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November 11, 2024

Why Is WaPo Reporting A Trump-Putin Call That Did Not Take Place?

This is curious.

The Washington Post is reporting a phone call between U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation.

Trump talked to Putin, told Russian leader not to escalate in Ukraine - Washington Post, Nov 10 2024
President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday and discussed the war in Ukraine, according to people familiar with the call.

President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, the first phone conversation between the two men since Trump won the election, said several people familiar with the matter.

During the call, which Trump took from his resort in Florida, he advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington’s sizable military presence in Europe, said a person familiar with the call, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

Ukraine's government, says WaPo, was informed of the call.

The Kremlin denies that any such phone call and talk has taken place:

Kremlin denies call between Putin and Trump - AFP/MSN, Nov 11 2024
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed reports of a conversation, calling it "completely false information."

Cont. reading: Why Is WaPo Reporting A Trump-Putin Call That Did Not Take Place?

Posted by b at 11:02 UTC | Comments (332)

November 10, 2024

Palestine Open Thread 2024-271

News & views related to the war in Palestine ...

Posted by b at 14:32 UTC | Comments (145)

Ukraine Open Thread 2024-270

News & views related to the war in Ukraine ...

Posted by b at 14:31 UTC | Comments (215)

The MoA Week In Review - OT 2024-269

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

> Amid a breakdown of trust between society, the army and the political leadership, Ukraine is struggling to replace battlefield losses with conscription, barely hitting two-thirds of its target. Russia, meanwhile, is replacing its losses by recruitment with lucrative contracts, without needing to revert to mass mobilisation. A senior Ukrainian military commander admits that there has been a collapse in morale in some of the worst sections of the front. A source in the general staff suggests that nearly a fifth of soldiers have gone AWOL from their positions. <

---
Other issues:

Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review - OT 2024-269

Posted by b at 14:31 UTC | Comments (180)

November 08, 2024

'Pogrom' Against Hooligans Accusations Follow A Zionist Propaganda Scheme

There are two recurring schemes in pro-Zionist propaganda:

  • In any conflict the Zionists (or Jews) are always the victims.
  • Conflicts with Zionists always occur out of nowhere, i.e without any provocations and outside of any context. They are thus pure anti-semitism.

On October 7 2023, following provocations of radical Zionists at the Al Aqsa mosque, Hamas soldiers and random Gazans broke from their open air prison and attempted to take Israeli hostages. These were to be exchanged for Arab prisoners in Israeli hands. During the operation the Israeli military ordered its forces to follow the Hannibal directive which says that any potential Israeli hostage shall be killed before it is taken to Gaza.

Various reports have since shown that the majority of those killed on that day were Arabs from Gaza. The majority of Israeli casualties of that day were caused by the Israeli military, primarily by its helicopter forces which fired Hellfire missiles and machine cannons against random cars fleeing the scene.

But the Zionist friendly media reported the Hamas excursion as unprovoked. It seemed to have happened without any context. But there is a context of more then 70 years of expulsion and killing of Arabs up to today.

It also depicted the killed Israeli as the victims killed by the Arab attackers even as Israel's own military admitted that it had killed a large share of them.

A recent incident in Amsterdam follows a similar scheme.

Israel decries ‘pogrom’ in Amsterdam as soccer fans come under attack by rioters - Times of Israel, Nov 8 2024
All Israelis accounted hours after 10 injured, many besieged in hotels as gangs of hooligans — apparently Muslims and Arabs — ambush, beat Israelis after game

The headline suggests that:

Cont. reading: 'Pogrom' Against Hooligans Accusations Follow A Zionist Propaganda Scheme

Posted by b at 15:04 UTC | Comments (419)

November 07, 2024

Palestine Open Thread 2024-268

News & views related to the war in Palestine ...

Posted by b at 14:48 UTC | Comments (171)

Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2024-267

News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine ...

Posted by b at 14:48 UTC | Comments (233)

Trump And Ukraine

How will a president-elect Donald Trump handle the war in Ukraine?

I doubt that he will be able to close down the war in 24 hours, as he had promised. I rather think that he will escalate it. As I stated two weeks ago:

I expect the new president to double down on the anti-Russian project in Ukraine ...

A new Wall Street Journal piece on Trump's promise does not give me any reason to believe otherwise.

Trump Promised to End the War in Ukraine. Now He Must Decide How. (archived
Foreign-policy advisers close to the president-elect put forth different versions of a plan to effectively freeze the front line

Like in Trump’s first term, different factions are set to compete to influence the Republican’s foreign policy. More traditionally minded allies such as Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state now in contention to lead the Pentagon, are likely to push for a settlement that doesn’t appear to give a major win to Moscow. Other advisers, particularly Richard Grenell, a top candidate to lead the State Department or serve as national-security adviser, could give priority to Trump’s desire to end the war as soon as possible, even if it means forcing Kyiv into significant concessions.

But what are ways to do that?

Cont. reading: Trump And Ukraine

Posted by b at 11:37 UTC | Comments (611)

November 06, 2024

Election 2024 - Random Thoughts

Some random thoughts on Trump's reelection.

Trump's win in 2024 does not prove that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats but it raises a new stink about the issue.


bigger

When Biden was pushed out of the race there were calls among Democrats not to rush a choice, but to hold full-fledged primaries. Barack Obama had called for it. But Nancy Pelosi and the Clinton clan kept pushing for Harris. As a vacuous and unlikable person - carrying all the baggage of the Biden administration - she was the most likely to lose.

This is, hopefully, the end of wokeism and DEI nonsense. And of 'trans' children and teens.

Cont. reading: Election 2024 - Random Thoughts

Posted by b at 17:49 UTC | Comments (342)

Election 2024 - Trump Has Won

MoA, two weeks ago:

My hunch is that Trump will win the election. What policies will follow will largely depend on the people he will select to run the show. He had previously chosen people who were opposing and sabotaging his policies. He lacked the authority and/or will to rein them in. I do not believe that he has learned from it.

It currently looks like Trump has won yesterday's election. The presidency and majorities in the Senate and House will be held by Republicans.

That does not change my policy prediction:

I expect the new president to double down on the anti-Russian project in Ukraine and on support for the genocide the Zionist are committed to finish. The U.S. will continue to be bogged down in Europe and west-Asia. The 'pivot to Asia' to counter China's rise will continue to stall. The economic standing of the U.S. will continue to deteriorate.

This is good news for China, Russia, the BRICS project and those involved in it. As the old world order continues to drag itself down the new one gains time and space to evolve from it.

My hope for Europe is that Trump, being afraid of a real confrontations as he is, will lose the contest with Russia. As Emmanuel Todd had summarized:

It is the outcome of this war that will decide the fate of Europe. If Russia is defeated in Ukraine, European submission to the Americans would be prolonged for a century. If, as I believe, the United States is defeated, NATO will disintegrate and Europe will be left free.

Posted by b at 7:42 UTC | Comments (369)