Russia is bad. It is very, very bad because it wantonly violates the sacred Rules that ensure International Order. You see, the West has “cemented the rules-based world order” and Russia is just too stupid to understand them, according to the European Journal of International Law. The following was published in July 2021:
Following Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Joe Biden in Geneva last month, Mr. Lavrov signaled his discontent with the “warnings” uttered by US officials after the talks in Villa La Grange had ended. . . .
At these meetings, the West supposedly ‘cemented the rules-based world order concept’ as opposed to the universal principles of international law, with the UN Charter as its primary source. Russia’s main objection is the lack of clarity. Mr. Lavrov states that the West ‘shies away from spelling out the “rules” it purports to follow, just as it refrains from explaining why they are needed.’ Whoever acts against the will of the West is immediately, and without any evidence, accused of being a rule breaker, he writes. Particular scorn is reserved for the habit of the Western family to call itself ‘an anchor for democracy, peace and security.’
https://www.ejiltalk.org/lavrovs-lament-a-russian-take-on-the-rules-based-global-order/
I feel compelled to help Mr. Putin and Mr. Lavrov understand these new rules in light of their self-professed confusion about the substance of those rules. Here goes:
Rule #1 — no domestic political opposition group of party has a right to protest an election or use force to change a government. But there are a few exceptions to this rule. If you are American colonists rebelling against Britain then protest and violence are okay as long as you are fighting for your own liberty. Ditto if you are a Russian organization that opposes Vladimir Putin. If you are Iranians rebelling against Mullahs, then that is a great thing. The United States policy is a bit flexible on this point. It is firmly opposed to domestic political opposition parties using protests and violence against a duly elected government unless the protests and violence are directed against Ukraine’s President Yanukovych in early 2014 or Vladimir Putin. Then it is okay.
Rule #2 — If Washington does not like the guy or gal in power in a foreign country, then it is okay to unleash a mob and kill a few folks in order to replace that leader. That is why it was “legal” for the United States to intervene in foreign countries and eliminate leaders like Saddam Hussein, Muammar Qaddafi and Manuel Noriega. The corollary to this rule is that the United States also has the right to foment a civil war in Syria, arm Islamic extremists and seize oil assets for itself. Somebody has to pay for these military adventures.
Rule #3 — It is strictly prohibited to interfere in the elections in foreign countries unless those countries happen to be Iraq, Venezuela, Greece, Ukraine, Pakistan, and Israel. The United States reserves the sole right to fund foreign opposition leaders as long as it serves the interests of Washington.
Rule #4 — No country may invade another country unless the leader of the invading country convinces his or her citizens that a national security interest is at stake. Once you invoke national security then you may invade Iraq (twice), Afghanistan, Syria, Vietnam, Panama, the Balkans, Somalia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Lebanon. If you are the United States you do not need the permission of the United Nations.
Are you familiar with the wristband, WWJD? (What Would Jesus Do?) I propose creating a new wrist band and presenting it as a gift to Vladimir Putin. The band reads, WWUSD. It means — What Would the United States Do? I think that will be a big help for Putin and Lavrov in navigating this new world order of Western cemented rules.
However, the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (aka PRIO) has some caveats for Russia:
Putin argues that NATO has broken its promise not to expand eastwards. But no binding promise was ever made. In any case, the decisive contribution of international law in this debate is that a state’s right of self-determination also includes Ukraine’s right to choose its own alliances.
As long as the Americans had their fingers crossed behind their backs, a promise does not count. Unless the Americans and Russians do a pinky finger shake and swear on providing cheap oil to the United States, no promise is valid.
Nor can Russia invoke the right of self-defence pursuant to Article 51 of the UN Charter as a defence against NATO expansion. No such right to preventive self-defence is recognized in international law.
Absolutely! Even though you see a foe building up its military force on your border and conducting military exercises, you cannot act to stop them until they actually attack you. The U.S. violated this principle during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It should have waited until the nuclear missiles were prepped and loaded.
Further, Russia claims that a genocide is being committed against Russians in eastern Ukraine. But genocide requires an intention to partially or completely eradicate an ethnic group, and this is obviously not the case.
Let me think. I seem to recall that the Bandera loving Ukrainian Government prohibited using the Russian language in the public sphere:
In April 2019, the Ukrainian parliament voted a new law, the law “On supporting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language”. The law made the use of Ukrainian compulsory (totally or within quotas) in more than 30 spheres of public life, including public administration, electoral process, education, science, culture, media, economic and social life, health and care institutions, and activities of political parties. The law did not regulate private communication. Some exemptions were provided for the official languages of the European Union and for minority languages, with the exclusion of Russian, Belarusian and Yiddish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_policy_in_Ukraine
Not only did Ukraine try to put the kibosh on the use of the Russian language, it bombarded civilian areas in the Donbas with artillery and rockets since 2014.
Moreover, even if a genocide had taken place, Russia would have no right under international law to conduct a so-called humanitarian intervention. Such interventions must be approved by the UN Security Council (“responsibility to protect”).
Only the UN Security Council can stop genocide. If it does not approve intervention then it must not be genocide. Got it? This is tricky logic and you have to be a particular kind of degenerate to grasp it.
Putin can also not use an invitation from the two breakaway republics to justify the invasion. A right to secede could only be relevant for these two regions in the event of extreme human-rights abuses by Ukraine, which is something we have not seen.
An absolute firm principle, set in stone, unless you are Kosovo. If Kosovo asks NATO to rescue it from Serbia then that prohibition is no longer valid. NATO intervention supersedes anything the UN Security Council decrees.
Basically, Russia just needs to shut the hell up, bend over and let the West have its way until the U.S. and NATO are satiated, and then sit quietly in a corner and cause no further trouble. What’s wrong with that?
Great stuff! And so true.
‘When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, they will naturally want to side with the strong horse.’
Plus
‘Stolen elections have consequences.’
America is experiencing the truth of these 2 truisms, 24/7. Will they learn anything from them, though? I have my doubts.
It’s fascinating watching Washington’s legitimacy and respect draining away, 24/7.
DC is publicly ignored and even mocked by many nations these days. That would never have happened before 3/4 Nov 2020. It’s only going to get worse.
Whoever has the reserveCurrencyPrintingPress makes the rules.
The deep sea fishes.
Might makes Right, says the “civilized”.
I see you cited abridged lists of US contradictory hypocrisies. Blum does a good job of archivinging the legacy of murderous US activities (cf Killing Hope, 1995 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Hope). When it happens so systematically, it is obviously by design.
Thank you.
Let’s call this what it is: TEGWAR (The Exciting Game Without Any Rules.) They want Russia to be the patsy in the game.
Regarind invasion, we have profited from Saudi Arabia’s invasion of Yemen for almost 10yrs now.
Our worst abuse of power is when we force other sovereign countries to impose a trade embargo against another country.
Iran delivered oil to S. Korea, we ordered S. Korea to not pay the $3B it owed Iran. Now how did we manage that, did Pompeo visit S. Korea, give an impassioned speech about how we must all unify against Iran to frenzied applause from S. Korean officials?
No. We threatened to find S. Korean banks and to seize their property. It’s called extortion.
“This is tricky logic and you have to be a particular kind of degenerate to grasp it”
Well, the West is full of them
It was meant as sarcasm.
Awesome work Larry. Definitely good for a laugh and also some stark reminders of why no one trusts the west.
Every heard the saying, “To my friends, anything; to my enemies, the law” Also, Everything for our friends, laws for our enemies
Very true, especially when you remember that the US has no friends, only subjects, puppets and clients.
Not laws, rules, y’know – rules based international whatever
Hilarious and great piece !
One quibble – Ukrainian is not really a language l; it’s a dialect.
Nothing hilarious in any of it. It’s the final bell tolling for western ‘civilization’ as we’ve known it. Nothing will ever be as it once was, and the labored transition to a just new order is destined to force the world’s greatest stoic to tears.
If all of our diplomats and politicians had as their policy guide Triune JEHOVAH’s Ten Commandments, Western Civilization would not now be in a state of collapse, which it has been for well over one hundred years. As Larry factually proved in this article, certainty American and Ukrainian politicians have not charitably applied Christ’s Golden Rule to Vladimir Putin and the Russian people: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: FOR THIS IS THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS.” (Matthew 7:12) America is a thoroughly WICKED nation, and I cannot see how Triune God could be on the side of a nation that worships the idol and false god of “democracy” — one of which now has the blood of 60 MILLION babies on its hands, and whose “leaders” recently “codified” the abomination of homosexual “marriage”. Liberalism — Satan’s philosophy — is the ideology of Death and Damnation.
Wait until you hear about all the “languages” in ex Yugoslav area.
just saying says
— I would not like to hear about 50 ancient languages in the USA, 49 of which have nothing to do with English -))
Unless the Russians possesses the might. Then this becomes such a threat to all civilized norms that it must be stopped by “Whatever it takes” .. even if means the deaths of hundreds of thousands of non American soldiers and the destruction of Western economies and the possible starving of millions in the Third World
I thought so too, but maybe the Ukies are attempting to create a distinct and separate language. The differences I’ve noted so far (Ive studied Русский language, БТШ)
Ukraine seems to use Russian consonant stems and changes the short vowels
Ukrainian pronounce the letter “Г” as an English “h” while in Russian this is a hard “g” Most notably, the word голода (hunger) is holoda in Ukiespeak and goloda. And yes, this is the root for Stalin’s terror famine Holodomor (Hunger Genocide)
And speak of the devil, Stalin is spelled Сталин in Russian and Сталін in Ukrainian. Ukrainian actually Romanizes a few letters in the Cyrillic alphabet. So, now you’re looking at something trending towards a different language
You forgot the oligarchs. It is only called an oligarch if it is a friend of Putin’s. If it is in America, it is called a CEO or a businessman. Even when they invade a country and their oil/construction/security/whatever company takes over all the contracts.
You also forgot the foreign reserves/private property seizures and bank account blocks – without due process. It is only allowed in America and western satellites ’cause, God Damn It, it is coming from a place of TRUTH and is done with Good Intentions ™.
Finally, it is an Objective Journalist if it works for CNN/MSNBC/…. Everywhere else the “so called journalists” are “associated in part or funded in full by the government”.
Got it?
Beg to differ, they are “philanthropists”.
True. I have never seen regular people called philanthropists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros
George Soros[a] HonFBA (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930)[1][2] is a Hungarian-American[b] businessman and
philanthropist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein
In 2002, a spokesman of Bill Clinton lauded Epstein as “a committed philanthropist” with “insights and generosity”.
You’re absolutely right, sir!
Including Canada, where all news organizations are subsidized by the Canadian government with the exception of the appropriately named Rebel News Media.
‘Something We Have Not Seen’ has no justification to exist.
Western hypocrisy is astounding and the Rest of the World have a long experience dealing with it.
Not only Mr Lavrov, but the Foreign Minister of India sees through it quite clearly – which is not new – and remarkably says so these days too.
Among the things that have not been seen, are the Banderite Nazi doctrines promoted and made mandatory by the Kiev parliament since 2014.
Thanks Larry
Just look at Ukraine’s grammar school textbooks, for God’s sake.
This is a sick society. As sick as 1930-40’s Germany ever was.
And we choose to feed, not cure, their sickness. Good God, we’re as sick as they are.
Not “sick” so much as ignorant. All of my fellow Americans, who are now flying Ukrainian flags, think that they are supporting a nice little country full of democracy-loving folks ( just like us). They know nothing about Ukraine other than what they are fed by the gov’t. controlled news they dutifully watch every evening (because an informed public is very American). The whole thing is F.U.B.A.R. Fortunately for the long term fate of the World, ‘Reality Always Bats Last’ (RABL).
The one vice that Jesus singled out for special condemnation was Hypocrisy.
The older I get the more I find myself agreeing with that whole-heartedly.
“Basically, Russia just needs to shut the hell up, bend over and let the West have its way until the U.S. and NATO are satiated.”
The problem with the US and NATO is that they’ll never be satisfied until there’s no one left to appose them.
While I really like your list, Mr. Johnson, I posit there is only one rule: Do (or don’t do) what we tell YOU to do Today – these rules don’t apply to us.
So to summarize, grasping the Rules Based Order (RBO) is like grasping jello….
IMHO, I think the RBO assigns the US the right (no sacred duty) to interfere in all elections, including US elections. And Diebold* makes it easy!
A very enjoyable read!
*Die Bold – what a name! Not Die Free or Die RIghteous
Jeez, Larry…you must have had some soul-wrenching epiphany somewhere down the line. Welcome to the club.
Regarding that other club, I sum it up as:
“In this club, we set the rules to fit the occasion. No dissenters need apply.”
2022:
Further, Russia claims that a genocide is being committed against Russians in eastern Ukraine. But genocide requires an intention to partially or completely eradicate an ethnic group, and this is obviously not the case.
1999:
Further, The US claims that a genocide is being committed against Albanians in Kosovo. But genocide requires an intention to partially or completely eradicate an ethnic group, and this is obviously not the case.
So up yours, Oslo.
It is true for some, the same is not true for others, it is the Western and American cancer of humanity.
2022
Moreover, even if a genocide had taken place, Russia would have no right under international law to conduct a so-called humanitarian intervention. Such interventions must be approved by the UN Security Council (“responsibility to protect”).
1999
However, even if a genocide were only suspected of taking place, NATO would have every right under international law to conduct a so-called humanitarian intervention. Such interventions do not necessarily need approval by the UN Security Council as an R2P intervention (“responsibility to protect”).
So up yours, Oslo. Stick it where the sun don’t shine.
Putin can also not use an invitation from the two breakaway republics to justify the invasion. A right to secede could only be relevant for these two regions in the event of extreme human-rights abuses by Ukraine, which is something we have not seen.
https://www.newsweek.com/evidence-war-crimes-committed-ukrainian-nationalist-volunteers-grows-269604
Newsweek, 2014 and continuing to this day:
‘Ukrainian Nationalist Volunteers Committing ‘ISIS-Style’ War Crimes’
Groups of right-wing Ukrainian nationalists are committing war crimes in the rebel-held territories of Eastern Ukraine, according to a report from Amnesty International, as evidence emerged in local media of the volunteer militias beheading their victims.
Not seen? Not once in 9 years? Pull your head out of your ass then, Oslo.
Then stick it where the sun don’t shine.
To hell with these bought and paid for miscreants.
it is evident that every western institution is hell bent on squandering the last vestige of credibility that remains.the U.N. included!
Lest we forget: https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,984833,00.html
Fun Trivia-Putin’s PhD thesis-“The Most Favored Nation Trading Principle in International Law”.
The Ordering of Base Rules
(a rather basic sonnet format: ababababcdcdcd)
Projecting rules upon the world, who knew
the “burden” such an awesome task would bring
to bear upon the ones who turn the screw
and pound the peasants, winter, fall, and spring
while they enjoy year-round the summer hue
of golden days. So let the music ring!
Let all who’ve known “success” receive their due
and those who’ve failed let them endure the sting
of poverty and labor hard and long
while profits up the pyramid advance
to further gild the ones already strong
who seldom for a moment look askance
at those below who only know the wrong
reserved for those with but a chicken’s chance.
The “Rules Based Order,” so we’ve heard it said
means what we say it does, no more no less,
whenever and wherever we have led
our vassals with us to create a mess
of limbs blown off and heaps of newly dead.
Nor any of our crimes will we confess,
us dogs of war by our own barking bred;
the “body count” our measure of success;
the free-fire zone – kill anything that moves –
retrieved from Vietnam, another place
where what we did the things we said disproves.
Mere novelty adds not but must deface,
as Bacon said. Thus our bad breath removes
the verbal mask meant to disguise disgrace.
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2021
“As long as the Americans had their fingers crossed behind their backs, a promise does not count.”
Too funny. Those tricky Americans, they’ve got a special hocus-pocus deal breaker that they can use while engaging in diplomatic activities, such as, looking you in the eye, shaking your hand and swearing to you man to man, “Nato will not expand one inch eastward!”
Although in fairness, I don’t think the old, “fingers crossed behind the back” is an exclusively American ruse, the Brits (Major), the Germans (Kohl), and the French (Mitterrand), all gave Gorbachev the Gullible similiar bullshit guarantees.
Mikhail Gorbachev, what can one say? Whomever he had to deal with in the afterlife, let’s hope he learned his lesson and demanded everything in writing, because his immortal soul was on the line, and not just the destiny of mother Russia.
Point taken, however even had Gorbachev achieved a signed agreement, the signers would simply have declared it only applied to the Soviet Union and not Russia. It’s a moot argument.
“It’s a moot argument.”
Perhaps. But purely from a selfish point of view, a signed document of some kind would have made it easier on me over the last decade or so, as I tried to defend Russia’s right to object to Nato putting first strike weapon systems inside the borders of the old Soviet Union.
“Max424, those are defensive missiles only! What are you, a Putin Puppet?”
Lmao …
At least you tried.
Yes, defensive, only defensive. Could never initiate anything and besides….even if they were capable of ‘defensively’ intercepting Russian ICBM’s in theory, Russia has so many they could easily overwhelm any system of ours on its borders. Russia’s arguments are laughable.
Indeed. I remember the arguments well, thinking maybe I’ve stumbled onto a creative writing class at Georgetown U. or some long lost Stanley Kubrick script.
I kept spinning the counterarguments in my head, over and over, thinking “This isn’t possible. Forgetting geopolitics, simple physics tells me these arguments the west is making are pure baloney yet they’re being made. It simply can’t be. I must be missing something.”
Lesson learned.
” … even if they were capable of ‘defensively’ intercepting Russian ICBM’s in theory … ”
Exactly. You could teach nuclear first strike theory to kindergartners using crayons. Red crayons are the first strike nukes, blue crayons are the retaliatory nukes, and the yellow crayons are called, anti-ballistic missiles.
Now kiddies, the yellow crayons only matter if they are very close to the red crayons, because they can catch the red crayons before before they can get real high up there in the sky.
This catching of the red crayons before they get too high is called “boost phase intercept,” and boost phase intercept is why that big meenie Vladimir Putin does not want yellow crayons in Ukraine.
The big meenie doesn’t care about our red crayons all that much, because we already have thousands in his neighborhood, on these things called submarines. It’s the yellow crayons suddenly moving in that he is very, very worried about.
And he has told us so, dozens and dozens of time, but we don’t listen to him kids, nor should we, because President Putin is so gulldarn mean.
” It simply can’t be. I must be missing something.”
Total madness. I have brought up “boost phase intercept” hundreds of times on the web, always to deafening silence.
Same deafening silence that Vladimir Putin faced, year after year. The realization that the world’s press corps would never be able to grasp the kindergarten concept of boost phase intercept, is about the time he started calling everybody in attendance, “deaf, dumb, and dyselexic.”
Yeah, “boost phase intercept” was the last coloring book the NATO crayonworks published, after their ‘only meant to intercept NK or Iranian ICBMs’ became so threadbare that even the NYT began laughing at it as they published it.
But of course, that let the cat out of the bag …. ‘So, it wasn’t NK or Iranian missiles after all. Hmmm, well if the things launch interceptor missiles, can’t they launch first strike missiles too?’…. Silence.
https://scheerpost.com/2023/01/08/patrick-lawrence-europe-and-the-legitimization-of-deception/
The Europeans have gone over to America’s Groucho Marx School of Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs. “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others”.
Groucho’s flippancy is funny, negotiating in bad faith with a Great Power is not. That the two core European powers entered into an agreement that was then officially submitted to the UN and ratified by the UNSC with no intention of upholding its principles beggars belief. It turns them, as Putin said, into card cheats.
Well, as somebody said about card cheats, “There’s nothing as easy as beating a cheater”. That’s what we see happening. The clever cheaters cheated themselves and their nations out of a future.
Groucho’s flippancy is funny, negotiating in bad faith with a Great Power is not. That the two core European powers entered into an agreement that was then officially submitted to the UN and ratified by the UNSC with no intention of upholding its principles beggars belief. It turns them, as Putin said, into card cheats.
Well said…..frankly unbelievable they did that and…….. what does every red blooded American know happens to card cheats?
Macron is a fool. A fool who’s convinced himself that Russia seeks to reconstitute the Russian Empire.
Really, Macron? Then why didn’t it:
1) Occupy all of Georgia in 2008, when it had it in its hands?
2) Recognize Donetsk & Lugansk independence in 2014, when it had it in its hands?
3) and why DID it lobby for 20 yrs for an inclusive new European security architecture, one that would have PRECLUDED any border changes for one and all?
Hmmm, Macron? No, you’re not just a fool but an extraordinary fool at that.
He’s in a race for the fool’s errand finish line with Scholz, who still thinks that Russia started the 2008 war in Georgia and that UNMIK’s final body count of 4000 in Kosovo constitute genocide but at least twice that number in Donbass do not.
Apparently in the scholzian school of logic, Serbia’s mistake was to send troops into Kosovo and not be beaten back, then resort to simply shelling Pristina for 8 years from afar.
The short of it, “do as I say, not as I do”! Mamma taught me that Rule. I guess she learn it here at home in the USA.
I don’t think I saw “exceptionalism” mentioned yet. Did I miss it somehow? Once we declare ourselves exceptional, obviously some petty laws should not apply or restrain us in any way, and we can behave like a high school clique making up the cafeteria rules like a queen bee.
On 9 February 1990, in order to appease Gorbachev’s concerns, Baker declared:
Not only for the Soviet Union but also for other European countries, it is important to have guarantees that if the United States maintains its presence in Germany within the framework of NATO, not one inch of NATO’s current military jurisdiction will spread eastward.
Promises were thus made simply because the West had no alternative, to obtain the USSR’s approval; and without promises Germany would not have been reunified.
The representatives of the other countries also accepted the idea of not offering NATO membership to the other Eastern European countries.
So, written record or not, there was a “deal,” simply because a “deal” was inevitable. Now, in international law, a “promise” is a valid unilateral act that must be respected (“promissio est servanda“). Those who deny this today are simply individuals who do not know the value of a given word. (Jaques Baud)
I honestly can’t understand why anyone now worries about international law v the US or the collective West….. It’s over ! This group of perfidious, genocidal , thieving bastards have ensnared themselves in an inescapable Kafkaesque quagmire , no escape. 73% of the world will never trust them or their forked-tongue equivocations ever again. Their “petrodollar” racket has run its course, their diplomatic corp is moronic and infantile, their superpower status has been exposed as a bullying fraud and to cap it off they’re completely and irreversibly bankrupt…..simply put they’re kaputt !!!
I lament the passing of what could have and should have been had honesty prevailed but you are………….
100% correct.
In “The Hidden Truth About the War in Ukraine, Jacques Baud explains that a promise is in line with International law.
“Putin argues that NATO has broken its promise not to expand eastwards. But no binding promise was ever made.”
Promises were thus made simply because the West had no alternative, to obtain the USSR’s approval; and without promises Germany would not have been reunified. Gorbachev accepted German reunification only because he had received assurances from President George H.W. Bush and James Baker, Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, her successor John Major and their Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd, President François Mitterrand, but also from CIA Director Robert Gates and Manfred Wörner, then Secretary General of NATO.
So, written record or not, there was a “deal,” simply because a “deal” was inevitable. Now, in international law, a “promise” is a valid unilateral act that must be respected (“promissio est servanda“). Those who deny this today are simply individuals who do not know the value of a given word.
It’s a verbal contract, for God’s sake….one that was fulfilled on Gorbachev’s part and his part only.
One can argue it would not have survived after the dissolution of the USSR but to say it never happened or that nothing was ever written and therefore meaningless is only something unscrupulous grifters would say.
Nyedogovorosposobniy! It took 30 years but they finally figured it out.
Didn’t know where to post this, so, I’ll take my chances to post it here.
I like stats, and demographics is one stat that doesn’t lie too much. I was trying to estimate the Ukrainian male population that may be conscripted. So, bear with me, the sources of my info are at the end of the message.
Ukraine started 2022 with some 43-44 million people. Let’s say 43 million. Then Russia decided that a NATO country with possible nuclear weapons on her border was not in her best interest, to put it lightly. So, we have 2022.02.24 preemptive special military operation (SMO)
In 2022, CIA say 17.14 million people had fled Ukraine, while the UNHCR says that they know about around 8 million people (7,915,287). Why such a difference, probably because most of the displaced Ukrainians, ended up in Russia, or/and are not registered with UNHCR. So, lets settle in the middle (17+8)/2 =12.5 say ~13 million people left Ukraine in 2022.
We have now 43-13= around 30 million people still in Ukraine alive or dead.
Ukrainian population 16-59 year of age is 24.29% from the total country population. The stat starts with 16-year-old, and includes every living soul in that age bracket, males and females. So, 10% males is probably a fair estimate.
So, 10% of 30 million is 3 million males. From this at least half are not able to be soldiers, they are sick, injured, or employed in required services, like police, healthcare, energy providing, so on. Which leaves us with 1.5 million men potentially to be conscripted.
Russia, grinds down about 1000 Ukrainians per day. (300 KIA, and the rest MIA, WIA).
1,500,000 /1,000 is 1,500 days or about 4 years … to the last Ukrainian (one year down, three years to go)
Correct me if I’m wrong
================
#1 The current population of Ukraine is 43,073,884 as of Monday, January 9, 2023, based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data.
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ukraine-population/
#2 Number of Ukrainians who left for European countries after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion has reached 7,915,287 people.
Such data is provided by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ukrinform reports.
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-society/3646901-unhcr-number-of-ukrainian-refugees-in-europe-reaches-almost-8-million.html
Also
#3 The current population of Ukraine is 36,101,176 based on projections of the latest United Nations data. The UN estimates the July 1, 2023 population at 36,744,634.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/ukraine-population
Also
#4 As of 3 January, 2023, approximately 17.14 million people had fled Ukraine, and 5.91 million people were internally displaced as of 5 December.
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ukraine/
#5 People in Ukraine 16-59 year of age 24.29%
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1006655/ukraine-population-by-age-group/
You got that so right Mr. Johnson.
Leftoxenomorphs are very feminine and very feudal in their outlook and modus operandi.
That is why leftoxenomorphism appeals to females so much.
That is why the vast majority of females embrace feminazism with the utmost rabid fanaticism as it is one of the cults within the religion of leftoxenomorphism.
And let’s not forget that german females were very much at the very center of what brought the nazis to power.
Just use the argument “german women brought hitler to power” to search for this.
“Bing” brings a count of 5.840.000 results. I don’t use “Bing” but “duckduckgo” But “Bing” gives the results count.
This is very much part of the leftoxenomorph modus operandi:
-“If I win, I win. If I don’t win, you lose.”
-“Everybody has to look at me all the time and do exactly what I say without a peep.”
-“I’m great. All the time. Everybody else is way less great than me. They have to. Because nobody can be as great as I am.”
-“I don’t explain myself to people. I just tell them what to do.”
-“If I am right, I am right. If I am wrong, I’m still right. I’m always right. Because I’m never wrong. Even when I am. That I’m not.”
-“If I did something wrong then I didn’t do it. But it was great that I did. Because I’m never wrong.”
-“I make the rules. All the time. And I can change my mind and the rules at any time and as many times as I want and all the rest has to catch up or else. I rule.”
And so on and so forth.
When I put it that leftoxenomorphism is pure medieval Dark Ages feudalism I’m not exaggerating in the least.
Leftoxenomorphs see themselves as so vastly superior to humans that they OBVIOUSLY ought to rule by feudal absolute power and be worshiped by all.
Instead of the old “by the grace of God” leftoxenomorphs have it “by the grace of ‘social justice’”
But the root of feudalism is always the same.
THEY are better. You are nothing. They rule. You obey. It’s simple, really. And very feminine. And very feudal.
That is why they have no moral qualms about electoral fraud because they are so much better than the MAGA “bitter clingers” like the kenyan cannibal said, that electoral fraud is just them disregarding the worthless opinion of the “bitter clingers” for the “common good” and “social justice”
When leftoxenomorphs cheat they are doing it “for your own good” and “because they know better than you” You ought to thank them. Really.
And people should thank them because they are doing it for the “common good”
Because they know what’s good for us all and we don’t.
That is called “democracy” in leftoxenomorph speak.
And humans still don’t understand what we are dealing with and leftoxenomorphs wrap us around their little fingers and play with us.
America, the late Constitutional Republic the United States of America (July 4th, 1776 – November 3rd, 2020) is dead.
Something like 95% of everything organized in any way in its rotting remains, Venezuerica, is under the control and gatekeeping of rabid fanatic leftoxenomorphs beginning with the three branches of government.
We pay taxes so children can be imprinted with leftoxenomorphism since kindergarten by leftoxenomorph feminazis that hate everything about the memory of America and, by the way, everything with a penis, so boys get treated like garbage and many never recover and many knuckle under and give themselves to leftoxenomorphism.
Did you know that some species of ants, more powerful and aggressive than others, wage war against other species and defeat them and enslave millions of survivor ants that are then forced to live as slaves to their conquerors as their serfs? Look it up.
The leftoxenomorph poisonous maggots waged war against humans and they conquered us and now they are very close to the final stages of our enslavement.
And if we are going to do something about it, time is fast running out for us.
This is not a game. This is not business as usual. This is not a “difference of opinion” This has nothing to do with “2024” that means nothing. Our stupid games are way over. This is the age of the leftoxenomorph. We have an official government mandated religion now and it is leftoxenomorphism. They even fly their evil pervert flags all over the world to let all men know.
We are under the control and the occupation of enemy forces that are not even human but less than that.
It is pretty much like we had lost WW2 and sub-human german nazis and sub-human japanese nazis where occupying us.
Make no mistake.
Things are going to get medieval for us, humans.
Unless we do something about it. Something kinetic in the extreme.
Fascinating – thank you. This has been very much along my lines of thinking for a while now. Here is an excerpt from an essay I wrote some years ago on the subject. Conrad’s first book, which launched his stellar career, is called ‘Chance’ where he tackles feminism. Well worth a read. All Best
Feminism is the means to destroy a civilisation.
As they found out in the Tower of Babel, society cannot be run on the female premise and that is being confirmed as we read. Hence the threat to civilisation.
Feminism is, above all else. a social construct. It has little to do with ‘femaleness’ per se.
Misogyny has nothing to do with masculinity, but by the same token feminism has nothing to do with femininity
Men are still doing what they have done from the beginning of time: facing and countering all the challenges of a hostile world, loving and taking care of their women and children, getting a vigorous kicking every time they get anything wrong, and being taken for granted when they get so many things right. We have faced and survived many blizzards; the current blizzard of anti-male rhetoric from the twittering idiots of the mass media and the anti-male policies of successive governments are just the latest that we will work through, survive and ultimately defeat.
Genesis 2:18
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Look at that word HELPER in association with the woman that was made for man.
The question has always been asked why did God take a rib from Adam’s ribs and not grab more clay and make woman? Answer: To reveal to mankind our role in this life.
Man was made for the glory of God and women were made for the glory of man.
However, women like men, are rebels at heart and don’t want to do what God commanded us to do. Women don’t want to be ‘helpers’ but want to have the position that God created for men the role of leader.
Actually, there is only one rule:
If it is perceived by the US as beneficial, then it must be followed; otherwise, you are threatening the rules-based order, and therefore must be subjugated, or destroyed.
Yes
The WTO rules for instance. They were seen by the US as self-evidently right when and as long as they benefited firstly the US corporations.
Times have been a changing since then and China anathemously appears to have “taken advantage” from those same rules for twenty years.
Hence, it’s about time to change the WTO rules and China is now framed as the most treacherous foe in the D.C. circles and beyond.
Yes, but China does not do it overtly, to a loud sousa march in the background.
When you say “If it is perceived by the US” you presumably mean “If it is perceived by those who rule the US”, which is the form that should be used.
The first form implies a position on behalf of the US public in general, rather than by the cabal which has usurped power over them.
The US is no longer a democratic republic in any meaningful way. No actions are taken for the benefit of the general public, all solely for the cabal and its constituent gangs.
Great points, made with customary humour.
The U.N. is on a site donated by the Rockefellers.
That’s the greatest lesson from the US : money buys you hypocrisy.
The Puritans got it as did many of their most distinguished descendants.
There are so many contemporary examples.
Lets not bother our convivial host with it.
He’s bound to be going Marlin fishing, after checking out the field with Dr Hugo Hackenbush.
It’s been many years listening to Grouxo!
Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others!
In the 1930’s. It was decades before my time. Introduced to me by my Dad, no softy, a WW2 Aussie commando.
Great article, which reveals the whole mendacity of the West. Because the whole NATO parrots this hypocrisy from the USA 1:1. If I were to write and publish this article in Germany, I would face 5 years in prison since 2022. Yes, in Germany there is now officially the “thought crime”. Unbelievable, but a fact.
Hallo Heikomr
Sadly this has slowly become believable over the years, through the proliferated anti-terrorist and more recently the covid-related legislations.
Which parts of Larry’s piece would fall under the axe of this newly baked German law ?
The prosecutors, who are bound by instructions, are very open to interpretation.
Anyone who supports Russia’s “criminal war of aggression in violation of international law” is liable to prosecution. Even “denying” this alleged narrative is considered support.
The German judiciary is not independent.
In both Ukraine’s and now Germany’s case, it seems you just can’t teach an old Nazi new tricks.
In Germany, this statement can get you 3 to 5 years in prison in the worst case. For “trivialization of National Socialism and its crimes”. Paragraph 130. 😉
Paragraph 140, according to paragraph 138, section 5, 5 years in prison. “Reward and approval of crimes.” (See war crimes, genocide, international law, “Russia” 😉, etc.)
I’m not an expert on law. But meanwhile on Orwellian bullshit. 🥴
Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are non-existent in Germany. I know of various German journalists who can only publish their press articles from safe exile in Russia.
Nothing can unite the people of a nation more, than to be subjected to suffering and injustice by other nations. Also, nothing breaks apart the cohesion among citizens, than too much of a good thing. When you look at the way Russia has been able to rise literally from the ashes of the former Soviet Union, it is in great part, due to the unabashed ways in which the West has treated them (10,400 sanctions against them to date).
When I saw America being burned to the ground, in the summer of 2020, by people who claimed they had no liberty, I was aghast and beginning to see the end of a once most powerful nation on earth.
Having come to America with $2,000 in my pocket ( still not spent), never gone hungry or homeless for a single day, for the last 46 years and achieving the American Dream, I have come to the sad realization that what is breaking our society apart is not the lack of anything, it is a malady from which our people suffers called “acute comfortytis”
Excellent round up by Johnson.
US/UK/European ideology is infantile (and malignant) to the core. Their attitude is that of neighbourhood thugs. Their workings are those of compulsive liars and bloodthirsty mafia dons.
There is a remedy presently, which is to bury the stinking rotten corpse of western political perversion and social depravity… or to be buried under its hellish stench.
Such state of affairs makes the Ukrainian war an existential quarrel, for Russia and for the world (and also for the decaying cadaver, of course)
Those extreme human rights abuses we have not seen – yeah because we have been looking the other way for 8 years. These people are vile.
It’s even worse. The “OSCE” observers were mostly “fixed” by SBU. Yep , the same SBU guys than rampaged through Donbass for years. The so called “integrated militias” ; Azov , Kraken, Kiev battalion and such were the core of SBU in the region.
So , the guys that where supposed to document any genocide risks were actually leaded by the guys that were actively conducting the genocide of the population.
The best way to bury a genocide…
Azeris are applying the same methods in Karabach right now.
OSCE observers were guiding AFU artillery, and spying on Russians. Similar things happened in Yugoslav wars.
Indeed. It turned out that certain OSCE members were feeding the SBU with critical data gleaned from their work as ‘neutral observers’.
Just one more compromised intl. 4 letter agency.
The West had a good thing going for a good while but abused the privilege, thinking no one would ever dare notice or care.
They dared.
They passed vile long ago and well on their way to execrable excrement.
I’m lovin it!
Astana Declaration; Each participating State has an equal right to security. We reaffirm the inherent right of each and every participating State to be free to choose or change its security arrangements, including treaties of alliance, as they evolve. Each State also has the right to neutrality. Each participating State will respect the rights of all others in these regards. They will not strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other States. Within the OSCE no State, group of States or organization can have any pre-eminent responsibility for maintaining peace and stability in the OSCE area or can consider any part of the OSCE area as its sphere of influence. See also Istanbul document 1999.
When private interests seek to interfere in the workings of government by way of influence, cash, pressure to the detriment of the offical workings of governmental processes and their legitimate goals of the internal security and wellbeing of the citizens of that country …
Around the world = corruption, bribery (unless we are the ones paying of course), must be rooted out, a plague on good government and the curse of democracy
West = lobbying, donations, wielders of the not-so-invisible hand, essential element, crafters of laws (unless it helps evil critters like Trump in which case also evil)
I may have come late to that party as I only saw bumper stickers with WWJB (Who Would Jesus Bomb) which vied with “How Come Our Oil is Under their Sand?” in their ubiquity.
I guess one had to be there.
You just made my day. Needed a good laugh.
The “common” interpretation of a state’s right of self-defense, combined with the prohibition of violence, means in essence that I have to get shot before I am allowed to defend myself.
However, this does not apply to the states of the West. The same, namely of course the USA, can at any time at least invoke putative self-defense (this is in German criminal law the erroneous assumption of a situation of self-defense).
Decisions or non-decisions of the Security Council are not per se in conformity with international law – namely, precisely when the facts on which the decision was based are not correct. Such a thing can occur in a judgment of any decent court. The judgment, which is in itself unlawful, is then nevertheless law.
And I always ask myself, where it is actually written, that a people of a democratically constituted state must submit to a rule whose protagonists have usurped the instruments of state power by means of illegitimate force, i.e. unlawfully, in disregard of the applicable state and constitutional law. Where is that written?
“The “common” interpretation of a state’s right of self-defense, combined with the prohibition of violence, means in essence that I have to get shot before I am allowed to defend myself.”
Not according to The Caroline Affair.
According to that custom a pre-emptive strike is permissible if the threat of attack is “instant, overwhelming, and leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation.”
And the funny thing is that it was an action by the US government that led to The Caroline affair, and the USA and the UK were the first two countries to accept that sentence as THE yardstick for determining the legality of an act of pre-emption.
Of course, that was then. This is now.
Every country can choose its own alliances. But China can not support Russia in any way. And ditto for Iran of course.
and everyone happens to forget the horrific US-sponsored war in Yemen
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/01/05/3000-yemenis-killed-or-injured-in-2022/
It doesn’t come any simpler or more clear-cut than the “rules” of the US-led “rules-based international system”.
Because there is only one rule: Do as I say, not as I do.
You have to be a supplicant, or you end up either fleeing for your life or you end up dead.
The most important words in your article are these: “Kosovo” and “Saddam Hussein, Muammar Qaddafi and Manuel Noriega”
Those acts of bastardry by the USA has undercut any claims that Washington might shout regarding the alleged illegality of Russia’s actions inside Ukraine.
A nation’s sovereignty and national security are sacrosanct, you say?
My answer in two words: Muammar Qaddafi.
Breakaway provinces can not request outside assistance, amIright?
My answer in one word: Kosovo.
These are bedrock principles of international law that the USA ITSELF said no longer apply to its own actions, even though Washington was warned at the time that it was setting a dangerous precedent.
Well, sorry, Karma is a bitch. Those precedents have come back to bite you.
You say… what? Shut up, you have no right to complain after Kosovo.
You argue… what? Tell that to Qaddafi, or Saddam, you murderous bastards.
Great piece! Funny but sadly true.
I guess the overriding rule is American Exceptionalism. It trumps everything and is the overriding principle that Mr Lavrov needs to adhere to.
You could add too that Corruption is totally outlawed except:
1. Political donations within the US to ensure that money is spent on arms and weapons are perfectly acceptable, and encouraged as contributing to the Rules Based Order. This is not corruption. It is lobbying;
2. It is perfectly fine for oligarchs in the US (sorry, esteemed business leaders) to fund think tanks that pay politicians when they are “between jobs” so as to influence policy;
3. Former US generals working for defence corporations when they “retire” is perfectly acceptable and we are sure that the prospect of these jobs does not influence decisions. In fact, these experiences are so valuable that it is great if these people return to the public sector as Secretary of Defense, for example.
Above all, conflict of interest does not exist in the US. But we will intervene to stamp out corruption elsewhere in the world. With one further exception: when the overseas parties involved buy US weapons. That cannot possibly be corruption because our weapons are simply the best and represent great value for money.
Komsomolskaya Pravda published an interview with the director of the Center for Military-Political Research, MGIMO professor Alexei Podberezkin https://www.kp.ru/daily/27450/4703462/
The interview contains quite a few scoops.
“The losses that the Armed Forces of Ukraine incur in all directions reach from 500 to 1000 people per day. I’m not talking about losses due to injuries, deserters – it’s easy to multiply by the number of days per month, it turns out to be 30-50 thousand per month.”
“My forecast is that in two months there will be nothing to fight with. And no one.”
“Now there is an accelerated process of restoring the capabilities of the military-industrial complex of Russia.
– But this recovery did not begin yesterday?
– This trend began to gain strength only in the autumn, for real.”
[Scoop: the military-industrial complex began to be restored for real in the autumn of 2022]
“- When they started the special operation with Ukraine, according to our estimates, they had 150 combat aircraft. Now we are talking about 350 downed aircraft. Where did those 200 extra come from? They had 60 air defense brigades there, only the S-300 – they got it from the Soviet army. And how is it that we seem to have already destroyed not 60, but more than a hundred air defense brigades. So tell me how many are left? It is necessary to talk about such things, otherwise doubts arise about the sincerity and accuracy of the information …”
[Scoop about the endgame:]
“- The most unpleasant situation can be a protracted truce. There are many frozen conflicts in the world. There are about 30 states in the world, not only Cyprus, Transnistria, Karabakh. Many last for decades. And in Ukraine there may be one of these options. But it won’t work for us.”
When I was a boy . . . 500 to 1,000 people per day, times 30 days per month, turns out to be 15 to 30 thousand per month.
Next up 30,000 per month times 12 months is NOT 500,000.
Pravda: We wanted to move NATO away, but in the end we moved it forward?
Podberezkin: I met about two years ago with the former head of intelligence of the European Union, by the way, a Finnish rear admiral. More than 1,500 bilateral and multilateral agreements between the US and NATO have been concluded with Finland. Therefore, they were already there, in the alliance – Finland and Sweden. There are two blocks. One narrow military-political bloc with strict obligations is NATO, 30 states. And about 30 more states one way or another affiliated with this bloc. This is the collective west. We are fighting them…
Excellent link. Thanks for it.
A frozen conflict in Ukraine would be a scab which the US can pick open at will.
It was exactly the argument of a necessary preemptive strike that Putin used to justify the special military operation.
It should be noted though, there is no such thing as “international law” in its literal meaning. It’s mostly a set of norms and legal traditions that countries have decided to accept.
The Russians and the rest of the non-Western world want the “rules of law” to be the global standard. That means that everyone must accept that a set of laws, typically based on the UN charter, should be applied equally to every international conflict.
In contrast the U.S. and their stooges want a global regime of “law of rules” where the rest of the world must accept American rules as their law.
Let me stand up for the USA.
I don’t see any special privileges that US citizens receive from a rules-based world order.
The USA still belongs to Americans – people who live on this territory, cultivate this land on which their ancestors lived and their descendants will live.
The United States does not belong to the Reserve Financial System, international large corporations, whose owners and representatives can be located anywhere outside the United States.
So what if Americans were inspired with a sense of exclusivity = national superiority?
Ukrainians were also inspired with a sense of national superiority, that they are an ancient unique nation, belong to the European civilization according to the cultural code.
Russian Russian As a result, they did not really have time to learn their “ancient” language, but they already forget literary Russian and speak obscenely (русским матом).
Ukrainians were seduced and cynically deceived. But Americans are also a victim of seduction.
Life doesn’t get any better from a sense of superiority. Continuous disappointments.
Russians, on the contrary, have long been instilled with a sense of inferiority, humiliated, insulted, and harassed. As a result, Russians began to live much better with their proud heads held high. What I wish for ordinary Americans in the future.
“The USA still belongs to Americans – people who live on this territory, cultivate this land on which their ancestors lived and their descendants will live.”
Wrong. American settlers are thieves and scoundrels and are learning to have: ” a sense of inferiority, humiliated, insulted, and harassed. ”
Please check out the situation on the southern border. Ongoing. For years.
A sense of superiority is indeed common to most nations. Even in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence. e.g. our neighbours, New Zealand.
It seems to be a necessary foundational lie for every country.
The US is the greatest country in the world. To its people it seems to mean there is no need to learn about other countries. Surely this is folly.
Would like to know if the ancient Romans shared such a view.
It took only two generations for the japanese to have no Emperor to him being God.
Typical of our idiot species.
другой Стив –Are you from Australia, perhaps.
“The USA still belongs to Americans – people who live on this territory, cultivate this land on which their ancestors lived and their descendants will live”. Then what are all those millions (MILLIONS) of illegal aliens doing in our country? They aren’t Americans (and by that name I mean CITIZENS).
United States are in a desperate need of coloured revolution but can’t have one, because organizing it requires US embassy.
Let me simplify the US Rules Based Order.
The US does what it wants when it wants where it wants without concern for international and domestic law, or for popular support (even though it is temporarily manufactured [like the media blitzes over WMDs in Iraq, Russiagate, Gulf of Tonkin, etc.]).
In fact most US actions are secret, not covered or censored by media, and those who expose them directly or indirectly – including legally protected whistleblowers, foreign nationals outside US jursidiction, independent journalists, etc. – are prosecuted beyond the full extent of the law.
Absolutely brilliant!!!
Thank you, Larry!
Geopolitical journalist Pepe Escobar ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepe_Escobar ) often refers to the US as “the Empire of Lies”…I think he could rightfully add “hypocrites” to that label as well…The Empire of Lies AND Hypocrites.
The number one question regarding the so called “rules based order” is “who makes the rules?”
Not surprisingly the UN interprets or ignores “rules” in favor of US-NATO routinely…I wonder if that has anything to do with money–lets see:
The US and NATO make up +50% of UN funding according to one source while China and Russia combined make up barely 15% of UN funding…
https://howmuch.net/articles/united-nations-budget-contributions-by-country-2019
so I think we already know the answer to the question.
If China and Russia want to make the “rules” they are going to have to either increase their funding (bribes) to the UN or change how the game is played–I believe they have chosen the second option.
Russia play Chess–China plays Go–the US (NATO) plays checkers…
The UN as its logo as clearly seen here is largely funded by the US.
And is on an extremely expensive piece of Manhattan real estate donated by the Rockefeller family.
So the US pays for those tinpot dictators who hate them to hate them and provide them with prime real estate.
This is the mark of a great nation.
God bless America.
You don’t need that many rules. Just two:
1. The rules are whatever we say they are.
2. The rules only apply to you, not to us.
Actually, 2 is a corollary of 1 so you only need one.
You forgot Grenada, Cuba, Laos, the Philippines, Cambodia, Haiti, and Russia.
I don’t remember the US invading North Vietnam, and I do remember something about SEATO and a protocol that extended that protection to South Vietnam. Some of the best soldiers in the war were from South Korea and the the ROC, or Taiwan, according to US soldiers I spoke with who served there. I was fortunate, I was a couple years too young to go.
I guess you have selective memory.
Perhaps the selective memory is on your part. The US certainly bombed North Vietnam after North Vietnamese forces had invaded South Vietnam but did not invade. McGrew is right.
The Viet Cong were South Vietnamese, though no doubt with plenty of encouragement and assistance from the North in the same way the US provided encouragement and assistance to dissident groups in Ukraine (color revolution) and many other countries.
North Vietnam eventually had large numbers of its military formations fighting in the South against the troops of the South Vietnamese government and its allies. Eventually the Viet Cong was largely destroyed and the fighters were largely from the North.
The US is certainly responsible for a lot of bad things in the world — now particularly against US citizens. But this revisionism that all bad things in the world are due to the US (or the UK) and always have been is just nonsense.
Koreans are indeed excellent soldiers. I’ll tell you a true story…about a South Korean Catholic who I once met in Rome and who worked in a menial role for the Vatican for many years and lived in the cloisters.
I asked him, “what brought you to the Vatican?”, to which he replied “I was a soldier in the Korean war and to atone for the atrocities I’d committed, came to dedicate my life to the Church.”
War is hell, on body and soul.
I
Rule #5: See what we just did? You can’t do it.
“Rule #3 — It is strictly prohibited to interfere in the elections in foreign countries unless those countries happen to be Iraq, Venezuela, Greece, Ukraine, Pakistan, and Israel. …”
That list is somewhat short. For instance, Italy suffered under the rule of the “Christian Democratic” Party and the most corrupt politician ever, Giulio Andreotti, for decades with the copious a$$i$tance of the US.
Fun fact: in the early ’80s, I was in Rome while studying architecture. Part of that was sketching all kinds of buildings and places, and I was taken in for questioning by the polizia when sketching a small piazza near Piazza Navona. This was at the tail end of the Anni di Piombo, the Years of Lead, when the Baader-Meinhof gang, the Red Brigades, and the IRA were all active. It took a while for me to find that I had been sketching near the home of Andreotti, right where an ambitious terrorist might park a van with a remote controlled mortar,( as the IRA had done near #10 Downing Street). It was a momentous day, because at the same time the Romans had stopped me, other Italian anti-terrorist police had freed Lt. General Dozier.
Just want to say how pleased I am that some think tank is getting headlines because they gamed out another war to be fought by people not themselves.
Congratulations Taiwan, get in line, you’re up next after Ukraine.
If China adopts the US “Rules for thee” approach they could take over Taiwan relatively easily. The US fleet gets close to Taiwan, China calls it a “threat” and takes preemptive action with a few dozen hypersonic missiles and presto, the threat is gone. China then blockades Taiwan and waits for the phone call to talk.
Their best way to get Taiwan without a big war is something like that. As to the US, what could they do? Nuke the country that supplies all your manufactured goods? Not likely. When your only response to a conventional attack is nukes, you have no response. If Xi has any balls, this will be his approach. He doesn’t want to destroy Taiwan to get it back, and we can expect that others, like China may look for alternative warfare methods. The US has used the phony threat approach several times going back to the Spanish American war and the Civil war. Nothing new, so maybe China should honor the US by implementing their strategy. Navies are sitting ducks to hypersonic missiles, and thus obsolete anyway. Just think, it would give the MIC an excuse for more money too.
“He (Xi) doesn’t want to destroy Taiwan to get it back”
Whilst your statement about China taking Taiwan is probably valid, note that Taiwan has never been subject to rule by the CCP and now has a fairly long history of independent, democratic government.
In real power terms, Taiwan is ultimately unable to resist conquest by the CCP controlled China, as was Tibet, and no one, including the US, is in a position to prevent that. Of course the UN charter, like the US Declaration of Independence, recognizes a universal right of self-determination.
People are very blithe in committing the people of Taiwan to control by the CCP, while simultaneously (rightly) railing against interventions in other countries by the US.
It’s true the CCP never ruled Taiwan, but Chiang Kai Shek, after losing to Mao, moved to Taiwan and took over, and claimed to be the rightful government over all China. Both Taiwan and China believe they are part of the same country, but differ over who the legitimate government is. The CCP probably eventually comes out ahead, a billion and a half to 20-30 million is a big advantage, and eventually the US and others can’t maintain the bluff.
Shout out to the Larry Johnson blog from the Duran, regarding the Battle of the Salt Mines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HolYxZ6s4tY
I’m still hoping Alex and Alexander will be able to point me in the direction of where the Russian Army might be hiding. I still remain insistent that the Russian Army will get involved in this conflict before it is over, if for no other reason than there is glory to be had, but only if they participate in the final victory.
I mean, think of the proud Russian officer corps. They’ve trained their whole life for battle, and when the nation they serve finds itself in a war that will define an entire generation of soldiers, a couple of foreign militias and a group of mercenaries go ahead win the war without them.
Note: Alexander had a report of a possible thermobaric strike that may or may not have wiped out a Ukraine company in a matter of seconds.
That’s what they can do, those thermobarics. Why Wagner and the Donbas militias have spent almost a year now clearing trenches with grenades and small arms is beyond me. Just slaughter the f*ckers from afar, and then bury them when you get there.
Admittedly, I’m a brutal man when it comes to an enemy that refuses to surrender. If they chose to die, kill them all with the most deadly long range weapons you have at your disposal.
Unless the Russian Army went into battle without any rockets for their heavy hitting MLRS system, which from all the empty tubes I’ve seen, appears to be the case.
If I were a military industrial complex, and one of those rare ones who was serving my nation-state instead of serving myself, I would concentrate on missiles, drones, and rockets, to the near exclusion of all other weapons systems.
Assuming, of course, I have been tasked with winning a conventional war only. The other kind of war, rockets and drones (at least not yet), need not apply.
It seems that the journalists of Komsomolskaya Pravda (a Russian news channel which has its target audience among young adults) are reading Larry’s blog: https://www.kp.ru/daily/27450/4704243/
A big article was published about the salt mines of Soledar.
“300 kilometers of underground communications – salt tunnels, through which, if desired, you can ride a KamAZ. Or on a tank.
From the mined-out mines, even a tourist site was created here, where you can kick a ball on a football field at a depth of 280 meters below sea level (we are talking about size, the grass does not grow here – the floor, walls and ceiling are all made of salt), listen to music in a concert hall and even improve your health in the underground sanatorium “Salt Symphony”. They say that cool, dry air, saturated with salts, has a good effect. Diseases of the respiratory tract and skin were treated here.
MINES WITH MAUSERS AND COLTS
An even more interesting object is located in the suburbs of Soledar, which is still held by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In Paraskoveevka, at the Volodarsky mine, at a depth of 152 meters below sea level, there are huge arsenals, where small arms were brought and preserved after the Great Patriotic War.
In 2014, I was at the checkpoint of this mine. Then the unrest in the Donbass was just beginning. However, many already understood that there would be no “velvet” return to their native harbor according to the Crimean scenario. Local residents organized a round-the-clock picket near the mine, preventing the National Guard of Ukraine from exporting weapons for the needs of the Right Sector*. No one has any doubts about its serviceability – the constant temperature regime and the level of humidity in the salt mines are ideal conditions for storage. And Mosin’s three-line guns, PPSh-41 and PPS-43 submachine guns, German MP-38/40 submachine guns, American Thomsons of the 1928 model, Mausers, Colts, Degtyarev and Maxim machine guns are stored there …
– Imagine workings 17 meters wide and 50 meters high, blocked by metal gates. So one behind the other in one development there are several storage facilities. The length of each is 150-200 meters. There are simply huge ones, where 500 wagons would fit. In total, there are thousands of wagons with weapons, – Vladimir Shanaev , the former head of the 9th storage department of the Volodarsky mine, told me .
According to him, it is almost impossible to undermine these workings, although it is possible to fill up the entrance.”
Larry, I have to say, this was a great read. It is so hard to explain the hypocrisy to people. It is truly as if some sort of amnesia has settled in. Rules for thee but not for me sort of deal.
This type of thinking is the culmination of hundreds of years on imperialism. I kind of side with Chris Hedges that its like a drug that the west can not or will not wake up from.
Doh!! Would be great if joe bedpan could read this—but then if he did—he’d call you “a dogfaced pony soldier!” Every sarcastic word is spot on. Just hope we don’t all die.
Well done! I laughed, I cried, two thumbs up.
I will say that genocide is tough because there are standing definitions under international law which could be used to argue that Ukrainian action in the Donbas doesn’t meet. Ethnic cleansing doesn’t have the same legal foundation but it is probably most accurate for the situation in eastern Ukraine pre-2022.
Also I’m not saying it wasn’t/isn’t genocide. I’m saying it’s not necessarily easy to prove and I take cues here from Putin who’s got a real fetish for the details and precedents in international law.
What if? We were never a Nation of law? There seems to be some concept that things have “changed”. You know how companies broke early strikes by workers? By hiring thugs and killing them. And no one ever went to jail. Treaties with natives. Signed and then used to wipe their ass with. Nothing has “changed”. The Civil War was about an authoritarian central government that had the power of life and death if you raised your head. And here we are. The mask if coming off. That is all. And as resources get scarcer? As our power wanes across the world? The Imperial American government is going to be turning the Eye of Sauron (Internet and Smart phones) inward. The hammer of the weaponized FBI, DOJ, and my favorite, Homeland Security will be turned on citizens. And as you look at our country? There will be no future civil war. The sheep have been trained by the public schools into a malleable mass. They will take their fucking and trudge thru their day anesthetized by porn and weed and other legal drugs. Hint on the end. The “Good” guys never win. It’s in the definition. Because there are things that good guys won’t do. You want to fight them? You want your kids seized and thrown in a black gladiatorial juvenile facility? Your wife arrested and thrown in an urban city jail to be raped? Your house raided by the FBI and kiddie porn planted on your computer with a handy thumb drive? Evil will do anything. It enjoys it.
Kudos, Larry!
In my limited little distribution I strive to come out swinging, and slug, slug, slug!
Highly gratifying to see some throat-punches thrown!
Non illigitimus carborundum–the baaastards are not going to grind us down.
Thanks!
For those who find a great interview by Nikolay Patrushev useful, also for us in the West and especially for American users of Larry’s excellent blog. And although very rare, not that it says anything very new or that I haven’t already written here several times about true global governance! Where even the President of the US is nothing more than a waiter in the financial markets, the big corporations and the big fortunes that really rule the world like the big monarchies in feudalism! How else could a man so manifestly ill be President of the US?
And what I find most interesting about these high dignitaries that we are only getting to know better now – in the West – from countries that are also great powers like Russia, China, India, Brazil and less South Africa for now and I don’t know have you noticed of the BRICS, is that they never appear against anyone but always in favor of the interests of their countries and their populations. An integrity like we haven’t seen in the West for over 40 years!! Because at the end of the day, the villains to whom these new protagonists are no longer subservient are all of us who live in Western countries. If globalism were not a new form of colonialism. The neoliberal colonialism of the great fortunes!
And just add that as an economist I can guarantee that no population has ever benefited from an economic war like the conflict in Ukraine. That only benefits once again the great fortunes that will still distribute the profits in some tax haven, as Patrushev also mentions. Thus removing colossal mountains of money from our economies and from all of us! It also mentions how Ursula Van der Leyen as President of the EC paid several times for the covid vaccines, with her husband’s company involved, which in a true state of law had already led her to prison a long time ago! But anyway. For my part, despite having been waiting for some years for some Revolution or even this still very embryonic NWO, as a protest from the citizens, I was also very far from guessing that it would be born outside the West!
https://aif.ru/politics/world/rossiyu_hotyat_prevratit_v_moskoviyu_nikolay_patrushev_o_zapade_i_ukraine
P.S. Who has google chrome to translate just 2 clicks on the right side of the mouse.
And a great military analysis of the conflict in Ukraine thus far. From perhaps the best military analyst in Russia. The man who also predicted the SMO.
https://tsargrad.tv/special_projects/pora-konstantin-sivkov-o-reshajushhem-udare-rossii-v-hode-svo_691739?utm_source=smi2#teaserType=middleNews&teaserId=12804459&columnType=middleNews&screenKey=primaryColumnScreen
Acerbic wit greatly appreciated, Larry. You’ve really nailed the blatant hypocrisy of this government!
But don’t forget the all-encompassing Rule#5:
Do as we say, not as we do.
i just listened to this and mitchell henderson did a pretty good expose on what is going on and what is at stake. He also did a pretty good expose of wild bill donavan; the founder of the oss which led to the cia. He says that if russia falls then so will we also.
Putins words are at the 34 minute mark.
(MY WORDS ) (They would rather let the birds fly and be mutually destroyed with us than give up as life under a regime like they had from 1918 to 1989 is not allowable again ;no matter what. )
the 45 minute podcast is in the link below
https://republicbroadcasting.org/news/putins-final-warning/
regards,
ralph
found a link to this that can be downloaded. putins speech was january 7th.
Jeff Rense: Mitch Henderson – Military And Geopolitics The US Sinks Deeper Into The War With Russia
https://www.bitchute.com/video/fN9CcCZLxixl/
right click and save
https://www.bitchute.com/embed/fN9CcCZLxixl/
regards,
ralph
if you watched the putins final warning vid just imagine putin as charlton hestons character if russia is losing.
Beneath the Planet of the Apes 1970 Ending
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKencPOg7UI
this is a pretty good expose from mitchell henderson about the war. from what i understand putin said this after mccarthy became speaker of the house and he know thinks the usa democracy is over. this was never put in the msm. putin is getting tired of all of this and our own leaders leading the world to mass suicide.
the 45 minute podcast is embedded in the link below.
the analysis of what putin says starts at the 34 minute mark.
https://republicbroadcasting.org/news/putins-final-warning/
regards,
ralph
sorry – the last comment is a duplicate. did not think my comment made it through
regards,
ralph