February 2023

Feb 28, 2023

 • Hungary Demands UN Investigation Into “Scandalous” Attack on Nord Stream Pipelines, Paul Joseph Watson, Summit News, Feb 27, 2023

Featured • Manichaeism and ‘An Ideology of Liberal Empire’ – Biden’s Forever Cosmic War Against Russian ‘Evil’, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Feb 27, 2023

 • Treating Putin as an Irredeemable Imperialist has Painted the West into a Dangerous Corner, Larry Johnson, A Son of the New American Revolution, Feb 27, 2023

Feb 27, 2023

 • Gilbert Doctorow on Vladimir Putin’s State of the Nation Address, Antiwar.com, Feb 27, 2023

 • White House Believed ‘Economic Nuclear Weapon’ Would End Russian War in Ukraine, Kyle Anzalone, Antiwar.com, Feb 24, 2023
   "Top administration officials thought Russian President Vladimir Putin would back down if Washington stole hundreds of billions of dollars from Moscow."

 • Zelensky Says Ukraine Is Preparing to Attack Crimea, Dave DeCamp, Anitwar.com, Feb 26, 2023
   "Victoria Nuland says the US supports attacks on the peninsula"

 • Donbass: A Story of Defiance, Sputnik International, Feb 26, 2023

 • The West’s grand Illusions in Ukraine, Jeff Rich, JohnMenadue.com, Feb 22, 2023
   " Truth will disperse the illusion. It may take weeks. It may take months or years. But, at some stage, there will be a reckoning. The end of World War I was not good for the deluded European imperial elites. The end of the war in Ukraine will not be good for the imperial American elites. They have spent too long spinning the virtual realities of manipulated news – ‘America makes its own reality’ – to deal with the realities of a changed multipolar world."

Feb 26, 2023

 • Western Leaders Privately Say Ukraine Can’t Win the War, Joe Lauria, Consortium News, Feb 25, 2023
   "Political analyst Alexander Mercouris, in his video report on Saturday, said Russia would likely be incentivized to continue fighting rather than enter peace talks with the knowledge that Ukraine would be heavily armed by NATO after the war.
   "...Russia is facing a “weakening adversary now,” Mercouris said, and Moscow clearly prefers that to facing a “strengthened adversary later.”

 • From special operation to full-scale war, Alexander Dugin, Almayadeen, Feb 24, 2023
   GM: An interesting and useful summary of how this war has affected the thinking of Russia's leaders. Western liberals don't like the man, whose daughter was killed by Ukrainian terrorists last year in a botched attempt on his life. He knows Russia and he knows Putin, and is himself quite influential. His views largely align with those of other informed Russian observers we have read. The changes he describes can be clearly seen in Putin's speeches. The unending animosity and lack of diplomacy from U.S. neoconservatives, of which Biden is one, have now poisoned the well of U.S.-Russian relations very deeply, to our ever-greater cost.

 • Russia comments on China’s Ukraine roadmap, RT, Feb 24, 2023
   " When it comes to Ukraine, “Russia is open to achieving its goals through political and diplomatic means,” Zakharova said, laying out the criteria for a “comprehensive, just and sustainable peace.”
   "This involves the West ending the supply of weapons and mercenaries to Ukraine, the end of hostilities, the return of Ukraine to a neutral non-aligned status, recognition of the new territorial realities that have developed as a result of the people’s right to self-determination, the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, as well as the elimination of all threats emanating from its territory."

 • Fewer Americans think Ukraine is winning – poll, RT, Feb 25, 2023
    "Americans are losing confidence that Ukraine is winning its conflict with Russia, a new Rasmussen Reports poll has shown. The latest figures indicate that more than one-third of US voters who were confident of a Ukrainian victory in December no longer expect Kiev to prevail."

Feb 25, 2023

 • The Ontological Incoherence of American Imperial Exceptionalism, William Schryver, Ron Paul Institute, Feb 24, 2023
   GM: The title is satirical. This is a comprehensive rebuttal of mainstream imperial thought.
   Schryver: "Even more significantly, in a development I and many others have predicted for several years now – in the face of almost universal ridicule, I might add – the empire’s seemingly endless string of hubris-driven blunders has rapidly accelerated the formation of what is quite arguably the single most potent military/economic/geostrategic alliance seen in modern times: the tripartite axis of Russia, China, and Iran...
   In my considered opinion, this is almost certainly the single most inexplicable and portentous series of geopolitical blunders in recorded history."
  GM: Never in the last 150 years, and maybe more, has a president done something so clearly impeachable as blowing up the Nordstream pipeline, just to put the cherry on top.

 • While Proposing Peace In Ukraine, China Issues Scathing Tome Over “The Perils Of US Hegemony”, Before It's News, Feb 25, 2023
   GM: Includes Chinese government document in its entirety.

 • More Evidence Emerges That US Wanted Russia to Invade, Consortium News, Feb 24, 2023

 • Levada See 75 Percent of Russians Supporting War, Katharina Buchholz, statista, Feb 23, 2023

Feb 24, 2023

 • Poll: Only 19% Of Americans Have Confidence In Biden’s Handling Of Ukraine Conflict, Steve Watson, Summit News, Feb 23, 2023
  GM: As John Walsh pointed out in the run-up to the Feb. 19 rally, these are very respectable opposition numbers -- better, I would bet, than at the beginning of the opposition to Vietnam.
   What is wrong with the so-called "left?" Where is the antiwar movement? Where have all the flowers gone? Perhaps there is a lingering disease: "Long Trump." Perhaps by demonizing Russia and remaining blind to the U.S. role in creating, sustaining, and escalating the conflict, the painful realization of being utterly fooled by "Russiagate" is being held at bay.
   Progressives today would support the Vietnam War in a heartbeat if Rachel Maddow, NPR, Biden, and the Squad loved it the way they love sending weapons to Ukraine.
   Amy Goodman devoted 10 seconds to the Feb. 19 rally, with no clips. What a sad trajectory she has taken.

 • Russia’s Ukraine offensive in suspended animation, M.K. Bhadrakumar, Indian Punchline, Feb 24, 2023
   GM: Provoking and then supporting the Ukraine War may be the worst foreign policy decision in U.S. history, in terms of U.S. interests. I can't think of a worse one.

 • Russia-EU relations ‘no longer exist’ – Moscow, RT, Feb 23, 2023

 • ‘Ukraine maximalists’ on the Right still dominate. But for how long?, William Ruger, Responsible Statecraft, Feb 23, 2023
   GM: No opposition from congressional Democrats so far. Congressional progressives are de facto warhawks.

 •The World Has Enough Trouble, James Howard Kunstler, Feb 24, 2023
   "If you think about it at all, can you come up with any good reasons why our country has involved itself in the Ukraine war? To defend democracy, many say? An emptier platitude does not exist in the vast slippery lexicon of spin. To thwart Russia’s imperial overreach? You apparently have no clue about Ukraine’s history, ancient or modern. To incite an overthrow of the wicked Putin by his own people? The Russian president is more popular there now than even John F. Kennedy was here in 1962.
   "There actually are no good reasons for what we are doing in Ukraine, only bad reasons. Mainly, stoking the war there diverts Americans attention from our own problems, which is to say the titanic failures of America’s political establishment....
   "Remember “The Big Guy’s” earnest efforts to get rid of the Ukrainian state prosecutor who was looking into the affairs of the Burisma gas company that invited Hunter Biden and his associate Devon Archer onto the board of directors. Of all people in Western Civ… these two Americans… with no knowledge of or experience in the natgas industry. Weird, a little bit. Do you suppose Mr. Zelensky still has the prosecutor’s files in his possession?"

Feb 23, 2023

 • Scott Ritter: Arms Control or Ukraine?, Consortium News, Feb 22, 2023
   GM: Essential, must-read background. Meanwhile the entire community" of U.S. arms control NGOs continues its decades-old policy of slavish fidelity to U.S. government talking points while pretending to be independent in some way, which results in net negative value. Often the boards and staff of these groups are salted with former, and no doubt would-be future, government officials.

 • Jeffrey Sachs at UN Security Council on Nord Steam Sabotage, Consortium News, YouTube, Feb 22, 2023

 • Ray Mc Govern at the UN Security Council on Nord Stream, YouTube, Feb 22, 2023

 • Statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry on the suspension by the Russian Federation of the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Feb 21, 2023
   "...[T]he preamble of the START Treaty, which is an integral part of it, postulates the commitment of the parties to the principle of indivisible security and building relations on the basis of mutual trust and cooperation. Today, however, the United States openly seeks to inflict a "strategic defeat" on Russia, and the tension spurred by Washington goes far beyond the Ukrainian crisis – the United States and the West it leads are trying to harm our country at any level, in any sphere and in any region of the world....
   "There is every reason to state that the US policy is aimed at undermining Russia's national security, which directly contradicts the fundamental principles and understandings enshrined in the preamble of the START Treaty, on which the Treaty is based and without which it would not have been concluded....In such an environment, doing business with the United States and the West as a whole in the usual mode is no longer possible – both in principle and in relation to the sphere of arms control, which is inseparable from geopolitical and military-strategic realities....
    "In addition, the US attempts to "probe" the protection of a number of Russian START facilities declared under the Treaty have become blatantly provocative and extremely risky. The armed attacks on them, undertaken by the puppet regime in Kiev, were carried out with the obvious military-technical and information-intelligence assistance of Washington."

Feb 22, 2023

 • Presidential Address to Federal Assembly, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, Feb 21, 2023 (official English translation)

 • Duma committee supports bill on suspending Russia's participation in New START, TASS, Feb 21, 2023
    "For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry noted in its statement that Russia's decision to suspend its participation in New START was reversible and called on Washington "to show political will and make good-faith efforts for general de-escalation and the creation of conditions for the resumption of the full functioning of the treaty". The ministry also said that despite the decision to suspend New START, Russia would continue to comply with its quantitative limits for the duration of the treaty's validity."

 • Ukraine Russia War - One Year in Col Doug Macgregor, Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom - Feb 21, 2023

 • Evidence of US guilt for Nord Stream ‘more than a smoking gun’ – Russia, RT, Feb 21, 2023
   "The Security Council also heard from professor Jeffrey Sachs and retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern, who both testified to Hersh’s bona fides. While the US government rejected Hersh’s narrative as false, it “did not offer any information contradicting Hersh’s account, and did not offer any alternative explanation,” said Sachs. He also called Nuland’s comments about Nord Stream “not at all appropriate in the face of international terrorism."

 • An Unexpected Insight (for the Élite): The U.S. May Be the Biggest Loser in the War on Russia, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Feb 20, 2023
   "The concern is more than that – it is that Biden’s obsessive zeal is turning the Ukraine from a proxy war into an existential issue for the U.S. (existential in the sense of the humiliation and reputational damage if the war was lost). It is already a Russian existential issue. And two nuclear powers in an existential confrontation is bad news....Simply said, the import of Hersh’s Berliner Zeitung interview (and his other pieces) is that factions within the U.S. Deep State are furious at the circle of neo-cons (Sullivan, Blinken and Nuland). Trust is ‘done’. They are coming for them; and will keep on coming… Hersh’s piece is but a first taste."

 • Putin Announces Suspension of the New START Treaty, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Feb 21, 2023

 • Rage Against the War Machine rally: Speeches, Feb 19, 2023
   GM: Outstanding!

 • Putin delivers address to Federal Assembly, RT, (video, English translation), Feb 21, 2023

 • From New START Freeze to Reasons for Ukraine Op: Key Takeaways From Putin's Federal Assembly Address, Sputnik, Feb 21, 2023

 • Victoria Nuland Says US Supports Ukrainian Attacks on Crimea, Dave DeCamp, Feb 20, 2023
   "Back in the summer of 2022, when the US first provided the HIMARS rocket systems to Ukraine, the administration sought assurances that the weapons wouldn’t be used to target Russian territory. When asked by Antiwar.com if that restriction applied to Crimea, a State Department spokesperson replied, “Crimea is Ukraine.”
   Russia has controlled Crimea since 2014, but neither the US nor Kyiv recognize the peninsula as Russian territory. The people of Crimea voted to join Russia following a US-backed coup in Kyiv, which Nuland played an instrumental role in, and polling since 2014 has shown that they are still happy with the change."

Feb 20, 2023

Featured • Recognizing The War Is Lost, The 'West' Seeks An Exit, Moon of Alabama, Feb 20, 2023

 • Rep. Gaetz calls out The Squad on Ukraine: 'Where did the anti-war Democrats go?', Alexander Hall, Fox News, Feb 16, 2023
    "Rep. Gaetz calls out The Squad on Ukraine: 'Where did the anti-war Democrats go?' --Gaetz proclaimed he would work with 'anyone and everyone,' in order to 'end our involvement in these wars' | 16 Feb 2023 | Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., challenged The Squad Wednesday for abandoning their anti-war position along with many others in the Democrat Party. Gaetz made his comments on an episode of "System Update" with independent journalist Glenn Greenwald on the ongoing war in Ukraine. Greenwald and others argue that defending Ukraine is not worth the chance of sparking nuclear conflict with Russia. Greenwald noted the absence of prominent anti-war Democrats questioning the United States' involvement in this foreign war... "Yeah, where did the anti-war Democrats go? I remember when The Squad showed up in Washington D.C. and they were saying the military is racist, now they’re voting for NATO expansion for goodness sakes," Gaetz replied."
   — Glenn Greenwald on Russia-Ukraine: What about border dispute justifies US risking annihilation of the planet?, Shaye Galletta, Fox News, Apr 27, 2022

 • The Power-Serving Myth That Anti-War Protests Make No Difference, CaitlinJohnstone.com, Feb 20, 2023

 • Finland Reverses Course, Says It Will Join NATO Without Sweden, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Feb 19, 2023

 • A Pivotal Week for Russia and Ukraine, Larry Johnson, A Son of the American Revolution, Feb 19, 2023

 • All Seeing Eye: Can Russia Break Through The West's ISR Overmatch?, Simplicius The Thinker, Feb 15, 2023

 • US, France, and UK Divided on Support for Ukraine, Kyle Anzalone, Antiwar.com, Feb 19, 2023
    GM: The UK has little real help, i.e. help that would change military outcomes, to offer.

 • Impeaching Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., President of the United States, draft resolution in the House, Jul 28, 2022

Feb 19, 2023

 • SITREP: Update 2/18 - Major War Confirmed Imminent, Simplicius The Thinker, Feb 18, 2023
    GM: This author has produced a very interesting, detailed, and convincing sitrep from well-informed local sources on both sides of the conflict.

Featured • The Rage Against The War Machine Rally in D.C. could bring back the anti-war movement in America - Redacted, YouTube, Feb 17, 2023

 • EU ‘indirectly at war’ with Russia – Orban, RT, Feb 18, 2023

 • Iran-China strategic partnership: The big picture, Pepe Escobar, PressTV, Feb 16, 2023
    GM: The U.S. and NATO are losing the needless conflict they stirred up in Ukraine -- losing on a global scale, losing on behalf of all humanity. There are no winners. The only sane and decent course of action for we in the West is to accept the end of the "rules-based international order," aka the U.S.-led empire, and to work together as much as possible with our erstwhile "adversaries" on meliorating the terrible environmental and social crises we face. As to the competition for control of the Eurasian Heartland ala Mackinder, we in the West have already lost, so it will come to cooperation in the end, or else extinction. We need leaders who will make the right choice about that, and we need them fast. In the meantime, and whether or not such leaders can be found, who will do the "accepting" and "working together"? We will. It seems this must well up from streets and homes by popular demand, the specially-trained managerial class having failed so flagrantly to think clearly about nearly everything.

Feb 18, 2023

 • The Automatic Earth, two short videos, Feb 18, 2023
    — Mearsheimer: why there is no diplomatic solution in Ukraine (3:16)
    — Scott Ritter: NATO does not have and cannot get the means to defeat Russia in Ukraine (2:22)

 • Seymour Hersh's Trinity of Truth, Scott Ritter Extra, Feb 17, 2023

 • Nord Stream Sabotage Backfires With Historic Demolition of U.S. Image and Lies Over Ukraine War, editorial, Strategic Culture Foundation, Feb 17, 2023

Feb 17, 2023

 • Ukraine aid support softens in the US: AP-NORC Poll, Aamer Madhan & Emily Swanson, AP News, Feb 15, 2023

 • The Sy Hersh effect: killing the messenger, ignoring the message, Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Responsible Statecraft, Feb 16, 2023

 • NATO Chief Admits: "War Didn't Start In February Last Year, The War Started In 2014", ZeroHedge, Feb 16, 2023

 • Russian Diplomats Issue Dire Warnings that War with US Is Close, Kyle Anzalone & Will Porter, The Libertarian Institute, Feb 15, 2023
    “All the red lines have already been crossed by Western countries. There is already semi-direct involvement of NATO in the conflict because it’s not only weaponry but it’s intelligence,” he said. “It’s the situation when the targets of certain artillery systems, in particular HIMARS, these targets can be hit only with the coordination with Washington.” Last week, the Washington Post reported that Ukraine relies on American intelligence for selecting targets. Since the start of the year, the White House has authorized the shipment of main battle tanks and long-range rockets to Kiev. Additionally, NATO appears to be preparing to send Western-made warplanes to Ukraine. ”It means that NATO is not only providing weapons but also are choosing the targets for Ukrainian strikes,” Polyanskiy continued.
   He went on to allege that citizens from NATO countries are already fighting – as well as getting captured and killed – in Ukraine. ”We know this from the people that we capture and from the bodies that we see on the battlefield.” The ambassador said Western weapons would only escalate the conflict, even warning that foreign intervention could eventually trigger a nuclear war. “It’s absolutely clear that any deliveries of weapons to the zone of conflict, of course, is like pouring oil into the fire,” he said, adding “If you are dealing with a nuclear power and if you are citing the goal of inflicting defeat to this nuclear power, you should have all the options in mind of our possible response.”

 • Nuland outlines US goals for Ukraine conflict, RT, Feb 17, 2023
    “Ukraine is not going to be safe unless Crimea is – at a minimum, at a minimum – demilitarized,” Nuland insisted on Thursday, claiming that Moscow had turned the peninsula into a military base, with command posts, logistics depots and airfields for “Iranian drones.”
   “Those are legitimate targets, Ukraine is hitting them, and we are supporting that,” she said.
   Earlier this week, Politico quoted two anonymous officials to imply that Nuland’s boss, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, had admitted the US was not “actively encouraging” Ukraine to seize Crimea and that any moves on the peninsula would be “Kiev’s decision alone.”

 • Children being sent to front by Ukraine, The Automatic Earth, Feb 17, 2023
    They're kids (twitter video), Feb 16, 2023
    Teens in Ukraine train for frontline warfare, (twitter video), Feb 16, 2023

 • The US Destroyed the Nord Stream Pipeline. Interview with Seymour Hersh, Fabian Scheidler, Global Research, Feb 15, 2023
   "I don’t think they thought it through. I know this sounds strange. I don’t think that Blinken and some others in the administration are deep thinkers. There certainly are people in the American economy who like the idea of us being more competitive. We’re selling LNG, liquefied gas, at extremely big profits; we’re making a lot of money on it. I’m sure there were some people thinking, boy, this is going to be a long-time boost for the American economy.But in that White House, I think the obsession was always reelection, and they wanted to win the war, they wanted to get a victory, they want Ukraine to somehow magically win.There could be some people who think maybe it’ll be better for our economy if the German economy is weak, but that’s crazy thinking. I think, basically, that we’ve bitten deep into something that’s not going to work. The war is not going to turn out well for this government."

Feb 16, 2023

 • Ukraine, Ammunition, Tanks & the Russian Offensive - Col. Doug Macgregor, Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, Feb 15, 2023
   GM: Helpful overall. Russia preparing for 30-month war with NATO. From 10:30, Col. MacGregor says the Russians will move, in force, in a matter of days, a boldly specific prediction; we will see. From 27:45: Scholz and Germany's supine and "self-loathing" position vis-a-vis the U.S.

 • Unifying the Rage Against the War Machine, Chuck Zlatkin, Consortium News, Feb 15, 2023
   "Now, over 40 years later, an anti-war, anti-nuclear weapons rally and march is scheduled for Washington, D.C., on Feb. 19 and major peace and anti-war groups will not participate. They won’t be there because they have problems with who called the march or who was invited or not invited to speak.
    "In other words, they have made it clear that their main goal is something other than stopping war or preventing nuclear annihilation. They have made the job easy for the powers-that-be to divide this movement. These groups and the warfare state now have the same goal to make the Feb. 19 anti-war rally as small as possible. Tragic."

 • Implications of US Destruction of Nordstream 2 Pipeline, Graham E. Fuller, Consortium News, Feb 16, 2023
   "Washington’s power so far has heavily constrained Europe’s global ties, and intensified Washington’s dominance over Europe politically, economically and above all psychologically. It is hard to see how Europe will be able to extract itself from this restrictive American embrace to become a constructive and needed independent player on the international scene.
   "Indeed America itself seems sadly to have lost any kind of positive vision in how to deal with the rest of the world. The essence of American foreign policy now is almost entirely negative: block Russia, block China, and prevent their development and expansion of their international reach....
   "How long will the U.S. continue to flail in endless foreign wars to desperately prove to itself and the world that it is still No. 1?"

Feb 15, 2023

 • Endgame for Ukraine: America vs America, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Feb 13, 2023

 • Public Display of the Gross Incompetence of U.S. and NATO Military Leaders, Larry Johnson, A Son of the New American Revolution, Feb 14, 2023

 • First National Rally Against Ukraine War, Threat of Armageddon: Feb.19, John V. Walsh, Antiwar.com, Feb 15, 2023
  "Given the proximity of nuclear Armageddon, the reaction that sanity dictates has now materialized for the first time. On February 19 in Washington DC, a demonstration against the war, RageAgainstWar, will take place, with sister rallies occurring in cities distant from DC, like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, and others."

 • Diana Johnstone: Demonstrate Together, Consortium News, Feb 14, 2023
   GM: Is this not all self-evident? Apparently not to everyone.

Feb 14, 2023

 • French Historian: World War III Has Already Begun, Paul Joseph Watson, Summit News, Feb 13, 2023
   "It is evident that the conflict, initially a limited territorial war, has evolved into a global economic confrontation between the whole West on one side, and Russia, backed by China, on the other. It has become a world war," Todd said.
   GM: Todd added that "the resistance of the Russian economy is pushing the U.S. imperial system toward the abyss" and that Biden must "hurry" to rescue a "fragile" America.
    — In more detail: The 3rd World War has Begun: Escalation in Ukraine will Change Everything, Emmanuel Todd, ÉLUCID,YouTube, Feb 4, 2023

Featured • Chris Hedges: Building a Left-Right Coalition Against War, Consortium News, Feb 14, 2023

 • Hungary must resist America’s woke imperialism, Spiked, Feb 14, 2023

 • US has no long-range missiles for Ukraine – Politico, RT, Feb 14, 2023

 • The Buildup To War In Ukraine, Moon of Alabama, Feb 13, 2023

Feb 13, 2023

 • Nord Stream pipeline & sabotaging peace w/Jeffrey Sachs (Live), The Duran, YouTube, Feb 10, 2023

 • Ukraine Collapsing: Jimmy Dore & Jackson Hinkle, The Dive with Jackson Hinkle, YouTube, Feb 10, 2023
   GM: Best sections: 9:00 - 18:00 the antiwar rally; 27:00 - 29:00 Jimmy Dore conclusion and takeaways

 • LISTEN: Nord Stream Attack an ‘Act of War’, Consortium News, Ray McGovern discusses Seymour Hersh's article on blowing up Nord Stream, Feb 12, 2023 (includes transcript)

 • US openly admits it blew up Nord Stream – Russian FM, RT, Feb 12, 2023

 • JP Morgan reaches agreement with Ukraine's Zelenskyy on rebuilding infrastructure, presents Patriots jersey, FoxBusiness, Feb 12, 2023
   GM: A banker's war. Beneath the surface, U.S. oligarchs are the ones who stand to lose with the emergence of a multipolar world of sovereign states. Everybody else, in every country, would benefit. Ukraine is being -- or really, has been -- sold out from under the people. Ukraine has now ceased to exist.
   Ukraine lost its independence in 2014, with the U.S.-fomented Maidan "regime change" and subsequent civil war against the Donbass provinces. After the deceptions and failure of the Minsk agreements, the Russian proposals of December 2021 were really the last hope for the country. They were a good deal and the U.S. should have negotiated seriously based on them. But the U.S. has never been interested in Ukraine per se, except as an "anti-Russia." The U.S. goal wasn't peace. It was war.

Feb 12, 2023

 • Pentagon Wants To Return Special Ops Propagandists To Ukraine, CaitlinJohnstone.com, Feb 12, 2023
    GM: The propaganda operations are continuous and pervasive. Same for reconnaissance. The CIA in Ukraine does not need an unclassified budget request. They just want more.

 • Is the Red Scare Going Blue? Democrats Accuse Government Critics of Being “Putin Lovers” and Supporting Insurrectionists, Jonathan Turley, Feb 12, 2023
    GM: A sad situation. The boundary between self-deception and lying is always impossible to draw accurately.

 • Serbia may soon be forced to sanction Russia – Vucic, RT, Feb 11, 2023
    GM: How it works. Meanwhile, Samantha Power has been dispatched to Hungary to apply pressure there.

 • Why Hersh's Nord Stream Bombshell May Become Legal Nightmare for Team Biden & Its Nordic Allies, Ekaterina Blinova, Sputnik, Feb 11, 2023
    GM: A legal and political problem.

Feb 11, 2023

 • Persistent Delusion among the American and NATO Defense Establishment, Larry Johnson, A Son of the New American Revolution, Feb 10, 2023
   GM: The U.S. and NATO are fighting a PR war, primarily. Russia is fighting a military-dipolomatic war primarily. The U.S. and Europe have already lost the economic war. Ukraine has lost everything.

 • The Calamity of America’s ‘Divine Mission’, Bruce Fein, Consortium News, Feb 10, 2023

 • Omerta in the Gangster War, Diana Johnstone, GlobalResearch, Oct 3, 2022

Feb 10, 2023

 • Sy Hersh and The Way We Live Now, Craig Murray, Feb 9, 2023
   "In terms of United States history, this ought to be a big deal. For the Executive to commit what is an act of war without the approval of the Legislature is fundamentally unconstitutional. But that is one of those quaint remnants of democracy that the neo-liberal elite consensus can quietly sidestep nowadays. Hersh sets out the well known background in compelling detail, including the fact that, from Biden down, the Americans effectively announced what they were going to do, openly. But what most worries me about the entire story is the unanimous complicity of the mainstream media in ignoring the completely obvious.
   "[..] The secret is not that people genuinely believe an outrageous claim. The secret is that people do genuinely believe that they are in a battle of good against evil, and it is necessary to accept the narrative being promoted, in the interests of fighting evil. Don’t question, just follow. If you do question, you are promoting evil. I am sure that is how it works. State and corporate stenographer journalists are actually intelligent individuals. If they thought about it, they would realise that the narrative that Russia blew up its own pipeline is obvious nonsense. But they are convinced it is morally wrong to think about it. Which is why none of them challenged the equally mad claims that Russia was repeatedly shelling its own forces occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, and indeed is why none of them challenged the utterly risible official version of the Skripal story."

 • My Sources Corroborate Sy Hersh’s Nord Stream Report: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix, Caitlin Johnstone, Feb 10, 2023
   GM: Per usual, Johnstone's piece is rich with valuable evidence and links (e.g. to a compilation of evidence by Ben Norton) as well as common-sense logic and political insight.

 • The Best Speech I Never Gave, Scott Ritter, Feb 9, 2023
   GM: No-nonsense description of our predicament and vaulting rhetoric about peaceful coexistence, from a smart, accomplished arms control expert dedicated to keeping this country from destroying itself.

 • US military personnel at a European base provide GPS-targeting for Ukrainian rocket systems, PostMillennial.com, Feb 9, 2023
   GM: Thus making the U.S. a direct participant in the war and in any war-crimes committed with these systems, of which there have been plenty. Does the U.S. help Ukraine use HIMARs to target hospitals, bus stops, and markets far behind the front lines, as Ukraine has been doing?

 • Pro-War Propagandists: How Bloodthirsty Media Push US Toward Every New War, Glenn Greenwald, Feb 8, 2023
   GM: Valuable, accurate recollection and expose of the media's conscious role in promoting U.S. wars throughout this century. Too rich and too important to summarize. Read or see it for yourself.
   "Starting essentially in 2016, there was a radical jump in trust that Democrats have for the corporate media, largely because they perceived, correctly, that the corporate media was almost entirely on their side in trying to sabotage Donald Trump and advance the interests of the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, the trend line about Independents and Republicans when it comes to trust in the media has steadily declined since 1974 and is now basically in full-scale collapse. It is hard to overstate how dependent the corporate media now is on Democrats when it comes to retaining any degree of trust. If not for Democrats, these numbers would be way, way worse, drastically lower.
   "...And so, the ideology of the U.S. media is not left versus right, except in very rare cases where actually those differences matter. The ideology is they are part of large corporations and, as a result, like all large corporations, they are part of institutions of authority, want its perpetuation, and want to defend its agenda. And that's why in every one of these wars just from the last 20 years, never mind going back further. You see the videos, you see the attacks by the American media, whose job is to support every post-war [?], to attack anyone on the left or the right who opposes it, and to ensure that America's war machine continues endlessly. That's not done for your benefit. But for theirs."

 • Zelensky ‘set fire’ to Ukraine – exiled opposition leader, Victor Medvedchuk, RT, Feb 8, 2023
   "Zelensky hopes that a military victory would wash away all the things he has done to crush his political opponents and to “lease his nation as a battlefield.” But Ukraine has “already lost,” and soon this reality will catch up with him, according to Medvedchuk.
   The president “acts like a winner, speaks like a winner, poses like a winner. But victory is nowhere near,” he said. Continued conflict is the only thing that delays the reckoning for the president, the politician said.
   Medvedchuk led the largest opposition political party in Ukraine before the Zelensky government cracked down on it and its senior figures for supposedly being pro-Russian. He now lives in exile, after being charged with treason at home."

Feb 9, 2023

 • Elite Splits Over Ukraine Shed a Tiny Bit of Light on Factions, Yves Smith, Feb 9, 2023
   GM: Yves Smith ably ties together several recent developments to provide a murky picture of the "state of play" in "The Blob." To the data she cites (yesterday's Hersh article and Biden interview) supporting a conclusion that Biden himself may be a, or the, chief obstacle to ending the war, an additional point should be added: Biden family involvements in Ukrainian businesses and contracts. It is likely that the Ukrainian government and some businesspersons possess damaging information about those involvements.

 • WATCH: Roger Waters at UN Security Council on Ukraine, Consortium News, Feb 7, 2023
    GM: Of note: Roger Waters does not agree with Russia, and Russia knows that. Yet it was Russia who invited him to speak.

 • Setting the Record Straight; Stuff You Should Know About Ukraine, Mike Whitney, The Unz Review, Feb 5, 2023
   GM: A good review of some important background. However when Whitney says the facts he cites (which are both true and relevant), presumably along with other pertinent facts we could add, prove "Putin’s military operation complies with international law," that is going too far. It's the outline of a case for compliance, not a proof.

 • The coming existential threat: do we act in common or is it going to be every man for himself?, Gilbert Doctorow, Feb 8, 2023
    GM: A warning from Doctorow, an engaged independent Russia expert. Note to him: there is no escape from a nuclear war.

Feb 8, 2023

 • How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline, Seymour Hersh, Feb 8, 2023
    GM: Hersh's account, based in part on anonymous interviews, adds to previous accounts (e.g. this one), based on open-source data and analysis. Bernhard and commenters took up the Hersh account in a posting today. It was an unprecedented act of terrorism against U.S. allies (Germany primarily but not exclusively) and the environment, as well as of course Russia. Useful for understanding the legal implication of Biden's publicly-stated conditional commitment to "end" Nordstream: no congressional oversight was deemed necessary if the military was in charge. Key role of Norway, which like the U.S. also benefited financially. Hersh's source: "The only flaw was the decision to do it."

 • State of the Union: Biden Says Beating China Should ‘Unite All of Us’, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Feb 7, 2023
    "The president made little mention of the war in Ukraine besides platitudes about “standing up” for vague principles. “Putin’s invasion has been a test for the ages. A test for America. A test for the world. Would we stand for the most basic of principles?” he said...Overall, Biden’s speech focused very little on foreign policy. He closed the speech by saying, “May God protect our troops,” but did not mention any of the wars they are fighting in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen."

 • Patrick Lawrence: The Press Reckoning on Russiagate, Consortium News, Feb 7, 2023
   "As Glenn Greenwald remarked in a lengthy “System Update” segment reviewing the Gerth series, however much contempt you may have for the corruptions of the American press, you are not contemptuous enough.
   For a long while I have held to the thought that the day may come when the American press and broadcasters would have some kind of come-to-Jesus awakening and begin a new and excellent era as a freestanding pole of power.
   Gerth’s series persuades me that this is no longer a realistic expectation. Russiagate deformed the function of media, and media’s understanding of its function, beyond repair. Over the past seven years mainstream American media have come to see — embrace, indeed — their task as the conveyance of official propaganda.
   We must not be so surprised or shocked. This is what happens to empires in their declining phases."

 • NYT On Ukraine - Real Reporting, Propaganda For Balance, Ominous Warning, Moon of Alabama, Feb 7, 2023
    NYT: "Exhausted Ukrainian troops complain they are already outnumbered and outgunned, even before Russia has committed the bulk of its roughly 200,000 newly mobilized soldiers. And doctors at hospitals speak of mounting losses as they struggle to care for fighters with gruesome injuries....The first stages of the Russian offensive have already begun. Ukrainian troops say that Bakhmut, an eastern Ukrainian city that Russian forces have been trying to seize since the summer, is likely to fall soon. Elsewhere, Russian forces are advancing in small groups and probing the front lines looking for Ukrainian weaknesses. The efforts are already straining Ukraine’s military, which is worn out by nearly 12 months of heavy fighting....Losses among Ukrainian forces have been severe. Troops in a volunteer contingent called the Carpathian Sich, positioned near Nevske, said that some 30 fighters from their group had died in recent weeks, and soldiers said, only partly in jest, that just about everyone has a concussion."

 • On the edge of essentially all out war with Russia, Straight Calls with Douglas Macgregor, YouTube, Feb 7, 2023
    GM: Excellent 23 min. video interview with Macgregor. Concisely discusses background, current military situation, and the need for negotiations without preconditions, which could lead to a ceasefire if sincere. Nota bene, Ray McGovern believes, and so do we, that such negotiations are impossible with Blinken, Sullivan, and Nuland in their current positions.

 • America Sleepwalks Into War with Russia, Francis P. Sempa, RealClear Wire, Feb 3, 2023
    GM: Conservative analyst longing for listening to restraining, experienced, realist voices, marginalized in the U.S. today.

 • Truth About Tanks: How NATO Lied Its Way to Disaster in Ukraine, Scott Ritter, Sputnik, Jan 28, 2023
    GM: Battle tanks are far from a military panacea given modern anti-tank weapons. Extensive training and maintenance are required, as well as sophistication in combined-arms operations. Western tanks, at this stage, will hurt Ukraine more than help it.

Feb 7, 2023

 • Chris Hedges: Woke Imperialism, Consortium News, Feb 6, 2023

 • Russia’s Strategic Aims – In Consequence to a Collapsing U.S. Empire, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Feb 6, 2023

 • The Maidan sniper killings were pivotal for the 2014 Kiev coup – why is research into the massacre being censored in the West?, RT, Feb 6, 2023

 • The Psychology of Totalitarianism, Mattias Desmet, (excerpt), 2022

Feb 6, 2023

Featured • US-Laid Trap for Russia Has Trapped West Instead, Consortium News, Feb 6, 2023

Featured • More Evidence That The West Sabotaged Peace In Ukraine, CaitlinJohnstone.com, Feb 6, 2023

 • Former Israeli PM Bennett Says US ‘Blocked’ His Attempts at a Russia-Ukraine Peace Deal, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Feb 5, 2023

Feb 5, 2023

 • IS THE WAR IN UKRAINE NEARING THE CULMINATING POINT?, Larry Johnson, A Son of the New American Revolution, Feb 4, 2023

 • Ukraine ‘will burn’ if it strikes Crimea, Russian ex-president warns, RT, Feb 4, 2023

 • Pepe Escobar: Ukraine War is Desperate Move by U.S. to Preserve Hegemony and Prevent Multipolar World, Strategic Culture Foundation, Feb 2, 2023
    Key sentence: "The vast majority of the planet wants liberation from the U.S./Western warmongering system that underpins capitalist exploitation that only enriches a global elite. The war in Ukraine is but the manifestation of the breakdown in U.S. global power and the desperation to preserve the systematic inequality that defines capitalism."

 • They’re Not Worried About “Russian Influence”, They’re Worried About Dissent, CaitlinJohnstone.com, Feb 5, 2023

 • US Fails Miserably in Efforts to Isolate Russia, naked capitalism, Feb 5, 2023

 • There Is Always Hope, And There Is Always Wonder, CaitlinJohnstone.com, Jan 23, 2023

Feb 4, 2023

 • The Arsenal of Democracy Isn't, William Schryver, imetatronink, Feb 3, 2023

 • Russia responds to latest US ‘escalation’, RT, Feb 4, 2023

 • Ukraine SitRep: U.S.-Russia Talks, Bakhmut Retreat, Laughable Casualty Numbers, Moon of Alabama, Feb 3, 2023

 • DANGEROUS CIRCLES ON DONBASS FRONT LINE, SouthFront, Feb 3, 2023

 • RAND GETS IT, SORT OF BY HELMHOLTZ SMITH, A Son of the New American Revolution, Feb 2, 2023

 • Ghosts. Soldiers of a forgotten war [moving documentary about the forgotten pre-2022 war in the Donbass], Maksim Fadeev & Sergay Belous, YouTube, Feb 1, 2023

Feb 3, 2023

 • Geopolitical battles, Ukraine, and US exceptionalism: Highlights from Lavrov’s big interview, RT, Feb 2, 2023

 • "Ukraine is on the verge of collapse. We're going to watch that happen over the next several weeks." Col. Douglas Macgregor, short excerpt from Jan 31 interview on Judging Freedom (see below), MintPress News, Feb 2, 2023

 • Germany ‘open’ to idea West behind Nord Stream sabotage – The Times, RT, Feb 2, 2023

 • The Victory of ‘Perception Management’, Joe Lauria, Consortium News, Feb 3, 2023

 • How One Ukrainian Billionaire Funded Hunter Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky, And The Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, Kanekoa News, Mar 11, 2022

Feb 2, 2023

Featured • US Not Prepared to Take on Russia, Col Douglas Macgregor, Judging Freedom, Jan 31, 2023

 • Poll Shows More Americans Believe 'Too Much' Aid Going To Ukraine, ZeroHedge, Feb 1, 2023

 • Ray McGovern - UKRAINE: How We Got Here & What Now?, YouTube, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, Jan 29, 2023

Feb 1, 2023

 • US Prepares to Send Ukraine Longer-Range Rockets in Next Arms Package, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Jan 31, 2023

 • Chris Hedges: Ukraine — The War That Went Wrong, Consortium News, Jan 30, 2023

 • SCOTT RITTER: Germany Risks Forgetting Its History, Consortium News, Jan 31, 2023

 • NATO Continues Its Disarmament, Moon of Alabama, Jan 31, 2023

 • ACURA ViewPoint: James W. Carden: Ukraine and The Lost Lessons of Vietnam, American Committee for US-Russia Accord, Jan 27, 2023

 • Is Russia's Offensive Underway and is the U.S. Trying to Broker a Deal?, Larry Johnson, A Son of the New American Revolution, Jan 30, 2023

 • ‘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