Rex Tillerson meets with Foreign Minister Lavrov and President Putin

Finally, they met. Rex Tillerson spent several hours speaking with Foreign Minister Lavrov and, after that, with President Putin. Tillerson and Lavrov then held a rather bizarre joint press conference in which Tillerson mantrically repeated all the nonsense we are now used to hear about Russia while Lavrov logically demolished each US argument one by one. I suppose I could discuss the entire press conference word by word, but it wasn’t that interesting and, besides, I expect Tillerson to suffer from the “Kerry syndrome”: being on his best behavior while in Moscow only to turn rabid again as soon as he is back in DC. Still, those interested can read the full transcript of the press confence here.

Let me just summarize why, all in all, this trip is not bad news (can’t quite call it “good news” either)

For one thing – when two superpowers are talking to each other they are usually trying to avoid an escalation. Second, Tillerson met with Putin. If Tillerson had come to Moscow just to deliver the usual torrent of threats and accusations he would not have been seen by Putin (or, for that matter, by Lavrov). This means that something of some substance was discussed. Not agreed upon, but at least discussed. Third, while both parties admitted that they had plenty of differences, they did signal that they wanted an improvement in relations. I think that the following sentence by Tillerson is absolutely crucial:

I expressed the view that the current state of U.S.-Russia relations is at a low point and there is a low level of trust between our two countries. The world’s two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship.

I fully understand that coming from somebody most likely already infected with the “Kerry Syndrome” this might not be much. But, friends, this is better than nothing!

Please get me right: I am so horrified by the rabid insanity of the Trump administration that at this point I will be grateful to God “just” if there is not direct war between the USA and Russia. That is the only thing I still hold some hope for. Because other than that, the picture is very, very gloomy.

In prototypical Neocon-style, the Americans have completely painted themselves into a corner. They have made SO MANY frankly stupid statements about Syria and Assad that they simply cannot backtrack any more. Just like there is exactly ZERO chance that the Americans will ever accept an independent and honest investigation into what really happened during the latest chemical incident (I don’t call it an “attack” because I am not even sure that there was an attack). This is like 9/11 – there is NO WAY the US Nomenklatura will EVER allow an independent investigation into that event either. They are fully committed. They cannot go back now.

I often get the feeling that the Americans, knowing full well how wrong they are, often deliberately paint themselves into a corner just to be in a way “protected from reality” by being stuck; in a way, that makes them almost immune to fact-based and logical arguments. Whatever may be the case, Russia and the USA will not work together in Syria. And that means that the entire idea of the USA defeating Daesh is dead in the water forever. Russia and Iran might help the Syrians push Daesh out of most of Syria, but even that will not ‘defeat’ Daesh in a meaningful way. Furthermore, I have come to the conclusion that Israel has played a key role in the coup against Trump and that Israel will now do everything in its power to keep Daesh fighting for as long as possible (more about that in my next analysis next week). Daesh could most definitely be crushed by a joint US-Russian effort. Now, thanks to Trump Daesh, has a brand new lease on life. Well done, Donald!

So here is what is happening: the Trump policy, if you want to call it that, towards the war in Syria was delivered stillborn. The Americans themselves killed it with their fantastically stupid aggression against Syria and the “sarin gas” fairly tale they used as a pretext. Trump has been completely neutered, his “Mad Dog” will bark a lot but get nothing done, as for McMaster – he can go right back on writing more of the kind of strategy documents which got the US Army defeated pretty much everywhere.

That is option one.

Option two is infinitely worse: the crazies keep on doubling-down and we have WWIII. I prefer option one. This is why I think that the Tillerson to Moscow is a success: it moves the planet just a little closer to option one and a little further way from option two.

At this point in time, this is all we can still hope for: that the spineless imbeciles who run the USA today do not trigger WWIII. If they somehow manage NOT to trigger WWIII in the next four years, we will still owe them an immense debt of gratitude for that (even if we despise for everything else they will no doubt do next).

One more thing: make no mistake – the situation today is far more dangerous than the Cuban missile crisis.

During the Cold War both sides were ruled by rational men. Not necessarily kind men, but fundamentally rational men. It was self-evident for everybody involved that you could never, ever, take the risk of a real nuclear war breaking out. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the Soviets never had any intention of invading western Europe. But IF they had done so, there is also no doubt in my mind that the USA would never have escalated to the level of strategic nuclear weapons. I have known plenty of senior US officers, ranging Navy intelligence officers, to senior analysts of the Office of Net Assessment, to officers who worked on the YF-22/23 program to one member of the Joint Chiefs. They all agreed that going to nuclear war was simply something which no US President would ever do. One of them put it simply “we are not going to trade Boston for Munich”. They were all patriots, but they knew crazy when they saw it and war between the USA and the USSR is a crazy, civilization ending, idea.

Nowadays we clearly have already two US administrations which are willing to engage into what I call a “game of nuclear chicken” with Russia because they are too stupid to realize that Russia will not back down when cornered (and she is cornered in both the Ukraine and Syria) and that Russia can simply wipe the entire USA off the face of the earth (and the USA can do likewise to Russia). When I hear of the notion of imposing a no-fly zone over Syria against the will of Russia I get a knot in my stomach because I fully understand where this could lead.

This is much worse than the Cuban missile crisis and it will, alas, last much longer.

I hope and pray that Tillerson will not completely forget his words about two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship when he comes back to DC and that he will find the courage in himself to repeat these words when faced with the hysterical crowds demanding blood in Congress, in the US Ziomedia and in the Executive Branch swamp.

As for Trump, let him get his foreign policy advice from Ivanka just like Clinton got his from Hillary. The damage is already done. Now they both belong to the same trash heap of history.

The Saker

Larchmonter445 on April 13, 2017 · at 3:08 am EST/EDT

China’s veto was unnecessary.
Abstaining is to be taken as they were serving their national interest.
They have a Trump trade deal to arrange in the next 100 days, and they have to convince NK to go talk in the 6+1 setting, and meanwhile, to convince Kim not to fire off any more ICBMs or new “nuke devices”.

They also don’t have any better idea about Trump’s weakened condition as President so they are cautious.
Clearly, Trump is captive to either death threats to him or his family, blackmail of some kind, or both.

His abandonment of many domestic issues and jettisoning of people in his inner circle and close staff of advisers comes, not from ideology suddenly sprouting.

This man is compromised. He has no allies. He has no political machinery. He has only tactics of a business negotiator (and that doesn’t work if no one wants to negotiate with you for something they want in exchange for something he wants).

China wants NK to give up the nukes. So does Russia. They have always been against nukes for NK and Iran. So, they are now using the Trump naval armada threat and “cruise missile” threat of US to work Kim and get him to back off.

The Chinese are currying favor from Trump whose only option, if China fails and Russia fails with Kim, is to launch some kind of punishing attack. That could and probably will get an attack from Pyongyang onto Seoul or some part of South Korea. How the US and SK answer is dependent on how much damage is done by NK’s attack.

So, a Cjinese abstention vote hurts neither Syria or Russia. It helps China with Trump.

Sort of like Putin meeting Lavrov and Tillerson. US and MSM declare it Putin blinked and Russia is afraid. Russian experts say the Russians had 2 hours of close questioning and exchange of “red lines” with the American.

Some folks think Putin shouldn’t have met him and talked issues.
But Putin wanted to impart clarity into US leadership of just what Russia objects to and where Russia will act. We might assume Tillerson made the US position clear.

Henceforth Russia and US know the limits of one another.

So, China also knows the US limits. What the US does not know is China. China, if you understand them, will not allow the Korean Peninsula to become unified under the US hegemony. And they won’t let Kim start WW3. They are sending their military signals to his military and the NK Communist Party. Either Kim steps down from the ledge of insanity or the US will take him down. Or China will help take him down.

The Chinese abstention was about NK and trade with US.

The US cruise missile attack was about blocking Russian’s success in Syria and signaling to China that the Hegemon was back ready to wreck chaos on China’s northeast border and damaging a major technology partner South Korea.

The thing in itself is not necessarily what it seems.
A vote to not condemn is accomplished with an abstention when there are others to veto. It’s smart.

China has big economic interests and also big anti-terror interests in Syria.
The US may have frightened China with the rash missile attack, but not enough to scare China from continuing to support Syria. It has to. It has to support Russia and Iran.

The Chinese understand the Hegemon. They know the threat to them. They were not deluded by Mar-a-lago.

In fact, the US position is very weak. It must fire missiles and threatened everyone in the world to get them to obey. Their alliances are worthless against terrorism. Their vassals are weakened societies, deviant and corrupt. Trump has inspired both neocons and Liberals with his actions. However, he has painted red lines for himself, from which he cannot backtrack without enormous risk domestically.

In a week or two, Trump will have to show he has won something in Congress for the economic interests of his voters. And he will have to keep feeding the Hegemon, mostly with military contracts for weapons and munitions.

The clock of the Presidency is speeding up. He’s closing in on 80 of the magical 100 days. Add on the 100 days for the China trade negotiations and by mid-July if Raqqa does not fall or Mosul does not fall, he will be entering a one-termer’s lame duck years. The Parties will smell the carrion of his Presidency.

Putin probably made certain in his own mind today that he knows his timetable for Syria military action, if not the diplomatic and political solutions for Syria.

Trump is at the mercy of the Chinese now. They can bait and wait. They can get NK to the negotiation table and play Trump big time. Look at the Korean War P’anmunjŏm Armistice and Vietnamese Paris Peace talks. They took years.

Trump collected the abstention vote like a trophy. It isn’t.
Chinese have many folk tales about shapeshifting creatures, like Huli jing.
Trump always thinks he has won.
He won the Presidency and so far has only about 10% of the power of the office.
And time is running away with the other 90%. I tis firmly in the hands of the Deep State, neocons, globalists and the Swamp creatures.

147 Comments

Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 1:01 am EST/EDT

During the Cold War there also were such crazies in the US leadership that though they could win a nuclear war against Russia to create “a postwar world order compatible with Western values”.

Top Air Force Official Told JCS in 1971: “We Could Lose Two Hundred Million People [in a Nuclear War] and Still Have More Than We Had at the Time of the Civil War”
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb580-JCS-chairmans-diary-from-1971-reveals-high-level-deliberations/

“Victory is Possible
by Colin S. Gray and Keith Payne
…
If American nuclear power is to support U.S. foreign policy objectives, the United States must possess the ability to wage nuclear war rationally.
…
Surely no one can be comfortable with the claim that a strategy that would kill millions of Soviet citizens and would invite a strategic response that could kill tens of millions of U.S. citizens would be politically and morally acceptable. However, it is worth recalling the six guidelines for the use of force provided by the “just war” doctrine of the Catholic Church: Force can be used in a just cause; with a right intent; with a reasonable chance of success; in order that, if successful, its use offers a better future than would have been the case had it not been employed; to a degree proportional to the goals sought, or to the evil combated; and with the determination to sparre noncombatants, when there is a reasonable chance of doing so.
…
Small, preplanned strikes can only be of use if the United States enjoys strategic superiority — the ability to wage a nuclear war at any level of violence with a reasonable prospect of defeating the Soviet Union and of recovering sufficiently to insure a satisfactory postwar world order.
…
The United States should plan to defeat the Soviet Union and to do so at a cost that would not prohibit U.S. recovery. Washington should identify war aims that in the last resort would contemplate the destruction of Soviet political authority and the emergence of a postwar world order compatible with Western values.
…
Strategists cannot offer painless conflicts or guarantee that their preferred posture and doctrine promise a greatly superior deterrence posture to current American schemes. But, they can claim that an intelligent U.S. offensive strategy, wedded to homeland defenses, should reduce U.S. casualties to approximately 20 million, which should render U.S. strategic threats more credible. If the United States developed the targeting plans and procured the weapons necessary to hold the Soviet political, bureaurcratic, and military leadership at risk, that should serve as the functional equivalent in Soviet perspective of the assured-destruction effect of the late 1960s.”
http://home.earthlink.net/~platter/articles/80-summer-payne.html
- paul on April 13, 2017 · at 2:21 am EST/EDT
  
  When they speak of “western values” I prepare to hear or read something really heinous.
  - Mulga Mumblebrain on April 13, 2017 · at 9:58 am EST/EDT
    
    I’m tempted to say that Auschwitz epitomises really existing ‘Western Moral Values’, but on reconsideration I think that the genocides of the Indigenous in the New Worlds, the genocides of the Great Famines in India under English rule, and the hundreds of millions of ‘excess deaths’ caused by the US-imposed ‘Washington Consensus’ of neo-liberal neo-imperialist Market Capitalism take the prize.
    - Lumi on April 13, 2017 · at 2:31 pm EST/EDT
      
      Auschwitz epitomises the Anglo Zionist Lies – and nothing else.
      
      The Hoax of the Twentieth Century – Arthur R. Butz
      http://holocausthandbooks.com/dl/07-thottc-intro.pdf
      
      And by the way, the Soviets went along with those lies. Good job, in hindsight. Lol.
  - Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 10:00 am EST/EDT
    
    ‘Western values’ is Zionist mind-control NLP used to persuade the court-goys to exploit their non-court-goy parents, siblings, children, friends & strangers in the name of Empire.
    
    Works like a charm. Which is not surprising when you realize that ‘spelling’ and ‘a spell’ have not accidentally the same root.
  - Taskila on April 13, 2017 · at 10:26 am EST/EDT
    
    paul : “When they speak of “western values” I prepare to hear or read something really heinous. ”
    
    In Finland they are using day after day the jargon: “a community of values ” which means that we Finns should sleep in same bed with USA, Israel, Saudis, ISIS and Al Nusra. Personally i prefer sharing the same bed with my dear wife.
    - Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 5:48 pm EST/EDT
      
      According to legend, Ghandi was once asked what he thinks of Western civilization? He responded with “I think it would be a very good idea.”
  - Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 6:13 pm EST/EDT
    
    The Russian liberals are very good at adopting western liberal ‘values’.
    
    A leading TV channel presenter Pavel Lobkova was arrested in the center of Moscow after parading around dressed as a penis.
    
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9X27DWWsAAPEBA.jpg:large
    
    These idiots are proud of presenting themselves as ‘disk heads’. They also don’t realise the the western elite they suck up to also laugh at and despise them.
    - Nussiminen on April 14, 2017 · at 7:27 pm EST/EDT
      
      All I have to say to this “liberal” specimen is:
      
      Хуй тебе две раза в рот.
- SanctuaryOne on April 13, 2017 · at 3:00 am EST/EDT
  
  Dr. Strangelove doesn’t seem very strange any more. That could be a problem.
  
  Turgidson: Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth, both for ourselves as human beings and for the life of our nation. Now, truth is not always a pleasant thing. But it is necessary now to make a choice, to choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless distinguishable, post-war environments: one where you got 20 million people killed, and the other where you got 150 million people killed!
  
  Muffley: You’re talking about mass murder, General, not war.
  
  Turgidson: Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than 10 to 20 million killed, tops! Uh, depending on the breaks.
  
  Muffley: I will not go down in history as the greatest mass murderer since Adolf Hitler.
  
  Turgidson: Perhaps it might be better, Mr. President, if you were more concerned with the American people, than with your image in the history books.
  - Col. Bat Guano on April 13, 2017 · at 6:49 pm EST/EDT
    
    LOL … I watch that movie at least once a year now. And while reading to this point, I was tempted to go find that exact clip and post it.
    
    Of course, Mr. Kubrick got his inspiration for the 1964 movie from real life. An air force general named Curtis Lemay was supposedly the inspiration for Kubrick’s General. LeMay was one of the advisors trying to convince Pres. Kennedy that a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the Soviet Union was how he should respond to the missiles in Cuba.
    - Franz on April 13, 2017 · at 7:28 pm EST/EDT
      
      Years of Zionist “Strangelove’ advisors to US Presidents, Kissinger, Wolfowitz, Frum, have resulted in a very limited state of mental hygiene in Washington Regime ruling classes. Irony died the day General Craig Breedlove became head of NATO.
      - Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 6:27 pm EST/EDT
        
        “Irony died the day General Craig Breedlove became head of NATO.”
        
        I think Kissinger getting the Nobel Peace Prize was the first blow. The Obama getting it too.
geoff on April 13, 2017 · at 1:15 am EST/EDT

Mr. Saker,

Do not fear. We will prevail.

Whether you know it or not, there are some very powerful metaphysical forces which now work in our favor.

The events that occur over the next several years will surprise all of us in a most entertaining and mind-blowing fashion, despite all of the danger and horrible things that will come along with it…

WW3 will be avoided, and the Neocons will have their day in the great court of humanity where they will be tried and sentenced for their crimes…

-geoff
- Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 6:17 am EST/EDT
  
  At first I hade a feeling Trump was weak and controlled or corrupt and want to do harm. But now I am getting a slight sense that Trump could be strong, very strong. He wont be the guy we all hope for that will abolish NATO and And is dominating all sides in the white house, yes, after the chemical attack, he did attack Syria, but it was extremely limited and cause no strategic harm to the Syrian government or its military, and Russia was warned which means Syria was warned, so basically he did the absolute minimum. But what he did was correct in the eyes of the american people 60%+ support it and 40% want a ground war, so here Trump is actually less extreme then the average americans, Trump has also come out and said he will not invade Syria not launch a massive attack but only strike Syria when it uses chemical weapons. So he is not some neocon nutter looking for an excuse to invade Syria, he is just being a strong man. Of course, I could be wrong and he could invade Syria tomorrow, but this is as the situation is now.
  
  As regards to China there are rumours that Trump has tamed the Chinese dictator, talk about China agreeing to take out the NK government togheter with Trump, what is being said is that China and USA has delivered an ultimatum to NK, to stop this nuclear test, and if it is not stopped, China approves of USA bombing and destroying North Korea, China would then move in its own troops to restore order and install a controllable pro-Chinese government. This way everyone remains happy, China gets too keep its buffer against South Korea, S koreah and Japan and USA wont need to live under nuclear threat. Some will say that NK is China and Russia ally but this is not true, in truth NK is a huge pain for both Russia and China, as NK does what it want and it constant talks of nukes gives NATO an excuse to build up military forces and place missiles in that area, just outside Russia and Chinas border. Both China and Russia would benefit greatly from a docile Chinese puppet in NK instead of a fat nuclear dictator. Who also runs his country horrendously badly. Of course any USA attack on NK will likely cause tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of deaths, as NK will unleash all they got on USA and SK. But it might be worth it for China as most of the attacks will land on SK, and it might be worth if for Japan for the same reason and it will certainly be worth if for USA as they need to take out NK before they get missiles good enough to hit mainland USA where they can kill millions in one hit with a thermonuclear weapons, the only country that has a problem is South Korea that will get most of the hits, but they likely dont have a vote in the matter. This is between China and USA.
  
  Trump has also announced that NATO is no longer obsole after they agree to be re-geared towards fighting terrorism.
  
  And now Tillerson has meet with Putin and Lavrov, and things doesnt seem to have gone that bad, Trump might have made some real offering to Russia about Ukraine. Which of course is Russia most important issue. Trump might not be a weak puppet or a had bad intentions from the start, he might just be very strong, and be determined to restore USA power and solve most of the problems the globalist has put USA into. Solve the Ukrainian situation, solve the Syrian situation and solve the NK situation. Trump might be trying to keep USA as an empire, but not as an empire of destruction. As before, the opposite, Trump wants to fix all the international issues so USA can continue to dominate, In doing so he will make deals and carry out actions that will make no one happy but no one angry either. Bombing Syria seems like a perfect example of this, he shows who is boss, but he does not create more trouble.
  - Mish on April 13, 2017 · at 8:37 am EST/EDT
    
    No, thanks!
  - eimar on April 13, 2017 · at 9:41 am EST/EDT
    
    Of course any USA attack on NK will likely cause tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of deaths, as NK will unleash all they got on USA and SK. But it might be worth it for China as most of the attacks will land on SK, and it might be worth if for Japan for the same reason and it will certainly be worth if for USA as they need to take out NK before they get missiles good enough to hit mainland USA where they can kill millions in one hit with a thermonuclear weapons, the only country that has a problem is South Korea that will get most of the hits, but they likely dont have a vote in the matter. This is between China and US.
    
    The infamous 500, 000 dead children was ‘ worth it’ from the psychopathic Mad Albright comes to mind…
    
    I take it you don’t live in SK?
    
    ( shudders)
  - _smr on April 13, 2017 · at 10:35 am EST/EDT
    
    This of course has been the question on everybody’s mind: Is Trump indeed the idiot he looks and sounds or is he a 5D chess-player with some spectacular ninja skills rarely seen outside the world of Japanese anime.
    
    When Trump had the guts to call Politburo’s official propaganda outlet CNN ‘Fake news!’ I mistook that as a sign that Trump not only was able to read, but was also capable to spot the difference between up and down, warm and cold, right and wrong.
    
    Little did I know that Trump was so upset by ‘fake news’ only because the little bit he knows about world events comes exclusively from fake news sources and hoax Youtube videos.
    
    Was it Einstein or Gandhi who said: “Beware of an idiot president who dreams of draining the swamp”?
    - Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 6:54 pm EST/EDT
      
      Trump has apparently demoted and removed from the NSC the one guy he had in his corner who could have played 5D chess. I’m referring to Mr. Bannon of course. Towards the end of the campaign, Trump seemed to improve as a candidate because he had some smart advisors around him and during the last few weeks actually listened to them.
      
      Now it seems like Trump has returned to the form of earlier in the campaign when he was just a big-mouthed fool firing off tweats.
      - Franz on April 13, 2017 · at 7:36 pm EST/EDT
        
        Looks like, having made the ‘Deal’ of his life, Trump reverted to true form.
      - Bro 93 on April 13, 2017 · at 10:23 pm EST/EDT
        
        I like the replacement of an “e” in “tweets” with an “a”.
        
        I guess that would be a tweet that is “tweatening”?
        
        I wish all this didn’t remind me of the Warner Brothers cartoons with that old bald guy in his plaid shirt, Daffy Duck hunting cap and his shotgun, but it kinda does.
        
        Wasn’t Dick Cheney enough?
        
        Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 7:34 pm EST/EDT
        
        Dick Cheney could have run as a ‘peace candidate’ against any of Obama, Hillary, or Trump.
        
        After all, Cheney only started 2 wars in his 8 years. Obama far more than that. Apparently Trump is going to get the US into 2 simultaneous wars in his first 100 days. Cheney seems downright peaceful in comparision. And, Cheney showed more respect for the Consitution than any of the above. He went to Congress to get permission, even if he did it reluctantly. Obama, Hillary and Trump all consider the Constituion dead and gone.
        
        Franz on April 14, 2017 · at 7:44 pm EST/EDT
        
        The Constitution has proven to be inadequate as a substitute for morals, ethics, and the capacity for thought.
        
        Mulga Mumblebrain on April 16, 2017 · at 4:10 am EST/EDT
        
        I’ve seen one wag call Trump ‘Twitler’.
    - farmerbraun on April 13, 2017 · at 7:54 pm EST/EDT
      
      I’m fairly sure that it was Alfred E. Neuman.
  - Sheeple Spotter on April 15, 2017 · at 1:39 am EST/EDT
    
    I share your optimism. The ‘politics’ of the situation is all theatre… hence the ‘unofficial’, private meeting of several hours between Tillerson and Putin.
    
    To the world is spun the distraction while behind the scenes plans are made.
    I do hope I am not just being an optimist, the alternative is too dark to imagine for it means war.
- Cris on April 13, 2017 · at 10:06 am EST/EDT
  
  Interesting. Can you explain better?
- Offspring on April 13, 2017 · at 11:39 pm EST/EDT
  
  Lol check out Alois Irlmaier and please do a proper research! Everything that men said came true to the sentence – Better prepair your self!
Mikael H on April 13, 2017 · at 1:42 am EST/EDT

Do you have any idea why Russia vetoed the latest resolution on Syria demanding an investigation about this “chem attack”?

Okey i know about what happened in Libya and so on but wouldn´t Thos have been a chance to humiliate Trump further?
- paul on April 13, 2017 · at 2:20 am EST/EDT
  
  The way the resolution was worded virtually presumed Syria’s guilt.
  - ioan on April 13, 2017 · at 4:05 pm EST/EDT
    
    Correct, but China has abstained…interesting, if not worrying. Even trump was happy with this abstain, during his speech with Stoltenberg in DC.
    - Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 6:56 pm EST/EDT
      
      Both Russia and China both seem to be very aware that it only takes one super-power to veto a UNSC proposed resolution. Russia was vetoing, so China just abstained, as a second no vote wouldn’t do anything extra.
      
      It says nothing about how the two countries feel beyond the fact that their UN diplomatic staff understands the UN rules.
      - Franz on April 13, 2017 · at 7:38 pm EST/EDT
        
        Agreed. It is just that the environment in the USraeli Empire corrupted UN is so bad that an abstention was seen as tacit agreement, or a slightly squeaky wheel rather than what it is – an abstention.
    - Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 7:42 pm EST/EDT
      
      Most times China abstains rather than veto. It’s their policy: keep a low profile, don’t look for trouble with the US. They reckon that if Russia vetoes, the res. will not pass, anyway.
      But perhaps if they’d seen Trump on Fox describing how he chose the moment when Xi had just tucked into a “beautiful piece of chocolate cake you’ve seen, and President Xi was enjoying it” to announce his missile job and eulogise on their sublime beauty and five-fold superiority over anyone else’s missiles, then they might have vetoed the resolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcw6kcknllY
    - frances on April 14, 2017 · at 8:46 am EST/EDT
      
      I read that it is not uncommon for parties to abstain when a Draft is being considered, remember this was not a Resolution but a Draft Resolution. I think it was an overreaching as it was because the US/UK wanted to be able to say, “See Russia blocked an investigation.” Which is not the case at all; Russia called for an independent investigation the moment the event was known.
- Whoever on April 13, 2017 · at 2:37 am EST/EDT
  
  Thats because the Syrian Army was subjected to humiliating demands while on terrorists there was no such demands. And if SAA failed to comply they could be punished with military actions.
  - Mikael H on April 13, 2017 · at 8:57 am EST/EDT
    
    Hi,
    
    And thanks för answer. Just a last question, what kind of demands was it?
    - Whoever on April 13, 2017 · at 3:39 pm EST/EDT
      
      Basic demands were outlined in this article:
      
      https://www.rt.com/news/384534-un-resulution-syria-chemical/
    - Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 7:02 pm EST/EDT
      
      ““The main objection to the resolution is that it apportioned blame prior to an objective outside investigation of the incident… The outcome of the vote was predestined, because we disagreed categorically with a document that was fundamentally misconceived,” said Vladimir Safronkov, Russia’s deputy envoy at the Security Council”
      
      From the above linked article. If the west is going to claim that RT is russian government controlled media, then it also means its a good source for what the russian government is saying.
      
      We also learned in Iraq in the 1990’s that such western weapons inspectors are also working as spies for the CIA and other western intel agencies.
- twilight on April 13, 2017 · at 3:05 pm EST/EDT
  
  The ***UK*** resolution automatically triggered the right for the UK, USA etc to launch full scale war against Syria if British or American officials felt Assad was not fully co-operating with the ‘investigation’. Remember when Russia ‘forgot; to veto similar UNSC resolutions against Iraq and Libya. Funny thing is, I’m sure you do- which makes me question to the highest degree the motivation of your ‘question’.
  
  I’m seeing a lot of posts in non-Soros alternative news outlets that are trying to circumvent the anti-neolib, anti-neocon moderation. Our vigilance needs to be eternal since the resources of the Demons are pretty much infinite.
  - Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 7:39 pm EST/EDT
    
    I was over on the Brietbart pages from the Trump movement.
    
    The bots and the dod trolls are out in force, shouting down anyone who might object.
    
    Anyone see “Homeland” this season? They had a fictional representation of the sort of center that can generate a lot of ‘comments’ in social media making it seem like there is broad support for something.
SanctuaryOne on April 13, 2017 · at 1:54 am EST/EDT

Canada’s officlal arch-russophobe of Nazi provenance, Chrystia Freeland, shows what good vassals and puppets on a string the current Liberal regime is:

“Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday that Canada ‘deplored’ Russia’s veto of the resolution”

Russia vetoes UN resolution to condemn Syria chemical attack
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/un-resolution-syria-1.4068780

I have news for you harridan Chyrstia, don’t include me or many other Canadians who deplore your lies and deception.

Does anyone know the politics behind China’s abstention?
- Stalin on April 13, 2017 · at 2:59 am EST/EDT
  
  There is something else none mention, China stopped importing coal from NK, and any deficiency for metallurgy industry will be supplied by USA. So if any of you counts on China think twice, they will go were money smells.
  - frances on April 14, 2017 · at 8:42 am EST/EDT
    
    Could it be as simple as China didn’t need the coal? I remember reading that they had a superabundance of steel because the market had fallen, NK coal I believe is used primarily to make steel.
    - Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 7:44 pm EST/EDT
      
      I did read that China has huge stockpiles of Iron ore piling up at its ports. To the point where they are demolishing older buildings to make room to keep piling it up. Since Iron and Coal are the two main things you need to make steel, this comment makes sense.
      
      To me, on the other side of the world, China has a bit of a strange relationship with North Korea. I get the sense that they don’t really like the North Korea government. And having madmen waving around nuclear weapons on your border and threatening to start a nuclear war is never a good thing. So, while on one hand China would not like seeing North Korea ground into the dust under an American jackboot, they also would seem to prefer that North Korea calmed down a bit.
      - Franz on April 14, 2017 · at 7:55 pm EST/EDT
        
        The ‘irony’ is that a lot of that metal is still coming from the WTC demolition. Bush The Second shipped it off ASAP to China, body parts and all, to avoid any risk of forensic examination. The Chinese have been shipping it back for a decade. (Of course the Chinese may well have done some analysis before melting it down).
        Sweet!
- Larchmonter445 on April 13, 2017 · at 3:08 am EST/EDT
  
  China’s veto was unnecessary.
  Abstaining is to be taken as they were serving their national interest.
  They have a Trump trade deal to arrange in the next 100 days, and they have to convince NK to go talk in the 6+1 setting, and meanwhile, to convince Kim not to fire off any more ICBMs or new “nuke devices”.
  
  They also don’t have any better idea about Trump’s weakened condition as President so they are cautious.
  Clearly, Trump is captive to either death threats to him or his family, blackmail of some kind, or both.
  
  His abandonment of many domestic issues and jettisoning of people in his inner circle and close staff of advisers comes, not from ideology suddenly sprouting.
  
  This man is compromised. He has no allies. He has no political machinery. He has only tactics of a business negotiator (and that doesn’t work if no one wants to negotiate with you for something they want in exchange for something he wants).
  
  China wants NK to give up the nukes. So does Russia. They have always been against nukes for NK and Iran. So, they are now using the Trump naval armada threat and “cruise missile” threat of US to work Kim and get him to back off.
  
  The Chinese are currying favor from Trump whose only option, if China fails and Russia fails with Kim, is to launch some kind of punishing attack. That could and probably will get an attack from Pyongyang onto Seoul or some part of South Korea. How the US and SK answer is dependent on how much damage is done by NK’s attack.
  
  So, a Cjinese abstention vote hurts neither Syria or Russia. It helps China with Trump.
  
  Sort of like Putin meeting Lavrov and Tillerson. US and MSM declare it Putin blinked and Russia is afraid. Russian experts say the Russians had 2 hours of close questioning and exchange of “red lines” with the American.
  
  Some folks think Putin shouldn’t have met him and talked issues.
  But Putin wanted to impart clarity into US leadership of just what Russia objects to and where Russia will act. We might assume Tillerson made the US position clear.
  
  Henceforth Russia and US know the limits of one another.
  
  So, China also knows the US limits. What the US does not know is China. China, if you understand them, will not allow the Korean Peninsula to become unified under the US hegemony. And they won’t let Kim start WW3. They are sending their military signals to his military and the NK Communist Party. Either Kim steps down from the ledge of insanity or the US will take him down. Or China will help take him down.
  
  The Chinese abstention was about NK and trade with US.
  
  The US cruise missile attack was about blocking Russian’s success in Syria and signaling to China that the Hegemon was back ready to wreck chaos on China’s northeast border and damaging a major technology partner South Korea.
  
  The thing in itself is not necessarily what it seems.
  A vote to not condemn is accomplished with an abstention when there are others to veto. It’s smart.
  
  China has big economic interests and also big anti-terror interests in Syria.
  The US may have frightened China with the rash missile attack, but not enough to scare China from continuing to support Syria. It has to. It has to support Russia and Iran.
  
  The Chinese understand the Hegemon. They know the threat to them. They were not deluded by Mar-a-lago.
  
  In fact, the US position is very weak. It must fire missiles and threatened everyone in the world to get them to obey. Their alliances are worthless against terrorism. Their vassals are weakened societies, deviant and corrupt. Trump has inspired both neocons and Liberals with his actions. However, he has painted red lines for himself, from which he cannot backtrack without enormous risk domestically.
  
  In a week or two, Trump will have to show he has won something in Congress for the economic interests of his voters. And he will have to keep feeding the Hegemon, mostly with military contracts for weapons and munitions.
  
  The clock of the Presidency is speeding up. He’s closing in on 80 of the magical 100 days. Add on the 100 days for the China trade negotiations and by mid-July if Raqqa does not fall or Mosul does not fall, he will be entering a one-termer’s lame duck years. The Parties will smell the carrion of his Presidency.
  
  Putin probably made certain in his own mind today that he knows his timetable for Syria military action, if not the diplomatic and political solutions for Syria.
  
  Trump is at the mercy of the Chinese now. They can bait and wait. They can get NK to the negotiation table and play Trump big time. Look at the Korean War P’anmunjŏm Armistice and Vietnamese Paris Peace talks. They took years.
  
  Trump collected the abstention vote like a trophy. It isn’t.
  Chinese have many folk tales about shapeshifting creatures, like Huli jing.
  Trump always thinks he has won.
  He won the Presidency and so far has only about 10% of the power of the office.
  And time is running away with the other 90%. I tis firmly in the hands of the Deep State, neocons, globalists and the Swamp creatures.
  - Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 4:08 am EST/EDT
    
    “China wants NK to give up the nukes. So does Russia. They have always been against nukes for NK and Iran. ” — Not friends, only interests.
    
    Btw, the NK half-sibling recently departed in Malaysia was Xi’s spare tire so it is likely that a little Chinese ‘burn’ from the Big Fat Panda will be appropriate. I mean, the chocolate cake was special and so why not give your new best capitalist friend a little rope to hang his Pacific fleet with?
  - Lysander on April 13, 2017 · at 4:12 am EST/EDT
    
    Very good analysis, but….
    
    “We might assume Tillerson made the US position clear.”
    
    I’m not even sure Tillerson himself knows what the US position is. My guess is Nikki Haley knows better than T-Rex does and she doesn’t have to travel to Moscow to explain it.
    
    I agree China will not abandon Russia. It can’t. Too much invested in OBOR and they need Russian power to back them up if indeed Trump plans to attack North Korea. And they need Russian oil and gas should the overseas gas be ever cut off. China and Russia would shed few tears over the fall of the Kim dynasty as long as China keeps control over the north. In fact, they probably would prefer that.
    
    And so China will back Russia up because it has to, but they will try to do the least possible. In actuality, all Russia needs from China is a trading partner to replace the west. So long as China does not join any sanctions regime (and it wont) Russia will do just fine.
    - J on April 13, 2017 · at 7:21 am EST/EDT
      
      Lysander,
      There is no danger of China abandon Russia. Nothing can be more important then peace and development with our biggest neighbor. Not even Trump.
  - White whale on April 13, 2017 · at 4:37 am EST/EDT
    
    @Larcmonter,
    OMG: is it really this : The clock of the Presidency is speeding up. He’s closing in on 80 of the magical 100 days.
    It feels much, much longer. Something is definitely causing a disturbance in the NOOsphere. Feels kinda like Groundhog Day, but not as funny, or metaphoric.
    - Mulga Mumblebrain on April 13, 2017 · at 10:21 am EST/EDT
      
      Trump’s real habitat is the zoosphere, not the noosphere. He is the perfect puppet, Kushner the puppet-master.
  - J on April 13, 2017 · at 6:56 am EST/EDT
    
    Larchmonter445,
    
    A very good analysis overall. I know people would ask about vote.
    We will see Trump “win” a lot in his term, and talk about his PSY-Op at Mar-a-lago.
  - The World As It Truly Is on April 15, 2017 · at 3:13 am EST/EDT
    
    Trump is definitely being blackmailed by the Deep State ir Neocons. I assume Tillerson asked Putin for any help on extracting Trump from this blackmail.
  - Oriental Voice on April 15, 2017 · at 10:50 pm EST/EDT
    
    China explained its vote as thus: “We support the draft resolution’s condemnation and call for an investigation of what appears to be a chemical weapon . But we object to the British/French/American crafted language of presuming guilt on. It makes the resolution a tool to justify entering Syria to interfere its internal affairs and drive out Assad. China cannot accept this “.
    
    I don’t have an English version link to offer on this explanation. But it contained language of utter distain against Brit/French/American.
    
    I agree with your assessment of China’s considerations and positions taken. You seem to read China very well, compared to most other posters here.
- ghost of benghazi on April 13, 2017 · at 4:33 am EST/EDT
  
  Chrystia Freeland is Retarded. You have to be that in Canada to hold office. China abstention is probably due because The Donald has them involved in his next adventure. I would love to able to listen in to the phone calls between Moscow and Beijing.
- Mulga Mumblebrain on April 13, 2017 · at 10:15 am EST/EDT
  
  It appears that this she-hyaena, the type of ‘female’ preferred by the Empire for screeching denunciations of official enemies, is an hereditary Ukrainian Nazi. When one considers just how much influence Ukrainian emigre’ fascists had on Clinton, it does look like all those years of sheltering open, unrepentant, utterly unchanged eastern European fascist emigres who fled to the West after their defeat by the Red Army, is about to have a cataclysmic denouement. This will not be the brief and terminal action of WW3, but the last, and equally final, action of WW2.
- nice try on April 13, 2017 · at 1:03 pm EST/EDT
  
  Here’s another Canadian vote for having Freeland charged and convicted before the ICC for conspiracy to commit the crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine and Syria. And her enablers in the Fiberal and Confabulator parties, including Harpo-the-Clown and the Selfie Prince beside her in the dock for aiding and abetting her in these crimes.
  
  Y’see while the US has refused to ratify being Party to the ICC, most other NATO/EU countries have. Canada included. This should be how US hegemony could be broken, by parading an unending line of the leadership of their “allies” before the ICC to answer for the US-led atrocities they participated in.
  
  A bully that stands alone is a coward.
  - Nussiminen on April 13, 2017 · at 8:02 pm EST/EDT
    
    Freeland is a full-fledged zionazi offal and will consequently never be charged by the ICC kangaroo court, let alone found guilty of anything — get real.
    
    Interesting really that the Pindos are not participants in the ICC. Will the latter remain silent if the US should find itself at the receiving end of massive violence from without right on its home turf?
    - nice try on April 13, 2017 · at 8:41 pm EST/EDT
      
      The crimes against humanity charges against neo-nazis like Freeland do not have to be lodged by the ICC or even someone in Canada. I’m surprised this tactic has not been used by peace movements world wide. Simply petitioning to file charges with the ICC should be enough to ruffle a lot of feathers.
      
      It worked in lower courts against Kissinger… and if it restricted the travel of Freeland (and many past and current Cnd gov’t/military warmongers) to only US-friendly zones, sufficient personal risk/inconvenience to make those thinking of jumping on the Zionist bandwagon a little more apprehensive.
      
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/27/henry-kissinger-human-rights_n_7454172.html
      
      http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/28/world/door-opens-for-legal-actions-chilean-coup-kissinger-numbered-among-hunted.html?utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_article
paul on April 13, 2017 · at 2:19 am EST/EDT

There is something that might be even worse than ww3; a global police state. I think this is what the Hegemon seeks to establish.

Also, China’s role in all this has really been disgusting lately, hasn’t it? Suddenly Xi seems quite eager to do Trump’s bidding.
- Rob on April 13, 2017 · at 3:09 am EST/EDT
  
  Maybe their keeping their ‘enemies’ close!
- eagle eye on April 13, 2017 · at 6:41 am EST/EDT
  
  Correction, the puppet master whose hand is up the Hegemon’s clacker.
  
  What was that quote from Voltaire about recognising our master by asking who we are not allowed to criticize, again.
- Mish on April 13, 2017 · at 8:54 am EST/EDT
  
  My feeling, too. Sometimes i think the whole stand-off between Russia and the US consists in this: US (global deep state) to Russia: step aside and let us have our way with your people! Russia to the US (deep state): No, let’s you and us be friends, but we will ourselves have our own way with our people, which is the same way basically as yours, only with us in charge. Etc. In fact, though, if the global deep state gets to have its way with Russia, Russia will be destroyed, like physically eliminated. Russia gets no second chance anymore (they were hoping we would die of our own accord post-1991, but we haven’t, so now – no more second chances) And they really really don’t want another attempt to build a fair political/economic system of government on earth.
Laika von old Monkshusen on April 13, 2017 · at 2:25 am EST/EDT

Even the Trump’s staunchest supporters are upset with the gang of thugs the Führer has surrounded himself with and his crew is made up of.
“that Cro-Magnon, that throwback, that lowbrow, looks like he crawled out of a pit somewhere” as Michael Savage describes Rex Tillerson . . . https://youtu.be/IfP-YZmA5WY
I reckon it’s save to say that Trump is the biggest fraud since (and very similar to) Adolf Hitler.
- RayB on April 13, 2017 · at 7:00 am EST/EDT
  
  I don’t read Trump as being an evil, hate filled ideologically driven psychopathic sociopath monster as was Adolf Hitler. But rather as a petty shyster, wannabe tough guy that’s actually a buffoon and the worlds biggest (and most powerful) fool ever, having been taken in by the deep state neocons that surrounded him, by the media’s White Helmet’s gas attack propaganda campaign and possibly his daughter’s misplaced tears over who’s actually killing innocents and little babies in Syria. If he’ll wake up to the fact that he’s been had big time and come back to his senses and reverse course, only God knows and time will tell us. Don’t forget that most of the worlds western leaders are just as stupid as him.
  - _smr on April 13, 2017 · at 11:23 am EST/EDT
    
    Hitler was crypto-Jewish and an asset of British-Zionist intel, as was his party, the National Socialists. Hitler – being played by up to a dozen lifetime actors – was very easily controlled.
    
    Crypto-Jew Trump has been – maybe unknown to himself – a proxy of above mentioned forces all along. He was chosen for his beyond the charts stubbornness, autistic self-righteousness and grandiose stupidity.
    
    Trump ‘success’ in real-estate (Jewish domain), casino (Jewish domain) and TV (Jewish domain) would not have been possible without his handler’s continuous support in legal assistance (Jewish domain) and freshly printed dollars (Jewish domain).
    
    But he won’t be as easy to steer around as Hitler. Trump is a proud man, and should he eventually come to the conclusion that he has been played like no idiot before him, he will finally read his ghost-written book ‘The Art of the Deal’ in hope of finding clever schemes for upsetting the apple cart.
- WizOz on April 13, 2017 · at 7:03 am EST/EDT
  
  The Cave Man vs the Culture Man. The Beauty and the Beast.
vot tak on April 13, 2017 · at 2:26 am EST/EDT

“Furthermore, I have come to the conclusion that Israel has played a key role in the coup against Trump and that Israel will now do everything in its power to keep Daesh fighting for as long as possible”

Yup, the trump public 180 mainly is all about israeli interests. Only the coup isn’t against trump, that extremely loyal zionazi has been onboard from the very beginning. The coup is against us. Those of us in the west who want these never ending wars for israel and world domination to cease.

The zpc/nwo has a serious problem in it’s colonies. It’s called war weariness. As with the raygun/bush regime working to get Americans war mongers again after the Vietnam war defeat (Vietnam syndrome), the zionazi population manipulation machine is working on getting the western slaves back on track for more war. This is why the zio-gay media push their absurd propaganda 24/7. An example:

Almost 60% of US Democrats Support Strikes Against Syria, Fresh Poll Reveals

https://sputniknews.com/us/201704131052589925-democrats-support-syrian-strikes/

“A Politico/Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday showed that 57 percent of US Democratic voters and 59 percent of independent voters were in favor of the strikes.

According to the survey, over 60 percent of Americans think the United States should be doing more on Syria and 39 percent support deploying US troops on the ground in Syria to remove Syrian President Bashar Assad from power.”

The poll was obviously manipulated to get the announced result as part of the ongoing zionazi propaganda campaign to manipulate Americans to accept the u.s. going to war against Syria.

That Sputnik presented the poll result as is without any investigation of the methodology used in creating the poll shows how it’s not just western media that has been infected with zionist operatives.
- eimar on April 13, 2017 · at 10:03 am EST/EDT
  
  Thanks for highlighting this VT.
  
  This ‘ magic’ 60% ‘ support’ for the Syrian attack is being repeated and nauseum ( even here, check Anonymous above).
  
  I don’t believe it, based on the comments I’ve been reading on Trump’ s support base in social media and outlets like Breitbart and Zero hedge.
  
  It’ s just not plausible that a president elected at least in substantial part on an anti- war ticket suddenly gains ‘ overwhelming’ support for reneging on that promise.
  
  The same polls utterly distorted Clinton’s supposed ‘ shoo-in’ – why give them credit now?
  
  Trump would be an even bigger fool than he is to believe them.
  
  Re Politico: its essentially a DNC platform and is likely to have a) polled from a base designed to produce exactly this ‘ result’ and b) worded sufficiently ambiguously to allow for manipulation.
  
  The fact that he responded to this ‘ overwhelming support’ with a very speedy ‘ no boots on the ground in Syria’ suggests he’s wary of drinking the Koolaid – at least for now.
  
  Tomorrow is another day…
  - frances on April 14, 2017 · at 9:07 am EST/EDT
    
    Re polling numbers: Alex Jones said shortly after the US attack on the Syrian airport that his callers were 80% opposed. I think that a realistic number for the US in general would be 60 even 70% opposed, the US is very tired of war.
  - Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 7:51 pm EST/EDT
    
    1st, I don’t really trust US ‘polling numbers’. For one thing, the polls are paid for by the same corporate media that constantly lies. Even if they don’t flat out lie about polling numbers (and they lie so often, one has to ask why they’d restrict themselves to the truth in this case), polls can easily be rigged just in the wording of the questions. “Do you support children dying horrible, painful deaths at the hands of a monster? Agree or Disagree”.
    
    Plus, very few Americans take part in polls. These aren’t the 1950’s anymore. I’ve heard numbers that say that pollsters are happy if they can get even 20% of calls to have someone stay on the line and answer questions.
    
    Also, even if the poll is legit, remember the people answering the questions are saturated with the lies of the American corporate media. If you tell people a lie 20 times a day, don’t be surprised when they repeat the lie to a pollster.
    
    I’ve noticed that with all of the above, they can usually push a pro-war sentiment up over 50% at the height of a war-drive, propaganda campaign. Syria in 2013 was noticeable because the intense propaganda couldn’t even do that. But, that over-50%-peak quickly passes and the American people go back to telling pollsters that they wish we’d end these wars.
    
    The last two presidents have gotten elected by lying and pretending that they were anti-war before the election.
GoraKoshka on April 13, 2017 · at 2:28 am EST/EDT

Agree with most of what you say, Saker, except that “rational leadership” bit. Reading “JFK and the Unspeakable,” it seems clear that there were plenty in the US armed forces who imagined a successful nuclear war. JFK disagreed, but then he met an untimely end… So the pessimism is justified (just hope it is not replaced by horror soon)
Фланкербандит on April 13, 2017 · at 2:33 am EST/EDT

I don’t pay much attention to these official pronouncements…what I do look at are some of the details that may go unnoticed…

For instance…today Sputnik reported …

‘…Tillerson said cybertools have “emerged” to influence elections as well as interfere with the software systems relied on by weapons systems.

Also today…US military is stating that they are decreasing airstrike activity [against Isis] in Syria…

‘…“We have made adjustments to our operations to account for the potential tensions that resulted from the strikes that were conducted because of the Syrian regime’s chemical attack,” Colonel John Dorrian, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, told the Pentagon press corps on Wednesday…’
- vot tak on April 13, 2017 · at 4:37 am EST/EDT
  
  “interfere with the software systems relied on by weapons systems.”
  
  Yeah, I noticed that line, also. Very interesting.
  - Ann on April 13, 2017 · at 6:19 am EST/EDT
    
    Russian electronic weapons of mass deflection ? ahaha
- Whoever on April 13, 2017 · at 6:39 am EST/EDT
  
  Tillerson said nothing of the sort. I dont know where did Sputnik get that idea? What he was referring to was US interference with Iranian nuclear weapons program. A Russian reporter was trying to equate alleged Russian interference in US election, which is of course a load of crap, with US sabotage efforts of alleged Iranians nuclear weapons program and in reply Tillerson was trying to differentiate those two.
  - vot tak on April 13, 2017 · at 12:53 pm EST/EDT
    
    W
    
    Here is the quote from exxon valdiz:
    
    “But I think I do make a distinction when cyber tools are used to interfere with the internal decisions among countries as to how their elections are conducted. That is one use of cyber tools. Cyber tools to disrupt weapons programs – that’s another use of the tools, and I make a distinction between those two.”
    
    I think you are correct, he seems to be referring to the israeloamerican cyber attacks against Iran when talking about attacking weapons programs. The disgusting sod also appears to think those israeloamerican cyber attacks were a good thing.
- wcb on April 13, 2017 · at 2:21 pm EST/EDT
  
  could it have anything to do with 59 fired, 23 land?
John Mason on April 13, 2017 · at 3:29 am EST/EDT

There is a possible way out for the US by using a sacrificial lamb the UK, US has used this method in the past. Blame the UK for the false intelligence and misleading the US. UK won’t/can’t do anything since they are now rather insignificant in world politics.
- Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 6:53 am EST/EDT
  
  Not really.
  
  The British–and Anglos in general–have a talent for manipulation and stirring up conflict. Their behavior with respect to the Syria issue has been predictably criminal.
  
  British To Push More Sanctions
  http://www.larouchepub.com/pr/2017/170410_brits_push_sanctions..html
  
  The ‘White Helmets’ Are a British Creation
  http://larouchepub.com/pr/2017/170410_white_helmets.html
Lysander on April 13, 2017 · at 3:32 am EST/EDT

“One of them put it simply “we are not going to trade Boston for Munich”. They were all patriots, but they knew crazy when they saw it and war between the USA and the USSR is a crazy, civilization ending, idea.”

I’m convinced that is as equally true today as it was then, despite the noise. Perhaps even more true, because they certainly won’t trade Warsaw for Washington. And in 1962 relative nuclear ballance favored the USA. Today it does not. However, that doesn’t mean the risk is zero. Anyone can miscalculate, especially arrogant Zio-cons.

But in these situations, the answer depends on who is ready to go nuclear after a conventional defeat. No one wants to be in the horrible position of having to either accept a huge military defeat, or escalate to nuclear.

I suppose they are calculating that they can defeat Russia in a conventional war in Syria and that Russia will not go nuclear. And they may be calculating that they can do it without openly shooting at Russian forces. They may be thinking that they can defeat Russia by serial attacks on Syrian and Iranian ground forces, causing the collapse of the Syrian government and army, and then the terrorists will start to attack Russian forces.

What could be Russia’s response? Honestly, Russia has to protect Russia, and in the past, if Russia had to give up Moscow in order to defeat Napoleon, it did so. I’m not suggesting at all that Russia should abandon Syria. I pray it never does. But at the same time, who can ask Russia to wage nuclear war on their behalf?

That said, if Russia wants to win in Syria, perhaps she needs to start raising the cost to those who are trying to destroy both Syria and Russia. Namely, Saudi Arabia. What if Russia were to accuse KSA of involvement in the recent St Petersburg boming and launch its own cruise missile attack? Make sure to give Americans 15 minutes to get out of the way in order to return the courtesy paid to them. Putin can announce that they have “irrefutable intelligence” linking the bomber to KSA.

Short of that, Russia might develop options to hit back at the west in areas where they are weaker, should they get any ideas about attacking Syrian forces.

At any rate, Russia must never place itself in the position of having to choose between military defeat and nuclear escalation. It should find a way to impose that horrible decision on the west. In they end, even if they don’t care about the rest of us, Trump and Jared and Ivanka Kushner do not want to die.
- hoop on April 13, 2017 · at 4:42 am EST/EDT
  
  I think you give the solution. If we want to stop this madness Russia needs to escalate this war to other areas of this world. For example Warsaw or Budapest or Sofia.
  - Lysander on April 13, 2017 · at 5:06 am EST/EDT
    
    I would suggest those countries are of little value to the west. They are just useful idiots to be used as a shield to absorb Russian retaliation should it ever come to that.
    
    KSA on the other hand, is the life’s blood of the west. If it ever becomes extremely serious in Syria…meaning Russian forces are about to be overrun and Russia does not want to make the terrible decision of nuclear escalation, a strike on KSA is a possible option. Because it truly hurts the west, while at the same time raising oil prices, thus forcing the west to pay for Russia’s defense.
    
    In other words, if KSA oil fields are destroyed Russia will do just fine. Europe not so much. Even the USA with its shale deposits still depends on a lot of imports.
    
    This is not a decision to be taken lightly, but only something Russia can do short of nuclear war and only if the situation becomes very hot.
    
    The other thing Russia needs to do is to contact the Israelis, since they seem to be calling the shots, and make it clear that they will not be watching a nuclear exchange from the sidelines. If they understand that, they might put a tighter leash on their golem.
    - nice try on April 13, 2017 · at 9:07 pm EST/EDT
      
      The Zionist/US/Saudi axis tried to “weaponize” oil prices, and only succeeded in allowing China to top-up its reserves at bargain prices. Probably another use for the over-valued US$-reserves China has been divesting. Bought a few hundred tonnes of undervalued physical gold in the last couple years too.
      
      Russia was hurt a bit by the low oil price attack, but probably made up a good bit of the shortfall selling rocket engines to the US…
      
      Oh ya, and the US shale-oil/gas low-interest-rate ponzi-scam crashed… unintended consequences suck.
      
      In the end, both Russia and China are playing the long game with the Saudi royals, who may have come to realize just how over-stated their recoverable in-ground oil reserves really are. The Saudi oil fields are some of the oldest, and are only remaining at peak output because of “enhanced” extraction techniques (fracking included?). The problem there is once they start fracking, extreme water injection and the like, slowing ongoing output by very much has a tendency to reduce the total output. The “Pump it to lose it” scenario seems to be confirmed by the Saudis trying to scam the rest of the world into cutting production while they don’t.
- Anonymous on April 15, 2017 · at 2:51 am EST/EDT
  
  I would like to see the Russians help the Yemenis give Saudi Arabia their own Vietnam. I know the Russians do not want to create their own version of the Taliban to later became another Al-CIAda but to my limited strategic understanding it seems worth it.
  
  Deploy some tame Chechen Special Forces to shoot down Saudi jets, destroy planes on the ground á la Long Range Desert Group, train Yemeni fighters, and use Kornets to light up the Abrams tanks like on YouTube. This is one way to end the Humanitarian crisis in Yemen and keep the Saudi’s too busy to spread their Wahhabi ideology or force them to the negotiating table.
  
  It will also put the Isisraelis on notice that Hezbollah can also be armed and trained unless they behave.
Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 3:59 am EST/EDT

Very good analysis. I know that the US does not realize that Russia’s desire for patience and peace is doing it (the US) a big favour. the US does not even contemplate the fact that for every day Russia, China and Iran are showing patience and preference for peace, they are in fact extending the US reign and “indispensability”.

Let’s assume that Russia turns a blind eye and allow the US to have its way in Syria. Which by the way, I think if the US continues with its insane hubris and detachment from reality, then Russia must not allow itself to get sucked in and draw itself into this race to the destructive bottom scenario. Let the US loose. All Russia need to do is provide political and military support to its allies.

The same forces that drove the US Marines out of Lebanon overnight and the US army out of Iraq (in the middle of the night, so as not to be photographed) are now much numerous, well armed, well equipped, battle hardened, eager and waiting to not only expel the US army out of Syria, but from the whole region. Israel will not be spared either.

This would be a repeat of Vietnam but on a much larger scale. The aftermath of this enormous debacle would not be less than total economic and social meltdown.

The US has to thank Russia….everyday!
White Whale on April 13, 2017 · at 4:41 am EST/EDT

I just love this pic of Lavrov.
There he is. Patrician. A global leader.
Showing, guiding, Tillerson _ “here is the path of righteousness….. Let us walk it together.”
Can Tillerson realise what he is being offered ?
RayB on April 13, 2017 · at 4:45 am EST/EDT

Thank you Saker for speaking the unadulterated truth about the real situation we face and dilemma we are in. Your a man after my heart, calling a spade a spade and sayen it like it is. Few people actually recognize the dangerous times we are living in and many don’t appreciate hearing about it, as I’ve learned from hard experience. Hearing you say it, given your concern for all of humanity, your wealth of experience in the field and knowledge of geopolitics, it’s heartening and very encouraging to get the benefit of your considered assessments of what constitutes political reality (however gloomy) at this critical time and juncture in history. Please keep it up, as it’s deeply appreciated by those of us battling media induced systemic mass ignorance out here in the wilderness…Ray
sadness on April 13, 2017 · at 5:21 am EST/EDT

I could watch less than a minute of Tillerson at the press conference, but he S Lavrov & VVP know each other don’t they? so I’m hoping that, away from the Neo impresser cameras, he was able to be a normal person and they could do some deals…but who knows….just hoping for the best.
James lake on April 13, 2017 · at 6:04 am EST/EDT

Saker,

Why doesn’t Russia get that they are under threat?

The behaviour is like they are in denial.

Putin should not have met Tillerson- there was no point to it.

Syria – they either treat it seriously like the threat that it is – or get out.

It’s incredibly frustrating knowing that they could have locked this war down last year – but withdrew – giving the enemy time to regroup ,

I can’t understand why so called experienced politicians did this

Lavrov – all this pointless talking
If you analyse Russia’s success it has come through the military not diplomacy.

Look at Georgia and the when Donbass founght back.
When diplomats get involved the other sign treat it as s chance to regroup and rearm.

After hours of talking – the press conference showed that nothing was achieved. Tilerson was saying the same things he had said before the trip.

Therefore why did Putin meet him?

Keeping as many of the USA coalition flights in the ground is a good thing slow down any invasion plans

Trump was meeting NATO so there is something going on

The Europeans however may not agree to war if they could not agree to sanctions
- twilight on April 13, 2017 · at 3:19 pm EST/EDT
  
  Russia still plays to the same rules that they followed pre-WW2, when their ‘alliance’ with the Nazi regime of Germany allowed Russia access to some German tech (for which they paid with natural resources) and gave Russia time to build up their war-machine manufacturing in the ‘Viking’ northern territories (out of reach of Nazi bombers) in readiness for the war to come.
  
  But the world has changed since then, and ***propaganda*** is the current no.1 weapon of warfare. Russia looks weak when it bends over and takes it from the Americans. While Putin looks over his WW3 arsenal of 100% American exterminating nukes, he forgets that you must also fight the ‘war’ on current battlefields.
  
  Putin made the mistake of a lifetime when he allowed himself to be intimidated/depressed by the “Trump is a puppet of Putin” propaganda blitz after the election of Trump- causing Putin to back away from Trump, allowing the Demons of the Deep State to step in and co-opt Trump absolutely. Now Russia scrambles to make sense of its ‘relationship’ with American, not understanding that all the opportunities posed by Trump’s victory have been squandered and lost for good.
  
  Trump’s America is now a 100% perfect enemy of Russia, just as Clinton’s America was always going to be. Putin’s only remaining winning move is to make the American people trouser-soiling terrified of the consequences of America confronting Russia. Soft diplomacy does the very opposite. And the fear of nukes don’t do it either, because most ordinary Americans now believe that nukes don’t even pose that much of a threat (the anti-science teaching in American schools by the Deep State), and more than half would declare that chemical weapons are more ‘dangerous’.
- frances on April 14, 2017 · at 9:23 am EST/EDT
  
  Russia will avoid war at all costs, it knows what it would mean for its small population that even now has not recovered from its WW2 losses. And I believe Russia is playing for time, somewhere I read that Russia needs until 2019 to have its nationwide defensive capability completed. Once that is done they may be less polite:)
Ann on April 13, 2017 · at 6:12 am EST/EDT

someone somewhere – I think on this site – said a couple of days ago – when the heat was the worst –

that there is no way there will be nuclear war – it will be conventional war –

I think that might be a good point. I mean even if the neo-cons have bunkers under the midwest somewhere – can’t spell it – Arkansaw ? I don’t believe that ALL their families – which are the only people on the earth that are important to them – will get there in time and fit in there etc etc etc –

so even the Neo-cons don’t actually want nuclear war.

this must be what is talked about behind closed doors with those neo-cons – ‘no no, it won’t go nuclear ” otherwise it just doesn’t add up that they keep pushing for war .

They must be convinced it won’t go nuclear.

Anyway, that’s my thought of the day.
- frances on April 14, 2017 · at 9:29 am EST/EDT
  
  Russia has said they know they cannot win a conventional war and Putin said something to the effect that if a war starts it will not be fought on Russian soil and it will end in a day. They will fight a conventional war in Syria, even in Donetsk but in Russia? No.
l on April 13, 2017 · at 6:23 am EST/EDT

“For one thing – when two superpowers are talking to each ”

-Certainly you are not suggesting that Russia is a superpower???
- Carmel by the Sea on April 13, 2017 · at 1:34 pm EST/EDT
  
  @I,
  
  Obama hated Russia and still he called it a “Superpower”.
  Russia *is* a Superpower.
  It is what it is.
  
  Germany: Obama calls Russia a ‘military superpower,’ urges greater cooperation–video
  
  Hear it around 0:15
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV-mkJgKVcs
  - Lumi on April 13, 2017 · at 3:11 pm EST/EDT
    
    The term “superpower” is meaningless. You’re supposed to be held in awe for when nuclear push comes to intercontinental shove. But that doomsday will never come. It’s all science fiction.
    
    Why don’t you folks question more ??? As constantly reminded by RT? (Which of course questions precious little itself.)
Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 7:31 am EST/EDT

Meanwhile, India has dropped its “multipolar” mask is openly allying with America for its war preparations against China.

A potential World War 3 may begin in Syria or North Korea, but it sure as hell won’t end there.

India has chosen the unipolar American axis, a move that will likely lead to South Asia becoming another front in this final “war to end all wars.”

India becomes “frontline” state in US war plans against China
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/03/07/inus-m07.html
Basil on April 13, 2017 · at 8:48 am EST/EDT

The other thing Russia needs to do is to contact the Israelis, since they seem to be calling the shots, and make it clear that they will not be watching a nuclear exchange from the sidelines…

You beat me to it Lysander. Hit the nail right on the head.

I agree with all that Saker says except for the part where he says that it is difficult to deal with an adversary who is not rational. Here’s why:

Pepe Escobar likes to use ‘Wayang Kulit’ or Shadow play in his writings, and I quote: Kulit means skin, covering. Wayang is the puppet, made out of cow hide, painted and braced with sticks that the dalang — the puppet master — manipulates at will.

What we’re seeing are the puppets’ (Trump, Tillerson, Haley, et al) shadows jumping all over the screen. In a real play, sometimes the puppets move in a seemingly incoherent fashion. But the puppet master is always in control, moving them, giving them voice, in a rational fashion vis-a-vis his plot for the play. The wise old Prussian, Clausewitz, wrote that war is conducted for a reason ie it has certain aims and objectives. The conduct of war may appear chaotic but war, any war, is conducted for a rational end.

So to come back to the shadow play, what’s the best way to stop a bad — and potentially deadly one for all of us — shadow play? Why, talk to the puppet master of course and tell him in no uncertain terms that he’s in the play too.
- Mulga Mumblebrain on April 13, 2017 · at 10:40 am EST/EDT
  
  I think that bunraku, the Japanese puppet theatre, is a better analogy. The puppets (Trump, Clinton, May, Turnbull etc)are manipulated by the puppeteers (the Zionazi Fifth Columns, Ukrainian fascists and other generous ‘political contributors’)who are clad in black, head to toe, and we, the audience, must pretend that we cannot see them, or we’ll be thrown out for ruining the performance (it’s called ‘antisemitism’, or ‘conspiracy theory’). The very great, Master, puppeteers, however, are there for all to see, dressed in their finery, and these are the Soros, Adelson, Saban, Lowy, Nutty-yahoo et al species of manipulators. Ignoring their presence is even more vital, and the penalties for refusing to close your eyes to their presence and manipulations are the greater.
- James on April 15, 2017 · at 11:23 pm EST/EDT
  
  Inspiring words.
Frankie on April 13, 2017 · at 9:07 am EST/EDT

How many of you younger than me remember that once there was KGB-channel and then diplomacy-channel in Soviet Union? Now think about which one of those was that which guided the quest to real power center of USSR? Yes indeed. And now you likely know that Tillerson-Lavrov talking was pure trash and media nonsense. Russia is acting behind the scenes and western media has not a single idea what’s happening there.
Ernesto on April 13, 2017 · at 9:32 am EST/EDT

“2 – Our U.S. Army contacts in the area have told us this is not what happened. There was no Syrian “chemical weapons attack.” Instead, a Syrian aircraft bombed an al-Qaeda-in-Syria ammunition depot that turned out to be full of noxious chemicals and a strong wind blew the chemical-laden cloud over a nearby village where many consequently died.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/11/trump-should-rethink-syria-escalation/

Is there any info did this vital important memo never even reached Trump or does it even matter anyway if it did?
JJ on April 13, 2017 · at 9:47 am EST/EDT

usually secret meetings-here Tillerson & Putin- are held to get a message back to the sender of the person attending….and open up the opportunity of a further meeting between the highest levels of persons later…?
Ie preparation for Trump- Putin later in the year as originally scheduled, so at the moment we have an “everything on hold” situation, to the ends that publicly both sides retain their current position? Could be a “hidden : message to Trump, sort yourself out in the meantime if you possibly can,and we might talk later, as clearly Putin would not want to talk to Putin letting his current folly be fully realised and recognised by Trump and co, and enabling Trump to deal with CIA,Pentagon neocons deep state etc if he can, don’t mess up any more as we can tell who and how you are being manipulated and there would not be any point in “better” discussions/relations unless this changes , giving time for Russia to collate and present evidence about everything ,so he might-?- be in a more receptive mood later when he has kinda grown more into his presidency and then able to do something about the issues…….just a feeling….a gracious stay of exectution at the moment by Putin
- JJ on April 13, 2017 · at 11:51 am EST/EDT
  
  for example
  drawing the line here?
  
  MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. Russia believes that US President Donald Trump’s signing a protocol on Montenegro’s joining NATO shows that US policy is inert, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
  “We view this step as an example of Washington’s inert policy, reflecting the logic of confrontation on the European continent and the creation of new dividing lines,” the ministry stressed. “We state that drawing Montenegro into NATO comes without taking into account the real public opinion of this Balkan country.”
  The ministry also said millions of dollars are earmarked to support pro-NATO puppet NGOs in an attempt to “create the illusion of broad public support for the one-sided line of Montenegro’s leadership.” There is also doubt in the US that this step could be beneficial to the alliance and European security.
  READ ALSO
  
  US Senate votes overwhelmingly in favor of Montenegro’s accession to NATO
  “We view the narrative on Montenegro’s accession to NATO as deeply erroneous. Moreover, it contradicts the core interests of the country’s population and impairs stability in the Balkans and in Europe overall,” the statement reads.
  
  More:
  http://tass.com/politics/941178
  
  but only outlining the situation of relations here
  ‘Kremlin: Putin outlined causes of worsening Russia-US ties at meeting with Tillerson
  
  Russian Politics & Diplomacy April 13, 12:45 UTC+3
  It is early to speak about a shift in the Russia-US relations after a meeting between Putin and Tillerson, the Kremlin spokesman said
  
  More:
  http://tass.com/politics/941155
  
  no ultimatum, timescale or saying what Russia believes will be the point of giving up with USA….but note the seriousness and firmness here and indication of a stance continuing:
  
  “MOSCOW, April 13./TASS/. Strident rhetoric is well-grounded when it is necessary to defend the country’s interests, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday in comments on a Wednesday speech by Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Vladimir Safronkov.
  “We believe – yes,” Peskov in reply to the question whether the acuteness of the Syrian issue discussed at the UN Security Council could excuse the tonality of his speech. “Nothing insulting was said,” Peskov marked. He said the issues under discussion at the UN Security Council are really very acute, “often concerning the essence and the future of international relations’.
  
  Russia vetoes UN Security Council resolution on alleged chemical attack in Syria
  “Demonstrating feebleness is in the future fraught with bad consequences, and that is why it is better to defend the interests of our Fatherland exactly today, and if it comes to this – rather toughly,” he said.”
  
  More:
  http://tass.com/politics/941158
  - White Whale on April 13, 2017 · at 8:09 pm EST/EDT
    
    A question. To native Russian speakers:
    I see sometimes Russians referring to their country as “motherland”, and here Peskov refers to “fatherland”.
    I’m interested – is this because the actual Russian word has no direct gendered english equivalent?
    or – well – ? I am curious about this, and am interested in someone who is a native speaker explaining the linguistic switch between genders.
    
    >>>>> I find it interesting (and wonderful) that both genders are referenced.
    - Auslander on April 14, 2017 · at 4:05 pm EST/EDT
      
      Мать Россия is generally the term used hereabouts.
      
      Mat’ Rossiya in ‘English’.
      
      Translation is ‘Mother Russia’.
      
      Auslander
- JJ on April 13, 2017 · at 11:57 am EST/EDT
  
  and
  “So Far, So Good
  
  The Moscow Kremlin towers. (File)
  © SPUTNIK/ NATALIA SELIVERSTOVA
  Putin Meets With US State Secretary Tillerson, Russian FM Lavrov in Kremlin
  Commenting on Tillerson’s talks in Moscow, Fedor Lukyanov, chairman of the Presidium for Foreign and Defense Policy, said that their results were good enough.
  “I think that in the current tense situation this is a very good result. The fact that talks took place, including talks between Tillerson and the Russian president, is positive,” Lukyanov told Sputnik.
  
  According to him, Putin’s decision to meet Tillerson was an “act of goodwill.”
  
  “I guess this was an act of goodwill and a signal that Russia doesn’t want the confrontation to deepen. Taking into account a series of harsh statements [about Russia] made by US officials recently, talks between Tillerson and Putin were in question,” the expert said.”
  
  https://sputniknews.com/politics/201704131052602879-tillerson-talks-russia/
- JJ on April 13, 2017 · at 2:17 pm EST/EDT
  
  US President Donald Trump expressed confidence on Thursday that “things” would work out in the Russia-US relations, and there would be “lasting peace.”
  
  MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Wednesday, Trump said that the US “is not getting along with Russia at all.”
  
  “Things will work out fine between the U.S.A. and Russia. At the right time everyone will come to their senses & there will be lasting peace!” Trump said in a tweet.
  https://sputniknews.com/politics/201704131052607822-trump-russia-us-ties/
  
  hopefully referring to self?
Mulga Mumblebrain on April 13, 2017 · at 9:52 am EST/EDT

That the Zionazis have taken over the ‘Trump’ malAdministration through Kusher, the Shadow Shogun (or Shadow Sayan if you prefer)seems pretty clear. The manner in which the lunatic ‘Putin stole my home-work’ lie of Russian hacking of the US election farce, has been driven to heights of extreme hysteria simply reeks of Zionazi hasbara tactics, and ‘antisemitism’ lynch-mobs like that unleashed on Ken Livingstone, Jeremy Corbyn and UK Labour, in the UK. It really looks like Bibi Nutty-yahoo, the Israeli ruling elite and the Jewish Fifth Columns in the Western states are so insanely determined to destroy Syria, in pursuit of the Oded Yinon Plan to destroy all Israel’s neighbours, that they are prepared to drive their puppet Trump, to the brink of thermo-nuclear war-and, who knows, perhaps beyond. With a rank psychotic like Nutty-yahoo, one always suspects that the Masada Complex and ‘Samson Option’ are always on the brink of being put into action.
Kent on April 13, 2017 · at 11:05 am EST/EDT

Breaking!!

US coalition air strikes hit ISIS chemical weapons depot, 100dreds dead.

http://theduran.com/us-coalition-air-strikes-hit-isis-chemical-weapons-depot/

Kent
Terry on April 13, 2017 · at 11:36 am EST/EDT

As I said a few days ago, I think the US attack on Syria was for domestic consumption. They did little damage, and for whatever reason, only about 40 percent of the missiles even hit the targeted airfield, with the rest mysteriously “disappearing”. There are various explanations for that, but what cannot be denied is the US could have targeted them on the Presidential Palace in Damascus, or on more important airfields. They didn’t, which means they were not attempting to inflict serious damage on the SAA or Syrian government. They also made no attempt to target or damage the Syrian air defenses, which means they have no intention of carrying out a serious bombing campaign in the immediate future.

Compare this attack with their assault on Iraq or Libya, where they fired off thousands of cruise missiles and attacked with stealth bombers all targeted first and foremost on the country’s anti-aircraft defenses, then on Iraqi and Libyan military and government headquarters, and finally on government buildings and wherever they believed Saddam and Gadfaffi to be staying in an attempt to “decapitate” the target countries.

Giving the Russians two hours warning allowed the SAA time to largely evacuate the base, which is why only a handful of people were killed. This was clearly designed, possibly with Russian advance agreement/tolerance, to shore up support for Trump and “change the channel” from the baseless accusations about Trump being a “puppet of Putin” to “Trump the Man of Action”. That solved a problem both for Trump and for the Democrats who had painted themselves into a corner with their “Russia hacked the election” mantra which was transparently false.

Change the channel and move on.

Next up: some sort of token strike on Northern Korea, again likely with some sort of advance warning to Russia and China and their agreement to tolerate it. That establishes Trump’s “Real Man”credentials and shows he can “Stand up to Putin, Assad, Kim, and Xi.” I doubt it will go further than that. The generals behind Trump are well aware that attacking NK is not like attacking Yugoslavia or Libya. NK can hit back big time.
Edward on April 13, 2017 · at 1:55 pm EST/EDT

“the Americans have completely painted themselves into a corner.”

Donald Trump does not seem to ever admit mistakes. Part of his schtick seems to be everything he does is great and everything others do is wrong. At what point does he admit an error? When a gun is put to his head?
- Edward on April 13, 2017 · at 3:17 pm EST/EDT
  
  I suppose the way Trump “admits” an error is by changing his position and then denying he ever did anything wrong.
vot tak on April 13, 2017 · at 2:05 pm EST/EDT

While exxon valdiz didn’t issue an ultimatum, it doesn’t look like he worked towards any positive direction, either. Basically, my impression is the sod stated the propaganda and then mouth the standard diplomatic protocol about getting along better and mumbled some vague ideas about future negotiations.

This was the standard zionazi pr exercise they do when they have no intention of halting their aggression. The tuppence regime will say, “hey we went and talked to ‘hitler’, but he wouldn’t budge, we have no choice now, we must defend the free world by all means necessary”.

The zionazi propaganda drumming up support for israel’s war will be further ramped up and their aggressive actions will continue.

Washington ‘Violates All Unwritten Rules Devised Since Cuban Missile Crisis’

https://sputniknews.com/politics/201704131052604581-washington-violates-unwritten-rules/

“The Trump administration has disregarded all the unwritten rules drawn up in the last 55 years when it comes to international relations by carrying out an unexpected unilateral attack against Syria and suggesting that Washington could act on its own in North Korea, Russian defense analyst Vasily Kashin told Sputnik.

“The current situation is unprecedented due to the US administration drastically changing its operations model and its response to crises. In recent days, Washington has violated all the unwritten rules devised in the years since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even if the Korean situation and the Syrian crisis could be stabilized through political means, the implications of what had happened for world politics and strategic stability would be extremely negative,” he said.

In addition, Washington has indicated that it is ready to resolve the North Korean issue through a unilateral action, adding that all options, including a military operation, were on the table.

“In North Korea’s case, the US administration announced that it abandoned its policy of strategic patience in March, switching to tough power politics in April, most likely prior to developing or discussing a new strategy,” the analyst said.”

‘We are sending an armada’: Trump ready to eliminate N. Korean ‘menace’ with or without China

https://www.rt.com/news/384554-us-armada-china-korea-menace/

“Russia’s Foreign Ministry said earlier it is deeply concerned with US policy over North Korea.

“We are really worried about what Washington has in mind for North Korea after it hinted at the possibility of a unilateral military scenario,” the ministry said in a statement.

While China insists on a peaceful solution, Washington continues to flex its muscles in the region. Last week Washington rerouted its Carl Vinson towards the Korean peninsula in a show of force.

“We are sending an armada. Very powerful,” Trump told Fox. “We have submarines. Very powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier. That I can tell you.”

Washington has allegedly sent Seal Team 6 – which killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011 – to participate in the Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises being conducted in the region from March 7 to April 30, JoongAng Daily reported Wednesday, citing South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense.

The Seal Team 6 will also be joined by the American Delta Force, which specializes in hostage rescue and counterterrorism. As part of the multinational force operation, both US special forces teams will lead a rehearsal of removing Kim Jong-un and destroying of North Korea’s nuclear weapons.”

Meanwhile, the quislings prepare the all familiar narrative:

N. Korea could have sarin-tipped missiles, Japanese PM says ahead of Pyongyang’s ‘big event’

https://www.rt.com/news/384579-north-korea-sarin-missiles/

“Speaking to lawmakers, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said there is possibility that North Korea already has the capacity to equip missile warheads with sarin projectiles, according to Nikkei Asia Review.”

What is clear is that all these zpc/nwo actions are part of a planned strategy created before the last american [s]election to be put into effect after the new year, regardless which quisling team won.
- Melotte 22 on April 14, 2017 · at 9:19 am EST/EDT
  
  ” As part of the multinational force operation, both US special forces teams will lead a rehearsal of removing Kim Jong-un and destroying of North Korea’s nuclear weapons.”
  
  Just curious about this. How in hell are they going to drop a team of their special forces in the middle of North Korea and remove/assassinate Kim? Looks like they are using the same way of thinking they used for elimination of Osama Bin Laden.
  These idiots are completely in denial, if they are considering this scenario.
Jean-Pierre on April 13, 2017 · at 2:14 pm EST/EDT

I have concluded that the New World order (NOW) is all about « putting the genie back in the bottle”, the genie being capitalisms insatiable appetite for endless growth. Knowing fully that this “endless growth” is destroying the planet, I am not so sure that the nuclear option is off the table for these maniacs… The NWO is about containment, in other words, the dramatic reduction of the systems ability to destroy planet earth. We need to understand that we are dealing with “sociopaths” and “reason” is not in the cards.
Kent on April 13, 2017 · at 2:21 pm EST/EDT

I can do it!! – I can do it!! – I can do it !!

http://telemarksporten.no/SakerPhotos/Trump_Flag_Faces_of_Evilr_resize.jpg

Kent
Sioxx on April 13, 2017 · at 3:18 pm EST/EDT

When the last lie do’nt work and you can’t go back, lie even more.

The US will extend their false gas-attacks to a new level of crazyness. The will bomb a bunch of childs with gas, add some russian pieces to it and say: “Look here, the Russian gased kids just for fun, just because they can, so evil are they!”.

Look out, something like that will happen soon.
Cold Wind on April 13, 2017 · at 3:43 pm EST/EDT

Well, only yesterday we have a large convoy of US troops raging through N. Syria from Turkey to a almost completed US military base in Kobane, the Aleppo province. Yes, and there are similar reports of US convoys moving into Syria from the south in Jordan to close proximity to Damascus. So. I don’t see the lying Tillerson having a significant impact in Moscow. Also. It looks like the Israeli got by Russian air defenses again last night and attacked Hezbollah sites in Syria. It is just so depressing.
Shivkumar on April 13, 2017 · at 4:14 pm EST/EDT

Yep Saker ! Brilliant analysis like your previous one. Unfortunately the U S has played chicken with China, and China has lett down North Korea. The Dollar investments appear far more important to China. North Korea and its population are expendable in that game . So much so the US establishment assumes other countries will follow the imperial doctrine of subservience.
Secondly unless US mainland is subjected to war or Wall Street stripped to the bone, peace will remain distant dream . Most would prefer the latter, since few men or women least of all soldiers( barring arm chair generals ) like to spill blood ! But does Trump or other sane elements in the establisment have what it taked to contain the American elites blood lust ?
Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 5:45 pm EST/EDT

I know its easy to just write ‘the Americans’. I fall into that trap myself. But I do hope you understand that at this point there is a large difference between the American government and the opinions of American citizens.

In two of the last three elections for President, the American voters have been given a choice between a candidate that portended and promise more and more war, and a candidate promising to change that policy. In 2008, when Obama was pretending to be ‘antiwar’, American voters strongly preferred him to Mad Bomber McCain. In 2012, there wasn’t really any choice among the two pro-war candidates, but in 2016, there was a choice between a Trump candidacy that was saying that these wars had been a mistake and that the policy of regime change had been a mistake …. versus Hillary who seemed to want a nuclear war ASAP. Again, the American voters voted for the candidate who appeared to want to end or at least scale back these endless wars.

OK, so both Obama and Trump have turned out to be liars and there wasn’t really a choice between major parties in either election. But still, its rather clear by this point that the American people do want these wars to end. They’ve been telling pollsters this for a decade, and they’ve clearly shown it with their votes when given either a fake choice in two elections.

Former President Carter has said that America no longer has a functioning democracy. The opinions of Americans about our endless wars won’t matter until America suceeds with a meaningful ‘democracy movement’. Until then, as two Ivy league political scientists pointed out, American citizens have no voice in major decisions in a government that is effectively an oligarchy.
Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 6:44 pm EST/EDT

You just never know.

Yes, I am no longer hopeful about Trump. It seems he’s been willing to dump his positions from the campaign (a move Hillary perfected) and is now as bad or worse than Dubya and Obama. But, four years is a long time, and things do change.

Ronald Reagan changed his tune during his time. When he began, he ranted and raved about the ‘evil empire’. The famous Doomsday Clock kept by the atomic scientists was at 3 minutes to midnight in 1984. That’s almost but not quite the worst its ever been. But Reagan was willing to talk with Gorbachov about completely abolishing nuclear weapons (until his horrified staff got back into the conversation), and by 1986 the Doomsday clock had backed off to 6 minutes to midnight. (BTW, the Doomsday Clock was at 3 minutes to midnight for the last few years of the Obama era, and they bumped it forward to 2.5 minutes to midnight when Trump came to town. The worst is 2 minutes to midnight during the race to get hydrogen fusion bombs in the early 1950s)

So, things can change. Advisors can come into and fall out of favor. Just ask Steve Bannon. But its also true for this current crowd.

So, while today I was happy to see Mr. Tillerson going to Moscow, if only because for one day that meant we wouldn’t launch nukes, there is still room for change. Of course things can always get worse as well as better.
JJ on April 13, 2017 · at 7:11 pm EST/EDT

Gilbert Doctorow has some good recent articles re this subject too

http://russia-insider.com/en/putin-meets-tillerson-what-does-it-mean/ri19594

http://russia-insider.com/en/rex-tillerson-should-resign/ri19568
Carol DW on April 13, 2017 · at 7:49 pm EST/EDT

Being immune to logic and fact based arguments is a pretty fair description of mental illness. I suspect one or more chemical substances are involved in their persistent mania.
Beside the usual drugs of choice in political circles, alcohol, coke etc. Substances they believe enhance ‘decision making’ powers (some variant of speed) that Hillary was enquiring about in one of her emails to Colin Powell?
Amphetamines make the user feel like they are the smartest person in the room while making terrible decisions; impervious to reason.
Perhaps there is more to ‘drinking the Kool-Aide than previously imagined.
It’s the sort of self medication you might expect from the intellectually challenged feeling overwhelmed by their self appointed role as ‘rulers of the world.’ Oxycontin directly effects the brain.
Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 9:12 pm EST/EDT

The status of the meeting from the RUssian point of view appears to indifference. No formal record was kept and it is not mentioned on the Kremlin website

http://johnhelmer.net/capitulation-rex-tillerson-authorizes-us-hacking-against-russian-war-targets-us-television-demands-sergei-lavrov-speak-in-english/

Subsequent to the meeting Tillerson spoke of Assad’s removal, not that ‘Assad must go’, rather that is departure must be ‘organized’. Geez.
Anonymous on April 13, 2017 · at 9:40 pm EST/EDT

The head of the CIA today declared that non-Americans have no right to free speech.

Of course, every American is under constant surveilence, so take that with a grain of salt. We’ve certainly learned from the last election that anyone who is considered politically to be a danger or opponent under the CIA is under surveilence. Including major party candidates. Thus needs to be careful about what they say.

And remember that the man who said this has ‘permission’ to kill anyone, anywhere, including Americans, with drone strikes or hit teams.

https://www.rt.com/usa/384667-cia-assange-wikileaks-critisize/
Nussiminen on April 14, 2017 · at 6:22 am EST/EDT

“At this point in time, this is all we can still hope for: that the spineless imbeciles who run the USA today do not trigger WWIII.”

The spineless imbeciles don’t really ‘run’ the West, least of all the US. They are simply being handsomely rewarded for their management of the corporate media, their political stoogery, and their violence perpetrated against the world’s downtrodden and oppressed. Bribery breeds consent, cynicism, and delusions of grandeur which then get passed on down to the West’s majority population, forever high on vile, corporate mindrot.

The crux of the matter is the proverbial 1% that does run the business of genocide and ecocide. They are not what I would call ‘spineless’ — they are all-out Satanists, fully committed to slaughter and torture, or ‘European values’ in polite parlance. The Soviets were right: Bourgeois ideology = Mental illness
- Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 7:29 pm EST/EDT
  
  Just to be clear, its more like the 1% of the 1% that actually controls events.
  
  The top 1% of income is about $450,000 USD and up. That level is people who are at the top layers of management. But it is not the people who call the shots. If you look at the crowd at Davos for example, there aren’t many who only make $450,000 a year. Some guy carrying the briefcase for an actual mover and shaker at Davos maybe, but not the top people who make decisions.
Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 10:57 am EST/EDT

Russia will prevent US attack on North Korea seems to be the upshot from the following two articles:

1) https://sputniknews.com/politics/201704141052638326-russia-japan-north-korea/

2) https://sputniknews.com/asia/201704141052635278-nkorea-missile-launch-ambassador/
Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 11:02 am EST/EDT

And on the subject of Korea there is that rather awesome beast the twin of the Peter the Great at port in Pusan at the moment coincidently so to say and it might have some role in the play out of this very very dangerous situation.
AlfaAlfalfa on April 14, 2017 · at 4:31 pm EST/EDT

As I have been saying for a very long time, Russia and the United States are ‘partners’ — or rather the oligarchs and all of those who sit on great thrones, who control all governments, the United Nations, EU and basically every major institution on Earth, are working together, as they have been in one way or another since the dawn of recorded time, in a great ritual cull of the wild men, those who are young and strong and possess revolutionary energy, and who seek to war with injustice and oppression, and who together represent the only force that is both capable and sufficiently courageous of removing these cynical demons from their places of power.

Once these wild men of the human herd have been removed, business as usual can resume, with far less danger to the powerful and entrenched, and with only the peacable, weak and collaborators remaining. Those naive and idealistic young men, who saw the truth of the world into which they were born, of injustice, oppression and evil run amok, will miss their chance to grow old and wise, having been swept up and sent on a hopeless and mistaken quest, destined to meet their doom between the Nile and Euphrates, and in the Great Cedar Forrest, and with their sacrfice a new and more perfected world of total slavery will be born.

It is to our great loss, that we did not have the time, patience or love to save these young men from the excess of their youth. Now everyone is agreed, including those of us who weep for Syria, they have become monsters and must never be allowed to return.

Of course, there will be a few notable exceptions, those who are exceptionally vile, who will be protected and returned because they are useful for keeping the herd frightened and begging for protection from those very same demons seated on thrones of great power, placed atop the bones of our dead ancestors, who initiated this ancient ritual to begin.

Please, everyone, take a break from the manufactured drama and watch this very well done reading of the Epic of Gilgamesh. It will teach you far more than anything you’re likely to read on the internet or see on teevee.

The Epic of Gilgamesh — Full Book

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kde-P_jffqk
Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 6:08 pm EST/EDT

There is no official record of Tillerson meeting Putin – in the sense that the Russians do not regard the meeting as politically relevant. For example, they did not take official photographs of Tillerson meeting Putin. There is no record on the Kremlin website.

“Peterlin’s and Stack’s [Edit: two people deeply invovled in the cyber attacks against Russia, Peterlin was sitting at Tillerson’s side during the meeting with Lavrov] public records are two reasons why none of this is secret from the Russian services. That’s another reason why in Moscow yesterday Lavrov would not look at Tillerson during their press conference — and why Putin refused to be photographed with him.”

http://johnhelmer.net/secstate-tillersons-chief-of-staff-margaret-peterlin-has-been-managing-us-cyber-warfare-operations-against-russia-for-years/
Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 6:35 pm EST/EDT

The US is posturing again about NK. They are proposing a pre-emptive strike just in case NK does something. Their missile defense system could be put to a real test to show the world how well it works. Except of course it doesn’t work that well and that being exposed would totally destroy its credibility [aka sales potential].

BTW the ‘Big Even’t that KJU was boasting of appears to have been the opening of a modern business/residential development in Pyongyang, not a nuke test. However, it does a have a spooky feel, pristine, empty, a stage set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxPw26MeviQ
Anonymous on April 14, 2017 · at 7:22 pm EST/EDT

hmmm, do I detect a trend?

— Syria. The US does not participate in the ongoing peace talks. The Americans were apparently invited, but it also seems that many countries would view the US participation as an impediment to a successful conclusion. The US currently appears to have no active interest in any sort of peaceful resolution.

— North Korea. All the other nations in the region want peace talks and say the problem must be resolved diplomatically. The US refuses to participate, instead sending a nuclear armada along with threats of war.

— In Aftghanistan, the Russians have organized a peace conference, but the US refuses to participate, saying that opposing an expansion of ‘Russian influence’ is more important than bringing America’s longest war to a close.

— Russia. Despite the optimism that the American people had reversed the drive towards nuclear war by choosing Trump over Hillary, both the US and Russia say relations are at a historic low. The Doomsday clock is at 2 min 30 sec to midnight, almost as close to worldwide disaster as its ever been. The atomic scientists are thus saying we having come this close to the end of humanity since the early 1950’s when both sides were developing and exploding nuclear fusion bombs.

In Ukraine the US is backing the Kiev regimes rejection of a peace plan with the Donbas region. In the South China Sea, the US is backing confrontation with no meaningful diplomatic talks. In Yemen, the US is backing the Saudi war crimes with no participation in any talks.

Is there any conflict zone in the world right now where the US is participating in talks to try to defuse the situation? I can’t think of one, but maybe I’ve missed it. What we do see is the US working to aggravate and escalate conflicts around the world.

Note, this seems to have very little to do with Trump. All of this has been ongoing and a continuing trend since Clinton and his cigars. At best, the American voters sent Trump to office hoping for change, but Trump has been defeated in the internal struggle and now seems to have taken off even the thin strings of ‘reins’ on the US military.

Screw it. If the world is ending, screw my boss. I’m taking a day off and enjoying the last few days.

Hmmm, maybe if everyone else did the same, the war machine would grind to a halt. But its too late for that. The weapons have been built, the soldiers have been brain-washed, they are going to follow their orders and turn the world over to the cockroaches to see what they can do with it.
Joey on April 14, 2017 · at 7:23 pm EST/EDT

In all fairness we are not, as a species, any more deserving of the earth than the dinosaurs were, and look what happened to them.
A million years from now whatever is living on the Earth wont know us from shit.
Rudradev on April 14, 2017 · at 8:36 pm EST/EDT

It’s worth noting that at the First opportunity, Xi Jinping of China has thrown Russia under the bus and become Trump’s running dog. All it took was for Trump to throw him a piece of chocolate cake in Mar-A-Lago! And he has gone to the US camp with tail wagging.

China Abstained from the UNSC resolution condemning Assad, instead of standing by Russia and Vetoing it. What is worse, China has flexed its muscles by coercing Kazakhstan to abstain rather than vote against the resolution. This is a demonstration for the US’ benefit that China has more influence in the former Soviet backyard of Car than Moscow does. China is putting on this show to fool the Americans into investing in their hopeless “One Belt One Road” scam.

Russians who still dream of a Russia-China alliance to uphold “multipolarity”, should recognize that China has always been a willing servant to US hegemony. From Mao Zedong’s treacherous back-stabbing occupation of Zhenbao Island, to the Chinese supply of weapons for the anti-Soviet mujahedin in Afghanistan, all the way to the present day.
christine marais on April 15, 2017 · at 1:21 am EST/EDT

“Make no mistake – the situation today is far more dangerous than the Cuban missile crisis.”

That, I completely agree with, having lived through it. But… the world kept on living and 98% never had a clue. If 30% of the population is aware of what’s at stake and does nothing but blog about it to “wake up” the rest, isn’t that 30% clamoring about it and doing nothing else part of its own problem?

Trying to get perspective here. Because humanity is, at least, 250,000 years old and that seems to be the part everyone wants to keep occulted… How did they survive? And what did they survive? Humans are survivors. Nobody wants us to learn what we survived and how, but getting people addicted to internet seems to be some kind of a sick goal.

Happy Easter or doom-and-gloom by electronics?
- gabriel the seagull on April 15, 2017 · at 4:58 am EST/EDT
  
  Good call, Christine.
  If we could only stop a minute, take a deep breath, go within and realize the energies/powers we have in our CHOICES and THOUGHTS, or/and should I say thoughts and choices, our intent… maybe we would take the time to turn our tongue 7 times before writing and commenting…
  Maybe we would realize that “my thoughts create the reality that I am attracting”.
  Like in the simplistic little book of Richard Bach “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”:
  “Break the chains of your thoughts and you break the chains of your WORLDS”.
  
  Are we going to DARE take on our thoughts first and choose them carefully? or simply keep being engrossed in the materialistic world going on out there…
  We have so much more power than we think we have…
  It’s all in our thoughts, words, and emotions.
  To choose with LOVING abandon and respect… changes everything.
  Happy Spring time celebration… Easter being a celebration of Mother Nature coming back alive after sleeping the winter introspection.
  Nature gaves us more answers than any philosophy we could expound…
  with LOVE and JOY,
  Gabriel…the seagull
Larinda_Marinda on April 15, 2017 · at 5:51 am EST/EDT

Several recent articles including this piece are just fantastic. You add something I can describe as a shine and power of molted metal to the thorough and argumented analysis. Sorry for clamsy characterization;))) Can’t express enough gratitude for your terrific job. When I’ll find a safe way, I’ll start donating to your foundation on a regular basis.
James lake on April 15, 2017 · at 1:01 pm EST/EDT

Does anyone know what was achieved at this meeting?

What did lavrov actually achieve ?

anyiond know ?
Peace loving Japanese on April 15, 2017 · at 5:22 pm EST/EDT

What Saker does not pay attention much to I think is, firstly Germany.
It’ll change everything when German people stand up and kick out Merkel, and shake hands with Russians, hugging them with open arms.
Germans have a feeling of guilt, always, thinking they need to do something to stop next world war.
When Germans and Russians are getting close to each other, USA can be kicked out of NATO, then WWⅢ is more avoidable.
What ordinary Russians can do for world peace most is, to get close to ordinary Germans so to let them know that Russians are not virus, but people.
Germans hold the biggest key. And South Koreans as well.
Anonymous on April 15, 2017 · at 6:09 pm EST/EDT

You don’t need to be a Rocket Scientists to Understand.
If Russia is totally Independent from the west, (that means the 5 column doesn’t Exist – Rex Tillerson told them:
IF (you will do this) THEN (We will do That).
But most likely the fifth column Exist so Russian Elite is under the West Control, so most likely Rex Tillerson told them:
We will do this AND you must do this OR that.
CaperAsh on April 15, 2017 · at 6:14 pm EST/EDT

I have this hope, unfounded admittedly, that there is a huge bluff being played, namely T is pivoting over into policies advocated by the PTB in accordance with the ‘intelligence assessments’ they provide. This serves two purposes: first, it cools down the rabid obstruction on too many fronts – press, judicial, media, military-industrial complex, congressional. It was too extreme to simply ignore or sidestep. So he has yielded to their demands and in so doing brought things down considerably from what was a fever pitch of hostility and borderline chaos.

But what would happen if, at some point in the near future, it turns out that, uh-oh, the gas attack was indeed a false flag, that our intelligence people got it wrong? That the press got it wrong? That we were the ones funding ISIS all along? What if all that gets out in a mainstream way? It could be a real game changer. If he tried to present that sort of thing in a purely adversarial fashion, it would be ridiculed, marginalised and set off another firestorm of obstructionism. However, he has now gone along with mainstream reality which has been essentially approved. So instead of presenting it as a hostile act, he would be presenting himself as a victim of fraud and deceit, and he could even spin it that the media, the Dems, the military are also victims, that we are all in this together type thing and together we have to do better than be controlled by this terrible misinformation.

Something like that.

I admit, though, that it might be just desperate wishful thinking…..
- blue on April 15, 2017 · at 7:59 pm EST/EDT
  
  Too clever by half, I think, considering all the destruction and loss of life, damage done to international relations as well as his domestic supporters, and more to come — maybe war with N.K. He’s lost massive amounts of credibility and what passes for good will. It’s FUBAR.
Fr Michael Ruskin on April 19, 2017 · at 4:22 am EST/EDT

The Parable of the Good Russian

A certain man was travelling to Damascus, and was stopped by terrorists who dragged him from his vehicle, stripped him of his clothing and beat him, leaving him for dead. Now by chance a US Senator came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by quickly on the other side, for he had to vote that very day on increasing his country’s military budget. Likewise, a member of the UK parliament, when he arrived at the place, looked and hurried by, for he had a crucial NATO meeting to attend.

But a certain Russian, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he put him in his car and brought him to a hospital where he was taken care of. Which of these three do you think was neighbour to him who fell among the terrorists? Go and do likewise.