Tag Archives: Ukraine

Biden Ukraine ‘Dealings’ Back In Spotlight: NYT Sues For Emails; Memo Accuses Hunter Of ‘Undercutting’ Corruption Fight, by Tyler Durden

Posted on February 3, 2022 | Leave a comment

The Biden family dealings in Ukraine can only be termed rank corruption. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

As the 2020 election drew to a crescendo, bombshell reports of Biden family corruption were deemed verboten misinformation. 

Both legacy, and social media, refused to cover credible reports of Joe and Hunter Biden’s involvement in everything from CCP-linked Chinese energy companies (10 for the big guy!), to footage of the now-president bragging about withholding $1 billion in a quid-pro-quo with Ukraine unless they fired their chief prosecutor, Victor Shokin.

Which brings us to the first order of business – that a key component of Democrats’ impeachment thesis against President Trump was just debunked.

Shokin, as it were, was investigating Ukrainian energy giant Burisma – which had hired Hunter Biden to the tune of $80,000 per month to sit on its board and act as a middle man between the company and DC lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies.

In January, 2019, Shokin stated that there were five criminal cases against Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevesky, including money laundering, corruption, illegal funds transfers, and profiteering through shell corporations while he was a sitting minister.

Yet, *poof* – Shokin is fired. When the story entered the 2020 US election, Democrats insisted that Shokin was corrupt – and that “The firing of Shokin was universally urged by Ukraine’s benefactors,” as the Washington Post‘s Glenn Kessler dutifully reported three weeks before the 2020 US election.

Shokin’s alleged corruption – for which there was zero evidence – was a key aspect of Democrats’ impeachment argument against former President Donald Trump – who had asked Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden’s dealings. Shokin’s successor, Yiuri Lutsenko, said in a January 2019 deposition that Shokin is ‘honest.”

Yet during Trump’s impeachment, Democrats perpetuated claims that Shokin was corrupt, that his removal was justified, and then-Vice President Biden was simply carrying out official US policy.

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Doug Casey on the Likelihood of a Military Conflict Over Ukraine…

Posted on February 3, 2022 | Leave a comment

Doug Casey thinks the likelihood is low. American politicians are stupid, but not that stupid. From Casey at internationalman.com:

International Man: Recently, the Biden administration threatened Russia over Ukraine.

What’s really going on? Is the US government toying with the prospect of war with Russia over Ukraine?

Doug Casey: Over thousands of years of history, governments have always threatened each other with war. It’s a good part of what they do to justify their existence, and it’s been said, correctly, that war is the health of the state. Nothing has changed in that regard.

The main reason that the US government is beating the war drums is that war has always been a distraction from domestic problems. Create a foreign enemy on whom to blame domestic problems, and it will reliably divert the news cycle from things you don’t want the hoi polloi to hear or talk about. A real or fabricated foreign enemy unites the public. The further the economy and the society deteriorate, the more war-mongering we’ll hear from Washington.

It’s especially perverse in that anything that happens between Russia and Ukraine is of zero relevance to the US. Ukraine is a backwater. It’s as illogical for the US to stick its nose into that hornet’s nest as to get involved in any of dozens of African revolts, coups, and border wars. I’m surprised the Jacobins in the Biden administration haven’t, for instance, gotten involved in Ethiopia’s ongoing civil war too. Most people are completely unaware of it—which is actually a good thing in the current environment.

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Ukraine: Another Biden Débâcle? By Alastair Crooke

Posted on February 2, 2022 | Leave a comment

It is indeed a debacle when what you’re threatening as a punishment will hurt you and your allies far more than it will hurt your opponent. From Alastair Crooke at strategic-culture.org:

Are we past ‘peak frenzy’? Quite possibly, but it will subside only slowly. It is too good a diversion from other difficulties.

The sheer size and scope of the western information operations – insisting repeatedly on the imminence of a Russian invasion of Ukraine – has almost dwarfed the western effort mounted in the lead up to the second invasion of Iraq. This latest info-war has been qualitatively different from that earlier episode however, in the way in which supposed intelligence titbits were constantly fed to the press in order to stiffen the narrative spine with a direct sense of being at the very cusp of war.

By last weekend, the U.S. mainstream was indeed in a war frenzy, and it seemed that the narrative was gaining a momentum and energy of its own – moving beyond Washington’s control and picking up support from across the U.S. bi-partisan spectrum.

A sense of this was given by White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, referring to the Ukrainian borders as ‘sacred’ – evoking the 6 January language of viewing the transgression of protestors across the boundaries of the Capitol Building as being an assault on something ‘sacred’ to democracy.

By this week however, the lacunae inherent to the U.S. narrative were obvious: Biden, in his 7 December virtual summit with Putin, had threatened a ‘sanctions Armageddon’ for Russia. But those sanctions were not Biden’s to unilaterally wield (ultimately, they would have to be European sanctions).

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How NATO Empire-Building Set the Stage for Crisis Over Ukraine, by Brian McGlinchey

Posted on February 2, 2022 | Leave a comment

NATO empire-building is, of course, American empire-building. From Brian McGlinchey at starkrealities.substack.com:

Since the Cold War’s end, “NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence”

In his farewell address, George Washington said, “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”

What an offensive notion to Pentagon generals, weapon industry execs, DC think tankers and State Department bureaucrats, who, rather than avoiding permanent alliances, have been relentless in their quest to pile on new ones.

That impulse is vividly exemplified by the dangerously provocative post-Cold War expansion of NATO, and its consequences are apparent in today’s Ukraine-centered tensions with Russia.

NATO was created to oppose a Soviet empire that no longer exists. Had American presidents followed Washington’s sage counsel, they’d have spearheaded the dismantling of NATO upon the end of the Cold War. Instead, with America’s encouragement, NATO has nearly doubled its membership—from 16 countries when the Berlin Wall fell to 30 today.

With each new member, the U.S. government and American service members are tied to another far-off tripwire: Under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, an attack on any member country compels other treaty members to come to its aid. It’s the epitome of what Thomas Jefferson called an “entangling alliance.”

While the growth in the number of NATO countries and U.S. war commitments is unsettling, it’s the direction that’s been most troublesome: NATO expansion has marched the alliance relentlessly eastward, right up to Russia’s border.

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NATO — Strategic Asset or Liability? By Patrick J. Buchanan

Posted on February 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

NATO has morphed from a defensive alliance to a prop for the U.S. government imperial ambitions. From Patrick J. Buchanan at buchanan.org:

Is the territorial integrity of Ukraine a cause worth America’s fighting a war with Russia?

No, it is not. And this is why President Joe Biden has declared that the U.S. will not become militarily involved should Russia invade Ukraine.

Biden is saying that, no matter our sentiments, our vital interests dictate staying out of a Russia-Ukraine war.

But why then does Secretary of State Antony Blinken continue to insist there is an “open door” for Ukraine to NATO membership — when that would require us to do what U.S. vital interests dictate we not do: fight a war with Russia for Ukraine?

NATO’s “open door policy” is based on Article 10, which declares that NATO members, “may, by unanimous agreement, invite any other European State … to accede to this Treaty.”

Moreover, membership is open to “any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area.”

Note that NATO admission requires “unanimous” consent of all 30 present members.

Blinken has often stated this as U.S. policy: “From our perspective, NATO’s door is open and remains open, and that is our commitment.”

What Blinken is saying is this: While America will not fight for Ukraine today, America remains open to Ukraine’s accession to NATO, in which event we would have to fight for Ukraine tomorrow, were it attacked by Russia.

What the U.S. needs to do is to say with clarity that while Ukraine is free to apply to NATO, NATO is free to veto that application, and the enlargement of NATO beyond its present eastern frontiers is over, done.

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Checkmate in Ukraine, by Scott Ritter

Posted on January 31, 2022 | Leave a comment

Scott Ritter is one of the few American commentators who appears to understand Putin and appreciates his tactical skills. From Ritter at consortiumnews.com:

Seen in retrospect, Russia’s demand for a written response was a trap, one neither the U.S. nor NATO yet recognizes, writes Scott Ritter.

Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. (UN Photo/Cia Pak)

Back in December, Russia sent the U.S. and NATO two draft treaty documents spelling out its demands for security guarantees related to NATO’s posture in Eastern Europe. These demands came in a climate of tension fueled by both a Russian military buildup bordering Ukraine, and U.S. and NATO hysteria over what they deemed an imminent Russian military incursion into Ukraine.

The written replies that arrived on Jan. 22 failed — as expected — to address any of Russia’s concerns, including the red line of continued NATO expansion. Rather, the U.S. and NATO listed alternative pathways to diplomatic engagement, including arms control and limits on military exercises, and they now couch the ongoing crisis as a choice between accepting the diplomatic offramp they dictated, or war.

Russia, however, is far too sophisticated to allow itself to be boxed into such a corner. In the weeks and months ahead, Russia will be the one dictating the outcome of this crisis — which will be a resounding Russian victory.

The Russian buildup in its western and southern military districts, as well as in Belarus, has two purposes. The secondary goal is to demonstrate Russia’s ability, at a time and place of its choosing, to project sufficient military power into Ukraine to overwhelming defeat the Ukrainian armed forces and bring down its government.

To be clear, Russia has threatened neither of these outcomes. It maintains that the military buildup is simply an exercise designed to ensure it can respond to NATO’s aggressive expansion of forces along its western flank. It traces the confrontation to NATO’s “original sin” of expansion.

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The Globalist Reset Agenda Has Failed – Is Ukraine Plan B? By Brandon Smith

Posted on January 31, 2022 | Leave a comment

Brandon Smith reiterates a point SLL has made repeatedly: our presumptuous rulers are nowhere near as bright as they like to think. From Smith at alt-market.us:

There are people in the liberty movement that attribute FAR too much intelligence to the global power elites, to the point that they seem to think the globalists are always planning “ten steps ahead.” The funny thing about planning ten steps ahead though is that if anything goes wrong with steps 1-9 then getting to step number 10 will be impossible and you just wasted a whole lot of energy on an elaborate plan that ended up going nowhere. The globalists are NOT the smartest people around; not even close. They aren’t even all that effective when their plans actually function and there are no surprises. Their ideas fail constantly.

There is only one reason that centralizing criminals have not been brought down, and that is because no one has ever targeted them directly. Every time there is a governmental shake up or rebellion or mass movement for change people target “the system”; they blame the system for all our problems (or they blame a handful of political puppets) and they seek to add a fresh coat of paint or change some of its basic functions, but the men behind the curtain always end up back behind the curtain. The problem is never “the system”, it’s the people running and influencing the system while enjoying the comfort of the shadows.

Here is how the globalists seem to operate the best that I can tell – They aim a fist full of darts at a board and throw as hard as they can and whatever sticks is what sticks. When a plan does stick, well the globalists appear to be brilliant, don’t they? In reality they were just throwing around schemes blindfolded and half of those schemes landed in the gutter. The problem is that while the globalists are fumbling around in the dark searching for a plan that works they can do a lot of damage and draw a lot of attention.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Eurasian Axis, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Medicine, Military, Politics, Propaganda, Tyranny, War

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Update on the Ukrainian Front, by Paul Craig Roberts

Posted on January 30, 2022 | Leave a comment

Paul Craig Roberts thinks Putin has won. From Roberts at paulcraigroberts.org:

It is over. Putin has won.

Victoria Nuland, the neoconservative war monger appointed Undersecretary of State by the White House fool, announced Washington’s surrender when she called on China to use its influence with Russia to save Ukraine from invasion. She thus acknowledges what everyone had already concluded: the US and NATO lack the capability.

Washington’s surrender followed the request of the Ukrainian president that Washington stop the “Russian invasion” propaganda as there were no signs of an invasion being prepared and Washington’s rhetoric was too provocative. Germany refused flyover permission to the UK for arms deliveries to Ukraine. Two NATO members announced that they would not send troops if NATO got involved in Ukraine. Washington saw the writing on the wall.

Most countries saw Washington’s refusal to agree to the Russian mutual security proposal as unreasonable and dangerous. Moreover, Washington’s strategy of arming and training the Ukrainians and provoking them into a major attack on the Donbass Russians has failed. Ukraine knows that Russia will not permit any significant damage to Donbass. Moreover, Ukrainians are unsure they could even defeat the Donbass army, which is probably armed with the new Russian high impact weapons. Ukraine understands that Russia can wipe out its forces with conventional missiles without sending troops across the border. The Ukrainians also know that no one will be coming to their aid. The Pentagon itself announced that no US troops will be sent to Ukraine.

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Panic and chaos is clearly setting in as the West fears peace above all else, by The Saker

Posted on January 29, 2022 | Leave a comment

What would happen if peace broke out and defense contractors had to find a way to earn an honest dollar? From The Saker at thesaker.is:

Fun headlines for CNN:

What??  Is that really CNN?

It is.

Furthermore, there are reports that Biden and Ze had a stormy telephone conversation which saw a furious Biden telling Ze that the invasion would happen.  Apparently, Ze disagreed.

So what is going on here????

Bernard at Moon of Alabama things that “Washington Will Soon Dump Ukraine’s President Zelensky“.

I concur.  In fact, I think that the US is basically dumping country 404 aka Banderastan, and as I explained here and here in some details, there is only one thing Uncle Shmuel wants from Ze and the Ukraine: for them to force Russia to intervene, either by a suicidal attack on the LDNR or by means of a false flag, or by some kind of atrocity.

A real nightmare for the AngloZionists is taking shape.  Here are its components:

  • In spite of all the external (and even INTERNAL!) pressures, the Kremlin does not want to invade the Ukraine at all.  There are exactly ZERO signs that an attack is imminent or even planned.
  • In case of a Ukie attack on the LDNR there is a very real possibility that Russia will not openly intervene, I explained it all in detail here.
  • The US PSYOP about Putin being weak, indecisive or a puppet of the USA/Israel (I explained the nature, function and purpose of this CIA PSYOP in details here) is falling apart, not only was the ultimatum very much an ultimatum, but the Russians are backing it with things like these.

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The West Leaves Mummy’s Basement, by Patrick Armstrong

Posted on January 29, 2022 | Leave a comment

We’ll see what kind of price the West pays for ignoring Putin’s demands. Assuredly, there will be a price to pay. From Patrick Armstrong at unz.com:

After years of behaving like a teenager shadow boxing in the basement of his mother’s house, playing out the fantasy of knocking out Ivan Drago in the 1985 movie Rocky IV, the US and NATO find themselves confronting the reality.

– SCOTT RITTER

Being a member of NATO used to be pretty cost-free: fun even. You had a suite in the flashy new HQ, admired your flag with all the others, gloried in your excellent values. The biggest downside was that you were expected to provide a few soldiers to participate in the latest war in some dusty place. But, you could go home after destroying Libya or Iraq or Afghanistan and forget about it. Until the refugees showed up. And Washington really did insist that you buy some of its weapons and it was harder and harder to say no. And you started getting sucked into things that weren’t as much fun as you expected. But, overall, for the leaders anyway, it was an attractive deal. And most of you didn’t like Russia much, having edited your own communists out of the story and forgotten what the Germans did to you.

Russia was feeble and weak, going down, and certainly no match for “the greatest alliance in history“. But what happens when that teddy bear turns nasty? Blowing up countries from 20,000 feet, you had stopped paying attention. Lost wars in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq turn out to be poor preparation and the bear had been paying attention. But, you cry, NATO was supposed to protect me, not put me into greater danger!

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