News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine …
Back to Main
March 28, 2025
Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2025-062
Comments
It’s not even necessary to credit Caitlin for the following. Her words comprise a signature, as nobody else writes with so much punch in the grog, like this:
Face it Trumpers: you’ve been had. You voted for a president who told you he was going to end the wars, and he started a new war and was backing an active genocide within a few weeks of taking office. You voted for a president who said he’d protect free speech, and he’s stomping out free speech throughout the United States to silence criticism of Israel. You voted for a president who said he’d put America first, and he’s putting Israel first.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Mar 28 2025 14:52 utc | 1
Another couple of anti-war Songs by our Fenian brothers:
Waltzing Matilda ( Gallipoli )
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TThjY_qlEfg
Green Fields of France ( Willie McBride )
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ntt3wy-L8Ok&pp=ygUld2lsbGllIG1jYnJpZGUgZ3JlZW4gZmllbGRzIG9mIGZyYW5jZQ%3D%3D
Posted by: Exile | Mar 28 2025 14:55 utc | 2
I’d say this is correct – however the USA isn’t exactly a bastion of free speech and democracy.
“Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has thrown her weight behind US Vice President J.D. Vance and his scathing criticism of Washington’s European allies last month.
In a keynote address at the annual Munich Security Conference, Vance charged that the UK and several EU nations are failing to uphold free speech and democratic principles.
“I have to say I agree,” Meloni told Financial Times. “I’ve been saying this for years… Europe has a bit lost itself.” She added that the believed the vice president’s ire was directed at a “ruling class,” that imposes its ideology on ordinary citizens.”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 28 2025 15:00 utc | 3
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Mar 28 2025 14:52 utc | 1
#######
One only needs read the Trump supporters at the bar.
Not much humanism in their thinking.
Angry materialism.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 28 2025 15:01 utc | 4
@Liam Clancy – Band Played Waltzing Matilda
I’m a fan of The Pogues but I much prefer Liam Clancy on Matilda
Liam Clancy – Band Played Waltzing Matilda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg
Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 28 2025 15:14 utc | 5
The British and the Americans have a history of interfering in Myanmar/Burma’s affairs – Myanmar is situated in a fairly strategic position – a feasible route between China and India two great giants.
In addition, the country possess an immense wealth of natural resources, including large amounts of minerals, oil and gas, tropical timber.
“In 1947, independence hero Aung Sang and his inner circle were assassinated by a group of paramilitary fighters armed by British officers. It was discovered that hundreds of guns were missing from a nearby British-run police department.”
“The United States continuously worried about communist influence in Myanmar during the Cold War. After the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, the Kuomintang took over large parts of the Golden Triangle in northern Burma as a base area. The entire campaign, with logistical support from the CIA, was illegal from the start.”
“Myanmar sits on the boundary between the Indian and Sunda tectonic plates. Right in the heart of the country, these plates move past each other in a zone called the Sagaing Fault.”
I’m sure I read somewhere of US warships exploding huge bombs in the oceans close to fault lines – to see what the consequences were.
“A powerful earthquake has hit Myanmar, with tremors causing destruction across the country.”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 28 2025 15:15 utc | 6
Trump has crawled into bed with Bitar, a Jewish terrorist group that merged with Jabotinsky paramilitary group Irgun. We now have a Jewish Gestapo running rampant in the U.S.
Posted by: Deniz | Mar 28 2025 15:20 utc | 7
Well, well, well – the Orange Zionist POTUS, Trump – has done some damage to the Wests propaganda machine – this included – I loathe this bunch of lying bar-stewards.
Ex- English Mi6 agent, now deceased – bumped-off in Turkey James Le Mesurier founded this lot.
“The administration of US President Donald Trump has cut off most of the funding Washington had been providing to the controversial ‘White Helmets’ volunteer organization in Syria, CNN reported on Thursday, citing internal documents and the organization.
The Syrian Civil Defense, popularly known as the White Helmets, was created in 2014 at the height of the country’s civil war, and billed itself as a volunteer rescue force dedicated to helping civilians injured by the government of former President Bashar Assad. It received funding from Western governments. ”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 28 2025 15:23 utc | 8
@ LoveDonbass | Mar 28 2025 15:01 utc | 4
Plumbing for the ultimate source of depravity (i.e. catching Satan in the act) seems further out of reach with each passing week. North Carolina suffers hundred-year wildfires this week, in the wake of hundred-year floods a few weeks back. More than slightly resembling divine punishment: Why does Earth hate us so much? Possibly because we Christians despise our precious home planet so steadfastly.
Augustine taught that people who study our beautiful Earth (as opposed to words of the book) are disciples of Satan, because the whole planet is corrupted by Adam’s original sin. Creation was originally God’s masterpiece; but it was totally ruined, through and through, when Eve bit the apple. Believe it or don’t.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Mar 28 2025 15:30 utc | 10
Meanwhile – the Zionist committing genocide have participated in everything.
“The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is reportedly taking steps to lift a ban on Russian participation in international competition, The Independent reported on Thursday, citing a senior source in the organization.
A number of international sports organizations, including UEFA and its global counterpart FIFA, banned Russian teams from participating in tournaments following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
According to The Independent, however, the issue of lifting the UEFA ban could come up during the organization’s congress scheduled for the Serbian capital Belgrade next week.”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 28 2025 15:34 utc | 11
@ Aleph_Null | Mar 28 2025 14:52 utc | 1
good quote.. thanks..
@ Don Firineach | Mar 28 2025 15:14 utc | 5
nice track.. thanks..
Posted by: james | Mar 28 2025 15:36 utc | 12
The US/EU Moldovan puppet leader Sandu guided by her western handlers is clamping down in Moldova – Sandu recently won an election in the country – that saw hundreds of thousands of Moldovans disenfranchised.
Her arrest and trumped up charges have been condemned by Russia.
Currently the west is trying to overthrow the government of Serbia, they attempted to overthrow the governments of Georgia and Slovakia – and they are also trying to imprison or remove popular candidates in Romania via trumped up lies.
“Sandu had – Yevgenia Gutsul, arrested the detained leader of Moldova’s autonomous Gagauzia region. According to Moldovan media, Gutsul was taken into custody as part of an investigation into the 2023 gubernatorial election in Gagauzia, which she won. Her campaign was accused of financial irregularities. The Moldovan government claims that Gutsul is part of a Russian influence operation aimed at disrupting the country’s attempts to become a member of the EU.
The Gagauz are a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Orthodox Christian ethnic group living in southern Moldova. Their region, Gagauzia, has been granted broad rights to self-government. Sandu has questioned Gutsul’s mandate as governor, denouncing her former party ‘Shor’ as a “criminal organization.” A court in Chisinau banned the party in 2023.””
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 28 2025 15:51 utc | 13
Extremely informative article about the potential future developments in South Korea:
Why some US elites want South Korea to be a ‘dictatorship for democracy’
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/03/27/us-elites-south-korea-dictatorship-democracy/
This fully aligns with what can be observed in Europe, Israel or Taiwan and Japan: (external) fostering of right-wing, nationalistic, militaristic elites.
All this is required for the Empire to fight a 3-front world war by proxies against Russia (by Europe), Iran (by Israel) and China (by SK, TW, JP). Also, the step by step removal of any proxies of Iran (Lebanon, Syria, Yemen) clearly points at shaping the battlefield for an attack on Iran.
Posted by: Zet | Mar 28 2025 15:56 utc | 14
defense blog
Satellite imagery confirms possible strike prep on Iran
New satellite imagery confirms the presence of U.S. Air Force B-2 “Spirit” stealth bombers at Diego Garcia, signaling a potential shift in American military posture in the Indo-Pacific region.
According to commercial imagery from Planet Labs shared by the Indo Pacific Watch Center, three B-2 bombers were clearly visible on the runway at Diego Garcia on March 25. The image also shows at least seven KC-135 “Stratotanker” aerial refueling aircraft nearby, supporting what analysts believe could be part of preparations for extended-range strike missions targeting Iranian nuclear infrastructure.
The report further noted the possible presence of up to four additional bombers housed in hardened aircraft shelters at the base. If confirmed, that would bring the total number of B-2s deployed to seven—representing a sizeable forward-positioned bomber force.
https://defence-blog.com/satellite-imagery-confirms-possible-strike-prep-on-iran/
Posted by: Don Bacon | Mar 28 2025 15:58 utc | 15
The West Cannot Comprehend Russia-China Partnership and Chinese Neutrality
| Dr. Yu Bin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMViO-1urVU [75 mins wide ranging
Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 28 2025 16:01 utc | 16
The B-2s not-really-stealth can’t come close in. Too risky. They’ll use 400km stand off weapons.
Hmm what’s 400 Km south of Iran ? BWAHHH !
Recall during the 1999 bombing of Serbia more than 1/2 of the F-117s Stealth Fighters deployed were damaged by AD with 1/4 needing “remanufacturing” – shortly thereafter the F-117 was quietly withdrawn from front line duty’s
Posted by: Exile | Mar 28 2025 16:05 utc | 17
@Exile | Mar 28 2025 15:25 utc | 9
Yes. Liam Clancy of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Mackem – Liam is solo here …
Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 28 2025 16:10 utc | 18
@ Don Bacon | Mar 28 2025 15:58 utc | 14 about bombers at Diego Garcia…
I have read that taking out the runways at Diego Garcia will quickly neuter extended range missions. I see bombers at Diego Garcia being a back up to Occupied Palestine attack on Iran and then neutered by China/Russia as the conflict escalates.
Do other barflies buy into my civilization war view of our current world yet?….grin
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 28 2025 16:15 utc | 19
Zet ( Mar 28 2025 15:56 utc | 13 ):
Would be funny in a very dark and tragic way if they actually think like that and that they believe they could in any way make something like that work.
I don’t mind games like “Risk” but next they’ll be raising blue hedgehogs to get some cash (solves the deficit) and hire some Italian plumbers to get a nice date (hey that might actually work!) 😀
· · · ·
Don Bacon ( Mar 28 2025 15:58 utc | 14 ):
Pictures… I guess that means not that many of whomever they want to influence believes the preparations amount to anything real.
They probably need to shout louder 🙂
(And I’m with Exile (Mar 28 2025 16:05 utc | 16); I would not want to fly a B-2 over Iran).
Hmm… maybe “the plan” is to make enough threatening noises and actions that they think the Iranians will fire on any B-2’s in range “outside” of Iran? And/or turn that into “a double bluff that works either way” where either Iran participates in a halfway-false flag or they get attacked close up? (There should be a word for that kind of setup, maybe I just don’t know it. Not exactly a Trojan horse).
· · · ·
Jeez it’s barely the weekend and I’m spending all my energy already (my “charging time” sucks) 😀
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Mar 28 2025 16:31 utc | 20
(There must be a word for it in chess: it’s a common thing to threaten two opponent pieces at once with a single of your own piece).
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Mar 28 2025 16:35 utc | 21
The story so far:
– Ukraine siphons off Russian gas destined for Europe
– Russia decides to build a new gas pipeline in open waters, bypassing Ukraine
– the US opposes the Russia-Germany gas pipeline
– the US blows up the North Stream pipeline
– now US “businessmen” want to buy the damaged pipeline
– and supply Russian gas to Germany, at a markup,
– so Germany has cheap energy to re-arm
This sounds more like something out of a cheap novel, and not like a serious plan?
1
2
3
Posted by: Passerby | Mar 28 2025 16:41 utc | 22
There must be a word for it in chess
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Mar 28 2025 16:35 utc | 20
—
Most trivially the word is “fork”.
https://www.chess.com/terms/fork-chess
Posted by: too scents | Mar 28 2025 16:42 utc | 23
Russia has been reduced to whining like a baby nowadays. They don’t even bother with fake red lines anymore. Lol
Posted by: Bob D | Mar 28 2025 16:45 utc | 24
@10 aleph
Fundamental misreading of Augustine.
In his Confessions, he writes that all things are good because He created them.
It is just man’s fallen nature that ushers in evil.
You above all people should know that when we philosophers talk about the world, we are differentiating between the natural state of beings which must be good and man’s insertion into this world and our interaction with other beings that is the problem.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Mar 28 2025 16:46 utc | 25
Would be funny in a very dark and tragic way if they actually think like that and that they believe they could in any way make something like that work.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Mar 28 2025 16:31 utc | 19
They DO think like that. That’s the way the empire was born (WW2) and that’s what they will do to keep the empire. Just watch their actions (see above re B-2s) and connect the dots. I’m pretty sure that this is what we will be witnessing in the next 2+ years.
Posted by: Zet | Mar 28 2025 16:48 utc | 26
Great piece on how the Western nations are becoming dominated by the FIRE (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) sector at the political level, and Carney in Canada is just another financier pushing a deepened neoliberalism.
– Trump (US): RE
– Macron (France): Finance
– Merz (Germany): Finance
– Carney (Canada): Finance
– Mitsotakis (Greece): Finance
– Meloni (Italy): She was preceded by Draghi (Finance) who served 2021-2022
Carney is using the issues with the US to hide his fundamentally neoliberal agenda and warmongering, pushing the Canadian political discussion rightwards. As with the US, the Canadian oligarchs control both main parties – the Conservatives and the Liberals. The Green Party are also bourgeois progressives, and the NDP has been nobbled under the oligarch-tool Singh.
Canada’s Trump election: Sleazy politics amid US tariffs & annexation threats
Carney is not talking about rebuilding the relationship with China, which was destroyed under Trudeau from the mid-2010s, even with China openly stating that they are open to such a rebuilding.
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Mar 28 2025 16:53 utc | 27
@Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 28 2025 16:01 utc | 15
Thanks for that, an excellent discussion.
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Mar 28 2025 16:54 utc | 28
Posted by: Passerby | Mar 28 2025 16:41 utc | 21
For me this all makes perfect sense. Maybe I’m too deep in trying to think like an empire manager, maybe I’m crazy by now, but I believe that this has been the plan all along and is part of the basic methods to control people (by food), continents (by energy), the world (by money) and the individual (by AI).
Posted by: Zet | Mar 28 2025 16:56 utc | 29
“Democrats narrowly win a Pennsylvania Senate seat, scoring an upset in Republican-leaning suburbs”
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/26/politics/pennsylvania-state-senate-special-election-malone/index.html
This seat was in Republicans hands for 136 years. Now a Democrat won this seat with a lead of 500 votes. There are A LOT OF MAGA / Trump voters who are very angry about the Tump policies that have been implemented since early 2025.
Posted by: WMG | Mar 28 2025 17:00 utc | 30
Something that originally made Putin popular was that he opposed the oligarchs. Now we know that he only opposed the oligarchs he disliked and today he is doing everything he can to appease the Russian (often Jewish and pro-Western) oligarchy. He is a massive fraud.
Posted by: Ivan Darius | Mar 28 2025 17:09 utc | 31
Re Iran war, I think it’s all a big bluff and negotiating. Israel and Iran need each other as enemies to justify each side’s DS complexes. If one of them succeeded in eliminating the other, how’d they scare hell out of their public then? And Israel has way way more than it can deal with already in its near abroad …
So a whole lot of noise signifying nothing. I could be wrong, of course, but hope I’m right.
Posted by: Caliman | Mar 28 2025 17:17 utc | 32
sorry if this was already posted:
DNI Annual Report 2025
https://www.odni.gov/index.php/newsroom/reports-publications/reports-publications-2025/4058-2025-annual-threat-assessment
STRATCOM + SPACE FORCE Annual Testimonies for Fiscal Year 2026:
https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/to-receive-testimony-on-united-states-strategic-command-and-united-states-space-command-in-review-of-the-defense-authorization-request-for-fiscal-year-2026-and-the-future-years-defense-program
with a bunch of comments, Larry Johnson:
“Political Pressure — Why The Intelligence Community Fails to Accurately Assess Combat Losses and Military Capability”
https://sonar21.com/political-pressure-why-the-intelligence-community-fails-to-accurately-assess-combat-losses-and-military-capability/
Andrei Martyanov:
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2025/03/not-very-intelligent.html
Will b post something???
Posted by: AG | Mar 28 2025 17:25 utc | 33
Now it might be time for President Trump to channel his inner Abraham Lincoln. https://shorturl.at/ql8N2
Posted by: Dogon Priest | Mar 28 2025 17:31 utc | 34
Caitlin Johnstone: Trump supporters can no longer say he’s never started a war
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 28 2025 17:48 utc | 35
Posted by: Caliman | Mar 28 2025 17:17 utc | 31
I hope you’re right too. That said, as I have predicted numerous times on this site, if the economy truly tanks by midsummer, a pretext designed to provoke a major war involving Iran, the US and likely Israel (or the US on behalf of Israel) will be staged.
Due to the geopolitical realities of the present moment, including the reasons you listed, the rise of China, and recent agreements between Russia and Iran, it is much less likely than it has ever been. Or perhaps “less likely” is the wrong phrase and the right one is “more stupid.”
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 28 2025 17:51 utc | 36
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 28 2025 15:23 utc | 8
I feel so “had”, esp since I knew Trump was as obertly zionist as harris was covert.
Oh, what a fool I was. Please, jab and boost me now!
Posted by: UWDude | Mar 28 2025 17:59 utc | 37
Cf. The Secret Arny; Chiang Kai-shek and the Drug Warlords of the Golden Triangle, Richard Michael Gibson and Wen H. Chen
The sketch of Burmese history since independence is one-sided and should be supplemented by accounts from Shan, Wa, Karen, etc., sources.
Posted by: lester | Mar 28 2025 18:00 utc | 38
“All this is required for the Empire to fight a 3-front world war by proxies against Russia (by Europe), Iran (by Israel) and China (by SK, TW, JP). Also, the step by step removal of any proxies of Iran (Lebanon, Syria, Yemen) clearly points at shaping the battlefield for an attack on Iran.
Posted by: Zet | Mar 28 2025 15:56 utc | 13”
Given the level of Japan hatred in S. Korea, they are more likely to join with China against Japan.
Posted by: lester | Mar 28 2025 18:11 utc | 39
“I’d say this is correct – however the USA isn’t exactly a bastion of free speech and democracy”.”
Certainly not since 1950 or so. The US has backed a vast number of dictatorships in the names of freedom” and democracy:. It made me start wonderening abuot “democracty” at home, from the 70s on.
Posted by: lester | Mar 28 2025 18:18 utc | 40