UPDATED: Leaked stories from the Pentagon have exposed how mainstream media reports Russia’s conduct in the Ukraine war, in a bid to counter propaganda intended to get NATO into the conflict, writes Joe Lauria.
The Pentagon. (Joe Lauria)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
The Pentagon has been engaged in a consequential battle with the U.S. State Department and the Congress to prevent a direct military confrontation with Russia, which could unleash the most unimaginable horror of war.
President Joe Biden is caught in the middle of the fray. So far he is siding with the Defense Department, saying there cannot be any kind of NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine fighting Russian aircraft because “that’s called World War III, okay? Let’s get it straight here, guys. We will not fight the third world war in Ukraine.”
“President Biden’s been clear that U.S. troops won’t fight Russia in Ukraine, and if you establish a no-fly zone, certainly in order to enforce that no-fly zone, you’ll have to engage Russian aircraft. And again, that would put us at war with Russia,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier this month. (The administration plan is to bring down the Russian government through a ground insurgency and economic war, not a direct military one.)
But pressure on the White House from some members of Congress and especially the press corps is unrelenting to recklessly bring NATO directly into the war. Secretary of State Antony Blinken who initially said NATO had given a “green light” to send planes from Poland to Ukraine had to back down and now opposes any no-fly zone involving NATO. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also supported the Polish planes scheme, which was shot down by the Pentagon because it “could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO,” according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, hailed as a virtual superhero in Western media, has vacillated between openness to negotiating a peace settlement with Russia and calling for NATO, again on Friday, to “close the skies” above Ukraine. To save his country he appears willing to risk endangering the entire world.
Meanwhile, Western corporate media, depending almost exclusively on Ukrainian sources, report that Russia is losing the war, with its military offensive “stalled,” and in frustration has deliberately targeted civilians and flattened cities.
Biden has bought into this part of the story, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.” He has also said that Russia is planning a “false flag” chemical attack to pin on Ukraine.
But on Tuesday, the Pentagon took the bold step of leaking two stories to reporters that contradict those tales. “Russia’s conduct in the brutal war tells a different story than the widely accepted view that Vladimir Putin is intent on demolishing Ukraine and inflicting maximum civilian damage—and it reveals the Russian leader’s strategic balancing act,” reported Newsweek in an article entitled, “Putin’s Bombers Could Devastate Ukraine But He’s Holding Back. Here’s Why.”
The piece quotes an unnamed analyst at the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) saying, “The heart of Kyiv has barely been touched. And almost all of the long-range strikes have been aimed at military targets.”
A retired U.S. Air Force officer now working as an analyst for a Pentagon contractor, added: “We need to understand Russia’s actual conduct. If we merely convince ourselves that Russia is bombing indiscriminately, or [that] it is failing to inflict more harm because its personnel are not up to the task or because it is technically inept, then we are not seeing the real conflict.”
The article says:
“As of the past weekend, in 24 days of conflict, Russia has flown some 1,400 strike sorties and delivered almost 1,000 missiles (by contrast, the United States flew more sorties and delivered more weapons in the first day of the 2003 Iraq war). …
A proportion of those strikes have damaged and destroyed civilian structures and killed and injured innocent civilians, but the level of death and destruction is low compared to Russia’s capacity.
‘I know it’s hard … to swallow that the carnage and destruction could be much worse than it is,’ says the DIA analyst. ‘But that’s what the facts show. This suggests to me, at least, that Putin is not intentionally attacking civilians, that perhaps he is mindful that he needs to limit damage in order to leave an out for negotiations.'”
A second retired U.S. Air Force officer says:
“I’m frustrated by the current narrative—that Russia is intentionally targeting civilians, that it is demolishing cities, and that Putin doesn’t care. Such a distorted view stands in the way of finding an end before true disaster hits or the war spreads to the rest of Europe. I know that the news keeps repeating that Putin is targeting civilians, but there is no evidence that Russia is intentionally doing so. In fact, I’d say that Russian could be killing thousands more civilians if it wanted to.”
These Pentagon sources confirm what Putin and the Russian Ministry of Defense have been saying all along: that instead of being “stalled,” Russia is executing a methodical war plan to encircle cities, opening humanitarian corridors for civilians, leaving civilian infrastructure like water, electricity, telephony and internet intact, and trying to avoid as many civilian casualties as possible.
Until these Pentagon leaks it was difficult to confirm that Russia was entirely telling the truth and that corporate media were publishing fables cooked up by Ukraine’s publicity machine.
No Evidence of Chemicals
The Pentagon’s mettle will be tested if there is a chemical weapons attack in Ukraine. Biden has said Russia would pay a “severe price” but who the perpetrator would be might be murky. Whoever might be behind such an attack, the calls for direct military action are sure to increase in the U.S. media, the Congress and perhaps internally at the State Dept.
The second mainstream article directly undermines Biden’s dramatic warning. Reuters reported: “The United States has not yet seen any concrete indications of an imminent Russian chemical or biological weapons attack in Ukraine but is closely monitoring streams of intelligence for them, a senior U.S. defense official said.”
It quoted the Pentagon official as saying, “There’s no indication that there’s something imminent in that regard right now.” Neither The New York Times nor The Washington Post published the Reuters article, which appeared in the more obscure U.S. News and World Report.
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story — even if it could lead to the most devastating consequences in history.
UPDATED to add details of Blinken and Pelosi’s support for NATO jets from Poland entering the war and the Pentagon’s move to stop it; additional quotes from a second retired Air Force officer in the Newsweek story and the challenge to the Pentagon to keep NATO out of the war if there is a chemical weapons attack.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @unjoe
Thank you again Consortium News for what you do. Excellent work.
It would be entirely against Russia’s interests to use chemical or bio weapons and if they were used we can be rest assured it is a false flag operation by those wanting to escalate the war.
I never thought I would find my self saying this but it is very reassuring the Pentagon is the voice for sanity in this situation.
I suspect that both sides in this conflict realize that nuclear weapons are off the table and cannot be used. As George Keenan pointed out they are useless as weapons and can only exist as deterrents.
Dumbass NATO politicians are very culpable for this war and they cannot be left unaccountable. Like Afghanistan, NATO just stumbles from one disaster to another.
From the outset Russia advised that this was a “soft war” for them – liberating Ukraine with minimal loss of life and property.
If only Zelensky would quit his juvenile playing to the audience ( as former comedians are prone to do) and sign an agreement, peace would prevail.
Biden’s is again another American cowboy like many previous US Presidents that are affected more by Hollywood fantasies than by reality.
Biden’s looking for WW3 and he is going to get it to declare the end of the US Empire shorter lived than the Roman Empire and not leaving any civilisation to follow up.
Putin compared to the American arrogance he is so far demonstrating restrain and well calculated progress.
He prefers to wait and wear out Ukraine running out of everything than do it the American way, carpet bombing and mass killing with 2 A-Bombs on Japanese civilians
That were premeditated war crimes beyond human common sense and empathy.
So,some mainstream media are proving that they’re no longer practicing real journalism of informing and educating the public but peddling propaganda, lying to the public and pushing others’ interests (whoever they may be) while pretending they’re reporting news? Thank GOD there are still people in the U.S in this case,the military, who’ve decided to take unusual step to clarify the situation. In such moments,it is calming to learn that not all hope is lost for a stable and peaceful world. Thank you so much to Consortium News for keeping us updated.
I wonder where this would go if Kamala had to take over tomorrow.
Once again, our generals must restrain the foolishness of our civilian leaders! :-(
Avery important Newsweek article and an unusual one in light of what is going on. There is a definitive split in ruling circles for Newsweek is also a corporate bulletin. But it is a must read.
It is hard to tell what sector of the ruling elite is running the demented Biden story,certainly true but now the chorus has risen in volume, but it must be the CIA.
I sit here(the netherlands, europe),translating your article, to send around, which made me happy for all the time there were hardly people I could talk to. Most do believe Ukraine and mainstream media and, as far as I know, we don’t
have a CN or any like that. I stopped listening so CN is my only life line….I now allowed myself to switch on the radio…….
and that has not changed at all. still only propaganda talks which makes me think that no one has got any
knowledge since the beginning of this circus. Still I’m not without worries about usa, too. The brutality:
“away with Putin” – “Regime Change through economic war” – Europe a trofee for the USA is ligitemate?
When does Europe wake up or ….. The radio just announced a bombing at a petrol station(they guess),its near the
Polish border…….Biden is visiting nearby today and mentions democracy and freedom…Nobody smells the rat, the Russians did it, again, still, they are adement. thanks CN.
Here is a very scary analysis by Mike Whitney that I spotted today:
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/nato-wants-a-ground-war-in-ukraine/
NATO Wants a Ground-War in Ukraine
Mike Whitney • March 24, 2022
“Perhaps, you wondered why the NY Times suddenly decided to ‘come clean’ on the Hunter Biden laptop story? You probably know that it’s not because the Times editors had a change-of-heart and wanted to inform the public or “speak truth to power”. Of course, not. The Times trotted out the laptop dossier to let Biden know that they “got him by the shorthairs” and if he doesn’t play ball, he’s toast.
Blackmail? Would the neocons really blackmail the President of the United States in order to escalate in Ukraine?
You bet, they would.
The neocons have their heart-set on a land-war war in Europe, and from the looks of things, they might just get one.”
I have long hated and despised these neocons, from the first moment they wormed their way up to the upper echelons of power and influence in the US Government and began to be exposed by the alternative, America First online media. These neocons are mentally insane psychopaths and in a sane world, they would all be rounded up and tried as war criminals, swiftly convicted and then summarily executed. The death, destruction and misery that these psychopaths have foisted on the world with all of their endless unprovoked wars is almost unbelievable. And, yes, I agree with Whitney. These evil creeps would not hesitate to blackmail Pedo Joe into launching a direct face to face war with Russia.
And, what’s even scarier is how much these RINO rats in the GOP Establishment are screaming to start WW3 with Russia. I think they see this Russia-Ukraine conflict – as a means to destroy the America First, non-interventionist, Nationalist and populist movement that rose to prominence within the angry red state voters who voted twice for Trump because he at least tried to keep the neocons from lying us into more endless foreign wars.
I wish people would ask themselves *why* the Russians would ever want to kill civilians. If they think the answer is,”because they enjoy killing them,” then they have to ask why the Russians don’t kill ten times as many, which they could easily do. If the Russians are merely callous, and not crazy, they would avoid civilian casualties as much as they could.
Going back into history, I went looking for the backstory to Madeleine Albright’s infamous comment about “we think the price was worth it” (in reference to civilian fatalities in Iraq in the 1990’s). I’m still looking for an article specific to the sanctioning
of repair parts and treatment chemicals for the water supply plants that we bombed in ‘Gulf War 1’ (which has literally been erased from US history), but I did find this extremely chilling article published in that most extreme of fringe conspiracy journals, the New England Journal of Medicine, shortly after our ‘successful’ 6-week war :
hxxps://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199109263251330
Clearly the US was both callous and crazy. But Bush the Elder got to lie in state and Bush the Lesser is enjoying his cushy retirement on his ranch with occasional showings of his Gulf War 2 (also disappearing down the memory hole) veteran’s
portraits (although no pictures of the scenery or indigenous inhabitants).
So….it’s safe to cancel my order for a case of potassium iodide?
????
Regarding: “The heart of Kyiv has barely been touched. And almost all of the long-range strikes have been aimed at military targets.” The question I have is, what about short-range artillery strikes. Does this statement imply that Russia is firing artillery into civilian areas, presumably to hit Ukrainian forces embedded in those areas, firing out of theaters, schools, hospitals, etc?
Also, Eric Draitser on Counterpunch, who seems to have a libertarian analysis, makes a convincing argument that the war is stalemated. He relies heavily on the analysis of the Center for the Study of War, which turns out to be a neoconservative think tank funded by military contractors and deeply involved in advocating a more aggressive U.S. military policy in the Mid East. Joe Lieberman is on the board of directors. Thus, the analysis is suspect, perhaps the Institute’s “wishful thinking” about what it would like to see happening in Ukraine. But who knows? Maybe it is stalemated.
While the reporters are in Kyvi with so-called stalled Russian troops the bulk of Russian forces are in the south freeing Donbass and Mariupol in almost in complete control of DPR and the Russians. That was part of Putin’ stated goal.
To vary your sources of info, maybe you should take a peek at t.me/mod_russia_en and/or t.me/IntelSlava now and then.
‘Stalemate’ is the biggest load of rubbish I’ve ever see opined on this campaign.
As you said, the source is a neocon stupidity tank. There is clearly a war going on between various factions in the US, largely fueled by “statesmen” shilling for the MICIMATT who are guzzling the propaganda KoolAid.
Would the US military accept and carry out orders that would lead to armageddon? I don’t believe for a second that Biden has control over the nuclear arsenal.
Seems to me that a military coup is the only hope for the future. Clean house from top to bottom and start over.
/fantasy off
Here is a very scary analysis by Mike Whitney that I spotted today:
NATO Wants a Ground-War in Ukraine
Mike Whitney • March 24, 2022
“Perhaps, you wondered why the NY Times suddenly decided to ‘come clean’ on the Hunter Biden laptop story? You probably know that it’s not because the Times editors had a change-of-heart and wanted to inform the public or “speak truth to power”. Of course, not. The Times trotted out the laptop dossier to let Biden know that they “got him by the shorthairs” and if he doesn’t play ball, he’s toast.
Blackmail? Would the neocons really blackmail the President of the United States in order to escalate in Ukraine?
You bet, they would.
The neocons have their heart-set on a land-war war in Europe, and from the looks of things, they might just get one.”
I have long hated and despised these neocons, from the first moment they wormed their way up to the upper echelons of power and influence in the US Government and began to be exposed by the alternative, America First online media. These neocons are mentally insane psychopaths and in a sane world, they would all be rounded up and tried as war criminals, swiftly convicted and then summarily executed. The death, destruction and misery that these psychopaths have foisted on the world with all of their endless unprovoked wars is almost unbelievable. And, yes, I agree with Whitney. These evil creeps would not hesitate to blackmail Pedo Joe into launching a direct face to face war with Russia.
And, what’s even scarier is how much these RINO rats in the GOP Establishment are screaming to start WW3 with Russia. I think they see this Russia-Ukraine conflict – as a means to destroy the America First, non-interventionist, Nationalist and populist movement that rose to prominence within the angry red state voters who voted twice for Trump because he at least tried to keep the neocons from lying us into more endless foreign wars.
One would like to believe there may be a certain honor among professional soldiers that does not exist among the power addicts we call politicians and the eastern establishment “experts” they appoint to the permanent shadow government. General Sherman once noted, “It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.” It was he, ironically, who realized you could shorten a war by targeting the infrastructure that supported it, and he did so in the nearly bloodless campaign through Georgia that broke the back of the insurgency. It would be the leaders of the “good war” generation who discovered the efficacy of destroying civilians along with their homes and businesses.
General Sherman burned Atlanta killing women and children. He is the Grandfather of War criminals. It is well documented that the Nazi’s blitzkrieg was based on Sherman’s military tactics. You are an ignorant fool or simply spreading BS.
Uhhh… Seem2 remember LBJ as a 1 term President… Many speculated cuz Viet Nam…
He served the remainder of JFK’s term and then one term of his own and announced he would not run for a second term.
Mr. Lauria,
I think US News & World Report has PULLED the story.
No it is still there when you clink on the link in our story.
Robert Parry pointed out that the neocons were instrumental in instigating this conflict with Russia in the Ukraine from the start. Many people today are noting that the cheerleaders for war with Russia were also the cheerleaders for war with Iraq (and across the Middle East) – the neocons. Neocons dominate the State department, and the corporate media echos them. And we all know they invariably push for Israel’s interests, even to the detriment of US interests. It’s time to turn our attention to this group of people, to understand from whence comes their inordinate influence, and cut it off.
There may be some Neocons involved, but this lies directly at the doorstep of Obama, Biden (and Hunter), McCain, Nancy Pelosi’s son, Mitt Romney’s son, Victoria Nuland et al. You need to understand what happened in the Ukraine in 2014. We sponsored a coup d’etat. Simple as that. Imagine a foreign government overthrowing our gov’t. So areas in the east of Ukraine revolted and decided to become sovereign countries.
I understand what happened in 2014. That’s what Robert Parry was writing about. It seems to me that you need to understand the role of the “neocons” in American politics. For example,
‘Forward’ columnist and Emily’s List leader relate ‘gigantic,’ ‘shocking’ role of Jewish Democratic donors
hXXps://mondoweiss.net/2016/04/forward-columnist-and-emilys-list-leader-relate-gigantic-shocking-role-of-jewish-democratic-donors/
Those particular Democrats are neocons too- neocon/neoliberal are for the most part synonymous.
Re Israel, never forget the power of the Christian Zionists, eager for the Second Coming of Jesus, any day now.
Thoughtful and well said. I agree with you.
There is an excellent interview with Scott Ritter (VIPS member, former USMC Intelligence officer, former UN weapons inspector) on Regis Tremblay’s YouTube Channel. He has expert knowledge of military tactics and strategies and is quite knowledgeable about the developing conflict:
He made several important points:
Russia is not interested in occupying Ukraine. It only sent 200,000 troops, and that is not even enough to occupy Kiev, a city of 3 million citizens. If it was a land-grab, Russia would have needed many more troops.
Ukrainian troops were extremely well-trained and difficult to beat back, and they outnumber Russian troops, however Russian troops are some strategies which are rapidly depleting fuel and ammunition as well as human resources available to Ukrainian troops, which have been largely broken down already.
The fact that Russia does not seem to have enough troops is not because Russia is being beaten back, but because they did not send a full occupying force. They are doing what they already laid out publicly as their military plan:
Demilitarize and Denazify Ukraine.
Russia’s two separate launches of the supersonic missile “Kindzhal” (dagger) was meant to accomplish a couple things.
1. Destroyed two training camps for foreign mercenaries
2. Sent a message to US/EU/NATO that it can wipe out any major city within as much time as it takes to order a cappuccino if you are already at Starbuck’s and the line is very short.
And that is just some of what he points out in his analysis. Definitely recommend to anyone who wants unbiased facts!
Ritter has been good throughout this crisis. Kudos to Joe Lauria for bringing out this story. World War III could be the end of everything.
Thanks for referring us to Scott Ritter, Surely he must be one of the most reliable analysts of this unfortunate conflict—if not THE most reliable. He is in another impressive interview with Maverick News (beginning at about one minute) hxxps://www.bitchute.com/video/UMyQpUZOFRbL/
Ritter was also on Grayzone yesterday in a long, 2 1/2 hour segment that covers a lot of ground…
When I think of the State Department vs Pentagon an analogy comes to mind…from the movie, “Don’t Look Up,” where the billionaire club is willing to risk the destruction of the planet in pursuit of a far-fetched plan that will allow them to mine rare minerals from a fast-approaching comet, just as our billionaires imagine breaking up Russia and plundering its rich resources…risk of nuclear war be damned…
I’m trying to get through the entire GZ interview, but my goodness… my WiFi won’t cooperate. Just as they were getting to the Albright death, (thoughts and prayers to get family while she rots in hell) the video gave me the slow circle of death.
Merci infiniment pour cet article et ces informations qui donne un peu d’espoir. Il existe encore des responsables qui gardent la tête froide face à cette guerre et agissent pour ne pas faire tomber le monde dans l’apocalypse.
Ici, en Europe, c’est l’hystérie et les va t’en guerre et on se demande si les politiciens sont à la hauteur de la situation.
Esperons que les militaires n’acceptent pas une commande de lancer les armes nucléaires.
The fun’s over when the picnic basket gets completely destroyed.
By now, one thing is more obvious, since the fog is beginning to lift, for those more willing to see, is that Americans, being as gullible as they are, are one of the more successfully propagandized populations on the planet.
It’s a constant Disneyland fantasy; nothing is more complex and/or perhaps devious than its ostensible form. The culture is organized on these shallow appearances alone. This magical thinking – the belief that unrelated events are necessarily causally connected, is what lies behind the stupendous success in the marketing of propaganda, over time. It is the motivating thrust behind the neo-capitalist Western imperialist ideology.
“Buyer beware” is no longer ever even taken into account, in decision making, unless of course it is for the material ‘goods’ of living. This phenomenon extends through all walks of life; especially critical though it is in the realm of political self-governance, in the supposed democracy of the all-powerful state itself.
This ‘let’s pretend’ attitude of fervently believing reality is what we say it is; not what it actually consists of, in realpolitik terms, is what has led to this mass delusional state of the community’s mind; of those individuals living self-satisfied, behind the false security of their ‘white’ (first-world) picket fences, until the winds of change evident today, quite apparently are upon us, blowing down this make-believe house of cards “city on a hill”.
If truth ever be acknowledged, all of American history is a false construct, grounded in the ever-shifting sands of the lies of historical time.
Thank you very much for sharing this bit of good news. We know that we are in bad shape when we must rely on the Pentagon for truth telling. The war propaganda machine is at all time high (at least in my experience) in churning out its torrents of lies. The Congress is a complete disgrace – no real surprise there; I cannot think of a single member for whom I have any respect whatsoever. As we have been painfully aware during this entire Century, the State Department is nothing but an adjunct to the war department, occupied by neocon fools who are incapable of practicing diplomacy even if they were inclined to do. We should save some money by disbanding the State Department and just hiring the Mafia to practice the thuggery employed by the U.S. in lieu of diplomacy. Consortium News comes through again with a bit of enlightenment and, if one dares call it that, a bit of hope for reason. Now can someone please tell the clown in the oval office not to engage in ad hominem attacks on other heads of state? The low brow conduct of what passes for “leaders” in the U.S. is really depressing.
Your summation and suggestions are valid . I really enjoyed reading your thoughts and the bit of humor concerning the State Dept. were spot on.
We no longer have any leaders in the United States. We haven’t had one since Jimmy Carter, who at least tried but blundered terribly with his foreign policy expert, Brezinski… Our politicians today are all just greedy, incompetent clowns who are continuing to parrot platitudes that have never been relevant to reality…
Way to get a jump on the timeline and start piecing it together, Joe L.
Times & Post editorial offices (simultaneously): Stop the presses! We’ve got Corporate on the line!!
Hey, what about this? Wonder what would happen if the other 16 intel agencies got to have their say all of the time, too? And that decision makers had to listen to all of them? And that none of the intel agencies controlled their won militaries or black budgets?
Is it still possible that some reality could begin to seep back in where it mattered?
This info about how Russia is AVOIDING mass murder, by advancing very slowly, leaving municipal water, etc. intact, is widespread through the ‘alternative’ media, which is the only media I can stomach. And if Russia were hustling, say the Canadians, to attack the US, I think we would be invading Canada. A reminder: NATO and the US supplied funds and weapons to the Ukraine Nazi group a few years back. That group then OVERTURNED an honestly elected Democratic government. Ie, was it 2014-5, that NATO and our country, did what we have done all over South America, Africa, by installing puppet presidents, who would let us steal their oil, etc.? I have indoor plumbing now so no longer need the Washington Post, the New York Times.
Who would ever have thought that the Pentagon folks would be the most rational adults in the room?
They understand the reality of war…if they are true leaders/warriors.
Yeah, and I suspect there’s perhaps a little ‘institutional self-preservation’ in their attitude, since obviously the Pentagon would presumably be ‘target #1’ for Russian submarine-launched missiles in a full-scale nuclear war scenario…
I think our military would refuse BiteMe if he ordered them to send troops to Ukraine.
For Biden to claim that Russia is planning a false flag attack makes no logical sense. So they would stage a fake chemical or biological attack, presumably on their own soil, or in Lugansk or Donetsk, to justify an invasion they are already carrying out, and overwhelmingly winning? Why on God’s earth would they do this?
Im wondering if Biden was briefed that Ukraine was going to stage a fake attack in Kiev or somewhere in the west, and he simply got confused. Either that, or his speechwriters are monumentally stupid and take the public to be equally so.
If this wasn’t so scary it would be hilarious.
One can despise Biden’s blatant divisive policies, his dumb actions to cut off the Canadian pipeline and on and on but if he can hold off the crazies in the media, deep state and White House from getting into a real doomsday war, he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize (with an asterisk)
As to those pushing the continuing death and suffering of Ukrainians and Russian, there are really and truly beyond contempt.
Our state and defense departments remind me of two dogs I once had. One was a ferocious fighter that had cowed every other dog in the neighborhood. The other was a cantankerous little coward that would pick a fight with any other dog he saw and immediately role over, show his belly and yelp like crazy until the bigger dog came to save his ass.
The U.S. accuses Russia of war crimes.
The pot doth call the kettle black.
Finally a ray of hope, …and from the unlikeliest of sources. Starvation from truth is as at least as deadly as the other.
As far as I have been able to determine, none of the “mainstream” U.S. dailies has reported the fact that four days ago (!) Zelensky banned 11 opposition parties. Democracy in action. (USA Today and The Hill covered it, and AP had a wire, but not the NYT, WP, LAT.) It’s been covered all over the rest of the world.
was in the Guardian UK last Sunday
hxxps://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/20/ukraine-suspends-11-political-parties-with-links-to-russia
Thank you Joe Lauria – again. I saw the headline from Newsweek in my browser feed, but Newsweek has been such a spigot of lies, disinformation, hysteria, and etc. that I didn’t read it.
Yes, the attempt is to destroy Russia through economic means, not militarily – at least not through direct military confrontation. The only kind of diplomacy that the US knows how to deploy is to keep its subordinates (proxies, puppets, “allies”, etc.) from breaking ranks. And that kind of “diplomacy” is largely composed of threats, bribery, extortion, and sometimes betrayal. The rest of the world – those having the agency and the mass to affect outcomes – are faced with a choice: most would probably not wish to throw the entire global economy into a tailspin, but if it is the only remedy for our current disease, then so be it.
Well, the world has seen this show now for several decades, and it doesn’t play anymore. I agree with those saying that the US is not agreement capable. US words, promises, assurances are empty and not to be believed. There is that truism from so long ago: “You reap what you sow.”
BiteMe slit the petrodollar’s throat when he cutoff oil imports from Russia. Our economy, what’s left of it, will collapse soon enough. But then, that’s the Dim party’s goal. Snap this Constitutional Republic’s back over their knee.
Neither of our factions have long-term plans.
Boomerang-ing sanctions…start hitting the West and then…boy, oh boy, are we going to hurt too. Shoot first and THEN ask questions just doesn’t work. A wave of sheer misery rolling over the planet…Thanks!
O-O, what Tony Kevin said.
Good work, once again, Joe
Bless my soul! Ray McGovern replying just like we mortals, of course you’re a favorite.
How wonderful to have you willing to be open to replies.
Here’s something
concerning me about some posts putting forth nuclear war. It seems Russia is portrayed
as the “rat backed into the corner.” The beast then turns and goes for the jugular.
But this justified fear places Russia as the villain when it’s U.S./NATO that
manufactured its proxy war. Yet Russia seems to be held responsible for such
a horror, should the unthinkable happen.
Bingo.
And maybe just a quick comparison with U.S. beloved ally Israel which has long been bombing
Palestine, in Gaza especially, and targeting water, electric, civilian infrastructure, hospitals,
schools . . .
And the false flag chemical attack? Wasn’t that the CIA supporting opposition rebels, with UN
White Helmets move in Syria to blame Assad?
But it’s you and Consortium News that reveals the Propaganda “Consensus” (N. Chomsky),
purpose of the U.S./West corporate state media.
The great irony! The US military has to rein in the hysterical warmongering liars in the US media. We need way more–hopefully a really well placed general or two publicly stand up and say, “enough!” Or a well known journalist finds their principles and is willing to sacrifice all in order to tell the truth.
“Enough” will never satisfy the US’ hegemonic designs.
“Let’s get it straight here, guys. We will not fight the third world war in Ukraine.”
Because it wouldn’t be just in Ukraine. The moment nuclear weapons are used, the US mainland will be the scene of utter destruction for the first time in history (or prehistory).
But before ‘utter destruction’ hits…let those cash registers ring loudly.
That is encouraging a little sanity beaming through the propaganda. Great reporting CN!
Everyday I am more grateful to Bob Parry for founding CN and to Joe Lauria for his excellent stewardship of this priceless journalistic gem. And of course to all the contributors published here. Thank you!
Hear, hear!
The U.S. has dropped at least 337,000 bombs and missiles in 20 years
hXXps://www.salon.com/2022/01/11/the-us-drops-an-average-of-46-bombs-a-day-why-should-the-world-see-us-as-a-force-for-peace
American bombs never caused massive casualties or destroyed buildings or created refugees. American bombs are painless.
Biden and The Boys claim that Putin is “Insanely” determined to keep a warm water port and which Russia has operated since 1763.
hxxps://pbs.twimg.com/media/D4WSiGcUYAI4mhg.jpg
PBS is part of the MSM.
PBS is very MSM – if this wasn’t evident before the Ukraine story it should be totally obvious right now. When I inform people of this reality, they act surprised and offended.
It NEVER is the US – it is always the other guys.
It is critically important to point this out given MSM blatant efforts to stir up war hysteria at all costs. Also, the blockage and shutting down of social medium to so-called “misinformation” while supporting that from MSM and their supporters is simply a means of stifling dissent and is designed to build public support of what could very easily become suicidal action. There are those who want a war with Russia and that must be stopped.
It’s reassuring to conclude from this timely article that the chicken hawks in Congress and the US MSM are being talked down by the Pentagon but on the other side of the pond no such saner council has emerged from the British Military establishment. In stark contrast class warriors like Chief of Defence Intelligence Jim Hockenhull are bullish in the extreme spouting virtually word for word the latest propaganda tropes of that dissolute fox Zelensky and his MI6 handlers. Then we have that retired bevy of UK Generals pontificating on the performance of a weak and incompetent Russian Military who are staring defeat in the face spiced with sinister warnings that WW3 is just round the corner and the Ukraine border is Britain’s first line of defence. In further sinister developments the MSM is applauding serving British soldiers going AWOL to fight against Russia in Ukraine while the MI6 ratline the International Legion of Ukraine volunteers is being milked by the press for every specious ounce of patriotic duty the West owes to democratic and freedom loving Ukraine.
It’s disgusting that the US is backing and supporting the Ukraine regime that is involved in a civil war, and compounds that by supplying arms to Ukrainian battalion units that wear nazi emblems on their helmets.
Ukraine is the Dim party’s and RINO’s money laundering operation. That’s why all this hysteria is being whipped up to a froth. They don’t want to have to find and then groom another country to use for their laundering ops.
Sorry, Ztedster, there is no difference between the Dims and the Reptoids.
“To save his country he appears willing to risk endangering the entire world” implies that there is some good to be achieved at that cost. But what would President Zelensky be saving Ukraine from? Neutrality, like in Switzerland or Sweden, those benighted, poverty-ridden hell-holes? From ridding Ukraine of fascists and Nazis (but Ukrainian Nazis either don’t exist or are good Nazis, apparently)? The longer this war goes on, the more it seems that neither the USA nor Zelensky wants it to stop. We can see why: they want rid of Putin and someone more US-friendly installed, as in Ukraine 2014.
A prediction:
The professional US military are not insane. Neither their pilots or Generals wake up in the morning and say ..” how many women and children can I kill today?” That is a fact.
Professionalism in the Armed Forces can be corrupted by, “Evil soft flesh cowards in suites,” occasionally … but not permanently.
The insanity in America today has gone beyond the pale and has absolutely nothing to do with the United States Armed Forces.
Only the US Military can save the American Dream now. Russia and China would stand back and watch in total silence, they would not take advantage in any way.
A man fighting to protect his home and family gets universal respect. As such; so shall America.
If America can be saved from evil so shall humanity and we can all live on a beautiful blue planet in peace and harmony.
Wikileaks’ exposure of the Collateral Murder video showed clearly how enjoyable the soldiers found killing people to be. It has been posited that one of the reasons that so many former soldiers refuse to talk about their experience is not just how traumatising it was but how much fun it came to be to shoot guns, drop bombs and see other humans drop dead. Your faith in the US armed forces is sadly misplaced. All of them are volunteers, although I qualify that with the understanding that for poor men in the USA, the military is one of the few viable methods to a middle-class career and life.
Very true. Just look how they glorified “Snipers”. Even made a super movie for the public. I remember when snipers were relegated to the back of the barracks. There was something “wrong” with them compared to other soldiers. Snipers liked to kill. Once out of the military they find their way into police departments. “Special Forces”(trained killers) find their way into Congress. and the Generals (who haven’t won a war since WW2) wind up on TV telling us how the Russians are doing it all wrong. If the Russians have lost half a dozen Generals in the conflict, as reported, it is because they lead from the front and don’t have TV Careers after retirement.
You are spot on with your points, that same “kill mentality” is instilled with military training.
This is why the police recruit so actively from the military, and why so many police are so trigger happy, responding so poorly and killing so many citizens armed with cell phones, or running away from them, or are perfectly willing to kill children.
I still think Biden should’ve called Putins’ bluff over his threat to use nuclear weapons…his own soldiers would shoot him in the head before allowing a nuclear war which even the most dullard of people would realize no one would win.
Trump certainly wasn’t my choice for pres. but Joe Biden is a disaster.
I don’t believe Putin was bluffing, and in fact I expect him to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine soon if the war is going as badly for Russia as it seems to be.
Yes. After the Abu Ghraib photos came out, military recruitment went up. I guess a lot of young bucks wanted a piece of that action.
As a Vietnam veteran myself, I can attest to the fact your post contains much truth. During my time in Vietnam, I found many of my fellow soldiers actually enjoyed the killing and maiming of the innocent Vietnamese. Thankfully, the number was small, but there just the same. On returning home, they cannot separate themselves from their experiences in Vietnam, and 30 years later, still play a major part in their lives, especially on and around ANZAC day. It matters not to them, that the people they murdered, had not done them any wrong, and were fighting for their own self Government and the rejection of foreign interference in their country. .O.M.G. just noticed, they were fighting for the same principle we see today in Donbas, Syria, Afghanistan Yemen, Venezuela, Libya, isn’t amazing, the MSM and western nations FAIL to recognize this obvious fact ?
Ok, maybe not insane. Corrupt? The miltary’s actions over the last 20 years alone, across all levels, should lead to serious questions about any role the armed forces would play in maintaining or restoring whatever American dream you are referring to.
The two leaks referenced in this article do indeed contribute to valued counter narrative to the current MSM. I would initially view such leaks as being more about self interest than some grand noble gesture. Getting into a shooting war with Russia is much different than occupying an impoverished country like Afghanistan.
“Neither their pilots or Generals wake up in the morning and say ..” how many women and children can I kill today?””
Nice thought, but who then dropped those over 300,000 bombs. Must have been only those “soft flesh cowards in suits.”
So let me make sure I understand… You’re calling for a military coup in the US?
Our government from federal all the way down to municipalities are so hopelessly corrupt it will take We the People to stop it and put this nation back on the Constitution. There is no way we can vote our way out of this evil.
“No way we can vote our way out …” True, as long as we keep voting for the same parties that got us, keep and have kept us, here for decades – doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results … -We do have better choices on the ballot and have for decades, but we don’t choose them even though they represent what we have said we want and need in poll after poll – their fatal flaw? they are not Ds or Rs and “everyone knows a 3rd party can’t win” – the biggest and most effective political lie of all time. Any candidate on a ballot can win if enough folks vote for ’em – but enough of us haven’t …
So before you decide we need Generals to throw the bums out, let us use that too often misused or neglected tool – the ballot box – we can, if we choose to .. let us vote in electoral polls for the things we vote for in opinion polls …
You’re right, many USians are still very much in denial or ignorant of the big picture, preferring to live in a projection of what they believe to be the high ground, the best of all possible worlds, and as a result mass cognitive dissonance reigns. Particularly corporate media figures, daring to call for more drastic military action, seemingly oblivious to the risks. As if no matter what happens “Everything will be ok.” (Some literally have signs on their lawns saying this.) I wish I could believe it, but at this rate things will not be ok, thanks to these shameless propagandists and chicken-hawks, some of whom create legislation. These regressive throwbacks need to be discredited and removed from their positions ASAP
There’ve probably been several since 1950, Gene Poole, but they’re always kept behind the scenes. So long as the ritual elections continue, no one notices.
It begs the question will the military take action against the government (whitehouse,State,NSA) and the MSN if this insanity reaches the point of an ordered military attack against Russia coming from white house and approved by congress.
If it came to that it would be inaction by the Pentagon, rather than action, that could stop it. The Pentagon could simply refuse to execute orders. It would be a constitutional crisis but it would prevent a third world war.
Perhaps all the Generals should be sent and required to read General Smedley Butler’s book “War is a Racket”
The military and police must get on the side of peace, love and stability for that to happen. I realize it sounds quaint and utopian, but there is no other way.
We all know what this is..it is to drain Russia.. The propaganda is about getting a lot of dumb volunteers into going there as cannon fodder.. Of course the USA does not want a direct war..They want to widdle down Russia little by little that is why they have been picking off their allies for years.
The pentagon is well in on this scheme, so this is more calming the rhetoric they hissed into Biden the puppets ears and stirred up hornets to unleash them at Russia, but not too fast, not to over the top,, just enough to bleed Russia with a constant wound..and throwing the Ukrainians entire country under a buss..
“throwing the Ukrainians entire country under a buss..” And the European and US economies along with it.
So, with these leaks, which clearly refute the conventional wisdom of Putinmania, will the public consensus on this war turn around with the alacrity of a supertanker navigating your home bathtub (i.e., at a glacial pace) or will the credibility of the universal standard narrative (USN) crash and burn as all egregious lies on life and death issues should?
The USN still needs a lot of rejiggering, especially with respect to the actual lack of “freedom and democracy in Ukraine” (which would include the massive censorship and banning of political parties and candidates opposed, not by Russia, but by Zelensky and his gang), the actual prevalence of real live practicing Nazis throughout the population (including the provocative photos of widespread public torture and the many pronouncements of racist ideology from the Ukrainian camp), the accurate identity of those most culpable for the multitude of war crime murders in the Donbas (whose victims were mostly ethnic Russians), and the role of the United States in fomenting the ethnically-linked coup that kicked off the eight-year long pogrom against ethnic Russians in the society and ended with Washington’s abject refusal to even discuss with Russia a negotiated agreement on guaranteed existential securities for all relevant nations and segments of their various populations, underscoring the danger and unacceptable use of Nato countries as nothing more than convenient staging grounds for an American-led total war against the Russian state and its major cities. The extreme lockstep over-response of Nato to any and all of Russia’s defensive reactions to Western provocations very pointedly demonstrate the danger of having such an alliance conceived and rigged for basically no other reason than to gang up on its one selected target, which used to be Soviet “Communism” but has transmogrified to any expression of an independent foreign policy by the Russian Federation. With article five the danger is almost spontaneously elevated to an extinction level event. It’s like storing grenades without any safety pins.
If the American media had devoted ANY of its broadcast time or news print to these concerns rather than stone-walling their very existence as true fact and the legitimate concerns of any people on the receiving end of such belligerent American foreign policy, all the people of America, Russia and Ukraine would now be preparing for a lovely Spring and an enjoyable Summer season rather than the possibility of total war and an extinction level event. But no, we have an American government with a blanket Zionist agenda playing out in the Middle East and a Banderite fascist movement being rammed into place in the Ukraine. Along the way our maniacal leaders have blown by dozens if not hundreds of caution signals and stop signs on a hasty rush to our demise. Instead of being reproached for their insanity these individuals have been awarded “peace prizes” and the like. Talk about riding the crazy train, for Washington it’s been full speed ahead! If there really is an emergency brake in the passenger coaches, it’s time someone got up and pulled on it hard and fast, before the inevitable impact.
Great comment!
Just shows how important it is to go through the recent historical events in Ukraine, which as I read main-stream media, started with Putin, UNPROVOKED, stealing Crimea. Thanks to articles here, the Grayzone, and elsewhere in alt media (though some others also seem CIA mouthpieces like State Media), it is clear that Ukraine has been a US puppet state since at least 2004/5 when the Orange Revolution managed to overturn the Election of Yanukovytch and put a central banker, a love of all things NAZI and a hatred of Russia (and Ukrainian Russians) with a US State Department wife, who sold Ukraine out to the EU and America for big loans (which went poof!) with unpayable interest rates. When Yushchenko ran for a second term in 2010, he received 5% of the vote. Yanukovytch (Elected under NATO observers), corrupt (like all Ukrainians) but also working for Ukraine, tried to restore “diversity” in Ukraine, but played off the EU/US against Russia, and went with the lower interest loans from Putin. That was enough for VP Biden (who was effectively running Ukraine) along with Nuland and other neocons to stage the Maidan Coup and pick new Ukrainian leaders, with the NAZI Poroshenko being the next elected leader, outlawing Russian (one in three Ukrainians spoke Russian as their first language) and Ukrainian Russian culture. (Great clip of Biden in a recent Caitlin Johnstone CN piece, bragging to CFR about threatening the Ukrainains with loss of a $billion loan if they did not IMMEDIATELY– within six hours– fire Shokin, who was investigating corruption at Burisma. Covered nicely by ukrainegate.info, also from CN).
When the media rockstar Zelinsky ran against corrupt and dangerous Poroshenko, he ran on a “Peace with Russia” platform and won about 75% of the vote (most Ukrainians did not want war); again something unheard of from State Media. Unfortunately for Ukraine, Russia, and most Americans, Zelinsky backtracked immediately on Minsk II, and he will likely be dancing at the end of a NAZI/ American-made rope (can we even make rope anymore?) if he makes Peace with Russia. And given Biden’s role in running this Ukraine fiasco, he is in bed with the neocons and State Media on wanting a major war. The military, as several commentators here have noted, see the obvious danger of escalation and are trying to stop the neocons and Biden (but for how long?), and even the sanctions (which in themselves are really an act of war) may backfire spectacularly.
This is a comment that a ‘real human being ‘ could be proud to make. I wish more Americans could find something that actually legitimizes their pride in their nation and in themselves.
Hard to ignore the insanity of our dear leaders, and I do hope we are nearing the day when we start caring again about objective reality as best we can understand it. It is well past time to leave behind the constant drumbeat of non-reality and emotional manipulations pushed by our government and their media mouthpieces. Our national psyche is cracking as a result of these.
That our government and media are supporting Nazis is a stunner. It’s as if the last 80 years of history mean nothing to these people, let alone our Constitution. These people need exposure, ridicule, to be cast out and, where appropriate, charged.
Americans are not allowed to have leaders. The digital platform spies on every American 24/7 and it denies any American, who might become a leader of Americans in America. Access to the American domestic population at large is controlled, regulated and price gated by the 6 private owner of the digital platform(dp runs on top of the Internet) and their CIA handlers. Further the MSM has beat down all who might have had a chance to rise as a leader in America. Only the USA persons and MSM are allowed to access America ears and minds. Even when sports figures make a political statements they are denied. That is why election after election the only people who get elected are the persons the two party system allow to be nominees. Until Americans learn the two party system is a divide and conquer strategy, and the MSM is the feed forward part of their mind control propaganda, political conditions in America will remain unchanged. .
The USA governs America.. It supplies to Americans persons it calls leaders; but mostly they leave the talking to the MSM. Americans have not yet evolved their leader.
There are other ways to communicate to the American public besides using the media controlled by digital conglomerates – how did we do it before the advent of the vaunted Internet …
Valuable summary by Realist, as usual. I would use only one single word to describe it all: DECLINE. Yes, this is what the broad societal decline looks like – decrepit infrastructure, with nappy pooping president looking for a nuclear war to go out with a bang instead of a deserved whimper. Recently, I watched on Sky Channel Australia a drunken rant by Nancy Pelosi in Congress. Previously, I perused Kamala’s shallow bumblings, not to mention the “big” man’s not knowing where he finds himself. Three “top” people in the “top” country of the World!? Keep lying to yourself!
Would you expect anything else but a nukiller war from this trio of leaders (puppets)? What does it say about puppet masters if they could not find any better puppets? Are they in control?
Beware better puppets … we have had them and no doubt there will be more – they are the “more effective evils” …
So true, Putin sent out plenty of signals to let Biden know he was playing with fire. But Biden in his delusion of grandeur did not listen, he thinks he is omnipotent with the American economic and military power he can rule the world.
DISBAND NATO !
Amen!
It should have been done 1991. Disband NATO should be our number one goal. I cannot think of one member of Congress, in today’s Congress, willing to take on the defense industry, an industry whose existence depends on NATO. NATO has ruined the US for its citizens, and has destroyed much of the world.
It could well be the end of Europe and NATO.
Nato was created to keep Russia out, the US in, and Germany down in Europe. With Germany and Russia destroyed it would be a complete success except for the ruin of what might be left of Europe which they don’t even consider, could be more than they expect.
Keep ’em coming, Joe! You’re batting 1000.
I read the Newsweek article earlier today and was amazed at how completely the experts quoted confirmed what Mister Putin and other Russian officials have been saying all along.
While I noted that both articles contain contradictory insertions suggesting some editorial “embellishment” (to adhere to the official narrative?), the statements of the military folks far outweigh the interspersed puffery.
One can only hope that this breath of fresh air indicates a developing trend that will ultimately fracture the propaganda wall we’ve seen erected by the mass media.
Thanks to you and CN for consistently presenting us with unvarnished truth.
JMF: Yes. Notably, this was the same dynamic we saw in regard to the “Democratic Party’s” multi-year Russiagate propaganda campaign. CN nails it while the NYT clings to its trash.
There was more Ukraine involvement in Russiagate than was and is covered by State Media.
From the start, Scott Ritter confirmed that the Russian army did what Putin said they would do, keep civilian casualties as low as possible.
If you have listened to Scott Ritter over the last two weeks and especially to his long discussion of the situation with Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate today on Rokfin hxxps://www.rokfin.com/stream/16129?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Campaign&utm_campaign=New+Post+Email] , you would know that Russia is, in fact, winning the battle. Also, it has used a hypersonic missile in Ukraine. If Russia had in fact wanted to kill indiscriminately, it would have used several hypersonic missiles already, but it has not.
My, but somebody is spinning quite a web of deceit. CNBC reports that “NATO estimates that up to 40,000 Russian troops have been killed, injured, captured or gone missing during the first month of the Kremlin’s war, an alliance official confirmed to NBC News.”
The Jerusalem Post states “Russia has suffered more losses in the 26 days since the start of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine than the Soviet army did over the course of a decade (1979-1989) in Afghanistan, data shared by the Ukrainian defense ministry has shown. The infographic released by the defense ministry shows that the official Soviet army losses in Afghanistan amounted to 15,051 personnel, whereas the losses currently suffered by the Russian army in Ukraine amount to around 15,300 personnel, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
And, if that don’t beat all, The Daily Beast assures its dear readers that “Two Russian soldiers have been caught venting about Putin’s “bullshit” war against Ukraine in an intercepted phone call as devastating losses reportedly led one soldier to drive over his colonel with a tank.” Ouch! Who knew the Ukies had so many supporters in the Russian army.
The day will come soon when all the Ukie propaganda, disinformation, the blatant hate speech, racist innuendo and the many vicious war crimes so enthusiastically photographed in the heat of sadistic passion and posted on the web will be compared and contrasted with what is otherwise known as reality. The war crimes tribunals that Putin promised will have a lot to keep it busy for some time to come. I think that Washington should be made to, at least symbolically, crawl in the anticipated aftermath for supporting all these outrages. All these crimes should be attributed to them for making all this possible with their bold, forward thinking coup d’etat in the Maidan. Squinty-eyed Joe should go on the dock at the Hague…or bring back Nuremburg…but he won’t. He will merely lose the American elections and his 10% cut of all graft and corruption. Hegemon Supremacist Privilege don’t you know. Hopefully, the rest of the world is cured of its consequences after they get a belly full of the Great American Shit Show and stop trading in dollars, borrowing from the IMF and other suicidal habits. For sure Russia will never deposit its gold in a foreign bank again. Going forward the US government will have to be content with just stealing from its own people.
I don’t really understand global finances very well (hope my pension is safe!) but read some comments saying that by grabbing Russia’s gold that also abrogates its BIGGER international debts. Does anyone know?
And Scott Ritter (recently on the Grayzone) felt like Putin demanding oil/ gas payments in Rubles (why would Biden want that? Seemed inevitable after sanctions) would move the World closer to a multipolar world and away from the US petrodollar. And the Saudis and other oil-rich “US democracies” may have seen the future, working with Russia and China may have advantages, at least leverage, against the US.
Having been a professor at a so-called state flagship university I have retired on a state-funded pension rather than Social Security. Like Social Security my income derives entirely from investments by a state-run trust fund comprised mostly of stocks and bonds issued by major publicly-traded corporations. Unlike Social Security the trustees of our investment fund cannot spontaneously create money out of thin air like the Congress can do. If that entire house of cards collapses because of WWIII, or even just the collapse of the Petro Dollar because the world economy goes south, in other words if there is no more income from those sources or if the dollars derived from that income become essentially worthless, where do you think that will leave us? The friggin bank will still want its monthly mortgage payments and ground beef at Publix will probably cost $100/lb. Do the math, my fellow scientist. Unless you own boatloads of real property (not cash or bank accounts) free and clear, unless you presently qualify as one of the infamous “oligarchs,” or know how to manipulate and exploit people like a virtuoso–the way George Soros allegedly did it, life as you know it will be ovah! But maybe an expert here knows how the feds can pull rabbits out of hats and why they would give two shits about our predicament.
All Russia’s gold is in Russia which is why I find the claims from the US congress that we will freeze Russia’s gold hilarious. They have had their forex frozen in EU and Japanese banks and you can bet that they won’t keep anything on deposit in the EU etc ever again.
It is a little more complicated than that.
Firstly, the freezing of Russia’s gold would mean a ban on trading of Russia’s gold, which includes any deposits/guarantees/letters of credit based on Russian gold. Russia is one of top three producers of gold in the World and it is fairly easy to identify gold produced in Russia. Any third countries or individuals which bought Russia’s gold would not be able to use it and would possibly face confiscation by US state and its Western minions.
Secondly, this freezing would be mostly a symbolic act that something more would be done to damage Russia.
Just as all the previous US freezings, bans, confiscations and embargo this one would also further diminish the main currency of the financial system – TRUST and thus bring the traditionally Western financial system closer to its inevitable demise. Simple: action-reaction.
That link doesn’t work. Just logging onto site and hitting ‘Max B’ link gets to your apparent Ritter program, but behind a paywall. My budget not quite there yet!
More generally, on Joe’s topic, I have seen material – on both RT.com and the ‘Useful Idiots’ free youtube version – hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiuznZv-Pho – that shows very brief video blips of 2 particular scenes that bolster Joe’s general theme: [1] a cell cam view of hundreds of snipers in that big, subsequently bombed, housing complex in Kiiv, raining down bullets on (presumed) Russian troops below; and, [2] Donbass separatists begging for help from ‘the government’ against the still-attacking Rightist groups. VERY hard to put a date/time stamp on these snippets, plus No Way to get the MSM interested in them. I would contribute $$ to some reliable CN-type effort to catalog such snippets though – breaking my paltry SS budget!
You should read MSM news in the Netherlands that passes me by. It is sickening. Also a politician in parliament who sides with Putin has his character totally assassinated. Who are orchestrating all of this. And will it be the end of them or the end of humankind.
I read today that JSOC army is already on the ground in the Ukraine. Thus the USA already has its military fighting there. Plus Sealteam 6 plus Delta.
Brilliant sleuthing, Joe!
Meanwhile, WaPo has launched a fundraiser for Reporters without Borders. With no known mechanism for sorting out truth- from falseood-tellers.
Amy Goodman hosted an insightful view, from a Ukrainian sociologist, on how all this could play out with Zelenskyy’s new censorship law – a realistic thought experiment with Azov ‘re-taking’ their lead as vanguard of the revolution.
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vAAyIGBRk4&ab_channel=DemocracyNow%21
Such an important and policy- useful article . Consortium News cuts through the crap and proves its public worth yet again . Thanks!