are the same as those proposed by Henry Wallace for his Century of The Common Man.
I see them as an evolutionary step forward to a Commonwealth of Humanity that would inspire a Great Leveling--which the elite
of course oppose. The most recent manifestation of the Abrahamic Religions also appeals to such an arrangement as does most Afro/Asian
philosophy.
What we have is an embattled minority trying to keep its power using every trick at its disposal. The #1 question most of us
have: Is that minority suicidal--will it see nuclear war as a way to keep its position? Putin has answered that if it does try
it will lose. And IMO, the minority knows that it currently will lose but hopes to reverse that outcome--They don't seek compromise
as they want it all. And that's where the big problem lies--How to dissuade them of their unattainable Zero-sum Fetish?
So empire (is it British, American, Jewish...) threw up Donald Trump as the attempt to gather the totally delusional around a
maniacal "strong/bully" leader to push back against the Russia/China axis and it didn't work entirely like they wanted but it
broke enough social anchors to increase the fragility/fear factors of society. When the mostly manufactured crisis does come they
trust their ability to manufacture Western outcomes that keep private finance alive and with some ongoing control over some chunk
of the world.
I don't expect to live to see private finance go entirely away anymore. I think the trajectory is set in that direction but
the timeframe will be longer than I wanted/expected. Look at the number of commenters here that still want to play whack-a-mole
bad apples games while behind the curtain the global private finance elite are continuing their species perversion through British
ways like b has shown here.
The West needs a better social system that has the broader public instead of a cult of folks as its focus or we will continue
our road to deserved extinction.
emersonreturn @ 9, I have just done the same this morning as gently as I could with family members in New Zealand. It is very
hard for them to recognize this is not all Trump's doing - especially when they are benefitting from better government themselves
as far as coping with the virus, and they remember fondly better days in the relationship with the US.
Lavrov at work, day after day. Today with Togolese Foreign Minister, a quick translation so as to induce a little smile:
Question: How do Western countries view the rapprochement between Russia and African countries?
Foreign Minister Lavrov: In different ways. Some are neutral, others, like the former US Administration, are very negative.
Former US Secretary of State M. Pompeo traveled to Africa before the end of President Trump's term and publicly urged not to cooperate
with Russia and China in the field of trade, because Moscow and Beijing allegedly proceed from geopolitical interests, trying
to benefit. The United States, on the other hand, "does it from the heart." I will not comment on this kind of position.
Recently, representatives of the new US Administration called on the Russian Sputnik V vaccine to be viewed with suspicion,
since again, this is a "Kremlin's geopolitical plan" and one must be "careful" not to become "dependent on Russia."
I think Crimea was meant to be the new homeland for Israel citizens, when the usurpator state goes down. Now they will have to save
themselves to Patagonia.
Intriguing topic.
It's anyone's guess why the Christian West's front-of-curtain leaders are training the Homeland serfs to become accustomed to
24/7 lies about remote enemies. The notion that the West can "win" a war with Russia/China is laughable. Each/both could retaliate
EFFECTIVELY if attacked. So if the bs isn't about WWIII then what is it about?
My guess is that it's nothing more sophisticated than Creative Distraction from what's been going on in AmeriKKKa and, to a
lesser extent the Rest of the West, since the Oligarchs had their own taxes slashed in the '70s, '80s and '90s. This helped to
fund the Oligarch's favourite hobby: "Privatise Every Publicly Owned Monopoly/Utility." Keeping wage-growth flat also helped to
fund the take-over.
From a country-to-country perspective the trend, whilst quite uneven, has been inexorable. And there is a notable absence of
serious debate about reversing the trend.
It doesn't matter what the ultimate goal of this social engineering may or may not be. It has to be reversed. And one way to
reverse it would be to submit every excuse Rich People use to justify their tax breaks to Public Scrutiny and laughed out of court.
In the 1950s Rich People, worldwide, paid eye-watering Taxes on all 'excess income' beyond the top marginal rate. And when
they went to Heaven their Estate was taxed on its 'excess value'. They've killed off those taxes too, by playing one country/
jurisdiction off against another - using Lawfare (high-priced lawyers whom ordinary folk can't afford).
They're too eerily inept to win a war against Russia/China. Their war is against their own countrymen. And it's aim is to prevent
as many serfs as possible from getting their grubby little mits on OUR MONEY!
Thank you, karlof1 @ 14; Crooke's essay is masterful! If only others in the West could be persuaded to read it -- the references
to Ireland and India are so persuasive, but then he doesn't stop but demonstrates how the situation today is so much worse. The
bolded quote,
"...We may have democracy, or we may have surveillance society, but we cannot have both." (Emphasis added).
has to be seen in the entirety of the article to be appreciated, and his definition of the EU as a cartel is pure genius! They
are all not even worthy of the title 'empire' -- they are all cartels!!
UK loaned 1.5b to Ukraine to build 2 warships for them...plus rebuild shipyards to re construct the navy....paratroopers are training
Ukraine forces....do they plan to go against Donbass like this....reminds me of old film a bridge too far where British forces
failed ......and Nato gonna give Black Sea a lot more trouble for Russia too.
I was just going to post the link to that transcript,
From it
much can be learned about the degree of Russian involvement in Togo and Africa as a whole; this for example:
"The Association for Economic Cooperation with the African States was created in Russia following the 2019 Sochi summit. It
includes representatives from the related departments and major Russian companies. The Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, which
is a political association, was created as well. Its secretariat is located at the Russian Foreign Ministry. We agreed to hold
the forum's annual political meetings at the foreign minister level, from Russia and the African Union Troika that is comprised
of its former, current and incoming chairpersons. In 2020, we held them via videoconference with the foreign ministers from South
Africa, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Hopefully, we'll be able to meet in person in 2021."
That's a lot of interaction that also includes Russian businesses, all of which ought to be added to China's activities. In
addition to what Paco provided, there's this closing paragraph that reveals more of the Anti-Russian nature of BidenCo:
" It wasn't long ago that representatives of the new US administration said the Russian Sputnik V vaccine should be treated
with suspicion, since it was another geopolitical plan from the Kremlin, and that one must be careful not to become dependent
on Russia . It's sad if they have nothing else to say about normal and friendly relations between countries, and if this is
the only thing that they have to say about this. We never make friends with other countries in order to oppose third countries.
If Russia and its foreign partners are mutually attracted, we have every right to develop our relations as we see fit. I hope
others will also learn their lessons and treat our ties with Africa with respect." [My Emphasis]
Russia and China act while the Outlaw US Empire focuses on fashioning a False Narrative that can easily be seen as such. However,
it seems the underlying scourge is becoming easier for English speakers to see: "All animals are equal; but some animals are more
equal than others."
Too bad the mid.ru site usually does not publish the guests comments and answers, excess of caution maybe, but it was interesting
what the Togo foreign minister had to say concerning good relations with the Soviet Union and then Russia in many countries all
over Africa, he expressed his gratitude for the many African students in Russia, students that have become high cadres in Togo
and other countries. Another interesting point was the fact that Lome is the main deep water port in all of West Africa, and therefore
the minister was talking about regional matters, Togo as a hub. Macron must have watched the press conference, after all the foreign
minister spoke in French. Russia is recovering lost presence in Africa.
Some level of control of the press by intelligence agencies is present in all modern societies. The question is "when the
quantity turns into quality"/
It is strange that people are surprised by the side effect of the conversion of the state to the national security state model
(which actually happened after WWII, not now) and idealize the past so much. Probably some warts became more visible with
Internet and the rise of alternative media. Still what exists in the USA looks more like some variation of the "inverted
totalitarism" model of the national security state than the dreadful Stalinism model of the same.
One of the negative side of the Internet revolution and the revolution in communications (such as emergence of smartphones,
social sites and such) is the dramatic increase of the capabilities of state surveillance. Do intelligence agencies literally picked
up thinks that were ling on the ground for anybody to take. Look at the published material about Prism. That a natural outcome of
the ubiquity of electronic email and email portals. Low hanging fruit so to speak. And the PRISM program is just a tip of the
iceberg, and its revelation by Snowden is limited handout, so to speak.
It is fascinating to watch how the US state changed from 1980 to 2020, but nothing new under the sun: the seeds of this
transformation were planted in 1946.
"The CIA and the media are part of the same criminal
conspiracy,"
wrote Douglas Valentine in his important book,
The CIA As
Organized Crime.
This is true. The corporate mainstream media are stenographers for the national
security state's ongoing psychological operations aimed at the American people, just as they have done the same for an
international audience.
We have long been subjected to this "information warfare," whose purpose is to win the hearts and minds of the American people
and pacify them into victims of their own complicity, just as it was practiced long ago by the CIA in Vietnam and by
The
New York Times, CBS,
etc. on the American people then and over the years as the American warfare state waged endless
wars, coups, false flag operations, and assassinations at home and abroad.
Another way of putting this is to say for all practical purposes when it comes to
matters that bear on important foreign and domestic matters, the CIA and the corporate mainstream media cannot be
distinguished.
For those who read and study history, it has long been known that the CIA has placed their operatives throughout every agency
of the U.S. government, as explained by Fletcher Prouty in
The Secret Team
; that CIA
officers Cord Myer and Frank Wisner operated secret programs to get some of the most vocal exponents of intellectual freedom
among intellectuals, journalists, and writers to be their voices for unfreedom and censorship, as explained by Frances Stonor
Saunders in
The Cultural Cold War
and Joel Whitney in
Finks
,
among others; that Cord Myer was especially focused on and successful in "courting the Compatible Left" since right wingers
were already in the Agency's pocket.
All this is documented and not disputed.
It is shocking only to those who
don't do their homework and see what is happening today outside a broad historical context.
With the rise of alternate media and a wide array of dissenting voices on the internet, the establishment felt threatened and
went on the defensive. It, therefore, should come as no surprise that those same elite corporate media are now leading the
charge for increased censorship and the denial of free speech to those they deem dangerous, whether that involves wars, rigged
elections, foreign coups, COVID-19, vaccinations, or the lies of the corporate media themselves.
Having already banned critics from writing in their pages and or talking on their
screens, these media giants want to make the quieting of dissenting voices complete.
Just the other day
The New York Times
had
this
headline
:
"Robert Kennedy Jr. Barred From Instagram Over False Virus Claims."
Notice the lack of the word alleged before "false virus claims." This is guilt by
headline.
It is a perfect piece of propaganda posing as reporting, since it accuses Kennedy, a brilliant and
honorable man, of falsity and stupidity, thus justifying Instagram's ban, and it is an inducement to further censorship of Mr.
Kennedy by Facebook, Instagram's parent company.
That ban should follow soon, as the
Times
' reporter Jennifer Jett hopes, since she
accusingly writes that RFK, Jr.
"makes many of the same baseless claims to more than
300,000 followers"
at Facebook. Jett made sure her report also went to msn.com and
The
Boston Globe
.
This is one example of the censorship underway with much, much more to follow. What was once done under the cover of omission
is now done openly and brazenly, cheered on by those who, in an act of bad faith, claim to be upholders of the First Amendment
and the importance of free debate in a democracy. We are quickly slipping into an unreal totalitarian social order.
Which brings me to the recent work of
Glenn
Greenwald
and
Matt
Taibbi
, both of whom have strongly and rightly decried this censorship.
As I understand their arguments, they go
like this.
First
, the corporate media have today
divided up the territory and speak only to their own audiences in echo chambers: liberal to liberals (read: the "allegedly"
liberal Democratic Party), such as The New York Times, NBC, etc., and conservative to conservatives (read" the "allegedly"
conservative Donald Trump), such as Fox News, Breitbart, etc.
They have abandoned old school journalism that, despite its shortcomings, involved objectivity and the reporting of disparate
facts and perspectives, but within limits. Since the digitization of news, their new business models are geared to these
separate audiences since they are highly lucrative choices. It's business-driven since electronic media have replaced paper as
advertising revenues have shifted and people's ability to focus on complicated issues has diminished drastically.
Old school journalism is suffering as a result and thus writers such as Greenwald and Taibbi and Chris Hedges (who interviewed
Taibbi and concurs: part one
here
)
have taken their work to the internet to escape such restrictive categories and the accompanying censorship.
Secondly
,
the great call for censorship
is not something the Silicon Valley companies want because they want more people using their media since it means more money
for them, but they are being pressured to do it by the traditional old school media, such as
The
New York Times
, who now employ "tattletales and censors," people who are power-hungry jerks, to sniff out dissenting
voices that they can recommend should be banned.
Greenwald says,
They do it in part for power: to ensure nobody but they can control the flow of information. They do it partly for ideology
and out of hubris: the belief that their worldview is so indisputably right that all dissent is inherently dangerous
'disinformation.'"
Thus, the old school print and television media are not on the same page as Facebook, Twitter, etc. but have opposing agendas.
In short, these shifts and the censorship are about money and power within the media
world as the business has been transformed by the digital revolution.
I think this is a half-truth that conceals a larger issue. The censorship is not being driven by power-hungry reporters at
the
Times
or
CNN
or any media outlet. All
these media and their employees are but the outer layer of the onion, the means by which messages are sent and people
controlled.
These companies and their employees do what they are told, whether explicitly or implicitly, for they know it is in their
financial interest to do so. If they do not play their part in this twisted and intricate propaganda game, they will suffer.
They will be eliminated, as are pesky individuals who dare peel the onion to its core.
For each media company is one part of a large interconnected intelligence apparatus – a system, a complex – whose purpose is
power, wealth, and domination for the very few at the expense of the many. The CIA and media as parts of the same criminal
conspiracy.
To argue that the Silicon valley companies do not want to censor but are being
pressured by the legacy corporate media does not make sense. These companies are deeply connected to U.S. intelligence
agencies, as are the
NY
Times, CNN, NBC,
etc.
They too are part of what was once called Operation Mockingbird, the CIA's program to control, use, and infiltrate the media.
Only the most naïve would think that such a program does not exist today.
In
Surveillance Valley,
investigative reporter Yasha Levine documents how Silicon
Valley tech companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google are tied to the military-industrial-intelligence-media complex in
surveillance and censorship; how the Internet was created by the Pentagon; and even how these shadowy players are deeply
involved in the so-called privacy movement that developed after Edward Snowden's revelations.
Like Valentine, and in very detailed ways, Levine shows how the military-industrial-intelligence-digital-media complex is part
of the same criminal conspiracy as is the traditional media with their CIA overlords. It is one club.
Many people, however, might find this hard to believe because it bursts so many bubbles, including the one that claims that
these tech companies are pressured into censorship by the likes of
The New York Times
,
etc. The truth is the Internet was a military and intelligence tool from the very beginning and it is not the traditional
corporate media that gives it its marching orders.
That being so, it is not the owners of the corporate media or their employees who are the ultimate controllers behind the
current vast crackdown on dissent, but the intelligence agencies who control the mainstream media
and
the
Silicon Valley monopolies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. All these media companies are but the outer layer of the
onion, the means by which messages are sent and people controlled.
But for whom do these intelligence agencies work?
Not for themselves.
They work for their overlords, the super wealthy people, the banks, financial
institutions, and corporations that own the United States and always have. In a simple twist of fate, such super wealthy
naturally own the media corporations that are essential to their control of the majority of the world's wealth through the
stories they tell.
It is a symbiotic relationship.
As FDR put it bluntly in 1933, this coterie of wealthy forces is the
"financial element in
the larger centers [that] has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson."
Their wealth and power has
increased exponentially since then, and their connected tentacles have further spread to create what is an international deep
state that involves such entities as the IMF, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, those who meet yearly at Davos, etc.
They are the international overlords who are pushing hard to move the world toward a global dictatorship.
As is well known, or should be, the CIA was the creation of Wall St. and serves the interests of the wealthy owners. Peter
Dale Scott, in
"The
State, the Deep State, and the Wall Street Overworld,"
says of Allen Dulles, the nefarious longest-running Director of the
CIA and Wall St. lawyer for Sullivan and Cromwell:
There seems to be little difference in Allen Dulles's influence whether he was a Wall Street lawyer or a CIA director."
It was Dulles, long connected to Rockefeller's Standard Oil, international corporations, and a friend of Nazi agents and
scientists, who was tasked with drawing up proposals for the CIA. He was ably assisted by five Wall St. bankers or investors,
including the aforementioned Frank Wisner who later, as a CIA officer, said his
"Mighty
Wurlitzer"
was
"capable of playing any propaganda tune he desired."
This he did by recruiting intellectuals, writers, reporters, labor organizations, and the mainstream corporate media, etc. to
propagate the CIA's messages.
Greenwald, Taibbi, and Hedges are correct up to a point, but they stop short. Their
critique of old school journalism à la Edward Herman's and Noam Chomsky's
Manufacturing of
Consent
model, while true as far as it goes, fails to pin the tail on the real donkey. Like old school journalists who
knew implicitly how far they could go, these guys know it too, as if there is an invisible electronic gate that keeps them
from wandering into dangerous territory.
The censorship of Robert Kennedy, Jr. is an exemplary case. His banishment from Instagram and the ridicule the mainstream
media have heaped upon him for years is not simply because he raises deeply informed questions about vaccines, Bill Gates, the
pharmaceutical companies, etc. His critiques suggest something far more dangerous is afoot: the demise of democracy and the
rise of a totalitarian order that involves total surveillance, control, eugenics, etc. by the wealthy led by their
intelligence propagandists.
To call him a super spreader of hoaxes and a conspiracy theorist is aimed at not only
silencing him on specific medical issues, but to silence his powerful and articulate voice on all issues.
To give
thoughtful consideration to his deeply informed scientific thinking concerning vaccines, the World Health Organization, the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, etc., is to open a can of worms that the powerful want shut tight.
This is because RFK, Jr. is also a severe critic of the enormous power of the CIA and its propaganda that goes back so many
decades and was used to cover up the national security state's assassination of both his father and his uncle.
It is why his wonderful recent book
,
American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family
,
that contains not one word about vaccines
,
was
shunned by mainstream book reviewers; for the picture he paints fiercely indicts the CIA in multiple ways while also indicting
the mass media that have been its mouthpieces.
These worms must be kept in the can, just as the power of the international overlords
represented by the World Health Organization and the World Economic Forum with its Great Reset must be. They must be
dismissed as crackpot conspiracy theories not worthy of debate or exposure.
Robert Kennedy, Jr., by name and dedication to truth seeking, conjures up his father's ghost, the last politician who, because
of his vast support across racial and class divides, could have united the country and tamed the power of the CIA to control
the narrative that has allowed for the plundering of the world and the country for the wealthy overlords.
So they killed him.
There is a reason Noam Chomsky is an exemplar for Hedges, Greenwald, and Taibbi. He controls the can opener for so many. He
has set the parameters for what is considered acceptable to be considered a serious journalist or intellectual. The
assassinations of the Kennedys, 9/11, or a questioning of the official Covid-19 story are not among them, and so they are
eschewed.
To denounce censorship, as they have done, is admirable. But now Greenwald, Taibbi, and Hedges need go up to the forbidden
gate with the sign that says –
"This far and no
further"
– and jump over it.
That's where the true stories lie. That's
when they'll see the worms squirm.
4Celts
14 hours ago
(Edited)
remove
link
But
now Greenwald, Taibbi, and Hedges need go up to the forbidden gate with the sign that says –
"This
far and no further"
– and jump over it.
Easy
for you to say, Mr. Curtin.
"Since
I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the
United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a
power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they
better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." - W. Wilson
Ms No
PREMIUM
14 hours ago
That quote really does display it all and it should have chilled people to the bone.
bananaz
2 hours ago
A
*** is Director of the CIA now.
So
no can of worms will be open.
TRM
4 hours ago
remove
link
Tragedy & Hope
Wall St & the Bolshevik Revolution
Wall St & the Rise of Hitler
... ... ...
Normal
14 hours ago
remove
link
No
crap, the federal government is attacking the citizens of the nation.
Mr. Apotheosis
14 hours ago
In truth, the "owners" of the federal government are attacking the people of the world. Ever notice
how no matter what country you're referring to, they ALL have the same talking points and the same
sensationalist media? The rabbit hole goes much deeper than the US federal government. They are mere
tools as the article suggests.
wee-weed up
14 hours ago
(Edited)
The MSM are not just stenographers for the Deep State... but avid cheerleaders!
Pandelis
13 hours ago
regular scum selected for the job ....
GreatUncle
4 hours ago
remove
link
The
government is owned and controlled by the globalists.
Hell they paid for the fraudulent election what did you expect?
CIA
is just an extension of it along with the FBI.
Plus Size Model
1 hour ago
You
should look into Ivy Lee. He was one of Rockefeller's cronies for a long time. Chomsky disregards him
to distract and divert. His deeds run way deeper than Bernnays or the Creel Committee.
Ivy
Lee pioneered the modern role of press agent for big corporations. He's also credited with promoting
communism in the 20's and had the Red Cross as well as IG Fabien (Nazi Party front) as his clients.
Robert F. Kennedy is the last lawyer standing fighting and winning legal cases against large
corporations, big pharma on medical, purposeful and criminal malfeance resulting in the injury and death
of thousands of people, perhaps more. He is a brave man. He has walked in the Valley of Death with his
father and uncle's horrific murders. He fears no one. Least of all these corporations of death and
destruction along with their bought and paid for politicians. Be grateful. He legally sues corps who
pollute, poison food in addition to untested, harmful vaccines. He saves lives. Checkout
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/
play_arrow
Rubicon727
58 minutes ago
The hatred behind The Kennedy's probably harkens back to the patriarch, Joseph P.
Kennedy. He was adamantly against the formation of the CIA. Kennedy realized the
deeply criminal aspects of the CIA and vehemently pushed back.
drjimi
14 hours ago
Real journalists around the world risk their lives standing up to the government.
American "journalists" want to work for the government.
Oldwood
14 hours ago
remove
link
Corruption knows no profession, it is anywhere there's a buck and a desire for
power.
Liesel
13 hours ago
(Edited)
remove
link
Just remember, when they start censoring people, then you know the people getting
censored must be saying something of value. I knew when they went after Alex
Jones awhile back, they were coming after all of us at some point. I even said
they were coming after ZH. Unfortunately, now this place is censored like all the
rest. The scariest event happening right now is not: a pandemic, capitol riot,
impeachments, etc. No doubt, it's the censorship of the American people. In fact,
one of the very important building block of America was free speech. Essentially,
this massive censorship is an outright attack on America by shadowy-dot-gov
agencies, banks, elites, big tech, and the large corporations. Sadly enough, the
elected officials in Washington are nothing more than submissive puppets.
Ms No
PREMIUM
13 hours ago
(Edited)
That isn't always the case actually. That's why they call it limited hangout.
Somebody feigning attack and being downtrodden (like Pelosi's s garage) is
often contrived for street cred. They will also leak some valuable info (often
nothing new though, stuff that's already out or a false detour) for
credibility building.
"A
limited
hangout
or
partial
hangout
is, according to former special assistant to the
Deputy
Director
of the
Central
Intelligence Agency
Victor
Marchetti
, "spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the
clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can
no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to
admitting --
sometimes
even volunteering -- some of the truth
while still managing to withhold the
key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so
intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter
further."
[1]
[2]
"
this definition is
even limited intentionally...lol
Its used primarily
now to set up controlled opposition and control information.
I am Jack's existential crisis
14 hours ago
remove
link
The intelligence agencies
have
always been a safeguard
between the rulers and the ruled. They are in the
business of mining data on everyone while acting as provocateurs in fomenting
political and social destabilizing events
that
the public won't do on their own
. Period. They care about freedom only in
how to prevent it from occurring.
"As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible
government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been
invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented." -- Propaganda, Edward
Bernays
johnny two shoes
13 hours ago
(Edited)
remove
link
Stale repost:
The U.S.
attacked
itself
to provoke a war on 9/11.
It did the same before in Cuba, blew up its own ship...
This is called the "Batsh*t Crazy offensive defense maneuver in the dark".
It is a tried & true method.
Vlad & Xi should be scared ****less that the freaks who seized the White House
are getting ready to orchestrate an attack on themselves... and
blame
it on them, and then attack them.
maybe this time it's different, but there's all kinds of Skunk Works they've been
just itching to use
Cloud9.5
8 hours ago
(Edited)
remove
link
Read up on the Phoenix Operation in Vietnam. This will tell you all you need to
know about how the CIA operates. They are doing exactly the same thing here and
they have captured the government. The only reason any of us are still alive is
that we do not matter to them.
https://thevietnamwar.info/the-rise-of-phoenix-program-in-vietnam/
They want a monopoly of power. That is why they have been attacking the second
amendment for decades.
InfiniteIntellRules
7 hours ago
Look up Operation Gladio. That is replicated here as well. Thanks.
They work for their overlords, the super wealthy people, the banks, financial
institutions, and corporations that own the United States and always have. In
a simple twist of fate, such super wealthy naturally own the media
corporations that are essential to their control of the majority of the
world's wealth through the stories they tell.
It goes beyond that
Patmos
12 hours ago
The MK Ultra program and the deliberate creation of DID victims
And
Sirhan Sirhan being a likely subject, which is tragically on point here.
MrBoompi
4 hours ago
Professor Carroll Quigley already explained the process to us in Tragedy and Hope. The book was written
decades ago but the conspiracy it explains is still controlling the world today.
tdlcoop
7 hours ago
(Edited)
remove
link
Some have to
ask what the hell was Truman thinking in 1946 when he signed a bill that allowed an above the law and above
Government oversight department to be created?
Did he
honestly think once that department stopped spying on Cuba that he could just disband the merry men?
Really how
stupid are these Politicians?
And now you
have Democrats fronting Policy that will allow Big Tech Corporations (even though Corporations were created as a
form of abolishing Slavery) to form their own Governments! It's TPP through the back door and most Americans don't
even know it's happening.
You didn't cede power to Politicians to have them sell that power to unaccountable corporations. They don't have
that right but they do it because Americans pay more attention to the idiocy of Celebrities than they do to the
people they pay to protect the country.
Notice they call it the Central Intelligence Agency and not something with the word America or Federal in it? Just
like Central Banking the CIA wasn't created to serve/disrupt just a single Country. Having said that even the
Federal Reserve is not American but it has the word Federal in it to fool Americans.
AlexCat3741
4 hours ago
remove
link
Yup.
Whether it is a Congressional Committee holding hearings to supposedly expose truth about things perceived to be
wrong but then to do nothing except refer a matter to the Dept. of Two Tiered Justice for prosecution that never
happens; the nonsensical presentations on TV cast as "News" or entertainment in the form of Professional Sports
Contests, IT'S ALL "BREAD & CIRCUS" TO KEEP THE POPULATION DISTRACTED THAT THEIR POCKETS ARE BEING PICKED AND
THEIR FREEDOMS ERODED.
Instead of
being a sheep to focus on things that don't matter, put away your electronic leashes, e.g., iPhones, Fakebook/Twitter
Accounts, to get organized to fight for your Republic, your Constitution, and your life because whether you know
it or not,
the
United
States is in a state of war; Undeclared Total War against the basic principles and the foundations of this
Republic's Constitutional System. And the initiator of this war is not comrade Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping, of
course, it's the system, however ridiculous it may sound, the World Communist System, or the World Communist
Conspiracy, whether it scares some people or not I don't give a hoot. If you're not scared by now, nothing can
scare you.
What actually happens now that we may have literally some years to live on unless the United
States People wakes up. The time bomb is ticking. Every second, the disaster is coming closer and closer.
And
unlike earlier times in the World, we will have nowhere to defect to unless you want to live in Antarctica with
penguins. This is it. This is the last country of freedom and possibility.
redbaron
5 hours ago
The
Conquest book on the Russia revolution has a chapter describing the ideology and it is a good analysis
that accurately describes what we see today in the USSA.
Amel
5 hours ago
(Edited)
Scott called the deep state intelligence communities "supra national"...
The vast majority of the military never actually fight. When was the last serving member
of the US Navy killed while on active service aboard ship? The army is useless against any
but third world opposition.
The Marines and Special forces such as the SEALs and Rangers do the actual fighting and I
suspect that the junior officer and NCO positions there will be relatively free of diversity
in order to keep them at least semi-useful.
Meanwhile, at officer level in the Navy, regular army and Air Force it will be an orgy of
rent seeking from the pet minorities
The U.S. is inept, disorganized, and dishonest. The possibility of a nuclear detonation,
or nuclear war, occurring through incompetence, miscalculation, or systems error, is now
significant. Probably the Russian and Chinese policymakers give the U.S. a lot of latitude
for that very reason, the way a parent might placate a two-year-old to prevent a tantrum.
Putin was saying there's no single democratic model. That was eventually conceptualized
as "sovereign democracy". Democracy cannot exist without sovereignty
This is one of the key concepts here and to me the most interesting one. "Sovereign
democracy". There are actually now very few countries in the world with true sovereignty,
never mind democracy.
The ones that try to exercise sovereignty, or even that don't show sufficient servility,
are severely punished. If they aren't large or strong enough, like Syria and Lebanon, they
suffer tremendously under "sanctions", which in reality is economic warfare. If they are,
like Russia and Iran, they still suffer sanctions, but will probably ride them out.
I remember a speech by King Hussein of Jordan in 1990, in a moment of rare candor,
remarking something like, and I paraphrase: "We live in a world dictatorship". The context
was the run up to the US/Saudi/Zionist-led attack on Iraq the first time around, when George
Bush I, urged by Margaret Thatcher, assembled a huge coalition against that country. I've
never been able to locate that speech since (I would be grateful to anyone who can).
For a background on that conflict, which set up the post-Cold War order:
Looks like Venezuelan scenario with Navalny as a Russian Guado...
Notable quotes:
"... we protest about "Putin murdering his own people with combat gasses" while on the other we are about to complete North Stream 2 (NS2), which we need to remain competitive; if we continue, we will lose NS2 and we will alienate Russia even further, but if we stop acting like an idiot on suicide watch, our overseas masters will make us pay. ..."
"... Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, added that "The task [of Borrell] was to carry out a public flogging, which, I think, they planned very carefully, it was a cascade of topics: talks about rallies, talks about journalists, and making [Alexey] Navalny the main theme of the discussion". According to Zakharova , this plan failed because Russia insisted on discussing the "real issues". ..."
"... Interestingly, the Russians did not expel any US diplomats (at least not yet) in spite of the fact that these officials all agreed that the origin of the PSYOP was from overseas and in spite of the quasi-certainty that US officials must have been present, at least in the Moscow and Saint Petersburg protests ..."
"... Lavrov bluntly said " We are proceeding from the assumption that the EU is not a reliable partner, at least at the current stage. I hope that in future strategic attention will be given to the EU's fundamental interest in its closest neighbours and that the talks we have held today will promote movement to a more constructive trajectory. We are ready for this". ..."
"... Translated from diplospeak into plain English, this means 1) we are fed up with you and 2) we don't need you. ..."
"... Russia does not want a constructive dialog ..."
"... In western parlance the degree of "democratism" or "authoritarianism" is solely defined by the willingness of a country to be a satrapy of the Empire. Under this definition, all sovereign countries are "dictatorships" and all AngloZionist satrapies are paragons of democracy. ..."
"... As for Navalnyi's supporters in the EU, they have decided to create a Russian government in exile . Again, this is not a joke. By the way, the "Minister of Foreign Affairs" of this "Russian Government in Exile", Leonid Volkov , initially declared that the illegal riots should be halted, only to be told otherwise by his handlers. ..."
"... We will not hold a rally next weekend The wave of protest must end at a high point. Because if we continue to decline, it will be terribly demotivating and frustrating for everyone We will prepare well and hold something big both in the spring and in the summer. We will never give up our demands ..."
"... We'll make it much trickier ..."
"... The NATO members instructed the "opposition", and in fact their agents of influence, how to continue "more cunning" to conduct subversive work. Too much money and resources have already been invested by the West in this story to wait until spring. They clearly understand: in the spring, the information campaign pumped up by Westerners will be blown away. They can no longer juggle the topic of "chemical weapons" without presenting the facts – they are pinned to the wall. So they double down. ..."
"... As for Navalnyi and his supporters, Zakarova was even more direct , saying " stop calling them opposition, they are NATO agents !". ..."
"... As I have explained many times, western politicians double down not when they feel strong, they double down when they feel weak and when they place their hopes in the willingness of the other side not to seriously further escalate. ..."
"... 'Svetlana Tikhanovskaia has appealed to the wife of Navalnyi, Iulia, to become the "she president of Russia"'. As in the case of Juan Guaido, no need for anything as old-fashioned as an election. (For obvious reasons). ..."
"... Lavrov is following Putin's line (Davos speech), ergo that Russia is ready to interact with Europe as a mutually respectful equal partner – but not with Europe as puppet of the US NWO, NeoCon , ZioGlob/CIA crowd. Hopefully the Germans are listening and can reassess their true interests. ..."
"... Israeli is changing due to massive immigration of non-Jews from Russia ..."
This latest PSYOP was apparently organized in the US last fall, while Trump was still in
power, at least nominally. This makes sense, just like the huge "Patriot Act" was carefully
prepared months, if not years before 9/11 happened. This time around, some US intelligence
agency (probably the CIA) then passed the baby to the German BND which was supposed to act as
an intermediary to give the US "plausible deniability". The big problem is that the Germans
apparently screwed things up, and the plan was a flop: the latest sacral victim failed to die
(again!). As for Putin, he used his executive power to allow Navalnyi (who was on parole) to
immediately fly to Germany for treatment as soon as the Russian medics stabilized him. From
there on, everything went south and Navalnyi's curators scrambled to save whatever could be
saved.
They produced a movie about Putin's palace in Crimea, only to have Russian reporters film
the location and prove that this movie was a total fake. Then they sent Navalnyi back to Russia
figuring that if the Russian authorities arrested him huge protests would follow or,
alternatively, if the Russians did nothing, Navalnyi would be able to create chaos during an
important election year in Russia. This resulted in another flop, not only were the crowds in
Russia small, their behavior was deeply offensive and even frightening to most Russians who
have seen enough Maidans and color revolutions to know how this stuff ends. As for Navalnyi, he
was arrested immediately upon landing, and his parole was revoked.
Of course, all this was reported very differently in what I call Zone A , but
while this made it possible for the authors of this PSYOP to conceal the magnitude of their
failure, in the rest of the world and, especially, in Russia, it was pretty clear that this
ridiculous buffoonery had failed. That outcome presented the EU headless chicken with a major
problem: on one hand, we protest about "Putin murdering his own people with combat gasses"
while on the other we are about to complete North Stream 2 (NS2), which we need to remain
competitive; if we continue, we will lose NS2 and we will alienate Russia even further, but if
we stop acting like an idiot on suicide watch, our overseas masters will make us pay. EU
leaders obviously failed agree on a plan so, just like a headless chicken, they ran in all
directions at the same time: they publicly protested, but also sent as top official, High
Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President
of the European Commission Josep Borrell, to try to appease the Russians. Borrell actually did
a decent job trying to placate the Russians, but this time something went very wrong. Not only
was Foreign Minister Lavrov very blunt in his public comments, the Russians also expelled
3 EU diplomats for participating in the demonstrations even while Borrell and Lavrov
were talking. This is when the proverbial bovine excreta hit the fan, at least in EU whose
"watchdog media" (here I use the term "watchdog" as meaning "immediately barking at anybody
daring to stray from the official propaganda line") went crazy and accused Borrell of caving in
to the Russians. Some even demanded Borrell's resignation. As for Borrell himself, he did what
all western officials do after a visit to Moscow: he changed his tune as soon as he came back
home.
Finally, Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, added that
"The task [of Borrell] was to carry out a public flogging, which, I think, they planned very
carefully, it was a cascade of topics: talks about rallies, talks about journalists, and making
[Alexey] Navalny the main theme of the discussion". According to
Zakharova , this plan failed because Russia insisted on discussing the "real
issues".
Interestingly, the Russians did not expel any US diplomats (at least not yet) in spite
of the fact that these officials all agreed that the origin of the PSYOP was from overseas and
in spite of the quasi-certainty that US officials must have been present, at least in the
Moscow and Saint Petersburg protests . To its credit, the US embassy in Moscow did
recommend to all US citizens that they stay away from illegal demonstrations. This is an
ongoing crisis and by the time this analysis is posted, things might have changed dramatically.
My purpose today is not to look at the US or the EU, but at what I believe is a major shift in
Russian policy.
At this point, we should not see the expulsions of the 3 EU diplomats as anything more than
just a "shot across the bow", a way to indicate that the winds have changed. But these
expulsions are not big enough to qualify as a real, painful, retaliation. Why?
Because the real slap in the collective face of the EU was the press conference
of Lavrov and Borrell in which Lavrov was truly uniquely direct and candid. For
example, Lavrov bluntly said " We are proceeding from the assumption that the EU is not a
reliable partner, at least at the current stage. I hope that in future strategic attention will
be given to the EU's fundamental interest in its closest neighbours and that the talks we have
held today will promote movement to a more constructive trajectory. We are ready for
this".
Translated from diplospeak into plain English, this means 1) we are fed up with you and 2)
we don't need you.
This blunt statement is what triggered all the subsequent hysterics in Brussels about
Borrell being ill treated by the Russians and Borrell's subsequent declaration that "
Russia does not want a constructive dialog " and that the EU must now decide if it
still wants to get closer to Russia or if it wants to distance itself from a country slipping
into authoritarianism.
In western parlance the degree of "democratism" or "authoritarianism" is solely defined by
the willingness of a country to be a satrapy of the Empire. Under this definition, all
sovereign countries are "dictatorships" and all AngloZionist satrapies are paragons of
democracy.
... ... ...
As for Navalnyi's supporters in the EU, they have decided to create a Russian government in exile . Again, this is
not a joke. By the way, the "Minister of Foreign Affairs" of this "Russian Government in
Exile", Leonid Volkov , initially
declared that the illegal riots should be halted, only to be told otherwise by his handlers. He
immediately made a required 180 and declared that protests will resume. This is how Maria Zakharova bluntly, and very officially, reacted on
Facebook to his "change of mind": (minimally fixed machine translation)
NATO doubles down
On February 4, 2021, Volkov declared that the protests in Russia were canceled and will
resume in the spring and summer. " We will not hold a rally next weekend The wave of
protest must end at a high point. Because if we continue to decline, it will be terribly
demotivating and frustrating for everyone We will prepare well and hold something big both in
the spring and in the summer. We will never give up our demands ." Then, on February 9,
2021, Volkov changed his mind and announced that the campaign will continue in February. "
We'll make it much trickier " he added. What happened between February 4 and 9 and
forced the "opposition" to radically change tactics? Everything is quite simple – on
February 8, 2021, an online meeting with Volkov and Ashurkov took place at the Permanent
Mission of Poland to the EU in Brussels, in which EU countries, the United States, and
Britain took part. And in fact-this was a meeting of the NATO countries.
The NATO members
instructed the "opposition", and in fact their agents of influence, how to continue "more
cunning" to conduct subversive work. Too much money and resources have already been invested
by the West in this story to wait until spring. They clearly understand: in the spring, the
information campaign pumped up by Westerners will be blown away. They can no longer juggle
the topic of "chemical weapons" without presenting the facts – they are pinned to the
wall. So they double down.
As for Navalnyi and his supporters, Zakarova was even more
direct , saying " stop calling them opposition, they are NATO agents !".
As I have explained many times, western politicians double down not when they feel strong,
they double down when they feel weak and when they place their hopes in the willingness of the
other side not to seriously further escalate.
Now comes the best part: there are a lot of signs that the EU will, again under the pious
pretext of "solidarity" follow the 3B+PU politicians and, if not recognize such a government in
exile, at least treat its members as real officials. That is also supposed to also terrify the
Kremlin, I guess. But if that is the best the EU can come up with, VVP and the people of
Russia, can sleep in peace.
America/Israel and NATO are apparently not going to change their approach despite the
shift in both hard & soft power between the neoliberal/NWO and the pro-sovereignty blocs
in the last two decades. And Europe is going to suffer worst from this...
Germany is key to Europe. The American empire ordered Germany to double its low military
spending, they said no. Trump threatened to close American military bases in Germany, polls
showed most Germans didn't care. They ordered Germany to cancel a new NatGas pipeline to
Russia, they said no. Once they oust that Neocon puppet Merkel, the empire will be in
trouble.
What is the status of the relationship between Russia and Israel ?
If it as simple as you say – and Saker himself seems to refer consistently to the
US-NATO-EU 'Anglozionist empire', then surely Russia would recognise Israel as the key
ideological opponent to its vision of a multipolar world order ?
Yet this is not what I read. Russia has deep and cordial and increasingly close ties to
Israel, even as Israeli jets illegally bomb Syria on a regular basis. This is never
explained.
'Svetlana Tikhanovskaia has appealed to the wife of Navalnyi, Iulia, to become the "she
president of Russia"'. As in the case of Juan Guaido, no need for anything as old-fashioned as an election. (For
obvious reasons).
For example, Lavrov bluntly said " We are proceeding from the assumption that the EU
is not a reliable partner, at least at the current stage. I hope that in future strategic
attention will be given to the EU's fundamental interest in its closest neighbours and that
the talks we have held today will promote movement to a more constructive trajectory. We
are ready for this".
Lavrov is following Putin's line (Davos speech), ergo that Russia is ready to
interact with Europe as a mutually respectful equal partner – but not with Europe as
puppet of the US NWO, NeoCon , ZioGlob/CIA crowd. Hopefully the Germans are listening and can
reassess their true interests.
Also the Poles, who urgently need to wake up to the fact that that they have more in
common with Putin's Russia than they do with ZioGlob NWO USA.
Russia of late indeed is becoming more assertive, most likely because it is confidant
their military capabilities have become superior to that of their adversaries. NATO and US
know that very well, but will never let on. Their provocations are nothing more than
grandstanding.
However what would Russia do in Syria if confronted with increased American
aggression in that country? That's what I like to know. Russia is deeply involved in Syria
supporting that country in defeating ISIS. Russia has a strategically important navy base
there too. Biden so it seems wants to rekindle the war in Syria supported by Israel and will
find a pretext to do so.
@cranc The
media or the Israeli state (the same entity in actuality) claims.
Most Israeli strikes are agreed before hand with Russia. The Israelis need to save face
for their cowardly fascist habit of killing civilian Palestinians. These useless strikes
against Syria are purely symbolic and are used to deceive the Israeli and US populations.
Besides, more than 60% of Israeli citizens are not Jews, let alone practicing Jews.
Israeli is changing due to massive immigration of non-Jews from Russia, and in a generation
will change from the rulers of the US to a Russian outpost and there is nothing the Zionists
can do about it.
The United States is muscle-bound. Despite its huge military budget it can't field an army.
It has a foreign legion. ISIS, for instance, is part of its foreign legion. The European NATO
is part of its foreign legion. But there's no way American can ever have a land war again, so
you can never invade and conquer a country with a military army. All America has is the Atom
bomb, and that's muscle bound. It cannot go to wage any kind of war except atomic war. There's
nothing in between.
I think Russia and China know that, and Russia at least has taken steps to protect itself
and said, "If the United States wants atomic war, we'll be wiped out but it'll be wiped out
too, and Europe will be wiped out." I think probably the first exchange would be to wipe out
England and Europe, to say "We don't want to go to war with you and really blow up the world,
America. Let's just show you what we can do. Let's blow up England and Europe so at least you
won't have your colonies there." If America persisted, it would be the end of the world. Will
America really do that?
There was worry that Donald Trump would do that so he could go down in history as the man
who destroyed civilization, but I don't think other people are going to do that.
This is a great piece, but I'm not sure its nuclear war-fighting take is accurate. If the
US and Russia engage in nuclear war, there is no way it can be limited to Europe and the UK.
France and England have hundreds of nukes of their own. The atomic destruction of Europe
would result in a nuclear winter of indeterminate length and disastrous consequences.
Orange Man Bad actually asked an interesting question re. US nuclear policy: does the US
really want to start an atomic war in order to 'defend' Lithuania or Japan? Would it not make
more sense for them to acquire their own nukes, or [fill in saner alternative]?
I think that what Prof Hudson points out is true: The US has not won any land war since
(at the least) 1948, they have not the smarts to win an economic war (as have the Chinese),
and the only arrow in their quiver is E=mc2. Talk about bringing a nuke to a knife fight!
And, as the old saying goes, the Revolution is already beginning to devour its own children.
Universities and schools are insisting that teachers actively support both publicly and
privately the new "equity and diversity" order while police departments are purging themselves
of officers suspected of being associated with conservative groups, meaning that something like
a loyalty test might soon become common.
Recently the Defense Department has begun intensive monitoring of the social
media of military personnel to identify dissenters, as is already done in some large
companies with their employees. The new Director of National Intelligence hardliner Avril
Haines
has already confirmed that her agency will participate in a public threat assessment of
QAnon, which she has described as America's Greatest Threat.
Haines has also suggested that intelligence agencies will "look at connections between folks
in the U.S. and externally and foreign" while Biden on his first full day in office has pledged
to thoroughly investigate claims about Russian hacking of U.S. infrastructure and government
sites, the poisoning of Putin critic Alexei Navalny, and the story that Russia offered the
Taliban bounties to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It could be Russiagate all over again,
with a claimed foreign threat being used to conceal civil rights violations being committed by
the federal government at home.
And, of course, the new policies will reflect the biases of the new rulers. Right wing
"terror" will be targeted even though the list of actual right-wing driven outrages is
embarassingly short. Groups like Black Lives Matter will be untouchable
in spite of their major role in last year's rioting, arson, looting and violence that
caused $2 billion damage and killed as many as thirty because they are in all but name part of
the Democratic Party. Antifa, which rioted in Portland last week, will also get a pass –
the media routinely describes leftist violence as "mainly peaceful" and only sometimes concedes
that some "property damage" occurred.
Facebook ads that might even be linked to a Russian server after the November 2016
election. They are just that crafty. Pelosi bungling the VRA? What was that? If it was
important Pelosi would know about it.
Ultimately, it's an excuse for cycles of Team Blue poor performance, but Biden is
President now. The pageantry is back! And Team Blue fans aren't worried at all about the
House losses.
My favorite was the ads featuring Spongebob Squarepants and Pokomon. I think the U.S.
anti-Russia hysteria is a big joke in Russia, and some Russians wanted troll Americans into
chasing their tales with these ads. If the Russian government wanted to influence Americans,
they could surely do better then those weird ads. There was probably another trolling
incident when Putin and his defense minister went fishing without wearing shirts, after the
U.S. hysteria over the picture of Putin on a horse, without a shirt. The U.S. press ignored
the fishing incident, though.
I never followed "Russiagate" that closely because none of it made any sense, but the
alleged interference kept changing over time. There was so little discipline and rigor in the
accusations that this "changing of the goalposts" evoked little criticism or comment. We were
at war with Eastasia yesterday, but today we are at war with Eurasia, Orwell-style. As I
recall, the first accusation was that Trump was a Russian agent, because of a loan or some
other financial motivation. Later, there was a "pee-tape" accusation, based on gossip paid
for by a Clinton opposition researcher named Steele, who had formerly been an MI6 agent. You
don't get a more unimpeachable, unbiased source of information then that, but the press
treated the Steele dossier as the gospel truth, not to be questioned, and the FBI justified
their investigation on it. Another "tell" with these accusations is that the Russians are not
invited by the U.S. press to respond to them.
And there is more evidence of cops doing violence and destruction in the summer than
either of those two!
I am in Blue-MAGA world. I had a friend kick me out of their house during a soiree when I
told them Russiagate was BS to cover for Clinton being a horrible candidate. They were in
deep conditioning though, even using the giveaway Manchurian-Candidate-phrase 'whip smart'.
That was 2 years ago. I wonder what they believe now. I have had friends go down 'right-wing'
information holes and their beliefs were changed pretty quickly. I think a huge problem is
the fracturing of information sources which has basically broken a certain fundamental
consensus about reality. It may be that that consensus was always based on a lie, but now
there are dozens of incompatible lies that people believe.
It is too easy to blame the victims. If media hadn't been co-opted for propaganda, then
abused to the point of Pravda-levels of credibility by lazy low-bid privatized propagandists,
the thirst for alternate news would be reduced, he attention-economy polarization phenomenon
would have less grip.
There were Dems before the recent election who said there was no way Trump was going to
win and any win by him would automatically be viewed as suspicious and to be resisted. It
wasn't a big secret. They said this and it was so reported.
That being the case I'd say the Trumpies were perfectly justified to have a skeptical
attitude toward the result even if they didn't make their case in the courts. But then, Trump
being Trump, he just couldn't let it go and refused to do what he ended up doing anyway.
Bottom line: we're better off without Trump. We aren't better off with Biden. The
whole process is a clusterf*ck.
I think what people do not seem to understand is a lot of these "false beliefs" are
code.
To use an old one, the Obama birth certificate "controversy." Obama is not American =
Obama mixed race son of an African immigrant is not a member of my ingroup (My ingroup =
Americans). Sometimes its race but it might be for some that Colin Powell is okay but Obama
is too much. You can't "disprove" that Obama is a not an American citizen because its really
a coded way to signal something that is true (that guy isn't in my ingroup, and I identify my
ingroup with the real America).
The idiocy in 2016 was top down. Obviously, either Hillary and her team were incompetent,
and completely out of touch and got clobbered by an orange clown who can't utter a coherent
sentence, or there must be some nefarious foreign conspiracy which magically threw the
election through a $4,500 buy in Facebook ads. Given the pathological narcissism and
sociopathy of our American ruling class, they are constitutionally incapable of the kind of
introspection the first hypothesis would force, so it was Russians under the bed all the way
baby!
I think 2020 Qanon and the rest of it is the same kind of bottom up stuff that the Birther
business touched on. R'ahl 'Umarikhans have been displaced in their own country by the evil
nefarious elites and will never be able to elect another R'ahl 'Umarikhan again. Obviously,
the arc of justice is that R'ahl 'Umarikhans rule 'Umarikhanistan, so it can only be
diabolical forces aligned with Hollywood pedo rings that prevented justice. All code for
status anxiety for continued power and existence of their ingroup, which won't go away no
matter how many bar graphs you show them.
It far more important to figure out what people really mean, and address those anxieties,
fears, or other issues than focusing on refuting what people say. There are a lot of people
in this country in a world of hurt, with basically no representation whatsoever, they aren't
going away, their fears, pains and concerns aren't going away, and the kind of smug bourgeois
media trust fund narrative isn't constructive.
I have been dumbfounded for some time by supporters of the Izzies apparent lack of concern
about the eventual consequences of this sort of behavior. But I suppose, as with Uncle Sugar,
the notion of ones own exceptional nature prevents a sensible assessment.
Israeli intel spinoffs/cutouts, US FBI/CIA and the NSA surveillance/blackmail collection
agencies and their agents; they are facets of the same worldwide "NWO" criminal Blob-Mob,
imo.
It should be obvious by now they have the power to set up one US President, and depose him
through a ham-handed domestic election fraud coup, and install an eaaily controlled
neurodegenerating corrupt puppet, and completely control and pervert the US Judicial system,
so as to essentially get away and continue with their criminal culture and crimes against
humanity unchecked.
With such a history, of course they have the means to frame Russia, as well as to destroy
any others who stand in their way to more power and autocratic control of the planet.
"Where is the line between a successful global business, in-demand services and
consolidation of big data – and attempts to harshly and unilaterally govern society,
replace legitimate democratic institutions, restrict one's natural right to decide for
themselves how to live, what to choose, what stance to express freely?" Putin wondered.
"We've all seen this just now in the US. And everybody understands what I'm talking
about," he added.
The Russian leader was apparently referring to the crackdown by Big Tech corporations like
Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon, mostly on Donald Trump and his supporters, during
the recent presidential election in the US. The companies, which, according to some critics,
sided with Democratic candidate Joe Biden, blocked President Trump's social media accounts over
accusations of inciting violence, with the same being done to many pages of groups and
individuals who'd backed him.
However, one-sided bias claim voiced by some might be an overestimation – the accounts
of Democrats supporters were also subject to restrictions, but on a much smaller scale.
Conservative Twitter-like platform Parler was also forced offline, and now there are calls
to block the Telegram app as well.
These events have shown that Big Tech companies "in some areas have de facto become
rivals to the government," Putin said.
Billions of users spend large parts of their lives on the platforms and, from the point of
view of those companies, their monopolistic position is favorable for organizing economic and
technological processes, the Russian president explained. "But there's a question of how
such monopolism fits the interest of society," he stressed.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
shadow1369 8 hours ago 27 Jan, 2021 07:51 AM
This is a great opportunity for Russia to create some Big Tech operators which actually allow
free speech. Russia certainly has the expertise and the means, and cannot be bullied by
western regimes.
Proton1963 shadow1369 1 hour ago 27 Jan, 2021 02:54 PM
Sure.. But only after the Russians can build a drivable car or a decent smart phone or a
laptop.
The West is surely giving Russia a lot of opportunities, through its own arrogance and
stupidity, does not it ? It keeps going backwards in its effort to diminish Russia. And the
same goes for China too.
JOHNCHUCKMAN 7 hours ago 27 Jan, 2021 08:45 AM
Putin is a remarkable statesman, and he sets a very high standard for political discourse. I
can't think of any of our Western leaders who speak in these truthful and philosophic terms.
What we hear in the West are slogans or whining or complaining.
Tenakakhan JOHNCHUCKMAN 3 hours ago 27 Jan, 2021 01:03 PM
The patriarch of the west has become extremely weak. It seems like our leaders lack any moral
authority to speak truth and common sense for fear of being cancelled. What we see now is the
virtue signaling dregs sponsored by extreme groups leading our nations down the toilet. If a
real war was to break out now we would be cannon fodder.
Hilarous 7 hours ago 27 Jan, 2021 09:04 AM
I think there's a simple explanation. Big tech is afraid to lose section 230 of the
communications act, which stipulates that online platforms are not legally responsible for
user content. Trump and some Republicans have accused social media sites of muzzling
conservative voices. They said undoing Section 230 would let people who claim they have been
slighted sue the companies. So Big Tech has a strong interest to remove Trump and run down a
few bad examples to convince people and politics that Section 230 must remain.
Count_Cash 8 hours ago 27 Jan, 2021 07:40 AM
In many cases they aren't rivals, but owners of government. Money controls everything in the
west and big tech have it. They have taken control of, or are blackmailing governments. The
Western Liberal Regime straddles both Big Tech and government!
RTaccount Count_Cash 7 hours ago 27 Jan, 2021 08:57 AM
Correct. Let us never forget that in America we are ruled by oligarchs just like the rest of
the world, and that our oligarchs are largely hidden. They are our true government, and so it
is meaningless to make this type of distinction.
I have plenty of "liberal" friends who insist that Putin "stole" the 2016 election. They
also think "white nationalists" disguised as BLM or Antifa were responsible for all the blue
city summer violence and riots. Sometimes they claim the fires were started by police "agents
provocateurs". They also insisted that Trump was a right wing fanatic who was going to create
a thousand year reich in the US.
These liberals tend to be highly educated with well-paid jobs and are very respected in
their communities. None are married or have children though. Several drink far too much wine
than is good for them.
There are far more similarities between Putin-tards and Q-tards than is generally
admitted.
That being said, there's more evidence that the Russians rigged the 2016 election than
that he Democrats stole the 2020 election. That's not a commentary of the strength of
Russiagate accusations, by the way.
Facebook ads that might even be linked to a Russian server after the November 2016
election. They are just that crafty. Pelosi bungling the VRA? What was that? If it was
important Pelosi would know about it.
Ultimately, it's an excuse for cycles of Team Blue poor performance, but Biden is
President now. The pageantry is back! And Team Blue fans aren't worried at all about the
House losses.
My favorite was the ads featuring Spongebob Squarepants and Pokomon. I think the U.S.
anti-Russia hysteria is a big joke in Russia, and some Russians wanted troll Americans into
chasing their tales with these ads. If the Russian government wanted to influence Americans,
they could surely do better then those weird ads. There was probably another trolling
incident when Putin and his defense minister went fishing without wearing shirts, after the
U.S. hysteria over the picture of Putin on a horse, without a shirt. The U.S. press ignored
the fishing incident, though.
I never followed "Russiagate" that closely because none of it made any sense, but the
alleged interference kept changing over time. There was so little discipline and rigor in the
accusations that this "changing of the goalposts" evoked little criticism or comment. We were
at war with Eastasia yesterday, but today we are at war with Eurasia, Orwell-style. As I
recall, the first accusation was that Trump was a Russian agent, because of a loan or some
other financial motivation. Later, there was a "pee-tape" accusation, based on gossip paid
for by a Clinton opposition researcher named Steele, who had formerly been an MI6 agent. You
don't get a more unimpeachable, unbiased source of information then that, but the press
treated the Steele dossier as the gospel truth, not to be questioned, and the FBI justified
their investigation on it. Another "tell" with these accusations is that the Russians are not
invited by the U.S. press to respond to them.
So according to this theory, it was the release of undisputed emails from the campaign
that 'rigged the election'? That seems to be the extent of the indictment, which we know
lacked actual forensic evidence, and is contradicted by the Veteran Intelligence
Professionals' forensic analysis (somehow missing from the wikipedia entry). Pretty amazing
that a story that got virtually no coverage swayed an election where Clinton dropped
$1.3billion, and the media gave Trump non-stop coverage.
i've also been in various IT roles and it's funny how people ghettoize themselves...web
design/"full stack" guys were always the worst but i had a lot of server/NAS guys who had ZERO
clue about security and would use idiot passwords like that (and torrent episodes of "the wire"
and watch sports on youtube and etc etc).
as for the israelis, the cellebrite guys and probably these jackasses are good examples of
what happens when you get to sit around on stolen land and live off free money from the US.
which is funny because a lot of skilled "1337hax0rz" also come from poor-ass areas of russia
and the other former soviet areas.
Posted by: the pair | Jan 27 2021 16:45 utc |
13 @Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 27 2021 16:35 utc | 11
I saw that headline too.
I didn't (bother) to read it, but wondered why the MSM
would do everyone a favor and warn about this guy.
His usefulness had ended? So eke out that last drop of value from him
by sowing distrust within Proud Boys and other alternate organizations. Or (heaven's forbid!) that guy is being set up for assassination
by the Deep State as a false-flag. (Outrageous, simply outrageous,
but imagine if they did a Navalny/Skripal on him - whoa!)
Posted by: librul | Jan 27 2021 16:46 utc |
14 Posted by: librul | Jan 27 2021 16:46 utc | 14
We do seem to have some disagreements among our ruling "elites" these days, and I think that
may have something to do with it, but I really don't know and that is a good question. "Why are
they telling me this" is always a good question.
Nevertheless, I think it is a good idea to warn the young these days, so I thought I'd post
it.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 27 2021 16:53 utc |
15 @Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 27 2021 16:53 utc | 15
For sure, that is the rub.
When to self-censor, when to post.
Better to post and then discuss
then simply censor.
Posted by: librul | Jan 27 2021 17:00 utc |
16 @Bemildred | Jan 27 2021 16:35 utc | 11
Yep. FBI is following the time-tested "proactive" standard playbook of synthetic
terror/crime creation to support the Borg's agenda.
Some congressman a few years back got a hold of, and publically released official docs
showing that FBI was budgeting a yearly payroll for nsome >15,000 paid confidential
informants/agent provacatuers circa 2014(?).
This FBI practice goes all the way back to the 1960's and probably much earlier.
In the last 60+ years, there have been oo many FBI-created/supported domestic 'crime/terror'
groups/leaderships to list in one post here.
Likely the leadership of both BLM and US antifa is also controlled by FBI (Euro
antifa=>likely CIA). [CIA Operation Ajax/Kermit Roosevelt)was running paid *rent-a-mobs* all
the way back in the 1953 overthrowal of Iran's Mossadegh govt].
Recently I've been unable to find anything on Wikipedia that has not been corrupted to some
degree or other by lies.
What a disappointment of a once grand ideal.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jan 27 2021 17:21 utc |
18
I know it is OT, but, I was wondering what is happening with the Huawei Princess
in Canada since the regime change in the USA?
Posted by: Young | Jan 27 2021 17:52 utc |
19 Good report. The Wikileaks Vault 7 release clearly shows the USA has tools to create
false flag cyber warfare. To say one knows where a hack originates says more about the accuser
than the accused. Ms. Webb's reporting on the Epstein case was profound, and her follow-up
reporting on various threads has been stellar. There is no reason to doubt her reporting here.
It is no accident that most of Webb's threads lead back to Israel. When one considers the USA's
blind fealty to Israel, often alone in its support, one must consider that mass blackmailing of
political leaders going back decades is a real possibility to explain the USA's Israel-centric
foreign and domestic policy.
"The Washington borg immediately attributed the hack to Russia. Then President Trump
attributed it to China."
Was there a better way for Trump to telegraph (or tweet, whatever) to the public that the
establishment had no idea who was behind the hack?
If Trump said that he didn't believe Russia did it that would just give the establishment
mass media ammunition to say he was Putin's puppet. After dozens of mass media products echo
the narrative off each other to amplify a weak and vague suggestion and build it into
something that the public perceives as truth, Trump crushed it all by just accusing someone
else. Rather than laboriously dismantling the accusation aimed at Russia he just cut it off
at the knees.
Unfortunately that is something only a President can do, and the current figurehead in
that position absolutely will not be doing anything that might undermine the establishment
narrative du jour. I miss Trump already for that alone.
I have no direct knowledge of SolarWinds specifically, but if Boeing hired HCL (formerly
Hindu Computer Limited) to develop software for its 737 max, I'll make a wild guess and
assume that SolarWinds too probably hired a bunch of Indian kids worth $10/hour each, who
come and go every few months.
And if that's indeed the case, then anything's possible.
Solar Winds was an Israeli penetration? Not Russia?
"As Russiagate played out, it became apparent that there was collusion between the Trump
campaign and a foreign power, but the nation was Israel , not
Russia . Indeed,
many of the reports that came out of Russiagate revealed
collusion with Israel , yet those instances received little coverage and generated little
media outrage. This has led some to suggest that Russiagate may have been a cover for what was
in fact Israelgate.
Similarly, in the case of the SolarWinds hack, there is the odd case and timing of
SolarWinds' acquisition of a company called Samanage in 2019. As this report will explore,
Samanage's deep ties to Israeli intelligence, venture-capital firms connected to both
intelligence and Isabel Maxwell, as well as Samange's integration with the Orion software at
the time of the back door's insertion warrant investigation every bit as much as SolarWinds'
Czech-based contractor. " unlimitedhangout
----------------
Pilgrims! I am suggesting or at least raising the possibility that Israel has massively
broken into American government IT systems. Hmmm. Does that mean that I am a Rooshan asset?
The sadly funny thing in this is how deaf, dumb and blind the main stream media are with
regard to any, any, any possibility that Israel does not think its interests are identical with
those of the US.
Natanyahu is quite open about his intention to bully Biden into continuing Israeli policy
aimed at a Morgenthau model for Iran.
People openly say on the TeeVee that not only must Iran give up its nuclear ambitions but it
must also accept Israeli hegemony in the region. Joltin' Jack Keane is one of the foremost
proponents of such a vision of the future Middle East. For him the Syrian military are merely
"Iranian surrogate forces." Perhaps someone should look carefully at the funding for the
Institute for the Study of War. Keane is the chairman thereof. pl
When friends and acquaintances question my apparent antipathy towards the State of Israel,
I suggest that they familiarize themselves with the circumstances regarding the attack on the
USS Liberty and the Pollard spy scandal.
I have been slogging through Jerome Slater's book 'Mythologies Without End: The US,
Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1917 - 2020.' Frankly, after getting 3/4 of the way
through this book, I gave up because Slater's narrative was so depressingly repetitive.
Slater documents Israel's repeated intransigence and refusal to make any meaningful
concessions towards a just and lasting arrangement for peace with the Palestinians.
Probably the only event that will cause a serious reassessment of the US relationship with
Israel will be the day when we can no longer find a buyer for our debt and we are forced to
live within our means. But when that day arrives, the US/Israeli relationship will probably
be the least of our problems.
......." Parallels are obvious when one considers that SolarWinds quickly brought on the
discredited firm CrowdStrike to aid them in securing their networks and investigating the
hack. CrowdStrike had also been brought on by the DNC after the 2016 WikiLeaks publication,
and subsequently it was central in developing the false declarations regarding the
involvement of "Russian hackers" in that event......."
CrowdStrike ...CrowdStrike ......CrowdStrike.
Still think Trump's mention of CrowdStrike in his Ukraine phone call, that led to his
bogus impeachment ,was the real reason Democrats went apoplectic.
The echo chamber media treatment of the CrowdStrike element of the phone call as a "long
discredited conspiracy theory", without ever mentioning CrowdStrike by name, was the first
clue.
Is Israel First any worse than America First, or China First?
Certainly Netanyahu was eager to congratulate "President Elect Biden" before the Trump
body was even cold demonstrated Trump's history of special treatment and good will towards
Israel counted for nothing in their own version of their nation's real-politik.
Which is to also include our own self-serving interests, treating Israel in the same
fashion. I think we should all be prickly against each other. Real-politik. Give only
what one can afford to lose.
So Isabel Maxwell is sister to Ghislaine Maxwell of Jeffrey Epstein fame. The connecting
dots point to an ever shrinking world of espionage against the US in order to get at more
local targets. I wonder what they have on John Roberts.
I thought at the time how ironic it was that Netenyahu couldn't wait to throw Trump under
the bus even though Trump spent so much time kissing up to Israel.
I thought it was obvious to most Americans that Israel does not have the same interests
that the U.S.has.The source of Israel's influence in the U.S. is the evangelical vote which
is Protestant in nature going back to Plymouth Rock and naming their kids after OT heroes and
guilt from WW2. Nationalist Americans still fall in the trap of supporting Israel thinking we
are all in this together with them. Think about it, all senators and congressmen vote
uniformly for anything Israel wants and yet can't get a proper stimulus package thru. By the
way Israel first is worse than America first.
As someone who has dealt with the issue of American illusions about Israel for many
decades, I assure you that most Americans think Israel is the 51st state. I was the principal
liaison between US and Israeli military intelligence for seven long years.
Alex,
I'm not sure I can agree with your source of Israel influence going back to Plymouth Rock.
The Pilgrims were strongly reformed and promoted Covenant Theology, while current American
evangelicals largely accept Dispensationalism and pre-tribulation as developed by Darby in
the early 1800s and popularized by Schofield in the early 1900s.
Used tools such as Solar Winds extensively as engineer in wireless telcom industry.
There are much better tools.
Have read many accounts of this security breach and Israel being involved is much more
probable and likely explanation.
Also available evidence points that way.
Russia Russia Russia and China China China are easy talking points for those that are
lazy
In 1989, as an IBM contractor, I spent a month at a VQ2 det in the Med, helping install a
computer system, and instructing key personnel in its use. I became friends with the Chiefs,
male and female, that ran the place, walking around in their starched kakis with clipboards,
instructing the pilots and recon officers, slouching in their flight suits, their assignments
for the day. (Which of course came down from VQ2 itself, likely compiled by Chiefs there. As
Zhukov said when asked who ran the Russian Army: "The Sergeants and myself.") We both knew
several of the Liberty survivors: I from my previous Government employment; they from the
Navy. They all assured me privately that the Navy was determined never to let anything like
that happen again. There's undoubtedly been a complete turn over or two of personnel since
then, but I suspect the same determination prevails today: Once bitten, twice shy.
Given the publicly available evidence and information, there is no reason to rule out
Israel. They have the skill and motivation to pull this off. The same can be said for China
as well as Russia. North Korea and Iran are also strong contenders. Those two are
surprisingly capable. However, from our viewpoint any attribution is based on circumstantial
evidence only. True attribution needs more than that such as that laid out in the GRU 12
indictment for the DNC hack or the Dutch AIVD witnessing of the APT29 (SVR) hack of the
Pentagon in 2015. We need to see the adversary's traffic and infrastructure. Without that,
we're guessing.
Our inability to see Israel as an adversary is exasperating. As Ed Lindgren mentioned, the
USS Liberty and the Pollard spy ring should be reason enough to cause permanent suspicion.
The author brought up the case of Trump campaign collusion with Israel and Saudi Arabia. The
evidence for this was actually stronger than any Trump-Russia collusion. Yet that went
unnoticed outside a small group of researchers. Our blindspot towards Israel may prove fatal
some day.
Who contracted Solarwinds..? It was associated with "GITHUB"which was making enemys in the
Middle East..and was Involved with Jared Kushner as a Backer...according to the Wiki Write up
on "GitHub" Thats a Backdoor I would look at..
AIPAC and their friends on both sides of the aisle in Congress already has access to info
from the various federal agencies that were hacked. Would they endanger that open gateway by
a penetration of US government IT systems?
The Izzies are much more interested in hacking Iranians. Or those european signers of
JCPOA that are trying to negotiate with Iran. They hacked computers in various European
hotels that had Iranian guests. In the US Israeli hackers' target has been the BDS movement
(Boycott, Divest & Sanction) movement, plus any association or group that promotes civil
rights for Palestinians. I wouldn't doubt that they are also hacking congresswoman Rashida
Talib, the Arab American Institute, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, various
Arab-American lobbies, and the Palestinian diaspora in Detroit and other American cities.
However, there is suspicion that Israeli private individuals may at one time or another be
involved with or helped provide expertise to Cozy Bear & other cyber APTs operated mainly
out of Russia.
I know you can't go into specifics, but as a general rule of thumb did Israeli military
intelligence ever offer you any intel that you didn't already know?
Theologically, you have a point. Except that historically, virtually all the low-church
British protestants were very pro-Jewish anyway, regardless of theology. Remember: it was
Oliver Cromwell who let the Jews back into England after nearly three centuries of absence.
Why? I don't know. Maybe the Proddies thought the Jews would make good allies against Rome.
There is also the fact that they tended towards biblical literalism in those days, looking to
the Bible as though it were system of law--similar to the way the Jews did.
Yeah, right.
No, it was a one way street. It amounted to a firehose stream going one way. There were a lot
of meetings at which they gave us nothing of value, and that evidently was not enough because
they planted people all over the government to feed them stuff we did not want to give them.
Occasionally they got caught passing material and when that happened the politicians would
forbid prosecution. That was true of both US parties. Pollard was recruited for the purpose
of not having their significant assets put at risk. He was passed lists of specific documents
by his Israeli handlers. The documents were listed by serial number so that he would not
bring the wrong ones out of the US security envelope. He brought them to the team safe house
where they were copied and then he returned them to the Navy's safes. On one occasion I
decided to probe their willingness to actually cooperate with us. I told the liaison rep in
Washington that we maintained encyclopedic files on all the armed forces of the world. this
was a routine task. I told them that it was a waste of our time to collect basic data about
the IDF. That being the case, I asked them to give us the TO&E of a type IDF infantry
brigade so we would not waste analytic time. The request went to Tel Aviv and was
refused.
Israel has a long history of stealing US information over and above that which they are
given. They don't believe that we give them everything we have and so they steal what they
think we may be keeping from them. Compartmentation makes it impossible for them to be sure.
Remember Pollard? In Pollard's case the material he was directed to obtain for them often had
nothing to do with the ME, but it was good trading material.
More Cyber Crimes, Attributed To Russia, Are Shown To Have Come From Elsewhere
Earlier today police in Europe
took down the Emotet bot-network:
First discovered as a fairly run-of-the-mill banking trojan back in 2014, Emotet evolved over
the years into one of the most professional and resilient cyber crime services in the world,
and became a "go-to" solution for cyber criminals.
Its infrastructure acted as a mechanism to gain access to target systems, which was done
via an automated spam email process that delivered Emotet malware to its victims via
malicious attachments, often shipping notices, invoices and, since last spring, Covid-19
information or offers. If opened, victims would be promoted to enable macros that allowed
malicious code to run and instal Emotet.
This done, Emotet's operators then sold access on to other cyber criminal groups as a
means to infiltrate their victims, steal data, and drop malware and ransomware. The operators
of TrickBot and Ryuk were among the many users of Emotet.
Up to a quarter of all recent run of the mill cyber-crime was done through the Emotet
network. Closing it down is a great success.
Wikipedia falsely claimed
that Emotet was based in Russia:
Emotet is a malware strain and a cybercrime operation based in Russia.[1] The malware, also
known as Geodo and Mealybug, was first detected in 2014[2] and remains active, deemed one of
the most prevalent threats of 2019.[3]
However the Hindu report linked as source to the Russia claim under [1]
only says :
The malware is said to be operated from Russia, and its operator is nicknamed Ivan by cyber
security researchers.
"Is said to be operated from Russia" is quite a weak formulation and should not be used as
source for attribution claims. It is also definitely false.
The operating center of Emotet was found in the Ukraine. Today the Ukrainian national police
took control of it during a raid (video). The police found dozens of
computers, some hundred hard drives, about 50 kilogram of gold bars (current price ~$60,000/kg)
and large amounts of money in multiple currencies.
Since the 2016 publishing of internal emails of the DNC and the Clinton campaign attribution
of computer intrusions to Russia has become a standard propaganda feature. But in no case was
there shown evidence which proved that Russia was responsible for a hack.
The recently discovered deep intrusion into U.S. companies and government networks used a
manipulated version of the SolarWinds Orion network management software. The Washington borg
immediately attributed the hack to Russia. Then President Trump attributed it to China. But
none of those claims were backed up by facts or known evidence.
The hack was extremely complex, well managed and resourced, and likely required insider
knowledge. To this IT professional it 'felt' neither Russian nor Chinese. It is far more
likely, as Whitney Webb finds, that
Israel was behind it :
The implanted code used to execute the hack was directly injected into the source code of
SolarWinds Orion. Then, the modified and bugged version of the software was "compiled, signed
and delivered through the existing software patch release management system," per
reports . This has led US investigators and observers to conclude that the perpetrators
had direct access to SolarWinds code as they had "a high degree of familiarity with the
software." While the way the attackers gained access to Orion's code base has yet to be
determined, one possibility
being pursued by investigators is that the attackers were working with employee(s) of a
SolarWinds contractor or subsidiary.
...
Though some contractors and subsidiaries of SolarWinds are now being investigated, one that
has yet to be investigated, but should be, is Samanage. Samanage, acquired by SolarWinds in
2019, not only gained automatic access to Orion just as the malicious code was first
inserted, but it has deep ties to Israeli intelligence and a web of venture-capital firms
associated with numerous Israeli espionage scandals that have targeted the US government.
...
Samanage offers what it describes as "an IT Service Desk solution." It was acquired by
SolarWinds so Samanage's products could be added to SolarWinds' IT Operations Management
portfolio. Though US reporting and
SolarWinds press releases state that Samanage is based in Cary, North Carolina, implying
that it is an American company, Samanage is actually
an Israeli firm . It was
founded in 2007 by Doron Gordon, who previously
worked for several years at MAMRAM , the Israeli military's central computing unit .
...
Several months after the acquisition was announced, in November 2019, Samanage, renamed
SolarWinds Service Desk, became
listed as a standard feature of SolarWinds Orion software, whereas the integration of
Samanage and Orion had previously been optional since the acquisition's announcement in April
of that year. This means that complete integration was likely made standard in either October
or November. It has since been reported that the perpetrators of the recent hack gained
access to the networks of US federal agencies and major corporations at around the same time.
Samanage's automatic integration into Orion was a major modification made to the
now-compromised software during that period.
The U.S. National Security Agency has ways and means to find out who was behind the
SolarWinds hack. But if Israel is the real culprit no one will be allowed to say so publicly.
Some high ranging U.-S. general or official will fly to Israel and read his counterpart the
riot act. Israel will ignore it just as it has done every time when it was caught spying on the
U.S. government.
With more then half of Washington's politicians in its pockets it has no reason to fear any
consequences.
Posted by b on January 27, 2021 at 15:32 UTC |
Permalink
I have been dumbfounded for some time by supporters of the Izzies apparent lack of concern
about the eventual consequences of this sort of behavior. But I suppose, as with Uncle Sugar,
the notion of ones own exceptional nature prevents a sensible assessment.
I have no direct knowledge of SolarWinds specifically, but if Boeing hired HCL (formerly
Hindu Computer Limited) to develop software for its 737 max, I'll make a wild guess and
assume that SolarWinds too probably hired a bunch of Indian kids worth $10/hour each, who
come and go every few months.
And if that's indeed the case, then anything's possible.
Israeli intel spinoffs/cutouts, US FBI/CIA and the NSA surveillance/blackmail collection
agencies and their agents; they are facets of the same worldwide "NWO" criminal Blob-Mob,
imo.
It should be obvious by now they have the power to set up one US President, and depose him
through a ham-handed domestic election fraud coup, and install an eaaily controlled
neurodegenerating corrupt puppet, and completely control and pervert the US Judicial system,
so as to essentially get away and continue with their criminal culture and crimes against
humanity unchecked.
With such a history, of course they have the means to frame Russia, as well as to destroy
any others who stand in their way to more power and autocratic control of the planet.
...
With more than half of Washington's politicians in its pockets ("Israel") has no reason to
fear any consequences.
Posted by b on January 27, 2021 at 15:32 UTC | Permalink
Precisely. And it's almost as bad in Oz, and even worse in the UK. Money is the only
logical explanation for the "Israel" Worship indulged in by corrupt, amoral Western political
'leaders'.
"The Washington borg immediately attributed the hack to Russia. Then President Trump
attributed it to China."
Was there a better way for Trump to telegraph (or tweet, whatever) to the public that the
establishment had no idea who was behind the hack?
If Trump said that he didn't believe Russia did it that would just give the establishment
mass media ammunition to say he was Putin's puppet. After dozens of mass media products echo
the narrative off each other to amplify a weak and vague suggestion and build it into
something that the public perceives as truth, Trump crushed it all by just accusing someone
else. Rather than laboriously dismantling the accusation aimed at Russia he just cut it off
at the knees.
Unfortunately that is something only a President can do, and the current figurehead in
that position absolutely will not be doing anything that might undermine the establishment
narrative du jour. I miss Trump already for that alone.
b posted, "Is said to be operated from Russia" is quite a weak formulation
However, don't give the average reader of newsignorance
much credit. Even well above average readers can have a readiness for
confirmation bias.
side rant:
Human intelligence is just a tool. High intelligence does not guarantee
a dedication to a search for truth. High intelligence can give one
a developed skill at
rationalizing whatever beliefs one already holds.
-----
Privacy!
I just learned about this!
Check this out (always remember, though, "trust but verify")
And an alternative service that can rightly be trusted today
is not necessarily trustworthy tomorrow.
https://restoreprivacy.com/ lists alternative services for everything from Google Docs, iCloud, secure messengers, and
search engines.
some of the hack was semi-sophisticated ("semi" since it could have been an inside job) but
some was just a
typical PICNIC .
i've also been in various IT roles and it's funny how people ghettoize themselves...web
design/"full stack" guys were always the worst but i had a lot of server/NAS guys who had
ZERO clue about security and would use idiot passwords like that (and torrent episodes of
"the wire" and watch sports on youtube and etc etc).
as for the israelis, the cellebrite guys and probably these jackasses are good examples of
what happens when you get to sit around on stolen land and live off free money from the US.
which is funny because a lot of skilled "1337hax0rz" also come from poor-ass areas of russia
and the other former soviet areas.
@Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 27 2021 16:35 utc | 11
I saw that headline too.
I didn't (bother) to read it, but wondered why the MSM
would do everyone a favor and warn about this guy.
His usefulness had ended? So eke out that last drop of value from him
by sowing distrust within Proud Boys and other alternate organizations. Or (heaven's forbid!) that guy is being set up for assassination
by the Deep State as a false-flag. (Outrageous, simply outrageous,
but imagine if they did a Navalny/Skripal on him - whoa!)
We do seem to have some disagreements among our ruling "elites" these days, and I think
that may have something to do with it, but I really don't know and that is a good question.
"Why are they telling me this" is always a good question.
Nevertheless, I think it is a good idea to warn the young these days, so I thought I'd
post it.
Yep. FBI is following the time-tested "proactive" standard playbook of synthetic
terror/crime creation to support the Borg's agenda.
Some congressman a few years back got a hold of, and publically released official docs
showing that FBI was budgeting a yearly payroll for nsome >15,000 paid confidential
informants/agent provacatuers circa 2014(?).
This FBI practice goes all the way back to the 1960's and probably much earlier.
In the last 60+ years, there have been oo many FBI-created/supported domestic
'crime/terror' groups/leaderships to list in one post here.
Likely the leadership of both BLM and US antifa is also controlled by FBI (Euro
antifa=>likely CIA). [CIA Operation Ajax/Kermit Roosevelt)was running paid *rent-a-mobs*
all the way back in the 1953 overthrowal of Iran's Mossadegh govt].
Recently I've been unable to find anything on Wikipedia that has not been corrupted to
some degree or other by lies.
What a disappointment of a once grand ideal.
Young , Jan 27 2021 17:52 utc |
19 I know it is OT, but, I was wondering what is happening with the Huawei Princess in
Canada since the regime change in the USA?
Good report. The Wikileaks Vault 7 release clearly shows the USA has tools to create false
flag cyber warfare. To say one knows where a hack originates says more about the accuser than
the accused. Ms. Webb's reporting on the Epstein case was profound, and her follow-up
reporting on various threads has been stellar. There is no reason to doubt her reporting
here. It is no accident that most of Webb's threads lead back to Israel. When one considers
the USA's blind fealty to Israel, often alone in its support, one must consider that mass
blackmailing of political leaders going back decades is a real possibility to explain the
USA's Israel-centric foreign and domestic policy.
While US officials claim that 'far-right extremism' is one of the largest threats facing
America, the leader of the group most commonly singled out as an example - the Proud Boys -
was a 'prolific' informant for federal and local law enforcement, according to Reuters,
citing a 2014 federal court proceeding.
Enrique Tarrio repeatedly worked undercover for investigators following a 2012 arrest,
court documents reveal.
Curiously, Tarrio was ordered to stay away from Washington D.C. one day before the
January 6 Capitol riot after he was arrested on vandalism and weapons charges - upon a
request by government prosecutors that he be prohibited from attending. At least five Proud
Boys members were charged as part of the riot.
In the 2014 hearing, a federal prosecutor, an FBI agent and Tarrio's attorney describe
his undercover work - noting that the Proud Boys leader helped authorities prosecute over a
dozen people in various cases involving drugs, gambling and human smuggling, accoding to
Reuters.
In a Tuesday interview with Reuters, Tarrio denied working undercover or cooperating in
cases.
"I don't know any of this," he said, adding "I don't recall any of this."
[...]
During Tarrio's 2014 hearing, both the prosecutor and Tarrio's defense attorney asked
for a reduced prison sentence after pleading guilty in a fraud case related to the
relabeling and sale of stolen diabetes test kits. In requesting leniency for Tarrio and two
co-defendants, the prosecutor noted that Tarrio's information had resulted in the
prosecution of 13 people on federal charges in two separate cases, and helped local
authorities investigate a gambling ring.
Jailed Kremlin foe Navalny being used by West to destabilise Russia: Putin ally
By
Reuters
Staff
3 MIN READ
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is being used by the West to try to destabilise Russia, a
prominent hardliner and ally of President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, saying he must be held to account for
repeatedly breaking the law.
Slideshow
(
2 images )
Navalny was remanded in custody for 30 days last week after returning from Germany where he had been recovering from a
nerve agent poisoning. He could face years in jail for parole violations and other legal cases he calls trumped up.
Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council, called for Navalny to face the full force of the law in comments
that offered a glimpse into the mood inside Russia's security establishment after tens of thousands of Navalny's
supporters protested against his jailing on Saturday.
"He (Navalny), this figure, has repeatedly (and) grossly broken Russian legislation, engaging in fraud concerning large
amounts (of money). And as a citizen of Russia he must bear responsibility for his illegal activity in line with the
law," Patrushev told the Argumenty i Fakty media outlet.
"The West needs this figure to destabilise the situation in Russia, for social upheaval, strikes and new Maidans,"
Patrushev said, in a reference to the 2014 revolution in Ukraine that ousted a Moscow-backed president.
When asked about Patrushev's comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was up to a court to make further
decisions in the opposition politician's case and that it was not a matter for the Kremlin.
Police detained more than 3,700 people on Saturday as protesters called on the Kremlin to release Navalny. The Kremlin
said the protests were illegal.
Peskov on Tuesday said there could be no dialogue with illegal protesters, accusing them of behaving aggressively and of
using what he called unprecedented violence against the police.
He said incidences of police violence against protesters, some of which were captured on video, were far fewer and being
investigated.
In a sign that Russian authorities may crack down hard after the protests, the Kommersant newspaper on Tuesday cited
unnamed security sources as saying they may open a criminal investigation that would treat the demonstrations as "mass
unrest".
The West has called for Navalny's release, but the European Union has said it will refrain from fresh sanctions on
Russian individuals if Moscow releases Navalny after 30 days.
I wonder how many people picked up Pres. Biden's passing reference to Russia paying
bounties for American scalps (in Afghanistan). It was a 24-hr. story long ago and died
quickly for lack of evidence and logic. But Biden keeps using it, as he did in one of the
'debates' with Trump. Two questions arise. 1. Does Biden really believe the story or does he
use it to score patriotism points? Either way it reflects very badly on him. 2. Is the bounty
myth a distant cousin of Russiagate or is it a signal of a renewed pursuit of the Cold War by
Biden and his hawkish appointees?
Mikhailovich , January 23, 2021 at 00:56
US politicians will carry on with their Russo-phobia anyway. What really is good about the
new administration, they are not so keen for a new nuclear arm race as Trump was. It looks,
the new administration is less subordinate to the military industrial complex.
Mark Thomason , January 22, 2021 at 18:48
Russia/Putin is a way to talk about anything but. That is what Never Trump was, avoidance
of things they did not mean to do. Now they need to reinforce the smoke and mirrors behind
which they do Triangulation to serve the interests of elites and big money.
What is particularly hard to fathom is not so much the gross dishonesty and malice of
politicians like H. Clinton and Pelosi but the boneheaded stupidity and ignorance of the
broad population that accepts fables like Russiagate as fact.
This is a testament to the immense power of propaganda, when repeated on a daily basis by
the mass media.
Joe Lauria says convincingly, "Russiagate was an invention to help explain away Hillary
Clinton's defeat in 2016 and to undermine the legitimacy of the man who beat her."
At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, the "stab in the back legend" in post-World War I
Germany was an invention by the extreme right wing and later Nazis to help explain away
Germany's defeat in that war and to undermine the legitimacy of the Weimar Republic, putting
the blame on domestic "enemies" in cahoots with foreign adversaries.
Very much the same thing.
Russiagate was aimed at President Trump and a foreign enemy. Now, following the "new 9/11"
of the Capitol Riot and planned domestic "antiterrorism" legislation, it looks like the state
will mainly go after "domestic enemies". A new Reichstag Fire has occurred. The parallels are
becoming ever more apparent.
Bob In Portland , January 22, 2021 at 18:51
Russiagate was well afoot in the summer of 2016. It wasn't merely to slander Trump. It was
to prepare us for a war against Russia.
If I had access to network time I'd ask: If Russiagate is true, and if you have proof, why
wasn't Trump charged with treason? You had two chances to do it but Democratic leadership
never thought to bring it up. How curious.
DH Fabian , January 22, 2021 at 22:01
Yes. Just one point: Russia wasn't a "foreign enemy" until the Clintonites falsely claimed
that they somehow interfered with the 2016 election. Russia was a solid ally in both world
wars. Since the Perestroika era, united efforts of US and Russian scientists brought
extraordinary progress. There was solid unity from the fall of the Soviet state in the 1990s,
until the Clintonites falsely accused Russia of some sort of "election interference." This is
how the Democrats destroyed decades of diplomatic progress toward nuclear disarmament.
PEG , January 23, 2021 at 05:16
I agree – I didn't mean "enemy" in the literal sense, but rather in the sense you
refer to.
JohnO , January 23, 2021 at 12:43
Russian propaganda from the beginning has always and ever been to secure vast sums of
revenue from the people's' taxes, and to scare the crap out of those same people. When Truman
dropped the first A-bomb on Hiroshima, he remarked that 'this will let the Russians know that
we are serious', or words to that effect. He slaughtered an urban populace to make a point!
And generations of Americans were raised in fear of Russians and nuclear war.
The current state of domestic surveillance is a self-conscious recognition, I believe, of the
wholly irresponsible policies of the two parties. Third-rate healthcare, pathetic public
education, mass incarceration, and massive deregulation in the industrial and financial
sectors. All to pay for wars and control across the globe. It is an arrangement that will
continue to provoke protests, insurrection and conspiracy theorizing.
evelync , January 22, 2021 at 13:43
I find it amusing that the top ranks of the political hacks whose psy-ops that use Russia
as the great threat against "the most powerful country in the world" – these hacks
choose to ignore the real, the relevant investigation that should be in the forefront –
the money trails of Trump's so called financial empire – the banks, the oligarchs, the
money laundering – the sources of his funding over the years who really would have had
the opportunity to push him around ..
Investigating the finances may be too uncomfortable for them to examine .. Even though his
financial schemes hurt real people – wages unpaid, debts unpaid; bankruptcies; students
betrayed.
On another note – Amy Goodman on Democracy Now's 1/21/21 news summary pointed out
that the Biden Administration was sticking with Gaido being the "recognized" leader of
Venezuela ..the democratically elected Maduro remains the target, apparently .
meanwhile FT writes that the "EU dropped its de facto recognition of Juan Guaidó as
Venezuela's interim president, a serious diplomatic setback to the opposition leader's
faltering campaign to oust Nicolás Maduro from power."
wikipedia:
"Venezuela is a major producer and exporter of minerals, notably bauxite, coal, gold, iron
ore, and oil, and the state controls most of the country's vast mineral reserves. In 2003
estimated reserves of bauxite totaled 5.2 million tons."
countries in South America with Lithium ( used in batteries for electric vehicles) and who
have democratic minded politicians who think their people should get some benefit from the
country's resources watch out for other U.S favored Guaidó's ..
Anonymot , January 22, 2021 at 13:11
Thanks for raising the subject, Joe.
It's really to ridiculous to merit a reply. One would think an honest party would have
excreted Hillary Clinton by now, but no, they can't. She still owns the DNC as I've repeated
for years and note that Neither Joe Biden nor Harris nor any member of Biden's cabinet would
be there without the DNC/Hillary stamp of approval. Buttigieg's appearance in a cabinet level
post is solely her doing, for he has zero qualifications for that post. His presence is the
equivalent of hers as Secretary of State- to give credence to his qualifications on hid next
run for President. She failed hers; we'll see about his.
Hillary's handlers are the dangerous ones.
Dorothy Sillman Crouch , January 22, 2021 at 13:01
My greatest fear with Biden was that he would find a place for Hillary in his
administration. My understanding of what happened during the 2016 primary was those emails
downloaded at the DNC revealed what they were doing to take down Bernie as a candidate so
that Hillary would be the Democratic candidate with the niave assumption she could win over
Trump. Big mistake. Hillary has never been a viable candidate. And of course the DNC never
wanted to sponsor a Socialist like Bernie. I was very concerned after the election of Trump
that my Democratic state senators continued to insist Russia was involved. Blame Russia has
been the mantra of the Democratic Party ever since. As suggested Bill Binney tried to
disproved that connection but the party didn't want to hear that. I agree with John Chuckman
in his appraisal of Putin. I would never want to see Biden revive the 'blame Russia' mantra.
Someone suggested we had to feed the military industrial complex so that's why it happened.
Needs to stop.
vinnieoh , January 22, 2021 at 11:33
"Beyond that, Russiagate has been a convenient and successful strategy of deflection from
one's own responsibility for America's social and political crises."
This, more than providing cover for HRC's disastrous nomination and campaign, I believe is
the true purpose. Remember that – love him or hate him – Sanders was the only
high profile politician actually beginning to articulate the root causes of US dysfunction
and it was resonating energetically on the left of the D leaning electorate. This of course
HAD to be nipped in the bud or the whole corrupt gravy train might be exposed. With
Russiagate a "crisis" was manufactured that absolved the D's from doing anything to address
our real problems (and thus hinder the gravy train.)
I composed a long comment on the environmental piece posted yesterday, but before I posted
it wanted to check on some details because I didn't want to add to the noise by posting
something poorly-informed or flat out wrong. The gist of that comment was that the fight over
Nordstream II is mainly about the effort to force US exported LNG derived from shalegas on
our European "allies." I reviewed two pieces, one from The Atlantic Council and one from The
Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. The Atlantic Council piece was a jaw-dropping screed of
such hateful anti-Russian propaganda that it made me shudder. The Oxford piece was an
in-depth analysis of all of Russia's gas exporting capability via Gazprom to Europe and the
Near East. Hard to plow through, full of important technical considerations, but it painted a
picture of a sovereign nation and national industry doing what any other such entities would
be doing to successfully operate in any commodities market. ( I did not post that comment
– the subject needs an in-depth analysis and exposure.)
The satirical organization The Onion picked such a perfect name. I realized during the GWB
administration the the layers of lies, misdirection, and obfuscation one must try to burrow
through is exactly like peeling back the layers of an onion. So hard to get to the truth and
even harder to formulate a strategy to domestically organize to change it. And it often makes
your eyes tear up.
rosemerry , January 23, 2021 at 14:47
I saw yesterday that the "European Parliament" voted to sanction Russia and stop the
remaining bit of the Nordstream pipeline (Pompass had already tried to stop at the last
minute too) because of ..Navalny!!!! Hard to believe-the pipeline to bring Russian gas to
Germany and the rest of Europe, voluntarily undertaken as a commercial venture between
partners knowing the needs and wishes of their people, being challenged by "European"
well-paid "reps" allegedly upset for a common criminal in Russia!!!!
Ed Rickert , January 22, 2021 at 10:48
Thanks for the excellent summary of Russiagate and for yet another glimpse into the
corrupt, demented mind of Hillary Clinton. What a treasure she is: her hand in the Honduras
coup, her role in the destruction of Libra, the arm shipments to ISIS and other "moderate
rebels" in the attempted overthrow of the Syrian government. And like so many other
"statesmen" never held accountable for her actions.
Anne , January 22, 2021 at 11:41
OOps Only western politicos/"states" folkies are NOT held accountable, no matter how
criminal – as in human rights/illegal warring – their actions
One only has to list everything that the US has done to other peoples from the dropping of
those two A bombs on civilian populations in 1945, through the US initiated and heavily
destructive Korean and Vietnamese Wars, the Use of the Marshall Islands (and their
population) as nuclear testing sites, to the Chagos Islanders being forcefully removed from
their homes and dumped in Madagascar in order for the US to build its huge base there (Diego
Garcia), to the bombing of Grenada, Panama, Serbia (40+ days and nights and largely on
civilians), invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq (based on utter lies), Bombing of Libya, Syria,
Torture at so-called black sites overseen if not done by the now Blue Face vaunted CIA,
Guantanamo (still existing and zero mention), the Economic Sanctions, i.e. Siege Warfare, of
Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and all of those legitimately elected govts from Guatemala (Arbenz),
to Iran (Mossadegh), to Allende (Chile) and on and on overthrown with the CIA's direct or
indirect assistance
And that doesn't include the Human Rights that our govt and helpers have done back here:
genocidal ethnic-cleansing, our own sterilization of the Mentally handicapped, Native
Americans, and African Americans (up to c. 1980) and possibly some of the female Latino
attempted immigrants of these past four years, MK – ULTRA and Mr Sidney Gottlieb et
al
We have absolutely Zero position to even talk about, mention other countries' "human
rights abuses" when we have done and continue to do these and many another barbarism to other
peoples (and our own) but listening to NPR (and the Beeb – and the UK has more than
enough of its own HRs abuses in its history and present) you'd think we had never and were
not so committing as we breathe any such abominations, heinous crimes
evelync , January 22, 2021 at 15:05
In my darker moments I'm thinking that those dropped bombs etc etc are simply moving
merchandise out to boost sales for the next quarter justifying the huge budget .
A for profit arms industry is grotesque – we need the enemies to keep it going
Are we consciously aware that that's part of it all?
Somewhere in the back of everyone's minds as Leonard Cohen sings – "Everybody
knows".
I always enjoy your clear informative direct comments. Thanks!!!!
Anne , January 23, 2021 at 12:05
Thank you very muchly, evelync Since my husband died this is one of the few places where I
can, sometimes, let off a little of my political steam and not be trashed!!!
evelync , January 23, 2021 at 18:58
Sorry that you lost your husband, Anne.
People – humans – have a long way to go to be able to communicate well enough
to avoid violent flailing about with confusion and trashing others with whom they think they
disagree.
They'd be better off trying to get to bottom of what upsets them about others' comments in
an effort to understand the differences between the "opposing" views. Common ground can, I
think, sometimes be achieved by asking questions instead of flailing about trashing
others.
One example, IMO, of unnecessary sometimes violent disagreement on social issues that
politicians love to drum up but common ground might be reachable :
Years ago I head a Harvard social scientist point out that Sweden (I think it was Sweden)
has the most liberal abortion laws and the fewest abortions. Why?
Because, she's said, Sweden provided housing, medical care and financial support and a job
after the pregnant woman was able to go back to work .
If that could be explained to everyone maybe it would deflate the disinformation balloon that
distances people from one another so that these differences could be resolved and acceptable
solutions found
Sometimes it seems a struggle within to assess who I detest more – Karlin or
Navalny. Both are dishonest parasites living off Western sources of funds.
I think I will call it a draw and be done with it.
Correct. I am enough familiar with the Russian language and culture to agree with you, JL.
Not that I know what is true about Mr Putin, but I find it ugly, calling him Vlad, as
ignorant people associate it with an evil creature in Romania.
There are some similarities between Navalny and Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin became known for
attacking the privileges of the nomenclature (as the Communist Party boss of Moscow, no less)
like their access to special shops, luxury cars (by Soviet standards), special healthcare
facilities, nice apartments etc. He was for a time a "star" in Soviet media with this, but
finally Gorbachev got him fired for attacking him and his cronies too.
Mais c'est excellent! Il vient tout d'un coup de monter d'un cran sur mon échelle
de gens potentiellement respectables. Et il a tout à fait raison : un peuple
armé est un peuple libre. Imaginez les Gilets jaunes armés d'AK-47, ça
aurait été une toute autre histoire, n'est-ce pas ?
"But on the off chance I am wrong, Russians will only prove themselves morons."
You would be absolutely right if it turned out that way and there would be no help for the
Russians, just as the American simpletons who balk at the notion of compensating the three
branches of the United States government adequately leading to the pernicious influence from
the likes of the late Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban among others.
We should pay our representatives one million dollars a piece and two million for senators
but the chief executive must be paid at least fifteen million dollars per anum if not more to
keep out interlopers and the whole shebang would amount to little more than one billion
dollars which would be a drop in the bucket to save the nation from the predators.
Erdogan trying to, quote, ' ..preserve human nature, ' ?
As far as I know neither Orban nor Hungary have been involved in mass murder and invasions of
sovereign countries lately.
Sutan Erdogan is an IslamoFascist dictator, who was instrumental ( .together with US, KSA,
Israel, UK, France, ..) in training, arming, and sending cannibalistic head-chopper
terrorists into Syria, resulting in the deaths of several hundred thousand innocent
Syrians.
Orban is a Hungarian Christian nationalist, trying to defend Hungary from
GloboSorosization.
Sultan Erdogan is an IslamoFascist head of a genocidal, criminal state.
The presentation of Navalni's "investigation" on YouTube has collected millions of
comments in no time. A native speaker has noticed that there were the same identical comments
that appeared thousands of times under different names. Looks like a computer-generated wave
of responses.
I'm sure many others have realized what I have; although it is rarely put into words. It
seems like the columnists here who write about Russia are falling into the idiot binary view
that can be expressed as follows: "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Sometimes this is
true. Often times, the enemy of my enemy is an even worse enemy. Just because Russia is
clearly not under the thumb of the creeps in Washington dos NOT mean that Russia is the
beacon of justice, truth, and freedom. Do not lose sight of the fact that the current
(((elites))) are GLOBAL and their original source of influence and power is international
finance (greatly expanded by fiat systems). The covid response and vaccine push as carried
out by Russia should be an eye opener to anyone who doubts the fact that they are heavily
compromised. Remember, Abortion (murdering a baby) has been legal in Russia for most of a
century and they had/have some of the highest rates of abortion in the world. It is estimated
that well over 100 million babies have been murdered, LEGALLY. The utter evil of this cannot
be put into words. I detest the post-christian, perverted west. IS Russia any better? in some
ways, perhaps. But at the end of the day, we must not allow ourselves to fall into the idiot
binary view that because one group is bad, its (alleged) adversaries are good.
@Ray
Caruso d that the US Embassy ought to explain why they had posted a series of 'protest
routes' marking the locations where demonstrators planned to mee t. "One can only imagine
what would have happened if the Russian Embassy in Washington published a map of protest
routes indicating the end point, for example, in the Capitol," Maria Zakharova said. "Giving
directions to those on the ground would have led to global hysteria among American
politicians, Russophobic slogans, threats of sanctions and the expulsion of Russian
diplomats."
It is time to remind the US Embassy staff about what was done to Maria Butina for nothing by
the lawless US. The Russian Federation should boot out the American subversives.
He must know this. He must also know that his electoral prospects are nil – even if he
was allowed to compete and given access. Short of a revolution he is done, and
revolution is not coming, too soon. That is not a good place to be. He is in theory protected
by his sponsors, but that may not amount to much if things get hot. At best he would get
exchanged. Or he can quietly slip away after a few years if he is lucky.
Mulatto did his job, now mulatto can go. A single-use politician who is endlessly promoted,
celebrated, and then discarded and forgotten, only to be listed on a sad list of names to
demonise the enemy. That enemy is his own country, is that really heroism?
After the Coup in Ukraine in 2014 for several years I listened weekly to the John
Batchelor show when he interviewed Russia scholar the late Stephen Cohen.
From those conversations I learned that Ukraine is politically divided EAST (pro European
Union) / WEST (pro Russian) (a bit like the United States is divided RED / BLUE).
Politically by vote Ukraine was close to 50% pro E.U., 50% pro Russia.
After the Coup Crimea voted to return to Russia thus making the political breakdown of
Ukraine more pro E.U.
Forbes Magazine in 2008 republished an interview with Soviet critic Alexander
Solzhenitsyn
Solzhenitsyn, among other things, noted 1) in 1919 Lenin in bringing Ukraine into the
Soviet Union gave Ukraine "several Russian provinces to assuage her feelings," 2) that when
in 1954 Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine Sevastopol was not transferred to Ukraine as
Sevastopol was a military city subject to the Central Government of the U.S.S.R.
I would note that Khrushchev's transfer of Crimea to Ukraine violated Soviet Law /
Constitution as the people of Crimea were not asked if they wanted to be transferred.
At the time I did some searching about the history of Crimea and Ukraine and it turns out
that shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union Crimea wanted to separate from Ukraine and
the Central Government of Ukraine threatened to invade Crimea.
The Central Government of Ukraine in its Constitution gave Crimea a special status not
given other provinces.
I would note that in October 1962 Joe Biden was 19 years 11 months old and likely a
college student. In October 1962 the world came close to ending (at least a good deal of the
so called civilized world) with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
However, in 2014, ignoring the warning of Robert F. Kennedy of the need to put yourself in
the other Country's shoes, Biden supported the violent Coup which essentially included a
violent takeover of the Ukrainian Parliament (Rada) by violent protesters, much akin to the
Trump Taliban taking over the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
It seems that Biden thought that NATO could just move into Sevastopol and take over not
just the port of the Russian navy, but the Russian Navy itself.
R ussiagate was an invention to help explain away Hillary Clinton's defeat in 2016 and to
undermine the legitimacy of the man who beat her.
Now that that man himself has been defeated, and a Democrat is back in the White House, one
would think it was over. But Russiagate has proved too useful an instrument to discard. It beat
up not only Donald Trump, but riled Russia too. It was an elixir for CNN's and MSNBC's
ratings.
And now Russiagate is poised to be used again against Russia, Trump and Trump voters. The
latter are way more than "deplorable" now. They are "cult members" and a threat.
Democrats are surely sticking to the Russiagate story as sure as it was exposed as pure
opposition research
stitched up to appear as a serious intelligence assessment.
Last Friday Clinton invited House Speaker Nancy Pelosi onto her podcast to discuss the
events at the Capitol. In the middle of it, Clinton, who has no official position in the Biden
administration, revealed the power she has behind the scenes. She brought up the topic by
asking Pelosi:
"We learned a lot about our system of government over the last four years with a president
who disdains democracy and -- as you have said numerous times -- has other agendas. What they
all are, I don't think we yet know. I hope historically we will find out who he's beholden
to, who pulls his strings."
"I would love to see his phone records to see whether he was talking to Putin the day that
the insurgents invaded our Capitol," Clinton went on. "We now know that -- not just him, but
his enablers, his accomplices, his cult members -- have the same disregard for democracy."
As if those words weren't astonishing enough, Clinton made a startling policy proposal. She
wanted to know if Pelosi thought the U.S. needs "a 9/11-type commission to investigate and
report everything that they can pull together." Sounding as if this were pre-arranged, Pelosi
responded, "I do." She added: "I don't know what Putin has on him, politically, financially or
personally."
Normally before any investigation can begin there has to be some prima facie evidence
of wrongdoing. There has to be something to investigate. But in this instance all there is is
wild speculation. Speculation that Trump may have been on the phone with Putin while Trump
supporters marauded through the halls of Congress.
The Usefulness of Russiagate
Repeatedly blaming Russia allows Democrats to deny the role they have played in the
devastation of working and formerly middle class Americans–which helped elect Trump and
fueled the assault on the Capitol.
Rather than enact a social democratic agenda that will repair the damage done to the poor
and working class from 40 years of bi-partisan economic neoliberalism, the Democrats, now in
control of Congress and the White House, continue to smear their enemies as Russian agents,
while
threatening a domestic War on Terror and even more surveillance. (It's not enough that
Trump is gone and led a mostly disastrous
presidency and that many of his followers were duped
by him.)
Russiagate is also too useful to discard because it is a tool for politicians to get out of
sticky situations. In previous years, if a publication revealed a politician's corruption and
it was completely verified, that politician in most cases would eventually resign.
Today that politician can override the truth of the exposure by falsely blaming a hostile
foreign power for being behind it. The corruption story is still true, but now the focus is on
who leaked it, which is irrelevant. (U.S. prosecutors routinely use evidence from criminals
turned informants to nail bigger fish.)
Such of course was the case with WikiLeaks ' publication of the Clinton and Podesta
emails. (Even though Russia was immediately blamed, four DNC officials did resign
, including the
chairwoman -- "sacrificial lambs" from the party's perspective to keep Clinton in
place.)
Beyond that, Russiagate has been a convenient and successful strategy of deflection from
one's own responsibility for America's social and political crises.
The message is that the destruction of American democracy has nothing to do with bipartisan
approval of money's corruption of politics, and vast overspending on the military instead of on
education, health care and infrastructure.
Instead it is all being engineered by an evil genius in the Kremlin -- a virtual James Bond
villain. The adolescent level of political
education in the public, and in much of the
media , creates fertile ground for such a grand deception to flourish.
It is more absurd and transparent to suggest that Moscow had something to do with the
Capitol uprising than it did with the 2016 election.
Despite four years and counting of Democratic Party propaganda about Trump conspiring with
Russia to steal the 2016 election, a $32 million, 22-month investigation by Special Counsel
Robert Mueller found no evidence of any conspiracy.
Shawn Henry, the head of the company CrowdStrike hired by the Democratic Party and Clinton
campaign (while keeping the FBI away) to examine the DNC servers declared under oath to the House
Intelligence Committee that no evidence of a hack was discovered.
Despite this, the Russiagate saga is still believed by millions of Americans, bolstered by
Congressional studies that relied on intelligence briefings. Mueller and Henry were legally
obliged to tell the truth. Intelligence agencies aren't.
And now Clinton and Pelosi will shamelessly reinvigorate the Moscow-menace malarkey (h/t
Biden) into a risky, renewed tension with Russia, which just might work nicely with the hawks
in Joe Biden's cabinet.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief ofConsortium Newsand a former UN
correspondent forThe Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe,
and numerous other newspapers. He was an investigative reporter for theSunday
Timesof London and began his professional career as a stringer forThe
New York Times.He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter
@unjoe
Consortiumnews.com , January 23, 2021 at 19:02
Ranking Member Mr. [Adam] Schiff: Do you know the date on which the Russians exfiltrated
the data from the DNC? when would that have been?
Mr. Henry: Counsel just reminded me that, as it relates to the DNC, we have indicators
that data was exfiltrated from the DNC, but we have no indicators that it was exfiltrated
(sic). There are times when we can see data exfiltrated, and we can say conclusively. But in
this case, it appears it was set up to be exfiltrated, but we just don't have the evidence
that says it actually left.
Mr. [Chris] Stewart of Utah: Okay. What about the emails that everyone is so, you know,
knowledgeable of? Were there also indicators that they were prepared but not evidence that
they actually were exfiltrated?
Mr. Henry: There's not evidence that they were actually exfiltrated. There's
circumstantial evidence but no evidence that they were actually exfiltrated.
Mr. Stewart: But you have a much lower degree of confidence that this data actually left
than you do, for example, that the Russians were the ones who breached the security?
Mr. Henry: There is circumstantial evidence that that data was exfiltrated off the
network.
Mr. Stewart: And circumstantial is less sure than the other evidence you've indicated.
Mr. Henry: "We didn't have a sensor in place that saw data leave. We said that the data
left based on the circumstantial evidence. That was the conclusion that we made.
In answer to a follow-up query on this line of questioning, Henry delivered this classic:
"Sir, I was just trying to be factually accurate, that we didn't see the data leave, but we
believe it left, based on what we saw."
Cadogan Parry , January 23, 2021 at 13:25
The late Robert Parry astutely asked "Why Not a Probe of 'Israel-gate'?"
(CN-20-April-2017).
It still seems that no extreme is too extreme for ever-compliant US media to protect the
American people from any critical thinking about Israeli political-influence-and-propaganda
campaigns and the vigorously bi-partisan pro-Israel Lobby.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu personally welcomed convicted spy Pollard (30-Dec-2020) and Sheldon
Adelson's corpse (11-Jan-2021) to Israel. On his last half-day in office, Trump granted full
pardon to Pollard's Israeli handler.
"Well everybody's dancin' in a ring around the sun
Nobody's finished, we ain't even begun."
– Grateful Dead (1967), "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)"
It's amazing. Are Americans so gullible not to see that? But also one wonders,Who Rules
America or USA for that matter?
robert e williamson jr , January 23, 2021 at 12:08
Who rules America? Kamulegeya come closer so I don't have to shout. Not so much gullible
as uncaring, intimidated, and over whelmed.
The CIA calls the shots, the remainder of the intelligence community falls in line with
with CIA, the State Department plays middle man for the intel community throwing their
support behind what ever the caper is and if any problems develop with the process the DOJ
always rules in favor of keeping all the secrets secret, even despite them not knowing the
truth. After the right senators are contacted.
This all starts at the top stays at the top, the part of the Deep State that delivers to
those elites I often talk about, those super wealthy elitist the SWETS.
The President oft times don't know sickem and far too ofte don't want to know what is
going on himself.
Another fine, well-articulated article, nicely debunking once again the risible
"Russiagate" hoax which the establishment, DNC-directed Dems just can't seem to let go of, at
least as long as the general American public has not yet been provided with any thorough
debunking, -- of the type, say, that Bill Binney is STILL unsuccessfully trying to interest
the MSM to cover -- as long, that is, as the still largely uncritical mass of the MSMs'
audiences remain easy "marks" for such ostensibly "official" conspiracy theories, especially
those having the solid support of 17, oops, 1, intelligence agency, oops, 1 former CIA
director, and a couple of other old timers who were dragooned into declaring before a
congressional committee that they too believed that Russian interference in our elections was
at least "highly probable."
Clearly only with a very wide dissemination of the truths about Russiagate, only with a
refutation reaching out well beyond the recipients of the alternative press, only with one
which is easily available to, and comprehensible by the general public are we likely to see
any retraction or diminution of the many spurious reiterated Russiaphobic accusations from
the Dems. Just how to facilitate such a wide-ranging dissemination of a sensible
deconstruction and refutation of the hoax is, of course, a huge remaining problem for all of
us determined to bring the truth to as many of our compatriots as possible.
While I completely agree with all that you have written, Joe, I would like to comment on
two things you mentioned in passing. First, just as you say, the Dems are claiming that the
U.S. needs "a 9/11-type commission to investigate and report everything" about Russian
interference. Such a demand is quite humorous even just taken upon its literal meaning,
since, if there is one thing that is NOT needed it is precisely something like the
chaotically hobbled together, -- and in the face of great opposition from the Bush
administration, -- intentionally starved of funds, de facto whitewash, produced by the "just
accidentally" amazingly pro-Zionist 9/11 commission, a report that was even quickly disowned
by several of its authors as just such a political whitewash upon its release!
But even if we assume our goodly Dems mean to call for some more serious, fair-minded,
disinterested, inquiry into the actual facts behind the great Russiagate hoax, that too is
something the Dems could hardly be serious about commissioning since it would presumably only
quickly reveal just what so many of us have been arguing for four years now, most
specifically, inter alia, that the DNC emails, including Hillary Clinton's illegally
unsecured emails, could not possibly have been obtained through a Russian, or any other kind
of "hack," but merely through an on-site download of the files onto a thumb drive, something
which can be, and demonstrably was, accomplished in only a fraction of the time any hack
would require, and the subsequently physical delivery of that thumb drive to Wikileaks.
That the emails were indeed leaked to Wikileaks, not provided to Assange by mysterious,
non-existing "Guccifer 2.0" hackers, as still claimed in the official account, has also been
maintained consistently by Julian Assange himself, much to the always deaf ears of the MSM.
Indeed, anyone with more curiosity and intelligence than a grapefruit can easily determine,
both from Assange's own actions apropos the matter, and from other evidence, including a
direct naming of the person, provided by those who were closely associated with Wikileaks at
the time, exactly who it was who hand-delivered the thumb drive in question to Assange. But
this truth of the matter, while easy to obtain, also destroys what little remains of the ONLY
link the Dems have which allegedly ties Trump to the genetically nefarious Russians, which is
why, of course, Mueller declined to interview Assange, even though the latter was quite
willing to set him straight. And so, all the conspiracy seeking Dems can do, aside from
admitting it was a hoax from the git go, which they are certainly unlikely to do, is double
down on their conspiratorial nonsense while hoping that its debunking remains confined to the
easily demonized "alternative" press, as, alas, it has been so far.
And thus, just to coin a new phrase, we can say that; "Russiagate lives on because the
moment for its demise [i.e. public refutation] was missed." Well, mostly missed, that is,
since a few of us, and first among them all of you at Consortium News, didn't miss the
disingenuous legerdemain at all, but spoke out clearly against it, albeit not yet in a manner
that could have finished the employment of such a pack of obvious lies off once and for all
in the minds of the American people.
P.S.: At the risk of displaying my ignorance about such things, what does "h/t Biden"
mean?
Anna , January 22, 2021 at 13:43
The FBI still did not look at Seth Rich's computer.
Meanwhile, the fraudsters at CrowdStrike have been prospering and those who hired a foreign
agent Steele to slander POTUS were not punished as traitors.
What is particularly hard to fathom is not so much the gross dishonesty and malice of
politicians like H. Clinton and Pelosi but the boneheaded stupidity and ignorance of the
broad population that accepts fables like Russiagate as fact.
This is a testament to the immense power of propaganda, when repeated on a daily basis by
the mass media.
Joe Lauria says convincingly, "Russiagate was an invention to help explain away Hillary
Clinton's defeat in 2016 and to undermine the legitimacy of the man who beat her."
At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, the "stab in the back legend" in post-World War I
Germany was an invention by the extreme right wing and later Nazis to help explain away
Germany's defeat in that war and to undermine the legitimacy of the Weimar Republic, putting
the blame on domestic "enemies" in cahoots with foreign adversaries.
Very much the same thing.
Russiagate was aimed at President Trump and a foreign enemy. Now, following the "new 9/11"
of the Capitol Riot and planned domestic "antiterrorism" legislation, it looks like the state
will mainly go after "domestic enemies". A new Reichstag Fire has occurred. The parallels are
becoming ever more apparent.
Bob In Portland , January 22, 2021 at 18:51
Russiagate was well afoot in the summer of 2016. It wasn't merely to slander Trump. It was
to prepare us for a war against Russia.
If I had access to network time I'd ask: If Russiagate is true, and if you have proof, why
wasn't Trump charged with treason? You had two chances to do it but Democratic leadership
never thought to bring it up. How curious.
DH Fabian , January 22, 2021 at 22:01
Yes. Just one point: Russia wasn't a "foreign enemy" until the Clintonites falsely claimed
that they somehow interfered with the 2016 election. Russia was a solid ally in both world
wars. Since the Perestroika era, united efforts of US and Russian scientists brought
extraordinary progress. There was solid unity from the fall of the Soviet state in the 1990s,
until the Clintonites falsely accused Russia of some sort of "election interference." This is
how the Democrats destroyed decades of diplomatic progress toward nuclear disarmament.
PEG , January 23, 2021 at 05:16
I agree – I didn't mean "enemy" in the literal sense, but rather in the sense you
refer to.
JohnO , January 23, 2021 at 12:43
Russian propaganda from the beginning has always and ever been to secure vast sums of
revenue from the people's' taxes, and to scare the crap out of those same people. When Truman
dropped the first A-bomb on Hiroshima, he remarked that 'this will let the Russians know that
we are serious', or words to that effect. He slaughtered an urban populace to make a point!
And generations of Americans were raised in fear of Russians and nuclear war.
The current state of domestic surveillance is a self-conscious recognition, I believe, of the
wholly irresponsible policies of the two parties. Third-rate healthcare, pathetic public
education, mass incarceration, and massive deregulation in the industrial and financial
sectors. All to pay for wars and control across the globe. It is an arrangement that will
continue to provoke protests, insurrection and conspiracy theorizing.
evelync , January 22, 2021 at 13:43
I find it amusing that the top ranks of the political hacks whose psy-ops that use Russia
as the great threat against "the most powerful country in the world" – these hacks
choose to ignore the real, the relevant investigation that should be in the forefront –
the money trails of Trump's so called financial empire – the banks, the oligarchs, the
money laundering – the sources of his funding over the years who really would have had
the opportunity to push him around ..
Investigating the finances may be too uncomfortable for them to examine .. Even though his
financial schemes hurt real people – wages unpaid, debts unpaid; bankruptcies; students
betrayed.
On another note – Amy Goodman on Democracy Now's 1/21/21 news summary pointed out
that the Biden Administration was sticking with Gaido being the "recognized" leader of
Venezuela ..the democratically elected Maduro remains the target, apparently .
meanwhile FT writes that the "EU dropped its de facto recognition of Juan Guaidó as
Venezuela's interim president, a serious diplomatic setback to the opposition leader's
faltering campaign to oust Nicolás Maduro from power."
wikipedia:
"Venezuela is a major producer and exporter of minerals, notably bauxite, coal, gold, iron
ore, and oil, and the state controls most of the country's vast mineral reserves. In 2003
estimated reserves of bauxite totaled 5.2 million tons."
countries in South America with Lithium ( used in batteries for electric vehicles) and who
have democratic minded politicians who think their people should get some benefit from the
country's resources watch out for other U.S favored Guaidó's ..
Anonymot , January 22, 2021 at 13:11
Thanks for raising the subject, Joe.
It's really to ridiculous to merit a reply. One would think an honest party would have
excreted Hillary Clinton by now, but no, they can't. She still owns the DNC as I've repeated
for years and note that Neither Joe Biden nor Harris nor any member of Biden's cabinet would
be there without the DNC/Hillary stamp of approval. Buttigieg's appearance in a cabinet level
post is solely her doing, for he has zero qualifications for that post. His presence is the
equivalent of hers as Secretary of State- to give credence to his qualifications on hid next
run for President. She failed hers; we'll see about his.
Hillary's handlers are the dangerous ones.
Dorothy Sillman Crouch , January 22, 2021 at 13:01
My greatest fear with Biden was that he would find a place for Hillary in his
administration. My understanding of what happened during the 2016 primary was those emails
downloaded at the DNC revealed what they were doing to take down Bernie as a candidate so
that Hillary would be the Democratic candidate with the niave assumption she could win over
Trump. Big mistake. Hillary has never been a viable candidate. And of course the DNC never
wanted to sponsor a Socialist like Bernie. I was very concerned after the election of Trump
that my Democratic state senators continued to insist Russia was involved. Blame Russia has
been the mantra of the Democratic Party ever since. As suggested Bill Binney tried to
disproved that connection but the party didn't want to hear that. I agree with John Chuckman
in his appraisal of Putin. I would never want to see Biden revive the 'blame Russia' mantra.
Someone suggested we had to feed the military industrial complex so that's why it happened.
Needs to stop.
I wonder how many people picked up Pres. Biden's passing reference to Russia paying
bounties for American scalps (in Afghanistan). It was a 24-hr. story long ago and died
quickly for lack of evidence and logic. But Biden keeps using it, as he did in one of the
'debates' with Trump. Two questions arise. 1. Does Biden really believe the story or does he
use it to score patriotism points? Either way it reflects very badly on him. 2. Is the bounty
myth a distant cousin of Russiagate or is it a signal of a renewed pursuit of the Cold War by
Biden and his hawkish appointees?
Mikhailovich , January 23, 2021 at 00:56
US politicians will carry on with their Russo-phobia anyway. What really is good about the
new administration, they are not so keen for a new nuclear arm race as Trump was. It looks,
the new administration is less subordinate to the military industrial complex.
In this headline alone there is one information that already proves beyond all reasonable
doubt the pro-Navalny protests are just an artificial, pathetic color revolution attempt: "next
weekend".
Didn't know revolutions had to wait for weekends to happen...
I can smell the fetid aroma of the middle class and the petite bourgeoisie from thousands of
kilometers of distance - that's my gift and my curse. And I can tell you those pro-Navalny
protesters stink from that smell.
What poisoning? Hmm?? Interesting that the Skripal affair and the Navalny one (the latter
for sure a put up job from start to finish) did not end in deaths NOR were any other people
(children, ducks, restaurant workers, hospital staff, daughter of British army nurse in first
"case"; Navalny's supporters/workers what have you, hotel workers, airplane cleaners, EMS,
Omsk/Tomsk (sorry don't recall) hospital workers) affected at all – but isn't
"Novichok" supposed to be the deadliest of nerve agents no cure yet the Skrips and Navalny
survived and NO ONE else affected
And the stories about how this so-called deadliest of poisons was administered kept
changing – in part at least because not few in the public and in the none MSM kept
questioning the reality of the presented story
Re Navalny: a) why would the "Kremlin" order his killing via a nerve agent that screams
"Russia did it" unless you believe that Russia and Mr Putin are clodpolls?; b) Navalny only
has around 3% support among some of the Russian population; c) Why, after he had been saved
in Omsk/Tomsk would the Kremlin agree to his being transferred to a hospital in Germany and
that Charite Hospital in particular (known to have German govt connections) had the order for
his being "poisoned" gone out from the Russian govt?; d) Navalny had been charged and
convicted of Fraud and his prison sentence "reduced" to monthly appearances at court –
probation, essentially his five months collaborating (well the whole affair was a
collaboration, and a nicely remunerated one, no doubt) with the west in Germany meant that he
broke the terms of his probation/sentence which was why he was arrested on his return.
Don't tell me he and his Handlers didn't know precisely what they – he was –
were doing when they had him return They knew he would be arrested (as would anyone in the
west under similar judicial orders – but don't expect to hear that on NPR or the BBC
World Service, oh no all confected horror and outrage )
"... Consequently, there is no sense of irony among the McFauls of the world as US security strategy is committed to global dominance, while berating Russia for "revisionism." ..."
ByGlenn Diesen, Professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, and an editor at the Russia in Global
Affairs journal. Follow him on Twitter @glenndiesen
Donald Trump's efforts to reduce the ideologically driven base of US foreign policy fuelled great resentment among those who believed
it betrayed Washington's leadership position in the so-called "liberal international order."
Now that power has changed, will the pendulum swing in the opposite direction, with Joe Biden's administration applying a radical
ideological foreign policy?
A recent article by Michael McFaul, once Barack Obama's ambassador to Russia and a noted 'Russiagate' conspiracy theorist, indicates
what such an ideological foreign policy would look like. McFaul's article, 'How to Contain Putin's Russia', makes a case for a containment
policy.
Containment: learning from the past or living in the past?
To advance his argument, McFaul quotes George Kennan, the author of the Long Telegram and architect of erstwhile US containment
policy against the Soviet Union. McFaul suggests that Kennan's advocacy for a "patient but firm and vigilant containment"
against the revolutionary Bolshevik regime 75 years ago remains as valid as ever.
It would have made more sense to
quote Kennan when
he condemned NATO expansionism and predicted it would trigger another Cold War. As Kennan noted: "there was no reason for this
whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the Founding Fathers of this country turn over in their
graves."
Kennan continued to express disbelief over the rhetoric by the misinformed US leadership, presenting "Russia as a country dying
to attack Western Europe. Don't people understand? Our differences in the Cold War were with the Soviet Communist regime. And now
we are turning our backs on the very people who mounted the greatest bloodless revolution in history to remove that Soviet regime."
Kennan then went on to correctly predict that, when Russia would eventually react to US provocations, the NATO expanders would wrongfully
blame Russia.
Ideologues often have nostalgia for the Cold War, when the bipolar power distribution was supported by a clear and comfortable
ideological divide. The Western bloc represented capitalism, Christianity, and democracy, while the Eastern bloc represented communism,
atheism, and authoritarianism. This ideological divide supported internal cohesion within the Western bloc and drew clear borders
with the adversary.
The liberal international order has attempted to recast the former capitalist-communist divide with a liberal-authoritarian divide.
However, the ideological incompatibility between American liberalism and Russian conservatism is less convincing. For example, McFaul
cautions against Putin's nefarious conservative ideology committed to "Christian, traditional family values" that threatens
the liberal international order.
The new ideological divide nonetheless advances neo-McCarthyism in the West. McFaul presents a list of European conservatives
and populists that should be treated as American conservatives, purged from political life as enemies of the liberal international
order and thus possible agents of Russia. Hillary Clinton even suggested that the Capitol Hill riots were possibly coordinated by
Trump and Putin – yes, Russiagate is here to stay. The solution, for McFaul, is for American tech oligarchs to manipulate algorithms
to protect populations from Russian-friendly media.
An American ideological project
McFaul cautions against what he refers to as "Putin's ideological project" as a threat to the liberal international order.
Yet he is reluctant to recognize that the liberal international order is an American ideological project for the post-Cold War era.
After the Cold War, liberal ideologues advanced what was seemingly a benign proposition – suggesting that liberal democracy should
be at the center of security strategies. However, by linking liberal norms to US leadership, liberalism became both a constitutional
principle and an international hegemonic norm.
NATO is presented as a community of liberal values – without mentioning that its second largest member, Turkey, is more conservative
and authoritarian than Russia – and Moscow does not, therefore, have any legitimate reasons to oppose expansionism unless it fears
democracy. If Russia reacts negatively to military encirclement, it is condemned as an enemy of democracy, and NATO has a moral responsibility
to revert to its original mission as a military bloc containing Russia.
Case in point: there was nobody in Moscow advocating for the reunification with Crimea until the West supported the coup in Ukraine.
Yet, as Western "fact checkers" and McFaul inform us, there was a "democratic revolution" and not a coup. Committed
to his ideological prism, McFaul suggests that Russia acted out of a fear of having a democracy on its borders, as it would give
hope to Russians and thus threaten the Kremlin. McFaul's ideological lens masks conflicting national security interests, and it fails
to explain why Russia does not mind democratic neighbors in the east, such as South Korea and Japan, with whom it enjoys good relations.
Defending the peoples
States aspiring for global hegemony have systemic incentives to embrace ideologies that endow them with the right to defend other
peoples. The French National Convention declared in 1792 that France would "come to the aid of all peoples who are seeking to
recover their liberty," and the Bolsheviks proclaimed in 1917 "the duty to render assistance, armed, if necessary, to the
fighting proletariat of the other countries."
The American liberal international order similarly aims to liberate the people of the world with "democracy promotion"
and "humanitarian interventionism" when it conveniently advances US primacy. The American ideological project infers that
democracy is advanced by US interference in the domestic affairs of Russia, while democracy is under attack if Russia interferes
in the domestic affairs of US. The liberal international system is one of sovereign inequality to advance global primacy.
McFaul does not consider himself a Russophobe, as believes his attacks against Russia are merely motivated by the objective of
liberating Russians from their government, which is why he advocates that Biden "distinguish between Russia and Russians – between
Putin and the Russian people." This has been the modus operandi for regime change since the end of the Cold War – the US supposedly
does not attack countries to advance its interests, it only altruistically assists foreign peoples in rival states against their
leaders such as Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin etc.
McFaul and other liberal ideologues still refer to NATO as a "defensive alliance," which does not make much sense after
the attacks on Yugoslavia in 1999 or Libya in 2011. However, under the auspices of liberal internationalism, NATO is defensive, as
it defends the people of the world. Russia, therefore, doesn't have rational reasons for opposing the liberal international order.
McFaul condemns alleged efforts by Russia to interfere in the domestic affairs of the US, before outlining his strategies for
interfering in the domestic affairs of Russia. McFaul blames Russian paranoia for shutting down American "non-governmental organizations"
that are funded by the US government and staffed by people linked to the US security apparatus. He goes on to explain that the US
government must counter this by establishing new "non-government organizations" to educate the Russian public about the evils
of their government.
The dangerous appeal of ideologues
Ideologues have always been dangerous to international security. Ideologies of human freedom tend to promise perpetual peace.
Yet, instead of transcending power politics, the ideals of human freedom are linked directly to hegemonic power by the self-proclaimed
defender of the ideology. When ideologues firmly believe that the difference between the current volatile world and utopia can be
bridged by defeating its opponents, it legitimizes radical power politics.
Consequently, there is no sense of irony among the McFauls of the world as US security strategy is committed to global dominance,
while berating Russia for "revisionism."
Raymond Aaron once wrote: "Idealistic diplomacy slips too often into fanaticism; it divides states into good and evil, into
peace-loving and bellicose. It envisions a permanent peace by the punishment of the latter and the triumph of the former. The idealist,
believing he has broken with power politics, exaggerates its crimes."
If you like this story, share it with a friend!
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent
those of RT.
"... Oliver Stone told me recently that, in one of his conversations in Russia, Mr. Putin, somewhat exasperated, said something along the lines of, "Now Russians are thought of like Jews before World War II". Think about that. ..."
"... But clearly, Putin is also aware of the parallels between the demonization of him and Russia and how Jews were blamed for just about everything during the Thirties. Evidence-free accusations by the likes of Pelosi and Clinton will make the task of restoring a modicum of trust an uphill battle. ..."
Interviewed by Mrs. Clinton Monday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi eagerly rose to the bait when
Clinton spoke of "her concerns that the outgoing commander-in-chief was compromised by the
Kremlin". Setting the stage, Clinton expressed the hope that "we'll find out who he [Trump]
is beholden to, "who pulls his strings".
Clinton added ominously: "I would love to see his phone records to see whether he was
talking to Putin the day that the insurgents invaded our Capitol". She then asked Pelosi if
the nation needs "a 9/11-type commission to investigate and report everything they can pull
together." Pelosi agreed on the need for such a commission, and proceeded to burnish her own
anti-Putin credentials:
"As I said to him [Trump] in that picture with my blue suit pointing rudely at him, 'With
you Mr. President, all roads lead to Putin.''
Pelosi conceded that she does not know 'what
Putin has on him politically, financially, or personally, but what happened last week was a
gift to Putin."
Putin's Useful Idiots?
Pelosi added, "And these people, unbeknownst to them, they are Putin puppets. They were
doing Putin's business when they did that at the incitement of an insurrection by the
president so, yes, we should have a 9/11 commission and there is strong support in the
Congress for that."
What leaps out of this Clinton-Pelosi pas de deux is who is leading the dance.
Clinton hints broadly (not, of course, for the first time) that Putin is pulling Trump's
strings. It is Clinton who voices suspicion that Trump and Putin were somehow coordinating on
the phone on Jan. 6; and it is she who suggests that "a 9/11-type commission" might be
needed.
Due largely to the captive "mainstream" media, 'Russia Russia Russia' has proved to be the
gift that keeps giving for the Democrats. Are there limits to the degree of credence
Americans will give to corporate media spinning all the sins attributed to Russian President
Putin? Why the insinuation that he may be partly to blame for the violence at the Capitol on
Jan. 6?
Russia is Convenient
It's a matter of convenience. For the Democrats it has been super-convenient to blame Mrs.
Clinton's defeat in 2016 on Russia, although key aspects of that case (Russian "hacking" of
the DNC, for example)
have been debunked .
But, don't go away, Russia, not just yet. The MICIMATT still finds you convenient as the
kind of "threat" it can cite to justify spending untold billions of dollars on defense,
enriching the already rich. Please see "
Why Russia Must Be
Demonized ."
The way the U.S. system is structured, it matters little in the grand scheme of things on
where the money is spent – whether a Republican or Democrat sits in the Oval Office. In
short, the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank complex
rules the roost (MEDIA in all caps, as the linchpin). Clinton wonders aloud who Trump "is
beholden to". Well, speaking of beholden, Joe Biden enters office with zero vaccination
against being beholden – to the MICIMATT. It is fair to say that, without that the
MICIMATT's blessing, candidates end up like Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard.
Uncertainties
There are just enough straws in the wind to make the MICIMATT and its clients and
supporters nervous. What would happen, should Putin and Russia become less demonized? Could
there be a thaw in the unnecessarily chilly relations with Moscow? What could that mean for
bloated defense spending – particularly at a time when those funds are so desperately
and demonstrably needed at home?
It appears likely that strategic arms negotiations with Russia will be high on President
Joe Biden's agenda, as will cooperation with Russia and the other parties to the Iran nuclear
deal from which Trump withdrew. Assuming William Burns, former ambassador to Russia, is
confirmed as CIA director, Biden will have at his beck and call a straight-speaking, highly
experienced expert who has dealt with President Putin. Burns was also one of the chief US
negotiators of the Iran nuclear deal.
In my view, it is also significant that President-elect Biden has held back from explicit
condemnation of Russia by name amid the recent flurry of accusations of Russian
hacking of several US institutions over the past several months. Yes, he has referred to what
Secretary of State Pompeo and Attorney General Barr have said blaming Russia, and it can be
argued that he has indirectly implicated Russia in the context of his sparse statements on
this issue.
In my experience, though, the Kremlin is likely to have taken note of the caution that
Biden has exercised on this neuralgic issue. Nor has this likely escaped the attention of the
MICIMATT and induced some worry about the long-term viability of the portrayal of Putin as
villain.
The Kremlin Is Watching
Oliver Stone told me recently that, in one of his conversations in Russia, Mr. Putin,
somewhat exasperated, said something along the lines of, "Now Russians are thought of like
Jews before World War II". Think about that. Amid the Russia Russia Russia over the past
four-plus years, Putin has kept his voice down – and his powder dry – while
staying open to negotiations to reduce arms competition, cyber warfare, and other facets of
bilateral tension.
If past is precedent, he is likely to see opportunities to take a fresh
look at US intentions under President Biden – especially during the traditional
"honeymoon" period normally accorded a new president.
But clearly, Putin is also aware of the parallels between the demonization of him and
Russia and how Jews were blamed for just about everything during the Thirties. Evidence-free
accusations by the likes of Pelosi and Clinton will make the task of restoring a modicum of
trust an uphill battle.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the
Saviour in inner-city Washington. A CIA analyst for 27 years, he led the Soviet Foreign
Policy Branch and prepared/briefed The President's Daily Brief for three presidents.
In retirement he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
The devastating hack on SolarWinds was quickly pinned on Russia by US intelligence. A
more likely culprit, Samanage, a company whose software was integrated into SolarWinds'
software just as the "back door" was inserted, is deeply tied to Israeli intelligence and
intelligence-linked families such as the Maxwells.
In mid-December of 2020, a massive hack compromised the networks of numerous US federal agencies,
major corporations, the top five accounting firms in the country, and the military, among
others. Despite most US media attention now focusing on election-related chaos, the fallout
from the hack continues to make headlines day after day.
The hack , which
affected Texas-based software provider SolarWinds , was blamed on Russia on January
5 by the US government's Cyber Unified Coordination Group. Their statement asserted that the
attackers were "
likely Russian in origin ," but they failed to provide evidence to back up that claim.
Since then, numerous developments in the official investigation have been reported, but no
actual evidence pointing to Russia has yet to be released. Rather, mainstream media outlets
began reporting the intelligence community's "likely" conclusion as fact right away, with the
New York Timessubsequently
reporting that US investigators were examining a product used by SolarWinds that was sold
by a Czech Republic–based company, as the possible entry point for the "Russian hackers."
Interest in that company, however, comes from the fact that the attackers most likely had
access to the systems of a contractor or subsidiary of SolarWinds. This, combined with the
evidence-free report from US intelligence on "likely" Russian involvement, is said to be the
reason investigators are focusing on the Czech company, though any of SolarWinds'
contractors/subsidiaries could have been the entry point.
Such narratives clearly echo those that became prominent in the wake of the 2016 election,
when now-debunked claims were made that Russian hackers were responsible for leaked emails
published by WikiLeaks. Parallels are obvious when one considers that SolarWinds
quickly brought on the discredited firm CrowdStrike to aid them in securing their networks
and investigating the hack.
CrowdStrike had also been brought on by the DNC after the 2016 WikiLeaks publication, and
subsequently it was central in
developing the false declarations regarding the involvement of "Russian hackers" in that
event.
There are also other parallels. As Russiagate played out, it became apparent that there was
collusion between the Trump campaign and a foreign power, but the nation was Israel ,
not Russia. Indeed,
many of the reports that came out of Russiagate revealed
collusion with Israel , yet those instances received little coverage and generated little
media outrage. This has led some to suggest that Russiagate may have been a cover for what was
in fact Israelgate.
Similarly, in the case of the SolarWinds hack, there is the odd case and timing of
SolarWinds' acquisition of a company called Samanage in 2019. As this report will explore,
Samanage's deep ties to Israeli intelligence, venture-capital firms connected to both
intelligence and Isabel Maxwell, as well as Samange's integration with the Orion software at
the time of the back door's insertion warrant investigation every bit as much as SolarWinds'
Czech-based contractor.
Orion's Fall
In the month since the hack, evidence has emerged detailing the extent of the damage, with
the Justice Department
quietly announcing , the same day as the Capitol riots (January 6), that their email system
had been breached in the hack -- a "major incident" according to the department. This
terminology means that the attack "is likely to result in demonstrable harm to the national
security interests, foreign relations, or the economy of the United States or to the public
confidence, civil liberties, or public health and safety of the American people,"
per NextGov .
The Justice Department was the fourth US government agency to publicly acknowledge a breach
in connection to the hack, with the others being the Departments of Commerce and Energy and the
Treasury. Yet, while only four agencies have publicly acknowledged fallout from the hack,
SolarWinds software is
also used by the Department of Defense, the State Department, NASA, the NSA, and the
Executive Office. Given that the Cyber Unified Coordination Group stated that "fewer than ten"
US government agencies had been affected, it's likely that some of these agencies were
compromised, and some press reports have asserted that the State Department and Pentagon were
affected.
In addition to government agencies, SolarWinds
Orion software was in use by the top ten US telecommunications corporations, the top five
US accounting firms, the New York Power Authority, and numerous US government contractors such
as Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, and the Federal Reserve. Other notable SolarWinds
clients include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft, Credit Suisse, and several
mainstream news outlets including the Economist and the New York Times .
Based on what is officially known so far, the hackers appeared to have been highly
sophisticated, with FireEye, the cybersecurity company that first discovered the implanted code
used to conduct the hack, stating that
the hackers "routinely removed their tools, including the backdoors, once legitimate remote
access was achieved -- implying a high degree of technical sophistication and attention to
operational security." In addition, top security experts have noted that the hack was "
very very carefully
orchestrated ," leading to a consensus that the hack was state sponsored.
FireEye stated that they first identified the compromise of SolarWinds after the version of
the Orion software they were using contained a back door that was used to gain access to its
"red team" suite of hacking tools. Not long after the disclosure of the SolarWinds hack, on
December 31, the hackers were able to partially access Microsoft's source code, raising
concerns that the act was preparation for future and equally devastating attacks.
FireEye's account can be taken with a grain of salt, however, as the CIA is
one of FireEye's clients , and FireEye
was launched with funding from the CIA's venture capital arm In-Q-tel. It is also worth
being skeptical of the " free tool " FireEye has
made available in the hack's aftermath for "spotting and keeping suspected Russians out of
systems."
In addition, Microsoft, another key source in the SolarWinds story, is a military contractor
with close ties to Israel's intelligence apparatus, especially Unit 8200, and their reports of
events also deserve scrutiny. Notably, it was Unit 8200 alumnus and executive at Israeli
cybersecurity firm Cycode, Ronen Slavin , who told Reuters
in a
widely quoted article that he "was worried by the possibility that the SolarWinds hackers
were poring over Microsoft's source code as prelude to a much more ambitious offensive." "To me
the biggest question is, 'Was this recon for the next big operation?'" Slavin stated .
Also odd about the actors involved in the response to the hack is the decision to bring on
not only the discredited firm CrowdStrike but also the new consultancy firm of Chris Krebs and
Alex Stamos, former chief information security officer of Facebook and Yahoo, to investigate
the hack. Chris Krebs is the former head of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity
and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and was previously a top Microsoft executive. Krebs
was fired by Donald Trump after repeatedly and publicly challenging Trump on the issue of
election fraud in the 2020 election.
As head of CISA, Krebs gave access to networks of critical infrastructure throughout the US,
with a focus on the health-care industry, to
the CTI League , a suspicious outfit of anonymous volunteers working "for free" and led by
a former Unit 8200 officer. "We have brought in the expertise of Chris Krebs and Alex Stamos to
assist in this review and provide best-in-class guidance on our journey to evolve into an
industry leading secure software development company," a SolarWinds spokesperson said in an
email cited by
Reuters.
It is also worth noting that the SolarWinds hack did benefit a few actors aside from the
attackers themselves. For instance, Israeli cybersecurity firms CheckPoint and CyberArk, which
have close ties to Israeli intelligence Unit 8200, have seen
their stocks soar in the weeks since the SolarWinds compromise was announced. Notably, in
2017, CyberArk was the company that "
discovered " one of the main tactics used in an attack, a form of SAML token manipulation
called GoldenSAML. CyberArk does not specify how they discovered this method of attack and, at
the time they announced the tactic's existence, released a free tool to identify
systems vulnerable to GoldenSAML manipulation.
In addition, the other main mode of attack, a back door program nicknamed Sunburst, was
found by
Kaspersky researchers to be similar to a piece of malware called
Kazuar that was also first discovered by
another Unit 8200-linked company , Palo Alto Networks, also in 2017. The similarities
only suggest that those who developed the Sunburst backdoor may have been inspired by
Kazuar and "they may have common members between them or a shared software developer building
their malware." Kaspersky stressed that Sunburst and Kazuar are not likely to be one and the
same. It is worth noting, as an aside, that Unit 8200 is known to
have previously hacked Kaspersky and attempted to insert a back door into their products,
per Kaspersky employees.
Crowdstrike claimed that this finding confirmed "the attribution at least to Russian
intelligence," only because an allegedly Russian hacking group is believed to have used Kazuar
before. No technical evidence linking Russia to the SolarWinds hacking has yet been
presented.
Samanage and Sabotage
The implanted code used to execute the hack was directly injected into the source code of
SolarWinds Orion. Then, the modified and bugged version of the software was "compiled, signed
and delivered through the existing software patch release management system," per
reports . This has led US investigators and observers to conclude that the perpetrators had
direct access to SolarWinds code as they had "a high degree of familiarity with the software."
While the way the attackers gained access to Orion's code base has yet to be determined, one
possibility
being pursued by investigators is that the attackers were working with employee(s) of a
SolarWinds contractor or subsidiary.
US investigators
have been focusing on offices of SolarWinds that are based abroad, suggesting that -- in
addition to the above -- the attackers were likely working for SolarWinds or were given access
by someone working for the company. That investigation has focused on offices in eastern
Europe, allegedly because "Russian intelligence operatives are deeply rooted" in those
countries.
It is worth pointing out, however, that Israeli intelligence is similarly "deeply rooted" in
eastern European states both before and
after the fall of the Soviet Union, ties well illustrated by Israeli superspy and media
tycoon Robert Maxwell's frequent and
close associations with Eastern European and Russian intelligence agencies as well as the
leaders of many of those countries. Israeli intelligence operatives like Maxwell also had cozy
ties with Russian organized crime. For instance, Maxwell enabled the access of the Russian
organized crime network headed by Semion Mogilevich into the US financial system and was also
Mogilevich's
business partner . In addition, the cross-pollination between Israeli and Russian organized crime networks (networks
which also share ties to their respective intelligence agencies) and such links should be
considered if the cybercriminals due prove to be Russian in origin, as US intelligence has
claimed.
Though some contractors and subsidiaries of SolarWinds are now being investigated, one that
has yet to be investigated, but should be, is Samanage. Samanage, acquired by SolarWinds in
2019, not only gained automatic access to Orion just as the malicious code was first inserted,
but it has deep ties to Israeli intelligence and a web of venture-capital firms associated with
numerous Israeli espionage scandals that have targeted the US government. Israel is deemed by
the NSA to be one
of the top spy threats facing US government agencies and Israel's list of espionage
scandals in the US is arguably the longest, and includes the Jonathan Pollard and PROMIS
software scandals of the 1980s to the Larry
Franklin/AIPAC espionage scandal in 2009.
Though much reporting has since been done on the recent compromise of SolarWinds Orion
software, little attention has been paid to Samanage. Samanage offers what it describes as "an
IT Service Desk solution." It was acquired by SolarWinds so Samanage's products could be added
to SolarWinds' IT Operations Management portfolio. Though US reporting and
SolarWinds press releases state that Samanage is based in Cary, North Carolina, implying
that it is an American company, Samanage is actually
an Israeli firm . It was
founded in 2007 by Doron Gordon, who previously worked
for several years at MAMRAM , the Israeli military's central computing unit .
Samanage was SolarWinds' first acquisition of an Israeli company, and, at the time, Israeli
media reported that SolarWinds was expected to set up its first development center in Israel.
It appears, however, that SolarWinds, rather than setting up a new center, merely began using
Samanage's research and development center located in Netanya, Israel.
Several months after the acquisition was announced, in November 2019, Samanage, renamed
SolarWinds Service Desk, became
listed as a standard feature of SolarWinds Orion software, whereas the integration of
Samanage and Orion had previously been optional since the acquisition's announcement in April
of that year. This means that complete integration was likely made standard in either October
or November. It has since been reported that the perpetrators of the recent hack gained access
to the networks of US federal agencies and major corporations at around the same time.
Samanage's automatic integration into Orion was a major modification made to the
now-compromised software during that period.
Samanage appears to have had access to Orion following the announcement of the acquisition
in April 2019. Integration first began with Orion version 2019.4, the earliest version believed
to contain the malicious code that enabled the hack. In addition, the integrated Samanage
component of Orion was
responsible for "ensuring the appropriate teams are quickly notified when critical events
or performance issues [with Orion] are detected," which was meant to allow "service agents to
react faster and resolve issues before . . . employees are impacted."
In other words, the Samanage component that was integrated into Orion at the same time the
compromise took place was also responsible for Orion's alert system for critical events or
performance issues. The code that was inserted into Orion by hackers in late 2019 nevertheless
went undetected by this Samanage-made component for over a year, giving the "hackers" access to
millions of devices critical to both US government and corporate networks. Furthermore, it is
this Samanage-produced component of the affected Orion software that advises end
users to exempt the software from antivirus scans and group policy object (GPO) restrictions by
providing a warning that Orion may not work properly unless those exemptions are granted.
Samanage, Salesforce, and the World Economic Forum
Around the time of Samange's acquisition by SolarWinds, it
was reported that one of Samanage's top backers was the company Salesforce, with Salesforce
being both a major investor in Samanage as well as a partner of the company.
Salesforce is run by Marc Benioff, a billionaire who got his start at the tech giant Oracle.
Oracle was originally created as a
CIA spin-off and has
deep ties to Israel's government and the outgoing Trump administration. Salesforce also has
a large presence in Israel, with much of its global research and development
based there . Salesforce also
recently partnered with the Unit 8200-linked Israeli firm Diagnostic Robotics to
"predictively" diagnose COVID-19 cases using Artificial Intelligence.
Aside from leading Salesforce, Benioff is a member of the Vatican's Council for Inclusive Capitalism
alongside Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a
close associate of Jeffrey Epstein and the Clintons, and members of the Lauder family, who
have deep ties to the Mega Group and Israeli politics.
Benioff is also a prominent member of the board of trustees of the World Economic Forum and
the inaugural
chair of the WEF's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR), making him one of
the most critical players in the unfolding of the WEF-backed Great Reset. Other WEF leaders,
including the organization's founder Klaus Schwab, have openly discussed how massive cyberattacks
such as befell SolarWinds will soon result in "even more significant economic and social
implications than COVID-19."
Last year, the WEF's Centre for Cybersecurity, of which Salesforce is part, simulated a
"digital pandemic" cyberattack in an exercise entitled Cyber Polygon . Cyber Polygon's speakers
in 2020 included former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail
Mishustin, WEF founder Klaus Schwab, and IBM executive Wendi Whitmore , who previously
held top posts at both Crowdstrike and a FireEye subsidiary. Notably, just months before the
COVID-19 crisis, the WEF had held Event 201, which simulated a global coronavirus pandemic that
crippled the world's economy.
In addition to Samanage's ties to WEF big shots such as Marc Benioff, the other main
investors behind Samanage's rise have ties to major Israeli espionage scandals, including the
Jonathan Pollard affair and the PROMIS software scandal. There are also ties to one of the
WEF's founding " technology pioneers ," Isabel Maxwell
(the daughter of Robert Maxwell and sister of Ghislaine), who has long-standing ties to
Israel's intelligence apparatus and the country's hi-tech sector.
The Bronfmans, the Maxwells, and Viola Ventures
At the time of its acquisition by SolarWinds, Samanage's
top investor was Viola Ventures, a major Israeli venture-capital firm. Viola's investment
in Samanage, until its acquisition, was managed by Ronen Nir, who was also
on Samanage's board before it became part of SolarWinds.
Prior to working at Viola, Ronen Nir was a vice president at Verint, formerly Converse
Infosys. Verint, whose other alumni have gone on to found Israeli intelligence-front companies
such as Cybereason .
Verint has a history of
aggressively spying on US government facilities, including
the White House , and created the backdoors into all US
telecommunications systems and major tech companies, including Microsoft, Google and Facebook,
on behalf of the US' NSA.
In addition to his background at Verint, Ronen Nir is an Israeli spy , having served for thirteen
years in an elite IDF intelligence unit, and he remains a lieutenant colonel on reserve duty.
His biography also notes that he worked for two years at the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC,
which is fitting given his background in espionage and the major role that Israeli embassy has
played in several major espionage scandals.
As an aside, Nir has stated that "thought leader" Henry Kissinger is his "favorite
historical character." Notably, Kissinger
was instrumental in allowing Robert Maxwell, Israeli superspy and father of Ghislaine and
Isabel Maxwell, to sell software with a back door for Israeli intelligence to US national
laboratories, where it was used to spy on the US nuclear program. Kissinger had told Maxwell to
connect with Senator John Tower in order to gain access to US national laboratories, which
directly enabled this action, part of the larger
PROMIS software scandal .
In addition, Viola's stake was managed through a firm known
as Carmel Ventures, which is part of the Viola Group. At the time, Carmel Ventures was advised by Isabel Maxwell , whose father
had previously been
directly involved in the operation of the front company used to sell bugged software to US
national laboratories. As noted in
a previous article at Unlimited Hangout , Isabel "inherited" her father's circle of
Israeli government and intelligence contacts after his death and has been instrumental in
building the "bridge" between Israel's intelligence and military-linked hi-tech sector to
Silicon Valley.
Isabel also has ties to the Viola Group itself through Jonathan Kolber, a general partner at
Viola. Kolber previously cofounded and led the Bronfman family's private-equity fund, Claridge
Israel (based in Israel). Kolber then led Koor Industries, which he had acquired alongside the
Bronfmans via Claridge. Kolber is closely associated with Stephen Bronfman, the son of Charles
Bronfman who created Claridge and also
cofounded the Mega Group with Leslie Wexner in the early 1990s.
Kolber, like Isabel Maxwell, is a founding director of the
Peres Center for Peace and Innovation. Maxwell, who used to chair the center's board, stepped down
following the Epstein scandal, though it's not exactly clear when. Other directors of the center
include Tamir Pardo, former head of Mossad. Kolber's area of expertise, like that of Isabel
Maxwell, is "structuring complex, cross-border and cross industry business and financial
transactions," that is, arranging acquisitions and partnerships of Israeli firms by US
companies. Incidentally, this is also a major focus of the Peres Center.
Other connections to Isabel Maxwell, aside from her espionage ties, are worth noting, given
that she is a "technology pioneer" of the World Economic Forum. As previously mentioned,
Salesforce -- a major investor in Samanage -- is deeply involved with the WEF and its Great
Reset.
The links of Israeli intelligence and Salesforce to Samanage, and thus to SolarWinds, is
particularly relevant given the WEF's "prediction" of a coming "pandemic" of cyberattacks and
the early hints from former Unit 8200 officers that the SolarWinds hack is just the beginning.
It is also worth mentioning the Israeli government's considerable ties to the WEF over the
years, particularly last year when it joined the
Benioff-chaired C4IR and participated in the October 2020 WEF panel entitled "The Great
Reset: Harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution."
Start Up Nation Central, an organization aimed at integrating Israeli start-ups with US
firms
set up by Netanyahu's longtime economic adviser Eugene Kandel and American Zionist
billionaire Paul Singer,
have asserted that Israel will serve a "key role" globally in the 4 th
Industrial Revolution following the implementation of the Great Reset.
Gemini, the BIRD Foundation, and Jonathan Pollard
In addition to Viola, another of Samange's
leading investors is Gemini Israel Ventures. Gemini is one of Israel's oldest
venture-capital firms, dating back to the Israeli government's 1993 Yozma program.
The first firm created by Yozma, Gemini was put under the control of Ed Mlavsky, who
Israel's government had chosen specifically for this position. As
previously reported by Unlimited Hangout , Mlavsky was then serving as the executive
director of the Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation,
where "he was responsible for investments of $100 million in more than 300 joint projects
between US and Israeli high-tech companies."
A few years before Gemini was created, while Mlavsky still headed BIRD, the foundation
became embroiled in one of the worst espionage scandals in US history, the Jonathan Pollard
affair.
In the indictment of US citizen Pollard for espionage on Israel's behalf, it was noted that
Pollard delivered the documents he stole to agents of Israel at two locations, one of which was
an apartment owned by Harold Katz, the then legal counsel of the BIRD Foundation and an adviser
to Israel's military, which oversaw Israel's scientific intelligence-gathering agency, Lekem.
US officials
told the New York Times at the time that they believed Katz "has detailed knowledge
about the [Pollard] spy ring and could implicate senior Israeli officials."
Subsequent reporting by journalist Claudia Wright pointed the finger at the Mlavsky-run BIRD
Foundation as one of the ways Israeli intelligence funneled money to Pollard before his capture
by US authorities.
One of the first companies Gemini invested in was CommTouch (now Cyren), which was founded
by ex-IDF officers and later led by Isabel Maxwell. Under Maxwell's leadership, CommTouch
developed close ties to Microsoft, partially due to Maxwell's relationship with its
cofounder Bill Gates.
A Coming "Hack" of Microsoft?
If the SolarWinds hack is as serious as has been reported, it's difficult to understand why
a company like Samanage would not be looked into as part of a legitimate investigation into the
attack. The timing of Samanage employees gaining access to the Orion software and the company's
investors including Israeli spies and those with ties to past espionage scandals where Israel
used back doors to spy on the US and beyond raises obvious red flags. Yet, any meaningful
investigation of the incident is unlikely to take place, especially given the considerable
involvement of discredited firms like CrowdStrike, CIA fronts like FireEye and a consultancy
firm led by former Silicon Valley executives with their own government/intelligence ties.
There is also the added fact that both of the main methods used in the attack were analogous
or bore similarities to hacking tools that were both discovered by Unit 8200-linked companies
in 2017. Unit 8200-founded cybersecurity firms are among the few "winners" from the SolarWinds
hack, as their stocks have skyrocketed and demand for their services has increased
globally.
While some may argue that Unit 8200 alumni are not necessarily connected to the Israeli
intelligence apparatus, numerous
reports have pointed out the admitted fusion of Israeli military intelligence with Israel's
hi-tech sector and its tech-focused venture capital networks, with Israeli military and
intelligence officials themselves
noting that the line between the private cybersecurity sector and Israel's intelligence
apparatus is so blurred, it's difficult to know where one begins and the other ends. There is
also the Israeli government policy, formally launched in
2012 , whereby Israel's intelligence and military intelligence agencies began outsourcing
"activities that were previously managed in-house, with a focus on software and cyber
technologies."
Samanage certainly appears to be such a company, not only because it was founded by a former
IDF officer in the military's central computing unit, but because its main investors include
spies on "reserve duty" and venture capital firms linked to the Pollard scandal as well as the
Bronfman and Maxwell families,
both of whom have been tied to espionage and sexual blackmail
scandals over the years.
Yet, as the Epstein scandal has recently indicated, major espionage scandals involving
Israel receive little coverage and investigations into these events rarely lead anywhere.
PROMIS was covered up
largely thanks to Bill Barr during his first term as Attorney General and even the Pollard
affair has all been swept under the rug with Donald Trump
allowing Pollard to move to Israel and, more recently, pardoning the Israeli spy who recruited
Pollard during his final day as President. Also under Trump, there was the
discovery of "stingray" surveillance devices placed by Israel's government throughout
Washington DC, including next to the White House, which were quickly memory holed and oddly not
investigated by authorities. Israel had
previously wiretapped the White House's phone lines during the Clinton years.
Another cover up is likely in the case of SolarWinds, particularly if the entry point was in
fact Samanage. Though a cover up would certainly be more of the same, the SolarWinds case is
different as major tech companies and cybersecurity firms with ties to US and Israeli
intelligence now insist that Microsoft is soon to be targeted in what would clearly be a much
more devastating event than SolarWinds due to the ubiquity of Microsoft's products.
On Tuesday, CIA-linked firm FireEye, which apparently has a leadership role in investigating
the hack,
claimed that the perpetrators are still gathering data from US government agencies and that
"the hackers are moving into Microsoft 365 cloud applications from physical, on-premises
servers," meaning that changes to fix Orion's vulnerabilities will not necessarily deny hacker
access to previously compromised systems as they allegedly maintain access to those systems via
Microsoft cloud applications. In addition to Microsoft's own claims that some of its source
code was accessed by the hackers, this builds the narrative that Microsoft products are poised
to be targeted in the next high-profile hack.
Microsoft's cloud security infrastructure, set to be the next target of the SolarWinds
hackers, was largely developed and later managed
by Assaf Rappaport , a former Unit 8200 officer who was most recently the head of
Microsoft's Research and Development and Security teams at its massive Israel branch. Rappaport
left Microsoft
right before the COVID-19 crisis began last year to found a new cybersecurity company
called Wiz.
Microsoft, like some of Samanage's main backers, is part of the World Economic Forum and is
an enthusiastic supporter of and participant in the Great Reset agenda, so much so that
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote the foreword to Klaus Schwab's book " Shaping
the Fourth Industrial Revolution ." With the WEF simulating a cyber "pandemic" and both the
WEF and Israel's head of Israel's National Cyber Directorate warning of an imminent "
cyber winter ", SolarWinds does indeed appear to be just the beginning, though perhaps a
scripted one to create the foundation for something much more severe. A cyberattack on
Microsoft products globally would certainly upend most of the global economy and likely have
economic effects more severe than the COVID-19 crisis, just as the WEF has been warning. Yet,
if such a hack does occur, it will inevitably serve the aims of the Great Reset to "reset" and
then rebuild electronic infrastructure.
Regarding the article, certainly one takeaway would be that, though they're good at
acquiring power, they're no good at managing it.
Another way of putting this would be to say that, though they're good at infiltration,
subversion, radical ingratitude, betrayal, insane hatred, vindictive hysteria, denial,
projection, destruction and death, they're just no good at social management.
Case in point: A country they control whose social institutions are all in free fall, The
United States of America. Which, if we were to be perfectly honest, we'd be better off simply
referring to as The United States of Israel. In which case we'd have to replace each of the
50 stars on the flag with stars of David. Who knows? Maybe they will. Stranger things have
happened in history.
But that would draw too much attention to the USA's many, many social failures. Which, of
course, are always – always – the result of self-focused ,
low-character leadership .
And Character is, in this case, How we treat others .
A cyberattack on Microsoft products globally would certainly upend most of the global
economy and likely have economic effects more severe than the COVID-19 crisis, just as the
WEF has been warning.
A gross exaggeration, but the Western MSM can be relied upon to make such a cyberattack
appear like a massive World crisis – just like they've done with COVID-19, which is
nowhere near as virulent even as Hong Kong Flu.
Gerorge Orwell famously wrote: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the
past."
To which he should have added: Who controls the media controls the present.
For the majority, indoctrinated by the MSM, this seems sadly to be true.
The U.S. military, surveillance state, and government have willingly sold off national
security secrets and have made every American business, institution, and individual
vulnerable as a result of it.
Bill Clinton permitted technology national security secrets developed by the military,
U.S. companies, and universities, all financed by tax payers to be handed over to the CCP by
U.S. tech companies that opened factories in China which required the blue prints to the
technology in exchange for the CCP to allow them to do it.
NYC is now the new Mossad cyber front, after the NSA and US gov permitted them to all open
office in NYC managing day to day operations of US gov., US businesses, and US citizens and
residents communications systems and security.
The Negav Desert is the new home of almost every U.S. Silicon Valley company, all invited
by Israel to open fronts there, after the US gov and tax payers catapulted the Silicon Valley
Titans to unprecedented levels of wealth in world history.
The espionage perpetrated by the US government and survellance state is the primary
problem!
There is no such thing as national security as long as these these foxes are guarding the
hen house.
They really should all be tried for treason!
Cambridge Analytica was used to spy on US citizens during the 2016 election in order to
shift the burden onto another country. They frequently hire intelligence agents from foreign
countries as unofficial but frequently practiced policy.
I have noticed that spies have no loyalty to any country or institution. They often work
together with spies fro other countries. They are thieves. People spy because they are sex
offenders, thieves, intellectual property thieves, or identity thieves. There is no such
thing as an honest spy. Their entire life is a series of lies, and it has to be since what
they are doing is illegal. Then of course there is the Five Eyes apparatus strengthening
bonds in the international surveillance state.
They will sell anything to anyone, and what has happened in Ametica is 100% proof. Nothing
is off the table. Everything and everyone has a price as far they are concerned.
I'm not sure I follow the twenty years interval or the significance of the three towers
(being a 9/11 reference), but you seem to imply it's some eschatological and/or messianic
thing. Could you or someone else explain?
The only question at hand–once the electronically addicted IQistas abandon their
angle of dominating the world by means of interdependence–is that upon examining the
size of whatever as will soon lie in the dust, (be it 911 or Microsoft) whether we should
ever again allow ourselves to become so dependent upon a thing so large and vulnerable.
We did not need the computer to experience the beauty of America prior to abandoning the
gold standard, and we don't need the computer now. Yeah, rave on with all that hype Steve
Jobs gave to John Scully, ie, You want to sell sugar water all your life, or you want to come
with me and change the world?
Jobs had a good mind, yet a monolithically weak objective when it came to change. There is
nothing new under the sun. Let it crash.
"Kissinger had told Maxwell to connect with Senator John Tower in order to gain access to
US national laboratories, which directly enabled this action, part of the larger PROMIS
software scandal."
You can blame the two Jews for obviously being Jews but John Tower should have been
hanged, quartered and displayed in the four corners of these United States for
disloyalty.
Hope to see more articles like this instead of the good old beaten up concepts. Or
opinionated write up.
Does anyone know what kind of job Jonathan Pollard got in Israel? Chief of intelligence
collection agency.
Many years ago, on the Yahoo News message boards, after I was awakened to some hard truths
about our country , I made a prediction that this day would come – that one day it
would get pretty bad (free speech) in America, with the usual suspects behind it, and that
the closer Americans get to the truth, the worse it will get.
We're here.
This fine article by Whitney Webb indicates what might be next. Pretty scary.
Just a note – Gab is a good alternative in case Unz finally gets taken down. And
vice versa. They have a Dissenter browser that will allow you to comment on anything,
evidently.
I lurk here a lot because the comments are the best I've ever seen anywhere.
The hack, which affected Texas-based software provider SolarWinds, was blamed on Russia
on January 5 by the US government's Cyber Unified Coordination Group. Their statement
asserted that the attackers were "likely Russian in origin," but they failed to provide
evidence to back up that claim.
I wonder when the U.S. government last made a statement that wasn't a lie.
Democrats will never silence America. When you tell people to shut up in this country, it
just makes them MORE angry, study more, take notes, etc. Myabe Twitterbook will be open next
year maybe they won't.
I would like to see the EU Parliament taking the same stance with US and UK concerning
Assange. Until then, it is all theatre, just for the show. The danger lies in the fact that
the EU might back itself in a corner if they are not careful..
GoldFeather K0ur0i 3 hours ago 22 Jan, 2021 05:38 AM
Or maybe these politicians have shares in the much more expensive US gas!!
Augustus K0ur0i 5 hours ago 22 Jan, 2021 04:07 AM
Who does the EU Parliament think they represent? This anti-Russia narrative is illegal and
immoral.
Tom_Callan 16 hours ago 21 Jan, 2021 04:41 PM
"strengthen transatlantic unity in protecting democracy and fundamental values against
authoritarian regimes," Indeed!...I'd vote against working with the authoritarian USA regime
who use fake evidence to start illegal wars and attack sovereign countries, not to mention
using politics to control energy markets to their own advantage.
Iwanasay Tom_Callan 13 hours ago 21 Jan, 2021 07:51 PM
It's winter in Europe, just turn off the gas supply and see how quickly these MEPs change
their tune, the EU doesn't have sufficient LNG storage and with winter in the US it's
doubtful they could supply much, businesses in Europe that depend on gas for manufacturing
would be hit hard, Europe would have a major problem
ErgoSum Tom_Callan 13 hours ago 21 Jan, 2021 07:37 PM
Translation: "Grovelling to the US so they will keep their NATO forces in Germany and prop up
our economy".
natalia555705 13 hours ago 21 Jan, 2021 07:23 PM
EU parliament resolution finally revealed who is Navalny : agent of influence of western
politicians designated to make Russia of colony under anti-russian management . It is exactly
what happened in Ukraine. He does not care about Russian citizens, he cares about his
political career.
What this means is that Navalny has deliberately decided (or was told by his handlers)
to be put in Russian jail.
If you are right about this, it wouldn't be the first time that Navalny would seem to
prefer a Russian jail to the company of his CIA "friends". When Boris Nemtsov was
assassinated, we eventually learned that Navalny had gotten himself arrested a few days
before. Perhaps he considered himself safer in Putin's hands. Maybe he is thinking the same
these days.
Thank you for that post. Strategic Culture is a good read and one is mindful that it is a
Russian source and no doubt has some affinity with the Russian Government and empathy for
Russian people's point of view. That is perfectly fine. I don't see it as a craven mouthpiece
(like the grauniad is to the UK) but rather an information source.
Alexei Navalny believes he is throwing down a gauntlet for the Kremlin either to arrest him
when he returns to Moscow from Berlin on Sunday, or to allow him to walk freely out of the
airport. Either way, from behind bars as a political prisoner or from his Moscow film
studio as an opposition candidate for regime change, Navalny and his supporters will
announce they have shown strength, the President of Russia weakness. The one outcome
Navalny hasn't counted on is that Russians will be laughing at him.
This is the strategy of Vzglyad, the Moscow online newspaper which publishes
sophisticated and accurate analysis of military, intelligence and security issues unmatched
by the English-language media. It is almost unnoticed in the west, except for those
services who believe it reflects the thinking of key figures, past and present, in the
presidential administration. Because the Russian figures don't think the way the western
services or their media organs depict them, Vzglyad hasn't drawn the attention of foreign
reporters as do state media like RT, Sputnik, the Strategic Culture Foundation, and the
Valdai Club.
Read this Helmer report it is the style and quality of commentary that you will NEVER see
in the western press.
Thank you, your accuracy is a desirable trait in reporting these matters. The west has
enough channels for their lying thieving pursuits and MoA should avoid being at their
service.
Navalny and the west's use of him is clearly a sign of their predatory ignorance and
dishonesty. I am sure they will keep up their homeside propaganda in favor of their
aggressive mendacity in the world. In fact I guess Joe Biden will have little to do but ride
on the coattails of a fool such as Navalny. That is about the sum total of the intellectual
capacity of Xerxes Biden. Off he goes to another ignominious defeat. Imagine what it will be
like after he gets sworn in!
Navalny is on parole, which was revoked the moment he fled to Germany. He was then recalled
to Russia.
Not true. His suspended sentence (not parole) was not "revoked the moment he fled to
Germany". He was given an explicit permission to be treated in Germany. The problem is that
after he was released from the hospital he was supposed to return to Russia for his regular
check-in with authorities which he had to keep doing until his suspended sentence ran out on
December 30, 2020. On December 22, 2020, Lancet has published an article where they
stated that Navalny had been released from hospital on September 20 and was completely
healthy by October 12. That's why the Moscow office of FSIN (Russia's Federal Penitentiary
Service) has publicly demanded on December 28, 2020 that Navalny immediately returns to
Russia to perform his last check-in, lest his suspended sentence is replaced with a real one.
Navalny's press secretary has replied on the same day that he won't comply with the demand.
So on January 12, 2021, FSIN has started the legal procedures to replace Navalny's suspended
sentence with a real one. What this means is that Navalny has deliberately decided (or was
told by his handlers) to be put in Russian jail.
Navalny is on parole, which was revoked the moment he fled to Germany. He was then
recalled to Russia.
I already can imagine the dialogue the BND had with Navalny: "either you become a liberal
martyr alive in a Russian prison or dead in mysterious circumstances in Germany". Navalny
must've quickly found out he was actually safer in Russia.
Here is an interesting development in the saga of Alexei Navalny since he became The Human
Headline in October last year. It concerns how the information about GRU agents tailing him
was apparently obtained.
A police officer in Samara is being investigated on suspicion of leaking information from
the country's centralized travel records, which registers all tickets bought in Russia,
linking them to passengers' passport numbers.
Samara is a large city in the center of Russia, around 1,000 kilometers east of Moscow.
It is reported that the US and UK government-funded group Bellingcat used the data in a
recent investigation into the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexey
Navalny.
That's according to Moscow daily newspaper RBK, citing a source, which revealed that
authorities are clamping down on leaks from databases following the report. Bellingcat was
joined by journalists from the the Russian-language outlet The Insider, America's CNN and
Germany's Der Spiegel. Together, they were accessing the flight information of FSB agents
they allege had trailed the anti-corruption activist around the country.
RBK's source says that the accused policeman, Kirill Chuprov, is now under house arrest,
and would face up to ten years in prison if convicted. Officially, no information has been
released, but the Samara District Court's press service confirmed that he was detained on
suspicion of abuse of office.
The source revealed that Chuprov had accessed data from the country's travel database,
which contains information about who has traveled on trains and planes. In Russia, internal
flight and rail tickets are generally bought using passports, meaning that this data is
highly valuable. If he is found to be the source of the information, in a challenge to
Bellingcat's established narrative, the revelation would highlight that [Bellingcat] not
only uses open sources for its investigations, but also buys data from corrupt
officials.
According to the western state-funded outlet, leaked databases were an integral part of
its investigation, allowing its team to track the locations of eight men they believe were
part of a plot to poison Navalny. By accessing flight records, Bellingcat claimed that FSB
agents had flown around the country to the same locations as the opposition figure.
Last month, Navalny published a recording of a telephone conversation with one of the
alleged participants in the assassination attempt, a man purported to be FSB officer
Konstantin Kudryavtsev. Kudryavtsev is one of the men whose movements were leaked,
allegedly by Chuprov.
Well, well, who'd have thunk it? ... upright "citizen journalist" group Bellingcrap
sinking to the level of Christopher Steele's Orbis Intelligence organisation in buying hacked
data (which could also have been tampered with) from corrupt officials on the black
market.
Bear in mind on the basis of Navalny's supposed phone call with Kudryavtsev, Kudryavtsev's
mother-in-law was actually accosted by Navalny groupie, lawyer Lyubov Sobol, who obtained
entry into an apartment block under false pretences and then forced her way into the
mother-in-law's apartment with other people illegally wearing government agency uniforms and
took photos on her mobile phone. The mother-in-law has had to seek protection.
Consider also that Bellingcrap obtained "information" demonstrating that Russian tourists
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov who visited Salisbury in March 2018, at the time of the
supposed poisoning of Sergei and Julia Skripal, were actually two GRU agents from a phone
database. In light of the news of the Russian police officer's arrest for selling hacked data
to Bellingcrap, what credibility does that organisation still have now?
"... Some people have become completely delusional + share the Russiagate, which was actually Britishgate, delusion in the wake of the muted reports of it's non-existence. ..."
"... The lengths this woman will go to not look at her own faults is astounding! Russia, Russia, Russia, instead of "hey maybe I'm just a warmonger and the people don't like that"... The disconnect is strong with this one! ..."
Have you heard of #BlueAnon ? Here, two top
members speculate that Trump spoke to Putin before the MAGA riot and call for a 9/11-style
commission on Trump-Putin ties (FBI & Congressional probes were presumably insufficient).
As this cult's mantra goes: "All roads lead to Putin."
Hillary Clinton
@HillaryClinton · Jan 18 .
@SpeakerPelosi and I agree: Congress needs to establish an
investigative body like the 9/11 Commission to determine Trump's ties to Putin so we can
repair the damage to our national security and prevent a puppet from occupying the presidency
ever again.
As I wrote last
week, while Trump's movement is uniquely violent & dangerous, it does not hold a monopoly
on xenophobic conspiracy theories in response to election failures.
Some people have become completely delusional + share the Russiagate, which was actually
Britishgate, delusion in the wake of the muted reports of it's non-existence.
The lengths this
woman will go to not look at her own faults is astounding! Russia, Russia, Russia, instead of
"hey maybe I'm just a warmonger and the people don't like that"... The disconnect is strong
with this one!
"... Here we are in Weirdsville, USA where most people, whether of the left, right, or center, are hypnotized by the flickering screens. That's what movies do. That's what long planned psychological operations do. That's what digital technology allows corrupt rulers and the national security state with its Silicon Valley partners in crime to do. ..."
"... We now live in a screen world where written words and logic are beside the point. Facts don't matter. Personal physical experience doesn't matter. Clear thinking doesn't matter. Hysterical reactions are what matter. Manipulated emotions are what matter. Saying "Fuck You" is now de rigueur, as if that were the answer to an argument. ..."
"... It's all a movie now with the latest theatrical performance having been the January 6, 2021 stage show filmed at the U.S. Capitol. A performance so obvious that it isn't obvious for those hypnotized by propaganda, even when the movie clearly shows that the producers arranged for the "domestic terrorists" to be ushered into the Capitol. They let the "Nazis" in on Dr. Goebbels orders. Thank God Almighty they were beaten back before they seized power in their Halloween costumes. ..."
"... Now who could have given that order to the Capitol and D.C. police, Secret Service, National Guard, and the vast array of militarized Homeland Security forces that knew well in advance of the January 6 demonstration? Who gave the stand-down orders on September 11, 2001, events that were clearly anticipated and afterwards were described by so many as if they were a movie? Surreal. Dreamlike. ..."
"... To accept that Trump and Biden are scripted actors in a highly sophisticated reality TV movie is a bit of "reality" too hard to bear. Exposing them and their minions doesn't hurt at all. There's no business but show business. ..."
"... "A magician is only an actor," ..."
"... "an actor pretending to be a magician." ..."
"... "Will wonders ever cease," ..."
"... On a conscious level, however, many people continue to rationalize their grasp of what is going on in the United States as if ..."
"... The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy .My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation ..."
"... still cling to the belief that he is the man they believe in and was going to "clean the swamp" but was sabotaged by the "deep state." Biden supporters, driven by their obsessive hatred for Trump and the ongoing delusions that the Democratic Party, like the Republican, is not thoroughly corrupt, look forward to the Biden presidency and the new normal when he can "build back better." For both groups' true faith never dies. It's very touching. ..."
"... As I have written before, if the Democrats and the Republicans are at war as is often claimed, it is only over who gets the larger share of the spoils. Trump and Biden work for the same bosses, those I call the Umbrella People (those who own and run the country through their intelligence/military/media operatives), who produce and direct the movie that keeps so many Americans on the edge of their seats in the hope that their chosen good guy wins in the end. ..."
"... But if that is so, why, despite Trump and Biden's superficial differences – and Obama's, Hillary Clinton's and George W. Bush's for that matter – have the super-rich gotten richer and richer over the decades and the war on terror continued as the military budget has increased each year and the armament industries and the Wall Street crooks continued to rake in the money at the expense of everyone else? These are a few facts that can't be disputed. There are many more. So what's changed under Trump? We are talking about nuances, small changes. A clown with a big mouth versus traditional, "dignified" con men. ..."
...Life today seems like a dream, doesn't it? Surreal to the point where everything seems
haunted and betwixt and between, or this against that, or that and this against us... Or a Luis
Buñuel film. The logic of the irrational. Surrealistic. A film made to draw us into an
ongoing nightmare. Hitchcock with no resolution. Total weirdness, as Hunter Thompson said was coming
before he blew his brains out. A life movie made to hypnotize in this darkening world where
reality is created on screens, as Buñuel said of watching movies:
This kind of cinematographic hypnosis is no doubt due to the darkness of the theatre and
to the rapidly changing scenes, lights, and camera movements, which weaken the spectator's
critical intelligence and exercise over him a kind of fascination.
Here we are in Weirdsville, USA where most people, whether of the left, right, or
center, are hypnotized by the flickering screens. That's what movies do. That's what long
planned psychological operations do. That's what digital technology allows corrupt rulers and
the national security state with its Silicon Valley partners in crime to do.
We now live in a screen world where written words and logic are beside the point. Facts
don't matter. Personal physical experience doesn't matter. Clear thinking doesn't matter.
Hysterical reactions are what matter. Manipulated emotions are what matter. Saying "Fuck You"
is now de rigueur, as if that were the answer to an argument.
It's all a movie now with the latest theatrical performance having been the January 6,
2021 stage show filmed at the U.S. Capitol. A performance so obvious that it isn't obvious for
those hypnotized by propaganda, even when the movie clearly shows that the producers arranged
for the "domestic terrorists" to be ushered into the Capitol. They let the "Nazis" in on Dr.
Goebbels orders. Thank God Almighty they were beaten back before they seized power in their
Halloween costumes.
Now who could have given that order to the Capitol and D.C. police, Secret Service,
National Guard, and the vast array of militarized Homeland Security forces that knew well in
advance of the January 6 demonstration? Who gave the stand-down orders on September 11, 2001,
events that were clearly anticipated and afterwards were described by so many as if they were a
movie? Surreal. Dreamlike.
As with the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent anthrax attacks, the recently
staged show at the Capitol that the mainstream media laughingly call an attempted coup
d'état will result in a new "Patriot Act" aimed at the new terrorists – domestic
ones – i.e. anyone who dissents from the authoritarian crackdown long planned and
underway; anyone who questions the vast new censorship and the assault on the First Amendment;
anyone who questions the official narrative of Covid-19 and the lockdowns; anyone who suggests
that there are linkages between these events, etc.
Who, after all, introduced the Omnibus
Counterterrorism Act in 1995 that became the template for the Patriot Act in 2001 that was
passed into law after September 11, 2001? None other than former Senator Joseph Biden .
Remember Joe? He has a new plan.
Of course, the massive Patriot Act had been written well before that fateful September day
and was ready to be implemented by a Senate vote of 98-1, the sole holdout being Democratic
Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. In the House of Representatives the vote was 357-66.
For those familiar (or unfamiliar) with history and fabricated false flags, they might want
also to meditate on the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 that gave Lyndon Johnson his seal of
approval to escalate the war against Vietnam that killed so many millions. The vote for that
fake crisis was 416-0 in the House and 88-2 in the Senate.
In the words of Mark Twain:
Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat
myself.
Harry Houdini, the magical performer who was able to escape from any trap, any nightmarish
enclosure, any lockdown, once said,
It's still an open question, however, as to what extent exposure really hurts a
performer.
The question has been answered. It doesn't hurt at all, for phoney events still mesmerize
millions who are eager to suspend their disbelief for the sake of a sad strand of hope that
their chosen leaders – whether Biden or Trump – are levelling with them and are not
playing them for fools. To accept that Trump and Biden are scripted actors in a highly
sophisticated reality TV movie is a bit of "reality" too hard to bear. Exposing them and their
minions doesn't hurt at all. There's no business but show business.
Houdini knew well the tricks used to deceive a gullible audience hypnotized by theatrics.
"A magician is only an actor," he said, "an actor pretending to be a
magician." This is a perfect description of the charlatans who serve as presidents of the
United States.
Life today seems like a dream, doesn't it? "Will wonders ever cease," said Houdini,
as he closed his shows.
When I was a child I had a repetitive dream that I was trapped in a maze. Trying to escape,
all I could hear as I tried desperately to find an exit was a droning sound. Droning without
end. The only way I could escape the maze was to wake up – literally. But this dream
would repeat for many years to the point where I realized my dreams were connected to my actual
family and life in the U.S.A.
Then, when I was later in the Marines and felt imprisoned and was attempting to get out as a
conscientious objector, the dream changed to being trapped in the Marines, or the prison I was
expecting if they didn't let me go. Even when I got out of the Marines and was not in prison,
the dreams that I was continued.
It took me years to learn how to escape.
I mention such dreams since they seem to encapsulate the feelings so many people have today.
A sense of being trapped in a senseless social nightmare. Prisoners. Lost in a horror movie
like Kafka's novel The Castle in which the
protagonist K futilely seeks to gain access to the rulers who control the world from their
castle but can never reach his goal. But these are dreams and The Castle is
fiction.
On a conscious level, however, many people continue to rationalize their grasp of what
is going on in the United States as if what they take to be reality is not fiction.
Trump supporters – despite what are seen by them as his betrayals when he said on January
7 that
The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American
democracy .My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.
This moment calls for healing and reconciliation
still cling to the belief that he is the man they believe in and was going to "clean the
swamp" but was sabotaged by the "deep state." Biden supporters, driven by their obsessive
hatred for Trump and the ongoing delusions that the Democratic Party, like the Republican, is
not thoroughly corrupt, look forward to the Biden presidency and the new normal when he can
"build back better." For both groups' true faith never dies. It's very touching.
As I have written before, if the Democrats and the Republicans are at war as is often
claimed, it is only over who gets the larger share of the spoils. Trump and Biden work for the
same bosses, those I call the Umbrella People (those who own and run the country through their
intelligence/military/media operatives), who produce and direct the movie that keeps so many
Americans on the edge of their seats in the hope that their chosen good guy wins in the
end.
It might seem as if I am wrong and that because the Democrats and their accomplices have
spent years attempting to oust Trump through Russia-gate, impeachment, etc. that what seems
true is true and Trump is simply a crazy aberration who somehow slipped through the net of
establishment control to rule for four years. A Neo-Nazi billionaire who emerged from a TV
screen and a golden tower high above the streets of New York.
This seems self-evident to the Democrats and the supporters of Joseph Biden, and even to
many Republicans.
For Trump's supporters, he seems to be a true Godsend, a real patriot who emerged out of
political nowhere to restore America to its former greatness and deliver economic justice to
the forgotten middle-Americans whose livelihoods have been devastated by neo-liberal economic
policies and the outsourcing of jobs.
Two diametrically opposed perspectives.
But if that is so, why, despite Trump and Biden's superficial differences – and
Obama's, Hillary Clinton's and George W. Bush's for that matter – have the super-rich
gotten richer and richer over the decades and the war on terror continued as the military
budget has increased each year and the armament industries and the Wall Street crooks continued
to rake in the money at the expense of everyone else? These are a few facts that can't be
disputed. There are many more. So what's changed under Trump? We are talking about nuances,
small changes. A clown with a big mouth versus traditional, "dignified" con men.
Trump's followers were betrayed the day he was sworn in, as Biden's will be shortly unless
they support a crackdown on civil rights, the squelching of the First Amendment, and laws
against dissent under the aegis of a war against domestic terrorism.
I'm afraid that is so. Censorship of dissent that is happening now will increase
dramatically under the Biden administration.
Now we have the "insurrection," also known as an attempted "coup d'état," with
barbarians breaching the gates of the sacred abode of the politicians of both parties who have
supported bloody U.S. coups throughout the world for the past seventy plus years. Here is
another example of history beginning as tragedy and ending as farce.
But who is laughing?
If you were writing this script as part of long-term planning, and average people were
getting disgusted from decades of being screwed and were sick of politicians and their lying
ways, wouldn't you stop the reruns and create a new show?
Come on, this is Hollywood where creative showmen can dazzle our minds with plots so twisted
that when you leave the theater you keep wondering what it was all about and arguing with your
friends about the ending. So create a throwback film where the good guy versus the bad guy was
seemingly very clear, and while the system ground on, people would be at each other's throats
over the obvious differences, even while they were fabricated or were minor. This being the
simple and successful age-old strategy of divide and conquer.
I realize that it is very hard for many to entertain the thought that Trump and Biden are
not arch-enemies but are players in a spectacle created to confound at the deepest
psychological levels. I am not arguing that the Democrats didn't want Hillary Clinton to win in
2016. I am saying they knew Trump was a better opponent, not only because they could probably
defeat him and garner more of the spoils, but because if he possibly won he was easily
controlled because he was compromised. By whom? Not the Democrats, but the "Deep State" forces
that control Hillary Clinton and all the presidents. A compromised and corrupt lot.
The Democrats and Republicans were not in charge in 2016 or in 2020. Their bosses were. The
Umbrella people. Biden will carry out their orders, and while everyone will conveniently forget
what actually happened during Trump's tenure, as I previously mentioned, they will only
remember how the Democrats "tried" to oust this man in the black hat, while Biden will carry on
Trump's legacy with minor changes and a lot of PR. He will seem like a breath of fresh air as
he continues and expands the toxic policies of all presidents. So it goes.
"Unfortunately, not everywhere and not always has this quest for solidarity and joint work
manifested itself during the pandemic. Some of our Western colleagues, primarily the United
States and its closest allies, tried to take advantage of the situation and to ratchet up
pressure, blackmail, ultimatums and illegitimate actions while introducing unilateral
restrictions and other forms of interference in the internal affairs of many countries,
including our closest neighbour Belarus.
"The West unanimously ignored the calls by the UN Secretary General and the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights to suspend, at least for the duration of the pandemic,
unilateral and illegitimate sanctions regarding the supply of medications, food and equipment
needed to fight the virus while Russia was ready to back up this approach. President Putin
put forward a parallel initiative during the G20 summit to create green corridors in the
economy that are free from sanctions and other artificial barriers. Unfortunately, these
sensible appeals - both ours and those of the UN leaders - were left hanging in the air.
"Last year we observed the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII, the birth of the United
Nations and the entry into force of its Charter. Against the backdrop of these anniversaries,
we are very concerned about the continuous arrogant actions of the United States and most of
its Western allies, which are aimed at undermining international security, which is based on
the UN, its Charter and its agencies and replacing the traditional norms and standards of
international law with a "rules-based international order.'"
Lavrov then proceeds to indict the EU for promoting "multilateralism" outside the
framework of the UN in a manner meant to replace the UN with EU diktats: "The EU views the
establishment of specific rules as its exclusive right in the belief that all others must
follow these standards. Examples are many." Thus the EU follows the Outlaw US Empire's lead.
Lavrov then shares his own analysis:
"[T]hese are apprehensions of competition and the understanding that in today's world the
West can no longer dictate its own orders to others as it has over the last five centuries.
History is moving forward, it is developing. This has nothing to do with ideology. This is
just a statement of fact. It is necessary to consider the views of the countries that now
have a much greater weight in the world arena (completely incomparable with that of the
colonial era) and the countries that want to preserve their civilisational identity and that
do not see in the West the ideals for their societies. Tolerance of diversity is another
characteristic that the West is losing very quickly."
And all that is connected to other related developments:
"There are situations where half a dozen people that have created their own technological
empires do not even want to know what rights they have in their own states. They determine
their rights themselves proceeding from so-called corporate standards and completely ignore
the constitutions of their states. We have seen this clearly in the US and this is a source
of deep concern . Much has been said about this recently in television reports and
special analytical materials. We are not pleased by the attempts of the Western elites to
find external enemies to resolve their internal political problems. They find these enemies
in Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. The list of these countries is well
known. [Yet, Lavrov insists there's no ideology involved, a point of contention I have with
him.]
"We all see the response to the news of Alexey Navalny's return to the Russian Federation.
Carbon-copy comments on this event are coming in one after another. They are full of joy
because they allow Western politicians to think that in this way they can divert public
attention away from the deepest crisis of the liberal development model.
"I am convinced that it is necessary not to seek outside excuses to justify one's own
actions or sidetrack attention from one's deepest problems and crises. On the contrary, it is
essential to play an honest game and look for opportunities to resolve domestic problems via
fair and equitable international cooperation. No one can expect to resolve its own problems
outside multilateral formats any longer."
Unfortunately, they do exhibit just that expectation. Yet, the most insidious, factual
accusation made against the West in Russia's defense is this:
" They just don't provide the facts, which is what decent people always do in order to
justify their discussions ." [My Emphasis]
Thus my very heavy critique of Cynthia Chung who invented facts to fit her ideological
hypothesis.
Lavrov closes his peroration by directly addressing those foreign reporters in the
audience:
"We are interested in addressing problems through a dialogue. However, 'forcing a
closed door' that the West keeps 'under lock and key' is beneath our dignity . Your
governments are well aware of our proposals that we have made repeatedly, starting with the
dialogue on strategic offensive arms, arms control and nonproliferation to interaction on
cybersecurity and non-deployment of weapons in space. There are many such areas. For each of
them, Russia has proposals for establishing honest cooperation on key threats that are common
to all countries around the world instead of using these threats to achieve unilateral
geopolitical advantages by means of unscrupulous competition. President Putin's initiative to
hold a summit of the five UN Security Council permanent members is a manifestation of such a
desire to start a dialogue. All other leaders of the Group of Five responded positively to
this proposal." [My Emphasis]
Lavrov closes by reminding his audience that Russia is hardly alone or isolated, that it's
in combination with over 1/3 of the planet's people; and that instead of an unhealthy
competition, Russia has openly asked all Eurasian nations to join together with its partners
who "share our common philosophy: to say no to confrontation and to address existing
problems on a balance of interests ." [My Emphasis]
In his presser, Lavrov referred to Russia's Main Foreign Policy Results in
2020 , the document available at the link. There's so much to read! Lavrov's response to
the question about Latvia's recent behavior IMO best encapsulates the depth of Western
immorality and blatant double-standards for its behavior. When it comes to the Outlaw U
Empire:
"The most important thing is that our proposals on cybersecurity and on investigations
into our alleged interference in US affairs, as well as on space projects and arms control,
are on the table. As recently as in September 2020, President Putin publicly invited the
United States – not President Trump or anyone else, but the United States as a power
which, we hope, has retained at least a degree of respect for continuity and compliance with
foreign policy agreements – to reboot our relations in the sphere of cybersecurity and
non-intervention into internal affairs of each other."
Russia simply would like to hear an answer, even no is better than being ignored. There's
so much more, particularly on the Freedom of Speech topic where Lavrov again remined people
of their nations's responsibilities under the treaties they've signed and ratified. Lavrov
made the effort to highlight this:
"I have already mentioned the topic of states' obligations and now want to remind you
about them. The US is a member of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Interestingly (however, this issue is often omitted) there have been two international
treaties, one for civil and political rights, and the other the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Having signed the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (it was in the 1960s), the US flatly refused to sign the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the Convention on the Rights of
the Child [just as it refused to ratify the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was
the product of Eleanor Roosevelt's doggedly determined efforts].
" This is a refusal to take any responsibilities related to providing adequate quality
of life to its population and solving social and economic problems ." [my Emphasis]
My point is the same as Lavrov's: The Outlaw US Empire has on several occasions not to
sign and ratify a treaty that it's Constitution says it ought to in order to form a more
perfect union and to advance the general Welfare, which is quite telling when we discuss the
reasons for the rise in Populism and the reasons someone like Trump is elevated well beyond
his standing and abilities.
And since no English language media source published anything about Lavrov's very
important presser, how should we rate its Information Hygiene while Pompeo's illegal antics
get reported no matter their outrageousness? Gross failure is my verdict.
As Paco said, reporting on Lavrov's presser would be rather long, and he was quite
correct! I left quite a lot on the cutting room floor.
The stuff about the NY consulate really sets me off, Sputnik said the phones are down for
two days running and internet intermittent.
It's hard to guess at the reason for any of it since it could be almost anything (and
pretty much entirely stupid no matter what) but what's much more noticeable is the apparent
lack of interest in truly clarifying what the hell the point is/was supposed to be (instead
of bs) from anyone inside anywhere in the US government structures, or intelligence services,
or armed forces.
Dystopian and dysfunctional become synonyms at some point.
Other than that I'm only waiting to see if anything within the Pentagon will get a move on
to clear up all the mess (rather than "worrying" about National Guards who will do whatever
they're told). If anything happens I expect it to be clean and orderly and then after the
fact maybe the NG troops will be told something or the other a little before everyone else,
and that's about it. They don't have any need to know about anything in advance or as it
happens.
That's just me, at least a little bit more realistic in my "if-so" than the FBI and Pelosi
gang? :)
Bhadrakumar sees the return of Navalny to Moscow as the opening gambit of a regime-change
operation directed at Putin. Part of this effort, he writes, will focus on the new Biden
foreign policy team working on isolating Russia from China. This is replacing the Trump
team's hopes to isolate China from Russia. Top notch strategic thinking there - just pretend
the much publicized alliance between the two doesn't exist. https://indianpunchline.com/us-makes-aggressive-opening-move-on-russian-chessboard/
But he also anticipates a period of retrenchment for US foreign adventurism, as the
domestic problems overwhelm. Note the candid admittance that the period of post Cold War
hegemony is over, made by CIA designate Burns. https://indianpunchline.com/biden-is-shifting-leftwards/
46 Follow RT on Outgoing US
President Donald Trump has delivered his "parting gift" to the Moscow-led Nord Stream 2 gas
pipeline, with newly announced sanctions targeting a pipe-laying vessel and companies involved
in the multinational project.
The specialist ship concerned, named, 'Fortuna,' and oil tanker 'Maksim Gorky', as well as
two Russian firms, KVT-Rus and Rustanker, were blacklisted on Tuesday under CAATSA (Countering
America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) as part of Washington's economic war on Moscow.
The same legislation had been previously used by the US to target numerous Russian officials
and enterprises.
Russian energy giant Gazprom warned its investors earlier on Tuesday that Nord Stream 2
could be suspended or even canceled if more US restrictions are introduced.
However, Moscow has assured its partners that it intends to complete the project despite
"harsh pressure on the part of Washington," according to Kremlin press secretary Dmitry
Peskov. Reacting to the new package of sanctions on Tuesday, Peskov called them
"unlawful."
Meanwhile, the EU said it is in no rush to join the Washington-led sanction war on Nord
Stream 2. EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said that the bloc is not going to resist
the construction of the project.
"Because we're talking about a private project, we can't hamper the operations of those
companies if the German government agrees to it," Borrell said Tuesday.
Nord Stream 2 is an offshore gas pipeline, linking Russia and Germany with aim of providing
cheaper energy to Central European customers. Under the agreement between Moscow and Berlin, it
was to be launched in mid-2020, but the construction has been delayed due to strong opposition
from Washington.
The US, which is hoping to sell its Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) to Europe, has hit the
project with several rounds of sanctions over scarcely credible claims that it could undermine
European energy security. Critics say the real intent is to force EU members to buy from
American companies.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
46 Follow RT on
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Fatback33 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:20 AM
The group that owns Washington makes the foreign policy. That policy is not for the benefit
of the people.
DukeLeo Fatback33 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:06 PM
That is correct. The private banks and corporations in the US are very upset about Nord
Stream - 2, as they want Europe to buy US gas at double price. Washington thus introduces
additional political gangsterism in the shape of new unilateral sanctions which have no merit
in international law.
noremedy 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:22 AM
Is the U.S. so stupid that they do not realize that they are isolating themselves? Russia has
developed SPFS, China CIPS, together with Iran, China and Russia are further developing a
payment transfer system. Once in place and functioning this system will replace the western
SWIFT system for international payment transfers. It will be the death knell for the US
dollar. 327 million Americans are no match for the rest of the billions of the world's
population. The next decade will see the total debasement of the US monetary system and the
fall from power of the decaying and crumbling in every way U.S.A.
Hanonymouse noremedy 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 01:37 PM
They don't care. They have the most advanced military in the world. Might makes right, even
today.
Shelbouy 3 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 12:25 PM
Russia currently supplies over 50% of the natural gas consumed by The EU. Germany and Italy
are the largest importers of Russian natural gas. What is the issue of sanctions stemming
from and why are the Americans doing this? A no brainer question I suppose. It's to make more
money than the other supplier, and exert political pressure and demand obedience from its
lackey. Germany.
David R. Evans Shelbouy 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 01:58 PM
Russia and Iran challenge perpetual US wars for Israel's Oded Yinon Plan. Washington is
Israel-controlled territory.
Jewel Gyn 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:34 AM
Sanctions work both ways. With the outgoing Trump administration desperately laying mines for
Biden, we await how sleepy Joe is going to mend strayed ties with EU.
Count_Cash 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:20 AM
The US mafia state continues with the same practices. The dog is barking but the caravan is
going. The counter productiveness of sanctions always shows through in the end! I am sure
with active efforts of Germany and Russia against US mafia oppression that a blowback will be
felt by the US over time!
Dachaguy 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:24 AM
This is an act of war against Germany. NATO should respond and act against the aggressor,
America.
xyz47 Dachaguy 42 minutes ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:20 PM
NATO is run by the US...
lovethy Dachaguy 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 01:04 PM
NATO has no separate existence. It's the USA's arm of aggression, suppression and domination.
Germany after WWII is an occupied country of USA. Thousand of armed personnel stationed in
Germany enforcing that occupation.
Chaz Dadkhah 3 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 12:19 PM
Further proof that Trump is no friend of Russia and is in a rush to punish them while he
still has power. If it was the swamp telling him to do that, like his supporters suggest,
then they would have waited till their man Biden came in to power in less than 24 hours to do
it. Wake up!
Mac Kio 3 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 12:34 PM
USA hates fair competition. USA ignores all WTO rules.
Russkiy09 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 01:33 PM
By whining and not completing in the face of US, Russia is losing credibility. They should
not have delayed to mobilize the pipe laying vessel and other equipment for one whole year.
They should have mobilized in three months and finished by now. Same happens when Jewtin does
not shoot down Zio air force bombing Syria everyday. But best option should have been to tell
European vassals that "if you can, take our gas. But we will charge the highest amount and
sell as much as we want, exclude Russophobic Baltic countries and Poland and neo-vassal
Ukraine. Pay us not in your ponzi paper money but real goods and services or precious metals
or other commodities or our own currency Ruble." I so wish I could be the President of
Russia. Russians deserve to be as wealthy as the Swiss or SIngapore etc., not what they are
getting. Their leaders should stand up for their interest. And stop empowering the greedy
merchantalist Chinese and brotherhood Erdogan.
BlackIntel 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:27 PM
America i captured by private interest; this project threatens American private companies
hence the government is forced to protect capitalism. This is illegal
Ohhho 3 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 12:15 PM
That project was a mistake from the start: Russia should distance itself from the Evil
empire, EU included! Stop wasting time and resources on trying to please the haters and
keeping them more competitive with cheaper Russian natural gas: focus on real partners and
potential allies elsewhere!
butterfly123 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 01:58 PM
I have said it before that part of the problem is at the door of the policy-makers and
politicians in Russia. Pipeline project didn't spring up in the minds of politicians in
Russia one morning, presumably. There should have been foresight, detailed planning, and
opportunity creation for firms in Russia to acquire the skill-set and resources to advance
this project. Not doing so has come to bite Russia hard and painful. Lessons learnt I hope Mr
President!
jakro 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:37 AM
Good news. The swamp is getting deeper and bigger.
hermaflorissen 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:49 AM
Trump finally severed my expectations for the past 4 years. He should indeed perish.
ariadnatheo 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:06 PM
That is one Trump measure that will not be overturned by the Senile One. They will need to
amplify the RussiaRussiaRussia barking and scratching to divert attention from their dealings
with China
Neville52 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:01 PM
Its time the other nations of the world turned their backs on the US. Its too risky if you
are an international corporation to suddenly have large portions of your income cancelled due
to some crazy politician in the US
5th Eye 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:03 PM
From empire to the collapse of empire, US follows UK to the letters. Soon it will be
irrelevant. The only thing that remains for UK is the language. Probably hotdog for the US.
VonnDuff1 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:10 PM
The USA Congress and its corrupt foreign policy dictates work to the detriment of Europe and
Russia, while providing no tangible benefits to US states or citizens. So globalist demands
wrapped in the stars & stripes, should be laughed at, by all freedom loving nations.
"... As an ex-fan of the Guardian, I thought it was jolly decent of the Editors to flag BS stories by omitting the Reader Comments beneath the article. It saved me a lot of time during the transition from reliable News outlet to reliable Mawkish Drivel outlet. Some of the drivel can be amusingly pointless/naif-ish. ..."
"... "The Guardian had gone in six short years from being the natural outlet to place stories exposing wrongdoing by the security state to a platform trusted by the security state to amplify its information operations. A once relatively independent media platform has been largely neutralised by UK security services fearful of being exposed further. " ..."
I have a poorly researched theory on the Guardian to share here if i may... a mix of
interesting events reconstructed into a theoretical conspiracy of sorts... here it goes.. I
won't take any reasoned or better informed debunking personally i assure you.
-Since the Edward Snowden scandal, it appears the Guardian has experienced a
transformation of sorts. From rogue investigative journalism, to MSM / Intel Services
propaganda mouthpiece... a la WaPo, NY Times etc...
-To my knowledge, the Guardian's original independence and journalistic integrity was
facilitated by a Trust Fund of sorts which allowed it some form of editorial independence
and objectivity based on finances not entirely reliant on ad revenue/sponsorship and
various other corporate partnership/ownership deals
-I am not particularly sure about the exact timings, but in recent years this Trust Fund of
sorts began to underperform and The Guardian started running into financial trouble
-The Guardian's financial misadventures roughly coincided with significant changes in its
editorial content, key departures including Glen Greenwald himself and various other legal
disputes and misfortunes
My amateurish thesis..
Could it be that this Trust Fund of sorts was deliberately sabotaged, through toxic
Board infiltrations or deliberate bad financial advice, aimed at eroding The Guardian's
financial independence and thus its editorial independence and promotion of dissenting
narratives? Given the extent of integration between Intel/Weapons/Finance industries, a
congruence of mutual interests is not unexpected, and if this Fund was advised or run by
members of major Wall St et al. firms, it doesn't seem too far fetched to conceive of such
a possibility.
Please feel free to post any relative info or comment.
As an ex-fan of the Guardian, I thought it was jolly decent of the Editors to flag
BS stories by omitting the Reader Comments beneath the article. It saved me a lot of time
during the transition from reliable News outlet to reliable Mawkish Drivel outlet. Some of
the drivel can be amusingly pointless/naif-ish.
Guardian changed after 2014 when they published the Edward Snowden leaks. Cameron
threatened to take over the newspapers for revealing the Five Eyes' global
surveillance.
The Guardian was once a comparatively good newspaper. The Snowden episode changed
everything.
Nowadays it's just another pseudo-liberal, post-feminist, opinionated propaganda outlet. In
some way a Daily Mail for "intellectuals".
Basically half of their articles are "opinion" pieces. The only thing worth reading is the
football section (and even that gets more and more opinionated).
So the evil-doers carry out a complicated mission with many moving parts, plus a huge
monetary outlay. They wait seven years before finishing the dastardly deed, just to thicken
the plot. The Guardian says yeah, that sounds plausible. Because they know their readers
have been groomed for years to believe BS.
Reminds me of the Skripal nutty shifting narratives, or better yet Jonathon Chait's New
York Magazine piece (Trump a Russian asset since 1987).
Martin Chulov should be scolded by his Minders for not linking Russia to the plot (the
three were "joint Russian-Syrian citizens"). Maybe that will be written into the script in
the next Guardian article.
My understanding is that for years the bulk of The Fraudian's funding was subsidised by
revenues from sales of Manchester-based tabloid newspapers. I believe this continued into
the 1990s and maybe the first decade of this century. A major part of The Fraudian's income
also used to come from government employment advertisements in the pre-Internet age.
Once the connections with Manchester-based newspapers were cut by the Trust that runs
The Fraudian, and other traditional sources of funding dried up, the newspaper started
sacking editorial and other office staff. This was about the same time The Fraudian opened
offices in the US and Australia in an effort to get more readers (and more subscribers),
and also coincides with Julian Assange working with The Fraudian and other MSM papers on
releasing Wikileaks email revelations. The sackings were disguised as voluntary
redundancies or retirements and the scale was quite huge, a fair few hundred jobs were
cut.
This of course led to The Fraudian having to partner with various "media agencies" in
the Middle East, eastern Europe and other parts of the world. You can guess who funds these
other agencies The Fraudian calls its "partners".
That Martin Chulov writes an article linking the Syrian govt to last year's bomb blast
is no surprise. The news comes just before Joe Biden's inauguration. I had expected that
one of his first priorities as POTUS would be resuming the US invasion of Syria, using any
excuse. The Chulov article smacks of the same devious cherry-picking that Bellingcat
engaged in to finger and "identify" two Russian tourists in Salisbury in 2018 as GRU
agents. I would not be surprised if Chulov, like Higgins, had been told what to write and
by the same people.
Ahem... refreshing to see some content that isn't about the whole Trump
situation in the USSA.
As with other things, including, in part, the Trump thing, we're witnessing full "1984"
level shit from the media and governments. Everyone knows that the CIA and other Pentagram
offices (and MI6) have full control over what Western media publishes, but it's like they
aren't even trying anymore. Just full-on lie mode with zero accountability even when what
they print is refuted beyond any doubt.
Of course they were going to blame Syria, Iran or Venezuela. If any external government
was involved and it wasn't simply negligence by Lebanon's, then it was Israel. Period.
Jesus F*cking Christ, it's so obvious.
Guardian did a good job reporting on the Iraq War II...it was after that (2008), and in
response to its halfway decent reporting of Iraq that the ownership mechanism was
changed.
The new Guardian ownership enacted a "constitution" guaranteeing it would retain its
earlier journalistic integrity, but that was pure horseshit, as it went down hill rapidly
after the ownership change and became just another mouthpiece for
neoliberal/neoconservative propaganda.
Why Martin Chulov, the Guardian's Middle East correspondent and author of the piece, did
not do the basic diligence of checking the records or chose not to tell his readers that
such address sharing is extremely common and does not prove anything is beyond me.
If the Guardian had a proper fact checker that would defeat the purpose of the Guardian
in the first place. I'm not sure if that counts as a circular argument.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Jan 15 2021 16:41 utc | 23
And you can get your nails and a (bikini) waxing done next door. I guess it's safer that
doing it at home.
... I recall a story how The Guardian was tamed. In the aftermath of Snowden
revelations, The Guardian was raided and the people who run it were seriously threatened.
Ever since, they diligently follow the orders which are given to them with some
sophistication (this is England after all, not Zimbabwe), hence preserving some shreds of
"leftists credibility". Apparently, unlikely as it may seem, some people still read it.
Just before I stopped reading them, they had an actually interesting series about police
shootings in USA. Criticizing local governments in USA is still allowed.
@Et Tu #8
You're thinking too hard.
Matt Taibbi has nailed it on the head: Facebook and Google's ongoing strangulation of news
via monopolization of the channel and demonetization of classified ads has forced
newspapers (and other media) to become ever more click-bait focused. This in turn has
caused them to focus ever more narrowly on "engaged" (read: made angry) groups.
The Guardian's turn is directly linked with Russiagate, not Snowden.
... my real important point about the fascist aristocrat dictatorship of the USSA. The
ruling class aristocracy is certainly not at all in the business of increasing their
profits by acquiring yet more money. That's just a very stupid notion. For all relevant
purposes they already possess all the money. Let's get real. Their sole real business is
simply to retain power. Period. And how do they do that? Easy.
They establish and constantly maintain a churnatistic society. They just keep the
commonalty spinning around in circles by constantly churning 'current events'.
They start a war, or an obviously fake election, or an economic depression, or a mass
shooting, or any outlandish disaster they can churn up to keep the masses in a constant
state of bewilderment.
And then they drop the cherry on top by publishing narratives in media such as the
Guardian that the poor serfs always know deep down make no sense at all.
Therefor no revolt is possible because the serfs are in a perpetual state of
disorientation. All fascist societies are ultimately based on churnatism.
It is unclear whether it was Russians or this is another false flag. Anatol Lieven has zero
credentials to discuss this complex subject as he has zero training in computer security and it
looks like he has zero understanding of how easy you can create a false flag in this area. Looks
like Lieven in not only incompetent but also a neocon. For example "The second entirely
appropriate response is for Washington to intensify its own existing cyber-intelligence
operations against Russia. " If this London professor thinks that GB can benefit for this, he is
deeply mistaken.
Notable quotes:
"... the only countries that have to date carried out a truly successful and destructive act of cyber-sabotage are the U.S. and Israel, through the " Stuxnet " virus, which as introduced into the Iranian nuclear system and first uncovered in 2010. ..."
The most important thing to remember in this regard is the difference between an "attack"
and an act of espionage. The SolarWinds hack has been generally described in the United States
as the former (including by incoming national security adviser
Jake Sullivan , and Biden ), but was in fact the latter.
Nobody is suggesting that the hackers in this case introduced viruses to paralyze U.S. state
systems or damage domestic infrastructure and services. This was purely an
information-gathering exercise.
This distinction is crucial. An attack on the citizens or infrastructure of another state
has traditionally been considered an act of war. Actions by the United States, Russia, Israel
and other countries in recent decades have somewhat blurred this distinction. But no one can
doubt that if another country carried out a major act of sabotage on American soil, (especially
one threatening the lives of citizens), then Washington's response would -- rightly -- be a
ferocious one.
As a matter of fact, while Russia has engaged in limited operations against Estonia and
Ukraine, the only countries that have to date carried out a truly successful and
destructive act of cyber-sabotage are the U.S. and Israel, through the " Stuxnet " virus, which as introduced into the
Iranian nuclear system and first uncovered in 2010.
Espionage by contrast is something that all states do all the time -- often to friends as
well as adversaries. We may remember the scandal under the Obama administration when U.S.
intelligence was found to have hacked
into the communications of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other senior leaders of NATO
countries. The hacking of a Belgian telecom company by British intelligence (" Operation Socialist ") is
another example. And I would be both shocked and deeply disappointed to learn that U.S.
intelligence is not trying to penetrate the state information systems of Russia and China.
And for each revealed act of espionage there is a well-established and calibrated set of
responses. The aggrieved country issues a formal protest and expels a given number of
"diplomats" from the country responsible. That country expels an equal number of diplomats. The
media and the writers of spy thriller writers have a party. Then everything goes back to
normal. For after all, everybody knows that there is no chance whatsoever that states will ever
give up spying.
There are, however, three aspects of cyber-espionage that make it different from and more
dangerous than traditional espionage.
Firstly, as Jake Sullivan has pointed out, unlike most forms of espionage, hacking can be
used both for spying and for sabotage, and one can form the basis for the other. A key goal of
responsible statecraft should be to establish a clear line between the two when it comes to
cyberspace: to develop a set of calibrated and limited responses to cyber-espionage, and to
make clear that cyber-sabotage will lead to a much fiercer and more damaging
retaliation.
Secondly, unlike traditional espionage, the cyber variety is an area where third parties,
uncontrolled by either side, can play a major role and cause serious damage to relations (and
of course this also gives all sides plausible deniability -- as with U.S. moves against
Iran).
For example, those behind the authors of the 2011 cyber-attack on the G20 summit in Paris
have never been identified. Several major hacks have been conducted by independent
cyber-anarchists, or even by clever teenagers, sometimes it seems simply for fun. In the
present atmosphere, however, all such hacks against the United States are likely to be blamed
on Russia and to lead to a further deterioration of relations.
Thirdly, and in part because of these blurred lines, no clear and understood international
traditions are in place concerning the response to cyber-espionage, and there is a serious risk
of overreaction leading to a spiraling escalation of tension and retaliation.
This is what the Biden administration must avoid. Apart from the immediate damage to
relations, overreaction would mean that when -- as is bound to happen someday -- Russia or
China eventually discover a cyber-espionage operation against them by U.S. intelligence, they
will not only look justified in a disproportionate and escalatory response -- they will
actually be justified.
One thing that Biden must definitely not do is to follow the suggestion that the United
States should shut Russia out of the SWIFT international bank transfer system which -- the most
damaging of all U.S. sanctions against Iran, and one that would have a disastrous effect on
Russian trade.
Last year, then Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia would regard such a
move as equivalent to an act of war and would respond accordingly. Various Russian responses
would be possible, including a definitive move into the Chinese geopolitical camp and massive
military aid to Iran. Without doubt however, one of them would be to move from cyber-espionage
to cyber-sabotage against the United States.
The most sensible response would in fact be to follow literally President-elect Biden's
statement that his administration will "respond in kind" to the attack is the most sensible --
that is to say in the cyber-field. The first step (as after any counter-intelligence failure)
must obviously be to strengthen U.S. cyber-defenses which. Amongst other things, this requires
using presidential orders to combine, streamline, and rationalize the competing plethora of
U.S. agencies currently responsible for cyber-security.
The second entirely appropriate response is for Washington to intensify its own existing
cyber-intelligence operations against Russia. That, however, is another reason not to engage in
overblown moral outrage over the latest hack. The American pot already has quite a global
reputation for calling kettles black, and there is no need to blacken it further.
Finally, the Biden administration should do everything possible to develop agreed
international restraints on state cyber-operations, including an absolute ban on
cyber-sabotage. This should involve opening new negotiations with Moscow on longstanding
Russian proposals for an international "arms control" treaty in the area of cyber-warfare, and
for a joint U.S.-Russian working group to establish mutual ground rules and confidence building
measures.
These Russian proposals cannot be accepted as they stand (above all because of Moscow's
desire to limit free flows of information); however, more than a decade ago, then- National
Security Agency Director Keith Alexander said
that "I do think that we have to establish the rules, and I think what Russia has put
forward is, perhaps, the starting point for international debate." This remains true today, and
the danger of a failure to reach international agreement has grown vastly since then.
One of the worst things about hysterical statements in the United States about
"cyber-attacks" is that unwary readers might mistakenly conclude from them that things can't
get any worse. They can get much, much worse.
"... , and author of several books, including ..."
"... Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran ..."
"... . @medeabenjamin; Nicolas J. S. Davies, an independent journalist, a researcher with CODEPINK and the author of ..."
"... Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq ..."
"... . @NicolasJSDavies; and Marcy Winograd of Progressive Democrats of America served as a 2020 Democratic delegate for Bernie Sanders,and is Coordinator of ..."
Yves here. Biden's nominees have skewed towards the awful, particularly on the foreign
policy front. But his plan to install Victoria "Fuck the EU" Nuland at State is a standout. For
those of you new to this site and not familiar with Nuland's sorry history, this post gives an
overview of her role in fomenting the coup in Ukraine and in putting relations with Russia on a
Cold War footing. The authors encourage readers to call their Senators and urge them to vote
against her nomination.
And before you get unduly excited by Biden nominating Gary Gensler to the SEC, I would much
rather have seem Gensler at Treasury. Gensler demonstrated at the CFTC that he's effective and
dedicated to combatting abuses by Big Finance. However, his best shot at making the SEC feared
and respected again is to appoint a tough head of enforcement, so keep an eye out for that
pick.
The problem that Gensler will have at the SEC is that it is the only Federal financial
services industry regulator that is subject to Congressional appropriations, rather that living
off its fees and fines (the SEC collects far more than Congress allows it). And Democrats, like
Joe Lieberman, then the Senator from Hedgistan, have been if anything more aggressive than
Republicans in threatening the SEC and in keeping it budget-starved.
I had said to Lambert that if Biden wanted to be Machiavellian, the way to pretend to reward
Elizabeth Warren while actually sandbagging her would be to make her SEC chair. Let's hope that
isn't his logic for appointing Gensler.
Photo Credit: thetruthseeker.co.uk Nuland and Pyatt planning regime change in Kiev
Who is Victoria Nuland? Most Americans have never heard of her because the U.S. corporate
media's foreign policy coverage is a wasteland. Most Americans have no idea that
President-elect Biden's pick for Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs is stuck in
the quicksand of 1950s U.S.-Russia Cold War politics and dreams of continued NATO expansion, an
arms race on steroids and further encirclement of Russia.
Nor do they know that from 2003-2005, during the hostile U.S. military occupation of Iraq,
Nuland was a foreign policy advisor to Dick Cheney, the Darth Vader of the Bush
administration.
You can bet, however, that the people of Ukraine have heard of neocon Nuland. Many have even
heard the leaked four-minute audio of her saying "Fuck the EU" during a 2014 phone call with
the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt.
During the infamous call on which Nuland and Pyatt plotted to replace the elected Ukrainian
President Victor Yanukovych, Nuland expressed her not-so-diplomatic disgust with the European
Union for grooming former heavyweight boxer and austerity champ Vitali Klitschko instead of
U.S. puppet and NATO booklicker Artseniy Yatseniuk to replace Russia-friendly Yanukovych.
The "Fuck the EU" call went viral, as an embarrassed State Department, never denying the
call's authenticity, blamed the Russians for tapping the phone, much as the NSA has tapped the
phones of European allies.
Despite outrage from German Chancellor Angela Markel, no one fired Nuland, but her potty
mouth upstaged the more serious story: the U.S. plot to overthrow Ukraine's elected government
and America's responsibility for a civil war that has killed at least 13,000 people and left
Ukraine the poorest
country in Europe.
In the process, Nuland, her husband Robert Kagan, the co-founder of The Project for a New
American Century , and their neocon cronies succeeded in sending U.S.-Russian relations
into a dangerous downward spiral from which they have yet to recover.
Nuland accomplished this from a relatively junior position as Assistant Secretary of State
for European and Eurasian Affairs. How much more trouble could she stir up as the #3 official
at Biden's State Department? We'll find out soon enough, if the Senate confirms her
nomination.
Joe Biden should have learned from Obama's mistakes that appointments like this matter.
In his first
term , Obama allowed his hawkish Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Republican Secretary
of Defense Robert Gates, and military and CIA leaders held over from the Bush administration to
ensure that endless war trumped his message of hope and change.
Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, ended up presiding over indefinite detentions without
charges or trials at Guantanamo Bay; an escalation of drone strikes that killed innocent
civilians; a deepening of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan; a self-reinforcing
cycle of terrorism and counterterrorism; and disastrous new wars in
Libya and Syria
.
With Clinton out and new personnel in top spots in his second term, Obama began
to take charge of his own foreign policy. He started working directly with Russia's President
Putin to resolve crises in Syria and other hotspots. Putin helped avert an escalation of the
war in Syria in September 2013 by negotiating the removal and destruction of Syria's chemical
weapons stockpiles, and helped Obama negotiate an interim agreement with Iran that led to the
JCPOA nuclear deal.
But the neocons were apoplectic that they failed to convince Obama to order a massive
bombing campaign and escalate his covert,
proxy war in Syria and at the receding prospect of a war with Iran. Fearing their control
of U.S. foreign policy was slipping, the neocons launched a
campaign to brand Obama as "weak" on foreign policy and remind him of their power.
With
editorial help from Nuland, her husband Robert Kagan penned a 2014 New Republic
article entitled "Superpowers Don't Get To Retire," proclaiming that "there is no democratic
superpower waiting in the wings to save the world if this democratic superpower falters." Kagan
called for an even more aggressive foreign policy to exorcise American fears of a multipolar
world it can no longer dominate.
Obama invited Kagan to a private lunch at the White House, and the neocons' muscle-flexing
pressured him to scale back his diplomacy with Russia, even as he quietly pushed ahead on
Iran.
The neocons' coup de grace against Obama's better angels was Nuland's 2014 coup
in debt-ridden Ukraine, a valuable imperial possession for its wealth of natural gas and a
strategic candidate for NATO membership right on Russia's border.
When Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych spurned a U.S.-backed trade agreement with
the European Union in favor of a $15 billion bailout from Russia, the State Department threw a
tantrum.
Hell hath no fury like a superpower scorned.
The EU trade
agreement was to open Ukraine's economy to imports from the EU, but without a reciprocal
opening of EU markets to Ukraine, it was a lopsided deal Yanukovich could not accept. The deal
was approved by the post-coup government, and has only added to Ukraine's economic woes.
The muscle for Nuland's $5 billion coup was Oleh
Tyahnybok's neo-Nazi Svoboda Party and the shadowy new Right Sector militia. During her leaked
phone call, Nuland referred to Tyahnybok as one of the "big three" opposition leaders on the
outside who could help the U.S.-backed Prime Minister Yatsenyuk on the inside. This is the same
Tyanhnybok who once
delivered a speec h applauding Ukrainians for fighting Jews and "other scum" during World
War II.
After protests in Kiev's Euromaidan square turned into battles with police in February 2014,
Yanukovych and the Western-backed opposition
signed an agreement brokered by France, Germany and Poland to form a national unity
government and hold new elections by the end of the year.
But that was not good enough for the neo-Nazis and extreme right-wing forces the U.S. had
helped to unleash. A violent mob led by the Right Sector militia marched on and invaded the
parliament building , a scene no longer difficult for Americans to imagine. Yanukovych and
his members of parliament fled for their lives.
Facing the loss of its most vital strategic naval base at Sevastopol in Crimea, Russia
accepted the overwhelming result (a 97% majority, with an 83% turnout) of a referendum in which
Crimea voted to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia, which it had been a part of from 1783 to
1954.
The majority Russian-speaking provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in Eastern Ukraine
unilaterally declared independence from Ukraine, triggering a bloody civil war between U.S.-
and Russian-backed forces that still rages in 2021.
U.S.-Russian relations have never recovered, even as U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals still
pose the greatest single
threat to our existence. Whatever Americans believe about the civil war in Ukraine and
allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, we must not allow the neocons
and the military-industrial complex they serve to deter Biden from conducting vital diplomacy
with Russia to steer us off our suicidal path toward nuclear war.
Nuland and the neocons, however, remain committed to an ever-more debilitating and dangerous
Cold War with Russia and China to justify a militarist foreign policy and record Pentagon
budgets. In a July 2020 Foreign Affairs article entitled "Pinning Down Putin," Nuland
absurdly
claimed that Russia presents a greater threat to "the liberal world" than the U.S.S.R.
posed during the old Cold War.
Nuland's
narrative rests on an utterly mythical, ahistorical narrative of Russian aggression and
U.S. good intentions. She pretends that Russia's military budget, which is one-tenth of
America's, is evidence of "Russian confrontation and militarization" and calls
on the U.S. and its allies to counter Russia by "maintaining robust defense budgets,
continuing to modernize U.S. and allied nuclear weapons systems, and deploying new conventional
missiles and missile defenses to protect against Russia's new weapons systems "
Nuland also wants to confront Russia with an aggressive NATO. Since her days as U.S.
Ambassador to NATO during President George W. Bush's second term, she has been a supporter of
NATO's expansion all the way up to Russia's border. She calls
for "permanent bases along NATO's eastern border." We have pored over a map of Europe, but
we can't find a country called NATO with any borders at all. Nuland sees Russia's commitment to
defending itself after successive 20th century Western invasions as an intolerable obstacle to
NATO's expansionist ambitions.
Nuland's militaristic worldview represents exactly the folly the U.S. has been pursuing
since the 1990s under the influence of the neocons and "liberal interventionists," which has
resulted in a systematic underinvestment in the American people while escalating tensions with
Russia, China, Iran and other countries.
As Obama learned too late, the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time can, with a
shove in the wrong direction, unleash years of intractable violence, chaos and international
discord. Victoria Nuland would be a ticking time-bomb in Biden's State Department, waiting to
sabotage his better angels much as she undermined Obama's second-term diplomacy.
So let's do Biden and the world a favor. Join World Beyond War , CODEPINK and dozens of other
organizations opposing neocon Nuland's confirmation as a threat to peace and diplomacy. Call
202-224-3121 and tell your Senator to oppose Nuland's installation at the State Department.
Nuland has also been declared persona non grata by Russia, so she would not be able to go
with Biden, were he to visit Moscow. Russian foreign minister Lavrov, actually refused to
shake her hand when she attended a US-Russia meeting with Kerry. She is poison to any attempt
to peaceful relationships.
Yes, I remember that meeting clearly. Can't cite the network, but it covered her closely
– body language only. I wonder where Biden stood on that act of diplomacy given his own
corruption, and also what John Kerry's thinking is about now. John Kerry's stepson was in
cahoots with Hunter Biden. It looked like Kerry brought her along for some rehabilitation and
Lavrov was having none of it. Instead he went directly to the delegation from Ukraine and
they stood in a circle all with their backs turned to Vicky who had no choice but to wander
over to the coffee table and pretend she wasn't totally uncomfortable. Totally excluded. How
can she recover from that?
If there is one thing that Russia hates it is fascists and that is because of the enormous
damage caused by them in WW2. We call those invaders Nazis but the Russians seem to call them
fascists. I sometimes wonder if it is part of their mother's milk this hatred. For people
like Nuland to help topple the government of a large, bordering country like the Ukraine and
install people that were literally fascists was too much for the Russians. These were fascist
of a very low order that had the old 1930s routines down pat, including the torchlight
parades. And there was Nuland, handing out cookies to the rioters, many of whom had been
trained in rioting tactics in Poland and were being paid about $100 a day by the US if I
recall correctly. Of course Nuland was not alone as there was also a Representative from the
EU also handing out cookies. The only equivalent that comes to mind is a violent revolution
in Canada using professional rioters and having diplomatic representatives from the Russian
Federation and China handing out donuts to the rioter. I wonder what Washington would say
about a stunt like that.
Nuland is a disgusting human being. Since she is a right winger, regardless of what party
may be listed on her voter ID, I don't think Bettridge's law applies here at all.
So glad all these 'woke' people put good old Uncle Joe back in office. Wonder how many
realized they were supporting people being burned alive by actual Nazis in doing so?
Thanks for this. Our "learned nothing/forgot nothing" Bourbon restoration will be led by
one of the dimmer Bourbons who couldn't even set up a good grift in Ukraine without boasting
about it and then angrily denying it. Should the press finally, improbably turn on him it
should make for some fun news conferences. But perhaps he'll merely be moving to the White
House basement from his Delaware basement.
CFTC's budgets are also set through congressional authorization and appropriations. Yes,
the CFPB is not subject to Congressional appropriations, but for good reasons. However, all
financial regulation can be overturned by the Congressional Review Act.
As for the article, citation needed. Sort of a laundry heap of questionable material. Make
no mistake, the Russo-Ukrainian War is a real war. Uniformed Russian armored infantry of
331st regiment of the 98th Svirsk airborne division dropped into Ukraine territory on 24
August 2014. From 25 to 27 August, Russian troops in civilian clothing, backed up by an
armored column [not in disguise] took Novoazovsk. This is about Russia not being able to
station 25,000 troops in Crimea as they had under Yanukovych. US troop levels in Europe have
been at their lowest for the last 20 years. The US would like to [nay, needs to] keep it that
way. However, the erosion of territorial integrity is a touchy subject in Europe given the
lasting peace of the post-war period in a place where the wars have a pre-fix like "Hundred
Years".
President Arseniy Yatsenyuk is of Jewish origin so the claims of coordination with Nazi
sympathizers is dubious. Not even going to get the boycotted unconstitutional Crimean
referendum.
As for WW III, Obama's defense department made it a priority to recover all the MANPADS,
such as the Chinese-made FN-6 [via Qatar], Russian-made Strela-2's and Igla-S's [via Libya]
from the FSA without so much as a thank you from the Russian Air Force. [Turkey, on the other
hand, armed the FSA with Stinger's.] It should be noted that the Syrian conflict's death
toll, in just four years, surpassed the 19-year death toll in all the Afghanistan, Pakistan,
and Iraq war theatres combined.
Think about this way: who needs NATO and the EU more to maintain his power structure, Joe
Biden or Vladimir Putin. Isn't it clear Americans don't care, and American business does not
look to compete in Russian anytime soon. The geography is wrong. But Putin must find a way to
engender ethnicities who do not like the Russian Empire, who had been cleansed by Stalin. One
way is to sell energy below cost to the republics and buy in back from political allies in
the form of electricity. Something upon which the EU frowns. [Personally, I did not care for
the way Putin early on systematically and indiscriminately starved Chechen civilians for
years. It was cruel on a level unseen outside of the Rwandan genocide. More importantly, it
was the Russian Federation abdicating its authority by not providing for its own citizens and
not letting NGO's fill the calorie gap. I'd like to think had Putin's admin not been so
wobbly the first few years, he might've let the Red Cross feed the children.]
Russia was never going to permit a US orchestrated coup in Ukraine without resistance. The
idea that Putin needs NATO more than Biden does seems unreasonable.
Talking about "citations", perhaps you could supply the readership of this site with some
credible citations and links for a few of the far fetched claims you're making here. Most of
this comment reads like pro-Ukrainian propaganda.
I heard about Gary Gensler, Samantha Power, and Victoria Nuland, and I immediately
thought, "The good, the bad, and the ugly."
Gensler surprised everyone when he was at the CFTC by doing his job, and doing it well,
and his running the SEC is a good thing.
Samantha Power is an aggressive war monger, and in her position at USAID, she will likely
have her fingers in regime change pie, since USAID is part of the deep state regime change
apparatus..
I've long suspected that NATO has existed since 1991 to allow the US/EU axis to control
Middle-Eastern and African resources. For example, the Rammstein military hospital is where
every Gulf War soldier was airlifted for major treatment and convalescence.
Also, there is a huge international trade in opium. It's grown in Afpak and shipped out in
every direction. I suspect that a fair amount of that flows through Ukraine and Crimea. If
you look at a topo map of Crimea, there's a lot of seashore that could be good "smuggler's
coves". Following this line of argument, Russia grabbing it from Ukraine was a gimme to
Russia's gangsters. This, as well as the "Pipeline Wars", gives Russia a strong reason to
encircle Ukraine.
"... In The Transparency Project v. Department of Justice, et al., my client asked to see records indicating whether the CIA or its Directorate of Digital Innovation, its contractors, etc. inserted Russian "fingerprints" into the metadata of the emails that were released publicly. (You can review the entire request by clicking here and reading Paragraph 11). ..."
"... In a joint report filed today , the CIA informed the court that it intends to assert a Glomar response to the request, i.e., that it "cannot confirm or deny" the existence of such records. . . . [In other words], The Central Intelligence Agency will neither confirm nor deny that it fabricated the Russian "fingerprints" in Democratic National Committee emails published in 2016 by Wikileaks and "Guccifer 2.0.", and the FBI implicitly acknowledged today that it never reviewed the contents of DNC employee Seth Rich's laptop despite gaining custody of the laptop after his murder. ..."
In The Transparency Project v. Department of Justice, et al., my client asked to see
records indicating whether the CIA or its Directorate of Digital Innovation, its contractors,
etc. inserted Russian "fingerprints" into the metadata of the emails that were released
publicly. (You can review the entire request by
clicking here and reading Paragraph 11).
In a joint
report filed today , the CIA informed the court that it intends to assert a Glomar
response to the request, i.e., that it "cannot confirm or deny" the existence of such
records. . . . [In other words], The Central Intelligence Agency will neither confirm nor
deny that it fabricated the Russian "fingerprints" in Democratic National Committee emails
published in 2016 by Wikileaks and "Guccifer 2.0.", and the FBI implicitly acknowledged today
that it never reviewed the contents of DNC employee Seth Rich's laptop despite gaining
custody of the laptop after his murder.
Full disclosure--Mr. Clevenger is a friend of mine. He writes in his article that he reached
out to me and I made some phone calls to retired friends who held senior positions at the CIA.
My friends and I agreed that a GLOMAR response to the basic question, Did you spy on Mr.
Butowsky and/or Mr. Couch was a tacit admission-yes! Ty explains this point clearly and
succinctly:
Allow me to illustrate the point. If I asked the CIA for intercepted emails from the
president of another country, the CIA would rightly issue a Glomar response, because
it would not want to confirm or deny that it has been spying on the foreign president. That's
what Glomar is for, because the CIA is in the business of secretly spying
on foreign presidents, officials, agents, etc.
My client's request, on the other hand, is more akin to asking the CIA for records showing
whether it helped Lee Harvey Oswald assassinate President John F. Kennedy. We would expect
the CIA to declare that it has no such records because it would never do such a thing.
Why would the CIA spy on Mr. Butowsky, for example. Ed Butowsky was brought into the Seth
Rich saga in December 2016 by Ellen Ratner, the sister-in-law of Julian Assange's former
lawyer. Ellen spoke with Julian in November 2016 and asked Mr. Butowsky to reach out to the
parents of Seth Rich and get them some help investigating who murdered their son.
It should come as no surprise that the CIA, the NSA and Britain's GCHQ were monitoring every
communication going in and out of Wikileaks, including all communications of all personnel
working at or associated with Wikileaks.
We know this thanks to the evidence and writings of Mr. Edward Snowden. Once Snowden made
his escape to Russia with the help of Wikileaks, Wikileaks became a number one intelligence
target.
Both the United States and the United Kingdom had ample cause to ensure that no new secrets
leaked out of Wiki and caught them unawares. In light of the comprehensive monitoring of all
Wiki communications, I believe the intel folks knew exactly the contents of Ratner's chat with
Assange, which ultimately led them to Ed (i.e, Ellen Ratner talked to Julian and then talked to
Ed to relay a request from Julian to help the Rich family).
Now that
Donald Trump has finally released FBI documents on Russiagate (I do not know if there are
any CIA documents in the pile), we shall see what the FBI had to say about Mr. Rich. Too bad
the President waited so long to do this. If he had forced the issue last year the plot to steal
the 2020 election might have been disrupted.
Posted by: downtownhaiku | Jan 14 2021 22:15 utc |
42
here is a copy of the Helmer article about Navalny which caused Helmer's website to be
attacked
BERLIN CLINICAL DATA CONFIRM ALEXEI NAVALNY HAD PANCREATITIS, DIABETES, LIVER FAILURE,
STAPHYLOCOCCAL INFECTION, MILD HEART ATTACK – NO NOVICHOK SYMPTOMS
Instead of "LOVE" on pill box, substitute POWER
On jar behind, instead of HYMEN'S, substitute MERKEL
By John Helmer, Moscow
The German laboratory test results for Alexei Navalny, published by a group of doctors at
the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin last month, reveal a surprising
number of medical symptoms, but they are not those of Novichok nerve agent poisoning as Navalny
and his supporters in western governments have alleged.
Clinical doctors, toxicologists, and pharmacology experts outside Germany believe the test
results which the Charité group released on December 22 reveal symptoms of acute
pancreatitis, diabetes, liver failure, severe dehydration, muscular rigidity, as well as a
serious bacterial infection, and a possible heart attack associated with his kidney problems.
According to the experts, these are not recognisable symptoms of a nerve agent attack.
The German medical publication reports Navalny's "laboratory values on admission", and
toxicology and pharmacology results "in blood and urine samples obtained on arrival of the
patient of the patient at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (day 3)".
Accordingly, the newly available data are evidence of the condition Navalny was in during his
two-day treatment in Omsk Emergency Hospital No. 1 in Russia; and of the treatment he received
there, as well as during his six-hour flight on a German medical evacuation aircraft from Omsk
to Berlin.
The German doctors have also released a tabulation of their laboratory test results for
Navalny during 33 days of his stay in the Charité hospital, and a subsequent visit to
the hospital as an outpatient. The four data tables are described by the Germans as following
"the supposed poisoning of the patient". The doctors don't wish to sign their names to this
"supposing".
[ more]
Navalny first fell ill on the morning of August 20, during a flight from Tomsk, where he had
been on an election campaign tour, to Moscow. The flight was diverted to Omsk, and Navalny
admitted to hospital in Omsk in mid-morning local time. He was in intensive care there for 48
hours until he was released for German medical evacuation to Berlin on August 22.
The German doctors treating Navalny at the Charité were led by Kai-Uwe Eckardt, the
chief of the Charité treatment unit whom Navalny publicly thanked on October 7. Eckardt
and David Steindl are the principal authors of the December 22 report; Eckhardt is a specialist
on diabetes and kidney transplants; Steindl is a specialist on musculo-skeletal
pathologies.
In their 4-page case report, Eckardt and Steindl say "severe poisoning with a cholinesterase
inhibitor was subsequently diagnosed", not by the Charité group, but by a "laboratory of
the German armed forces"; that was the Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie der
Bundeswehr (IPTB).
British toxicologists have repeatedly cautioned there can be many causes and sources for the
cholinesterase inhibition detected from metabolites in Navalny's blood and urine, and they
continue to ask the German doctors and the IPTB: "Name the compound. That would be a good
start." In their publication of Navalny's test results, Eckardt and Steindl say: "results of
toxicology analyses conducted in a special laboratory of the armed forces [IPTB] are not
included." They don't give a reason.
In the Lancet case report, there are several references to a 4-page appendix. This contains
Navalny's test results, but the appendix is not easy to find and was published separately. The
Lancet editors explain: "this appendix formed part of the original submission and has been peer
reviewed. We post it as supplied by the authors." It can be opened and read here. LINK.
ALEXEI NAVALNY'S LABORATORY TEST RESULTS ON ARRIVAL IN BERLIN
Source: LINK, Appendix S1.
A review of these data by a clinician with specialised training in pharmacology provided a
detailed interpretation of each line of data where the reported value for Navalny was either
well above or below normal.
The expert, who declines to be identified, reports that the sodium and chloride scores show
Navalny was suffering from extreme dehydration on his arrival in the Berlin hospital. How this
was possible after the German medevac flight is unknown.
The spikes in the tested creatine kinase-MB and myoglobin reveal that his muscle function
was breaking down; the visible symptom, according to the expert, should have been muscle
rigidity. According to the German doctors, they didn't see it, and neither did the Omsk
hospital doctors, or witnesses of Navalny's collapse on board the flight from Tomsk. The German
case report, quoting from the Omsk hospital "discharge report", says "the patient presented [in
Omsk on August 20] comatose with hypersalivation and increased diaphoresis [sweating]." When
Navalny reached the Charité, the doctors there reported in December, he was "deeply
comatose, with mild bradycardia hypersalivation, hypothermia (33.5C), increased diaphoresis and
small pupils not reactive to light, decreased brainstem reflexes, hyperactive deep tendon
reflexes, and pyramidal signs."
The independent expert does not know how hyperactive tendon reflexes can have produced the
abnormal MB and myoglobin test results.
The expert said the standard diagnosis which follows from the reported albumin result is
chronic disease of the liver. The high lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) score indicates metabolic
disorders commonly seen with cancerous tumours. The amylase and lipase results signify
pancreatitis, a condition which the Russian press has reported Navalny to have experienced in
the past. The results for C-reactive protein, leukocytes, neutrophils, and erythrocytes all
point to a serious bacterial infection. The German case report confirms that skin and rectal
swabs and urine samples found staphylococcus aureus and other infectious bacteria which were
treated with antibiotics, the standard procedure. How Navalny picked up the bacterial
infection, and where – in Tomsk, Omsk, in the medevac flight, or in Berlin – is
unknown.
ALEXEI NAVALNY'S LABORATORY TEST RESULTS DURING HIS BERLIN HOSPITALISATION -- EXCERPT
Source: LINK, Appendix S4. The table extends to Day 33 in hospital, and includes Day 42 when he
returned for testing as an outpatient.
The unusually high result for the urinary protein/creatinine ratio has been diagnosed by the
expert as signifying kidney failure – "clinical diabetes but not an extreme
presentation." Diabetes has been reported for Navalny in the past; his staff deny it.
The abnormally high troponin-T results reported on Days 4 and 5 at Charité are
puzzling to the independent expert because they signify a heart problem or mild heart attack,
possibly related to the reported kidney failure. Eckardt and Steindl say in their case report
that Navalny's heart was beating abnormally slowly (bradycardia – 44 beats per minute)
when tested in Omsk hospital, then 59 beats per minute during the flight to Berlin. After he
arrived at Charité the bradycardia worsened to 33 bpm.
The independent expert accepts that the unusually low test score for butyryl cholinesterase
– 0.42 on arrival in Berlin, 0.41 at Day 3 – usually signifies exposure to a
cholinesterase inhibitor. The German doctors' report says: "based on clinical and laboratory
findings, severe cholinesterase inhibition was diagnosed and the patient was started on
atropine and obidoxime Cholinergic signs returned to normal within 1 h[our] after the onset of
this antidotal therapy." The German test results do not substantiate this conclusion, neither
for troponin-T which didn't normalise until Day 7, or butyryl cholinesterase, which didn't
reach normal until Day 17.
Testing for cholinesterase inhibition is the key to the allegations of the German Army
laboratory, the German intelligence agency BND, and German officials that Navalny had been
poisoned by a Russian Novichok nerve agent. The new data disclosure falls short of proof.
Instead it reveals that in Berlin Navalny's laboratory testing revealed cholinesterase
inhibition, while in the Omsk hospital laboratory reports published in part in August, revealed
that "cholinesterase inhibitors were not detected in blood and urine"; for more details of the
earlier test data, read this
http://johnhelmer.net/brain-poisoning-by-russian-nerve-agent-alexei-navalny-infects-german-chancellery/
and this. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2020/09/04/highly-toxic-but-unreliable
This week the independent expert also reviewed the table of medications which testing of
Navalny revealed on his admission at Charité:
ANAESTHETIC AND ANTIDOTE DRUGS NAVALNY WAS GIVEN IN OMSK AS TESTED IN BERLIN
Source: Appendix S2. LINK
According to the source, the presence of pain relieving and anaesthetic drugs, antibiotics,
and atropine are conventional treatment. Amantadine is a neurological drug often used in
treatment of Parkinson's Disease; lithium is a psychiatric medication for treating bipolar mood
disorders and depression. Lithium, the expert says, along with the relaxant drugs recorded in
Navalny's system -- diazepam, nordazepam, oxazepam -- are commonly taken orally. If Navalny had
been comatose at Omsk hospital and then at Charité, then it is likely he took these
drugs himself in Tomsk before his flight. The Omsk hospital testing also reported that Navalny
had taken "tricyclic antidepressants" before his collapse. End+
Posted by: downtownhaiku | Jan 14 2021 23:19 utc |
50
downtownhaiku #42
Thank you for the heads up on johnhelmer. I found this just down the thread...
All last year we were hearing how Huawei is a threat to US national security. Chinese
state operatives would insert spyware into Huawei networking equipment. The software that
runs on Huawei equipment is open source and open to inspections. It is unlikely to contain
hidden threats. But similar backdoors and spy gates are sure to exist on Western
equipment.
The real threat to US "security" comes from the US not being able to install their spyware
on European networks.
It seems that a massive US spy operation has just been exposed. The US presidential
elections have overshadowed this from the news, but at the end of December this was the top
story in the US. Allegedly "Russian hackers" had infiltrated US government organizations.
According to Lou Dobbs on Fox News this was a new Pearl Harbor.
The story broke out in mid December when the cyber security company FireEye noticed that
their servers had been attacked and the code for their Red Team assessment tools had been
stolen. They soon discovered that the attack had utilized a backdoor in SolarWind's Orion IT
monitoring and management software. FireEye called it a supply-chain attack.
There are several layers of misinformation in the way the Western media reported this.
Supposedly 18,000 organizations were attacked. This is the number of users of the
SolarWinds network management software. No evidence has been presented that any of these
organizations were actually attacked.
The attackers were supposedly Russian. Cyber attribution is usually impossible. It
could as well have been the NSA or CIA acting as "Russians". Actually no technical analysis
has ever been presented that points the attack to Russia. The whole Russia story was
invented by the media or by their masters in the US Intelligence Community.
The real story not in how US government organizations were possibly attacked, but in
how the spyware found its way into the SolarWinds source code in the first place.
The spyware was part of the source code for the "BusinessLayer.dll" shared library. I find
it impossible that the spyware code was somehow inserted from Russia. It is likewise far
fetched to assume that some Russian mole was working for SolarWinds and secretly inserting
spyware into the source code. No such mole has been arrested. It is more likely that the
malware was inserted by US actors.
This "sophisticated supply chain attack" would have been impossible without US insiders in
the company. Most likely the whole software team was compromised. The attack vector must have
been part of the specification of the software. Proof of this comes from the fact that it has
taken several weeks and SolarWinds still has not fixed the problem. The spyware must be so
embedded and intertwined with the rest of the software that they would not know what to
remove. Instead, they said their "investigations are early and ongoing". They have the source
code, yet they have not published any part of it.
No links in this post. I have collected some links and
sources on my wiki.
The 16th big press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin has drawn a line. In the
history of the "concentration of Russia", a thirty-year period has come to an end,
characterized by successively advancing: fascination with the West, doubt in the West, and
disillusionment with Western "values". Russia has entered a new period.
During the final press conference of Putin, an incident occurred that caused a lot of funny
comments in Russian society and in the Russian press. BBC journalist Steven Rosenberg asked the
Russian President: "Is Vladimir Putin personally responsible for the deterioration of relations
with Western countries? Or is Russia all these 20 years of Putin's rule "white and fluffy"?
And, in addition, as expected, [he asked] "how is it going with the investigation into the
poisoning of Navalny?"
A dialogue ensued, during which the British journalist looked rather pathetic, to which
everyone paid attention. But the result of this conversation, although everyone quoted it, was
not appreciated by anyone. In the end [of the dialogue], it was said that Putin is responsible
for the people of Russia and before the people of Russia, and that yes, we are white and
fluffy, especially compared to you.
I can understand how the British journalist felt at this time. The world collapsed around
him. From his point of view, such an end to the conversation was simply impossible. He was not
taught this.
Recollection of the present
I know very well what I am saying. In 1993, together with another three dozen diplomats
representing all post-Soviet republics (including Russia) and all post-socialist countries of
Eastern Europe (then none of them were members of either NATO or the EU, although everyone
already dreamed of), I was at diplomatic internship in the UK. Among other things, we were
offered an educational format for communicating with the Western press, which (what a
coincidence) was represented by a rather elderly lady from the BBC. She explained to us for a
long time and tediously that we, as government officials, would have to listen carefully to the
position of journalists and if the journalist himself (especially a Western one) became
interested in some information or pointed out some political error, then the information should
be provided immediately, and the error should be corrected with an apology.
She talked for about forty minutes. I waited until she was exhausted and asked: "Why?" I
waited on purpose. Usually, in such cases, our Western friends simply repeat their monologue.
But the journalist was already quite second-hand, she had fizzled out over the previous hour
and, losing her guard, missed a hit. She answered with a question to the question: "What do you
mean why?".
It was then that I explained to her that in any country, Great Britain is no exception,
there are a lot of journalists from mass media. And each of them will be happy to interview a
government official and receive exclusive information on his (official's) terms. And such
"smart" ones as she won't even get into the waiting room. There are many ways to avoid
accreditation under a plausible pretext. And after her publication is given to understand that
no one will ever speak to this journalist in this country, she will simply be fired for
incompetence or sent to the Papuans, from where one report is published every ten years.
This dialogue took place in the summer of 1993. I was 27 then. I think that Steven Rosenberg
was then at the same (plus or minus a couple of years) age. I have long forgotten the name of
the BBC lady, but I will never forget her face. She looked at me as if the gates of hell had
opened behind me and the entire infernal army was about to rush at her. Rosenberg's face was
half hidden by a mask, but it could not hide his confusion, further emphasized by a stampede
from the press conference.
Let me stress again that I understand him well and sympathize with him. 27 years ago, when
the incident I described above happened, journalists already liked to speculate about the
"fourth power", but most of them themselves did not really believe in this thesis.
Nevertheless, open disregard for the "rights of the press" was not comme il faut even then.
Like "homophobia" about ten years later.
Since then, the young and then seasoned BBC journalist Steven Rosenberg was taught for 27
years that he was not just a "fourth power", but a representative of Western civilizers in a
semi-primitive world that dreams of becoming like the West. Stephen is the bearer of
civilization. Any of his statements is a priori true, and the authorities of the "wild tribes"
to whom he brings civilization must justify themselves to him and immediately rush to eliminate
the shortcomings he has noticed.
"Russia is disappointed with Europe's inability to defend its interests on its own"
And after all, for a long time it was so. Including in Russia. Not that the Kremlin believed
in the Western "mission of good offices", but they proceeded from the fact that compromise is
better than enmity and were ready to make reasonable concessions in anticipation of reciprocal
steps. It cannot be said that this strategy has completely failed to justify itself. Part of
the Western world, especially in the EU and especially in Germany and Italy, really strives to
build equal pragmatic relations with Russia on the basis of a mutually acceptable
compromise.
But the part is not the whole, and on the whole, the Western world retains its hostility
towards Russia, poorly hidden by unfounded arrogance. Moreover, it is clear that despite the
strengthening of the Western political circles sympathetic to our country, this trend will not
be broken in the coming years. But then it will be too late. The window of opportunity will
close.
Any political decision is possible and expedient within a certain time frame. If someone
does not have time to meet these deadlines, then they have to implement a different version of
the future. That is why not a single serious state works according to the principle of no
alternative. There are always fallbacks, maybe not as good, but not disastrous, usually just
less profitable. But those who are late for the joint train to the future remain at a broken
trough.
2020 was the year of summing up the results in Russian-European relations. At the level of
statements by politicians and press materials, at the level of visits, agreements and active
events, the fading of Russia's interest in the European vector and the redirection of the
dominant of its foreign policy to the Far and Middle East became noticeable.
The last warning was the autumn speeches of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in which
it was stated openly that Russia is disappointed with Europe's inability to defend its
interests on its own and, given this factor, does not expect anything else from cooperation
with the West and does not plan to unilaterally take into account the opinion and the interests
of the West.
Perhaps in the UK or specifically on the BBC, being immersed in their Brexit, Lavrov was not
heard. But that's their problem. Russia is not doing anything out of the blue. Before openly
telling the West that "We didn't actually want to work with them" a long-term (stretching over
a decade and a half) work was carried out to search for alternative markets, to import
substitution of critical products imported from the West, to strengthen the army, to recreate
the ocean-going fleet, gaining allies, creating military bases controlling trade routes that
are critical for Russia.
The West missed this entire era of "concentration of Russia" (the expression of Chancellor
Gorchakov). Already the second time the West misses (the first "concentration" in the XXI
century ended in 2008). In Europe and the United States they consoled themselves with the fact
that Russia is a "colossus with feet of clay", that it does not have sufficient resources even
to intervene in the situation in the post-Soviet space, that "Moscow is bluffing", that the
West is indispensable because it is a "civilizational choice" etc.
And suddenly, in 2020, the collective West saw that Russia's positioning towards it had
changed dramatically. If earlier [the West's] claims were heard, explanations were given,
Russia was trying to prove something, now Europe began to be ignored as an annoying mistress.
With some countries, the Kremlin has stopped talking altogether, with some it talks, but
"without respect."
"Yes, we are white and fluffy"! -- But only for ourselves. So what will you do to us?
Western journalists, especially BBC journalists, do not ask random questions at press
conferences of heads of state. BBC is a state corporation, its activities are aimed at
realizing the state interests of Great Britain, including collecting information using the
possibilities of journalism. By asking the question "Are you white and fluffy?" -- the leading
circles of the West probed the soil and were ready to hear anything in response, except what
sounded: "Yes, we are white and fluffy" -- and your opinion on this issue interests us least of
all.
This is the point, the end of the long-term flirtation between Russia and the West, which
the West hoped to start up in an absolute moral and material gain, and suddenly sees itself in
the role of "Ariadne abandoned." Given the Western vindictiveness, such public humiliation of
it became possible only following the results of a decade and a half of well-coordinated,
albeit invisible, work of all Russian state structures, including state-owned companies.
In 2014, the West was surprised to learn that Russia is able to ensure its food security
(over the next six years, Moscow has been steadily increasing its food exports). In 2015, the
West became convinced of the stability of the Russian financial system, which it never managed
to break. In 2016, the West still laughed at the "cartoons" and argued that in reality Russia
did not have demonstrated weapons systems, because it could never be. Since 2018, he has been
forced to admit his critical lag in the military sphere. In 2017-2018 the West suddenly learned
that Russia concentrates on itself the supply of liquefied gas, for which the West was a de
facto monopoly, one by one introducing the corresponding terminals in the North and the Far
East (which makes the fight against Nord Stream 2 and other flows senseless, since Russian gas
will come to Europe by a route alternative to the Ukrainian one, if not through gas pipelines,
then with the help of gas carriers). By 2020, the West learned that Russia is also able to
build gas carriers on its own (as well as other ships and vessels of any class).
In parallel, international systems of cooperation between Russia and China, Iran, Turkey and
Egypt were being built. If, until about 2014, Russia's priority was to ensure internal
stability and security in the context of a likely break with the West, then the emphasis in
domestic policy shifted to disavowing the ideological expansion of the West, and in foreign
policy to building alternative trade and economic ties, securing promising markets. and
partners.
All this, of course, is not as beautiful as the even ranks of the royal grenadiers, bravely
breaking the enemy's resistance under a hail of grapeshot. But for the latter to become
possible, many years of routine work are needed to create an independent economy capable of
meeting the needs of the army and the people in any conditions, for a period of time of any
length, as well as to provide the rear with reliable military-political alliances.
And only after many years of efforts of millions of people, someone alone can smile and say
to the unfortunate journalist, turning over his head to the collective West: "Yes, we are white
and fluffy!" -- So what will you do to us?
In the history of Russia, a thirty-year period has come to an end, characterized by
successively advancing: fascination with the West, doubt in the West, and disillusionment with
Western "values." The line has been drawn. Russia has entered a new period characterized by
indifference towards the West and a lack of illusions about all of its current partners and
allies. We leave ideals for home use, for external use we have only interests. Russia itself
has built its own well-being and is going to use it itself. And whoever doesn't like it, can
cry, or gnaw the earth, or bite his elbows. We are "white and fluffy", but only for
ourselves.
"... I hate virtually all of Trump's policies. I hate his stupidity in continually hiring people who hated him. He could have turned to members of the genuine left -- men such as Stephen Cohen -- for advice. ..."
"... n a classic act of projection, woke Dems accuse Trump of not conceding, whereas in fact they are the ones who never conceded the presidency in 2016. This is so obvious, and yet it has apparently become invisible to most!!! Memory hole opened up like a crack in the earth behind each step. ..."
"... The gullibility of Trump is astounding. He did everything to keep the swamp happy, to keep Israel happy, flipped on Nato and on Russia, had hawks left and right and at the end he will be discarded like a used condom. ..."
"... can't help but think that Donald Trump is a man with no common sense, lacking the real conviction of his words and just not very bright or he was to some degree willfully complicit in this now obviously dire state the U.S. finds itself. ..."
"... If anyone thinks there is some good news because this murderous, warring empire is coming to an end, I suggest you think again. The war machine is still fully intact and funded. The international bankers who are in complete control are buying up everything and are planning on a 'reset' dictated by them. To the world! Understandably, there will likely be a few countries who do not feel inclined to agree with this reset and it's terms. There will have to be war to correct this thinking, even if a billion or more are killed. The more the merrier. Less 'useless eaters' to deal with. ..."
Mr. Roberts is right on point when he says that Trump will be locked up.
The people running the United States are going to make an example of Trump. They will send
a message that no "outsider" should ever again dare to run for President.
Trump will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
I fear you are right. In this case it might be better if he weren't such a street fighter,
because standing up for himself to me isn't worth the price he will pay. He should get
himself and his family post haste to a country with no extradition and simply live the rest
of his life in peace. No one needs the vitriol that has been and will continue to be heaped
on him.
Trump _should_ spend the rest of his life behind bars -- for contributing to the deaths of
tens of thousands of human beings. Ordinary Syrians, Iranians, Cubans, and Venezuelans died
because of the murderous sanctions Washington put on their countries, and Pres. Trump did
nothing to help -- and in fact, intensified them.
Very similar to his indifference to the plight of Edward Snowden & Julian Assange.
Trump is a monster of self-centredness. In fact, in the words of his own former White House
Chief of Staff, he is 'the most damaged human being I have ever met.' Just the sort of
creature we would expect to find as head of the US empire
I'm afraid you are spot on -- Trump lies to the World when he was running for President
& then broke almost all of his promises -especially to drain the Swamp. He also
unforgivably allowed the Jews to take over Palistinian land etc. He has alot to answer for
even if he wasn't as War like as the 3 Presidents before him.
YOu re problably right, Jimmy.
But it turns out differently when one gets the point where Trump locked up prospect here is
not him but a whole lot of american people trying to get rid of globalism and the need for
wars
Who might be buried up along with him.
But not a word about the crimes of those who preceded him, which included the ultimate
crime, that of engaging in unjustified warfare?
Your post implies you have a standard of behaviour you are judging Trump by. By definition
it must be universally applied, otherwise all you are seeking is the selective imposition of
your view.
I agree. If Trump deserves lockup, so do Obama, Bush, and the Clintons.
I hate virtually all of Trump's policies. I hate his stupidity in continually hiring
people who hated him. He could have turned to members of the genuine left -- men such as
Stephen Cohen -- for advice.
But that is not the point. Since 2016 those who tried to eliminate Trump did so not for
his real crimes but for made-up. Basically his crime of being president in the first
place.
I n a classic act of projection, woke Dems accuse Trump of not conceding, whereas in
fact they are the ones who never conceded the presidency in 2016. This is so obvious, and yet
it has apparently become invisible to most!!! Memory hole opened up like a crack in the earth
behind each step.
Trump's crime, for which he may actually be locked up, was in truth just winning the
presidency in 2016 and humiliating Hillary (whom everyone hated anyhow). I am becoming quite
terrified of people I have known all my my life and even am related to.
Corrected assessment. His wealth and his 5 children (and their future) are too much of a
liability for him to do the necessary. His policy of appeasement will not work though with
the rabid bolshevik kabal.
I think he and his family will be persecuted and likely prosecuted unless the has the
foresight to move to Russia and save his skin.
The gullibility of Trump is astounding. He did everything to keep the swamp happy, to
keep Israel happy, flipped on Nato and on Russia, had hawks left and right and at the end he
will be discarded like a used condom.
Russia saw it from the get go, at the end he will have the full weight of both parties
against him, and instead of locking her up it will be the other way around. The cowards have
no sense of decency, they will not show any good will like he did.
Trump betrayed his base, failed to organize again and again, put his trust in all the
wrong people and now is done. I'll be surprised if he doesn't face jailtime on some trumped
up charges.
For all his charisma and good intentions he turned out a clueless clown, sad clown at the
end. History will not be kind, and neither will the victors.
True Americans have seen their last train leave the station, it will take time to realize
that there are no more trains. Game over.
I thought this was a good summation by Dr. Roberts. I can't help but think that Donald
Trump is a man with no common sense, lacking the real conviction of his words and just not
very bright or he was to some degree willfully complicit in this now obviously dire state the
U.S. finds itself. Maybe he owed the Rothschild clan a favour.
If anyone thinks there is some good news because this murderous, warring empire is
coming to an end, I suggest you think again. The war machine is still fully intact and
funded. The international bankers who are in complete control are buying up everything and
are planning on a 'reset' dictated by them. To the world! Understandably, there will likely
be a few countries who do not feel inclined to agree with this reset and it's terms. There
will have to be war to correct this thinking, even if a billion or more are killed. The more
the merrier. Less 'useless eaters' to deal with.
Try to see something good in creation every day. Try to do good every day. This world as
it is does not have much time. Someone said that what cannot go on forever won't! At some
point, the One who gives life to all will say it is enough. Some of us just celebrated his
most blessed nativity.
This guy biden is king of promises, and as every year goes by and so many promises are not
met, don't think these people wont show up on D.C.'s doorstep looking for revenge.
Who better to preside over the collapse of the empire? The usual rules will apply: the
feckless Dems – always at their abysmal worst when they assume power – will blame
the "evil Reps" for everything that goes wrong (and there will be plenty – although
none of it will ever be discussed publicly!), and the Reps will be at their sterling
obstructionist best. Talk of impeachment for Biden – who will be nowhere in sight for
most of his term – will linger throughout his term, while Trump will soon be prosecuted
and jailed, his entire administration canceled from the official histories, with Queen
Hillary named "Presidentess in Exile" for 2016-2020 due to alleged Russian interference with
her rightful coronation. The Empire will trumpet from on high for all to hear that this
signals the glorious victory of US Democracy (angelic chorus sounds here) over the forces of
darkness, or some such agitprop; and the skies will clear, the birds will sing, and a rosy
glow will return to the cheeks of all the fair maidens and indeterminant gendered of our
great land. The masks, of course, will remain firmly in place, as the "new normal" slowly
becomes merely business as usual, and the sheeple graze contentedly in their prison stalls,
content in the knowledge that Big Brother is looking out for their health and welfare, at
least until the ritual sacrificial slaughter of the lambs should be deemed necessary. For the
good of all, of course. Should all make for some excellent reality TV.
Well the empire is going to collapse the citizens before it collapses, and even before the
empire collapse comes a global scare of epic proportions to shake and rattle the cage for
those whom are not prepared.
Trump isn't going anywhere. I was at the rally in DC and listened to his
entire speech on the ellipse. He stated that he would not concede. With
this assurance why would the demonstrators have any reason to aggressively
breach the Capitol building? The whole thing was a staged provocation by antifa.
There are videos of how this was staged all over the internet. Let us all
hope and pray that the Scarlet(Whore) color revolution against Trump is finally
eradiated and extirpated now that all the Deep Satanists have been exposed for
their participation in the coup and election fraud.
The question has been asked – what is the US military going to do? Will they just
stay put and watch the theft unfold?
Whilst many commentators were soiling themselves in phantasies of a pro trump military coup
to end the charade, drain the swamp and burn down DC, PCR had a very clear view (expressed
elsewhere): why would the military object to a new leadership if it promises more war, more
blood, more money? It won't, it will welcome it in fact.
Be it as it may, and despite all the stinkin' lies about the election I would think it is
too tall an order for a non-murrican to mourn the self-destruction of the most evil, ghastly,
ruthless hegemon the world has seen in the last 100 years.
I second the sentiment. It's not even that. The media are full of Muricans' moaning about
their fate. It's everywhere – and on top of that, the scumbags are accusing China and
Russia for their "tribulations".
We don't care and we don't want to hear about how hard the life is for Billy Bob who would
die for the very criminals that have condemned him to a life of meth, moonshine and
malingering – while telling him that he is solely responsible for his own miserable
existence.
There is a huge big world elsewhere that is currently booming – thousand flowers are
blooming despite the oppression by the parasitical cancerous sub-empire – and yet, we
obsess over whether Trump is a fraud or not.
I suppose it provides a great platform for ranting :-)
"... The military would support whomever pays their salary and their pensions, i.e. the Establishment. However, as Iraq and Afghanistan has shown, the U.S. military, while possessing remarkable firepower when taken on directly and openly, is quite vulnerable. The U.S. military is essentially mercenaries. Mercenaries work for pay. Mercenaries are not willing to die for a cause. You can't spend money if you're dead. ..."
As a person who grew up in the glorious aftermath of World War II, it never occurred to me
that in my later years I would be pondering whether the United States would end in civil war or
a police state. In the aftermath of the stolen presidential election, it seems a 50-50 toss
up.
There is abundant evidence of a police state. One feature of a police state is controlled
explanations and the suppression of dissent. We certainly have that in abundance.
Experts are not permitted forums in which to challenge the official position on Covid.
Teachers are suspended for giving offense by using gender pronouns.
Recording stars are dropped by their recording studios for attending the Trump rally.
Parents ratted on by their own children are fired from their jobs for attending the Trump
rally. https://www.rt.com/usa/512048-capitol-riot-employees-fired/
Antifa is free to riot, loot, intimidate and hassle, but Trump supporters are
insurrectionists.
White people are racists who use hateful words and concepts, but those who demonize whites
are righting wrongs.
Suppression of dissent and controlling behavior are police state characteristics. It might
be less clear to some why dictating permissible use of language is police state control. Think
about it this way. If your use of pronouns can be controlled, so can your use of all other
words. As concepts involve words, they also can be controlled. In this way inconvenient
thoughts and expressions along with accurate descriptions find their way into the Memory
Hole.
With the First Amendment gone, or restricted to the demonization of targeted persons, such
as "the Trump Deplorables," "white supremacists," "Southern racists," the Second Amendment
can't have much life left. As guns are associated with red states, that is, with Trump
supporters, outlawing guns is a way to criminalize the red half of the American population that
the Establishment considers "deplorable." Those who stand on their Constitutional right will be
imprisoned and become cheap prison labor for America's global corporations.
Could all this lead to a civil war or are Americans too beat down to effectively resist?
That we won't know until it is put to the test.
Are there clear frontlines? Identity Politics has divided the people across the entire
country. The red states are only majority red. It is tempting to see the frontiers as the red
center against the blue Northeast and West coasts, but that is misleading. Georgia is a red
state with a red governor and legislature, but there were enough Democrats in power locally to
steal the presidential and US senate elections.
Another problem for reds is that large cities -- the distribution centers -- such as
Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los
Angeles -- are in blue hands as are ports and international airports. Effectively, this cuts
reds off from outside resources.
What would the US military do? Clearly, the Joint Chiefs and the military/security complex
are establishment and not anti-establishment Trumpers. With the soldiers themselves now a
racial and gender mix, the soldiers would be as divided as the country. Those not with the
Establishment would lack upper level support.
Where are the youth and younger adults? They are in both camps depending on their education.
Many of the whites who went to university have been brainwashed against themselves, and regard
white Americans as "systemic racists" or "white supremacists" and feel guilt. Those who did not
go to university for the most part have experienced to their disadvantage the favoritism given
to people of color and have resentment.
What about weapons? How can the reds lose when guns are a household item and blues would
never dirty themselves by owning one? The answer is that unlike the War of Northern Aggression
in the 1860s, today the weapons in the hands of the military are devastating compared to those
in the hands of the public. Unlike in the past, it is impossible for a citizens' militia to
stand against the weapons and body armor that the military has. So, unless the military splits,
the reds are outgunned. Never believe that the Establishment would not release chemical and
biological agents against red forces. Or for that matter nuclear weapons.
What about communications? We know for an absolute fact that the tech monopolies are aligned
with the Establishment against the people. So much so that President Trump, in the process of
being set-up for prosecution, has been cut off from communicating with his supporters both in
social media and email.
The American Establishment is doing to President Trump exactly what it did to Ukrainian
President Yanukovych in Washington's orchestrated "Maidan Revolution," called "the Revolution
of Dignity" by the liars at Wikipedia, and precisely what it did to Chavez, Maduro, and would
like to do to Putin.
Suppose an American civil war occurs. How is it likely to play out? Before investigating
this, first consider how the Establishment could prevent it by bringing the red states to its
defense. The Trump supporters are the only patriots in the American population. They tend to
wear the flag on their sleeve. In contrast, blue state denizens define patriotism as
acknowledging America's evils and taking retribution on those white racists/imperialists who
committed the evils. In blue states, riots against the "racist system" result in defunding the
police. If the Antifa and Black Lives Matter militias were sicced on the Biden regime, red
state patriots might see "their country" under attack. It is possible that the "Proud Boys"
would come to Biden's defense, not because they believe in Biden but because America is under
attack and he is "our president." Alternatively, an Antifa attack on the Biden regime could be
portrayed as an unpatriotic attack on America and be used to discourage red state opposition to
the police state, just as "Insurrection" has resulted in many Trump supporters declaring their
opposition to violence. In other words, it is entirely possible that the patriotism of the
"Trump Deplorables" would split the red state opposition and lead to defeat.
Assuming that the Establishment is too arrogant and sure of itself or too stupid to think of
this ploy, how would a civil war play out? The Establishment would do everything possible to
discredit the case of the "rebels." The true rebels, of course, would be the Establishment
which has overthrown the Constitutional order, but no media would make that point. Controlling
the media, the Establishment, knowing of the patriotism of its opponents, would portray the
"rebels" as foreign agents seeking to overthrow American Democracy.
The "foreign threat" always captures the patriot's attention. We see it right now with Trump
supporters falling for the disinformation that Switzerland and Italy are behind the stolen
election. Previously, it was Dominion servers in Germany and Serbia that did the deed.
On whose head will the Establishment place the blame for "the War Against America"? There
are three candidates: Iran, China, and Russia. Which will the Establishment choose?
To give Iran credit conveys too much power to a relatively small country over America. To
blame Iran for our civil war would be belittling.
To blame China won't work, because Trump blamed China for economically undermining America
and Trump supporters are generally anti-China. So accusing the red opposition with being China
agents would not work.
The blame will be placed on Russia.
This is the easy one. Russia has been the black hat ever since Churchill's Iron Curtain
speech in 1946. Americans are accustomed to this enemy. The Cold War reigned from the end of
World War II until the Soviet Collapse in 1991. Many, including retired American generals,
maintain that the Soviet collapse was faked to put us off guard for conquest.
When the Establishment decided to frame President Trump, the Establishment chose Russia as
Trump's co-conspirator against American Democracy. Russiagate, orchestrated by the CIA and FBI,
ensured for three years that Trump was accused in the Western media of being in cahoots with
Russia. Despite the lack of any evidence, a large percentage of the American and world
population was convinced that Trump was put into office by Putin somehow manipulating the
vote.
The brainwashing was so successful that three years of Trump sanctions against Russia could
not shake the Western peoples back into factual reality.
With Russia as the historic and orchestrated enemy, whatever happens in the United States
that can be blamed elsewhere will be blamed on Russia. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former US
Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, and former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes
have already associated "Trump's insurrection" with Russia. https://www.rt.com/russia/512071-capitol-violence-consequences-fear/
Suppose that an American civil war becomes intense. Suppose that the Establishment's
propaganda against Russia becomes the reigning belief as propaganda almost always becomes, how
can the Establishment not finish the insurrection threat by attacking the country responsible?
The Establishment would be trapped in its own propaganda. Emotions would run away. Russia would
hear threats that would have to be taken seriously.
You can bet that Biden's neocon government will be egging this on. American exceptionalism.
American hegemony. Russia's fifth column, the Atlanticist Integrationists, who wish absorption
into the degenerate and failing Western World, will echo the charges against Russia. This would
make the situation a serious international incident with Russia as the threatened villain.
What would the Kremlin do? Would Russia's leaders accept yet another humiliation and false
accusation? Or will the anger of the Russian people forever accused and never stood up for by
their own government force the Kremlin into awareness that Russia could be attacked at any
moment.
Even if the Kremlin is reluctant to acknowledge the threat of war, what if another of the
numerous false warnings of incoming ICBMs is received. Unlike the past, is it believed this
time?
The stolen election in America, the emerging American Police State, more vicious and better
armed than any in the past, could result in American chaos that could be a dire threat to the
Russian Federation.
What Trump and his supporters, and perhaps the Kremlin, do not understand is that real
evidence no longer counts . The Establishment makes up the evidence that it needs for its
agendas. Consider how easy it was for the Capitol Police to remove barriers and allow some
Antifa mixed in with Trump supporters into the Capitol. This was all that was required to
create a "Trump led insurrection" that terminated the presentation of evidence of electoral
fraud and turned the massive rally of support for Trump into a liability. Trump now leaves the
presidency as an "insurrectionist" and is set up for continued harassment and prosecution.
As I previously wrote, the stolen election and its acceptance abroad signifies the failure
of Western democracy. The collapse of the Western world and its values will affect the entire
world.
No member of the State wants to be picked off one by one, be it military, cops, leadership
or functionaries.
What has been overlooked in the debate over the combat potential of violent extremists
is the diffusion of something much more rudimentary and potentially more lethal: basic
infantry skills. These include coordinated small-team tactical maneuvers supported by
elementary marksmanship. The diffusion of such tactics seems to be underway, and it may
generate serious concerns for U.S. security policy in the future if ignored.
Imagine if fuel pipe lines to urban areas were hit, railroad tracks hit, water processing
facilities hit; the vision of an easy victory over Red America would quickly come home to the
city dwellers.
Elections in the US are not about picking winners. They are about making voters complicit
in governance by their having voted. The most recent election failed to make the Red voters
"complict" because there was no transparency and everyone believes there was fraud. No
election with mail in voting in the US will every work because everyone will assume
fraud.
In a nation as large as the US with as much concentrated city living, logistics are a
nightmare. The next time the lights go out, you may wonder. When your grocery chain runs out
of meat, you may wonder. When sewers in your city keep breaking, you may wonder. Thus truly
scares me.
today the weapons in the hands of the military are devastating compared to those in the
hands of the public
True enough. However, the weapons and the ammunition don't magically appear; they need to
be manufactured somewhere, and those places (and/or their suppliers) can be destroyed.
I must disagree. There will be no "civil war" in the United States. The establishment
controls the levers of power and all communications and all organized structures. There may
be a bunch of disaffected citizens, but they will remain a disorganized mob. Any apparent
emergent rival for power will be ruthlessly suppressed, deplatformed, villified, or co-opted.
The working class has been effectively divided and will waste its energy fighting itself over
crumbs ('diversity').
Disorganized mobs do not fight civil wars.
No, the fate of the United States will be the sort of chaotic autocracy we see in places
like Mexico and Brazil. Verging on being a failed state, the rich will nonetheless live lives
of great luxury secure in their walled estates. Meanwhile the average person will be crushed
into poverty, criminal gangs will flourish, and there will be a tension between the central
police and local gangs, but gangs are rarely organized enough to truly challenge centralized
states, and life will muddle on. There will be little social cohesion and no real trust of
central authorities, but that only matters if you want a strong and unified society. The rich
will do fine.
On the other hand, the overall national power will decline, and other powers like China
(which for all its flaws has not declared war on the working class, nor does it routinely
excuse or celebrate incompetence in leadership) will rise and take its place both on the
world stage and as the cutting edge of science and culture.
to me the biggest outcome of this faux coup/insurrection is the splintering of the
republican party. with this schism the trump "populists" have been cleanly pared off of the
party and thrown overboard and the remaining party will meekly do the bidding of the neocon
deep state that now totally controls both of these sock puppet parties. we will now see both
parties calling for a unification of our "indispensable nation". more than likely some false
flag will provide the necessary impetus to bury the hatchet and focus us all on our new/old
enemy. the only hope i see is an outside chance that so many republicans have been redpilled
that the party becomes the new whigs and fades into obscurity, leaving room for new parties
to rise from the ash. the dems are ripe for a schism themselves with aoc champing at the bit
to kick the boomers to the curb and the bernie bros finally realizing that three card monty
is a rigged game. i would love to see the destruction of both of these hopelessly corrupt
parties but the deep state cthulhu has its tentacles thoroughly wrapped around our poor
planet and anything emerging out of this toxic mess would most likely be even worse. the
situation reminds me of voltaire's candide and his sage advice to cultivate your garden.
I'd advise the young to develop a "plan B". Pick another country you find bearable amd
study it. Find out what jobs are in demand there. Develop those skills in your spare time
(computers, electricians, mechanics, etc.). Practice their language an hour or two per week
with online resources/dvd's/books. Research their immigration laws and perhaps contact their
embassy.
If it gets really awful for whites here, you may be able to take your family some place
more hospitable. Hopefully none of this will be neccessary and the rhetoric will tone down.
Trump personally really got under the left's skin. Don't umderestimate Hillary's supporters
influence here. They were ticked off. The Obama's too. Perhaps they will calm down a notch
now. Have a plan B though young whites.
Another insightful article by PCR. However, I must somewhat disagree on some points.
What would the US military do?
The military would support whomever pays their salary and their pensions, i.e. the
Establishment. However, as Iraq and Afghanistan has shown, the U.S. military, while
possessing remarkable firepower when taken on directly and openly, is quite vulnerable. The
U.S. military is essentially mercenaries. Mercenaries work for pay. Mercenaries are not
willing to die for a cause. You can't spend money if you're dead.
Think of the Troubles in Ireland.
The Establishment absolutely can deliver a punch to an identifiable opponent, but it can't
take a punch. Low level violence directed at officers and politicians would bring them to
their knees.
Controlling the media, the Establishment, knowing of the patriotism of its opponents,
would portray the "rebels" as foreign agents seeking to overthrow American Democracy.
I agree that they will try. However, I suspect that PCR is underestimating how little
faith many whites have in the media.
The Establishment will never be more powerful than it is today. They have inherited
institutions, the people to man those institutions and a generally functioning economy.
Basically, they stole the keys to car that they didn't create. But the Establishment run
those institutions and economy into ground. They will slowly start to show cracks.
Whites need to stay low, start forming small groups and begin preparing for the openings
that will come.
The racial right has been fantasizing about a civil war since forever, but I can't see it.
Too many people have too much to lose, there's no real desire for blood, and the people are
anyway too soft to initiate or withstand the violence real war would unleash upon them.
Further, and in stark contrast to the SJWs and antifa, the few racially conscious whites who
fantasize about this are mostly too old to make good soldiers. Also, just like the "God
emperor" himself, Trumpers are some of the stupidest people on the face of the earth, largely
down with their own enslavement, nauseatingly fond of "law and order", sporting "Blue Lives
Matter" badges, etc. Despite being preyed upon by blacks and browns for decades now, they
still refuse to become racist. Most of them are Bible thumpers who really believe that race
is just skin color, that all are equal before their imaginary friend called God, and that
Israel is America's greatest ally. Then too, vast numbers of whites work for the government
or its many offshoots such as education, law enforcement, the military, and the defense
industry. Civil war would mean they'd be revolting against themselves.
Will America become a police state? In case you haven't noticed, Americans already
live in a police state, and have for decades. PCR should know this as well as anyone, as he
was part of it during the Reagan years. America is an open-air prison Americans built
themselves, and they rat each other out and betray each other to keep themselves
ideologically in line. When someone white is doxxed and fired for having bad thoughts, who do
you think does the enforcing? For the most part, it's other white people. Fake president and
China asset Biden is just the new warden.
As a person who grew up in the glorious aftermath of World War II, it never occurred to
me that in my later years I would be pondering whether the United States would end in civil
war or a police state. In the aftermath of the stolen presidential election, it seems a
50-50 toss up.
In a very meaningful sense we already have a "police state." Why do we have a police
state? Because our masters realize that they can't run the whole world from anything
resembling a constitutional republic (as the Founders and Framers envisioned it). It's the
agenda for complete world domination and control that's driving the domestic oppression. As
they continue to squander everything of value on the agenda and take more risks, etc., while
the corruption and rot continue to take a toll and the country crumbles, the boot will need
to come down ever harder on the neck.
And please stop kidding yourself about Trump. It wasn't for the benefit of Joe and Jill
Sixpack that he seized Syrian oilfields, tried to start a war with Iran, tried to overthrow
the Maduro government in Venezuela, tried to stop Nord Stream 2, started a trade war with
China, pulled out of all the nuclear treaties, etc. Trump wasn't just fully onboard with the
agenda, he pursued it enthusiastically.
If Trump's nuclear brinkmanship and aggressive foreign policies aren't promptly reversed,
the U.S. may end as a pile of nuclear ash. Comments coming out of Moscow recently seem to
suggest that Russia is finally losing its patience with interminable U.S. hostility and may
soon start responding more forcefully to U.S./NATO provocations (and Biden's tough talk on
Russia isn't helping matters any).
Neither Russia, China nor Iran are going to surrender to the USraeli empire and start
taking orders, so either the U.S. "government" must back off and accept a multipolar world or
WW3 is still on the table, even by accident.
From Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War.
The Civil War in Corcyra
"So savage was the progress of this revolution, and it seemed all the more so because it
was one of the first which had broken out. Later, of course, practically the whole of the
Hellenic world was convulsed, with rival parties in every state – democratic leaders
trying to bring in the Athenians, and oligarchs trying to bring in the Spartans. In peacetime
there would have been no excuse and no desire for calling them in, but in time of war, when
each party could always count upon an alliance which would do harm to its opponents and at
the same time strengthen its own position, it became a natural thing for anyone who wanted a
change of government to call in help from outside.
So revolutions broke out in city after city, and in places where the revolutions occurred
late the knowledge of what had happened previously in other places caused still new
extravagances of revolutionary zeal, expressed by an elaboration in the methods of seizing
power and by unheard-of atrocities in revenge. To fit in with the change of events, words,
too, had to change their usual meanings . What used to be described as a thoughtless act
of aggression was now regarded as the courage one would expect to find in a party member; to
think of the future and wait was merely another way of saying one was a coward; any idea
of moderation was just an attempt to disguise one's unmanly character ; ability to
understand a question from all sides meant that one was totally unfitted for action.
Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of a real man, and to plot against an enemy behind his back
was perfectly legitimate self-defence. Anyone who held violent opinions could always be
trusted, and anyone who objected to them became a suspect. To plot successfully was a sign of
intelligence, but it was still cleverer to see that a plot was hatching. If one attempted to
provide against having to do either, one was disrupting the unity of the party and acting out
of fear of the opposition. In short, it was equally praiseworthy to get one's blow in first
against someone who was going to do wrong, and to denounce someone who had no intention of
doing any wrong at all. Family relations were a weaker tie than party membership ,
since party members were more ready to go to any extreme for any reason whatever. These
parties were not formed to enjoy the benefits of the established laws, but to acquire power
by overthrowing the existing regime ; and the members of these parties felt confidence in
each other not because of any fellowship in a religious communion, but because they were
partners in crime. If an opponent made a reasonable speech, the party in power, so far from
giving it a generous reception, took every precaution to see that it had no practical
effect.
As the result of these revolutions, there was a general deterioration of character
throughout the Greek world . The simple way of looking at things, which is so much the
mark of a noble nature, was regarded as a ridiculous quality and soon ceased to exist.
Society had become divided into two ideologically hostile camps , and each side viewed
the other with suspicion. As for ending this state of affairs, no guarantee could be given
that would be trusted, no oath sworn that people would fear to break; everyone had come to
the conclusion that it was hopeless to expect a permanent settlement and so, instead
of being able to feel confident in others, they devoted their energies to providing against
being injured themselves."
Whether civil war as we may imagine it, or something equally unappealing to our every day
lives, something bad is about to happen.
I'm curious though, regarding what I do believe was unprecedented election fraud. How is
it possible, after watching the Georgia State Farm arena video, that the President of the
United States, with all the power that office should hold, could not force the woman
identified in that video, one Ruby Freeman, to answer questions about what we saw? Ruby
Freeman was never questioned as far as I can find. How is this possible? Nothing makes sense.
Before we begin killing one another, can we do two things; 1. Interrogate Ruby Freeman and 2.
Interrogate the killer of Ashli Babbit?
Little bit feverish article. And I do have to say no.
Civil war can happen only after hyperinflation accompanied with lawlessness.
And that will happen only if US looses its international position.
Everything depend now on Germany.
If Germany joins China Russia camp than US as a world leader will not mean anything
anymore.
China now is courting Europe intensively. Particularly is courting Germany.
Nothing is set yet.
So everybody can relax.
.
Biden is out of his mind. In his speech he said that he wants to increase minimum wage and
reestablish unions. That could be a little help also.
People living in the core areas of Ziocorporate globalism, like the US/EU, remain mostly
oblivious about the nature of their ruling regime than those living in the direct periphery
of globalist power. Take Colombia for an example, like Mexico's, all its presidents are
subservient to US Ziocorporate power. Last one, a Nobel peace prize winner under whose
pre-presidential stint as "Defense" minister oversaw the US-serving Colombian military's
systematic massacre of tens of thousands of lower class Colombian youths who were then
disguised as guerrillas to cash in rewards paid US Plan Colombia dollars, proceeded, now as
president, to negotiate the disarmament of the actual guerrillas under the Obama/Biden
regime's orders. Massmurder and massacres maintained an average level.
Then, in 2018, right after the Trumpet, a shamelessly pro-US regime, even for Colombian
standards, took over and massacres and massmurder picked right up again, to an average of 2
or 3 per week, with exploding cocaine production even for Colombia standards as well, and
extreme political polarisation, and all the while the Ziocorporate mother ship in Washington,
with its Qtard and MAGA bullshit, looked the other way except to accuse Venezuela of being
undemocratic and of human rights violations.
If Americans weren't so stupid and daydreaming like fucktards that they live in "muh
democracy/republic" instead of the Ziocorporate conglomerate regime that rules over them,
they could take a clue or two from their own regime's foreign policy, not only did Trumpet do
things like transferring $400 billion in weapons to ISIS/al-Qaeda royal Salafi patrons in
Ziodi Wahhabia, he doubled-down on the Obama/Biden policy of Venezuela "is a national
security threat to muh democracy and freedom"; to start pondering about the kind of
manipulation and radicalisation Ziocorporate agents Trump/Republicans and Biden/Democrats
have in store for them. Cointelpro certainly mutates far faster than Covid-1984.
What do Qtarts and the like need to realise this simple, evident facts? That the Trumpet
himself comes on national TV telling you all "I and the Democrats have been playing divide
and conquer with you dumbfucks for 4 years"?
The American Establishment is doing to President Trump exactly what it did to Ukrainian
President Yanukovych in Washington's orchestrated "Maidan Revolution," called "the
Revolution of Dignity" by the liars at Wikipedia, and precisely what it did to Chavez,
Maduro, and would like to do to Putin.
What Trump and his supporters, and perhaps the Kremlin, do not understand is that
real evidence no longer counts . The Establishment makes up the evidence that it
needs for its agendas.
Their playbook "Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals" by Saul D.
Alinsky, makes it clear that it's necessary to play dirty. This covers all aspects of their
Regime Change projects and the current US project surely isn't any different.
It's a cocktail of lies, fabrications, subversion, threats, blackmail, false friendships
– in fact any means to advance themselves.
For example: From Alinsky – "Means and Ends" His take on morality:
Rule 10) You do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments.
Rule 11) Goals must be phrased in general terms like "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", "Of
the Common Welfare, "Pursuit of Happiness" or "Bread and Peace".
So yes, this is why the most unpatriotic Patriot Act is called the Patriot Act and they
operate from patriotic sounding places like the American Enterprise Institute.
If traditional America is going to get anywhere in the upcoming conflict they have to get
used to playing by the same rules – difficult for them – but they have to do it.
It's inevitably going to be a dirty war.
Point of order- Russia is not the historic enemy, but the orchestrated one, rather it was
the Soviet Union which is the historic enemy, as the sponsors of the destruction of Russia
are behind the destruction of America.
We are already in a police state and you can kiss goodbye to the 1st and 2nd amendment
soon as free speech becomes hate speech just like they did in Europe.
So this site and many others in the alt news universe will soon be gone.
There's not going to be a civil war as the current generation of young people are too weak
and distracted and have been brainwashed into hating themselves.
There's a big elephant in the room and wild card that's been missed too and that's the new
covid vaccines who's long term effects on health are unknown.
Vaccines need to be studied for about 10 years before their safety can be guaranteed.
If tens / hundreds of millions are willing to be injected with a new untested genetic
engineered substance that could make them disabled or kill them in 5 years to save them
against something with a 99% survival rate what does that tell you about the mental state of
the Population?
The US as you once knew it is finished it's just that many are still in denial or haven't
realized it yet.
I see no civil war in the USA. I see no organisation amongst the people in order to carry
it out. They have no leader, they have no Hannibal, Boadicea or Adolf to rally them together
for a major insurrection against The Beast Empire. Unless of course something is brewing
secretly.
A French style form of resistance, as previously mentioned in these comments, also takes a
lot of planning and organisational skills, and I see no inkling of that taking place amongst
American patriots.
I also believe many do not realise how serious the matter is, they still, being bogged
down in irrelevant party politics.
If however a large swathe of the police and US Military including officers were to desert
their corrupt masters, things would look very different and a civil war could happen.
The civil was has been on since Crossfire Hurricane, the usurpers of the constitution
simply kept it cold because they thought they could enforce their tyranny silently.
And if Trump surrenders then they would have been proven right, at least for the
leadership fight.
Biden will likely launch a war because he already has his bay of pigs with his graft, and
will need a moonshot for the misdirection.
I don't think they can fight half the nation (and the military will split), and Russia at
the same time, so the only question is on whom the war will be launched. I still think the
odds are higher that it will be a civil war, but the Russia option looms strong for sure.
The US military is the most "woke" diverse incompetent organization in America.
Remember- contractors do all the heavy lifting "in theater"- from cooking to plumbing to
firefighting to IT to combat.
This knowledge is hidden from view- kept on the down low.I only know because my brother
has worked in Iraq and Afghanistan for KBR for the past 15 years. I have seen him accumulate
well over Half a million in cash. What does he do? He makes sure the troops have water and
food. He is in logistics. For the past decade I have heard hundreds if not thousands of
stories of the jaw dropping incompetence, insouciance and laziness of the American
military.
Rank-and-file Americans, indeed no one, talks about this very real infrastructure that
props up every dumb, overweight enlisted. About 4 contractors to every enlisted.
Most of the contractors in theater are from Eastern Europe and sub Sahara Africa. If they
were given orders to release biological or chemical weapons on the American populace, as long
as the huge checks were hitting their account they would do it in a heartbeat
More than the military- fear the shadow military that knows the systems, does the work ..
And will do whatever it is asked as long as they are paid.
Their mother doesn't live here.
Everywhere we turn, diversity and hiring people from the "other" never works out.
*** Side note: My brother revealed that when blacks came back from their R&R after the
George Floyd insanity, most of them became more aggressive and entitled. Unable to do their
work because they could not stop going to report others for incidence of racism.
This includes the American black contractors and enlisted.
These are dumb young black men and women who are making $92,000 a year to move pallets
around. If they were asked to stop calling in sick every day, they would run to report their
supervisor for-
Racism.
Many whites have lost their lucrative positions or been subject to discipline for having
the audacity to ask blacks to come to work.
Investigators at the Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said the "backdoor" used to
compromise up to 18,000 customers of the US software maker SolarWinds closely
resembled malware tied to a hacking group known as Turla, which Estonian
authorities have said operates on behalf of Russia's FSB security service.
So, the backdoor "resembles" a tool that is only "tied to" a hacking group which "Estonian
authorities" "have said" (i.e. claim without evidence) serves the FSB.
This is not the first time The Guardian uses absurd extrapolations to create a big fat
lie. Last week, it put a criminal headline - with potentially grave consequences on public
opinion and geopolitics - stating China had refused to receive a WHO team to investigate the
origins of the SARS-CoV-2. China defused the fake news by releasing on its own MSM that they
were still making the arrangements of the visit - which will happen this Thursday -, not that
it had blocked the WHO.
What did The Guardian want to achieved with that headline? Prepare the British people for
war against China? Are they insane?
Mentioning Estonia at any time would indicate pure unmitigated BS. But mentioning BOTH
Estonia and the Grauniad in the one post is just painfully obvious that the entire story is
bollocks.
Fyodor Lukyanov, the
editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs, chairman of the Presidium of the Council on
Foreign and Defense Policy, and research director of the Valdai International Discussion
Club How could something like this happen in Washington? It was assumed that, despite all
its social and political problems that have worsened in recent years, America was different and
far more robust than we are now seeing. A habit of being special
The rule of thumb was, 'there is America and there are others'. With the others,
shortcomings are natural and to be expected, even if many of them are well-established
democracies. But America is a different story, because by default, the US is a role model that
was supposed to remain the democratic icon forever.
Exceptionalism is foundational for America's political culture. This type of
self-identification was the cornerstone on which the nation and society were built a couple of
hundred years ago. That's how Americans are raised. And you will run into this phenomenon
everywhere.
When asking his supporters gathered by the Capitol building to go home, President Donald
Trump said, "You are special." People from the more liberal political camp have even
deeper convictions about the US being exceptional and therefore under an obligation to bring
light into the world, as they see it.
That's why everybody is shocked – how could this have happened? The reaction was
followed by a wave of explanations as to why the clashes near and inside the Capitol building
only looked like similar events in other countries, but in reality, they were something
entirely different. Here is a comment from the CNN website, "Sure there are superficial
similarities... but what's happening in America is uniquely American. It is that country's
monster."
Such restlessness is understandable. If we look at exceptionalism in the context of the
world order that we've had in recent decades, we see that after the end of the Cold War, the US
has held the unique position of the sole global hegemon. No other power in world history has
ever reached this level of dominance.
Besides massive military and economic resources, America's exceptionalism has also been
relying on the idea that this nation sets the tone for the global worldview. This authorized
America to certify systems of government in other countries and exert influence in situations
that it believed required certain adjustments. As we all know, this influence took different
forms, including direct military intervention.
We are not going to list the pros and cons of such a world order in this article. What's
important is that one of the key aspects of this order is the belief in the infallibility of
the global leader. That's why American commentators and experts are so worried about the
Capitol Building events and Trump's presidency in general hurting the international status of
the US.
Boomerang effect
Generally speaking, post-election turmoil is not a rare occurrence. After all, the US itself
has encouraged the new political tradition that has emerged in the 21st century. In recent
times, in certain places, election campaigns haven't ended after the votes were counted and the
winner is announced. Instead, Washington often encouraged the losing side to at least try to
challenge the results by taking to the streets. Indeed, resistance was part of the US
Declaration of Independence after all.
Western capitals consistently emphasized the legitimacy of such actions in situations when
people believed that their votes had been 'stolen'. Washington was usually the lead voice in
these declarations. Granted, this mostly applied to immature democracies with unstable
institutions, but where are all those unshakable, solid democratic countries today? The world
is experiencing so much instability that nobody is exempt from major shocks and
crises.
Information overload
There is another reason why traditional institutions are losing their footing. They were
effective in a solidified informational environment. The sources of information were either
controlled or perceived as trustworthy by the majority.
Today there are problems with both. Technological advances boost transparency, but they also
create multiple realities and countless opportunities for manipulation. Institutions must be
above reproach if they are to survive in the new conditions. It would be wrong to say that they
are all crumbling. They are, however, experiencing tremendous pressure, and we can't expect
them to be perfect.
Looking for a scapegoat
The US is not better or worse at facing the new challenges. Or, rather, it is better in some
areas and worse in others. This would all be very normal if America's exceptionalism didn't
always need affirmation.
Situations in which the US appears to be just like any other country, albeit with some
unique characteristics, are a shock to the system. In order to stay special, America looks
where to place the blame. Ideally, the guilty party should be someone acting in the interests
of an outside power, someone un-American.
This mechanism is not unknown to Russians from the experience in our country – for a
long time now, Russian elites have been keen to blame outsiders for their own failures. But
America's motivation today is even stronger; there is more passion, because simply covering up
the failures is no longer enough – America wants to prove that it is still perfect.
Russia says American system 'archaic' & not up to 'modern democratic standards' after
rioters raid Washington's Capitol building
Democrats are taking back the American political landscape. For the next two years (until
the 2022 mid-term elections), they will have all the power – in the White House and
Congress. Trump's supporters have seriously scared the ruling class, and the Capitol building
debacle during the last days of his presidency has created a perfect pretext for cleaning
house. Big Tech companies are at their disposal (so far).
Internal targets
Target number one is Trump himself. They want to make an example out of him, so that others
wouldn't dare challenge the sanctity of the political establishment. But Trump will not be
enough, something must be done about his numerous supporters. The awkward finale of his
presidency opens the door for labeling his fans as enemies of the republic and democracy.
The Democrats will do everything within their power to demoralize their earnest opponents.
This won't be hard, since the Republican Party itself is a hot mess right now. Trump has
alienated almost all his supporters from the party leadership, but he is still popular among
regular voters.
Demonstrative restoration of order and democratic fundamentals will also be used to reclaim
the role model status. The reasoning is clear – we successfully neutralized the terrible
external and internal threats to our democracy, so now we have regained the right to show the
world how one should deal with the enemies of said democracy. The 'summit of democracies' idea
proposed by Joseph Biden is starting to look like an emergency meeting for closing the ranks in
a fight against enemies of progress.
Foreign targets
And this brings us back to the foreign policy issue, because it's not difficult to predict
who will be enemy number one. Putin as an almighty puppeteer of all undemocratic forces in the
world (including Trump) has been part of the rhetoric for a few years now. Hillary Clinton said
it when giving a campaign speech in Nevada in August 2016, and Nancy Pelosi echoed the
sentiment after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Building. Of course, China is a close
second on the enemy list created by the Democratic leadership, but there are some economic
restraints there.
America's inevitable strife to reclaim its exceptionalism will clash with the current
tendencies in global development. All aspects of international affairs, from economy to
security, to ideology and ethics, are diversifying. Attempts to divide the world along the old
democracy vs. autocracy lines, i.e. go back to the agenda prevalent at the end of the 20th to
the beginning of the 21st century, are doomed, because this is not the way the world is
structured now.
But attempts will be made nevertheless, and we can't rule out some aggressive 'democracy
promotion'. Even if it's just to prove that the embarrassing Trump episode was nothing more
than an unfortunate accident. This, by the way, could become a short-term unifying factor for
the diverse members of the Democratic Party, some of whom represent the old generation, while
others are energetic young proponents of left-wing politics.
We can conclude that the world will not really benefit from the new presidency, even if
respected foreign policy professionals return to the White House now that Trump is leaving. It
might stabilize America's frenzy in international affairs that we are all used to by now, but a
new wave of ideology will neutralize the potential advantage (if it even existed, which is
debatable).
America's resolve to prove to the world that it's not like others will encounter the
large-scale 'material resistance', which will make a dangerous situation even worse. At least
with Trump we knew that he didn't like wars, and he didn't start any new ones. Biden's credit
history is very different.
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the
author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
Nuland will be nominated for the position of under secretary of state for political affairs,
the US media said on Tuesday with Politico being the first to
drop the scoop. It's the highest-ranking post in the department after the secretary and deputy
secretary. During the Obama administration, Nuland served as assistant secretary of state for
European and Eurasian Affairs, and was a key official in formulating and implementing his
Russia policies. She also served as US envoy to the UN under George W. Bush and advised Vice
President Dick Cheney on foreign policy.
The news that the vocal Russia hawk was returning to the White House was understandably met
with loud cheering by the fans of Pax American on both sides of the Atlantic. Critics were
dismayed and somewhat horrified, considering her record.
Arguably the most publicly known episode of Nuland's Obama tenure came in 2014, when a tape
of her conversation with then-ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt was leaked. It happened
shortly after Ukraine's democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted in a wave
of street protests culminating in an armed coup, which happened with much encouragement from
Washington.
Nuland and Pyatt were discussing who among the coup leaders should be in the upcoming
Ukrainian government, which indicated that Washington played a much bigger role in the crisis
than it publicly admitted. The infamous " F**k the EU" remark came as Nuland expressed
frustration with European nations, who were reluctant to lend legitimacy to the benefactors of
the events, and said UN officials could be called in to help "glue this thing"
instead.
The EU's skepticism at the time could have been due to the fact that President Yanukovich
was expelled under a threat of violence just hours after Germany and Poland helped seal a power
sharing
agreement between him and the opposition leaders, serving as guarantors of the deal. Her
return as a senior diplomatic official is likely to get on a few people's nerves in Europe,
which is ironic considering how the Biden administration is supposed to rebuild alliances
damaged by the Trump presidency.
While flying private in the world of academia and think tanks during the Trump years, Nuland
maintained her confrontational attitude to anyone challenging US dominance. Her recipe for
dealing with Russia, as outlined
in Foreign Policy magazine last summer, is more sophisticated weapons, permanent NATO bases on
the Russian border (which will require abolishing a key Russia-NATO agreement) and deniable
cyber operations against Moscow.
Nuland also played a
peculiar part in US domestic affairs, possibly having a hand in the promotion of the
notorious Steele dossier. The collection of opposition research and rumors was used by the FBI
to justify surveillance of the Trump campaign and fueled the endless flood of claims that the
incumbent president was somehow a Russian stooge.
An FBI memo released last
year revealed that Fusion GPS head Glenn Simpson "and others were talking to Victoria Nuland
at the US State Department" about the file. The firm looked into Donald Trump for the
Hillary Clinton campaign and retained retired British intelligence agent Christopher Steele for
the job.
In multiple interviews, Nuland insisted that her role with the dossier was very limited
because it dealt with domestic politics. "[Steele] passed two to four pages of short points
of what he was finding, and our immediate reaction to that was, 'This is not in our
purview,'" she
told CBS News in 2018, adding that she advised him to go to the FBI. Some skeptics believe
her role in launching the Steele dossier may have been much more significant.
Nuland is one of many Obama-era officials tapped by Biden to serve again with him at the
helm. In addition to her, the latest reported batch includes Wendy Sherman, the former under
secretary of state for political affairs, Jon Finer, who had various roles under Obama, and
Amanda Sloat, ex-deputy assistant secretary for Southern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean
affairs.
Trump obviously wants better diplomatic relations with Russia. He is reluctant to
counter its military might. He is doing his best to make it richer. Just consider the
headlines below. With all those good things Trump did for Putin, intense suspicions of
Russian influence over him is surely justified.
There followed 34 headlines and links to stories about Trump actions, from closing Russian
consulates to U.S. attacks on Russian troops, that were hostile to Russia.
In fact no other U.S. administration since the cold war has been more aggressive towards
Russia than Trump's.
But some U.S. media continue to claim that Trump's behavior towards Russia has not been
hostile at all. Consider this line
in Politico about anti-Russian hawks in the incoming Biden administration:
Nuland and Sherman, who entered academia and the think tank world after leaving the Obama
administration, have been outspoken critics of President Donald Trump's foreign policy --
particularly his appeasement of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Where please has Trump 'appeased' Vladimir Putin?
Here are a number of headlines which appeared in U.S. media since we published our first
list two years ago. Which of the described actions were designed to 'appease' Putin or
Russia?
When one adds up all those actions one can only find that Trump cares more about Russia,
than about the U.S. and its NATO allies. Only with Trump being under Putin's influence,
knowingly or unwittingly, could he end up doing Russia so many favors.
Why, you certainly could view most (if not all) of those actions as favors.
People feel attacked, unite, rally around the flag. Internal problems are blamed on the
external enemy. The sanctions, the sort the West likes to impose, help develop domestic
industries. Etc. Yeah, favors.
Point on! Trump was never 'the Russians' bitch'. He was the whore of the Russian
émigré mafia that had relocated to the US in south Queens in New York City. A
major difference!
Well, the logic is to destroy or ad least severely weaken Russia. Yet damn Russia is
getting stronger and stronger, hence what ever happened under Trump's watch must have been a
favor to Russia.
Competent government would look itself in the mirror and admit it is their own fault and
stupidity, but that ship sailed long time ago for US.
Point on! Trump was never 'the Russians' bitch'. He was the whore of the Russian
émigrés mafia that had relocated to the US in south Queens in New York City. A
major difference!
Of course the whole point of US and Western MSM obsession with demonising Russia and
China, and castigating those like Trump (for not going far enough to oppose either one or the
other nation, or both), is to divert public attention away from govt failings at home and to
push the public into supporting regime change against both Russia and China.
B's post should be read as a companion piece to his previous post on China as an
existential threat to the US, as an example of a nation that achieved stability, peace and
enough prosperity for most of its people by pursuing an alternate political and economic
ideology in the space of 40 years. An ideology that moreover challenges the ideology that the
West has followed for the past 500 years, and the assumptions on which that ideology is
based. Despite Western attempts to destabilise, break up and impoverish Russia in the 1990s,
in order to steal its energy and mineral resources, that nation managed to bounce back to
some level of stability and economic security. In addition Russia and China signed a
friendship treaty in 2001 and are committing to a closer political ans economic
relationship.
All this serves to marginalise the Anglosphere nations and to deny the US, the UK and
their elites the opportunity to plunder these nations and their allies for their natural
resources.
Point on! Trump was never 'the Russians' bitch'. He was the whore of the russian
emigrée mafia that had relocatet to the US in south Quens in New York City. A maijor
difference!
Exactly that, thank you. The mafia that manages the D party are of Mediterranean roots and
are totally pi$$ed of with the Russians.
Enough of this polite avoidance of the reality of the USAi gangland - it is a mafia state.
The D 'reformist' squad just blew their best chance to start the reformation. They will be
neutered well before another chance arises.
AFAICT Russiagate's neo-McCarthyism and Trump's supposed friendliness toward Putin was a
set up prior to Trump negotiations with Putin at Helsinki.
"I'm your only friend ... and your last best hope ..." is a powerful pitch -
especially when it is accompanied by generous offers of aid and support. And perhaps it
would've worked if it had come years before.
So now we have a new Cold War - with both Russia and China.
Ex-AG Barr Reportedly Met With Jeffrey Epstein's Last Cellmate Attorney General William Barr speaks at the
National Religious Broadcasters Convention Feb. 26, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark
Humphrey)
By Charlie McCarthy | Tuesday, 05 January 2021 07:06 PM
Former Attorney General William Barr investigated the suicide of Jeffrey Epstein, reportedly
even meeting with the multimillionaire sex offender's last cellmate.
Epstein was found hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower
Manhattan early on Aug. 10, 2019. Efrain "Stone" Reyes had shared the cell with Epstein until
being transferred a day before the suicide.
Epstein's death rattled the highest levels of the Justice Department, according
to the New York Daily News on Monday.
Following Epstein's death, Reyes was pulled from a privately run jail in Queens to meet
frequently with authorities, once with the attorney general himself.
"Barr wanted to know about what was going on in [the Metropolitan Correctional Center]," a
source told the Daily News. "Barr told him, 'I owe you a favor, thank you for telling us the
truth.'
"He said [Barr] was a good guy. Barr was nice about it. He just wanted to know if [inmates]
were being mistreated. What [Reyes] believed happened. Just basically that. He told them
everything. He cooperated with Barr."
The Daily News source said he befriended Reyes when both were being held at the Queens jail,
per the Daily Mail .
A Justice Department spokesman declined comment to the Daily News.
The New York Times reported previously that a "livid" Barr was personally overseeing four
inquiries into Epstein's suicide.
Reyes caught coronavirus at the Queens Detention Facility earlier this year, was released in
April and died last month. He was 51.
The source said he and Reyes watched a documentary about Epstein, who associated with some
of the world's most powerful men while allegedly running an international child sex trafficking
scheme.
"[Reyes] was like, 'I just didn't see that from him. I didn't see that side of him. I never
pictured him being with young girls. Some guys like that are creepy,'" the source recalled. "He
said he never really got that side of Epstein -- like he was someone who took advantage of
girls. But we all have our secrets, you know? You never know."
US intelligence and
security agencies declared that the SolarWinds hack was 'likely Russian in origin,' echoing
evidence-free mainstream media claims as well as their own language in the 'assessments' about
the 2016 election.
In a joint
statement on Tuesday, the FBI, NSA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)
and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said that their investigative
work "indicates that an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor, likely Russian in
origin" was behind the compromise of SolarWinds Orion software, first revealed three weeks
ago.
"At this time, we believe this was, and continues to be, an intelligence gathering
effort. We are taking all necessary steps to understand the full scope of this campaign and
respond accordingly," the statement added.
What does "likely of Russian origin" even mean? Don't expect the mainstream media
outlets to ask – they've all been accusing Moscow for weeks, using unverifiable
assertions by anonymous sources instead of any actual evidence.
Several things in the statement jump out. One, that CISA was put in charge of "asset
response" and mitigation. This is the same agency that on November 13 hosted a statement
– attributed to it by the media, but in reality coming from two advisory committees
– declaring the 2020 US election "the most secure in American history," hastening
to add that "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed
votes, or was in any way compromised."
That was a remarkable rush to judgment, given the subsequent claims to the contrary that
seem far more credible than any assessments of "likely" Russian hacking.
Americans can surely sleep easy knowing the FBI is the "lead agency for threat
response," which is presently still collecting evidence, and analyzing it "to determine
further attribution."
This is the agency once run by James Comey and Andrew McCabe, who discussed an "insurance
policy" in case Donald Trump gets elected with senior staff like Peter Strzok and Lisa Page
and framed General Michael
Flynn over a perfectly legal and legitimate conversation with a Russian ambassador.
This is the same FBI that hastened to send 15 agents to investigate a
garage rope pulley in Talladega, but sat on Hunter Biden's laptop
for a year and did nothing with tips about the suspected Nashville RV bomber.
Again, the mainstream media will not point any of this out, but will parse the
"likely" as "definitely" and claim the statement somehow proves their claim
Russia was behind the SolarWinds breach. Just watch.
That's precisely what happened with the infamous "Intelligence Community Assessment"
published in January 2017. A handpicked group of FBI, CIA, ODNI and NSA staff was first
conflated with "all 17 US intelligence agencies" and then their "assessment"
treated as established fact. Only in November 2018, after the midterm elections, did the source
material the ICA was based on see the light of day.
It was quickly forgotten, however, as it made clear that the assessment was based on wishful
thinking about what the US spies believed was "consistent with the methods and motivations
of Russian-directed efforts." Couldn't have this frank admission interfere with the fantasy
political interests in Washington needed to believe, after all.
Note also that no one involved in the exercise in dissembling that was Russiagate ever faced
any consequences. Only one person – a FBI lawyer named Kevin Clinesmith – has been
prosecuted for altering evidence in the Flynn case, and he got a slap on the wrist .
Meanwhile DNI James Clapper and CIA chief John Brennan got cable news sinecures, while FBI
director Comey landed lucrative book and TV deals.
McCabe, Strzok and Page went on to become media darlings and heroes of the #Resistance.
With all that in mind, it's curious that the "likely" and "believe" are doing
a lot of heavy lifting in that joining statement about the SolarWinds hack. Why should US spies
couch their claims in bureaucratic language, designed to shield the author from consequences of
being wrong, when impunity is the order of the day in Washington? Policy is based on
assessments anyway, and it's pretty obvious at this point that evidence – or lack thereof
– is an irrelevant detail to the US establishment.
But again, that's a question one shouldn't expect the mainstream media to ask.
Forget what Vice President Pence has suggested he might do this week regarding counting
the votes for president and forget President Trump's ominous military buildup near Iran, the
Sunday New York Times two-column, above-the-fold lede tells us what we should really
be worried about: "Scope of Russian Hacking Far Exceeds Initial Fears." The on-line title was
" As
Understanding of Russian Hacking Grows, So Does Alarm ."
Forget, too, that this latest NYT indictment of Russia, does not substantially
advance the story beyond the information available two weeks ago, when
"neither the actor, nor the motive, nor the damage done [was] known for certain in this
latest scare story." Although no evidence is adduced to show that Russia is behind this
latest flurry of hacking – Russia no doubt sits toward the top of a long list of
suspects. The Times ominously quotes Suzanne Spaulding, a senior cyber official during
the Obama administration, saying Russia is the foregone conclusion:
"We still don't know what Russia's strategic objectives were," she said "But we
should be concerned that part of this may go beyond reconnaissance. Their goal may be to
put themselves in a position to have leverage over the new administration, like holding a
gun to our head to deter us from acting to counter Putin."
The Sanger Sewing Machine
NYT Chief Washington Correspondent David Sanger is listed first on the byline for Sunday's
story together with Nicole Perlroth and Julian Barnes. That should give us a clue, given
Sanger's record for sewing things out of whole cloth. In a word, Sanger enjoys an unenviably
checkered record for reliability. Until we are shown more in the way of evidence attributing
the recently discovered hacking to the Russians, we would do well to review his record.
Sanger's reporting on Iraq before the war was as wrong as it was consequential. Those who
were alert at the time may remember that Sanger was second only to Judith Miller in spreading
the party line on the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Seldom do historians obtain documentary evidence of plans for a war of aggression, but on
May 1, 2005 the London Times published a paper (now known as the "Downing Street
Memos") that recorded what Sir Richard Dearlove, head of MI6 (the UK counterpart to the CIA)
relayed to Prime Minister Tony Blair on July 23, 2002 about what he was told by George Tenet
at CIA headquarters on July 20, 2002. (No one has challenged the authenticity of the
minutes.)
"C (Dearlove) reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift
in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam,
through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the
intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. There was little discussion
in Washington of the aftermath after military action." [Emphasis added.]
With David Sanger and his colleague Judith Miller having cried wolf on WMD so many times
over the prior two years, the Times decided it would be best to suppress the
embarrassing revelation that the "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
So the Times ignored it for more than six weeks, when Sanger wrote an article to put
the whole thing in perspective, so to speak.
The title of Sanger's June 13, 2005 article was "Postwar British Memo Says War Decision
Wasn't Made." Those looking for a measure of Sanger's credibility could do no better than
read this masterpiece of deceptive circumlocution. Here's the lead paragraph:
WASHINGTON, June 12 – A memorandum written by Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet
office in late July 2002 explicitly states that the Bush administration had made "no
political decisions" to invade Iraq, but that American military planning for the possibility
was advanced. "
And those asking how Sanger could write that with a straight face need only to read the
Downing Street Memos , which are quite succinct and clear.
One could almost sympathize with Sanger, who had co-authored a piece with Thom Shanker, on
July 29, 2002 in which WMD were flat-facted into Iraq no fewer than seven times. See: "
U.S.
Exploring Baghdad Strike As Iraq Option of July 29, 2002 ." That was about a week after
CIA Director Tenet had briefed Dearlove on the fixing of the intelligence and the facts. It
is a safe bet that Sanger's sources in the intelligence community briefed him on what line to
take on those (non-existent) WMD.
Years Later Still Drinking at the Government Trough
On July 26, 2016 , Candidate Clinton reportedly approved a "blame-Russia" plan.
According to
a letter from Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to Sen. Lindsey Graham on
Sept. 29, 2020, CIA Director John Brennan briefed President Obama on "Russian intelligence
analysis" regarding "alleged approval by Hillary Clinton of a proposal from one of her
foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference
by Russian security services."
The Russian intelligence analysis report was deemed important enough that on Sept. 7,
2016, US intelligence officials forwarded an "investigative referral" to FBI Director James
Comey and Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok regarding it. ( Such
a referral usually indicates that a leak has occurred about a particularly sensitive issue or
program. Thus, it is possible that the putative leaker wished to get the information out into
the open.)
But it is one thing to leak; quite another to get an Establishment journalist to write
about it without checking beforehand with the intelligence community for a nihil
obstat . There has been no additional reporting about the "investigative referral." But
if it was about a leak, the information never saw the light of day at the time.
July 26, 2016 : The exact date timing may be coincidence, but on the same day Mrs.
Clinton was alleged to have given the go-ahead for Russia-gate, Sanger co-authored
an article with Eric Schmitt titled: "Spy Agency Consensus Grows That Russia Hacked
D.N.C.":
"WASHINGTON – American intelligence agencies have told the White House they now
have 'high confidence' that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and
documents from the Democratic National Committee, according to federal officials who have
been briefed on the evidence."
There is much more that can be said about Sanger's reporting on very consequential issues.
On Iran, for example, taking Sanger's reporting at face value, one would think he never read
the National Intelligence Estimate that helped prevent a war planned by Cheney/Bush for 2008.
I refer to the November
2007 NIE the unanimous, "high-confidence" key judgment of which was that Iran had stopped
working on a nuclear weapon at the end of 2003 and had not resumed such work. That key
judgment stands, but you would never know that from Sanger's reporting.
Beware chief Washington correspondents; or at least look at their record.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of
the Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27-year career as a CIA analyst includes serving as
Chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and preparer/briefer of the President's Daily
Brief. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
(VIPS).
"... It is difficult to know or to ensure that the ballots are actual ballots from registered voters. For example in the early hours of the morning of November 4 large ballot drops occurred in Michigan and Wisconsin that wiped out Trump's lead. State officials have reported that people not registered -- probably illegals -- were permitted to vote. Postal service workers have reported being ordered to backdate ballots that suddenly appeared in the middle of the night after the deadline. These techniques were used to erase Trump's substantial leads in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia. ..."
"... Digital technology has also made it easy to alter vote counts. US Air Force General Thomas McInerney is familiar with this technology. He says it was developed by the National Security Agency in order to interfere in foreign elections, but now is in the hands of the CIA and was used to defeat Trump. Trump is considered to be an enemy of the military/security complex because of his wish to normalize relations with Russia, thus taking away the enemy that justifies the CIA's budget and power. ..."
"... The military/security complex favors the disunity that the Democrat Party and media have fostered with their ideology of Identity Politics. ..."
"... I would take it a little further and say that voting by mail is a method of vote fraud. The supposed safeguards are easily circumvented, as some whistleblowers have illustrated with ballots being brought forth in large numbers after election day without postmarks and postal workers being ordered to stamp them with acceptable postmarks. ..."
"... Eisenhower is always lauded for his MIC warning. Frankly he ticks me off. Thanks for the warning AFTER you were in some position to mitigate. ..."
"... the most likely source of fraud that is hard to detect, is ballot harvesting. This should be outlawed as it violates the idea of a secret ballot. Somebody comes to the home of a disinterested voter and makes sure he votes (of course they will never admit to hounding the person) and "helps" them with the ballot. If the voter cannot be cajoled into voting the correct way, you merely throw his ballot in the trash. ..."
"... Living in an urban setting I often had to visit apartment buildings. Without fail, there was always a pile of undeliverable mail in the lobby under the mailboxes. ..."
"... His farewell address was just flapdoodle; it wasn't really dredged up till the 70s. Eisenhower spent eight years spreading tripwires and mines and then said "Watch out." Thanks buddy. ..."
"... As the German newspaper editor Udo Ulfkotte revealed in his book, Bought Journalism, the European and US media speak with one voice -- the voice of the CIA. The very profitable and powerful US military/security complex needs foreign enemies. ..."
"... inventive creative new ways to deceive.. first it was election machines, then mail in votes. ..."
"... The phrase "there's no evidence" is just a public commitment to ignore any evidence, no matter how blatant or obvious. ..."
"... Paper ballots as ascribed by Tulsi Gabbard legislation is the only safe option for elections. Kudos to Tulsi! ..."
"... Everyone knew about the potential for voter fraud to occur, but the entire system is corrupt, including Trump who has allowed the massive corruption within the system that was present when he entered office to persist and grow because he is a wimpy, spineless, coward, that was too afraid to make any waves and take the heat that he promised his voters. ..."
"... Why anyone voted for Trump in 2020 confounds me. I voted for him in 2016 and he has turned out to be one of the worst presidents in history. ..."
"... Trump in his cowardess and dishonesty knew that the ailing economy would harm his chances of being re-elected, so he allowed the health scare scamdemic to occur and destroy the livelihoods, lives, and businesses of hundreds of millions of Americans because he is a psychopath. Trump did not do what he promised. Trump made America worse than it has ever been since the end of slavery. ..."
"... Trump has also demanded the extradition of Assange after telling his voters that he loved wikileaks. Trump is a two-faced, lying, fraud. It has been his pattern. He consistently supports various groups and people like Wikileaks, Proud Boys, and others and panders to them and voters and tells people that he loves them, and then every time without fail when the heat is on, Trump says," I really don't know anything about them." ..."
"... "I know nothing." Trump saying "I know nothing." defines his presidency and who he is as a person, a spineless, pandering, corrupt, two-faced, narcissist, loser, and wimp! ..."
A few months ago it looked like the re-election of Trump was almost certain, but now there was a close race between Trump
and Biden? What happen during the last months?
In the months before the election, the Democrats used the "Covid pandemic" to put in place voting by mail. The argument was used
that people who safely go to supermarkets and restaurants could catch Covid if they stood in voting lines. Never before used on a
large scale, voting by mail is subject to massive vote fraud.
There are many credible reports of organized vote fraud committed by Democrats. The only question is whether the Republican establishment
will support challenging the documented fraud or whether Trump will be pressured to concede in order to protect the reputation of
American Democracy.
It is difficult to know or to ensure that the ballots are actual ballots from registered voters. For example in the early
hours of the morning of November 4 large ballot drops occurred in Michigan and Wisconsin that wiped out Trump's lead. State officials
have reported that people not registered -- probably illegals -- were permitted to vote. Postal service workers have reported being
ordered to backdate ballots that suddenly appeared in the middle of the night after the deadline. These techniques were used to erase
Trump's substantial leads in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia.
Digital technology has also made it easy to alter vote counts. US Air Force General Thomas McInerney is familiar with this
technology. He says it was developed by the National Security Agency in order to interfere in foreign elections, but now is in the
hands of the CIA and was used to defeat Trump. Trump is considered to be an enemy of the military/security complex because of his
wish to normalize relations with Russia, thus taking away the enemy that justifies the CIA's budget and power.
People do not understand. They think an election has been held when in fact what has occurred is that massive vote fraud has been
used to effect a revolution against red state white America. Leaders of the revolution, such as Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
are demanding a list of Trump supporters who are "to be held accountable." Calls are being made for the arrest of Tucker Carlson,
the only mainstream journalist who supported President Trump.
In a recent column I wrote:
"Think what it means that the entirety of the US media, allegedly the 'watchdogs of democracy,' are openly involved in participating
in the theft of a presidential election.
"Think what it means that a large number of Democrat public and election officials are openly involved in the theft of a presidential
election.
"It means that the United States is split irredeemably. The hatred for white people that has been cultivated for many years,
portraying white Americans as "systemic racists," together with the Democrats' lust for power and money, has destroyed national
unity. The consequence will be the replacement of rules with force."
Mainstream media in Europe claim, that Trump had "divided" the United States. But isn`t it actually the other way around,
that his opponents have divided the country?
As the German newspaper editor Udo Ulfkotte revealed in his book, Bought Journalism , the European and US media speak with
one voice -- the voice of the CIA. The very profitable and powerful US military/security complex needs foreign enemies. Russiagate
was a CIA/FBI successful effort to block Trump from reducing tensions with Russia. In 1961 in his last address to the American people
President Dwight Eisenhower warned that the growing power of the military/industrial complex was a threat to American democracy.
We ignored his warning and now have security agencies more powerful than the President.
The military/security complex favors the disunity that the Democrat Party and media have fostered with their ideology of Identity
Politics. Identity politics replaced Marxist class war with race and gender war. White people, and especially white heterosexual
males, are the new oppressor class. This ideology causes race and gender disunity and prevents any unified opposition to the security
agencies ability to impose its agendas by controlling explanations. Opposition to Trump cemented the alliance between Democrats,
media, and the Deep State.
It is possible that the courts will decide who will be sworn into office at January 20, 2021. Do you except a phase of uncertainty
or even a constitutional crisis?
There is no doubt that numerous irregularities indicate that the election was stolen and that the ground was well laid in advance.
Trump intends to challenge the obvious theft. However, his challenges will be rejected in Democrat ruled states, as they were part
of the theft and will not indict themselves. This means Trump and his attorneys will have to have constitutional grounds for taking
their cases to the federal Supreme Court. The Republicans have a majority on the Court, but the Court is not always partisan.
Republicans tend to be more patriotic than Democrats, who denounce America as racist, fascist, sexist, imperialist. This patriotism
makes Republicans impotent when it comes to political warfare that could adversely affect America's reputation. The inclination of
Republicans is for Trump to protect America's reputation by conceding the election. Republicans fear the impact on America's reputation
of having it revealed that America's other major party plotted to steal a presidental election.
Red state Americans, on the other hand, have no such fear. They understand that they are the targets of the Democrats, having
been defined by Democrats as "racist white supremacist Trump deplorables."
The introduction of a report of the Heritage Foundation states that "the United States has a long and unfortunate history
of election fraud". Are the 2020 presidential elections another inglorious chapter in this long history?
This time the fraud is not local as in the past. It is the result of a well organized national effort to get rid of a president
that the Establishment does not accept.
Somehow you get the impression that in the USA – as in many European countries democracy is just a facade – or am I wrong?
You are correct. Trump is the first non-establishment president who became President without being vetted by the Establishment
since Ronald Reagan. Trump was able to be elected only because the Establishment thought he had no chance and took no measures to
prevent his election. A number of studies have concluded that in the US the people, despite democracy and voting, have zero input
into public policy.
Democracy cannot work in America because the money of the elite prevails. American democracy is organized in order to prevent
the people from having a voice. A political campaign is expensive. The money for candidates comes from interest groups, such as defense
contractors, Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, the Israel Lobby. Consequently, the winning candidate is indebted to his funders,
and these are the people whom he serves.
European mainstream media are portraying Biden as a luminous figure. Should Biden become president, what can be expected
in terms of foreign and security policy, especially in regard to China, Russia and the Middle East? I mean, the deep state and the
military-industrial complex remain surely nearly unchanged.
Biden will be a puppet, one unlikely to be long in office. His obvious mental confusion will be used either to rule through him
or to remove him on grounds of mental incompetence. No one wants the nuclear button in the hands of a president who doesn't know
which day of the week it is or where he is.
The military/security complex needs enemies for its power and profit and will be certain to retain the list of desirable foreign
enemies -- Russia, Iran, China, and any independent-inclined country in Latin America. Being at war is also a way of distracting
the people of the war against their liberties.
What the military/security complex might not appreciate is that among its Democrat allies there are some, such as Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are ideological revolutionaries. Having demonized red state America and got rid of Trump (assuming
the electoral fraud is not overturned by the courts), Ocasio-Cortez and her allies intend to revolutionize the Democrat Party and
make it a non-establishment force. In her mind white people are the Establishment, which we already see from her demands for a list
of Trump supporters to be punished.
I think I'm not wrong in assuming that a Biden-presidency would mean more identity politics, more political correctness
etc. for the USA. How do you see this?
Identity politics turns races and genders against one another. As white people -- "systemic racists" -- are defined as the oppressor
class, white people are not protected from hate speech and hate crimes. Anything can be said or done to a white American and it is
not considered politically incorrect.
With Trump and his supporters demonized, under Democrat rule the transition of white Americans into second or third class citizens
will be completed.
How do you access Trump's first term in office? Where was he successful and where he failed?
Trump spent his entire term in office fighting off fake accusations -- Russiagate, Impeachgate, failure to bomb Russia for paying
Taliban to kill American occupiers of Afghanistan, causing Covid by not wearing a mask, and so on and on.
That Trump survived all the false charges shows that he is a real person, a powerful character. Who else could have survived what
Trump has been subjected to by the Establishment and their media prostitutes. In the United States the media is known as "presstitutes"
-- press prostitutes. That is what Udo Ulfkotte says they are in Europe. As a former Wall Street Journal editor, I say with complete
confidence that there is no one in the American media today I would have hired. The total absence of integrity in the Western media
is sufficient indication that the West is doomed.
Never before used on a large scale, voting by mail is subject to massive vote fraud.
I would take it a little further and say that voting by mail is a method of vote fraud. The supposed safeguards are easily
circumvented, as some whistleblowers have illustrated with ballots being brought forth in large numbers after election day without
postmarks and postal workers being ordered to stamp them with acceptable postmarks.
It really seems to me that there would be no democrat majorities in Congress or in so many state legislatures without vote
fraud.
Worse than the fraud available with vote by mail is the voting of people normally who don't bother to vote. Think of how stupid
and uninformed that average American voter is. Now realize how much more stupid and uninformed the non-voter is, only now he votes.
However, the most likely source of fraud that is hard to detect, is ballot harvesting. This should be outlawed as it violates
the idea of a secret ballot. Somebody comes to the home of a disinterested voter and makes sure he votes (of course they will
never admit to hounding the person) and "helps" them with the ballot. If the voter cannot be cajoled into voting the correct way,
you merely throw his ballot in the trash.
I have little doubt that there have been massive "irregularities", particularly in the so-called battleground states, that
are at play in "stealing" the election.
...The favourite phrase these days is "no evidence of wide spread voter fraud". Let's break that down. Only 6 states have been
challenged for vote fraud. In the big scheme of things, 6 states is not wide spread, even if there is massive vote fraud within
those 6 states. That the vote fraud is not widespread, implies that some vote fraud is acceptable, and that the listener should
ignore it. Last and most importantly, in the narrowest of legalistic terms, testimony or affidavits are not evidence. Testimony
and affidavits become evidence when supported by physical evidence. An affidavit with a photograph demonstrating the statement
would be evidence.
Another phrase is something like "election officials say they have seen no evidence of voter fraud". I have yet to hear a reporter
challenge the "seen no evidence of " part of the statement, regardless of the subject, by asking if the speaker had looked for
any evidence. They won't, because they know damn well no one has.
That is how the liars operate. Not so different from Rumsfeld's "plausible deniability".
Living in an urban setting I often had to visit apartment buildings. Without fail, there was always a pile of undeliverable
mail in the lobby under the mailboxes.
The envelopes were mostly addressed to people who had moved out or died. If ballots were sent to these people based on incorrect
voter rolls, then these too would likely have been left sitting on the floor or on a ledge for anyone to take.
It doesn't take a leap of faith to know what a Trump-hating leftist would do when no one is looking. This moral hazard was
intentionally created by Dems, who know that urban dwellers are transient and lean left politically.
Eisenhower is always lauded for his MIC warning. Frankly he ticks me off. Thanks for the warning AFTER you were in some
position to mitigate.
Ike's a mystery. Why did he NOT question Harry Truman's commitments to NATO, the UN, and all that rubbish? Ike was a WWII guy.
He knew Americans hated the UN in 1953 as much as they hated the League of Nations after WWI. But he let it all slide and get
bigger.
His farewell address was just flapdoodle; it wasn't really dredged up till the 70s. Eisenhower spent eight years spreading
tripwires and mines and then said "Watch out." Thanks buddy.
Well, agree on your points however, on the other side of the ledger, he never understood the stupidity of the Korean war (that
he could have ended) and majorly up-ramped CIA activities in all manner of regime change (bay of pigs anyone?). Almost a direct
path to our foreign policy now (and now domestic policy)
He did deploy the military assistance advisory group to Vietnam in 1955. This is considered the beginning of U.S. involvement
in the war. This allowed the French to moonwalk out the back door leaving us holding the bag. In fairness this was Johnson's war
however. Eisenhower did cut the military budget as a peace dividend to fund interstate system and other domestic projects. In
today political spectrum he would be considered a flaming liberal.
As the German newspaper editor Udo Ulfkotte revealed in his book, Bought Journalism, the European and US media speak
with one voice -- the voice of the CIA. The very profitable and powerful US military/security complex needs foreign enemies.
What intrigues me is the ultimate political goal of the UN and the WEF when they anticipate a single global government centered
at the UN and the absence of nation-states.
So what is the MIC going to do when there are no existential threats of competing nation-states? Or will the MIC re-engineer
religious wars between the various religious groups, secular and theological? It seems the aspirations of the WEF and its fellow
travellers preclude the occurrence of future armed conflicts.
Of course one needs capitalistic economies to produce the ordnance and materiels for the engineered social factions to war
with each other. Yet if the Greens have their way, there will be no mining period.
More likely is the possibility that none of them actually understand what they are doing. As Nassim Taleb is alleged to have
remarked, 99% of humans are stupid.
The total absence of integrity in the Western media is sufficient indication that the West is doomed.
It's because Western media is completely under the control of Jews, the world's foremost End Justifies Means people. The Fourth
Estate has become the world's most powerful Bully Pulpit. There are still a few good ones though, brave souls they are: Kim Strassel
of WSJ, Daniel Larison of The American Conservative , Neil Munro of Breitbart.
The rest are more or less lying scums, including everyone on NYTimes, WSJ, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, MSNBC, Fox News (minus
Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo), The Economist , and let's not forget the new media: Google, Facebook, Twitter. The
world would be a much better place without any of them.
@Beavertales
-- with either vote flipping on machines or having the totals that paper ballot scanners tabulate adjust via a pre-programmed
algorithm. Many elections have already been stolen this way.
Nancy Pelosi claims that Biden's victory gives the Democrats a "MANDATE" to alter the economy as they see fit with 50.5%.
This proves that Biden will NOT represent everyone – only the left! I have warned that this has been their agenda from day one.
Now, three whistleblowers from the Democratic software company Dominion Voting Systems, alleging that the company's software stole
38 million votes from Trump. There are people claiming that Dominion Voting Systems is linked to Soros, Dianae Finesteing, Clintons,
and Pelosi's husband. I cannot verify any of these allegations so far.
We are at the Rubicon. Civil War is on the other side. There should NEVER be this type of drastic change to the economy
from Capitalism to Marxism on 50.5% of the popular vote. NOBODY should be able to restructure the government and the economy on
less than 2/3rds of the majority. That would be a mandate. Trying to change everything with a claim of 50.5% of the vote will
only signal, like the Dread Scot decision, that there is no solution by rule of law. This is the end of civilization and it will
turn ugly from here because there is no middle ground anymore. As I have warned, historically the left will never tolerate opposition.
Yes, the theft is blatant. But what are you, us, going to do about it? We really can't do much as the Office of the President
Elect requires us to wear masks. For our safety.
"in the narrowest of legalistic terms, testimony or affidavits are not evidence. Testimony and affidavits become evidence when
supported by physical evidence. " Correct – but they also can become evidence by verbal testimony. ie "I saw the defendant hit
the victim with a rock"
Not only have they stolen the election but when Joe Biden and other democrats claim that President Trump caused the deaths
of hundreds of thousands of Americans because of his handling of Covid 19, they are in sane. No world leader could stop the spread
of this respiratory virus. However, Joe Biden and democrats have caused the deaths of hundreds of white people, while whipping
up weak minded people to kill many whites. Biden and the democrats are criminals. Any one who is white, man or woman, that supports
the democratic party is enabling a criminal organization to perpetrate violence on white people, including murder.
Since the article was from a German magazine it's understandable that there is no mention of "the one who shall not be named".
No mention of the people behind the Lawfare group, the same people behind the impeachment, the same people providing financial
and ideological support for the BLM/Antifa, the same people that own the media that spewed lies for 5 years and censored any mention
of the Biden family corruption, no mention of the people behind this Color Revolution, the same people who promoted the mail in
voting and those that managed the narrative for the media on election night to stop Trump's momentum.
For the public consumption the election will be described in vague terms, like this article, blaming special interests and
institutions like the FBI, CIA and MIC without naming names as if an institution, not the oligarchs and chosen pulling the strings,
are somehow Marxist, anti-white or anti-Christian.
The interviewer quotes the Heritage Foundation does anyone even care what they say? The English Tavistock Institute by way
of the CIA which the British molded from the OSS created programs for the Heritage Foundation as well as the Hoover Institute,
MIT, Stanford University, Wharton, Rand etc. These "rightwing think tanks" were created to counter the CIA's "leftwing think tanks"
at Columbia, Berkeley etc. Thank you British Intelligence.
Steve Bannon was just interviewing someone (can't remember his name). Apparently there are about 200 to 300 IT professionals/engineers
working on these so-called "glitches" (not glitches at all) which mysteriously "disappeared" thousands of Trump votes. Then they'd
dump phony Biden votes into the mix. These IT professionals are going to follow the trail.
I've also heard that Dominion Voting Systems played a big part in this scam by using algorithms. One Trump lawyer said that
big revelations are coming.
We're going to have to be patient and just wait.
"The inclination of Republicans is for Trump to protect America's reputation by conceding the election."
I honestly think it's more like the old established Republicans (corporate bought) want Trump to lose because that is what
their campaign donors want (Big Pharma, Wall Street, etc.) They are part of the elite, and the elite (both the Democrats AND Republicans)
want Trump gone so they can continue their crony capitalist looting. They've got to appear like they're behind Trump, but I don't
think they are. Of course, that's not all Republican representatives.
Sounds like they've been rigging elections for awhile now. I bet they just messed up with Hillary. I think that's why she was
so upset. She had it, but they screwed up and didn't supply enough ballots.
@KenHinventive creative new ways to deceive.. first it was election machines, then mail in votes. next it will be magic carpet
voting. But the votes don't count, cause it is the electoral college that elects the President.
Trump also lost a significant number who did not understand Trump was an Israeli at heart, they thought he was a uncoothed
NYC red blooded American.
As far as white, black or pokadot color or any of the religions ganging up against Trump I don't think that happened, the fall
out into statistically discoverable categories is just that, fall out, not those categories conspiring to vote or not vote one
way or the other.
PCR seems to have trouble seeing a difference between the counting of perfectly proper votes which Pres Trump's post office
delivered late which may or may not be allowed by law which can be determined in court, and fraud like the dead voting or votes
being forged.
The fraud is all so transparent but no one in the power elite seems to give a crap whether the public catches on or not these
days. They know that the entire media which creates the false matrix of contrived "truth" that we all live in will back them to
the hilt because they are actually just one more working part in the grand conspiracy. We all know that when "O'Brian" says 2
+ 2 equals 5 we must all believe it, or at least say we do. We interface with "O'Brian's" minions on a daily basis but we don't
know the ultimate identity of "O'Brian" (in the singular or multiple). Many guesses are made, but they hide that from us fairly
well with the aid of their militaries and "intelligence" agencies (aka secret police in other times and places).
For example in the early hours of the morning of November 4 large ballot drops occurred in Michigan and Wisconsin that wiped
out Trump's lead.
In a very similar vein, it is the same thing that happened to Bernie Sanders during the primary's. Joe was down and out, and
Bernie was enjoying the lead and then "Bam!" Overnight Joe is back on top.
Well, fool me once,,,,,, .,and blah, blah whatever Bush said .
Dr Roberts has referenced in the interview a UR article that goes into considerable detail about the massive electoral fraud
by the Democrats and their partners. You've obviously not bothered to read it.
You're like one of those MSM hacks who denies electoral fraud without making any attempt to look at the evidence.
@Begemot
And it's almost always a closer race than anyone would have guessed beforehand -- which I also find suspicious. How likely is
it that the majority of presidential elections over the last century were decided by more or less even numbers of voters from
each party, between more or less evenly matched candidates?
Really seems like they've perfected the art of putting on rigged political shows that you can't quite believe in, but don't
have anything really solid to back up your suspicions. It's like the "no evidence of fraud" canard -- anything solid enough to
show obvious manipulation is explained away as the exception, rather than the tip of a very deep iceberg
Like the false accusations about Russia, delegitimizing the presidential election as fraud is turning out to be much ado
about nothing.
Let's review. The Democrats perpetrated the phony 2016 Russian influence fraud, and now the Democrats are perpetrating the
phony 2020 election victory.
The common elements are Democrats perpetrate fraud.
IMO this is a simple remedy to settle the election fraud mess or we will be arguing about this 20 years from now .from the
American Thinker.
The candidates on the ballot must have an opportunity to have observers whom they choose to oversee the entire process so
the candidates are satisfied that they won or lost a free and fair election.
That is not what happened in the 2020 election. That is the single most important and simple fact that needs to be understood
and communicated. The 2020 election was not a free and fair election, because poll-watchers were not allowed to do their essential
job. The 2020 election can still be a free and fair election with a clear winner, whoever that may be, but time is running
out.
In every instance where poll-watchers were not allowed to observe the process, those votes must be recounted. They must
be recounted with poll-watchers from both sides present. If there are votes that cannot be recounted because the envelops were
discarded, those votes must be discarded. Put the blame for this on the officials who decided to count the votes in secret.
Consider it a way to discourage secret vote counts in the future.
The pandemic has not been fearful enough to close liquor stores, and it in should not be used as excuse to remove the poll-watchers
who are essential to a free and fair election. If we must have social distancing, then use cameras.
Certainly, there are other issues with the 2020 election. There may be problems with software, and there are issues like
signature verification and dead people voting. Everything should be considered and examined, but no other issue should distract
from the simple fact that both sides must be able to view the entire process. If one side is not allowed to view the vote-counting,
then that side should be calling it a fraud. We should all be calling it a fraud.
...Trump had control of the Senate, the House and of course the Executive between his inauguration in January of 2017 and the
Midterm Elections of 2018, a total time period of 1 year and 10 months. What did he do during this time? He deregulated financial
services and passed corporate tax cuts.
At the end of the day, being emotionally invested in US elections is no different to being emotionally invested in Keeping
up with the Kardashians , that is to say your life wouldn't be that different if your don't follow either.
The Democrats Have Stolen the Presidential Election
The Deep State Has Stolen the Presidential Election. FIFY. But they have been in control for decades they just don't care who
knows now. They are taking final steps to make their control impervious to attack.
This is the reason that the establishment latched on to the Eisenhowerian bon mot but entirely memory hole Trumman's
far more explicit warning a freaking month after a sitting president is shot like a turkey in Dallas: it white washes CIA and
NSC .
The place to begin, and it's mind-blowing when you think about it this way, is that nothing was resolved on election night.
Not who will take the oath on January 20th. Nor which party will control the Senate. Nor even who will be Speaker and which party
will control the House.
Suffice it to say, a still raging factional struggle has simply moved to a greater degree behind the curtain.
I noted this movie reference on another thread here:
If your father dies, you'll make the deal, Sonny.
-- "The Godfather"
My point being, you're foolish if you ascribe certainty as to outcome at this point.
Being rid of Trump has been as close to a dues ex machina for the establishment as imaginable since he took the oath. This
ineluctable observation elicits no end of foot-stomping by those who assume it necessarily says anything positive about the man.
With every persistent revision of the script they wrote for him, all ending with his political demise at least, Trump has not
just survived but grown stronger. While the Democrats turned our elections into something only seen in a third-world shit hole,
Trump legitimately drew 71M votes from Americans.
That's a lot of air in the balloon. Believe me, filth like Russian mole Brennan may think everything is finished once they
get rid of terrible, awful Trump, but those above his pay grade know better.
Like him or hate him, Trump is the only principal not wholly or largely discredited. He was saved from destruction during his
first term by the Republican base moving to protect him. That was the import of his 90-95% approval among them, destroy him and
you destroy the Republican Party.
Now, despite -- or perhaps, because of -- everything they've done, that base now includes a significant number of Democrats
and independents. Trump is merely a vessel for an American majority attached to this constitutional republic thingie we've got
going.
Don't get lost in the details. This isn't a puzzle you can solve by internet sleuthing. The plan they executed -- to steal
sufficiently to make the outcome inevitable by the morning after the election at the latest -- failed. This was evident early
on Election Day (e.g. fake water main breaks in Atlanta) and necessitated their playing their Fox/AZ card and shutting down the
count at least until they had removed Republican monitors.
"In 22 states, Republicans will hold unified control over the governor's office and both houses of the legislature, giving
the party wide political latitude -- including in states like Florida and Georgia."
"Eleven states will have divided governments in 2021, unchanged from this year: Democratic governors will need to work with
Republican legislators in eight states, and Republican governors will contend with Democratic lawmakers in three."
The Democrats have: Joe Biden, and a slim majority in the House of Representatives which they are almost certain to lose in
two years.
What the Republicans are going to do is everything we hate, but they will pretend they were "forced" to do it by the Democrats
– the Democrats being the minority party.
Who else could have survived what Trump has been subjected to by the Establishment and their media prostitutes. In the United
States the media is known as "presstitutes" -- press prostitutes. That is what Udo Ulfkotte says they are in Europe.
Left and right.
(What you small brains do not understand is this.)
Democrats enabling the elite to invest in far east (lower wage costs, higher profits) did abandon the working class in America.
Democrats by this act did throw away the working class as a dirty rug.
Democrats with their TPP exporting most of the production to far east would totally destroy working class in USA. Trump's first
act was to cancel this insanity. Democrats are insanely delusional.
Democrats were left. Left is a party that supports the working people.
So here switch occurred. Democratic party now represent the elite, and Republicans now represent the working people.
(The irony of the fate)
The headline for PCR's article is a prediction, not yet established, and incomplete.
There is an ongoing massive attempt to steal the Presidential election as well as to steal an unknown number of House and Senate
seats, and who knows what else.
The 'game' is still on. Many tens of millions of citizens – actual total unknown but possibly in numbers unprecedented in American
history – voted for Trump. Republican candidates for office generally had strong support, but again, the actual percentage of
support is unknown but presumably larger than now 'recorded'.
There are also the many millions who ardently supported Trump, know that Biden is illegitimate, deeply corrupt, and the precursor
to perils unknown. Their determination and backbone and intelligence will now be tested.
There is the electoral college process; there are the state legislators that have a say in the process; there is the Supreme
Court.
There is also the possibility of pertinent executive orders that mandate transparent processes in the face of, say, apprehended
insurrection via fraudulent voting processes.
There is also the matter of how millions of 'deplorables' with trucks and tractors and firearms and other means to make their
point will react to obvious massive election travesty.
The conjunction of the COVID global scamdemic/plandemic, with crazed Bill Gates and kin lurking in the background with needles,
'peaceful' protesters in many cities setting fires and looting with near impunity, and a mass media that is clearly comprehensively
committed to a demonic degree of dishonesty and manipulation, and lunatic levels of 'identity politics' ideology, are among the
elements setting the stage for what may be an historical watershed.
The American Revolution in the 18th century, against the British Crown's authority, came about after years of simmering anger
and sporadic resistance against British injustice. At some point there was a 'tipping point'. When Germany invaded and occupied
Norway early in the 2nd WW, an effective resistance quickly formed in reaction, where death and torture were the known willing
risk. Two years before, those forming the resistance would have been just going on with their lives.
Who's Afraid of an Open Debate? The Truth About the Commission on Presidential Debates. The CPD is a duopoly which allows the
major party candidates to draft secret agreements about debate arrangements including moderators, debate format and even participants.
Ben Swann explains how the new coalition of EndPartisanship org is working to break the 2 party hold on primary elections,
which currently lock around 50% of voters out of the process.
I am currently watching an interview with SD Governor Kristi Noem, who went on ABC to challenge George Stenopolosus' claim
that there is no fraud in this election. She pointed out that there has been many allegations, including dead people voting in
PA and GA, she says we don't know how widespread this is, but we owe it to the 70+ million people who voted for Trump to investigate
and ensure a clean and fair election. She said we gave Al Gore 37 days to investigate the result in 2000, why aren't we giving
the same to Trump?
She is extremely articulate and sounds intelligent and honest, and what's more courageous to come forward like this. I hope
she runs for president in 2024, I'd vote for her.
Am I the only one who sees something profoundly spiritual happening in front of our eyes?
Yes. In reality, 5% of White men sent Trump packing. That doesn't match the GOP negrophile narrative where "based" Hindustanis
join the emerging conservative coalition to make sure White people can't get affordable healthcare in their own countries, though.
So we'll have to watch you parasites spool up this pedantic "fraud" nonsense until the fat orange zioclown gracelessly gets dragged
out.
Good post. You will gain more insight from this background on the speech and drafting.
Jan 19, 2011 Eisenhower's "Military-Industrial Complex" Speech Origins and Significance US National Archives
President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address, known for its warnings about the growing power of the "military-industrial
complex," was nearly two years in the making. This Inside the Vaults video short follows newly discovered papers revealing that
Eisenhower was deeply involved in crafting the speech.
Great article. Thanks. Agree with you about the big stealing being electronic. Trump tweeted out yesterday that over 2 million
votes were stolen this way. For him to say this, they must have evidence.
Dinesh D'Souza said he hopes that when this matter comes before the Supreme Court that they will tackle once and for all what
constitutes a legal vote.
Some pretty big names are involved with this Dominion Voting. It will be interesting to see what Trump's team of IT experts
discover re the use of algorithms to swing the vote.
Why (Oh, why) did Trump had to go? Because Trump is an enema to the Deep State. He was threatening to expose the biggest lie
of the last 100 years – the supposed "liberalism" of US...
The author refers to a body of overwhelmingly persuasive evidence of voter fraud that can be specified and quantified to provide
proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in criminal cases, not to mention hands down proof in civil cases requiring only a preponderance
of the evidence to establish guilt. Furthermore, the Democrats' easily documented, elaborate efforts at concealing the vote counting
process by shutting down the counting prior to sneaking truckloads of ballots in the back door is by itself powerful circumstantial
evidence of their guilt. You have no idea what "evidence" means, either in general usage or in its strictly legal sense.
The election cannot be trusted at all, just based on the insane entitled emotional state of the Globalist establishment alone.
The system as-a-whole cannot be trusted, for the same reason. They are actively corrupting it in every way they can, and fully
believe (as a matter of religious conviction) that they are right to do so.
That's one of the Jew/Anglo Puritan Establishment's new catch-phrases. There's also "no evidence" that Joe Biden acted in a
corrupt manner in Ukraine, even though he admitted to it on tape. There's "no evidence" that Big Tech is biased against conservative
plebians, despite their removing conservative plebians' published content arbitrarily and with no State compulsion to do so.
The phrase "there's no evidence" is just a public commitment to ignore any evidence, no matter how blatant or obvious.
This newly discovered legal standard goes beyond "preponderance of the evidence" or even "guilt beyond a reasonable doubt"
to establish absolute certainty as the standard.
Just the obvious and necessary complement of the Bob Mueller standard for Russian collusion, don't you think -- "could not
(quite) exonerate"? /s
They went for a softer approach in KY in 2019. The first-term Repub Gov had a Yankee's forthrightness so they just latched
onto comments he made regarding the underfunded teachers pension program and amped-it to high heaven getting teachers all in a
frightful frenzy.
In that solidly Red state, with all other prominent offices on the ballot (AG, SoS, etc.) going overwhelmingly Repub
, somehow the Repub Gov loses to the Dem by around 5000 votes. The "teachers pension" narrative was rolled-out as the reason.
(Btw, it seems that Dominion, or another type, software was used to switch the votes in that race. I've seen video about it.)
@Orville
H. Larson out how the winds are blowing. There is nothing good about it.
Why not this:
-- ONLY in-person voting over a 2-day period, a Sat and Sun, with polls being open from 6AM to 9PM both days.
-- Exceptions are the traditional requested absentee ballot where the voter can be authenticated.
-- Paper ballots must be used at the polls and no single box of 'Straight Vote by Party' is offered.
-- Some kind of SIMPLE scanning tabulator could be used of the ballots and with it NOT being connected to the internet.
There is far too much cheating opportunity built into our current system. That's intended, of course. It needs to end!
Because you don't get it. You are missing the big picture. It was well known that these systems had the ability to be hacked
as soon as they were implemented. It is also a well known fact that massive mail in ballots increases the likelihood that corrupt
individuals are more likely to get away with election fraud.
Everyone knew about the potential for voter fraud to occur, but the entire system is corrupt, including Trump who has allowed
the massive corruption within the system that was present when he entered office to persist and grow because he is a wimpy, spineless,
coward, that was too afraid to make any waves and take the heat that he promised his voters.
Why anyone voted for Trump in 2020 confounds me. I voted for him in 2016 and he has turned out to be one of the worst presidents
in history.
Trump in his cowardess and dishonesty knew that the ailing economy would harm his chances of being re-elected, so he allowed
the health scare scamdemic to occur and destroy the livelihoods, lives, and businesses of hundreds of millions of Americans
because he is a psychopath. Trump did not do what he promised. Trump made America worse than it has ever been since the end of
slavery. Jeremy Powell said today that the economy is dead and will never recover.
The only injustices that Trump gave a damn about were the injustices against himself and his family, and has committed countless
injustices against the entire country and world during his term. Trump is a corrupt narcissist. The facts prove it. Trump is such
a corrupt narcissist that he was willing to destroy the entire economy based on scientific fraud, high crimes, and treason to
use as political cover for his own incompetency which is the most offensive and disgusting diabolical act ever perpetrated on
the entire country.
Trump has also demanded the extradition of Assange after telling his voters that he loved wikileaks. Trump is a two-faced,
lying, fraud. It has been his pattern. He consistently supports various groups and people like Wikileaks, Proud Boys, and others
and panders to them and voters and tells people that he loves them, and then every time without fail when the heat is on, Trump
says," I really don't know anything about them."
"I know nothing." Trump saying "I know nothing." defines his presidency and who he is as a person, a spineless, pandering,
corrupt, two-faced, narcissist, loser, and wimp!
Why would anyone vote for him the second time around after a record of pathological incompetency and pathological corruption?
What's to approve of about him? Go ahead, investigate voter fraud it if is permitted, and if it isn't then ask yourselves why
it is that a system that enables election fraud is in place, and ask yourselves who had the ability to change it and, who had
the ability to benefit from it!
I believe that US intelligence and MIC were motivated to pull rank/take the reins due to
the threat posed by the Russia-China alliance. A threat that was belatedly recognized in
2013-14 when Russia stood up to USA in Syria and Ukraine. Before that, it was assumed that
Russia would eventually join with the West and China would be isolated.
Its funny that some commenters here argue that USA/Empire is falling behind but seem to
expect that the US power elite will not act to prevent that from happening despite evidence
that they are indeed doing so.
Isn't it clear by now that USA is not trying to reach a rapport with Russia and China?
They are gradually eliminating trade ties with Empire adversaries and are preparing for war
with a big military build-up, discarding arms control treaties, militarizing space, and
breath-taking belligerence like 1) reneging on NK peace treaty; 2) occupying Syrian oil
fields; 3) snubbing the UN to support Israel; 3) assassinating Gen. Soleimani; 4) seizing
Venezuelan State assets; and I would add 5) the Beirut port explosion - a 911-like event for
Lebanon that has effectively sidelined Hezbollah as a political force.
Russia's federal prison authorities were right to jolt Alexei Navalny this week by warning
him to return immediately from Germany or else face a suspended sentence being made into jail
time.
The "professional" opposition activist claims to be convalescing in Germany after he was
allegedly poisoned by a Soviet-era nerve agent in August. Western news media dutifully
repeat the claim that Navalny is "recuperating" in Germany after having survived an
assassination plot by Kremlin agents. Navalny has personally accused Russia's President
Vladimir Putin of ordering the alleged hit.
Last week, a team of medics from the Berlin hospital where Navalny had been staying
published a paper in
The Lancet medical journal in which they claimed he had been poisoned with Novichok nerve
agent. Their findings are dubious because the medics acknowledged the involvement of German
military intelligence laboratories in conducting their analysis.
But one thing the German doctors did let slip was that a 55-day follow-up check on Navalny
ascertained that he had made a "near-complete recovery".
The Russian dissident figure was flown to Berlin on August 22, two days after he was treated
in a hospital in Omsk, Russia. Thus, the German medical team are indicating – no doubt
inadvertently – that Navalny's health recovered nearly two months ago, if not before
that.
That means there is no medical reason why he should remain at large in Germany. His claims
of "convalescing" and the Western media's indulgence of those claims are false, if the German
doctors are correct about his "recovery".
Despite Navalny's arrogant disdain for Russian state laws, he is nevertheless answerable to
those authorities as a citizen. While in Germany he was on probation for a suspended jail
sentence concerning a fraud conviction in 2014. His so-called Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK)
has a checkered history of shady financing, from allegations of foreign funding by the U.S.
State Department to charges of embezzling millions of dollars. Ironically, the blogger and
media activist produces slick programs accusing the Russian government of corruption.
In any case, under the laws of the Russian Federation, the 44-year-old Navalny was on
probation during the past four months of his stay in Germany. For the last two months, he is in
good health, according to his German doctors. So there are no grounds for why he should abscond
from Russian territory and evade the laws for which he is answerable.
Not only is Navalny living as if he above the law, he has also shown flagrant contempt for
the Russian authorities.
Last week, he published a video on his website claiming that he had pranked a named member
of Russia's security service, the FSB, into admitting that agents had poisoned him while he was
visiting the Siberian city of Tomsk on August 20. He was later flown in an emergency to Omsk
where he was treated after having apparently fallen ill onboard a flight to Moscow.
The FSB dismissed Navalny's prank telephone claim as a "deep fake". The Russian doctors who
treated him in Omsk – and who probably saved his life – have repeatedly stated that
their tests showed there was no poison in Navalny's body, and specifically no traces of nerve
agent. They said his illness was due to a metabolic disorder. Perhaps self-induced as a ruse to
later transfer to Germany?
The transcript of Navalny's
purported prank call to the FSB agent reads like a comic set-up. Posing as a senior member of
Russia's national security council, Navalny affects to bully the supposed agent as if he is a
pathetic stooge.
A telling segment is where the self-styled super sleuth fishes for compliments about his own
character from the purported FSB man, betraying the narcissism of a megalomaniac.
Again, incredibly, we are expected to believe that someone who had a near-death experience
with a lethal nerve poison and who is "convalescing" still in Germany somehow managed to find
the energy and mental reserves to pull off a daring 45-minute telephone sting.
If Navalny is fit enough to participate in such practical jokes – regardless of their
credibility – then he is surely fit enough to abide by Russian laws and respect his
probation terms. As the Russian Federal Prison Service stated this week: "The convicted man is
not fulfilling all of the obligations placed on him by the court, and is evading the
supervision of the Criminal Inspectorate."
One gets the unerring impression that Navalny and his foreign handlers have become so
self-intoxicated with hubris that they are blind to their own absurd implausibilities.
Why was he permitted to fly by air ambulance to Berlin in the first place if the Russian
authorities had evil designs against him?
While there, as a guest of the German government, Navalny has wildly accused President Putin
of ordering his alleged assassination. The European governments have subsequently and rashly
imposed sanctions on Russia in support of Navalny's unfounded claims. Then we have the media
activist mounting further provocations parlayed into even more outlandish accusations against
President Putin and the Kremlin.
All the while there has been no evidence of poisoning presented to support these claims,
other than unverifiable assertions by German doctors working with German military intelligence
labs, as well as two other NATO laboratories and the Organization for the Prohibition on
Chemical Weapons. All of them including the OPCW (the latter compromised over complicity in
NATO false-flag provocations in Syria) have refused to share their analytical data and samples
with Russia, and yet they are demanding that Moscow launch a criminal investigation into the
Navalny case.
The abdication by European governments of due process and of respect for Russian state laws,
its government, and its president is astounding. They are indulging a foreign-sponsored gadfly
as if he is the sovereign representative of the Russian Federation.
Navalny and his foreign allies have lost the plot in their own telling of an alleged
assassination plot.
First things first: he is a convicted felon who is answerable to Russian law. Pushing false
flags and slanderous falsehoods from abroad with the intent of damaging Russia's sovereignty is
an abuse of his rights.
Arrogant and overindulged Navalny is patently incapable of even understanding his
obligations under law as a Russian citizen. He evidently feels above the law, like many of his
Western backers. That's why Russia is right to tell him to put up or shut up.
Looks like Nancy is just a regular type of gal ;-). No security at all. No even 24x7 cameras.
Did they used Photoshop with masking to deface Piglosi's .jpg garage door ?
And amazingly enough the vandals remembered to bring masking tape or at least a peace of
cardboard to protect the bricks.
When you think of your average Antifa type (
these mug shots may be representative), does that Antifa guy or gal strike you as the kind
of person who would carefully avoid getting any paint on bricks so as to spare Pelosi the
inconvenience of getting the paint off the bricks?
Soloamber 3 hours ago
No doubt this was a false flag . You don't think Pelosi has security covering her yard,
house, cars ?
Nobody gets that close to her house without a swat team there in a minute. So where is the
video showing who did it , when , and how . This will be used to justify some full time guard
house or something else .
lennysrv 2 hours ago
You are absolutely correct. Years ago, when John Kerry was a candidate in the Democrat
primaries, I was walking near his neighborhood in Boston. Near. As in about eight blocks
away. Not even close to his house. I didn't even know he was living there. I was challenged
by a Secret Service agent and his backup friend (in a vehicle behind him). SS guy asked who I
was, what I was doing, why I was there, etc. Spoke into a microphone beneath his overcoat.
Told me that my chosen route was no longer available and that if I would be well-advised to
head the other direction. The point being that nobody, not a single person, gets near
Pelosi's house without a bunch of security knowing about it and stopping it.
This entire "vandalism" thing is a complete tub of BS.
JZ123 6 hours ago
Pelosi pulled a Juicy smollet? Nah, I think the hatred is real for these people. The
volcano will erupt this year.
The Ordinal Numbers PREMIUM 4 hours ago remove link
I feel redeemed. I've been saying that these photoshopped since the news broke.
FAKE NEWS is real....
Lamejokes 7 hours ago
You don't understand. Russian agents, following the last plan written by Soleimani,
arguably his master plan, tagged poor Nancy's door, and - and there's where you can see how
tricky and evil Russians and Iranians are- they PURPOSEFULLY protected the walls, so people
would think it's fake, and accuse poor Nancy, that gorgeous woman, that Saint, of
manipulation attempt!
(Do I really need a /s here?)
SirBarksAlot 2 hours ago
And just like the Pentagon on 9-11, there were no pictures of the event
AlphaSnail 6 hours ago
the cameras were epsteined
6 hours ago
To those of you that noticed it was a hoax congratulations, you passed the ".gov finger on
the pulse of society" test. For those of you who believed it hook, line, and sinker; get more
omega 3 fatty acids in your diet, stop voting, and cut back on the high fructose corn syrup
and Cheetos.
MieleBauknecht 7 hours ago
antifa's are vegetarian. The hogshead itself is sufficient proof of false flag.
Alexander 2 hours ago
You are fricken dreaming if you think nancy would even pay someone to clean this garage
door. She's getting a new garage door and YOU are going to pay for it.
HomeBrewPrepper 2 hours ago
I thought she lived in a gated, luxurious house?
That looks like a house in Dundalk, Md. Outside of Baltimore.
toady 2 hours ago
That's her 4th house in the city where she houses her Chinese slaves.
Ms No PREMIUM 5 hours ago
...People should scream that at her: "Why did antifa use tape around your garage, you
lying b*tch?"
After pushing phony stories of 'Russian interference' and working for an agency that
interferes in elections, ex-CIA agent now Congressman Will Hurd thinks the GOP should accept
Joe Biden's win, or risk helping the US' "enemies."
A dozen Republican Senators are getting set to object to the Electoral
College's certification of Joe Biden's win in November, unless an "emergency 10-day
audit" is held in a number of key swing states won by Biden. The move is also backed by a
number of Republican representatives in the House.
However, there's a rival faction of Republicans who want to put allegations of Democrat
fraud behind them and go back to business as usual under a Biden administration. Outgoing Texas
Rep. Will Hurd is one of them, and he made a novel argument against questioning the election on
Saturday.
"When I was undercover at the CIA, I saw firsthand how our enemies steal elections and
try to interfere in ours," he tweeted. "Elected officials continuing to sow doubt
amongst the public for petty political gain is playing into our enemies' hands."
As for who these "enemies" are, Hurd was presumably referring to the reliable old
specter of "the Russians." Throughout Trump's four years in office, Hurd has repeatedly
claimed that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election, despite there literally being zero proof for
these claims.
" This is honestly one of the most hilarious mega-viral tweets I've ever seen on
Twitter," journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted. In a follow-up tweet, Greenwald joked that
Hurd "must have been in a different part of the CIA" than former Director James Woolsey, who
told Fox News' Laura Ingraham in 2018 that his agency had meddled in European elections during
the Cold War "in order to avoid the Communists taking over," and continues to dabble in
election meddling, but "only for a very good cause.
Hurd was mocked on all sides. First for condemning election interference from an agency
famed for
interfering in elections
... ... ...
And then for bragging about his undercover status...
Russiagate has been an obvious coup attempt from the beginning
jinn @ May 10 15:20
That is not at all obvious... you have to be extremely gullible to believe any of it is
real.
IMO Russiagate was about initiating a new McCarthyism.
And Trump's Deep State selection was about re-igniting nationalism in response to
the Russia-China alliance which was recognized as a threat to the Empire in 2013-2014 with
Russia's blocking of US action in Syria and Ukraine.
There was nothing mysterious about "Russiagate." It was a transparently false narrative
designed, by the most incompetent election campaign team in history, to excuse their shocking
inability to defeat one of the weakest and most discredited Presidential candidates there has
ever been.
_________________________________________________
Yeah that is what we are asked to believe, but the problem is how did this incompetent
election campaign keep the ball in the air for more than 2 years?
They did not invent the Flynn lied to FBI story and they did not invent the Trump
obstructed justice stories. And they did not create any of the silly stories about contacts
with Russians. There is no doubt the Hillary supporters sat on the sidelines and cheered all
the nonsense that was unfolding in the Russiagate narrative but the storyline that they were
cheering for was all created by Trump and his lackeys.
I would have thought the ongoing saga of Alexei Navalny's poisoning by FSB agents with the
most deadly toxin known being smeared on his underpants in the 31-hour gap between going into
intensive care in the Omsk Hospital and a German air ambulance reaching the hospital and
putting a doctor by his bedside was Western intelligence at its most oxymoronic. This, coming
on top of the poison in the tea in the airport cafeteria, followed by the poison in the water
bottle picked up by Navalny's followers wearing no protective masks or gloves.
Of course with Bellingcat (founded by an unemployed ladies-underwear sales representative)
involved in the latest installment in the farce, the obsession with Navalny's underpants
becomes understandable. That phone conversation Navalny had with "Kudryavtsev" surely had to
be staged. What is it with the British obsession with underpants?
All the more disturbing then that the real Kudryavtsev's mother-in-law ended up an
indirect victim of British intel's stupidity, when her flat was invaded by one of Navalny's
idiot groupie followers.
What is it with the British obsession with underpants?
When I was a rather timid student and had a car, I took two other students and a Professor
on a journey form London to Birmingham. We stopped on the way to vist my parents house. My
mother, turning to the Professor, and asked in front of the others, "You do make sure he
changes his underpants don't you?" I had a hard job living it down. (Maybe that's why I
changed my nationality)
Navalny - don't forget that the person who was said to have carried the water bottle to
Germany was photoghaphed by CCT buying the said water bottle from a vending machine in
Germany after arrival. Obviously, the Russki FSB go around filling up machines with
poisoned water bottles. So we must expect a massive "Novachoco" at German Airports any time
now.
Max Blumenthal, reporting from Venezuela, discusses with Aaron Maté and Ben Norton
how Western corporate media outlets are full of stenographers for spy agencies, how the CIA
and MI6 drive reporting on Russia, how the US and UK governments fund regime-change website
Bellingcat and its deceptive articles on Syria and the OPCW, and how the British military
censors journalism.
The Investigative Committee of Russia announced on Tuesday that it has launched a fresh
probe into the affairs of opposition activist Alexey Navalny, to determine whether there is
sufficient evidence to charge him with fraud. According to prosecutors , Navalny spent around 356 million
rubles ($4.8 million) of money raised for political and journalistic activities for
"personal purposes" including "an acquisition of personal property, material assets
and payment of expenses, including on trips abroad."
It alleges the funds came out of more than 588 million rubles ($5.9 million) in money given
to groups connected to the prominent activist, including the Anti-Corruption Fund and the Fund
for Organization and Coordination for Protecting Citizens' Rights. The Committee's spokesperson
describes this as evidence of "fraud on a particularly large scale."
Navalny has previously been found guilty of financial misconduct and these convictions have
hampered his attempts to stand for public office. In 2017, a Russian court refused to overturn
a judicial decision in which he was found to have embezzled funds from a state-owned timber
firm.
He had been allowed to run in the 2013 Moscow mayoral race while he appealed the verdict,
attracting around 27 percent of the votes, compared to the 51 percent won by the eventual
victor, Sergey Sobyanin.
Navalny has been in Germany since August, when he was transferred to Berlin's Charite
hospital from a Siberian clinic. He took ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, in what his
associates allege to be a poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok.
Earlier this month, the US and UK state-funded investigative outlet Bellingcat claimed to
have mobile phone data that placed state security agents within a few miles of Navalny the day
before. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that previous similar allegations,
published in London's Sunday Times newspaper, were "bulls**t."
Earlier this week, Russia's Federal Prison Service informed Navalny that he must return to
Russia to comply with the terms of his suspended prison sentence for a previous conviction. It
argued that he is no longer receiving hospital care and, "therefore the convicted man is not
fulfilling all the obligations placed on him by the court." Earlier this month, the
activist said he would return to his home country when he could.
At his annual end-of-year press conference in December, President Vladimir Putin told
reporters that Navalny had links to "American special services" and that, if the Kremlin
had indeed wanted the opposition figure dead, the security services would have "finished the
job."
Midnight10 1 day ago 29 Dec, 2020 04:23 PM
Not to worry, Navalny is protected by Merkel, who provided a private plane to bring him to
Germany. Her toyboy just wanted to remove Putin, but in Russia, he wasn't very well known.
Merkel gave him the status of supposedly being a real rival. If he does return to Russia and
is arrested, they better watch the skies. Merkel wouldn't be above sending a helicopter in
for a jail house rescue. She evidently had fun helping to depose governments in the ME. Since
then, she has championed Guaido, from Venezuela, as well as Wong from Hong Kong. Soon she may
retire and can spend more time with "her boys". However, she will have to use her money
instead of the German citizen's money for her rescue attempts.
Count_Cash 1 day ago 29 Dec, 2020 04:01 PM
Navalny and Fraud go hand in hand, it's his stock and trade. He is the sort of criminal that
just can't stop and definitely needs a good couple of years in prison to at least punish his
continual fraud offences.
Galaxy31 Count_Cash 1 day ago 29 Dec, 2020 05:07 PM
He is a fraud and criminal for sure. Little character with big ego!
TheFishh Count_Cash 1 day ago 29 Dec, 2020 04:40 PM
I just wish Russia would stop beating around the bush and just charge navalny with sedition
and issue an arrest warrant for him.
Nah, there is freedom of speech in China. The thing is China has its own internet
ecosystem - its own social medias, own search engines, own newspapers, own websites etc. etc.
- and they're all in Chinese.
What happens is the West doesn't know what is going on in China for the simple fact they
don't read Chinese. This opens a flank for a "survivor bias" scenario, where the Western MSM
decides which the Western people can know and which they can't know - and the lies they
should believe. Westerners cannot double check for the source because they don't know
Chinese.
--//--
@ Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 29 2020 1:32 utc | 25
Two completely different cases: Maria Butina never claimed to be a journalist, and didn't
spread fake news about the USA. She didn't commit any crime, and served as an scapegoat to a
bigger conspiracy.
I might have added @ 8 also that another Navalny groupie follower, Lyubov Sobol, also a
lawyer, was arrested recently for invading the apartment of supposed FSB employee Konstantin
Kudryavtsev's mother-in-law (after entering the building on false pretences) and filming
around the apartment. Sobol was accompanied by people illegally wearing
Rospotrebnadzor uniforms.
To date there's no clear evidence that Konstantin Kudryavtsev actually did speak to
Navalny on the phone and the entire phone interview (during which Navalny was told that the
FSB tried to kill him a second time by putting Novichok on his underwear) may have been a
stunt pulled by people who stole parts of a phone database and the metadata attached to phone
transactions on that database.
Der Spiegel, CNN, another media outlet and Bellingcat apparently paid Bitcoin or
cryptocurrency of some sort to access the data from sources to whom the phone database
information was "leaked".
A study done a few years ago showed that over 2/3rds of international affairs stories in
major European newspapers were basically reprints of NYT articles, tweaked lightly for
localization purposes. The major media outlets all sing from the same hymn sheet and the
CIA and other western intel operations knows that any story they feed into the system will
be reproduced around the globe and taken as 'fact' by most of the newspapers' readers.
The media's incestuous nature and its infiltration by the intelligence services really
became apparent during the Syrian Civil War and the Trump presidency. It is now clear that
the western mainstream media works with the spooks to shape and mold opinion, and
manufacture consent, rather than innocently informing its readers about world events.
The rise of the now often used insult "conspiracy theorist", which is really code for
"dissenting opinion", is closely related to this. The western liberal democracies are going
totalitarian in real time as the window of "acceptable" opinion continues to shrink and the
establishment finds new ways to censor, ban and stifle heretical thinking.
Now that a majority of the country believes the election was fraudulent and the Supreme
Court has completely abdicated its authority the next obstacle in front of President Trump is
here.
And, as always, it comes from his complicit Secretary of State who undermines Trump with his
every move to turn the State, Defense and Intelligence apparatuses of the U.S. against
Russia.
Pompeo goes on Mark Levin's show, whose ratings are through the roof right now, to tell all
the slavering normie-conservatives that it was definitely the Russians who hacked our
government.
Without offering any evidence or specifics, Pompeo said Russia was "pretty clearly" behind
the cyberattack during an appearance on the conservative talk radio Mark Levin Show .
"I can't say much more, as we're still unpacking precisely what it is, and I'm sure some
of it will remain classified. But suffice it to say there was a significant effort to use a
piece of third-party software to essentially embed code inside of US government systems and
it now appears systems of private companies and companies and governments across the world as
well," Pompeo
explained .
Notice how there is no evidence given, just the typical intelligence agency, "believe me"
line, which is your first clue that whoever it was behind this attack the one group who was
definitely NOT behind it was the Russians.
This week's cyber attack on the U.S. government was perfectly timed with the Electoral
College submitting its votes to the Congress and Joe Biden claiming he's president-elect.
The reason why the release of this 'attack' on our government was perfectly timed is because
it is a distraction from the growing unrest over the Democrats' having stolen the election and
cowering the courts into irrelevance.
This is classic CIA-level misdirection from what was more likely a Chinese or, dare I say
it, homegrown operation for the very purpose of blaming the Russians to tamp down the anger and
confuse the MAGA crowd.
And it resurrects the ghost of RussiaGate for the libs by putting Trump in a Catch-22.
If he doesn't respond to this it keeps alive the smoldering embers of the TDS crowd
watching Rachel Maddow that Trump really does have deep, covert ties to Russia.
If he does react, what possible reaction could he take to escalate the tensions with
Russia that are already one step below open warfare?
Oh, and he has to respond to this while also fighting an uphill battle against the courts
and his own bureaucracy to invoke his executive order involving outside interference into the
election. And in classic Trump fashion he did:
Provoking the exact reaction you'd expect from the BlueChecked Sneetches among the
Twitterati. RussiaGate was an embarrassment that should have died years ago but it persists
precisely because Trump refuses to formally concede and continues to give his people the
opportunity to fight the Swamp.
The only way Putin and the Russians were behind this attack on the U.S. government was as a
5-d chess move where Trump invited them to do it on his behalf to 'prove' external interference
in the election and allow Trump to cross the Rubicon, invoke the Insurrection Act and his 2018
EO on election interference.
Yeah, by the way, John Le Carre died this week, life ain't a movie and Trump isn't that
savvy a player. Ye gods, I wish he was. That we are in this mess proves he isn't.
This pronouncement by Pompeo was just good ol' fashioned swamp double talk who continues his
job of maintaining continuity of U.S. foreign policy on behalf of the Neoconservatives whose
raison d'etre is the destruction of Russia to the exclusion of nearly every other consideration
of any other human on the planet.
Don't be confused by this nonsense. Whoever was behind this attack wasn't the Russians. The
motive for this operation lies squarely with China, The Davos Crowd , the Democrats and our own
intelligence agencies trying to move the Overton Window away from the real problem, a stolen
election.
Outing Solarwinds and tying it directly to Dominion Voting Systems is your smoking gun.
But the courts, as I said at the open, have left the building.
Martin Armstrong pointed out the Supreme Court denied the 'shouting behind closed doors'
because they met via Zoom call.
But they didn't deny the substance of the charge against them, that they bowed to political
pressure thanks to the Democrats' open blackmail campaign of terror this past summer.
So, at this point there really is little hope of overturning the election. From what I've
heard on the ground in Georgia the same Dominion Voting machines are in place there for the
Senate runoffs. Those who voted didn't even get a receipt this time.
So the fix is in there too, folks.
There will be no victories in this fight. Every possible avenue of hope must be crushed if
the Great Reset of The Davos Crowd is to occur. Pompeo plays his part just like everyone else
in this pantomime, one day giving Trump supporters hope by saying he's preparing for a 2nd
term, the next using that cache to undermine him with a far bigger betrayal.
This is how the Deep State works to protect itself and we have to be smart enough to see it
for what it is: preparing the ground for the next phase of the greatest intelligence show on
earth.
Same spook time, same spook channel.
* * *
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President Joe Biden 1 hour ago
"
"most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American
politics"
Russia made me say it.
gzorp 51 minutes ago remove link
Nope Obama did it
itstippy 1 hour ago
The Russians made the Check Engine light come on in my car today. Now I have to deal with
that tomorrow, and it's colder than a witch's tit outside. I hate those guys.
JD Rock 1 hour ago
The incessant propaganda from the clever tribe is, so the 2 largest white nations dont
align. That would set the zionists back 500 years.
MX_DOGG 58 minutes ago
... ironic that Russia will be our allies again. They know who their enemy is.
LibertarianMenace 9 minutes ago
Set them back permanently. Complete what Rome failed to.
No work on Sunday 49 minutes ago
Americans trust Russia and Putin more then ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CIA, FBI, swamp etc. that
is a pitiful testament to how far the globalist agenda has gotten.
Doom Porn Star 55 minutes ago
"Russia SOMEHOW gained unrestricted access to all the back-doors in Microsoft enterprise
software and MUST HAVE used their access to plant bugs in sensitive systems.
Bill gates and his cronies who CREATED the software and have always had access to all the
back-doors in Microsoft enterprise software CERTAINLY DID NOT do it.
I'm the guy who told you earlier that I lie cheat and steal for a living . You can believe
me . "
tion PREMIUM 1 hour ago (Edited)
'Russia' is quite literally used as a coverup code word for Israel. Hence why they
declassified almost nothing.
Really Ezra I hope you and the QuckTard do realize that the PEAD commentary wasn't exactly
an invitation either, right.
Five_Black_Eyes_Intel_Agency 48 minutes ago (Edited)
Claiming to be playing 6D chess and keeping Pompeo on the team are mutually exclusive
events.
Anyway, by now its clear as day that the Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum American political system
is a broken circus and not export-worthy.
On one side of the swamp, you have Team Blue, a Deep State subisdiary that pins the blame
on Russia. On the other side you have Team Red, another Deep State subsidiary that pins the
blame on China. Both however, agree fully on imperialism, fundamentalist Zionism and herding
American cattle against their own interests.
How are you meant to reform this system by "voting"?>?>?
Mr. Apotheosis 55 minutes ago
Inside job, almost certainly.
tion PREMIUM 47 minutes ago
There is an extremist cult faction within the CIA that is attached to Mossad at the
hip.
Snaffew 59 minutes ago remove link
Anyone that believes anything that comes out of the US "intelligence" agencies is part of
the problem.
TheRealBilboBaggins 2 minutes ago
My first thought was . . . "inside job". Especially how quickly Russia was blamed with
zero presentation of forensic evidence. Oh, I know, methods and sources must be protected.
That usually means government criminals must be protected.
Do you ever ask yourself why the FBI, CIA, NSA, and DHS, get so little done that matters
to Americans? Do you ever ask yourself how we possible still have organized crime, foreign
gangs, and Antifa, with all the dough wasted on these "law enforcement agencies"? I do, and
my conclusion is that these agencies are not about what they say they are. They are aimed at
attacking various Americans as it helps the agencies.
Ms No PREMIUM 10 minutes ago
"This is classic CIA-level misdirection from what was more likely a Chinese or, dare I say
it, homegrown operation"
Really?
You speak of misdirection and then go from Russia to suggesting CIA target China, because
you know Trumpers have already figured out that is wasn't Russia, but still don't know they
are manipulated in the same fashion about China?
That"s rich.
Simpson 1 minute ago
They spent 25 million 4 years on investigating the Russia hoax and came up with zero. With
Hunter Biden they hid the evidence for two years till after the election. Images with under
aged girls and smoking crack.
Democrats who sit on intelligence committees screwing a CCP Intelligence officer but
nothing to see here.
FO with your gaslighting.
BendGuyhere 12 minutes ago
DC is in dire need of an attitude adjustment, as much for its own survival as the health
of the country.
The more DC walls itself off from the rest of the country, the more likely becomes an
explosive revolution that wipes their precious stats quo off the map.
Convulsively stabbing Trump in the back will not restore them, cargo cult style, to the
glory days of Dubya, Clinton and Obama.
They've done a fabulous job impoverishing this country and enriching themselves.
With Biden's New Threats, the Russia Discourse is More Reckless and Dangerous Than Ever
The U.S. media demands inflammatory claims be accepted with no evidence, while hacking behavior routinely engaged in by
the U.S. is depicted as aberrational.
Glenn Greenwald
Dec 23
211
332
Then-Vice
President Joe Biden speaks at the Brookings Institute May 27, 2015 in Washington, DC spoke about the Russia-Ukraine
conflict (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
To justify Hillary Clinton's 2016 loss
to Donald Trump, leading Democrats and their key media allies
for years competed with one another to depict what they called "Russia's interference in our elections" in the most
apocalyptic terms possible. They fanatically rejected the view of the Russian Federation repeatedly expressed by
President Obama -- that it is a
weak
regional power
with an economy smaller than Italy's capable of only threatening its neighbors but not the U.S. -- and
instead cast Moscow as a grave, even existential, threat to U.S. democracy, with its actions tantamount to the worst
security breaches in U.S. history.
This post-2016 mania culminated with prominent liberal politicians and journalists (
as
well as John McCain
) declaring Russia's activities surrounding the 2016 to be an "act of war" which, many of them
insisted, was
comparable
to Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attack
-- the two most traumatic attacks in modern U.S. history which both spawned years
of savage and destructive war, among other things.
Subscribe
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
repeatedly
demanded
that Russia's 2016 "interference" be treated as "an act of war." Hillary Clinton
described
Russian
hacking as "a cyber 9/11." And here is Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) on MSNBC in early February, 2018, pronouncing Russia "a
hostile foreign power" whose 2016 meddling was the "equivalent" of Pearl Harbor, "very much on par" with the
"seriousness" of the 1941 attack in Hawaii that helped prompt four years of U.S. involvement in a world war.
With the Democrats, under Joe Biden, just weeks away from assuming control of the White House and the U.S. military and
foreign policy that goes along with it, the discourse from them and their media allies about Russia is becoming even
more unhinged and dangerous. Moscow's alleged responsibility for the recently revealed, multi-pronged hack of U.S.
Government agencies and various corporate servers is asserted -- despite not a shred of evidence, literally, having yet
been presented -- as not merely proven fact, but as so obviously true that it is off-limits from doubt or questioning.
Any questioning of this claim will be instantly vilified by the Democrats' extremely militaristic media spokespeople as
virtual treason. "Now the president is not just silent on Russia and the hack. He is deliberately running defense for
the Kremlin by contradicting his own Secretary of State on Russian responsibility,"
pronounced
CNN's
national security reporter Jim Sciutto, who
last
week depicted
Trump's attempted troop withdrawal from Syria and Germany as "ceding territory" and furnishing "gifts"
to Putin. More alarmingly, both the rhetoric to describe the hack and the retaliation being threatened are rapidly
spiraling out of control.
Democrats (along with some Republicans long obsessed with The Russian Threat, such as Mitt Romney) are casting the
latest alleged hack by Moscow in the most melodramatic terms possible, ensuring that Biden will enter the White House
with tensions sky-high with Russia and facing heavy pressure to retaliate aggressively. Biden's top national security
advisers and now Biden himself have, with no evidence shown to the public, repeatedly threatened aggressive retaliation
against the country with the world's second-largest nuclear stockpile.
Congressman Jason Crow (D-CO) -- one of the pro-war Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee who earlier this
year
joined
with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY)
to block Trump's plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan --
announced
:
"this could be our modern day, cyber equivalent of Pearl Harbor,"
adding
:
"Our nation is under assault." The second-ranking Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin (D-IL),
pronounced
:
"This is virtually a declaration of war by Russia."
Meanwhile, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who has for years been casting Russia as a grave threat to the U.S. while Democrats
mocked him as a relic of the Cold War (before they copied and then surpassed him),
described
the latest hack
as "the equivalent of Russian bombers flying undetected over the entire country." The GOP's 2012
presidential nominee also blasted Trump for his failure to be "aggressively speaking out and protesting and taking
punitive action," though -- like virtually every prominent figure demanding tough "retaliation" -- Romney failed to
specify what he had in mind that would be sufficient retaliation for "the equivalent of Russian bombers flying
undetected over the entire country."
For those keeping track at home: that's two separate "Pearl Harbors" in less than four years from Moscow (or, if you
prefer, one Pearl Harbor and one 9/11). If Democrats actually believe that, it stands to reason that they will be eager
to embrace a policy of belligerence and aggression toward Russia. Many of them are demanding this outright, mocking
Trump for failing to attack Russia -- despite no evidence that they were responsible -- while their
well-trained
liberal flock
is
suggesting
that
the
non-response
constitutes
some form of "high treason."
Indeed, the Biden team has been signalling that they intend to quickly fulfill demands for aggressive retaliation.
The
New York Times
reported
on Tuesday
that Biden "accused President Trump [] of 'irrational downplaying'" of the hack while "warning Russia
that he would not allow the intrusion to 'go unanswered' after he takes office." Biden emphasized that once the
intelligence assessment is complete, "we will respond, and probably respond in kind."
Threats and retaliation between the U.S. and Russia are always dangerous, but particularly so now. One of the key
nuclear arms agreements between the two nuclear-armed nations, the New START treaty,
will
expire in February
unless Putin and Biden can successfully negotiate a renewal: sixteen days after Biden is
scheduled to take office. "That will force Mr. Biden to strike a deal to prevent one threat -- a nuclear arms race --
while simultaneously threatening retaliation on another," observed the
Times.
This escalating rhetoric
from Washington about Russia, and the resulting climate of heightened
tensions, are dangerous in the extreme. They are also based in numerous myths, deceits and falsehoods:
First,
absolutely no evidence of any kind has been presented to suggest, let alone prove, that Russia
is responsible for these hacks. It goes without saying that it is perfectly plausible that Russia could have done this:
it's the sort of thing that every large power from China and Iran to the U.S. and Russia have the capability to do and
wield against virtually every other country including one another.
But if we learned nothing else over the last several decades, we should know that accepting claims that emanate from the
U.S. intelligence community about adversaries without a shred of evidence is madness of the highest order. We just had a
glaring reminder of the importance of this rule: just weeks before the election, countless mainstream media outlets
laundered and endorsed the utterly false claim that the documents from Hunter Biden's laptop
were
"Russian disinformation,"
only for officials to acknowledge once the harm was done that there was no evidence -- zero
-- of Russian involvement.
Yet that is exactly what the overwhelming bulk of media outlets are doing again: asserting that Russia is behind these
hacks despite having no evidence of its truth.
The New York Times
' Michael Barbaro, host of the paper's
popular
The Daily
podcast,
asked
his colleague
, national security reporter David Sanger, what evidence exists to assert that Russia did this. As
Barbaro put it, even Sanger is "allowing that early conclusions could all be wrong, but that it's doubtful." Indeed,
Sanger acknowledged to Barbaro that they have no proof, asserting instead that the basis on which he is relying is that
Russia possesses the sophistication to carry out such a hack (as do several other nation-states), along with claiming
that the hack has what he calls the "markings" of Russian hackers.
But this tactic was exactly the same one
used
by former intelligence officials
, echoed by these same media outlets, to circulate the false pre-election claim that
the documents from Hunter Biden's laptop were "Russian disinformation": namely, they pronounced in lockstep, the
material from Hunter's laptop "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." This was also exactly
the same tactic used by the U.S. intelligence community in 2001
to
falsely blame Iraq for the anthrax attacks
, claiming that their chemical analysis revealed a substance that was "a
trademark of the Iraqi biological weapons program."
These media outlets will, if pressed, acknowledge their lack of proof that Russia did this. Despite this admitted lack
of proof, media outlets are repeatedly stating Russian responsibility as
proven fact
.
"Scope of Russian Hacking Becomes Clear: Multiple U.S. Agencies Were Hit,"
one
New
York Times
headline
proclaimed,
and the first line of that article, co-written by Sanger, stated definitively: "The scope of a
hacking
engineered by one of Russia's
premier intelligence agencies became clearer on Monday."
The Washington Post
deluged
the public
with identically certain headlines:
Nobody in the government has been as definitive in asserting Russian responsibility as corporate media outlets. Even
Trump's hawkish Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, crafted his accusation against Moscow
with
caveats and uncertainty
: "
I think it's the case
that now we can say
pretty clearly
that it was the
Russians that engaged in this activity."
If actual evidence ultimately emerges demonstrating Russian responsibility, it would not alter how dangerous it is that
-- less than twenty years after the Iraq WMD debacle and less than a couple of years after media endorsement of
endless
Russiagate falsehoods
-- the most influential media outlets continue to mindlessly peddle as Truth whatever the
intelligence community feeds them, without the need to see any evidence that what they're claiming is actually true.
Even more alarmingly, large sectors of the public that venerate these outlets continue to believe that what they hear
from them must be true, no matter how many times they betray that trust. The ease with which the CIA can disseminate
whatever messaging it wants through friendly media outlets is stunning.
Second
, the very idea that this hack could be compared to rogue and wildly aberrational events such as
Pearl Harbor or the 9/11 attack is utterly laughable on its face. One has to be drowning in endless amounts of
jingoistic self-delusion to believe that this hack -- or, for that matter, the 2016 "election interference" -- is a
radical departure from international norms as opposed to a perfect reflection of them.
Just as was true of 2016 fake Facebook pages and Twitter bots, it is not an exaggeration to say that the U.S. Government
engages in hacking attacks of this sort, and ones far more invasive, against virtually every country on the planet,
including Russia, on a weekly basis. That does not mean that this kind of hacking is either justified or unjustified. It
does mean, however, that depicting it as some particularly dastardly and incomparably immoral act that requires massive
retaliation requires a degree of irrationality and gullibility that is bewildering to behold.
The NSA reporting enabled by Edward Snowden by itself proved that the NSA spies on
virtually
anyone it can
. Indeed, after reviewing the archive back in 2013, I made the decision that I would not report on U.S.
hacks of large adversary countries such as China and Russia because it was so commonplace for all of these countries to
hack one another as aggressively and intrusively as they could that it was hardly newsworthy to report on this (the only
exception was when there was a substantial reason to view such spying as independently newsworthy, such as
Sweden's
partnering with NSA to spy on Russia
in direct violation of the denials Swedish officials voiced to their public).
Other news outlets who had access to Snowden documents, particularly
The New York Times
, were not nearly as
circumspect in exposing U.S. spying on large nation-state adversaries. As a result, there is ample proof published by
those outlets (sometimes provoking Snowden's strong objections) that the U.S. does exactly what Russia is alleged to
have done here -- and far worse.
"Even as the United States made a public case about the dangers of buying from [China's] Huawei, classified documents
show that the National Security Agency was creating its own back doors -- directly into Huawei's networks,"
reported
The
New York Times
'
David
Sanger and Nicole Perlroth in 2013, adding that "the agency pried its way into the servers in Huawei's sealed
headquarters in Shenzhen, China's industrial heart."
In 2013,
the
Guardian
revealed
"an
NSA attempt to eavesdrop on the Russian leader, Dmitry Medvedev, as his phone calls passed through satellite links to
Moscow," and added: "foreign politicians and officials who took part in two
G20
summit
meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their
British government hosts." Meanwhile, "Sweden has been a key partner for the United States in spying on Russia and its
leadership, Swedish television said on Thursday,"
noted
Reuters
, citing what one NSA document described as "a unique collection on high-priority Russian targets, such as
leadership, internal politics."
Other reports revealed that the U.S. had
hacked
into
the Brazilian telecommunications system to collect data on the whole population, and was
spying
on
Brazil's key leaders (including then-President Dilma Rousseff) as well as its most important companies such as
its oil giant Petrobras and its Ministry of Mines and Energy.
The Washington Post
reported
:
"The National Security Agency is gathering nearly
5 billion
records a day
on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world, according to top-secret documents and interviews
with U.S. intelligence officials, enabling the agency to track the movements of individuals -- and map their
relationships -- in ways that would have been previously unimaginable." And on and on.
[One amazing though under-appreciated episode related to all this: the same
New York Times
reporter who
revealed the details about massive NSA hacking of Chinese government and industry, Nicole Perlroth, subsequently urged
(in tweets she has now deleted) that Snowden not be pardoned on the ground that, according to her, he revealed
legitimate NSA spying on U.S. adversaries. In reality, it was actually she, Perlorth, not Snowden, who chose to expose
NSA spying on China, provoking Snowden's angry objections when she did so based on his view this was a violation of the
framework he created for what should and should not be revealed; in other words, not only did Perlroth
urge the
criminal prosecution of a source on which she herself relied, an absolutely astonishing thing for any reporter to do,
but so much worse, she did so by falsely accusing that source of doing something that she, Perlroth, had done herself:
namely, reveal extensive U.S. hacking of China
].
What all of this makes demonstrably clear is that only the most deluded and uninformed person could believe that Russian
hacking of U.S. agencies and corporations -- if it happened -- is anything other than totally normal and common behavior
between these countries. Harvard Law Professor and former Bush DOJ official Jack Goldsmith, reviewing growing demands
for retaliation, wrote in
an
excellent article
last week entitled "Self-Delusion on the Russia Hack
:
The U.S. regularly hacks
foreign governmental computer systems on a massive scale":
The lack of self-awareness in these and similar reactions to the Russia breach is astounding. The U.S. government has
no principled basis to complain about the Russia hack, much less retaliate for it with military means, since the U.S.
government hacks foreign government networks on a huge scale every day. Indeed, a military response to the Russian
hack would violate international law . . . .
As the revelations from leaks of information from Edward Snowden made plain, the United States regularly penetrates
foreign governmental computer systems on a massive scale, often (as in the Russia hack) with the unwitting assistance
of the private sector, for purposes of spying. It is almost certainly the world's leader in this practice, probably
by a lot. The Snowden documents suggested as much, as does the NSA's probable budget. In 2016, after noting "problems
with cyber intrusions from Russia," Obama boasted that the United States has "more capacity than anybody
offensively" . . . .
Because of its own practices, the U.S. government has traditionally accepted the legitimacy of foreign governmental
electronic spying in U.S. government networks. After the notorious Chinese hack of the Office of Personnel Management
database, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said: "You have to kind of salute the Chinese for what
they did. If we had the opportunity to do that, I don't think we'd hesitate for a minute." The same Russian agency
that appears to have carried out the hack revealed this week also hacked into unclassified emails in the White House
and Defense and State Departments in 2014-2015. The Obama administration deemed it traditional espionage and did not
retaliate. "It was information collection, which is what nation states -- including the United States -- do," said Obama
administration cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel this week.
But over the last four years, Americans, particularly those who feed on liberal media outlets, have been drowned in so
much mythology about the U.S. and Russia that they have no capacity to critically assess the claims being made, and --
just as they were led to believe about "Russia's 2016 interference in Our Sacred Elections" -- are easily convinced that
what Russia did is some shocking and extreme crime the likes of which are rarely seen in international relations. In
reality, their own government is the undisputed world champion in perpetrating these acts, and has been for years if not
decades.
Third
, these demands for "retaliation" are so reckless because they are almost always unaccompanied by
any specifics. Even if Moscow's responsibility is demonstrated, what is the U.S. supposed to do in response? If your
answer is that they should hack Russia back, rest assured the NSA and CIA are always trying to hack Russia as much as it
possibly can, long before this event.
If the answer is more sanctions, that would be just performative and pointless, aside from wildly hypocritical. Any
reprisals more severe than that would be beyond reckless, particularly with the need to renew nuclear arms control
agreements looming. And if you are someone demanding retaliation, do you believe that Russia, China, Brazil and all the
other countries invaded by NSA hackers have the same right of retaliation against the U.S., or does the U.S. occupy a
special place with special entitlements that all other countries lack?
What we have here, yet again, is the classic operation of the intelligence community feeding serious accusations about a
nuclear-armed power to an eagerly gullible corporate media, with the media mindlessly disseminating it without evidence,
all toward ratcheting up tensions between these two nuclear-armed powers and fortifying a mythology of the U.S. as grand
victim but never perpetrator.
If you ever find yourself wondering how massive military budgets and a posture of Endless War are seemingly invulnerable
to challenge, this pathological behavior -- from a now-enduring union of the intelligence community, corporate media
outlets, and the Democratic Party -- provides one key piece of the puzzle.
Update, Dec. 24, 2020, 7:36 a.m. ET:
Although the tweets from
The New York Times
'
Nicole Perlroth referenced above were deleted by her, as indicated, an alert reader notes that
a
Politico
article
at the time
referenced part of my exchange with her, one prompted by anger from
Washington Post
reporters
over an editorial by their own paper that argued against a Snowden pardon, even though that paper reported extensively
on Snowden's documents and won a Pulitzer for doing so:
The editorial is nothing if not a good excuse for a Twitter debate. Some journalists continued to air outrage
yesterday over the editorial board's defenestration of Snowden, while others either agreed with the board's argument
or at least defended its right to take a stand that it knew would no doubt rankle many in the Post's newsroom. In one
of the more notable exchanges, New York Times reporter cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth tangled with Glenn
Greenwald, who broke the Snowden/NSA story for The Guardian.
Perlroth:
"Gotta say I agree w/ wapo. @Snowden leaked tens of thousands of docs that had nothing to
do with privacy violations."
http://bit.ly/2cLPeLY
Greenwald:
"They can start an august club: Journalists In Favor of Criminal Prosecution For Our
Sources"
http://bit.ly/2cLLIRz
That's precisely what I was referencing here. It's utterly repugnant that Perlroth advocated that her own source be
imprisoned on the ground that he leaked documents "that had nothing to do with privacy violations" when it was she,
Perlroth, who decided to reveal details of NSA spying on China, angering Snowden in the process. Clicking on the above
link to her tweet demonstrates that she since deleted it.
One last point: there is an
outstanding
op-ed in Thursday's
New
York Times
about anger over the alleged Russian hack by Paul Kolbe, who served as a senior CIA clandestine
operative for 25 years and is now director of the Intelligence Project at Harvard Kennedy School, entitled "With
Hacking, the United States Needs to Stop Playing the Victim." It details that "the United States is, of course, engaged
in the same type of operations at an even grander scale" and therefore "it's time for the United States to stop acting
surprised and stop posturing."
Greenwald is
mistaken on one point. He discusses the aggressive, outraged words by American politicians and media
about the recent spate of (allegedly) Russian hacking, and rushes to assume that it has a significant
chance of escalating to nuclear war. Biden's language about wanting to "respond in kind" makes it clear
enough that he's not going to do any sort of bombing, killing, invasion, or other equally warlike act in
response. Likewise for Mitt Romney's language. Although I like just about everything else Greenwald says
in this article, his repeated suggestions that the threats over this incident could end up going nuclear
are difficult to believe.
Greenwald's
perspective is that "Threats and retaliation between the U.S. and Russia are always dangerous" due to
their massive stocks of nuclear weapons, particularly now that nuclear treaties have been weakened. Look,
I get that escalation to nuclear war remains a serious danger, and that it would be better if the US and
Russia didn't raise tensions. But as Greenwald knows, things like one country making off with another
country's secret information are examples of the kind of aggressive action that it's very difficult to
stop major powers from doing to other countries. And when a large or small country experiences this kind
of aggressive action being done to it, isn't it inevitable that opinion leaders in that country are going
to say: We won't stand for this, this is similar to an act of war, we must retaliate somehow? Most
opinion leaders will always be upset when their own country is treated that way by another country, even
if their own country has done the same thing and worse.
Greenwald seems
to be looking for a world where opinion leaders in a major power like the US avoid encouraging
retaliation, and avoid even portraying the hacking as an act of war. Nothing could stop opinion leaders
as a group from doing that, unless maybe you could demonstrate to them that their rhetoric, and the
retaliations it leads to, is too likely to encourage escalation to nuclear war. But the continuing
pattern of major powers retaliating against each other by hacking and other relatively low-level
aggression is not something we can realistically stop. The United States and other countries have come to
accept that all major powers will carry out hacks and even low-level forms of violence directed at other
major powers, that countries will express their outrage when another country does it to them, and that
one country will retaliate at the same level when another country does these things. That's a pretty
stable pattern, and there is no sign that anyone wants to disproportionately escalate their retaliation
in a way that could lead to nuclear war. Given that, you can't reasonably convince opinion leaders to
moderate their rhetoric further. The rhetoric coming from opinion leaders on this subject isn't
particularly bloody anyway, at least by the standards of what historically leads to war. So for the short
term at least, I just accept that opinion leaders are going to talk that way -- I do have long-term hopes
of a more peaceful world, but there's no use pretending that the current less peaceful language puts us
in imminent danger of nuclear holocaust.
The main reason
why I am confident that outraged rhetoric about hacking secrets won't escalate into world war is because
modern countries, and especially the United States, are vulnerable to cyber threats that are much worse
than making off with information. It would be easy for an adversary to destroy most of American society
by acts of massively lethal hacking and cyber sabotage. American decision-makers know that they must
deter these kinds of attacks on the US by holding out the prospect of retaliating with nukes, world war,
or similarly lethal cyber attacks. Since American leaders need to be able to use the prospect of massive
retaliation to deter a cyber attack that would cause great destruction in the US, they can't risk using
this kind of massive retaliation for hacking that just steals a lot of secrets. It has already been
established that in the 21st century, countries routinely steal each other's secrets, so it's not
possible to deter or compensate for another country's secret-stealing by threatening to escalate to
bombing or killing or invasion.
Of the
politicians that Greenwald quoted, the two whose rhetoric is most heated still stopped short of the kind
of language that runs any risk of starting a nuclear war. Sen. Durbin said the hacking was "virtually a
declaration of war", using an adverb that cooled down his point and being careful to avoid declaring
himself that a war exists. The obscure Congressman Jason Crow said "Our nation is under assault" and that
the hacking "could be" a "cyber equivalent of Pearl Harbor", where again his point is moderated by the
words "could be" and "cyber equivalent". Sorry, I don't see a danger of a civilization-ending war there,
nor do I see it in the corporate media's language.
Although Greenwald is right to say that politicians and the media are overhyping
threats here, Greenwald is also, in his own way, overhyping a different alleged threat, the idea that
outrage over hacking secrets will escalate to nuclear war. That said, I do think we need to do more to
prevent other pathways of escalation to nuclear war that are more realistic than the one Greenwald
alludes to here, and I agree with Greenwald's other points.
Does anyone have screenshots of the deleted hypocrtiical tweets by NY Times
reporter Nicole Perlroth that Greenwald mentioned in this article? You would normally expect him to post
screenshots, but he doesn't include them or link to them. The paragraph of Greenwald's article where he
brings up her hypocrisy shows some signs of maybe being unfinished, with awkward square brackets. He
should have also included the link to the NY Times article where Perlroth does the same thing she later
condemned -- the link for that is here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/world/asia/nsa-breached-chinese-servers-seen-as-spy-peril.html
This Scott Ritter
op/ed is a good read and puts much into perspective if you've been paying attention. For
example, think of the breakneck speed Putin's trying to get Russia's national projects
underway and completed. Think of the ongoing and quickening pace of Eurasian integration. The
McFaul citation, "Russia is way more powerful today than it was 20 years ago, and it's way
more powerful today than it was four years ago," is yet another consideration. Finally, Putin
and Lavrov have spoken of the ever increasing need to negotiate an International Cyber
Security Treaty for almost all of Trump's term. And I'll wager the USA's National Debt that
Russia is very busily finishing its "for internal use only" internet that firewalls the
energy, defense and communications portions of Russian infrastructure.
The hole Obama/Biden were busy digging from 2009-2017 is now much deeper and getting
deeper daily. We've now seen the bipartisan rejection of the saner, larger, stimulus Trump
and some Rs & Ds demanded for the commonfolk, which provides an excellent signal as to
what's going to follow--nothing, aside from the hole deepening yet further. IMO, the economic
draft will soon cease as who will want to defend something that's indefensible. IMO, a
majority if not now will soon conclude that they no longer have a stake in this society, that
they're being milked for all they're worth then discarded.
The UK counts on the Commonwealth countries and the usa to become its preferred
partners.
Its visceral hatred for Russia will cease to influence the EU and the EU will do what it
should have done years ago, partner with Russian and become a much more powerful block. Bye
sick UK. Welcome healthy Russia...
"... the media – playing judge, jury and executioner – has leveled blame on the usual suspect. ..."
"... Did anyone actually believe that Russia would escape a major US election season without a ceremonial tarring and feathering by the media? It's almost as though frantic journalists, unable to sell the 'Trump Beats Biden with Kremlin Collusion' narrative, have dreamt up this latest work of pulp fiction to keep the ball of 'Russian villainy' bouncing into the next US administration. Heaven forbid if the media just sat by and let protracted peace break out between Washington and Moscow. ..."
"... By now it would seem that the mainstream media would use a bit more discretion before screaming 'Russia!' inside of a crowded planet every time a US computer system is hacked. After all, Russia is certainly not the only country in the world with a plethora of adventure-seeking hackers sitting around bored in their underwear, nor is it the only country in the world that may be tempted – theoretically speaking – to sneak a peek into Uncle Sam's software and, at the risk of sounding vulgar, hardware. ..."
"... Just ask Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell, who allowed himself to be lured into a honey trap by a Chinese Communist spy named – I kid you not – Fang Fang. Aside from making James Bond thrillers essential reading for all politicians, the Democrats may wish to inquire how a member of the House INTELLIGENCE Committee fell for such a scheme. More to the point, however, Swalwell was one of those deranged Democrats screaming 'Russian collusion!' at the height of the Mueller investigation, another waste of taxpayer funds that turned up zero evidence of collusion between Trump and the Kremlin ..."
As incoming nominees of a future Biden administration have
stopped short in naming a culprit in the SolarWinds hack, the media – playing judge, jury and executioner – has leveled blame on
the usual suspect.
Did anyone actually believe that Russia would escape a major US election season without a ceremonial tarring and feathering by
the media? It's almost as though frantic journalists, unable to sell the 'Trump Beats Biden with Kremlin Collusion' narrative, have
dreamt up this latest work of pulp fiction to keep the ball of 'Russian villainy' bouncing into the next US administration. Heaven
forbid if the media just sat by and let protracted peace break out between Washington and Moscow.
Indeed, when SolarWinds – a software platform that counts among its clients the Pentagon, State Department, Justice Department,
and the National Security Agency – suffered an alleged hack, the Washington Post jumped on the evil Russia connection faster than
Ian Fleming.
"The Russian hackers breached email systems,"
wrote Ellen Nakashima and Craig Timberg in the Post without offering a stitch of evidence (Timberg, readers may recall, is the
journalist who relied on a shady outfit known as PropOrNot to
report , wrongly, that some 200 news outlets were peddling Russian-inspired "fake news."). Quoting those always handy "people
who spoke on the condition of anonymity," the tag team claimed that the "scale of the Russian espionage operation appears to be
large."
Ironically, the most reliable real-life entity that Nakashima and Timberg quoted in their story comes by way of the Russian Embassy
in Washington, which called the reports of Russian hacking "baseless."
But never mind. If the Bezos-empire publication says Russia is the guilty party then who are we mere mortals to ask any questions.
So now we're off again to the 'blame Russia' races.
At this point, it must be asked: who is more responsible for writing US foreign policy, the mainstream media, with their never-ending
supply of 'anonymous sources' to substantiate their fantastic assertions, or the US government? That question seems reasonable after
listening to interviews with freshly appointed members of the Biden administration, who apparently never got the memo about 'Russian
baddies'.
Jennifer Granholm, for example, the energy secretary nominee, committed the cardinal sin of not recognizing the 'Russian bogeyman'
in an interview with ABC talking head, George Stephanopolous.
"We don't know fully what happened, the extent of it, and, quite frankly, we don't know fully for sure who did it," Granholm
said , leaving Stephanopoulos, deprived
of clickable Russophobic sound bites, looking dejected and forlorn.
Perhaps Stephanopoulos was anticipating that Granholm would simply regurgitate media talking points about Russia's unproven hack,
like the absolutely reckless one put out by Reuters.
Reporting on the SolarWinds hack, the Reuters article screamed 'Russia' from the opening gates. Yet not a single living person
is quoted from the incoming Biden administration to take responsibility for a claim that has real-life consequences, especially when
some members of Congress are calling the electronic breach an "act of war."
"President-elect Joe Biden's team will consider several options to punish Russia for its suspected role in the unprecedented
hacking of US government agencies and companies once he takes office, from new financial sanctions to cyberattacks on Russian infrastructure,
people familiar with the matter say."
The very same deplorable tactic was used in an
interview 'Face
the Nation' conducted with Ron Klain, the incoming White House chief of staff.
When pressed by the interviewer Margaret Brennan if there was "any doubt that Russia was behind [the hack]," Klain provided
an answer that Brennan was clearly not satisfied with. In other words, Klain never mentioned the perennial villain Russia as a possible
suspect.
"We should be hearing a clear and unambiguous allocation of responsibility from the White House, from the intelligence community,"
he said. "They're the ones who should be making those messages and delivering the ascertainment of responsibility."
Brennan was having none of it, however, and pushed on with the 'blame Russia' narrative.
"Well, the president-elect was pretty clear when he spoke to my colleague Stephen Colbert on CBS earlier this week, and he
was asked about Russia and he said they'll be held accountable," Brennan remarked, desperate to hear Klain pronounce the name.
"He said they'll face financial repercussions for what they did. Is that no longer the case? He no longer believes it's Russia?"
At this point, some very convenient technical problems helped to cut the pathetic excuse for journalism off the air.
By now it would seem that the mainstream media would use a bit more discretion before screaming 'Russia!' inside of a crowded
planet every time a US computer system is hacked. After all, Russia is certainly not the only country in the world with a plethora
of adventure-seeking hackers sitting around bored in their underwear, nor is it the only country in the world that may be tempted
– theoretically speaking – to sneak a peek into Uncle Sam's software and, at the risk of sounding vulgar, hardware.
Just ask Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell, who allowed himself to be lured into a honey trap by a Chinese Communist spy named
– I kid you not – Fang Fang. Aside from making James Bond thrillers essential reading for all politicians, the Democrats may wish
to inquire how a member of the House INTELLIGENCE Committee fell for such a scheme. More to the point, however, Swalwell was one
of those deranged Democrats screaming 'Russian collusion!' at the height of the Mueller investigation, another waste of taxpayer
funds that turned up zero evidence of collusion between Trump and the Kremlin.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that the timing of the purported attack on SolarWinds, coming as it does just weeks before Inauguration
Day when Joe Biden is expected to be sworn in as the 46th POTUS, is extremely suspicious in of itself. Not only is there a power
struggle going on behind the scenes for the White House, with the Trump administration claiming the election was marred by massive
fraud, but Joe Biden's own son Hunter has been accused of influence-peddling in places like Ukraine and China.
The Biden family, naturally, has rejected the claims, while the media has practically buried the story. Meanwhile, Russia, much
like in 2016 when it was accused of hacking Hillary Clinton's emails, is being dragged into another American political drama, at
the most crucial time, without rhyme or reason. At least when it comes to Russia the media can take credit for being very predictable,
albeit absolutely reckless and dangerous in its tactics. Would it kill them to take five minutes off poking the Russian bear?
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
We are dealing with compound fraud but it is not clear how anyone gains an advantage when the propaganda against Russia has saturated
the public mind.
Fenianfromcork Bill Spence 5 hours ago 21 Dec, 2020 08:45 PM
Simple magicians conjuring trick. Look here while Ido something else here.
DexterMont Bill Spence 9 hours ago 21 Dec, 2020 05:19 PM
It's just self delusion in the American political class. No one else is paying any attention to it.
It's me 9 hours ago 21 Dec, 2020 04:54 PM
Same old Same old, we don't have to prove Russians hacked the Election, because it was hacked. It's up to Russia to prove they
didn't hack the Election.
VaimacaPiru 7 hours ago 21 Dec, 2020 06:55 PM
Mr Bridge! Your title should be more accurate! 'The Transnational Corporate Class that own the media sets US foreign policy' Thank
you!
Bill Spence VaimacaPiru 7 hours ago 21 Dec, 2020 07:03 PM
Right now Donald Trump and Pompeo are setting the foreign policy not the transnational corporations who have no head. Generally
the CIA and State Department set foreign policy not those corporations. The CIA has a different point of view, the national security
point of view. Many of those corporations are happy trading with China. They have reached a contradictory position.
IslandT 2 hours ago 22 Dec, 2020 12:04 AM
According to the Trump administration, Russia is one of the actor behinds the dominion incident which helps Biden won the election,
so if Trump continue in power, he might sanction Russia. And now we have this hacking incident under Trump administration, if
you say this is a hoax and it comes from Biden camp, then this will not make sense at all because Biden has already won the election
so he does not needs to use any hoax to down Trump anymore. If Russia is indeed hacking then those previous anti-Trump FBI and
CIA directors should have used this as an issue to attack Russia and Trump before the election instead of creating the Afghan
hoax which has no prove at all (did USA has proved on the hack? Nobody knows)! The present director for both FBI and CIA are all
Trump men and thus I don't think Biden team is behinds this hacking incident hoax. I read the article and know that Trump team
(especially Mike Pompeo) calls for maximum punishment on Russia, Russia needs to prepare and to avoid the worst case scenario
before Biden takes power. I think there is no sense at all for deep state to hate Russia so much because all they want is profit,
it is time for Russia to have a friendly chat with all those parties that involve in Russia-Hate campaign. You can't get blamed
by everyone forever, this need to stop!
Jeffrey Perkins 9 hours ago 21 Dec, 2020 05:00 PM
pentagon propoganda money can control the media in many ways
Atilla863 1 hour ago 22 Dec, 2020 12:50 AM
Just wonder why the EU politicians haven't joined the US - chorus yet condemning the Russians.
EthanCarterIII 1 hour ago 22 Dec, 2020 12:49 AM
Maybe they should put more time and effort into increasing their security instead of blaming people? It seems every other month
there's another story about hackers getting into the systems, and frankly they need to start looking in the mirror. Oh, but then
Hillary wants to be Secretary of Defense and left a private top secret server in her bathroom hacked by anybody and everybody,
so maybe it isn't so much "hacking" as incompetence?
dangood013 30 minutes ago 22 Dec, 2020 02:05 AM
Nakashima and other do not make stuff up. They just regurgitate what their National Security sources tell them upon penalty of
" losing access " to their precious sources.
Fuzzerbear 2 hours ago 21 Dec, 2020 11:40 PM
oh no - not the Russians again. They are really bad bad bad - just as bad as Iran, Iraq, Syria . . . . . . .. Such a thorn for
the USA, Israel, the 5 lies, etc. How boring will the reality be without all the fake news.
liarof1776 3 hours ago 21 Dec, 2020 11:10 PM
america is having ashkenazic genetic problem: paranoia
Atilla863 1 hour ago 22 Dec, 2020 12:36 AM
Don't worry Russia is ALWAYS the convenient scapegoat. What a shame American politicians and their supporters have turned out
to be!, life is meaningless without Russian phantoms. Sad
Solecismcles 7 hours ago 21 Dec, 2020 06:41 PM
Cowhorts: Warshington & most media; though more overtly when Dem's have Executive influence. However, so much scum is entrenched
throughout the bureaucracies that their evil lurks and preys regardless of which Party controls WH.
"... the media – playing judge, jury and executioner – has leveled blame on the usual suspect. ..."
"... Did anyone actually believe that Russia would escape a major US election season without a ceremonial tarring and feathering by the media? It's almost as though frantic journalists, unable to sell the 'Trump Beats Biden with Kremlin Collusion' narrative, have dreamt up this latest work of pulp fiction to keep the ball of 'Russian villainy' bouncing into the next US administration. Heaven forbid if the media just sat by and let protracted peace break out between Washington and Moscow. ..."
As incoming nominees of a future Biden administration have
stopped short in naming a culprit in the SolarWinds hack, the media – playing judge, jury and executioner – has leveled blame on
the usual suspect.
Did anyone actually believe that Russia would escape a major US election season without a ceremonial tarring and feathering by
the media? It's almost as though frantic journalists, unable to sell the 'Trump Beats Biden with Kremlin Collusion' narrative, have
dreamt up this latest work of pulp fiction to keep the ball of 'Russian villainy' bouncing into the next US administration. Heaven
forbid if the media just sat by and let protracted peace break out between Washington and Moscow.
The only information taken that rattles US.gov is how corrupt everyone is. The fear is having that become
irrefutably public,
flyonmywall 9 hours ago
Those Russkies really kick butt. They are everywhere these days.
Unknown User 8 hours ago
The Onion puts out less ridiculous stories than the US "intelligence" agencies.
Dzerzhhinsky 6 hours ago
The Chinese are in the dark because they won't buy Australian coal, the Russian
superhackers cracked the uncrackable Tradewinds123 password, and Iran is doing something
?
It's all a diversion, don't look at me look over there.
The intensity of the disinformation is directly related to the upcoming US collapse.
yewtee 2 hours ago
Will there be civil war ?
Lee Bertin 56 minutes ago
Have you not noticed that it has been going on for four years
BGen. Jack Ripper 9 hours ago
No enemy is more terrifying than the one in our midst.
Krinkle Sach 8 hours ago
🇮🇱💩🇮🇱💩🇮🇱
Whiteman_Sachs 9 hours ago
There is another headquarters in VA, specifically Langley that's more likely the intruder.
Imagine this....The penetration of this intrusion is so vast and widespread. Access to
hundreds of companies, contractors, military, ect. I doubt the a foreign entity could get so
far inside. Imagine if our new leader ship at the Def Dept decided to shut the backdoor.
Cutoff access to the bad actors a CIA. They've already closed off operational assistance to
the CIA. The response has been so predicable....Russia Russia blah blah. I think many things
are going on behind the scene. I think Trump is kneecapping his rivals on what could be the
way out.
thezone 9 hours ago
PLEASE remember MIT Romney and all the swamp elite decried Trump for firing Chris
Krebs.
Mr. 'there's never been a more secure' election.
Now we hear that Russia has owned government systems for a full year right under his
nose.
jwoop66 8 hours ago
I just spent two hours watching this. Krebs is in it talking about all the bad actors out
there trying to subvert our elections, and that its the first thing he thinks of in the
morning, and the last thing he thinks of before he goes to bed.
yes, and then he says "perfect election" within days. f'ing frauds.
That crap of an article brought me 2 or 3 minutes closer to death.
And hell doesn't want me, Satan has a restraining order.
DurdenRae 26 minutes ago
They don't really qualify for intelligence if they all they can come up with is that kind
of malarkey...
aberfoyle_crumplehausen 7 hours ago
As an average dude, I consider my initial thoughts and reactions to things typical of most
others. When I first heard of this latest 'Russian Hack' I instantly thought "so the
transition is almost here and they launch their first psyop".
So I am obviously not alone in my intuition and this means the media is becoming laughably
irrelevant to the common folk.
Babadook 7 hours ago
See what happens when you elect incompetent, inept fools to run your government, they only
appoint incompetent, inept fools to run the country's military, FBI & intel services.
sp0rkovite 7 hours ago
Barr is a democrat now?
You_Cant_Quit_Me 8 hours ago
Has anyone considered the US was simultaneously attacked with a biological weapon known as
Covid-19 and hacked around the same time frame? Maybe the US with its constant false
allegations against Russia has forced Russia to align with China making the US the common
enemy?
Russia was not behind the hack attack despite what we are being told. It is a false flag
with someone trying to frame Russia.
Kreditanstalt 8 hours ago
The other wing of The Party has its own "CHINA! CHINA! CHINA! propaganda campaign too
JackOliver4 8 hours ago (Edited)
They hate Russia because Russia tells the TRUTH !
Everything Russia says is well thought out and makes sense !
Once the US got away with the FAKE moon landing BS - they were enabled - sad !
I caught a glimpse of a 'Who wants to be a millionaire' episode - question was 'How many
people have walked on the MOON' ?
Apparently the answer is 12 !!
The brainwashing runs DEEP !!
RKKA 8 hours ago
It's not about who breaks the networks or who attacks Nord Stream 2. The fact is that
today's situation is even more explosive than during the Cold War.
The NATO alliance already borders on Russia and all the lines that were previously "red"
are not recognized by anyone, primarily by the West.
The situation, thanks to aggressive rhetoric and the movement of military units, has
become much more dangerous than it was during the Cold War.
This is confirmed by the German Foreign Minister. Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the
confrontation between the West and Russia much more dangerous than that which took place
between NATO countries and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Five_Black_Eyes_Intel_Agency 8 hours ago (Edited)
"intelligence" agencies
LOL
This is yet more squirming by an empire that looks increasingly bloated and its own worst
enemy. Good luck clowns, but you wouldn't know what to do with it.
Xena fobe 9 hours ago
Xiden doesn't know Russia exists. No, this is not being done to persuade Xiden.
Late onset ADHD 9 hours ago (Edited)
Without the 'right' enemy, a politician is a useless appendage.
transcendent_wannabe 5 minutes ago
This youtuber gives a pretty good insider view of what has occurred. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLhk_gqYaEg
US TREASURY HACKED because of SOLARWINDS You have to watch all the way to the end to get the
full picture.
Basically its our own good-ole-boy network of insiders stealing data to sell for money.
Yeah, can you believe that our esteemed coke-addicted elite class would sell out their own
country for cash? Heh, we always wanted full transparency in government, so now the data is
exposed. I would expect the future to be sprinkled with embarrassing data revelations used to
discredit various players. There has been too much secrecy in government anyways. Let the sun
shine in on all those secrets.
Lee Bertin 52 minutes ago
This is just a distraction, just smoke and mirrors. Do not lose focus on the game that is
played in front of your wide open eyes
"While targets of the SolarWinds hack included the U.S. Treasury Department and the
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), there is no complete
list of the government departments and agencies and U.S. companies compromised in the hack.
Bloomberg reported U.S. government departments targeted included the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), the State Department, the National Institute of Health (NIH) as well as
some parts of the Department of Defense were targeted in the hack. The New York Times
reported SolarWinds products are used throughout nearly all Fortune 500 companies,
including the New York Times itself. The New York Times also reported SolarWinds is used by
the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which designs nuclear weapons, and by Boeing, a major
U.S. defense contractor.
"Following the hack, the Verge reported SolarWinds deleted a list of high profile
clients from its website, though an archived copy of the client page states 425 of the
Fortune 500 companies use their products, as well as all branches of the U.S. military, the
National Security Agency (NSA), and even the Office of the President of the United States.
The company's software is also used by all of the top five U.S. accounting firms and
hundreds of colleges and universities around the world. It is not immediately clear if
these SolarWinds clients specifically used the affected products listed."
Since it now seems that the Dominion software used in the Nov. 3 presidential election
was, contrary to law, connected to the internet, can we be sure that the election itself was
unaffected?
As Hunter Biden would say: "Probably not."
apparently 5 hours ago
this is likely false, for the lack of specifics and associated journalist hot air.
amanfromMars 6 hours ago
Muddying the waters or clearing the air and the decks? With so many crazy actors dependent
upon the continued existence of mad fields, one does have to expand one's horizons and
include the full list of players in such great games. So ..... in praise of such a
realisation and sensible development ......
Quote: "From the quality of the threat design, the range of techniques used, and the
nature of its victims, this was a nation state at work and in MO and capabilities most
likely Russia."
*
Rewrite required: "From the quality of the threat design, the range of techniques used,
and the nature of its victims, this was a nation state at work. It could have been the
NSA, GCHQ, the Russians or the Chinese. In MO most likely the NSA." ....... Anonymous
Coward
You'll upset Israel if you leave them out of the picture, AC. And they'd love you to
think they are capable of such a show of remote force even as they deny it straight to your
face. They've built a tiny disparate nation upon such foundations. [More folk live in
London than in Israel. That's how small it is]
The thing is, if it is none of the above and no nation state, is it something of an
alien attack you didn't see coming, and that makes a lot of other vital things extremely
vulnerable to similar unexpected events which can effortlessly deliver major catastrophic
crises ....... flash market stock crashes.
It can be, and most probably more likely certainly is, given the fact there is no concrete
evidence available to pin on a suspect and scapegoats, a wholly new APT Adept ACTive genre of
disruptive mischief and creative destruction at ITs Work, Rest and Play.
"... Didn't the Germans say they found the Novichok on Navalny's water bottle? Now Russians trolling Navalny said they put it in his panties. How did the Novichok get from Navalny's panties to his water bottle? ..."
"... Thanks guys, this Navalny Novichok BS keeps getting stupider and stupider. First of all, an FSB agent is so stupid as to answer the phone from someone he doesn't know and has never heard of and spill the beans about the whole plot. I'm sure that intelligence agencies must have safeguards against enemy spies spoofing and pretending to be the agency's own people. No intelligence agency is that stupid, and the FSB is one of the best. ..."
"... Next, has anyone noticed Putin's reaction. Putin basically laughed and said, "Trust me, this guy is as insignificant as an ant. He's not even worth going to the trouble of poisoning," which is what we had hypothesized all along. ..."
"... The Russians ran a huge toxin screen and found no toxins. Yet somehow the Germans run an even fancier screen that includes "Novichok," which they find. ..."
"... Also recall that a high-ranking Polish official called the Germans to ask what was up with the Navalny Novichok thing, and he was told it was a fake attack done to implicate Russia in a depraved crime (most false flags have this M.O.). As I recall, the phone call was recorded by the Russians and played on TV. ..."
"... In addition, this "attack" came mysteriously right before the negotiations were to be finalized on the final length of Nordstream in Germany, out of which much Russian gas will flow and which they US is trying frantically to stop. ..."
The Navalny "poisoning" incident is turning into low farce.
In the meantime the Russians are expected to investigate the circumstances of Navalny's
poisoning and to admit that they are responsible for Navalny falling ill on the plane and
nearly dying from at least two botched poisoning attempts. How can the Russians do so, when
the Germans refuse to hand over materials and information relevant to the investigation, and
when the story keeps changing and becomes ever more fantastical?
In the meantime the Russians are expected to investigate the circumstances of Navalny's
poisoning and to admit that they are responsible for Navalny falling ill on the plane and
nearly dying from at least two botched poisoning attempts. How can the Russians do so, when
the Germans refuse to hand over materials and information relevant to the investigation, and
when the story keeps changing and becomes ever more fantastical?
Expected by whom??? Exactly......????
If Navalny is a convicted felon..... out on parole..... Russia should put out a red notice
on him... and demand his return to Russia for the purpose of completing his sentence...
or.... destroy him in his house together with his family.... at 0200....
Didn't the Germans say they found the Novichok on Navalny's water bottle? Now Russians
trolling Navalny said they put it in his panties. How did the Novichok get from Navalny's
panties to his water bottle?
On second thought, maybe it's best not to think to deeply about that.
Thanks guys, this Navalny Novichok BS keeps getting stupider and stupider. First of all, an FSB agent is so stupid as to answer the phone from someone he doesn't
know and has never heard of and spill the beans about the whole plot. I'm sure that
intelligence agencies must have safeguards against enemy spies spoofing and pretending to be
the agency's own people. No intelligence agency is that stupid, and the FSB is one of the
best.
Next, has anyone noticed Putin's reaction. Putin basically laughed and said, "Trust me,
this guy is as insignificant as an ant. He's not even worth going to the trouble of
poisoning," which is what we had hypothesized all along.
Has anyone else ever noticed the giveaway in all of these endless NATO, US, and British
false flags against Russia, Syria, etc. (mostly Russia) is that the story keeps changing?
When something actually happens, the story doesn't usually change with the breeze. But in
these provocations, lies, and false flags, the story changes every few weeks or so.
So far, Navalny was poisoned:
1. At the breakfast table in the airport in Russia
2. On the plane
3. Next, in his water bottle in his hotel room before the flight
4. And finally now, in his underwear!
Remember the man who invented Novichok said: It was made to be lethal, as lethal as an atomic weapon. It was never used anywhere and
set aside for history. A normal dose that would always be used, is the size of a grain of
salt. It kills the victim and anyone around him within minutes.
Navalny's symptoms did not resemble those of Novichok poisoning at all. In addition, even
if Navalny had taken 1/200th of the standard dose (and no one would do that), his pupils
would have been pinpointed when he woke up in the hospital, and they were not.
The Russians ran a huge toxin screen and found no toxins. Yet somehow the Germans run an
even fancier screen that includes "Novichok," which they find.
Also recall that a high-ranking Polish official called the Germans to ask what was up with
the Navalny Novichok thing, and he was told it was a fake attack done to implicate Russia in
a depraved crime (most false flags have this M.O.). As I recall, the phone call was recorded
by the Russians and played on TV.
In addition, this "attack" came mysteriously right before the negotiations were to be
finalized on the final length of Nordstream in Germany, out of which much Russian gas will
flow and which they US is trying frantically to stop.
"... The analysis the corporate press has relied on came from the private cyber-security firm FireEye. This question should be raised: Why has a private contractor at extra taxpayer expense carried out this cyber analysis rather than the already publicly-funded National Security Agency? ..."
"... Similarly, why did the private firm CrowdStrike, rather than the FBI, analyze the Democratic National Committee servers in 2016? ..."
"... Sanger is as active in blaming the Kremlin for hacking, as he and his erstwhile NYT colleague, neocon hero Judith Miller, were in insisting on the presence of (non-existent) weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, helping to facilitate a major invasion with mass loss of life. ..."
"... The Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank complex (MICIMATT, for short) needs credible "enemies" to justify unprecedentedly huge expenditures for arms -- the more so at a time when it is clearer than ever, that that the money would be far better spent at home. (MEDIA is in all caps because it is the sine-qua-non , the cornerstone to making the MICIMATT enterprise work.) ..."
"... Wasn't Fireeye the company that faced extremes of ridicule from the global IT community for trying to engage Hillary Clinton as their keynote speaker at a Cyber Defense Summit in 2019? ..."
"... Isn't this, just perhaps, precisely the fake news construct, planted in the minds of Americans ..."
"... As alluded to in the article, no-doubt part of the reason is because of the black-eye the intel agencies got (at least outside of The Beltway) in the 2003 Iraq WMDs debacle, which caused a lot of us (at least on the left-end of the political spectrum, who were already highly skeptical of US 'intelligence') to virtually completely disregard them as credible sources ..."
"... Not only will Americans be "stupid and or crazy enough" to believe this nonsense, but they will also attack anyone who questions their belief as a Putin apologist or conspiracy theorist. ..."
"... Always with the same mouthpieces, the same backdated investigations, the unnamed "official" sources. Phooey! ..."
"... The naked fear-mongering has become the stuff of jokes. I had a good laugh with my friends (over the phone) taking apart an article in the Guardian that claimed that Putin had surrounded himself with KGB agents. The article didn't mention that the KGB (and the USSR) have not existed in over a quarter century. Foreign policy narratives are great for laughs, ridicule, and satire. Too bad most so-called journalists are too ignorant or intellectually dishonest to come clean. ..."
Neither the actor, nor the motive, nor the damage done is known for certain in this
latest scare story, write Ray McGovern and Joe Lauria.
The hyperbolic, evidence-free media reports on the "fresh outbreak" of the Russian-hacking
disease seems an obvious attempt by intelligence to handcuff President-elect Joe Biden into a
strong anti-Russian posture as he prepares to enter the White House. Biden might well need to be inoculated against the Russophobe fever.
There are obvious Biden intentions worrying the intelligence agencies, such as renewing the
Iran nuclear deal and restarting talks on strategic arms limitation with Russia. Both carry the
inherent "risk" of thawing the new Cold War.
Instead, New Cold Warriors are bent on preventing any such rapprochement with strong support
from the intelligence community's mouthpiece media. U.S. hardliners are clearly still on the
rise.
Interestingly, this latest hack story came out a day before the Electoral College formally
elected Biden, and after the intelligence community, despite numerous previous warnings, said
nothing about Russia interfering in the election. One wonders whether that would have been the
assessment had Trump won.
Instead Russia decided to hack the U.S. government.
Except there is (typically) no hard evidence pinning it on Moscow.
Uncertainties
The official
story is Russia hacked into U.S. "government networks, including in the Treasury and
Commerce Departments," as David Sanger of The New York Times
reported.
But plenty of things are uncertain. First, Sanger wrote last Sunday that "hackers have had
free rein for much of the year, though it is not clear how many email and other systems they
chose to enter."
The motive of the hack is uncertain, as well what damage may have been done.
"The motive for the attack on the agency and the Treasury Department remains elusive, two
people familiar with the matter said," Sanger reported. "One government official said it was
too soon to tell how damaging the attacks were and how much material was lost."
Sanger. (Wikimedia Commons)
On Friday, five days after the story first broke, in an
article misleadingly headlined, "Suspected Russian hack is much worse than first feared,"
NBC News admitted:
" At this stage, it's not clear what the hackers have done beyond accessing top-secret
government networks and monitoring data."
Who conducted the hack is also not certain.
NBC reported that the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency "has not said
who it thinks is the 'advanced persistent threat actor' behind the 'significant and ongoing'
campaign, but many experts are pointing to Russia."
At first Sanger was certain in his piece that Russia was behind the attack. He refers to
FireEye, "a computer security firm that first raised the alarm about the Russian campaign after
its own systems were pierced." But later in the same piece, Sanger loses his certainty: "If the Russia connection is
confirmed," he writes.
In the absence of firm evidence that damage has been done, this may well be an intrusion
into other governments' networks routinely carried out by intelligence agencies around the
world, including, if not chiefly, by the United States. It is what spies do. So neither the actor, nor the motive, nor the damage done is known for certain.
Yet across the vast networks of powerful U.S. media the story has been portrayed as a major
crisis brought on by a sinister Russian attack putting the security of the American people at
risk.
In a second piece on Wednesday, Sanger
added to the alarm by saying the hack "ranks among the greatest intelligence failures of
modern times." And on Friday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
claimed Russia was "pretty clearly" behind the cyber attacks. But he cautioned: " we're
still unpacking precisely what it is, and I'm sure some of it will remain classified." In other
words, trust us.
Ed Loomis, a former NSA technical director, believes the suspect list should extend beyond
Russia to include China, Iran, and North Korea. Loomis also says the commercial cyber-security
firms that have been studying the latest "attacks" have not been able to pinpoint the
source.
Tom Bossert (Office of U.S. Executive)
In a New York Timesop-ed , former Trump domestic security
adviser Thomas Bossert on Wednesday called on Trump to "use whatever leverage he can muster to
protect the United States and severely punish the Russians." And he said Biden "must begin his
planning to take charge of this crisis."
[On Friday, Biden talked tough. He promised there would be "costs" and said: "A good defense
isn't enough; we need to disrupt and deter our adversaries from undertaking significant
cyberattacks in the first place. I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber-assaults on our
nation."]
While asserting throughout his piece that, without question, Russia now "controls" U.S.
government computer networks, Bossert's confidence suddenly evaporates by slipping in at one
point, "If it is Russia."
The analysis the corporate press has relied on came from the private cyber-security firm
FireEye. This question should be raised: Why has a private contractor at extra taxpayer expense
carried out this cyber analysis rather than the already publicly-funded National Security
Agency?
Similarly, why did the private firm CrowdStrike, rather than the FBI, analyze the Democratic
National Committee servers in 2016?
Could it be to give government agencies plausible deniability if these analyses, as in the
case of CrowdStrike, and very likely in this latest case of Russian "hacking," turn out to be
wrong? This is a question someone on the intelligence committees should be asking.
Sanger is as active in blaming the Kremlin for hacking, as he and his erstwhile NYT
colleague, neocon hero Judith Miller, were in insisting on the presence of (non-existent)
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, helping to facilitate a major invasion with mass loss of
life.
The Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank complex
(MICIMATT, for short) needs credible "enemies" to justify unprecedentedly huge expenditures for
arms -- the more so at a time when it is clearer than ever, that that the money would be far
better spent at home. (MEDIA is in all caps because it is the sine-qua-non , the
cornerstone to making the MICIMATT enterprise work.)
Bad Flashback
In this latest media flurry, Sanger and other intel leakers' favorites are including as
"flat fact" what "everybody knows": namely, that Russia hacked the infamous Hillary
Clinton-damaging emails from the Democratic National Committee in 2016.
Sanger wrote:
" the same group of [Russian] hackers went on to invade the systems of the Democratic
National Committee and top officials in Hillary Clinton's campaign, touching off
investigations and fears that permeated both the 2016 and 2020 contests. Another, more
disruptive Russian intelligence agency, the G.R.U., is believed to be responsible for then
making public the hacked emails at the D.N.C."
That accusation was devised as a magnificent distraction after the Clinton campaign learned
that WikiLeaks was about to publish emails that showed how Clinton and the DNC had
stacked the deck against Bernie Sanders. It was an emergency solution, but it had uncommon
success.
There was no denying the authenticity of those DNC emails published by WikiLeaks . So
the Democrats mounted an artful campaign, very strongly supported by Establishment media, to
divert attention from the content of the emails. How to do that? Blame Russian
"hacking." And for good measure, persuade then Senator John McCain to call it an "act of
war."
One experienced observer, Consortium News columnist Patrick Lawrence,
saw
through the Democratic blame-Russia offensive from the start.
Artful as the blame-Russia maneuver was, many voters apparently saw through this clever and
widely successful diversion, learned enough about the emails' contents, and decided not to vote
for Hillary Clinton.
4 Years & 7 Days Ago
Henry at the International Security Forum, Vancouver, 2009.
(Hubert K, Flickr)
On Dec. 12, 2016, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) used sensitive
intelligence revealed by Edward Snowden, the expertise of former NSA technical directors, and
basic principles of physics to show that accusations that Russia hacked those embarrassing DNC
emails were fraudulent.
A year later, on Dec. 5, 2017, Shawn Henry, the head of CrowdStrike, the cyber firm hired by
the DNC to do the forensics,
testified under oath that there was no technical evidence that the emails had been
"exfiltrated"; that is, hacked from the DNC.
His testimony was kept hidden by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff until
Schiff was forced to release it on May 7, 2020. That testimony is still being kept under
wraps by Establishment media.
What VIPS wrote four years ago is worth re-reading -- particularly for those who still
believe in science and have trusted the experienced intelligence professionals of VIPS with the
group's unblemished, no-axes-to-grind record.
Most of the Memorandum
's embedded links are to TOP SECRET charts that Snowden made available -- icing on the cake --
and, as far as VIPS's former NSA technical directors were concerned, precisely what was to be
demonstrated QED .
Many Democrats unfortunately still believe–or profess to believe–the hacking and
the Trump campaign-Russia conspiracy story, the former debunked by Henry's testimony and the
latter by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Both were legally obligated to tell the truth, while
the intelligence agencies were not.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the
Saviour in inner-city Washington. He was a Russian specialist and presidential briefer during
his 27 years as a CIA analyst. In retirement he co-created Veteran Intelligence Professionals
for Sanity (VIPS).
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief ofConsortium Newsand a former UN
correspondent forThe Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe,
and numerous other newspapers. He was an investigative reporter for theSunday
Timesof London and began his professional career as a stringer forThe
New York Times.He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter
@unjoe .
PleaseContributeto Consortium News' 25th Anniversary Winter Fund Drive
robert e williamson jr , December 21, 2020 at 10:30
I listened as the mouth piece talked about how very good the Rouskies were at this hacking
thing.
Takes me back to the days of Bill Hamilton when the U.S. government stole his PROMIS
software during the INSLAW Octopus scandal something Bill Barr was said to be involved in
BTW.
Seems the idea of secret back doors in software that allowed the users to be monitored was
very popular. So popular in fact that our government reps from DOJ and NSA quickly allowed
the Israelis to have it. ????????????? I mean our government still trusts Lyin' BeeBEE.
?????????????
If you know nothing of this story wiki it and then start you research on the history of
what all happened and when.
The first two places to look for these hackers are inside the U.S. and Israeli
governments. Maybe this is why the intelligence community is loath to give us any real proof,
you know that computer forensics stuff.
The U.S. governments love affair with Israel is killing our democracy.
As for Putti, he is still be winning even when his shill Trump lost.
Ray, Joe great stuff and an expose' on what happens when lies go unchallenged and become
accepted as truth.
Thanks CN you must make Robert very proud.
PEACE
DH Fabian , December 21, 2020 at 09:39
Maybe we could launch a fund-raising campaign to purchase some anti-malware software for
the government's (obviously unsecured) computers. If possible, we could raise enough money to
hire a teacher to instruct them on basic computer security. (Thrifty suggestion: Hire some
local high school teens). Apparently, some kids in Russia made a hobby of hacking into the
Pentagon, itself (I know this, because I just made it up), so on Monday, we need to launch
this story on MSNBC, the official media of the New Democrat Party.
You might want to remind people that Putin had made an offer to Obama in 2009 to negotiate
a treaty to ban cyberwar, which the US rejected. See
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/world/28cyber.html , U.S. and Russia Differ on a Treaty for
Cyberspace
Thanks for this important article! Alice Slater
zhu , December 21, 2020 at 06:38
Was there any "hack" at all?
DH Fabian , December 21, 2020 at 09:45
Hacking attempts are routine, daily, and nearly always business-related. Few succeed, but
when they do, it can be quite lucrative (until they're tracked down and arrested). Beyond
that, the US has maintained its lead in efforts to hack into security computers of foreign
countries. Of course, governments throughout history have used whatever tools they had, to
track other governments, usually for their own security against aggressor states.
Tina Weiser , December 20, 2020 at 21:28
When I first heard of this Russian hacking and the story about Trump cavorting w Russians,
I intuitively knew it was wrong and made up. It sounded too simplistic. What I can't fathom
is how the public swallowed it. I didn't and a few friends didn't, but most folks did.
Gerald , December 20, 2020 at 17:32
Maybe it was the Russians, sending a message to Uncle Joe and the Dems, quite brilliant
actually. It says, 'we own you' 'we know everything about you' and 'we can destroy you should
you want a war' The Dems and Washington generally have been living in their own child like
bubble for way too long, they need waking up and showing how far behind they are, military,
technically and of course something we've all known a long time, morally. No damage was done
during the hack (oh they could have been lots of damage) nothing was taken, or maybe not
much. It was a warning and a wake up call, that's all it needed to be. Now we proceed to the
negotiating table for START and maybe the Russians know a whole lot more than the US wishes
it did. Putins press conference was quite interesting last week, normally he is quite shy
about upsetting his 'western partners' this year he pulled no punches. When asked if it was
true that Russian could destroy America in 30 minutes he replied 'No, actually quicker' and
when goaded by the idiot BBC reporter about the farcical MI6 Navalny escapade, he said 'If
the security services wanted Navalny dead he already would be'. Times are a changing. Things
are warming up a little and the US are on the ropes in all spheres.
DH Fabian , December 21, 2020 at 09:50
No. I think most Americans today would be "outraged" to know how little interest Russia
has in today's US. They had turned to the East years ago. The "dirty little secret" is that
as the Western (US/UK) empire has been sinking for some years, most of the world has turned
its attention Eastward (China, now Russia), as the light guiding the international community
into the future.
Yes, and it seems, if anything, a large-scale effort to collect information, not to damage
anything.
Collecting information about others is what America's NSA, CIA, FBI, and other massive
agencies do around the clock. Ditto, Britain's GCHQ and MI6.
The word "attack" only puts an unduly harsh name to the matter. I think it fair to say it
is in keeping with America's now-always aggressive tone towards Russia, China, Iran, and
others.
And still, we have no information at all about who is responsible with Trump claiming
China and Pompeo claiming Russia, while neither of them has any information to support what
he is saying. Israel is just as likely as any other candidate to be responsible for this. The US intelligence community recognizes Israel in private as extremely aggressive at
collecting information.
Its name of course does not come up in our sanitized press, and if it proves true that it
is responsible, we'll never see it reported.
Meanwhile, just as in the case of Skripal or Navalny, great fun can be had with
Russia.
Realist , December 20, 2020 at 05:01
If any of Washington's designated enemies are NOT attempting to constantly monitor the
byzantine genuine operative policies of America's Deep State they are being totally remiss.
If all they had to go on were the strident public policies expressed and enacted by our
leaders they would surely feel existentially threatened and compelled to launch defensive
military actions just to preserve the continuity of their civilisations. Washington's endless
effluvia of formal pronouncements, accusations, economic sanctions and provocative troop
deployments fairly beg for the occasional miscalculation of a bellicose parry or
counterpunch. Our chosen enemies need to know our real intentions and capabilities to
PRECLUDE such eventualities. Moreover, the geeks in our cadre of spooks have been at the same
game for the same reasons rather longer than theirs. It's probably safe to say we invented
the game.
By way of example, Joe Biden constantly talks of making Russia "pay a price" for some list
of imaginary offenses against American "interests," of which Special Prosecutor Mueller could
not conjure up one example after nearly three years of investigation. If anyone "hacked the
vote" last month, it was sure not the Russians who made Sleepy Joe the most popular president
with the highest vote total ever elected. Talk about the implausible transformed into the new
reality. Take another example, Mike Morell, probably the incoming head of the CIA, has on
multiple occasions spoke of the need to "make Russians bleed" for attempting to limit the
death and chaos inflicted upon Syria by American foreign policy and its cultivated
mercenaries going by a different nom de guerre each week. JC did tell us that strange changes
will happen in the vineyard, apparently even al Qaeda can reconcile with Uncle Sam. In the
absence of detailed reliable information regarding the veracity of such narratives, President
Putin (or Xi, or Rouhani) might feel constrained to be less tolerant, more aggressive and
quicker to react against what can only be described as mostly baseless and far too numerous
hostile American provocations. The bully struts around with a chip the size of a redwood on
his shoulder. No one antagonizes him, they mostly try to give the crazy fellow a wide berth
while keeping a vigilant eye on him. What's truly unfortunate is that Stephan F. Cohen is no
longer on this Earth to keep the American public apprised of such truths, not that this
world's most informed man on these subjects got any recent media exposure in the present
climate of unhinged Russophrenia.
Tom Partridge , December 20, 2020 at 03:55
We know that governments and intelligence agencies tell us lies all the time. Lies that
have justified the instigation of wars and lies that have precipitated wars by default. All
of this is well documented in the written word and yet we continue to be fooled by the self
same lies. Shame on us, but when the Doomsday Clock strikes midnight, it will be too late,
there will be no one left to document the lies, there will be no more lies, instead there
will be, just silence.
Eileen Coles , December 20, 2020 at 00:01
Wasn't Fireeye the company that faced extremes of ridicule from the global IT community
for trying to engage Hillary Clinton as their keynote speaker at a Cyber Defense Summit in
2019?
michael888 , December 19, 2020 at 23:20
While I appreciate your article and agree with your conclusions, you are a voice crying in
the wilderness or at least in a small bubble of like-minded people.
There is a part of the brain which is based on evidence-free, faith-based beliefs, and while
religious impulses can be good (sometimes debatable), there is also a strong fear and hatred
of the Other, and Russia has been elevated by Hillary, the DNC, the Intelligence Agencies,
and the Establishment as the only acceptable Bogeyman. It is socially unacceptable to attack
Blacks, Jews, Muslims, Mexicans, or Chinese (remember "Hug a Chinaman!" at the critical
juncture where Covid-19 could have been stopped by shutting borders in mid-January as Asian
countries did?), but the RUSSIANS!! are an acceptable target of vitriol (even though the
Clintons and any of our other politicians will quickly take $500,000 from Putin as the
Clintons did when Hillary was Secretary of State in 2010). Calling someone a Russian asset,
as our CIA has done repeatedly, can destroy people's careers, and minimally untrack their
criticisms.
Software generally has intentional backdoors (Ghislaine Maxwell's father made a career of
selling such software so Israel could monitor their customers). We don't get much software
from Russia! China is economically and politically a bigger threat, though like Israel
probably monitoring rather than interfering through their software (which is probably the
rule for all Intelligence Agencies). However 12 year olds can probably get into these same
program backdoors, hacking is a hobby for many.
The use of non-government companies to do to questionable work is akin to big corporations
bringing in consultants; scapegoats when things go wrong!
GMCasey , December 19, 2020 at 22:44
It's very difficult to believe a lot of what passes for news in America. For example, I
always thought that if the hacking of Hillary ever happened, it was because when she was SOS,
she refused to go into a secure room to make important calls. Instead , she stood in the
hallway, but didn't want to go into the secure room. Add to that, the use of a personal
computer at her home, keeping all kinds of her government information on it , which was also
being sent to her associate's husband's computer.
I also wondered why the Russians were blamed for poisoning spies in the UK -- - spies
traded a decade before -- especially since exchanged spies lived near where the UK's poison
center was. This was supposed to be an attempt to poison 2 Russians, and this latest Russia
news story seems just as silly. I am sure that any decent spy from any nation who decided to
poison a person -- than it would be done.
I am wondering why America seems to be living back in the 1950s when that McCarthy person
was making havoc with creating so many
untruths in major media -- it's sad that myself, and many others no longer believe a lot of
the major media news -- and that is a sad state for a in a said- to- be democratic
republic
Em Sos , December 19, 2020 at 21:39
Re: "A Pandemic of 'Russian Hacking'"
Isn't this, just perhaps, precisely the fake news construct, planted in the minds of
Americans, by Trump, to which he may now turn, as his last-ditch pretext, to protect the
National Security interests of the State; by attempting to declare Martial Law, at the last
moment, just prior to January 20th 2021?
Eddie S , December 19, 2020 at 18:43
Good article! Especially the mentioning of the VERY 'convenient' timing of the latest 'Red
Scare', vis-a-vis the upcoming transition to a new POTUS who has made vague references to
modest moves towards cooling down the Cold War II (which I have little-faith will happen
anyway, given the Biden cabinet picks). Also the excellent point about these reports
apparently coming from private organizations as opposed to the massive US intelligence
agencies (ie; the 17 agencies in the USG doing intelligence work, with the CIA & NSA
being two of the largest) -- WTF are we funding them with multi-billion dollar budgets for so
that they can quote some private start-up intel-groups??
As alluded to in the article,
no-doubt part of the reason is because of the black-eye the intel agencies got (at least
outside of The Beltway) in the 2003 Iraq WMDs debacle, which caused a lot of us (at least on
the left-end of the political spectrum, who were already highly skeptical of US
'intelligence') to virtually completely disregard them as credible sources for anything other
than a right-wing indicator.
All the major powers spy on each other, and some of the minor ones too, and sometimes it's on
putative allies (ie; recall the controversy a number of years ago when Israel was caught
spying/bugging US transmissions I don't recall any bluster about THAT being 'an act of
war!'). And I not-too-long-ago read how there are constant, daily attempts by numerous
entities (most suspected to be private scammers) attempt to hack computers & networks of
ALL users (government, business, NGO's, private parties) -- it's ongoing 'background noise'.
And while we should all be strengthening our computer defenses against these intrusions,
let's be very skeptical when someone pulls 'something' (reputedly) out of that background
noise and hysterically proclaims it to be so MAJOR EVENT.
Theo , December 20, 2020 at 09:21
I agree. There was an interesting article on the Theamericanconservative.com under the
title " The Russian Cyber Pearl Harbor that wasn't ". Some time ago in Germany the computers
of big insurance companies were hacked and huge amounts of personal data of the clients were
stolen. Big issue in Germany. Russia was the top suspect. It turned out that the bad guy was
a teenage German school boy living peacefully with his parents. He was found very quickly
because he didn't cover up his trails in the web. He didn't do it for money or political
reasons. He did it just for fun and to proof to himself: Yes I can. Now he faces a prison
term.
Eric Arnow , December 19, 2020 at 16:30
The real story here is not the latest eye roller, here-we-go-again, episode of Russo
phobia, but the likelihood that majority of the Washington Consensus, and more likely, the
American people will be stupid enough or crazy enough or both, to believe this.
David , December 21, 2020 at 10:12
Not only will Americans be "stupid and or crazy enough" to believe this nonsense, but they
will also attack anyone who questions their belief as a Putin apologist or conspiracy
theorist. I'm deeply appreciative of Ray's and Joe's insights but Michael888 is right. His
voice is a "cry in the wilderness" which is "heard only by a small bubble of like minded
people." I admire his perseverance in the face of that harsh reality. Thank you, Ray and
Joe.
Robert Emmett , December 19, 2020 at 16:19
Always with the same mouthpieces, the same backdated investigations, the unnamed
"official" sources. Phooey!
Maybe while the propaganda is being propagated & then catapulted into the public
realm, nobody in "official" media remembers to check vault 7 for the inevitable Cyrillic
fingerprints until it's too late? Oops!
And "artful maneuver"? Yeah, maybe if you mean kindergarten art. Or perhaps it's a forgery
that depends on millions of uncritical viewers' unquestioning acceptance of a fake rationale
for unbinding Biden so he can veer from a direction that he never intended to follow in the
first place?
Jonny James , December 19, 2020 at 12:01
We are thankful that CN continues the tradition of Robert Parry to debunk the New Cold War
propaganda. The Russia Hysteria (New Red Scare without "the Reds") is a pathetic and
transparent attempt to manipulate public opinion.
The naked fear-mongering has become the stuff of jokes. I had a good laugh with my friends
(over the phone) taking apart an article in the Guardian that claimed that Putin had
surrounded himself with KGB agents. The article didn't mention that the KGB (and the USSR)
have not existed in over a quarter century. Foreign policy narratives are great for laughs,
ridicule, and satire. Too bad most so-called journalists are too ignorant or intellectually
dishonest to come clean.
Russia did not want to end the ABM treaty, the INF treaty etc. etc. but of course it was
the US who shredded all the treaties. The US has engaged in massive illegal activity with
impunity: fomenting coups, meddling heavily in the affairs of other nations, war crimes etc.
The US appears now to be a desperate rogue empire, pathetically clutching at notions of Full
Spectrum Dominance. No informed person should believe this latest Russia narrative – it
is ridiculous on multiple levels, just as Mr. Lauria and McGovern have outlined.
To underline the utter silliness of the narrative: my handle has become "Jonski
Jamesovich" (a common Russian name lol) and I introduce myself as a Russian Agent. I know
it's puerile and silly but that's the level of discourse we are dealing with. This
intelligence-insulting BS has grown tiresome already. My British friends and I "take the
piss" (ridicule) the narratives: the comedy material is written for us!
Realist , December 20, 2020 at 05:53
Jonny, I think your Russian name would be Ivan. Jamesovich if your father's name is James.
Your piece is brilliant.
A great characterisation of America for what it has become during my life of 73 years: an
outlaw state. What Reagan used to call an "evil empire," by which he meant the Soviet Union.
I'm sure he thought that he and Gorbachev had achieved a lasting peace between Russia and the
US. They came within an eyelash of eliminating all nukes.
The so-called "realists" in the
deep state would not allow that, but did leave several nuclear nonproliferation treaties in
place, which our foolish contemporaries have trashed. Would he be shocked if he could be
reanimated! The first step to putting things right again would be for Europe to stop enabling
Washington's warmongering in every corner of the world and to disband NATO, the biggest
threat to world peace after the US federal government.
Relentlessly, you go to stories in the New York Times. Like a dog returning to its excrement.
Everybody knows it's an intelligence shill. Why do you bother? There are far more important
things you could be reporting on.
"... In the issue of information security generally, including cyber-security and cyber-defence, it seems that there is one rule for the US and another for everyone else ..."
"... The US knows only one thing, and that is psychopathic schoolyard bullying. To have to work together with other nations, to have to accept other nations' rights to information and security, to recognise the need for compromise and continuous negotiation: all this is beyond the US ability to understand. ..."
"... Treaties would help no doubt but the only real solution is to not put things you want kept private on the internet. The internet is to publish stuff, not to store stuff securely. ..."
"... usa is not agreement capable.. they prove this time and time again, so any proposals of an agreement in any area is not realistic.. it is unfortunate.. ..."
"... the media will continue to be the service provider for the intel agencies and say whatever they want to say.. facts are irrelevant.. it is beyond naive to think that anything that gets said in the usa msm ( russia did it and etc. etc. ) have any relevance or value... ..."
"... the Wikileaks Vault 7 materials show clearly the US has tools to pin cybercrime on its 'enemies'. One thing we know for sure and that is the US government has one enemy above all others: the truth. ..."
"... The most obvious scenario is hiding in plain sight: FireEye is an corporation selling a defective, inferior product to the USG. To cut corners, it must employ a legion of non-unionized private contractors, who are a workforce of inferior quality and much lower morale (as they receive much lower salaries). In order to cut even more corners, most of these private contractors must receive a light version of clearance process, and must be more loosely managed. ..."
"... The USA is plagued with private contractors. They were the weapon of choice of the American capitalists and the USG to kill the unions and lower the value of the American labor power. When a random American tells you he/she works for, e.g. Microsoft, chances are he/she actually works for a private contractor who works for Microsoft - it's a process I like to call "domestic outsourcing": a process where, through political and structural reforms, the capitalist class of a given nation precarizes its own national labor power without literally exporting it to another country (e.g. telemarketing to India). ..."
"... enemy #1 of humanity are the global private finance elite, not Russia , nor China. ..."
"... I know quite a bit about those outages in Venezuela. I assure you that they were very well-planned. The people who did it were Venezuelan exiles in Canada and Houston, Texas (a lot of the opposition moved to Houston in addition to Miami). ..."
"... Is any evidence offered that there was any hack at all? Is the entire thing a fully fabricated false flag, yet another, in service of taking Nord Stream 2 down? ..."
"... Also note that the providers of the software are entirely responsible for making it easy to hack. As a software engineer, I have tried in vain for decades to convince companies producing critical infrastructure equipment to not use internet administration links, because they are not only hackable, but the encryption codes all have backdoors for "security" agencies. ..."
"... So no doubt SolarWinds did just that, got hacked by anybody anywhere, and is looking for an excuse to avoid losing their contract. ..."
"... The Germans and the Americans decided that it was worth to risk the entire German SCADA business to sting Iran and later Venezuela. Because that was what those attacks, in the absence of Iranian or Venezuelan capitulation meant, harm to German bussiness for no strategic gains. ..."
"... Ultimately, making a single software product secure will only achieve limited gains: Those gains evaporate in an instant one some junior cablemonkey plugs a secure server into the public DMZ using the wrong network interface. ..."
"... Where was the firewall admin in all this? Where was the Network administrator with his routing policies? ..."
"... Why, when SolarWinds has been a gaping security hole for more than 2 decades is it now all of a sudden the gateway for a massive attack from a foreign power? Shouldn't it have been a continuous vulnerability all along? By now, every vulnerable internet facing SW installation would have been wiped out ages ago due to the frequency of automated attacks carried out against infrastructure in general. ..."
"... We all know Micro$oft, Google, FB, Whatsapp, Instagram, ... are feeding US and Zionist intelligence agencies with all type of informations. Any international treaty on cyber-security would under this conditions be obsolete from the beginning. ..."
"... But it's just naive to think that CIA, NSA, Mossad are going to respect any international agreement in any area. Stuxnet virus and it's intrusion of the Iranian nuclear facilities or sabotage of Venezuelan power-grid facilities were not made by China, Russia or North Korea. ..."
"... These large, complicated, very expensive software "management" packages are largely butt-covering, to protect management from the threat of "doing nothing" when things go wrong. Some nice kickbacks in it too. ..."
"... I remember one "configuration management" package that was practically an operating system all by itself and absolutely a waste of time. Network management even more so. ..."
"... I haven't seen this level of propaganda since the buildup to the second Iraq war. They are obviously planning more aggression against Russia and have to keep the public at a fever pitch to get away with it. ..."
December 19, 2020 To Blame Russia For Cyber-Intrusions Is
Delusional - A Treaty Is The Only Way To Prevent More Damage
The New York Times continues to provide anti-Russian propaganda and to incite against
it:
Pompeo
Says Russia Was Behind Cyberattack on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is the first member of the Trump administration to publicly
link the Kremlin to the hacking of dozens of government and private systems.
The first paragraph:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday it was clear that Russia was behind the widespread
hacking of government systems that officials this week called "a grave risk" to the United
States.
That is a quite definite statement.
But it is very wrong. Pompous did not say "that it was clear that Russia was behind" the IT
intrusions.
The third paragraph in the NYT story, which casual readers will miss, quotes Pompous
and there he does not say what the Times opener claims:
"I think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians
that engaged in this activity," Mr. Pompeo said in an interview on "The Mark Levin Show."
Merriam Webster 's definition of 'pretty' as an adverb is "in some
degree : moderately". The example it gives is "pretty cold weather". The temperature of pretty
cold weather on a July day in Cairo obviously differs from the temperature of pretty cold
weather during a December night in Siberia. "Pretty xxx" It is a relative expression, not an
assertion of absolute facts.
The first paragraph of the Times statement tries to sell a vague statement as an
factual claim.
Moreover - Pompous finds it amusing that the CIA lies, steals and cheats (vid). As a former
CIA director he has not refrained from those habits. Whenever Pompous says something about a
perceived U.S. 'enemy' it safe to assume that it he does not state the truth.
Contradicting his secretary of state and other top officials, President Donald Trump on
Saturday suggested without evidence that China -- not Russia -- may be behind the cyberattack
against the United States and tried to minimized its impact.
Trump AND Pompous both made their contradicting assertions "without evidence".
It is
inappropriate for the media to accuse Russia - or China - of the recently discovered
cyber-intrusion when there is zero evidence to support such a claim.
The Times did that at least twice without having any evidence to support the
claim:
The Russians have had access to a considerable number of important and sensitive networks for
six to nine months. The Russian S.V.R. will surely have used its access to further exploit
and gain administrative control over the networks it considered priority targets.
...
While all indicators point to the Russian government, the United States, and ideally its
allies, must publicly and formally attribute responsibility for these hacks. If it is Russia,
President Trump must make it clear to Vladimir Putin that these actions are unacceptable. The
U.S. military and intelligence community must be placed on increased alert; all elements of
national power must be placed on the table.
Where are the carriers? Man the guns! Put the nukes to Def Con 1!
The situation is developing, but the more I learn this could be our modern day, cyber
equivalent of Pearl Harbor.
This is lunatic. From all we know so far the so called 'hack' was a quite nifty
cyber-intrusion for the sole purpose of gathering information. The intrusion has, as far as we
know, not even reached any systems on the specially protected 'secret' networks. This was a
normal spying operation, not an attack. To compare it to a deadly military attack like Pearl
Harbor is
self-delusional nonsense :
The lack of self-awareness in these and similar reactions to the Russia breach is astounding.
The U.S. government has no principled basis to complain about the Russia hack, much less
retaliate for it with military means, since the U.S. government hacks foreign government
networks on a huge scale every day. Indeed, a military response to the Russian hack would
violate international law. The United States does have options, but none are terribly
attractive.
The news reports have emphasized that the Russian operation thus far appears to be purely
one of espionage -- entering systems quietly, lurking around, and exfiltrating information of
interest. Peacetime government-to-government espionage is as old as the international system
and is today widely practiced, especially via electronic surveillance. It can cause enormous
damage to national security, as the Russian hack surely does. But it does not violate
international law or norms.
...
Because of its own practices, the U.S. government has traditionally accepted the legitimacy
of foreign governmental electronic spying in U.S. government networks. After the notorious
Chinese hack of the Office of Personnel Management database, then-Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper said: "You have to kind of salute the Chinese for what they did.
If we had the opportunity to do that, I don't think we'd hesitate for a minute."
One can not spy on other countries and then complain when they do something similar to
oneself. Responding by waging destruction against another country's IT systems only guarantees
that there will be a response in kind. If one wants to avert cyber-espionage and cyber-attacks
there is only one way out.
We do not know if Israel, China, Russia or someone else is responsible for the recently
discovered intrusion. But it is safe to assume that Russia's SVR is working on comparable
projects just like the spy services of most other countries do.
But Russia has, in contrast to others, for years asked for bi-lateral treaties to prohibit
malicious cyber operations. In September President Putin again offered one :
One of today's major strategic challenges is the risk of a large-scale confrontation in the
digital field. A special responsibility for its prevention lies on the key players in the
field of ensuring international information security (IIS). In this regard, we would like to
once again address the US with a suggestion to agree on a comprehensive program of practical
measures to reboot our relations in the field of security in the use of information and
communication technologies (ICTs).
...
Third. To jointly develop and conclude a bilateral intergovernmental agreement on preventing
incidents in the information space similarly to the Soviet-American Agreement on the
Prevention of Incidents On and Over the High Seas in force since 25 May 1972.
...
We call on the US to greenlight the Russian-American professional expert dialogue on IIS
without making it a hostage to our political disagreements.
Even conservative U.S. lawyers agree with Putin that such a
treaty is the only way to protect the U.S. from potentially damaging operations:
Despite many tens of billions of dollars spent on cyber defense and deterrence and Defend
Forward prevention, and despite one new strategy after another, the United States has failed
miserably for decades in protecting its public and private digital networks. What it
apparently has not done is to ask itself, in a serious way, how its aggressive digital
practices abroad invite and justify digital attacks and infiltrations by our adversaries, and
whether those practices are worth the costs. Relatedly, it has not seriously considered the
traditional third option when defense and deterrence fail in the face of a foreign threat:
mutual
restraint , whereby the United States agrees to curb certain activities in foreign
networks in exchange for forbearance by our adversaries in our networks. There are many
serious hurdles to making such cooperation work, including precise agreement on each side's
restraint, and verification. But given our deep digital dependency and the persistent failure
of defense and deterrence to protect our digital systems, cooperation is at least worth
exploring.
Dreams
of being able to prevent intrusions on one's systems while insisting on intruding the
opponent's systems are just that - dreams. There is likewise no reasonable way to deter an
adversary from using such methods to gain an advantage.
To blame, without evidence, Russia for a 'hack' and to incite against it will not solve the
above problems.
The only way to prevent potentially dangerous cyber-operations is too agree with adversaries
on what is off-limits and to (verifiably) stick to that.
Posted by b on December 19, 2020 at 19:29 UTC |
Permalink
In the issue of information security generally, including cyber-security and cyber-defence,
it seems that there is one rule for the US and another for everyone else: free and unfettered
access to everyone's secrets for the US; and for everyone else, having to pay through the
nose for anything the US deigns to dole out in amounts and at times of its own choosing.
The US knows only one thing, and that is psychopathic schoolyard bullying. To have to work
together with other nations, to have to accept other nations' rights to information and
security, to recognise the need for compromise and continuous negotiation: all this is beyond
the US ability to understand.
Good post, but about this hypothetical treaty: how would you monitor and enforce that sort of thing? It seems to me the
signatories are likely to continue doing it, and, assuming enough sophistication, proving a breach of the agreement seems
virtually impossible...
When I first read this story, I thought of the power outages in Venezuela the past year.
Those attacks must have hit especially patients in hospitals or care residences that had no
stand by generation.
I think Iran has been attacked a few times in this manner.
I can see the usefulness of treaty talks to address this issue. Talks between just two states, though, would leave a lot of
would be targets, so United Nations might address the issue. If the Security Council, & United Nations generally, is supposed
to mitigate violence of warfare, addressing cyber attacks must come under UNO purview.
I wonder if Lavrov, or a counterpart in another land, would find it useful to approach the
United Nations on this.
Putin and Lavrov have pleaded for at least 5 years now going back to Obama/Biden about the
need to negotiate a Cyber Treaty, and that it include as many nations as want to participate.
But only silence is returned. It's entirely possible that this so-called series of hacks is
no more than back-splash from some NSA or CIA hacking exercise. It certainly puts more wind
in the sails for today's excursion back to the future by Pepe
Escobar that's not behind a paywall. I will say there was one quote from it that stood
out very far from the rest and is on the way to becoming reality. As the Outlaw US Empire
falls further behind its competitors:
"the US will be able to bill itself as the first great post-industrial agrarian
society."
I'm not so sure about the "great" part given our actual condition and direction.
Treaties would help no doubt but the only real solution is to not put things you want kept
private on the internet. The internet is to publish stuff, not to store stuff securely.
"The only way to prevent potentially dangerous cyber-operations is too agree with adversaries
on what is off-limits and to (verifiably) stick to that."
Really? b with all due respect was, is, will be America ever capable or can it ever be
trusted to hold to any a Treaty/ Agreement, this outlaw rogue regime in time of hypersonic
missiles still believes she is protected by two oceans. Signing a treaty with this regime is
a distasteful joke, not worth entertaining.
Mao @3, had the same thought. Like the idea but how feasible is it?
I'd also like to see a Geneva Convention for the digital space (perhaps an expansion or
update of the existing Geneva Conventions for the digital age.) So civilian cyber
infrastructure (personal PCs, smartphones, tablets, routers, etc.) and civilian cyber content
(social media, online dating profiles, forum posts, etc.) would be off-limits for state
signatories. Again, not sure how feasible this is, but would like to see this.
I dont understand why people still waste their time writing article refuting USA's claims.
Dont people understand already USA DOES NOT NEED NO STINKING EVIDENCE?
...back int he dark ages of in 1990 USA invented the story about Iraqi solders taking babies out
of incubators and leaving them to die on the cold floor and sued that lie to attack Iraq
in 2001, USA immediately blamed Osam abin ALladin for the 9-11 attacks and used that like to
attack and occupy Afghanistan.
in 2003, USA said Saddam has weapons of mass distraction and used that lie to attack Iraq for
a 2nd time.
USA ALWAYS lies and uses that to do something.
Russia better prepare itself by buying a lot of lube and lube its collective asshole. It will
get an ass fucking of a life time. and Russia deserves it by allowing Putin to act as a
moronic wimp.
usa is not agreement capable.. they prove this time and time again, so any proposals of an
agreement in any area is not realistic.. it is unfortunate..
the media will continue to be the service provider for the intel agencies and say whatever
they want to say.. facts are irrelevant.. it is beyond naive to think that anything that gets
said in the usa msm ( russia did it and etc. etc. ) have any relevance or value...
it is the
exact opposite.. expect more delusional ranting from these same wingnuts..the usa lost any
integrity it had a long time ago.. getting it back is not going to happen quickly, or at
all.. in fact, it is more likely the usa has to continue in its MAX 737 nosedive on all
levels until they wake up and smell the coffee... until then - all bets are off for any light
going off in the brains of usa leadership."
@ 4 dave... indeed.. the cardinal rule - 'do unto others as you would have them do unto
you' is applicable here... for all the religious preaching from buffoons like pompous, the
words and actions don't match the reality on the ground.. thanks for a clear reminder... it
will be a long time before the usa gets its head out of its ass..
Sorry, folks, but as a practitioner in the field - the problem is systemic, not national or
even international.
Information Technology is a bloated mess. Banks, airports, utilities use software whose
programmers are literally dying of old age and which literally have not been made for a
generation.
Security is a laugh. You need $10M, ante, to have a moderately capable security program
between expertise and tools - which means 90% of the companies will never be able to afford
it.
Even among the 10% - the lack of even the most basic best practices mean that billion dollar
companies constantly get tripped up or knocked flat by extremely simplistic attacks or
accidents.
This is the real world of cyberspace: attackers are limited only by how much focus they want
to put on any particular target.
The "attack" which brought about this latest session of Russo/Sino phobia - as b researched
and documented well - did not employ any sophistication to gain entry. The subsequent
activity was more sophisticated but even then, nothing more complex that $20K paid to a moderately
capable programmer couldn't create.
Cold War 2.0 to keep US enemies front and center is so the MIC can keep sucking the people
dry. Additionally, the Wikileaks Vault 7 materials show clearly the US has tools to pin
cybercrime on its 'enemies'. One thing we know for sure and that is the US government has one
enemy above all others: the truth.
Contradicting his secretary of state and other top officials, President Donald Trump on
Saturday suggested without evidence that China -- not Russia -- may be behind the
cyberattack against the United States and tried to minimized its impact.
Called it. FireEye purposefully chose the term "nation with top-tier offensive
capabilities" so that they could please Greek and Trojans while at the same time exempting
itself from delivering a defective commodity. Trump, for obvious reasons, chose to blame
China; the establishment, for obvious reasons, chose to blame Russia. Trumpists will choose
to blame China; Democrats and centrist Republicans will choose to blame Russia.
China or Russia - you can build your own narrative now!
The most obvious scenario is hiding in plain sight: FireEye is an corporation selling a
defective, inferior product to the USG. To cut corners, it must employ a legion of
non-unionized private contractors, who are a workforce of inferior quality and much lower
morale (as they receive much lower salaries). In order to cut even more corners, most of
these private contractors must receive a light version of clearance process, and must be more
loosely managed.
Indeed, most of these smaller managers must also be private contractors themselves; maybe
showing up one or two times per week in the workplace just to see if the private contractors
workers are there and breathing. The whole thing must be a shitshow.
One of these private contractors probably sold the passwords or created a password which
could be easily brute forced; or simply committed a rookie mistake (leaked e-mail, written
password in the office's whiteboard, etc. etc.).
The USA is plagued with private contractors. They were the weapon of choice of the
American capitalists and the USG to kill the unions and lower the value of the American labor
power. When a random American tells you he/she works for, e.g. Microsoft, chances are he/she
actually works for a private contractor who works for Microsoft - it's a process I like to
call "domestic outsourcing": a process where, through political and structural reforms, the
capitalist class of a given nation precarizes its own national labor power without literally
exporting it to another country (e.g. telemarketing to India).
A treaty would stop the US doing this to others.
The US originated this. The US has every intention of doing this to many others. Those who
complain the loudest are exactly the ones who have no intention of stopping.
The USAi has been fleeced by an IT industry that is incapable of rendering a secure system!
Well blow me down. What don't system buyers get from the words 'shonky thieves'. The USAi and
its cosy bear partner UKi have perfected 'shonky thieves' as an industrial and financial
strategy so dont be surprised when the thieves pick their pocket FROM WITHIN. It is the share
sell off that is the clue - follow the money NOT the tabloids.
So far they have Russia being the most powerful IT centre on earth and the most hopeless
CBW centre on earth. With IT they go everywhere yet with CBW they can't kill a fly.
b doesn't like one liners much so he can delete my response as well to inform you that enemy
#1 of humanity are the global private finance elite, not Russia , nor China.
Re: cybercriminal or rogue state tampering with power generation / power grids -- Why
couldn't these computer systems be independent, isolated from the Internet and kept in high
security lockdown? Besides, they operated just fine without computers in the past, when
things were built to last.
These days, I wouldn't buy a new car that depends on sophisticated computer controls and
diagnostic tools, let alone exclusive dealer service. Farmers lost their right to buy parts
and service their own tractors independent of a dealer. How much would I bet the Chinese
manufacturers will eventually take over that market ...as with almost every other market for
durable goods short of proprietary military hardware? Unless of course, the Banksters prevent
it for reasons of "national security."
For years American governments have extracted profit from the US tax paying public, using the
simple trick of giving them a series of imaginary external enemy's. Requiring ever more arms
industry funding extra.
Profit from paranoia !!
But here's the thing --
America has now backed itself into a corner re geopolitics. It would not surprise me if these
cyberattacks are a joint effort by several nations. We could predict them. Just cause ya paranoid don't mean there not all out to get you.
I know quite a bit about those outages in Venezuela. I assure you that they were very
well-planned. The people who did it were Venezuelan exiles in Canada and Houston, Texas (a
lot of the opposition moved to Houston in addition to Miami). The opposition is very, very
good and they sit up there in the US plotting schemes to destroy the economy. For instance,
for a long time the fake exchange rate was being set by an opposition person in Houston who
ran his own exchange rate site. He always deliberately inflated the street exchange rate in
order to cause a currency crisis, which would devastate the economy. A lot of things caused
that exchange rate crisis, but that guy sitting in Houston sabotaging the exchange rates to
cause a monetary crisis was no small part of that.
The attacks were staged out of Canada and Houston. The people who did it had very intimate
knowledge of those systems, mostly because those systems were using software made in Canada.
The people in Canada had access to the source code of that software. Perhaps the company
itself was in on the sabotage in the same way that the voting machine companies are in on
rigging the voting machines to steal elections for Republicans. In that case, Rebuplican
operatives have taken over the voting machine companies and the election hacking is done by
those companies like E S & S themselves in coordination with people like Karl Rove and
the Bush and Romney families. All of those computer machine companies are owned by the Bush
and Romney families and Karl Rove also has a huge stake in them.
So it's quite possible that that Canadian software vendor was taken over by Venezuelan
opposition people to gain access to the source code so they could hack those systems. With
knowledge of that code, they hacked the systems from Canada and Houston. They were very good,
excellent hackers. It's not known if they had state help from the US and Canadian
governments, although I definitely would not rule it out.
Trudeau in particular has gone full fascist in his fanatical support for the Venezuelan
opposition fascists.
The Venezuelan elite are classic Latin American elite fascists, a somewhat distinct type.
Most of the elite down there has this "Latin American fascist" orientation.
It's generally not race-based, but the ruling elite tends to be lighter-skinned than the
darker masses, even in Haiti. Instead, it's more like the "rightwing authoritarianism" or
"rightwing dictatorships" that we saw so many of in the Cold War in Latin America and
elsewhere.
These regimes were found most of Central America in Guatemala after 1954 and El Salvador
and Honduras since forever, Nicaragua under the Somozas.
They were found in all of South America at one time or another. We can see them in the
generals after 1964 in Brazil, the democratic facade duopoly regimes in Venezuela in Colombia
(especially after 1947 and again in 1964, Ecuador, Peru until the generals' revolt in 1968,
Bolivia under Banzer after 1953, Paraguay under Strausser, Argentina and Uruguay under the
generals in the late 80's and early 90's, and Pinochet in Chile.
They were also seen in the Caribbean in Cuba under Bautista, the Dominican Republic under
Trujillo, and Haiti under the Duvaliers.
In Southeast Asia, they were found in Thieu in South Vietnam, Sihanouk in Cambodia, the
monarchy in Laos, the military regimes in Thailand, Suharto in Indonesia, the Sultan in
Brunei, Marcos in the Philippines, and Taiwan under Chiang Kai Chek.
In Northeast Asia, a regime of this type was found in South Korea from 1947-on.
They were found South Asia with Pakistan under Generals like Zia, in Central Asia in the
Shah of Iran, and in a sense, the Arab World with Saddam (Saddam was installed by the CIA),
King Hassan in Morocco, the Gulf monarchies, and Jordan. Earlier, they were found in the
monarchies in Libya and Egypt that were overthrown by Arab nationalists. Also, Israel played
this sort of role with a democratic facade.
We also found them in the Near East in the military regimes in Turkey (especially Turgut
Ozul) and for a while in Greece under the colonels in the late 1960's and early 1970's.
NATO formed the backbone of a "rightwing dictatorship" in the background of Western Europe
(especially Italy), where Operation Gladio NATO intelligence essentially ran most of those
countries as a Deep State behind the scenes. These regimes were found in Spain under Franco
and in Portugal under Salazar along with its colonies.
These regimes were not so much in evidence in Africa except in South Africa and Rhodesia
and most prominently, Mobutu in Zaire and Samuel Doe in Liberia.
The fascist forms of these rightwing dictatorships varied, most being nonracist fascism
but a few being racist fascists (Turkey), and others being Mussolinists (Suharto in Indonesia
with his "pangesila")
I can't say that I am a big Trump fan but I do like him for the very reason the
Borg hates him. For saying things off script.
EG:
"The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully
briefed and everything is well under control. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant
when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified
of....
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)"
To one who has investigated cybercrime, this appears certain to be a complete fake by the
Texas company SolarWinds. Investigating internet copyright racketeering, I found two networks
of shell corporations with dozens of websites which took orders, did payments, or passed
codes between those layers to obscure the connections. One of the prominent sites had the
absurd name "TsarMedia.com" to look Russian, but was based in – you guessed it –
Texas. Recall that the Ukraine cybercrime software routinely inserted Cyrillic characters and
Russian historical names into headers to permit crooks to claim that the source was Russia.
Texans too need all-purpose monsters on whom to blame their wrongdoing.
Note that all of the responsible US government agencies Refused to investigate those
copyright racketeering operations, even when given the evidence, and were therefore likely
involved, using hundreds of websites far outnumbering legitimate sources, offering political
works for free with one click, to deny the authors their income source.
Also note that these warmonger scammers are dependents of the military industry and secret
agencies, directly or indirectly, extreme tribalist primitives whose ideology is bullying,
tyranny, and power-grabs by foul means, who are enemies of democracy let alone sane foreign
policy, and will say anything at all to get their way.
Also note that the providers of the software are entirely responsible for making it easy
to hack. As a software engineer, I have tried in vain for decades to convince companies
producing critical infrastructure equipment to not use internet administration links, because
they are not only hackable, but the encryption codes all have backdoors for "security"
agencies. It is beyond foolishness to allow any system administrator to control anything from
anywhere. So no doubt SolarWinds did just that, got hacked by anybody anywhere, and is
looking for an excuse to avoid losing their contract. Being Texans in need of a big excuse,
that excuse could only be Russia, the all-purpose monster behind every tree.
iirc the software for the hydro station came from Canada, and ran on XP (Russian Col.
'Cassad' blog)
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov 2019:
"According to the country's legitimate government headed by President Nicolas Maduro, as well
as information from other credible sources, the electricity sector of Venezuela came under
attack from abroad on March 7 of this year We provide all necessary assistance to Venezuelan
friends on the basis of requests from the legitimate government...[this was] comprehensive
remote influence on the control and monitoring systems of the main power distribution
stations where the equipment produced in one of the Western countries has been
installed...
They and the instigators of sabotage are responsible for the deaths of people,
including of those in hospitals which were left without electricity..."
The civilian programmers are criminals, in the literal sense. When found, warrants must be
placed with Interpol for their arrest.
With regard to government employees, in line with the Nuremburg trials, they cannot say
they were acting on orders. They too, are criminally responsible. They could have refused
orders, but didn't.
With regard to elected government officials, they carry diplomatic passports, and are
immune while they do.
Lack of extradition treaties and the politicised and biased International Court of Justice
means the politicians - murderers - will escape any punishment.
Notably, Blair, responsible for illegal aggression on a sovereign state resulting in mass
murder of civilians, not only escaped any form of punishment, but has been made a very highly
paid peace advisor.
I give zero weight to these opinions that only refer to anonymous 'experts' and never present
any actual data. I get that the average NYT reader isn't an IT or cyber security expert, and
has to let someone they trust interpret for them, but there are many people out there who are
quite capable of looking at the data and drawing their own conclusions.
Reuters is now reporting a 2nd attempt of SolarWinds intrusion as described in the quote
below
"Security experts told Reuters this second effort is known as "SUPERNOVA." It is a piece of
malware that imitates SolarWinds' Orion product but it is not "digitally signed" like the
other attack, suggesting this second group of hackers did not share access to the network
management company's internal systems.
It is unclear whether SUPERNOVA has been deployed against any targets, such as customers
of SolarWinds. The malware appears to have been created in late March, based on a review of
the file's compile times.
The new finding shows how more than one sophisticated hacking group viewed SolarWinds, an
Austin, Texas-based company that was not a household name until this month, as an important
gateway to penetrate other targets."
Is any evidence offered that there was any hack at all? Is the entire thing a fully
fabricated false flag, yet another, in service of taking Nord Stream 2 down?
When Maduro coalesced as a US target and his government was declared illegitimate,
one of the first thing that happened was the destruction of the water turbines feeding the
Venezuelan grid.
The US backed opposition claimed that this was the result of the Chavez and successors
negligence
towards thee maintenance of the generation equipment.
However, the Venezuelan Govt. had renovated all the dam equipment at the tune of 15+
billions with
a German Firm in 2015.
Just as Stuxnet destroyed the Irani centrifuges, some entity derailed the governing system
and led the Venezuelan turbines to death from overspeed.
Such hacking is lauded by the think tanks of the US. Was successful in causing widespread
misery to millions.
But who gives a Flying F**k in the US about these things?
What an ugly way to run a society. Moving society to public finance and abolishing private
finance is what is needed to save our species and what we can of the world we live in. I am
with China in advocating for Ad Astra because we can see the end of our ability to live on
this planet because of historical faith-based disrespect of it.
Thank you to j. casey #38 for that question. Agreed the entire thing could be a hoax and
the insider trading sting was the fee they got for going along with it.
Regardless of that the only way to ensure security is ably described by john #30:
Also note that the providers of the software are entirely responsible for making it easy to
hack. As a software engineer, I have tried in vain for decades to convince companies
producing critical infrastructure equipment to not use internet administration links,
because they are not only hackable, but the encryption codes all have backdoors for
"security" agencies.
It is beyond foolishness to allow any system administrator to control
anything from anywhere. So no doubt SolarWinds did just that, got hacked by anybody
anywhere, and is looking for an excuse to avoid losing their contract. Being Texans in need
of a big excuse, that excuse could only be Russia, the all-purpose monster behind every
tree.
Thank you for that brevity and deadly assassination of the idiots behind this.
The Germans and the Americans decided that it was worth to risk the entire German SCADA
business to sting Iran and later Venezuela. Because that was what those attacks, in the
absence of Iranian or Venezuelan capitulation meant, harm to German bussiness for no
strategic gains.
I suspect, like so much else that comes out of the Court of the Mad King and his minions,
we are dealing with a form of Hubris: "We are the only suppliers of this type of equipment
and we can abuse our customers..."
Yesterday, DW News compiled a report on Internet Anonymity focused on TOR as the most widely
known example of anonymiser networks. They explained the mechanism by which one may access
the www via the TOR network and shed one's own identity and replace it with one created in a
TOR server, multiple times, until it becomes IMPOSSIBLE to trace the original identity.
The report was aired in the context of the current US cyber-intrusion claims and, although it
didn't name names or point fingers, it concluded that anyone who says they know who expertly
hacked their system is lying.
I thought it was jolly decent of DW to spell this out, considering all the US lap-doggish
anti-Russia tropes the German govt has endorsed recently.
That is all very well fro DW to run that doco but TOR is not a wise choice to manufacture
anonymity. There is a strong view that it is a flawed CIA construct. I am happy to be proven
wrong but over the years some wise heads have urged caution.
Sorry, folks, but as a practitioner in the field - the problem is systemic, not national or
even international.
Information Technology is a bloated mess.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 19 2020 21:21 utc | 12
I think that this is a classic case when we can productively ask "cui bono"?
Big software companies like Google and Microsoft have goals that are against the users,
and they can do it because of monopoly powers and users do not knowing any better.
From browser side, one goal is to please advertisers by enabling takeovers of your
hardware to track you, make displays that annoy you -- but at occasion entice you to spend
money on something, freeze you computer with lame attempts to make dynamic displays and so
on.
Because this is how browsers are money cows, operating systems support those shenanigans
in an increasing variety of ways. So from security point of view we have a fortress with wide
ramparts and massive walls that are riddled with tunnels, each tunnel having a rickety gate,
and hordes of people improving padlocks on those gates with weekly security fixes. For those
unfamiliar with rickety gates, when you have a fenced facility, it is easiest to climb over
the gates, you can grab the frames, barbed wire is straight up (easier than the inclined
wires on the rest of the fence, and if you are in a hurry, just hit the gate with the front
bumper.)
Next, operating system have to be out of date in few years so you are forced to buy a new
one or to buy a new computer (Apple model). Instability of systems prevent security fixes to
be completed in the lifetime of a system.
Those are commercial motivation. Then there are deep state shenanigans, they want some
openness to Trojan horses.
Also note that the providers of the software are entirely responsible for making it easy to
hack. As a software engineer, I have tried in vain for decades to convince companies
producing critical infrastructure equipment to not use internet administration links,
because they are not only hackable, but the encryption codes all have backdoors for
"security" agencies. It is beyond foolishness to allow any system administrator to control
anything from anywhere. So no doubt SolarWinds did just that, got hacked by anybody
anywhere, and is looking for an excuse to avoid losing their contract. Being Texans in need
of a big excuse, that excuse could only be Russia, the all-purpose monster behind every
tree.
I would shift the bulk of the blame off the software manufacturers and onto the IT
departments and integrators responsible for installing those products into their
infrastructure, for the following general reasons:
- No matter how secure a software/hardware product is, its security is be easily
compromised by poor deployment into existing infrastructure. The onus is on the IT department
to ensure the software is deployed securely. If a software product happens to have
internet-facing administration interfaces with default passwords settings, then it is a sign
the IT department has not locked down the solution during the deployment phase.
- It is the duty of any IT department to ensure infrastructure is deployed securely and
continuously validated for security (by installing intrusion prevention and detection
systems, multiple layers of firewalling, DMZs, zero trust infrastructure, honeypots,
centralised authentication systems etc ...). That one could have an entire SCADA system
sitting on the internet with a management interface using a default username or password.
- Frankly, every software product or network connected equipment should be considered as
insecure as swiss cheese from the moment it's unpacked, then the work should begin to lock it
down and secure it using a multi-layered security model. That is the approach taken in many
secure enterprises that have a good security record.
Ultimately, making a single software product secure will only achieve limited gains: Those
gains evaporate in an instant one some junior cablemonkey plugs a secure server into the
public DMZ using the wrong network interface. No amount of code polishing, static analysis,
secure software design is going to make even a dent when a careless admin sets the password
to pass@123, disables TLS encryption and puts the management interface on the public network
so he can easily run operations from the cafe' down the road.
Aside: I've had an on and off relationship with SolarWinds for 20 years, while it's been
the running joke of IT admins the world over, exposing it's management interfaces to the
public is something only the most amateurish IT departments would do. No, someone failed at
the network administration layer: Where was the firewall admin in all this? Where was the
Network administrator with his routing policies? Most of all the CTO/IT Director/IT managers
clearly failed in the secure deployment and management of the product. Solarwinds doesn't put
itself on the public Internet by accident!
Nothing really adds up about this whole story anyway:
- Why, when SolarWinds has been a gaping security hole for more than 2 decades is it now
all of a sudden the gateway for a massive attack from a foreign power? Shouldn't it have been
a continuous vulnerability all along? By now, every vulnerable internet facing SW
installation would have been wiped out ages ago due to the frequency of automated attacks
carried out against infrastructure in general.
Far from looking like an issue with SolarWinds, this looks like a massive and widespread
failure in basic IT security by dozens of companies possibly connected by a single large
service provider.
The media reporting around this issue also sounds to me like extreme coverup, take this
WIRED magazine snippet:
"Over the past several years, the US has invested billions of dollars in Einstein, a
system designed to detect digital intrusions. But because the SolarWinds hack was what's
known as a "supply chain" attack, in which Russia compromised a trusted tool rather than
using known malware to break in, Einstein failed spectacularly."
Really. They can't find any actual Russian malware, so instead it's
"in which Russia compromised a trusted tool rather than using known malware to break in,"
China and Russia should conclude a cyber treaty among each other, work out the details of the
verification mechanism (which is very difficult in this sphere)
and then invite other nations to join. Most other countries would probably eventually do
that.
That wouldn't deter the USA or Israel from their maligne cyber activities, but it would
make sure that any such move which becomes publicly known would come with a diplomatic
cost.
Bernhard: "The only way to prevent potentially dangerous cyber-operations is too agree with
adversaries on what is off-limits and to (verifiably) stick to that."
One can not agree. We all know Micro$oft, Google, FB, Whatsapp, Instagram, ... are feeding
US and Zionist intelligence agencies with all type of informations. Any international treaty
on cyber-security would under this conditions be obsolete from the beginning.
Another matter is that as Bernhard correctly points out:
"One can not spy on other countries and then complain when they do something similar to
oneself. Responding by waging destruction against another country's IT systems only
guarantees that there will be a response in kind. If one wants to avert cyber-espionage and
cyber-attacks there is only one way out."
But it's just naive to think that CIA, NSA, Mossad are going to respect any international
agreement in any area. Stuxnet virus and it's intrusion of the Iranian nuclear facilities or
sabotage of Venezuelan power-grid facilities were not made by China, Russia or North Korea.
US government and Zionist Apartheid regime did those, aiming to sabotage and do harm not only
on facilities but also on humans. If we go back, the much praised (in western MSM) Stuxnet
was the operation legitimizing all similar cyber attacks to follow in the future.
ZioImperialists can not expect having free hands to physically terror other nations and not
be considered as a legitim target by them.
Another issue is that by criminalizing whistle-blowing and whistle-blowers like Snowden,
Manning et al, US government and Zionists shoot in their own knee. If the price of
whistle-blowing of criminality is too high, then the whistle-blowers doesn't go public, he or
she just provide the access to those who can cover the criminal acts from the distance.
About the "Russian", "Chinese" narrative, I admit, it's a bit strange that US government and
MSM are still insisting on them. I find it somehow positive. They know who was behind, they
blame it on someone else, this could mean: "We are not going to do anything about it!"
If this is the case, then it sound wise, who knows what is going to happen if they choose
to act aggressive against one of many enemies while one of the enemies got access to among
others the entire network of their energy security administration.
And, lets not forget that Zionists Apartheid regime put USA in the current humiliating
position in the first place.
A very constructive approach by US government would be to drop all illegal sanctions against
others, pull out of ME and focus on their own domestic business instead of servicing Zionist
Apartheid regime.
"To blame, without evidence, Russia for a 'hack' and to incite against it will not solve the
above problems."
Maybe this time it really was Russia, according to Doctorow:
"The allegations of Russian hacking made by the United States in the heat of Russia-gate
were frivolous, appropriate to toddlers in a sandbox. Leaving fingerprints all over the
supposed theft over the internet to get at Hillary's communications and tip the election in
Trump's favor. Only a fool would think that the Kremlin operates at this level. And, as we
know, there are plenty of fools in the USA, though it appears a disproportionate number of
them are in the Democratic Party and its thought leaders like Chuck Schumer of New York and
Rick Blumenthal of Connecticut.
This hacking was of a different scale and different nature entirely. It was massive. It
had no friendly or other bear tags put on by the Ukrainians. It went straight for the
jugular, the most secret and sensitive corners of the US government. And it apparently was
not destructive, did nothing that could trigger a war, just make a point: gotcha!"
Sounds reasonable to me - if the US persists in threats with devastating cyber attacks
against the RF because of those idiotic Russia Gate claims - demonstrate what the RF really
can do and prevent any planned stupidity by the USA.
Relentlessly, you go to stories in the New York Times. Like a dog returning to its excrement.
Everybody knows it's an intelligence shill. Why do you bother? There are far more important
things you could be reporting on.
Posted by: Johny Conspiranoid | Dec 20 2020 10:21 utc | 51
"It makes no sense to connect something to the internet and then expect it to remain
secret."
Indeed. And yet they have been doing it vigorously for 30 years now, making a few shallow
assholes very very rich, wasting huge quantities of natural resources, allowing many feckless
bureaucrats to pretend to do something for somebody, screwing the heck out of most everybody
else, and making everybody - and I do mean everybody - less secure. But hey, your phone can
tell you how to get to the store.
We know beyond doubt that the top shelf of our society have no regard what so ever for law
and order international or national.
They will break the law with impunity, turn a blind eye to their colleagues breaking the
rules.
They will impose the law on the public like a sledgehammer
to oppress us.
Wouldn't we just love to be a 'fly on the wall' when they get together and conspire to commit
there criminality !!
ZOOM
The soft vonrable underbelly of your criminal elite.
These large, complicated, very expensive software "management" packages are largely
butt-covering, to protect management from the threat of "doing nothing" when things go wrong.
Some nice kickbacks in it too. The usual effect is to make the sysadmins spend all their time
trying to make the package work right. Security theater and treated like it too, fancy
costumes out in front, bare wall behind the curtain. I remember one "configuration
management" package that was practically an operating system all by itself and absolutely a
waste of time. Network management even more so.
I dont understand why people still waste their time writing article refuting USA's claims.
Dont people understand already USA DOES NOT NEED NO STINKING EVIDENCE?
That is plainly obvious, yes. The criminal US regime does what it does and their claims
against other countries are almost universally without evidence. Spending energy refuting
baseless claims can even provide an impression of legitimacy around those insane and baseless
claims. The question is how to expose the lies without giving the liars legitimacy.
One thing we know for sure and that is the US government has one enemy above all others:
the truth.
Unfortunately, this is true not only for the US government, but for the "western"
governments, establishments and media in general. To them, lies are no problem but truth is a
deadly enemy. I could tell a personal story about that, but it would be off topic for this
thread so I will not. But the observation that truth is the enemy to these people is key,
even if it seems simplistic. The fact is that you cannot reason with people who have truth as
their enemy.
Is any evidence offered that there was any hack at all? Is the entire thing a fully
fabricated false flag, yet another, in service of taking Nord Stream 2 down?
That's a key question, I agree. The proper position to take is that it is all baseless lies
unless verifiable evidence that the 'hack' actually occurred is presented. Never mind the
claims of 'who did it' when there is no evidence that anything happened at all.
The situation in the west now is such that all information is centrally controlled, and
face to face communication has been severely limited. It is not a coincidence.
I haven't seen this level of propaganda since the buildup to the second Iraq war. They are
obviously planning more aggression against Russia and have to keep the public at a fever
pitch to get away with it. it serves so many purposes, not just politically for the dnc and
rnc, but for nato, the vastly overfunded intel community, etc. the domestic arm of the fake
war on terror is of course the cops, and the various federal cops. Here the propaganda seems
aimed mainly at republicans, with the "marxist blm" and "marxist fascist antifa" exciting the
republican base into a frenzy, and the main foreign "villain" is said to be china. the
propaganda aimed at the democrats focuses on russia; that product already has a proven track
record of success with the democratic base, and the lies are aimed at whitewashing biden and
harris and their abysmal records of support for police violence. nato and the us intel
community have to justify their existence by stirring up the populace against imaginary
foreign aggression, and it has succeeded spectacularly with the public in the u.s.
in short, these idiots want to take us to the edge of a major world war so they can
continue to loot and control us, and they seem to think they will do just fine in a post
nuclear war future.
From browser side, one goal is to please advertisers by enabling takeovers of your hardware
to track you, make displays that annoy you -- but at occasion entice you to spend money on
something, freeze you computer with lame attempts to make dynamic displays and so on.
You have many good points, thanks. For the time being, I would recommend the Brave Browser
https://brave.com/ as a countermove to these
issues. It is super fast, ad free (or you can choose to get paid to see ads) and generally
very good. I use it under Windows, Linux, Android and on my iPhone. As for operating systems
becoming 'obsolete' forcing you to buy a new computer: Unless you have very special
requirements, Linux Ubuntu will do all you need for free on your existing hardware. It is
easy to install, very secure and virus free (the Windows virus business model does not work
everywhere).
One thing we know for sure and that is the US government has one enemy above all others:
the truth.
Unfortunately, this is true not only for the US government, but for the "western"
governments, establishments and media in general.
It is worse even than that. The aversion to truth permeates western cultures. The obese
American looks in the mirror and sees fitness. The educated fool looks in the mirror and sees
wisdom. The boy raised to believe that being a white male is bad looks in the mirror and sees
a virtuous girl trapped in the evil enemy's body, or even worse he sees a mountain panda. The
young woman with no accomplishments but endless praise and petting of her ego looks in the
mirror and sees vague exceptionality and formless superiority. The fascist looks in the
mirror and sees a noble warrior for social justice.
The US government can get away with existing in denial because the population relies upon
denial as well.
On Reuters main webpage is a heading that reads:
"Biden's options for Russian hacking punishment: sanctions, cyber retaliation"
The accusation, investigation and trial phases are as good as done,
only the setting of the punishment phase remains.
It is for the benefit of headline readers.
In the body of the article itself Reuters used the words "suspected hack" once.
When will Reuters move the goal posts and quietly drop the word "suspected".
It is guaranteed that they will, the question is how long before they weasel it away.
The timing is certainly not dependent upon "evidence", more dependent upon how long until
they
think people won't notice the change.
(actually, there are two (fa) in the headline, Russia is guilty of hacking and Biden is
President)
A scary thought is that all this is prepping the American Sheeple for a vast shutdown of
communication ("the Russian's did it!")
in the event the Deep State is not getting it's way with stealing this election.
Norwegian@60
For those who wish to use linux from windows is there is puppylinux frugal install.
You can start from pendrive install with in 10 minutes.
Rao
i'm sure the most murderous cops look in the mirror and see noble warriors for social
justice, just as many of them did when they were slaughtering Iraqis in the street from a
helicopter or in fallujah.
This time, SolarWinds didn't blame another nation. It just stated it was
"investigating". Even for Trump's rabid anti-Sinicism, it was too much, so he toned down on his
Twitter:
...discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!). There could also have been a
hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is now obvious that I won
big, making it an even more corrupted embarrassment for the USA. @DNI_Ratcliffe
@SecPompeo
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2020
From "it was China!" to "discussing the possibility that it may be China" there's an
abyssal distance. Trump is also backing down.
There's a clear pattern here: the American Governments and MSM initiate a very virulent
propaganda attack, based on outright fake news, against Russia and/or China. A burst of
hysteria takes over the nation. Then it quickly, almost aggressively, backs down and tones
down on the propaganda warfare.
Of course that there's an element of "bend but not break" here, as credibility is a finite
resource the MSM and the USG have to use carefully and with moderation. Plausible deniability
is a necessary tool in order to not spend your whole credibility at once and to replenish it,
while also giving the masses a credible scenario (not perfect, not dystopian: in the middle
of the road).
But there's also a nobler objective with this: to preserve the company's stock market
prices. By creating a panacea over a foreign enemy, SolarWinds/FireEye calm down the
shareholders and Wall Street, thus preserving or at least softening the blow to the
realization their product is inferior in quality, even borderline useless. It's not that the
shareholders and Wall St. don't know that, but that they are now ensured the masses won't
know that.
We have a scenario here where the American MSM and the USG are now completely fused to
Wall Street. As junior partners.
So Trump is attributing the obvious issues in the election to this hack attack? Now the
pieces begin to fall together. I would say that evidence has been uncovered (but lot yet
leaked) that the vote tabulation was altered and that is why we have suddenly been treated to
the "Foreign baddies hacked us!" media spectacle while nothing has been said of what
these hackers actually did: The public needs to be primed with the diversion before the leaks
are sprung. Basically, the manipulation of the vote counts by the "We lie, we cheat, we
steal!" gang has been uncovered and the suspicion that it was a domestic job has to be
headed off. A narrative needs to be generated and installed in the public consciousness in
which the evidence that the CIA was behind the hack was actually planted by clever
Russian/Chinese/Iranian bad guys and the CIA is innocent.
A CYA operation for the CIA? That is what it is starting to look like to me.
Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 20 2020 15:41 utc | 71
re ...Denial is how so many Americans can live with themselves....
Indeed that is workably true. More broadly for all humans, might be restated as: Automatically creating justifications is how the mind* "protects" its owner from
confronting being "wrong". *mind--whatever that is; there is much disagreement about that.
Yes, the stupid avarice at the Court of the Mad King is remarkable. It demonstrates a species of Hubris which assumes that no one can retaliate against
them.
I note here that the Russians have now full legal and financial control of their aerospace
firms and their new mid-size passenger jet does not have foreign content.
Basically, the Mad King has alerted other sovereigns in the world of their vulnerabilities
and they are proceeding to address those items - likely taking 20 or 30 years.
denial is probably the way the cops who run down protestors, or shoot them in the back, live
with themselves. and true, a lot of americans cheer those cops on, and pretend they are
justified, just as many americans cheer on the troops overseas who are also thought to be
protecting freedom, like those in the wikileaks video who shot at children in the street.
"fighting terrorism for freedom" my ass. this kind of denial is certainly a lot more
consequential than the tendency to deny one is overweight or losing their hair, and i don't
think it is the same process.
i don't know about the republican caucus in iowa, but i know what the dnc rigged the
cauces in iowa against sanders, so it's not like the process can't be interfered with,
whether by an app that doesn't work or simple old fashioned cheating like pretending to flip
a coin.
another thing about cops who are about to commit violence they can't justify; they often turn
off their body cams, or claim they forgot to turn them on, or they weren't working. that's
not denial; that's premeditation.
No, cui bono is irrelevant.
IT is a mess because despite the pace of historical change, the effects on productivity are
remarkable.
If one can improve productivity by double digits with half-assed IT efforts - why bother with
more coherent and considered planning or execution?
Now repeat this every 3 years or so. The result is an ungodly hodgepodge in very little time.
I see it now simple thus: Anglo Deep $tate cannot defeat China MIL plus Russia so it
needs them split. That's how Kissinger "won" the Vietnam war by cozying up to Mao. Quite a
Pyrrhic victory on the short (Vietnam) and the long (PR China today) run.
Any crap is being hauled up to tar Russia, from MH17, via Skripal to cyber false
flaggery.
For me, the incredible truth is that greed overcame all other emotions: patriotism? ...just a
adman's final lever; exceptionalism could have no other end other than the bonfire of the
vanities. Greed, by the very few ultra rich, the lucre flowing down to control all segments
of the society, the body now being feasted on, until there are few specs left , worthy of the
effort.
I disagree. What aggression did the Russians take? A Russian pilot flying over a US
aircraft carrier and taking pictures is intelligence gathering. A Russian bomber trying to
bomb a US aircraft carrier is an act of aggression.
By that definition, this is normal intelligence gathering. Not something that requires
killing people.
Edited to add: Of course it was legitimately signed. Solarwinds signed it and pushed it
out. That only means the software came from Solarwinds internal builds. Shame on Solarwinds
for not maintaining simple checksum chains of its object code to insure it hasn't been
overwritten. Shame on the defense department for not requiring Solarwinds to maintain secure
source control.
Shame on Solarwinds for not maintaining simple checksum chains of its object code to
insure it hasn't been overwritten. Shame on the defense department for not requiring
Solarwinds to maintain secure source control.
This is the first indication i have seen anywhere on this breach which suggests SolarWinds
could have taken basic precautions in pushing out its firmware updates. I am going to look
for articles written by Cyber people on this and ignore the press.
Yes, Tech in this current era, is neglecting the most foundational checks and balances. In
a twenty-four span, we had the SolarWinds/Microsoft 365 Hack and the Google Cloud global
failure, after having the entire world's internet stopping due to a bad mass deployed
firmware update to the switches. Therefore, I believe the Federal Government is best to
create its own proprietary system than outsourcing to Microsoft, Amazon, or Google.
Some edits would be useful, like instead of: "containing a direct back door to the Russian
military" one should have written "containing a direct back door to any knowledgeable
hacker". Something that Snowden for YEARS has complained about. And this is why HUAWEI is so
hated, because it doesn't offer backdoors to be exploited, in a handshake understanding with
US intelligence corps.
Until now all I've seen were anonymous sources claiming that it kind of feels like
those dastardly Russkies were behind it again. Did I miss the part where actual evidence was
provided?
CISA is an agency full of bureaucrats, not computer specialists. So any judgement is highly
suspect. In my view "computer security bureaucrat" is typically a parasite or a charlatan.
Traditionally computer security departments in large corporations often serve as a place to exile
incompetent wannabes. I do not think the government is different. Real high quality programmers
usually prefer to write their own software not to spend their time analyzing some obtuse malware
code. Often high level honchos in such department are so obviously incompetent that it hurts.
This is the same agency that declared Presidential election 2020 to be the most secure in
history. So their statements are not worth the electrons used to put them on the screen, so say
nothing about a ppar , if they manage to get into such rags as NYT or WaPo.
We need clear-eyed assessment from a real Windows OS specialists like for Stuxnet was
Mark
Russinovich , which is difficult in current circumstances.
The supply chain attack used to breach federal agencies and at least one private company
poses a "grave risk" to the United States, in part because the attackers likely used means
other than just the SolarWinds backdoor to penetrate networks of interest, federal officials
said on Thursday. One of those networks belongs to the National Nuclear Security
Administration, which is responsible for the Los Alamos and Sandia labs, according to a report
from
Politico .
"This adversary has demonstrated an ability to exploit software supply chains and shown
significant knowledge of Windows networks," officials with the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and
Security Agency wrote in an alert . "It is likely that the adversary
has additional initial access vectors and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) that have
not yet been discovered." CISA, as the agency is abbreviated, is an arm of the Department of
Homeland Security.
Elsewhere, officials wrote: "CISA has determined that this threat poses a grave risk to the
Federal Government and state, local, tribal, and territorial governments as well as critical
infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations."
Reuters, meanwhile, reported that the attackers
breached a separate major technology supplier and used the compromise to get into
high-value final targets. The news services cited two people briefed on the
matter.
FURTHER READING
Premiere security firm FireEye says it was breached by nation-state hackers The attackers,
whom CISA said began their operation no later than March, managed to remain undetected until
last week when security firm FireEye reported that hackers backed by a nation-state had
penetrated deep into its network . Early this week, FireEye said that the hackers were
infecting targets using Orion, a widely used network management tool from SolarWinds. After
taking control of the Orion update mechanism, the attackers were using it to install a backdoor
that FireEye researchers are calling Sunburst. Advertisement
FURTHER READING
Russian hackers hit US government using widespread supply chain attack Sunday was also when
multiple news outlets, citing unnamed people, reported that the hackers had
used the backdoor in Orion to breach networks belonging to the Departments of Commerce,
Treasury, and possibly other agencies. The Department of Homeland Security and the National
Institutes of Health were later added to the list. Bleak assessment
Thursday's CISA alert provided an unusually bleak assessment of the hack; the threat it
poses to government agencies at the national, state, and local levels; and the skill,
persistence, and time that will be required to expel the attackers from networks they had
penetrated for months undetected.
"This APT actor has demonstrated patience, operational security, and complex tradecraft in
these intrusions," officials wrote in Thursday's alert. "CISA expects that removing this threat
actor from compromised environments will be highly complex and challenging for
organizations."
The officials went on to provide another bleak assessment: "CISA has evidence of additional
initial access vectors, other than the SolarWinds Orion platform; however, these are still
being investigated. CISA will update this Alert as new information becomes available."
The advisory didn't say what the additional vectors might be, but the officials went on to
note the skill required to infect the SolarWinds software build platform, distribute backdoors
to 18,000 customers, and then remain undetected in infected networks for months.
"This adversary has demonstrated an ability to exploit software supply chains and shown
significant knowledge of Windows networks," they wrote. "It is likely that the adversary has
additional initial access vectors and tactics, techniques, and procedures that have not yet
been discovered."
Among the many federal agencies that used SolarWinds Orion, reportedly, was the Internal
Revenue Service. On Thursday, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a
letter to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig asking that he provide a briefing on whether
taxpayer data was compromised.
The IRS appears to have been a customer of SolarWinds as recently as 2017. Given the
extreme sensitivity of personal taxpayer information entrusted to the IRS, and the harm both
to Americans' privacy and our national security that could result from the theft and
exploitation of this data by our adversaries, it is imperative that we understand the extent
to which the IRS may have been compromised. It is also critical that we understand what
actions the IRS is taking to mitigate any potential damage, ensure that hackers do not still
have access to internal IRS systems, and prevent future hacks of taxpayer data.
IRS representatives didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment for this
post.
The CISA alert said the key takeaways from its investigation so far are:
This is a patient, well-resourced, and focused adversary that has sustained long duration
activity on victim networks The SolarWinds Orion supply chain compromise is not the only
initial infection vector this APT actor leveraged Not all organizations that have the
backdoor delivered through SolarWinds Orion have been targeted by the adversary with
follow-on actions Organizations with suspected compromises need to be highly conscious of
operational security, including when engaging in incident response activities and planning
and implementing remediation plans
What has emerged so far is that this is an extraordinary hack whose full scope and effects
won't be known for weeks or even months. Additional shoes are likely to drop early and
often.
Until now all I've seen were anonymous sources claiming that it kind of feels like those
dastardly Russkies were behind it again. Did I miss the part where actual evidence was
provided?
The NY Times used to have an entire department focusing on selling the Iraq war. Google
"Judith Miller", who was the chief sell-Iraq-war propagandist and liar. The NY Times has a
bad record of being the "publication of record" among the corporate mainstream media.
"Your honor, you are quite right about the lack of evidence. The problem is...you
shouldn't want me to show you the evidence! That would be tantamount to revealing my
investigative techniques!"
"Well, when you put it that way..."
And of course the sources were anonymous. Don't you read the WaPo like a good citizen?
The Russian hackers, known by the nicknames APT29 or Cozy Bear, are part of that
nation's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, and they breached email systems in some
cases, said the people familiar with the intrusions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of the matter
Is there any precedent for declaring pure espionage/intelligence gathering, even on a very
large scale, to be an armed attack warranting an armed response? I can't think of any.
A major breach of U.S. security calls for a robust law enforcement response and
cybersecurity measures, and arguably even for the longstanding death penalty for espionage if
the offenders are caught, but not for cries of "declaration of war," like Dick Durbin's.
That applies to the same sources "informing" us about the so-called Russian hack.
Remember when we were "informed" N. Korea hacked into Sonny's and "downloaded" an entire
movie, which was not even released?! Turned out that was an inside job by a woman who had
worked at Sonny for ten years. I smell the same BS from the likes of the NY Times.
For almost three decades, we have awaited a mythical "cyber Pearl Harbor," the harbinger of
digital doom that the U.S. cybersecurity community assumes to be inevitable. Strangely enough,
some believe this cyber Pearl Harbor already happened twice within the last two months.
Though warnings of cyber Pearl Harbor emerged as early as 1991, former defense secretary
Leon Panetta is perhaps best known for promoting the idea, warning
in 2012 of an impending "cyber-Pearl Harbor that would cause physical destruction and the loss
of life, an attack that would paralyze and shock the nation." Such a grand event would be tough
to miss.
Last week, Sidney Powell, a one-time member of the president's legal team, continued to
promote her conspiracy theory that the Venezuelans, the Chinese, and "other countries" had
exploited voting machines to rig the election for President-elect Joe Biden. This fictitious
"attack," she
told Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, amounted to nothing less than "cyber Pearl Harbor."
Apparently the rest of us just missed it.
Cybersecurity experts, including Christopher Krebs, the former head of the Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency who was fired by President Trump in November, have refuted these
claims. Krebs
called them "farcical" and "nonsensical." Officials have
said there was no interference with voting machines of the kind claimed by Trump supporters
and that the election was "the most secure in American history."
This week began with the news of cybersecurity breaches at a
growing list of private companies and government agencies, including the Department of
Homeland Security and even the Pentagon, perpetrated by
APT29 , the Russian SVR. Dubbed SolarWinds after the company whose software served as the
vector for the intrusions, the scope of the operation and the fact that it impacted defense and
intelligence agencies sparked an online debate as to
whether it had constituted an "attack" on the United States. Others did not wait to learn the
extent of the damage before
declaring that the United States had been "hit with 'Cyber-Pearl Harbor.'" Senator Richard
Durbin went so far as to call
the hack "virtually a declaration of war."
National Review 's Jim Geraghty implied that the
United States missed the SolarWinds intrusions because it failed to take the 2015 Office of
Personnel Management (OPM) breach at the
hands of Chinese hackers seriously enough, focusing instead on Russian disinformation in the
wake of that country's interference in the 2016 presidential election. The OPM incident, he
said, "was widely described as the 'cyber Pearl Harbor' and yet most Americans didn't
notice."
Calling any of these incidents "cyber Pearl Harbor" is inaccurate at best and inherently
dangerous. The impacts of the OPM and SolarWinds hacks in no way approximate the kind of death
and destruction most often associated with the
use of the "cyber Pearl Harbor" analogy. The whole point of a cyber Pearl Harbor is that we
would not miss the significance of such a major catastrophe since it would lead to an
inevitable reconstitution of the cyber security threat environment.
This continued use of
doomsday rhetoric is dangerous because it distorts our understanding of the cyber threats
we do face, the implications of real incidents when they occur, and our possible response
options. As Director of National Intelligence James Clapper
said in 2015, the OPM breach was representative of the real cyber threats we face not
because it was the fulfillment of a long-awaited "
cyber Armageddon scenario ," but because it was not. It was not an "attack," he said, but
an incident of the kind of cyber espionage we witness regularly. That the cyber domain is
dominated by
espionage and represents a wider intelligence
contest demonstrates the continuing misapplication of strategic thought surrounding cyber
security violations.
Five years later, it is still unhelpful to frame incidents like SolarWind as the arrival of
digital apocalypse instead of another major incident of
cyber espionage . Continued hyperbole surrounding every new cyber incident encourages the
kind of craven misappropriation of fears of
cyber doom by those who seek to inflate threats for political gain.
We do not know the scope of SolarWinds mainly because the domain has no conception of
measuring impact. In an arena obsessed with battle damage estimates, the Department of Defense
simply has no interest in measuring the
impact of their operations and the utility of
defend forward operations that provide little leverage against espionage operations.
The FY2021 NDAA contains
the most significant cyber security legislation to date. Helping the government organize in
order to deny operations in the cyber environment is a critical task. There are provisions for
threat hunting, organizational coordination, and more funding for cyber operations to maintain
and defend cyberspace. Yet the deeper challenge is how we defend against espionage.
The real lesson of Pearl Harbor is the desperation of Japan to preemptively eliminate the
United States as a threat to Japanese operations in the Pacific and the U.S. intelligence
failures that enabled the attack in the first place. Taking the analogy in the correct
direction suggests that the U.S. needs to seek to deny attack options to prevent infiltrations
such as the SolarWinds event. The U.S. also needs to do better of understanding the strategic
motivations of our adversaries. In this case, being distracted by the possibility of a major
hack during the 2020 election led to a comprehensive violation of almost every government
agency.
Hyperbole needs to stop and rational consideration of the impact of the SolarWind operation
will take time and sober thought, not instant hot takes. Infiltration and extracting
information is not an act of war, but evidence of the typical espionage operations that are
conducted against near peer adversaries. Denying future operations will require a sober
assessment of how to enable the defense when the attacker has many attack options. This will
likely not come solely through government action, but collaboration between industry, the
private sector, and government agencies that provide for collective defense.
Sean Lawson is associate professor of Communication at the University of Utah and
non-resident fellow at the Krulak Center at the Marine Corps University.
Brandon Valeriano is the Donald Bren Chair of Military Innovation at the Marine Corps
University located at the Krulak Center. He also serves as a senior fellow at the Cato
Institute and a senior advisor to the U.S. Cyber Solarium Commission.
Excellent article. Hyperbole is about the last thing we need at this point in time.
Unfortunately, hyperbole is standard fare these days. The result? Misinformation and
half-truths, followed by hasty (and often erroneous) conclusions, followed by incorrect
remedies which, more often than not, tend to make what are already bad situations only
worse.
Unfortunately when it comes to cyber attacks, unlike an actual Pearl Harbor, the damage is
invisible to most of us. So are the perpetrators. We can't directly see the trail of evidence
that connects the crime to the suspects, so we have to rely on the testimony of experts.
Then we have political pressure groups that are interested in up or down playing the severity
of the breach.
On top of all, we have a population that is utterly ignorant but 'been trained to distrust
experience.
As I am typing this, I am less and less optimistic.
Even worse, we have a severely alienated population that is tired of being played by elites
with constant hype about alleged foreign enemies. We have a population that sees more immediate
threat from its own elites than Russian spies. The headline reads like "Deep State has Russkies
in its Shorts Again" and la dee dah, why do I even care? Are Russkies gonna take my job, lock
me down, or cancel me? Too late, Vlad, I've already been done.
In any case the last of the friends of the United States in high places, the fifth column
in the Kremlin, are losing their last scraps of influence. Whether Russia "attacked" the US
is debatable and unlikely but there is no doubt that, once again, the US has attacked Russia.
It has closed down its last two consulates and is reducing the Embassy in Moscow to skeletal
staff. All the indications are that they are preparing for war, as are their NATO allies. The
hyenas in Ukraine and Poland are salivating over spoils of war coming their way.
As for Navalny-the indestructible kid- the only prospect of his return to Moscow is in an
American tank
american political theater is funny in a bleak way, now the
republicans are trying to reclaim mccarthyism from the democrats; instead of russia cubed it's
china cubed. maybe they felt they were victims of cultural appropriation.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Dec 19 2020 13:45 utc |
42
In 2012 Kaspersky Russian Virus Lab detected, decrypted a unknown computer Virus which is now
named the Flame Virus. It had been written by the CIA, Mossad and used a compromised Windows
updater server to infect Windows servers globally. Kaspersky alerted the World to this
threat. The US Gov then went all-out to punish Kaspersky AV Lab forbidding them from US Gov
contracts.
A. Smith 23 hours ago 19 Dec, 2020 02:49 PM
In 2012 didn't the CIA,Mossad create the Flame computer virus using a Windows update server
to globally infect Windows servers? Wasn't Obama and Joe Biden in Office and ordered it under
the guise of attacking Iran? Its still infecting computers across US with backdoors. Now the
same folks are blaming Russia for a similar act 8 years later?
By Caitlin Johnstone , an independent journalist based in Melbourne, Australia. Her
website is here and you can follow
her on Twitter @caitoz
We've landed in a world where diplomacy,
sanctions, even war can be decided by mere claims, and evidence is optional. Yet those proudly
displaying the badge of 'public trust' are the worst of the serial, politically-driven liars.
The Communist Party of China has been covertly sending arms to extremist Antifa militants in
the United States in preparation for the civil war which is expected to take place after Joe
Biden declares himself President for Life and institutes a Marxist dictatorship. The weapons
shipments include rocket launchers, directed energy weapons, nunchucks and ninja throwing
stars.
Unfortunately I cannot provide evidence for this shocking revelation as doing so would
compromise my sources and methods, but trust me it's definitely true and must be acted upon
immediately. I recommend President Trump declare martial law without a moment's hesitation and
begin planning a military response to these Chinese aggressions.
How does this make you feel? Was your first impulse to begin scanning for evidence of the
incendiary claim I made in my opening paragraph?
It would be perfectly reasonable if it was. I am, after all, some random person on the
internet whom you have probably never met, and you've no reason to accept any bold claim I
might make on blind faith. It would make sense for you to want to see some verification of my
claim, and then dismiss my claim as baseless hogwash when I failed to provide that
verification.
If you're a more regular reader, it would have also been reasonable for you to guess that I
was doing a bit. But imagine if I wasn't? Imagine if I really was claiming that the Chinese
government is arming Antifa ninja warriors to kill patriotic Americans in the coming Biden
Wars. How crazy would you have to be to believe what I was saying without my providing hard,
verifiable evidence for my claims?
Now imagine further that this is something I've made false claims about many times in the
past. If every few years I make a new claim about some naughty government arming Antifa super
soldiers in a great communist uprising, which turns out later to have been bogus.
Well you'd dismiss me as a crackpot, wouldn't you? I wouldn't blame you. That would be the
only reasonable response to such a ridiculous spectacle.
And yet if I were an employee of a US government agency making unproven incendiary claims
about a government that isn't aligned with the US-centralized power alliance, the entire
political/media class would be parroting what I said as though it's an established fact. Even
though US government agencies have an extensive and well-documented history of lying about such things.
Today we're all expected to be freaking out about Russia again because Russia hacked the
United States again right before a new president took office again, so now it's very important
that we support new cold war escalations from both the outgoing president and the incoming
president again. We're not allowed to see the evidence that this actually happened again, but
it's of utmost importance that we trust and support new aggressions against Russia anyway.
Again.
The New York Times has a viral op-ed going around titled "I Was the Homeland
Security Adviser to Trump. We're Being Hacked. " The article's author Thomas P Bossert warns
ominously that "the networks of the federal government and much of corporate America are
compromised by a foreign nation" perpetrated by "the Russian intelligence agency known
as the S.V.R., whose tradecraft is among the most advanced in the world."
Rather than using its supreme tradecraft to interfere in the November election ensuring the
victory of the president we've been told for years is a Russian asset by outlets like The
New York Times , Bossert informs us that the SVR instead opted to hack a private American
IT company called SolarWinds whose software is widely used by the US government.
"Unsuspecting customers then downloaded a corrupted version of the software, which
included a hidden back door that gave hackers access to the victim's network," Bossert
explains, saying that "The magnitude of this ongoing attack is hard to overstate." Its
magnitude is so great that Bossert says Trump must "severely punish the Russians" for
perpetrating it, and cooperate with the incoming Biden team in helping to ensure that that
punishment continues seamlessly between administrations.
The problem is that, as usual, we've been given exactly zero evidence for any of this. As
Moon of Alabama
explains , the only technical analysis we've seen of the alleged hack (courtesy of
cybersecurity firm FireEye) makes no claim that Russia was responsible for it, yet the mass
media are flagrantly asserting as objective, verified fact that Russia is behind
this far-reaching intrusion into US government networks, citing only anonymous
sources if they cite anything at all.
And of course where the media class goes so too does the barely-separate political class.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin told CNN in a recent interview
that this invisible, completely unproven cyberattack constitutes "virtually a declaration of
war by Russia on the United States." Which is always soothing language to hear as the
Russian government
announces the development of new hypersonic missiles as part of a new nuclear arms race it
attributes to US cold war escalations.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald is one of the few high-profile voices who've had the temerity to
stick his head above the parapet and point out the fact that we have seen exactly zero evidence
for these incendiary claims, for which he is of course currently being raked over the coals on
Twitter.
"I know it doesn't matter. I know it's wrong to ask the question. I know asking the
question raises grave doubts about one's loyalties and patriotism," Greenwald sarcastically
tweeted
. "But has there been any evidence publicly presented, let alone dispositive proof, that
Russia is responsible for this hack?"
"Perhaps they have information sources they can't describe without compromising sources
and methods?"chimed in Ars Technica
's Timothy B Lee in response to Greenwald's query, a textbook reply from establishment
narrative managers whenever anyone questions where the evidence is for any of these invisible
attacks on US sovereignty.
"Of course they can't show us the evidence!" proponents of establishment Russia
hysteria always say. "They'd compromise their sources and methods if they did!"
US spook agencies always say this about evidence for US spook agency claims about
governments long targeted for destruction by US spook agencies. We can't share the evidence
with you because the evidence is classified. It's secret evidence. The evidence is
invisible.
Which always works out very nicely for the US spook agencies, I must say.
Secret, invisible evidence is not evidence. If the public cannot see the evidence behind the
claims being made by the powerful, then those claims are unproven. It would never be acceptable
for anyone in power to say "This important thing with potentially world-altering
consequences definitely happened, but you'll just have to trust us because the evidence is
secret." In a post-Iraq invasion world it is orders of magnitude more unacceptable, and
should therefore be dismissed until hard, verifiable evidence is provided.
Isn't it interesting how all the Pearl Harbors and 9/11s of our day are completely
invisible to the public? We can't see cyber-intrusions for ourselves like we could see fallen
buildings and smoking naval bases; they're entirely hidden from our view. Not only are they
entirely hidden from our view, the evidence that they happened is kept secret from us as well.
And the mass media just treat this as normal and fine. Government agencies with an extensive
history of lying are allowed to make completely unsubstantiated and unverifiable claims about
governments long targeted by those same government agencies, and the institutions responsible
for informing the public about what's going on in the world simply repeat it as fact.
Sure it's possible that Russia hacked the US. It's possible that the US government has been
in contact with extraterrestrials, too. It's possible that the Chinese government is covertly
arming Antifa samurai in preparation for a civil war. But we do not imbue these things with the
power of belief until we are provided with an amount of evidence that rises to the level
required in a post-Iraq invasion world.
These people have not earned our trust, they have earned our pointed and aggressive
skepticism. We must act accordingly.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
Midnight10 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 03:03 PM
The US isn't know mm for its independent thought processes. The "secret, invisible evidence"
comes right out of WADA's planbook for banning Russian athletes from the Olympics, by their
use of "disappearing positives". It would be a mistake to consider the Pentagon any smarter
then the WADA Committee. Remember Lance Armstrong was allowed to continue for seven years
without a peep from WADA, or CAS, or the US doping agency. Not a peep. Must have used magic,
like the Pentagon and WADA does now.
Frank Hood Midnight10 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 05:05 PM
Its astounding that U.S ath letes using ster.oids of some sort are not under the same rules
as Rus sian athletes. To ex clude many of the worlds best and still continue to compete
Vikiiing Midnight10 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 04:36 PM
Armstrong was cuaght doping during his first tour win, twice! UCI and other clowns bought
Drugstrongs excuse. And I mean bought 2 years later Dopestrong secretly gave the UCI over
$100,000 for fighting doping....And dont forget Armstrong stole money intended for his
charity....I'm sure he's waiting for an appropriate time to give it back....
Bill Spence 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 03:09 PM
Stealing a few secrets by hacking into US networks is very minor compared to the acts of war
that the United States has committed against Iran Russia China and North Korea. The whole
thing is boring because nothing was damaged according to the claims. Show me some damage or
be silent.
Frank Hood Bill Spence 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 05:23 PM
Even if it is minor, proof would be nice. The people are just starting to question what we
have been told for decades. Mind you Assange actually provided proof for all of us,but
regardless the world still ignored the provided proof. Allegations are the name of the game,
and a good enough reason to continue pressure on certain countries in the form of physical
and economic war since WW2. BUT, "times are a changin" folks.
MotorSlug Bill Spence 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 03:18 PM
thanks to Vault 7 and Wikileaks, we know 99% of the shots are taken by the CIA
EarthBotV2 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 03:38 PM
Here's the question well-programmed Americans never think to ask: Who gains? A coup has
occurred in the U.S.. The evidence of fraud is overwhelming. How do the coup perpetrators
plan to dispose of this evidence? -- by blaming Russia! We'll be told that Russia
manufactured the evidence, just as we were told that Russia manufactured Hunter Biden's
laptop. And those who attempt to prosecute the fraudsters will be called "Russian Agents".
shadow1369 1 day ago 19 Dec, 2020 12:13 PM
Wikileaks Vault 77 disclosures revealed that US terrorist intelligence agencies can make a
hack look like it coes from wherever they choose. Even before that, and the ease with which
CGI can make dead people talk, we were living in an entirely fake paradigm created by
corporate media.
DeathbyDissent 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 06:30 PM
If anyone doubts that the US would use this evidence-free false-flag as a pretext for
attacking Russia, just go to Youtube and search Russian, Hack, Bolton. There, you will see
John Bolton on MSNBC saying the US should "retaliate" in a many-fold worse way. Bolton is a
representative of the deep state in the US; he is a neocon, and neocons have driven our
foreign policy for over 20 years.
DeathbyDissent 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 05:34 PM
Whenever the US wants to commit crimes against other countries, it manufactures the reasons
for doing so. it's been doing this for many decades. This "hack" is nothing more than a
pretext for 1) demonizing Russia, and 2) advancing a foreign policy action in opposition to
Russia. If you don't know that the United States is the main purveyor of lies in the world by
now, you need a giant red pill.
Twills93 DeathbyDissent 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 05:43 PM
How many lies is too many?
Forgotten9 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 05:01 PM
2020 should go into genius records as the largest coincidental (propagated proxi) in the
history of the world
Forgotten9 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 04:57 PM
The greatest question is why has the left administration lied, covered up, misinforming the
american people of their global military actions? PROXI wars? Misuse of NATO assets for EU
and personal gains... Allied with Xi Jinping , striking chinese assets to stimulate the
cultural uprising that put Xi into power in 2012, turning full socialist communist in 2013,
deploying a centralized military power to enforce the territory display in the new map of
china presented December 2012, and full gov backed boycott of western goods, transitioned to
cut trade fully with the western conventional allies china allowed its economy to fully
contract... all covered up by liberal media and made public in their US conservative
opponent's administration..
Forgotten9 1 day ago 18 Dec, 2020 03:53 PM
Did the EU push NATO integration of such technologies making NATO suspect?
Yes, this RussiaGate story will flame out, just like all the rest, but ultimately these
stories aren't about Trump, but about setting the stage for the Biden Administration to
attack Russia. It doesn't matter that they are all lies, what matters is that the big pile
of lies as a whole creates a false reality in which anti-Russian propaganda is so
overwhelming that nobody in the west can see outside of the delusion.
The neocon criminals have managed to take over foreign policy in the U.S., leveraging
money power from their bankster backers. The latter is a tiny group of oligarchs and their
network of highly-paid promoters that are motivated to force U.S. hegemony onto the world.
They now have control over the U.S. Congress, Intelligence Agencies, and the MSM, and are
increasingly exerting censorship over social media. Their latest gambit is the Coronavirus
putsch using bio-warfare agents to undermine small-scale economies and autonomy, while
imposing vast corporate ownership of property. Worldwide compliance is the goal using a
wide range of military, financial, and media control measures to crush dissent. The
pharma-promoted vaccinations that are questionable at best reinforce those controls and are
part of the plot. We are witnessing a worldwide COUPS ATTEMPT, UBER-Fascism that exceeds
all historical examples. Will it succeed?
"The dems biden gang would have been pulling similar stunts although they would have
been asking for future favours hence the 'new' cabinet being chocka with K street
whores."
Was the position of Secretary of State just a consolation prize for HRC as runner-up to
the Obama race or the quid pro quo to enable her foundation to rake in millions in "favour
funding" that quietly disappeared into the fog?
"Yes, he killed foreigners. But no U.S. president will ever be indicted for that. It
is seen as a part of the job."
Yes, committing war crimes and "crimes against peace"--the supreme international crime
as asserted by the Nuremberg Tribunal--is fundamental to the job description of being
America's War-Criminal-in-Chief.
The fact that Americans and citizens in other self-styled "democracies" deny this
uncomfortable reality, or support these war crimes, says a lot about their own
criminality.
Our politicians blow over a trillion dollars a year on US "security" and they can't figure
out a way to keep hackers off of our hard drives? This shows you the quality of the overpaid
clowns in charge of our government. Now we can't even run an election fair and square and are
in the same class as El Salvador, maybe worse.
captain noob 2 hours ago
The problem with money is that it doesn't necessarily buy you things of value
If the Israelis spent all that time and energy to make 9/11 look like an al Qaeda plot, then
it's a piece of cake to make this hack look like the work of Russians.
I see no effort to make this hack look like a russian plot. It looks more organic. Once
the general attitude of disreputability has been established the secret services can sit back
and relax really, the antirussian mindset gets a momentum of its own and generates its own
new antirussian storylines.
I want to know why we aren't hiring the Russians for everything? They appear to be the
best, whether military equipment, spycraft, hacking, diplomacy, or global strategy. All we
have are butthurt bureaucrats, gay entertainers and loudmouthed athletes always eager to bend
a knee.
radical-extremist 3 hours ago
They were the best at honeypots too, until Swallwell fell for Fang Fang.
Dabooda 2 hours ago
Epstein and Mossad would be the gold standard for honeypots.
PrideOfMammon 2 hours ago
As I said, if Putin ran in a fair election in the USA, he would win hands down.
As Putin and others noted, this was a most difficult year. I hadn't read his concluding
remarks until just now. I'm going to copy/paste them along with the question that sparked
them. And it most unequivocally answers a longstanding question Billy Joel asked at a time
that seems like it was only yesterday:
"Viktor Sineok: Izvestia, Viktor Sineok.
"Mr President, we have heard many questions about many different problems but mine is a
little different. Over the past year we have understood, we really felt what it meant to have
a very hard time, including emotionally. You said at the press conference a few years ago
that you put your emotions into your work. Here is my question: what sort of emotions have
you felt in recent years, including this difficult year of 2020? And which emotions would you
like to wish us in the coming year? Maybe you already know how you will toast the New
Year?
"Vladimir Putin: Please, be seated.
"As to which prevailed – the good or the bad You know, each year brings issues we
have to overcome, and each year brings us great joy – both family, and state, national
achievements. Against all odds, we have great achievements that we can and should be proud
of, and we are.
"Yes, the year was complicated, but what would I like to draw your attention to? You know,
this is what I thought about when you were asking me this question. Haven't we faced
difficulties in our recent history? Just now, in this meeting I remembered how hard life was
in the 1990s and the early 2000s. It seemed at that time that there was no light at the end
of the tunnel, that there was nothing. No army, no economy, a ruined social sphere and
skyrocketing unemployment. One out of three lived below the poverty line, but look at what it
is like now.
"Yes, there are problems. Yes, people are still living a very hard life, and there are
very many such people. That said, the foundations of Russian statehood, the pillars of the
Russian economy, and the potential of the state are incomparable with what they were in the
1990s and the early 2000s. This gives us tools we have never had before. This gives us an
opportunity to focus on resolving the most important, most urgent problems without forgetting
about the strategic development goals of the Russian Federation .
"As for toasts, like every person, every citizen, I always have toasts for the New Year.
It is only important that the amount of champagne and other drinks you consume is limited. As
for toasts, the number does not matter.
"Of course, we will all raise toasts to the people in our lives, our family, friends and
colleagues. But I, my family and friends always have one main toast – 'To
Russia.'
"Not to finish my remarks on this pathetic note but on something heart-felt, I would like
to say the following: during this meeting, some of my colleagues asked me what we were
planning to do to support families with children and whether we have plans for this. This is
what I would like to say. Some volunteers told me recently that they have various ideas and
initiatives on supporting children before the New Year. Unfortunately, this year large events
like children's New Year parties have been cancelled due to the restrictions. Large events in
theatres, children's studios and so on have been cancelled as well.
"But still, this is an unusual holiday. It comes with expectations and hopes for the
future and, at the same time, with difficulties. Therefore, before coming here I consulted
the Government and the Presidential Executive Office. We agreed that our country, our state
will also give a gift to our children. It is a small, modest gift, but nevertheless, we will
pay 5,000 rubles to all families with children under 7 years old; 5,000 will be paid for
every child in this age group .
"I would like to thank all of you for our common work. I would also like to wish you all
the best. I hope we have not worn each other out. I would like to hope that the people who
listened to us for more than four hours, for four and a half hours, have found this useful
and interesting.
"For my part, I would like to say that the meeting was very useful for me. We will do all
we can to give the best possible response to all your questions, concerns and problems that
are faced by the country and each Russian family.
"All the best to you!
"Thank you very much." [My Emphasis]
We now most certainly know that the Russians Love Their Children Too. However given the
behavior of the Outlaw US Empire, I very much doubt the same can be said, which makes for a
very dangerous situation. Putin has a truthful sincerity to him that is utterly vacant from
every US President I've known in my life except for JFK--he made a very positive impression
on my very young mind, something that was clearly missing from LBJ and Nixon prior to my
rather abrupt awakening in 1970. Perhaps that's because none ever promised to do anything for
Commonfolk as anything aimed at promoting the people's wellbeing was always opposed. I don't
know how the average Russian feels about Putin's words, but I would be very proud to have
such a leader as focused on the wellbeing of what makes his Nation great--its people.
I wrote this for the next thread; but after reading your comment, it belongs here since
the Trump thread didn't want to have it. "Provincials" as you said who in reality are
gutter-scum.
This may appear to be about getting Trump, but it's more likely about keeping relations
with Russia in the tank. For example, I remarked this morning that the only media report
about Putin's annual, impressive presser was the highly convoluted answer Putin gave to some
recent fake news reports about his family and how they connect to the Navalny crap. It
appears the writing has similar qualities meaning it was produced by similar sources. There's
only one way to properly illustrate this and that's to provide what Putin related.
The Question:
"Alexander Yunashev: Good afternoon, Mr President.
I will take the advice from the young reporter [from the previous question which is also
of some importance]. A number of interesting investigative reports have been released lately,
for example, about your daughter, your former son-in-law Shamalov and other people who are
allegedly close to you. This week the Alexei Navalny investigation also came out. Could you
tell us why a criminal investigation into his poisoning and who did it has not been launched
until now?
Putin: "I see.
"It is no surprise that these fake news stories emerge. It has always been this way and
always will. There is a battle unfolding in the media space. Nothing new here. Do you
remember the terrible developments in the Caucasus and efforts to fight international
terrorism? How was yours truly portrayed by the international media and, unfortunately, in
Russia as well? Remember how they portrayed me with fangs? I remember all this very well.
Still, I have invariably proceeded from the premise that I need to be doing what I believe to
be right for our country. When I do something, I do it not for the sake of pleasing someone
abroad. This is the first part of my answer.
"The second part has to do with my close ones. This report is impossible to read. I
flipped through it, since it talks about me, it seems, but it is such a cut-and-paste job,
with so many things piling up, that I was unable to finish reading it. What did I want to
point out in this regard? The report keeps repeating 'the president's son-in-law' over and
over again. At the end, however, he is referred to as the former son-in-law. This is the
first thing I wanted to say. Still, in the text they keep driving home the message that he is
my son-in-law. So this goes for point one.
"The second point is about 'President Putin forbidding the elite to hold overseas assets.'
There is no ban preventing the elite from holding assets abroad. Public servants cannot have
financial assets abroad. This was the right thing to do. They cannot hold accounts or other
financial assets abroad. The company in question is 100-percent private. The state does not
own a single share in it.
"The next question: who received shares in this company and how? It turns out that the
company released a statement on this matter and what it thinks about these allegations. The
company had a compensation scheme for its senior executives, and Mr Shamalov received stock
just like all other senior executives. There are also other programmes for executives at a
different level, and they received stock following a different scheme. Nothing special
here.
"But ultimately, in my opinion, the most important thing is this: just now, aspiring
journalist Shnurov asked about our hackers. What is written in the beginning? Note that it
says that an unknown, anonymous person is pursuing goals we do not understand and then,
apparently, this anonymous person is tracked down. What do I mean? It is said that what
happened is similar to the events in 2016 when outlawed Russian hackers associated with
Russian military intelligence hacked US Democratic Party members' emails. Here is your
anonymous person. I think we know who that is. Who called these hackers outlaws associated
with Russian military intelligence? It was the US Department of State and US intelligence
agencies, which are in fact the authors. At any rate, it is completely obvious that it was
done upon their instructions . This is the first thing.
"The second is that the reference to the insinuation that our hackers, as they believe,
interfered with US domestic policy in 2016 means that the purpose of this is clear. The
purpose is to take revenge and try to influence public opinion in our country in order to
interfere, of course, with our domestic politics. This is absolutely obvious. It is
absolutely obvious to me and, I think, it will also become clear to the majority of readers
if they pay attention to the things I have just mentioned.
"But to this end, I would like to emphasise the following:
"One should be driven by now I want to address those who ordered these publications,
not those who actually wrote them. I know that if they get an assignment from intelligence
services they have to write it. But those who order these kinds of articles, should not be
driven by revenge or act on the assumption of alleged exceptionalism; instead, they should
develop relations with their international partners based on mutual respect and the
fundamental standards of international law. Then we will be able to achieve shared success in
the areas that are essential to all of us .
"Now, with regard to the patient of a Berlin clinic. I have already mentioned it many
times, and can repeat only certain things. Mr Peskov told me just yesterday about the latest
speculations in this regard concerning our special service officers' data and so on.
Listen, we are perfectly aware of what this is all about. It is about legalisation the
first time around and now. This is not about an investigation. This is about legalising the
materials from the US special services .
"Do you really think we are unaware of the fact that they are tracking locations? Our
special services understand this well and are aware of it. Officers of the FSB and other
special services are aware of it and use telephones whenever they believe they should not be
hiding their location, etc. But if this is so – and rest assured that this is so
– it means that this patient of a Berlin clinic has the support of the special
services, those of the United States in this particular case. And if this is the case, then
it gets interesting and the special services should, of course, be looking after him.
However, this does not mean at all that he must be poisoned. Who cares about him? If they
really wanted to, they would have, most likely, carried it through . His wife addressed
me, and I gave the green light to have him treated in Germany that very second.
"There is one important thing that the general public is not paying attention to. It is a
trick to attack the people at the top. Those who perform it thus propel themselves up to a
certain level where they can say: see who I am talking to? I am a person of the same calibre,
so treat me as a person of nationwide importance. It is a well-known trick that is used in
political dealings around the world.
"I think, though, that something else, not these tricks, should be used to gain people's
respect and recognition. You need to prove your worth either by doing something important
or by putting together a realistic programme with specific goals that can be implemented in a
particular country, Russia, in this particular case .
"I urge the opponents to the current government and all political forces in our country to
be led not by personal ambitions, but by the interests of the people of the Russian
Federation, and to come up with a positive agenda in order to overcome the challenges facing
the country. And we have many of them." [My Emphasis]
The rational flow is probably better in Russian with some key emphasis lost in
translation. But Putin delivered the main point on the ordering and authorship, and IMO it's
the same for much of the crap thrown our way since 1990. The only reason we aren't being
treated to similar material about Biden is he's not one of the current targets, while
legitimate anti-Biden stories are completely suppressed until they disappear under the rug.
IMO, BigLie Media has become close to what State Media was in the USSR.
IMO, BigLie Media has become close to what State Media was in the USSR.
With one big difference, the scope is global and the tools are well, like comparing a
pencil with the most sophisticated printing press. Overall the translation sounds like what I
heard, and the main point should be that Putin is able to talk at length and just about any
subject since it is very hard to think of a pre arranged setup à la 2016 debate when
the questions to be posed had been previously provided to the Clinton team.
For next year conference, if all the players and myself are still around I'll try to take
advantage of the open offer to pose a question on line, I found out too late but there was a
very accesible setup to do it.
One of the questions was chosen by VVP or his team, and it was from a northern village
resident, complaining about the local health services, claiming that there was a single 86
year old nurse in charge, and that she was unable to tell apart a tonsillitis from a
hemorrhoid. I guess this part could have been prepared, to relax a bit a tense atmosphere.
But it had consequences, the mentioned nurse has sued the daring patient, maybe he'll get his
suppository orally, so as to heal his throat.
Did this pressitute ever heard about Stixnet and Flame ? About Vault7 and who developed it? From Wikipedia
"WikiLeaks said on 19 March 2017 on Twitter that the "CIA was secretly exploiting" a
vulnerability in a huge range of Cisco router models discovered thanks to the Vault 7
documents.[93][94] The CIA had learned more than a year ago how to exploit flaws in Cisco's
widely used internet switches, which direct electronic traffic, to enable eavesdropping. Cisco
quickly reassigned staff from other projects to turn their focus solely on analyzing the attack
and to figure out how the CIA hacking worked, so they could help customers patch their systems
and prevent criminal hackers or spies from using similar methods.[95] On 20 March, Cisco
researchers confirmed that their study of the Vault 7 documents showed the CIA had developed
malware which could exploit a flaw found in 318 of Cisco's switch models and alter or take
control of the network.[96] Cisco issued a warning on security risks, patches were not available,
but Cisco provided mitigation advice.[94]
...On 8 April 2017, Cindy Cohn, executive director of the international non-profit digital
rights group based in San Francisco Electronic Frontier Foundation, said: "If the C.I.A. was
walking past your front door and saw that your lock was broken, they should at least tell you and
maybe even help you get it fixed." "And worse, they then lost track of the information they had
kept from you so that now criminals and hostile foreign governments know about your broken lock."
[109] Furthermore, she stated that the CIA had "failed to accurately assess the risk of not
disclosing vulnerabilities. Even spy agencies like the CIA have a responsibility to protect the
security and privacy of Americans."[110] "The freedom to have a private conversation – free
from the worry that a hostile government, a rogue government agent or a competitor or a criminal
are listening – is central to a free society". While not as strict as privacy laws in
Europe, the Fourth Amendment to the US constitution does guarantee the right to be free from
unreasonable searches and seizures.[111]
The more we learn about the recent hack into dozens of America's most critical computer
networks -- widely attributed to Russia -- the more it becomes clear that it is massive,
unprecedented and crippling. Tom Bossert, who served as homeland security adviser to President
Trump, writes ,
"It will take years to know for certain which networks the Russians control and which ones they
just occupy." (We do know they
successfully penetrated the Department of Homeland Security's systems as well as those of
Treasury, Commerce and others.) Stanford's Alex Stamos
describes it as "one of the most important hacking campaigns in history."
The New York Times' David E. Sanger, who has written several books on cyberweapons, co-wrote
an article
calling the breach "among the greatest intelligence failures of modern times."
Vladimir Putin's Russia has significantly expanded its hybrid warfare, using new methods to
spread chaos among its adversaries. The United States will have to fortify its digital
infrastructure and respond more robustly to the Kremlin's mounting cyberattacks. But what about
the perhaps more insidious Russian efforts at disinformation, which have helped to reshape the
information environment worldwide?
The WADA allegations against the Russian Federation's sporting establishment ultimately
rely on the testimony of a single witness (who is also the chief culprit if the allegations
are correct), and a tampering process which the manufacturer of the tamper-proof containers
insists is impossible. The WADA investigation has been prosecuted by Canadian bureaucrats,
who have been publicly outspoken in their animus towards Russia. It appears as another
element in the informational war, moved into the sporting environment - one of the few
truly international cooperative ventures humankind currently sustains. The recommended
punishment, albeit, was halved. Most of the sporting doping these days involves "health"
supplements which enjoy official exemption.
As for the Venezuelan gold - Guaido will soon have no standing as any kind of elected
official. Will he be retained as some sort of "leader" anyway, or what is the future of the
regime-change gambit?
Russia will not be able to use its name, flag and anthem at the next two Olympics or at any
world championships for the next two years after a ruling Thursday by the Court of
Arbitration for Sport.
In other words: this doping scandal never existed; but it was never about sports: it is
all - and always was - about propaganda. Russian athletes will continue to compete normally -
only without the Russian symbols.
" Russia banned from using its name, flag at next two Olympics"
"Russia will not be able to use its name, flag and anthem at the next two Olympics or at
any world championships for the next two years after a ruling Thursday by the Court of
Arbitration for Sport."
It's all about NordStream 2. Same as Skripals, Navalny, Hacking U.S. Treasury and other
agencies, Interfering in U.S.elections. If NS2 comes on line Germany will have a source of
clean energy and will receive income as a hub for pipelines to other European countries.
Gazprom will be paid in Euros, not USD inviting others to follow suit. If that happens the
U.S. is in serious trouble that is why it must stop NS2 at all costs.
"... No doubt that is on its way, but I think it would have been too difficult to pull off without full control over the government's top figurehead. Once Harris is enthroned then they will move on that, I am sure of it. ..."
But somehow the Satan candidate won. "Impossible!! It must be the Russians!"
@Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 16 2020 17:51 utc | 136
There is one Russiagate shoe that I am still waiting to hear drop (maybe it already did
and I missed it).
In 2003 when the CIA succeeded in misleading this country into an invasion over
non-existent WMD
the finger pointing began, to explain away the lies as simply a pack of errors.
One excuse that gained some traction was that it was Saddam's own fault, he had pretended
to have WMD.
For Russiagate I have been waiting for the excuse makers to offer something like they did
with "Saddam's own fault".
That is, the Russians - Putin -, wanted the FBI, CIA, Hillary, MSM, etc to fall for
Russiagate.
Thus John Brennan did not attempt a coup (nor Comey, nor the FBI, CIA and the rest of the "17
intelligence agencies" the MSM
and the Democrats) by knowingly creating a false narrative about the Russians, it was the
dastardly Russians (Putin)
themselves that are to blame. No attempted coup, simply a pack of errors seeded by the
Russians themselves.
As the Durham investigation appears to be heading for the historical footnotes there will
be no need for the
traitors to create excuses. And I do not expect to ever hear that shoe drop.
librul @139: "I have been waiting for the excuse makers to offer something like they
did with "Saddam's own fault". That is, the Russians - Putin -, wanted the FBI, CIA,
Hillary, MSM, etc to fall for Russiagate."
No doubt that is on its way, but I think it would have been too difficult to pull off
without full control over the government's top figurehead. Once Harris is enthroned then they
will move on that, I am sure of it.
Since Wikileaks first publicised its hacking of the infamous Vault 7 emails demonstrating
that the CIA had the ability to attach certain metadata to its own hacking activities, to
insinuate that Russian or Chinese hackers were responsible (and thus put future investigators
on a wrong trail away from the actual culprits), I don't rule out that the CIA and possibly
other intel agencies chummy with it may have penetrated FireEye. Especially as these hacking
attempts appear to have specific targets and some investors in the companies affected by
these hacking attempts seem to employ crystal ball gazers so they were able to divest
themselves of huge numbers of shares and make tidy profits before news of the hacking came
out which would have sent these hacked companies' share prices down into an abyss. Could some
of the hackers themselves be shareholders in the hacked firms?
Reminds me the attack on Iranian uranium enrichment infrastructure, which also used patches
as the way to inject malware into the system. And who were the players in this attack?
Notable quotes:
"... Moon of Alabama ..."
"... Next to the NSA and Britain's GHCQ there are at least Israel, China and maybe Russia which do have such capabilities. But whoever had the chutzpah to intrude the cybersecurity company FireEye ..."
"... 'People familiar with the issue' say 'Russia is believed to be responsible'. Well, some kids familiar with wobbly teeth believe in the tooth fairy. What is that 'believe' based on? ..."
Based on my 25 years in cyber security and responding to incidents, I've concluded we are
witnessing an attack by a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities. This attack is
different from the tens of thousands of incidents we have responded to throughout the years.
The attackers tailored their world-class capabilities specifically to target and attack
FireEye. They are highly trained in operational security and executed with discipline and
focus. They operated clandestinely, using methods that counter security tools and forensic
examination. They used a novel combination of techniques not witnessed by us or our partners
in the past.
We are actively investigating in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and
other key partners, including Microsoft. Their initial analysis supports our conclusion that
this was the work of a highly sophisticated state-sponsored attacker utilizing novel
techniques.
Intruding a cybersecurity company is a mistake as the chance of getting caught is
significantly higher that during an intrusion into other environments. The intruders allegedly
made off with some tools which likely can also be found in the wild.
We have identified a global campaign that introduces a compromise into the networks of
public and private organizations through the software supply chain. This compromise is
delivered through updates to a widely-used IT infrastructure management software -- the Orion
network monitoring product from SolarWinds . The campaign demonstrates top-tier operational
tradecraft and resourcing consistent with state-sponsored threat actors.
Based on our analysis, the attacks that we believe have been conducted as part of this
campaign share certain common elements:
Use of malicious SolarWinds update : Inserting malicious code into legitimate software
updates for the Orion software that allow an attacker remote access into the victim's
environment
Light malware footprint : Using limited malware to accomplish the mission while
avoiding detection
Prioritization of stealth : Going to significant lengths to observe and blend into
normal network activity
High OPSEC : Patiently conducting reconnaissance, consistently covering their tracks,
and using difficult-to-attribute tools
Based on our analysis, we have now identified multiple organizations where we see
indications of compromise dating back to the Spring of 2020, and we are in the process of
notifying those organizations. Our analysis indicates that these compromises are not
self-propagating; each of the attacks require meticulous planning and manual interaction.
Neither FireEye
nor Microsoft named any suspected actor behind the 'difficult-to-attribute'
intrusion effort. Next to the NSA and Britain's GHCQ there are at least Israel, China and
maybe Russia which do have such capabilities. But whoever had the chutzpah to intrude the
cybersecurity company FireEye also blew up their own operation against many targets of
much higher value. Years of work and millions of dollars went to waste because of that one
mistake.
Despite the lack of evidence that points to a specific actor 'western' media immediately
blamed Russia for the spying attempt.
Hackers believed to be working for Russia have been monitoring internal email traffic at the
U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, according to people familiar with the matter, adding
they feared the hacks uncovered so far may be the tip of the iceberg.
The hack is so serious it led to a National Security Council meeting at the White House on
Saturday, said one of the people familiar with the matter.
...
The U.S. government has not publicly identified who might be behind the hacking , but three
of the people familiar with the investigation said Russia is currently believed to be
responsible for the attack . Two of the people said that the breaches are connected to a
broad campaign that also involved the recently disclosed hack on FireEye, a major U.S.
cybersecurity company with government and commercial contracts.
In a statement posted here to Facebook, the Russian foreign ministry described the
allegations as another unfounded attempt by the U.S. media to blame Russia for cyberattacks
against U.S. agencies.
'People familiar with the issue' say 'Russia is believed to be responsible'. Well, some
kids familiar with wobbly teeth believe in the tooth fairy. What is that 'believe' based
on?
The Associated Press
reported on the wider aspect of the intrusions and also blamed Russia:
Hackers broke into the networks of the Treasury and Commerce departments as part of a
monthslong global cyberespionage campaign revealed Sunday, just days after the prominent
cybersecurity firm FireEye said it had been breached in an attack that industry experts said
bore the hallmarks of Russian tradecraft.
I have read FireEye's and Microsoft's detailed technical analysis of the
intrusion and took a look at the code . As a
(former) IT professional very familiar with network management, I have seen nothing in it that
points to Russia. Who are those 'industry experts' who make such unfounded claims?
In response to what may be a large-scale penetration of U.S. government agencies, the
Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity arm issued an emergency directive calling on
all federal civilian agencies to scour their networks for compromises.
The threat apparently came from the same cyberespionage campaign that has afflicted
FireEye, foreign governments and major corporations, and the FBI was investigating.
"This can turn into one of the most impactful espionage campaigns on record," said
cybersecurity expert Dmitri Alperovitch .
Ah - the AP talked to Alperovitch, the former chief technical officer of the
cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike . The company which in 2016 claimed that Russia had
stolen emails from the Democratic National Council but could not provide any evidence of that
to the FBI. The company that admitted in Congress testimony that it
did not see any exfiltration of emails from the DNC and had no evidence that Russia was
involved. Alperovitch is also the 'industry expert' who falsely
claimed that Russia hacked into an application used by the Ukrainian artillery. The same
Alperovich who is a Senior Fellow of the
anti-Russian lobbying organization Atlantic Council . Alperovitch apparently has never
seen a software bug or malware that was not made by Russia.
Quoting an earlier version of the above AP story Max Abrams predicted:
"The U.S. government did not publicly identify Russia as the culprit behind the hacks,
first reported by Reuters, and said little about who might be responsible."
You know this story will be retold as all 17 intel agencies 100% certain Putin is behind
it.
That is indeed likely to happen.
Even while there is no hint in the intrusion software where it might have come from the
media all started to blame Russia.
On Sunday, in its first report on the attack, the New York Times headlined:
The Trump administration acknowledged on Sunday that hackers acting on behalf of a foreign
government -- almost certainly a Russian intelligence agency, according to federal and
private experts -- broke into a range of key government networks, including in the Treasury
and Commerce Departments, and had free access to their email systems.
...
News of the breach,
reported earlier by Reuters , came less than a week after the National Security Agency,
which is responsible for breaking into foreign computer networks and defending the most
sensitive U.S. national security systems,
issued a warning that "Russian state-sponsored actors" were exploiting flaws in a system
broadly used in the federal government.
That
warning by the NSA was about a known vulnerability in VMware, a software issue that is
completely unrelated to the intrusions FireEye had detected and which targeted
multiple government agencies.
Not bothering with facts the NYT continued its
insinuations :
At the time, the N.S.A. refused to give further details of what had prompted the urgent
warning. Shortly afterward, FireEye announced that hackers working for a state had stolen
some of its prized tools for finding vulnerabilities in its clients' systems -- including the
federal government's. That investigation also pointed toward the S.V.R., one of Russia's
leading intelligence agencies. It is often called Cozy Bear or A.P.T. 29, and it is known as
a traditional collector of intelligence.
No, the investigation by FireEye does not point in any direction. The company did
not name a suspected actor and it did not mention Russia or the S.V.R. at all. The intrusion is
also in no way similar to those phishing attempts that some have named Cozy Bear or APT 29.
The Times then further discredits itself by quoting the anti-Russian nutter
Alperovich.
On Monday another NYT piece, co-written by Sanger,
describes the wider attack and includes the word 'Russia' 23 times! But it does not provide
any evidence for any Russian involvement in the case. This is the nearest it comes to:
The early assessments of the intrusions -- believed to be the work of Russia's S.V.R., a
successor to the K.G.B. -- suggest that the hackers were highly selective about which victims
they exploited for further access and data theft.
'Believed to be' the tooth fairy?
The piece also falsely insinuates that FireEye has linked the attack to Russia:
FireEye said that despite their widespread access, Russian hackers exploited only what was
considered the most valuable targets.
Nowhere did FireEye say anything about Russian hackers. It only stated that the
intrusions were specifically targeted. The implication of Russia only happened in the
NYT writers' heads.
On Monday, SolarWinds confirmed that Orion - its flagship network management software - had
served as the unwitting conduit for a sprawling international cyberespionage operation. The
hackers inserted malicious code into Orion software updates pushed out to nearly 18,000
customers.
And while the number of affected organizations is thought to be much more modest, the
hackers have already parlayed their access into consequential breaches at the U.S. Treasury
and Department of Commerce.
Three people familiar with the investigation have told Reuters that Russia is a top
suspect, although others familiar with the inquiry have said it is still too early to
tell.
As of now no one but the people behind the intrusion know where it has come from.
SolarWinds , the company behind the network management software that was abused to
intrude agencies and companies, is known for a lack of security:
SolarWinds' security, meanwhile, has come under new scrutiny.
In one previously unreported issue, multiple criminals have offered to sell access to
SolarWinds' computers through underground forums, according to two researchers who separately
had access to those forums.
One of those offering claimed access over the Exploit forum in 2017 was known as "fxmsp"
and is wanted by the FBI "for involvement in several high-profile incidents," said Mark
Arena, chief executive of cybercrime intelligence firm Intel471. Arena informed his company's
clients, which include U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Security researcher Vinoth Kumar told Reuters that, last year, he alerted the company that
anyone could access SolarWinds' update server by using the password "solarwinds123"
"This could have been done by any attacker, easily," Kumar said.
And that's it.
Any significant actor with the necessary resources could have used the publicly known
SolarWinds' password to sneak some malware into the Orion software update
process to thereby intrude SolarWinds' customers and spy on them. Without further
definitive evidence there is no reason to attribute the intrusions to Russia.
If anyone is to blame it is surely SolarWinds which has learned nothing from the
attack. Monday night, days after it was warned, its infected software was still available on its
servers . It seems that the SolarWinds people were busy with
more important issues than their customers' security:
Top investors in SolarWinds, the Texas-based company whose software was breached in a major
Russian cyberattack, sold millions of dollars in stock in the days before the intrusion was
revealed.
The timing of the trades raises questions about whether the investors used inside
information to avoid major losses related to the attack. SolarWinds's share price has plunged
roughly 22 percent since the company disclosed its role in the breach Sunday night.
Note the casual use of 'Russian cyberattack', for which there is no evidence, in the very
first sentence.
Silver Lake, a Silicon Valley investor with a history of high-profile tech deals including
Airbnb, Dell and Twitter, sold $158 million in shares of SolarWinds on Dec. 7 -- six days
before news of the breach became public. Thoma Bravo, a San Francisco-based private equity
firm, also sold $128 million of its shares in SolarWinds on Dec. 7.
Together, the two investment firms own 70 percent of SolarWinds and control six of the
company's board seats, giving the firms access to key information and making their stock
trades subject to federal rules around financial disclosures.
Well, grifters are gonna grift.
And 'western' mainstream writers will
blame Russia for anything completely independent of what really happened.
Posted by b on December 16, 2020 at 19:07 UTC |
Permalink
since when has USA needed evidence? They blamed Saddam for years that he had "weapons of mass
distraction". And back in 1990, they created the famous "Iraq solders took babies out fo
incubators " lies. Some of us have lived longer than 30 years and we remember all the lies
USA has said.
all part of the plan to cut Russia from the SWIFT in 2021.
once Biden becomes a president, he will call on all "democracies" to stand up to Russia. He
and other "Western democracies" will hold a joint meeting sometime in 2021 where they will
"condemn Russia for all the malign things Russia has done" and will press Belgium to cut
Russia fro the SWIFT.
Whats wore, instead of doing anything, Russia is just sitting and watching them instead of
warming Europe that this will mean Europe will freeze their collective asses next winter when
they won't be able to get Russia gas. Even Iran is warning Russia that they will be cut off
from the SWIFT.
Putin is getting old and sick, Russia desperately needs a leader who will stand up to those
assholes and warn them to stop. Oh well, it's NOT my problem. Russia better get its asshole
oiled up, it will need it. Putin is a weak and inefficient leader, and the SAker IS full of
shit.
I believe that there are a few golden rules that can be applied to news stories:
1) If the first sentence contains a variation of the words "according to," then the story
is at least partially bullsh*t
2) If a variation of "according to" is in the headline, then every word of the story is a
lie
I have to agree with you, the deep state just cannot get over losing Russia to Putin and
nationalism after the thought that they had turned it into their playground in the 1990s.
They are hot to trot to take out Russia and make it bend the knee, whatever the risks are.
Would not put it past them to pull the SWIFT option, although that would have huge
implications for the Europeans who buy so much oil and gas from Russia.
It could end up as an own goal, as the Europeans join the Russian payments network and
start paying in Euros convertible directly into Rubles (especially with Nordstream 2 in
place). The Indians and Chinese are already setup for payments in local currencies. Right now
China needs Russia as an ally, so they would also probably re-source oil imports to take more
from Russia.
Russia has already made itself self sufficient in food etc., and has been working on
payments in local currencies. They are not stupid, and see such a move coming.
iv> Since Wikileaks first publicised its hacking of the infamous Vault 7
emails demonstrating that the CIA had the ability to attach certain metadata to its own hacking
activities, to insinuate that Russian or Chinese hackers were responsible (and thus put future
investigators on a wrong trail away from the actual culprits), I don't rule out that the CIA
and possibly other intel agencies chummy with it may have penetrated FireEye. Especially as
these hacking attempts appear to have specific targets and some investors in the companies
affected by these hacking attempts seem to employ crystal ball gazers so they were able to
divest themselves of huge numbers of shares and make tidy profits before news of the hacking
came out which would have sent these hacked companies' share prices down into an abyss. Could
some of the hackers themselves be shareholders in the hacked firms?
Since Wikileaks first publicised its hacking of the infamous Vault 7 emails demonstrating
that the CIA had the ability to attach certain metadata to its own hacking activities, to
insinuate that Russian or Chinese hackers were responsible (and thus put future investigators
on a wrong trail away from the actual culprits), I don't rule out that the CIA and possibly
other intel agencies chummy with it may have penetrated FireEye. Especially as these hacking
attempts appear to have specific targets and some investors in the companies affected by
these hacking attempts seem to employ crystal ball gazers so they were able to divest
themselves of huge numbers of shares and make tidy profits before news of the hacking came
out which would have sent these hacked companies' share prices down into an abyss. Could some
of the hackers themselves be shareholders in the hacked firms?
Meanwhile in East Flatrock Tennessee a group of teens is laughing.
"They said our hack was 'an attack by a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities'!
You hear that? We're a nation now! With 'top-tier offensive capabilities' at that! How
awesome is that?"
I believe the Russian President's annual Q&A session is taking place on 17 December
2020. It will be televised and probably videos of it will be uploaded to Youtube and other
platforms over the next few days. The President's own website will feature transcripts of the
session in Russian and English, and probably sevetal other languages. The Q&A session is
usually a marathon affair running several hours. If you watch it, you will find out how ill
Putin appears to be.
b - master propaganda buster, lol... go get em b! i am surprised they aren't coming after
you! maybe they figure you are a relatively obscure presence that will remain irrelevant for
all intensive purposes... and they haven't figured out how to pull an assange or snowden on
you - yet.... you better have some protection with the kgb and know how to speak a little
russian!
Based on my 25 years in cyber security and responding to incidents, I've concluded we are
witnessing an attack by a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities.
Translation: we fucked up and we're gonna blame either China or Russia, depending on the
customer's preference (Republican or Democrat), in order to avoid blame and keep our stock
prices from falling.
If you go to Fox News et al, I'm sure they'll be blaming China.
If you've followed Lavrov's trail for the month of December, he's been in top form in his
denunciations of the United States of Voldemort and its neverending illegalities and immoral
actions. For the curious, the most recent are on the week in review thread. IMO, what
constitutes the Outlaw US Empire's mainstream media lacks credibility across the spectrum of
potential topics just as does the federal government. The planet will be a happier place if
those two entities are just cast away and allowed to drift upon the endless sea of filth they
generate daily.
The Russian Federation can annihilate the United States and US has no defenses against
that.
So they indulge in such self-propaganda exercise, puffing up themselves and their
population, and then they go home, knowing that RF can destroy them.
On the other hand, US can annihilate Iran and Iran cannot do anything about that
either.
So they indulge in such self-propaganda exercise, puffing up themselves and their
population, and then they go home, knowing that US can destroy them.
The only difference between Iran and Russia is that Iran is not a nuclear-armed state,
targeting US cities.
I wonder what percentage of Americans are willing to nuke the Russian Federation - in
contradistinction to the 59% who are willing to nuke Iran - per this M.I.T. report
SL Ayatollah Khamenei by audience of General Soleimani family
"Ayatollah Khamenei said: The funeral of millions of martyrs of Soleimani was the first
severe slap in the face to the Americans, but the more severe slap is "software overcoming
the absurd hegemony of arrogance" and "expelling the United States from the region". It is
definite whenever possible." Fars News Agency 16.12.20
iv> To be honest, this isn't even worth talking about. A non-story that
doesn't deserve any oxygen at all.
The funerals of the late Abu Mehdi Mohandess, the late Brigadier General Solimani and
their companions have been unprecedent in the history of Shia Islam - to my knowledge.
Americans carried out an act that betrayed the extent of their hatred for Iran (as a
country) and Shia (as a religion).
It was not the act of a sane sovereign - but as I have maintained for a long time - those
of a Mad King.
That action, in my opinion, ended the possibility of the United States staying in Iraq, in
Afghanistan, in Syria, or in Lebanon.
I wonder how the Shia would react, overtime, in the Azerbaijan Republic, in Kuwait, in
Bahrain to the United States in the future.
"Neither FireEye nor Microsoft named any suspected actor behind the 'difficult-to-attribute'
intrusion effort. Next to the NSA and Britain's GHCQ there are at least Israel, China and
maybe Russia which do have such capabilities. But whoever had the chutzpah to intrude the
cybersecurity company FireEye also blew up their own operation against many targets of much
higher value. Years of work and millions of dollars went to waste because of that one
mistake."
Well if software+SolarWind+elections = manipulation => proven[before date]
then a country, either from the list of those with 'capabilities', or another whose
capablities were until now unknown, will have invalidated the US election.
Perhaps it may be not worthwhile to discuss the main topic of this thread but I think it
is worthwhile to note it as an indication of the unwillingness to face the World as it is by
many in the United States at all levels.
Now der spiegel,le monde and le figaro have info from Bellingcat about a team of eight FSB
spies and chemical specialist following Navalny for years to take him out,yet not
succeeding.Even the most gullible "Russia,Russia,Russia" consumers start to find this
ridiculous,judging by the comments.Some indeed start to have concerns about a new war on
russia ,that will obviously obliterate all of western-europe.
They had four articles about this in two days.Mockingbird in full speed.It is very clear
to me now that Spiegel ex-journo Udo Ulfkotte was "heartattacked" for outing CIA mastering
der Spiegel in his book.
"This attack is different from the tens of thousands of incidents we have responded to
throughout the years.[...] ...this was the work of a highly sophisticated state-sponsored
attacker utilizing novel techniques"
"Incidents we have responded to"? Meh. Also, this "attack" may or may not be different
from the (likely) tens of thousands of incidents that they've never detected.
Facebook discovered and neutralized a troll farm's accounts related to the french army in
Central African Republic and Mali,working against russian st.petersburg related trollfarm
accounts,that they neutralized as well.This is all about the french countering russians (and
chinese) getting foothold amongst africans,you know the people they threw napalm on in the
fifties,like they did in Vietnam way before the americans,to pacify those people.
And of course Navalny is such a hot item that bellingcats's video on youtube got 10 million
viewers within 48 hours.War on Russia,who is marching on Moscou,any volunteers?The germans
and the french were not very lucky with that in the past,let the united americans have a
try,after all its only europe that is meant for destruction either way.The Rotschilds will be
proud of you.
For me it was enough to read in the news that U.S. Treasury and Commerce department was
among the targets to know who stand behind this operation. It must be very humiliating for US
government, that's why the synchronous chorus about the "Russian Cyberattack", they know well
that it was not Russia ...
U.S. Treasury and Commerce department is the driving force behind "maximum pressure"
sanctions against Iran, terrorizing the Iranian population even blocking trade of medicine
necessary for the treatment of kids with chronically illness.
Now Iranians sit with a complete list of U.S. Treasury and Commerce executives and their
secrets, that would make it difficult for these economical terrorists to have a relaxing
sleep at night. The extra bonus is what Iran got from all other US departments, useful for
the future.
US need to restructure a whole lot of their IT network. protocols, hardware, even
administrators at government and security level to repair at least part of the damage
done.
Khameneie calls it a "sever slap" for the assassination of general Soleimani, one must
agree a mind-blowing one indeed ...
"We are actively investigating in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and
other key partners, including Microsoft. Their initial analysis supports our conclusion
that this was the work of a highly sophisticated state-sponsored attacker utilizing novel
techniques."
Interpreted as "we screwed up, that Microsoft Defender software is a POS and to think
FireEye AND FBI relied on their crap upgrades - we had better blame Russia and save our total
embarrassment.
They had four articles about this in two days.Mockingbird in full speed.It is very clear to
me now that Spiegel ex-journo Udo Ulfkotte was "heartattacked" for outing CIA mastering der
Spiegel in his book.
Thank you and I fully agree - 'heartbreaker herb' is native to a few eastern countries and
known as an end of life choice of tea that is used by malign actors for centuries. Hard to
find a reference to it these days as most search engines have hidden it. One used to be able
to read of it.
The "united americans" had their try during Russia's Civil War but didn't get very far.
Then they tried carpetbagging neoliberal parasites, and they failed too, although they did
considerable damage. Currently within the Outlaw US Empire, about as many people are out of
work as reside within all of Russia, and their government cares not a whit what happens to
them. On the other hand, President Putin has made it clear on many occasions that every
Russian life is treasured by him and the Russian government, with more support given Russians
than at any previous time by the USSR.
Just so that everyone knows that what this => Framarz @23 poster says is entirely
possible, back in the olden days when I was helping with Linux kernel space stuff Iran was
one of the top five countries where code was being submitted from. Iran has more than just a
few very sharp codesmiths.
Regarding the David Sanger fantasy piece published in the NYT, I commented on the Times's
website that Sanger made the claim of Russian culpability without providing a shred of actual
evidence. Much to my surprise, my comment was accepted for publication. Shortly thereafter,
it mysteriously vanished into the ether, no doubt having been read and removed by some editor
or even by slimeball Sanger himself. Now that was not a surprise.
Thanks for your contribution but it's crystal clear that Khamenei took the responsibility for
this operation today, looking at the eyes of Soleimani's daughter and saying what he said:
(english text)
fna(dot)ir/f1cm2o
- looks like use of (ir) domain causing the text to be blocked, convert the dot
Indeed - if there's anything to be learned, it is that cyber security even in government
intel agencies (Snowden), the military (Manning), political parties (Clinton emails) and now
FireEye plus numerous other Solarwinds customers - is marked more for what it isn't than for
what it is.
This on top of the damage caused by NotPetya and WannaCry - both of which did so much damage
because clearly even Fortune 50 companies don't bother to segment their networks even between
countries.
Incompetence and CYA rules the day.
iv> framarz link might show up later.. i just posted it, but it is in the
cue to be released later, or not..
Re: They had four articles about this in two days.Mockingbird in full speed.It is very
clear to me now that Spiegel ex-journo Udo Ulfkotte was "heartattacked" for outing CIA
mastering der Spiegel in his book.
-Posted by: willie | Dec 16 2020 20:56 utc | 18
Didn't know that until you shared just now. Really terrible if true, but not that
surprising given recent events. Wikipedia sez he died 13 January 2017 (aged 56). That would
have happened during the Obama/Brennan period.
If I understand correctly what you're hinting at, then I'll add that the alps and the
nordic countries are also rife with it. It's principle active alkaloid is easily to determine
port-mortem and if you're lucky, a good clinician will also diagnose it correctly before it's
too late..
Less easy to pinpoint are the effects of targeted exposure with masers.
"But whoever had the chutzpah to intrude the cybersecurity company FireEye also blew up their
own operation against many targets of much higher value. Years of work and millions of
dollars went to waste because of that one mistake."
yankistan propaganda always inserts a clause to show that hackers are bumblers. Reading
the very short one sentence report in Reuters, the yanks got hit hard. pompus had to fly home
and cut short his cold/hot war rabble rousing efforts.
Thank you so much for "Yankistan". That sums it up nicely.
b's observation also gives a clue that it may very well be a white hat attack by the NSA.
Lucky for us they could go the extra mile and give it some "positive" spin. Snark.
[This post not appear, so here it is without links]
Whatever is the definition of "intelligence", certainly it must be inclusive of this
example, from Khamenei:
"Lifting sanctions is up to the enemy, but nullifying them is up to us'"
Also, he said "We must be strong in all areas, including economy, science, technology and
defense, because as long as we do not grow strong, the enemies will not give up greed and
aggression."
Now, compare that last to JV Stalin's 1931 speech in the run-up to WW 2:
"One feature of the history of old Russia was the continual beatings she suffered because
of her backwardness. ... All beat her -- because of her backwardness, because of her military
backwardness, cultural backwardness, political backwardness, industrial backwardness,
agricultural backwardness. They beat her because it was profitable and could be done with
impunity..."
Interesting, eh?
Hat-tip to Framarz | Dec 16 2020 21:53 utc | 30 for Khamenei link.
Stalin's speech link to follow...if it posts.
This cyber attack has NSA written all over it. Either that or the attackers had access to the
tools that were leaked from the NSA trove. The tactics at least are very similar in some
ways.
@willie - I posted a link to CNN's joint investigation with Bellingcat, Der Spiegel, and
"The Insider" the other day in the open thread. Nobody seemed to have noticed. Looks like
Russia has responded to them.
I didn't have time to delve into all the different pages that comprise Bellingcat's
allegations nor did I see anywhere in their stated methodology how they got access to these
phone records that they're claiming correspond to the agents tailing Navalny. At least they
didn't call him "opposition leader" this time - just "opposition activist" or something like
that. LOL I'll be interested to see b's take on this affair once he's had time to digest it -
and there is a lot to digest.
What is so cynical is that during the last three years of fake "Russian Collusion" certain
politicians were colluding with the Chinese CCP, ie in actuality doing what they were
accusing Trump of doing. Inevitable now that there is big trouble brewing in the US, I don't
see how all the fraud evidence on every level can be disregarded, let alone apparent foreign
involvement in the voting machines.
western' mainstream writers will blame Russia for anything completely independent of what
really happened.
can we get a list of these writers.. and store their names and aliases somewhere. a db..
is needed.
b - master propaganda buster, lol... go get em b! i am surprised the oligarch wealth and its
minions haven't
figured out how to pull an assange or snowden on you - yet.... you better have some
protection with the kgb
and know how to speak a little russian! by: james @ 8
James I think the propaganda monsters have discovered how to take b down, they
probably plan to ask B to self inject himself with one of their Gene Modifying
Vaccines(GMVs) with expectation that a mental giant will vegetate to a wimp.
.....
The CIA remains firmly in charge of US policy and the mainstream media. by: gottlieb @ 6
Not really, the people who support and control the CIA have firm control over
politics,
finance, CIA, and media, remember the nine layers of control consist of but two layers
that are public. The CIA is the leg breaker arm of that oligarch cartel. .. .. but mr
gottlieb
please list who in the CIA is the leg breaker in charge over US Policy and explain
how US Policy, CIA leg breaking, mainstream media, wall street execution are financed
marketed and coordinated. I suggest to you these are not government people but private
party marketers.
Just saying a bunch of puppets dressed in CIA suits are in charge is useless.. I will
bet when you identify to us, who it is you are talking about, it will be discovered the
person you think is in charge is not, but instead that person is executing orders given
by a private party someone else. Its the private party some one else that needs media
exposure.
who (by name) do the puppets work for,
how can the string pullers be identified, and
Ill bet because the string pullers are not government at all, but private exploitative
persons, that can be legally tracked?
To Norwegian @ 21 fascinating The private parties most likely responsible (PPMLR) for
the
cyber attack have been asked to investigate the victim of the cyber attack. The PPMLR's
initial findings support the victim pre investigation conclusion made before the
investigation
was complete that the cyber attack was the work of a highly sophisticated state
sponsored attacker utilizing novel techniques? Not all of us were born yesterday?
Operation Mokingbird2: looks like the CIA remains firmly in charge of US policy and the
mainstream media.
Notable quotes:
"... 1) If the first sentence contains a variation of the words "according to," then the story is at least partially bullsh*t . (2) If a variation of "according to" is in the headline, then every word of the story is a lie ..."
"... What is so cynical is that during the last three years of fake "Russian Collusion" certain politicians were colluding with the Chinese CCP, ie in actuality doing what they were accusing Trump of doing. ..."
I believe that there are a few golden rules that can be applied to news stories:
1) If the first sentence contains a variation of the words "according to," then the
story is at least partially bullsh*t . (2) If a variation of "according to" is in the
headline, then every word of the story is a lie
What is so cynical is that during the last three years of fake "Russian Collusion"
certain politicians were colluding with the Chinese CCP, ie in actuality doing what they were
accusing Trump of doing. Inevitable now that there is big trouble brewing in the US, I
don't see how all the fraud evidence on every level can be disregarded, let alone apparent
foreign involvement in the voting machines.
Regarding the David Sanger fantasy piece published in the NYT, I commented on the Times's
website that Sanger made the claim of Russian culpability without providing a shred of actual
evidence. Much to my surprise, my comment was accepted for publication.
Shortly thereafter, it mysteriously vanished into the ether, no doubt having been read and
removed by some editor or even by slimeball Sanger himself. Now that was not a surprise.
They told you: -The Steele Dossier was real. -The protests were peaceful. -The Hunter Biden
story was Russian disinformation. And now? They tell you we shouldn't ask questions about the
integrity of the 2020 election.
One anonymous whistle blower was OK to impeach the President of the United States but, 1000's
of sworn affidavits of election fraud is not enough to investigate?
Rep. Eric Swalwell
was one of several politicians involved in an expansive Chinese spying operation and even after
he was briefed on the foreign interference he experienced first-hand, he kept his focus
publicly on Russia during the Trump presidency.
Axios reported that a Chinese national named Fang Fang or Christine Fang targeted
up-and-coming local politicians, including Swalwell, D-Calif.
Current and former intelligence officials told the outlet that Fang used campaign
fundraising, networking, rallies and romantic relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors
to gain proximity to political power.
Fang reportedly took part in fundraising for Swalwell's 2014 reelection campaign although
she did not make donations nor was there evidence of illegal contributions.
According to Axios, investigators became so alarmed by Fang's behavior and activities that
they alerted Swalwell in 2015 to their concerns, and gave him a "defensive briefing." Swalwell
then cut off all ties with Fang and has not been accused of any wrongdoing, according to an
official who spoke to the outlet.
Fang went on to leave the country in mid-2015.
"Rep. Swalwell, long ago, provided information about this person -- whom he met more than
eight years ago, and whom he hasn't seen in nearly six years -- to the FBI," Swalwell's office
told Axios in a statement. "To protect information that might be classified, he will not
participate in your story."
His office did not provide any further comment to Fox News.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., brings up the separation of families at the border during a
joint hearing of the House Committee on the Judiciary and House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform examining the Inspector General's report of the FBI's Clinton email probe, on
Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 19, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The former 2020 presidential candidate had become best known in recent years for his
outspokenness of the Russia investigation. He repeatedly insisted that Russians colluded with
the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, something Special Counsel Robert Mueller
ultimately put to bed.
However, during a 2018 interview with The Hill, long after he had received a "defensive
briefing" on the suspected Chinese spy that infiltrated his office, Swalwell sounded the alarm
about the Russians' involvement in American politics after suspected Russian spy Maria Butina
pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government after her
attempts to infiltrate the NRA and GOP circles.
"The Maria Butina plea today, you know, represents that over the past two years, our country
has seen just an influx of Russians into our political bloodstream and that's something that
did not exist until Donald Trump came on the scene," Swalwell said at the time. "I mean, when
you look at the 16 Trump family members, campaign officials, and administration folks who had
contacts with Russians throughout the campaign."
He continued, "If you look at the Butina plea deal, you see an eagerness and a willingness
to work with a traditional American adversary and I think that's dangerous for our national
security. It represents poor judgment and, as Bob Mueller is showing, it also is a crime. And
so it's all the more reason that a new Congress, you know, can put a balance of power on these
abuses that we continue to see from the Trump administration."
Swalwell isn't the only Democratic lawmaker who was swept up by this newly-surfaced alleged
Chinese espionage. Fang also volunteered for the 2014 House bid of Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.,
and a 2013 fundraiser for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii. Khanna's office said the congressman
saw Fang at several gatherings but had no further contact, while Gabbard's office told the
outlet she "has no recollection of ever meeting or talking with [Fang], nor any recollection of
her playing a major role at the fundraiser."
"... Last but not least, Exhibit D is the assertion that the "Democratic National Committee's computers were raided by Russian military intelligence to disrupt the 2016 election." That is another assertion, based on allegations listed in indictments by special counsel Robert Mueller. As a federal judge helpfully reminded Mueller in another 'Russiagate' case, which the government later dropped, allegations made in indictments aren't statements of fact. ..."
"... If the phrase "consistent with" jumps out at you here, that's no accident. Notice there is no actual evidence offered for any of these claims, only an insinuation that these alleged attacks would be "consistent" with what the US spies, anonymous sources and mainstream media think might be Russian objectives. That's exactly the claim made by the infamous January 2017 "intelligence community assessment," which the media falsely attributed to "17 intelligence agencies" instead of a hand-picked team involved in spying on the Trump campaign at the time. ..."
"... Now, the Post editors may be privileged people, living comfortably off of Jeff Bezos's Amazon fortune even as their country collapses under pandemic lockdowns. However, it would be a mistake to write off this editorial as a mere product of their vivid and feverish imaginations. After four years of Russiagate hysteria that even the Trump administration has internalized, this kind of rhetoric is actually dangerous . ..."
Democrat Joe Biden, anointed by the US mainstream media and Silicon Valley as the next
president, "must call out Putin's secret war against the United States" when he assumes
office, the Post's editorial board argued this week.
But this "secret war" exists only in their feverish imagination. Each and every one
of the things they list as examples of it consists of assertions based on insinuation at best,
or has otherwise been debunked as outright fake news.
Exhibit A is the "mysterious attacks" that supposedly "targeted" US diplomats
and spies in Cuba, China, Australia and Taiwan. This 'Havana Syndrome' was blamed on Russia last
week in a coordinated media campaign, but the "scientific" paper it was based on
carefully avoids actual attribution, saying only that the vague symptoms were
"consistent" with a posited microwave weapon.
This is an evolution of the original story, which claimed that Russia had used "sonic
weapons," not microwave ones. Even the New York Times later admitted
that the headaches, sleep deprivation and other problems were more likely caused by the loud
chirping of Cuban crickets.
Exhibit B is another doozy, the infamous "Russian bounties" story. The New York Times
claimed in June that
some money captured from local mobsters in Afghanistan was somehow proof that Russia was paying
the Taliban to kill US soldiers – again, not on the basis of actual evidence, but on
conjecture that this was "consistent" with what the CIA and US military said were
Russian objectives.
Thing is, neither the US
intelligence community nor the Pentagon were
ever able to confirm the story, having investigated it for months. It just so happened that it
was brought up just as the DC establishment sought to torpedo President Donald Trump's plan to
pull out of Afghanistan and end the 20-year war that has long since forgotten its
purpose.
Exhibit C is the "looting of valuable hacking tools" from the cybersecurity firm
FireEye, announced earlier this
week. FireEye itself never named the culprit, with its CEO Kevin Mandia only saying it was
"consistent with a nation-state cyber-espionage effort."
That didn't stop the Post from claiming that "spies with Russia's foreign intelligence
service" are "believed" to have hacked FireEye, citing "people familiar with the
matter." Well there you go, anonymous and unverifiable sources asserted it, therefore it
must be true!
Last but not least, Exhibit D is the assertion that the "Democratic National Committee's
computers were raided by Russian military intelligence to disrupt the 2016 election." That
is another assertion, based on allegations listed in indictments by special counsel Robert
Mueller. As a federal judge helpfully reminded Mueller in another 'Russiagate' case, which the
government later dropped, allegations made in indictments aren't statements of
fact.Another nail
in Russiagate coffin? Federal judge destroys key Mueller report claim
If the phrase "consistent with" jumps out at you here, that's no accident. Notice
there is no actual evidence offered for any of these claims, only an insinuation that these
alleged attacks would be "consistent" with what the US spies, anonymous sources and
mainstream media think might be Russian objectives. That's exactly the claim
made by the infamous January 2017
"intelligence community assessment," which the media falsely attributed to "17
intelligence agencies" instead of a hand-picked team involved in spying on the Trump campaign at the
time.
Keep in mind that these are the same spies and media that never saw the demise of the Soviet
Union coming, and have been predicting Russia's impending collapse any day now – for the
past 20 years. So much for their actual knowledge of Russian goals or thinking.
Speaking of 'Russiagate,' the Post has been on the leading edge of that conspiracy theory
from the start. It won Pulitzers for pushing it on the
American public. It also played a key role in smearing Trump's first national security adviser,
Gen. Michael Flynn, so he would be fired – and later cheered his railroading by Mueller.
At least they're consistent , so to speak.
Now, the Post editors may be privileged people, living comfortably off of Jeff Bezos's
Amazon fortune even as their country collapses under pandemic lockdowns. However, it would be a
mistake to write off this editorial as a mere product of their vivid and feverish imaginations.
After four years of Russiagate hysteria that even the Trump administration has internalized,
this kind of rhetoric is actually dangerous
.
That's because the Post is literally in bed with what Trump called the Washington
"swamp," the entrenched US political establishment. What they print is what that
establishment thinks and wants Americans to believe. With Joe Biden in the White House, the
objectives of that establishment and the official US government would be, to use their own
phrase, consistent .
Which is why the Post's "secret war" fantasy is, shall we say, highly likely
to become an actual shooting war with Moscow. As the US and Russia have enough nuclear weapons
between themselves to destroy the world several times over, that can't possibly be good for
Amazon's bottom line. Someone ought to tell Bezos.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
Nebojsa Malic is a Serbian-American journalist, blogger and translator, who wrote a regular column for
Antiwar.com from 2000 to 2015, and is now senior writer at RT. Follow him on Twitter @NebojsaMalic
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
We often discuss media coverage and accuracy on developing legal and political
controversies. Much of this discussion recently has focused on the bias shown by the media in
the last four years. I have worked for the media as a legal analyst and columnist for years,
but I have never before seen this raw and open bias in major media. At the same time,
academics are rejecting the very concept of objectivity in journalism in favor of open
advocacy.
This morning, Fox News called out all of the networks for zero coverage of the bombshell
story from Axios that Rep. Eric Swalwell may have had a close relationship with a suspected
Chinese spy who fled to China a few years ago. Many of us were struck by the lack of coverage,
particularly given the position of Swalwell on the House Intelligence Committee and his former
bid for the presidency. It was particularly striking when the media is now reluctantly covering
the Hunter Biden story after a long blackout before the election. Yet, the most stark
comparison is with the exhaustive coverage given the highly analogous story involving an
alleged spy, Maria Butina, who had an affair with a high-ranking figure in the National Rifle
Association.
Swalwell is alleged to have had a close relationship with Chinese national, Fang Fang or
Christine Fang, who not only raised money for him but placed at least one intern in Swalwell's
congressional office, according to
Axios . Bizarrely, Swalwell has refused to confirm or deny that he had an intimate
relationship with his office claiming that such an answer could compromise classified
information. Even that ridiculous comment did not prompt ABC, NBC, or CBS to cover the story.
Obviously, Fang and the Chinese already know if she had a sexual relationship with Swalwell.
The only people in the dark are the voters.
Swalwell himself explained why this is news.
The congressman was one of the most vocal voices calling out a June 2016 meeting that
President Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., with Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was accused of being
an asset for the Russian government.
" Stated plainly, the President's son met with a Russian spy. We now have the best
evidence of that in our minority report the Democrats put out that Ms. Veselnitskaya was
going all over the world and bumping into Dana Rohrabacher, which is a sign of a spy, someone
who tries to create a coincidence encounter, and now we know that she was working at the
behest of the Russian government. "
Not even the utter hypocrisy of Swalwell's position or the lunacy of his classification
claim was enough to generate minimal coverage. There is also no interest in Swalwell remaining
on the intelligence committee given his ill-considered relationship.
Swalwell says that he cooperated with the FBI and cut off ties with Fang, who fled to China
years ago. There is no indication that he compromised classified information, but such assets
are used to often influence powerful leaders or acquire useful background information on other
leaders.
MSNBC and other news outlets could not get enough of that story about Trump Jr. but has an
effective blackout on the same allegation of Swalwell not just "bumping" into a spy but
carrying on a long relationship and even allowing her to raise money for him and help put an
intern in his congressional office.
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Yet, the greatest contrast is with the NRA story which was endlessly covered. Even when NRA
moved to address the relationship between Butina and 57-year-old Republican activist named Paul
Erickson. Hundreds of stories ran on every deal and media explored
whether a Russian activist influenced powerful figures or shared information .
The FBI Director just gave a public speech on the extensive and growing espionage efforts of
China. Yet, the success of planting an agent with Swalwell and a couple of other politicians
has been given virtual Hunter Biden treatment. Where a host of legal expert called for charges
for treason and other crimes against Trump Jr., there is nothing but crickets when a liberal
Democrats members is accused of far more extensive contacts with a Chinese spy. Why?
PrintCash 6 hours ago (Edited)
Does a bear poop in the woods?
Its the sole purpose and desire of the ultra partisan types in the media to control the
narrative, control the messaging, control your life. It's what they LIVE for.
Hikikomori 6 hours ago
Swalwell was accusing Trump of colluding with Putin while at the same time Swalwell was
screwing a ChiCom spy - you couldn'tmake this up.
Floki_Ragnarsson 6 hours ago
Right out of a Tom Clancy novel.
Lord Raglan 5 hours ago remove link
Swalwell was boinking the Chi-Com Honey Pot in 2015 and maybe earlier, before Trump even
announced his run and yet it is all Trump's fault.
There is no lie that is too malignantly preposterous for people on the Left.
Flankspeed60 4 hours ago
The Chinese are not actually our enemy here. When you go to Yellowstone, you're warned not
to feed the bears. Same for dragons. Hang raw meat on a clothesline, and expect all the
downwind carnivores and blowflies to show up. In our case, corrupt politicians made
themselves readily accessible to any and every gomer with large bundles of cash. Even
real-life whores are more discerning in their choice of johns than the low-life bacterium we
elected to congress-it is THEY AND THEY ALONE who are to blame for selling this country out.
The Chinese have nothing but contempt for these dregs, and no one should blame them for
paying relative pennies for solid gold bars in return. In fact, our government does exactly
the same to countless other countries, so the stampeding hypocrisy of our government in
crying 'foul' simply reeks. The Chicoms would most likely shoot, and have shot their own
corrupt sell-outs for far less than the crimes committed by our treasonous scumbags. And,
until we adopt similar measures against our worthless SOB's, our Swamp will simply continue
to get deeper and slimier............
precarryus 4 hours ago
Yet Swill-well says Adam Schiff and Pelosi were aware of his activities, implying ...
...(Surprised?
American2 5 hours ago remove link
Perhaps Peter Strozk can be the defense's rock-solid moral character witness at Eric
Swalwell's federal trial.
surf@jm 5 hours ago
The Chinese own Hollywood and the media.....
The Chinese were the main force for the Russia collusion horsehockey through their
political whores in congress....
Schroedingers Cat 5 hours ago
Hillary, Brennan, Obama, Chris Hayes, Maddow, Comey, Zucker and many other swamp state
freaks are responsible for Russiagate.
The CHinese CCP are definitely up to no good but let's not excuse traitors and chalk it up
to Chinese spies. Swalwell is 100% responsible for his own behavior. They ALL ARE. Chinese
spies can't corrupt real American Patriots.
Son of Captain Nemo 5 hours ago
Last I checked so was Joe and Hunter Biden along with China?...
And Hunter is doing great things with his money buying under age prostitutes in Ukraine
and China making vids of it while sucking on a crack pipe... While the young ladies "suck"
something else "off"!!!
Willie the Pimp 6 hours ago remove link
The media? No such thing. CIA propaganda.
John Couger 3 hours ago
This slimy piece of excrement attacked our president for 4 years over the Russia hoax all
while being compromised by the communist Chinese
BinAnunnaki 4 hours ago
The Presstitute media is an extension of the Democratic Party.
Cobra Commander 4 hours ago remove link
Precisely. Why pay money to be misinformed? Biden up by 17 in Wisconsin, Hunter laptop
media blackout, panning away from ANY mention of voter and election fraud.
OCnStiggs 6 hours ago
"Swallowell" is a lying, prevaricating, stupid POS.
The very first thing they do to you when you get a high security clearance is brief you on
people and techniques used to compromise you. Period. Dot. This ****** either skipped the
brief or ignored it. Simply associating with people who might be a compromise threat is
unlawful. Ignorance is no excuse.
Just sayin'.
Cobra Commander 4 hours ago
Penalties for Inaccurate or False Statements (security clearance)
United States Criminal Code (title 18, section 1001) provides that knowingly falsifying or
concealing a material fact is a felony which may result in fines of up to $10,000, and/or 5
years imprisonment, or both.
If you have a security clearance, you agree to report all foreign contacts and
relationships. When you submit your clearance request, you attest that all is true, correct,
and complete to the best of your knowledge.
Intentionally submitting false information on a clearance request or renewal is subject to
criminal prosecution.
Print
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (
FBI
) has files from the
laptop computer belonging to Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee employee who was killed, according to a new email.
The bureau also has tens of thousands of documents mentioning Rich.
The FBI "has completed the initial search identifying approximately 50 cross-reference serials, with attachments totaling
over 20,000 pages, in which Seth Rich is mentioned," Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Parker wrote in the message to attorney Ty
Clevenger, who is representing a plaintiff Huddleston v. Federal Bureau of Investigation, a case dealing with a Freedom of
Information Act request to the bureau.
"FBI has also located leads that indicate additional potential records that require further searching," Parker added.
The Epoch Times confirmed the email is legitimate.
Parker, who is representing the FBI in the case, didn't respond to an email or return a voicemail.
The bureau also confirmed it has files from Rich's laptop.
"FBI is also currently working on getting the files from Seth Rich's personal laptop into a format to be reviewed," Parker
said.
The disclosure came as part of a case brought in federal court by Texas resident Brian Huddleston, who filed a Freedom of
Information Act request in April asking the FBI to produce all data, documents, records, or communications that reference Seth
Rich or his brother, Aaron Rich.
The FBI told the plaintiff in June that it would take 8 to 10 months to provide a final response to the request, prompting the
filing of the case in the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Rich was working for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) when he was killed in Washington in 2016. His murder remains
unsolved.
The new email bolsters a key charge in Huddleston's filing: that David Hardy, the FBI's records chief, was wrong when he said
in two affidavits that the FBI searched for records pertaining to Rich but could not find any.
Rich is pictured on a poster created by police officials to urge people with information about his murder to come forward.
(Metropolitan Police Department)
The first sign that the testimony was erroneous came earlier this year
when the nonprofit watchdog Judicial Watch received emails exchanged by FBI agent Peter Strzok and Department of Justice lawyer
Lisa Page. The production
included
several emails
mentioning Rich.
Another sign came in March, when former Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Sines was deposed in a separate case, Ed Butowsky v.
David Folkenflik et. al.
Sines testified that the FBI conducted an investigation into possible hacking attempts on Seth Rich's electronic accounts
following his murder. She said FBI agents examined Rich's laptop as part of the probe and that a search should uncover emails
between her and FBI personnel. She also said she met with a prosecutor and an FBI agent assigned to special counsel Robert
Mueller's team.
The FBI declined to comment, citing a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
The judge overseeing the Huddleston case in October ordered the defense to produce documents and an index.
In the new email, the government lawyer said the FBI has made "significant progress" in searching for documents mentioning
Rich, but still has much work left, including processing the approximately 50 cross-references, undertaking some level of review
of the laptop, and completing all remaining services.
The efforts are hampered by the FBI's Freedom of Information Act office being at 50 percent of its normal workforce due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The government is proposing an amended schedule that would give it three more months to produce the records.
WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange arrives at court in London on May 1, 2019. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)
Clevenger, Huddleston's lawyer, told The Epoch Times via email that his client is hoping to find out why the FBI was involved in
the case, and why it originally denied involvement.
"We suspect the FBI may be right that the Metropolitan Police Dept. in D.C. was responsible for investigating Seth's murder,
so that leaves a couple of likely explanations for the FBI's role: it was investigating a counterintelligence matter or a
computer crime. Either scenario would be consistent with Seth transmitting DNC emails to
Wikileaks
,"
he added, referencing a theory put forth by Fox News in 2017 in a report that was later retracted.
A federal judge overseeing the case had earlier this year requested testimony from Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange.
Rich was killed less than two weeks before WikiLeaks "released a collection of thousands of internal emails and documents
taken from the DNC servers," according to a court filing. One month after Rich's murder, Assange referenced the DNC staffer in
an
interview
with a Dutch television
reporter when discussing the dangers faced by WikiLeaks sources. On Aug. 9, 2016, WikiLeaks offered $20,000 for information about
Rich's murder. The website increased the reward to $130,000 in January 2017.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) several weeks after Rich was shot dead offered a reward for information. A
spokeswoman told The Epoch Times via email that the case "remains under active investigation."
The spokeswoman declined to answer whether the FBI assisted police with its probe. "MPD remains the lead investigative agency
over this homicide," she said.
Clevenger said he thinks the timing of the email from Parker, the assistant U.S. attorney, is significant.
"Some of my colleagues suspect the Trump Administration has pushed the release, but I doubt that," he wrote. "With the
purported election of Joe Biden, the FBI brass probably think they are in the clear, and nothing will ever happen to them, so
they no longer have any reason to hide what they did."
So some rabid Russiagaters slept with with women who are suspected to be Chine agents of
influence; Others like Biden took money from china while instigating and promoting RussiaGate .
So nice
Arthur
Schwartz @ArthurSchwartz · Dec 8 If @RepSwalwell hadn't been banging the Chinese
communist spy, he would be doing wall to wall MSNBC hits claiming that this was a Russian
disinformation campaign. Instead, all he can say is "it's classified." No one is buying it,
Eric. Jack Posobiec
@JackPosobiec · Dec 8 I'm told the unreleased
portion of the Swalwell report is far, far worse for the Congressman and he is actively
fighting to obstruct its release to the American people Nick Short @PoliticalShort · 14h China owns
Hollywood, the media, our supply chains, etc. It's idiotic to believe they wouldn't also own a
good portion of those in Congress. The question is, how big of a portion? Donald Trump Jr. @DonaldJTrumpJr ·
16h
How'd that one work out Fartwell? Quote Tweet Eric Swalwell @ericswalwell · Jan 8, 2019
"Stated plainly, the President's son met with a Russian spy." On @DeadlineWH about
#NataliaVeselnitskaya 8.2K 12.1K 46.6K
As Donald Trump Jr noted so poignantly on Twitter:
Does anyone else notice that the Chinese Spies seem to always attach themselves to
Democrats while simultaneously always attacking Republicans? That should tell us all we need
to know about who's fighting for who. Democrats are the party of China!
Russian collusion disappeared quicker than BLM after the election.
ominous 1 hour ago
one is returning soon
High Vigilante 16 minutes ago
Demsheviks: "There was never Russia collusion, and we have always been in peace with
Eastasia"
LevelHeadedMan 26 minutes ago
Russia narrative was a scapegoat for the real cause. The Democrats lost the working class.
They became the party of the coastal suburbanite liberal middle class. And now they are the
party of fraud. lay_arrow
Francis Marximus 1 hour ago (Edited) remove link
I guess all the countries that have a higher GDP then Russia the US has in their pockets.
Hence...Russia has to be the fall guy.
The media and Democrats need simple minded people, people who are easily fooled and people
with no conscience to exist
ominous 1 hour ago
why would Russia interfere?
we're doing a bang-up job ******* things up on our own.
divide_by_zero 1 hour ago
Putin should announce his candidate has won, just to **** either as Soros will run our gov
otherwise
NotGonnaTakeItAnymore 1 hour ago
Let's all recall that genius of the senate from CT, Chris Murphy, who took every
opportunity to stand before anyone who would listen and had a camera, as repeatedly stating
that Russia was involved with Trump and with Hunter's laptop.
And now he's remarkably quiet.
Hey Chris, can you show me the Russians now??? You are so going to lose you next election.
We are sick of your games.
Baba Yaga 1 34 minutes ago
The American election is a farce in itself. Puppeteers from the Deep State have pushed
Biden's candidacy by all means. The American people are just extras in these elections,
nothing depends on them. This is the American way of democracy.
with extra foam 32 minutes ago remove link
That moment of clarity when you realize that modern America is no different than Soviet
Russia.
Bobby Farrell Can Dance 23 minutes ago (Edited)
With much worse propaganda and a bigger budget. Meaning the fall will be harder.
monty42 14 minutes ago
Worse in some ways. The devil that poses as an angel of light is actually more
dangerous.
Ms No 1 hour ago (Edited)
I have to pat the CIA on the back. This has dual purpose.
Both China and Maduro are accused of meddling in this election. They got Russia last time.
Amidst it all, thinking people are demoralized by the assholes who actually believe any of
that absurdity. It's a hideous and cruel weapon.
Well played.
youshallnotkill 1 hour ago
According to Rudy is was Chavez, don't cha know. Guy apparently just faked his death ...
/s
ouluoulu 24 minutes ago remove link
I am watching the death throes of the news business, newspapers, television and magazines.
Blogs, newsletters and individuals releasing their own videos will finally kill it off.
Investigative reporting is nonexistent, replaced by fake news that answers to the "Big
Club" that George Carlin referred to when he said "It's a big club and you ain't in it, you
and I are not in it."
Bobby Farrell Can Dance 18 minutes ago
Western MSM is all paid shilling, fully compromised by 5 Eyes + Mossad intel agency
staffers. The last place I would want to learn about the way the world works, but the first
place I would look to see their projections.
The United States' election victory of Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden has yet to
be officially confirmed. That requires the 500-plus Electoral College comprising the 50 federal
states to cast the final vote when the constitutional body meets on December 14. Biden holds a
commanding lead of over 300 delegates in the Electoral College, more than 70 above Donald
Trump's quota and decisively more than the 270 threshold required for election to the White
House.
Nonetheless, already one thing is indisputably clear. Biden's nominal victory from the
popular vote tallies is glaring proof that Russia did not interfere in the American
presidential ballot. Not in 2020. And not, we may discern, in 2016, nor in any other election.
Yet the silence in US media over this obvious conclusion is deafening.
Four years of frenetic and unsubstantiated allegations of "Russian interference" have
disappeared overnight, it seems. Poof! Gone! As if by a magic conjuring trick. Now you see it,
now you don't, so to speak.
The New York Times has declared the recent
presidential contest a "great election.. a resounding success free of fraud" . The Department
of Homeland Security pronounced the election to be the "most secure in American history." Other
US media outlets have jettisoned supposed political neutrality and can barely contain their
elation at Biden's electoral victory.
But hold on a moment.
In the months and weeks leading up to the November election, there was a fever pitch in US
media among politicians, national security chiefs, pundits and anonymous intelligence sources
that Russia was allegedly stepping up "interference efforts" to get Trump re-elected.
Those evidence-free claims were predicated on the equally absurd assertion that Trump was a
Manchurian candidate for the Kremlin. That "Russiagate" fable was first spun in 2016 and for
the past four years elaborated into a tangled web to "explain" how a maverick former reality TV
star had been elected to the White House.
Suddenly, however, the Democrats and supportive US media are now asserting that the voting
process was impeccable and unblemished by any malfeasance. Of course they would say that in
order to bolster legitimacy of Biden's win against the Republican White House incumbent Donald
Trump. But the thundering takeaway which the US political class and media are bizarrely
ignoring is that Russia did not interfere not in the 2020 race nor in any other election.
Russia has always categorically said it is not meddling in US politics and its electoral
process. Turns out that Russia is de facto vindicated in its protestations against American
slander.
The "Russiagate" nonsense was hatched by Democrats, their supportive media and intelligence
agencies because they could not come to terms with the reality of why Trump beat the then
establishment-ordained candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. Could it have been because Clinton
and the Democrat party was repudiated by popular sentiment due to perceived corruption and
overseas wars? No, another "explanation" had to be found. And the US political establishment
came up with the "Russian interference" narrative.
No matter that the Mueller investigation found after 22 months of probing and hundreds of
millions of taxpayer-dollars spent that there was no evidence of "Russia collusion" with the
Trump campaign. Nevertheless, Mueller and the Democrats, their media and intelligence backers,
persisted in the spurious notion that Russia meddled in the 2016 election and, allegedly, was
continuing to meddle, purportedly with even more sophisticated, nefarious techniques.
How can US politicians, intelligence officials and media credibly claim that Russia
interfered in 2016 and in mid-term congressional elections in 2018, but now in 2020 it
evidently did not? The most logical explanation is simply that Russia never did.
Four years of hysterical American accusations against Russia have transpired to just that:
bogus hysteria . US politicians, media and so-called intelligence gurus should be held to
account for fabricating what is perhaps the biggest hoax ever played on the American
public.
Though, one can be sure that they won't be held accountable in a formal way. Venal power
doesn't work like that. And the US political system has built-in layers of self-protection for
the political class never to be prosecuted. But in an informal no less real way, the system is
being held to account by the wider public who are increasingly holding it in contempt and
distrust. The political class and their plaything media are losing the moral authority to
govern. This goes beyond mere Trump Derangement Syndrome. The systematic lying and deception
over alleged Russian interference perpetrated on such a grand scale has fatally damaged the
credibility of American institutions. Not just in the US, but around the world too.
Equally lamentable is the corrosive, damaging effect that the bogus hysteria has had on
bilateral US-Russia relations and international tensions. Relations are at a dangerous all time
low comparable to the depth of the Cold War. This has in turn sabotaged diplomatic efforts to
strengthen arms controls and global security. The anti-Russia hysteria has led to the US
abandonment of key nuclear weapons treaties, the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty
and soon the New START.
The Russophobia that has been whipped up as a political weapon against Trump over the past
four years is not something that can be easily put aside. It has engendered deep-seated
hostility against Russia. During the presidential debates, Joe Biden vowed that the would take
a tough stand against Russia for "interfering" in US politics. The incoming administration is
being mentally held hostage by its own Russophobia which was cultivated on entirely false
grounds.
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It is disturbing how the US nation has been dragged into an obsession about alleged Russian
malign activities, an obsession which turns out to be a mirage. Not for the first time either.
Recall the Cold War Red Scares and McCarthyite witch-hunts which poisoned American society.
The implications are daunting. How can bilateral relations with Russia be restored? How can
an intelligent dialogue be conducted with a nation whose leaders are so self-deluded and
irrational?
Moreover, this is a nation whose leaders presume to have the prerogative to use overwhelming
military force whenever they deem so. It is not unlike the driver of a juggernaut vehicle on a
precipice who is hurtling along while out of his brain on misconceptions.
The Russian government is set to expel a prominent human-rights activist, with former
president Dmitry Medvedev claiming there's a co-ordinated campaign by international
organizations to stoke unrest in the world's largest state.
Vanessa Kogan, the director of the Stichting Justice Initiative project, told Britain's
Guardian newspaper that Russian authorities had notified her of the revocation of her residency
permit. She will now have two weeks to leave the country, where she has lived for more than ten
years. She also has two children with a Russian national.
The Stichting Justice Initiative is an NGO which, it says, provides legal support to
Russians in cases of perceived human rights abuses. It has been less open about its funding in
recent years, but in 2010 and 2011, it was bankrolled by the Dutch government and the Hungarian
billionaire George Soros. via his 'Open Society' pressure group, which has been banned in
Russia and declared "undesirable."
Kogan's work has previously focused on the North Caucasus region, where her group has
represented people alleging victimization at the hands of authorities. Its activity in the
majority Muslim area has reportedly brought tensions with local leaders, such as Ramzan
Kadyrov, the head of the Republic of Chechnya.
Now the Deputy Chairman of Russia's Security Council, Medvedev, who has also served as
Russia's prime minister, told reporters on Thursday that well-funded foreign groups were using
networks in Russia to "exacerbate the internal political situation in certain regions,
including through Russian non-profit groups they associate with."
He went on to add that these NGOs "depend on internet media, and use various far-fetched
reasons for rewriting the events of our national history." He called this a "large-scale
information campaign, being conducted to discredit the leadership of some specific territories
and Federal Subjects."
In November, the country's State Duma debated new legislation that would expand the
definition of foreign agents, enabling the label to be applied not only to NGOs and media
organizations, but also to ordinary citizensIn 2018, the United States imprisoned a Russian
citizen, Maria Butina, claiming that she was a foreign agent operating on behalf of Moscow.
Authorities allege that she had infiltrated conservative-leaning organizations to promote
better ties between Washington and the Kremlin. She served five months in prison, some of it in
solitary confinement, before being deported back to Russia.
Zeta029 43 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:01 PM
This is a most dangerous situation. Being unable to openly defeat Russia on a battlefield
(not that they didnt try, most recently in Georgia, Ukraine and Syria), the Empire is
focusing on certain NGO and people like Navalny to weaken the leadership of Russian
Federation. This is the undisputed truth and so these measures should be swift and harsh, for
National Security sake.
cangoroo Zeta029 16 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:28 PM
And those NGOs are funded with "printed money" in the Empire. Now Australia has joined the
money-printing party of their big-brother US; at the rate of $5billion a week. Money-printing
means PIRATING money from the holders of their money, including foreign CentralBnks like
China's. It was SEA-PIRACY on which the Empire Britannia was built during the reign of QE1 in
the 16th century. Genes, I guess.
Count_Cash Zeta029 18 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:26 PM
It's a multifaceted interference in Russia. The biggest play is economic , the next play is
internal friction based on wealth disparity, the third is to create perception that
westerners have better rights. The medium is external media, internal media, external courts,
attacks on internal courts and political institutions - But there is one thing the western
strategists haven't figured - nuclear weapons and their deterrent is aimed at preventing not
only military attacks but also other attacks that attempt to politically and economically
dominate Russia. While the west think all this activity has no cost, as was shown in the
places you reference, there can be a military cost for the western games of interference and
pushed far enough it could be a nuclear one. Nuclear Weapons their not just for countering
military threats!
TheFishh 40 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:04 PM
Funded by Soros and Dutch government? There you have it. I wonder what Netherlands and the US
would do, if some organizations operating there were getting money from Moscow. They'd lock
up everyone involved in it. They wouldn't just be told to go back to Russia.
Nonenity TheFishh 16 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:28 PM
They ought to be in OP and making their reports on the war crimes and human rights abuses
there - ongoing since before 1948...
Madbovineuk 1 hour ago 3 Dec, 2020 12:58 PM
Expel all NGOs from Russia especially those with American ties
WhoWantsAIDS Madbovineuk 13 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:31 PM
As an American if Putin wants to send Soros workers or sympathizers home in a box he would be
doing the world a favor. 💯🔮
Count_Cash Madbovineuk 25 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:19 PM
Yes just boot her and the rest out. They are just trouble makers, if they were straight up
they would be running to Iraq or Afghanistan to help people abused by the US.
Timothy-Allen Albertson 1 hour ago 3 Dec, 2020 12:56 PM
Soros, the nazi, needs to be hanged for Crimes Against Humanity. Too bad the Russian
Federation did not imprison this Soros agitator for a long term at hard labor.
She should work all her life, and still I dont think she would repay the harm she did.
Badgecub 1 hour ago 3 Dec, 2020 01:25 PM
Kogan, if you are worried about human rights abuses go to the UK and help Julian Assage
Nonenity Badgecub 18 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:26 PM
And all of those many, many US folks in prison for long periods, mostly for minor offences,
because it was their third time stealing a slice of pizza. You don't hear/read/see it on the
MSM, but these prisoners are all but slave labor and usually for multinational companies like
S...bucks... Indeed in at least two states they are slave labor because they do not even get
the cents (well under a dollar) per hour that prisoners in most states do. And should the
prisoners refuse to do this labor, they often end up in solitary confinement - well known to
be psychological torture...And there are political prisoners as well (not called that, of
course, given who and where they are)...not to mention Guantanamo and the various Black Sites
around the world and controlled by the CIA.... Stephen Kinzer's book on The Poisoner in
Chief...a good read about the post war decades and the human rights abuses by the
exceptionalist nation...
TheFishh Badgecub 35 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:09 PM
Yes. And these sorts of contradictions is what gives away these so-called western human
rights organizations as a bunch of nefarious fakes.
DoubleKnot 1 hour ago 3 Dec, 2020 01:14 PM
NGO - Non-Gentile Organization
TheFishh DoubleKnot 37 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:07 PM
BING!
Marko Podganjek 15 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:29 PM
I thought that such organizations and people were expelled from Russia long ago. Because on
west they want to imprison people that were just on trip in Russia. Not to say if somebody
would get money from Russia. The relations and approaches here has to be comparable on both
sides.
Smanz 20 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:24 PM
Anything linked to Soros generally only exists to create chaos and ruin the country it is in.
dunkie56 8 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:36 PM
i will say it again...throw the West and it's agents provocateurs out of Russia...all Western
companies must leave forthwith and restrict who comes into Russia and tighten the borders!
Preferably raise up the iron curtain once again!
SrJustice 5 minutes ago 3 Dec, 2020 02:39 PM
Politicians in the US think that improving relations with other countries is a bad thing
because they need enemies, enemies are better than friends to have for Washington, very
twisted minds. They just want to scare their people so they can suck more tax money and spend
on the weapons manufacturers, where most of those politician invest their money.
Ever since the man – always wrongly billed as " the Russian Opposition leader
," when in fact he polls 2% of the vote, and the actual opposition leader is a Communist who
still has mass support – took ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow, the securocratic
lobby in western countries has been primed.
Today, with the statement from the German government that Navalny is yet another victim of
'Novichok'-class chemical agents, active measures are already underway.
Former British intelligence officer Philip Ingram MBE, whom I interviewed today for my
Sputnik TV show, had to hurry me up because " the Germans have just spoken the word Novichok
and I expect to be busy with other interviews ."
Wearisome though it may be to point out the bleeding obvious, I must do so.
If the Russian state had attempted to assassinate Navalny, they would never have allowed his
stricken comatose body to be flown out of the country to Germany in the first place. He would
have died on the operating table in Russia, where nobody could "detect traces of Novichok" in a
NATO capital.
If the Russian state was responsible for trying to kill Navalny, surely the LAST weapon in
the whole world it would have chosen with which to do so would be Novichok?
A butter knife, a gun, a speeding car, a car crash – any one of a hundred methods
would surely have been preferable in the post-Skripal era. And more reliable, it would appear:
Navalny, for now mercifully, is the THIRD Russian in a row to be attacked by a DEADLY "
military-grade nerve agent " and mysteriously fail to die.
But just like with the Skripals, we come up against the question asked in every murder
mystery: Cui Bono? Who benefits?
What conceivable gain would the Kremlin stand to make in the killing by Novichok of Alexey
Navalny?
And the huge contradiction, the biggest of all, is that the West wants us to believe
Vladimir Putin is at one and the same time a dazzling Mephistopheles capable of arranging
elections in America and Britain, fixing Brexit, and fomenting separatism from Scotland to
Spain, whilst at the same time being a blithering, self-harming idiot. The cop that couldn't
shoot straight. The man who brought the whole western world down on his head through not one,
but two failed attempts to dispose of utterly harmless marginal critics – who, in the
case of Alexey Navalny, would be incapable of winning a single seat in a provincial local
authority.
I'm travelling at the moment, filming my forthcoming documentary on the strange death of Dr
David Kelly – the British weapons inspector caught up in the Blair War on Iraq –
who was found stone dead at the height of the publicity surrounding him. So I don't have my
crystal ball to consult. But I nonetheless predict that what will now happen will be the
familiar circus of diplomatic expulsions, sanctions and ostracism. Further demonisation of
Russia. Tit for tat. As the world faces a deadly pandemic and economic collapse. Just what the
doctor ordered...
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
I'll tell you who benefits. Anyone who is seeking to debase modern societies. East vs West,
Isam vs Christianity vs Judaism vs, black vs white, rich vs poor, man vs woman vs ?, left vs
right and the destruction of the family units in the West is all but complete. So if you are
person seeking to destabilize society on nearly all fronts, there's your benefactor cause
that appears to be the goal here.
Jeff_P 2 September, 2020 2 Sep, 2020 07:36 PM
Oh puleeze! It should be intuitively obvious to the most casual of observers who benefits.
The American wannabe imperium. These sort of events keep the vassal states in line and losing
their shirts on US directed sanctions to play the role of US canon fodder. And the best part
is that the US doesn't even have to come up with new excuses over and over again. We've been
telling the same old tired lies for decades and the Europeans simply aren't smart enough to
see it for what it is.
Novichok , right from Porton Down chemical weapon lab.
Skeptic 2 September, 2020 2 Sep, 2020 02:55 PM
Apparently Russians don't die of novichok! Not so deadly after all.
Doodle_Dandy 3 September, 2020 3 Sep, 2020 03:11 AM
OPCW says it is TRUE. Must be factual...
Slavko 17 September, 2020 17 Sep, 2020 11:38 AM
Western Military Industrial Complex; as called by late most celebrater US Army general and
President Eisenhower; 1% own more than 90% of western population; they own Banks, Media, The
Complex with NATO, and Politicians; The wars and sanctions are means of money making for
them!
Slavko 17 September, 2020 17 Sep, 2020 11:38 AM
Western Military Industrial Complex; as called by late most celebrater US Army general and
President Eisenhower; 1% own more than 90% of western population; they own Banks, Media, The
Complex with NATO, and Politicians; The wars and sanctions are means of money making for
them!
Rohil Koovappara 3 September, 2020 3 Sep, 2020 11:07 AM
Sure the white supremacist Alexei Navalny is an "opposition leader"!!! Please that evil
fascist polls from about 0-4% and has no support in Russia 🇷🇺 at all!!!!
A letter published today ( Monday,
October 19, 2020 ) with the signatures of 50 "former intelligence" officials is a
self-inflicted wound of comedy and absurdity wrapped in the specious claim of special
expertise. Thank God none of these clowns still hold a position anywhere in the national
security bureaucracy. Their inability to grasp basic facts and engage in simple reasoning
perhaps explains why the Obama team abandoned American military and intelligence officials at
Benghazi in September 2012 and why they considered ISIS as "a junior varsity" team.
Basically, this group of mediocrities are sure that the Hunter Biden emails are part of some
nasty Rooskie plot:
. . . we write to say that the arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly
belonging to Vice President Biden's son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the
Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian
information operation.
There is only one teeny, tiny problem. They have no facts to back up their deluded judgment,
supposedly based on years of experience. Just goes to show that experience without real
intelligence is no substitute for competence.
Let us start with the facts that are documented:
1. Hunter Biden signs a work order on 12 April 2019 with The Mac Shop in Wilmington,
Delaware to recover data on the hard drive of a Mac Laptop damaged by water.
2. The repair is completed on the 17th of April. Hunter Biden is notified by email and phone
that the laptop and hard drive are ready to be picked up. Total cost--$85. Hunter did not
respond. (Running the recovery on the hard drive apparently was not an expensive
proposition).
3. In September of 2019, the owner of the Mac Shop talked with his dad about the Biden
computer and the fact that it had material that might be relevant to the Ukraine issue. Father
and son decided the best course of action was to approach the FBI. The father, who lives in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, volunteered to make the approach.
4. Steve Mac Isaac, father of John Paul Mac Isaac, goes to the FBI field office in
Albuquerque in mid-September and offers the hard drive and work order to the FBI. The FBI only
makes a copy of the work order and asks Mr. Mac Isaac to leave. The FBI volunteers no further
actions on the part of the Mac Isaacs.
5. November 2019, the FBI suddenly reaches out to the Mac Isaac's and visits the shop in
Wilmington, Delaware. John Paul Mac Isaac asks the FBI to take the computer and the hard drive.
They refuse and leave.
6. Early December 2019, the FBI returns to the Mac Shop and presents a grand jury subpoena
for the computer and the hard drive. John Paul Mac Isaac happily surrenders the items to the
FBI.
7. John Paul Mac Isaac watched and wondered from December 2019 thru August 2020, expecting
the FBI would do something with the information on the computer and the hard drive. But nothing
happened. John Paul turned over a copy of the hard drive to Rudy Giuliani's attorney in early
September 2020.
The New York Post stories based on the contents of the hard drive came from Rudy Giuliani
and his team, not from John Paul Mac Isaac.
The Director of National Intelligence,
John Ratcliffe , declared on the record on Monday, October 19th, that the info on the
Hunter Biden computer is not Russian disinformation. He specifically stated that there was no
intelligence to support such a conclusion.
Today (Tuesday, October 20) the FBI and the Department of Justice confirmed the
DNI's declaration :
ONE senior federal law enforcement official says:
1-The FBI and DOJ concur with DNI Ratcliffe's assessment that Hunter Biden's laptop and
emails in question were not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
2-The FBI DOES have possession of the Hunter Biden laptop in question.
If this was a Russian operation, it would mean the Russians have the most amazing and
powerful intelligence capability in the world. Specifically, it would mean the following:
The Russians knew months in advance of April 2019 that Joe Biden was going to declare as
a candidate for President and then managed to give an actual Hunter Biden laptop to the
computer repair shop in Delaware.
The Russians knew that the FBI would take possession of the lap top and the hard drive in
December 2019--more than five months before Joe Biden secured the Democrat nomination for
President--and that they could control what the FBI did and what John Paul Mac Isaac
did.
If the emails published from the material Rudy Giuliani supplied to the New York Post
differed from those on the lap top and hard drive in the possession of the FBI, it would be
easy to discredit Rudy. The FBI would simply have to state that no such emails exist on the
Hunter Biden computer and hard drive.
There is no evidence that John Paul Mac Isaac acted at the behest of any outside power to
give the Hunter Biden hard drive to Rudy Giuliani. What we do know is that John Paul Mac Isaac
never tried to sell the hard drive to the tabloid media nor did he try to give it to any member
of the press. John Paul is a true patriot. He trusted the FBI and thought the system would do
the right thing.
So there you have it. Proven liars like Jim Clapper and John Brennan, along with the likes
of Mike Hayden, are claiming without one shred of evidence that emails validated by the FBI are
somehow a magical Russian disinformation campaign. As I noted at the outset, it would be
laughable were the claim not so dangerous to the security of the United States. They are the
ones meddling in the Presidential election by using their status as former top intel officials
as a platform for spreading a lie about Russian interference in hopes of persuading uninformed
voters to accept this mendacity as fact.
This has nothing to do with Russians, except for the millions a wealthy Russian oligarch
paid to Hunter. The truth of the matter is the Joe Biden used his son, Hunter, to enrich
himself and his family. While Democrats continuously insist that Donald Trump is corrupt and
unethical, the Hunter Biden emails provide devastating evidence that it is the Bidens, not the
Trumps, who are engaged in corrupt and slimy business deals. Those are the facts.
I am so very happy I am NOT related to the Biden family.
I just received confirmation from my County Clerk and Recorder that my completed ballot
was received in her office after being retrieved from the lock box in which I submitted by
ballot. I did NOT vote for Joe.
All named parties should be under Barr-Durham's radar for Russiagate alone. One more
reason to re-elect Trump: Finish the Barr-Durham Probe.
How will this story end. Then move on to investigate why nothing was done about Hunter
Biden's computers held in FBI hands since Dec 2019.
Meanwhile, make your case independent of these ongoing investigations, why and how will
America get back on track after you are re-elected? Hungry to hear the good news.
So Hunter is Joe's bagman for pay to play schemes? Probably I am being naive, but wouldn't
it be prudent to keep your bagman slightly further at arm's length than your troubled,
drug-using, teen-diddling son?
Nothing will happen - no consequences, no punishment.
Bill Barr's (a swamp creature in good standing) mask is dropping - the phony Durham
"investigation," documents held by the FBI NEVER released to Congress despite numerous
requests (not that the Senate seems overly curious, more like going through the motions),
ignoring the Biden crimes, Antifa/BLM running wild and no investigations, indictments.
The swamp is winning.
The message: "Don't question us, don't argue with us. WE run this country, not Trump, not
you. Now shut up and wear a mask."
And the sad irony: the swamp is grossly inept.
If these "mediocrities" rose to the top, imagine the losers below them?
As the deal takes shape in 2017, Mr. Bobulinski begins to question what Hunter will
contribute besides his name, and worries that he was "kicked out of US Navy for cocaine use."
Mr. Gilliar acknowledges "skill sets [sic] missing" and observes that Hunter "has a few
demons." He explains that "in brand [Hunter is] imperative but right know [sic] he's not
essential for adding input." Mr. Bobulinski writes that he appreciates "the name/leverage
being used" but thinks the economic "upside" should go to the team doing the actual work. Mr.
Gilliar reminds him that those on the Chinese side "are intelligence so they understand the
value added."
LJ am I to understand that Mr.Gilliar KNEW he was dealing with Chinese intelligence and
still went all in?
A Department of Homeland Security election alert spawning new Russia fears was so
incoherent and inconsistent with previous findings, it suggested a state of political panic
inside the agency.
Just days before the 2020 election the bureaucratic forces behind the original claim of
Russian hacking of state election-related websites in 2016 launched a new drive to spawn fears
of Moscow-made political chaos in the wake of the voting.
The new narrative was not consistent with information previously published by the the FBI
and the Department of Homeland Security's new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
(CISA), however. It was so incoherent, in fact, that it suggested a state of panic on the part
of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials worried about a possible transition to a
Joe Biden administration.
On October 20, Christopher Krebs, the head of CISA, issued a
video statement expressing confidence that "it would be incredibly difficult for them to
change the outcome of an election at the national level." Then he abruptly changed his tone,
adding, "But that doesn't mean various actors won't try to introduce chaos in our elections and
make sensational claims that overstate their capabilities. In fact, the days and weeks just
before and after Election Day is the perfect time for our adversaries to launch efforts
intended to undermine your confidence in the integrity of the electoral process."
Krebs' warning of a possible Russian announcement that hackers had succeeded in disrupting
the result of the U.S. election was so removed from reality that it suggested internal panic
DHS over the failure of Russian hackers to do anything that could be cited as interfering in
the election.
Two days after Krebs' dubious warning, the FBI and the DHS's new Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an "alert" reporting that "a
Russian state-sponsored APT [Advanced Persistent Threat] actor" known as "Berserk Bear" had
"conducted a campaign against a wide variety of U.S. targets."
Since "at least September," according to the DHS alert, the DHS warning claimed that it had
targeted "dozens" of "U.S. state, local, territorial and tribal government networks." It even
claimed that the supposed Russian campaign had compromised the network infrastructure of
several official organizations and "exfiltrated data from at least two victims servers." At the
same time, it acknowledged there was "no indication" that any government operations had been
"intentionally disrupted."
The report went on to suggest, "[T]here may be some risk to elections information housed on
SLTT [state, local territorial and tribal] government networks." And then it abruptly shifted
tone and level of analysis to offer the speculation that the Russian government "may be seeking
access to obtain future disruption options, to influence U.S. policies or actions", or to
"delegitimize" the "government entities".
On October 28, Krebs elaborated on the latter theme in an interview with the PBS
NewsHour . Referring inaccurately to government warnings about "Russian interference, some
of which targeted voter registration," which the FBI-CISA alert had never mentioned, PBS
interviewer William Brangham asked, "Do you worry at all that there might be infiltration that
we are not aware of?"
Instead of correcting Brangham's inaccurate suggestion, Krebs responded that "infiltration"
into voter registration files was "certainly possible," but that "[W]e have improved the
ability to detect compromises or anomalous activity."
Krebs then homed in on a scenario he obviously wanted the public to focus on: "[Y]ou might
see various actors, foreign powers, claim that they were able to accomplish something, [that]
they were able to hack a database or hack the vote count. And it's simply not true."
Although the October 22 alert did not assert any deliberate Russian government hack of
election-related sites, Krebs sought to keep speculation about both Russian capabilities and
intent alive.
The buried alert that undermined the frightening official assessment
Eleven days before Krebs debuted his speculation about Russia claiming to have hacked U.S.
elections, the FBI and CISA issued a separate alert that seriously undercut
his questionable claims.
The earlier document was clearly referring to the very same efforts by hackers to break into
various websites addressed in the October 22 alert. It not only referred to the same state and
local government networks and to the wider range of targets affected but also mentioned
precisely the same technical vulnerabilities that were targeted in the series of hacks.
The alert further stated that, "[I]t does not appear these targets are being selected
because of their proximity to elections information ." In other words, the two US agencies
conceded they had no basis for attributing the hacks in question to any election interference
plot.
The most striking difference between the two alerts, however, was that the October 9 alert
did not refer to any "Russian state-sponsored APT actor" as the October 22 one did. Instead, it
simply pointed to "APT actors" in the plural, indicating that the U.S. intelligence community
had no evidence indicating a single actor was at work, let alone one that was "Russian-state
sponsored."
Contrary to the impression that U.S. officials may have conveyed in referencing an "Advance
Persistent Threat," or APT,
it is now widely understood by cybersecurity specialists that this term no longer refers to
a state-sponsored actor. That is because the sophisticated tools and techniques once associated
with state-sponsored hacking have now become available to a much wider range of cyber actors.
Indeed, the codes for such high-end tools have been identified in the
Shadow Brokers and Vault 7
leaks, and the tools have been marketed widely at affordable prices on the dark web.
The October 9 alert firmly established the dearth of evidence on the part of CISA and FBI
about a Russian state-sponsored hacking team planning elections-related operations in the U.S.
The sudden pivot days later to an unqualified claim that a single state-sponsored APT had been
responsible for the same very large range of operations should have been accompanied by claims
of substantial new intelligence, or at least a reference to the evidence underlying the
dramatic new reversal. But no such proof ever arrived.
Scott McConnell, the spokesman for CISA, promised the Grazyzone on October 29 that he would
provide someone to answer questions about the October 22 alert by the close of business Friday.
In the end, however, no one from CISA responded, and there was no answer on McConnell's
line.
The peculiar reversal by the DHS and CISA on the hacking claims raise questions about the
institutional considerations taken by these agencies. Did indications that President Donald
Trump's campaign was faltering inform their decision to issue a more stridently anti-Russian
assessment in hopes of surviving a political transition?
The US officials who drew up the initial pre-election alert seemed keenly aware that despite
that drumbeat of over the past two years, no state-sponsored Russian hacking of election
institutions was underway. But as the Trump campaign sputtered, they had their own careers to
consider. Days later, DHS and CISA declared the wily Russians guilty of yet another malign
operations -- one that would not require them to have slightest evidence to support, and that
would be impossible for them to explain.
P resident-elect Joe Biden's pick to run the Office of Management and Budget has a history
of defending British ex-spy Christopher Steele's
discredited anti-Trump dossier.
Years of controversial claims about the Trump-Russia controversy, particularly about the
dossier funded in part by Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, presents one of several obstacles
for Neera Tanden, a longtime Democratic operative, to achieve Senate confirmation next
year.
A significant question that remains is how the two Senate runoff races in Georgia shake out
in January, with control of the upper chamber hanging in the balance. Tanden is sure to meet
stiff opposition from Republicans, who will be led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, whom Tanden
derisively tweeted in August 2019,
"Stacey Abrams just called McConnell 'Moscow Mitch.' Love it."
In selecting Tanden on
Monday, Biden described the president
of the left-wing Center for American Progress as "a leading architect and advocate of policies
designed to support working families." Tanden worked on Bill Clinton's successful run in 1992
and Barack Obama's successful presidential run in 2008. She was also an adviser on Hillary
Clinton's successful Democratic primary effort in 2016 and the failed general election run that
November.
Not mentioned in her Biden transition team biography was the role Tanden played in promoting
unsubstantiated claims throughout the Trump-Russia controversy.
Tanden launched the
"Moscow Project" in 2017, and after Buzzfeed published Steele's dossier in January 2017,
Tanden's think tank released a
statement saying, "The intelligence dossier presents profoundly disturbing allegations;
ones that should shake every American to the core." Tanden went on to defend the Steele dossier
repeatedly on Twitter, attacking those who critiqued the FBI for relying on its claims to
obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authority against former Trump campaign associate
Carter Page and implying that critics of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation were doing
Russia's bidding.
"Make Chris Steele the next James Bond," Tanden tweeted in January
2017.
In a tweet about Rep. Devin Nunes's FISA memo in February 2018, which criticized the FBI's
surveillance of Page and its use of the dossier, the Washington Examiner's Byron York
noted that "no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele
dossier information." Tanden responded by saying, "Even
if this is true, hasn't the dossier been mostly proven to be true? It's amazing how comfortable
the likes of Byron York are happy to run interference for Russians intervening in our
elections." Tanden followed up with another tweet claiming that the
"dossier has been mostly established as right."
Tanden's "Moscow Project" also
released a flawed critique of the Republican FISA memo, with Tanden defending the FBI's
surveillance. In addition, Tanden tweeted in April 2018 that
the dossier was "started with funding by a GOP megadonor."
Although the conservative Free Beacon had hired the
opposition research firm Fusion GPS, it said in October 2017 that it "had no knowledge of or
connection to the Steele dossier." It later emerged that Steele was not commissioned by Fusion
GPS (and did not begin compiling his dossier) until Clinton campaign lawyer
Marc Elias hired Fusion.
"What parts of the dossier have been disproven?" Tanden tweeted in January 2019.
"I will wait."
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz's December 2019 report and subsequent
declassifications undermined Steele's claims in the dossier. Horowitz said the Trump-Russia
investigation concealed exculpatory information from the FISA court, and he
criticized the Justice Department and FBI for at least 17 "significant errors and
omissions"
related to the FISA warrants against Page and for the bureau's reliance on Steele.
Declassified footnotes show the FBI knew Steele's dossier may have been compromised by
Russian disinformation . Horowitz said FBI interviews with Steele's main source, U.S.-based
and Russian-trained lawyer Igor Danchenko, "raised significant questions about the reliability
of the Steele election reporting."
FBI Director Christopher Wray called the FISA findings "utterly unacceptable" this
year and concurred with the DOJ's conclusions that at least two of the four FISA warrants
against Page amounted to illegal surveillance.
Nearly all the FISA signatories -- Deputy Attorney General
Sally Yates , Deputy Attorney General
Rod Rosenstein , fired FBI Director
James Comey , and fired FBI Deputy Director
Andrew McCabe -- indicated under oath they wouldn't have signed off on the surveillance if
they knew then what they know now, and a declassified FBI spreadsheet showed the
lack of corroboration for Steele's claims.
Other Russia-related claims Tanden has made could present sticking points during her
confirmation process.
She tweeted on Oct. 31, 2016,
that President Trump was a Russian "puppet" in part because there was a "Trump server connected
to Russian bank" and tweeted again in December
2016 that Trump may have gotten "talking points from the server at Trump Tower connected to
Russia."
The
claim that a Russian Alfa Bank server was secretly communicating with a server at Trump
Tower, also pushed by Steele, emerged in 2016, but Horowitz noted the FBI "concluded by early
February 2017 that there were no such links," and the Senate Intelligence Committee's August
report
did not find "covert communications between Alfa Bank and Trump Organization personnel." Jake
Sullivan, Biden's pick for national security adviser, also pushed the refuted Alfa
Bank claim in 2016.
The week after Trump's victory, following reports that Russian cyberactors had targeted a
number of state election systems, Tanden mused, "Why would hackers hack in unless they could
change results?" The next day, she pushed back against
criticism she received, tweeting, "Funny, I don't remember saying Russian hackers stole
Hillary's victory." There is
no evidence that Russian hackers changed any votes in 2016.
"Mueller found Russian interference in the election. He also found Trump coordinated with
Russia. These are facts," Tanden tweeted in October.
Although Mueller's investigation concluded in 2019 that the Russian government
interfered in a "sweeping and systematic fashion," the report "did not establish that
members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its
election interference activities."
After the report's release, Tanden tweeted that
"Mueller has failed the country" and "Adam Schiff > Robert Mueller." Earlier this year,
Schiff released dozens of House Intelligence Committee witness interviews that showed Obama's
top national security officials
testified they hadn't seen direct evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
The 57-year-old multimillionaire also appeared on several podcasts, including a November
23 appearance in which he said: "I'm a free agent, and I'm self-funded, and I'm funding this
army of various odd people," according to the
Daily Beast .
"It's really going to make a great movie someday," he added.
Byrne claims he's funding teams of "hackers and crackers" who realized all the way back
in August that Dominion voting machines could be used to steal the election from Trump .
Since the election, those voting machines have figured prominently in Trump supporters'
allegations of fraud, despite the company's repeated denials and any actual proof the
voting tallies were changed. -
Daily Beast
Byrne says he's been communicating with former Trump attorney Sidney Powell for weeks -
who last week
filed two lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia alleging massive schemes to rig the election
for Joe Biden.
According to Powell's Georgia lawsuit: "Old-fashioned ballot-stuffing" has been "
amplified and rendered virtually invisible by computer software created and run by domestic
and foreign actors for that very purpose," adding that "Mathematical and statistical
anomalies rising to the level of impossibilities, as shown by affidavits of multiple
witnesses, documentation, and expert testimony evince this scheme across the state of
Georgia."
In Michigan, Powell claims that "hundreds of thousands of illegal, ineligible, duplicate,
or purely fictitious ballots" enabled by "massive election fraud" facilitated Biden's win in
the state.
The suit claimed that election software and hardware from Dominion Voting Systems used by
the Michigan Board of State Canvassers helped facilitate the fraud.
Speaking to Christopher McDonald of The McFiles in a recent interview, the former head
of a $200 billion e-commerce company that has never once gotten hacked revealed that
Dominion Voting Systems were used to perform a "Drop and Roll" technique of voter fraud
that slyly padded the vote for Biden in at least five key swing areas of the country.
Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix) were
all rigged prior to election day to strip President Trump of his rightful win in each of
these states. Byrne also mentioned Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas) as another election
fraud locale, though this one was more secondary.
According to Byrne, who is not a supporter of President Trump but rather a "small l"
libertarian, these five (or six if you include Clark County) areas are where a bulk of the
election fraud took place. It did not have to be widespread because these were the key
swing areas that Biden needed to "win" in order to steal the election.
" By cheating those five counties, you flip five key states, you flip the electoral
college, " Byrne says. " In places where Trump lost by 10,000, there may be 300,000 fake,
illegal votes for Biden. So this isn't even close. "
He further contends that the election systems that govern elections in America "are a
joke," especially those run by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic software.
* * *
Is Byrne's 'army' Sidney Powell's research team?
play_arrow
MadameDeficit , 4 hours ago
Do you really believe she was a Russian guns rights activist?
Doom Porn Star , 2 hours ago
Does it matter what I think about Butina? What matters is what I think about Byrne.
WHY did the FBI / DOJ need Byrne to spy for them?
What did Byrne get out of it? We may not know who Butina was working for; but, we sure
do know who Byrne said he was working for.
Trump did NOT get money for speeches in Russia. -Bill Clinton did.
Trump did NOT get money from the wife of the Mayor of Moscow. -Hunter Biden did.
Trump did NOT sell off Uranium assets in the USA to Russian businessmen. -Hillary
Clinton did.
Trump Jr. did NOT get a high paying no show gig @ Bursima. -Hunter Biden did.
"In a strange, post-Mueller twist, the conviction of Maria Butina , the redheaded gun
nerd and
unregistered Russian agent , has led to the resignation of a prominent e-commerce
executive. On Thursday, Overstock.com
CEO Patrick Byrne announced
that he would step down from the company he founded, days after
releasing a bizarre statement describing his involvement with Butina, the "Deep State,"
"Men in Black," and Russian-linked "political espionage" campaigns against Hillary Clinton
and Donald Trump. In a
letter to shareholders, Byrne lamented that his continued presence at the company "may
affect and complicate all manner of business relationships."
"While I believe that I did what was necessary for the good of the country, for the good
of the firm, I am in the sad position of having to sever ties with Overstock, both as CEO
and board member," Byrne
said in the statement. The company's stock price had plummeted
more than 40% in the days after Byrne first revealed his participation, earlier this
month, in what he called a "political espionage" case involving Russia. Following his
resignation, the company's market capitalization soared
more than 8% .
It was an ignominious end for Byrne, a celebrity in Libertarian circles, whose
labyrinthine involvement in the Russia scandal is difficult to verify. In an
interview with journalist and Fox News contributor Sara Carter published last month,
Byrne said he had been approached by Butina at FreedomFest in 2015, and came to suspect
that she might be a Russian agent. Byrne reached out to the FBI to share his concerns, but,
he said, was told to carry on with the relationship and report back. Over the next three
years, he and Butina had a sporadic intimate relationship.
The story gets weirder from there. Byrne said he came to have doubts about his
"nonstandard" relationship with the FBI and the intelligence community. He told Carter that
he believed he "was being used in some sort of soft coup" against Trump. (Butina's lawyer
confirmed the two had a relationship, while the Department of Justice said it could not
comment.)
It wasn't until Byrne appeared on Fox Business
Network, about two weeks later, that investors got spooked. Byrne claimed to have turned
over evidence of a conspiracy involving Clinton and Trump. "I think we're about to see the
biggest scandal in American history," Byrne told host David Asman. "Everything you think
you know about Russia and Clinton investigations is a lie.... it was all political
espionage. I think [Attorney General William Barr ] has gotten to the bottom of it."
"
SO, Patrick Byrne the Deep State tool is back with another bombshell?
What happened to the last bombshell?
ALL Byrne has done so far is get in bed with the FBI / DOJ Russiagate team and get a
Russian woman he was ckufing sent to prison and deported.
MadameDeficit , 2 hours ago
It's definitely a strange situation and relevant in terms of Byrne's potential
motivation, but who she was working for is the most important question.
The whole thing reeks of Deep State entrapment so...I'll give him the benefit of the
doubt for now.
Misesmissesme , 7 hours ago
So sad, that with all this evidence, a private citizen has to go to these lengths
because Barr and Wray are so far in the pockets of the deep state.
"There are many questions that are currently unanswered but there is one fact:
IF military personnel were killed by the CIA,
THEN the civil war between the people, the Deep State (and by extension, Russia, China
& Iran) has started."
Doom Porn Star , 7 hours ago
Patrick Byrne wasn't a free agent when he helped the FBI send Russian guns rights
activist Maria Butina to prison as part of the RussiaGate hysteria that was initiated by
Hillary Clinton to discredit and villainize Trump.
littlewing , 7 hours ago
Barr is a Bushie.
Go watch the Bush Sr. funeral again and the cards they got during.
Watch Biden get a card too, because the Bush Dynasty was both parties.
Clinton, Obama were also part of it.
Carter wondering why he didn't get one, turns to his wife and she didn't get one.
Notice Pence gets a card too, he is part of it.
Notice **** Cheney very aware of what is happening.
Dave Janda who worked in GHW Bush admin said he was a really bad guy and was involved in
human trafficking too.
Sick Monkey , 6 hours ago
The boards on these machines are quite simple like a phone. They were reset asap along
with any server data.
Nothing to see here unless operators are complete idiots. You need one of the boards to
check for wireless device maybe but I doubt it.
One of Gulliani's witnesses said he witnessed usb dives inserted 24 times without proper
chain of custody.
That's about as close as anyone will get to anything useful on the hardware.
Son of Loki , 7 hours ago
Dominion execs testified in Congress twice their machines could easily be hacked. Given
the data we have so far, there is zero probability that Biden won with legal votes.
Someone Else , 6 hours ago
This is all catching on like wild fire for many people. Sadly not for many others. If
you watch MSM (if you must) they still preface everything with "without evidence" and
"baseless". We know that simply isn't the case but a lot of people who hear this enough
believe it.
This is sewing discord between us who know and those kept in the dark. And its going to
get real ugly. It's a crime what the MSM is doing. Almost like programming mindless
soldiers with the WRONG program.
Doom Porn Star , 7 hours ago
Patrick Byrne, former CEO of Overstock.com , is an FBI stooge. He set up Maria Butina as
part of the RussiaGate disinfo campaign.
Leftsmasher , 6 hours ago
570,000 Pennsylvania votes For Biden in two hours in the early morning is not "slyly"
when the machines count 3000 per hour.
Ceickets feom Barr, busy getting ready for his next gig.
ze_vodka , 4 hours ago
At this point, we all need to realize that the election was entirely fake... and that
they are never going to let the fraud be pulled back.
There are two choices left:
1. Accept their dystopian future for us Deplorables (across the globe, not just the
USA)
2. Start doing something about it... start small and locally.
Onthebeach6 , 7 hours ago
The IT evidence is now overwhelming and I imagine it will be explained in detail to each
of the Legislatures.
If Biden stood down now it might save the Democrats but I doubt Xi would contemplate the
suggestion.
johnny two shoes , 7 hours ago
Of course that daily beast article frames it differently-
Former Overstock.com CEO Patrick
Byrne left behind a cloud of confusion when he
resigned in 2019 from the internet retailer he'd founded after panicking investors with
his bizarre claims that he had romanced a Russian agent at the behest of "Men in Black"
working for the United States government.
Now he's back...
but it's noteworthy that the narrative has been breached at the daily beast- that Trump
might be able to prove fraud.
philipat , 6 hours ago
It's a bit late for hackers isn't it? The machines are already off-line and probably
already wiped in most cases ('in compliance with standard operating procedures").
MAYBE, the CIA machines seized in the DOD raids in Frankfurt and Barcelona might confirm
"intervention" but we're running out of time. We'll see. Very soon.
philipat , 6 hours ago
He's also dodgier than a 3 Dollar Bill and has a VERY chequered past with allegations of
CIA involvement. It should be of concern that he is involved/
SurfingUSA , 7 hours ago
You know who could SERIOUSLY use a donation, since Matt Braynard also seems well-funded,
as well as Sidney Powell. Is Right Side Broadcasting, the ONLY outfit that is covering the
PA & AZ Legislative hearings.
We need an accurate, trustworthy voting system, no matter whether both "major" parties
are a fake uniparty and both candidates suck.
ReadyForHillary , 7 hours ago
And all results must be open to full audit by independent parties. Otherwise, no
deal.
Machines, code, ballots, signatures, everything. Individuals should be able to go online
and check that their vote (or lack thereof) is accurate.
B52Minot , 7 hours ago
I am surprised as others about the silence of Barr....and Durham....two folks who should
be all over this sorted and corrupt elections in which the Dem-China folks STOLE the
election....and the evidence is THERE yet the Feds are so SO silent......makes no
sense...and even Trump is wonder where they are when these folks work for HIM. Either Trump
is play acting and the Barr/Durham folks are presenting something HUGE or their sense of
defending our Republic and Constitution from these thieves is beyond distorted...it would
be so SO un-Patriotic and un-American......Either they are silent doing God's work to
defend this Country(and will show it soon) or they truly have lost their faith in this
Great Nation.
Doom Porn Star , 35 minutes ago
I'm quite familiar with DeepCapture.
Byrne has been kvetching about Overstock being being the target of naked short selling
and such for years. Old news. He's supposed to have plenty of money. I guess they didn't
short his stack or he figured out how to hedge his position.
IMO, the guy is limited hangout or diversion/disinfo.
He quarterbacks for the swamp. Then he doesn't?
Known for running a successful honeypot trap for the Deep State.
Walking around with almost as much money as Jeffery Epstein?
The United States' election victory of Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden has yet to
be officially confirmed. That requires the 500-plus Electoral College comprising the 50 federal
states to cast the final vote when the constitutional body meets on December 14. Biden holds a
commanding lead of over 300 delegates in the Electoral College, more than 70 above Donald
Trump's quota and decisively more than the 270 threshold required for election to the White
House.
Nonetheless, already one thing is indisputably clear. Biden's nominal victory from the
popular vote tallies is glaring proof that Russia did not interfere in the American
presidential ballot. Not in 2020. And not, we may discern, in 2016, nor in any other election.
Yet the silence in US media over this obvious conclusion is deafening.
Four years of frenetic and unsubstantiated allegations of "Russian interference" have
disappeared overnight, it seems. Poof! Gone! As if by a magic conjuring trick. Now you see it,
now you don't, so to speak.
The New York Times has declared the recent
presidential contest a "great election.. a resounding success free of fraud". The Department of
Homeland Security pronounced the election to be the "most secure in American history." Other US
media outlets have jettisoned supposed political neutrality and can barely contain their
elation at Biden's electoral victory.
But hold on a moment. In the months and weeks leading up to the November election, there was
a fever pitch in US media among politicians, national security chiefs, pundits and anonymous
intelligence sources that Russia was allegedly stepping up "interference efforts" to get Trump
re-elected. Those evidence-free claims were predicated on the equally absurd assertion that
Trump was a Manchurian candidate for the Kremlin. That "Russiagate" fable was first spun in
2016 and for the past four years elaborated into a tangled web to "explain" how a maverick
former reality TV star had been elected to the White House.
Suddenly, however, the Democrats and supportive US media are now asserting that the voting
process was impeccable and unblemished by any malfeasance. Of course they would say that in
order to bolster legitimacy of Biden's win against the Republican White House incumbent Donald
Trump. But the thundering takeaway which the US political class and media are bizarrely
ignoring is that Russia did not interfere not in the 2020 race nor in any other election.
Russia has always categorically said it is not meddling in US politics and its electoral
process. Turns out that Russia is de facto vindicated in its protestations against American
slander.
The "Russiagate" nonsense was hatched by Democrats, their supportive media and intelligence
agencies because they could not come to terms with the reality of why Trump beat the then
establishment-ordained candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. Could it have been because Clinton
and the Democrat party was repudiated by popular sentiment due to perceived corruption and
overseas wars? No, another "explanation" had to be found. And the US political establishment
came up with the "Russian interference" narrative.
No matter that the Mueller investigation found after 22 months of probing and hundreds of
millions of taxpayer-dollars spent that there was no evidence of "Russia collusion" with the
Trump campaign. Nevertheless, Mueller and the Democrats, their media and intelligence backers,
persisted in the spurious notion that Russia meddled in the 2016 election and, allegedly, was
continuing to meddle, purportedly with even more sophisticated, nefarious techniques.
How can US politicians, intelligence officials and media credibly claim that Russia
interfered in 2016 and in mid-term congressional elections in 2018, but now in 2020 it
evidently did not? The most logical explanation is simply that Russia never did.
Four years of hysterical American accusations against Russia have transpired to just that:
bogus hysteria. US politicians, media and so-called intelligence gurus should be held to
account for fabricating what is perhaps the biggest hoax ever played on the American
public.
Though, one can be sure that they won't be held accountable in a formal way. Venal power
doesn't work like that. And the US political system has built-in layers of self-protection for
the political class never to be prosecuted. But in an informal no less real way, the system is
being held to account by the wider public who are increasingly holding it in contempt and
distrust. The political class and their plaything media are losing the moral authority to
govern. This goes beyond mere Trump Derangement Syndrome. The systematic lying and deception
over alleged Russian interference perpetrated on such a grand scale has fatally damaged the
credibility of American institutions. Not just in the US, but around the world too.
Equally lamentable is the corrosive, damaging effect that the bogus hysteria has had on
bilateral US-Russia relations and international tensions. Relations are at a dangerous all time
low comparable to the depth of the Cold War. This has in turn sabotaged diplomatic efforts to
strengthen arms controls and global security. The anti-Russia hysteria has led to the US
abandonment of key nuclear weapons treaties, the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty
and soon the New START.
The Russophobia that has been whipped up as a political weapon against Trump over the past
four years is not something that can be easily put aside. It has engendered deep-seated
hostility against Russia. During the presidential debates, Joe Biden vowed that the would take
a tough stand against Russia for "interfering" in US politics. The incoming administration is
being mentally held hostage by its own Russophobia which was cultivated on entirely false
grounds.
It is disturbing how the US nation has been dragged into an obsession about alleged Russian
malign activities, an obsession which turns out to be a mirage. Not for the first time either.
Recall the Cold War Red Scares and McCarthyite witch-hunts which poisoned American society.
The implications are daunting. How can bilateral relations with Russia be restored? How can
an intelligent dialogue be conducted with a nation whose leaders are so self-deluded and
irrational?
Moreover, this is a nation whose leaders presume to have the prerogative to use overwhelming
military force whenever they deem so. It is not unlike the driver of a juggernaut vehicle on a
precipice who is hurtling along while out of his brain on misconceptions.
It seems that most of the information provided by Sidney Powell on Dominion voting machines
in the press conference on Nov 19 was provided by Patrick Byrne and a team of hackers he had
assembled.
Patrick Byrne is straight out of a novel. Clever, gutsy, rich, ready to take on the powers
that be, but there's a loose screw or two at the same time as something very genuine.
When, some years ago, I was researching short selling and in particular naked short selling
(when you sell masses of shares that do not exist) I came across a website called deep capture.
Patrick's company Overstock had been hit by a massive attack of naked short selling by dodgy
hedge funds and the share price crashed. Patrick was furious and was determined to get to the
bottom of what had happened.
This time he assembled a team of investigative journalists and they went to work. On
deepcapture there was a short analysis of a hedge fund attack on a Spanish company –
Afinsa – which I had been investigating in some depth and the conclusions coincided with
mine. This earned my respect and trust. But the site started to become a bit unhinged and wild
claims started to be made about Russian mafias infiltrating Wall Street, as if Patrick was
trying to ingratiate himself into the intelligence community. And the whole thing just ground
to a halt as far as I can remember. But he provided the most in depth study of naked short
selling, naming the names, that I have ever found.
So to judge from Patrick's MO the claims about the "hackability" of Dominion voting machines
will be correct. The claims about Venezuela and Chavez using them less so. 8 -1 Reply
Researcher , Nov 26, 2020 5:22 PM Reply to
Molinos
Lol
Patrick Byrne is part of the cryptocracy. He was involved in the Maria Butina set up and
the faux Russiagate plot.
The naked shorting lawsuit was to give him credibility as opposition against the Wall
St corruption and to promote blockchain, something which the NSA created with Bitcoin after
it probably stole the idea from the patent office that SERCO control.
More smoke and mirrors to confuse the dumb public, just like everything the cryptocracy
control, including the fake election and faux government.
If you believe Patrick Byrne is for real,
there's some swamp land you can purchase ahead of the IMF seizing it back from you by
force.
Molinos , Nov 26, 2020 5:40 PM Reply to
Researcher
I beg to disagree, but unlike you I do so respectfully and as one who has dedicated years
researching the nefarious activities of hedge funds for a PHD. So I know what I am talking
about when I say deep capture was a very valuable resource and the only other people on the
planet (that I know of) who were researching this subject from a critical point of view at
that time.
Researcher , Nov 26, 2020 8:16 PM Reply to
Molinos
Rolling Stone and Taibbi are printing the same lies about Russiagate that have already
been disproven when it was shown years ago that Hakluyt operatives connected to Trump and the
cryptocracy in a global psy-op co-ordinated through the US, Australia, Russia and London were
behind the Russiagate plot which was obviously not even real in any way and as fake as the
impeachment that resulted from Ukraine. or the fake investigation by Mueller who was also
involved in 9-11. And Comey who sits on the board of multiple cryptocracy front
companies.
Just another unbelievable farce for faux political drama in the media to create the
appearance of faux enmity to get out the vote and make it appear that the Deep State is out
to get Trump, King of the Swamp.
An absolute joke. Believe any fairy tale you like but don't pretend that naked shorting
isn't happening everyday because millions know the markets are rigged, the indices aren't
real, there's trillions in fake financial products floating around, including bonds, stocks
and commodities, and the central bankers own the Fed and the Treasury, The IRS, Cede &
Co, DTCC, retail banks, and all the exchanges. Just like they own and control the major
portion of the 1,000 corporations which are members of the IMF's new special drawing rights
global digital currency.
I was investigating HFT, front running and naked shorting pre 2008.
Molinos , Nov 26, 2020 9:19 PM Reply to
Researcher
Researcher,
I am glad you were researching naked shorting pre-2008 and I would have consulted you if I
had known. When did I say naked shorting is not happening every day? What I am saying is that
Patrick Byrne is a bit of a maverick and I guess I chucked the Rolling Stone in to present a
bit of a drama to OffGuardian readers to lighten up their and my gloomy night. Don't be so
serious and preachy because it detracts from a lot of the good points you make.
Researcher , Nov 26, 2020 11:40 PM Reply to
Molinos
He's a liar and a phony. He already admitted on his blog that he lied and may have set up
Butina. He admitted that Roger Stone offered to back him in a political race.
Look at where Byrne went to College. He's 100% cryptocracy. They all are. We don't get to
hear about people that are not part of their closed circle of corruption. It was obvious his
lawsuit against JPM was to supply him some future credibility on the issue of Wall St
corruption. His company and many others just like them are massive money laundering
fronts.
I find it hard to believe that you fell for that low rent shtick. And then you hyped him
with terms like gutsy and maverick. You came off like his PR assistant.
And how you interpret my comments is your problem. There's so much trolling here and
unremitting bullshit, I don't have time to pander to people's misperceptions with delicately
worded critiques in case they misinterpret my mood. Especially if they are paid shills who
like to troll for fun using half a dozen names a day.
You can interpret my attitude as this and this only; one big eye roll at your fanboying
Patrick Byrne.
I read the Maria Butina story in Deep Capture, and was entertained. I think he held back a
lot, but it shows that he has played a role as some type of Deeper State asset.
You cannot assume that he is the sole source of Powell's evidence, in fact Dr. Krishna is
easily googled and has done extensive work with a team on the subject. There will be numerous
other less "peacock" type programmers and software engineers at Powell's disposal as
well.
Earlier this year, our friend and colleague
Stephen Cohen passed away. His contributions to the field of Russian, East European, and
Eurasian Studies will be felt for years to come. Professor Cohen was a historian, but his
legacy extends far beyond his scholarly work. Every year, the Stephen Cohen
Fellowship -- established on Professor Cohen's initiative and supported by Katrina vanden Heuvel
and the Kat Foundation -- funds the graduate education for master's students in the Department
of Russian & Slavic Studies at NYU. Professor Cohen has also helped enable doctoral
students to conduct dissertation research in Russia through the Cohen-Tucker Fellowship .
As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States, we give thanks to Stephen
Cohen for not only his work in the REEES field but for the generosity he, Katrina vanden
Heuvel, and the Kat Foundation have shown to budding Russia scholars. We honor him today by
publishing the testimonials of some of current and former students who have benefitted from
Cohen Fellowships.
Natasha Bluth (Cohen Fellowship)
The Stephen Cohen Fellowship enabled me to continue my studies of the former Soviet Union,
not only easing the financial burden of graduate school, but also providing the opportunity to
merge journalistic training with area studies, engage with a wide range of scholars and
regional specialists, and conduct field research in Ukraine. The support and encouragement
Stephen Cohen offered at our annual fellowship alumni dinners also inspired me to pursue a PhD
in sociology in order to explore post-Soviet civil society, nationalism, and gender from a
social-scientific perspective.
Michael Coates (Cohen-Tucker Fellowship)
During the 2018-19 academic year, I held a Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Fellowship, which I
used to fund over a year of archival research in Russia on the history of the Great Soviet
Encyclopedia. The fellowship allowed me to visit more than a dozen archives in Moscow and Saint
Petersburg, and to copy thousands of pages of original documents. Had I not been able to carry
out this archival work, I would not have been able to write my dissertation. The travel that
the Fellowship enabled was also personally significant to me, because I had never been to
Russia before I arrived in Moscow for my research year, even though I had already been studying
the country and its language for several years. It is one thing to read books about a
particular place, but actually experiencing life there first-hand is quite another, and has
been essential to the development of my understanding of the region. I am extremely grateful to
Prof. Cohen and Ms. vanden Heuvel for their generosity in funding the next generation of Russia
specialists.
Stephen F. Cohen performed a great service in the last four years as he relentlessly
refuted the great Russiagate hoax which not only distorted our political life but seriously
wounded US-Russia relations for years to come. That hoax is a threat to world peace and Prof.
Cohen from the very first saw through it. Both in his writings for The Nation and his near
weekly conversations with John Batchelor of ABC radio rebutted it clearly, eloquently and at
times with good humor. How very much he is missed.
"... If Trump's legal action against brazen election fraud to deny him a second term succeeds -- what's highly unlikely but possible -- will a phony DJT/Russia connection again make headline news? ..."
The scheme was cooked up by Obama/Biden regime Russophobes John Brennan, Hillary and the
DNC -- to smear Russia and discredit Trump at the same time.
It aimed to maintain and escalate US hostility toward the Russian Federation – for its
sovereign independence, advocacy for world peace, opposition to Washington's imperial agenda,
and having foiled its aim to transform Syria into another US vassal state.
It also relates to Sino/Russian unity – representing the only obstacle to Washington's
aim for unchallenged global dominance.
Probes by special counsel Robert Mueller, as well as House and Senate committees found no
evidence of Russian US meddling.
Nor did the US intelligence community. Claims otherwise without corroborating evidence were
and remain baseless.
In US criminal judicial proceedings, evidence beyond a reasonable doubt is required for
convictions.
Without it, fairly and impartially adjudicated cases would be dismissed.
Time and again, Russia was falsely accused of US election meddling, notably in the run-up to
Trump v. Hillary in 2016.
To this day, no credible evidence ever proved accusations because none exists.
The Russiagate hoax remains one of the most shameful political chapters in US history,
exceeding the worst of McCarthyism because despite its exposed Big Lies, it's still around.
Yet in 2018 testimony before House Intelligence Committee members, former Director of
National Intelligence James Clapper (2010 – 2017) said the following:
"I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was
plotting (or) conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election."
"I do not recall any instance when I had direct evidence of the content of" alleged Trump
team-Russia collusion.
Remarks like the above, along with failure of probes by Mueller, House and Senate members to
present evidence of Russian US election meddling should have ended the Russiagate witch-hunt
once and for all.
While largely dormant in the run-up to and aftermath of US Election 2020, it could resurface
any time in old or new form.
In following NYT reports on other issues, most recently with regard to Trump v.
Biden/Harris, I haven't seen a Russiagate report in its online editions for some time.
Belatedly I discovered an August 2020 mini-book-length article in the NYT Magazine
(online), a publication I don't follow.
It discusses a classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of various geopolitical
issues, this one prepared in July 2019.
The Times: "According to multiple officials who saw it, the document discussed Russia's
ongoing efforts to influence US elections: the 2020 presidential contest and 2024's as well
(sic)."
Its so-called "interest" is much the same as in other nations.
"Interest" has nothing to do with meddling. No credible evidence ever surfaced to show US
election interference by any nations.
It's in sharp contrast to credible evidence of US meddling in scores of elections abroad
throughout the post-WW II period and earlier.
According to "key judgments" of US intelligence officials, "Russia favored the current
president: Donald Trump," adding:
Ahead of the summer 2020 party national conventions, "Russia worked in support of the (Dem)
presidential candidate Bernie Sanders," said the Times, based on the NIE report.
It wasn't "genuine" support for Sanders, just an effort "to weaken that party and ultimately
help the current US president (sic)."
The Times: "Just as this article was going to press," the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (ODNI) claimed the following:
Moscow "is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former (Joe) Biden and what it
sees as an anti-Russia 'establishment (sic).' "
The ODNI accused Moscow of "sophisticated election-disrupting capabilities (sic)."
An unnamed intelligence community source familiar with the NIE was quoted, saying it's "100
percent reliable (sic)."
Left unexplained by the Times was that from inception to the present day, Russiagate was and
remains a colossal hoax.
No evidence ever surfaced to suggest Kremlin US election meddling, nor by any other foreign
country.
What the NIE allegedly called "100 percent reliable" defied reality. It's part of
longstanding Russia bashing.
In January 2017, a US intelligence community report titled "Assessing Russian Activities and
Intentions in Recent US Elections: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution" --
claiming Trump v. Hillary election meddling -- included no evidence proving it.
None existed then or now to present day.
When Vladimir Putin was asked if he wanted Trump to win in 2016 -- at a joint Helsinki,
Finland news conference with DJT in July 2018 -- he replied: "Yes, I did."
His preference for Trump over Hillary was unrelated to election meddling.
If other foreign leaders expressed a preference for one US presidential candidate over
another, the same logic holds.
One thing has nothing to do with the other. Implying otherwise is an act of deception, a
longstanding US intelligence community and Times specialty.
Trump was justifiably skeptical about accusations of Russian US election meddling that
favored him over Hillary in 2016 or over Biden/Harris this month.
According to the Times, Trump's objections to claims about alleged Russia US election
meddling "alarm(ed) the intelligence community."
Former acting CIA director/Hillary campaign advisor Michael Morell was quoted calling Trump
"an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation."
He's a political novice, geopolitical know-nothing, first ever US reality TV president.
He's no witting or unwitting Russian agent.
Separately, Morell defied reality, claiming:
Election 2016 was "the only time in American history when we've been attacked by a foreign
country and not come together as a nation," adding:
"In fact, it split us further apart."
"It was an inexpensive, relatively easy to carry out covert mission." It deepened our
divisions."
"I'm absolutely convinced that those Russian intelligence officers who put together and
managed the attack on our democracy (sic) in 2016 all received medals personally from
Vladimir Putin (sic)."
The above claims and others about a DJT/Russia connection et al are pure rubbish.
The lengthy Times magazine piece was all about smearing Russia, falsely claiming Kremlin US
election meddling, and demeaning Trump for defeating media darling Hillary.
No evidence was included to back any of the above claims. None exists.
In the run-up to and aftermath of US election 2020, Russiagate simmers largely below the
surface.
If Trump's legal action against brazen election fraud to deny him a second term succeeds --
what's highly unlikely but possible -- will a phony DJT/Russia connection again make headline
news?
Will there be claims of Kremlin involvement in backing litigation to discredit
Biden/Harris?
No matter how often the Russiagate Big Lie was debunked before, it may never die.
It may be around as long as the Russian Federation and China remain Washington's favorite
national security threats.
Real ones don't exist so they're invented as pretexts to advance US imperial interests.
*
Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email
lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.
Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected] . He is a Research
Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for
Hegemony Risks WW III."
"... Trump and Giuliani are vulgar and buffoonish, but they play the same slimy game as their Democratic opponents. The Republicans scapegoat the deep state, communists and now, bizarrely, Venezuela; the Democrats scapegoat Russia. The widening disconnect from reality by the ruling elite is intended to mask their complicity in the seizure of power by predatory global corporations and billionaires. ..."
"... Silicon Valley billionaires, including Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, donated more than $100 million to a Democratic super PAC that created a torrent of anti-Trump TV ads in the final weeks of the campaign to elect Biden. The heavy infusion of corporate money to support Biden wasn't done to protect democracy. It was done because these corporations and billionaires know a Biden administration will serve their interests. ..."
"... Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN during this campaign that Russian disinformation efforts are "more problematic" than in 2016. He warned that "this time around, the Russians have decided to cultivate U.S. citizens as assets. They are attempting to try to spread their propaganda in the mainstream media." ..."
"... This will be the official mantra of the Democratic Party, a vicious redbaiting campaign without actual reds, especially as the country spirals out of control. The reason I have a show on Russia-funded RT America ..."
"... Voice of America ..."
"... World Socialist Web Site, ..."
"... We let these companies get this monopolistic share of the distribution system. Now they're exercising that power. ..."
"... In the Soviet Union the truth was passed, often hand to hand, in underground samizdat documents, clandestine copies of news and literature banned by the state. The truth will endure. It will be heard by those who seek it out. It will expose the mendacity of the powerful, however hard it will be to obtain. Despotisms fear the truth. They know it is a mortal threat. If we remain determined to live in truth, no matter the cost, we have a chance. ..."
40
Comments on Chris Hedges: The Ruling Elite's War on Truth American political leaders
display a widening disconnect from reality intended to mask their complicity in the seizure of
power by global corporations and billionaires. By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost
Joe Biden's victory instantly obliterated the Democratic Party's longstanding charge that
Russia was hijacking and compromising US elections. The Biden victory, the Democratic Party
leaders and their courtiers in the media now insist, is evidence that the democratic process is
strong and untainted, that the system works. The elections ratified the will of the people.
But imagine if Donald Trump had been reelected. Would the Democrats and pundits at The New
York Time s , CNN and MSNBC pay homage to a fair electoral process? Or, having spent
four years trying to impugn the integrity of the 2016 presidential race, would they once again
haul out the blunt instrument of Russian interference to paint Trump as Vladimir Putin's
Manchurian candidate?
Trump and Giuliani are vulgar and buffoonish, but they play the same slimy game as their
Democratic opponents. The Republicans scapegoat the deep state, communists and now, bizarrely,
Venezuela; the Democrats scapegoat Russia. The widening disconnect from reality by the ruling
elite is intended to mask their complicity in the seizure of power by predatory global
corporations and billionaires.
... ... ...
The two warring factions within the ruling elite, which fight primarily over the spoils of
power while abjectly serving corporate interests, peddle alternative realities. If the deep
state and Venezuelan socialists or Russia intelligence operatives are pulling the strings no
one in power is accountable for the rage and alienation caused by the social inequality, the
unassailability of corporate power, the legalized bribery that defines our political process,
the endless wars, austerity and de-industrialization. The social breakdown is, instead, the
fault of shadowy phantom enemies manipulating groups such as Black Lives Matters or the Green
Party.
"The people who run this country have run out of workable myths with which to distract the
public, and in a moment of extreme crisis have chosen to stoke civil war and defame the rest of
us – black and white – rather than admit to a generation of corruption, betrayal,
and mismanagement," Matt Taibbi writes.
These fictional narratives are dangerous. They erode the credibility of democratic
institutions and electoral politics. They posit that news and facts are no longer true or
false. Information is accepted or discarded based on whether it hurts or promotes one faction
over another. While outlets such as Fox News have always existed as an arm of the Republican
Party, this partisanship has now infected nearly all news organizations, including publications
such as The New York Times and The Washington Post , along with the major tech
platforms that disseminate information and news. A fragmented public with no common narrative
believes whatever it wants to believe.
... ... ...
The flagrant partisanship and discrediting of truth across the political spectrum are
swiftly fueling the rise of an authoritarian state. The credibility of democratic institutions
and electoral politics, already deeply corrupted by PACs, the electoral college, lobbyists, the
disenfranchisement of third-party candidates, gerrymandering and voter suppression, is being
eviscerated.
Silicon Valley billionaires, including Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and ex-Google
CEO Eric Schmidt, donated more than $100 million to a Democratic super PAC that created a
torrent of anti-Trump TV ads in the final weeks of the campaign to elect Biden. The heavy
infusion of corporate money to support Biden wasn't done to protect democracy. It was done
because these corporations and billionaires know a Biden administration will serve their
interests.
The press, meanwhile, has largely given up on journalism. It has retreated into competing
echo chambers that only speak to true believers. This catering exclusively to one demographic,
which it sets against another demographic, is commercially profitable. But it also guarantees
the balkanization of the United States and edges us closer and closer to fratricide.
When Trump leaves the White House millions of his enraged supports, hermetically sealed
inside hyperventilating media platforms that feed back to them their rage and hate, will see
the vote as fraudulent, the political system as rigged, and the establishment press as
propaganda. They will target, I fear, through violence, the Democratic Party politicians,
mainstream media outlets and those they demonize as conspiratorial members of the deep state,
such as Dr. Anthony Fauci. The Democratic Party is as much to blame for this disintegration as
Trump and the Republican Party.
The election of Biden is also very bad news for journalists such as Matt Taibbi, Glen Ford,
Margaret Kimberley, Glenn Greenwald, Jeffrey St. Clair or Robert Scheer who refuse to be
courtiers to the ruling elites. Journalists that do not spew the approved narrative of the
right-wing, or, alternatively, the approved narrative of the Democratic Party, have a
credibility the ruling elite fears.
The worse things get – and they will get worse as the pandemic leaves hundreds of
thousands dead and thrusts millions of Americans into severe economic distress –the more
those who seek to hold the ruling elites, and in particular the Democratic Party, accountable
will be targeted and censored in ways familiar to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, now in a London
prison and facing possible extradition to the United States and life imprisonment.
Barack Obama's assault on civil liberties, which included the repeated misuse of the
Espionage Act to prosecute whistleblowers, the passage of Section 1021 of the National Defense
Authorization Act (NDAA) to permit the military to act as a domestic police force and the
ordering of the assassination of U.S. citizens deemed to be terrorists in Yemen, was far worse
than those of George W. Bush. Biden's assault on civil liberties, I suspect, will surpass those
of the Obama administration.
The censorship was heavy handed during the campaign. Digital media platforms, including
Google, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, along with the establishment press worked shamelessly as
propaganda arms for the Biden campaign. They were determined not to make the "mistake" they
made in 2016 when they reported on the damaging emails, released by WikiLeaks, from Hillary
Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta. Although the emails were genuine, papers such as The
New York Times routinely refer to the Podesta emails as "disinformation." This, no doubt,
pleases its readership, 91 percent of whom identify as Democrats according to the Pew Research
Center. But it is another example of journalistic malfeasance.
Following the election of Trump, the media outlets that cater to a Democratic Party
readership made amends. The New York Times was one of the principal platforms that amplified
Russiagate conspiracies, most of which turned out to be false. At the same time, the paper
largely ignored the plight of the disposed working class that supported Trump. When the
Russiagate story collapsed, the paper pivoted to focus on race, embodied in the 1619 Project.
The root cause of social disintegration -- the neoliberal order, austerity and
deindustrialization -- was ignored since naming it would alienate the paper's corporate
advertisers and the elites on whom the paper depends for access.
Once the 2020 election started, The New York Times and other mainstream outlets censored and
discredited information that could hurt Biden, including a tape of Joe Biden speaking with
former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, which appears to be authentic. They gave
credibility to any rumor, however spurious, which was unfavorable to Trump. Twitter and
Facebook blocked access to a New York Post story about the emails allegedly found on Hunter
Biden's discarded laptop.
Twitter locked the New York Post out of its own account for over a week. Glenn Greenwald,
whose article on Hunter Biden was censored by his editors at The Intercept, which he helped
found, resigned. He released the email exchanges with his editors over his article. Ignoring
the textual evidence of censorship, editors and writers at The Intercept engaged in a public
campaign of character assassination against Greenwald. This sordid behavior by self-identified
progressive journalists is a page out of the Trump playbook and a sad commentary on the
collapse of journalistic integrity.
The censorship and manipulation of information was honed and perfected against WikiLeaks.
When WikiLeaks tries to release information, it is hit with botnets or distributed denial of
service attacks. Malware attacks WikiLeaks' domain and website. The WikiLeaks site is
routinely shut down or unable to serve its content to its readers. Attempts by WikiLeaks to
hold press conferences see the audio distorted and the visual images corrupted. Links to
WikiLeaks events are delayed or cut. Algorithms block the dissemination of WikiLeaks content.
Hosting services, including Amazon, removed WikiLeaks from its servers. Julian Assange, after
releasing the Iraqi war logs, saw his bank accounts and credit cards frozen. WikiLeaks' PayPal
accounts were disabled to cut off donations. The Freedom of the Press Foundation in December
2017 closed down the anonymous funding channel to WikiLeaks which was set up to protect the
anonymity of donors. A well-orchestrated smear campaign against Assange was amplified and given
credibility by the mass media and filmmakers such as Alex Gibney. Assange and WikiLeaks were
first. We are next.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN during this campaign that Russian
disinformation efforts are "more problematic" than in 2016. He warned that "this time around,
the Russians have decided to cultivate U.S. citizens as assets. They are attempting to try to
spread their propaganda in the mainstream media."
This will be the official mantra of the Democratic Party, a vicious redbaiting campaign
without actual reds, especially as the country spirals out of control. The reason I have a show
on Russia-funded RT America is the same reason Vaclav Havel could only be heard on the
US-funded Voice of America during the communist control of Czechoslovakia. I did not
choose to leave the mainstream media. I was pushed out. And once anyone is pushed out, the
ruling elite is relentless about discrediting the few platforms left willing to give them, and
the issues they raise, a hearing.
"If the problem is 'American citizens' being cultivated as 'assets' trying to put
'interference' in the mainstream media, the logical next step is to start asking Internet
platforms to shut down accounts belonging to any American journalist with the temerity to
report material leaked by foreigners (the wrong foreigners, of course – it will continue
to be okay to report things like the 'black ledger')," writes Taibbi , who has done some of the best reporting on
the emerging censorship. "From Fox or the Daily Caller on the right
, to left-leaning outlets like Consortium or the World Socialist Web
Site, to writers like me even – we're all now clearly in range of new speech
restrictions, even if we stick to long-ago-established factual standards."
Taibbi argues that the precedent for overt censorship took place when the major digital
platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Google, Spotify, YouTube – in a coordinated move
blacklisted the right-wing talk show host Alex Jones.
"Liberal America cheered," Taibbi told me when I interviewed him for my show, " On Contact ":
They said 'Well this is a noxious figure. This is a great thing. Finally, someone's taking
action.' What they didn't realize is that we were trading an old system of speech regulation
for a new one without any public discussion. You and I were raised in a system where you got
punished for speech if you committed libel or slander or if there was imminent incitement to
lawless action, right? That was the standard that the Supreme Court set, but that was done
through litigation. There was an open process where you had a chance to rebut charges. That
is all gone now.
Now, basically there's a handful of these tech distribution platforms that control how
people get their media.
They've been pressured by the Senate, which has called all of their CEOs in, and basically
ordered them, 'We need you to come up with a plan to prevent the sowing of discord and
spreading of misinformation.' This has finally come into fruition. You see a major reputable
news organization like the New York Post -- with a 200-year history -- locked out of its own
Twitter account.
The story [Hunter Biden's emails] has not been disproven. It's not disinformation or
misinformation. It's been suppressed as it would be suppressed in a Third World country. It's
a remarkable historic moment. The danger is that we end up with a one-party informational
system. There's going to be approved dialogue and unapproved dialogue that you can only get
through certain fringe avenues. That's the problem. We let these companies get this
monopolistic share of the distribution system. Now they're exercising that power.
In the Soviet Union the truth was passed, often hand to hand, in underground samizdat
documents, clandestine copies of news and literature banned by the state. The truth will
endure. It will be heard by those who seek it out. It will expose the mendacity of the
powerful, however hard it will be to obtain. Despotisms fear the truth. They know it is a
mortal threat. If we remain determined to live in truth, no matter the cost, we have a
chance.
Chris Hedges Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who
was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years forThe New York Times,where he
served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously
worked overseas forThe Dallas Morning News,The Christian Science
Monitor, and NPR. He is the host of the Emmy Award-nominated RT America showOn Contact.paul eastonNOVEMBER
23, 2020 AT 10:28 AM
It seems like the masters are just as deluded as the slaves. But the situation is
unsustainable. When many millions of slaves become homeless and hungry that reality will become
unavoidable. Who will they blame? Will they attack one another or will they revolt against the
system? Soon we will see. Carolyn L ZarembaNOVEMBER
24, 2020 AT 10:30 AM
I share only alternative media since I don't trust "mainstream" media one iota. I post
articles from the World Socialist Web Site, Consortium News, the Grayzone, Caitlin Johnstone
and others all the time. I am a socialist. I was only banned from posting on FB once, for
criticizing Israel. No surprise there. But I suspect FB of shadow banning, i.e., making it look
like you've posted an article but making it invisible to others in their news feeds. I first
learned of this practice from Craig Murray, another whose articles I post regularly. paul
eastonNOVEMBER
25, 2020 AT 1:35 AM
That is a chilling thought. I was shadow banned by medium.com a few years ago. It appeared
to me that my posts and comments went in, but no one else could see them. At least with them I
could tell something was wrong because I had regular conversations with some people. With FB I
don't know if you could ever be sure. R ZwarichNOVEMBER
25, 2020 AT 5:37 AM
Mr. Easton is indeed correct. It is VERY chilling, especially if people would imagine what
THEY would do, if they had our Enemy's morally depraved motivations, and if they had the
control our Enemy has over ALL our communications switches.
There are three basic types of mass communications. One to many. Many to one. And many to
many.
The Enemy has complete access to 'one to many' communications, and complete control over
anyone's else's access to same. Many to one communications are ineffective for intrinsic
reasons. Many to many communications offer myriad methods of cunningly creative control.
If we send out group emails, for example, in simple old-fashioned list-serves, they who
control the switches could easily 'filter', to determine who among addressees gets any message,
and who doesn't.
I used to write comments in the Boston Globe, the wholly owned plaything of a VERY weird old
Billionaire and his proud and beautiful young trophy wife. (Less than half his age, of course).
At first I thought the Globe NEVER censored. I could write anything, and it would post. Ahh but
then I learned that the Globe is a HEAVY handed censor, but was clever enough to put a 'cookie'
in your browser folder to tell their server to let you see your own comments, so you would not
even know that no one else could see them. It was 'stealth censorship'.
We should try to remember that these people are morally depraved, in their constant
paroxysms of raw Greed and raw Lust. No force exists any longer in our nation to restrain them.
Anything we can 'see' that they CAN do, we can pretty much figure they already DO do, or else
sooner or later will. Carol ShapiroNOVEMBER
23, 2020 AT 1:44 PM
While I don't agree with you, Chris Hedges, all the time, I believe you are our one. true.
journalist. Thankful for your honesty. Insight. Huge intellect. Global experience. I am an
"unenrolled" voter -- an extremely disillusioned former Bernie Sanders supporter. Truly, I feel
like he would have been our closest attempt to achieving a real "citizen government". What a
laughable term that is these days. Bernie never would have had a chance running as a Democrat
– absurd. He should have walked out of that convention four years ago and taken his
supporters with him. Oh wait- you said that. NeverNOVEMBER
23, 2020 AT 2:59 PM
Don't forget that the selective coverage by the NY Times in this campaign didn't start when
Biden became the nominee. Up to that time, the Times ran one or two articles on Sanders it
seems. Whatever the number, it was miniscule. They almost completely ignored one of the most
significant campaigns in modern history, thus helping to ensure it died on the vine. And when
they did cover it one or two times, it was always negative.
US liberals more fascist than conservatives–long observed by historians/social
philosophers
"amerikans do not converse as Tocqueville wrote, amerikans entertain each other. amerikans do
not exchange ideas, they exchange images. the problem w amerikans is not Orwellian–it is
huxleyan: amerikans love their oppression: Neil Postman Stephen MorrellNOVEMBER
24, 2020 AT 1:18 AM
Glenn Greenwald's points need stressing: (i) some of the most vociferous proponents of
online censorship are mainstream and 'alternative' 'journalists' who on repeated occasions have
egged on the carriers to shut sites, pages, accounts or postings; (ii) these 'journalists'
aren't just serving the narrowest band of oligarchic media empires in history, but also are
ivy-league bourgeois brats with no interest at all in exposing the injustices or malfeasance of
bourgeois society, unlike many journalists of the past; and (iii) that it's not in the
immediate material interests of the carriers to conduct the censorship, especially in the
longterm, since it consumes resources and lowers traffic and profits. They'd much rather the
government do it and for them to be compensated at taxpayer expense.
To avoid future potential government antitrust measures or nationalisation (heaven forbid!),
Zuckerberg and his ilk have been censoring in heavyhanded and hamfisted ways that aren't so
'autonomous' but for the moment at least can be traced along the usual Democrat-controlled
thinktank and CIA/FBI lines, which of course also are beyond public scrutiny. Despite the
prospects for freedom of reach (and reach is what it's really about) apparently growing dimmer
with each senate committee appearance by the carrier oligarchs, ways and means will be found to
circumvent their draconian measures. While alternative non-censoring platforms have yet to gain
significant traction, it likely won't take much for one to catch on, perhaps sparked by an
outrageous event of suppression, that turns Facebook, Twitter, etc, into museum pieces. One
might imagine, for instance, Wikileaks-style YouTube, Facebook, Twitter equivalents that act as
true carriers, purely machine-based and devoid of human interference, that precludes them
becoming the 'moral guardians' that Twitter, Facebook etc, are quickly metamorphising into.
As increasing swathes of the population appear not to be aligning within the bourgeoisie's
preset ideological 'tribal' boundaries, there's a certain schadenfreude in seeing the rulers in
dread of the truth getting out and spreading uncontrollably. Their tailored counter-narratives
simply are too enfeebled and slight to square with the hard reality that's hitting everyone,
from the most educated and brainwashed to the least. That ivy-league stenographers are being
pressed into the service of censorship gives some indication of the desperation of the rulers.
We all know, as do they but can never admit it publicly, that censorship and repression are
frank admissions that they've lost all 'arguments' for their very existence.
To an extent, Trump has been responsible for letting the genie out of the bottle, as the
first president probably since before Andrew Jackson to have failed, repeatedly, to put
lipstick on the racist, capitalist imperial pig. The efforts by the ruling class at censorship
and naked suppression of freedom of reach and of access to sources of truthful information will
only increase in desperation as their myth-making narratives become ever more unable to
rationalise a crisis that's they're beginning to see as intractable and endangering their
rule.
Easy question: Is it illegal to steal an election or not?
You would have to assume that it is no big deal based on the response to claims of
widespread fraud in the contest between President Trump and Joe Biden. Big Media says the
evidence just doesn't exist, and most Americans seem to be lost in a blue haze of blind
acceptance that whatever they are told by the talking heads on TV must be true.
This kind of unthinking obedience to authority is a frightening harbinger of an America that
is no longer a nation of laws, but rather a nation of edicts. You can already see that
unfolding in the sheep-like acceptance of COVID-19 restrictions that blatantly ignore the
Constitution. But if you dare do your own independent assessment of facts -- whether regarding
the efficacy of mask use in preventing spread of coronavirus or regarding the security of
electronic voting -- you will quickly come to a different conclusion than that which is
approved by Big Tech, Big Media and Big Money.
Unfortunately, most people don't take the time to do their own research. They simply believe
whatever is told to them. For those in thrall to the establishment media, that means they
believe that Trump's allegations of election fraud are "baseless." Remember, the media made
that declaration within hours of the election, long before any evidence had been presented in a
court of law and before analysis had begun on the raw vote totals. Once that narrative was
established, it didn't matter how many affidavits were presented, how many witnesses came
forward, or how much analysis suggested that the vote count may have been manipulated. The jury
of the American people had already been tainted by Big Media to believe the narrative that
Trump is a sore loser.
Don't forget, the mainstream media -- in the interests of public enlightenment (now known as
wokeness) -- have spent the past four years reporting as fact that the duly elected president
of the United States is a liar, a tax cheat, a Russian puppet, and a racist. In other words, he
is a con man who never should have been anywhere near the Oval Office in the first place. So
why would anyone now believe his claims that Democrats used phony mail ballots, vote-counting
software and foreign manipulation to steal the election? Most of the media is pretending that
there is not even a real story to report in what, if true, would be one of the gravest
constitutional crises in the history of our republic.
As Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said in his press conference Thursday, "The coverage of this
has been almost as dishonest as the scheme itself. The American people are entitled to know
this," he warned the press. "You don't have a right to keep it from them. You don't have a
right to lie about it."
But, the newsrooms at CNN and MSNBC are keeping it from the public. They refused to
even carry Giuliani's press conference laying out the evidence of election fraud. As for Fox
News, they covered it, and then put a reporter on the air to say the claims were "simply not
true" or "baseless." Clearly, we are not going to get the truth from the media. Has there been
even one reporter for a mainstream outlet such as the Washington Post asking questions about
the vulnerability of electronic voting systems to hacking or manipulation? Is any news
organization demanding that the Justice Department or FBI get to the bottom of the story?
The loss of a free and neutral press means that democracy cannot work even if its elections
were completely above board. The capacity of the people to self-govern is dependent on their
access to true and accurate information. Sadly, the opposite principle applies as well. When
journalism abandons objectivity in favor of an agenda, then the people are in the position of
cattle being led to slaughter.
Thomas Jefferson described the abuses of a free press in 1814 in a letter to his friend
Walter Jones:
"I deplore the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed and the malignity, the
vulgarity and the mendacious spirit of those who write for them These ordures are rapidly
depraving the public taste and lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information
and a curb on our functionaries, they have rendered themselves useless by forfeiting all title
to belief This has, in a great degree, been produced by the violence and malignity of party
spirit."
Ouch! Take that, New York Times! Take that, CNN!
Of course, it is just such a malign "party spirit" that informs almost all mainstream
journalism in the Age of Trump -- a spirit that is visible in the hostility towards Trump
himself, but also in the accommodation towards Democrats such as Joe Biden. Last Monday's Biden
press conference was a stunning abdication of responsibility by the media for its much-vaunted
role of "speaking truth to power" -- or at least asking tough questions.
Three of the first four queries were merely anti-Trump questions asked in a new way. Instead
of asking Trump "How do you justify your unprecedented attempt to obstruct and delay a smooth
transfer of power?" the reporters merely asked Biden what he thought about Trump's
"unprecedented attempt" blah blah blah. Then the next three questions were about COVID, which
after six months of campaigning, even Sleepy Joe Biden could answer with his eyes closed.
Isn't the media going to hold Biden accountable just like they claimed to hold Trump
accountable? Why not ask about the curious patterns of vote counting in Michigan, Pennsylvania,
Wisconsin and Georgia that make millions of people think Biden tried to steal the election?
Shouldn't he be asked to support a full investigation to prove his victory was legitimate? How
about a question about whether Hunter Biden will come out of hiding now that the election is
over? How about asking the "president-in-waiting" to condemn the BLM and antifa violence that
sent several innocent Trump supporters to the hospital two weeks ago?
How about our celebrity journalists celebrate their own crucial role as defenders of
democracy? If they don't want to "render themselves useless," they need to swear allegiance to
facts, wherever they lead, and not to one party. Or as Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana put it
more indelicately, "They have to be equal opportunity assholes."
But they aren't -- and sooner or later the American people will get tired of being
manipulated. Journalism is supposed to give an honest account of the facts so that people can
make up their own minds what they believe to be true. Propaganda, on the other hand, is a
dishonest attempt to persuade people not to examine the facts for themselves. Journalism starts
with facts and allows people to reach their own conclusion. Propaganda starts with a conclusion
and manipulates people into accepting it as fact. You can decide for yourself whether what we
have today is journalism or propaganda.
But the bottom line is this: Whether or not Donald Trump can prove his case in court should
be irrelevant to the job of the press. What honest reporters ought to recognize is the
significance of the allegation itself, the historical nature of the crime being alleged, and
the importance to the future of our republic that the case must be heard.
"... Once you've learned a bit more you realize it's not quite happening that way. Most mainstream news reporters are not really witting propagandists – those are to be found more in plutocrat-funded think tanks and other narrative management firms, and in the opaque government agencies which feed news media outlets information designed to advance their interests. The predominant reason mainstream news reporters say things that aren't true is because in order to be hired by mainstream news outlets, you need to jack your mind into a power-serving worldview that is not based in truth. ..."
"... Mainstream establishment orthodoxy is essentially a religion, as fake and power-serving as any other, and if you want to work in mainstream politics or media you need to demonstrate that you are a member of that religion. ..."
"... That's all you're ever seeing when you notice blue-checkmarked reporters tweeting in promotion of imperialist interests and status quo politics. They are not laboring under the delusion that they are saying anything new or insightful that a hundred other people aren't saying at the exact same time; they are signaling. ..."
By Caitlin Johnstone , an independent journalist based in Melbourne, Australia. Her
website is here and you can follow
her on Twitter @caitoz
People who are only just beginning to research what's wrong with the world often hold an
assumption that mainstream news reporters are just knowingly propagandizing people all the
time.
That they sit around scheming up ways to deceive their audiences into supporting war,
oligarchy and oppression for the benefit of their plutocratic masters.
Once you've learned a bit more you realize it's not quite happening that way. Most
mainstream news reporters are not really witting propagandists – those are to be found
more in plutocrat-funded think tanks and other narrative management firms, and in the opaque
government agencies which feed news media outlets information designed to advance their
interests. The predominant reason mainstream news reporters say things that aren't true is
because in order to be hired by mainstream news outlets, you need to jack your mind into a
power-serving worldview that is not based in truth.
A recent job listing for a New York
Times Russia Correspondent which was flagged by Russia-based
journalist Bryan MacDonald illustrates this dynamic perfectly. The listing reads as
follows:
"Vladimir Putin's Russia remains one of the biggest stories in the world.
It sends out hit squads armed with nerve agents against its enemies, most recently the
opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. It has its cyber agents sow chaos and disharmony in the West
to tarnish its democratic systems, while promoting its faux version of democracy. It has
deployed private military contractors around the globe to secretly spread its influence. At
home, its hospitals are filling up fast with Covid patients as its president hides out in his
villa.
If that sounds like a place you want to cover, then we have good news: We will have an
opening for a new correspondent as Andy Higgins takes over as our next Eastern Europe Bureau
Chief early next year."
Does this sound like the sort of job someone with a less than hostile attitude toward the
Russian government would apply to? Is it a job listing that indicates it might welcome someone
who sees mainstream Russia hysteria as cartoonish hyperbole designed to advance the
longstanding geostrategic interests of Western power structures against a government which has
long resisted bowing to the dictates of those power structures? Someone who voices skepticism
about the
plot hole - riddled
establishment narratives of Russian election meddling and
Novichok assassinations ? Someone who, as
Moon of Alabama
notes , might point out that Putin is in fact at work in the Kremlin right now and not "hiding
out" in a "villa" ?
Of course not. In order to get a job at the New York Times, you need to demonstrate that you
subscribe to the mainstream oligarchic imperialist worldview which forms the entirety of
Western mass media output. You need to demonstrate that you have been properly indoctrinated,
and that you can be guided into toeing the imperial line with simple
attaboys and tisk-tisks from your superiors rather than being explicitly told to knowingly
lie.
Because if they did tell you to knowingly lie to the public to advance the interests of the
powerful, that would be propaganda. And propaganda is what happens in evil backwards countries
like Russia.
Mainstream establishment orthodoxy is essentially a religion, as fake and power-serving as
any other, and if you want to work in mainstream politics or media you need to demonstrate that
you are a member of that religion.
That's all you're ever seeing when you notice blue-checkmarked reporters tweeting in
promotion of imperialist interests and status quo politics. They are not laboring under the
delusion that they are saying anything new or insightful that a hundred other people aren't
saying at the exact same time; they are signaling. They are letting current and prospective
peers and employers know, "I am a believer. I am a member of the faith." This way they
are ensured the continued advancement of their careers in mainstream news media.
This is why you have labels for anyone expressing skepticism of establishment narratives
like "conspiracy theorist," "useful idiot," "Russian asset" or "Assadist" ; the
powerful people who understand that whoever controls the narrative controls the world need
labels to separate the faithful from the heathens. It means the same thing as "heretic .
"
The fast and easy way to get rich and famous has always been to promote the interests of the
powerful. This is as true in every other sector as it is in media. For this reason, those who
pour their energy into criticizing existing power structures and shining a bright light on
their dynamics aren't likely to be living in fancy mansions or going to ritzy parties any time
soon, while those who do the opposite actually will. And yet when someone sets up a Substack or
a Patreon account to make criticizing the powerful their life's work, it is they who will get
called money-grubbing grifters by the propagandized.
The faces you see thrust onto screens by the plutocratic media are not spouting falsehoods
while being aware of their deception, any more than any preacher is knowingly lying when they
say you'll burn for eternity if you don't accept the gospel. Most of them believe everything they are saying ,
because they have been propagandized into becoming good acolytes and proselytizers of the
faith.
The most propagandized people on earth are those who are responsible for promulgating
propaganda.
Naughtylus 15 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 04:08 AM
Spot on article. Journalists in MSM media constantly brag about their independence,
impartiality, truthfulness, etc. and I always wanted to ask them how long they think they
would keep their job if they simply questioned the established narrative of their company.
People hired in the media these days are not hired for the job of informing or being
journalists, but to act as a mere transmission for opinion manipulation campaigns, devised by
those in real power circles.
KennethKeen 15 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 04:18 AM
Excellent explanation. I would add an additional method of climbing the career ladder. If you
do something criminal, that others in the system are aware of, then you can soar up the
ranks, as they are guaranteed the possibility of blackmailing you. That is how the house of
cards is held in place.
1justssayn 12 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 07:26 AM
Absolutely spot on. It applies to a lot of other occupations as well.
shadow1369 15 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 04:27 AM
The strange thing is that while not a single statement in the NYT summary was true of Russia,
they cvould all be applied to the us. I guess that is the point, applicants must be prepared
to simply substitute the Russia for the US whenever thery describe crimes against humanity.
So zero intelligence is required, but more importantly zero integrity either.
Fenianfromcork 12 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 07:47 AM
Sounds more like an add for joining the CIA.
Insulyn Fenianfromcork 9 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 10:11 AM
I wonder just how many who are hired either work for the CIA already or start working for the
CIA soon after? The add was possibly written with CIA direction. Embedded propagandists. The
ad just shows how journalism simply doesn't matter to the MSM, it's all narrative and spin.
Geo Graphy 12 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 07:50 AM
The fourth estate has let their ego override their common sense. They are not an elected
representation of any portion of the American or any other country's public. They are
employees of organizations that operate for profit. They do not have a public mandate to
provide their opinion as news. They are incapable of reporting news without slanting the view
they present. Since it is slanted, it is not news, it is garbage. What the media presents to
the public is pure propaganda made up by the staff and management of the so called news
organizations. If the fourth estate will not return to reporting the news, then they
rightfully belong on the trash heap of history.
PhillisStein 8 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 12:04 PM
'The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the
masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen
mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our
country.' - Edward Bernays In other words, democracy is a 'majority rules' model and, since,
in our current consciousness, you can fool most of the people most of the time, then
democracy is able to be easily manipulated, and thus is not true democracy. We cannot have
anything approaching civil society until we are able to exercise our free will with informed
consent, which requires objective information. Sadly, everything is based upon the 'victim'
model, which treats us as children - 'don't worry, we'll just do all your thinking for you
and just tell you what to think.'
bos000 11 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 08:23 AM
Propaganda for americans: "US army "heroes" are around the world to protect america,s freedom
and democracy", by killing innocents in other countries, when no one ever attack US.
Smythe_Mogg 7 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 12:38 PM
Perhaps journalists are not responsible for the content of propaganda but they are complicit
in its transmission. Journalism for the most part, if ever it was, is not a profession with
respect to practitioners upholding standards they refuse to deviate from. 'Hacks' working for
the popular press are commonly derided. These days it is those employed by 'broadsheet'
papers (and equivalent digital media) who truly merit opprobrium. The days when the Times
fielded gentlemen are long gone. Few independent thinkers are to be found among prominent
journalists. 'Broadsheet' decline has far more serious consequences than the worst the
popular press can do. The popular press always has catered for 'low brow' and 'middle brow'
readers; its lower reaches being little more than scandal sheets with titillating pictures.
These readers are not movers and shakers: they are followers. The educated class, nowadays
sadly depleted, relies on news outlets to be under editorial control capable of picking wheat
from amidst chaff of no consequence and seeking accurate reporting thereof. A concomitant is
choosing informed individuals to offer opinion pieces; top of this pile is the editorial
which at one time could shake government. Lack of a properly informed upper tier of the
population capable of challenging the self-styled political elite (and their owners) betokens
descent into oligarchy and thereby kakistocracy.
OneGenericUser Gatineau25deA 15 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 04:50 AM
I have a somewhat cliche' opinion. I don't care Americans want their country to rule the
world, I want the world to have a choice on wether they want America as a leader, and I bet
the majority of countries don't. If you're impose your "leadership" then you're not a leader,
you're a dictator.
Caitlin, when it comes to the real enemy of the Neocons and Neoliberals, Russia is the
real enemy, not China. You have to understand GLOBALIZATION. China is Part of the
Globalization project that started over 30 years ago. It's a complex parasitic relationship.
The Globalist elites in the US are working towards the "Great Reset" using the Coronavirus
pseudemic that started in China and use it as an excuse to move towards a society that will
resemble the totalitarian, repressive communist one like in China. A lot of our big
corporations are still doing great business there. However they are not in Russia. Russia was
kicked out of the G8 years ago, because they were not going to go along with the
Globalization project and the New World Order enslavement project of the G7 (without Russia
now). Trump was bad enough as a president, but he was not really part of the "Globalist
Club". I assure you Mr BIDEN is totally compromised by the NWO evil Globalists comprised of
the MIS, Transnational corporations & International Finance, and will try to act "tough"
with China, but this will be just a distraction. The US Shadow Government elites control him
totally, something they could not always do with Idiot Trump. Here's an example how they
worked with our "enemy" Communist China:
Gates, Fauci, CCP, Big Pharma, international Bankers, they have all colluded with the WHO
to create the Coronavirus "pseudemic".
(the NIH, under the direction of Dr. Fauci, sent $3.7 million to the Wuhan lab in 2014, and
then showered the Chinese scientists at this lab with another $3.7 million in 2019 to keep
their work going, the work of developing a bat virus that could attack people. Two
back-to-back 5-year projects that took $7.4 million out of taxpayer pockets and out of the
United States).
WHO is a globalist institution and so are the actors that are colluding with it.
How Joe Biden was 'recruited' to become agent of Chinese Communist party
While Joe was cutting deals with China, the Chinese Communist party was putting its hooks
into him:
You are wrong. You are a victim of the echo chamber dynamic described in this article.
China was temporarily courted to pull it away from the USSR and a bunch of plutocrats rode a
lot of wealth on that move, but it insists on its own sovereignty and an agenda to halt its
rise and roll back its power has long been in the works. Obama got the ball rolling on this
years ago. Biden will continue ramping up the same anti-China agendas as his predecessors
Trump and Obama, and I will document those escalations in this space. When that happens, you
need to make sure you re-evaluate your incorrect position based on the new evidence
presented. You should already be beginning that re-evaluation based on the information I just
gave you about his cabinet picks.
REALIST / NOVEMBER 24, 2020
Right. That's what the "Pivot to Asia" foreign policy during the Obomber administration
was all about. The US thought it was going to pick off as new allies all the countries
surrounding China and make them antagonists rather than partners with the Chinese and their
grand plans like the BRI. This was pretty much the same strategy that had been employed
against Russia and its former satellites and Soviet republics in Eastern Europe. Vietnam and
the Philippines were supposed to be the new Georgia and Ukraine set in the Orient.
~
Washington's oft repeated big trick is to dangle beaucoup bucks before the leaders of third
rate powers to get them to change allegiances and to play on age old resentments that small
regional powers often have against the local monolith like Russia or China. Ego-driven
lightweights like Poroshenko and Duterte are often susceptible to Yankee flattery that they
can wield some real power under the American umbrella.
~
So, Washington promises Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei etc that it will bring
"justice" and support their claims for sundry rocks in the South China Sea, especially the
ones fortified by China to ensure shipping lanes stay upon under potential aggression from
the Americans (who else would be a threat?)
~
That Washington would preach the usual bullshit about peace and harmony while actually
pursuing treachery and bloodshed is no surprise, however, one must snap to attention over the
ballsy evolution of its attitude of unconcern about who knows and understands this
disconnect. I don't doubt that Russia and China have always known that Washington is totally
untrustworthy. The Russians even coined a new term to describe this state of complete and
absolute American unreliability, which I don't remember because I don't speak their language.
But today, most of the American people also must know, they must know that America drafts
very real plans to eradicate the entire Chinese fleet off their own coast within a 72-hour
time frame all for pursuing nothing more than their own national interests. They know unless
they have been living under a rock for the entirety of the 21st century or have thoroughly
perfected the art of Orwellian Double Think.
It's competition for tribute. China has a long history of receiving tribute from all of
the world which it knew. This is Chinese world history. It's how Chinese rulers naturally see
the world. Russia is historically Byzantine (Greek) in it's diplomacy and somewhat
isolationist militarily, defending in depth, then counter-attacking decisively.
Our owners cannot get their new demotion worked out amongst themselves and plan to squeeze us
for blood and dominate the rest of the world, which is bigger and more complex than China and
Russia, and more flexible to adapt against the empire.
How much more hubris shall the world receive?
ANARCISSIE / NOVEMBER 24, 2020
I think the provocations against China, like those against Russia, have been largely
theatrical. There _was_ a plan to push the Russians out of the Caucasus, Ukraine, and Syria
in order to dominate the Black Sea and the Middle East, but the US had no intention of
applying serious military muscle to it (which could have led to a major war). The US actually
has no problems with Russia, and they have a common interest in keeping Muslims tamped down
in the Middle East. Likewise, the US will play at constructing a ring of hostile states
around China, but this is unlikely to succeed, and when it fails, the US plan is to retreat
to Australia and India, or possibly Africa if things go very badly. Again, the US has no
actual conflicts with China; the pseudo-war with China is 90% prolefeed. This was all laid
out pretty well by George Orwell in _1984_: 'We have always been at war with Eastasia,'
etc.
JP JUDE / NOVEMBER 24, 2020
I sort of agree with you, Ms Johnstone, but have you considered you might be in an echo
chamber? I say this because I read your article the same day I read about the new Asian trade
deal. It's huge with everyone, China to Australia in it. And, after I read about Xi wanting
to end global poverty; China has officially ended national poverty, and wants to end global
poverty. It kind of puts the altercations with India in a new light; they've long had a caste
system which is like class–which they're supposed to end but haven't, and reminds me of
the States being classless but not really. I think if you follow the money sotta speak, the
Americans have a real problem and a lot of the war propaganda is them trying to be relevant
to a world that has moved on. I don't know if it's anti-globalization but the thing about the
Americans going to war is the reality they're doing it for a buck. Weapons sales and all
that, just real war is now fought via technology. The Chinese, Russians even the Indians, can
fight that kind of war; the Americans can't as evidence by the proliferation of weapons and
number of friendly fire accidents demonstrates. They're all brawn in a more cerebral world. I
think the argument has changed.
"... Hate is the only thing that holds the American Empire together. Without its Two Minutes of Hate, America will break up apart into a million pieces. ..."
America desperately needs its Two Minutes of Hate against other countries like a meth
addict needs his next hit.
For Democrats and their ilk, Hate Russia was their unifying and
mobilizing ideology. For Republicans and their ilk, Hate China is their unifying and
mobilizing ideology.
Hate is the only thing that holds the American Empire together. Without its Two
Minutes of Hate, America will break up apart into a million pieces.
You can't find better smarter neocons to pursue the Full Spectrum Dominance Doctrine to the
total decimation of the standard of living of ordinary Americans ;-)
Since the 1990s, Flournoy and Blinken have steadily risen through the ranks of the
military-industrial complex, shuffling back and forth between the Pentagon and hawkish
think-tanks funded by the U.S. government, weapons companies, and oil giants.
Under Bill Clinton, Flournoy was the principal author of the 1996 Quadrinellial Defense
Review, the document that outlined the U.S. military's doctrine of permanent war – what
it called "full spectrum dominance."
Flournoy called for "unilateral use of military power" to ensure "uninhibited access to key
markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources."
... During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, Biden declared, "In my judgment, President
Bush is right to be concerned about Saddam Hussein's relentless pursuit of weapons of mass
destruction"
As Iraq was plunged into chaos and bloodshed, Flournoy was among the authors of a paper
titled "Progressive Internationalism" that called for a "smarter and better" style of permanent
war. The paper chastised the anti-war left and stated that "Democrats will maintain the world's
most capable and technologically advanced military, and we will not flinch from using it to
defend our interests anywhere in the world."
... In 2005, Flournoy signed onto a letter
from the neoconservative think tank Project for a New American Century, asking Congress to
"increase substantially the size of the active duty Army and Marine Corps (by) at least 25,000
troops each year over the next several years."
"... Greenwald earlier this week said NBC "has always existed to disseminate US government, CIA and corporate propaganda." ..."
"... NBC also helped the CIA sell the Iraq War on its Meet the Press program, and sister network MSNBC was "ground zero for mindless CIA stenography of the most unhinged Russiagate conspiracy theories," he said. ..."
"... The C.I.A. owns anyone of any significance in the media. -William Colby. Former Director of the CIA. In 1974, the Rockefeller Commission was established to investigate shennanigans carried out by the Agency. President Ford fired William Colby and replaced him with George Herbert Walker Bush. Why? Because Gerald Ford thought that Colby was being too honest with the Commission about CIA wrong doings. ..."
"... Interestingly, Gerald Ford was often referred to as "The CIA's Best Friend in The Senate", which would explain his old appointment to the Warren Commission. It was Ford who ordered JFK's bullet wound in the back to be raised six inches up to his neck, thus allowing Arlen Specter to float his "Magic bullet Theory" ..."
"... As is not generally known, Bush I was lifetime CIA and became I believe the first CIA President. There is a little known picture of a young Bush standing outside the Texas Book Depository on the day of the assassination. ..."
"... The CIA controls the media in subtle ways. Blacklists for instance. I have experience after one of my buddies fell for the spiel of an agent provocateur. Never trust anyone, always assume they could be CIA and assess what damage they can do to you (and your associates) before you interact with them. Misleading them would be best. ..."
"... As shocking as it may sound, Glenn is stating the obvious. Even AFP and Reuters are CIA mouthpieces. Look up Operation Mockingbird. Look up "propaganda multiplier" by the Swiss policy research. ..."
"... Interesting that nobody even tried to deny it, they just come up with the same line they used to attack Wikileaks for telling the truth: exposing this might put out operatives at risk. ..."
"... Perilous Environments because the CIA is probably manipulating another of its regimes change, to very undemocratically put someone they control into office. Surely you remember Poroshenko? ..."
"... Operation Mockingbird was a secret CIA effort to influence and control the American media. The first report of the program came in 1979 in the biography of Katharine Graham, the owner of the Washington Post, written by Deborah Davis. Davis wrote that the program was established by Frank Wisner, the director of the Office of Policy Coordination, a covert operations unit created under the National Security Council. ..."
"... Reporters who work for the CIA are not spies, because the CIA is a lying agency, not a spying agency. If a terrorist accuses you of being a CIA agent, you can honestly reply that the CIA is the terrorist's friend. ..."
"... The CIA wants the world to believe that China, Russia and Iran are the leading state sponsors of terrorism, and that those seeking the overthrow of Syria's Bashar al-Assad are freedom fighters, not terrorists... ..."
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald torched accusations that he endangered reporters by
saying NBC News spouts CIA propaganda, saying he only spoke of a well-known fact, and the
effort to shame him was "manipulative bulls**t."
"Profoundly sorry for endangering the lives of NBC executives and TV personalities by
spilling the extremely well-kept secret of their close working relationship with the CIA,"
Greenwald tweeted sarcastically on Saturday. His message showed a picture of a headline about
NBC's 2018 hiring of ex-CIA chief John Brennan as an NBC and MSNBC contributor.
Greenwald's retort came in reply to reporter Sulome Anderson, who accused him of endangering
journalists who work in places where any CIA affiliation is "life-threatening."Greenwald earlier this week said NBC "has always existed to disseminate US government, CIA
and corporate propaganda."
"This crosses a line," Anderson said. "Like some of his proteges, Glenn is
endangering journalists working in perilous environments by telling his massive following that
they are mouthpieces for US intelligence."
Greenwald said on Saturday that NBC has a "long-standing role" in spouting CIA
propaganda, as evidenced by its hiring of Ken Dilanian, who was accused of sharing stories with the CIA press
office prior to publication while working as a Los Angeles Times reporter. NBC also helped the
CIA sell the Iraq War on its Meet the Press program, and sister network MSNBC was "ground
zero for mindless CIA stenography of the most unhinged Russiagate conspiracy theories," he
said.
"If you don't want to be known as a CIA outpost, then don't be one," Greenwald
tweeted. He added that NBC hired "John Brennan, Ken Dilanian and every other operative puked
up by the security state. People already know."
Anderson has written at least
two opinion
pieces on Lebanon for NBC in recent months. She has been critical of Hezbollah, designated
a terrorist group by the US government, but also has interviewed some of its fighters.
Anderson, who said she is "morally opposed" to journalists working as intelligence
agents, may have good reason for her sensitivity about alleged CIA ties. Her parents were both
journalists who covered Lebanon's 15-year civil war, and she said her father was kidnapped by
terrorists.
"They tortured him again and again for years, calling him CIA," she said
Saturday on Twitter. "'I am not a spy,' he would scream. 'I am a reporter.' It never stopped
them."
Anderson acknowledged journalists being used as intelligence-agency assets, but said such
cases are rare. "Time and again, American hostages – journalists and otherwise –
have been falsely called spies, tortured and killed," she said. "I have been in many
situations where I've had to convince the very dangerous men I am with that I am not a spy. My
saving grace has always been that I am not."
Greenwald came to international fame by breaking the Edward Snowden NSA whistleblower story
in 2013. He later co-founded the Intercept but quit the outlet last month after saying editors
there suppressed his coverage of Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden.
fezzie035fezzm 19 hours ago 21 Nov, 2020 11:52 PM
The C.I.A. owns anyone of any significance in the media. -William Colby. Former Director of
the CIA. In 1974, the Rockefeller Commission was established to investigate shennanigans
carried out by the Agency. President Ford fired William Colby and replaced him with George
Herbert Walker Bush. Why? Because Gerald Ford thought that Colby was being too honest with
the Commission about CIA wrong doings.
Bush, as the new Director, stonewalled the hearings
and put the lid on any information coming out, which would explain why CIA Headquarters in
Langley was named after Bush. Colby is no longer among the living. Let's just say that he
didn't die from "natural causes".
Interestingly, Gerald Ford was often referred to as "The
CIA's Best Friend in The Senate", which would explain his old appointment to the Warren
Commission. It was Ford who ordered JFK's bullet wound in the back to be raised six inches up
to his neck, thus allowing Arlen Specter to float his "Magic bullet Theory"
JOHNCHUCKMAN fezzie035fezzm 1 hour ago 22 Nov, 2020 05:48 PM
Yes, Colby was an unusually frank man at times. He also told us about the ghastly Operation
Phoenix in Vietnam, a CIA run assassination scheme of village leaders and prominent men. They
killed 30 or 40 thousand people by sending in belly-crawling special forces guys to enter
villages at night and cut throats.
As is not generally known, Bush I was lifetime CIA and
became I believe the first CIA President. There is a little known picture of a young Bush
standing outside the Texas Book Depository on the day of the assassination. You'll find it on
my site Chuckman's Words in Comments on Wordpress. Its title to search is: A REMARKABLE DULL
LITTLE PHOTOGRAPH OF GEORGE H W BUSH WITH EXPLOSIVE SUGGESTIONS. Sorry, but RT doesn't like
links.
Of course, Colby himself may have been assassinated. He had a very odd boating
accident.
Ally Hauptmann-Gurski 20 hours ago 21 Nov, 2020 11:14 PM
The CIA controls the media in subtle ways. Blacklists for instance. I have experience after
one of my buddies fell for the spiel of an agent provocateur. Never trust anyone, always
assume they could be CIA and assess what damage they can do to you (and your associates)
before you interact with them. Misleading them would be best.
Enorm 22 hours ago 21 Nov, 2020 09:01 PM
NBC operatives don't have an opinion. They follow da money,. I feel sorry for folks glued to
propaganda TV.
WikiLeaks and other investigative outfits have looked at the conglomerates over the years and
over half of them are CIA "assets"...
Chris Cottrell 22 hours ago 21 Nov, 2020 08:25 PM
Are they spies? Probably not. Are they tools of the CIA even if unwittingly, yes.
Oregon Observer Chris Cottrell 21 hours ago 21 Nov, 2020 09:43 PM
Most ARE spies in every sense of the term. They look for specific information that they
pass onto their handler(s). It bears noting that the FBI and the 10,000 or so outfits that
contract with them and NSA and DHS and the pentagon and the various state Fusion programs are
as bad or worse and every stinking one if those outfits recruits reporters.
fakiho2 21 hours ago 21 Nov, 2020 09:28 PM
As shocking as it may sound, Glenn is stating the obvious. Even AFP and Reuters are CIA
mouthpieces. Look up Operation Mockingbird. Look up "propaganda multiplier" by the Swiss
policy research.
shadow1369 fakiho2 6 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 12:30 PM
Interesting that nobody even tried to deny it, they just come up with the same line they used
to attack Wikileaks for telling the truth: exposing this might put out operatives at risk. My
response to that is good, time to have these roaches taken out.
Edward698 18 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 01:43 AM
You can bet on Glenn to tell you the truth unlike the main stream media which fed us with
lots of non sense on Syria. Read his interview with "Democracy now": .... Glenn Greenwald on
"Submissive" Media's Drumbeat for War and "Despicable" Anti-Muslim Scapegoating By Democracy
Now! ....
GLENN GREENWALD: Well, first of all, that clip is unbelievable. It is literally one
of the three most important military officials of the entire war on terror, General Flynn,
who was the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He's saying that the U.S. government
knew that by creating a vacuum in Syria and then flooding that region with arms and money,
that it was likely to result in the establishment of a caliphate by Islamic extremists in
eastern Syria -- which is, of course, exactly what happened.
They knew that that was going to
happen, and they proceeded to do it anyway. So when the U.S. government starts trying to
point the finger at other people for helping ISIS, they really need to have a mirror put in
front of them, because, by their own documents, as that extraordinary clip demonstrates, they
bear huge responsibility for that happening, to say nothing of the fact that, as I said,
their closest allies in the region actually fund it.
Debra Edward698 14 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 05:37 AM
The US was not only counting on their ISIS creation to destabilize Syria in the hope of an
Assad exit but also to decimate the Hezbollah. I credit the Hezbollah for saving Lebanon,
Syria, and Iraq, but they suffered heavy, heavy losses. "So when the U.S. government starts
trying to point the finger at other people for helping ISIS, they really need to have a
mirror put in front of them, because, by their own documents, as that extraordinary clip
demonstrates, they bear huge responsibility for that happening, to say nothing of the fact
that, as I said, their closest allies in the region actually fund it."
frankfalseflag 19 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 12:08 AM
** "Glenn is endangering journalists working in perilous environments by telling. . ." ** . .
Perilous Environments because the CIA is probably manipulating another of its regimes change,
to very undemocratically put someone they control into office. Surely you remember
Poroshenko? ...
pogohere 21 hours ago 21 Nov, 2020 10:16 PM
Operation Mockingbird was a secret CIA effort to influence and control the American media.
The first report of the program came in 1979 in the biography of Katharine Graham, the owner
of the Washington Post, written by Deborah Davis. Davis wrote that the program was
established by Frank Wisner, the director of the Office of Policy Coordination, a covert
operations unit created under the National Security Council.
According to Davis, Wisner
recruited Philip Graham of the Washington Post to head the project within the media industry.
Davis wrote that, "By the early 1950s, Wisner 'owned' respected members of The New York
Times, Newsweek, CBS and other communications vehicles."
Davis also writes that Allen Dulles
convinced Cord Meyer, who later became Mockingbird's "principal operative," to join the CIA
in 1951.
The Taliban Won the War 7 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 12:28 PM
It is true and it is an undisputed fact that all Western governments use Journalists, aid
workers and so called human relief organisations as cover for espionage, undercover and dark
operations. Not just that, they also use exchange teachers and students, they use priests and
pastors. They use anything and anyone that can hid
Isiah Steele 8 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 11:45 AM
The Motion Picture Industry of Hollywood, too are CIA! Propagates: war and constant US
Military dominated narratives.
Sergio Weigel 16 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 03:31 AM
I'm pretty sure that most journalists don't know, or don't wanna know, the dirty open secret
that editorial lines of most outlets are indeed determined or influenced by the CIA. The
trouble is their working conditions. There are far more journalists than job openings, and
they already earn badly. In order to keep the job, they just play ball, and as humans are,
they make themselves believe that what they were doing was just right. Cognitive dissonance,
and the result is outrage and defensive anger when someone points out their hypocrisy. That
is also why they avoid to even read alternative media, they don't have their noses pointed to
it. In a way, we can pity them. Then again, why become a journalist these days?
I used to think maybe 'journalists' were simply misled, but the narrative on too many
stories, from 9/11 to Iraq, from Syria to the ukraine, from the Skripals to Navalny, was so
ludicrous that a five year old could see through the lies. Nope, they know full well that
they are lying, and do so regardless. A great example was when some bbc l!cksp!ttle was
interviewing a general about events in Syria. Somehow they got the wrong guy, or he had not
been properly briefed, because his responses were factual and balanced. After trying to
challenge him, the interviewer finally said 'Don't you realise this is an informatioon war'.
Debra 4 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 03:11 PM
This is another warning for people: Over the last two years Facebook has been advertising for
viewers to join Facebook groups. Many political groups on Facebook are set up by CIA and FBI
agents. Facebook is full of agents, and that is why the ones in Michigan were caught in their
attempted coup against the Michigan governor...
Quick Draw 22 hours ago 21 Nov, 2020 09:46 PM
Just NBC?
imnotarobot22 16 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 03:05 AM
google 'Udo Ulfkotte' ex editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine - he'll tell you about it.
Richard Burden 2 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 05:07 PM
Reporters who work for the CIA are not spies, because the CIA is a lying agency, not a spying
agency. If a terrorist accuses you of being a CIA agent, you can honestly reply that the CIA
is the terrorist's friend.
The CIA wants the world to believe that China, Russia and Iran are
the leading state sponsors of terrorism, and that those seeking the overthrow of Syria's Bashar al-Assad are freedom fighters, not terrorists...
Throughout his campaign, Joe Biden railed against Donald Trump's 'America First' foreign
policy, claiming it weakened the United States and left the world in disarray. "Donald Trump's
brand of America First has too often led to America alone," Biden proclaimed.
He pledged to reverse this decline and recover the damage Trump did to America's reputation.
While Donald Trump called for making America Great Again, Biden seeks to Make the American
Empire Great Again .
Joe Biden: "Tonight, the whole world is watching America. And I believe at our best, America
is a beacon for the globe. We will lead not only by the example of our power, but by the power
of our example."
Among the president-elect's pledges is to end the so-called forever wars – the
decades-long imperial projects in Afghanistan and Iraq that began under the Bush
administration.
"It's long past time we end the forever wars which have cost us untold blood and treasure,"
Biden has said.
Yet Biden – a fervent supporter of those wars – will delegate that duty to the
most neoconservative elements of the Democratic Party and ideologues of permanent war .
Michele Flournoy and Tony Blinken sit atop Biden's thousands-strong foreign policy brain
trust and have played central roles in every U.S. war dating back to the Bill Clinton
administration.
During the Trump era, they've cashed in through WestExec Advisors – a corporate
consulting firm that has become home for Obama administration officials awaiting a return to
government.
Flournoy is Biden's leading pick for Secretary of Defense and Blinken is expected to be the
president's National Security Advisor.
Biden's foxes guard the henhouse
Since the 1990s, Flournoy and Blinken have steadily risen through the ranks of the
military-industrial complex, shuffling back and forth between the Pentagon and hawkish
think-tanks funded by the U.S. government, weapons companies, and oil giants.
Under Bill Clinton, Flournoy was the principal author of the 1996 Quadrinellial Defense
Review, the document that outlined the U.S. military's doctrine of permanent war – what
it called "full spectrum dominance."
Flournoy called for "unilateral use of military power" to ensure "uninhibited access to key
markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources."
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ivFFZ95EQvY
This video report was originally published at Behind The Headlines .
Support the independent journalism initiative here .
As Bush administration officials lied to the world about Saddam Hussein's supposed WMD's,
Flournoy remarked that "In some cases, preemptive strikes against an adversary's [weapons of
mass destruction] capabilities may be the best or only option we have to avert a catastrophic
attack against the United States."
Tony Blinken was a top advisor to then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Joe Biden,
who played a key role in shoring up support among the Democrat-controlled Senate for Bush's
illegal invasion of Iraq.
During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, Biden declared, "In my judgment, President Bush
is right to be concerned about Saddam Hussein's relentless pursuit of weapons of mass
destruction."
As Iraq was plunged into chaos and bloodshed, Flournoy was among the authors of a paper
titled "Progressive Internationalism" that called for a "smarter and better" style of permanent
war . The paper chastised the anti-war left and stated that "Democrats will maintain the
world's most capable and technologically advanced military, and we will not flinch from using
it to defend our interests anywhere in the world."
With Bush winning a second term, Flournoy advocated for more troop deployments from the
sidelines.
In 2005, Flournoy signed onto a letter
from the neoconservative think tank Project for a New American Century, asking Congress to
"increase substantially the size of the active duty Army and Marine Corps (by) at least 25,000
troops each year over the next several years."
In 2007, she leveraged her Pentagon experience and contacts to found what would become one
of the premier Washington think tanks advocating endless war across the globe: the Center for a
New American Security (CNAS). CNAS is funded by the U.S. government, arms
manufacturers, oil giants, Silicon Valley tech giants, billionaire-funded foundations, and big
banks.
Flournoy joined the Obama administration and was appointed as under secretary of defense for
policy, the position considered the "brains" of the Pentagon. She was keenly aware that the
public was wary of more quagmires. In the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, she crafted a new
concept of warfare that would expand the permanent war state while giving the appearance of a
drawdown.
Flournoy wrote that "unmanned systems hold great promise" – a reference to the CIA's
drone assassination program. This was the Obama-era military doctrine of hybrid war. It called
for the U.S. to be able to simultaneously wage war on numerous fronts through secret warfare,
clandestine weapons transfers to proxies, drone strikes, and cyber-attacks – all
buttressed with propaganda campaigns targeting the American public through the internet and
corporate news media.
Architects of America's Hybrid wars
Flournoy continued to champion the endless wars that began in the Bush-era and was a key
architect of Obama's disastrous troop surge in Afghanistan. As U.S. soldiers returned in body
bags and insurgent attacks and suicide bombings increased some 65% from 2009 and 2010, she
deceived the Senate Armed Services Committee, claiming that the U.S. was beginning to turn the
tide against the Taliban: "We are beginning to regain the initiative and the insurgency is
beginning to lose momentum."
Even with her lie that the U.S. and Afghan government were starting to beat the Taliban
back, Flournoy assured the senate that the U.S. would have to remain in Afghanistan long into
the future: "We are not leaving any time soon even though the nature and the complexion of the
commitment may change over time."
Ten years later – as the Afghan death toll passed 150,000 – Flournoy continued
to argue against a U.S. withdrawal: "I would certainly not advocate a US or NATO departure
short of a political settlement being in place."
That's the person Joe Biden has tasked with ending the forever war in Afghanistan. But in
Biden's own words, he'll "bring the vast majority of our troops home from Afghanistan" implying
some number of American troops will remain, and the forever war will be just that. Michele
Flournoy explained that even if a political settlement were reached, the U.S. would maintain a
presence.
Michele Flournoy: "If we are fortunate enough to see a political settlement reached, it
doesn't mean that the US role or the international community is over. Afghanistan without
outside investment is not a society that is going to survive and thrive. In no case are we
going to be able to wash our hands of Afghanistan and walk away nor should we want to. This is
something where we're going to have to continue to be engaged, just the form of engagement may
change."
In 2011, the Obama-era doctrine of smart and sophisticated warfare was unveiled in the NATO
regime-change war on Libya.
Moammar Gaddafi – the former adversary who sought warm relations with the U.S. and had
given up his nuclear weapons program – was deposed and sodomized with a bayonet.
Flournoy, Hillary Clinton's State Department, and corporate media were in lockstep as they
waged an elaborate propaganda campaign to deceive the U.S. public that Gadaffi's soldiers were
on a Viagra-fueled rape and murder spree that demanded a U.S. intervention.
Fox News: "Susan Rice reportedly told a security council meeting that Libyan troops are
being given viagra and are engaging in sexual violence."
MSNBC jumped on the propaganda bandwagon, claiming: "New reports emerge that the LIbyan
dictator gave soldiers viagra-type pills to rape women who are opposed to the government."
So did CNN.
As the Libyan ambassador to the US alleged "raping, killing, mass graves," ICC Chief
Prosecutor Manuel Ocampo claimed: "It's like a machete. Viagra is a tool of massive rapes."
All of this was based on a report
from Al Jazeera – the media outlet owned by the Qatari monarchy that was arming
extremist militias in Libya to overthrow the government.
Yet an investigation by the United Nations called the rape claims "hysteria." Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch found no credible evidence of even a single rape.
Even after Libya was descended into strife and the deception of Gadaffi's forces committing
rape was debunked, Michele Flournoy stood by her support for the war: "I supported the
intervention in Libya on humanitarian grounds. I think we were right to do it."
Tony Blinken, then Obama's deputy national security advisor, also pushed for regime change
in Libya. He became Obama's point man on Syria, pushed to arm the so-called "moderate rebels"
that fought alongside al-Qaeda and ISIS, and designed the red line strategy to trigger a
full-on U.S. intervention. Syria, he told the public, wasn't anything like the other wars the
U.S. had waging for more than a decade.
Tony Blinken: "We are doing this in a very different way than in the past. We're not sending
in hundreds of thousands of American troops. We're not spending trillions of American dollars.
We're being smart about this. This is a sustainable way to get at the terrorists and it's also
a more effective way."
Blinken added: "This is not open-ended, this is not boots on the ground, this is not Iraq,
it's not Afghanistan, it's not even Libya. The more people understand that, the more they'll
understand the need for us to take this limited but effective action ."
Despite Blinken's promises that it would be a short affair, the war on Syria is now in its
ninth year. An estimated half a million people have been killed as a result and the country is
facing famine.
Largely thanks to the policy of using "wheat to apply pressure" – a recommendation of
Flournoy and Blinken's CNAS think tank.
When the Trump administration launched airstrikes on Syria based on mere accusations of a
chemical attack, Tony Blinken praised the bombing, claiming Assad had used the weapon of mass
destruction sarin. Yet there was no evidence for this claim, something even then-secretary of
Defense James Mattis admitted: "So I can not tell you that we had evidence even though we had a
lot of media and social media indicators that either chlorine or sarin were used ."
While jihadist mercenaries armed with U..S-supplied weapons took over large swaths of Syria,
Tony Blinken played a central role in a coup d'etat in Ukraine that saw a pro-Russia government
overthrown in a U.S.-orchestrated color revolution with neo-fascist elements agitating on the
ground.
At the time, he was ambivalent about sending lethal weapons to Ukraine, instead opting for
economic pressure.
Tony Blinken: "We're working, as I said, to make sure that there's a cost exacted of Russia
and indeed that it feels the pressure. That's what we're working on. And when it comes to
military assistance, we're looking at it. The facts are these: Even if assistance were to go to
Ukraine that would be very unlikely to change Russia's calculus or prevent an invasion."
Since then, fascist militias have been incorporated into Ukraine's armed forces. And Tony
Blinken urged Trump to send them deadly weapons – something Obama had declined to do.
But Trump obliged.
The Third Offset
While the U.S. fueled wars in Syria and Ukraine, the Pentagon announced a major shift called
the Third Offset strategy – a reference to the cold war era strategies the U.S. used to
maintain its military supremacy over the Soviet Union.
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The Third Offset strategy
shifted the focus from counterinsurgency and the war on terror to great power competition
against China and Russia. It called for a technological revolution in warfighting capabilities,
development of futuristic and autonomous weapons, swarms of undersea and airborne drones,
hypersonic weapons, cyber warfare, machine-enhanced soldiers, and artificial intelligence
making unimaginably complex battlefield decisions at speeds incomprehensible to the human mind.
All of this would be predicated on the Pentagon deepening its relationship with Silicon Valley
giants that it birthed decades before: Google and Facebook.
The author of the Third Offset, former undersecretary of defense Robert Work, is a partner
of Flournoy and Blinken's at WestExec Advisors. And Flournoy has been a leading proponent of
this dangerous new escalation .
She warned that the United States is losing its military technological advantage and
reversing that must be the Pentagon's priority. Without it, Flournoy warned that the U.S. might
not be able to defeat China in Asia: "That technological investment is still very important for
the United States to be able to offset what will be quantitative advantages and home theater
advantages for a country like China if we ever had to deal with a conflict in Asia, in their
backyard."
While Flournoy has called for ramping up U.S. military presence and exercises with allied
forces in the region, she went so far as to call for the U.S. to increase its destructive
capabilities so much that it could launch a blitzkrieg style-attack that would wipe out the
entire Chinese navy and all civilian merchant ships in the South China Sea . Not only a blatant
war crime but a direct attack on a nuclear power that would spell the third world war.
At the same time, Biden has announced he'll take an even more aggressive and confrontational
stance against Russia , a position Flournoy shares: "We need to invest to ensure that we
maintain the military edge that we will need in certain critical areas like cyber and
electronic warfare and precision strike, to again underwrite deterrence, to make sure Vladimir
Putin does not miscalculate and think that he can cross a border into Europe or cross a border
and threaten us militarily."
As for ending the forever wars, Tony Blinken says not so fast: "Large scale, open-ended
deployment of large standing US forces in conflict zones with no clear strategy should end and
will end under his watch . But we also need to distinguish between, for example, these endless
wars with the large scale open ended deployment of US forces with, for example, discreet,
small-scale sustainable operations, maybe led by special forces, to support local actors In
ending the endless wars I think we have to be careful to not paint with too broad a brush
stroke."
The end of forever wars?
So Biden will end the forever wars, but not really end them. Secret wars that the public
doesn't even know the U.S. is involved in – those are here to stay.
In fact, leaving teams of special forces in place throughout the Middle East is part and
parcel of the Pentagon's shift away from counterinsurgency and towards great power
competition.
The 2018 National Defense Strategy explains that, "Long-term strategic competitions with
China and Russia are the principal priorities" and the U.S. will "consolidate gains in Iraq and
Afghanistan while moving to a more resource-sustainable approach."
As for the catastrophic war on Yemen, Biden has said he'll end U.S. support; but in 2019,
Michele Flournoy argued against ending arms sales to Saudi Arabia .
Biden pledged he will rejoin the Iran deal as a starting point for new negotiations.
However, Trump's withdrawal from the deal discredited the Iranian reformists who seek
engagement with the west and empowered the principlists who see the JCPOA as a deal with the
devil.
In Latin America, Biden will revive the so-called anti-corruption campaigns that were used
as a cover to oust the popular social democrat Brazilian president Lula da Silva.
In Central America, Biden
has presided over a four billion dollar package to support corrupt right-wing governments
and neoliberal privatization projects, fueling destabilization and sending vulnerable masses
fleeing north to the United States.
Behind their rhetoric, Biden, Flournoy, and Blinken will seek nothing less than global
supremacy , escalating a new and even more dangerous arms race that risks the destruction of
humanity. That's what Joe Biden calls "decency" and "normalcy."
naughty.boy , 14 hours ago
deep state will bankrupt the USA with forever wars.
Distant_Star , 14 hours ago
Yes. As a bonus neither of these Deep State wretches has even seen a shot fired in anger.
They are too "important" to be at risk.
According to Merriam-Webster
, a "secret police" is "a police organization that is run by a governm
e
nt
and that operates in a secret way to control the actions of people who oppose the government." Of course, in this day and age, it's
not easy to define "the government". We live in an oligarchical society. There are elected officials, including the President, who
stay in office for a fixed amount of time and have a certain amount of power to change the way that things are done. But on the
other hand, there are permanent institutions, both within the government itself and within society at large, that also wield
significant power and are responsible for safeguarding the interests of the oligarchy, should they be threatened by the policies of
the temporary, elected government.
There are various ways to describe this superstructure of oligarchic rule. One term which has become popular of late is "Deep
State." Because the term has been used by Donald Trump, it has been ridiculed in the press as a "conspiracy theory," an expression
which is often used to identify an "unauthorized narrative". A more technical term, favored by the British and the
neocons
,
is "Continuity of Government" (COG.) There has been plenty of
analysis
of
this concept, some well-founded, some highly speculative.
But a few things are self-evident here. One is that there is a huge number of career civil servants working in all branches of
government who don't leave their jobs at the end of a 4- or 8-year presidential term. They remain, offering their professional
experience, as well as their established political allegiances and ideological habits, to the incoming administration. Secondly,
these career professionals are connected in multiple ways to non-governmental institutions with which they have formed closed
working relationships, such as the media and the financial community, or the arms industry (the famed "
Military
Industrial Complex
.")
Agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) devote much of their efforts to
covert activity, and these agencies have at times clashed with elected officials. There have been allegations that these agencies
are more loyal to permanent oligarchic power centers than to any temporary occupant of the White House. There are even compelling
reasons to believe that these secretive agencies have been
deployed
against U.S. elected officials
and
even
presidents
.
Senator Frank Church
In the early 1970s there were troubling revelations about covert operations, including illegal spying on American citizens and
assassinations of dissident leaders such as
Fred
Hampton.
Growing public concern about these abuses led to the formation of the United States Senate Select Committee to Study
Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, better known as the Church Committee after its chairman, Democratic
Senator Frank Church of Idaho. Creation of the Committee was approved on January 27, 1975 by the U.S. Senate. It published an
extensive final report in April of 1976.
The Committee investigated the activities of the CIA and FBI, as well as the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS). It investigated assassinations of foreign leaders, unauthorized surveillance of U.S. citizens, and other covert
operations. Efforts were made by political leaders, including President Gerald Ford, to keep these findings secret. These efforts
were only partially successful.
Some of the projects which were exposed by the Church Committee included:
COINTELPRO, the FBI program to infiltrate and disrupt dissident organizations, including the movement of Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. as well as many other civil rights or anti-war organizations.
MK-ULTRA, the CIA program to develop mind control techniques including the use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD
Operation Mockingbird, the CIA program to manipulate the news media for propaganda purposes
Edward Snowden
Typically, the agencies under investigation would issue a
mea culpa
and
assure the public that these naughty activities had all been discontinued. However, new revelations over the past decades have
demonstrated that nothing could be further from the truth. Of particular interest is the case of
Edward
Snowden
, the NSA whistleblower who revealed the truly staggering extent of the unlawful surveillance being carried out on
American citizens.
Some things which were once done with utmost discretion, such as the infiltration of the news media by the CIA under Operation
Mockingbird, are now done completely out in the open without the public batting an eye. For example, former CIA Director
John
Brennan
and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who both lied under oath to the US Congress about illegal
activity by the CIA and NSA, now hold high-profile positions at MSNBC and CNN respectively.
It was
Russiagate
that
brought into sharp relief the depth and breadth of CIA/NSA/FBI involvement in the manipulation of domestic politics. It originated
in London, the great mecca of the neocons, with the preparation of the "Steele Dossier" by a "former" operative of MI6. For four
years in the U.S., Russiagate was propagated through regular leaks of anonymous "assessments" from members of the "intel community"
to their assets in the media, some of whom were themselves ostensibly retirees from the "intel community."
These leakers were dutifully characterized in the media as courageous, patriotic whistleblowers, unlike those individuals such as
Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning or Julian Assange who revealed material that was embarrassing to the neocons. The
condemnation
of those latter persons
by intel community appendage Congressman Adam Schiff, who had
his
own personal whistleblower
on tap for his impeachment effort, is also illuminating.
One organization which has earned the gratitude of the American public for shedding light on the malignant activities of the "intel
community" is group of genuine, high-profile whistleblowers that calls itself
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
They have played an important role in
debunking
the
story that Russia "hacked" the DNC servers and furnished information on DNC misconduct to Wikileaks. A particularly insightful voice
is that of
Ray
McGovern
, who was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the
President's Daily Brief.
But what has come out of the shadows and into full view during the past four years is a new sort of complex, where the covert
agencies, the media, and the corporations which now monopolize social media, join forces to create an unprecedented, "total
immersion" propaganda environment. Initially, the internet and social media appeared to be a "wild west" sort of venue where anyone
could say anything. Much of the population soon began to prefer this as a source for news over the corporate media, and the neocons
cried foul.
Facebook
hastened to accomodate them
, bringing in the vociferously neocon Atlantic Council and the mother of all Regime Change
organizations, the National Endowment for Democracy, as consultants in 2018 to help decide which voices should be silenced.
The FBI joined the fun,
seizing
over 100 internet domains
in late 2020 and claiming that they were operated by Iran. This included the site for the
American
Herald Tribune
, an alternative press organ with a substantial following. The FBI Special Agent in charge issued a statement,
saying that "Thanks to our ongoing collaboration with Google, Facebook, and Twitter, the FBI was able to disrupt this Iranian
propaganda campaign and we will continue to pursue any attempts by foreign actors to spread disinformation in our country."
However, it doesn't stop with propaganda and censorship. During the presidential election of 2020, there was an escalated
intervention by the secret police agencies into the electoral process. A few
courageous
individuals
spoke out against this.
When election day arrived, numerous vote-counting anomalies were reported
all
around the country
, partially obscured by deliberate disinformation, "fact-checking", and general hysteria. One particularly
noteworthy allegation was made by Sidney Powell, an attorney who has represented General Michael Flynn. She alleged that computer
programs called HAMMER and SCORECARD, which had been developed for the intelligence agencies for use in rigging elections in other
countries, had been used to benefit
Biden
in
the election. Former NSA senior analyst and member of VIPS, Kirk Wiebe, explained the use of these cyber-weapons, and reported that
the man who developed them, Dennis Montgomery, was prepared to testify to this effect:
Why would the covert agencies attack Trump, who supposedly is a hardline right-winger? Well, apparently he is not regarded as such
in establishment circles. One of the preeminent establishment megaphones,
The
Atlantic
, published
a
very revealing article
in which they compared Trump to Henry Wallace, who served as Vice President under FDR and went on to
found the Progressive Party. Wallace opposed the Cold War, and Trump's reluctance to embrace the Cold War 2.0 that began with the
neocon-sponsored 2014 coup in Ukraine appears to be what put him on the enemies list.
The many allegations of fraud in the 2020 election may be the subject of controversy, litigation, and even civil unrest for possibly
years to come. As Republicans so often do, Sidney Powell has damaged her credibility by
alleging
that the Venezuelan government and assorted communists
played a role in orchestrating vote fraud, a red herring on a par with
Democratic Party claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election. If the CIA and/or NSA did in fact use cyber-warfare techniques
to manipulate the outcome, they most certainly did not do so at the behest of Hugo Chavez. And if they did tamper with the vote
totals, they will have ample opportunity to wipe the evidence.
But at this point, can anyone argue that it is not urgent for the Congress to resume an investigation of misconduct by our secret
police agencies, and that this time they not be satisfied with polite assurances that the bad behavior will cease? Trump has many
warts, but there is a proper way to remove him from office, if that is what the electorate wants. A
color
revolution
, or any other form of coup run by secret police agencies, is odious.
Thanks for reading. If you find this material interesting, perhaps
you might contact Twitter and ask them why
my
account was suspended
on June 30 of this year. I would very
much like to find out the reason.
The winning candidate will be issued little stickies for her computer screen including
"Russian Aggression", "Annexed Crimea" and "Poisoned the Skripals"
How 'Western' Media Select Their Foreign Correspondentsgottlieb , Nov 20 2020
19:21 utc |
1
Did you ever wonder why 'western' mainstream media get stories about Russia and other
foreign countries so wrong?
It is simple. They hire the most brainwashed, biased and cynic writers they can get for
the job. Those who are corrupt enough to tell any lie required to support the world view of
their editors and media owners.
They are quite upfront about it.
Here is evidence in form of a New York Times
job description for a foreign correspondent position in Moscow:
Russia Correspondent
Job Description
Vladimir Putin's Russia remains one of the biggest stories in the world.
It sends out hit squads armed with nerve agents against its enemies, most recently the
opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. It has its cyber agents sow chaos and disharmony in the
West to tarnish its democratic systems, while promoting its faux version of democracy. It
has deployed private military contractors around the globe to secretly spread its
influence. At home, its hospitals are filling up fast with Covid patients as its president
hides out in his villa.
If that sounds like a place you want to cover, then we have good news: We will have an
opening for a new correspondent as Andy Higgins takes over as our next Eastern Europe
Bureau Chief early next year.
To be allowed to write for the Times one must see the Russian Federation as a
country that is ruled by just one man.
One must be a fervent believer in MI6 produced Novichok hogwash. One must also believe in
Russiagate and in the multiple idiocies it produced even after all of them have been
debunked.
One must know that vote counts in Russia are always wrong while U.S. vote counting is the
most reliable ever. Russian private military contractors (which one must know to be evil men)
are 'secretly deployed' to wherever the editors claim them to be. Russia's hospitals are of
cause always much worse than ours.
Even when it is easy to check that Vladimir Putin (the most evil man ever) is at work in the
Kremlin the job will require one to claim that he is hiding in a villa.
Most people writing for the Times will actually not believe the above nonsense.
But the description is not for a position that requires one to weight and report the facts.
It is for a job that requires one to lie. That the Times lists all the recent
nonsense about Russia right at the top of the job description makes it clear that only people
who support those past lies will be considered adequate to tell future lies about Russia.
No honest unbiased person will want such a job. But as it comes with social prestige, a
good paycheck and a probably nice flat in Moscow the New York Times will surely find
a number of people who are willing to sell their souls to take it.
Interestingly the job advertisement does not list Russian language capabilities as a
requirement. It only says that 'Fluency in Russian is preferred'.
'Western' mainstream media are filled with such biased, cynic and self-censoring
correspondents who have little if any knowledge of the country they are reporting from. It is
therefore not astonishing that 'western' populations as well as their politicians have often
no knowledge of what is really happening in the world.
Hilarious. Don't need no stinking
Operation Mockingbird anymore. Just put out a want-ad and plenty of brainwashed folks will
come flocking. Propaganda works.
This is such an odd job description with very few specific requirements and none detailing
how much experience or what level of knowledge or skill is required (in the form of X number
of years worked in some area requiring Russian language skills or university qualifications
obtained) that I almost wonder if this advertisement is for real.
One notices also that "Vladimir Putin's Russia" is presented as a story. Everything else
that follows in the second paragraph of the advertisement is also a story. Indeed everything
in the news media industry is a "story" as if instead of employing investigative reporters on
the beat grimly searching for hard facts like old pulp fiction detectives, the media now only
wants Hollywood script writers or graduates straight out of creative writing courses.
But then I suppose whoever gets the job at the NYT can hardly do worse than what the hack
Luke Harding did as The Fraudian's Moscow correspondent nearly 15 years ago, so much so that
the Russian govt must have suspected that he was more than just a bad paranoid plagiarist ...
he must have been a spy as well, that it would initially refuse to renew his visa. One would
like to see the job specifications for the position of The Fraudian's Moscow reporter that
Harding held for a number of years.
Incredible. What the acronym 'SMH' (shake my head) was invented for.
It's no wonder I switched off CBC radio, our national broadcaster here in Canada. Their
music programs were okay, but every hour they had a news update, and those were
stomach-turning. Superficial, biased, Empire-friendly nonsense...
Norman Solomon wrote about this problem fifteen years ago in his book "War Made Easy, How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death"
. . .from Amazon: In War Made Easy, nationally syndicated columnist, media critic, and author
Norman Solomon cuts through the dense web of spin to probe and scrutinize the key "perception
management" techniques that have played huge rolls in the promotion of American wars in
recent decades.
p.116
. . .The attitudes of reporters covering U.S. foreign policy officials are generally
similar to the attitudes of those officials. "Most journalists who get plum foreign
assignments already accept the assumptions of empire," according to longtime foreign
correspondent Reese Erlick. He added, "I didn't meet a single foreign reporter in Iraq who
disagreed with the notion that the U.S. and Britain have the right to overthrow the Iraq
government by force. They disagreed only about timing, whether the action should be
unilateral, and whether a long-term occupation is practical." After decades of freelancing
for major U.S. news organizations, Erlich offered this blunt conclusion: "Money, prestige,
career options, ideological predilections--combined with the down sides of filing stories
unpopular with the government--all cast their influence on foreign correspondents. You
don't win a Pulitzer prize for challenging the basic assumptions of empire."
> social prestige, a good paycheck and a probably nice flat
The term that Paul Craig Roberts often uses, " presstitute ", comes to mind.
Echoing JimmyG. @4 and spudski @7, in Canada, our taxpayer-funded state news agency's
flagship program "The National" gives us regular Two Minutes Hate pieces currently
being churned out every two weeks or so by Moscow correspondent Chris Brown who fits this
article's description to a T.
I've lost count of how many times he and CBC The National's editors have singled out
Russia's handling of COVID-19 for criticism, when so many other countries have far worse per
capita fatality numbers than Russia.
While decrying Russia's COVID-19 deaths, they, of course, never mention the fact that
Canada has had more COVID-19 deaths per capita than Russia ...
It's absolutely pathetic.
5 years ago the truly great journalist Robert Fisk made the following observations during an
interview with the journal.ie amongst others.
Back's up everything you have pointed out about the sheer disappearance of any impartial
reportage from the NYT and printed media in general.
"Most newspapers that have lost circulation, particularly in the States, it's not because
of the internet, it's because those newspapers were simply no good. When I go to San
Francisco the coverage of the Middle East in its papers is frightened, cowardly, pathetic,
there's no serious foreign coverage at all."
"Newspapers themselves are to blame for the deterioration in their readership. I read the
New York Times when its free, period, it doesn't deserve to be paid for. It's not worth
it.
It doesn't matter whether it's online or not. If a paper's not worth buying you'll read for
free online regardless"
"Most people writing for the Times will actually not believe the above
nonsense."
Our host is much too charitable to the presstitutes. Those in the "Mockingbird"
mass media eat their own effluent like a sort of group ouroboric scatophagia. To maintain
their perverse form of "mental hygiene" they studiously avoid information sources
outside of their own circular reprocessing of yesterday's delusions into fresh steaming piles
for today's consumption. They have become so accustomed to feeding off their own delusions
that if a hint of reality were to intrude into their looped intellectual food chain their
minds would reject it like poison. They would likely exhibit physical symptoms, which
doubtless would be attributed to evil Soviet mind rays from Havana.
Stengel stated clearly that a "news cartel" of mainstream corporate media outlets had
long dominated US society, but he bemoaned that those "cartels don't have hegemony like they
used to."
Stengel made it clear that his mission is to counter the alternative perspectives given
a voice by foreign media platforms that challenge the US-dominated media landscape.
"The bad actors use journalistic objectivity against us."
Wow ...
I clicked on the New York Times job link, and journalistic objectivity and integrity are
nowhere to be found in the job descripton. But I did notice these lines that add to the ones
that b brought to our attention:
We are looking for someone who will embrace the prospect of traversing 11 time zones to
track a populace that is growing increasingly frustrated with an economy dragged down by
corruption, cronyism and excessive reliance on natural resources. This posting offers the
chance to chronicle the continuing reign of one of the world's most charismatic leaders,
President Vladimir V. Putin.
Not to mention, Putin ushered in changes to the constitution, so he will likely stay in
power for many years to come.
And, of course, we are on the cusp of a new, less Putin-friendly president in the US,
which should only raise the temperature between Washington and Moscow.
It's not Russia it's "Vladimir Putin's Russia," so that's one mandatory term checked off,
i.e. personalizing the appointed enemy. But then we read "It sends out hit squads. . ."
instead of the usual obligatory: 'The regime' . . . . .but the Times can't get everything
right.
The amount of hourly propaganda directed at and leveled at American people is
unprecedented, I had not seen it this intense in past years it reminds me of my High school
days in Shah's Iran. This kind and this intense of control on news can only be due to
instability of the regime. IMO in coming Biden Adminstration regime will impose new rules for
control of internet and access to foreign news. Currently using my Mobil cellular I can't
access any Iranian news site.
DNC PoliticalPrisoner 31
minutes ago Many wouldn't have believed there was election fraud except the media and Big
Tech keep insisting that there wasn't. Facebook, Twitter, Google, Fox News, CNN, and more giant
corporations keep screaming at us via notifications, messages, and broadcasts that there was no
election fraud. Now, we're starting to think maybe there is something fishy going on.
Threat inflation is like Apple pie among Washington swamp national security parasites
Notable quotes:
"... The US security state, with its huge military forces and techno-industrial base, and no diplomatic need nor capability, REQUIRES (fake) "security threats" in order to exist. ..."
"... Those appointed "threats" are currently, probably not changing soon, in some order of "threat-size" . . . ..."
Applying any logic to the "threats" against the US "national security" AKA world hegemony
becomes much simpler with recognizing two simple facts:
1. The US security state, with its huge military forces and techno-industrial base, and no
diplomatic need nor capability, REQUIRES (fake) "security threats" in order to exist.
2. Those appointed "threats" are currently, probably not changing soon, in some order of
"threat-size" . . .
China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, & African
"terrorists" -- did I miss anyone?
Trump's election, Russiagate and the smear campaign against Julian Assange have deluded and
disoriented many "left" organizations.
"I was shocked at the virulent animosity to anything Putin."
I returned from a delegation to
Russia a year ago, so am now more sensitive to the pervasive and persistent anti-Russia
propaganda in this country. To prepare for my trip, I read Stephen Cohen's War
with Russia? , which I believe is an unimpeachable source of information. So I was
dismayed to learn of his recent death, because he was a voice of reason amidst the salivating
war fever. Caitlin Johnstone does justice to
his memory: " We should heed the dire warnings that Cohen spent his last breaths issuing. We
should...call for détente with Russia and China. We should begin creating an opposition
to this world-threatening flirtation with armageddon before it is too late."
The delegation was led by Sharon Tennison, founder of Center for Citizens Initiatives , which has been taking citizen
diplomacy delegations to the USSR and Russia since 1983. On her recent 84th birthday she
published a letter about where she sees current US/Russian relations ,
including the risk of nuclear war. I posted her letter to a listserv of the National Lawyers
Guild, an organization I have been a member of for 37 years. Although I have previously
exposed the NLG for losing its political compass, I was shocked at the virulent animosity
to anything Putin, or even Russian, in the emails it generated.
Unfortunately, this anti-Russia bias is not unique to the Guild. Trump's election,
Russiagate, and the smear campaign against Julian Assange have deluded and disoriented many
organizations and individuals with profoundly critical and activist traditions, including the
Pacifica radio
network ,
Democratic Socialists of America and Democracy Now! Since COVID, China is now in the US
crosshairs as well, with increased risk of catastrophe. The intent of this article is to expose
this extremely dangerous political tendency, with the Guild as but one example, because it is
increasing international hostilities, at our peril. What we desperately need is an anti-war
movement.
"China is now in the US crosshairs as well."
I shared with a retired lawyer and fellow-member of the Russia delegation that a Guild
member said I would create more chaos than clarity on the left if I exposed the Guild. She
responded "'You will create more chaos than clarity on the Left,' sounds like old-time,
1930's communism when it was politically incorrect to criticize any defects in the party. Any
organization, or any individual, that lacks the backbone to stand up to criticism and to
examine itself to see if that criticism is warranted, and to self-correct if it is or to
vigorously defend itself if it isn't, is weak, an empty box echoing platitudes it cannot
defend."
Tennison received many positive responses to her birthday letter, such as:
"I thank you for the gift of that wonderfully thoughtful letter!"
"I liked your perspectives on President Putin."
"I think you make a persuasive case."
"I am forwarding your message to others."
Apparently, it's controversial to publish group emails anonymously without the author's
consent. I told Tennison that the many Guild responses were largely hostile to her point of
view and asked if it was ethical to expose them. She said, " I think you should expose them
on their ungrounded biases. Tell them to go see the country that was collapsing from communism
and then robbed blind by the oligarchs in the 90s, then finally began to get up on its knees by
the early 2000s and today is in amazing shape.What do you mean when you ask 'what are
the ethics?' You should tell the truth! That's the height of ethics!!!"
"You should expose them on their ungrounded biases."
Guild responses, which echo what many "progressive" groups are saying, include: "This is
garbage propaganda... Anyone with a small amount of knowledge of Russia knows this article is
absolutely not true. No matter what you think of the current state of our government, we have
nothing to gain from Putin. There is nothing admirable about him as a leader and there is
nothing admirable about his government. I can't even fathom the motivation for disseminating
this....I am hardly a lover of American MSM propaganda, but I am getting tired of seeing
knee-jerk reactions to any criticism or negative news about Putin or RT...I don't know if
Tennison's piece is propaganda (implying some intent), but it certainly is misguided. I (and
probably a fair number of other folks on this list) have not met Putin and am not particularly
invested in this debate...move this offlist, or set up a 'debates about politicians foreign and
domestic' sublist...I was disputing the accuracy of the author's description of Putin's
character and questioning why Putin's character is being defended on an NLG listserv."
A former comrade, who still probably calls himself a socialist, claimed it is an electoral
issue: "Riva doesn't give a damn if Trump is re-elected by the electoral college,...She even
attacked the NLG for failing to oppose Russia Today having to register as a foreign agent. The
discussion is a total turn-off to new and veteran members alike." Others voiced election
concerns: " Support for Putin is support for Trump...When I see an article like this come,
apparently, out of the blue and unrelated to the NLG's mission, I wonder who benefits from
propping up Putin's character?...It's difficult for me to believe that there are NLG members
who want to rehabilitate Putin's image in order to help the Trump Administration...My fears are
that the election is the motivation for the email supporting Putin."
" Support for Putin is support for Trump."
A Guild member of over 30 years said, "When nonsense like that is sent out by Guild
members it contributes to making the Guild irrelevant." Several others claimed the wisdom
of age and Red-rearing: "My own father was in Local 1199 In the 1930s and recruited and
covered for the absences of NYC Health workers sent to Spain as medics and ambulance drivers in
the Spanish Civil War... what could be more " pinko " than that!...Putin and his boss Leningrad
Mayor Anatoly Sobchak visited Los Angeles in the 1980s on a visit arranged by the LA-St
Petersburg Sister City Committee ( on which I served along with the CEO of Lockheed and other
major LA area companies). A fruit of their visit was booking a float in the Rose Parade
featuring tourism in St. Petersburg! Can't make this up!" [What is wrong with that? I wish
we could build more sister city relationships in Russia. I recently tried to get San Francisco
to consider having a sister city in Russia, and was told it wasn't a good time to do so.]
Another long-term socialist comrade said " in defending, as you do, Putin and Putin's
Russia, you lose credibility with Guild folks who, I suspect, also share our desire to not see
a US-Western World conflict with Russia. It is one thing to defend against red-baiting...as one
called before HUAC during Vietnam, believe me, I am deeply opposed to red-baiting...it is
another to present a picture of Putin which, quite frankly, does not square with reality. (I
know, you believe the western press gives us a false picture of Putin. But there are plenty on
the left, and in the left media, that have a very different assessment of Putin than the woman
writing that letter you sent around.)" It is remarkable that people who challenge my
questioning of the groupthink on Russia, refuse to offer a coherent, written counter to my
perspective or a defense of the groupthink.
And the younger generation: " These kinds of threads are the reason people unsubscribe
from lists and/or are turned away from the NLG altogether. I'm a very new member and am very
disheartened to see this exchange from Guild members who set the example for my generation This
is setting a bad precedent for the Next Gen by putting this BS on the NLG List...Well, speaking
for myself, this Next Gen member is unsubscribing, having applied my own judgment values and
critical thinking skills to the situation...This is a barrier to the Guild's outreach and
membership development, and has encouraged me to channel my energy into other
organizations."
"People who challenge my questioning of the groupthink on Russia, refuse to offer a
coherent, written counter to my perspective."
And of course people use the danger of fascism : "Many of us generally support radical or
left ideals. With the rise of fascism in this country, now, more than ever, we need to promote
inclusion and allyship rather than sectarianism and exclusion?" Does principled debate (let
alone simply posting a letter) imply "sectarianism and exclusion" and foreclose "inclusion and
allyship?" Others said there is an "expectation that we be collegial" and "good to each
other."
One of the very few positive responses came from a member who recently visited Russia:
"I must say I agree with many of those who criticize Tennison's piece on Putin -- but
very much oppose the notion that this list should be reserved for local Guild work. People who
are offended by or oppose comments posted by NLG members shouldn't be able to shut down
contentious discussions. It's easy enough to simply delete a thread that you consider
'irrelevant' -- although I would hope most Guild members would want to engage in discussion
about the countries and leaders that our governing elites and the MSM are attacking in
promotion of US imperial power (i.e. Russia, China, Venezuela, and Iran, for starters).The Guild is an organization of internationalists -- and not limited to local
struggles."
And there was this qualified support: "I agree that we should be very suspect of
Red-baiting news stories on general principle...while holding the nuance of resisting
authoritarianism includes using a critical lens."
A democratic organization requires open discussion and voting on controversial positions.
Until recently, since its founding in 1937, that occurred at the Guild's annual conventions. It
was through such a process that the Guild improved its position on Palestine. I have no problem
being a vocal minority in a democratic organization, but there must be debate for positions to
be clear. I have tried, unsuccessfully, several times over the Trump years -- and the New
McCarthyism -- to have such discussions. If there had been, I would have kept these issues
internal to the organization. The squashing of debate was the catalyst for my airing dirty
laundry, as well as its implications for the broad progressive community.
I was told that I will create "fissure" and "NLG folks will be on the defensive," (about
being called out on their anti-Russia bias?) and an old comrade says he will not respect me if
I expose the Guild's anti-Russia bias by pulling anonymous quotes from Guild members emails. As
to ethics, my Russia delegation comrade says: " Your old comrade favors quashing the truth
in order to present a good face. A false face, in fact. Is it ethical to do that? You are in
the boat that many of us are struggling to stay afloat in. Going against popular opinion
becomes a whole lot more than just a quaint quirk when the stakes are raised -- as they are
right now with the election in view and the Dems seriously worried. It is getting really nasty
out there."
Riva Enteen is a lifelong peace activist, social worker, lawyer, advocate for justice and
editor of"Follow the Money,"a
collection of Pacifica Radio's Flashpoints Interviews.
The recommendations of the State Department paper
listed by Axios are not practical steps but pure ideology:
The blueprint: The paper lays out "ten tasks" for the U.S. to accomplish.
Promoting constitutional government and civil society at home.
Maintaining the world's strongest military.
Fortifying the rules-based international order.
Reevaluating its alliance system.
Strengthening its alliance system and creating new international organizations to
promote democracy and human rights.
Cooperating with China when possible and constraining Beijing when appropriate.
Educating Americans about the China challenge.
Train a new generation of public servants who understand great-power competition with
China.
Reforming the U.S. education system to help students understand the responsibility of
citizenship in a complex information age.
Championing the principles of freedom in word and in deed.
Note especially the points 7 to 10.
They have nothing to do with China. They call for domestic propaganda, more domestic
propaganda and even more domestic propaganda.
Compare with Kennan characterization of Soviets in 1946:
Kennan described dealing with Soviet
Communism as "undoubtedly greatest task our diplomacy has ever faced and probably
greatest it will ever have to face". In the first two sections, he posited concepts that
became the foundation of American Cold War policy:
The Soviets perceived themselves at perpetual war with capitalism;
The Soviets viewed left-wing, but non-communist, groups in other countries as an even
worse enemy of itself than the capitalist ones;
The Soviets would use controllable Marxists in the capitalist world as
allies;
Soviet aggression was fundamentally not aligned with the views of the Russian people or with
economic reality, but rooted in historic Russian nationalism and
neurosis ;
The Soviet government 's
structure inhibited objective or accurate pictures of internal and external reality.
b's 5 bullet points covering Keenan presumptions lends itself to substitution of Soviet /
communism w/ Global Corporatist Oligarchy ... not aligned with wishes of citizenry, not
democratic, not aligned with reality, etc.
I do agree that Kennan's "long telegram" was misconstrued by the NatSec loons of the time
to justify what they wanted to do. But that is no surprise, that is how US politics works.
It's has always been a racket.
I don't know. The language Kennan used is too vague to make any specific conclusions.
The center-left certainly hated the USSR more than they hated capitalism. Indeed, it was
the intellectuals from the center-left - not the right - who created the term
"totalitarianism" as we know today.
"The personnel of 77 th Brigade is not that of your typical military unit.
Soldiers in the 77th Brigade, which was formed in 2015, are based in Berkshire and spend
their time producing video and audio content, using data to understand how the public receives
different messages, and creating "attitude and sentiment awareness" from large sets of social
media data
One of their most infamous members is Gordon MacMillan, a Senior Twitter executive. He
joined the social media company's UK office in 2013, and has for several years also served with
the 77th Brigade, a unit formed in 2015 to develop "non-lethal" ways of waging war.
The 77th Brigade uses social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as
well as podcasts, data analysis and audience research to conduct what the head of the UK
military, General Nick Carter, describes as "information warfare".
Carter says the 77th Brigade is giving the British military "the capability to compete in
the war of narratives at the tactical level" and to shape perceptions of conflict. Some
soldiers who have served with the unit say they have been engaged in operations intended to
change the behaviour of target audiences.
What exactly MacMillan is doing with the unit is difficult to determine, however: he has
declined to answer any questions about his role, as has Twitter and the UK's Ministry of
Defence (MoD).
Twitter would say only that "we actively encourage all our employees t o pursue external
interests". The MoD said that the 77th Brigade had no relationship with Twitter, other than
using it for communication.
The current training regime of the soldiers is unclear. Back in 2008, an annual report by 15
(UK) Psychological Operations Group showed that there was a "robust training" going on for all
incoming troops, and current ones as well.
This involved internal, as well as external trainings."
-------------
There is something vaguely ominous about all this. The US capability to do similar things is
spread all over the government; CIA, USAID, Army Psyops, USIA, etc.
This UK thing is consolidated, has a lot of social media people and academics as reservists
and has the typical clubbiness of British upper class institutions. I wonder what the tie looks
like.
The White Helmet film company has to be connected to this as well as the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights.
and as far as i am concerned the UK and USA are tied at the hip in all of this too... sad
kettle of fish when your own country is propagandizing you.. 5 eyes is like the blind leading
the blind at this point...
Great. More sources of gaslighting and censorship. Just what's needed to advance
authoritarianism and thwart democracy.
I read some thought-provoking comments somewhere yesterday that essentially said if
leftists' ideas were truly popular, why do they have to resort to censorship, election fraud
and other unscrupulous means?
So we've come full circle to the subject of the article I posted damned near exactly four
years ago. That one got a lot of people's panties in a twist. Propaganda. Information
operations. The theory of reflexive control. We all do it. Rather than using pamphlets and
loudspeakers, we now use the internet and social media. The difference lies in the speed and
spread of these "dark arts" in the world today. That and the complete obliteration of the
line between tactical and strategic in this field.
Used to be that little chat rooms would pop up on the internet run by employees of this or
that organisation. I remember one run by a senior police officer that was devoted to the
dubious doings of even more senior officers. That one got taken down suddenly when the doings
spoken of got a bit too dubious.
I imagine that having spent the best part of his career feeling collars the blogging
Inspector found an irate superior feeling his. The entire site, back numbers and all,
disappeared in a flash and was never seen again.
Similarly a few years back I happened upon a chat room allegedly run by army personnel. At
that time 77 Brigade was putting the word out that it was needing staff. The comments weren't
enthusiastic. Housing tricky. Terrible commute. It'd be no more than "Three men and a Doris
in a hut". And the comments then tailed off into a seemingly well-informed discussion about
the local talent in the Aldershot area.
So well informed that, knowing how interested Army men are in that subject, I marked the
site down as possibly genuine. Probably was genuine too, since that chat room disappeared in
a flash as well.
So I took something of a proprietorial interest in 77 Brigade. Adopted it, one might say.
When submitting comments to English sites on Brexit (Don't go there. Could be the saddest
subject on the planet.) I was sometimes accused of being a troll for Brussels. Or of course
for Putin. I would rebut all such suggestions by proudly announcing I was with 77 Brigade and
the tea was dreadful. I remembered Doris, you see, and something told me that tea-making
wasn't one of her strengths.
And now my draughty hut (I had imagined typewriters and bulky coding machines but that
would surely be anachronistic) has morphed into just another part of the squalid world of
information warfare. From Oxbridge and Dearlove and Halpern and the select souls in academia
down through the media and the think tanks and right down to the scrubby little subsidised
websites and the Bellingcats. Your article has substituted reality for my cosy little troll
farm and I suppose I'll have to give my allegiance to the BND now or some such boring
outfit.
Shame. Not something one would mention to SHMBO but I'd always got on well with
Doris.
and thus part of a service family over several generations.
I have heard suggestions that in "retirement" Sir Gordon MacMillan was encouraged to
engage in gentlemanly lobbying on behalf of local, beleaguered Clyde shipbuilding yards when
tenders for constructing new vessels were issued by HMG up to around 1980.
It can be quite good sport finding their interactions, they have shall we say, a certain
style. Some are good at spotting the tell tell signs, in such cases you will see 77 in the
reply.
"... Democracy cannot work in America because the money of the elite prevails. American democracy is organized in order to prevent the people from having a voice. A political campaign is expensive. The money for candidates comes from interest groups, such as defense contractors, Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, the Israel Lobby. Consequently, the winning candidate is indebted to his funders, and these are the people whom he serves. ..."
.... Digital technology has also made it easy to alter vote counts. US Air Force General
Thomas McInerney is familiar with this technology. He says it was developed by the National
Security Agency in order to interfere in foreign elections, but now is in the hands of the
CIA and was used to defeat Trump. Trump is considered to be an enemy of the military/security
complex because of his wish to normalize relations with Russia, thus taking away the enemy
that justifies the CIA's budget and power.
... ... ...
Mainstream media in Europe claim, that Trump had "divided" the United States. But isn`t
it actually the other way around, that his opponents have divided the country?
As the German newspaper editor Udo Ulfkotte revealed in his book, Bought Journalism
, the European and US media speak with one voice -- the voice of the CIA. The very profitable
and powerful US military/security complex needs foreign enemies. Russiagate was a CIA/FBI
successful effort to block Trump from reducing tensions with Russia. In 1961 in his last
address to the American people President Dwight Eisenhower warned that the growing power of
the military/industrial complex was a threat to American democracy. We ignored his warning
and now have security agencies more powerful than the President.
The military/security complex favors the disunity that the Democrat Party and media have
fostered with their ideology of Identity Politics. Identity politics replaced Marxist class
war with race and gender war. White people, and especially white heterosexual males, are the
new oppressor class. This ideology causes race and gender disunity and prevents any unified
opposition to the security agencies ability to impose its agendas by controlling
explanations. Opposition to Trump cemented the alliance between Democrats, media, and the
Deep State.
... ... ...
The introduction of a report of the Heritage Foundation states that "the United States
has a long and unfortunate history of election fraud". Are the 2020 presidential elections
another inglorious chapter in this long history?
This time the fraud is not local as in the past. It is the result of a well organized
national effort to get rid of a president that the Establishment does not accept.
Somehow you get the impression that in the USA – as in many European countries
democracy is just a facade – or am I wrong?
You are correct. Trump is the first non-establishment president who became President
without being vetted by the Establishment since Ronald Reagan. Trump was able to be elected
only because the Establishment thought he had no chance and took no measures to prevent his
election. A number of studies have concluded that in the US the people, despite democracy and
voting, have zero input into public policy.
Democracy cannot work in America because the money of the elite prevails. American
democracy is organized in order to prevent the people from having a voice. A political
campaign is expensive. The money for candidates comes from interest groups, such as defense
contractors, Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, the Israel Lobby. Consequently, the
winning candidate is indebted to his funders, and these are the people whom he
serves.
European mainstream media are portraying Biden as a luminous figure. Should Biden
become president, what can be expected in terms of foreign and security policy, especially in
regard to China, Russia and the Middle East? I mean, the deep state and the
military-industrial complex remain surely nearly unchanged.
...The military/security complex needs enemies for its power and profit and will be
certain to retain the list of desirable foreign enemies -- Russia, Iran, China, and any
independent-inclined country in Latin America. Being at war is also a way of distracting the
people of the war against their liberties.
What the military/security complex might not appreciate is that among its Democrat allies
there are some, such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are ideological
revolutionaries...
How did the Russiagate hoax feed into the Covid hoax and then feed into the Election hoax?
Ron Paul Institute Director Daniel
McAdams ties them all together in this speech to the Mises Institute 's recent Lake Jackson Seminar with Ron Paul. "All of
a sudden the tweets are gone, the Facebook is gone, the media is gone. Only crazy people are
questioning the most pristine -- the most perfect -- election of all time." Watch it here:
Saturday during an appearance on FNC's "Justice," Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) questioned why
Democrats oppose any investigations into the integrity of the presidential election, despite
their past efforts on the 2016 presidential election.
The Ohio Republican congressman reminded Fox News viewers that Democrats dedicated for years
to the "Russia hoax" but do not want to allow four weeks for an investigation into this year's
presidential election.
"... Meanwhile, the GloboCap propaganda has reached some new post-Orwellian level. After four long years of "RUSSIA HACKED THE ELECTION!" now, suddenly, "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ELECTION FRAUD IN THE USA!" ..."
And, of course, the most important thing is, racism in America is over again!
Yes, that's right, folks, no more racism kiss all those Confederate monuments goodbye! The
Democrats are back in the White House! According to sources, the domestic staff are already
down in the West Wing basement looking for that MLK bust that Trump
ordered removed and desecrated the moment he was sworn into office. College kids are
building pyres of racist and potentially racist books, and paintings, and films, and other
degenerate artworks. Jussie
Smollet can finally come out of hiding .
... No, this is a time for looking ahead to the Brave New Global-Capitalist
Normal , in which everyone will sit at home in their masks surfing the Internet on their
toasters with MSNBC playing in the background well, OK, not absolutely everyone. The affluent
will still need to fly around in their private jets and helicopters, and take vacations on
their yachts, and, you know, all the usual affluent stuff. But the rest of us won't have to go
anywhere or meet with anyone in person, because our lives will be one never-ending Zoom meeting
carefully monitored by official fact-checkers to ensure we're not being "misinformed" or
exposed to "dangerous conspiracy theories" which could potentially lead to the agonized deaths
(or the mild-to-moderate flu-like
illnesses ) of hundreds of millions of innocent people.
... Meanwhile, the GloboCap propaganda has reached some new post-Orwellian level. After
four long years of "RUSSIA HACKED THE ELECTION!" now, suddenly, "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS
ELECTION FRAUD IN THE USA!"
... Call it the "New Normal," or whatever you want. Pretend "democracy has triumphed" if you
want. Wear your mask. Mask your children. Terrorize them with pictures of "death trucks," tales
of "Russian hackers" and "white supremacist terrorists."
After four long years of "RUSSIA HACKED THE ELECTION!" now, suddenly, "THERE IS NO SUCH
THING AS ELECTION FRAUD IN THE USA!"
Why this is not getting more attention I do not know. It was just the other day when
Russia, Iran, and China were influence pedaling of disinformation trying to sway election
results. Facebook was censoring/deleting on a constant basis trying to stem the flow of
fraudulent information from the evil commies.
Not only has Russia been angry and frustrated over the Alexei Navalny fallout where for
months Germany, European countries, and the US have accused the Kremlin of a conspiracy to
assassinate the Putin critic via poisoning, but now Moscow is going gloves off in returning the
favor of the pressure campaign Berlin has been waging.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Thursday plans to sanction German and
French officials as retaliation for EU punitive restrictions on Russian officials related to
the alleged Navalny poisoning.
Before the Aug.20 incident Navalny was a somewhat obscure opposition
activist (Russian officials have routinely dismissed him as a mere "blogger), but after
being emergency airlifted to a Berlin hospital became a central figure amid Western efforts to
push claims of nefarious Putin-sponsored and Russian intelligence hits on "major" opposition
voices, akin to the saga of Skripal poisoning.
Russian officials have long been angry at not being able to conduct their own investigation
or to access Navalny in Berlin. This week France and Germany rolled out with sanctions on a
who's who of top Russian
intelligence and defense officials .
Speaking of Russia's reciprocal sanctions against France and Germany, the [Kremlin]
spokesman stressed that "one couldn't have expected anything different."
"The reciprocity principle works here rather clearly, hardly anyone could have expected
that Russia would leave this without a reaction ," he explained.
In response to a question which officials from Germany and France banned from entering
Russia would correspond to the level of First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential
Administration of Russia Sergei Kiriyenko blacklisted by the West, the Kremlin representative
noted "One can hardly find Kiriyenko's equal but in any case, at least nominally, of course,
it is easy to find a corresponding title."
The Kremlin spokesperson called the allegations related to Navalny "more than dubious."
And now Germany is upset, with a government spokesman on Friday lashing out at the
"unjustified" and "inappropriate" Russian action .
As a Norwegian I can say with some authority that I know what the word "Quisling" means, and
Stoltenberg is following in that "proud" tradition. He is a puppet and collaborator of the
worst kind.
For those who don't know, Quisling was a member of the Norwegian pre-war government in the
1930's. When the German Nazis arrived in the morning of April 9, 1940 and the government and
King escaped northwards, Quisling performed a Coup d'Etat by going on state radio and
declared himself "Minister President", and collaborated with the Nazi occupation forces.
Everybody knew the meaning of the word "Quisling", even the Germans. The story goes that
during the occupation, in one of the illegal resistance pamphlets there was a cartoon showing
Herr Quisling going to Victoria Terasse (Nazi headquarters in Oslo) to visit Josef Terboven
(German Reichskommissar for Norway):
Quisling arrives at the gate and says to the German guard: "I am Quisling"
The guard replies: "And your name please?"
Apparently disregarding Facebook's public-facing image as a fierce opponent of election
meddling by entities not legitimately involved in the political process, Zuckerberg dived into
the fray during a Thursday company-wide town hall, according to an audio of the meeting first
obtained by
Buzzfeed and later confirmed by
CNBC .
"I believe the outcome of the election is now clear and Joe Biden is going to be our next
president," Zuckerberg reportedly told the assembled crowd. "It's important that people
have confidence that the election was fundamentally fair, and that goes for the tens of
millions of people that voted for Trump."
By Caitlin Johnstone , an independent journalist based in Melbourne, Australia. Her website
is here and you can follow her on
Twitter @caitoz
'Trump
derangement syndrome' didn't come from Trump. It came from abusive media trying to spin the
evils of his presidency as somehow worse than any other US president's.
The word "coup" is being thrown about in American liberal media today, not because US
liberals suddenly became uncomfortable with the fact that their nation constantly stages coups
and topples governments around the world as a matter of routine policy, but because they are
all talking about (you guessed it) Donald Trump.
To be clear, none of the high-powered influencers who have been promoting the use of this
word actually believe there is any possibility that Donald Trump will somehow remain in office
after January of next year when he loses his legal appeals against the official results of the
election, which would be the thing that a coup is. There is no means or institutional support
through which the sitting president could accomplish such a thing. This is not a coup, it's a
glorified temper tantrum. Trump will leave office at the appointed time.
The establishment narrative managers are not terrifying their audiences with this word
because they believe there is any danger of a coup actually happening. They are doing it
because it's their last chance to use Trump to psychologically abuse their audiences for
clicks.
... ... ...
It is not Trump himself who's been making people feel terrified of a tyrannical Russian
agent ending democracy in America and ruling with an iron fist, it is years of shrieking,
hysterical coverage about Trump from the mass media.
Without all the deranged and persistent fearmongering, driven by a disdain for Trump's
unrefined narrative management
style and an insatiable hunger for ratings and clicks, it would never have occurred to
Americans that they should be more terrified of this president than of any other sh***y
Reaganite Republican. The Russian collusion narrative which dominated most of Trump's
presidency
turned out tobe essentially
nothing . The concentration camps, millions of deportations and armed militias driving
non-whites out of the country that we were promised never came; he never even
came anywhere close to Obama's deportation numbers and his
support from minorities actually went up. He hasn't been any more warlike than his
predecessors overall, and by some measures arguably less so. Most Americans actually reported that
their lives had improved over Trump's term before the pandemic hit.
If people had just been given raw information about Trump's presidency, they would have seen
a lot of bad things, but things that are bad in the same way all the horrible aspects of the
most destructive government on earth are bad. They wouldn't have known to be horrified and
anxious and have headaches and irritable bowel syndrome. They would have handled themselves in
about the same way they always handled themselves during the administration of a president they
didn't like.
Instead, they were psychologically terrorized. Made frightened, sick and traumatized by mass
media pundits who only care about ratings and clicks, as was made clear when CBS chief Les
Moonves famously
said that Trump is bad for America but great for CBS. Dragged through years of Russia
hysteria and Trump hysteria with any excuse to spin Trump's presidency as a remarkable
departure from norms, when in reality it was anything but. It was a fairly conventional
Republican presidency.
In reality, though most of them probably did not realize it, this is what Americans were
actually voting against when they turned out in record numbers to cast their votes. Not against
Trump, but against this continued psychological abuse they've been suffering both directly and
indirectly from the mass media. Against being bashed in the face by shrieking, hysterical
bull***t that hurts their bodies and makes them feel crazy, and against the unpleasantness of
having to interact with stressed-out compatriots who haven't been putting up well with the
abuse.
It wasn't a "Get him out" vote, it was a "Make it stop" vote.
Meanwhile, another pernicious effect of making Trump seem uniquely horrible has been
retroactively making his predecessors seem nice by comparison, which is why George W Bush now
enjoys majority support among Democrats
after years of unpopularity. Their depravity is hidden behind a media-generated wall labeled
"NOT TRUMP" . And when Biden steps into office, his depravity will be hidden from view in the
same way, neutering all mainstream opposition to his most deadly and dangerous
actions .
The First Rule , 5 hours ago
I certainly hope this isn't True. You should never surrender to Evil.
Too many people succumb to the psychological warfare that has been raging against us for 5
decades. It is very difficult to break free from the indoctrination regardless of
intelligence or education. The backbone of the DemonRat organization is a very strong emotion
that overcomes all logic and reason. It is HATE. Today it is called by the gentle name of
Identity Politics. Nevertheless, it is still a HATE based psychological manipulation. Women
need to HATE men. Blacks need to HATE everyone. Whites need to HATE themselves. Everybody
needs to HATE Trump.
Did anybody vote FOR Biden or Harris?
The DemonRats have the Deep State covering, aiding and abetting their insurrection. As we
have seen, the stupid white people support the peaceful protests and are played like a violin
by the professional agitators likely trained by the CIA & FBI. The BLM aristocracy claims
to be "trained Marxists". Trained by whom? Nobody asks.
The cops are used like trained dogs to attack everyone who opposes the BLM/Antifa
sanctioned riots to the point where citizens are afraid of the cops and the BLM/Antifa people
use the cops for target practice, and the cops just take it. Nobody really respects the FBI
or the cops anymore.
Then there is the constant 24/7 drum beat of propaganda from the MSM and social media
driving people crazy.
Welcome to the world of Kamala Pelosi.
With Trump gone, who will they hate next?
DemonRats: The Party of Lies & HATE
Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of
your own choosing.
- Orwell
archon , 2 hours ago
Every time Maddow speaks she reminds me that we're living in clownworld. Lets not forget
this is coming from people who spent the last four years attempting their own coup.
cankles' server , 4 hours ago
I'm not sure if twitter deleted but here's the youtube link
Third, on the international front, we can expect even more hysterical Russia bashing
(the Dems all hate Russia with a passion, especially since they have brainwashed themselves
for four years that "Putin" had "attacked" the US elections). But there is really nothing
the US can do to Russia, it is way too late for that. So I would expect even more hot air
than from the Trump Administration, and probably not much more action, although that is by
no means certain, since a braindead nominal President like Biden would not have Trump's
intelligence to understand that a war against Russia, China or Iran would end in a
disaster: Dems always start wars to try to convince the public that they are "tough"
(Dukakis in his M-1 tank).
The Dems don't hate Russia it is used as a bogeyman to re direct the populace anget at the
neoliberal social system .
Russia, China, Iran and all the rest of the world probably can't believe their good
fortune the US is destroying itself.
Biden will not be in control of the US, or any part of it he will be in the corner pissing
his pants. The Deep State will be calling the shots.
When Brennan's already purple face almost burst because Trump disputed a CNN story, we
ALREADY had proof that its the CIA who SPONSORS CNN, that without that support CNN could simply
not exist.
I base that on 15 months of LEGALLY living in Russia, long before Trump, and the Russians
themselves were shocked about how much CNN misrepresented Russia.
Half of their coverage of Russia was simply made up, and the half that was based on some
facts was so distorted that it was worthless--giving them more than a 50% error rate.
I never thought they could be off by more than 50% on anything until Trump came along, with
a 92% error rate by their OWN count. Joe Jones Secret Squirrel •
10 hours ago
Forget about the Chinese and the Russians, this fraud was carried out by the douchebags at
our very own, CIA. Those people are the most arrogant bunch of low life's that you will ever
meet. I had to deal with a bunch of them while overseas.
Distinguished Russiagate disciple Michael McFaul upset that Putin hasn't congratulated Biden
for presumed election win
Former US envoy to Russia Michael McFaul is unhappy that Moscow hasn't declared Joe Biden
the election winner without official results, apparently tossing aside years of hysteria about
Kremlin "meddling" in US internal affairs.
McFaul, who became one of the most outspoken proponents of the debunked theory that Moscow
"colluded" with the Trump campaign in 2016, expressed his disappointment on Twitter that
Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet to offer his congratulations to the Democratic
nominee, who declared himself president-elect on Saturday.
"Has Putin joined the chorus of world leaders in congratulating Biden yet? I haven't see
(sic) the statement. Do post if its (sic) out," he wrote. ... Earlier in the day, Fijian Prime
Minister Frank Bainimarama became the first world leader to offer his congratulations to the
former vice president, expressing hope that Biden would help the world navigate a "climate
emergency." Reditus_sum 7 hours ago No doubt that President Putin will be in touch with
Biden if and when he wants to and feels that it is warranted, I really can't imagine how Biden
would cope in any negotiations with one of the sharpest analytical and political minds in the
world today. orseface11 Reditus_sum 6 hours ago Good Lord, that would be a sad state of
affairs. RadicalGoat 8 hours ago So far, only the vassal states have acknowledged Biden's
victory.
Russia has consistently stressed its willingness to work with either candidate -- late last
month, the Kremlin's press secretary Dmitri Peskov rebuffed suggestions that Moscow prefers the
incumbent: "it would be wrong to say that Trump is more attractive to us."
But Russia's political commentary sphere has proven more polarized. Some cite
Biden's readiness to extend the New START treaty without additional conditions as evidence that
Biden is someone that the Kremlin can do business with; others have expressed concern over the
Democratic candidate's "Russophobic" cabinet picks and predict that, under a Biden presidency,
Washington's policy of rollback will escalate to an unprecedented level. But there is also an
overarching belief that Washington's Russia policy is so deeply embedded across U.S.
institutions that not much is likely to change in U.S.-Russian relations.
As Peskov put it, "there is a fixed place on the altar of US domestic policy for hatred of
Russia and a Russophobic approach to bilateral relations with Moscow." Still other commentators
are interested in the process as much as the outcome, drawing attention to ongoing mass unrest and
allegations of electoral misconduct in order to argue that Washington has forfeited its moral
authority to lecture others on proper democratic procedure and the orderly transition of
power.
The Amerikastani Empire, no matter who controls it, may have lost the hypersonic missile
war. So what? They're very effectively using the second method to wage war against Russia,
which is strangulating it steadily because of the neoliberal capitalist Putinist regime's
famous "restraint".
Russia is increasingly surrounded by enemies and the more it exercises "restraint" the
worse the situation gets for it. I do not see a "Harris" (it would actually be a Killary
Clinton) regime make any difference to that at all.
"To be sure, it was Russia's intervention in Syria in 2015 that sealed the deal, proving
that the US did not have the omniscient capability to launch attacks anywhere, anytime
without impunity – '
Ad homenims against Martyanov fail to persuade me that Martyanov's views are in error. I
am disappointed to see such tactics, as they imply that his logic and assessments are
valid.
However I believe you have not addressed my central point. That is that a politically weak
unconsented naif "leader" is classically prone to make war for domestic "authority". Wars can
be lost.
Collapse of Empire often is attended by military defeat. Harris would be terribly tempted
to try to prevent defeat by any means.
So, obviously, would the mooted opponents some of which my colleague has named for us as
Russia.
President Putin has explained what happens if Russia is attacked by the US. "No one would
survive".
To repeat. The essential feature of Harris is weakness, that tends to a pattern of war,
which, at every step, is liable to catastrophic failure.
Anatol Lieven
explains how strategic empathy is supposed to work:
This kind of empathy has very valuable consequences for foreign policy. It makes for an
accurate assessment of another state establishment's goals based on its own thoughts, rather
than a picture of those goals generated by one's own fears and hopes; above all, it permits
one to identify the difference between the vital and secondary interests of a rival country
as that country's rulers see them.
A vital interest is one on which a state will not compromise unless faced with
irresistible military or economic pressure. Otherwise, it will resist to the very limit of
its ability, including, if necessary, by war. A statesman who sets out to challenge another
state's vital interests must therefore be sure not only that his or her country possesses
this overwhelming power, but that it is prepared actually to use it.
American policymakers are notoriously bad at understanding how other governments perceive
things and the reasons why they act in the way that they do, and we have seen on many occasions
how this failure to understand the other side's thinking has led us into one crisis after
another. Our leaders often fail to grasp that they are threatening another country's perceived
vital interests, because they frequently deny that the other government has any legitimate
interests at all. Instead of trying to see an issue from the other side, our leaders will often
insist that there is only one acceptable way of seeing it and it is invariably the same as
ours. If the other government responds angrily to this approach, they are then deemed hostile
and "revisionist" rather than a normal state reacting as any other state would. Practicing this
kind of empathy does not mean agreeing that the other government is right, but it does mean
acknowledging what their actual position is rather than projecting one onto them.
H.R. McMaster likes to talk a lot about practicing strategic empathy, but in fact he refuses
to understand how other governments see the world. He prefers instead to imagine that they are
all driven to achieve ideological, expansionist goals just as he is, and then he warns about
the aggressive intentions that he has imputed to them. This is exactly the opposite of what
Lieven is talking about, and it is nothing more than reading his own hawkish inclinations into
everyone else's worldview. If McMaster were willing to see things as the Russian government or
Chinese government did, he would understand that they perceive aggressive U.S. foreign policy
since the end of the Cold War as a threat, and at least some of their conduct over this same
period has been in reaction to American overreaching. But McMaster doesn't understand this at
all. Instead, he insists that the behavior of other states has nothing to do with U.S. actions
whatsoever, because to admit this would be to acknowledge that an interventionist foreign
policy can create more problems than it solves.
Lieven points out how this lack of empathy has particularly poisoned our dealings with
Russia over the last thirty years:
Straightforward Western prejudices (now dignified with the abominable euphemism of
"narratives") are part of the reason for these false perceptions derived from the Cold War.
The collapse of Communism, however, also led to a growth in Western hubris that led Western
policymakers to fail either to listen to their Russian colleagues when they stated Russia's
vital interests, or to study Russia in sufficient depth to understand that they were not
bluffing but really meant what they said. Instead, you had the tragicomic picture of American
officials lecturing Russian officials on the "real" interests of Russia.
This failure to listen and failure to understand account for a lot of the deterioration in
U.S.-Russian relations. While Russia has contributed to this deterioration, the U.S. has
repeatedly taken actions that our government knew would be perceived as provocations and
threats and went ahead with them anyway. Promoting NATO expansion and promising that Ukraine
and Georgia would eventually become members were some of the big provocations, but beyond
specific issues there is the overarching conceit that Russian interests end at their border
while ours are seemingly limitless. If we were in their position, we would have found this
intolerable as well. Eventually, Russia was bound to push back, and that is what it has been
doing for the last twelve years. Predictably, the pushback has been interpreted in the West as
irrational aggression, and this is just more of the same failure to understand why other states
act as they do.
If we would avoid unnecessary crises and clashes with other states, especially nuclear-armed
major powers, our government has to begin paying closer attention to what other states say
their vital interests are. There needs to be an understanding that the U.S. cannot cajole or
sanction them into giving up those interests, and these interests will always matter far more
to them than they do to us. Our leaders need to start understanding that and then adjusting our
policies accordingly.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel Larison is a senior editor at TAC , where he also keeps a solo blog . He has been published in
the New York Times Book Review , Dallas Morning News , World Politics
Review , Politico Magazine , Orthodox Life , Front Porch Republic, The
American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week . He holds a PhD in
history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter .
Note that an ICBM is not an easy target. In the "boost phase" in can be launched somewhere
near place where the borders of Russia, China and Kazakhstan meet, thousands of kilometers
from any NATO (or allied) installation. Up there in vacuum, ICBM may be decoyed with aluminum
foil balls or something like that. But when landing their course can be accurately calculated
and intercepted (at least, plausibly so). Note that an ICBM is damn fast, so you need to send
a fast missile.
Here LITERALLY comes a twist. Construct a warhead with ability to zigzag while landing.
Turns at that speed (7km/s?) are a technological challenge, but you do not need to turn a lot
to make the future precision sufficiently unpredictable. So Chinese and Russians work on
that. As a counter, Americans are working on hypersonic weapons that would be better in
destroying opponent missiles on the ground before launch, that is a more difficult goal and
thus they "are behind".
The bottom line is that Americans spend many billions (annually) on futile programs
forcing Russia and China to spend resources on counter measures. Would Americans, at long
last, develop stealthy accurate hypersonics for the first strike, a conceptually simple
counter measure is to build thousands of launching sites, each with a decoy of a strategic
nuclear weapon (but some with the real things). They would need to reduce the cost per a
decoy site, more precisely, the ratio between the cost of "launching site destroyer" and
"launching site decoy". Notably, current treaties do not allow for that, so Americans rely on
limitations of the current treaties while breaking them one after another.
2. Actual developments like Syria, Ukraine etc. Biswapriya is notably reticent in
description what a better Russian conduct would be, so the criticism of "neoliberal
capitalist Putinist regime" is not convincing. What a better regime could do?
1. Hypersonic missiles will only ever be used in an all out war, de facto WW III. Which is
overwhelmingly the least likely kind of war. Short of that no use of them is going to happen
except perhaps China-Taiwan. They will certainly not be employed by Russia. Can anyone
imagine Putin using hypersonic missiles in response to a trade blockade by Amerikastan on a
par with the Amerikastani trade blockade of Iran?
2. I have already said exactly what Russia should have done, repeatedly and in great
detail, but if you missed it you can see some of it here:
A few years ago I wrote an article in which I had compared Putin's "restraint" against
Amerikastani provocations not just failures in and of themselves, but direct encouragement to
more provocations. Back in 2014, I had said, Putin was so single issue focussed on the Sochi
Olympics that what even the Amerikastani imperialists STRATFOR called the "most blatant coup
in history" played out in full public view in Kiev, without Russia lifting a finger. I had
written that Putin could have sent in two battalions of Spetsnaz, overthrown Obama's Ukranazi
coup regime, reinstated Viktor Yanukovych, and withdrawn, with the clear statement that if
there were any more coups Russia would return and this time to stay. I remember that when the
militias of the Donbass were desperately raiding museums to secure WWII weapons to take on
Ukranazi armoured columns, when Russian military blogs were demanding "Putin, dai prikaz!"
(Putin, give the order!), Putin kept silent. When the defenders of Donbass had to withdraw
from Slovyansk and were nearly cut into two, when the Ukranazis were at Donetsk airport, when
defeat was only a matter of hours, it was then that Putin allegedly did something. What that
something was I'm not clear about. It was certainly not the dispatch of Russian forces, or
else Russian tanks would have been rolling down the Kiev streets in two days. It may have
been finally sending weapons, allowing volunteers to go to the front to fight (including more
than a few brave and laudable Americans; not all of them are brain-dead imperialists), and
possibly limited artillery support. At any rate, when the defenders of the republics crushed
the Ukranazis at Debaltsevo and were well on the way to liberating Mariupol on the Black Sea,
Putin again withdrew support to them, leaving them without a port and stuck in a frozen war
interrupted by sniping and shelling.
...
But let's ignore the people of the two Donbass republics for the moment and look at the
result of this "restraint". Today, Amerikastani B52 bombers and RC135 reconnaissance planes
fly freely through Ukranazi airspace right up to the Russian border, compelling Russian air
defence systems to turn on their electronic defences, exposing their signatures for analysis
and jamming by said Amerikastanis. Ukranazistan, not being a NATO member officially, is even
more valuable to Amerikastan than it would have been as a NATO member, since it can be used
for staging actions that could not involve NATO without risk of a world war. How's that for
"restraint", Putinoids?
In fact, with the one shining exception of the war against Georgia in defence of South
Ossetia in 2008, when Medvedev – not Putin – was president, Russian foreign
policy has always been criminally defensive and reactive, never proactive. In 2011 Russia
permitted Libya to be destroyed, turning an ally into a jihadi hellhole where a slave trading
human trafficking regime and a CIA asset fight for control. In 2015 Syria was on the verge of
collapse when Putin belatedly and reluctantly sent just enough planes and troops to save
Damascus and help the legitimate government of Dr Assad liberate Aleppo, but failed to do a
thing to stop the north and east turn into, respectively, an Ottoman colony and a Kurd
Quisling puppet state under Amerikastani protection. In 2020 in Belarus it was only the
personal courage and genuine popularity of President Aleksandr Lukashenko that prevented a
colour revolution that would have turned the country into another NATO stooge. The same 2020
saw the Putin regime allow the racist right wing "liberal" Alexei Navalny to be sent to
Germany, and predictably a fake "Novichok poisoning" was immediately manufactured to wreck
EU-Russian relations, which were just about beginning to mend, beyond repair.
"...how war is actually fought in the 21st century - by information control, economic
strangulation, colour revolution, and armed rebellion by proxy..."
Wars were fought like that in the 20th, 19th century, etc. probably all the way back in
history. The purpose of such tactics is to avoid direct conflict, to weaken your oponent, to
draw them into expending resources on debilitating conflicts.
Quotes from "The Art of War" (Sen Zhui, 5h Century BC):
"The greatest victory is that which requires no battle"
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war
first and then seek to win"
The western war against Russia goes back 100s of years.
The point Walter is making is that the US indirect war against Russia is failing and that
the defeated US may seek to "win" by going to a direct conflict with Russia and that a week
person, Harris, may lack the wisdom to prevent, moderate such desires.
Harris is a weak character and it is believed that she is overly fond (reliant) on
alcohol. It seems obvious that she was originally intended to be the democratic nominee but
despite preplanned set pieces (the evisceration of the "racist" Biden) she messed it up and
disappeared in the polls only to resurrected as Biden's running mate. For some reason it
seems very important to have Harris as the VP.
... so the criticism of "neoliberal capitalist Putinist regime" is not convincing. What
a better regime could do?
I think this is correct.
But it doesn't detract from Biswapriya Purkayast's argument that Russia's advantage in
conventional arms is not indicative of Russia's ability to prevail in conflict with the
Empire which engages in 4th-generational warfare.
My own view is that IMO Russia's "answer" to the Empire's 4-gen warfare has been
demonstrated in Ukraine and Syria and their ability to counter 4th-gen warfare will only
improve via Russia's alliance with economic powerhouse China and the SCO military
alliance.
This is consistent with the consensus view at moa that the Empire has a limited time to
smack-down China and/or break up the Russia-China lovefest.
I feel the original Q was probably an actual civil servant with a bit of a speculation,
and gradually was replaced by increasingly more parodical versions of himself.
Why Are These Anti-Russian And Anti-Chinese Narratives So Similar?
After more than four years of Russiagate we finally learn (paywalled
original ) where the Steele dossier allegations about nefarious relations between Trump and
Russia came from:
A Wall Street Journal investigation provides an answer: a 40-year-old Russian
public-relations executive named Olga Galkina fed notes to a friend and former schoolmate who
worked for Mr. Steele. The Journal relied on interviews, law-enforcement records,
declassified documents and the identification of Ms. Galkina by a former top U.S. national
security official.
In 2016, Ms. Galkina was working in Cyprus at an affiliate of XBT Holding SA, a
web-services company best known for its Webzilla internet hosting unit. XBT is owned by
Russian internet entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev.
That summer, she received a request from an employee of Mr. Steele to help unearth
potentially compromising information on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump 's links to
Russia, according to people familiar with the matter. Ms. Galkina was friends with the
employee, Igor Danchenko, since their school days in Perm, a Russian provincial city near the
Ural mountains.
Ms. Galkina often came drunk to work and eventually got fired by her company. She took
revenge by alleging that the company and its owner Gubarev were involved in the alleged hacking
of the Democratic National Committee. A bunch of other false allegations in the dossier were
equally based on Ms. Galkina's fantasies.
So the Steele Dossier that kicked off 4 years of Russiagate hysteria among the US ruling
class was cooked up by two Russian alcoholics from Perm. "Gogolesque" does not begin to
describe the grotesque credulity & stupidity of the American elites.
The tales in the dossier were real disinformation from Russians but not ' Russian
disinformation ' of the American Newspeak variant.
The FBI, and others involved, knew very early on that the Steele dossier was a bunch of
lies. But the issue was kept in the public eyes by continues leaks of additional nonsense. All
this was to press Trump to take more and more anti-Russian measures which he did with
unprecedented generosity . The accusations about a Trump-Russia connection were the 'Russia
bad' narrative that pressed and allowed Trump to continue the anti-Russian policies of the
Obama/Biden administration.
A similar string of continuous policies from the Obama/Biden administration's 'Pivot to
Asia' and throughout the four years of Trump is the anti-China campaign.
We now hear a lot about Hunter and Joe Biden's
corrupt deals with Chinese entities. These accusations come with more evidence and are far
more plausible than the stupid Steele dossier claims. Their importance is again twofold. They
will be used to press a potential President Joe Biden to act against China but they will
primarily be used to intensify a public anti-China narrative that creates public support for
such policies.
I don't know how or at what level, but we are being played. A narrative is being aggressively
rammed down our throats about China in
exactly the same way it was being aggressively rammed down our throats about Russia four
years ago;
two unabsorbed nations
the US government has long had
plans to attack and undermine .
Russiagate was never really about Trump. It was never about his campaign staff meeting with
Russians, it was never about a pee tape, it was never about an investigation into any kind of
hidden loyalties to the Kremlin. Russiagate was about
narrative managing the United States into a new cold war with Russia with
the ultimate target being its far more powerful ally China, and ensuring that Trump
played along with that agenda.
...
If Biden gets in we can expect the same thing: a president who advances escalations against
both Russia and China while being accused of the other party of being soft on China.
Both parties will have their foot on the gas toward brinkmanship with a nuclear-armed nation,
with no one's foot anywhere near the brakes.
ByGlenn Diesen, an Associate Professor at the University of South-Eastern
Norway and an editor at the Russia in Global Affairs journal. Follow him on Twitter
@glenndiesen Will Biden's apparent election victory mean the end of Russiagate and the
restoration of normal democratic discourse in the US, or will opponents of the status quo
continue to be branded as Kremlin patsies by the elite?
Despite the hysteria it unleashed in the press, Russiagate didn't reveal any actual
collusion between US President Donald Trump and the Russian government, although it did expose
how democratic institutions are threatened by corruption in the political-media class. What
happens when the anti-Russia barrage is used to target the political opposition?
The information war between the West and Russia inevitably tears away at democratic
institutions. The anti-Russia foreign policy consensus, cultivated throughout the Cold War, has
been one of the few areas enjoying bipartisan support. The absence of counter-perspectives
enabled a rot to fester in elite circles as accusations against Russia go unchallenged.
What would happen if a political leader broke with the foreign policy consensus? In 2016,
this question was answered as Trump ran on a platform of getting along with Russia and even
questioning the necessity of NATO, a military bloc designed to contain an adversary that no
longer exists.
Russiagate 1.0 – Election collusion
Hillary Clinton saw an opportunity to discredit Trump by concocting a conspiracy theory.
Declassified notes prove that CIA Director John Brennan briefed then-President Barack Obama
about how Clinton fabricated the Russian-Trump conspiracy theory as "a means of distracting
the public from her use of a private email server" and "to vilify Donald Trump by
stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service."
The source of 'Russiagate' was the infamous Steele Dossier. In 2016, the Clinton campaign
hired Fusion GPS to find dirt on Trump, which was subcontracted to former British spook
Christopher Steele. What could possibly go wrong with hiring the former head of the Russia Desk
at MI6, with a job description that also entailed disseminating disinformation?
Former National Security Agency Technical Director Bill Binney proved that the Democratic
National Committee servers were never hacked, and the Mueller report drove the final stake
through the heart of the Steele Dossier. Yet, Steele's outrageous claims based on hearsay and
third-hand gossip should have been dismissed immediately.
An ongoing investigation explores why the FBI and CIA did not reject the flawed report. In
his congressional testimony to explain how this fake dossier led to the surveillance of Trump,
former FBI Director James Comey claimed 245 times that he "can't recall," "can't
remember," and "doesn't know." Yet, the narrative of Russiagate lives on, as much of
the media wants it to be true.
Any opposition to the narrative could be dismissed with an ad hominem attack and accusations
of carrying water for Putin. The political left – traditionally skeptical of the
intrusive influence of the security state and a compliant media manufacturing consent –
reinvented itself by denouncing criticism of the CIA as blasphemy and demands for press
accountability as an attack on democracy.
Russiagate 2.0 – the Biden scandal
The Biden laptop scandal, breaking immediately before the presidential election, sparked a
swift return to the old Russiagate formula. The pay-to-play corruption scheme of the Biden
family was not the most interesting revelation; rather, it was the rapid response of the
security state and the media.
The story began when Hunter Biden, Joe's son, left his laptop at a computer repair shop for
over 90 days, and ownership of the laptop was then transferred to the repairman in accordance
with the agreement. The technician, concerned about the content, contacted the FBI. Due to the
lack of response, the technician then sent a copy of the hard drive to Rudy Giuliani, the
former mayor of New York and current lawyer of Trump. Giuliani shared some of the content with
the New York Post, which published the alleged evidence of corruption.
Twitter and Facebook reacted immediately with censorship. The newspaper's story could not be
shared by anyone and the New York Post, one of the oldest publications in the US, had its
Twitter account suspended. One after another, various media outlets dismissed the article as
Russian disinformation to justify why Facebook and Twitter had censored the news.
Thus, Facebook and Twitter could then refer to the media reports dismissing it as a Russian
disinformation campaign. Subsequently, the circular reporting created a false confirmation.
Fifty former intelligence officers who signed a letter claiming the incident was probably
Russian disinformation further substantiated this narrative.
Unlike the first Russiagate, the narrative of Russiagate 2.0 simply made no sense. Never
mind the lack of any evidence – there was not even a theory. This time it was not even
possible to invent a hypothetical situation where Russia played a role. It is proven that
Hunter Biden handed the laptop to the repairman, and the repairman handed the content to the
FBI and Giuliani. The accusation of 'Russian disinformation' made little sense when the
material is real and there is no possible role for Russia in the scandal.
Can the
democratic process be restored?
Democracy demands that the process is more important than the outcome. Yet, this logic was
challenged with the premise that a Trump presidency entails the dismantlement of democracy.
Then the end justifies the means, and journalists increasingly deemed their responsibility to
report in a manner that would bring down a man they see as an 'Orange Hitler'.
With the return of the old guard, the utility of the Russian boogeyman in US politics can
come to an end. Can the Humpty Dumpty of democratic institutions be put together once Trump is
removed, or will the goalpost merely be moved by going after future Trumps?
Jill Stein, Bernie Sanders, 'Moscow Mitch' McConnell, and Tulsi Gabbard have all been
accused of the grave crime of being agents or stooges of the Kremlin for failing to fall in
line. Whistleblowers and publishers like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange were denounced by
security institutions and the media as Russian agents.
Will a Biden presidency put an end to Russiagate and restore democratic institutions, or
intensify the neo-McCarthyism of the past four years to consolidate power?
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the
author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
And this is also another opportunity of all the other stuff the US could have demanded
their allies should do as well as the USA that they haven't done because it would have caused
extreme autof/kery, sic banning the sale of airliners, engines, electronics etc. Russia could
simply have pulled its titanium supply. Guess who's share prices would tank first and all the
consequences?
As we have pointed out here before, while the US is exhorting u-Rope to 'take on for the
team,' mega-corps (though weakening) like GE has arrange full localization of its turbine
(power/mineral extraction) business with a local Russian partner. Yes. GE, Microsoft and
others told the White House to f/k off. Not in public.
What we see is salami slicing sanctions (SSS) where the west adds small slices here and
there that do add up, the latest being on suppling microelectronics to the Russian aviation
industry. This is to hobble Russia's investment in its current rebuilding of its civil
airliner industry or what's left of it. These sanction are a dick move precisely because they
are easy and get support from both american political parties.
We have also covered on this blog many times before, cutting Russia off from the Joy of
Sex West, they've cut their own markets off (retail/food produce etc.) which Russia
has in turn finally massively self-invested for domestic products and also up market
equivalents. That's cost u-Rope billions not only in lost sales, but in future sales share
that will not return to where it once was.
So, cutting off western microelectronics for aircraft looks even more weak p*ss
considering Russia's state strategic program of Russianizing its aircraft programs despite
the obvious up front cost. Russia was doing this anyway because it was obvious which way the
wind was blowing. Either they get on with it or they will be forced to do it.
The west is running out of any meaningful sanctions they can enact without causing futher
blowback. How stupid is that? It's the product of thirty years of 'Do Something'
policy however dumb or short sighted because the West has to be seen to do something. The
concept of Leave it Alone has never crossed their minds. It really is an ad dick tion!
😉 Just don't expect to finding them in a self-help group admitting to all the nasty
s/t they've done and as part of their step program, reaching out and apologizing for any of
it. Neither them nor their media supporting hamsters.
In Lavrov's interview with Kommersant which was mostly about the conflict between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, he was asked about the US Election and then about the dire state of
relations with the EU. Lavrov reiterates Russia's position:
"I repeat once again that Russia will respect the choice of the American people, and that
we are ready to establish constructive cooperation with the winner of the race for the White
House, regardless of his party affiliation. However, considering the current circumstances,
we realistically assess the prospects of bilateral cooperation and do not expect too much.
Anyhow, let's wait for the voting results. We don't have long to wait."
Yes, the interview was done prior to the vote counting anarchy. IMO, we can substitute the
Outlaw US Empire for the EU in Lavrov's answer about the current crisis in relations:
"Russia's relations with the European Union are in crisis – and it is not our fault.
The EU bureaucracy and individual member states are using any, even the most absurd, reasons
to enhance something they call 'containment' of Russia.
"New sanctions, illegitimate from the international law perspective, are being imposed.
Considering the number of sanctions imposed on our citizens under far-fetched pretexts, the
EU is second only to the United States. The European media continue a broad anti-Russia
campaign. In trade and economy, the Brussels bureaucracy is stepping up various protectionist
policies, violating WTO rules and introducing its openly politicised rules of the game as
they go.
"At the same time, we are being told that Russia can "earn" the right to have normal
relations with the EU by changing its behaviour. This cynicism is absolutely off the
scale."
Lavrov repeats it's up to the EU to alter its behavior:
"[O]ur European colleagues must clearly understand that any interaction is only possible
on an honest and equal basis and respect for each other's interests. We will not allow any
one-sided games here. There will be no unilateral goodwill gestures on our part. We still
hope that a rational approach and common sense will prevail, both in Brussels and in member
capitals. We are ready to wait for that as well."
National security parasites want taxpayers money. Badly.
Notable quotes:
"... Just days before the 2020 election the bureaucratic forces behind the original claim of Russian hacking of state election-related websites in 2016 launched a new drive to spawn fears of Moscow-made political chaos in the wake of the voting. ..."
"... The new narrative was not consistent with information previously published by the the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security's new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), however. It was so incoherent, in fact, that it suggested a state of panic on the part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials worried about a possible transition to a Joe Biden administration. ..."
"... Krebs' warning of a possible Russian announcement that hackers had succeeded in disrupting the result of the U.S. election was so removed from reality that it suggested internal panic DHS over the failure of Russian hackers to do anything that could be cited as interfering the election. ..."
"... Two days after Krebs' dubious warning, the FBI and the DHS's new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an "alert" reporting that "a Russian state-sponsored APT [Advanced Persistent Threat] actor" known as "Berserk Bear" had "conducted a campaign against a wide variety of US targets." ..."
"... On October 28, Krebs elaborated on the latter theme in an interview with the PBS NewsHour . Referring inaccurately to government warnings about "Russian interference, some of which targeted voter registration," which the FBI-CISA alert had never mentioned, PBS interviewer William Brangham asked, "Do you worry at all that there might be infiltration that we are not aware of?" ..."
"... Instead of correcting Brangham's inaccurate suggestion, Krebs responded that "infiltration" into voter registration files was "certainly possible," but that "[W]e have improved the ability to detect compromises or anomalous activity." ..."
Reprinted from The Grayzone with
the author's permission.
A Department of Homeland Security election alert spawning new Russia fears was so
incoherent and inconsistent with previous findings, it suggested a state of political panic
inside the agency.
Just days before the 2020 election the bureaucratic forces behind the original claim
of Russian hacking of state election-related websites in 2016 launched a new drive to spawn
fears of Moscow-made political chaos in the wake of the voting.
The new narrative was not consistent with information previously published by the the
FBI and the Department of Homeland Security's new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security
Agency (CISA), however. It was so incoherent, in fact, that it suggested a state of panic on
the part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials worried about a possible
transition to a Joe Biden administration.
On October 20, Christopher Krebs, the head of CISA, issued a
video statement expressing confidence that "it would be incredibly difficult for them to
change the outcome of an election at the national level." Then he abruptly changed his tone,
adding, "But that doesn't mean various actors won't try to introduce chaos in our elections
and make sensational claims that overstate their capabilities. In fact, the days and weeks
just before and after Election Day is the perfect time for our adversaries to launch efforts
intended to undermine your confidence in the integrity of the electoral process."
Krebs' warning of a possible Russian announcement that hackers had succeeded in
disrupting the result of the U.S. election was so removed from reality that it suggested
internal panic DHS over the failure of Russian hackers to do anything that could be cited as
interfering the election.
Two days after Krebs' dubious warning, the FBI and the DHS's new Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an "alert" reporting that "a
Russian state-sponsored APT [Advanced Persistent Threat] actor" known as "Berserk Bear" had
"conducted a campaign against a wide variety of US targets."
Since "at least September," according to the DHS alert, the DHS warning claimed that it
had targeted "dozens" of "US state, local, territorial and tribal government networks." It
even claimed that the supposed Russian campaign had compromised the network infrastructure of
several official organizations and "exfiltrated data from at least two victims servers". At
the same time, it acknowledged there was "no indication" that any government operations had
been "intentionally disrupted."
The report went on to suggest, "[T]here may be some risk to elections information housed
on SLTT [state, local territorial and tribal] government networks." And then it abruptly
shifted tone and level of analysis to offer the speculation that the Russian government "may
be seeking access to obtain future disruption options, to influence US policies or actions",
or to "delegitimize" the "government entities".
On October 28, Krebs elaborated on the latter theme in an interview with the PBS
NewsHour . Referring inaccurately to government warnings about "Russian interference,
some of which targeted voter registration," which the FBI-CISA alert had never mentioned, PBS
interviewer William Brangham asked, "Do you worry at all that there might be infiltration
that we are not aware of?"
Instead of correcting Brangham's inaccurate suggestion, Krebs responded that
"infiltration" into voter registration files was "certainly possible," but that "[W]e have
improved the ability to detect compromises or anomalous activity."
Krebs then homed in on a scenario he obviously wanted the public to focus on: "[Y]ou might
see various actors, foreign powers, claim that they were able to accomplish something, [that]
they were able to hack a database or hack the vote count. And it's simply not true."
Although the October 22 alert did not assert any deliberate Russian government hack of
election-related sites, Krebs sought to keep speculation about both Russian capabilities and
intent alive.
The buried alert that undermined the frightening official assessment
Eleven days before Krebs debuted his speculation about Russia claiming to have hacked US
elections, the FBI and CISA issued a separate alert that seriously undercut
his questionable claims.
The earlier document was clearly referring to the very same efforts by hackers to break
into various websites address in the October 22 alert. It not only referred to the same state
and local government networks and to the wider range of targets affect but also mentioned
precisely the same technical vulnerabilities that were targeted in the series of hacks.
The alert further stated that, "[I]t does not appear these targets are being selected
because of their proximity to elections information ." In other words, the two US agencies
conceded they had no basis for attributing to any of the hacks in question to any election
interference plot.
The most striking difference between the two alerts, however, was that the October 9 alert
did not refer to any "Russian state-sponsored APT actor" as the October 22 one did. Instead,
it simply pointed to "APT actors" in the plural, indicating that the US intelligence
community had no evidence indicating a single actor was at work, let alone one that was
"Russian-state sponsored."
Contrary to the impression that US officials may have conveyed in referencing an "Advance
Persistent Threat," or APT,
it is now widely understood by cybersecurity specialists that this term no longer refers
to a state-sponsored actor. That is because the sophisticated tools and techniques once
associated with state-sponsored hacking have now become available to a much wider range of
cyber actors. Indeed, the codes for such high-end tools have been identified in the
Shadow Brokers and Vault 7
leaks, and the tools have been marketed widely at affordable prices on the dark web.
The October 9 alert firmly established the dearth of evidence on the part of CISA and FBI
about a Russian state-sponsored hacking team planning elections-related operations in the US
The sudden pivot days later to an unqualified claim that a single state-sponsored APT had
been responsible for the same very large range of operations should have been accompanied by
claims of substantial new intelligence, or at least a reference to the evidence underlying
the dramatic new reversal. But no such proof ever arrived.
Scott McConnell, the spokesman for CISA, promised the Grazyzone on October 29 that he
would provide someone to answer questions about the October 22 alert by the close of business
Friday. In the end, however, no one from CISA responded, and there was no answer on
McConnell's line.
The peculiar reversal by the DHS and CISA on the hacking claims raise questions about the
institutional considerations taken by these agencies. Did indications that President Donald
Trump's campaign was faltering inform their decision to issue a more stridently anti-Russian
assessment in hopes of surviving a political transition?
The US officials who drew up the initial pre-election alert seemed keenly aware that
despite that drumbeat of over the past two years, no state-sponsored Russian hacking of
election institutions was underway. But as the Trump campaign sputtered, they had their own
careers to consider. Days later, DHS and CISA declared the wily Russians guilty of yet
another malign operations – albeit one that would not require the slightest evidence to
provide, and which proved impossible to explain.
Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist specializing in US national
security policy, received the UK-based Gellhorn Prize for journalism for 2011 for articles on
the U.S. war in Afghanistan. His new book is
Manufactured Crisis: the Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. He can be contacted
at [email protected]
.
"... Plenty has been said about the cheapness of Borat's humor, and the tiredness of the shtick. Likewise, many have observed that Cohen's comedy -- always heavily political -- has crossed the line into blatant politicking, especially with respect to the Giuliani interview. But there is more than enough here to suggest that the politics run much deeper than might be evident at first glance. ..."
Ayman Abu Aita is a family man. For years, he was a grocer by trade, running his shop in
Bethlehem while serving on the board of the Holy Land Trust, a nonprofit group working for
peaceful reconciliation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Like many Palestinians, he is a
Christian, a practicing member of the Greek Orthodox Church.
He must have been as shocked as everybody else to see his face broadcast across the world
above the identifier: "ayman abu aita, terrorist group leader, al-aqsa martyrs brigade."
The interview in question -- conducted in character by Sacha Baron Cohen and featured in his
movie Bruno -- had been held under false pretenses, and deceptively edited to boot.
Abu Aita pursued legal action and, in a rare (albeit measured) victory for one of Cohen's
victims, managed to settle out of court. The lawsuit
ended in 2012, and the interview had been conducted in 2009, so this all may seem like
ancient history. But a few of the episode's more bizarre details have never been adequately
explained, and Borat's carefully timed return ought to revive our interest.
In addition to his long record of peaceful activism -- which had earned Abu Aita two years
in an Israeli jail on unsubstantiated charges -- Baron Cohen's fake terrorist just happens to
have been a parliamentary candidate in Palestine at the time of the Bruno debacle.
Thanks to Cohen's actions, Abu Aita received
death threats and sustained serious damage to his reputation, his business, and his
campaign.
While it remains possible that Abu Aita was a random victim, it practically defies belief:
why travel halfway across the world to interview a random person who is manifestly not
a terrorist? Had the goal here solely been the bit, the same scene could have been shot for a
fraction of the cost in a cheap LA motel, with an unknown actor of a reasonably believable
ethnic extraction. It is immensely difficult to consider the great lengths to which Cohen went
in painting Abu Aita as a terrorist to be somehow independent of who he was, of his years of
political activity, and of the damage done to him by the stunt. It is hard to see any of this
as accidental.
In Abu Aita's account , the
interview "was set up via Awni Jubran, a journalist for the Palestinian news agency, PNN," with
the supposed purpose of discussing peace efforts and life in Palestine. Cohen, in an interview
with David Letterman the week after Bruno 's premiere, offered a somewhat different
account of how he first became interested in Abu Aita. Out of character, clean-shaven, sporting
a t-shirt, a blazer, and the Queen's English, Cohen provided a sometimes-necessary reminder
that he is neither a poor Kazakh reporter nor a gay Austrian fashionista, but an obscenely
wealthy, Cambridge-educated Brit. This rarely seen, authentic Cohen informed Letterman that he
had sought a list of names from a contact at the CIA, and from there did some asking around in
the Middle East until he located the "terrorist" he wound up interviewing. The million
questions that ought to arise from this admission -- Who does Cohen know at the CIA, and why?
Why did this CIA contact share any information with him? What was the CIA's interest in Abu
Aita? and countless others -- were simply brushed aside, and the conversation continued.
In his answer to Abu Aita's complaints, Cohen swore, through his lawyers, that the
statements in question were "substantially true." Likewise, Letterman's answer attested to the
substantial truth of the interview while also "admit[ting] Cohen stated that he received
information from a contact at the 'C.I.A.'" While substantial truth in libel and slander law
allows for "slight inaccuracies of expression," any conceivable definition of the term still
includes Cohen's insistence on the sincerity of the CIA claim.
* * *
Fast forward eight years, and Cohen once again has his sights set on a candidate for office.
This time it's the vice president of the United States, in the midst of a heated reelection
campaign. (Cohen has never been shy about his Trump/Pence hatred, and has often stated publicly
that his sole reason for returning to his trademark brand of activist comedy was to help bring
an end to the present administration.)
On Thursday, February 27th, a man dressed as Donald Trump burst into the Potomac Ballroom at
the Gaylord in National Harbor, MD, where Vice President Pence was addressing the Conservative
Political Action Conference (CPAC). With a woman in a green dress and ripped tights slung over
his shoulder, the man shouted something at the vice president in labored and heavily accented
English. Ian Walters, communications director of the American Conservative Union which runs
CPAC, said that it sounded vaguely obscene (suffice it to say the impersonator bungled the VP's
surname) but he could not make out clearly what the man was saying. Video footage of the
incident shows the crowd clearly appalled, and the pair were quickly escorted out by CPAC
security, Secret Service agents, and officers of the Prince George's County Police
Department.
Though no charges were pursued, the police report from the incident identifies the man as
Sacha Noem Cohen, while the woman identified is a stunt double who has worked extensively in
Hollywood. ( TAC has been in touch with the woman in question, but she had not
responded to our inquiries as of press time.) The PGPD report claims that all information was
shared with CPAC security, who then confiscated the pair's access passes. But CPAC personnel
maintain that they were never informed of Cohen's identity, and did not confiscate any pass
that would have tipped them off.
The police department's claim is hard to square with CPAC personnel's obvious confusion
about the events that followed. Over the next two days, two more Trump impersonators appeared
at the convention, both in professional-grade costumes. The third and final Trump impersonator
was detained by the Secret Service. His prosthetics were so elaborate that he had to call an
associate -- a professional makeup artist -- to assist in their removal so that the Secret
Service could confirm his identity. That wasn't the only person who came to help him, though:
Brian Stolarz, an attorney specializing in white-collar criminal defense, was at the ready.
From there, an hour and a half passed before the big event: somebody ran through a highly
trafficked area of the hotel in full Klan robes, while numerous CPAC attendees looked on in
horror. Security arrived quickly, and the Klan impersonator was detained as well. Stolarz --
the lawyer who had shown up for the Trump impersonator that same day -- was on the scene here
too, further confirming the link between what otherwise might have passed for unrelated
episodes.
Given everything that has occurred in the interim -- COVID became the big news just a few
days after CPAC -- most people seem to have forgotten that the Klansman story took on a life of
its own at the time. Because Cohen's presence was not made public at the time, despite the
discovery of his identity on Thursday, speculation ran wild. Clips of a man in Klan robes
running through CPAC made the rounds on the internet -- often, according to Walters, via
accounts that seemed obviously bogus. In addition to the social media buzz, the CPAC incidents
were given a good bit of airtime in major news outlets. The ACU fielded calls from, among
others, leaders of D.C.'s Black Lives Matter, outraged that one of the largest gatherings of
mainstream conservatives in the country would tolerate a Klansman strolling through. (The
initial clips that surfaced did not show the horrified reactions of actual CPAC attendees, nor
the actor's detainment by security.) Just as with the Abu Aita interview, what was ostensibly a
comedy act apparently doubled as a very real political influence operation.
It was more than six months before what actually happened at CPAC became apparent to the
public. With Borat Subsequent Moviefilm 's hurried release (a week and a half before
Election Day), the Trump impersonators and the Klansman were all shown to be part of a massive
Cohen stunt -- perhaps his biggest to date. But it is worth considering how carefully the film
itself glosses over the complexity of this production. Walters estimates that a team of a dozen
unauthorized security personnel were operating at CPAC, accompanying a slightly larger,
undercover film crew. It came to the attention of CPAC personnel that this group had rented,
and were operating out of, a block of rooms at the nearby Westin. All of these personnel had
purchased access passes to CPAC (which aren't cheap) and security also suspected that some
registration credentials may have been forged -- with top-notch equipment and skill, at that.
Walters estimated the cost of the operation to be somewhere around a quarter of a million
dollars, if not more.
To an impartial observer, this all would seem to be not a goofy comedy sketch, but a serious
information op at a major political event in the midst of an important election year. In a way,
it was: all these scenes existed independently, floating around the internet -- forming
opinions and sparking controversies and stoking hatred -- for months before they were folded
into the context of the film. First as tragedy and then as farce, right?
* * *
Between the CPAC saga and the movie's release, another major operation -- in some ways more
complex than that in February -- had been carried out at the end of June. The third annual
March for Our Rights rally was set to be a small affair, operated out of one organizer's
flatbed truck, run by a local crew with hardly any budget to speak of.
A few months before the event, though, the rally's three organizers -- Allen Acosta, Matt
Marshall, and Tessa Ashley -- were contacted by a production company who asked to film at the
event for a documentary. Something seemed off, and the organizers declined. Then, just a few
weeks out from the rally, they were contacted by a group representing themselves as a PAC based
in Southern California. The name they used was "Back-to-Work USA," and beside a cell phone
number -- which now goes to voicemail -- and one press release, there was little out there to
attest to their existence. Again, the organizers were skeptical, but the group seemed eager to
offer financial support.
Acosta, who has been the event's lead organizer in each of the three years it's occurred,
started out slow. He asked the two women from "Back-to-Work" -- the names they gave were Tamara
Young and Mary Harris -- if their group would pay to rent out porta-potties for the event. When
they followed through, he took it as a sign that they were legitimate, and that their offer of
support was sincere. At breakneck pace, the supposed PAC contracted a professional stage and
other equipment, an army of security, and a number of legitimate musical acts, including Larry
Gatlin. In all, the expenses -- the group virtually paid for the whole event -- amounted to
tens of thousands of dollars.
The morning of June 27th, Acosta kept close watch over the setup. He directed participants,
including Young and Harris, exactly where to park their cars. He gave a security briefing to
the team that Back-to-Work USA had hired -- about 40 locals hired for the day. Once the event
began, he immersed himself in the crowd, making conversation with attendees and making sure
everything went smoothly audience-side.
Meanwhile, the Back-to-Work crew claimed they were rushing to get one more act to warm the
crowd up for Gatlin. They told Marshall that they had found one at the last minute, and in the
middle of the action neither he nor any of the other event organizers had much time to vet the
new find.
The first portion of the event, which featured stump speeches from conservative political
candidates, was wrapping up, and they were ready to pivot to the entertainment segment, with
Gatlin headlining. At this point, organizers noticed a substantial swell in the crowd. Acosta
didn't think anything of it at the time, as he had encouraged people who might not be
interested in the political rally to come enjoy the music nonetheless. In retrospect, a number
of the new arrivals seem suspect. Notably, a group with Gadsden and Confederate flags were
standing off in the back, hesitant to join the main body of people even at Acosta's urging.
Looking back on the moment months later, he said it was "like they were waiting for a cue."
It was then that Acosta got a call from the police. One woman, upset by some Trump flags at
the rally, was causing a scene across the street. A few attendees were engaging with her
verbally. Acosta went over to help get a handle on the situation. The lone protestor continued
for about 15 minutes, and her outburst escalated until she was eventually arrested. At that
point, Acosta crossed back over to rejoin the event.
As soon as he returned, he was met with complaints from worried parents: somebody was
walking through the crowd with a backward-facing camera in his backpack, which the parents
thought was pointed down to the level of their children. Acosta actually found the man, and was
questioning him when a commotion broke out in the area of the stage. Acosta turned in that
direction, and in the blink of an eye the man had bolted for the parking lot.
The ruckus that caught Acosta's attention has been widely publicized, though very little of
what actually happened has broken into the mainstream narrative. The second act which
"Back-to-Work" had supposedly booked last minute was actually Sacha Baron Cohen, in character
as Borat who was in character as "Country Steve." Country Steve sang a song about injecting
various liberals with the Wuhan flu, as well as chopping up journalists "like the Saudis do."
Parts of the song also featured anti-Semitic undertones.
This was hardly met without resistance: one video -- distinctly absent from most reporting
of the event -- shows a young attendee, draped in an Israeli flag, grabbing a bullhorn and
rushing to the front of the crowd to confront Cohen. At the same time, Marshall and one other
rally participant (who happens to be the son of a Holocaust survivor) managed to get past
Cohen's security -- with a good bit of effort -- and chase him off the stage. In a late-October
interview with Steven Colbert, Cohen claimed that one of the two men reached for his gun while
rushing the stage. Marshall, who was carrying an unloaded pistol at the event, denies that this
ever happened. Cohen seems to relish the idea that he has placed himself in danger for these
stunts: he claimed to Letterman that his interview with Abu Aita was conducted at a secret
location, with two hulking bodyguards accompanying the "terrorist," while in reality it was
conducted at a popular hotel under Israeli jurisdiction, with Abu Aita accompanied by a
journalist friend and the peace activist who runs the Holy Land Trust.
Country Steve, clearly unwelcome, ran into a staged ambulance that rushed away with the
lights on. Acosta hurried to the parking lot and saw that the cars of the Back-to-Work crew had
all disappeared as well. In a matter of seconds the scam became apparent. But the spin was
quickly applied online: clips of the violent and anti-Semitic song started to pop up on social
media, with the confrontation by the young Jewish activist and the moment where Marshall chased
Cohen offstage conveniently left out. Special attention was given to the members of the crowd
who enthusiastically sang along. But, by and large, these do not seem to be actual attendees of
the March for Our Rights. For the most part, they seem to have come from the group of
bystanders that Acosta suggests were "waiting for a cue." Marshall -- who is convinced that
these were hired extras -- points out that these people are dressed in over-the-top,
stereotypical MAGA get-ups, complete with straw hats and Rebel flags. He also notes that, given
Washington's history and location, Confederate flags simply aren't a part of the culture, even
in more provocative corners of the right.
Nevertheless, the episode was cast as a classic Borat sting: Cohen, it was assumed, had
shown up at this rally, hopped on stage, and easily gotten the right-wingers to show their
racist side. Nobody looked into the immense effort that had gone into the scene. That somebody
had spent tens of thousands of dollars even to get him there, and apparently planted willing
collaborators in the crowd, was hardly considered at all.
Once again, the stunt took on a substantial political character. Reports that right-wing
rally-goers had gleefully participated in Country Steve's act cropped up all over the internet,
bolstered by social media buzz -- supposedly showing the dark underbelly of MAGA-world right
before the election. And once again -- as with CPAC, and Abu Aita, and any number of Cohen's
marks -- great pains were taken to hide just how orchestrated the whole thing was.
* * *
It's interesting how Borat -- within the plot of the movie -- is supposed to have wound up
at the rally in Washington. While quarantining with two new friends -- Jim Russell and Jerry
Holleman, two supposed QAnoners with virtually no online presence -- Borat stumbles upon a
video of his daughter, Tutar (played by newcomer Maria Bakalova) pretending to be a journalist
named Grace. In the clip, Tutar/Grace/Bakalova is interviewing two anti-lockdown activists
about the risk COVID emergency measures pose for a long-term slide into authoritarianism.
What's really interesting here is that this interview actually happened. The two
interviewees, Ashley and Adam Smith, are leaders of ReopenNC, a grassroots movement with over
80,000 members in their Facebook group. On April 22nd -- long before the March for Our Rights
rally in late June -- Ashley received an email from someone using the name Charlotte
Richardson, claiming to be "a producer for More Than Sports TV, a production company working
together with One America News Network on a documentary that explores the horrors of socialism
and its corrosive impact on creativity, success and innovation here in America." More Than
Sports TV had a website, registered in November of 2019. Likewise, Held Back, the supposed
documentary project in the works, had a website that was just registered on March 9th of this
year. (Neither website remains active today.) Given the apparently legitimate websites and the
purported connection to OAN, Smith agreed to the interview.
She conducted a 40-minute interview over Zoom with "Grace," in which the two talked
seriously about the subject matter; Bakalova did not break character once, and Smith never
suspected a thing. Charlotte even reached out to set up another interview, this time with
Ashley's husband, Adam, participating. It was from this second interview that a brief clip was
pulled and posted to The Patriots Report, ostensibly a news site. It is this posting that Borat
stumbles upon in the film.
The Patriots Report domain was registered in September of 2019. Like all the other sites in
play here, it was registered using an anonymous proxy service, making it impossible to
determine who purchased the domain. The bulk of its content is plagiarized from popular sites
like The Gateway Pundit -- though some portion, notably the Bakalova/Smith interview, is
original, fabricated content. As of October 31st, The Patriots Report is still active, still
masquerading as a news site, and still posting new content. In these last days before the
election, there seems to be a focus on just that. One
story , pulled from Politico
without attribution, warns that "Most social media users in three key states have seen ads
questioning the election." Another
story , ripped straight from
Daily Kos , has been pinned to the site's homepage for days: "It's not just social media:
Election disinformation now spreading through text, emails." If the site was meant solely as a
prop for a comedy film, it's hard to imagine why it's being used to spread fears over "election
disinformation" a week after the movie opened and mere days before the election itself.
This is particularly interesting given Cohen's public activism calling for stricter
censorship of speech by tech platforms, with a special focus on Facebook, in close association
with the Anti-Defamation League. Cohen is fond of talking about "fake news" on the talk show
circuit, but he has not offered any explanation as to why he is apparently running a fake news
outlet himself.
* * *
Besides the Smith interview and the widely discussed Rudy Giuliani interview, Borat revealed
in a tweet on October 24th that Bakalova, posing as an aspiring journalist for The Patriots
Report, had been given a brief tour of the White House press room by One America News Network's
chief White House correspondent, Chanel Rion. (That a White House correspondent generously
offered advice and a tour to a hopeful fellow journalist is somehow meant to be taken as a
prank.) On the surface level, he seems to just be suggesting that the current White House is
unserious because this actor -- who passed a Secret Service background check two days before
the tour -- was allowed into the press room and onto the north lawn.
But another interesting (and deeply concerning) dimension to Sacha Baron Cohen's operation
-- on top of CIA sources connecting with Palestinian activists, small fortunes spent crafting
political scenes that spread through the internet like a virus, and online disinformation
campaigns undertaken in earnest while publicly pushing for tech censorship -- is added by a
detail that Rion observed.
The camera crew Bakalova used in her White House stunt were neither amateur pranksters nor
Hollywood professionals: they were credentialed members of the press corp. When Rion inquired
about this, Bakalova's producer "shrugged and told [her] he has friends at CBS." According to
Rion, all three members of the crew had congressional press badges, and at least two of the
three had White House hard passes. Hard passes are issued to those who have been on the White
House grounds at least 180 times within a six month period -- suggesting that Bakalova's
accomplices were full-time, long-term members of the White House press.
Plenty has been said about the cheapness of Borat's humor, and the tiredness of the
shtick. Likewise, many have observed that Cohen's comedy -- always heavily political -- has
crossed the line into blatant politicking, especially with respect to the Giuliani interview.
But there is more than enough here to suggest that the politics run much deeper than might be
evident at first glance.
If we're supposed to be so worried about "election disinformation" and foreign election
meddling, shouldn't we be concerned about a British multimillionaire -- with unexplained
connections to the CIA and the White House press corps, and public affiliation with other
institutions clearly hostile to Trump like the ADL -- carrying out massive information ops in
the lead-up to an election that he has publicly expressed an interest in influencing? Or should
we just pretend it's all okay because the press told us we're supposed to be laughing?
I thought Borat was Mossad, not CIA - but you always learn something new here.
...with respect to the Giuliani interview
It was my impression that the President's personal lawyer was conducting a
counterintelligence operation to catch the deep state in the act. As you can see in the
movie, he caught them red handed. They infiltrated much closer than anybody thought.
Great expose! It's always interesting to find out that what appears to be random leftist
filthy-minded comedy is in fact well planned deep state conspiracy. The matrix is far more
complex and evil than we suspected.
*Lisa reads Comic Book Guy's Shirt*
Lisa: C:, C:\Dos, C:\Dos\Run. Ha! Only one person in a million would find that funny.
Prof. Frink: Yes, we call that the Dennis Miller Ratio
Misdirection. Your point was that this was an overly detailed analysis of a minor
comedian, and then mocked the sincerity of the article's concern. When confronted with the
reality that this is in no way minor, but in fact a widely promoted film, you insist I'm
free not to watch it, which is completely irrelevant.
Misdirection. Your point was that some random comedian has a movie on Amazon, and
somehow this is upsetting (?) to conservatives. When confronted with the reality that it's
just a silly film, you insist that it is "plastered" all over a streaming service, which is
completely irrelevant.
Oh my. A lot of hang wringing over a cheap, silly, no account, failed movie. No one with
any sense would take Cohen seriously. He is a known provocateur. His movies aren't funny
any more. And , while a Democrat, he has me feeling some sympathy for the targets he
exploits.
Except for Giuliani. He gets what he sows. He the king of disinformation. But one thing
which I have noticed. The successful parodies are by left leaning protagonists. Mostly
showing the stupidity of Trump supporters at his rallies. The Daily Show has made a staple
of humiliating boring Trump supporters.
Surely there are Biden supporters who are just as wacky. If not, that is interesting. It
does seem that right leaning Trump supporters are subject to believing the right's
disinformation. Now that is a problem which our author should investigate. And that is
actually important. Cohen's movies, not so much.
Update. It was just revealed that a Republican ad doctored a video of Biden being
confused about whether he was in Minnesota or Florida. While actually in Florida, the ad
doctored the clip to make it seem like he was in Minneapolis. Big difference. One has to
pay to be deceived by a liberal. It is free to be deceived by a conservative.
Cohen's pro-Israel turn in "The Spy" could have been produced by the Mossad. While the
story is in broad strokes true, every Arab and Syrian is depicted as drunk, incompetent,
corrupt, or a cuckold. Would appear being used by or in cahoots intelligence services is
nothing new for him.
Did you actually read the article or just scan it for something to complain about? Take
your own advice and get over yourself "petal".
If you read the actual reviews of the movie, or bother to watch it for yourself, people
are interpreting the actual events in the film, other than Cohen's actual actions, as real.
If the entire thing is a hoax, guess what? It IS a big deal.
Read the article, watched the film. Again - it's called satire, and it couldn't have
been made without interrupting things like CPAC; that a lot of work went in to getting it
right isn't a surprise. If it's a big deal, I imagine that's just how Cohen wanted it.
No, not all of it is satire. Don't just reflexively defend Cohen because he went after
Republicans. Now, if all you are going to talk about is CPAC and you ignore everything else
in the article, it's just a complex and expensive prank. However that's not all there is in
the article. Portraying a Palestinian politicians who isn't even Muslim as an Islamist
terrorist is NOT satire. It's slander. Don't pretend you don't understand that. If they
brought in fake protesters to perform as right wing fanatics at the March for Our Rights,
that's not satire. The film has two kids of jokes. Borat is a fictional character. The
viewer is aware of that. So there are the jokes which are based on his misunderstandings
and stranger from a strange land persona. The other jokes depend on his character evoking
legitimate reactions from unsuspecting people he is pranking. Either way the audience is in
on what's real and what isn't. In the Country Steve sequence the flag waving protesters
joining in to sing about killing and torturing their political enemies are being depicted
as authentic to the audience. If they aren't real that's not satire, it's slander against
the actual participants and it's fraud at the expense of the audience. I am sure on an
intellectual level you can understand this even if you really want to disagree with me for
the sake of not conceding the argument and defending a person who is theoretically on your
side.
Right. And I suppose if Cohen were a right-winger interrupting the sacred ritual of baby
dismemberment at Planned Parenthood, this would be acceptable to you in the name of
satire?
I thought it interesting the Borat character is jailed in a gulag at the start. So he's
aware of their awfulness.
Did SBC not make the connection that gulags exist in nations with totalitarian
governments? It seems unlikely, since he regularly flatters the party of more government at
the expense of the liberty-loving conservatives.
The pearl clutching over the fact that an extremely elaborate and well-organized stunt
at CPAC required high levels of coordination to pull off is extremely funny to me.
For some reason we need to believe that entertainers and pranksters are dumb people
getting by on luck and audaciousness, so we are somehow offended when it turns out they're
professionals who make things that are extraordinarily complex look easy.
Outrage isn't pearl-clutching and it is not in this case concerned merely with the fact
that this stunt took time and money, or that a political leader or his supporters were
mocked. It is concerned with the fact that something that was initially portrayed as a
spontaneous event, and latterly as a mere humorous 'stunt' - and that is where the scale
and above all the expense of the thing becomes relevant - genuinely reflects the nature of
one political party and its supporters. In the case of the 'stunt' in Israel, it seems at
face value - I'm not familiar with the story so I can't say - that the detestable Mr Baron
Cohen deliberately tried to influence an election and ruin a man's reputation. So much the
worse for him if he did it all in good fun.
It's almost as if the writer has no idea how movies are made; that movies just
spontaneously appear on the screen; that the credits which list the names of scores of
specialists, are some kind of inside Hollywood joke; and that movie making, unlike every
other business, doesn't requires financing.
Okay for a lot of you this is going to fall on deaf ears because you just come to The
American Conservative to whine about the existence of American Conservatives and whine
further if any actual American conservative objects. I suppose some of you will whine about
me pointing this out too. It just proves my point, so spare me the snark.
Okay that said.
The reason this article matters is that Sacha Baron Cohen's whole angle is that the
absurd characters he portrays lure the unsuspecting into revealing the unpleasantness of
their true selves. If you've actually taken the time to watch the movie you know that the
sing along at the March for Our Rights really is treated as actually documentary footage,
Cohen's charterer is supposed to be fake, but we are supposed to believe that that crowd
singing enthusiastically about murdering and torturing their political opponents is
completely real. If all of that was staged then what Cohen is doing is extremely deceptive
and probably grounds for a civil suit by the event's original organizers.
If you read the actual reviews, both professional reviews and user reviews, (the
professional reviews are overwhelmingly positive BTW) all of that is taken at face value
and many people are commenting on how Cohen had once again "hilariously" uncovered the dark
nature of American culture.
If he's fabricating large parts of this movie, which Amazon Prime is both giving away
and heavily promoting, that's a big deal. If partisanship is just going to lead you to
respond to this by blowing the whole thing off as Republicans not being able to take being
the butt of the joke Cohen has uncovered a dark aspect of our culture, not racism, sexism
and violence, but gullibility, apathy and partisanship.
Grow up! Comedians have been ridiculing politicians since mass media was invented. Cohen
is very successful, and he's not on your side. So you hint at some sort of Jewish
conspiracy and demand an investigation. Paranoid thinking at its finest.
The President of these United States tweets that the killing OBL was fake, and that the
then VP of the United States ordered the murders of the SEALS who killed the stand-in OBL,
and you want to talk about how a comedian is unfairly going after Trump?
Aww, now, how bad can Cohen be? After all, he was the keynote speaker at the ADL's 2019
Summit, and even received their International Leadership Award. Those are some pretty high
honors.
Cohen is a sick freak. I told him so in my one-star review of his latest freak show
"movie." If he violates US law against foreign meddling in elections, he should be deported
or arrested.
I would observe that even though Cohen insisted "on the sincerity of the CIA claim" in
court the assertion might not be true as there is no way to check or verify it. If Cohen
has an intelligence relationship it is far more likely to be with an agency from where he
was born (Israel) or where he lives (UK). Neither Mossad nor SIS would be likely to confirm
any such relationship if it does exist, so Cohen is quite free to make something up that
enhances his story without any fear of being exposed.
It makes me nauseous just thinking about who might be chosen for a Biden
administration.
There will be no hope for reform within the Democratic Party, ever, with a 2020 win.
A win will be the formal announcement of the death of "the left" as the ideology that has
traditionally represented the interests of the people. The credibility of "the left" has been
eroding with each regime change war the U.S. has been initiating and participating in, with
NATO, since the war on Yugoslavia, but particularly in the Middle East and Libya. There has
not been a reckoning. Moral transgressions and cowardice, greed and inertia have in fact been
rewarded, and institutionalised. Eichman's plea a badge of honour and the whistleblower blown
away. The neocons, those influential Jewish, X-Trotskyite political chameleons pushed those
wars, and soft sold them through their many corporate media connections to produce "left
wing" journalism which manipulated concern for cruel dictators, for persecuted ethnic
minorities, refugees, weapons of mass destruction (the latest toxic version is chemical
weapons) and the unavailability of certain kinds of human rights, in nations which were
experiencing wars of "bomb them back to the stone age" aggression and psychopathic proxy
terror arranged by these very same neocons.
"The left" signalled their virtue by believing the war propaganda, and have not sufficiently
grasped the gravity of the sham perpetrated on their minds by this array of war criminals.
The derangement by Donald syndrome has also proven to be a most emphatic signal of virtue
with "the left", a commandment of wokeness. It is also most apparent that the deplorables,
aka the rednecks, can never be included in a census of the left- oh that is just way beyond
the pale! Very hard to imagine a large group of people who are so denigrated, and not just
within the US. Even the bourgeois left has become elitist, and the elitist as in Marxist left
has paradoxically no time for people, let alone the common ones. Vk has left us in no
doubt.
Glen Greenwald is at his peak in his Tucker Carlson interview, talking of infiltration of
"the left" by the agencies. This is compelling journalism because these truths are dangerous.
If there is a deep state, then it is the Dems, they've got it covered and the Atlanticists
are their allies. It fits in with Giraldi's latest prognostications, and what would be a
counterrevolution and not a revolution should "the left" decide to make the push. By left he
means Dems and their corporate sponsored affiliates, partisan elements of the spy agencies
and big tech. (I think of Mark2 and his misspelt slogans straight from the Gene Sharpe
handbook and wonder if earnest Mark2 is a typical lefty cadre, and muse over his enthusiasm
for the gutless Jeremy Corbyn, whom I'm sure is a very nice chap personally, but look at the
Labour Party now. Mark2, have you heard of the two forms of fascism, fascism and anti
fascism?). Jimmy Dore continues to be heroic when faced with unpleasant truths. Keep being
mad Jimmy, and just don't stand for it anymore!
Some of us are grateful for these individuals (and thanks to b for his meta commentary)
because they are publically enacting a kind of meaculpa, and they have premonitions and we
are being warned. There is grace in that. There still are still some good people who can
speak publically.
I used to be left politically, but got disillusioned some time ago. Not knowing what
progressivism is leading to, and not trusting its practitioners, I find conservatism to be
the more reasonable and tolerant position for these times.
b, you may want to file this one
All the so-called social media platforms have become near totally taken over by the
intelligence agencies and their allies, so I guess they themselves are propaganda networks,
eh? The Empire can't tolerate the least bit of 'election interference' now can it
Dr. Scott Atlas, White House Coronavirus Task Force adviser, apologizes for interview with
Russian propaganda network
Dr. Scott Atlas, an adviser on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, apologized after
appearing in an interview with Russian state broadcaster RT, just days before Election Day.
In his apology, Atlas claimed he was unaware RT was a registered foreign agent.
....The Kremlin uses RT to spread English-language propaganda to American audiences, and
was part of Russia's election meddling in 2016, according to a 2017 report from the US Office
of the Director of National Intelligence.
Twitter labeled a video from the Russian-state controlled broadcaster RT as election
misinformation on Thursday. YouTube videos posted by RT carry the disclaimer: "RT is funded
in whole or in part by the Russian government.".....
Bullshitter supreme talking live on air from Berlin, where he is still "recovering" from
having been poisoned on Putin's orders by "Novichok", to sidekick slag Sobol in Moscow.
A walking miracle man, liar and total tosser.
Watch it if you can -- and have vomit bags close at hand:
The ban against domestic propaganda that had been in place since shortly after WW2 was
repealed in 2013. It was known as the Smith-Mundt Act. As part of the repeal, NDAA authorized
a huge grant program for NGOs, think tanks, civil society and other experts outside
government who are engaged in "counter-propaganda" related work. Sounds like doublespeak for
censorship and support for "fake news." I hope Glenn will investigate and connect the dots
some day.
omg. I read the whole article...and I'm not really that smart.
Best line: " ...but in journalism, evidence is required before news outlets can validly
start blaming some foreign government for the release of information. And none has ever been
presented."
Four years ago I was railing against Hillary Clinton on Facebook without any
censoring.
Tonight I watched an interview Tucker Carlson did with Glenn Greenwald regarding the
Hunter Biden/Joe Biden scandal and Tucker showed a poll revealing that 51% of those polled
believe this scandal is "Russian Disinformation" with ZERO evidence.
Why do those being polled believe this? Because the bulk of the MSM they watch have told
them so and the major tech platforms have ALL censored the pertinent information so there is
NO debate amongst the electorate. All of this less than one week from our national
election.
With Facebook and Twitter and Google's and the bulk of the MSM's heavy fingers on the
scales of public information there are only two words to describe this:
ELECTION INTERFERENCE.
And this with over 70 million voters already having cast their ballots!
Regardless of the outcome next Tuesday, these tech/media corporations should ALL be
brought down at least to the point where they can never be allowed to interfere in another
American election again, regardless of the higher-ups personal political preferences.
And this is the system the war-mongering DNC wants to "spread around the world" with their
"regime change wars"?!
Stephanie, why do you want Trump gone? Trump is bait. His presence is resulting in many,
many bad actors revealing themselves to be nefarious. Just look at Twitter/Facebook censoring
this blockbuster news (along with the rest of the media). We, The People, are finally seeing
first had the level of tyranny that's upon us. None of it has anything to do with Trump. But
it's Trump's existence in the White House that is bringing it to light. Without him, we would
have never seen it for what it is. Think about that.
I may disagree with your take on CIA involvement, but the above paragraph couldn't be more
accurate. Trump's election was like throwing a brick through a rotten, wasp-infested
beehive.
I'll second that. Though perhaps to be fair to the original sentiment, perhaps the brick has
only knicked the beehive, and then smashed a window or two along it's way. He is arguably
inevitable, even desirable from some perspective, but the degree of nuisance is not erased, so
much as outweighed, by the necessity. We would be living in a better world, by definition, if
someone like him had never been required to improve it.
Agreed. I have been telling Democrats all they need do is run better candidates - and
virtually every time, I get people trying to claim there was never anything wrong with Hillary
or Joe and also Trump is Literally Hitler Incarnate.
I grew up watching psychos in the Extreme Right talk that way about whoever THEY didn't like
politically. Arguing that Bill Clinton was going to send Janet Reno to take their guns and cart
them off to FEMA camps like a scene out of "Red Dawn" or something. But this isn't the fringes
talking anymore. It's the mainstream, and it's on the Left.
Glen, I just paid for a subscription so that I can say this one FACT. The PODESTA EMAILS
WERE NOT THE RESULT OF A HACK.
Please stop reporting this nonsense. The cover story was all part of the plan (approved by
HRC) to shift attention to a Trump-Russia collusion narrative that has always been fiction.
Guccifer 2.0 was created out of this same scheme. The meta data on the files prove that it's
impossible that those emails were hacked, they had to be downloaded on a local device
(thumbdrive most likely).
The FISA Abuse, the spying on Trump, The plan to implicate collusion, the Flynn frameup,
the Impeachment, The Mueller investigation were not the base crimes, those were all part of a
cover up. By you insinuating that the DNC server got hacked (which there is zero evidence
for), you are wittingly or unwittingly complicit in perpetuating the lie that it was. You're
missing a much, much bigger story here. The biden laptop isn't even the tip of the icebeg
here.
Ask yourself this; "Why would dozens of high level DOJ, FBI, CIA and Whitehouse officials
in the Obama Administration put their careers on the line and commit literally hundreds of
felonies all in an effort to obstruct/neutralize Trump?" That is first question any true
journo should be asking right now.
You mention in this article that the media is basically over-compensating for helping Trump
win in 2016. That is extremely naive on your part. The media/twitter/facebook/CNN/MSNBC, etc.
is too well orchestrated, too well coordinated to be operating even vaguely independently. This
is project Mockingbird happening on a scale almost unimaginable. Maybe even the Intercept was
intercepted. Why would the publication that you founded not allow you to publish this? If you
look back at 2016, the entire media industrial complex was just as coordinated as it is now,
they just got sloppy because they were certain Trump wasn't going to win. Who's being naive now
Kay?
I also get frustrated with what I see as a naive interpretation, by figures like Dan
Bongino, Tim Pool, etc. I wonder if there is a fear by some to point behind the curtain, that
they will be attacked and cancelled for "conspiracy theories."
Neither Tim or Dan are really journalists and besides, this story is so massive and so
incomprehensibly large in scope/scale/magnitude that we shouldn't get too frustrated.
The main point to remember here is that none of this has anything to do with Trump. Look at
the timeline in its entirety, the best we are able to do and then plot a graph of the Media
Industrial Complex's behavior. They were out to derail Trump from the moment he came down the
escalator and it's not because he's a womanizer or that he's a game show host. They couldn't
afford to have an non-establishment player come in and wreck their plans. The question is, what
the f#$% were their plans? Why did they risk so much to keep him out of the WH?
My view is that the constant sturm und drang about the corruption of the elections (voter
suppression, mail fraud, ballot harvesting, etc, etc) is a ploy to distract from the fact that
the real corruption already happened long before the election.
The real corruption is even mentioned by Glenn in his draft: the SELECTION process.
The media do what they're told, and what they are doing is keeping up the drumbeat of
election corruption. In other words, they've been told to distract all attention from the real
story.
The real story is that, to the people who control candidate selection, IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO
WINS.
That is the whole point of controlling the selection process. Oh yes, I know the media hates
Trump and so do the establishment. Really? The same establishment that just benefitted from the
greatest upward transfer of wealth in human history, during a pandemic panic, under Trump?
Bezos has gained over 70 billion in net worth this year, under Trump. You think he hates Trump?
Really?
You think Biden will do less? Or perhaps you think he would do more than the greatest upward
transfer of wealth in human history?
Republicans versus Democrats is a con game. It's a kabuki theatre of manipulation of
parochial tribalism, a Punch n Judy Show for the rubes.
As was once mentioned in the UT threads at Salon, isn't it time for a second political
party, Mr Greenwald?
It's not about their plans. It's just a non-violent (so far) class war. Trump is a vessel
for the working classes to carry their dissatisfaction of elite leadership. It's easier to
communicate directly to the people now due to social media, so the traditional media can't tell
the people how to vote (can't declare a candidate to be beyond the pale any more, squashing
their chances, and they used to have that power). The media are part of the elite leadership,
they don't like the working classes not listening to them, and they don't like the loss of
power. That's their agenda.
They have taken to "any means necessary" to keep that power, even though now it's basically
lying and obfuscation. They are trading off their legacy trustworthiness for short term
benefit, but they are destroying that foundation of trust as well. That happens slowly but
surely as more people see through them. Takes too long in the experience of everyone who is
reading this, because we're well ahead of the curve. The average mid level elite is a working
professional with kids too busy and not interested enough to dig to the next level and has been
taking their word - but they too see the truth every time they really look and over time that
is going to go as we all hope it will. It's just going to take a while.
"The guy who co-founded one of the current-day major online journalism outlets isn't really
a journalist" - Someone Posting to the Comments on an Article by a Guy Who Co-Founded One of
the Current-Day Major Online Journalism Outlets
There is good cause to question the Snowden story. He was CIA. Once a CIA agent, always a
CIA agent. It's plausible that he was inserted into booz allen hamilton in an attempt to harm
the NSA (on behalf of the CIA). Tell me this Glen, how did Snowden evade the largest
dragnet/manhunt ever on the planet to evade the authorities and make it to Moscow? Am I the
only one who finds this a little fishy? As someone who has been in software for 40 years, when
I heard him on Joe Rogan podcast about a year ago, I didn't find his backstory credible at all.
He sounds intelligent, but when you get beyond that and listen to him from a technological
perspective, his story doesn't add up. I find it hard to believe.
Why would a "patriot" doing work on behalf of the CIA be thrown to the wolves? Why wouldn't
they cover for him after it was released? I haven't been in software for 40 years, but I
believe that the Snowden story is extremely credible.
Snowden was a libertarian high school dropout hacker
The Deep State hired 800,000 employees/contractors around the Beltway after 9/11 on a war
footing, so anyone that was seen as clean and patriotic may not have needed a lot of standard
credentials by the usual bureaucratic managerial idiot types working for the Feds
I've been told that military field grade IT is all from the 1990s, dunno about national
security agencies, but unless you have actually worked with national security IT stuff I'm not
sure why your views should hold much weight
Senior people I know in the military and national security apparatus have told me that
corruption, waste and inefficiency are rampant (80-90%?)
Sorry, but I've heard that "anything CIA is automatically X" way too many times in my life.
Often from people trying to sell books about how we never landed on the Moon (you'd be amazed
how many ex-[alphabet agency] agents "back up" these claims with the worst sort of
pseudo-authoritative malarkey).
Hah! They "helped" Trump by running two billion dollars' worth of 95% negative coverage. It
made Trump look like the victim of a massive smear campaign by partisan hacks. What have they
been doing to "over-compensate", exactly? Make it 99%?
Whether or not they helped Trump, Greenwald's article claimst that journalists feel
responsible for Trump being elected last time so they are trying not to make the same
'mistake'. At least that's what Glenn is asserting here.
They're not wrong. They helped elect him with their sheer negativity. I've seen these people
argue the point, and they always point the finger at other journalists somehow NOT being
negative enough. It's never themselves.
So there's no collective soul-searching going on, no self-awareness, only a drive to be
angrier and finger-wagging with less concern for the actual facts of any given matter. They
don't realize how transparent it's become for those not already personally invested in the
extant narratives.
This, I think, is why we are seeing many more people defect to Trump rather than away from
him; when one is personally and deeply invested in a narrative, it's an article of faith.
Imagine you walk into church one day and the pastor says "this just in: the Archangel Gabriel
was a child molestor who felt up Baby Jesus". Next week, they accuse the Virgin Mary of the
same. Would a member of the faithful just roll with that, or consider moving to another church
altogether just to avoid the emotional whiplash?
More to the point, the head of Crowdstrike, the company run by a known Russia-hater the
Democrats sent their server to instead of the FBI, and who never provided that server to the
FBI, admitted in a Senate hearing that there was, in fact, no evidence of hacking. He was under
oath that time. Russiagate remains one of the most successful propaganda campaign in
history.
Just before or just after Trump's 2016 election I was in a Manhattan restaurant with my
domestic partner talking with strangers from DC. It turned out that they worked in the State
Dept. and they told us that since Trump questioned the veracity of some things the intelligence
establishment had said, they would absolutely bring him down. We were shocked but have
remembered this throughout the FISA debacle,the Mueller mess,the impeachment and this election
cycle.
Right. Thank you. I wrote to Matt T. about this same issue in his article. I'm hoping they
will do the investigation required for them to amend their articles. It really is a fundamental
mistake to perpetuate this propaganda.
It's literally in the Mueller report that the DNC server was hacked, without a shred of
evidence. As Fox Mulder said "Trust No One". Matt & Glen really need to get to the point
where they chuck everything they think they know and start over. Everything has been a lie. Why
would anyone believe ANYTHING the FBI or DOJ of Obama WH put out at this point? The MSM has no
credibility, FBI/DOJ/CIA? This cancer has metasticized to the point where the patient is on
life support.
We need to understand that Trump is Chemo. It takes an outsider to come in, someone who
didn't need this job, someone who couldn't be bought, to come in and kill that cancer.
Just to offer some confirmation for that, Here is a CNN article from the time: "A phishing
email sent to Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta may have been so sophisticated
that it fooled the campaign's own IT staffers, who at one point advised him it was a legitimate
warning to change his password."
However, they also report that the link was from " [email protected] ." I searched
for whether that email address had been reported as malicious on the day that the story broke.
Far from being "sophisticated", it was just a phishing link that was going around randomly, and
had already been reported to this spam reporting site:
So, despite (much of) the media converging on a "sophisticated spear phishing" narrative,
this looks to be a link that was sent to a large number of people over a long period, and just
a case of random spam phishing that got lucky.
re: "so sophisticated that it fooled the campaign's own IT staffers"
I'm not a google mail user, but in general it is pretty rare for a phishing email to NOT
have extended headers (server route log) that reveal a bogus or weird looking origin.
"Alleging" would be more accurate. They've been acting quite more brazenly as a
misinfo/disinfo arm of the DNC. Whether or not the DNC has deep enough connections with the CIA
to provide a useful and reliable data/policy bridge is another question, but both DNC and GOP
likely have enough connections to establish semi-functional "lamprey" networks just due to
their longevity and resulting personal/professional contacts therein.
Hi Frank. " The PODESTA EMAILS WERE NOT THE RESULT OF A HACK.
Please stop reporting this nonsense. The cover story was all part of the plan (approved by
HRC) to shift attention to a Trump-Russia collusion narrative that has always been fiction.
Guccifer 2.0 was created out of this same scheme. The meta data on the files prove that it's
impossible that those emails were hacked, they had to be downloaded on a local device
(thumbdrive most likely)."
Based on the forensics that was my conclusion but beware of these rabbit holes. It has never
been discussed that those details can also be faked (the meta data.) Certainly Gucifer which
seemed like damage control. I am unsure of the claims about his being backtracked tho.
So it's possible that the evidence is faked having accepted the conclusions of VIPS
analysts.
Could be. It would also mean that it was the first time Wikileaks published something that
wasn't authentic. Assange knows where the emails came from and he asserted that they didn't
come from Russia.
Note to all: You must use actual (historical) ISP speeds as of the specific months in
question. They increased a good deal in the months that followed in that area.
I agree that there was a massive fake Russia story created by GPS Fusion, the Clinton
campaign, Clinton allies, with the help of US intelligence, often willing and sometimes just
incompetent.
But there is definitely some evidence of a DNC hack. Among other things, the Dutch
intelligence services seem to have observed evidence in their spying on the Internet Research
Agency - reported by mutliple sources including Dutch media. What the nature of the hack was
and how it gibes with the evidence that there must have been a person on the ground to transfer
the data files that fast is of course fair to discuss.
There is also evidence, both purposely forgotten in media coverage after Jan 2017, of an
attempted RNC hack and the overt public hack and release of Colin Powell's email to embarass
and hurt Trump. There is plenty of other evidence of Internet Research Agency activity that was
pro-BLM and anti-Trump, making their more likely overall goal the sowing of chaos than only
supporting Trump. Thus the need for GPS/Clintonistas/Intelligence/Mueller's team to spin a
narrative.
I became a fan of yours when I was in law school at UC Hastings in 2003. Your the best, for
sure. But fuck...
I got to be honest...I'm glad the press is ignoring this story. There's just too much at
stake. Biden might be losing his edge, his family might be trading in his name, but who gives a
shit? The alternative is worse by light years.
And yeah, I don't trust the "people" out there to get it right. The "people" are rubes.
Those idiots voted for this piece of shit once before, they'll do it again, in a heartbeat.
More importantly, you really want to do Rudy Giuliani's work for him? I don't know, I don't
get it...why so eager to make the campaign's case for them? It's not a rhetorical question. I
just don't get it.
Alex: you are saying that we should not have independent press, that the media ought to be
agents of propaganda, consciously decieving the public for the greater good.
Maybe Biden is the lesser evil in this election. But without actual journalists like Glenn
we could never know.
I get the frustrations over Trump. He is a disaster. But the answer to that disaster does
not concist in advocating for more lies and propaganda.
I have yet to hear a reasonable case for Trump being either the greater evil or a disaster.
Many of the allegations against Trump have remained that - allegations - but in Biden's case
some of the same accusations (particular about racism) is in his Senate record. He was a
terrible candidate to position against Trump, and he picked as his veep the only person in the
entire primary season to get blown out by a single phrase from Tulsi Gabbard - who the rest of
the party's establishment absolutely despised because Hillary said so.
With Trump? Roaring economy brought to a halt not even by coronavirus, but massive economic
lockdowns that break the economy down to virtually Blue-State (down) / Red-State (up)
comparisons. Democrats were accusing Trump of "meddling" when he was still a candidate and
nonetheless pressured a Detroit factory into staying in the US. The man understands economic
leverage, and to ignore or deny that is like denying the Sun heats the Earth.
Three Middle East peace deals leading to an equal number of Nobel nominations. He is roasted
for de-escalating international tensions, lauded only when he fires missiles at nations
Democrats think need shooting at, and then castigated for killing a terrorist leader in the
same nation they were cheering him for firing missiles at.
I see very little criticism of Trump that isn't associated with bald-faced party-based
opposition, from establishment Republicans who hated his cockblocking of JEB BUSH FOR GODSAKE
to Democrats who still think Hillary's shit job as Secretary of State (ruining more nations
than Trump has cut peace deals for) is beyond reproach.
Speaking as a lifetime independent, please: the naked, incessant and baseless fury
demonstrated by Democrats and the Radical Left since 2016 has NOT been a selling point for
us.
Biden has been credibly accused of actually pinning a staffer against the wall and stuffing
his fingers up her vagina. The media didn't attack her story, but her college credentials, and
dumped the story after.
Biden has actually authored racist legislation and in recent years spoke of "being able to
work across the aisle" - with racist segregationists.
Trump's been merely ACCUSED of a shit-ton of things. But I don't join lynch-mobs. Same
reason the lynching of Justice Kavanaugh (seriously, you guys went after him over "I like beer"
and school calendars you had to try and reinterpret as codebooks?) made me see the Democratic
Party as a progressively more lunatic outfit. Reducing impeachment to "who needs criminal
charges? we really just hate the guy" wasn't a winner with us independents either, not just
speaking for myself there.
A pox on both your damned parties, and thank Trump for being that pox.
Gee Alex, elitist much? You don't like Trump so the people making an informed choice is not
a worthy goal? Anyone who disagrees with your world view is a rube who is not smart enough to
see the light - as defined by you? And you wonder why Trump won last time. The left is
populated by arrogant asses who think because they came out of college with a degree in some
worthless major, they are smarter than everyone else. Well, I went to college to but got a
degree in engineering vice sociology but I guess I'm just an educated rube.
Your law school tuition dollars were clearly wasted. Most of the people/rubes/idiots I know
and love learned the difference between "your" and "you're" in high school - and acquired
critical thinking skills at the same time. Too bad you missed out.
Yeah, we the people (rubes) are fn sick of the fn lawyers (especially from UC Hastings)
being in political control of our country and want a non-political person to clean up. What's
so hard for you to understand?
How's your guy doing you fucking rube? Great choice! Job well done!! If you ever wonder why
nobody gives a shit about your opinion, the fact that you chose a fucking reality star who ran
every business he ever owned into the ground, and fancies a bizarre hairdo, that's why no one
cares what you say. You're fucking stupid.
bahahahahaha...go crawl back into your fucking prol shit hole dwelling and latch onto
Tucker's teat. You're a fucking joke and always will be, no matter how special your dear leader
makes you feel.
Our local sanitation workers are much more thoughtful and respectful actually. I am voting
for Biden but I find this lawyer's response detestable. We need to grow up and stop with ad
hominem attacks that do nothing to advance the discussion.
Morals and ethics obviously mean nothing to a lawyer. If this was Don Jr, you would be out
for blood. As an independent voter, I want to know that I'm not voting for a piece of shit that
has been compromised by the Russians and Chinese! People like you, the FAKE NEWS media, and
antifa, etc are a major reason why I won't ever give my vote to Biden!
Elitists like Alex G. made the election of Donald Trump as president both inevitable and
necessary. The more he disses the "people" aka "rubes," the more President Trump's re-election
becomes equally inevitable and necessary. To borrow from Sen. Ted Cruz's exchange with Twitter
CEO Jack Dorsey, "Who the hell made Alex G. the final authority on how and what people should
think, say and do?"
One thing we know for sure is Alex G. never learned any humility or manners growing up. To
substantiate this, he stands condemned out of his own mouth. Last thing this country needs is
to have an authoritarian demagogue like him anywhere near the levers of power.
Please go back and fact check the old stories that made us hate Trump in the first place.
They've proven to be lies. He isn't perfect, but Biden will destroy this country. He's beyond
corrupt. Go look at the source materials.
Arrogant, smug D party loyalist goons and assholes like you are a very large part of why
people voted for Trump in 2016 and will vote for him in this election. T-R-0-L-L
I believe in the democratic system. The people may make mistakes, but so can anyone else. An
average of all the people is more accurate than randomly picking subsets of people to make
decisions. You say that you and your friends are not a random subset, you are better than
average. Your opponents say the same thing. We have a system for resolving these disputes.
Maybe you can invent a better one, but "I'm right and my opponents are wrong" is not a new
approach.
In answer to your "Why" question, perhaps Mr. Greenwald believes the same thing.
Glenn - new subscriber today (saw you with Tucker Carlson). As a conservative voter, I
support your new venture, not because your story is critical or suspicious of Biden, but
because we need more talented journalists willing to just investigate possible corruption and
inform the public. I also support Matt Taibbi for the same reason. The last line of your
article sums it up best for me.
"The whole point is that the press loses its way when it cares more about who benefits from
information than whether it's true."
Good luck, I hope you find this new path rewarding professionally and financially.
Agreed, I also like reading Quillette for it's equal publication of articles (they printed
that big article from the Environmentalist who demonized Environmentalism after he was banned
from his original publisher), and I also like reading Sharyl Attkisson as well.
I find it interesting how Glenn sees all the propoganda from these agencies in the media,
but fails to see the full extent of it in social media and therefore is unable to report on it
adequately. The DNC server hack is more of the same.
I paid for a subscription precisely because I believe that, despite what you may or may not
personally believe, you don't allow it to influence your pursuit of the truth. I want the truth
- nothing less and nothing more.
I just signed up, too, for that very reason. When those in positions of power put on a mask
and practice deception, they must be exposed. Sunlight is the cure for the disease of
corruption.
Personally, having read your work going back to Cato Institute and Volokh, I'm happy you're
independent and I can directly fund you. I'm willing to throw even more money at your projects.
Consider crowdfunding video documentary teams and other large projects. Your following after
all of this is going to be as large as ever.
I've supported him here as well because I think he is an important voice right now. There
are few journos out there right now who have Glenn's credibility who are willing to take on
media groupthink. But it is a tough environment. With NYT offering their digital for 4$ a month
that gives access to all of their writers/content, it is very difficult for writers like Glenn
to compete.
If this is humor, this is very dark humor. The saddest thing of all in this is that very
little of Glenn's excellent article is new. One of Donald Trump's presidency greatest
accomplishment has been to show me how the main stream media 'plays' its dirty games... The
entire mainstream media collectively abandoned its integrity during the last decade.
It's beyond what Orwell could have ever possibly imagined. Targeted gaslighting on an
individual basis using social media to brainwash people into believing whatever they want you
to believe?
I just paid for an annual subscription out of a total frustration with the current
outrageous, unfair, evil and dishonest media situation in the US (and elsewhere also).
Totalitarism is approaching and I have decided to participate in the fight against the
threatening darkness. Good luck.
In the final debate, Joe Biden ensured that mudslinging and innuendo about Donald Trump
substituted for a discussion of what America's actual national interests are towards
Russia.
Final presidential debates have traditionally centered on national security, but the
October 22 showdown between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden was
almost entirely devoid of any substantive foreign policy discussion. Instead, Biden launched
a fusillade of attacks on Trump about Russia that represented a seamless continuity with the
calumnies that many Democrats have directed at the president ever since he was first
elected.
There are a number of factors that make us suspicious of Russian involvement. Such an
operation would be consistent with Russian objectives, as outlined publicly and recently by the
Intelligence Community, to create political chaos in the United States and to deepen political
divisions here but also to undermine the candidacy of former Vice President Biden and thereby
help the candidacy of President Trump. For the Russians at this point, with Trump down in the
polls, there is incentive for Moscow to pull out the stops to do anything possible to help
Trump win and/or to weaken Biden should he win. A "laptop op" fits the bill, as the publication
of the emails are clearly designed to discredit Biden.
Such an operation would be consistent with some of the key methods Russia has used in its
now multi-year operation to interfere in our democracy – the hacking (via cyber
operations) and the dumping of accurate information or the distribution of inaccurate or
misinformation. Russia did both of these during the 2016 presidential election –
judgments shared by the US Intelligence Community, the investigation into Russian activities by
Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and the entirety (all Republicans and Democrats) on the current
Senate Intelligence Committee.
Such an operation is also consistent with several data points. The Russians, according to
media reports and cybersecurity experts, targeted Burisma late last year for cyber collection
and gained access to its emails. And Ukrainian politician and businessman Adriy Derkach,
identified and sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for being a 10-year Russian agent
interfering in the 2020 election, passed purported materials on Burisma and Hunter Biden to
Giuliani.
Jim Clapper
Former Director of National Intelligence
Former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence
Former Director of the National Geospartal Intelligence Agency
Former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency
Mike Hayden
Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director, National Security Agency
Former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence
Leon Panetta
Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Secretary of Defense
John Brennan
Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor
Former Director, Terrorism Threat Integration Center
Former Analyst and Operations Officer, Central Intelligence Agency
Thomas Finger
Former Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis
Former Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research, Department of State
Former Chair, National Intelligence Council
Rick Ledgett
Former Deputy Director, National Security Agency
John McLaughlin
Former Acting Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director of Analysis, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director, Slavic and Eurasian Analysis, Central Intelligence Agency
Michael Morell
Former Acting Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director of Analysis, Central Intelligence Agency
"... When everything is fine, and the macro economic indicators are stable, various funds are building up their assets, consumption is on the rise and so on. In such times, you hear more and more that the state only stands in the way, and that a pure market economy would be more effective. But as soon as crises and challenges arise, everyone turns to the state, calling for the reinforcement of its supervisory functions. This goes on and on, like a sinusoidal curve. This is what happened during the preceding crises, including the recent ones, like in 2008. ..."
"... So, again, no model is pure or rigid, neither the market economy nor the command economy today, but we simply have to determine the level of the state's involvement in the economy. ..."
"... In the U.S., since 1980, money has increasingly become the source of political power. This is dictatorship. The U.S. has transformed itself from an imperfect democracy, into an almost perfect 'oligarchic dictatorship' where the corporations oversee the government, rather than the government overseeing the market. This is the very definition of fascism. And under such a system, the U.S.'s market economy has been transformed into an economy of serial monopolies. ..."
"... i continue to believe the planet is being screwed by big finance.. ..."
"... Very true jadan, your view on Putin, and every time I read an excerpt or a speech by him I notice he is far above our western "leaders" with their meaningless chatter and hollow phrases. ..."
Most of the commentators on yesterday's
post were right. It was the Russian President Vladimir Putin
who said this :
Many of us read The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry when we were children and remember what the main character said:
"It's a question of discipline. When you've finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet. It's very tedious
work, but very easy."
I am sure that we must keep doing this "tedious work" if we want to preserve our common home for future generations. We must
tend our planet.
The subject of environmental protection has long become a fixture on the global agenda. But I would address it more broadly
to discuss also an important task of abandoning the practice of unrestrained and unlimited consumption – overconsumption – in
favour of judicious and reasonable sufficiency, when you do not live just for today but also think about tomorrow.
We often say that nature is extremely vulnerable to human activity. Especially when the use of natural resources is growing
to a global dimension. However, humanity is not safe from natural disasters, many of which are the result of anthropogenic interference.
By the way, some scientists believe that the recent outbreaks of dangerous diseases are a response to this interference. This
is why it is so important to develop harmonious relations between Man and Nature.
I found the excerpt remarkable because it included this, on might say, anti-capitalistic statement:
.. an important task of abandoning the practice of unrestrained and unlimited consumption – overconsumption – in favour of judicious
and reasonable sufficiency, when you do not live just for today but also think about tomorrow.
That 'green' statement will rile those people who argue for free markets and a right to sell bullshit in ever more flavors. In
their view the fight against such 'communists' thinking must be renewed.
As the full English transcript of Putin's speech and the two and a half hour Q&A
is now available I can also quote another interesting
passage where Putin talks about capitalism and the role of the state. His standpoint seems very pragmatic to me:
Question : Mr President, there has been much talk and debate, in the context of the global economic upheavals, about the
fact that the liberal market economy has ceased to be a reliable tool for the survival of states, their preservation, and for
their people.
Pope Francis said recently that capitalism has run its course. Russia has been living under capitalism for 30 years. Is it time
to search for an alternative? Is there an alternative? Could it be the revival of the left-wing idea or something radically new?
Putin: Lenin spoke about the birthmarks of capitalism, and so on. It cannot be said that we have lived these past 30
years in a full-fledged market economy. In fact, we are only gradually building it, and its institutions. [..]
You know, capitalism, the way you have described it, existed in a more or less pure form at the beginning of the previous century.
But everything changed after what happened in the global economy and in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, after World
War I. We have already discussed this on a number of occasions. I do not remember if I have mentioned this at Valdai Club meetings,
but experts who know this subject better than I do and with whom I regularly communicate, they are saying obvious and well-known
things.
When everything is fine, and the macro economic indicators are stable, various funds are building up their assets, consumption
is on the rise and so on. In such times, you hear more and more that the state only stands in the way, and that a pure market
economy would be more effective. But as soon as crises and challenges arise, everyone turns to the state, calling for the reinforcement
of its supervisory functions. This goes on and on, like a sinusoidal curve. This is what happened during the preceding crises,
including the recent ones, like in 2008.
I remember very well how the key shareholders of Russia's largest corporations that are also major European and global players
came to me proposing that the state buy their assets for one dollar or one ruble. They were afraid of assuming responsibility
for their employees, pressured by margin calls, and the like. This time, our businesses have acted differently. No one is seeking
to evade responsibility. On the contrary, they are even using their own funds, and are quite generous in doing so. The responses
may differ, but overall, businesses have been really committed to social responsibility, for which I am grateful to these people,
and I want them to know this.
Therefore, at present, we cannot really find a fully planned economy, can we? Take China. Is it a purely planned economy? No.
And there is not a single purely market economy either. Nevertheless, the government's regulatory functions are certainly important.
[..]
We just need to determine for ourselves the reasonable level of the state's involvement in the economy; how quickly that involvement
needs to be reduced, if at all, and where exactly. I often hear that Russia's economy is overregulated. But during crises like
this current pandemic, when we are forced to restrict business activity, and cargo traffic shrinks, and not only cargo traffic,
but passenger traffic as well, we have to ask ourselves – what do we do with aviation now that passengers avoid flying or fly
rarely, what do we do? Well, the state is a necessary fixture, there is no way they could do without state support.
So, again, no model is pure or rigid, neither the market economy nor the command economy today, but we simply have to determine
the level of the state's involvement in the economy. What do we use as a baseline for this decision? Expediency. We need
to avoid using any templates, and so far, we have successfully avoided that.
Then comes a paragraph that shows where Russia differs from the current 'western' economic policies of negative interest rates
and deflation:
Of course, the Central Bank and the Government are among the most important state institutions. Therefore, it was in fact through
the joint efforts of the Central Bank and the Government that inflation was reduced to 4 percent, because the Government invests
substantial resources through its social programmes and national projects and has an impact on our monetary policy. It went down
to 3.9 percent, and the Governor of the Central Bank has told me that we will most likely keep it around the estimated target
of around 4 percent. This is the regulating function of the state; there is no way around it. However, stifling development through
an excessive presence of the state in the economy or through excessive regulation would be fatal as well. You know, this is a
form of art, which the Government has been applying skilfully, at least for now.
Keeping inflation up by a bit will make it easier for Russian consumers and companies to pay back their loans. It is economically
healthier than the deflationary policies of western societies.
Russia is well on its way to overtake Germany as the fifth biggest economy. Putin's pragmatic positions towards the role of the
state in the economy and his relative generous policies of social programs and large national projects have contributed to that.
The many questions and answers on foreign policy in the Valdai talk show a similar pragmatism on other issues. For those interested
in those here is again the link to the transcript
.
Posted by b on October 24, 2020 at 18:00 UTC |
Permalink
Putin was (is) an important figure in rescuing Russia from the collapse, and western carpetbagging, of the nineties but in no
way has he moved Russia towards communism or prepared the path (structurally) for a future communist state. Despite everything
that Putin has achieved, in no way has he created a system that is separate from that of the west. The external impostion of sanctions
(by the west) has had much more effect than anything Putin has done (in terms of separting from western dogma).
This talk of "overconsumption" is totally irrelevant to Russia (Russians are still largely poor and "under"-consume) as well
as much of the rest of the world. And Russia is a huge producer of the resources (oil, gas, coal), and a huge consumer of these
same resources, that we are told are destroying the world. So Putin is not really addressing Russians or the majority of the world,
and western governments are used to hearing this kind of guff (because they say the same, frequently).
So, Putin is not referring to a Communist (economic) state; he is referring to a mixed economy just like every other western
state (yes you could also say "just like every other state in the world" but what I am demonstrating is that, at best, Putin desires
to adhere to conventional western economic dogma).
Putin is 68 and the average life expectancy on Russia is 72 (only 65 for males). Putin will be gone soon enough and what he
has built is a proud independent nation that is integrated into the world economy and is well able to defend itself. But he has
not changed the fundamental economic relations that were established in Russia after the collapse of the USSR.
So, this "remarkable...anti-capitalistic statement" is either meaningless or a signal of compliance to western/world capitalist
elites who, perhaps, wish to bring the free-market to an end and entrench their position as a permanent elite - and that would
not be communism, rather it would be feudalism.
With the advent of the industrial revolution, capitalism, mass education, democracy and then the proto-communist states it
was thought impossible (and undesireable) that social structures could regress. But, has the (within technical capacities) ability
to capture data on everyone all of the time (and analyze and interpret that data in real time) and deep understandings of behavoiuralism,
human psychology and sophisticated, convincing and all pervasive propaganda resulted in a fundamental change? In short, that it
is no longer held that all humans are free, can make their own choices, and are capable of organising society for and by themselves
(even as some kind of future objective) - and that this has been replaced by a belief that humanity is best run by a "benevolent"
elite.
I'm not sure that the concept of neo-liberalism is really applicable to Russia. What happened under Yeltsin was a simple pillage
of the state, as anyone would do if they can, as he was too drunk to notice. The same thing is happening today in UK.
Putin has spent his time trying to recover from that situation to more control, as a conservative nationalist, but its not
so easy.
"... I am confident that what makes a state strong, primarily, is the confidence it's citizens have in it. That is the
strength of a state. People are the source of power, we all know that."
Yes! 'People are the source of power' is the definition of democracy.
In the U.S., since 1980, money has increasingly become the source of political power. This is dictatorship. The U.S. has
transformed itself from an imperfect democracy, into an almost perfect 'oligarchic dictatorship' where the corporations oversee
the government, rather than the government overseeing the market. This is the very definition of fascism. And under such a system,
the U.S.'s market economy has been transformed into an economy of serial monopolies.
Russia is rapidly developing; the U.S. is rapidly failing. No need to wonder why!
Depending upon who you ask
, somewhere between 33% and 70% of Russia's economy is still state controlled. You can never say "we" when talking about
directing a capitalist market economy because "The Market" will always be boss. Though Russia suffered a catastrophic capitalist
counterrevolution, it is this large share of the economy that is not entirely subservient to market forces that gives Putin the
luxury of talking in terms of "we" , despite his submissive attitude towards capitalism.
The fact is that capitalism ( "The Market" ) cannot develop Russia. This has been the case for more than a hundred years,
which is why they had a revolution in the first place and why the privatizations have been halted and are now (grudgingly) being
reversed.
Putin's strength lies not in his ideology because his strength of conviction to that ideology is that of an overcooked noodle.
This happens to work out OK though because his ideology is neoliberal capitalism. Clinging to that ideology isn't serving any
leader in the world right now, as we can see in Europe and the US. Rather, Putin's strength is in his patriotic pragmatism. He
doesn't want to build "Socialism with Russian Characteristics" , but pragmatics forces him in that direction.
Russia will be moving to a progressive income tax regime from 2021 onwards. The current personal income tax regime is a flat
13%. From next year, individuals earning 5 million rubles or more annually will be subject to a 15% tax rate. Sounds like little
but these sorts of reforms have to take time and have to be done in small increments.
It's my understanding that the bulk of Russia's tax receipts currently come from the energy sector. I'm sure way back in 1998
Putin wrote a PhD dissertation on the use of natural resources as the basis of economic development and growth, and taxation of
energy companies would be one method of using land resources to achieve this growth.
Keeping inflation up by a bit will make it easier for Russian consumers and companies to pay back their loans. It is economically
healthier than the deflationary policies of western societies.
That's a great idea, except both government and household debt in Russia are among the lowest in the world (probably the lowest
of any industrialized country). Both Putin and the foreigners who fawn over him, including myself not very long ago, are the first
to tout this fact. This way inflation in the Russian economy means consumers get to enjoy rising costs of living, and the state
and companies rising costs of raw materials, energy etc. while there's virtually no debt on the other side of the equation for
inflation to devalue. There's still a lot of corporate sector debt in Russia, but the bulk of it is still, incredibly, denominated
in dollars, euros, Swiss franc, and so on. Ruble inflation and falling exchange rates don't make this debt to cheaper to service,
but of course the opposite.
It's a great thing that the rate of home ownership (without associated mortgage debt) is so high in Russia, and it's probably
the only result of the privatization drive that was actually a good outcome. There's no reason that Russians should now be loaded
up with huge debts in order to own a house or an apartment. Access to personal credit for things like a car is difficult and expensive
in Russia, which obviously means a lot of people can't afford a car, but on the other further helps to ensure the indebtedness
of households is kept low. At the same time, like Putin (and b) does here, many in Russia apparently want to pretend that their
economy is like a Western economy, and that accordingly its households are partially relieved financially by inflation when they
actually only suffer from increased prices. It's absolutely bizarre.
The reality is that Russia's leadership has an unparalleled commitment toward, and talent for, getting the worst of all worlds
economically. Thanks to them Russia is probably the only major economy in the world with high inflation but microscopic domestic
currency debt (and correspondingly low investment in the domestic economy). This way Russia has gotten to enjoy, historically,
very high inflation but much lower growth rates than other developing economies. (The high growth rates in the 2000's came from
high raw materials prices, resulting merely in accumulation of foreign exchange reserves which the Russian government itself then
said could not be efficiently converted into rubles and invested in the Russian economy. Growth in industrial and agricultural
production, or in fixed assets like infrastructure, was accordingly much smaller, if even existent.)
There's also the continuing Wild West capitalism where oligarchs have gotten to keep their stolen assets in potash, gold mining,
coal mining etc., even in strategic industrial sectors like steelmaking, power engineering or the automotive industry, while at
the same time even Chinese investors are discouraged from investing through opaque regulation and unpredictable Russian state
intervention. In other words, stability for the oligarchs who openly tried to destroy the Russian state and turn it into a Hong
Kong-style neo-feudal hellhole, and who today just as before continue to asset strip the last residues of Soviet-era manufacturing,
but a Great Wall against the Asians who want to come in and develop petrochemicals plants, e-commerce, timber industry or whatever.
Through the entire 2000-2012 era, the Russian government came down like a hawk on ruble-denominated debt, while corporations
(both private and state-owned) could take out basically unlimited loans in foreign currency. State-owned companies like Rosneft
actually led the foreign currency indebtedness, helping enormously to ensure that Russia's only real advantage and asset in the
post-Soviet era, the trade surplus resulting from its oil and gas exports, is sent out of the country as interest payments to
American and European banks, rather than (as China has done) paying for the imports of Western machinery and technologies to help
develop domestic manufacturing.
Certainly, Russian companies are now much more restricted in the amounts of foreign currency credit they can accept, but access
to ruble credit is highly limited as well. The result is of course austerity in the economy, with anemic growth and falling living
standards.
Another important "benefit" was that the West had an easy way to put pressure on the ruble. They simply forbade Russian companies
from rolling over their debt, forcing them to come up with huge sums of foreign currency in short order. That crashed the rouble,
thereby dramatically forcing up prices (and equivalently, inflation) in the, by its own design, almost completely import-dependent
Russian economy. The crash in oil prices (again, simply limiting Russia's income in dollar terms, much of which they needed simply
to pay back Western creditors anyway) was just icing on the cake.
One could keep going like this forever. If China and South Korea had political and corporate elites with this mentality, and
with this level of commitment to neo-liberalism and globalization, but (critically!) only to its worst aspects and outcomes, these
countries would have been very lucky to be at the level of development of Thailand today. That's the reality and attacking people
who raise these criticisms as enemies of Russia, as many did to me in the last thread about thread on these topics, does nothing
to help matters. In fact, with "friends" like you, maybe Russia does not need enemies.
I've been having fun listening and reading the reactions and selected excerpts in the media to the long, very long Putin conference,
three hours with the question and answer segment, the most substantial and interesting, but five hours total considering that
he appeared two hours late, no doubt preparing until the last minute and over the speech as could be seen in the notes that he
held and that somehow the sound technicians did not filter out completely, which was a bit annoying.
Checking out the chaotic notes that I took, there is one little detail that most surely won't get any attention, his recourse
to widely used popular expressions like when he asks himself rhetorically:
what is a strong state? What are its strengths?
The Russian word for strength could be translated as power too, and any an every Russian recalls the great hero of the dark
90's, the late Serguey Bodrov in the film "The Brother 2", partly filmed in Chicago, Bodrov asks a panicked businessman: Tell
me American, where is the power? is the power in money? I think the power is in truth . a phrase that everybody knows and
feels proud of in Russia.
Vlad not only plays complex accords for foreign consumption, he plays for the home team first, just in case .
Putin, like all politicians, is more about what he says and less about what he does.
Fair enough, i challenge anyone in his position to do better... I actually admire the man, but let's not delude ourselves.
Russia stands to benefit from global warming more than any other country in spite of all the damage it will still cause it. On
the overall balance, it will average out ahead of everyone else, in relative terms, so don't look to them for answers.
As for "the State"... so what if it's his mates who benefit instead of oligarchs, what is the difference when most of the people
in Russia are broke and have no realistic prospects or chances of progressing beyond their predetermined fates? The cynic in me
ultimately thinks he just wants the oligarchs to pay their taxes to make his job easier, keep the people happy, so he can get
reelected more easily.
@ Eric | Oct 24 2020 21:10 utc | 18.. eric, i was intrigued by your ideas in the previous thread and i am again here... how do
you come by this particular vantage point?? do you have a particular background in finances, or is it just a special interest
that you have cultivated to come by the position you share in your post here? i am genuinely curious! i don't have enough knowledge
to comment and wish someone like Michael Hudson could comment on this specific topic that you seem to excel at holding a very
specific and fairly negative outlook on with regard Russia... thanks for your comments either way.. it is above my pay grade to
respond with any authority..
i continue to believe the planet is being screwed by big finance.. it seems hard to see thru the maze a way out of
this... your suggestion that russia is also caught in this maze would not surprise me... what is the way out, if i might be so
bold??
I think your post points to a fundamental worrisome feature of Russia. It's very unclear who actually has a stake in the prosperity,
power or even existence of the Russian state in 50 or 100 years' time. People can pretend that the Russian Orthodox Church plays
this role but there's very little to suggest it really does. India, I think, unfortunately struggles with the same problem, but
the destruction of India at the hands of British goes a long way to explain it in my view. In China or Iran, with all the issues
of their own that those two countries have, there's however very little ambiguity in this regard.
I'm not even sure I would place the blame on Western-style representative democracy in Russia, as the same basic problem seems
to have been there both before the October Revolution and at the very least during the post-Stalin era of the Soviet Union. The
question is if Russia, despite everything, as a Christian civilization isn't ultimately a participant in the Western world's anomie
and decline.
Yes! Absolutely capitalism is rapidly destroying the planet. Of this there is no question. Nothing can be left alone: 'undeveloped'
land must be 'developed', i.e. forests cut down and replaced by subdivisions, parking lots, McDonald's, office buildings, etc.
Capitalism is truly insidious: look at how the once mighty Amazon rainforest has been utterly wiped out by greedy cattle farmers
looking for a quick buck with the blessing of Bolsonaro. Where there were once massive old growth forests across N. America, there
are now only 'tree museums', i.e. national parks which save less than 1% of what there once was before Europeans came and destroyed
everything–in the name of profit. Capitalism not only destroys natural resources, it destroys people: slavery has been replaced
by wage slavery: and the wage slave's earnings from his 'mcjob' invariably go to his landlord, or other parasites. Your employer
is your master in capitalism: he is your god and you serve him. Any excess profit you make all goes to him, not you. If you look
at him wrong, or have a bad attitude you are replaced–and NO good reference for you! What a miserable shit system craptialism
is.
I have been strongly influenced by Michael Hudson's writings over several years now. Basically everything in that post is either
a point he already made about Russia or a direct application of his overall thinking on Russia's economy. For this reason I was
very surprised by the hostility of certain commenters, in particular karlof1, who also could be called followers of Michael Hudson.
karlof1 even suggested I should spend a couple of years researching Russian economic development, even though I've quite obviously
already done that (which doesn't mean everyone has to agree with my conclusions). I have to wonder if he and Martyanov either
never came across Hudson's criticisms of Russian economic policy (one of the actually less harsh examples
here - if you search
his site michael-hudson.com you can find others) or consider him also an ignorant anti-Russian commentator but are able to appreciate
him in spite of that.
I wrote about this part of Putin's speech back on the 22nd when he made this appraisal:
" only a viable state can act effectively in a crisis ."
I bolded the text then and I've done so again because that's one of the most important points he raised, IMO, particularly
in relation to the clearly unviable Outlaw US Empire and EU. I even turned my commentary into a short article at my VK space that
will be expanded once I digest all the Q & A.
I recently made an observation about Russia's banking and finance systems in that they're controlled by the public via the
state, not by some private entities separate from the state doing all they can to avoid any type of regulation and oversight,
which was based on this item I linked here at the
time. I later made the observation that the moral/ethical grounding of who/what's in charge of those systems matters greatly when
it comes to making an equitable society--and it will matter even more as we get into the having steady-state economies as resource
depletion mounts into the crisis it will eventually become. Putin showed that he knows and understands all that, which is well
beyond the capacity of the vast majority of those known as politicians--especially those in Neoliberal nations. Putin used the
term "balance" 7 times, imbalance once, in his speech. I suggest readers use the CTRL-F function to search the text for that term
to see what it's in reference to so they can learn a bit more about the man and his mind and the importance of seeking balance
in attaining equitability.
At the tail end of the Q & A, Putin is asked: "what you can advise and offer to Russian youth?" Putin's answer conforms completely
with his policy toward the promotion of families and urging young people to strive for their aspirations -- unlike many Western
politicos, he backs his admonitions with robust policies to make them possible, something I've long admired about him. Here's
most of Putin's reply:
"But what can we offer? We believe we will give young people more opportunities for professional growth and create more
social lifts for them. We are building up these instruments and creating conditions for people to receive a good education,
make a career, start a family and receive enough income for a young family.
"We are drafting an increasing number of measures to support young families. Let me emphasise that even during the pandemic,
most of our support measures were designed for families with children. What are these families? They are young people for the
most part.
"We will continue doing this in the hope that young people will use their best traits – their daring striving to move
ahead without looking back at formalities that probably make older generations more reserved – for positive, creative endeavours.
Eventually, the younger generation will take the baton from the older generation and continue this relay race, and make Russia
stronger."
The difference in that regard between Putin's vision and his actions when compared to the Outlaw US Empire and other Neoliberal
nations is beyond stark--it's as if they inhabit two different solar systems.
The reason Putin's hated by the West is he took an unviable Russia and made it more than viable again. IMO, he's the unequaled
Dean of what few Statesmen exist in today's world, which makes him an asset for humanity.
There used to be a regular commenter at Mark Chapman's Kremlin Stooge / The New Kremlin Stooge - I forget his KS name but he
was a physicist (and not a very good-tempered one at that, he had regular shouting matches with one other commenter Yalensis there)
-- but he was of the opinion that interest rates set by the Central Bank of Russia have been too high and have discouraged small
business investment in Russia. The head of the CBR may still be Elvira Nabiullina -- I haven't checked lately. She and others
in the government who help set monetary policies in Russia are suspected of being neoliberal and Atlanticist in their outlook.
As President, Putin is not responsible for setting domestic policies - that's Prime Minister Mishustin's job.
Putin spoke all that in a very specific environment (in a room full of rabid liberals/pro-capitalists), so we should be care about
its content.
There are some incongruousness in his speech we must correct here:
1) It is a myth the State, during the golden age of liberalism (16th-19th Centuries) was "minimal". On the contrary: there
was a ton of State intervention in the people's daily life - including the right of the State to separate whole families and use
their children in servile labor. The difference here is that the gross of that intervention was directed to the dispossessed,
i.e. the working classes. There was also a ton of regulations over slave ownership. The age of classical liberalism is considered
one of minimum State because the freedom of the powerful slave owners and industrialists was almost zero; it's the History told
from the point of view of the capitalists. That's why Putin clearly said "[capitalism] the way you have described it [...]"
2) The mixed system between what he calls "State intervention" (welfare of the people, command or planned economy) and "free
market" is the scientific definition of socialism. Marx wasn't an idealist: he was a materialist. He knew a direct transition
to communism was impossible, therefore he imagined a system of transition, where communism and capitalism would exist together.
This transition system was called socialism. That's why China, still governed by a Marxist-Leninist Party, considers itself socialist
and not capitalist, or even "mixed" for that matter;
Another observation: the Western countries didn't enter deflation/low inflation because of ZIRP/NIRP. They were already suffering
from it before those policies. The opposite is the true: precisely because they were having a too low inflation, they resorted
to ZIRP/NIRP.
Yep re my comment @ 29: Nabiullina is still CBR head according to her Wikipedia entry. Since becoming CBR head back in 2012 or
2013, she has consistently followed a policy of tackling inflation first to the extent of keeping interest rates higher than they
perhaps should be. This probably helps explain some of the issues Eric @ 18 raises about Russians' access to personal credit.
Interestingly Nabiullina's Wikipedia entry shows she worked with Alexei Kudrin in the past. Kudrin has a reputation for preferring
neoliberal economic policies. Currently he is Inspector General in the Russian govt's audit office where he can mouth off all
he likes about how he'd reform Russian economic policies if he got the chance but not actually do much damage: a case of Putin
keeping potential enemies somewhere where they can be watched.
Eric does raise the issue about how Russian oligarchs were allowed to keep their gains and not be forced to pay back taxes
they owed way back in the early 2000s, but this was on condition that they not meddle in Russian federal politics and buy influence,
and pay all their future taxes and other obligations, like paying their employees, promptly and in accordance with Russian laws.
Those who refused ended up in prison (Khodorkovsky) or fled overseas (Berezovsky). Roman Abramovich paid an unusual penalty: he
was made Governor of Chukotka in far eastern Siberia near the Bering Sea for a couple of years at least. He paid for all that
territory's infrastructure improvements. Of course the people there must love him!
So why are not all barflies writing and thinking about the role of the state in the economy within the context of current private
control of finance in the West?
What is blinding you all to not state the obvious role issue of those that own global private finance not being any "state"
of transparency?
We are in a civilization war about the fact that a current state in our world, China, has a public finance core of government
which is opposed to the Western cult of global private finance. Wake up.
Reading the entrails of the Russian economy that has been ravaged for decades by the cult of private finance and its followers
in Russia does us no service to b's question of what role the state should have in the national and world economy. Because Russia
is still having to operate with the shit show called empire they are limited in their response. I was taught 50 years ago that
a 2% inflation rate was optimal but because Russia is trying to build its population, it is spending more money supporting that
segment of the overall population and saying the inflation rate is worth the investment.
The role of the state in the economy
History has shown positive results from what are called mixed economies. The US is a mixed economy with the state, at various
levels, supporting energy, transportation, USPS, water, sewage treatment, police and fire protection, education, SSI, regulations,
etc. There are and have been attempts to privatize all those things under the canard that the service can be provided "better"
with profit as the motive other than service to others.
There is no magic mixed economy formula for any one state and it will change over time like Russia is choosing to do. But the
state has limited control of the economy if the tools of finance are privately held and not integrated into state functionality....and
it is my understanding that the Central Bank in Russia for example is not entirely a sovereign entity...what sayest our most recent
barfly, Eric?
Please join in a more reasoned contextual discussion of our world. I am tired of reading about "ism"s. More reality please.
Thank you b for continuing this conversation. The speech and Q&A were most interesting. They were consistent with what Putin has
said before, but done so this time with more confidence as even the oppression of the covid situation was dealt with in honorable
fashion - if one can honor a virus, that is. It is always, with Putin, that the people come first, and he made that statement
at the beginning.
Countries, all countries, have that obligation in their governance that it be for the people's welfare. So, to him, whatever
system a country has is only important in that respect and each country, drawing on its own history and its assets, decides for
itself what that style of governance will be.
This is different from any outside system being touted as the ideal. There isn't an ideal. It all depends on how the people
wish to be governed, based on what they feel is important to them. That is democracy in its loosest terms. He said several times
that any philosophy of government imposed by outsiders will never work.
At the same time, his support for the UN system on a world wide basis is as unconditional as his first premise.
I meant to add that casting my mind back to the last debate, the one thing being said about the people was Biden intensely eyeing
us and telling us about the empty chair at the kitchen table - nice!
.. an important task of abandoning the practice of unrestrained and unlimited consumption – overconsumption – in favour of
judicious and reasonable sufficiency, when you do not live just for today but also think about tomorrow.
We need to land somewhere between North Korea and the US on consumption. John Judge used to talk about how 30 houses on a street
need 30 lawnmowers. Why not buy one lawnmower, share it and maintain it? I ditched my lawns long ago as that is also over consumption
but I use it as an example of what type of society we have built.
"... I am confident that what makes a state strong, primarily, is the confidence it's citizens have in it. That is the strength
of a state. People are the source of power, we all know that."
It is not just confidence it is having an educated competent citizenry. Our top education institutions, especially the ivy
league, are cranking out students trained to protect the status quo hence things will not changed easily.
Moon is going to end up on the Russian disinformation agitators list.
@ Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 25 2020 0:05 utc | 32
This "mixed economies won the Cold War" is an old story already. Eric Hobsbawn left a letter claiming just before he died,
in 2012.
The problem with the Scandinavian economies is this: who's gonna do the dirty jobs? You cannot simply make a nation of designers
and white collar workers. The social-democracies of the post-war solved this problem with the Third World countries, but now those
countries are not accepting this role anymore.
Besides, there's the objective fact even the Scandinavian economies are declining, with inequality skyrocketing since the end
of the 1990s. They, too, are susceptible to the laws of capitalism.
"Strengthening our country and looking at what is happening in the world, in other countries, I want to say to those who are still
waiting for the gradual demise of Russia: in this case, we are only worried about one thing -- how not to catch a cold at your
funeral", Putin said on Thursday at a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club.
That's an interesting question. How are the underclass workers (construction, janitors, street sweepers) wage and social benefits
in the Nordic countries in comparison with China, S. Korea and Japan?
Those are important points. It seems to be a common pattern in neoliberal economics. The answer to "why" that I pieced together
is this: It is all about the oligarchs in combination with their immediate overseas business partners. Typically they own a considerable
portion of the foreign-jurisdiction bonds lent to their own nations. It is a straightforward money laundering arrangement.
The Russian government cannot simply remove the domestic oligarchs**, no more than a US or EU government could do the same
against equivalent local business powers. Rather, they come to a livable equilibrium. Preventing investment from China, EU etc,
is, in addition to defending national sovereignty, also a case of the government defending the domestic oligarchs from foreign
rivals -- rivals who would have greater financial resources with the backing of their own larger home regions.
However, the big difference in the case of Russia, compared to most countries victimized by the neoliberal pattern, is that
the government is powerful enough to quite reliably protect the local oligarchs from their foreign rivals, including pretty much
anything that the foreign rival's home governments can possibly throw at them (i.e. the various regime change toolbox). This protection
is a massively valuable service. For this reason, the Russian government can, if it is halfway decent and perhaps above-average
in managing the difficult internal politics, negotiate a better (i.e. more long-term sustainable) arrangement with the local oligarchs,
in terms of how the citizens are affected.
[** but with all the sanctions etc, this balance of power actually shifts]
You do realize that the Russians have three (3) vaccines, and the Chinese one (1) in late stage 3 trials, with Sputnik V due to
complete theirs next month and to go into serial production shortly. Putin's strategy is to vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate.
Mishustin is busy holding trade fairs promoting the Russian arctic. Business residency for $$RUB$$$. Ski resorts on the Kola peninsula...
While his enemies implode under the second COVID-19 wave....
Thank you Alicia for putting up that interview. I like very much the articles Orlov writes, and many of them I find translated
in French. He has humour, unlike more well known geopolitics analysts. Try this one:
That Valdai speech / Q&A was a master class in governance.
While Putin thinks and talks like a sane man, Western leaders reveal daily that they are now not sanity-capable, not logic-capable,
not sanity-capable, not shame-capable.
Putin shows a commanding grasp of his nation's people, economy, culture, history, environment, geo-strategic needs, impressively
rattling off numbers, statistics, reason, rationale, logic and pragmatic good sense. In all that, he reminds me of that other
great world-class leader, Lee Kuan Yew, whom Kissinger once called the Wise Man of Asia. Russia is fortunate to be governed by a world-class leader and his team today, but good luck to the Great Toilet Bowl Stirrers
in the West.
Putin: "But I would address it more broadly to discuss also an important task of abandoning the practice of unrestrained and unlimited
consumption – overconsumption – in favour of judicious and reasonable sufficiency, when you do not live just for today but also
think about tomorrow..... After all, it is within our power to stop being egoistical, greedy, mindless and wasteful consumers....
We just need to open our eyes, look around us and see that the land, air and water are our common inheritance from above, and
we must learn to cherish them, just as we must cherish every human life, which is precious. This is the only way forward in this
complicated and beautiful world. I do not want to see the mistakes of the past repeated."
Was Putin talking about Russians? or about Americans? Who are those exceptional 4% of the global population who demands to consume 40% of global resources?
Putin: "So, we want the voice of our citizens to be decisive and to see constructive proposals and requests from different social
forces get implemented.... what you call your political system is immaterial...."
It doesn't matter if it is a 'democratic' or 'socialist', but governments that primarily serve the people's needs (not the
elite's greed) will listen to, and DO, the people's will. Out of that, the people give their CONSENT to be governed.
Today, ALL governments use a mix of democratic and socialist tools, eg. China, Russia, UK, USA. But, unlike the West, who boast
that their system is more perfect, China and Russia serve their people primarily.
As Deng said, it does not matter if the cat is black or white.
How much of America's policy's are run out of pure jealousy of Russia and China ?
Rather than being a supper power, they have regressed into immature petulant juvenile tantrums.
Self-distruction and self-harm.
Putin is a "statesman". A few squalid pretenders in the political class here may aspire to that title, but It is not a badge you
pin on yourself, it is awarded by general acclaim. Putin has stepped into the vacuum of world leadership left by the US Idiocracy
when Trump took over with the help of his free market, anti-government cohort, the Koch's, Robert Mercer, Paul Singer, and etc.
Putin is the champion of arms control, multilateralism & cooperation, and following this address certainly, environmentalism.
All attempts to demonize Putin on the part of the neoliberal US oligarchy collapse when the diminutive Russian Mongol begins to
speak. I join in the applause. It is so refreshing to listen to a leader talking sense for a change! I don't care if he is a benevolent
authoritarian anti-democrat, I am so grateful for his intelligent leadership that I salute! And I thank b for bringing this Valdai
event to our attention. The poverty and ideological blindness of our media conglomerates is just outrageous!
"Overconsumption" , in and of itself, isn't the problem. The problem is the distortion of value that capitalist empire
introduces. If the effort required to acquire some thing accurately reflected the effort to produce that thing then consumption
would be naturally self-limiting. After all, who could every day consume products containing two days worth of effort if they
had to work two days for every day worth of their consuming? "Overconsumption" can only occur because the empire expropriates
massive amounts of produced value from its vassals and uses that robbed value to buy off its domestic population. Likewise, capitalism
over-rewards certain portions of the domestic population (typically no-skill "professionals" such as journalists and middle
managers) who act as "insulation" for the elites from the working class.
Note that you don't see "overconsumption" among factory workers in Bangladesh or Malaysia. Child slave laborers working
on African cocoa plantations for your Hershey bars could never be accused of "overconsumption" . It would even be unjust
to accuse Chinese workers, as much as their standards of living have exploded over the last couple decades, of indulging in
"overconsumption" .
When China is successful in replacing the US$ with a scientifically managed "currency basket" for international trade
and currency reserve then the problem of "overconsumption" will correct itself and the Global North will go on a diet.
I am not sure that will be possible though without some "kinetic" events between now and then.
On the role of the state on the economy...and on everything else...things not discussed at Valdai, nor at MoA for that matter,
and which contribute to promote the disintegration of states so wished by the neorreactionaires due the lose of confidence of
citizens in the state-
Making the broth to fascism, on the verge of coming "curfews" to be stablished in Spain ,and other European countries...One
wonders why the hell Thiel & associated, those owners of hedge funds and managers of our personal data on behalf of already fascist
givernment like that in the US, need to follow trying to implant their so wished feudal state where the masses are submitted into
slavery, when all that is this already here...and without complaints from our part...
(...)A recent article by Carlota García Encina, an analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute, described the coronavirus pandemic
as "an opportunity for NATO." Specifically, it stated that "the universality of the coronavirus means that NATO must defend
the 30 as if they were one, going from" one for all and all for one "to" all for all ".
In 2003, and anticipating events like the cheating poker player who anticipates his results, NATO released - it was not
secret - the Urban Operations in the Year 2020 report, a socio-economic analysis of the situation in Europe where it anticipated
a crisis unprecedented in the history of capitalism, where urban poverty "could grow significantly in the future, leading to
possible uprisings, civil unrest and threats to security that will require the intervention of local authorities".
The analysis was only a preview of the crisis that the capitalist system was forging. The United Nations evaluated in 2019,
and counting on the data as of December 31, 2018 (that is, less than a year and a half after the "coronavirus crisis"), that
26.1% of the population in Spain, and 29.5% of those under 18 years of age were in a situation of poverty. That more than 55%
had difficulties to make ends meet, and that 5.4% had severe deficiencies (access to electricity, drinking water, heating,
etc.). Official unemployment was 13.78%, more than double the EU average, and youth unemployment was 30.51% among those under
25 years of age. We insist, before the State of Alarm decreed on March 14, 2020.(...)
(...)Any investigation of an event ("coronavirus crisis") has to start from the circumstances that surround it to obtain accurate
conclusions, and not the other way around. The origin of this crisis that is impoverishing millions of people cannot be limited
to March 14, 2020, because as we have seen, the problem came from long before.
If we add to this that many of the decisions that are transforming society towards a privatist model (locked up at home)
and individualistic (normalizing the suppression of rights) were made based on the criteria of a "committee of experts" that
has not existed, we can never set off an alarm that this is not just a "fucking virus."
But the second question that we need to verify is the deterrent effect of the exercise of those rights which imply these
decisions, because even the left is accepting the official account of the events with astonishing passivity.(...)
(...)Paul Von Hindenburg, who came to power thanks to his family fortune, and with credentials manufactured by that fortune,
ended the German Weimar Constitution of 1919 by signing the Reichstag Fire Decree and ushering in something that at the time
of being approved no one called fascism. In the current context, the succession of regulations of this "new exceptionality"
grants an extraordinary delegation of functions to the police or civil guard officers.
With this empowered power, there is no place to turn back. The curfew that will be established in the next few hours may
one day be eliminated from the BOE, but the meaning of this measure is that mass psychology incorporates a disciplined attitude
towards the reality that surrounds us into its behavior.
And what surrounds us is what we already know. Faced with the question of whether or not we should comply with the restrictions
imposed by the State (confinement, isolation, no meetings, no leisure), we must ask ourselves (as we should have done before
March 14) if we are willing to accept or not that poverty and repression are part of our lives .
The stock market crash of 1987, the savings and loan debacle, the tech bubble, the Asian tigers meltdown, the world "recession"
of 2008 and today's global slump (which preceded the pandemic, a point neglected by the apologists for capitalism,) show that
capitalism doesn't work as advertised, even on its own limited terrain. All claims about how "I" (whether it's Putin, Trump, Boris
Johnson, Macron, a miscellaneous German, whoever) am smart enough to solve the minor details of finance responsible have been
proven by history to be lies. Whether born of sincerely felt megalomania or calculated perfidy doesn't matter, instability and
inequality (which is a bad thing, not a good one, no matter what secret feelings may be harbored,) *are* the normal operations
of market economies.
When you add to that the way the global capitalist system is creating a global environmental crisis, the shamelessness of the
capitalist apologists is staggering. Putin is a fool.
The fraud Proyect seems to think Xi is actively commanding the Chinese economy in such a fashion as to be personally responsible
for, well, everything, conveniently omits that Xi is to be condemned precisely for *not* taking charge the way needed, for advancing
the power of the Chinese bourgeoisie even at the expense of the future of China. But then, Proyect is anticommunist/pro imperialist,
a champion of barbarism using pious phrases.
Lastly, the notion that "overconsumption" is the problem, is basically an attack on the masses of the people. The problem is
the accumulation of capital, of money, which is not consumed, but "invested" for yet more money. There's a fake left website called
Crooked Timer where the oh-so-refined-sensibilities of a clot of academics is offended by the rabble eating meat...but they're
not offended by billionaires having more money than they can spend! This is the same thing. The pursuit of money, profit, is not
overconsumption, but that, not overconsumption, distorts the economy. Starting with vague notions like overconsumption reflects
a deep ideological disorientation...or a commitment to capitalism, imperialism and ultimately barbarism.
Things not discussed at Valdai...on the "eco-scam", how the Spanish IBEX35 giants, private great corporations on energy, transports
and clothing, claim thousands of millions from European Funds ( which come from tax payers money, not from the private bank accounts
of European officials, do not forget...) on the alibi of "energetic transition" and "sustainability"....This is the new scam after
that of rescuing big banks in 2008, for the bailing out and profit of those of always while the population impoverishes at galloping
pace and without any prospect of recovery, austerity seems to be our only prospect...
On the "pipelines war", also discussed at Valdai, of which it is part the alleged "Navalny poisoning" also briefly discussed without
naming that unimportant, at Russian and world level, person, how to explain that Germany must cut off Nord Stream 2 pipeline
development on the grounds of not linking its energetic sovereignty to Russia, and then Europe must link its energetic sovereignty
to Israel, when the EU has been an historical defender of Palestinian people´s rights and with this link Europe will be submitted
to blackmail on the part of Israel anytime it dares criticize Israel´s apartheid measures against Palestinians?
After diplomatically recognizing Israel, the UAE signed a contract through the MRLB with the Israeli company EAPC (which manages
the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline) to transport crude oil to Europe without having to cross the Suez Canal
Very true jadan, your view on Putin, and every time I read an excerpt or a speech by him I notice he is far above our western
"leaders" with their meaningless chatter and hollow phrases. That's why you will never read the slightest alinea by Putin in der
Spiegel,le Monde ,or le Figaro.The vile venal journo's can't afford to print it and keep up their unmerited credibility at the
same time.Same for Lavrov,Assad,Xi and Khadafi.
American grocery stores - 80 pct of the items are not necessary and are likely harmful to some degree. Junk food outlets, it's
been known for decades that this stuff leads to obesity, diabetes, and who knows what else. The authorities could mandate changes
to low fat, sugar and salt contents that would apply to all of them with no real harm to their business, but it doesn't get done
because the right people get paid off.
Putin stands out like a shining light amongst what are called world leaders.
Some are just bosses of crime syndicates, follow my eyes (USA). Others are just hopeless idiot figure-heads, like Trudeau.
(I am biased, particularly dislike him. Macron is in the same bin.)
Putin's statements about the 'economy' are calculatedly 'judicious' and unassailable. Note, he only says one has to question
the role of the State in the 'economy' in the sense of control of it, with the State as a mega-regulator + law-maker wielding
authority from the top - not as negotiator, as far as I have understood Putin.
That 'State control' should be different in different conditions -- regions, epochs, etc., is a truism. Putin projects the
feel of 'reasonable control' and 'piloting' (encouraging xyz.. or the opposite..) which rejects both despotic, authoritarian stances,
often 'arbitrary' (or experienced as such), as well as, on the other side, anarchy and unbridled profiteering -> racketeering,
monopolies, cartels, fraud, violence, coercion, etc. Some call that capitalism, others gangsterism.
Russia, land + ressource rich, with a 'low' population density, with well-educated ppl (as compared to many others), its 'economy'
at least not plunging or even stagnant (GDP per capita or some such), is well positioned to put forward such 'reasonable' thoughts.
Humanity's dilemma or rather looming disaster sink-hole - see: ressource extraction, trashing the environment, irreversible
tipping points, 'peak oil' (gone out of fashion with fracking in the US), and other over-consumption (sand for ex.), destruction
(soils.. rivers.. ocean.. global warming..), over-population, global warming.. will not be reversed or in any way solved, by reasoned
Putin-type discourse. (see pnyzx at 4, vk 30, psychohistorian 32 and others..)
For sure, Putin's job is not to solve the world's problems but to protect and nurture Russia and its people and he does that
very well.
"while at the same time even Chinese investors are discouraged from investing through opaque regulation and unpredictable Russian
state intervention."
I wonder if they are becoming more open to western investors. Nordstream 2's financing is ~50% European, and this from Oilprice.com:
". . . .No wonder, then, that a number of banks have pledged a total of $9.5 billion in funding for Novatek's second LNG project,
the Arctic LNG 2. According to a Reuters report, the China Development Bank and German Euler Hermes are among the lenders that
have made pledges, and French Pbifrance is yet to decide on the funding. The China Development Bank is, unsurprisingly, the most
generous backer of the $21-billion Arctic LNG 2 project, with $5 billion.
Arctic LNG 2 will have a liquefaction capacity of $19.8 [sic] million tons of LNG annually divided among three liquefaction
trains."
PS - Good to see you posting after you were virtually assaulted last week.
Den lille Abe,
I nowadays start to read comments from the "bottom up" - in order not to fall into the traps of some trolls, some of those I know
by name, and this prevents me to read their comments. In other words, if you continue reading from top down, you don't know who's
comment you read...
Interesting transcript. Simple, no-frills English.
Judging from the English subtitles in Oliver Stone's 4-part series The Putin Interviews, Putin is no stranger to refreshingly
frank, clear and unambiguous communication, No wonder Russians love him.
Huge contrast with the mendacity of pseudo-Christian ratbags masquerading as Western Leaders on the world stage. Evidence of
the Scum Mo Government's laughably opaque and unaccountable corruption is seeping out of every crack in the facade of what passes
for 'democracy' in Oz.
China is looking at Russia like a hungry pork chop.
See Bear and the Dragon by Tom Clancy. But China has better tech and Russia *still* has
better snipers.
NachoLiebor , 36 minutes ago
Toria Nuland and Hilldawg tried to goad Russia into a war with the EU and US over the
Ukraine.
So, what's your point?
Revolution_starts_now , 32 minutes ago
operation "Jumping Jack Flash". Why should Trump not unleash some fica warrants on
Biden?
Even if he wins he is doomed before he takes office.
They did it to Trump, why not pass along the favor?
Magnum , 40 minutes ago
Highly recommended is a look at The Magnitsky Act
Specifically the role of Bill Browder, his history and involvement. Piraya Films created
this and it was banned. I believe you can still watch it. Obama admin was a complete
disaster. It is in everyone's interest to get along with Russians, who are different
culturally but mean no harm to us.
the Amish are compelled to pit Caucasian against Caucasian. The browns are easier to
control.
NachoLiebor , 44 minutes ago
Never again. Never ever again.
The people (and I use the term loosely) responsible for this fabricated Russian witch
hunt
against President Trump need to be put somewhere they can't hurt anyone ever again.
Ideology in Practice , 49 minutes ago
The crimes against Kavanaugh and Flynn were perhaps more heinous than the ones directly
carried out against Trump.
But he should seek vengeance at this point since every person they injure is a way of
injuring him too.
NachoLiebor , 17 minutes ago
Flynn was a lure and the [DS] swallowed him whole.
Xena fobe , 25 minutes ago
Republican and Trump supporter, Eric Early is challenging Adam Schiff. Early has a chance.
People are furious about rioting, covid lock downs, the homeless, etc.
Didymus , 40 minutes ago
" Authoritarian liberals "
Nimrod doesn't understand the difference between authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
Authority is good. Parents have authority. Marxist regimes are totalitarian. The USA is a
totalitarian neoliberal empire.
milo_hoffman , 13 minutes ago
It will continue and continue and continue until some very high ranking prep walks happen
or some people are put up against the wall.
Zorba's idea , 20 minutes ago
"When one chooses to decieve, what a tangled web they weave." That's as modestly as one
could explain the mountainous corruption and Tyrranical Lawlessness our constitutional
republic has been subjected too. Next comes Robespierre, I suppose. Jefferson's tree is
parched.
DonGenaro , 23 minutes ago
I've known for some 30+ years that the USG had devolved into a glorified crime
syndicate
(because nothing is beneath those that start wars for profit ).
Russiagate just made it obvious to all but the most willfully-ignorant.
bshirley1968 , 2 minutes ago
" All anybody (if they're a Democrat) has to do to escape accountability and justice for
very serious crimes is to shout "Russia!"
All anybody (if their republican) has to do to escape accountability and justice for any
crime or delinquency of responsibility is shout "Fake News!"
It's an old game......they call it the "blame game"......and it cuts both ways.
Just sayin'.
cjones1 , 16 minutes ago
The fabricated Russiagate investigation was a conspiracy used against the Trump campaign
and his administration by Obama administration officials who enga grrr ed in official
misconduct, corruption, and worse to keep a lid on investigating rampant national security
violations associated with the Clintons, Bidens, and who knows who engaged in money grubbing,
"pay to play" diplomacy.
The Obama administration's deal with the Iranians provided ample cash for Gen. Soleimani
to post bounties on U.S. personnel.
The Democratic party and their sympathizers in the MSM and Social Media have become a
clear and present danger to our 1st Amendment rights in enjoying a free press.
Good thing Trump came along because this undermining of the United States government by
the Democratic party's supporters in and outside of government is coming into clear view.
RNC's national spokesperson Liz Harrington battled CNN's Christiane Amanpour for
refusing to engage with allegations of corruption against Joe Biden and his family after years
of hyping unverified Trump-Russia allegations.
"Why don't you want to report this? This is one of the most powerful families in
Washington," she asked. "And you're okay with our interests being sold out to profit Joe Biden
and his family, while we're suffering during a pandemic from communist China?"
Russia is done with the European Union. At last week's Valdai Discussion Forum Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made this quite clear with this statement.
Those people in the West who are responsible for foreign policy and do not understand the
necessity of mutually respectable conversation–well, we must simply stop for a while
communicate with them. Especially since Ursula von der Leyen states that geopolitical
partnership with current Russia's leadership is impossible. If this is the way they want it,
so be it. (H/T Andrei Martyanov)
Lavrov's statements echo a number of statements made in recent months by Russian leadership
that there is no opportunity for diplomacy possible with the United States.
We can now add the European Union to that list. Pepe
Escobar's latest piece goes over Lavrov's comments about the European Union and they are
devastating, as devastating as when he and Putin described the U.S. as " Not
Agreement Capable " a few years ago.
Lavrov reiterated this with the following comments at Valdai last week.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/zV_W3b_4G50
But as badly as the U.S. has acted in recent years in international relations, unilaterally
abrogating treaty after treaty, nominally with the goal of remaking them to be more inclusive,
Lavrov's upbraiding of the current leadership of the European Union is far worse.
Because they have gone along with, if not openly assisted, every U.S.-backed provocation
against Russia for their own advantage. From Ukraine to MH-17, to Skripal to now Belarus and
the ridiculous Navalny poisoning, the EU has proved to be worse than the U.S.
Because there can be no doubt the U.S. views Russia as an antagonist. We're quite clear
about this. But Europe plays off U.S. aggression, hiding in the U.S.'s skirts while telling
Russia, usually through German Chancellor Angela Merkel, "Be patient, we are reluctantly going
along with this." But really they're happy about it.
You do not negotiate with monkeys, you treat them nicely, you make sure that they are not
abused, but you don't negotiate with them, same as you don't negotiate with toddlers. They
want to have their Navalny as their toy–let them. I call on Russia to start wrapping
economic activity up with EU for a long time. They buy Russia's hydrocarbons and hi-tech,
fine. Other than that, any other activity should be dramatically reduced and necessity of the
Iron Curtain must not be doubted anymore.
And the truth is that Russia is dealing with monkeys in the U.S. and toddlers in the EU. And
Martanyov's right that it's time Putin et.al. simply turn their backs on the West and move
forward.
Lavrov's statements at Valdai were momentous. They sent a clear signal that if Europe wants
a future relationship with Russia they will have to change how they do business.
The problem is however, that the EU is suffused with arrogance on the eve of the U.S.
election, mistakenly thinking Joe Biden will beat Trump.
Merkel has betrayed Putin at every turn since 2013. And Germany's appalling behavior over
the Alexei Navalny poisoning was the last straw.
That what was another sabotage effort to stop the Nordstream 2 pipeline and add grist to
Trump's re-election mill was given even a cursory glance by the highest levels of the German
government was insulting enough.
That Merkel allowed her Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to run his mouth on the subject, and
then throw the decision to sanction Russia (again) over this to the EU parliament and give it
any kind of political play was truly treacherous.
Germany has taken the lead in advancing "European integration" and therefore prioritizes
Eastern European member states that push for a more aggressive stance towards Russia.
Economic connectivity with Russia is no longer an instrument for building trust and
cooperation in the pan-European space, rather it was intended to strengthen Germany's
position as the center of the EU. Moscow should work with Berlin to construct Nord Stream 2,
but not forget why Nord Stream 1 was built while South Stream was blocked.
This is a point I've been making for years. Nordstream 2 is a political tool for Germany to
reroute gas coming in from Russia which Merkel can use as a political lever over Poland and the
Visegrads.
And it is the Poles who have consistently shot themselves in the foot by not reconciling
their relationship with Russia, banding together with its Eastern European brothers and
securing an independent source of Russian gas. Putin and Gazprom would happily provide it to
them, if they would but ask.
But they don't and instead turn to the U.S. to be their protectors from both Russia and
Germany, rather than conduct themselves as a sovereign nation.
That said, I think Mr. Diesen misses the larger point here. It is true Germany under Merkel
is looking to expand its control over the EU and set itself up as a superpower for the next
century. Putin himself acknowledged
that possibility at Valdai. That may be more to dig at the U.S. and warn Europe rather than
him actually believing it.
Because under Merkel and the EU Germany is losing its dynamism. And it may even lose control
over the EU if it isn't careful. If you look at the current situation from a German perspective
you realize that Germany's mighty export business is surrounded by hostile foreign powers.
Russia -- Merkel cut off the country from Russian markets. Even though some of the trade
with Russia has returned since sanctions over Crimea went into place in 2014 she hasn't
fought the U.S.'s hyper-aggressive use of sanctions to improve Germany's position.
The U.K. -- French President Emmanuel Macron looks like he's engineered a No-Deal Brexit
with Boris Johnson which will put up major export barriers for Germany into the U.K. cutting
them off from that market.
The U.S. – Trump has all but declared Germany an enemy and when he wins a second
term will tighten the screws on Merkel even tighter.
China – They know that the incoming Great Reset, which will have its Jahr Null
event in Europe likely next year, is all about consolidating power into Europe and sucking it
away from the U.S., a process Trump is dead-set against.
However, don't think for a second that the Commies that run the EU and the World Economic
Forum are teaming up with the Commies in China. Oh no, they have bigger plans than that.
And what's been pretty clear to me is Europe's delusions that it can subjugate the world
under its rubric, forcing its rules and standards on the rest of us, including China, again
allowing the U.S. to act as its proxy while it tries to maintain its standing.
I know what you're thinking. That sounds completely ludicrous.
And you're right, it is ludicrous.
But that doesn't mean it isn't true. This is clearly the mindset we're dealing with in The
Davos Crowd. They engineered a mostly-fake pandemic to accelerate their plans to remake the
world economy by burning it down.
The multi-polar world will see the fading U.S. and U.K. band together while Russia and China
continue to stitch together Asia into a coherent economic sphere. Trump is right to pull the
U.S. out of Central Asia and has gotten nothing but grief from the U.S. establishment while
Europe, through NATO, continues trying to expand to the Russian border, now with openly backing
the attempted coup in Belarus.
This was the dominant theme at Valdai and the focus of Putin's opening remarks.
Blaming Russia seems to be today's version of the dog ate my homework.
ariadnatheo, 1 day ago
I am disappointed that Russia once again interfered in the US elections without using
Novichok.
TrishArch, 1 day ago
Always Russia's Fault. Little wonder no one listens to biden.
The_Celotajs, 1 day ago
Like Russian President Vladimir Putin once said, Russia has no need to interfere in the
United States Elections when they have the Democrats doing it to themselves.
brianeg, 15 hours ago
There was of course an obvious Russian connection and that was the $3.5 million given by the
wife of the Mayor of Moscow to Hunter. Was this a birthday present or what?
Doodle_Dandy, 1 day ago
One wonders when Masha and the Bear will get the blame?
Many of us read The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry when we were
children and remember what the main character said: "It's a question of discipline. When
you've finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet. It's very
tedious work, but very easy."
I am sure that we must keep doing this "tedious work" if we want to preserve our
common home for future generations. We must tend our planet.
The subject of environmental protection has long become a fixture on the global
agenda. But I would address it more broadly to discuss also an important task of
abandoning the practice of unrestrained and unlimited consumption – overconsumption
– in favour of judicious and reasonable sufficiency, when you do not live just for
today but also think about tomorrow.
We often say that nature is extremely vulnerable to human activity. Especially when
the use of natural resources is growing to a global dimension. However, humanity is not
safe from natural disasters, many of which are the result of anthropogenic interference.
By the way, some scientists believe that the recent outbreaks of dangerous diseases are a
response to this interference. This is why it is so important to develop harmonious
relations between Man and Nature.
No cheating please. Guess. Who said the above?
Please let us know your first guess in the comments.
Wow! What a mind blunder! Of course, it was VVP. Too much reading! Ha!! Pepe's article
has its own merits. Even more important is
this revealing editorial , "How Russophobia Wrought Death of the United States:"
"The surprise election in 2016 of Donald Trump to the White House so disturbed the
political class that it was compelled to delegitimize his presidency by alleging that it
was due to Russian interference. The relentless and irrational Russophobia to undermine
Trump by his domestic political enemies has only transpired to fatally weaken American
global power. The political squabbling and infighting has wreaked havoc on the moral
authority and legitimacy of American institutions of governance. The legislative
government, the presidency, the judiciary, the intelligence apparatus, the legacy media,
and so on. Every supposed pillar of American democracy has been eroded over the past four
years with alarming speed.
"A big part of this precipitous demise is due to Russophobia: the relentless sowing of
doubt and confusion in American institutions, primarily the presidency, with insinuations
of Russian interference. In their attempts to delegitimize Trump, his domestic enemies
among the U.S. establishment have ended up delegitimizing public esteem of American
democracy. How paradoxical! America's own worst enemy turns out to be itself ." [My
Emphasis]
I've long maintained that the enemies of the USA and its people are ALL Domestic
and have been from the outset. Lots of truth fit into that short essay!
The tone sounds like Vladimir Putin in English translation and the timing of B's post
suggests he said it during his closing speech at this year's Valdai Club meetings. Putin
has always been keen on conservation issues and often spends what free time he has in short
camping adventures. The Siberian tiger conservation program is a pet project of his.
The other possibility might be Chinese President Xi Jinping as the ideas of modest
consumption or consumption that fulfills a person's needs and of humans living in harmony
with nature appear in the speech, and these ideas have been incorporated into recent
Chinese government policies. The drive to eradicate poverty not only achieves one goal
(fulfilling people's needs) but also helps achieve the other, as impoverished communities
are often driven by forces beyond their control into marginal areas where they end up
upsetting the ecology and destroying in order to survive. Among other things his also
brings exotic pathogens in contact with humans through the disturbance of plant and animal
life (insects in particular) and the consumption of bushmeat and its trade.
Significantly in recent years much of the Earth's land surface as measured by satellites
that has become greener has been in China and India as a result of large-scale conservation
and tree-planting schemes and better use of land. This has sometimes involved relocating
entire rural communities in parts of China to areas where they can access services that
help to improve their lives. An example might be a community I read about recently that
lived on top of a small mountain or plateau where the only access to schools and markets
was through a winding series of narrow staircases cut into the mountain's sides. One child
did not start going to school until she was 11 years old because her mother was afraid that
she'd fall while using the stairs. The local authority later built a bridge connecting the
mountain to lower areas, cutting travel time from 3 hours to 1 hour. Recently the entire
community agreed to relocate and its old village on top of the mountain is to be preserved
and developed as a tourist attraction.
Note that not all the questions and answers after the speech have been transcribed
yet.
This is another of Mr.Putins masterpieces of common sense and analysis, courteously and
clearly telling truth as no global 'leader' even could let alone would.
It is an exceptionally important and wide-ranging analysis of the nature of humans, the
planet, and governance.
"... Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma believes that Navalny has been too outspoken: "This guy is a competely shamless fraud." And pointing out how much was done to save his unworthy ass: From the pilots who emergency-landed the plane in Tomsk; to the doctors and nurses who fought ferociously to intubate him; to the President himself who personally gave permission to fly this recidivist to a prestigious German clinic Dante should have designed a special circle in Hell for such an ingrate, who now spits on the entire Russian nation. ..."
"... Putin's Press Secretary Peskov: "We should clarify that CIA specialists are working with Navalny, and give him various instructions. And moreover, this is not the first time, either." ..."
"... Navalny was upset by Peskov's words, he blustered back saying that Peskov is skating on very thin ice [little joke there], and said he planned to sue the man for libel: "He must prove that I actually have ties with American intelligence." Well, that's easy: Just ask Pompeo. ..."
"... Akopov himself believes that Navalny is more than just a "CIA project", he is more like a "joint venture" with all the Westie agencies. And this project also includes the Russian Neo-Liberal elite and the Westernizing section of the Oligarchy. ..."
"... Everybody who has studied Navalny and Navalniada, know what is actually going on here: Navalny and his neo-Liberal kreakle supporters represent that class of bourgeois intelligentsia who came along maybe 5 or 10 years too late to participate in the Yeltsinite plundering of the Russian people. ..."
"... They are only millionaires now, but they want to be billionaires. [yalensis: Although some evil tongues claim that Navalny has actually lost his fortune somehow and is fleeing from his creditors; hence the current crisis.] Putin stands in the way of the kreakles because he (and his caste of functionaries) have somewhat curbed the openly pirate proclivities of the Russian bourgeoisie; partially nationalized them, made them go to Church, and forced them to follow certain rules. ..."
Этот Германн, --
продолжал
Томский, -- лицо
истинно
романическое: у
него профиль
Наполеона, а
душа
Мефистофеля. Я
думаю, что на
его совести по
крайней мере
три злодейства.
Как вы
побледнели!..
"This Hermann fellow," Tomsky continued, -- "a truly romantic-era personality, the profile
of a Napoleon, and the soul of Mephistopheles. I believe that on his conscience lie at least
three crimes.
Oh my, you just turned pale!" -- Pushkin, The Queen of Spades "And that's not even counting
KirovLes!" Tomsky should have added.
Dear Readers: Today concluding my review of this piece by reporter/analyst Petr Akopov.
Where we left off, we saw that Navalny may have overstepped the line (just a tad) by
directly accusing Putin of poisoning him.
According to my blog-commenter James, Navalny is now busy on the talk-show circuit, doing a
full Ginsburg on all the imperialist propaganda media.
Describing what it feels like to be poisoned – "Ow! it hurt so much!" in full
pathos.
And Westie Navalny Goes Va Banque – burghers no doubt lapping up this farce because
it's more entertaining than the circus. –Meanwhile, back in Russia, members of the
government are not very happy with Navalny's wild improvised performance.
Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma believes that Navalny has been too
outspoken: "This guy is a competely shamless fraud." And pointing out how much was done to save
his unworthy ass: From the pilots who emergency-landed the plane in Tomsk; to the doctors and
nurses who fought ferociously to intubate him; to the President himself who personally gave
permission to fly this recidivist to a prestigious German clinic Dante should have designed a
special circle in Hell for such an ingrate, who now spits on the entire Russian
nation.
For 7 long days, Navalny lay in a fake-coma does that work for the 7 card? Furthermore, in a
no-shit kind of epiphany, Volodin opines that this whole poisoning scenario was scripted by the
Westies: "In order to create tension within Russia, and to prevent Belorussia from asserting
its sovereignty." Captain Obvious concludes with: "Navalny himself clearly works with the
special services and organs of goverments of [various] Western countries."
After such a shocking utterance, the Kremlin felt the need to clarify: Uh, it's not so much
that Navalny works for the CIA; as the CIA works for him! Uh huh, that makes perfect sense. As
comedian Yakov Smirnov might say: In America, Secret Agent works for CIA. But in Russia, CIA
works for him!
Putin's Press Secretary Peskov: "We should clarify that CIA specialists are working with
Navalny, and give him various instructions. And moreover, this is not the first time,
either."
Navalny was upset by Peskov's words, he blustered back saying that Peskov is skating on
very thin ice [little joke there], and said he planned to sue the man for libel: "He must prove
that I actually have ties with American intelligence." Well, that's easy: Just ask
Pompeo.
Akopov himself believes that Navalny is more than just a "CIA project", he is more like
a "joint venture" with all the Westie agencies. And this project also includes the Russian
Neo-Liberal elite and the Westernizing section of the Oligarchy.
They are all in this together as partners. [yalensis: And these knuckle-heads couldn't come
up with anybody better than Navalny as their Leader?] Akopov would not even want to venture a
guess, which one of these "partners" holds the "controlling interest" in Mr.
Navalny's person.
Although it is plausible that shares might be redistributed during Navalny's stay in
Germany. The question du jour is whether or not Navalny will return to Russia. Gentlemen and
Countesses, you are free to place your bets on this one. Akopov believes that, yes, Navalny not
only will, but must, return to Russia. Why? To complete his Quest. What is his Quest? To change
the internal political structure and geopolitical vector of Russia.
Here is how Navalny himself describes the pathos of the current situation: "A struggle is
taking place between those who stand for Freedom, and those who wish to push us backwards. Into
the Past, into that strange Orthodox imitation of the Soviet Union, only decorated with
Capitalism and Oligarchs." "I win!" Hm I hate to admit it, but Navalny's words actually have a
ring of truth to them, which is why, if they were to come out of the mouth of a real
freedom-fighter, then they might bear some weight.
But you know what people say: If you want to sell a lie, then you have to sprinkle it with
truth.
Everybody who has studied Navalny and Navalniada, know what is actually going on here:
Navalny and his neo-Liberal kreakle supporters represent that class of bourgeois intelligentsia
who came along maybe 5 or 10 years too late to participate in the Yeltsinite plundering of the
Russian people.
They regret this, and wish for an opportunity to make their own fortunes, on the backs of
said Russian people.
They are only millionaires now, but they want to be billionaires. [yalensis: Although
some evil tongues claim that Navalny has actually lost his fortune somehow and is fleeing from
his creditors; hence the current crisis.] Putin stands in the way of the kreakles because he
(and his caste of functionaries) have somewhat curbed the openly pirate proclivities of the
Russian bourgeoisie; partially nationalized them, made them go to Church, and forced them to
follow certain rules.
This is what drives Navalny and his ilk crazy. They want it all, and they want it now!
Putin, for his part, in his endless balancing act, trying to maintain two incompatible things,
as Pushkin might have said (=capitalism and Russian patriotism) has scrambled to win the
support of the patriotic bourgeoisie and the clergy, the two pillars of the Lost Russia he
strives to re-build.
Navalny again:
"A part of society repeats Putin's rhetoric about how the country needs to follow its own
path. They are talking about restoring a kind of monarchy, based on certain spiritual values.
And against them stand such people as myself, who consider this to be a lie and hypocrisy, and
who are convinced that Russia must develop only according to the European model."
Ah, Navalny! You had me at "monarchy" but lost me at "European model" – you wretch!
"It's curtains for you, buster!"
Akopov, it goes without saying, is one of those intellectuals whom Navalny despises as
supporting the "Putinite" model of Russian development: Rely on a strong Russian state (which
Navalny mockingly calls an "imitation of the USSR"), lean on the Church, develop one's own
geo-political vector, etc.
Navalny and his crowd regard these types as complete zombies, whose proposed model is
worthless.
But the only thing that Navalny counter-punts are equally worn-out ideas of what Lenin would
call "the highest stages of capitalism" and which would, in reality, demote Russia to the level
of an American colony.
Same as the rest of Europe! Akopov concedes, however, that Navalny's "vision", if one could
call it that, of a European Russia imbued with "democratic values" does, in fact, enjoy mass
support -- among the Muscovite intelligentsia.
This kreakle mass [Akopov does not say, but there are estimates that the Navalnyite program
enjoys as much as 30% support among the residents of Moscow, not so much in the rest of the
country] believe in exactly the same things that Navalny does.
And have been "fighting" for this program (in one way or another) for the past 30 years.
This section of the Russian bourgeois intelligentsia punts against Putin's "national
project" and now awaits eagerly for the return of their poisoned, and poisonous, hero. [THE
END]
is a game and tech journalist from the US. Aside from writing for RT, he hosts the podcast
Micah and The Hatman, and is an independent comic book writer. Follow Micah at @MindofMicahC
It's safe to say that Hunter Biden, the son of former vice president and current
presidential candidate Joe Biden, is having a rough time. After the contents of his laptop,
including details of his international business dealings, came into the public domain, it
transpired that the computer had been the
subject of a subpoena in a money-laundering investigation. Now, former business partners
are beginning to turn on him, and one of them has said that he's turning "
everything " over to the FBI and the Senate. Another one claimed that Biden was
consulted with regard to Hunter's foreign deals.
During the second and final presidential debate, Biden made a key mistake when it came to
addressing these issues. Instead of simply stating that he had no comment to make, he decided
to
blame Russia for the fact that Hunter's emails had been leaked from the laptop's hard
drive. Ah yes. So we're back to that old 'reliable' narrative. I'm assuming that Joe may have
missed the embarrassment that was the Mueller
investigation .
Maybe Biden doesn't like Russia. Whether he does or doesn't is inconsequential. It is a very
bad idea to blame his problems on a foreign power. In fact, it's not the proper behavior of
someone who wants to be president. Here's the truth. Hunter Biden's dealings across the pond
likely had some issues. It's hard to say exactly what these might be, because there's an
ongoing investigation. I don't think that Biden is so dumb that he doesn't realize that this
hurts his chances of the presidency. However, there is a big lack of responsibility here.
Blaming what's happening on anyone except Hunter is a bit silly. I'd even argue that it's
incredibly irresponsible.
What's even more obvious is the desperation. Biden and the Democrats in general want this
story, whatever it is, to be squashed. It's why you have seen so little coverage on
left-leaning TV networks. If Donald Trump Jr was in a similar situation it would be a story on
every single one of them, and likely the subject of a Don Lemon lecture or five.
What Biden may not realize is that when voters see something being blamed on Russia, they
tend to roll their eyes. It invokes the image of Boris and Natasha grabbing a laptop in the
hopes of finally grabbing the moose and squirrel. It's cartoonish. And what happens if the
worst-case scenario for Biden comes true and his son is indicted for something? Well, at that
point it's more than just a ' Russian disinformation campaign' . It's very real
indeed.
And this is where Biden could end up with plenty of egg on his face. If he and his son are
in trouble, then no amount of blaming another country is going to change that. And it wouldn't
surprise me if this becomes a major factor in the upcoming election. Why would you vote for
someone who can't, or won't, take responsibility for what is going on with their own
family?
What Biden needs to do at this point is come clean on what his level of involvement was, and
simply be a dad to his son instead of a politician. Then again, Biden has been a politician
longer than he's been a father, so it's hard saying which hat he plans on wearing for the next
two weeks.
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
MakeAmericaFree 1 day ago The world is witness
to the blatant corruption and deceit at the highest levels of American government. Trump has
tried to clean things up and he has a lot more left to do. We should wish him well in those
efforts. I am starting to think Attorney General William Barr has capitulated though. Where are
all the indictments, Mr. Barr? Reply 14 ariadnatheo MakeAmericaFree 1 day ago Barr? The CIA
offspring? He does what he is told, not necessarily by his official boss SJMan333 1 day ago If
Joe is running against another regular Republican politician, Hunter Biden's corruption would
have been a non-issue. The US politics is a cesspool of corruption, money laundering, sex and
all forms of moral decay. Each politician is in it for self-serving purposes. Position, power,
money, etc etc. A big section of naive Americans believe their politicians are there to serve
the people's interests. Politicians from both sides of the aisle have a tacit understanding NOT
to cross a red line. They will never accuse their opponents of corruption. 'You make your
money, I make mine.' is their omerta. They put up huge shows of debating with each other in
public purportedly in defense of the people's welfare and benefits. Behind closed door, they
celebrate their loots from the nation's tax money and illegal brides from businesses in
camaraderie together. I don't like Trump. But his exposure of the alleged crimes of the Biden
family is something to be applauded, even he's doing it for self-serving purposes. DukeLeo 1
day ago Joe Biden is using Hillary's methods. Not wise. You don't use the same fraud twice.
shadow1369 DukeLeo 1 day ago Well the CIA have used the same lies for 75 years. White Elk
shadow1369 1 day ago Must be a bit worn out by now. Reply 2 shadow1369 White Elk 1 day ago You
would think so, you would also think that everybody would have seen through them by now, but
not at all. The CIA orchestrated coup in Kiev used exactly the same methods as the one they
orchestrated in Iran in 1953. The details of Operation Ajax are now publicly available, but few
bother to look into it. allan Kaplan White Elk 1 day ago Not worn out but perfected! Lois
Winters 1 day ago I am not surprised at anything Biden says after seeing his performance in
these debates. He is obviously a tired old man and relies on sheafs of notes with the same old
so called empathic statements to the citizens of America. It is a wonder that he's a
presidential candidate at all. After all the original candidates finally were eliminated, no
one but these two want this thankless job. allan Kaplan 1 day ago Now that the shameless "mind
managers" the msm propagandists are in the opens, we, the people (an old cliche) must start
making noises of holding these anti-American mouth pieces accountable. Compel to change the FCC
Rules to take away their broadcasting licensees, penalized those self proclaimed journalists of
zero integrities, jailed most of them, and never again allow such ego bloated nincompoops ever
to come near the radio and TV stations and banned them from entering any newspaper offices as
well. Other punitive measures must be enacted to deface and disregard these paid mouths of fake
news and disinformation msm Complex! I'm starting a business of manufacturing toilet bowls and
the pubic urinals with the faces impregnated into the ceramic of all those who exploited
American freedom of speech to advance their personal careers and that would certainly include
almost all the politicians and the tech giants etc. What do you think as a statement to test
the real FREE SPEECH?
The explosive claim comes from Lord Mark Sedwill, who until last month served as the most
senior adviser and head of the civil service in Johnson's cabinet. He held the same positions
under former prime minister Theresa May, during whose term the Salisbury affair unfolded.
Speaking to Times Radio, Sedwill
said Russia has "some vulnerabilities that we can exploit." So London's response to
the incident included not only publicly accusing Russia of being behind the attack and
expelling its diplomats, but also "a series of other discreet measures including tackling
some of the illicit money flows out of Russia, and covert measures as well, which obviously I
can't talk about," the former official said.
The Russians know that they had to pay a higher price than they had expected for that
operation.
Sedwill would not explain how stopping illicit money flowing out of Russia would hurt the
Russian government or why the UK didn't act sooner to crack down on those financial crimes.
Presumably, in his view, President Vladimir Putin's power relies on allowing crooked officials
and businessmen to siphon the Russian national wealth and the British government was content
with it as long as the UK was on the receiving end.
A different view is taken in Moscow, where officials have repeatedly accused the British
of harboring Russian criminals and welcoming illicitly gained cash.
The Times implied that the "covert measures" mentioned by Sedwill included the UK
using its cyber offensive capabilities against Russia.
The Salisbury poisoning happened in March 2018. Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal
and his daughter were injured by what the British government described as a uniquely Russian
chemical weapon, but have since recovered. London identified two people from Russia as the
culprits, calling them agents of the Russian military intelligence.
Moscow denied any involvement in the poisoning and said London had stonewalled all attempts
to properly investigate what had happened.
This week's perhaps overly dramatic
announcement
Wednesday night
by the heads of multiple federal agencies - foremost among them Director of National
Intelligence John Ratcliffe - alleging new major efforts by Russia and Iran to interfere in the US presidential
election formed a key question and talking point by debate moderator Kristen Welker Thursday night.
Welker even referenced as somehow undisputed and settled "truth"
the
now debunked "Russian bounties" story
. Over a month ago the Pentagon and other intelligence heads
concluded after an exhaustive investigation that
there's
simply no evidence
to suggest Russian military intelligence paid Afghan fighters to target Americans.
Russia was certainly paying attention to the debate and was not amused. The Kremlin on Friday blasted what it said
was
"Russophobia"
at the center of the debate
.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov
told
journalists Friday that
"
competition
in Russophobia
has become a constant in all US electoral processes, regrettably."
"We are fully aware of this and can only express regret," he added as quoted in TASS.
"After all, probably, it is the American electorate who is the target audience of these debates, that is, common
Americans. It is up to them to decide who won the debate, not us," the spokesman said.
Indeed the American public is by and large likely growing tired of the endless Russia scapegoating too.
National security pundit and research fellow at Columbia University's Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
Richard Hanania had this to say about just how vapid foreign policy questions have become in this election (when
they are offered at all):
Notice how the entire debate on foreign policy was about who was "nicer" to China, Russia, or some other
"enemy," not say whether we should go to war more or less often.
There's
a primitiveness and stupidity surrounding discussions of foreign policy that we don't accept elsewhere
,
he
pointed
out
.
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Over the years Putin himself has increasingly mocked and laughed about the degree to which he personally gets
blamed for almost all ills of American society - from election meddling to "weaponizing" race relations to
supposedly seeking to take out the national power grid.
An early example comes from 1992 when the then- Lithuanian Defence Minister called Russia a
country "with vague prospects" while at the same time asserting that "in about two years' time
[it] will present a great danger to Europe" (FBIS 22 May 92 p 69).
Vague prospects but great danger. Given the vague demographic
prospects of his own country , it was a rather ironic assertion given that Lithuania's
future would appear to be a few nursing homes surrounded by forest. But he said it in the days
of the full EU/NATO cargo cult. In 2014 U.S. President Obama immortalised this in an
interview :
But I do think it's important to keep perspective. Russia doesn't make anything.
Immigrants aren't rushing to Moscow in search of opportunity. The life expectancy of the
Russian male is around 60 years old. The population is shrinking. And so we have to respond
with resolve in what are effectively regional challenges that Russia presents.
In the emerging post-Cold War-era Russia, no matter how poor it is in many key areas, can be
#2 in the world for many years to come. Only when China rises in the next 20 years or a new
kind of President emerges in the United States will that change. Until then Vladimir Putin can
play his games to his heart's content.
Of course all of these headscratchers assume that the exchange rate of the ruble is the true
measure of Russia's economy; which is a pretty silly and
misleading idea .
* * *
But at the same time Russia is an enormous, dangerous, existential threat functioning with
enormous effectiveness in all dimensions.
So, on the one hand Russia is a failing country, with a trivial economy, a greatly
over-rated military led by someone who is always facing a catastrophe at home. Nothing to worry
about there: presently weak and future uncertain. On the other hand, Russia has a tremendously
powerful military, an economy that does whatever its ever-young autocratic permanent ruler
wants it to. Its propaganda power is immense and unbeatable, the background determinant of the
world's action. Russophrenia.
And, out of the blue, COVID gives him another opportunity to bamboozle the helpless West and
undermine its precious Rules-Based International Order. Somehow. See if you can make sense
of this incoherence :
This should worry the West once the pandemic has passed. Not because Russia poses a
serious long-term threat to our interests; it doesn't, although Putin would prefer us to
think that his shrivelled realm does. But because Russia is not the only authoritarian state
seeking to learn lessons from the current crisis which could be used in a future
conflict.
Russophrenics are unaffected by reality. Russia's success? Forget maleficence and try
competence . Its military is designed to defend the country, not rule
the world : a less expensive and attainable aim. Its economy -- thanks to Western sanctions
-- has made it probably the only
autarky in the world . Election interference is a falsehood designed to damage Trump and
exculpate Clinton which has been picked up by Washington's puppies. But don't bother with mere
evidence; As the author of this New
Yorker piece explains :
Such externally guided operations exist, but to exaggerate their prevalence and potency
ends up eroding the idea of genuine bottom-up protest -- in a way that, ironically, is
entirely congenial to Putin's conspiratorial world view.
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Scott Adams understands the process perfectly:
Absence of evidence is evidence.
Pretty crazy isn't it? And getting crazier.
All this would be funny if it were Ruritania ranting at the Duchy of Strackenz.
But it isn't: it's the country with the most destructive military in the world and a proven
record of using it ad libitum that is sinking into this insanity. And that's not good for any
of us.
PGR88 , 7 hours ago
Russia merely wants to protect itself, its culture, and its interests from an increasingly
insane American globalist deep state.
teutonicate , 1 hour ago
Russophrenia... Or How A Collapsing Country Runs The World
Much as cabalist-run propaganda mill The Strategic Cultural Foundation would like it to be
true, Russia is not collapsing. The only thing wrong with Russia is that it is a
predominantly White Christian country that refuses to kowtow to Israel - and therefore in
cabaliist-dominated Western political circles it must be defined as the enemy - regardless of
reality.
It must really irk cabalist central bankers and globalists that Russia simply doesn't need
them. It is has a real economy that doesn't completely depend on being pumped up with an
endless supply of rapidly devaluing fiat.
@Menes
losphere that came the closest to ruling the whole world. And China knows that Russia is a
part of European civilization, that will switch sides as soon as geopolitics and geoeconomics
change.
Au contraire , the fact that NATO exists is why Russia has to partner with China, to
ensure its own national survival. If anything, it's NATO that has no feasible future because
the USA is not even a European country, masquerading as the "protector" of Europe, against
Russia! The Chinese saying "one mountain cannot contain two tigers" applies to the USA because
it has no business being the dominant power in NATO to keep Russia out of Europe.
Russia is too weak to disengage with EU. Technologial superiority is still on the side of EU
and the USA (EU mostly acts as a vassal of the USA.) They need to suffer this humiliation, and
try to gain strength.
Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister, is the world's foremost diplomat. The son of an
Armenian father and a Russian mother, he's just on another level altogether. Here, once again,
we may be able to see why.
Let's start with the annual meeting of the Valdai Club , Russia's premier think tank. Here we
may follow the
must-watch presentation of the Valdai annual report on "The Utopia of a Diverse World",
featuring, among others, Lavrov, John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, Dominic Lieven
of the University of Cambridge and Yuri Slezkine of UCLA/Berkeley.
It's a rarity to be able to share what amounts to a Himalayan peak in terms of serious
political debate. We have, for instance, Lieven – who, half in jest, defined the Valdai
report as "Tolstoyian, a little anarchical" – focusing on the current top two, great
interlocking challenges: climate change and the fact that "350 years of Western and 250 years
of Anglo-American predominance are coming to an end."
As we see the "present world order fading in front of our eyes", Lieven notes a sort of
"revenge of the Third World". But then, alas, Western prejudice sets in all over again, as he
defines China reductively as a "challenge".
Mearsheimer neatly remembers we have lived, successively, under a bipolar, unipolar and now
multipolar world: with China, Russia and the US, "Great Power Politics is back on the
table."
He correctly assesses that after the dire experience of the "century of humiliation, the
Chinese will make sure they are really powerful." And that will set the stage for the US to
deploy a "highly-aggressive containment policy", just like it did against the USSR, that "may
well end up in a shooting match".
"I trust Arnold more than the EU"
Lavrov, in his introductory remarks, had
explained that in realpolitik terms, the world "cannot be run from one center alone." He
took time to stress the "meticulous, lengthy and sometimes ungrateful" work of diplomacy.
It was later, in one of his interventions, that he unleashed the
real bombshell (starting at 1:15:55; in Russian, overdubbed in English): "When the European
Union is speaking as a superior, Russia wants to know, can we do any business with Europe?"
He mischievously quotes Schwarzenegger, "who in his movies always said 'Trust me'. So I
trust Arnold more than the European Union".
And that leads to the definitive punch line: "The people who are responsible for foreign
policy in the West do not understand the necessity of mutual respect in dialogue. And then
probably for some time we have to stop talking to them." After all, European Commission
president Ursula von der Leyen had stated, on the record, that for the EU, "there is no
geopolitical partnership with modern Russia".
Lavrov went even further in a stunning, wide-ranging
interview with Russian radio stations whose translation deserves to be carefully read in
full.
Here is just one of the most crucial snippets:
Lavrov: "No matter what we do, the West will try to hobble and restrain us, and undermine
our efforts in the economy, politics, and technology. These are all elements of one
approach."
Question: "Their national security strategy states that they will do so."
Lavrov: "Of course it does, but it is articulated in a way that decent people can still
let go unnoticed, but it is being implemented in a manner that is nothing short of
outrageous."
Question: You, too, can articulate things in a way that is different from what you would
really like to say, correct?"
Lavrov: "It's the other way round. I can use the language I'm not usually using to get the
point across. However, they clearly want to throw us off balance, and not only by direct
attacks on Russia in all possible and conceivable spheres by way of unscrupulous competition,
illegitimate sanctions and the like, but also by unbalancing the situation near our borders,
thus preventing us from focusing on creative activities. Nevertheless, regardless of the
human instincts and the temptations to respond in the same vein, I'm convinced that we must
abide by international law."
Moscow stands unconditionally by international law – in contrast with the proverbial
"rules of the liberal international order" jargon parroted by NATO and its minions such as the
Atlantic Council.
And here it is all
over again , a report extolling NATO to "Ramp Up on Russia", blasting Moscow's "aggressive
disinformation and propaganda campaigns against the West, and unchecked adventurism in the
Middle East, Africa, and Afghanistan."
The Atlantic Council insists on how those pesky Russians have once again defied "the
international community by using an illegal chemical weapon to poison opposition leader Alexei
Navalny. NATO's failure to halt Russia's aggressive behavior puts the future of the liberal
international order at risk."
Only fools falling for the blind leading the blind syndrome don't know that these liberal
order "rules" are set by the Hegemon alone, and can be changed in a flash according to the
Hegemon's whims.
So it's no wonder a running joke in Moscow is "if you don't listen to Lavrov, you will
listen to Shoigu." Sergey Shoigu is Russia's Minister of Defense, supervising all those
hypersonic weapons the US industrial-military complex can only dream about.
The crucial point is even with so much NATO-engendered hysteria, Moscow could not give a
damn because of its de facto military supremacy. And that freaks Washington and Brussels out
even more.
What's left is Hybrid War eruptions following the RAND corporation-prescribed
non-stop harassment and "unbalancing" of Russia, in Belarus, the southern Caucasus and
Kyrgyzstan – complete with sanctions on Lukashenko and on Kremlin officials for the
Navalny "poisoning".
"You do not negotiate with monkeys"
What Lavrov just made it quite explicit was a long time in the making. "Modern Russia" and
the EU were born almost at the same time. On a personal note, I experienced it in an
extraordinary fashion. "Modern Russia" was born in December 1991 – when I was on the road
in India, then Nepal and China. When I arrived in Moscow via the Trans-Siberian in February
1992, the USSR was no more. And then, flying back to Paris, I arrived at a European Union born
in that same February.
One of Valdai's leaders
correctly argues that the daring concept of a "Europe stretching from Lisbon to
Vladivostok" coined by Gorbachev in 1989, right before the collapse of the USSR, unfortunately
"had no document or agreement to back it up."
And yes, "Putin searched diligently for an opportunity to implement the partnership with the
EU and to further rapprochement. This continued from 2001 until as late as 2006."
We all remember when Putin, in 2010, proposed exactly the same concept, a common house
from Lisbon to Vladivostok , and was flatly rebuffed by the EU. It's very important to
remember this was four years before the Chinese would finalize their own concept of the New
Silk Roads.
Afterwards, the only way was down. The final Russia-EU summit took place in Brussels in
January 2014 – an eternity in politics.
The fabulous intellectual firepower gathered at the Valdai is very much aware that the Iron
Curtain 2.0 between Russia and the EU simply won't disappear.
And all this while the IMF, The Economist and even that
Thucydides fallacy proponent admit that China is already, in fact, the world's top
economy.
Russia and China share an enormously long border. They are engaged in a complex,
multi-vector "comprehensive strategic partnership". That did not develop because the
estrangement between Russia and the EU/NATO forced Moscow to pivot East, but mostly because the
alliance between the world's neighboring top economy and top military power makes total
Eurasian sense – geopolitically and geoeconomically.
And that totally corroborates Lieven's diagnosis of the end of "250 years of Anglo-American
predominance."
It was up to inestimable military analyst Andrey Martyanov, whose latest book I reviewed as
a must
read , to come up with the utmost deliciously
devastating assessment of Lavrov's "We had enough" moment:
"Any professional discussion between Lavrov and former gynecologist [actually
epidemiologist] such as von der Leyen, including Germany's Foreign Minister Maas, who is a
lawyer and a party worm of German politics is a waste of time. Western "elites" and
"intellectuals" are simply on a different, much lower level, than said Lavrov. You do not
negotiate with monkeys, you treat them nicely, you make sure that they are not abused, but
you don't negotiate with them, same as you don't negotiate with toddlers.
They want to have their Navalny as their toy – let them. I call on Russia to start
wrapping economic activity up with EU for a long time. They buy Russia's hydrocarbons and
hi-tech, fine. Other than that, any other activity should be dramatically reduced and
necessity of the Iron Curtain must not be doubted anymore."
As much as Washington is not "agreement-capable", in the words of President Putin, so is the
EU, says Lavrov: "We should stop to orient ourselves toward European partners and care about
their assessments."
Not only Russia knows it: the overwhelming majority of the Global South also knows it.
Russia is a European Country with a European Culture they should leave the door open.
Politics change, and it would be a terrible shame if the West lost Russia and vice versa.
Russia is a European Country with a European Culture they should leave the door open.
Politics change, and it would be a terrible shame if the West lost Russia and vice
versa.
Most of the Europeans I know (and I know quite a few because I live in Europe) do not
consider Russians to be European. It's not the Russians who have closed the door they are
merely ensuring it doesn't hit them in the nose. That is indeed a shame, because, as Escobar
suggests, the EU is setting itself to be colonised by the global south, as is the U.K. and
the Hegemon. 1992 and beyond was indeed a great squandering of opportunity.
Look at the EU's persistent irrationality trying to negotiate with the UK. How long have
Brexit talks been blocked by EU Elite intransigence?
They cannot even cope internally. The Dark Heart of Europe keeps trying to kill
freedom & individual rights. In response, the Christian Populist members of the EU have
positioned themselves to veto Merkel's fascist budget trap. (1)
While all 27 EU heads of state and government approved the budget and recovery package
at a summit in July, national parliaments must still ratify the budget and a so-called Own
Resources Decision, which provides the EU with legal guarantees from its member countries
regarding budget revenues.
Council President Charles Michel declared triumphantly that he had succeeded in ensuring
there would be strong rule-of-law protections as part of the package. But Hungarian Prime
Minister Viktor Orbán and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also claimed
victory, saying the wording had been softened enough to give them the ability to veto any
proposed regulation.
Everyone should abandon attempts to do business with the EU. The only solution is to end
the flailing unworkable mess in an peaceful and orderly manner.
Of course, the SJW Sharia Globalist MegaCorporations hate that idea. It would derail their
goal of undercutting infidel (Christian & Jewish) workers via faux-refugee migration.
Culturally, the old Communist East that is within the EU, has more in common with Russia
than with the Western Europeans
Tho it is taking time for the old anti-Russian instincts to fade away
And even within the West, there are regions and countries – the
perhaps-soon-independent Flanders, and much of Italy as things proceed – for whom this
also is in part true
Russia is NOT Europe. Anyone who considers this either has no clue of history and has
never been there, or both, or has just been to Moscow for a while and has the wrong
impression.
Contemporary Russia is a military descendand of the Golden Horde, (Altun Orda), absorbing
the tartar, nogai and kalmyk nobility by resettling them to Moscow upon conquest. Their
medieval rulers had tartar titles such as beylerbeg, used tartar outfits and arabic script on
their coins. Russian state organised its existence based on military districts similar to
those of the mongols (hence Belarus for example – white russia – white is the
mongolian west wing of the army district in the mongol system, before that belarus was call
Zhmutia).
Russia is also spiritual descendant of the Byzantine and Bulgarian states (bulgarians such
as Saint Cyprian and Grigori Tsamblak actually delivered byzantine ortodoxy rites to russia
due to similarity of languages, not greeks). Old church slavonic is actually old bulgarian,
and this greek-slavonic culture has its peculiarities – in the eastern rites, the
person closest to god is not the richest , but the one who has more faith. This in
consequence makes those societies look for "saints" as rulers, and be never content with the
people they rule them. Stability is achieved only with mild tyranny or the presence of
extraordinary rulers, hence the economy is always behind the collective west. Anyway, the
topic is too damn long, the short story is – don't ever beleive Russia is part of
europe such as austria for example.
Russia is not part of Europe. It is something else – just like Malta, that speak
semitic and the locals look like north africans, but some people say it is Europe.
The westernization of the muscovite tsardom only started in the 17-th century, and the
process has been stopped several times (napoleon, one of the alexander kings, bolsheviks, now
putin). the westerners still beleive Russia can be subdued because the slavs are savages and
lack economy.
Eastern ortodoxy brings a peculiar mindset, that is hard to grasp by western politicians, and
it is not materialistic – it brings things like being content with your position in the
world without wanting more stuff, and the same time each one has to reach god by himself and
no other authority is valid. Pepe doens't grasp this aspect – the overwhelming
non-commercial, truth seeking part of the russians that westerners cannot see because of
savage and poor looks and blunt directness. It will play us all a bad joke in the next
war.
Mearsheimer did nice work popping the pus out of the Israel lobby so we could all go, Ew,
so it's sad to see him fixate on discredited CIA realist doctrine when the civilized world
has moved on:
De Zayas should have been at Valdai instead of Mearsheimer because this is what the G-192
thinks, that is, what everybody thinks. If the SCO has to enforce this consensus at gunpoint,
they're fine with that. We should be too. It's everybody in the world including us against
the CIA regime, hostis humani generis.
Great Pepe Escobar. Excellent article. See '75 years after 'Stunde Null,' collapse in
Russian-German relations is driven by Berlin's renewed desire to dominate Europe' by Glenn
Diesen explaining Germany role on that.
Some stupid (that is to say all of them) loud mouthed low browed EU bigwig only needs to
get a bit too fresh and uppity with Turkey's Erdogan, (you know the kind of thing, some third
rate tosser starts sounding off about 'human rights' to make himself look big and pompous),
and therefore tick Erdogan off a bit too much, for Erdogan to retaliate by unleashing 3
million plus 'refugees' into the EU. Knowing the absolutely appalling lack of caliber and
intelligence of EU bigwigs, this will inevitably happen in the near future. Just watch this
space.
That day will certainly head the eventual and inevitable dissolution of the EU.
It's just all so fucking clear and obvious to anyone who's got a brain.
The trouble with this 'analysis' is very very simple:
Namely, that the brainless *SHIT* which runs the EU – who, by, the way are real deal
undemocratic unelected unaccountable tyrants and dictators – *absolutely* could not
give a fuck about *real* ethnic genetic Europeans.
All they care about are third worlders, of whom they wish to stuff as many into the EU as
possible. Remember Merkel?
Most intelligent Europeans know this.
The Russian high command knows this.
The Chinese know this.
Culturally, the old Communist East that is within the EU, has more in common with Russia
than with the Western Europeans
From another point of view the old West has now more in common with communist-like
totalitarian zeitgeist and rule of propaganda then old communist East, only colours changed
from red to anti-white globo homo.
Not happy with that having experienced 17 years of vanishing red rule, now seeing it
rebranded on the rise again in one of the EU bound countries affected (Czechia). Just
saying.
@Steven80
hat is the stuff that can be found in prayers ahead of meals yap, redneck and conservative
assholes and meaning of them has nothing to do with availability of Mac Donald's or home
deliveries.
For us death, hunger, desperation and bestial violence are fresh memories. They are in each
and every family. We know where suffering came from and because of which of earthly reasons.
("Why" is a much deeper question and the answer is in reflection inside Orthodox Christian
teachings.)
So, long story short. That's why S. Lavrov, since nobody there cares about warnings, now
even more politely says: "F ** k off, you lawless hypocrites."
We in the West therefore live under the unyielding yoke of Modernism, whereby we have
become so used to its shallow, arid materialism, that has been carefully and artfully crafted
for us over the past 150 years; its wall-to-wall advertising and huckstering; its population
of zombified careerists and status-seekers, that we are now like the proverbial goldfish in
its bowl, blissfully unaware that there is a wider, more varied and fulfilling world outside
the narrow confines it inhabits.
One thinks of Hamlet: "I could be bound in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite
space, were it not that I have bad dreams".
I know many Europeans too, and many Russians. Contrary to what you say, the Europeans I
know consider Russians to be Europeans. The fact that nearly all Russians in Europe have
white skin, blue eyes, blonde to light brown hair, come from the same Continent, and share
European values, helps a lot!
Eastern ortodoxy brings a peculiar mindset, that is hard to grasp by western
politicians, and it is not materialistic – it brings things like being content with
your position in the world without wanting more stuff, and the same time each one has to
reach god by himself and no other authority is valid.
Bollocks. I know many Russians personally. They are indistinguishable from western
Europeans, to me they are just like Finns and Swedes, even the accent.
Every time the Russians leave the door open, it ends up with a Western attempt on Russia.
The West represents roughly 10% of the world population, is declining rapidly and brings
nothing to the table except promises of nuisance. If I were Russian, I would ditch relations
with the globohomo West and seek partnerships among the 90%.
If you speak of the capacity to project her troops on any point on Earth, you're right.
The thing is, they don't need it and probably regard it as vanity of fools. If on the other
hand you consider their capacity to incinerate you before you incinerate them, well, dream
on.
@MLK
this was a gift to Russia and Germany, but it's much worse than that. Why isn't anyone else
curious as to who got what in return?
The blockage of Nordstream 2 is about The Dark Heart of Europe not Russia. Christian
Europe is terrified of Mutti Mullah Merkel's highly authoritarian regime. Why would any of the
V4 nations accept energy dependency on flows via Germany?
This is one of Putin's few serious errors. He would be much better off pushing gas projects
that flowed through Christian European nations thus allowing them leverage against German
anti-Christian SJW aggression.
Current US is a colossus with the feet of clay. Dems in their mad attempts to undermine
Trump succeeded in undermining America. Just wait for November 3.
Putin's and Xi's policy towards the US follows the saying "when you see your enemy
committing suicide, do not interfere". The same applies to the EU, as well as Brexited UK.
Times are a-changing. The West is destroying itself and behaving as if it's it is still hale
and healthy. It was said that when God wishes to punish someone, He takes away that person's
mind. This applies to countries, particularly to the Empires.
That's a deranged dream of neocons, and it won't come true. The policies of Russia and China
are sane and pragmatic, whereas the policies of the Empire and its sidekicks are suicidal.
As far as civilizational divide goes, Russia is neither Europe nor Asia, it is a separate
civilization. When the US and Europe succeed in destroying themselves, many Russians would miss
them due to cultural ties with their predecessors, but that won't drive Russian policies. Not
just Putin's (in fact, he appears to have a soft spot for Europe, characteristic of his
generation), but policies of whoever runs Russia after him. There would be no gorbys or
yeltsins any more.
Europe is a glove on the US hand and is easily led around by its nose by the CIA and MI6
that infest the MSM and run one false flag after another.
Politicians in the EU are mediocre creatures that crave the dollars stuffed into their
pockets by the US. They are enjoying the ride while it lasts until they go down with the
US.
@Steven80
es who make up modern Sweden–the Scanians, the Goths and the Svear. Both Kiev and
Novgorod were founded by them and the original, etymological basis for Russia is "Rus". The
royal line, beginning with Rurik and the nobility of the Rus , were of a Scandinavian-Slavic
blend.
Though Muscovy may have later become dominated by the descendants of the Mongols and their
allies, the northern, forested part of Russia features a native set of peoples who only rarely
evince the features of their fully conquered brethren in the steppe lands of the south. In all
truth, Putin, whom I believe was born in Tver, could easily pass for one of my Nordic cousins
And that is the blue-eyed truth.
I'm a British Brexit voter – primarily because the EU is run by arseholes with an
absolutely loathing for any sort of democratic accountability.
So Russia's impression of the EU is totally realistic.
For four years I have had to watch the spectacle of the UK trying to form a fair deal, when
the EU's explicit goal has been to punish the UK for leaving pour encourager les autres.
What a waste of time. The EU only understands blunt force and blunt actions.
Indonesia Refuses To Host American Spy Planes Amid Sino-US Cold War
The US and China are smack dab in the middle of a new Cold War. The observation in itself
should not be startling to readers - as President Trump's trade war metamorphosed into a
technology war over the Chinese tech companies' global dominance. Rapidly deteriorating
relations between both superpowers, especially since the virus pandemic, has resulted in
increased military action in East Asia.
In the last couple of years, we've pointed out the US has constructed a Lockheed Martin
F-35 stealth jet "friends circle" around China. More recently, there's been a significant
uptick in US spy planes changing their transponder codes to disguise themselves during
operations near China.
In the attempt to increase spy plane presence in East Asia, US officials made multiple
"high-level" attempts in July and August to Indonesia's top defense and government
officials to clear the way to allow Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance planes to
land and refuel on the Southeast Asia country.
Four senior Indonesian officials familiar with the matter told Reuters that defense
officials rejected the US proposal because Indonesia has a well-established policy of
foreign policy neutrality - and does not permit foreign militaries to operate across its
archipelago.
Reuters notes the P-8 "plays a central role in keeping an eye on China's military
activity in the South China Sea, most of which Beijing claims as its territory."
Indonesia rejected the US spy plane presence because it has developed increased economic
and investment ties with China over the years.
"It does not want to take sides in the conflict and is alarmed by growing tensions
between the two superpowers, and by the militarization of the South China Sea," Indonesia's
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told Reuters.
"We don't want to get trapped by this rivalry," Retno said in an interview in early
September. "Indonesia wants to show all that we are ready to be your partner."
Dino Patti Djalal, a former Indonesian ambassador to the US, said the "very aggressive
anti-China policy" projected by the US has become troubling for Indonesia.
"It's seen as out-of-place," Djalal told Reuters. "We don't want to be duped into an
anti-China campaign. Of course, we maintain our independence, but there is deeper economic
engagement, and China is now the most impactful country in the world for Indonesia."
Greg Poling, a Southeast Asia analyst from the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic
and International Studies, said Washington's attempt to pressure Indonesia into giving up
land rights so US spy planes can fly in and out of the country is an example of "clumsy
overreach."
"It's an indication of how little folks in the US government understand Indonesia,"
Poling told Reuters. "There's a clear ceiling to what you can do, and when it comes to
Indonesia, that ceiling is putting boots on the ground."
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Both China and the US have recently ramped up military exercises in the South China Sea.
The US has increased naval freedom of navigation operations, submarine deployments, and spy
plane flights, while China has increased naval missions in the region.
To sum up, the new cold war has pressured Southeast Asian countries to take sides; they
must choose between the US and or China. As for Indonesia, they quickly decided to be
neutral with a lean towards China. Does this mean China's gravity in terms of its size and
its influence is overwhelming the US?
"From the onset of the pandemic in Russia, we have focused on preserving lives and
ensuring safety of our people as our key values. This was an informed choice dictated by
our culture and spiritual traditions, and our complex, sometimes dramatic, history. If we
think back to the great demographic losses we suffered in the 20th century, we had no other
choice but to fight for every person and the future of every Russian family.
"So, we did our best to preserve the health and the lives of our people, to help parents
and children, as well as senior citizens and those who lost their jobs, to maintain
employment as much as possible, to minimise damage to the economy, to support millions of
entrepreneurs who run small or family businesses.
"Perhaps, like everyone else, you are closely following daily updates on the pandemic
around the world. Unfortunately, the coronavirus has not retreated and still poses a major
threat. Probably, this unsettling background intensifies the sense, like many people feel,
that a whole new era is about to begin and that we are not just on the verge of dramatic
changes, but an era of tectonic shifts in all areas of life.
"We see the rapidly, exponential development of the processes that we have repeatedly
discussed at the Valdai Club before. Thus, six years ago, in 2014, we spoke about this
issue when we discussed the theme The World Order: New Rules or a Game Without Rules. So,
what is happening now? Regrettably, the game without rules is becoming increasingly
horrifying and sometimes seems to be a fait accompli."
This is the 17th session of the Valdai Club, and I ask: Where is there an equivalent in
the so-called democracies of the West which are allegedly the guardians of free speech and
debate, where there supposedly exists a "marketplace of ideas"?
The Q & A portion of Putin's Valdai Club Speech transcript
have been posted, and they run longer than his speech. In his first query, I completely agree
with Putin that too many people have yet to learn the fundamental lesson the pandemic ought
to have taught:
"However, the pandemic is playing into our hands when it comes to raising our awareness of
the importance of joining forces against severe global crises. Unfortunately, it has not yet
taught humanity to come together completely, as we must do in such situations."
But his answer wasn't directed at ignorant citizens. Putin's ire was directed at the
Outlaw US Empire:
"I am not referring now to all these sanctions against Russia; forget about that, we will
get over it. But many other countries that have suffered and are still suffering from the
coronavirus do not even need any help that may come from outside, they just need the
restrictions lifted, at least in the humanitarian sphere, I repeat, concerning the supply of
medicines, equipment, credit resources, and the exchange of technologies. These are
humanitarian things in their purest form. But no, they have not abolished any
restrictions, citing some considerations that have nothing to do with the humanitarian
component – but at the same time, everyone is talking about humanism .
"I would say we need to be more honest with each other and abandon double standards. I am
sure that if people hear me now on the media, they are probably finding it difficult to
disagree with what I have just said, difficult to deny it. Deep down in their hearts, in
their minds, everyone is probably thinking, 'Yes, right, of course.' However, for
political reasons, publicly, they will still say, 'No, we must keep restrictions on Iran,
Venezuela, against Assad .' What does Assad even have to do with this when it is ordinary
people who suffer? At least, give them medicines, give them technology, at least a small,
targeted loan for medicine. No." [My Emphasis]
If I could speak to Putin, I'd tell him that they have no hearts, they are soulless,
completely bereft of any sense of morality, and cannot be reasoned with whatsoever. They are
ghouls, incapable of being shamed or made to feel guilt. You look at them and see a human,
but they're not human at all; they are parasites cloaked in human form. They differ little
from the Nazis of 75+ years ago and need to be eliminated once and for all. The pandemic has
fully exposed them for what they are.
@134 Has anybody seen a comment yet from the Honorable Chrystia Freeland or the Lima Group
regarding the election result in Bolivia? Maybe they are too busy strangling Venezuela.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow might halt dialogue with the
European Union, during the online presentation of the report of the international discussion
club "Valdai" on Tuesday.
"Those people who are responsible for foreign policy in the West and do not understand the
need for a mutually respectful conversation, perhaps we should just stop communicating with
them for a while, especially since [President of the European Commission] Ursula von der Leyen
says that with the current Russian authorities, the geopolitical partnership does not work.
So be it, if that's what they want," said the Russian Foreign Minister
m@84 the buzz about Navalny is that he and some partners were running an anti-corruption
blackmail racket getting compromising information on various enterprises and individuals and
Navalny decided to cash out without informing or consulting with his partners. Nothing to do
with the Russian government.
m@89 I got a rather detailed explanation from a Russian friend who just spent several
weeks there. Navalny started out as an anti corruption reformer but got involved with
partners that figured out how to monetize the dirt he was digging up. This is over a period
of years, not something recent. There is no conspiracy between the Russian government and the
Germans. Navalny was not a threat to governmental power in Russia - this was strictly a
business matter. See the RT article I linked to:
Which are the dumbest false flags of recent memory?
My selections are:
#1) Journalist Arkady Babchenko - he gets every prize!
He faked his death, complete with blood soaked pictures,
and then showed up the next day alive at a news conference.
They should name a drink after him, "Noah's Ark Ark Ark"- glacier water mixed
with glacier water, stirred not shaken.
#2) Saudi Intelligence Service - they air shipped printers
with incomplete bombs in them to the US and Britain from Yemen.
The Saudi agents revealed that they kept the tracking slips of the bombs!
I'll drink to that. And the Saudis played heroes by providing the tracking
numbers to the US and Britain in the nick of time. And I'll drink to that!
#3) Just this week CrowdStrike (yes, they still enjoy "credibility" in some circles)
let us know that Iranian hackers included a video with their email threats.
And that clever video:
"The video showed the hackers' computer screen as they typed in commands to purportedly hack
a voter registration system.
Investigators noticed snippets of revealing computer code, including file paths, file names
and an internet protocol (IP) address."
How does the Saudi Intelligence service say, "Skol!"?
"... The sustained tosh from the good old boys at state, cia, fbi & nsa isn't worthy of comment, given that it is 100% evidence-free accusations which surprise surprise 'just happens' to align with these provenly corrupt organisations' most prioritsed foreign policy goals. ..."
Last month, national security prosecutors at the Justice Department were told to look at any
ongoing investigations involving Iran or Iranian nationals with an eye toward making them
public.
The push to announce Iran-related cases has caused internal alarm, these people said, with
some law enforcement officials fearing that senior Justice Department officials want to
reveal the cases because the Trump administration would like Congress to impose new sanctions
on Iran.
U.S. officials on Wednesday night accused Iran of targeting American voters with faked but
menacing emails and warned that both Iran and Russia had obtained voter data that could be
used to endanger the upcoming election.
The disclosure by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe at a hastily called
news conference marked the first time this election cycle that a foreign adversary has been
accused of targeting specific voters in a bid to undermine democratic confidence -- just four
years after Russian online operations marred the 2016 presidential vote.
The claim that Iran was behind the email operation, which came into view on Tuesday as
Democrats in several states reported receiving emails demanding they vote for President
Trump, was leveled without specific evidence .
...
Metadata gathered from dozens of the emails pointed to the use of servers in Saudi Arabia,
Estonia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, according to numerous analysts.
The emails are under investigation, and one intelligence source said it was still unclear who
was behind them.
...
... the evidence remains inconclusive.
The claims that Iran is behind this are as stupid as the people who believe them.
I for one trust (not) those 50 former intelligence officials who say that all emails are
Russian disinformation. They are intended to 'sow discord' which is something the U.S. has
otherwise never ever had throughout its history.
More than 50 former senior intelligence officials have signed on to a letter outlining their
belief that the recent disclosure of emails ... "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian
information operation."
...
While the letter's signatories presented no new evidence, they said their national security
experience had made them "deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant
role in this case" and cited several elements of the story that suggested the Kremlin's hand
at work.
"If we are right," they added, "this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in
this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this."
No, this doesn't make any sense. It is not supposed to do that.
Posted by b on October 22, 2020 at 7:21 UTC | Permalink
The sustained tosh from the good old boys at state, cia, fbi & nsa isn't worthy of
comment, given that it is 100% evidence-free accusations which surprise surprise 'just
happens' to align with these provenly corrupt organisations' most prioritsed foreign policy
goals.
We know that these yarns align in syncopation with
what the amerikan empire most wants to promulgate, yet bereft of even a a cunt hair's worth
of evidence, the only truth which can be inferred from this foggy bottom tosh is the obvious
one - that is that the empire is becoming so desperate they will happily toss their
credibility with the many to the winds if they can, please sir, just convince a few of the
few.
Stuff like this is a suitable test of how the media are supposed to represent our interests
and help us in not getting fooled. You report, and afterwards you test what your readers
believe.
Independently of questionable bias issues serious newspapers will defend news like this
with formal justifications of journalistic code
- neutrality and objectivity: we just report but don't judge.
- null hypothesis of trustworthiness: official sources are to be trusted unless proven
otherwise. At least, proven otherwise by someone we consider trustworthy.
The propaganda is already embedded in the lofty ethics codes journalists will proudly adhere
to.
"Other documents that have emerged include FBI paper work that reveals the bureau's
interactions with the shop's owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, who reported the laptop's contents
to authorities. The document shows that Isaac received a subpoena to testify before the U.S.
District Court in Delaware on Dec. 9, 2019 . One page appears to show the serial
number for a MacBook Pro laptop and a hard drive that were seized by the agency."
https://www.ibtimes.sg/signed-receipt-hunter-bidens-name-delaware-laptop-repair-store-surfaces-52672
So the FBI kept Hunter Biden's bomb shell HDDs under wraps for almost a year. Enough time
to figure out they where not filled with Russian kompromat.
If you needed a leaked email to understand why it was corrupt for Hunter Biden to be getting
50k a month to be on the board of a Ukranian energy company, then you are likely already so
propagandized that you will vote for Joe Biden no matter what gets printed.
Really this propaganda is a brilliant move for those who control what is in print. They
have a clear circle of blame in Russia, Iran, or China, who are to blame for everything, and
this allows the media to limit the scope of discussion greatly by suppressing real criticisms
towards actual problems (the Bidens being corrupt across multiple generations) and deflecting
that energy into hating Russia, China, and Iran, which are the main targets for imperialism.
It is also a crude and vague lie to use anonymous sources to blame foreign entities for these
types of things, which actually makes it an elegant argument for a simpleton as it is
difficult if not impossible to disprove.
Because the media is really owned and operated by so few people who all have a hive-mind
about money and power, the messages are consistent, even though ridiculous, and they resonate
with many of the readers who really ought to know better, but have become inured to the
damaging effects of the lies they have consumed for decades. Stories like these will keep
working for a long time. If one of the sources in the article reported 'Up is Down, Left is
Right!', there would be a wave of car accidents until they issued a retraction.
The Russians ( Putin / Lavrov) say ever so politely that the US is not agreement-capable.
I add that the US ( politicians, Wall Streeters, MSM, think tanks ) are:
-- not truth-capable;
-- not ethics-capable;
-- not shame-capable;
-- not honour-capable.
What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?
He turns into a ghoul without a soul, says I, a devil without human-ness!
How dare they call us deplorables when they are the despicables?
More than 50 former senior intelligence officials have signed on to a letter outlining
their belief that the recent disclosure of emails ... "has all the classic earmarks of a
Russian information operation."
Do American journalists actually believe it's still in Russia interest to re-elect Trump?
Washington-Kremlin relations have deteriorated rapidly under Trump.
Posted by: Et Tu | Oct 22 2020 9:35 utc | 9 -- "In America, Truth is a Foreign Agent and
World Peace is a threat to National Security."
Nice one... Meet Mr Truth, un-registered foreign agent !!! and Mr World Peace, national
security threat !!!
American leadership would not be so despicable IF they do not pretend to be "spreading
freedom / democracy" when they wreak their global malice.
They do not even care for their own people (covid19 fiasco, anyone?), but pretend to care
for the Chinese people so much they would regime-change the CCP; they pretend to care for the
Russian people so much they would sooner shoot Putin's plane from the sky; they pretend to
care for the Iranian people so much they block their access to covid19 medicines.
Here's a part of a comment I posted back in February 2020 that none of you took
seriously.
Posted by: Circe | Feb 28 2020 20:29 utc | 124:
The planet of extremely bad karma SATURN is moving into Bloomberg's sign, Aquarius, right
after mid-March and forming a square to Biden's sign, Scorpio. This is a very malefic
aspect.
People under these two signs, Aquarius and Scorpio ie Bloomberg and Biden will
experience obstacles, setbacks and challenges, create hidden enemies , and aging
will be accelerated and serious health issues could emerge.
So I was criticized for injecting astrology into that election thread, mostly by
AntiSpin.
Turns out as usual I hit the mark.
Bloomberg lost close to a BILLION dollars and failed badly in the primaries. That's what I
call a major setback. However, as of December after a 6-month retrograde into Capricorn,
Saturn is returning to Aquarius, so it ain't over for Bloomberg and things will get
complicated for Biden , for the U.S. and the rest of the world.
I also stated back then that nominating Joe Biden would be a greater risk for Dems than
nominating Bernie Sanders because Joe Biden was heading for serious astrological head winds
relating to something unseen at the time involving a serious family issue.
While I was certain that whatever the issue was would come to light and could affect him
in the Presidential campaign, I couldn't figure out the family aspect at the time, since he
appears to have a solid marriage and tragedy is in the rear view now.
Last night however it all suddenly became clear and I've come to the realization that I
was 100% right when I wrote that comment back in February 2020. Tonight I realized that the
family issue...is Hunter Biden!
I was sounding the alarm that something bad would come to light because Saturn was headed
into Aquarius, Biden's Home and Family sector squaring Biden's sign.
However, to make matters worse, it turns out that Hunter Biden is an Aquarian and Saturn
the karmic taskmaster is headed on a collision course to upend his life.
At the time I wrote the comment I obviously couldn't predict exactly what would unfold,
how or the precise timing, only that it would be bad and that's why I warned back then that
Democrats should have chosen Bernie. I believed Bernie could beat Trump and I was right,
because Trump is in total mental meltdown and self-destructing with his handling of the
pandemic.
Now even if Saturn will square Biden's Scorpio that's not to say that Biden won't still
win, but we are approaching a very bad full moon on October 31st. There is massive tension
building, subterfuge lurking and the situation is going to get ugly. A battle royal is
brewing. This is a powder keg moment.
Trump will not behave at the debate today. Must see t.v. With Obama's scorching speech
yesterday seething in Trump's brain, and his Iran stunt unravelling and ineffective at
distracting from the spotlight from Obama and the laptop bone clenched between his teeth;
he's a rabid dog fit to be tied. Give him a padded cell, already.
As for the U.S. and the world: The pandemic started with Saturn crossing Pluto's path in
Capricorn and entering full force into Aquarius in March when the world shut down.
So what will happen when karmic Saturn crosses Pluto again on it's way out of Capricorn
and enters Aquarius for the next 3 years?
Fasten your seat belts everyone...we're heading into major turbulence. There's so much
karmic tension gathering steam; it's very scary.
How much does it cost to get a trip to the moon?
I'll get back to sleazy Giuliani and his Pandora's box. There's too much to unpack there
than meets the eye. Just know that when circumstances appear too convenient-it's because they
are.
Trump's dirty play is a day late and a dollar short plus he's not playing with a full
deck. Must be one of those Covid long-term effects.
It's time...to get these scum-sucking, misery mongers out of the damn White House
already!
You know the US government is suffering from severe Alzheimer's disease when it claims that
Iran (of all nations) sent threatening emails to Democrat voters demanding that they vote for
a President who authorised the murder of a popular Iranian military general back in early
January this year.
Brian Kilmeade and morning crew run the fake Iranian emails story by former CIA station
Chief Daniel Hoffman.
Kabuki Actor Hoffman:
'[Uses opportunity to say Iranian Mantra] Iran has been attacking us for years, they have
attacked our shipping in the Gulf (???, that's a new one) blah-blah-blah.
'Iran and Russia are attacking our democracy because that is what they fear most about
America. Democracy would be the end of both regimes (Iran has no other motive to dislike the
U.S. such as us killing their top General, the Stuxnet virus, murderous sanctions, ...)'
So they hate us because of our freedoms, a classic.
Kabuki Actor Kilmeade:
'Can't we do something about this?' [note, the U.S. is the perpetual victim, never the
bully]
'Can't we pushback?' [The aggrieved victim, the U.S. is defending itself]
'Iran is doing this, Russia is sending bombers, can't we blow up an oil well?'
Kabuki Actor Kilmeade represents the entire degenerate U.S. public, unable to process
information that views another country as having rational motives or our Intel agencies of
being deceptive.
God, if you exist, You must hate this more than I do. How long?
All that rubbish is distraction. Discussing it is just playing to Borg's music.
They come up with so outlandish and jaw dropping crap that half he people thinks "it is so
outlandish it gotta be true, who would lie so much?" and other half that knows better is in
such a shock and disbelief that it needs some time to come to its senses and start tearing
apart the lie piece by piece BUT.... Time is lost, distraction worked and MSM/Borg come up
with next outrageous lie for next round. Russia, China, Navalny etc. etc.
And while marry go round Borg is doing it's deeds in dark while people is obsessing with
Trump's knickers.
Barack oblamblam held off until as long as he possibly could, a move most likely connected to
two realities, (1) not wanting to contradict what he, oblamblam said back in march "do not
underestimate Joe's ability to screw anything up" and (2) Oblamblam's desire not to be
found to be associated with sleepy joe's blatant corruption. Mud sticks n all that. Oblamblam
was much more subtle in lining up wedges to be trousered. eg. Try as people might they have
yet to uncover how a community worker turned prez found the dough to purchase a 45 acre
Martha's vineyard estate off a notorious billionaire and Oblambam is reluctant to do anything
which could prompt those questions,
Hence it wasn't until the 2020 election was mostly over that some DNC extortionists
managed to convince oblam to say a few words, or else, to the Philadelphia african american
males who chose to stay home on election day 2016.
Barack can claim 'he paid his dues' whilst keeping as much space as he can organise
between himself and crooked joe, who has already brought oblamblam's prezdency into disrepute
with the shameless & ugly ukraine rort that he and his bagman hunter had concocted.
There we mentioned the philly speech oh rabid, irrationally superstitious dembot.
Here's my prediction
Trump re-elected I fortell will mean more racist murdering thugs on the street. an guess what
they'l be In uniform and directly or indirectly trained by Israel.
And then there's the military presence on your streets -- you ain't seen nothing yet.
Wake the f up your gunna be massively oppressed by a fascist govenment ya skin couloir won't
matter, nore who you voted for. You already live in a one party dictatorship.
ie the elite. Face it your redundant as a human being replaced by a micro-chip.
Revolt I tell you revolt !!
The greater American public are about to become the next oppressed Palistinians ! oppressed
devalued and slowly distroyed. Like a frog in a heated pan.
You won't notice till it's to late will you ?
No really, will you ?
Journalism love's that high minded nonsense.
They write what they are paid to write.
Looking at the guardian wrt Assange
these clowns are beneath contempt.
Don't know if you are familiar with the box populi blog.
There a very good set of chapters from a book about journalist ethics.
i'm just surprised they haven't brought in venezuela and bolivia yet. that's supposed to be
sarcasm, but reality keeps outstripping sarcasm. i am actually worried they are ramping up
for a war in biden's first 100 days, either against iran or some serious provocation of
russia like provoking some incident in azerbaijan and blaming armenia. they're f/n batshit.
mark2 i think you're correct about more jackbooted government thugs on the street, but that's
gonna happen under either trump or crime bill joe/copmala. you're right about the israeli
training too, they trained cops in that kneeling on the throat technique. field tested on
palestinians.
Idiotic.
The united States was once a nest of excellence in nearly everything. Now it s a hub of naked
idiocy.
The Russians have nothing to fear from the US or Nato, except in the economy but they can fix
it. The Iranians have enough of what it takes to keep the Zio anglos away and at bay:
thousands of missiles to target Israel, Saudiland, a 25 year economic alliance program with
Beijing.
And clearly the time and opportunity where it was possible to still erase in a single coup
the Iranian military might is over.
"Breaking WaPo: The U.S. government has concluded that Iran is behind a series of threatening
emails arriving this week in the inboxes of Democratic voters, according to two U.S.
officials. https://washingtonpost.com/technology/202"
Posted by: librul | Oct 22 2020 12:52 utc | 22 When you hear, "Russians", just substitute in
your mind "witches", the weight of evidence is the same.
Absolutely correct. You win the thread.
Neither Iran nor Russia nor China give a rat's ass about the US election. There may be
literally thousands of private enterprise hackers who want to breach US election servers
precisely to get the Personal Identifying Information which is coin of the realm on the Dark
Web, but they couldn't care less about the election itself. It's physically impossible for
any country outside of the US to significantly influence the election in a country of 300
million people - and every country knows that. The only country that *doesn't* know that is
the US, which is why it spends scores and hundreds of millions of dollars - up to five
billion in Ukraine, allegedly - to influence foreign elections. That's the level of effort
needed to influence a foreign election more than the influence of the actual inhabitants of
that nation. But every time some private group in Russia launches an ad campaign for a couple
hundred thousand bucks tops, with zero effect on the US election, Putin gets blamed for some
plan to mastermind the overthrow of "democracy."
I rather liked Obama's speech If for no other reason than the tone was completely
different from the two candidates.
1. I'm tired of Trump's narcissism .
2. Can't stand Biden's fake 'I'm one of you'. He is corrupt, feels guilty about it, and
has to reassure us that he's Lunch Box Joe .
I've noticed this about Biden for a while, he conjures up these fake memories ...
'You know what I'm talking about because I've been on that park bench at noon when you only
have 20 minutes to eat your lunch because that whistle going to blow and you have to run
back to your Tuna canning station or lose your job and with that your health insurance,
car, and home.'
Okay this is not a literal quotation but it is a pattern and you know what I'm talking
about :-)
Pretzelatack @ 26
Yes to all you say their.
Re-reading my above comments they sound pretty harsh !
I am sorry, and do apologise !
It was part desperation and part morbid humour in the spirit of b's post.
Comparing Americans to a frog in pan may be a bit much !
I am in the U.K. we had a gen election one year ago !
I WAS THAT FROG IN A PAN.
Now I live in a pox ridden bankrupt banana republic run by a bunch of Israel bootlickers.
I don't go down well at party's.
And it's not superstition when the facts start to align with planetary motion.
How do you explain the Moon's effect on nature?
You think it's the only celestial body in the Solar System that influences life on Earth?
That cosmic order is inescapable. Astrology is thousands of years old dating back to the
Babylonians and has evolved through centuries of study and cannot, should not be dismissed as
mere superstition.
I'm not an expert at all, but I recognize order and higher authority when I see it and
believe me those planets are there for a reason and they rule everything. They're like
carrots and sticks (IMHO mostly sticks). Now who put them there and to what ultimate purpose
besides order and evolution is another matter.
I don't often bring it into a discussion, especially not to throw a discussion off topic,
except when I intuitively feel fate present in important events both personally and on a
universal scale.
This is a time of fated/karmic events, the pandemic being the most important (lesson) of
these.
I think a more appropriate title would be "Fascist Season" . . . Fascism has come of age here
in the land of the fee. The "intelligence agencies" create disinformation campaigns to
overthrow the elected President while the "justice department" et al withhold evidence and
fail to prosecute all the oligarchs and crooks who are busy censoring
information and preparing to rig and disrupt the
impending presidential election.
But technology and the "progressive" (pun intended) destruction of the US Constitution has
led the dumbed-down US masses (don't forget Canada and Australia lol) into a whole new world
of Orwellian lock-downs and wholesale economic destruction aimed at finishing off what was
left of the US middle class. Soon we will have our cash taken away and replaced with a
digital currency that can
always be taken away or tailored for limited use, subject to negative interest rates that it
cannot escape, etc. And all this is ushered in via
hyperinflation leading to a collapse of the bond and equities markets, and finally the
collapse of the US dollar (and all other Western fiat currencies).
The USA is so naive. They have been interfering in so many elections using money,
blackmail,CIA operations. There was no way for other countries with less means to do the same
to the USA. Now with social media they can, and they are absolutely right to take their
revenge for all the troubles they got into with the USA plotting to promote a pro-US
leader.
Now the battle is equal and the USA does not have the monopoly of interfering in other
countries election!
Tit for tat...
All these stories are risible. Note the struggle to clarify who these 'malign'
Régimes are attacking the US, and why.
Russia-R-R for Trump, but Iran-Ir-Ir for Trump doesn't quite hit the spot so now Iran is
trying to damage Pres. Trump (from one of the articles..) .. is Iran trying to promote the
election of Kamala Harris? What? Russia is for Trump and Iran against ?
The fall-back is a blanket, these evil leaders are trying to 'undermine democracy',
influence 'US voters', meddle in 'our freedom-loving' politics, etc.
The attempt to stir up the spectre of threatening enemies far off is a hackneyed ploy. In
the case of the USA, it is now melded with the promotion and control of planned internal
strife, with internal enemies being natives (not islamist terrorists who sneak in and are
under cover before erupting in murderous madness..) - Color Revolution Style.
-- BLM + Antifa haven't been active recently (or not in MSM top stories) as the election
is approaching. Such would be upping the Trump vote for "law-and-order."
(imho from far off..) Many in the US don't take any of this seriously, it is just
game-playing, false alarm, pretend concern.
"Oh wow, Iran is targetting Trump, did you know, real serious, did you hear, tell me is
Zoe-chick divorcing that creep Edmond, I want to know, did you have that interview with Gov.
X for the job? Is she hot? How much "
The credentialised class and the movers and shakers just roll their eyeballs, and the poor
are in any case stuck in a desperado cycle of struggle against misery, what is going on with
Putin / Iran / Xi is off the radar.
Vilification of China (hate hate hate); claimed by the media and the pundits and our
"Fearless Covid Conquering Leader" and all the good little parrots, to be the source of evil
itself... Scapegoat extraordinaire... Hacking and Cheating and Aggressing and exercising
Brutality towards its own citizens... The worst of the worst per our "intelligence" apparatus
(and blind ideologues). Existential threat numero uno.
But wait!
The US is being attacked! Attacked they say; by all of the "bad" guys simultaneously.
The forces of evil out there are broad and out to get us. They hate our (imagined)
freedoms.
Evidence (not):
Justice Department pushing Iran-connected charges in HBO hack, other cases
U.S. government concludes Iran was behind threatening emails sent to Democrats
U.S. intelligence agencies say Iran, Russia have tried to interfere in 2020 election
Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say
Invariably in all cases, The Voice of "Intelligence" (not bloody likely from ANY of this
crew) deeply intoned to impart the "certainty", neatly encapsulated in the words "highly
likely", delivered without a scrap of proof but loud, prominent, regular, mind numbing
pontification.
Trust me! We lie, We cheat, We steal; and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
The US, all on its own, engenders distrust within the population because the US and all
its political and Executive, and Legislative and Judicial and "intelligence" bureaucracies
are corrupt to the core... Worse, they make no bones about it if you pay attention. And
Partisanship is nothing but distraction because they are ALL corrupt and morally bankrupt;
without empathy, remorse, sense of guilt or shame.
It was the US itself that thought it could subjugate the world through its faux
"democratic" business practices and its claim of natural superiority... Its self declared
Rules of Order instead of adhering to and supporting consensus established International
LAW... Hegemon pompously declaring it has a RIGHT to Full Spectrum Dominance and slavish
obedience.
Not the Iranians, not the Russians, not the Chinese, not the CCP, not the North Koreans,
not the Venezuelans; none of them are disrupting, threatening or meddling in the US
elections.
If you believe what the morons are smearing across the public consciousness through every
communication medium possible you are a sucker... Totally disconnected any critical thinking
faculties that may have been present. The very definition of sheeple... baaaa! (the sound
drowns out reason and thought).
The rest of the World beyond NATO and Five Eyes isn't attacking the US or its
institutions. They have all been attacked every which way from Sunday BY the US and its
Satraps (targets of, victims of, and willing accomplices to our sophisticated excessively
funded and supported global protection racquet).
The US, our Government, always blames our designated and non-compliant, non-obeisant
existential threats for all the things we do to them.
And all this cacophony of alleged evil "attacks" from outside right now?
Look!!! Look!!! Over here!
Don't pay any attention to who and what decided to put us in the position we find
ourselves in and what we have done to vast swaths of the world's populations "over
there".
Now go vote for one of two degenerate teams, both of which are headed by supremely
unqualified psychopaths.
The CIA really needs a new playbook. The Russia/Iran thing is laughable to the rest of the
world, and to many 'Americans' as well. Unfortunately Partisans run the country, and those
folks are addicted to the Kool Aid of MAGA – just different versions.
This October is like an Advent Calendar of October Surprises with plenty of time still on
the clock for some great Golden Shower or Democratic child orgy deep fakes. Who the hell
knows at this point – the acceleration of events this year makes Future Shock look like
an Ambien commercial.
Trump is toast and good riddance. And sure Biden et al are war criminals and corrupt
creatures of the Swamp. The Establishment is a much easier target to resist vis a vis policy
than a crazy cretin without any policy but his own self-aggrandizement.
"Astrology believers tend to selectively remember predictions that turn out to be true,
and do not remember those that turn out false. Astrology has not demonstrated its
effectiveness in controlled studies and has no scientific validity.[6]:85;[11] The study,
published in Nature in 1985, found that predictions based on natal astrology were no better
than chance, and that the testing "...clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis."[10] "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology
As for getting voter US state voter databases, most states allow people to purchase part of a
voter's information. Other parts like birth dates remain private. But the publicly available
list is probably enough as it identifies party affiliation, voting history as when dates they
voted (not how they voted). All the other private information is more useful to identity
thieves and Indian scam centers. And as one poster noted, those databases like gold on dark
web.
As for email addresses that implies those must be acquired through party officials and
candidates off donor lists. Off hand I do not know that an email address is required to
register to vote--I seriously doubt it. I know that Bernie famously refused to give his donor
database to Hillary. The emails imply some sort of inside job or some false flag.
Just read the story on Truthout of voters in Alaska & Florida, and possibly Pennsylvania
and Arizona receiving threatening messages if they should vote against Trump. "We know you're
a Democrat and we have access to your voting records..." Metadata indicates servers located
in the kingdoms of Israel's new friends...
Well, I just went to the Board of Elections website for my county here in Ohio and I can,
with a few clicks, generate a report from their site of a county listing of voters filtered
in over a half-dozen ways - i.e. by Party affiliation and including addresses. Comes under
the heading of "Voter and Candidate Tools."
So some concoct a tale which blames Iran, Russia, etc. for information freely available
from your State's BOE? This information has always been available, but not exploited before
in this way by US neo Nazis.
So, even though your ballot is secret, intimidation is easy to engage in based solely on
Party affiliation of record. If Trump loses, should some people expect bricks through their
windows, or perhaps fire-bombings? Trump and his supporters are certainly ratcheting up the
apocalyptic messaging, working themselves into a frenzy - that is obvious and not even
debatable.
I never read Dante; which circle of hell are we entering now?
Everyone here knows I was 100% behind Bernie Sanders for the Presidency because I felt he was
the right person for these times, but the mass is dumb and blind. I agree with the comment I
read on the previous thread I think by someone called Horseman that portrays Bernie's goal as
moving the Dem Party to the Left and not sheepdogging, but recognizing the stakes involved
superceded Left purity.
At the same time I was totally against Biden because he is much more Zionist than Bernie,
therefore more corrupt, as Zionism is counter-evolutionary being inherently supremacist,
entitled, and undemocratic.
However, Trump is exponentially worse! He is a fascist Zionist and totally depraved. There
is a choice here of monumental significance. Short term loss for greater future gain.
Biden is very flawed, but I'm inclined to view a man who suffered multiple life-altering
tragedies to reach this point and who is grappling with embracing a son, Hunter, who probably
was destroying his life, than a narcissistic less than evolved baby-man pig with a god
complex who squandered life and daddy's money on material and artificial pursuit and has no
notion of humanity, as the only sane choice.
Yes, Joe Biden should face his flaws and answer for whatever corruption exists in him, but
that laptop issue should not be a reason to stop people from getting Trump, the most corrupt
President in my lifetime next to Bush OUT. That goal is paramount. This is 2nd to the
pandemic in fated events. If people do not make the right choices and learn something from
these events then let this planet devolve into hell because that will be what is deserved!
The stakes right now are astronomical and super-fated!
Don't blow a singular opportunity to get rid of that Fascist pig Trump over a laptop
that's really a Pandora's box being used by Shmeagol Gollum Giuliani as a trap to unleash
misery for years to come.
This is clearly the Deep State and imperial establishment spouting obvious nonsense in order
to discredit themselves and therefore to help in Trump's reelection bid! Henry Kissinger told
me so! What incredibly subtle and intricate plans they have!
Or... maybe it is just a bunch of incompetent baboons in the Deep State control room
randomly flipping switches and pulling levers in the desperate hopes that something,
anything, works.
Nah! This is all part of the Great Plan! It just seems like abject stupidity because we
cannot grasp its intricate complexities.
All these new threads are defaulting to election threads. Sorry, b.
But I'll bite.
In the case of a Biden victory, which do you think will happen first?:
1) Renewed hostilities w/ Assad in Syria leading to his violent ousting and thrusting the
west into violent confrontation w/ Russia...
Or...
2) Forcible entry into the Armenian/Azerbaijan conflict and establishing a no-fly
zone...
Or...
3) a combination of both and would throw us into a direct confrontation with either Russia
or Iran or both?
It looks like the demonizing of Iran is ramping up with the mail-threats telling dims to
vote Trump or else. Dims don't like hostile, foreign powers helping the Don and swaying
elections. It's a nice tip-off as to what Biden and the dim establishment might consent to
once Obama-era sycophants and technocrats move back in to the White House.
Seems to be the year of anniversaries; another's being celebrated today but not by the Outlaw
US Empire. China
& North Korea Celebrate 70th Anniversary of China's intervention in Outlaw US Empire's
invasion of Korea , which is how it's being portrayed, "China, N. Korea stand together
'for self-protection against US hegemony' like 70 years ago" reads the headline at the link.
To mark the anniversary, China has published an official
history , explaining its decision "To resist US aggression and aid Korea, China had no
choice but to fight a war;" the 3-volume work is The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid
Korea . From China's perspective, it defeated Outlaw US Empire forces; so, it's not
"forgotten" at all. Xi's using the occasion to give a major speech, the subject of which
hasn't been disclosed.
Just 12 days to go until the refusals to abide by the outcome day arrives. If one wants to
look, there's lots of illegal foreign influence happening but from sources that go
unmentioned: Corporations that have foreign owners, which most do, who provided campaign
contributions in any form to any entity associated with the election.
HeHeHe!!! The first bits of Putin's appearance at the Valdai Club today
are being published . In a jab back at those accusing Russia of interfering in elections
and such Putin said:
"Strengthening our country and looking at what is happening in the world, in other
countries, I want to say to those who are still waiting for the gradual demise of Russia: in
this case, we are only worried about one thing -- how not to catch a cold at your
funeral."
There's more, although a transcript has yet to be published.
There's a thread right before this one on International Events. Why don't you go spew your
poisonous Trump Kool-Aid there instead of polluting with Trumpian-laced propaganda here?
I know-I know, Election threads raise the common sense factor further and that leads to
Trump's demise, so you can't help but rush in to correct that dangerous shift. Why
don't you do something equally meaningless like pounding sand down a rat hole?
After the Russiagate fiasco I thought the Americans had learned their lesson, but it seems I
was wrong.
Honestly, this may be the beginning of an irreversible process of ideological polarization
of the American Empire.
The thing is it's one thing to wage propaganda warfare against a foreign enemy to your
domestic audience: the foreign enemy will be destroyed either way, so they will never be able
to tell their version of the story, plus the domestic audience can give itself the luxury of
living the lie indefinitely as it doesn't affect their daily lives. Plus they'll directly
benefit from the conquest of a foreign enemy, e.g. cheaper gas to your car after the
destruction and conquest of Iraq; the abundance in the shelves of Walmarts after the
subjugation of China, and so on.
It's a completely different story when you wage propaganda warfare against yourself: the
Trump voter knows he/she didn't vote for Trump because of Russian influence, while the Hilary
Clinton/Joe Biden voter knows he/she didn't vote in either of them because of Chinese
influence. But each part will believe the half of the lie that benefits them against the
other, creating a vicious cycle of mistrust between the two halves.
Meanwhile, the American economy (capitalism) continues to decline. Time is running up:
It was a shock-and-awe moment when lawmakers gave the package a thumbs up. Yet in the
months since, the planned punch has not materialized.
The Treasury has allocated $195 billion to back Fed lending programs, less than half of
the allotted sum. The programs supported by that insurance have made just $20 billion in
loans, far less than the suggested trillions.
The programs have partly fallen victim to their own success: Markets calmed as the Fed
vowed to intervene, making the facilities less necessary as credit began to flow again.
So, the very announcement of the Fed it would lend indefinitely and unconditionally made
such loans unnecessary!
I didn't like it at the beginning, but the term "Late Capitalism" is growing on me.
MSM pushing the the Iran angle shows that they are more anti-Iran than anti-Trump.
What effect would Iran intend by sending fake threatening emails from right-wing guns nuts
to Democrats? I doubt it would discourage those Democrats from voting (for Biden), and I
doubt Iran would think it would. The only effect it would have is to increase the fear,
distrust, and disgust Democrats already have for those groups - which is "sowing discord",
not "meddling with elections".
The Trump regime pushes this because it makes Trump look good & makes Iran look bad
(at least the way it's been framed). MSM generally doesn't like Trump, but prints this
because hyping fear & loathing toward Iran matters more to them than dumping Trump.
Great that they are working on it, I was taking notes but kind of lousy its not easy to
listen and write at the same time. Started kind of nervous, but right now it is Putin at his
most relaxed and eloquent.
It is interesting to see how Putin is way more at ease when answering journalist's
questions than when exposing his part of the event. Right now they asked him about his image,
punk, criminal etc etc. Answer: my function is the main thing, and I do not take it
personally, now the chinese will ask.
In case the truth gets lost in your purposely misleading translation. This hare-brained
scheme was cooked up by Trump and his newly-appointed right-hand bootlicker RATcliffe, at DNI
and delivered to the American people by the latter as a desperate distraction minutes after
Obama smacked down Trump on every air wave.
It immediately gave off an offensive odor, as I stated previously, of Trump turd floating
in golden toilet.
And that's why Chris Wray looked so awkward and uneasy behind that RAT.
Three hours of serious talking about any and all world problems. I wonder how long Lunch Box
Joe could hold on his own. The orange man probably could do it, but just talking about
himself. The US need someone like VVP.
I ought to listen while also reading the Russian close-captioning so I can rebuild my
Russian language facility and catch the body language messages, but I still need to read/hear
it all in English. As for his response to questions, IMO Putin knows what to expect from
media reporters but not from other experts in the audience whose questions are usually more
complex. Then there's the need to remain tactful, although there are times when he does need
to get indignant, as with the issue of illegal sanctions that harm nations's abilities to
deal with the pandemic--the utter immorality and inhumanity of the Outlaw US Empire that
never gets the attention it deserves.
What would Iran gain by scaring lower end of the spectrum Democrats into voting for Trump,
is that desirable for Iran?
Ah ... but it was a pump fake, Iran thought that people would think that the emails were
genuine, arrest a few of the Proud Boys and this would hurt Trump by associating him with a
domestic terror group. Not only is this scenario convoluted but it is extremely risky because
it might scare a handful of impressionable Democrats into voting for Trump and any
investigation would uncover hacking of some kind.
Most likely suspect, Israel. They have the means to hack and the contacts in the U.S. to
suggest Iranian origin.
As Putin said, Russia was able to find "balance" in its reaction to COVID; and as with China
but unlike the Outlaw US Empire, it put the safety of the Russian people first and foremost.
The Empire is experiencing yet another big outbreak nationwide and has yet to put the
interests of its citizenry first.
Is Circe deranged?
I don't know but I doubt if she spends trillions of dollars each year on murdering inocent
men women and children.
Mmmmm
Perhaps to people living in a ''loony bin'' (America) people outside must seem quite strange
!
I live near Glastonbury finest bunch of people you'd ever meet. Not known for genocidel
tendency's.
Any ways Iran, Russia interfering in America's elections -- -- - pure paranoid delusion
(weaponised)
The Mighty Wurlitzer has
begun to sound more like the New York Philharmonic tuning up while riding the Empire State Express
as it crashes endlessly into Grand Central Station.
Dear Circe, each language is a world view, I wish I had the resources available today when
I was younger, I would speak as many as possible, I consider that with the means available
today speaking half a dozen would be no problem at all. You have the blessing and the curse
of speaking english, so no need for anything else, but that is your problem, you are so
relaxed about it that you're not able to spell correctly the name of one of your best known
cities, San Francisco, with a c before the s.
Again, come up with something else, the bot label is as primitive as your knowledge of your
own language and geography.
kiwiklown@14: They do not even care for their own people (covid19 fiasco, anyone?), but pretend to care
for the Chinese people so much they would regime-change the CCP; they pretend to care for the
Russian people so much they would sooner shoot Putin's plane from the sky; they pretend to
care for the Iranian people so much they block their access to covid19 medicines.
Well said, although rather sad! The last pretension reveals exactly the mentality that was
behind the genocide upon the Native American centuries ago, resorting to tactics such as
passing out smallpox infected blankets, dispensation of whisky, as well as outright
slaughters of course.
Gruffy @ 68
Maybe but she martches to a different drum beat. Not the trump drum beat of war that you
follow, and will lead you all over the cliff.
Don't get me wrong ! You'd have to squeeze my nuts pretty dam hard (tears in my eyes) before
I'd vote for Biden.
But you must know two things -- -
A. Trump is bat shit crazy and has his finger on the button whilst the Dems are money mad and
there is know profit in Armageddon.
And
B. I'm antifa my hobby is smashing the filthy fascists !!
Who's streets ? Our streets !!
Without mentioning its name, Putin in his speech pinned the tail on
the donkey regarding TrumpCo's pandemic failure:
"The values of mutual assistance, service and self-sacrifice proved to be most important.
This also applies to the responsibility, composure and honesty of the authorities, their
readiness to meet the demand of society and at the same time provide a clear-cut and
well-substantiated explanation of the logic and consistency of the adopted measures so as not
to allow fear to subdue and divide society but, on the contrary, to imbue it with confidence
that together we will overcome all trials no matter how difficult they may be.
"The struggle against the coronavirus threat has shown that only a viable state can act
effectively in a crisis ..." [My Emphasis]
Yes, it didn't begin with Trump, but he sure did accelerate the process of making the
domestic part of the Outlaw US Empire dysfunctional, which for me makes this "silly season"
even worse than usual.
I view this as shit-against-the-wall policy. You throw it up there. Sometimes it sticks,
sometimes it doesn't.
This is how lowly vermin do foreign policy nowadays.
Remember the story -- first reported as Russians, then Iranians -- paying bounty to the
Talibs to kill (as if they needed motivation) American soldiers?
Well, in that case, I guess neither story really stuck, but you see where I'm going with
this. It's all shite
And silly season continues with self-proclaimed anti-fascists who don't know what fascists
are.
Fascism doesn't necessarily have anything to do with race or religion. Is there any racial
difference between Ukropians and Russians? Fascism is simply a tool that capitalists use to
smash class consciousness. Literally any differences can be used by the capitalists to direct
the violent mobs at their victims, even differences that are completely imaginary and don't
really exist except in the group mind of the mob.
Now I wonder... who is it that will attack someone for saying "But ALL lives
matter!" ? Who is smashing class consciousness?
And this is why the USA is turning into a failed state and Russia isn't:
"Nevertheless, I am confident that what makes a state strong, primarily, is the
confidence its citizens have in it . That is the strength of a state. People are the
source of power , we all know that. And this recipe doesn't just involve going to the
polling station and voting, it implies people's willingness to delegate broad authority to
their elected government, to see the state, its bodies, civil servants, as their
representatives – those who are entrusted to make decisions, but who also bear full
responsibility for the performance of their duties .
"This kind of state can be set up any way you like. When I say 'any way,' I mean that what
you call your political system is immaterial. Each country has its own political culture,
traditions, and its own vision of their development. Trying to blindly imitate someone else's
agenda is pointless and harmful. The main thing is for the state and society to be in
harmony .
"And of course, confidence is the most solid foundation for the creative work of the
state and society. Only together will they be able to find an optimal balance of freedom and
security guarantees ." [My Emphasis]
What a brilliant collection of words emphasizing the absolute requirement for the state to
do its utmost to support and develop its human capital--its citizens--while also saying
citizens have their own duty to ensure the quality of the state, which means installing
representatives that will work for them and promote their interests first and foremost since
they are the backbone of the state. Don't feed and care for the citizenry as in the USA and
you'll have a corrupt, feeble state when it comes to keeping itself strong. And IMO the
primary difference that's making Russia stronger while the USA atrophies is that Russia
listens to its people and genuinely cares for and acts in their interests while in the USA
the demands of the citizenry have fallen on deaf ears for decades, regardless the political
party running the government.
Gruffy is trying to conflate perpetrator as opposed to the victim/ victems !
Classic -- -
US geo-politics.
Blame shifting fascist tactic.
Learned far right tactic.
Or
Psychopathic projection.
Example -- --
US attacks Iran &Russia but blames them for attacking The US.
Also Gruffy I note how you side step a point well made by
Asking a deliberately distracting question. Yawn
"Blame shifting" absolutely is part of smashing class consciousness. Shift the blame
for people's difficulties from capitalism to various parts of the working class. Those who
participate violently in this process are fascists and perpetrators. Of course, they are also
victims because they are destroying their own class consciousness. Class consciousness is
necessary if they are ever to be able to address the real issues causing them hardship.
When the question and answers segment comes online it is worth reading his opinion about
the Karabakh conflict and how it is a very difficult situation for Russia since both
countries involved, Armenia and Azerbaijan are part of a common family. The question implied
that Russia would unequivocally side with Armenia based on religion, to which Putin answered
that 15% of Russia population professes the islamic faith and that he considers Azerbaijan a
country as close to Russia as Armenia, with over two million nationals from each of the
warring countries living in Russia and as part of a very influential and productive
community.
Interesting too his take on Turkey, admitting that there are a lot of disagreements Putin
had good words for Erdogan admitting that he is independent and that he is someone able to
uphold his word, the Turk Stream project, it was agreed upon and completed, compared to the
europeans to whom he did not spare in his almost contemptuous words insinuating their lack of
sovereignty.
Gruffy error !!
In this context the 'mob'
Is trump followers.
The thugs in uniform.
The proud boys.
The US forces abroad and at home.
Gruffy 'you' ARE the mob.
I feel you watched to many cowboy films portraying native Americans as the bad guys! It
shows.
I won't be replying more. as I see your very shabby diversionary tactic. Nice try though. We
see you !! What you are and what you do.
Thanks for your reply! Even before the Q&A Putin skewers both the Empire and EU in
this paragraph:
"Genuine democracy and civil society cannot be imported.' I have said so many times. They
cannot be a product of the activities of foreign 'well-wishers,' even if they 'want the best
for us.' In theory, this is probably possible. But, frankly, I have not yet seen such a thing
and do not believe much in it. We see how such imported democracy models function. They are
nothing more than a shell or a front with nothing behind them, even a semblance of
sovereignty. People in the countries where such schemes have been implemented were never
asked for their opinion, and their respective leaders are mere vassals. As is known, the
overlord decides everything for the vassal . To reiterate, only the citizens of a
particular country can determine their public interest." [My Emphasis]
And that "particular country" is one where both the citizens and the government share
"confidence" in each other such that they work in "harmony." Thus the #1 goal of the Outlaw
US Empire to sow chaos within nations so such confidence and harmony can't be established;
and if they are, then destroyed.
No one has ever lied to American people more than the American regime and her terrorizing
intelligence community organization, Snowden is the living proof of this . Anyone still alive
and living on this planet if it ever believed a word on anything coming out of the USG not
only is a fool and a total idiot but his/her head must be seriously checked. Regardless of
their party affiliations they have no shame of lying cheating steeling those United
oligarchy' Secretary of State is the proof that.
This poster is on neither "side" . More like Putin looking in pain over Azerbaijan and
Armenia killing each other at the prompting of some third party that doesn't care about
either of them. This poster is neither faux left nor right wing; however, this poster's
grandmother was Cherokee. There is no anger directed your way for your failure to understand,
though.
If Americans had any backbone they would be on the streets protesting about this sham
election prior to the election, of false choice no choice.
You earn your democracy or you loose your democracy.
Iran, Russia bashing ! Just how low have you people sunk.
No hind sight, no insight and no foresight !
No hope. Spineless.
Totally weird! You all, please get behind re-electing Trump. He is doing such a good job of
destroying the US empire and its pretensions. If you are really a leftist, this is a GOO:-D
thing!
The alternative is to vote Independent or Green but they don't have a chance right
now.
Walking only 3 miles on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles , going west I have counted 47 homeless
(male,females,wht,black,Asian)asking for handouts. These lost soles are the ones who have
paid the price for the for ever wars to secure the Israel' realm,
The propose of yesterday's security show at FBI was to convince the public that all negative
comments and cretics coming their way by internet blogs, email , media etc. is not really
from disfranchised Americans public, but rather foreign countries operation that they do not
like our democracy and way of life, It was solely meant to make people not to subscribe and
believe what negativity they hear or read on US( non existing)democracy ,
This is a cheap standard operation by totalitarian regimes.
53
That money went to the ESF,what else do you think is levitating stocks and bonds ?
You assumed wrongly, but Kudlow let slip they(ESF) were broke and actually stated the money
was going to them in a presser.
I dunno why I'm bothering to do this because astrology is such a lame easily disproven
superstition that gets by because there are just so many con artists making predictions that
occasionally some must be correct - the stopped clock effect, but here goes.
The moon's effect on our planet's oceans is proven to be caused by a known phenomenon,
gravity. These stars whose positions we are told influence our human lives (just another
anthrocentric load of bulldust what about beings on other planets?) are thousands of light
years away from earth, meaning when the con-artists draw up their star charts or WTF they
call 'em, they are looking at formations that happened thousands of years ago - all different
depending on a particular star's distance from earth.
Claiming to be able to predict anything rational from such a mish mash of incorrect data is
risible, sad really and goes much to explain the house dembot's mania.
As for oblammer in Miami? I guess the dnc know where quite a few oblammer bodies are
buried.
My view is changing, Biden is so crooked that even though if he wins, the corporate media
will try hard to leave him alone, but he's just too clumsy, so that some dems are going to
side with the rethugs to impeach him and fast, however that may be what the oligarchy is
counting on, as that brings bad karmala harris to the fore, a women so unpopular with dem
rank and file she withdrew from the primary before any votes were cast, how's that for
'democracy'.
This is the real issue, both dem & rethug prez candidates are crooks through and
through, if the dems win, then the spotlight the corporate media shone on orangeutan will be
turned off. At least some of trump's worst rorts were stopped by a fear of being found out,
but if the dems win dopey joe will have no such constraint - until he does something so over
the top eg kick off nuclear war, that the media finally wakes up. too late but at least now
they're awake.
Posted by: vinnieoh | Oct 22 2020 16:04 utc | 45 If Trump loses, should some people expect
bricks through their windows, or perhaps fire-bombings?
That is the threat. If either side loses, there will be massive civil unrest - at least
it's very likely that is (part of) "the plan" - whatever the plan actually is. In any event,
plan or not, it's predictable. Most of the preppers I follow on Youtube are urging everyone
to stock up on food and water because there's a good chance that everyone will be back on
movement restrictions of some sort, if not full-on martial law, within the next couple
months. As I said before, this country is going to start looking like Turkey or Italy in the
70's when the Grey Wolves and the Red Brigades were terrorizing those countries. It may not
be "civil war", but it's likely to be uglier than what happened this summer.
There will be cries of joy in the streets and maybe some celebratory looting, all from the
urban left.
Trump's supporters might assemble peacefully in a very sparse manner, but I would bet most
would simply take the newly alotted time from the Biden-victory to prep and ready a little
more before the real fireworks begin. Violence would only erupt from the urban left attacking
those demonstrations.
Real men are lying in wait. The city is not their playground any longer.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Oct 22 2020 11:21 utc | 19 -- "Barack can claim 'he paid his dues'
whilst keeping as much space as he can organise between himself and crooked joe, who has
already brought oblamblam's prezdency into disrepute with the shameless & ugly ukraine
rort that he and his bagman hunter had concocted."
Thanks for your astute observations. Am learning much.
A compromised man never escapes blackmail: he is but a tool in the hands of his owners. It
is not IF, but WHEN he will be used / abused. Over and over again, like a banker's boot
stomping on his arrogant face.
But then, who is to say that Obanger Obummer was unaware of his VP, that Basement-Biding
Bidet Biden's 'arrangements' for wealth accretion? And more (there is always more), who is to
say that Obanging Ohumming gets NO share therefrom at some 'convenient' time?
Evil thinks himself clever to hide in the dark, yet lives in daily fear of the light.
Thusly Obanging Ohummer's calculations that you noted above, and his dark demeanour these
days. He knows he is walking on a knife edge, with a sword hanging over his head, and a
safety net (those 17 intelligence agencies?) that can turn into a fowler's snare (sorry,
mixed metaphors!)
Yet, looking at the happier demeanour (she used to scowl all through 2017/2018) on that
shallow face called Michelle Ohummer, we can guess that she thinks they have escaped clean
with their 'rewards of office'.
Christian J. Chuba @17 asked, "How long?" I ask, how does an immoral leadership ever going
to turn moral? When does America get the leadership that she deserves?
@71 karlof1 - "only a viable state can act effectively in a crisis" - Putin
What a brilliant equation from Putin. Even more penetrating and useful than the formerly
existing observation that socialist-style societies have performed best in response to the
virus. Putin's criterion cuts exactly to the essence of the thing.
What the US has demonstrated from the virus response is that it is not a viable state. The
benchmark now exists. Thanks for bringing it over.
I have a friend of Cherokee ancestry. She told me how once she was speaking with an elder
woman of the tribe, and described herself as "one-eighth Cherokee".
The old woman shook her head and said, "The Cherokee spirit cannot be diluted."
Should any here be interested, Wikipedia has aa extensive listing of governmental scandals
for the 20th and 21st century administrations. Note the number of executive, legislative and
judicial scandals for each administration. Note also the volume of scandals as
administrations go from Franklin D. Roosevelt through to D.J. Trump for both executive and
legislative branches. The political parties of the malfeasant are of interest as well -
trending can be discerned, maybe, for the observant.
I'd have more hope for Russia if the Russian ruling class weren't so obsessed with the
West and didn't send their children to Western (woke) schools, etc.
theallseeinggod , 7 hours ago
They're not doing that well, but they're not repeating many of the west's mistakes.
Normal , 5 hours ago
Now the West has rules only for poor people.
Helg Saracen , 6 hours ago
Advice to Americans (for the sake of experiment): prohibit lobbying in US and the right of
citizens with dual citizenship to hold public office in US. I assure - you will be surprised
how quickly Russians go from non-kosher to kosher for Americans and how American politicians,
the media will convince Americans of this at every intersection. :) Ha ha ha
Nayel , 5 hours ago
If the [Vichy] Left in America weren't so determined to project their own Bolshevik
leanings on to a possible great ally that their ideology now fears, Russia would be just
that: a great ally that could help America shake the Bolsheviks that have infiltrated the
American government and plan the same program their Soviet forefathers once held over
Russia...
Arising 2.0 , 1 hour ago
Western zionist controlled propaganda reminds me of Mohamed Ali- he used to talk up the
******** so much before a fight that when the time came to fight the opponent was usually
traumatised or confused. Until Ali met with Joe Frazier (Russia) who didn't fall for all the
pre-fight BS.
ThePinkHole , 39 minutes ago
Time for a pop quiz! Name the two countries below:
Country A - competency, attention to first principles, planning based on reality,
consistency of purpose, and unity of execution.
Country B - incompetency, interfering in everything everywhere, planning based on hubris
and sloppy assumptions, confusion, and disunity.
(Source: Adapted from Patrick Armstrong)
foxenburg , 3 hours ago
This one is always good for a laugh....the Daily Telegraph's Con Coughlin explaining in
2015 how Putin will fail in Syria...
We have all this talk of the 'Ruskies' when in fact it is not the ordinary Russian people
but rather a geopolitical power struggle. The ordinary US citizen or European just wants to
maintain their liberty and be able to profit from their endeavours. The rich and powerful
globalists who hide behind their military are the ones that play these games. I am no friend
of Putin but equally I am no friend of our own political establishment that have been
captured by Wall Street. I care about Main Street and as the US dollar loses its privilege
there will be real pain to share amongst our economies. The last thing we need is for the
elites of the Western alliance to profit with cold/hot wars on the backs of ourselves.
Having been behind the iron curtain as a young Merchant Navy Officer I found ordinary
citizens fine and even organized football matches with the local communist parties. People
have the same desires and aspirations and whether rich or poor we should respect each others
cultures and territories. http://www.money-liberty.com/gallery/Predictions-2021.pdf
You would be justified in thinking that the various news conferences put on by US law
enforcement and intelligence officials in which foreign actors – Russia, China and Iran
are the usual suspects – are accused of meddling in all things American are little more
than a giant practical joke, a parody of how a government should behave, instead of the damning
indictment of reality that they are.
The most recent iteration of this embarrassing spectacle took place on Wednesday evening,
during a hastily convened press conference suspiciously timed to coincide with former president
Barack Obama's inaugural stump speech in support of Democratic presidential candidate Joe
Biden.
Normally, the citation of such coincidences would relegate any subsequent analysis to the
rabbit hole of conspiracy theory. However, we do not live in normal times. The press conference
was convened by the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, who was in turn
accompanied by the Director of the FBI, Christopher Wray.
Ratcliffe has come under fire from Congressional Democrats for his
selective declassification of documents pertaining to allegations of Russian involvement in
the 2016 US presidential campaign. Former CIA director John Brennan, who was the subject of
some of the leaked documents, accused Ratcliffe of releasing them to
"advance the political interests" of President Donald Trump ahead of the November 3
election.
The declassification caper was followed by Ratcliffe's
unsolicited intervention regarding the acquisition by the FBI of computer hard drives
allegedly belonging to Joe Biden's son, Hunter. Ratcliffe declared that the contents of the
drives were not part of a Russian disinformation campaign and thereby drew the ire of
Democrats, who view the sordid computer story as a smear campaign against the former vice
president.
The October 21 press conference followed in the path of Ratcliffe's prior interventions, and
appeared to be little more than an insufficiently sourced allegation wrapped in highly
politicized conclusions.
Ratcliffe claimed the US intelligence community had " confirmed that some voter
registration information has been obtained by Iran, and separately, by Russia ." This was
the gist of the press conference, and it added virtually nothing to the
statement released by Ratcliffe in August in which he noted that the US intelligence
community was " primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China,
Russia, and Iran ."
What made Ratcliffe's announcement even less spectacular was the fact that the data he
accused Iran and Russia of stealing was publicly available, leading some anonymous intelligence
officials to speculate that the hacking operations were little more than an effort to avoid
paying the fees associated with accessing this data. As far as crimes go, this one was
eminently forgettable.
Ratcliffe noted that the US officials " have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails
designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Trump ,"
referring to a scheme alleged to have been implemented by Iran, using this information,
to
disseminate emails to potential voters claiming to be from the controversial Proud Boys
organization, that threatened physical violence unless the recipient voted for Trump in the
coming election.
The purpose of this scheme appears to be less about actually changing votes (voting is done
in secret, so the sender of the letter would have no way of confirming an outcome, thereby
negating the threat) and more about undermining confidence in the electoral process as a whole.
Both Iran and the Proud Boys have denied any involvement in the letter writing campaign.
This latest incursion by the US intelligence community into the topic of election
interference by outside powers has been loudly condemned by the Democrats, with the House
Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, tweeting "
Ratcliffe has TOO OFTEN politicized the Intelligence Community to carry water for the
President ."
But Ratcliffe's actions only continue in the vein of a history of electioneering by the US
intelligence community during contentious presidential elections. Much of the Democrats'
current ire against Ratcliffe stems from his exposing documents that point to similar
politically motivated interventions by John Brennan and others during the 2016 election,
ostensibly for the purpose of undermining the campaign of then-candidate Trump.
The fact is, what passes for domestic US politics is virtually impossible to manipulate by
outside agencies. The effort by
Cambridge Analytica to predict voting preferences in 2016 by accessing the confidential
online data of millions of Americans has been shown to have been spectacularly ineffective, and
it exceeded by some way the sophistication and data collection activities attributed to foreign
powers such as Russia, China, and Iran.
The mind of the American voter is influenced by a wide variety of inputs that are highly
individualized and, in many instances, virtually unquantifiable. The notion that a
sophisticated data mining organization such as Cambridge Analytica, or the intelligence
services of any of those three nations, could succeed in doing over the course of months what
American political organizations have been struggling to achieve over two-plus centuries is not
only laughable, but insulting.
Yet the level of domestic political insecurity that exists today is such that both political
parties, lacking confidence in their own inherent messaging capability, have succumbed to the
psychosis of political victimhood, blaming others for their own inherent failures. By allowing
the work of the US intelligence community to be used as a foil in this self-destructive blame
game, a succession of US intelligence professionals, led by John Brennan, James Clapper, James
Comey, Richard Grenell, John Ratcliffe, and others, have turned the once respected profession
of intelligence into a politicized joke.
In this, however, it is in good company, joined by both political parties, the US media and,
frankly speaking, the US electorate. American democracy is a mirror image of the nation it
purports to serve, and, at the moment, the reflection displayed is a thoroughly tragic one.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
For all practical purposes Biden work as a well paid lobbyist for China.
Notable quotes:
"... So Navalny was "poisoned by Putin" and sent to a Berlin hospital so that conclusion could be defined ? USSR was so incompetent with bio-weapons it cannot create a lethal organophosphate poison yet US/Uk can develop VX which worked definitively on King Jong-Un's half-brother ! ..."
So Navalny was "poisoned by Putin" and sent to a Berlin hospital so that conclusion could
be defined ? USSR was so incompetent with bio-weapons it cannot create a lethal
organophosphate poison yet US/Uk can develop VX which worked definitively on King Jong-Un's
half-brother !
Then again China can develop effective bio-weapons which expose the E=West and especially
NATO armed forces as unprepared, incompetent, ineffectual and in Chinese terms "paper
tigers"
So more and more sanctions on Russia and more and more orders for PPE and other goodies
from China.
Russia is Post-Communist but China is VERY VERY Communist.
Putin apparently "interferes in US elections" but China simply buys up one of the parties
and owns the candidate and his family
...How about Curveball and the 911 Hoax? How about Bibi Netanyahu and Oblock? They are all
corrupt. They should all be in jail.
Sound of the Suburbs , 3 hours ago
How did Putin come to power anyway?
That was Jeffrey Sach's fault.
Everything looked very positive with Russia under Gorbachev, but the West thought his
reforms were too slow.
A BBC documentary covers a young, naive Jeffrey "Joe 90" Sachs and other US free market
fundamentalists as they headed into Russia to make a right mess of things and pave the way
for Putin.
Crucially, China is not the Soviet Union: China has no messianic ideology to export; China
is not engaged in regime change operations to create an ideological sphere of influence;
China's relationships with foreign nations are transactional rather than sentimental; China's
economy dwarfs that of the USSR; China already possesses one-fourth of the world's scientific,
technological, engineering, and mathematics workforce; China's "Belt and Road Initiative" is an
order-setting geoeconomic strategy with no Soviet parallel; China spends two percent or less of
it GDP on its military vs. the estimated 9 to 15 percent of the USSR -- and China has not built
a nuclear arsenal to match that of either the United States or Russia.
Equally important, the United States of the 2020s is not the America of the early Cold War.
As the Cold War began, the United States produced one-half or more of the world's manufactures.
It now makes about one-sixth. During the Cold War, the United States was the uncontested leader
of a bloc of dependent nations that it called "the free world." That bloc is now in an advanced
state of decay. Further, legacy U.S. alliances formed to contain the USSR have little relevance
to American contention with China: US-European alliances like NATO are withering and no Asian
security partner of the United States wants to choose between America and China.
Since 1950, the Taiwan issue has been a casus belli between the United States and
China. But U.S. allies see it as a fight among Chinese to be managed rather than joined. If the
U.S. mismanages the Taiwan issue, as it now appears to be doing, it will have no overt allies
in the resulting war. No claimant against China in the South China Sea is prepared to join the
U.S. in naval conflict with China. In short, this time is different. Sino-American relations
have a history and dynamic that do not conform to those of the US-Soviet contest. And the
United States is not equipped to inspire and lead opposition to China. The US-China contention
is far broader than that of the Cold War, in part because China, unlike the determinedly
autarkic USSR, is part of the same global society as the United States. The battlefields
include global governance, geoeconomics, trade, investment, finance, currency usage, supply
chain management, technology standards and systems, and scientific collaboration, in addition
to the geopolitical and military domains in which the Cold War played out.
The United States is isolated on a widening list of issues. It has withdrawn or excluded
itself from a growing number of multilateral instruments of global and regional governance and
is no longer able to lead the international community. Americans have repeatedly declined to
recapitalize or cooperate in reforming international financial institutions to meet new global
and regional investment requirements. This has led China, India, and other rising powers to
create supplementary lenders like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New
Development Bank.
Four years ago, the U.S. unilaterally decided that geopolitics are inherently driven by
great power military rivalry that precludes cooperation. The newly pugnacious U.S. stance
legitimizes xenophobia and justifies bilateral approaches to foreign relations that ignore
issues like global terrorism, pandemic diseases, climate change, migration, nuclear
proliferation, or regional tensions, and cripple the global governance and international
coordination needed to tackle them. The United States is going out of its way to demonstrate
its indifference to the interests and sensibilities of its past and potential partners. It is
withdrawing from international organizations it can no longer dominate. These actions amount to
unilateral diplomatic disarmament and the creation of politico-economic vacuums for others --
not just China -- to fill.
Future historians will puzzle over why Americans have chosen to dismantle and discard the
connections and capacities that long enabled the United States to direct the trend of events in
most global and regional arenas. When they unravel this mystery, they will also need to explain
the simultaneous collapse of the separation of powers structure on which the American republic
was founded and on which its liberties were built. Fortunately for post-Constitutional America,
China's political system, despite the stability and prosperity it has fostered, has even less
appeal beyond China's borders. Both China and the United States are now repelling other nations
rather than attracting them. If the U.S.-China contest were military and didn't go nuclear, the
United States, with its battle-hardened and uniquely lethal military, would enjoy insuperable
advantages. But armed conflict is not the central element in the Sino-American
confrontation.
After World War II, the United States made the rules. American statesmen crafted a world
order that expressed American ideals and served American interests. In the post-Cold War period
Washington began to disengage from the global institutions and norms it had sponsored. The
United States has failed to ratify international compacts that regulate a widening range of
arenas of importance to it. These include conventions on the law of the sea, nuclear testing,
the arms trade, human rights, and crimes against humanity. Washington has withdrawn from or
suspended compliance with conventions on the laws of war and agreements on arms control,
combating climate change, and trade and investment. It has ceased to participate in or sought
to sabotage a growing list of United Nations specialized agencies and related institutions.
Notwithstanding the current global pandemic, these include the World Health Organization.
America's withdrawal from its traditional role in global rule-setting and enforcement
deprives it of the dominant influence it long exercised through the institutions it created.
Other great powers remain wedded to the American-led order expressed in the United Nations
Charter, but America's exemption of itself from the comity of nations and its spontaneous
metamorphosis from world leader to global dropout have left it unable to aggregate the power of
other nations to its own. Washington's resort to abusive language, threats and coercive
measures has grown as its capacity to apply its power non-coercively has declined, further
reducing the numbers of foreign allies, partners, and friends willing to bandwagon with
America.
The decline in U.S. clout is made even more consequential by the fact that China has
resources, including money, to offer its partners. The United States does not. The United
States' budget is in chronic deficit. Even routine government operations must now be funded
with debt. America has spent trillions of borrowed dollars on wars in the Islamic world that it
can neither win nor end. Its "forever wars" siphoned off the funds needed to keep its human and
physical infrastructure at levels competitive with those of China and other great economic
powers. They also crippled U.S. statecraft by defunding non-military means to advance American
interests abroad and curtailing U.S. contributions to the international institutions charged
with assuring global peace and development.
Coercive approaches to statecraft are inherently alienating. Claims to superiority that are
not empirically substantiable are unpersuasive. Asking countries to choose between China and
the United States, when China is clearly rising and America is simultaneously stagnating and
declining, guarantees the progressive eclipse of American prestige and power. Advocating
democracy abroad while deviating from it at home destroys rather than enhances American
credibility. America's addiction to debt risks eventual financial collapse even as it limits
immediate policy options both at home and abroad.
Unless the United States cures its fiscal feebleness, rebuilds the capacities and competence
of its government, upgrades its human and physical infrastructure, and reopens itself to trade,
investment, and immigration, America's roles in global governance, trade, investment, finance,
supply chain management, technology standards and systems, and scientific collaboration will
continue to contract as those of China and others expand. The United States' capacity to
innovate will decline, as will American well-being and self-confidence. This diminishment of
the United States is not the consequence of Chinese predation but of American hubris, political
ineptitude, and diplomatic decrepitude .
The essence of any s trategy is the efficient linkage of resources and capabilities to
feasible objectives. Current U.S. China policy is strategy-free. With neither resources nor
institutional capabilities to back it, it amounts to puerile fantasy. U.S. China policy at
present is a classic example of demonizing a foreign foe to rally support at home and divert
attention from festering political, economic, and social problems. This approach is highly
unlikely to result in a Cold War-style victory for the United States or the Enlightenment
values that gave birth to it. Quite the opposite. Written by Chas
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China wins, India loses in Trump's gamble on crushing Iran by Fatemeh Aman
"... Perhaps the plot extended beyond those who directly participated but I don't think it was a high level operation. Navalny took a gamble that his sponsors would have no choice but to follow his lead. It now makes no practical difference as to whom planned it. ..."
Alexey Navalny: It's a banned substance. I think for Putin– why– he's using
this chemical weapon to do– do both, kill me and, you know, terrify others. It's
something really scary, where the people just drop dead without– there are no gun.
There are no shots and in a couple of hours, you– you'll be dead and without any traces
on your body. It's something terrifying. And Putin is enjoying it.
So am I. It's very intriguing, the constant plot twists – Navalny is recorded live
'moaning in anguish' but he was not in any pain! Perhaps the very thought of such an amazing
human being and exceptional leader – himself, naturally – struck down in his
prime was just so sorrowful that he could not stifle his sadness.
It's 'something really scary', is it? Why? So far nearly everyone poisoned by it has
survived with no apparent medium-to-long-term damage. The deadliest toxin in the world by a
wide margin has so far managed to kill one barbag who was also a drug addict, and completely
incidentally – she was not ever a target.
According to the Russian record of its use as a murder weapon, though, on the sole known
occasion it was so used, it killed the target in just a few hours. It also killed his
secretary, who used the same phone to call an ambulance, and the pathologist who did his
autopsy.
So whoever is copying Novichok for its terror effects is not doing a very good job. Like
Porsche, there is no substitute.
The "moaning in anguish" was likely Navalny's theatrical assumption that Novichok creates
intense pain. When he learned, after his performance, that Novichok does not create intense
pain, he changed his story on the fly.
This, and a few other things, brings up an interesting conjecture. The Navalny stunt may
have been a free-lance operation done without prior knowledge of Western intelligence
agencies. He and his posse concocted the scheme betting that the the US and Germany would be
backed into a corner and had to play along. They really had no choice as they could not
abandon this asset without the entire "fearless opposition to the tyrant Putin" collapsing
into the cesspool it was built upon.
If so, it was an audacious move that only a sociopath could do. However, it does suggest
that Navalny is finished after the last bit of propaganda value is wrung out. His future
could be either termination under a convenient pretext (i.e. Putin finally got him) or to
become a professor of BS at some US University or the like. The main point is that he is too
unreliable to conduct further operations.
I think the whole thing was a carefully-concocted operation that Lyosha was fully
briefed-in on. His howls and screams would have been necessary in any case, with or without
pain, because it was imperative that all on board be convinced that a terrible event was
taking place and that emergency actions were absolutely called for. It's hard to imagine the
same dramatic effect could have been achieved by Navalny flopping out of the toilet like a
gaffed bass, and whispering to the flight attendant, "I just have this feeling that says
body, we are done". Everyone including the flight attendant would assume he was drunk or
something that was no particular cause for alarm, and maybe even for amusement. Until they
learned that the flight was being diverted so this fuckwad could get off.
I don't know and I don't care who's cuning plan this was. It's got him all the
publicity he needs and also those in the west with their standard 'no smoke without fire'
level of foreign policy 'evidence.' I think he's actually looking to sell his life story for
a Netflix series. Nothing else makes logical sense.
Yes, maybe -- apart from the fact that one of his posse is British agent who has been
controlling FBK investigations into corruption for quite a while now and apparently was stuck
to Navalny during his last foray into the provinces like shit to an army blanket.
To Mark and ME;
The Navalny show still has an ad hoc feel to it. Perhaps the plot extended beyond those
who directly participated but I don't think it was a high level operation. Navalny took a
gamble that his sponsors would have no choice but to follow his lead. It now makes no
practical difference as to whom planned it.
Navalny has complained that Trump has not condemned what happened to him
19.10.2020 | 07:59
Blogger Aleksei Navalny has expressed the opinion that US President Donald Trump should
have also condemned what happened to him, as did European politicians, TASS reports.
"I think it is especially important that everyone, including, and perhaps first and
foremost, the US president, speak out against the use of chemical weapons in the 21st
century", Navalny said.
["Я думаю, что
особенно важно,
чтобы все,
включая и,
возможно, в
первую очередь
президента США,
выступили
против
применения
химического
оружия в XXI
веке".]
On August 20, Navalny was taken to a hospital in Omsk after he had fallen ill on an
aeroplane. Omsk doctors said that the main diagnosis was metabolic disorders. Then Navalny
was transported to Germany. He was in a coma for two weeks. German doctors announced that he
had been poisoned with substances from the Novichok group. Russia has asked Berlin for more
detailed information on the test results, but has not yet received a response.
Currently, Navalny has been discharged from the hospital and is undergoing
rehabilitation.
Big gobbed gobshite shouting his big gob off -- or did his US controllers really urge him
to make that statement? Is the CIA really using him as part of the Democrats "Russiagate"
arsenal?
Got it in one; I was going to say, until I read your last couple of lines, that this is
further suggestion that Navalny is a Democratic project. The US State Department is full of
Democratic appointees. They want to get all the mileage out of him they can before interest
fades.
Miraculously, he recovered from the poison that is so dangerous people fear to mention its
name, for fear that doing so might encourage tongue cancer, and is today fit as a flea; can't
wait to return to Russia for Round Two. If they were wise, they'd kill Lyosha themselves for
his stem cells. Then world leaders could be protected against Russian assassination
attempts.
Certainly capitalizing on his new-found fame, isn't he? Now he feels comfortable telling
the US president how he ought to behave, and chiding him for not appropriately recognizing
Navalny's importance to the world. Dear God, what a swellheaded prat.
If the Chief Bullshitter really feels so concerned for the safety of his family, he will
leave them all abroad and return to Russia alone – I mean, he's not a bit afraid for
himself, he's said as much. Go on, Lyosha – go back home and rally the great restless
throng of oppressed ordinary Russians who cry out for your leadership!!
Not on your life. He's got the sweetest gig ever going on right there, newspapers beating
a path to his door to find out what he likes to eat for breakfast and whose shirts he wears,
no worries about income or housing, hobnobbing with world leaders who listen respectfully to
his opinions, and all he has to do is rant about Putin all day long. The Americans are
finally getting their money's worth out of Lyosha. Whereas what would happen if he went
home?
It would quickly become clear that his support still comes exclusively from the same group
– a few disaffected intelligentsia such as Boris Akunin, the Atlanticist liberatsi who
endlessly predict the collapse of Putin, and the angry kiddies who feel like they are part of
some great Thunberg-like global freedom movement that will bring them a comfortable life but
absolve them of responsibility for working for it – you know; the way they live in
America!
Authoritarian liberals have unleashed a censorious syndrome peculiar to our national
character, dating to 17th century Quaker hangings in Boston.
A n inhabitant of Twitterland named "Willow Inski" took to the keyboard on Oct. 11,
asking why anyone still accepts official accounts of the crucial theft of emails from the
Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign manager John Podesta in the spring of
2016.
Excellently observed, Willow. And at just the right moment. At this point we are amid a
frenzy of what Hannah Arendt called "defactualization" in a 1971
essay she titled "Lying in Politics." Facts are fragile, Arendt astutely observed, because
they can so easily be manipulated to produce a desired image. "It is this fragility," she
wrote, "that makes deception so very easy up to a point, and so tempting."
The latest example of this phenom concerns the emails of Hunter Biden, candidate Joe's errant
son, which persuasively incriminate both in very profitable influence-peddling schemes when
Papa was Barack Obama's veep.
Nobody denies the facts as published last week in The New York Post , not even Biden
père et fils , but the facts are once again mutilated with assertions that it is
another case of the Rrrrrrussians spreading disinformation.
This is what we get after four years of the Russia collusion b.s., otherwise known as
Russiagate. Anything goes if implicating Russia solves a political problem for the Democrats
and keeps the war machine going for the Pentagon and the national security state. It defers the
moment -- at some point it will come -- when the press is exposed for its radically stupid
overinvestment in the Russiagate nonsense. The price America has already begun to pay is very
high.
Willow's expression of perplexity comes after an especially lively season of revelations as
regards what must count as the largest disinformation op in U.S. history. It is now six months
since the Russiagate hoax -- and I am fine with President Donald Trump's term for it -- began
its final crash into a pile of piffle. While it remains to be seen whether more evidence of
political chicanery is coming, what evidence we already have is more than sufficient to
identify Russiagate as the probable criminal fraud it was from the start.
I am refreshed that Willow Inski, who describes herself as an "attorney, wife, mother, proud
American," sees through this extravagant ruse. And yet, as she notes, a lot of people don't. A
lot of people are "still taking at face value" all the misinformation, disinformation, and
outright lies our newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters have purveyed incessantly for the
past four years.
Why is a very large question. All possible answers are disturbing. But here is another big
one we get to before that: When we consider together all its many consequences, has Russiagate
destroyed what remained of American democracy before illiberal liberals, spooks, law
enforcement, and the press colluded to erect the dreadful edifice?
The Damage Done
Your columnist's answer rests on the most scrupulously precise definition of Russiagate one
can manage: What we have witnessed these past four years is an attempted palace coup against a
sitting president.
Cold comfort it is that the gang that couldn't shoot straight bungled the job. It has also
created a Democratic default position: When wrongdoing by Democrats is credibly exposed,
automatically blame Russia. Among much else, that has led to unnecessary tension with a nuclear
power. This damage will long stay with us.
Russiagate's foundation stone -- baseless allegations that Moscow was responsible for the
2016 DNC email intrusions -- crumbled long ago. We've known since July 2017 that nobody hacked
the email servers in question.
This was confirmed by the Dec. 5, 2017, closed-door congressional
testimony of Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike, the firm the Democrats hired to examine
the DNC servers. It was made public only on May 7, 2020. Henry said under oath: "There's not
evidence that they [the emails] were actually exfiltrated. There's circumstantial evidence but
no evidence that they were actually exfiltrated. "
The emails were most likely compromised by someone with direct access to them, probably a
DNC insider. 'Twas a leak, not a hack.
But incessant propaganda and a sloppy but effective coverup have kept the fable going
since then. All has been open game these past years, scabrous, apparent false-flag poisonings
-- the Skripals, Alexei Navalny --
baseless tales of Russian bounties on U.S. soldiers' heads. The press has reported this
sort of rubbish for years as if it were confirmed fact. Spectral evidence has reigned.
It is this coverup that has been falling
apart since last spring.
First came news that the collusion case against Michael Flynn, Trump's first national
security adviser, was bogus and that Flynn entered his two guilty pleas when prosecutors
threatened to indict his son if he refused. When the Justice Department dropped its case
against Flynn, it simultaneously forced the House Intelligence Committee to release documents
showing that no "evidence" of a Russian email hack ever existed, even as the Democrats, the
spooks, and the press missed no chance to bang on about it.
Those who got my goat at the time were people such as Adam Schiff, the Democratic
congressman from Hollywood and leader of the charge on Capitol Hill, who knew there was no
evidence of Russian involvement but repeatedly insisted they had seen it whenever they faced a
CNN camera.
You are right, Ms. Inski: Crowdstrike, the grossly corrupt firm that was supposed to have
all the evidence one could ever want, never had any. Former FBI Director James Comey admitted
in testimony that the FBI asked for but never gained possession of the DNC server, even though
this would be the "best practice." We can surmise that this was so, so that the bureau
could deny responsibility for what amounts to a psyop perpetrated against Americans. In June
2019 it was
reported that CrowdStrike also never gave the FBI a final report because none was ever
produced since the FBI never asked for one.
Among the congressional testimonies released last spring, two top Clinton campaign
operatives, Podesta and Jake Sullivan,
acknowledged that they met after Trump's election with the principals of Fusion GPS, the
infamous orchestrator of the Steele Dossier, to keep the Russiagate ball rolling. What a
difference speaking under oath makes.
Actually, what got my goat a second time was that none of this, as in none, was reported in
The New York Times or anywhere else in the mainstream media. Our once-but-no-more
newspaper of record has made an absolute dog's dinner of itself since its leadership decided to
buy into the Russiagate junk. At this point I am convinced its ties to the spooks are as dense
and corrupt as they were during the worst of the Cold War decades, when the publisher
signed a
covert agreement to cooperate with the CIA.
Clinton Approved Plan
As if any more reports were needed to deflate the Russiagate balloon, the evidence continues
to accumulate. At the end of September John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence,
informed Senator Lindsey Graham that intelligence agencies had information "alleging that
U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal
against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin and the Russians'
hacking of the Democratic National Committee." Some of us
knew this four years ago.
While Ratcliffe's letter adds that spookworld "does not know the accuracy of this
allegation," it goes on to note that the intel in question was serious enough for John Brennan,
then the CIA director, to brief President Barack Obama about it and forward it to Comey and
Peter Strzok, respectively FBI director and deputy assistant director of counterintelligence at
the time. This is the referral, of course, that Comey now claims he
cannot recall a damn thing about.
Given the Podesta and Sullivan testimonies, the Ratcliffe disclosures stitch the case: In
my view, the Clinton campaign's active role in starting and prolonging the Russiagate
propaganda operation is now open-and-shut. (It was first reported
in October 2017 by Consortium News and
predicted by me in Salon on July 26, 2016 and three days before the
2016 election by CN 's editor).
I wrote back then in Salon :
"Making lemonade out of a lemon, the Clinton campaign now goes for a twofer. Watch as
it advances the Russians-did-it thesis on the basis of nothing, then shoots the messenger,
then associates Trump with its own mess -- and, finally, gets to ignore the nature of its
transgression (which any paying-attention person must consider grave)."
Declassifications Ignored
In the matter of goats, the Ratcliffe letter seems to have gotten Trump's. A week later he
took to Twitter
calling for the declassification , without redaction, of all documents related to the
Russiagate probes.
Although Trump did not issue an official order to this effect, this amounts to a direct
challenge to what he has been all along referring to as the Deep State. (Trump first "ordered"
the declassification, and was ignored, in September 2018.) Last Thursday Ratcliffe formally
requested an investigation of the "Intelligence Community Assessment" of January 2017, a
worthless put-up job that purported to confirm Russian "meddling." The CIA's inspector general
ignored an earlier such request.
Will more come out? Will the investigation Trump ordered earlier this year by Assistant U.S.
Attorney John Durham get all the way to the bottom? This is hard to say. We've since had
credible reports that CIA Director Gina Haspel, known for authorizing post–2001
torture and destroying evidence of it, has personally blocked the release of Russiagate-related
documents from the CIA's files. And the repellent Haspel may win this one, given the record in
such matters.
The Russiagate "narrative" is at this point so preposterous that these recent disclosures
have also gone either badly reported or unreported in mainstream media. We ought not expect
more in days to come. The press has only one alternative at this point: Either black it out or
allege that Russia is using people such as Ratcliffe, just as we're now asked to believe Moscow
is manipulating The New York Post .
What an ungodly mess Russiagate has made of our splendid republic.
We have watched an attempted coup not much different from the CIA's covert ops elsewhere
over the decades, then gave the coup plotters three years to investigate the plot, and no one,
as things now appear, will be brought to justice for these travesties.
Send in the historians. One hopes they're already here.
The CIA, in breach of its charter, has now licensed itself to operate on U.S. soil in a
probably unprecedented alliance with domestic law enforcement and a major political party. And
it has told us in open defiance that it has no intention of submitting itself to executive or
congressional control. No voice is raised, we must note with astonishment.
Government Without a Press
In 1787, when he was our new nation's minister in Paris, Jefferson wrote home to a friend that "were it left to
me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a
government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." We are stuck with a
government without newspapers now, given the ties our press has consolidated its ties with
political and bureaucratic power in the course of imposing the Russiagate ruse upon us.
They only look like newspapers now. The liberal media are now bulletin boards for those
they serve -- the Democratic Party, the spooks, and all the interests these two represent. Do
they think that, once Trump leaves office, they can cavalierly reclaim the credibility they
have profligately squandered in the service of Russiagate?
I see no chance of this. And here we have a silver lining: Russiagate will prove a key
moment in the emergence of independent media (such as Consortium News ) as important
sources of accurate information and perspectives. This is already evident. At this point The
New York Times is to sound reporting what Applebee's is to a proper tavern serving good
draft beer.
The worst consequence of Russiagate, in my view, is the swoon of hysteria it has sent
many Americans into, a syndrome peculiar to our national character dating to the Quaker
hangings in Boston during the early 1660s and repeated many times since. We are divided once
again between the paranoid and the rational.
And there is an ideological distinction here that we must not miss. Willow Inski is a
conservative and appears to be a Trumper. She addressed Paul Sperry, a New York Post
reporter closely following the Russiagate debacle and also a conservative.
The paranoids, the Puritan preachers, the witch hunters, those who think censorship is a
fine thing are this time one and all authoritarian liberals apparently determined to make
everyone think as they do or else see to their banishment from the circles of the elect.
Let us debate opinions until the kingdom comes. But these people propose to debate facts
because they understand the fragility Arendt noted all those years ago. This is not on.
"Under normal circumstances the liar is defeated by reality, for which there is no
substitute," Arendt wrote. "No matter how large the tissue of falsehood that an experienced
liar has to offer, it will never be large enough, even if he enlists the help of computers, to
cover the immensity of factuality."
One hopes Arendt turns out to be right. One hopes the immensity of factuality eventually
prevails. "Defactualization" in the service of all the Russiagate rubbish has gravely
undermined numerous of our key institutions. As things now stand, this leaves us well short of
what we need to reconstruct a working democracy.
Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International
Herald Tribune , is a columnist, essayist, author and lecturer. His most recent book is
Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century (Yale). Follow him on Twitter
@thefloutist .His web site is
Patrick Lawrence . Support his
work via his Patreon site
.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of
Consortium News.
This do not have Congressmen Schiff so this version did not got traction. Yet. Because Boris
Johnson is generally very close, as his behaviour during Skripals false flag suggests. BTW why
they need to inflate "Russian threat" if their own people can be sufficient for the annihilation
of the United Kingdom. Still let's wait for the Guardian to tell us about those evil
Russians
On Monday the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed a hugely embarrassing incident involving a
security and operations lapse aboard the British nuclear submarine HMS Vigilant while it
temporarily was docked during a mission at a US naval base, specifically Naval Submarine Base
Kings Bay in Georgia.
The officer in charge of overseeing the vessel's nuclear warheads arrived to his shift
"staggering drunk" while strangely carrying a bag of barbecue chicken .
The scene immediately sparked concern that the officer, later identified as Lt. Commander
Len Louw "was not in a fit state to be in charge of nuclear weapons" as there was something
"seriously wrong" according to
UK media reports .
... ... ...
The BBC noted
that as the weapons engineering officer on the submarine he was "responsible for all weapons
and sensors on board." The sub is armed with Trident ballistic missiles and is thus subject to
stringent safety and security measures.
And more astounding, according to the Daily Mail , i
s that :
The Royal Navy officer had been preparing to start a shift during which they would offload
the 16 nuclear missiles - which each weigh 60 tons and have the combined power to kill almost
the entire population of the UK.
He reportedly clocked in for his shift after a full night of drinking aboard one of only
four submarines that make up the UK's nuclear deterrent.
A week ago the nuclear sub was in the news due to a reported COVID-19 outbreak after crew
members were caught
breaking port call rules to go to strip clubs and bars.
No doubt American military authorities at Kings Bay naval base will also have serious
questions, considering they've just witnessed a significant operations lapse aboard a foreign
allied 'top secret' nuclear submarine docked in US waters.
_arrow
No1uNo , 17 hours ago
I raced Yachts with a UK Submarine commander for over a decade, this story is so out of
sync with the character and personalities recruited into probably one of the most responsible
jobs in the world - that the narrative asks many more questions than the story.
- Either he was spiked with a narcotic behaviour cocktail or what's being asked of him is
not within his ethics code that something broke.
Freeman of the City , 17 hours ago
Well stated, Military Esprit de corps standard of officer conduct, period. No one rises to
this level of responsibility without deep long term vetting.
This 'news' story sounds more like agitprop to undermine confidence in elite UK submariner
forces. Sedition within the UK govt, from Labour or Marxists...
Propaganda Phil , 17 hours ago
It came out 6 years ago that most of everyone manning our missile silos were cheating on
testing and using drugs. 9 USAF officers fired and around 100 were caught cheating. It only
was discovered when 2 of the cheaters were caught in a drug investigation.
& Secret Service getting high and banging hookers in Colombia.
Getting guys wasted ain't new. He just got caught.
No1uNo , 17 hours ago
Missile silos are a very different thing, such people can be inspected observed or called
out as needed. Subs are gone for months at a time and decisions made on own recognisance. As
Freeman says the vetting process is lengthy and those who get through it are precise
thoughtful engineering types and committed team players. Aside of that Subs are frequently
used to pick up and drop off espionage packages in locations that would create international
incidents if caught. The recruitment process is very very careful, whatever one's views on
Nuclear subs or nation states. I feel he was 'got at'
No1uNo , 16 hours ago
I still find this story incredible, these guys are not that well paid, most take it v.
carefully before going to richer defence sector for a few years before retirement. The hammer
can drop on them when they realise who they were fighting as 'enemies' were really desperate
people pushed to the edge by geopolitical designs and greed acquisitions of Military
Industrial Intelligence Complex. More will come out: honey trap, interrogation and drugging
or possibly as Propaganda Phil says - he lost it - perhaps from a drunken epiphany that
caused him to doubt belief in what he was doing?
Doctor Faustus , 15 hours ago
Maybe there was a family connection somewhere that allowed this officer in. Remember
Hunter Biden? Got kicked out of the Navy for cocaine. Only way he got in was through his dad,
Joe Biden.
Propaganda Phil , 14 hours ago
Like wrongway McCain the disaster of a pilot and admiral's son.
indus creed , 14 hours ago
Didn't McCain cause some major damage on the deck with some deaths? The affair was all
hushed up. He reportedly was escorted away by Navy police, as the sailors onboard wanted to
kill him.
Arrow4Truth , 13 hours ago
"who they were fighting as 'enemies' were really desperate people pushed to the edge by
geopolitical designs and greed acquisitions of Military Industrial Intelligence Complex."
Well said. It's never, ever delivered in that package, but instead called "National defence"
as Freeman put it. When one determines that the scenario you described is true it blows the
national defense theory all to hell... but most never make that jump because the repetitive
indoctrination has been soooo effective. Any argument that they must be alert to the
possibility that the "nation" could be under attack at any moment loses all it's luster when
one realizes that the "national interest" is the cause.
Ex-Oligarch , 14 hours ago
Upvoted, not because this behavior is unthinkable for military officers, but because of
the idea that the officer may have been drugged, or intentionally removing himself from his
command position.
Something about this story stinks.
Let's start with this: why was a British submarine offloading its nuclear missiles in a US
port?
U4 eee aaa , 13 hours ago
Just blame Putin. They do it everywhere else.
tyberious , 17 hours ago
Damn Russians!
Helg Saracen , 17 hours ago
Was it Novichok? :)
Eyes Opened , 9 hours ago
Yeah ... he slept it off ... like the other "victims" ... 😷
aaronvta , 16 hours ago
It was later verified that he had been drinking vodka. Authorities are looking into the
possibility of Russian influence.
Peterus , 17 hours ago
Oh well, that's an unfortunate lapse. But the more important thing for continuous safety
and prosperity of UK is that army hit diversity quotas for 2022 in sex, sexual orientation
and bame categories.
land_of_the_few , 16 hours ago
Their army can have tr@nny parties with spin the bottle to decide who gets the clinic pass
to have their t1ts sliced off -to make them a small, tubby boy! for real, yeah! - and who
gets the testosterone syringe for their butt cheeks so they can be proper Barnum & Bailey
sideshow exhibits.
Maybe UK needs soldiers that are already used to elective mutilation and self-inflicted
degradation?
Dr. Bendover , 17 hours ago
Now maybe Hunter Biden has a place to look for a real job.
Eyes Opened , 9 hours ago
I bet he curses like a sailor.. and he has a pipe... sure he's halfway qualified already
!! 🧐
trysophistry , 17 hours ago
Coming to a theater near you, The Hunt for a Molson Blue October.
Westsail32 , 15 hours ago
The Royal Navy officer had been preparing to start a shift during which they would
offload the 16 nuclear missiles - which each weigh 60 tons and have the combined power to
kill almost the entire population of the UK.
Definitely a missed opportunity.
Alice-the-dog , 16 hours ago
So what? The Democratic Party is hoping you elect a senile old criminal who doesn't
remember where he is and has trouble forming a comprehensible sentence to be in charge of the
entirety of US nuclear weapons.
thunderchief , 17 hours ago
"His condition was as fitting and useful and also as waistful and reckless, at the same
time, as the UK's need for a nuclear armed submarine fleet."
My own comment.
koan , 15 hours ago
U.S.S Hunter Biden
Svastic , 16 hours ago
I am surprised he didn't turn up in full drag. It's in keeping with the British character.
Furthermore, officers are often picked for their political correctness and old-boy
connections. Many are ho-mos.
Yamaoka Tesshu , 17 hours ago
Love how the "Daily Mail" hams up the fake nuke fear by telling us each missile can kill
everyone in the UK. In truth the Vigilant can deliver less destructive power than a single
B-52. But it's far more effective at looting the taxpayer while at the same time holding him
hostage to the threat of annihilation.
Anyone seeing through the scamdemic can analyze that template and discover it fits nicely
over the nuclear weapons con job.
This is the only conspiracy theory that cheers people up. But they downvote anyway. Just
like telling gays AIDS is fake. They get mad when they should be relieved.
Mad Muppet , 8 hours ago
Let me guess: he was drinking Vodka. Russian Vodka!!!!
I just knew it was Putin's fault.
Herodotus , 15 hours ago
The Russians drugged him. DNA samples taken from the barbecue chicken places its origin in
or around the Duchy of Muscovy.
10LBS_SHIT_5LB_BAG , 15 hours ago
They also laced the BBQ bag with Novichocken.
Helg Saracen , 15 hours ago
Oy vey! :)
Smiddywesson , 13 hours ago
Drunk while returning to the ship is one thing, drunk on duty is another, a career ending
incident.
Genoves , 13 hours ago
I prefer officials drunks that officials killing people.
TheRecluse , 13 hours ago
So whats wrong with Barbecue chicken? It goes down great after getting drunk.
Captain Archer , 13 hours ago
"Big Bo" Can't be beat.
seryanhoj , 12 hours ago
He could reheat it real quick in the reactor.
oracle_man , 14 hours ago
Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Rum Fifteen men on a dead man's chest Yo ho ho and a bottle of
rum Drink and the devil be done for the rest Yo ho ho and a bottle of Rum!
"It went on to target broadcasters, a ski resort, Olympic officials and sponsors of the
games in 2018. The GRU deployed data-deletion malware against the Winter Games IT systems and
targeted devices across the Republic of Korea using VPNFilter."
The Russian hackers' alleged attempt to cover their tracks included using certain
snippets of code and techniques to try to confuse investigators into think they were from
China and North Korea.
The UK's National Cyber Security Centre, a branch of GCHQ, believe Russia's aim was to
sabotage the running of the games, the Foreign Office said .
####
So as usual, nothing but the Foreign Orifice's word and they wouldn't make stuff up,
especially on order when the government is under heavy domestic pressure? No. Never.
I wonder if Tokyo has been asked for comment or given 'evidence?' Again, absence of
information gives it away.
Other outlets are putting out this FO press release with little comment, as usual.
"The Russian hackers' alleged attempt to cover their tracks included using certain
snippets of code and techniques to try to confuse investigators into think they were from
China and North Korea."
Just by the most marvelous coincidence, other bogus source codes in the Marble Framework
tickle trunk are those of China, North Korea and Iran.
If this is the caliber of the workforce that currently inhabits our intel agencies, someone
explain to me why they still deserve to exist.
Apparently, 50 former intel agents have run to Politico to sign a letter, a favorite tactic
during the Trump era to push non-authoritative nonsense as authoritative, claiming that the
Hunter Biden email scandal is actually Russian misinformation.
... ... ..
Oh, it has all the classic earmarks? Well, that settles it, right? I mean, who needs actual
evidence of to push a wild, partisan conspiracy theory when you are trying to counter a myriad
of evidence to the contrary, including an actual receipt that shows the laptop was dropped off
at the repair shop by Hunter Biden.
Update (1930ET) : In yet another death blow to Adam Schiff and the '50 former senior
intelligence officers' "Russia, Russia, Russia" claims, the FBI and DOJ have told a Fox News
producer that they do not believe that Hunter Biden's laptop and its contents are part of a
Russian disinformation campaign , confirming that the 'current' intelligence community agrees
with DNI Ratcliffe's comments yesterday.
We look forward to the reporting from other mainstream media news agencies now that federal
law enforcement has confirmed this is not a 'hoax' and we assume that the NYPost will once
again be allowed to tweet since this is now as 'factual' as anything thrown at Trump for the
last five years.
y_arrow Fizzy Head , 9 hours ago
Excuse me, but Who cares what these "former" senior officials think? I want names and
party affiliations, that will tell the tale.
and furthermore, if these former guys can muster up a letter why can't the real officials
muster up something, anything? They've known for months!! This is growing more ridiculous as
time goes by.
Han Cholo , 8 hours ago
"former" -- Meaning they are mostly looking from the outside in and have no clue.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dropped a bombshell on Tuesday,
warning that Russia might halt all dialogue with the European Union. Mr. Lavrov offered no
explanation for what was probably the most severe public statement on the EU of his career.
Perhaps he was reacting to extended talks he recently held with EU Foreign Minister Josep
Borrell -- talks that, by all appearances, did not go well.
Naturally, the EU will respond to his statement with great displeasure and indignation, but
Lavrov's comment was actually rooted in a process that began long before the current crisis,
all the way back to when Russian-EU relations looked positively upbeat and promising.
Common, but shaky ground
The modern Russian state and the EU came into existence at practically the same time -- the
former in late December 1991 and the latter in February 1992 -- and they soon laid the
groundwork for their mutual relations. The two parties signed a Partnership and Cooperation
Agreement in 1994 -- and ratified it in 1997 -- that made their relations so close as to be
considered "strategic" at one point.
This differs significantly from the slogan of a "Europe stretching from Lisbon to
Vladivostok" that former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev coined in 1989 to connote a common
European homeland that, in reality, had no document or agreement to back it up.
By contrast, the Russian-EU partnership was based firmly on the idea of integration. While
Brussels never offered Russia full EU membership, it offered general, though indefinite
assurances that its eastern neighbor would play a suitably substantial role in the "Greater
Europe" that was then being built.
At the core of this "Greater Europe," as it was then envisioned, was a rapidly expanding
European Union that wound up more than doubling in size from 1992 to 2007 -- and which, it was
expected, would eventually include Russia as well as other Soviet republics. A sort of
pan-European space was created, although Russia's status in that new entity was never described
or even discussed. Both sides simply assumed that Russia would be part of Europe. NEWS
EU Sanctions FSB Chief, Senior Kremlin Officials Over Navalny Poisoning READ
MORE
In hindsight, it seems that Russia and the EU understood that partnership differently.
However, they agreed at the time that everything from the structure of the state to economic
regulation should be based on the legal and regulatory framework of the EU -- which they both
considered clearly superior. Ideally, every country that was included in that European space
would have adopted European rules and regulations, after which they would either become EU
members -- some, strictly due to their size -- or else, as in the case of Russia and Ukraine,
associate members. Every newcomer was expected to bring its laws and regulations into line with
the European standard.
And in this regard, it differed fundamentally from Gorbachev's idea of a "Europe stretching
from Lisbon to Vladivostok." Although the Soviet leader did not offer any details regarding the
pan-European homeland, he clearly anticipated a partnership of equals.
The Soviet leader looked to a coming convergence, a mutual rapprochement in which each
player -- the Soviet Union, the European Community and the West as a whole -- would contribute
their strongest qualities, each somehow coming together in a whole that was more than the sum
of its parts. In was, in a word, utopia, but not a tenable plan.
Significantly, it was not former President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s who made the greatest
efforts to achieve Russia's integration into the European space based on European principles,
but President Vladimir Putin during his first term in the early 2000s.
Yeltsin had to overcome Russia's internal crisis before there could be any talk of
integrating with Europe. By the 2000s, when the state and its apparatus had stabilized and oil
revenues filled government coffers, Putin searched diligently for an opportunity to implement
the partnership with the EU and to further rapprochement. This continued from 2001 until as
late as 2006.
The honeymoon had ended
Russia's potential had grown significantly by that time, as had its expectations for the
role it would play in a partnership with the EU.
Russia rejected as illegitimate the expectation that it comply unquestionably with European
norms and felt that any partnership must be based, if not on strictly equal terms, then at
least on special conditions. However, the EU never even considered Russia a special case,
arguing that any reconsideration of its rules violated the very principles of European
integration.
For this reason, the very idea of a strategic and integration partnership between Russia and
the EU began eroding around the mid-2000s. This erosion occurred very gradually, not only
because Russia's domestic and foreign policy had begun to change significantly, but also
because the EU unexpectedly faced a crisis, one that reached full force in the early 2010s.
By that time, although the partnership agreement first drawn up in the early 1990s remained
unchanged -- as it does today -- the reality of Russia's relationship with Europe increasingly
diverged from its original configuration. Both sides' objectives and, more importantly, their
self-perceptions, grew further and further apart. NEWS EU's Navalny
Sanctions Miss the Mark READ MORE
The most striking illustration of this was the obvious disconnect between the words spoken
at the final Russia-EU Summit, held in Brussels in late January 2014, and the reality on the
ground.
The Maidan protests were raging in Kiev, only three weeks remained before Ukrainian
President Viktor Yanukovych would flee and new authorities would come to power, and relations
between Russia and the EU -- that stood on opposite sides of those barricades in Kiev -- could
not have been worse.
While President Putin and EU Commission President Manuel Barroso stood before the cameras
and repeated the very same mantras they had been uttering for years, even decades, about
partnership, a common space, road maps and so on, their faces betrayed what they were really
thinking -- namely, that nothing of the sort was going to happen.
But they had no other options on the table. Pure inertia from the process begun in the early
1990s compelled them to repeat the same tired calls for a close future partnership.
Then came the game-changing events in Ukraine, and much more besides. The long-standing
framework for Russian-EU relations turned into an anachronism overnight, giving way to heated
antagonism and competitiveness. Nevertheless, both sides continued paying lip service to
partnership, dialogue and, in general, a state of affairs that had last existed 25 years
earlier.
Fast forward to the present, and we have Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indirectly
acknowledging how bad things have actually become. In effect, he has simply stated what
everyone already knew -- namely, that the old framework for Russian-EU relations no longer
exists.
This does not mean an end to all relations, only an end to relations as they were.
The same, only different
A new framework is needed now, but it will probably be a long time in coming. And the
framework Russia might want for its relations with Europe will not materialize for the very
reasons mentioned above: present circumstances are simply too unfavorable.
Of course, no new Iron Curtain between Russia and the EU will fall from the sky. Their
mutual humanitarian and economic relations remain very strong, despite some damage from
sanctions, and cultural and even political ties remain intact. However, these are strictly
utilitarian relations, without any pretense of common goals, and they take a backseat to
Moscow's bilateral relations with individual European countries. Russia and Europe are
devolving into coolly polite neighbors that have no real interest in each other, but who are
forced to interact simply because they live next door to each other.
In fact, Russia must now focus more on its main neighbor, China. Although Russia's quarrel
with the West plays some role in this pivot eastward, it is the enormously long Russian-Chinese
border and the fact that China is rapidly becoming, if not a world hegemon, then at least one
of the two pillars of the new world order that compels Moscow to devote far more attention to
this neighbor than it is accustomed to.
More importantly, and what will cause fundamental change to Russia's relations with Europe,
is the fact that, for better or worse, the global balance is shifting towards Asia. As a
result, the focus that Russia has had on Europe and West for the past 300 years no longer
corresponds to the global reality. Russia cannot afford to treat Asia as a secondary priority,
although it often still does. If Moscow continues in this way, Russia could find itself facing
a creeping expansionism from the east.
In any case, Russia's former model of relations with the European Union has clearly ceased
to function, and one way or another, the two sides have started to acknowledge this openly.
Article 275 of the Criminal Code "High treason" certainly applies as regards the
actions of Lyosha Navalny , as does article 128.1 of the Russian Criminal Code on
"Slander"
But as I have already said more than once, if Alyosha is issued with a foreign passport
by the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, and Alyosha himself repeatedly
violates laws and remains free whilst concurrently serving two suspended sentences, this
means that someone needs him -- so much so that even these mountains of shit, which thanks to
his diligence have been poured on Russia in recent months, also do not count.
There is such a term "protest sewerage". It was born of German politicians in the '50s
of the last century as a tool to counter protests against social injustice and
militarization. And it proved to be surprisingly effective. Roughly speaking, individual
cadres were allowed a lot in exchange for their discrediting protest movements. In Russia,
Navalny has long been playing this role, whilst feathering his own nest here and there. And
as time passed, a big problem for Lyosha's curators was his close work with the CIA. And the
threat through Navalny to such a global project as Nord Stream 2 makes not only Navalny
himself, but also these very "curators" traitors to the Motherland.
Not aimed at the Russian audience, definitely not.
It serves as a pretext for more sanctions for those looking for any excuse and to force
public officials to "condemn" Russia. I am 100% sure Trump is on to the game so his decision
will be solely based on political expediency. If he believes he can win the election, he is
likely thinking that he can not jump on the bandwagon thus will not join the Putin bashing
party.
Easy to say, but I'm pretty sure if you were accused of something heinous and knew you
were not guilty, that ample evidence was available to prove it but that it was being kept
from you while the accusations went on and on that establishing your innocence would be a
priority for you. Even when your attempts fell on deaf ears. Because perhaps the hardest
thing, for a group or individual accused of something, is to know you did not do it, but keep
silent and allow your accusers a free hand.
I imagine Washington would love to declare Navalny the 'legitimate President of the
Russian Federation", and its musing on what a wonderful world it would be if Joe Biden was
President of the United States and Navalny was President of Russia might well b e a tentative
trial balloon to see what public opinion makes of it. But it is not a very realistic
possibility, for a couple of reasons. One, Washington already has a pair of
governments-in-waiting that it is supporting, to little or no effect, and adding another
risks introducing too many balls for the juggler to keep in the air, plus the resulting loss
of confidence in Washington as a game-changer that makes its own rules. Two, whatever blabber
the media generates, the real power-brokers know Navalny has no significant support at home,
and that trying to foist him on the Russian people over their clear preference for the
present leader has no hope of succeeding.
They will have to continue with the make-believe for yet awhile, and hope for an
opportunity.
These guys flying jet packs that require use of hands to point the auxiliary jets for a
modicum of control will be more vulnerable than clay pigeons. The noise alone will alert any
vessels within a few miles that they are coming.
I suppose that they could board a very large vessel at night that has been commandeered by
a few pirates without certainty of being shot down.
A far more useful application would be as part of a rescue team to bring aboard a small
vessel in distress urgently needed supplies or a trained EMT. Seems like a drone could do the
same.
Wow. You can fly in still or light airs from a carrier vessel that is right alongside
– I wonder what prospective boarding candidate is going to permit that? Added to the
criticism you have already pointed out that the 'iron man' is already quite busy controlling
his direction and altitude, and is essentially defenseless. A speed of 200 mph or less is
like an engraved invitation to a Gatling-gun style air defense system like Phalanx or
Goalkeeper, and you would not have to hit a man in a rubber suit very often with a 20mm round
to make him lose interest – Goalkeeper is a 30mm system if I remember correctly, and
consequently would be even less encouraging. For purposes of comparison, a .50 cal round that
would lift you right out of your shoes is a .127mm.
There's no denying it is interesting technology that should stimulate discussion and
ideas, but a clever new system which will revolutionize opposed boarding it is not, not yet.
There might be rescue applications as you suggested, but it does not look like the system has
enough lift to carry the operator plus average deadweight.
The Iron Man flyboys work well in sunny weather with little wind but I wonder how well
they will fare in heavier weather when visibility will be poor and landing platforms may not
be stable. Shouldn't these Iron Man pilots also have better face and eye protection against
the elements?
The US Army is developing a new cannon it claims will have a range of more than 1,000
miles, writes Popular Mechanics.
The Strategic Long Range Cannon (SLRC) is touted as potentially being able to strike targets
at up to 1,150 miles (1,850 km) away and fire 50 times farther than existing guns.
Earlier, the outlet had published leaked photos of the SLRC, touted as able to bring
about a revolutionary breakthrough in artillery warfare.
Super duper long range artillery has been tried in the past:
A 1,000 mile range would require a trajectory that would peak at hundreds of miles. The
shell must use rocket assist and include various electronics for guidance. It would required
heat shielding to resist high temperatures during reentry into the atmosphere. The shell may
leave the muzzle at a few thousand mph but need to accelerate to a much high velocity using a
rocket. If the shell weighs, say, 200 pounds, then warhead certainly could not weigh more
than 50 pounds with the balance being the rocket, heat shield, fins and actuators for
steering and guidance electronics.
You'd think they would have learned their lessons from the Zumwalt destroyer long range
gun debacle:
The CIA's domestic propaganda campaign has been massively successful over the past four
years. There are tens of millions who literally believe that Trump is a Russian agent. They
believe that everyone should wear masks on their faces, forever, and they believe there are
Nazis everywhere. They believe there were no riots this summer, that thousands of blacks are
murdered every year by police, and that Christians are trying to establish a theocracy in the
US. They believe that little children should be able to have their genitals surgically
removed. They believe that the 2016 election was stolen, but that the one coming up cannot
be, even if ballots without postmarks show up on trucks ten days after November 3rd.
These are just a few of their insane beliefs that have been put into their heads through
social media and television.
Trump never had any power to stop this. Both the Democrats and Republicans are completely
in thrall to the intelligence and police agencies. It's all an act. There's no democracy left
in this country and there is no chance of reforming this system, ever. It has to collapse or
be seized and turned mercilessly against those who are perpetrating this horror show.
Dragonlord , 59 minutes ago
FBI and CIA betraying the country is no longer surprising, what surprising is how fast
tech giants jump onto the scum train even though some only exist less than 20 years. This
reveal why quickly the globalists can turn anyone into scumbags.
Finally, depths of Biden corruption proves our hypothesis that the so called ruling class
like Nancy, Obama, Clinton, etc, are not at the top echelon, there is a group or class of
people higher than them. They are probably the overlord class of the globalists.
philmannwright , 56 minutes ago
The FBI has always been a tool. Recall J Edgar.
Big Tech has enabled all of this. NSA/Data collection - Big brother goodbye freedom. seems
like a natural progression.
Gold Pedant , 1 hour ago
Hahaha, William Colby is the third man in the newspaper clipping above, but he isn't even
mentioned. Well after he retired from the CIA, he was assassinated to send a message. Look up
"WHO MURDERED THE CIA CHIEF?" It's a good quick read.
"Colby was fired on Nov. 2, 1975, as head of the CIA after being accused of talking too
much. He was said to have been too candid in testimony to congressional investigators; he had
long ago aroused the ire of the agency's old guard for trying to channel more effort into the
gathering, evaluation and analysis of information and less into covert operation."
And Lisa Page, Andrew McCabe, Weissman, Sally Yates, Bruce And Nellie Ord, James Baker,
Comey, Rosenstein, the entire brench of the FISA Court, and about 500 Senators and
Congressmen out of 535. It's a start.
Eastern Whale , 1 hour ago
"National Security" in the US is the get out of free card for politicians and the rich
with clout. paedophile, corruption, murder you name it.
PigmanExecutioner , 23 minutes ago
Anytime I hear "Russia" or "Democracy" these days, I have to ponder for the fate of
mankind. Imagine being that infantile in one's worldview and devoid of the ability to
critically analyze information? "National Security" is a made up term to excuse criminal
actions that somehow leaked out through unauthorized channels.
philmannwright , 1 hour ago
So, we have all been educated on how when the Democrats accuse, they are most likely
projecting upon their target their own behavior. Over and over again we see the blatant and
obvious hypocrisy in almost everything we hear from the likes of Hillary, Pelosi, Schumer,
Shiff, Obama, and on and on.
It stands to reason then, that what is going on now is no different and involves all of
them, including the left wing media - they are actually and in reality agents of the
Kremlin/China/the communist world order, aligned in agenda, and working toward tipping the
largest Domino, and I believe they have the U.S. teetering on the ropes.
It seems like it's either 1) the left is a national security risk or 2) Trumpers, welcome
to reeducation camp.
kudocast , 46 minutes ago
Yes we agree that JFK and MLK were assassinated by a group including the CIA, NSA, FBI,
Mafia, Nixon, LBJ, Bush and more.
But to suggest that Trump is in a similar situation as JFK and MLK, and on their moral,
intellectual, and visionary level is ludicrous.
Trump's a criminal, looting, lying, incompetent idiot. Why would the CIA, NSA, FBI, and
others waste their time trying to destroy Trump? Fat Orange Man accomplishes that all by
himself, no assistance required.
PigmanExecutioner , 31 minutes ago
Imagine thinking that the US was any different than the Soviet Union all these decades?
They just hid the tyranny better due to all the material distractions.
KGB, CIA.............All the same demons.
Automatic Choke , 23 minutes ago
my aha moment came when i started subscribing to John Williams "Shadow Govt Statistics" to
track the markets.....way back nearly 20 years ago. it quickly became clear that our trusted
government financial agencies were no more trustworthy than the old soviet "5 year plans"
that we all (in the US) used to laugh at. a mirror is a painful thing.
turkey george palmer , 54 minutes ago
empire looks pretty shaky. suppose a lot will go wrong. at least we have bill and melinda
talking about basic human rights are a threat to the population and only those who are
billionaires can decide what goes in your body. ok sure.
they say there will be a trade your debt for ubi. give up personal property. live where
and how by state dictate. unplanned breeding a crime. isolation camps for non compliance.
wonder where all the property will end up. I know there's only one type of person they all
say are the bad ones just one color. mein
A grand jury in Pennsylvania indicted the six men for "conspiracy, computer hacking,
wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and false registration of a domain name," the DOJ
announced on Monday, describing them as officers in Unit 74455 of the Russian Main
Intelligence Directorate, or GRU.
The indictment identifies them as Yuriy Sergeyevich Andrienko, Sergey Vladimirovich
Detistov, Pavel Valeryevich Frolov, Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev, Artem Valeryevich
Ochichenko and Petr Nikolayevich Pliskin.
According to the charges, they used malware like KillDisk, Industroyer, NotPetya and
Olympic Destroyer to attack everything from networks in Ukraine and Georgia to the Olympics
held in PyeongChang two years ago – in which Russian athletes were not allowed to
participate under their national flag, due to doping allegations made by a disgruntled
doctor.
The six are also accused of undermining "efforts to hold Russia accountable for its use
of a weapons-grade nerve agent, Novichok, on foreign soil" – referring to the March
2018 claims by the British government that Russia "highly likely" used the toxin
against a former spy and his daughter, an accusation Moscow repeatedly denied.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers has
claimed that "No country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously or
irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented damage to pursue small tactical
advantages and to satisfy fits of spite."
Monday's indictment is hardly a surprise, considering that NATO and US officials have
blamed the 2017 NotPetya outbreak on Moscow for years, even though the malware struck
numerous Russian companies – from the central bank to the oil giant Rosneft and
metal-maker Evraz – as well.
The October 2019 Georgia attack was "in line with Russian tactics,"declared
CrowdStrike, the same security company that was tasked with dealing with the 2016
"hack" of the Democratic National Committee. CrowdStrike's president had secretly
admitted to Congress that they had no actual evidence of the hack itself.
The indictment also accuses the "GRU officers" of trying to breach the Organisation
for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The international body faced a scandal after
whistleblowers revealed that a report blaming chemical attacks in Syria on the country's
government omitted details that did not fall in line with the narrative pushed by the US and
the UK.
In announcing the indictment, the DOJ thanked the authorities in Ukraine, Georgia, New
Zealand, South Korea, and UK "intelligence services" – as well as Google,
Facebook and Twitter – for "significant cooperation and assistance" with the
investigation.
The same "GRU unit" and Kovalev specifically were previously indicted by Special
Counsel Robert Mueller for alleged "meddling" in 2016 US elections. As with Mueller's
indictments, Monday's charges have largely symbolic value; the accused are not likely to ever
see the inside of a US courtroom. The only indictment that was actually contested in court
– against the so-called IRA troll farm – was dropped by the DOJ in
March, due to lack of evidence.
Russia's military intelligence has not gone by the name of GRU since 2010.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
And that's by design. False flags like Scripal Novichok saga are just a smoke screen over UK
problems, the ciursi of neoliberalism in the country, delegitimization of neoliberal elites and
its subservience to the USA global neoliberal empire, which wants to devour Russia like it
plundered the USSR in the past.
But why outgoing MI6 chief decided to tell us the truth? This is not in the traditions of the
agency.
After years of focusing on combating terrorism, US Special Forces are preparing to turn
their attention to the possibility of future conflict with adversaries Russia and China. The
outgoing head of MI6, the UK's clandestine intelligence service, says that the perceived threat
posed by Russia and China against the UK is overstated and distract from addressing the UK's
domestic problems. Meanwhile, his replacement insists that the threat posed by Russia and China
is real and is growing in complexity. Rick Sanchez explains. Then former US diplomat Jim Jatras
and "Going Underground" host Afshin Rattansi share their insights.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is meeting for a for a final day of deliberations before the
confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump's controversial pick for the US
Supreme Court. RT America's Faran Fronczak reports. RT America's Trinity Chavez reports on the
skyrocketing poverty across the US as coronavirus relief funds dry up and the White House
stalls on additional stimulus. RT America's John Huddy reports on the backlash against Facebook
and Twitter for their suppression of an incendiary new report about Democratic nominee Joe
Biden's son Hunter Biden and his foreign entanglements.
Fight it all you want, but there's nothing you can do. "The emails are Russian" is going to
be the official dominant narrative in mainstream political discourse, and there's nothing you
can do to stop it. Resistance is futile.
Like the Russian hacking narrative, the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, the Russian
bounties in Afghanistan narrative, and any other evidence-free framing of events that
simultaneously advances pre-planned cold war agendas, is politically convenient for the
Democratic party and generates clicks and ratings, the narrative that the New York Post
publication of Hunter Biden's emails is a Russian operation is going to be hammered and
hammered and hammered until it becomes the mainstream consensus. This will happen regardless of
facts and evidence, up to and including rock solid evidence that Hunter Biden's emails were not
published as a result of a Russian operation.
This is happening. It's following the same formula all the other fact-free Russia hysteria
narratives have followed. The same media tour by pundits and political operatives saying with
no evidence but very assertive voices that Russia is most certainly behind this occurrence and
we should all be very upset about it.
"To me, this is just classic textbook Soviet Russian tradecraft at work," Russiagate founder
and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is heard assuring CNN's audience .
"Joe Biden – and all of us – SHOULD be furious that media outlets are spreading
what is very likely Russian propaganda," begins and eight-part thread by Democratic Senator
Chris Murphy, who claims the emails are "Kremlin constructed anti-Biden propaganda."
"It's not really surprising at all, this was always the play, but still kind of
head-spinning to watch all the players from 2016 run exactly the same hack-leak-smear op in
2020. Even with everyone knowing exactly what's happening this time," tweets MSNBC's Chris
Hayes.
"How are you all circling the wagons instead of being embarrassed for peddling Russian ops
18 days before the election. It's not enough that you all haven't learned from your atrocious
handling of 2016 -- you are doubling down," Democratic Party think tanker Neera Tanden
tweeted in admonishment of
journalists who dare to report on or ask questions about the emails.
Virtually the entirety of the Democratic Party-aligned political/media class has streamlined
this narrative of Russian influence into the American consciousness with very little inertia,
despite the fact that neither Joe nor Hunter Biden has disputed the authenticity of the emails
and despite a complete absence of evidence for Russian involvement in their publication.
This is surely the first time, at least in recent memory, that we have ever seen such a
broad consensus within the mass media that it is the civic duty of news reporters to try and
influence the outcome of a presidential general election by withholding negative news coverage
for one candidate. There was a lot of fascinated hatred for Trump in 2016, but people still
reported on Hillary Clinton's various scandals and didn't attack one another for doing so. In
2020 that has changed, and mainstream news reporters have now largely coalesced along the
doctrine that they must avoid any reporting which might be detrimental to the Biden
campaign.
"Dem Party hacks (and many of their media allies) genuinely believe it's immoral to report
on or even discuss stories that reflect poorly on Biden. In reality, it's the responsibility of
journalists to ignore their vapid whining and ask about newsworthy stories, even about Biden,"
tweeted The Intercept 's Glenn
Greenwald recently.
"You don't even have to think the Hunter Biden materials constitute some kind of
earth-shattering story to be absolutely repulsed at the authoritarian propaganda offensive
being waged to discredit them -- primarily by journalists who behave like compliant little
trained robots ," tweeted journalist Michael
Tracey.
Last month The Spectator 's Stephen L Miller described how the consensus
formed among the mainstream press since Clinton's 2016 loss that it is their moral duty to
be uncritical of Trump's opponent.
"For almost four years now, journalists have shamed their colleagues and themselves over
what I will call the 'but her emails' dilemma," Miller writes. "Those who reported dutifully on
the ill-timed federal investigation into Hillary Clinton's private server and spillage of
classified information have been cast out and shunted away from the journalist cool kids'
table. Focusing so much on what was, at the time, a considerable scandal, has been written off
by many in the media as a blunder. They believe their friends and colleagues helped put Trump
in the White House by focusing on a nothing-burger of a Clinton scandal when they should have
been highlighting Trump's foibles. It's an error no journalist wants to repeat."
So "the emails are Russian" narrative serves the interests of political convenience,
partisan media ratings, and the national security state's pre-planned agenda to continue
escalating against Russia as part of its
slow motion third world war against nations which refuse to bow to US dictates, and you've
got essentially no critical mainstream news coverage putting the brakes on any of it. This
means this narrative is going to become mainstream orthodoxy and treated as an established
fact, despite the fact that there is no actual, tangible evidence for it.
Joe Biden could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and the mainstream
press would crucify any journalist who so much as tweeted about it. Very
little journalism is going into vetting and challenging him, and a great deal of the energy
that would normally be doing so is going into ensuring that he slides right into the White
House.
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If the mainstream news really existed to tell you the truth about what's going on, everyone
would know about every questionable decision that Joe Biden has ever made, Russiagate would
never have happened, we'd all be acutely aware of the fact that powerful forces are pushing us
into increasingly aggressive confrontations with two nuclear-armed nations, and Trump would be
grilled about
Yemen in every press conference.
But the mainstream news does not exist to tell you the truth about the world. The mainstream
news exists to advance the interests of its wealthy owners and the status quo upon which they
have built their kingdoms. That's why it's
so very, very important that we find ways to break away from it and share information with
each other that isn't tainted by corrupt and powerful interests.
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It appears the "Russia, Russia, Russia" cries from Adam Schiff and his dutiful media peons
is dead (we can only hope) as Director of National Intel John Ratcliffe just confirmed to Foxx
Business' Maria Bartiromo that:
"Hunter Biden's laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign."
As Politico's Quint Forgey details
(@QuintForgey) , DNI Ratcliffe is asked directly whether accusations leveled against the
Bidens in recent days are part of a Russian disinformation effort.
He says no:
"Let me be clear. The intelligence community doesn't believe that because there is no
intelligence that supports that."
" We have shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff or any other member of Congress that
Hunter Biden's laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign. It's simply not true.
"
"And this is exactly what I said would I stop when I became the director of national
intelligence, and that's people using the intelligence community to leverage some political
narrative."
"And in this case, apparently Chairman Schiff wants anything against his preferred
political candidate to be deemed as not real and as using the intelligence community or
attempting to use the intelligence community to say there's nothing to see here."
"Don't drag the intelligence community into this. Hunter Biden's laptop is not part of
some Russian disinformation campaign. And I think it's clear that the American people know
that."
So "the emails are Russian" narrative serves the interests of political convenience,
partisan media ratings, and the national security state's pre-planned agenda to continue
escalating against Russia as part of its
slow motion third world war against nations which refuse to bow to US dictates, and
you've got essentially no critical mainstream news coverage putting the brakes on any of it.
This means this narrative is going to become mainstream orthodoxy and treated as an
established fact, despite the fact that there is no actual, tangible evidence for it.
Joe Biden could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and the mainstream
press would crucify any journalist who so much as tweeted about it. Very
little journalism is going into vetting and challenging him, and a great deal of the
energy that would normally be doing so is going into ensuring that he slides right into the
White House.
If the mainstream news really existed to tell you the truth about what's going on,
everyone would know about every questionable decision that Joe Biden has ever made,
Russiagate would never have happened, we'd all be acutely aware of the fact that powerful
forces are pushing us into increasingly aggressive confrontations with two nuclear-armed
nations, and Trump would be grilled about
Yemen in every press conference.
But the mainstream news does not exist to tell you the truth about the world. The
mainstream news exists to advance the interests of its wealthy owners and the status quo upon
which they have built their kingdoms. That's why it's
so very, very important that we find ways to break away from it and share information
with each other that isn't tainted by corrupt and powerful interests.
As we detailed previously, as the Hunter Biden laptop scandal threatens to throw the 2020
election into chaos with what appears to be solid, undisputed evidence of high-level corruption
by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, the same crowd which peddled the
Trump-Russia hoax is now suggesting that Russia is behind it all .
To wit, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who swore on National television
that he had evidence Trump was colluding with Russia - now says that President Trump is handing
the Kremlin a "propaganda coup from Vladimir Putin."
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) has gone full tin-foil , suggesting that Giuliani was a 'key
target' of 'Kremlin constructed anti-Biden propaganda.'
2/ Russia knew it had to play a different game than 2016. So it built an operation to cull
virulently pro-Trump Americans as pseudo-assets, so blind in their allegiance to Trump that
they'll willingly launder Kremlin constructed anti-Biden propaganda.
Yet, if one looks at the actual facts of the case - in particular, that Hunter Biden appears
to have dropped his own laptops off at a computer repair shop, signed a service ticket , and
the shop owner approached the FBI first and Rudy Giuliani last after Biden failed to pick them
up, the left's latest Russia conspiracy theory is quickly debunked .
This is the story of an American patriot, an honorable man, John Paul Mac Issac, who tried
to do the right thing and is now being unfairly and maliciously slandered as an agent of
foreign intelligence, specifically Russia. He is not an agent or spy for anyone. He is his own
man. How do I know? I have known his dad for more than 20 years. I've known John Paul's dad as
Mac. Mac is a decorated Vietnam Veteran, who flew gunships in Vietnam. And he continued his
military service with an impeccable record until he retired as an Air Force Colonel. The crews
of those gunships have an annual reunion and Mac usually takes John Paul along, who volunteers
his computer and video skills to record and compile the stories of those brave men who served
their country in a difficult war.
This story is very simple – Hunter Biden dropped off three computers with liquid
damage at a repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware on April 12, 2019. The owner, John Mac Issac,
examined the three and determined that one was beyond recovery, one was okay and the data on
the harddrive of the third could be recovered. Hunter signed the service ticket and John Paul
Mac Issac repaired the hard drive and down loaded the data . During this process he saw some
disturbing images and a number of emails that concerned Ukraine, Burisma, China and other
issues . With the work completed, Mr. Mac Issac prepared an invoice, sent it to Hunter Biden
and notified him that the computer was ready to be retrieved. H unter did not respond . In the
ensuing four months (May, June, July and August), Mr. Mac Issac made repeated efforts to
contact Hunter Biden. Biden never answered and never responded. More importantly, Biden stiffed
John Paul Mac Issac–i.e., he did not pay the bill.
When the manufactured Ukraine crisis surfaced in August 2019, John Paul realized he was
sitting on radioactive material that might be relevant to the investigation. After conferring
with his father, Mac and John Paul decided that Mac would take the information to the FBI
office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mac walked into the Albuquerque FBI office and spoke with an
agent who refused to give his name. Mac explained the material he had, but was rebuffed by the
FBI. He was told basically, get lost . This was mid-September 2019.
Two months passed and then, out of the blue, the FBI contacted John Paul Mac Issac. Two FBI
agents from the Wilmington FBI office–Joshua Williams and Mike Dzielak–came to John
Paul's business . He offered immediately to give them the hard drive, no strings attached.
Agents Williams and Dzielak declined to take the device .
Two weeks later, the intrepid agents called and asked to come and image the hard drive. John
Paul agreed but, instead of taking the hard drive or imaging the drive, they gave him a
subpoena. It was part of a grand jury proceeding but neither agent said anything about the
purpose of the grand jury. John Paul complied with the subpoena and turned over the hard drive
and the computer.
In the ensuing months, starting with the impeachment trial of President Trump, he heard
nothing from the FBI and knew that none of the evidence from the hard drive had been shared
with President Trump's defense team.
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The lack of action and communication with the FBI led John Paul to make the fateful decision
to contact Rudy Giuliani's office and offer a copy of the drive to the former mayor. We now
know that Rudy accepted John Paul's offer and that Rudy's team shared the information with the
New York Post.
John Paul Mac Issac is not responsible for the emails, images and videos recovered from
Hunter Biden's computer. He was hired to do a job, he did the job and submitted an invoice for
the work. Hunter Biden, for some unexplained reason, never responded and never asked for the
computer. But that changed last Tuesday, October 13, 2020. A person claiming to be Hunter
Biden's lawyer called John Paul Mac Issac and asked for the computer to be returned. Too late.
That horse had left the barn and was with the FBI.
John Paul, acting under Delaware law, understood that Hunter's computer became the property
of his business 90 days after it had been abandoned.
At no time did John Paul approach any media outlet or tabloid offering to sell salacious
material . A person of lesser character might have tried to profit. But that is not the essence
of John Paul Mac Issac. He had information in his possession that he learned, thanks to events
subsequent to receiving the computer for a repair job, was relevant to the security of our
nation. He did what any clear thinking American would do–he, through his father,
contacted the FBI. When the FBI finally responded to his call for help, John cooperated fully
and turned over all material requested .
The failure here is not John Paul's . He did his job. The FBI dropped the ball and, by
extension, the Department of Justice. Sadly, this is becoming a disturbing, repeating
theme–the FBI through incompetence or malfeasance is not doing its job.
Any news outlet that is publishing the damnable lie that John Paul is part of some
subversive effort to interfere in the United States Presidential election is on notice. That is
slander and defamation. Fortunately, the evidence from Hunter Biden's computer is in the hands
of the FBI and Rudy Giuliani and, I suspect, the U.S. Senate. Those with the power to do
something must act. John Paul Mac Issac's honor is intact. We cannot say the same for those
government officials who have a duty to deal with this information.
"... The neocon/NATO aggressive expansionism has many purposes, but one is surely domestic repression: to gaslight and cause fear-the-foreign-bogeyman trauma among the American and British people as a whole and make most of them become docile and lose their critical thinking skills and their ability to analyze their own societies. ..."
"... One of the best ways to lobotomize the publics of the US and UK is to very gradually impose martial law in the name of protecting national security and ensuring peace and harmony at home. ..."
The neocon/NATO aggressive expansionism has many purposes, but one is surely domestic
repression: to gaslight and cause fear-the-foreign-bogeyman trauma among the American and
British people as a whole and make most of them become docile and lose their critical
thinking skills and their ability to analyze their own societies.
One of the best ways to lobotomize the publics of the US and UK is to very gradually
impose martial law in the name of protecting national security and ensuring peace and harmony
at home.
After several color revolutions succeeded, the Russiagate/Spygate op was carried out in
the US, with British assistance. This op has been largely successful, though there has been
limited resistance against its whole fake edifice as well as with the logic of Cold War2.0.
Nevertheless, Spygate has shocked many tens of millions of Dems into a stupor, while millions
more are dazed and manipulated by the Chinese bogeyman being manufactured by Trump.
The most dangerous result of the martial law lite mentality caused by Spygate and its MSM
purveyors is the growing support for censorship of free speech coming mostly from the Dems,
such as Schiff and Warner. The danger inherent in this trend became very clear when FaceBook
and Twitter engaged in massive and unprecedented arbitrary censorship of the New York Post
and of various Trump-related accounts.
This is the kind of thing you do during Stage 1 of a coup. Surely it was at least in part
an experiment to see how various power points in the US would respond. Even though Twitter
ended the censorship later, it was probably a successful experiment designed to gauge
reactions and areas of resistance.
In November, there could be further, more serious experiments/ops. If so, the current
expansionist movements being made and planned by the US and NATO may well be integral parts
of a new non-democratic model of "American-style democracy" -- not constitution-based but
"rules-based."
"As this is so obvious one must ask what the real reason for the anti-Russian pressure
campaign is. What do those who argue for it foresee as its endpoint?"
I ask myself this question seemingly every day. Could U.S bureaucrats be so short sighted
where they cannot see the culture they are creating? Any sane follower of international
relations understands that poking a nuclear power with a stick is the work of fools. My
nightmare, that I have feared since I was a child, is a nuclear confrontation that would
result in the end of the human race.
Does rationality and common sense ever win out in Washington? I fear that our "endgame"
will result in a mushroom cloud....
Not sure who this Andrei Martyanov is, but underlying all the comments is the proposition
that Putin-managed capitalism works great, will work great forever, will not have a crisis
ever and will make Russia totally independent in all ways. Stated so forthrightly, no doubt
it sounds too stupid to admit to. Nonetheless this is the claim. I say capitalist restoration
did not improve the Russian economy in the way implied by Martyanov. Putin is still a
Yeltsinite, even if he is sober enough to pass for competent.
I take the opposite view: Looking from today, Russia is lucky that the USSR collapsed in
1991. It shed its debt, its currency passed through hyperinflation, and their economy
collapsed and rebuilt. The US and most Western countries still have that coming for them, and
soon.
Plus beyond that the strict Communist/Marxist atheism over 70+ years lead to a rebirth of
Christian values in Russia, their biggest advantage in this cultural war. And they practice
science, not scientism.
Note: Russia and China are more capitalist than the US, for quite some time now. (12+
years)
@110 Abe as far as I understand it, the economic argument goes like this: take the number of
rubles generated/spent/whatever in Russian economic activity, then use the current conversion
rate to convert that into an "equivalent" amount of US dollars.
Then see what you can buy with that many US dollars.
If you went shopping in the USA, the answer would be that this many US dollars doesn't buy
you much, ergo, Russian economic activity is pathetically low.
An example: the Russian government might budget xxx (fill in the figure) rubles to buy new
T-90 tanks. In Washington they would convert that into US dollars, and then declare that this
is chicken-feed. Hardly enough to buy less than 10 Abrams tanks.
Only the Russians aren't buying Abrams tanks from the USA, and are not spending dollars.
They are buying T-90 tanks, and for the amount of rubles spent they'll get 50 tanks.
Every metric the US analyst are using tells them that the USA is vastly, vastly
outspending the Russians on military equipment, to the point where it is obvious that the
Russian military must be destitute and decrepit.
But if they every took the time to look they'll see 50 brand-spanking new T-90 main battle
tanks. Weapons that their assumptions say that the Russians can't afford, and would wonder
"Huh? Where'd they come from?"
@ Posted by: Andrei Martyanov | Oct 18 2020 4:11 utc | 96
I agree that comparing Russia's economy with the likes of Italy and Spain is ridiculous,
but it's not that simple. Capitalism is not what is appears to be.
If a (capitalist) nation wants to get something from another (capitalist) nation, it needs
to export something. There's no free lunch in international trade: if you want to import, you
have to export or issue sovereign debt bonds (treasury bonds).
In this scenario, either Russia produces everything it needs in its own territory or it
will have to export in order to import the technology it needs to do whatever it needs to do.
Remember: the Russian Federation is a capitalist nation-state, it has to follow the laws of
motion of capitalism, which take precedence over whatever Putin wants. To ignore that
economic laws exist is to deny any kind of theory of collapse; nation-states would then be
eternal, natural entities with no entropy.
Even if Russia produces everything it needs in its own territory, it is still capitalist.
It would need, in order to "substitute imports", to super-exploit its own labor force
(working class) in order to extract surpluses for its industrialization efforts. That's what
the USSR did during Stalin.
If Russia is doing the imports substitution in the classical way (the way Latin America
did during the liberal dictatorships of the 1950s-1980s), then it is trying to sell
commodities to industrialized countries in order to import technology and machinery necessary
to industrialize its own territory. That is probably the case here.
Assuming this more probable case, then I'm sorry to tell you it won't work. It may work in
the short or even medium term, but it will ultimately fail in the long term. The thing is
that, in a system of capitalist exchange between an agrarian and an industrial nation-state,
the industrial nation-state will always have the advantage (i.e. have a trade surplus).
That's because of Marx's labor theory of value: industrialized commodities ("manufactured
goods") have more intrinsic value than agrarian/raw material commodities - just think about
how many kilos of bananas Brazil would have to export to the USA in order to import one
single unit of an iPhone 12, to use an contemporary example. As a social result,
industrialized countries have a higher organic composition of capital (OCC) than agrarian
countries, as they need more value to just keep themselves afloat (as a metaphor: it's more
expensive to keep a big mansion than a little flat in a stationary state). Value (wealth)
then tends to flow from lower OCC to the higher OCC, this is the material base that divides
the First and Third World countries until today.
To make things even worse, raw materials/agricultural products have an inelastic demand,
which means their prices fall when production rises, and their prices rise when production
falls, relative to overall demand. You will pay whatever the water company will charge you
for the cubic meter of water - but you won't consume more or less water because of its price,
hence the term "inelastic": demand tends to be more or less constant on a macroeconomic
level. The same problem suffers the commodity exporter nations: there will come a stage where
their exports' overall value will collapse vis-a-vis the machinery and technology they need
to import.
As a result, the commodity exporter nations will have to get more debt overseas, by
issuing more T-bonds, just to keep the trade balance afloat. What was the quest for progress
becomes a vicious battle for mere survival. A debt crisis is brewed.
And that's exactly what happened to the Latin American countries in the 1980s-1990s: their
debt exploded and they were put to their knees by the USA (the country that issues the
universal fiat currency). The USA then charged their debt, which triggered a wave of
privatizations of everything those countries had built over decades. This is what will happen
to Russia if it falls for the lure of imports substitution.
That's why I urge the Russians to review their concepts and try to get back to the Soviet
times. It doesn't need to be exactly how it was before: you can make the due reforms and
adopt a more or less Chinese model of socialism. That's the only way out, if the Russian
people doesn't want to be enslaved by the liberals (capitalists).
@vk from what i'm reading (stephen cohen: soviet fates and lost alternatives) the chinese
adopted something like bukharin's nep policies, which stalin did his best to wipe out in the
ussr. i've got some problems with cohen's last book, "war with russia?" but he has a lot of
good information on the history of the ussr.
@ Posted by: pretzelattack | Oct 18 2020 15:14 utc | 118
On the surface, yes: the comparison between Reform and Opening Up and NEP are
irresistible. But it is not precise: the only merit it has is in the fact that it is fairer
than simply classifying Deng Xiaoping's reforms as neoliberalism (Trotskysts, Austrian
School) or capitalism (liberals).
The key here is the difference of the nature of the Chinese peasant class and the Russian
peasant class. The Chinese peasant class, besides suffering a lot (millions of dead by
famine) in the hands of a liberal government for decades (Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist
Government) (while the Russian equivalent - the "February Revolution" - only lasted a few
months, engulfed by their insistence on continuing with the meat-grinder of WWI), had a
different historical subtract.
Chinese late feudalism was much more developed, much more manufactured-centered than
Russian late feudalism. As a result, the Chinese peasant was much more proletarian-minded
than the feudal Russian peasant. Also, the Chinese didn't have the kulak problem (peasant
petite-bourgeoisie) - instead, they had regional warlords who self-destructed during the
chaotic republican period (1911-1949). When the warlords were gone, what was left was a much
more proletarian-minded, egalitarian-minded, small peasantry. This peasantry didn't bother to
migrate to the cities to work in the industry or to start their own factories in the
countryside itself. That's why Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Opening Up was successful - not
because of his genius, but because he was backed up by a capable people.
The Chinese peasantry, for example, didn't hoard or directed their grain surplus to
exports in order to starve the proletariat to death in the cities - they sold it to the
Chinese market. The Chinese peasantry also trusted their central government (CCP) and saw
itself as part of the project - in complete opposition to the feudal-minded Russian kulak,
who saw his piece of land as essentially an independent and self-sufficient
cell/ecosystem.
That's why the Reform and Opening Up was successful (it survives until the present times)
and the NEP soon failed - following the good harvest of 1924, came the awful harvest of 1926,
which triggered a shit show where the peasantry hoarded the grain and almost starved the USSR
to extinction, and which led to Stalin's ascension and the dekulakization process (forced
collectivization).
i should add that i know little about the actual history of communism, but capitalism is
revealing itself as a monstrous failure, and not all the propaganda in the world is
succeeding at covering that up.
I know how economic reasoning comes to that conclusion, but IRL comparing such different
countries only by GDP metric is insane and beyond stupid.
Eg. Russia has GDP similar to California!
Yes, in US centric GDP metrics that favors and cheats US itself (surprise!).
But. One of those countries sent man in space, produces everything, has vast resources and
is self sufficient nuclear superpower.
Other one cant even feed and provider water to its population without outside help.
GDP means nothing when sh*t hits the fan. What will "richer" country do if it goes to war
with "poorer"? Throw money at them while they launch nukes at it?
@ Posted by: pretzelattack | Oct 18 2020 16:11 utc | 122
There certainly are similarities between the NEP and the Reform and Opening Up. It's very
possible Deng Xiaoping took Lenin as inspiration.
Forgot to mention the Scissors Crisis, which erupted in 1923, and triggered the NEP. That
crisis is one more evidence that shows manufactured products are inherently more valuable
than raw materials/agrarian products.
Again, for products of Western "education" basic logic and ability for a basic
extrapolation seem beyond the grasp: there are no issues for Russia to produce anything,
other than time and some money. Country which produces best hi-tech weapons in the world,
dominates world's nuclear energy market (this is not your iPhone "hi tech") and has a full
enclosed cycle for aerospace industry, among many other things, will have little trouble in
substituting pretty much anything. I remember a bunch of morons, who pass for "analysts",
from either WSJ or WaPo declaring 6 years ago that sanctions will deny Russia access to
Western extraction technologies. Sure, for a country whose space program alone will crush
whole economies of UK or Germany should they ever try to recreate it, will have "problems"
producing compressor or drill equipment with the level of Russia's metallurgy and material
science. Generally speaking, West's present pathetic state is a direct result of utter
incompetence across the board in a number of key fields of human activity and your post, most
likely based on some BS by Western media, is a good demonstration of this state of the
affairs.
Per immigration policy, you can easily find a a truck load of resources, especially on the
web-sites of Russian diplomatic missions (Embassies, Consulates etc.), easily available. Per
cats--Russian love for cats is boundless and intense. You may say that Russia is a
cat-obsessed country;)
vk@120 posits a mystical cultural difference in Russian and Chinese peasants, which
unfortunately has pretty much the same content as the hypothesis of a racial difference. That
the morally superior race is supposed to be Chinese doesn't really help. As often, some
strange assertions of facts that aren't so accompany such bizarre thinking. The rich peasants
in China (what would be kulaks in Russian history,) were notorious for moneylending. As ever,
the inevitable arrears ended in the moneylender's family taking the land. Collectivization
came early in China, well along the way by 1956. And a key aspect of it was the struggle
against the Chinese equivalent of the kulak class. As for the insistence that private farming
is superior, the growth of inequality in land drove millions, a hundred million or more, into
the cities. Without residence permits this floating proletariat was effectively
superexploited by the new capitalist elements, as Deng meant them to do. Nor did the warlords
discredit themselves, not as a group. If anything the young warlord who forced Chiang to
reject active war against the Communists, in order to fight the Japanese invaders, was the
one who kept the GMD (KMT in Wade-Giles,) from discrediting itself. [Xian incident] And what
warlords had to do with the Chinese rich peasantry *after* the Revolution is a complete
mystery.
Socially, the deliberate uneven development promoted by Deng and his successors, is
eroding the social fabric of the larger countryside. This, in addition to the neocolonial
concessions, the growing links to the Chinese bourgeoisie of the diaspora suggest that as
Dengists may go even back/forward to a new form of warlordism. The thing about comparing
Bukharism/NEP to Dengism/the "Opening" is that Bukharin's program failed spectacularly. But
modern China is not next door to Nazi Germany. Even more to the point, Stalin's victory over
Hitler has provided a kind of moral shield for China, even under Deng, inspiring fear of
losing a general war. If Bukharin had beaten Stalin, we can be as sure as any hypothetical
can be, the USSR would have been defeated, not victorious. In modern China, the Bukharin won.
There is an excellent chance the national government of today's China will be defeated.
That article describes a 110 MW turbine that has now finally been put into production
(while Siemens, General Electric etc. produce utility-class gas turbines up to about 600 MW,
with far higher efficiency and most likely reliability). The article further describes 40 GW
of thermal electrical production to be "modernized" until 2031 (11 years from now), and
apparently a microscopic 2 GW of new capacity from "domestic and localized" 65 MW turbines to
be commissioned 2026-2028. (I don't understand Russian so I had to rely on Yandex's machine
translation.) That's admittedly some kind of progress, but is simply not going to cut it.
Nowhere close.
Imagine if China set the ambition to build its own semiconductors and its own turbofans
for its stealth fighters sometime around 2040. Imagine if China was still producing a third
of the amount of electricity of the United States instead of about double, etc., and
considered this to be adequate. It would be akin to abandoning its ambitions for
technological and industrial independence from the West, and that is exactly what Russia is
doing in the realm of gas turbines. There is apparently no capability and no seriousness
going into translating Russia's world-class research and science into actual large-scale,
modern industrial production, and everything points to this continuing, while you can blather
on all you want about people with "Western education" simply not getting anything.
That's admittedly some kind of progress, but is simply not going to cut it. Nowhere close.
That's admittedly you switching on "I am dense" mode and trying to up the ante with 600
MW, which are a unique product, while you somehow miss the point that 110 MWt MGT-110 of
fully Russian production has completed a full cycle of industrial tests and operations (an
equivalent of military IOC--Initial Operational Capability) and is in a serial production.
But instead of studying the issue (even if through Yandex translate) with Siemens which when
learning about MGT-110 offered Russia 100% localization with technology transfer, Russians
declined, you go into generalizations without having even minimal set of facts and
situational awareness. In fact 110 MWt turbines are most in demand product for a variety of
applications. Get acquainted with this.
I am not going to waste my time explaining to you (you will play dense again) what IOC
means and how it relates to serial production, I am sure you will find a bunch of unrealted
"argumentation".
Imagine if China
I don't need to imagine anything, as well as draw irrelevant parallels with China.
There is apparently no capability and no seriousness going into translating Russia's
world-class research and science into actual large-scale, modern industrial production, and
everything points to this continuing, while you can blather on all you want about people
with "Western education" simply not getting anything.
This is exactly what I am talking about. Hollow declarations by people who can not even
develop basic factual base.
It's great to see you here with your excellent facts and perspectives on Russia. I'm sorry
you have to deal with people whose minds are too small to grasp the immense scale of Russia -
scale in physical size, civilizational depth and importance to the balance of power in the
world.
Russia alone stopped the creeping gray hegemony from the west that had looked like it
would just ooze over the whole world and suffocate it in bullshit and tribute payments. And
then China joined in the fun. The world has a future now, when a decade ago this didn't seem
possible, at least from my view in the US. Geopolitically, Russia gave us this future, and
China has come to show us how much fun it's going to be.
@ Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 18 2020 20:05 utc | 127
There's no mysticism here because we know how the kulaks emerged in Russia: they were the
result of the catastrophic capitalist reforms of the 1860s, which completely warped the old
feudal relations of the Russian Empire.
The reforms of the 1860s were catastrophic for two reasons:
1) it freed the peasants slowly. The State serfs - the last who gained their freedom -
were left with no land. A complex partition system of the land, based on each administrative
region, created a distorted division of land, where very few peasants got huge chunks of land
(the future kulaks) and most received almost nothing (as Lenin demonstrated, see his first
book of his Complete Works, below the rate of subsistence);
2) it tried to preserve the old feudal privileges and powers of the absolutist
monarchy.
As a result, the Russian Empire had a bizarre economic system, a mixed economy with the
worst of the two words: the inequality and absolute misery of capitalism and the backwardness
and lack of social mobility of feudalism.
But yes, you're right when you state Mao's era was not an economic failure. His early era
really saw an attempt by the CCP to make an alliance with the "national bourgeoisie", and
this alliance was indeed a failure. This certainly led to a more radical approach by the CCP,
still in the Mao era (collectivization). Life quality in China greatly increased after 1949,
until the recession of the Great Leap Forward (which was not a famine, but threw back some
socioeconomic indicators temporarily back to the WWII era). When the Great Leap Forward was
abandoned, China continued to improve afterwards.
All of this doesn't change the fact that China's "NEP" was a success, while the original
NEP wasn't. Of course, there are many factors that explain this, but it is wrong to call late
Qing China as even similar to the late Romanov Russia.
I'm not saying Stalin's reform were a failure. Without them, they wouldn't be able to
quickly import the Fordist (Taylorist) method they needed to industrialize. The USSR became a
superpower in just 19 years - a world record. The first Five-Year Plan was a huge morale
boost and success for the Soviet people - specially because it happened at the same time as
the capitalist meltdown of 1929.
--//--
@ Posted by: Eric | Oct 18 2020 20:53 utc | 128
The thing with semiconductors (and other very advanced technologies) is that it is an
industry that only makes sense for a given nation to dominate if they're going to mass
produce it. That usually means said production must be export oriented, which means competing
against already well-established competitors.
China doesn't want to drain the State's coffers to fund an industry that won't at least
pay for itself. It has to change the wheels with the car moving. That's why it is still
negotiating the Huawei contracts in the West first, why it still is trying to keep the
Taiwanese product flowing first, only to then gradually start the heavy investment needed to
dominate the semiconductor technology and production process.
They learned with the Soviets in this sense. When computers became a thing in the West,
the USSR immediately poured resources to build them. They were able to dominate the main
frame technology, and they were successfully implemented in their economy. Then came the
personal computers, and, this time, the Soviets weren't able to make it integrate in their
economy. The problem wasn't that the Soviets didn't know how to build a personal computer
(they did), but that every new technology is born for a reason, and only makes sense in a
given social context. You can't just blindly copy your enemy's technology and hope for the
best.
The world has a future now, when a decade ago this didn't seem possible, at least from my
view in the US. Geopolitically, Russia gave us this future, and China has come to show us
how much fun it's going to be. Many thanks to you and your people.
Thank you for your kind words. As my personal experience (my third book is coming out
soon)shows--explaining economic reality to people who have been "educated" (that is confused,
ripped off for huge tuition and given worthless piece of paper with MBA or some "economics"
Bachelor of "Science" on it) in Western pseudo-economic "theory" that this "global"
"rules-based order" is over, is pretty much an exercise in futility. And if a catastrophe of
Boeing is any indication (I will omit here NATO's military-industrial complex)--dividends,
stocks and "capitalization" is a figment of imagination of people who never left their office
and infantile state of development and swallowed BS economic narrative hook, line and sinker
without even trying to look out of the window. They still buy this BS of US having "largest
GDP in the world" (in reality it is much smaller than that of China), the
de-industrialization of the United States is catastrophic (they never bothered to look at
2018 Inter-agency Report to POTUS specifically about that)and its industrial base is
shrinking with a lighting speed, same goes to Germany which for now retains some residual
industrial capability and competences but:
This is before COVID-19, after it Germany's economy shrank worst among Western nations,
worse even than the US. It is a long story, but as Michael Hudson stated not for once in his
books and interviews, what is "taught" as economics in the West is basically a
pseudo-science. Well, it is. Or, as same Hudson stated earlier this year:"The gunboats don't
appear in your economics textbooks. I bet your price theory didn't have gun boats in them, or
the crime sector. And probably they didn't have debt in it either." And then they wonder in
Germany (or EU)how come that EU structures are filled with pedophiles, "Green" fanatics and
multiculturalists. Well, because Germany (and EU) are occupied territories who made their
choice. And this is just the start. What many do not understand here is that overwhelming
majority of Russians do not want to deal with Europe and calls for new Iron Curtain are
louder and louder and the process has started. Of course, there is a lot of both contempt and
schadenfreude on Russian part. As Napoleon stated, the nation which doesn't want to feed own
army, will feed someone else's. Very true. Modern West worked hard for it, let it "enjoy"
now.
It's good to see you commenting here as barflies seem more inclined to listen to you than
me. Did you watch Russian documentary on
The Wall , which I learned about from Lavrov's meeting with those doing business
within Russia on 5 Oct? I asked The Saker if his translation team would take on the task of
providing English subtitles or a voice over but never got a reply one way or the other. IMO,
for Russia to avoid the West's fate it must change its banking and financial system from the
private to the public realm as Hudson advocates most recently in this podcast . As for Mr.
Lavrov, he surprised the radio station interviewers by citing Semyon Slepakov's song "America
Doesn't Like Us," of which barfly Paco thankfully provided a translation of the
lyrics.С наилучшими
пожеланиями
крепкого
здоровья и
долгих лет
жизни!
I think you an Grieved misunderstand somewhat where I am coming from here. Michael Hudson
would be (and has been) the first to describe how Russia's elites (and to a large extent it
seems also the people) bought into a bogus neoliberal ideology teaching that somehow Russia
needs to earn the money it needs to build its own economy in the form of foreign currency
through export revenues. Apparently these economists and politicians in Russia never bothered
to look how Western economies actually operate (as opposed to what they preach to countries
they want to destroy), or for that matter how China has developed its economy (in all of
these countries, the necessary credit is created on a keyboard.) The export revenues that
Russia earns in the form of dollars and euros are sold to the central bank for the roubles
that Russia's government needs to function. Bizarrely, this creates just as much inflation as
it would if the central bank had just created the roubles without "backing" foreign currency.
In fact, there is more inflation created, because in times of high oil prices, corresponding
amounts of roubles are suddenly thrown into a domestic market that is underdeveloped, for
example in its infrastructure and its food processing. There are reasons why China can expand
its money supply by much greater proportions each year and still suffer far less inflation
than Russia.
Unlike China, Russia had already attained much of the technological expertise for the
equipment that it later decided it was unable to produce inside the country. A good example
of this are the turboexpanders whose design was perfected (though the basic idea was a bit
older) by Pyotr Kapisa in the 1930's in the USSR. This same technology went into the
turbopumps of the rocket engines in the Energia boosters. These engines are still to this
day, 30 years after the Soviet collapse, imported by the United States. As these rocket
engines including the turbopumps are still produced in Russia, the know-how to manufacture
was obviously not lost.
I read just the other day that as part of its import substitution program, Russia is
considering to produce the turboexpanders for processing natural gas (separating methane from
ethane) inside the country. Russia, with the world's largest natural gas reserves and
production, and as I described already possessing the expertise to produce the turboexpanders
needed for cryogenic separation, chose to hand over possibly billions of dollars to the West
to import this machinery over the years, only to be helpless when the West introduced
technological sanctions against its oil and gas sector. Very likely, in a couple of years we
will receive the announcement that the drive to produce them domestically has been abandoned,
after it was realized that their production will require new factories and new machinery,
which do not fall out of the sky in Russia as they apparently do in the West and in China.
Putin will announce that great business awaits whichever Western investor ready to provide
the funds. (Spoiler: They won't! The West is not very interested in investing into building
up Russia's industrial capabilities, preferring instead to loot its natural resources and to
suck out its skilled worked and scientists.)
While Russia sits and waits for higher oil prices or foreign dollar credit on the one
hand, and with unemployed skilled labor and rotting industrial infrastructure on the other
hand, China spends the equivalent of trillions of dollars (in yuan, obviously) into fixed
capital (not least infrastructure) each year. The funds for this are all created by
keystrokes by the PBOC and provide employment for the domestic workforce. You don't have to
ponder long on which model has been hugely successful, and which has been an unmitigated
disaster.
I can't find the exact figures right now, but Russia produces something like 300,000 STEM
graduates every year, more than the United States. (I may very well have read this originally
on your blog, by the way.) Many of them will still be forced to emigrate to find gainful
employment, even 20 years after the 1990's ended and Putin became President. These graduates
remain even in post-Soviet times of a very high quality, and undergraduate students in Russia
are trained at a higher level in mathematics and physics than in particular Americans are
even as post-graduates. By refusing to invest in its own scientific infrastructure and
industry the way China has done and does, Russia gives away all the education and training
that were provided to these students, especially to the same Western countries that are
seeking to destroy Russia. This is completely unforgivable.
I should add that I myself study physics in Germany. I have great appreciation for the
Russian methods of teaching mathematics and physics, as many do here. I have learned,
preferentially, mathematical analysis from Zorich, mechanics, electrodynamics etc. from
Landau-Lifschitz, much about Fourier series from Tolstov, and so on, and have very often been
awestruck and inspired in a mystical fashion by these works. I am not somehow unaware of the
unparalleled quality (in particular after the destruction of Germany in WWII) of the USSR's
and Russia's math/physics education or unfamiliar with the achievements of the USSR in
science and engineering. It's precisely because I am familar with them that it
frustrates me immensely how Russia's potential is needlessly wasted.
What many do not understand here is that overwhelming majority of Russians do not want to
deal with Europe and calls for new Iron Curtain are louder and louder and the process has
started. Of course, there is a lot of both contempt and schadenfreude on Russian part.
Andrei (132), do you have a link to an opinion poll that supports this? Thanks
in advance.
@ Digby | Oct 19 2020 0:28 utc | 136.. if you haven't already listened to the lavrov
interview that b linked to in his main post - it is a question and answer thing - you would
benefit from doing so and it would help answer you question some too.. see b's post at this
spot -"In a wide ranging interview with Russian radio stations" and hit that link
@ james (137)
Well, I looked into the interview. While it is informative in its own right (at some point it
briefly touches on Russo-Japanese relations), and some of the interviewers do show some
concerns, I'm still not sure how it helps answer my question (maybe I missed something?). My
initial impression was that Mr. Martyanov was referring to Russian civilians - not just radio
interviewers.
Thanks anyway for the heads up.
@ 138 digby... my impression was the radio interviewers questions were a reflection of the
general sentiment of the public.. i could be wrong, but it seems to me they have completely
given up on the west based on what they ask and say in their questions to lavrov...
on another note, you might enjoy engaging andrei more directly on his website which i will
share here...
The moment the New York Post reported on some of the sleazy, corrupt details contained on
Hunter Biden's hard drive, Twitter and Facebook, the social media giants most closely connected
to the way Americans exchange political information, went into overdrive to suppress the
information and protect Joe Biden. In the case of Facebook, though, perhaps one of those
protectors was, in fact, protecting herself.
The person currently in charge of Facebook's election integrity program is Anna Makanju .
That name probably doesn't mean a lot to you, but it should mean a lot – and in a
comforting way -- to Joe Biden.
Before ending up at Facebook, Makanju was a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic
Council. The Atlantic Council is an ostensibly non-partisan think tank that deals with
international affairs. In fact, it's a decidedly partisan organization.
In 2009, James L. Jones, the Atlantic Council's chairman left the organization to be
President Obama's National Security Advisor. Susan Rice, Richard Holbrooke, Eric Shinseki,
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Chuck Hagel, and Brent Scowcroft also were all affiliated with the Atlantic Council
before they ended up in the Obama administration.
The Atlantic Council has received massive amounts of foreign funding over the years. Here's
one that should interest everyone: Burisma Holdings donated $300,000
dollars to the Atlantic Council, over the course of three consecutive years, beginning in
2016. The information below may explain why it began paying that money to the Council.
Not only was the Atlantic Council sending people into the Obama-Biden administration, but it
was also serving as an outside advisor. And that gets us back to Anna Makanju, the person
heading Facebook's misleadingly titled "election integrity program."
Makanju also worked at the Atlantic Council. The following is the relevant part of Makanju's
professional bio from her page at the Atlantic Council
(emphasis mine):
Anna Makanju is a nonresident senior fellow with the Transatlantic Security Initiative.
She is a public policy and legal expert working at Facebook, where she leads efforts to
ensure election integrity on the platform. Previously, she was the special policy adviser for
Europe and Eurasia to former US Vice President Joe Biden , senior policy adviser to
Ambassador Samantha Power at the United States Mission to the United Nations, director for
Russia at the National Security Council, and the chief of staff for European and NATO Policy
in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. She has also taught at the Woodrow Wilson School
at Princeton University and worked as a consultant to a leading company focused on space
technologies.
Makanju was a player in the faux Ukraine impeachment. Early in December 2019, when the
Democrats were gearing up for the impeachment, Glenn Kessler
mentioned her in an article assuring Washington Post readers that, contrary to the Trump
administration's claims, there was nothing corrupt about Biden's dealings with Ukraine. He made
the point then that Biden now raises as a defense: Biden didn't pressure Ukraine to fire
prosecutor Viktor Shokin to protect Burisma; he did it because Shokin wasn't doing his job when
it came to investigating corruption.
Kessler writes that, on the same day in February 2016 that then-Ukrainian President
Poroshenko announced that Shokin had offered his resignation, Biden spoke to both Poroshenko
and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The White House version is that Biden gave both men pep
talks about reforming the government and fighting corruption. And that's where Makanju comes
in:
Anna Makanju, Biden's senior policy adviser for Ukraine at the time, also listened to the
calls and said release of the transcripts would only strengthen Biden's case that he acted
properly. She helped Biden prepare for the conversations and said they operated at a high
level, with Biden using language such as Poroshenko's government being "nation builders for a
transformation of Ukraine."
A reference to a private company such as Burisma would be "too fine a level of
granularity" for a call between Biden and the president of another country, Makanju told The
Fact Checker. Instead, she said, the conversation focused on reforms demanded by the
International Monetary Fund, methods to tackle corruption and military assistance. An
investigation of "Burisma was just not significant enough" to mention, she said.
Let me remind you, in case you forgot, that Burisma started paying the Atlantic Council a
lot of money in 2016, right when Makanju was advising Biden regarding getting rid of
Shokin.
Receive a daily recap featuring a curated list of must-read stories.
That's right folks, the Facebook executive currently blocking all of the negative evidence
of Hunter and Joe Biden's corrupt activity in Ukraine is the same person who was coordinating
the corrupt activity between the Biden family payoffs and Ukraine.
You just cannot make this stuff up folks.
The incestuous networking between Democrats in the White House, Congress, the Deep State,
the media, and Big Tech never ends. That's why the American people wanted and still want Trump,
the true outsider, to head the government. They know that Democrats have turned American
politics into one giant Augean Stable and that Trump is
the Hercules who (we hope) can clean it out.
"... Russia is militarily secure and the 'west' knows that. It is one reason for the anti-Russian frenzy. Russia does not need to bother with the unprecedented hostility coming from Brussels and Washington. It can ignore it while taking care of its interests. ..."
"... As this is so obvious one must ask what the real reason for the anti-Russian pressure campaign is. What do those who argue for it foresee as its endpoint? ..."
"... The nightmare scenario for the Anglo-Americans is a Germany-Russia-China triangle. If that happens it is game over! ..."
"... They don't want an actual war. They just ratchet up the tensions to keep Europe subdued and obedient and Russia off balance and thereby prevent any rapprochement between the two. ..."
"... The strong hatred and hostility coming from the US and the EU are due to the understanding that they don't have much time, and they must act now, or tomorrow it will be too late. ..."
"... Years ago Barack Obama gave speech to West Point graduates, proclaiming US moral and racial superiority (because they mix'n's*it) over whole world, Goebbels would be proud. Germany has long history of hating all those Slavs, and Israel... Lets not go there with how they threat those inferior brown people. ..."
"... Of course that end-point is money for military contractors and power for the FP elite in government and think-tanks which also means money. Yes, there are true-believers who see a mighty struggle between "good" (the USA) an "evil" (Russia/China) but they are incompetent. As for the American people they will believe whatever the NY Times says since they are militantly ignorant of history, geography, foreign affairs in general, and, above all, political science. ..."
"... The USA is lucky the USSR collapsed in 1991. If it managed to somehow survive for mere 17 years more, it would catch the 2008 capitalist meltdown ..."
"... It looks like the USA imported the Irish and imported their luck, too. ..."
"... This loathing was made blatantly manifest during WWII, of course, but it didn't die out because that generation and more likely their children remain with us. Ditto the generational Anglo-American hatred of Russians (yes, for the UK, and their haute bourgeoisie, it has deeper historical roots than the 20thC) and the USSR even more... ..."
"... "Maas added that Germany takes decisions related to its energy policy and energy supply 'here in Europe', saying that Berlin accepts ' the fact that the US had more than doubled its oil imports from Russia last year and is now the world's second largest importer of Russian heavy oil .'" [My Emphasis] ..."
"... The neocon/NATO aggressive expansionism has many purposes, but one is surely domestic repression: to gaslight and cause fear-the-foreign-bogeyman trauma among the American and British people as a whole and make most of them become docile and lose their critical thinking skills and their ability to analyze their own societies. ..."
"... One of the best ways to lobotomize the publics of the US and UK is to very gradually impose martial law in the name of protecting national security and ensuring peace and harmony at home. ..."
"... At the time, I thought it was just Trump and his followers freaking out, now I think it's the NatSec people, who have finally seen the truth of their situation. As one can see in the Atlantic Council piece B posted, they are still trying to keep the old narrative patched together too. ..."
"... As I've said numerous times -- Fuck the US Empire and it's minion bitches. Jesse Ventura commented this past week that EVERY US Incumbent politician should be voted out of office this election. 99% of them are scum. ..."
"... That was the whole point of the first Cold War. It is the whole point of creating a Cold War 2.0. Absolutely nothing has changed. ..."
"... If the Russian Federation really has an ongoing imports substitution program, then this explains everything. Germany is an exports-oriented economy. It wants to integrate with the Russian economy in the sense to keep it as an agrarian-extrativist economy to feed it with cheap commodities to feed their industry. Germany's ideal Russia is Brazil. ..."
"... A Russia that also exports high-value commodities (manufactured commodities) is a direct threat to Germany, as it competes with it directly in the international market. That's the reason Germany doesn't want the BRI to come to Europe, as Merkel once said: Europe must not become China's peninsula. China is Germany's main competitor, as it is also a big manufacturing exporter. ..."
"... Perhaps the US only has one script in the playbook: to balkanise, disrupt and foster 5th columns until their opponent becomes a dysfunctional or failed state. ..."
"... The US and EU attempts to break Russia's independent foreign policy are just stepping stones to the eventual goal of a breakup Russia itself, never forget Albright's comments in the 90s about how Siberia shouldn't belong to Russia alone. ..."
"... We may yet see a Cuban missile crisis scenario but it looks more likely to be caused by arms sales to Taiwan than conflict in the Caucasus. ..."
"... I also think its naive to see these as "fires burning at Russia's borders" instead of as deliberately set bear traps . Azerbaijan is in a strategic location between Russia and Iran and the conflict with Armenia comes just before Russia is about to sell advanced weapons to Iran. ..."
Over the last years the U.S. and its EU puppies have ratcheted up their pressure on Russia.
They seem to believe that they can compel Russia to follow their diktat. They can't. But the
illusion that Russia will finally snap, if only a few more sanctions ar applied or a few more
houses in Russia's neighborhood are set on fire, never goes away.
The fires burning at Russia's borders in the Caucasus are an add-on to the disorder and
conflict on its Western border in neighboring Belarus, where fuel is poured on daily by
pyromaniacs at the head of the European Union acting surely in concert with Washington.
Yesterday we learned of the decision of the European Council to impose sanctions on
President Lukashenko, a nearly unprecedented action when directed against the head of state
of a sovereign nation.
...
It is easy enough to see that the real intent of the sanctions is to put pressure on the
Kremlin, which is Lukashenko's guarantor in power, to compound the several other measures
being implemented simultaneously in the hope that Putin and his entourage will finally crack
and submit to American global hegemony as Europe did long ago.
...
The anti-Russia full tilt ahead policy outlined above is going on against a background of the
U.S. presidential electoral campaigns. The Democrats continue to try to depict Donald Trump
as "Putin's puppy," as if the President has been kindly to his fellow autocrat while in
office. Of course, under the dictates of the Democrat-controlled House and with the
complicity of the anti-Russian staff in the State Department, in the Pentagon, American
policy towards Russia over the entire period of Trump's presidency has been one of never
ending ratcheting up of military, informational, economic and other pressures in the hope
that Vladimir Putin or his entourage would crack. Were it not for the nerves of steel of Mr.
Putin and his close advisers , the irresponsible pressure policies outlined above could
result in aggressive behavior and risk taking by Russia that would make the Cuban missile
crisis look like child's play.
The U.S. arms industry lobby, in form of the Atlantic Council, confirms
the 'western' strategy Doctorow describes. It calls for 'ramping up on Russia' with even more
sanctions:
Key to raising the costs to Russia is a more proactive transatlantic strategy for sanctions
against the Russian economy and Putin's power base, together with other steps to reduce
Russian energy leverage and export revenue. A new NATO Russia policy should be pursued in
tandem with the European Union (EU), which sets European sanctions policy and faces the same
threats from Russian cyberattacks and disinformation. At a minimum, EU sanctions resulting
from hostilities in Ukraine should be extended, like the Crimea sanctions, for one year
rather than every six months. Better yet, allies and EU members should tighten sanctions
further and extend them on an indefinite basis until Russia ends its aggression and takes
concrete steps toward de-escalation.
It also wants Europe to pay for weapons in the Ukraine and Georgia:
A more dynamic NATO strategy for Russia should go hand in hand with a more proactive policy
toward Ukraine and Georgia in the framework of an enhanced Black Sea strategy. The goal
should be to boost both partners' deterrence capacity and reduce Moscow's ability to
undermine their sovereignty even as NATO membership remains on the back burner for the time
being.
As part of this expanded effort, European allies should do more to bolster Ukraine and
Georgia's ground, air, and naval capabilities, complementing the United States' and Canada's
efforts that began in 2014.
The purpose of the whole campaign against Russia, explains the Atlantic Council author, is
to subordinate it to U.S. demands:
Relations between the West and Moscow had begun to deteriorate even before Russia's watershed
invasion of Ukraine, driven principally by Moscow's fear of the encroachment of Western
values and their potential to undermine the Putin regime. With the possibility of a further
sixteen years of Putin's rule, most experts believe relations are likely to remain
confrontational for years to come. They argue that the best the United States and its allies
can do is manage this competition and discourage aggressive actions from Moscow. However, by
pushing back against Russia more forcefully in the near and medium term, allies are more
likely to eventually convince Moscow to return to compliance with the rules of the liberal
international order and to mutually beneficial cooperation as envisaged under the 1997
NATO-Russia Founding Act.
The 'rules of the liberal international order' are of course whatever the U.S. claims they
are. They may change at any moment and without notice to whatever new rules are the most
convenient for U.S. foreign policy.
But as Doctorow said above, Putin and his advisors stay calm and ignore such trash despite
all the hostility expressed against them.
One of Putin's close advisors is of course Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In a
wide
ranging interview with Russian radio stations he recently touched on many of the issues
Doctorow also mentions. With regards to U.S. strategy towards Russia Lavrov diagnoses
:
Sergey Lavrov : [...] You mentioned in one of your previous questions that no matter what we
do, the West will try to hobble and restrain us, and undermine our efforts in the economy,
politics, and technology. These are all elements of one approach.
Question : Their national security strategy states that they will do so.
Sergey Lavrov : Of course it does, but it is articulated in a way that decent people can
still let go unnoticed, but it is being implemented in a manner that is nothing short of
outrageous.
Question : You, too, can articulate things in a way that is different from what you would
really like to say, correct?
Sergey Lavrov : It's the other way round. I can use the language I'm not usually using to
get the point across. However, they clearly want to throw us off balance , and not only by
direct attacks on Russia in all possible and conceivable spheres by way of unscrupulous
competition, illegitimate sanctions and the like, but also by unbalancing the situation near
our borders, thus preventing us from focusing on creative activities. Nevertheless,
regardless of the human instincts and the temptations to respond in the same vein, I'm
convinced that we must abide by international law.
Russia does not accept the fidgety 'rules of the liberal international order'. Russia
sticks to the law which is, in my view, a much stronger position. Yes, international law often
gets broken. But as Lavrov
said elsewhere , one does not abandon traffic rules only because of road accidents.
Russia stays calm, no matter what outrageous nonsense the U.S. and EU come up with. It can
do that because it knows that it not only has moral superiority by sticking to the law but it
also has the capability to win a fight. At one point the interviewer even jokes
about that :
Question : As we say, if you don't listen to Lavrov, you will listen to [Defense Minister]
Shoigu.
Sergey Lavrov : I did see a T-shirt with that on it. Yes, it's about that.
Yes, it's about that. Russia is militarily secure and the 'west' knows that. It is one
reason for the anti-Russian frenzy. Russia does not need to bother with the unprecedented
hostility coming from Brussels and Washington. It can ignore it while taking care of its
interests.
As this is so obvious one must ask what the real reason for the anti-Russian pressure
campaign is. What do those who argue for it foresee as its endpoint?
Posted by b on October 17, 2020 at 16:31 UTC | Permalink
thanks b.... that lavrov interview that karlof1 linked to previously is
worth its weight in gold...
it gives a clear understanding of how russia sees what is
happening here on the world stage... as you note cheap talk from the atlantic council 'rules
of the liberal international order' is no substitute for 'international law' which is what
russia stands on.... as for the usa campaign to tar russia and claim trump is putins puppet..
apparently this stupidity really sells in the usa.. in fact, i have a close friend here in
canada from the usa with family in the usa has bought this hook, line and sinker as well..
and he is ordinarily a bright guy!
as for the endpoint - the usa and the people of the usa don't mind themselves about
endpoints... it is all about being in the moment, living a hollywood fantasy off the ongoing
party of wall st... the thought this circus will end, is not something many of them
contemplate.. that is what it looks like to me.. maga, lol...
Belarus - this is happenstance, not long term planning. Like Venezuela - indeed neither
original Presidential candidate nor his wife had a Wikipedia entry a week or so before being
announced as candidate (much like Guaido 2 weeks before Trump "made" him President.
Yes the Western media make the most of it, and yes there are many in place in and besides the
media whose job it is to maximise any noise. But little is happening in Belarus. Sanctioning
is all anyone can do now. (Sanctions = punishment therefore proof of guilt without trial or
evidence).
US pressure is based on the Dem vs Rep "I am tougher on Russia than you" game spurred on
by the MIC.
European pressure is based on the Euro Defence force concept and a low key but real desire to
rid itself of Nato. So again we have Nato saying "without US/us Europe would be soft on
Russia" and Europe saying we are tough on Russia whatever.
What do those who argue for it foresee as its endpoint?
It is about driving a wedge between Europe and Russia. The nightmare scenario for the
Anglo-Americans is a Germany-Russia-China triangle. If that happens it is game
over!
They don't want an actual war. They just ratchet up the tensions to keep Europe subdued
and obedient and Russia off balance and thereby prevent any rapprochement between the
two.
Putin has repeatedly stated he wants a Lisbon to Vladivostok free trade area.
The Anglo-Americans will never permit that. That Europe is committed to a course that is
against their own best interest shows just how subservient they are to the
Anglo-Americans.
I think it was the first head of NATO that said the purpose of the organization is to
"keep the Russians out, the Germans down and the US in"
There is no endpoint. Those who argue for it, the Western think-tank industry and security
and intelligence industry, are recipients of huge sums of money. It is bread and butter for
large numbers of people. And the acceptance of the conclusions and advice of the immense
stacks of papers thus produced mean money towards the defense industry and the cyber warfare
industry. In the end, all this is driven by elites' fear of their own populations. Sowing FUD
(Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) makes these populations docile. Rinse and repeat.
>>As this is so obvious one must ask what the real reason for the anti-Russian pressure
campaign is.
The reason was probably the new Russian Constitution, which is basically a declaration of
independence from the West. This has caused serious triggerings in western elites, although
their reaction took some time to crystalise due to the Covid Pandemic.
>>What do those who argue for it foresee as its endpoint?
The endpoint is - EU and NATO move into Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Georgia, Belarus,
Armenia.
A puppet government of someone like Navalny is installed Russia. That government further
gives up Crimea, Kaliningrad and Northen Caucasus. In the long run, a soft partition of Russia into 3 parts follows (as per the Grand
Chessboard 1997).
The possibility for that happening is overall negative, as the West is on a long term
decline, that is, it will be weaker in 2030, and even weaker in 2040 or 2050.
OECD economies were 66 % of the world economy in 2010 but that share is estimated to drop
to 38 % of the world economy in 2050 (with further drops after that).
The strong hatred and hostility coming from the US and the EU are due to the understanding
that they don't have much time, and they must act now, or tomorrow it will be too
late.
Well, the hostility in "western" "elite" (rulers) towards Russia is on much more primal level
than money and power IMO. It is pure racial hatred combined with Übermensch God complex.
Main controllers in modern "west" are US, Israel and Germany.
Years ago Barack Obama gave speech to West Point graduates, proclaiming US moral and
racial superiority (because they mix'n's*it) over whole world, Goebbels would be proud.
Germany has long history of hating all those Slavs, and Israel... Lets not go there with how
they threat those inferior brown people.
"What do those who argue for it foresee as its endpoint?"
Of course that end-point is money for military contractors and power for the FP elite in
government and think-tanks which also means money. Yes, there are true-believers who see a
mighty struggle between "good" (the USA) an "evil" (Russia/China) but they are incompetent.
As for the American people they will believe whatever the NY Times says since they are
militantly ignorant of history, geography, foreign affairs in general, and, above all,
political science.
The problem as I see it is Europe generally, and Germany in particular. Why do they follow
Washington diktats?
Well let's see, the USA is $30 trillion in debt and counting, faces an upcoming economic
depression to rival the 'great' one, with a citizenry on the brink of civil war and a
political system that makes a 'banana republic' look like ancient Greece. Desperate is as
desperate does.
As this is so obvious one must ask what the real reason for the anti-Russian pressure
campaign is. What do those who argue for it foresee as its endpoint?
For a very simple reason: there's no other option. Capitalism can only work in one way. There's a limit to how much capitalism can reform
within itself without self-destructing.
The West is also suffering from the "Whale in a Swimming Pool" dilemma: it has grown so
hegemonic, so big and so gloated that its strategic options have narrowed sharply. It has not
much more room for maneuver left, its bluffs become less and less effective. As a result, its
strategies have become increasingly linear, extremely predictable. The "whale in a pool
dilemma" is not a problem when your inner workings (domestic economy) is flourishing; but it
becomes one when the economy begins to stagnate and, ultimately, decline (albeit slowly).
On a side note, it's incredible how History is non-linear, full of surprises. The Russian
Federation is inferior to the Soviet Union in every aspect imaginable. Except for one factor:
it now has an ascendant China on its side in a time where the West is declining. (Historical)
context is everything.
The USA is lucky the USSR collapsed in 1991. If it managed to somehow survive for mere 17
years more, it would catch the 2008 capitalist meltdown and have an opportunity to gain the
upper hand over capitalism (plus have a strong China on its side). Socialism/communism
wouldn't have been demoralized the way it was in the 1990s, opening a huge flank for
revolutions in the Western Hemisphere (specially Latin America). NATO would be much weaker.
Since the USSR was closed to capitalism, the USA wouldn't be able to enforce as crippling
economic sanctions on China and the USSR. The USSR would be able to "reform and open up" in a
much safer environment (by copying China, instead of Yeltsin's neoliberalism), thus gaining
the opportunity to make a Perestroika that could actually work.
But it didn't happen. Well, what can I say? It looks like the USA imported the Irish and imported their luck,
too.
Abe @7 - I would agree and have raised somewhere (old age?) that part of what we are seeing
in this latest western-NATO cooked up charade re Navalny is, in part at least, a deep
historical supremacist loathing of the Slavs an in general and the Russians in particular by
the haute bourgeois Germans. This loathing was made blatantly manifest during WWII, of
course, but it didn't die out because that generation and more likely their children remain
with us. Ditto the generational Anglo-American hatred of Russians (yes, for the UK, and their
haute bourgeoisie, it has deeper historical roots than the 20thC) and the USSR even more...
The pressure on Russia is enormous and I would enlarge on the economic sanctions aspect
(siege warfare): Belarus, Armenia-Azerbaijan (Erdogan once again playing his role for the
US/NATO - in this business, Iran is also a target), Kyrgyzstan - all on or very close to
Russia's borders and thus dividing and draining (intention) Russia's focus and $$$$ (the
Brzezinski game) in order to open it up to the western corporate-capitalist bloodsuckers. And
I suspect that as the US (and UK) economies drain away, so these border country "revolts,"
"protests" etc. will grow...
Russia really needs to join with China in full comity. Bugger the west - they do not
respect the rights of either country to their own culture, societal structures, mores,
perspectives...nor apparently even those countries' rights to their own coastal waters, air
space...
One wonders how the USA would react to Chinese and/or Russian warships in the Gulf or
traversing (lengthwise) the Atlantic or Pacific????
"Maas added that Germany takes decisions related to its energy policy and energy supply 'here in Europe', saying
that Berlin accepts ' the fact that the US had more than doubled its oil imports from Russia last year and is now the
world's second largest importer of Russian heavy oil .'" [My Emphasis]
Now isn't that the interesting bit of news!! The greatest fracking nation on the planet needs to import heavy oil (likely
Iranian, unlikely Venezuelan) from its #1 adversary. As for the end game, I've written many times what I see as the goal and
don't see any need to add more.
"The Russians are coming' is a long standing fear built the American psyche almost from the
very start.
Russian colonization of the California Territory outnumbered the US population.
The Monroe Doctrine was all about that,not S.America at all. The Brits ruled S.America by
mercantile means until
WWI cut the sea lanes, then and only then did it fall into the sphere of Yankee control.
Then there is Alaska. The Sewards Folly documents are almost certainly fakes, the verified
Russian copy says a 100year LEASE,not a sale. The National Archives refuses examination by any
but its own experts. Unless they are forgeries and they know it there can be no real reason for
their stance.
There is much more background to the antipathy than many are aware.
@bjd (4) You nailed it, my friend. Cold wars are immensely profitable for certain sectors of
the economy and the parasites who run them. The supreme imperative is always to have
enemies--really big, bad, dangerous enemies--whether real or imagined. I will be voting for
Biden, but I don't have much hope for positive change in American foreign policy. Russia,
China, Iran, Venezuela, etc. will continue to be vilified as nations to be feared and hated.
The neocon/NATO aggressive expansionism has many purposes, but one is surely domestic
repression: to gaslight and cause fear-the-foreign-bogeyman trauma among the American and
British people as a whole and make most of them become docile and lose their critical
thinking skills and their ability to analyze their own societies.
One of the best ways to
lobotomize the publics of the US and UK is to very gradually impose martial law in the name
of protecting national security and ensuring peace and harmony at home.
After several color
revolutions succeeded, the Russiagate/Spygate op was carried out in the US, with British
assistance. This op has been largely successful, though there has been limited resistance
against its whole fake edifice as well as with the logic of Cold War2.0. Nevertheless,
Spygate has shocked many tens of millions of Dems into a stupor, while millions more are
dazed and manipulated by the Chinese bogeyman being manufactured by Trump. The most dangerous
result of the martial law lite mentality caused by Spygate and its MSM purveyors is the
growing support for censorship of free speech coming mostly from the Dems, such as Schiff and
Warner. The danger inherent in this trend became very clear when FaceBook and Twitter engaged
in massive and unprecedented arbitrary censorship of the New York Post and of various
Trump-related accounts. This is the kind of thing you do during Stage 1 of a coup. Surely it
was at least in part an experiment to see how various power points in the US would respond.
Even though Twitter ended the censorship later, it was probably a successful experiment
designed to gauge reactions and areas of resistance. In November, there could be further,
more serious experiments/ops. If so, the current expansionist movements being made and
planned by the US and NATO may well be integral parts of a new non-democratic model of
"American-style democracy" -- not constitution-based but "rules-based."
"As this is so obvious one must ask what the real reason for the anti-Russian pressure
campaign is. What do those who argue for it foresee as its endpoint?"
I think the answer is clear. The US economy is collapsing and likewise those wedded to the US
dollar system. The USA spent 90% more than it received last year.
They are desperate to have access to Russia's largely untapped resources and it doesn't want
any competition for its position as world hegemon. Thus Russia and China are in the
crosshairs.
Fortunately the corruption in the USA has resulted in a weaker military capability over time
and they are reduced to behaving in clandestine and terroristic ways to try and achieve this.
The turmoil enveloping the USA is scape goated on Trump and Covid19 but is ultimately due to
their faltering economy and a big helping of financial corruption. Talk about your chickens
coming home to roost
Sounds like thunder, all those chickens. I appeared to me that whomever is in charge here, they started pulling all the levers they
could lay a hand on a couple weeks back in terms of stirring up trouble. Throwing sand in the
eyes of ones enemy.
At the time, I thought it was just Trump and his followers freaking out, now I think it's
the NatSec people, who have finally seen the truth of their situation. As one can see in the
Atlantic Council piece B posted, they are still trying to keep the old narrative patched
together too.
Politfiction, or what could have happened if is an entertaining but futile exercise.
Everybody agrees, there was no need for the USSR to dissolve, it was like a big jackpot for
an amazed rival that rushed to declare himself the winner. The price has been high, on both
sides of the fence but of course with a lot more victims and destruction on the other side of
the fallen wall. Gorbachov a tragic figure and Yelstyn a sinister one, in spite of his being
a clown, a tragic one at that, bombing his parliament and laughing at the world together with
the degenerate Clinton, the 90's were somber indeed. The west paid its price, a self declared
victory that did not bring any benefit, the peace dividend never was, to the contrary,
military budgets never stopped growing year after year. The end of history was proclaimed, no
need to match or better the rival ideology, there is none, so proles you better stop
complaining, or else and that's where we are.
Just to repeat the obvious, for the US actually to go to war is out of the question these
days -- the US public would not tolerate the casualties. Therefore other methods have to be
found to achieve the same objectives -- the maintenance of an eternal enemy in 1984 style, to
keep up military budgets and world hegemony, neither of which are the elite ready to abandon.
Economic sanctions have been the weapon of choice in the age of Trump, but there isn't really
any other. Sometimes they are better aimed and sometimes not.
In any case I am not sure I agree that the EU is really submissive to the US in this
respect. They don't want to offend the US, and some leaders have genuinely swallowed the
Kool-Aid, but others haven't, and the continuation of Nordstream 2 is where they haven't.
Doctorow wrote "Of course, under the dictates of the Democrat-controlled House and with the
complicity of the anti-Russian staff in the State Department, in the Pentagon, American
policy towards Russia over the entire period of Trump's presidency..."
The Senate is more
important for foreign affairs and has been Republican for Trump's entire term. The House was
also Republican for half of Trump's term. Lastly the "staff" is not really able to run things
in the presence of a minimally competent administrator, at the head of the State Department,
acting under leadership of a competent, energetic president. There is no sign Doctorow is
particularly intelligent or insightful.
I have long ago lost track of where the bar's consensus on Turkey is, whether the failing
US means Erdogan must become the follower of the skilled, brave and indefatigable Putin...or
whether his sultanship is suicidally persisting in thinking Russia cannot actually deliver
anything his sultanship really needs and wants. At any rate it is entirely unclear what
"international law" Lavrov thinks supports Russia.
As to the China Russia "alliance," the difficulty is that Putin has so very little to
offer.
I can hazard a guess to answer your final question. I think corruption is probably the main
reason. Those involved in this are mostly interested in self-enrichment through the
gullibility of their societies. I don't think the stenographers and the hot-heads neo liberals
pushing for a show-down with Russia are intent on committing suicide by igniting a hot war
with Russia, but they hope that Moscow could be intimidated and surrender eventually. As you
rightly said, it is a pipe dream of course, but they get paid heavily for the hot air they
emit.
'As this is so obvious one must ask what the real reason for the anti-Russian pressure
campaign is. What do those who argue for it foresee as its endpoint?'
The endpoint is quite clear: 'Global Governance, by Global Institutions under control of
the 'Globalists' (i.e. the Davos crowd).' For this, the 'Globalists' must subdue Russia.
Russia is not only blocking the 'Globalist's' plans in its own right, but, since 2013, it
has been protecting other nations from falling prey to 'Globalist' colonization (Syria,
Eastern Ukraine, Iran, Venezuela, Libya, Belarus, etc.). And Russia is the lynch-pin to
enable the 'Globalists' to corner China.
In addition, together with China, Russia is offering the world an alternative to
'Globalism', a 'Multi-Polar World Order' that is much more attractive than becoming a
'Globalist' vassal.
For the 'Globalists' time has become critical. They are facing revolts in their home
countries (Trump, Brexit, Gilets-Jaunes, etc.). The main source of their geo-political power,
(since they can no longer challenge Russia and China militarily) the U.S. dollar, is on the
verge of collapse as the World's reserve currency. And the economic growth of China means
that China has become the most important trading partner for most of the World's nations.
The window of opportunity for the 'Globalists' to create their 'Global Governance' system
may have already closed. But, as usual, the losers of any war are usually the last to know.
The desperation with which the 'Globalists' are fighting their last battles, against Trump,
against Russia, against Brexit, is testimony to the fact that for the 'Globalists' losing
this war means their extinction as a ruling elite.
c'mon steve.... what is the usa offering
turkey here?? they could give a rats ass about turkey, or any other country in the middle
east, excluding their 24/7 darling israel... the usa presence on the world stage is meant to
sabotage any and all who don't bow down to the exceptional nations philosophy of 'might makes
right'... the obvious benefits of russia-china synergy are apparent to both countries and
they continue to capitalize on this, in spite of what you read in the usa msm.. russia as a
lot to offer china... the fact that the nation apparently masquerading as a gas station has
so much to offer is also the reason that all the pillage of the 90's hasn't turned out the
way the harvard boys had envisioned... that you can't see the vast wealth and value of russia
has nothing to do with the reality on the ground... keep the blinders on, lol...
The EU's attitude to the US is much like its attitude to Britain and Brexit. They don't want
to split with the US, because, after all, there might be war, and NATO would be needed, but
it's becoming increasingly less likely. In the same way, they would have preferred to stay in
good relations with Britain, until Britain insisted on a hostile Brexit. Basic interests come
first, and that will also be the case in the future with the US.
Russia and China are already de-facto alliance. Militarily they cooperate at every level
and will soon extend shared anti ballistic shield over China too. It is clear to any outside
enemy (except for most retarded ones) that nuclear attack on one will be treated as attack on
both of them. Not having formal alliance is somewhat an advantage (eg. limited attack on one
of them by enemy that can be easily handled will not complicate situation) as it controls
escalation. Lack of escalation control led to WW1 so...
Apart for military, Russia is one of rare fully self sufficient countries in the world.
Having vast natural resources and territory, knowledge and industrial capacity to built
EVERYTHING they need, they can afford to be sanctioned by whole world and close borders
completely if needed. Having 100% secure land borders with China and already huge (and
increasing) trade, including oil & gas, only make Russia's self sufficiency even more
stable. It also strategically benefits China, as its main weakness is lack of those same
resources Russia has in abundance and is willing to share.
So, if sh*t hits the fan, and Russia and China say f*ck it and close borders to rest of
the world (even though China trade profits wouldn't be happy), both countries form self
sufficient symbiosis that can carry on for centuries.
Which brings me to all those little fires US is starting in Russia's neighborhood. They
don't matter. Unlike USSR, Russia's mission is self preservation only, not changing whole
world into communist utopia (even though @VK here repeatedly fails to acknowledge it). And
survive it will. All it needs is to wait few generations.
Unlike Russia, collective west is going down the drain. Soon enough, all those Slav hating
in Bundestag, UK parlament and elsewhere will have more urgent problem of Islamic head
choppers that became majority in their countries, while US will have problem to recruit
enough men,women and "others" from pool of rainbow colored too-fat and unfit, godless faggot
from broken family snowflakes.
As China has been mentioned, I think it is worth saying that although I have full confidence
that Putin will maintain his usual good sense in international conflicts, I have more doubts
about the Chinese regime. I don't really understand their policy, which is becoming more
nationalistic and edgy. I don't see why. They have great economic success; they should be
more relaxed, but they aren't. The first signs came with their attitude towards the Muslims
in China. One, the concentration camps in Xinjiang - in that case the Uyghur jihadists in Syria
must have provoked anxiety in Beijing. But also increasing pressure on the Hui Muslims in
central China (who are native Han) to become more "national". Some years ago they weren't
bothered. Now they are.
This suggests that the question of Taiwan could blow up, apart from HongKong. They are
less tolerant in Beijing.
It is about driving a wedge between Europe and Russia. The nightmare scenario for the
Anglo-Americans is a Germany-Russia-China triangle. If that happens it is game
over!
It is a tired and false concept. There cannot be a "triangle" which includes Germany, due
to Germany's increasingly diminishing status. Moreover, Russians do not view Europe as a
viable part of Russia's future--the cultural gap is gigantic and continues to grow--the only
place of Europe in general, and Germany in particular, in Russian plans is that of a market
for Russia's hydrocarbons and other exports. A rather successful program of
export-substitution in Russia in the last 6 years dropped technological importance of Germany
for Russia dramatically. In some fields, such as high-power turbines made Germany irrelevant,
as Siemens learned the hard way recently.
"U.S. and its EU puppies have ratcheted up their pressure...
The 'rules of the liberal international order' are of course whatever the U.S. claims they
are. They may change at any moment and without notice to whatever new rules are the most
convenient for U.S. foreign policy."
Outstanding assessment and thank you for addressing it.
As I've said numerous times -- Fuck the US Empire and it's minion bitches. Jesse Ventura
commented this past week that EVERY US Incumbent politician should be voted out of office
this election. 99% of them are scum.
Every politician, corporate CEO Banker and Media whore, Judge, CIA filth should have a
pitchfork held to their throat and be tried for treason and war crimes. MIC/Pentagon should
be destroyed. Majority of Americans are propagandized dumbfucks. Sounds a bit like an
American Cultural Revolution is exactly the medicine.
There will come a day for reckoning and true justice, hopefully it is sooner than later.
There should be no mercy. For those committing their treasonous crimes, they know better but
have chosen poorly, they should be broken.
Russia, Putin and Lavrov have remained the adults in the room while the Empire Brats
tantrum themselves.
Anyone else notice that the Anti-Russia rhetoric increased after Snowden was trapped in
Russia?
I agree with Ike and others who think the US money situation is the problem. But I also
think that the underlying endpoint is hyperinflation, not just the loss of the dollars'
"reserve status." Hyperinflation is when so much "money" has been produced that it no longer
has any value and the Central Bank cannot control what comes next.
There is a point at which people want to get rid of dollars and panic buy or "invest" in
assets, or anything solid or simply anything (Gold, land etc. bread) At which time the money
they want to get rid of looses value continuously, as others don't want it either. A Rush for
the exits happens.
Who has the MOST money - the Rich and the sovereign Nations? (Althought the latter may
also be in the same situation as the US.) Russia has more or less got rid of all it's US
holdings. The Chinese must be alarmed by the thought of the Fed issuing ONLY new-digicoins,
and then the US simply refusing to pay debts to the Chinese at some future point. They might
want out now. Not so much dumping everything but a steady reduction of US denominated
"assets" or reserves.
Most of this becomes self-sustaining panic, as happened in the Weimar Rep. What can be
considered "assets" to grab? ie Russia, minerals and it's Gold, China and its Gold. Then the
choice might be to invest in the US military and use it while there is a residue of belief in
the Dollar.
The only thing about a panic exit is that it happens very quickly. About a month or two
between when the first bright sparks try to get out and when everyone else tries to grab part
of a rapidly restricted choice of things to buy with an unending pile of "empty" dollars.
Germany should've been conquered by the Soviet Union entirely as it was won with Soviet,
largely Russian, blood. Germany is increasingly irrelevant to Russia's needs now as Martyanov
points out above. Germany's existence today should be that of a Russian oblast, same with
Eastern Ukraine from Kharkiv to Mariupol and Belarus.
Ask yourself what Germany produces that Russia can't produce for itself with import
substitution schemes or similar schemes within a 10 year period. Russia's GDP by PPP is the
size of Germany's already and depending on how it deals with the impact of COVID, may
continue an upward year-on-year growth trend (People's Republic of China is the only major
economy forecast to expand in fiscal quarter this year). The fact of the matter is that
Russia's population is much larger, its industrial base, at least in heavy industry, is
nearly self sufficient (not much light industry to speak of) and Germany depends on Russian
oil and gas to keep its lights on. Russia can carry on without Germany just fine. There may
be a noticeable impact now if Russia were cornered into doing that, but it's nothing that
can't be overcome in short order.
Thank you, b, and before reading comments, I will give my take on your last question:
As this is so obvious one must ask what the real reason for the anti-Russian pressure
campaign is. What do those who argue for it foresee as its endpoint?
The whole 'rules based order' became very clear when the Trans Pacific Partnership, TPP,
was being debated,and what happened then is what many have noted, the 'rules' were all to
advantage the US. So, you might say that was the beginning of the end for the oligarchy. And
the partnership reformed after it had taken out that problem, to be fair to all participants.
All the oligarchy can do is keep on keeping on until it can't. This is really about survival
for that class of individuals who intend to keep on being in charge here in the US and
wherever its tentacles have reached. The only endpoint they see is their continuance. And I
suppose their fear is that it is simply not possible for that to be the case.
Hopefully there will just come a point where, as in Plato's Republic, the dialogue simply
moves on. There, it begins in the home of the ancient one, Cephalus, with a polite
discussion, and the old man says his piece, to which Socrates responds:
"What you say is very fine indeed, Cephalus...but as to this very thing, justice, shall
we so simply assert that it is the truth and giving back what a man has taken from another,
or is to do these very things sometimes just and sometimes unjust? Take this case as an
example of what I mean: everyone would surely say that if a man takes weapons from a friend
when the latter is of sound mind, and the friend demands them back when he is mad, one
shouldn't give back such things, and the man who gives them back would not be just, and
moreover, one should not be willing to tell someone in this state the whole truth."
"What you say is right," he said.
[Allan Bloom translation]
In the dialogue, the old man leaves to 'look after the sacrifices', handing down the
argument to his heir, Polymarchus. To me, Socrates has adroitly caused this to come about in
much the fashion that Lavrov answers his press questioners in the link b provides. That is,
he has done so with diplomacy, and a lesson to his younger companions which perhaps Cephalus
is no longer able to understand. Quod erat demonstrandum.
Yet in your disparaging comments of Europe and Germany in particular you proceed to show
how successful the Anglo-Americans have been in creating a wedge between Europe and Russia
actually validating my original point.
"Keep the Russians out, the Germans down and the US in"
That was the whole point of the first Cold War. It is the whole point of creating a Cold War 2.0. Absolutely nothing has changed.
By whom exactly? US & several euro puppets? Typical racist thinking that Europe and
its former colonies are somehow "the world" or "the international community".
Meanwhile opinion of Russia is positive in India (1,3 billion people, more than the whole
West combined) and China (1,4 billion, more than the whole West combined).
Those who don't spend for their own weapons, spend for their master's weapons (like
europuppets).
Btw your master (US) spends on weapons too. What are you going to do about it?
As was rightly pointed out in that discussion, British foreign policy towards Europe was
to ensure that no single power was to be allowed to achieve hegemony over Europe. The famous
"balance of power"
@ Posted by: Andrei Martyanov | Oct 17 2020 19:41 utc | 36
If the Russian Federation really has an ongoing imports substitution program, then this
explains everything. Germany is an exports-oriented economy. It wants to integrate with the Russian economy in
the sense to keep it as an agrarian-extrativist economy to feed it with cheap commodities to
feed their industry. Germany's ideal Russia is Brazil.
A Russia that also exports high-value commodities (manufactured commodities) is a direct
threat to Germany, as it competes with it directly in the international market. That's the
reason Germany doesn't want the BRI to come to Europe, as Merkel once said: Europe must not
become China's peninsula. China is Germany's main competitor, as it is also a big
manufacturing exporter.
Unlike China, Russia lacks the weight of population and reliance on the globalist capitalist
system to throw around, China will not shut itself up for Russia when it can trade with EU
& Turkey instead.
Russia is increasingly put into weak position, where Russian troops are sent to do the
dying, while the Chinese business whoop in afterwards to get all the juicy business deals. In
other words, Russia does the dying while China enriches itself.
Russia only hope is that it becomes friendly with the EU, otherwise, it is going to be
crushed between two superpowers, the EU and China.
I think the point of the sanctions and all the pressure on Russia is an appeal to Russian
elite, Just a reminder that they are isolated from the rest of the elite and hope that it
would help them throw Russian nationalists from power. I think this might succeed as Putin
did no really take on the new Russian capitalist class, and that will probably be his
undoing.
@vk 36 That's the reason Germany doesn't want the BRI to come to Europe
BRI in Europe - 16 countries:
Austria*, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine
* shaky
SCMP - Aug 17, 2020:
China's rail shipments to Europe set records as demand surges for Chinese goods amid
coronavirus
> July saw 1,232 cargo trains travel from Chinese cities to European destinations –
the most ever in a single month > Once regarded as merely ornamental, freight service along belt and road trade routes has
become increasingly important as exporters turn to railway transport. . .
here
Lavrov, Shoigu and Putin are calm, but the domestic economic situation is not.
While I have noted before that Russia is better positioned to survive low oil prices than
Saudi Arabia - it doesn't mean this is fun.
Couple that with COVID-19 economic losses, and stresses on the domestic Russian economy are
enormous.
Among other signs: after bouncing around in the 60s for some time, the ruble just hit 80 to
the USD. Anecdotally, I am hearing a lot of direct personal accounts of businesses not being
able to pay their people because their own customers aren't paying.
Russia has done relatively little extra to assist with COVID-19 related economic harms, so
this isn't great either.
@ laguerre -- The interview with Pepe Escobar deals with the whole range of issues in the
hybrid war against China, but the information you're looking for Regarding the suppression
and re-education of Muslim terrorists starts just past the 1-hour point.
the Chinese regime. I don't really understand their policy, which is becoming more
nationalistic and edgy.
No, it's become more multi-national and sensible. Take the BRI: Launched in 2013, it was
initially planned to revive ancient Silk Road trade routes between Eurasia and China, but the
scope of the BRI (Belt & Road Initiative) has since extended to cover 138 countries,
including 38 in sub-Saharan Africa and 18 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
they should be more relaxed
China has been an open target for the US, which doesn't even mention China any more (Pompeo)
but dumps on the "CCP" (Chinese Communist Party). China (like Russia) has not responded in
kind.
their attitude towards the Muslims in China
The US State Dept slash CIA has been fomenting terrorism in Xinjiang for years and China has
had to contend with it.
the question of Taiwan could blow up
Taiwan like some other places in the world, including Hong Kong, has been another place where
the US has fomented instability. This has increased recently with Taiwan "president" Tsai
declaring that Taiwan (January this year, BBC interview) is a separate country, which it
isn't. China is being pushed to do his Abe Lincoln thing and save the union.
They are less tolerant in Beijing
Chinese by nature are tolerant, and Beijing has been tolerant in the face of US naval fleets
and bomber visits in their near seas, plus political attacks, sanctions and tariffs.
66 watch what they do and have done and not what they.
Construction started four years ago on enlarging and modernization of the railway marshaling
yards in Duisburg.
The volume of Chinese freight trains arriving daily is already quite amazing and planned to
increase to one every hour next month 24/7.They are not returning empty. The oil and gas
pipeline corridors also had ten plus railway tracks built alongside .Germany is already at the
center of the BRI expansion into Germany and it started four years ago.
@ Posted by: H.Schmatz | Oct 17 2020 21:40 utc | 60
That's why Germany is not full anti-China.
--//--
@ Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 17 2020 22:12 utc | 66
Just because Germany doesn't want it, it doesn't mean it's not getting.
--//--
@ Posted by: c1ue | Oct 17 2020 22:18 utc | 67
I agree. Capitalism is a dead end for Russia. It's all about when Putin dies. After he dies, it will be a coin flip for Russia: it could
continue its course or it could get another Yeltsin.
Germany being against BRI is news to me. Any proof? And it is very unlikely that China will be able to fool the europeans lile the
american. The EU has regulations and aren't purely about profit.
Perhaps the US only has one script in the playbook: to balkanise, disrupt and foster 5th
columns until their opponent becomes a dysfunctional or failed state. Then send in the
acronyms (IMF etc), establish a provisional administration under trusted local elites but
commandeer resource-rich areas under direct provincial command. That's US imperialism and it
won't stop until they encounter opposition effective enough to resist it. That's why they'll
never forgive Putin for Syria. In the end they want to finish doing to Russia (by other
means...) what the Germans began in '41; and not just Russia, but anywhere their markets are
prevented from calling the shots.
thank you, @72. the chinese learned much from their century of humiliation & clearly one
of the important lessons was trade both ways, rather than take their silver, sell them tea,
silks & porcelain & need nothing they offered.
That's an excellent observation, and a concept I had not encountered before. Thank you.
How consciously China holds that narrative, if at all, I couldn't say.
But it's a great dynamic - kind of like keeping your enemies close. And if the German
increase in reciprocal railroad trade with China is as it was stated up-thread, it would seem
to be working.
@78, thank you, grieved...i've long admired you. in times such as these it can be a challenge
to keep sight of the positive but as china prospers & wishes her trading partners to as
well, & so long as russia continues to strive toward the high road rather than descend to
the barroom floor perhaps we can also learn to rise...i'm reminded of a sufi saying: 'rise in
love do not fall'. may we all.
Do they even think about an endpoint? Is it really on their radar?
Or is this all being done because they are spoilt, and are throwing a tantrum because they
aren't getting their way?
I assume that there are sober heads in the Pentagon that wargame possible "endpoints". If
not sober at the beginning then sober when the results play out to their bitter end.
Or... maybe not. Post-retirement board seats are at stake, dammit! Full steam ahead and
damn the torpedoes!
I'm truly astonished that you don't know the truth of Xinjaing - in sum, that the
concentration camps are a huge lie that can be revealed as such by any satellite, and that
China has developed a progressive and worthy solution to the foreign-provoked terrorism
within its border.
Fortunately, Qiao Collective, a great expert source on China, has recently compiled a
treasure trove of links to know the truth:
Based on a handful of think tank reports and witness testimonies, Western governments
have levied false allegations of genocide and slavery in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
A closer look makes clear that the politicization of China's anti-terrorism policies in
Xinjiang is another front of the U.S.-led hybrid war on China.
This resource compilation provides a starting point for critical inquiry into the
historical context and international response to China's policies in Xinjiang, providing a
counter-perspective to misinformation that abounds in mainstream coverage of the autonomous
region.
Posted by: Andrei Martyanov | Oct 17 2020 19:41 utc | 36
Andrei
A good justification on Russian German transitional relation, and we hope Russia is not
fooled again, by hopes. Those of us who hope for containing and reducing western dominance
over the world affairs, politics and economy, hope that Russians have learned from their
experience of the 90's joining G7, seat at NATO, joining western sanctions on smaller powers,
etc. all those efforts were the carrots thrown at Russia to tame the bear, one would think up
to Georgian war, it worked, that war perhaps woke the bear. Russians felt they are part of
Europe,part of western community of privileged nations (first world) but all that was a decoy
to move the NATO to Russian borders. I hope Russians once for all have learned, as long as
they have a big modern military and plenty of energy resources that is not under the western
(you read US) control they will never be accepted as a "western" country, Ironically, Russia
is the largest European country.
As a strategist you know better than most to circumvent western power and to bring back
the rule of international law, it would be impossible without having the Russian defensive
political and military power (as in Syria) on the side of resistance. We just hope you are
right Russia, will not be bought out again. IMO as you say, is just impossible for Germany,
or even France to decouple from the US grip on europe.
Seems to me its been terribly effective.
Russian economy pretty weak heavily reliant on raw materials, fracturing at the periphery.
China and Russia seem less than alies.
Seems US has Germany, France by the short hairs.
US had to bail them out in 2009.
Europe is having some problems with solvency and cohesion - whats a bureaucrat to do?
Its not really about the sovereigns, that's only for appearances.
@ 77
The Century of Humiliation from 1842 to 1949 and the contemporary discourse around it are a
driving narrative of contemporary Chinese history, foreign policy, and militarization of its
surrounding regions like the South China Sea. The expansion of the Chinese navy in numbers,
mission, and aggression is directly fueled by China's previous weakness and exploitation at
the hands of western nations. . . .
here
The US economy is definitely in trouble, but the US has spent roughly $2 trillion this year
to help its economy = a bit under 10% of 2019 GDP.
The difference is structural. The US economy is a service one - and lockdowns are literally
the best way to damage it.
The Russian economy is still heavily dependent on natural gas and oil sales. Despite the
initial devaluation, ongoing low oil prices plus increasing competition in natural gas (for
example, Azerbaijan is now selling natural gas to Italy) is hurting its economy.
Nor has Russia spent much to compensate for COVID-19 losses beyond its existing health and
social safety nets - the Russian plan was $73B / 5 trillion rubles = 4.3% of 2019 GDP.
I am anti-war and I am an anti-war crimes liberal (examples of war crimes: ethnic cleansing,
proof of genocide, torture, collective punishment via deprivation and occupation of
dispossessed land). Yet, I am also a non-interventionist except in extreme circumstances but
I am against regime change for the sake of neutralizing competing powers or converting them
religiously or politically.
All this implies exercising the highest integrity and blocking out all external influence
and pressure if one is a true liberal, and relying solely on conscience and wisdom.
Therefore, I don't like the term liberal sullied and usurped by fake liberals,
neoliberals and Zionist liberals, and I also take offense to the way liberal as a
general term is denigrated in this article.
Germany is an exports-oriented economy. It wants to integrate with the
Russian economy in the sense to keep it as an agrarian-extrativist economy to feed it with
cheap commodities to feed their industry. Germany's ideal Russia is Brazil.
True, it was about 10 years ago. Economic reality, of course, is such that Germany already
beat the record by consecutive 20 months of real economy shrinkage. In general, Germany's
energy policy is suicidal and Russia is increasingly independent from imports.
A lot to be
done in the future yet, of course, but as the whole comedy with high-power turbines and
Siemens demonstrated, Russia can do it on her own, plus General Electric is always there,
sanctions or no sanctions. It is a complicated matter, but it is Germany which increasingly
becomes irrelevant for Russia as an old image of technologically-advanced Germans getting
their hands on Russia's resources and ruling the world--this image is utterly obsolete,
completely false and doesn't correspond to the reality "on the ground".
It is really a simple
thing which many Westerners cannot wrap their brains around, that the country which has a
space program which operates ISS and second fully operational global satellite navigation
constellation, or which produces hypersonic weapons and whose shipbuilding dwarfs that of
Germany will have relatively little troubles in developing other crucial industries and
removing Western interests from those. Simple as that.
@90 Very true. Every time I read someone proclaiming that the Russian economy is no bigger
than Italy's, or Spain's, or ..... (fill in the blanks) I simply think to myself: "This word,
I do not think it means what you think it means".
Because it should be obvious to everyone that Italy can not produce all the things that
Russia produces.
Equally, Spain can not produce all the things that Russia produces.
So if someone has measured "economy" in such a way that the numbers for Russia are the
same as the number for Italy - or Spain - is simply admitting that their economic models are
flawed.
The US and EU attempts to break Russia's independent foreign policy are just stepping stones
to the eventual goal of a breakup Russia itself, never forget Albright's comments in the 90s
about how Siberia shouldn't belong to Russia alone.
Ultimately, though the US and EU nation
states are nothing more than tools of the globalist elite whose dream of a fully economically
integrated world where the power of labour is completely crushed by the power of capital to
move instantly across the planet is already falling apart. The economic elite have already
pillaged all of the minor nations in the world and the two grand prizes, Russia and China are
too powerful to attack directly now. unable to control their unbridled greed they've begone
the process of auto-self cannibalism, destroying their own states (or killing their hosts as
Michael Huddson would say) in order to completely centralize all capital within the 0.1%.
This will make them very rich, however hundreds of millions of Americans, Australians,
Canadians, Japanese and Europeans will be impoverished in order to do this. When this is
eventually realized by the majority of the people in these states, the economic elite will be
lucky if they "just" lose everything but their lives in mass nationalization campaigns. I see
very little evidence that the Russian or Chinese states would be willing to offer safe harbour for the criminal oligarchs of the West, like London has offered to criminal Oligarchs
fleeing justice in Russia
Before posting here monetarist propaganda BS form Western "economic" sources learn to
distinguish monetary expression of product and actual product in terms of quantity and
quality.
Just to demonstrate to you: for $100,000 in a desirable place in the US you will be
able to buy a roach-infested shack in a community known for meth-labs and high crime, for
exactly the same money in Russia you will buy a superb brand-new house in a desirable
location.
To demonstrate even more, for a price of a single Columbia-class SSBN ($8 billion+)
which does not exist other than on paper yet, Russia financed and produced her 8-hulls state
of the strategic missile submarines.
UK economy is dwarfed by Russia even in accordance by
IMF and World Bank, in fact, it is, once one excludes still relevant RR and few other
manufacturers, is down right third world economy. I am not going to post here all data from
IMF, but even this can explain why you posted a BS. Anyone "counting" real economic sector in
USD and Nominal GDP has to have head examined and is probably dumbed down through "economics"
programs in Western madrasas, aka universities.
In related news, learn what Composite Index of National Capability (CINC) is and check
energy consumption and production of Germany and Russia, just for shits and giggles.
And of course, Martyanov @96 is absolutely correct - the relative values of currencies are
proved to be nothing more than the entries of bookkeepers and bankers, all "sound and fury,
signifying nothing." What matters is what the home unit of currency will buy at home.
A better question is as Andrei suggests, what does it cost for Russia to produce something
that works, as opposed to what it costs the US to produce something that doesn't work because
of theft and cost inflation in the delivery chain?
The ultimate - MAD - question that the US should ask itself is this: How much does it
cost Russia to destroy the US, compared with the cost involved for the US to destroy
Russia?
~~
The cost of living is higher in the US. The cost of doing anything is higher. But none of
that means the quality of the result is greater - I certainly don't hear anyone lately saying
the living is good, compared to what people pay for it.
Were it not for the nerves of steel of Mr. Putin and his close advisers, the
irresponsible pressure policies outlined above could result in aggressive behavior and risk
taking by Russia that would make the Cuban missile crisis look like child's play.
We may yet see a Cuban missile crisis scenario but it looks more likely to be caused by arms
sales to Taiwan than conflict in the Caucasus.
I also think its naive to see these as "fires burning at Russia's borders" instead of as
deliberately set bear traps . Azerbaijan is in a strategic location between Russia and
Iran and the conflict with Armenia comes just before Russia is about to sell advanced weapons
to Iran.
Much of importance is emanating from Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs via Lavrov and
Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. As reported by TASS :
"The statement made by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, in which he said that the
situation around Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny does not form part of
Russian-Germany bilateral agenda is a ploy to hide Berlin's course to destroy relations with
Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during Thursday's
briefing.
"'We consider such statements as some tactical ploy that serves to hide Germany's course
for destruction of bilateral ties. I would like to remind you that it was Berlin that used
this situation to put forward unfounded accusations, ultimatums and threats against our
country, openly disregarding its own international legal obligations on providing practical
aid to Russia in the investigation of the incident with the Russian citizen. Once again, it
is acting as the locomotive of new anti-Russian sanctions within the EU and other
multilateral structures,' Zakharova pointed out."
That followed on the heels of yesterday's activities involving FM Lavrov. I previously
linked to Lavrov's interview with several Russian radio stations, and to that I add
the joint presser following his session with Italy's FM:
"Question: In response to the European sanctions, which I believe will follow in the wake
of the 'Navalny case,' you said yesterday that Russia will have to suspend its contacts with
European foreign ministers. Does this mean that today's meeting with Luigi Di Maio may be the
last with an EU foreign minister?
"Sergey Lavrov: The EU is increasingly replacing the art of diplomacy with sanctions.
Clearly, the bad example of the United States is contagious. We see this not just as a bad
example by the Americans, but also as a result of direct US pressure on its European allies
and colleagues. Indeed, what we are saying now is that we want to understand what the EU is
trying to accomplish. But this EU policy will not remain without consequences....
"With this EU approach in mind, where it completely ignores the real state of affairs
regarding the implementation of the Minsk agreements and the fact that they have been blocked
by official Kiev, we cannot disregard the statements coming from Brussels. In particular,
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that Russia has adopted a
position that openly undermines EU interests, and that restoring the strategic partnership
between Russia and the EU is out of the question before Russia changes its behaviour. I have
already covered the Ukraine crisis, which is one of the key crises now, as it unfolds, and
who precisely is blocking the implementation of the peace agreements.
"We are seeing similarly unfounded accusations in the case of Mr Navalny, which you
mentioned. We hear our partners say that establishing the facts is of paramount importance.
The trouble is that the facts concerning Mr Navalny's time in Russia, on a Russian plane and
in the Omsk hospital are well known and have been established by us inasmuch as we could,
since several people involved in this incident have fled to Great Britain and Germany, and we
do not know of their whereabouts. We are asking to be granted access to these people, but no
constructive response is coming our way. We do not have the necessary facts. The West has
them, but we are denied access to them. Yesterday, during a conversation with EU High
Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, and today during talks
with Luigi Di Maio, we heard a reiteration of the need to establish the facts. First off, the
other side has no facts. Second, as we know, during a Monday meeting of the EU Foreign
Affairs Council, the participants discussed the need for imposing sanctions, but Mr
Borrell assured me that before such a decision can be made, it is imperative to study the
facts that Germany and France promised to provide as part of a certain technical group that
is now being created . We very much hope that these facts will be presented not only to a
narrow group of European countries, but also directly to the party that is being, without
proof, accused of all conceivable sins and crimes." [My Emphasis]
Today sanctions were applied without the promised examination of the facts. As reported by TASS , a partial
response was made by Zakharova:
"'We call on the German foreign minister to refrain from interfering in domestic affairs
of our union nation, either in word or in deed. We are convinced that the Belarusians need no
instructions either from Berlin or any other capital city to reach accord on socially
important matters they are concerned about,' she said. 'Aggressive interventions of the
collective West in the internal political processes in third countries only entail the
emergence of more crisis foci on the global map.'"
Thanks for posting russian official reactions to recent geopolitical issues with the EU,
so that people can understand what is happening. And what is happening is that the EU has
defined itself as enemy of Russia. Something many people could not believe it is
happening.
In connection with that, i will repost a discussion of mine from another place.
Me: "Anyone who was talking about "independent EU", or "russian-german alliance", "EU
rebellion against US", "Europe joining Russia and China", "European Army independent from
NATO" has shit for brains and does not understand politics at all, no matter what his name or
education or job was."
Commenter: "By this token, does it mean Patrick Lawrence has "sh*t for brains" for writing
this piece? (About Europe allegedly moving closer to Russia in recent days)
Me: "I actually saw that article of him before several days and i wondered whether to make
a comment on that too, as an example of an "analyst" who does not understand at all what is
happening.
Point 1: Nord Stream 2. He fails to understand that this is not a divorce with the US,
rather an old german policy to buy russian energy. For example Germany approved pipelines
from the USSR over Reagan's objections in the 80s. Did that mean that Germany was not hostile
to the Soviet Union? Was not part of the Western block? No. It was a part of NATO containment
strategies against the USSR and hoped to take over Eastern Europe after the USSR loses the
Cold War.
Not to mention that there is talk that the pipeline will only be used at half
capacity.
The fact that someone (Europe) likes money does not mean that that same someone does not
secretly hate you, and will not stab you in the back as soon as it is safe to do so.
Point 2: more and more evidence emerges that Germany organised the Novichok incident with
Navalny (see John Helmer on that).
Point 3 - failed to understand that it was Germany who pushed for sanctions on Russia
after the Ukraine affair. Not to mention that Germany was involved in the anti-russian coup
in Ukraine, as part of its old strategy of "drang nach osten" - "pressure to the east" - to
take over Eastern Europe and its labor pool and use it the way the US uses Latin America.
Point 4 - failed to understand that the biggest force behind the colour revolution in
Belarus was the EU, playing far bigger role than the US. Now, who tries to take over a
russian populated country, near Moscow, histrorically part of the Russian Empire, where
millions of russians died to stop the german invasion, a situation that will also seriously
imperil the Kaliningrad enclave? Only someone who is hostile to Russia. This is a strategic
act of hostility towards Russia.
Point 5 - failed to notice that France and Sweden recently put sanctions on aviation and
industrial equipment for Russia.
Point 6 - is not aware that anti-chinese hatred in Europe has increased to all time highs,
according to recent surveys.
Point 7 - mentions several empty statements from Merkel and Macron as a sign of
"rebellion" without mentioning many other statements countering that - such as France and
Germany saying that Russia should not be allowed back in G-7, or that Borrell (EU foreign
policy chief) called Russia an old enemy of Europe, or that the french EU minister recently
called on Europe to unite against Russia, or that the EU comission chief called for Europe to
stand up to Russia, or that the European Parliament called the russian constitution "illegal"
and called for the "democratisation of Russia" (aka colour revolution), or Germany stating
recently that no european army independent from NATO is possible or will be supported by
Germany, or the 5 german parties that begged the US not to withdraw troops from Germany.
Point 8 - has no idea of recent official russian statements on the EU, meaning that he
lives in an alternate Universe.
"France and Germany are now leading the anti-russian block within Europe".
"There will be no more business as usual between Russia and France and Germany".
"Russia will not follow EU and US rules".
"Russia will no longer be dependent on the EU".
"Europeans have delusions of grandeur".
"Those people in the West who are responsible for foreign policy and do not understand the
necessity of mutually respectable conversation--well, we must simply stop for a while
communicate with them. Especially since Ursula von der Leyen states that geopolitical
partnership with current Russia's leadership is impossible. If this is the way they want it,
so be it. "
These are all statements by Lavrov and Zacharova.
So Lawrence does not even understand that there is a decoupling between Russia and EU
taking place, and worsening of relations, instead of them getting closer, as he dreams in the
daylight.
Analysts who understood the hostility of the EU towards Russia are M. K. Bhadrakumar and
Alastair Crooke, and they wrote plenty on that recently."
One part is particularly worth keeping in mind and that is the physical condition of
Navalny before leaving for Germany is known to the Russians. Note the alchohol and the
massive internal formation of acetone in the body
Acute metabolic disorder....
- - - -
(repeat of my post on the last open thread. No. 333)
In the meantime in Omsk, where two days of blood, urine and other biomarkers were recorded
for Navalny, Alexander Sabaev issued a report on Navalny's prior medical conditions and his
biomarkers after the alleged poisoning. Sabaev is head of the acute poisoning department of
the Omsk Emergency Hospital No. 1, chief toxicologist of the Omsk region and of the Siberian
Federal District.
According to Sabaev, Navalny's blood levels were "six times higher than the norm for
amylase, sugar and serum lactate; twice the normal level of leukocytosis, and the maximum
level of acetonuria. In addition, alcohol (0.2 ppm) was found in the urine ...These are the
metabolites, the substances which have been produced. These substances in large quantities
cause pathological changes." According to Sabaev, "Navalny did not suffer from diabetes, so
the tests showed that he had an acute metabolic disorder. 'An increase in the level of
lactate and lactic acid, its excessive formation makes acidification of the blood. It should
not be in such a quantity. There should be an indicator, let's say of 2; but we had an
indicator of 12, that is six times more,' he said. According to the doctor, the level of
internal acetone in Navalny's body was at maximum... Normally, acetone should be negative;
that is, it should be excreted from the body, the specialist added. 'In this case, the
carbohydrate metabolism suffered and completely different scenarios of development occurred.
The body began to destroy itself from the inside."
_________
The Germans are being trained to transport US nukes in the newest NATO exercise called
"steadfast moon". I wonder what is really going on and if the total lockdown is in
expectation to the programmed start to a False-flag.
(Striking Syria because of the upcoming White helmets chlorine FF, or somewhere else?)
Alex Gibney's new, four-hour documentary on election meddling does little to seek the facts,
and descends into conspiracy. Vladimir Putin meddles in the 2016 election.
(By Willrow Hood/Shutterstock)
With the U.S. presidential election only several weeks away, the specter of Russian election
interference has again become a mainstay media topic. Four years removed from the 2016
election, researchers and politicians are still trying to make sense of what happened: what
exactly did the Russians do, and what lessons are we to draw from it? Filmmaker Alex Gibney --
who is enjoying a rising profile with his hotly anticipated COVID-19 documentary Totally
Under Control -- has applied himself to these questions with a freshly released deepdive
into Russian election meddling.
Agents of Chaos is an epic-length documentary, spanning four hours across two
episodes, released last month on HBO. The first episode opens with a prelude of sorts. To
explain the roots of Russian information warfare, Gibney walks us through the 2014 Euromaidan
Revolution in Ukraine, Russia's subsequent annexation of Crimea, and the outbreak of the
ongoing Donbass War. The Ukrainian conflict, claims Gibney, was the stomping ground for a
nascent industry of Russian internet trolls looking to smear the new government in Kiev as
'fascists' and 'neo-nazis.'
The Ukraine tie-in is thought-provoking, but altogether unsatisfying in its execution. For
one, the strategic circumstances are not at all the same. The film is anchored around the idea
that Russia wants to sow chaos, but the Kremlin's approach to Ukraine was guided by concrete
policy goals that involved supporting specific politicians and parties. It is also comically
shortsighted to claim that Russian internet trolls sought to "drive a wedge" between eastern
and western Ukraine, when the country's two halves are already separated by centuries of
Imperial
history and the bitter legacy of two world wars. To the
extent that Russian trolls were "targeting" eastern Ukrainians, they were already speaking to
an overwhelmingly pro-Russian and anti-Maidan audience. None of this bears any resemblance to
the trolls' activities in America. Without so much as an attempt to square these circles, the
Ukraine analogy feels contrived.
Drawing on the help of cybersecurity researcher Camille François and several Russians
with first-hand knowledge, Gibney proceeds to outline the Russian internet trolling operation.
Almost all of the work was done from the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a chaste office on the
outskirts of St. Petersburg. The film tells us little that we don't already know from the
Mueller investigation and Senate intelligence committee report: there was a concerted effort by
certain Russian nationals to impersonate American activists, political groups, and media
outlets for the purpose of undermining "Americans' trust in democratic institutions." The goal
was not necessarily to elect Donald Trump, but to strain the American political system by
facilitating conflict between polarized factions.
But how much did the Kremlin know of, and to what extent did they endorse, the IRA's
activities? Agents of Chaos provides no substantive answers. The film's only evidence of
a link between the IRA and the Kremlin is that the former received funding from Yevgeny
Prigozhin, a major Russian businessman with ties to Vladimir Putin. Not only is there no proof
that the IRA coordinated directly with any Russian government agency, but it's not even clear
to what extent Prigozhin himself oversaw the IRA's agenda. Gibney admits as much, but claims
it's all part of a plausible deniability ploy: Putin shields himself by delegating unsavory,
extra-legal tasks to private cronies who technically don't work for him. This is probably true
in a general sense, but it doesn't get us any closer to understanding the level on which
specific decisions to interfere in U.S. politics were made.
A similar problem emerges in Gibney's discussion of Fancy Bear, a Russian cyber espionage
group. Gibney proceeds on the assumption that Fancy Bear is the hacking arm of Russian military
intelligence (GRU), which itself has not been conclusively established with publicly verifiable
information. Gibney posits that Fancy Bear's American activities were conducted with blessing
from the Kremlin, an even more flimsy assumption. A responsible analysis of Russian election
interference has to grapple with countless nuances: were the actual hacks conducted by GRU
personnel, or contractors? Was there an order to target the DNC, or did an overeager operator
make a unilateral decision? If the former, on what level was the order given? Who set Fancy
Bear's agenda, and how closely did they stick to said agenda? Was the Kremlin truly interested
in destroying American institutions, or was it perhaps driven by the more pragmatic goal of
signaling its cyber capabilities to Washington as a deterrent against future American meddling
in Russian politics?
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.416.2_en.html#goog_605011991 J.d. Vance
Remarks On A New Direction For Pro-worker, Pro-family Conservatism, Tac Gala, 5-2019 00:00 /
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To truly understand what the Russians did, we have to understand how and by whom the orders
were given, how they trickled down the chain of command, and how closely they were followed by
field operators. You have to understand institutional forces, like the longstanding rivalry
between the GRU and SVR that could lead the former to take unsanctioned risks. You also have to
consider that, as with any Caesarist system,
Putin's many subordinates sometimes take the initiative in doing things to please him that he
himself would never have approved of.
Gibney jettisons all these complexities, instead resigning himself to a convenient
abstraction: the "Russians" did it. And who are the "Russians?" Well, it all boils down to the
guy in charge. This conceit of an omnipresent leader is simply not a realistic view of how any
political system, let alone Putin's Russia, operates, but it is all too often used by
journalists and politicians as a substitute for serious Russia analysis.
The rest of the film is a fairly linear exploration of the major milestones in the Russian
meddling saga: the Assange-DNC imbroglio, the FBI counterintelligence investigation into the
Trump campaign, and a précis of Trump's questionable contacts with Russians. It is here
that the film's editorial stance is fully laid bare: the Obama administration and U.S.
intelligence community are portrayed as patriots doing their best to foil a foreign plot on
American soil -- their only mistake is not going far enough in prosecuting the Trump campaign
(and, in Comey's case, having the gall to announce an investigation into Hillary's use of
private email servers).
Trump and the Trump campaign, meanwhile, are de facto -- if not de de jure -- traitors who
colluded with a foreign government to win the election. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew
McCabe was given a sympathetic platform to dismiss serious objections to the FBI's behavior,
especially concerning the FISA warrant to surveil Trump campaign associate Carter Page. McCabe
was not asked to comment on FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who pleaded
guilty to submitting falsified documents to renew a surveillance warrant against Page.
Page, meanwhile, was maligned as an eccentric stooge too "unsophisticated" to realize that he
was being used by his "Russian spy handlers" to establish a backchannel with the Trump
campaign.
The film offers an uncritical platform to some of the more outrageous Trump-Russia
conspiracies that even the mainstream news networks were reluctant to publish, including the
notion that the Kremlin wanted to use Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort as an intermediary to
secure a deal with a potential Trump administration for the partition of Ukraine.
Gibney proceeds to recount all the stations of the cross of the Russiagate narrative; these
include the Trump Tower meeting, Trump's infamous request for Russians to hack Hillary Clinton,
alleged Russian efforts to suppress the black vote, and alleged coordination between wikileaks
and the Trump campaign. That part of the film feels less like a critical-minded documentary and
more like a heartfelt homage to the old 'stab in the back' theory of the 2016 election --
namely, the idea that Clinton never really lost, but was instead betrayed by fellow Americans
who conspired against her with a hostile foreign power.
Agents of Chaos was branded as a fresh look at Russian election interference, cutting
past the fog surrounding intelligence work to uncover the truth of what really happened in
2016. What we got instead was a summa of Russiagate's greatest hits, packaged and
presented with all the slick polish that can be expected from an award-winning filmmaker.
"National security," concludes Gibney in his closing narration, "isn't just about our
enemies. It's also about us. National security starts at home, with our own resilience, our own
politics, and the honor of our leaders." I commend these words without reserve. Nevertheless,
there is room for a nuanced discussion about Russian interference in 2016 and what can be done
to deter foreign meddling in the future. Whether or not Agents of Chaos adds anything of
value to that discussion is a rather different matter.
If the film offers any unique strain of thinking, it lies in Gibney's poignant observation
that Russian interference only worked to the extent that it did because we are needlessly
vulnerable to such incursions. Any foreign agent working to destabilize American society would
find no shortage of socio-political faultlines to exploit, of bitter resentments to manipulate.
The Russians didn't do that -- we did that to ourselves. Mending our torn social fabric is, in
this sense, one of the foremost national security challenges of our time.
Mark Episkopos writes on defense and international relations issues. He is also a PhD
student in History at American University .
What we , the general public know , is that Manafort would not disclose all of what he
did with the Russians. We know that he was deeply indebted to them. That he was fearful for
the safety of his family. And ultimately fell on his sword, rather than come clean.
He did not do it to save Trump. Trump did not understand That Manafort was more evil
than he was. Stone got to Trump to hire Manafort. Manafort was the best source for the
interference. He got deep into the politics of the Russians and others.
Trump was just a stooge. Carter,et al were wannabes. Flynn was corrupt, but wanted to be
a powerful player on the national scene. He like everyone else in Trump's orbit , played
Trump. The Russian thing got out of control because of Session's misstatements. If he had
conducted the investigation, the whole Russia gate would have been buried.
The interference was simply the clever use of social media.. and the gullibility of too
many ordinary citizens. Who wanted to think that they knew the secret. Never minding that
there were no secrets.
Just ordinary politicians, their handlers, the misfits and a few savvy operatives that
took advantage of the simpleton in the oval office. How we could have elected Trump is the
disgrace of the matter. We did this because the citizenry hated Clinton more than we
understood. Pretty simple.
Facebook pages are easy to monetize when large enough. IRA was a profitable company
using that business model, mostly on Russian social network VK.
"... IRA's Facebook spending between 2015 and 2017 at just $73,711.
Russian-linked accounts spent $4,700 on [Google] platforms in 2016"
Far from proving the Russian threat, it proves the hard work of American domestic
agencies and the media on their own propaganda operation.
I would add that this sort of highly effective professional gaslighting beats any
Stalinist system of propaganda and censorship. I don't know if America can still consider
itself a free country with such top-effort malicious missinformation
The 2016 election debacle is a self-inflicted wound, but the democrats and deep states
elites can't bear to look in the mirror at their own corrupt natures, so they concoct a
Russia straw-man to bear the blame.
The average Joe Shmuck in the street is too stupid to realize he has been conned, so the
elites get away with their appalling conduct.
Careers were made on the basis of this dis-information imbroglio called, Russian
interference. The victors in this information war waged upon the American people by the
stalwart "liberal press," have inflicted damage on the American psyche which is
incalculable.
Sounds like it's an apologia for US intervention in the Ukraine fomenting a coup in
2014. News for Gibney: the coup installed government in the Ukraine was in fact heavily
supported by extreme neo-Nazi Ukrainian nationalist factions. That's not Russia-bot
dis-info. I have better things to do with 4 hours of my life.
I know people who fought and died on both sides of the war in Ukraine. Many of those who
fought for the US-backed junta were actual live neonazis. By contrast, my friends who
fought for Donbass are the best people that I know.
Now I have learned that this is all Russian propaganda. Whom should I believe? Alex
Gibney or my own lying eyes and ears?
It could only be treason that caused Hilary Clinton not to be acclaimed as Madame
Presidente. Russian mind control rays created the zombie Deplorables who thwarted her
assured victory. Hell Hath No Fury like a Clinton scorned.
This is a simple story. The American empire took advantage of the end of the Cold War by
marching eastward and adding nations to its collection of vassal states. It wanted Ukraine,
but its democratically elected President refused. The Obama team organized coup that led to
much violence, so Russia was blamed. The people of Crimea disliked the turmoil so 94% voted
to rejoin Russia. Russia reannexed Crimea as requested. Russian troops did not invade, they
were already there for a century. More here:
Indeed. Russia built the Crimea. It was an Ottoman backwater before Catherine the Great
and Potemkin began building new cities and ports, and it was only an accident of internal
USSR border manipulations in the '50s that caused it to be part of the Ukraine instead of
Russia after 1991. Russia in 2014 just reclaiming what is rightfully its territory.
"But how much did the Kremlin know of, and to what extent did they endorse, the IRA's
activities?"
You have got to be joking. Every intelligence agency in the world knows that the IRA is
an FSB front organization. Most do not even consider this to be a secret. I conclude that
the author is either willfully blind or himself in Russian pay.
I thought Taxi to the Darkside, by Alex Gibney, was pretty good. From this overview at
any rate, his Russia-gate film sounds very poorly researched -- at best. For goodness
sakes, all you have to do is look at the electoral choices of Ukrainians since their
independence in 1991 to see the stark geographic division in that country, something every
competent political scientist has known since forever. And yet, for Gibney, that stark
east-west division was a fiction created by Russian bots?
More than a dozen young visiting scholars from China had their visas abruptly terminated in
a
letter from administration of the University of North Texas (UNT), Denton, on August 26, in
a letter dated August 26! The letter informed the students that they could return to campus
from their lodgings to pick up belongings, but all other access was closed to them. The
students and fellows were
given no explanation . They were left with no legal basis to be in the U.S. and began
scrambling for the very few and very expensive flights back to China.
At first the UNT administration simply stated that all those funded by the Chinese
Scholarship Council (CSC) were terminated. According to Wikipedia , the CSC is the main
Chinese agency for funding Chinese students abroad (currently 65,000 with 26,000 of them in the
US) and an equal number of foreign students in China, some from the US. (Americans interested
in CSC scholarships to study in China can easily find information here . There is nothing secret or nefarious about CSC; the
US has agencies that offer similar aid to scholars.)
The University at last offered an explanation of sorts in a statement by its spokesperson,
the Vice President for Brand Strategy and Communication (VP for BS and C) as
reported on September 10 by the North Texas Daily: "UNT took this action based upon
specific and credible information following detailed briefings from federal and local law
enforcement." The VP for BS and C was "unable" to provide more details. Local police later
denied any role in such briefings. It was the feds who provoked the discharges.
If these young students were doing something illegal or in violation of University rules,
then they should be told what it is and presented with evidence so they could answer such
charges. That is what we in the U.S. claim to believe in. If their crime is simply soaking up
ideas, that is what education is all about and most assuredly that is what science is all
about. If certain areas of research are classified, then scholars working in those areas should
be screened and get classifications. And if the US does not want CSC-sponsored students here,
then reasons should be given and no more visas allowed. None of that has been done. The
students were found guilty of something, they know not what, and dismissed!
Although UNT may not be well known nationally, it is rated
as an
"R1" or top tier research university , one of about 130 institutions falling into that top
category and receiving federal research funding. It is troubling that such action by an
institution in this category and the beneficiary of federal largesse has not drawn more
condemnation for its action. And it is even more troubling that this occurs in an atmosphere of
anti-Chinese hostility in the wake of Covid-19, marked by physical attacks on Chinese
Americans.
Have we forgotten the racism directed against Chinese and codified into federal law the
Chinese Exclusion
act of 1882 , the only U.S. law ever enacted to prevent all members of a specific
ethnic or national group from immigrating to the U.S.? Other such legislation followed, such as
the Immigration Act of 1924 which effectively barred all immigration from Asia, including of
course Chinese. The rationale given by the politicians for all such heinous legislation was
that Chinese were stealing "our jobs". Sound familiar? Notoriously the Chinese Exclusion Act of
1882 gave rise to the "Driving Out" period where Chinese were physically attacked to the point
of brutal massacres designed to drive Chinese out of unwelcoming communities, the most infamous
being the Rock Springs and Hells Canyon Massacres.
The anti-Chinese and anti-Asian sentiment has continued down the years in one form or
another but it has had a resurgence recently with the meme that China's prosperity has been at
the expense of Americans. This narrative does not remind us that U.S. corporations and
investors offshore jobs for greater "returns," but claims that Chinese are pilfering our
technology.
Up to 2008,
Chinese were 17% of the total defendants charged under the EEA; from 2009-2015 under Obama this
percentage tripled to 52%. 21% of Chinese were never convicted of espionage, twice the
rate for non-Asians. In roughly half the cases involving Chinese the alleged beneficiary of the
espionage was an American entity; roughly one third had an alleged Chinese beneficiary.
In sum a much higher rate of indictment for Chinese but a lower rate of convictions. So the
additional "attention" given Chinese was not warranted. It seems that something changed after
2009. What was it? This time was the period when Obama's Asian Pivot was put into play. The
Pivot targeted China both militarily by moving 60% of US Naval forces to the Western Pacific
and economically with the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) designed to isolate China from its
neighbors. Is the increased harassment of Chinese under the EEA another aspect of the strategy
expressed openly in the Pivot?
This legal attack on Chinese has continued under the present administration, but the NTU
case adds a new wrinkle. Here there was no legal action, but an action apparently taken by the
University. However, hidden pressure to oust the students came from a federal agency or
agencies. This should be no surprise since it fits in with FBI Director Christopher Wray's
"Whole of Society" approach to confronting China unveiled last February and
reiterated din July when he said, "We're also working more closely than ever with partner
agencies here in the U.S. and our partners abroad. We can't do it on our own; we need a
whole-of-society response. That's why we in the intelligence and law enforcement communities
are working harder than ever to give companies, universities , and the American people
themselves the information they need to make their own informed decisions and protect their
most valuable assets." (Emphasis, jw) It looks like the FBI and or its "partner agencies" gave
UNT officials "the information they needed" to throw out the Chinese students without any
reason given or charge made.
Consider the position of those UNT officials when they found themselves visited by federal
"authorities" and "asked' to cooperate. When the FBI "asks" for cooperation, it is making an
offer that is perilous to refuse. It would take considerable courage to say "no". But that is
precisely what the UNT administrators should have done if they were to live up to the presumed
values and ideals of our society and universities. The question also arises as to how many
other universities have been approached to take similar steps. It seems unlikely that UNT is
alone. But it is very likely that other Universities, wealthier and with a bevy of VP's for BS
and C, might have handled the whole matter in a discrete way and in a way that makes it appear
that such suspensions are not a wholesale matter. Perhaps other more "polished" university
authorities would not own up to the dirty deeds but keep them as secret as possible.
Let us take it a step further. What if you were approached by one of these federal agents
and "requested" to keep an eye on a Chinese colleague, friend, neighbor or co-worker. Would you
have the courage to refuse? And as the confrontation with China heats up, a peace movement is
arising to counter it. In fact, anti-interventionists are popping up across the spectrum on
left and right to oppose policies that take us on the road to war with China. Will the peace
advocates be targeted in the same way, on the sly as well as within a "legal" framework by the
FBI and other federal agencies? And will the precedent established in cases like the UNT case
make such federal actions more acceptable? Will those working for peace be labeled as puppets
of Xi?
"First they came for the Chinese," it might be said. And in the future, under the "Whole of
Society" approach, they may come for anyone who chooses to work for peace with China rather
than take a path to war. Anti-Chinese racism, repugnant in and of itself, is also one part of
setting the stage for a new and more dangerous McCarthyism. It is time to stop the madness
before it devours us all.
The problem with American imperialism that like tiger it can't change its spots. In this
sense Trump vs Biden is false dilemma. "Bothe aare worse" as Stalin quipped on the other
occasion. Both still profess "Full Spectrum Dominance" doctrine at the expense of the standard of
living of the USA people (outside of top 10 or 20%)
The problem with Putin statement is that both candidates are marionette of more powerful
forces. Trump is a hostage of Izreal lobby, which in the USA are mostly consist of rabid
Russophobes (look art Schiff, Schumer and other members of this gang). Biden is a classic
neoliberal warmonger, much like Hillary was, who voted for Iraq war, contributed to color
revolution in Ukraine, and was instrumental in the conversion of Dems into the second war party.
So there is zero choice in the coming election unless you want to punish Trump for the betrayal
of his electorate, which probably is the oonly valid reason to vote for Biden in key states;
otherwise you san safely ignore the elections as youn; influence anythng. In a deep sense this is
a simply legitimization procedure for the role of the "Deep State", not so much real elections as
both cadidates were already vetted by neoliberal establishment
The key problem with voting for Bide is that this way you essentially legitimizing Obama
administration RussiaGate false flag operation. But as Putin said, chances for extending the
Start treaty might worse this self-betrayal.
Like much of the American public, the Russian public is no doubt weary of the prior couple
years of non-stop 'Russiagate' headlines and wild accusations out of Western press, which all
are now pretty much in complete agreement came to absolutely nothing. This is also why the
whole issue has been conspicuously dropped by the Biden campaign and as a talking point among
the Democrats, though in some corners there's been meek attempts to revive it, especially
related to claims of "expected" Kremlin interference in the impending presidential
election.
Apparently seeing in this an opportunity for some epic trolling, Russian President Vladimir
Putin in an interview with Rossiya 1 TV days ago said it was actually the Democratic Party and
the Communist Party which have most in common.
Putin was speaking in terms of historic Soviet communism in the recent interview (Wednesday)
detailed in Newsweek. "The Democratic Party is traditionally closer to the so-called liberal
values, closer to social democratic ideas," Putin began. "And it was from the social democratic
environment that the Communist Party evolved."
"After all, I was a member of the Soviet Communist Party for nearly 20 years" Putin added.
"I was a rank-and-file member, but it can be said that I believed in the party's ideas. I
still like many of these left-wing values. Equality and fraternity. What is bad about them?
In fact, they are akin to Christian values."
"Yes, they are difficult to implement, but they are very attractive, nevertheless. In
other words, this can be seen as an ideological basis for developing contacts with the
Democratic representative."
The Russian president also invoked that historically Russian communists in the Soviet era
would have been fully on board the Black Lives Matter movement and other civil rights related
causes. "So, this is something that can be seen, to a degree, as common values, if not a
unifying agent for us," the Russian president said. "People of my generation remember a time
when huge portraits of Angela Davis, a member of the U.S. Communist Party and an ardent fighter
for the rights of African Americans, were on view around the Soviet Union."
So there it is: Putin is saying his own personal ideological past could be a basis of
"shared values" with a Biden presidency, again, it what appears to be a sophisticated bit of
trolling that he knows Biden won't welcome one bit. Or let's call it a 'Russian endorsement
Putin style'. The Associated Press and others described it as Putin "hedging his bets",
however.
Another interesting part of the interview is where the Russian TV presenter asked Putin the
following question:
"The entire world is watching the final stage of the US presidential race. Much has
happened there, including things we could never imagine happening before but the one constant
in recent years is that your name is mentioned all the time," Zarubin said. "Moreover, during
the latest debates, which have provoked a public outcry, presidential candidate Biden called
candidate Trump 'Putin's puppy.'"
"Since they keep talking about you, I would like to ask a question which you probably will
not want to answer," the interviewer continued. "Nevertheless, here it is: Whose position in
this race, Trump's or Biden's, appeals to you more?"
And here's Putin's response:
"Everything that is happening in the United States is the result of the country's internal
political processes and problems," Putin said. "By the way, when anyone tries to humiliate or
insult the incumbent head of state, in this case in the context you have mentioned, this
actually enhances our prestige, because they are talking about our incredible influence and
power. In a way, it could be said that they are playing into our hands, as the saying
goes."
But on a more serious note Putin pointed out that contrary to the notion some level of
sympathy between the Trump administration and the Kremlin, much less the charge of "collusion",
it remains that US-Russia relations have reached a low-point in recent history under Trump. The
record bears this out.
Putin underscored that "the greatest number of various kinds of restrictions and sanctions
were introduced [against Russia] during the Trump presidency."
"Decisions on imposing new sanctions or expanding previous ones were made 46 times. The
incumbent's administration withdrew from the INF treaty. That was a very drastic step. After
2002, when the Bush administration withdrew from the ABM treaty, that was the second major
step. And I believe it is a big danger to international stability and security," Putin
explained.
"Now the US has announced the beginning of the procedure for withdrawing from the Open
Skies Treaty. We have good reason to be concerned about that, too. A number of our joint
projects, modest, but viable, have not been implemented – the business council project,
expert council, and so on," he concluded.
But then on Biden specifically Putin said that despite "rather sharp anti-Russian rhetoric"
from the Democratic nominee, it remains "Candidate Biden has said openly that he was ready to
extend the New START or to sign a new strategic offensive reductions treaty."
"This is already a very significant element of our potential future cooperation," Putin
added of a potential Biden presidency.
Before the first Trump-Biden debate, moderator Chris Wallace listed the six subjects that
would be covered:
The Trump and Biden records, the Supreme Court, COVID-19, the economy, race and violence in
our cities, and the integrity of the election.
According to a recent Gallup survey, Wallace's topics tracked the public's concerns -- the
top seven of which were the coronavirus, government leadership, race relations, the economy,
crime and violence, the judicial system, morality and family decline.
As an issue, national security did not even break Gallup's Top 10. It ranked below education
and homelessness, just above climate change.
Which raises a question?
Can a nation as divided as we are and as distracted as we are by the most lethal pandemic in
100 years, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst racial crisis
since the 1960s, conduct a global policy to contain the ambitions of two rival great powers on
the other side of the world and to create a U.S.-led democratic world order?
Can we build, lead and sustain alliances of dozens of nations to contain Vladimir Putin's
Russia and Xi Jinping's China as we did the Soviet Union during more than 40 years of the Cold
War?
Are we still up to it? And must we Americans do it?
Or should we let the internal problems and pressures on these two nations do the primary
work of containing their external ambitions?
Case in point: Vladimir Putin's Russia. While our Beltway elites are obsessed with Russia
and Putin, seeing in them a mortal threat to our democracy, close observers are seeing
something else.
"Putin, Long the Sower of Instability, Is Now Surrounded by It," runs a headline in
Thursday's New York Times. The theme also appears in The Financial Times in a story headlined,
"Putin Watches as Flames Engulf Neighborhood."
Consider the situation today in Russia's "near abroad," the former republics of the USSR
that broke from Moscow's rule between 1989 and 1991.
The Baltic States -- Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia -- are already in the U.S.-led NATO
alliance. Georgia in the Central Caucasus, the birthplace of Stalin, fought a war against its
Russian neighbor in 2008 and is now a friend and de facto ally of the United States.
Ukraine, the most populous of the 14 republics to break away from Moscow, is now the most
hostile to Moscow, having watched its Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea be amputated by Putin
in 2014.
Now, Belarus, Russia's closest neighbor to the west, is in a political crisis with weekly
demonstrations demanding the ouster of Putin's ally, longtime autocrat Alexander Lukashenko,
after a fraudulent election.
Putin could be forced to do what he has no desire to do -- forcefully intervene to put down
a popular uprising that could cause Belarus to follow Ukraine into the Western camp.
Now, in the South Caucasus, two former republics of the USSR, Azerbaijan and Armenia, are
again in an open war over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave wholly within Azerbaijan.
While Armenia, an ally of Russia, is pleading for intervention by Moscow to halt the war,
Turkey is aiding the Azeris militarily, and they seem to be gaining the upper hand.
Four thousand miles away, in Russia's Far East, in the city of Khabarovsk, which is as close
to China as Dulles Airport is to D.C., anti-Putin rallies have become a constant feature of
politics.
Last summer, Putin's political rival Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a nerve
agent developed in Soviet laboratories. Navalny has now become a live martyr and more potent
adversary as the Kremlin has failed to come up with a satisfactory explanation for what appears
to have been an attempted assassination. New German and French sanctions on Russian officials
could be forthcoming.
Russians are tiring of Putin's 20-year rule. His popularity, though high by European
standards, is near its nadir. And Russians have suffered mightily from the coronavirus and what
it has done to their economy.
Now, the pro-Putin regime in Kyrgyzstan on the Chinese border appears to have been
overthrown after another fraudulent election, and Beijing is telling everyone to stay out.
And how have Putin's imperial adventures gone?
While his intervention in Syria saved the regime of Bashar Assad and Russia's sole naval
base in the Mediterranean, the war continues to bleed Mother Russia.
Putin's intervention on the side of the rebels in Libya, however, has not gone well. Last
year's rebel drive to capture the capital of Tripoli failed, and the rebel forces have been
forced to retreat back to the east.
Meanwhile, Russia's economy remains only one-tenth the size of China's economy, and its
population is also only one-tenth that of China.
Perhaps time is on America's side in the rivalry with Russia, and war avoidance remains as
wise a policy as it was during the Cold War.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of "Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and
Broke a President and Divided America Forever."
I couldn't finish this article. The notion that Russia has any "expansionist aims" is so
far-fetched that I wonder what the weather is like on "Planet Pat." Pat, to summarize, has no
real problems with a drive for American hegemony, but just thinks that it ought to be
achieved for less.
Pat was right and I was wrong back in the 1990s when he saw the threat of outsourcing. Now
he's wrong about Russia and Vladimir Putin. I saw a recent press conference in which Putin
did an on-the-spot translation of a question asked by a German journalist (in German) into
Russian for his Russian audience. Can anyone imagine the clowns that we've see on our screens
in these "debates" doing anything like that? Russia is governed by serious men who are doing
their best, although they make mistakes like everyone else. The United States is governed by
freaks that should be in a circus sideshow.
Though Buchanan has had a great career as a sceptic of yankee imperialism, some times his
views are infected by the remnants of a belief in it he has been unable to fully shake.
He cultivates a reputation for "non-interventionism," but Mr. Buchanan has been
fundamentally faithful to the Establishment, always careful to leave Russia and China cast as
enemies.
It's been a while since he has taken a break from carnival barking the next Most Important
Election Ever with an Exceptional!, RussiaBadChinaToo column like this one. The propaganda
pronouns, personalization of the autocratic bad guys, and cliché buzzwords are
many , and it's important to pull back a bit to examine how "Mr. Paleoconservative"
wraps them in his faux dissidence:
Can a nation as divided as we are and as distracted as we are by the most
lethal pandemic in 100 years, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the
worst racial crisis since the 1960s, conduct a global policy to contain the
ambitions of two rival great powers on the other side of the world and to
create a U.S.-led democratic world order ?
Can we build, lead and sustain alliances of dozens of nations to
contain Vladimir Putin's Russia and Xi Jinping's China as we
did the Soviet Union during more than 40 years of the Cold War?
Are we still up to it? And must we Americans do it?
Or should we let the internal problems and pressures on these two nations do the
primary work of containing their external ambitions?
See how it works? Uncle Sam's ( our ) prophylactic goodness goes unquestioned, the
evil "ambitions" of others presumed. By suggesting that maybe "we" can't afford to protect
the rest of the world so much these days, Mr. Buchanan endorses the narrative.
It's telling that Mr. Buchanan remains on record endorsing the bipartisan Beltway premise
that (July 7, 2017) "Americans are rightly angry that Russia hacked the presidential election
of 2016." (That bit's omitted in today's column, what with the more immediate need to herd
enough GOP sheep back to the polls to legitimatize the system.) The columns and comment
threads of July 20 and 24, 2018, and May 31, 2019 -- where I first asked Mr. Buchanan's fans
why he seemed willfully ignorant of the observations of people like William Binney -- are
further evidence.
His fans rationalize that he's doing what he can without losing his platform, but Mr.
Buchanan effectively serves Washington. Look around and think critically for yourself and
you'll see that when it comes to electoral politics he's Stagehand Right in the puppet show,
and in discussions of US imperialism the Right sash of the Overton window.
Russia is not threatening or bothering anyone, the USA is threatening and bothering pretty
well everyone. the people of Crimea overwhelmingly wanted and voted to leave Ukraine, Russia
did not TAKE it. Get over it children.
Pat Buchanan is correct: "war avoidance remains as wise a policy as it was during the Cold
War."
But it is a difficult policy when neither Washington nor Moscow has the control they had
during the Cold War, especially with the hegemonic rise of China. Chaos is producing the
conditions where any nation will have to go to war: existential threat. Ordering the world
can avert our destruction – in theory – but only by accepting some harsh
realities. https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
I've always had a soft spot for Pat Buchanan. But lately (the last few years) his articles
appear more and more workmanlike. In other words just going through the motioms.
In this article he seems to have accepted the official narrative on almost everything.
"Last summer, Putin's political rival Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok,"
Novichok appears to be the most inefficient lethal poiaon in existence with around 75%
survival rate, yet Buchanan accepts the narrative without question. Pat Buchanan up to the
90's would have laughed at this.
There is a liberal democratic strain in Russia with some power that wants what the west
has, celebrations for homosexuals, radical feminism and maybe women with penises too. I have
met a few young Russians that don't like Putin. We will see. If by some miracle the US can
continue to run an economy not thru work but by having the Federal Reserve creating money and
distributing it, then maybe Russia will lose Putin and start looking more like a multi-culti
western country too. But more likely, the US will suffer a major economic fall and then
perhaps Russia will think twice before turning Russian beauties into western style women
telling men to stop "mansplaining".
What Putin has to do if he hopes to keep Russia from turning into a Cultural Marxist
cesspool is find someone that believes in and can continue his policies but if he's like
Trump and is surrounded by people that want to be far left, Russia will become a western
style country too after Putin leaves office. If Russia wants to stay Russian and Europe has
any hope of turning the tide against its destruction, a new international movement has to be
popularized that values European / Western traditions and values the different peoples and
cultures of the world. The western European countries will first need to develop some self
respect so they have a reason to preserve their peoples and traditions.
This article is surprising in its comprehensive lack of factuality.
1. A gallop poll (not referenced) tells us what we already know: The American public does
not think like the elite tell them to think. How rude. Well, our government might be 'of, by,
and for' somebody, but it ain't 'The people.'
2. Contain Russia? And the Soviet Union and China did not serve to contain the US?
3. Are we still up to it? Up to what? American exceptionalism? The rest of the world is
starting to take issue with that. A century of 'Yankee Go Home' has grown teeth.
4. The Baltic states are as much use to Russia as they were to Sweden. Don't overestimate
their importance as anything other than a springboard for another group that does not
represent its populace: NATO.
5. Georgia 'fought a war against Russia ' and lost.
6. Ukraine suffered a violet coup. Crimea 'self-amputated' via legal referendum.
7. Belarus. Well, now. Belarus is like Ukraine pre-Maidan. The fog of diplomacy is much too
thick and oily to really see who is pulling whose strings there.
8. Putin could be forced to do anything. Time will tell what he and Mr. Lavrov have in mind.
Let's not limit his set of options and condemn him for something he hasn't done yet. That's
political TINA.
9. Azerbaijan and Armenia are suddenly at war. Again, at whose instigation? Why now? Is this
a resurrection of the Crusades since it is a Muslim country fighting a Christian country? Old
bigotry drug out of history's spare room and repurposed? Again, do either the Azerbaijanis or
the Armenians personally want any of this? Maybe Gallup can take a poll.
10. Khabarovsk is in an uprising? Again, who says? Why now? And aren't the same things going
on in American cities? You keep talking about sudden unprovoked uprisings as if they are
popular revolutions. I don't think that word means what you think it means.
11. Navalny does Novichok. Really? The dissident with less than five percent popularity in
Russia? The political court jester with Western style health issues taken down by the deadly
poison genetically modified to miss its target? This is a joke, right?
12. You've got a point about Russians being tired of Putin. I was there for three weeks in
2018 on a trip across Siberia on the Trans Siberian Railroad and spoke to people in places
like Ulan Ude (as close to Mongolia as Dulles is the D.C.) and Khabarovsk (ditto.) I found
that how people perceive Putin depends on which side of the 'Crazy Nineties' they sit. People
who remembered the Soviet era and reconstruction were more likely to support Putin
unconditionally, including a school teacher I spoke with who remembered trading lessons for
lunch, whereas younger people acknowledged what he did for Russia but just wanted a change of
face in the Kremlin. One man admitted that there are no alternatives worth considering.
Hardly a stinging repudiation. By the way, I was also in Vladivostok, as close to North Korea
as Dulles is to , well, you know. Not much dissent there. Yes, it's a military town but is as
secular as any western jarhead city.
13. Russia 'remains' one tenth the size of China? How imprudent.
14. Putin's imperial adventures are 'failing' and 'bleeding' Mother Russia? And how have ours
been doing lately?
15. Time is on America's side? Time is a fickle ally and has a habit of switching sides in
the long run.
This article contains significant spin with little or no analysis. Did you have someone do
your homework for you?
Exactly. The Pat Buchanan of the 1990's or even the 00's would rather have asked:
"Is it in America's interest to have either Russia or China so unstable and backed into
a corner by NATO expansion or other U.S. policy that they and their large nuclear arsenals
might come under the command and control of more desperate and unstable men than their
current leaders?"
As a previous commenter notes above, it's as is someone else is writing these columns
under Pat's byline now.
Russia has many nukes but it won't do them any good. All the forces in WW II had extensive
supplies for gas warfare. All had masks and elaborate tactics ready. No one used gas attacks
because they knew about the gas horrors from WW I. Even facing destruction of an army or city
no one wanted to release that genie from the bottle. Russia could let loose a nuclear barrage
then quickly witness the end of Russia. The Chinese are sensible as they refrain from wasting
money for a massive nuclear arsenal.
Can we build, lead and sustain alliances of dozens of nations to contain Vladimir
Putin's Russia and Xi Jinping's China
Russia is not expanding. Rather, as pointed out, it's the US/NATO that has expanded all
the way up to the Russian border, a threatening move. China is a competitor, not a militarily
expansionist country. With their economy they can wheel and deal better than the US but whose
fault is that?
forcefully intervene to put down a popular uprising that could cause Belarus to follow
Ukraine into the Western camp.
Just another made in the US color revolution, not popular at all. Ukraine is hardly an
example to follow. Much of the rest is about how Russia is collapsing, people rising up
against Putin, etc etc. All stuff that's been said for the past hundred years. Before it was
because they were communist. Now it's because what?
Perhaps time is on America's side
No. Demographics, Mr Buchanan, demographics. The US has turned itself into a semi-Brazil
where a good third of the population is non-white and getting larger. The greatest resource
of any country is it's people and in this regard the US has diversified itself into chaos and
a downward spiral.
Seldom have so many commentators agreed in their criticism of a post. Seldom has a post on
UR been so inept, so unfit for publication. Maybe the truth is quite banal: aging
commentators who once used to be intellectual powerhouses have simply succumbed to senile
infantilism. In addition to Pat Buchanan, another obvious example is Michel Chossudovsky.
Paul Craig Roberts is also not doing well. Like great athletes, they simply don't know when
to quit.
I don't see any deviation in Buchanan's argument (since he turned "paleo right wing") that
the USA should mind its own business and stay out of foreign entanglements.
Biden will surely win the US presidency over the dopey Trump. Biden is the perfect tool of
the "deep state," elements of which arranged for his winning of the Democrat's nomination.
Expect a hot war with Iran, the revival of the "Trans Pacific Partnership," mass amnesty,
continued loss of industry, curtailment of constitutional rights and much more money thrown
at the educational establishment to train up the population for the "jobs of tomorrow" etc
etc.
@No Friend Of
The Devil
href="https://russia-insider.com/en/new-constitution-means-russias-political-stability-strong-while-west-sinks/ri30819">
https://russia-insider.com/en/new-constitution-means-russias-political-stability-strong-while-west-sinks/ri30819
@Petermx
left" (the Russian far left would rather send all trannies to the Gulag), but the "liberals",
which in Russia is what they call the deregulation-obsessed corporate right wing.
A "liberal" means someone larping as a local Tory, in the sense of wanting to privatize
everything, sell it off, and then let in all of Central Asia as cheap workers. These days
they are also the ones who will accept child trannies in exchange for offshore perks. Not the
far left. The Russian far left would hang the Western far left on lamp posts, and send their
families to fell wood in Siberia.
Putin's political rival Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a nerve agent
developed in Soviet laboratories. Navalny has now become a live martyr and more potent
adversary as the Kremlin has failed to come up with a satisfactory explanation for
what appears to have been an attempted assassination.
Just as they've failed to "come up with a satisfactory explanation" for the Skripal
obvious lies and idiocy.
Ditto the MH17 lies and idiocy
or the 'Russian hacking' lies and idiocy
or the 'Russian aggression in Ukraine' lies and idiocy..
Is that the way it works now Pat, you simply parrot the puerile piles of puke put out by
the ((narrative machine)) as if it was all God's truth?
When we all know it's the opposite.
Perhaps time is on America's side in the rivalry with Russia,
You're not Pat Buchannan.
Buchannan simply could not have uttered such an egregiously grotesque gargantuan infamy of
perfidious, pusillanimous palaver- even if he tried.
He'd choke on such words, (I'd hope ; )
"America's side"
If this is America's side, then God speed to Vlad Putin!
@TGD s a
comeuppance for 'four hundred years of slavery, genocide and a systemic racism that has had
the White man's knee on POC's necks for four hundred years and counting..
All of that ends in January, 2021.
A packed SC will end the Second Amendment, and it will be all she wrote.
So why does Buchannan allow an article full of horseshit about Putin and Russia to get
published in his name? When the reason for the 'most important election ever', is wokeness',
and the war on Iran (and possibly Russia) that will come when ((wokeness) is firmly in power
again?
@Patricus re
MAD.
• further, the US refused to denounce "first use of nuclear weapons" with a no first
use policy. This indicated(s) their intention. Russia still has a no first use policy with
caveats. US is the aggressor here.
• if you understand the above, then all other US plays come into focus. Why they killed
the INF treaty in order to move into Europe nuclear missiles of that prohibited range, why
they have started to try and reduce nuclear payload so that they can use nuclear weapons
without triggering the nuclear threshold of nuclear retaliation by pleading low yield etc.
I thought I was the only one who cringed when Paul Roberts mixed in his obviously
misguided opinions in with obvious facts. Seems Giraldi is the last man standing. We need new
authorities on truth.
I have been a fan of Pat Buchanan's most of my life. But since the Trump phenomenon began
I can't for the life of me understand what has happened to him. It's as if he has drunk the
Qanon Kool-Aid.
Not sure if Pat is writing his own articles these days but this sure qualifies as
establishment drivel. It's America that has troops in Poland near Russia's border as well as
trying to topple leaders in the region that are friendly to Putin and Russia. If Putin moved
troops and missile batteries near the Rio Grande the American establishment would literally
have a coronary.
Pat writes as if Putin is on a worldwide offensive against America and its interests but
it's been thankfully stymied. Most of what Putin and Russia have done and are doing has been
a reaction and in response to the unrest and instability that American actions have helped
bring to certain countries and regions.
What with the proven sterling safety record that Novichok has demonstrated in recent
assassination attempts, I understand it is now in Phase #3 trials as a treatment for
covid.
Yes! Well said, Rurik! I haven't read such great alliteration since Spiro Agnew's
"nattering nabobs of negativity" when referring to the Nixon hating press. (Speech written by
William Safire).
Why have you become an Old Cold Warrior again, Pat?
One is reminded – that pretty much all of the problems that Russia faces in its
'near abroad' – Ukraine, Belorussia, etc. – have been deliberately created by the
west. Given that Russia could still obliterate the west if it really felt that it had been
backed into a corner, is that wise?
What with the proven sterling safety record that Novichok has demonstrated in recent
assassination attempts, I understand it is now in Phase #3 trials as a treatment for
covid.
@Patricus
much as I think it does, they'd be willing to launch if we foolishly backed them into a
corner. It was seriously discussed in the Kremlin in the 1980's.
China's smaller arsenal is not a matter of the supposed uselessness of nukes. China has
advantages over Russia in population, wealth and production, sea routes, and a number of
other factors which make nukes less of a necessity, and they're also building on their own
past legacy as a poor nation, while Putin's Russia is hanging on to the arsenal of a
superpower whose infrastructure was laid down when the USSR had more resources and manpower
to call on than Russia does today. Apple-Orange.
This actually sounds like someone telling the truth for once about Russia and the Putin
regime!
Unfortunately there's been far to much blather about Putin over the years,oh and all his
hyperbole about super weapons
The Russian economy is not just one tenth of china its also not particularly
competitive,languishing in 30 th position in terms of global business rating
Its demographics are terrible without any chance of recovery
And to cap it all China will soon try and claim parts of eastern Russia as Chinese
Buchanan is 82 years old next month. For several years now, the input of his "assistants"
has been more and more noticeable. This article, however, appears to have been entirely ghost
written by one or more of them. It sounds entirely out of character with what Buchanan was
writing even last year.
Buchanan must retire immediately. If he does not, more ghost written articles like this will
irremediably taint his legacy.
I have held Mr Buchanan in high regard ever since I became aware of him in the 1990s. Sadly,
I will not read any new articles "written" by him.
I am pretty ignorant about poisons, and I'm a bit allergic to conspiracy theories, but on
this Novichok business I can't help wondering, If the stuff is really so toxic as is claimed,
then why is it that more than one supposed victim has survived?
To the contrary, Patrick hit a home run with this post. Putin still uses his KGB tactics
and allies to do his dirty work for him, especially poisoning political opponents and
cracking down on the media. Putin has enriched himself and his oligarch pals under the guise
of muscular Orthodoxism. Putin has always put into play policies designed to expand "Mother
Russia".
You are just too damn stubborn to admit these facts.
Russia and the Putin regime have set themselves against the USA,therefore why should
Buchanan agree with a regime who have people pushing for the destruction of America and the
US led international order????
Wouldn't that simply make Buchanan a traitor by supporting a foreign regime ?
I would have loved to see the faces of John McCain and "F the EU" Nuland if Putin had done
so. The Russian forces would have mopped up the coup leaders in a week, and Obama/Biden could
have done nothing but complain to the UN. It's very likely that many Ukrainian lives would
have been saved.
Buchanan's incredible statement that Putin "amputated" the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine,
when the vast majority of those who lived there voted to return to Mother Russia, is patently
ridiculous. C'mon Pat, return to your senses or it's time to retire.
Speaking of ghost writers, the Tom Parsons (1984) act here is a little too much for the
real Corvinus. The "home run" and "damn" are out of character, too.
Next time, aim more for that Unitarian Sunday School teacher voice.
"Speaking of ghost writers, the Tom Parsons (1984) act here is a little too much for the
real Corvinus. The "home run" and "damn" are out of character, too."
Right on cue is the Russian bot. I guess your programming does not tire in trying to
denigrate your social betters.
"Next time, aim more for that Unitarian Sunday School teacher voice."
As to Russian aggressiveness, you have to admit they did have the temerity to expand right
up to their own borders, thereby surrounding us on all sides: our NATO in the west, our
Ukraine and Georgia in the south, our arctic in the north, and our Japan and South Korea in
the east.
Fester suggests USA should take preemptive action and drain the USA nuclear stockpile for
the sake of South Chicago–the pinnacle of USA freedom -- democracy and societal values.
Then when global cooling returns to USA -- re-open the coal mines and build gas guzzlers.
Powerful nations tend to expand. I guess Pat is saying Russia is weak to make major
expansions. They did destroy Syria and annexed Crimea, that is it for now. His assessment of
Russia's weakness is ok. I doubt though Putin poisoned the opposition leader, not because he
cannot be mean. But because it seems amateurish. Russia failing to poison and kill an
individual? I don't know.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Insider is an online publication specializing in investigative journalism, fact-checking
and political analytics.
The Insider has received numerous international awards, including the Council of Europe
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An important source of funding for The Insider is regular donations, so we encourage
everyone who wants to support our publication to subscribe to regular donations.
"The Insider" is a Russian online publication. Founded in November 2013 by a member of
the movement
"Solidarity", a journalist and political activist of liberal-democratic
orientation
Roman Dobrokhotov, who is the editor-in-chief of the publication.
Dobrokhotov. As I live and breathe -- a "kreakl"!!!!
In September 2018, in collaboration with "Bellingcat" Eliot Higgins, "The Insider"
conducted an investigation, allegedly publishing copies of official documents of the Russian
Federal migration service for passport application in the name of Alexander Petrov, one of
the suspects of the British authorities in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, which
may indicate his connection with the Russian special services.
In February 2020, "The Insider", jointly with "Bellingcat"and "Der Spiegel", conducted
an investigation and stated that the murder of Zelimkhan khangoshvili in Berlin in August
2019 was organized by the special unit of the FSB "Vimpel". They said that the FSB special
assignment Centre was preparing a repeat killer, Vadim Krasikov, for this murder, and they
also gave some details of Krasikov's movements around Europe.
On November 10, 2017, "The Insider" received from"The World Forum for Democracy"an award for innovation in democracy with the following wording:
"'The Insider' is an investigative publication that seeks to provide its readers with
information about the current political, economic and social situation in Russia, while
promoting democratic values and highlighting issues related to human rights and civil
society. In addition, 'The Insider' carries out the project 'Antifake', the task of which is
to systematically expose false news in the Russian media, which helps its audience to
distinguish real information from false news and propaganda".
In 2019, "The Insider" and "Bellingcat" received the European Press Prize for
establishing the identity of the two men allegedly responsible for the poisoning of Sergei
and Yulia Skripal .
How drole! "The insider" likes to shout out "Fake!" yet seems to work closely with
"Bellingcat".
By the way, further to the Pevchikh saga, another twist to the tale has turned up
in the Russian media concerning those allegedly "Novichok" contaminated bottles that she
dutifully retrieved from Navalny's hotel room in Tomsk as soon she heard that his Moscow
bound flight was making an unplanned landing at Omsk.
She couldn't fly directly to Omsk from Tomsk, so she claims she drove from Tomsk to
Novosibirsk, whence she flew to Omsk, where she boarded the aircraft kindly provided by the
Germans and which took Navalny and her and the bottles to Berlin.
Small problem: the investigations that have been taking place concerning her claims
reveal that she had no bottles with her, either on her person or in her baggage, at the
Novosibirsk and at Omsk airports when she went through security there. And there is video
evidence of her baggage being opened and searched there. No bottles. But she handed over
these bottles, she says, to the German authorities, which bottles were then sent to the
Bundeswehr labs in Munich, allegedly.
And get this: Navalny and Pevchikh claim there was a bomb scare at Omsk airport that was
intended to prevent the aircraft on board which the US agent was howling and screaming.
though he wasn't in pain, he says,
This planting of a bomb at Omsk airport, according to the bullshitter, was done so that
he would not be hospitalized in Omsk and would therefore die on board the aircraft.
It now turns out, according to the cops, that there had been a call claiming that a
bomb had been planted at Omsk airport. And the call originated in Berlin. Nothing in the
Western media about this, of course, though plenty in the Russian media.
I'd provide links but I can't be arsed because I'm writing this in bed on my iPhone.
Well. Those certainly are interesting developments. Not that it would make any difference
in the mainstream media, where the narrative die is already cast – just more of
Russia's 'pathetic evasions' as it tries to twist out from under the weight of accumulated
evidence against it.
08 October 2020 16:21 Transport police: "Navalny's bottles" were not in the luggage, the airport was "mined"
from Germany
[the Russian term for placing a bomb somewhere. e.g. as a terrorist act, is "to mine" a
place -- ME]
The office of the Siberian Transport Prosecutor has questions for an employee of the
Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) Maria Pevchikh to answer as regards the case of the
hospitalization of Aleksei Navalny. However, she evaded giving evidence and flew from Omsk to
Germany. Despite a summons and communication with her lawyer, Pevchikh has not appeared at
the preliminary investigation.
Maria Pevchikh has not replied to the investigator's questions about how the items
allegedly taken from Navalny's room in a Tomsk hotel were removed. The transport police have
reconstructed the Pevchikh route and got together all their videos concerning this, Interfax
reports. And then the surprises begin, which do not fit in with the version that Maria
Pevchikh took from Tomsk to Berlin a bottle, on which traces of a neuroparalytic poisonous
substance from the Novichok group were later allegedly found .
Firstly, after Navalny's hospitalization, Maria Pevchikh travelled from Tomsk to
Novosibirsk by car together with Georgy Alburov [Alburov is the one who, allegedly, was
an FBK front man, posing as head of the investigatory section of Navalny's "fund", but
Pevchik, it seems, was really the investigation boss, very likely directing investigations
into corruption in "Putin's Mafia State" under the guidance of MI6, though nobody had ever
heard of her at FBK until questions started being asked about her role after she had flown to
Germany from Omsk with the Bullshitter -- ME] , and then flew to Omsk.
Secondly, at Novosibirsk Tolmachevo airport , during pre-flight checks, there were no
containers and bottles of more than 100 milliliters in Maria Pevchikh's suitcase and
rucksack. She did buy, however, a half-litre bottle of "Svyatoy Istochnik" ["Holy Spring"
NOT "Saint Spring"! -- ME] water in the sterile zone [namely after having passed
through baggage and security checks and before boarding her flight -- ME], with which she
flew to Omsk.
Earlier, Anton Timofeev had said that after Navalny had been hospitalized, the people
accompanying him seized three bottles of water from his room, which were given to Georgy
Alburov. Alburov then flew from Novosibirsk to Omsk together with the Pevchikh. But there
were no bottles in his luggage either. The moment of the acquisition of a bottle of "Holy
Spring" water by Pevchikh, as well as images from the X-ray scanner installation at the
airport, prove this.
In addition, Sergey Potapov, deputy head of the transport investigation department of
the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Siberian Federal District, announced that
on the day of Navalny's hospitalization, an anonymous message had been received about the
mining of Omsk airport. It was sent via a free e-mail service whose servers are located in
Germany. On this issue, Russia then addressed Germany in order to establish the identity of
the person who sent the message. The police believe that the message about the
pseudo-mining [i.e. a bomb scare -- ME] of the airport came in order to prevent the
aircraft with Navalny on board from urgently landing at Omsk. Aleksei Navalny himself thanked
the pilots who landed the aircraft at Omsk, although the airport had been "mined". And here
is another inconsistency: information about the "mining" of the Omsk airport was closed and
was not disclosed to anyone.
[Shooting his big gob off again, see! -- ME]
The police have also to check how Aleksei Navalny, who was in a coma at the Berlin
Charité clinic, got hold of this information about the "mining" of Omsk airport, at a
time when he had already lost consciousness whilst on board an aircraft on August 20 and was
subsequently unconscious until September 7.
180 visitors and 58 employees were evacuated from the [Omsk] airport building,
excluding flight safety services. In the e-mail that arrived at an e-mail address in the
district of the Omsk Leninsky District Court, there was information about the mining of the
buildings of the district court, the railway station, banks, the post office and the airport.
After that, a criminal case was initiated under Part 2 of Article 207 of the Criminal Code of
Russia ("Knowingly falsely reporting of an act of terrorism").
The German government has said that Aleksei Navalny was poisoned with a chemical
warfare agent from the Novichok group. Allegedly, in addition to the Bundeswehr laboratory,
traces of Novichok were found in his analyses by military chemists in Sweden and France.
Berlin sent the data of these tests to the OPCW, but ignored all Russian requests for
cooperation in investigating the incident with the blogger [i.e. Navalny -- M E] . And
on September 22, Aleksei Navalny was discharged from the hospital after his so-called
"poisoning" with a "military grade poison". Navalny has estimated that his treatment at the
Berlin hospital will cost 70 thousand euros. [Rattling his collection box already! -- ME]. He
is still in Berlin as a special guest of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Moscow,
meanwhile, has invited OPCW experts to familiarize themselves with the samples that were
taken from Aleksei Navalny before leaving for Germany. It is curious that the doctors of the
Berlin clinic also did not find traces of toxic substances in the analyses of their
patient.
[A point often omitted in the free Western press: it was the Bundeswehr that stated
that the Bullshitter had been poisoned by a Novichok type agent, as did the Swedish and
French military -- ME.]
The above article is biased, of course, because it refers to the gobshite Navalny as a
"blogger" and not as a "politician" or "leader of the opposition" etc.
But here's a source that can in no way be described as being biased against "Putin's
fiercest critic": "Radio Freedom" no less!
08 October 2020 Interior Ministry: there was no water bottle in the luggage of Navalny's colleague Maria
Pevchikh
The Department of Transport of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the
Siberian Federal District, which is conducting a pre-investigation check into the
circumstances of the hospitalization of the head of the Anti-Corruption Fund, Aleksei
Navalny, in the Omsk hospital on August 20, published on Thursday a report on the work that
has been done. According to the department, an e-mail with a message about the mining of Omsk
airport, from which Navalny was taken to the hospital, was sent from a free postal service,
whose server is located in Germany.
The department claims that it had addressed the law enforcement agencies of Germany
with a request to provide legal assistance and to determine the owner of the email address,
but had not received an answer. "We do not understand and do not accept the inaction of our
foreign colleagues", the Interior Ministry said in a report.
Earlier, Navalny's associates suggested that the false mining of the Omsk airport had
been carried out in order to delay the hospitalization of the oppositionist, who was on the
verge of life and death -- the aircraft with Navalny on board made an emergency landing in
Omsk after a sudden sharp deterioration in his condition. It is known that on August 20, in
connection with an anonymous report about the bomb, the police evacuated all visitors and
employees from the airport building. RBC, in turn, notes that on the morning of August 20,
false reports of mining were received not only in Omsk, but also in the cities of the the
Novosibirsk region, the Perm and Krasnoyarsk territories, as well as the Volga region: one of
the bombs, in particular, was allegedly planted on the territory of the Samara International
airport "Kurumoch".
In addition to information related to false mining, the report of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs claims that in the luggage of Navalny's colleagues Maria Pevchikh (in the
original version of the message she was named Marina) and Georgy Alburov, who, after reports
of the hospitalization of the head of the FBK, examined his hotel room in Tomsk and
confiscated from there several objects, and then flew to Omsk themselves, no liquids with a
volume of more than 100 milliliters hd been found.
As is now known, Pevchikh subsequently transported a bottle of water to Berlin, from
which Navalny had drunk in a Tomsk hotel, and on which traces of a chemical warfare agent had
allegedly been later found. In a report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs about Pevchikh,
it is said that "for the investigation, communication with this citizen is of great
interest", but she has not been responding to our summons.
Earlier, Navalny's companions, talking about the things they collected from Navalny's
room, said that they were taken to Omsk to be sent to Germany in different ways (according to
Maria Pevchikh, "they were strategically packaged in different places"), that is, by no means
necessary, that it was Pevchikh who carried the bottle from Tomsk to Omsk.
And now, the same story from "The Insider", which most definitely is biased against the
"Putin regime" and those dastardly Orcs, albeit written by an Orc, it seems:
Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation fake: Maria Pevchikh did not
take out of Russia a bottle from which Navalny had drunk
8 October 2020
[Right in your face it shouts FAKE! -- ME]
Russian media outlets are retelling a statement made by the Transport Directorate of
the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Siberian Federal District under the
heading "Investigation in connection with Navalny's hospitalization continues", which
says:
According to information published in the media, there has been carried out on the
territory of Germany a toxicological study of a bottle of water that had been handed over for
investigation by Maria Pevchikh and on which the presence of a nerve agent has been allegedly
found.
Also in the media there was information about the transportation of these items by car
and aeroplane from Tomsk to Germany. At the same time, the investigating authorities have
objectively established that Maria Pevchikh together with Georgy Alburov, after Navalny's
hospitalization, proceeded from the city of Tomsk to the city of Novosibirsk by road, and
then by air to the city of Omsk. During the pre-flight inspection of Maria Pevchikh at
Tolmachevo airport (Novosibirsk), there were no containers with a volume of more than 100 ml
in her suitcase and rucksack, and no bottle of water. After having passed through pre-flight
checks, whilst in the airport transit zone Maria Pevchikh then bought from a vending machine
a 500 ml bottle of "Holy Spring" water, with which she flew to the city of Omsk.
According to a video posted on the Internet, after Navalny had been hospitalized,
persons who had accompanied him seized from the hotel room where he had bben staying three
bottles of water. In accordance with the explanation of one of the indicated persons –
Anton Timofeev – he handed the seized items to Georgy Alburov, who flew with Maria
Pevchikh from Tolmachevo airport (Novosibirsk) to the city of Omsk. During the inspection of
Alburov's belongings at the airport, bottles with a volume of more than 100 ml were also not
found.
This is confirmed by photographs from the airport security cameras, which captured the
moment Maria Pevchikh bought a bottle of water, as well as from the X-ray scanner
installation at the airport, where Pevchikh and Alburov went through baggage
inspection.
It is worth noting the wording about "containers with a volume of more than 100 ml".
There are rules restricting the carriage of liquids on aeroplanes: they can only be
transported in hand luggage in containers of no more than 100 ml. Therefore, hand luggage is
inspected for the presence of prohibited containers, but not luggage in which liquids can be
carried freely. The bottles taken from Navalny's room in the Tomsk hotel were most likely
carried by Maria Pevchikh in her luggage, which could have been taken away during the
inspection of her hand luggage.
Baggage at an airport is screened using an X-ray scanner. Of course, people don't pay
attention to water bottles. There is a technical ability to save images from the scanner, but
there is no information about its use in practice: the luggage is scanned and examined in
real time, and when suspicious objects are found, they are immediately opened. It makes no
sense to store a huge amount of X-ray images of every piece of baggage passing through an
airport.
The CCTV footage of Maria Pevchikh buying a bottle of water from a vending machine
proves practically nothing.
Thirsty MI6 operative Pevchikh at Omsk airport -- ME
Firstly, it is not clear what kind of drink she is buying. It is unlikely that a Coca
Cola vending machine exclusively sells "Holy Spring". If the Ministry of Internal Affairs has
not provided footage allowing it to be established exactly what Pevchikh bought, then most
likely it does not have such information at all and the statement about the 500 ml bottle of
"Holy Spring" is not based on anything -- except for the fact that it is on such a bottle
that traces of "Novichok" were found. Even the statement that Pevchikh brought a bottle she
bought at the Novosibirsk airport to Omsk cannot be called reliable: it is likely that she,
after having drunk the water, left the bottle on the aeroplane.
Secondly, FBK employees took away not one, but three bottles from Tomsk, which the
Ministry of Internal Affairs also admits. If the Ministry of Internal Affairs had footage
proving that Pevchikh and Alburov had purchased three bottles, it would hardly conceal
them.
The certainty with which the Ministry of Internal Affairs makes statements that cannot
be substantiated raises doubts about its message as a whole.
Sort of like the certainty with which Navalny makes statements that cannot be
substantiated as regards Putin trying to murder him with "Novichok" or the statements made by
the German authorities about his having also been poisoned by "Novichok" without their
providing any substantiation?
Should these statements also raise doubts in an enquiring mind, I wonder.
I thought 2020 can't get any crazier – – but this tweet from CIA John Brennan
. is right up there
https://twitter.com/JohnBrennan/status/1314587438568833025?s=20
John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) Tweeted: Imagine prospects for world peace, prosperity, &
security if Joe Biden were President of the United States & Alexei Navalny the President
of Russia. We'll soon be halfway there.
"Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You, you may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one"
Hmmm So Navalny is indeed a CIA asset as those lying Russians claimed.
And this impartial government official, source of unbiased intelligence, is endorsing
Biden? If the above tweet is authentic, this country has reached maximum discord, betrayal
and treason.
Ministry of Internal Affairs: the "bottle from Navalny's room" was bought by Pevchikh
at the airport
The Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Transport in the Siberian
Federal District has stated that Aleksey Navalny's associate Maria Pevchikh had not taken
away bottles of water from his hotel room in Tomsk. These bottles, as reported earlier, the
German authorities had handed over for investigation, which had found traces of
poison.
The police said in a statement that Pevchikh had no bottles in her luggage during the
security check at Tolmachevo airport. After having gone through the security check, she
bought "a 0.5 litre bottle of water from a vending machine whilst in transit at the airport"
and with which bottle she flew to the city of Omsk".
And here is the very bottle (only its top is visible) that Maria Pevchikh was
secretly carrying.
The "deadly poison" was lying amongst cosmetics, laptops and underwear (it does not
seem that the bottle was considered to be "deadly dangerous").. According to the data that we
have available, there were no other bottles, neither with Pevchikh's nor Navalny's things.
This is an X-ray of the only suitcase in which a bottle can be seen.
Earlier, the German government had stated that, amongst other things, traces of
"Novichok" had been found on a bottle of water out of which Navalny had drunk.
15:17, 8 October 2020 During a search of Navalny's colleague, the alleged bottle with "Novichok" was not
found
During a search at Novosibirsk airport, Alexei Navalny's comrade-in-arms Maria Pevchikh
was not found to have a bottle, which, allegedly, had traces of poison from the Novichok
group. This has been stated by Sergei Potapov, deputy head of the Investigation Department of
the Transport Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Siberian
Federal District, TASS reports.
8 October 2020 15:45 The alleged bottle with "Novichok" was not found on Maria Pevchikh during a security
check
The bottle with which she flew to Omsk had been bought in the transit zone
Oh shit!
I suppose this story is now being reported in the USA, UK, French, German, Polish,
Lithuanian, Estonian, Latvian press etc., etc.
By the way, if you "Google" the following: "Pevchikh -- bottles -- airport" or similar, at
the top of the list of links presented is one to "The Insider" article that screams out
FAKE.
Only by scrolling down the list do you find Russian media articles on the Ministry of the
Interior (Siberia) statement concerning Pevchikh and the bottles and the uncanny way the
Bullshitter knew about the "mining" of Omsk airport even though the email from Germany
warning that bombs had been planted there was closed information and when it was sent, the
"Oppositionsführer" was in a state of a medically induced coma.
It time to make him accountable at the election box. Not that it matter much as Biden is yet another neocon and Zionist, but
stil...
American people are tied of sliding standard of living, permanent wars and jingoism. Trump might share Hillary fate in 2020,
because any illusion that he is for common fold, who voted for him in 2016 now disappeared. So he is not better then neocon Biden and Biden is new bastard. So why vote for the old bastard if we have new, who might be
slightly better in the long run
This is a very expensive foreign policy, that doesn't benefit the USA. It has potential to
raise the price of oil significantly.
Notable quotes:
"... Behind the move was pressure from the Zionist lobby. President Trump is in need of campaign funds and the lobby provides those. ..."
"... I can also see this green lighting Israeli or joint American-Israeli strikes on alleged Iranian nuclear weapons development sites and other military and petro-state assets. ..."
"... It's disgusting to watch the people of the US/UK/EU go along with this. Western elites are fat, lazy, vicious, and cruel. ..."
"... Paul wrote: "Perhaps a Biden administration would be just as much a Zionist captive as the Trump administration." Yes at least as much or more zionist. Nothing about Harris or Biden (or the DNC) says they won't be. ..."
"... I nominate president Eisenhower as slightly less zionist on one occasion: during the Anglo,French, Zionist Suez invasion of 1956 Eisenhower remarked after numerous UN resolutions condemning the bandit state's aggression ' Should a nation which attacks and occupies foreign territory in the face of United Nations disapproval be allowed to impose conditions on its withdrawal?' ..."
"... "The EU is trying to prop up the US Empire in response to its decline, instead of trying to free itself. " ..."
"... Donald Trump talked up his Iran policy in a profanity-laden tirade on Friday, telling conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh that Tehran knows the consequences of undermining the United States. ..."
"... "Iran knows that, and they've been put on notice: if you fuck around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before." ..."
The U.S. has imposed
new sanctions on Iran which will make ANY trade with the country very difficult:
[T]he Trump administration has decided to impose yet further sanctions on the country ,
this time targeting the entirety of the Iranian financial sector. These new measures carry
biting secondary sanctions effects that cut off third parties' access to the U.S. financial
sector if they engage with Iran's financial sector.
Since the idea was first floated publicly , many have argued that sanctioning Iran's
financial sector would eviscerate what humanitarian trade has survived the heavy hand of
existing U.S. sanctions.
Behind the move was pressure from the Zionist lobby. President Trump is in need of
campaign funds and the lobby provides those. The move is also designed to preempt any
attempts by a potentially new administration to revive the nuclear agreement with Iran:
This idea appears to have first been introduced into public discourse in an
Aug. 25, 2020, Wall Street Journal article by Mark Dubowitz and Richard Goldberg urging
the Trump administration to "[b]uild an Iranian [s]anctions [w]all" to prevent any future
Biden administration from returning to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the
nuclear accord between Iran and the world's major powers on which President Donald Trump
reneged in May 2018.
The new sanctions will stop all trade between the 'western' countries and Iran.
The Foreign Minister of Iran responded with defiance:
Amid Covid19 pandemic, U.S. regime wants to blow up our remaining channels to pay for food
& medicine.
Iranians WILL survive this latest of cruelties.
But conspiring to starve a population is a crime against humanity. Culprits & enablers
-- who block our money -- WILL face justice.
In response Iran will continue its turn to the east. Russia, China and probably India will
keep payment channels with Iran open or will make barter deals.
The Europeans, who so far have not dared to counter U.S. sanctions on Iran, are likely to be
again shown as the feckless U.S. ass kissers they have always been. They will thereby lose out
in a market with 85 million people that has the resources to pay for their high value products.
If they stop trade of humanitarian goods with Iran they will also show that their much vaunted
'values' mean nothing.
The European Union claims that it wants to be an independent actor on the world stage. If
that is to be taken seriously this would be the moment to demonstrate it.
Posted by b on October 9, 2020 at 16:37 UTC | Permalink
Unconscionable but what is new with pompass and his ghouls; treasury dept responsible for
cranking up the sanctions program was formerly headed by a dual citizen woman who resigned
suddenly after being exposed as an Israeli citizen-not hard to understand that sentiment in
that dept has not changed.
The other aspect here is the FDD as key supporter of these severe sanctions; very virulent
anti-Iranian vipers nest of ziocons with money bags from zionist oligarch funders.
Ho-hum. As I wrote earlier, just the daily breaking of laws meaning business as usual. As
noted, Russia has really upped the diplomatic heat on EU and France/Germany in particular,
and that heat will be further merited if the response is as b predicts from their past,
deplorable, behavior.
Much talk/writing recently about our current crisis being similar in
many ways to those that led to WW1, but with the Outlaw US Empire taking Britain's role. I
expect Iran's Iraqi proxies to escalate their attacks aimed at driving out the occupiers.
IMO, we ought to contemplate the message within this Strategic Culture editorial when it comes to the hegemonic relationship between
the Outlaw US Empire and the EU/NATO and the aims of both. The EU decided not to continue
fighting against the completion of Nord Stream, but that IMO will be its last friendly act
until it severs its relations with the Outlaw US Empire. With the Wall moved to Russia's
Western borders, the Cold War will resume. That will also affect Iran.
thanks b... it is interesting what a pivotal role israel plays in all of this... and why
would there be concern that biden would be any different then trump in revoking the jcpoa? to
my way of thinking, it is just pouring more cement and sealing the fate of the usa either
way, as an empire in real decline and resorting to more of the same financial sanctions as a
possible precursor to war.. frankly i can't see a war with iran, as the usa would have to
contend with russia and china at this point... russia and china must surely know the game
plan is exactly the same for them here as well.. as for europe, canada, australia and the
other poodles - they are all hopeless on this front as i see it... lets all bow down to the
great zionist plan, lol...
Yeah but at least Trump didn't start any new wars. /s
The Eurotools in Brussels are absolutely disgusting. A weaker bunch of feckless,
milquetoast satraps is difficult to imagine. The EU perfectly embodies the 21st century
liberal ethic: spout virtue signaling nonsense about peace, freedom, human rights and the
"rules based international order" while licking the boots of Uncle Scam and the Ziofascists
and going along with their war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Russia and China need to step up their game and boldly circumvent the collective
punishment sanctions that are choking the life out of Iran, Syria and Venezuela. They still
let the rogue states of the west get away with far too much.
The Teheran men will not surrender to the yankee herds and hordes. And less so the
telavivian.
It s easy to see that in the medium run this cruelly extended crime plays in chinese, russian
and shia hands.
And they must start immediately a backlash handing hundreds of special forces and weapons
opver to the Houthi hands.
Of course there is a war on, and it has been gathering force for some time.
Iran is but one more skirmish or battle. However, Xi and Putin are using what I call the
"Papou yes". You must always say "yes" as this way you avoid direct conflict, but then you
go and do exactly what you were going to do in the first place . The person who does the
demanding - having had his/her demands "met" has nothing further to add and will go away. (I
have seen this effective technique in action).
At the moment it appears that the aim of the subversive (military/CIA/NGO) wings of the
Empire are to start as many conflicts as possible. To isolate and overextend Russia, leading
to it's collapse. (As they claim to have done before.)
The "Alternative axis" is just carrying on with it's own plan to overextend and eventually
let the US dissolve into its own morasss. The opposition are trying to follow their own plan
without giving an opening for the US/NATO to use its numerical military advantage, by not
taking the bait.
The ultimate battle is for financial control of the worlds currency, or in the case of the
US, to halt the loss of it's financial power. To avoid that The next step could be the
introduction of a Fed. owned controlled and issued "digi-dollar", When all outstanding
"dollar assets" are re-denominated into virtual misty-money which is created exclusively by
the Fed. Banks become unnecessary as the Fed becomes the only "lender" available, Congress
redundant, debts no longer matter and so on. Who cares about the reserves held by China and
overseas "investors" if their use or even existence can be dictated by the Fed?
They have already published a "trial balloon" about introducing a digi-dollar.
Iran? the US is throwing ALL its cards into what looks like it's final battle to preserve
the dollars supremacy. Why cut ALL the Iranian financial system out of their sphere of
influence? Because it (thinks) it can and by doing so cower the wavering into obeying.
Thanks 'b', very well timed. I was actually heading to the open thread with this article
until I saw your piece. This Asia Times
article focuses on three key points:
- Iran has replaced the dollar with the Yuan as its main foreign currency
"This may become the east wind for the renminbi (yuan) and provide a new oil currency option
for traders in oil-producing countries, including Iran," an editorial on qq.com said. "
- Several large banks in Iran are developing a gold encrypted digital currency called
PayMon and had issued more than 1,000 crypto-currency mining licenses, which could promote
the development of crude oil. Domestic traders use cryptocurrency to import goods and bypass
American banks.
- The Iranian-Swiss Joint Chamber of Commerce
"Switzerland had received a special exemption from US supervisory authorities to allow the
SHTA operations."
It remains to be seen how effective the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Agreement actually is.
Some say it is nothing but a US propaganda stunt. Hopefully, that is not the case.
What does Iran need that they cannot get from China and Russia? The USA has cheap corn, and
the EU has... what, cheese? Other than that I don't see why Iran needs to trade with the
empire and its more servile vassals anyway.
Strange, that ther is a jewish or Israeki ´ animosity agains Iran (or agains tthe
Medtans -- as thy are all named in all Greek records(H, that theer is a jewish animosity
against, that ther is a jewish anikisit agains Iran (or the Medtans -- as thy are old ptt in
all Greek Strenge(Hellemistic) tales, Cyrur+s the Great is reported to have liberatet the
Jews of Babilon end sent them back to Jerusalem . So, "PRIMO SON VENETANO, SECUNDO SON
CHRISTANO" -- STILL A COMMONLY ACCEPTED SAYING INVENEZIA WHEB I VISITED ABD AKED IT IN THE
THE YEAR OF 1´2917! Iran (or the Medtans -- as thy are old ptt in all Greek
Strenge(Hellemistic) tales, Cyrur+s the Great is reorted to have liberatet te´he Jews
of Babilon end sent them back to Jerusalem . So, "PRIMO SON VENETANO, SECUNDO SON CHRISTANO"
-- STILL A COMMONLY ACCEPTED SAYING INVENEZIA WHEB I VISITED ABD AKED IT IN THE THE YEAR OF
1´2917! ellenistic) tales, Cyrur+s the Great is reorted to have liberatet te´he
Jews of Babylon end sent them back to Jerusalem . So, "PRIMO SON VENETANO, SECUNDO SON
CHRISTANO" -- STILL A COMMONLY ACCEPTED SAYING INVENEZIA WHEB I VISITED ABD AKED IT IN THE
THE YEAR OF 2017
Quite impressed with all the theories about Europe and its behavior. The answer is very
simple, Europe is occupied by a foreign power, it is a colony. And all the qualifiers are
quaint.
I disagree. What did the EU did on Iran, compared to Russia and China? It stopped most trade with Iran, including the purchase of iranian oil, and it stopped all
investment projects. INSTEX is a joke. Meanwhile Germany recently banned Hezbollah.
Yes, they did vote for the JCPOA in the UN. I look at actions rather than words though,
and EU has imposed de facto sanctions on Iran.
Moreover, German FM Maas told Israel recently that efforts are underway to keep the Iran
arms embargo. (He is also a big "Russia fan" - sarc off)
In other words, we "support" the JCPOA, but in practice with arms and trade embargoes on
Iran continuing.
Yeah right.
Posted by: powerandpeople | Oct 9 2020 20:15 utc | 24
No, its not so simple, unless you claim that european russophobia started with the US and
did not exist before it. Guy Mettan has a good book on it. It is a thousand years old issue,
involving Catholicism, France, Germany, Sweden, Britain, and others.
Yes, the US wants to divide the EU and Russia. But the EU itself is rotten from
within.
Politics are more important than the economy, German Chancellor Merkel said in relation to
Russia.
"Drang nach Osten" - "Drive to the East".
Germany dreams of capturing Eastern Europe and using is as some sort of colonised labor
pool similar to what Latin America is for the US.
And this is why the EU, without any prodding, eagerly took the lead in the attempt of
colour revolution in Belarus, where it played far bigger role than the US.
Signing and adhearing to the JCPOA turned Europe and Iran from opponents into partners.
This is a great diplomatic achievement. However, no part of the JCPOA made the two allies or
obliged the European side to wage an economic war with the USA on behalf of Iran. On the
contrary, the Iranians would be the first to say they are no friends of Europa. They have
been complaining about "Western meddling" in their region for years. (Note that they don`t
differentiate but always speak collectively of "the West").
So that`s their chance to show the world how much of a sovereign nation they are and that
they can handle their problems without the "meddling" of the "despicable" Europeans. There is
no obligation - neither legal nor moral - for Europe to take the side of Iran in the US-Iran
conflict.
And actually it is both sides - both Iran and the USA - who are unhappy with the current
European neutrality.
Thanks to MoA for being one of the only honest brokers of news on Iran in the English
language. As an American citizen living abroad (in EU) I have a more jaded and at the same
time worried feeling about this.
Along with all the other stuff, including the current threat to close the U.S. embassy in
the Iraqi "Green Zone" and the accompanying military maneuvers, which would spark war in the
region, I see this hardening and expansion of sanctions as yet the next clue that the U.S.
and Donald Trump's regime are looking toward re-election and a hot war with/on Iran. Rattling
the cage ever more and backing Iran into the corner with brutal, all-encompassing sanctions
is already an act of war, usually the first prior to bombs falling. I can also see this green lighting Israeli or joint American-Israeli strikes on alleged Iranian nuclear weapons
development sites and other military and petro-state assets.
I hope I'm wrong but we've all seen this before and it never ends well. If the EU shows a
spine, or more likely Russia and/or China step in directly, perhaps the long desired
neocon/neolib/Zionist hot war against Iran can be avoided.
I think it is very important for the US to kill another 500,000 children via sanctions, in
order to demonstrate the importance of freedom and democracy and observing international law.
While reading this post I was thinking what MoA wrote in the last two paragraphs. And also
that Iran will just continue to turn to China, Russia, and others in the East.
It's disgusting to watch the people of the US/UK/EU go along with this. Western elites are
fat, lazy, vicious, and cruel.
"Europeans can not be helped. Ironically, it is their own rejection of their WW2 past that
causes them to reject the multipolar world and sovereignty as "primitive things from the
past"
plus, as you point out elsewhere, there are longer histories at play: the Crusades against
the Slavs, the Moors and the Turks (and the Arabs, in fact), the invention of "western
civilization" in the 19th century (Arians vs Semites, Europe vs Asia, ecc) ...
plus, there is the persisting aspiration for world domination, partly frustrated by WW1
and the upheavals of the XXth century, which transformed the UK and the whole of Europe (with
Japan, Australia, etc) in a junior partner of the new US Empire
(that's the other lesson learned from WW2: no single european power could dominate the
continent and the world, but they could dominate as junior partners under the new young
leader of the wolf pack, the US)
plus, there are is a class war that can be better fought, by national oligarchies, within
globalist rethoric and rules
plus, there are the US deep state instruments of domination over european national
states
but Europeans (and Usaians) do understand the language of force, and they have - at the
moment - encountered a wall in their attempts at expansion, in Iran, China, Russia,
Venezuela, ecc; an alternative multipolar alliance is taking shape
so they might attempt to win a nuclear war by 20 million deaths to 2 (or 200 to 20, who
cares), but they might also decide to tune down their ambitions and return to reality;
maybe
@m (#35)
EU promised to uphold JCPOA. They can't because of the US and they are doing next to nothing
to change that. EU isn't neutral. They are stooges. Iran is right to complain about it, the
US isn't.
Trump is a man of peace, he hasn't started any new wars - whatever that means, lol.
As far as
I know economic blocade is tantamount to war. If he wins reelection expect renewed kinetic
attacks on venezuela and Iran. He's already lined up his zionist coalition with arabic
satraps to launch his Iran quagmire. Trump is a deal maker, he understands the economy and
will bring back manufacturing jobs to Murikkka, lol. I'm sure Boeing execs in deep trouble
would love to sell plane to the Iranians but Mr. MIGA just made that impossible. Nothing to
worry about, there's always the next socialist bailout for Boeing funded by taxpayers -
suckers as Trump would call them. So much for winning, can't fix deplorable and stupid...
Btw b, Trump's opposition to the Iran deal has nothing to do with money or the zionist
lobby. Stable genius opposed JCPOA in 2015 even before announcing his run for the presidency.
It's not about the mula but all about the mollah's, lol: The Donald in his own words at a tea
party event in 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIDNonMDSo8
Ever since the Iranian revolution of 1979 multiple US regimes in DC have been totally
successful in making majority Iranian people everywhere in the world, understand that the US
is their chronic strategic enemy for decades to come. At same time, these US regimes have
equally been as successful in making American people believe Iran is their enemy.
The difference between this two side's belief is, that, Iranian people by experiencing US
regime' conducts have come to their belief, but the American people' belief was made by their
own regime' propaganda machinery. For this reason, just like the people to people relation
between the US and Russian people, Before and after the fall of USSR the relation between US
and Iran in next few generations will not come to or even develop to anything substantial or
meaningful. One can see this same trajectory in US Chinese relations, or US Cuban. Noticeably
all these countries relation with US become terminally irreparable after their revolutions,
regardless of the maturity or termination of the revolution. As much as US loves color
revolutions, US hates real revolutions. The animosity no longer is just strategic it has
become people to people, and the reason and blame goes to Americans since they never were
ready to accept the revolutions that made nations self-servient to their interests. The
bottom line truth is the US / and her poodles in europe know, ever since the revolution Iran
no longer will be subservient to US interests.
This is leverage to bargain away the oil pipeline to germany. That is what is behind it. You
scratch my back, the US is saying to the EU, in particular, Germany....
It's an
Economy based on Plunder! , so that's why sanctions here, there and everywhere!! But the
real problem is we aren't participating in the Plunder!! Sometimes you gotta use extreme
sarcasm to explain the truth of a situation, and that's what Max and Stacey do in their show
at the link. 13 minutes of honest reporting about the fraudulent world in which we live. As
for Jerome Powell, current Fed Chair, he's complicit in the ongoing criminal activity just as
much as the high ranking politicos. Bastiat laid it out 180 years ago, but we're living what
he described now. And that's all part of what I wrote @40 above. The moral breakdown occurred
long ago but took time to perfect.
I think it is crazy that EU allows US to manage SWIFT to the point they invent new entities
to sidestep SWIFT and US sanctions (which are weak and ineffective, but that is the
trajectory of their weak attempts at independence). Force SWIFT to equally service all legal
transactions according to EU law, and let US cut itself off from all international financial
transfers if it doesn't like using EU's SWIFT. US corps won't allow that to happen, it's just
that EU refuses to call US bluff. Of course they are now praying for Biden presidency, but if
they can't assert themselves it is all ultimately the same thing.
These 'foreign policy experts' think the trade war with China has been a mistake. But they
think Trump is too soft on Russia and he hasn't been tough enough on NK, Iran and Venezuela.
It has become a standard trick for outgoing US administrations to saddle the incoming
administration with set in stone policies and judicial appointments.
"Behind the move was pressure from the Zionist lobby. President Trump is in need of
campaign funds and the lobby provides those. The move is also designed to preempt any
attempts by a potentially new administration to revive the nuclear agreement with Iran."
Perhaps a Biden administration would be just as much a Zionist captive as the Trump
administration.
The danger for the world is the Trump administration may go even further than additional
sanctions. So I refer to the previous post, US policy remains the same whatever bunch are the
frontmen.
When that attempt failed they worked on convincing the Sultan of Turkey to give them
someone else's homeland. The Zionist Zealot Mr Kalvariski became the administrator of the
Palestine Jewish Colonization Association with the aim of establishing a jewish suprematist
ghetto. Following that flop the Zionists turned to the hapless British and were rewarded by
Balfour with his notorious British government double cross of the Arabs. Now it's the turn of
the US and assorted captive nations to uphold and support tyranny and Talmudic
violence.
I am SLOWLY coming to the conclusion that DaTrumpster understands DaDeepState better than any
of us armchair pundits. His patient - and yes, perhaps faulty strategy - he's still standing
after ALL DaCrap that's been thrown at him.
All the 'EXPURTS' - including MoA - can only see part of DaPicture at best.
I've been as hard on DaTrumpster as anyone on DaConservative side - but I am SLOWLY coming to
understand WTF just might be going on.
Point - don't be too sure of your immediate inclinations - we ALL see through DaGlass DARKLY!
SWIFT is only a messaging system – SWIFT does not hold any funds or securities, nor
does it manage client accounts. Behind most international money and security transfers is the
Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) system. SWIFT is a vast
messaging network used by banks and other financial institutions to quickly, accurately, and
securely send and receive information, such as money transfer instructions.
Paul wrote:
"Perhaps a Biden administration would be just as much a Zionist captive as the Trump
administration." Yes at least as much or more zionist. Nothing about Harris or Biden (or the DNC) says they won't be.
And hasn't it always been that way from one president to the the next? Was there ever one
that was less zionist than the predecessor? (Maybe they're all so close this is an impossible
question to answer, that too could be the case).
The sitting executive branch gives the favors right now and anyone incoming gives the
favors after they win and thus each election becomes a double windfall for the lobby
group?
A zionist double dip . Maybe most US voters could grasp it like that.
I can't back this up (much like my previous comment in this thread) but it's my
impression. It would probably take a lot of work to make sure it's right; one would have to
scrutinize so much over so many decades.
I nominate president Eisenhower as slightly less zionist on one occasion: during the
Anglo,French, Zionist Suez invasion of 1956 Eisenhower remarked after numerous UN resolutions
condemning the bandit state's aggression ' Should a nation which attacks and occupies foreign
territory in the face of United Nations disapproval be allowed to impose conditions on its
withdrawal?'
This could be a useful quote for todays world.
Later, in 1964, Eisenhower approved his hand picked emissary's US $150 million so called
Johnston Plan to steal the waters of the Jordan River and further marginalize the Palestine
Arabs and surrounding Arab states.
Sanctions aren't the story. Once all the players have left the JCPOA, either Israel or the US
can claim Iranians are at the point of producing a nuclear weapon. Without the JCPOA and
inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities it will be impossible to prove or deny the
allegations. Thus giving either the US or Israel justification it wants to conduct military
strikes against Iran. The only things stopping this from happening is if the EU stays in the
JCPOA...
Exactly the aim. I said so in an earlier post. This is all part of the program to create a
false justification to conduct military strikes inside Iran. At this point, I'm really
surprised that the U.S. even tries to construct these narratives after Obama's Syria and
Libya operations didn't even really bother, save for a few probably fake "chemical weapons"
attack they alleged Assad committed. Libya I don't remember hearing anything. The embassy
maybe? After the Soleimani strike and the shootdown of the U.S. drone, not to mention the
alleged Iranian attacks on ARAMCO's oil facilities, I'm really quite surprised something more
serious (not to minimize the awful acts of war which the sanctions definitely are) hasn't
already happened. It will soon, especially if Trump gets re-elected. Wonder what all of his
"no new wars" supporters will say then?
Everybody reading knows what SWIFT is. That's a nice attempt to circumscribe the overall
sanctions regime and paint it as "no big deal."
Crush Limpbro - Checked out your site. You've got a long way to go before you can
criticize MoA. Hope that comment draws a few clicks to keep you going, but I would caution
other barflies to use a proxy; could be a honey trap to collect IP addresses.
This United States imposed and Zionist inspired siege on Iran and its people will only
further strengthen the political and economic bonds with Russia and China. Meanwhile, the US
collapses from its internal social limitations and its abandonment of public healthcare
responses to the Corvid 19 pandemic. Europe it close behind the US in this respect.
What exactly is this 'Justification'.. . 'to conduct military strikes against Iran' that
you refer to hasbara boy? Failure to obey foreign imposed zionist diktats?
Would this 'justification' apply to the bandit state if it refused to abide by the NNPT
for example?
No double standards pass the test here.
Yet another proof that "Western values" and their "rules based international order" mean
exactly nothing.
In the past, the West at least kept up some pretense that it was wrong to target unarmed
civilians (still, they flattened Driesden; Hiroshima; North Korea, Vietnam, Laos). Today,
they do not care to be seen openly, cruelly, brutally, sadistically killing civvies. These
American bastards say, "... it is not killing if the victims drop dead later, like, not right
now. " Or, "... it became necessary to destroy Iran in order to save Iran."
Iran is perfectly correct to call this a crime against humanity for the West to starve a
population of food and medicine. This will boomerang just as the opium-pushing in China will
boomerang on the West.
Meanwhile, just as those drug-pushing English bastards earned themselves lordships and
knighthoods; just as presidential bastards retire to their Martha Vineyard mansions; so the
current crop of bastards in American leadership will retire to yet more mansions, leaving the
next couple generations to meet Persian wrath. The American way is to "win" until they are
tired of winning, no?
But in truth, in objective reality, only those who have lost their human-ness are capable
of crimes against humanity.
The US is cruising for a bruising in the middle east fucking with Iran like this. Not that the US hasn't deserved a good knockout punch the past 19 years since invading and
destroying Afghanistan and Iraq, etc, etc. Regardless of their rhetoric, how the European rogues and rascals (France, Germany and the
UK) can sleep at night is beyond me.
Yes Psychochistorian @ 1, At the nation state level, EU support for blockade terror and
sanction torture (BT&ST), against reluctant nation states and non compliant individuals
within those nation states, logically suggests EU nation states are not independent sovereign
countries <=EU nation states exist in name only? Maybe its just like in the USA, these
private monopoly powered Oligarcks (PMPO), own everything (privately owned copyrights,
patents, and property) made possible by rules nation states turn into law. The citizens of
those privately owned EU nation states are victims <=in condition=exploitable. Maybe PMPOs
use nation states <=as profit support weapons, to be directed against <=any and all
<=competition, whereever and however <=competition appears.
The hidden suspects <=capital market linked crowds through out the world..
Media is 92% owned by six private individuals, of the seven typical nation state layers of
authority and power: 5 are private and two are public. Additionally, few in the international
organizations have allegiance to historic cultures of the nation state governed masses. It is
as if, the named nation states are <=threatened by knee breaking thugs, but maybe its not
threat, its actual PMPO ownership.
If one accepts PMPO <=to be in control of all of USA and all of allied nation state,
one can explain <=current BT&ST events. But private Oligarch scenarios <=raise
obvious questions, why have not the PMPO challenged East eliminated <=Israel, MSM
propaganda repeatedly blames or points to Israel <=to excuse the USA leaders for their
BT&ST policies. Seems the PMPO are <=using the nation states, they own <=to
eliminate non complying competition.
What is holding the East back? Russia and China each have sufficient oil, gas and
technology to keep things functional, so why has not the competition in the East taken Israel
out, if Israel is directing the USA to apply BT&ST against its competitors? Why is the
white House so sure, its BT&ST policies will not end up destroying Israel? Maybe because
Israel has no real interest <=in the BT&ST policy <=Israel is deceptions:fall guy?
The world needs to pin the tail on the party driving USA application of BT&ST because no
visible net gain to Governed Americans seems possible from BT&ST policies?
I think Passer @ 17 has hit the nail on its head. "The EU is trying to prop up the US
Empire in response to its decline, instead of trying to free itself. "
Sanctions aren't the story. Once all the players have left the JCPOA, either Israel or the
US can claim Iranians are at the point of producing a nuclear weapon.
So you put that forward as a justification for attacking Iran militarily, but that means
according to your logic you also have justification for attacking Israel or the US
militarily. The rules are the same for all, right?
Economic warfare is certainly effective. However, time is running out for these weapons as
America's lock on the world economy grows weaker. With a rapidly approaching expiry date, the
word out may be to use em or lose em.
In a zero-sum great game, it makes sense to deploy such weapons now insofar as an
opponent's loss is always a gain for oneself.
Donald Trump talked up his Iran policy in a profanity-laden tirade on Friday, telling
conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh that Tehran knows the consequences of undermining the
United States.
"Iran knows that, and they've been put on notice: if you fuck around with us, if you do
something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done
before."
What a shit show we are seeing. What is the next phase of this civilization war that is not
a war because there are not enough dead bodies for some I guess?...but it sure looks like
war to me.
Well for the first time in history Iran's symbolic "Red Flag" is still flying above the
popular Jamkaran Mosque Holy dome. Perhaps the USA and its running dogs body count has risen
in Iraq and Afghanistan? How would we know. These things are disguised from the fearless
press in those countries ;)
Perhaps the dead and mangled are many but we do know that the US chief killer in
Afghanistan was reduced to ashes immediately following General Shahid Qassem Suleimanis
murder by the USA whilst on a diplomatic mission in Iraq.
In respect of b's observation above, the illegal occupier of Palestine is more likely
tipping millions into the Harris Presidency as well as the possible Trump Presidency. I doubt
either Harris or the biden bait and switch stooge would restore the JCPOA. Besides they would
not be invited to sit at the table any time soon IMO. They would likely refuse to any
conditions of reversing the sanctions and then carry on about all that 'unreasonable demands
by a terrorist state' stuff etc etc.
No, Iran will be getting on with its future in a multilateral world where the United
Nations has been reduced to pile of chicken dung by the USA while most other nations go along
with global lunacy.
You know what's telling about the bootlickers who hem and haw about U.S. policy with the T
Administration, but never mention Trump as the real source of it even when profuse Zionist
shit spills from his mouth on Limbaugh's show proving he's a Ziofascist pig?
What's telling is that these usual suspects jumped all over ARI @64 for zeroing in on
Trump's precise intentions with Iran but they gave a pass to the real HASBARIST in the room,
Crush Limbraw @60, exposing himself, putting his HARD-ON FOR TRUMP on full display.
@60 we ALL see through DaGlass DARKLY!
Speak for yourself- you Zionist MORON!
Ahhhhhh, you can always count on the DUPLICITY of MOA'S weathervane james and friends. Me,
I ain't here to win a popularity contest like weathervane; I'm here to kick ass when I
witness duplicity in action. My friend here is the truth that I'll defend to the grave.
********
Noooo, dum-dums Putin will not come to Iran's rescue when he's warm in bed with his
Zionist Oligarchs and Russian squatters whom he pays homage to from time to time when he
visits Ziolandia thanking them for choosing the stolen West Bank over Russia.
Iran knows that, and they've been put on notice. That's Trump blowhard
driving the drumbeat.
Just rescue me from my self-destructive self for 4 more years, oh kings of Zion and
Wall Street, and I'll give you WAR!!! all in CAPS with three exclamation points. The GREATEST
war you've ever seen.
When I read the Great Reset article on the World Economic Forum website it seems to me that
the western Globalists, in concert align the US and EU. That accounts for the basic vassal
arrangements that predominate but allow for some nonalignments on certain issues.
That is precisely what the Belarusian authorities announced when Tikhanovskaya left Minsk,
that she was helped in her way out, but we know how the MSM acts, they stick to their own
script, just like a Hollywood movie.
The Belarusians must be watching with great attention what is happening in Kirguizia,
riots and complete chaos, and thinking how lucky they were to avoid the color rev that was in
the menu for them, which the same methods, discredit the oncoming election, claim fraud after
it, use similar symbols like the clenched fist and the heart, new flag, start transliterating
family and geographical names to a mythical and spoken by a very small minority language and
then nobody knows if to spell Tikhanovskaya, Tsikhanouskaya or like the politically incorrect
but street wise Luka called her, Guaidikha. And that is Kirguizia, how about a shooting war
in Armenia and Azerbaijan, all those conflicts were unimaginable when the USSR existed, but
the empire even on his way down is insatiable.
There is over a million jews of Russian origin living in Israel, 20% of the population,
with deep roots in Russia, language, culture and relatives. Do not let partisanship for the
Dems blind you, a true successful leader is someone that defends his country's interests
while at the same time tries to have good relations with everybody else, obviously that
balance is not easy to achieve in a world full of conflicting interests, but so far Putin
seems to be balancing his act while not loosing sight of the main thing, Russia.
Putin will not come to Iran's rescue when he's warm in bed with his Zionist
Oligarchs
If Putin is so close to Zionists, then why does Russia block the Zionist regime-change in
Syria? Why has Russia denied Israel and USA entreaties to allow them to bomb Iran?
Not as strange as a mythological demigoddess that turned sailors into swain and that now
enjoys to plunge into the mud with her creatures. A bot, what an easy label, it has lost any
meaning.
special beings who was born with two extra eyes...in the back of my head.
Alaska yellow fin sole, not bad, from Bristol Bay, but the Melva -a tunafish species with
more oil in its meat- I cooked for lunch, just caught, has a lot more fish oil with its rich
contents of vitamin D, add sunny Mediterranean weather and that is my pill for today, trying
to keep the bug at bay.
Circe, why don't you do what your namesake would have done and whip yourself up some meds to
calm down? You're starting to lapse into excessive use of upper case, italics, exclamation
points, bolding, profanity, and of course, insults.
This may help. It looks like the orange man is in fact going down, so you will soon have
Joe and Kamal empowered to dismantle the evil Putin-Netanyahu-Trump axis, and put the US back
on the path to truth and justice.
The unilateral and illegal-under-JCPOA sanctions mean it's time for EU to either confront the
extraterritorial US policy it has clearly rejected in principle, or (more likely) acknowlege
that it remains in practice just a collection of 'client states'. A sad moment for me, but
useful for clarity.
Hard to understand but you guys are incapable of spelling the name of a once great US
city, San Francisco. I heard it has changed a lot, got to see long time ago, before the
digital craze.
This is a brief but subtle post by b, with quiet but telling headline. Perhaps, just
guessing, a new take on the post he was having difficulty with earlier? The question of the
EU is an interesting one - not to be considered as virulent as the former Soviet Union, but
somehow as tugged at by the components thereof...
Sanctions on Iran? We do know what Iran is capable of; surely we have not forgotten?
Indeed, by pressing these sanctions at this late date, the Trump administration surely has
not forgotten either the effect sanctions had on Russia. They were postive to that country's
independent survival, though the immediate effect was demonstrably harsh. So now, sanctions
on Iran? One doesn't have to be a world leader to suppose similar cause, similar effect.
Ah, Paco has a wonderful meal of a beneficial fish called the Melva! Bravo, Paco; all is
not lost! But you have hooked the sea-serpent as well -- take care! That one - carefully
remove the hook and set it free ;)
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"... The myth that Donald Trump is Vladimir Putin's puppet just won't die, even though ample evidence demonstrates that the president's policy toward Russia has actually been surprisingly hardline and confrontational. Such pervasive paranoia has led to a rebirth of McCarthyism in the United States and is preventing a badly needed reassessment of U.S. foreign policy. In short, threat inflation with respect to Russia and an obsession with the phantom danger of presidential treason continues to poison our discourse. ..."
The consequences of the last McCarthy era were steep and lasted a generation; we can't afford a repeat.
The myth that Donald Trump is Vladimir Putin's puppet just won't die, even though ample evidence demonstrates that the president's
policy toward Russia has actually been
surprisingly hardline and confrontational. Such pervasive paranoia has led to a rebirth of McCarthyism in the United States and
is preventing a badly needed reassessment of U.S. foreign policy. In short, threat inflation with respect to Russia and an obsession
with the phantom danger of presidential treason continues to poison our discourse.
The end of the exhaustive FBI and Mueller commission investigations into "Russia collusion" was never going to put the treason
innuendoes to rest. Subsequent developments, such as
unsupported charges that Moscow paid financial bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan, served to keep the
narrative alive. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi epitomized the ongoing efforts to make imputations of disloyalty stick. "With [Trump],
all roads lead to Putin,"
Pelosi said in late June 2020. "I don't know what the Russians have on the president, politically, personally, or financially."
In a September 21 Washington Postop-ed ,
former New York Times correspondent Tim Weiner echoed Pelosi's perspective. He asserted that
despite the investigation by former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, despite the work of congressional intelligence committees
and inspectors general -- and despite impeachment -- we still don't know why the president kowtows to Vladimir Putin, broadcasts
Russian disinformation, bends foreign policy to suit the Kremlin and brushes off reports of Russians bounty-hunting American soldiers.
We still don't know whether Putin has something on him. And we need to know the answers -- urgently. Knowing could be devastating.
Not knowing is far worse. Not knowing is a threat to a functioning democracy.
Only visceral hatred of Donald Trump combined with equally unreasoning suspicions about Russia, much of it inherited from the
days of the Cold War, could account for the persistence of such an implausible argument. Yet an impressive array of media and political
heavyweights have adopted that perspective.
As during the McCarthy era in the 1950s, challenging the dominant narrative entails the risk of severe damage to reputation and
career. In September 2020, TheIntercept 's Glenn Greenwald disclosed in an interview with Megyn Kelly that
he had been blacklisted at MSNBC, primarily because he'd disputed the network's unbridled credulity about Russia's alleged menace
and President Trump's collusion with it. When Kelly asked him how he knew he was banned, Greenwald responded: "I have tons of friends
there. I used to go on all the time. I have producers who tried to book me and they get told, 'No. He's on the no-book list.'"
Although an MSNBC spokesperson denied that there was any official ban, the last time Greenwald had appeared on a network program
regarding any issue was in December 2016, just as the Russia collusion scandal was gaining traction. The timing was a striking coincidence.
Greenwald insisted that he was told about being on the no-book list by two different producers, and he charged that his situation
was not unique: "[I]t's not just me but several liberal-left journalists -- including Matt Taibbi and Jeremy Scahill -- who used
to regularly appear there and stopped once they expressed criticism of MSNBC's Russiagate coverage and skepticism generally about
the narrative."
It would be bad enough if blows to careers were the extent of the damage that paranoia about Russia and Trump had caused. But
that mentality is inhibiting any effort to improve relations with a significant international geostrategic player that possesses
several thousand nuclear weapons.
The opposition to any conciliatory moves toward Russia has reached absurd and toxic levels. Critics even condemned the Trump administration's
April 2020 decision to issue a joint declaration with the Kremlin to mark the date when Soviet and U.S. forces linked up at the Elbe
River during World War II, thereby cutting Nazi Germany into two segments. The larger purpose of the declaration was to highlight
"nations overcoming their differences in pursuit of a greater cause." The U.S. and Russian governments stressed that a similar standard
should apply to efforts to combat the coronavirus. It should have been noncontroversial, but some
condemned it as "playing into Putin's hands."
That theme has been even more prominent since Trump's decision to move some U.S. troops out of Germany. Even some members of the
president's own party seem susceptible to the argument. During recent House Armed Services Committee hearings, Congressman Bradley
Byrne invoked Russia. "From a layperson's point of view, it looks like we've reduced our troop presence in Europe at a time that
Russia is actually becoming more of a threat,"
Byrne said
. "It looks like we're pulling back, and I think that bothers a lot of us." Such arguments have been surprisingly common since the
administration announced its plans in late spring. Allegations that Trump is "doing Putin's bidding" continue to flow, even though
some of the troops withdrawn from Germany are going to be redeployed farther east
in Poland -- a step the Kremlin will hardly regard as friendly.
George Beebe, vice president and director of programs at the Center for the National Interest, aptly
describes the potential
negative consequences of fomenting public fear of and hatred toward Russia. He points out that
the safe space in our public discourse for dissenting from American orthodoxy on Russia has grown microscopically thin. When
the U.S. government will open a counterintelligence investigation on the presidential nominee of a major American political party
because he advocates a rethink of our approach to Russia, only to be cheered on by American media powerhouses that once valued
civil liberties, who among us is safe from such a fate? What are the chances that ambitious early-or mid-career professionals
inside or outside the U.S. government will critically examine the premises of our Russia policies, knowing that it might invite
investigations and professional excommunication? The answer is obvious.
Indeed it is. America went through such stifling of debate during the original McCarthy era. The impact lasted a generation and
was especially pernicious with respect to policy toward East Asia. Washington locked itself into a set of rigid positions, including
trying to orchestrate an international effort to shun and isolate China's communist government and see every adverse development
in the region as the result of machinations by Beijing and Moscow. The result was an increasingly futile, counterproductive China
policy until Richard Nixon had the wisdom to chart a new course in the early 1970s. This ossified thinking and lack of debate also
produced the disastrous military crusade in Vietnam.
America cannot afford such folly again. Smearing those who favor a less confrontational policy toward Moscow as puppets, traitors,
and (in the case of accusations against Tulsi Gabbard) "
Russian assets " will not lead to prudent policies. Persisting in such an approach will exacerbate dangerous tensions abroad
and undermine needed political debate at home.
Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow in security studies at the Cato Institute and a contributing editor at The American
Conservative , is the author of 12 books and more than 850 articles on international affairs.
966 pages and not one single proof. They go from telling how some businessmen from America and Russia do business together
(which is indication of what exactly? Hunter Biden was doing business with the same oligarch) to saying that if Trump (and other
opposition to hillary) went to see the Podesta' emails from wikileaks that was proof that Trump AND Russia together made the leaks
(what? If some dirt comes out over your opponent it is just normal to go and see what's about); and the only proof they provide
for this assertion (in a 966 page report) is one sentence: "The DNC said Russia had hacked their servers" - not one single proof
offered for that. After all, the DNC would never lie, would they?
And again, please name one policy Trump enacted which does benefit Russia in any way. If they truly helped Trump to get elected
(and they are still doing it) then they must be getting something out of it. So what it is, that Russia is getting from Trump?
"From a layperson's point of view, it looks like we've reduced our troop presence in Europe at a time that Russia is actually
becoming more of a threat,"
Troops weren't really reduced though. Troops were moved to Belgium and Italy (Italy, who's been occupied during WWII and who
still is precluded access to certain areas of their sovereign territory because of American occupation, and Belgium, the Capital
of the European Union, a subservient vassal to American policies, who would rather damage herself and her SMEs rather than growing
some b*lls and promote policies for her people's benefits). The move to Poland was to be expected, but what is really worrying
is that if the US moves nukes to Poland (as German politicians, from both the left and the right are starting to complain about
these nukes sitting under their bottoms) then the 1997 NATO-Russia treaty will crumble, and if that crumbles, Europe will be in
danger. What the author suggests (that America gets out of conspiratorial idiocy and gets back to cooperation) is actually the
best way to maintain peace and stability. Of course the other way (and this is not an either/or, this is complementary action)
is to get Europe to take independent decisions, take the reins of her defence, and tell the US to stop stuffing the East with
weapons and take their nukes back on the other side of the Ocean (after all we've got France who's got nukes as well, and there
is little chance Russia would actually nuke Europe, as they are part of geographical Europe and they'd suffer the consequences
as well to some degree).
EDIT: plus, there is literally zero proof that Russia wants to invade Europe and have a war in Europe (as part of Russia is
European as well). Yes last time they did win the war, but at what cost? This "protecting Europe" rhetoric is just a way to keep
control over Europe. Europa Faber Fortunae Suae , it is really time for it, isn't it Europe?
Actually, "protecting Europe" is about providing bodyguard services to Germany. For which Germany pays less than nothing. Except
in Germans paying for the liberal left think tanks and loss-generating MSM. And them then talking about Russian interference in
US elections, roflol.
NATO is like all other government bureaucracies - once you create one it is nearly impossible to disband. Whole industries
have grown up around it, and think tanks keep moving people in and out of government to ensure continuation of this mission (which
is to keep lots and lots of money flowing into industries that have no purpose.)
Germans and Italians benefit if troops on their soil keep buying their tchotchkes and baubles.Their governments are also staffed
by the same think tank people.
The troop reduction is leverage to try to get Germany to pay their way. The President is not happy with us paying their way,
perpetually, as the Washington establishment (including Biden) would have it.
It would be a tragic irony if the West blindly stumbled into a conflict with Russia after having avoided it during the dangerous
Cold War years. But history shows wars can start in that way.
https://www.ghostsofhistory...
Sure, absolutely. I have said for years (and still say) that we should have better relations with Russia. There was a real
opportunity to improve the relationship due to shared interests against Islamic extremism.
Too bad Trump blew the opportunity. First, he asked for illegal Russian election help on live TV. Then, Trump and his people
lied about their contacts with Russia, lied some more about the purpose of the Trump Tower meeting, and just kept on lying about
their contacts with Russia. Then his cowtowing to Putin in Helsinki without an official US interpreter or offical record just
put gas on what just a smoldering pile of suspicion that could have been much more easily discredited. So Trump brought a lot
of this on himself.
How different might it have been if Flynn, Don, Jr. and everyone else had said, "Hell, yes, we're talking to Russia because
it is in the national interest of the United States to have better relations with Russia, and we're proud to be working in that
direction." Might have taken the wind out of the Dems sails, or at least make them look stupid. Instead, Trump and his lies just
fed into the whole investigation -- why lie if you did nothing wrong?
Since Flynn, Trump has had no apparent advisors worth the title. If he were operating completely in the dark and making policy
decisions based on feel alone it would look much the way it does. Nor do I believe that most of this is his fault, other than
his jettisoning Flynn at the first sign of DNC hatred. That to them (and to future talent) was a clear sign his house was made
of straw and vulnerable to being taken down.
There's probably some truth to the claim that potential advisors were cautious after Flynn was canned. Of course, there is
no reason to assume that Trump would follow anyone's advice.
Flynn was working for Turkey on our dime, and pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI under oath. He had to go. He was a worthless
"advisor" who was in it for himself, and his son too.
Russia interfered extensively in our election to help Trump. Trump encouraged that help. Trump doesn't want to hear any reports
of continued Russian interference in our election. Trump refuses to do everything he can to prevent Russian interference.
Change Trump to Obama and RWers would be currently storming the gates they'd be freaking out so much. Their partisanship easily
overwhelms their patriotism.
America's anti russian paranoia stems from american failures the past 20 years. That paranoia originates from America's ruling
class not its people. America had 4 periods of anti-Russian/soviet paranoia, always coming at a time america felt weak
Before Germany's reunification in 1990, the Russians and the Americans reached an understanding that NATO would not expand
eastward, in return for Russia's not opposing the reunification. Unfortunately, the US/NATO violated this understanding starting
in 1999 when Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were admitted to NATO. More former East Block countries were admitted in later
years. The expansion of NATO coupled with US interference in Ukraine and its support of the Maidan Revolution in 2014 have resulted
in a deterioration in US - Russia relations. It would be a real stretch to blame this deterioration on Trump.
Trump has been the most Russia-friendly president. His initial instinct or policy view about Russia is rational! He knows the
US cannot be in war with both China and Russia at the same time. His goal was/is to divide these two countries that are very close
recently, so the US would pivot to China without fearing fighting with Russia too.
Having said that, his ineptitude, corrupt mind, and everything is transactional attitude messed that up by mixing his private
business and diplomacy contaminating the whole affair. The US is going to pay big time for Trump's mistakes.
There is plenty to criticize about America's policy towards Russia going back to the expansion of NATO, which was entirely
counter-productive, but this is just fighting one conspiracy with another. The leaders of the Trump campaign wanted to obtain
information on Clinton from Russian intelligence and were disappointed when the Russians didn't deliver. Trump lied repeatedly
about his involvement with Russia and took "anti-Russian" actions only when forced to by the entire Congress, which until 2019
was entirely under Republican control. The tone of this article is thoroughly dishonest and shows contempt for TAC's readers.
Our elite, drunk from imagined Cold War win, made up plans to control universe. It always felt artificial -- globalization
being good for us, while saturating China with our industry. While from the beginning refusing all Russia's overtures to normalize
relations. Clearly, Russia as a more formidable military and scientific entity had to be subjugated first, while China, overwhelmed
by rapid development would have acquiesced to being our manufacturing colony. China turned out not timid, while Russia being pushed
and demonized -- struck independent course. Chinese and Russian objectives were converging for along time. .But we stuck to the
script. Trump abandoned the script,hoping to charm Russia into our fold. The establishment disagrees, so without a clue in how
to proceed in global domination -- - confusion reigns.
While China was under Western thumb we'd become used to thinking of them as mere "coolies", but they proved to be more intelligent
than us, by our own methodology. The government works for the benefit of the people, not just a fraction of it, and it seems is
far more popular than our own. They deserve their hard earned wealth.
Russia is a different story, and will take decades to overcome the damage done by Yeltsin. Your views on Trump-Russia I agree
with but he was hampered by the fake conspiracy cooked up by Hillary C. and the Spy agencies.
Why is Democratic and a good chunk of Republican establishment still fixated on Russia? Even if economically, technologically,
geographically and demographically -- China is a threat to our own technological dominance, what is left of it.
I think the answer is a potent blend of fear and hatred. Fear is easy to explain. Russia has always been militarily and
scientifically advanced, and after Cold War displayed somewhat deceptive image of its weakness. Thus, no rush to finish them off.
Hatred part goes deeper then classical British empire Russophobia. It goes back to hundreds of years of slavery conducted out
of Crimea by successive empires, Khazars, Tatars, Ottomans. The wealth was accumulated from the millions of Slavs sold into Slavery
-- and the wealth went into Byzantine empire, and following the Venetian sack of Constantinople, the wealth went into Venice and
many German and French feudal cities, including Vatican. Nearly exclusive slave trade rights was in the hands of Jewish traders.
Twice Russians broke down slave trade -- first by Russian ruler in 10 century, where in Crimea Russians took Christianity. And
following centuries of occupation -- again, in 18th century by Catherine the Great -- this time for good.
But the banking set up in Venice was the foundation of modern banking in Europe, dictating wars ever since. The move of
European banking in early 18th century was cemented by the entry of Rothshield international banking into UK. Not only that
UK had by 1815 the debt twice its GDP, from which it did not recover until WWI, but continued as limping empire -- but it became
a loudest purveyor of Russophobia since. Russophobia and money lords walk hand in hand. This is the irrational part of the
equation. And the outcome is the fury that Russia "escaped" so many times. The mere notion that these inferior people -- whose
ethnicity is the very meaning if the word slave in German , French and English -- would aspire to equality, is unthinkable.
The rational part of the fear -- Russia is technologically advancing. Thus -- no effort is to be spared in degrading their
capabilities. Following their own line if thinking -- they fear revenge.
It is for that reason that Trump's notion of accepting Russian partnership -- is unacceptable. Even if for the purposes of
global domination. They would prefer taking their chances with China. Too late.
Russia has been damaged, but has reestablished political macro stability through constitutional change, by reviving State Council
function, and by creating massive reserves. Asia is a massive market independent of controlled straits, canals or islands. This
is at present fairly obvious. And challenges to status quo are well under way, while we still dream if the empire.
As we disregarded Russian fears and ignored the chance for a true partnership, Steve worried
about the resumption of hostile relations between our two countries and possibly a new Cold
War.
The myth that Donald Trump is Vladimir Putin's puppet just won't die, even though ample
evidence demonstrates that the president's policy toward Russia has actually been
surprisingly hardline and confrontational. Such pervasive paranoia has led to a rebirth of
McCarthyism in the United States and is preventing a badly needed reassessment of U.S. foreign
policy. In short, threat inflation with respect to Russia and an obsession with the phantom
danger of presidential treason continues to poison our discourse.
The end of the exhaustive FBI and Mueller commission investigations into "Russia collusion"
was never going to put the treason innuendoes to rest. Subsequent developments, such as
unsupported charges that Moscow paid financial bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. troops
in Afghanistan, served to keep the narrative alive. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi epitomized the
ongoing efforts to make imputations of disloyalty stick. "With [Trump], all roads lead to
Putin,"
Pelosi said in late June 2020. "I don't know what the Russians have on the president,
politically, personally, or financially."
In a September 21 Washington Postop-ed
, former New York Times correspondent Tim Weiner echoed Pelosi's perspective. He
asserted that
despite the investigation by former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, despite the
work of congressional intelligence committees and inspectors general -- and despite
impeachment -- we still don't know why the president kowtows to Vladimir Putin, broadcasts
Russian disinformation, bends foreign policy to suit the Kremlin and brushes off reports of
Russians bounty-hunting American soldiers. We still don't know whether Putin has something on
him. And we need to know the answers -- urgently. Knowing could be devastating. Not knowing
is far worse. Not knowing is a threat to a functioning democracy.
Only visceral hatred of Donald Trump combined with equally unreasoning suspicions about
Russia, much of it inherited from the days of the Cold War, could account for the persistence
of such an implausible argument. Yet an impressive array of media and political heavyweights
have adopted that perspective.
As during the McCarthy era in the 1950s, challenging the dominant narrative entails the risk
of severe damage to reputation and career. In September 2020, TheIntercept 's Glenn
Greenwald disclosed in an interview with Megyn Kelly that
he had been blacklisted at MSNBC, primarily because he'd disputed the network's unbridled
credulity about Russia's alleged menace and President Trump's collusion with it. When Kelly
asked him how he knew he was banned, Greenwald responded: "I have tons of friends there. I used
to go on all the time. I have producers who tried to book me and they get told, 'No. He's on
the no-book list.'"
Although an MSNBC spokesperson denied that there was any official ban, the last time
Greenwald had appeared on a network program regarding any issue was in December 2016, just as
the Russia collusion scandal was gaining traction. The timing was a striking coincidence.
Greenwald insisted that he was told about being on the no-book list by two different producers,
and he charged that his situation was not unique: "[I]t's not just me but several liberal-left
journalists -- including Matt Taibbi and Jeremy Scahill -- who used to regularly appear there
and stopped once they expressed criticism of MSNBC's Russiagate coverage and skepticism
generally about the narrative."
It would be bad enough if blows to careers were the extent of the damage that paranoia about
Russia and Trump had caused. But that mentality is inhibiting any effort to improve relations
with a significant international geostrategic player that possesses several thousand nuclear
weapons.
The opposition to any conciliatory moves toward Russia has reached absurd and toxic levels.
Critics even condemned the Trump administration's April 2020 decision to issue a joint
declaration with the Kremlin to mark the date when Soviet and U.S. forces linked up at the Elbe
River during World War II, thereby cutting Nazi Germany into two segments. The larger purpose
of the declaration was to highlight "nations overcoming their differences in pursuit of a
greater cause." The U.S. and Russian governments stressed that a similar standard should apply
to efforts to combat the coronavirus. It should have been noncontroversial, but some
condemned it as "playing into Putin's hands."
That theme has been even more prominent since Trump's decision to move some U.S. troops out
of Germany. Even some members of the president's own party seem susceptible to the argument.
During recent House Armed Services Committee hearings, Congressman Bradley Byrne invoked
Russia. "From a layperson's point of view, it looks like we've reduced our troop presence in
Europe at a time that Russia is actually becoming more of a threat," Byrne
said . "It looks like we're pulling back, and I think that bothers a lot of us." Such
arguments have been surprisingly common since the administration announced its plans in late
spring. Allegations that Trump is "doing Putin's bidding" continue to flow, even though some of
the troops withdrawn from Germany are going to be redeployed farther east
in Poland -- a step the Kremlin will hardly regard as friendly.
George Beebe, vice president and director of programs at the Center for the National
Interest, aptly describes
the potential negative consequences of fomenting public fear of and hatred toward Russia.
He points out that
the safe space in our public discourse for dissenting from American orthodoxy on Russia
has grown microscopically thin. When the U.S. government will open a counterintelligence
investigation on the presidential nominee of a major American political party because he
advocates a rethink of our approach to Russia, only to be cheered on by American media
powerhouses that once valued civil liberties, who among us is safe from such a fate? What are
the chances that ambitious early-or mid-career professionals inside or outside the U.S.
government will critically examine the premises of our Russia policies, knowing that it might
invite investigations and professional excommunication? The answer is obvious.
Indeed it is. America went through such stifling of debate during the original McCarthy era.
The impact lasted a generation and was especially pernicious with respect to policy toward East
Asia. Washington locked itself into a set of rigid positions, including trying to orchestrate
an international effort to shun and isolate China's communist government and see every adverse
development in the region as the result of machinations by Beijing and Moscow. The result was
an increasingly futile, counterproductive China policy until Richard Nixon had the wisdom to
chart a new course in the early 1970s. This ossified thinking and lack of debate also produced
the disastrous military crusade in Vietnam.
America cannot afford such folly again. Smearing those who favor a less confrontational
policy toward Moscow as puppets, traitors, and (in the case of accusations against Tulsi
Gabbard) "
Russian assets " will not lead to prudent policies. Persisting in such an approach will
exacerbate dangerous tensions abroad and undermine needed political debate at home.
Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow in security studies at the Cato Institute and a
contributing editor at The American Conservative , is the author of 12 books and more
than 850 articles on international affairs.
966 pages and not one single proof. They go from telling how some businessmen from
America and Russia do business together (which is indication of what exactly? Hunter Biden
was doing business with the same oligarch) to saying that if Trump (and other opposition to
hillary) went to see the Podesta' emails from wikileaks that was proof that Trump AND
Russia together made the leaks (what? If some dirt comes out over your opponent it is just
normal to go and see what's about); and the only proof they provide for this assertion (in
a 966 page report) is one sentence: "The DNC said Russia had hacked their servers" - not
one single proof offered for that. After all, the DNC would never lie, would they?
And again, please name one policy Trump enacted which does benefit Russia in any way. If
they truly helped Trump to get elected (and they are still doing it) then they must be
getting something out of it. So what it is, that Russia is getting from Trump?
"From a layperson's point of view, it looks like we've reduced our troop presence in
Europe at a time that Russia is actually becoming more of a threat,"
Troops weren't really reduced though. Troops were moved to Belgium and Italy (Italy,
who's been occupied during WWII and who still is precluded access to certain areas of their
sovereign territory because of American occupation, and Belgium, the Capital of the
European Union, a subservient vassal to American policies, who would rather damage herself
and her SMEs rather than growing some b*lls and promote policies for her people's
benefits). The move to Poland was to be expected, but what is really worrying is that if
the US moves nukes to Poland (as German politicians, from both the left and the right are
starting to complain about these nukes sitting under their bottoms) then the 1997
NATO-Russia treaty will crumble, and if that crumbles, Europe will be in danger. What the
author suggests (that America gets out of conspiratorial idiocy and gets back to
cooperation) is actually the best way to maintain peace and stability. Of course the other
way (and this is not an either/or, this is complementary action) is to get Europe to take
independent decisions, take the reins of her defence, and tell the US to stop stuffing the
East with weapons and take their nukes back on the other side of the Ocean (after all we've
got France who's got nukes as well, and there is little chance Russia would actually nuke
Europe, as they are part of geographical Europe and they'd suffer the consequences as well
to some degree).
EDIT: plus, there is literally zero proof that Russia wants to invade Europe and have a
war in Europe (as part of Russia is European as well). Yes last time they did win the war,
but at what cost? This "protecting Europe" rhetoric is just a way to keep control over
Europe. Europa Faber Fortunae Suae , it is really time for it, isn't it Europe?
Actually, "protecting Europe" is about providing bodyguard services to Germany. For
which Germany pays less than nothing. Except in Germans paying for the liberal left think
tanks and loss-generating MSM. And them then talking about Russian interference in US
elections, roflol.
NATO is like all other government bureaucracies - once you create one it is nearly
impossible to disband. Whole industries have grown up around it, and think tanks keep
moving people in and out of government to ensure continuation of this mission (which is to
keep lots and lots of money flowing into industries that have no purpose.)
Germans and Italians benefit if troops on their soil keep buying their tchotchkes and
baubles.Their governments are also staffed by the same think tank people.
The troop reduction is leverage to try to get Germany to pay their way. The President is
not happy with us paying their way, perpetually, as the Washington establishment (including
Biden) would have it.
It would be a tragic irony if the West blindly stumbled into a conflict with Russia
after having avoided it during the dangerous Cold War years. But history shows wars can
start in that way.
https://www.ghostsofhistory...
Sure, absolutely. I have said for years (and still say) that we should have better
relations with Russia. There was a real opportunity to improve the relationship due to
shared interests against Islamic extremism.
Too bad Trump blew the opportunity. First, he asked for illegal Russian election help on
live TV. Then, Trump and his people lied about their contacts with Russia, lied some more
about the purpose of the Trump Tower meeting, and just kept on lying about their contacts
with Russia. Then his cowtowing to Putin in Helsinki without an official US interpreter or
offical record just put gas on what just a smoldering pile of suspicion that could have
been much more easily discredited. So Trump brought a lot of this on himself.
How different might it have been if Flynn, Don, Jr. and everyone else had said, "Hell,
yes, we're talking to Russia because it is in the national interest of the United States to
have better relations with Russia, and we're proud to be working in that direction." Might
have taken the wind out of the Dems sails, or at least make them look stupid. Instead,
Trump and his lies just fed into the whole investigation -- why lie if you did nothing
wrong?
Since Flynn, Trump has had no apparent advisors worth the title. If he were operating
completely in the dark and making policy decisions based on feel alone it would look much
the way it does. Nor do I believe that most of this is his fault, other than his
jettisoning Flynn at the first sign of DNC hatred. That to them (and to future talent) was
a clear sign his house was made of straw and vulnerable to being taken down.
There's probably some truth to the claim that potential advisors were cautious after
Flynn was canned. Of course, there is no reason to assume that Trump would follow anyone's
advice.
Flynn was working for Turkey on our dime, and pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI under
oath. He had to go. He was a worthless "advisor" who was in it for himself, and his son
too.
Russia interfered extensively in our election to help Trump. Trump encouraged that help.
Trump doesn't want to hear any reports of continued Russian interference in our election.
Trump refuses to do everything he can to prevent Russian interference.
Change Trump to Obama and RWers would be currently storming the gates they'd be freaking
out so much. Their partisanship easily overwhelms their patriotism.
America's anti russian paranoia stems from american failures the past 20 years. That
paranoia originates from America's ruling class not its people. America had 4 periods of
anti-Russian/soviet paranoia, always coming at a time america felt weak
Before Germany's reunification in 1990, the Russians and the Americans reached an
understanding that NATO would not expand eastward, in return for Russia's not opposing the
reunification. Unfortunately, the US/NATO violated this understanding starting in 1999 when
Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were admitted to NATO. More former East Block
countries were admitted in later years. The expansion of NATO coupled with US interference
in Ukraine and its support of the Maidan Revolution in 2014 have resulted in a
deterioration in US - Russia relations. It would be a real stretch to blame this
deterioration on Trump.
Trump has been the most Russia-friendly president. His initial instinct or policy view
about Russia is rational! He knows the US cannot be in war with both China and Russia at
the same time. His goal was/is to divide these two countries that are very close recently,
so the US would pivot to China without fearing fighting with Russia too.
Having said that, his ineptitude, corrupt mind, and everything is transactional attitude
messed that up by mixing his private business and diplomacy contaminating the whole affair.
The US is going to pay big time for Trump's mistakes.
There is plenty to criticize about America's policy towards Russia going back to the
expansion of NATO, which was entirely counter-productive, but this is just fighting one
conspiracy with another. The leaders of the Trump campaign wanted to obtain information on
Clinton from Russian intelligence and were disappointed when the Russians didn't deliver.
Trump lied repeatedly about his involvement with Russia and took "anti-Russian" actions
only when forced to by the entire Congress, which until 2019 was entirely under Republican
control. The tone of this article is thoroughly dishonest and shows contempt for TAC's
readers.
Our elite, drunk from imagined Cold War win, made up plans to control universe. It
always felt artificial -- globalization being good for us, while saturating China with our
industry. While from the beginning refusing all Russia's overtures to normalize relations.
Clearly, Russia as a more formidable military and scientific entity had to be subjugated
first, while China, overwhelmed by rapid development would have acquiesced to being our
manufacturing colony. China turned out not timid, while Russia being pushed and demonized
-- struck independent course. Chinese and Russian objectives were converging for along
time. .But we stuck to the script. Trump abandoned the script,hoping to charm Russia into
our fold. The establishment disagrees, so without a clue in how to proceed in global
domination -- - confusion reigns.
While China was under Western thumb we'd become used to thinking of them as mere
"coolies", but they proved to be more intelligent than us, by our own methodology. The
government works for the benefit of the people, not just a fraction of it, and it seems is
far more popular than our own. They deserve their hard earned wealth.
Russia is a different story, and will take decades to overcome the damage done by Yeltsin.
Your views on Trump-Russia I agree with but he was hampered by the fake conspiracy cooked
up by Hillary C. and the Spy agencies.
Why is Democratic and a good chunk of Republican establishment still fixated on Russia?
Even if economically, technologically, geographically and demographically -- China is a
threat to our own technological dominance, what is left of it.
I think the answer is a potent blend of fear and hatred. Fear is easy to explain.
Russia has always been militarily and scientifically advanced, and after Cold War displayed
somewhat deceptive image of its weakness. Thus, no rush to finish them off.
Hatred part goes deeper then classical British empire Russophobia. It goes back to
hundreds of years of slavery conducted out of Crimea by successive empires, Khazars,
Tatars, Ottomans. The wealth was accumulated from the millions of Slavs sold into Slavery
-- and the wealth went into Byzantine empire, and following the Venetian sack of
Constantinople, the wealth went into Venice and many German and French feudal cities,
including Vatican. Nearly exclusive slave trade rights was in the hands of Jewish traders.
Twice Russians broke down slave trade -- first by Russian ruler in 10 century, where in
Crimea Russians took Christianity. And following centuries of occupation -- again, in 18th
century by Catherine the Great -- this time for good.
But the banking set up in Venice was the foundation of modern banking in Europe,
dictating wars ever since. The move of European banking in early 18th century was cemented
by the entry of Rothshield international banking into UK. Not only that UK had by 1815
the debt twice its GDP, from which it did not recover until WWI, but continued as limping
empire -- but it became a loudest purveyor of Russophobia since. Russophobia and money
lords walk hand in hand. This is the irrational part of the equation. And the outcome is
the fury that Russia "escaped" so many times. The mere notion that these inferior people --
whose ethnicity is the very meaning if the word slave in German , French and English --
would aspire to equality, is unthinkable.
The rational part of the fear -- Russia is technologically advancing. Thus -- no
effort is to be spared in degrading their capabilities. Following their own line if
thinking -- they fear revenge.
It is for that reason that Trump's notion of accepting Russian partnership -- is
unacceptable. Even if for the purposes of global domination. They would prefer taking their
chances with China. Too late.
Russia has been damaged, but has reestablished political macro stability through
constitutional change, by reviving State Council function, and by creating massive
reserves. Asia is a massive market independent of controlled straits, canals or islands.
This is at present fairly obvious. And challenges to status quo are well under way, while
we still dream if the empire.
Former FBI Director James Comey testified to Congress last Wednesday that he did not
remember much about what was going on when the FBI deceived the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA) Court into approving four warrants for surveillance of Trump campaign
aide Carter Page.
Few outsiders are aware that those warrants covered not only Page but also anyone Page was
in contact with as well as anyone Page's contacts were in contact with – under the
so-called two-hop surveillance procedure. In other words, the warrants extend coverage two
hops from the target – that is, anyone Page talks to and anyone they, in turn, talk
to.
At the hearing, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsay Graham reviewed the facts (most
of them confirmed by the Department of Justice inspector general) showing that none of the
four FISA warrants were warranted.
Graham gave a chronological rundown of the evidence that Comey and his "folks" either
knew, or should have known, that by signing fraudulent FISA warrant applications they were
perpetrating a fraud on the court.
The "evidence" used by Comey and his "folks" to "justify" warrants included Page's
contacts with Russian officials (CIA had already told the FBI those contacts had been
approved) and the phony as a three-dollar bill "Steele dossier" paid for by the
Democrats.
Two Hops to the World
But let's not hop over the implications of two-hop surveillance , which apparently remains
in effect today. Few understand the significance of what is known in the trade as "two-hop"
coverage. According to a former NSA technical director, Bill Binney, when President Barack
Obama approved the current version of "two hops," the NSA was ecstatic – and it is easy
to see why.
Let's say Page was in touch with Donald Trump (as candidate or president); Trump's
communications could then be surveilled, as well. Or, let's say Page was in touch with
Google. That would enable NSA to cover pretty much the entire world. A thorough read of the
transcript of Wednesday's hearing, particularly the Q-and-A, shows that this crucial two-hop
dimension never came up – or that those aware of it, were too afraid to mention it. It
was as if Page were the only one being surveilled.
Here is a sample of The New York Times 's typical coverage
of such a hearing:
"Senate Republicans sought on Wednesday to promote their efforts to rewrite the
narrative of the Trump-Russia investigation before Election Day, using a hearing with the
former F.B.I. director James B. Comey to cast doubt on the entire inquiry by highlighting
problems with a narrower aspect of it.
"Led by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary
Committee spent hours burrowing into mistakes and omissions made by the FBI when it applied
for court permission to wiretap the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 and
2017. Republicans drew on that flawed process to renew their claims that Mr. Comey and his
agents had acted with political bias, ignoring an independent review that debunked
the notion of a plot against President Trump."
Flawed process? Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz pinpointed no few
than 17 "serious performance failures" related to the four FISA warrant applications on Page.
Left unsaid is the fact that Horowitz's investigation was tightly circumscribed. Basically,
he asked the major players "Were you biased?" And they said "No."
Chutzpah-full Disingenuousness
Does the NYT believe we were all born yesterday? When the Horowitz report was
released in early December 2019, Fox News' Chris Wallace found those serious performance
failures "pretty shocking." He quoted an
earlier remark by Rep. Will Hurd (R,TX) a CIA alumnus:
"Why is it when you have 17 mistakes -- 17 things that are misrepresented or lapses --
and every one of them goes against the president and for investigating him, you have to say,
'Is that a coincidence'? it is either gross incompetence or intentionality."
Throughout the four-hour hearing on Wednesday, Comey was politely smug – a hair
short of condescending.
There was not the slightest sign he thought he would ever be held accountable for what
happened under his watch. You see, four years ago, Comey "knew" Hillary Clinton was a
shoo-in; that explains how he, together with CIA Director John Brennan and National
Intelligence Director James Clapper, felt free to take vast liberties with the Constitution
and the law before the election, and then launched a determined effort to hide their tracks
post election.
Trump had been forewarned. On Jan. 3, 2017, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY),
with an assist from Rachel Maddow, warned Trump not to get crosswise with the "intelligence
community," noting the IC has six ways to Sunday to get back at you.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/fotKK5kcMOg
Three days later, Comey told President-elect Trump, in a one-on-one conversation, what the
FBI had on him – namely, the "Steele Dossier." The media already had the dossier, but
were reluctant (for a host of obvious reasons) to publish it. When it leaked that Comey had
briefed Trump on it, they finally had the needed peg.
New Parvenu in Washington
After the tête-à-tête with Comey on Jan. 6, 2017, newcomer Trump didn't
know what hit him. Perhaps no one told him of Schumer's warning; or maybe he dismissed it out
of hand. Is that what Comey was up to on Jan. 6, 2017?
Was the former FBI director protesting too much in his June 2017 testimony to the Senate
Intelligence Committee when he insisted he'd tried to make it clear to Trump that briefing
him on the unverified but scurrilous information in the dossier wasn't intended to be
threatening?
It took Trump several months to figure out what
was being done to him.
Trump to NYT: 'Leverage' (aka Blackmail)
In a long Oval Office interview
with the Times on July 19, 2017, Trump said he thought Comey was trying to hold the
dossier over his head.
" Look what they did to me with Russia, and it was totally phony stuff. the dossier Now,
that was totally made-up stuff," Trump said. "I went there [to Moscow] for one day for the
Miss Universe contest, I turned around, I went back. It was so disgraceful. It was so
disgraceful.
"When he [Comey] brought it [the dossier] to me, I said this is really made-up junk. I
didn't think about anything. I just thought about, man, this is such a phony deal. I said,
this is – honestly, it was so wrong, and they didn't know I was just there for a very
short period of time. It was so wrong, and I was with groups of people. It was so wrong that
I really didn't, I didn't think about motive. I didn't know what to think other than, this is
really phony stuff."
The Steele dossier, paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign
and compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, includes a tale of Trump cavorting
with prostitutes, who supposedly urinated on each other before the same bed the Obamas had
slept in at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton hotel.
Trump told the Times : "I think [Comey] shared it so that I would think he had it
out there. As leverage."
Still Anemic
Even with that lesson in hand, Trump still proved virtually powerless in dealing with the
National Security State/intelligence community. The president has evidenced neither the skill
nor the guts to even attempt to keep the National Security State in check.
Comey, no doubt doesn't want to be seen as a "dirty cop," With Trump in power and Attorney
General William Barr his enforcer, there was always the latent threat that they would use the
tools at their disposal to expose and even prosecute Comey and his National Security State
colleagues for what the president now knows was done during his candidacy and presidency.
Despite their braggadocio about taking on the Deep State, and the continuing
investigations, it seems doubtful that anything serious is likely to happen before Election
Day, Nov. 3.
On Wednesday, Comey had the air of one who is equally sure, this time around, who will be
the next president. No worries. Comey could afford to be politely vapid for five more weeks,
and then be off the hook for any and all "serious performance failures" – some of them
felonies.
Thus, a significant downside to a Biden victory is that the National Security State will
escape accountability for unconscionable misbehavior, running from misdemeanors to
insurrection. No small thing.
Sen. Graham concluded the hearing with a pious plea: "Somebody needs to be held
accountable." Yet, surely, he has been around long enough to know the odds.
Given his disastrous presidency, either way the prospects are bleak: no accountability for
the National Security State, which is to be expected, or four more years of Trump.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the
Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27-year career as a CIA analyst includes serving as
Chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and preparer/briefer of the President's Daily
Brief. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). This
originally appeared at Consortium
News .
U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe recently declassified information
indicating the CIA obtained intelligence in 2016 that the Russians believed the Clinton
campaign was trying to falsely associate Russia with the so-called hack of DNC computers. CIA
Director John Brennan shared the intelligence with President Obama. They knew, in other words,
that the DNC was conducting false Russian flag operation against the Trump campaign . The
following is an exclusive excerpt from The Russia Lie that tells the amazing story in
detail:
On March 19, 2016, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, surrendered his emails
to an unknown entity in a "spear phishing" scam. This has been called a "hack," but it was not.
Instead, it was the sort of flim-flam hustle that happens to gullible dupes on the
internet.
The content of the emails was beyond embarrassing. They
showed election fraud and coordination with the media against the candidacy of Bernie
Sanders. The DNC and the Clinton campaign needed a cover story.
Blaming Russia would be a handy way to deal with the Podesta emails. There was already an
existing Russia operation that could easily be retrofitted to this purpose. The problem was
that it was nearly impossible to identify the perpetrator in a phishing scheme using computer
forensic tools.
The only way to associate Putin with the emails was circumstantially.
The DNC retained a company that called itself "CrowdStrike" to provide assistance.
CrowdStrike's chief technology officer and co-founder, Dmitri Alperovitch, is an anti-Putin,
Russian expat and a senior fellow at the Atlantic
Council .
With the Atlantic Council in 2016, all roads led to Ukraine. The Atlantic Council's list of
significant contributors includes
Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk.
The Ukrainian energy company that was paying millions to an entity that was funneling large
amounts to Hunter Biden months after he was discharged from the US Navy for drug use, Burisma,
also appears prominently on the Atlantic Council's donor list.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Western puppet installed in Ukraine,
visited the Atlantic Council's Washington offices to make a speech weeks after the
coup.
Pinchuk was also a
big donor (between $10 million and $20 million) to the Clinton Foundation. Back in '15, the
Wall Street Journal published an investigative
piece , " Clinton Charity Tapped Foreign Friends ." The piece was about how Ukraine was
attempting to influence Clinton by making huge donations through Pinchuk. Foreign interference,
anyone?
On June 12, 2016, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
announced : "We have upcoming leaks in relation to Hillary Clinton . . . We have emails
pending publication."
Two days later, CrowdStrike fed the Washington Post a
story , headlined, "Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole opposition research on
Trump." The improbable tale was that the Russians had hacked the DNC computer servers and got
away with some opposition research on Trump. The article quoted Alperovitch of CrowdStrike and
the Atlantic Council.
The next day, a new blog – Guccifer 2.0 – appeared on the
internet and announced:
Worldwide known cyber security company CrowdStrike announced that the Democratic National
Committee (DNC) servers had been hacked by "sophisticated" hacker groups.
I'm very pleased the company appreciated my skills so highly))) But in fact, it was easy,
very easy.
Guccifer may have been the first one who penetrated Hillary Clinton's and other Democrats'
mail servers. But he certainly wasn't the last. No wonder any other hacker could easily get
access to the DNC's servers.
Shame on CrowdStrike: Do you think I've been in the DNC's networks for almost a year and
saved only 2 documents? Do you really believe it?
Here are just a few docs from many thousands I extracted when hacking into DNC's
network.
Guccifer 2.0 posted hundreds of pages of Trump opposition research allegedly hacked from the
DNC and emailed copies to Gawker and The Smoking Gun . In raw form, the opposition research was
one of the documents obtained in the Podesta emails, with a notable difference: It was widely
reported the document now contained "
Russian fingerprints ."
The three-parenthesis formulation from the original post ")))" is the Russian version of a
smiley face used
commonly on social media. In addition, the blog's author deliberately used a Russian
VPN service visible in its emails even though there would have been many options to hide
any national affiliation.
Under the circumstances, the FBI should have analyzed the DNC computers to confirm the
Guccifer hack. Incredibly, though, the inspection was done by CrowdStrike, the same Atlantic
Council-connected private contractor paid by the DNC that had already concluded in The
Washington Post that there was a hack and Putin was behind it.
CrowdStrike would declare the "hack" to be the work of sophisticated Russian spies.
Alperovitch described it as, " skilled
operational tradecraft ."
There is nothing skilled, though, in ham-handedly disclosing a Russian identity when trying
to hide it. The more reasonable inference is that this was a set-up. It certainly looks like
Guccifer 2.0 suddenly appeared in coordination with the Washington Post 's article that
appeared the previous day.
FBI Director James Comey
confirmed in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee in January 2017 that the FBI's
failure to inspect the computers was unusual to say the least. "We'd always prefer to have
access hands-on ourselves if that's possible," he said.
But the DNC rebuffed the FBI's request to inspect the hardware. Comey added that the DNC's
hand-picked investigator, CrowdStrike, is "a highly respected private company."
What he did not reveal was that CrowdStrike never corroborated a hack by forensic analysis.
In testimony released in 2020, it was revealed that CrowdStrike
admitted to Congressional investigators as early as 2017 that it had no direct evidence of
Russian hacking.
CrowdStrike's president Shawn Henry testified, "There's not evidence that [documents and
emails] were actually exfiltrated [from the DNC servers]. There's circumstantial evidence but
no evidence that they were actually exfiltrated."
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The circumstantial evidence was Guccifer 2.0.
This was a crucial revelation because the thousand ships of Russiagate launched upon the
positive assertion that CrowdStrike had definitely proven a Russian hack. Yet this fact was
kept from the American public for more than three years.
The reasonable inference is that the DNC was trying to frame Russia and the FBI and
intelligence agencies were going along with the scheme because of political pressure.
Those who assert that it is a "conspiracy theory" to say that CrowdStrike would fabricate
the results of computer forensic testing to create a false Russian flag should know that it was
caught doing exactly that around the time it was inspecting the DNC computers.
On Dec. 22, 2016, CrowdStrike caused an international stir when it claimed to have uncovered
evidence that Russians hacked into a Ukrainian artillery computer app to help pro-Russian
separatists. Voice of America later determined the claim
was false , and CrowdStrike retracted its finding.
Ukraine's Ministry of Defense was forced to eat crow and admit that the hacking never
happened.
If you wanted a computer testing firm to fabricate a Russian hack for political reasons in
2016, CrowdStrike was who you went out and hired.
Nobody can even imagine of inflicting on the USA the same damage as CIA/FBI sponsored
Russiagate did.
And who authorized this CIA honcho to classify other countries as "enemy states"? He revealed
himself as yet another "national security parasite" and probably should be fired on the
spot.
US intelligence, the Pentagon, and national security officials are closely monitoring how
America's rivals and enemies "react" to Thursday night's shock news of President Trump's
coronavirus diagnosis, for which he's since said to be exhibiting mild symptoms.
"The U.S. military stands ready to defend our country and its citizens," Joint Staff
spokesperson Col. Dave Butler said Friday, according to
Politico . "There's no change to the readiness or capability of our armed forces."
"What we are anticipating is that the Russian actors and probably the Iranians will play
this up," one anonymous defense official also added. Further the countries of China and North
Korea are also being monitored, according to the report.
Specifically US intelligence will scrutinizing any "subtle increase in activity against us,
knowing we are preoccupied, and the opportunity to test us, perhaps," Marc Polymeropoulos, a
former CIA Senior Intelligence Service officer,
described to Politico.
The former CIA officer emphasized that "Our enemies will see us in a vulnerable state."
Ex-Oligarch , 6 hours ago
It's not the foreign adversaries we need to worry about.
Peter Royce Clayon da Turd , 5 hours ago
Herbert Walker Bush almost did in Reagan and got away with it. To be honest, I think he
ran EVERYTHING after that assassination attempt anyway, so the powers that be got what they
wanted. Would also explain why Ronnie could not recall Iran Contra.
Philo Beddoe , 6 hours ago
Pro tip.
Ahem, try monitoring domestic adversaries.
reTARD , 6 hours ago
By US Intelligence agencies, you mean the same 17 US Intelligence agencies that were
complicit in Russiagate, 9/11, etc.? LMAO.
KekistanisUnite , 6 hours ago
It's not the Russians or Iranians I'm concerned about.
goldenspiral9 , 6 hours ago
Lol. PuuhleeZe. This scripted tv show is getting ridiculous.
WTFUD , 6 hours ago
WTF - US Intelligence - The same NWO filth who dun 9/11.
That's a relief. sarc
LetThemEatRand , 6 hours ago
I wonder if our elected officials really believe their own ******** that they are the one
thing standing between an invasion and the nation's security. Most of them probably don't,
but they are glad that we allow them to spend trillions in tax dollars for bunkers and other
measures of keep them safe in the event of a war that they may start.
Captain Scarlet , 6 hours ago
Speaking from Britain I can honesty say that the BBC is one of Trump's premier foreign
adversaries.
Dzerzhhinsky , 6 hours ago
The BBC was the first official Government propaganda outlet in the world. They have a long
history of lying.
yerfej , 6 hours ago
When I listen to the BBC (or CBC) I am reminded that there are many people on this planet
with glossy degrees in some garbage but yet they can't actually think or relate to anyone but
their college cliques.
44magnum , 6 hours ago
The only adversaries we have are the ones the government tells us we have. Who to like who
to hate.
ay_arrow
Pied - Piped - Piper , 5 hours ago
Rubio desperately attempting to remain viable after he's already dead
politically......
Hulk , 5 hours ago
"US intelligence, the Pentagon, and national security officials are closely monitoring how
America's enemies "react" to Thursday night's shock news of President Trump's coronavirus
diagnosis, for which he's since said to be exhibiting mild symptoms"
and so far, Schumer, Piglosi, Feinstein, Biden, Nadler Obama, Brennan, Comey, Mueller and
his team of winners, havent tried a thing !!!
Is-Be , 5 hours ago
Putin calls all other countries "partners" and the MIC call everyone "adversaries".
One of these is not the same as the other.
Hint: You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
ZENDOG , 6 hours ago
Are they looking at the FBI ??
Lots of traitors there.
Thraxite , 4 hours ago
Dude forgot his paranoia medication. What a loony.
Aussiestirrer , 2 hours ago
Never pass up an opportunity to run a false flag operation.
I draw your attention to the irrefutable fact that Mr. Cohen said that the Buk missile, which
brought down Malaysian Flight 370 over the skies of Donbas, was the Ukraine government "playing
with its new toys and made a big mistake." -- and I draw your attention to the irrefutable fact
that Mr. Cohen said that the Buk missile, which brought down Malaysian Flight 370 over the skies
of Donbas, was the Ukraine government "playing with its new toys and made a big mistake."
He was a real giant in comparison with intellectual scum like Fiona Hill, Michael McFaul and other neocons.
Notable quotes:
"... I tried to explain to American friends what was happening, but quickly realized that ultimately, even friends believe what they read in the newspapers, and the newspapers were pushing the Washington line. Except for Steve Cohen. Steve was the only major figure in America who insisted on remembering the Russian-speaking Ukrainians who, like my family members, distrusted and hated the new Kiev government. He spoke of neo-Nazi paramilitiaries who fought for the US-backed government committing war crimes against civilians in eastern Ukraine. He spoke the truth, regardless of how unwieldy it was. ..."
"... There's a lot to say about Steve. He was extraordinarily kind, never forgetting that in geopolitics, the ones who have the most to lose aren't strategists but everyday individuals impacted by policy. He was a consummate teacher, insisting on giving mentees the skills to navigate the world, a real proponent of the Teach a man to fish philosophy. He had facets and stories and memories; he lived life with empathy and gusto. ..."
"... Steve's insistence on speaking the truth about Ukraine and US-Russia relations drew all sorts of attention. America was hurtling toward a new cold war with Russia, and Steve well, from the perspective of Washington's foreign policy establishment, Steve was fucking up the narrative. Steve talked about inconvenient things, things like US-backed war criminals and America's own meddling in Russian affairs; in the process, he himself had become inconvenient. ..."
"... After all, this wasn't some random blogger. This was one of America's foremost Russia experts, a tenured professor at Princeton and New York University, someone who didn't just write about history but had dinner with it, had briefed US presidents, and was friends with legends like Mikhail Gorbachev. Steve had clout earned from decades of brilliant work; by 2014, he was using that clout to throw a wrench in the think tank world. ..."
"... It was something far colder, more sustained, something that ironically the Soviets did to dissidents: a relentless crusade to render the target untouchable, a leper without a platform. The barrage of articles and diatribes hurled at Steve in the national press painted him as not just a dissenter but a supporter of dictators and murderers. It was a vicious, prolonged assault carried out by think tank toadies, the kind of people who win races by kneecapping the competition. ..."
"... I'd often talk with Steve after a new hatchet job or smear on national television. Of course, the attacks were hurtful -- the only way to not be affected was to not care, and Steve cared. But I also noticed he was remarkably free of bitterness. Every time I thought he'd snap, he'd return the next day to write, discuss, keep fighting. ..."
"... It took me a couple of years to understand that what kept Steve going was faith in his beloved institutions. He believed in academia, in scholarship, in discourse, debate, and civility. He believed in the capacity of everyday people to explore and engage with their world, he believed in Russia, and he always believed in America. He believed in these things far more than he believed in the power of today's warmongers. ..."
"... In 1967 Noam Chomsky wrote an article in the NY Review entitled "the Responsibility of Intellectuals" the first sentence ran like this: "IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY of intellectuals to speak the truth and to expose lies.". Stephen Cohen did precisely that when all the parrots and pundits were lined up against him. ..."
"... Always I was skeptical of prevailing scholarly interpretive trends on the Soviet experience that were echoed by colleagues claiming expertise on the subject. Cohen provided the foundation for my skepticism and invigorated my lectures on American foreign policy. ..."
"... Once Cohen plied his knowledge against the hysterical narrative that culminated in 4 years of frothing neo-McCarthyism (by the freakin' "left," no less), we were no longer gonna see him on the PBS newshour any more likely than we would and will see chris hedges, chomsky, or margaret kimberly. ..."
"... His book War With Russia? was an oasis of counter-narrative when I picked it up. Losing voices like his is immeasurable as we hurtle toward total war with Russia and/or China, both of whom are finally, naturally, and perfectly predictably beginning to draw a line in the sand. ..."
I first reached out to Stephen Cohen because I was losing my mind.
In the spring of 2014, a war broke out in my homeland of Ukraine. It was a horrific war in a
bitterly divided nation, which turned eastern Ukraine into a bombed-out wasteland. But that's
not how it was portrayed in America. Because millions of eastern Ukrainians were against the
US-backed government, their opinions were inconvenient for the West. Washington needed a clean
story about Ukraine fighting the Kremlin; as a result, US media avoided reporting about the
"wrong" half of the country. Twenty-plus million people were written out of the narrative, as
if they never existed.
I tried to explain to American friends what was happening, but quickly realized that
ultimately, even friends believe what they read in the newspapers, and the newspapers were
pushing the Washington line. Except for Steve Cohen. Steve was the only major figure in America
who insisted on remembering the Russian-speaking Ukrainians who, like my family members,
distrusted and hated the new Kiev government. He spoke of neo-Nazi paramilitiaries who fought
for the US-backed government committing war crimes against civilians in eastern Ukraine. He
spoke the truth, regardless of how unwieldy it was.
And so I e-mailed him, asking for guidance as I began my own writing career. Of course,
there were many who clamored for Steve's time, but I had an advantage over others. Steve and I
were both night owls, real night owls, the kind who have afternoon tea at three am. It
was then, when the east coast was sleeping, that he became my mentor and friend.
There's a lot to say about Steve. He was extraordinarily kind, never forgetting that in
geopolitics, the ones who have the most to lose aren't strategists but everyday individuals
impacted by policy. He was a consummate teacher, insisting on giving mentees the skills to
navigate the world, a real proponent of the Teach a man to fish philosophy. He had
facets and stories and memories; he lived life with empathy and gusto.
But one thing Steve taught me is to stick to my strengths, and truth be told, there are
others who can describe his life better than I. I'll stick to what I learned during our
conversations at three in the morning, which is that, above all else, Stephen F. Cohen was a
man of faith.
Steve's insistence on speaking the truth about Ukraine and US-Russia relations drew all
sorts of attention. America was hurtling toward a new cold war with Russia, and Steve well,
from the perspective of Washington's foreign policy establishment, Steve was fucking up the
narrative. Steve talked about inconvenient things, things like US-backed war criminals and
America's own meddling in Russian affairs; in the process, he himself had become
inconvenient.
After all, this wasn't some random blogger. This was one of America's foremost Russia
experts, a tenured professor at Princeton and New York University, someone who didn't just
write about history but had dinner with it, had briefed US presidents, and was friends with
legends like Mikhail Gorbachev. Steve had clout earned from decades of brilliant work; by 2014,
he was using that clout to throw a wrench in the think tank world.
The DC apparatchiks couldn't discredit Steve's credentials or track record -- he'd predicted
events in Ukraine and elsewhere years before they occurred. They couldn't intimidate him --
he'd faced far worse threats, like the KGB. Instead, they set out to turn him into an
America-hating, Putin-loving pariah.
This went beyond an ad hominem campaign. It was something far colder, more sustained,
something that ironically the Soviets did to dissidents: a relentless crusade to render the
target untouchable, a leper without a platform. The barrage of articles and diatribes hurled at
Steve in the national press painted him as not just a dissenter but a supporter of dictators
and murderers. It was a vicious, prolonged assault carried out by think tank toadies, the kind
of people who win races by kneecapping the competition.
I'd often talk with Steve after a new hatchet job or smear on national television. Of
course, the attacks were hurtful -- the only way to not be affected was to not care, and Steve
cared. But I also noticed he was remarkably free of bitterness. Every time I thought he'd snap,
he'd return the next day to write, discuss, keep fighting.
It took me a couple of years to understand that what kept Steve going was faith in his
beloved institutions. He believed in academia, in scholarship, in discourse, debate, and
civility. He believed in the capacity of everyday people to explore and engage with their
world, he believed in Russia, and he always believed in America. He believed in these things
far more than he believed in the power of today's warmongers.
Steve liked movies and would often end a lecture with a movie reference to drive home the
thesis. When I think of him, I think of the ending of The Shawshank Redemption , the
line about Andy Dufresne crawling through filth and coming out clean on the other side. Steve
didn't live in a movie; I can't claim he emerged unscathed. What he did was come through
without bitterness or cynicism. He refused to turn away from the ugliness, but he didn't allow
it to blind him to beauty. He walked with grace. And he lost neither his convictions nor his
faith.
Lev
Golinkin Lev Golinkin is the author of A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka,
Amazon's Debut of the Month, a Barnes & Noble's Discover Great New Writers program
selection, and winner of the Premio Salerno Libro d'Europa. Golinkin, a graduate of Boston
College, came to the US as a child refugee from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov (now
called Kharkiv) in 1990. His writing on the Ukraine crisis, Russia, the far right, and
immigrant and refugee identity has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los
Angeles Times, CNN, The Boston Globe, Politico Europe, and Time (online), among other venues;
he has been interviewed by MSNBC, NPR, ABC Radio, WSJ Live and HuffPost Live.
Pierre Guerlain says: October 1, 2020 at 12:42 pm
In 1967 Noam Chomsky wrote an article in the NY Review entitled "the Responsibility of
Intellectuals" the first sentence ran like this: "IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY of intellectuals
to speak the truth and to expose lies.". Stephen Cohen did precisely that when all the
parrots and pundits were lined up against him. He was a Mensch. History will bear him
the historian out.
Valera Bochkarev says to Lance Haley: October 1, 2020 at 11:09 am
Hmm, who's the apologist here ?
If the Ukraine is SO sovereign how is it I did not see any outrage in your diatribe
against 'Toria, Pyatt and the rest orchestrating the Maidan putsch or the $5Billion US spent
on softening up the ukraine for the regime change ?
I believe in numbers, as in the number of military bases any given country has surrounding
the ones it wants to subvert, in the amount of money allocated to vilify and eventually bring
down the "unwanted" regimes and the quantity and 'quality' of sanctions imposed against those
regimes; and the sum of all of the above perpetrated against humanity in the past 75 or so
years.
Your vapid drivel, Mr Haley, evaporates almost without a trace once seen with those
parameters in mind.
Numbers don't lie.
Michael Batinski says: September 30, 2020 at 5:48 pm
Let me add from the perspective of an American historian who taught for forty years in a
midwestern university. From the start I depended on William Appleman Williams to keep
perspective and to counter prevailing interpretive trends.
Always I was skeptical of
prevailing scholarly interpretive trends on the Soviet experience that were echoed by
colleagues claiming expertise on the subject. Cohen provided the foundation for my skepticism
and invigorated my lectures on American foreign policy.
I will always be thankful.
Michael Batinski
Tim Ashby says: September 30, 2020 at 2:37 pm
The smothering agitprop in America trumps even Goebbels and co. with its beautifully
dressed overton window and first-amendment-free-press bullshit.
Once Cohen plied his knowledge against the hysterical narrative that culminated in 4 years
of frothing neo-McCarthyism (by the freakin' "left," no less), we were no longer gonna see
him on the PBS newshour any more likely than we would and will see chris hedges, chomsky, or
margaret kimberly.
Let's face it, we were lucky to win the editorial fight to even give him
space in the Nation.
His book War With Russia? was an oasis of counter-narrative when I picked it up. Losing
voices like his is immeasurable as we hurtle toward total war with Russia and/or China, both
of whom are finally, naturally, and perfectly predictably beginning to draw a line in the
sand.
By Jonny Tickle Angela Merkel's visit to Alexey Navalny was an attempt to politicize
the situation, according to Russia's Foreign Ministry. The German Chancellor dropped in to see
the Russian opposition figure when he was hospitalized in Berlin.
Speaking to Komsomolskaya Pravda Radio, the Ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova said
that the chancellor's visit had "nothing to do with the desire to find the truth" about
what happened to an opposition figure who was allegedly poisoned, and was simply a political
decision.
"Many people ask why," Zakharova said, when questioned about Merkel's motives. "I
think these questions should be addressed to the German side we regard it as an attempt to
politicize the issue."
The current communication between Moscow and Berlin is an "endless game of tag," with
Germany refusing to use official channels, Zakharova claimed.
On Monday, Navalny confirmed that the chancellor had met with him in Berlin's Charite
hospital. The opposition figure denied that the meeting was "secret," calling it a
"private conversation with (his) family." The visit was also confirmed by German
government spokesperson Steffen Seibert, who clarified that Berlin does not announce Merkel's
private meetings. According to German magazine Der Spiegel, which first broke the news of the
encounter, it "should be regarded as a clue for the Russian government that Berlin will not
give in and will find out the truth [behind the incident]."
On August 20, Navalny was hospitalized in the Siberian city of Omsk after he became ill on a
flight from Tomsk to Moscow. Two days later, after a request from his family and associates,
the activist was flown to Berlin for treatment at the city's Charite clinic. Over a week later,
German authorities announced that the anti-corruption activist was poisoned with a substance
from the Novichok group of nerve agents. The medical team in Omsk denies that any poison was
found in Navalny's body. On September 23, he was discharged from hospital and is expected to
make a full recovery.
If you like this story, share it with a friend! Embla Bill Johnson 7 hours ago What
is certain is that EUC Ursula Von der Legen was activated. At least they are two about it. So
therefore the geopolitical region is covering EU member countries, not only Germany. Tor
Gjesdal 5 hours ago When the Banksters, Rothschild s are your Masters you just have to obey
Merkel. Besides US$ HAS much dirt on You also by their Spying on us All... Cyber criminals
Supreme. Which simply put: No Real Democracy at all, Faked this also. ((( Not to mention their
lies, cheating and stealing in their Medias and schools. etc.. What complete Hypocrits and how
Truely Un-Godly! It is so sad to see these Leaders of the Nazto-sphere showing how sold out
their Souls and Minds are. (( Galaxy31 5 hours ago The West is so desperate to make crooked
Navalny look like an important fierce opposition. In reality he is far far from being important
or a fierce opposition. He is simply a traitor politely said, nothing else. ariadnatheo 3 hours
ago What do they and what does Angela herself mean by "a private visit"? She is the head of the
German state for Zweibelkuchen sake! Private as in ... intimate? I cannot see her as a cougar.
In fact I can't even imagine her in bed. No way! Please say it ain't so, Angela! armyexpat 1
hour ago I wonder what "they" have on Merkel or her gov. The German gov is spinning a fairy
tail as fact.
is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of ' SCORPION
KING : America's Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump.' He served in the
Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf's staff during
the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector. Follow him on Twitter @RealScottRitter The US seeks to
pressure Russia by threatening to reactivate nuclear capability mothballed under the New START
treaty if Moscow refuses to renegotiate. All it will accomplish by this is prove it habitually
cheats on arms control.
According
to Politico, "The Trump administration has asked the military to assess how quickly it
could pull nuclear weapons out of storage and load them onto bombers and submarines" when
the New START treaty limiting the size of the US and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals expires
in February. Politico sources its story "to three people familiar with the discussions."
According to these sources, the request was made to the US Strategic Command as "part of a
strategy to pressure Moscow into renegotiating the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty before
the US presidential election."
What is curious about this report is that US Strategic Command already knows the answer to
the request. To meet the level of warhead reductions mandated under the treaty, the US has
decreased the number of warheads carried on the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic
missile (ICBM) from three to one, and on its
Trident D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from up to 14 to around 5 or
6.
The deactivated warheads were
reclassified as either active or inactive. Active warheads are kept fully assembled and
subjected to the same level of maintenance and upgrades as their operational counterparts, and
can be reactivated in accordance with guidelines already established by US Strategic Command.
Inactive warheads have been partially disassembled, and their reactivation would take longer
than for their active counterparts, but is similarly regulated by US Strategic Command
directives. Moreover, the US regularly
conducts tests where it reconverts the Minuteman III ICBM to a three-warhead configuration
to practice for the very activities suggested in the Politico article. The timelines associated
with this reconversion are well known to US Strategic Command. It is not publicly known whether
the US Navy conducts similar re-conversion flight tests of its Trident D-5 SLBMs.
One aspect of this request that, if it were implemented, would fall outside the existing
reactivation guidelines set by US Strategic Command is if the US were to reconvert its fleet of
Trident ballistic missile submarines from its current configuration under New START to one
where no restrictions applied. This possibility raises some interesting questions about US
compliance with New START.
According to Section 1 , paragraph 3
in Part Three of the Protocol to the treaty,
"If an ICBM launcher, SLBM launcher, or heavy bomber is converted by rendering it
incapable of employing ICBMs, SLBMs, or nuclear armaments, so that the other Party can confirm
the results of the conversion, such a converted strategic offensive arm shall cease to be
subject to the aggregate numbers provided for in Article II of the Treaty and may be used for
purposes not inconsistent with the Treaty."
To meet its obligations under New START, the US converted four SLBM launchers on each of its
14 Trident ballistic missile submarines – a total of 56 – to remove them from the
permitted number of launchers. This conversion was done by removing the gas generators of the
ejecting mechanism from the launch tube and bolting the tube covers shut.
On February 27, 2018, the Russian Foreign Ministry
protested the American actions, noting that, in regard to the Trident conversions, they
were "converted in such a way that the Russian Federation cannot confirm that these
strategic arms have been rendered incapable of employing SLBMs."
The Russians were concerned that the Trident SLBM conversions were not irreversible, as
required under the terms of the treaty, and that the 56 launchers listed as having been
"rendered incapable of employing SLBMs" should rather have been categorized as
"non-deployed launchers" and not excluded from the total aggregate count. To put it
bluntly, the Russians were accusing the United States of cheating on the New START
Treaty.
If true, the threat made by Marshall Billingslea in his interview with the Russian Kommersant paper on
September 21 to "reconvert our weapons" , if applied to the Trident ballistic missile
submarine launch tubes, would not only confirm the Russian suspicions, but certify the US as an
untrustworthy negotiating partner in any future arms control negotiations, either with Russia
or China.
Washington already has one strike against it in this regard: its contention that the Mk 41
launcher used on the Aegis Ashore anti-ballistic missile system could not be used as a cruise
missile launcher, and, as such, did not constitute a violation of the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. This was shown to be a lie when, less than a month after the US
withdrew from the INF Treaty, it conducted a flight test of a cruise missile fired from the
same Mk 41
launcher .
If the Politico reporting is accurate, the US military has been ordered to carry out an
exercise that is redundant insofar as the data is already known, and which does nothing to
further US strategic capabilities. Moreover, if the US plans on increasing its SLBM launch
capability by reactivating the 56 SLBM launchers ostensibly rendered inoperable under New
START, Marshall Billingslea would be undermining his own stated objective of trying to pressure
Russia back to the negotiating table before the November 2020 presidential election. After all,
who in their right mind would be willing to negotiate with a proven cheater?
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Clinton approved an advisor's proposal to "vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal
claiming interference by Russian security services" in July 2016, according to information
declassified on Tuesday by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. The bombshell
revelation was made public in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.
Carolina), in response to a request for information related to the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane
(i.e. Russiagate) probe.
By the end of July 2016, US intelligence agencies had picked up chatter that their Russian
counterparts not only knew of the scheme, but that Clinton was behind it – though the
declassified material stresses that the American intelligence community "does not know the
accuracy" of the claim that Clinton had green-lighted such a plan, or whether the Russians
were exaggerating. However, then-CIA director John Brennan apparently followed up that
assessment by briefing then-President Barack Obama on Clinton's Russian smear scheme, according
to his handwritten notes – suggesting the spy agencies were very much aware what was
going on.
The news made a splash among the president's supporters and other Russiagate skeptics, one
of whom observed the timing of the events described in the declassified material dovetailed
seamlessly with the timetable in which Russiagate was unveiled to the public. Clinton staffer
Robby Mook appeared on CNN on July 24, 2016 to claim that "Russian state
actors broke into the [Democratic National Committee]" and "stole" the campaign's
emails "for the purpose of actually helping Donald Trump."
Former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele filed his report around the same date,
accusing the Trump campaign of colluding with Russian security services to hack the DNC and
dump the emails via Wikileaks. The false information that made up the infamous "peepee
dossier" – collected under contract from opposition research firm Fusion GPS –
was used to justify securing a FISA warrant for Trump campaign aide Carter Page. That warrant,
and others that followed, have since been declared invalid, as it was discovered the Obama
administration had "violated its duty of candor" on its application for every
warrant.
Just a month before the 2016 election, Obama's intelligence agencies announced that they
believed Russia was responsible for hacking the DNC – allegations it has since emerged
were made without even examining the server on which the emails were stored.
More than a year after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report shocked
Russiagate true believers with the absence of the promised proof of collusion, the colossal
conspiracy theory has all but unraveled.
Today, the Arctic has increasingly become identified as a domain of great prosperity
and cooperation amongst world civilizations on the one side and a domain of confrontation and
war on the other.
In 2007, the Russian government first voiced its support for the construction of the
Bering Strait rail tunnel connecting the Americas with the Eurasian continent- a policy which
has taken on new life in 2020 as Putin's Great Arctic Development strategy has wedded itself
to the northern extension of the Belt and Road Initiative (dubbed the Polar Silk Road). In
2011, the Russian government re-stated its pledge to build the $64 billion project .
####
On September 26, President Trump announced that a long-overdue project would receive
Federal support which involves connecting Alaska for the first time with Canada and the lower
48 states via a 2570 km railway.
In his Tweet announcing the project, Trump said:
####
I'd never read about the sale of Alaska to America by Russia in any detail before but just
by looking at the map it was clear that it made sense. Indefensible against a rapidly growing
country, so sell early for a good price or lose it and get nothing.
As for Ehret's hypothesis, we know that t-Rump sees things in a deal oriented way and not
simply 'You must be destroyed (TM)' way, though his methods of reaching such deals 'Maximum
Pressure (TM)' are none too bright and result in less than a normally negotiated deal. But,
if we look at the ends rather than the means, improving trade links is surely to America's
(and others) advantage.
One thing that does strike me from the maps of the proposed increased US-Asia links is
that having those function normally is not compatible with the current strategic goal of
trying to contain China. So, what is the point of the US Pacific Fleet? Just Free-Dumb of
Navigation (FONOPS) cruises for pensioners?
"... The DemoRats have never been a party dedicated to peace; the only ones thinking that are the walking bong-holes who assuage their cognitive dissonance by telling themselves that. Both the demorats and their willing accomplices 'across the aisle' have led us into constant war for nearly eight decades. Lilliputian Big enders and Little enders all. ..."
"... Screw the war mongers and the MIC. ..."
"... If you read the article, it's obvious that [neo]liberals/whores are the apogee of hypocrisy. ..."
"... Perpetual war is about $$$. It knows no party. Never has and never will. ..."
Feral, yes; rabid, absolutely; smart... not so much. Why is anyone surprised?
The DemoRats have never been a party dedicated
to peace; the only ones thinking that are the walking bong-holes who assuage their cognitive dissonance by telling themselves
that. Both the demorats and their willing accomplices 'across the aisle' have led us into constant war for nearly eight decades.
Lilliputian Big enders and Little enders all.
Yup. It's always about the money. As Fitts would say, that screeching you hear is the cash flow drying up for the rentiers.
The murdering of women and children be damned. Hillary's demonic cackle is but the grotesque cherry on top:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd1ghag5Y
Truth be told: political operatives own and run our MSM. This is why the press is called
the 'Fourth Estate'.
They are more correctly described as a Fifth Column , one far more open and sworn to
destroy our country and its foundational citizens – and taxpayers – as any that
ever operated during World War II. You would think this would be of vital interest to people
who loudly declare themselves to be "Nazi-punchers", but who time and again show themselves to
be merely low-level street terrorists informed and inspired by Mao's Red Guard and the
irredeemable thugs of the African National Congress.
One wonders what's preventing them from
mimicking the Red Terror waged by the leftists of Spain, when the battle for "freedom" involved
the disinterment of the graves of Catholic clergy to better pose the corpses in blasphemous
positions. Imagine how depraved those Mostly Peaceful protesters had to have been for even a
leftist-supporting site such as Wikipedia to baldly state
The violence consisted of the killing of tens of thousands of people (including 6,832
Roman Catholic priests, the vast majority in the summer of 1936 in the wake of the military
coup), attacks on the Spanish nobility, industrialists, and conservative politicians, as well
as the desecration and burning of monasteries and churches.
Directly in the crosshairs this time are small and medium-sized owner-operated businesses
– the true backbone of American freedom and prosperity – who have largely been
sacrificed in exchange for the knock-kneed offerings of Danegeld from our giant conglomerates,
all of whom have prospered immensely from the suffering and privation brought on by the
Democratic lockdown of society – and the total shutdown of our economy.
Think! – have you read a single article charting how the government war on small
business directly enriched Amazon.com and
world's richest autocrat, Jeff Bezos? . who then funnels his windfall into a newspaper that
blatantly pimps for the Democratic Party, which translates into a vast payday for the DNC, not
least from its newly-approved partnership with the shadowy and many-tentacled Soros-surrogate
group, BLM?
The result is what you'd expect when a fringe group operates with the full cooperation and
partnership of major industry and both political parties (don't confuse Trump with a
standard-issue Republican, please – he may have terrible flaws, but that isn't one of
them) – 10% of the population holding the other 90% in a chokehold with only one set of
rules: no arrest and prosecution for Bolshevik violence and terror ..but the zero-tolerance
heavy hand of corrupt Leviathan coming down hard against any and all citizens who fight back
or, eventually – inevitably – who even struggle against their restraints.
Short of the sudden arrival of celestial horsemen to punish the guilty and reward the
set-upon, it has become clear that the only answer is the one that the Powers That Be claim to
be dead set against: racial separatism. (Particularly when we consider that all that will be
necessary to turn America into Hell on earth will be the adoption of Ibram Kendi's First Law,
sometimes known as equality of outcome :
To fix the original sin of racism, Americans should pass an anti-racist amendment to the
U.S. Constitution that enshrines two guiding anti-racist principals: Racial inequity is
evidence of racist policy and the different racial groups are equals.
Could any "amendment" be more terrifyingly totalitarian than this?)
White and black separation would, instead, accomplish two goals, both more important than
Kendi's quick fix: we would learn soon enough about actual equality of outcomes (which
is why no Communist, black or white, wants anything to do with the creation of one more failed
basket-case black state), and much more importantly, white families can sleep secure in their
beds at night, without worrying about Apache raids at midnight, egged on and recorded for
"posterity" by that Fourth Estate/Fifth Column referred to up top. Because the fact of the
matter is that, even should some combination of government and law-enforcement halt the burning
and looting of America – as things stand now, none of the worst malefactors will ever see
the inside of a prison cell .which means any ceasefire will only be temporary, to be violently
ripped asunder the moment they sense white Americans have at last lowered their guard once
more. And living in perpetual paranoid readiness for violent uprisings and mindless destruction
is no way to live at all.
Trump has it half right, a border wall is the answer: only it needs to run
lengthwise , between the Southern and Northern borders. If we don't use the next four
years to plan out such a separation, fretting over our children's children will be a fruitless
exercise – those who aren't murdered will be captured and 'go native' .and in case you
haven't looked at a globe lately, there's no place left to run.
As a recovering journalist, I can point out that even on a rinkydink rag in a small city,
where I got fired for being a real journalist back in the early '70's; he who owns the
presses and distribution networks calls the tune. It's a matter of working-class (no matter
how middle-class your income or social-status) versus the ownership class. The latter wins
every time.
If you have ever wondered why Syrian jihadists, or so-called 'moderate opposition', got
support from the woke liberal West, a recent leak by Anonymous reveals it's because Western
governments funded this propaganda.
In the end, it is the sheer childishness of the propaganda which amazes me most, not that
our rulers lie about other countries – I have always known that. But somehow there was a
kernel of truth around which the web of lies was spun, for example about life in the old Soviet
Union.
I began to realise the scope of Western ability to literally invent the most baseless lies
only in the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003, and only because I knew more about Iraq than any
politician in Britain or America and ten times more than the average made-up telly-dolly
chuntering through their auto-cued war propaganda. The women presenters weren't any better.
This all came flooding back to me when I received an email from Anonymous earlier this week
and then read Ben Norton's excellent analysis of it all in The GrayZone.
If anyone ever wondered how the hordes of head-chopping throat-cutting heart-eating
gay-murdering women-hating 'Jihadists' of the Syrian War ever managed to get a fair press in a
'woke' liberal West that gets hot under the lace collar about JK Rowling novels, the answers
are all in
the Anonymous leak . The principle answer is that you, the taxpayer, paid for it.
That's right. The blizzard of 'White Helmets' (who made it right up to the Oscars to thank
everyone who'd helped them except those that had helped them the most), "chemical-weapons
attacks" and all the paraphernalia of a newly "moderate opposition" in Syria – was all
paid for by YOU. Millions of pounds of British taxpayers' money was revealed to have been spent
secretly on UK support for the throat-cutting coalition of chaos, which for a decade massacred
its way across Syria wearing a snow-white Western beard of respectability.
It would appear that while the US (or rather its milk-cows in the Gulf) was paying for the
lethal-weapons, perfidious Albion was doing what it does best – lying through its teeth
whilst making those being lied to, pay for the privilege. Now that – thanks to the leaks
– we know this, it should put us on guard for the next one. Yet somehow it doesn't, at
least not for the purveyors of the news.
The Lazarus-like resurrection (and photo-shoot) of Russia's opposition figure and Western
darling Alexey Navalny after yet another alleged Novichok (believed to be 5-8 times more toxic
than VX nerve agent) attack without so much as a tracheostomy to show for it is swallowed whole
in yet another anti-Russian public relations offensive.
Grown sane men call my television show to talk about 'concentration camps' in China in
which, we are told, "a million Uighur Muslims" are being held and forcibly sterilised. This is
despite the allegations being largely based on studies backed by the American government and
statements by Western media favourite, German researcher Adrian Zenz. Zenz, who is part of the
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a US-backed advocacy group,
believes that he is "led by God" on his "mission" against China. Meanwhile, according to China's
official statistics the Uighur population in Xinjiang province increased by over 25 percent
between 2010 and 2018, while the Han Chinese rose by only two percent.
The lying industry may be the only sector of the Western economies still in full production.
No need for furlough or bounce-back loans. The lie-machines never still. No smoke is usually
detected from their chimneys, but inside, their pants are well and truly on fire.
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Following a long line of very arrogant american imperial "negotiators", mr oblivion
billingslea used standard "negotiating" techniques like
(a) accusing the other side of crimes Americans have committed first and forever, eg,
extreme lying, bad faith argumentation, military aggression, foreign government security
breaching, assassination and poisoning [as in american presidents and independent thinkers],
and of course, electoral cheating;
(b) putting the opponent in the "negotiation process" on the defensive or back foot by
stating false news allegations amplified by the media controlled by the american empire;
(c) offering nothing useful or commitable to be done by the empire, and yet
"magnanimously" demanding the moon as opponents' concessions, eg, russian, iranian and
chinese nuclear weapons limits, but not for nato's development and deployment, and; (d) after
making impossible demands, the imperials accuse the opponents of hostility and unwillingness
to "negotiate".
The russians can skillfully agree by stating that they only require the americans to
reduce their nukes to 320 pieces like china, and in less than five years.
This is why it is very important for sovereign nations to read the guidebook, called the
"idiot's guide on running the american empire", and developing deep and lasting
solutions.
As for the other american imperial military "advantages", eg, constellation of
"aggression" satellites, andrei forgot to mention that these can be shot or burned down in
minutes easily by russia, china and even iran, as these stations cannot hide or run away in
earth orbits.
Replenishment of weapons and military supplies after 3 months is rather doomed as the
cheap, mass production and manufacturing facilities do not exist. Which must be re-created
somehow but now
American lands are the targets. Much, Much Different Than WW2 !!
And of course, russia can always nuke down the USA and its vassal countries, and thus
permanently ruin their economies for a decade or more, they don't know how to run defense --
this was always the fatal weakness of all bullies - if they'll have enough time to "learn
it"... let's see... I doubt this.
Let's see americans try to start and conduct a nuclear war after too many spy, internet
and gps satellites are shot down. Russia can even do this today using conventional
explosives, and the world will be shocked how helpless the american military and economy can
be made even without using russian nukes.
There are countries still immune to the numerous american imperial diseases that are
already documented daily in zerohedge postings. The better countries still have lots of
parents telling their kids to study and work hard so they can have better lives than their
ancestors.
In oregon and california, they teach unemployable kids to burn something or somebody
sometime before dinner.
CdVision • 11 hours ago
I was about to say that what now comes out of the US & Trump's mouth in particular, is
Orwellian. But that credits it with too much gravitas. The true comparison is Alice in
Wonderland:
"Words mean whatever I want them to mean".
Reminiscence of the Future.. ( http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2020/09/russia-steals-everything.html)
Russia "Steals Everything" !! (Not just China, oops... ???!!!!)
And Jesus Christ was an American and was born in Kalamazoo, MI. It is a well-known fact. So
Donald Trump, evidently briefed by his "utterly competent and crushingly precise aids", knows
now that too! !!! LOL
> US President Donald Trump claims that Russia developed hypersonic weapons after
allegedly stealing information from the United States.
> According to him, "Russia received this information from the Obama administration,"
Moscow "stole this information." Trump said that "Russia received this information and then
created" the rocket, reports TASS.
> "We have such advanced weapons that President Xi, Putin and everyone else will envy
us. They do not know what we have, but they know that it is something that no one has ever
heard of. "
->We are the foremost and always number one. Everything is invented only by us, the
rest can only either steal, or be gifted with our developments for good behavior. This
situation is eternal, unchanging, everyone lags behind American Tikhalogii at least 50 years
(the time frame was chosen so that even a 20-year-old would lose heart, "what's the point of
trying to catch up, it won't work anyway, in my lifetime"). It was, is, and will be, this is
the natural course of events.
All this is delivered in the format of the classic Sunday sermon of the American
provincial Protestant church, coding the parishioners for further deeds and actions. And it
worked effectively, creating in some basalt confidence "we are better because we are better",
in others - "I don't mind anything for joining this radiant success, I'm ready for anything,
I'll go for any hardships and crimes, if only There".
Only now it worked. In a situation where the frequency of pronouncing such mantras is more
and more, emotions are invested in them too, but in fact everyone understands that this is
what autohypnosis does not work.
The poor have stolen from the United States, if you look at it, literally everything. And
5G and the superweapon of the gods. Moreover, a pearl with a characteristic handwriting is
not copy / paste, but move / paste, you bastards. Therefore, the United States does not even
have any traces of developments left - the guys just sit in an empty room, shrug their hands,
"here we have a farm of mechanical killer dolls, with the faces of Mickey Mouse overexposed,
and now look - traces of bast shoes and candy wrappers from "Korkunov" only, ah-ah-ah, well,
something like that, ah. "
At the same time, there are no cases of sabotage, espionage - whole projects were simply
developed, developed, brought to a working product, and then the hob - and that's it, and
disappeared. And this became noticeable only after years. And all the persons involved are
like "wow, wow."
Psychiatric crazy fool of the head, no less.
But due to the fact that all of the above theses are driven very tightly into the template
for the perception of the world, both those who voiced these theses and the listeners are
satisfied.
Because the post-American post-hegemonic world is not terrible because in some ratings
another country will be higher there, and Detroit will never be rebuilt "as it was". It is
scary because it is not clear how to live for people who had no support in the form of global
goals, faith, philosophy of life, and all this was replaced by narcissism on the basis of
"successful success is my second self".
This means that the moment when this issue has to be resolved must be delayed to the last.
Leaving the whole topic on the plane "we were offended, we are offended, we were dishonest,
which means we have the right to any action" is not a bad move.
It's a pity that it doesn't really affect the essence of what is happening.
"... The blogger Caitlin Johnstone accurately states that these most of these mainstream corporate journalists are really *narrative managers* in that their primary role is to peddle the official narrative of the US corporate/political establishment for any given topic. ..."
"... I would add that the managing editors of these "journalists"/narrative managers would be more honestly described as "handlers," to use the parlance of spooks. ..."
"... Waste of time. They control the media. The Internet may have lots of influence, but it still does not set "consensus reality" - that remains with the MSM. The MSM issues one coordinated narrative. The Internet is all over the place. Without one coordinated narrative, you can't set "reality". ..."
"... In addition, those who issue the narrative and control the MSM have the power. People want to believe those in power, due to cognitive dissonance - otherwise they'd have to accept that everyone ruling their lives is a corrupt liar. The electorate may *say* they understand that their rulers are corrupt - but they can't act* on that realization without compromising their own internal belief systems. So again, waste of time to try ..."
snake , Sep 22 2020 0:59 utc | 22 can we not invent a method that can counter this tactic of using propaganda to control
the narrative?
1) Hack them. Release their planning documents, emails, phone calls, etc. showing how the scam was set up.
2) Waste of time. They control the media. The Internet may have lots of influence, but it still does not set "consensus reality"
- that remains with the MSM. The MSM issues one coordinated narrative. The Internet is all over the place. Without one coordinated
narrative, you can't set "reality".
3) In addition, those who issue the narrative and control the MSM have the power. People want to believe those in power, due to
cognitive dissonance - otherwise they'd have to accept that everyone ruling their lives is a corrupt liar. The electorate may *say*
they understand that their rulers are corrupt - but they can't act* on that realization without compromising their own internal belief
systems. So again, waste of time to try.
Well....as always, and especially if it involves anything even remotely relating to 'Russia', or Iran, or whatever adversarial
operational target of the day might be -- one can reliably count on our very own "Izvestia on the Hudson" to faithfully execute
their officially sanctioned nation security state propaganda mission by dutifully steno-graphing as much dis/mis-information as
their NSA/CIA/Pentagon handlers request (require) from them.
It was a shock on arriving at the New York Times in 2004, as the paper's movie editor, to realize that its editorial dynamic
was essentially the reverse. By and large, talented reporters scrambled to match stories with what internally was often called
"the narrative." We were occasionally asked to map a narrative for our various beats a year in advance, square the plan with
editors, then generate stories that fit the pre-designated line.
Reality usually had a way of intervening. But I knew one senior reporter who would play solitaire on his computer in the
mornings, waiting for his editors to come through with marching orders. Once, in the Los Angeles bureau, I listened to a visiting
National staff reporter tell a contact, more or less: "My editor needs someone to say such-and-such, could you say that?"
The bigger shock came on being told, at least twice, by Times editors who were describing the paper's daily Page One meeting:
"We set the agenda for the country in that room.
The blogger Caitlin Johnstone accurately states that these most of these mainstream corporate journalists are really *narrative
managers* in that their primary role is to peddle the official narrative of the US corporate/political establishment for any given
topic.
I would add that the managing editors of these "journalists"/narrative managers would be more honestly described as "handlers,"
to use the parlance of spooks.
In fact, it would be apt to described venerable institution of journalism itself as an intelligence operation.
@snake | Sep 22 2020 0:59 utc | 22 can we not invent a method that can counter this tactic of using propaganda to control the
narrative?
1) Hack them. Release their planning documents, emails, phone calls, etc. showing how the scam was set up.
2) Waste of time. They control the media. The Internet may have lots of influence, but it still does not set "consensus
reality" - that remains with the MSM. The MSM issues one coordinated narrative. The Internet is all over the place. Without one
coordinated narrative, you can't set "reality".
3) In addition, those who issue the narrative and control the MSM have the power. People want to believe those in power,
due to cognitive dissonance - otherwise they'd have to accept that everyone ruling their lives is a corrupt liar. The electorate
may *say* they understand that their rulers are corrupt - but they can't act* on that realization without compromising their own
internal belief systems. So again, waste of time to try.
Those sneaky Russians are well aware Biden is doing a good enough job of subverting his
own campaign.
They know he, like his opponent, offers no relief from the constant militarism and forever
wars that the American public is fed up with.
They know he, like his opponent, is corrupt and represents corporate interests and that
the American public sees him as out of touch and incapable of offering anything in terms of
substantive change.
They know that so long as Biden doesn't offer any kind of viable alternative to the status
quo his candidacy is going to be weak and ineffectual and that there isn't much of anything
they could do that could possibly enhance that effect.
So, they're content to sit back and let nature take its course. In other words, they
realize the best way to interfere in the American elections... is by NOT interfering with
them.
And how could the Americans possibly counter such a strategy? The deviousness is off the charts. Damn those Russians!
"... The Taliban doesn't need a Russian bounty to kill American soldiers. It would be a waste of money to pay for something the Taliban do anyway. Does the NYT believe the Taliban are motivated only by money? ..."
"... Any deal they make will necessitate that the the Taliban not spread their message north of the Afghan border into the former Soviet-stans that Moscow considers as within its sphere of influence. ..."
"... the bounties could be a false flag as someone else here mentioned. Pakistani ISI? Al-Qaeda? The Pakistani branch of the Taliban? ..."
"... Given the timing of the story, its more plausible that someone in the Intel community took a weak source, perhaps a single POW making an unverifiable claim and leaked it to make it harder for Trump to do any of the following ... ..."
"... Who was the "source" of the leak? It seems that as Ric Grenell noted. There was some raw intel that on investigation didn't meet the smell test. Someone who had access to that and is a buddy to a favorite Times reporter gave them something to spin to further the narrative that Trump is beholden to Putin. ..."
"... The problem with thinking of people like TTG is that for Russia, the USA presence in Afghanistan is actually useful. As in "never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake". Afghanistan occupation is a part of "Full Spectrum Dominance" play and, as such is a blunder. The USA simply does not has the resources for world control, despite the dominance of neocons who are ready to fight for it to the last dollar. ..."
"... I read this story as nothing more than a garden variety election year dirty trick using democratic party contacts in the print media and intel services. ..."
"... It can retroactively appear to wipe egg off their faces for their embarrassingly inept if not outright illegal Russiagate hoax which hobbled the entire country and world for three whole years, because it will be unassailable other than through denial and bolster the farago of Russia collusion suspicions simply by repetition. ..."
"... All sorts of nonsensical "corroborating" tall tales can and almost certainly will be spun. Without such an evil Russia story at hand they, the dems, would leave themselves open to being lambasted by Trump for subjecting him to three years of humiliation based on an inane, middle school level "dossier" (don't you love that? how sneaky cute to enoble it with such a word for the poor rubes) written by a reputed to be former member of "British Intelligence" (think Kim Philby if you need a clue) turned character assassin for hire. ..."
"... I tend to agree. If it is dead GIs the Russians want then all they need to do is to run guns to the Taliban. It's not as if the Taliban will then take those guns, say "gee, thanks", and then go out duck-hunting. They'd be after bigger game. But this? A bounty, which would require a payment on proof of a kill? As Larry Johnson so sarcastically said: "Yeah, that makes total sense. Russians are stupid, don't cha know." I don't believe it. ..."
"... It makes about as much sense as Russia's equally-sarcastic insinuation that an uptick in dead GIs may be the result of a CIA protecting its illegal drug business like a Mafia Don. At least the Russians have some reason to take offense. The USA, eh, perhaps less so. ..."
TTG, Your claims about US drug trafficking via the Contras is a leftwing myth. Fascinated that you'd fall for the crap.
I actually have a lot of first hand knowledge about that, having worked the Central American Task Force at CIA, having been
the senior Regional Analyst for Central America, and my business relationship with the former head of DEA's International Ops
and the Agent in charge of the undercover money laundering ops in NYC.
Eden Pastora's involvement in drug trafficking was taking place outside the control of the CIA. Gary Webb's delusional claims
were without foundation. You, for some reason, seem to accept them at face value. Why?
The Taliban doesn't need a Russian bounty to kill American soldiers. It would be a waste of money to pay for something the
Taliban do anyway. Does the NYT believe the Taliban are motivated only by money?
Revenge is not the only possible motive. Disruption of the US/Taliban/AfghanGov peace negotiations allows the Russian peace negotiations
for Afghanistan to go forward. Those negotiations have been going on and off for three years.
As Leith mentioned above Russian support to the Taliban started about three years ago. Coincidence? By the way Rex Tillerson
when he was SecState also claimed the Russians were arming the Taliban. Anyway if the US peace negotiations fail and the Russians
succeed it is a win-win for Moscow's world rep. Of course they want to mess up any US deal with the Taliban to give their own
deal a chance of success.
Any deal they make will necessitate that the the Taliban not spread their message north of the Afghan border into the former
Soviet-stans that Moscow considers as within its sphere of influence.
That may work for the current crop of Taliban but it may turn out shortsighted as there are some small Uzbeki-Afghan and Tajik-Afghan
Taliban factions that may never want to stop spreading Sharia.
Or the bounties could be a false flag as someone else here mentioned. Pakistani ISI? Al-Qaeda? The Pakistani branch of
the Taliban?
China allegedly has unofficial relations with the Taliban but with their problem in Xinjiang you would think they would never
actively support Islamic fundamentalists. Qatar? They were accused of supporting Taliban terrorism in Afghanistan, but their accuser
was Saudi Arabia so is probably BS IMHO.
"The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN and Sky News back up the NYT reporting through their sources."
Does this mean that each one contacted different source in the govt to verify the story or that they verified that the NYT contact
was actually a govt employee and not the Easter Bunny?
Given the timing of the story, its more plausible that someone in the Intel community took a weak source, perhaps a single
POW making an unverifiable claim and leaked it to make it harder for Trump to do any of the following ...
Withdraw troops from Germany,
Make the G7 into the G8 by letting Russia back in,
Reinforce the Russians are despicable narrative (always a win).
Everyone in the MSM accepts this as an indisputable fact. It must be intoxicating to be able to leak a story and have everyone
accept it without challenge.
And I'll add ... the NATO countries in Europe would be more willing to pay a premium for U.S. and Qatar LNG vs Russian NG if
they find out that Russia is using their money to kill their soldiers.
The ONLY rational reason I heard why Russia would do this came from what I consider a marginal website, Veterans today. Gordon
Duff said that the Russians did this to deter madman Trump from killing more Russians in Syria. I don't buy the theory but at
least it proposes a rational motive while the MSM didn't even need a rational motive.
Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP. Possibly
another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe by the Fake News @nytimesbooks, wanting to make Republicans look bad!!!
Who was the "source" of the leak? It seems that as Ric Grenell noted. There was some raw intel that on investigation didn't
meet the smell test. Someone who had access to that and is a buddy to a favorite Times reporter gave them something to spin to
further the narrative that Trump is beholden to Putin.
Now you want to portray NYT as the paragon of truth-telling!! .
...But then isn't your ancestry from Lithuania. Your hatred
is strong. I get that - I see that all time with people from the ex-Soviet republics formerly ruled by Russia. Hope others
see that too.
You hit the nail. TTG sometimes sounds really like a Ukrainian nationalist on those issues. That means that TTG simply can't think
strategically in this case due to his bias.
If Russia wanted to hurt the USA in Afghanistan then Strela launchers would be in hands of Taliban long ago with plausible
deniability that they obtained them from Libya.
The problem with thinking of people like TTG is that for Russia, the USA presence in Afghanistan is actually useful. As
in "never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake". Afghanistan occupation is a part of "Full Spectrum Dominance" play
and, as such is a blunder. The USA simply does not has the resources for world control, despite the dominance of neocons who are
ready to fight for it to the last dollar.
The especially prominent attitude in the State Department and NSC (Bolton is a nice example of those MIC bottom-feeders)
It drains the USA resources, and it turns the people of Asian xUSSR republics (so called Stans) against the USA and as such,
makes neocolonialist policies in xUSSR republics more difficult.
I read this story as nothing more than a garden variety election year dirty trick using democratic party contacts in the
print media and intel services.
They were rehearsing their checklist litany of egregious faults of Donald Trump as president - corona, resulting recession/depression,
etcetera - insert your picks, and decided they needed another one -- did nothing about Rooskies bribing Taliban to kill American
soldiers.
It can retroactively appear to wipe egg off their faces for their embarrassingly inept if not outright illegal Russiagate
hoax which hobbled the entire country and world for three whole years, because it will be unassailable other than through denial
and bolster the farago of Russia collusion suspicions simply by repetition.
All sorts of nonsensical "corroborating" tall tales can and almost certainly will be spun. Without such an evil Russia
story at hand they, the dems, would leave themselves open to being lambasted by Trump for subjecting him to three years of humiliation
based on an inane, middle school level "dossier" (don't you love that? how sneaky cute to enoble it with such a word for the poor
rubes) written by a reputed to be former member of "British Intelligence" (think Kim Philby if you need a clue) turned character
assassin for hire.
President Trump tweeted on Sunday night that U.S. intelligence "just reported to me that they did not find this info credible,
and therefore did not report it to me or [Vice President Mike Pence]". The Taliban have also ridiculed the report.
I tend to agree. If it is dead GIs the Russians want then all they need to do is to run guns to the Taliban. It's not as
if the Taliban will then take those guns, say "gee, thanks", and then go out duck-hunting. They'd be after bigger game. But this?
A bounty, which would require a payment on proof of a kill? As Larry Johnson so sarcastically said: "Yeah, that makes total sense.
Russians are stupid, don't cha know." I don't believe it.
It makes about as much sense as Russia's equally-sarcastic insinuation that an uptick in dead GIs may be the result of
a CIA protecting its illegal drug business like a Mafia Don. At least the Russians have some reason to take offense. The USA,
eh, perhaps less so.
I can't wait to see a story on what the Chinese have been up to in doing precisely that with billions in investment funds to
children of prominent politicians, bribes to academics, NGO cultural centers, operatives sent to the using 'student' as cover,
or work via H1B visa holders.
Former CIA director John Brennan suppressed intelligence which indicated that Russia wanted
Hillary Clinton to win because "she was a known quantity," vs. the unpredictable Donald
Trump, according to Fox News' Ed Henry.[.]
==========
Never mind the prosecutorial misdeeds - FBI Can't prove guilt. Judge Sullivan is delaying
DOJ's move to drop the case against General Flynn.
LINK and LINK
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Newsweek has been one of the most virulent Putin-bashers for years
MintPress News | Alexander Rubinstein | Mar 6, 2019 Opposing some dictatorships, supporting others
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