The 'Rules Based Order' Knows No Distance
Remarks by President Biden Providing an Update on Russia and Ukraine, Feb 15 2022
Nations have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity. They have the freedom to set their own course and choose with whom they will associate.
The distance between the U.S. (New York) and the Ukraine (Lviv) is 7,194 kilometer (4,470 miles). The distance between Russia and Ukraine is zero kilometer (zero miles). They are neighboring countries.
Readout of Senior Administration Travel to Hawaii, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands, Apr 22, 2022
The two sides engaged in substantial discussion around the recently signed security agreement between Solomon Islands and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Solomon Islands representatives indicated that the agreement had solely domestic applications, but the U.S. delegation noted there are potential regional security implications of the accord, including for the United States and its allies and partners. The U.S. delegation outlined clear areas of concern with respect to the purpose, scope, and transparency of the agreement.If steps are taken to establish a de facto permanent military presence, power-projection capabilities, or a military installation, the delegation noted that the United States would then have significant concerns and respond accordingly.
The distance between the continental U.S. (Los Angeles) and the Solomon Islands is 9,845 kilometer (6,118 miles). The distance between the continental China (Shanghai) and the Solomon Islands is 5,901 kilometer (3,667 miles).
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Posted by b on April 23, 2022 at 9:55 UTC | Permalink
next page »Another country that came under Australia’s area of influence was the Solomon Islands.
In July 2003, following a request from the Solomon Islands’ government, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) led a task force of 300 personnel to assist in maintaining law and order within that country. Something similar to what the USSR did to Czechoslovakia back in 1966. The Australian Federal Police’s job in the Solomon Islands was to replace that country’s police force which had not received any wages for the previous three months. Tell me, just exactly how does a policeman feed his family and pay the bills if he hasn't been paid for three months?
Of the Solomon Island’s constabulary, 160 members were arrested and another 400 members of the Royal Solomon Islands Police have been dismissed or demobilised. All told, 6,300 arrests have been made by the AFP and over 3,600 weapons have been seized and destroyed. But still the other islanders opposed the government in Honiara on the island of Guadalcanal. On the 2nd April 2007, the northern islands of the Solomon Islands were struck by an earthquake which registered 8.1, and then by a tsunami. Guadalcanal was not affected by either the earthquake or the tsunami, and organised relief for those affected by the disaster.
Is it possible that the Solomon Islands, having experienced Australia's control, have decided to look elsewhere for a 'better deal?
Posted by: Andrew S MacGregor | Apr 23 2022 10:37 utc | 2
RT reports > The Ministry of Defense announced that the United States is preparing provocations to accuse the Russian Federation of using WMD.........No doubt as an excuse to get directly involved before Ukraine is completely lost on the battlefield.
https://russian.rt.com/ussr/article/994273-specoperaciya-rossiya-ukraina-minoborony
Perhaps the Russian MOD has already announced their reaction to such potential provocations, but if not, they should take this opportunity to reclarify their position...and send something like the following message to the 'West'.
ANY use of WMD's - be they chemical, biological or nuclear - in any limited or tactical theatre, will be viewed as a direct attack on Moscow itself and all Russian responses will be immediately targeted directly at the controlling and authorsing decision making centres of their use located both in NATO and the US & UK mainland.
There should be no doubt amongst 'Western' leaders and the general public that any such provocations carried out would immediately bring the horror of modern warfare home to those who decided to unleash their war on some foreign lands.
Posted by: Hermes | Apr 23 2022 10:54 utc | 3
Point taken b, and thanks, I made a similar observation on the previous post, We live in times of blanket blatant hypocrisy, myopia and ignorance. Here it is again:
"Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 22 2022 16:53 utc | 100
"...The sentiment of Anglophone exceptionalism has become a self-affirming feedback loop to the point they have completely lost touch with other countries. The same principle applies to the Western powers’ insincere concern for Ukraine and their hypocrisy in believing that only they themselves are entitled to 'spheres of influence' and they must have an infinite right to encircle rival countries without any right of reply. Russia’s narrative about the threat emanating from Ukraine is simply 'propaganda,' we are told, yet China making an ambiguous deal with a tiny island nation of just 700,000 or so is somehow deemed an imminent and escalatory threat to Australia itself. Is it not time we started to question this narrative?" [My Emphasis]
That narrative's been under attack since the end of WW2, although many of the voices doing so are censored. Or as in MLK's case, assassinated..."
Thanks for posting this from RT. I have noticed the apoplectic howls of hypocritical indignation emanating from Canberra, Wellington and Washington at the very idea of China's relationship with The Solomon Islands, formerly The British Solomon Islands Protectorate, BSIP. The MSM have joined the chorus with dire warnings of what could or may happen.
Strangely, the very same myopic Anglo/Zionist people complaining about China's possible future intentions 2,000 Km from Australia simply don't get Russia's anxiety about NATO/ US intentions right up against the Russian border. The AFR described the China /Solomon Islands treaty as an "existential threat" to Australia.
IMO had NATO/US been allowed to establish bases and plant missiles in Ukraine the demands on Russia would never cease. Starting with a demand to cease protecting Syria from terrorists, fragmentation and separatists according to the Yinon Plan. The next demand on Russia would be to ban access for China's Belt and Road Initiative to Europe".
ADDITION, I wish happy Easter to all Orthodox people world wide and a special hello to the Orthodox of Palestine and Lebanon.
PS, I have attended the Ukrainian Orthodox church in Lidcombe, Sydney for a service. I wish them no harm. they should utterly reject NATO.
Posted by: Paul | Apr 23 2022 10:57 utc | 4
Nations have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity. They have the freedom to set their own course and choose with whom they will associate.
The 1993 Apology Resolution by the U.S. Congress concedes that "the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and [...] the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum".
At the very end of the nineteenth century, Cuba became a virtual colony of the United States as a result of the latter winning the so-called Spanish-American war. Initially the US gained Cuban support by promising (through the ‘Teller Amendment’) that its role was temporary and it would then ‘leave the government and control of the island to its people’.
But what should have been the final stages in Cuba’s war of independence became instead (according to Richard Gott) a four-year US military dictatorship that lasted until 1902. When Cubans showed renewed signs of wanting the independence they thought they’d already won, it was permitted only after they were humiliated into accepting the ‘Platt Amendment’. This effectively reneged on the earlier promises, established a permanent right for the US to intervene whenever it felt the need, and specifically required Cuba to lease land for ‘coaling or naval stations’. On the face of it, Platt both legitimised a series of military interventions over the period until 1923 and paved the way for the Guantánamo lease. Although it was repealed in 1934, the amendment was replaced with a new treaty that allowed the naval base to be kept indefinitely. The US hold on Guantánamo was further tightened by the Helms-Burton Act in 1996: this effectively made the return of the base conditional on regime change in Cuba.
However, this did not make the holding of the base legitimate under international law. As Cuba has pointed out, the ‘lease’ was effectively imposed under the threat of force and would now be illegal under the Vienna Conventions. As a measure forced on the then Cuban government, it was hardly a mutually beneficial arrangement. The fact that the US only pays just over $4,000 annually for the lease (with cheques that are never cashed) is a further indicator of the scale of the injustice. It is an anomaly that cannot be sustained if normal diplomatic relations between the two countries are to be restored,
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 23 2022 11:33 utc | 5
Dumb Aussies put themselves in China's crosshairs when they agreed to the idiotic AUKUS nuclear sub deal.
China's agreement with the Solomon likely came as a direct response to it. It also came as a result of Australian Defence Force's short sightedness and lack of strategic thinking (racism?) when Chinese business owners in Solomon Islands were not adequately protected and attacked in the recent unrest, prompting China with a pretext to step in.
Solomon Islands was also a planned staging ground for future deployments by the US Navy and missile launching systems, as an alternative to Guam in the second Island chain network of bases in its pivot to Asia. Not any more it seems...
Posted by: Et Tu | Apr 23 2022 11:40 utc | 6
The distance between Russia and Ukraine is zero kilometer (zero miles). They are neighboring countries.
It's interesting, because I had a similar thought just now.
From "Russia is NOT the savior you want her to be"
At this point, I see no reason Russia couldn’t drag this out 6 months, a year, or maybe even longer than that. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and it’s an asymmetric one. I would wager a lot of money that it will be significantly harder for the West to prop up the Ukrainian regime for an extended period of time than it is for Russia to continue applying pressure. They waited 8 years of endless provocations and violence before acting, so it’s reasonable to believe they’ll be patient now.
https://readingjunkie.com/2022/04/23/russia-is-not-the-savior-you-want-her-to-be/
Posted by: Ian Kummer | Apr 23 2022 11:44 utc | 7
Understanding US strategy can best be accomplished by reviewing its history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States
As its capacity increased the stage moved from domestic to international, but it remains the same. Divide, propagandise, conquer. What is Manifest Destiny today, was called Pax Romana by a former empire. It wasn't about peace then either - someone, possibly Julius Caesar, once said that Rome had never started a war. Yet they had an entire economy totally dependent on war - slaves, seized resources and foreign revenue. Deja vue. The US, which has institutionalised torture, even commercialised torture, claims to have the moral high ground. Hypocrisy is its nature, its DNA, in Ukraine as elsewhere. It pretends to bring peace, but it hires the Visigoths to project its power. As in Rome, this is not a wise move.
What can anyone do about it? Russia may well be in a position to undermine the propagnda simply by behaving in compliance with the Geneva Conventions, treating POWs fairly, and supporting local civilians where possible. Even as Zelensky seizes all media control, those stories spread along the country roads. People know. Word gets out.
Posted by: TP | Apr 23 2022 11:44 utc | 8
Et Tu | Apr 23 2022 11:40 utc | 7
This bullshit - making China public enemy number one in Australia kicked into high gear with Trump.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 23 2022 11:56 utc | 9
Breathtaking in its arrogance. Russia has very serious and legitimate concerns about its security which are well founded and evidenced by looking at the current escalation by NATO the UK and USA. When has the USA everror respected any Nation's sovereignty? It seems to me that the USA see anything and everything as a threat to them.
Posted by: Jo Dominich | Apr 23 2022 11:58 utc | 10
Even TASS finally says what I've been saying for weeks, and been informed that I was talking through my hat. I won't name the people who said that, you know who you are.
https://tass.com/defense/1442031
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Apr 23 2022 12:37 utc | 11
What's the importance of Solomon Islands to China and the US?
Posted by: Ivan | Apr 23 2022 12:46 utc | 12
"They have the freedom to set their own course and choose with whom they will associate."
-- Unless the country's name is Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Syria ...
And now, a new addition to the list of countries that can not choose their own friends and allies .... Guadalcanal.
Then, Uncle Sam, as the world's policeman, torturer, judge, jury and executioner will tell those countries exactly who they can be friends with and who they can not, and may the God Mars have mercy on their souls, in the name of peace, justice and the Wall Street Way.
Posted by: Casper | Apr 23 2022 12:52 utc | 14
I have made the same exact point in conversation with many of my fellow Americans. It falls on deaf ears. They cannot begin to imagine that there is a location on the planet where US power does not utterly eclipse any possible rival or alternative. They cannot imagine that Russia has any power, or any say. America rules the waves. America rules the skies. America rules the land. End of story.
Understand that America knows no geography. It is not taught in schools. It is a point of honor for Americans to be ignorant of geography. In these latter days most cannot read a map at all. They use GPS to know where they are and how to get where they are going.
In previous post Bernhard notes that European and US leaders begin the stages of grief. At retail level consumers of news universally believe Ukraine is winning and Russia is being smashed. Which is the only possible outcome. There is no universe where Russia might win.
Posted by: oldhippie | Apr 23 2022 13:01 utc | 15
Ya’ll may already know this…
https://youtu.be/K-alxZvUCS8”>US Senator Bradley
Posted by: SailorsWife | Apr 23 2022 13:21 utc | 16
Well, anyone could see that coming a mile a way.
The problem with China is that it's not willing to defend it's allies with military force.
So every time it tries to conclude some kind of security agreement with some tiny country, all it takes is for Uncle Sam to come in and look tough and perhaps toss out the current head of state, and it's all over.
This is also the reason why in the end most tiny states tend to side with the US in the global popularity contest (or stay "neutral") against Russia and China, because they're painfully aware that while Uncle Sam will not hesitate to crush them, China and Russia will do nothing to defend them.
And of course, when the elephants fight it's the grass that is trampled.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 23 2022 13:28 utc | 17
We are being sold UKRAINE GOOD RUSSIA BAD
VIDEO:
Watch How an Old Russian woman who lost her parents to NAZIS is treated by a cruel Ukrainian Soldier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cfhPWLaEZI
Posted by: Dean Oneil | Apr 23 2022 13:34 utc | 18
Interesting article from a Swedish mercenary on the Ukranazi Foreign Legion and the Russian airstrike on Yavorov that destroyed the base where they were. This mercenary confirms that Amerikastani and Brutish special force (if ex, he doesn't say so) members were there and that probably more mercenaries were exterminated even than the Russian claim of 180.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Apr 23 2022 13:58 utc | 19
The USA wants to rule the world, its patently obvious by the number of military bases they have around the globe that now the whole world is seen as their backyard, and any economic advances via trade deals done by the like of China or Russia is now seen a as threat to the USA, its a preposterous state of affairs, the real threat to world stability IS the USA and its desire for world domination.
Instead of building half a billion dollar military base in Nigeria, the US government should be focusing on its own domestic problems its high rates of poverty or homelessness, God only knows how many Obamavilles there are across the States now, I think the USA has the greatest prison population in the world as well. I'm sure Americans would rather have their domestic problems dealt with, rather than spending billions on building military bases half way around the globe because two countries, nowhere near the US have come to an agreement on a trade deal.
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 23 2022 14:02 utc | 20
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Apr 23 2022 13:58 utc | 20
DM: How big are the losses?.
.
.“When we ran out into the forest, we also did not know that it was mined with our own landmines. Of course, the officers knew about it, but we recruits had not received any information at all, so it was one of our own guys who died that way when we ran into the forest.”
I keep hearing the western media (via Deutsche Weld) drone on about the incompetence of the Russian army, but this bit above from the article reminds my that it must be dwarfed by the incompetence of the Ukrainian Armed Forces!
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 23 2022 14:12 utc | 21
This is getting good in down-under puppet-land.
Opinion - SydneyMorningHerald
Morrison’s defence for failing to stop Solomons deal is not good enough
The scale of the Australian failure in the Pacific this week was summed up in a bleak assessment of the need for defence planners in Canberra to buy missiles so they might one day take out a Chinese military base in Solomon Islands.
The idea would have been unthinkable outside the darker corners of the defence establishment not so long ago, but it is the inevitable conclusion from policy realists like Hugh White, the Australian National University professor who served as an intelligence analyst, defence official and adviser to Bob Hawke as prime minister. . .here
..and from TheGuardian
Scott Morrison fends off claim Solomon Islands-China pact is worst foreign policy failure since 1945
Prime minister defends Canberra’s ‘calibrated’ approach to Honiara and tries to turn criticism back on Labor
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has fended off accusations that he is responsible for “the worst Australian foreign policy failure” in the Pacific since the end of the second world war after the Solomon Islands struck a new security pact with China.
Labor has seized on the new agreement as evidence that Australia has been asleep at the wheel while China has cemented its influence in the region, with leader Anthony Albanese saying more should have been done to prevent it from going ahead. . .here
Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 23 2022 14:12 utc | 22
Fakes about the grandfathers of german politicians (Scholz, Lindner, Lauterbach) denounced as SS-officers are spread everywhere, even on Yalensis daily Avalange blog.
I couldn’t find evidence for this claims. All these names are wide spread in Germany. It’s bullshit.
You don’t need a SS-grandpa to support fascist politics.
Posted by: njet | Apr 23 2022 14:15 utc | 23
"Rules Based on the Hegemonic Order" - hiding the Hegemony - happens to be Biden+Blinken's Propaganda/Mental-Worldview Conditioning.
Blinken is a Propagandist by Trade. This Position is Over his Ability to Manage Properly.
Posted by: IronForge | Apr 23 2022 14:23 utc | 24
Posted by: Et Tu | Apr 23 2022 11:40 utc | 7
I don't agree with your limited perspective. Oz had Collins submarines which were not particularly successful and decided to buy overseas next time around. In terms of Diesel/Electrics Japan was in the running and Germany was the front-runner until France used its spy agencies to cut Germany out altogether and offer instead a French nuclear (future) design which it proposed to re-design as a diesel/electric for Canberra.
The project got further and further behind and France was nowhere near developing a feasible option. Australia House in London approached the British Admiralty with a request for feasibility of a nuclear sub based on British Vanguard design which has significant advantages over US Ohio Class being faster submerged and cheaper.
Since Vanguard Class uses US tech it was necessary for UK to consult with US which is how AUKUS came about. It was however Oz that approached UK because it was frustrated by French delays on the Barracuda subs and the fact that diesel/electric has such limited submersible range - France had reneged on parts of the deal such as local components and the delays would leave Oz without submarines at all as Collins Class were end-of-life
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 23 2022 14:31 utc | 25
And a high powered delegation from the US is now holding deep and meaningful talks with the Solomons opposition party. I wonder what they are discussing --- surely not regime change!!!
Posted by: Digital dinosaur | Apr 23 2022 14:32 utc | 26
Posted by: njet | Apr 23 2022 14:15 utc | 24
Yes it is irritating when falsehoods abound. The real problem is the Anti-war Party of Petra Kelly 1978 has transmogrified under Joschka Fischer and now Baerbock/Habeck into a Kriegstreiberei-Partei.
Scholz has an unstable coalition with demented Greens who have been bought by USA and FDP which under Lindner is weak. Hard to believe this was the party of Hans-Dietrich Genscher
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 23 2022 14:34 utc | 27
“Nations have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity. They have the freedom to set their own course and choose with whom they will associate.”
Unless it’s Ukraine in 2014?
As an American, hypocrisy is for breakfast.
Posted by: Savoy06 | Apr 23 2022 14:37 utc | 28
Tomorrow French Roulette : Red, Macrons wins , Business as usual; Black : LePen wins which would mean European "reset" and after Brexit, Germany will lead new Europe ( inFamous PartnerShip in LeaderShip !)
In the second Scenario France could be targeted by a Ferocious campaign similar to that against Russia. Bumpy ahead.
Posted by: GoFigure | Apr 23 2022 14:43 utc | 29
R of s @ 21 said; "I'm sure Americans would rather have their domestic problems dealt with, rather than spending billions on building military bases half way around the globe because two countries, nowhere near the US have come to an agreement on a trade deal."
True, if not for the fact that the empire's foreign and domestic policies are determined by and for giant multi-national corporations...
And, they don't like competition.
Posted by: vetinLA | Apr 23 2022 14:54 utc | 31
American hypocrisy doesn't justify Russian imperialism.
Posted by: Mike Adamson | Apr 23 2022 14:55 utc | 32
@Mike Adamson
Stop it with jokes mate,you are not funny.
Posted by: Lolgege | Apr 23 2022 15:12 utc | 33
The American taxpayer doesn't pay for the bases abroad,this is such a silly myth.Host countries absorb all those costs,they are essentially funding their own occupation.This is how imperialism works.
Posted by: Lolgege | Apr 23 2022 15:16 utc | 34
#32:
Russian imperialism is a hoax. At least until today. If Russia and China succeed in building a multipolar order, may be we will se some day what their „imperialism“ will look like. They are far from that, as since 200 years they have been fighting to withstand the european empires, with the US one of them. Their common break free against european supremacy is what we are watching now for the first time.
Posted by: njet | Apr 23 2022 15:20 utc | 35
njet @24
You speak of grandfathers of present-day German politicians being fascists. The latest New Yorker says that Putin's grandfather was the cook for both Lenin and Stalin. Maybe he invented poutine.
Posted by: Chas | Apr 23 2022 15:28 utc | 36
The American taxpayer is a beneficiary of imperialism,that's why they always follow the State department line to a tee,why would you bite the hand that feeds you.
Posted by: Lolgege | Apr 23 2022 15:28 utc | 37
Posted by: Mike Adamson | Apr 23 2022 14:55 utc | 32
American hypocrisy doesn't justify Russian imperialism.
Yes it does. International relations are reciprocity based.
American imperialism justifies everyone's imperialism, let alone the Russian one.
Unless you believe that America is exceptional, but then you came to very very wrong bar.
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 23 2022 15:36 utc | 38
Thanks b.
The distance between Washington, DC to Tehran, Iran is 6,324.33 mi (10,178.02 km) per goog. Yet, all the "real" men want to go to Tehran.
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Apr 23 2022 15:39 utc | 39
Posted by: Chas | Apr 23 2022 15:28 utc | 36
The latest New Yorker says that Putin's grandfather was the cook for both Lenin and Stalin.
So what if he was? You have something against these two great men?
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 23 2022 15:40 utc | 40
SailorsWife | Apr 23 2022 13:21 utc | 17
From my high school days … 1961-62 for state championship finals … our above average team played against Crystal City … we lost in the buzzer … a shot from Bill Bradley … a NBA great and quite a personality then and later in politics.
From his biography …
http://www.billbradley.com/assets/PDF/TPTP_chapterOne.pdf
- My father lived for the bank and for his family. He walked to work every morning at 8:15 and back every evening at 5:15. Often he came home for lunch. He served as treasurer of the school board for thirty years, but he never went to a meeting. He rarely attended any events in town, other than my Little League base- ball games in summer, my school basketball games in winter, and (although he was suspicious of religion) Sunday-morning services at Grace Presbyterian Church.
Bill Bradley discusses Russian and American politics at Carnegie Council, and what he considers a "fundamental blunder:" the expansion of NATO.
https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/people/bill-bradley
The biggest power center in Congress that's never been seized is oversight over defense spending," Senator Bill Bradley tells a Carnegie Council audience on January 23, 2008. He argues that not only do we need to rein in the defense budget, just as Harry Truman did during World War II, but we also need to rethink it to make sure it serves modern purposes.
Time for China to end all imports from Australia and crush it's economy. Once they feel enough pain the stupidity will end.
Posted by: BraveNewWorld | Apr 23 2022 16:45 utc | 42
"Putin's grandfather was the cook for both Lenin and Stalin." Chas@36
So Lenin was right when he prophesied that "Every cook must learn to rule the State."
Posted by: bevin | Apr 23 2022 16:46 utc | 43
A LePen victory tomorrow would be the same as a Trump victory in 2016-nothing, fundamentally would change. In the West, the political class is subservient to the ruling elite and their dictat has not changed over the last couple of centuries: liberty for individuals (really the 01%) will not be infringed upon. Capital supercedes all else and anything or anyone that encroaches on this will be dealt with by the full force of the machinery of the West.
The latest New Yorker says that Putin's grandfather was the cook for both Lenin and Stalin.
Posted by: Chas | Apr 23 2022 15:28 utc | 36
Did the Zionized New Yorker also mention that Lazar Kaganovich, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine (and Butcher of Ukraine during Holodomor), was Stalin' brother-in law?
The very Jewish Kaganovich, nicknamed Wolf of Kremlin for his sadism, lived peacefully into his 90s (and became demented with Alzheimer's) in the comfort of his spacious Moscow apartments. So much for the 'popular' squeaking about antisemitism in the Soviet Union.
Posted by: Cerena | Apr 23 2022 16:49 utc | 45
A pure expression of American Exceptionalism made with awkward timing, in that solemn invocations of state sovereignty and the absolute right to choose "with whom they will associate" have informed the blanket MSM coverage from Ukraine. The contradiction is a bit too obvious - although apparently not for the Australians. Note that US officials are setting up meetings with Solomon Island's opposition leader.
US State Department official Derek Chollet did an interview last week explaining State Dept position in lead-up to active hostilities In Ukraine: "We made clear to the Russians that we were willing to talk to them on issues that we thought were genuine concerns that they have that were legitimate in some way. I mean arms control type of things of that nature." Regional security and NATO affiliation with Ukraine were, according to Chollet, "non-issues" - "we talked about NATO in saying that NATO is a defensive alliance. NATO is not a threat to Russia." Again - American Exceptionalism by which State Dept officials assume the inherent right to, solely, decide what is or is not a matter of "legitimate concern".
Posted by: jayc | Apr 23 2022 17:00 utc | 47
@Sakineh Bagoom 39
"The distance between Washington, DC to Tehran, Iran is 6,324.33 mi (10,178.02 km) per goog. Yet, all the "real" men want to go to Tehran."
You know SB, Iraninans are very hospitable people. All those real "persons" (you have to write in woke terms for them), are free to go to Tehran and follow the foot steps of the aya. mikey!
Posted by: Rd | Apr 23 2022 17:03 utc | 48
@ njet | Apr 23 2022 16:53 utc | 46 who asks
"
Isn’t the silence over Asovstal frightening?
"
Not to me. Given the desperation I am reading, I suspect there are one or more folks in there as well as the biolab stuff that empire does not want the public to know about.
Russia is playing an interesting set of strategies around Asovstal that will be fascinating reading about when the smoke clears on this civilization war we are in.
This is a strange way to globally "debate" social organization nuances like public/private finance but here we are.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 23 2022 17:06 utc | 49
Regardless of laws or treaties, empires assert their spheres of influence. In some cases, these are immediately adjacent territories, such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Donbass or Crimea. Other times, these are distant and strategic choke points, such as the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, or the Dardanelles/Straits of HormuzPosted by: Malchik Ralf | Apr 23 2022 11:37 utc | 6
There is no hatred, there is just contempt.
Posted by: Laurence | Apr 23 2022 17:14 utc | 50
America tells Europe that they must cut their noses off to spite their faces and the European countries meekly obey. Meanwhile, the US, which is one of the biggest oil and gas producers in the world, gets Nord Stream II shut down which enables America to sell more of their expensive gas to Europe.
Posted by: D J G | Apr 23 2022 17:26 utc | 51
Holodomor is Nazi propaganda,it's a real thing, Langley trolls working overtime with their discourse pollution.
Posted by: Lolgege | Apr 23 2022 17:31 utc | 52
MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. Using high-precision missiles, Russia’s armed forces destroyed a logistics terminal at a military airfield near Odessa, where foreign weapons were stored, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday.https://tass.com/defense/1442091"This afternoon, using long-range high-precision air-based missiles of Russia’s Aerospace Forces, a logistics terminal at a military airfield near Odessa was eliminated where a large batch of foreign weapons received from the US and European countries was stored," the spokesman said.
He added that missile troops, artillery hit 102 Ukrainian military targets today, including 6 command posts, 10 artillery batteries. Also Russian aviation strikes 79 Ukrainian military targets, including 52 areas of concentration of manpower and military equipment.
Konashenkov added that high-precision air-based missiles of Russian Aerospace Forces today hit 22 Ukrainian military targets, up to 200 nationalists eliminated. Russian aviation eliminates three Buk-M1 systems, one Tor missile system.
Posted by: Laurence | Apr 23 2022 17:53 utc | 54
The last bastion of American liberalism is the US imperialism doesn’t excuse anyone else’s imperialism. But they’re not willing to stop American imperialism so it’s just wrapping paper on exceptionalism and imperialism.
Posted by: Lex | Apr 23 2022 17:53 utc | 55
Readers should understand that Solomon's decision to sign the security agreement with China has some historical background and practical reasons. There was a riot in 2021 in Solomon specifically targeting the Chinese and Chinese businesses. Rioters were gathering in Chinatown, destroying and setting up fire on Chinese shops and houses.
Solomon decided to switch diplomatic relationship from Taiwan to China in 2019. Usually, a foreign policy change of this type does NOT even generate much news in any country, let alone large scale protests or riots like 2021 Solomon. What happened was the works and sponsorship of foreign agents (Taiwan, US, Australia) to pressure Solomon.
US has been very unhappy that many of the dozen of countries having relationship with Taiwan want to switch side to China. Recent switches includes Nicaragua, Kiribati, etc. US put a lot of pressures on these nations - using both diplomatic/security threats as well as foreign aids as weapons.
Unsurprisingly, US is extremely furious about Solomon's defection in 2019. Australia, acting like a deputy henchman of a gangster, regards Solomon as the "backyard" of its own. They both sent high level teams to Solomon to warn against signing the security agreement with China. Australia has been so ridiculously paranoid and edgy about China that even a Chinese fish processing factory in Papua New Guinea is causing "serious" security concerns in the country. Likewise, when China was helping Tonga with humanity aids after the recently volcano eruption, Australia and US expressed concerns. (FYI: Distance from Australia to Tonga: 5000 km/3000 miles, distance from Australia to Solomon 3000 km/2000 miles). On the other hand, Australia has no problem sending navy warships to South China Sea and East China Sea, conducting jointed and live military exercises with US and Japan, patrolling spy planes and submarines in areas that were hundreds or even tens of miles from China.
Posted by: d dan | Apr 23 2022 17:55 utc | 56
Meanwhile, the US, which is one of the biggest oil and gas producers in the world, gets Nord Stream II shut down which enables America to sell more of their expensive gas to Europe.
Posted by: D J G | Apr 23 2022 17:26 utc | 51\
Yes It Is BUT .... it is one of the world's largest CONSUMERS !!!
https://www.philstockworld.com/2020/06/29/top-10-largest-oil-producers-and-consumers-in-the-world/
Going cold turkey might be a problem.
Posted by: Tom_12 | Apr 23 2022 17:56 utc | 57
@Posted by: Lolgege | Apr 23 2022 17:31 utc | 53
The "Holodomor" is an excellent example how funding is given to specific individuals in the West to rewrite history to denigrate official enemies, and then the MSM and government officials constantly repeat this version - in direct opposition to the views of the leaders in such history - such as Sean O'Grada who is the leading specialist on famine. It becomes an official "fact", very much like the rewriting of history in the book "1984". Anne Applebaum is the latest of such "historians".
Same with the "genocide" in Xinjiang. CIA and State Department written all over the liars.
Goebbels learnt much of his trade from the example of the American propagandist Edward Bernays in WW1 (he actually wrote a book titled "Propaganda")
@ Roger | Apr 23 2022 18:10 utc | 58
thanks... i agree with you... do you think this idea of ''the winners writing the history'' is true? what do we call this other then ''propaganda''?
Posted by: james | Apr 23 2022 18:38 utc | 59
heard some report Ukraine already rained some fials with unknown chemicals fro mdrones onto alliied forces. The fials failed to break though and were moved to military chem-labs for analysis. Noit sure if this can be trusted much.
------
t .me/mod_russia_en/...
telegra .ph/Statement-of-the-Joint-Coordination-Headquarters-of-the-Russian-Federation-for-Humanitarian-Response-in-Ukraine-04-23
In the area of the Odessa port "Yuzhny", the special services of Ukraine are planning a provocation with the use of toxic chemicals to accuse Russian troops of allegedly striking civilian infrastructure facilities.
▫️The most likely scenario of the staging may be an imitation of a missile strike by the Russian Armed Forces on the western naval base of the Ukrainian Navy, as a result of which the port's cooling plant, located 500 meters from the military facility, will be blown up. To implement this scenario, a tank with ammonia (10 tons) was delivered from Odessa to the territory of the enterprise on April 18, 2022, and personal protective equipment was issued to law enforcement and special services in the Odessa region.
Posted by: Arioch | Apr 23 2022 18:40 utc | 60
I actually bookmarked the news report with to the us response and downloaded it for good measures because I saw the same hypocrisy b saw. Us is now so sure of it's greatness it doesn't even see the contradiction and play it more coolly to avoid this obvious comparison. I mean they could've avoided making this statement public
Posted by: A.z | Apr 23 2022 18:47 utc | 61
French Embassy in Ukraine caught smuggling munition into Ukraine
photo: https://t.me/fauda_orda/19 and https://t.me/astrahandm/2630
Posted by: Arioch | Apr 23 2022 18:49 utc | 62
Arioch | Apr 23 2022 18:40 utc | 60
Once it becomes obvious the Ukraine forces in Donbas are starting to collapse the false flags will come on thick and fast.
Russia MOD is worried about a big one though to try and split China and India away from Russia and I would guess to try and stop all foreign trade with Russia.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 23 2022 18:50 utc | 63
L'unica città che si può lasciare è Leopoli. Una Ucraina piccola piccola che faccia da filtro, come territorio, con la Polonia. Ci vorrà un sacco di tempo per terminare tutto.
Posted by: NinoP65 | Apr 23 2022 18:52 utc | 64
Video from "Azov" base: https://t.me/fauda_orda/36
Neo-paganism. Anything but Orthodox Christianity, which has to be demolished together with Russia.
Posted by: Arioch | Apr 23 2022 18:58 utc | 65
# Washington thinks and acts like it is the Manifest Destiny of the us to rule the world in perpetuity.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 23 2022 10:16 utc | 1
Take a closer look at Bidens team in this tragedy. That's their whole religion. The liberals want to do it from Washington, the zionist from Zion.
Trump was more MIGA than MAGA - but he was told he was on a mission from God.
The "builders of the third temple" even minted his coin.
https://www.temple-coins.com/products/trump-coin
Posted by: Anne B | Apr 23 2022 19:00 utc | 66
@ Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 23 2022 11:56 utc | 10
Your point and my observation are not mutually exclusive, in fact, both can be true.
I would say since Rudd was voted out, no Aussie PM has had the strategic long term foresight to try and engage better with China, actually. Libs for sure much less than Labour as a general trend.
Trump? He was the US president last i checked, not Australia's, so... what is yr actual point? The Donald, he talked a tough game, but in essence he just followed on from Obama's "Pivot to Asia" policy if we are going to be pedantic about it, and just applied his own slant on it... racist pun intended in his 'honour' /s. Have you forgotten the hostile reception Obama got in his last China visit, and the almost brawl at the airport? If things took off with Trump, Obama certainly already had that plane half way down the runway and travelling at speed...
The fact Australia jumps to the US tune has long been the case since Whitlam's dismissal. But I was talking specifically about the Solomons, since that was the topic of the article, and putting it in recent context.
The exact timing and cause and effect that led to this treaty, we will never know, but calling my recounting of easily proven facts 'bs' is not particularly intelligent, imho.
Posted by: Et Tu | Apr 23 2022 19:03 utc | 67
@Posted by: james | Apr 23 2022 18:38 utc | 59
A very sneaky version of propaganda, just like the constant rewriting of history in "1984". As with the Soviet Union going from "our brothers in arms who helped defeat Hitler" to "just as bad as Hitler".
@ Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 23 2022 14:31 utc | 26
IMHO, the whole AUKUS submarine fiasco came as a result of Australia's Covid strategy, or lack thereof.
It is hard to prove of course, but i find it an interesting coincidence that PM Morrison, who had counted on a 'lock the borders' approach to fight Covid, suddenly found himself with half the country in lock down and no vaccines.
What do you know, a sudden miraculous injection of Pfizer and Moderna (US) and Astra Zeneca (UK) vaccines conveniently was made available to him to save his a55. We still don't know who they were originally destined for, but i doubt one could just pluck them out of the air, so some horse trading must have been done. A few months later, out of the blue and with quasi ad hoc, clumsy communications to further prove my point, Australia announces the AUKUS deal.
Since there is no such thing as a free lunch, my guess is he was asked to jump ship (oh the puns today!) on the French deal, which as you say he likely wanted out from anyway, and join the AUKUS project in return. Way to counter China with his own Win-Win.. or so he thought.
Pure speculation, but certainly not unrealistic.
Posted by: Et Tu | Apr 23 2022 19:23 utc | 70
What's the importance of Solomon Islands to China and the US?
Posted by: Ivan | Apr 23 2022 12:46 utc | 13
The answers to those questions and otheres have been plainly and repeatedly explained in ENGLISH during regular press conferences conducted by officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian and Wang Wenbin.
I recommend setting a bookmark and reviewing prior weeks' conferences. The usual suspects are quite hard of hearing.
Comparisons of transcript to NATO-phone non sequiturs would be more amusing, if the professionals weren't so darn sure their readers were unwilling and unable to, yanno, read.
Posted by: sln2002 | Apr 23 2022 19:26 utc | 71
@ Roger | Apr 23 2022 19:21 utc | 69
thanks roger.. kind of reminds me of wikipedia with the omission of all sorts of details and the addition of others... i suspect wikipedia is a very well funded propaganda outlet... they don't say that, but that is clearly what it is.... thus it's popularity.. the folks who pay for fact check, are the same folks who pay for wikipedia..
Posted by: james | Apr 23 2022 19:26 utc | 72
@Posted by: Lysias | Apr 23 2022 19:13 utc | 68
Seems Rudd was more a pragmatist and realist, although he certainly had the background to understand China:
"Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister of Australia from December 2007 to June 2010 and again from June to September 2013. Rudd is a fluent Chinese speaker who graduated from The Australian National University with majors in Chinese language and Chinese history. Before entering parliament in October 1998, he served as a bureaucrat, including a period as First Secretary (Political Section) of the Australian Embassy in Beijing from 1984 to 1986. ...
But ‘pro-China’ perceptions might have been at odds with the China message Rudd was conveying to Australian allies. WikiLeaks revealed in December 2010 that, in a private meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rudd had described himself as a ‘brutal realist on China’ and recommended Clinton prepare ‘to deploy force if everything goes wrong’ with China’s rise. Rudd also said similar thinking was behind his (abandoned) plan for an ‘Asia-Pacific Community’ that would tie Chinese foreign policy to a rules-based institution that included the US. This followed revelations Rudd branded the Chinese delegation to the 2009 Copenhagen Conference as ‘fuckers … trying to ratfuck us’. By the end of his tenure as foreign minister, several China-watchers and Chinese academics claimed that Rudd had a ‘largely negative impact’ upon and ‘cast a shadow’ over bilateral relations due to his ‘harsh criticism’."
https://aus.thechinastory.org/archive/kevin-rudd-and-australia-china-relations/
@Posted by: james | Apr 23 2022 19:26 utc | 72
Nowadays I just assume that Wikipedia represents the State Department/Israel/Rich and Powerful F$%kers given the "super editors" who roam through it without ever resting or sleeping and the very rapid removal of "unhelpful" content.
Posted by: Roger | Apr 23 2022 18:10 utc | 58
History these days is not just recorded by the winners like it used to be before. But history is now being recorded by so called "trustworthy media". Like in the USA the New York Times and the Washington post are actually recorders of history.
Wikipedia also records history these days of all kinds of events, and guess what if you want to write something about a news event on Wikipedia about any battle, about any war any geopolitics, you have to be able to refer to trustworthy media. If it is not in a trustworthy media outlet it did not happen as far as Wikipedia is concerned.
There are entire battles fought on Wikipedia by spooks which media are trustworthy and which one are not, of course the spooks have infiltrated Wikipedia and only allow reference to "trustworthy media" that are also infiltrated by them.
So these days it's the spooks that write history really.
Posted by: Jimmy | Apr 23 2022 19:32 utc | 75
Roger | Apr 23 2022 19:28 utc | 73
I watched him talking a few times after he was out of politics. He spoke Mandarine I believe but other than that typical brit/anglo mindset.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 23 2022 19:42 utc | 76
Posted by: Chas | Apr 23 2022 15:28 utc | 36
njet @24
You speak of grandfathers of present-day German politicians being fascists. The latest New Yorker says that Putin's grandfather was the cook for both Lenin and Stalin. Maybe he invented poutine.
"
(Worth being printed again!)
Posted by: Scorpion | Apr 23 2022 19:44 utc | 77
You know SB, Iraninans are very hospitable people. All those real "persons" (you have to write in woke terms for them), are free to go to Tehran and follow the foot steps of the aya. mikey!Posted by: Rd | Apr 23 2022 17:03 utc | 48
Thank you for the reply Rd.
re Aya. mikey, he was the only high profile person, to die in a high profile way, in response to the Soleimani murder, but, in Afghanistan, yeah by the same bare-foot-goat-hearder-cave-dwelers that we were told Afghans are.
So, your milage may vary, saying, may apply here.
My guess is over 12,000 km from DC.
As for Iranian hospitality, you are absolutely right: unmatched.
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Apr 23 2022 19:50 utc | 78
Paco @459 & James, previous thread
Here is how it works
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oUyK2OWsWP4
Fantastic cover of an old Ray Davies tune done by The Jam. The song is about how David Watts mesmerizes his classmates. Gets the girls, gets admired by one and all. “He is a pure and noble breed.” That is how class works. It works every single time. And it works just as well for old guys and for bloggers.
For what it’s worth The Jam were reasonably well connected. And good musicians. Dominated Top of the Pops for five years or so. But tending towards middle class and never made it over here. Story goes when Berry Gordy heard Jam doing Town Called Malice he called all his Motown writers/composers into the office and asked why they didn’t write songs like that any more. Talent. But Eric Clapton and Elton John have the pedigree so we suffer with them and others like them.
Yes Paco, it is quite crazed in US. “In a dying Empire stupidity is a virtue.” Who said that? Sure wasn’t me. Does not readily search. Describes our situation quite well.
Posted by: oldhippie | Apr 23 2022 19:51 utc | 79
Ow and by the way, not only are mainstream media in the west "spook outlets" and Wikipedia as I wrote before is a spook outlet, but all kind of think tanks also are. And the latest thing is open source investigation outlets such as bellingcat.
Now how are these outlets spooks ? There are no spooks working there that have official government issued ID's the spooks working there are just citizen volunteers that wanna help out the official spooks and are being run by them the same way the police runs criminals as confidential informants and even pays some of them, usually just for information but sometimes to actually do something.
Posted by: Jimmy | Apr 23 2022 19:57 utc | 80
Anne B @ 66 said;"The liberals want to do it from Washington, the zionist from Zion."
There are NO liberals in Washington, only corporate hacks.
Posted by: vetinLA | Apr 23 2022 20:02 utc | 81
Posted by: Cerena | Apr 23 2022 16:49 utc | 45
Did the Zionized New Yorker also mention that Lazar Kaganovich, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine (and Butcher of Ukraine during Holodomor)
What was he doing, froze Ukrainians to death? Butchered them with icicles?
The very Jewish Kaganovich, nicknamed Wolf of Kremlin for his sadism, lived peacefully into his 90s (and became demented with Alzheimer's) in the comfort of his spacious Moscow apartments. So much for the 'popular' squeaking about antisemitism in the Soviet Union.
How do you know that, your grandpa told you? Worked as a janitor in the building?
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 23 2022 20:03 utc | 82
Posted by: Roger | Apr 23 2022 18:10 utc | 58
Propaganda (1927) is monograph describing effects of diverse civic groups and trade associations on legislative agenda; Bernays, observing commercial opportunity to mediate direct democracy, advocates for professional standards and the development of public relations agencies, straddling advertising and editorial sectors of publishing industry.
On the other hand, Public Opinion (1922) by Walter Lippman is a seminal sociological exercise, the foundational scope "polling" methods evenutally finessed by Gallup and others. It reports attempt to quantify useful life and circulation of broadcast communications as well as recognition and credibility trusted source, or public figures. These observations are the origin of the adage, 15 minutes of fame. Lippmann ingratiated himself in the FDR's first two terms; they fell out of love over FDR's third term campaign.
Posted by: sln2002 | Apr 23 2022 20:04 utc | 83
Got this link from a commentator over at the Saker. Its an excellent speech by a German historian (with excellent English subtitles) who wrote the book "The War That Had Many Fathers" about WW2. He went deep into sources from many countries and really shows the very complex machinations that lead to WW2 from many sides, certainly not the "Hitler wanted war" version.
He even covers a quotation used extensively in German text books to show that Hitler was not ready to negotiate on Danzig and just wanted war, but the last sentence was inserted by the Allies to further incriminate people at the Nuremberg Trials! A real treat for those who like the messy and embarrassing (to the Allies) reality thank the simplistic notions pushed in mainstream history books. The Polish, as well as many others, do not come off well.
@Posted by: sln2002 | Apr 23 2022 20:04 utc | 83
A good coverage of the WW1 propaganda campaign to get the US into WW1, from a President who had been elected specifically to keep them out of the war - and Bernays role and learnings. e.g.
"His work with the CPI had convinced him that if you could sell war by appealing to images and symbols, then you could do the same thing to sell just about anything. 'I decided that if you could use propaganda for war, you could certainly use it for peace,' he told a BBC interviewer in the early 1990s. Bernays had concluded that public opinion was fundamentally irrational, and irrationality was now the filter through which human nature could best be understood. Symbols, not facts, would be the primary tool of persuasion. Public opinion was to be manufactured and managed through communications strategies that aimed for the gut rather than the brain."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/how-ww-i-helped-entrench-the-art-of-mass-persuasion-1.2684519
"In the 1920s, Joseph Goebbels became an avid admirer of Bernays and his writings – despite the fact that Bernays was a Jew. When Goebbels became the minister of propaganda for the Third Reich, he sought to exploit Bernays’ ideas to the fullest extent possible. For example, he created a “Fuhrer cult” around Adolph Hitler. Bernays learned that the Nazis were using his work in 1933, from a foreign correspondent for Hearst newspapers. He later recounted in his 1965 autobiography:
They were using my books as the basis for a destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me, but I knew any human activity can be used for social purposes or misused for antisocial ones.
What Bernays’ writings furnish is not a principle or tradition by which to evaluate the appropriateness of propaganda, but simply a means for shaping public opinion for any purpose whatsoever, whether beneficial to human beings or not."
Today's Saker sitrep relays the "urgent briefing" from Russia's MoD of a mass-destruction false-flag provocation prepared for Ukraine, and comments:
To date, the United States is the only state in world history that has used all three types of weapons of mass destruction.
...then recounts US depredations in (1) Hiroshima & Nagasaki on the nuclear side, and (2) Vietnam & Iraq on the chemical side. Leaving unsaid the obvious part, about (3) smallpox in blankets distributed to original inhabitants of North America.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 23 2022 20:24 utc | 86
Posted by: Roger | Apr 23 2022 20:06 utc | 84
Got this link from a commentator over at the Saker. Its an excellent speech by a German historian (with excellent English subtitles) who wrote the book "The War That Had Many Fathers" about WW2. He went deep into sources from many countries and really shows the very complex machinations that lead to WW2 from many sides, certainly not the "Hitler wanted war" version.
The evil of Hitler was not in that he wanted or not wanted war.
He was evil because he wanted, organized and carried out extermination of people he considered unworthy to exist.
Are you his sympathizer?
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 23 2022 20:27 utc | 87
Don Bacon @ 23:
We puppets are having a general election on 21 May 2021. Our Fearless Leader known as Scotty From Marketing (b/c he sucked at leading Tourism Australia even with Liberal Party support; and before that gig, Tourism New Zealand: in both cases he barely lasted 2 or 3 years before having to choose between resigning or being sacked) is unpopular even among people in the Liberal Party for bullying behaviour and his ability to go AWOL whenever there is a problem or a crisis. Internet rumour is that the Party is haemorrhaging members and many have gone over to Craig Kelly's United Australia Party.
The Australian Labor Party under Anthony Albanese is hardly doing much better. Again, Internet rumour is that the ALP is also losing members. The ALP has no vision or inspiring ideas to attract voters; it keeps repeating a tired mantra of more funding for health services and education, most of which inevitably ends up in private hospitals or schools.
The issue with the security agreement between Honiara and Beijing comes at a convenient time for the ALP to beat the Liberal Party / National Party coalition government with to cover up its own lack of ideas and internal problems in the few weeks before the election. Never mind that in reality both the ALP and the Coalition govt haven't treated the security agreement between the Solomons and China as a major security issue for Australia. I'm sure the only people in Canberra who are really worried are those in the think-tanks (like the Australian Strategic Policy Institute), academia, media and sections of the political and security establishment who take their money, directly or indirectly, from the US govt and its agencies.
Posted by: Jen | Apr 23 2022 20:35 utc | 88
Allegedly videos from Odessa of the incoming cruise missile.
At least that missiel does to seem to be damaged by some flakk, but instead destroying what it wanted (or maybe what it was tricked to by EW, just speculating)
Posted by: Arioch | Apr 23 2022 20:37 utc | 89
Posted by: TP | Apr 23 2022 11:44 utc | 9
If understanding the US strategy involves reviewing its history then the first step is not to make anachronistic analogies. Roman history does not illuminate US military strategy except in the most banal and superficial way. Roman imperialism and US imperialism should be compared only for the radical differences between their mentalities and objectives. If you don't properly understand the ancient world don't draw on it for your points unless to want to risk appearing the opposite of your intention.
Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 23 2022 20:50 utc | 90
Reuters special incidents reporting taskforce reportedly arrived to Lysychansk town on April, 21st, probably eager to film that special incident promised to them
Posted by: Arioch | Apr 23 2022 20:51 utc | 91
@87 hopehely
I am not afraid to ask certain questions about Hitler, the NSDAP, and World War II.
Some historians have argued that the Soviets were getting ready to invade Germany and had massive amounts of armaments staged and ready on the border.
If this was truly the case, Hitler did have casus belli to preemptively invade Soviet territory, as did Putin with his invasion of the Borderlands.
This in conjunction with the economic war the west was perpetrating against Germany for their successes outside the influence of the western financial arrangement leads me to think that Germany under Hitler had every right to engage in war.
And what happens in war? The most detestable things. When you are surrounded on all sides like a cornered beast, you can expect people to behave at their worst. Compound this with increasing food shortages and the priority of supplies going to fighters as opposed to interned enemy combatants and personas non grata, you have a recipe for excess death due to starvation and disease. And then, when you lose the war, the enemy can write whatever history they want about you and, indeed, minimize the reason of your motivation while increasing the fable of your atrocity.
You can see the same blueprint at work in the current demonizing of Russia.
If it doesn't give you pause and you aren't willing to open up the book on Hitler and NSDAP again, then so be it. But Truth has a Way. And when I stick my finger into the air, I sense a renaissance in thinking approaching. Those who would withhold or censor a fair approximation of history will not survive what is coming.
My $.02.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Apr 23 2022 20:59 utc | 92
Roger @ 85:
I have read that Edward Bernays convinced a company that was having problems in selling bacon to advertise bacon as a familiar comfort breakfast food along with eggs and toast. What transpired next presumably went far beyond Bernays and his client's wildest dreams.
Bernays was also involved in the US government's 1954 campaign to paint Guatemala as a Communist threat in order to drum up public support for a US invasion of that tiny impoverished nation. At the time Guatemala had just voted in a government that actually appeared sincere about bringing education and health services, and other needed reforms to its citizens at the expense of US corporations like the United Fruit Company who would have had to foot the tax bill to pay for these reforms. The Bernays campaign that exploited the public fear of Communism during McCarthyism succeeded so well that a similar campaign was used nearly 30 years later by the US to demonise Nicaragua under Daniel Ortega's first presidency as a Communist threat to the US.
One reason that Bernays's PR campaigns worked so well was that he plundered his uncle Sigmund Freud's work in ways that perhaps his uncle might not have approved. The irony though is that a grandson of Freud (Matthew Freud?) has been prominent in the British advertising industry for many years, and other relatives may have worked in PR as well.
Posted by: Jen | Apr 23 2022 21:02 utc | 93
@ oldhippie | Apr 23 2022 19:51 utc | 79
thanks.. i never listened to the jam any.. i knew about them, but didn't follow them.. on the other hand, i got to see the kinks in seattle in the mid 70's at the moore, as memory serves.. great show that was worth the drive from vancouver... yes, i suppose it is how to get the girls, or eyeballs, or whatever it is that drives some people towards fame and notoriety... Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Posted by: james | Apr 23 2022 21:04 utc | 94
@Posted by: hopehely | Apr 23 2022 20:27 utc | 87
GFY, and your pathetic attempt at shutting down an understanding of the pre-WW2 period with such slanderous shaming bullshit. Of course Hitler was a monster, but that does not remove the culpability of other nations for the start of WW2.
@Posted by: Jen | Apr 23 2022 21:02 utc | 93
One of Bernay's proudest achievements was to convince women that smoking was cool. Guatemala is very sad, they were a liberal-democratic nation at the time. After the US coup the nation became the hell-hole that it currently is. So many nations had their futures stolen by US coups in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
Posted by: Lolgege | Apr 23 2022 15:28 utc | 37
You really need to qualify that. Of all imperialisms in the past the American mode has benefitted its citizens the least. They may receive indirect benefit (lower energy costs, for example) but this is more than offset by the pillaging of the taxpayer's taxes by the gangsterism of Halliburton, the MIC, big Pharma, big energy, Wall St, and so on. I agree that the New Deal brokered a pact between the working class and industry which directed both their energies toward a US imperialism that elevated the former to middle-class respectability after WW2, but since 1970 it has been internal US policy to play that in reverse. The average Joe Q Citizen in the US is in fact regarded as more dangerous to the gangster elite than any external state actor (witness their hysterical reaction to Trumpism). One need only ask: what were the direct benefits to the American taxpayer from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001? Toss in the GFC bailout and COVID emergency measures and you have a negative metric. Again, who benefits from US belligerence toward Russia? Not the taxpayer.
The US state is an instrument of an Atlantic ruling class who project its power internally to retard dissent (idpol, wokism, etc)* and extract taxes, and externally to intimidate, loot and pillage resources. The American taxpayer needs to wake up and realize who the real enemy is.
(* nb. Amazon reputedly issued an internal HR strategy memo that encouraged the use of identity politics to retard unionization. If anyone knows how to locate that document I would be grateful.)
Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 23 2022 21:12 utc | 97
Roger @85:
Is it beneficial to individuals to have their "opinion shaped"? What is the difference between "shaping" someone's opinion without their consent or knowledge and brainwashing that individual?
Maybe an argument can be made that if some people have "wrong opinions" and "think wrong thoughts" then it would be an overall social good and a benefit to the individuals themselves if their thinking can be "adjusted" without those individuals even being aware of it. But who gets to decide what constitutes "wrong opinions" and "wrong thoughts"?
The "woke" in western academia and corporate mass media certainly consider themselves to be qualified to make that decision for the rest of society. Perhaps they would be qualified if they were guided by hard science, but tragically they are not. The social sciences, which in a better world would be hard sciences, could give us the metrics to quantify "good" thoughts and opinions and distinguish them from "bad" thoughts and opinions, but we don't live in such a world. Rather, we live in a world where the social sciences have been actively stunted since the 19th century due to the threat they pose to capitalist power structures. Think of the threat posed to Church power by the physical and biological sciences before the Church was obsoleted in society by capitalism. Since then capitalism-friendly versions of the social sciences have been cultivated in academia that are not sciences at all but instead are just a nearly religious dogma that serves to rationalize capitalist society and its inequities. What is most ironic is that aspects of this pseudoscience apologia for capitalism are often termed "cultural Marxism" and are touted by its adherents as the path to societal equity!
As with any technology, this ability to "adjust" people's thinking and opinions can be done for good or evil. The efforts of those in academia and mass media to apply this technology in secret and without the consent of those being "adjusted" is sufficient proof they they are acting against the interests of the population.
Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 23 2022 21:28 utc | 98
Hopehely @ 87:
If you consider Hitler evil in wanting to exterminate Jews, Roma and others he considered Untermenschen, bear in mind he had support for his ideas even among those on the Allied side.
It is now common knowledge (or should be) that Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of two US Presidents, was a board director of a company that had a subsidiary operating a factory near the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp complex. It is very likely that at least some factory workers came from that camp. At the time Prescott Bush may have been a senator in the US government. There was concern about his links to the factory and (I think) a major business figure in Nazi Germany whose factories were supplying the Wehrmacht and I believe he did have to cut some if not all his business and financial links.
Knowledge of the Nazi death camps had reached Allied govts as early as 1942 but they seem not to have done anything about them at all. (If they had, the entire Hungarian Jewish community could have been saved as deportation of Jews in Hungary began in 1944.) The BBC apparently blocked mention of the camps on its news broadcasts. In the end, as we know, it was the Soviets who liberated the death camps in Poland where most Jewish and other Holocaust victims were transported to.
There is also the issue of Winston Churchill's responsibility for the mass starvation of some 2 or 3 million people in eastern India in 1942 as a result of British requisitioning of all the area's food supplies for British war operations in Europe.
Posted by: Jen | Apr 23 2022 21:29 utc | 99
Like Military Industry Complex, Elensky has ushered in a new era for Holocaust Industry. Hollywood is ready to cash in with titles like Bucha, Mariupol, Lira, Azovstahl, Guns of Kharakov, Battle of Black Sea, Sinking of Mskova, The Heroes of Azov Battalion… feel free to add your titles too. Here is one The Goddess of Finland!
Posted by: SailorsWife | Apr 23 2022 21:31 utc | 100
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Washington thinks and acts like it is the Manifest Destiny of the us to rule the world in perpetuity.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 23 2022 10:16 utc | 1