June 2023

Jun 30, 2023

Featured • The Darkness Ahead: Where The Ukraine War Is Headed, John J. Mearsheimer, Apr 23, 2023
    Pretty good, though he states predominant political opinion as a kind of absolute truth. Example: "The Ukraine war is hindering the U.S. effort to contain China, which is of paramount importance for American security since China is a peer competitor while Russia is not." It appears that his starting and ending point is U.S. hegemony. Why is containing China of "paramount importance for American security?" What does he mean by security?
    Another example, which may just be a bad choice of words: "As noted, I believe Russia will win the war, which means it will end up conquering and annexing substantial Ukrainian territory, leaving Ukraine as a dysfunctional rump state. If I am correct, this will be a grievous defeat for Ukraine and the West." What would be "grievous" about it? Who exactly would grieve, and why, exactly?

 • Arming Ukraine is a cynical and dangerous NATO ploy, RT reporter tells UNSC, RT, Jun 30, 2023

 • Biden Close To Approving Cluster Bombs, Banned In 120 Countries, For Ukraine, ZeroHedge, Jun 30, 2023

 • US mulls sending long-range missiles to Kiev – WSJ, RT, Jun 29, 2023

 • Kiev in Talks with Warsaw to Purchase Naval Strike Missile Systems, Connor Freeman, The Libertarian Institute, Jun 29, 2023

 • Report: US Close to Approving Long-Range ATACMS for Ukraine, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Jun 29, 2023

Jun 29, 2023

Featured • Europe approaching a ‘catastrophe’ – Hungary, RT, Jun 28, 2023
    "For the crust presented by the life of lies is made of strange stuff. As long as it seals off hermetically the entire society, it appears to be made of stone. But the moment someone breaks through in one place, when one person cries out, 'The emperor is naked!'-when a single person breaks the rules of the game, thus exposing it as a game-everything suddenly appears in another light and the whole crust seems then to be made of a tissue on the point of tearing and disintegrating uncontrollably." Vaclav Havel, The Power of the Powerless, 1978     "'Europe is moving closer to a catastrophe - in every sense, unfortunately,' Szijjarto wrote on Facebook before meeting with EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. 'Now even bigger trouble could be prevented and many thousands of lives could be saved,' he continued, 'but to do this one would have to break out of the war psychosis.'
    "'I have no illusions that this will happen at the meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg today,' he concluded.
    "...Szijjarto and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have both repeatedly called for a ceasefire and peace deal in Ukraine, while insisting that anti-Russia sanctions hurt Europe more than they hurt Russia.
    "In an interview with German tabloid Bild on Tuesday, Orban stated that the idea of a Ukrainian victory on the battlefield is 'impossible' and that without an immediate ceasefire, Ukraine will “lose a huge amount of wealth and many lives, and unimaginable destruction will occur."
    "'What really matters is what the Americans want to do,' Orban said, explaining that 'Ukraine is no longer a sovereign country. They don’t have any money. They have no weapons. They can only fight because we in the West support them.'"

Featured • Standoff with west is a 'war of worlds' — Russia, RT, Jun 28, 2023
    "Moscow can no longer trust any deals with the US or its allies, Sergey Lavrov believes...“When it comes to our former Western partners, though, we cannot rely on any agreements with them, including those of a legally binding nature,” Lavrov maintained. The US and its allies have repeatedly bent the rules of the “order” they were supposedly defending and neglected their commitments under agreements struck with Moscow, the minister stated."
    Western arms controllers are stuck in the 1990s. They seem to believe that the U.S. and Russia are having a little spat and that relations with Russia can easily return to what they were 30 years ago. Absent a nuclear war, it will take at least a generation -- let's say 20 or 30 years -- of trustworthy actions by the U.S. to provide the foundation for any such agreements. No such trustworthy actions have begun or are being contemplated in Washington. So for the foreseeable future, if you want nuclear disarmament, work for peace and harmony with Russia and China. That of course means an end to U.S. empire and the militarism that has destroyed our democracy. A dramatic demilitarization of the United States is required.

 • Two Ukrainian Generals, 20 Foreign Mercenaries Destroyed in Strike on Kramatorsk - Russian MoD, Sputnik International, Jun 29, 2023

 • NATO Security Guarantees To Ukraine Could Mean A Nuclear War With Russia, Daniel Davis, 1945, Jun 28, 2023

 • Prigozhin goes into exile but left behind a can of worms, M.K. Bhadrakumar, Indian Punchline, Jun 28, 2023

Jun 28, 2023

Featured • Russo-Ukrainian War: The Wagner Uprising, Big Serge, Jun 26, 2023
    "So in the end, both the neoliberal commentariat and the Russian plan trusters are left with an unsatisfactory view of events. Prigozhin is neither the harbinger of regime change nor a piece in Putin’s four dimensional chess game. He’s simply a mercurial and wildly irresponsible man who saw that his Private Military Corporation was going to be taken away from him and decided to go to extreme and criminal lengths to prevent this. He was a card player with nothing in his hand who decided to bluff his way out of a corner - until his bluff was called."

 • How To Plant Propaganda: "Putin has been weakened. Russia is crumbling," Moon of Alabama, Jun 27, 2023
    "The very same (false) talking points, repeated over and over again, are a sure sign of lies and an organized propaganda campaign.
    "For the record. Progozhin was all alone in his mutiny attempt. Not one element of the Russian government or civil society joint him in his ride. So where are the cracks? There are none. Also Russia's military is now larger and better equipped then before the war. Russia's economy is fine and growing. Its standing in the world has increased.
    "But Blinken's propaganda works well because the U.S. media are trained to pick up any sheet of music an administration hands out and to sing its tune over and over again.
    "I could quote dozens of participants in that game to make that point. But the Washington Posts has made it easier for me when it asked eight of its columnists to comment on the issues. All but one, a neocon who wants to see more action, repeat Blinken's message: "Putin has been weakened. Russia is crumbling."...
    "The overall tone: Putin did not fight the loon Prigozhin but found a peaceful solution. This shows that he is weak."

 • All aboard the gravy train: an independent audit of US funding for Ukraine, Heather Kaiser, Anya Parampil, and Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone, Jun 27, 2023
    Obviously, running and selling a very large proxy war stimulates a lot of shady spending, via channels (documented here, as best the authors could do) that most people will think bizarre. Lots of people get on this secret gravy train, or want to do so. These flows of money expand and organize a semi-secret ecosystem of powerful actors, a War State on steroids. Some of this cash will filter back to the politicians who provide it, solidifying support for killing the Ukrainians it's all supposed to save.

 • Tucker Carlson Dares To Ask "Why Exactly Are We At War With Russia?", ZeroHedge, Jun 27, 2023

 • Zelensky Says No Elections in Ukraine Until War Is Over, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Jun 27, 2023

 • UN Documents Rampant Torture of Civilians by Ukrainian Security Forces, Sputnik International, Jun 27, 2023

 • US Announces $500 Million Weapons Package for Ukraine, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Jun 27, 2023

Jun 27, 2023

Featured • Liberals Are Tyrannical Imperialists: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix, CaitlinJohnstone.com, Jun 27, 2023
    Liberals -- that is, most progressive Democrats -- have no conception of themselves as being like this.
    "In just a few years Democrats flipped from freaking out about Nazis, shrieking that Trump was going to start a nuclear war, and denying US election results to cheering for Nazis, demanding more nuclear brinkmanship, and accusing anyone who denies election results of treason.
    "Putin’s just lucky he didn’t suffer a real coup attempt, like several wingnuts wandering around a government building for a few hours....
    "Western liberals are in effect being offered a political bribe by the empire: support the restrictions on political speech we are constantly pushing for, and it will undermine the interests of your political rivals. This bribery has made “liberals” far more tyrannical. Liberals play along because they’ve been convinced at every opportunity that restricting speech is the best way to fight hate, right wing extremism, health misinformation and malign foreign influence, but in so doing they’re supporting the most tyrannical regime on earth. So now we’re in this bizarre situation where being “liberal” effectively means supporting censorship to silence your political enemies for the benefit of the most murderous and tyrannical people on this planet."

Featured • Who Is National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, the Man Running US Foreign Policy, Rick Sterling, Antiwar.com, Jun 27, 2023
    Rilke, Book of Hours:

You see, I want a lot.
Perhaps I want everything
the darkness that comes with every infinite fall
and the shivering blaze of every step up.
So many live on and want nothing
And are raised to the rank of prince
By the slippery ease of their light judgments
But what you love to see are faces
that do work and feel thirst.
You love most of all those who need you
as they need a crowbar or a hoe.
You have not grown old, and it is not too late
To dive into your increasing depths
where life calmly gives out its own secret.

Jun 25 & 26, 2023

Featured • FSB spooked the CIA on Prigozhin coup, M.K. Bhadrakumar, Indian Punchline, Jun 26, 2023
    "Blinken has piled up a consistent record for being horribly wrong on his assessments on Russia — starting from the deathly blow the ‘sanctions from hell’ were expected to give to the Russian economy; Putin’s hold on power; Russia’s catastrophic defeat in Ukraine; Russian military’s deficiencies; Kiev’s inexorable military victory, and so on.
    "In this case, he has reason to feel embittered particularly because of the spectacular unity of the Russian state, political elite, media, regional and federal bureaucracy, and the military and security establishment in rallying behind Putin. Arguably, Putin’s political stature is now unchallengeable and unassailable in Russia and the Americans have to live with that reality long after Joe Biden’s departure from the scene."

 • Coup Coo, James Howard Kunstler, Jun 26, 2023
    "...Priggy regarded the Russian Ministry of Defense as oafish, and by extension, his long-time friend and mentor, Vlad Putin, indecisive about it. The moment was ripe to seize power! As a recent US president might have said: he misoverestimated....
    "Pretty darn quick, on the road from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow, Priggy learned the hard way that he had no support in the government, the military, or among the Russian public. The coup fizzled before sundown the very day it started. Some say, any way you cut it, the result is Vlad Putin left looking weak and vulnerable. I don’t think so. His speech to the Russian people that day appeared, if anything, resolute. And the way he seemed to spit out the words “a stab in the back,” you couldn’t think he was play-acting. By evening, with the whole psychodrama concluded, the people of St. Petersburg crowded the quay along the Neva River and busted into patriotic song....
    "Can Ukraine even carry on much longer? President Zelensky, the comedian, seems to have gone mad-dog now. He just cancelled next year’s election, which makes him… what? Dictator? So much for America’s democracy export program. He’s also issued warnings to the effect that Russia is about to blow up the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest. Such an act would supposedly trigger direct intervention by NATO, according to the policy promoted by war-hawk US Senators Lindsay Graham and Richard Blumenthal. The nuclear plant is under Russian control. Mr. Zelensky says they have set mines in it. The scenario is pretty absurd. Nobody believes it. Of course, Mr. Zelensky might use some of his NATO missiles to zap it, but Russia has video surveillance and recording equipment at every angle around the joint and the world will know five seconds after how it was blown up.
    "From his latest photographs, it looks like Mr. Zelensky is in the terminal throes of a cocaine rapture, and his actions are consistent with that state of mind. He must know that he’s not long for this world. And our country, the USA, must know that this Ukraine gambit is another lost cause on our long march of military misadventures. And if the government of our country, doesn’t know, the people surely do. Have you noticed, the yellow-and-blue flags are not flying anymore? Even the most hardcore anti-Trump Democrats seem to understand what pounding sand down a rat-hole means when it comes to the many billions of dollars squandered on this stupid project while our cities rot and a whole lot more goes south in our own ailing homeland."

 • Russia, Internal This Time, Karl Denninger, The Market Ticker, Jun 24, 2023
    "Do realize there are people over there who consider NATO's continued additions toward Russia, and the fact that each puts the flight time for a surprise attack closer and closer to Moscow and other major cities, an existential threat to the nation and its survival as a political entity. We would no more put up with China entering into a treaty with Mexico to put nuclear weapons on the Rio Grande or in Tijuana -- within howitzer range of San Diego -- than we should expect Russia to put up with us doing essentially the same thing.... These people [Mike Pompeo and Lindsay Graham] are under the foolish belief that a man with 6,000 nuclear weapons at this control will back off and let them put ours 5 minutes away." [emphasis in original]

 • Dodging A Bullet In Russia, Portfolio Armor, Jun 25, 2023
    "Why we're lucky Putin didn't get toppled."

 • The rise and fall of a Russian oligarch, M.K. Bhadrakumar, Indian Punchline, Jun 24, 2023
    "This face-off has been in the making for several months and is traceable to tensions in the working relations between the Wagner forces and the Russian ministry of defence, Prigozhin’s personal antipathy towards Defence Minister Shoigu and the Russian top brass, his bloated ego and overvaulting political ambition, and, most certainly, his business interests.
    "Prigozhin has crossed the red line that Putin famously drew right at the beginning of his rule in the Kremlin in the summer of 2000 in a historic meeting with 21 of the richest men in Russia — the rapacious “oligarchs,” as Russians had come to derisively call them — who had risen seemingly out of nowhere, amassing spectacular fortunes as the country around them descended into chaos through shady deals, outright corruption, and even murder and had seized control of much of Russia’s economy, and, increasingly, its fledgling democracy. At the closed-door meeting, Putin told them, face to face, who was really in charge in Russia....
    "Suffice to say, the taming of Prigozhin has proved to be difficult, although Russian intelligence would have been aware that western intelligence was in touch with him. Indeed, his increasingly defiant public posturing was becoming a serious distraction for the Kremlin. One possibility is that Russian intelligence gave him a long rope to hang himself. Equally, Kremlin’s preference would have been to pacify and co-opt him in the war effort. Putin even met him....
    "In the final analysis, this macabre attempt at mutiny won’t fly. Oligarchs are a detested lot in the Russian opinion. Any western hopes of staging an insurrection in Russia and a regime change under a renegade oligarch’s banner will be an absurd idea, to say the least."

Jun 24, 2023

Featured • Special Report: Emergency Situation as Prigozhin Goes Nuclear Option, Simplicius, Jun 24, 2023
    • Putin Blasts Wagner 'Treason, Betrayal' As Clashes Erupt In Southern Russia, ZeroHedge, Jun 24, 2023
    • Wagner Chief Attempts ‘Armed Insurrection’ in Russia: Kremlin, Will Porter, Antiwar.com, Jun 24, 2023
    • U.S. Military Shackled to China Because of Rare Earth Minerals and Prigozhin has a Psychotic Break, Larry Johnson, Jun 23, 2023
    • Prigozhin Armed Mutiny Attempt: What We Know So Far, Sputnik International, Jun 23, 2023
    • Prigozhin charged with armed mutiny, to face up to 20 years in prison, TASS, Jun 23, 2023
    • Military Deploys In Moscow As Wagner Chief Sought For 'Armed Mutiny', ZeroHedge, Jun 23, 2023
    While little is clear or certain, this "farce" (Moon of Alabama) cannot but strengthen the hand of central Russian authorities in the short run, as well as further expose any dissident oligarchs and all others so foolish as to join in. The chances of success appear to be zero. We shall see, obviously.
    Could there have been a mental breakdown? Simplicius, who has the best analysis so far, thinks not but Prigozhin has seemed irrational for a long time, which is why we haven't posted his rants here.
    It is likely that STRATCOM has gone up a DEFCON level under the circumstances, as Steve Starr pointed out to us last night.
    Western and Ukrainian sleeper "assets" in Russia may also be activated; sabotage and assassinations may occur.
    As of this writing it appears that Wagner forces occupy Rostov-on-Don, and Russian military aviation has attacked the Wagner convoy on the M4 highway (somewhere).

 • Zelensky may ‘sacrifice all of Europe’ – Russian envoy, RT, Jun 23, 2023

Jun 23, 2023

Featured • Russia's FSB Thwarts Plot to Smuggle Radioactive Caesium-137 to Ukraine (video), SouthFront, Jun 23, 2023
    • 'Dangerous Moment': Zelensky Issues Nuclear Plant False Flag Warning As Counteroffensive Fails, ZeroHedge, Jun 23, 2023
    Russia would likely level Kiev if Kiev used a weapon like this against say Sevastopol. If it was used against Moscow, kiss your ass goodbye.
    Another threat from Kiev (expressed as a threat from Russia, but people with an ounce of rationality understand this as a threat from Ukraine) that must be taken very seriously is the possibility of a concerted attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
    Should either attack materialize and be successful, it would likely rise to the immediate predicate for nuclear war, in Russian eyes.
    For reference: "Dirty Bombs": Technical Background, Attack Prevention and Response, Issues for Congress, Jonathan Medalia, CRS, Jun 24, 2011

Featured • Dmitry Trenin: The US and its allies are playing 'Russian Roulette'. You'd almost think they want a nuclear war, RT, Jun 22, 2023
    "The war in Ukraine has become protracted. As far as we can tell from the actions of the Russian leadership, it expects to achieve strategic success by relying on Russian resources, which are many times greater than those in Ukraine. It also relies on the fact that Moscow has much more at stake in this war than the West. This calculation is probably correct, but it should be taken into account that the opponent assesses Russia's chances differently than we do and may take steps which could lead to a direct armed clash between Russia and the US/NATO.
    "We must be prepared for such a development. To avoid a general catastrophe, it is necessary to put fear of armageddon back into politics and the public consciousness."
    It is not just what is being said that is important, but also who is saying it.

 • Russia blasts ‘crazy’ US resolution on nuclear weapons, RT, Jun 23, 2023
    "Ambassador Antonov responded to a proposal in the Senate to regard any use of tactical nukes by Moscow as an attack on NATO     "The speculation of US policymakers that Russia could resort to using tactical nuclear weapons is “absurd” and only adds fuel to the stand-off between Moscow and the West, Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador in Washington, said on Thursday.     "In a statement on Telegram, the envoy weighed in on a bipartisan resolution introduced by US Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal on Thursday suggesting that Washington should consider the use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia or its allies as an attack on NATO.
    "Antonov described the resolution "as yet another manifestation of blind hatred for our country,” claiming that its sponsors seek to drag Washington even deeper into the Ukraine conflict.
    "This is not just another crazy initiative by Russophobe US senators," Antonov stated, saying it shows who is really pursuing a course towards a direct global conflict between Russia and NATO.
    "The proposed resolution also seeks to impose on the global community a “provocative point of view that Russia intends to launch a nuclear strike on the territory of Ukraine,” Antonov said, suggesting that the document could also be laying the groundwork for accusing Moscow of staging a nuclear incident at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which was captured by Russian troops in the early days of the Ukraine conflict."

 • The Greater Eurasia project: Building bridges and breaking barriers, Pepe Escobar, The Cradle.co, Jun 22, 2023
    "Iran is now at the heart of all things multipolar. The recent discovery of a massive lithium field holding roughly 10 percent of the world’s reserves, coupled with the quite possible admission of Iran into the expanded BRICS – or BRICS+ – as early as this year, has bolstered scenarios of an upcoming BRICS currency backed by commodities: gold, oil, gas and – inevitably – lithium. All this frantic Global South-led activity stands in sharp contrast to the sputtering deceleration of the Empire of Sanctions. The Global South has had enough of the US sanctioning and banning whoever, whatever, and whenever they like, in defense of a hazy, arbitrary "rules-based international order."

 • Zelensky bans Russian books, RT, Jun 22, 2023

 • Russian Army getting enough recruits to form new regiment per day – Shoigu, RT, Jun 22, 2023
    "On average, 1,336 people enter service under a contract with the Russian Armed Forces per 24 hours," Shoigu said, adding that “we de facto get a [new] regiment every day.” Russia is now actively forming a reserve force that will include a new corps, a field army and five new regiments for the existing field armies, the defense minister said."

Jun 22, 2023, Anniversary of Nazi Invasion of Soviet Union, 1941
     Of interest: Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia; and Apocalypse: Operation Barbarossa
    "We and our allies owe and acknowledge an everlasting debt of gratitude to the armies and people of the Soviet Union." Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy

Featured • Biden walks back on Ukraine’s Nato accession, M.K. Bhadrakumar, Indian Punchline, Jun 19, 2023

 • SCOTT RITTER: On Horseradish & Nuclear War, Consortium News, Jun 21, 2023
    "Sullivan made it clear to his audience [at the "Arms Control Association," sic] that the nuclear strategy that the Biden administration approved in October 2022 would remain intact through 2026, when the last remaining U.S.-Russian arms control agreement, the 2010 New START treaty, was set to expire.
    "Once the New START treaty expires, and barring any agreement replacing it with a new agreement, Sullivan said that, given the state of play between the U.S. and Russia when it came to arms control, the U.S. would have no choice but to develop and deploy newer, more dangerous nuclear weapons [to be made for the foreseeable future using plutonium cores ("pits") produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory].
    "Sullivan then laid out the Biden administration’s case against Russia, starting with the Russian suspension of the New START treaty itself. Left unsaid was Russia’s stated reason for this suspension, namely the impossibility from the Russian point of view of engaging in strategic nuclear arms reductions at a time when the United States was pursuing a policy in Ukraine of waging a proxy conflict designed to cause the strategic defeat of Russia.
    "From the Russian perspective, pursuing the cooperative reduction with the U.S. of the very strategic capability which is, by design, intended to prevent Russia’s strategic defeat at a time when the U.S. was pursuing the strategic defeat of Russia was a non-starter.
    ...
    "If this insanity is allowed to continue unabated, it is lights out for all of humanity.
    "Chew on that the next time you cheer on the Ukrainian counteroffensive or applaud the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund the Ukrainian military.
    "It is high time for the American public to recognize that our only hope for a survivable future is one where arms control and nuclear disarmament once again serve as the cornerstone of a U.S.-Russian relationship, and that the shortest possible path toward achieving that objective is for Russia to win its war against Ukraine [which would occur at any time the U.S. said it would not support the war further, thus also saving tens of thousands of lives].
    "And for those politicians in the U.S. and Europe who have invested their political futures on the suicidal mission of feeding Ukraine’s anti-Russian fantasies?
    "Khren Im."

Jun 21, 2023

Featured • Woke Imperium: The Coming Confluence Between Social Justice and Neoconservatism, Christopher Mott, The Institute for Peace & Diplomacy, Jun 27, 2022
    "This entrenchment of systemic moralism in the American national security apparatus has been facilitated, and is at least partly driven, by a highly competitive professional class vying to secure their position in the system by using virtue signaling to demonstrate class solidarity to their higher ranks. This mimetic mechanism incentivizes pushing the envelope and chasing trending causes (normative mimicry)—but always in service of the imperial needs of the state where expansionism and primacy are viewed as the triumph of a universalized American conception of virtue over those forces which are viewed as being on ‘the wrong side of history’. Under such moralistic conditions, prudence, moderation, and narrower conceptions of interest—provisos of realism—could be effectively vilified as enabling oppression and injustice.
    "The current Wokeist incarnation of American globalist evangelism seeks not only to change the governments of other nations, but engineer their very cultures according to the Western progressive model. Its universalist framing of human values could be readily applied to violate or undermine the sovereignty of alternate political or cultural systems and justify those interventions for the domestic Western audiences in the name of ‘moral responsibility’.

 • Putin Says A Political Solution Is Still Possible, Andrew Korybko, The Automatic Earth, Jun 20, 2023

 • Pentagon Says ‘Accounting Error’ Provides Extra $6.2 Billion in Ukraine Military Aid, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Jun 20, 2023

 • ‘Act of Desperation’: Possible Ukrainian Attack on Crimea ‘Could Rapidly Spin Out of Control’, Fantine Gardinier, Sputnik International, Jun 20, 2023

Jun 20, 2023

Featured • U.S. Admits Defeat In War On Russia And China, Moon of Alabama, Jun 20, 2023
    gm: Bernhard has really gone big on this insightful but possibly too-optimistic post. "This double whammy of defeat in its wars on Russia and China will take some time to stick," he says. The tea leaves could also be read differently, leading inexorably toward tragedy (see Alastair Crooke, posted today).
    Perhaps the question is what kind of tragedy are we in for, in our respective countries. A lot is "baked in the cake," but also a lot isn't. For each of us personally, how much tragedy we experience depends in great part on what we ourselves do -- whether we face our cascading crises courageously, with integrity and responsibility within our respective communities and polities, or not.
    However subtle to most observers, a sea-change may well be occurring, as Bernhard says. If it is, it is quite delicate at this stage. Biden is not in charge of the U.S. government. He is one actor -- powerful by virtue of his office, but manipulable. Neocons like Victoria Nuland are quite adept at doing just that -- and there are lots of them in and around government, plus all the pork-hungry politicians, corporate war-mongers, "quackademics," MSM "journalists," and think-tank prostitutes whose careers are based on war. War just gives a lot to most elements of the U.S. government, and Washington is now on a partial war footing, indulging its addiction. Yes, perceptions are changing, due to magisterial factors like the success of the Russian military and that country's resilient economy.
    But the capacity for self-deception in Washington's many echo chambers is tremendous. Voices for peace -- from the right, left, and realist center -- must now come forth to "stick this thing," to use Nuland's words when she and U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt were planning the final stage of the 2014 U.S. coup that put Ukraine's neo-Nazi government in power. Let us not hear the usual "What can we do?", the answer to which is A LOT. We who want peace are now in the majority. Coraje, Dorados.

Featured • An Unfolding Tragedy: The Impossibility of Doing ‘Anything Other', Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Jun 19, 2023

 • Don’t count on a lasting thaw between the US and China, Timur Fomenko, RT, Jun 20, 2023

 • NATO Chief Says No Formal Invite for Ukraine to Join Alliance at Vilnius Summit, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Jun 19, 2023

 • We Need a Peace President, Ron Paul, Jun 19, 2023
    "The escalation rationale from Washington, we are told, is that since the Russians have not directly retaliated against NATO for NATO’s direct support of Ukraine’s war machine, we can be sure they never will respond. Is that really a wise bet? It is clear to many that US-built F-16 fighters taking off from NATO bases with NATO pilots attacking Russians in Ukraine – or even Russia itself – would be a declaration of war on Russia. That means World War III – something we managed to avoid for the whole Cold War. Congress is silent – or compliant – as we lurch forward toward disaster for no discernable US strategic goal. Biden – or whoever is actually running the show – is forging straight ahead. As we move into the US presidential election cycle one thing is clear: we desperately need a peace president to do for us what JFK did for the US during the Cuba crisis. Hopefully it won’t be too late!"

 • BlackRock, JP Morgan set up 'reconstruction bank' for Ukraine, C.G. Jones, HumanEvents, Jun 19, 2023
    I am sure that BlackRock and JP Morgan have only the best interests of the Ukrainians at heart.

Jun 18 & 19, 2023

 • Putin Shows African Leaders Draft Treaty on Ukrainian Neutrality from March 2022, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Jun 18, 2023

 • AFU Suffers Horror Breakdowns as Russian Forces Repel New Advance, Simplicius, Jun 18, 2023

 • Will upcoming NATO summit launch forever war in Europe?, David Sacks, Responsible Statecraft, Jun 16, 2023
    "Now a difficult start to the counteroffensive coupled with a proposed multi-year deal at Vilnius makes clear that this was a lie or a pipe dream. But isn’t this what always happens? Administrations ease us into war with promises of quick and easy victory, and then once involved, tell us we can’t back out no matter the cost because American credibility is at stake. It’s Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq all over again, except this time with a nuclear-armed adversary creating the heightened risk that the war could escalate into WWIII at any point....
    "The threats from Rasmussen underscore how easily a proxy war can turn into a real one in an alliance where all members are pledged to come to the military defense of any one member. The American people may begin to question the wisdom of making new Article 5 guarantees if foreigners like Rassmussen can use existing ones to blackmail the United States into reckless action.
    "Polish or Ukrainian tails should not wag American dogs into World War III."

Jun 17, 2023

Featured  • Putin: Russia has More Nuclear Weapons than all NATO Countries, SouthFront, Jun 17, 2023
    "Answering a question on his stance on using tactical, low-yield nuclear weapons as a deterrent, Putin stressed that his attitude about the idea of using such weapons was “negative” and pointed to Moscow’s nuclear doctrine."

"Nuclear weapons are created to ensure our security in its most broad sense and the very existence of the Russian state. But we, firstly, do not have such a need, and secondly, the very fact of discussing this topic already lowers the threshold for the use of [nuclear] weaponry,” he said, according to RT.

"We possess more weaponry of such sort than the NATO countries. They know that and are always trying to persuade us to start negotiations on reduction. Nuts to them, you know, as our people say,” the president said. (emphasis added)

"As you know, we held talks with our union state, with President [of Belarus Alexander] Lukashenko on deploying part of these tactical weapons to Belarusian territory. It has happened – the first nuclear warheads have been delivered to Belarusian territory. This is the first batch. We will complete this work by the end of this year,” he said.

Jun 16, 2023

Featured  • A year later, NATO will adopt a plan for 300,troops on high alert, RBC, Jun 14, 2023

Featured • SITREP 6/15/23: Kakhovka Powerplay Heats Up as AFU Readies For Round 2, Simplicius, Jun 15, 2023

 • When More is Better — You Can't Polish a Turd, Larry Johnson, Jun 15, 2023
    "What we are witnessing is military malpractice on a colossal scale. I find it hard to believe that Milley, Austin and their NATO compatriots are really this stupid in touting this training regimen as something responsible and wise. It is madness. The cynical part of me believes that Ukraine is just being used as a pretext to juice the Western defense industries. After years of neglect and outsourcing, the U.S. and its NATO partners have discovered that they no longer have the factories and materials necessary to supply an industrial scale war.
    "The hard truth it this — Ukraine does not have the manpower and NATO does not have the luxury of time required to ensure the Ukrainian soldiers have minimal levels of competence in the military arts they are trying to learn in a veritable crash course. Keep this in mind as Russian grinds the Ukrainian Army into dust. All of that money for training men whose life expectancy is counted in weeks, if not days. Who will be held accountable?"

 • US demanding big results from Ukraine’s counteroffensive, soon – Politico, RT, Jun 15, 2023

 • The Government Keeps Lying to Us About Ukraine. Where Is the Outrage? | Opinion, Michael Tracey, Independent Reporter, Jun 14, 2023

Jun 15, 2023

Featured  • A Chaotic Re-Sorting: Europe’s ‘Seminal Shift’ Is (Broadly) Moving in the Same Direction as U.S. Politics, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Jun 12, 2023
    "It is a dizzying political realignment – scrambling all of the traditional categories and leaving in its wake just two sides: not left and right, but insider and outsider. And no matter the substance of one’s beliefs, to the media, 'outsider' means by default, 'right-wing conspiracy theorist'....
    "The ‘dizzying political realignment’ well describes the nature of the European backlash too: European Centre-Right and Green coalitions saw the Ukraine conflict as the means to centralise ‘a new kind of feudalism’ in the EU; to disenfranchise European national parliaments of their prerogatives; and to open the prospect for consolidating the strange metamorphosis of NATO from pure military alliance to an enlightened, progressive, peace alliance – pursuing ‘justice’, values and democracy in Ukraine.
    "With 'the U.S. Democrats slowly becoming pro-corporate, pro-war, and pro-censorship', said [Robert F.] Kennedy [Jr.], and with the 'Republicans becoming anti-censorship, pro-civil liberties, and anti-war – there’s been a tremendous realignment.'" (emphasis in original)"

 • Our Ongoing March Into Dystopia And Oblivion, CaitlinJohnstone.com, Jun 15, 2023
    "As Marcetic discussed in another article last year, the insanely hawkish rhetoric we are seeing from the western political/media class around the subject of nuclear brinkmanship is demonstrably far more oriented toward reckless confrontation than it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The people whose job it is to encourage restraint in these situations — the press, the diplomats, and the elected officials — are instead doing the exact opposite.
    "And the discourse is only getting crazier. The neoconservative think tank American Enterprise Institute is now floating the idea of giving nukes to Ukraine, which is about as evil and demented a foreign policy position as anyone could possibly come up with."

 • Ukraine War & Nukes Moving Around - Col Doug Macgregor, Judging Freedom, Jun 14, 2023
    The war in Ukraine is not a "normal" war, in that a) Ukrainian leaders are being paid to kill Russians by outside parties despite the very heavy damage being done to Ukraine, its people, and its economic future, b) the Ukrainian client state is being run as a dictatorship with a violent neo-Nazi flavor, and c) on Ukraine's part this is very much a race war.
     The war was initiated by the U.S.-controlled Ukrainian government (after a violent U.S.-sponsored coup) against its own Russian-speaking people in 2014. The terrorist bombardment of civilians in the breakaway provinces was conducted with overtly genocidal aims. Now, execution and torture of Russian POWs and terrorist attacks by Ukraine against "enemy" civilians, are commonplace. They are motivated in part by the overt racism nurtured by Kiev's neo-Nazi leadership.
     A key point brought up by McGregor is that Ukraine has long been defeated in conventional terms but is not being allowed to surrender or sue for peace by its U.S. and other Western sponsors.
     Ukraine's Western sponsors want Ukraine to fight "to the last Ukrainian," and the neo-Nazi cabal running that government is fine with that.
    In Shakespeare's words, Ukraine and its sponsors are "guilty in defense:"

"How yet resolves the governor of the town?
This is the latest parle we will admit;
Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves;
Or like to men proud of destruction
Defy us to our worst: for, as I am a soldier,
A name that in my thoughts becomes me best,
If I begin the battery once again,
I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
Till in her ashes she lie buried....
What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?"

"We were forced to try to end the war that the West started in 2014 by force of arms. And Russia will end this war by force of arms, freeing the entire territory of the former Ukraine from the United States and Ukrainian Nazis. There are no other options. The Ukrainian army of the US and NATO will be defeated, no matter what new types of weapons it receives from the West. The more weapons there are, the fewer Ukrainians and what used to be Ukraine will remain. Direct intervention by NATO’s European armies will not change the outcome. But in this case, the fire of war will engulf the whole of Europe. It looks like the US is ready for that too."

[Further research has shown that the quote above was fabricated and not in Putin's speech]

Jun 14, 2023

Featured  • Putin Invites Top Russian Correspondents For Candid War Q&A + SitRep Updates, Simplicius, Jun 13, 2023

 • US using Ukraine as ‘iron baton’ – Moscow, RT, Jun 14, 2023

 • US Set to Provide Ukraine With Depleted Uranium Rounds for Abrams Tanks, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Jun 13, 2023

 • White House Set To Approve Depleted Uranium Munitions For Ukraine, ZeroHedge, Jun 13, 2023

 • West told us ‘to kill as many Russians’ as possible – Ukrainian defense minister, RT, Jun 13, 2023

Jun 13, 2023

Featured  • Debt Crisis Was Bipartisan Excuse to 'Cut Social Spending,' Not Defense Budget, James Tweedie, Sputnik International, Jun 12, 2023
   "Biden wants a free hand to continue to give billions every week to finance the Ukraine proxy war, and he's got that free hand now," [economist Jack] Rasmus said. "And both sides never even made an effort to do any cuts here on the defense side. So Biden got his blank check for raising Pentagon and war spending and financing Ukraine. And the Republicans got all the rest. "So Democrats got what they wanted, at least the corporate Democrats running the party. And the Republicans got a you know, a big bite of the apple of cutting social spending," he added. "And they're going to get another bite here when it comes later in the year for passing the budget for the next year."

Jun 12, 2023

Featured  • Ukraine SitRep: Destruction Of Its Third Army - Issues To Negotiate, Moon of Alabama, Jun 12, 2023
    Concise summary of recent developments; supports Larry Johnson's take on what Russia will want. As the author admits, he is probably too optimistic about the end of the war "coming in sight."

 • NYT outlines what Ukrainian counteroffensive 'success' means in the West, RT, Jun 11, 2023
    "The West would consider Ukraine’s counteroffensive a success if Kiev were to retake key areas lost to Moscow or deliver a “debilitating” blow to Russian forces, the New York Times has reported, citing US and EU officials....“Much rides on the outcome” of the counteroffensive as it will likely impact further Western military support for Ukraine and future discussions on security guarantees for the country, the US paper said in an article on Saturday."

 • SITREP 6/11/23: Ukraine Reorients and Makes Breakthroughs on Eastern Axis, Simplicius, Jun 11, 2023
    "On one hand we have whispers of NATO preparations for war escalations against Russia, and on the other, signs that the West is seeking to freeze the conflict if the Ukrainian offensive peters out....As always, I believe the war hawks are making their internal plans to eternally escalate while the realists are preparing to freeze the conflict. However, there is zero indication from the Russian side that the conflict will be frozen, so the big question that remains is what will both sides of the West do once they realize that Putin will not roll over to another ‘Minsk’-style trick?"

 • Russia must end ‘illusions’ about West – top Russian senator, RT, Jun 11, 2023

 • What Could Russia Demand to Negotiate an End to the War in Ukraine?, Larry Johnson, Jun 11, 2023
    "The West is failing to grasp the reality that Russia believes it is winning the war in Ukraine and that it is not suffering economic or political damage at home. And, when you factor in the international arena, the war has proven to be a boon for Russia’s efforts to help create a new international financial/trade system that circumvents Washington’s control. In other words, Russia has little incentive to entertain negotiations that would require Russian concessions."
    Western leaders are too arrogant and locked into their enforced echo chambers to grasp the actual situation, either in Ukraine or globally. This is precisely what Russia said back in 2021 -- that if the West would not negotiate in good faith, recognizing Russia's sovereignty and some reasonable security needs as she saw them, Russia would have to change the situation by "military-technical means." Russia is looking to both the short term and the long term. The West, led by the US, is losing in both.

Jun 11, 2023

Featured  • Security guarantees, then Polish troops, and finally US troops, The Duran, Jun 10, 2023
    Related • White House anxiously watches Ukraine’s counteroffensive, seeing the war and Biden’s reputation at stake, Jonathan Lemire and Alexander Ward, Politico, Jun 8, 2023
    "A successful Ukrainian counteroffensive would be another foreign policy win Biden can tout. But the administration will still face pressure to address questions Europeans and Ukrainians want answered: Will the U.S. offer clear security guarantees for Kyiv, the imminent deliveries of F-16 fighter jets and a concrete path to Ukraine’s membership in NATO?" (Emphasis added)

 • Ukraine's Offensive Begins: Burning NATO Equipment vs. Layered Russian Defenses, The New Atlas, Jun 10, 2023
   At 24:00, Berletic agrees with The Duran that NATO will be tempted to intervene directly.

 • Scott Ritter: Ukrainian Counteroffensive Runs Into Defensive Wall, Sputnik International, Jun 10, 2023

 • NATO set to launch military exercises over Germany, Frank Hoffman, Deutsche Welle, Jun 9, 2023

Jun 10, 2023

Featured  • Matthew Hoh: A War Long Wanted, Scheerpost, Jun 9, 2023

Featured  • Anatomy of a NATO-Planned, Trained, and Armed Disaster, Simplicius, Jun 9, 2023

 • Is a Negotiated Peace Agreement Possible in Ukraine, Larry Johnson, Jun 10, 2023
   "Russia is under no pressure to seek an end to the conflict. Nothing short of unconditional surrender will placate Russia. Ukraine, however, has ample reasons to bring the war to an end. Rational military commanders on the Ukrainian side must now understand that their prospects for inflicting a devastating blow to the Russian military forces is becoming less likely with each passing hour. Russia’s advantages in terms of men, artillery, and air support are thwarting Ukraine’s military ambitions. I do not discount the possibility that Ukraine’s military commanders realize that continued attacks are futile and that securing a negotiated end to the conflict is their only hope of surviving. If this report is true it signals a growing rift between the military and political leaders in Ukraine. The only solution is to overthrow the government of Volodomyr Zelensky by the military and sue for peace."

 • Kyiv Launched UK-Supplied Missiles at Flood Shelter in Southern Kherson, SouthFront, Jun 10, 2023
   Every day the regime in Kiev carries out what can only be called terrorist attacks on civilians, strikes with no military purpose at all. The Kiev regime is criminal, and so are the ones in the West supporting it. The bedrock of Kiev's terrorism is a permeating neo-Nazi hatred of all things Russian that has been fostered in Ukraine by the U.S. especially.
   Related • A petri dish for fascism: How Ukraine has become a magnet for Western neo-Nazis, RT, Jun 10, 2023

 • Sweden Will Allow NATO Deployments In 'Signal To Russia', ZeroHedge, Jun 10, 2023

 • Annals of the Ukraine War: Year Two, Eve Ottenberg, Counterpunch, Jun 9, 2023
   Excellent except for two things. First, Trump is not the president who could usher in fascism, because too many in the permanent, deep state and mainstream media oppose him. Second, Russia is defeating NATO's proxy army without nuclear weapons, which she has no need to use. Russia might well resort to them if Crimea were really threatened and all else failed, as Nuland and many others want, but there is no sign of that at present. The president advancing fascism is the mentally-deficient old man in the oval office right now, a criminal who clings to power despite the rising tide of scandal around him.

Jun 9, 2023

Featured  • How JFK Would Pursue Peace in Ukraine, Consortium News, Jun 8, 2023
   "A mathematician would call JFK’s speech a “constructive proof” of how to make peace, since the speech itself contributed directly to the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed by the U.S. and Soviet Union in July 1963. Upon receipt of the speech, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev told Kennedy’s envoy to Russia, Averell Harriman, that the speech was the greatest by an American president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, and that he wanted to pursue peace with Kennedy."
   Can our poor country be saved? This is the most corrupt, deeply stupid, indeed criminal administration I have ever seen, excepting Dick Cheney's first term I suppose. The longer that people -- especially our political and opinion leaders -- continue to incorporate the delusions fostered by our propaganda machinery into their political, social, and career identities the more difficult it will be to ever stumble out into the light of day again.

 • Media: One Side "Says" - The Other "Provides No Evidence", Moon of Alabama, Jun 9, 2023
   "Over the last 48 hours I have watched half a dozen drone videos of Ukrainian vehicles rumbling in tight columns over open fields, without minesweepers, without smokescreen or artillery cover, only to get blown up in minefields and massacred by anti-tank missiles. No seasoned platoon or company leader would plan and execute attacks like that but, watching those videos, I doubt that the Ukraine still has any of those....Did any of the U.S. or NATO leaders really think that the Ukrainian forces would have a f***ing chance by senselessly running into well prepared Russian defenses? Really???"

 • Offensive Confirmed: AFU Strikes Hard But Leopards Get Spayed, Simplicius, Jun 8, 2023

 • Ukraine was ready to sign peace deal with Russia but gave up under US pressure — Patrushev, TASS, Jun 8, 2023

Jun 8, 2023

Featured  • Russo-Ukrainian War: Dam!, Big Serge, Jun 7, 2023

 • NATO Preparing Its Largest Air Deployment Exercise in History, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Jun 7, 2023
   This is very dangerous and will be seen as such in Russia.

 • Zelensky ‘shocked’ at cold shoulder from UN, RT, Jun 7, 2023
   Was he hoping for some kind of international humanitarian effort to rush in as a result of his own actions?

Jun 7, 2023

Featured  • Postmortem Analysis on Kakhovka Dam Breach, Simplicius, Jun 6, 2023
   By far the best overall analysis of the dam breach.

 • The End Stage of American Empire, William J. Astore and Tom Engelhardt, Antiwar.com, Jun 7, 2023
   "As an imperial power, we cling bitterly to guns and religion. By “guns,” I mean all the weaponry America’s merchants of death sell to the Pentagon and across the world....And by “religion,” I mean a persistent belief in American exceptionalism (despite all evidence to the contrary), which increasingly draws sustenance from a militant Christianity that denies the very spirit of Christ and His teachings....America must stop clinging bitterly to its guns — and here I don’t even mean the nearly 400 million weapons in private hands in this country, including all those AR-15 semi-automatic rifles. By “guns,” I mean all the militarized trappings of empire, including America’s vast structure of overseas military bases and its staggering commitments to weaponry of all sorts, including world-ending nuclear ones. As for clinging bitterly to religion — and by “religion” I mean the belief in America’s own righteousness, regardless of the millions of people it’s killed globally from the Vietnam era to the present moment — that, too, would have to stop....What will it take to convince Americans to turn their backs on empire and war before it’s too late? When will we conclude that Christ wasn’t joking when He blessed the peacemakers rather than the warmongers?"

 • Patrick Lawrence: First There Were Neo-Nazis, Then There Were No Nazis, Then There Were, Scheerpost, Jun 6, 2023

 • Journalists Are Asking Ukrainian Soldiers To Hide Their Nazi Patches, NYT Admits, ZeroHedge, Jun 6, 2023

Jun 6, 2023

Featured  • Dam Destroyed / What is the Russian's Strategy Col Doug Macgregor, Judging Freedom, Jun 6, 2023
           • Nova Kakhova Dam Breach - Updated (12:15 UTC), Moon of Alabama, Jun 5, 2023
           • BREAKING: Hell Breaks Loose as Kakhovka Dam Completely Destroyed, Simplicius, Jun 5, 2023
           • Kiev’s Long Term Plans To Blow Up The Kakhovka Dam, Raúl Ilargi Meijer, The Automatic Earth, Jun 6, 2023

 • Ammonia Pipeline Damaged Near Kupyansk in Kharkov Region, SouthFront,, Jun 6, 2023

 • ‘Give War a Chance’ – A ‘War That Even Pacifists Can Get Behind’, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Jun 5, 2023
   "Here is the key: 'the EU is much weaker than it believes it to be'. The outset of the conflict was defined by a cast of mind entranced by the notion of Europe as a ‘mover and shaker’ in world affairs, and mesmerised by Europe’s post-war prosperity.
   "EU leaders convinced themselves that this prosperity had bequeathed it the clout and the economic depth to contemplate war – and to weather its reversals – with panglossian sanguinity. It has produced rather, the converse: It has put its project in jeopardy."

Jun 5, 2023

Featured • 15 Reasons Why Mass Media Employees Act Like Propagandists, CaitlinJohnstone.com, Jun 4, 2023

 • Wild Day in the Wildlands of Ukraine, Simplicius, Jun 4, 2023

 • Ukraine is Going Kamikaze, Larry Johnson, Jun 4, 2023

Jun 4, 2023

 • Ukraine lacks weapons to launch counteroffensive – Zelensky’s aide, RT, Jun 4, 2023
 • Ukraine ‘ready’ to launch counteroffensive – Zelensky, RT, Jun 3, 2023
   He has utterly lost touch with reality. He sacrifices his people to maintain his megalomanic fantasies. And almost the entire West supports him in his murderous insanity.

 • SITREP 6/3/23: West Stymied by Strong Russian Economic Showing, Simplicius, Jun 3, 2023

 • The Ukrainian Military Is In Bad Shape, Moon of Alabama, Jun 3, 2023

 • The Demon in America's Sacred Narrative, Michael Vlahos, Agon, Jun 2, 2023
   "The United States began and completed its fateful passage as the embodiment of (divine) Orders: from a “New Order for the Ages” to the “United Nations” to a “New World Order”, and finally to a liberal “Rules-based Order”. But these so-called Orders are a simulacrum for the demon that hides deep within the American sacred narrative and within us all: a fixation with the cleansing fires of war that has driven us to overreach and on the brink of downfall."

 • Defense Contractor Funded Think Tanks Dominate Ukraine Debate, Ben Freeman, Quincy Institute, Jun 1, 2023
   Tip of the proverbial iceberg. Which academic programs receive funding from government military and nuclear weapons agencies? Answer: many of the most important. Then broaden the analysis to include military- and nuclear-linked private foundations, which fund these orgs and set agendas. The next layer is political party-linked major donors and foundations -- right now, the Democratic Party, without one single elected exception in national office, uniformly supports the war in Ukraine. It's a wonder there is any dissent at all. All the more important, then, to speak up!

 • Zelenskyy to be investigated for “High Treason,” by Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation, Iain Muir, Scotland Today Online, May 30, 2023
   Can anybody do this and survive? Perhaps that how it has to be done in Ukraine today, but is it real?

Jun 3, 2023

Featured • 'Waging Peace': How a tour of Russia showed me that propaganda perverts reality in the minds of Americans, Scott Ritter, RT, Jun 2, 2023
   " Upon my return home, I was able to access my email account, which I was not able to do while in Russia, and immediately stumbled upon an intramural discussion among people I respect, who possess similar professional backgrounds and anti-war inclinations. It revolved around the issue of whether there was anything more Russia, and in particular Putin, could have done to avoid a war in Ukraine. Some amongst this group insisted that Putin had no choice but to act, while others argued that there were always options short of war that could have been pursued.
    What struck me about this debate was the reality that, save for very few exceptions, the underlying analysis was conducted from an American point of view, with little or no regard as to what would be politically possible in Russia, or what the factual foundation of the problems being discussed were. The mirror-imaging of American perspectives onto Russian reality resulted in the creation of a counter-narrative that was as fundamentally flawed as it was factually challenged. For those who argued that Putin could have avoided war, their arguments lacked any grounding in Russian reality or the facts of the case.
    The lack of insight into how Russia functions created artificial expectations of Russian behavior which, when not met, generated angst among the participants about the irresponsible actions of Putin and his government that in turn helped feed an overall anti-Russian narrative. As this debate underscored, even among well-meaning people inclined to have an open mind about the country, Russophobia and an overall ignorance of the Russian reality creates pre-conceived intellectual obstacles which are difficult to overcome."

Featured • Blinken Dismisses Calls for a Ceasefire, Says US Must Build Up Ukraine’s Military, Kyle Anzalone, Antiwar.com, Jun 2, 2023

 • NATO’s big gamble in Ukraine has failed, Zorawar Daulet Singh, The Automatic Earth, Jun 3, 2023
   "Ilargi Meijer: View from India. Zorawar Daulet Singh is an award winning author and strategic affairs expert based in New Delhi."

 • Robert F. Kennedy Jr, twitter video: "Every decision we've made in Ukraine seems to have been intended to prolong the war and to maximize the bloodshed.... what we've done is destroyed this country with a war that we could have settled at the outset," Jun 2, 2023

 • Tanks, F-16 Jets Won't Be Ready For Ukraine Counteroffensive: Pentagon, ZeroHedge, Jun 2, 2023

Jun 2, 2023

Featured • Scott Ritter: Sanctions Against Russia Failed. I Saw It Firsthand., Sputnik, Jun 1, 2023

 • Patrick Lawrence: The War We’re Finally Allowed to See, Consortium News, Jun 1, 2023

Jun 1, 2023

Featured • Zelensky and Macron planning ‘peace summit’ without Russia – WSJ, RT, May 31, 2023
   One of many indications that Ukrainian leadership is out of touch with reality, crazy.

Featured • Macron Will Push NATO to Pledge ‘Concrete’ Guarantees for Ukraine, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, May 31, 2023

Featured • What's next in Ukraine? Are more drones on their way to Russia?, Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom, May 31, 2023
   Touches upon several new developments.

 • Britain ‘de facto’ at war with Russia – Medvedev, RT, May 31, 2023
   One recalls Tom Lehrer's "Who's next?" In effect, the "fingers on the trigger" of nuclear war are becoming many.

 • Czech General Warns NATO ‘Is Currently on a Course’ for War with Russia, Kyle Anzalone, Antiwar.com, May 31, 2023

 • US statements on Moscow drone attack encourage Ukrainian terrorists — Russian ambassador, TASS, May 31, 2023

 • Annexation of Kharkov -- Ukraine to Shrink Westward as Russia Responds to Cross-Border Attacks, John Helmer, Dances with Bears, May 31, 2023
   Neither the author nor any other outsider, however informed they may be, has any idea about whether this is likely to happen or not. But should this happen, it will be the result of utterly consistent Ukrainian actions violating humanitarian law, e.g. targeting civilian populations without any military justification. It's been going on since 2014 and is based on institutionalized neo-Nazi racist hatred of Russia, which unfortunately has infected the West as well, including many NGOs.

 • ‘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