The Automatic Earth

• ‘No Way to Recruit People’: GOP Seeks to Codify Pentagon Drag Show Ban (Sp.)

• Putin Says Western Countries Seem to Be Ready to Fight to Last Ukrainian (Sp.)

• NATO Trainers Knowingly Sent Ukrainian Troops To Their Deaths (Scott Ritter)

• Demilitarization, Denazification: A Sanitary Zone For Ukraine (Helmer)

• US/NATO Are Playing ‘Russian Roulette’. Do They Want A Nuclear War? (Trenin)

• New Catastrophe Looms In Kosovo As West ‘Toys’ With International Law (TASS)

• Global Financial System Exhausted, Not Up to New Challenges – Macron (Sp.)

• Biden Sends Sullivan, Nuland To Turn BRICS War Skeptics Against Russia (ZH)

• The Greater Eurasia Project: Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers (Pepe Escobar)

• CIA Vet Warns US Intel ‘Will Do Everything’ to Help Dems in 2024 Race (Sp.)

• New Bombshell Evidence Against Bidens, DOJ, AG Garland (ZH)

• US Justice is Blind – Unless Your Name is Hunter Biden (Tweedie)

• Tucker Calls Out ‘Media Hysteria Typhoon’ Over RFK Jr. (ZH)

The nuclear power plant it is. Russia did not blow up NordStream. Russia did not blow up the Crimea bridge. Russia did not blow up the dam. Russia did not fire missiles into Poland and Russia did not drone the Kremlin. Russia won’t blow up the power plant. https://t.co/joc0tyHU6p https://t.co/MKnd8RTzbE

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) June 22, 2023

RFK Who we are

Who do we want to be? A nation of war, or a nation of peace?#Kennedy24 pic.twitter.com/8gKjn7OFfs

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 22, 2023

While Modi is in Washington, Obama, visiting Athens, tells Modi what to do at home.

Obama

Obama is right. Hindu nationalists are playing with fire by marginalizing Muslims and Dalits, who combined make up at least 30% of India's population.

You can look at it from a spiritual point of view or political point of view or even economic point of view. It makes sense to… pic.twitter.com/HJtLvFU6Nm

— S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) June 22, 2023

The submersible imploded on Sunday, killing all on board. We were not allowed to know until now.

“On average, 1,336 people enter service under a contract with the Russian Armed Forces per 24 hours..”

• Russian Army Gets Enough Recruits To Form Regiment Per Day – Shoigu (RT)

The Russian Army is recruiting enough new personnel to complete the formation of its reserve force, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Thursday. Enough applicants are signing formal contracts with the ministry to form a new regiment every day, he added. A total of 114,000 people have joined the Russian Armed Forces as contract servicemen to date, Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin at a Russian National Security Council session. An additional 52,000 people have joined the military ranks as volunteers, he said. “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.

A field army in Russia includes several army corps and accounts for more than 40,000 servicemen on average. A Russian army corps has an established strength of between 20,000 and 40,000 servicemen and includes several brigades and regiments depending on its composition. “We are about to finish the formation of a reserve army by late June,” the minister said, adding that almost 3,800 military equipment pieces have already been supplied to the troops and will be used to outfit the newly formed units. According to Shoigu, the volunteers are “eager to join the fight” on the frontlines, where the Russian troops are currently repelling a Ukrainian offensive, which was launched earlier in June. The minister said that Moscow has no plans to send them into the fray right now. “There is no urgent need for that,”he said, adding that the fresh recruits should “undergo serious training first and that is what they do.” He still praised the “highest motivation” of the Russian troops.

In mid-June, Putin told military correspondents and bloggers that Russia sees no need for another military draft campaign right now. At that time, he also said that over 150,000 people had signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry since January. Shoigu’s report comes as Ukrainian officials in some regions take drastic steps to ensure the inflow of recruits to the Ukrainian army. Kiev declared general mobilization back in February 2022, when Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine. This week, several Ukrainian media outlets reported that authorities in western Ivano-Frankovsk Region barred local healthcare providers from carrying out planned hospital treatments of any patients eligible for conscription without prior coordination with the local enlistment office. Putin has also stated that Kiev should not be able to replenish its manpower indefinitely even with the West’s military aid. “It seems Ukraine’s Western allies are indeed prepared to wage the war to the last Ukrainian,” according to the president.

What a difference. It’s now everyone. Want to become a doctor? Too bad.

• ‘No Way to Recruit People’: GOP Seeks to Codify Pentagon Drag Show Ban (Sp.)

Residents of the Obolonsky district in the Ukrainian capital who are eligible for mobilization must report to the military recruitment offices within ten days, even if they do not receive a personal notice, the local draft commissariat said on Thursday. The document, signed by commissar Alexey Privala, was posted on social media, as well as reprinted by the Ukrainian newspaper Strana. Responding to the outlet’s inquiry, Privala’s office claimed the order was nothing new and that such notices were being posted regularly. What is a precedent in the district, however, is the blanket call-up of all draftees. The western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankovsk has already enacted the same measure. Their orders, dated June 13, also refer to the mobilization of vehicles and forbid residents from moving without the explicit permission of the draft commissariat.

The Ivano-Frankovsk notice set a ten-day deadline for all men subject to the draft notice to report for service. The Obolonsky district commissariat has also referred to the same ten-day deadline. Its orders apply not only to the men registered in the district, but even those residing there temporarily, according to Strana. Ukraine’s Chernigov Region reported on Wednesday that it was struggling to meet its mobilization quota. More than 20,000 people have not reported following their summons, regional draft commissar Oleg Goncharuk has admitted. The expanded mobilization measures come as the long-heralded “counteroffensive” on the Zaporozhye front fails to dislodge Russian forces after more than two weeks of fighting.

The attack was “not meeting expectations on any front,”Western officials told CNN on Thursday, while President Vladimir Zelensky acknowledged on Wednesday that progress had been “slower than desired.” According to Russian officials, Ukraine has suffered up to 13,000 casualties since June 4, and is in the process of regrouping its brigades to try again. National Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu briefed President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that many Western-supplied vehicles were among the 246 tanks, 152 infantry fighting vehicles, and 443 armored vehicles Ukraine lost during the attempted attacks.

Should Ukraine follow US example in mobilization? Zelensky would be an excellent drag queen.

After a drag show advertised as a “family-friendly” event was canceled at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in early June, at the start of Pride Month, the Defense Department issued a statement to say that such events were “not a suitable use” of resources. After a de-facto Pentagon ban on drag shows in the military went into effect at the start of June, Republicans at the US House Armed Services Committee have urged seeing this codified in law. An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was put forward by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to bar funding for such performances. “I think it’s time for us to do something to make our voice known that we will not let this happen in the US military – woke ideology and the drag queen shows have no place in our military, zero, bupkis. That is not the way to recruit people,” Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) said about the provision, which was passed 33-26.

The NDAA, the annual defense policy bill, passed the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday night after a session that considered over 800 amendments. The Committee also passed a provision put forward by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) to suspend a contentious initiative called the Navy Digital Ambassador Program. After the Navy had opted to select sailor Joshua Kelley, a TikTok drag queen known as Harpy Daniels, to reach out to potential recruits on social media, it had triggered a flurry of criticism. The current move by the House Armed Services Committee comes as Matt Gaetz wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, and “demanded answers” on “why these drag shows are still occurring” despite the two officials having testified in March that the Department of Defense did not endorse them.

Both Austin and Milley had claimed that they were not aware of such performances on military bases. According to US reports, drag shows have been hosted at Nellis Air Force Base both in 2021 and 2022. The event cancelled by the Pentagon at the military base in Nevada had been advertised ahead of the scheduled performance as a “family-friendly” one, involving three artists, including a former contestant on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” “As Secretary Austin has said, the DoD will not host drag events at US military installations or facilities. Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is not a suitable use of DoD resources,” Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary for the department, had stated in early June.

“[Military] equipment, of course, can be supplied additionally. But the mobilization reserve is not unlimited..”

• Putin Says Western Countries Seem to Be Ready to Fight to Last Ukrainian (Sp.)

Ukrainian troops launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the South Donetsk direction on June 4 but failed to achieve their goals, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. It looks like Western countries are ready to fight until the last Ukrainian, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. “[Military] equipment, of course, can be supplied additionally. But the mobilization reserve is not unlimited. And it seems that Ukraine’s Western allies really decided to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian,” Putin said at a meeting of the Security Council. Kiev has already lost over 13,000 people during its counteroffensive, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said. “As for the personnel … it [Kiev’s loss] is more than 13,000 [persons],” Patrushev said at a meeting with members of the Russian Security Council held by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moreover, Russian forces have already destroyed 246 Ukrainian tanks, including 13 of the Western type, as well as 42 multiple launch rocket systems, two anti-aircraft missile systems, 10 tactical fighters, four helicopters, 264 unmanned aerial vehicles and 424 units of motor vehicles, which Kiev has used during its counteroffensive, Patrushev added. The figures are based on the generalized data for the period from June 4-21, provided by various departments, the Russian official noted. Ukrainian troops have slowed down their activity after 16 days of hostilities and are regrouping, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said. “After 16 days of active hostilities, having suffered significant losses, [the enemy] is regrouping and re-equipping, gathering parts of battalions at the moment,” Shoigu said during a meeting of the Russian Security Council.

The Russian armed forces will complete the creation of a reserve army by the end of June and of an army corps in the near future, with the formations scheduled to receive over 3,700 pieces of equipment, Sergei Shoigu added. “We are forming reserves as part of the army corps, the army, plus five regiments of the 20th tank army. Everything is going according to plan. In fact, we will complete the formation of the reserve army by the end of June and finalize the formation of the army corps there soon,” Shoigu said at a meeting with permanent members of the Russian Security Council. As for now, these five regiments, both in terms of personnel and equipment, are already formed by 60%, the Russian defense chief added.

This is what “cannon fodder” means.

• NATO Trainers Knowingly Sent Ukrainian Troops To Their Deaths (Scott Ritter)

Ukraine sent one of its best brigades into combat earlier this month as part of its long-awaited counteroffensive aimed at retaking areas controlled by Russian forces. Leading the charge near the town of Orekhov, in Zaporozhye Region, was the 47th Mechanized Brigade, armed with NATO equipment and – most importantly – employing it using the US-led bloc’s combined arms doctrine and tactics. Prior to the operation, this brigade spent months at a base in Germany learning “Western know-how” in combined-arms warfare. Helping them prepare for the fighting to come was KORA, the German-made NATO computer simulation system, designed to allow officers and non-commissioned officers to closely replicate battlefield conditions and, in doing so, better develop ideal courses of action against a designated enemy – in this case, Russia.

If there was ever an example of how a purpose-built Ukrainian NATO proxy force would perform against a Russian enemy, the 47th Brigade was the ideal case study. However, within days of initiating its attack, the group was close to literally decimated, with more than 10% of the over 100 US-made M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles destroyed or abandoned on the field of battle, and hundreds of the brigade’s 2,000-strong complement dead or wounded. German-made Leopard 2 tanks and mine-clearing vehicles joined the Bradleys as wrecks in the fields west of Orekhov, having failed to breach the first line of Russian defenses. The reasons for this defeat can be boiled down to the role played by KORA in creating a false sense of confidence on the part of the officers and men of the 47th Brigade. Unfortunately, as the Ukrainians and their NATO masters found out, what works in a computer simulation does not automatically equate to battlefield success.

[..] One of the things I’m most proud of in my military career is the fact that the Marine assault breaching operations done during Desert Storm unfolded almost exactly as my team and I had predicted in the JANUS simulation. After the war, General Caulfield credited my team and I with playing a major role in designing the successful Marine attack and, in the process, saving hundreds of Marine lives. We achieved this result by adhering to basic principles of professionalism and integrity, refusing to cut corners for the sake of expediency and being realistic about the amount of military combat power that would be needed to be applied over time to achieve the desired result.

If only the NATO trainers, who knowingly sent the men of the Ukrainian 47th Mechanized Brigade and scores of other Ukrainian brigades to their deaths, adhered to such standards. Instead, they sent those troops in a futile attempt to breach defenses that were impossible to overcome, given the disparity in training and force composition between the Ukrainian and Russian forces. Had they been diligent, there would be far fewer Ukrainian widows and orphaned children mourning the loss of their husbands and fathers. This, more than anything, is the primary lesson to be derived from the Ballad of KORA and JANUS – neither NATO nor the United States cares about the lives of the Ukrainians they have undertaken to train in the horrific art of war.

”..that leaves nothing of the Ukraine except the territory which the Poles and Hungarians might not be bold enough to take.”

• Demilitarization, Denazification: A Sanitary Zone For Ukraine (Helmer)

What follows is the first detailed discussion in the open in Moscow of how the map of this territory should be drawn when the Ukrainian offensive reaches its end, and the Russian advance begins. Left out of mention is who in Moscow will be drawing the new map. This is because Putin has annonced he is delegating to the General Staff. “Russia’s military leadership,” he said on June 9, “is realistic in its assessments of the situation and will proceed from these realities as it continues to plan up our actions in the short term.” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had already said the same a year ago. “Now the geography is different,” he concluded an interview in Moscow on July 20, 2022. “Take the HIMARS. [Ukrainian] Defence Minister Alexei Reznikov boasts that they have already received 300-kilometre ammunition.

This means our geographic objectives will move even further from the current line. We cannot allow the part of Ukraine that Vladimir Zelensky, or whoever replaces him, will control to have weapons that pose a direct threat to our territory or to the republics that have declared their independence and want to determine their own future.” “[Question:] How can this be arranged, technically? This is our territory. Then there are the republics that will accede to us. In fact they already have – the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. … Further west, there is the territory controlled by Vladimir Zelensky. They have a common border. So either there should be a 300 kilometre buffer zone or something between them, or we need to march all the way to Lvov inclusive.” “[Lavrov:] There is a solution to this problem. The military know this.”

“Comrade servicemen,” Lavrov added last week on a visit to the 201st Russian Military Base in Tajikistan, “they are getting ready, in earnest, to supply the F-16 jets. Some say they will make two squadrons available, others say eight. They are gearing up to continue the escalation of the war against us. There’s an ongoing debate about where these planes will take off from. Our armed forces and the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces are well aware of ongoing developments and report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. We must keep in mind that one version of the F-16 can carry nuclear weapons. If they do not understand this, they are worthless military strategists and planners.” The General Staff have no reason to speak publicly on this point.

Privately, a source in a position to know says: “the General Staff are not satisfied with the Dnieper [line of defence]. It will run from a small town on the border with Belarus to Transnistria. They will solve that problem as well. But mainly, Belarus has to be protected from the south. And most importantly, that leaves nothing of the Ukraine except the territory which the Poles and Hungarians might not be bold enough to take.”

“The fear of the atomic bomb, present in the second half of the twentieth century, has disappeared. Nuclear weapons have been taken out of the equation.”

• US/NATO Are Playing ‘Russian Roulette’. Do They Want A Nuclear War? (Trenin)

In principle, nuclear weapons have been “on the table” for Russia from the very beginning of the Ukrainian conflict precisely as a means of deterring the US and its allies from becoming directly involved. Nevertheless, repeated public reminders from Putin and other officials about Russia’s nuclear status have so far not prevented a growing escalation of NATO’s participation. As a result, it has become clear that nuclear deterrence, on which many in Moscow have relied as a credible means of securing the country’s vital interests, has proven to be a much more limited tool than they expected. In fact, the US has now set itself the task – unthinkable during the Cold War – of trying to defeat another nuclear superpower in a strategically important region, without resorting to atomic weapons, but instead by arming and controlling a third country.

The Americans are proceeding cautiously, testing Moscow’s responses and consistently pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of arms supplied to Kiev, as well as the choice of targets for them. From starting with anti-tank ‘Javelins,’ to eventually cajoling allies to send actual tanks, the US is now apparently pondering transferring F-16 fighter jets and long-range missiles. It is likely that this US strategy is based on the belief that the Russian leadership would not dare use nuclear weapons in the current conflict, and that its references to the nuclear arsenal at its disposal are nothing more than a bluff. The Americans have even been calm – at least outwardly about the deployment of Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus. Such “fearlessness” is a direct result of the geopolitical changes of the last three decades and the change of generations in power in the US and the West in general.

The fear of the atomic bomb, present in the second half of the twentieth century, has disappeared. Nuclear weapons have been taken out of the equation. The practical conclusion is clear: there is no need to be afraid of such a Russian response. This is an extremely dangerous misconception. The trajectory of the Ukrainian war points to an escalation of the conflict both horizontally (by expanding the theater of military action) and vertically (by increasing the power of the weapons used and the intensity of their use). It must be soberly acknowledged that this momentum is heading towards a direct armed confrontation between Russia and NATO. If the accumulated inertia is not stopped, such a clash will take place, and in this case the war, having spread to Western Europe, will almost inevitably become nuclear. And after some time, a nuclear war in Europe will most likely lead to an exchange of blows between Russia and the US.

The Americans and their allies are truly playing Russian roulette. Yes, so far the Russian response to the bombing of Nord Stream, the drone attack on the strategic Engels airbase, the entry of Western-armed saboteurs into the Belgorod region and many other actions by the Washington-backed and controlled side has been relatively restrained. As Putin recently made clear, there are good reasons for this restraint. Russia, the president said, is capable of destroying any building in Kiev, but will not stoop to the methods of terror used by the enemy. But Putin added that Russia was considering various options for destroying Western warplanes if they are based in NATO countries and directly take part in the war in Ukraine.

Trying to think of another “leader” who wanted to ban his mother tongue.

President Vladimir Zelensky announced on Thursday that he had a signed a law making it illegal to import and distribute Russian and Belarusian publishing products in Ukraine. However, some Ukrainian officials have pointed out that the step could hinder Kiev’s plans to join the EU. The move comes after Ukrainian citizens registered an online petition on the official presidential website asking for the ban back in May. The petition reached the 25,000-vote threshold required for it to be formally considered by the head of state. The author of the petition noted that the Ukrainian parliament had already approved the law on June 19, 2022, but that Zelensky had never signed the bill. As a result, Russian books continued to be sold in Ukraine, which undermines “the information security of the state and the economic foundations of Ukrainian book publishing,” according to the petition.

“I consider the law to be correct,” Zelensky stated in a Telegram post announcing that he had finally signed the legislation. He noted, however, that the text of the legislation had been sent to EU institutions for an “additional assessment” of whether it could breach Kiev’s obligations to protect minority rights, particularly linguistic ones, in the context of Ukraine’s application for EU membership. In a written response to the petition last month, Zelensky explained that there had been a “number of reservations” that prevented the law from being adopted.

The president stated that Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice had proposed applying the right of veto to the bill, arguing that completely banning the import and distribution of Russian publications would contradict several articles of Ukraine’s constitution. Additionally, Zelensky said that despite agreeing with the nature of the law, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had also advised vetoing the bill. The ministry had warned that its current version “does not meet the norms and standards of the EU in the field of human rights, including freedom of opinion, protection of the rights of national minorities, prohibition of discrimination on the basis of language, and therefore may complicate the process of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.”

“Khren Im”

• New Catastrophe Looms In Kosovo As West ‘Toys’ With International Law (TASS)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is known for a lot of things — his “in your face” speeches, his marathon unscripted press conferences and his stoic impassiveness in the face of adversity come to mind. One thing that doesn’t jump out at the average observer is his earthy sense of humor. Long-time Putin watchers know that the Russian leader on occasion spices up his formal presentations with off-color quips which, unless one is well versed in colloquial Russian of the back-alley variety, can get missed by the casual listener. During the June 16 discussion period of the plenary session of the 2023 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Russian leader was asked about his views on the potential use of nuclear weapons in the context of the ongoing Ukrainian conflict. “This use of nuclear weapons is certainly theoretically possible,” Putin bluntly answered.

“For Russia, this is possible if a threat is created to our territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty, the existence of the Russian state. Nuclear weapons are created in order to ensure our security in the broadest sense of the word and the existence of the Russian state.” Putin’s answer reflected long-standing Russian nuclear doctrine, which postulates the use of nuclear weapons in the case of an existential threat, nuclear or otherwise, to the survival of Russia. Putin then sought to put the audience at ease. “But we, firstly, do not have such a need,” Putin noted, “and secondly, the very factor of reasoning on this topic already lowers the possibility of lowering the threshold for the use of weapons. This is the first part.” What came next was classic Putin. “The second is that we have more such weapons [i.e., tactical nuclear weapons] than the NATO countries. They know about it and all the time they persuade us to start talks on reductions.”

Putin paused, before shrugging and, with a half-smile, saying “Khren Im”. Khren Im is a Russian slang term derived from the word “horseradish” (khren), thus a literal translation of the phrase used by Putin would be “horseradish them.” But khren closely resembles a more salty term used to describe male genitalia, and when used in this manner, khren Im is understood to mean “F*ck them.” “F*ck them, you know?” Putin said, to the obvious mirth of the audience. “As our people say. Because, in the clumsy terms of economics, this is our competitive advantage.”

The “them” in the horseradish reference made by the Russian president is the United States. Two weeks prior to Putin’s man-in-the-street reaction, on June 2, U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, addressed a conference hosted by the Arms Control Association, in Washington, D.C. The topic, not surprisingly, was the administration’s approach to U.S.-Russian arms control.

Another way to poke the bear.

The West is toying with international law in an attempt to create alternative ways to resolve the Kosovo problem, and this may lead the region down a path to calamity, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a briefing Wednesday. The diplomat underscored that the US and the EU continue to turn a blind eye towards Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s subversive actions and deliberately bring the settlement to a deadlock in order to “force the Serbs to surrender their vital interests.”

“Since April 2013, Pritstina has been shirking its commitments to Serb municipalities in Kosovo. Instead of pressing the Kosovars, US mediators are laying the groundwork to radically decrease the community’s authority, and, of course, its replacement with some mechanism on protection of language rights, supporting Kurti’s claim about, as he put it, the non-territorial nature of this structure,” she noted. “Amid these circumstances, there is a growing risk that the West will toy with international law in an aim to create alternative options for resolution of the Kosovo problem, taking the region to a new catastrophe, yet another one.” The diplomat noted that there is a reliable foundation for settling the situation, which remains fully in effect. “That being the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 – the basis for negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, for any mediation efforts of the international community – the foundation is the same,” she added.

Mr. Banker should know?!

• Global Financial System Exhausted, Not Up to New Challenges – Macron (Sp.)

The existing global financial system is outdated and does not meet the new challenges, while the new system must be adopted and aligned with the world’s goals, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday.
“Our world is undergoing ever greater upheaval… We have a financial system which is the product of a previous consensus, which has shown its effectiveness, and bailed us out in past decades, but is probably not evolving fast enough. It is no longer adapted, and needs to be realigned with our goals,” Macron said at the opening of a New Global Financial Pact summit in Paris, which was streamed on the official website of the event.

Macron noted that no country had to choose whether to fight poverty or protect the planet and each country should be free to choose its own way, hence the new financial pact had to respect the sovereignty of the countries of the South much more. “We will take a major step, as we will start by establishing a new consensus. The fight against poverty, the decarbonization of our economy in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and the protection of biodiversity, are closely intertwined. We therefore need to agree together on the best means to address these challenges in the poor and emerging countries of the developing world, when it comes to the amount of investment, to comprehensive reform of infrastructure like the World Bank, the IMF, and public and private funds, and how to set a new process in motion,” Macron said.

Macron also said that the private sector had a big role to play, but it needed to receive credible guarantees. The president added that the summit should result in concrete solutions that would change the lives of countries struggling with climate challenges and suggested setting up a follow-up mechanism. The summit in Paris, which runs from June 22-23, aims to establish new agreements between the countries of the Global North and the Global South and to combat climate change and the global crisis.

Too late.

• Biden Sends Sullivan, Nuland To Turn BRICS War Skeptics Against Russia (ZH)

At a moment President Zelensky has confessed that Ukraine’s counteroffensive which was launched this month has been “slower than desired”, President Biden’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan is mounting a big push to convince “skeptics” from developing nations to become more firmly supportive of Kiev’s war effort. “Joe Biden’s top national security aide will fly to Denmark this weekend at the behest of Kyiv’s government for an unannounced meeting with representatives of several developing countries that have not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Financial Times has reported. A planned Copenhagen meeting is expected to include large but ‘neutral’ countries like Brazil, India, and South Africa – the latter which has of late been accused of actively supporting Moscow.

Sullivan’s initiative came at the request of the Ukrainian government, also as Russia’s economy has been successfully weathering the storm of US/EU-led sanctions, in particular upping its energy exports to BRICS countries. As for the as yet unannounced list of likely attendees in Denmark, FT details based on its sources: “Officials from Turkey and possibly China could also attend. One of the people familiar with the plans said that, following the Ukrainian request, Washington has been encouraging China, India, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa to attend. Sullivan will travel with Victoria Nuland, the number-three official at the US state department. A senior EU official will also participate.” BRICS countries have by and large been so quiet about the Russian invasion that they’ve even been accused of outright aiding and abetting Moscow’s offensive.

When discussing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to Washington this week, Sullivan told reporters, “We think this actually sends a message to the coalition and Ukraine that we’re working to advocate on their behalf with a broader range of countries than just those that show up around the table either in Nato…or at the G7.” It remains that the major economies of India, Brazil, China and South Africa have persisted in their refusal to cooperate with Western sanctions on Russia. In Beijing’s case, it has actually directed more criticism at both NATO and the United States for “arrogance” and “imperialism”.

Every day, there are new developments. Step by step. And unstoppable.

• The Greater Eurasia Project: Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers (Pepe Escobar)

On July 4, at a New Delhi summit, Iran will finally become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). That will be one of the key decisions of the summit, held via video-conference, along with the signing of a memorandum on the path by Belarus to also become a member state. In parallel, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk has confirmed that Iran and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) should sign a free trade agreement (FTA) by the end of 2023. The FTA will expand an interim deal that already lowers customs duties on hundreds of categories of goods. Russia and Iran – two key poles of Eurasia integration – have been getting closer and closer geoeconomically since the west’s sanctions tsunami that followed Russia’s February 2022 Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine.

The EAEU – as much as the SCO and BRICS – is on a roll: FTAs are expected to be clinched, from middle to long term, with Egypt, India, Indonesia, and the UAE. Overchuck admits negotiations may be “very difficult” and “take years,” considering “the interests of all five EAEU member states, their businesses, and their consumers.” Yet despite the obvious complexities, this high-speed rail geoeconomic train has already left the station. In a parallel track, the members of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), during a recent summit in Iran, decided to launch a new cross-border financial messaging system this month as a rival to the western-centric SWIFT. The ACU comprises the Central Banks of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Iran: a healthy mix of West Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.

It was the Central Bank of Iran – still under harsh sanctions – that developed the new bank messaging system, so new it’s not yet known by its own acronym. Crucially, the Governor of Russia’s Central Bank took part in the ACU summit as an observer, along with officials from Belarus, which applied for ACU membership two weeks ago. Iranian Central Bank Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin confirmed not only the interest of potential members to join the ACU, but also the drive to set up a basket of currencies for payment of bilateral trade deals. Call it a de-dollarization fast track. As Iran’s first Vice President, Mohammad Mokhber summed it up: “De-dollarization is not a voluntary choice by countries anymore; it is an inevitable response to the weaponization of the dollar.”

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.”

“..the agencies will do everything they can to help Biden or whoever replaces him from the Democratic Party but they will be a lot more careful about how they do it..”

• CIA Vet Warns US Intel ‘Will Do Everything’ to Help Dems in 2024 Race (Sp.)

Former Special Counsel John Durham offered his first public testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday regarding the details of his report into the FBI’s handling of allegations of collusion between ex-President Donald Trump and Russia. The day before, Durham testified behind closed doors to the US House Intelligence Committee. While it is not completely clear whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation knew from the outset that dug-up “information on Trump” had been paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016, there is “no excuse for their having learned that and, nevertheless, proceeded with the investigation,” former CIA station chief Philip Giraldi told Sputnik. “There might have been personal malice involved in going after Trump, but that has not been clearly demonstrated,” the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest added, referencing the FBI’s investigation into the alleged Trump-Russia “collusion”.

Former Special Counsel John Durham paid his second visit to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to face the House Judiciary Committee over the details of his May report, released after almost a four-year-long investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation codenamed, Crossfire Hurricane. Durham had found that the agency had been “seriously deficient,” relying on “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence,” when probing the 2016 Donald Trump campaign’s alleged ties to “Russia.” “One has to assume that the Bureau felt it had a great deal invested in maintaining Democratic Party control of the presidency and that there were concerns that Trump would upset the arrangements made under [Barack] Obama,” Giraldi said.

The Durham report had also exposed the Democratic establishment’s anti-Trump narrative, and the role of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in spawning and then pushing the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. During his probe, the special counsel charged and convicted FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted to doctoring an email to state that Trump aide Carter Page had never been a CIA asset (which was not true) in order to push ahead with surveilling the former Trump campaign adviser. Durham also brought charges against Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann and Brookings Institution scholar Igor Danchenko for lying to the FBI. Danchenko has served as the main ‘subsource’ for ex-MI6 agent Christopher Steele, the author of the now infamous Steele dossier. It had been funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) through the law firm Perkins Coie, which Marc Elias and Michael Sussmann worked for at the time.

[..] Ahead of John Durham’s testimony on June 21, Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) underscored in his opening statement that the hearing was tasked to provide more “detail and add more color” to the findings of the May report. “Seven years of attacking Trump is scary enough… What’s more frightening is that any one of us could be next,” Jordan emphasized. A number of Republicans echoed John Durham’s calls for reforming the FBI, underscoring that the agency, had become “politicized” and “weaponized”, and had carried out a “politically motivated” investigation of Donald Trump. Looking ahead at the next election cycle, where both Biden and Trump are gearing up to vie for another Oval Office stint, Philip Giraldi concluded: “For 2024, I expect that the agencies will do everything they can to help Biden or whoever replaces him from the Democratic Party but they will be a lot more careful about how they do it than they were in 2020.”

I see the word bombshell too much.

• New Bombshell Evidence Against Bidens, DOJ, AG Garland (ZH)

Several bombshells dropped by two IRS whistleblowers on Thursday reveal, among other things, that Joe Biden’s DOJ buried evidence of Hunter Biden’s tax crimes – and stopped US Attorney David Weiss from bringing charges against Hunter in two different jurisdictions last year. According to Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), Weiss sought to be appointed as a special counsel in the case last year but was denied as well. What’s more, the IRS sought felony charges against Hunter, send their recommendations to the Biden DOJ, and they ‘came out as two misdemeanors,’ Byron York tweets. According to the whistleblowers, one of whom is Gary Shipley – who came forward weeks ago to reveal his identity, the IRS was notified of potential evidence “in the guest house of former Vice President Biden,” but were rebuffed by US Attorney Lesley Wolf, who said there was “no way,” as search warrant “would ever get approved.”

“Whistleblowers describe how the Biden Justice Department intervened and overstepped in a campaign to protect the son of Joe Biden by delaying, divulging, and denying an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes,” said Smith in a statement. “The testimony shows tactics used by the Justice Department to delay the investigation long enough to reach the statute of limitations, evidence they divulged sensitive actions by the investigative team to Biden’s attorneys, and denied requests by the U.S. Attorney to bring charges against Biden.” During seven hours of testimony before the Ways and Means Committee, Shipley and the other whistleblower’s testimony implicates both AG Merrick Garland and IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel for lying to Congress about political interference in the Biden probe.

“Whistleblower One’s story was corroborated by Whistleblower Two,” said Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK). “One individual came forward and laid out the full case of what’s going on. The second individual, through his attorney, asked Ways and Means to contact him and ask for testimony. So we didn’t seek these, they sought us,” added Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC).

As Techno Fog notes via The Reactionary; “With the rejection from the DC US Attorney, the team sought the approval to bring tax charges for years 2016-2019 in the Central District of California. Shapley concluded that “the Central District of California declined to allow charges to be brought there.” The rejection to bring charges in DC and California stands in stark contrast to the testimony of Attorney General Garland, who in March of 2023 stated that US Attorney Weiss had the full authority to “bring cases in other jurisdictions.” Garland also said that he personally would ensure that Weiss could “carry out his investigation and that he [would] be able to run it.” Both those statements now appear to be false. (Your humble author thinks the Republicans knew Garland was making misrepresentations at the time.)”

“..you have to be impressed with the fact that they just continue to shove this nonsense in our face knowing that they could get away with it.”

• US Justice is Blind – Unless Your Name is Hunter Biden (Tweedie)

US President Joe Biden’s son was brazenly let off scot-free in a “sweetheart deal,” say two media commentators. Hunter Biden had been under investigation by the FBI for soliciting millions in bribes from foreign businesspeople in return for influence over the then-vice president. That includes an alleged $5 million from Mykola Zlochevsky, co-owner of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings which employed Hunter as a company director and which was investigated for corruption by Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin until Joe Biden pressured Kiev to sack him. Hunter is also suspected of owning a handgun unlawfully, which reportedly ended up being thrown in a dumpster. Furthermore, a trove of photos on his abandoned “Laptop from Hell” appeared to show him using crack cocaine and sleeping with underage prostitutes.

But on Tuesday, it was reported that he had struck a deal with prosecutors — pending approval by a federal judge — to plead guilty to tax evasion and illegal possession of a firearm in return for avoiding jail time. Former US diplomat Jim Jatras told Sputnik that Hunter Biden’s plea bargain was a “sweetheart deal.” “I don’t know how a plea on two charges automatically extends to, say ‘Oh, yeah, and all that other stuff. We’re going to give you a guarantee that there will be no charges,'” he said. The foreign policy expert said that was “an outrageous miscarriage of justice.” “I know the rich and powerful and the politically well-connected and treated differently from everybody else, but this is really just unprecedented,” Jatras stressed. The pundit said the plea bargain deal would play into the hands of the Republican Party.

“It’s what Republicans love best. They could win and jump up and down and scream in outrage without actually having to do anything,” Jatras said. “It completely absolves them of any responsibility to actually see that justice is done.” Journalist Jim Hoft told Sputnik that he was not surprised that the president’s wayward son got off scot-free. “After what we’ve seen the past few years, not really,” he said. “But it is quite galling. And you have to be impressed with the fact that they just continue to shove this nonsense in our face knowing that they could get away with it.” The editor said Hunter Biden was “one of the most crooked people in the country.” “And he gets a pass and a little slap on the wrist, if that,” Hoft observed. “It’s really it’s stunning what’s happening to our country. We’re all witnessing it.”

“Peter Hotez – who he says will “never debate Bobby Kennedy Jr., but it doesn’t matter. Kennedy has already won.”

• Tucker Calls Out ‘Media Hysteria Typhoon’ Over RFK Jr. (ZH)

In his latest episode, Tucker Carlson discussed the media’s absolute hatred for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was immediately attacked by the press upon his announcement that he would run against President Joe Biden in 2024. “CBS News viewers likely were appalled in its coverage of Kennedy’s announcement. CBS denounced the candidate’s views as ‘misleading’ and ‘dangerous,'” noted Carlson, adding “The LA Times called him a threat to democracy.” “At the offices of National Public Radio in Washington, a full-blown category-5 hysteria typhoon broke out. NPR devoted an entire segment to savaging Kennedy – not just as a candidate, but as a human being,” Carlson continued. “NPR described him as someone who, for his own perverse reasons, has made “debunked and false and misleading claims that undermine trust in vaccines.

Ep. 6 Bobby Kennedy is winning pic.twitter.com/jW51PYahLV

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 22, 2023

And who, in his spare time, provides moral support to crazed extremists who “rally under the banner of what they call liberty, or freedom.”” “People Magazine didn’t even bother to report a single word of anything Kennedy said!” Carlson exclaimed, “and instead wrote an entire story about his relatives hate him.” “Kennedy Jr. faced censorship on Instagram and YouTube for expressing his views,” he continued, adding that RFK Jr. raised questions about “the rise in allergies, asthma, autism, and other conditions related to vaccines,” while “the media and medical establishment vilified Kennedy Jr. for his views, calling him a lunatic, Nazi, and extremist supporter.”

Carlson then goes into a defense of Kennedy’s right to raise questions over vaccines, and the response one gets for doing so. “Bobby Kennedy won’t stop asking, and that’s why they hate him,” Carlson said. Carlson then went after debate-dodging doctor, Peter Hotez – who he says will “never debate Bobby Kennedy Jr., but it doesn’t matter. Kennedy has already won.” “Hotez attacked Kennedy Jr. and called for vaccine mandates, accusing those who disagree of being white nationalists and Russian agents,” said Carlson, who then noted how Hotez chickened out of a debate with RFK Jr.

Wow art

Wow Art focuses on artworks that can be made in under 30 minutes using items that one has around the house

[full video and more: https://t.co/oM39oNHT82]pic.twitter.com/P8OZHTRKOq

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 22, 2023

This breathtaking photo by Jessica Blacklow shows a dozen dolphins spotted enjoying a remarkable synchronised surf off the coast of Sydney

Evil

he's thinking evil thoughts pic.twitter.com/TuQH7j4wB4

— why you should have an animal (@shouldhaveanima) June 22, 2023

Cobra moth
https://twitter.com/i/status/1671853300835143681

Soggy bottom

“Man Of Constant Sorrow”

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000)#GeorgeClooney #JohnTurturro #TimBlakeNelson #TheCoenBrothers pic.twitter.com/MlKOCVsCx8

— Michael Warburton (@MichaelWarbur17) June 22, 2023

Support the Automatic Earth in virustime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

John Atkinson Grimshaw Battersea Bridge 1885

• Russian Army Gets Enough Recruits To Form Regiment Per Day – Shoigu (RT)

• ‘No Way to Recruit People’: GOP Seeks to Codify Pentagon Drag Show Ban (Sp.)

• Putin Says Western Countries Seem to Be Ready to Fight to Last Ukrainian (Sp.)

• NATO Trainers Knowingly Sent Ukrainian Troops To Their Deaths (Scott Ritter)

• Demilitarization, Denazification: A Sanitary Zone For Ukraine (Helmer)

• US/NATO Are Playing ‘Russian Roulette’. Do They Want A Nuclear War? (Trenin)

• New Catastrophe Looms In Kosovo As West ‘Toys’ With International Law (TASS)

• Global Financial System Exhausted, Not Up to New Challenges – Macron (Sp.)

• Biden Sends Sullivan, Nuland To Turn BRICS War Skeptics Against Russia (ZH)

• The Greater Eurasia Project: Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers (Pepe Escobar)

• CIA Vet Warns US Intel ‘Will Do Everything’ to Help Dems in 2024 Race (Sp.)

• New Bombshell Evidence Against Bidens, DOJ, AG Garland (ZH)

• US Justice is Blind – Unless Your Name is Hunter Biden (Tweedie)

• Tucker Calls Out ‘Media Hysteria Typhoon’ Over RFK Jr. (ZH)

The nuclear power plant it is. Russia did not blow up NordStream. Russia did not blow up the Crimea bridge. Russia did not blow up the dam. Russia did not fire missiles into Poland and Russia did not drone the Kremlin. Russia won’t blow up the power plant. https://t.co/joc0tyHU6p https://t.co/MKnd8RTzbE

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) June 22, 2023

RFK Who we are

Who do we want to be? A nation of war, or a nation of peace?#Kennedy24 pic.twitter.com/8gKjn7OFfs

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 22, 2023

While Modi is in Washington, Obama, visiting Athens, tells Modi what to do at home.

Obama

Obama is right. Hindu nationalists are playing with fire by marginalizing Muslims and Dalits, who combined make up at least 30% of India's population.

You can look at it from a spiritual point of view or political point of view or even economic point of view. It makes sense to… pic.twitter.com/HJtLvFU6Nm

— S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) June 22, 2023

The submersible imploded on Sunday, killing all on board. We were not allowed to know until now.

“On average, 1,336 people enter service under a contract with the Russian Armed Forces per 24 hours..”

• Russian Army Gets Enough Recruits To Form Regiment Per Day – Shoigu (RT)

The Russian Army is recruiting enough new personnel to complete the formation of its reserve force, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Thursday. Enough applicants are signing formal contracts with the ministry to form a new regiment every day, he added. A total of 114,000 people have joined the Russian Armed Forces as contract servicemen to date, Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin at a Russian National Security Council session. An additional 52,000 people have joined the military ranks as volunteers, he said. “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.

A field army in Russia includes several army corps and accounts for more than 40,000 servicemen on average. A Russian army corps has an established strength of between 20,000 and 40,000 servicemen and includes several brigades and regiments depending on its composition. “We are about to finish the formation of a reserve army by late June,” the minister said, adding that almost 3,800 military equipment pieces have already been supplied to the troops and will be used to outfit the newly formed units. According to Shoigu, the volunteers are “eager to join the fight” on the frontlines, where the Russian troops are currently repelling a Ukrainian offensive, which was launched earlier in June. The minister said that Moscow has no plans to send them into the fray right now. “There is no urgent need for that,”he said, adding that the fresh recruits should “undergo serious training first and that is what they do.” He still praised the “highest motivation” of the Russian troops.

In mid-June, Putin told military correspondents and bloggers that Russia sees no need for another military draft campaign right now. At that time, he also said that over 150,000 people had signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry since January. Shoigu’s report comes as Ukrainian officials in some regions take drastic steps to ensure the inflow of recruits to the Ukrainian army. Kiev declared general mobilization back in February 2022, when Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine. This week, several Ukrainian media outlets reported that authorities in western Ivano-Frankovsk Region barred local healthcare providers from carrying out planned hospital treatments of any patients eligible for conscription without prior coordination with the local enlistment office. Putin has also stated that Kiev should not be able to replenish its manpower indefinitely even with the West’s military aid. “It seems Ukraine’s Western allies are indeed prepared to wage the war to the last Ukrainian,” according to the president.

What a difference. It’s now everyone. Want to become a doctor? Too bad.

• ‘No Way to Recruit People’: GOP Seeks to Codify Pentagon Drag Show Ban (Sp.)

Residents of the Obolonsky district in the Ukrainian capital who are eligible for mobilization must report to the military recruitment offices within ten days, even if they do not receive a personal notice, the local draft commissariat said on Thursday. The document, signed by commissar Alexey Privala, was posted on social media, as well as reprinted by the Ukrainian newspaper Strana. Responding to the outlet’s inquiry, Privala’s office claimed the order was nothing new and that such notices were being posted regularly. What is a precedent in the district, however, is the blanket call-up of all draftees. The western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankovsk has already enacted the same measure. Their orders, dated June 13, also refer to the mobilization of vehicles and forbid residents from moving without the explicit permission of the draft commissariat.

The Ivano-Frankovsk notice set a ten-day deadline for all men subject to the draft notice to report for service. The Obolonsky district commissariat has also referred to the same ten-day deadline. Its orders apply not only to the men registered in the district, but even those residing there temporarily, according to Strana. Ukraine’s Chernigov Region reported on Wednesday that it was struggling to meet its mobilization quota. More than 20,000 people have not reported following their summons, regional draft commissar Oleg Goncharuk has admitted. The expanded mobilization measures come as the long-heralded “counteroffensive” on the Zaporozhye front fails to dislodge Russian forces after more than two weeks of fighting.

The attack was “not meeting expectations on any front,”Western officials told CNN on Thursday, while President Vladimir Zelensky acknowledged on Wednesday that progress had been “slower than desired.” According to Russian officials, Ukraine has suffered up to 13,000 casualties since June 4, and is in the process of regrouping its brigades to try again. National Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu briefed President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that many Western-supplied vehicles were among the 246 tanks, 152 infantry fighting vehicles, and 443 armored vehicles Ukraine lost during the attempted attacks.

Should Ukraine follow US example in mobilization? Zelensky would be an excellent drag queen.

After a drag show advertised as a “family-friendly” event was canceled at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in early June, at the start of Pride Month, the Defense Department issued a statement to say that such events were “not a suitable use” of resources. After a de-facto Pentagon ban on drag shows in the military went into effect at the start of June, Republicans at the US House Armed Services Committee have urged seeing this codified in law. An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was put forward by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to bar funding for such performances. “I think it’s time for us to do something to make our voice known that we will not let this happen in the US military – woke ideology and the drag queen shows have no place in our military, zero, bupkis. That is not the way to recruit people,” Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) said about the provision, which was passed 33-26.

The NDAA, the annual defense policy bill, passed the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday night after a session that considered over 800 amendments. The Committee also passed a provision put forward by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) to suspend a contentious initiative called the Navy Digital Ambassador Program. After the Navy had opted to select sailor Joshua Kelley, a TikTok drag queen known as Harpy Daniels, to reach out to potential recruits on social media, it had triggered a flurry of criticism. The current move by the House Armed Services Committee comes as Matt Gaetz wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, and “demanded answers” on “why these drag shows are still occurring” despite the two officials having testified in March that the Department of Defense did not endorse them.

Both Austin and Milley had claimed that they were not aware of such performances on military bases. According to US reports, drag shows have been hosted at Nellis Air Force Base both in 2021 and 2022. The event cancelled by the Pentagon at the military base in Nevada had been advertised ahead of the scheduled performance as a “family-friendly” one, involving three artists, including a former contestant on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” “As Secretary Austin has said, the DoD will not host drag events at US military installations or facilities. Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is not a suitable use of DoD resources,” Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary for the department, had stated in early June.

“[Military] equipment, of course, can be supplied additionally. But the mobilization reserve is not unlimited..”

• Putin Says Western Countries Seem to Be Ready to Fight to Last Ukrainian (Sp.)

Ukrainian troops launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the South Donetsk direction on June 4 but failed to achieve their goals, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. It looks like Western countries are ready to fight until the last Ukrainian, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. “[Military] equipment, of course, can be supplied additionally. But the mobilization reserve is not unlimited. And it seems that Ukraine’s Western allies really decided to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian,” Putin said at a meeting of the Security Council. Kiev has already lost over 13,000 people during its counteroffensive, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said. “As for the personnel … it [Kiev’s loss] is more than 13,000 [persons],” Patrushev said at a meeting with members of the Russian Security Council held by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moreover, Russian forces have already destroyed 246 Ukrainian tanks, including 13 of the Western type, as well as 42 multiple launch rocket systems, two anti-aircraft missile systems, 10 tactical fighters, four helicopters, 264 unmanned aerial vehicles and 424 units of motor vehicles, which Kiev has used during its counteroffensive, Patrushev added. The figures are based on the generalized data for the period from June 4-21, provided by various departments, the Russian official noted. Ukrainian troops have slowed down their activity after 16 days of hostilities and are regrouping, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said. “After 16 days of active hostilities, having suffered significant losses, [the enemy] is regrouping and re-equipping, gathering parts of battalions at the moment,” Shoigu said during a meeting of the Russian Security Council.

The Russian armed forces will complete the creation of a reserve army by the end of June and of an army corps in the near future, with the formations scheduled to receive over 3,700 pieces of equipment, Sergei Shoigu added. “We are forming reserves as part of the army corps, the army, plus five regiments of the 20th tank army. Everything is going according to plan. In fact, we will complete the formation of the reserve army by the end of June and finalize the formation of the army corps there soon,” Shoigu said at a meeting with permanent members of the Russian Security Council. As for now, these five regiments, both in terms of personnel and equipment, are already formed by 60%, the Russian defense chief added.

This is what “cannon fodder” means.

• NATO Trainers Knowingly Sent Ukrainian Troops To Their Deaths (Scott Ritter)

Ukraine sent one of its best brigades into combat earlier this month as part of its long-awaited counteroffensive aimed at retaking areas controlled by Russian forces. Leading the charge near the town of Orekhov, in Zaporozhye Region, was the 47th Mechanized Brigade, armed with NATO equipment and – most importantly – employing it using the US-led bloc’s combined arms doctrine and tactics. Prior to the operation, this brigade spent months at a base in Germany learning “Western know-how” in combined-arms warfare. Helping them prepare for the fighting to come was KORA, the German-made NATO computer simulation system, designed to allow officers and non-commissioned officers to closely replicate battlefield conditions and, in doing so, better develop ideal courses of action against a designated enemy – in this case, Russia.

If there was ever an example of how a purpose-built Ukrainian NATO proxy force would perform against a Russian enemy, the 47th Brigade was the ideal case study. However, within days of initiating its attack, the group was close to literally decimated, with more than 10% of the over 100 US-made M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles destroyed or abandoned on the field of battle, and hundreds of the brigade’s 2,000-strong complement dead or wounded. German-made Leopard 2 tanks and mine-clearing vehicles joined the Bradleys as wrecks in the fields west of Orekhov, having failed to breach the first line of Russian defenses. The reasons for this defeat can be boiled down to the role played by KORA in creating a false sense of confidence on the part of the officers and men of the 47th Brigade. Unfortunately, as the Ukrainians and their NATO masters found out, what works in a computer simulation does not automatically equate to battlefield success.

[..] One of the things I’m most proud of in my military career is the fact that the Marine assault breaching operations done during Desert Storm unfolded almost exactly as my team and I had predicted in the JANUS simulation. After the war, General Caulfield credited my team and I with playing a major role in designing the successful Marine attack and, in the process, saving hundreds of Marine lives. We achieved this result by adhering to basic principles of professionalism and integrity, refusing to cut corners for the sake of expediency and being realistic about the amount of military combat power that would be needed to be applied over time to achieve the desired result.

If only the NATO trainers, who knowingly sent the men of the Ukrainian 47th Mechanized Brigade and scores of other Ukrainian brigades to their deaths, adhered to such standards. Instead, they sent those troops in a futile attempt to breach defenses that were impossible to overcome, given the disparity in training and force composition between the Ukrainian and Russian forces. Had they been diligent, there would be far fewer Ukrainian widows and orphaned children mourning the loss of their husbands and fathers. This, more than anything, is the primary lesson to be derived from the Ballad of KORA and JANUS – neither NATO nor the United States cares about the lives of the Ukrainians they have undertaken to train in the horrific art of war.

”..that leaves nothing of the Ukraine except the territory which the Poles and Hungarians might not be bold enough to take.”

• Demilitarization, Denazification: A Sanitary Zone For Ukraine (Helmer)

What follows is the first detailed discussion in the open in Moscow of how the map of this territory should be drawn when the Ukrainian offensive reaches its end, and the Russian advance begins. Left out of mention is who in Moscow will be drawing the new map. This is because Putin has annonced he is delegating to the General Staff. “Russia’s military leadership,” he said on June 9, “is realistic in its assessments of the situation and will proceed from these realities as it continues to plan up our actions in the short term.” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had already said the same a year ago. “Now the geography is different,” he concluded an interview in Moscow on July 20, 2022. “Take the HIMARS. [Ukrainian] Defence Minister Alexei Reznikov boasts that they have already received 300-kilometre ammunition.

This means our geographic objectives will move even further from the current line. We cannot allow the part of Ukraine that Vladimir Zelensky, or whoever replaces him, will control to have weapons that pose a direct threat to our territory or to the republics that have declared their independence and want to determine their own future.” “[Question:] How can this be arranged, technically? This is our territory. Then there are the republics that will accede to us. In fact they already have – the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. … Further west, there is the territory controlled by Vladimir Zelensky. They have a common border. So either there should be a 300 kilometre buffer zone or something between them, or we need to march all the way to Lvov inclusive.” “[Lavrov:] There is a solution to this problem. The military know this.”

“Comrade servicemen,” Lavrov added last week on a visit to the 201st Russian Military Base in Tajikistan, “they are getting ready, in earnest, to supply the F-16 jets. Some say they will make two squadrons available, others say eight. They are gearing up to continue the escalation of the war against us. There’s an ongoing debate about where these planes will take off from. Our armed forces and the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces are well aware of ongoing developments and report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. We must keep in mind that one version of the F-16 can carry nuclear weapons. If they do not understand this, they are worthless military strategists and planners.” The General Staff have no reason to speak publicly on this point.

Privately, a source in a position to know says: “the General Staff are not satisfied with the Dnieper [line of defence]. It will run from a small town on the border with Belarus to Transnistria. They will solve that problem as well. But mainly, Belarus has to be protected from the south. And most importantly, that leaves nothing of the Ukraine except the territory which the Poles and Hungarians might not be bold enough to take.”

“The fear of the atomic bomb, present in the second half of the twentieth century, has disappeared. Nuclear weapons have been taken out of the equation.”

• US/NATO Are Playing ‘Russian Roulette’. Do They Want A Nuclear War? (Trenin)

In principle, nuclear weapons have been “on the table” for Russia from the very beginning of the Ukrainian conflict precisely as a means of deterring the US and its allies from becoming directly involved. Nevertheless, repeated public reminders from Putin and other officials about Russia’s nuclear status have so far not prevented a growing escalation of NATO’s participation. As a result, it has become clear that nuclear deterrence, on which many in Moscow have relied as a credible means of securing the country’s vital interests, has proven to be a much more limited tool than they expected. In fact, the US has now set itself the task – unthinkable during the Cold War – of trying to defeat another nuclear superpower in a strategically important region, without resorting to atomic weapons, but instead by arming and controlling a third country.

The Americans are proceeding cautiously, testing Moscow’s responses and consistently pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of arms supplied to Kiev, as well as the choice of targets for them. From starting with anti-tank ‘Javelins,’ to eventually cajoling allies to send actual tanks, the US is now apparently pondering transferring F-16 fighter jets and long-range missiles. It is likely that this US strategy is based on the belief that the Russian leadership would not dare use nuclear weapons in the current conflict, and that its references to the nuclear arsenal at its disposal are nothing more than a bluff. The Americans have even been calm – at least outwardly about the deployment of Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus. Such “fearlessness” is a direct result of the geopolitical changes of the last three decades and the change of generations in power in the US and the West in general.

The fear of the atomic bomb, present in the second half of the twentieth century, has disappeared. Nuclear weapons have been taken out of the equation. The practical conclusion is clear: there is no need to be afraid of such a Russian response. This is an extremely dangerous misconception. The trajectory of the Ukrainian war points to an escalation of the conflict both horizontally (by expanding the theater of military action) and vertically (by increasing the power of the weapons used and the intensity of their use). It must be soberly acknowledged that this momentum is heading towards a direct armed confrontation between Russia and NATO. If the accumulated inertia is not stopped, such a clash will take place, and in this case the war, having spread to Western Europe, will almost inevitably become nuclear. And after some time, a nuclear war in Europe will most likely lead to an exchange of blows between Russia and the US.

The Americans and their allies are truly playing Russian roulette. Yes, so far the Russian response to the bombing of Nord Stream, the drone attack on the strategic Engels airbase, the entry of Western-armed saboteurs into the Belgorod region and many other actions by the Washington-backed and controlled side has been relatively restrained. As Putin recently made clear, there are good reasons for this restraint. Russia, the president said, is capable of destroying any building in Kiev, but will not stoop to the methods of terror used by the enemy. But Putin added that Russia was considering various options for destroying Western warplanes if they are based in NATO countries and directly take part in the war in Ukraine.

Trying to think of another “leader” who wanted to ban his mother tongue.

President Vladimir Zelensky announced on Thursday that he had a signed a law making it illegal to import and distribute Russian and Belarusian publishing products in Ukraine. However, some Ukrainian officials have pointed out that the step could hinder Kiev’s plans to join the EU. The move comes after Ukrainian citizens registered an online petition on the official presidential website asking for the ban back in May. The petition reached the 25,000-vote threshold required for it to be formally considered by the head of state. The author of the petition noted that the Ukrainian parliament had already approved the law on June 19, 2022, but that Zelensky had never signed the bill. As a result, Russian books continued to be sold in Ukraine, which undermines “the information security of the state and the economic foundations of Ukrainian book publishing,” according to the petition.

“I consider the law to be correct,” Zelensky stated in a Telegram post announcing that he had finally signed the legislation. He noted, however, that the text of the legislation had been sent to EU institutions for an “additional assessment” of whether it could breach Kiev’s obligations to protect minority rights, particularly linguistic ones, in the context of Ukraine’s application for EU membership. In a written response to the petition last month, Zelensky explained that there had been a “number of reservations” that prevented the law from being adopted.

The president stated that Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice had proposed applying the right of veto to the bill, arguing that completely banning the import and distribution of Russian publications would contradict several articles of Ukraine’s constitution. Additionally, Zelensky said that despite agreeing with the nature of the law, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had also advised vetoing the bill. The ministry had warned that its current version “does not meet the norms and standards of the EU in the field of human rights, including freedom of opinion, protection of the rights of national minorities, prohibition of discrimination on the basis of language, and therefore may complicate the process of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.”

“Khren Im”