The Free world fights back. Anonymous hacks Russian state TV and government sites. Twitter is part of the war effort: #Ukraine

The World watches Ukraine. As the citizens are turning themselves into an army, they are being trained on Twitter, on how to beat tanks, pick strategic targets, and of course, there will be a propaganda campaign. Nothing can be verified.  Except for the remarkable bravery of the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who knocked back an offer to be evacuated, and is fighting with the army. He is being treated as a hero — the new leader of the free world.

Winning hearts all over the world has a material benefit. Hackers are working to punish Putin, theatening an unprecedented cyberwar that will cripple his websites and expose all his secrets. “We are Anonymous. We are legion. Expect us”. There are reports #Anonymous has already taken down six Russian government websites, and have even hacked into Russian state TV stations as well, showing what is happening in Ukraine. “Soon you will feel the wrath of the worlds hackers many of which may reside in your country.”  Elon Musk has also offered the Starlink Satellites for Ukraine to use.

While Russia used Shock and Awe, the Ukrainians appear to be winning now. Though if Russian armored columns make it through to Kyiv that may change. Putin cannot afford to lose.

With Russian fertility being so low for so long, the people of Russia will not bear many sons lost.

The people of China and Taiwan will be watching too. If Ukraine wins, it may slow Xi.

From #Ukraine




Russian special forces disguised as Ukrainian soldiers captured. Under Geneva convention, they lose the rights to be treated as POW. Ukraine can execute them.

Russians protesting en masse to stop the war.

There are many tweets claiming to show captured Russian soldiers Eg: Getting a cigarette, being allowed beds, described as young new recruits who were told they were on a training mission. Obviously it is in the interest of Ukraine to convince Russians to surrender.

There are instructions on Twitter for people in Ukraine to turn off their geolocation phone trackers because the Russians are using them to identify gatherings.  There are also strategic directions telling Ukrainians to identify and stop the unarmoured fuel transports so that the tanks will run out of fuel.

Meanwhile people in Kyiv are reporting that the Russian tanks made it inside the city on the first day when fog stopped the Javelins from destroying them, and the Russians also had paratrooper support to protect them. The Ukrainians are asking for suggestions on how to stop the  T-72 tanks when they don’t even have fuel for molotov cocktails, and commenters are providing lists of ways to defeat them. Anti T-72 suggestions include using barbed wire to clog tracks, and wires across roads so the tanks have to keep “buttoned up”.

I’m no fan of Twitter, they are no friend of the Free World in the West. But at the moment, the new wars use social media, and it marks an important point in the battle of the people against State power. If people find these links on alternate social media I will replace them. We all need an exit plan from the tyrannical Tech Giants.

It is not all Ukrainian wins:


7.3 out of 10 based on 52 ratings

295 comments to The Free world fights back. Anonymous hacks Russian state TV and government sites. Twitter is part of the war effort: #Ukraine

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      David Maddison

      Wow! Some honest “fact” checkers!

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      Steve of Cornubia

      Just two examples are supposed to prove what – that the invasion isn’t happening or that Russia has successfully annexed Ukraine without bloodshed?

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        PeterS

        More like the Russian invasion is happening but the MSM is exaggerating how violent it is. This live cam shot of Kiev (and others like it) looks peaceful at the moment but I didn’t watch it earlier to see what was going on.
        https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/ukraine/kyiv-city-council/kyiv/ukraine-conflict.html

        One thing we can say for sure (at least I thought we all agreed upon) is DON’T trust the MSM. Have we forgotten that lesson already given what we have learned from the CAGW and COVID-19 scams? Looks like some have. The MSM are bought out by the globalists who also have bought out the Western governments. I have as much trust in them as I do in Putin; ZERO!

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          Ian

          “The MSM are bought out by the globalists who also have bought out the Western governments. I have as much trust in them as I do in Putin; ZERO!”

          Which globalists are these??

          You do realise that News Corp is amongst the biggest media companies in the world and in Australia accounts for the majority of print media outlets. Its ethos and content are overseen and decreed by Murdoch who is a rightwing globalist par excellance. As most right wing Australians loathe the ABC and claim never to watch or listen to any of its programs and want the government to sell it/close itdown I doubt it has much influence on globalists.

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            James Murphy

            The media in Australia has swayed public opinion in elections, pushing at various points Labor, at other times, Liberal.
            Newscorp wouldn’t have got very far if it only supported one side of politics, but I wouldn’t expect someone so blinded by their own ideology to see that.

            lets go along with your assertions – Murdoch built a global media empire by being “right wing”, and apparently is incapable of any other stance. In your mind everything is political, so only “right wing” people would consume what he sells, therefore, a lot of the world is “right wing”, despite governments not actually being so.

            Ian, you’re a dingbat, but at least you’re a consistent dingbat.

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        • #

          all looks very peaceful on the livestream webcams PeterS

          the propaganda machine is not able to fool all of us
          thankyou for posting the link

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            Saighdear

            Agreed! – I just hope that we’re not watching a time loop. I check out various Skyline webcams every morning at breakfast and couldn’t find a homepage link to the Ukraine at all, so thanks for the link – bookmarked for now.

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            Saighdear

            Huh, Just as I pressed enter and did the bookmark, the Air-raid SIREN has gone off – and a 2nd in the distance

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    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    I’m no fan of Twitter either. I am suspicious of any noble intentions they have in helping Ukrainans as part of their war strategy of the people against Russian State power. Twitter didn’t seem to work so well for the people against various nation States and their disinformation about Covid vaxination, masks and lockdowns. I suppose it depends on which political system Twitter wishes to encourage and what kick-backs they can garner.

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      RoHa

      But I’m sure Twitter helped to expose the Ukrainian attacks on the Donbass.

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        Twitter also was useful to see the other side of the Trucker protests. I just fully expect the tweeters to be banished any day from twitterdom, and when it really matters most. And since that might happen, Twitter is a poor choice to rely on. I’m hoping if someone known accounts on Gab or MeWe or anywhere that’s easy to follow, they will offer them up here.

        I’m amazed RebelNews wasn’t banned on Twitter. We need that exit strategy.

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    David Maddison

    I don’t know of this will turn into another Vietnam or Afghanistan. I don’t think the Ukrainians are as motivated or as fanatical as the the enemy in those two cases.

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      David Maddison

      Putin is still on Twitter and Donald Trump is still banned.

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        patrick healy

        Precisely David.
        Take a look at the great Sundance over at Theconservativetreehouse.com for a deep dive into the real issues behind the American motives.
        Far from Ukraine being a light shining in the darkness, it has long been a playground for the Biden Crime Syndicate.

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        Ian

        Looks as if Twitter got it at least half right by maintaining its ban on Trump.

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      Konrad

      Well, the Biden Junta hopes for another Vietnam or Afghanistan. They’ve paid out a lot for this.

      But I don’t think they are getting value for money.

      The night sky explosions around Kiev have got plenty of flame, but no HE ionisation flash.

      And those “columns of Russian tanks” destroyed by “US supplied Javlin anti-tank missiles”? Those old T-72s parked along a road with drivers being evacuated by jeeps on satellite vision before they all blow up, with no Ukrainian Javelin teams in frame?

      I think we all need to focus. Stop. And. Focus.

      Want to buy in? Suddenly Putin is the monster* you want to rage against?

      Right Ho …

      Let’s say he used nukes or chemical weapons and eliminated the entire population of the Ukraine? Yawn … That’s still less than the number of humans that will die of the mRNA shots within the next five years.

      *He’s a monster. But he has a sense of humor. Most folks don’t get Russian humor. I might have done anti-Putin parade elements in two Mardi Gras with international coverage. The second offense got a message to all my email and phone MSM accounts, and my partner’s. Something about language barriers and the difference between jest and insult being lost in translation. But in Russian, so I had to translate it. Russian humor. Get it?

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        tonyb

        Konrad

        So you are saying this is all some great big staged piece of theatre and Russia has not invaded and Ukrainians are going about their everyday business? Your comment about Nukes and MRNA vaccine is tasteless.

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          Konrad

          Tony, it’s bloody simple.

          When the European NATO nations stop buying Russian oil and gas, then it’s real.

          Until then, it’s Kabuki Theater and you are falling for it.

          Quick test: you took the jabs, didn’t you?

          You are now criticizing someone who didn’t take the jabs. That’s not high ground.

          Tony, you were on the AGW sceptic side. Why couldn’t you see the jabbers were using the same language and tactics?!

          Putin is a monster, but compared to Klaus, he is a Saint. But still a monster. (Saving grace? He’s funny as hell. He should have been on the screen, not on a horse in an Old Spice commercial. (I can say this because he had already shown I’m not worth the Polonium.))

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            tonyb

            “Quick test: you took the jabs, didn’t you?

            You are now criticizing someone who didn’t take the jabs. That’s not high ground.”

            What does that even mean?

            It is Russia that has invaded Ukraine not the other way round. Lots of people have died. Lots of people have fled. lots of people are fighting back. This is real blood and real human anxiety and agony. It is not kabuki theatre

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              Konrad

              “What does that even mean?”

              Well, for the first part, your response means I called it correctly. You took the jabs and I didn’t.

              See how I get that answer without you ever saying?

              Yes, like Vlad the Defenestor, I am a monster. Not of my choosing. What do they say these days? “On the spectrum”?” Tri-mix rebreather diving, pilot’s license, uni degree, works exhibited in technology museum? But no “emotional intelligence”. The thing the norms get for free. I have to run a left brain “emotional intelligence simulation program” just to function in industry.

              X-ray glasses would be preferable. You can take those off.

              Is there conflict in Ukraine? Sure, but you must see something is wrong. You could see something was wrong about the AGW conjecture and you could see that trying to replace thermal generation with technologies with an ERoEI ratio equivalent to charcoal burning was a dead end. Why can’t you see this.

              Pro tip: you don’t have to know why you are being lied to, to make effective decisions you just have to know when you are being lied to.

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                tonyb

                Konrad

                Perhaps you would like to explain in your own words what you believe to be happening in the Ukraine? thank you

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                MP

                What’s happening in Kiev, absolute mayhem.

                Live traffic cam footage https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/ukraine/kiev/maidan-nezalezhnosti.html

                Thought they had blackout laws at night in war zones?

                Maybe we could ask your professor.

                Brought to you by the Daily Nail!

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                Old Goat

                Konrad,
                That almost qualifies you as an AI. At least you are not letting your feelings hijack your brain. This conflict is complicated by historical allegiances and weapons grade corruption . Vlad didn’t learn from Chechnya – there will be no winners .

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                Konrad

                @Tony

                I cannot say what is happening in terms of Russian objectives, only some of what has happened that can be verified by satellite.

                – Russian ground forces have entered Ukraine and are primarily concentrated in Russian speaking separatist areas.

                – Every Ukrainian air base has been struck or captured.

                – Russia has total air superiority, but while they have destroyed Ukrainian MIG29 and SU27 aircraft on the ground, they have left most of the grounded Ukrainian aircraft untouched.

                – A damm on a river has been destroyed.

                – Electric power has not been cut off for most Ukrainian cities/towns.

                – Russian ground forces imaged include MLRS systems including those known to use thermobaric warheads. (That’s city flattening capability, but no city has been flattened.) There is some evidence that one thermobaric device has been detonated, but no data on intended target.

                – No major Ukrainian AA defenses appear to be operating. AA seems to be limited to MANPADs.

                That’s about all we can see from data untainted by human “interpretation”.

                But if you want to get into the squishy human interpretation side, you would be advised to first research the involvement of both Zelenskyy, Putin and the WEF.

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          max

          By James Howard Kunstler
          The Ukraine blow-up is more a humiliation for “Joe Biden” and his faction than for the US per se, for the truth is that we have scant interest in that corner of the world and what goes on there is none of our business, and never was….

          It is fair to say that the “Joe Biden” government dearly wanted a Russian invasion of Ukraine in order to divert attention from the “Joe Biden” government’s war on its own people in the United States. The table was nicely laid for it over many years, including, by the way, Mr. Trump’s vaunted gift of weaponry to Ukraine, which enabled and emboldened the Kiev regime to harass the Russian-speaking population of Donbas without relent. And the situation was aggravated by the deliberate negotiation-unworthiness (Russian term) of “Joe Biden” and Company, who refused to discuss the chief issue between the US and Russia, namely, the dishonest effort, in violation of written agreements dating from 1990, to enlist Ukraine in NATO, and thereby to place missiles on Russia’s border. The US disallowed something very similar in 1962, when the old USSR tried to put missiles in Cuba.

          You are also seeing payback for the Maidan color revolution of 2014, engineered by John Kerry’s State Department and John Brennan’s CIA. We have been managing Ukraine backstage since then and, alas for that poor country, quite deceitfully. If you bother to read the recent statements of both “Joe Biden” and Mr. Putin, you will see exactly why and how the situation developed. You will also see an appalling difference in the quality of public utterance — as, say, the difference between Zippy the Pinhead and a Metternich.

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        Steve of Cornubia

        “Let’s say he used nukes or chemical weapons and eliminated the entire population of the Ukraine? Yawn … “

        Good God. Really? Are you seriously that heartless or just trolling?

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        Ian

        “I think we all need to focus. Stop. And. Focus.”

        Agreed but my focus is different from yours or from many here. My focus is on the Ukrainians whose lives have just been significantly altered.
        Would you like to flee your country leaving your home, possessions, family, friends and colleagues and facing a very uncertain future? How would you feel if you were a disorientated young child uprooted from their lives in a matter of hours? How would you cope if you’re old and frail and fear your house may be destroyed leaving you with nowhere to live? How would you feel if your spouse is severely injured or killed due to a mis-directed bullet or petrol bomb? How would you like being crammed into makeshift accommodation with little food, minimal sanitation

        You may be full bottle on rationale for the war but you don’t appear to have any understanding of or empathy with the hundreds of thousanda of Ukrainians currently displaced.

        Oh and BTW my parents came from Coventry an English town that was extensively bombed in WW11. Their stories of life tag that time are harrowing to say the least

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          farmerbraun

          “Would you like to flee your country leaving your home, possessions, family, friends and colleagues and facing a very uncertain future? ”

          I guess that you’re talking about the thousands of residents of the Donbass and Donetsk regions who have done just that in the face of the constant bombings and terrorist activities of the Ukraine thugs .
          Funny you didn’t say anything years earlier.

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            Ian

            “I guess that you’re talking about the thousands of residents of the Donbass and Donetsk regions who have done just that in the face of the constant bombings and terrorist activities of the Ukraine thugs .”

            You guess wrongly. My comment applies to all, repeat to all, those who experience the utter devastation of their lives. Watching ABC news tonight I was appalled at the death of a 6 year old girl killed by Russian shelling . Had she been killed by Ukrainian shells I would have been equally appalled.

            “Funny you didn’t say anything years earlier.”

            I did say the same thing years earlier in comments to The Australian. Did you?

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              farmerbraun

              “I did say the same thing years earlier”
              Then you understand exactly why , negotiations and treaties to protect innocent lives having failed , Putin had no choice but to act .

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    Konrad

    Jo, I am shocked. You are falling for this?!

    Half the footage in the Establishment Misleadia is old. (Just use cyber tools like “tineye”.) The girl in the pink parker clutching the fluffy bunny while waving goodbye to the troops? That image dates to 2016!

    The female civilian pulled bleeding from the exploded appartment building? A gas explosion in 2018!

    Seriously Jo, regain focus. The tail is wagging faster than the wing of a hummingbird, but the dog you imagine is attached to won’t hunt.

    There is no “Ghost of Kiev” flying an SU-27 though the night, becoming a “fighter ace” downing 6 Russian aircraft in one night. The video is from a combat flight simulator game.

    Jo, the non-military LEO surveillance satellites are still still transmitting straight back to earth. (As in direct down to approved uplink encrypted interrogation in overpass. Farmers aren’t gonna pay for soil moisture content that is days/weeks late due to political vetting and restricted download sites.)

    Did you fall for it, even knowing that the head of Ukraine is an actor and the leader of Russia is a former head of the KGB? Who knows Kabuki Theater?

    (Yes, yes I know. Mz Lindsay Graham in the US is the leading Kabuki drama teacher.) But you don’t think the Ukrainian Laundromat players who funded the crack smoking son and the “Big Guy” don’t know how to play?

    Jo, watch the satellite feeds, not the Establishment Misleadia. The tail is wagging, but the dogs of war are barks in the Establishment Misleadia with no corporeal body.

    Focus on reality. If the European NATO nations stop buying Russian oil and gas, then it might be real. But they haven’t. Only “selected” Russian banks have been “excluded” from SWIFT.

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        Serp

        Why repeat this?

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          MP

          What does it say, I can’t find an English version.

          Maybe he has a point to make.
          I just clicked on his name and was able to select an English translation for a site. I think he is Polish.

          harnaś, if they do come for you next, double mask and social distance.

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          • #

            Konrad,

            Calm down and read my post again, seems like you are criticizing someone else?

            I didn’t make big claims, or mention most of the things you discuss. This is not my topic. My aim was merely a “best of” list tweets that I happened to see, couched in words like “claimed” and “reportedly”. I hoped it would generate a calm polite discussion on a topic many commenters seemed to want to comment on. The slanging match at #3 was off topic insult fest. A bore..

            I merely said I was seeing claims on Twitter, which were unconfirmed but interesting, with the observation that it was a new thing to find a nation learning how to fight tanks via social media and that Putin has inspired Anon to fight back.

            As for the girl in a pink parker – If you are referring to the maybe girl, on a train, flashed for a second in the video allegedly posted to Russian state TV by hackers, then perhaps #Anonymous used old footage? Did Anon hack Russian TV or didn’t they? That’s what matters. You offered no evidence, just assertions, and aggressively took the thread way off topic at #3.

            Did I quote anything from the Misleadia? Not that I know of. Watching the news tonight it was almost like the media found the same tweets I did and put them up 36 hours later? Whatever.

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      Mikky

      I doubt that Putin plans to occupy Ukraine (besides the East), that would be nuts, so am sceptical of the Molotovs-defeat-Russia stories (propaganda).

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      Mark Allinson

      “New leader of the free world”

      “Free world”!

      You mean the “free world” that puts millions of its citizens under house arrest for months, or years at time, and demands they can only get their freedom back if they take an experimental mRNA shot with absolutely no long term data and a record number of adverse events?

      And then insists that they keep “up to date” with an endless supply of future shots?

      The “free world” that has crushed millions of small businesses around the West while encouraging Big Business to triple its wealth?

      The “free world” that allows its agents of enforcement to break the hips of old women and then spray in the face like a noisome insect!

      That “free world” reference is an absolute joke!

      Those who believe all the propaganda they are being fed by our oh so trust-worthy media, are not far off being convinced that the seas are not only rising but about to come to the boil.

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      farmerbraun

      Konrad , I’m not sure that Jo wrote anything to indicate belief in the twitterings.

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      Mark Allinson

      The main reason why this fake Ukraine war is “happening” is for Biden to get a scapegoat for his rising energy costs – it’s ALL RUSSIA’S FAULT, not mine.

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    David Maddison

    There are instructions on Twitter for people in Ukraine to turn off their geolocation phone trackers because the Russians are using them to identify gatherings.

    If people have phones, even dumb phones, gatherings can be identified and the phone’s IMSI number logged by hostile parties, including the Government and criminals. They use an IMSI-catcher such as StingRay and others which spoofs a cell tower.

    The only way to avoid this is to turn your phone off. And also hope that a certain hack hasn’t been added to your phone to make it appear “off” went it is really “on”.

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    James Murphy

    Anyone willing to predict when Taiwan will be invaded?

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      David Maddison

      With a weak and leaderless America and Europe, the invasion is only a matter of the Chi-comms picking a time convenient to them.

      The Dragon Boat Festival is on Friday, 3 June 2022 so they might try to complete it before that so they have something to celebrate.

      Otherwise, Chinese military strategy is fully outlined in Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”, http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html .

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        Forrest Gardener

        Yes but recall that a central theme of the Art of War is to defeat your enemy without firing a shot.

        And remember that notwithstanding the apparent desire of the chinese government to dominate the world right now and not a second later, the chinese have always played the long game.

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      John Connor II

      According to a Taiwan religious group, anytime now.
      Given the accuracy of religious predictions that probably translates to over 2000 years 😅

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      Konrad

      I’m willing to predict: no time soon.

      China lost their last 6 invasion attempts, and this time the stakes are higher.

      Taiwan has advanced chip manufacturing capabilities. China doesn’t. It’s an old saying in manufacturing: your opposition can replicate everything about your business except your people.

      You can’t invade Taiwan and win the chip manufacturing. China has already stolen the machines, and it has yeilded them … little. The people required cannot be aquired by invasion and subjugation

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    David Maddison

    I haven’t fully formulated an opinion yet but if conservatives find themselves on the same side as the Left, that is suggestive of something being very wrong with the narrative we are meant to be believing.

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    John Connor II

    US EMBASSY HAS DELETED FROM ITS WEBSITE ALL DOCUMENTS ABOUT 11 PENTAGON-FUNDED BIOLABS IN UKRAINE

    Here you go:
    All the documents they don’t want you to see.

    https://seemorerocks.is/us-embassy-has-deleted-from-its-website-all-documents-about-11-pentagon-funded-biolabs-in-ukraine/

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      OldOzzie

      US Bioweapon Labs in Ukraine, What will Russia Find?

      The DoD Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has funded 11 bio-laboratories in the former Soviet Union Country Ukraine, bordering on Russia.

      Biowarfare scientists under diplomatic cover

      Among the set of bilateral agreements between the US and Ukraine is the establishment of the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU) – an International organization funded mainly by the US government which has been accorded diplomatic status.

      The STCU officially supports projects of scientists previously involved in the Soviet biological weapons program. Over the past 20 years the STCU has invested over $285 million in funding and managing some 1,850 projects of scientists who previously worked on the development of weapons of mass destruction.

      The US personnel in Ukraine work under diplomatic cover.

      Very Very long and fascinating Article

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    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    What’s Twitter’s opinion about apparent US Bio-lab sites targeted by Russian forces in the Ukraine?

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    tonyb

    Jo

    Thanks for some sanity. To listen to some commentators here on other related threads you would think it was Ukraine invading Russia instead of the other way round. The BBC world service has been providing good coverage and attempting to check facts. Several of the ‘facts’ have been debunked in various programmes. But the basic facts remain that the Russians have invaded, The Ukrainians are fighting back and don’t want them in their country.

    The other basic fact is that Dictators all over the world are watchi8ng the response of the West. Taiwan, South Korea Japan and various middle Eastern countries are especially vulnerable with OZ being out on a limb and its resources coveted by China.

    Who would have thought two comedians would be doing rather well? Zelensky of course but Boris Johnson has been tireless in getting weapons sent, to get financial measures put in place and to get Germany Italy and Belgium to put aside their interests and deny SWIFT to Russia.

    Has Putin over reached himself? He has many brave people in his own country protesting and the better informed seem to be the young who are using their knowledge of the internet to hack Russian Government web sites.

    Don’t listen to the justifications of Russia, they have none for ruthlessly invading a vibrant European city and country. What happens here matters to everyone in the West

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      TdeF

      Vibrant city and country? Have you been there?

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        TdeF

        Yes potentially a beautiful place with happy people in the sunshine in the middle of summer, desperate to have fun and live.

        But the devastating poverty! And the evil police. And the extortion on every business. And the lack of food. And in the dark in the middle of winter when you cannot afford heat and the children have TB, what soft of vibrancy do you mean. People can barely afford to live.

        “Vibrant and Happy”? That’s the sort of piffle you get from a tourist brochure, not real life. Life is a terrible struggle in Ukraine.

        They do NOT need more weapons. That’s like throwing petrol on a fire. When is that a good idea?
        They need the West to mediate and to try to understand the problems, not just send more Stinger missiles.

        No one wants to damage Kiev or the people. Remember this was the first great city in modern Russian history from a time when Cossacks ruled. And the other cities like Odessa and Sebastopol were built by the Russians in the 1790s. The Russians do not want to destory their own cities and their own people. They want to fix the problems because international opportunists like the Biden family have ravaged Ukraine forever.

        As for the ABC/BBC, words fail. The Ukranians and Russians are extremely computer literate. Interview them on the internet. That’s what it’s for. Not another professional commentator with his white supremacist post modernist fact free view of the world. Someone with any knowledge of modern Russian/Ukranian history, not another talking head.

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          Forrest Gardener

          Again I think you are pretty close.

          The only benefit I can see in arming the locals with stinger missiles would be if it rapidly brought about a stalemate on the ground. Against that the question is always what could possibly go wrong.

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        tonyb

        That’s why I wrote it the way I did. Kviv is a vibrant city often compared to Berlin.

        As I asked Konrad I will also ask you what you believe to be happening in Ukraine? Thank you.

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      Interested

      tony: “The BBC world service has been providing good coverage and attempting to check facts.”
      WTF??
      You can’t honestly be serious! The BBC???!!

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        tonyb

        The BBC have jumped the shark regarding climate change but the world service is very good for those parts of its service that do not try to preach about the climate etc.

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      Honk R Smith

      Basic facts, I think, please set me straight.
      Soviets un-Sovieted in 1989.
      Former Warsaw Pact countries gradually became more or less independent.
      NATO, Cold War construct to counter Warsaw Pact, repurposed (sort of) and began absorbing Warsaw Pact countries right up to the Russian border … Ukraine.
      I can see how the Russians might have a problem with this.*

      *Just like being against mandates doesn’t make me anti-vax, this is not a defense of Vlad.

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      • #

        Indeed. Just the relative numbers of tanks and especially fighter jets says Russia cannot be stopped. This does not mean I favor that result, just that sound analysis does not play favorites. Of course anything is possible but I see no way that Ukraine will not soon belong to Russia. NATO is not going to start WWIII over this.

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      Mark Allinson

      Our media is so trust-worthy that we should ALWAYS accept their view of any situation, right?

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    • #

      “But the basic facts remain that the Russians have invaded, The Ukrainians are fighting back and don’t want them in their country”

      is this really a fact tonyb?

      some are saying its a liberation rather than an invasion
      the live cams posted above show very peaceful cities, opposite to what the MSM is saying

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    robert rosicka

    Pretty sure Putin was betting on a quick and painless win but if that top vid and others I’ve seen are right the war is now turning into a killing field for soldiers unprepared for urban tactics of a people United by a common goal of freedom.

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      Interested

      robert rosicka: ” .. but if that top vid and others I’ve seen are right …”
      Probably not, Robert.
      The capacity of the black hats for CGI and other video subterfuge is great. If they can’t find footage from the archives that serves their purpose, they’ll just produce fictional footage themselves. And they’re good at it!
      Beware disinformation. The first casualty of war is truth.

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    Konrad

    Russia unprepared for “urban tactics” after Georgia? Short memories …

    Got any current video of the latest Russian armour on the Ukrainian side of the border? Not that old time expired T-72 junk being blown up for the “news” feeds. Where’s the new stuff?

    The production values on this show are so abysmal …

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      robert rosicka

      I think it all depends on the will of the people being invaded , Afghanistan is a good example and yes I agree there is not much video coming from the incursion but could that be because of an attack on communication networks .

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        Honk R Smith

        As an aside, Joe Biden recently made remarks against the Second Amendment, saying basically, “an armed populace would have no chance against F-15s, so the 2nd Amendment is silly” …
        as he was handing over Afghanistan to the Taliban.
        And pretending Vietnam didn’t happen. (He didn’t have to worry about going.)
        And ‘forgetting’ that the Deep State supported ‘insurrections’ with small arms around the world for 75 years.
        While residing right next to all the monuments to ‘insurrectionists’.
        Which he is now cool with tearing down.

        It’s irksome of to be talked down to by these people
        He does that condescending whisper into the microphone thing.
        You can see his hair plugs

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      Re urban fighting I read that Russia has an armored vehicle for that, that no western country has in their army.

      I think Afghanistan and Vietnam involved impenetrable terrain. The Army used horses in Afghanistan! Does Ukrain have anything like that?

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    TdeF

    Zelensky has finally responded and says he meet Putin but will not meet in Belarus. Fine. He has given a list of countries, mostly European and Baku in Azerbijan. Why not just pick up the phone?

    What? The whole world has been on Zoom for two years and he requires a physical real face to face with Putin? Why? Russian is his first language, not Ukranian.

    Make the call. Pick up the phone. Email. Zoom. Get his mobile number. Use a dating app.
    These are heads of government of 80 million and 150 million people.
    Surely their ultra secure conferencing ability has improved on the old red phone on the desk.

    This phoney war could be over in a phone call. And should be. The Russians are clearly trying not to do damage. It would be so easy to raze a city to the ground. Can’t anyone see how much restraint is being shown?

    Pick up the phone Zelensky! There is no point making calls to the West for more munitions, more stingers, more money, more troops without at least talking to Putin. The Russians are not firing back. They could.

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      tonyb

      “The Russians are clearly trying not to do damage. It would be so easy to raze a city to the ground. Can’t anyone see how much restraint is being shown?”

      Why are they even there? The Ukrainians certainly don’t want them

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      • #
        TdeF

        Which Ukranians do you mean? Everyone wants peace and prosperity. Fine. That is not what they have.

        The reason there are so many Ukranians overseas is that they fled the poverty, the corruption, the police.

        The sheer misery in what should be a prosperous country has to end. And the shelling. 8 years of Civil war.
        And Kiev wants to continue. As does every country in the West.

        A negotiated peace would be better than what was happening. The Kiev government kept up the shelling. It left Putin with no choice.

        So again, which Ukranians? The ones overseas? Ukraine has had a series of corrupt violent governments forever. They deserve better. Everyone does. And Putin does not want a basketcase on his doorstep. The Ukranian government and freinds are a kleptocracy and every Ukranian knows it. Their incomes are 1/4 of that of their neighbours, except Moldova which is even poorer. And the Ukraninans should be rich, happy, peaceful. It’s nothing of the sort but they have had decades of oppression since Stalin times. Follow the money. It all leads overseas.

        Zelensky should talk and settle or let someone else do it and he can escape. Either way, everyone wants peace and shipping in more munitions to kill Russian soldiers is exactly what happened in Afghanistan. And did that work?

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          Interested

          I agree, TdeF.
          Ukraine has been a cesspit of corruption for many years and the ordinary people have suffered mightily for it. The country is a centre for arms trafficking, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and money laundering, for bandits like the Bidens, the Clintons, and many others.
          Whatever Putin’s motives – and I’m not convinced they’re malevolent at all – the poor Ukrainians will be none the worse for his intervention. Things CANNOT be any worse than they are.
          The clarion call for war by news agencies in Europe and America are an indication that the elites’ dirty money is at risk in Ukraine. That’s all it is. It’s nothing to do with ‘saving democracy’ in Ukraine or helping anyone. It’s all about saving a foetid hub of corruption.

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            TdeF

            Fully agree. Try the Nicholas Cage film, Lord of War. And he grew up in Little Odessa in New York. Poverty does terrible things. End the poverty, give the Ukranians back their country and everyone else is better off too. The reason so many Ukranians want out, the reason 3,000 people have died was that they want the terror from Kiev to end. As far as the ABC/BBC are concerned, Ukrainians are happy carefree people who have been assaulted by Putin. Then explain the civil war. They want out.

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          Robert Swan

          TdeF,

          The reason there are so many Ukranians overseas is that they fled the poverty, the corruption, the police.

          That must explain why so many Australians go overseas. Maybe China will come and make this country so nice that nobody wants to leave.

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            TdeF

            My own experience is that Australia is wonderful. But like the dreamy Pacific island it is, you get bored. The same with New Zealand and Fiji and my favorite, New Caledonia.

            Humans are perverse. They dream of quality of life, stability, security but want risk and excitement and adventure and mental stimulation and diversity. It’s hard to get that in Australia. Even Adam and Eve would eventually have left the Garden of Eden simply because they were bored.

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            • #
              TdeF

              I mean Eden, wandering around, perfect weather. Nice flowers. Take a nap and someone steals a rib. Otherwise everything perfectly nice. Very limited conversation. And one side is a know it all. The only interests an apple tree and a snake. Most people would leave. Eating the apple seems obvious. You must get sick of pears and tomatoes had not been discovered.

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              tonyb

              At least we can agree on this. When I went to Bali and the Seychelles I was bored after a few days.

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          Bozotheclown

          Russian sock puppet.

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        TdeF

        You deliberately missed the point. And it is the answer to your question. Which is why you avoided it.

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      robert rosicka

      I’m sure the Russians don’t want or didn’t want much damage other than military targets in an effort to win local support or at least keep them from what they are doing now .

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    • #

      Incorrect population figures. The population of the Ukraine is just under 44,000,000 people. The population of Russia is approximately 146,000,000……………………..

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      The simple solution is to divide the Ukraine into East and West with the East being aligned with Russia. The hard part is where the Border goes and how to treat those Ukrainians in the East. Move them all to the Western part or what?………..

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        Leo G

        The hard part is where the Border goes and how to treat those Ukrainians in the East.

        Those two problems resolve if Ukraine were to retain the entire Dneiper River catchment.
        Putin would then attain his strategic land route between Russia and the Crimea.
        I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the outcome intended by the major players in the present charade. Russia can hardly argue that prior negotiated agreements preventing Ukraine from aligning with NATO countries are still valid.
        If Putin manages to take and maintain any significant part of Ukraine without an ethnic Russian majority, then that is a strong signal encouraging Xi Jinping to take Taiwan before the next US Presidential election.

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        Hanrahan

        Yeah. Splitting Pakistan from India worked a treat.

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        • #

          North and South Korea is a better example……………..

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          Leo G

          Splitting Pakistan from India …

          An interesting analogy, but rather strained, I suggest.

          The situation in Ukraine involves two mostly external competitors, Russian nationalism and Euro-American corporatism. The protagonists in India at the time of Partition were entities largely defined by religious affiliation, particularly the majority of Muslims on one side and the most extreme Hindus and Sikhs on the other.

          Britain gave up on annexation after the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Its subsequent divide and rule policy stoked animosities between the religious groups to counter Indian nationalism and used a large force under British control to sustain political control.

          By “treat” I expect you meant the exchange of populations across the subcontinent and the associated violence.

          The scale of that violence was a consequence of the abruptness of the British withdrawal and the fact that independence was declared prior to partition.

          Any analogy with present day Ukraine would suggest that relative peace was maintained by a kind of balance of power between the competing external influences.

          It appears that like Britain in 1947 America has decided to abruptly abandon Ukraine to the Russian nationalists, and to signal in advance to the Russians both that the US intends to offer Ukraine full NATO protection and that it will not impose serious sanctions on Russia which would deter moves by Russia to annex further Ukrainian territory.

          So perhaps we can blame Britain for the violence in 1947 India and the USA for the present violence in Ukraine.

          (sark) Accordingly, the common factor would be white supremacists. (/sark)

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    Antoine D’Arche

    Well according to some Putin is going to the aid of states that want no part of the current puppet regime in Ukraine. They’ve been bombed for 7 years, according to some. I don’t believe a word of anything in the media.

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      TdeF

      The media is spoiling for all out war. It’s disgusting. WWII echoes according to the Australian. Nothing like it. Cities have not been razed. There is no mass murder. And ten times as many Russians have died, not because they cannot destroy the place but because they are trying not to do so. And the foreign press demands blood and vengeance. For what? As Trump says, they do not care as much about US borders as they do about Ukranian. It’s a phoney war and the super excited Western commentators are crying out for the disaster they really want to see. No one in Ukraine or Russia wants that.

      This has been the problem, Ukraine as the soft underbelly of Russia, totally exploited by the West, the people destitute and riddled with tuberculosis, people with no hope. Considered useful idiots by the West. Send in more guns. In what decade of the last 200 years was Russia not the official enemy according to the press, and Joe Biden and his son and Hillary Clinton.

      Zelensky only needs to make that call. There are few real heroes in the Ukraine government, more criminal opportunists. And that is why they are afraid of Putin.

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        Interested

        100% spot on !!
        Well said.

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        Forrest Gardener

        Yep. Nothing is as it seems but I think that is probably pretty close.

        And perversely it provides common ground for Putin and Zelensky if there is goodwill, or if the invasion force suffers really heavy casualties, or if domestic pressure in Russia becomes a threat, or …

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        RobB

        I’m afraid that I agree that the Ukrainians are being played as useful idiots of the west. The tragedy is that all they may well achieve is the destruction of their country. The simplest course of action would have been to grant autonomy to the Russian speaking regions, and declare the Ukraine neutral, as Finland, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland were during the cold war. What’s so bad about that? Nobody killed, all living in peace….

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          Leo G

          The simplest course of action would have been to grant autonomy to the Russian speaking regions, and declare the Ukraine neutral, … What’s so bad about that?

          The reason there are Russian-speaking regions in Ukraine is Russia’s past genocidal policies. Like forced relocation of ethnic Ukrainians to northern Russia to be replaced by Russian colonists. How can Ukraine be neutral with permanent Russian military bases in those so-called “autonomous” zones while the rest of the country is not free to determine its own foreign policy.

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            RobB

            But Leo, what country is free to determine its own foreign policy? Unless you’re a superpower, you have to do as you’re told. Why else has Australia followed the USA into every idiot war since Vietnam? Ukraine thought it was buying protection from the West by following orders from the US. But the US is just using them as a thorn in Putins side. Now they will pay the price. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour. Finland opted for neutrality after having ~ half its lands taken by Russia. Today it is a prosperous nation.

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              Leo G

              Why else has Australia followed the USA into every idiot war since Vietnam?

              The US has been engaged significantly in 24 wars since Australia followed the US into Vietnam (not including Vietnam). Australia was involved in 7 of those wars.

              We currently have 2 active US bases (Pine Gap and Exmouth) and have had other short term US facilities in the past (including a facility for storing US guest nuclear devices in Sydney).

              Australia has not been required to “do as it is told” unilaterally by America. Nor does Ukraine consistently do as it is told by the US or by Russia.

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    Forrest Gardener

    Steve McIntyre is probably the only one of the sources in the article I would take at face value. I would trust him to check his sources and would correct himself if he made an error.

    As for twitter it would be nice to think the Ukranians are effectively able to resist the invasion and bring the invading forces to a standstill. Or that Putin will be held to account. But in this age of misinformation who knows?

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    roman

    Zelensky’s request for civilians to get involved is a very bad idea. Warms the heart but, is a very bad idea.

    Putin went in with restraint, stating that he wanted to remove the leadership by attacking only military targets, and seems mostly to have stuck to that. If he wanted to level residential towers he could have done so.

    There are videos of scared young captured russian soldiers being tormented by Ukrainian civilians. Where are they now? What happened to them?

    When the russian mums and dads see this they may insist that their army treat those civilians as the combatants that they want to be treated as…

    The next group that starts throwing molotovs at russian trucks may be met with immediate and indiscriminate machine gun fire, and areas known to have groups of armed civilians may be met with bombs from 10,000 feet.

    Things may get much much worse for the civilians who Putin wanted to leave alone.

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      TdeF

      Zelensky is clearly a big part of the problem. Someone ordered the continued shelling. And his job as leader is not to sacrifice his people but to negotiate a way out.

      He has plenty of professional soldiers and weapons. Handing automatic weapons to civilians for street fighting against professional soldiers is calling for a massacre. He is threatening Putin with mass civilian casualties and bad press. To gain international sympathy, not victory. This one act means he is using his own people as human shield, to protect himself and his friends, not the people. Lots of Ukranians dead means he wins?

      And his position that he will meet anywhere but they just cannot agree on a place? When? Next week?

      Pick up the phone! Try a ZOOM meeting. What is there to lose? If you don’t have his email address or telephone number, ask a local Ukranian scammer. They send emails to everyone on the planet without a problem.

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        TdeF

        Just in as reported in the Australian

        “Vladimir Putin has accused Ukrainian authorities of wasting “an opportunity” to hold talks after Moscow’s invasion of its pro-Western neighbour.”

        Isn’t that obvious? Zelensky is the problem. He has always been the problem. What does it cost to talk?

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          Forrest Gardener

          Maybe Zelensky is the problem but he is not the only problem.

          I imagine that Putin may be able to access to a phone. Logically he would need one to answer the call from Zelensky. If Putin was making calls and they were not being answered then I’m sure one propaganda outfit or another would already have spread the message far and wide.

          The notion that there is a single pin point solution and that it is in Zelensky’s hands is almost certainly wrong. These guys spread disnformation for a living.

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            TdeF

            I cannot agree. There is absolutely no point calling Zelensky. What is Putin going to do? Threaten? It takes two to tango. Zelensky however knows the questions. To quote one famous negotiator, it’s the Art of the deal. The ball is in Zelensky’s court and it seems that is the problem. He doesn’t like his options and is happy to use his people as cannon fodder. That has been a constant for the last three years of his Presidency. Civil wars need to be fed with munitions and bodies.

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            • #
              Forrest Gardener

              Too much mind reading for mine.

              Every powerful man has a dog in this fight from the globalists in the EU to the bad guys in the USA.

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    TdeF

    And Trump is at it again, getting press. And saying something the left have been trying to hide

    “Trump at CPAC: ‘You’re Either with the Peaceful Truckers or You Are with the Left-Wing Fascists

    Now he has again broken the rules by telling the truth. Fascists are extreme left wing socialists in bed with capitalists. In the US it is people who hate America and democracy in bed with the trillionaires of Silicon Valley.

    Academics have spent the years since WWII trying to convince the world NAZIS and FASCISTS were extreme right wing. And Trump is calling them out. ANTIFA is an exact copy of Mussolini’s blackshirts, masses of anonymous thugs who hate democracy. It’s the usual false flag stuff.

    The reason Stalin and Hitler were at war was not that one was extreme right and the other extreme left. Both were extreme left ideologies but Hitler was funded by the world’s biggest companies like Krupp Steel and IG Farben where Stalin took over private enterprise, Karl Marx’s means of production. Both pushed nationalism.

    And Zelensky is exploiting this ignorance too. Putin is not saying there is any problem with Ukraine or the people, a lot of whom are Russians. He is saying there is a major problem with a succession of extremely corrupt Ukraine governments. And Putin has called them Fascists as well. Which was a surprise. There is so much more going on than the press are reporting.

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      Honk R Smith

      Truckers convoy supposedly due in DC Tuesday. (State of the Union day … barf.)
      Clogged traffic (well, even more clogged) likely to really tick off the Beltway Babylon.
      No doubt encouraged by FBI undercover provocateurs.
      I’m guessing Joe will go full Trudeau.
      National Guard deployed, apparently with large odd looking mounted search light looking vehicles.
      Biden will once again declare the greatest threat to America is Wh!te Supreem-acy.
      Oh, and climate change.
      I’m mostly white and I fear change, confusing.

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        Ross

        “odd looking mounted search light looking vehicles”- they might be LRAD’s set up on vehicles. Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD)- an acoustic hailing device, sound cannon and sonic weapon. Starting to be used by police forces around the world and supposedly used by either the AFP or local ACT police in the Canberra freedom protests. Not sure of the technicalities, but they send out low level radio interference or sound waves which can affect radio devices and hearing etc. I’m sure there’s someone on this blog who know a little more about them.

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    Deano

    Once again, as with COVID, the more reports I read about Russia/Ukraine the more confused all the information leaves me. The only method I can trust is the ‘If x is true, then y should also happen’ system. The reports that Putin has raised the readiness of his nuclear weapons systems makes me think he’s planning to disappear soon and leave a bit of chaos behind him as a distraction from his chicken-ness.

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    TdeF

    Latest:

    Ukraine says it will hold talks with Russia at its border with Belarus — near the Chernobyl exclusion zone — after a phone call between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

    “The politicians agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet the Russian one without preconditions at the Ukraine-Belarus border, near the Pripyat River,” Mr Zelensky’s office said in a statement early on Monday (AEST).

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has said a Russian delegation is in the Belarusian city of Gomel.’

    Fantastic. Kiev is only 100km from the Belarusian border as is Gomel. Fast by car or helicopter.

    I can only think Zelensky is bargaining for his own safe exit. And that is fine with everyone if it means an end to hostilities. The Russian people and Ukranian people do not want war. This is a media driven war. And people both inside and outside corrupt Ukraine have a lot of dirty secrets which they want buried with the Zelensky government. And there is nothing like a war to destroy records and witnesses.

    If peace can be negotiated, the world will be far better off. But perhaps not a lot of rich people and Western politicians. It could bring down the Biden government and that is only one at risk from the truth of what has been really happening inside Ukraine. Which carries a real risk of escalation of the conflict as a cover up.

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      PeterS

      More to the point, how dare the Russians didn’t use transgender soldiers with critical race theory implanted in their minds by their military leaders. Putin is just being the clever (still evil) guy in the game. The West are being played like a drum, just as Trump so accurately stated recently. If all this leads to a world war, China will side with Russia and the Wets will loose. We better start hoping that Biden loses the control commands to launch nuclear missiles prematurely.

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    John Galt

    Sorry, Jo, but you have been taken in by the mainstream media propaganda on this one. 👎

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    OriginalSteve

    As best as can be established, russia has invaded to protect russians within the 2 break away republiccs who apparently were being shelled by ukranian troops. One of the stated aims of Putin was “de-nazification” of the ukraine as in remove all nazis. The other was to ensure a ukraine version of the cuban missle crisis doesnt reoccur.

    Im neutral in this conflict, and it appears the whole story isnt being told.

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      PeterS

      Best way is always to be neutral, especially for true Christians since we already know leaders of all major nations tell lies. So there is not even one leader we can trust or believe. I look forward to our Lord and Saviour to be the real peacemaker. He is our only true hope to save mankind from self destruction, which is inevitable otherwise.

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      PeterS

      I’m not picking sides as they are all working towards the same goal; world domination but on two fronts, or as some call it two cabals fighting for the same prize – winner takes all. It would not surprise me to see both sides coming to some mutual agreement to put aside their differences and work together only to end up fighting one country that will never join the NWO; Israel, especially once it becomes a true Christian nation finally discovering some 2,000 years later who their true Messiah was all along.

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    Peter Fitzroy

    According to this site’s filling system this was is because of global warming.
    So if we stop global warming we stop the war. Greta would be supportive I’m sure.

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    PeterS

    Why stop with Russia? The West has just proven they are on the same page as Russia and China when it comes to the rights and freedoms of their citizens. Our MSM should have been targeted by Anonymous years ago. Anonymous’ colours has just bee revealed.

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    OldOzzie

    Peace Talks Possible Between Russia and Ukraine, As Magnificently Defiant Zelenskyy Stands atop The Alamo of Kyiv Taking Selfies

    The propaganda pouring out of Ukraine from the U.S. State Department and the taxpayer funded Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) is, in a modern scale, historic.

    In their collective effort to make #Ukraine the modern image of The Alamo (where the last stand to defend all mankind is taking place), the corporate media, state dept and NGO’s are utilizing their Hollywood directed #BringBackOurGirls and #KonySurrender techniques in the extreme.

    Pay no attention to the absence of any war fighting actually taking place, meaning the lack of actual fighting shooting and stuff in a modern era where everyone has cell phone cameras, and instead focus your attention to the ‘story telling.’

    After all, the White House was very clear that the winner of this contest to defend all humanity from the Russian villain Vladimir Putin, would depend on who could tell a “better story.”

    Thus, you do not need to see shooting or actual war type stuff. Instead, the contest to save the planet is boiled down to who can take a better selfie.

    As Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh stated last week, the U.S. government has rallied the collective west to defeat Russia using the cultural weapon of social likeability. Vladimir Putin is getting pummeled.

    It’s all a grand pantomime folks. All of it. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the newest Michael Avenatti.

    Ukraine has been the playground for the U.S. State Dept, NGO’s, intelligence schemes and DC political grift for well over a decade.

    You know it, because it has been well documented. Yet suddenly, the same Ukraine is the modern Alamo in the battle to save all mankind. Oh, okay, and we’re supposed to forget the first stuff.

    If you’re wondering, why has it taken the Russia army four days to travel 30 miles? You must believe it is, because Ukrainians with their free Kalashnikov rifles and Molotov cocktails have beaten back the onslaught of heavily mechanized armored tank divisions. You must believe it, because you are being told by the most trusted names in news.

    If you don’t believe it… and if you think it all just seems odd as Ukrainian politicians are taking selfies amid this monumental military encounter… well, you must be a Russian agent, or something.

    Comrades, just wait until tomorrow, when Russia will bomb the baby formula factories, then perhaps you will take it seriously. How can you not feel sympathy for the babies, the mothers, teachers, crying on the television as they tell stories about saving their children from the scourge of the artillery fire that must be heard in the ever familiar “off in the distance.”

    It’s weird how no journalist will actually go to that “distant” place they all talk about. Alas, I digress….

    Bottom line folks… the Russia -vs- Ukraine crisis is cover for the outcomes of Joe Biden’s energy policy, so that American voters do not attach $10/gal gasoline to his climate change agenda, and instead apportion the blame to Russia and Vladimir Putin.

    Again, “never let a crisis go to waste,” and if you can’t find the crisis to use, make one.

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      PeterS

      Again, “never let a crisis go to waste,” and if you can’t find the crisis to use, make one.

      We’ve already been through two crises (CAGW and COVID-19) and it’s not enough for the globalists to achieve their ultimate goal so more need to be created. The current Russian-Ukraine crisis is just another step along the way. No doubt more will be manufactured until their goal is achieved, and mark my words it will be achieved but not for long. In the end they will fail to maintain their “win” after a short period.

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    OldOzzie

    Russian military confirms casualties in Ukraine operation

    A small number of soldiers also ended up captured by Ukrainian forces, the Russian Defense Ministry said

    The Russian military has suffered casualties, and some soldiers have ended up captured by the opposing forces during the ongoing military operation in Ukraine, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov acknowledged on Sunday during a press briefing, as he provided a daily update on the conflict.

    “Since the launch of the operation, [Russian military] has destroyed 254 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 31 aircraft on the ground, 46 multiple launch rocket systems, 103 pieces of artillery and mortars, 164 pieces of special military vehicles,” Konashenkov stated.

    The official did not specify the number of casualties among Russian troops, stating only that they are “many times less than the number of eliminated nationalists,” as well as casualties suffered by Ukraine’s regular military forces.

    A small number of Russian servicemen have been taken prisoner by Ukrainian troops, Konashenkov admitted, condemning the treatment they’ve received at the hands of the opposing force.

    The Russian military has been closely monitoring footage purportedly showing the abuse of the country’s soldiers at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists, the official warned, promising to bring those involved in such behavior to justice.

    “This applies to the leaders of the Kiev regime and their minions, who directly call for abuse of Russian military personnel in violation of the convention on the treatment of prisoners of war,” Konashenkov said. “All of you will be found and will inevitably face severe retribution.”

    Any Ukrainian soldiers who ended up captured by Russian troops, however, are – and will be – treated “decently,” the official stressed. “All who laid down their arms and ceased resistance will be returned to their families,” Konashenkov added.

    Moscow launched the military operation in Ukraine on Thursday, explaining it was the only option left to prevent an allegedly looming attack by Kiev’s forces on the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in the country’s east. Kiev has denied harboring such plans, insisting it has not been seeking to retake the region, which broke away from Ukraine back in 2014 after the Maidan events. Days before the offensive was launched, Moscow formally recognized the republics as independent states. The Ukrainian government slammed the attack as “unprovoked.”

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    Ross

    Haha. Does anyone here on this blog really think they have an accurate idea of what is actually happening on the ground in Ukraine? Really? All the stories and photos depicted in this piece could be staged, faked or setup. I’m past the point of believing any first (or sometimes 2nd and third) reports of any events in any contentious news story. I’ve recently seen video of “factories” of trolls running multiple devices on consoles and influencing opinion on subjects. We are experiencing now a higher, more sophisticated level of infowars, where the truth really isn’t the truth. Its the new truth or something. Or as George Constanza would say on Seinfeld – “Its not a lie if you believe it to be true”.

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      OldOzzie

      Ross,

      I thought this was real – Giant Boeing 747 Vertical Takeoff

      For those who don’t know, this video is made from x-plane 11. X-plane 11 is the flight simulator, so of course this situation doesn’t happen in real life. The plane taxi to the runway from Pane Field airport. It takeoff and lands at the same runway.

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        Ross

        Yes, perfect example of what I was talking about! During COVID and lockdowns I took up some Playstation games to wile away the hours. Any of the “simulator” games are truly amazing in their reality. Now, of course we have films which are also completely simulated. “Greyhound” – with Tom Hanks being one recent example. Love your contributions OO, your writing is very good.

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          OldOzzie

          Having flown in every 747, 100, 200, 300, 300 Combi, 400 and my favourite, Qantas 747 Stubby – the 747-8 is the only one left to fly in, and when Covid, masks on flight and vaccine passports finally go away, will use FF Points to do Business Class trip around the World using 747-8’s

          In the meantime, as the 1st job I applied for in November 1961 after finishing Leaving Certificate was Qantas Cadet Pilot Scheme, however as badly colour blind, failed the Ishihara Dot Test, made up for it flying around the World on Business, becoming Qantas Platinum FF and before 9/11, sitting in the c@ckpit of 747-200/300/300 Combi/400 for landings

          After a year and a quarter of trying, finally got an X Box Series X Console at end of Dec 21 and immediately got Premium Microsoft Flight Simulator and flying 747-8 has been amazing.

          The following video [MSFS] Boeing 747-8i Approach, ILS & Landing Tutorial shows how incredible it is and I will be watching more tutorials

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        PeterS

        Most people will not stop falling for it because their brains are turned off, too busy with other things, etc., and so trust whatever the MSM and politicians tell them with regards to crises and major issues. Too many people don’t want to spend the time to do their own research and think. It’s just the way it is.

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      OldOzzie

      Disinformation and utter hoaxes are now being aggressively spread as well.

      Both Rep. Kinzinger and Rep. Swalwell ratified and spread the story of the so-called “Ghost of Kyiv,” a Ukrainian fighter pilot said to have single-handedly shot down six Russian planes. Tales and memes commemorating his heroism viralized on social media, ultimately ratified by these members of Congress and other prominent voices. The problem? It is a complete hoax and scam, concocted through a combination of deep fake videos based on images from a popular video game. Yet to date, few who have spread this fraud have retracted it, while censorship-happy Big Tech corporations have permitted most of these fraudulent posts to remain without a disinformation label on it. We are absolutely at the point — even as demands escalate for systematic censorship by Big Tech of any so-called “pro-Russian” voices — where disinformation and fake news are considered noble provided they advance a pro-Ukrainian narrative.

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      Jerry, just remember. It’s not a lie… if you believe it…

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_PSJsl0LQ&feature=youtu.be

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    OldOzzie

    Russian Roulette in Ukraine

    We only remain in NATO and have involved ourselves in the current Ukraine mess because of our quixotic goal of remaining the sole superpower, which is rather ironically making us weaker.

    I admit, I was surprised by Russia’s attack on Ukraine. I thought Vladimir Putin had decided, instead of invading, to recognize the separatist republics and send in “peacekeepers.” Given the binary choice of invading or losing face, Plan C seemed the most clever, something similar to the limited “hybrid” campaign in Crimea. Instead, he has launched a massive, multipronged attack on Ukraine with the goal of “demilitarizing” the country.

    The best analogy is the Russian attack on Georgia in response to its attack on the separatist province of South Ossetia in 2008. There, Russia surprised the West with its swift, decisive, and effective action against the pro-Western Georgians. Russia succeeded in its aims to degrade Georgia’s military and strengthen the separatists. These actions sent a message to Georgian leaders and its neighbors that a dalliance with the West may come at a high cost if Russia perceives it as a threat.

    A war of some kind has been going on for eight years in Ukraine. While the West is now hyper-focused on the Russian invasion and its costs, the people of Donetsk have been shelled nearly every day by Ukrainian forces since 2014. And the so-called Revolution of Dignity was the culmination of a months-long violent riot in Kiev.

    As Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman described the matter, the war began eight years ago, and Russia is ending it.

    Lost in all of the rhetoric about Russian aggression is that no one is really consistent on the legitimacy of separatist movements.

    The United States supports them in some instances, and opposes them in others, as do the Russians. Russia remembers, but most Americans hardly noticed, that in 2008 we recognized the independence of Kosovo, a breakaway province of Russia’s ally, Serbia. Similarly, Americans have mostly forgotten that we intervened with a 78 day bombing campaign to support Kosovo separatists in 1999, a move which Russia condemned, but had little power to do much about at the time.

    The United States is not alone in its inconsistent treatment of separatist movements. Russia supports the separatists of eastern Ukraine, while opposing those in Chechnya. In truth, most separatist movements have some basis in legitimate grievances, and these grievances are frequently offset by legitimate concerns of the larger nations which aim to stop their own dismemberment.

    It is, of course, hard to come up with firm legal or moral principles in foreign policy. There are many possible disputes between and within nations, and historically many of these have been resolved by force. Only the passage of time eventually gives these new realities de jure status. Everyone’s claimed moral principles of international relations—whether on the legitimacy of military action or the question of separatism—is mostly a cover for realpolitik concerns.

    Not all sovereignty is created equal. Smaller and weaker nations naturally reside in the orbit of their stronger neighbors and need to come to some modus vivendi with them. Certainly, the United States would not be sanguine about Russia or China fomenting instability within Mexico. Spheres of influence are a fact of life.

    Under these conditions, some recognition of core interests is in order, and this can form the basis for negotiations. Russia obviously and justifiably does not want NATO and nuclear weapons on its doorstep, any more than the United States wants such in the Western Hemisphere. As the world’s largest nuclear power and one of the largest conventional powers, it has some say in the outcome, whether we like it or not.

    We have used Ukraine to foil Russia, but that’s been neither in the Ukrainians’ interest nor even our own. A deliberate policy of neutrality by Ukraine would probably have been preferable and more acceptable to everyone involved. America’s support of the earlier Maidan protests was needlessly provocative, providing arms and military assistance in their war against Ukraine’s Russian-speaking East was more provocative still. The end result was not greater security for Ukraine, but instead a series of increasingly risky maneuvers, culminating in the West’s abandonment of Ukraine when the gamble ended up snake eyes

    The current conflict between Russia and Ukraine is tragic and regrettable. These “fraternal nations” have a long and shared history together, which predates and overshadows recent events. One hopes their mutual Christian faith, their common ancestry and origins, and their shared suffering during World War II leads them to the negotiating table and ultimately to a mutually acceptable coexistence. In all of these steps, American involvement would only function as an additional obstacle to peace.

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      Geoffrey Williams

      Excellent summary Oldozzie: Breakaway separatist movements are an issue for many countries around the world. Even at this moment one could name ten or a dozen instances of some such rebellion taking place and they are inevitably nasty. They are indeed civil wars which are the worst kind.
      The United Nations does intervene but I’m not sure with how much success.
      With enclaves and the like created some modern and others long ago, situations are complicated. Also claims to far off foreign places by ex-colonial nations can be complicated. The current situation between Russia and Ukraine falls into such with no easy answers . .

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      Dx123

      None of the US interventions threatened advanced civilization, advanced technology, progress. Places like Iraq, Serbia, Afganistan are pretty much useless and unnecessary for the the civilization or technology. They could cease to exist, and the civilization wouldn’t notice. Russian nuclear potential is a GRAVE THREAT to the civilization – it can destroy civilization. Unlike US or China which are necessary evils – contributors to the progress of civilization via science, technology etc. – Russia doesn’t offer much back to the civilization. The risks of Russia are much larger than benefits of Russia. Existance of Russia is a net negative – high risk, no benefits: unnecessary evil. The desired state is thus non-existance of Russia. Territory is valuable, so it should be transformed to a nature reservation with option to extract resources.

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    MarkMcD

    Apparently Americans are prepared to pay a high price to make a protest against Russia. Unfortunately they seem to be wrong-target!
    https://parler.com/feed/181a3956-87cb-4431-aadd-763c964e0427

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    MarkMcD

    The vendor (my previous post) is right…

    “The Stolichnaya vodka you find in the US, for example, is made in Latvia. The parent company, SPI Group, is owned by Yuri Shefler, a Russian born businessman who left Russia and moved to the United Kingdom as a result of a dispute with the Kremlin.”

    “Smirnoff was once a Russian vodka label, but the brand is now owned by drink giant Diageo and is made all over the world. It is not, however, made in Russia.”

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    Geoffrey Williams

    The Russian – Ukraine war : I have to say at the risk of being in the minority view and being shouted down, heckled and ostricised that I am in support of Russia in this war.
    I believe that the Russians or if you prefer ‘Putin’ have been left with no choice if they wish to keep their western border free from the hostile development of NATO.
    For a long time now Putin has been voicing his concerns without any compromise from the west. So he went to war against what he sees as a Ukraine controlled by a western puppet regime. Whether the Russians have miscalculated or not remains to be seen, and perhaps they will accept some sort of East – West demarcation line in Ukraine to act as a kind of buffer.
    NATO is without doubt a tool of the United States and as such has been used under the guise of democracy in order to control the European countries. And the European countries in turn have fallen gladly into line.
    For America Russia is a threat to their world order as is China (so deal with them one at a time).
    But I do not have trust in United State’s motives, during my lifetime they have committed acts of war against so many nations. Mass bombing has been their favourite modus operandi so that they do not have to risk the lives of their own soldiers, but have total disregard for other nations both peoples both military and civilian. I’m sure that I do not need to list these nations. Again I say that world order and dominance for America is their aim. And they call it Democracy. Not my kind of Democracy.
    I have always believed in peacefull solutions to the world’s problems and to this end compromise is needed.
    Finally this is an awefull war and only (5) days old. So many people have already lost their lives and for sure there have been atrocities particularly amongst the opposing armies. I hope that it will end soon.
    I do no apologize for my support of Russia. And I do not believe the main stream western media.

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      Forrest Gardener

      To support Russia or more precisely the Russian government you would have to assess that they are a lesser evil than the USA or more precisely the US government.

      I think you are right. The USA government or more precisely those who control it for their own benefit are the greatest evil on the planet.

      So I support the Russian people, the Ukrainian people, the US people, the chinese people and every other people. Their governments have not in a single case contributed anything other than misery and conflict.

      I would add counsel the parties to let he who is without sin cast the first stone but it is way to late for that.

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        TdeF

        Whatever the motives, something had to be done about the long and deadly civil war and the poverty and criminality. And the West, NATO and the US could not care less. Rather they see Ukraine as a criminal country which can be exploited and used as a weapon against Russia.

        Consider the history, Russian missiles in Cuba. US missiles in Turkey. Russian nuclear bombers in Venezuela (just last year). And now the open threat of NATO in Ukraine. This is bear baiting in a deadly game where the immensely powerful bear is chained while the dog attacks. It is a stupid move. Ukraine is no longer technically Russia, but it is as close as it gets and many and multiple wars between the invading Swedes, Teutonic knights, Poles, Germans, French and English were fought here when it was Russia.

        But more importantly, Ukraine is a huge place with a huge Russian heritage population and it is a tragic place. A succession of democratically elected governments have simply entrenched the world famous kleptocracy. At least in Russia the Oligachs in the Oblasts have largely improved the place and the hybrid democracy/Oligach/military structure has improved the quality of life of Russians dramatically in the last twenty years under Putin.

        So there is every reason to hope that Ukraine will be better when the criminal element, largely the police and politicians are cleaned out. Everyone will be better off, but especially the ordinary Ukrainians who with their vast natural resources should be as rich as Australians if they received even a fraction of their fair share.

        To mix my metaphors, the press picture of a David and Goliath struggle is the same picture you get with bear baiting. But the bear is the intended victim.

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          Geoffrey Williams

          Clear response TdeF accurate and to the point. Unfortunately in Australia you and I are in the minority. The mainstream media is expert at manipulating the masses and ‘reporting’ the goverments one eyed view of the conflict in line with our American masters.
          Personally I will not be prevented from speaking out on the truth as I perceive it no matter how many people I have to disagree with . .

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          Forrest Gardener

          TdeF, you started with these words: Whatever the motives, something had to be done about the long and deadly civil war and the poverty and criminality.

          So who was benefiting from the civil war, the poverty and the criminality?

          Nothing is as it seems.

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            TdeF

            Who benefited from Civil war? No one of course. No one ever does. It’s mutual destruction. The US civil war was horrific and quite recent, ten years after the French/British invasion of Russia in the Crimea. A ‘punitive’ war to teach the Russians a lesson at huge cost in lives on both sides.

            The Donbas people wanted to be Russians like the people of the Crimea, not Ukranian. I suspect very few people in the Donbas even speak Ukranian. As for wanting out, over the border people earn 4x as much. Pensions are as high. They have food. And the police are not armed criminals. It’s all clear why they wanted out of Ukraine.

            There have been breakaways all over the world, particularly in the former Yugoslavia as it fragments into many groups based on ethnicity, religion, politics, ideologies, feuds, battles fought and history. And it’s not as if other countries are immune. Quebec in the 1970s. Northern Ireland. Crete. Czechoslovakia. Vietnam. India/Pakistan. In fact the whole Austro Hungarian empire collapse, an empire with three official languages.

            But Kiev did not accept it. Zelensky did not want it. And they were prepared to bring these Republics into line by continuous war and non stop shelling. That is partly because these regions are the industrial heart of Ukraine and contain the only coal. So it was not about the people and what they wanted. It was about the Government and what the people who run it wanted and their friends. And they were prepared to k*ll their own people to get it back. Where is that a democracy?

            In this world where every conflict is reduced to a good guy/villain stereotype by the Press, like some sort of football game, the real situation is not being reported.
            I do not remember the world outrage when Tibet was invaded. Or the takeover and subjugation of Hong Kong. Or the reeducation camps for the muslim Uighurs in the West. And Americans are called racist? But Russians are already being kicked out of every international event, not the Chinese.

            It’s the world against Russia. As always. I think it’s because they have abandoned Communism and let the side down.

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              Forrest Gardener

              Let me start the list of people who benefit in a civil war:
              1. Arms manufacturers
              2. Black market operators
              3. Politicians needing a distraction

              Do you want to continue or shall I?

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    John Connor II

    Oh the propaganda! Good old lying MSM in full swing.
    It’s like mid-plandemic.😈

    Marty just posted a sensible reality based analysis that everyone should read.

    https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/world-war-iii-beginning-stages-now/

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      OldOzzie

      Excellent Summary – World War iii Beginning Stages Now

      Putin is playing chess while the rest of the world was playing checkers. When America wages war, they seek to destroy all the infrastructure, take down the power grid, and destroy the water supply. US troops then move in as more of a mop-up operation. The West is judging Putin by the same way the US wages war and they are so wrong. Putin is not using that strategy of a video game for he wants to take Ukraine intact for it also has the richest land in the world for food production – hence Stalin stole all the food and killed 7 million by starvation.

      Putin is NOT backing away from resistance, he is encircling it the classic way war is traditionally fought – you laid “siege” to the city by surrounding it, and starvation forces their surrender. That often takes time, but you then have the city and the people. You do not raze it to the ground and kill everyone. Anyone who has studied ancient war strategies should see what Putin is doing and the Western press is either deliberately putting out propaganda, or they are complete idiots.

      Putin seeks to install a new government with minimal casualties to civilians. Every dead civilian creates a blood enemy of their survivors. But the US way means it then costs billions in aid to rebuild what they destroyed – i.e. Iraq. Putin is NOT using that strategy and the Western press is judging him by American standards of destroying everything and winning in a few days.

      Putin is not seeking to destroy the Ukrainian Army. He wants to capture it and once a new government is installed, they will then become allies. This is the very strategy of Alexander the Great. He conquered the known world, but those who were once his enemy joined his army. In Babylon, he defeated Darius III but he left the infrastructure intact and he installed Persian satraps (governors) who poured what would have been Darius’s taxes into Alexander’s coffers. This is the strategy of Putin – not to obliterate his enemy and then pour billions in to restore it. Putin has wiped out the air force and owns the skies over Ukraine. He could annihilate the country in less than 3 days, but he is not doing that to the West’s befuddlement.

      Moreover, the real concern is that Putin has NOT sent in his hard-core troops. Only about 30% of the troops on the border were sent into Ukraine. The majority of the troops are there to take Europe if they are foolish enough to walk into this mess. Putin is obviously playing chess and he is very good at it while Biden has to change his diapers.

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        PeterS

        Putin is just doing what he feels is best for the safety of his nation, perceived or real, against potential but growing threats from the West driven mainly by the decrepit and useless POTUS. In other words it’s simply driven by fear and uncertainty from both sides. So, what does the MSM do? The MSM is goading Putin to extend the war and the West appears it wants war with Russia to divert attention form its own problems. What the MSM ought to be doing is to try and convince both sides to sit down and talk about some peaceful resolution so that Putin’s fear of NATO, real or otherwise, can be allayed. Warmongering could lead to millions of unnecessary deaths. In that light the MSM are just as culpable as Putin if not more so, if things get really out of hand. This is more than just a chess game. It’s a game of life and death.

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        OldOzzie

        Belarus’ Lukashenko Says West Is Pushing Russia Into “Third World War”

        Lukashenko said in his latest Sunday comments as quoted and translated in regional media: “Now there is a lot of talk against the banking sector. Gas, oil, SWIFT. It’s worse than war. This is pushing Russia into a third world war.”

        He specified that if the West didn’t start backing off from these extreme measures, the ending could lead to nuclear conflict. He called for “restraint” in this regard, even though in the past two months of tensions leading up to the war in Ukraine he issued an invitation for Putin to host Russian nukes on Belarusian soil.

        “We need to be restrained here so as not to get into trouble. Because nuclear war is the end of everything.”

        “We have experience. We discussed this theme with Putin more than once. We’ll survive. It is impossible to starve us to death,” Lukashenko said.

        He vowed that both Belarus and Russia were readying retaliatory measures that he described as being “very tangible” but said Minsk and Moscow would be thinking them over “very carefully”.

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        Dx123

        The big problem with “starategies” is that Russia – despite having riches from minerals and energy exports, and relatively high-IQ people – failed to become First World country, including failed to introduce first-world economy. This indicates a severe organizational issues: Russia being a failed oranization, wrong model for a civilization. Unfortunately for others occupied by Russia – being under Russian yoke means getting under this failed organization, thus eding in a permanent state of second-world economy, forever. Not being under Russian control means at least having a chance to become First World someday.

        Not to mention a plethora of other issues related to Russia specifically. Russia borders with China, which is becoming a fist-world economy, a much more populous contry, which needs land for its large population. Russia has a lot of sparsely-populated land in Siberia and Far East… A recipe for a conflict lost by Russia. Or they can arm up in even more nukes to counter China – becoming an unacceptable risk for the world: a risk of destruction of civilization or nature by these nukes, while Russia existance not being necessary for anyone. Replace Russia with a nature reserve under internatinal control, but the type or natural reserve from which resources can be extracted – problems of Russia solved. International control prevents China from getting Siberia, prices of gas or minerals don’t go up, Nature is happy with a lot of land for its use, civilization has one risk of destruction less – as weapons of mass destruction currently owned by Russia cease to exist. Territory of Russia as a nature reserver is a beneficial state, compared to current risk of nuclear destruction it poses.

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    philemon

    Patrick Armstrong of Russia Observer is stuck in a hotel, but keeping up as well as he can watching a parade of deeply ignorant “experts” on CNN. The gold medal in Competitive Idiocy goes to the U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama who believes communist Russia is invading Ukraine to capture farmland ’cause they don’t have enough food.

    https://www.newsweek.com/russian-invasion-more-farmland-senator-tommy-tuberville-says-1682463

    Because of the five-year plans, people!

    It’s beyond embarrassing.

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      TdeF

      And in the Australian, Russia is planning genocide? That’s past crazy. Emotional and nutty. Who is saying this? Surely CNN because it does not make sense. What genius came up with genocide?

      The people are largely Russian or Russian/Polish/Moldavian/Ukranian/Cossack on both sides of the border. That’s Putin’s whole point. Even the President of Ukraine speaks Ukranian as a second language.

      It would be rare to find someone who was not of Russian descent. The only large other group were Turkic people from the original Khanates like those in Crimea and Stalin deported them all. And the Zaporogian Cossacks who are considered more Russian than the Russians.

      What’s next, the Russians are anti Trans? Now that’s reasonable. Most people in the world are not Woke, despite the Western press. There are far more important problems than adopted identities. But Genocide?

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    max

    “The Free world fights back.”

    “The Free world” forgot last two year.

    “The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.”
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    “Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.”
    Kahlil Gibran

    Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory. John Kenneth Galbraith

    Leonard E. Read, the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946, used to say that Americans live in a country in which various levels of government extract over 40% of their productivity, yet they call this system freedom.

    “They don’t know the difference between freedom and coercion.”

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      PeterS

      Yes indeed. Even our own PM Morrison has taught us that coercion and freedom are one and the same thing. So, who are our real enemies? They are already in power.

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        yarpos

        Neil Oliver currently has one of his set piece talks to GBNews camera on this topic, the lack of trust in political leadership.

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    Bruce

    Those “Molotov cocktails”:

    REAL Molotov cocktails do not have loose bits of rag protruding from an open neck.

    Quick way to join the KIA klub is to start appearing on the scene with a flaming bottle in your hand.

    There was video on one news feed showing “Ukrainians” dropping expanded polystyrene (bean-bag) pellets into beer bottles . Gasoline dissolves polystyrene and the result is a highly-flammable, sticky, goop that does not just disperse on the ground. More traditional “soviet” recipes used Latex, (mainly because, in WW2, they didn’t have polystyrene pellets). Named after The “Comrade” Molotov who was Stalin’s Foreign Minister at the time.

    REAL Molotov cocktails are also self-igniting on impact. No “guiding light”, there. And, NO, I am not going to discuss the recipe.

    So, were these “real” but sub-standard Molotov cocktails, or a bit more LSM “set-dressing”? Produced after emptying the contents of the bottles in a traditional and thoughtful way? “Field” churnalists have serious “previous” in the Middle East, for starters.

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      philemon

      Some comments seemed to suggest that the videos were from meth-labs. Just saying.

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      Earl

      Yes and before polystyrene and latex the method was to mix in sugar to make it gooey and increase (human/clothing) stickability.

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      Stuart

      I watched a video where 100 civilians with molotovs, stopped and destroyed a column of APC’s. once the vehicle stopped it was hit by 30 or so molotov cocktails and the crew were finished, the whole vehicle was a ball of flame, continued to burn and it didnt move again. they did it over and over again, enough ordinary people throwing enough hand made weapons can and do work. Dont write off the Ukranians just yet.But the Russians havent taken the gloves off yet.

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    John Connor II

    Interesting data on Ukraine.

    This is why Ukraine matters. It is the second-largest country by area in Europe by area and has a population of over 40 million – more than Poland … Ukraine ranks:

    🌐 1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores;

    🌐2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves;

    🌐2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world’s reserves);

    🌐2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons);

    🌐2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves;

    🌐3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters)

    🌐4th in the world by the total value of natural resources;

    🌐7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)

    Ukraine is an important agricultural country:

    🌐1st in Europe in terms of arable land area;

    🌐3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world’s volume);

    🌐1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil;

    🌐2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports;

    🌐3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world;

    🌐4th largest producer of potatoes in the world;

    🌐5th largest rye producer in the world;

    🌐5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons);

    🌐8th place in the world in wheat exports;

    🌐9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs;

    🌐16th place in the world in cheese exports.

    Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.

    Ukraine is an important industrialized country:

    🌐1st in Europe in ammonia production;

    Europe’s 2nd’s and the world’s 4th largest natural gas pipeline system;

    🌐3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants;

    🌐3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km);

    🌐3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment;

    🌐3rd largest iron exporter in the world

    🌐4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world;

    🌐4th world’s largest manufacturer of rocket launchers;

    🌐4th place in the world in clay exports

    🌐4th place in the world in titanium exports

    🌐8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates;

    🌐9th place in the world in exports of defense industry products;

    🌐10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons).

    Ukraine matters. That is why its independence is important to the rest of the world.

    Ask yourself why the world (claims to) really care about Ukraine…

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      TdeF

      I was sent this list. Yes, the world cares about Ukraine and its vast resources.

      And who gets the cash from this great wealth? Not the Ukranians.

      What can the ordinary Ukranians do about this? Absolutely nothing. While drugs and disease and desperate poverty and unemployment rip their families apart.

      The money men, the elites are not interested in saving the Ukranians. They are interested in saving this milch cow of a country while the people live in terrible poverty at a survival level.

      If the Ukranian people had their fair share of this wealth, they would be as rich as Australians or Norwegians, but they get nothing.

      And the police are the criminals. The world traders in stolen wealth are perfectly happy with this. Just like the British 19th century enslavement of millions of Chinese with Afghanistan opium, traded through India by immensely wealthy families. And then the Opium wars where again the Chinese were the victims of American/Japanese/German/French/British military opportunism and exploitation which persisted until the Japanese invasion which was a real incredibly bloody invasion like the German one. Wars of extermination, not conquest. You can visit the Concessions in Shanghai where the invaders lived in comfort.

      No matter what the official position, the big money men have the morality of Dracula in a blood bank. And that includes Joe and Hunter Biden. Ukraine needs to be saved. It cannot save itself when they are kept perpetually impoverished and you have Ukranians shelling other Ukranians to preserve the status quo.

      In the mainstream press I have read nothing of the reasons for this war. Just emotional rubbish about genocide and Russian aggression and civilian bravery against the evil Russians. What happened to the truth?

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        TdeF

        Consider energy. In Ukraine the only energy reserves are coal in the Donbass. Otherwise this is a very cold country in winter and has no energy. It used to buy gas from Russia, but now all the gas is bought from NATO countries. And where do they get it? Russia. In fact the big gas pipes run through Ukraine.

        In my experience when you have to buy (unnecessarily) from a middle man, the price goes up. It’s more massive wealth transfer hidden as commercial trade, hidden in the invoices.

        And Joe Biden used his power as Vice President to protect one of the major criminals because his son had a well paying job there where he did nothing but called his dad if his criminal boss was in trouble with the law.

        And Big Joe threatened the President of the Ukraine to get the prosecutor removed. He boasted of it. How is this not an impeachable offence? But it was Trump who was falsely accused of such a thing. Beyond belief. There are many Ukranian skeletons in the Biden closet. Hunter Biden had 24 trips on Air Force one. Why?

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          OldOzzie

          Hunter Biden had 24 trips on Air Force one. Why?

          US Secret Service Claims it CAN’T FIND Three Years Worth of Hunter Biden’s Travel Records After Agency Made “Extensive, Inappropriate Redactions” to Docs Produced Last Month

          Republican investigators are seeking answers after the US Secret Service (USSS) made “extensive” and improper redactions to Hunter Biden’s travel records before providing them as part of a FOIA request earlier this month

          Unbelievably, three full years of records were completely missing from the documents because, apparently, the records are inexplicably missing and the agency can’t find them.

          Last month, Republican Senators Chuck Grassley (IA) and Ron Johnson (WI) requested Hunter’s travel records as part of an ongoing Congressional investigation into the Biden Crime Family for their use of government resources to conduct shady business dealings. In response, the USSS produced 261 heavily redacted pages related to the request but did not include any records for 2010, 2011, or 2013, and provided absolutely no explanation for the omissions.

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            OldOzzie

            Trump Calls on Republicans to Launch Select Committee to Investigate Hunter Biden and Biden Family Corruption (VIDEO)

            President Trump this weekend called for Republicans to launch a select committee to investigate Hunter Biden and Biden family corruption.

            “A Republican Congress should launch a select committee as opposed to an unselect committee,” Trump said in his CPAC speech taking a swipe at the January 6 panel.

            He continued, “…to get to the bottom of Big Tech’s 2020 election interference, let’s find out who made the decision to censor – who made that decision to censor the Joe and Hunter Biden corruption bombshell which the pollsters said amounted to about 15 points – the largest illegal campaign contribution in American history.”

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          Alexy Scherbakoff

          ‘Buying’ gas from Russia but not paying for it. They were ‘siphoning’ gas as well. The Russians simply cut them off. The stuff with Ukraine has been going on for at least two decades.

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            TdeF

            The siphoning was no surprise when such incredible wealth runs past your front door. And there is no need to siphon, this is gas under pressure. A hole will do. Anywhere.

            And how is it that the Ukranian government or energy authorities could not work a better deal buying direct from Russia? It’s not as if they are a small customer.

            It is a pipeline for cash and Ukranians have to buy Russian gas from the West. The same gas. No value added, so why pay more?
            How could this be any less than plain theft? It’s wonder the Russian pipeline does not resemble Swiss cheese.

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              Alexy Scherbakoff

              ‘siphoning’ was in inverted commas on purpose.

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                TdeF

                Quite understood. It’s a common technique for stealing any liquid. However you also understand that it is not necessary and theft is quite a bit simpler in this case.

                I can imagine the Russians have accurate monitors to detect gas leaks between sections. Maybe for safety there are many gate valves which allow instant isolation of sections for safety values, valves which would close instantly on loss of pressure. But these also could be used momentarily to see if any section ‘leaks’. So while tapping gas pipe is easy, being detected is also easy. Maybe even continuity checks on the pipe. It must be cat and mouse game between the Russians and the Ukranians.

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                Hanrahan

                No need for semantics, Ukraine was STEALING the gas.

                And the Antonov 225 that Ukraine had been leasing out at $30,000/hr was built and paid for the Soviets. It is no more, a missile through the hangar roof.

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                yarpos

                sad new to aviation enthusiasts but small beans in the scheme of things

                its heavy/large item fast delivery capability will be missed

                apparently another partially completed airframe exists (for the moment)

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        Stuart

        “And who gets the cash from this great wealth?” the Biden family do alright so long as the big guy gets his cut.

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      max

      yes rich and beautiful country — but run by whole bunch of socialist idiots since independence. If they copy Switzerland system of neutrality and independence they wold to be in the shit they are now.

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        yarpos

        the swiss system of neutrality has just slightly cracked, with them banning Russian aircraft from their airspace. The oligarchs will have to make appropriate arrangements for the Geneva shopping trips.

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      Geoffrey Williams

      Well researched John. I the list is only half correct Ukraine should a wealthy country and Ukrainians wealthy people. Instead we are told they are a poor to average nation where life for many is a struggle. But Biden and his son did well out of it and the west is full of very wealthy Ukrainian business men and women. You have to wonder how they got cashed up . .

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      With all those riches I wonder why the people are so poor and do not have a standard of living similar to Australia………Oh, I know it’s because the place is so corrupt and run by gangsters……….The ordinary people don’t get a look in………….

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    • #
      • #
        Geoffrey Williams

        Sorry that was meant to be a green thumb.
        Now, that nuclear high alert by the Russians : I read somewhere that NATO does not have a policy of ‘non first strike’. If you ask me the United States is not to be trusted and they are too ‘handy’ with their Tomahawk missiles and their B56 (I think) strategic and tactical nuclear warheads.
        Most people think and would say that nuclear war is never going to happen, but on the other hand I can see those demonstrating crowds in all those major capital cities around the world cheering them (US and NATO allies) on. One can justify anything with the right thinking.
        Putin is right to be very wary . .
        I have always said that there is nothing in the world that surprises me, of course after the event.

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    OldOzzie

    Former White House Physician Says Biden Is Not Cognitively Fit To Deal With Russia Crisis

    “The whole country is seeing his mental cognitive issues on display for over a year now, and there’s really no question in most people’s minds that there’s something going on with him,” said Jackson.

    “He’s not cognitively the same as he used to be and, in my mind, not fit to be our president right now,” he added.

    The Congressman said that the 79-year-old representing America at a time when a message of strength needs to be sent isn’t going to end well.

    “Every time he gets up and talks to the American people, it’s not just the American people that are watching him speak, it’s the whole world, and that’s part of what the problem is here,” said Jackson.

    “[Biden] looks tired, he looks weak, he looks confused, he’s incoherent, and it sends a message of weakness all over the world, and they’re seizing up on that,” he added.

    A poll last week revealed that two thirds of Americans want to see Biden take the same cognitive competence test that Trump took when he was in office.

    During a press conference last month, Biden stumbled into yet another embarrassing gaffe when he suggested a “minor incursion” into Ukraine would go unpunished.

    As we highlighted earlier, Donald Trump questioned why Biden had failed to make a public appearance in the hours after the Russian attack, with the White House announcing he will only appear sometime later this afternoon.

    “I don’t think he’s monitoring, I think he is probably sleeping right now,” said Trump.

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    OldOzzie

    Will ‘woke’ survive the war?

    Will the West’s obsession with Woke survive war in Europe? Or will Putin’s missiles finally explode the Never-Never Land of unreality in which we have been living?

    It’s early days, of course, but so far, the West’s mythical land of prancing unicorns looks bulletproof.

    Even as rockets rained down on Ukraine, Western elites worried about how the war would affect LGBTQ people, as if Putin might have developed queer-seeking missiles.

    Others voiced concern that grandparents huddled in bomb shelters beneath the pockmarked streets of Kiev might not be social distancing.

    The New York Times lamented that few of the Ukrainians fleeing for their lives were wearing masks. They probably weren’t triple-boosted either. And God forbid any of them were shot dead without first using a QR-code to check out.

    Meanwhile, former US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed dismay at what he called the ‘emissions consequences’ of war in Europe. He would presumably be far more comfortable with the Russian invasion had their tanks first met strict European emission standards.

    Kerry said he hoped Vladimir Putin would ‘stay on track’ with fighting climate change while fighting the Ukrainians. We can only hope the Russian army will sort the plastics from the metal bomb casings when they get around to removing corpses from the battlefield.

    And here in Australia, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews lit up Melbourne in the Ukrainian colours as ‘a show of support’.

    If that doesn’t work, he will likely deploy a hashtag.

    And if China invades Taiwan, he will (of course) paint the town red.

    [snip length, copyright etc]

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    philemon

    Cet animal est très méchant, Quand on l’attaque il se défend.
    La Ménagerie (1868)

    This animal is very wicked; when you attack it, it defends itself.

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    OldOzzie

    RUSSIA-UKRAINE WARNING UPDATE: RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, FEBRUARY 27

    Download the PDF – 6 Pages

    Russian forces largely conducted an operational pause on February 26-27 but will likely resume offensive operations and begin using greater air and artillery support in the coming days. Russian airborne and special forces troops are engaged in urban warfare in northwestern Kyiv, but Russian mechanized forces are not yet in the capital. Russian forces conducted limited attacks on the direct approaches to Kyiv on both banks of the Dnipro River, but largely paused offensive operations in northeastern Ukraine. Russian forces likely paused to recalibrate their – to date largely unsuccessful – approach to offensive operations in northern Ukraine and deploy additional reinforcements and air assets to the front lines.

    Russian forces from Crimea slowly pushed north toward Zaporizhie and the southeastern bend of the Dnipro River and east along the Azov Sea coast toward Mariupol on February 27. Russian forces advancing east from Crimea began initial assaults against Mariupol the morning of February 27. These advances risk cutting off the large concentrations of Ukrainian forces still defending the former line of contact between unoccupied Ukraine and occupied Donbas.

    KTs

    . Russian forces likely conducted an operational pause on the Kyiv axis on February 26-27 to deploy additional supplies and forces forward. Russian forces will likely resume offensive operations against Kyiv in the next 24 hours. Russian troops have not yet committed heavy armor and artillery forces to fighting in Kyiv and will likely need to do so to take the city.

    . Russian forces largely conducted an operational pause on their current broad front of advance between Chernihiv and Kharkiv. Ukrainian forces continue to delay and inflict losses on the Russian advance but will likely not be able to halt further advances if the Kremlin commits additional reserves.

    . Russian forces entered the city of Kharkiv for the first time on February 27 but remain unlikely to take the city without the use of heavier firepower.

    . Russian forces have encircled Mariupol from the west and began initial assaults on the city. Russian forces have not made any major territorial gains from the east in Donbas after four days of fighting. Russian forces likely intend to pin Ukrainian forces in place on the line of contact to enable Russian forces breaking out of Crimea to isolate them.

    . Russian forces continued to advance north towards Zaprozhia and, in conjunction with Russian advances on Mariupol, threaten to isolate Ukrainian forces on the line of contact in Donbas if they do not withdraw.

    . Russian forces failed to seize Kherson after Ukrainian counterattacks reclaimed it on February 26. An unknown concentration of

    . Russian forces remains on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River and threatens Mikolayiv, however.

    . Russian successes in southern Ukraine are the most dangerous and threaten to unhinge Ukraine’s successful defenses and rearguard actions to the north and northeast.

    . Russian troops are facing growing morale and logistics issues, predictable consequences of the poor planning, coordination, and execution of attacks along Ukraine’s northern border.

    . Russian air and missile strikes targeted a Ukrainian airbase in western Ukraine to ground the remaining Ukrainian air force the night of February 26-27. The Ukrainian General Staff reported Russian forces conducted 5 air and 16 missile strikes across Ukraine from midnight to 1pm local time, February 27.[1] Russian strikes targeted the Ivano-Frankivsk airfield, home to Ukraine’s 114th Tactical Aviation Brigade.[2] Russian forces continue to refrain from using the full array of air and missile capabilities available to them. Russian forces will likely increase their use of fires in coming days to overcome heavier-than-anticipated Ukrainian resistance, however.

    . Russian forces in northeast Ukraine continue to face morale and supply issues, likely due to poor planning and ad hoc command structures, as ISW previously forecasted.[3] The Ukrainian General Staff additionally reported Russian forces are “experiencing an acute shortage of fuel and food“ and are increasingly using Belarusian rail networks to supply Russian forces in Ukraine.[4]

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    PeterS

    I think Vox Day has it right:

    There has been a definite air of charade and shenanigans about the media coverage of the war, to say nothing of a distinct lack of casualties and video footage. It appears the Russian approach combining quantum operational speed with strategic patience is confusing both the would-be defenders as well as the media.

    That Makes Sense

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    OldOzzie

    Trump: Democrats Say Ukraine’s Borders Are Sacred While Destroying Our Own

    At CPAC Saturday, Donald Trump pointed out the latest in a seemingly endless string of examples of Democrat hypocrisy: Democrats are wild with indignation over Vladimir Putin’s violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, while they’re overseeing the destruction of our own sovereignty by turning our Southern border into little more than a line on a piece of paper.

    Trump declared: “What has happened in Ukraine is a catastrophic disaster. But it isn’t really that interesting that so many Democrat politicians in Washington, they seem to be rushing to microphones to declare that Ukraine’s borders are sacred. They want to say their borders are sacred, and we feel for Ukraine in so many ways, but Ukraine’s sovereignty must be defended at all costs, they say, even while they’re destroying our own borders and surrendering our own sovereignty. We have a border that’s a catastrophe. We have people coming into our country that we don’t want. They will not be good for our country.” They’ll be good for voting Democrat to keep their welfare gravy train going, and to the likes of Schumer, Pelosi, and Old Joe Biden, that’s all that matters.

    Once again, Trump was right. Democrat leaders are actively and aggressively against protecting America’s borders or limiting or seriously vetting those who are streaming in. Instead, they’re always looking for ways to bring in more.

    Breitbart reported Friday that “President Joe Biden’s pro-migration homeland security agency is quietly preparing to open the nation’s borders and jobs to economic migrants who claim to be stateless.” This step “comes amid a lobbying campaign by pro-migration groups to create a border doorway for people who claim to have no national home. The lobbying campaign is symbolized by United Stateless, which is funded by various pro-migration groups, including George Soros’s Open Society Foundations.” Of course.

    Meanwhile, “House Democrats are working with a number of open borders groups, many financially linked to billionaire George Soros, in an effort to eliminate all monitoring and tracking of illegal aliens in the United States.” Who would possibly benefit from that? Employers who prefer to pay illegals a pittance under the table rather than pay Americans the minimum wage, and Democrats who gain new dependents upon the welfare system who will vote in favor of perpetuating their rather lucrative dependency.

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    Should I be surprised that people here pick a side, based on a whole lot of unrelated issues and because they are sheep to their youtube deities, and then spin about justifying it without even the slightest hint of skepticism.

    Folks here are now fully cooked.

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      Alexy Scherbakoff

      I think people are explaining some reasons for the war. I don’t think they are wanting people to be at war.

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      TdeF

      In these times of conflict of terrible potential when so much is at stake and nuclear weapons are on standby, we get weapons grade drivel.

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      robert rosicka

      You realise that describes you to a tee – leaf !

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      MP

      That is how propaganda works. Plays all sides so people don’t know what the truth is, forces them to choose a side, divides and confuses.

      Your ABC news is virtually a compilation of You Tube/facebook/twitter clips and your ABC is on YT also. Its no difference, just your bias. You say you don’t watch the vids posted in comments, you won’t look at the other version, other side.
      It has amazed me over the last two years to read the comments and watch people who had great mistrust in Media, governments, experts, science and education in the AGW debate, (it never happened) now believe virtually the same people without question. Been a crash course in psychology.
      I have had this playing on another tab since 6am my time, these camera’s have microphones and I hear dogs barking https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/ukraine/kiev/maidan-nezalezhnosti.html
      but I hear nothing, my nephew was in Afghanistan and Iraq, he tells me there is one thing you never forget its the shelling and bombing, I hear dogs barking in a city under siege?
      It states live, time and date check out, maybe propaganda on loop. I don’t know what the lies are, I have 30 years of knowing who the liars are though, so I am going with that

      This blog needs to go back to COVID posts, need to get your priorities right.

      More people caught COVID in the last two years then caught a bullet in all wars combined, fact! (if not give it a year)

      This comment was posted by MP, saving Gee aye, one foot at a time.

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      Peter Fitzroy

      ‘Fully Cooked” is higher on the spectrum from ‘half baked’ I’m guessing

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      Geoffrey Williams

      I am indeed skeptical of all the fake news in the western media . .

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        el+gordo

        The world has changed, it seems a lot of social media ends up on the MSM.

        ‘The conflict is hotly debated on Chinese social media, with some internet users sympathetic towards the plight of Ukrainians and others mocking the conflict and cheering on Russia’s aggression. (SCMP)

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      Hanrahan

      I’m surprised at the breadth of opinion here on this blog. Shows that the contributors here are NOT sheep and they use a variety of news sources.

      But you and I watching the same screen would see different movies.

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        James Murphy

        As usual, GA knows best, and the rest of us are just ignorant fools, it seems. Superciliousness is his trademark, albeit an unpleasant one.

        Yes, I have read a more diverse range of opinions here than elsewhere, and I like this diversity.

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    RickWill

    This is completely off the topic of invasion but an interesting weather event.

    The situation in SEQ and NNSW is getting into the 100 year ARI category over a large region. Large towns have now been told to evacuate. The Brisbane River will likely be worse than 2011.

    I have a nephew who has been stuck at his worksite for two days and isolated from the rest of the world unless supplies are flown in. The site is in Beaudesert; essentially an outer suburb of Brisbane.

    Major highways are impassable and have suffered significant damage.

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    Jan

    Last year in April I wrote Russia Ukraine US EU NATO Prophecy.html

    It seems clear to me that while the world was distracted with Biden rubbish, vaccine wars, climate disinformation and alphabet soup rights for tanks, Putin’s Russia was making steady moves to prepare to take control of Ukraine (one way or another). Unless the so called ‘free’ West and Ukrainians had been training and preparing since the moment Biden’s team entered the White House, they are done for.

    What use is what they are doing now? Too little too late – it’s not an election campaign and it’s not who is liked who wins! They are looking for miracles. Israel in 1948 was led by tough sewer rats or battle hardened people, and they well and truly knew and were prepared for the war when it came. Many US fighters from WW2 were in Israel ready to fight. Most of the leadership had fought in WW2 and those who had not had fought the Arabs and British. A model posing with a gun as symbol of the resistance? Who is fooling who?

    The more disinformation building up Ukraine, the more people will be shocked.

    Also too let us see how fast the so called free west shoots itself in the foot as it does a Canada.

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    OldOzzie

    Sunday Talks, Psaki Gives Away the Ukraine Game – Russia Is Needed As Fall Guy for Biden Energy Policy and Economic Damage

    During an ABC interview today, White House Spokesperson Jennifer Psaki gave away the game for the Biden Administration’s intent on exploiting the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

    Keep in mind, as the Biden team were getting pummeled for negative economic outcomes, massive inflation, skyrocketing energy costs and gas prices set to double, the White House worked to create an urgent defense by manufacturing the crisis.

    While Joe Biden ate his pudding, the people behind the scenes told Zelenskyy and Putin that Ukraine was about to enter NATO {December 2021}. The White House then seeded details through China knowing the intel would get back to Putin. Russia took the bait and intervened.

    The collective left (far more western leader beneficiaries on a global scale) now have a quick and strategic pivot point to go from COVID-19 as the excuse for all the economic ills, to Russia. The Russia-Ukraine crisis transfers the cost of the Build Back Better climate change agenda from COVID-19 to Russia/Ukraine. We can now watch COVID just disappear.

    The BBB agenda, domestically known as the Green New Deal, intentionally makes energy costs skyrocket. By creating the Ukraine crisis, gas prices specifically are no longer blamed on COVID-19 (the original fraudulent justification). Gas prices are now rising because of Russia and the villainous Vladimir Putin. Climate change policy outcomes are made palatable by blaming Putin.

    Cue Jen Psaki, (Prompted):

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    OldOzzie

    Biden ripped for buying Russian oil: ‘We are being conned,’ billionaire oil and supermarket CEO says

    Oil prices bounce on supply concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

    Catsimatidis, who is also the CEO of United Refining, told “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” Friday that America is “being conned,” and “lied to.”

    “We are still buying crude oil from Putin. We are wiring him money every day from the United States and payment for crude oil going into Boston Harbor. You know, we are being lied to. We are being conned.”

    President Biden said Thursday that the U.S. is working with other countries on a coordinated oil release from the global petroleum reserve in the coming days in a bid to reduce rising gasoline prices.

    “That is the dumbest thing I ever heard,” Catsimatidis said in response.

    “If you release 50 million gallons, what is that going to do?” he continued. “The United States burns up a hell of a lot more every day. The answer is… you open up Alaska. You open up Canada… and then it’s free-flowing.”

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      PeterS

      Biden’s decisions to block oil and gas permits and shut down sales over the past year or so can only mean one of two things. He is either a very mentally retarded person or is the real enemy of the US who desires to crash their economy. Take your pick. Either way he has to go for the sake of the US, not to mention for the West in general. He is orders of magnitude more dangerous to the world than what the left claimed Trump to have been when he was POTUS.

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        TdeF

        Biden is a sock puppet. He was chosen as compliant sock puppet. His wife had to help him off the stage and cover his lapses. As Donald Trump says, he is not monitoring the crisis. He is probably sleeping.

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          PeterS

          “Sock puppets” typically have more intelligence than Biden. Socket puppets often are deceptive and are used as a false identity created by a person or group in order to promote their own opinions or views. Biden is far below that sort of level of capability.

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          James Murphy

          What does it matter? Let’s say Harris takes over – she wont be any more in control or able to make real decisions than Biden.
          Same lipstick, different pig.

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    OldOzzie

    Why the Chinese Internet is cheering Putin’s invasion

    Its users have called him “Putin the Great,” “the best legacy of the former Soviet Union” and “the greatest strategist of this century.” They have chastised Russians who protested against the war, saying they had been brainwashed by the United States.

    Mr. Putin’s speech on Thursday, which essentially portrayed the conflict as one waged against the West, won loud cheers on Chinese social media. Many people said they were moved to tears. “If I were Russian, Putin would be my faith, my light,” wrote @jinyujiyiliangxiaokou, a user of the Twitter-like platform Weibo…

    Mr. Putin’s portrayal of Russia as a victim of the West’s political, ideological and military aggression has resonated deeply with many on social media. It dovetails with China’s narrative that the United States and its allies are afraid of China’s rise and the alternative world order it could create.

    Read More from NYT

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    OldOzzie

    Jen Psaki’s Preview of What to Expect at Biden’s SOTU Shows How Delusional This Administration Is


    “Leaders lead during crises. That’s exactly what Pres. Biden is doing. He’ll speak to that, but he’s also going to speak about his optimism about what’s ahead and what we all have to look forward to,”

    @PressSec
    says before Biden’s State of the Union. https://abcn.ws/3sr2Xyc

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      TdeF

      Psaki is busy writing his speeches now. So of course she knows what he is going to say. He is going to read the teleprompter and the real reason he gets it wrong is that he has no idea what is coming next. And some of the words are just too darned long.

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    OldOzzie

    George Soros: U.S. Must ‘Do Whatever’ Possible to Back Ukraine Against Russia

    Billionaire Democrat megadonor George Soros says the United States, and other transatlantic nations, must “do whatever is in their power” to back Ukraine against Russia in the ongoing conflict overseas.

    After Russia first invaded Ukraine on February 24, Soros says the U.S. and its allies ought to have as much involvement in the conflict as possible even as Americans overwhelmingly oppose U.S. involvement.

    “I have witnessed Ukraine transform from a collapsing part of the Soviet Union to a liberal democracy and an open society,” Soros wrote in a series of statements online.

    “It is important that both the transatlantic alliance (the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom) but also other nations do whatever is in their power to support Ukraine in its time of existential threat,” he continued.

    An Associated Press-NORC poll released last week revealed that 72 percent of American adults do not want the U.S. to play a “major role” in the conflict. Instead, they prefer the U.S. play a “minor role” or “no role” at all.

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    Frogger

    The BBC as a font of truth, well that made my morning LOL.
    Not sure how accurate that molotov and barricade video is, the russians I doubt are that stupid, wouldn’t surprise if its from 2014 and part of Nulands 5 billion dollars to install a puppet american regime in Ukraine.
    Pu8tin made clear his reasons for going in, maybe people should watch and listen.
    As the saying goes the US will fight russia to re-install its hegemony to the very last ukrainian and sit on the sidelines as Europe dissolves into a conflagaration for the 3rd time and the US will reap the benefits once again. If the vid is accurate the Russians won’t repeat that mistake again and the barricades and the Azov antagonists will easily submit henceforth to a single 152mm shell. The russkies are going in in force and are well accustomed to urban fighting in Chechnya and now Syrian. I don’t think they will be playing games against that sort of resistance.

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    Dx123

    Russia should be declared a Nature Reserve, and transitioned from being a state to being a Nature Reserve. As a state it is too detrimental to the existance of civilization – it doesn’t contribute much to the deveolopment of civilization, but poses a real risk of destruction of civilization because of the amount of weapons of mass destruction it has, combined with aggressive tendencies. Thus being an unnecessary evil. It’s sense of existance consists of threats of destruction of others, or a destruction of others (like Ukraine now).

    A civilization should not allow such entities to exist – that threaten its destruction while being useless at contributing. This includes North Korea, Pakistan, perhaps Iran if it finally closes in to the weapons of mass destruction. Now Beloruss gave up on being non-atomic, so add it to the list. Change their status to a Nature Reserve, treat it as goals, start making plans how to excercise the transition. The Nature will benefit from having large areas at its disposal, as habitats for species, as many now face extinction.

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      Alexy Scherbakoff

      You are a lovely person.

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      KP

      Oh dear! I’m afraid your spell-checker substitute “Russia” when you mis-spelled “America”, you know, that world-dominating Empire that has done exactly what you wrote about?

      You could correct it..

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    OldOzzie

    Col Douglas Macgregor Has a Slightly Different Take on Russia-Ukraine Conflict

    My spidey senses tell me that Col Douglas Macgregor will not be welcomed back on Fox News after he gave a rather different take on what is happening amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict that does not toe the common media line. [SEGMENT HERE] Jennifer Griffin was furious.

    The first presentation was during a segment with Fox Host Dan Bongino (below). The second presentation of essentially the same analysis was with Trey Gowdy [SEGMENT HERE]. In both discussions Macgregor’s perspective reconciles the disparity between what the U.S. government, State Dept, and corporate media are saying -vs- what is visible.

    Essentially, Macgregor is saying that Russia does not want to engage a civilian population and is making every effort to avoid civilian conflict in those population centers. In part this is because Putin knows the Western approach is a propaganda war that would be fueled by what it would look like if population carnage took place. However, if Ukraine President Zelenskyy does not acquiesce to terms, Putin could easily crush those centers with artillery and rockets. WATCH:

    What Macgregor outlines would explain why these skirmishes always seem ‘off in the distance’.

    The western government and media perspective is to make it seem like Volodymyr Zelenski and the rebellious civilian misfits are beating the Russian army because that frames a better story. However, what Macgregor outlines is Putin not wanting to fuel the United Nations, NATO and State Dept narrative engineering, thus the absence of visible fighting.

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      OldOzzie

      CNN Ukraine War Correspondent Admits Producers Scour Social Media for Content to Broadcast

      CNN ‘War Correspondent’ Clarissa Ward accidentally explained why the public is confused about what the corporate media are saying about the Ukraine war with Russia, compared to what is actually visible about the Ukraine war with Russia.

      During a segment with Brian Stelter, Ms Ward explained how CNN war corresponding in Ukraine consists of talking about material provided to her by CNN production crews who sit and scour through YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and social media posts to find the input material for their stories.

      Clarissa Ward didn’t mean to expose how the propaganda of modern warfare is created, but she did.

      Ward was thanking the people in the background of CNN who search social media for their Ukraine content; however, in talking about what they do, she affirmed what we already knew was taking place.

      People wondering why there is no visible ‘fight’ in this war, now find the baseline which Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh was talking about last week. The State Department, intelligence community and political participants in the U.S. government are constructing the “war” against Vladimir Putin through the prism of social likeability as a cultural weapon.

      When the goal is to produce content that tells the “better story,” social media becomes the battlefield. War corresponding is reduced to using the corporate media platform to enhance the social media battlefield. Essentially you might call this “World War Reddit.”

      The CNN war correspondent doesn’t even need to be in Ukraine, except for the fact they need some form of geographical context to create the credibility. The actual content of Ukraine material for the broadcast can just as easily be assembled in New York, California or mom’s basement in Illinois.

      The social media content extracted by CNN workers, stationed anywhere, is then transmitted to the network producers who assemble the material, and a “war correspondent’ puts on a helmet and appears live on camera in Ukraine to discuss it.

      This is modern journalism, aka propaganda creation, aka narrative engineering, and why there’s a lack of actual evidence for anything being attributed to the narrative surrounding the war between Ukraine and Russia. WATCH:

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      OldOzzie

      Greenwald: War Propaganda About Ukraine Becoming More Militaristic, Authoritarian, & Reckless

      In the weeks leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, those warning of the possible dangers of U.S. involvement were assured that such concerns were baseless. The prevailing line insisted that nobody in Washington is even considering let alone advocating that the U.S. become militarily involved in a conflict with Russia. That the concern was based not on the belief that the U.S. would actively seek such a war, but rather on the oft-unintended consequences of being swamped with war propaganda and the high levels of tribalism, jingoism and emotionalism that accompany it, was ignored. It did not matter how many wars one could point to in history that began unintentionally, with unchecked, dangerous tensions spiraling out of control. Anyone warning of this obviously dangerous possibility was met with the “straw man” cliché: you are arguing against a position that literally nobody in D.C. is defending.

      Less than a week into this war, that can no longer be said. One of the media’s most beloved members of Congress, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), on Friday explicitly and emphatically urged that the U.S. military be deployed to Ukraine to establish a “no-fly zone” — i.e., American soldiers would order Russia not to enter Ukrainian airspace and would directly attack any Russian jets or other military units which disobeyed. That would, by definition and design, immediately ensure that the two countries with by far the planet’s largest nuclear stockpiles would be fighting one another, all over Ukraine.

      Kinzinger’s fantasy that Russia would instantly obey U.S. orders due to rational calculations is directly at odds with all the prevailing narratives about Putin having now become an irrational madman who has taken leave of his senses — not just metaphorically but medically — and is prepared to risk everything for conquest and legacy. This was not the first time such a deranged proposal has been raised; days before Kinzinger unveiled his plan, a reporter asked Pentagon spokesman John Kirby why Biden has thus far refused this confrontational posture. The Brookings Institution’s Ben Wittes on Sunday demanded: “Regime change: Russia.” The President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, celebrated that “now the conversation has shifted to include the possibility of desired regime change in Russia.”

      Having the U.S. risk global nuclear annihilation over Ukraine is an indescribably insane view, as one realizes upon a few seconds of sober reflection. We had a reminder of that Sunday morning when “Putin ordered his nuclear forces on high alert Sunday, reminding the world he has the power to use weapons of mass destruction, after complaining about the West’s response to his invasion of Ukraine” — but it is completely unsurprising that it is already being suggested.

      There is a reason I devoted the first fifteen minutes of my live video broadcast on Thursday about Ukraine not to the history that led us here and the substance of the conflict (I discussed that in the second half), but instead to the climate that arises whenever a new war erupts, instantly creating propaganda-driven, dissent-free consensus. There is no propaganda as potent or powerful as war propaganda. It seems that one must have lived through it at least once, as an engaged adult, to understand how it functions, how it manipulates and distorts, and how one can resist being consumed by it.

      As I examined in the first part of that video discussion, war propaganda stimulates the most powerful aspects of our psyche, our subconscious, our instinctive drives. It causes us, by design, to abandon reason. It provokes a surge in tribalism, jingoism, moral righteousness and emotionalism: all powerful drives embedded through millennia of evolution. The more unity that emerges in support of an overarching moral narrative, the more difficult it becomes for anyone to critically evaluate it.

      Another Very, Very Long but excellent summary

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    OldOzzie

    Stocks Tied To China’s SWIFT Alternative Are Soaring

    As the Western world still obsesses with how Russia’s expulsion from SWIFT will impact the Russian economy, commodity prices and the global funding markets, a quick note on how forward looking markets are reacting.

    but where shares tied to China’s Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payments System (CIPS) are surging after Saturday’s decision by Western nations to exclude some Russian lenders from the SWIFT messaging system. Why? Because of what Bloomberg notes is growing speculation that China’s CIPS could become an alternative for those banks.

    What is CIPS? It is a payment system which offers clearing and settlement services for its participants in cross-border yuan trades.
    Indeed, it is a Chinese version of SWIFT, and one which most Russian banks will likely soon be forced to adopt.

    As a result, stocks such as Orient Group, and HyUnion Holding jump by the 10% daily limit.

    And since China will quickly brush off any threats of sanctions if it were to accept Russia banks into its orbit, it is now clear that instead of driving a wedge between Russia and the country that is true the biggest US challenger on the global scene, China, the West has succeeded into bringing the two powers even closer together while putting the fate of the world’s reserve currency in jeopardy,

    as Dylan Grice explained earlier…

    never seen weaponization of money on this scale before…you only get to play the card once. china will make it a priority to need no USD before going for Taiwan. it’s a turning point in monetary history: the end of USD hegemony & the acceleration towards a bipolar monetary order

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      OldOzzie

      Russia And China Might Collectively Challenge The Dollar’s Reserve Status

      The fact is that if Putin has his mind made up to “go the distance” in Ukraine, come hell or high water, he’s going to have to somehow address the crippling of his country’s currency and economy. Left with few “off-ramps”, my guess is that Putin will push back on economic sanctions by allying himself further with China, and even discussing with China the prospects of a monetary system outside of the current global monetary system.

      While the idea will likely be written off by economic experts, it’s important to remember that, even if such an idea doesn’t succeed, it could still create chaos for global economic markets and life in the West. We’re already in the midst of a supply chain crisis here in the U.S. – now, add to that the facts that:

      Russia has tangible reserves in the form of oil and gold. Russia is the top supplier of imported gasoline to the United States. “In 2021, Russia accounted for 21% of all U.S. gasoline imports,” Forbes writes.

      China is a major supplier of…basically everything…we use in the West on a daily basis. China was the United States’ largest supplier of goods imports in 2020, according to the USTR. China is currently our largest goods trading partner with $559.2 billion in total (two way) goods trade during 2020, the same report notes.

      Trade deficits hit further records in 2021, the WSJ reported earlier this month.

      Far be it for me to agree with the Washington Post, but they were spot on in early 2021 when they concluded that:

      “If China and Russia devise successful alternatives to the dollar-centered financial system, and if these alternatives gain significant international traction, we would be witnessing a cataclysmic moment in great power rivalry.”

      Meanwhile, we have been standing idly by, watching Russia dump U.S. treasuries while increasing its FX reserves over the last 5 years.

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        Hanrahan

        Meanwhile, we have been standing idly by, watching Russia dump U.S. treasuries while increasing its FX reserves over the last 5 years.

        But if they are holding that cash in Ruble denominated assets they have just taken a bath.

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          KP

          They have bought record amounts of gold since 2014. ….and they don’t store it in the USA or UK!

          With the sort of figures noted above I’m astounded the West can still push its “axis of Evil China and Russia” story. If they are so bad why are we buying Russian oil and gas and minerals, or Chinese consumer goods?
          Points to Western politicians just being hypocritical as usual.

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      OldOzzie

      Car Parts, Chips, Sunflower Oil: War in Ukraine Threatens New Shortages

      The Russian invasion has shut down auto factories, hit steel supplies and severed transportation routes. Commodity prices are soaring for sunflower oil, natural gas and wheat

      Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is piling new troubles onto the world’s already battered supply chains. The fighting has shut down car factories in Germany that rely on made-in-Ukraine components and hit supplies for the steel industry as far as Japan. It has severed airways and land routes that had become crucial since the pandemic began gumming up sea trade.

      The conflict is also bottling up Ukraine and Russia’s vast commodity exports, sending the price of oil, natural gas, wheat and sunflower oil rocketing. Shipping from Ukrainian ports, an important corridor for grain, metal and Russian oil shipments to the rest of the world, has all but ceased.

      Freighters and airlines have warned that the decision by many European nations to close their airspace to Russia, as well as Russia’s tit-for-tat retaliation, will increase the cost of flying cargo from Europe to Asia, potentially making some routes commercially unviable. Western sanctions—especially banning some Russian banks from the Swift global financial payment system—will make it cumbersome for many companies to conduct any type of trade with the country, even in sectors that aren’t being sanctioned. There is also the risk of sanctions on individual Russian commodity players, or of Russia retaliating by choking off supply of its products.

      Economists and business leaders fear this will hit supply chains that rely on components and little-known commodities from Russia such as neon gas and palladium, important ingredients to make semiconductors. Industries such as car manufacturing have already been disrupted by a surge in demand after the easing of pandemic lockdowns and persistent production bottlenecks.

      The threat of rising prices on top of already high inflation adds another challenge for interest-rate-sensitive businesses: having to gauge whether the world’s central banks will accelerate their recent moves toward tighter money, or back off if they see a bigger risk to the global recovery.

      The U.S. and its allies “issuing sanctions on Russia will have a reverberating impact on not only Russia, but the entire world,” said Dawn Tiura, president of Sourcing Industry Group, a U.S.-based trade body.

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      OldOzzie

      Russia Sanctions Over Ukraine Largely Spare Energy Sector, Vital to Europe

      Exemptions let Europe keep buying Russian gas and oil, moderating prices while maintaining a major revenue stream for Moscow

      The West is rolling out increasingly tough sanctions on Russia but it is going out of its way to preserve the country’s biggest source of revenue: energy exports.

      In the latest example, the European Union said late Saturday that it had agreed with the U.S., the U.K. and Canada to eject some of Russia’s banks from the global financial system’s payments infrastructure, Swift. The move, if applied to all banks, would be powerful, essentially blocking money transfers in and out of the country. By cutting only some, Western countries are allowing payments, including for energy, to continue through non-sanctioned banks.

      Russia is one of the world’s top oil and natural-gas producers, and energy exports represent half of the country’s foreign sales. The country, now embroiled in a bitter war in Ukraine, provides around 40% of Europe’s natural gas. The commodity heats the continent, fuels many of its power plants and is a critical input for a range of industrial processes. Russia’s crude production is a major factor in the global oil marketplace.

      As the U.S. and its Western allies wage economic war against the Kremlin to coerce it into abandoning its invasion of Ukraine, policy makers have tailored their pressure campaign to protect their energy supply, prevent a surge in oil prices and minimize the damage on their own economies.

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    OldOzzie

    Putin Gambles That the West Is Weak

    Both militarily and culturally, we’ve been derelict in our duty to defend our civilization.
    By Tony Abbott

    The bullying of small nations by big ones, the trampling of justice and decency in the pursuit of national aggrandizement, and reckless indifference to human life, should have no place in our world.”

    Those were my words to the Australian Parliament on the morning of July 17, 2014, when a Russian missile battery had shot down flight MH17, killing 38 Australians among the 298 on board, as Russian proxies seized the Donbas. If it wasn’t yet obvious in 2008, when Vladimir Putin invaded Georgia, it should certainly have been six years later, when he annexed the Crimea, that Mr. Putin was bent on the restoration of greater Russia—and to hell with the freedom and independence of the countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.

    Yet since then, Western democracies have culpably failed to boost their military capability while indulging acts of economic and cultural self-harm.

    Take the U.K., the West’s second-strongest military power. The total number of British defense personnel dropped from about 600,000 in the 1950s to 300,000 in the 1960s and about 150,000 now. British forces in Europe declined from 80,000 in the 1950s to 50,000 in the 1960s to 25,000 in 1994 (still including one tank division), before dwindling to zero in Germany by 2020 and 1,000 in Estonia (placed there after 2015 in reaction to Russia’s renewed threat). In response to Russia’s blitzkrieg on Ukraine, the U.K. government has just announced that this force will be boosted to an armored brigade of fewer than 3,000. Given that the U.K. has provided by far the strongest response to the current crisis, it’s little wonder Mr. Putin thinks the West is weak and easily distracted.

    Yet the West’s bigger surrender has been economic and cultural. For at least 15 years, much of Western policy has been directed to reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. In Australia, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd declared that climate change is the “great moral challenge” of our time. The British Parliament, along with many others, has officially declared a “climate emergency.” Last week, as the air raid sirens wailed over Kyiv, John Kerry worried that the Ukraine crisis would produce “massive emissions” and distract the world from climate change.

    The worst contemporary folly is the constant undermining of Western civilization, history and national virtues. Partly it is deliberate subversion by cultural Marxists, but mostly it’s the polite acquiescence of diffident and historically ignorant people conditioned not to give offence. These days the rights of men who want to be women routinely trump those of women who don’t want to face unfair competition in sport. Religious free speech is still OK, as long it’s not the Bible you’re quoting. Martin Luther King’s famous plea that his children be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, would be denounced on most Western campuses as an example of “colorblind racism.” “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” couldn’t be made today due to politically correct wowserism. And I wonder how many students are still taught to take pride in Australia Day, which celebrates the founding of a country that’s as free, fair and prosperous as any on earth.

    Mr. Abbott served as prime minister of Australia, 2013-15.

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    Mark Allinson

    Here’s how Sundance at the Conservative Tree House shows the ways the Biden admin and Media will use the latest “Russia Russia Russia” hysteria to prove that nothing is their fault:

    “A wounded water buffalo was spotted trying to give birth on the dangerous Serengeti Plain, CNN International reports if Russia had not annexed Crimea, it wouldn’t have happened. Early tomorrow morning, a man in Wisconsin will miss his bus, because the battery in his alarm clock ran out; if only Putin had not disrupted the global supply chain these issues would not be happening.

    The drawbridge near Baton Rouge Louisiana was stuck yesterday – MSNBC angrily confirms Putin caused it. In New York, a once joyful fifth grade teacher’s chalk broke in half right when she was about to use it on the blackboard; Margaret Brennan points the glare at Ukraine.

    If the stock market climbs, or falls, or stays the same, we can be certain that Moscow had something to do with it.

    When the planes arrive/depart typically late, CBS finds a way to make NATO responsible for it – if the sanctions had only come sooner.

    When the sun rises today, it will only be because President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spent all night on his knees knitting sweaters for homeless kittens while fending off Russian special forces and making phone calls to the European commission. George Stephanopoulos has all the details.

    Everything is Vladimir Putin’s fault, says the PBS reporter standing at the base of the Statue of Liberty to catch her tears, because it was all just so avoidable.

    And… somewhere in the distance Jacinda Ardern, Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson and Ron Klain are on a zoom call smiling with Klaus Schwab.”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/02/26/neil-oliver-we-watch-russia-through-the-barred-windows-of-our-own-despotism/

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    OldOzzie

    From November – 2016

    US should sanction Soros & Poroshenk

    A Russian lawmaker suggests that if the United States really wants to punish those responsible for the continuing crisis in Ukraine it should slap sanctions on billionaire George Soros, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and a number of US officials.

    Andrey Kozenko (United Russia) made the comment soon after the US Treasury Department announced that it was introducing sanctions against several Russian lawmakers representing the Crimean Republic, including Kozenko himself on the grounds of their alleged input in destabilizing Ukraine.

    “If this is the real reason behind the sanctions, I would advise that clerks in the Treasury Department slap sanctions on Nuland, Soros and Biden before January 20 [the end of the current US administration],” he said.

    Victoria Nuland is an assistant to the US secretary of state, whom the mass media describe as a mastermind behind the Ukrainian regime change in 2014. Joe Biden is the current US vice-president, who has a deep involvement in Ukrainian affairs (Biden’s son Hunter heads the largest private energy company in that country). George Soros is a US billionaire known for his involvement in international politics, in particular the backing of the so called ‘color revolutions’ – the seizing of power from nationalist-inclining regimes in favor of pro-globalist forces.

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    OldOzzie

    ‘Great Reset’ architect backs Ukraine

    World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab has condemned the Russian military operation in the country

    In the statement on Sunday, Schwab – the author of ‘Covid-19: The Great Reset’ – and WEF President Borge Brende said they “deeply condemn the aggression by Russia against Ukraine” and “the attacks and atrocities.”

    “Our full solidarity is with Ukraine’s people and all those who are suffering innocently from this totally unacceptable war,” they stated.

    “We only hope that – in the longer-term – reason will prevail and that the space for bridge-building and reconciliation once more emerges,”

    The Great Reset calls for the creation of “entirely new foundations for our economic and social systems” and a reset of capitalism in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Critics, however, have accused it of being a globalist plot to increase the power of governments and implement a new global economic order.

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    yarpos

    Dear Leader Vlad talking directly to the people about Ukraine.

    His preamble is an interesting view on Russian history.

    https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2022/02/27/things-you-wont-see-on-the-cbc-3/

    Compare and contrast with Joe Biden explaining a complex situation.

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    OldOzzie

    Poll: 62% of voters say Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Trump were president

    Harvard-Harris Poll finds Trump would defeat Biden in 2024 by 48%-42%

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      PeterS

      No leader cares any more what the people say or think. On important issues political leaders think they know best when in fact they don’t. Is it any wonder we are heading for a major clash on the word scene? We used to have half decent people leading the nuclear powers. Not any more.

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    OldOzzie

    Poll: How would you grade President Biden’s first year in office?

    Results so far

    A – 1819 (32%)
    B – 81 (1%)
    C – 77 (1%)
    D – 142 (3%)
    F – 3489 (62%)

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      Ronin

      Definitely an ‘F’.

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        Will

        A is a good index of the stupidity or naiveté or indoctrination level of a third of those interviewed as even the overkind MSM cannot hide the leaks in his presidential dam.

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      OldOzzie

      Joe Biden Approval Rating Sinks to 37% – 54% of Americans Now See Biden Mentally Incapable of Serving

      A new ABC poll finds only 37% of Americans approve of Joe Biden’s job performance.
      Only 30% of independents support Biden.

      Six in ten Americans are concerned about the record inflation under Joe Biden and Democrats.
      And three-quarters of Americans say the economy is in bad shape.

      And 54% of all Americans believe Biden is not mentally fit for president.

      And keep in mind — ABC is famous for their slanted, fake polls.
      The fake news media is 95% in the tank for Joe Biden.

      This should worry all Democrats.

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        OldOzzie

        Wonder what all the reasons could be. Let’s start with the lack of communication during the Afgan withdrawal and how upset that made our allies.

        Then there’s this

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        Hanrahan

        54% of Americans Now See Biden Mentally Incapable of Serving

        And there is not a damn thing they can do about it.

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          Hanrahan

          Does my red-thumber think the “American People” can invoke the 25th? There is NO mechanism by which anyone can force another election. AFAIK.

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    Old Goat

    What really concerns me is that the American nuclear “football” is in the hands of an dementia sufferer and billions of people could be vaporised in minutes . We have world “leaders” playing chicken and the stakes are the future of humanity . We will be able to see the end of the world coming via the internet but be unable to avoid it. If we do have a nuclear holocaust the idiots who triggered it will suffer along with all the other survivors . No winners…

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    Will

    Yawnn!!!
    Do we really need to repost the MSM/NWO view of the conflict along with the “expert” opinions of the “usual suspects”?
    I am so sick of hearing western MSM hacks and elected criminals blaming someone else always for everything, including the weather.
    NB this is not a shot at the comments above as I have not read them.
    The mere fact that Schwab supports the Ukraine should give a clue.

    Julian Assange:
    “Nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years has been a result of media lies.”
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1497882606653767682

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      PeterS

      Only the past 50 years? I would say since year dot. As is stated, the first casualty of any war is the truth.

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    Ross

    From subscribing to blogs like this I can honestly say I have learnt more about some subjects in literally weeks than I have learnt from MSM and so called “experts” ( some in our most venerated science bodies) in years, sometimes decades. Today from reading the article and following comments I have learnt more about Ukraine than I have in the last 20 years. What did I learn? That to treat the present Russian/Ukraine conflict as some David vs Goliath scenario, as portrayed in the media, is asinine and infantile. In addition that Ukraine, blessed with some of the best agricultural soils in the world and other resources is perhaps close to a failed state. Or as Mr Trump would say, a shithole. Almost Venezuelan. Finally, that Putin is not the really bad guy, and that Zelensky is not the good guy by any means. That Ukraine is a country, but like any federation, it’s just a collection of states or regions that have some vague links and they don’t necessarily all see eye to eye.

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      Honk R Smith

      We also need to remember European ‘countries’ are just pieced together Feudal territories. Prime example being the Mideast drawn up into ‘countries’ in the Balfour agreement. (They missed a couple of things.)
      Nation state identities are barely a hundred years old.
      I learned this watching ‘Downton Abbey’. 🙂
      Plus I’m an American of Southern origin, and still harbor trust issues with Yankees.

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        Lucky

        Not quite- It was Sykes / Picot, the treaty establishing borders.
        The Balfour Declaration was an intention.

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      Phil O'Sophical

      Yes. Need to remember that Ukraine has been parcelled in various jigsaw pieces for all time. Kievan Russia was a swathe, a loose confederation from Finland down to the Black Sea for about 400 years from 860-ish. Kiev was a major city and centre of religion when Moscow was a hick town. It still is venerated.

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    PeterS

    Next step in the madness is now taking place. Belarus has opted to give up non-nuclear status. They will be equipped with Russian nukes. Belarus borders Ukraine.

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    KP

    Ukraine’s most embarrassing moment.. These guys go up against Russian troops?

    https://t.me/intelslava/20755

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    James Murphy

    Just reading this ABC article, and it made me think – what is more hazardous to ones health?
    A positive COVID test, or being in Kyiv right now?
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-28/tas-teachers-stuck-in-ukraine-basement/100867176

    Three weeks ago, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) called, advising them to leave the country. But they had just been diagnosed with COVID-19 and were not allowed on any commercial flights

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    PeterS

    Scott Morrison BANS Vladimir Putin and his cronies from Australia adding Russian warmonger to tiny list of world leaders locked out of the country

    To be consistent PM Morrison should also ban Biden and his cronies from entering Australia for warmongering too.

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    Hanrahan

    The people of China and Taiwan will be watching too. If Ukraine wins, it may slow Xi.

    I think Xi will be talking with his Generals, assuring them that it just bluster, for international consumption only, when he spoke of taking Taiwan by force.

    Once again the difficulties of fighting on the other’s turf is being demonstrated.

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    DB

    I’m surprised no one has mentioned that the coup in Ukraine orchestrated by the Obama admin in 2014 was the point where the fortunes of the Ukrainians turned for the worst.

    https://original.antiwar.com/Rick_Sterling/2022/02/24/how-the-us-instigated-the-ukraine-crisis/

    If only the original agreement to not expand NATO was adhered to, this would have gone a long way to repairing relations between the USA and Russia.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/02/the_adults_in_charge_have_bumbled_us_into_a_new_cold_war.html

    https://original.antiwar.com/buchanan/2022/02/24/did-we-provoke-putins-war-in-ukraine/

    When the game is rigged against you, change the game.

    https://tomluongo.me/2022/02/25/putin-ushers-in-the-new-geopolitical-game-board/

    The victims in this are the people of the Donbas who refused to accept an illegal coup and endured over 7 years of military attacks to the silence of many who now cry crocodile tears for the Ukraine.

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    Phil O'Sophical

    Jo, I love your work dearly. It is always a must read.

    But ‘shock and awe’? That is the American tactic – obliterate everything, civilians included, from the air – then stroll in amongst the wreckage. Putin has done precisely the opposite. Military targets only. Beware the Ukranian propaganda. He is using conscripts and old tanks. All services, electric, water, internet, etc, are all still running. He’s surrounding but not sacking cities. He needs the infrastructure intact and to make the people realise this war was never with them.

    My guess is that he wants to secure the breakaway regions, and enough of the eastern half plus Odessa and the Black Sea coast, root out the gangsters and the Azov battalion, install a new leader and call it quits. He doesn’t want NATO on his border. But fast-tracking EU membership is pouring flames on the fire. Is this deliberate? If it goes ahead he may as well drive on and take the whole country, since the EU (and by proxy NATO) has come to him anyway. All the better to demonise him. I am no apologist. War is always wrong. But with the instant media deification of Zelensky, who has been pretty criminal in office, and vilification of Putin, offering no factual analysis, points to hidden players manipulating this whole thing. Reminds me of another media controlled narrative that has conveniently all but disappeared.

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      Phil, did paratroopers and tanks not arrive in the Capital by Day 2? I would think that was fairly awe inspiring.

      Zelensky could be living in asylum in the US now. A lot of tin-pot rulers would have picked that. I did not expect him to pick that option, I suspect nor did many others.

      The propaganda on the Russian attack was so one sided and full on, I did not think it would happen. I’m not sure Zelensky did either, or why would he have been telling the US to ease up a bit on the prophesies of war?

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        Phil O'Sophical

        Thanks for reply. And I agree with your points. There has been much that took most of us by surprise, not least that he went in at all.
        However, though paratroops floating down out of nowhere would indeed have you gawping in awe that cannot be equated with the accepted meaning in a war context of shock and awe: indiscriminately obliterating buildings and citizens under a rain of ordinance. That is the one thing, so far, that has not happened. And the bigging up of Zelensky, blanking all his misdeeds of the last eight years – where was amnesty international when HE was shelling civilians – tells me all is not what it seems; but then George Floyd was similarly sainted for another narrative. We live in a very sick world. Just my opinion of course.

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          Perhaps there is another definition of Shock and Awe, but the world seemed pretty shocked, and the twitter feed (unconfirmed, unknowable) shows footage of a few civilian buildings being hit, and albeit not large numbers, but there are dead civilians in the streets. The Germans were so shocked they’re changing their national energy policy — flipping on a dime within a few days.

          Given the monotonous propaganda-like repetition of the US warnings over the last few weeks that Russia was going to war, while Zelensky said “calm down please” — I figured Biden was hyping the threat, so he could claim he’d averted a war. That looked like a propaganda campaign.

          Does Zelensky deserve the global hero status he has? Is there any other leader that stood and fought with their people against a foe supposedly so much bigger and better armed? Is it true that Russian soldiers have been given playing cards with top Ukrainian targets photos? I don’t know. But looks like Zelensky’s bravery surprised everyone in a cynical world where we rarely see someone stand up for anything.

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            farmerbraun

            “Zelensky’s bravery ”
            You don’t think his handlers were holding a gun to his head ?

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      Hanrahan

      But ‘shock and awe’? That is the American tactic – obliterate everything, civilians included, from the air – then stroll in amongst the wreckage.

      That’s not how it happened in the gulf war. You talk sheet.

      Find a video on “73 Easting”.

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    Rick

    Hmmm… I wonder if it has occurred to any of those Ukrainians throwing Molotov cocktails and setting IED’s to wonder why the Russians are targeting civilians.

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    Rambling+Idiot

    Jo’s articles are getting even sillier. You would think by now she might be immune to the epic propaganda after her sterling effort combating the climate change variety. She seems to think a set of Molotov cocktails with “Putin is a dickhead” printed on them means that plucky little Ukraine has the chops.

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    • #

      Did Anon hack Russian govt sites?
      Did they show Ukrainian songs on State TV?
      Did Elon Musk offer his satelites? Maybe he did and they don’t matter?
      Were the tanks on fire fake videos? Do molotov cocktails work at all?
      That’s the sort of discussion I would expect to find. Do you have evidence these didnt occur? I’d find that interesting.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        Molotov cocktails work well in urban environments. That was proven in Hungary many years ago.

        The modern MC has just the right amount of styrene foam or plastic milk bottles added to convert the petrol to napalm.

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    Rick

    “Anonymous” has the ability to hack into Russian State TV and high security government databases to expose Putin.
    If they are capable of all that – and it’s no mean feat – why the hell have they not hacked the Democrats in the USA, or crooked Hillary, or the FBI, or the CIA, or Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, or the CCP, and exposed the rottenness and corruption there? While claiming to be a force to expose evil and destroy its influence, they do little to nothing about the root causes of so much of the world’s problems.
    I think Anonymous is just gaming the system.

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    KobaTheDread

    Has the penny dropped yet? Clearly not for many.The Russians have left electricity, internet, telephones, water, sewerage all intact. Civilian casualties are tragic, yet inevitable in war, but thankfully have so far been minimal.There have been no reported attacks on railways, which are still running across Ukraine, or gas and oil infrastructure.
    Let me suggest it’s the Ukrainian government that has imperilled Ukrainian civilians by handing out automatic weapons to the untrained, teaching civilians how to make and use Molotov cocktails, siting heavy weapons in residential areas (eg artillery pieces being sited near apartment blocks) and conscripting all males from the ages of 18 – 60. Cannon fodder in the making to allow Zelensky to provide packaged ‘vision’ for the morons at the ABC, CNN, BBC and now sadly Sky News of ‘Russian atrocities committed against innocent Ukrainian civilians’. It’s the Ukrainian government that is proving to be evil, and criminal, in its complete disregard for the safety of its citizens.

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    pbilemon

    You just have to hate ‘em: https://unlimitedhangout.com/2022/02/investigative-reports/technocracy-the-operating-system-for-the-new-international-rules-based-order-1/

    Not as sure as he is that the factions are completely controlled. Well, maybe the neocons and neoliberals who are singing along with the mighty Wurlitzer at the moment. There’s a central a network of Corporations, NGOs and politicians that are on board, but I look for those who talk the talk. Regarding China, it’s technocratic for sure, but unlike the WEF, I see no evidence that China wants to force its system on the whole world.

    Oh, BTW, can someone please nominate Liz Truss for a wardrobe makeover on “What Not to Wear”?

    But the Misleadia were wrong about Global Warming, they were wrong about Covid, why does anyone think they have a clue about anything else? People seem to a bit compartmentalized in re skepticism. Anytime the Misleadia is all singing the same song, you can bet the opposite is more true.

    Whistleblowers back in 2020 now look prescient: https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/steve-kirsch-germ-line-mutation-allegations

    Of course, one wonders, was the hysterical push to get the “vaccine” into everyone, including pregnant women, lactating mothers, young women of childbearing age and young men, and now children, an enormous gamble of CYA for population control (“control” in more senses than one).

    One wonders.

    On the lighter side: https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/kitten-corner-rug-sweeping/comments

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