This could be on topic of mostly Dems years of suppression of truths on international US policy, (and national) like why Russia’s smo was never unprovoked, but always had to be called so, in order to be spoken of by MSM.
Posted by: Lavieja | Feb 13 2025 5:38 utc | 228
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Might be OT, but briefly, a good example of how Hollywood/the film industry further these narratives is the Oscar=nominated documentary “Porcelain War.” Here is the announcement sent by our local theatre:

“Amidst the chaos and destruction of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, three artists defiantly find inspiration and beauty as they defend their culture and their country. In a war waged by professional soldiers against ordinary civilians, Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko, and Andrey Stefanov choose to stay behind, armed with their art, their cameras, and, for the first time in their lives, their guns. Despite daily shelling, Anya finds resistance and purpose in her art, Andrey takes the dangerous journey to get his young family to safety abroad, and Slava becomes a weapons instructor for ordinary people who have become unlikely soldiers. As the war intensifies, Andrey picks up his camera to film their story, and on tiny porcelain figurines, Anya and Slava capture their idyllic past, uncertain present, and hope for the future.
Co-directed by Leontyev and Brendan Bellomo, with extraordinary footage from first-time cinematographer Stefanov, Porcelain War is a stunning tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, one which embodies the passion and fight, that only an artist can put back into the world when it’s crumbling around them.
“In every respect, Porcelain War constitutes an artistic triumph” – Deadline
“Sublime and stirring… We need reminders that culture can be a steady heartbeat of resistance against the world’s darkest forces” – Los Angeles Times

I can’t help wondering whether the subject matter and political viewpoint affected the film’s being chosen as an Oscar contender.
(And with “The Brutalist” we are back in Holocaust-Survivor-Land with Adrian Brody.)

Posted by: Jane | Feb 13 2025 15:56 utc | 303

“Why did it take so long for realism to come to the fore?”
Tammany Hall countrywide, of course. Even that blabbermouth cenk [essentially] said so. Another closed primary for the dems and maybe the first woman potus can be Tulsi…

Posted by: Sal | Feb 13 2025 16:12 utc | 305

Why is Putin eager to talk? Because of a failure to win determinably on the ground, with many casualties. I’m looking at you, Pokrovsk and Kursk.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Feb 13 2025 16:13 utc | 307

The two Presidents are working to such different constraints that it’s difficult to see how they can agree on a useful peace settlement.
For President Trump it’s important that he does not incur the reproach of being “the President who lost Ukraine.” That’s nonsense, my view. He’s not in a position where he can make much difference to how the Ukrainian war gets resolved. But nonsense or not, that reproach is a real electoral constraint to which he must work.
He may not be able to take the Europeans along with him on matters such as removing sanctions, or territorial concessions.
It may be there’s a limit to the pressure Trump can put on the Kiev administration to agree to territorial concessions. Kuleba, still influential and representing the more extremist ultras, states that if such concessions are agreed Zelensky’s physical survival is at risk as well as his political survival. As far as such as Azov are concerned the threats to Zelensky’s life we saw made during the Zolote incident are still real threats. Even if we regard Zelensky as a puppet of the West, my view since he was elected, those threats limit the degree to which he can accept instructions from the West. He and his family are not going to want to have to rely on heavy security protection from angry ultras for the rest of their lives.
There is still resistance in Congress, to an extent within Trump’s party, to any settlement in Ukraine that looks like a Russian victory.
Those are the constraints on Trump. The constraints on the Russians are equally severe.
There are the security demands the Russians set out in the late 2021 draft treaties. These are very far reaching. The Russians still regard those security demands as central to any agreed peace settlement with the West though the West still regards those demands as impossible.
Then, the “demilitarisation and denazification” conditions set out by Putin at the start of the SMO and repeated at intervals since. The West thinks that’s all nonsense and PR but the Russians don’t. If Putin fails on that, having insisted on it so forcefully, his entire administration loses credibility. Putin’s poll ratings would drop like a stone if, for example, the Bandera monuments in Ukraine remained standing. “Demilitarisation and denazification” is not something, therefore, that’s up for discussion. Not for the Russians. Not for us either – most in the West believe there are no neo-Nazis in Ukraine to be denazified.
Then there’s the Istanbul agreement. Now it’s Istanbul plus and Lavrov’s said that that has to be at least the starting point for a settlement.
Then there are the conditions set out by Putin in the speech to the Foreign Office officials mid 2024 and confirmed by Lavrov in the Newsweek interview. There are territorial conditions there and, most importantly, the condition that all sanctions be lifted.
Put all that together and we see that the Russians are insisting on a formidable set of conditions before a peace can be negotiated. Nebenzia and others have recently restated those conditions. Kellog or Waltz are not being realistic if they think they can steamroller past those conditions.
The talk of “carrot and stick” is therefore PR solely for Western consumption. It’s talk that irritates rather than conciliates the Russians. As for the stick, further arms deliveries to Ukraine cannot change the military position any more than the previous ones did and heavier sanctions, could they be enforced, would hurt the West more than the Russians. In both regards there’s still a serious mismatch, as there has been since ’22, between the harm we most of us believe we can do to the Russians and the harm we can actually do.
On top of all that the Russians have said there have to be a whole lot of preliminary discussions to lay out the basis for talks before any serious talks between principals can take place.
Of course the Russians could be bluffing. Asking for a lot but prepared to take a little. I don’t think they are, not from hearing what Nebenzia and quite a few others have been saying. I believe the RF Security Council has considered all these conditions carefully and will stay firm on them. There’s not a lot of room for give on the Russian side.
Trump’s a most unusual politician and he might be able to chart a course that would enable him to come up with a settlement that could work to both sets of constraints. I still hope he could but in reality there’s little sign of that happening. It is not merely an academic question, how the contest in Ukraine will be resolved. While all the talking’s going on some two thousand people a day are being killed or seriously injured. That’s a lot of families, Ukrainian and Russian and quite a few in the West now, I think, whose future will be irreparably altered for the worse. But if the American politicians can’t concede much because of the constraints on them, and the Russians can’t because of the constraints on them, that’s how it’s going to be until the final collapse.
So all this talk of negotiation is so much hot air. The real questions will be the questions that have been staring us in the face since February 2022. I’d identify the two most important:-.
Remnant Ukraine. The Russians do not wish to occupy it. But they cannot leave it as a base from which the West can mount further attempts at destabilisation. I’ve seen no solution to that dilemma propounded on “b’s” site nor anywhere else. But the Russians are going to have to solve it somehow so we can only wait to see what their solution is.
Counter-sanctions. The European politicians will take us into Cold War II. That means more missiles that could be nuclear sited close to Russia, threats to Kaliningrad or to the Baltic Russians, more military manoeuvres on the borders of the RF, further attempts to destabilise countries on the periphery of the RF. Counter-sanctions – cutting Russian supplies to Europe – will reduce Europe’s ability to pursue such measures. That still doesn’t seem to be a possibility the European politicians are worried about. I believe they should be.

Posted by: English Outsider | Feb 13 2025 16:22 utc | 309

Sunny has won his 11th “The Most Retarded Post I Have Read Today Award” , tying him with vargas as a co leader; although vargas has retired or looked the wrong way crossing the street.
Oh, BTW Sunny, Europe is bankrupt the citizens don’t want war won’t join and whom would they fight? The Ukrainian war is over in a couple of months ?
“Why people think Europe will be crying in their soup because they have to seriously ramp up their Army is bonkers to me.
They are all delighted and In case nobody noticed most have already started. Where very willing and happy to do so.”
Posted by: Sunny | Feb 12 2025 19:42 utc | 79

Posted by: canuck | Feb 13 2025 16:40 utc | 311

Talked today to a friend in Moscow, she works for an import company with its main business in Italy, so many problems with currency rates and payments that slowly but surely all their business has gone to China.
Just a few days back the Baltic runts were cheering their independence after disconnecting from the Soviet electrical grid, only a few days later their electricity rates have doubled. We’re free from Russia they scream the idiots, and the Titanic keeps on sailing full speed ahead towards the iceberg.

Posted by: Paco | Feb 13 2025 16:56 utc | 313

I’ll take this moment to remind the bar that usury (riba) was outlawed by God in multiple faiths.
Debt is slavery.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 13 2025 18:16 utc | 315

Why 2014? Why not 1914?
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fna7cp9kejw551.png&rdt=52288

Posted by: Bilejones | Feb 13 2025 19:16 utc | 317

Posted by: fnord | Feb 13 2025 0:13 utc | 167
You’re either, dissembling, ignorant or naive, given your previous posts I’d err toward the first personally. Either that or you don’t know many gay people.

Posted by: Milites | Feb 13 2025 21:50 utc | 319

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 13 2025 14:30 utc | 284
Sometimes, just sometimes it gets in my nerve.
Excessive and long lasting inflationary cycles are an hallmark of a government, even empires though slower, heading for a revolution and finally a collapse.
Take ptolomeic egypt, take rome, take the chinese Jin, ming and then qing dynasties…
Best case scenario you can 1) get away with slight debasement for little more than half a century without too much drama, 2) but then another 50 some years and the impact becomes significant (with serious economic consequences) 3) the next 50 something bring you to revolution and 4) those terminal 50 years of chaos finish off any value of the coin.
You see that in paper based, metal based, whatever you choose or has been tried by humanity. The essence is taxation, the state appropriating a bigger portion of resources by any confiscation, taxation or debasement of coin.
And don’t bother to answer, ponder particularly on the last paragraph increased government appropriation (even if for distribution) is they key factor.
As a final consideration, inflation often impacts those who don’t have the power to fully push forward the increased costs (laborers, small business, etc) .
As something relevant to this discussion, RF has decided to use inflation raising laborers/pensioners costs (also allowing small business to pass the cost as consumers can pay, though with a risk on rentiers real estate abusing), kind of risky in the long term but critical to main impact being in investments and outputs produced. Nevertheless risky in the long term and a truce is most welcome. This section I am willing to discuss with you or anyone else.

Posted by: Newbie | Feb 13 2025 22:52 utc | 321

I’d identify the two most important:-.
Remnant Ukraine. The Russians do not wish to occupy it. But they cannot leave it as a base from which the West can mount further attempts at destabilisation. I’ve seen no solution to that dilemma propounded on “b’s” site nor anywhere else. But the Russians are going to have to solve it somehow so we can only wait to see what their solution is.
Counter-sanctions. The European politicians will take us into Cold War II. That means more missiles that could be nuclear sited close to Russia, threats to Kaliningrad or to the Baltic Russians, more military manoeuvres on the borders of the RF, further attempts to destabilise countries on the periphery of the RF. Counter-sanctions – cutting Russian supplies to Europe – will reduce Europe’s ability to pursue such measures. That still doesn’t seem to be a possibility the European politicians are worried about. I believe they should be.
Posted by: English Outsider | Feb 13 2025 16:22 utc | 310
The dilema could be solved with finlandization of rump ukraine (not a fart without russian’s consent) and for good measure finland suddenly also decides that entering nato was too rash a decision.

Posted by: Newbie | Feb 14 2025 0:36 utc | 323

304 Jane –“I can’t help wondering whether the subject matter and political viewpoint affected the film’s (Porcelain War) being chosen as an Oscar contender.
(And with “The Brutalist” we are back in Holocaust-Survivor-Land with Adrian Brody.)”
Definitely 2 films 2 miss.
also re. 274 circium –“Where does Diesen imagine he can escape?
The Russian Federation?”
Thinking of how we in US have been and are manipulated by mystifications and seçrets and propaganda and how in need of free speech we are: then thinking of my posts 226 and 228 on ‘The Game is Up’ thread about ex-pres. Biden. His role in supressing the truth about his years of grift in Ukraine leading up to the Russian smo. Going over Biden’s previous suppression, as a senator, of whistle blower Scott Ritter’s Syria OPCW false flag to support the US dirty war on Syria which has finally come to light: another memory rises. A suppressed tale of sexual predation.
When Biden replaced Trump, and the Dems were all afire, not a bad word could be uttered about any of them for fear of the Orange Man’s sticking around. Biden had an intern, a Jewish woman, MeToo was happening, and she hoped it was the time she could tell her story about how Biden had violated her; while standing in the back of a group of people in the WH, Biden stuck his fingers under her skirt and inside her.
Her story was quickly suppressed and MeToo disowned her, but she did get to make her report on a TV news channel one time that I saw before her story was wiped, and you could tell she was for real. The incident put her in a state of shock. She explained how she had so strongly admired Biden and what the opportunity to work for him had meant to her. Biden had fired her and told her something along the lines of, “remember you are nothing.” Kind of similar to how he dismissed Ritter.
What a piece of work is Killer Biden. Who believes a powerful American like himself is entitled to grab everything he can lay hands on and predate whenever he feels like it. Could guilt be why he became a Zionist?
I was not surprised to hear later mention of a death threat to the victimized woman and that she had fled to Russia. Now, since I can’t remember her name, I can’t find out more about what has become of her. If they make a movie about HER, I’ll go.

Posted by: Lavieja | Feb 14 2025 9:50 utc | 325

327, malenkov. Thank you much for identifying Tara Reade. Do you know if she lives in Russia? It’s true, is it not that people cannot write for RT from US?

Posted by: Lavieja | Feb 14 2025 13:34 utc | 327

Posted by: Marvin | Feb 13 2025 19:08 utc | 317
Whatever happened to all those refugees GB was so eager to take in?

Posted by: KingCobra | Feb 14 2025 15:04 utc | 329

329 Malenkov. Thanks again!

Posted by: Lavieja | Feb 14 2025 23:46 utc | 331