Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Here is an unusual definition of the Real World as discussed at a top-level educational facility with a former Ambassador to Russia:
During the most recent iteration of the semi-annual Munk Debates, Harvard international affairs professor Stephen Walt highlighted that throughout 2021, the US was cheerleading for Ukraine to join NATO, despite Russia’s longstanding opposition to NATO expansion.
“In 2021 we kept reiterating that Ukraine was gonna join [NATO]. We kept saying that, over and over again,” Walt noted.
“Did you believe that?” asked Michael Anthony McFaul, who served as US ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014.
As the crowd erupted with laughter, Walt took things a step further and inquired whether this was common practice for diplomats like McFaul.
“So our diplomats are lying?” Walt asked.
“Yes. Yes! That’s the real world, guys! Come on,” McFaul said, waving his hands for emphasis. “That’s the real world.”
“Our diplomats are lying all the time, yet the Russians should trust them when they’re offered assurances,” Walt laid out, eliciting claps from the audience.
So. "The News" as such is not responsible for truth; they were legally absolved of this ca. 1999. This year on NBC, it was just openly stated that government officials use the channels to "say something", which frequently intentionally is not true. Here, it is openly admitted about top-level negotiations supposedly used to chart the course of the world.
I will drag this a little further and say that, at least in this part of the Anglosphere, such dishonest manipulation also goes on in "smaller places" or that "the people" do the same thing. Not all, fortunately. Perhaps it is this very backwards understanding of Real World that gives an easy ride to war and money powers.
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Quote:
Posted by
shaberon
“Our diplomats are lying all the time, yet the Russians should trust them when they’re offered assurances,” Walt laid out, eliciting claps from the audience.
Depending on the source, the average person lies every single day at least once and sometimes as many as a couple dozen times. This covers all lies. White lies, big lies, lies to protect people, lies like 'I'm fine.'
What these studies don't examine is the Professional Liars. By this I mean the lies outside of military conflict, or propaganda.
Possibly the worst liars in everyday life are the ones who think they know something, and the difference between those fooled or not.
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
If you can? please download the documentary by Oliver Stone made back in 2016 "Ukraine on fire".
I was happy to see the other day him interviewed on this podcast
2:54 - Nuclear power
15:52 - Russia and US relations
21:07 - JFK and the Cold War
26:24 - Interviewing Putin
50:02 - Invasion of Ukraine
59:20 - Why Putin invaded Ukraine
1:13:44 - Propaganda
1:21:02 - Interviewing Putin in 2022
1:28:17 - Nuclear war
1:34:28 - Advice on interviewing
1:38:09 - Interviewing Hitler
1:41:30 - Putin interview language barrier
1:42:41 - Love
1:44:36 - Advice to young people
1:47:42 - Mortality
1:48:44 - Regrets
1:50:41 - Meaning of life
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
https://twitter.com/TobiAyodele/stat...82591538155521
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
- ALL DEMOCRATS Vote To Send $40 Billion To Ukraine:
The Senate has voted overwhelmingly to approve $40 billion in military and associated aid to Ukraine in the ongoing war against Russia with every single Democrat voting in favor and only 11 Republicans opposed. Following universal support from House Democrats as well, this vote should conclusively put the lie to the notion that any anti-war progressives remain in either chamber as all Democrats appear to support writing multiple blank checks in support of endless war in Ukraine and endless taxpayer funds for weapons manufacturers.
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
In the above update video the Duran says the rumor about nato officials, generals and retired generals among the captured of Azovstal are not true.
But now this just in from the media
https://twitter.com/Ukraine66251776/...33091159642113
https://twitter.com/SNMilitary/statu...48116204699648
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Im tired to use this motto but never get old: " the west know nothing but escalation"
Major NATO War Games Set To Begin Miles From Russian Base
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will soon conduct large-scale exercises in the Baltics, with thousands of troops from more than a dozen nations set to take part in war games just 40 miles from the nearest Russian military base.
Dubbed "Hedgehog," the drills will kick off later this week in Estonia and run until June 3, meant to simulate a Russian invasion. They will involve 15,000 troops from 14 countries – including the United States, Britain, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Norway, as well as non-NATO members Ukraine, Georgia, Sweden and Finland.
According to Major General Veiko-Vello Palm, deputy commander of the Estonian Defence Forces, the exercise will take place just 40 miles from a Russian military base, a facility hosting Moscow’s 76th Guards Air Assault Division in the border city of Pskov.
The size of the war games – among the largest in the Baltics since the fall of the USSR – their proximity to the Russian border, and the inclusion of non-NATO states are likely to escalate tensions with Moscow. Though the exercises were planned before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, they will no doubt serve as an additional show of force as NATO members flood the Ukrainian battlefield with billions of dollars in weapons and gear.
The drills come as US lawmakers move ahead on a massive $40 billion aid package for Kiev, around half of which will be devoted to arms shipments. That bill follows more than $14 billion in aid already delivered or authorized by the US government.
The Hedgehog exercise will also overlap with two major NATO and allied military drills currently being held in the region, "Defender Europe" and "Swift Response," which together involve around 18,000 soldiers from 20 countries. A flurry of additional war games are planned for Germany, Finland, Poland and elsewhere in the coming months.
Major General Palm noted that Hedgehog would include more participants than originally planned due to the war in Ukraine, though declined to go into specifics about how many Ukrainian and Georgian troops would take part. "I would like not to go into details, but we are talking about a few people, not tens or hundreds of people," he said
It’s unclear if Finland or Sweden were initially meant to participate in the latest drills, but both countries recently applied for membership in the NATO bloc, citing security concerns stemming from Moscow’s attack on its neighbor.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...s-russian-base
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Quote:
Posted by
JackMcThorn
Quote:
Posted by
shaberon
“Our diplomats are lying all the time, yet the Russians should trust them when they’re offered assurances,” Walt laid out, eliciting claps from the audience.
Depending on the source, the average person lies every single day at least once and sometimes as many as a couple dozen times. This covers all lies. White lies, big lies, lies to protect people, lies like 'I'm fine.'
What these studies don't examine is the
Professional Liars. By this I mean the lies outside of military conflict, or propaganda.
Possibly the worst liars in everyday life are the ones who think they know something, and the difference between those fooled or not.
"The great thing about never lying is that you don’t have to remember anything.”
The day that I read this Mark Twain quote, my life changed.
Is it that simple? It is. Suddenly spirit, soul and body gain a lot of space to remember the things that are really worth remembering – or really need remembering.
Professional liars are broken jugs, the pieces of whom have not been fitted together again with kintsugi gold, but with bits of chewing gum spat out by people on the sidewalk.
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Just because of the large number evacuating Azovstal, there is or was a lingering trace:
MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. Six Ukrainain servicemen were killed on the territory of the Azovstal Plant in Mariupol when they tried to blow up their ammunition caches before surrendering, Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) leader Denis Pushilin told the Soloviev Live YouTube channel on Saturday.
"It is unclear who did this, no one is assuming responsibility, but after the main group walked out, <…> someone ordered to blow up ammunition caches. This was done in haste, and orders were unclear, so, as a result, six people died immediately, and, as far as I know, four were injured," he said.
According to Pushilin, an unknown number of Ukrainian servicemen could still be on the plant’s territory. In his words, they have a stock of food and water, but are short on medicines.
The DPR leader went on to say that "every room, every nook and cranny" of the plant are currently being thoroughly searched.
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Quote:
Posted by
Michel Leclerc
"The great thing about never lying is that you don’t have to remember anything.”
The day that I read this Mark Twain quote, my life changed.
Is it that simple? It is. Suddenly spirit, soul and body gain a lot of space to remember the things that are really worth remembering – or really need remembering.
It may not all be that simple, but, this is an important primary power. Having spent some time with Satan or the name of the enemy in this conflict, we have found it has more to do with a type of dishonesty that interrupts what would normally or naturally be endless love. Something violent but often with concealment or subterfuge.
Broadly speaking, the divine state is not where this is dispelled, but reversed.
In India, it is not exactly Satan, but as I said we have a "devil" from a term etymologicly and originally having to do with "flesh eater", but, colloquially, also has a different sense:
Piśāca (ಪಿಶಾಚ):—
1) [noun] a bodiless supernatural being, believed to possess or haunt a person, house, etc.; a ghost.
piśāca (पिशाच).—m (S) A devil or fiend, one of a class of malevolent beings. 2 The spirit of a deceased person which, having at death some unaccomplished wish, haunts the scenes of its mortal existence and afflicts people; a ghost, a goblin, a sprite.
or a commentary on Rg Veda I.133.5:
Piśācī = decay
So, rather than eating flesh, these are the succubi or nightmares or vampires, etc., consumers of vitality. In this view, the devil is the result of human will or is a type of undead psychic remains of a person.
More realistically, rather than those dramatic-sounding monsters, they or it is just a part of everyday ordinary consciousness. At any moment it could slip out of a person's control and madness breaks loose; but this same power reversed is a divine state. Here is a brief quote of a pisaca invocation:
Whatever fears may arise, every plague, pestilence, and pandemic, all
calamities and conflicts, and all personal anxieties affect only the foolish,
not the wise.
May truth, words of truth, and true speech send them away and dispel
them!
That is almost literal. Start sticking to the truth, as recommended, and the pisaca influence is going to become less interested in you, in fact it will be more attracted to someone else, because they are asking for it.
I think we would readily say that "the devil" could be any person, but, this does not have the sense of a Grand Cosmic Architect of Evil like, I think, Ahriman of Manichaeism is where this extreme view started. We do not agree with shifting responsibility about the origin of evil away from man himself.
Although there may be slight metaphysical variations, the main basic meaning seems to fit with what the Russians and Chechens call Satan that they are fighting. And so there is no reason in a fair multi-ethnic or multi-polar arrangement that those different faiths should clash with each other or with Buddhism, because there is a lot to say we are on the same side, versus what we collectively call dishonest.
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
OSCE satellite phone found on one of the Azovstal prisoners
https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/statu...30684804304896
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
A brief SitRep from The Saker's blog, published just a couple of hours ago.
Yes, it's ‘The Grind’
First, Brian Berletic does a fine job of describing the battlefield for us, without drowning it in detail. He makes a lot of sense and touches on those ‘wonderful M777 howitzers’, which, if we believe the Wurlitzer Media, are making a decisive difference. Well, they are not.
A summary of Berletic’s update for Russian military operations in Ukraine for May 21, 2022:
- Ukrainian militants in the Azovstal steel works have unconditionally surrendered numbering between hundreds (current Red Cross count) to thousands according to Russian sources;
- Mariupol has been secured by Russia since mid to late-April – Ukraine finally admits however that its “combat operations” have fully ended;
- Russia continues to make progress in the Donbas region – Ukrainian forces are being encircled in Severodonestsk and Lysychansk – the salient around Papasnya is expanding both west and north as part of this major encirclement;
- Pentagon admits Russia still poses the majority of its combat power – possess a “numerical advantage” over Ukraine – and is making “slow, uneven” progress, but progress nonetheless;
- Kharkov “offensive” has either stalled or is in the process of being rolled back;
- US M777 howitzers have been found, tracked, targeted, and destroyed by Russian forces;
- Additional attempts to send heavy weapons will face similar technical, tactical, strategic, and manpower challenges;
https://odysee.com/russian-ops-in-uk...a17b178aa4efee
While ‘The Grind’ continues, take a look at Brian’s update in order to fully understand the shape of the battlefield according to Readovka’s short machine translated report:
Kharkiv Front. Medium-intensity fights. The collision occurs in the area of the village of Liptsy and Rubezhnoye.
The Izyum front. One of the most stressful areas. Serious battles are taking place near Kurulka, Velikaya Kamyshevakha, and Dolgenky. The military is heading for the encirclement of the Krasnolimansk group. The front is leaning towards Slavyansk.
Luhansk front. The offensive of groups of fighters continues in several directions from Popasna, the main one of which is now Severodonetsk. Thanks to the destruction of the automobile bridge between Lisichansk and Severodonetsk, the situation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the latter is becoming increasingly difficult. Fighters go to Vozdvizhenka, threatening to cut the route “Artemovsk-Svetlodarsk”, fight in Pilipchatino, directly on the way to Artemovsk. An active clash near the Soledar-Lisichansk highway, a cauldron is being erected for the Gorsky and Zolotoye grouping, battles in Viktorovka, Kamyshevakha, on the approaches to Vrubovka, Toshkovka.
Donetsk front. Heavy fighting continues at Novobakhmutovka and Novoselovka-Vtoroi, as well as near New York. In the area of Marinka and Ugledar, there are no changes yet.
In Russia. They were applied on the villages of the Kursk border area-Tetkino and Popovo-Lezhachi, as reported by the governor of Starovoit. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also shelled Gorlovka, hitting the surrounding villages of Panteleimonovka and Aksenovka. Over Ilovaisk, where a large train with humanitarian aid arrived, was shot down of “Tochka-U”, two women were injured.
What is heartwarming is Graham Philips with a short video essay of Mariupol coming back to life. However, the area was extensively mined, and currently de-mining is underway by the DNR / Russia side, before any journalistic access is permitted.
https://t.me/grahamwphillips/168
The size of the Russian Aid to liberated areas is massive. The Donbass Aid Train arrived in Ilovaisk. It was formed on the initiative of the All-Russian People’s Front and Russian Railways. It departed from Moscow, consisted of 68 wagons, of which 27 were intended for the LPR, and 41 for the liberated territories of the DPR. This is more than 2,400 tons of humanitarian cargo: food, personal hygiene products, medicines, flour, stationery, building materials and equipment, generators.
Zelensky babbled on about ‘diplomatic solutions’ but he changes daily, as Lavrov says, depending on what he had to drink or what he smoked.
Remember the Russian Pain Dial? We’re seeing it being notched up slowly. Russia bans 963 Americans. Is this tit for tat? Not really: it is anything you can do we can triple up on! The political and diplomatic landscape is heating up and in this next week we will see some of that being reported on. Major new reveals came in this past week on the biolabs issue. Pepe Escobar weighs in via his Telegram channel. (But note: this is private, and one needs to be a member to view it.)
https://t.me/c/1394010098/3649
The big news is more tests of Sarmat.
“…today, they say that air defense does not exist for the Sarmat missile system, and it probably will not exist in the coming decades,” Commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, Col. Gen. Sergei Karakaev, says.
Be careful with the Ukraine propaganda. It is everywhere.
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Interesting article from Pippa Malmgren, a former Special Assistant to the President of the United States, George W. Bush, for Economic Policy on the National Economic Council. Also a former member of the U.S. President's Working Group on Financial Markets and The President's Working Group on Corporate Governance. She emphasises the important fact that not all the action is in Ukraine
War/Where: The Suwalki Gap (Part 2)
Quote:
what if Ukraine is a decoy designed to distract attention? Or, what if Ukraine is only one piece of a much larger puzzle? What if the most plausible place for conflict is not Ukraine but a little 64 mile stretch of land between Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave and Belarus? That strip is known as the Suwalki Gap. It has long been considered by NATO as the most vulnerable physical spot in Europe. It’s not yet in the news but it’s about to be if only we can let go of the myopic tendency to view Ukraine as the only important geostrategic location at the moment.
Did you also know, for example that
Quote:
Events only militaries know about culminated in the cutting of the fibreoptic internet cable in Svalbard, Norway on January 7th, 2021. This double cable is one of the fastest internet cables in the world. It is said that many (if not most) commercial and military satellites less than 500 miles high depend on these cables and SvalSat (Svalbard Satellite Station), to both download and upload critical information.
Quote:
Is SvalSat really just for observing climate change? Or is it that one of the fastest internet connections in the world is an essential strategic asset that allows NATO to observe what’s going on in Russia both from space and from below the ocean surface? One cable is now missing a mile-long stretch. The other cable is operational but there is no redundancy now. The new British Chief of Defence Staff said this cable cut could be considered “an act of war”.
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/stat...68530378821633
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
Quote:
Posted by
happyuk
Interesting article from Pippa Malmgren, a former Special Assistant to the President of the United States, George W. Bush, for Economic Policy on the National Economic Council. Also a former member of the U.S. President's Working Group on Financial Markets and The President's Working Group on Corporate Governance. She emphasises the important fact that not all the action is in Ukraine
That's a very interesting article indeed, though from a European perspective I am sceptical about Russian designs on Sweden on the basis of an 18th century ruler of Russia's empire (my emphasis):
Quote:
What’s going on in the Baltic? One answer is that Russia has designs on the Baltic countries. We mustn’t forget that Russia once controlled this territory under Peter the Great. Putin is said not to hanker for the restoration of the Soviet Union but for the restoration of the Russian Empire under Peter The Great. Russia and Sweden were at war a number of times between the 12th and the 19th centuries.
Just a minor niggle, the account of recent tensions is interesting.
