This article was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/interesting-week-for-vladimir-putin-and-donald-trump/
Putin’s latest move
I don’t follow the western corporate media so I don’t really know how much coverage this development has received in the West, but in Russia and the Ukraine the big news is the decision by Russia to begin recognizing official Novorussian documents such as passports, driver licenses, school and college diplomas, etc. The Russians were pretty specific in the way the made the announcement. They said that it was a temporary measure dictated by humanitarian considerations. They have a point. Until now, the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics had to travel to the Nazi-occupied Ukraine to try to get their documents. Which, considering how the Ukronazis consider anybody from the Donbass was not only futile, but sometimes dangerous. This decision makes perfect sense practically. But, of course, it has a far-reaching symbolic dimension too. The timing is also crucial: by recognizing the documents issued by the DNR and LNR authorities, the Russians have de facto “semi-recognized” the authorities which issued them and that is just a fairly short step away from recognizing these republics.
Right now, the Kremlin is vehemently denying any such thoughts. But all the Kremlin-affiliated commentators are rather blunt about what this really means. According to them, the message for the junta in Kiev is simple: if you attack Novorussia or if you officially ditch the Minks agreements we will immediately recognize these two republics. And, once that happens, it’s over the the Ukronazis, these republics will be gone just like South Ossetia or Abkhazia. Of course, nobody will officially recognize the independence of these republics, but neither will anybody do anything meaningful about it. And, let’s be honest, the Russian authorities couldn’t care less about what western politicians or their corporate media have to say: they already heard it all and it’s not like they could be demonized much further.
The next logical move would be to move the Russian border control from the Russian border to the line of contact. Or not. If the Russians don’t do it, this might be a sign that they support the official position of the Republics which is that they want to liberate the totality of the Doentsk and Lugansk regions. By the way, the Russian Border Guards are elite and highly militarized forces whose presence on the line of contact would in no way prevent a Novorussian (counter-)attack against the Ukronazi forces. So the decision about where to deploy them would have a primarily political dimension and no real military consequences.
Right now the Ukronazis have basically gone officially on record in declaring that they never intended to abide by the terms of the Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 agreements. Here is what Anton Gerashchenko, an special adviser to the Minister of internal Affairs of Ukraine and a member of the Board of the Ministry of internal Affairs of Ukraine openly declared on Ukrainian national TV: (emphasis added).
Let’s immediately say that the Minsk Agreements were not implemented from the day they were signed in February 2015. This was a temporary measure on the side of the Ukraine and, I will be honest, a deliberate deception. Remember that the first Minsk Agreement was signed following the military disaster near Ialovaisk when we had no forces to defend the front from Donetsk to Mariupol. The second Minsk Agreement was signed following the treacherous Russian aggression on Debaltsevo and the formation of the “Debaltsevo Cauldron”. These agreements are not international agreements or anything else.
Needless to say, NOBODY in the West paid any attention to this statement, and why would they, after all, their line has always been that Russia is not abiding by the Minsk Agreement, even if Russia is not even a party to them (Russia is only a witness and guarantor). And if a senior Ukronazi official says otherwise, who cares?!
This amazing admission by Gerashchenko is only the latest in a series of steps taken and statements made by various Ukronazis to the effect that “we are done negotiating and from now on, we will solve this problem by force”. So far, the “force” applied has been primarily in the form of a total blockade of the Donbass which included the prevention of a large amount of vitally needed coal to the Nazi-occupied Ukraine from the Donbass even though this shipment had already been paid for. Officially Poroshenko does not condone this blockade, but in practice he is either unwilling or unable to prevent or stop it. Another sign that the Independent Banderastan is falling apart.
There is a strong feeling in Russia that Poroshenko is powerless and that the Ukronazi crazies are up to no good. Clearly, *nobody* in the Ukronazis elites has any intention of actually implementing the Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 agreements. That, by the way, might be a dangerous approach for a number of reasons:
First, these agreements were endorsed by the UNSC and every country out there, at least as far as I know. So Gerashchenko is wrong – the Minsk Agreements are binding under international law.
Second, the Ukrainian authorities recently found and released a document showing that Yanukovich had made an official request for a Russian intervention in the Ukraine. They wanted to show that he was a traitor. But in the process, they also showed that the last legitimate president of the Ukraine had made a legal request for a Russian intervention which might well mean that, at least in legal terms, any subsequent Russian intervention in the Ukraine would be 100% legal.
Even better, Yanukovich is still in Russia. And, from a legal point of view, you could make the case that he is still the legitimate president of the Ukraine. If the Yemeni President in exile Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi could ask the Saudis to intervene in Yemen, why would that no be an option for Poroshenko Yanukovich to ask for such an intervention in the Ukraine?
Right now, the Russians are making no such legalistic statements. But you can be sure that they have already aligned all their ducks in a neat row just in case they do decide to openly intervene in this civil war.
How realistic is the possibility of a Russian recognition of the breakaway republics or an overt Russian intervention in the Ukraine?
I think that it all depends on what the Ukronazis crazies do. If they really attack Novorussia I expect the Kremlin to recognize the DNR and LRN. A Russian intervention? I doubt it, but only because I believe that the DNR/LNR can handle a Nazi attack. So the only question for me is how long Poroshenko will stay in power and what the real crazies will do once they overthrow him. Right now this mostly depends on the USA but since the US elites are locked in desperate struggle for power, I don’t see the Trump taking and dramatic decisions anyway, not in the Ukraine, not elsewhere. At least not as long as there is a question mark as to who is really in charge in the White House. Everybody is waiting for the outcome of that struggle, including Moscow and Kiev.
Trump – all words, no action, but good words
In the meantime, Trump has been busy doing speeches. Which sounds pretty bad until you realize that these are good speeches, very good ones even. For one thing, he still is holding very firmly to the line that the “fake news” (which in “Trumpese” means CNN & Co. + BBC) are the enemies of the people. The other good thing that twice in a row now he has addressed himself directly to the people. Sounds like nothing, but I think that this is huge because the Neocons have now nicely boxed Trump in with advisors and aides which span from mediocre, to bad to outright evil. The firing of Flynn was a self-defeating disaster for Trump who now is more or less alone, with only one loyal ally left, Bannon. I am not sure how much Bannon can do or, for that matter, how long until the Neocons get to him too, but besides Bannon I see nobody loyal to Trump and his campaign promises. Nobody except those who put him in power of course, the millions of Americans who voted for him. And that is why Trump is doing the right thing speaking directly to them: they might well turn out to be his biggest weapon against the “DC swamp”.
Furthermore, by beating on the media, especially CNN and the rest of the main US TV channels, Trump is pushing the US public to turn to other information sources, including those sympathetic to him, primarily on the Internet. Good move – that is how he won the first time around and that is how he might win again.
The Neocons and the US ‘deep state’ have to carefully weigh the risks of continuing their vendetta against Trump. Right now, they appear to be preparing to go after Bannon. But what will they do if Trump, instead of ditching Bannon like he ditched Flynn, decides to dig in and fight with everything he has got? Then what? If there is one thing the Neocons and the deep state hate is to have a powerful light pointed directly at them. They like to play in the dark, away from an always potentially hostile public eye. If Trump decides to fight back, really fight back, and if he appeals directly to the people for support, there is no saying what could happen next.
I strongly believe that the American general public is deeply frustrated and angry. Obama’s betrayal of all his campaign promises only made these feelings worse. But when Obama had just made it to the White House I remember thinking that if he really tried to take on the War Machine and if he came to the conclusion that the ‘deep state’ was not going to let him take action or threaten him he could simply make a public appeal for help and that millions of Americans would flood the streets of Washington DC in support of “their guy” against the “bastards in DC”. Obama was a fake. But Trump might not be. What if the Three Letter Agencies or Congress suddenly tried to, say, impeach Trump and what if he decided ask for the support of the people – would millions not flood the streets of DC? I bet you that Florida alone would send more than a million. Ditto for Texas. And I don’t exactly imagine the cops going out of their way to stop them. The bottom line is this: in any confrontation between Congress and Trump most of the people will back Trump. And, if it ever came to that, and for whatever it is worth, in any confrontation between Trump-haters and Trump-supporters the latter will easily defeat the former. The “basket of deplorables” are still, thank God, the majority in this country and they have a lot more power than the various minorities who backed the Clinton gang.
There are other, less dramatic but even more likely scenarios to consider. Say Congress tries to impeach Trump and he appeals to the people and declares that the “DC swamp” is trying to sabotage the outcome of the elections and impose its will upon the American people. Governors in states like Florida or Texas, pushed by their public opinion, might simply decide not to recognize the legitimacy of what would be an attempted coup by Congress against the Executive branch of government. Now you tell me – does Congress really have the means to impose it’s will against states like Florida or Texas? I don’t mean legally, I mean practically. Let me put it this way: if the states revolt against the federal government does the latter have the means to impose its authority? Are the creation of USNORTHCOM and the statutory exceptions from the Posse Comitatus Act (which makes it possible to use the National Guard to suppress insurrections, unlawful obstructions, assemblages, or rebellions) sufficient to guarantee that the “DC swamp” can impose its will on the rest of the country? I would remind any “DC swamp” members reading these lines that the KGB special forces refused not once, but twice, to open fire against the demonstrators in Moscow (in 1991 and 1993) even though they had received a direct order by the President to do just that. Is there any reason to believe that US cops and soldiers would be more willing than the KGB special forces to massacre their own people?
Donald Trump has probably lost most of his power in Washington DC, but that does not entail that this is the case in the rest of the USA. The Neocons can feel like the big guy on the block inside the Beltway, but beyond that they are mostly in “enemy territory” controlled by the “deplorables”, something to keep in mind before triggering a major crisis.
This week I got the feeling that Trump was reaching out and directly seeking for the support to the American people. I think he get it if needed. If this is so, then the focus of his Presidency will be less on foreign affairs, were the USA will be mostly paralyzed, than on internal US politics were he still might make a difference. On Russia the Neocons have basically beat Trump – he won’t have the means to engage in any big negotiating with Vladimir Putin. But, at least, neither will he constantly be trying to make things worse. The more the US elites fight each other, the less venom they will have left for the rest of mankind. Thank God for small favors…
I can only hope that Trump will continue to appeal directly the people and try to bypass the immense machine which is currently trying to isolate him. Of course, I would much prefer that Trump take some strong and meaningful action against the deep state, but I am not holding my breath.
Tonight I spoke with a friend who knows a great deal more about Trump than I do and he told me that I have been too quick in judging Trump and that while the Flynn episode was definitely a setback, the struggle is far from over and that we are in for a very long war. I hope that my friend is right, but I will only breathe a sigh of relief if and when I see Trump hitting back and hitting hard. Only time will tell.
The Saker
Nice article.
” if you attack Novorussia or if you officially ditch the Minks agreements we will immediately recognize these two republics. And, once that happens, it’s over the the Ukronazis, these republics will be gone just like South Ossetia or Abkhazia.”
-But isn’t this exactly what Ukrainian elites wants and what the neocons and liberals that -at-least for now- rules the western world wants? Ukraine loses nothing by losing Donbass, it is bombed out and has an ultra-hostile populace, it would be more harmful for Ukraine to re-absorb
Donbass then to lose it completely.
If Russia takes Donbass or Donbass expands into Ukraine or Russia just recognizes Donbass , then the Banderists will have propaganda material for a hundred years and they don’t have to pay for the Donbass reconstruction, they will have been proven right to their own people and to their backers about Russian annexation and aggression. The sanctions on Russia will stay and likely be expanded as well. It is a total win win for Ukraine and a lose lose for Russia.
But for everyday the Minsk 2 agreement is active but Ukraine does not fulfill it they lose credibility and Ukraine’s backers lose patience with Ukraine.
Also, without both Crimea and Donbass, there is no chance of Ukraine ever going pro-Russian again, Donbass and Crimea were the pro-Russian fortresses inside Ukraine, without Donbass or Crimea. Russia will have a new Poland on their border for the next 600 years.
And what does Russia gain from absorbing Donbass or recognizing them? Nothing. More sanctions, continued sanctions, more anti-Russian propaganda, more countries wanting to join NATO, more money for the Ukrainian regime, more military and economical aid for the Ukrainian regime, Putin’s dream of a “Greater Europe” still on hold. A new Poland on Russia border. Social unity in Ukraine against the “external aggressor”. Not to matter the fortune it will cost rebuilding all the infrastructure that Ukraine ruined.
Russia will have broken the Minsk 2 agreement, which is a nose around the snot of the Poroshenko. Losing Donbass wouldn’t cause any harm to the Ukrainian economy or to the bandera leadership, quite the opposite, their entire ideology is focused around victimization by Russia, the banderists would be vindicated domestically and internationally, they would say “We told you so, Russian hybrid war and creeping annexation” for our beloved ancestral lands!
The Ukrainian government, neocons and western liberals would get exactly what they want. And the Ukrainian regime would not fall, quite the opposite if would solidify, and continue to militarize and militarized, unrestrained by Minsk 2, just like it did in 2014, and with the fully backing of the western liberal-PC regimes.
I believe what Russia did now was good, to decrease the suffering of the Donbass people, but I don’t see how it was a threat to the Ukrainian regime. Quite the opposite, it energized it and gave it credibility, and remember that the Ukrainian elites have no fears of Russia, even if all of Donbass is lost, so what? Kiev is far away, and even if NAF was to expand to Kiev, so what? The Ukrainian elites have planes ready to fly to USA and other countries and live like spoiled dogs as “Government in Exile”
This is always wrote how the Minsk 2 agreement was good, and the negative effects of breaking it, and I dont see how anything has changed now, quite the opposite, the Minsk 2 agreement is having a very destabilizing effect on Ukraine domestically and internationally countries are losing patience with Ukraine. Honestly it seems doubtful if Ukraine regime can endure another year of Minsk 2 without falling apart by itself. but if Minsk 2 is broken, then the Ukranian regime gets a new lease.
It loses its industrial heart and some of the best agricultural land (coveted by Monsanto and the rest for their GMO crops) and significant parts of the oil-shale deposits coveted by Biden. Incidentally the Ukrainians are physically selling their best agricultural soil to Sweden (and possibly Norway) were it is used to greatly enhance the productivity on native soils. There there is the unknown secondary loss. How many other Oblasts would go along with them? Transcarpathia is just looking for an excuse to reunite with Hungary. Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson and Zaporhizia would probably go too. That would leave Ukraine as just a few land-locked Oblasts around Kiev and the west.
Governor of Nikolaev region says the region is 65% separatist.
The head of the Nikolaev Regional State Administration Alexei Savchenko on the occasion of the termination of powers of the deputies wrote a speech in which he called the area “65% separatist.”
It was published in the closed parliamentary group BPP [Bloc Petro Poroshenko — tr].
In his statement Savchenko describes the conditions in which he has to work, and claims that 65% of the population are “latent separatists.”
“Today, I run one of the most important and problematic areas of our state. In it, 65% are latent separatists, and the majority of the population speaks in Russian. The Nikolaev region has always voted for the Party of Regions, and then – for the opposition bloc. Even Kherson is more pro-Ukrainian! ” said Savchenko.”
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/02/governor-calls-nikolaev-oblast-65.html
extract
Galicia can also rejoin Poland. That would reduce Ukraine’s Stepan Bandera nazis by 50% and meanwhile Brezinsky will die a happy man.
The Kiev regime is now dependent upon the current EU leadership, with winds of change blowing in EU and northern european and southern european politics. The Trump foreign policy is now a question mark card for Kiev crazies to worry over, and if Trump hangs in there,he will find Putin far more valuable as a friend than Poroshenko. So I think your analysis is unduly pessimistic.
Assuming the Trumpster is not just part of a larger Deep State game perhaps he should consider moving most of the functions of the White House out of the poisonous swamp and into a healthier environment? Maybe to the Trump Towers or at least somewhere free of all his enemies.
The quickest ways to be free of treacherous groups and individuals is to either stop paying them or jail them for treason.
I am sure Putin could give him a few tips in that regard.
Dear The Saker,
Thank you for the article. It is interesting that Killary has reared her ugly head with this video yesterday:
http://theduran.com/hillary-clinton-cryptic-video-to-followers-keep-fighting-and-ill-be-right-with-you-every-step-of-the-way/
Hillary Clinton cryptic video to followers, “keep fighting and I’ll be right with you every step of the way”.
Hmm – so the DNC/Neocons/Dep State want their supporters to “keep fighting”. Well I suppose if all these supporters are fighting each other – no one is watching them and turning their attention to the real culprits….
I think that this is what is known as a parting shot. Hilary is going undercover.
Bill may have to take the rap.
I watched the video just now — ‘demonic attack’ — feels like I was stung by a wasp and I’m getting chills while the venom is spreading through my body. Pure deception and insanity.
As for Donbas, it seems to me the way to go is probably Russia recognizing Donbas as an independent country, at which point the leaders can ask for Russia’s aid in fending off the terrorists and helping with security, similar to how Assad asked. Regions beyong the gray zone around Donetsk and Lugansk could include themselves into the Donbas nation. Recognition by Western countries and NATO would be largely moot at this point and they would need to come around in time, as they will be busy for a while trying to solve their own crises.
Donbas would not be part of Russia, but a separate county, although they can make alliance with, and trade agreements, and treaties, etc. with Russia, as well as other nations, as sovereign countries do.
The rest of Ukraine would be left to figure out it’s own survival and prosperity plans, and how to handle it’s ongoing collapse and internal attacks by it’s fascists.
The gathered vassals from MI6/BBC are joining in the demonising. It’s all in the script apparently.
According to this BBC meme rehasher “Putin’s Russia is the prime suspect” in shooting down MH17.
At 1 minute -and I stopped listening after that.
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/02/incredible-idiocy-bbc-moron-john.html
In reporting the second anniversary of the end of the US stooge, Nemtsov, the BBC (nasty expletive deleted) thought that she would be a clever (nasty expletive deleted) by stating that Nemtsov was ‘killed by the Kremlin’. She clearly meant to get away with directly blaming Putin, but have the fall-back, if challenged, of saying that ‘by the Kremlin’, meant ‘nearby the Kremlin’.
Meanwhile our Government broadcaster, the ABC, has sent one of its most vicious Rightwing (nasty expletive deleted)to Russia to ‘report’ on matters, and-guess what? Russia is a hell on Earth run by a monster, but thankfully, the Russian people are rising up in opposition, yearning to be free. They just keep getting fouler and fouler, these expert ‘fake news’ producers and peddlers.
It seems to me that part of the visual creepiness is a function of some neuroligical disorder. It’s subtle, unlike the footage during the campaign where at one point both her eyes were pointing in different directions, but if you freeze frame at exactly 2 minutes the right eye is slightly out of kilter with the left. The chilling stare doesn’t help either.
It is suspected she has Parkinson’s disease or something similar. I showed the campaign video footage clips being analysed by a doctor to some folks at a local hospital and their verdict was a definite neurological disorder.
Wasn’t Adolf thought to suffer the same in his bunker?
Maybe it’s not a disorder — many lizards and others in the reptile family point their eyes in different directions, and exhibit prolonged stares. Kindalizard Rice was similar.
Look up David Icke…
http://www.geek.com/news/the-reptilians-our-secret-overlords-1652535/
If you are going to get creeped out, do it right! :-)
Ha! There are biological errors in the ‘lizard’ piece from which this extract below was taken. For amusement though I am listing it and, yes, there’s very good correlation with Killary’s profile:
“Reptilian Brain Characteristics:
Territoriality, hierarchical structure of power, control, ownership, wars, jealousy, anger, fear, hostility, worry, stuck or frozen with fear, aggressiveness, conflict, extremist behavior, competitiveness, cold-blooded, dog-eat-dog beliefs, might is right, and survival of the fittest.
OCD, hoarding, looting, superstitions, deception, fight or flight, obesity from fear of lack of food, daily rituals, ceremonial re-enactments”
Actually, I am not at all sure my daily ritual of brushing my teeth is precipitated by my Amygdala and I have no idea what it means by “ceremonial re-enactments”.
Yes, I am a bit of a packrat but that has more to do with growing up in an era when everything was mended and re-used, little was thrown out and defiance now on my part against the ‘buy and turf out’ corporate marketing blandishments and deceptions.
It’s only old stuff that works any more; all the technological advances today are towards fine-tuning stuff to fail so you have to buy yet another piece of crap.
This discussion is off-topic. Please can you take it to the MFC. Mod
See ‘“Reptilian Brain Characteristics’ in MFC
Hitler was addicted to speed, which deranges your dopamine system, as happens in Parkinsons. I suspect Clinton just has distemper.
I wouldn’t count too much about having Hillary ‘on my side’ or ‘having my back’.
A) She’s notoriously dis-loyal. Nothing she’s ever done even shows a hint of loyalty. I’m old enough to remember the liberal friends she had when she first became First Lady, and none of them can be found anywhere near her anymore. She’s always bought and paid for by the highest bidder, so only a fool would go into a fight on the promise that Hillary is on their side. And yes, there are a lot of fools out there, but while fools can be annoying, they rarely are dangerous for long.
B) We learned in the last campaign that having Hillary on your side means about one appearence a day, tops. And that’s if she can stay standing for that long. I did notice that she was sitting for this video. Well, I haven’t actually watched the video, since I don’t feel like throwing up today, but all of the excerpt stills show her sitting behind a desk.
C) The last election seemed unusual in that the two candidates were roundly hated by large numbers of people. Polls say that what votes they got were often votes against the other candidate. So, any support that Hillary would bring to a cause would be balanced by the number of people who come out for the other side just to fight Hillary again.
One thing that will never regain credibility in U.S. politics is the Democratic Party. They should have welcomed the “Deplorables” with open arms, but they didn’t. Their roots are showing, as in the K.K.K. of the Reconstruction. The Kennedys were an anomaly – the Democratic Party is still riding on their coat tails.
The Republican Party may fare just as badly if they don’t pull together and support Trump. An opportunity temporarily exists for the Republican Party to reach out to Democrats and include those who really do support workers, freedom and the Constitution to contribute to the re-building of the America and the World they helped destroy by their stupidity.
In the immediate term the only way to deal with violence and threats of violence is with immediate violence. If you don’t survive, you don’t get to negotiate anything. If Jack Kennedy had had Erik Prince at his back, not only might he have served his two terms, he might have been able to destroy the CIA as the evil force it always has been in the world. If the CIA isn’t loyal to Trump, and it isn’t, he needs to replace it quickly. The only way he can do that is with the assistance of Erik Prince. The Constitution exists only as a fiction right now. Therefore it is totally appropriate for Trump to use extra-Constitutional means to create the groundwork for a restoration of the Constitution. The restoration of the Constitution as the real supreme law of the land, rather than the Deep State, is the pre-requisite to making America great again. America must lead by example, not force of arms.
Until America can join the civilized world it is up to the rest of the world, led by Putin’s Russia, to show what a moral, just and truly Christian country looks like.
Well, “You learn something new every day!”
Didn’t know who Erik Prince was. Evidently, he’s the new Secretary of Education’s brother and a former Navy Seal that started Blackwater!
https://www.corbettreport.com/blackwater-heads-to-china/
Corbett does some good stuff but this link may be trash. He sometimes puts out stupid stuff, IMHO, sometimes very good stuff.I wonder what Jeff Brown or Pepe Escobar think about Prince in China, and his conversion to OBOR. I’ve been for the basic idea for 30 years…….
Has Prince “seen the light” after grasping what he was really in bed with, running Blackwater in Iraq and other places?: Empire, Pedophilia, Satanism?
Is he now a reliable pit bull from the trenches of dirty politics that can defend Trump?
What are his “Deplorable” credentials, Clive, if you could elaborate???
I’ve been aware of Blackwater and their “Prince” since around 2006-7. He’s like a whack-a-mole. Appears, disappear, reappears somewhere else. His “playing field” is conflict zones, “hotspots” places like Kosovo,(KLA), Somalia, Sudan. Anywhere there is a conflict, especially an “internal” conflict, if you read and know what you are looking for and can “decipher” MSM reports from these zones, you will read of “contractors”. These contractors do stuff the official US agencies can’t do, or can’t risk being discovered doing.
The rabbit hole runs very deep, with lotsa curious twists and diversions with Prince, AND his sister, who is connected with Amway, a peer-to-peer domestic products marketing company.
Prince and his gang are vipers, associated with the Bush neocons and war mongers, which may be useful but will need to be exorcised at some point in any case.
The Republican party is fatally wounded, and it’s very doubtful it can be restored or reformed, although it’s possible a breakout faction, if it recalls it’s roots with the ‘paleoconservatives’, could emerge and become viable, but it needs to go all the way back to Eisenhower to find those, and they are themselves flawed.
The Democrats are in ruins, and likely will never come back — there are not enough people left there to be viable.
I suspect the US will flounder for some time until new movements, maybe a new party or two, gain some traction, or independent gather enough power to transcend the swamp and learn the trick of ‘walking on quicksand’. The only solution to this mess is not reform, as such, but revolutionary systemic change with the end of capitalism (as we know it), and a new paradigm. It could take a generation or two, as the ‘old guard’ dies off.
Its not often that a party that controls both houses of congress, the White House, soon the Supreme court, and many state governorships and state legislatures is referred to as ‘fatally wounded’.
On the other hand, they seemed to have no one else besides Trump who could have won this year. I’m still chuckling over the Bush family raising hundreds of millions of dollars and only getting votes in the single digits and having to withdraw early in the race.
One thing I don’t see is who’s going to follow Trump. Trump was 71 (I think), this year. Rich Americans do get good medical care, so maybe he’ll live long. But 75 year olds really don’t usually even run for President. So, I think Trump is a 1 term President no matter how it plays out simply due to his age.
Thus the question becomes who follows him? Pence was certainly a fence-building choice to try to unify a split party, so he’s not one to lead the Trump revolution forward. So, if this goes forward more than 4 years, someone would need to emerge as the flag bearer for the Trump Revolution going forward. Even if Trump does run again at age 75, he’ll need a VP that will continue his movement instead of a fence-mending choice with the rest of the party.
BBC/MI6 calling! BBC/MI6 calling!
Ha-ha-ha!
America denies entry to Syrian behind Oscar-nominated film
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/39089364/america-denies-entry-to-syrian-behind-oscar-nominated-film
“Khaled Khatib did most of the filming for a British movie called The White Helmets.
It’s a 40-minute Netflix documentary about volunteers who risk their lives to rescue civilians.
It’s widely thought to be one of Britain’s best chances for an Oscar in the short documentary category”
Is that a misprint? Shouldn’t it be “Short Propaganda Category”?
UPDATED: White Helmets are Denied Entry into US, Hollywood Dreams Over
http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/02/25/white-helmets-are-denied-entry-into-us-hollywood-dreams-over/
“Has the attempt to give an Oscar to supporters of terrorism for their propaganda movie, endorsing a No Fly Zone that is, in reality, a declaration of war between Russia and the US on Syrian soil, just failed?
Has Trump’s administration called a halt to the farce that is the promotion of this fraudulent non-Non-Governmental-Organisation, funded, in fact, by governments with Israel’s best interests at heart in Syria?”
Or was it a slip up by homeland security people who “didn’t get the exemption memo” for the guy?
On this one I am skeptical. If the film itself is there, it still could be nominated with Oscar, even if the makers are not let in to be on the stage. Even more, the usual suspects can make a “case” out of this refusal, prompting indeed the Oscar nomination.
The envelope please. The winner in the Short Propganda Film Category is ……… Al Qaida!
RT has a decent article on what the zionazis at the academy awards praised.
Film about Syrian White Helmets wins Oscar amid allegations of terrorist ties
https://www.rt.com/news/378695-oscar-white-helmets-win/
Personally I think the sleazy scam should change their name to the goatbugger awards.
S-One,
PBS TV, USA,
Here is the promo for that faux-documentary. Notice they had to hire an “insider” in the E.Aleppo war to shoot the “onsite” video of “saving poor victims from The Regime.” The problem with the passport was probably that it was faked, as he could never get a real one, I hope. He has probably shot the little “shorts” we see on the evening and morning news programs, as well. My guess is that this is a slickly produced compilation of those news “spots” I saw on CBS, NBC, ABC, and PBS with interviews with terrorist “heroes.” The producers hung out in Turkey, apparently, and were “really lucky” to find this 21-year-old cameraman to shoot the scenes from E. Aleppo for them.
Notice that although he was issued a visa (by whom, I wonder?), it was Turkish officials who flagged his passport and prevented him from traveling and entering the U.S. I bet it was a forgery. Just a wild guess, of course.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/syrias-devastation-white-helmets-offer-moments-hope/
(with transcript)
also on YouTube
I bet they win the Oscar and that every single MSM channel and newspaper publishes a blubbery but glorifying interview with them. Just another wild guess, of course.
Aside: “Humanitarian” is being turned into a “bad word.” Sad.
[Mod, et al.: When we had the “preview” panel, I could check any html codes and also test any links in a comment to make sure they work, before I hit the button to publish.]
Passing this along to people who could use a bit of encouragement. It made me wonder, after reading George Eliason’s article earlier this week, if the Ukrainian diaspora he describes as being a real political force in the US might volunteer in the brownshirt role in the case of a coup. On the other hand, I think that would only work if the US public were more passive than it is, and may be a case in point of the right to bear arms having real meaning despite the government’s overwhelming firepower.
“The “basket of deplorables” are still, thank God, the majority in this country …”
Actually they were only 45.9% of the voters, and only 55.1% voted, so only 25.3% of registered voters, and even less of all US adults.
Trump is clearly happiest when spruiking to his faithful, using grand sweeping slogans. When it gets down to the details, THAT is when the deep state comes into its own – arguing existing policy arrangements, formulating legislation, leaking awkward policy points, and all the time looking for strong evidence of an impeachable offense.
The name of the game in Ukraine comes down to what the American Deep State wants, not what Ukraine, Poroshenko, Right Sektor, the Ukronazis, the Azov brigades or whomever has on some wish list. What they want is Ukraine in NATO, in the EU, and in Russia’s face on Russia’s western frontier. Seems to me they could have this tomorrow, while also dumping the catastrophe that the Donbass has become into Russia’s lap, by simply formally expelling the Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts from Ukraine. Those republics, and possibly even the UN, would appeal to Russia to absorb them on humanitarian grounds. Ukraine might also throw in Crimea while demanding trillions in compensation from Russia. For that matter, in the interests of ethnic cleansing, which the Ukies seem to admire, Ukraine might also try to sell off other bits of troublesome ethnically Russian Novorossiya to Russia. How attached are they really to Mariopol and Odessa, especially since they’d rather have dollars or gold than a bunch of ethnic Russians they hate and find difficult to make disappear?
The American puppet masters would jump at the chance to fast track an ethnically pure, extreme right wing rump Ukraine into NATO and the UN. No border conflicts, no internal instability, no obstacle to membership (at least to NATO). The Ukies would probably start building nuclear-capable missile batteries right on the Russian border the very next day. And without being paid American bribe money. The emboldened Banderistas would probably nationalize every stitch and stick of Russian property within their borders and go to work on harassing and subverting Belarus until it joined them and turned on Russia. The USA would like that very much. It would be Obama’s Russophobic dream come true and at lightning speed. All the empire and the Ukronazis have to realise is that they cannot claw back the Donbass and Crimea by killing or threatening the inhabitants.
Frankly, I have never understood how anyone ever expected the Donbass to willingly come back into the Ukrainian fold after all the genocide that Kiev has perpetrated against those people–Minsk agreements or no Minsk agreements. There would either be a continued low grade rebellion (think the West Bank or Gaza) or a repression of the local people by the central government not seen since the days of Nazi Germany. Moreover, how could the locals ever trust Kiev to rebuild the region after having destroyed most of it? The IMF wants the rich farmland of Galicia, not the played out coal mines or archaic steel mills of Donbass which doesn’t supply anything that can’t be gotten more cheaply and efficiently elsewhere in the world. And what motive could possibly compel Russia to pay for the reconstruction?
Their American master wants Krim with its vast O & G underwater reserves. They also dreamed of expeling the Russian Navy from Sevastopol. Anything less is perceived as capitulation by Washington Deceit..Sanctions against Russia are here to stay. The. de-stabilization of the Lugansk and Donbass republics will continue. Ukraine is now anti-Russian and Donbass plus Lugansk is now anti-Ukraine. This is another frozen conflict in the making. The Banderists have nothing to do in the Donbass or Lugansk. They go there to die and/or to kill if they are lucky. Germany is as complicit in this tragedy as the CIA and Soros. But it didn’t turn out good for them but bad, Ukraine is a failed state. Oligarchs (orks) still run the farm, and the prostitutes,presstitutes, the organ harvesting, the drug business, the private armies, etc
The deaths of Russian ambassadors, Givi, Motorola, etc are all unconnected? Churkin’s death by natural causes? who can believe the deaths of such influential people as several Russian ambassadors is mere coincidence?
“having realized their inability to defeat Churkin in the avenues of information warfare, he had to be physically eliminated”—Political Analyst Valeriy Piakin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKICpwLbcCg#t=10.109931
Last I’ve heard, officially there is no cause of death for Mr. Churkin. Its stated (without comment) in the US mass media that this is usually because they need to wait for something like toxicology to come back. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/colleagues-mourn-sudden-death-russian-ambassador-45624185
What this means is that there was nothing physical immediately obvious. It wasn’t something like a heart attack or a brain aneurysm. That would be physically obvious.
Of course, the notion that toxicology tests are needed raises all sorts of questions that the US corporate media isn’t touching with a 10 foot pole.
But, it is not really official yet that he died of ‘natural causes’.
It has been long time the trick in the way people die with unknown causes, accidents, etc but now the probability and pattern when individuals die is not accident. People are being targeted. For sure Churkin’s death, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez both who oppose US domination are not accident
Well thought out article. I agree with most of it and I won’t nitpick what little I don’t agree with.
The main thing in this article is the two sentences at the very end. I, too, have advised Saker to not write of Mr. Trump so soon. He is not one to give up without a fight and he has the full support of the majority of the citizens of USA. The fight has just begun. Support him or lose him, he is your last hope.
Auslander
he is your last hope.
Maybe your last hope, but most definitely not my last hope :-)
Trust not in princes, nor in the children of men, in whom there is no safety. His breath shall go forth, and he shall return to his earth; in that day all his thoughts shall perish.
Holy Prophet and King David (Psalm 145:3-4 according to the LXX)
Saker, you are preaching to the choir, at least this personal choir.
Perhaps I should have scribbled a little more clearly. In my opinion Mr. Trump is the only hope US has of not falling in to the yawning abyss and she may well fall anyway. At least Mr. Trump is trying and from the continuous screams of the media he must be doing something right.
Auslander
Hi Auslander,
I think God is leaving it to us to fix our world now…he’s not going to fix it for us…if we surrender the fight then we’ll blow this world to bits – all on our own…and then what are we going to do ?
I agree with you that Trump is our only hope. The world has reached a point where the atom bombs can really end evolution. What a waste of millions of years. Pathetic.
Lets hope Trump is better than most think of him. He’s not perfect, but he’s better than that other POS.
Amen!
Ha ha good one. A last hope is no hope, and too often this last hope turn out to be a double down!
But Trump is certainly more entertaining than any Clinton, and it cost noting to give him a chance.
Ameen….beautiful verse from the Bible.
I am saddened when I as a Muslim have more appreciation for the Bible than many people who have been raised Christian and do not fall back on the Bible for any wisdom.
Harry_Red, said but true. IMO we are currently witnessing the spiritual falling away, mentioned in
2 Thessalonians 2:3
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Blessings from The Most High.
Our present moment in time reminds me of the letter written by my Lord to the church of Sardis, Revelation 3:1. “And unto the angel of the church in Sar’-dis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.”
“he has the full support of the majority” … nowhere near — at best a plurality for a limited time span, and that will fall off as his economic and social policies take a huge bite from public satisfaction. Trumps is a temporary holding action, and an artifact of the dysfunctional political and economic system, not a solution
“…public satisfaction. Trumps is a temporary holding action, and an artifact of the dysfunctional political and economic system, not a solution”
And, who is going to be the permanent solution to the ‘public satisfaction’, pray let us know?
Is the lizard eyed killary or the lazy bum that sold to her for a house by the lake or is the bygone “hope and change’ master of teleprompters?
oh, i know, how dumb of me, must be the bright duo, early dementia “the pain and the wail”.
cogito ergo nothingness!
The citizenry — real democracy, of course. Anarchy: no chiefs, no rulers. Anarchosocialism.
There’s a time-tested solution to the UNSC problem for the Anglo-Zionists… false flag it. Artillery coming in from the other side, timed with some bus massacre or something. ‘Oh, we tried, but look what the Russkies did’.
There is a great deal of speculation in this article, I will say this, Donald Trump was brought into the White House by one faction of the Anglo-American establishment/ruling caste that basically plans to re-orientate & re-direct the Anglospheric imperial project. He could not have even gained nomination were this not the case & he was carefully cultivated for years in advance. There are a range of powerful interest groups that support him, elements within the oil industry, engineering, & military, that do not wish to engage in a direct conflict with Russia for pragmatic reasons. The Wall St/City of London cabal that backed Clinton were prevented from blocking Trump’s electoral victory through an elaborate campaign of discreditation & incrimination, some of it involving Wikileaks which essentially criminalised the entire Clinton campaign team. This group knows how to play dirty. Flynn was irrelevant, he was a bone that was thrown out to Wall St as bait – they took the bait, & he was summarily dispensed with. In the meantime, Tillerson has eliminated half of the Obama admin’s State Dept staff, that’s the real news in Washington this past week. Trump will demonstrate his muscle – or his supporters muscle – when the real interests he represents come into question. This will not happen for some time, this is a consolidation period, the real powers here are more behind the scenes then ever in the US history, & this is because what they are intending to do is to essentially take out Wall St. The reason they have been assigned this task is because the entire US/Western/global economy is on the brink of a total collapse, & the 2008 bailouts demonstrated that they can not be taken on in a conventional manner – the situation has gone too far. This is the kind of situation that led to revolutions & civil wars in the past, the English Civil War, French & American Revolutions etc. An entirely new power structure is in the making which will require that the most powerful states in the world take direct – command – control of finance. Only then can the global economy be re-structured, re-orientated & saved from a total disintegration.
I think you are right in principle, Vor,
What you say should be done and could be done if the forces blocking it are crushed.
It’s the “in practice” part that is worrying. These people ready to re-install Glass Steagall and shut down Wall Street and the Fed could be a little more visible in educating the American people. There’s some movement, but a steamroller and indictments are needed. Otherwise the crooks will fight to the death to defend their ill-gotten gains and the connections that made them rich.
Only great fear can cause them to slink back into the shadows and hope someone else is made an example of, with actual sentencing and mug shots.
If Glass Steagall restoration passes, the necessary first step in the right direction is taken. Without it, illusion and slight of hand bring the USA into desperation and war.
do you speak armenian? vor/vorig?
Nope, Serbian. Vor means thief in Russian, but its a short version of my real name, Viktor. That’s what people who know me call me, it doesn’t mean jack in Serbian, the fact that it means thief in Russian amuses me in a darkly Serbian kind of way.
” In the meantime, Tillerson has eliminated half of the Obama admin’s State Dept staff, that’s the real news in Washington this past week.”
I suppose it could be a good thing that all we can do is speculate, and for me it is hard to believe that there is only Bannon left on the Trump team as indeed this has most certainly happened. That State Department staffing was Hillary-oriented, her base of power. I also believe that both in the ranks of those who voted for other than Trump and in the ranks of those who did not vote (a very large group) there will be more people who want him to remain in office than there will be people who think we should have no government at all. And surely there are some, even many, in government office who long for better and more honorable careers in public service. It’s only human nature – they can’t all be psychopaths!
The people of the US have been left out of the running of this country for so long, it is my belief that they will be extremely eager to support any suggestion of a push back against the corruption that has weighed us all down for so many years, and every ordinary person is so totally sick of media-orchestrated warmaking. Trump is doing well with his public addresses; I hope he does more of them.
Thank you Saker. Have a rich and meaningful Lenten season. We are in tune with Western Christianity this Easter season. I hope that is a good sign for all.
Trump didn’t care about foreign policy. He is now president and show goes no. The foreign policy is led by neocons. Nothing will change until everything change and that will happen when US economic ground crush and it can’t no longer keep its global empire with less money. It might not be far away.
“why would that no be an option for Poroshenko to ask for such an intervention in the Ukraine?”
– probably you wanted to say Yanukovich instead of Poroshenko.
The Saker has been informed of the typo. Mod
As the dark shadows of a looming Gotterdammerung draw closer to Porky-boy, we might ask ourselves toward whose arms will he flee?
My intuition – and it may sound nuts – but Porky will flee to Russia… He’ll be safer there. Of course he may have legal problems, but he’ll be safe.
In some sense the contest might be seen as the Re-emerging Russian or perhaps Byzantine Empire of peoples versus the Anglo-Saxon Empire of exploitation of peoples. Two empires, each with a different a-priori set of assumptions about the ways of the world. One can be stable, the other constitutes a “one-shot” event/process.
One Empire has non-delusional moral leadership by historically and culturally literate and determined people. It Has gold in the vaults and sharp swords. Peoples want to join and share in the warm glow of peace and commerce that Empire can, and historically has, promised and provided. So far as the human moral desire for “eleutheria” may be satisfied in a way consonant with the modern industries of man, that Empires strives for the people. This is the essence of true classical democracy, there the State works for the people.
When, similarly, the State works for some other class, some special class – that precisely is a tyranny, and the subjects, the slaves, know it immediately.
You know the other one. You know them both. It’s all over, ain’t it?
The nazis are going to be hunted down and obliterated if it takes 100 years – just as Ivan said in “White Tiger”… The Banderite brand is doomed – Kiev can be the kettle for them to stew, or Canada, or Maryland or the back country of Argentina – they’re doomed.
I expect the Donbass basin to return to the Empire in the natural way of politics following culture and geography.
Russia has had her revolution 100 years ago, will it be an irony of the fate to have something similar in the US ? Russia needed more than 70 years to find herself, digesting her history and accepting it, finding her internal peace. The time for US will be probably much shorter, even the time is faster now. The similarities are there, but on another scale, the need for deep reforms cannot be refuted.
As we witness, the trenches are deepening in the political arena, but the real hard say, will be that of the peoples. Somebody shall lighten the fuse.
As MacKinder fails the Anglo-Saxon Empire due to the underlying assumptions no longer reflecting the reality – as that happens, we witness the deconstruction of every real institution within their sphere, These two trends taken together indicate that the Western Empire cannot continue to exist according to the previous ways of seeing and understanding. Yes, and when did that begin? I would posit with the replacement of Wallace by Truman in 1944 (an inside job that oddly coordinates with the “illness leading to natural death” of FDR, and Truman cussin’ out Molotov to his face at the White-house, but that’s another matter) The general principle is, however, that betrayal always attends victory. Always. Comrade Stalin was right on that! He knew, of course, about intrigue…we might ask Lenin…
But the point to focus on is this: When an institution cannot continue to exist as it has done, then it will change, and continue to exist in another form, or forms. That means institutional change happens because the facts changed. When an institution does not recognize reality the ultimate “change” is very rapid and usually violent – this change causes, in the natural way of events, political re-arrangement – also often violent. We call this “revolution” domestically, and this is often seen as war – and often becomes international – because domestic political needs demand an external factor of war. All war in the matters between states or classes is driven by domestic or internal political forces.
Revolution does not begin change, it follows it.
So what? So I agree – and think it obvious too – the ASE (anglosaxoneempire) cannot continue, so it threatens and needs war to sustain itself – and it always has done – it’s a organism that has become obsolete. Much of it exists in the US, I’m sorry to say. Yes. It’s going to become a revolution. Metaphysically one might muse about the karma coming home. A cruel fate always attends the stupid stuff. They might have adapted, but were too corrupt…a massive sin against their own deeper ancient custom, looking back thousands of years. I sometimes muddle the quote about the gods – let us recall it again:
Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. The AGE qualifies as mad, nuts, chaotic..insane. No?
I would sure like to go back to 1955 and forget.
Ha,ha…going back in time, sometime I dream about that, going back and stay there, being in kindergarten, with no knowledge of who is who in the politics or what is communism or capitalism, I had all I needed and I needed not too much, just a ball to play with other kids…
Same comment, and “no” should be “not”
Trump is most definitely ***not*** a coward and he did not go through the enormous trouble of becoming president just for the fun of it. Remember he is a billionaire and his life was much more luxurious outside of the whitehouse than in it. He wanted to be president because there are things he wanted to change.
And he will keep trying, but nevertheless, he must know perfectly well who shot Kennedy and who shot Reagan. He is ready to risk his life, I think, but he is not ready to throw it away. So he has to pick the time and place to make his stand. For whatever reason, he decided that Flynn was not the right time and place and I’m sure he knows something we don’t.
Always remember that Kutusov gave up Moscow. Certainly not because he was a coward, although I suspect many thought so at the time, but because he wanted to choose the time and place of battle and not let Napoleon choose for him. By comparison, giving up Flynn is very small beer.
And the analogy is appropriate when you consider that Napoleon was probably the first “neocon” and R2Per who “knew” what was best for everyone else.
That said, some of what he’s done might have been own goals. The travel ban, which got reversed by the courts, took up a lot of his energy and with little to show for it. Yeah, I think that sort of thing shores up support amongst his hardest of hard core supporters…exactly the people he will need if it comes to protesting against Congress. (and for that reason I can look the other way) But I think it alienates a lot of potential supporters. More importantly, it shows that the deep state can beat him and look good while doing it. So he needs to be more careful about some of the things he does.
That said, Russia can’t afford to wait until Trump defeats the deep state. It has to act according to its own timetable and not Trump’s. If patience with the banderist regime has come to an end, and the Kremlin decides it is finally time to raise the temperarure, then so be it.
In an odd way, it might actually help Trump, since what would be the neocon argument? That we have to fight a war against Russia? Not much interest in that amongst the American public, not even if Russia went all the way to the Polish border.
L
“That said, Russia can’t afford to wait until Trump defeats the deep state.”
I don’t think the Russians are basing policy on trump “defeating the deep state”, instead, they are basing policy on the tuppence regime being part of the zpc/nwo, with the same over all goals assigned to it as the last colonial regime had. The Russians have taken into account the different strengths and weaknesses the tuppence regime has, in relation to the previous management team, and are working on how to gently glide this broken down air liner into a relatively safe landing in an open field, as opposed to letting it crash into an apartment complex.
“This amazing admission by Gerashchenko is only the latest in a series of steps taken and statements made by various Ukronazis to the effect that “we are done negotiating and from now on, we will solve this problem by force””
-Is there anymore? That guy is kinda of an nutter in the Ukrainian regime, that is the same guy that said Ukraine would work with ISIS against Russia. Russia has its share of people like that as well, like the leader of the liberal party.
There is another point of view on the Flynn/Trump/Deep State issue. It has been expressed by Steve Piecznik, very well connected in the American Intelligence Services over the years. The Deep State is at war with itself with one faction against the other. Piecznik’s faction won the election of Trump and now are in the process of cleaning house behind the scenes.
http://stevepieczenik.com/us-takeover-may-be-near/ *produced just before the election”
Also, of interest to the readers might be the assessment of Robert David Steele, former CIA operative, who states what he sees as Trump’s strategy. This is a long listen but worth it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqyKJ0R_ytM
Both Piecznik and Steele are very well respected and known intelligence operatives who go a ways back – they both know how the game is played, and who the players are – they are not conspiracy theorists (at least not the crazy kind).
I just watched Steele’s interview which certainly presents a prescription for national salvation. Steele is one of a few ex Intelligence officers who,like Ray McGovern, is worth listening to. Here is my comment on the interview, speaking as someone left of the Democrats, who are obvious sellouts, as Steele says.
I am somewhat skeptical of some of his presentation, which is certainly mostly accurate. I can’t believe that if 80% of the intelligence agencies are made of good people, then why have the 20% gotten away with murder for decades? Choosing the CEO of one of the most polluting corprations as Sec of State, and his other billionaire and military appointments indicates a fascist, militaristic drift. So I don’t get his hope for Trump. I was pleasantly surprised by his suggestions to get Cynthia McKinney, Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader on board. That makes a lot of sense, though, since that would give the Left which was coopted by Sanders and the DNC, some confidence in him. A Wall St transaction tax and debt jubilee is a great idea, and while he’s at it, creating the Fed as a publicly owned Utility would solve a lot of problems though the Rothschilds would not like it one bit.
However, the chances of that are slim at best and his choice of a Russophobe, Military officer as NS advisor—basically 3 strikes out, shows that Steele’s ideas, however excellent will not come to fruition. Trump was never the guy to do what is needed, because Trump is a showman, not a statesman.
If Trump did get the Left on board with good economic policies as he described, and did follow through with a real peace agenda, with Russian and China and Iran, he would go down as a great president, for breaking the back of the MIC. His vow to increase military spending does not indicate that that is his plan or intention. I will fall off my chair if Trump has Steele come in for the meeting Steele suggests.
It will be smart for Trump to get some people from different backgrounds some left to silence the naive people protesting against Trump however, Kucinich, etc are not that popular among the establishment so he needs to get moderate people from different backgrounds, not too extreme from the both sides of the spectrum.
Steele’s emphasis on leaving the past be past and focus on the future is the exact phrase Obama and every president before him have used to forgive crimes of their predecessors. With due respect, but no Sir – “forgiveness and move on” won’t fix anything! The absolute least punishment would be do strip the criminals bare of all their assets and put them to work in low-wage jobs. Otherwise, their wealth will allow them to continue their crimes unperturbed, basically forever.
Well done! I particularly like the example given: ” The more the US elites fight each other, the less venom they will have left for the rest of mankind.” as this provides, in real context the lesson of the overarching strategic principle …
This is stated as: “When you see your enemies on both side of a barricade, that’s not your barricade.”
Most Americans are just watching the contest, and yes, they probably would turn out and occupy all the Federal buildings – If the Cadet Captain has the guts to ask.
“Most Americans are just watching the contest”…..
…… Sorry, have to strongly disagree….. I observe that most Americans (add in Canada+Australia+NZ+UK) are very busy watching Dancing with the Stars, Kim Kardashians butt, and their Farcebook feed of selfies.
We talk about bubbles, and it enjoy hanging out in this one, but I pay attention and observe what other people (sleepy sheepies) are doing and watching, and I can assure you, they aren’t watching what we here are watching.
I think it similar to what went on before the fall of the Soviet Union.
At first, people think there’s no real hope for change. So, they stay quiet, and keep their heads down. Everyone know the system is badly broken, but no one sees anything they can do about it so they just focus on surviving and doing the best for their family. It just looks like everything is quiet.
Then, when people see that there is a chance to really do something to change things, suddenly there’s a million people in the streets. Not overnight of course. There is a process where some protests occur. The people see both that there wasn’t really danger to being in those protests and that they do seem to have a chance to change things. The protests then quickly grow as more and more people start to feel like this is a chance for some change.
Which means that it can appear to shift from ‘quiet’ and it seems like everyone is just watching tv to a big movement for change relatively quickly. America is in the state where everyone will quietly tell you that there’s a lot wrong. This has been true for some time now …. Obama’s fake change and hope campaign got a strong response that wasn’t fake. Then the Occupy movement. Now Trump. Its been obvious for a long time that the American people do want change and each of these showed that such movements can catch fire and grow.
If you like – let me re-phrase and say most literate citizens, I naturally discount the illiterate servants.
It should be noted that we have seen Tillerson purge State, but we have not heard a peep from Sessions at Justice or Pomero at the CIA.
The Empire launched a full spectrum counter attack against Trump but there has been relative quiet in the power ministries.
There are a lot of good people in these ministries who would be happy to help rid them of rogue elements.
I have a feeling we will be hearing from Sessions shortly. Then the real battle will begin.
It’s also interesting to note that Trump has tweeted that his followers should also feel free to demonstrate. Timely.
I often wonder if this is the second American civil war. The schism in the deep state seemed to have started in 2015 over Ukraine and again in Syria, though it might have been earlier over the withdrawal from Iraq.
Anyway, the media is worse than useless in trying to understand the current situation.
Keep an eye on PewDiePie (of all people). He just redpilled generation Z. Check out the support he is getting on social media. Quite a remarkable conversation in the comments of his 2 recent rebuttal videos.
I should point out Pewds has 53,000,000 followers he calls the Bro army and 300,000 said fuck the establishment in the comments section.
If you consider that the left is now the establishment and the kids are rebelling against it I think the color revolution crowd is in for a shock.
You can’t stop progress.
I agree that Pewdipie’s 50 million followers are outraged and woken up by what was done to him.
Saker, you write ” Is there any reason to believe that US cops and soldiers would be more willing than the KGB special forces to massacre their own people?”
Yes, there is. US police regularly shoot and brutalize US citizens every day.
These people are usually perceived by the police as “other” than who the police themselves represent — seen as examples of crime, disorder, danger. (Of course it does not help that many in the police ranks are infatuated with bodybuilding, steroids &c. — Very unstable people).
When protesting deplorables are confronted by fellow deplorables in riot gear though, whether civil police or federal military, this will not be the case. It will not so much matter that candidates for high military rank (army, marine corps) have been being weeded out over expressed unwillingness to order their troops to fire on Americans for years — as in Moscow, it is the enlisted men with the weapons who are important.
Where I live, the Occupy days were very interesting.
At first, we got along great with the police. We’d talk in our meetings about how the police union was in the middle of health care contract talks where a very city government that is very connected to wall street banks (we almost had a JP Morgan guy become mayor one year). was trying to cut their benefits.
So, during the day, we’d talk to the cops keeping an eye on us, or following our marches, or manning barricades about this. And it went great. We had no problem with the police and they were very friendly and supporting.
Then a group of anarchist which I believe were being led by agent-provacatuers came in and started forcing confrontations with the police and shouting lots of “#### the police”. Eventually they forced a major confrontation they didn’t need to force and the pro-Obama mayor and governor sent in the storm troopers to shut down the Occupy camps.
Yes, there are problems with too many police killing too many people. But, its still true as always that the police come from the working class and live in the working class so there always a chance they can eventually switch sides. You could see that in the way we were able to talk to the police early. But, when the fight was forced later, there weren’t any police that I know of who were refusing to follow orders either.
@Vor, I agree with your brilliant analysis. There’s an intra-elite clash in America as to the strategic vision that should guide America. The neo-con vision & finance capitalism have been a strategic disaster for America. John Gray sums this up so well in his book ‘False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism’. Gen. Martin Dempsey was once quoted as saying that the biggest security threat facing America is the $ 20 trillion national debt.What strengthens the hand of the faction that Trump represents is that even ordinary Americans are beginning to revolt against the neo-con vision because it has been disastrous for them. In fact, they are the ones that voted Trump into office. As Pepe Escobar put it: Flynn was just a pawn that the king decided not to protect for a wider strategic goal. So, this intra-elite clash is far from over; the clash is fluid; the outcome is unpredictable; but whichever vision triumphs will determine whether America will fade gracefully or disgracefully as a hegemon.
Precisely, the intra-elite or ruling caste clash is just getting under way & it is taking place for the same reasons it always has, throughout history, in other empires – the system is over-extended & has reached breaking point. Some ruling caste elements know this, & know that they must act, immediately, others are typically in denial & completely detached from reality. So a conflict is now beginning & it is going to be extremely serious, for the US & the entire world. Russia & China are essentially rushing to establish an alternative to the finance capitalist model you mention, to try to prevent themselves from sinking. The US Fed Reserve is approaching the point where it can not issue dollars anymore without crashing the currency, & people should not be fooled by Goldmann Sachs personalities in the Trump administration, most of his team is window dressing, they are not making the strategic decisions, they are not even influencing them, that is being done elsewhere & directives are being issued to Trump in a variety of covert ways that the NSA can not intercept.
If Trump is only in charge of domestic affairs, means that CIA, Pentagram & the Ziocon’s run things everywhere else and that is not good news for Russia. Things are already heating up in Syria & the ukraine.
“Is there any reason to believe that US cops and soldiers would be more willing than the KGB special forces to massacre their own people?”
There has been a great deal of conditioning by the gov and the media to do just this. There are numerous pictures of troops training against “American insurgents” as well as the extremely controversial “no hesitation” targets depicting everything from armed moms to armed elderly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3o8cGcaACo
Then there is the media conditioning. “Zombie shows” are among the most popular genres in TV and movies. Even if you disagree with me this is intentional, it is certainly desensitizing to shooting large crowds of humans.
If you are expecting US security forces to display a high sense of humanity I would not put any faith in this. I believe they would gun down anyone in front of them and then go grab a beer and backslap each other on a job well done.
There is no possible doubt that they are trying to condition the auto-kill response. But as time passes and the Us vs. Them line deepens, will police and troops see themselves as Wall Street vampires or proletarian Americans ? My suspicion is option two.
Spent Sunday watching Crimea-the Way Home documentary (recommended by someone here, thanks heaps!).
Firstly, Ukrainians were MORE than happy to inflict savagery on their fellow citizens. The barbarity shocked me – and I had to keep reminding myself this all happened in 2014.
To address your question- whose side will “enforcement” support.. ?
Consider the Simeropol airport account and reinactment.
The local police are passive and allow the locals (“armed” with shovel heads only) to occupy and defend the airport to thwart plane loads of Ukraine soldiers from landing.
BUT, as they are about to leave, they are accosted by some sort of armed “enforcers” who seem on the verge of slaughtering them in cold blood.
And then, according to the documentary, right then the Russian soldiers arrive, occupy the whole airport without a shot fired.
Whose side will “enforcement” support. Who knows.
There would be no place for them to go and grab a beer afterwards except perhaps in a canteen in their heavily fortified base. And even that will be just for a short while before lights go out.
‘Then there is the media conditioning. “Zombie shows” are among the most popular genres in TV and movies. Even if you disagree with me this is intentional, it is certainly desensitizing to shooting large crowds of humans.’
I had not thought about it in those terms.
On a more ‘local’ level, when I glance through the headlines I seem to be seeing much more violence. I write, ‘seem’, because I have no statistics, but the amount and level of violence ‘seem’s to be increasing.
I remember a decade or so ago watching a programme where an instructor from the Marines talked about how difficult it is to train soldiers to actually kill someone. How did they do it? Movies, they de-sensitised the soldiers. He was talking in the context of the rising trend of violent video games.
It is hard to believe it is State sponsored and deliberate. However, it is real and I believe combined with drugs such as ‘Ice’ is leading society …….. where???
People on the street prepared to support Trump with their lives, I doubt it.
Watching heroes on TV is one thing, getting off fat arses is quite another.
“People on the street prepared to support Trump with their lives, I doubt it.”
People may or may not take up arms to support Trump. However, they will take up arms to defend them and their progeny against the alternative. Never underestimate the power of the negative alternative.
Never underestimate the power of the negative alternative.
“Will power is strong. But won’t power is stronger.”
Graeme,(Mac here – Also from Oz)
Violence. Here’s a personal experience. Christmas, then Easter, then Christmas I spent visiting with different rellies. Each family had 2-3 teenaged males. Each family allowed their teens to spend 10-15 hours or more a day playing violent video games. (They were joined by “mates” around the neighbourhood. These were “nice” non-church-going “Christian-ethos” families with The House, The 4 cars, The Pool, and the regularly holidays OS.
Here it is, summer in OZ, and these boys spent their entire time indoors, “killing” people. One “team” could barely stop playing long enough to Neanderthal-grunt affirmative that they would allow their mother/slave to serve them food in their den.
I watched and considered that this scene was being played out in millions of homes across Australia, not just in these “nice” “Middle class” homes, but in truly affluent, and in “struggle street”. Everywhere, right across the country.
Millions of young men, in Australia, and everywhere, all totally submersed in violent, military grade training videos. Self training. Self de-sensitising. Preparing. ….. Buckle up.
My read is that once you get out of town the anger is real palpable and would get real very fast in the right ( or wrong) circumstances
In such extreme cases, the psychical pressure is enormous – even if the special police forces have been trained specifically for such scenarios – therefore, there is a high probability that some will shoot and some others will not, creating havoc within their ranks. It is one thing to be trained and another to apply it on real scenario at your home, against your own people.
You see it is as attacking the same people or, to say it another way, the same tribe. I agree that is not at all likely.
What if TPTB intentionally destroy tribe identity? Is there any stopping the concept of “us vs them” being defined as any arbitrary “them”?
That danger is constantly there, no one knows what is really going on behind the scene, everything is possible.
MH
“If you are expecting US security forces to display a high sense of humanity I would not put any faith in this. I believe they would gun down anyone in front of them and then go grab a beer and backslap each other on a job well done.”
Definitely, I agree. Cops mostly live in an isolated world of other cops. People outside this “world” are viewed as other. Their social lives are engineered to be that way. If one wants to get an idea how pindo cops would respond, simply look at how they have attacked demonstrators and strike picketers past and present.
@Saker
That the legitimate president of Ukraine approved a Russian intervention in a letter was revealed by Russia in the UNSC already in 2014:
“People are being persecuted for language and political reasons,” Churkin read. ”So in this regard I would call on the President of Russia, Mr. Putin, asking him to use the armed forces of the Russian Federation to establish legitimacy, peace, law and order, stability and defending the people of Ukraine.”
https://www.rt.com/news/churkin-unsc-russia-ukraine-683/
Of course, NATO chooses to ignore this so they could spread the lie that Russia “violated international law”. NATO wants to distract from the fact that it is NATO that violates international law by organizing the nazi coup and deploying NATO troops to commit genocide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJtiEwzn1fE&t=370
Russian ambassador Churkin who just died was a leading advocate of investigating human trafficking and organ harvesting in the Kosovo war.
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/5v7xp9/russian_ambassador_churkin_who_just_died_was_a/
Churkin + Syrian chemical weapons attack. In 2013 Churkin delivered an 80-page report to UN on the killing of a poison gas attack on Syrians. The report soundly detained the gas was not commercially produced, and proved compelling evidence it was produced by the terrorists. Now, Feb 2017, (immediately/days after Churkin death) the UN is back trying to sanction the Syrian govt for this crime.
Ukraine. Escalation of violence .
The loss of Churkin is too great.
US Considering Withdrawal From UN Human Rights Council
https://sputniknews.com/us/201702261051047475-us-un-human-rights/
“There’s been a series of requests coming from the secretary of state’s office that suggests that he is questioning the value of the US belonging to the Human Rights Council,” the department’s former official familiar with the matter told Politico.
Some of the concerns are that the council has been targeting Israel, a key US ally, over its treatment of the Palestinian minority, including a perceived lenient jail term for an Israeli soldier who had killed an incapacitated Palestinian attacker.”
The tuppence regime continues to push for israel’s interests above those of the usa.
This move would be like a two-edged sword. In this case, Russia cannot be harassed by US in the Council for any move in Syria and Donbass.
Memo on stopping leaks at State Dept leaked, showing Trump faces battle to turn off tap
https://www.rt.com/usa/378627-tillerson-leaks-state-department/
“An internal State Department document explaining the rationale for clamping down on government agency leaks, a stated priority for Donald Trump’s administration, has ironically itself been leaked.
“SBU” in the document title stands for “Sensitive But Unclassified,” meaning that the document should have only been shared with State Department insiders. Instead, Josh Rogin at the Washington Post says that the document was leaked personally to him “promptly.”
The Dissent Channel received its biggest delivery last month, when about 1,000 civil servants signed a cable protesting the implementation of Executive Order 13769, which barred nationals from seven states from entering the US for 90 days. Predictably, that Dissent Channel cable, intended for internal consideration, was also immediately leaked.”
But will important material, whose leaking would actually confound israeloamerican aggressive plans, or counter corporate consolidation, be leaked?
—And, once that happens, it’s over the the Ukronazis, these republics will be gone just like South Ossetia or Abkhazia—
Why? Why is over for the urkonazists if they lose Donbass? A year or so ago you said that this was exactly what the ukronazists wanted, and if Russia or NAF annex Donbass or more Russia would be hammered into the ground with sanctions and you said the Minsk 2 was great, now suddently it is ok for NAF to annex all of Donbass?
What has changed. Is this due to Trump?
“Is there any reason to believe that US cops and soldiers would be more willing than the KGB special forces to massacre their own people?”
Sadly I think yes. USSR was about communism, was about fraternity to be all together. With is bad but nonetheless the general idea of solidarity.
USA is always about capitalism, liberalism, individualism, where everybody fight for their own, cause that the only way to be rich. And if you not rich you’re nothing… (caricature).
So in the end yes
President Trump is maybe in agreement and even fulfill the Minsk agreement and stop the attack of Donbass and Donetsk which is favorable for Russia. In return, the Trump administration would want obviously a deal/favor. After all, Trump negotiates like business he is used to. This deal would most likely be Russia not to interfere in Syria and Iran (future war with US). Of course, if the deal is fulfilled and US completes its mission in Syria and Iran, the next step for US is to go back to attacking Russia on Ukraine and Crimea.
The attack against Trump by the media indicates he has different policies than the
Neocons. This attack will even turn him more towards Russia and creating a peaceful world through compromises and negotiations unless he is really threatened and become controlled by the Neocons.
Trump is clever to speak directly to the people. Probably the first time a president will appeal to the people against internal opposition. This will be a test for the people, by putting aside their differences being leftist, right wing, conservative, liberal bla, bla and come together to stand for the right cause, if that cause is indeed Trump’s policies.
Good one Saker! It is difficult to see the machine of power behind the shadow play within the fog of disruption in the USA today. It may well be that one side of the deep state ( the thoroughly illegal one entrenched within the Homeland Security/FBI/ CIA domestic liaison folks with their agents in the corporate media) responsible for domestic policy plans to create a kind of domestic paralysis through disunity in order to give the foreign/international side a more free hand. If you can’t control it: break it or at least yank the carburator.
After all, they are globalists and are playing the long game in the bigger arena. This means how Putin and the Russians play it is key to how this works out . Of course whatever Russia does will be reported badly by the press but the downstream media- the internet news sites– dissect these reports and are much closer to the real source of power—the people. The American people are not buying the line that Russia is the enemy especially since major spokesmen/women of the liberal left are including Russia in their hysterical attacks on Trump.
Trump just needs to stand firm, wait them out, because you can’t keep people in the streets indefinitely. The real unemployed who have time on their hands are not out yet as an organized group with visceral grievances. The lumpen intelligentsia and identity politics types are being organized around the fear that something is going to be taken away from them as well as a kind of apocalyptic group-think so their attempted siege of of the presidency can be broken. The Afro American community is not buying into the race war provocations either but during the summer there will be attempts to fan inevitable incidents into riots like what are happening in Paris.
No one I talk to cares one fig about the Ukraine or even bothers to know much about it–even less about Crimea. The leadership in Ukraine is totally ” despicable” and “disposable”. Interesting times we live in.
Trump is a creator. By appealing to the fly-over majority, he may very well create a new political force. This is a Black Swan for which the neo-rats have no plan. (Neocon and neolib are terms too neutral to describe them. They are vermin.)
Possibly interesting indeed — President Trump held a brief news conference, announcing that he really IS going after the pedophile ring(s):
http://yournewswire.com/trump-pedophile-ring-investigation/
“President Trump has announced a federal investigation into the Pizzagate elite pedophile scandal involving human trafficking on Tuesday and promised to help put an end to the “horrific, really horrific crimes taking place.”
“The president held a short, dramatic press conference after meeting with human trafficking experts to announce that he will direct “the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies” to devote more resources and personnel to the investigation.
“Appearing at the press conference for less than two minutes, President Trump said that the issue has been on the radar of federal government “for some time” but since taking office in January the investigation has become “much more focused.”
“It has been much more focused over the last four weeks, I can tell you that.”
Game changer ? Distraction ? Stay tuned . . .
“Trump hitting back and hitting hard.”
-If and when he does, will the people stand up and fight beside him? It will mean the common man/woman must do something more meaningful than to just curse DC from the comfort of his/her couch in the living room. Will they stick their necks out even if it means the may loose their heads in the process?
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
-Edmund Burke.
More encouragement —
Robert Kennedy Jr dropped a Trump bombshell live on CNN, saying that Donald Trump could be “the greatest president in history.”
http://yournewswire.com/kennedy-trump-greatest-president/
The Kennedy family have been assassinated one by one, it would still continue unless some kind of change comes in US to protect them. This means, to completely change US system since the coup by killing John F. Kennedy. It is good news if alliance between the Trumps and Kennedy’s happen
The problem domestically for Trump is the Republican establishment – not the liberals. The Republicans are now trotting out all of their wish-list policies and Trump is rubber stamping these things: The attack on public education, the attack on EPA regulations, the further removal of regulations and taxes on corporations, the attack on medical marijuana and recreational marijuana laws – which is an attack on states rights and a big-brother alphabet-agency mistake. He is probably doing this out of shear necessity – to get some kind of backing in the Beltway. But it is short-sighted and foolish. The vast number of independents who voted for him are not impressed by him selling the farm to the goddamned Republicans.
If this keeps up, he is going to lose whatever support from the population he has. Right now it’s barely 25%. This has always been my reservation with giving any kind of positive spin on Trumps election. Sure, he won by appealing to the working class – something the democratic party is still not figuring out. Sure his questioning of longstanding US foreign policy dogma (NATO etc…) is/was appealing, but his populism will be extremely short-lived if all he can do is produce a few thousand short-term construction jobs related to this very divisive pipeline project. Among his shortcomings: his arrogance, his inability to display compassion, his inability to display any kind of sincerity, will be his downfall with the people. Trump, ultimately is a faux populist. If there was any kind of working class political “Left” in this country he MIGHT have been pushed more to left. He is starting to look like just another business friendly republican who will sell out the people and fly off to one of his resort hotels.
It is the inaction of the people that are voting forcing bad policies under Trump or Obama (if Obama had meant to fulfill people’s wishes). People are not protecting or making Trump accountable. Should that happen, Trump will not hesitate to stand his ground. It is the responsibility of the people also to oust Senators and Congressmen that are hampering policies that benefit people
Ending Obamacare’s Nightmare Promises a Worse One.“Mini-med” Plans, offering Minimal Coverage
Stephen Lendman
http://www.globalresearch.ca/ending-obamacares-nightmare-promises-a-worse-one-mini-med-plans-offering-minimal-coverage/5576740
“Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, Vice President Pence said “America’s Obamacare nightmare is about to end.”
He lied saying he and Trump are committed to giving every American “access to quality, affordable health insurance,” vowing an “orderly transition” from current policy to Trumpcare.
House Speaker Paul Ryan wants tax credits replacing Obamacare subsidies, a boon for well-off households, disastrous for low-income ones and millions of unemployed Americans, paying little or no taxes – unable to benefit from credits.
He favors “mini-med” plans, offering minimal coverage, way too little in cases of serious illnesses, diseases or expensive hospitalizations and surgeries.”
Now the domestic agenda of the tuppence regime is starting to surface and it appears to be as toxic and duplicitous as their foreign policies are stacking up to be.
Yes, as you note, the real problem for Trump domestically is Congress plus his cabinet choices who want to implement policies longstanding majorities of citizens oppose–particularly the gutting of Medicare, Social Security and the EPA. Many states being run by Republicans are increasingly in a state of turmoil as they try to railroad similar sorts of policy. As I wrote elsewhere and echoed by Saker, public outrage at Obama’s actions is finally appearing and building upon a host of unaddressed problems and wrongheaded policies. Much of the Fake News agenda deals with Imperial Policy, although there’s very little evidence that it’s changed when the Big Picture’s examined.
IMO, the 2018 political season will be very lively, and extremely important.
In Reuters Interview President Trump Flunks Nuclear 101
https://fas.org/blogs/security/2017/02/trump-flunks-nuclear-101/
“President Donald Trump in an interview with Reuters today demonstrated an astounding lack of knowledge about basic nuclear weapons issues.
President Trump may have been briefed by the Pentagon on his role in the nuclear war plan. But his latest interview with Reuters shows that he urgently needs to be briefed on the status of US nuclear forces, other nuclear-armed states, and the basics of the arms control treaties the United States has signed. But that briefing needs to be done outside the White House bubble and include bi-partisan and independent input. Otherwise all indication are that President Trump will be extraordinarily poorly equipped to make informed decisions about the nuclear policy.”
More evidence the trump role in the tuppence regime is “showman”, much like what was reagan’s role in the raygun regime. Further info on nuclear arsenals referenced in this article:
Status of World Nuclear Forces
https://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/
US DoS Condemns Attack on Special Monitoring Mission in East Ukraine
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201702261051059135-dos-ukraine-osce/
“The State Department accused Donbass militia of the incident, however, provided no proof.
“We condemn Friday’s targeting of OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) monitors and the seizure of a SMM unmanned aerial vehicle…,” the State Department said in a statement.
The State Department has also called on eastern Ukrainian militia and Russia to observe the ceasefire, “withdraw all heavy weapons” and allow OSCE monitors access to the area.”
So how does the tuppence regime differ from the obama regime with regard to Novorussia?
For anyone in need of a jolly good laugh:
“The BBC’s mission is to bring accurate news and information to people around the world, and our journalists should be able to operate freely and safely, with full protection for their sources. We call upon all governments to respect the operation of a free press.”
BBC dismayed at German ‘BND spying on journalists’
This is off-topic – the MFC is there for off-topic comments. Any further comments like this will go to trash. Mod
there are multiple reality on this world. american reality is strongly anchored in am. people. pushing american reality of balance and bring it closer to,eg. European or Russian, would be unpredictable and possibly very dangerous. it is called history. i don’t understand how Mr. Trump want America make great again? Constant change is the only constant in universe. America is moving toward its own fate. Trump is getting older. there is no way back. nor fot America, nor for Trump. if America want to survive history, it has to change and accept existence of other reality. like hundreds countries on this planet.
No offense, but I believe that a hope that US Police and Military would refuse to put down a peaceful civil demostration is just a wishful thinking.
The general population has been brainwashed for decades with “greatest country in the world” and other such drivel to the point where any meaningful civil resistance to Federal authorities would be hard to come by and even harder to maintain. You can’t even organise a workers’ strike anymore, thanks to “I’ve got a mortgage” and other multitude of excuses.
The security apparatus has been brainwashed even more and carefully manipulated and totally divorced from the rest of the community. Look at the statistics – a full third of all murders in US is done by the cops. Look how easy it is for cops to shoot and kill civilians for no reason at all except the idiotic “I feared for my safety”, and they are supported in this by the state and court system, which subconsciously tells them that this behaviour is correct. Both cops and military are sent to serve away from where they originally lived so they don’t see it as “their community”, etc. etc.
No, I’m afraid that any uprising in US will turn real bloody real quick.
+M
I agree. I wrote a comment in reply to another up thread stating much the same view, but you have done a much better job of it here.
Tell me, aren’t they undercover communist soviets agents ? (just a bad joke) how, otherwise could the enforcers of democracy do such bad things ? But never mind, what has been applied to other nation by exporting democracy, will be implemented at home…
Regarding Trump ‘appealing to the people’, I’m not so sure that would work in the US. While right-wing protest movements are common outside the United States (like many of the US-funded color coups targeting independent countries, especially in Latin America), such things are rare inside the US. US conservatives simply do not like street protesting. ‘Culturally’, in the US, protesting is generally seen as being a “leftist” activity. So do not think that Trump calling out supporters into the streets would amount to much of anything.
The Kennedy family have been assassinated one by one, it would still continue unless some kind of change comes in US to protect them. This means, to completely change US system since the coup by killing John F. Kennedy. It is good news if alliance between the Trumps and Kennedy’s happen for the betterment of the country. However the two mean nothing without the support of the people and military. The power seems to lie within the Pentagon? in alliance with Military Industrial Complex and corporations. Still, the military may have the most power and most likely allied with the military industrial complex because of their commonality but not all.
And tyhan just in time and out of the blue – pro-Trump DNC elections
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/835610917568200705
1) If I had to go into a fight with only one person by my side, Steve Bannon sounds like a pretty good choice. I’d take the Saker as well, but if I couldn’t get the Saker, I’d certainly feel good with Steve Bannon along with me.
2) Trump’s a negotiator. A good one apparently from his business successes. He therefore would not give up a valuable card for free before the negotiations begin. But that does not mean that if in order to get a deal with Russia that he would not jetitson the Kiev junta as an easy thing to agree to. Trump would need a deal that he can present as a good deal to the American people. Which means he has to give up something. The obvious things to give are cooperation in the fight against Al-Qaida and ISIS, and ditching the Kiev junta.
3) Someone, I think I read through this site, made the point that Mr. Trump at this time is concentrating on winning battles at home. Like Mr. Saker, I agree his recent speeches have been well done. His famous twitter feed was always a way to talk directly to the people by going around a hostile media. He’s now starting to add the power of the Presidential pulpit to that tool-kit. Any speech he gives will certainly be on C-Span (a part of every cable package into every home) as well as livestreamed by many conservative websites and blogs. Plus these days, he’s still a rating draw to the likes of CNN, and certainly to FOX. So, he can and will be heard whenever he wants to speak to the people.
All we know officially is that Gen. Flynn “lost the trust of the President.” We do not know the details of this.
One reason could be that he was less than truthful with the President about his earlier contacts with Russia.
But, it could be something else entirely. Gen. Flynn was very outfront in threatening a war with Iran, so maybe one quess is that Trump didn’t really want to start his regime by starting yet another regime change operation that would drag him into the swamp he wants to drain? Just a thought. Again, that phrase ‘lost the trust’ could cover a whole lot of things that we don’t know about. And that should be remembered.
As to an impeachment attempt …..
The Republicans have majorities in both houses of congress. Yes, I know many take lots of war machine dollars and might have had ‘never Trump’ feelings before the election.
But, they are most concerned about their own seats and their own careers, and most of them represent districts that Mr. Trump won in the last election.
I’ve already written my Republican congress-person a note asking that they support our President. Mr. Trump getting on TV and asking for support would create a lot more of those notes. Republicans are already being attacked in town meetings by the left, but the Tea Party groups that strongly support Trump can do the same should a Republican congressperson come out in favor of removing Trump. And, he has Air Force One so he can touch down in any wavering Republican districts and make a speech. And also meet with the local donors of the wavering congress-person and possibly with potential challengers in a primary race that would be well under way only a year from now.
I’m not that worried about impeachment. I think that’s a fight Trump can win. And come out the back side of such a struggle in a much stronger position.
All those in the Senate and Congress have been tainted both republicans and democrats, it is them making havoc. I don’t understand why they still remain in their positions and the American people should not vote for them and time to replace everyone of them.
Remember how the u.s. military was making preparations for basing themselves in Sevastopol as part of the Ukraine coup? Well look at this information with that in mind.
Symbolic, or More? Uniformed Marines to Guard De Facto US Embassy in Taiwan
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201702261051060416-marines-in-taiwan-embassy/
A policy change designed to facilitate increased aggression against China initiated before the tuppence regime was elected, which they have now continued as dutiful servants following orders.
The Chinese basic plan for conquest of a fortified or separatist Taiwan is quite clear.
One million troops thrust onto the island.
Those Marines won’t have much chance, even in their uniforms.
Factor in the stated intention to cut 350,000 men from the PLA, losses are gains for China in such a “rollback” of troop strength (invasion, occupation, defense—choose whatever term you want).
Taiwan is not going to be saved by the US from being Chinese.
It has been 60 years resistant, but another 60 is nothing to the Mainland.
The waiting game favors Beijing. Most of the capital investment of Taiwan is in Mainland businesses and real estate holdings. The youth of Taiwan are solid at the ballot box, but have no future being stooges and cannon fodder for the hegemon.
Beijing wins this game however the US wants to play it.
Hong Kong is a lot more “sensitive” because of the banking and finance there, the stock market and the ports. Hong Kong is crucial. Taiwan is a nuisance that the US uses to agitate.
Does the US want a war on Taiwan?
No, they want a naval clash in the South China Sea, not in the Straits of Taiwan. That would be a Chinese shooting gallery and graveyard for US Navy.
And the way the US military operates, Japan and So.Korea, Australia and New Zealand would be in any war. Picture that from Beijing’s POV. It would go nuclear very fast. So, war is out.
Agitation in behalf of bargaining leverage is what Marines in uniforms is all about. It won’t work as a gambit.
And it won’t have any effect on Beijing.
The US is pretending that it has something to offer. It has nothing. It certainly does not have Taiwan.
Not even “hope and change”?
L445
20 years ago I was working for a Taiwan firm who’s main direction of expansion was in the PRC. I agree, Taiwan will eventually return to China, but not through Chinese aggression.
The u.s. changes in their Taiwan dip mission are likely a preliminary to changing their unofficial mission into an official embassy and recognising Taiwan as a country separate from China. This to slow and try and prevent Taiwan from being reintegrated back into China proper. Maybe the zpc/nwo think they can use Taiwan against China the way they are using the Ukraine against Russia.
Welcome Back Saker! We are all in this together!
THORAX
I hate to damper ur hamper but Trump ain’t the real thing he is just like Obama. He has surrounded himself with not one but 13 anglo-zionist (KNOWN ZIONIST) 12 of which r ashkanazi/ fake jews and one serphedic jew (real jew) all known zionist at the beltway and paid up members of AIPAC . I might add his son inlaw ex IDF hence once zionist always a zionist. Mind u I am sure Putin and the FSB r on to it.
Post Scriptum : I might add the recent moves by the anglo-zionist in the Donbass and Syria tells me never trust pax-americana/antlantacist/anglo-zionist. Remember Maccain hanoi song bird swamp man and Graham zionist puppet visited Porky /Kiev and viola rite after full blown aggression against the Donbas and the murders of Motorola and Givi. Furthe more recent turkish and Israeli moves on Syria tell me as much.
Mossad Motto:FOR BY WISE GUIDANCE YO MAY WAGE WAR
extensive article
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/why-ukraine-dying-slow-death-literally-19529
demographics, depopulation, lack of health care etc etc
“Contact Group Meeting A Failure Due To Ukraine Junta Refusing To Agree On All Points, Including Withdrawal Of Weapons From Front Lines ! ~ DPR Rep. Talakina
on: February 27, 2017
The Kiev Junta refused agreements on all points and the stabilization of situation in Donbass at Contact Group Meeting ”
http://novorossia.today/contact-group-meeting-failure-due-ukraine-junta-refusing-agree-points-including-withdrawal-weapons-front-lines-dpr-rep-talakina/~
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Kiev moves to ‘break up with’ IMF as prospects for aid dry up
“A Ukrainian lawmaker has submitted a bill to parliament on scrapping cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Kiev had hoped to get another installment from the IMF in January, but at the moment the prospects for assistance from the IMF are grim, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes. The rift between Kiev and the IMF may forestall Ukraine in repaying $3-bln loan to Russia issued in late 2013.”
More:
http://tass.com/pressreview/932833
MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. The deliveries of armaments from the United States to Ukraine may turn into new tragedies, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday.
“The US Congress demands that the deliveries of the so-called lethal weapons [to Ukraine] be started. That is why, it is important that the US White House and the Department of State should realize that this may turn into new tragedies and should feel their responsibility,” Ryabkov said at a roundtable discussion in the lower house of Russia’s parliament on Russian-US relations. “We’re trying to help adequately understand what has happened and is happening in Ukraine, including in Donbass,” he added.
“We’ll be explaining to the new administration the history and the current state of the internal conflict in Ukraine,” the diplomat said.
Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Armed Services John McCain and Chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services Republican Mac Thornberry earlier urged US President Donald Trump to send defensive armaments to Ukraine
More:
http://tass.com/politics/933170
Trump will tell, not time!
Is Trump’s recent meeting with child trafficking experts and his strong call for action against this crime a sign of where the swamp critters are vulnerable? Is the fact that over 1,500 perpetrators of human and child trafficking and organised pedophile rings have bee arrested (some kind of record in short time) and dozens of child sex slaves freed since Trump became president another sign? Is the new DHS public information advert about human trafficking that says “the signs are everywhere” while focussed on the word “pizza” in a pizza shop window while a sad child stands by the door – another sign – that Trump is going to go for the jugular?
All this is mainstream media fact, though the MSM is careful to not highlight such news.
Shines a new light on this:
“Trump calls on supporters to hold ‘biggest ever rally’”.
An appeal to get involved, if not an actual mass meeting – as yet. Definitely a warning shot.
http://www.infowars.com/trump-calls-on-supporters-to-hold-biggest-ever-rally/
Trump plan to tame Syria’s ‘moderate’ fighters will backfire – the neocons are banking on it
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/378717-trumps-plan-tame-syria-neocons/
“He says that his ‘safe zones’ plan in Syria and the return of Crimea by Russia to Ukraine are entirely beyond negotiation. “These demands will only increase the friction between the two countries, which is what the neocons want – an adversary in whose name the US/NATO war machine can continue to work,” Srivastava writes.
“Otherwise, what would be the justification for the continued existence of NATO?”
If Trump himself realizes this, then his speed makes sense. The waiting game is not so much what will Trump’s move be in Syria with Russia, or when he will bomb Iran. Or whether his plan for US soldiers to fight in Syria is plausible. It is whether he will really have the time before the media, the deep state, and the republicans will lunge at him, like Caesar in the Senate.”
Alongside the redesign of the regime change ops, the tuppence regime zionazis are revamping the image and propaganda side in preparation to their expanded wars in the Mideast and against Iran.
‘White Helmets helping rebrand terror groups to create Syrian no-fly zones’ – Vanessa Beeley
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/378749-white-helmets-rebrand-terror-beeley/
“Now the first point to make was, when I used the term the White Helmets, which is the label that is given to them by their marketing campaign managers and by the corporate media in the West, most of the civilians didn’t have a clue who we were talking about. When we then expanded on the theme, we mentioned that they were civil defense, then almost immediately, the response was: “Oh, you mean Nusra Front civil defense.” And that was entirely unprompted by these Syrian civilians, literally as they were leaving the liberated districts. We also accrued a number of testimonies that basically attested to the fact that they worked alongside the terrorist organizations inside East Aleppo, they worked in facilitating and sometimes even participating in the various terrorist atrocities that were carried out both at East Aleppo and in the Aleppo countryside and then in Idlib…”
US DoS Urges Russia to Bring to Justice Murderers of Opposition Figure Nemtsov
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201702271051081263-dos-nemtsov-probe/
“US Department of State acting spokesman Mark Toner said that the Russian government must ensure that the killers of opposition figure Boris Nemtsov are brought to justice.
Earlier Monday, US Ambassador to Russia John Tefft visited the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge in Moscow to honor Nemtsov’s memory.”
One sees the exact same propaganda support for the 5th column in Russia by the tuppence regime as perpetrated by the previous obama regime.
Asymmetric responses please. Give Iran nukes. Put Israel on the target list and demand it leaves the Golan Heights.
Trapped: Life on the Donetsk Frontline Through the Eyes of a Little Girl:
https://rtd.rt.com/films/trapped-donetsk/
The last words spoken in video are beautiful because they are words of hope and goodwill. May it prevail among all. One day. Soon.
Regards,
Carmel by the Sea
The important point is that Russia has ‘officially’ recognised the quasi independent states of the Donbass.
Considering the elected leader of Ukraine has officially asked for Russian help, then as appropriate Russian troops will intervene.
The question is only whether Russia will take control of Donbass or will it push on to the Dnieper and take Kiev as well?
Taking control of the eastern half of Ukraine including Kiev actually makes more sense tactically, because in so doing much of Ukraine’s forces, that are also in the east, will be neutralised.
What will be NATO’s response? Like all bullies they are strong on rhetoric but lack the resources to launch an effective military counter attack.
Logistically NATO could only resupply themselves for a day or two at most.
But is this scenario good for Russia? No! Not with the current commitment in the Middle East. So it won’t happen.
Forget your fantasies re Trump. He is the swamp. His son in law received $250 million from Soros. They are all in it together. Trump is part of the swamp and his backers are the same backers that Obama had.
posted else on cafe where but useful here again
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/02/ukraines-interior-minster-states-there.html
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said that there was “quick release plan for Donbass”.
“We have a very specific plan for Donbass, that, if the will of the Putin regime to reach a real settlement shall take place under pressure from the West, we have a plan that will be implemented,” – he assured.
“I am familiar with the real plans of our diplomats who are working on this situation. I, as one who has spent too much time in the zone and understand what is happening there, also take an active part”, – said the head of the Interior Ministry.
In addition, he added that, in his opinion, Ukraine is “in a period of time when this issue can be resolved quickly and solved by diplomatic means, not [necessarily] by military means.”
but no idea what it refers to……..
plus, a sign of change here?
TV journalist Mustafa Nayem.
has announced that he is preparing a bill with a proposal to renew the supply of water, electricity and goods in the Crimea. “There are products that we need to deliver – it’s essential goods such as water and electricity, under international humanitarian law we have to deliver,” – said Mustafa Nye. It also proposes to simplify the procedure of crossing the state border with Crimea. The draft of the bill Ukrainian MP promises to show up to the end of this week.”
from anna-news …….might be worth watching progress of the bill to judge the current mood in the RADA, considering ukr seems to be determined to self destruct via blockade, continuing shelling and Donbass subsequently “taking ” over ukr businesses etc etc..
Donbass and Russia are on the road back home
Adam Garrie
ADAM GARRIE
1 hour ago
“After years of neglect, Russia and the Donbass republics are making important steps in the right direction, that of unity.”
http://theduran.com/donbass-and-russia-are-on-the-road-back-home/
Trump to the American people: “Since becoming your president, I’ve become aware of information that calls into question the report of the official 9/11 Commission. In fact, this information indicates that the official report of that Commission may be the biggest piece of fake news ever delivered to the American people. So I am now issuing an executive order to begin a new, independent investigation of this vicious and murderous attack that changed the course of American history and continues to impact world events to this very moment. The members I appoint to this new presidential commission will not be Washington insiders or affiliated in any way with the security agencies that participated, directly or indirectly, in the preparation or dissemination of the prior 9/11 Commission report. My appointees will be independent scientists, analysts, and researchers with the professional–not the political–backgrounds and expertise necessary to finally get to the bottom of what happened on September 11, 2001, how it happened, why it happened, and who was responsible. The members of this new presidential commission, the date it will begin its work, the target date for its findings, and the resources that will be made available to it, will all be announced during the next several weeks. There is no greater gift I can give to the American people as their president than the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about 9/11.”
Will this dream ever become reality? If it does, checkmate!
I hope so.
Meanwhile this is an interesting take on Trump, the Deep State and the Swamp.
Again, we can only hope.
Glad to see that The Saker is rethinking his Doom & Gloom position after the Flynn firing. This is indeed a war and the most important and capable soldier is Trump not any of his adviser’s. If Trump’s presidency depends on just two figures, Flynn and Bannon, it has failed already. But that’s not the case. The key figure is Trump. His enemies can take down Bannon. But they will still have Trump. This presidency is a rare case of the President, not his advisers, actually driving the policy. Clearly Trump knows what he wants and is willing to fight for it.
And Trump is fighting, make no mistake. Taking his case to the people is exactly what he should be doing. This is a political fight and thats how to fight. He has also began mentioning Clinton and Obama as behind the attacks on him. This is a major escalation and it is good. It will force his opponents to think twice. Ultimately the Congress will support Trump, its Republican and the Republican base is with Trump, it will go along.
The major fight against Trump is being conducted in the media and covertly within the bureaucracy. Trump is dealing with the media well and I think he is winning there. The Clintobama bureacracy is being supported by the Democrats in congress who are delaying Trumps appointees so as to keep the Clintobamites in position, with minimal Trump supervision, for as long as possible. Time favors Trump here. Despite these delays, Trump will eventually get his people in place and it will be game over for these Clintobamites and for their sponsors. But it will likely take another four to six months to get to that point.
P.S. About the polls. They are likely as wrong now as they were before the election. Trump received 46% of the popular vote in the election. Yet there are polls showing him with 40% support after just one month. This would mean that he has lost the support of 13% of his supporters since the election. I can see no reason why this would be the case. Its far more likely that the polling is wrong.
President Donald Trump’s oft-repeated slogan of «America First» is not a substitute phrase for American isolationism but a call to arms for aggressive unilateral military action on a global scale. Unlike the pre-World War II «America Firsters», among whose ranks could be counted Trump’s father, Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s administration and the ranks of his followers are rife with those who believe in American exceptionalism and a robust «forward projection» of military might.
It is true that Trump campaigned on a platform of eschewing America’s traditional military alliances, particularly the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), however, his administration’s pushing for superiority in nuclear weaponry and a 350-ship naval fleet. Recently, Trump said to a raucous crowd of right-wingers attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that his vision of a U.S. military means that «nobody is going to mess with us. Nobody». Trump added that he will preside over «one of the greatest military buildups in American history».
‘America First’ Is a Mantra for Unilateral Aggression
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/02/27/america-first-mantra-for-unilateral-aggression.html
This sounds to me like the argument that if ordinary people have guns in their homes, they’ll kill each other with them.
Saker for now one my teacher…Putin Trump 2/26 very educational. We should of become friend with Soviets 1945. We undermine our own humanity by being automatic anti-socialist, Marx is a vital element of humanity. Capitalism as we practice it is not sustainable of just, and is a minority police imposed state..Paying taxes getting almost nothing in return..