All it needs is that he committed war crimes to top it off.

Posted by: jpc | Sep 24 2022 7:56 utc | 1

Why do they continue?

Because it’s working. People read this rubbish, watch the news and feel they are well informed.

Lots of people I know say

Putin is losing
He couldn’t take Kiev although he tried
He may use nukes to try and win etc

Posted by: Justin | Sep 24 2022 8:00 utc | 2

i don't know if there is any way to tell for sure how many americans fall for this dreck, but it seems to be a lot. iraqi fake wmd's are forgotten, everything is "we must fight russia over there or fight them over here". pervasive control over the media helps exclude alternative points of view.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 24 2022 8:14 utc | 3

Constructing a narrative according to which Putin is losing is the single most important thing for the entire crumbling ptb madhouse. So, if the conflict is frozen (for a while) with Odessa and Kharkov remaining nominally Ukrainian, that is what we will hear: Putin has lost.

Posted by: veto | Sep 24 2022 8:18 utc | 4

Judith Miller on repeat.

Posted by: too scents | Sep 24 2022 8:19 utc | 5

Doctors training takes about 8 years
Nurse training takes about 4 years
Cop training takes about 6 months
Journalism training....6 days at most?

As for the NYT...well douchebags are always going to douche

Posted by: DaVinci | Sep 24 2022 8:20 utc | 6

The level of propoganda and disinformation concerning Russia and all matters related to the Ukraine conflict in the western media has reached such a level, that it is almost impossible to take any information derived from these sources seriously. I can only presume that the culture within the newsrooms and editorial desks has reached that point where only one perspective is considered to be "safe" in terms of reader response, collegial approval, and twitter mob scrutiny. Journalists have no incentive to challenge the narrative of the west , nor do the vast majority of them possess an ideological basis to support a questioning of this narrative. The number of self-described "persons of the Left" who retain the old lefts traditional suspicion of NATO and western imperialisms actions and aims are few today. I remember being able to read the UK Guardian in the 1980s as a leftist, critical only of its lack of courage in supporting the cause of CND to the extent that most of us activists would have preferred. It's pages dotted with a variety of left to Liberal perspectives on the issues surrounding the deployment of US nuclear missiles to Western Europe, but a variety of perspectives nonetheless. Today, this degree of scrutiny and pungent criticism of US and NATO intentions and aims would be unthinkable. Sadly, to seek out alternative perspectives today , other than the compulsorily russo phobic, it is necessary to seek out sites such as this one, and a variety of other specialist commentators offering a viewpoint contrary to the complete and total uniformity of outlook in the media of the western world.

Posted by: Gabriel in Ireland | Sep 24 2022 8:22 utc | 7

"All the news that's fit to print", right, b?

The hypocrisy of the NYT is downright stultifying sometimes.

Posted by: Objective Observer | Sep 24 2022 8:22 utc | 8

Hello b and fellow barflies.

Years ago my Sunday ritual was breakfast and the New York Times.

It was three inches thick but I read or paged through the entire thing.

Highlights were the book review and the magazine, good reading.

As examples by our better trolls and metallic man, you can disguise your message by cloaking it in good innocuous information.

I understand that the NYT as most other sources carries water for the administration, I’m not sure if they are partisan but would guess Democrats if so.

That doesn’t really matter as the NYT is an organ of US power and sends the ‘narrative’ that is decided to transmit.

It is a narrative, which is by definition a story.

I come here to discover truth and along the way hear some great stories too.

Truth has a certain sound in the ear as does falsehood.

I choose truth.

Posted by: jonku | Sep 24 2022 8:28 utc | 9

Thank you, as always, Bernard.

Upon reading this, besides thinking, 'Here we go again....sigh', I flashed on that scene from 'Casablanca'
Captain Renault storms into Rick's Americain Cafe to shut it down, exclaiming, "I'm shocked! Shocked that there is gambling going on....!"
Just then, a waiter approaches him and hands him a bunch of bills and says, " Your winnings, Captain...."
Maybe another patron of this establishment can make some sense of this.
I'm too tired to.
Maybe we all are.
Blessings
Slava Russia
L

Posted by: Lauren Michele | Sep 24 2022 8:33 utc | 10

Gabriel in Ireland.

Since Snowdengate, The Guardian is worse than the Telegraph, which at least makes no pretence to be anything other than a mouthpiece of the government.
It was still a functioning paper during the second Iraq war, but is now a lost cause.
Also, many leftists are Russophobes these days. Trump derangement syndrome pushed many on the left into the Clinton globalist camp. Strange times for sure!

Posted by: Glasshopper | Sep 24 2022 8:34 utc | 11

A corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Furthermore it cannot produce good fruit. I'm not sure I entirely agree since even their deceptions are revealing but that's what says in the Bible.

Posted by: Guy L'Estrange | Sep 24 2022 8:48 utc | 12

Everything has a practical purpose. What would be the practical purpose of this "story"?

Anonymous officials said that Putin is losing and the US is winning, so it makes sense to increase aid to Ukraine, reduce opposition to the aid and increase support for the Democrats. After the elections it doesn't really matter if the story gets blown out of the water and collides with the unstoppable force of reality, because then there's another many years to create another story for the next election.

There must be something in the water, making people forget stories and realities in short order.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPiynyOsXrE

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 24 2022 8:59 utc | 13

Propagnda on MSM has no limits!
In my country, main, state controlled media, which is deleting any comment, which turns actual NATO agenda into dust, is using "likes" under published comments.
This likes sre reaching houndreds under comments which brands Putin as a criminal.
We, which are banned, know, that moderators are awarding such comments with mass of likes.
We proved that years ago on other topics, when censorship was not yet so sharp. Then they stopped for a while...

But, that is nothing, as German RT is writing today, German secret service has houndred acounts in right sector, which are used to spread exstreme propaganda and with that collecting info abut possibly dangerous individuals..
So, today you must be VERY careful reading.... Luckly I know this portal for years...

Posted by: preseren3 | Sep 24 2022 8:59 utc | 14

It dawned upon me like a great cascading technicolor sunrise that we will not be the good guys in the history books. Indeed they will be written in Mandarin and Russian and they will tell of the passive indolent populace that lived and died under the rule of the technofacist Western AI algorithms which in hindsight was the embodiment of the Antichrist or whatever archetype of inhumane spirit that animates the empty suits of the likes of Biden and Stoltenberg.
b will be remembered as a plucky independent thinker who shunned Bitcoin due to the drudgery of his inherited conditioned Germanic thinking. The very same that saw the German people suicide themselves by slow immune system deterioration through hastily prepared new injectable technology in the name of progress. Then it got cold. Then they got desperate. Then they lost everything.
And the proud Russian nation embraced to her bosom the repentant stragglers from the imploded ex civilization of Western Europe and now unencumbered by new renditions of fanaticism on their doorstep progressed even further into the destiny that awaits their natural potential led by ethical HUMANS. Being far removed from such matters I am happy to be on the losing side. A great evil will pass away and I can grow my coffee and sugar cane in peace and smoke my pipe while watching the children play in a beautiful and bountiful world.

Posted by: Jacq | Sep 24 2022 9:01 utc | 15

Why do they expect anyone to pay for this dreck?

If the NYT was an honest exercise in journalism they would attempt to estimate the costs.

The first major cost is the butchers bill presently being paid in lives in 404.

Next is the cost of all the transfers to 404 which total mounts to tens of billions of dollars.

But this is not the true cost as the US is engaged in debt finance and so there are associated interest expenses. Given the policies of the Fed these costs are rising. The bankers stand to benefit from this conflict both now and in the future.

Further to the above these "costs" are actually subsidies to the arms sector who are generating significant profits. But these subsidies are occurring in an inflationary environment and therefore impose a cost on every US citizen. It was the cost of the Vietnam war that resulted in Volker pushing the overnight rates ove 20%.

American armaments (such as the F-35) incorporate parts and materials made in China, a state which has been identified as the chief "enemy"of the US. There is the anticipated cost of engaging in a conflict where the opponent is key element of the spare parts supply chain.

Specific to the conflict in 404 is the fact that EU states are facing an economic crisis. While the EU will suffer the direct costs the US will also see a decline in export earnings and higher costs due to supply chain productions due to the loss of EU parts suppliers (some of which supply F-35 components)

Not to be neglected are the social costs as every dollar spent on war materials is a dollar not spent on US infrastructure, US housing, VA benefits, Social Security and all the rest.

And the bottom line cost is the fact the US is provoking conflict with nuclear armed China at the same time as its is poking the nuclear armed bear. Both states have red lines which have been crossed or which the US intends to ignore. The world is on a hair trigger for a war of unspeakable devastation and loss of life.

There is much that has been left off of this balance sheet. An ethical news organization with a concern for its polity and the survival of the state would attempt to identify these costs and communicate them to its readers.

Posted by: Sushi | Sep 24 2022 9:11 utc | 16

So, the NYT is a blog populated with comments by anonymous government spokespeople.

Posted by: dfg | Sep 24 2022 9:27 utc | 17

@ Jacq | Sep 24 2022 9:01 utc | 16

I like your history of the future.

Posted by: dfg | Sep 24 2022 9:35 utc | 18

Interesting

NYT is now back to the corrupted reporting. The same one that actually encouraged USSA's one-sided war with Spain. After a rusting old pre-dreadnaught slow escort armored heavy cruiser ersatz battleship USSN Maine(1889)(ram bow design) self-destructed from a coal bunker fire in Havana. Thus verifying the original colonial 1898 Del Peral and De Salas inquiry Spanish enquiry!

Back to the old style sledging same old, same old! lmao.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Sep 24 2022 9:40 utc | 19

If the journalistic landscape is even more controlled than the revelations 50 years ago about mockingbirds it shouldn’t be such a surprise.

It is a just a culmination of decades of Advertising and PR expertise Tails wagging the Dog.
Almost every news broadcaster is a fully fledged arm of State Intelligence apparatchiks.
In the U.K. this went from the fascist supporters of Churchill and Hitler to the Rotter pseudonymous Mossad man Maxwell (father of Ghislaine) and Tiny Rowlands battles of ownership of the Observer ; this went much further with the arrival of the Dirty Digger Murrrrrdorrrrk, from down under, with endless spendoolis and hatchet men of his own. Ushering in Thatcher, shaped in the media into a caricature of Iron Lady bs, the big oil grabs , Al Yamama. Etc the great neolib long con job proceeded in earnest.

To destroy the Trente glorious’s gains for the ordinary poor of Europe. Ending in this planned winter of dispossession of all the wealth owned by our parents and grandparents.
Our children will be poor and they will blame us. We will blame anyone the oligarchic media tells us to , except ourselves - for buying, devouring the easy daily lies they feed us.

The grabbing of satellite tv and sports trapping people inside their own homes and the model of entertainment and cable news extended across the west.

The grand dumbing down. With pathetic elite worshipping historical costume fiction , endless amount of trust the state police procedural to the ultimate Exceptionalism of super powered heroes!

What’s the difference between the NYT and the saintly Guardian and the other grandee titles of the Collective Waste? Zilch! That’s what. They are the soma dispersers, the dream factories, the koolaid trip machines which has us all believing we can fly and watches as we turn ourselves into bestial foaming at the mouth lemmings willing to lose all by buying the daily lies.

Thank goodness for b’s MoA and many independent bloggers and social media voices using the machine against itself while they can. Because the range is ever more being razor wired and even these new media will become as coraled and useless as the NYT and the rest of the publications of worth.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Sep 24 2022 9:47 utc | 20

Why do they expect anyone to pay for this dreck?

Because a non-trivial amount of middle and upper middle class people believed and wanted to believe that Donald Trump addressed reasonable grievances in terms of immigration and that people who voted for Obama twice swung the election in his favour by giving him otherwise perma-blue states in the Great Lakes area. Since they are incapable of understanding this they must assume that the people who voted for Trump are evil. That like the Lord of The Rings, evil is overtaking the land.

We see this too with Ursula van der Leven essentially saying if the populist right coalition wins in Italy it represents a 'wrong' result of democracy.

In Denmark we see a Social Democratic party that accepts that like Marx understood, mass migration is firstly class warfare and secondly an ethnic conflict, neither auger well for social democracy. In Sweden where this lesson wasn't learned we see the SD won the election two election rounds off Swedish newspapers publishing cartoons of it's leader's head on a cockroach with an exterminator with the mainstream party logos on him heroically fumigating democracy. (As an aside I was in Malmo in the aftermath of the 2015 election and was on the motorway when a government car, not a police car, a government car careened dangerously through traffic like a police car, something to do with grand coalition talks no doubt)

Because they can't understand why being ethnically displaced and being spatially and economically displaced is not just bad but the worst thing imaginable, they can't comprehend why these populist parties with anti-immigration platforms are doing so well outside the people voting for them are evil.

So they gladly eat up the explanations given by the neocons who tell them Putin was it! Trump wasn't really elected, the Russians hacked the election! That explains it, I don't have to re-evaluate by prejudices or simple world view! There is an evil, a mental virus spreading and if we only destroy it the problems will go away, it's not a rational response to the priorities and choices allowed in modern democracies, it must be evil!

As an aside though such parties are often only able to emerge from the far right, as they have become defacto anti-immigrant populist parties rather than neo-fascist parties, their economic policies have changed accordingly. Actual neo-reactionaries are disappointed by this that people don't want immigration or neo-fascism so something had to give. The Front Nationale has become a de facto Social Democrat party. (And have changed their name)

Posted by: Altai | Sep 24 2022 9:51 utc | 21

"Yellow journalism" rearing on its hind legs again.

Yellow Journalism

Ironic that the Pulitzer Prize is named after one of the progenitors of yellow journalism? Or simply apropos?

Posted by: Objective Observer | Sep 24 2022 9:52 utc | 22

It is reported by IntelSlava that Army General Dmitry Bulgakov has been fired and replaced by Mikhail Mizintsev.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 24 2022 9:59 utc | 23

The NYT's lack of reliability pre-dates Judith Miller and Jayson Blair - it began before either of them were born.

Remember: the NYT is the newspaper that printed Walter Duranty's fabrications, and saw to it that Duranty won the Pulitzer-berg-stein-witz-farb Prize for 1931.

Miller was born in 1948; Blair in 1978.

So the birth of the culture of fundamental dishonesty at the NYT dates from well before they played faeces-flinging monkey in the leadup to the US War Crime in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Posted by: Kratoklastes | Sep 24 2022 10:01 utc | 24

A very thoughtful and over arching historical piece of writing over at slavyangrad. It speaks to the nameless shot stirrers of ‘news’

‘ Just my opinion, not of the channel. It's relatively quiet in the front now. Everyone is regrouping. A big showdown awaits us. Yes, yes, we all know that. I didn't tell anything new. But I would like to talk about the future. There is absolutely no doubt that Ukraine will be destroyed. Much, or a little less than expected remains to be seen. Will it continue to exist? Probably, although not in this form. But tackling another problem is of extreme importance. Nazis. They showed up in Ukraine. Where did they come from? The problem lies in years after the break up of the USSR. Newly created states, some of them, Baltic ones, openly showed their anti-Russian sentiment. Some would say, yeah, they did, but they had a hard time under communism. They are partially right. But that was because of the mistakes of communists. United people of the former great socialist giant was an illusion. Baltic states in secret, and after the break up of the Union, started to show what they really are. Former nazi colonies, which helped willingly and gladly in the extermination of their own Jewish population and Slavic people. They were helping Germans, not only in death squads but as combat soldiers on the front. And nothing less than in SS troops. Especially Latvia and Estonia. They began with public marches of former SS veterans, mocking WW2 Soviet and Allied people's heroism and praising the killers. And, year by year, those things continued unopposed and unsanctioned blatantly by Europe and the rest of the world except Russia. They were on national televisions, represented as heroic defenders against wild hordes from the east. Orcs, as they call us today. Imagine, SS murderers of women, children, and old people were heroes for them. And they still marching. Normally, cancer was spreading. It's in his nature. Their history was falsified, and they show others how you can be falsely special. And they found a breeding ground in Ukraine, devastated by bad privatization, bad standard, the fall of the self-esteem of people, and stolen money from elites. By accepting nazism, they started to think better of themselves. That they are special, chosen, and whatnot...They started falsifying their school books. The scenario was always the same. And that was the biggest mistake of communism. They thought that those people can redeem themselves. And they didn't clean them to the end. Civilization was fair to the nazis. They listen to their arguments in Nuremberg and subsequent trials and then, mainly hung and shot them, thus ending that argument. Soviets failed to do so. Now, Russia must finish the job. After Ukraine, the Baltic states deserved to be visited and denazify once and for all.’

https://t.me/Slavyangrad/9847

Posted by: DunGroanin | Sep 24 2022 10:18 utc | 25

DaVinci | Sep 24 2022 8:20 utc | 6

A movie about a movie used in another US intervention, Argo, contains this phrase ’ you can teach a rhesus monkey to be director in a day’ – please apply to journalists

Posted by: Gerrard White | Sep 24 2022 10:22 utc | 26

It is only after some great earthquake, which would make the cities of the earth crumble, that the great city (broken in three pieces) will be struck and burnt to the ground in one hour only.
There will be no sunshine for 3 days.
The sun light afterwards will be dimmed by one third.
This 2000 year old apt description of nuclear strike, must be wrong: how could they know?
ITOH how could we dodge that fate with the clowns that lead us to perdition?

Posted by: Greg Galloway | Sep 24 2022 10:23 utc | 27

Under our guidelines, anonymous sources should be used only for information that we think is newsworthy and credible, and that we are not able to report any other way.

Doesnt this just sanction the very reporting that built up to the WMD debacle? Is this written by a vegetable or cleverly construed to sound like a "we'll do better" while actually saying we'll carry on exactly as we have been?

Posted by: Iraeis | Sep 24 2022 10:23 utc | 28

meanwhile the referendums are ongoing
Patrick Lancaster who covered the 2014 Crimea referendums and has been covering the Donbass for the past 8 years, is also covering the current referendums
you know, it's very rare these days for journalists to do actual journalist things like talk to locals, do some on the ground investigating and actual reporting...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgYqusaO2Gg

Posted by: leaf | Sep 24 2022 10:26 utc | 29

It should come as no surprise to any on here the levels of disinformation the western media spew out on a daily basis, it has after all been going on for centuries. However, we can agree that before now there was the odd dissenting news outlets who managed to produce some actual truths. Today though, it's very clear that the level of lies are off the scale and it's pretty clear why. Never before has our western world come as close to extinction as it does now, press rooms are in panic mode right now, the end is nigh, truths are no longer relevant. If the rest of the world wins then we are fucked and we'll have to press the button. This long drawn out car crash is painful to watch and live through, the ordinary man or woman have no idea how fucked they are and the media will not be telling them anytime soon how really bad it is. The media will only tell the truth when it's too late, until then, avoid reading, watching or listening to anything from the media in order to keep your sanity and in order to enjoy the last few months of your lives.

Posted by: Eoin Clancy | Sep 24 2022 10:35 utc | 30

putin was always new hitler
saddam hussein new hitler 2
gaddaffi was crazy crazed dazed new hitler 3
animal assad oil drum big bi plane bomba new hitler 4
the folks of yugoslavia home of lovely nikola tesla
all new hitlers
you here hare here key bored warriorshuman monsters new hitler cogs
in the never ending new hitler sim machine.
if we do not all support are vital demonocracy wprld wide
by supporting your local molech

we will all transform into new hitler
bbc hitler a warning from histry init

Posted by: gordon | Sep 24 2022 10:39 utc | 31

In about a week or two you'll have all your answers. If Russia continues like this, sending batches of 5 soldiers, protecting the nato proxies in Ukr, their roads and railways, power grid and oil supply, then you can be sure they're part of the same reset plan. Actually, if that is the truth, 1-2 waves of partial mobilization and then martial law will happen before year end, both in Russia and Natostan. Then everyone, willing or not, goes to the meat grinder, never winning anything because they're not supposed to win anything. Excluding those who have the money to pay the fee. Exactly like it happens in Ukr now! What was the official fee in Ukr? 2k, 5k? I bet in Switzerland it will start at 50k.

Posted by: rk | Sep 24 2022 10:42 utc | 32

One of the worst aspects of westie propaganda and trolling, as per NYT, is that the prime victims are the westies themselves, as per the very old soviet saying

There are many commentors here who, without really be aware of it, reproduce the NYTrash, each in their own more or less troll like way, but under the illusion that they think different – yet they cheer on their side, they agonise about Ukie propaganda, they worry if the RF are winning or losing or whataver, they pore over maps, they 'worry' they 'concern', they 'advise'

So much so that many sites, such as this one, spend most of their time not in reporting but in refuting

Putin does spend some time refuting, but little, most he spends reporting – this should be a palimpset to all those here seeking to comment

Posted by: Gerrard White | Sep 24 2022 10:45 utc | 33

Mr. Putin also said that anyone who lays a finger on Mother Russia is toast.

Posted by: quasi_verbatim | Sep 24 2022 10:55 utc | 34

Posted by: veto | Sep 24 2022 8:18 utc | 4

Constructing a narrative according to which Putin is losing is the single most important thing for the entire crumbling ptb madhouse. So, if the conflict is frozen (for a while) with Odessa and Kharkov remaining nominally Ukrainian, that is what we will hear: Putin has lost.

Could you explain why this would be so important? What would be the tactical advantage of manipulating public perception into believing that Putin is losing?

I ask this because much of the discussions here revolve around the basic premise that the managers want us to believe Putin is losing. And yet, my observation of the artillery barrage of managed information to which we are subjected without interruption, is more of the order of "Putin bad, Russia bad, Putin Putin Putin" Reports of Russian losses do exist, obviously, but the scale is totally different.

I don't agree with unimperator @ 13 that the willingness to provide aid to Ukraine (and ultimately wage war) is dependent on the perception of who is winning or losing. And tying this to blue on red sectarian divide makes even less sense.

In my opinion, the Western general public is rather uninterested in international matters. It doesn't voluntarily seek out information about the war but it certainly does hear it. What it retains, the essential keywords and overall impression, is Russia Russia Russia, chemical weapons, Putin, Russia, aggression, Putin Putin. The resultant is an overwhelming tacit acquiescence of Western foreign policy and also an absence of any reasoned, well defined opposition.

Posted by: robin | Sep 24 2022 10:56 utc | 35

From a comment on Larry's blog....

Irretrievable losses of Ukraine:
KIA 61K
Those who died as a result of injury 17 K
Missing (~90% KIA unidentified or unclaimed) 32K
KIA Territorial Defense (TRO) ~21K
POW >14k
Retired by injury >49K
Total UA irretrievable losses is 192K
or 129K KIA+14K POW+49K retired by injury.

They started with 300K....
This amounts to 67% of their initial force.

This specifically means that only 100K of the initial, NATO trained force remains...
Most likely garrisons in Kiev, Kharkhov, Odessa, Lvov....

This means that the bulk of the remaining force consists of untrained conscripts..

Now, we have the new factor of Geran-2 drones, which have shown to be networked, and capable of being linked to a larger recon drone which provides targeting. I note the Russian MOD claims to have destroyed at least 2 HIMARS during the past 48 hours, and shelling is greatly reduced in the DonBas.

INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 24 2022 10:58 utc | 36

Mildly off topic, but do we have a source / website that lists all the attacks by the Ukrainian forces on civilian targets in the free and/or liberated Donezk and Lugansk regions? A diary of terror, so to speak?

Posted by: CM of Berlin | Sep 24 2022 10:59 utc | 37

Seems like Warsaw Pact equipment has run out and they're going back to the 1950s.

https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/nato-running-out-t72s-ukraine-t55s-slovenia

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 24 2022 11:17 utc | 38

Latest headline from the guardian:

"Europe urged to accept Russians fleeing military draft as border crossings surge"

So i wonder if they are to be treated the same as the ukrainian refugees and offered free board and lodgings etc. And i also wonder how these people fleeing, are going to support themselves and for how long.

Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Sep 24 2022 11:31 utc | 39

Desperation and impotent anger sometimes give birth to wishful thinking. The empire of lies is crashing and NYT and all other beneficiaries of the system are desperate.

Posted by: Steve | Sep 24 2022 11:33 utc | 40

Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Sep 24 2022 11:31 utc | 39

I don't know "who is urging to accept people fleeing military draft" but that certainly doesn't apply in any eastern EU-ropean state bordering Russia or Belarus.

In fact, this is probably due to the fact that it is absolutely crucial for Natostan to keep their 5th columnists inside Russia causing problems.

What reports we had earlier of "people fleeing the military draft" were proven as fake, i.e. videos taken from weeks before this was announced.

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 24 2022 11:34 utc | 41

@Greg Galloway | Sep 24 2022 10:23 utc | 27

It is only after some great earthquake, which would make the cities of the earth crumble, that the great city (broken in three pieces) will be struck and burnt to the ground in one hour only.
There will be no sunshine for 3 days.
The sun light afterwards will be dimmed by one third.
This 2000 year old apt description of nuclear strike, must be wrong: how could they know?

Most cultures around the world have stories like this (Hamlet's Mill) because it actually happened. Not necessarily as a nuclear strike but something natural and even more violent, i.e. a comet fragment from the Taurids stream that hit the earth 12900 years ago and erased the advanced civilization that existed before, we can still see remains of it in places. The devastation was such that it took ~8000 years to begin a new civilization in Mesopotamia.

Sometimes I think another Taurid needs to hit to get rid of the evil in the West today, we have a chance every year for that to come true.

Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 24 2022 11:40 utc | 42

A little fantasy game. Imagine Putin resigns and a new nationalistic leader takes over. No, not Medvedev. I don’t know who that might be. The whole western propaganda is deflated. The new leader criticizes Putin for being pro western. The collective west would lose their mind.

Posted by: RB | Sep 24 2022 11:42 utc | 43

Thanks for the effort. The main stream news we get is so total rubbish that MOA is like an oasis. After church this morning I turned the radio on and received all the standard puke: Putin, Putin, Putin, ...losing, bad, sham referenda, Cherson lost, Donetsk compromised, 10 light years car queues of fleeing Russians, etc, etc. etc. I would lough my ass off, were it not for the pessimism instilled by the public's unending gullibility to the total rubbish that is served.

Posted by: petrospapas | Sep 24 2022 11:45 utc | 44

The NYT has long ago lost all credibility.
There are still occasionally stories of real reporting and interest published there, but these handful are simply not worth the enormous dumpster fire of garbage that needs to be sifted through to find it.
Pass.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 24 2022 11:49 utc | 45

Unimpertaror no 41

It doesn't add up. One of the destinations by air was dubai.
I doubt anyone can just fly into dubai without a visa. And the cost of living is prohibitive unless you are very, very wealthy. (It's the president of the european council doing the urging)

Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Sep 24 2022 11:51 utc | 46

"comments by anonymous people"

NYT = 4chan with a subscription fee

Posted by: dfg | Sep 24 2022 11:53 utc | 47

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia.....

Posted by: georgeg | Sep 24 2022 12:01 utc | 48

B, is there any concrete info as to what is happening in China??

https://voxday.net/2022/09/24/color-revolution-in-china/
https://tfiglobalnews.com/2022/09/23/is-xi-jinping-under-house-arrest/

Posted by: Popcorn | Sep 24 2022 12:06 utc | 49

Best way to eliminate the eurocrats and bureaucrats all together is just get a leader(s) who adopt a policy of ignoring them all together. This way they can keep babbling all they want, but they just fade into irrelevance, along with their WEF employers.

Just stop responding and let them understand they are redundant, irrelevant, and belong in a mental institution.

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 24 2022 12:07 utc | 50

"...many leftists are Russophobes these days. Trump derangement syndrome pushed many on the left into the Clinton globalist camp. Strange times for sure!.." Glasshopper@11
You are right about the Trump factor, But there is nothing new about the phenomenon of 'radicals' throwing up the struggle and rushing into the welcoming arms of the powers that be- to be rewarded and, finally, in their opinion, recognised for the intellectual giants that they are.

That is how the neo-cons came about: they suddenly discovered that the Russian revolution-which they had worshipped all their political lives- had degenerated so much that they moved from no longer supporting the USSR to leading the fight to destroy it.

The same thing happened again to the former International Socialism/SWP members who deserted en masse from anti imperialism to anti anti-imperialism. These former supporters of the Vietcong are now supporters of the Azov Brigade and NATO.

There is a wonderful passage in a book about the German SPD (the Scholz mob today) on the Reichstag debates on war credits in 1914. It was a very similar situation: opposed to all wars and the Kaiser on principle, fresh from agreeing with the rest of Europe's socialist parties that, in the event of war they would refuse credits and call for a General Strike, they persuaded themselves, quoting Marx selectively, that Russia was the enemy of all democracy and progress. And therefore they could support the war. And they all stood up (with honourable exceptions) and sang Deutschland, Deutschland, uber alles!

Plus ca change. Honest men live among traitors, liars and reporters from the NY Times/Guardian etc.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 24 2022 12:18 utc | 51

Posted by: Popcorn | Sep 24 2022 12:06 utc | 49

If you believe these, then I have a bridge to sell you.

Posted by: KitaySupporter | Sep 24 2022 12:21 utc | 52

It reminds me of two things:
1. Glenn Greenwald's Outfoxed where he has that bit where the various talking heads say "some people say."
2. Anyone of a number of videos (including the one about Sinclair) where the politicians and media have the same talking points (singing from the same song sheet -- on message).

On Transparency International's CPI Corruption Perception Index, the US is tied with Chile for 27th place. That means that 26 countries are less corrupt than the US. CPI is the result of polls which can be skewed and there are connections to the World Bank and WeF. But this is still a good indicator. Could any of our media cover this or even mention their role in why this is the way it is?

Posted by: curtis | Sep 24 2022 12:27 utc | 53

@bevin #51
Your conservative-derangement-syndrome is strong.
Neo-con means neo-conservative; please demonstrate for me how George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice and so forth were EVER socialist/Marxist.

In contrast: neoliberals - not the economists but the "political" branch - are much more accurately termed Marxists/socialists turned cheerleaders for Pax Americana.

Note it is primarily in foreign policy that the neocons and neolibs overlap: the neocons because of Rovian "Empire/Create Our Own Reality" and the neolibs because of Clintonian "Right To Protect".

I strenuously object to your continuous failure to understand the differences between the two and to conflate anything bad with conservatives in general.

Neo-cons are not conservatives except in the sense they try to attract that sentiment in the voter base - much as neo-liberals are not liberals except that they seek liberal voters in the voter base.

Posted by: c1ue | Sep 24 2022 12:29 utc | 54

From "All the News That's Fit to Print”, to “All the News Twisted to Print”.

Posted by: Jose Garcia | Sep 24 2022 12:32 utc | 55

If there ever is a new world order after all this, states will have to criminalise these information warfare practices. I dont know how but it has to be done.

Most of the ills in the world have been created because a group has become too well versed in such activities, also surveillance, to the detriment of others that they thus exploit.

We used to have class divisions between labour and those who own the means of production. Now we have the consumers of information and those who own the means of informational warfare. Traditional checks and balances mechanisms are non functioning in the face of this new menace to fall upon our kind.

Posted by: alek_a | Sep 24 2022 12:39 utc | 56

Posted by: Popcorn | Sep 24 2022 12:06 utc | 49

https://tfiglobalnews.com/2022/09/23/is-xi-jinping-under-house-arrest/

Cornpop, please stop reading TFI Global - it's an indian propaganda channel we've encountered for years on MoA. the resident Hindu nationalist troll Antonym coughs hariballs from TFI every now and again when the China hatred is rising.

It's another variant of the "Putin Coup?" or "Putin Cancer" nonsense ...

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 24 2022 12:40 utc | 57

"A lot of anonymous American officials said that the U.S. was winning its wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan etc. Anonymous American officials said that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The NYT printed all those false claims without providing evidence for their veracity."

Remember the Maine.
Seems structural to mildly understate it. After a hundred years, it is almost as if the readership bears some responsibility, after all they are gladly paying for it.

Posted by: Elmagnostic | Sep 24 2022 12:41 utc | 58

You get the same damn thing out of "Fox and Friends". I'm in a beet red state, Trump country, the "Bible Belt" and I've heard some of the most bloodthirsty, ignorant remarks in my life.

I have yet to encounter one single individual who has the slightest idea what Minsk accord is, and when I try to tell them their ears slam shut. What I hear a lot is "Trump would bomb the hell out of them".

Posted by: chunga | Sep 24 2022 12:41 utc | 59

This is a great piece highlighting an element of the decline of American journalism. Yes, it’s, weirdly, corporate-statist propaganda. Never stop reminding everyone because it’s true.

is it just me or is The New York Post increasingly a standout for good journalism?

Posted by: GoFast | Sep 24 2022 12:47 utc | 60

I canceled my subscription to the Times shortly before the conflict began in Feb. Was a regular commenter, never had a problem with moderation unless the subject was Ukraine. Then the approval took several hours if the comment was approved at all, probably half of my comments were never published, and the ones that were drew a shitstorm of replies from the Russia haters, many of them pure speculation. I canceled and told them why, wasn't going to send my money to a propaganda rag, then got bombarded with emails offering discounted rates to subscribe again. Paper of record my arse.

Posted by: Mike R | Sep 24 2022 12:49 utc | 61

Opport Knocks | Sep 24 2022 9:59 utc | 23

"Fired"

Is that what is called intentional "slant"?

Posted by: DoesItReallyMatter | Sep 24 2022 12:51 utc | 62

Posted by: robin | Sep 24 2022 10:56 utc | 35

In my opinion, the Western general public is rather uninterested in international matters. It doesn't voluntarily seek out information about the war but it certainly does hear it. What it retains, the essential keywords and overall impression, is Russia Russia Russia, chemical weapons, Putin, Russia, aggression, Putin Putin. The resultant is an overwhelming tacit acquiescence of Western foreign policy and also an absence of any reasoned, well defined opposition.

I've been preaching that gospel here at MoA for months: The West is wasting billions (trillions?) on propagandizing a largely apathetic population whose opinions don't matter anyway.

I'd say that most people are apathetic as to political and especially geopolitical affairs (more than 60%). They're more interested with the Kardashians or sports news and could barely name the president of Turkey or Russia.

Of the 40% that do have an interest in political affairs half are focused on domestic politics, caring nothing for the news outside their borders.

Of the 20% that have an interest in geopolitics and have strong emotions and positions on geopolitical affairs, 99% are without any agency to influence their local politics to serve the ends of "the managers" who are players in geopolitical affairs.

Given this logic, Russia's extreme neglect of the "propaganda war" makes perfect sense.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 24 2022 12:52 utc | 63

"..Neo-con means neo-conservative; please demonstrate for me how George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice and so forth were EVER socialist/Marxist..." c1ue@54

Your ignorance is showing. The neo-cons are generally accepted to be the followers of people like Podhoretz, former Trotskyists 'mugged by reality' who turned into rabid Zionists and Cold Warriors.

You should get out more.

As to the Bush, Cheney, Rice trio you are the first person who ever accused them of having had any original ideas in their lives. They were just dreary opportunists doing what their bosses wanted.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 24 2022 13:00 utc | 64

Since Snowdengate, The Guardian is worse than the Telegraph, which at least makes no pretence to be anything other than a mouthpiece of the government.
It was still a functioning paper during the second Iraq war, but is now a lost cause.

Posted by: Glasshopper | Sep 24 2022 8:34 utc | 11

You mean functioning as a pro-Blair, pro-invasion rag. I can't recall the Guardian being anything else than that.

Posted by: Mushroom | Sep 24 2022 13:04 utc | 65

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 24 2022 12:52 utc | 63

Most Americans are also fed a lot of misanthropic caricatures of Russians too as mindless brutes 6 of whom can easily be taken down by 1 well trained US Marine. They dont see any contradiction with this and how the Rookies can keep up with them on 1/10th of the US defence budget and how US astronauts have to hitch rides on Russian rockets to the ISS. Not to mention how they feed, house, educate and build modern infrastucture for 150m people on the budget of the state of California who cant do the same for what 40m Americans?

Posted by: DaVinci | Sep 24 2022 13:08 utc | 66

51 & 53

There is no mystery at all about how the SPD came to support WWI. Standard history. Ebert was granted an audience with Kaiser Bill. The Kaiser and his ministers had been worried about a general strike, had been prepared to negotiate. Once admitted to the presence of Majesty, Friedrich Ebert was overawed. He crawled. And mumbled. Instead of negotiating the Kaiser issued orders and all were gladly accepted. That was the end of any ideological threat in Germany.

Same thing can be observed on this page. Many here who post as leftists fell all over themselves to worship at the grave of the late Queen.

Posted by: oldhippie | Sep 24 2022 13:16 utc | 67

American General embraces his nation's viking past:
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-general-mike-minihan-mobility/

"The pile of our nation’s enemy dead, the pile that is the biggest, is in front of the United States Air Force."

Psychopaths rise to the top.

Posted by: Average Joe | Sep 24 2022 13:23 utc | 68

We have the same shit in the UK, with radio news saying hundreds of thousands of Russian men are fleeing or trying to flee the country (Russia) so as not to be conscripted. I sometimes wonder when watching the propaganda, sorry news in the UK, and the presenter or some supposed expert on conflict discuss how Russia is losing badly, that maybe one of them might actually burst out laughing and say, I'm outta here.

In the UK we have the media lauding Ukrainian emigrants not refugees if you ask me no one is attacking Kiev etc, and boasting about how many the UK will take, and what we'll give them, hell in Scotland Sturgeon whose heroine is the warhawk Hillary Clinton, has even appointed a minister to deal with specifically the Ukrainian emigrants needs.

Western propaganda has brainwashed most of the public, and those that aren't are wary about saying anything in public.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 24 2022 13:35 utc | 69

Ya, I just read and watched the US media on Ukraine today. It's almost like they are trying to set the stage for a huge False Flag { somewhere/anywhere } because they are running out of time. European countries are leaning over and looking like they could have their own domestic reset - not the one that the WEF is trying for, but a People's Reset. All in all, this is looking like the biggest backfire of the Century - lol - and it couldn't happen to a better Gang of liars, thieves and murderers.

Posted by: GMC | Sep 24 2022 13:38 utc | 70

via rt...goodness knows what Macron is reading too about Pres Putin's actions...probably nothing in his hypereality mind just some vacous pretentiousness in there

"“I have no rational explanation. I think this is a series of resentment, this is a strategy of hegemony in the region, and I would say this is a post-Covid-19 consequence, isolation,” he said.

The French leader argued that when Putin “decided to launch his war on 21 February, I think he made the first mistake, a huge one. And he decided to put Russia in a situation indeed to be the new imperial country and to launch a colonial war.”

Posted by: Jo | Sep 24 2022 13:48 utc | 71

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 24 2022 12:52 utc | 63

Most Americans who have some interest in domestic politics form their opinions within the confines of the mainstream media's framing of the issues, which is deliberately limited to exclude any options that could actually change the system. Their conception of how government actually works is cartoonish, again framed by the media. The small percentage of these people, that actually follow any geopolitics, mostly accept the US centric framing of foreign issues. The exceptional US, US as victim, other countries are out to get us, US as champion of freedom and democracy around the world, etc. The fraction of people who can actually conceive of foreign relations as a two way street, or that other countries have their own interests to protect, and that keeping the peace requires active diplomacy, is vanishingly small. The belief that the US is entitled to unchallenged global primacy and that other countries will either submit to our dictates or become our enemy, is ingrained in the American mind even though it is usually not explicitly stated. The vast majority of congress embraces this mindset, some fervently, and most of them will win their primaries be re-elected. So far, there is not even a hint from the populace that they are seeking change.

Posted by: Mike R | Sep 24 2022 13:54 utc | 72

Posted by: Mushroom | Sep 24 2022 13:04 utc | 65

It has a lot to do with Rusbridger being forced to watch Special Branch physically destroy hard drives at The Guardian - and his replacement by Katherine Viner has been a travesty. She was based in NYC until being plugged into the editorship.

Once it was possible to read The Guardian as a slightly eccentric newspaper........since Viner it is clear you need to be taking the psychotropic drugs and wearing VR glasses to even begin to enter its strange paradigm and parallel reality

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 24 2022 13:57 utc | 73

Justin wrote @ 2:

Why do they continue?

Because it’s working. People read this rubbish, watch the news and feel they are well informed.

That is the sad truth.

Every morning I read news releases from all over the world. I couple that with my knowledge of history and plain logic in the hopes of piecing together what is really going on. Even then I have have to admit that it is very, very difficult (sometimes impossible) to figure things out.

But one thing does become clear through all of that effort. The American media is simply not credible.

But - despite that and the American media's terrible track record - many people just buy into whatever story the media is selling.

It is incredible and disheartening.

Posted by: Mike from Jersey | Sep 24 2022 14:00 utc | 74

Opport Knocks | Sep 24 2022 9:59 utc | 23

"Fired"

Is that what is called intentional "slant"?

Posted by: DoesItReallyMatter | Sep 24 2022 12:51 utc | 62

The pro-Russian source, IntelSlava, used the word "dismissed" which, in the context of employment, is the same as "fired". I could have said that this was proof that Putin ordered Shoigu to shake things up, but I have no such evidence. The Langley trolls will be here shortly to do that.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 24 2022 14:01 utc | 75

Nearly all US adults get their "news" from the boob tube. They believe it. They look shocked if you ask them to question it. These are mature adults. They turn the "news" on every night, and the same face comforts them, and tells them what they want to hear. These people are completely unable to form an opinion of their own. I don't know how they walk upright. Back in the 1980's the Director of the CIA said, we'll know how effective our propaganda effort is, when everything that every American believes is wrong.

Posted by: Leroy | Sep 24 2022 14:04 utc | 76

Same thing can be observed on this page. Many here who post as leftists fell all over themselves to worship at the grave of the late Queen.

Posted by: oldhippie | Sep 24 2022 13:16 utc | 67

You are way off-beam. The only place the SPD leadership was summoned to was the Interior Ministry. They did not want to be "pro-Russian" so lined up to face down the hated Tsarenreich.

The SPD split and did throw out Rosa Luxembourg for not toeing the line. The split was complete by 1917.

It was rather akin to the SPD trying to remove Gerd Schroeder today..........and the way Scholz has now-towed to the Green-Atlanticists

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 24 2022 14:05 utc | 77

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 24 2022 12:52 utc | 63

I don't disagree. It is however not Propaganda to make them "anti-Russian". It is propaganda to keep them quiet......accepting of lower living standards - to frame them like Trump as "Putin agents" if they question.

It is "1984" where the ambience is predisposed towards conformity. The Stasi used "Zersetzung" to isolate the dissentient - The West now does much the same

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 24 2022 14:16 utc | 78

@oldhippie 67

Some of us are still mourning the expiry of the old witch of the West, if only because it killed the hope that we would see her strung up on a rope made of the entrails of the last priest*.

*Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. Denis Diderot

Posted by: Hermit | Sep 24 2022 14:19 utc | 79

Birds of a feather (warhawks) as the saying goes.

“Boris Johnson could be set for another high profile political position, with senior Conservatives backing him to be the next secretary general of Nato.

Incumbent Jens Stoltenberg is widely expected to stand down in September next year – about 12 months after the prime minister leaves his role.

The Nato job, which is appointed unanimously by member countries, has also seen former prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May linked to it as well as defence secretary Ben Wallace.”

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-nato-conservative-secretary-general-jens-stoltenberg-b1015076.html

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 24 2022 14:21 utc | 80

We could use

Official Times instead of New York Times
Official Post instead of Washington Post.

Posted by: GrayCloud | Sep 24 2022 14:27 utc | 81

Leroy@76

You are right. But the NY Times is one of a few sources used by the electronic media to build their own 'news' around. The NY Times sets the agenda, this saves the TV and Radio people from having to think for themselves and-god forbid!- employ reporters to find out what 'stories' the ruling class wants the plebs to read.
There is an old newspaper saying to the effect that "There is a reason why we call them 'stories'.."

Posted by: bevin | Sep 24 2022 14:36 utc | 82

Posted by: Hermit | Sep 24 2022 14:19 utc | 79

Some types genuflect before the librarian of Catherine The Great..........your commentary is what lowers the tone of this blog enormously

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 24 2022 14:45 utc | 83

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 24 2022 14:16 utc | 78

I don't disagree. It is however not Propaganda to make them "anti-Russian". It is propaganda to keep them quiet......accepting of lower living standards

If that is indeed the case they're going to run themselves bankrupt keeping that racket going.
It takes much less to keep people pacified and somnolent than what they're doing now ...

Perhaps this is how empires truly go bankrupt ...

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 24 2022 14:47 utc | 84

Posted by: Mike R | Sep 24 2022 13:54 utc | 72

Most Americans who have some interest in domestic politics form their opinions within the confines of the mainstream media's framing of the issues ... The vast majority of congress embraces this mindset, some fervently, and most of them will win their primaries be re-elected. So far, there is not even a hint from the populace that they are seeking change.

I don't doubt this. However, I'm pretty certain that no matter who gets elected/re-elected it will not matter. These people have no agency, merely the illusion of agency. Hence, I question the lengths the "PTB" goes to to condition and mind-control a population which would be supine in any case ...

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 24 2022 14:51 utc | 85

Bravo, b !

Posted by: Pundita | Sep 24 2022 14:53 utc | 86

The NYT is also heavily censoring comments to keep out any mention of contrary opinion.

For example, it blocked my own submission of the opinion printed yesterday of Col MacGregor, recent National Security, recent senior adviser to SecDef, that the Ukraine "success" is not real success, and its casualties overwhelming, and its prospects bleak except in the imagination of advocates paid by pro-war interests.

They not only fail to report, they make an effort to block any view other than pro-war.

Posted by: Mark Thomason | Sep 24 2022 14:57 utc | 87

Opport Knocks | Sep 24 2022 14:01 utc | 75

Has it not been the case in the past that Russia periodically transfers/rotates its military command personnel?

Posted by: DoesItReallyMatter | Sep 24 2022 14:57 utc | 88

... Every morning I read news releases from all over the world. I couple that with my knowledge of history and plain logic in the hopes of piecing together what is really going on. Even then I have have to admit that it is very, very difficult (sometimes impossible) to figure things out.
...
Posted by: Mike from Jersey | Sep 24 2022 14:00 utc | 74

That strategy used to be very effective because the MSM mostly lied by omission, with a bit of commission mixed in. Cross referencing multiple semi-reliable sources allowed to piece together a view of events which proved to be coherent and predictive over time.

In relation to the Ukraine conflict, MSM sources are reduced to an incoherent tirade of omission. commission and inversion.

Perhaps we should approach MSM decoding as if it were an Enigma cypher from WW2, whose weakness was, if memory serves, that the encryption always produced a different character to the one typed on the keyboard. If you saw X in the encrypted message, the real character was anything other than X, and so on.

https://brilliant.org/wiki/enigma-machine/#cracking-the-enigma-code

Whatever the MSM says, that just ain’t so!

Posted by: anon2020 | Sep 24 2022 15:00 utc | 89

Boris Johnson could be set for another high profile political position, with senior Conservatives backing him to be the next secretary general of Nato....

The Nato job, which is appointed unanimously by member countries, has also seen former prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May linked to it as well as defence secretary Ben Wallace.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 24 2022 14:21 utc | 80

Please no, many Canadians are quietly rooting for Chrystia Freeland, just to get her out of government and the country. Her flaw is she is not a great spontaneous public speaker, but that may not be a problem when repeating approved talking points is the main task.

It is unlikely to be a Brit, certainly not buffoon Boris, too many NATO members are also EU and are not going to forgive Brexit.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 24 2022 15:07 utc | 90

Saw this posted in March 2022:

Dear Corporate Media:

For your Russia/national security analysis/commentary articles and TV segments, find literally anyone other than the freaks who lied America into the Iraq War that killed a million human beings.

Sincerely yours,
Sane People<\i>

Posted by: Exile | Sep 24 2022 15:10 utc | 91

DaVinci @6: "Journalism training....6 days at most?"

Wrong. There is not a single presstitute at the New York Langley Times with less than a Bachelor's degree. Most of those are "traditional" students from the high school -> college -> office cubicle pipeline with no experience of the real world whatsoever. From TruGreen Chemlawned suburban childhoods to safe-spaced middle class educations to the artifice of corporate America with no detours outside the plastic bubble of Disney bullshit to connect with reality. They were born into delusion that every moment of their lives has reinforced.

Never mistake having gone through the motions of education for competence, intelligence, and integrity. The best journalists in American history had no college educations whatsoever. Contemporary university journalism programs literally train prospective journalists to lie. They all have "Ethics in Journalism" courses that emphasize the power of mass media to shape perceptions, and the need to shape those perceptions in what they believe is a positive direction. But who in a Harvard classroom is qualified to say what a positive direction is? You'd not be able to scrape together a single 24 hour day of exposure to reality from the life experiences of everyone in that class, including the instructor. They live in a delusional world where women are valued less by the capitalist economy (that the journalism students are so embedded in that they cannot perceive) because of misogyny, that minority people's lives are tough because they are held down by deplorable white working class people, and gays are emotionally genocided by those very same "deplorables".

These imaginary crimes are injustices future presstitutes are trained to strive to covertly correct with their presstitution, and not just among their potential readership but across the whole world. If anyone is thought to be suffering microaggressions in some perceived adversarial country, then it is these budding presstitutes' duty to demonize that country and whip the American population into a pro-war frenzy to punish that country.

Being specifically trained in presstitution at university is worse by far than no education at all if the goal is honest and competent journalism. Giving such delusional people the power to shape the perceptions of the population, and training them to do just that, is a recipe for disaster, and we are watching that very disaster play out in realtime right now.

Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 24 2022 15:15 utc | 92

A little fantasy game. Imagine Putin resigns and a new nationalistic leader takes over. No, not Medvedev. I don’t know who that might be. The whole western propaganda is deflated. The new leader criticizes Putin for being pro western. The collective west would lose their mind.

I know exactly who will succeed Putin...

Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov..... now that Zhirinovsky is no longer with us..

Wakeup!!

NATO is better off with Putin than any other leading figure in Russia!!

The rest want to nuke NATO first ....
AND...

Ask questions later....

INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 24 2022 15:16 utc | 93

Has it not been the case in the past that Russia periodically transfers/rotates its military command personnel?

Posted by: DoesItReallyMatter | Sep 24 2022 14:57 utc | 88

Of course they do. But when a Russian government backed Telegram channel uses the word "dismissed" instead of say, "planned rotation", you don't have to be a genius to read between the lines. Equally important, some recent setbacks have been in part linked to problems with supply chains to the front lines. General Bulgakov was previously responsible for those logistics.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 24 2022 15:18 utc | 94

Today I was watching military tube and they were showing videos of the thousands of russians who had came out to volunteer for the military, these were not men who had been called up. The situation was so overwhelming for the Moscow recruitment offices that they moved their office to the international airport in Moscow. One video showed the airport packed with men waiting to give their details. Later, I saw the same picture taken from this video on the bbc webshite under the caption '1000s of Russian men fleeing conscription.' 1000s of men with no baggage getting flights to where? It's beyond laughable.

Posted by: Eoin Clancy | Sep 24 2022 15:23 utc | 95

I know exactly who will succeed Putin... Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov..... Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 24 2022 15:16 utc | 94

I agree that Kadyrov is positioning himself for the job and would love to have it. But it is not going to happen for obvious reasons and when it does not he will attempt to revive his father's separatist movement.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Sep 24 2022 15:24 utc | 96

Scorpion - your remark yesterday identified an unforeseen consequence of the "Information War".

" - the Russian public was taken aback by the virulence of the Russophobia displayed by the US-EU-NATO axis which especially at the beginning was truly shocking."

Pilger noted the extent of that information war. He's quite old, but he'd never seen anything like it in his lifetime. It's also been a remarkably successful information war. WMD or "moderate rebels" was nothing in comparison.

But some echoes of that information war must have seeped through to the Russian public. That "shocking virulence", as you term it, has now made even the most heedless among them aware of what they're up against.

I remember when I lived abroad not quite liking it when I heard the UK government condemned for this or that - even when the opinions I heard expressed were considerably milder than those I held myself! No one likes hearing their own country rubbished.

That applies everywhere and so also in Russia. That virulent torrent hardened their resolve. It did not make them disposed to accept defeat.

So for us the information war was indeed wildly successful. Particularly in the States, I'd guess, where few take much interest in what's happening outside their borders. But it's backfired in Russia.

Also in what we're going to have to get used to calling the SCO bloc. They're not fools either. What plays with the Golden Billion does not play well with them.

Something of an own goal, then, that blanket information war we've been exposed to. It's antagonised the Russians. It's not impressed the rest of the world. And it's certainly made us in Europe gut Russophobic, which isn't going to help when the European politicians try to remedy the damage of the sanctions war.

That last is I believe determinative. You know that film "The White Tiger", a war film popular among tank buffs in the West because it contains a lot of them. Its message is simple. In the Great Patriotic War the Russians defeated the "White Tiger" of fascism coming out of Europe as a whole. The Russians have to be ready, the film asserts, when that "White Tiger" attacks again.

In figurative terms, I assert that such as Scholz mounted the White Tiger when they decided on the sanctions war against Russia. Because of the Russophobia most of us in Europe share, those politicians are going to find it remarkably difficult to get off it. We won't let them. Then, we'll find that that information war has taken Europe to a place we really don't want to be.

That's if we assume, as I have done since February, that Scholz's Barbarossa 2 is as much of a bust as the first. I don't see how things can turn out otherwise.

Posted by: English Outsider | Sep 24 2022 15:26 utc | 97

And of course these same anonymous officials are bringing us-
"Thousands fleeing Russia to avoid conscription"
"Official go door to door getting anyone to fill in voting forms in Donbass plebiscite"
When did anyone last see an interview with any Russian speaker on the wrong side of the front - never. The West simply does not have reporters anywhere near the front line.

Posted by: Pancho Plail | Sep 24 2022 15:27 utc | 98

The great positive outcome of the mainstream media and establishment campaign against Trump with its Russophobia nonsense, politicized legal processes etc. is that it has helped a significant chunk of the US population to see what the US establishment really is, as shown by the collapsing levels of trust in the media, state institutions etc.

With the utterly stupid propagandist lying nonsense that B so well points out the media and establishment has set itself up for a perfect test, as every day the Russians prove their constant bleating about "Russian weakness" to be wrong. By the Spring that message will be utterly in tatters, what will be the next "message" that these stenographers and their bosses then attempt to pivot to?

For the world outside of the West the scales of Western propaganda are being removed. For this, a clear Russian victory is important to show that the Emperor really has no clothes when faced with the RIC combination and their allies/friends. The boogey man will suddenly seem a lot less threatening. The US elites also severely underestimate the impact that the destruction of Europe will have upon the global view of Europe and the West in general, it will irreparably harm the legitimacy of the Western political-economic-social project in the eyes of the world.

Posted by: Roger | Sep 24 2022 15:30 utc | 99

Why do they keep doing it?

It works.

I suggest, for laughs, to read posts at BalloonJuice, which started out as a Republican site, but became a neoliberal site. There is a guy there named Adam L. Silverman who has an interesting wiki bio (unless it was taken down) who is leading the cheerleading. Yesterday's post by him essentially regurgitates all of the NY Times article. Also, there is more information in case you want to join the quilt group making a quilt to support the Ukrainians.

Posted by: Bob In Portland | Sep 24 2022 15:32 utc | 100