We had three groups, polish lviv ukrops, bendera nazi ukrops and kapo oligarchy ukrops (who don’t really like each other) united by a common goal to oppress and reduce russki Ukrainian power (accumulated over soviet era) of the 30% Russian speaking in the Eastern area. It appears Putin will hive off upto river dneiper and all areas along Black Sea. Leaving poles, bendera and kapos to get along OR NOT!! Then take them over R2P in the West too (as they will be fighting each other) in another 10 years time.

Posted by: Anon | Mar 12 2022 20:18 utc | 103

@ annie 95
that Bennett advises Zelensky to surrender to Russia is a fabricated story, I don’t believe it…[.]
your favourite search engine will bring up the articles at the following:
Jpost.com
axios.com
washintonpost.com
middleeasteye.com
1 day ago: timesofisrael.com
– “Ukraine official said to claim Bennett pushed Zelensky to surrender – Prime Minister’s Office denies he advised Ukraine president to accept Russia’s terms as ties between Jerusalem and Kyiv sour
8 hours ago: ynetnews.com has it Ukraine denies
In war there’s always the Propaganda War v. the facts on ground. Action on the ground matters.
OTOH. a question.
Does Zelensky demonstrate he is his own man, the president of Ukraine or the enslaved clown to USBLINKENKAGANNULANDNATO?

Posted by: Likklemore | Mar 12 2022 20:22 utc | 105

As long as the Jewish satrapy of the US is not “dealt with” with a “huge” nuclear thrill, this anti-Russia thing will go on exacerbating. Because the globalist Jewry, the all-time money-printers, want to preserve some exchange value to their fiat wealth, their tool to enslave the world.
Posted by: hamparsoum torossian | Mar 12 2022 19:45 utc | 93
The elite do not need war to preserve the dollar. The dollar’s days are numbered. They need war THEATER to create the political catalyst for a bond market dislocation before the dislocation happens of its own Accord without the political cover of war THEATER.
And that’s what the coming deflationary depression is for: preserving AND MULTIPLYING their fiat wealth. We can know that a deflationary spiral (that last about a couple years maybe) is in the cards before the eventual hyperinflation, because deflationary spirals benefit savers, and what makes them elites in the first place is that they’ve done a very good job indeed at multigenerational saving. They will buy up all manner of things for pennies on the dollar. And buy they will, before hyperinflation kicks in and destroys the saver.

Posted by: reante | Mar 12 2022 20:29 utc | 107

Posted by: Milos | Mar 12 2022 18:04 utc | 51
Let me be more clear.
I believe Ukrainians will lay down their arms by the end of the next week.
It could happen and it would forestall bunch of possible nasty outcomes. Will their US EU handlers let them? They may have no choice under your outcome but go with the government in exile option.

Posted by: circumspect | Mar 12 2022 20:31 utc | 109

From the article S posted at 98
“A lot of the people in Donbass are Russians who came to the region after a famine set up by Stalin to exterminate the Ukrainians. They have different genes.” There’s your racial theory, pulled up as a justification for the extermination of civilians in Donbass, no matter how “ridiculous” it may seem to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. That is, now the “true Aryans” from Azov, created with the participation of Babich (he hanged himself a year after this interview), are killing the inhabitants of Mariupol, because they are “racially different”.
And the author of that sensational program about “true Aryans” now calls Russia a “barbarian country” and is surprised by the explosions of shells, which, eight years after the start of the war in Donbass, became audible at his home in Kiev. He certainly does not see a causal relationship between his racist theories and the cannonade outside the window.”
The quote at the beginning, of course, is not racism. Just because it may fit the definition of racism that neoliberal snowflake cancel culture holds in its infantile little head does not make it racism.
What it is, is a legitimate, historical, anticolonial grievance, expressed in an ethnic context by the ethnically cleansed against the ethnically privileged.
But the snowflake culture says, because ‘nazi.’

Posted by: reante | Mar 12 2022 20:39 utc | 111

Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Mar 12 2022 20:02 utc | 100
Well I for one sincerely hope that you are right.
I hope and pray that we will finally see some de-escalation.
I worry about the civilians trapped in Mariupol.
Unfortunately I believe that the US has an interest in prolonging and escalating the war for as long as possible. I do not think the US will ever let Zelensky surrender.

Posted by: WJ | Mar 12 2022 20:54 utc | 113

110 Cont’d–
I’ve republished the Ria Novosti essay at my VK space only adding a preamble for contextual tie-in to my previous two articles on the attempted Genocide. To try and spin the reality of what is now happening and has occurred there makes one an accomplice; and to have facilitated it as NATO and the Outlaw US Empire have makes them abettors to the most heinous of Capital Crimes where those in charge ought to have their necks stretched.
I ask fellow barflies to copy/paste or link so that essay can go global. IMO, that’s the very least we can do.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 12 2022 21:05 utc | 115

Tucker Carlson, the great Fox News sage does a broken clock equivalent, is right on point about the cost of Washington’s rage to Joe Six pack and those minorities the Dems LOVE so much, when it’s VOTIN’ time Brudders and Sistas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r26dUDdNQo
It’s Not Just Inflation, It’s Price Gouging
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/03/11/its-not-just-inflation-its-price-gouging/
I noted the Corporate gouging in a comment section on an MSM website in my Western country some weeks ago and pointed to one of two grocery giants that dominate the market and had reported a 40% increase in profits during the first year of the covid pandemic.
I didn’t even name the greedy buggers, yet my comment was deleted. It’s not like that info was a secret, financial sites had published it and that was how I knew about it. But comment sections on general topics aren’t the same as financial sites apparently, and the MSM censors appear to have instructions to never let the twain meet the track, especially when the truth about Corporate greed may be revealed to the proletariat.
Orwell,’84. Not a bad estimate really.
P.S. Haven’t heard much about the World’s greatest challenge, Climate Change, from the great purveyors of imminent doom if we don’t change our ways. Seems like that’s yesterdays cause du jour at this moment in time. The planet can go to hell for now so long as we’s can beat down them Eurasians who challenge righteous Western Leaders, and the backroom folks like Hillary and that Podesta fella. I suppose I should make clear, I’m apolitical, as there is no choice now except maybe the Rhino Party.
But I digress, I am but one.

Posted by: Bubbles | Mar 12 2022 21:13 utc | 117

That was me above at 120. On a crummy laptop up in the high mountains of NM now. Guess I’ll head back down to civilization now that I am over my fears of nuclear war, perhaps naively so. Spent the last 5 days at a remote ranch in Arizona (look up Champie School for reference) with no cell, internet or broadcast TV service. Playing catch up on all of this stuff before my 12 hour drive back to Houston.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 12 2022 21:18 utc | 119

@Bubbles | Mar 12 2022 21:13 utc | 119

P.S. Haven’t heard much about the World’s greatest challenge, Climate Change, from the great purveyors of imminent doom if we don’t change our ways. Seems like that’s yesterdays cause du jour at this moment in time.

Yes, and I am looking forward to President Putin receiving the Nobel Price in medicine for curing the Covid-19 pandemic in no time at all.

Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 12 2022 21:29 utc | 121

@106 First of all, the fact that China and Russia brought up this issue jointly over a month ago, well before the military operation, would suggest they had actionable intelligence. Secondly, it is telling that China in now asking to see Ft. Detrick, located about a hour or so from the location of a mysterious respiratory outbreak in the summer of 2019 that happened to wipe out a nursing home. Except no one knew about covid in summer of 2019. And let us not forget that around that time Detrick was also shut down for some safety issues. Hmmm. Now add in that the US has a very public and very recent history of bioweapons development that they actually published (all that gain of function madness in order to find vaccines for viruses that didn’t exist yet, remember that?). Then figure that Ukraine is not exactly a hotbed of microbiology and synthetic biology talent or research (or any of the other countries where Pentagon funded labs happen to border Russia and China). Then consider that Ukraine facilities are insufficient to handle these type of organisms (they were apparently BSL2 labs) save, curiously, a BSL3 lab built in Odessa (why?). Consider that the US denials have been contradictory and also nonsensical (we had to build 30 labs in Ukraine to destroy Soviet bioweapons stocks and couldn’t autoclave everything inside of 3 decades in a single building because?). Then we have the reports of unusual disease outbreaks in Ukraine and elsewhere bordering Russia and China. Then consider the completely over-the-top Chinese reaction to covid (I don’t think they’re actually worried about covid but something else)–their scientists and doctors are as capable as anyone else of figuring out that there are early treatment options and that their population isn’t high risk (not being obese and chronically ill). Let us not forget the devastating swine and bird flu epidemics that hit China hard around the time Trump was beginning his warm war with China. Let us also consider that the US has a history of testing microbial agents on it’s own population and killing US citizens in the process.
So sure, bringing forth actual witnesses would be great. But suffice to say the number of data points we have in regards to the US’s behavior with biological agents makes a compelling case the US was engaged in it’s usual completely insane behavior. And giving lethal influenza strains to migratory birds to target Russia is totally insane and the textbook definition of inevitable blowback (literally). And the irony is that due to the US’s covid theatrics, we could have a pandemic of an actually deadly virus (say something that kills over 10% of healthy people) and now everyone is so distrustful of public health institutions that no one would believe it.
But I’m also quite sure that Russia will manage to nab a few of these Ukrainian biologists (assuming they don’t already have people in custody) and they will sing.
At the end of the day we’re talking about a nation that unleashed on it’s own people an obesity epidemic, a cancer epidemic, an opioid addiction epidemic, a meth addiction epidemic, an alcohol addiction epidemic, a heart disease and diabetes epidemic, a mental health epidemic, a metals poisoning epidemic, a pesticide toxicity epidemic and on and on so that a cartel of pharma companies can literally farm 330 million people for illnesses to be treated (but not cured) for 7 decades of sick living and profit off of them. So a nation who’s top business besides war is illness is certainly not morally adverse to developing more illnesses and infecting people with them (and, of course, the blowback here is profitable). In this case I’d say guilty until proven innocent with the track record.

Posted by: Krungle | Mar 12 2022 21:31 utc | 123

Test post. My last post disappeared.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 12 2022 21:36 utc | 125

Posted by: DG | Mar 12 2022 16:14 utc | 14
Me, too.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 12 2022 21:37 utc | 127

Oh, wait, my bad! I’m on the wrong bloody page!
Sorry – I just woke up… 🙂

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 12 2022 21:38 utc | 129

Posted by: S | Mar 12 2022 16:56 utc | 31
When I was young I could not comprehend the ferocity of my grandmother’s hatred of the Japanese. I understood in a kind of academic way that she’d lost a husband to the war with them. I later rationalised that the Japanese during the war provoked in her generation an atavistic fear of annihilation that is a peculiar part of the Australian sensibility in our precarious identity, perched as we are on the edge of the world ‘besieged’ by Asia looming in the north. But later still I realised that the Japanese were not entirely responsible for inspiring such loathing despite the reports of their behaviour. They were also the targets of a relentless propaganda narrative that activated, enhanced and mobilised racial hatred in the service of an almost ritualised dehumanization of the enemy who became the ‘enemy of humanity’ itself. This happened here and also in the US, where the ‘Jap’ was to be shown no mercy, like the Orcs of Mordor. No doubt the Japanese were doing the same in their representation of the ‘white devils’.
This is how populations in liberal democracies are prepared for war. There can be no balanced assessment, imagining your enemy as a version of yourself seeking justifiable goals. There can be no distinction made between their leadership and population, between bad Putin and poor Russian. All media must beat the drum that these people have forfeited their human status. Then killing them becomes a virtuous act. It takes months to whip up and generations to subside.
All our pious liberal progressivism, our cultural relativism, our cynical capitalist manipulation of multiculturalism and pluralist discourse, all our woke faux concern for peoples we’ve annihilated and looted—all that comes tumbling down the minute it’s in our interests to demonize another. If it’s not the Hun or the Jap, or the Jihadi and Taliban, or the yellow peril, it’s Ivan the Terrible. Should we be surprised that Zuckerberg now permits hate speech against Russians or that assassinations of the ‘enemy’ become normalised? This is a liberal democracy’s wet dream! Britain was never again so united, so egalitarian, so happy than during 1939-45, their ‘finest hour’. All liberal democracies are nostalgic for it, in reality and their cinema (e.g., ‘Independence Day’). Sallust said that Rome was doomed the moment Carthage was destoyed; the same could be said of the end of the USSR. We are merely putting back together a scarecrow version of the Soviet Union in a desperate attempt to rejuvenate our financialised, corrupt and collapsing failed liberal states.
Caitlin could have added that the caricature of the ‘enemy’ takes all forms, from lumpen inchoate racial violence and indiscriminate chauvanism, to the subtle intellectual gymnastics I hear from my otherwise intelligent father when he argues that civilization never really took hold in Russia, mired as it is in pre-industrial archaic forms of power and domination. Putin is ‘neo-Tsarist’, he says, as if to explain with reference to a mythical barbarism. He doesn’t really get that he’s also describing liberal democratic capitalism.
We are being pump primed for war. When it comes our populations will cheer it on and be happy knowing that the enemy are getting what they all deserve. Plus ça change…

Posted by: Patroklos | Mar 12 2022 21:39 utc | 131

Russian security-wise, IMO this will be the next challenge, “Georgia and NATO announce joint exercises”, not just the FTX, but Georgia having any connection with NATO as Russia seeks to purge NATO from its Near Abroad.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 12 2022 21:42 utc | 133

Something’s wrong. All my posts are disappearing.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 12 2022 21:37 utc | 128
Nah man. Even if you got the wrong thread figured out, I’ve had a few of my own posts disappear in the last 14 hours. I just attributed it to the fact that I’m probably on some weird IP up in this cabin and it’s being filtered. But another interesting thing is that when I type moonofalabama.com rather than .org, which will normally correct to the proper domain (via DNS which is set to automatic), it gives me a 404 from here. So I’ve gotta type in the exact URL in order to access MoA for now.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 12 2022 21:45 utc | 135

in the high mountains of NM now. Guess I’ll head back down to civilization now that I am over my fears of nuclear war,
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 12 2022 21:18 utc |
Remember the Mountains and the simplicity, it may help to carry you through. I used to own a mountain, part of a 200 acre property, or at least so I thought until I became better informed and came to understand I only owned the top 6 inches of the land I purchased with borrowed money and was paying taxes on. The Government owned everything under that and had the power to dictate resource companies could do as they wished on the land I had paid for.
FREEDOM!

Posted by: bubbles | Mar 12 2022 21:50 utc | 137

Something’s wrong. All my posts are disappearing.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 12 2022 21:37 utc | 128
Have you considered, because you post far too much? You have your own blog right?

Posted by: bubbles | Mar 12 2022 21:56 utc | 139

@ Jörgen Hassler | 45
Don’t be obtuse. You are not as subtle as you imagine.

Posted by: Figleaf23 | Mar 12 2022 22:00 utc | 141

8 years of atrocities and bombing of the 5 million+Russian speaking Donbas population by the Ukrainian army and their Nazi minions shall not be broadcasted or discussed.
RT documentaries been banned and censored by the the west.
And what were/are they planning to accomplish with all those bio labs ?
This shit not gonna end well, there will be no winners.

Posted by: Hannibal | Mar 12 2022 22:06 utc | 143

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 12 2022 21:41 utc | 134
The tweets in that link read like a 3rd rate psy-op for imbeciles. Who writes this drivel?

Posted by: Boo | Mar 12 2022 22:07 utc | 145

Seems to be going largely the way US planners have wanted. There have been no surprises by either side thus far. There is nothing the Russians have done or achieved that was unpredictable. All Russian actions would have been anticipated by US planners except perhaps the initial delicacy of the invasion. “Continental warfare” is rather easy to understand. The babblers quoted and ridiculed by Saker’s resident military genius are not the people who understand the US strategy or the planners who mapped this out. Statements released by the Pentagon and Administration officials—laugh if you will–are not meant to be accurate, they are meant to propagate a narrative. All Russian movements are clear to the satellites above and all Russian electronic communication is monitored. US planners knows precisely what is going on in real time. The tried, true and predictable methodology of hybrid war is being executed. Propaganda, lies, censorship, demonization of the enemy, info warfare, use of proxy forces, murderers and death squads, chaos, subversion, destabilization, economic warfare and sanctions—all standard operating procedure, honed for decades. At this point nothing particularly stupid or surprising from either side. The key to which side “wins” will be the reaction of the populations of the US, Europe, Ukraine and Russia as the war goes on and the impact of sanctions are felt.

Posted by: Rodrigo | Mar 12 2022 22:11 utc | 147

William Gruff @132–
I’d like to use your comment by copy/pasting it into the comment box attached to the article I made from the essay provided by S, which I’ll do only if you say Yea in reply. Thanks!

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 12 2022 22:14 utc | 149

Posted by: S | Mar 12 2022 16:56 utc | 31
When I was young I could not comprehend the ferocity of my grandmother’s hatred of the Japanese. I understood in a kind of academic way that she’d lost a husband to the war with them.”
In a kind of Academic way I suppose it’s difficult to grasp reality. The ferocity of one’s emotions derived from losing loved ones in rich men’s wars just doesn’t go away or drift into the world of academic debate of all the ins and outs most academics have little understanding of. Think tanks are choc full of academics who would run away as fast as their feet could carry them at the first shot fired. The nature of the beasts.

Posted by: bubbles | Mar 12 2022 22:16 utc | 151

@ 34 Posted by: Blue Dotterel | Mar 12 2022 17:04 utc
DuckDuckGo, Startpage etc, are censoring searches. Try Ecosia. The problem is that any ‘search engine’ (I use the term advisedly) that uses Google, is compromised. As far as I know, Ecosia doesn’t use the Google engine but I might be wrong about this. I think it’s also worth pointing out that the Google engine works using a ranking equation. So if you enter Ukraine it will search for the site with the most external links referencing the word Ukraine, this is why it’s a ranking, and not strictly speaking a ‘search’ engine. That’s why there are no Booleans involved (IF something, but NOT something, AND something etc). So, If Ukraine AND Russia, a Boolean search would literally search for sites that containe links to Ukraine AND Russia, and you can go on from there, so IF UKRAINE AND Russia but NOT something else. It’s how searches used to work!

Posted by: Barofsky | Mar 12 2022 22:22 utc | 153

The smashing of the fascist forces and their Uke Army allies is well under way and another week or two should see the end of these UKUSA expeditionary SS terrorists.
Ukraine will have seen %80 of its army destroyed and the eastern region largely able to rapidly recover and continue agriculture and manufacturing under someone else advantage.
So what is to be done with the western Ukraine? It needs to be neutralised for it ever to be neutral. Otherwise the fascist remnants will continue on as the paid puppets of UKUSA. I cannot see Russia permitting it any scope to become a belligerent as is Lithuania et al. (They too need to come to their senses but not holding my breath)
Equally the large income from gas transit fees needs to go to Ukraine – not some tricksy ‘government in exile’ – and that will be a BIG bone of contention without the entire Ukraine under one government. Russia is a stickler for legalities and I am sure they have anticipated the reactions and options.
I guess there will be a brief pause once the eastern sector is cleansed but leaving that situation any more than a week will invite an immediate counter measure from the UKUSA/NATO. If Russia continues to maintain the global support to date and the West continues to perform its public self mutilation, then the entire Ukraine can be liberated up to the border and the war crimes trials commence.
Then there is the restoration of the 1997 NATO line. Will the NATOmaniacs agree to the simple and sane Russian proposals to drop aggressive posturing and missile bases and design mutual assured security?
I guess the next week will reveal the extent of European rethinking (if any) of its security posture. Macron has to be making election speeches and preparing the ground for his electoral success so methinks he will be the first to start using the terms of mutual security and respect for the security of others. Or perhaps not. Time will tell.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 12 2022 22:24 utc | 155

Reante.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/03/ukraine-open-thread-2022-24.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef0282e1490ee6200b#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef0282e1490ee6200b
Cyprus was definitely punished.
How were they forced to put the munitions close to the flagship power station?
According to the newspapers ,they left the munitions to atrophy in sun and moisture. Why did army heads and specialists allow this?
Why didn’t Cyprus make a big song and dance at the UN and on media ALL around the world, “take this rubbish away from us, it is not ours!” ?
why didn’t smart army chiefs know this was the potential to cause a false flag on Cyprus soil? I did, I could see it a mile away and I am not a trained intelligence analyst at all .

Posted by: Brother Ma | Mar 12 2022 22:31 utc | 157

@Posted by: Rodrigo | Mar 12 2022 22:11 utc | 149
The population of Russia is heavily behind their leadership. The population of most of Ukraine (excl. Silesia, Lviv etc.) will come to learn that they are treated well by the Russians and their life gets better without the overhead of the oligarchs, nazis, and ukronationalists and their propaganda. The US and European populations will continue to be lied to, but will get very unhappy as they become even more immiserated.
The really important group is the Rest of the World, who will have more access the Russian side of the story and know the West more for what it really is. The West is becoming a smaller and smaller part of the world, and this will be accelerated by the sanctions blowback. Their elites just have not woken up to the reality of their decline yet, or are unable to accept it. The refusal of the ROW to follow their sanctions will help with a wake up call.
If Europe is not careful it will become the declining peninsula at the end of Eurasia that no one really cares about anymore.

Posted by: Roger | Mar 12 2022 22:37 utc | 159

Misotheist #152

Jews were a convenient scapegoat in germany, but that doesn’t mean that jews are somehow unpalatable to the sin of fascism; or incapable of cooperating with fascists (nazis included) so long as jews aren’t being scapegoated themselves.

To posit any people as the scapegoat is for me the first indicator of a fascist frame of mind. The Palestinians can attest to your proposition. And so too many others – the deplorables, the border people…
Unfortunately many nations legitimise fascist thinking as education curriculum are typically silent on the subject and we raise youth uncritical of these beliefs. Yes, they understand concepts of justice but are often unaware of subtlety and the starting point of the the most egregious injustice that arises from scapegoating the other.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 12 2022 22:39 utc | 161

@Posted by: Featherless | Mar 12 2022 22:37 utc | 162
The US has already stated that if any US citizens are tried by the International Court of Justice in The Hague they will invade The Hague and rescue their citizens, so no chance of US citizens being tried. Lots of pressure was brought to bear when the ICJ had the thought of investigating US war crimes in Afghanistan.
Russia will hold their own Nuremberg in Ukraine, it will be up to the Rest of the World to judge. Africans have already noticed that the ICJ has a habit of only trying Africans so there is not much love for it there.

Posted by: Roger | Mar 12 2022 22:46 utc | 163

@reante #113:

“A lot of the people in Donbass are Russians who came to the region after a famine set up by Stalin to exterminate the Ukrainians. They have different genes.”
…
The quote at the beginning, of course, is not racism. Just because it may fit the definition of racism that neoliberal snowflake cancel culture holds in its infantile little head does not make it racism.
What it is, is a legitimate, historical, anticolonial grievance, expressed in an ethnic context by the ethnically cleansed against the ethnically privileged.

The quote is racist, as it explicitly states that Russians and Ukrainians have different genes, which is bullshit. Not only Russians and Ukrainians have the same genes (as most people do, except maybe some Tibetans who have a few genetic variations that allow them to more efficiently breathe at high altitudes), but Russians and Ukrainians are so close ethnically to be almost indistinguishable (except residents of Western Ukraine: Galicians, Rusyns, Hungarians, Romanians).
The “grievance” is certainly not legitimate, not historical, and not anti-colonial. The 1932–1933 Soviet famine, which affected many regions of the Soviet Union, not just the Ukrainian SSR, was not “set up” by Stalin. That’s literal Goebbels propaganda that was later picked up by the British and the USians. There were multiple reasons for the famine: poor crops, poorly planned collectivization (farm mechanization) reforms, a toxic environment of yes-men who were afraid to report bad news to Stalin, etc. Stalin is certainly guilty of not paying enough attention to this crucial reform, of not preparing grain reserves in case things went south, etc. We can accuse him of criminal negligence on a massive scale. But there is no evidence whatsoever that this famine was in any way “planned”: not a single document or letter or anything—nothing at all. And we have plenty of evidence showing that, as soon as the scale of the disaster became apparent, all measures were taken to send more food to affected regions.
On the “colonial” aspect, do you realize that it was Zaporozhian Cossacks and Malorussian clergy who were repeatedly asking to join Russia: in 1622, in 1624, in 1648, in 1650, until finally, in 1653, Russia relented and agreed to their request? Colonialism, my ass. There were no large cities in Donbass at that time: Zaporozhye was founded in 1770 (as Aleksandrovsk fortress), Dnepropetrovsk was founded in 1776 (as Yekaterinoslav), Mariupol was founded in 1778 (as Pavlovsk, renamed to Mariupol in 1779), Lugansk was founded in 1795, Donetsk was founded in 1869 (as Yuzovka), etc. All these cities were populated by people from all over the Empire—Velikorussians (Russians), Malorussians (Ukrainians), Belorussians, Poles, Jews, Germans, Greeks, Armenians, etc.—and spoke Russian and had Russian culture since the day they were founded. Even Stalin’s Ukrainization campaign in the late 1920 – early 1930 could not make these people speak Ukrainian.
In short, it is ridiculous to claim that Russian language and culture appeared in eastern Ukraine in 1933 as a result of the famine. And yet, that is exactly what know-nothing Russophobic Ukrainian Nationalists are claiming and Western know-nothing anti-Soviet right-wingers such as yourself are mindlessly repeating.

Posted by: S | Mar 12 2022 22:52 utc | 165

At Martyanov’s blog, I Came across a comment from this blog that had been translated into English then copy/pasted: “About the amazing resilience of the Nazis and their support by the population.” The intent is to use historical examples of behavior and use them to help explain current conduct by today’s brainwashed Nazis and their western supporters. I’d provide a link to the comment, but Discus isn’t allowing me to do that. It can be found in Friday’s “No Shit, “Geniuses”.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 12 2022 22:58 utc | 167

> but Discus isn’t allowing me to do that
Yes it does. Right-click on the TIME MARK right of the person nickname
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/03/no-shit-geniuses.html?m=1#comment-5787153249
The problem is, that those links would only work after you load ALL the comments by continuously clicking the “load more comments” button until it disappears…

Posted by: Arioch | Mar 12 2022 23:05 utc | 169

@Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 12 2022 22:46 utc | 164
I feel that the US/NATO elites really feel like they can bog Russia down in Ukraine, a “new Afghanistan”, and perhaps they want to create another one in Georgia to keep extending Russia to weaken it. In this respect they are completely delusional, but they seem to have been in that mode ever since the unipolar moment. Their post-2000 track record seems to have had no impact on their self-belief:
– Afghanistan: incompetently and disastrously exited, now becoming an integral part of the Eurasian bloc
– Iraq: turned from an enemy of Iran into a country where Iran has a great deal of influence
– Iran: not cowed by the “maximum pressure” sanctions
– Nicaragua: resisting multiple decades of US interference
– Venezuela: resisting its own sanctions regime
– Syria: resisted the regime change operations and slowly regaining its sovereignty in the face of ongoing US occupation
– Belarus: regime change and colour revolution operation turned an “on the fence” nation into a Russian ally
– Kazakhstan: regime change operation turned West-leaning nation into a Russian ally
The only “success” seems to have been the destruction of a Libya that challenged US interests in Africa. Not exactly an advertisement for Western humanitarian intervention though given its failed state condition.
And now they are advertising to the Rest of the World how it should stay the hell away from the Western financial system and build its own alternative, which will greatly reduce the neocolonial influence of the US Treasury / World Bank / IMF troika. In addition, their lack of ability to do anything about the Russian invasion on the ground, after the Afghanistan pullout and the backstabbing of the French in the submarine deal, and the provision of nuclear technology to the White Anglo Australians after other countries had been refused (e.g. India) will only help the nations that are sitting on the fence to realize they should play nice with China and Russia because the US is not a reliable ally and backtracks on statements of support.
The Empire of Lies and Chaos is deeply damaging itself through its own arrogance, hubris and incompetence.

Posted by: Roger | Mar 12 2022 23:07 utc | 171

Telegram reports US base in Iraq hit by long range missiles from Iran.

Posted by: WJ | Mar 12 2022 23:12 utc | 173

Hey people of Ukraine … you are dying for nothing
West made mistake in promising Ukraine NATO membership: Borrell
https://www.dailysabah.com/world/europe/west-made-mistake-in-promising-ukraine-nato-membership-borrell
Not staying on script. ☮️

Posted by: Oui | Mar 12 2022 23:24 utc | 175

Posted by: WJ | Mar 12 2022 23:12 utc | 175
Jerusalem Post repoting too

Posted by: RJ | Mar 12 2022 23:31 utc | 177

Iran appears to be retaliating for the deaths of the two IRGC officers
Was that an Israeli op or an American one?

Posted by: WJ | Mar 12 2022 23:34 utc | 179

It could be possible that Iran did not attack the US consulate, but a Mossad facility to avenge the death of 2 IRGC soldiers Israel killed some days ago during an Israeli arial attack. Tehn Iran finally hit back at Israel. If it is Syria related, maybe Russia greenlighted it? Quite fluid and confusing.

Posted by: Arne Hartmann | Mar 12 2022 23:41 utc | 181

@karlof1 #117
Thank you. Language of hate is the first step towards genocide. The second step is the killing. Here’s data on deaths in the Donbass republics:
We will not allow anyone to devalue tragedy of Donbass – Daria Morozova (Human Rights Ombudsman in the Donetsk People’s Republic, February 17, 2022)

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case on the discovery of mass unmarked graves of victims of Ukrainian aggression in Donbass. According to the Committee, in the period from August to October 2021, the remains of at least 295 civilians killed by shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2014 were exhumed from five mass graves on the territory of the DPR and LPR.
…
It should be reminded that since 2014, more than 5,000 people, including 91 children have become victims of shelling by the AFU on the territory of the DPR. Another 8,000 people have sustained wounds. And, unfortunately, we understand that in reality the number of deaths is much higher which, in turn, is confirmed by the facts of the detection of places of mass burials. Since the beginning of the conflict, about 130 such locations have been identified in the DPR and this is only about 40% of the total.
…

Kiev has agony amid allegations of genocide in Donbass – Daria Morozova (Human Rights Ombudsman in the Donetsk People’s Republic, February 21, 2022)

…
Over 9 thousand residents of the Republics of Donbass were brutally killed during the punitive operation in Kiev. And this is only official data. …
…

So over 5000 dead in the DPR (including 91 children) and over 4000 in the LPR—and that’s excluding mass graves that only started to be exhumed in August 2021. I guess Russia should have waited until 50,000 dead in the DPR and 40,000 dead in the LPR for a single Western MSM outlet to notice these deaths and report on them and for the “international community” to maybe ban Ukrainian cats from international shows or something.

Posted by: S | Mar 12 2022 23:47 utc | 183

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 12 2022 21:38 utc | 132
William,
Hmmm… Most pundits here seem to ignore the fundamental determining force in this conflict; nuclear war. The possibility of nukes being used, determines how the conflict, any conflict between nuclear powers unfolds. So, it’s EVERYTHING up to, the use of nukes, but even the psychopaths on the Beltway are not (yet anyway) suicidal. So yes, the Gangsters will push the Russians as far as they dare, but no further. And they know Putin wasn’t bluffing when he said, “No Russia, no World” just the other day. His Red Lines weren’t just about Russia. I think Putin and his closest associates, Lavrov, Shoigu and so, have been planning how this conflict would unfold for years! Why do you think he invoked the TRIAD, right at the beginning of the ‘police action’. Yes, he was throwing down the gauntlet, letting the Empire know, that it was no bluff. I’m sure too, that the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, informed the Russian strategic response. I even think the US/NATO prompted that idiotic puppet Zelenskyy to talk about acquiring nukes. But the West comprehends NOTHING about how Russia, Russians feel about war. It’s the 27 MILLION who died (including virtually every member of the Russian side of my family and from the same location!), it’s that number that counts as to how the Russians respond. Of course the Anglo-Saxon Empire, secure in its illusory Hubris, is completely oblivious to this reality, it’s literally beyond its comprehension.
The US has only one game really, and that is to try and strangle Russia, break it with the most all-embracing propaganda onslaught but they should have played these cards years ago, when Russia was weak but it’s too late now. Kalibyr talks, Bullshit walks. Russia knew that the ‘Sanctions from Hell’ were coming and they knew that their ace-in-the-hole was strategic minerals. Russia has a lock on virtually ALL the critical strategic elements, that is to say, they produce and control more than 60% of the global supply, not only of minerals but basic foodstuffs like vegetable oils and wheat. Now these are REAL SANCTIONS from HELL! And don’t you think that the Russians haven’t gone through all this? They do have the world’s best chess players. At the end of the day, the Empire is unable to use their nukes, so they can no longer use them as the threat.
And of course, there’s Climate Change, that’s what the role of Covid19 is all about, they needed a convincing threat, the Virus, in order to put in place all the necessary laws needed to control the populations of the Imperialist heartland for when a REAL threat comes along! It’s why the Global South is considered expendable, it always has been of course but the Empire could throw some past their sell-by date experimental chemicals their way, at a price of course, to make it look realistic. That’s why the left’s response has been so abysmal and I’m sorry to say, that includes MofA, that bought into the scam. FEAR is a powerful tool of persuasion. MASS FORMATION. Just look around you, every country that’s part of Imperialist heartland are now quite easily converted to some kind Fascism as defined by its inventor, Mussolini, at the drop of a hat, the CORPORATE, SECURITY STATE, an alliance of Big Business and the State. And as I said, the next fear-inducing event will be, for example, chunks of the planet becoming uninhabitable for humans!!! The laws needed to control us are now all in place, so they no longer need the Virus! Why do think that overnight, the fucking thing virtually disappeared, not from the world of course, but from the psyops war being waged on our brains. And ‘conveniently’ along comes Ukraine. Do the math!

Posted by: Barofsky | Mar 13 2022 0:00 utc | 185

Posted by: WJ | Mar 12 2022 23:34 utc | 181
PMF?
Sabereen news on Telegram:
“To all our friends who follow or join us from Russia, Chechnya, Belarus and China,
You are welcome best regrads from Iraq
V an Z you are not alone”

Posted by: RJ | Mar 13 2022 0:05 utc | 187

I only started following the Ukraine situation from after the 2014 Maidan.
But apparently there was a coup there in 2004 also. The « Orange Revolution » ?
Could someone please give me a bit of a synopsis of that 2004 coup, and the years between then and 2014 ?

Posted by: Featherless | Mar 13 2022 0:08 utc | 189

S @185–
Thanks for your reply. IMO, the horrific reality we all need to face and deal with is the very strong probability that there’s no number of dead that would make the West’s propaganda organs stop their shit and take notice of the carnage they helped and are abettors if not active accomplices as was Nazi media. In fact if I recall correctly, western media downplayed the Genocide performed by the Nazis, which is why I believe they’ll never ever come clean on this occasion. Look at the deliberate lies presstitutes engage in and help to promote–particularly the Hate–which is why Lavrov has lost his patience and conducts verbal combat with them . And they never issue retractions or attempt to set the record straight when their bald-faced lies are exposed.
Yes, IMO we’ve reached a similar parallel point with WW2 and the Fascists and Nazis of that day for they’re alive and well, flourishing and multiplying and being actively promoted by the West, the Outlaw US Empire especially as it’s been doing since 1945.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 13 2022 0:14 utc | 191

@ Posted by: Featherless | Mar 13 2022 0:08 utc | 190
Oliver Stone’s Ukraine on fire is worth every minute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGQfiImnZHE

Posted by: _AR_ | Mar 13 2022 0:16 utc | 193

“Why of course the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece?
80 odd years later…And our betters say they are civilized
Poor slobs won’t even have a farm to come back to, Archer Daniels etc. own it all.

Posted by: bubbles | Mar 13 2022 0:20 utc | 195

Posted by: Barofsky | Mar 13 2022 0:00 utc | 186
Russians have more nukes, more land, allegedly better missiles, allegedly better anti-missile defenses, and allegedly better post-nuke measures.
That’s five good reasons to be scared shitless.

Posted by: Misotheist | Mar 13 2022 0:23 utc | 197

karlof1 @151
I apologize for the delayed response. If you can find anything of value in my comments then please feel free to use it as you see fit. I would consider it an honor.

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 13 2022 0:39 utc | 199