like so much emanating from the US government of late, this current round of sanctions looks like performative cargo cultism. it has the outward appearance and bluster of “doing something.” it is certainly “press release optimized.” but when you read them closely, it rapidly becomes apparent than this is a movie set, not an old western town.
this, once more, causes me to wonder: “at whom are these sanctions™ aimed?” because it looks less and less like it’s the russians.
this is some pretty tough talk. unprecedented. expansive. severe costs. maximize consequences. and if you stop reading here (as most will) this looks pretty serious and seems to imply purpose and resolve.
but let’s dig a little deeper: (boldface mine)
“Treasury is taking serious and unprecedented action to deliver swift and severe consequences to the Kremlin and significantly impair their ability to use the Russian economy and financial system to further their malign activity,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “Our actions, taken in coordination with partners and allies, will degrade Russia’s ability to project power and threaten the peace and stability of Europe.
so here is the goal.
but already, we see the waffling start:
The United States consulted closely with partners to tailor the economic costs of these actions to weigh most heavily on the Government of the Russian Federation (GoR) and its economy while mitigating impacts to America and its allies.
because, let’s face it, the EU and germany in particular is massively dependent on russian energy. this is the big hard currency earner. over 50% of german coal and gas comes from russia. more than 1/3 of their oil does. the germans desperately need it and the russians will want to get paid. so a whole pile of exceptions are added as “general licenses.”
you could drive an entire division of tanks through these loopholes. the sanctions™ are starting to look an awful lot like the science™. it’s the venn intersection of “narrative support” and “functionally useless.”
so, we’re going to throttle the russian banks, well, at least in 30 days we will (see below), but not for agricultural or medical commodities, energy, derivative contracts (the manner in which most energy, materials, and ag is sold) certain debt or equity (and lord knows what that could mean), and the winding down of existing transactions (which will include months and possibly years of forward sales on commodities etc.)
the holes here are so vast that even calling this a “sieve” is likely generous. the details appear carefully crafted to give back nearly everything of importance that the headlines so boldly claimed to take.
and hey, take your time setting up for it. no hurry.
Correspondent and Payable-Through Account Sanctions on Sberbank
Today Treasury is imposing correspondent and payable-through account sanctions on Sberbank. Sberbank is uniquely important to the Russian economy, holding about a third of all bank assets in Russia. Sberbank is the largest financial institution in Russia and is majority-owned by the GoR. It holds the largest market share of savings deposits in the country, is the main creditor of the Russian economy, and is deemed by the GoR to be a systemically important financial institution. Within 30 days, OFAC is requiring all U.S. financial institutions to close any Sberbank correspondent or payable-through accounts and to reject any future transactions involving Sberbank or its foreign financial institution subsidiaries. Payments that Sberbank attempts to process in U.S. dollars for its clients — with examples ranging from to technology to transportation — will be disrupted and rejected once the payment hits a U.S. financial
you guys getting this? they have 30 days to wind down accounts and stop payment flow.
also notably absent is any mention whatsoever of the SWIFT system. this is because they did not lock russia out.
LOLZ.
this is press release and fury signifying nothing.
the US sanctions appear near totally toothless. we can target a bunch of people by name and it’s great propaganda, but does anyone really think that “russian elites” as they are termed in the release have been leaving piles of money where the US can grab it? going after their kids and extended families sounds tough, but they all get their money from the very industries that were just excluded.
at best this is the DEA grabbing 100 kilos of weed and claiming progress in the war on drugs.
it’s empty bluster and grandstanding. it’s not going to hit them where it hurts. this is, sorry to say it, an impotent tantrum.
this will be obvious to russia and to other state level actors.
it’s not going to fool them.
this is the domestic economic and social equivalent of one of those CDC mask studies with a strident headline but whose methodology would get it rejected from a 7th grade science fair.
either US leadership has gone so far down the post modernist rabbithole that it can no longer tell difference between kabuki theater and geopolitical realpolitik (possible) or this theater is focused on the domestic audience, not the foreign one.
it’s to fool americans and europeans, not russians and certainly not chinese.
this is the US and the EU capitulating while claiming they are doing something. it’s a show for our people and will soon be turned into a pretext for surveilling them and an excuse for economic underperformance and inflation.
they will use it to push crony corporatist projects that will make the problem worse. this is exactly what got the EU into this mess and adding more will only further destabilize grids.
and russia cannot help but see this. they are acutely aware that killing nuclear and “going green” is what made germany so helpless. in it’s fine tradition of hapless appeasement, europe is literally threatening itself and mistaking it for threatening the regional bully. it’s really quite a show.
the west and it’s talking shops have become deeply unserious.
a UN resolution of condemnation carries about the weight of a filibuster from the catbutt indiana middle school student council. and we cannot even manage that.
and this makes it clear where other aspiring powers will line up.
“china russia bi-lateral trade will continue as normal…”
That's because this isn't empire building but western destruction. They destroyed millions of small businesses, made millions dependent on government, choked supply chains, now they are engineering an energy crisis that will not effect Russia at all. It will hurt Americans and Europeans. Just wait til' they start poking the dragon and he takes Taiwan. The US gets 88% of its pharmaceuticals from the dragon, chips, auto parts, lots of crap. That's when the real fireworks begin. They don't need to get people to own nothing on their own, they will make sure there is nothing to buy and their currency is worthless.
Excellent comment. Another consideration: Russia is daring to be kicked out of SWIFT because Putin knows the West may meed Russia in SWIFT more than Russia needs to be in SWIFT. The dollar’s day as WRC are dwindling.
The only difference I think is I see Russia catering to the Europeans by picking the Euro as the basis for their replacement system. I also think this is something they have been working on for a long time.
I'm old enough to remember the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo. It brought America to its knees, created the deepest recession to date since the Great Depression, crashed the stock market (S&P 500 was trading at something like a 7 PE), and unleashed massive inflation and unemployment.
We in the West need to pray that the Russians don't turn off their oil taps for a few months because it would entirely crash the debt-based US economic system, and take the rest of the world with it.
No one mentions this little fact, but the Russians have run trade surpluses consistently since at least 2015. They have a ton of foreign reserves, along with gold, and all the resources the world is now so desperately short: Petroleum, gas, metals, and timber.
We need them far more than they need us.
I hope our imbecilic "leaders" wake up to this fact before we kill ourselves.
They also can get by without SWIFT, but if Russia is out of the SWIFT program the dollar will become fairly useless and US debt too heavy a burden to bear, the West will come crashing down around our ears.
I'm not sure about that. Russia and Ukraine combined account for about 2% of global GDP, so not that important. That won't crush the USD itself. However, endless sanctions are creating a demand for alternatives to SWIFT, which are slowly emerging. With regard to Russia, what is important is Russian energy flows as I note above. The West can't kick Russia entirely out of Swift, or there's no way to pay for their oil.
That's why the sanctions are so absurdly detailed. Also, you may have seen that (at least in the first round), Belgian diamonds and Italian luxury goods were exempted from the sanctions. We may want to punish Russian oligarchs, but not THAT much. Cheers!
I have never understood why the Dems imagine Russia to be our worst enemy. Perhaps to deflect from China because so much money has been bet on China and the money crowd must keep the public attention away from their near treasonous activity.
I agree. Been wondering why all the “Russia, Russia, Russia” focus over past several years. Could it be to deflect attention away from US politicians’ paymaster China?
Hey GC sorry to glom onto your top comment to ask you and the other readers of Bad Cattitude to help me figure out the verity of this stunning site that crossed my paths earlier today (I have been following the links of hours now).
The article linked above identifies US Bioweapon Labs throughout the world. It also gives evidence of "leaks" from some of those labs to their locals and the fallout from those leaks. Halfway down - it is long long long because soooo many! - they talk of experiments in Georgia (the country) and Ukraine.
Please take a look. As an opinionated person myself, I like other peoples opinions and observations to help me make sense of the senseless.
And German utilities just rejected the call to keep the last 3 nuclear plants open, which even BEFORE the invasion was going to cause untold hurt on the German people. Slow motion suicide.
They are so fvcking bored and so convinced of their own brilliance that they just HAVE to meddle in our small but happy lives. They see we have 'STUFF,' and that kills them and so they WANT our STUFF because as long as it is OUR stuff it isn't THEIR stuff and that will just never do. What is that old saying about an idle mind and the devil? Well, we have found the DEVILS and they are legion.
I think their plan is to own everything and then rent our "stuff" to us. On the smaller scale, rent us our TV, computer, household appliances...along the lines of how we pay monthly for internet, some people don't buy their phones outright but pay monthly, lease office equipment. On top of a car payment will be a monthly fee to keep the radio active, a monthly fee for the USB charging ports to be functional; all electric cars will be enabled with a remote kill switch, don't pay your rental fee for your dishwasher and your car won't start for you.
On a bigger scale, I suspect all property held with a mortgage and not owned outright will be forfeit and we will all be renters or homeless after The Great Reset.
Biden's Nuclear Regulatory Commission just REVOKED extensions of operating permits for a major nuclear power plant just outside of Miami, and another one in Pennsylvania. These so-called "environmentalists" are driving record demand for high-carbon forms of energy.
I suspect "their" decision was made with influence from the US. The US has ever been doing everything it can to make certain Nord stream 2 did not open.
The Euro Interconnect means that Germany will continue to rely on nuclear power, but it will be French nuclear power. they don't have to generate their own. Don't think of European countries in isolation. They constantly trade power depending literally on the wind and cost factors (although I do agree with you - money is not real).
It is a problem in Germany doesn't generate its own power but is dependent on its neighbours generation. Germany can soon only produce its own power when there is enough sun (not enough in winter and at night) and wind (not during cold and heat waves), but overfloods the markets when there is too much, making its neighbours investments in base power more expensive. All while not reducing global CO2, making them dependent on Russia's gas and inflating prices for its citizens.
Massive German funds went into the Nord stream 2 pipeline, which the US has always committed to ensuring never would go online. Money is not the reason.
the us navy takes apart nuclear aircraft carriers about every 25 years cuts out the reactor and installs a new one, that is cost effective. 3 years and >$2Billion
the same can be done for a nuke plant.
this issue in germany like usa is disposing of waste, why breeder tech is needed.
germans already learned wind is unsuitable: too expensive, unreliable and shaky output.
that would not only require that the U.S. energy folks had brains but that they actually knew how to use them. Both items are highly doubtful. Our energy 'czar,' I believe, may have been chosen to fill the transexual pedophile nichee in the cabinet He seems to have smaller fry to fry than worrying about our energy requirements. I mean, has Biden appointed even ONE truly competent person to ANY office as of yet?
I think it is more of a comment on what is possible with the right design. Western reactors were built as part of an overall system to generate nuclear material for weapons, not as safe, effective power generation. We are very capable of building small scale reactors, using easy to handle fuel and waste. It is just that the right people are not in the money, influence, power loop.
Small reactors are not cost effective if $/kWhr is the criteria. But small factory built reactors offer a lot of other benefits that could scale. It requires changes to power distribution that would take ~ 20 years to implement, if the government actually cared.
small reactors, similar to the nuclear subs were considered, in very early 1990's a trade study was done whether to use nuclear power at arctic radar sites.
then the price of diesel went down!
i do not know the conclusion, i moved on to another job.
What are we doing? The pandemic has taught me that we are probably attempting to scare the people into allowing control of financial transactions and online speech as a way of combating Russian disinformation and cyber terrorism. This is just the first step.
Quote: "this is the US and the EU capitulating while claiming they are doing something. it’s a show for our people and will soon be turned into a pretext for surveilling them and an excuse for economic underperformance and inflation."
This! This is what people need to see. We're all being used by a tiny group of our "betters." We are a threat to them, a threat they would risk a nuclear war to contain. This is where we are. The real war is on us!
what you've written Lillia ... yes, absolutely true. It will all be spun into what it already is not. It's a sham, like the rest of it. And the real victims will be regular people. Government will accumulate more power. It's truly sick.
Sure, blame the autistic girl who is concerned about her and her cohort's future. Look over there, nothing to see here. Sure, a complex confluence of decisions led to our almost total dependence on oil, but it's all her fault.
I wanted to think your comment was just a pathetic attempt at humor, but sadly it's probably not.
I don't agree. You obviously have been reading things that support your viewpoint, unless you know her and her parents personally. "Lefty parents" LOL.
Of course, we all read things that support our viewpoint, what kind of a response is that? Her parents have a history of far-left activism, typing "LOL" doesn't erase history.
Once Greta decided she was going to lecture the entire world on how they must behave, she (and her parents when she was a minor) became fair game. I also have an ASD teenager but unlike Greta, he doesn't lecture others and try and control their behavior. The reason for that is that we taught him that he isn't the center of the world and that people have a God-given right to make their own decisions.
Seriously, no one believes this is "all because of Greta" but she's a convenient target because she made herself one. And yes her parents are 100% to blame as no child becomes that self-righteous and intolerant without an indefensible parental dereliction of duties.
As parents it's our job to teach our kids that happiness is a choice, it doesn't happen by accident. Feeling sorry for oneself, condescending and smug lectures at others, and being mad at the world all but guarantees a miserable existence. Her parents failed her in the worst possible sense.
Quite agree. Of course it's not nice to slam a kid. But this kid took the stage to lecture us with her wisdom of many years, how presumptive. Only because her message aligned with the crazy greens did anyone care. As such, she has been badly used for their entertainment. Disgusting stuff.
Her parents frequently pose wearing Antifa t-shirts, is that enough? They are both the living embodiment of the upper class affluent elite with cultural aspirations, to the point of being living caricatures. They both openly support and endorse the swedish green party which is maoist and islamist, they support the radical feminists, the queer lobby and the whole shebang of woke and pc-ness.
Their daughter is legally an adult and is not non compos mentis, and as such can and should be fully accountable for her words and actions.
That she is allegedly autistic is no excuse. If autistics have the right to be treated as everyone else, they should be treated as everyone else: equal rights, equal responsibilities, equal measure.
You see, I'm swedish. So yes, they are extreme lefties of the worst kind.
You know Greta is given 'cheat sheets' to use for her 'talking points.' She is totally uneducated and is being used as a 'useful idiot' by her parents, the WEF, and the climate whack jobs. I feel sorry for the poor thing but I would never begin to believe a single word that she spoke. She is a prop for the Cult of Climatology and will be used to forward their agenda.
Climate change is a grift. Read about it, why don't you? The time since the Industrial Revolution and the invention of internal combustion engines and factories spewing billowing smoke is equivalent to one one-trillionth of the time that Earth has been part of the Universe. The systems of climate are so varied and so complex that if you think we have been running hither and thither trying to model the effects of a coronavirus -- to no avail, I might add -- now extrapolate that to climate. Even if we shut down every factory and every internal combusion engine in the world for ten years, one good eruption from a huge volcano such as Krakatoa would undo every bit of good that it may have accomplished -- and emit far more gasses into the atmosphere. Climate change is a fraud because we really cannot be sure of any real climate trend in a little more than 140 years. The so-called 'cure' -- wind turbines, solar panels, both made in China, short-lived, dependent on rare earth materials and requiring humongous amounts of power to produce -- is worse than the disease. The one thing that MIGHT make a difference would be underwater tidal turbines -- out of sight and powered by tides that never stop moving. But that seems to be going nowhere.
Maybe because, like nuclear, it’s a good idea? I can’t say since I’m not informed about this technology, but their goal isn’t climate, it’s control. Just like with every other crisis.
Neither mitigate bad outcomes. Only one, and perhaps neither actually have/had a bad outcomes to begin with. Both are propaganda. Both are equally effective on the same segment of the population that is eager to give up freedom in exchange for the illusion of security.
A high school classmate built one of the largest nanotechnology companies in the world. Talking with him last fall I asked his take on masks. He said, “If you wear one can you smell a fart? Yes? There’s your science lesson for today.”
One of my sons is working on his PhD at Stanford in nano photonics. Everyone must wear an N95, indoors and out. He's on their rock climbing team, I watched them compete via zoom; they were all masked while competing. Yet we all agreed if someone was smoking a block away (pot or cigarettes, doesn't matter) we could still smell it whilst wearing a medical grade N95.
So frustrating when otherwise intelligent people add 1+1= negative personal rights.
They were intended for different purposes. The masks are to demonstrate the subservience of the proles to their betters. Gato wrote about this, not long ago.
The sanctions are more like that robot in Lost In Space, running around waving its arms while shouting "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!" Ineffective if not counter-productive, but hey, it's better than doing nothing and being perceived to be what you are -- ineffective idiots.
They need to stop sending this guy out to talk to the press. He was a disaster a couple of weeks ago when a reporter asked him 'what evidence?' and his answer was something like, I just told you, that's the evidence.
There is at least as much disinformation from western governments (especially US) around this as there has been with Covid.
Just like with Covid, we're supposed to believe that one side represents all that is good (in this case, "democracy"). Meanwhile the other side is evil and has no valid reasons for what it does.
I'm no expert on Russia and Ukraine, but here are a few counter points:
1. US has been expanding NATO towards Russia for years, despite agreements to the contrary. Russia has protested this for national security reasons, demanding it be stopped. This was never seriously discussed in Western media.
2. The US with EU allies toppled the pro Russian Ukranian govt. in 2014 and installed a pro NATO government to do their wishes.
3. Russia has repeatedly warned that bringing Ukraine into NATO and placing missiles in Poland and Romania were crossing its national security red lines. They also said for years if this continues, they will eventually annex Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
4. Ukrainian govt. has been shelling Donetsk and Luhansk for years, in breach of the Minsk agreements, killing citizens.
Putin said "They didn't listen eight years ago, they'd better listen now." Maybe in a schoolroom exercise it looks wise to try to control the whole board.
Remember how JFK reacted to Khrushchev putting missiles in Cuba? (A reaction BTW to the US putting Jupiter missiles in Turkey...)
Put Russia too far behind the 8-ball, and this is what you get. The Russians are already paranoid enough at being a land-locked country, having none of the all-weather, deep-sea ports that the US and its allies enjoy. Surrounded by what they perceive to be enemies, or at least adversaries, when the stars align they will act. This is only the beginning, folks. The Baltics will soon be back under the Russian umbrella... even though they are NATO members, the US/NATO will do nothing. Then Finland (not that long ago part of Russia), Sweden, Poland...
Putin has the long game, US/NATO struggle for relevance...
Yeah, I get the talking points and there are elements of truth to them. The chance to develop an accommodation with Putin left as Trump exited. Putin is now somewhat unbalanced and the world must deal with that. Putin knows that the EU is no danger to Russia but he would like people to take him seriously despite the looting by many of his pals. He has trashed Russia for his benefit.
Putin is doing exactly what he warned he would if the US kept talking about adding Ukraine to NATO. He is quite clearly acting rationally, if you ignore what western media is saying.
The US state department and DoD havs known very well that their actions are seriously threatening to Russia for many years, since before the Maidan revolution where the west acted to topple the pro Russian government and install a puppet regime that would be favorable to Ukraine joining NATO.
William Burns, current CIA chief who was then embassador to Russia (or just after that job) wrote a letter to secretary of state Madelaine Albright in 2008 where he stated clearly that practically all important Russian players, whether they were Putin's henchmen or his opponents, strongly objected to Ukraine joining NATO.
John Mearsheimer, possibly the most important US thinker in these matters, said six years ago that the US push for Ukraine to join NATO was leading Ukraine towards its doom. Look up his lectures on this on YT if you like.
All that was needed, probably, was to demilitarise Ukraine (or just significantly curtail its military power) and make a clear, official promise that it would not join NATO
Unfortunately it seems the war mongers in the US govt. and military industrial complex players did not care, or maybe even wanted matters to reach the current state.
Quite aware of that history. Not sure I agree that it remains the sticking point it once was. The NATO issue is now obsolete. Putin desires Ukraine food production to supplement Russia and wants a friendly government. He can't stand for success on his doorstep where much of Russia modern history began. But I'm not inside his head and many think he's no longer stable. He is now facing considerable resistance and it's hard to know what he may do. It's really about what Ukraine wants in the end. Has little to do with the US. President Z stood up to Pres T, probably has no clue about Pres B but wants as much as he can get for Ukraine.
" Where is justice and truth here? Just a bunch of lies and hypocrisy.
By the way, American politicians, political scientists and journalists themselves write and talk about the fact that a real 'empire of lies' has been created inside the United States in recent years. It's hard to disagree with that; it's true. But do not be modest: the United States is still a great country, a system-forming power. All her satellites not only resignedly and dutifully assent, sing along to her for any reason, but also copy her behaviour, enthusiastically accept the rules he proposes. Therefore, with good reason, we can confidently say that the entire so-called Western bloc, formed by the United States in its own image and likeness, all of it is the very 'empire of lies'. "
From Vladimir Putin's 'Empire of lies' speech, which I encourage everyone to read.
If Putin had parked some semis in Ottawa instead of invaded the poor downtrodden people of Ukraine, he'd have really had western governments spitting venom at him.
I can't wait until this is all over and they've "built back better". It's going to be so wonderful. Birds singing everywhere, clear skies, blue pristine lakes and rivers, wildlife frolicking all over. And no people. Utopia is going to be great! For someone.
You nailed it. Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, said famously “Environmentalists. Don’t. Like. People.” Which explains a lot of the harms lefties and pretend enviros are doing to Western Civilization. Russia and China are only half civilized, and they ignore such cr@p.
Another first class analysis of the situation Mr Bad Kitty.
I am inclined to the view that this is only peripherally about diverting attention away from failed domestic policies and agenda driven Covid response strategy. This is a useful fig leaf for politicians in the here and now. But I think it’s more likely ongoing cover for the bringing about of the NWO. Say hello to The Great Upset.
This isn’t serious foreign policy, it’s incompetence. Biden fueled the invasion with insulting platitudes and empty threats in place of incisive understanding of the seriousness of Russia’s historically based resolve to protect its territorial integrity. The Russian perception of America’s mocking attitude towards its concerns, and with no reasonable hope of resolution, led Putin to take a calculated risk and going all in. It looks like his strategic action will ultimately prove to be in Russia’s national interest. Ukraine is an indirect victim of a US foreign policy that is largely devoid of strategies based upon national interest. Actions and proclamations are guided by short term interests that are tactical at best, based upon a goal of leveraging global profit centers for an influential oligarchic class too cushioned by wealth to feel the reverberations of missles, bullets, and bombs.
Putin has been consistent in his views on NATO expansion since the betrayal of promises since Clinton/Bush. His first major response was the annexation of Crimea where strategic naval and other military facilities are, and was greeted by the ‘angry freedom loving’ Crimeans, mostly Russian, by lining up for new medical benefits they previously never had, IIRC.
Last year another chess move was the initial ‘training’ deployment of (about 40K ?) military near the border, before the Biden/Putin summit. Putin read the room and figured quickly on Brandon (like 75M voters in November). Risk on, and I think now that the full plan was put into place right after that. He practically telegraphed his intensions in a 5000 word essay this past summer. For all to read including the Foggy Bottom sluggish morons. Putin is not a stupid brutish corruptocrat like our ruling class.
Good thing Hunter and Brandon cashed those Burisma (+others?) checks before this.
If you think the China supply chain is a problem, wait till they take Taiwan. We’d better be prepared to defend that one to the death, and we can be sure her own people won’t shy away from the task, either.
The interventions that created and sustain the American Empire are a disaster on every front. It has caused, directly or indirectly, the deaths of millions and the displacement and impoverishment of countless more.
The fiscal and social policies associated with empire have transformed the US from a peaceful commercial powerhouse with the greatest wealth-creating economy in the world to an utterly corrupt kakistocracy where the elites, surrounded by their concentric circles of cronies and court "economists" and other experts, ruthlessly loot the populace at large whilst engaging in a perpetual propaganda campaign that somehow bamboozles most into accepting it.
They have bankrupted the US in every way: economically, socially, morally.
This is the end game of a century of progressivism. It was both predictable and predicted.
And it started with the first real progressive president, Woodrow "He Kept Us Out Of War" Wilson.
This is what the British Bulldog had to say about Wilson's catastrophe:
"America should have minded her own business and stayed out of the World War. If you hadn’t entered the war the Allies would have made peace with Germany in the Spring of 1917. Had we made peace then there would have been no collapse in Russia followed by Communism, no breakdown in Italy followed by Fascism, and Germany would not have signed the Versailles Treaty, which has enthroned Nazism in Germany. If America had stayed out of the war, all these `isms’ wouldn’t today be sweeping the continent of Europe and breaking down parliamentary government – and if England had made peace early in 1917, it would have saved over one million British, French, American, and other lives."
– Winston Churchill 1936 interview, the New York Enquirer
I don't know how, but there needs to be a drastic awakening and political realignment back to our founding principles if our nation is to survive.
Our current path is, as our leftist friends are so fond of saying, *unsustainable*.
The Western elite class never understands that the East is always in it for the long game. Please show me one Western country not led by an absolute moron at this moment in time. I really despise Putin and Xi but by God they are not stupid. You strike when your adversary is at his weakest, and if pronouns aren't the screaming signal on that...
I agree, Taiwan will be next. I look for it to happen sometime in the next year or so, and we will do nothing but say bad kitty, bad kitty. There is a writer online who calls himself "market ticker" who had a piece recently about the "or else" principle. Meaning all the protests, demonstrations, sanctions and the like are worthless without the ability to enforce what you want. Neither Russia nor China gives a Charles River Sprague-Dawley rat's ass about world opinion--China is not going to give up Tibet or Hong Kong or stop what it is doing to the Uyghurs just because some people are upset about it. Same with Ukraine. Unfortunately I think that those in charge are just dumb enough and suicidal enough to try to start WWIII and it will not go well for them this time.
Joe Biden has benefitted financially from being personally involved in Ukraine. It should be questioned by the press, but of course, the press is in the denial of reality business, not the reporting of it.
Maybe the whole Ukraine invasion and lead up to it is part of the Directors script. Sniffy gets his lines to bluster about an upcoming invasion of Ukraine. Sputum gets his lines and stage stage directions. Who benefits? It sure takes the spotlight away from the whole corona-vax-supression of early treatment fiasco. Sniffy's Directors benefit. Sputum's Directors benefit. Perhaps Sniffy's and Sputum's Directors are one and the same? Yes it's crazy conspiracy theory and far from definite or directly provable. There are however some circumstantial things so I'm open to the possibility that it may be this way.
We talk about the push towards globalization. I think that for the elite globalization has already happened and there are those who are resistant to it. For the Directors the concept of nation states is just window dressing. The mega monopolies are transnational. Their loyalty is to $$$$ and power.
The whole corona thing may have been a planned excercise to see how much being in synch nation states can be in. What percentage of a population resist? A sort of measurement of the Directors' power. Also helped to introduce the concept of digital ID across national boundaries. ID that might some day contain much more information. The Directors will learn from this experience. They will use what they have learned in the next act.
Ever since it came to light, I've been saying that the Biden Burisma Bribes did NOT come from Ukraine, but were funneled THRU Ukraine, from Russia......
The Europeans cannot afford to anger Russia or their energy gets shut off. That extends to the US. If we do too much they shut off Europe’s energy. I am guessing that these sanctions were worked out between Europe and the US through Russian diplomats.
One person I know who is affected by sanctions is a pastor in Odessa. He and his church are sheltering many orphans & caring for many people. Their mother church is in Russia so they cannot acces their own charity funds because of the bank sanctions.
"the sanctions™ are starting to look an awful lot like the science™"
Same authors, same audience, same objective of portraying illusion as reality. It always brings to mind the old Washington adage, An ounce of facade is worth a pound of substance. Q.E.D.
the locus of Biden's corruption lies in Ukraine. And not only Biden's but many others in the foreign service. They are powerless because they have compromised themselves.
Rick DeSantis should get TSMC to build a semiconductor plant in Florida. That would be a good start. Prolly too late now though; that would take several years. But, better late than never; the IP can be exported almost immediately. Procurement and construction take a while longer.
Wait! So you start a WAR and get 30 day warning that bank accounts will be frozen,
maybe . But, you start a non-violent protest against government over-reach and bank account is seized without any due process!!?? I'll leave ya'll with this... hear that... the sound of gas powered generators keeping the lights & heat on at homes throughout Germany. It's the future of self reliant energy in Deutschland.
Maybe if your country is president of the UN Security Council and you start a war with another member you should loose your title. Nah! That would be too radical for this feckless organization. Why are we still part of this joke of this group?
It would be hilarious for the western NWO if Russia invaded Ukraine, China invaded Taiwan, and right-wing Trump deplorables declared civil war, all at the same time. Brandon would crap in his diapers, and Space Cadet Kamala would go into a non-stop laughing fit.
To laser-focus and personally 'target' a powerful head of state, like Putin, with phony "sanctions," what you are really telling him, Russia, and anyone with two brain cells is that all diplomatic avenues are closed off to you and your nation with this "sanctioned" head of state. No commo possible.
Not a smart move. More like petulant playground pre-teen bullies we've all come across. "No! we won't ever talk with you! We'll hold our breath until we die!" (give it a try!)
Biden's handlers, our corrupt State Department, and the MIC again confirm their idiocy. Although I am not qualified to make medical or mental evaluations or judgments, seems to me these DC folks exhibit some kind of bizarre childhood behaviors--an inability to grow up to adulthood and perceive reality. Living in a dreamworld of their own making.
Or, as we Truck Driver's used to say of such deranged-thinking people: "They are breathing their own exhaust fumes!'
They need to hire Trudeau and Freeland. They are much better at stealing money....happy to do it...and they just got their fingers smacked by their Masters at the WEF, so are looking for somewhere besides Canadian Banks to wreak havoc... be glad to loan them out permanently
It would be better to issue NO sanctions than what has been proffered here. An example of “better to remain silent and appear the fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” Our leaders should stop treating us like stupid children and explain the geopolitical realities. Of course, it’s possible our leaders don’t understand the geopolitical realities….
These are the “masks stop the virus” of sanctions. A sop for the rubes to comfort themselves so they can go back to sleep in their comfortable Facebook and Twitter dream time. It is the equivalent of buying a truckload of toilet paper to fight a pandemic.
These motherfuckers put sanctions on their own people's individual freedoms and liberties for two years over curves and shots that don't work, they never had the backbone to flex the stick, fuck these clowns and their current distractions from their failures. Talk about Netflix and the board and the Ukraine president and the US politics with vested interest in Ukraine
Only if you don't see the WEF/NWO end game... read about what 'critical theory' is really about. First it must be completely and utterly destroyed, before we can build back better. As in a socialist workers' utopia.
Biden needs a win and he can't get it at home because people see the reality in front of their faces. When it comes to Ukraine, the 'leaders' can lie all they want because we can't see what's really happening.
Biden left $85 billion in Afghanistan for who? The Taliban to give to China or who else? What is Biden’s kickback? Remember 10% for the ‘big guy’ but now the ‘big guy’ is president, surely he gets a hell of a lot more than 10%.
How much did Biden take from Russia?
How much will Biden get from Russia by shutting down US pipelines, shutting down the Israel-Cyrpus-Europe pipeline, ok’ing the Nordstream pipeline, not shutting down energy from Russia after Russia invaded Ukraine and not reopening US pipelines and guess what?
in addition to billions in kickbacks from Russia, Putin invades Ukraine with Biden’s full consent and that also serves as Biden’s payback to the Ukrainians for double crossing Biden and working with Trump and exposing their dealings of Biden, Kerry, Pelosi, Romney, Obama, Clinton and their children and cronies and every other dirty Democrat and RINO involved?
Putin is a WEF member, even though WEF took down his bio, Putin wants to implement Klaus Schwab’s fourth industrial Revolution. Putin could have gotten rid of Schwab and Soros any time he wanted and he hasn’t.
This is the simplest reason and the most likely reason of all.
Remember Zelensky made a point of publicly burning records on Day 1 - that’s exactly what Biden and his cabal wanted to see. They are making Zelensky beg for his life and his families’ life. Zelensky wouldn’t take the US offer to fly him out because the US would make sure he was killed in flight - very easy to arrange.
In the end all the worlds’ megalomaniacs get exactly what they want and Ukrainians are screwed just like all of the little people world wide are screwed by the Globalist WEF Kakistocracy.
That's because this isn't empire building but western destruction. They destroyed millions of small businesses, made millions dependent on government, choked supply chains, now they are engineering an energy crisis that will not effect Russia at all. It will hurt Americans and Europeans. Just wait til' they start poking the dragon and he takes Taiwan. The US gets 88% of its pharmaceuticals from the dragon, chips, auto parts, lots of crap. That's when the real fireworks begin. They don't need to get people to own nothing on their own, they will make sure there is nothing to buy and their currency is worthless.
Excellent comment. Another consideration: Russia is daring to be kicked out of SWIFT because Putin knows the West may meed Russia in SWIFT more than Russia needs to be in SWIFT. The dollar’s day as WRC are dwindling.
https://faybomb.substack.com/p/crazy-like-a-fox?utm_source=url
You and I think very much alike it seems. https://justguy.substack.com/p/why-i-think-cutting-russia-out-of?utm_source=url
The only difference I think is I see Russia catering to the Europeans by picking the Euro as the basis for their replacement system. I also think this is something they have been working on for a long time.
I'm old enough to remember the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo. It brought America to its knees, created the deepest recession to date since the Great Depression, crashed the stock market (S&P 500 was trading at something like a 7 PE), and unleashed massive inflation and unemployment.
We in the West need to pray that the Russians don't turn off their oil taps for a few months because it would entirely crash the debt-based US economic system, and take the rest of the world with it.
No one mentions this little fact, but the Russians have run trade surpluses consistently since at least 2015. They have a ton of foreign reserves, along with gold, and all the resources the world is now so desperately short: Petroleum, gas, metals, and timber.
We need them far more than they need us.
I hope our imbecilic "leaders" wake up to this fact before we kill ourselves.
They also can get by without SWIFT, but if Russia is out of the SWIFT program the dollar will become fairly useless and US debt too heavy a burden to bear, the West will come crashing down around our ears.
I'm not sure about that. Russia and Ukraine combined account for about 2% of global GDP, so not that important. That won't crush the USD itself. However, endless sanctions are creating a demand for alternatives to SWIFT, which are slowly emerging. With regard to Russia, what is important is Russian energy flows as I note above. The West can't kick Russia entirely out of Swift, or there's no way to pay for their oil.
That's why the sanctions are so absurdly detailed. Also, you may have seen that (at least in the first round), Belgian diamonds and Italian luxury goods were exempted from the sanctions. We may want to punish Russian oligarchs, but not THAT much. Cheers!
I have never understood why the Dems imagine Russia to be our worst enemy. Perhaps to deflect from China because so much money has been bet on China and the money crowd must keep the public attention away from their near treasonous activity.
I agree. Been wondering why all the “Russia, Russia, Russia” focus over past several years. Could it be to deflect attention away from US politicians’ paymaster China?
We have a winner!!!! Yup. To much money to be made in China; much harder in Russia.
affect Russia
Hey GC sorry to glom onto your top comment to ask you and the other readers of Bad Cattitude to help me figure out the verity of this stunning site that crossed my paths earlier today (I have been following the links of hours now).
https://dilyana.bg/the-pentagon-bio-weapons/
The article linked above identifies US Bioweapon Labs throughout the world. It also gives evidence of "leaks" from some of those labs to their locals and the fallout from those leaks. Halfway down - it is long long long because soooo many! - they talk of experiments in Georgia (the country) and Ukraine.
Please take a look. As an opinionated person myself, I like other peoples opinions and observations to help me make sense of the senseless.
And German utilities just rejected the call to keep the last 3 nuclear plants open, which even BEFORE the invasion was going to cause untold hurt on the German people. Slow motion suicide.
Germans are going to freeze to death in the dark. But it will be a green death, amirite?
a death of real meaning apparently. The bad news is, there aren't many bugs to catch and eat during winter to complete their virtue signaling.
Only poor Germans will freeze to death. (Of course, more and more Germans will become poor.)
But think how much worse it would have been if they hadn’t been vaxxed.
Oh, I know, right? Ridiculous because HOW do they KNOW? It could have been BETTER!!
You will have nothing and you will be happy. But I'll bet Klausie boy has HIS heat and so does Billy Boy Gates, amirite?
Everyone seems to miss that the 2nd part is,
"And we will have everything and be ecstatic."
They are so fvcking bored and so convinced of their own brilliance that they just HAVE to meddle in our small but happy lives. They see we have 'STUFF,' and that kills them and so they WANT our STUFF because as long as it is OUR stuff it isn't THEIR stuff and that will just never do. What is that old saying about an idle mind and the devil? Well, we have found the DEVILS and they are legion.
I think their plan is to own everything and then rent our "stuff" to us. On the smaller scale, rent us our TV, computer, household appliances...along the lines of how we pay monthly for internet, some people don't buy their phones outright but pay monthly, lease office equipment. On top of a car payment will be a monthly fee to keep the radio active, a monthly fee for the USB charging ports to be functional; all electric cars will be enabled with a remote kill switch, don't pay your rental fee for your dishwasher and your car won't start for you.
On a bigger scale, I suspect all property held with a mortgage and not owned outright will be forfeit and we will all be renters or homeless after The Great Reset.
Truth.
Brings to mind the original motto of NATO, Keep US in, Keep Russia out, Keep Germany down.
Zero carbon footprint...
A virtuous death. Greta will cheer!
Well, you know, the German government was pretty effing stupid twice in the last century. This century, it's just a different type of stupid.
Comrades, we are sinking. There are three lifeboats left. Get aboard.
Germany: “No thank you, no storm, ship not sinking.”
Biden's Nuclear Regulatory Commission just REVOKED extensions of operating permits for a major nuclear power plant just outside of Miami, and another one in Pennsylvania. These so-called "environmentalists" are driving record demand for high-carbon forms of energy.
Sickening!
Energy is becoming synonymous with war. When water replaces energy the end will be near.
Their decision. Not our problem.
"Their"? Who is "they"? Germany has been under foreign occupation and "governed" by quislings since, at least 1945.
I suspect "their" decision was made with influence from the US. The US has ever been doing everything it can to make certain Nord stream 2 did not open.
Germany can't keep their nuclear plants running any longer. They are all old and their operating licenses are expiring.
These can easily be extended. If there is the will.
Meanwhile, they did know when they’d expire.
They should have been building new ones steadily all the time.
Nuclear energy, particularly with thorium reactors, is by far the cleanest safest, most scalable source available.
The fact that the "green" people reject it is all the evidence one needs to see that they are complete frauds and hiding their real agenda.
How people do not see this is incomprehensible.
Agreed. It was the strongest clue available. I’d happily store my share of low level nuclear waste at the bottom of my garden.
It is not cost effective. In order to extend operating licenses, costly upgrades need to be implemented.
Money isn’t real. If the Will is there, they could get extensions
And as earlier, they knew their end dates
Where are the new facilities ready to go online?
What did they plan to use for electricity when they passed on new facilities?
The Euro Interconnect means that Germany will continue to rely on nuclear power, but it will be French nuclear power. they don't have to generate their own. Don't think of European countries in isolation. They constantly trade power depending literally on the wind and cost factors (although I do agree with you - money is not real).
It is a problem in Germany doesn't generate its own power but is dependent on its neighbours generation. Germany can soon only produce its own power when there is enough sun (not enough in winter and at night) and wind (not during cold and heat waves), but overfloods the markets when there is too much, making its neighbours investments in base power more expensive. All while not reducing global CO2, making them dependent on Russia's gas and inflating prices for its citizens.
Good to know, I’m glad France hasn’t committed energy suicide (yet).
Thank you
It may be cost effective now as the price of natural gas goes to the moon. What price would you pay to keep from freezing to death?
Massive German funds went into the Nord stream 2 pipeline, which the US has always committed to ensuring never would go online. Money is not the reason.
the us navy takes apart nuclear aircraft carriers about every 25 years cuts out the reactor and installs a new one, that is cost effective. 3 years and >$2Billion
the same can be done for a nuke plant.
this issue in germany like usa is disposing of waste, why breeder tech is needed.
germans already learned wind is unsuitable: too expensive, unreliable and shaky output.
if i were putin i would blow the pipelines!
4th gen nuclear takes care of the need for breeder reactors. Japan and China are investing in the new tech. Germany and the US should be as well.
that would not only require that the U.S. energy folks had brains but that they actually knew how to use them. Both items are highly doubtful. Our energy 'czar,' I believe, may have been chosen to fill the transexual pedophile nichee in the cabinet He seems to have smaller fry to fry than worrying about our energy requirements. I mean, has Biden appointed even ONE truly competent person to ANY office as of yet?
“ has Biden appointed even ONE truly competent person to ANY office as of yet?”
Nope. It’s a freakshow from top to bottom.
niche
Think Thorium
Can it really. Give me one example of such a transplant. And I'm not talking about the little ship reactors.
i was in the usaf, but i had a dod job on norfolk, navam station, virginia. across the roades there was usually a nuke carrier in for:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refueling_and_overhaul#:~:text=Refueling%20and%20Complex%20Overhaul%20(RCOH,desired%2050%2Dyear%20life%20spans.
I think it is more of a comment on what is possible with the right design. Western reactors were built as part of an overall system to generate nuclear material for weapons, not as safe, effective power generation. We are very capable of building small scale reactors, using easy to handle fuel and waste. It is just that the right people are not in the money, influence, power loop.
Small reactors are not cost effective if $/kWhr is the criteria. But small factory built reactors offer a lot of other benefits that could scale. It requires changes to power distribution that would take ~ 20 years to implement, if the government actually cared.
small reactors, similar to the nuclear subs were considered, in very early 1990's a trade study was done whether to use nuclear power at arctic radar sites.
then the price of diesel went down!
i do not know the conclusion, i moved on to another job.
What are we doing? The pandemic has taught me that we are probably attempting to scare the people into allowing control of financial transactions and online speech as a way of combating Russian disinformation and cyber terrorism. This is just the first step.
biden is continuing ww iii started by clinton, moved forward by obama, slowed by trump at the cost of being impeached.
tommy sees
so does putin and xi!
Who is Tommy?
Mr. Atkins (Kipling "Tommy" 1890)
Quote: "this is the US and the EU capitulating while claiming they are doing something. it’s a show for our people and will soon be turned into a pretext for surveilling them and an excuse for economic underperformance and inflation."
This! This is what people need to see. We're all being used by a tiny group of our "betters." We are a threat to them, a threat they would risk a nuclear war to contain. This is where we are. The real war is on us!
what you've written Lillia ... yes, absolutely true. It will all be spun into what it already is not. It's a sham, like the rest of it. And the real victims will be regular people. Government will accumulate more power. It's truly sick.
The true goal seems to be the destruction of the west, and we are allowing it.
We can thank poor Greta for collapsing our domestic oil reserves. Thank you Greta for perpetrating a war.
Sure, blame the autistic girl who is concerned about her and her cohort's future. Look over there, nothing to see here. Sure, a complex confluence of decisions led to our almost total dependence on oil, but it's all her fault.
I wanted to think your comment was just a pathetic attempt at humor, but sadly it's probably not.
Greta is a puppet of her delusional parents, and we should feel sorry for her.
There are too many lefty parents like this, unfortunately, and a bunch of them teach in our schools.
I don't agree. You obviously have been reading things that support your viewpoint, unless you know her and her parents personally. "Lefty parents" LOL.
Of course, we all read things that support our viewpoint, what kind of a response is that? Her parents have a history of far-left activism, typing "LOL" doesn't erase history.
Once Greta decided she was going to lecture the entire world on how they must behave, she (and her parents when she was a minor) became fair game. I also have an ASD teenager but unlike Greta, he doesn't lecture others and try and control their behavior. The reason for that is that we taught him that he isn't the center of the world and that people have a God-given right to make their own decisions.
Seriously, no one believes this is "all because of Greta" but she's a convenient target because she made herself one. And yes her parents are 100% to blame as no child becomes that self-righteous and intolerant without an indefensible parental dereliction of duties.
As parents it's our job to teach our kids that happiness is a choice, it doesn't happen by accident. Feeling sorry for oneself, condescending and smug lectures at others, and being mad at the world all but guarantees a miserable existence. Her parents failed her in the worst possible sense.
Quite agree. Of course it's not nice to slam a kid. But this kid took the stage to lecture us with her wisdom of many years, how presumptive. Only because her message aligned with the crazy greens did anyone care. As such, she has been badly used for their entertainment. Disgusting stuff.
Hear, hear!
Her parents frequently pose wearing Antifa t-shirts, is that enough? They are both the living embodiment of the upper class affluent elite with cultural aspirations, to the point of being living caricatures. They both openly support and endorse the swedish green party which is maoist and islamist, they support the radical feminists, the queer lobby and the whole shebang of woke and pc-ness.
Their daughter is legally an adult and is not non compos mentis, and as such can and should be fully accountable for her words and actions.
That she is allegedly autistic is no excuse. If autistics have the right to be treated as everyone else, they should be treated as everyone else: equal rights, equal responsibilities, equal measure.
You see, I'm swedish. So yes, they are extreme lefties of the worst kind.
Well said. Good info.
You know Greta is given 'cheat sheets' to use for her 'talking points.' She is totally uneducated and is being used as a 'useful idiot' by her parents, the WEF, and the climate whack jobs. I feel sorry for the poor thing but I would never begin to believe a single word that she spoke. She is a prop for the Cult of Climatology and will be used to forward their agenda.
Climate change is a grift. Read about it, why don't you? The time since the Industrial Revolution and the invention of internal combustion engines and factories spewing billowing smoke is equivalent to one one-trillionth of the time that Earth has been part of the Universe. The systems of climate are so varied and so complex that if you think we have been running hither and thither trying to model the effects of a coronavirus -- to no avail, I might add -- now extrapolate that to climate. Even if we shut down every factory and every internal combusion engine in the world for ten years, one good eruption from a huge volcano such as Krakatoa would undo every bit of good that it may have accomplished -- and emit far more gasses into the atmosphere. Climate change is a fraud because we really cannot be sure of any real climate trend in a little more than 140 years. The so-called 'cure' -- wind turbines, solar panels, both made in China, short-lived, dependent on rare earth materials and requiring humongous amounts of power to produce -- is worse than the disease. The one thing that MIGHT make a difference would be underwater tidal turbines -- out of sight and powered by tides that never stop moving. But that seems to be going nowhere.
Maybe because, like nuclear, it’s a good idea? I can’t say since I’m not informed about this technology, but their goal isn’t climate, it’s control. Just like with every other crisis.
Riddle me this, Catman: sanctions designed to take Russia to task, and pieces of cloth that you wear as a mask.
Which is less effective?
as what, mitigation of bad outcomes or as propaganda?
Neither mitigate bad outcomes. Only one, and perhaps neither actually have/had a bad outcomes to begin with. Both are propaganda. Both are equally effective on the same segment of the population that is eager to give up freedom in exchange for the illusion of security.
It appears masks have a big head start, with Feigl-Ding pushing N95 farts.
A high school classmate built one of the largest nanotechnology companies in the world. Talking with him last fall I asked his take on masks. He said, “If you wear one can you smell a fart? Yes? There’s your science lesson for today.”
One of my sons is working on his PhD at Stanford in nano photonics. Everyone must wear an N95, indoors and out. He's on their rock climbing team, I watched them compete via zoom; they were all masked while competing. Yet we all agreed if someone was smoking a block away (pot or cigarettes, doesn't matter) we could still smell it whilst wearing a medical grade N95.
So frustrating when otherwise intelligent people add 1+1= negative personal rights.
Holy Mother of God, man. LOL
They were intended for different purposes. The masks are to demonstrate the subservience of the proles to their betters. Gato wrote about this, not long ago.
The sanctions are more like that robot in Lost In Space, running around waving its arms while shouting "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!" Ineffective if not counter-productive, but hey, it's better than doing nothing and being perceived to be what you are -- ineffective idiots.
Both are equally ineffective, in my purrfect opinon.
It was shocking to see a reporter actually doing his job in the press conference about the sanctions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHUg8HYKv4k
They need to stop sending this guy out to talk to the press. He was a disaster a couple of weeks ago when a reporter asked him 'what evidence?' and his answer was something like, I just told you, that's the evidence.
🤔 🍸 ouch, “ Russian vodka pulled from shelves in US, Canada bars, liquor stores: ‘Every small thing makes a difference’ “ from nypost.com
Frankly, I'm perfectly fine with Tito's. Texas. 'Murrica.
All the west can do is hand waving and buzzwords, they already checkmated themselves before the shooting started.
Putin has played the long game and waited patiently for the geopolitical planets to align to strike and secure a buffer zone.
He's playing chess. The clowns that "lead" the west are playing checkers.
Don't insult checker players. They aren't narcissist psychopaths, generally.
Also a young global leader from the WEF school.
Hunter Biden and Ukraine
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/HSGAC_Finance_Report_FINAL.pdf
WOW, this is unbelievable. Right there in black and white, and crickets from our disgusting corporate media.
This is why they are so reluctant to investigate, let alone prosecute, their own. The whole house would come down. What a can of worms!
Yeah, and now Putin is cleaning up their mess for them.
from our disgusting state media.
FIFY
There is at least as much disinformation from western governments (especially US) around this as there has been with Covid.
Just like with Covid, we're supposed to believe that one side represents all that is good (in this case, "democracy"). Meanwhile the other side is evil and has no valid reasons for what it does.
I'm no expert on Russia and Ukraine, but here are a few counter points:
1. US has been expanding NATO towards Russia for years, despite agreements to the contrary. Russia has protested this for national security reasons, demanding it be stopped. This was never seriously discussed in Western media.
2. The US with EU allies toppled the pro Russian Ukranian govt. in 2014 and installed a pro NATO government to do their wishes.
3. Russia has repeatedly warned that bringing Ukraine into NATO and placing missiles in Poland and Romania were crossing its national security red lines. They also said for years if this continues, they will eventually annex Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
4. Ukrainian govt. has been shelling Donetsk and Luhansk for years, in breach of the Minsk agreements, killing citizens.
Putin said "They didn't listen eight years ago, they'd better listen now." Maybe in a schoolroom exercise it looks wise to try to control the whole board.
Remember how JFK reacted to Khrushchev putting missiles in Cuba? (A reaction BTW to the US putting Jupiter missiles in Turkey...)
Put Russia too far behind the 8-ball, and this is what you get. The Russians are already paranoid enough at being a land-locked country, having none of the all-weather, deep-sea ports that the US and its allies enjoy. Surrounded by what they perceive to be enemies, or at least adversaries, when the stars align they will act. This is only the beginning, folks. The Baltics will soon be back under the Russian umbrella... even though they are NATO members, the US/NATO will do nothing. Then Finland (not that long ago part of Russia), Sweden, Poland...
Putin has the long game, US/NATO struggle for relevance...
Yeah, I get the talking points and there are elements of truth to them. The chance to develop an accommodation with Putin left as Trump exited. Putin is now somewhat unbalanced and the world must deal with that. Putin knows that the EU is no danger to Russia but he would like people to take him seriously despite the looting by many of his pals. He has trashed Russia for his benefit.
Putin is doing exactly what he warned he would if the US kept talking about adding Ukraine to NATO. He is quite clearly acting rationally, if you ignore what western media is saying.
The US state department and DoD havs known very well that their actions are seriously threatening to Russia for many years, since before the Maidan revolution where the west acted to topple the pro Russian government and install a puppet regime that would be favorable to Ukraine joining NATO.
William Burns, current CIA chief who was then embassador to Russia (or just after that job) wrote a letter to secretary of state Madelaine Albright in 2008 where he stated clearly that practically all important Russian players, whether they were Putin's henchmen or his opponents, strongly objected to Ukraine joining NATO.
John Mearsheimer, possibly the most important US thinker in these matters, said six years ago that the US push for Ukraine to join NATO was leading Ukraine towards its doom. Look up his lectures on this on YT if you like.
All that was needed, probably, was to demilitarise Ukraine (or just significantly curtail its military power) and make a clear, official promise that it would not join NATO
Unfortunately it seems the war mongers in the US govt. and military industrial complex players did not care, or maybe even wanted matters to reach the current state.
Quite aware of that history. Not sure I agree that it remains the sticking point it once was. The NATO issue is now obsolete. Putin desires Ukraine food production to supplement Russia and wants a friendly government. He can't stand for success on his doorstep where much of Russia modern history began. But I'm not inside his head and many think he's no longer stable. He is now facing considerable resistance and it's hard to know what he may do. It's really about what Ukraine wants in the end. Has little to do with the US. President Z stood up to Pres T, probably has no clue about Pres B but wants as much as he can get for Ukraine.
" Where is justice and truth here? Just a bunch of lies and hypocrisy.
By the way, American politicians, political scientists and journalists themselves write and talk about the fact that a real 'empire of lies' has been created inside the United States in recent years. It's hard to disagree with that; it's true. But do not be modest: the United States is still a great country, a system-forming power. All her satellites not only resignedly and dutifully assent, sing along to her for any reason, but also copy her behaviour, enthusiastically accept the rules he proposes. Therefore, with good reason, we can confidently say that the entire so-called Western bloc, formed by the United States in its own image and likeness, all of it is the very 'empire of lies'. "
From Vladimir Putin's 'Empire of lies' speech, which I encourage everyone to read.
looking more and more like WEF are the pied piper leading us all to our doom
If Putin had parked some semis in Ottawa instead of invaded the poor downtrodden people of Ukraine, he'd have really had western governments spitting venom at him.
I can't wait until this is all over and they've "built back better". It's going to be so wonderful. Birds singing everywhere, clear skies, blue pristine lakes and rivers, wildlife frolicking all over. And no people. Utopia is going to be great! For someone.
You nailed it. Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, said famously “Environmentalists. Don’t. Like. People.” Which explains a lot of the harms lefties and pretend enviros are doing to Western Civilization. Russia and China are only half civilized, and they ignore such cr@p.
Don't forget the unicorn farts that will provide unlimited clean energy.
Oh, honey...you're only going to get blue skies and singing birds in the meta-verse.
All praise Zuckerberg
Another first class analysis of the situation Mr Bad Kitty.
I am inclined to the view that this is only peripherally about diverting attention away from failed domestic policies and agenda driven Covid response strategy. This is a useful fig leaf for politicians in the here and now. But I think it’s more likely ongoing cover for the bringing about of the NWO. Say hello to The Great Upset.
A series of mysterious mega-yachts sinking and private jets having engine failure on the runway would end this faster.
My country, America, is a failed state.
This isn’t serious foreign policy, it’s incompetence. Biden fueled the invasion with insulting platitudes and empty threats in place of incisive understanding of the seriousness of Russia’s historically based resolve to protect its territorial integrity. The Russian perception of America’s mocking attitude towards its concerns, and with no reasonable hope of resolution, led Putin to take a calculated risk and going all in. It looks like his strategic action will ultimately prove to be in Russia’s national interest. Ukraine is an indirect victim of a US foreign policy that is largely devoid of strategies based upon national interest. Actions and proclamations are guided by short term interests that are tactical at best, based upon a goal of leveraging global profit centers for an influential oligarchic class too cushioned by wealth to feel the reverberations of missles, bullets, and bombs.
Yeah, total ignorance of any sort of history - https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/ukraine - I'd post the whole thing but it's pretty long.
Putin has been consistent in his views on NATO expansion since the betrayal of promises since Clinton/Bush. His first major response was the annexation of Crimea where strategic naval and other military facilities are, and was greeted by the ‘angry freedom loving’ Crimeans, mostly Russian, by lining up for new medical benefits they previously never had, IIRC.
Last year another chess move was the initial ‘training’ deployment of (about 40K ?) military near the border, before the Biden/Putin summit. Putin read the room and figured quickly on Brandon (like 75M voters in November). Risk on, and I think now that the full plan was put into place right after that. He practically telegraphed his intensions in a 5000 word essay this past summer. For all to read including the Foggy Bottom sluggish morons. Putin is not a stupid brutish corruptocrat like our ruling class.
Good thing Hunter and Brandon cashed those Burisma (+others?) checks before this.
Spot on.
China is watching.
Taiwan will be next.
If you think the China supply chain is a problem, wait till they take Taiwan. We’d better be prepared to defend that one to the death, and we can be sure her own people won’t shy away from the task, either.
The Biden crime family is so compromised, re: China, that he will likely take only 5% .
I agree with you, but the Biden regime will not defend Taiwan.
The interventions that created and sustain the American Empire are a disaster on every front. It has caused, directly or indirectly, the deaths of millions and the displacement and impoverishment of countless more.
The fiscal and social policies associated with empire have transformed the US from a peaceful commercial powerhouse with the greatest wealth-creating economy in the world to an utterly corrupt kakistocracy where the elites, surrounded by their concentric circles of cronies and court "economists" and other experts, ruthlessly loot the populace at large whilst engaging in a perpetual propaganda campaign that somehow bamboozles most into accepting it.
They have bankrupted the US in every way: economically, socially, morally.
This is the end game of a century of progressivism. It was both predictable and predicted.
And it started with the first real progressive president, Woodrow "He Kept Us Out Of War" Wilson.
This is what the British Bulldog had to say about Wilson's catastrophe:
"America should have minded her own business and stayed out of the World War. If you hadn’t entered the war the Allies would have made peace with Germany in the Spring of 1917. Had we made peace then there would have been no collapse in Russia followed by Communism, no breakdown in Italy followed by Fascism, and Germany would not have signed the Versailles Treaty, which has enthroned Nazism in Germany. If America had stayed out of the war, all these `isms’ wouldn’t today be sweeping the continent of Europe and breaking down parliamentary government – and if England had made peace early in 1917, it would have saved over one million British, French, American, and other lives."
– Winston Churchill 1936 interview, the New York Enquirer
I don't know how, but there needs to be a drastic awakening and political realignment back to our founding principles if our nation is to survive.
Our current path is, as our leftist friends are so fond of saying, *unsustainable*.
The Western elite class never understands that the East is always in it for the long game. Please show me one Western country not led by an absolute moron at this moment in time. I really despise Putin and Xi but by God they are not stupid. You strike when your adversary is at his weakest, and if pronouns aren't the screaming signal on that...
I agree, Taiwan will be next. I look for it to happen sometime in the next year or so, and we will do nothing but say bad kitty, bad kitty. There is a writer online who calls himself "market ticker" who had a piece recently about the "or else" principle. Meaning all the protests, demonstrations, sanctions and the like are worthless without the ability to enforce what you want. Neither Russia nor China gives a Charles River Sprague-Dawley rat's ass about world opinion--China is not going to give up Tibet or Hong Kong or stop what it is doing to the Uyghurs just because some people are upset about it. Same with Ukraine. Unfortunately I think that those in charge are just dumb enough and suicidal enough to try to start WWIII and it will not go well for them this time.
Market Ticker is Karl Denninger, and the article you refer to is here: https://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=245258
Joe Biden has benefitted financially from being personally involved in Ukraine. It should be questioned by the press, but of course, the press is in the denial of reality business, not the reporting of it.
Maybe the whole Ukraine invasion and lead up to it is part of the Directors script. Sniffy gets his lines to bluster about an upcoming invasion of Ukraine. Sputum gets his lines and stage stage directions. Who benefits? It sure takes the spotlight away from the whole corona-vax-supression of early treatment fiasco. Sniffy's Directors benefit. Sputum's Directors benefit. Perhaps Sniffy's and Sputum's Directors are one and the same? Yes it's crazy conspiracy theory and far from definite or directly provable. There are however some circumstantial things so I'm open to the possibility that it may be this way.
We talk about the push towards globalization. I think that for the elite globalization has already happened and there are those who are resistant to it. For the Directors the concept of nation states is just window dressing. The mega monopolies are transnational. Their loyalty is to $$$$ and power.
The whole corona thing may have been a planned excercise to see how much being in synch nation states can be in. What percentage of a population resist? A sort of measurement of the Directors' power. Also helped to introduce the concept of digital ID across national boundaries. ID that might some day contain much more information. The Directors will learn from this experience. They will use what they have learned in the next act.
Biden's sharing intel w China should be an impeachable offense. His administration is run by a bunch of leftist Obama-leftovers.
Ever since it came to light, I've been saying that the Biden Burisma Bribes did NOT come from Ukraine, but were funneled THRU Ukraine, from Russia......
fake sanctions from a fake govt.
The Europeans cannot afford to anger Russia or their energy gets shut off. That extends to the US. If we do too much they shut off Europe’s energy. I am guessing that these sanctions were worked out between Europe and the US through Russian diplomats.
We could ignore the energy problems if we were willing to take the short, sharp, pain of increased costs while we ramp up our own production.
We need to replace our failed government first, though.
One person I know who is affected by sanctions is a pastor in Odessa. He and his church are sheltering many orphans & caring for many people. Their mother church is in Russia so they cannot acces their own charity funds because of the bank sanctions.
I'm not taking the US sanctions seriously until I see Nancy Pelosi publicly dumping all her Russian Vodka down the drain.
We will be lucky to live through this "Presidency."
White House asks Congress for $6.4 billion to aid Ukraine https://www.axios.com/ukraine-russia-biden-congress-aid-e9a0d218-4d5b-4d5e-9d34-5e7e3323aa62.html
Never waste a crisis and if no crisis available, create one. Let the thieving rage on and don’t forget, 10% for the “big guy!”
"the sanctions™ are starting to look an awful lot like the science™"
Same authors, same audience, same objective of portraying illusion as reality. It always brings to mind the old Washington adage, An ounce of facade is worth a pound of substance. Q.E.D.
the locus of Biden's corruption lies in Ukraine. And not only Biden's but many others in the foreign service. They are powerless because they have compromised themselves.
Taiwanese should start their exodus NOW!
They should be flying more patrols and turning all their income into arms purchases.
Rick DeSantis should get TSMC to build a semiconductor plant in Florida. That would be a good start. Prolly too late now though; that would take several years. But, better late than never; the IP can be exported almost immediately. Procurement and construction take a while longer.
Western media and politicians just lie ceaselessly even up to the point of denying reality. (See the "safe and effective" covid shots, e.g.)
How long until we go full Baghdad Bob in denying reality?
Dateline March 15, 2022
MSM: "There are no Russian troops in Kiev."
TASS: "Um, look at this at this picture. That's a Russian flag over city hall and those are our troops standing around in the street."
MSM: "No it isn't."
TASS: "Um, and here's a picture of our defense minister taking a tour around Kiev."
MSM: "No it isn't."
Etc.
Writing a Monty Python sketch are you?
"Just a flesh wound..."
A history lesson on how we got here provided by the late great journalist Robert Parry in 2015.
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/07/13/the-mess-that-nuland-made/?fbclid=IwAR0O-ja2ej6A3qX4no5_QWvZ0gWLrvtrt1qBKsi1hgzQ7O0RxQRktnasQGg
Wait! So you start a WAR and get 30 day warning that bank accounts will be frozen,
maybe . But, you start a non-violent protest against government over-reach and bank account is seized without any due process!!?? I'll leave ya'll with this... hear that... the sound of gas powered generators keeping the lights & heat on at homes throughout Germany. It's the future of self reliant energy in Deutschland.
Maybe if your country is president of the UN Security Council and you start a war with another member you should loose your title. Nah! That would be too radical for this feckless organization. Why are we still part of this joke of this group?
It would be hilarious for the western NWO if Russia invaded Ukraine, China invaded Taiwan, and right-wing Trump deplorables declared civil war, all at the same time. Brandon would crap in his diapers, and Space Cadet Kamala would go into a non-stop laughing fit.
To laser-focus and personally 'target' a powerful head of state, like Putin, with phony "sanctions," what you are really telling him, Russia, and anyone with two brain cells is that all diplomatic avenues are closed off to you and your nation with this "sanctioned" head of state. No commo possible.
Not a smart move. More like petulant playground pre-teen bullies we've all come across. "No! we won't ever talk with you! We'll hold our breath until we die!" (give it a try!)
Biden's handlers, our corrupt State Department, and the MIC again confirm their idiocy. Although I am not qualified to make medical or mental evaluations or judgments, seems to me these DC folks exhibit some kind of bizarre childhood behaviors--an inability to grow up to adulthood and perceive reality. Living in a dreamworld of their own making.
Or, as we Truck Driver's used to say of such deranged-thinking people: "They are breathing their own exhaust fumes!'
"If you really want to know just how hard someone can fight, don't give them any other options."
Seems to be forgotten nowadays.
They need to hire Trudeau and Freeland. They are much better at stealing money....happy to do it...and they just got their fingers smacked by their Masters at the WEF, so are looking for somewhere besides Canadian Banks to wreak havoc... be glad to loan them out permanently
It would be better to issue NO sanctions than what has been proffered here. An example of “better to remain silent and appear the fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” Our leaders should stop treating us like stupid children and explain the geopolitical realities. Of course, it’s possible our leaders don’t understand the geopolitical realities….
These are the “masks stop the virus” of sanctions. A sop for the rubes to comfort themselves so they can go back to sleep in their comfortable Facebook and Twitter dream time. It is the equivalent of buying a truckload of toilet paper to fight a pandemic.
Remember a million (or was it one) year ago the US was energy independent, and we could afford not to give a shit about Russian oil?
These motherfuckers put sanctions on their own people's individual freedoms and liberties for two years over curves and shots that don't work, they never had the backbone to flex the stick, fuck these clowns and their current distractions from their failures. Talk about Netflix and the board and the Ukraine president and the US politics with vested interest in Ukraine
By the way, Dementia Joe said in his moronic speech that the US will continue to buy Russian oil so we won’t see huge rises in gas prices.
as he dismantles our own energy production. it's bizarre as hell
Only if you don't see the WEF/NWO end game... read about what 'critical theory' is really about. First it must be completely and utterly destroyed, before we can build back better. As in a socialist workers' utopia.
And we know how well that works...
Biden needs a win and he can't get it at home because people see the reality in front of their faces. When it comes to Ukraine, the 'leaders' can lie all they want because we can't see what's really happening.
Get Woke, Go Broke
The simplest answer is usually the best answer
What do you think?
Did you forget Biden is President?
Biden is weak? No Biden is a CORRUPT psychopath.
Biden is on the take
Biden took $1.5 billion or a lot more from China
Biden left $85 billion in Afghanistan for who? The Taliban to give to China or who else? What is Biden’s kickback? Remember 10% for the ‘big guy’ but now the ‘big guy’ is president, surely he gets a hell of a lot more than 10%.
How much did Biden take from Russia?
How much will Biden get from Russia by shutting down US pipelines, shutting down the Israel-Cyrpus-Europe pipeline, ok’ing the Nordstream pipeline, not shutting down energy from Russia after Russia invaded Ukraine and not reopening US pipelines and guess what?
in addition to billions in kickbacks from Russia, Putin invades Ukraine with Biden’s full consent and that also serves as Biden’s payback to the Ukrainians for double crossing Biden and working with Trump and exposing their dealings of Biden, Kerry, Pelosi, Romney, Obama, Clinton and their children and cronies and every other dirty Democrat and RINO involved?
Putin is a WEF member, even though WEF took down his bio, Putin wants to implement Klaus Schwab’s fourth industrial Revolution. Putin could have gotten rid of Schwab and Soros any time he wanted and he hasn’t.
This is the simplest reason and the most likely reason of all.
Remember Zelensky made a point of publicly burning records on Day 1 - that’s exactly what Biden and his cabal wanted to see. They are making Zelensky beg for his life and his families’ life. Zelensky wouldn’t take the US offer to fly him out because the US would make sure he was killed in flight - very easy to arrange.
In the end all the worlds’ megalomaniacs get exactly what they want and Ukrainians are screwed just like all of the little people world wide are screwed by the Globalist WEF Kakistocracy.