Yuri Butusov is editor of the Ukrainian language news outlet Tsnesor.net
[Facebook] Defense of Kharkiv. What is going on?
Russian media often write as if Russian troops are fighting for Kharkiv, somewhere as if they are breaking through, some special forces are storming something. I was personally on the spot, and found out that Russian propaganda imitates non-existent success.
In fact, Kharkiv is completely controlled by the great forces of the Armed Forces and the National Guard, by the voluntary squads. The base of the defense is the glorious 92nd mechanical brigade and artillery units, they successfully control the entire perimeter of the defense.
Several Russian assault groups tried to break through on February 27, but they were interrupted and captured.
Since then, Russian troops have been avoiding contact fights. That is, there are no attacks, but attempts to disperse the joke and conduct our intelligence are determined and extinguished before the enemy approaches.
The enemy revoked from Ukrainian positions in Kharkiv for 2-3 kilometers - at the distance of Javelinív. Russian positions in the village of Rogan, they can't get close, because they are not left alone, but they beat.. Because any maneuvers get instant strikes of our artillery.
You feel special pride when you see how our warriors work together, how motivated they are, how constantly looking for opportunities to better "tripple" the opponent. Great difference compared to Russian troops, with crowds of non-motivated Russian prisoners.
The threat to Kharkiv is created exclusively terrorist shelling Russian artillery and aviation. Russian aviation strikes without analysis on military and civilian objects, terrorizes civilian population. Many residents are leaving the city, and it's clear.
But Kharkiv's defense does not weaken even from air strikes.
It's hard to put into words the motivation and willingness to fight to the end. The number of volunteers far exceeds the number of seats in the army and the terrorist. New weapons of NATO countries are coming.
Kharkiv now needs better coordination in the leadership of all defense forces and the needs of the PPO system to protect the city from Russian aviation terror. And the Russian army will receive total resistance when trying to storm the city.
Support for Kharkiv citizens of the Ukrainian army is at the highest level. Society is self-sufficient, a large number of people are not going to leave the city, and are fighting. Volunteers are sometimes more than jobs in the military.
Threats of Kharkiv exist, but I'm sure if the Russian army goes on a big storm, it will be an unprecedented defeat.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin
[ColonelCassad] 1. Mariupol. The city is blocked. Fighting on the outskirts. There is no direct assault yet. They are still trying to negotiate the withdrawal of civilians, but the Nazis will not refuse a human shield. There will be a storm one way or another.
2. Volnovakha. Surrounded. The stripping process is not fully captured yet. The enemy has very heavy losses,
3. Position near Donetsk. The attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (sally) on Gorlovka did not give any results, both sides suffered losses. The shelling of the territory of the DPR continues.
4. The liberation of the republic continues in the LPR. Svatovo and Novoaidar were liberated. The enemy retreats, abandoning his equipment. It will be kept only in Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, but they have already begun to process it there.
5. RF Armed Forces have occupied Balakleya and are moving towards Izyum. And there and Slavyansk not far. It is very likely that in the coming days, part of the forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that remained in the northern regions of the LPR and did not have time to retreat will be surrounded and liquidated.
6. Kharkov. The RF Armed Forces are already kept in semi-coverage. Fighting on the outskirts. In the city - the methodical destruction of enemy manpower and its organizational and command structure. Along the way, they continue to finish off the remaining military facilities.
7. RF Armed Forces approached Brovary. There is no direct assault yet. Battles near Chernigov, measures to establish full control over Konotop. Trostyanets is completely occupied. Sumy and Akhtyrka are still not completely controlled.
8. To the west of Kyiv, positional battles - the RF Armed Forces are pulling up additional forces. There are losses in equipment on both sides.
9. Zaporozhye direction. Battles near Vasilievka. Armed Forces of Ukraine are constantly pouring into the village. Energodar has not yet carried out a cleansing operation.
10. Kherson. The city was occupied at night by the troops of the RF Armed Forces. The local authorities eventually agreed. The city is relatively calm.
11. In the region of Nikolaev, fighting continues to block the city, which has not yet been achieved. The situation in the area of the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog highway is unclear. Helicopter landing in the area of Nikolaev. One of the bridges was blown up near Voznesensk.
12. No one landed in Odessa as usual. In the morning, Russian ships appeared on the horizon, then they withdrew. Beyond the horizon, something smoked. Perhaps there was another naval battle with the remaining boats of the Ukrainian Navy, which, after the battle at Zmeiny, went to Odessa. (later it turned out that a foreign cargo ship was smoking, something might have arrived)
So far, there are no details. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine asks Zelensky to achieve a pause in hostilities, since the city is not covered from the land direction and is not ready to repel the attack of Russian columns bypassing Nikolaev from the north.
From a completely fresh, completely wild story in Vasilkovo, where the local Volkssturm staged a massacre at a local school. 4 Volkssturmists killed 14 other Volkssturmists, policemen and civilians.
Ukropropaganda hastened to announce that they were "Russian saboteurs" who rushed into the basement of the school (yes, everything happened at the school), where there were 300 children, protecting whom all these idiots died. This is what giving out weapons to random people leads to. Yesterday, in the same area, Volkssturmists looted 2 collection vehicles.
In this case, Russian propaganda doesn’t even need to try, just show yourself this bloody trash, which says a lot about the Volkssturm and those who created it in this form.
PS. Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will be held tomorrow in Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
Lavrov outlined the negotiating position of the Russian Federation:
⚡️I don’t rule out that someone wanted Russia to get bogged down in a man-made, Western-created conflict in Ukraine
⚡️Russian demands on Ukraine cannot be qualified as its surrender, Moscow offers to negotiate
⚡️If the West decided to lower a new “iron curtain” in front of Russia, we won’t we will worry and find an opportunity to develop
⚡️The task of the operation in Ukraine is to identify specific types of strike weapons that will never be deployed there
⚡️After the end of the conflict, Ukrainians themselves must decide how to live on
⚡️Kiev has not yet confirmed the second round of consultations with the Russian Federation
⚡️NATO is trying to involve neutral countries - members of the European Union in meeting their needs
⚡️Moscow is amazed by Berlin's comments on Ukraine and arms supplies
⚡️Russia during the second round of negotiations with Ukraine is ready to discuss the issue of security guarantees
⚡️Zelensky came to power under the slogans of peace, in the end he became a Russophobe, like the Poroshenko government
⚡️Ukraine has a technical potential to create a nuclear weapon, the Russian Federation will not allow this
⚡️Russia is 100% “successful” in the current situation
⚡️The current situation has developed due to the fact that the West refused to recognize equal rights for the Russian Federation in organizing the European security architecture
⚡️The parameters of the demilitarization of Ukraine have yet to be agreed
⚡️ Moscow will not discuss the topic of Crimea, this topic is closed.
⚡️The West in its sanctions against Russia, including the seizure of assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, did not give a damn about all its principles.
⚡️The purpose of the ongoing operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine is to protect people, primarily in the Donbass.
⚡️Russia is now observing "information terrorism" with the stuffing of millions of fakes, which Moscow exposes.
⚡️Russia's position in negotiations with Ukraine: Crimea is part of the Russian Federation, recognition of the DPR and LPR within administrative boundaries, demilitarization, which must have certain parameters.
⚡️Ukraine must go through the denazification procedure, like Germany did in the past.
⚡️During the special operation, we do everything to prevent any serious civilian casualties.
⚡️Russia cannot watch how participants in torchlight processions march under fascist, neo-Nazi banners in modern Europe.
⚡️Russia offers Ukraine an agreement that will ensure the legal rights of all the peoples of this country.
In fact, these are all the same requirements as at the beginning of the operation. Ukrainian sources claim that by March 2, Zelensky was already ready to recognize Crimea and the LDNR within the borders before the start of the operation. But of course this will not suit the Russian Federation, the game is not worth the candle. Incurring significant costs for the operation and from sanctions pressure, from the situation in Ukraine, it is necessary to take the maximum possible result.
UPD: The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has officially announced the losses in Ukraine since the beginning of the operation.
The RF Armed Forces have 498 killed. The Armed Forces of Ukraine - 2,870 killed and 3700 wounded.
The political elite of the city entered into negotiations with the Russian Federation, the territorial defense and points of resistance of the Bandera-Shukhevych army were destroyed. There are already many personnel controlling the city by the Russian military. But I would note how considerate the Russians are towards the population - like liberators. In this video, a Russian warns a Kherson resident and tells him to hide.
Now it will be like Melitopol, quiet, calm, the streets are full of lighting and patrols of people's squads from marauders. It is known that the Russians will be preparing military administrations and many current officials will be asked to continue their duties.
From the news on this topic - the mayor of Konotop very actively persuaded the inhabitants of the city that either the city surrenders or there will be a military operation in it. From the facial expressions of the mayor, it was clear that he did not want to expose the townspeople to this risk, but most of the population is still under the influence of Bandera-Shukhevych propaganda and euphoria.
The whole situation in Ukraine rests on three “pillars”, where a huge number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is concentrated.
1. Kharkov, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine pulled their forces 4 days before the hostilities.
2. Mariupol, where there was always a huge amount of Azov.
3. Kiev, where all reserves were pulled from western Ukraine. As soon as two of this list fall, the domino principle is immediately possible.
#1
I was told today from a good source that Ukraine was operating 10 labs like Wuhan. Currently Putin has destroyed 7 labs. The only response I get from anti Putin types is that he was buddies with Trump. End of conversation.
[NewLeftReview] Accounting for the descent of the European state system into the barbarism of war — for the first time since NATO’s 1999 bombing of Belgrade — needs more than lay psychiatry. What made Russia and ’the West’ engage in an unrelenting wrestling match on the edge of the abyss, with both sides eventually falling off the cliff? As we live through these monstrous weeks, we understand better than ever what Gramsci must have meant by an interregnum: a situation ’in which the old is dying and the new cannot be born’, one in which ’a great variety of morbid symptoms appear’, like powerful countries turning their future over to the uncertainties of a battlefield clouded in the fog of war.
Nobody knows at the time of writing how the war over Ukraine will end, and after what amount of bloodshed. What we can try to speculate about at this point is what the reasons may have been — and human actors have reasons, however crankish they may seem to others — for the uncompromising brinkmanship on the part of both the US and Russia. What a scene: escalating confrontation, rapidly dwindling possibilities for either side to save face short of total victory, ending with Russia’s murderous assault on a neighbouring country with which it once shared a common state.
Here we find remarkable parallels, as well as the obvious asymmetries, since both Russia and the United States have long been facing the creeping decay of both their national social order and international position, apparently making them feel that they must halt it now or else it will continue forever. In the Russian case, what one sees is a regime both statist and oligarchic, confronting growing unrest among its citizens, rich in oil and corruption, unable to improve the lives of its ordinary people while its oligarchs are getting immeasurably rich, a regime increasingly turning towards the use of a heavy dictatorial hand against any organized protests. To sit more comfortably than one can on bayonets requires stability derived from economic prosperity and social progress, in turn dependent on global demand for the oil and gas Russia has to sell. For this, however, it needs access to financial markets and advanced technology, which the US had for some time begun to deny.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Summary: a Marxist analyst from New Left Review tries to fit the current situation into a Gramscian frame, fails, spills 50,000 words spewing ironic scorn at all involved, ends up with "Time will tell"
#2
You didn't actually engage with any ideas or make any arguments. That's just a personal insult. People who answer with insults don't have any arguments. Otherwise they'd make them.
How about addressing this point:
"For the US, refusing Russian demands for security guarantees was a convenient way to shore up the unconditional allegiance of European countries to NATO, an alliance that had become shaky in recent years. This concerned especially France, whose president had not long ago diagnosed NATO to be as ’brain-dead’, but also Germany with its new government whose leading party, the SPD, was considered too Russian-friendly. There was also unfinished business regarding a gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2. Merkel, in tandem with Schröder, had invited Russia to build it, hoping to fill the gap in German energy supply expected to result from the FRG’s Sonderweg running out of coal and nuclear power. The US opposed the project, as did many others in Europe, including the German Greens. Among the reasons were fears that the pipeline would make Western Europe more dependent on Russia, and that it would be impossible for Ukraine and Poland to interrupt Russian gas deliveries should Moscow be found to misbehave.
The confrontation over Ukraine, by restoring European allegiance to American leadership, solved this problem in no time."
War, what is it good for? Profit for the oil industry! Don't buy Russian gas, buy ours!
#3
Profit for the oil industry! Don't buy Russian gas, buy ours!
A good idea for America, even without war. And without war, Russia could have easily sold more of their oil and gas to other customers instead — like China, Japan, India, Europe, etc. The world is coming out of a Covid-caused economic slowdown, so demand for Russian oil will only increase... or would have, before countries started boycotting Russia over Ukraine.
#8
Once again nobody has been able to refute any of the arguments made.
Because there aren't any. The facts are here.
Would an alliance between China and Russia be an unintended result of American incompetence, or on the contrary, an intended result of American global strategy? If Moscow were to team up with Beijing, there would be no prospect anymore for a Russian-European settlement à la francaise. Western Europe, in whatever political form, would more than ever function as the transatlantic wing of the United States in a new cold or, perhaps, hot war between the two global power blocs, the one declining, hoping to reverse the tide, the other hoping to rise.
Wouldn't that be hilarious if this drove China into the arms of Russia? They're not natural allies. But let me tell you - their university students don't have 48 different genders and are not required to write diversity statements before commencing research.
And Europeans just love kowtowing to America on every topic. Don't believe me, just ask them!
#9
Russia cannot trust China. Nobody, as we have discovered during the Wuhan flu shut down, can trust China. Trusting China is good way to become owned by China.
Demand for oil is largely inelastic.
As the price drops, demand increases. As the world economy heats up, demand increases. When the price goes up, demand decreases.
That must be why Ukraine is now asking CHINA, not the US or anyone in Europe, to step in and broker a cease-fire.
We know none of you can read Chinese but for God's sake, at least try to step out of your little caves and just read your own non-yellow (pun intended) press.
You people are so desperate to believe the garbage you've been force-fed, you can't even see reality when it hits you between the eyes.
Go on, keep believing that China will not emerge the big winner from this crisis created by American stupidity and Russian desperation.
#11
Despite some problems, we view our relationship with America as one of friends and allies. We'll have to do a bit more but we've just decided we will.
Neutrality is not an option. Ukraine was a neutral country. And Finland is just wondering whethe rneutrality still is a good idea.
Adenauer once said: "Wir wählen die Freiheit!" (We choose freedom).
We still do.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/03/2022 14:05 Comments ||
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#12
Profit for the oil industry! Don't buy Russian gas, buy ours!
Meanwhile, Putin literally floats on an ocean of money from the people who said "Unemploy people in America to benefit Russia!" and now want to pretend to be Brave Cold Warriors.
#13
Nobody can trust the US. American presidents kept on teasing the Ukrainians with NATO membership - and then pulling back the football while Ukrainian Charlie Brown leaped and fell on his head, again and again.
So now Ukraine is wrecked and thousands of Ukrainians are dead. For NOTHING. Because they trusted America.
Now do you understand why the Ukrainian government wants China to step in?
#14
^ Today's talking points. Issued from Russia with Love.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2022 14:11 Comments ||
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#15
Russia is doing now what Israel does repeatedly in southern Kabanin or Gaza and what the Chinese did to Vietnam in the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979.
Punish the hostile neighbor by wrecking the country, and warn the greater power behind it -- Iran, or the USSR in Vietnam's case in 1979 -- that there is a severe price to pay for ducking with Israel's / China's security.
Yes, the Chinese like the Israelis suffer setbacks and lose men and materiel. But the lesson is taught.
And in China's case, the second order effects were extremely positive over the long term:
"Although the Vietnamese remained pugnacious – a national trait – the war made clear that their Soviet patron would not fight to defend them. The USSR’s only contribution to the conflict was a supply airlift. Deng had bluffed and called, and the Soviets folded.
"Obviously the PLA accomplished its mission, but the Vietnamese had taught the Chinese a lesson on the battlefield – one that Deng used for his own larger purpose.
"The lessons of the war allowed Deng to sweep out the ossified Maoist old guard and embark on the modernization and professionalization of the PLA.
"The result today is technologically advanced, operationally sound and strategically sophisticated Chinese armed forces to match the country’s emergence as an economic giant."
#16
Substitute Ukraine for Vietnam and the US for the USSR:
"Although the Vietnamese Ukrainians remained pugnacious – a national trait – the war made clear that their Soviet American patron would not fight to defend them.
Also note the second-order effects:
"The lessons of the war allowed Deng to sweep out the ossified Maoist old guard and Putin to embark on the modernization and professionalization of the PLA Russian military-industrial complex, including creating its own semiconductor manufacturing industry, accelerating its AI cyber warfare development and creating a Sino-Russian alliance that more than half the world's nations flocked to as a way of getting out from America's thumb.
#17
To paraphrase Yogi Berra: "Everything is exactly the same, except when it's completely different..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/03/2022 14:45 Comments ||
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#18
"Nobody can trust the US. American presidents kept on teasing the Ukrainians with NATO membership - and then pulling back the football "
So why is Russia afraid Ukraine might join if this is never going to happen anyway?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/03/2022 14:54 Comments ||
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#19
Britain and France prevailed in WWI - and their (and Europe's) hegemony over the world was destroyed forever. The US took over Britain's role and the American Century began.
Now the American Century's finished.
Yes, Russia will suffer, Ukraine is torn apart and will be even poorer and more miserable than it was before the war (they were even poorer than most of Africa), and the US post Cold War hegemony will have ended.
#21
Iran has held out successfully against US pressure for decades - without a powerful ally. With such an ally, Israel has held out against international pressure for decades.
Now Russia will simply adapt the lessons and techniques that these two nations have evolved, and create a way to get along, with the help of China and India and dozens of non-western trading partners, in opposition to a US that is rapidly becoming just one great power among several.
#26
You're hilarious. You sit here calling your friends "Ivan" and bleating "TROLL!!!" while your own leaders quietly sell yet another friend down the river.
Normal people see yet another betrayal - par for the course for the Obama-Biden-Blinken team. Here's Michael P Pregent
@MPPregent on twitter:
"While Putin's invasion of Ukraine is on every mind, the Biden team is courting Putin to make a deal with Iran while no one is looking.
"A deal that will give Iran a bomb by 2024 and gives Iran sanctions relief now that frees up oil for cash to pay Putin for weapons & Syria. The Iran deal punishes Israel and Sunni allies"
#27
Team Biden is buying millions of barrels of Russian oil.
Team Biden (Rob Malley) is at this moment about to sign a new JCPOA in Vienna.
They are literally asking Russia to help Iran build up its military -- and acquire nukes.
And doing this behind your backs. While they pretend to bash Russia -- but not, of course, providing any meaningful assistance to Ukraine that will make any difference at all.
Now do you see why Biden said helping ***IRANIANS*** instead of Ukrainians on Tuesday night?
When will you little children stop being so fucking blind?
#29
BZZZZT! Timeclock punchout time comrades. Start again 12AM EST. Remember to anonymize your nyms so nobody can tell...not so fast, there, Omomulette
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2022 21:06 Comments ||
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#30
The 'Burg has certainly been attracting some unusual traffic lately. It's a fascinating phenomenon.
#31
Did he say Russia China India Turkey Egypt?
He meant Russia China India Turkey Egypt and South Africa
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/world/africa/russia-ukraine-eritrea-africa.html
Wow, didn’t know Robert McNamara was a pro-Russia Putinbot. You learn something new every day. Should tell you something that a who’s who of deep state ghouls knew all this was bad, and still nothing changed.
June 26, 1997
Dear Mr. President,
We, the undersigned, believe that the current U.S.led effort to expand NATO, the focus of the recent Helsinki and Paris Summits, is a policy error of historic proportions. We believe that NATO expansion will decrease allied security and unsettle European stability for the following reasons:
In Russia, NATO expansion, which continues to be opposed across the entire political spectrum, will strengthen the nondemocratic opposition, undercut those who favor reform and cooperation with the West, bring the Russians to question the entire post-Cold War settlement, and galvanize resistance in the Duma to the START II and III treaties; In Europe, NATO expansion will draw a new line of division between the "ins" and the "outs," foster instability, and ultimately diminish the sense of security of those countries which are not included;
In NATO, expansion, which the Alliance has indicated is open-ended, will inevitably degrade NATO’s ability to carry out its primary mission and will involve U.S. security guarantees to countries with serious border and national minority problems, and unevenly developed systems of democratic government;
In the U.S., NATO expansion will trigger an extended debate over its indeterminate, but certainly high, cost and will call into question the U.S. commitment to the Alliance, traditionally and rightly regarded as a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy.
Because of these serious objections, and in the absence of any reason for rapid decision, we strongly urge that the NATO expansion process be suspended while alternative actions are pursued. These include:
—opening the economic and political doors of the European Union to Central and Eastern Europe;—developing an enhanced Partnership for Peace program;
—supporting a cooperative NATO-Russian relationship; and
—continuing the arms reduction and transparency process, particularly with respect to nuclear weapons and materials, the major threat to U.S. security, and with respect to conventional military forces in Europe.
Russia does not now pose a threat to its western neighbors and the nations of Central and Eastern Europe are not in danger. For this reason, and the others cited above, we believe that NATO expansion is neither necessary nor desirable and that this ill-conceived policy can and should be put on hold.
#1
Yeah, sure they're all Putinbots (before anyone ever heard the name Putin). Meet the bots;
George Kennan, greatest diplomat and moscfanous abskysus if RU foreign policy, in 1998: NATO expansion "would set in motion ... the beginning of a new cold war... the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else.”
Clinton's Russia expert Strobe Talbott opposed NATO expansion: "Many Russians see Nato as a vestige of the cold war, inherently directed against their country. They point out that they have disbanded the Warsaw Pact, their military alliance, and ask why the west should not do the same.”
Ambassador Jack Matlock opposed BATO expansion.
Prof. Stephen F Cohen opposed it vigorously up to his death. Prof. Robert Legvold and Prof. Robert Jervis of Columbia opposed it. Sen. Bill Bradley traveled across Russia and came back opposed to NATO expansion.
Diplomat and then CIA Director Bill Burns reported in 2008 that "Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin)." In his 2008 memo to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bill Burns wrote, “In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, from knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin’s sharpest liberal critics, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests.”
Prof. John Mearsheimer has put out the best video - 13 million views and climbing daily - about why the Ukraine Crisis is The West's Fault
#2
A compilation of all the warnings by our best thinkers over the last few decades:
https://mobile.twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1498491107902062592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/03/2022 2:33 Comments ||
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#4
Russia sure is pumping out the talking points.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/03/2022 7:04 Comments ||
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#5
and it's NOT WORKING
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2022 7:05 Comments ||
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#6
^ Lots of pent-up demand to feel "exceptional." Talk vs walk, boys...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/03/2022 7:06 Comments ||
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#7
Saying IT'S TEH PUTINPROPAGANDAAAAA! isn't engaging with any ideas or refuting any points. This is what you say when you have no arguments, and the evidence presented is causing cognitive dissonance.
#8
We're not trained seals having to push back on talking point lies every time you puke some up. I get it, this IS your job.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2022 7:28 Comments ||
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#9
We usually have the bug man come every year. Never see too many bugs. Bug threat is greatly diminished.
If we had the bug man come every month, we'd probably see about the same number of bugs....but the bug man and the chemical company would become rich and love us.
#11
Ivan doesn't get it.
In the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, the oration by Edward Everett took two hours. Lincoln gave his 'Gettysburg Address' taking only a few minutes. I doubt anyone can remember the oration, but the address like its author is still part of Americana.
#12
"Ivan"?
You mean your entire security and intellectual establishment, including CIA Directors, US diplomats, US scholars from across the political spectrum -- literally everyone who ever analyzed this said that threatening Russia's existence by expanding NATO was the stupidest mistake the US and the West could possibly make.
And you clowns still pretend that these people - your best, most accomplished, most respected diplomats and scholars and spymasters - you pretend your own wise men are "trolls." Yep. Keep deluding yourselves.
Which one was the lie? This was written by foreign policy elites 25 years ago and it predicted what just happened. They warned us, and what do you know they were right.
Please point out where the lie is. If you can. Which you can't, and that's why the insults are being used instead of arguments.
ex-Soviet satellites started pounding on the door to be let in.
If this actually happened, we shouldn't have let them in. Admitting them was just going to lead to a war. Which it did. We have to think in terms of "what's good for America" not what's good for foreigners on the other side of the planet who despise us anyway.
#18
Even worse. Biden and his people actually encouraged Ukraine to hope for NATO membership. Deliberately creating false hope caused Zelensky to walk away from the Minsk II agreement he signed.
Now ironically the only alternative to having tens of thousands of his people killed is for Zelensky and the US to restore Minsk II. After having his ass kicked on the battlefield and thousands of innocents slain.
Had Biden - Mr. "Well, sonofabitch! He did what I told him to!" - had the US president forced Zelensky to actually live up to the Minsk II promises of autonomy for Donbas, and told the Russians that we would agree to forswear NATO membership for Ukraine, Biden could have prevented the crisis from ever happening.
#20
threatening Russia's existence by expanding NATO
Category error. Expanding NATO does not threaten Russia's existence.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/03/2022 11:38 Comments ||
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#21
had the US president forced Zelensky to actually live up to the Minsk II promises of autonomy for Donbas, and told the Russians that we would agree to forswear NATO membership for Ukraine
If only Putin got everything he wanted!
Note that those steps involve giving away territory and blocking them from joining a defensive alliance. Why would any nation be expected to go along with that?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/03/2022 11:42 Comments ||
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#22
They tried to add Georgia to NATO. That was before Georgia attacked Ossetia. They got their asses handed to them. Just imagine if they'd been a part of NATO, they'd have dragged us in with them.
#23
Can't all those Russian trolls stick to one name?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/03/2022 12:57 Comments ||
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#24
blocking them from joining a defensive alliance.
???
Since when is NATO a defensive alliance? Where'd you get this data from? Name the last time it united to defend the territory of its member states. It's never happened. Even Afghanistan was the invasion of another country (and they lost the war).
"NATO is a crisis management organisation that has the capacity to undertake a wide range of military operations and missions."
Go ahead and look that page up and down and tell me where it says anything about being a defensive alliance. It's such an easy argument to destroy when you have facts on your side.
#25
Afghanistan was in defense of the United States, asshat.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/03/2022 16:18 Comments ||
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#26
#23 For them, this is what passes as OPSEC
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/03/2022 16:37 Comments ||
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#27
Russian-speaking top US diplomat and CIA Director Bill Burns to Condi Rice, after the foolish Bucharest summit promise in 2008:
"In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, from knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin’s sharpest liberal critics, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests.”
Go on, little sheep, deny it all you like. Ignore the fact that no American (aside from maybe Rep. Tlaib) would dream of allowing China to place its missiles and bombers in Mexico or Canada.
Ignore Kissinger. Ignore Mearsheimer. Ignore Kennan. Ignore every single one of your ambassadors, CIA station chiefs, historians and scholars of international relations. Ignore them all, and pretend that Americans and westerners who call out your current regime's fools on their madness is somehow a "bot" or a "tool." You know nothing, have learned nothing, and you will inherit the wind.
#28
...actually, a million Chinese study English about every night. It is still the common language of science, technology, medicine, aviation, etc to include you wonderful posters here. I'm sure it will go the way of Latin or Greek, but it will be a while.
#30
While you weren't looking... Biden's boy in Vienna is about to sign the JCPOA. It's hilarious: they're begging **Russia** to help **Iran** build up Iran's military as a way of inducing those Russkies you hate to sign on to their deal.
Israelis expect the deal to be signed any day. Behind your backs. And stabbing yet another ally in the back.
#32
Hilarious ... here's former State Dept analyst Gabriel Noronha:
"1. NEW: My former career @StateDept, NSC, and EU colleagues are so concerned with the concessions being made by @RobMalley in Vienna that they’ve allowed me to publish some details of the coming deal in the hopes that Congress will act to stop the capitulation.
🤣
2. “What’s happening in Vienna is a total disaster” one warned. The entire negotiations have been filtered and “essentially run” by Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov.
The concessions and other misguided policies have led three members of the U.S. negotiating team to leave.
*shrug* I started studying Mandarin in 1997 against probable future need, after Mr. Wife came home with an urgent request from his management to take over the R&D group in Beijing the following Monday. Fortunately, it fell through — we’d been back in the U.S. for less than two months at that point, and that week had moved into the new house and the trailing daughters started their new school, so it was much too soon to move them to a third continent — children need more time. Both later studied Japanese, which gave them a foundation in Chinese kanji against future need. The languages thing has provided us quiet amusement when among foreigners who blithely assume Americans are monolingual. For perspective, the exurban public school district I live in reports forty different native languages among the students, with the top three being Spanish, Vietnamese, and Arabic. Both Russian and the Chinese dialects are in the top ten. But then, in the 2000 national census it was reported that 20% of Americans spoke a language other than English at home, so we’ve been that way for quite some time.
#34
Hey Wife: Better start learning Russian and Farsi. And hop a flight to Wien.
Those three US cookie-pushers who just bugged out of Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov's JCPOA bazaar in Vienna need to hand off their Kick Me signs to someone. Viennese German not required. They speak 'merikin.
#35
While you weren't looking... Biden's boy in Vienna is about to sign the JCPOA.
Boychik, you need to research your targets better. Reports about the JCPOA travesty has consistently been on Rantburg’s Page 2: War on Terror Background/Politics since President Barack Hussein Obama first mused aloud about the possibility. ”Biden’s boy in Vienna” has been about to pointlessly sign the thing for weeks — Iran is the hold-up for obvious reasons, the American side of the table.
here's former State Dept analyst Gabriel Noronha
Saw that when it was first tweeted. Nice of them to be concerned, but it would have been nicer still if they’d reared up on their hind legs years ago. Or in early 2021, when President Biden’s people revived the thing. Now their concern accomplishes nothing.
#36
No, dear heart, this is new. This isn't your keyboard generals linking to shit. This is a State Dep't insider spilling all the beans on the filth going down right now in Vienna in real time
A deal which the US diplomats describe as being LED BY THE RUSSIAN LEAD DIPLOMAT. With arms sales from Russia to Iran to close the deal.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
And your man just gave the biggest soeech of the year and mixed up Iranians and Ukrainians.
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Poor Slow Joe. Just gave away the wag the dog plan.
Who'd have thunk egging on Russia to attack was all about helping ... Iran?
How much money is being kicked back to Hunter und Vater?
#38
That’s Mrs. Wife, actually. I followed Mr. Wife halfway round the world and back again in the course of his career, acquiring several souvenir daughters along the way.
I’ve been to Vienna. Pretty city, great food, the feel everywhere of having once been the center of an empire and happy to no longer have the responsibility. My German was fine for Germany and Switzerland, and combined with English led easily to Flemish and Dutch, but Austrian German is unintelligible to the uninitiate. Possibly that’s why President Obama thought it was a separate language, poor man.
Russian would be fun — I wanted to take some classes at university when I was younger, assuming that those dreadful Russian novels had to be better in the original language, but there weren’t enough of us. And later Mr. Wife managed his Russian responsibilities out of his company’s offices in Frankfurt and Brussels, so there was no need. But a number of other Rantburgers can converse with you in your native tongue, if that would be easier for you. ;-)
As for Farsi, with their birthrate and their apparent eagerness to challenge Allah’s love by triggering a Samson event from Israel, it seems a waste of effort. If I really need to understand something, I have Iranian friends who can translate.
#39
Troll Pro-Tip: Don't take your payment in Rubles
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2022 21:07 Comments ||
Top||
#40
I mean, Jesus, when Reagan and pastryman Bob MacFarland did their Iran-Contra deal at least the arms were flowing to fight the communists.
Now your idiot leaders are pretending to fight Russia -- and letting the RUSSIANS SELL ARMS TO IRAN so they can fight your supposed ally.
This is beyond parody.
Laugh? Cry?
Why not both?
😄😰😂😢😁😭😄😰😂😢😁😭😄😰😂😢😁😭
#43
Frankie, you should compliment your Sec'y of State's slip: lavender with pink piping, and of the finest silk
Posted by: Whasing Oppressor of the French4257 ||
03/03/2022 21:17 Comments ||
Top||
#44
heh. Nice catch, Ivan
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2022 21:22 Comments ||
Top||
#45
tw:tl;dr
That’s okay — not everything I say fascinates everyone. ;-)
Cute, gentlemen. Although if I could recommend lavender silk with cream piping instead — the pink in combination is a bit jeune fille for a gentleman supposed to be one of the most powerful in the world.
[Big League Politics] JANUARY 17: A newly released document featuring data pertaining to adverse reactions following a round of Pfizer’s Covid-19 inoculations has been making rounds on the internet.
Details of the document were damning, revealing a massive number of observed adverse reactions beginning on page 30. The list is exhaustive, continuing seemingly endlessly until its conclusion about 8 pages later.
It appears that much of the information in the document was hidden from the public in the past, with a blurb on the first page explaining that "dissemination of this information outside of Pfizer, its Affiliates, its Licensees, or Regulatory Agencies is strictly prohibited."
#2
The adverse events including deaths during the trial period are worse than this article implies. There are plenty of articles from reliable sources studying the CDC documents showing the mRNA jabs should not have been permitted.
#3
It's over. The mask and vax mandates are going away. They will try to keep the vaxx mandates on a small subset (healthcare workers) but that will also end in a whimper.
The demand for booster shots will be so poor without a mandate that the pharma outfits will quietly exit the business of making them.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/03/2022 7:04 Comments ||
Top||
#4
^
I don't know. Permanently changing your DNA is kinda permanent.
#6
I don't want to come off like (r) on this issue. There is plenty of info out there to support concern of the side effects of the vax. Go find it yourself, or not.
#7
Had facial surgery for a skin cancer Monday evening. They didn't even squeak about getting a booster, but pushed the flu vax
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2022 7:24 Comments ||
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#8
Not everyone took the mRNA vaxx. If they never do, that's kind of permanent too...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/03/2022 7:29 Comments ||
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#9
Very interesting that there is a documented tie between the PF-VAX-19 and Chromosome 1p36 deletion syndrome that causes intellectual disability issues.
Kinda a permanent Adult Covid Brain Fog condition...Which is normally a 1 in 5k+ BIRTH DEFECT, and normally not an issue acquired after birth.
#11
I'm not looking to win. I just wish nobody lost in the mess that just passed. If some lessons are learned (doubtful) then at least some good comes out of it, eh?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/03/2022 7:57 Comments ||
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#12
Lesson Learned?
Atomic Soldiers
Agent Orange
Gulf War Syndrome
they never learn because 'we meant well' is their 'I was just obeying orders' get out of jail card. It's no different as with catch and release (no bond) programs just with guys in better suits.
#13
Your government lied to you and took billions (is still taking billions) from a corrupt US corporation that unleashed a failed vaccine on the world. A cure that literally is worse than the disease. And then the US government lied about it. Now the face of the operation, the little Doctor Fauci, has disappeared. The American president didn't even say anything in his speech the other day - the speech that's supposed to recount all his administration's accomplishments. Because this lying and corrupt government has no accomplishments.
Meanwhile three countries comprising over 3 billion people that resisted this failed vaccine pushed on them by the US Government of Pfizer are spared what the American people are realizing, to their horror, was forced upon them. China and Russia and India didn't need Pfizer's money and don't trust Biden or Fauci or any other fools America throws up.
Those three countries are not going to suffer the millions of deaths and who knows how many millions of serious adverse reactions that the Pfizersphere countries' populations are now suffering. And will suffer for another generation now that you've fucked with people's genes.
How can anyone test anything American government and its propaganda press puts out after this horrific and insane mass experiment they inflicted on half the world?
#17
articles from reliable sources studying the CDC documents showing the mRNA jabs should not have been permitted.
These will be widely publicized - as Trump's vaccine - when needed for election reasons.
#18
"Gates and his evil henchmen are working on an aerosolized delivery system for the vaxx."
When will you seize your own oligarchs' assets? Gates and his failed vaccine crusade have done more damage to the world's population than all the Russians put together. When will he meet the fate he deserves?
#19
Keeping an eye on a couple things here:
There is an unconfirmed by me report from UK
The lack of a series of due reports
Sudden death of a high profile college soccer player
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.
[Big League Politics] JANUARY 17: A newly released document featuring data pertaining to 
