Jul 042023
 


Giovanni Strazza The Veiled Virgin, Carrera marble 1850s

 

Ukrainian Counteroffensive Running Out of Time – Russian Ex-General (Sp.)
Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Failing in All Directions – Shoigu (Sp.)
Russia Will Stop Ukraine Joining NATO One Way Or Another – Medvedev (RT)
Zelenskyy: Ukraine’s Membership In NATO Depends On Biden (Az.)
NATO Might Use ‘Nuclear Incident’ to Enter Ukrainian Conflict (Dergalin)
Ukraine Already Had Statehood Under USSR – Scholz (RT)
Erdogan Blames Failure Of Ukraine Peace Process On ‘War Lobby’ (RT)
Turkish Parliament Speaker: Sweden’s NATO Accession Bid A ‘Pipedream’ (TASS)
Head of US Space Command Comments on Russia, China Hypersonic Weapons (Sp.)
We Can’t Buy Chinese Arms – Ukrainian Defense Ministry (RT)
US Close to Providing Ukraine With Widely Banned Cluster Bombs (Antiwar)
NATO Admiral Tells Ukraine No Fighter Jets In Short Term (RT)
Why CIA and FBI Would Have Never Hired Joe Biden (Sp.)
Lies About Afghanistan. Lies About Iraq. And Lies About Ukraine. (Chris Hedges)
Biden’s 3am Moment in Ukraine (Scott Ritter)
Meta Set To Launch Twitter Rival On Thursday (Az.)

 

 

 

 

Macgregor

 

 

Maersheimer

 

 

 

 

Julian

 

 

 

 

Ukraine’s Only Option: All-In Offensive Before NATO Summit Next Week

Ukrainian Counteroffensive Running Out of Time – Russian Ex-General (Sp.)

Leonid Reshetnikov, a retired lieutenant general of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), told Sputnik that the second stage of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the battlefield is expected by the time the Vilnius summit opens in just ten days. According to him, the Kiev regime needs results in order to get decisions in favor of further arms and financial support, and even NATO membership. “Faced with limited options, the Kiev regime has no other choice but to press on. This next phase involves a comprehensive review of tactics and strategy, coupled with the deployment of previously untapped reserves,” he said. According to Reshetnikov, reports indicate the possibility of introducing new elements, such as major provocations, similar to when Ukrainians blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant.

“So far, that explosion hasn’t had the desired result. Perhaps something along those lines, including possibly related to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. They are building up tension in this regard. It is possible that it will be used for the offensive,” he stressed. This offensive is expected to be launched before the upcoming summit in Vilnius. The ongoing nationwide mobilization signals growing understanding that Kiev’s current forces may not be sufficient to achieve a breakthrough. “Such plans exist. But I repeat, their offensive is inevitable,” Reshetnikov noted. However, the primary objective for Ukraine remains to break through the Russian defense lines to reach the Sea of Azov and the border with Crimea, the expert noted.

“In the first stage, Ukrainian forces were unable to breach the initial line of Russian defenses. In response, the second stage is based on the hope that a protracted defense will exhaust the defenders psychologically and technologically,” he said. Reshetnikov likewise noted that the Ukrainian military is pursuing a strategy of sending inexperienced soldiers on frenzied attacks in a desperate bid to locate potential weak links in the Russian defense. m“However, the Russian defense lines have been fortified while, as far as we know, a significant part of the reserves have not been put in place. So the Ukrainian plans are very questionable,” he noted. The commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Valery Zaluzhny recently told Western media that it would be impossible to conduct an offensive without additional supplies of NATO ammunition and aircraft.

Reshetnikov believes that these statements serve a dual purpose: to garner increased Western support and to justify the lack of success so far. “Nevertheless, it is important to note that Western assistance, while valuable, cannot single-handedly alter the situation on the ground. Substantial and sustained assistance would be required to have a significant impact,” he said. In an attempt to explain Kiev’s shortcomings, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar has propagated the idea that Russian forces are conducting an offensive in four directions – Avdeyevka, Maryinka, Krasny Liman and Svatovo. However, Reshetnikov believes that this claim is purely a propaganda tactic to rationalize Ukrainian setbacks. “While Russian forces have adopted an active defense strategy that includes counterattacks and advances on enemy [Ukrainian] strongholds, these actions fall short of a full-fledged offensive. In the event of another failed counteroffensive, the Russian army may seize the opportunity to launch a counteroffensive of its own, taking advantage of a worn-out Ukrainian military,” he said.

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Shoigu is still in place.

Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Failing in All Directions – Shoigu (Sp.)

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday that the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive has not reached its goals in any of the directions of the military campaign. “In general, the enemy did not achieve its goals in any of the directions. This testifies to the skill of our fighters and clearly inflated expectations from the vaunted Western weapons,” Shoigu told top military officials. He also announced that Russian forces managed to destroy some 920 armored vehicles, including 16 Leopard tanks, in Donbass and in Zaporozhye regions last month. At the same time, Shoigu accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out strikes against civilian targets to make up for Kiev’s inability to attain success on the battlefield.

“Kiev is trying to compensate for its inability to ensure success on the ground through terrorist attacks on civilian targets and thus achieve a propaganda effect,” the Russian defense minister said. Last month, Ukrainian forces finally launched the “counteroffensive” that Kiev had been announcing for months. Despite committing significant numbers of troops and military hardware to this undertaking, Kiev has so far failed to breach even the first line of Russian defenses despite sacrificing hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and losing a considerable number of tanks and armored vehicles supplied by NATO countries. Shoigu has also addressed the events that transpired in Russia on June 23-25 involving the forces of PMC Wagner. “I cannot but touch upon one more issue … We are talking about an attempt on June 23-25 to destabilize the situation in Russia. These plans failed primarily because the personnel of the armed forces showed loyalty to the oath and military duty,” he said.

On Friday, June 23, forces of the Wagner Group (PMC) seized the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District in the city of Rostov-on-Don following accusations leveled against the Russian Ministry of Defense of striking the group’s camps. Both the Russian military and the Federal Security Service denied the allegations. Later that day, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko revealed that he had spent the entire day negotiating with Yevgeny Prigozhin, as agreed upon with Russian President Vladimir Putin. As a result of the talks, the Wagner group leader accepted Lukashenko’s proposal to stop the movement of his troops in Russia and take measures to de-escalate the situation. Putin guaranteed that the Wagner group fighters would have the opportunity to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, return home, or move to Belarus.

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“The Kiev regime must be annihilated. Banned by law as a fascist entity in civilized Europe..”

Russia Will Stop Ukraine Joining NATO One Way Or Another – Medvedev (RT)

Russia demands that its security concerns regarding NATO are respected, but has neither the intention nor the capability to “contain” the US-led military bloc, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said. The official argued in a keynote article on Sunday against the notion that Russia miscalculated in its attempt to prevent NATO’s expansion into Ukraine, and caused Finland and Sweden to apply for membership. Both Nordic nations “were already in association with the alliance”, he noted. What Russia has always called for was “not to invite into NATO the former parts of our country. Especially those with which we have territorial disputes,” Medvedev wrote. He pledged that Russia will stop “the threat” of Ukraine joining the bloc “one way or another.” Since NATO members say that a nation cannot join while being engaged in an armed conflict, “the conflict [with Ukraine] will be permanent, because Russia’s existence is at stake,” he warned.

The article detailed Medvedev’s view of the hostilities in Ukraine in the context of a wider geopolitical confrontation. According to the Russian official, Western nations are clashing with the rest of the world in an attempt to preserve their hegemony. Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy head of the Russian Security Council, admitted to having a pessimistic view of where things are going. “One does not need to be a prophet to realize: this phase of confrontation will… last for decades,” he predicted. Medvedev believes that since Western nations have the goal of defeating a nuclear power, it could escalate into a civilization-ending outcome. “An apocalypse is not only possible, but quite probable,” he warned.

The only alternative is a painfully negotiated rearrangement of the global balance of power, under which Ukraine would not exist in its current form of an “anti-Russia,” he said. “The Kiev regime must be annihilated. Banned by law as a fascist entity in civilized Europe,” he declared. A rebalanced world order would require a new international treaty akin to the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 and likely an overhaul of the United Nations, Medvedev argued. The accords were a key element of the US-USSR detente, and outlined the signatories’ commitments to preserve peace, security and respect for human rights.

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“It’s so important to feel that you are really being around allies in the future..”

Zelenskyy: Ukraine’s Membership In NATO Depends On Biden (Az.)

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on US President Joe Biden to invite Ukraine into NATO “now” – even if membership does not come until after the war, Report informs referring to CNN. Zelenskyy noted that Biden was “the decision maker” about whether Ukraine would be in NATO or not. “He supports our future in NATO,” but an invitation now would be a huge motivator for Ukrainian soldiers, Zelenskyy said in an exclusive interview with CNN.Ukraine’s aspiration to join is enshrined in its constitution and its relationship with NATO dates back to the early 1990s, according to the alliance. NATO is due to hold a summit in Lithuania on July 11 and 12 where leaders are expected to discuss Ukraine’s membership.


“Now,” Zelenskyy said in response to a question about why not wait for an invitation. “It’s very important.” “It’s so important to feel that you are really being around allies in the future,” he added. Zelenskyy added that he understood that Ukraine would “never be in NATO before war finishes.” NATO stipulates that the settlement of territorial disputes is “a factor in determining whether to invite a state to join the Alliance.”

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If somethig happens to Zaporozhye NPP, we know who did it.

NATO Might Use ‘Nuclear Incident’ to Enter Ukrainian Conflict (Dergalin)

The Kiev regime’s Western bosses may be looking to capitalize on the predicament at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in order to further their own goals in the Ukrainian conflict, said Renat Karchaa, advisor to the chief executive of Rosenergoatom, the Russian nuclear power station operations subsidiary. As Karchaa explained in an interview with a Russian media outlet, the much-hyped Ukrainian “counteroffensive” has already run out of steam and “Ukraine’s Western masters” now realize that Kiev cannot prevail on the battlefield even with all the military assistance provided by NATO.

And since the West has already raised the stakes to the point where Kiev’s defeat would mean its own defeat as well, “aggressive Western politicians” are now mulling drastic options, such as a black op at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant that would result in a “nuclear incident” and create a legal pretext for NATO to directly enter the Ukrainian conflict, he suggested. According to Karchaa, this is why the West has recently been fixed on portraying Russia as a country capable of perpetrating an act of nuclear terrorism, with the international community ready to single out “the guilty party before the event takes place.” He also spotlighted the stepped-up activity by the Kiev regime forces in the vicinity of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, claiming that the number of Ukrainian troops in the area has risen considerably over the past month.

Ever since the Zaporozhye nuclear station came under Russia’s jurisdiction last year, Ukrainian forces have repeatedly shelled the facility while simultaneously blaming these attacks on Russia itself. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called for establishing a safety zone around the plant and condemned the shelling, though for some reason this organization has been reluctant to publicly identify the perpetrator of these attacks. The situation around the Zaporozhye station exacerbated following the terrorist attack carried out by the Kiev regime’s forces on the nearby Kakhovka Dam last month. The damage sustained by the dam resulted in a drastic decrease in water levels in the Kakhovka Reservoir, practically to the point of it drying up. In fact, the Zaporozhye facility obtained water for its coolant systems from that reservoir.

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Crimeans are predominantly Russian-speaking. Why try to rewrite history? It was the Vikings. No, the Romans…

Ukraine Already Had Statehood Under USSR – Scholz (RT)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said the Ukrainian state was already in existence while the country was still part of the Soviet Union. He also insisted that Crimea, which joined Russia after a referendum in 2014, has long been part of Ukraine. In an interview with Germany’s ARD TV channel on Sunday, the host read a question from a viewer to Scholz, asking “Who does Crimea belong to?” The German chancellor replied by saying: “Crimea has for a very, very long time belonged to Ukraine.” He added that “already in the days of the Soviet Union, Ukraine was an independent state with UN membership,” and said Russia left the USSR before Ukraine did. Following the end of World War II, the Ukrainian SSR along with the Belarusian SSR as part of the Soviet Union were among the founding members of the United Nations and a signatory of its charter back in 1945.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia de facto became the sole legal successor of the defunct country. As for Crimea, the predominantly Russian-speaking peninsula was handed over to the Ukrainian SSR by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev back in 1954. In 2014, however, a referendum was held in Crimea, where the vast majority of its residents voted in favor of rejoining Russia. The plebiscite, which has not been recognized by Ukraine, the US, the EU and most other countries, was preceded by a coup in Kiev. Many Crimeans had then begun to voice concerns that radical nationalists were attempting to forcibly impose the Ukrainian language and discriminate against local Russian speakers.

Scholz also commented on the ongoing military conflict between Ukraine and Russia during the interview. He said Germany would not provide Ukraine with long-range missiles for fear that Kiev could use them to strike targets on Russian soil, pointing to the fact that the Biden administration in the US has had similar reservations. Scholz hastened to add, however, that Germany is the “second-biggest supporter of Ukraine after the US,” pledging to keep backing Kiev for “as long as necessary.” The chancellor also reiterated that Ukraine would not be able to join NATO as long as it is locked in a military conflict with Russia. According to Scholz, officials in Kiev are also well aware of this prerequisite. At the same time, Germany, together with its partners, has been working on post-bellum security guarantees for Ukraine, Scholz said.

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They took his moment of relevance.

Erdogan Blames Failure Of Ukraine Peace Process On ‘War Lobby’ (RT)

Efforts to resolve the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev have been “obstructed and eroded by the war lobby,” Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed. The president made the remarks on Monday while speaking to reporters in Ankara following a cabinet meeting. “The diplomatic efforts, which were initiated with the Istanbul process and proceeded with captive exchanges, have unfortunately been obstructed and eroded by the war lobby,” Erdogan stated. The president claimed Türkiye itself had been targeted by said “war lobby,” without naming any precise culprits. If Türkiye’s peace efforts had succeeded early on in the conflict, most of the destruction could have been avoided, Erdogan explained.


Türkiye hosted peace talks between Moscow and Kiev shortly after hostilities broke out in February 2022. The negotiations culminated into a preliminary peace deal, which was initialed in Istanbul. However, Ukraine broke its promises after Moscow withdrew its forces from the immediate vicinity of Kiev, shortly after the deal was reached.Russian and Ukrainian representatives haven’t met at the negotiating table to discuss peace prospects since then. Moscow, however, maintains that it is ready to resolve the crisis through diplomatic efforts, while repeatedly blaming the collective West for pushing Kiev into a war “to the last Ukrainian.” The Ukrainian leadership, for its part, has explicitly prohibited itself from ever engaging in talks with Moscow while Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in power.

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Sweden, Ukraine, what’s the difference?

Turkish Parliament Speaker: Sweden’s NATO Accession Bid A ‘Pipedream’ (TASS)

Joining NATO is a pipedream for Stockholm, which has been reluctant to meet Ankara’s demands, Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Numan Kurtulmus said in an interview with the Milliyet newspaper, published on Monday. “There is a trilateral agreement [between Turkey, Sweden and Finland]. They will engage in provocative actions [even as they are] asking for us to approve their NATO membership [application]. Excuse me, but Turkey is a country that means what it says. Whatever it says and whatever it promises, it delivers; but, we would also like our opponents to stand by their word. Becoming a NATO member is a pipedream for Sweden, which has been failing to fulfill its promises,” Kurtulmus stressed.

He noted that “Turkey is facing strong pressure” over the NATO bid by Sweden, “which supports and harbors terrorist organizations.” “On the other hand, Turkey will not take a single step on the matter until its demands are met,” Kurtulmus added. On June 28, 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, then-Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg held talks ahead of the annual NATO summit in Madrid. The parties signed a memorandum enabling the accession of Stockholm and Helsinki to NATO. On March 31, 2023, the Turkish parliament passed a protocol approving Finland’s accession to NATO, after which the Nordic country formally joined the North Atlantic Alliance on April 4.

However, Turkish lawmakers refused to approve a similar protocol approving Sweden’s NATO membership, demanding that Stockholm implement all provisions of the Madrid memorandum related to fighting terrorism. Ankara has been strongly critical of Stockholm for allowing demonstrations by supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, an organization that is outlawed in Turkey, which have taken place in Sweden, as well as for incidents involving burning of the Quran.

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The US thinks hypersonics is a space program?!

Head of US Space Command Comments on Russia, China Hypersonic Weapons (Sp.)

Hypersonic weapons are advanced military technology that travel at extremely high speeds, reaching Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound) or more. Russia has deployed hypersonic missiles, including the Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile and the Zircon anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile. General James Dickinson, head of the US Space Command, addressed the issue of hypersonic weapons from Russia and China in an interview with British media. “Obviously, we have seen demonstrations of hypersonic weapons by other countries, particularly China and Russia. We continue to explore this area in how we can minimize this type of threat,” Dickinson said.

Dickinson reportedly said that the Pentagon remains confident in its capabilities amid concerns that the US is falling behind China in the space race. The head of Britain’s Space Command, Air Commodore Paul Godfrey, for his part, told the media outlet that China could begin mining the moon and asteroids in the next few decades. “China has published a ‘White paper’ looking at the major minerals on the moon. They’ve already sent samples from the moon back to Earth. They just want to go further in that direction. Mining asteroids will be a reality in our lifetime,” Godfrey said. He added that China and Russia are investing “billions” in space exploration and building space weapons.

China’s lunar probe program, named Chang’e after the heroine of ancient Chinese myths, consists of three stages: a flight around an artificial Earth satellite, a landing on the Moon, and a return from the Moon to Earth. The first lunar satellite, Chang’e-1, was launched in 2007 and was operating until 2009. The data it collected allowed Chinese scientists to create the first thermal map of the Moon. In 2019, China launched the next phase of its lunar program, the first-ever landing on the dark side of the Moon. The landing platform and Yutu-2 lunar rover have successfully operated in uncharted territory for several months, and continue to explore the Moon. Yutu-2 discovered two types of lunar mantle rocks on the Moon the existence of which scientists had doubted.

On 24 November 2020, China launched the Chang’e-5 re-entry vehicle; on 1 December, it landed in a designated area on the visible side of the Moon; over the next two days, a drilling device and a manipulator with a bucket attached to the lander collected lunar soil, which was placed in a special compartment for take-off. The whole mission lasted 23 days. The Chang’e 5 spacecraft delivered 1,731 grams of lunar samples back to Earth. It was the first lunar soil probe in 44 years. China was the third country to carry out such a mission, after the United States and the Soviet Union.

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Buy? With whose money?

NOTE: “..the ‘axis of evil’ – Russia, Iran and other similar nations. ”

We Can’t Buy Chinese Arms – Ukrainian Defense Ministry (RT)

Kiev does not buy Chinese weapons to avoid irritating the US, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Vitaly Deinega has claimed. The official made the comments while discussing the importance of drones in modern warfare. “As far as it was explained to me… we cannot buy anything Chinese so as not to hurt our relationship with the US,” Deinega told Ukrainian news outlet Leviy Bereg on Monday. The official was discussing the use of Chinese-made DJI Mavic quadcopters by Ukrainian troops. Kiev’s forces have the aircraft “in large quantities” but rely on purchases by volunteers for supplies, because “there is the position that the Defense Ministry cannot procure them,” Deinega explained.

He admitted that Russia currently has a drone advantage against Ukraine, but claimed that the situation would eventually change. “Every day we’ll get some new kind of drones. Let’s see what we’ve acquired in the year and a half of the war: naval drones, ground drones,” Deinega stated. He insisted that drones will be a key factor in future combat and that Ukraine will serve as a source of innovation for the West. “[In future] we and the Russians will have the same difference that we have in military vehicles” Deinega said, suggesting that the Western hardware provided to Kiev was superior to what Moscow has at its disposal. “Western drones will be more expensive than the drones of the ‘axis of evil’ – Russia, Iran and other similar nations.

They will be more expensive, more technologically advanced and precise,” Deinega said. Reports have claimed that the fear of reprisals from Washington prompted the government of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to torpedo the sale of manufacturing giant Motor Sich to Chinese investors. The Soviet-era military helicopter engine maker had been slated for a sale to foreign buyers for years, although the Ukrainian security services opposed the move. Kiev sanctioned Motor Sich’s potential Chinese buyers in January 2021, blocking the transfer of assets and the possibility of managerial control. It nationalized the company one year later, while long-time Motor Sich chief Vyacheslav Boguslaev was arrested for alleged dealings with Russia last October.

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They simply have tons of the stuff lying around that they are not allowed to use.

US Close to Providing Ukraine With Widely Banned Cluster Bombs (Antiwar)

The US is moving closer to sending widely-banned cluster bombs to Ukraine as the Biden administration is pushing Congress to put aside concerns about the harm the munitions cause to civilians, The Washington Post reported Saturday. The report said senior Biden administration officials have recently contacted Congress to make the case that cluster munitions are needed on the battlefield in Ukraine. Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer contacted members of Congress to gauge how they felt about sending the bombs. US officials told the Post that the White House was previously opposed to sending cluster bombs to Ukraine but is now reviewing the position.

The State Department was also opposed to the idea, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken has withdrawn his objection. Last week, a Pentagon official told Congress that Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM), a cluster munition with several variants, including a 155mm artillery round, would be useful for Ukraine on the battlefield. “Our military analysts have confirmed that DPICMs would be useful, especially against dug-in Russian positions on the battlefield,” Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, told the House Armed Services Committee.

Cluster bombs scatter small submunitions over large areas, making them especially hazardous to civilians who can find them years after they were dropped. Cluster munitions and other unexploded American bombs have killed and maimed civilians in Vietnam and Laos for decades after the Vietnam War. Because of their indiscriminate nature, cluster munitions have been banned by more than 100 nations. The US, Ukraine, and Russia are not parties to the treaty, known as the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Both sides in the current conflict in Ukraine have reportedly used cluster bombs, and Kyiv was using them against populated areas of Donestk in the Donbas war going back to 2014.

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“..the country has “an advantage” over Moscow thanks to its Western weapons and training..”

NATO Admiral Tells Ukraine No Fighter Jets In Short Term (RT)

Ukraine will not receive Western fighter jets for its current counter-offensive and will have to make do without them, the chairman of NATO’s military committee said, citing the lengthy training required for pilots and problems with logistics. Speaking to Britain’s LBC radio station for an interview on Monday, Admiral Rob Bauer, who heads the military committee as NATO’s most senior military official, said that discussion about fighter jets for Kiev must wait until after its ongoing offensive operation. “The discussion on the fighters is an important one, but it will not be solved in the short term for this counter-offensive,” he said. “Training those pilots, training the technicians, making sure there is a logistic organization that can actually sustain these aircraft will not be available before this counter-offensive.”

Though Bauer claimed Ukraine was in “an existential fight,” he went on to argue that the country has “an advantage” over Moscow thanks to its Western weapons and training. Still, he insisted Kiev’s supporters “shouldn’t mix” discussion about the counter-offensive and Ukraine’s requests for fighter jets, suggesting such transfers are simply not possible at the moment. While Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly urged Western powers to hand over their war planes, only a small number of sponsors have agreed to do so, with Poland and Slovakia authorizing transfers of Soviet-era MiG fighters.

To date, Washington has denied demands for F-16s, citing availability issues as well as fears the weapons could escalate direct hostilities with Russia. However, US officials have backtracked after refusing to supply other weapons, including the Patriot missile defense system and the M1 Abrams main battle tank, and the Pentagon has already started training Ukrainian pilots on American planes. Germany and the UK have also rejected calls for fighter jets, though Britain has authorized the transfer of Storm Shadow missiles to Kiev, the longest-range munitions provided to Ukraine so far. London has also stated it is willing to partner with a “coalition” of states to supply fighter jets, though Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the project is “not a straightforward thing,” pointing to training and logistics hurdles.

Ukraine launched its counter-offensive in early June, but the bulk of its attacks have been repelled with significant losses, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. President Zelensky has acknowledged the operations are moving “slower than desired” due to “tough resistance” from Russian forces, but military officials have maintained that large numbers of reserve troops have yet to be deployed. Late last month, senior Zelensky aide Mikhail Podoliak accused Ukraine’s Western patrons of being too slow with their weapons deliveries, claiming that had allowed Moscow to set up formidable defenses.

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Cause he’s a crook.

Why CIA and FBI Would Have Never Hired Joe Biden (Sp.)

If Joe Biden weren’t the US president he would have been unable to get a security clearance given the scale of scandals and ethical conflicts haunting his family, according to Just the News, an independent media outlet founded by award-winning investigative journalist John Solomon. The media outlet cited former CIA analyst and National Security Council chief of staff Fred Fleitz and retired FBI Assistant Director for Intelligence Kevin Brock, who said that neither of the federal agencies would have hired Joe “because there would be the concern that he might be compromised.” “Anyone who wants to become an FBI agent has to pass a polygraph specifically designed to determine if the applicant has any compromising entanglements with a hostile foreign power,” Brock told the media outlet. “If Joe applied and said he had none, the machine might not recover. The closest he’d come to being an agent are those aviator sunglasses.”

Over the past several months, Republican lawmakers have been focusing on Biden’s alleged wrongdoing, including uncorroborated bribery accusations, mishandling of classified memos, alleged involvement in his son’s money-peddling schemes, as well as making a false claim together with his 2020 campaign of his son’s laptop being “Russian disinformation” to sway an election. “There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant,” Biden said during his second and final 2020 presidential debate with Donald Trump. “Five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except his good friend Rudy Giuliani.” However, in April, former Deputy Director of the CIA Mike Morell told US lawmakers it was Biden’s campaign operative Antony Blinken who asked that the infamous “laptop from hell” be smeared.

The laptop was later proven to be real. US conservatives lament the fact that regardless of the aforementioned accusations and emerging damning evidence, Joe Biden not only managed to win the 2020 presidential elections, but is now seeking re-election together with Vice President Kamala Harris, both being backed by the US Democratic Party. In addition, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) appears to shield the Biden family, according to IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley. Shapley claimed that US Attorney David Weiss, who was assigned to carry out an investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter, said that he had been told by the DoJ that he could not bring charges against Hunter in California and Washington DC. An anonymous source quoted by the New York Times confirmed Shapley’s claim. Previously, Attorney General Merrick Garland insisted that Weiss had full authority to conduct the probe thus justified his decision not to appoint a special counsel in Hunter’s case.

In a Friday letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Weiss wrote that he had “ultimate authority” over the DoJ’s Hunter Biden investigation and was in charge of “deciding where, when, and whether to file charges” against the first son. However, author and investigative journalist Miranda Devine has drawn attention to the fact that Weiss acknowledged in his letter that his “charging authority is geographically limited to my home district,” and that, if he needs to charge in another district, he has to ask the respective US attorney if the latter wants to partner on the case. She recalled that Shapley specifically noted that US Attorney Matthew Graves in Washington, DC, declined to cooperate with Weiss and bring charges against Hunter for the 2014 and 2015 tax years. Likewise, US Attorney Martin Estrada in California declined to partner on Hunter’s case concerning his alleged tax crimes for the 2016–2019 years. “None of those charges ever were laid,” Devine wrote in her recent op-ed, suggesting that this fact indirectly shows that in reality Weiss did not have “full” authority over Hunter Biden’s case, contrary to AG Garland’s assertions.

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“First, equipping our friends on the front lines to defend themselves is a far cheaper way — in both dollars and American lives — to degrade Russia’s ability to threaten the United States..”

Lies About Afghanistan. Lies About Iraq. And Lies About Ukraine. (Chris Hedges)

The playbook the pimps of war use to lure us into one military fiasco after another, including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Ukraine, does not change. Freedom and democracy are threatened. Evil must be vanquished. Human rights must be protected. The fate of Europe and NATO, along with a “rules based international order” is at stake. Victory is assured. The results are also the same. The justifications and narratives are exposed as lies. The cheery prognosis is false. Those on whose behalf we are supposedly fighting are as venal as those we are fighting against. The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a war crime, although one that was provoked by NATO expansion and by the United States backing of the 2014 “Maidan” coup which ousted the democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Yanukovych wanted economic integration with the European Union, but not at the expense of economic and political ties with Russia. The war will only be solved through negotiations that allow ethnic Russians in Ukraine to have autonomy and Moscow’s protection, as well as Ukrainian neutrality, which means the country cannot join NATO. The longer these negotiations are delayed the more Ukrainians will suffer and die. Their cities and infrastructure will continue to be pounded into rubble. But this proxy war in Ukraine is designed to serve U.S. interests. It enriches the weapons manufacturers, weakens the Russian military and isolates Russia from Europe. What happens to Ukraine is irrelevant.

“First, equipping our friends on the front lines to defend themselves is a far cheaper way — in both dollars and American lives — to degrade Russia’s ability to threaten the United States,” admitted Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. “Second, Ukraine’s effective defense of its territory is teaching us lessons about how to improve the defenses of partners who are threatened by China. It is no surprise that senior officials from Taiwan are so supportive of efforts to help Ukraine defeat Russia. Third, most of the money that’s been appropriated for Ukraine security assistance doesn’t actually go to Ukraine. It gets invested in American defense manufacturing. It funds new weapons and munitions for the U.S. armed forces to replace the older material we have provided to Ukraine. Let me be clear: this assistance means more jobs for American workers and newer weapons for American servicemembers.”

Once the truth about these endless wars seeps into public consciousness, the media, which slavishly promotes these conflicts, drastically reduces coverage. The military debacles, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, continue largely out of view. By the time the U.S. concedes defeat, most barely remember that these wars are being fought. The pimps of war who orchestrate these military fiascos migrate from administration to administration. Between posts they are ensconced in think tanks — Project for the New American Century, American Enterprise Institute, Foreign Policy Initiative, Institute for the Study of War, The Atlantic Council and The Brookings Institution — funded by corporations and the war industry. Once the Ukraine war comes to its inevitable conclusion, these Dr. Strangeloves will seek to ignite a war with China. The U.S. Navy and military are already menacing and encircling China. God help us if we don’t stop them.

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Trump called at least twice with intel that saved many Russian lives.

Biden’s 3am Moment in Ukraine (Scott Ritter)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the press a day after the Prigozhin mutiny: “We always prepare for every contingency in terms of what happens in Russia. It’s an internal matter for the Russians to figure out. Of course, when we’re dealing with a major power, and especially a major power that has nuclear weapons, that’s something that’s of concern, something we’re very focused on. We haven’t seen any change in Russia’s nuclear posture. There hasn’t been any change in ours, but it’s something we’re going to watch very, very carefully.” Biden, a day after Blinken spoke, gave his own public statement, declaring that he had been in constant contact with U.S. allies to coordinate their response regarding the Prigozhin insurrection. Biden’s priority, it seemed, was to make sure no one pointed any fingers at the U.S.

“{W]e had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse,” Biden said, “to blame this on the West, to blame this on NATO. We made clear that we were not involved, that we had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system.” The man Biden tapped to send the signal to Russia and its leader was C.I.A. Director William Burns, who called Sergei Naryshkin, the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, to make clear that the U.S. was not involved in the Prigozhin affair. But Burns’ claims ring false. The U.S. intelligence community, by its own admission, had extremely detailed intelligence about what Prigozhin planned to do, including the scope and scale of the involvement of the Wagner mercenaries he commanded, where they intended to go, what they intended to do, and when they intended to do it.

The U.S. intelligence community expected the results of this action to be “bloody.” According to Blinken, the U.S. was concerned about Russia’s nuclear weapons. And apparently there was a Russian nuclear weapons storage facility in the line of march of the Wagner fighters heading to Moscow. Moreover, the Russians had to be wondering why Burns was informing them of this after the fact. In 2017 and 2019, Trump had U.S. intelligence pass on to Russia information about possible terrorist attacks, which ended up saving scores, if not hundreds, of Russian lives. In June of 2023, Biden had intelligence about a pending violent insurrection which could have put Russia’s nuclear weapons, and the world, at risk. Biden opted not to share this information with Russia.

America’s silence speaks volumes. As Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian President who currently serves as the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia (Putin is chairman) noted, “The development of events shows that the actions of those who organized the military rebellion [of Prigozhin and Wagner] fully fit into the scheme of a staged coup d’état. The world will be brought to the brink of destruction, if the nuclear weapons are in the hands of bandits, the crisis will not be limited to one country.” In June, Biden was confronted with the ultimate “3 am phone call” moment. He could have made a phone call which could have helped reduce the threat of a nuclear crisis or worse, a nuclear war. He didn’t make the call.

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Data scraping Zuck style.

Meta Set To Launch Twitter Rival On Thursday (Az.)

Facebook owner Meta is launching its new app to rival Twitter and says it will go live on Thursday, Report informs, citing Yahoo. Screengrabs show a dashboard that looks similar to Twitter. Meta describes Threads as a “text-based conversation app”. The move is the latest in a rivalry between Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter owner Elon Musk. It appears from Meta’s Threads app that it will be a free service – and there will be no restrictions on how many posts a user can see. “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” the description on the App Store says.

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Ursula

 

 


Richard Hirschman @r_hirschman I never claimed to be a doctor or scientist, I am an embalmer. I have been only sounding an alarm about what I am seeing! I can only say that this is not normal. In the 20 years prior to 2021 I never seen anything like this. Something is causing this, and I see it often.

 

 

Bird Talk

 

 

Cat birdies
https://twitter.com/i/status/1675969807663939585

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jul 022023
 


Douglas Percy Bliss High Noon, Windley 1951

 

Kiev Must Show ‘Battlefield Results’ In Next Ten Days – Zelensky (RT)
Ukrainian Counteroffensive Will Be Long And ‘Very Bloody’ – Top US General (Az. )
Ukraine Preparing for Second Stage of Counteroffensive in Zaporozhye Region – Official
Kiev Ready For Talks If It Gains Control Of 1991 Border – Zelensky (TASS)
Ukraine’s Growing Addiction to Foreign Mercenaries (Scott Ritter)
Medvedev Raises Specter Of Poland Using Nuclear Weapons (TASS)
Prigozhin’s Folly (Seymour Hersh)
Orban: ‘Weak Nations Will Perish, Strong Will Survive’ (Sp.)
Sweden Should Reconsider Turmoil It Would Become Part of in NATO – Maloof (Sp.)
Tulsi Gabbard Slams Biden for Nuclear Warmongering (Sp.)
Prices Rising Across The Eurozone (RT)
Gas Prices Fall 50% In Europe (Az.)
Dedollarization Accelerates: Argentina Makes IMF Payment Using Yuan, SDR (Sp.)
US Military Veterans Tell Family Members Not To Enlist – WSJ (RT)
Musk Explains New Twitter Limits (RT)
Twitter’s Rate Limiting Is Temporary (S.I.R.)

 

 

 

 

Macgregor

 

 

 

 

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1675246410684301314

 

 

 

 

“NATO without Ukraine is not NATO..” ?!

Kiev Must Show ‘Battlefield Results’ In Next Ten Days – Zelensky (RT)

Ukraine wants to make some progress on the battlefield in its counteroffensive against Russia before the upcoming NATO summit, President Vladimir Zelensky said on Friday, although he admitted that this would lead to new losses. Speaking to several Spanish media outlets, the Ukrainian leader stated that Kiev has to “show results” before NATO leaders convene in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11, adding that “every kilometer costs lives.” Zelensky noted that “torrential rains… slowed down some processes quite a bit” and reiterated calls for Kiev’s Western backers to continue sending arms to Ukraine. He also claimed that Ukraine’s offensive operations conducted last autumn were undermined by the late arrival of artillery.

“We stopped because we couldn’t advance. Advancing meant losing people and we had no artillery,” he explained. “We are very cautious in this aspect. Fast things are not always safe.” The Ukrainian president also reiterated his long-standing demands that Kiev eventually be admitted to NATO. “NATO without Ukraine is not NATO,” he stated, claiming that there were no other armies on the continent like Ukraine’s that had the same battlefield experience. Zelensky’s comments come after Igor Zhovka, a deputy head of the president’s office, warned that the Ukrainian leader could skip the NATO summit altogether if the bloc did not make a serious commitment to Kiev’s accession. Earlier, Jens Stoltenberg, the head of the US-led military bloc, stated that any discussions about Ukraine’s membership could start only on the condition that it prevails over Russia.

Ukraine launched a large-scale offensive against Russian positions in early June but has failed to gain any ground and has suffered heavy losses, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Zelensky himself has admitted difficulties, saying that the offensive is proceeding “slower than desired” in the face of “tough resistance” from Russian troops. According to a Financial Times report from earlier this week, Western officials have been unimpressed by Ukraine’s performance on the battlefield, with the paper’s sources noting that long-term Western support for Kiev is contingent on the eventual outcome of the offensive.

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So start peace talks.

Ukrainian Counteroffensive Will Be Long And ‘Very Bloody’ – Top US General (Az. )

Ukraine’s counteroffensive will be “very difficult” and achieving significant gains could take a long time, a top US military officer has warned, Report informs, citing Yahoo. Army general Mark Milley told the National Press Club in Washington that the counteroffensive was “advancing steadily, deliberately working its way through very difficult minefields … 500 meters a day, 1,000 meters a day, 2,000 meters a day, that kind of thing”.


Mr Milley said he was unsurprised progress was slower than some people predicted. He said: “War on paper and real war are different. In real war, real people die. Real people are on those front lines and real people are in those vehicles. Real bodies are being shredded by high explosives.” Mr Milley added: “What I had said was this is going to take six, eight, 10 weeks, it’s going to be very difficult. It’s going to be very long, and it’s going to be very, very bloody. And no one should have any illusions about any of that.”

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“They are currently trying to confuse our intelligence, so along the entire line of contact on the Zaporozhye front, they are constantly maneuvering and transferring troops.”

Ukraine Preparing for Second Stage of Counteroffensive in Zaporozhye (Sp.)

Ukraine launched its long-advertised counteroffensive in early June after multiple postponements. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian troops continue to try but are failing to advance along three directions: South Donetsk, Artemovsk (Bakhmut) and Zaporozhye, the latter being of primary focus. Ukrainian troops are preparing to attempt the second stage of a large-scale counter-offensive in the Zaporozhye region in the coming days, Vladimir Rogov, a senior official of the Zaporozhye regional administration, told Sputnik.

“The enemy is already prepared for the second stage of a full-scale offensive. It can start any day, at any moment. They are currently trying to confuse our intelligence, so along the entire line of contact on the Zaporozhye front, they are constantly maneuvering and transferring troops. This is being done in order to hide the location of the main forces,” Rogov explained. He added that Ukrainian forces could concentrate the main blow for a breakthrough at any location of the front line. “Over the past four weeks, they have conducted the maximum number of attempts at reconnaissance in combat, offensive options, breakthroughs, studying our reaction and interaction of units, plus regular shelling of our rear in order to hit infrastructure facilities – bridges, transport hubs, units, depots with equipment and ammunition, airfields,” Rogov told Sputnik.

Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, after the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian provocations. In response to Russia’s operation, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow and have been supplying weapons to Ukraine. On September 30, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, signed agreements on the accession of these territories to Russia, following referendums that showed that an overwhelming majority of the local population supported becoming part of Russia.

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aka never no talks.

Kiev Ready For Talks If It Gains Control Of 1991 Border – Zelensky (TASS)

The government in Kiev will be ready to hold talks to end the conflict in Ukraine if its armed forces gain control of the borders that the country believes are recognized internationally, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said at a joint news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday. These borders would include the Crimea, Donbass and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, the president said, when asked if Ukraine would be ready for talks if its troops regained control of the positions they had held before Russia started its special military operation in February 2022.


“Are we ready for diplomatic settlement and what kind of diplomatic settlement are we ready for if we’re at the borders as of February 24?” Zelensky said, repeating a question from a reporter, according to a video of the news conference that he posted to Telegram. “It wasn’t our borders on February 24, it was a line of engagement,” he went on to say. “And so we emphasize once again: Ukraine will be ready for some format of diplomacy when we are really on our borders, on our real borders according to international law.” Zelensky also brought up the issue of the country’s much-desired NATO membership. He said he believes that there is every reason for the alliance to invite the country to join when the bloc convenes for a summit in Vilnius on July 11-12. He said he was expecting a clear signal in this context.

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“..not only are they legitimate targets under the laws of war, but also the fact that they themselves most likely lack any protections under international humanitarian law..”

Ukraine’s Growing Addiction to Foreign Mercenaries (Scott Ritter)

A Russian missile strike on a popular restaurant in the city of Kramatorsk has set off a wave of discussion over the presence of foreign military personnel in Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense has described the target as a gathering place for the command and officers of the 56th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Ukrainian army and claims to have killed scores of Ukrainian soldiers—and foreign mercenaries. While the Ukrainian government has not made any mention of the presence of foreign volunteers/mercenaries at the Del Rio Pizzeria, video from the scene of the attack shows numerous personnel in uniform, many of whom are obviously foreigners, congregated at the scene, providing first aid, and helping rescue victims.

The presence of military vehicles near the destroyed restaurant reinforces the Russian contention that there was a congregation of military personnel at the time of the attack. This would appear to lay to rest any question about the legality of the Russian strike—it conformed with the accepted precepts set forth under the laws of war. The legal status of the foreign personnel working alongside the Ukrainian army is not so certain. The fact that many are dressed in camouflage uniforms and engage in social media activity which advertises the military/paramilitary aspects of the work they are engaged in only reinforces the reality that not only are they legitimate targets under the laws of war, but also the fact that they themselves most likely lack any protections under international humanitarian law when it comes to being treated as lawful combatants.

The lack of legal status, however, does not appear to serve as a deterrent for the scores of foreign soldiers of fortune that had congregated at the Del Rio Pizzeria, or the thousands of others who, like them, had travelled to Ukraine to participate in a war with Russia that is entering its sixteenth month, and which has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, most of whom are combatants fighting on the side of Ukraine. The presence of these foreigners in such numbers under such conditions is suggestive of two unescapable realties: that there is a high demand for their services, and that foreign governments are actively facilitating the availability of personnel possessing skill sets attractive to the Ukrainian military.

An examination of the 56th Motorized Infantry Brigade might provide better insight into both the role played by the foreigners that had been congregated in Kramatorsk, and the scope and scale of their involvement. When the Special Military Operation began, the 56th Brigade was stationed in Mariupol, and was in the process of transitioning into a naval infantry (Marine) unit. The brigade was largely destroyed in the subsequent fighting for the city, and the surviving remnants reconstituted using mobilized personnel from the territorial forces. Most recently, the 56th Brigade was operating in the vicinity of the city of Bakhmut, where once again it suffered heavy casualties.

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“US National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby [..] underscored that the United States saw no Russian intentions to use nukes amid the Ukraine crisis.”

Medvedev Raises Specter Of Poland Using Nuclear Weapons (TASS)

The potential deployment of nuclear weapons to Poland may prompt the country to use them, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev told TASS. Commenting on Poland’s ambitions to take part in NATO’s Nuclear Sharing program, he said, “The only danger arising from the request to deploy nuclear weapons to Poland is that such weapons will be used.” Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki announced that Warsaw would like to join NATO’s Nuclear Sharing program amid Russia’s intentions to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus. Speaking during an online press briefing on Friday, US National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said that he has absolutely nothing to say about this kind of negotiations. However, he underscored that the United States saw no Russian intentions to use nukes amid the Ukraine crisis.


On March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that, at Minsk’s request, Moscow would deploy its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, similar to what the United States has long been doing on the territory of its allies. Moscow has already provided Minsk with Iskander tactical missile systems capable of carrying nuclear weapons and has helped Minsk to re-equip its military aircraft to carry specialized weapons. As well, Belarusian missile crews and pilots have undergone training in Russia. On June 16, Putin said that the first Russian nuclear warheads had already been delivered to Belarus, while the rest would arrive before the end of this year. On June 23, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said that his republic had already received a substantial portion of warheads that were planned to be delivered.

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“..He is, after all, no matter how cunning financially, an ex-hot dog cart owner with no political or military accomplishments.”

Prigozhin’s Folly (Seymour Hersh)

[..] below is a look at what is really going that was provided to me by a knowledgeable source in the American intelligence community: “I thought I might clear some of the smoke. First and most importantly, Putin is now in a much stronger position. We realized as early as January of 2023 that a showdown between the generals, backed by Putin, and Prigo, backed by anti-Russian extremists, was inevitable. The age-old conflict between the ‘special’ war fighters and a large, slow, clumsy, unimaginative regular army. The army always wins because they own the peripheral assets that make victory, either offensive or defensive, possible. Most importantly, they control logistics. special forces see themselves as the premier offensive asset. When the overall strategy is offensive, big army tolerates their hubris and public chest thumping because SF are willing to take high risk and pay a high price. Successful offense requires a large expenditure of men and equipment. Successful defense, on the other hand, requires husbanding these assets.

“Wagner members were the spearhead of the original Russian Ukraine offensive. They were the ‘little green men’. When the offensive grew into an all-out attack by the regular army, Wagner continued to assist but reluctantly had to take a back seat in the period of instability and readjustment that followed. Prigo, no shy violet, took the initiative to grow his forces and stabilize his sector. “The regular army welcomed the help. Prigo and Wagner, as is the wont of special forces, took the limelight and took the credit for stopping the hated Ukrainians. The press gobbled it up. Meanwhile, the big army and Putin slowly changed their strategy from offensive conquest of greater Ukraine to defense of what they already had. Prigo refused to accept the change and continued on the offensive against Bakhmut. Therein lies the rub. Rather than create a public crisis and court-martial the asshole [Prigozhin], Moscow simply withheld the resources and let Prigo use up his manpower and firepower reserves, dooming him to a stand-down. He is, after all, no matter how cunning financially, an ex-hot dog cart owner with no political or military accomplishments.

“What we never heard is three months ago Wagner was cycled out of the Bakhmut front and sent to an abandoned barracks north of Rostov-on-Don [in southern Russia] for demobilization. The heavy equipment was mostly redistributed, and the force was reduced to about 8,000, 2,000 of which left for Rostov escorted by local police. “Putin fully backed the army who let Prigo make a fool of himself and now disappear into ignominy. All without raising a sweat militarily or causing Putin to face a political standoff with the fundamentalists, who were ardent Prigo admirers. Pretty shrewd.” There is an enormous gap between the way the professionals in the American intelligence community assess the situation and what the White House and the supine Washington press project to the public by uncritically reproducing the statements of Blinken and his hawkish cohorts.

The current battlefield statistics that were shared with me suggest that the Biden administration’s overall foreign policy may be at risk in Ukraine. They also raise questions about the involvement of the NATO alliance, which has been providing the Ukrainian forces with training and weapons for the current lagging counter-offensive. I learned that in the first two weeks of the operation, the Ukraine military seized only 44 square miles of territory previously held by the Russian army, much of it open land. In contrast, Russia is now in control of 40,000 square miles of Ukrainian territory. I have been told that in the past ten days Ukrainian forces have not fought their way through the Russian defenses in any significant way. They have recovered only two more square miles of Russian-seized territory. At that pace, one informed official said, waggishly, it would take Zelensky’s military 117 years to rid the country. of Russian occupation.

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“Brussels is calling for mandatory migrant quotas once again. The Soros-empire strikes back..”

Orban: ‘Weak Nations Will Perish, Strong Will Survive’ (Sp.)

Hungary must strengthen its own defense capabilities and law enforcement agencies, as the time will come when weak nations will perish, and only the strong ones will remain, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday. “We need a strong country, a strong government, a strong economy, a strong army and, last but not least, strong law enforcement agencies… We have to train and equip ourselves,” Viktor Orban declared at a graduation ceremony at the Faculty of Law Sciences of the National University of Public Administration (NKE) in Budapest. 166 students of the Faculty of Law Enforcement were taking their oath of office at the event attended by Orban, Minister of the Interior Sandor Pinter, and Minister of National Defense Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky.

The prime minister warned that the world is experiencing tremendous upheavals, and “strong people are greatly needed, because the truth is worth little without strength.” Orban emphasized that Hungary must face up to the challenge that thousands of migrants from the south are “besieging our borders.” In June, Viktor Orban had slammed the European Union’s newly-adopted quotas for the equitable resettlement of migrants from the Middle East and across the Mediterranean Sea in EU member states. “Brussels is calling for mandatory migrant quotas once again. The Soros-empire strikes back,” Orban tweeted at the time. Addressing graduates on Saturday, the Hungarian PM emphasized that crime levels had gone down in the country, and today, “Hungary is one of the safest countries in Europe, or perhaps the safest,” and we are all proud of that.

As far back as in 2019, Viktor Orban has been urging the need for Hungary to beef up its military to defend itself. “I belong among those who consider NATO important, but I don’t think Hungary’s military security can be based on NATO… We need to be able to avert attacks with our own power,” Orban told US media at the time. Orban also advocated for Europeans to be able to address security threats without US assistance. In 2022, the PM said that Hungary will speed up its defense development program to “radically increase our defense capabilities.” He also emphasized that his country would not only refrain from supplying weapons to its neighbor, Ukraine, after the conflict there escalated, but would not permit such deliveries to transit through Hungarian territory.

This was a matter of national security, Peter Szijjarto, minister of foreign affairs, underscored. On May 2-23, Hungary blocked the European Union from allocating its eighth €500 million aid package from the so-called European Peace Fund to pay for military assistance to the Kiev regime. Orban has insisted that the ongoing hostilities stem from a “failure of diplomacy.” The politician has also offered especially harsh criticism of the European Union’s aggressively anti-Russian policies. Rather than pursuing a strategy of further ramping up tensions, the veteran Hungarian leader urged an immediate end to escalation by the West.

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“.. Sweden has traditionally been unaligned and that “neutrality was important for Sweden before,” adding that “ought to remain that way.”

Sweden Should Reconsider Turmoil It Would Become Part of in NATO – Maloof (Sp.)

Ankara and Stockholm already have a rocky relationship as the Scandinavian state seeks to join the NATO alliance, but Turkiye has conditioned its assent for Sweden’s admission based on the ending of its support for Kurdish nationalist groups that Ankara considers terrorist organizations. Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst in the US Office of the Secretary of Defense, told Sputnik that both Sweden and NATO should consider what benefit is gained by adding the Scandinavian state to the alliance, especially given the kind of tensions that further NATO expansion to the East is likely to create in the region. Maloof explained that NATO’s policy “seems to be to contain Russia at all costs, never mind anybody else and what their political considerations might be.

“I think it’s been damaging for Europe generally to have this kind of an expansion. It certainly has alarmed [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to the point that he basically said ‘it’s a red line if you do it in Ukraine,’ and they attempted that, and we saw the reaction, it had to do with fundamental security.” “The United States does not appreciate the sensitivities and the security concerns, historically, of Russia, and previous to that in the Soviet Union. When the Cold War was over, NATO expanded, but the Warsaw Pact went away. And so that raises a very serious question: what’s the point and purpose of NATO’s continued existence? Before [the conflict in] Ukraine, they were looking around for a new purpose. We had them looking into space, looking at the Arctic, NATO officials now are looking into the Asia-Pacific.

What is that? What’s that all about? What’s the point? It really raises questions about what the concerns are, really, about dominance and the need by the United States and using NATO as a basis to extend its hegemony everywhere – and at what cost,” Maloof said. The former Pentagon official noted that Sweden has traditionally been unaligned and that “neutrality was important for Sweden before,” adding that “ought to remain that way.” Stockholm already has its own security arrangements with other Scandinavian countries separate from the NATO alliance, and expanding that to include 31 other states across Europe “can have repercussions.”

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RFK Jr.’s running mate?

Tulsi Gabbard Slams Biden for Nuclear Warmongering (Sp.)

Former US presidential contender and ex-lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard has accused US President Joe Biden of pushing the world to the brink of a possible nuclear war as the Ukrainian conflict continues to escalate. “We are faced with the reality. Now, President Biden’s actions and policies have pushed us to the brink of nuclear war. This is an existential crisis, not only for us here, but the world. This proxy war against Russia using the Ukrainian people’s lives continues to escalate,” Gabbard said on Saturday at a meeting in a university in Centennial, the US state of Colorado, which was broadcast on her social media.

The politician also said that NATO’s weapons delivery to Ukraine would “only increase the likelihood” of a possible direct confrontation between the United States, NATO member states and Russia. “Now if you hear President Biden and his administration … talk about this, they talk about World War III and nuclear war as though it is just another war, just another conflict … it is so far removed from the reality … they are not being honest with the American people what the cost and consequences of these wars would look like,” Gabbard added.

Western countries have been providing financial, humanitarian and military support to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s military operation in February 2022. The support evolved from lighter artillery munitions and training in 2022 to heavier weapons, including tanks, later that year and in 2023. Russia has been warning countries giving weapons to Ukraine that it sees military shipments as legitimate targets. Moreover, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that NATO allies’ arming and training Ukrainians is tantamount to a direct involvement in the conflict.

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This caught my eye: As “core inflation” rose over 5%, gas prices were cut in half. Odd.

Prices Rising Across The Eurozone (RT)

Core inflation in the euro area accelerated and stayed stubbornly high in June, a preliminary reading revealed on Friday. Head inflation in the 20 countries that share the euro hit 5.5% this month, coming in slightly lower than analyst projections. But core inflation, which excludes energy and food, remained high and surged to 5.4% as price growth in the service sector also rose to 5.4%, up from 5.0% recorded in April. “The core rate is likely to remain well above the 5% mark in the next months which will [require] further rate hikes by the ECB,” said Ulrike Kastens, an economist for Europe at DWS.


Although the Eurozone’s core inflation eased somewhat from 5.6% in April to 5.3% in May, the latest deterioration may eclipse an improvement in the headline inflation gauge, economists warn. “Base effects and statistical distortions are likely to keep the core reading elevated over the next couple of months and see the ECB hiking at least until September,” said Bloomberg’s senior economist, Maeva Cousin. Consumer price growth will be closely monitored by the European Central Bank, which hiked interest rates to their highest level in 22 years on June 15. The regulator moved the benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 4%, in a ninth consecutive rate hike.

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“..abnormally warm weather, high level of gas in storage facilities and reduced demand for gas in the EU..”

Gas Prices Fall 50% In Europe (Az.)

The price of gas in Europe in January-June 2023 fell by half, to about $425 per 1,000 cubic meters, Report informs via TASS. The main factors behind this decline were abnormally warm weather, high level of gas in storage facilities and reduced demand for gas in the EU. On December 30, 2022, gas futures were trading at about $845 per 1,000 cubic meters, but on June 30, 2023, trading closed at $425 – 50% lower compared to the beginning of the year.

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And the IMF accepts it.

Dedollarization Accelerates: Argentina Makes IMF Payment Using Yuan, SDR (Sp.)

The US dollar, which has enjoyed the status of de facto world reserve currency since 1945, has come under growing strain as countries search for alternatives amid Washington’s efforts to use its financial might to bully and sanction adversaries into submission. Argentina made a loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund worth the equivalent of $2.7 billion “without using dollars” on Friday, using Chinese yuan and special-drawing rights notes (the IMF reserve asset based on a basket of five currencies – the yuan, the euro, the dollar, the yen, and the pound) instead. Argentina’s Economy Ministry said the payment – the first ever of its kind by Buenos Aires, was made in yuan and SDRs to hang on to dwindling dollar reserves in the Argentinian Central Bank’s coffers.

The Latin American nation, which is in the grip of a major economic and debt crisis, has turned to yuan as one means to help stabilize the situation, signing a 130 billion yuan ($19 billion) currency swap agreement with Beijing in April amid plummeting agricultural exports caused by an unprecedented drought, which has already caused $20 billion in damage. Argentina and the IMF reached an agreement in 2022 to restructure the nation’s $44 billion debt. The IMF had approved a $57 billion loan to the administration of now former President Mauricio Macri in 2018, with current President Alberto Fernandez left to clean up the consequences of what he has dubbed “reckless,” “toxic and irresponsible” borrowing.

After his election in 2019, Fernandez asked the IMF not to move forward with transferring the remainder of the loan amount, citing a dearth of dollars in the nation’s coffers to pay it back with. Argentina’s economic crisis has resulted in inflation topping 110 percent, and poverty reaching 40 percent of the population, even as GDP continues to grow, rising 1.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. International reserves have dwindled to about $28 billion, their lowest since 2016.

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“..her father returned from a deployment to Afghanistan. During the nightly fireworks show, he cowered in a fetal position while his family looked on.”

US Military Veterans Tell Family Members Not To Enlist – WSJ (RT)

The US military’s recruiting woes have reportedly intensified as current and former troops increasingly advise their family members against enlistment, weakening a tradition of multi-generation service that has historically been the nation’s primary source of new soldiers. Veterans have soured on recommending that loved ones follow in their footsteps in the face of a tight labor market and rising concerns over low pay, debilitating injuries, suicides, and indecisive wars, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The recruiting crisis also comes amid controversy over the Pentagon’s prioritization of left-wing issues, such as transgenderism and critical race theory.

The sudden end of the Afghanistan war in August 2021 added to the consternation of some current or former troops, such as US Navy veteran Catalina Gasper, the WSJ said. “We were left with the gut-wrenching feeling of, ‘What was it all for?’” said Gasper, who still suffers from a traumatic brain injury incurred during a Taliban attack on her base in Kabul. She vowed to do all she could to make sure her children never join the military. “I just don’t see how it’s sustainable if the machine keeps chewing up and spitting out” our young people.

Likewise, US Air Force officer Ernest Nisperos decided that he did not want his children to join the military after realizing the toll that his deployments took on him. One of his daughters, Sky Nisperos, said that after years of dreaming about following her father and grandfather into military service, she would instead become a graphic designer. One event that stuck in her mind came during a 2019 family trip to Disneyland after her father returned from a deployment to Afghanistan. During the nightly fireworks show, he cowered in a fetal position while his family looked on.

Read more …

The video and the Twitter thread below explain what is happening. It’s serious. Twitter must protect itself and its users.

Musk Explains New Twitter Limits (RT)

Twitter owner Elon Musk announced on Saturday that users of the platform will be limited to viewing a maximum of 8,000 posts per day, claiming that the measure would cut down on “data scraping and system manipulation.” Musk’s announcement came hours after Twitter users around the world found themselves unable to view their timelines or read comments under tweets. “To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits,” Musk tweeted, explaining that verified accounts would be limited to reading 6,000 posts per day, unverified accounts to 600 posts per day, and new unverified accounts to 300 per day. Shortly afterwards, Musk posted an update saying that the limits would be increased to 8,000, 800, and 400 respectively. He did not say for how long the “temporary” limits would remain in force.

Since purchasing Twitter for $44 billion last October, Musk has repeatedly promised to clamp down on non-human use of the platform, for example by data-mining companies. As of Friday, Twitter has not been viewable to anyone without an account, a decision that Musk said was made as “several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience.” Concurrently, Musk has been encouraging users to shell out for verification, which costs $8 per month. The prospect of ten times more tweets, however, has not gone down well with users, and as of Saturday evening, “#RIPTwitter” and “Goodbye Twitter” were trending topics in the US.

American whistleblower Edward Snowden explained that he could no longer use Twitter effectively as, for security reasons, he often browses the platform without logging in. Other users who follow breaking news stories on Twitter – for example updates from the conflict in Ukraine – complained that even when verified they burn through their allocated tweets in a matter of hours. It remains unclear whether Musk will keep the new restrictions in place. Shortly after purchasing Twitter last year, the billionaire said that he would end up doing “lots of dumb things” in his bid to overhaul the platform, and would “keep what works and change what doesn’t.”

Scraping

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Twitter thread.

Twitter’s Rate Limiting Is Temporary (S.I.R.)

Some people asked me to share what I just shared in a space about the rate limits. I don’t work for Twitter but, I do architect IT cloud solutions as my day job. It is temporary. Twitter’s rate limiting is not what everyone is thinking it is. It is not to punish non-paying users. “Data scraping” is a big deal. This is where automated systems load the website or app and pull your tweets/data. It’s a huge security issue. Automated systems are pulling every tweet/word/user account information to store in an unknown database somewhere else. This could be state actors like China, the US Government, Australia, or other bad political actors like PAC’s that are trying to gain access to everyone’s information to analyze and use for nefarious things.

Manipulating what is said on the site can be done at scale with data scrapping. It could also be used to figure out the identity of Anons or to punish people in their country for what they tweet. Looking at you #Australia and #Canada and #UnitedKingdom. The temporary measures of limiting tweets is to protect users just as much as it is to protect the entire Twitter network from going down. They are currently scrambling to get ahead of this and tune their network security to block it from happening again. It’s also important to note that twitter has 500,000+ servers. That’s not free. In cloud data centers, the companies that use them have to pay for what is called “ingress and egress” of data going “in and out” of the servers.

A data scrapping event that is large enough for them to start limiting means that it was a MASSIVE event that could be considered an attack on the site. It would also put massive load on their servers and cost them so much money it could threaten the site’s financial ability to keep running. It could be on purpose to put twitter out of business from cost alone. Many people are misunderstanding why @elonmusk wants people to pay for twitter or for the twitter API (a programming interface that can pull data for other sites and apps). The reason he wants people to pay is because if China or porn companies want to create massive bot farms of fake accounts, it is currently free.

These bad actors are highly skilled and operate like a business. They have professional staff that continuously change their tactics and Twitter engineers have to fight 24/7 to stay ahead of them. If they have to pay for every account or pay to use the API, it would cost them A LOT of money. This limits the amount of people who could create bots, put automated porn on here, and the hacking/scrapping/DDOS attacks on the site. It protects you. It also guarantees twitter will continue to exist without bloating it with tons of ads. This is all a part of the plan to create a free-speech place we can enjoy without being controlled by outside actors or advertising companies. I know $8 is a lot to some people but, it is for many reasons. None of the reasons are to hurt or punish people.

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