Pablo Picasso Face female study 1925
Dowd Highwire
https://twitter.com/i/status/1497025785307279362
What The Media Isn’t Telling You About Ukraine
‘We are turning our backs on the very people who mounted the greatest bloodless revolution in history to remove that Soviet regime.’
• Why I Blame The Arrogant, Foolish West (Peter Hitchens)
We have been utter fools. We have treated Russia with amazing stupidity. Now we pay the price for that. We had the chance to make her an ally, friend and partner. Instead we turned her into an enemy by insulting a great and proud country with greed, unearned superiority, cynicism, contempt and mistrust. I have to endure, often several times a day, listening to people who are normally perfectly sensible and reasonable, raging wildly against Russia and Russians. Once, I was just like them. I had the normal anti-Russian prejudice of so many Western people. But, by great fortune, I am not like them now. I lived in Russia, I knew Russians as friends. I learned to distinguish between what was Russian and what was Communist. And I saw something most people will never see – a pivotal event in history, when we could have changed the world for the better.
[..] Interestingly the leading protesters against this Nato expansion were not Russian nationalists but highly intelligent and experienced independent figures. One was the Russian liberal politician Yegor Gaidar, a man Western leaders claim to have admired. He prophesied with total accuracy that the policy would strengthen hardliners and nationalists in the Kremlin. Then came the brilliant American diplomat George F. Kennan, a man nobody could accuse of being soft on Communism. But, unlike so many others, he could tell the new transformed Russia apart from the old USSR. Kennan had been architect of the USA’s policy of containment of the USSR. He came out of retirement to deplore Bill Clinton’s support for pushing Nato east. I quote his prediction at length because he was so right.
‘I think it is the beginning of a new Cold War,’ said Mr Kennan. ‘I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. ‘I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. ‘This expansion would make the Founding Fathers of this country turn over in their graves. ‘We have signed up to protect a whole series of countries, even though we have neither the resources nor the intention to do so in any serious way. ‘[Nato expansion] was simply a light-hearted action by a Senate that has no real interest in foreign affairs. ‘What bothers me is how superficial and ill-informed the whole Senate debate was.’ He added: ‘I was particularly bothered by the references to Russia as a country dying to attack Western Europe.
‘Don’t people understand? Our differences in the Cold War were with the Soviet Communist regime.’ Exactly. After 1991 Russia had, for the first time since the Bolshevik putsch of 1917, got the chance to build a new and free society. As Mr Kennan put it, Nato expansion was an insult to Russian democrats. ‘We are turning our backs on the very people who mounted the greatest bloodless revolution in history to remove that Soviet regime.’ He asked why East-West relations should ‘become centred on the question of who would be allied with whom – and by implication against whom – in some fanciful, totally unforeseeable and most improbable future military conflict’. These questions demanded an answer, and never got one.
Via the Saker.
• Russia Wanted Peace With Ukraine (Batko Milacic)
Ukraine has been firmly in the U.S. geopolitical orbit since violent neo-Nazi protests in Kyiv’s Maidan Square resulted in the 2014 overthrow of the allegedly pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. Yet, Russia did not attempt to help the then-Ukrainian leader stay in power. As a result, anti-Russian forces came to power in Kyiv, leading the people of the Donbass region to vote in favor of leaving Ukraine. In 2014, Russia also recognized the results of the Ukrainian presidential election, organized by the post-Maidan authorities. Mr. Lavrov even called newly elected President Petro Poroshenko the “best chance” for Ukraine. Eight years later, Russia has completely changed its rhetoric on Ukraine. “I don’t think anyone can claim that the Ukrainian regime, since the 2014 coup d’état, represents all the people living on the territory of the Ukrainian state,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on February 22.
The reason for this change in Russian attitude is the acts that the Ukrainian government is committing against Russians and all other citizens who speak Russian in Ukraine. Ukraine waged a kind of “jihad“ against the Russian language and culture. From January 16, 2020, Ukraine translated all its services into Ukrainian by force of law. So: all shops, cafes and restaurants, banks and pharmacies had to comply with this shameful law. All employees have become obliged to communicate with customers – guests and clients – exclusively in Ukrainian. The Russian language has become completely banned. The mass media also came under attack from Ukrainization. Now, 75 percent of programs on national television are broadcasted in the Ukrainian language, and by 2024, the obligation will be – 90 percent.
All these actions of the Ukrainian government, which have clear elements of fascism, forced pro –Russian forces in Ukraine to react. That is why there were riots in Ukraine with the desire to separate large parts of the territory from Ukraine. It is clear to all analysts dealing with Ukraine that today’s Ukraine is United States instrument against Russia. The fact that Kiev received at least $200 million in U.S. “lethal aid” as well as other Western-made weapons over the past two months, means that Kiev rejects a peaceful solution. And Russian President Vladimir Putin has been offering this peaceful solution for years.
Such an operation undoubtedly means war. But war is inevitable, one way or another. Russia has deployed troops to the newly recognized Donbass republics. If Ukrainian forces do not end hostilities, the Russian Army is will to engage in a direct confrontation against Ukrainian army, in order to protect the innocent citizens of DNR and LNR. Sooner or later, the Donbass conflict will escalate. Shelling has increased along the entire front line, which seems to be part of preparations for a military offensive.
Seems obvious.
• Moscow Claims This Is Culmination Of 8 Year Ukrainian War (RT)
The West spent eight years ignoring the “sea of blood” in Donbass while arming Ukraine, and now claims Moscow is the aggressor when it stepped in to end the conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RT on Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday, claiming it was necessary to “demilitarize and de-nazify” the neighbor. Kiev accused Russia of aggression, while the US, EU and NATO have called it an “unprovoked” invasion. Moscow insists this is not the case. In announcing the operation, Putin said the “main objective is to stop the escalation of the war that’s been going on for eight years, and to stop the war,” Zakharova told RT in an exclusive interview.
“Russia did not commit aggression of any kind,” Zakharova insisted. “This did not start yesterday. There’s a sea of blood that’s appeared over the past 8 years,” she added, referring to the conflict in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which Russia on Monday recognized as independent states. The main aim is to stop the escalation of the war that’s been going on for eight years, to stop this war Donetsk and Lugansk broke away from Ukraine in 2014, after the West-backed coup ousted the democratically elected government in Kiev. Zakharova noted that the two self-proclaimed republics held a referendum eight years ago, saying they did not want to remain in Ukraine, but both Moscow and the West rejected this and tried to put the “broken” country back together.
When asked about President Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement that Ukraine wanted peace, Zakharova wondered why Ukraine was arming itself and refusing to negotiate with the Donbass. “If Ukraine wanted peace, why did they get all these weapons” from all over the world, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told RT, adding, “It was clear that these were offensive weapons. Who were they fighting? Their own people in southeast Ukraine, and spoke often about seizing Crimea.” The peninsula voted to rejoin Russia in March 2014, but Ukraine and its Western backers have refused to recognize this, calling it an “annexation.” Zakharova also noted that the top Ukrainian officials have openly and publicly brought up the idea of obtaining nuclear weapons in recent weeks, pointing out this was a fact and not something claimed by Russian intelligence.
Divisions in Ukraine go beyond Donetsk and Lugansk, Zakharova added, accusing armed groups with Nazi-era symbols – such as the notorious Azov Battalion – of having influence over much of the country. For years, she said, Western media so concerned over human rights in places like South Sudan and Myanmar kept silent on all this, ignoring that more than 13,000 people have died in the Donbass – many of them civilians. While Russia provided them with humanitarian aid, Kiev besieged them by cutting off trade, finance, and even utilities. Zakharova noted that the water canal towards Crimea is now once again operational after Ukraine “criminally” shut it off years ago.
“The Western media is now focusing attention on Russia’s invasion. Built into that focus is a tacit remaking of history. US Neocons want history to begin with the invasion.”
• Ukraine: What Will Be Done And What Should Be Done? (Palley)
The starting point is recognizing that there is no going back in time. New facts have been created. They were created by NATO’s eastward expansion, by the 2014 US sponsored coup in Ukraine, by Russia’s reoccupation of Crimea, and now by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Next, there is need for a fundamental change of mind set that requires acknowledging Russia is not the Soviet Union. It is a weak economy with a declining population, and it has neither the capacity nor the desire to rule former Warsaw pact countries. With those two building blocks in place, the way forward can be mapped out. Ukraine must agree to permanently being a neutral state, as were Finland and Austria in the Cold War.
The US must stop arming Poland which is an intolerant nationalist polity that is likely to be a future source of major trouble. And the US must stop upgrading the military capabilities of the Baltic states which is an aggressive provocation. The European Union must build trade and commerce with Russia. That is an economic marriage made in heaven. Russia has resources and needs technology and capital goods. Europe has technology and capital goods and needs resources. Even better, by diminishing the threat against President Putin, such partnership will promote internal political improvement in Russia. Authoritarian regimes clamp down when threatened. They are more tolerant when unthreatened.
Now for the difficult part. The Ukraine should be reconstituted as a federal state, and it may even need to be partitioned given the new facts that have been created. With US encouragement, Ukraine played with fire and it has gotten burned. Lastly, there is need to build a Western European defense force and to diminish US military presence and influence in Western Europe. The US military was an essential presence in the Cold War when Western Europe lacked the capacity to deter the combined power of the Warsaw Pact. Those conditions are long gone. The Warsaw Pact no longer exists, and Russia is a shadow of the Soviet Union. Western Europe now dwarfs Russia in both economic and demographic terms, and it can (and should) look after itself.
[..] The Western media is now focusing attention on Russia’s invasion. Built into that focus is a tacit remaking of history. US Neocons want history to begin with the invasion. All else that went before is to be swept into Orwell’s “memory hole”. That means forgetting the injuries and threats the US has heaped on Russia for thirty years; forgetting how the US helped loot Russia after the fall of the Berlin Wall, forgetting the promise made not to expand NATO eastward, forgetting the threat posed by putting missile defense and launch capabilities close to Russia’s borders, and forgetting the fateful 2014 US sponsored coup in Ukraine.
The Twitter account has apparently been suspended, but this thread remains.
• US Biolabs in Ukraine (WarClandestine)
HOLY SHIT! I think I may be onto something about #Ukraine. Zelensky said the Russians are firing at “military installations”. How broad is that term? I am seeing speculation that could include US installed biolabs. At first I was like no way. Then I started digging. First I checked if the US even have biolabs in Ukraine. Turns out… we do. And in classic US fashion, it’s marketed as “defense”. “Biological Threat Reduction Program in Ukraine”. Studying the “most dangerous viruses in the world” at Russia’s border. Okay so we are studying the world’s most deadly pathogens at Russia’s border. It’s just for defense. Not that big of a deal right? WRONG. I didn’t know this until today, but Russia has been accusing US of creating “bio-weapons” at their border. WHAT!
And they have good reason to believe that, as the US NIH funded gain of function in Wuhan, then C19 “got out” and it ruined the world. Russia AND CHINA asked the UN for the US/allies to be “checked and limited” in bio capabilities 4 months ago! WHAT! DO YOU ALL KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?! China and Russia indirectly (and correctly) blamed the US for the C19 outbreak, and are fearful that the US/allies have more viruses (bioweapons) to let out. THIS IS MASSIVE. Yet I’m disturbed that I had didn’t known about this 4 months ago. So how does that pertain to Ukraine? Well where in Ukraine are the “explosions” taking place.
Here’s a reported explosion in Lutsk. This is 75 miles inland in far western Ukraine. The opposite border of Russia… What does this have to do with Crimea/Donetsk in the east? Reportedly Kiev has seen missile strikes as well. At their airports and military installations. Kiev is also on the western side of Ukraine. Also a city the US GOV have confirmed the US have built biolabs in. Putin also continues to call it a “special military operation”. Says he wants to demilitarize and “denazify” the country but not occupy it. What does he mean by that? What is he really targeting? Yes, I know he targeted airports and military capabilities; but if Putin really believes, as his admin has stated publicly multiple times, that the US are creating bio weapons at Russia’s borders, then this entire situation could be WAY bigger.
[..] Here’s an overlap of reported missile strike locations and the biolab locations. Since the top map was made, more missiles hit Lviv as well. It certainly appears Putin is targeting the cities and locations with #USBiolabs present. He is 100% going after the alleged bioweapons.
“The US and NATO refused to commit to defending Ukraine yet let the issue of NATO membership fester for 14 years.”
• Another Biden/Blinken Blunder (Percy Allan)
As I expected, Russia has invaded Ukraine because both Ukraine and the West refused to preclude its membership of NATO. This has been a festering security issue for Russia since Ukraine applied for NATO membership in 2008 and George Bush Jnr supported its request. Since Ukraine is a bulwark between Russia and NATO Europe, its refusal to commit to being a neutral country like Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Austria, and Cyprus (each of whom belong to the EU, but not NATO) looks now to have consigned it to being a client state of Russia like Belarus. The US and NATO refused to commit to defending Ukraine yet let the issue of NATO membership fester for 14 years. Also, Ukraine never gave the two eastern provinces (parts of which broke away) the self-governing autonomy they were promised in the Minsk Agreements.
Biden and Blinken (an appropriate surname) will now notch up their second humiliating defeat following the US rout in Afghanistan. Ukraine could have become a Finland, but now is likely to end up being subjugated, or at least that half of it east of the Dnieper River. All very sad and avoidable if Russia’s fundamental grievance over NATO expanding to its border had been addressed. Putin’s aspiration for Ukraine re-joining Mother Russia is for domestic consumption, not its prime concern which was always security related. Thomas Friedman in a New York Times article titled “US not blameless in Putin’s war” quotes George Kennan, the architect of America’s successful containment of the Soviet Union, telling him that NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe (while refusing Russian membership) was a mistake because it provoked a post-communist Russia to feel besieged.
Also, it amounted to overreach as NATO does not have the resources nor the intention to protect these states. When Cuba wanted to join the Warsaw Pact 60 years ago, America attempted an invasion (Bay of Pigs) and then threatened Russia with WWIII if it did not withdraw its missiles and armed forces. Now Russia is doing the same over Ukraine joining NATO, but Biden unlike Khrushchev did not heed the warning. The Democrats will pay a big electoral price on insisting Ukraine’s right to join NATO when they never had the intention of enforcing it. Sanctions are a bad joke, Russia has huge foreign exchange reserves, a big budget surplus and can get anything it needs from or through China. The only thing that might move Putin is the seizure of properties that Russian oligarchs own in London.
Mackinder’s World Island.
• How Ukraine Fits Into The Global Jigsaw (MacLeod)
Ukraine is part of a far bigger geopolitical picture. Russia and China want US hegemonic influence in the Eurasian continent marginalised. Following defeats for US foreign policy in Syria and Afghanistan and following Brexit, Putin is driving a wedge between America and the non-Anglo-Saxon EU. Due to global monetary expansion, rising energy prices are benefiting Russia, which can afford to squeeze Germany and other EU states dependent on Russian natural gas. The squeeze will only stop when America backs off. Being keenly aware that its dominant role in NATO is under threat, America has been trying to escalate the Ukraine crisis to suck Russia into an untenable occupation. Putin won’t fall for it. The danger for us all is not a boots-on-the-ground war — that’s likely to only involve the pre-emptive attacks on military installations Putin initiated last night — but a financial war for which Russia is fully prepared.
Both sides probably do not know how fragile the Eurozone banking system is, with both the ECB and its national central bank shareholders already having liabilities greater than their assets. In other words, rising interest rates have broken the euro system and an economic and financial catastrophe on its eastern flank will probably trigger its collapse. The developing tension over Ukraine is part of a bigger picture — a struggle between America and the two Eurasian hegemons, Russia and China. The prize is ultimate control over Mackinder’s World Island. Halford Mackinder is acknowledged as the founder of geopolitics: the study of factors such as geography, geology, economics, demography, politics, and foreign policy and their interaction.
His original paper was entitled “The Geographical Pivot of History”, presented at the Royal Geographical Society in 1905 in which he first formulated his Heartland Theory, which extended geopolitical analysis to encompass the entire globe. In this and a subsequent paper (Democratic Ideals and Reality: A study in the Politics of Reconstruction, 1919) he built on his Heartland Theory, and from which his famous quote has been passed down to us: “Who rules East Europe commands the World Island [Eurasia]; Who rules the World Island rules the World”. Stalin was said to have been interested in this theory, and while it is not generally admitted, the leaders and administrations of Russia, China and America are almost certainly aware of Mackinder’s theory and its implications.
Moscow will not be cut off. How would Germany pay for its gas?
• Biden Reveals Update On Russia and SWIFT (RT)
Speaking to the press after announcing new economic sanctions against Russia on Thursday, US President Joe Biden said that cutting Moscow off from the SWIFT payment system was not an action being taken at this time, adding that the latest measures were potentially of “more consequence.” “The sanctions that we have imposed on all their banks are of equal consequence or maybe more consequence than SWIFT, number one,” Biden said in response to a question about the proposal. “Number two, it is always an option but right now that is not the position the rest of Europe wishes to take,” he added.
Numerous calls have been made for Russia to be disconnected from the system – a key mechanism in facilitating financial transactions between banks around the world – particularly in the wake of Moscow’s attack on Ukraine on Thursday. Earlier in the day, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new wide-ranging sanctions against over 100 Russian individuals and entities, and said London was working with its NATO allies to cut Russia off from SWIFT.
A long term trend by now.
• COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Jump Among Vaccinated: CDC Data (ET)
COVID-19 case and hospitalization rates increased among people who got a COVID-19 vaccine following the emergence of the Omicron virus variant, according to newly published data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the data, which is submitted to the CDC by health departments across the country, the COVID-19 case rate in fully vaccinated people rose by more than 1,000 percent between Dec. 11, 2021, and Jan. 8, 2022. Fully vaccinated refers to people who received two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The CDC doesn’t count a person as fully vaccinated until 14 days have elapsed from his or her final shot.
The case rate among those who also received a booster dose skyrocketed as well, rising some 2,400 percent between the same dates. While cases also rose among the unvaccinated, the jump in infections among the vaccinated closed the gap between the populations. As a result, people who haven’t received a vaccine were just 3.2 times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 in January. COVID-19-associated hospitalizations also increased among the vaccinated, from 1.4 per 100,000 for the fully vaccinated for the week ending Dec. 18, 2021, to 35.2 per 100,000 in the week ending Jan. 8, according to data from a surveillance system managed by the CDC.
What is supposed to be the reason to get jabbed by now?
• US Vaccination Rates Collapse As Omicron Subsides (ZH)
As cases of the already-more-mild Omicron strain of Covid-19 subside, vaccination rates in the United States are collapsing, according to AP, which reports that the vaccination drive in the US is ‘grinding to a halt,’ and ‘demand has all but collapsed’ – particularly in rural areas. At present, the average number of Americans getting their first dose is down to around 90,000 per day – the lowest point since the first few days of the vaccination campaign in December 2020 – while the outlook for any sort of substantial increase has largely evaporated. AP of course acts like this is a national tragedy led by toothless rednecks in ‘deeply conservative’ parts of the country, suggesting a ‘losing battle to get people vaccinated’ in rural Alabama – but of course the reality goes unmentioned… that the vaccine largely evades Omicron – which is far less deadly than previous strains, and is only marginally effective in keeping medically at-risk people from dying.
Even the Washington Post noted on Wednesday: “Coronavirus vaccine protection was much weaker against omicron, data shows.” “While coronavirus shots still provided protection during the omicron wave, the shield of coverage they offered was weaker than during other surges, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The change resulted in much higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death for fully vaccinated adults and even for people who had received boosters.” -WaPo Meanwhile, government vaccination incentive programs that gave away cash, beer, sports tickets and other prizes have also disappeared – while governnment and employer vaccine mandates have suffered blows in court. “People are just over it. They’re tired of it,” said Judy Smith, administrator for a 12-county public health district in northwestern Alabama.
“We physicians and scientists have one responsibility, and one responsibility only, and that is the health and wellness of humanity..”
• ‘Scientific Fraud’: Drs. Robert Malone, Ryan Cole React To CDC Hiding Data (WND)
Urging CDC scientists to speak out, Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Ryan Cole reacted Monday to the news reported by the New York Times that agency officials admit they have withheld COVID data broken down by age, race and vaccination status because the American people might misinterpret it. “This meets the criteria of scientific fraud,” said Malone, the key inventor of the mRNA technology platform used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. “Withholding data is scientific fraud.” Cole, a Mayo Clinic-trained pathologist who runs a major diagnostic lab in Idaho, said that as “an ethical physician who took oaths to the human race, this is incredibly disturbing.” “These are the people that are entrusted to tell us the truth,” he said of the CDC officials.
The two outspoken medical scientists were featured at four sold-out events Sunday and Monday near Seattle hosted by a non-profit called One Washington that is helping equip parents, lawmakers and activists to counter moves by the state Board of Health to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the required shots for public school children. The Times reported the CDC “has been routinely collecting information since the Covid vaccines were first rolled out last year,” but the agency “has been reluctant to make those figures public, the official said, because they might be misinterpreted as the vaccines being ineffective.” The report said that “[t]wo full years into the pandemic, the agency leading the country’s response to the public health emergency has published only a tiny fraction of the data it has collected,” citing “several people familiar” with the withheld data.
“Much of the withheld information could help state and local health officials better target their efforts to bring the virus under control,” the Times said. Malone noted the Times quoted Samuel Scarpino, managing director of pathogen surveillance at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Pandemic Prevention Institute, saying the CDC “is a political organization as much as it is a public health organization.” He said the steps that it takes to get the data released “are often well outside of the control of many of the scientists that work at the C.D.C.” Malone said that what Scarpino essentially is saying is “that the governmental leadership of the CDC has stifled CDC scientists, in preventing them from disclosing key information to the public about the risks of the vaccine.”
“That is stunning,” he said. Malone said it’s “way past time” for CDC scientists and physicians to “come clean” and speak out. Cole agreed that they have “an ethical responsibility to humanity” to tell the American people what is going on. Last month, he testified with Malone and other physicians and scientists at a panel convened by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., called “COVID-19: A Second Opinion.” Cole testified that he has observed in his lab over the past year a startling uptick in incidences of clotting, auto-immune diseases and cancers. “We physicians and scientists have one responsibility, and one responsibility only, and that is the health and wellness of humanity, no matter the inconvenient cost of telling that truth,” he said.
Kory/Alexander
WATCH + SHARE: "This is about America. It's about going back to principles, not profits + not politics…this is about peace and unity" @PierreKory + Paul Alexander, Ph.D. kick off 'The People's Convoy' w/ https://t.co/1b2eta8YpW
Get the full story ➡️ https://t.co/vw1LGbcO6d pic.twitter.com/A0HCBEvDi1
— Children's Health Defense (@ChildrensHD) February 25, 2022
Pfizer 2007
They know they can’t escape what’s coming, but they can still work around the system. It’s sickening. Even CNN used to talk about this 15 years ago… pic.twitter.com/i7ARWVn4vK
— ashley (@thirdbornashley) February 24, 2022
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