I am following up on my previous posts about the failure of the U.S. intelligence community, the CIA in particular, in providing an accurate, objective assessment of the war in Ukraine and what is happening in Russia. I no longer hold clearances and have not had access to the classified intelligence assessments. However, I have heard that the finished intelligence being supplied to U.S. policymakers continues to declare that that Russia is on the ropes and their economy is crumbling. Also, analysts insist that the Ukrainians are beating the Russians.
“Fool’s gold” is a common nickname for pyrite. Pyrite received that nickname because it is worth virtually nothing, but has an appearance that “fools” people into believing that it is gold. With a little practice, there are many easy tests that anyone can use to quickly tell the difference between pyrite and gold.
Let us consider some relevant open source reporting. According to the IMF:
The Russian economy is predicted to grow 0.3% in 2023 despite setbacks from unprecedented Western sanctions over the Ukraine invasion, according to data released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday.
Russia’s projected economic growth stands in sharp contrast with the 2.3% contraction forecast by the IMF in October and marks an improvement from the 2.2% decline recorded by the sanctions-hit economy in 2022.
If the 2023 projection is realized, it would put Russia ahead of Germany and the U.K., whose economies are projected to grow by 0.1% and shrink by 0.6%, respectively.
The IMF is not beholden to Russia. It remains part of the U.S. controlled international economic order. Yet, it has concluded that the Russia economy will grow rather than shrink. Certainly does not conform to the dire prediction of U.S. intel analysts about a crumbling Russian economy languishing because of international sanctions. Why are the analysts ignoring this data point?
It is true that exiled Russians who oppose Putin continue to insist that the sanctions will work, we just have to give it more time before Russians scream. Vladimir Milov, a former Russian deputy energy minister and author of a Martens Centre report on sanctions insists that:
it may be more instructive to track a dozen or so “soft indicators” such as alcohol sales, divorce rates, shoplifting, spending on food, opinion polls, bank customer sentiment or tax revenues.
“Don’t look at the watch every five minutes to see if sanctions are working. Exercise strategic patience,” said Milov, who is also an ally of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny
Well, here is one of those “impoverished” Russian citizens doing a magnificent job of trolling:
The truth is simple — Russia stands atop the world in being the major supplier of critical agricultural, energy and mineral resources that the West and countries in the so-called third world need. The only way the West could seriously damage the Russian economy would require it to destroy itself economically. Looks like Germany is discovering this fact with each passing month.
Then there is the tired meme of Russia being handed its ass in Ukraine. Although both Ukrainian and British officials insist that Russia is running out of weapons and ammunition, the war in Ukraine has revealed that the U.S. and Europe, not Russia, no longer have the ability to produce artillery shells, rockets and missiles on a scale that permits them to supply Ukraine while maintaining robust stocks at home:
“If you have the equipment and you don’t have the ammunition, then it’s no use,” the Estonian leader told reporters on Friday.
And while Ukraine is in dire need of vast amounts of ammo to keep fighting, Western countries’ own stocks are running low.
“It’s a very real concern,” said Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. Army Europe. “None of us, including the United States, is producing enough ammunition right now,” he said in a phone interview on Sunday.
I will reiterate a point I have made in previous articles — Russia is not dependent on Western resources to produce its weapons and Russia has a robust, intact defense industry that is working 24-7 to produce ammunition, shells, rockets, tanks, vehicles for its military forces.
Here is a data point, not specifically military in nature, that underscores the fact that Russia can chew gum and walk at the same time:
The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, which is supposed to return cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev, Dmitry Petelin and astronaut Frank Rubio to Earth instead of the damaged Soyuz MS-22, has docked with the Poisk small research module of the Russian segment of the ISS, our correspondent from the Center reports flight control.
Docking took place automatically. From the Earth, it was controlled by specialists from the Moscow Region Mission Control Center, from the ISS – by cosmonauts.
Even though Russia is at war with the United States and NATO, it is still capable of sending, on an emergency basis with little prior warning, an unmanned space craft to the International Space Station to rescue two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut. The United States still indulges the fantasy that it is the technological leader of the world but it does not have the ability to do what the Russians accomplished this week. Just saying.
There are two major factors that explain why the U.S. intelligence analysts are so out of touch with reality. First, the CIA no longer has the ability to recruit Russian assets that have genuine access to Russia’s decision makers in Putin’s government and in the military. What senior Russian military officer worth a damn would want to commit treason to serve a country like the United States, whose military is focused on providing gender affirming policies, embracing the lie that men can have babies and lowering recruiting standards to accept people who can barely read? Yeah, let’s give those CAT 4 non-qualified swimmers and shooters the keys to a Patriot battery or M1 Ambrams tank.
Instead of snagging spies with real access, U.S. intelligence officers are content to recruit Russian malcontents who live outside Russia in hopes they can dish dirt on Putin and his supposedly incompetent military. There was a time when the culture and system of justice in the United States provided an incentive for Russians under the Soviet system to take such a risk. But those days are over. The United States is locking up political opponents, quashing independent media and attacking conservative religious organizations in ways that bear an uncanny resemblance to the former Soviet Union. I believe the Russians are now in a stronger position to recruit spies from America’s military and intelligence community because of the crazy woke policies that are prevalent in the United States. We have created a counter intelligence nightmare for our Republic, or what is left of it.
Second, intel analysts are captives of the CIA operations side of the house. Analysts are now embedded in “Centers” that put them side-by-side with operations personnel. Because the CIA’s covert action teams are invested heavily in Ukraine (and their future promotions hinge upon a success in Ukraine) the senior CIA personnel running those Centers will not countenance some ANALyst (emphais on ANAL) offering up analysis, based on genuine intelligence, that exposes the King with No Clothes. Joe Biden and his corrupt National Security team do not want to hear anything about the rampant corruption of Volodymry Zelensky and his cronies or the prevalence of fanatical neo-nazies in Ukraine.
Simply put, the U.S. intelligence community is obsessed with Pyrite and is insisting that it is genuine gold. I think it is only a matter of time before this house of cards crashes to the ground and the search for a scapegoat will ensue to determine “who lost Ukraine.” You can be sure of one thing — no senior official responsible for this debacle will be held accountable. Some mid-level careerist will get the shaft or, perhaps, Donald Trump will be blamed. History teaches a critical lesson — a government built on a foundation of lies will not endure. The Soviets and the Russian people learned this the hard way in 1991. I believe a comparable day of reckoning is coming for the United States and Europe.
Why would they want to hear about it? Bidet is completely part of Ukranazistani corruption and it was his hire Nuland that put nazis in power, including the Hitler saluting Arseniy “Yats is the guy” Yatsenyuk.
About corruption:
https://www.rt.com/news/572106-ukraine-us-aid-packages-wastage/
And this blog from Georgia about the now ousted Zaporizhzhya Regional State Administration Oleksandr Starukh
https://gebulashvil.wordpress.com/2022/09/17/the-disappearance-of-humanitarian-aid-in-ukraine-is-a-problem-that-needs-special-attention/
Well i now know that the taxes here in Norway will increase to cover this
I posted this on MoA yesterday
The Ukranian newspaper ZN.ua reports that food provided to the armed forces are 150% more expensive than the food provided for the border guards
https://zn.ua/ukr/UKRAINE/vojujut-u-susidnikh-okopakh-zhurnalist-porivnjav-tsini-produktiv-zakuplenikh-minoboroni-i-derzhprikordonsluzhboju.html
Nice kick backs
My words exactly…you beat me to the press first. The level of corruption is mirrored by the level of willful ignorance and arrogance for their support of Ukraine. I must confess that I am on the fence as to if that ignorance and willful belief that Ukraine will succeed is honestly believed or simply driven by the need to hide the U.S. and European corruption in Ukraine, thereby protecting and hiding their personal involvement in the corruption.
General Lloyd Austin is a stellar example of that willful ignorance and arrogance, though I have no idea if he has past involvement with corruption in Ukraine. Listening to him speak on behalf of the U.S. government shows he at least is willing to follow corrupt leaders. How he can reconcile himself to his subconscious is beyond me. Does he not understand that one day, the world will judge his words and will know him for those words. History will not paint Austin and others well at all.
Well said Mr Brooks!
Colin Powell got away with shaking talcum powder in the Sun. He talked shit and used disproportionate force against defenceless populations, yet Americans and Republicans loved him.
So why the hell should Austin care. No one will point anything at him, accountability died in the US long ago.
That last pic of the Zelensky douche says it all. Just for the record though, the actual float was from 2003 and was of Merkel waving two US flags.
And here I thought Zelensky had made the NATO-mandatory transition.
We, the democratic and free nations of the world, have once again joined forces to combat Russian aggression by announcing work today on an 11th sanction package.
“All peoples found on Ukrainian territory, except for foreign officials of friendly nations who have not had sufficient preparation, will be sanctioned for having spoken, whispered or written in Russian in the past 20 years, either at work, in public spaces or at home, by virtue of their having been charged with high treason by the Ukrainian government. All pensions, unpaid, pending or current, personal savings and commercial accounts at home or abroad of such individuals will be confiscated forthwith.”
So say we all.
PS: Slava Ukraini
I’ve never seen Yats do a nazi salute (maybe I missed it) but I have seen Tyahnybok, co-founder of Svoboda (FKA Social Nationalist Party) do it at a party beer hall rally, along with probably half the AFU, at one time or another.
Ukraine is ideologically sick. We are sick for pretending it’s not.
It takes a man to recognize that he’s wrong.
You look at what you have done, and if the whole thing stinks, crumble, and is expensive you have to start over, with another idea.
However, in the US men get pregnant, and have no time for mundane things like building a proper bridge, a straight railway, sending stuff in the earth orbit, or getting intelligence from your declared enemies.
Watch this great short scene from “A Bridge Too Far.” A massive airborne/parachute operations is ready to launch. An Intel officer shows a General bad news, photos that show German tanks are nearby. He says the plan has already been approved so must go ahead.
https://youtu.be/Ee_oDopd75Y?t=19
Ukraine has revealed much about the epic failure of the West’s intelligence services.
We have yet to hear an explanation as to how these intel geniuses seem to have completely missed President Putin’s massive redevelopment of Russian military industry, not to mention the Russian development of major hypersonic weapons, new subs (eg Belgorod) carrying groundbreaking underwater weapons (eg Poseidon).
The impression one gets is that western intelligence services have been asleep at the wheel, and are highly incompetent. They’re only thing that they seem good at is spying illegally on their own citizens, which isn’t clever – it’s cowardly.
So how did this monumental failure happen? Western intelligence used to be extremely effective. Intel people weren’t just smart, they were brave and the majority were honourable, too.
Not now. Something has gone horribly wrong, placing western nations at risk.
What happened? Who will be held accountable? How will it be fixed? No one is answering these questions, so we shouldn’t be surprised that Moscow and Beijing are running rings around us.
Sanctions and propaganda are the weapons they really rely on. I think they knew that in a real war they would stand no chance.
The alphabet soup agencies need to be dismantled and rehired if/per case basis.
Actually they all need to go. .gov was only supposed to do enumerated powers listed in Article 2 second 8 because wise founders knew big gov corrupts. Funny thing is they don’t even do most of those anymore but took on everything else they are not supposed to do.
“What happened?”
“Who will be held accountable?”
You are likely unaware that you have answered your own questions, although your “framing and subsequent interpretation” of your “answer” obfuscates that you have done so.
“Western intelligence used to be extremely effective.”
Extremely effective in what regard ? – “continual war” from inception?
“
Dishonourable leaders are reluctant to recruit honourable men b/c they know that honourable men are reluctant to serve dishonourable leaders. Fish rots from the head. Then the rot spreads.
It is not fair to blame the intelligence. They are no better no worse than any other field you pick. Look at schools, factories (there are none?), anything else. We used to learn management techniques from the west, you know, plan a lot then execute quickly and efficiently. Now, we are in situation to try, with a little success, to teach them the same things. Does not work. But they give good presentations.
But it is fair to blame the “intelligence” community for deceiving the American public & politicians, just like it is fair to blame the “education” community (aka schools, colleges, and universities) for pushing a bunch of bs.
Do you mean the US is in a cauldron?
>So how did this monumental failure occur?
I will quote a piece from the book “The Truth About the Apollo Program” author Golovanov
… After the launch of the first satellite on October 4, 1957, the serious American magazine Fortune wrote: “We did not expect a Soviet satellite, and therefore it impressed Eisenhower’s America as a new technical Pearl Harbor.”
I want to exclaim: well, why didn’t you wait ?! Didn’t you know about the work on the study of cosmic rays with the help of rockets, which began as early as 1947, about the launches of Soviet scientific meteorological rockets starting in 1951, about the flights of animals on rockets in the 50s? Didn’t you read in the spring of 1955 about the creation of an Interdepartmental Commission for the coordination and management of scientific and theoretical developments in the field of organizing and implementing interplanetary communications? This commission was formed not at the Palace of Pioneers, but at the Astro-Soviet of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a very serious organization.
And in the same 1955, in the summer, in Copenhagen, at the International Astronautical Conference, didn’t Academician L.I. Sedov speak about the launch of a Soviet satellite during the IGY, not even a satellite, but several satellites? He directly warned that the Soviet flight program would be deeper than the American one. The IGY is coming, and the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.N. Nesmeyanov says that theoretically the problem of launching a satellite into orbit has been solved, and the Astronomical Journal announces the approximate frequencies at which the satellite will send its signals. What more evidence of Soviet readiness is required?
And yet, in July 1957, The New York Times published an article stating: “According to data that are considered authoritative here, the Soviet Union is significantly behind in the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile … In addition, the opinion has strengthened that in their work to create such a rocket, the Russians are at an early stage of testing engines … and at the very early stage of designing the rocket itself.
Well, well, well, they made a mistake, “authoritative” data turned out to be non-authoritative, it happens. But after all, exactly forty-three days after this publication, TASS officially refutes it with its report on the creation of an intercontinental missile in the USSR. In September, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences S.P. Korolev delivers a report dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of K.E. Tsiolkovsky, and again says that Soviet scientists intend to launch a satellite in the near future. Is this not a direct warning? Finally, October – the satellite flies over the planet, and America is in deep shock.
Why? From ignorance? No. From not wanting to know. To believe in the Soviet satellite was beyond the power of the leaders of the United States.
The satellite forced them to recognize it only as the very fact of its existence.
And so it is with intelligence. These poor fellows could not get out of the framework of “Russia is a gas station country”
In other words, arrogance.
Send money…
Can’t we just send it to Panama for you? It’s so much closer and we’ll save on baggage fees.
One day I hope you change your user name to ‘cheering up a bit’.
One quibble, no one in their right mind believes men can have babies, not even those who would like to. Your other points are well said.
Personally, I don’t care who serves if they are capable. But, there’s no sense in “focusing on” or even publicizing policies that are controversial. It doesn’t help morale or anything else. If it does help the readiness, capabilities, etc., of the Armed Forces, then just do it and shut up.
Look it up on youtube. ‘men’ who are pregnant. True fact. Beard and all.
While seeking the 2020 DNC nomination Julian Castro promised free abortions for all transwomen. The problem is that over the last few years a large percentage of the population has become demented as they have been feed on a diet of increasingly ludicrous garbage. (Unless it was just a very low cost election pledge, I might have got it wrong?)
2020 DNC nomination Julian Castro promised free abortions for all transwomen
That would be an over-the-telephone abortion, I assume? Including full guarantee that the “baby” will not be born, naturally.
This American no longer cares about “morale” in the “armed forces” (why capitalize this?) of the USA. You can reduce that entity to dust, for what it matters to me. I want to live just for a few years inside a normal country instead of one drunk on JohnWaynesque poppycock and the only way to get there is to cut the Pentagon down to size.
You absolutely should care who serves your nation.
My great grandfather eliminated more Germans at Stalingrad with his trench shovel than a gun.
Gender confusion in your military will never again allow the United States to produce heroes like we have in our military descended from the Red Army
I honestly see nothing heroic about sitting in a cubicle outside Las Vegas and blowing a wedding party to smithereens by pressing a button while watching a video monitor.
Your great Grandfathers fears are impressive. One can think it was hyperbole until you mentioned Stalingrad!
I salute his heroism.
My paternal grandfather fought the Nazi in the Danish resistance. No official status or support but he did it anyway.
My mothers cousin ( British) captured 99 Germans in France, just him and a mate bluffing the entire time that they had a squad in the trees backing them up.
Another cousin was captured in Burma, tortured then escaped by killing three Japanese guards with a sliver of bamboo from his cage.
They don’t make many men like your great grandfather anymore, well in Russia I think they do. In the US, a few but not enough.
sorry not buying the obvious nonsense of weakened POW killing 3 armed guards by a sliver of bamboo.
heroic men existed all thru history by doing what is right at the time , do not tarnish these real heroes by inventing john wick crap
You are free to believe or not anything you like.
Sorry but I won’t lose sleep over it.
Frank McGregor laughs from beyond.
He had a Union Jack tattoo on his chest and two missing front teeth from where one of the soldiers knocked them out with a rifle button.
Sadly people like you with little real world experience have no idea how actual war works. I hope you never find out.
Reasoning like yours (John Zelnicker) it’s no wonder why we’re in the position we’re in today. In regard to our armed force’s morale…The beatings (i.e., the jab, wokness) will continue until morale improves. A lot of us “right minded’ service men are getting out.
The obtuse claims of the American Left is entirely to confuse, to obfuscate, to undermine reason.
That “men can have babies” is akin to “adult males can lay with children”. No limits, no morals.
An honest Historian would conclude that the USSR won the Cold War when the U.S. decided to mimic unlimited power at the American Kremlin, the people be damned. And American Oligarchs hold more power than any Russian Oligarch ever dreamed of.
If the Criminals in DC start WWIII, just think of the militias on the hunt for the scalps of these American Traitors. Somebody built their bunkers and Agencies better have an escape plan. Criminalizing the J6 protesters was an extremely dumb strategy.
Hearing the comments of (Spymaster) Jack Devine I don’t have much confidence the CIA was, even with flipped Soviet‘s that great in the Former Soviet Union. Spymaster? More like Spy’s Like Us
Right you are. The CIA was highly criticized at the time for failing to foresee to collapse of the Soviet Union.
Come to think of it, had the CIA and the US actually tried to engineer the collapse of the Soviet Union, it probably would still be around and stronger than ever.
Or Spy vs Spy ….
Don Martin for President!
If we can have dead voters, why not a sadly lamented cartoonist for President?
He would surely mess things up less than China Joe.
There is an alternative view, that maybe The West has been successful. They have cleared Ukraine of people. They own the land, Zelensky sold it to companies like Blackrock but it was inhabited by pesky Ukrainians. Now most have left and been killed. The only thing they did not foresee was Russia claiming the land. Russia has to claim as much land to secure their borders from missile attack, there is no alternative. The sad thing is this did not need to happen.
Seems the US is now outsourcing intelligence as well. Started with manufacturing, then to proxy war. When will there be outsourcing of the executive and legislative branches of government?
As soon as they agree whome to sale off.
Trump prefers (according to Clinton’s) to sale off to Russia while Clintons prefer (according to Trump) to sale off to China and Saudi.
Just wait them goyim to come to agreement.
Any way you cut it, as far as the citizens are concerned the US comes out as a ……sell out.
“When will there be outsourcing of the executive and legislative branches of government?”
Already done.
Started at least a generation ago as Middle America, the productive Heartland, was sold out and offshored, while the facade of an American economy was faked with counterfeiting the U.S. dollar
Better to have outsourced to China and Timbuktu. The Brits of the infamous Iraq dossier are full of shit and dreams of James Bond. They play a game beyond their capabilities.
Those last few sentences are precisely what has been rattling around in my head. We have yet to learn the lessons the Russians have already learned. We are even using the same toxic Marxist nonsense to fuel our race to the bottom.
Me too, JoeBob. Those thoughts have lurked in my brain since I was red pilled over 15 years ago. These last couple years it has reached a crescendo.
If my situation were different and I felt like I could leave the country and relocate somewhere else I would very much consider it, but for family reasons it’s not feasible, at least for now.
So I focus on what I can control…living as far below my means as I can stand right now, looking for property where I can homestead and engage in some food production, and diversifying out of the dollar to an extent that is reasonable for now.
Just think of all the things we could be doing instead with our lives if the government wasn’t inflating the money supply every year, stealing our purchasing power, thus forcing us to continually cut costs, buy less, do less, buy lower quality, take 2nd or 3rd jobs, send our women into the workforce, etc. That whole story about how women began to be liberated in the 60s and 70s, to include entering the workforce, was a myth. It was forced by the very destruction of the dollar we are witnessing today. It is the same propaganda that today celebrates that we are drafting women and trans people into the military. Look how inclusive we are! We even send our women and LGBTs into the meat grinder to catch a bullet for TPTB. What a country!
A bit of fun doesn’t hurt anyone
// “What we see is our next generation military technology,” continued the intelligence analyst.
“We all see what the Ukrainians did to Russia’s military using battlefield technology that we would generally consider obsolete relative to our state of the art,” he said. “But America’s actual state of the art is one or two generations ahead of what the public sees today,” he said, which was simultaneously comforting and terrifying.
“It is not in our interest to show our adversaries how far advanced our capabilities have grown.” //
( https://t.me/fred33flint/320 )
Utter balderdash!
Whistling past the graveyard.
Anyone here familiar with the book or the film “Our man in Havana”, by Graham Green?
Life imitates Art yet again.
Used to love this book – I read it in the USSR.
Yes, but this things are actually more like
“The Tailor of Panama”
…a great 1996 novel by British writer John le Carré…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tailor_of_Panama
At least when Pappy Bush was in the oval..there was some sort of peace with the 4th pillar of government.
The CIA… is just another bank.
“Has Russia Already Won the war”
https://www.algora.com/Algora_blog/2022/05/21/has-russia-already-won-is-it-game-over-for-the-rothschild-rockefeller-empire
Thanks for the link to the great article.
Great article! thanks for that link! We can only hope the question is answered with a yes…
What an excellent article, Mark, thank you for pointing it out!
“… a government built on a foundation of lies will not endure. The Soviets and the Russian people learned this the hard way in 1991. I believe a comparable day of reckoning is coming for the United States and Europe.”
I worry, that this really is what it has to come to.
But better a terrifying end than no ending terror.
After what they have done to Skripal cats, no-one in Russia, not even the dumbest of the dumb, will work for Western Intelligence.
I would say they blew the roof off the whole Skripal affair by removing the Skripal’s roof.
Probably couldn’t find the secret tapes without a thorough dismantling.
“… the analysts are ignoring valid open source reporting … ”
Yup. It really is quite simple, if you want to know what’s going in a country, Go to the Vloggers. Because I’ve long followed more than half a dozen Russian vloggers, it was clear NO LONGER than three weeks into this “contest,” the only major impact the sanctions were going to have on the Russian people would be a psychological one.
It’s a f+cking joke, it truly is, how how many “grueling” hours you must avoid putting in to remain ignorant.
In other words, in the Information Era in which we live, you gotta work your ass to maintain a state of being the President of the Russian Federation describes as; “deaf, dumb, and dyslexic.”
USA allegedly wasted in a year in Ukraine more than they did over the whole Afghanistan invasion.
https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/
But just look at what all those new suitcase orders did to Louis Vuitton’s bottom line.
UkrArmy for retreat from Bakhmut issued 50 litres of diesel fuel for 10 machines.
https://t.me/chub_detection/8004
That might get them to within walking distance of Chasov Yar, that’s where they need to go anyway.
In other words, the Chas(ov)i ticks for thee.
Hi Larry,
You are one of a number of insiders who have gone “off reservation.” Together with Douglas Macgregor, Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern, Brian Berletic, ‘VIPS’ and others, you provide invaluable insights not only into the current situation but, importantly, how we get to be told what we get to be told. I realise you and your colleagues may no longer have access to restricted information. That’s not what’s really important: the very fact there are qualified, experienced voices challenging the standard narrative is (or should be) enough to create a real discussion. Instead, we get the mushroom treatment. Instead of nourishment, we are fed pap. Instead of discourse, we get entertainment (eg Zelensky at the Grammys/Golden Globes or whatever). I live in one of the USA’s imperial possessions. It’s exactly the same here: a stream of retired military ‘experts’ (who were never anywhere near bullets flying) write opinion pieces whose only purpose, IMHO, is propaganda.
Interestingly, you compare current USA with the former Soviet Union. I am reminded of an anecdote from the time of Watergate (showing my age) – when asked to comment on the whole Watergate faeces-show, a senior Soviet official remarked it just confirmed the Soviet view that you can’t have effective government and a free press at the same time.
We live in interesting times. Keep up the good work. Kind regards.
You hear that Mr. Collective West?… That is the sound of inevitability… It is the sound of your death… Goodbye, Mr. CW…
Is it worth the waiting for?
If we live for eighty four
All we ever get is gruel!
Every day we say our prayer —
Will they change the bill of fare?
Still we get the same old gruel!
There’s not a crust, not a crumb can we find,
Can we beg, can we borrow, or cadge,
But there’s nothing to stop us from getting a thrill
When we all close our eyes and imagine
Food, glorious food!
Hot sausage and mustard!
While we’re in the mood —
Cold jelly and custard! (soloist 1)
Peas pudding and saveloys
What next is the question? (soloist 2)
Rich gentlemen have it, boys —
in digestion!
Food Glorious food
We’re anxious to try it
Three banquets a day
Our favorite diet
Just picture a great big steak
Fried, roasted, or stewed
Oh food! magical food! wonderful
food! marvelous food!
What wouldn’t we give for
That extra bit more
That’s all we live for
Why should we be fated to do
Nothing but brood on food
Magical food,
Wonderful food
marvelous food,
Beautiful food,
Food, Glorious food glorious fooooooood
It’s quite simple: We have outsourced the heroes. We, the West, lives in a Hollywood world, where the good is fighting the bad, and the fight may be fierce, but we will win.
The Ukraine war therefore is presented like a Hollywood film.
Most people are not able to think otherwise, so the media must make the reality fit into this mould. Good against Bad. And the goods are the heros. And we, the western mass, are sitting in our chairs and watching the story.
I doubt whether the US population can understand that this time, it will hit them, not on their TV sets and smartphones, but it will kill their towns, their supermarkets, and their smartphones will be without connection and show a blank screen.
Pyrite is often associated with Gold so often where there is Pyrite there is gold within Pyrite just saying but I get your illustration.
Proof reading is an awesome idea, you should try it sometime.
“The United States is locking up political opponents, quashing independent media and attacking conservative religious organizations in ways that bear an uncanny resemblance to the former Soviet Union. ”
In other words: the Evil Empire has moved to the other side of the Atlantic.
I e. Behaving just like Ukraine. So naughty.
Who’s the tail, who’s the dog and who’s on first?
Ahhh forgive me for interjecting my belief here Larry.
Going to have to have a rare disagreement with one minor point in your assessment.
I do not believe for one second that the day of reckoning will be comparable.
Nope. I believe the opposite.
I believe the U.S.A. will be destroyed quickly with hyper sonic and regular ICBMs. Probably with High Altitude emp’s, or some other system taking out her satellite advantage first.
She will be destroyed with fire. There will be no redemption arc.
And I believe the kings and merchants of the earth will all wail who traded with her and got rich from her cup, overflowing with abominations. Knowing they have lost all, including their souls.
Of course it is only one minor point in an excellent article, yet I’m going to have to stick with John on this one.
Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
If you still have any pull with analysts, tell them the next chapter is the one with the details, and they should probably read it.
“her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire:”
How can you have mourning if there are no survivors?
So if there are survivors who mourn in country, (and in the context of the sentence and chapter, the mourners will be in country) then “Come out of her” probably includes just stopping supporting her with your work and money for those who are too poor to move across town much less out of the country, for I have found in my walk that God the Father of Jesus Christ is generous beyond measure.
Unfortunately it also means great sorrow for those who remain who were true to God and did not support the wickedness currently ongoing.
And that’s just one chapter from one book. there are others from others.
JB. Sadly many of the fleeing kleptocrats and their enablers will escape the consequences of their actions, I can’t say that about the rest of us.
It just just gets worse from there according to various texts touching on such things. So that escape, for those who are forewarned, will be very temporary and the end result worse than being on the receiving end of Nukes.
mr. johnson- this reminded me of the 70`s little house on the prairie show fool`s gold episode i watched growing up.
At the End of the Rainbow
Laura swears her friend Jonah to secrecy after the two uncover a shiny golden ore lying in the bed of their favorite fishing hole and both begin planning what they will do with the great wealth they are sure to have once they’ve mined their treasure and taken it to the bank.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0632972/
i found it on dailymotion. for anyone wanting a break from the madness with some good comic relief and a good message; here yu go.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8hth11
regards,
ralph«
America is its government. There are numerous studies out now showing 5 cent paper masks are worthless at disease prevention. And in Oklahoma I see idiots wearing them.
The public school system is actively destroying our children. A very tiny amount of research will show this. And “loving” parents wheel their kids in the slaughterhouse door.
You spend less than you make. So you can save. And 70% of the country buys Starbucks $10 coffee on a credit card.
The intelligence community is not a outlier. We have met the enemy. And he is us.
The best what could happen to Ukraine is, that Russia takes the whole country, thereafter keeps the Donbass and installs a new Ukraine government thet has nothih to do with all the contracts that Zelinsky signed with Blackrock and other US organisations.
If not, the Ukrainian slaves will work the next centuries for free to get rid of their dept.
That video of the Globus supermarket should be shoved on front of every Washington War Monger. Especially powerful is the gloating tone of the Blond. She’s worldly and well educated, yet doesn’t give a hoot about shopping in Paris or Fifth Avenue.
I am reminded of the old comment; “I know I am right because all my friends agree with me”!
What people have to understand that in Soviet Union, vast majority of traitors were Ukranians, Estonians and similar, and as those people are no longer part of the country, RU 5th column is considerably weaker then at those times.
That is in my opinion one of the key reasons why Soviet Union was dissolved, since their planners have realized that while they have those people in the state, there is just too much sabotage on every step and you cannot lead country like that.
Very rightly pointed out.
By the way, the annexation of new regions of the former Ukraine to Russia, the advance of the Russian army deep into the country, as well as fugitive Ukrainian politicians of all stripes and simply Ukrainians who dream of a Greater New Ukraine at the expense of Russia – from loud military bloggers to Medvedchuk and Tsarev – cause fears of this kind, no matter how the Ukrainians seized the political and informational field in Russia. True, already at this stage they meet the resistance of the Russians, they are not believed, their statements are indignant.
Martyanov correctly said that he does not read telegram channels and military bloggers, because the vast majority of them are informational garbage. Meanwhile, the local community of commentators, apparently, do not find other sources of information and continue to consume information chewing gum from the “sensations” of Telegram channels.
https://rutube.ru/video/c3dd498d3ae320bafba7c6f2bbc750ba/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=system_email&utm_campaing=tr_video-opublikovano&utm_content=videotext
I hate to see how war bloggers mislead many people
“What people have to understand that in Soviet Union, vast majority of traitors were Ukranians, Estonians and similar, and as those people are no longer part of the country, RU 5th column is considerably weaker then at those times.”
Not traitors as a function of their ineptitudes, but ethnic nationalists and nomenklaturas with new clothes.
That was understood by some in 1969 and was one of the reasons some “lubricated” the independence of the “near abroad” including brokering aspects of “lustration/divorce settlement” at relevant junctures – conjunctures being used with a “developed” sense of humour, whilst understanding that this would be a temporary gambit of limited half-lives of indeterminate lengths in contemporary contexts.
The “oligarchs” had potential of useful foolery and gobbling all of the sausages in one sitting was understood to cause at least indigestion – in the case of the STASI coronary thrombosis – so notions of “5th columnry” were not unproductively disturbed, and the myth that “The United States of America” won the Cold War not challenged, sometimes through taking coffee and cognac with potential challengers informed in matters of logistics.
You can separate the Soviet diaspora into two groups: those that continued to visit Russia after they emigrated, and those that didn’t. The latter get their news from Meduza, are hard-core anti-Putin, and actively engage in double-think to support their world-view. The former see the western narrative for what it is.
“You can separate the Soviet diaspora into two groups”
Yes if you want to engage in self-delusion facilitated by binary aggregates thereby emulating one of the reasons that “When it Comes to Ukraine and Russia, or aggregates or comparatives, the United States “Intel” Community is confusing pyrite or any other fiat such as curved balls with genuine gold or nutritional inputs.
Thank you for illustrating an observation of Mr. Martyanov that “war” is not restricted to things that go bang since it includes mathematics.
The quality of AI bots is impressive. Sausages to that.
“What people have to understand that in Soviet Union, vast majority of traitors were Ukranians, Estonians and similar…”
That is also true of the USSR leadership from beginning to end of the USSR. It is rather difficult to name five or maybe even three Russki who were among the top leadership of the Party.
Oh that made me laugh, the little green turd popping out.
In this age I think it’s always important to question everything and trust nothing for which you don’t have any additional support. (I’m not an analyst so I don’t use that terminology.)
There are trustworthy people like our good host here or Ray ,Scott, the Colonel, Gonzalo and the Alex’s, all the gang who most of the readers here will know. Why trust them rather than the likes of little green Luke Harding at The Guardian? It’s because open sources, which is all I have access to, corroborate what I read here. By reading across a broad spectrum of news source you can see who is playing the, don’t look here, look over there game. It is far more telling to see who is not reporting what, rather than what they are covering. Seymore Hersh’s new milestone being the current most obvious example.
Personally I find this reassuring because I can see they’re mad and not me. Otherwise it’s a total disaster because we’re all going down the Primrose Path whether we like it or not. Ukraine today, us tomorrow.
P.S Were the fiery but mostly peaceful protests an internal color revolution to get Trump out so they could get back to war? It does seem kind of obvious?
Speaking of Hersch, he gave another interview, this time at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0z3OdSWA50&t=124s
Charles Ortel and Jason Goodman interviewed him on the subjects of Nordstream and Ukraine. Excellent.
Hersh has an interesting habit of dropping the last few obvious words to a sentence before going on to the next sentence, as if he’s allowing you to mentally finish it for him. It’s sort of a rapid fire delivery approach and interesting because the best way to convince someone of something is to prime them but allow them to draw the conclusion themselves. I couldn’t even guess if he’s consciously, even subconsciously, doing it or it just comes out that way.
Or maybe I’m just off in la la land.
Hersh has gravitas, that’s a given but listening to that interview, there’s an amazing amount of stuff about lots of subjects that he should know but has a very rudimentary grasp of.
For example, listening to him talking about anything related to energy is just amusing but where I really clicked out was when he refers to the war ‘starting’ in 2022 and being on Putin’s conscience. Maybe so, but there’s plenty of conscience to go around for sure.
Does Hersh really know nothing about the period 2013-2022 or the Ukrainian buildup and heightened shelling at the contact line in Early Feb. or how Ukraine was calling on Washington for an Operation Storm 2.0 for years – and looking like it finally got it (almost), just like NATO (almost) got Crimea in 2014?
Hersh really sounds like he’s in the dark on far too much on the cause and effect front. Time he did more homework than fireside chats with insiders.
Ridicule is such a powerful weapon.
That picture tells a thousand words.
Woe unto the people, when they shall call that which is “good” evil… and that which is bitter sweet..’. the Bible.
I am actually enjoyintje , looking at how the so-called leaders of the West 7roclaiming VICTORY over Russia, touting the progress NAZI Ukies are performing on the ground, never mind the Russisl
One day we will wake (vdup to the realities that are taking place and perhaps begin to EK]change ourse
One other thing.
I rate the probability of having people in our government and military absolutely handing the keys to this wicked kingdom to those opposed to such iniquity to be extremely high. So I seriously doubt that at this point anyone can stop whats coming.
Without a Nineveh level national change that is.
It would not surprise me at all to find out later that our deserved destruction came about by a select few of our own who were extremely pissed about all of the murder and perversion.
But even more so probable from some disenfranchised emotional tranny that did something so wrong in it’s Gov or Mil position that their bosses could not cover it up and had to let them go with prejudice.
The probability that this would not happen is extremely low in my opinion.
Ouch. what a mess it seems the U.S. armed forces are in.
Loss of confidence? really? ya think? Golly Gee, wonder what led to this outcome? /s off
https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2023/02/27/six-leaders-fired-from-air-force-nuclear-base-in-north-dakota/
Years ago, Ian Smith of Rhodesia was asked by a reporter on TV about the sanctions ‘biting’ on his country.
PM Smith said –
you are staying in the xxx hotel right? Yes, PM.
Have you asked for anything that the hotel could not provide? Err, no.
That’s how santions are affercting us.
A country masquerading as a gas station.
Laughing gas.
…as opposed to a band of brigands masquerading as a democracy?
1) Ukraine
2) USA
3) All the above
… a country like the United States, whose military is focused on providing gender affirming policies, embracing the lie that men can have babies …
This reminded me about the new use of pronouns by people who do not accept their biological sex: He, She, and They.
I never understood They (plural) because the English language has It (singular). Am I missing something?
“Am I missing something?”
Yes conformance facilitated by doubt, as is increasingly the case throughout much of the world, but not predicated on biological sex despite the obfuscatory attempts of some.
All the world is a stage but successful performances differ, whilst some comedies remain pantomimes.
Royalties used to refer to themselves in plural because it made them feel even more important. All of the pronoun nonsense is just manifestation of narcissism (presented as care for others, in the same way war is presented as peace effort).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism
“I never understood They (plural) because the English language has It (singular). Am I missing something?”
They is often used in the singular for Humans where the sex is not yet known – at least here in UK.
Try this: “Oh that is a cute baby, what’s its name?”
Guaranteed you’ll get shouted at – it is not an IT, he/she is a baby.
“What’s their name” works fine.
I found this: APA endorses the use of “they” as a singular third-person pronoun in the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2020). However, some LGBT associations argue, without any evidence, that they has been used as singular for centuries. Probably they as singular is as grammatically correct as “ain’t” in place of “has not; have not”.
You’re not supposed to reason why. Yours is but to do or die.
I never understood They (plural) because the English language has It (singular)
They is plural (Loro in Italian). The subject has made it into singular, so they don’t have to identify as he or she, but then no one knows what the hell they’re talking about without inspecting the context and then who the hell wants to inspect anything there? Creepy critters.
Why not just invent a new word ‘heshesh’, smoke some hashish and be done with it? It won’t be as confusing and that we fiddled and flawed over the great pronoun debate while WWIII came knocking on our door won’t seem so bitter in the end.
Perhaps they are providing accurate assessments to the President and powers that be. Perhaps the powers that be are just misleading us so that the war funding will continue.
There are too many Americans military and CIA on the ground in Ukraine for the Pentagon not to know whats happening.
There are a few factors imo:
1. Russia is not fighting like the West would and this is causing genuine confusion and false confidence. But the West has not been a pushover in this war either.
2. Russia is outnumbered troop wise by the West and the war is educational and financially lucrative.
3. Biden remains uneasy with this war and not keen to escalate. The decisions on sanctions were taken without consulting the fed or UN and the decision on military supplies are stepwise up as a consequence of their belief Russia won’t directly attack them.
4. Believing Russia won’t directly attack means they can fight a proxy war safely irrespective of whether Ukraine wins or loses each Russian they kill is a win.
So what does a briefing matter? They don’t give a shit their proxies are dying. This is a great training and earning thatre and they get to reshape the world at the same time. The only hitch is china Russia India buying into an alternative financial system. But the West has managed these countries well and believes it has them or if it doesn’t it can pretend to play nice and then go again.
I believe and I say this with complete conviction, upon essential critical principles, common sense, what is going on with Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do with me my family my town my state my way of life and in no uncertain terms my Constitutional Republic, even in the face of the rank corrupt violation of every principle of non intervention in other nations business.
What in the Lords name are we, not me or anyone I know of, but these lunatics running what is a corrupt insanely out of all controls but their patently obvious ulterior motives and special interests, which are clouded in mystery and sinister objectives, which also not only have nothing to do with this Republic’s structure and rules ideas and colors of laws, but every moral convention and good intent this Republic was built upon and is there for to act as checks and balances against this exact situation, the folks who founded this Republic even warned us this not just could take place but was slmost guaranteed to happen, like a superanutatsted mission creep of basicaly a culture of true creeps and almost incomprehensible criminal and homicidal clowns, very bad clowns, clowns who are sociopaths, clowns who are delusional psychopaths, pushing a war thats killing tens if thousands, setting up a client regime in the most notorious corrupt country in Europe, which added all together spells organized crime on a level that me as a normal law respecting good folks of which I am in the humble great company of millions, that I sit here and watch this insanity this debacle this lunacy, and I keep asking the wuestion, just what the heck is going on here? Why are we this Republic depending more money on arming and supplying this notorious dictatorship in a little comedian and obviously fake little actor in an olive drab clown suit who in no universe imaginable is a legitimate president, and in no uncertain terms a false front for a global organized criminal gang that obviously is hidden deep as a coal mine among the secret elite, the money changers and magnets of the western hemisphere, a literal elitist underground, a collectivist group of megalomaniacs, who what ever else they are believe it is only themselves who can and are running this entire planet if nobody stood in their way. And they are so insanely paranoid and see everyone outside their clique as the enemy and unworthy if even breathing the air of this planet.
Whats so awful about all this is there is no checks or recourses no petition no way to change the direction these lunatics are taking the entire planet in.
Yeah, so there are a hundred million of us good folks in this Republic who are armed to the effn’ teeth, and it is unmistakable we are considered a natuonal threat, in bald terms we represent a threat to a criminal underground and its client regime in a place called DC, yeah I get that, no mistaking what it is about.
But the thing here is, there’s nothing left of our Republic in the way of redressing all this criminal organized colkectivist lunacy shirt of grabbing our rifles and begginning at tge lowest levels and shooting our way out if all this, because that is tge only recourse that has any viability because the corruption is corrosion thats creeped all the way down to the smallest or lowest employee or other governmental employed persons, because it is true because it is the way such corruption worjs, it is Mao’s dirty all hands philosophy of absolute power.
I am not saying anything, specifically I am not saying I want to or plan to or entertain the notion of armed revolt against these criminals running things, when it is my codified written in blood natural right? The fact you are able to fight back against tyranny is the core foundation of my republic and do not tell me different. I am saying they have done everything within their power to secure their power down to levels and phases of actual terror and reprisal, for now it is low intensity terror and reprisal, against who these criminals see as their enemies, and thats we the people, because, exactly because WE never signed on for any if what these criminals are doing, no one asked any of us anything, in truth if any of is speak up speak the truth we become instant enemies of this criminal centralist state, to top it all off these maniacs are trying to cram every sordid perversion and depravity known to the history of the human race up our arses in order to screw with us so we are too discombobulated to worry or be concerned with the real problen which us these lunatics running a criminal gang in a USofA skin-suit. In truth they are not much different than the Mexican drug cartels, in fact what the cartels have done to Mexico, core out a legitimate nation state and wear it as a skin-suit in order to continue their organized crime business, which thanks to the cartel in DC has branched out into the US, and this is what the criminal clowns running this country have done to my Republic, its a faux spandex thin body suit they wear while running an organized global criminal syndicate.
So whats next? They send leg breakers or sic a terror and reprisal operation cell on me for complaining?
So yeah, what else is there for it but to be an armed citizenry, armed because stinking criminals run things, they have control over every facet of the sphere of my government and what i believe in or think for that matters is worth nothing. But if I get out of line some how, there is this massive, almost incomprehensible surveillance watching us all, exactly for just such a thing as somebody questioning or speaking inconvienient truths and facts of the matter.
So what do they expect? Folks like me for example, to lay down the only, The Only means left to defend myself my woman my meat like a primitive man squatting in the dust and the mud guarding the barest necessities of life with my spear, from a criminal gang of usurpers actively involved in rapine and pillage of for know just about the entire northern hemisphere and its got its tenticles in the southern part of this planet. And I an supposed to not be armed against such an incredible threat to my person my property and my loved ones? My very way of life.
And here they are virtually committing gross genocide against good people along this Donbas Arc who in every way are not different from good folks in this country, facilitating and controlling this Ukrainian client regime they installed in 2014, a full decade ago and here they are using this coent regime as a weapon with the intent to do to Russia what they been doing to us here in the US, which is take it over in irder to strip mine it clean of all forms of wealth manmade or natural.
This is beyond insanity. Its past criminal. It is way into the realm of a cabal of ultimate mad men.
And it looks to be it is the lunatics running this criminal organized underground regime dressed in Uncle Sam suits is either part of, or the main chosen facilitator of the agenda of a global elitist criminal organization, because these bastards dont have a military, surely tgey have agent provocateurs out their ass’s, but its bank they would not be caught dead wasting their filthy lucre , not a penny of their hord on anything like an army if soldiers and their weapons, nope, they rigged shit six ways to Sunday so we meaning us good folks here and other countries pay for the privilege of our wealth going to pay for this terror and reprisal operation in Ukraine and frankly every place these maniacs sink their claws into where filthy lucre or some incomprehensible depravity like adreanal-chrome harvesting where children are chained up, literal farms they call them, and terrorized almost to their death so their blood saturated with fright or flight chemicals can be extracted, literally milked till these chikdren are spent and discarded, for the pleasure of these criminal elites.
Its levels of insanity a thousand times removed from the normative workd of us goid folks. Looks an awful lot like theres no limits to this insanity and thats just it, no limits is the everything, these are humans who run out of control of any semblance any hint of sanity or reason, running on four feet with blood dripping from their teeth.
They are running towards ripping the guts out of the world and only then they will be satiated. when nothings left to destroy or jeep for themselves. It is the operational thing. There can be no limits if they are to rule. And anything which poses a limit they attack it. With no limits.
I can’t add anything to that!
👏👏👏
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock called on Russian leader Vladimir Putin to change his policies 360 degrees, from which “the whole world would be happy”, noting that she believes in “people’s ability to change.”
Strange how it was that neither her interviewer nor her mainly sympathetic audience asked her to clarify her statement. Instead, with tears in their eyes and a drool hither and tither, they applauded her words as if spoken by Jesus himself. I must admit Berbock’s new and improved math helped to explain her thinking on any number of other issues.
Biden’s Unipolar Globalist West insists, under, what else, the threat of Sanctions = ie., food, energy, their mamma’s false teeth – that the remaining 80 percent of the world’s Soverign nations have to get off their neutral butts and condemn Russia, in every which way but loose – No Ticky, No Tacky, No Trade, no eating Commie Caviar, especially no reading Anna Karina, Dostoyevsky or watching the Ruskie version of Micky Mou’sky or The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming – not even a Howdy Doody is to be given to this Putin gas station masquerading as a country. Biden’s neo-Con Elitist Elite have laid down the ‘LAW’ to the Great Unwashed Masses of the Global South, and a few other terrorist troublemakers. They have been told in no uncertain terms, clearer than mud in your eye, ‘you are either with us or against us.’
My advice to my Multi-Polar friends in the Global South would be for them to follow Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock’s Words of Wisdom offered up to Putin himself, “Change your thinking 360 degrees!”. To be fair, balanced and impartial, her neo-Con Globalist friends are willing to meet you half way by modifying their thinking 180 degrees. What is fairer than that I ask you?
My Two Cents,
I, the Annalena I would put it at 90 ° with satisfaction of many…
“Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock called on Russian leader Vladimir Putin to change his policies 360 degrees, ”
360 degrees gets you back to the same place dear. Deary me, what happened to German education.
I must admit Berbock’s new and improved math helped to explain her thinking on any number of other issues.
That’s the same gal that couldn’t add up the energy requirements for an industrial nation and balance them against what could be accomplished strictly with solar and wind.
What did anyone expect? You get what you vote for.
The USA is not what it was morally. This starts at the top and the population is focused on pop culture which includes sports. Obviously there are many good people who raise(or at least try to) their kids with time tested values. The schools are a mess, the woke crap is poison. i do not know where it leads us but it sure does not feel like
it will correct itself anytime soon at the top bottom or middle. I don’t think a military defeat necessarily versus Russia or China would change the trajectory for the better.
“It’s a very real concern,” said Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. Army Europe. “None of us, including the United States, is producing enough ammunition right now,” he said in a phone interview on Sunday.
That the MIC in US did not constructed huge missile manufacturing facilities in March 2022 (or before given how this was planned) is quite amazing.
That they are still not constructing them is quite a giveaway.
Nobody expects Ukraine to last this long, they were always expected to fail.
Sure it is also a comment on just how the US is not the economic power it claims to be. But mostly it tells us:
— The MIC does not work for Washington, it just pays them.
— The CIA & War hawks have a lot of influence but they can’t force the MIC into medium term planning.
— Likewise CIA has little or no influence on much of government outside the White House, such as the Pentagon which struggles not to laugh while pretending loyalty to some insane ideas.
So for me there seems to be very much a 2 stream US. The CIA/Whitehouse pushing to hold out (or at least refusing to acknowledge they screwed up – kind of like the withdrawal from Afghanistan which Trump neatly managed to pass onto to an incoming Biden). And everyone else that clearly knows better but does not know how to say anything. Much like here in Europe where the UK is with the CIA and the rest is just looking awkward.
On US troop quality getting worse. 42 years ago my brush with the military was as a student serving beer to British squaddies one summer in W German. My customers were all tankies and all privates as the lance corporals up had their own bar to drink in. These guys had been around for a few years and had no illusions about being anything other than Privates till they quit with a Heavy Goods vehicle License. But they were vociferous about how plain stupid almost all the American soldiers in Germany were.
Perhaps it has always been that way.
(once again Hollywood misleads the public about war)
Mr. Johnson,
Perhaps what you are seeing is that the West used to have a massive economic pot of gold to offer defectors; today, Russians have their own pots of (literal) gold.
If one strips out the financial and service sectors, one gets the “real” economy, the economy of things, cars, steel, oil, lumber, food, etc. Of course, services and finances is just a way of redistributing wealth, not wealth creation, so ignoring them is the right thing to do.
See,
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1549554660184231936.html
In short, the Russian economy of things is 68% the size of the American economy. If you include the financial and service sectors, it might be 40% of the American economy. Russia’s real economy is 4 to 5 times the German real economy, and it dwarfs the UK.
With 40% of our population, Russia has as many engineers and scientists as we do, and the Russians have undergone a more rigorous training program. By the way, that statistic, the relative number of engineers, confirms the real economy comparison. Russia’s “extra” engineers aren’t just standing around, they are running an industrial economy.
The GDP fallacy is the the so called “product “. A goodly portion of this “product ” is government spending, government produces nothing and destroys value and adds crushing burden to the real producers.
In the best case, government spending is overhead expense and by all rights should be subtracted from GDP not added to it.
GDP comparisons are flawed in that they do not adjust for purchasing power parity.
When this is done, the Russian economy starts to looks very, very good
Using western GDP is like measuring your blood flow health by how many leeches you have attached to your ass.
Every couple days I hear my wife complain about the high prices of groceries, the low quality of groceries, the shortages of groceries, the highly processed groceries, the lack of fresh seafood and meat, the poor service. If I showed my wife this video she would flip out. In our house she owns, by choice, the work of shopping and cooking, I clean and fix stuff, but still can’t equal her effort of shopping and cooking. This is not the Russia of yesteryear, this store in Moscow is better than anything I’ve seen in America, Costco doesn’t even come close. Fresh herring and sardines, probably caught yesterday, ladled out to a container. That one supply chain, the sardine, says it all. To move a sardine, fresh, not frozen, not canned, to a grocery store, daily, from a sea 1000 km away, is the true measure of a supply chain. With a supply chain that can handle a perishable sardine like that, how can NATO ever dream of beating Russia at supplying easy stuff like tank shells.
“…the high prices of groceries, the low quality of groceries, the shortages of groceries, the highly processed groceries, the lack of fresh seafood and meat…”
And bread, the quest for a loaf of good bread. The only good bread is what we make ourselves these days.
Globus had a nice bread dept. in that video. I paused the video at the bread counter and I called my wife in to see it.
Honestly, all of our federal institutions are broken and run by the deep state–intel agencies and the DoD included. I don’t see any immediate way to fix that…the US government “business model” would have to be completely overhauled (“drain the swamp”)–unlikely to happen in our lifetime(s).
US and NATO support for the UKR will continue on its suicidal and irrational path unless popular political support tips in favor of opposing it. We’re seeing anti-war demonstrations in the EU and the US but it appears that the plebe populations still favor UKR support (60/40 generally speaking). As the UKR SMO grinds on it becomes more likely that the more and more will oppose UKR support–especially when it becomes irrefutable that “…it is only a matter of time before this house of cards crashes to the ground”. A recent UKR support poll from PBS (A liberal MSM news outlet) indicates support is waning:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/support-for-ukraine-aid-softens-in-u-s-public-poll-says
Like most things follow the money trail…weapons and ammo (or lack thereof) are real national security concerns for NATOstan members. I’m watching to see if any members actually allocate additional dollars or euros for their respective defense budgets or more importantly in the near term ramp up ammo production–hard to do when your sanction initiatives have quadrupled production costs and expenses.
At this point I am fairly convinced that the Russian/Chinese strategy is to bleed out US/NATOstan in the UKR…it’s actually an ideal venue for it and by all indications the current OPTEMPO is on Russia and China’s side.
Judo. Use your enemies strength against them.
I suspect word has been passed down to US intel agencies that they are NOT to corroborate any intelligence handed over to them by Ukrainan or British intel agencies on the subject of the war in Ukraine.
This would give US Intel, and the White House, an important “out” when things go south in the war. The White House will then claim that the war was lost because we were being fed false information by Ukr. “How were we supposed to know the casualty figures provided by Ukr were actually reversed?” A wonderful deflection that will pin all the blame on Ukr, and allow the Biden administration to claim, “we did all we could to support them, but they lied to us”.
Of course the mainstream media will do it’s part by uncritically reporting this message to the public, while carefully omitting that corroborating all intelligence (even from friendly sources) is standard practice for all intel agencies.
So then…..when push comes to shove, our lives ultimately will depend on fools, charlatans and the blind leading the blind.
How basic…confusing ‘facts’ with ‘opinions’ and making decisions on opinions. That is incompetence. Throw in a dash of ignorance and a dollop of corruption and you’ve got this so-called “intelligence service’ figured out.
If politicians politisised the CIA and the CIA now manipulates the politicians, who is really in charge? Perhaps the CIA is dead. Replaced with Agency for Propaganda, War, Assassin’s and Wishful Thinking. A wet dream for a powerful political cabal and the in with it political organization.
Small point in the analytical structure: what do the analysts have in mind when they say “Ukraine?” Is their mental picture the “brave resisters against belated Soviet aggression,” or the whole complex reality of the word as an index of all the corruption, “nationalism,” a military that is very little native Ukraine and ever more Polish, French, British, “American,” and so forth, led by CIA and “Defense Department” and British “intelligence,” with polyglot privates dying in droves because neoNazi thugs give them Hobson’s Choice? Major weapons systems operated by “NATO” officers using US C4ISR?
The war is not being prosecuted on he “Ukraine” side by some noble band of brothers, but behind the screen of a bunch of Bandera followers. Maybe everyone reading here has brain space dedicated to perceiving “Ukraine” as the real complex of dysfunction and destruction, but a lot of what one can read of “analysis” and commentary seems to be based on the Hollywood representation. It’s going to go on until some unfathomable future crux — the creatures who rule us and use Western wealth to pursue this current front in the Hegemony Wars sure do not seem to to have any kind of off ramp in mind, and they live in a bubble of impunity.
Short form: for some reason it seems to me that using the word “Ukraine” to be a useful descriptor builds in a huge bunch of lies and distortions. Maybe just “the war in Europe” (and in truth, pretty much everywhere else any more) would be more accurate.
” for some reason it seems to me that using the word “Ukraine” to be a useful descriptor builds in a huge bunch of lies and distortions.”
Methodologically aggregation is the tool of choice to ensure others invest the aggregate with their “own” interpretations/prejudgements/prejudices, whilst definition/framing is the tool of choice in limiting perception ergo “the war in Ukraine” or “the war in Europe” instead of “the war in/of “The United States of America” instead of “the Vietnam war” or “the world war”.
“what do the analysts have in mind?”
Not homogeneity as a function of their purpose since aggregates and comparatives require a common denominator to exist outwith Mad Hatters’ imaginations – a component part of why “war” is not restricted to things that go bang, and why “When it comes to Ukraine and Russia, the United States “Intel” Community is confusing pyrite and other fiats including hamburgers with genuine gold/nutritional value.”
Relying on several sources and crosschecking news is the 101 of information gathering. When the press don’t do it ; it’s a fraud , if the agencies don’t do it also ; it’s high treason. When booth do it for the Holly Narrative name ; it’s a blessing (or not, depends) :p
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUAe35IunXc
Mike Whitney had an excellent article on the debacle in Ukraine and the morally bankrupt US foriegn policy.
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/showdown-in-ukraine-hobbled-us-turns-to-war-to-preserve-its-waning-primacy/
It’s one of the best summaries of the conflict so far, Alex, superbly evidenced, well articulated, it should be read by any doubters as to who’s to blame.
It’s anti-western capitalist yet at the same time being pro-china capitalist. I’m not arguing with the basic elements, just the spin is a bit more than called for IMO.
That said, its basics argue that the US government has declared that western (US above all) capitalism must prevail at all costs over eastern capitalism and is willing to intervene militarily to ensure that it happens, ergo: mono vs multi polarity, with multi-polarity being framed as a battle of hegemons and by definition there must then be a winner take all. As the article infers, that’s a flawed concept in toto. That’s also the neocon’s manifesto and beyond that, one of the underlying precepts of fascism but that’s another discussion for another day.
Public statements are for public consumption. Based on the occasional statements made which are incongruous with the narrative, I believe TPTB know the truth. But they dare not speak it.
You see, it can be argued that the United States has never lost a war. We’ve failed to win a few. But in those cases we withdrew on our own terms. We have never had to ‘sue for peace’ and have the terms dictated to us by an opponent.
I believe the United States would like to extricate itself from the Ukrainian debacle. However it wants a result that can be spun as some kind of ‘win’. The last thing the USA wants is a result where the Russian Federation dictates terms. I believe, however, that is exactly what Russia is aiming to do.
You could argue that Ukraine, not the USA/NATO, is the loser. But I doubt most people, including most Americans, would believe that.
Russia, in its various forms, has been America’s big bad ‘antagonist of choice’ for a long time. For it to be seen as the winner of a war, dictating the terms of the peace, would create the kind of political uncertainties that give TPTB nightmares.
“You see, it can be argued that the United States has never lost a war. We’ve failed to win a few.”
Name the last “peace” the US has won…hmmmmm none that I can think of.
For my part…the US lost in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen is coming, the Ukraine is coming…if not “lost” then “quit” which is the same thing by my definition.
“Russia, in its various forms, has been America’s big bad ‘antagonist of choice’ for a long time.”
Aggregations are always delusion since homogeneity is not an option even in milk.
“The Soviet Union” was “America’s” big bad “antagonist” of choice since it was not an antagonist, whilst The Russian Federation is “America’s” big bad antagonist of necessity, since from inception The Russian Federation was and continues to pose an existential threat to “The United States of America
Who lost Ukraine? Funny you should ask, because it was the same people who lost Russia.
The Wandering Who.
Prize of the day
I believe it is a mistake to think that the US administration and NATO heads don’t know the reality. I’m quite sure they know the full extent of the situation and the problems they’re facing. The problem for them has no solution other than admitting the Russians have ‘won’ and sitting down at the negotiating table and they know this.
The real problem is that they don’t want to/can’t do this. They are so used to getting what they want by bullying others that when that doesn’t work they go into a sort of ‘political paralysis’. We see this in the constant doubling down on already failed policies. There will come a point when the ‘paralysis’ will end and at that point negotiations for peace will be able to start.
Who the Russians will negotiate with and believe is doing so in good faith is another matter but negotiate both sides must otherwise it’s existential for all of us.
Of course I appreciate I may be completely wrong and they really are totally clueless but if that’s the case we are all f’ed in the a.
There is probably awareness of counterpoibts. But if the briefing is keep going we are getting results it’s all good, versus this is now heading out of our control and not to plan it’s a big difference.
I don’t think the military side weighs as much as the economic side. In fact the military bit is a side show for the powers.
Russia was not successfully isolated not economically destroyed or politically in crisis.
Therefore Russia isolated from Western financial system would turn east and south. The US gambled and lost Eurasia. That happened early in.
Everything now is a hail Mary to try to retain the dominant fiscal position to discourage a viable alternative system from emerging. Iran Russia China India trade in no dollar yo is up.
In this sense keeping Russia in a war makes sense. Wars consume bodies, money, energy and provide reason to persuade others to avoid a combatant.
The miscalculation again was that they would not be sucked in too.
So this is just buying time. Because the ship has sailed on financial domination and control. So while they wait to see what’s next, a few dead Russians soothe the nerves.
The war was over long ago. The new war is just beginning.
What Larry says is serious.
That US political leaders are being deliberately, negligently or carelessly led to believe something that is not true, or all true.
This means they can’t do their jobs of making informed decisions in relation to this war.
This war is against a nuclear power, what are the consequences of uninformed decisions in such a theatre?
If the briefing on Russia is suspect then what about China, Iran, Israel?
What this means is that checks and balances in the system are dismantled leading to a threat to national security that is unprecedented.
the U.S. intelligence community in now used for COIN. They craft the events that shape their narrative.
I watched the video of Marina going through the supermarket. I noticed that the Cat Food section had all different varieties of Purina One (the upscale Purina brand). Perhaps she can send me a couple bags, since my local groceries don’t have any in stock, and it’s my cat’s favorite.
It’s not only the EU being hit by the blowback on sanctions….
Shoot the messenger for not having cried to replace its shelf space with one of the several domestic varieties.
Nuts, a million bucks worth of domestic and Chinese equipment and a bagging station and I’d be off and running. Strike while the iron is hot’s my motto.
Then again, I was the one touring shut down Russian mega-factories in the 90’s, yelling – “why haven’t you pushed Caterpillar out of the market yet? The means are right in front of you!”
Too busy buying up veksels and stripping assets like good vulture capitalists I guess.
Totally understandable, I don’t think I ever worked more than 35 hrs a week and regularly took 2 hr lunches working for .gov for 30 yrs. I caught on real quick overworking is looked down upon. Suited my personality… I worked to live not lived to work.
Spent a year as a Teamster (AFL-CIO) saving for college. The trucks used to roll in and sit there for hours while the crew finished their card game and naps. (A full work day was 4 hours with 8 hrs on the clock) One day, I got so fed up, I walked out of the warehouse and started down the road yelling “I’m going to find a company that likes to work!”. When that was a bust and I walked back into the warehouse, the old-timers took me aside and said “Fair warning; you do that again and you might not finish the day in one piece.” I got the message.
The boasting about the invincibility of the US military machine by the top brass and their MSM poodles is redolent of the same behaviour by the Soviet hierarchy, most of the anniversary parades were for show, the gear displayed on the Red Square was not what the soldiery had to use, the morale was low.
What convinces one that may be the truth is the great reluctance of the US military to face up to the Russians head on, their avoiding any contact involving fighting goes into extremes, although the US airforce was asked to fly near the Ukrainian border when Biden went to Kiev by train (having got Putin’s 48 hours pass), the pilots were instructed to avoid breaching the borders at all cost.
It seems the US military don’t have yet the same missile hardware that the Russians possess, or don’t have enough of it, and the production of it isn’t yet fully on stream – hence the mammoth $777.7bn Defence budget.
Russia isn’t however the key target, China is and the US military don’t have much time, come 2025 the Chinese Armed forces (all the branches including hypersonic missiles) would exceed not only what the Americans will have, it will also be backed up by the manufacturing capabilities, as an important factor in a nation’s military strength as the actual employment of the gear.
One has to see beyond the Ukrainian conflict because Russia has never been, can never be a match for the American behemoth, China can.
“One has to see beyond the Ukrainian conflict because Russia has never been, can never be a match for the American behemoth, China can.”
The US traded its once prodigious capacity to make for an even greater ability to buy. The price that comes with that is fragility. The ability to buy lasts only as long as the seller has the goods and can be forced to sell.
The problem facing the US is that the seller doesn’t have the goods, and has likewise shed the capacity to make them. Moreover, the message being sent by Russia’s MoF and MoD over the past year says that the US’ ability to force a sale is in decline regardless.
The US’ shift from #1 Producer to #1 Consumer took a generation. It may take even longer to switch back, but switch back it must if the US wants to sit again at the table of great powers in the new, Producer-oriented world order.
Even so, its #1 status is gone for the foreseeable future, and it will have to find a place for itself by becoming as productive and cooperative as it can.
Larry,
Further to your comment, let’s give “CAT-4 non-qualified swimmers and shooters the keys to a Patriot battery or M1 Abrams tank,” at the highest echelons of our national government, we have essentially given the keys to the kingdom to poseurs who not only cannot tell gold from pyrite, they can’t tell pyrite from thermite, and given how close the nuclear clock ticks to Armageddon-time, are highly likely to find out how disastrous it is to play with this kind of fire.
Unfortunately, the rest of us shlubs (the all-knowing, all-seeing spellchecker said, “shrubs,” which is actually pretty close) will be dragged along in our national suttee.
Thanks!
“…the failure of the U.S. intelligence community, the CIA in particular, in providing an accurate, objective assessment of the war in Ukraine and what is happening in Russia.”
Given the Known History of the “intelligence agencies” particularly “clowns in action”, I see that it’s not an “Failure” or Incompetence, but the same Treason and Sedition that these bureaucrats have always been involved in. The “Disinformation” about the Ukraine (and Russia) is Deliberate Propaganda to keep the whole Scam going. It’s a Feature, not a Bug.
Regardless of whether or not the ‘politicians’ are being told the Truth about it behind closed doors, the Deep State and its (((owners))) appear Hell-Bent on starting a War with Russia, to further their agenda of a ‘new world order’. Read what many Orthodox Christians (lay and clergy) are saying – that World War Three is ON, and it is the (((synagogue))) of Satan versus the Rest of the World.
The (((usual suspects))) in every ‘neocon’ Stink Tank are Unanimous in declaring that “Russia must be Broken Up into De- Militarized ‘regions’ “. These are the same creatures, like (((klaus schwab))) who Openly talk abut a “Genocide of White People”. (they are the same ones pushing Toxic Biowarfare ‘vaccines’).
The Sheer Stupidity of ‘thinking’ (hope-n-change, if we Declare it to be So, it Will Be) that Russia can be Defeated Militarily, Broken Up and Stripped of Resources, goes beyond Hubris and well into Mental Illness, (if not outright Retardation).
From the American Enterprise Institute
A Beneficial War? How Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Has Enhanced the United States’ Strategic Position in the World
Kori Schake | Joe Tavares
Centre for Grand Strategy
With scholars like this, who needs idiots?
https://www.aei.org/articles/a-beneficial-war-how-russias-invasion-ofukraine-has-enhanced-the-united-statesstrategic-position-in-the-world/
Well they own Europe, Japan and South Korea fully right now.
South America is giving them nice oil via Venezuela and they are stealing stealing successfully everywhere.
There is now a fear of America amongst smaller countries which see it increasingly as a terror and extortion regime.
So enhanced in terms of overall power and influence, absolutely. The full geopolitical power of the US is on display and wow is it substantial. Poles, Ukranians and Europeans all ready to go bankrupt and die on their command, keeping in faith that the US will be there for them like some despotic emperor. Saudis now giving Ukraine money. Global south beginning to fracture and cave. Oh glorious America how great and powerful though art, amongst this, war soon between Israel and Iran. Glory glory to the empire!
That video makes me so happy. Not because Russia has survived the sanctions but because I lived in Russia in 1999 and 2000. I remember the worst of times for Russians. Barely more than 20 years ago that scene would be unbelievable. Even the fanciest stores in which 99%+ of Russians couldn’t afford to shop didn’t look like that. Not even close.
I lived on the outskirts of St Petersburg. Most of my meat was purchased from un or barely refrigerated butcher stalls in kiosk markets. The Russia I knew best was one where babushkas sold the contents of their cupboards outside metro stations trying to get a little money because though she survived the siege her pension hadn’t been paid in months.
So for me this kind of video just brings joy that a country and people I grew to love at its lowest has risen to this. And since every Russian over 30 has actual memories of the times I briefly described, they appreciate it. It would be unwise to attempt to take it from them.
They are as usual talking out of their asses. Russia is both so powerful that they will march across Europe and restore them Soviet Union at any time. While at the same time, Ukraine should be able to run righ over the Russian military with just a few more tanks and a handful of F16s.
Bush 43 said, “We will fight them over there so we do not have to face them in the United States of America.” Just send Zelensky a few more billion and he will show those evil Russkies who’s boss!
The American political class is chock full of bushtards. If we could export them as circus attractions, we’d kill that budget deficit in months.
I think sometime during the 1990s the US transitioned from a fact based society to a narrative based society where narrative and the concomitant Virtue Signaling is all. A sort of “it it true because we say it is true” mindset has gripped Western governments and populationss (the narrative society soon spread across the entire Western world).
Today nothing is based on factual objective evidence. All is based on narrative so that everything from “equal before the law” to “this vaccine will stop you getting Covid-19” to “Jan 6 was an insurrection” to “Trump collided with Russia” to “men can have babies” and, of course, “Russia is collapsing” are the standard narratives of our time. Many people now believe narrative over reality.
All this was brought home to me from a recent CNN headline: ” The West’s hardest task in Ukraine: Convincing Putin he’s losing”. If we can just control the Russian narrative we will win.
Nope. USA was based on the same narrative right from the start. Originally, Native Americans were savages that should be exterminated, and their land taken in the name of freedom, and equality, and democracy, and stuff. Over time, the role of savages was given to other groups (Mexicans, Vienamese, Arabs, Serbs, Afghans, etc.). Currently, savages are Russians and their natural resources have to be liberated in the name of equality, and democracy, and stuff. The main difference is that, instead of tomahawks, Russians are wielding Kinzhals.
“I think sometime during the 1990s the US transitioned from a fact based society to a narrative based society where narrative and the concomitant Virtue Signaling is all.”
No it has never been wholly fact based – “We the people hold these truths to be self-evident” being one example of many.
Towards the end of the 1960’s the assay of “fact based society” changed ore abruptly than at other times for various reasons – the silent became the majority whilst the education of “hippies” became more fact based and consequently they ran away, at least if they had not been killed first, as per the previous examples set upon “African-Americans”, The Irish, The Italians, Spanish speakers, The Chinese, The Jews, and others who were loud, dressed ridiculously and whose cooking smelled
“The Soviet Union” understood that the alchemy of turning gold into paper was not fact but belief based whether coercive or not, but useful although not for shared reasons, thereby facilitating the ongoing transcendence of both “The Soviet Union” and “The United States of America” by The Russian Federation and others not wholly through telling lies since leaving that task to opponents is more productive since they have more experience in these matters, since as Mr. Chomsky observed “My country doesn’t tell lies. To tell lies you need to know the truth.”
Was the title of this article an intentional or unintentional riff on “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”? There is extensive talk there about gold vs. glitter:
http://academy.filminfocus.com/scripts/ttss_screenplay.pdf
But the really interesting part is that in TTSS, the glitter is misinformation/disinformation by Karla vs. actual gold/intel – whereas the situation in the West now appears to be misinformation/disinformation by the West’s own allies and analysts…
That cartoon gives new meaning to the phrase, ‘the butt of the joke’.
Mr. Johnson- found this interesting. Looks like the ukraine is getting desparate.
Do yu have any thoughts on this.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/mass-drone-attack-unleashes-chaos-air-raid-sirens-inside-russia
These UK “partnerships” are run by Russia, CCP, and al-Qaeda. The UK was sponsoring them to take foreign funding and to destabilize and overthrow the United States. No one will investigate this because “they are intelligence” and these “partnerships” (embezzling public funds to hostile foreign powers) are more important than defending the country. Soros works for Lord Malloch Brown, Igor Ivanov and Russia’s ANC party, it was out in the open on his own website. It just came out a week or two ago that the 77th British psyops brigade was partnered with Meedan, a Pentagon-funded front for al-Qaeda that is right in the center of the Gamergate scandal. The USAID’s administrators were hired out of International Crisis Group (Soros) and Sir Richard Branson’s ONE Campaign (which also works alongside Soros).
GG caught a team censoring the internet:
https://8chan.moe/gamergatehq/res/330332.html#330874
It came out this year that Prince Harry was part of that team, the Aspen Commission on Information Disorder…
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Aspen-Institute_Commission-on-Information-Disorder_Final-Report.pdf
And the diggers dug and found their central command was the SAAR Network of known al-Qaeda operating as the U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project. Hillary used the British to route their instructions through Moscow and back into the United States as the Russian ANC.
https://files.catbox.moe/7xf8x3.png
The Swamp was taking bribes directly from the Russian state bank and laundering them into the censorship of the Internet by al-Qaeda. Nobody was arrested for this.
https://archive.ph/YgKSe
England deployed everything they had behind Russia and al-Qaeda, globally, on the royal family’s orders, while the royal family was doing what our elected Democrats were asking them to do.