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Eric Holder says

Does OUR GREAT CHRISTIAN LEADER actually want Nazis to continue lampshading his subjects?

Biden wants the Azov Ukey Nazi's to keep selling lampshades on eBay?

Wow!

Follow the money! Last week, Politico ran a whiny story headlined, “European governments criticize IMF trip to Russia as ‘propaganda win’ for Putin.”

If there is one kind of win that corporate media hates more than any other kind of victory or success, it is a propaganda win. They just can’t stand it. Please, they always cry, anything but a propaganda win. Not that. Not for Putin.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a Washington-based international finance agency formed in 1994. Since then, its octopus-like tendrils have spread worldwide, making massive “development loans” and dishing out “financial advice” to other countries with more strings attached than a concert hall harp section.

Although the IMF is ostensibly neutral, its strings always benefit U.S. interests.

When Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2022, the IMF’s tendrils shrank away from that country, as part of Joe Biden’s backfiring sanctions regime. But last week, the IMF announced it was sending a delegation to Moscow to renew relationships. Although the announcement was light on details, looney Ukraine supporters did not fail to detect the obvious message. Politico:

Ukraine's backers argue that by visiting Russia, the IMF is sending the
message that relations with Moscow are normalizing despite its continued
unprovoked aggression in Ukraine.

Haha, unprovoked. The point is, the wheels are coming off the Ukraine bus. First, it was the Ryan Routh attack, which has done and will do more to tank Ukraine’s prospects than any other single event. Routh’s unhinged Ukraine support mingles with his assassination attempt, to create a politically unpalatable narrative stew.

The IMF’s new mission to Russia is the kind of behind-the-scenes stuff that says more than a hundred headlines. Follow the money, and the money is going to see President Putin.

Russia’s economy has done terrific in the last two years, breaking all previous records, in the absence of any IMF “help.” They’d be crazier than the CIA wants you to think Ryan Routh is, if they got back in bed with the grasping financial agency. The IMF has a lot of selling to do.

According to Col. Wilkerson, Sec’y of Defense Lloyd Austin told the “president” to his face that there will be no flinging of US-supplied long-range missiles from Ukraine “deep into Russia,” as the neocon-infested White House been chattering about endlessly. Wiser heads deep in the DOD HQ have decided the matter. Lump it, if you must, Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan. The Russians’ “red-line” on such a caper is so wide you can see it from the International Space Station — that is, if you’re an astronaut marooned up there due to combined NASA/Boeing incompetence. . . but that’s another story.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was all revved up for the missile operation and flew to Washington for a one-to-one meet-up with “JB” to get the go-ahead. The Brits are avid for another World War. The last two went so well for them that they kissed their vast empire goodbye. Now they want to kiss goodbye their sceptered isle itself, which has almost no economy left and is overrun by cultural hostiles who are not into Shakespeare. The Brits’ floundering government is a posse of monomaniacs fixated on defeating Russia which, at this point in history, is like a dormouse (Glis glis) facing down a brown bear (Ursus arctos).

“Joe Biden,” reportedly “furious” at losing his executive power, was constrained to tell Mr. Starmer that the missile strike op was off, which left the UK PM miffed that he had crossed the ocean for no reason. Who knows, the Brits are so nuts these days that perhaps they’ll try to pull it off on their own. Mr. Zelensky, the no-longer-elected leader of Ukraine was begging them to try it because Ukraine has nothing left. NATO as a whole really has nothing left, either. Not much of a combined military, scant munitions left in the cupboard, and no will to wage war among the depressed citizens of its member nations.

There is nothing left except to come to terms on a settlement that will leave Ukraine not a member of NATO. The entire affair has been a humiliation for NATO and America, especially for the “Joe Biden” management team (whatever it actually consists of these days). The longer they refuse to engage in talks, the less of Ukraine will be left as a sovereign entity — having proven to the world that its sovereignty rests solely on its capacity to be used as a catspaw by the American neocon / intel blob. You’re reminded that for seventy years prior to 2014, Ukraine was not a problem for anyone until we made it a problem on-purpose — our purpose being idiotic and malicious — and Ukraine could, in theory, revert to not being a problem for anyone again. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Volodymyr Zelensky is Ukraine’s former president and now its unelected Martial Law Coordinator, a position invented in real time out of necessity after Zelensky’s term ended without holding new elections. Corporate media still calls him the “president,” since he wields the powers of a president, but that title is not even close to accurate.

With U.S. elections looming, and uncomfortable questions about Zelensky’s authority cropping up like spring Ukrainian sunflowers, Curruptocrat Zelensky quickly developed a secret “Victory Plan” that he plans to present to President Cabbage today in Washington.

But Ukraine is a leaky ship of state, and anonymous bureaucrats are telling eager reporters what to expect. In addition to lots more money and more weapons, Zelensky’s amazing Victory Plan is expected to rest on two main prongs.

First, he wants the United States’ help in targeting Russian cities with U.S.-supplied and U.S.-directed missiles. This, Zelensky apparently believes, will tree the Russian Bear. Zelensky thinks the Russian people are weak-minded and cowardly and, if they are subjected to devastating missile attacks, they’ll overthrow the evil dictator Putin and peace will descend on Europe like a dove.

In other words, Zelensky expects the Russians to defeat Russia.

Of course, Russia could also respond by bombing Kiev into a smoking ash heap, which it has patiently resisted doing for almost three years now. Despite Ukraine relentlessly trying to bomb Russia’s Crimean bridge, Russia has also held back from taking out Ukraine’s six bridges across the massive Dnieper river, which bisects the country. That operation would probably only take an hour.

So the plan also includes a second, defensive prong. Zelensky reportedly also wants immediate NATO membership, to protect Ukraine from Russian retribution for strikes on its civilian centers. Russia, Zelensky thinks, won’t risk a war with NATO, which would be required to directly intervene for Ukraine if it were a member.

In other words, Zelensky sees Israel’s deal and wants the same thing for Ukraine.

But Ukraine is not Israel. Nor is Russia comparable to Hezbollah and Hamas. And yesterday, the escalatory ladder extended more when President Putin announced changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine that would allow a thermonuclear response to any massive missile or drone attack against Russian cities. He also said if a nuclear state helps Ukraine, it would be considered a “joint attack” against Russia. ...

https://x.com/ivan_8848/status/1839434787070644636

But, using Accuweather’s conservative $110 billion estimate, we could restore every single citizen whose home was destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Helene, and rebuild every single washed-out small business — for less than the cost of the next Ukraine weapons package.

Congress has not even tried to reallocate any Ukraine Aid to Helene Recovery.

Help is on the way! Four days ago, Reuters ran a story headlined, “Israel says it has secured $8.7 billion U.S. aid package.” Three days ago, Responsible Statecraft ran a story headlined, “Biden 'surges' $8 billion in aid to Ukraine, this senator wants guardrails on it.” Yesterday, Reuters ran a story headlined, “Biden approves $567 mln in defense support for Taiwan, White House says.”

Just hold on. I know what you’re thinking, dummies. But you don’t understand geopolitics. The wheel of money and war must keep spinning, or what’s the point? True, people in North Carolina might not have food, water, or houses, but what would they do if China invaded Taiwan? Huh? What would they do if Russia defeats Ukraine before all that sweet, sweet tax money greases all the necessary palms?

How will we keep all those wars going?

It’s fine and dandy to help all those poor citizens of other countries deal with their disasters. But here’s a radical idea. Maybe we should suspend aid to fix other countries’ problems until we have a firmer grasp on our own? Just saying.

As the world braces for today’s anniversary of the barbaric October 7th attacks on Israel and as the war in the Middle East heats up, the influential Financial Times floated a very suggestive proposal yesterday headlined, “Ukraine, Nato membership and the West Germany model.” The sub-headline added, “Security guarantees will have to underpin any peace deal where Russia retains control of Ukrainian land.” So much for “not one inch.”

“Although it remains committed to recovering the lands seized by Russia over the past decade,” the Financial Times regretfully explained, Ukraine “regrettably lacks the manpower, weaponry and western support to do it.” Later, it somberly conceded, “the west patently lacks a strategy for Ukraine to prevail.”

Now they tell us! And here, we all thought they had a strategy of some kind. (Just wait for the next story to see what the current strategy is.) But apparently not. So now they want to split the Ukraine baby.

Now they tell us, Part Deux: “The West German model for Ukraine has been discussed in foreign policy circles for more than 18 months.” Surprise! What they mean by the “West German model” is splitting Ukraine into two parts, like West and East Germany after the Second World War. In that historic scenario, West Germany was allowed to join NATO even though half the country remained under Soviet control.

This overly optimistic scheme suffers from two obvious problems, as the article eventually got around to admitting. First, in Germany, the occupied borders were well-defined, allowing the famous Berlin Wall to be erected right down the line. But in Ukraine, the war marches on, and the ever-changing borders remain fluid.

Second, after the war, the Soviets agreed to the Germany-splitting compromise. Today, Russia will never agree to let West Ukraine join NATO as part of any peace plan. It will never ever happen.

Biden’s neocons, Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, must now divide their attention between the old, difficult, plan-less Ukraine war, and the shiny new war emerging in the Middle East, which is ripe with potential and enthusiasm for a fresh conflict and all its glorious potential.

Meanwhile, things are only getting worse in Eastern Europe’s strategy-free theater of war. Any day now, Ukraine will head into winter and its rasputitsa mud season, further freezing and bogging down prospects for Ukraine’s ‘victory.’

Perhaps it isn’t completely fair to say there’s no strategy. On Saturday, the New York Times ran an eye-watering story headlined, “Ukraine’s Donbas Strategy: Retreat Slowly and Maximize Russia’s Losses.” The agonized sub-headline added, “It’s far from clear if the Ukrainian strategy will succeed.” So, there is a strategy after all.

Talk about trying to put a good spin on failure. The gist was that the Ukrainians are losing, are in retreat all along the front lines, but Kiev has ordered its troops to hold their untenable positions at all costs, in the hope that the Russians will eventually get tired of winning and go home.

That’s it. That’s the whole strategy.

To be clear, Ukraine has an alternative: pulling its troops from vast numbers of unholdable towns and villages, and mustering them together in more defensible positions, such as behind the giant Dnieper river, which divides the country in half. The main advantage of this defensive strategy would be saving tens or hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives.

Instead, Ukrainian martial law coordinator and former comedian Zelensky figures that, despite the astonishingly high cost in lives and free NATO materiel, by holding on till beyond the last minute in every little hamlet and township, the Russians might, sooner or later, get exhausted by all the fighting and give up.

Given that one of Russia’s stated objectives at the outset was to demilitarize Ukraine, it seems unlikely that Russia will get tired anytime soon of killing Ukrainian soldiers by the battalion.

Combined, these two stories, the Financial Times’ and the New York Times’ articles, together revealed the war’s hideous truth. Western war planners don’t care about Ukraine. They don’t care about its courageous soldiers willing to fight Russia to their inglorious deaths. As I reported yesterday, all the West cares about is the Wolfowitz Doctrine: establishing a NATO foothold in Ukraine to keep a lid on Russia and prevent it from becoming a rival world superpower.

In other words, the Ukrainian people and their land are disposable NATO resources. But there isn’t any strategy. Doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result isn’t a strategy, it’s insanity.

But the fact the corporate media conversation and “foreign policy circles” have evolved from a goal of crushing Russia any day now to a strategy of trading land for peace is a great sign. Perhaps the end lies in sight.

all the West cares about is the Wolfowitz Doctrine: establishing a NATO foothold in Ukraine to keep a lid on Russia and prevent it from becoming a rival world superpower.

I got a 12 hour ban from Twitter for saying throw Igor K. down the well. The bots are strong in this October before the election year.

I got a 12 hour ban from Twitter

Highbrow blogging site UnHerd ran a thoughtful Proxy War article yesterday headlined, “Emmanuel Todd: Nato will disintegrate if Ukraine loses.” ...

Historian Todd made several observations with which most C&C readers would agree. For example, he thinks World War III has already started, that NATO will suffer irreparable shrinkage if Russia wins the Proxy War, that Western governments have been captured by what he neatly described as the “liberal oligarchy,” and that “Western economic sanctions have done more damage to the European economy than to the Russian one.”

My only quibble was he forgot to mention sanctions’ self-inflicted injury to the American economy. ...

There was nothing particularly novel (for us) about Todd’s political analysis, except of course that it is the complete opposite of the government-approved, corporate media-sustained narrative. But I found the article’s closing paragraph stunning. Reporters interviewing Todd about his book provocatively asked him whether he’d move to Russia since he hates the West so much, and he declined. But look what he said about the U.S.:

Asked by Corriere di Bologna whether he'd rather live in Russia than Western
Europe, Todd responded: "The liberal oligarchy is not a practical problem for me ....]
Basically I am just a dissident member of the intellectual oligarchy." While he said
he would remain in France "as long as the regime is not fascist or racist", he claimed
he would not move to the US as the country is "descending into something worse
than the liberal oligarchy". That something worse, Todd argued, is "nihilism".

Tried signing up just now again. They just give me the Black Screen

While he said
he would remain in France "as long as the regime is not fascist or racist", he claimed
he would not move to the US as the country is "descending into something worse
than the liberal oligarchy". That something worse, Todd argued, is "nihilism".