August 2023

Aug 31, 2023

Featured • US headed for ‘hot war’ with Russia – Tucker Carlson, RT, Aug 30, 2023
    "Washington is angling for open conflict for political reasons, the former Fox News host has said."

I hope he's wrong but Carlson is being completely rational here.

We need to get rid of the corrupt Biden Administration pronto. They are fighting this war for their political lives, for their Party, and for some, to stay out of prison, while the U.S. is fighting to keep its hegemony -- which is to say its economy, which is another way of saying corporate investment value, since the people making these decisions don't actually care about vulnerable people in this country -- and NATO is fighting to keep itself from dissolving in shame. A lot of lies could come home to roost, shitting all over many peoples' careers and stock portfolios.

So war is where we are, and more war is where we are headed, unless enough of the right people stop sleepwalking. As Victor Orban put it, World War III is knocking at the door. Biden couldn't manage a job as a grocery clerk, let alone a president, and he is the one "in charge" -- IF he has the mental or moral ability to stay no, which alas is doubtful. There is no indication that he is capable of being serious, or of understanding cause and effect. He's an old man on a high wire he has no business being on, supposedly on our behalf, toying with the fate of the world. Neither he, nor any of the people around him, have the guts to admit they were wrong, or to hit the brakes on the war-train. Not just the corruption but the incompetence in this administration beats anything I have ever seen.

What is the answer? Let's not be naive, please. Let me tell you a "secret." Decisions in Washington are not made on the basis of public opinion. A few signs on street corners are a little like taking oxycontin for cancer. Addictive, damaging, and worthless. Will the personnel in this administration change their minds on the basis of any amount of public outcry, even if we had it? No. Will the Hawk Party in Congress -- roughly 3/4 of Congress -- change THEIR minds? No, not until the country starts falling apart, or political heads start to roll. The handwriting on the wall has got to be very clear. Who or what is convincing to these people? The apolitical military, if we could get one. Foreign leaders. The stock market. Their donors.

The answer, in the crucial short term, includes impeachment, for the many high crimes committed, including bribery, a named basis for impeachment in the Constitution. Provoking the war, spiking peace negotiations, then blowing up Nordstream -- each of these should have been enough, in themselves, for impeachment. What has since taken center stage in the media (for those who are looking) is a flagrant pattern and practice of graft and corruption involving U.S. foreign policy, which is leading toward nuclear war. Why in the world are we giving Zelensky the means to strike deep into Russia, and helping him with intel and reconnaissance? What good does anyone think that will do?

What, dear friends, we we waiting for?

 • US seeks to base its nuclear forces in UK – media, RT, Aug 31, 2023
    "Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of the UK-NATO Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, told the Telegraph the new surety facility is likely to store nuclear arms.
    "In this case, a surety dormitory is a bunker used to house nuclear missiles and warheads. It needs to be hardened and a secure place – if the Russians wanted to drop a bomb on them it wouldn’t create a nuclear accident,” he said."

 • SITREP 8/30/23: Ukraine Smokescreens Failures With Meaningless Deep-strikes, Simplicius, Aug 30, 2023

Very pro-Russian per usual but also as usual full of useful information, when evaluated in context with other sources. The strikes deep in Russian territory are NOT meaningless politically.

 • Sen. Blumenthal: US Getting Its ‘Money’s Worth’ in Ukraine Because Americans Aren’t Dying, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 30, 2023

Russia is not weakened. Russia is much stronger than before the SMO -- its military is larger and more skilled, its defense production is running at a much higher rate, producing more advanced weapons, and its whole economy, including its military production, is more autarkic. Its international relations have flourished, not just with China. What rock are these knee-jerk hawks hiding under, and who is running them?

 • No Hope for Peace in Ukraine -- Only a War with the United States and NATO, Larry Johnson, Aug 30, 2023

In the New Yorker. I used to assume that was a reasonably intelligent rag. I had no reason to read it, so I don't really know. Was it always like this? Probably not.

 • Russia Says Ukrainian Drone Attacks Not Possible Without Help from the West, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 30, 2023

Quite true -- help in various forms.

 • Scott Ritter: Ukraine’s Fate Sealed Long Before Failing Counteroffensive, Sputnik International, Aug 30, 2023
    "This thinning of the Ukrainian lines provided opportunities for the Russian forces, leading to major advances in the vicinity of Kupyansk. As Ukrainian losses continue, this thinning will only become more prevalent, creating gaps in the Ukrainian defenses which can be exploited by a Russian military which has upwards of 200,000 well-trained, well-equipped reserves which have yet to be committed into the battle. This cause-effect relationship will continue, since Ukraine has no more reserves available to replace battlefield losses which will continue to accrue all along the line of contact. Eventually, the Ukrainian posture will be unsustainable, and the Ukrainian high command will be confronted with the reality that they will need to order a general retreat to more defensive positions—perhaps as far back as the right bank of the Dnepr River—or face the inevitability of the total destruction of their army.
    "As the Special Military Operation reaches its terminal phase, marked by the collapse of cohesion on the part of a Ukrainian military depleted in battle and unable to adequately reinforce itself, one must reflect on how the situation had deteriorated to this point for a nation, Ukraine, which had been the benefactory of billions of dollars of assistance. While the determination and skill of the Russian military played a major part in shaping the present events on the battlefield, the fact that the Ukrainians were thrown into a battle they were neither organized or trained to wage played a huge role in the scope and scale of the meatgrinder that consumed them.
    "And for this Ukraine can blame—and Russia thank—NATO."

Aug 30, 2023

Featured • Russian air defenses repel multiple coordinated drone raids – MOD, RT, Aug 29, 2023
    "At least 10 drones had attacked Pskov, according to the regional governor. Some were brought down by air defenses, but the others reportedly caused damage to four Il-76 transport aircraft. There were no reports of casualties.
    "Pskov is about 700 kilometers north of Ukraine, but only 30 kilometers from the Estonian border. Latvia is about 60 kilometers southwest. Both are NATO member states. To reach the city, drones launched from Ukraine would have to fly over eastern Belarus."

Featured • Biden Looks to Prevent Future President From Ending Ukraine War, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 29, 2023

 • US Victim of Own Propaganda in Ukraine War, Joe Lauria, Consortium News, Aug 29, 2023

Well-written and important, but just one vignette in a much larger tapestry of crimes perpetrated and encouraged by the neo-Nazi infested Kiev regime prior to the Russian invasion of February 2022.

 • Escaping Attrition: Ukraine Rolls the Dice, Big Serge, Aug 29, 2023
    "We need to say this very explicitly. Ukraine has not moved on to the next phase of their operation. They are stuck in the first phase, and have been forced to prematurely commit portions of the second echelon that was earmarked for later action. They are slowly but surely burning through the entire operational grouping, and so far they have not breached Russia’s screening line. The great counteroffensive is turning into a military catastrophe...
    "It does not seem controversial to say that this was Ukraine’s best shot at some sort of genuine operational victory, which at this point seems to be slowly trickling away into modest but materially costly tactical advances. The ultimate implication of this is that Ukraine is unable to escape a war of industrial attrition, which is precisely the sort of war that it cannot win, due to all the asymmetries that we mentioned earlier.
    "In particular, however, Ukraine cannot win a positional-attritional war because of its own maximalist definition of “winning.” Since Kiev has insisted that it will not give up until it returns its 1991 borders, an inability to dislodge Russian forces poses a particularly nasty problem - Kiev will either need to admit defeat and acknowledge Russian control over the annexed areas, or it will continue to fight obstinately until it is a failed state with nothing left in the tank."

 • Zelensky threatened by possible military coup – former CIA analyst (Larry Johnson), RT, Aug 29, 2023

Zelensky is threatened by the results of his criminal conduct, including not just graft on a grand scale -- somewhat normal in Ukraine -- but rather sending far, far too many men to needless deaths or maiming. This loss of legitimacy is an inexorable process for him. The Furies are out there, warming up. In the U.S., the wisdom and legitimacy of the war is under siege, hence the need for Zelensky to call for elections, in the 2024 U.S. election season naturally. Z wants the U.S. to pay for those elections, and even send election workers to the front lines, partly for the money but mostly for the deeper commitment to Ukraine's, and his own, legitimacy and survival, in or out of office. The Zelensky-Biden-NATO-provoked-and-sustained war threatens the survival of Ukraine, not just Zelensky's own survival, politically and physically.

Aug 29, 2023

Featured • Ukraine SitRep: Topography Shapes The Battle Field - Abysmal Medical Service Causes Death, Moon of Alabama, Aug 29, 2023
    "The Ukrainian forces are stuck on the low ground at about 170 feet above sea level while the Russian forces occupy the hills of some 450 feet height to the left and right flank of the Ukrainians.
    "Being at a higher ground allows one to see further - and to shoot further. A mortar fired from a hill to the ground below will fly further than one fired from the low ground to the heights above. Running and storming uphill is more difficult than running downhill.
    "Unless the Ukrainians manage to storm the hillsides their progress towards Robotyne will by a short and bloody endeavor....
    "Based on anecdotal reports and various video clips I concluded a year ago that the ratio on the Ukrainian side is more like 1 to 1 [killed to wounded] because evacuation and medical care in Ukraine is extremely substandard...
    "The British Spectator has now breached the silence with an on-the-ground report of the wars first aid crisis:

The long journeys to hospital, sometimes up to ten hours, can be lethal, and the availability of adequate first aid is the difference between life and death....[T]he stark truth is emerging: soldiers are dying in their hundreds or even thousands due to poor medical provision. The problem is being ignored by the military hierarchy, whose focus is on sourcing weapons and pushing the counteroffensive rather than prioritising injured fighters.

Aug 28, 2023

Featured • Ukraine SitRep - U.S. To Prolong Its Proxy War, Moon of Alabama, Aug 28, 2023

Featured • Senior US Officials Expect to Back Ukraine Against Russia Into Next Year and Beyond, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 27, 2023
    "As the Biden administration is expecting to keep fueling the war for years to come, US officials are considering ways to provide Ukraine with more forms of support. One idea is to send more types of widely-banned cluster munitions, which can kill and maim civilians for decades after the war. “There’s growing backing in Washington for providing rocket-launched cluster munitions, for example, which could strike deeper than the artillery-fired versions the United States began supplying last month,” Ignatius wrote.
    "Ignatius said US officials are expecting Ukraine to increase drone attacks on Russian territory as its forces are struggling on the ground. On Friday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine launched 42 drones on Crimea, and Ignatius said the attack “is a foretaste of what’s ahead."

 • Zelensky Says Ukraine Elections Could Happen If They’re Funded by the West, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 27, 2023

Aug 27, 2023

Featured • Why the House Has No Alternative to an Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden, Jonathan Turley, Aug 26, 2023
    "With the current state of the Hunter Biden investigation and the baffling conduct of Attorney General Garland, there is no alternative for the House but to launch the impeachment inquiry."

Why are we putting this here, on the Ukraine page? Because, in the words of Medvedev, "Biden has been more 'involved mentally, politically and economically' in Ukraine, which had 'tied up his hands.' Biden’s resolve to aid Kiev against Russia has made him 'a hostage of Ukraine, which is very sad for both Ukraine and the US,' Medvedev said."

Medvedev understates here, implying more than he actually says. The Biden family's influence-peddling and bribery operation, now proven beyond any reasonable doubt, centrally involves Burisma and Ukraine. The Zelensky regime has powerful kompromat on Joe Biden and through him, on the Democratic Party's election prospects.

The current leading media explanation for the Nordstream sabotage, to the extent it is mentioned at all, is that "Ukraine did it," the yacht story haven fallen flat on the basis of its sheer incredibility. This gives Ukraine leverage over the entire Biden administration -- and through them, over the Democratic Party -- on that issue as well.

This war is heavily about saving face not just for the U.S. and NATO, but also for the Democratic Party and for the individuals in this administration who have led Ukraine into this war and have continually sold it to the public. That latter group includes prominent Republican hawks as well. The same can also be said about various UK and EU leaders, whose political fates are tied up with Ukraine's, but the Nordstream crimes are in a different class altogether, that of terrorism.

Featured • Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Has Failed—It’s Time to Reevaluate, Glenn Greenwald, Scheerpost, Aug 26, 2023

 • How to Interpret Media Leaks Regarding the Ukraine Offensive, Larry Johnson, Aug 26, 2023

 • "Yes, They Were Being Bribed": Fired Ukraine Prosecutor Corroborates Biden Corruption, ZeroHedge, Aug 26, 2023

Aug 26, 2023

Featured • SITREP 8/26/23: Wagner Denouement and BRICS Rebirth, Simplicius, Aug 25, 2023
    Very good comprehensive overview of recent developments.

 • Expanded BRICS to dominate global energy markets – data, RT, Aug 25, 2023
    "The BRICS group of nations is on course to change the power balance in the global energy market, InfoTech news outlet reported on Thursday, citing calculations based on 2022 OPEC data on oil exports and production. According to the calculations, once the group expands after adding six new nations to its ranks, it will control nearly half of the world’s oil production and reserves. BRICS currently consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. However, at the summit in Johannesburg this week, the group announced that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will officially join in January 2024. According to the report, the group will greatly increase its weight in the oil market with the inclusion of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iran."

 • US presidential hopeful warns of ‘post-Zelensky warlord’ in Ukraine, RT, Aug 25, 2023
    "Ramaswamy was the only candidate on Wednesday’s debate stage in Milwaukee unequivocally against increasing US funding for Ukraine, already at over $100 billion....If a recent CNN poll is to be believed, 71% of Republicans are against sending more money to the government in Kiev, while 59% say the US has done enough for Ukraine already. “I think that this is disastrous, that we are protecting against an invasion across somebody else’s border, when we should use those same military resources to prevent… the invasion of our own southern border here,” Ramaswamy said during the debate. He also argued that the US support for Kiev is “driving Russia further into China’s hands” and accused some of his rivals of putting Ukraine ahead of the US. “I find it offensive that we have professional politicians on the stage that will make a pilgrimage to Kiev – to their pope, [President Vladimir] Zelensky – without doing the same thing for people in Maui or the South Side of Chicago,” Ramaswamy said.
    "This provoked angry replies from former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and former vice president Mike Pence – both of whom have recently visited Ukraine – as well as Nikki Haley, who called Ukraine “the front line of defense” for the US and accused Ramaswamy of having no foreign policy experience. Ramaswamy is currently ranked third in the GOP primary polls, behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with 13.8% but ahead of Pence (4.1%), Haley (3.1%) and Christie (2.9%)."

 • Ukraine Quagmire Will Cost US $600 Bln More Even If Fighting Stopped Tomorrow – Analysis, Ilya Tsukanov, Sputnik International, Aug 25, 2023
    "The costs of the geopolitical, military, and economic quagmire which the Biden administration unleashed in Ukraine will continue to steadily rise even if peace were to break out tomorrow, and American taxpayers are expected to largely foot the bill. That’s the conclusion of an independent economic analysis put out this week by a senior fellow from the Center for Security Policy and the Yorktown Institute, a pair of Washington, DC and Maryland-based think tanks. The analysis takes into account the World Bank’s March 2023 estimate that Ukraine will require some $411 billion in reconstruction support over the coming decade, plus whatever additional expenses may have arisen between then and now, with the analysis giving an overall ballpark figure of $600 billion+ in total expenses."

 • Europeans fear Biden will push Ukraine to peace – Bloomberg, RT, Aug 25, 2023
    "European officials are concerned that US President Joe Biden could “nudge” Ukraine toward peace talks next year, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing anonymous sources. Bloomberg is the second major US outlet this week to warn that American military aid to Kiev may soon dry up. According to the US news site, European leaders worry that Ukraine’s lack of “significant battlefield progress,” coupled with pressure from the anti-interventionist wing of the Republican Party, could lead to Biden pressing Kiev to the negotiating table. The US has supplied more than $43 billion worth of arms to Ukraine since Russia’s military operation began last year, but the Biden administration is out of money for more aid packages. The president has asked Congress to pass a $40 billion emergency spending bill, half of which would be allocated to Kiev, but the bill will likely face stiff opposition from a growing number of Republicans opposed to Biden’s blank-check policy."

Aug 25, 2023

 • So Much Winning ... And More ..., Moon of Alabama, Aug 25, 2023
    "According to the above Senior Fellow @FPRI Rob Lee the Ukrainian army has used 10+ brigades, some 20 to 35,000 men, to take (not confirmed) Robotyne. A town which, according to the 2001 census, had 480 inhabitants.
    "So much winning ...How many of such victories can the Ukraine sustain?

    "...He had made so many enemies that it is hard to know who put him in:

The Last Days of Wagner’s Prigozhin (archived) - WSJ, Aug 24 2023
On the run, the paramilitary chief crisscrossed his global business empire, desperate to show he was still in control; ‘I need more gold’

“We will all go to hell,” Prigozhin said in an undated video, released Wednesday by the Grey Zone Telegram channel, which frequently publishes official Wagner statements. “But in hell, we will be the best.”

Aug 24, 2023

Featured • How Ukraine Lost Its Independence and Became West’s Hostage, Ilya Tsukanov, Sputnik International, Aug 24, 2023
    Mercouris has been following all this very, very closely and his views are deeply informed.

 • For The First Time In History, Humanity Has A Single Common Foe, Caitlin Johnstone, Aug 24, 2023
    "Like an addict who has hit rock bottom, we’re going to be pressed hard to look at what makes us do the things we do. On an individual level that will come down to the psychological constructs and inner habits interwoven with the ego, which can be dispelled with rigorous inner examination. On a collective level it will come down to the systems, institutions and people who are keeping humanity locked in its self-destructive patterns, which can be dispelled through revolution of all varieties.
    "That seems to be what we’re headed toward as humanity begins to turn and face its collective enemy: either a massive explosion of consciousness, or a horrific self-inflicted extinction. But what we are definitely not headed toward is a future in which nuclear-armed powers continue ramping up aggressions against each other while ignoring the health of the biosphere we all rely on for survival. One way or the other, those days are coming to an end."

 • As Counteroffensive Falters, US Starts ‘Deliberate, Sustained Leak Campaign’ to Blame Ukraine, Ilya Tsukanov, Sputnik International, Aug 24, 2023
    "Nicolai Petro, international politics professor at the University of Rhode Island, echoed Pyne’s comments on the need for a halt to the conflict, but recalled to Sputnik that unfortunately, “President Zelensky signed a decree” last year “literally preventing himself and his government from negotiating with the current Russian government.”
    "“So we are in a dead end situation,” Petro said. “I think there’s a coincidence of views on the part of the current Ukrainian political elite and the government in charge and their allies in the United States government and other Western governments. This cohort, which exists in multiple countries [including] the United States and Ukraine sees its in its own interests to promote an indefinite conflict which will somehow ultimately weaken Russia they believe to the point where it will sue for peace. And I think that’s the part that is the least clear for the people pursuing this strategy, is they thought they had an ability or a way to pressure Russia into conceding, but that prospect now eludes them. So it’s not at all clear to anyone really, anyone searching for a way out.”
    ""So it does to me raise serious moral dilemmas when we say ‘well, we are fighting for Ukraine’, but the result of this fight ‘for Ukraine’ is quite possibly the end of Ukraine, the destruction of Ukraine. How can that be a fight worth pursuing? It’s the kind of argument we once had with a nuclear exchange. If we ever had to use nuclear weapons, we would have already lost the fight. And that seems to be the issue here as well. Even short of nuclear weapons, the end result of this kind of unconditional support seems to be inevitably the self-destruction of Ukraine, and we are the ones paying for it,” the observer summed up."

 • Special Report: The Curtain Closes On Yevgeny Prigozhin, Simplicius, Aug 23, 2023

 • White House Tells Ukraine That Congress Will Back More War Spending, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 23, 2023
    "A House GOP leadership aide told Axios that the new Ukraine spending would likely pass if brought to a vote, but House Speaker Kevin McCarthy might have difficulty bringing it to a floor for a vote due to growing opposition. “I just don’t see that support in the House [Republican] conference right now … We are well beyond just the Freedom Caucus talking about this,” the aide said.
    "Last week, Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), co-chair of the congressional Ukraine Caucus, said he would not support new spending on the war in Ukraine that included anything other than military aid and didn’t establish an inspector general. He also said the counteroffensive “failed” and called for the US to push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pursue peace talks. Harris is also a member of the Freedom Caucus but has been a staunch supporter of the war until now."

 • Ukraine can’t defeat Russia – ex-NATO general, RT, Aug 23, 2023

 • US ‘cannot afford’ to fund Ukraine war – think-tank chief, RT, Aug 23, 2023
    "The US should reduce the assistance it’s providing to Ukraine because it cannot maintain its current level of support, the head of a leading conservative think tank has said. European nations need to do more so Kiev can keep fighting Russia, added Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation....
    "“The US simply cannot afford the level of support that it is giving the Ukrainians. The American people are saying that,” he stated, citing recent opinion polls in the US, which indicated that the US public was turning against the continued bankrolling of Kiev."

 • Ending Ukraine conflict now is ‘smartest thing we can do’ – retired US Army colonel, RT, Aug 23, 2023
    Video posted on 8/22/23.

Aug 23, 2023

 • West ‘perplexed’ by Ukraine’s strategy – NYT, RT, Aug 22, 2023
    U.S. intel, military, and political leaders, and their media lackeys, struggling to find someone to blame. When will Zelensky get the black spot?

 • US Officials Criticize Ukraine’s Tactics, Say Troops are Too Spread Out, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 22, 2023
    "The report, published on Tuesday, is the latest example of the West trying to pin the blame for Ukraine’s failures solely on Kyiv, even though it was clear that the US and NATO did not believe Ukraine would have much success but pushed for the counteroffensive anyway. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Western officials did not think Ukraine had enough training or equipment for the assault but hoped they would be able to break through.…
    "The US has also been pushing Ukraine to go harder in its counteroffensive despite Russia’s vast minefields and high Ukrainian casualty rate. The Times reported this past Friday that US officials ‘fear’ Ukraine has become ‘casualty averse.’"

 • ‘Fight Russia to the Last Ukrainian' is Official White House Policy, Kyle Anzalone, SouthFront, Aug 22, 2023

Aug 22, 2023

Featured • Into the abyss: Colonel Douglas Macgregor tells us why the Ukraine war must end now, Tucker Carlson, Aug 21, 2023
    "If we press this war with Russia in Central East Europe, it will reach us here in the United States."

Comment by Steve Starr: It has been a long time now since the "mainstream media" became the mouthpiece for the official narratives from Washington. Those who rely solely on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Fox, the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc. etc. for their information about what is happening in the world have developed world views consistent with official narratives, which unfortunately are predominantly lies -- which are designed to make people form opinions that will accept what the government is doing as logical and legitimate.

Confronting people like that with accurate information that completely contradicts what they think is "true" forces them to either reconsider their world views, which is not a pleasant process, or reject what you say as "misinformation" and classify you as an extremist or "conspiracy theorist". The second choice is the most common, as it is the easiest and is encouraged (and increasingly, enforced) by a government that has lost all respect for the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

And, as was once said, it is easier to fool a man than convince him that he has been fooled. So, all you can do is try. It is up to the individual to decide what they want to do with information that, if accepted, should force them to change their views. Many seem to prefer cognitive dissonance, to believe contradictory views without questioning them. In fact, people who go along with the official narratives have to accept many contradictory facts without question, like the US is all about "freedom and democracy", while the Federal government is doing its utmost to eliminate freedom of speech and assembly, making any forms of dissent a crime.

Suggest to sceptics that they might turn off their TVs, or at least try listening to some other sources of information about both domestic and international events.

The thing is, the extent of official misinformation/propaganda/lies has become so extreme that it is so much at odds with reality that people are being forced to question it. Sharing the video of Macgregor and Carlson with friends is a good thing to do for them, you, and all of us.

 • Leaked Documents Indicate Zelensky About to be Replaced, SouthFront, Aug 22, 2023

 • US citizens urged to leave Belarus immediately, Laura Kelly, The Hill, Aug 21, 2023

 • ‘Voila, We Have Air Power’? F-16 Transfers to Ukraine Will Take Years to Produce Results, Fantine Gardinier, Sputnik International, Aug 21, 2023

Aug 21, 2023

Featured • SITREP 8/20/23: F-16s Paper Over 500k Losses Report, Simplicius, Aug 20, 2023

 • Scott Ritter: For NATO and Ukraine, Reality Bites, Sputnik International, Aug 20, 2023

 • Ukraine ‘running out of options’ – WaPo, RT, Aug 20, 2023

 • Why Russia is Decimating the Ukraine Counter Offensive, Larry Johnson, Aug 20, 2023

 • US officials admit they missed opportunity for Ukraine peace – Politico, RT, Aug 19, 2023

 • UK Eyeing Use of 'Ukrainian Puppets' to Secure Global Wins Amid MI6 Sabotage Reports - Zakharova, Sputnik International, Aug 19, 2023
    "Zakharova recalled that "famous British empire builder Cecil Rhodes once said: ‘The empire is a bread and butter question.'" The spokeswoman said the UK is still guided by that policy in Africa. “It can be said that London continues to cling desperately to its colonial legacy and seeks with all its might to keep the countries of the continent dependent. Britons are unwilling to talk to them on an equal footing and consider it possible, as before, to interfere in their internal affairs,” she said. The Russian figure noted “the regime of [Ukrainian President] Volodymyr Zelensky needs only money.” “In these schemes, Ukrainian soldiers apparently serve as a kind of payment by Kiev for military aid from the West,” she said. “Judging by the already worked out scheme, the NATO-Ukrainian nexus artificially builds up the conflict potential in Africa. At the same time, Africans and Ukrainians will pay for the realization of the ambitions of the UK’s neocolonialists,” Zakharova said."

Aug 20, 2023

 • Kiev blames Russia for deadly strike, RT, Aug 19, 2023

 • US officials admit they missed opportunity for Ukraine peace – Politico, RT, Aug 19, 2023

 • Ukraine SitRep: Chernihiv Drone Exhibition - Russian Offensive, Moon of Alabama, Aug 19, 2023

 • Russia is a ‘gas station with atomic bombs’ – Borrell, RT, Aug 19, 2023
    Ilargi Mejier: Borrell is not a diplomat, he is merely a "gas bag masquerading as a diplomat."

 • Ukraine conflict ‘could last for decades’ – Medvedev, RT, Aug 19, 2023
    "The hostilities between Russia and Ukraine may end up dragging on for years or even decades, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned on Saturday.
    "For Russia, it is an ‘existential’ conflict and a fight for its very existence, Medvedev, who is currently deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, wrote in a Telegram post. Russia must destroy and fully dismantle the Ukrainian state that is ‘terrorist in its essence,’ making sure ‘this filth’ never re-emerges again, he stressed.
    "‘Should it take years or even decades, then so be it. We have no choice: either we will destroy their hostile political regime, or the collective West will eventually tear Russia to pieces. And in this case, it will perish with us. Nobody needs this,’ Medvedev wrote, presumably hinting at all-out nuclear destruction."

 • Western calls for Ukraine peace talks a ‘tactical ploy’ – Moscow, RT, Aug 18, 2023
    "The US and its allies do not want the Ukraine conflict to end and their purported peace initiatives are merely attempts to buy Kiev time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview published on Saturday.
    "Geopolitical issues need to be discussed “not with [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky, who is a puppet in the hands of the West, but directly with his masters,” Lavrov said earlier this year. Negotiating directly with the Americans would make sense, he told the magazine International Affairs when asked about the idea.
    "‘The problem, however, is that the United States has no intention of ending the conflict,’ Lavrov explained, noting that “their officially declared objective is to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia."

 • West has shown its ‘true Russophobic face’ – Lavrov, RT, Aug 18, 2023
    "Washington and Brussels have openly unleashed a hybrid war against everything Russian, dropping their masks after decades of pretending to be civilized international partners, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with International Affairs, published on Saturday.
    "‘Many of our former partners have been concealing their Russophobic nature under the veil of hypocrisy, but have now shown their true face in all its glory,’ he said. ‘However, there is also the flip side of the coin here, since the Global Majority saw the true face of those who went as far as [to] aspire to a monopoly in defining the so-called universal values.’
    "‘Today’s West is steered by people like Josep Borrell who divide the world into a blooming ‘garden’ and ‘the jungle,’ where the latter clearly applies to most of humanity,’ Lavrov added.
    "The West has spent decades cynically transforming neighboring Ukraine into a ‘hostile military bulwark against Russia by nurturing an entire generation of politicians ready to declare war on our shared past, culture and everything Russian,’ according to Lavrov.
    "Western capitals even openly admitted that reaching a peaceful settlement in Ukraine was never part of their plan, and that the Minsk agreements were originally designed to ‘buy some time to prepare a military scenario and deliver weapons to Kiev.’
    "‘I think that the essential thing we must understand in this regard is that the West wants to do away with our country as a serious geopolitical rival,’ the top Russian diplomat said."

Aug 19, 2023

Featured • Big Brave Western Proxy Warriors Keep Whining That Ukrainian Troops Are Cowards, CaitlinJohnstone.com, Aug 19, 2023

New York Times: "American officials say they fear that Ukraine has become casualty averse, one reason it has been cautious about pressing ahead with the counteroffensive. Almost any big push against dug-in Russian defenders protected by minefields would result in huge numbers of losses."

Aug 18, 2023

 • Ukraine could lose everything – Lukashenko, RT, Aug 18, 2023

 • Report: US 'Classified Forecast' Predicts Ukraine Counteroffensive Will Fail, Ian DeMartino, Sputnik International, Aug 17, 2023

 • Congressional Ukraine Caucus Co-Chair Says War May Not Be ‘Winnable’, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 17, 2023

Aug 17, 2023

Featured • Ukraine Commits Last Remaining Elite Brigade For Final Attempt, Simplicius, Aug 16, 2023
    Excellent, detailed summary of current events in and related to the Ukraine War.

 • Ukraine’s ‘high hopes’ for F-16s dashed, RT, Aug 17, 2023

 • Report: US Considering ‘Military Solutions’ to Protect Shipments from Ukraine’s Danube River Ports, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 16, 2023

 • Ukrainian leadership split over counteroffensive – Newsweek, RT, Aug 16, 2023

Aug 16, 2023

 • The Hard Reality: Ukraine’s Last-Gasp Offensive Has Failed, Daniel Davis, 1945, Aug 16, 2023
    "The cold, hard truth in the war between Russia and Ukraine today is that Ukraine’s last-gasp offensive has failed, and no amount of spin will change the outcome. The UAF failed for entirely predictable reasons, based on enduring combat fundamentals that are not subject to optimism, wishful thinking, or spin. The question, however, is what should the United States do now.
    "The policy employed by Washington from the beginning of the war has been supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes.” Whether that was ever a good idea or bad, I’ll leave to debate another time. What is important here is that the policy did not produce an outcome beneficial to either Kyiv or Washington and now must evolve to acknowledge new realities.
    "No one can claim the United States didn’t give Ukraine every chance to find out if it could succeed on the battlefield, as we provided literally thousands of armored vehicles, millions of shells, missiles, and bombs, and training and intelligence support – along with scores of billions in other aid. But that help did not produce a Ukrainian victory and it is now time to set new policies in light of current realities.

Yes, realism would be a good idea. When all else fails, which it has. Blinken and Nod don't know it, however. That's the price they -- and Ukraine, and we -- pay for their total control in the mainstream media.

 • MI6 plans to send Ukrainian mercenaries to Africa – media, RT, Aug 16, 2023

 • Western military dominance ‘has ended’ – Moscow, RT, Aug 15, 2023

 • Amid 'staggering' Ukrainian toll and souring US polls, Biden seeks billions more for war, Aaron Mate, Aug 14, 2023

 • The Summer of Fraying Threads, William Schryver, imetatronink, Aug 14, 2023

Aug 15, 2023

Featured • Open Questions on the War: The Black Sea, Out-of-View ‘War’, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Aug 14, 2023
    "Any military approach (i.e. such as Sun Tzu’s dictum: “It is the unemotional, reserved, calm, detached warrior who wins, not the hothead”) and one that recognises the weakness of its opponents’ psyche and the need to nudge it delicately towards acceptance of a new, unfamiliar reality, is always vulnerable to be misconstrued as signalling weakness.
    "Starkly put: Is a Russian show of strength now needed to correct western misperceptions which continue to fantasise about weakness, unrest and the coming political collapse of Russia? Sun Tzu would retort: ‘Engage people with what they expect. It is what they are able to discern, and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds – whilst you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.’…
    "Military commands may chaff [chafe?] at it, but the Global South admires Russia precisely because it does not ape the Colonial Powers. The world respects power, yes, but is tired of just ‘fire-power’. Russia has a leading role to play now, and many are the constituencies that must be taken into account. This will be underlined in the coming days as events in Niger unfold, and as the BRICS summit proceeds with new arrangements for trading mechanisms high on the agenda.
    "The effective use of ‘other means of asymmetric power’ is contingent upon timing above all else. (Sun Tzu for the last time): ‘Occupy their minds while you wait for the right moment’. It would seem that President Putin is very familiar with The Art of War."

Featured • How Will the War in Ukraine End?, Larry Johnson, Aug 14, 2023
A complex situation boiled down, as he says. Some of the omitted complexity may however be determinative. It now appears, for example, that the Zelenksy regime holds very serious kompromat on Joe Biden. Has any U.S. president ever been more blatantly bribed by a foreign government? And then that government is given well past $100 billion in aid, with more in the offing? It's an amazing display of Hitler's ‘big lie.’

 • As Maui Burns, Biden Demands Another $24 Billion… For Ukraine!, Ron Paul, Antiwar.com, Aug 15, 2023

 • The West And The War In Ukraine: Selling & Buying Hopium, ZeroHedge, Aug 15, 2023

 • US, Finland Negotiating Defense Agreement That Would See Deployment of American Troops, Kyle Anzalone, Antiwar.com, Aug 13, 2023

Aug 14, 2023

 • The Most Important Election of All Time: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix, Caitlin Johnstone, Aug 14, 2023
    "The only people who use phrases like ‘Putin apologist’ are US empire apologists. And I’m not just reversing the accusation, I’m highlighting a fact: their accusations are seldom if ever directed at those who love Russia, they’re directed at those who criticize US foreign policy. The overwhelming majority of accusations of Kremlin loyalty are directed not at those who cheer for Russia and support Putin, they’re directed at those who criticize things the US empire is doing. This tendency could only arise from a fierce loyalty to that empire."

 • SITREP 8/13/23: AFU Struggles For Symbolic Meaning In Late Summer Doldrums, Simplicius, Aug 13, 2023
    Very useful for war details. Pro-Russian but as far as I can tell, factual. There are simply no trustworthy sources in the Western MSM.

 • Last Stop Before Willoughby, William Schryver, imetatronink, Aug 9, 2023
    Just a short, conclusory comment from the thoughtful Mr. Schryver, but valuable for all that. Who can doubt that today, China or Russia would defeat the U.S. in conventional warfare in their “near-abroads” (e.g. Ukraine, Taiwan)? What lurks beneath the conventional warfare question is the assumed "deterrence" value of U.S. nuclear weapons. What U.S. nuclear weapons are meant to “deter” is U.S. conventional defeat, and by extension the end of the unipolar “rules based world order.” Nuclear weapons, the Air Force once wrote, are the "aegis" that protects U.S. expeditionary forces overseas, the “top cover” for U.S. forces abroad.
    A larger, long-standing question is, what is national security? To the extent the U.S. hollows out its industrial base, with military and nuclear needs hogging talent and otherwise generally corrupting our national institutions, is national security being served? Wouldn't true national security be aligned with domestic and household security, and with renewed government legitimacy and a decent pride in what we are building? But what are we building?

 • Ukraine Worked With Democrats Against Trump in Election 2016 to Stop Putin. That Bet Backfired Badly, Paul Sperry, RealClear Investigations, Mar 10, 2022

Aug 13, 2023

Featured    • U.S.-Led NATO Drowns Ukraine in a Bloodbath, Editorial, Strategic Culture Foundation, Aug 4, 2023
Featured    •War is a Racket… U.S. and NATO Arms Industries Make Record $400 BILLION in Sales from Proxy War With Russia, Editorial, Strategic Culture Foundation, Aug 11, 2023

  • Veteran CIA Analyst on Russia Ray McGovern Has Never Been More Scared of Nuclear Catastrophe, Scheerpost, Aug 11, 2023
    While extremely wordy and distracted with personal anecdotes, the wisdom of Ray McGovern shines through. I (Greg Mello, the voice in all italicized comments on this page) agree with all his judgments here, which deserve the closest attention and respect.
    "…I spent six decades, count them, six decades following Soviet and now Russian policy…And I have never, never had so much fears that we are on the cusp of a nuclear catastrophe. Why? Because the people advising Joe Biden. And Joe Biden is compos mentis or not, I don’t know. But the people advising him are calling the shots. They have a lot to lose if Ukraine goes shoop! Now, I hate to tell you this, but Ukraine is going to shoop! Russia is winning. And whoever advised, well actually probably the CIA director advise the president to say Russia has already lost. Okay. Hello. So what happens to the CIA director? He gets promoted to be a cabinet officer. A really, a stupid thing in and of itself. Anyhow. There’s a degree of unreality here. …So just last night, CNN had an honest report. Ukrainians are losing. They’re taking a real bashing. They’re not going to win anytime soon. Maybe they can last until next year, but that even is doubtful.…And the problem is they’re going to have to try to figure out some way to to rejigger the narrative here so that Americans won’t say, well, wait a sec, I thought we were winning. I thought the Ukrainians were winning. They’re not? And we have to decide, well, how do we handle this? Now, the media is so malleable that they probably won’t have any trouble persuading Americans. Oh, this was all good. We tried. We said that we gave Ukraine 98% of what they needed and I guess they just couldn’t handle it. That’s the way it’s going to come down. Meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds, hundreds of Ukrainian young men and some old men like me are perishing every day that the U.S. and the Ukrainians and NATO don’t say, well, look, let’s stop this. Let’s stop this carnage. Let’s talk.…
    "What’s going to happen now is that the military industrial complex, which I call the MICIMATT, let me spell that out for you. All right. Military, industrial, congressional, intelligence, media, academia, think tank complex. They all play an essential role. But the reason I say media, as if in all caps is because media is the linchpin. If you can’t have the media cooperating on this, you’re not able to do it. And who does? The media? Who is it owned by? The rest of the MICIMATT.…"

  • F-16 Training For Ukrainian Pilots Barely Getting Off the Runway, Svetlana Ekimenko, Sputnik International, Aug 11, 2023

  • Ukrainians Begin to Despair as Bloody Counteroffensive Yields Small Gains, Kyle Anzalone, The Libertian Institute, Aug 10, 2023
    "The sense of despair is driven by massive casualties in Kiev’s counteroffensive. Blyzniuk said that most soldiers sent to the front die in just two to three days.
    Related: CNN: ‘markedly negative’ prospects, ‘staggering losses,’ ‘much less hopeful’: https://twitter.com/i/status/1689914129216118784."

Aug 12, 2023

    • New York Times Helps Marco Rubio Push Persecution Of Antiwar Leftists, CaitlinJohnstone.com, Aug 13, 2023
    In the short run, among other goals, this is meant to chill potential donors of antiwar groups.
    Nothing new for us. Been going on for two decades, since Clinton.
    • YouTube Deletes Scott Ritter’s Channel, Ilya Tsukanov, Sputnik International, Aug 11, 2023

 • Alexander Mercouris: How Zelensky ‘Blackmails’ the US, Ekaterina Blinova, Sputnik International, Aug 11, 2023

 • ‘The Greatest Fighting Force in Human History’, William J. Astore, Consortium News, Aug 11, 2023
    Here we have the basis for a national movement, provided left and right can work together.
    It's far too much money when so many people, states, cities, counties have too little.
    "In so many ways, the U.S. military is indeed exceptional. Let’s begin with its budget. At this very moment, Congress is debating a colossal “defense” budget of $886 billion for FY2024 (and all the debate is about issues that have little to do with the military).
    "That defense spending bill, you may recall, was ‘only’ $740 billion when President Joe Biden took office three years ago. In 2021, Biden withdrew U.S. forces from the disastrous war in Afghanistan, theoretically saving the taxpayer nearly $50 billion a year. Yet, in place of any sort of peace dividend, American taxpayers simply got an even higher bill as the Pentagon budget continued to soar.
    "Recall that, in his four years in office, Donald Trump increased military spending by 20 percent. Biden is now poised to achieve a similar 20 percent increase in just three years in office. And that increase largely doesn’t even include the cost of supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia — so far, somewhere between $120 billion and $200 billion and still rising…
    "Speaking of all those failed wars, perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn that they haven’t come cheaply. According to the Costs of War Project at Brown University, roughly 937,000 people have died since 9/11/2001 thanks to direct violence in this country’s ‘Global War on Terror’ in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere. And the deaths of another 3.6 to 3.7 million people may be indirectly attributable to those same post-9/11 conflicts. The financial cost to the American taxpayer has been roughly $8 trillion and rising even as the U.S. military continues its counterterror preparations and activities in 85 countries.
    "No other nation in the world sees its military as (to borrow from a short-lived Navy slogan) ‘a global force for good.’ No other nation divides the whole world into military commands like AFRICOM for Africa and CENTCOM for the Middle East and parts of Central and South Asia, headed up by four-star generals and admirals. No other nation has a network of 750 foreign bases scattered across the globe. No other nation strives for full-spectrum dominance through ‘all-domain operations,’ meaning not only the control of traditional “domains” of combat — the land, sea, and air — but also of space and cyberspace. While other countries are focused mainly on national defense (or regional aggressions of one sort or another), the U.S. military strives for total global and spatial dominance. Truly exceptional!"

Aug 11, 2023

Featured • Ukraine SitRep: The End Of The Counteroffensive, Moon of Alabama, Aug 11, 2023
     MoA sees a critical mass of failure-acknowledgment. That does not mean more military aid won't be sent, however, IMO.

Featured • Biden Asks Congress for Additional $24 Billion to Spend on Ukraine War, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 10, 2023
    "The White House on Thursday asked Congress to approve a $40 billion bill that includes nearly $24 billion for additional spending on the war in Ukraine.
    "According to CNN, the $24 billion for the Ukraine war includes $13 billion in military aid and $7.3 billion in economic and humanitarian assistance. It also includes $3.3 billion for infrastructure projects for regional countries impacted by the war.
    "The request comes after a poll from CNN found that 55% of Americans are against more spending on the war in Ukraine.
    "The $40 billion bill also includes $12 billion in domestic disaster relief and $4 billion for border security. Media reports have said the White House would try to add Taiwan aid to the spending package, but it was not included in the request.
    "The funds will be in the form of an ‘emergency’ supplemental package, a type of spending not limited by the debt ceiling deal reached between the White House and House Republicans.
    "Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Congress has authorized $113 billion in spending on the war. If the new package is approved, the total will reach about $137 billion."

 • Russian Economy Overtakes Germany, UK and France Despite Western Sanctions, James Tweedie, Sputnik International, Aug 10, 2023
    "‘If you look at Europe, it's sliding into being an economic vassal of the United States,’ he [Tweedie] noted. ‘I think that was an objective. And politically, Europe has no foreign policy now. NATO is driving Europe's foreign policy.’     "But Washington's long-term goal remains to engineer regime-change in Moscow and balkanize Russia.
    "‘That's been a Neocon wet dream since 1999 to pretty much debilitate, break up Russia and get all the resources,’ Rasmus said. ‘And face it, the Neocons have been running US policy here since the late nineties, since Bill Clinton couldn't keep his zipper closed.’
    "‘What they want, ultimately, is to dismember Russia and to go to war with China,’ he added. ‘It's crazy and it's World War Three, and you've got demented old leaders in the US who are just putty in the hands of the Neocons.’"

 • Anti-Russia sanctions destroying German industry – MP, RT, Aug 11, 2023
    "The EU’s largest economy is facing a further economic decline and de-industrialization as a result of the bloc’s sanctions policy against Russia, German MP Uwe Schulz has warned. According to a statement published on the website of the right-wing AfD party, of which Schulz is a member, the punitive measures have failed to hurt Russia, but have devastated the German economy.“Sanctions against Russia and economic measures by the ruling Traffic Light Coalition [the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Greens and the Free Democratic Party] are leading Germany and its economic activity straight to de-industrialization,” the politician stated. He added it was ‘not surprising that in 2022 the Russian Federation displaced Germany from fifth place in the ranking of the world’s leading economies.’"

 • Peaceful settlement possible if Kiev stops hostilities, terrorist attacks — diplomat, TASS, Aug 9, 2023
    "‘On our behalf, we continue maintaining our principled stance that a comprehensive, sustainable and just settlement is possible only if the Kiev regime stops the hostilities and terrorist attacks, while its Western sponsors stop pumping up the Ukrainian military with weapons,’ Galuzin said in an interview with TASS.
    "According to the Russian diplomat, ‘the original foundations of Ukraine's sovereignty - its neutral, non-bloc adherence and non-nuclear status - must be confirmed in order to reach this [conflict] settlement.’
    "‘The new territorial realities must be recognized, the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine and the rights of its Russian-speaking citizens and national minorities must be ensured in accordance with the requirements of international law,’ Galuzin added."
    This is an excellent deal. Take it. The U.S. and NATO should have taken it in December 2021 but their goals were to vassalize Europe and dismember Russia. All that has happened since then is needless death, suffering, and destruction.

Aug 10, 2023

Featured • Ukraine Russia War - Reality Setting In w/Col Doug Macgregor, Judging Freedom, Aug 8, 2023
    This exchange would be eye-opening to many people. MacGregor does not commit himself to this, but for the record I (gm) do not agree that Russia should be more aggressive, now that Ukraine is on the ropes. There is an argument to be made in that direction, sure. To the extent I have any uninformed opinion on the matter, I am in favor of everything that allows the West a way out. I would not force the U.S. and NATO "against the wall," leaving no option other than ignominious defeat or dramatic escalation. See Larry Johnson's guest article, today.

Featured • United States Plan B, Observer R, A Son of the New American Revolution, Aug 9, 2023
    "A fourth proposal is simply to continue the ‘narrative’ that Ukraine is winning the war and at the same time to negotiate secretly with Russia to end the fighting. This is a version of ‘declare victory and go home.’ Obviously, this would be very difficult to carry out....
    "As early as 2018 [sic -- a lot earlier than that], informed observers could tell that the US Establishment strategy for dealing with Russia (Plan A) was unlikely to succeed. The reasons were: 1) The US lacked the factories necessary for an industrial war, 2) The US lacked advanced weapons to counter Russia’s hypersonics, and 3) The US reliance on sanctions would prove counterproductive. At that point, the US should have gone to a backup or alternative strategy (Plan B), but no such plan seemed to be available.
    "There was a potential, but unwritten, alternative strategy: To support the US dollar by adding additional measures to compliment the earlier Petrodollar scheme, and to eliminate measures that weakened use of the dollar. Unfortunately for the US Establishment, the US went ahead with Plan A, with the result that it not only failed to sink Russia, but also mostly ruined any chance for a realistic Plan B. As it stands now, the US is facing another military debacle in Ukraine, a resurgent Russia, a collapsing US domestic environment, and a Global East and South leaving the West behind. To make matters worse, one might say that there is no alternative being considered publicly that might work."

 • Ukrainian Church Leader Given 5 Years In Prison For Being Seen As Sympathetic To Russia, ZeroHedge, Aug 10, 2023

 • US Helped Engineer A Coup Against Pakistan's PM Khan Over Ukraine Stance, ZeroHedge, Aug 10, 2023

 • Ukraine Defeat Ominous to Team Biden Admitted by US Press, Ekaterian Blinova, Sputnik International, Aug 9, 2023

Aug 9, 2023

Featured • Clearing the Fog of ‘Unprovoked’ War, Edward Lozansky, Antiwar.com, Aug 9, 2023

 • Most Germans against sending long-range missiles to Kiev – poll, RT, Aug 9, 2023
    Yet Germany may do so, taking us considerably closer to nuclear war. If more large-payload, fast and/or stealthy missiles with such long range are supplied to the military "state" of Ukraine, along with the expansion of NATO now underway in Russia's northwest and all the other security complications being created, Russia will have to take more decisive actions in Ukraine than it has so far. Any involvement of non-Ukrainian countries, e.g. via a Polish-Lithuanian expeditionary force in Ukraine, also risks rapid transition to a world war.
    It is almost unbelievable that the "peace movement" is so silent about all this.

 • Western Officials Tell CNN Ukraine’s Counteroffensive ‘Extremely Unlikely’ to Succeed, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 8, 2023

 • Report: Biden Expected to Ask Congress for More Ukraine Funding This Week, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 8, 2023

 • Does Ukraine Have Kompromat on Joe Biden? | Opinion, Max Abrahms, Newsweek, Aug 8, 2023

 • Western officials losing faith in Ukraine's military – CNN, RT, Aug 8, 2023

Aug 8, 2023

Featured • The Illusory Truth Effect And The “Unprovoked” Invasion Of Ukraine, Caitlin Johnstone, Aug 9, 2023

Featured • The Great Unravelling: ‘For All That Is Ours, We Must Fight’, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Aug 7, 2023

 • Ukrainian Rear is Burning, SouthFront, Aug 7, 2023

 • Is the West Losing Faith in Zelensky and Ukraine? A Discussion with Judge Napolitano, Larry Johnson, Aug 7, 2023

 • Andrey Sushentsov: The West really believes Russia is on the verge of ‘collapse.’ This explains a lot of bad policy, RT, Aug 7, 2023

 • Ukrainian activists force priest to apologize after call for peace, RT, Aug 7, 2023

 • ‘No compromise’ with Moscow, Kiev vows, RT, Aug 7, 2023

 • Most Americans don’t want Congress to approve more aid for Ukraine war, Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Responsible Statecraft, Aug 4, 2023

Aug 7, 2023

 • Poll: Most Americans Oppose More Spending on the Ukraine War, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 6, 2023

 • NATO Instructors Trained Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion Soldiers in 2021, Sputnik International, Aug 6, 2023

    • Coup D'etat in Niger: Africa on Verge of New War with Deep Geopolitical Effects, SouthFront, Aug 6, 2023
    • Niger Faces Threat of Military Intervention, SouthFront, Aug 5, 2023

Aug 6, 2023

 • Scott Ritter: Who is Responsible for Ukraine's Failed Counteroffensive? The Road to Rabotino: Ukraine's Highway to Hell, Sputnik International, Aug 5, 2023
    "The road to Rabotino is paved with the detritus of western hubris, manifested in the flesh and blood of the Ukrainian Army scattered amongst the destroyed material produced by the defense industries of the collective West. This battle had only one possible ending, which has come to pass.
    "But the real tragedy is that neither Ukraine nor the collective West have absorbed the lessons that they were taught by the Russian Army—that the conflict in Ukraine can only end in a Russian victory. Sadly, many thousands of more Ukrainian soldiers, and tens of billions of dollars more of western military equipment, will need to be sacrificed before this lesson is finally driven home."

 • Russian Tanker Hit By Ukrainian Sea Drones, Likely With Help From US Intelligence, ZeroHedge, Aug 5, 2023

 • Asians are less ‘humane’ – Ukrainian security chief, RT, Aug 4, 2023
    "‘Humanity’ is the key difference between Ukrainians and Russians, who are “Asians,” Aleksey Danilov claims."

Aug 5, 2023

Featured • Subscriber Mailbag Answers - 8/3/23 [Part 3 Grand Finale], Simplicius, Aug 3, 2023
    Miscellaneous information and analysis, a grab bag.

 • Judge Andrew Napolitano: Biden Doesn’t Have Coherent Strategy in Ukraine, Ekaterina Blinova, Sputnik International, Aug 4, 2023

 • Russia was doing its utmost to prevent war, protect Donbass people’s rights — Kremlin, TASS, Aug 3, 2023

Aug 4, 2023

Featured • Why is the West so Weak (and Russia so Strong)? The Role of Human Capital and Western Education, Gaius Baltar, A Son of the New American Revolution, Aug 4, 2023
    While this is just a sketch or caricature and really needs to be a book with a more balanced treatment, the shocking claims here are pretty much validated by what we see in government, much of academia, and the nonprofit world.
    It is almost unbelievable how incompetent New Mexico state and local governments are these days. Not uniformly, just mostly. Many seem to operate just this side of collapse. The 1999 sketch by Owen Lopez, then of the McCune Foundation, was and is insightful, pointing that in New Mexico the "who you know" patronage system undermines competence at all levels.
    Jane Jacobs said much the same thing as "Baltar" in an even shorter sketch in Dark Age Ahead: a technocratic society cannot survive without a high degree of competence -- which we no longer have.
    The really important book by Jeff Schmidt (Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-battering System That Shapes Their Lives) goes into some depth about the professional education that forms the professional-managerial class (PMC). Thomas Frank ("Listen Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?") discusses how the Democratic Party adopted the PMC as its core constituency, wrote off what Hillary Clinton famously called "the deplorables," with utterly foreseeable results.

 • Three Polls On Support For The War In Ukraine, Moon of Alabama, Aug 4, 2023
    "Within both parties, there are splits by ideology. On providing additional funding, liberal Democrats [gm: i.e. progressives] are far and away the most supportive, 74% back it compared with 51% of moderate or conservative Democrats. Among Republicans, about three-quarters of conservatives oppose new funding (76%) compared with 61% of moderate or liberal Republicans."

 • Michael Vlahos Says it all About Ukraine’'s Looming Disaster, Larry Johnson, Aug 4, 2023

 • Moscow issues update on estimated Ukrainian casualties during counteroffensive, RT, Aug 4, 2023

Aug 3, 2023

 • Is Biden Preparing to Dump Ukraine For Taiwan?, Ekaterina Blinova, Sputnik International, Aug 3, 2023
    In short, no. It's both-and.

 • WSJ: 20,000-50,000 Ukrainians Have Lost Limbs Since Russia Invaded, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 2, 2023
    "Between 20,000 and 50,000 Ukrainians have lost one or more limbs since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday....The number of Ukrainian amputations puts the war on the scale of World War I. According to the report, some 67,000 Germans and 41,000 Britons had to have amputations during the four-year war. Less than 2,000 Americans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan in this century have had amputations."

 • No Breakthroughs for Ukrainian Forces in Counteroffensive, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Aug 2, 2023
    "The POLITICO report said that Ukraine committed 150,000 troops to the assault along three axes of attack, but Pentagon officials said the operations have not yielded significant results, with one saying Ukrainian gains are being measured by the hundreds of meters."

Aug 2, 2023

 • US frustrated with Zelensky – media, RT, Aug 2, 2023
    See also Simplicius on this topic. Zelensky will be a principal "fall guy." When and how he falls is hard to predict, but the signs are there. And as various parties have written, Western leaders are going to pin losing the war on bad Ukrainian decisions.

 • US will spend on Ukraine more than it did on Marshall Plan after WWII, SouthFront, Aug 1, 2023
    "Sopko: ‘We are spending more money in Ukraine now in one year than we spent in about 12 years in Afghanistan, and by the end of this year, we will spend more money in Ukraine than we did to do the entire Marshall Plan after World War Two,’ he warned, emphasising that he supported financial aid, but felt that need to make sure it was done ‘correctly and under supervision.’"

 • Make Peace, You Fools!, Douglas Macgregor, The American Conservative, Aug 1, 2023

Aug 1, 2023

Featured • John Mearsheimer: Ukraine war is a long-term danger, Aaron Maté, The Grayzone, Jul 30, 2023
    "…if you go back to what caused this war, the principal cause of this war, as the evidence makes perfectly clear, is the idea that we were going to bring Ukraine into NATO. And if we had abandoned that policy before February 2022, we probably wouldn’t have a war today. Then once the war starts, we keep doubling down on bringing Ukraine into NATO. We’ve refused to give up on that. But the end result is, that just incentivizes the Russians more and more to make sure that that never happens, or if it happens, Ukraine is a dysfunctional rump state.
    "So, we are playing—we, meaning the West—are playing a key role here in incentivizing the Russians to destroy Ukraine. It makes absolutely no sense to me from a strategic point of view or from a moral point of view. You think of the death and destruction that’s being wrought in Ukraine, and you think that this could have easily been avoided. It makes you sick to your stomach just to contemplate it all…
    "And the general point I like to make is that we’re not going to get a meaningful peace agreement between Ukraine and the West on one side and the Russians on the other side. The best we can hope for is a cold peace, and a cold peace where the Russians are constantly looking for opportunities to improve their position, and the Ukrainians and the West are constantly looking for opportunities to improve their position. In both cases this means taking advantage of the other side. When you get into a cold peace, where both sides are operating that way, the potential for escalation and returning to a hot war is great. And you want to think about that in the context of the different possible fronts where war could break out that we were just discussing. There’s just a lot of potential for escalation in this area of the world. So, I think the situation between Russia on one side and the West on the other side, and of course Ukraine, is going to be very dangerous for a long time to come."

 • US-Chilean journalist describes torture in Ukrainian prison, RT, Jul 31, 2023
    "Chilean-American blogger Gonzalo Lira, arrested by the Ukrainian intelligence in May on charges of pro-Russian sympathies, reappeared online on Monday and told a sordid tale of beatings and extortion while awaiting a show trial. ‘I was tortured in two of the four cells I was in—by the other prisoners,’ Lira posted in a 25-tweet thread on Monday evening, noting that all the torture in the pre-trial detention center (SIZO) was outsourced to the inmates. ‘I got a cracked rib in my first cell, but it wasn’t too bad. The worst stretch was in my fourth cell. From 1pm on June 21 until 7pm the next day—30 hours’ two inmates tortured him and at one point ‘used a toothpick to scratch the whites of my left eye, while asking me if I could still read if I had just one,’ Lira wrote."
    Hallelujah. Close call. Watch your back.

 • Patrick Lawrence: The Bidens’ Burisma Bribery, Consortium News, Jul 31, 2023
    The Zelensky regime has abundant kompromat on Joe Biden. So does Victoria Nuland. So do others. It would be the height of naivete to think this has nothing to do with decisionmaking in this administration.

 • ‘The Real Purpose In Making The Bomb Was To Subdue The Soviets.’ Now It’s Happening Again, On A Vast Scale. Why? – July 22 At Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos Reporter, Jul 19, 2023

 • Bulletin 330: "'The real purpose in making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets.'* Now it's happening again, on a vast scale. WHY?" A conversation with acclaimed historian Peter Kuznick and Greg Mello in Los Alamos, July 22, Jul 7, 2023

 • Ukraine War Makes it Harder to be a Nuclear ‘Dove’ | Our Land, Laura Paskus, New Mexico in Focus, Jun 30, 2023

 • Bulletin 329: Russia rules out nuclear disarmament negotiations; second week of Ukrainian offenses fail; what will US and NATO do? Build 60 projects in LANL's Pajarito Corridor?, Jun 17, 2023

 • Ukraine; Biden's Manicheism; the U.S. cannot even conduct a nuclear arms race, let alone win one, LASG friends ltr, Mar 16, 2023

 • Ukraine protest and updates, pit production delays and cost increases in NNSA's new budget, LASG friends ltr, Mar 14, 2023

 • Antiwar rally 2 pm Saturday in Albuquerque; LANL pits delayed, endorse the "Call for Sanity"; Ukraine update; the Nordstream investigation (and likely impeachment) "imperative" LASG friends ltr, Mar 11, 2023

 • Ukraine losses mount toward critical point; ANSWER rally against the war is now 2 pm (not 1 pm), March 18, Albuquerque; nearly half U.S. citizens believe WWIII is near, LASG friends ltr, Mar 7, 2023

 • Ukraine news and views; antiwar rally March 18; pending guest editorial; pit production precis, LASG friends ltr, Mar 3, 2023

 • Bulletin 325: Understanding the Nordstream sabotage and punishing those responsible, Feb 18, 2023

 • Ukraine news with comments and excerpts; bookmark for future reference if desired,LASG friends ltr, Feb 8, 2023

 • Bulletin 324: Opposition to Ukraine war gains visibility in New Mexico and via our web site, more broadly, Feb 6, 2023

 • Anti-nuclear activist opposes helping Ukraine, encourages peace, Santa Fe New Mexican, Feb 5, 2023

 • Bulletin 323: "Nuclear Hotseat" interview / Ukraine war updates, Feb 4, 2023

 • Bulletin 322: Right and Left To Join in D.C. Protest: ‘Not One More Penny for War in Ukraine’ / Bulletin of Atomic Scientists resets clock, blames Russia, Jan 25, 2023

 • $10 Trillion for Nuclear War: Racing to the Nuclear Cliff, The Socialist Program with Brian Becker, Jan 10, 2023

 • Bulletin 321: Last day for 2022 donations! / A few quick updates, Dec 31, 2022

 • Bulletin 320: Neocon humiliation -- or nuclear exchange / The centrality of war resistance in moral politics / 3 days left for 1:1 donation match!, Dec 29, 2022

 • Bulletin 319: Ukraine; NDAA: omnibus appropriations bill; fundraising --thank you; some matching funds still available, Dec 21, 2022

 • Stop the war now, Jean Nichols, The Taos News, Dec 19, 2022

 • Bulletin 318: Speak out now against further U.S. escalation in Ukraine; daily updates for your use, Dec 14, 2022

 • Agenda for tonight's emergency Ukraine meeting in Albuquerque, and by Zoom, Nov 15, 2022

 • Bulletin 314: Reminder re next week's antiwar, disarmament, & nuclear safety events: come if you can or tune in, outreach needed; pit interview on KNME tonight 7 pm; fundraising drive continues; erratum, Nov 11, 2022

 • Bulletin 313: Important meeting about Ukraine next week; DNFSB hearing in Santa Fe; more, Nov 7, 2022

 • Biden Administration releases aggressive nuclear strategy envisioning "first use" of nuclear weapons in wars like Ukraine, press release, Oct 27, 2022

 • Bulletin 310: Speak up! We urge you to take up the call for peace in Ukraine, Sep 25, 2022

 • Pope Francis: "World War III has been declared." We agree. Stop LANL's pit factory; Stop the U.S. war against Russia, presentation, Jun 15, 2022

 • Bulletin 301: Oppose the war! Demand and create accountability for lawmakers who fund and promote more war in Ukraine, May 16, 2022

 • Grave dangers loom in Ukraine war votes and escalations; opportunities open for journalists and citizens; We urge news media to widen debate, pose questions, create accountability, press release, May 16, 2022

 • LASG friends ltr: Thursday evening public discussion in Albuquerque: Ukraine, propaganda, progressives supporting Nazis and war, May 10, 2022

 • Escalation in Ukraine: The Nuclear War Danger is Real, Brian Becker & Greg Mello discuss the U.S. policy of waging proxy war on Russia, BreakThrough News, May 4, 2022

 • Bulletin 299: Emergency call to action: stop Biden's proposed $33 billion war escalation, Apr 28, 2022

 • Bulletin 298: Talk on pits & renewed U.S. nuclear weapons production Tuesday evening 4/26/22; antiwar billboard; what you can do, Apr 25, 2022

 • The core debate, Searchlight New Mexico, Mar 23, 2022

 • Bulletin 294: Please consider forwarding this fine statement from UNAC re Ukraine, Mar 23, 2022

 • Nuclear expert speaks on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Website, Mar 15, 2022

 • A Proposed Solution to the Ukraine War, Consortium News, Greg Mello, Mar 7, 2022

 • Bulletin 293: Ukraine conflict: If you want a ceasefire (as we do), stop firing, Mar 5, 2022

 • Bulletin 292: Statement on the Ukraine conflict and war with Russia, Mar 1, 2022

 • "What can we in New Mexico do?," LASG letter, Feb 23, 2022

 • Bulletin 288: US nuclear weapons since 2020: continuity and change, Dec 7, 2021 (see discussion of US, NATO, and Russia)

 • Nuclear experts speak on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Web Site, Apr 15, 2017

 • US Leaders Reject “Nuclear Winter” Studies, Ignore Existential Danger of Nuclear War. Turn a Blind Eye towards Armageddon, Steven Starr, Global Research, Nov 1, 2016

 • The Ukraine Conflict: What's Behind It? Why Is It Important?, Sep 26, 2015

 • Bulletin 200: Warhead budget bloat; U.S.-caused Ukraine catastrophe at the brink; hello peak oil, Feb 8, 2015