Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
March 30, 2019

Why Is The Washington Post Inventing "Warming Ties" Between Trump And Moscow?

Sometimes it is impossible to discern whether Washington Post writers are moronic or drunk.

In a front page piece today about Russia's engagement in Venezuela the three authors include this line:

In an era of generally warming ties between the Trump administration and Moscow, Russia’s deepening involvement in Venezuela is creating a flash point by challenging the U.S. effort to force Maduro from office.

What please are the signs that we are in an "in an era of generally warming ties between the Trump administration and Moscow" ?

The piece includes nothing that supports that claim.

The U.S. is occupying parts of Syria against Russia's will. It is threatening Russia by positioning ever more NATO forces at its borders. Trump left the INF treaty with Russia.  He opposed Russia wherever he could. Nothing of that has changed.

In fact yesterday Bloomberg reported that the U.S. is reading new sanctions against Russia for the MI6 stunt of vanishing Sergej Skripal:

The White House has received a long-awaited package of new sanctions on Russia, intended to punish the Kremlin for a 2018 nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy in the U.K.

Last week Russia deployed some 100 military technicians and cyber-defense specialists to Venezuela. They will test and probably upgrade Venezuela's S-300 air defense systems. They will also help to check the control systems of Venezuela's Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant and the Guri Dam that trice led to large scale electricity outages during the last month. Venzuela suspects that U.S. cyber attacks led to those failures.

Also yesterday Trump's special envoy for Venezuela Elliot Abrams and National Security Advisor John Bolton threatened even more sanctions against Russia for its hardly existing footprint in Venezuela:

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been given a list of options to respond to Russia's growing presence in Venezuela in support of Maduro, including new sanctions, said Elliott Abrams, the U.S. special representative for Venezuela.

"We have options and it would be a mistake for the Russians to think they have a free hand here. They don’t," Abrams told reporters at the State Department.

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week said "Russia has to get out" of Venezuela and said "all options" were open to force Russia to do so after two Russian air force planes carrying nearly 100 military personnel landed outside Caracas.

Trump's national security adviser John Bolton issued a second warning on Friday in a strongly worded formal statement.

"We strongly caution actors external to the Western Hemisphere against deploying military assets to Venezuela, or elsewhere in the Hemisphere, with the intent of establishing or expanding military operations," Bolton said.

"We will consider such provocative actions as a direct threat to international peace and security in the region. We will continue to defend and protect the interests of the United States, and those of our partners in the Western Hemisphere," he said.

Again we ask: What please are the signs that we are "in an era of generally warming ties between the Trump administration and Moscow"?

What is the purpose of making that claim?

Posted by b on March 30, 2019 at 17:17 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Anything less than a war against Russia, somewhere, anywhere, is "warming relations" to the psycho-Russophobes.

Posted by: Red Ryder | Mar 30 2019 17:28 utc | 1

My first thought is that they still haven't caught on to (or caught up with) the sarcasm in b's list of things the Common Orange-Crested Dotard and his flock have "done for" Russia, and are continuing to try to link Trump and Putin even in the absence of help from Mueller.

Posted by: John Anthony La Pietra | Mar 30 2019 17:46 utc | 2

b: What please are the signs that we are "in an era of generally warming ties ..."

Russia and USA didn't go to war in Syria, and now Trump says he wants to leave Syria.

He wouldn't say it if he didn't mean it, would he?/sarc

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 30 2019 17:58 utc | 3

it is stretching it to say because the mueller investigation can up ziltch, that the ties are warming with russia.. more warm milk with arsenic in it as i see it... it's not like the wapo has never offered arsenic before is it??

Posted by: james | Mar 30 2019 18:05 utc | 4

A set up?

"Generally warning ties" will soon give way to OUTRAGE that "Trump's Syrian appeasement encouraged Putin to meddle in Venezeula!!!"

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 30 2019 18:20 utc | 5

Warming ties? It is an extraordinary way to describe things. I can only see the choice of words as yet another attempt to blame Russia for the deterioration in relations. i.e. Trump is trying to mend fences and look what they do!

Posted by: dh | Mar 30 2019 18:24 utc | 6

it’s a smug way of saying things are heating up between the two powers and this can become a flash point

Posted by: b real | Mar 30 2019 18:25 utc | 7

"We strongly caution actors external to the Western Hemisphere against deploying military assets to Venezuela, or elsewhere in the Hemisphere, with the intent of establishing or expanding military operations," Bolton said.

"We will consider such provocative actions as a direct threat to international peace and security in the region.

What, then, is the US doing in Syria, Iraq, Poland, Lithuania, South Korea, Japan, etc ad nauseam? Are all of these countries also in the US backyard? When the US is creating provocations on the Russian and Chinese borders many thousands of miles from the US, are Russia and China to blame for "threatening" the US's backyard in Lithuania and South Korea etc?

The US have not noticed that the virtual world they have created for themselves conflicts with the reality on the ground. Instead of correcting their erroneous world-view they try to imagine changes in the world into conformation with their erroneous world-view, thereby making the error even greater. They are descending into ever increasing madness.

Posted by: BM | Mar 30 2019 18:26 utc | 8

They went all-in on a bluff, now that it's been called, they just can't walk away from the table.

Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 30 2019 18:32 utc | 9

The Russians don't realize that the US are the unassailable Masters of the Universe, if more countries like Germany and Russia ignore their sanctions they will look like a paper tiger and lose their credibility, I look forward to that day.

Posted by: Harry Law | Mar 30 2019 18:42 utc | 10

OMG! How far the mighty MSM doyen The Washington Post has fallen. Those halcyon days of Woodward and Bernstein are now but a distant memory. The shinning victory of driving the hated President Richard Nixon from high office has dimmed to the level of a fading myth. Sic transit gloria! That vaunted stable of journalists that once terrified and bedeviled those at the acme of political power, has sunk to the nadir of the profession, to wit: supermarket tabloids! We will miss you Walter Cronkite! Farewell Edward R. Murrow! Good bye H.L. Mencken. The Fourth Estate is in the hands of morons and drunks. We the people have lost.

Posted by: GeorgeV | Mar 30 2019 18:43 utc | 11

For the globalist hawk, Bolton's grasp on geography is quite limited.
The far eastern part of Russia is actually in the western hemisphere. So, Russia is technically part of western hemisphere too.
BTW, only 3 European countries are completely in western hemisphere: Iceland, Ireland and Portugal.
UK, France and Spain are partly in both. The rest of Europe is in the eastern hemisphere, and no part of the US is in it.

Posted by: hopehely | Mar 30 2019 18:48 utc | 12

@ BM | Mar 30, 2019 2:26:15 PM | 9
The US have not noticed that the virtual world they have created for themselves conflicts with the reality on the ground. Instead of correcting their erroneous world-view they try to imagine changes in the world into conformation with their erroneous world-view . . .

And it's not just the so-called “leadership.” There is, for example, a once-pretty-good left-wing site that has become a groveling pseudo-left site, with a significant number of members who think of something that they wish were true, and then just post comments stating that it is true, and absolutely refuse to acknowledge any evidence to the contrary.

I do not remember who posted this link here recently, but it presents a good explanation of why some people behave that way:
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/03/26/the-illusory-truth-effect-how-millions-were-duped-by-russiagate/

Posted by: AntiSpin | Mar 30 2019 18:51 utc | 13

Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 30, 2019 2:32:40 PM | 10

They went all-in on a bluff, now that it's been called, they just can't walk away from the table.

Yes they can! They can do everything!

Posted by: hopehely | Mar 30 2019 18:52 utc | 14

@15
I should have said that they WON'T walk away from the table. They sit there begging for credit to play another hand, and too many Americans will be only to happy to extend that credit.

Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 30 2019 19:02 utc | 15

The Americans believe they have full spectrum dominance. They believe they can dictate terms to Russia. They are probably right. I worry about them being wrong.

Posted by: Harry | Mar 30 2019 19:03 utc | 16

The answer is that WaPo wants to cast doubt on Mueller's reluctant finding of no collusion. If WaPo did not hint at friendly relations between the Trump White House and the Kremlin, it would be admitting that its Russiagate reporting has been fake news for years. As WaPo reports it, it's just the same old Trump-Putin bromance.

Posted by: Brendan | Mar 30 2019 19:26 utc | 17

I can't stand that much quoted bullshit, especially when this comes from the world inflamer in chief Schnauzer Bolton.

Posted by: Pnyx | Mar 30 2019 19:28 utc | 18

They won't walk away from the table.. by: mourning dove @ 16; <= it more like they will continue to hide under the table.. i have yet to see a competent accurate list of events and concerns that justify.. invasion.... if anyone knows of one, please post it.


A set up? <= "Generally warning ties" will soon give way to OUTRAGE
that "Trump's Syrian appeasement encouraged Putin to meddle in Venezeula!!!"by: Jackrabbit | @ 6

Syrian appeasement qualifies as "Trojan propaganda" see => https://southfront.org/dozens-of-terrorists-killed-in-new-us-led-coalition-airstrikes-on-isis-hideouts-in-euphrates-valley-video/

17yr old Murdered by Israeli Snipers Todayhttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51352.htm
https://southfront.org/french-belgian-intelligence-officers-are-planning-chemical-provocation-in-syrias-idlib-russian-mod/

Posted by: snake | Mar 30 2019 19:32 utc | 19

The fact that the current US administration is reviving the nearly two century old Monroe Doctrine speaks volumes. I'm curious as to how much success they are going to have with 'whipping' the dissenters back in line?

Posted by: Maracatu | Mar 30 2019 19:35 utc | 20

When Hollywood no longer produces anything remotely resembling genuine comedy and all that the US film industry is useful for is generating live-action cartoon propaganda trash like "Captain Marvel" to recruit more cannon fodder for US wars around the planet, the world is in serious need of true stand-up comedy and outlets like Jeff Bozo's The Washington Post bravely step in to fill the breach.

Maybe if WaPo wants to report any real news its readers can take seriously, it should advertise for another Saudi journalist to write op-eds for it and then send that journalist to the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.

(Sarc alert)

Posted by: Jen | Mar 30 2019 19:38 utc | 21

The purpose is in establishing a foundation for laying the blame for anything that might result. Consider the remainder of the sentence.

Posted by: Bruce | Mar 30 2019 19:43 utc | 22

B asked why the purpose of the claim
"
In an era of generally warming ties between the Trump administration and Moscow,
"
Era is a term usually associated with geologic time but can be abused to mean any time frame as it is here to say that black is white in State Dept. speak but to answer the why look at the rest of the sentence
"
Russia’s deepening involvement in Venezuela is creating a flash point by challenging the U.S. effort to force Maduro from office.
"
To me the US is saying the we have done regime change before and got away with it ( within the era) but are being opposed now and bullying is our modus operendi if we can't use force so get out of our way.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 30 2019 20:08 utc | 23

Snake
If you've ever played poker, you know that you can't play from under the table. It's the game that they won't walk away from.

Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 30 2019 20:11 utc | 24

More clearly put, the game is the thing that they won't walk away from.

Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 30 2019 20:13 utc | 25

So far as the Monroe Doctrine is concerned, the US is breaching it while Russia appears to be upholding it. Monroe was protecting Latin American countries, and none more than Venezuela, from imperialism; asserting their right to independence and self rule. Trump is denying them those rights by insisting on its power to determine what form their government should take and who should compose it.

While it seems unlikely that the US will actually invade Venezuela it seems extremely probable that the US will employ, train, arm and direct mercenary terrorists to make life in Venezuela as difficult as it can. In this enterprise it will have the support of most of Venezuela's corrupt neighbours, who fear the spirit of the Bolivarian experiment much more than Washington does. This means that, with idiots like Bolsonaro and Duque in nominal command, anything might happen and that blood will flow.
Today there is news that Trump has cut off aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. What is to be made of that?

Posted by: bevin | Mar 30 2019 20:20 utc | 26

OMG! How far the mighty MSM doyen The Washington Post has fallen. Those halcyon days of Woodward and Bernstein are now but a distant memory. The shinning victory of driving the hated President Richard Nixon from high office ... a ... myth ... morons ... We the people ...

Posted by: GeorgeV | Mar 30, 2019 2:43:57 PM | 12

Woodward was Naval intelligence. Watergate was the coup that established the Bush cabal.

[aside for b: thank you for forcing us to beacon to Google our presence and comments on your site. The "secret team" says danke.]

Posted by: Realist | Mar 30 2019 20:31 utc | 27

Why is the Post saying something so ridiculous? Because it fits into their fact-free narrative of Russian collusion

Posted by: worldblee | Mar 30 2019 20:50 utc | 28

The U.S. desperately needs Venezuelan oil.

They lost control of Saudi Arabia, after trying to take down MBS and then betraying him by unexpectedly allowing waivers on Iranian oil in November.

The U.S. cannot take down Iran without Venezuelan oil. What is worse, right now they don't have access to enough heavy oil to meet their own needs.

Controlling the world oil trade is central to Trump's strategy for the U.S. to continue its empire. Without Venezuelan oil, the U.S. is a bit player in the energy markets, and will remain so.

Having Russia block the U.S. in Venezuela adds insult to injury. After Crimea and Syria, now Venezuela, Russia exposes the U.S. as a loud mouthed-bully without the capacity to back up its threats, a 'toothless tiger', an 'emperor without clothes'.

If the U.S. cannot dislodge Russia from Venezuela, its days as 'global hegemon' are finished. For this reason the U.S. will continue escalating the situation with ever-riskier actions, until it succeeds or breaks.

In the same manor, if Russia backs off, its resistance to the U.S. is finished. And the U.S. will eventually move to destroy Russia, like it has been actively trying to do for the past 30 years. Russia cannot and will not back off.

Venezuela thus becomes the stage where the final act in the clash of empires plays out. Will the world become a multi-polar world, in which the U.S. becomes a relatively isolated and insignificant pole? Or will the world become more fully dominated by a brutal, erratic hegemon?

All options are on the table. For both sides!

Posted by: dh-mtl | Mar 30 2019 21:00 utc | 29

Trump campaigned on detente with Russia. Trump has made an effort to stand by his promises, no matter how ill conceived or misguided.
Looks like a shot across his bow, warning him not keep the one campaign promise that could actually lead away from the abyss?
As for the WaPo, Bezos dependence on military contracts is an obvious motivation plus whatever the NSA has collected on him.
As for his editors, journalists and many of the most irrational in government, something in the amphetamine family. Euphoria trumps conscience and gives the false impression that you are the smartest guy in the room. Makes logic and reasoning by cooler heads impossible.
The next day let down invites repeat ingestion.
Most unfortunate of all is the willingness of readers to swallow this sort of fear mongering and fairy stories without question, even to the point of defending them.
I wonder what the eventual outcome will be when enough of us realize that the social contract between ourselves, our government and those institutions that are meant to support us are well and truly broken.

Posted by: CDWaller | Mar 30 2019 21:06 utc | 30

Thaks b, now that is a delightful question to pose on the eve of April fool's day.
My suggestion is that Cambridge Analytica and others backing Trump and the yankee imperial machine have been taking measurements of USA citizens opinions and are staggered by the results. They are panicked!

I suspect that the cool aid is not working effectively these days and that far too many people see through the charades and lies. An interesting story lurks behind this and the entire 'hate russia' and 'monkey mueller' episode.

The attitudes of the masses are spinning out of the manipulative hands of the deep state and the oligarchs. Do any of our comrades have a handle on this type of research and the implication for voter attitudes?

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 30 2019 21:07 utc | 31

"...Washington Bezos Post writers are moronic or drunk."

What ails them is far more complicated and vastly more sinister.

One often hears people say of other countries "It isn't the people of Elbonia whom I hate, it is their government." It may be difficult for some in Europe, where there remains a vestige of an imperative to foster a worldview based upon objective reality, to come to grips with the fact that the problem with America has metastasized and spread to the level of the individual citizens... all of them, to one degree or another. You don't like Trump? Bolton? Clinton? All of these people who are in or have passed through leadership positions in America are entirely valid representatives of Americans in general. You may imagine they are faking cluelessness to avoid acknowledging responsibility for their crimes, but the cluelessness is quite real and extends to the entire population.

How did this happen to America?

Decades ago while in a leftist organization debate was raised as to how to find valid information to inform ourselves with. It was well understood that the vast majority of the western corporate mass media was a brainwashing operation to keep the masses clueless and supporting imperialist war but, we reasoned, the ruling class itself would need to be kept informed with quality information in order to feel confident that they were making good decisions. With this in mind we identified journals and sources that the capitalist elites themselves relied upon to inform their decisions. Things like the CIA World Factbook, for instance, even though created by an organization devoted to disinformation, could be trusted back then to be relatively dependable.

But things change. Note how the Russiagate skeptics in the US were attacked by the desperately faithful: If you focused attention on flaws in the Russiagate conspiracy theory then the general consensus was that you were defending Trump. The possibility that you could be defending reason and truth is still dismissed out of hand. Why is that? Because in America (it's a mind disease spreading to Europe, apparently) truth is relative and reason has become just whatever justifies what you wish to be the truth; therefore, those who propose a "truth" that conflicts with what people want to believe are agents of some enemy.

This condition has arisen from literally generations of propaganda instilling as reality in American media consumers the myth of "American Exceptionalism". The current crop of American adults have been raised by parents who themselves have been thoroughly indoctrinated in this alter reality. The disease is literally universal across the nation, from lowliest and most oppressed Black transvestites to the CEOs of the biggest corporations. As prior generations of the ruling elites from the post WWII era who still retained some sense for the importance of objective reality have died off they have been replaced by the newer generation for whom reality is entirely subjective. If they want to believe their gender is mountain panda then that's their right as Americans! Likewise if they want to believe that America's bombing is humanitarian and god's gift to the species, then anyone who suggests otherwise is obviously a KGB troll.

The Washington Post used to be one of the journals that the elites looked to in order to help inform their decisions, but now in the post-truth, or relative truth, world these information sources have increasingly sought to align their information products with the "proper" relative truths that reinforce the myth of "American Exceptionalism", even if that is in conflict with objective and empirical reality. To do otherwise would be to aid and give comfort to America's "enemies" (do keep in mind that America is a nation at war - has been for decades - and that workers in the corporate mass media are very much conscious of their roles in that ongoing war effort, to the point that they see themselves as information warriors fighting shadowy enemies that only exist in their own relative reality bubbles).

In short, Washington Bezos Post writers are not moronic or drunk. They are delusional. They are in the grips of a delusion that afflicts the entire United States, and portions of the rest of the world as well. Some Americans have broken free from this Matrix-like delusion, but the numbers remain somewhat small... certainly less than one or two percent of the population, and those who have broken free of the delusion will never be given a soapbox to speak to the rest of the population from by the corporate elites.

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 30 2019 21:18 utc | 32

Engdhal doesn't think it is only about oil.

To bevin@27, I suggest you review your history of the 1902 and 1903 blockade of Venezuela, particularly with regards to the enactment of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.

Posted by: Maracatu | Mar 30 2019 21:36 utc | 33

@ Maracatu with the Engdhal link saying the real threat to the US is China

The real threat to the Western empire (which owns the US) is the concept of socialistic finance which China is evolving.

The West wants China to evolve to be the next host for private finance empire.....

And its not working so we get this show we see as the bully of private finance is allowed to die of its own cancer....total erosion of public trust.

Assuming the West will not go nuclear over Venezuela, when that loss of Venezuela becomes apparent to the rest of the world, the knives will come out and empire will eviscerate itself as former colonies cut themselves loose.


Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 30 2019 21:47 utc | 34

Did the smarties in the Whitehouse realize that Russia itself straddles both Hemispheres? ... idiots

Posted by: Maximus | Mar 30 2019 22:24 utc | 35

@9

"What, then, is the US doing in Syria, Iraq, Poland, Lithuania, South Korea, Japan, etc ad nauseam?"

Full Spectrum Dominance is ubiquitous like an atmosphere i.e. you're not supposed to notice. Are you this persnickety with oxygen too?

Posted by: Full Spectrum Domino | Mar 30 2019 22:33 utc | 36

William Gruff @33
I think you have wildly underestimated the number of Americans who are very aware of what is going on with our country and the world. More than 40% of eligible voters elect not to participate in elections realizing the futility of it, and withholding their consent to this regime. It's a feature of propaganda to engender feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and feelings of isolation by falsely portraying a consensus among the population for the policies of the regime. Resist!

Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 30 2019 22:36 utc | 37

psychohistorian #35

YES. I totally support that and would add that the response to the lucid campaign of the Sanders run for presidency and the current rising wave from that has the oligarchy spooked.

In addition the 'one belt one road' infrastructure scheme has the yankees totally out foxed. That is why the USA continue to meddle in Afghanistan and the western islamic province of China plus threaten Iran etc etc. There is likely to be no future if oil and coal are pursued and even if there were no global warming from those sources they are soon (within a century) to be eclipsed by solar/hydro energy systems.

The oligarchy has lost its grip, its credibility and soon its masses: see Gillet Jaunes.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 30 2019 22:43 utc | 38

Adding to my comment @38
By regime, I'm not referring to whoever sits in the Oval Office, but rather this system of domination. MSM does not accurately depict the attitudes and opinions of Americans, or anyone else. It only represents what they want us to think.

Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 30 2019 22:44 utc | 39

One though I should add is that the future for rapid retrofit of energy and hydro Computer Numerically Controlled machine networks. After stuxnet attack in Iran and now the same in Venezuela there will be few nation states that will be satisfied with the older systems.

New technology will oust the old and likely from China or Russia.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 30 2019 22:51 utc | 40

b--

Seems to me what that BigLie's about is this tale: Relations with Russia during the post-USSR age were going along swell until Russia began involved in the Venezuelan Crisis. The attempt is to try a new narrative using a different angle to blame Russia which is the goal of the BigLie. Signal a new line of approach in dealing with the attitude toward Russia to the trusty echoers of His Master's Voice. That's what it seems, b.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 30 2019 23:15 utc | 41

Here is an insightful read on Trump's (s)election and Russiagate that I think is not OT

Taibbi: On Russiagate and Our Refusal to Face Why Trump Won

The take away quote
"
Russiagate became a convenient replacement explanation absolving an incompetent political establishment for its complicity in what happened in 2016, and not just the failure to see it coming. Because of the immediate arrival of the collusion theory, neither Wolf Blitzer nor any politician ever had to look into the camera and say, “I guess people hated us so much they were even willing to vote for Donald Trump.”
"

As a peedupon all I can see is that the elite seem to be fighting amongst themselves or (IMO) providing cover for ongoing elite power/control efforts. It might not be about private/public finance in a bigger picture but I can't see anything else that makes sense

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 30 2019 23:51 utc | 42

Juan Guaido getting a ''warm'' welcome from population in El Valle. Apparently, venezuelan masses have had enough of comprador sellouts backed by european powers. Without police presence, the Yankee puppet would in all likelihood end up lynched and hanging from lamppost. Exceptionals are in for a rude awakening, if they attempt to overthrow Chavistas using direct kinetic operations. Any invasion will be met with fierce resistance. No volveran to Pre-Chavez years. Orange dotard and his neo-confederates in the white house fancy themselves crushing ''subhuman'' resistance from shitholes and securing the hemisphere for wall street looters. The gambit will backfire, and could end up kickstarting hostilites that will span the Continent from Patagonia to Rio Grande. MAGA the gift that keeps on giving. #winning... https://www.facebook.com/venesolidarite/videos/814971605532561/

Posted by: Augustin L | Mar 31 2019 0:37 utc | 43

Maracatu@34
Thanks for the tip. Coincidentally I have just been reading Mark Twain's autobiography on that matter.
But I was talking not of the Roosevelt corollary nor of the post Spanish War era but Monroe and 1823. It is instructive that Monroe's Secretary of State at the time was John Q Adams who, it is generally held, was largely responsible for its wording. It was undoubtedly aimed in the first instance at Spain and intended to deter it from attempting to re-establish its influence, militarily.
Of course the Doctrine depended upon the co-operation of the British who, through the Royal Navy, supplied the force needed to prevent Spain, or possibly France acting as its proxy, from foing then what the US is doing now.

Posted by: bevin | Mar 31 2019 0:51 utc | 44

@b:

What is the purpose of making that claim?

The purpose is very simple: to create the perception that the government of Russia still somehow controls or manipulates the U.S. government and thus gains some undeserved improvements in relations with the U.S. Once such perception is created, people will demand that relations with Russia are worsened to return them to a “fair” level. While in reality these relations have been systematically destroyed by the Western establishment (CFR) for many years.

It’s a typical inversion to hide the hybrid war of the Western establishment against Russian people. Yes, Russian people. Not Putin, not Russian Army, not Russian intelligence services, but Russian people. Russians are not to be allowed to have any kind of industries, nor should they be allowed to know their true history, nor should they possess so much land. Russians should work in coal mines for a dollar a day, while their wives work as prostitutes in Europe. That’s the maximum level of development that the Western establishment would allow Russians to have (see Ukraine for a demo version). Why? Because Russians are subhumans. Whatever they do, it’s always wrong, bad, oppressive, etc. Russians are bad because they’re bad. They must be “taught a lesson”, “put into their place”. It would, of course, be beneficial and highly profitable for Europeans to break with Anglo-Saxons and to live in peace and harmony with Russia, but Europeans simply can not overcome their racism towards Russians. The young Europeans are just as racist, with their incessant memes about “squatting Russians in tracksuits”, “drunken Russians”, etc., as if there’s nothing else that is notable about a country of 147 million people.

The end goal of the Western establishment is a complete military, economic, psychological, and spiritual destruction of Russia, secession of national republics (even though in some of them up to 50% of population are Russians, but this will be ignored, as it has been in former Soviet republics), then, finally, dismemberment of what remains of Russia into separate states warring with each other. The very concept of Russian nation should disappear. Siberians will call their language “Siberian”, Muscovites will call their language “Moscovian”, Pomorians will call their language “Pomorian”, etc. The U.S. Department of State will, of course, endorse such terminology, just like they endorse the term “Montenegrian language”, even though it's the same Serbo-Croatian language with the same Cyrillic writing system.

Posted by: S | Mar 31 2019 0:51 utc | 45

@ psychohistorian #43

Thanks for the Taibbi link. I hadn't seen it, and found him to be in good form. I do think he ought to have spoken more about how bad Trump's Primary opponents were.

Most of those reporters were going to slant their stories the way their bosses wanted. Their jobs are just too nice to do otherwise. Getting Trump as Hillary's opponent had to have been a goal for the majority of them. He was the patsy who would become squished roadkill in the treads of The Most Experienced Presidential Candidate In History. More on that for people with strong stomachs:

What Hillary Clinton's Fans Love About Her 11/03/2016

Sample:

Hillary Clinton is a knowledgeable, well-prepared, reasonable, experienced, even-tempered, hardworking candidate, while her opponent is a stubbornly uninformed demagogue who has been proven again and again to be a liar on matters big and small. There is no objective basis on which to equate Hillary Clinton to her opponent.
The author had it half right. Turns out the voters knew quite a bit about Trump, and still preferred him to the Butcher of Libya.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Mar 31 2019 2:07 utc | 46

This is Off Topic

Realist: use NoScript in an appropriate browser like Pale Moon on an appropriate system like Linux or something BSD and take anything from Google off the whitelist. It still doesn't matter much but at least that way you're not actively supporting Google and Alphabet.

Everything is scooped up regardless but it's a good habit to not allow "everyone" to run programs on your computer just because you visit a website (scripts are programs). If Windows uses you then Microsoft already runs whatever they want on their computer that they lent you for money so you might as well not interfere.

All that aside one needs to allow MoA to comment (not to read though), and there's not really anything to stop anyone from sneaking in anything they want there as MITM attack. Be aware that one has no reason to trust any computer. There are no modifiers to that statement and this is important.

I don't blame b for any of this at all and he shouldn't bother with it, nor do I blame people in general for their incomprehension.

Beyond all the software we're all browsing with the hardware equivalents of a Boeing 737 MAX which is why it's all mostly a moot point. Still a good habit despite its futility.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Mar 31 2019 2:07 utc | 47

@ Zachary Smith who wrote
"
Turns out the voters knew quite a bit about Trump, and still preferred him to the Butcher of Libya.
"

Your sentiments about the Butcher of Libya and mine agree

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 31 2019 3:41 utc | 48

Good relations with Russia would seem to make common sense in a average persons eyes minus the propaganda but in the eyes of the Empire it is forbidden. I would guess that Putin would get out of South America if NATO would get off his borders. 100 Russian specialists is enough for them to start a war. The blatant fear of getting along with Russia does not mask their intentions at all, it highlights them. They need to control Russian resources going into the future. They have to have a friendly regime on China's borders. Putin is not playing ball and he never will.

Trump surely had no clue of this during the campaign so he is now getting on board. Trump humiliating Bush was a big plus for a lot of people. The DNC screwing Bernie was a big minus on the other side.

He appears to be running the same bullshit for this election as last. As weak as the democratic field is at this point I think there are enough people tired of Trump to turn out and beat him. He can talk all he wants, he will not get it done.

Time will tell going forward.

Posted by: dltravers | Mar 31 2019 3:42 utc | 49

I laughed out loud when Trump told Russia to get out of Venezuela, or else. The Swamp has irrefutable ties to "Israel" and Trump wants the influence of both of them out of US politics. What better way to expose their pathetica than to 'give' Jerusalem & Golan to "Israel" and 'give' Venezuela to The Swamp, kick back, and wait for them to do something evil and stupid?
The "Israelis" are off to a flying start.
Trump knows that The Swamp can't scare Russia out of Venezuela without endangering its fragile Impunity Myth.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 31 2019 6:18 utc | 50


Again we ask: What please are the signs that we are "in an era of generally warming ties between the Trump administration and Moscow"?

Bolton and Pompeo are generally trying to heat things up the best they can. But that isn't exactly what is usually implied with "warming ties", I agree.

Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 31 2019 8:35 utc | 51

@ S 46
Ia am Danish/Swedish living in Sweden. I certainly do not perceive Russians the way you do. I am actually offended by your post. The Russian people gave their best to rid us from the Nazi cancer that had taken hold. If anything I admire the Russian people for their tenacity, strong will and undefeatedness in spite of reality. I think you will find many of my kind in western Europe, ordinary people that admires the Russian people, for what it has achieved in the las 20 years.
Actually Russia today is a bullwark against the hegemon.

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Mar 31 2019 8:49 utc | 52

RE: warming ties......
"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

This is the evil empire speaking, the Darth Vader of the 20th century.

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Mar 31 2019 8:53 utc | 53

May I propose a different explanation? It is a hint of what has in fact been happening for some times behind the scenes. Of course such a warming of relations with Russia could not be admitted in the frenzied media atmosphere of Russiagate/Russophobia. It is my belief that not so long ago, the US foreign policy makers realised their terrible mistake of having driven America’s two most powerful rivals into each other’s arms. America has been a faithful exponent of the old British Empire tactic of divide and rule, something it seems to do quite skilfully in many cases, but it dropped the ball here.

Washington at some stage woke up to the fact (say 2 or 3 years ago) that firstly, that Russia was genuinely more interested in integrating with the West than in continuing the old Soviet great power rivalry, and secondly, and in my view probably fatally, that America’s real global rival is China, without whose components an awful lot of US weaponry wouldn’t work. I believe that Washington is now trying to repair this damage, and the article is probably part of a careful plan of information management. Given what has gone before, this won’t be easy and is probably too late anyway.

Posted by: Montreal | Mar 31 2019 11:03 utc | 54

anybody have good links on the election in ukraine, and in particular to this allegation that the ukraine government at the time tried to interfere in favor of clinton in the u.s. election?

Posted by: pretzelattack | Mar 31 2019 13:16 utc | 55

Never pay any attention to what the US and western presstitutes write or say. The include Washington Compost, NYT, BBC, Guardian, NPR, and all other corporate propaganda entities

Posted by: Nathan Mulcahy | Mar 31 2019 13:18 utc | 56

Meanwhile RT.COM continues with its influence campaign against the United States. With such blatant disinformation, it's not surprising that Trump is warming up the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, a few more degrees and it could become a hot war.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 31 2019 13:30 utc | 57

Hoarsewhisperer @ 51 Good points

I laughed out loud when Trump told Russia to get out of Venezuela, or else. The Swamp has irrefutable ties to "Israel" and Trump wants the influence of both of them out of US politics. What better way to expose their pathetica than to 'give' Jerusalem & Golan to "Israel" and 'give' Venezuela to The Swamp, kick back, and wait for them to do something evil and stupid?

----------------

Interesting stand by Saudi Arabia


Patrick Henningsen
‏@21WIRE

BREAKING: #SaudiArabia Formally Rejects Trump-Netanyahu Land-Grab in #Syria's #GolanHeights, recognizes #EastJerusalem as #Palestine capital... we ask what comes next...

21stcenturywire

Posted by: financial matters | Mar 31 2019 14:05 utc | 58

The Washinton Post is a shoutout to the notion that Trump is and always will be considered a Russian puppet even if he starts WW3. He will always be doing Putin's bidding. Wink, wink.

The Russians have come to the conclusion that Trump needs Venezuela's oil to go to war with Iran next year. If they can stop or delay the takeover, it will ruin Trump's reelection chances and avoid an Iranian conflict that will engulf the region.

Posted by: RenoDino | Mar 31 2019 15:00 utc | 59

From the perspective of humanity as a whole for the US government to decide that Russia is a friend and that China is an enemy (or the other way around) is the same as if I decided that my left foot is okay all things reconsidered but that my right foot needs to be shot, all while insisting that aiming a weapon against myself is not a big problem :(

Washington DC must stop doing cocaine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner but how is anyone supposed to convince them?

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Mar 31 2019 16:12 utc | 60

nyt has story about Russias hit on ukraine nationalist.warmonger central.

Posted by: dahoit | Mar 31 2019 16:19 utc | 61

dh-mtl at 30 posted:

"If the U.S. cannot dislodge Russia from Venezuela, its days as 'global hegemon' are finished. For this reason the U.S. will continue escalating the situation with ever-riskier actions, until it succeeds or breaks. (..) if Russia backs off, its resistance to the U.S. is finished. (..) Russia cannot and will not back off."

Escobar: The U.S. attempt at regime change in Venezuela has been so far unsuccessful in several ways.

Plan A – a classic color revolution - has miserably failed, in part because of a lack of decent local intelligence. Plan B was a soft version of humanitarian imperialism, with a resuscitation of (…) -RTP-; it also failed, especially when the American tale that the Venezuelan government burnt humanitarian aid trucks at the border with Colombia was a lie, exposed by The New York Times, no less.

Plan C was a classic Hybrid War technique: a cyberattack, replete with a revival of Nitro Zeus, which shut down 80 percent of Venezuela’s electricity. (….)

(I’m not sure about the last point being correct, but no matter.)

That leaves Plan D – which is essentially to try to starve the Venez. population to death via viciously lethal additional sanctions.

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/03/24/empire-of-chaos-in-hybrid-war-overdrive/

Imho, what the US will do, as I predicted right from the cartoonish Random Guy-do self-proclamation as top dog, is withdraw, damp down, forgetting all about it, etc., though of course sanctions will be applied. (These don’t work too well any longer.)

The oil thingie is the Koch brothers who own the refineries that Venez. oil goes to. They don’t like the high prices they pay.. > The whole FF energy circuit is far more complex.

Posted by: Noirette | Mar 31 2019 16:26 utc | 62

GS @ 58

"Trump is warming up the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, a few more degrees and it could become a hot war."

Good one.

Posted by: arby | Mar 31 2019 16:40 utc | 63

@Den Lille Abe #53:

Ia am Danish/Swedish living in Sweden. I certainly do not perceive Russians the way you do. I am actually offended by your post.

And I am offended by you being offended by my post. I stand by my statement. Europeans, Anglo-Saxons, and Japanese are racist towards Russians. You do realize that Russians in Latvia and Estonia — even those who were born there and have lived there their entire life — have a “non-citizen status” and special “non-citizen” passports of a different color and are restricted in their rights? That’s two apartheid countries right there in the EU and the NATO, right across the pond from where you live now. Any demonstrations about this in Sweden? In Denmark?

Posted by: S | Mar 31 2019 17:33 utc | 64

pretzelattack at 56

https://www.rt.com/news/455211-ukraine-president-elections-polls/

Posted by: arby | Mar 31 2019 18:03 utc | 65

@ mourning dove | Mar 30, 2019 6:36:14 PM | 38
@ William Gruff

" More than 40% of eligible voters elect not to participate in elections realizing the futility of it, and withholding their consent to this regime."

If you have a link for this that would be nice, but if true...


Technically, this faction has won every election since the eighties then? :)

If politicos have been fighting over getting 50% of the 60% that participated, seems like the 'f u' crowd is the reason the U.S. is a lawless and out of control government? I'd wager most of that 40% are also armed.

@ mourning dove
@ William Gruff

Thanx for being here.

I appreciate your commenting. Both of your commenting has been informative, well thought out and/or sincere.


b4real

Posted by: b4real | Apr 1 2019 13:07 utc | 66

I agree that the statement was meant to be a backhanded way to continue the Russiagate conspiracy theory. It would not look good for the Wash Po to continue openly propagating it in a "news" story, so they slid it in as a statement that needed no facts to back it up.
NPR uses this technique frequently, also. Blatant propaganda is stated smoothly, as merely a backdrop to their main focus.

After implying that Trump has been groveling and kowtowing to Russia up until now, they imply that the ungrateful Russians are taking advantage of their control over the White House to outrageously interfere in the US attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

The fact that the US has absolutely no right under international or US law, to overthrow the elected government of another country, is simply left out of the "news" piece altogether.

The obvious hypocrisy of the US complaining that Russia interfered with the US election, (by providing information to the American people to help them cast informed votes), while at the same time openly discussing the US openly overthrowing a sovereign government with much more powerful weapons than Facebook memes, is also not mentioned.

That is how they roll. That is why more and more people reject the "legitimate" media and are turning to social media and blogs such as this.

As commenters pointed out in the discussion on Boeing, the preferred method of US ruling overlords, when faced with reality, is to use spin and censorship to stop people from discussions and problem-solving.

Posted by: wagelaborer | Apr 1 2019 17:39 utc | 67

I have always and quite correctly assumed an "era" was a significant period of time--even in, say, baseball, not to mention the Victorians or the dinosaurs, so I suspect this is loose talk with just as rigorous reasoning. Everything's about the same as yesterday's era.

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