[IrishSavant] Well if you’re like me you’ve been taken aback by the scale and comprehensiveness of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It’s the boy who cried wolf all over again I suppose. However, a deeper analysis makes Putin’s move more understandable. I hadn’t been aware that Ukraine has become a de facto if not de jure NATO member, an absolute red line for Russia as Putin had made clear on numerous occasions. As he has pointed out the Ukrainian military control system has already been integrated into NATO and a network of airfields upgraded with US help which enables the rapid transportation of very large numbers of troops. Ukraine’s airspace is open to flights by US strategic and reconnaissance aircraft and drones that conduct surveillance over Russian territory. He added that the US-built Maritime Operations Centre in Ochakov makes it possible to support activity by NATO warships, including the use of precision weapons, against the Russian Black Sea Fleet and its supporting infrastructure.
Since the ZOG
... Zionist Occupation Government, the sometimes white supremacist idea that Jews control the world. I looked it up, so now we all know...
coup in 2014 that toppled Ukraine’s elected government and installed a largely Jewish regime in its place Russia has fully supported the Minsk agreement which provides the two eastern republics with political autonomy. But the Ukrainian regime, egged on by its American ZOG puppeteers, has ignored the agreement. In the interim the country has become ZATOised,
... oooooh, clever!
subjecting the Donbass region to endless blockades, rocket attacks and shelling. As recorded by the OECD on the day before Russia invaded Kiev fired over 1,500 shells on villages in Donetsk and Luganask. Then there’s the US-backed biological warfare laboratories which have been established throughout Ukraine. Russia says the final straw was Zelensky’s declared intention to restore Ukraine as a nuclear power. In any event this is just the culmination of an unending stream of hostile actions and propaganda against Russia and Putin personally. The penny — kopek — has finally dropped that any form of partnership with the ZATO countries is futile.
A few more thoughts: One of the many possible downside of the Russian action is the reinforcement of Bear Fear in neighbouring countries. This is a great pity because I had harboured (faint) hopes that this block, loosely allied with Russia would provide an obstacle to globo-homo-schlomo.
Truly, this writer is a genius with words.
Consider this recent warning from Putin: "Properly speaking, the attempts to use us in their own interests never ceased until quite recently: they sought to destroy our traditional values and force on us their false values that would erode us, our people from within, the attitudes they have been aggressively imposing on their countries, attitudes that are directly leading to degradation and degeneration, because they are contrary to human nature." Alas, such an alliance seems impossible for the foreseeable future.
Here’s another thought. The descendants of those who implemented the holodomor have mobilised the descendants of the holodomor victims to warfare against their fellow Slavic Christians. Some achievement. But bear in mind what General Smedly Butler said, "all wars are bankers’ wars". Then there’s the stomach-churning hypocrisy and double-standards of Western media and governments. Bleating about international law, peaceful resolution of disputes and respect for existing borders. This from the destroyers of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and the territorial integrity of Serbia and who support the ongoing warfare and land-grabbing of Israel.
Final thought: Nobody really knows how this will play out. For sure various stakeholders have their plans and believe they know the outcome but history shows us that wars, once started, are devilishly difficult to control. How many ’limited operations’ have turned out to be years-long orgies of slaughter and destruction? And the current conflict bears chilling resonance with the End-Of-Days prophecy in the Book Of Daniel where the kings of the north and south engage in a cataclysmic final battle.
But let us take heart. David Lammy, Britain’s Stupidest Man (he thought Hitler’s first name was ’Heil’ and that Mary Antoinette was a famous scientist) has been wheeled in to provide his insight and to develop a solution. Which he’ll do as soon as he’s able to find Ukraine on the map.
#1
Since the ZOG coup in 2014 that toppled Ukraine’s elected government and installed a largely Jewish regime in its place
...Stopped reading right there.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/02/2022 11:03 Comments ||
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#2
I stopped at "tuppence..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/02/2022 11:04 Comments ||
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#3
Man they're just cranking these thing out aren't they. I guess they haven't grasp that Americans since childhood are exposed to so much commercial and political crap that by the time they reach adulthood (whenever that happens - sometimes never), they've already been vaccinated against the bovine-scatology that permeates the environment.
They have NOT foking 'stalled.' They are the BAIT! There could be no other military or tactical reason for parking a convoy bumper to bumper, hub to hub. Putin has his air force and nuclear forces standing by, awaiting a NATO response. For the love of Gawd, DO NOT TAKE THE BAIT !
#6
It is a frothy article, but he is not wrong about this part: Ukraine has become a de facto if not de jure NATO member, an absolute red line for Russia as Putin had made clear on numerous occasions
Russia has security concerns. They do not see NATO as a warm, soft, useless puppy like we do.
Hey, wasn't Zog was the bad guy in "The Fifth Element"?
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/02/2022 21:20 Comments ||
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#8
They have NOT foking 'stalled.' They are the BAIT!
This has been bugging me since "convoy" first showed up in the news. Fat, juicy target going nowhere fast. Logistics issues. The muddy season. It seems incompetent.
Maybe the convoy's destination is not Kiev, but the bargaining table. "Nice city ya got there. Be a shame if it got leveled. Come on, let's give peace a chance. We just want some bits around the edges!"
[Eurasia Review] Because Vladimir Putin is a ruthless dictator, he can ignore at least for a time the views of his own population. But only for a time because the views of what remains of civil society about his aggression again Ukraine are spreading to the families of members of the elite and even to the elite itself.
The scope of opposition among the remnants of civil society in Russia to his war is breathtaking, with almost all groups, formed for whatever reason, voicing their outrage, holding demonstrations, and circulating petitions which are garnering an increasing number of signatures. (For the most comprehensive list to date, see zona.media/article/2022/02/27/vse and rosbalt.ru/russia/2022/02/28/1946296.html.)
This opposition has now spread into the families of members of the elite — for examples, see zona.media/article/2022/02/25/no-war — and even key members of Putin’s circle (rfi.fr/ru/россия/20220227-дерипаска-и-фридман-выступили-против-войны-в-украине and themoscowtimes.com/2022/02/28/some-of-russias-elite-oppose-war-in-ukraine-a76648).
And the liberal leaders of the ten million-strong Russian diaspora have now organized an Anti-War Committee. It too may not have immediate impact on the Kremlin dictator; but it will provide language and arguments too dangerous to make if one lives in Putin’s Russia but which will affect others (t.me/khodorkovski/5387 and newtimes.ru/articles/detail/209568).
Putin and his thugs are undoubtedly counting on the primal patriotism of the so-called "dark people" to see him through; but even they are less than enthusiastic. And unless Putin can win some key victories with minimal losses, it is unlikely that even this group in the population is going to stay in his corner for much longer.
At some point, he won’t be able to sustain his policies or even himself because those on whom he relies are drawn from portions of the population that are almost as anti-war as those who have already spoken out.
About the author:
Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at paul.goble@gmail.com .
[Spectator World] Nuclear war is part of our strategic culture. Yes, we would start one if our homeland, our way of life, was threatened, absolutely. Why wouldn’t we?"
That’s what a retired Russian diplomat told me on the sidelines of a track-two dialogue between US, Russian and Chinese experts back in 2012. And to be honest, for several years, I didn’t believe him. I took his comments as bragging, atomic machismo, if you will.
The context of the conversation was a response to a question to my Russian colleague on the subject of Moscow’s nuclear weapons doctrine and thinking. Russia for several years has believed in the concept of escalating nuclear tensions to deescalate tensions, or what defense scholars call "escalate to deescalate."
#1
I'm skeptical. Every simulation that starts with nukes ends with mutual annihilation. Putin knows this. He has kids. Grandchildren. A historical legacy. Won't have one if the Chinese take over an empty Russia. Heck, it will be as if Russia had never existed, let alone Putin. You think Chinese history mentions all the tribes absorbed, let alone those that went extinct *before* they annexed their lands?
Those will demonstrate intent, without giving NATO the justification to cross the threshold, and shall establish dominance when most of Ukranian forces give up.
I pray God it doesn't come to that though and some clever people can find a way to Putin an out. His back to the wall, who knows what an over-the-hill ex-KGB mackerel eyed sonofoabitch would do?
No such animal. Every simulation ends in mutual annihilation. Because the first mover wins. And Putin knows it. Because people like him order these simulations.
#4
I'm skeptical. Every simulation that starts with nukes ends with mutual annihilation.
WW2 ended in Mutual Assured Destruction? No? What if Russia only nukes Ukraine and then asks the EU: "Do you feel lucky?"
I agree that this a very risky gambit to indulge in.
#5
WW2 ended in Mutual Assured Destruction? No? What if Russia only nukes Ukraine and then asks the EU: "Do you feel lucky?"
I agree that this a very risky gambit to indulge in.
Between two nuclear powers with 2nd strike capabilities. WW2 included only one nuclear power.
If Russia nukes Ukraine, no skin off our nose. But that would be dangerous for Putin personally. It would invite one-way assassination missions by people with kin in Ukraine. What's left of Ukraine would be ungovernable. Any puppet ruler he placed in there would face assassination*.
And it would mean a total embargo by the West and probably most of the world, given that *any* company that broke the embargo would probably lose its business in the West. Think Huawei and Iran. Russia would become an oversized North Korea, but worse.
* Look up the UPA resistance movement in the post-WW2 era, at a time only a smallish minority of Ukrainians participated in anti-Soviet activity. 200K rebels died, after killing tens of thousands of Soviet commissars and other functionaries. After a nuclear attack? I wouldn't be surprised if the puppet ruler communicated by Zoom video conference inside Russia proper.
#6
If he uses it on the Ukraine and gets a non-reponse, why not elsewhere? By default you say its OK. Given that his conventional military is not up to the job, it will become the first option when dealing with neighbors.
#7
We have much in common with the Russian people. We both love peace but are led by evil sociopaths cheered on by wealthy oligarchs and corrupt political machines.
#8
Do I think he is backed into a corner enough to use them? Yes. I do not think he is foolish enough to use ICBMs. He does have tactical nukes and I think those are on the table.
Lets not confuse his willingness to use them with the question of if its a smart move. Because its not. Second, bombing civilian targets is a bad move and now he is doing it and is more than willing to torch civilians to get his way.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/02/2022 7:56 Comments ||
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#9
"Every simulation" is just that, a simulation.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/02/2022 7:59 Comments ||
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#10
Every simulation" is just that, a simulation.
In the age of woke, I shudder to imagine what the US simulations are like...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/02/2022 8:06 Comments ||
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#11
The US are trying to turn Russia into North Korea.
Unlike North Korea, Russia knows how to launch tactical nuclear missiles to destroy battlefield targets. Those targets are not 10000 kilometers away from Russia across an ocean. The targets are in Russia's own ancestral homeland where it has fought two great wars, a civil war and a war with Poland during last 100 years.
What do Americans think they are doing? Why are they doing this? We didn't hear anything at all from your president today about why you are pursuing such mad policies in a matter that has nothing to do with you.. why are you trying to make Russia another North Korea? What is in your heads?
#13
None of this talk of tactical nukes skeers us, buddy. We have US congresscreatures (looking at you, Swallwell) threatening to use US nukes on US citizens.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/02/2022 8:26 Comments ||
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#14
Oh really? America gets 21% of its oil imports from North Korea? Russia is not some tiny little hermit kingdom. Russia's oil and gas and minerals are essential to global economy.
You built up China - why nobody knows... and now you've made India Russia and China join together to oppose the West. You're just punishing yourselves and ruining your own position in the world. Why are you doing this?
North Korean invaded South Korea in a full planned military operation. No limited incursion but a full invasion. It justified itself as historical unification of a common people.
As for oil, we were energy independent till the crooks fixed an election and then by decree set the import of oil in place again. We can be independent again by removing those artificial restrictions. Notice what the German's just did in turning around their energy policies.
#16
So bleeding obvious to anyone not brainwashed by west's propaganda - end of dollar dominance.
It's already starting, like a clockwork. Headlines today:
"China refuses to join sanctions against Russia"
"How the Russia-Ukraine War Threatens the Dollar's Dominance
Credit Suisse strategist tells Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast that the U.S. dollar has reached a critical inflection point. "
#20
Nobody is turning anybody into North Korea. The US postured over Afghanistan for twenty years, every week reporting how the Taliban were going to be soon ash. It launched its sons at the desert while maintaining back channels propping up the islamics for years. The credibility of such posturing is a joke. It's still buying from Russia and refuses to stop. The US can only apply sanctions, overtly harass small economies who deal with Russia, a kind of cancel culture with implications for entire populations.
But it cannot ensure anything. Because it cannot ensure its own stability in the next two years, especially if it continues to entertain Africans and islamics and psychologically unwell people with jobs in policy making. People who are cheering on the SWIFT denial, the sanctions and embargoes are actually envious of societies that do not have these problems because they did not entertain social justice cancel tactics. Russia is a macroscopic example of what they can do to any free individual trying to assert himself, since they're treating a whole population now as an individual.
But Putin will not let this happen. The threat is very real. Mutually assured destruction. He cannot reply with the economic option, he has only one option. What you can bet on is that he won't back down. Nor will some altruist commander step up to avert everything like in the movies. The idea that 'everything will be alright... probably' is not something a sane society entertains. A sane society expects their leaders to deliberate, weigh their actions instead of gambling with their fates.
The only beneficiaries of this will be the New World Order finaglers sitting in their wicker chairs and reminiscing how they sold out Jews to Hitler's finest. Even if both super powers almost destroy each other, their experiment will still proceed this time with less friction.
#22
Yes, Russia could use nuclear weapons
But they won't. It is a threat, a warning that things could escalate savagely should NATO decide to get involved. Don't even think about smoking that fat juicy convoy sitting there! The way everyone is freaking out suggests the threat is a good one.
Think of this like a chess game: maneuvers and threats. This is the threaty part.
#23
Either the US backs down and agrees to the terms Lutin laid down, or Kyiv goes the way of Grozny
By the way, Russia already has achieved one of its two main goals, with its victories in the south to Krym - so US doesn't even have to concede that one
#24
Russia will not nuke because the crops in Ukraine feed Russia and I'm not sure anyone is confident enough in precision and winds and all that to be that stupid.
Russia is making itself into Somalia if they aren't careful.
Russia is also waking the west up from our Woke nightmare. At least it seems that way.
#28
Tucker Carlson: "Much of the information about the war that you are ingesting uncritically has in fact been curated by the tech monopolies & yes by the intel agencies by the time it reaches your iPhone."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/02/2022 11:45 Comments ||
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#29
Nuking anything outside of Ukraine ensures Armageddon. It might happen, but if it does game over. So only fools would seriously consider that and Putin is not a fool.
#30
If Stalin had had nukes to use against Nazi Germany, he absolutely would have. Can't imagine Putin ever getting pushed that far, even far enough to use tactical nukes. Who would do that kind of pushing? Joe Biden?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/02/2022 12:14 Comments ||
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#31
Joe wouldn't even get a chance to surrender. Darth Lunch and Milley would beat him to it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/02/2022 12:17 Comments ||
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#32
We have much in common with the Russian people. We both love peace but are led by evil sociopaths cheered on by wealthy oligarchs and corrupt political machines.
Hear, hear!!!
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/02/2022 12:23 Comments ||
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#33
Stop trying for coups in other countries
Depose your own foolish dictator and seize your own oligarchs loot
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Oleg Airapetov
[REGNUM] On November 13, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopted a decree on the annulment of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk - "in general and in all points." Even earlier, on November 11, it was decided to prepare a group of troops for the liberation of Ukraine within 10 days. The Germans began to leave her, but continued to take out everything they could. From March to November 28, 1918, 37,055 wagons were exported from Ukraine, including 9,293 wagons of bread, 23,195 wagons of food, 4,567 wagons of raw materials. Most of the supplies went to Austria-Hungary. 18,163 wagons passed through Lemberg, and 13,133 wagons passed through Brest-Litovsk (part of the deliveries went by sea and across the Danube).
Continued on Page 49
#1
Wow. Who knew European history was so complicated? So many 'tribes'!
Our founding fathers decided citizens should forget their past and declare they were a new 'tribe' - Americans. Which is one reason why America is exceptional!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/02/2022 9:04 Comments ||
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[ZeroHedge] Ukraine and Russia are vital to the global food supply, accounting for more than a quarter of global wheat trade, about a fifth of corn, and 12% of all calories traded globally, according to Bloomberg.
Reuters reports Ukrainian ports will remain closed until the Russian invasion ends and maritime security is restored for commercial ships.
This means all shipments of farm goods from Ukraine have ceased, and commodity traders will have to search elsewhere.
Activity at Ukrainian ports has been halted since Russia invaded its neighbor last week, and grains trade from Russia is also effectively on pause. Sanctions have been ratcheted up to further isolate commodity-rich Russia from global finance by sanctioning its central bank and cutting off various leaders from the critical SWIFT financial messaging system.
Restricting grain supplies from the Black Sea region threatens to further boost global food prices that are near a record high, at a time when supplies are already strained with adverse weather in many growing regions. - Bloomberg
"If the conflict is prolonged -- three months, four months from now -- I feel the consequences could be really serious," Andree Defois, president of consultant Strategie Grains, told Bloomberg. "Wheat will need to be rationed."
Michael Magdovitz, a senior analyst at Rabobank, said Ukraine and Russia had increased harvests and exports in the last decade at a far lower cost than western farmers, which helped keep wheat prices low. However, that's not the case today as the Russian invasion sends wheat futures trading in Chicago to a six-year high.
#5
Turkey and Egypt get 70 percent of their grain from Russia and Ukraine through the Black Sea.
Does Biden think Turks and Egyptians will punish Russia by stopping grain imports? So they're kids can starve?
And the rest of the world's poor nations will help Uncle Sam to push a billion people back into poverty with soaring food prices? Why would any nation do this?
#6
We had an article here the other day from Al Ahram: Egypt is already looking into alternate sources of wheat, with the warning that the price will be higher.
#7
Turkey and Egypt get 70 percent of their grain from Russia and Ukraine through the Black Sea.
Does Biden think Turks and Egyptians will punish Russia by stopping grain imports? So they're kids can starve?
As I already pointed out, Putin has pretty much fucked all those countries already by starting this war. Too much damage has probably already been done for Ukraine to have an actual normal wheat harvest.
#9
I know some farmers who are thinking about changing what they are growing over in Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas. Used to be that was the bread basket of the world. And it may just be so again.
Same with petroleum.
All we need is for the government to get out of the way except for keeping a cudgel handy for big corporations doing anticompetitive stuff.
In which Caitlyn Johnstone outs herself as a tool of the Russian government, while making a legitimate point about the impulse to control online speech. The politics is settled is a terrible way to go through life.
[ZeroHedge] “I’m concerned about Russian disinformation spreading online, so today I wrote to the CEOs of major tech companies to ask them to restrict the spread of Russian propaganda,” US Senator Mark Warner tweeted on Friday.
Since then YouTube has announced that it has suppressed videos by Russian state media channels so that they’ll be seen by fewer people in accordance with its openly acknowledged policy of algorithmically censoring unauthorized content, as well as de-monetizing all such videos on the platform. Google and Facebook/Instagram parent company Meta both banned Russian state media from running ads and monetizing on their platforms in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Twitter announced a pause on ads in both Russia and Ukraine.
“Glad to see action from tech companies to reign in Russian propaganda and disinformation after my letter to their CEOs yesterday,” Warner tweeted on Saturday. “These are important first steps, but I’ll keep pushing for more.”
For years US lawmakers have been using threats of profit-destroying consequences to pressure Silicon Valley companies into limiting online speech in a way that aligns with the interests of Washington, effectively creating a system of government censorship by proxy. It would appear that we’re seeing a new expansion of this phenomenon today.
And the imperial media are pushing for more. Articles and news segments warning of the sinister threat posed by Russian propaganda to misinform and divide western populations using the internet are being churned out at a rate that’s only likely to increase as this latest narrative management campaign gets into full gear. The Associated Press has a new article out for example titled “War via TikTok: Russia’s new tool for propaganda machine”.
“Armies of trolls and bots stir up anti-Ukrainian sentiment.
We’ve noticed the dear little chew toys here at Rantburg. One can only hope they embrace the learning experience to better understand their enemy.
State-controlled media outlets look to divide Western audiences. Clever TikTok videos serve up Russian nationalism with a side of humor,” AP warns.
Unlike Ay Pee journalists, TikTok is not where I go to form my opinions.
“Analysts at several different research organizations contacted by The Associated Press said they are seeing a sharp increase in online activity by groups affiliated with the Russian state,” AP writes. “That’s in keeping with Russia’s strategy of using social media and state-run outlets to galvanize domestic support while seeking to destabilize the Western alliance.”
So is the Ukraine side. The internet is just another battlefield in these modern times.
The “different research organizations” AP ends up citing include “Cyabra, an Israeli tech company that works to detect disinformation,”
Oh noze! The Jooooooooooos!!!
as well as the state-funded NATO narrative management firm The Atlantic Council.
That means they’re a think tank. Lots of cachet, little impact.
As tends to happen whenever a consensus begins to form that a certain category of speech must be purged from the internet, imperial spinmeisters are already working to expand the definition of “Russian propaganda” which must be purged from the internet to include independent anti-imperialist commentators like myself.
Russia just arrests those who say things the government doesn’t like. Someone should look in on her in six months to see if her website is still live.
Imperial narrative manager Robert Potter has a thread on Twitter currently calling for me and other anti-imperialist content creators to be labeled “State-Affiliated Media” on Twitter and ideally de-platformed across all western social media, in my case solely because RT is one of the many outlets who occasionally choose to republish some of my blog posts for free.
I am not as Potter claims “an OP Ed columnist for Russia Today.” I don’t work for RT, I don’t write for RT, I don’t submit articles to RT, and I’ve never been paid by RT or the Russian government. RT is just one of the outlets who sometimes avail themselves of my longstanding invitation for anyone who wants to to republish my work free of charge. That RT editors would find my daily rants against western imperialism agreeable is not scandalous or conspiratorial but normal and self-evident.
Free content using standard spelling and grammar and a minimum of exclamation points is not to be sneezed at.
Yet for agents of imperial narrative control
Oh dear. Still, it’s important to recognize the cant. There are entire drinking games based on recognizing the catch phrases.
like Potter (who ironically works directly for the US State Department but thinks my posts should be labeled “State-Affiliated Media” by Twitter), even this is enough to justify complete silencing. I will not be in the slightest bit surprised to see a great deal more of these efforts as the new cold war continues to escalate.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate, an empire-loyal NGO ostensibly focused primarily on fighting racism and prejudice, has published a report accusing Facebook of failing to label Russian propaganda as such 91 percent of the times it occurs. The CCDH decried Mark Zuckerberg’s “failure to stop Facebook being weaponized by the Russian state”.
This sudden narrative management thrust has also seen RT taken off the air in nations like Australia, Germany and Poland, with pressures mounting in France and the UK to follow suit.
#1
What's the harm in reading Russian propaganda, the better to compare with MSM/Uniparty/Brandon propaganda? Free speech, anyone?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/02/2022 9:22 Comments ||
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#2
If it made it into print, it's mostly lies. If it's being broadcast on TeeVee or radio, it's all lies.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/02/2022 9:26 Comments ||
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#3
Caitlyn Johnstone is an important dissident thinker. The fact that the US war machine is trying to censor her means she must be hitting the target.
RT is good information as long as the topic isn't Russia. They host all sorts of thought criminals who aren't welcome on the pedophile networks like CNN.
#4
You have your Russian disinformation and you have your American disinformation. US Senator Mark Warner just can't stand the competition.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/02/2022 12:27 Comments ||
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#5
Question for the more tech savy at Rantburg.
Would it be impossible to just block out a country to keep hackers and such based in that country from hacking outside of their nation (at least not without travelling geographically)?
My gut says no, but I don't really know so I thought i'd ask.
#6
There are so many ways around it, your guess is basically correct, ruprecht. What companies do have to do is make sure they are up to speed on watching for the attacks themselves.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/02/2022 13:45 Comments ||
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#7
Very difficult to cut off all connectivity. Difficult but not impossible to turn off most high bandwidth access. (Extremely limited explanation: Most long distance Internet traffic flows through very high bandwidth 'peering points' that join up various national and commercial IP carriers. If those that are peered with Russian networks started cutting them off, it would choke the data flow into and out of Russia. So you have to persuade those peering operators to do so.)
#8
There are always 'independents'. Vlad has no problem with 'them' operating from his territories. "As always, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions."
[BBC] Poor non-aligned India, with so many brotherly Socialist ties to Russia going back to the Cold War, and so many new commercial ties to America. No matter which way they turn, they’re going to annoy someone.
#1
India China and Russia will join together in a trade and mutual assistance pact so that none of them will ever be hostage to US dollar warfare.
Eventually these three economies will create a trading bloc that will be significantly larger than the US or the EU. Other "nonaligned" nations will seek to join it.
This will be the end of US domination of the global economic system. A lot like the end of Britain / sterling's dominance after 1918.
#3
India and China, Huperens Slaing8815? When they have that low grade border war on the glacier because China keeps moving the border markers? Based on what we’ve seen here, it seems unlikely, but I’m open to persuasion. Can you provide an open source to support your contention? In Russian or Ukrainian would be fine — our people can translate into English.
#4
India may've been a greater ally if the west hadn't made a choice with moslems every time over the interests of the subcontinent. And that's the root of all these troubles. I mean you've got big guns, but you don't know jack about where to point them or why. I wish there was a polite way to say it.
India seems all kissy-kissy, huggy-huggy only because it's sold to you that way. We are far from all-weather friends and Vlad knows it too. Geopolitics is only business for us. As it should be for anyone. This one's just not our business. Only a fool would alienate from perfectly okay partners over hoopla about 'conquest' and 'fascism' created by media educated bleeding hearts and hypocrites. Except for America who has a habit of getting dragged into shit for things totally insignificant to its actual citizen. Give them a bit of hubris to chomp on, a bit of McCarthyesque panic, copy pasted articles in the MSM, wind them up with floating heads in the teevee saying, 'Oh-a-real-man-would've-shown-Rooshia!' And watch 'em go.
And what good does 'criticizing' do? Unlike what the globalist lobbies want the ritalin and adderall soaked milksops of today to presume, this thing isn't as boo hoo hoo as it's being narrated. There are no angels in this fight, except the innocent people being pressured and panicked by a mad regime in Kiev to fight to their deaths. Just so the Rada can become an under-office of Brussels and free from the 'non-democratic' authoritarianism of Moscow. Gawd knows everyone could do with a bit of authoritarianism in this time, even if as a counter to the great supranational experiment. UKR was going to sell out its 'sovereignty' anyway in 2024. To Europe, which we don't care for. So there's that.
India has known this since the euromaidan protests when the Putin flunky was replaced with the globalist flunky, this has to end badly. It's just that Trump would have talked both parties into maybe letting Donbass go and the EU rejecting Zelensky, and told NATO 'you admit them, you pay for them!' All the while telling 'I scared off Vlad' to hooting pubs back home.
No angels, only more Open Society re-engineering, and more meddling and regime change in the name of 'showing 'em Rooshians, har har!' For what? Another Marshall Plan for a European interest paid for with American dollars?
Oh, I know you can't agree, we all serve the sides we serve. But people need to think about things before being railroaded into reacting.
#5
^ Well said. The American and Ukrainian peoples are getting played, God alone knows to what end. Lots of poor Ukrainians are going to be killed, for nothing. Lots of Americans are going to be made poorer, for nothing.
India and China will pick up the pieces from America's foolish decision to bring America's global dominance to an end.
Why your leaders are rushing forward in this mad way is a mystery. It's unfathomable to any rational student of international relations. American experts from all the best IR programs, most of your intelligence analysts and diplomats all recognized how foolish and self-destructive it was for America to encourage little rabbits in Ukraine to annoy Russia, but this is where we are.
It's a riddle. Sort of like the mystery as to why Britain, France, Tsarist Russia, Wilhelmina Germany etc rushed into the Great War that caused the end of Europe's global dominance.
I guess it's Biblical. Pride goeth before a fall - for hegemonic powers no less than for Fallen Man.
#7
@#3 Open source? It's just obvious to any economist or banker - these people are not brainwashed by hysterical West's propaganda. They can see the writing on the wall.
The only thing propping up US dominance today is the dollar as reserve currency. Does the US dominate anything in the real economy? Not even close. It's just one nation among many that have great resources. Most of the strategic resources are outside America's control.
Now even US universities are destroying America's scientific and engineering strength as well. Most of your great entrepreneurs and scientists were from India China Russia etc anyway. You're alienating most of the Chinese and Russian immigrants. Why the hell would anybody go to or remain in such an insane place like America now?
There's no better surer faster way to destroy that position than to show all the nation's of the world that the US is such an insane and unreliable hegemon that it will use the dollar like a nuclear weapon. To destroy any nation whose foreign policy it hates. To try to turn a great nation into another North Korea. For nothing.
It's the most bizarre thing we've ever seen. People are really strange I guess.
#8
"I mean you've got big guns, but you don't know jack about where to point them or why. I wish there was a polite way to say it"
America is a child in possession of big guns. Fire, ready, aim.
No other great power in history would have thrown away its power as America has since 1995. So many stupid interventions. In Serbia - to help Kosovar Liberation Army jihadi terrorists. In Iraq - to destroy Iran's rival and build up Iran. In Afghanistan - to help Pakistan ISI and Taliban take over and kick you out. In Libya - to trash the country. In Syria - to build up ISIL.
And again you intervene like a hysterical little adolescent girl, to try to punish one of your "enemies". A Christian nation that doesn't threaten you and that wants to be left alone, not threatened with your military alliance at its edge.
No nation in its right mind will any more trust the American child to use this nuclear economic weapon of dollar dominance. Start thinking, use common sense
#9
You want open source? Do you read Chinese or Russian or are you like 99% of monolingual Americans?
If you don't read other languages - I don't mean propaganda like in German etc western press, I mean Chinese - then at least try reading the Asian papers which are in English like asiatimes.com
Even Wall Street Journal reports today, CHINA SAYS IT WONT JOIN SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-02?mod=mhp
Oh here's Bloomberg podcast today
How the Russia-Ukraine War Threatens the Dollar's Dominance
Credit Suisse strategist tells Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast that the U.S. dollar has reached a critical inflection point.
#10
25% of the world's grain imports comes through the Black Sea, from Russia-Ukraine.
Look at the biggest countries to Russia's south. Turkey and Egypt rely on Black Sea RU-UA for 70% of their wheat imports. You really think these two large nations will let their children go hungry just to join more insane American sanctions? Do you think they're leaders are as stupid as America's leaders?
#11
Why would they? Russia supplies them with quality armaments, does not hold back on licensed to redesign or jointly develop. And does not sell goods for an arbitrarily inflated price by bribing their officials. You know who does that? Europe.
More than socialist ties both nations know what it is like to deal with the petridish called islamic terrorism. Also both have faced the hardships of building self sustaining economies despite obstruction, threats, interference, malice.
China, only the profit motive works for them, and maybe anything that they imagine helps their 'all under heaven' fantasy. And they own both American and European bureaucrats o it's good bet to assume they own Russian bureaucrats too. They have probably hedged their best both ways by now.
No I don't think that a larger economic bloc is possible. Just interdependence and unrestricted trade that will not be obstructed or held to ransom by the west. And anti-terrorist and war policies not subject to the whims of some commitee in Vienna or New York.
#12
China is refusing to join Uncle Sam's sanctions
India will not follow Uncle Sam
Turkey and Egypt will not join these sanctions
Brazil will not join these sanctions
and so on
Hoorah! You just created a rival bloc that will destroy dollar dominance
#13
Is Russia or China full of Indians working hard and sending paychecks back home? I know America is. What about call centers and other facilities built in India by Russia or China and employing Indians? India is far closer to America than it appears.
No matter what the Indian government says or does if push comes to shove these economic factors have to be considered.
#17
Gotta work harder - the ruble doesn't go as far as it used to...a couple weeks ago
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/02/2022 11:18 Comments ||
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#18
"Trolls" LOL
So stupid - you don't even see how your own leaders are destroying your country. It wasn't enough for them to stick you with a vaccine that's unsafe and doesn't work. You have to export your stupidity to the world's economy and destroy that too.
Do you even have any idea how many commodities Russia has and the rest of the non-western world imports from Russia? The Chinese know. So do the Indians. That's why they're going to join Russia and bring down the dollar.
Here's a partial list, correct your ignorance:
Wheat
Oil and gas
Coal
Titanium
Palladium
Potash for fertilizer
Nickel
Gold and diamonds
etc
You think you're isolating Russia because your stupid self-absorbed propaganda press tells you so.
The view from China and India - and Egypt and Turgey and Brazil and most of the rest of the world - is the total opposite of what western screaming press headlines suggest.
All America is doing now is to force the rest of the world to stop relying on dollars for their trade. Your foolish president going to destroy US hegemony and end dollar dominance
Stupidest foreign policy blunder since ... well since the last American foreign policy fuckup .. Afghanistan
or Syria
or Libya
or Iraq
#19
Man this is entertaining. That Rantburg deserves such attention says something boys. I guess we must have been 'mentioned in dispatches' that Langley fails to keep from their Russian counterparts (as though that hasn't happened normally).
#22
Tucker Carlson: "Much of the information about the war that you are ingesting uncritically has in fact been curated by the tech monopolies & yes by the intel agencies by the time it reaches your iPhone."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/02/2022 11:46 Comments ||
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#23
Surprised trolls bother, small audience.
Perhaps the cost of running a web crawler to find targets of interest has fallen. Perhaps Rantburg is more widely read than we (meaning me) realize.
#25
davidpgoldman is a good economist and a brilliant analyst of China and world events who is under no pressure to repeat all the bullshit or engage in the ritual virtue-signaling that his former colleagues in New York are now falling all over themselves to do
get outside your little echo chamber for once
the non-western world sees this exactly the OPPOSITE of how your little cheerleaders inside their cave want you to see it
All Biden the Fool is doing us impoverishing millions of Americans.
Their food bills will crush them - the wheat price is soaring
Their savings will erode even further than they have already
Interest rates will soar - so much for the American Dream of ever buys by a house
Higher input costs for everything will throw America into recession this year or next
This is like a disaster movie in slow motion.
All because your stupid president decided to tell Zelensky he could refuse Putin's offer
#29
Much worse is coming. how will the average American family afford to heat their houses and feed their children when you have hyperinflation?
Your president said yesterday, that he will bring down health care costs to seven percent of family's income. How? With whose money? You're already thirty trillion in debt.
Does anyone in Washington know how to do basic math? Oh that's right, your educational system has gone to shit and you have to import Russian and Chinese and Indian mathematicians
Posted by: Albert and Company2034 ||
03/02/2022 12:31 Comments ||
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#30
Does anyone in Washington know how to do basic math?
No. You just catch up on that? /rhetorical question
#32
I had no idea our RB voice had such disproportionate reach. Gosh dear proto-Tsarist/Cheka readers, I actually find that very refreshing. Oh, and I find your genuine command of English, idiom, current events and history impressive. That much effort and dedication signals less an affinity for all-things American and more about knowing the enemy you fear and seek to destroy. Some tings never change, just the techniques...
#34
"Some tings never change, just the techniques..."
Irey irey! Yeah mon, every little ting gon be alright
Posted by: Angusoting Lover of the Wee Folk5047 ||
03/02/2022 12:49 Comments ||
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#35
Your journalists can't even translate other languages properly. Financial Times got it wrong today - China foreign minister did NOT "deplore" the outbreak of conflict.
Here is @HuXijin_GT on twitter:
"Chinese FM Wang Yi didn’t “deplore” the outbreak of conflict. He used Chinese word “痛惜“, which means deeply grieved. More important, 痛惜 doesn’t include the meaning of criticism. Financial Times shouldn’t translate the word as “deplore”.
#37
"How? With whose money? You're already thirty trillion in debt."
2024 Republicans sweep into Congress humiliating the Democrats (a large chunk of whom aren't even running)
2028 Trump returns planning a balanced budget. He drills, he opens up pipelines and does the other things that go our economy humming and this time takes the deficit seriously. This time without so much Democrat interference along every step of the way. This time without half the world blanching at mean tweets and pretending the US is the greatest danger to the world.
Yes it'll be ugly along the way, but that's how it will happen.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/02/2022 13:31 Comments ||
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#39
looking at Voldemort's list of commodities
today
Oil up 8% or so
Wheat up 8% or so
the other commodities either aren't on the Mercantile exchange or they are up or down only modestly, e.g., Palladium up about 1%, nickel not on the exchange
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/02/2022 15:38 Comments ||
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#40
Johnson Matthey brokerage in Asia tracks spot prices for platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, other precious metals
#41
Look at the biggest countries to Russia's south. Turkey and Egypt rely on Black Sea RU-UA for 70% of their wheat imports. You really think these two large nations will let their children go hungry just to join more insane American sanctions?
I suspect that given the impact of what's happened already that they won't have to join the insane American sanctions to enjoy the benefits of a wheat shortage and its subsequent aftereffects.
#42
Much worse is coming. how will the average American family afford to heat their houses and feed their children when you have hyperinflation?
well, my hope is if we can kick out the pro-Russian faction that's in office now in DC, we can start drilling for ourselves again and be able to afford oil no matter what happens to the dollar.
#46
You dopes don't even understand how your global system works. If you don't own the reserve currency you won't be the top dog anymore. Your independence and your options will be sharply curtailed. Your people will be poorer. You will have to choose between an overpowering military and wild overspending on domestic priorities.
You'll have to suffer the consequences of economic decisions made elsewhere - by bankers and corporations and governments across the world especially in China
Do you understand?
The Indian guy in #4 above tried to explain it to you but you're too arrogant to listen to anyone outside your little propaganda echo chamber ... he said
#4 India may've been a greater ally if the west hadn't made a choice with moslems every time..
This one's just not our business. Only a fool would alienate from perfectly okay partners over hoopla about 'conquest' and 'fascism' created by media educated bleeding hearts and hypocrites.
Except for America who has a habit of getting dragged into shit for things totally insignificant to its actual citizen. Give them a bit of hubris to chomp on, a bit of McCarthyesque panic, copy pasted articles in the MSM, wind them up with floating heads in the teevee saying, 'Oh-a-real-man-would've-shown-Rooshia!' And watch 'em go.
There are no angels in this fight, except the innocent people being pressured and panicked by a mad regime in Kiev to fight to their deaths. Just so the Rada can become an under-office of Brussels and free from the 'non-democratic' authoritarianism of Moscow.
India has known this since the euromaidan protests when the Putin flunky was replaced with the globalist flunky, this has to end badly.
No angels, only more Open Society re-engineering, and more meddling and regime change in the name of 'showing 'em Rooshians, har har!' For what? Another Marshall Plan for a European interest paid for with American dollars?
Oh, I know you can't agree, we all serve the sides we serve. But people need to think about things before being railroaded into reacting.
#47
I think our troll has an ulterior motive - he must be hedging and is shorting against the dollar. This sounds a lot like the old boiler room approach to stock boards in an attempt at manipulation. He needs the dollar down so he can buy it back cheap and clear his short position.
#48
Could well be. I've seen the same tripe on zerohedge.
Riddle me this: Why should cutting off Russia, with a GDP less than that of Italy, and still growing shrinking, tank the dollar? In favor of what, the ruble? Pull the other one.
#49
Paranoid morons. No one with even a first semester MBA student's grasp of finance needs to be told how to make money now, so quit pissing your trousers
The dollar's decline will take a while, maybe two years or four or five. That's NOT how to make money now.
This is about ***power***, that is all. America is destroying its power base. You're so clueless you can't even connect the dots
#50
Thanks. Ask for a raise on your Ruble-salary. Soon.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/02/2022 20:32 Comments ||
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#51
I think our troll has an ulterior motive - he must be hedging and is shorting against the dollar.
Hell, I've been hedging against the Dollar for about four years now. And I'm poor! That still doesn't mean Putin's right, or we can suddenly save the dollar by sucking his dick. Biden's sucking his dick already, and all they can do is complain about it and threaten the dollar some more.
#52
frank, notice they don't actually engage with people, they don't argue back because that's a high effort thing. They just post the Current Argument.
That's why the pro-Putin trolls never actually respond to stuff like 'Hunter was employed by a bunch of Putin's cronies at Burisma...'
#53
Yep - bots with current AI talking points. You can spot the current talking points. "The Zelenskyy cabinet went out for dinner on YOUR credit card!" should be, what, Saturday?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/02/2022 20:44 Comments ||
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#55
2024 Republicans sweep into Congress humiliating the Democrats (a large chunk of whom aren't even running)
2028 Trump returns planning a balanced budget.
2022 and 2024, ruprecht, surely.
Mr. Trump planned on a balanced budget in 2016, but the senior Republicans were giddy at the thought of spending on their projects instead of Democrat ones, and snubbed him. So he had to make do with controlling where he could, and let the rest go until later. We’ll see if this round goes better.
#56
I think I should have kept my thoughts to myself. Sorry for giving evil mocker AI any ammo. My rant was not about 'You Americans, rrraaaa!' I have a deep connexion with America, suffice to say I have skin in the game.
I meant this is the view from afar, if you stand a little ways off from policy whisperers and baiters working as lobbyists and thinktanks goading Presidents and defence departments to look eastward while Uncle Soros and his ilk work on their domestic.
And I would never revel in any defeat or bumble America suffers, this whole thing is unfortunately happening all because the putsch was successful and traitors are in office. We haven't forgotten the Vindmans and the Sondlands and the current administration's interests in Ukraine. 'Toria Nuland and the regime change in Kiev? In fact the same machine that upended democracy itself to effect regime change within America, spent billions steadfastly supporting Zelensky's installation. Nobody here at Rantburg can seriously not ponder on this.
The idea is not to 'rub it in' or cheer what's happening. I just meant that some players see this as a necessary evil. Are they wrong? Maybe. Is evil ever necessary? To me, all the kingdoms of man are irreconcilably corrupt and not worth even getting het up about.
#57
You’re fine, Dron. You rather spiked the “all you ignorant, stupid Americans” line of attack by being from the far side of the world, and we know your rant came from loving frustration. You’ve been even more harsh about your own country — and I imagine you’d not be gentler about Russia.
We needn’t agree completely to be friends, my dear.
#59
No apologies, Dron! It was a good rant. At the very least, you laid out a position without name calling and curse words. Even better, we got an inside view from someone with skin in the game.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[IrishSavant] Well if you’re like me you’ve been taken aback by the scale and comprehensiveness of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It’s the boy who cried wolf all over again I suppose. However, a deeper analysis makes Putin’s move more understandable. I hadn’t been aware that Ukraine has become a de facto if not de jure NATO member, an absolute red line for Russia as Putin had made clear on numerous occasions. As he has pointed out the Ukrainian military control system has already been integrated into NATO and a network of airfields upgraded with US help which enables the rapid transportation of very large numbers of troops. Ukraine’s airspace is open to flights by US strategic and reconnaissance aircraft and drones that conduct surveillance over Russian territory. He added that the US-built Maritime Operations Centre in Ochakov makes it possible to support activity by NATO warships, including the use of precision weapons, against the Russian Black Sea Fleet and its supporting infrastructure.
India may've been a greater ally if the west hadn't made a choice with moslems every time over the interests of the subcontinent. And that's the root of all these troubles. I mean you've got big guns, but you don't know jack about where to point them or why. I wish there was a polite way to say it.
