Remember the book and movie, Is Paris Burning?
The title is taken from the question reportedly asked by Adolf Hitler following his order to destroy the city rather than let it be re-captured by the Allies. The story was adapted into a feature film by the same name in 1966.
Looks like Hitler was 79 years too early. Yes, many parts of Paris now are blazing as well as buildings and cars in other cities, and there is no end in sight. Yet the West is treating this as sort of a ho-hum business and none of the major media outlets are warning that Macron is on the ropes and on the precipice of being forced from office. So let me posit an alternative question — can you imagine the orgasm the Western media would be enjoying if the chaos that now shakes France (and reminiscent of the rioting that gripped the US during the summer of 2020) was occurring in Moscow?
I suspect the media — print, social media and the major TV channels — would be doing wall-to-wall coverage about Putin losing his grip on power and announcing that Russia was headed towards the cliff of dissolution. Be still my beating heart.
This is not a good look for the upcoming NATO meeting in Vilnius as the second most important European NATO member after Germany is wracked by a massive wave of violence. And while I’m beating a dead horse let me reiterate a point I made in my last article — Sweden’s attendance at the meeting will be a major distraction, at least for Turkiye, which is likely to excoriate Sweden for allowing the Koran to be desecrated. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation held an emergency meeting on Sunday in Saudi Arabia on the margins of the Hajj and issued the following joint statement:
“We must send constant reminders to the international community regarding the urgent application of international law, which clearly prohibits any advocacy of religious hatred,” OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha said.
I would not be surprised to see Turkiye’s NATO representative insist that NATO issue a declaration in support of the OIC. Since Turkiye’s military is the second largest in NATO, after the United States, its position on this issue cannot be ignored.
Shifting gears, there is a fascinating and expansive article in the Wall Street Journal detailing Yevgeny Prigozhin’s massive, formerly hidden, business empire. Here are some salient points from that piece:
Before Prigozhin fell from the Kremlin’s favor, he built one of the world’s most complicated and unaccountable corporate structures, a heavily-sanctioned spidergram of hundreds of companies in Russia and other jurisdictions that often paid their thousands of workers, mercenaries, line cooks, mining geologists, and social-media trolls in cash.
Many of the deals Wagner-linked companies struck with African governments were informal, reliant on smuggling and illicit transfers and personally negotiated by Prigozhin himself, Western, Arab and African officials say.
One company employee said in text messages reviewed by the Journal that Prigozhin had transferred some of his holdings to employees in the weeks before the mutiny, potentially making them even more complicated for the government to requisition.
I am struck by the level of detail in the article, which leads to the question — why is this info coming to light now? I’m inclined to believe that the Russians are leaking this info to Western sources in order to further sunder Prigozhin. (I do not follow Russian-language news media and wonder if this is getting any play in Russia — let me know.) However, can’t discount possibility that this comes from MI-6 and it is being freely shared through liaison channels. In any event, it does expose Prigozhin as working a lot of side deals outside the boundaries of his Russian Government contracts and raises the prospect that he was sharing some of the wealth with his GRU handlers.
Andrei Martyanov has reported that the alleged close relationship between Putin and Prigozhin is a gross, erroneous exaggeration. Prigozhin, the consummate name dropper, used his alleged relationship with Putin to build his credibility over the last two decades with the GRU and MOD in order to boost his standing. At least that is what he was doing last year prior to his recent self-immolation.
I give Western propaganda kudos for convincing many smart people in the West that the Wagner Group was the heart and soul of the Russian military effort. Ray Mcgovern was on a podcast with Robert Scheer (formerly a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and a staple on National Public Radio) and Scheer repeatedly insisted that Russia is losing badly on the battlefield and Ukraine is prevailing. For those of you living outside the United States, Scheer’s embrace of the Western lies about Russia’s military failure in Ukraine is not an aberration. Millions of Americans have been bamboozled. You can listen to it at the following link.
Ray missed an opportunity to point Scheer to a recent piece in Forbes magazine — 25 Tanks And Fighting Vehicles, Gone In A Blink: The Ukrainian Defeat Near Mala Tokmachka Was Worst Than We Thought.
The following quote should give you a flavor of the article:
An attempt by the Ukrainian army’s 47th Assault Brigade and 33rd Mechanized Brigade to cross a minefield in southern Ukraine on June 8 was even more disastrous than we knew.
Analysts recently have tallied even more wrecked and abandoned 47th Brigade M-2 infantry fighting vehicles. At the same time, a Ukrainian photographer on or before Saturday got close enough to the site of the failed assault to snap photos of the Russian minefield that trapped the Ukrainian battlegroup, ultimately destroying dozens of 47th and 33rd Brigades’ best Western-made vehicles and killing or wounding many Ukrainians. . . .
In a bloody hour or two, the 47th-33rd Brigade battlegroup lost nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s M-2s, a fifth of its Leopard 2A6s and half its Leopard 2Rs. The United States promptly pledged more than enough extra M-2s to make good the June 8 losses, but Ukraine’s European allies have yet to pony up more Leopard 2A6s. And there literally aren’t any more Leopard 2Rs.
Despite losing the equivalent of an entire battalion in a single botched assault—that’s roughly 15 percent of the combined front-line strength of two brigades—the 33rd and 47th Brigades apparently remain intact … and still are in the fight. On Monday, Markus posted a selfie from a recent firefight.
This was almost a month ago and Ukraine’s counter offensive continues to falter. Yet, even someone as experienced as Robert Scheer is not getting the message. If the carnage in France continues over the coming week it will be more difficult for the West to peddle its message that Putin and Russia are weakened. Reality has a way of destroying fantasies.
They’ll just ignore Russia’s existence until they have an opportunity to score some propaganda point again.
Propaganda by omission is as useful as outright lying. Remember the hooting and howling in 2016 about the “Assad genocide” about to happen in Aleppo? Ask the last last last last last farewell messages from scum like Bilal Abdul Kareem? Once the headchoppers surrendered, Aleppo literally disappeared from the news in a millisecond. Nobody admitted there was no “genocide”. The same thing will happen today.
The West lives in a bubble. But someday the bubble will burst. The USSR was a bubble too. It burst. And now we see a new Russia being reinvented. Russia is rising. Putin is using the Priggy affair as an excuse to mount a massive anti-corruption drive starting with P’s 400+ companies and connecting all the dots in the MoD, GRU, and the Russian “6th Column”. P, in the meantime, sniffs coke in Belarus.
https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/how-prigozhin-helped-putin-re-invent
They didn’t admit to the genocide, however, everyone knew it was the White Helmets created by none other than the psychopaths from MI666.
breaking (FNN): Brussels – Van der Leyden comments on France, “These minor fiery but mostly peaceful protests prove a vibrant diversity is our strength! Every EU citizen will pay higher taxes effective immediately for Ukraine! We need to draft another sanctions package on Russia at once!”
Van der Leyden is good at interpreting things only when suit her deceptive globalist agendas. May be a vibrant diversity as a sign of European strength is in fact the initial vibration before the final social collapse. After Yellow Vests, it seems to be more like a whole society trying to get rid of Neoliberal world order, and not just police shooting of a 17 year old immigrant. In the western MSM news they show the situation in France as some minor demonstrations by immigrants, mostly N. African. But, in the videos, we see equally strong participation of French and European native people doing the street fighting.
I don’t think Van der Lyin’ interprets anything. She seems happy to tell whatever lie her real bosses want her to.
“Van Der Lyin”….nice one. The woman clearly talks through her arse.
I mean suggesting that the current turmoil in France shows EU’s strength in “diversity”.
No it doesn’t and any Germany (or any other EU country with a large immigrant population) could be the next to be lit up by riots.
or Van Der Hyena
May that “diversity” show up in the EU capital city of Brussel. Even better in the nice home of misses Lying herselfe.
What von der Leyen is doing is called doublespeak…
Von der Lügen
The tinder is everywhere and ready to ignite. Is the death of the 17 year old the spark? Or, is the spark, the indifference of the Colonial Masters to the needs of their people as in Micron at the Elton John concert while fires were being ignited?
FYI – her name is von der Leyen
No, it is von der Lyin’
That is the spelling in German – In English we spell her name Van Der LIEn
And in French it’s von der La Hyène.
She got booted out of medical school for plagiarism so she was always a sneak to start with.
Then she had to find work befitting her sense of entitlement and megalomania, and since her father was one of the EU architects, and she knew all the plotters since girlhood, she called in the bets and asked for favors. They had to fork up the jobs for her because she had all the receipts. She is the same pugnacious boor that she was in medical school, probably even growing up.
No wonder she gets along so well with her obnoxious American counterpart Nuland.
…or VD Leyen
Until they burn HER house down, then shit gets serious.
I guess I should have put the /s tag, this was a joke.
Though the joke is on the EU, as it does sound like something a typical EU Clown Car official would say.
Biswapriya Purkayastha . Lying by omission is one of the best forms of propaganda and used extensively. If people are not told about a situation they will not be able to check it’s validity whereas a lie can easily be exposed.
One of my primary methods of assessing news and opinion sites is by seeing what stories they don’t cover.
Ignorance is bliss.
“Ignorance is bliss.” primarily for others.
“Yet, even someone as experienced as Robert Scheer is not getting the message.”
Perhaps wrong experience and interpretation ?
It might be hard for people in distant US to envisage but the public in France need no media to inform them of the state of things
Further it is vacation season in Europe and France as a tourist destination looks somewhat problematic
These evidence-based observations will be imprinted on minds seeing media as State organs of repression
I was shopping in eastern France the other day, and the nice young lady waiting on me at the Charcuterie counter, realizing I was not French, asked me what I thought about the rioting, to which I replied, “Don’t worry … I’m one of the good foreigners … the ones who love France and don’t want to burn it down.”
She smiled … she understood exactly what I meant.
Ukrainian should take a good look at Paris to see what is waiting for “Keeeve” when the EU forces 100s of thousands of refugees on them. The EU left is salivating thinking of the model country Ukraine will be with no ICE engines and severely restricted agriculture. 5 year olds swapping pronouns in sustainable equitable inclusive classrooms. Keeve will be the crime rainbow capital of eastern europe.
If they are lucky they will end up in the Russian parts.
Again, it may surprise you but Western Europe is overrun with UA registered vehicles – usually New high-end SUVs and Audis or BMWs – mainly from Kiev.
They like sunny regions in Normandy or in Portugal though many go to Frankfurt and Rhine-Main
I think they have a real perspective on riots in France and potential in Germany in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Offenbach, Stuttgart, Munich
It is harder to isolate yourself in congested Europe than in USA and private security and gated communities are thin on the ground
There are 1.1 million Ukrainians now in Germany and around 500,000+ on welfare Weichbildes a reason German unemployment is rising …….45% those on welfare are non-German including 66% Syrians and Afghans Merkel let in 2015
So Ukrainians get a real sense of anger in Western Europe against their sojourn and not just French riots
Easy to spot with the plates. All high end. More worrying are grey-clad UA trucks.
Also much more than usual mil-spec vehicles.
Problem is the UA cannot go home, instant mobilization, and be sure SBU are all over them so they cannot speak freely.
And be sure the BND, DGSE know the SBU . What a spy soup!
I have written here before:
at an EU sea port and bound for another EU country I had a conversation with two customs agents and asked if Ukrainians were passing through.
They answered in the affirmative, and that they traveled in BIG American made SUV’s.
AND, often with big unopened wrapped packages of US dollars.
They said that they were instructed to let them pass.
True or not? I only heard the story.
Almost certainly true. My last month in VietNam, mission: cover the withdrawal. I assumed I’d be assisting US troops pack and leave. Mainly I assisted ARVN generals haul truckloads intended to become boatloads of cash, drugs and women.
Iraq, Afghanistan, same-o, same-o, my nephew, Gunnery Sgt, saw them distribute literally pallets of $100 bills to the so-calledc Northern Alliance and Al Qaeda.
Things never change in the DC playbook.
I do believe everything.
In August 2022, in Barcelona (E), I moved to a newly built building, and in the parking lot I found many cars with Ukrainian license plates.
These cars are: several Porsche Cayenne V8, electric Panamera, Lexus 400 series, several BMW’s of the sports version “M”, Dodge V8, high-end Mercedes…
I’m not talking about one or two, I’m talking about several.
good parallel on how would the msm respond if what is happening in france was happening in russia.. exactly… we know it would be over all the news 24-7…
as for robert scheer.. he’s 87.. sounds like he is losing it, or is a byproduct / victim of too much western msm b.s. oh well..
Hier einige Informationen zu den Geschäften von Prigoshin, die in Russland diskutiert werden:
https://johnhelmer.org/political-power-out-of-the-gun-barrel-billions-of-dollars-too-gorilla-radio-investigates-the-end-of-all-three-for-yevgeny-prigozhin-mikhail-khodorkovsky-too/
Here is some information about the Prigoshin stores that are being discussed in Russia:
“Robert Scheer is not getting the message”
Scheer is getting the message loud and clear. If you want a high level career in journalism or as an expert you have to tow the official line. No heresy is allowed
Robert Scheer is 87. His career is behind him.
WION (indian news) is reporting protestors with machine guns. The chickens (hardware sent to the most corrupt country on earth) are coming home to roost. Funny how the eurocrats do not realize a stinger can easily take out the airplane they are flying in. If Russia was to do to the west what the west is trying to do inside Russia, we would rapidly see how fragile are the western oligarchies – there is some saying about tossing rocks in glass houses.
According to the news about the guns, their source is a looted gun shop. Although guns are strictly restricted, there are gun shops in France.
Machine guns are 100% illegal in France – so all that means is more than one source. WION was very clear on that. If criminals/gangs in Mexico can get Javelins from Ukraine, why not France?
The one news clip you may have watched of the rioter firing an AK in the air wasn’t an automatic discharge, it was a semi automatic. You don’t need to go to Ukraine to get contraband, you can buy an automatic, drugs or even a child in Marseilles, the organized crime capital of France.
One comment and one question:
Comment: France may be an absolute basket case, and Macron a particularly inept incompetent–which is quite remarkable given his last few predecessors–but I do not believe it is likely that he will step down. The French Presidency is not a “Prime Minister” type role wherein the occupant leaves because of unpopularity or incompetence; it is more like a US president.
Question: Why would MI6 or any western agency want to leak Prigozhin’s illicit (or at least questionable) business dealings? I thought they would want to set him up as a hero or a martyr instead? On the other hand, if the Russian intelligence agencies had a solid avenue to leak to the Western press, why would they not be leaking other items (e.g. kill ratios, etc.) instead/as well?
Those points aside, as always, thank you for your site–I look forward to reading it every day.
If you consider Prig’s huge loss of income because of the Russian MOD not renewing his contracts and his recent attempt at lashing at the Russian leadership, what would make him more vengeful than the exposure of his corruption by what appears to be the Russians, but in reality is from MI666.
Who are the chief demons when it comes to starting conflict but MI666.
As for the trajectory of The United States . . . And The West.
https://les7eb.substack.com/p/washingtons-ukraina-grandioznaya
Washington’s Ukraina Grandioznaya Skhema.
The Graveyard of This Empire.
___________
No one will say this but I will. Russia has known for decades what the corrupt European elites with their vile beyond the pond overlords and partners in crime were up to. That is create a multi-culti cess pool in Europe, right on Russia’s front door. Do any of you really think Russia was going to stand by idly not doing squat? This is all about hegemonic change in action. The unstated goal? Kick the US and its shenanigans out of Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America etc. From the power void vacuum, Russia, China and Iran will emerge as the dominant world players. We are seeing the inglorious end to the Empire of Chao.
Moving on to the topic of Macaroni & Cheese in France, he really bit off more than he can chew. He thought he was being cute asking to be invited to the upcoming BRICS summit, but Russian Foreign Intelligence was in on his two-faced back-stabbing plans and now, what does he have to show for it in house? Every time you underestimate the Russians, they’ll let you know the hard way to reconsider. There are plenty of Chechens by the way who live in France. So, do the math!
“but Russian Foreign Intelligence was in on his THREE-faced back-stabbing plans and now, what does he have to show for it in house?”
There, fixed it for ya!
It is a lot simpler than you think.
Colonialism or Dictatorship abroad is always followed by Dictatorship at home.
France, UK even Israel is becoming a Dictatorship at home.
The psychopaths have no feelings or apathy for those oppressed overseas, nor those oppressed at home.
When the overseas looting of the people ends, they begin to loot the people at home.
Israel is not ” becoming a dictatorship”. That is fake news and propaganda of the left, pissed because it knows it cannot take power democratically. Please give me evidence of this incipient “dictatorship”
You forgot to add /s at the end.
Are the Palestinians dictated to? Are they free to stay in their homes?
Oh, I know Israel is not a Dictatorship since it deals with these subhuman Palestinians.
you are correct, Israel is not a Dictatorship. It’s worse, it’s an apartheid regime disguised as a democracy.
whatever name you give to it, Israel is white red headed guys from Brooklyn stealing indigenous Canaanite land to get that 2nd passport and a med holiday🤷
Yes, the irony of cancelling an appearance at an EU Asylum Reform meeting (where reform means figuring out how to stick migrants to the holdouts unwilling to take them) so that you can deal with problems created by the migrants/asylees in your own country.
i remember when this mso started and there were a few protests and arrests, the media was all over this piece of news claiming evidence of a despotic regime that cannot withstand criticism. So the difference is this. What is happening in France is a demonstration of the stability of the liberal rules based order. If this was in Moscow would be a demonstration of a regime on the ropes that lacked popular support.
I think Robert Scheer knows perfectly well that the points he is raising are fodder for McGovern. These are the points that consumers of the big media will have heard over and over.
The Western elite’s fixation on regime change as the solution to all of their problems is really PARADOXICAL. They have made themselves so impervious to regime change themselves, that Macron can go to an Elton John concert during a BLM riot, election laws can be freely changed so as to produce any outcome the elites want with minimal protest, opposition media can be censored and elections even cancelled. So, after demonstrating how to “regime change proof” a nation, the CIA somehow thinks Putin or Xi could not do the same if they wanted? All they need to do is copy the Western model. 1, 2, 3 …and regime change becomes an impossibility.
As far a Robert Sheer getting it all wrong, I think I said this last week, the West has created a POTEMKIN MEDIA…
Potemkin Village
“Potemkin was said to have set up “mobile villages” on the banks of the Dnieper River. As soon as the barge carrying the Empress and ambassadors arrived, Potemkin’s men, dressed as peasants, would populate the village. Once the barge left, the village was disassembled, then rebuilt downstream overnight.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village
The Potemkin Villages were designed to fool the Czarina and her court (Robert Sheer), not the peasants (us) who were staring out from the empty facades.
The question is why the Western elites have chosen to cut themselves off from reality and real world feedback? It has happened a few times in the past, Tiberius going off to Capri while Sejanus ran the empire, Nero choosing the performing arts over running the empire, Versailles before the revolution, Southern Plantation Society, Czar Nicholas and his family, etc…
“The Western elite’s fixation” is a mixture containing notions of “alienation deemed to be individual freedom/individualism which never existed/exceptionalism which never existed/great man/woman in history – which never existed, but was created.
“The question is why the Western elites have chosen to cut themselves off from reality and real world feedback?”
Reality and the real world is uncomfortable hence the creations/fixations from at least 1620 onwards.
“The Potemkin Villages were designed to fool the Czarina…”
No.
Potemkin villages were to encourage visitors to fool themselves – the German lady was not for fooling, but for concentrating on other matters.
RE: (I do not follow Russian-language news media and wonder if this is getting any play in Russia — let me know.)
Since you asked, Larry, – I do. And what I see in TG is that most “simple” Russians are WITH Wagner and highly critical of MoD, as well as all the war correspondents that used to hold them as heroes but suddenly gone quiet. But, most of all, they are very critical of the Russian TV channels that do the same.
Suddenly, everything related to Wagner is being removed if not denigrated and THIS can cause a real uprising in the future, especially if the army does not show results that are expected of them or, God forbid, does not hold places that Wagner fought for and conquered! Together with the obvious and profound corruption of the MoD operatives, THAT has a possibility of a blow-up bigger than that of the “Prigozhin army”.
Personally, I am on the fence about EP himself – he is a businessman and, like every businessman, MAY be corrupt by money and power – I don’t have information about that. But I can safely say that MOST if not ALL Russian patriots, are standing behind Wagner boys and hold them in high esteem. And even EP himself have NEVER said that he wants to fight or rebel against the gov-t but only to bring Putin’s attention to the corruption and treason of those close to him in Kremlin. All they asked for was to “talk to Putin directly”. He could have done that and everything would have ended even faster and with less blood. He could have even arrested EP and then sent him into exile – with the same result and less disappointment from the people.
But now I see with great disappointment and almost despair that all those rats in high places that were sitting quietly doing their dirty things are getting out in droves, lifting their corrupt heads higher and higher. I am afraid that the “story” is not finished and the end is not going to be celebratory, especially if it ends in a “negotiated deal” – as a usual Putin’s “diplomatic” way. THAT people won’t forget and forgive.
He talked to Putin directly a few days before his aborted putsch and had the opportunity then to list his grievances. So either he did, Putin didn’t act as he expected and his conniption fit was intended to achieve a little more than drawing attention, or he didn’t, therefore lost his opportunity and his subsequent rebellion was a spoilt brat’s tantrum. Btw, I follow TG channels too and social media are by no means a good barometer to judge the general public’s mood. From a broader view, Russian society seems solidly behind Putin; between Surovikin and Prigozhin, I very much doubt it would side with the latter, those who revere Wagner and scorn the Russian army understand zilch about military tactics and strategy, and if Western media suddenly decided to write about his entrepreneurial shenanigans, regardless of who leaked them, it means that Prigozhin is passé.
Putin handled this wrong!!?
First mistake that I have seen him make
This poster is either Russian 6th columnist, or Kiev troll. Readers beware.
John Helmerposted on 02 July some information from Levada polling in RF:
https://johnhelmer.org/whats-the-score-now-in-the-russian-regime-changing-game/#more-71005
Helmer’s summary is well worth considering:
“Levada’s earlier polls have uncovered increasing acceptance on the part of most Russians that the war will be a protracted one; and at the same time also an increase in the numbers of Russians who favour more decisive action on the battlefield. Ukrainian attacks across the border in Belgorod and other regions, the drone attack on the Kremlin, and the Kakhovka dam flooding have intensified public anger at Kiev, the US, and NATO, and raised support for a major Russian offensive – a “big bang”.
“Society today is divided almost equally into two opposing camps. Some want ‘people to stop dying,’ relatives and friends to ‘stop being conscripted’, ‘not to be touched’ themselves, and for ‘all this to end sooner, no matter how.’ For others, however, ‘it is very important how things end,’ ‘if you have started, you might as well fight to the end,’ and in any case ‘the president (government, military) knows better’ – hence the fighting must go on. In May, the number of those in favour of continuing the special operation rose markedly and for the first time since August last year slightly exceeded the number of those in favour of peace talks. More and more people not only expect hostilities to last a long time, but also do not want them to end immediately.”
“Anxiety remains diffuse, unfocused, often unspoken and not reflected on – positive moods still prevail. Anxious moods seem typical, first and foremost, for the most well-informed Russians. As they say, the less you know, the better you sleep. The companion of this anxiety is gradually increasing bitterness, which spills over into the focus groups: ‘why are we pulling our punches with them (Ukrainians, Europeans, Americans)’; ‘we’re still messing around with them’; ‘it’s time to go for the bang.’ Thus, the lobby for a ‘decisive response’ to the enemy is finding new supporters.” This was reported by Levada in mid-June.
Prigozhin capitalised on this sentiment. He has now lost it.
The gainers are Putin and Lavrov. The Army is unaffected, and there is accordingly no political justification for the leading generals to appear in public. Their visibility on television and their remarks are of limited circulation in the press; of interest only to military intelligence services, war bloggers, and the propaganda agencies in London and Washington.”
Galina
I read Telegram every day, strangely, I can’t find the opinions you refer to here !
Are you not writing this mood report from Kiev ? Would we be lucky enough to see Mr. Arestovich in person ?
For that kind of stuff you need to read Russian channels run by Ukrainians.
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles (with apologies to Cole Porter)
The sheer stupidity of Scheer shines through
Excuse me Larry, could you please specify again which country is the second largest/most important in NATO? Germany, France or Turkey? And what is the most important criterion for such a qualification?
ZH , financial news aggregator extraordinaire, picked up this
“I Don’t Think We’ll Ever Get To The 2024 Election”, Col. Douglas Macgregor (Ret) Warns
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/i-dont-think-well-ever-get-2024-election-col-douglas-macgregor-ret-warns
See what he says about US finance and Ukraine.
What one sees in Paris is nothing like US banks closed for 3 weeks!
@Larry, an American living in Belgium checks Russian TV every day and reports here :
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/
Especially Evening with Vladimir Solovyov the rather rude very popular host.
And in 3 languages, well known, does many interviews.
Could it be London-D.C. has cottoned on? I’ll post this from previous thread :
…
Here is my take on the Cook Prigozhin.
There was by all appearances an armed RF rebellion. Within 24hours resolved with amnesty, and much more Wagner work to do on other fronts.
Now, there is Western “Virtue Signalling”, and real Eastern Virtue.
So, who needs urgently an armed mutiny – why none other than poor doomed Ukraine.
Russia signaled how they would handle it, ok?
In 1943 (I think) von Stauffenberg tried that, and made one fatal mistake informing Churchill (in diaries declassified in 2000’s).
Ok, today the Brits are all over Kiev, social media is bot-scraped (Twitter is blocking right now).
UAF Gen. Zhaluzhny studied under RF Gen. Gerasimov, brothers, as they all are.
This will be Maskirovka on steroids!
…
So Prigozhin, a jailbird, ruthless, corrupt ambitious … is actually the MODEL for the Kiev thug Junta.
Why?
When and if a Kiev coup goes live, Russia has made it clear how they will handle it.
I think London, D.C. are convulsing!
Anyone who has ever been to Paris knows that the French upper classes are arrogant, obnoxious, and supercilious in the extreme.
These riots are the effect of a grossly unequal disparity in wealth in the West.
Rioters are burning cars that they know that they can never afford, looting high end luxury stores of goods they can never afford, and looting food stores, (they need to eat and feed their families.)
If the advertising industry successfully creates desire in a population which can never afford the advertised goods, looting is the inevitable result. Not only that, television media is filled with drama programmes which would have us believe that most of humanity drive expensive cars and live in massive marble floored multi room mansions with huge amounts of luxury furniture and deep pile carpeting.
Western society is sick, and France is at the forefront of that sickness.
Besides a Lyonnais having a fit about the Paris nasal accent, the problem is the famous school of management ENA that the luminaries attend. Ironically Macron himself shut this down in 2021.
The French equivalent of the Haavaad Yaad.
Macron didn’t shut the ENA, he changed the name, one or two guys in the hierarchy and that’s it 🙂 Anyway, the ENA is just part of the problem with Science-Po, X , HEC, l’Alsacienne , Louis Le Grand etc..: the French Ivy league that distribute top jobs and privileged positions to the Kapital lapdogs. YKWIM.
Macron’s big problem is not this organic BLM (French FBI, the DGSI don’t help rioters) , it came after eight month of pensions reforms protests … that came after 18 months of Yellow Vests … that came after 4 months demonstrations after “the works decree” , that came after 3 month riots around the “El-Khomry law” etc… The guy is used to protests even the one he don’t provoke. The most “calm” period for Macron’s team was the DOVID thing.
Macron’s Biggest problem is he didn’t wanted to be president of France anymore since July 2017 … and some are already trying things to make him stay president after 2027. Macron’s wet dream is to BE Christine Lagarde or Ursula, he don’t care about being Jacques Chirac. Still, better than Brandon who can’t remember if he wanna bee Reagan, Mao or Gorbachev …
Well, if they had the logic to do what you describe (“burning cars that they know that they can never afford, looting high end luxury stores of goods they can never afford, and looting food stores”), that would show a politically constructed movement. A violent manifestation of some sort, with a purpose.
Sadly, they burn cars moslty in their impoverished suburbs, impairing their neighbours who live in the same difficulties, and looting shop owners who are a little bit better of, but not much. I see there is Nike and Zara and some fast food in Paris, OK but that’s not luxury shops to me. I don’t think the real nice luxury shops were targeted.
So it is just pure mob anger, that has been boiling for a while with a tight lid on it, letting the pressure grow for too long.
But there is a political message behind this anger, that too busy dealing with societal false problems (gay mariage, etc…), nobody really cares about or deals with much more difficult social problems (poverty, education, citizenship). We are saturated with PR and goodwill messages about these problems, but on the ground, reality is very different (reminds me of Ukraine, the growing gap between PR, narrative, and reality!).
But burning and looting an autist education home for exemple, and this type of public services building, won’t lead anywhere, and cannot transform in a nationwide movement that the french population would adhere to. It actually plays in favour of goverment, sadly.
The Yellow vest movement, born from anger too, was much more profound, and is far from beeing solved, just back to sleeping stage, with the lid on it.
Usually in France, we looked at the USA, what happens there, the debates they had, making jokes and hardly believing how stupid this is, until we wait 10 years (and now the time difference is less), and we are exactly in the same shit with the same problems : generalisation of drug use (80′), over-judiciarisation of every aspect of life (going to court a on the dumbest of claims and making money of it) (90′), the take-over of finance and banking on everything (2000′), and now the woke agenda (2010′).
We had largely our share of problems, without the need to look at the USA for inspiration for creating even more shit.
We were lucky enough to be “kind of” out of NATO since the 70′, not to embark on the Irak disaster, until Sarkozy put us back on track with the US in 2007, when it should have been the time to engage more with BRICS. anyway, that’s where we are at, and we will now have to go to the very bottom of it, keep digging a bit to be sure we can’t go lower, and from there, I hope any way could only be up, whatever the direction taken? wait and see…
“…none of the major media outlets are warning that Macron is on the ropes and on the precipice of being forced from office.”
Macron is not going to be forced from office – there is no mechanism to do this, and particularly so as he has the backing of the EU Commission. This is precisely why he appears unmoved by recent events; he has no need to care what the French public think.
Anyone who thinks that the EU member states are still genuine democracies needs to wake up.
“Macron is not going to be forced from office…”
Even if the Military is called to fire on French protesters? To shoot or not to shoot?, is a very dangerous order for the front line officers to issue.
It has already happened in the last few years. During the various Yellow Vest protests, people were killed, maimed and even blinded as a result of police brutality, but nothing changed. It is a common mistake these days to assume that the state will be forced to face the consequences of its own savagery, but it won’t. It helps that it has a compliant media that can preserve the appearance of respectability and broad consensus. Plus it is easy to forget that the vast majority of people are not rioting, and either support or are indifferent to any government crackdown.
Im from Paris but used to have a company in Poland for years.
Now France enjoy a 20/30 years spanning decades of mass immigration well ahead of other EU countries like Germany or East countries.
But make no mistake, this is spreading like a wildfire. Poland, for instance, has agreed to open its borders to 20 extra europeans countries while diverting the attention of the general public with its stance on illegals. You see more and more pakis and nigerians there with rising Uber sexual harassment cases.
Yes there were automatic fires in Paris, some civilian cops beaten to the pulp and Special urban forces enforcing the peace thru rubber bullets. The next one will see pick ups armed and jacked like in Syria heading to the city centers.
The French elite should have left Algeria and Morocco alone. When you destroy a people’s language and culture and replace it with yours, the young tend to flock where the loot and the better culture are to be found.
… the sins of the father. It’s ironic and tragic.
That’s a big part of the problem.
The other part is that there is no real way for all the Algerians, Moroccans, etc. to assimilate into the culture, either. Imagine a few million people from Congo trying to immigrate into, say, Mississippi in the 1950s and you get an idea as to what is going on.
There was a time that the French could either have prevented immigration or made it work–we have long since passed that time. Now it is just a matter of grabbing some popcorn and watching the story unfold
My friend, last year the French treasury took in 500 billion Euros from six African countries.
Those it need to be spelled out, The Europeans have built their “garden” by looting for centuries the “jungle.” Now the end of colonialism is here, looting is over and Europe goes back to where it came from, feudalism.
It is hard to feel sympathy for the various NATO countries who have been flooded with refugees/immigrants from the MENA countries. If USA, France, UK, et al had not gone into their countries and overthrown governments, looted economies, supported brutal regimes, and provoked war, there would be few Libyans, Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians – or Nigerians, Sudanese, Somalis, etc, etc in Europe.
It is unfair that USA does not have the same flood of refugees from MENA, but they have the flood from Latin America, where US policy has been to destroy the economies and keep the people impoverished, as well as provoke war any time a democracy or government for the people arises.
The people in the countries that ruined these immigrants’ chance to live a decent life in their own homelands complain bitterly that now their lives are disrupted. It is just the chickens coming home to roost.
Those people are just following the money, their money.
As in Syria: “Macron is killing his own people. Macron must go…”
(Let’s hope not as in Libya)
A word of sanity from France : For a state of social emergency
https://solidariteetprogres.fr/nos-actions-20/declarations/pour-un-etat-d-urgence-social.html
…
Republican order: the minimum should be to make known and apply the Preamble of our Constitution, with the social rights it provides. I proposed the reading every July 14, by the mayors of France. The current situation gives us an opportunity to start.
…
In French (of course).
In France, the police massacres are about to begin, and Macron would not hesitate to do so if he sees his por threatened. The speeches or lessons on freedom and democracy are no longer worth anything.
…we need to declare a state of social emergency, clearly identifying whom we’re aiming at: a financial mafia from the top, which makes the law against the law and is increasingly associated, not only through drug use, with the mafia operating below. In the absence of political will, this mafia gangrene of a new criminal capitalism will destroy everything and lead to a war of all against all….
That sound like a job for the police, that they would relish.
Read the rest of the statement….
Just another example of Allied projection. It was Britain and the US that firebombed German cities. More French died from US bombs than from the 4 year German occupation. The real killing happened after the Allies liberated France. The commies had a field day with the collaborators.
Oh you forgot Rotterdam in May 1940 over 4 days and The Southampton Blitz……..I believe Germany was responsible for destroying historic Rotterdam and I have a personal grievance over Southampton Docks which impacted my education 35 years later and Germany did not pay damages
It is fashionable to castigate Americans and British for burning German cities but the Germans were agitating for “Total War” incessantly
Great! Go on, tell us more of what you have been told over the years. By whom. The same that told us immigration is an enrichment for our society, corona is a pandemic and the jab is a vaccination. And don’t forget, the climate change is man made.
Rotterdam was an accident and the bombing of cities was started by the English. I am afraid something quite different has impacted you education for the last 35 years.
Try starting from scratch with the question: Who instigated WW I and II. And is was NOT Germany. Hint: The people in charge of a litte island.
“Try starting from scratch with the question: Who instigated WW I and II. And is was NOT Germany. Hint: The people in charge of a litte island.”
Back in the Cold War Eastern Europe, in elementary school they taught me that British Empire was on the decline and that other rising empires wanted a redistribution of colonies. Recently popularized term for the situation is Thucydides Trap. Result was WWI. Blaming some guy with a pistol was used as a fast IQ test for the population, that many failed. Some still do. WWII was continuation of WWI. Early phase of WWIII we are currently in, seems a lot like continuation of WWII with some Cold War flavouring added.
I don’t believe any of the Western “mainstream” press, WSJ or otherwise, without verifying it with other sources.
Larry: If you get a translation plugin in your browser (like “TWP-Translate Web Pages” for Firefox for example), you can easily read Russian-language news. Just a thought.
The Forbes article was an admission against interests. But, then read the comments from deluded/lied to/gullible readers of the article. Depressing, but eye opening to read so many misled folks. The author is accused of plenty, the facts are disputed, on and on. Sad.
I am watching, listen, and reading MANY of the pundits that are in the alturnative vanguard that clearly reject the MSM bullshit being pumped down everyones throat, including this appreciated one. All of the group that this protagonist cavorts with that are public.
The latest that I have seen shows almost all in agreement that there was a “coup” by Prigozgin.
Except for McGregor and PC Roberts.
Robert’s piece is on Unz, a much controversial site, very much needed now a day’s.
I am in agreement with both McGregor and Roberts but I also agree with the latter that the handling of it all by Putin was a mistake.
I do believe that Prigozgin had legitimate grievances against the Russian military leadership and wanted an accounting. It is said that he was incensed by the bombing of some of his troops somewhere in the ME and wanted accountability, seems all ligit.
Everyone knows that he is a loose canon and most probably grossly overestimated his own importance.
But as McGregor points out, the incursion by Wagner into Russia was not to topple the government or depose Putin, it was a March of defiance in an attempt to bring attention to his grievances.
He seems to have grossly miscalculated the political repercussions. Big mistake.
But, to my eye Putin reacted too hastely and did not calculate wisely Wagners’ standing with the Russian people as well Prigozgins, and the often reported dissatisfaction of many in the Kremlin of Putin’s Sun Tzu tactics in execution of the war.
If it was a coup how can it be justified that Prigozgin walks?
It was reported that there were deaths, has that been factually proven?
This story is deeply complex but the Russian Military command got Prigozgin out and Wagner under control.
Putin to me looks bad because he declared a coup but let the protagonist walk, how can that be spun?
What about the reported purge in the Russian command or Kremlin insiders? True or not?
This was a STING operation that worked on the one hand but was mishandled by Putin in the aftermath. There were too many strings attached! Prigozgin would not have thrown away his reputation and fortune to be banished to exile in Belarús and branded a tractor without a backup.
All these pundits say Putin has emerged stronger, and is most probably true, but there is much spin to make the story palatable for the plebs. Besides being a gifted and effective leader, Putin is a lucky fox. He makes his own luck with his focused diligence.
But to me, a great fan of his, he has burned some luster with the handling of this operation, IMO.
Time will tell if I am mistaken.
Can we forget Prigozhin ? He is a PR front-man and swindler.
The head case is Dmitri Utkin call sign “Wagner” who is not only ex-GRU but also Ukrainian-born and a mercenary sporting SS tattoos and obsessed with GröFaZ and his favourite composer
Utkin is apparently Neo-Pagan and Neo-Nazi and was in charge of AA systems when Russisn helos were shot down
Everyone focuses on Prig but everyone ignores Utkin who was up to his neck in this insubordination – if he lives it will be surprising but it will be interesting to see how many GRU officers he bribed
Wikipedia lied to you.
Vlasov was executed
Prigozhin asked the Question, and the people of Russia were waiting for an answer, but there was no answer and no answer is the answer. It’s too much and constantly – Russia repelled the attack of the Ukrainians, it’s high time someone shouted Forward, Forward for the motherland, for Stalin.
You know what Stalin would do to Prigozhin.
A different perspective on this: France has been robbing and looting countries, especially in North Africa, for centuries. The descendants of whom Frantz Fanon called “The Wretched of the Earth” are mainly doing now to France what France did to their home countries.
I am sad to see this happen, but Karma is greater than we. As you sow, so shall you reap.
I think you are way off-beam
Not an expert here by any means. Question. If certain countries would quit bombing the shit out of others and creating refugees maybe the “weeds” would not take over the “garden”. Or would this opinion have more clout if one went out and purchased a degree in Political Science? For those that do not garden and need to rid the “weeds” there are only a couple of options that I am aware of. One either picks the “weeds” by hand or goes full “roundup” ( for those not familiar with farming the latter is a herbicide that eliminates everything. Unless the seed is genetically modified to be resistant) Good luck Europe.
Bravo! Well said!
Leave everybody the fuck alone! STOP killing, invading, coercing, bribing, and blackmailing almost the entire world, really.
Let the imperialist blackmailers wallow in their own shit, finally.
Like it or not, karma exist and always shows up eventually.
Roundup human beings? Genetic engineering, sounds like a supremacist European. Be careful, maybe a hundred years from now, when a reflective world looks back on the scourge of European colonialism, decides to roundup Europeans and genetically remove that European aggression out of their gene pool.
Don’t be offended, I am putting a mirror in front of your gardening analogy.
Roundup by Monsanto. A company that brought us all those GMO goodies, not to mention Agent Orange, and other completly harmless stuff. They also own enormous surface area of first grade Ukrainian chernozem. The only thing missing for perfect garden is some depleted uranium sprinkled on top.
I’m surprised about what you heard Scheer to say about Ukraine- i.e., that Ukraine was ‘winning’. Are you certain he wasn’t playing devil’s advocate? Scheer is a strong anti-war voice and ScheerPost does feature Patrick Lawrence- one our very finest journalists- who tells it like it is, including about Ukraine.
Also see: Chris Hedges’ most recent article in ScheerPost titled:
“Chris Hedges: They Lied About Afghanistan. They Lied about Iraq.
And They Are Lying About Ukraine” dated 7/2/23 at:
https://scheerpost.com/2023/07/02/chris-hedges-they-lied-about-afghanistan-they-lied-about-iraq-and-they-are-lying-about-ukraine/
P. S. – I must revise my comment somewhat. Hedges’ articles is a good one on most points, except that it assumes that Russian invasion was a war crime though provoked, In contrast, Ray McGovern’s article, to which I subscribe was solid in reflecting the facts on the ground when it argued that Putin had no choice but to invade. And, as a legal matter, the SMO was carefully crafted to comply with the UN Charter, even if the collective West and international lawyers in the West argue otherwise.
Thx again Larry for another great/informative piece. Considerations-
1. French capitalism is beset with the same structural economic problems that confront the US and much of the EU- decades of deindustrialization, high debt levels and a continuing decline in the living standards of the majority of French citizens. Protests in France, led by the ‘Yellow vests’ have been ongoing since 2018. Macron is reacting in a predicable way, increasing economic inequality and passing unpopular legislation, such as his ‘pension reform’, opposed by 75% of the French public, by executive fiat. Macron is stuck. After allocating lots of resources to Ukraine, he is incapable of extracted himself as doing so is an admission of failure and by extension, military weakness of NATO. Further there are growing public calls for France to leave NATO.
2. I grew up in the Bay Area and watched Bob Scheer run for Mayor of Berkeley, Congress and later become a columnist for the LA Times & ‘a staple’ of NPR. Scheer’s support for Biden’s project in Ukraine is not surprising. One does not keep their job with corporate media (I consider NPR ‘corporate’) if they deviate significantly from the company line. No doubt Scheer has watched the fate of other journalists who went against the empire-
A. Gary Stephen Webb was an investigative journalist for the San Jose Mercury News, publishing an expose 1996, entitled ‘Dark Alliance’ examining the close connection between crack cocaine in LA and the CIA; proceed of which were used to fund anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua, outlawed by Congress. Webb was vilified by corporate media, lost his job and later committed suicide.
B. Reporter Emily Wilder was fired from The Associated Press for posting pro-Palestinian material on social media (https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/05/26/emily-wilder-fired-ap-490892)
C. Julian Assange has been imprisoned for published US/NATO war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
If the Frech want to prevent civil war, they should call Lukashenko.
“Reality is something that, once one stops believing in it, still happens” – Richard K. Dick
“Brennt Paris? ‘That man in Berlin’, asked…but today we hope not, the Swedish minister, then could 1944 influence von Choltitz not to burn, but not a hero, Choltitz, burned before Sevasto-pol, and” that man”. later 1944/45 let both Warsaw and. Budapest be destroyed, razed to the ground.
But this week is Nato’s, maybe Al Quoran’s, will be the key word, and Sweden’s bumpy road into Nato, goes trough Erdogan, and the PM of Sweden to Biden, July 5, and Biden to Finland July 13, how about the Kiev offensive, there’s something. going on…
who will be the new gen. sec. ,
and carry on the Nato-war…not
that nice future to deal with..
I don’t even bother to read or listen to anything from the Wall Street Journal nor the NYT.
I don’t entertain liars by listening
“Reality has a way of destroying fantasies.”
Exactly.
The long conversation between Ray McGovern and Robert Scheer is worth watching not only because of Scheer’s inability to comprehend reality but also for McGovern’s confident prediction that Russia will make a big arrow move in the next 3-4 weeks.
The MSM can ignore the massive rioting (more like a war) at Paris, but let’s see how the MSM manages to ignore Marine Le Pen’s victory in the next French election. Per The Duran she has a 10 point lead over Macron currently, and her lead is growing.
“I suspect the media — print, social media, and the major TV channels — would be doing wall-to-wall coverage about [Biden] losing his grip on power and announcing that Russia was headed towards the cliff of dissolution. Be still my beating heart.”
I hope you don’t mind.
Larry, Your insights have made me
more careful in accepting what the media tells us. Your writings are appreciated. A few years I read Martin Gurri’s “The Revolt of the Public”. That got the wheels
churning about the level of BS is government
and corporations. I looked at
my own career and how my views changed about the levels of greed and lust for power.
They were the key and only drivers for many.
The handshakes and backslapping are
for show. I see it even in obituaries.
Those are scripted by confidantes hangers on to support the myth. Millions made through greed, deceit, legalized theft are lost in the maze. Certainly
this is also done for historical figures as well.
I think Scheer has forgotten how to use his computer and has gone back to watching MSNBC.
Chris Hedges piece…..on the Sheerpost:
[they lied about AFG, Iraq, they are lying about UKR]
https://scheerpost.com/2023/07/02/chris-hedges-they-lied-about-afghanistan-they-lied-about-iraq-and-they-are-lying-about-ukraine/
Hedges was de-platformed from You Tube… as was the New American [John Birch Society]
I saw a YouTube short from NewsMax featuring a veteran WSJ *journo*.
His bottom line was the entire Russian government were GANGSTERS! The woman presenter giggled.
Whaaa!?
Who is in controle of France’s nukes right now?
What happens if the government falls?
Do we need a pre-emptive invasion to secure those WMDs?
They might even fall into the hands of unstable youth with extreme Islam sympathies !!!
Why is no one more worried?
Just look at how unstable French society has become since the Wagner tryst !!
Whose side are the French oligarchs and monied interests on?
Commercial media cannot possibly be objective. If they were, they would lose their ad revenue. That goes for NPR as well.
The machines can be replaced. But their crews, cannot. If the crews lost in these fights were inexperienced, what will the replacements who are stuffed into the new vehicles be ?
I watches a horrifying video of a Bradly trying to collect wounded from what appeared to be 2 other wreaked Bradleys. In the process 3 other men landed on mines. I counted 4 men with at least 1 missing leg or foot by the the end when the Bradley drove away leaving at least one other live casualty behind.
Men with missing legs, don’t make good dismounts even if they get sparkling new machines
https://odysee.com/@Overthrown:6/video_2023-06-26_13-46-30:9
What should be noted is that we can all see that article for free on the normally pay-to-see WSJ website.
The “level of detail” in a WSJ report can be associated with the level of narrative that must be created. Lots of detail in that article with very very little proof provided.
“Lots of detail in that article with very very little proof provided.”
The proof is in the assertions but not in the pudding hence you pay in a different way.
It is an old “Wall Street Journal” recipe.
>kudos on convincing smart people
To be fair, western “intellectuals” have less critical thinking skills than a sea sponge.
All of this with the Wagner Group, its PR head Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Russian military and intelligence was a PSYOP leaving us totally dazed and confused.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12dh4XL9RkI
This is becoming more than serious for North-America. How great “reality has a way of destroying fantasies”, that’s fine but North-America has to start working on a solution of having full fledge leadership that responds first and foremost to the prople. That solution does not exist, to the contrary. It needs to be built. A lot of suffrance ahead but “freeing” North-America is of utmost value in history and primarily for the people
It makes me think about a Punk song …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWE36jd3CQM
I’m bored and tomorrow is rainy 🙁
This episode of “Sheer Intelligence” is really painful to listen to.